It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, January 01, 2023
THE LAST SISTER
Singer Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters dies at age 74
Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters performs at the 3rd annual Alfred Mann Foundation Innovation and Inspiration Gala on Sept. 9, 2006, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Anita Pointer, one of four sibling singers who topped the charts and earned critical acclaim as The Pointer Sisters, died Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, at the age of 74, her publicist announced. (AP Photo/Phil McCarten, File)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Anita Pointer, one of four sibling singers who earned pop success and critical acclaim as The Pointer Sisters, died Saturday at the age of 74, her publicist announced.
The Grammy winner passed away while she was with family members, publicist Roger Neal said in a statement. A cause of death was not immediately revealed.
“While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now with her daughter Jada and her sisters June & Bonnie and at peace. She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long,” her sister Ruth, brothers Aaron and Fritz and granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer said in the statement.
Anita Pointer’s only daughter, Jada Pointer, died in 2003.
Anita, Ruth, Bonnie and June Pointer, born the daughters of a minister, grew up singing in their father’s church in Oakland, California.
The group’s 1973 self-titled debut album included the breakout hit, “Yes We Can Can.” Known for hit songs including “I’m So Excited,” “Slow Hand,” “Neutron Dance” and “Jump (For My Love),” the singers gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994.
The 1983 album “Break Out” went triple platinum and garnered two American Music Awards. The group won three Grammy Awards and had 13 U.S. top 20 hit songs between 1973 and 1985, Neal said
The Pointer Sisters also was the first African American group to perform on the Grand Ole Opry program and the first contemporary act to perform at the San Francisco Opera House, Neal said.
Bonnie Pointer left the group in 1977, signing a solo deal with Motown Records but enjoying only modest success. “We were devastated,” Anita Pointer said of the departure in 1990. “We did a show the night she left, but after that, we just stopped. We thought it wasn’t going to work without Bonnie.”
The group, in various lineups including younger family members, continued recording through 1993.
June Pointer died of cancer at the age of 52 in 2006.
Anita Pointer announced Bonnie Pointer’s death resulting from cardiac arrest at the age of 69 in 2020. “The Pointer Sisters would never have happened had it not been for Bonnie,” she said in a statement.
Power failures amplify calls for utility to rethink gas
By JONATHAN MATTISE and TRAVIS LOLLER This satellite image made available by NOAA shows cloud cover over North America on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022 at 1:31 p.m. An arctic blast is bringing extreme cold, heavy snow and intense wind across much of the U.S. this week — just in time for the holidays. (NOAA via AP)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal utility’s decision to resort to rolling blackouts after coal and natural gas units went offline during dangerously cold conditions has intensified questions about the Tennessee Valley Authority’s recent decision to double down on fossil fuels.
TVA experienced its highest ever winter peak-power demand on Dec. 23 as an arctic blast brought blinding blizzards, freezing rain and frigid cold from Maine to Seattle. The Tennessee Valley Authority said in an email that a combination of high winds and freezing temperatures caused its coal-burning Cumberland Fossil Plant to go offline at one point when critical instrumentation froze up. A second coal-burning plant, Bull Run, also went offline, TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said in an email, although he did not provide details. The utility “had issues at some of our natural gas units” as well, Brooks said.
“The Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal and gas plants failed us over the holiday weekend. People across the Tennessee Valley were forced to deal with rolling blackouts, even as temperatures plunged into the single digits,” Southern Environmental Law Center Tennessee Office Director Amanda Garcia said in an email. “Despite this obvious failure, the federal utility is still planning to spend billions to build new gas plants and pipelines.”
TVA provides power to 10 million people in parts of seven Southern states. The federal utility issued a statement on Wednesday saying it takes full responsibility for the rolling blackouts on Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, just as many customers were preparing for Christmas.
“We are conducting a thorough review of what occurred and why. We are committed to sharing these lessons learned and – more importantly – the corrective actions we take in the weeks ahead to ensure we are prepared to manage significant events in the future,” the statement read.
The utility was already facing scrutiny for its recommendation to replace some aging coal-burning power plants with natural gas, instead of renewables and energy conservation measures — like solar, wind, heat pumps and LEDs. The decision to increase the use of natural gas was made just as TVA is about to seat six new board members nominated by President Joe Biden to fill out its nine-member board of directors. The utility’s recommendation to replace the Cumberland coal plant with a natural gas-fired one could become finalized by TVA’s CEO in the coming weeks.
Already, TVA is facing a lawsuit that claims it violated federal law by approving a gas-power plant that is under construction at the retired coal-burning Johnsonville Fossil Plant without properly assessing the environmental and climate impacts. TVA has declined to comment on the lawsuit filed this month.
Biden has set a goal of a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035 that TVA has said it can’t achieve without technological breakthroughs in nuclear generation and energy storage. TVA has set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2035, compared with 2005 levels. CEO Jeff Lyash has said repeatedly that gas is needed because it can provide power at any time, regardless of whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
“TVA’s CEO Lyash does not need to move forward with a massive new gas plant decision at Cumberland as early as January 9 before the new board is fully seated and when we just learned the mandatory blackouts were due to coal and gas failures,” Amy Kelly, with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said in a statement.
CAPITALIST HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
Fallen colossus: USSR’s terror, triumphs began 100 years ago By JIM HEINTZ
Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, left, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin sit in a park at Gorki residence in 1922 just outside Moscow, Russia. With its brutality, technological accomplishments and rigid ideology, the Soviet Union cast a huge shadow on the world like that of a colossus that would loom forever. Lenin was already in poor health when the USSR was formed and he died of a stroke little more than a year later. Josef Stalin outmaneuvered rivals in the ensuing battle for power. (AP Photo, File)
MOSCOW (AP) — With its brutality, technological accomplishments and rigid ideology, the Soviet Union loomed over the world like an immortal colossus.
It led humankind into outer space, exploded the most powerful nuclear weapon ever, and inflicted bloody purges and cruel labor camps on its own citizens while portraying itself as the vanguard of enlightened revolution.
But its lifespan was less than the average human’s; born 100 years ago, it died days short of its 69th birthday.
The Soviet Union both inspired loyalty and provoked dismay among its 285 million citizens. The dichotomy was summarized by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who served in its notorious KGB security agency.
“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart,” he said. “Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.”
On the centenary of the treaty that formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, The Associated Press reviews the events of its rise and fall.
ESTABLISHMENT
Five years after the overthrow of Russia’s czarist government, four of the socialist republics that had formed in the aftermath signed a treaty on Dec. 30, 1922 to create the USSR: Ukraine; Byelorussia; Transcaucasia, which spread over Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan; and Russia, including the old empire’s holdings in Central Asia. The USSR, which later expanded to include Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, left the republics with their own governments and national languages, but all subordinate to Moscow.
LENIN DIES
Vladimir Lenin, the first Soviet leader, was already in poor health when the USSR was formed and died little more than a year later. Josef Stalin outmaneuvered rivals in the ensuing power battle.
COLLECTIVIZATION
Stalin incorporated private landholdings into state and collective farms. Resistance to collectivization and the policy’s inefficiencies aggravated famines; Ukraine’s 1932-33 “Holodomor” killed an estimated 4 million people, and many term it an outright genocide.
GREAT PURGE
Driven by Stalin’s fear of rivals, Soviet authorities in the 1930s launched show trials of prominent figures alleged to be enemies of the state and conducted widespread arrests and executions often based on little more than denunciation by neighbors. Estimates say as many as 1.2 million people died in 1937-38, the purge’s most intense period.
WWII
World War II inflicted colossal suffering on the Soviet Union, but cemented its superpower status and swelled citizens’ hearts with the conviction that theirs was a virtuous and indomitable nation.
An estimated 27 million Soviets died. The Battle of Stalingrad was among the bloodiest in history; Nazi and affiliated forces besieged Leningrad for more than two years. The Red Army doggedly pushed back and slowly advanced until reaching Berlin, ending the war’s European theater.
The war left Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia incorporated into the Soviet Union, as well as what later became Moldova. Stalin used wartime conferences to demand a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, eventually drawing Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and East Germany behind the “Iron Curtain.”
STALIN DIES
Stalin’s death in 1953 was traumatic for Soviets who venerated him. Huge crowds gathered to pay their respects and more than 100 people reportedly died in the crush. He left no designated successor, and the country’s leadership became embroiled in jockeying for power. Nikita Khrushchev cemented his position at the top in 1955.
KHRUSHCHEV THAW
Formerly a loyal functionary, Khrushchev turned on his predecessor once firmly in power. In a speech to a Communist Party congress, he railed for hours against Stalin’s brutality and the “cult of personality” he engendered. He later had Stalin’s body removed from the Red Square mausoleum where Lenin’s body also lay.
The speech was a key point in what became known as the Khrushchev Thaw, a period of relaxed repression and censorship.
Khrushchev was ousted in 1964 in a vote by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which was led by Leonid Brezhnev. He became the USSR’s leader.
SPACE RACE
The 1957 launch of Sputnik-1, the first artificial satellite, sparked enormous concern in the United States that the Soviets were speeding ahead technologically. The U.S. accelerated its space program, but the USSR sent the first human into outer space, Yuri Gagarin, four years later. American Alan Shepard’s 15-minute suborbital flight the next month only emphasized the space gap.
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Perhaps the closest the world ever came to full nuclear war was the 1962 confrontation between the U.S. and the USSR over the presence in Cuba of Soviet nuclear missiles, which Khrushchev sent in response to U.S. nuclear-capable missiles placed in Turkey. The U.S. ordered a naval blockade of the island and tensions soared, but the Soviets agreed to pull back the missiles in return for the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The positive offshoot was the establishment of a U.S.-USSR hotline to facilitate crisis communications.
DETENTE
In the Brezhnev years, Washington and Moscow engaged in the so-called “detente” period that saw several arms treaties signed, improved trade relations and the Apollo-Soyuz spacecraft docking, the first joint mission in outer space. That ended after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Brezhnev died in 1982, and relations withered under successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, who were in ill health and died after less than 15 months in office.
AFGHANISTAN WAR
Despite Afghanistan’s reputation as “the graveyard of empires,” the Soviets sent in troops in 1979, assassinating the country’s leader and installing a compliant successor. Fighting dragged on for nearly a decade. Soviet troops — 115,000 at the war’s height — were battered by resistance fighters used to the rough terrain. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began a withdrawal in 1987 and completed it in 1989. More than 14,000 Red Army troops died in the conflict that eroded the image of Soviet military superiority.
STAGNATION
“They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” This sarcastic line became popular in the Brezhnev era as the economy staggered through low and even negative growth. The rigidity of central planning was seen as a major cause along with high defense spending.
GORBACHEV RISES
The dour torpor that set in during the late ’70s lifted when Gorbachev was chosen Communist Party leader after Chernenko’s death. Personable, a relative youngster at 54 and accompanied by his fashionable wife, Raisa, Gorbachev brought a strongly human touch to a grim and opaque government, sparking enthusiasm dubbed “Gorbymania” in the West. Within months, he was campaigning to end economic and political stagnation, using “glasnost,” or openness, to pursue the goal of “perestroika” — restructuring.
He signed two landmark arms agreements with the U.S., freed political prisoners, allowed open debate, multi-candidate elections and freedom to travel, and halted religious oppression.
But the forces he unleashed quickly escaped his control. Long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared into strife in areas such as the southern Caucasus. Strikes and labor unrest followed price increases and consumer good shortages so severe that even showpiece Moscow stores were bare.
CHERNOBYL
Gorbachev’s standing in the West was undermined when a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986, spewing radioactive fallout over much of Europe for a week. Despite Gorbachev’s vaunted glasnost, the Soviets did not inform the outside world, or even their own citizens, of the disaster for two days. They allowed a large May Day event in Kyiv despite elevated radiation levels.
BERLIN WALL FALLS
Although the USSR had sent troops to put down uprisings in the satellite states of Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1956 and 1968, it did not intervene when democratization and waves of dissent spread through East Bloc countries in 1989. The most vivid consequence of standing back came when East Germany opened passage to West Germany: Jubilant demonstrators swarmed the Berlin Wall that had blocked off the city’s Soviet sector since 1961, and hammered chunks off it.
COUP ATTEMPT
The Soviet prime minister, defense minister, KGB head and other top officials, alarmed at growing separatism and economic troubles, on August 19, 1991, put Gorbachev under house arrest at his vacation dacha and ordered a halt to all political activities. Tanks and troops ground through the streets of Moscow, but crowds gathered to defy them. Russian President Boris Yeltsin clambered onto a tank outside the parliament building to denounce the coup plotters. The attempt collapsed in three days and Gorbachev returned to Moscow, albeit with his power severely weakened.
COLLAPSE
Over the next four months, the USSR disintegrated with the slow drama of a calving glacier, as several republics, including Ukraine, declared independence. Yeltsin banned Communist Party activities in Russia.
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in early December signed an accord stating the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. On Dec. 25, Gorbachev resigned and the USSR’s flag was lowered from the Kremlin.
Debate persists on what felled the colossus: its repressive ways, poor decisions by ailing leaders, adherence to an arguably unviable ideology — all could have played a part.
Thirty years later, analyst Dmitri Trenin, then-director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, told The Associated Press: “The collapse of the Soviet Union was one of those occasions in history that are believed to be unthinkable until they become inevitable.”
2023 public domain debuts include last Sherlock Holmes work
A Museum of London employee poses for photographers next to an 1897 oil on canvas portrait of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by illustrator Sidney Paget on display as part of the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die" at the Museum of London in London, Oct. 16, 2014. Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the public in 2023. The long dispute on contested copyright on Doyle's tales of a whip-smart detective will come to an end in 2022, as the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle will be released on Saturday, Dec. 31, as copyrights from 1927 expire on Jan. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the American public in 2023.
The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of a whipsmart detective — which has even ensnared Enola Holmes — will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring Jan. 1 include Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes work.
Once a work enters the public domain it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed or sampled without permission or cost. The works from 1927 were originally supposed to be copyrighted for 75 years, but the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act delayed opening them up for an additional 20 years.
While many prominent works on the list used those extra two decades to earn their copyright holders good money, a Duke University expert says the copyright protections also applied to “all of the works whose commercial viability had long subsided.”
“For the vast majority—probably 99%—of works from 1927, no copyright holder financially benefited from continued copyright. Yet they remained off limits, for no good reason,” Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, wrote in a blog post heralding “Public Domain Day 2023.”
That long U.S. copyright period meant many works that would now become available have long since been lost, because they were not profitable to maintain by the legal owners, but couldn’t be used by others. On the Duke list are such “lost” films like Victor Fleming’s “The Way of All Flesh” and Tod Browning’s “London After Midnight.”
1927 portended the silent film era’s end with the release of the first “talkie” — a film with dialogue in it. That was “The Jazz Singer,” the historic first feature-length film with synchronized dialogue also notorious for Al Jolson’s blackface performance.
In addition to the Alan Crosland-directed film, other movies like “Wings” — directed by William A. Wellman and the “outstanding production” winner at the very first Oscars — and Fritz Lang’s seminal science-fiction classic “Metropolis” will enter the public domain.
Musical compositions — the music and lyrics found on sheet music, not the sound recordings — on the list include hits from Broadway musicals like “Funny Face” and jazz standards from the likes of legends like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, in addition to Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “(I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Cream” by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King.
Duke’s Center for the Public Domain highlighted notable books, movies and musical compositions entering the public domain — just a fraction of the thousands due to be unleashed in 2023.
BOOKS
— “The Gangs of New York,” by Herbert Asbury (original publication)
— “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” by Willa Cather
— “The Big Four,” by Agatha Christie
— “The Tower Treasure,” the first Hardy Boys mystery by the pseudonymous Franklin W. Dixon
— “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,” by Arthur Conan Doyle
— “Copper Sun,” by Countee Cullen
— “Mosquitoes,” by William Faulkner
— “Men Without Women,” by Ernest Hemingway
— “Der Steppenwolf,” by Herman Hesse (in German)
— “Amerika,” by Franz Kafka (in German)
— “Now We Are Six,” by A.A. Milne with illustrations from E.H. Shepard
— “Le Temps retrouvé,” by Marcel Proust (in French)
— “Twilight Sleep,” by Edith Wharton
— “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” by Thornton Wilder
— “To The Lighthouse,” by Virginia Woolf
MOVIES
— “7th Heaven,” directed by Frank Borzage
— “The Battle of the Century,” a Laurel and Hardy film directed by Clyde Bruckman
— “The Kid Brother,” directed by Ted Wilde
— “The Jazz Singer,” directed by Alan Crosland
— “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog,” directed by Alfred Hitchcock
— “Metropolis,” directed by Fritz Lang
— “Sunrise,” directed by F.W. Murnau
— “Upstream,” directed by John Ford
— “Wings,” directed by William A. Wellman
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS
— “Back Water Blues,” “Preaching the Blues” and “Foolish Man Blues” (Bessie Smith)
— “The Best Things in Life Are Free,” from the musical “Good News” (George Gard “Buddy” De Sylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)
— “Billy Goat Stomp,” “Hyena Stomp” and “Jungle Blues” (Ferdinand Joseph Morton)
— “Black and Tan Fantasy” and “East St. Louis Toodle-O” (Bub Miley, Duke Ellington)
— “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Ol’ Man River,” from the musical “Show Boat” (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern)
— “Diane” (Erno Rapee, Lew Pollack)
— “Funny Face” and “’S Wonderful,” from the musical “Funny Face” (Ira and George Gershwin)
— “(I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Cream” (Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, Robert A. King)
— “Mississippi Mud” (Harry Barris, James Cavanaugh)
— “My Blue Heaven” (George Whiting, Walter Donaldson)
— “Potato Head Blues” and Gully Low Blues” (Louis Armstrong)
— “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (Irving Berlin)
— “Rusty Pail Blues,” “Sloppy Water Blues” and “Soothin’ Syrup Stomp” (Thomas Waller)
UK Three Natural History Museum
scientists awarded on the 2023
New Year Honours list
By Josh Davis First published 31 December 2022 Sandy and Chris are both internationally recognised experts in their fields of botany and human evolution.
Image use By Permission of the Linnean Society of London and The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.
Professor Chris Stringer is an expert on human evolution and has been awarded a CBE, while Dr Sandra Knapp is an internationally renowned botanist and Dr Richard Fortey a senior palaeontologist who have each been awarded an OBE.
The 2023 New Year's Honours list has included three Museum scientists.
Celebrating the important contributions that Professor Chris Stringer, Dr Sandra Knapp and Dr Richard Fortey have made to their respective fields of human evolution, botany and paleontology, they are among those recognised on the first honours list issued by His Majesty King Charles III.
Dr Doug Gurr, the Director of the Museum, says, 'We are thrilled to see Professor Chris Stringer, our longest-serving research scientist, Dr Sandra Knapp and Dr Ricahrd Fortey be recognised with a CBE and OBE in this year's New Year Honours list.'
'Chris, Sandy and Richard are at the forefront of their fields, world leaders making significant impacts to science internationally. A huge congratulations to them all.'
Discovering our own origins Chris has been an internationally renowned researcher the field of human evolution for five decades
Chris has been researching human evolution for over five decades. Originally studying anthropology at University College London, he went on to conduct a PhD in Anatomical Studies at Bristol University before joining the Museum as permanent staff in 1973.
His work has looked at the expansion of our species out of Africa, transformed the scientific and public understanding of the relationships between modern humans and Neaderthals, and been critical in determining how and when humans first arrived in Britain.
With some 527 publications and counting, on subjects ranging from palaeontology and archaeology, to geochronology and genetics, Chris has developed an extraordinary reputation and international collaborative network of colleagues. A Fellow of the Royal Society, Chris has been honoured with seven medals from learned societies.
'I'm delighted to be awarded the CBE and accept this as an honour not just for me but for all the people I've worked with on human evolution studies over the last 50 years or so, both within and outside the Natural History Museum,' says Chris.
Potatoes, tomatoes and aubergines, oh my! Sandy has worked right around the world, studying an naming plants as she goes.
Image use By Permission of the Linnean Society of London
Sandy started out studying botany at Pomona College, California, before going on to study for a PhD at Cornell University. Her scientific career has focused on the group of plants that contain potatoes, tomatoes and aubergines, known more formally as the Solanaceae.
This has included detailed work on the relationships and evolution of the plant species within this group, leading to new and exciting findings about the origins of these important food plants and their relatives, as well as the descriptions of new species.
In addition to her scientific career, Sandy has also been a tireless science communicator, authoring a number of books on botany, botanical exploration and botanical illustrations. Sandy is also past President of the Linnean Society, a Trustee of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and President of Flora and Fauna International USA as well as a prominent advocate for diversity in the scientific community.
'This honour is as much for those I work with as it is for me. It is lovely to have botany, the study of plants, recognised in this way,' says Sandy. 'Plants form the basis for most of Earth's ecosystems, and my work to disseminate the story of science begins with them. My huge thanks to all who have supported me and work throughout the years – this is for all of us.'
Understanding extinctions Richard has had an extraordinary scientific career, becoming the world expert in ancient arthropods known as trilobites.
Richard's interests in palaeontology started when, as a 14 year old boy, he discovered the fossil of a trilobite. This discovery sparked a life-long love of these ancient invertebrates and a career that has spanned almost six decades.
Studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge before continuing to complete a PhD on fossil trilobites preserved in the rocks on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, he became a world expert on these arthropods. Spending his entire working career at the Museum, he has named hundreds of new species of trilobites from all around the world and published over 250 papers on the evolution and origin of many major trilobite groups.
He has previously been elected the president of the Geological Society of London, the Palaeontological Association and Palaeontographical Society, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society. Despite retiring from the Museum almost two decades ago, Richard has not stopped his scientific studies and continues to research and publish on palaeontology.
Aside from his prosperous scientific career, Richard has also inspired many through his numerous books, radio and television appearances. Perhaps best known for his behind-the-scenes biography of the Natural History Museum, Dry Store Room No.1, he has also authored many other books on fossils and trilobites in particular.
In addition to his writings, he has also appeared in many TV documentaries, including presenting Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures and Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution, while also accompanying Sir David Attenborough to the Atlas mountains for Morocco for the TV show First Life. In 2014 he was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili's radio show The Life Scientific.
India, Pakistan exchange lists of nuclear facilities, prisoners
New Delhi urges Islamabad to expedite release, repatriation of Indian fishermen, civilian prisoners who have completed their sentence
Anadolu Agency Staff |01.01.2023
NEW DELHI
India and Pakistan have exchanged lists of nuclear facilities, as well as civilian prisoners and fishermen in their custody, Indian authorities said on Sunday.
According to the Indian External Affairs Ministry, New Delhi and Islamabad switched the list of nuclear installations and facilities under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between the two countries.
The 1988 agreement requires that India and Pakistan inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities on Jan. 1 of each year.
"This is the 32nd consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries, the first one having taken place on 01 January 1992," the ministry said.
Meanwhile, India also handed over the lists of 339 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 95 Pakistani fishermen currently in Indian custody, the ministry statement added.
On its part, Pakistan shared the lists of 51 civilian prisoners and 654 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or are believed to be Indians.
The lists were shared through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad.
Under a 2008 agreement, both countries are required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other's custody twice a year: on Jan. 1 and July 1.
The Indian side said it called for early release and repatriation of "civilian prisoners, missing Indian defense personnel, and fishermen along with their boats" from Pakistan's custody.
"In this context, Pakistan was asked to expedite the release and repatriation of 631 Indian fishermen and 2 Indian civilian prisoners, who have completed their sentence and whose nationality has been confirmed and conveyed to Pakistan," the ministry said.
"In addition, Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to the remaining 30 fishermen and 22 civilian prisoners in Pakistan's custody who are believed to be Indian."
India, it said, remains committed to "addressing, on priority, all humanitarian matters, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen in each other's country."
The ministry also said India urged Pakistan to expedite necessary action to confirm the "nationality status of 71 Pakistani prisoners, including fishermen, whose repatriation is pending for want of nationality confirmation from Pakistan."
It added: "Pakistan has been requested to ensure the safety, security, and welfare of all Indian and believed-to-be Indian civilian prisoners and fishermen, pending their release and repatriation to India."
The relations between the two arch-rival countries plummeted to a new low after August 2019, when India scrapped the longstanding special status of Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in Islamabad downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Delhi.
Strained relations between the two neighbors keep prisoners in jail for longer periods, and in some cases, even after they serve their sentences.
Fishermen from both sides have long been paying a heavy price for fraught relations between the two neighbors.
Both countries often arrest fishermen for violating each other's seawaters due to poorly marked water boundaries and ill-equipped boats that lack the technology to specify exact locations.
Jatin Desai, former secretary of Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, a group of peace activists from both countries dealing with prisoners' issues, told Anadolu Agency that the number of Indian fishermen in Pakistan’s custody is "increasing" and it is a matter of "concern."
"Over 600 Indian fishermen have completed their sentences and even their nationality has been verified. But, they haven't been repatriated yet to India and the reason is mostly political," he said. "There is no reason to keep the Indian fishermen in jails when all the processes have been completed."
Austria's Krampus parades too violent for insurance companies
Austria's Krampus frightfest is starting to decline in popularity because many insurance companies deem the pre-Christmas custom too violent.
During these traditional parades, which are held in almost all mountain villages, people dressed as horned Krampus creatures are meant to scare children into good behavior. Anyone who makes fun of the monster impersonators gets whipped on the leg with a rod.
"It's a very normal custom. Those who don't like it should stay home," says Michael Pufitsch who is protecting his young son with his arms during a parade in the town of Kolbnitz. "I think it's funny when they hit the people," adds another spectator.
It takes about 25 hours to hand-carve a wooden Krampus mask, which costs around $800 USD. /CGTN/Andreas Gasser
The tradition, which dates back to pre-Christian times, has experienced a boom in recent years, not only in Austria, but also in Bavaria, northern Italy and Slovenia.
But this year, some parades were scaled back or canceled altogether because insurers have stopped covering these events.
"We wanted to insure our Krampus association, but the insurance companies didn't want us because we are a high-risk group. There is too much risk of damage," Markus Eder, head of the Zlan Krampus group, told CGTN.
Some Krampus impersonators are trying to take the fear from small children by carrying them around. /CGTN/Andreas Gasser
For local insurance broker Alexander Ertl, doing business with the monstrous tradition no longer pays off. "Some years ago, insurers were still tolerating a few Krampus incidents. But now the number of damages and injuries has risen too much," he said.
Some Krampus groups only pay an insurance rate of around $100 a year. This cannot cover incidents which potentially could cost companies up to $1 million, another broker from the town of Spittal remarked. Krampus impersonator Johannes Schmölzer broke his hand during the parade in Kolbnitz./CGTN/Andreas Gasser
Meanwhile at the parade in Kolbnitz, medical doctor Ulrich Gradnitzer is wrapping a bandage around a broken hand. He says that about two people are injured at every parade.
"The barricades get into their stomachs or into their belly - people are hurt. That's the most common injury they get from the Krampus," he lamented.
But Gradnitzer also says insurance companies are being cheated by spectators. "When Krampus watchers have to be brought to the hospital, most of the time it's just because they want to get money ... it's an insurance thing," he moaned. Most Austrian towns banned fire shows from Krampus parades due to safety concerns. /CGTN/Andreas Gasser
In order to preserve the Krampus tradition, Austria's villages are taking ever stricter safety precautions during the parades. And some municipalities have even started providing insurance coverage for their Krampus groups themselves.
Acupuncture may aid irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea
by Lori Solomon
Acupuncture is safe and feasible for patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D), according to a pilot study published online Dec. 29 in JAMA Network Open.
Ling-Yu Qi, from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and colleagues randomly assigned 90 individuals with IBS-D to acupuncture (either specific acupoints [SA] or nonspecific acupoints [NSA]) or a sham acupuncture (NA) group with all groups receiving 12 30-minute sessions over four consecutive weeks.
The researchers observed substantial improvements in the response rate at week 4 for all groups (composite response rates of 46.7 percent in the SA group, 46.7 percent in the NSA group, and 26.7 percent in the NA group). However, the difference between the groups was not statistically significant. Adequate relief at week 4 was achieved by 64.3 percent in the SA group, 62.1 percent in the NSA group, and 55.2 percent in the NA group. Two patients (6.7 percent) in the SA group and three patients (10 percent) in the NSA or NA group reported adverse events.
"These findings suggest that acupuncture is feasible and safe; a larger, sufficiently powered trial is needed to accurately assess efficacy," the authors write.
More information: Ling-Yu Qi et al, Acupuncture for the Treatment of Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome, JAMA Network Open (2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.48817
Measles outbreak in Ohio infects 82 kids, most of them unvaccinated
by Cara Murez
Most of those impacted by the outbreak have been under the age of 5, state officials reported. Since details of the first measles cases were announced last month by Columbus Public Health, 32 children have been hospitalized.
The first four cases were in unvaccinated children with no travel history who were linked to a child care facility in Franklin County, Ohio.
Vaccination data wasn't available for four of the infected children, but all of the others were at least partially unvaccinated, having had no doses or just one dose of the two-shot measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR).
"Measles isn't just a little rash," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. "Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children."
Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts has urged parents to vaccinate their children, CBS News reported.
Public health officials recommend children receive their first MMR dose between 12 and 15 months old, and the second between ages 4 and 6.
About 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to measles will become infected, Columbus health officials warned. About 20% of those wind up hospitalized with the virus.
Measles symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes, about a week or two after an exposure, according to the CDC. These symptoms are typically followed by a rash about three to five days later.
The Ohio outbreak comprises most of the 2022 measles cases in the United States, CBS News reported, with numbers now greater than reported cases in 2020 and 2021 combined.
No children have died in this outbreak at this time, CBS News reported.
More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on measles.
An mRNA vaccine strategy under study to fight the flu—as a shot and intranasal spray
by Delthia Ricks , Medical Xpress
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Messenger RNA vaccine technology, once an arcane area of research, became household terminology because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now scientists are working on an mRNA flu vaccine strategy that, at least in this study, involves a first dose administered as a shot but a booster administered as an mRNA nasal spray.
The vaccine is known as a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine that targets influenza's viral nucleoprotein. That structure in influenza A viruses is a highly conserved multi-functional protein and is a key target in vaccine and antiviral research because it is less likely to mutate compared with viral surface proteins.
The strategy devised by researchers, primarily at the University of Minnesota who are working with collaborators elsewhere in the United States, was to generate lung-resident memory T cells that are stably maintained in respiratory tissues.
So far, the research is underway in animal models but the hope is to craft a vaccine—and method of vaccine administration—that helps conquer one of humankind's most persistent foes: the flu.
Each year in the United States, an estimated 36,000 deaths and millions of hospitalizations are due to influenza-related illness. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates 250,000 to 500,000 flu deaths annually. And in the case of influenza pandemics, the viral infection causes even more catastrophic damage as was the case in 1918 when an estimated 500 million people, about one-third of the world's population, became infected with the virus and 50 million died.
The goal in the Minnesota-based research was an mRNA flu vaccine strategy that prompts resident memory T cells to fan out in the lungs and to be prepared in the event of infection.
"Respiratory tract resident memory T cells, typically generated by local vaccination or infection, can accelerate control of pulmonary infections that evade neutralizing antibody," writes Dr. Marco Künzli of the Center for Immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Minnesota.
"It is unknown," Künzli added, "whether mRNA vaccination establishes respiratory resident memory T cells."
As the lead author of the study, which was published in Science Immunology, Künzli and a large team of scientists, wanted to know if they could do just that—help establish respiratory resident memory T cells in the lungs of animal models via mRNA vaccine technology.
The strategy they devised for the research—which worked—involved an initial prime and boost with intramuscular vaccination followed by a secondary intranasal booster. This strategy efficiently promoted memory CD4 and CD8 T cells in lung tissue. Beyond the current research, the findings help highlight how mRNA vaccine technology can be adapted to protect the lungs from any respiratory infection, for example, such as RSV—respiratory syncytial virus—or beyond RSV, any other pathogen from a vast swath respiratory infectious agents.
While intramuscular prime and boost immunizations were sufficient to induce respiratory resident memory T cells in the animal models, an additional intranasal boost further expanded both circulating and lung resident memory T cells, the researchers found.
"We generated a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine encoding the influenza A virus nucleoprotein," Künzli continued, noting the nucleoprotein "is encapsulated in modified dendron–based nanoparticles."
"We report how routes of immunization in mice, including contralateral versus ipsilateral intramuscular boosts, or intravenous and intranasal routes, influenced influenza-specific cell-mediated and humoral immunity," Künzli asserted.
Scientists left no stone unturned in their research. After the multi-pronged administration strategy, they checked the respiratory resident memory T cells' functions in the mice through parabiosis, a surgical protocol commonly used in immunological studies involving the respiratory resident memory T cell subpopulation.
Initial analysis demonstrated that respiratory resident memory T cells insinuated themselves in lung tissue becoming long-term residents after the prime-boost intramuscular administration. The intranasal booster, which further increased the number of respiratory resident memory T cells, helped establish memory CD4 and CD8 T cells, circulating and residing in the lungs.
The new research, which shows potential for new ways to administer an mRNA to achieve an immunological goal, arrives following the success of mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.
Scientists are also moving ahead with research on mRNA vaccines for a large number of diverse medical disorders, including various forms of cancer, rare diseases, and yes, numerous infectious diseases. The new influenza research underscores that mRNA technology is not only robust but capable of being explored as a highly tailored weapon against the flu.
"The prospects are exciting for combating emerging pathogens, antigenically variable pathogens that might be addressed by megavalent vaccination, and perhaps non-infection conditions such as personalized tumor vaccines," Künzli noted.
More information: Marco Künzli et al, Route of self-amplifying mRNA vaccination modulates the establishment of pulmonary resident memory CD8 and CD4 T cells, Science Immunology (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.add3075
