Daily Archives: September 2, 2020

Virologist Explains His Quest To Track Down The Origin Of COVID-19 – The Federalist

Posted: September 2, 2020 at 4:15 pm

Jonathan Latham, Ph.D., and Allison Wilson, Ph.D., a virologist and a geneticist, respectively, have a plausible story to tell about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 the cause of COVID-19. It begins with a mystery disease that struck six Chinese miners in Yunnan province in 2012. These miners became ill while shoveling bat feces (guano) produced by Rhinolophus sinicus, a species of horseshoe bat, which was abundant in the mine.

The illness of the miners was later described in detail throughout a masters thesis entitled An Analysis of Six Severe Pneumonia Cases Related to Unknown Viruses, written in 2013 by Li Xu. The patients were remotely observed by Zhong Nan Shan, noting the following symptoms: dry cough, shortness of breath, fever, limb soreness (myalgia), headaches, and low blood oxygen.

Latham and Wilson arranged the translation of the neglected Chinese masters thesis that documented the symptoms and hospital treatment of these miners. Most importantly, the miners were diagnosed as having coronavirus infections, and second, their symptoms are now recognizable as those of classic COVID-19. This and other information in the thesis caused Wilson and Latham to rethink everything they thought they knew about the origins of the pandemic.

Latham and Wilson eventually published their theory on Independent Science News, a publication edited by Latham. This report details Latham and Wilsons search for the origins of the pandemic causing virus, focusing on the nearest genetic relative of SARS-CoV-2, a bat coronavirus called RaTG13. This virus was obtained during virus collecting trips during 2012 and 2013 to the same mine where, shortly before, six miners had developed an unknown illness.

In A Proposed Origin for SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 Pandemic, the authors set out what they call the Mojiang Miners Passaging hypothesis. The theory proposes (1) that the miners acquired a coronavirus from the bats in the mine and (2) that this bat virus evolved extensively inside their bodies to become a highly human-adapted virus. This evolution occurred during a hospitalization period that, for some, lasted many months.

The translated thesis says blood and other samples were extracted from the miners and some of these were sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Latham and Wilson suggest these samples contained highly human-adapted viruses and were used at the WIV for research. During this research, it is believed that the virus escaped, initiating the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic.

Latham holds a masters degree in crop genetics and a Ph.D. in virology. He was subsequently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In addition to having published scientific papers in disciplines as diverse as plant ecology, plant virology, toxicology, genetics, and genetic engineering, Latham is the director of the Poison Papers project, which publicizes documents of the chemical industry and its regulators. Recently, I interviewed Latham to discuss his work on COVID-19.

***

Vigo: What makes this virus so hard to track down in origin?

Latham: There are a lot of complicated parts to this virus different from all its potential ancestors. For instance, it has various features that are very well adapted to people the spike protein bonds very well with the human receptor of the cell for instance. The virus as a whole is also well adapted to humans.

This is unlike the case with MERS and SARS, the previous pandemic coronaviruses. The early generation of people who were infected, the versions of the infections they got changed very quickly. Imagine if a virus comes from a bat or a pangolin, it has to come to adapt to people. The mutations outcompete older versions of the virus. This hasnt happened here, which implies that this has been in humans for a long time.

V: What would it take to prove your theory?

L: What we really want to see is for the World Health Organization (WHO) to go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to see what they were working on when they studied bat coronaviruses. This is the number one lab in the world for studying bat coronaviruses. A bat coronavirus that infects people could happen anywhere it could happen in America, in Italy, in Africa, and it just so happens that this laboratory where they store thousands of samples of coronavirus is also the precise geographic location of the outbreak of the pandemic.

V: Given that there are myriad theories floating about related to COVID-19s origin that are being dismissed by many as conspiracy theory, what makes your theory plausible?

L: Scientists are supposed to proceed based on evidence. The problem with the theories that claim that this virus was built from other viruses is that you have to have available all the different parts, and they arent really available. You have the spike protein, which this virus has, which is quite unique (many amino acids different from any relative).

The same applies to the other parts of this virus. The nearest relative to the SARS-CoV-2 is 4 percent different. So you dont have a basis for this argument the pieces dont even exist. So those people proposing an engineering theory cant identify the specific pieces from which SARS-CoV-2 is supposedly built.

Now for certain, the people from WIV have thousands of samples of bat viruses, but you have no evidence for those pieces existing. It is therefore quite difficult to propose a genetically engineered version of this virus.

V: So your theory doesnt follow this claim then?

L: Our theory is different. We organized the translation of a masters thesis which documents that in 2012 six miners got ill after shoveling bat feces. They were treated by the doctor who wrote the thesis and it states that they caught a novel coronavirus that gave them the same symptoms as COVID-19. Basically, those miners dont exist lost in China or deceased but the conclusion of the thesis is that the miners had coronavirus. The next important thing to understand is that the nearest known relative of SARS-CoV-2 was found in the same mine where the miners got sick.

What we do know is that they took samples from these miners and some of those samples were sent to the WIV in Wuhan and this is documented in the thesis. Our proposition is quite simple that the hospital sent samples to Wuhan from the miners and what evolved inside the miners was SARS-CoV-2.

What was really interesting to the researchers at the WIV in Wuhan were the samples from the miners. Our theory suggests that they didnt realize how infectious those samples would be because a radical evolution of the virus took place inside the miners. Normally, it is argued that to get TaTG13 to infect a human and become SARS-CoV-2 would take 20-50 years of evolution. But the miners were sick for many months inside the hospital and the virus was permanently incubating and evolving inside them.

If you get a normal coronavirus infection, you become sick for two weeks and the portion of time that you have high viral loads would be approximately one week. The miners had enough virus in them to kill them and it was adapting quickly because it was infecting a new species. Most coronaviruses dont infect the lungs they usually just infect the throat and never spread to the lungs. Unique to these miners, their lung infections offered a much larger space for evolution inside the miners bodies than would any normal coronavirus infection.

One of the puzzles of its origin is that the virus has a special mutation called a furin site (furins are protease enzymes). The furin site (a few amino acids in length) allows the proteins to be cut in half by the protease, which is made by the lung cells. Its evolution inside the lungs of the miners accounts for the origin of this furin site because this furin site greatly enhancing viral spread in the lungs and the body. If you dont have the furin site, then the disease is effectively limited to the throat only. With the furin site, however, you can have a viral infection move into the lungs and heart, as well as other organs.

V: So, what does this mean practically speaking, for the average reader who might not understand the implications of what you have just described?

L: Our theory is solid enough that we are going to put it up and see what people make of it. The WIV researchers say they have their high-security laboratory to prevent a virus leak, but we are saying that they created one. If you read their papers, you will see they have been collecting virus samples to make vaccines and diagnostic tools and treatments against viruses. They are claiming to be doing all this useful stuff to prevent pandemics and they managed to do the opposite.

V: Why is the scientific community not calling out this glaring oversight, then? Are they concerned about this getting the same reception as the theories that maintained that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in a Chinese laboratory?

L: The people who are funding this research are claiming that contact with bats is potentially enough to set off a pandemic. I believe that is true, but they are actively putting themselves in harms way such that they went to the mine even after the miners died. You know, Richard Ebright tweeted recently that this method for preventing pandemics is like looking for a gas leak with a lighted match.

Their sampling methods of bats are one thing, but one step worse was the sampling of the miners and bringing the virus back to the WIV. It is standard practice when medical practitioners come into contact with potentially infected patients their doctors use PPE (personal protective equipment) and the virus dies out.

Thus, when a person falls ill you treat them, and either they die or the body gets rid of the infection. This process doesnt normally result in a pandemic. But they went around normal procedures to collect samples and brought the virus back into spaces of frequent human contact.

V: So, your theory is that this was an entirely human-created pandemic resulting from the mishandling of samples, down to incursion into places that scientists should have left alone knowing the high risks of transmission to humans. Are there other scientists who have expressed similar concerns for these methods, or is there an international oversight agency that might be able to take action to avoid any such instances of future pandemics created by human error?

L: Some people have expressed concern about these methods. Cambridge Working Group has complained about some of these methods, as has the Council for Responsible Genetics and the Sunshine Project that complained about these methods of collecting dangerous pathogens. Unfortunately, these groups are now defunct.

V: Are there no independent blocs of scientists or research alliances that have pushed back or which have demanded a more open debate about the origins of this virus, despite the Gates Foundation?

L: We want to point out that there is no scientific publication that claims there is a lab origin worth looking into. There are thousands of publications saying the virus has a zoonotic origin even though there is hardly any evidence for this. You can say that and it can be completely wrong, but nobody will call you out. Nobody has dared to write that it might just as well have come from a lab. No virologist has said this in a peer-reviewed paper.

The scientific community has made it very clear that they dont want to hear about a lab origin. You can see that in the coverage of the pandemic. There was a letter in Lancet calling the lab origin a conspiracy, and what you gather from that is that the bigwigs of virology who signed the letter have set up the dynamic that anyone who comes up with reasonable theories is necessarily a conspiracist.

Every scientist in the world knows what way the wind is blowing. We want to say that this is outrageous.

Julian Vigo is a freelance writer and journalist and the editor of Savage Minds. Her latest book is "Earthquake in Haiti: The Pornography of Poverty and the Politics of Development." You can follow her on Twitter @lubelluledotcom.

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Insights on the Human Microbiome Immunology Therapeutics Global Market to 2025 – Featuring Finch Therapeutics, MaaT Pharma & Merck Among Others -…

Posted: at 4:15 pm

Dublin, Sept. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Human Microbiome Immunology Therapeutics Market & Clinical Trial Insight 2025" clinical trials has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The scale and scope of microbiome research activity has now become one of the fastest growing areas in biology. The relevance that it has shown for the welfare of the society and pharmaceutical industry has led to the development of a transdisciplinary environment that is however conducive to innovation with a mission to abolish the limitations in the pharmaceutical industry through excellence in microbiome research, awareness and outreach. Over the years now, gut microbiome is estimated to implicate success for the various immunotherapies.

Microbiome's role in immunology practices is to transform world-class treatment into the medicine of today and tomorrow. It is highly recognizable that the healthcare issues that mankind is facing today is now bigger than any one solution. The treatment of certain diseases requires multiple options for the treatment and ultimately prevention. Therefore, the amalgamation of two different treatment paradigms i.e. microbiome and immunology are apparently delivering some medical benefits that millions of patients were in need for long period of time. The ways in which microbiome is understood and manipulated to serve the immunological aspects has given great interest to all the researchers.

The essential and usual concept of immunology depicts targeting the immune system of the body to provoke an immune response with huge impact but then the unsuccessful implication of immunology therapies driven treatments led to an exploration of several other basic concepts that could play an important role in boosting the immune system when combined. Looking forward, the microbiome community in the gut represented beneficial patterns with respect to further research. The area of microbiome research and its combination with immunological aspect for the disease treatment has produced a real excitement in the area of medical research and specifically microbiome research.

All over the world, the amalgamation of the two has been well accepted and appreciated by the patients, physicians and the clinicians. Investigation of all the working sides of microbiome and how it plays an important role in boosting the manipulated immune cells have recently started in large numbers as the technology available in the medical field allows to capture it accurately. To facilitate the microbiome and immunology community in order to extract the best and trending opportunities that are stemmed into the microbiome research, the experts from both the relevant disciplines are analyzing it through clinical researches and surveys. Further, the area is getting supported by 86 different clinical trials getting conducted in different countries.

The Global Human Microbiome Immunology Therapeutics Market & Clinical Trial Insight 2025 report summarizes the view of the wider opportunities that are associated microbiome community for the advancement of the scientific information regarding immunology. The science that is related to microbiome has high interdisciplinary and various opportunities that somehow have remained hidden in the medical world. It is believed that the opportunities and all the desirable tangible benefits microbiome is capable of delivering when combined with immunology is large and needs coordinated and constructive approach. The call to the two different sectors i.e. microbiology and immunology is estimated to unlock the potential and promising benefits of microbiome. The approach leading to the extraction of advantages if properly embedded in the microbiome and immunology research, the future benefits will be huge

Report Highlights:

Key Topics Covered:

1. Overview of Microbiome1.1 Introduction to Microbiome1.2 History & Evolution of Microbiome

2. Role of Microbiome in Human Body

3. Microbiome: Various Forms3.1 Gut Microbiome3.2 Lung Microbiome3.3 Skin Microbiome3.4 Microbiome in Other Parts of the Body

4. Mechanism of Microbiome Activity4.1 Nature of Immune Response4.1.1 Immunosuppressive Activity4.1.2 Immunostimulatory Activity4.2 Messengers Involves in Microbiome Mechanism4.2.1 MAMPs/PAMPs4.2.2 Microbial Metabolites As Messengers4.2.3 Host Cytokines As Messengers4.2.4 Immune Cells As Messengers

5. Technological Requirement for Microbiota5.1 Technologies Used5.1.1 iChip5.1.2 Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME)5.1.3 Gut-on-a-Chip System5.1.4 Colonic Stem Cell Construction5.2 Harnessing & Engineering the Microbiome5.2.1 Additive Approaches5.2.2 Subtractive Approaches

6. Need for Microbiome Immunology

7. Therapeutic Applications of Microbiome Immunology7.1 Microbiome Therapy7.2 Precision Medicine7.3 Drug discovery7.4 Biomarkers & Therapy Optimization

8. Human Microbiota in Infectious Diseases8.1 Infection with Clostridium Difficile8.2 Infection with Helicobacter Pylori8.3 Bacterial Vaginosis8.4 Infection with HIV

9. The Human Microbiota & Liver Diseases9.1 Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)9.2 Alcoholic Liver Diseases (ALD)9.3 Liver Fibrosis & Cirrhosis

10. The Human Microbiota & Metabolic Disorders10.1 Obesity10.2 Type 2 Diabetes

11. The Human Microbiota & Other Diseases11.1 Microbiota & Allergic Diseases11.2 Microbiota & Psychiatric Diseases

12. Microbiome in Immuno Oncology12.1 Role of Microbiome in Immuno Oncology12.2 Microbiome Mechanism in Oncogenesis & Tumor Suppression

13. Microbiome Application by Cancer Types13.1 Gastric Cancer13.2 Colorectal Cancer13.3 Esophageal Cancer13.4 Hepatocellular Carcinoma13.5 Melanoma13.6 Solid Tumors

14. Industrial Approaches of Microbiome Therapy in Oncology14.1 Bacterial Approaches14.1.1 Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT)14.1.2 Synthetic Bacteria14.1.3 Microbial Culture14.2 Microbiome as Vaccine14.3 Microbiome as Small Molecules14.4 Microbiome Therapy using Phage Virus

15. Global Human Microbiome Market Analysis15.1 Overview15.2 Human Microbiome Market Segmentation15.2.1 Regional Segmentation15.2.2 Disease Based Segmentation15.2.3 Segmentation by Application

16. Clinical Pipeline of Microbiome Based Therapy16.1 Microbiome Modulators in Clinical Trial16.2 Cancer Related Clinical Trials16.2.1 Preclinical & Discovery Phase16.2.2 Active Clinical Trials16.3 Clinical Trial Related To FMT16.3.1 Clinical Trial for Recurrent C. difficile16.3.2 Clinical Trial for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)16.3.3 Other FMT Related Clinical Trials

17. Global Microbiome Modulators Clinical Pipeline By Company, Indication & Phase17.1 Research17.2 Preclinical17.3 Clinical17.4 Phase-I17.5 Phase-I/II17.6 Phase-II17.7 Phase-II/III17.8 Phase-III

18. Marketed Microbiome Modulators Clinical Insight18.1 Sodium Oligomannurarate - Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceutical18.2 Miya-BM

19. Global Microbiome Immunology Therapeutics Market Growth Drivers

20. Microbiome Technology - Investments, Acquisitions & Collaborations by Leading Microbiome Companies

21. Blockades in the Microbiome Immunology Market21.1 Stable Engraftment21.2 Development of Clinically Relevant Sensors21.3 Robustness and Evolutionary Stability of Genetic Circuits21.4 Regulation, Safety and Biocontainment

22. Global Microbiome Immunology Market Future Panorama

23. Competitive Landscape23.1 4D Pharma23.2 AbbVie23.3 AstraZeneca plc23.4 Biocodex23.5 Bristol Mayer Squibb23.6 Corebiome/Diversigen23.7 Elogi Bioscience23.8 Enterome23.9 Ferring Pharmaceuticals23.10 Finch Therapeutics23.11 Maat Pharma23.12 Merck23.13 Microbiome Therapeutics23.14 Novartis23.15 OpenBiome23.16 Pfizer23.17 Rebiotix23.18 Second Genome23.19 Seres Therapeutics23.20 Symberix23.21 Takeda Pharmaceuticals23.22 Vedanta Bioscience

For more information about this clinical trials report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/d6z6gb

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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The white supremacist origins of modern marriage advice – The Conversation US

Posted: at 4:12 pm

When I was conducting research for my new book on the destructive aspects of modern heterosexual relationships, I started looking into the archives of early 20th-century books about courtship and marriage written by physicians and sexologists.

In the process, I made a discovery that would radically alter my understanding of why so many parts of heterosexual culture remain mired in violence and inequality.

Almost all of the original self-help books for couples were written by proponents of the eugenics movement, an ostensibly scientific project that aimed to encourage reproduction among the white middle class, while discouraging or preventing population growth among people of color and the poor.

These early marriage manuals revealed that the project of defining healthy heterosexual marriage in the United States was also a white supremacist campaign designed to help white families flourish. As the marriage counseling industry evolved in the 20th century, some of the key assumptions made in these original manuals would persist, even influencing marriage advice aimed at Black families.

By the early 20th century, many prominent eugenicists were concerned about the state of marriage. White women, cowed by abusive husbands, were unwilling to have sex, and marriage increasingly seemed to be an exercise in mutual misery.

This, in their view, could limit the ability of the best elements of the human gene pool to propagate. So, with the support of the Eugenics Publishing Company, they set out to educate white readers with tips for how to achieve a friendly and harmonious marriage.

These texts reveal some common assumptions made about early 20th-century marriage. Women were not expected to feel an easy or instinctive attraction to men, nor were men expected to concern themselves with womens emotional or physical well-being. One point nearly all sexologists agreed upon: Women needed to understand that men were naturally inclined toward aggression and sexual selfishness, so they should cut their husbands a little slack.

William Robinson, an early 20th-century sexologist, hoped that his marriage advice manuals would address the disgust, deep hatred and desire for injury and revenge that heterosexual couples felt for one another.

Marie Stopes, a British eugenicist, wrote at length about how most new brides were repulsed by the revelation of their husbands naked bodies, and were driven to suicide and insanity by mens violence during the first night of marriage. Harland William Long, another eugenicist writer, agreed, observing that many a newlywed couple have wrecked the possibility of happiness of a life time because the great majority of brides are practically raped on entrance into the married relation.

The British sexologist and eugenicist Havelock Ellis argued that this violence was natural, and explained that a husband took a certain pleasure in manifesting his power over a woman by inflicting pain upon her.

But Ellis also insisted that the pain he inflicts, or desires to inflict, is really part of his love, and that, with proper training, a man could be taught to express this love with more gentleness, and mitigate the repulsion and passivity that seemed to be a normal part of womens experience of sex.

Eugenicists were well-aware that white men regularly raped white women, so its striking that this period coincided with the widespread lynching of Black boys and men falsely accused of raping white women.

Yet eugenicists described white mens rape of women not as criminal, but as an inherent masculine impulse in need of suppression. Of course, they didnt advocate for the lynching of these men. Instead, education and good hygiene would do. Sexologists promoted soaps, perfumes, makeup, douches and corsetry as the key to marital happiness. If women and men smelled better, maybe, the thinking went, men wouldnt need to force their wives to have sex with them.

Some of the core tenets of those first self-help books written by eugenicists incompatibility and deference to men persist in modern marriage advice.

With the rise of the self-help industry, late 20th-century marriage advice shifted from mens and womens repellent bodies to their incompatible personalities.

Relationship counselor John Grays Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus sold over 50 million copies and was the best-selling nonfiction book of the 1990s. The books central message is that men and women do not naturally like or respect one another, and need to learn to accept and accommodate their innate gender differences for the sake of their relationships.

The central themes found in these self-help books are now marketed to straight Black readers, too. For instance, Steve Harveys 2009 New York Times bestseller, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, sold over 3 million copies and repackaged many well-worn marriage tropes for Black women readers. In it, Harvey argues that men and women are fundamentally at odds, that straight couples must work to be attractive to each other and that Black women need to accept mens limitations for the good of Black families and communities.

Men, Harvey writes, have got to feel like were king, even if we dont act kingly. A man, he continues, needs that from his woman so that he can have the strength to keep on doing right by you and the family. Because Black men suffer the burden of anti-Black racism, it is in their homes and relationships, according to Harvey, that they must be treated like royalty.

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Omitted from all of this, of course, is Black womens experience of anti-Black racism, and the various ways it is compounded by the unique forms of misogyny that Black women endure what queer Black feminist Moya Bailey has termed misogynoir.

Much has been written about the hardships endured by queer people. Almost all of us are familiar with queer suffering. Yet we tend to overlook the miseries of straight culture, despite overwhelming evidence.

Relatively honest accounts of these miseries exist in the past and present world of self-help books, or what I call the heterosexual repair industry.

Inside the volumes of marriage advice for straight couples, one message has been clear: forging modern heterosexuality is a difficult accomplishment, one undeniably shaped by the intersections of white supremacy and misogyny.

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‘Especially infuriating’: John Oliver links RNC rhetoric and the response to the Jacob Blake shooting by police in Kenosha – Milwaukee Journal…

Posted: at 4:10 pm

Comedian John Oliver took on the eventsin Kenosha last week on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight," connecting the reactions to the shooting of Jacob Blake and the shootings of three protesters, allegedly by a 17-year-old vigilante to the "flagrant double standards baked into American society."

Oliver showed news footage of the aftermath of the shootings at Tuesday night's protest in Kenosha, when three protesters were shot, two of them fatally. Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who has been charged in the shootings, is shown walking as police vehicles zoom past, although he has his hands up and a long gun strapped across his chest. That footage is juxtaposed with video of Blake being shot in the back seven times by Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey as Blaketries to enter a car.

RELATED: Juxtaposition of two videos from Kenosha: A Black man gets shot seven times from behind; a white teen with a gun walks past police

"Why two different responses? I think the answer to that ispretty obvious. It's the same reason why, ahead of the shooting (at Tuesday's protest), there was video of the police trying to enforce a curfew against protesters, even as they offer water to Rittenhouse and the militia saying, and Iquote, 'We appreciate you guys we really do.' "

To underscore the disparities of the response by Kenosha law enforcement,Oliver also showed a clip of Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis, saying the protesters who were shot shouldn't have been out after curfew; and a two-year-old video ofKenosha County Sheriff David Beth, advocating a detailed plan for warehousing offenders that included preventing them from fathering more children, then adding that "we have to stop being politically correct."

Comedian John Oliver hosts "Last Week Tonight," airing Sunday nights on HBO.(Photo: Courtesy of HBO)

"Sorry, can I quickly interrupt you there?" Oliver responds. "Because calling for American citizens to be stopped from having small children isn't politically incorrect, so much as it is politically 1940s Germany."

Oliver called the events in Kenosha "especially infuriating" because they took place during last week'sRepublican National Convention, where he said the rhetoric focused on showing that America wasn't racist while "fear-mongering about violent crime threatening law-abiding citizens."

He noted that Los Angeles Clippers coach and former Marquette basketball star Doc Rivers summed it up best at a press conference Tuesday, when he called the speeches at the RNC "spewing this fear We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot. We're the ones who were denied to livein certain communities. We've been hung, we've been shot, and all you do is keep hearing about fear. It's, it's amazing to me whykeep loving this country, and this countrydoes notlove us back."

Oliver pointed out as a bright spot the wildcat strikes begun by the Milwaukee Bucks and spreading to the rest of the NBA, WNBA players and other sports, and shared the message by Blake's sister,Letetra Widman, at a press conference Tuesday: "I don't want your pity. I want change."

Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Followhimon Twitter at @cforan12.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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'Especially infuriating': John Oliver links RNC rhetoric and the response to the Jacob Blake shooting by police in Kenosha - Milwaukee Journal...

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‘Trust but verify’: In response to Dr. Surapaneni – Herald Review

Posted: at 4:10 pm

When I read her article in the Aug. 2, 2020 newspaper, the first thing I thought of was that the temperature, in a given day, was the hottest! Well July 6, it was 114 degrees and on July 29 it was 114 degrees. Thats hot folks, and we wonder how we can survive? Oh, by the way the years were 1936 and 1917.

This is a classic example of a person, with high credentials, attempting to scare us. Why? Why do you introduce COVID-19 into a discussion of climate change? I contend she is an Alarmist and trying to scare us even more. One of our presidents said, trust but verify. Well, I did that with the following books.

There are a number of good books that debunk the majority of these Alarmists on climate change like, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuel, by Alex Epstein; The Politically Incorrect Guide (PIG) on Climate Change; Apocalypse Never, by Michael Shellenberger; and False Alarm, by Bjorn Lomberg.

Only one country has asked the question, What will this cost us? New Zealand estimated if we do nothing it will impact our GDP by 3-4%; it will cost us 16-30% of GDP for 20 years to fight this.

I love it when people state, we must reduce our carbon footprint. Do they understand what that means? If you turn off all coal and gas power plants and rely solely on wind and solar, you must cut your electricity use by as much as 66-82%. In 2018, wind generated 37% and solar generated 18% of potential output. This data came from an article in the spring 2020 issue from the American Experience. Think about that when it is 90 degrees or worse yet when it is -20 degrees and at night. Are you really ready for that?

The next Alarmist theory is we must reduce our CO2. Ive asked people what percent of the atmosphere is CO2. They said between 2-5%. According to Wikipedia, the earth atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and .04% CO2. You should then ask the next question, where does CO2 come from? Ninety-eight percent of CO2 comes from water, specifically the oceans. So, if you assume human activities are responsible for this 2%, well we then can only be responsible for .008% of CO2 generation.

I know of approximately 50 climate change or global warming models that are out there and, to date, not one of them models are correct. Some are off as much as 100%. Why is that?

We, humans, are not that powerful. We tried to seed clouds, to no avail, and can only track weather issues. We cant stop a tornado or hurricane, but we can give them names.

Remember the 70s, when we were cooling off and the cure was to reduce our carbon footprint? Now with global warming the cure is to reduce our carbon footprint. Whats the real issue?

Trust but verify.

Joe Maurer

Grand Rapids

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Chevron CEO Speaks Truth to Greenout Power: Oil and Gas Is the Future – EnerCom Inc.

Posted: at 4:10 pm

Natural Gas Now

Oil & Gas 360 Publishers Note: Robert Bradley, Jr, Founder and CEO of the Institute for Energy Research Principal, MasterRsource: A Free-Market Energy Blog, has put a great article together on Chevrons view on diversification into the Greenout. There is a right way to look at power generation Balanced. Use the lowest kWh to get power to the people to elevate everyone on the planet from poverty. Using the Greenout methodology is simply not a good Steward of our planet.

The loaded title: Chevrons Answer to Climate Change Is to Keep Drilling for Oil (August 13, 2020). The condemnatory subtitle from Bloomberg Greens Kevin Crowley and Bryan Gruley: The energy giant believes it can still wring years of profits from fossil fuels while its European rivals embrace renewables.

Go Chevron! The global and U.S. market share of fossil-fueled energy is84 percentand80 percent, respectively. And these percentages could wellincrease, not decrease, due to strong consumer demand for dense, reliable energiesand taxpayer fatigue for inferior substitutes (wind, solar, ethanol, batteries/EVs).

Fossil-fuel optimism is not only realistic but a great story. Speaking truth to Greenout Power demotes political correctness and promotes economic understanding.

TheBloombergarticle follows with my interspersedcomments:

Speaking to the Texas Oil & Gas Association in July,Chevron Corp.Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth assured his audience that the global clamor for clean energy doesnt mean the end of oil and gas. On the contrary,Wirth said, the energy business is simply undergoing another of its natural transitions. Well find ways to make oil and gas more efficient, more environmentally benign, he said. And it will be a part of the mix, just as biomass and coal are still enormous parts of the mix today.

Comment:Quite true. Oil and gas remain dominant as they have been for a century or more. (Coal, when viewed globally, remains an energy powerhouse too.)

To activists alarmed at the urgency of the climate crisis, Wirths comments are as out of touch as they are predictable, coming from someone who profits from the status quo. For unlike its rivals in Europe, Chevron is betting its future less on renewable energies such as wind and solar and more on the subterranean stuff derived from hydrocarbons. Its a multibillion-dollar gamble that would have been even less surprising before the coronavirus reared its spiky head. By eviscerating demand for petroleum products when business and consumer activity suddenly slowed, Covid-19 has shown the worlds biggest oil and gas companies a vision of a bleak future in which theyre neither wanted nor needed.

Comment:Out of touch? Or just politically incorrect? Media bullying by climate alarmists and keep-it-in-the-ground obstructionists will come and go; a pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer company should not lose focus.

Tying Chevrons viability to what is going on in political hot-spots and pretending that Covid is a negative game changer for fossil fuels is disingenuous.

A chastenedBP Plcresponded on Aug. 4 by announcingdramatic steps to address climate change, including an unexpected vow to reduce oil and gas production 40% over the next decade; CEO Bernard Looney said the strategy was amplified by Covid. In sharp contrast,Exxon Mobil Corp.has reiterated its commitment to beingoils last man standingdecades from now. Chevron, for all of Wirths prognosticating about crudes bright future, is pursuing a more nuanced path that embraces something frequently alien to Big Oil: flexibility.

Comment:False. This is propaganda trying to get a free-market company to go political. Resist.

Wirth pointed to whales as a case in which oil companies were able to expand their traditional business while producing positive change for the environment. Back in the 19th century, the creatures were being whaled into extinction, Wirth said, because their oil was needed as fuel for lighting. Then crude oil companies came along with kerosene to replace it. Ironically, Save the whales is a catchphrase for saving the environment, he said. In fact, our industry helped save the whales. Whether sticking with fossil fuels will make endangered species of Chevron and its brethren remains to be seen.

Comment:Chevron CEO Wirth is right. Fossil fuels have beenand will begood for the environment, a story for another day.

For the full article please go to: Natural Gas Now

Robert Bradley, Jr.Founder and CEO of the Institute for Energy ResearchPrincipal, MasterResource: A Free-Market Energy Blog..

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Lesson for Cong dissenters: Nothing but loyalty to Gandhis in letter and spirit – The Times of India Blog

Posted: at 4:10 pm

Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor et al are considered masters of Angrezi. They are masters of many other skill sets, too, but primarily, they have both built their formidable reputations on their inventive and original language skills. Calling them mere wordsmiths would be giving hardcore wordsmiths a terrible name.

Which is why it surprised the outside world when the outrageously valiant efforts of 23 loyalists (who temporarily forgot their auqaat), conveyed through a missive, which went viral after being mysteriously leaked to the media. Such himmat! After all, who dares question the mighty Queen Mother herself ? Tauba. Quelle horreur. I am surprised they still have their heads! We know what happens to the naughty ones who are bewaqoof enough to challenge the status quo. Think P V Narasimha Rao the poor brilliant soul whod made the monumental mistake of not prostrating at Madams feet. Such disrespect! Very few survive the wrath of the lady scorned. Watch out, you 23 dissenters!

If only these impassioned chaps had taken a different route to Sonias mind (I am leaving out the more arduous route to her missing organ the heart), their shabby state today could have been avoided. Forget how and who leaked the letter. The more important question is: why the hell was it written in the first place? Did they not know their boss? Has Madam G ever tolerated dissent? Ever? What motivated them to waste their time studiously penning that missive and creating such a drama? One tight thappad from the bosslady and they are back, licking their wounds and looking silly. Not only did the letter expose their own vanities, but the sharp and prompt response from the high command conclusively established who rules her! Them! Those three the triumvirate. Khatam. Take it or take a walk.

It is surprising that the universal charmer, Shashi Tharoor, chose to pen a reproachful letter when a prem patra would have done the trick. Pressing the right buttons generally works with egotistical people. So does flattery. Had that letter been gushy and effusive and fuzzy, things may have panned out differently. For example, had these brilliant fellows said, Your royal highness, we, your ever loyal subjects who adore and worship at your feet, humbly beseech you to sack your useless son and reclaim your throne The outcome would have been less humiliating for them.

As of now, the desired ouster of Rahul Gandhi as the next party president remains just that a collective desire. The word introspection has been officially banned, say sources. Mrs G holds all the cards, while Priyanka G, who is actually a Priyanka V, stands by to absorb and deflect the blows aimed at her brother, Rubberball Rahul G.

Meanwhile, the reckless Gang of 23 letter writers await punishment for, it will come with biblical fury and very soon. They are ready to do penance. And they no longer use potentially inflammable words like reform. Nor does any one of them (former chief ministers, central ministers) make even an oblique reference to electoral failure. These are all bad words that have been banned via a royal edict. If anything, the mood within the dysfunctional Congress party is exactly as Madam G wants it by the time the next AICC session comes up, there will be a lusty chorus for Rahul to get back and do his Rahul thing as party president. As of now, Mummyji is holding the fort as interim president, post the resignation natak.

This suits the BJP splendidly. No wonder we have been treated to an elaborately staged fashion shoot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in new and wonderfully colour-coordinated costumes, as he hand-feeds a peacock and bonds with geese. Never has our tireless PM looked this relaxed and totally chilled out. As if Indias Covid crisis and the employment emergency, or the JEE-NEET examinations controversy, have nothing to do with him or his cabinet colleagues.

Can anybody really visualise the Congress party (one of the oldest political parties in the world), without a Gandhi heading it? No, na? Then why quibble? Imagine if one of those accused of insubordination were to impudently stake a claim to the job reserved in perpetuity for the Nehru-Gandhi clan. Imagine the confusion of voters if they had to cast the ballot for a party led by Kapil Sibal or Shashi Tharoor or Ghulam Nabi Azad! You gotta be kidding! Congress ka matlab Gandhi parivar. Nobody else exists or will be allowed to exist. Once the G-gang goes, the headquarters may as well shut shop. Forget fighting the next election. Forget a viable opposition to the BJP in 2024. Relax, folks. Its going to be a piece of barfi for the BJP. Its time to feed the peacocks and fatten the geese.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Social media: The new theatre of Indias culture wars – Hindustan Times

Posted: at 4:10 pm

The phenomenal rise of social media (SM) platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others is proving to be a double-edged sword in the functioning of democracies. On the one hand, it has democratised access to information. On the other hand, it has concentrated power over that information with a handful of private companies, their billionaire owners, and certain ideologically committed activist groups.

Billions of netizens around the world now feel empowered to bypass traditional curators of information, such as journalists and editors, in searching for their choice of content. They have also become creators and disseminators of content, not just consumers of it. This is further accentuated by tech platforms directing more content at people similar to what they have already seen, thus creating echo chambers of like-minded groups.

This is already known. What is happening now, however, is the next stage of that transformation in how information is generated, disseminated, and consumed, and it is directly impacting how democracies function. There is a global war underway, involving the role of SM and freedom of expression, which is an extension of the culture wars between the Left and Right.

India is seeing the early skirmishes of the online version of this war, which has already progressed to a much higher intensity elsewhere, most notably the United States (US). In Americas bitterly polarised polity, the frontline of this war is a battle between Twitter and President Donald Trump. The formers flagging of a presidential tweet as fake news, and the latters executive order altering the liability of SM platforms who edit content, is worth understanding better.

One of the most stark aspects of the Wests culture wars has been its erosion of the right to freedom of expression, which had been a hallmark of its modern democracies. Especially since the early 20th century, US Supreme Court rulings by the legendary Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, interpreting its Constitutions first amendment, had established what many considered a gold standard of free speech.

While those struggles for free speech had pushed for more freedom, even to say and write very unpleasant things, the intensification of the Wests culture wars in this century has seen a reversal of that trend. Curbs on hate speech became widely accepted and implemented. But, thereafter, there has been a relentless push by so-called woke activists for ever more curbs on speech, often implemented forcefully and without consensus, based solely on political correctness.

A key aspect of this has been the shift from earlier activism against governments clamping down on speech to a focus instead on pushing media, and especially SM, to impose curbs on politically incorrect speech.

The irony in this new activism for speech curbs is that it is being championed by those who call themselves liberals. Of course, this does not represent classical liberal philosophy, and is instead a reflection of the far-Left takeover of present-day liberalism. This is visible around the world, whether in the forced withdrawal of a US academics paper contradicting the zeitgeist about race relations, or in the unsavoury departures of senior staff at the once venerable New York Times, after they had dared to publish op-eds reflecting Centre-Right views. In India, this bullying has manifested itself in the ganging up by self-avowed liberal authors to stop the publication of a book contradicting their narrative on this years Delhi riots.

Such far-Left canons have now invaded the realm of big tech firms. That should hardly be a surprise, considering Silicon Valleys preference for recruiting liberal and woke employees. Books and articles by conservative authors such as Douglas Murray and business journalists such as George Anders have documented explicit hiring policies, practices and statistics to confirm Left-wing dominance among SM employees. It was, therefore, inevitable that employee activism would push these platforms into adopting leftist, illiberal policies.

The inconsistencies in those policies show up when SM platforms apply selective standards, such as when Twitter was accused of hypocrisy for not flagging or proscribing the aggressive, warlike tweet of a West Asian leader.

President Trumps executive order directly impacts this. In US law, SM had been protected against the kind of liabilities such as defamation that traditional news media are subject to, on the grounds that SM are simply platforms for others opinions and did not edit or otherwise shape that information. But now that they are, by flagging, shadow banning, or deleting posts and accounts, the Trump order echoes many voices that had been asking for SM to be treated on par with media outlets.

A similar battle is raging about SM giants abuse of their massive power by sourcing news from media companies without paying for it, and then disseminating and profiting from it. Despite a bitter legal struggle, Australia is likely to become the first nation to require Google to pay for such content.

These battles are relevant to India, which is both the largest democracy as well as one of the largest user bases for SM platforms. Some of these battles have already begun here, such as the recent Indian version of the Wests leftist pressure on Facebook to put curbs on Right-wing posts. It is time to broaden the dialogue here about how India ought to respond.

Baijayant Jay Panda is vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and a former Member of Parliament.

The views expressed personal

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We need to end cancel culture – Spiked

Posted: at 4:10 pm

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the cultural climate has been saturated with identity politics and the incessant clamour for recognition and respect for people of various identities sexual, racial and gender. This cultural climate has bred its own terminologies and hashtags. It has also bred an illiberal attitude that is often referred to as cancel culture.

Cancel culture stifles the free speech of anyone who does not conform to the new normal. The proponents of cancel culture claim that it curbs injurious statements against minority groups. In truth, cancel culture is symptomatic of an imminent illiberal hegemony that should worry us all.

The term cancel culture is ambiguous. Perhaps a straightforward way to summarise it is that it suggests that if your action or opinion is morally or politically incorrect (based on other peoples assessment), then you should lose your employment and your reputation. It is a form of discipline and punishment for your harbouring of allegedly wrong and damaging opinions.

The key aim is to encourage conformism to the supposedly woke ways of thinking. As Ross Douthat argues in the New York Times, The goal isnt to punish everyone, or even very many someones; its to shame or scare just enough people to make the rest conform.

In spite of their apparently liberal intention to create an atmosphere of respect for persons of all identities, the new identitarians have actually twisted the language of tolerance in order to create a culture of conformism around their own ideologies.

I am by no means suggesting we should disrespect anyone on the basis of their identity, be they men, women, gay, straight, transgender, queer, white, black or brown. On the contrary, everyone is entitled to respect. However, the logic of cancel culture is not to engender respect for people but rather to demonise people on the basis of their moral and political views.

There are two reasons why cancel culture is antithetical to our social and intellectual progress. These reasons derive from John Stuart Mill, a towering figure in the liberal tradition. In his On Liberty, Mill argued that the despotism of custom is a hindrance to human advancement. Conformism, he argued, stifles the human intellect and social progress itself.

Mill also said that we can never be sure of the verity of our opinions unless we discuss them openly and freely. Liberal democracy a deliberative system that ensures the exchange of ideas is one way that we can talk to and listen to each other and in the process improve our understanding of each other.

And what if an idea is false? Should it be stifled? Mill suggests it shouldnt. For two reasons. First, there is no guarantee that a silenced opinion does not contain some true and valid propositions. And secondly, it is through debate that individuals are compelled to re-examine their values and opinions and to comprehend why they should or should not hold certain beliefs. Indeed, for Mill, it is not simply enough to be opinionated; one must understand the substance of ones beliefs. Without the free exchange of ideas, that understanding becomes more difficult.

The Millian view seems irrelevant to identitarians. They seem uninterested in the culture of intellectual risk-taking, mistakes and experimentation that has been crucial to our moral progress including the progress that has been made in relation to respect for people of different identities.

Ironically, identitarians fail to appreciate that their ability to express themselves freely after years of various forms of racial and gender repression is a product of public arguments for greater tolerance and liberty.

Great minds such as William Wilberforce, Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano publicly marshalled arguments against the morally unconscionable practice of making profit from enslaved black people. The likes of John Stuart Mill and Mary Wollstonecraft contended that women are not naturally inferior to men, and instead what set the sexes apart was the educational and cultural climate that deprived women of the liberty to realise their potential.

All these ideas were unconventional and challenging in their time. If these authors and their writings had been cancelled for going against the grain, we would not have made the kind of progress we have with regard to racial and gender equality.

Cancel culture is an illiberal nonsense that should be quickly discarded in order to salvage our liberal democratic culture of openness and tolerance. Many centuries ago, the Persian poet Rumi advised that rather than focusing on what is good or bad, we should pay attention to how things blend. In a world of many peoples, values, languages, colours and nations, perhaps our common future depends on how we allow truth and falsity, good and evil, black and white, to run free in a free marketplace of ideas, and trust individuals to make sense of all these things.

Promise Frank Ejiofor holds an MA in political science from the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. His research interests span constitutional politics, nationalism, moral and political theory. Follow him on Twitter: @ejioforpromise

To enquire about republishing spikeds content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.

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Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw is a dark farce presented by Canberra Rep – The Canberra Times

Posted: at 4:10 pm

whats-on, music-theatre-arts, What the Butler Saw, Canberra Rep, theatre

Seduction, blackmail, crossdressing, insanity - all these are part of What the Butler Saw. Joe Orton's dark farce is the next production in Canberra Rep's 2020 season. What the Butler Saw, Orton's third full-length play, was first produced in 1969, two years after the playwright was murdered by his jealous and frustrated lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who then committed suicide. Director Liz Bradley says of Orton, "I think he's a very astute observer of the human condition." Orton was writing in the Swinging 60s, a time of social upheaval and change - homosexuality was legalised, censorship was loosened, women's rights and youth culture were championed - and many people were uncomfortable with what was happening. For the playwright, who enjoyed cocking a snook at social proprieties - he and Halliwell had served prison sentences for their creative and surreal vandalising of the covers of library books - it was a golden opportunity. Orton gained fame and fortune using bad taste and the bizarre to confront and provoke. Farce was a theatrical staple and Bradley says What the Butler Saw is "a piss-take of the farce itself". Orton exploited its conventions to hold up a mirror to British society. "He had a go at everything in this thing," says Bradley, who directed the play once before for The Players Company as well as a CAT Award-winning production of Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane. The new production of What the Butler Saw was postponed because of COVID-19 just as casting was about to begin but was given the go-ahead in July. Bradley and company have enjoyed exploring Orton's scathing view of society. Morals and mores, hypocrisy, the role of authority figures including the police and the medical profession, the social order - all these and more are held up to examination and ridicule in politically incorrect fashion and the action becomes increasingly chaotic. The play begins with psychiatrist Dr Prentice (played by David Cannell) in his clinic, interviewing and attempting to seduce would-be secretary Geraldine (Zoe Swan). When Dr Prentice's wife (Lainie Hart) arrives unexpectedly, he has to hide the girl. but worse is to come. A government inspector, Dr Rance (Peter Holland) also turns up, among other characters - and craziness, cross-dressing and chaos ensue as well as some bizarre revelations. Cannell says, "Nothing's really changed" in the more than 50 years since What the Butler Saw premiered, making it as relevant as ever. He says he had never been in an Orton play before and wasn't all that familiar with the man and his work but there was one connection. "My dad knew [married actors] Prunella Scales and Timothy West." The couple had been in a 1987 televised production of What the Butler Saw. "My parents told me about the show when I was about eight." Cannell was able to watch and enjoy the TV production on YouTube. During the rehearsal period, Cannell went to the coast and fell over headfirst onto a rock. "It ripped open my eyelid and eyebrow and my eye is half closed." He says "90 per cent of people" he saw afterwards thought he had simply been playing around with make-up effects. It's not hard to see why: Cannell is a performer at Questacon and has performed onstage in many stage musicals in Canberra. But that less than sympathetic reaction by many to a very real injury that could have been serious might have appealed to Joe Orton's dark sense of humour.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/3BUUzmFAhrhLyX9rFCubPq5/549846c3-40b8-433c-8b1f-d2d9f1b6b629.jpg/r0_146_2362_1481_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

September 1 2020 - 1:17PM

Seduction, blackmail, crossdressing, insanity - all these are part of What the Butler Saw. Joe Orton's dark farce is the next production in Canberra Rep's 2020 season.

What the Butler Saw, Orton's third full-length play, was first produced in 1969, two years after the playwright was murdered by his jealous and frustrated lover, Kenneth Halliwell, who then committed suicide.

Director Liz Bradley says of Orton, "I think he's a very astute observer of the human condition."

Orton was writing in the Swinging 60s, a time of social upheaval and change - homosexuality was legalised, censorship was loosened, women's rights and youth culture were championed - and many people were uncomfortable with what was happening.

For the playwright, who enjoyed cocking a snook at social proprieties - he and Halliwell had served prison sentences for their creative and surreal vandalising of the covers of library books - it was a golden opportunity.

Orton gained fame and fortune using bad taste and the bizarre to confront and provoke.

Farce was a theatrical staple and Bradley says What the Butler Saw is "a piss-take of the farce itself".

Orton exploited its conventions to hold up a mirror to British society.

"He had a go at everything in this thing," says Bradley, who directed the play once before for The Players Company as well as a CAT Award-winning production of Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane.

The new production of What the Butler Saw was postponed because of COVID-19 just as casting was about to begin but was given the go-ahead in July. Bradley and company have enjoyed exploring Orton's scathing view of society.

Morals and mores, hypocrisy, the role of authority figures including the police and the medical profession, the social order - all these and more are held up to examination and ridicule in politically incorrect fashion and the action becomes increasingly chaotic.

The play begins with psychiatrist Dr Prentice (played by David Cannell) in his clinic, interviewing and attempting to seduce would-be secretary Geraldine (Zoe Swan).

When Dr Prentice's wife (Lainie Hart) arrives unexpectedly, he has to hide the girl. but worse is to come.

A government inspector, Dr Rance (Peter Holland) also turns up, among other characters - and craziness, cross-dressing and chaos ensue as well as some bizarre revelations.

Cannell says, "Nothing's really changed" in the more than 50 years since What the Butler Saw premiered, making it as relevant as ever.

He says he had never been in an Orton play before and wasn't all that familiar with the man and his work but there was one connection.

"My dad knew [married actors] Prunella Scales and Timothy West."

The couple had been in a 1987 televised production of What the Butler Saw.

"My parents told me about the show when I was about eight."

Cannell was able to watch and enjoy the TV production on YouTube.

During the rehearsal period, Cannell went to the coast and fell over headfirst onto a rock.

"It ripped open my eyelid and eyebrow and my eye is half closed."

He says "90 per cent of people" he saw afterwards thought he had simply been playing around with make-up effects.

It's not hard to see why: Cannell is a performer at Questacon and has performed onstage in many stage musicals in Canberra.

But that less than sympathetic reaction by many to a very real injury that could have been serious might have appealed to Joe Orton's dark sense of humour.

What the Butler Saw. By Joe Orton. Directed by Liz Bradley. Canberra Rep. Canberra Rep Theatre (Theatre 3), Ellery Crescent, Acton. September 10 to 26. Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm, with 2pm matinees on September 19, 20 and 26. Limited seating. Bookings by phone only: Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm on 6257 1950. canberrarep.org.au.

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