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Captain Granger stood in front of the command chair with her hands folded behind her back, distractedly watching the starfield in front of her. One of her socks had bunched under her heel when she'd pulled on her boot and she was trying to figure out the right way to wiggle her foot while they waited for whatever scenario the sim was going to spring on them. Probably something involving Klingons, given they were currently "patrolling" the edge of the Neutral Zone.
Really, the whole thing was quite annoying. She should have been back at the science console, or sitting at nav, and Harry should be the one standing straight under the pressure of command. Their entire cadet bloc had become accustomed to the order of things, and even the discomfort of the sock couldn't distract her from the sidelong glances she was getting from the other cadets.
From her crew, she reminded herself; she needed to behave as though this training exercise was the real thing.
Harry, Ron, and Luna, at least, were focused on their stations; she could faintly see Neville frowning in reflection at something coming over the communications headset in the broad viewscreen.
"Captain," he finally said, "Starfleet Command is picking up a signal from the Kobayashi Maru. We are ordered to retrieve the ship."
She turned to look at him, frowning thoughtfully. The Kobayashi Maru was the one simulation she hadn't been able to find much on when she'd been researching what they might face in this, their fourth and final year at the Academy. There was a footnote in a list of hearings about James T. Kirk being called up on cheating charges following his third try at the simulation, but after the Narada incident he had been cleared of wrongdoing.
"What are their coordinates?"
Neville relayed the question, came back with the answer. Her eyes narrowed; Luna, at navigation, gave a breathy gasp.
"That's in the Neutral Zone," she confirmed.
Hermione twined her fingers together to keep herself from bringing her hands up to pull at her hair, looking back at Neville.
"And Starfleet Command is ordering us to rescue them?"
"Yes, captain," he said.
"Can you pick up the distress signal?" She couldn't reconcile Starfleet Command picking up a signal from parsecs away before their vessel, which was effectively on top of the Neutral Zone.
"Scanning," he answered. She moved around to lean her hands on the back of the command chair.
"Mister Potter, scan the area and see if you can detect the ship," she ordered, turning options and possibilities over in her head.
"We were ordered --"
She cut him off, brusquely.
"I am not risking my crew to rescue a ship whose existence we have not confirmed," she said, firmly. "Now, mister, scan the coordinates we were given."
"Aye, captain," the response was slow, and a little sullen, but his hands moved over the console. Imagining himself diving in to play hero, rescuing the crew of the ship and chafing because she was more cautious, she figured, though she was more concerned with what brass were playing at.
Starfleet Command has ordered us to violate the Neutral Zone. Why? What purpose could be served?
There were Federation citizens on the Kobayashi Maru, she assumed, but to ask her to risk 800 lives for an unknown number...
"I have the signal," Neville said, at the same moment Harry said, "scanner results are ambiguous."
"On speaker, please, mister Longbottom."
The message was garbled and weak, a half-hysterical individual begging for assistance for the freighter Kobayashi Maru. Lee had put the schematics for the ship up on screen for her, including crew contingent and cargo. Other than the lives on board, there was nothing to explain why they should cross the invisible line in space.
She was aware the rest of her crew were holding their breath.
"Define ambiguous, mister Potter."
"I am getting anomalous readings in the area; there's something there, but it could as easily be an ion cloud as a ship."
She scowled. This was wrong, everything about the scenario was inconclusive and unclear. She realized she had pulled a lock of hair out of her ponytail and was twisting the curly strands around her fingers; she forced herself to stop.
Consider your options. When faced with the improbable, rule out the impossible and accept what's left as the truth.
The broken voice on the speaker was growing more urgent.
This would be so much easier if I didn't have to jump blind. Either the ship is there, or she isn't. If she is there, what's she doing there? Is she spying for the Federation in the guise of being a merchant? Or is this all a trap? If it's a trap, who set it?
"Mister Longbottom, please open a broad-frequency channel, starting at the lower end of the standard Klingon range."
He scrambled to obey; the rest of the crew were stirring uncertainly. They were all aware if there were birds-of-prey anywhere in the area -- which wasn't so much an "if" -- they were cloaked, and wouldn't be engaging in any chatter among ships.
But she didn't want to listen for them. They were there. What she needed was to figure out what she could possibly say to get them to help either confirm or deny the Kobayashi Maru was there. Her mind raced through everything she'd read, searching for any tiny scrap of useful information about the culture, how they interpreted honor and weakness.
Now no one on the bridge except Ron and Harry was looking at her. Maybe she should just go in after the Kobayashi Maru, but claiming she'd been following orders wouldn't get her anywhere with the souls who wouldn't survive the encounter.
"Frequency open, captain," Neville said, his voice shaking. She took a deep breath, nodded her thank you, and opened her mouth, trusting inspiration to come.
"This is captain Hermione Granger of the U.S.S. Hogsmeade," she said, in Klingon, "I know you hide out there in the dark like So'wI''a'mey. Identify yourselves!"
There was a momentary pause; she wasn't sure if she should be smug because the computer didn't have a canned response or worried that the -- minor -- insult would cause the very incident she was trying to avoid. She'd used the phrase knowing at least one of the opposing commanders would be stung enough to respond.
Hermione swallowed and half her crew jumped. The speaker -- either saying "hello!" or "what do you want!"; the same in tlhIngan Hol -- was female, her voice oddly melodic.
They're waiting for you to fail.
She started to push the unhelpful thought aside, then paused. Something true lurked behind the thought.
"pInepqangbe'" she said, we are not willing to lie to you. "We seek a ship which drifted across the border. Can you see her?"
There was another long pause; she was somewhat aware of a bustle going on in the observation deck. The response should have been simple enough, her phrasing -- Daleghlah'a' -- indicated the need for only a yes or no answer.
Unless they couldn't provide a yes or no answer without violating the constraints of the test.
Even without certainty, she had options: return to patrol without crossing the Neutral Zone, and face the potential wrath of her crew for abandoning the Kobayashi Maru and insubordination charges from Starfleet Command. Cross the border, and risk the lives of everyone on her ship -- not to mention an interstellar incident at best or outright war at worst -- for what might be a ghost or a trap. Just telling the Klingons there might be a Federation ship past the point of no return was risk enough; they might destroy it. No border commander was going to risk her ship or a loss of face allowing the Hogsmeade to rescue the Kobayashi Maru, nor allow their ship to be used as a tug.
Her heart skipped.
There is no way to succeed. Every choice leads to negative consequences.
But you have to choose. You have to leap; you don't have any choice. If this were real, your options would be the same. So which bad choice has the most acceptable result?
She turned away from the directional microphone, looked at Harry.
"Scan the coordinates once more," she ordered.
"I've been sweeping constantly since your last request, sir," Harry answered. "There's been no change."
She barely heard the response from the still-unseen Klingon. The speaker had a much more sonorous and masculine tone. But the flutter of pride she would normally have felt at forcing the instructors to find a Klingon speaker instead of relying on pre-programmed responses was drowned by suppressed panic even before she realized the answer did nothing to solve her dilemma. Her hands felt like blocks of ice at the ends of her arms.
Which bad choice has the most acceptable result? Whose standard of 'acceptable' am I supposed to use?
Ron stage-whispered "Hermione," and she fixed her glare on him, then faced the microphone again.
"Thank you for the information. Your bravery honors your family," she said, giving Neville the kill signal.
Once she was certain the line was closed between the Hogsmeade and the unseen bird-of-prey she turned back to Neville.
"Mister Longbottom, please inform Starfleet Command we are unable to pursue the Kobayashi Maru. Mister Potter, resume our plotted course."
Harry whipped around to face her, bangs falling over his wide green eyes; Neville stared at her gape-mouthed, and the others on the bridge muttered like angry bees -- except Ron, who looked like he wished the tac console could swallow him whole, and Luna, who considered her.
Well. That was enough of that.
"That's an order, mister," she barked; everyone jumped. "Mister Longbottom, hop to!"
She waited, feeling like a cliche -- her heart in her throat, her back rigid, fighting to keep her doubt and uncertainty from showing on her face. She thought forever passed between her reiterated orders and movement on the bridge, but then she heard Neville open the comm line and the starfield in front of her started to "move" in a swinging arc she knew would bring them back to their original course.
She waited for the hissing creak of the sim capsule opening, aware of the harsh eyes on her both from her own crew and from the observation deck.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game.
And of course -- there was the answer. Whatever she'd chosen, she would have to live with the consequences of her decision, would have to justify her choices to Starfleet Command and her crew. Or not, if they'd crossed into the Neutral Zone and the encounter had gone as she expected.
She heard the commandant dismiss them to the debriefing room, waited while the others swirled around her, trying futilely to reconcile this new piece of knowledge with her belief that every puzzle had a proper answer. Her idea of life as a zero-sum game, her determination to best those she encountered by quick wit because to do otherwise was somehow to lose.
All her beliefs, scattered around her and melting like first snow on the cobblestones of home.
Their commandant had to say her name twice before she heard him and left the simulator.
Whatever the outcome, she'd learned something new. She could act despite the fear freezing her hands and her gut. Without the certainty of a right answer. Maybe she was wrong; maybe there weren't always right answers -- outside of a classroom.
Knowing changes everything.
She had a feeling her post-simulation dressing-down by commander McGonagall was going to be spectacular.


The Sports Buzz for Nov. 8 - 11
The Fastest Three Minutes in Brookline Sports.
Well, it's Friday, and you know what that means. It's time for the Sports Buzz, the fastest three minutes in Brookline sports, coming your way right now:
And this week, we start with something extra special. Folks, how about our rags-to-riches Pop Warner Patriots? The Brookline-Jamaica Plain teams seem to be following in the footsteps of the real Patriots, who, some time ago, were at the bottom of the NFL heap, before rising to the top. Both "franchises" are now thriving.
The youth Patriots recently completed their march to an unprecedented program-wide undefeated regular season. That's four teams who have not lost a game.
Tom who? (Just kidding).
But, seriously, just five years ago the kid Patriots were routinely routed by opponents at all levels and struggled to win two games. Under the guidance of League President Dr. Darel Moss and Director of Football Ian Cotterel, the Pop Warner Pats have turned the program around.
"The program is successful because kids want to play for us," Cotterel said. "The coaches are fair, the environment is safe, and the atmosphere is positive for kids to learn the game. Even our instructional levels (D Silver and E) were awesome, and that is because we have great people involved top to bottom."
The Patriots have a team in the Eastern Mass. playoffs at every level. Each team will play in a single elimination tournament, vying for the coveted invitation to play in Disney World for a national championship.
Now, let's switch gears to the still-in-business Brookline High boys soccer team, and what a run it's been. The No. 13 Warriors (13-2-6) will play No. 17. Somerville (12-5-4) today in the Division 1 North seminfinals in Arlington.
Brookline delivered the knock-out punch on No. 5 host Lincoln-Sudbury (14-3-1) with a thrilling 1-0 win on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
"So much relief," Brookline goalie Matt Hillman said, after he outlasted L-S keeper Eric Steinbrook, 2-1, in the penalty kick round. "The past two years we've lost in this round. Just a relief."
After 40 minutes of regulation and two exhausting overtime frames, it was obvious both Warrior squads had given everything they had. Neither team had allowed the other a goal.
"It was a defensive battle mostly," Brookline head coach Jeff Katz said. "We are a much more tackle-oriented team, and they are tough as nails."
"It's probably the most entertaining high school game I've been involved with," L-S head coach David Hosford said. "Teams giving it their all. Kids cramping up all over the place. This was their third game in four days and our second game in three days with double overtime. Both groups just fought as hard as they could."
Playing into the penalty kick round hasn't always been kind to either team.
Last year, L-S was stung by Lexington in the Division 1 North final, while Brookline fell to Framingham in PKs in the quarterfinals.
"It's our second year in a row going down on PKs," Hosford said. "It's easy to say it's the perfect way to end the game when you lose, but it's a tough pill to swallow."
L-S star senior Cole DeNormandie added, "They had two humungous kids in the back and they ran a five-man midfield, so I pretty much ended up being on top going four on one. It was kind of hard getting everyone else involved. It was tough getting it going offensively."
The Warriors knew they needed to contain DeNormandie.
"We always had a guy on him," Katz said.
Brookline's Eric Buck and Jacob Rosenkalt converted on Brookline's first two boots in the penalty kick round. And Hillman staved off enough L-S chances to secure the win. Hillman made eight stops on the night, while Steinbrook had 10.
"I thought that game could have gone on forever until they all dropped from exhaustion," Katz said "They were exhausted, we were exhausted."
DeNormandie summed up, "We had the experience. We had done it before. We had done it [in this round] last season. I just think that Brookline was a great team. They played well today. Hats off to them."
To girls volleyball we go, where No. 13 Brookline gave top-ranked Quincy a little scare in the Division 1 Central/East quarterfinals, but the Warriors (13-9) couldn't keep up the pace in the eventual 3-1 loss to the host Presidents (20-2).
Brookline rallied from a 19-11 deficit to steal the second game, 27-25, and tie the match at one game apiece. The win came after Quincy took the opening tilt and played evenly until the Presidents made a late surge for the victory. After the Warriors made their push to win the second game, Quincy took control the rest of the way, knocking Brookline out of the tourney.
Leading up to that game, the Warriors had made a collective smash hit in a 3-0 win over host Charlestown in the first round of postseason play.
"We had some trouble executing in game one, but after that we really began to put pressure on them," Brookline head coach Mike Frank said. "By the third game, we were playing up at the right level and were able to get a good first playoff win."
Junior Katie Shreffler shined in her first game back from injury with 16 aces and 10 assists. Fellow junior standout Maya Midzik had a team-leading 10 kills, while adding eight assists and two blocks.
Midzik, junior Marie Fleming, and senior Janet Ruan were all recently named to the 2010 Bay State Conference girls volleyball All-Star team. Midzik and Fleming garnered first team honors, while Ruan made honorable mention.
Finally, tomorrow the football Warriors (1-8) will visit BSC powerhouse Weymouth. And the boys and girls cross country teams will compete at the Eastern Mass. Division 1 meet at Franklin Park.
Check out the Brookline Patch Events Calendar for a look at games coming up this weekend. Rob Fucci and David Dionisio contributed to this report.


Frequency – ThinkBusiness.ieAugust 25, 2020
Silicon Republic’s Start-up of the weekSeptember 28, 2020
Getting an airline communication system off the ground in real-time
The grounding of the global airline industry is not too much of a concern for Justin Perry, whose aviation tech start-up Frequency has just closed a €600,000 seed funding round.
The 33-year-old pilot recently took a sabbatical from Aer Lingus to focus solely on developing the product, an internet-based communication system for the aviation sector.
Perry founded Frequency in early 2018 Darach Ó Comhraí and Kris Vansteenkiste, both fellow Aer Lingus pilots.
The idea for the start-up was born out of their own frustration using outdated systems for critical communication with their colleagues in line maintenance and operations control.
“When you think of aviation, the perception is that it’s generally at the forefront of technology but, in terms of communications, we are decades behind. We thought ‘there has to be a better way to do this’,” Perry said.
The Frequency system combines VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and multimedia technology to allow airline crews to communicate with ground staff in real-time.
“It’s a combination of Skype and WhatsApp with a bit of Microsoft Teams thrown in,” Perry said.
“You can install the software on mobile phones or tablets and use it to call colleagues or send text messages with files and photos attached, which is critical when you’re talking to engineers.”
Perry sees Frequency as a more efficient alternative to the internal communication systems currently used by airlines.
These range from high-frequency radios, mobile, landline and satellite phones to ACARS, the system commonly used by airline crews to send short messages to ground stations.
“Ultimately, it’s about efficiency. The easier it is for everyone to communicate when there is an issue, the more quickly it can be resolved and the higher the likelihood that flight delays can be avoided or shortened,” Perry said.
“When airlines get back up and running, efficiency will be critical. It will be one of the major factors that sets one airline apart from another, so it will come down to competitive advantage.”
Frequency has been in development for the past two years and, in that time, has received funding and grant support of about €160,000 from sources including Fingal Local Enterprise Office, Propeller Shannon, the European Space Agency and Enterprise Ireland, the state agency.
The start-up’s newly closed €600,000 seed round will allow Perry, Ó Comhraí and Vansteenkiste to begin the next phase of development.
“It’s taken us two years to develop the technology so far,” Perry, who is originally from Sutton in north Dublin, said.
“Starting off, we just wanted VoIP. Then we decided to incorporate a messenger system for sending text, photos and files. We trialled last year with Aer Lingus and, based on their feedback, we realised we needed to incorporate a collaboration system along the lines of Microsoft Teams. That’s what we’ve been working on for the past year.”
The collaboration tool will be key to the start-up’s commercial launch, Perry said.
“It will really facilitate real-time communication between an airline’s operations control centre and all of the various individuals on a team that need to be in contact to resolve an issue. It will take us from an MVP [minimum viable product] to a commercial product,” he said.
Participants in Frequency’s seed fund included Zoosh Ventures and Enterprise Ireland. The start-up also raised €150,000 through Spark Crowdfunding.
Perry said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global aviation had yielded an unexpected benefit for the start-up.
“Covid has crippled aviation. It has absolutely smashed the sector, but for us what we’re seeing strangely enough is a net positive outcome,” he said.
“Last year, when we were trying to start a conversation with airlines, they didn’t have the time to talk to us. They were just out-the-door busy. Now, they’ve got time. They’re much more open to talking about new technologies and processes.
“We expect to have our product market-ready in the first or second quarter of next year. Hopefully, at that stage, we’ll be starting to see the market ramp up again for the summer.”
Frequency at Business Post


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Monday, November 22, 2010
NYMPH'S PRAYER AT WONDER LAKE - 20" X 10" Oil on Canvas. Finished it this morning. Have to let it dry. Will take another look to re-evaluate it in a week to see if I am still happy with it. I have had this painting in my head for over 2 years now. My daughter Christina suggested the flower pedals (thanks Christina), that was the perfect addition to the painting.
Nymphs, Nixies are spirits of Nature, they represent fertility. They also personify the dangerous undercurrents of the depths below.
You will need to visit Denali National Park in Alaska and take the all day bus ride to Wonder Lake, and just maybe you will be lucky enough to spy the Nymph of Wonder Lake.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Winters Kiss 9 x 6 Oil on Richeson Panel - Small little oil painting. I really had fun playing with purples, oranges and pinks in this painting. Captured the mood I was looking for...cold, isolation and a peaceful snug warm cabin in the wilderness. I will more then likely do a larger major painting of this in the future after the holiday shows are over.

domain: hobby


Originally published in the 12/1/17 print edition of Yellowstone County News.
LOCKWOOD — The Yellowstone County Commissioners on Tuesday approved the recently completed Master Plan for the Lockwood Targeted Economic Development District (TEDD) after a public hearing.
Planners under the direction of KLJ, have spent most of the past year developing a plan under which an industrial park will be developed in Lockwood through the taxing mechanism of a TEDD. The TEDD is a tax increment finance district in which future new tax revenues are applied to infrastructure development within the district boundaries. Highlights of the draft TEDD Master Plan were presented during the county commission meeting last week.
With the approval of the document by the Yellowstone County Commissioners, the next steps can be taken to develop the TEDD, which including appointing an Advisory Board and beginning an application process for grants to fund additional planning and development.
Commissioners were also informed that there are now property owners outside of the TEDD who would like to go through the process of being incorporated into the TEDD. That will require a different process and may include required zone changes.
The Master Plan takes a broad approach in planning for transportation, rail, utilities, and flood protection. It includes areas beyond TEDD borders, because the build-out of those systems will impact all the developable land in the area.
Research in developing the Master Plan revealed that Lockwood water and sewer systems are currently inadequate to serve the extended area. The plan assumes that TEDD wastewater will be routed to the Firth Lift Station where they will be pumped to the sewer trunk main system, where they will continue by gravity flow through the trunk mains to discharge into the Main Lift Station, to be pumped across the East Bridge, to discharge to the City of Billings treatment plant.
That TEDD is outside the Lockwood Water and Sewer District (LWSD) and would have to be ... Read full story online by subscribing or buy 12/1/17 print edition for story.


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Three Dutch pension funds hired DMFCO to run a combined €1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) in a residential Dutch mortgage strategy, a spokesman for APG Asset Management, in-house manager of the plans, confirmed.
Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, Netherlands, allocated an additional €1 billion to its Dutch mortgages allocation, bringing its exposure to a total €4 billion. ABP has €476 billion in assets.
BpfBOUW, Amsterdam, added €500 million to its existing €1.5 billion allocation to Dutch mortgages. BpfBOUW has €50 billion in assets.
Stichting Pensioenfonds voor de Woningcorporaties, Amsterdam, added €235 million to its allocation, bringing its exposure to €1 billion. SPW has €14 billion in assets.
"For our clients, mortgages continue to offer added value in the investment portfolio. There are two main advantages: they provide a solid investment in the Dutch housing market with a stable return while assuring Dutch homeowners of a good mortgage with fair conditions," Kay Mennen, senior portfolio manager at APG, said in a news release Wednesday.
APG made previous allocations on behalf of the plans through a mix of providers including Rabobank.
The allocations are funded from fixed-income assets.

domain: news


Siren is the first studio recording to feature pianist Uri Caine leading a traditional acoustic trio since 1998's Blue Wail (Winter & Winter). Since then, most of Caine's albums have alternated between radical reinterpretations of the work of revered classical composers like Beethoven, Mozart and Schummann, and the heavily amplified funk excursions of his Bedrock trio with bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Zach Danziger. Stripped down to their basic foundations however, most of Caine's efforts typically revolve around the classic piano trio format. Bassist Drew Gress and drummer Ben Perowsky have been Caine's primary accomplices in this configuration, last documented on Live at the Village Vanguard (Winter & Winter, 2004). Maintaining a semblance of consistency, Perowsky returns for this sublime session, with John Hébert filling the bass chair.
An eclectic artist of catholic taste, Caine is by turns ruminative or animated; his fluid single note runs transition gracefully from hushed filigrees to boisterous arpeggios, leading Hébert and Perowsky through the chromatic progressions and modulating tempos of eleven diverse originals and one classic cover. Working as one, the trio's congenial rapport is suffused with an omnipresent blues feeling that pervades each of their interpretationsfrom a rapturous cover of "On Green Dolphin Street" to the impressionistic languor of "Hazy Lazy Crazy."
A neo-traditionalist at heart, Caine alludes to his abiding interest in pre-swing styles like ragtime and stride throughout the dateas demonstrated by the cascading intervals of "Interloper." Reveling in the joys of unfettered swing, the trio digs deep into the bluesy fatback grooves of "Crossbow" and the oblique angles of "Calibrated Thickness" with palpable fervor. They hint at stylistic interests beyond the mainstream, navigating multiple time signatures on the funky "Tarshish" and ebullient Latin rhythms on "Manual Defile," with no piece exceeding six minutes. Each of these compact tunes serves as a self-contained model of brevity, encouraging pointedly concise statements from Caine, Hébert and Perowsky.
Bolstered by astute listening skills, the trio's intimate three-way dialogues offer inventive interpretations of established traditions, the understated stylistic shifts providing a cohesive sensibility to the proceedings. The trio's mastery of dynamics enriches the quality of its harmonious discourse; Hébert's eloquent precision makes him an ideal partner for Perowsky, whose responsive dexterity encourages the leader's full range of expressionismfrom the heartbreaking balladry of the introspective "Foolish Me" to the audacious freeform interludes of "Free Lunch." Siren is a welcome return to form for Caine, whose recent endeavors have highlighted his compositional skills more often than his improvisational mettle.
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Home / Articles / The Battles of Plattsburgh and Ending the War of 1812
In the spring of 1814 the prospect of peace in Europe was a worrying one for the United States in its ongoing war with Britain. Napoleon abdicated in early April and a war-weary Britain sought a quick, decisive, and honorable end to the war with America. Temporarily flush with unused troops and ships, the ministry dispatched veteran regiments from France and the Mediterranean to North America. Defending the Canadian provinces had always been the priority, and so it remained, but now the balance of forces had shifted and the British could take the offensive. In doing so they hoped to gain and hold the territorial chips necessary to dominate the looming peace talks. The British planned a series of attacks all along the eastern seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico, but all were fundamentally diversions designed to open the way for the main army based in Montreal. General George Prevost, Governor and commander of British forces in Canada, chose to follow Lake Champlain deep into New York, with the hope to threaten New York City, and thereby force territorial concessions from the Americans. On September 1, 1814, some 12,000 British troops crossed the border south of Montreal and marched along Lake Champlain, shadowed by a newly built frigate, the Confiance, and her sister vessels, designed and built with the intent to immediately establish naval dominance on the lake. The U.S. forces at Plattsburgh amounted to a scratch force of 1,700 regular troops, 700 New York militiamen, and 2,500 militiamen (technically volunteers) from Vermont, commanded by Brigadier General Alexander Macomb, and a small, hurriedly expanded squadron of ships under the command of Commodore Thomas Macdonough.
The United States Congress declared war in June 1812 from a strange confusion of motives. In hindsight it makes sense to blame the outbreak of war on two separate arenas of Anglo-American friction. British maritime policy regarding neutral trade and forcibly stopping American vessels and impressing crewmen from them clearly infringed on American sovereignty, while at the same time the western frontier remained a turbulent zone of competition between American settlers and the Indians. Americans blamed the British for stirring up the Indians, most recently the Shawnees, defeated at Tippecanoe in November 1811. As a minimum the British could be blamed for giving the Indians hope for support in their efforts to hem in the westward expansion of the United States. If it is too much to blame the war on western land hunger and greed, it is not too much to blame it partly on the western states’ collective sense of insecurity.
Lacking naval power, the only way for the United States to exert pressure on Britain was to attack her Canadian provinces. Originally a diplomatic strategy that sought to use attacks on Canada to force British concessions, as the war dragged on many people in the United States began to see the war as one for territory, or at least for the freedom to expand westwards. For Britain, preserving Canada remained central, but with the defeat of Napoleon looming in 1814, they were able to commit resources on a new scale. Both sides thus escalated their hopes for the meaning and outcome of the war. Later in 1814, however, as the Americans began to fear the ending of the Napoleonic War, and as the British faced domestic war weariness after two decades of struggle, both sides returned to their initial vision of war as negotiation, something John Lynn has termed for an earlier era “war as process,” in which military operations sought not state territorial conquest so much as slices of the other’s territory, most often to be used as bargaining chips in a nearly constant ongoing process of diplomacy.
Early American offensives in the far western theater, around Detroit, and in the Niagara peninsula were generally defeated, until Captain Oliver Hazard Perry cleared the British fleet from Lake Erie in September 1813. That victory solidified the American position in the west, but did not prove capable of sustaining a major territorial offensive within Canada (although the killing of the Indian leader Tecumseh during the 1813 campaign here undermined any further role for the Indians in British military campaigns.) In a separate campaign against the Creeks, General Andrew Jackson defeated one of two rival factions there, and then forced the Creek nation to cede 23 million acres of Alabama and Georgia to the United States. In the Niagara peninsula in the summer of 1814 the U.S. regular army troops performed much better, but were unable to convert limited battlefield success into territorial control, and in fact were forced back into Fort Erie and there they endured a long siege into the fall. Meanwhile British naval power, now undistracted by Napoleon, began to exercise a crushing blockade. American export traded dropped from $130 million in 1807 to $25 million in 1813 and then to $7 million in 1814.
Indeed, it was the surrender of Napoleon in April, 1814 that seemed set to change the character of the war, from one characterized by failed American offensives, stalemate in the north, Indian wars in the south, and a strangling blockade, into a war of decisive and destructive British offensives. A whole new array of options emerged that combined Britain’s til-now slumbering naval superiority with veteran regiments from the European theater. This new accession of military power led to the most spectacular moments of the war–the burning of Washington and the American defense of Baltimore at Ft. McHenry. Ironically, as spectacular as they were, they were but diversions within the overall British plan for the summer of 1814.
British Operations—Summer 1814
In June 1814, the Earl of Bathurst, British Secretary for War and the Colonies, wrote to Prevost to outline the summer’s campaign plan. He promised Prevost some 3,000 men immediately, with 10,000 more to arrive in waves. He was to use those forces to commence offensive operations, although he was not to risk the loss of his force. His primary mission remained protecting the security of Canada, but its security demanded clearing the American threats on Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Champlain. Prevost could dispose the forces as he chose, but Bathurst expected him to go on the attack, and to support such an attack in the interior he assured him that “it is also in contemplation … to make a more serious attack on some part of the Coast of the United States. … These operations will not fail to effect a powerful diversion in your favor.”
This scheme made Prevost’s troops and ships gathering in Quebec and Montreal into the British main effort. First they would establish superiority on Lake Champlain and Ontario, and then they could roll down into Lake Erie and re-establish control stage by stage as far as Detroit. British forces to the west, whether around Fort Niagara or as far away as Mackinac in northern Michigan, would have to hold the line until Prevost could reinforce them—something they did successfully. Meanwhile, as Prevost gathered his forces together and constructed his fleet on Lake Champlain, the “diversions” began. Between July and September 1 British forces captured much of eastern Maine and asserted their sovereignty there, and forced the locals to swear allegiance to the British government. The more (in)famous diversion came in the form of British raids along the Chesapeake, to include burning Washington D.C., and attempting to repeat the same at Baltimore. The latter raid failed after the garrison at Ft. McHenry successfully resisted a two day bombardment on September 13 and 14.
In one sense these diversions, as well as other distractions, accomplished their mission. Prevost’s force gathering in Montreal in late August faced almost token levels of American forces along Lake Champlain. Prevost’s existing forces on the Niagara peninsula had bent, but had not broken, and even now (from August 1 to September 21) they were laying siege to the Americans at Fort Erie. His reinforcements were streaming in, and he successfully deceived the American high command into thinking he intended to attack into Lake Ontario (and especially toward the American naval yard at Sackett’s Harbor). The American commander at Plattsburgh, Major General George Izard, doubted those intentions, but his superiors ordered him to march most of his army west, leaving behind the token force under Brigadier General Alexander Macomb described earlier. Finally, Prevost had pushed through the rapid building of a full-sized frigate on Lake Champlain, the Confiance (31 long guns and 6 carronades—the latter were short range, large caliber guns, that were extremely useful in the narrow waters of the lakes). Prevost was confident that it immediately would establish British naval supremacy on the lake, and with it a truly decisive territorial bargaining chip.
He should have been right, but a divided command, rushed construction, a lack of transports, and an inspired American naval defense set the stage for ending the war. The British would be advancing into Clinton County, New York, a region scantily populated at best, home only to about seven people per square mile. A near-contemporary military writer in Europe suggested that an army without pre-positioned supplies could not feed itself from a population less than about ninety-one people per square mile. Clinton County’s population produced neither the subsistence nor the roads adequate to the movement of a major force. Burgoyne had foundered in this same wilderness in 1777 with barely 7,000 men; Prevost was bringing 12,000. Although American smugglers in the region had been providing provisions to his smaller army in Montreal for some time, this larger mobile army required waterborne logistics and close cooperation with his naval forces. Unfortunately Prevost and the regional naval commander, Commodore James Lucas Yeo, did not get along, and their commands were literally divided. Yeo answered to the Admiralty in London, not to Prevost, and the Admiralty tasked him to “cooperate with” Prevost. They agreed on the necessity of a frigate to command the lake, but at several other points, especially the last minute change in command of the Lake Champlain fleet from Captain Peter Fisher to Captain George Downie, their inclinations clashed. Fisher had supervised the building of the Confiance, and then Yeo appointed Downie to command that ship and the lake fleet mere days prior to its launching. Worse, the Confiance was green in timber and crew. Her new captain barely had time to practice his gun crews (many pressed from the infantry) before he and his fleet were tasked to cover Prevost’s march into New York. Lacking transports, the British infantry trudged south along the poor roads that paralleled the lake. One British officer reported during their march that the roads were “worse than you can imagine and many of our wagons are broken down—the road through the woods at Beatville [Beekmantown] is impassable therefore our only dependence is upon water communication.” This conjoined land and water movement in a narrow corridor followed an entirely predictable path, a path for which the Americans could plan.
On the American side, Major General Izard had long anticipated a summer offensive of some kind, and he assumed that Plattsburgh would be the first stop in a British advance. Most of the town lay north of the Saranac River gorge, and could not be defended, but the river itself presented a fine line of defense, and Plattsburgh Bay was a complex, shoal-filled harbor from which an American naval force could bombard a marching British column while sheltered from the lake’s weather. Izard dug in south of the river. Even better, the reports of the construction of the Confiance led the U.S. secretary of the navy to speed carpenters and a shipbuilder to Vermont. There, within a remarkably short span, they built the sloop Saratoga (8 long guns, 18 carronades), the Ticonderoga (12 long guns, 5 carronades), the Eagle (8 long guns, 12 carronades), and rehabilitated 10 gunboats (oared ships with one gun each). Like the British ships, these ships, plus the extant Preble (7 long guns), had inexperienced crews, but their commander, Commodore Macdonough had had more time to train them and to consider his defensive position. Izard and Macdonough jointly formed their plans for the defense of the town, and were entirely in agreement on the necessary steps.
Unfortunately the War Department swallowed Prevost’s feint and ordered Izard with most of his force to march west. Izard resisted and delayed, but in the end he departed Plattsburgh, leaving Macomb with 1,700 assorted regulars and orders to raise the militia. Macomb raised 700 New York men, and at the last minute 2,500 Vermont men crossed the lake, technically not “militia” (since they had crossed state lines), but volunteers in federal service.
The Confiance slipped off the stocks on August 25, and on September 1 Prevost marched across the border into New York. He hoped to win the population to him, and he carefully ordered that there be no plundering and that all provisions be paid for. Such care flew in the face of reports arriving that week about the burning of Washington. Prevost quickly pushed through the one American effort to slow his march north of Plattsburgh, moved into the town, and began seeking a way across the river, while the two sides commenced bombarding each other.
Macomb lacked the forces to defend the town north of the river, but feeling the “eyes of America” upon him, he also felt he could not retreat further south. The river had only two bridges, and Macomb could cooperate more easily with his own naval forces while beside the bay. Meanwhile Macdonough moved his fleet into an anchorage designed to cover the American position at Plattsburgh, while also forcing the longer-gunned British fleet to enter the bay almost already in range of his shorter guns and having to approach him head on—the worst possible position for a ship in the age of sail.
From Prevost’s perspective he had the Americans just where he wanted them. He had the main American force in front of him and prepared to do battle, and a presumably inferior American fleet locked up in the bay. Downie coordinated a plan with Prevost to simultaneously attack the American land and lake positions, the navy’s guns to signal the start of the mutual attack. Prevost planned to hold the Americans’ attention in central Plattsburgh while a flanking column marched three miles upstream to a more lightly guarded ford. Meanwhile Downie was to sail in and dominate the American fleet with his longer ranged broadside.
Instead, the British fleet rounded the Cumberland Head to enter the bay, with their bows facing the Americans’ broadsides, and as they came around the head, their wind died, and they slowly drifted toward the American line, absorbing the blows first of the few American long guns, and then of their carronades, all while without being able to answer effectively in return. As the distance closed, the British ships finally turned and a brutal broadside to broadside combat ensued. The Americans fought from an anchored line, blocking the bay, and Downie had sailed in to concentrate the fire of Confiance and two other smaller ships first on the Eagle and then the Saratoga. Within the first fifteen minutes of fighting an American shot dismounted a British cannon, which flew into Downie’s chest and killed him. Damaged, but continuing to fight, the Confiance’s heavier broadsides poured into the Saratoga, and nearly evened the game by taking out virtually all of the guns on one side. Macdonough then used his pre-set kedge anchors to spin his ship around in place and bring his other broadside to bear. The Confiance attempted the same maneuver, but lacking Macdonough’s careful pre-battle preparations, she became fouled, and struck her colors at 10:30 a.m. The smaller British ships either grounded or surrendered, while the gunboats fled.
Without a covering fleet, the British land advance was probably doomed, but matters were made worse by a failure to properly coordinate the timing of the two attacks. Downie commenced the fleet attack between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., but Prevost’s flanking column was under orders not to attack before 10:00 a.m. By that time the British fleet was on the verge of defeat, and as Prevost realized that his fleet was fleeing or captured, he recalled his til-then successfully advancing flank attack. Prevost almost immediately began a wholesale retreat, covered by a heavy rain (Macomb lacked the forces to pursue at any rate). Prevost had been steadily stockpiling stores, especially artillery ammunition, and now he lacked the transport to bring them back to Canada. One artillery officer complained that “Several Wagons & Carts from being Overloaded (in order to remove as much as possible) and the extreme badness of the Roads broke down, leaving no alternative but to destroy them and their Contents.” As for the retreat itself, Prevost later explained to Bathurst, “Your Lordship must have been aware … that no Offensive Operations could be carried out within the Enemy’s Territory for the destruction of his Naval Establishments without Naval Support. … The disastrous and unlooked for result of the Naval Contest … rendered a perserverance in the attack of the Enemy’s position highly imprudent as well as hazardous.” Prevost also blamed the poor state of the roads and the growing threat of a militia “raising En Masse around me, desertion increasing & the Supply of Provisions Scanty.” Without “the advantage of water conveyance” both problems were insoluble.
The Battles of Plattsburgh, on land and lake, generated relatively few casualties, and represented only one campaign among many that summer and fall of 1814. Furthermore, the British had one more major campaign already under way against Mobile and New Orleans. Plattsburgh, nevertheless, was the key to ending the war. In the competition for territorial bargaining chips the British accession of forces that summer seemed to have given them the advantage. In August, as the British summer offensives were getting under way, the British commissioners offered terms about which the American peace commissioner Henry Clay could only say “the prospect of peace has vanished. … It would be offering an unpardonable insult to our Government to ask of them any instructions [regarding those terms].” Plattsburgh made the difference, although other American defensive efforts contributed—especially the defense of Baltimore. The British had not exactly put all their effort into one roll of the dice at Plattsburgh, but it had been their main effort, and it had been the one designed to acquire that territorial bargaining chip needed to tilt the peace talks to their advantage. Henry Goulburn, one of the British peace commissioners, agreed: “If we had either burnt Baltimore or held Plattsburgh, I believe we could have had peace on our terms.” Once the British recognized the failure of their main effort, the negotiations began to make real progress, and the two nations’ representatives signed the treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. The Battle of New Orleans occurred in January 1815, but before the news of the treaty arrived in North America and it had no effect on its terms.
Black, Jeremy. The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. A recent narrative of the war that places it fully within the international context.
Everest, Allan. The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1981. The best available study of the war within this region, includes a well-researched and scholarly narrative of the Plattsburgh campaign.
Fitz-Enz, David G. The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Battle. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001. A solid if somewhat idiosyncratic campaign study of Plattsburgh that includes some heretofore lost documentation.
Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989. Perhaps the standard modern scholarly narrative of the war, one which helped launch a number of more detailed studies in the 1990s.
Mahon, John K. The War of 1812. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1972; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press. A classic detailed narrative of the war that retains value especially for the diplomatic and naval fronts, but weak on the Canadian perspective.
Quimby, Robert S. The U.S. Army in the War of 1812: An Operational and Command Study. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1997. An enormous two volume study of Army operations; excellent for detail but limited by its titular focus on the U.S. Army.

domain: history


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News outlets are increasingly seeking to employ women who have never worked in journalism to fill positions that otherwise would have been filled by men.
But in the case of “dahoda” (short for “daughters”), the industry is trying to address the problem by recruiting the young women themselves, according to a recent article in the Gulf News.
The newspaper reported that Zahra Ali is one of a handful of young women to work at “dahs” in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where she is the managing editor of a news portal.
The article was based on interviews with four young women who work for the newspaper.
They said that, at the beginning of their internship, they were given a “dowry list” that included three pieces of paper.
The paper’s head of HR told them to complete the paper and then submit it to the office for review.
The three articles that were sent to the head of the news portal and the management editor for approval were titled “Dahoda,” “Daughters” and “Dowry List.”
The article did not specify what the stories were about or the type of jobs being advertised.
The four women said they were initially turned down for the jobs, but they were eventually offered a “willingness” to join the editorial staff of “Dahs.”
One of the young female journalists said that she and her colleagues had been asked to submit stories about “the new technology that allows them to work from home and be more productive” to help “the news media improve its editorial policies.”
One of the women said that one of the “dads” was also approached to join their team.
She did not want to disclose her full name because she feared retaliation from her family members if she told her story publicly.
The women who are “dawdas” are expected to adhere to a strict code of ethics and are expected not to leave the newsroom while reporting, the women told Gulf News in a statement.
The “dows” are also required to attend “dance classes” and learn how to perform “the dance moves that were developed by “dajas” in order to help improve their performance, the article reported.
They are also not allowed to leave “dods” in the news room while they perform.
The young women, who are all from the city of Ras al-Khaimah, said that they were also encouraged to keep their jobs after they completed their internship.
But, they said, they felt uncomfortable during their two-week internship.
“I was also told that if I was to leave, my colleagues would be fired,” she added.”
The journalist, who asked that she not be named, said she found that “there was a bit of pressure” in her job to keep working despite her desire to leave. “
I was also told that if I was to leave, my colleagues would be fired,” she added.
The journalist, who asked that she not be named, said she found that “there was a bit of pressure” in her job to keep working despite her desire to leave.
She added that her mother often confronted her about the job and the pressure she felt.
“She said that I should stop working because I was doing something wrong, and that I could quit at any time,” she told Gulf Watch.
The journalist said that her employer later threatened to fire her for speaking out about the harassment she experienced during her internship.
A similar story unfolded in a different news outlet in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf news reported.
A journalist from a local daily newspaper was offered a job after being offered a position at a national news agency.
The reporter told GulfWatch that she was told by her employer that if she did not “work the full time for the agency,” she would be sacked.
The newspaper said that the employee had “a number of sexual harassment complaints” and that the agency has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment.
In Dubai, a young woman working for a “southern news portal” said that “it was very difficult to work in the journalism industry because there are no restrictions,” according to the article.
She said that during her interview process, she had been told that “you have to have a male colleague.”
The young woman said that it was a “really tough situation” for her to leave her job.
“There are lots of barriers to women in journalism,” she continued.
“We need more diversity in the industry.”
The “southerners” also told GulfWorth that the recruitment process for “souths” in their newsrooms is different from the hiring process for other young women.
“It’s different because the agency wants a younger female who has been through a lot and is ready to work,” one young woman told Gulf Worth.
“They’re not trying to get a woman that’s going to be an anchor or a reporter.
They’re just looking for a person who’s experienced working for them.”

domain: sociology


text:
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domain: medical


text:
Perryville is an Alutiiq Sugpiaq community established on the south coast of the Alaska Peninsula between Three Star Point to the west and Coal Cape to the east, about 66 miles (106 km) northeast of Sand Point and 41 miles (66 km) southwest of Chignik, Alaska. The settlement was established for people who were driven away from villages on the Katmai coast by the eruption of Novarupta in 1912 and was originally named Perry, after Captain Kirtland W. Perry of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Manning. Perryville is situated behind beach dunes on the alluvial fan of the Kametolook River that starts from an icefield at an elevation of about 6,000 feet (1,829 m) on the southern flank of Mount Veniaminof and flows generally south-southeast for 16 miles (26 km), draining a watershed of 115,432 acres (46,714 ha). The Alaska Peninsula is composed of late Paleozoic to Quaternary sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks that record the history of a number of magmatic arcs. The headlands on each side of Perryville represent Meshik Volcanics, rocks that developed in a magmatic arc between the late Eocene and early Oligocene, or from 42 million to 25 million years ago. Multiple active volcanoes and volcanic peaks dominate the peninsula and represent the continuation of magmatic activity that continues to form the present-day Aleutian arc. The alluvial fan of the Kametolook River consists of rock fragments ranging from coarse to fine sand and silt, and locally includes considerable amounts of pumice and volcanic ash. The aeolian dunes are 33 to 66 feet (10-20 m) high and composed largely of sand and pumice.
Archaeological excavations have recovered tools indicating that humans have inhabited the Alaska Peninsula for at least 9,000 years, and since about 5,000 years ago, artifacts such as notched net sinkers indicate a heavy reliance upon fishing. The earliest recorded visit by western explorers to the Pacific Coast of the Alaska Peninsula occurred in 1741 with Vitus Bering’s expedition. Subsequent expeditions brought an influx of Russian fur traders to the Alaska Peninsula who succeeded in gaining control over indigenous inhabitants. At the time of Russian contact, there were two distinct cultural groups residing on the Alaska Peninsula, Unangan speakers from the west and southwest and Yup’ik speakers who are the ancestors to the Alutiiq Sugpiaq people from the central and eastern Alaska Peninsula. The Alutiiq people were maritime hunters and the sea, as well as inland streams and tundra, provided them with food, oil, and raw materials to manufacture clothing, shelters, and boats. They were extremely skilled at hunting and adept at using seal skin kayaks or bidarkas, and larger open boats called umiaks or baidar. Russian exploitation of sea otters and the Alutiiq people continued until the Alaska Purchase of 1867 when the United States government assumed control of Alaska. American interests concentrated on whaling, the maritime fur trade, mining, and the development of commercial fishing.
The catastrophic eruption of Mount Katmai on June 6, 1912, permanently displaced several communities on the Alaska Peninsula. The eruption happened at a vent about 6 miles (10 km) to the west of Mount Katmai, now called the Novarupta. Over about 60 hours, the volcano erupted an estimated 6.7 cubic miles (28 cu km) of ash flows and tephra representing 3.1 cubic miles (13 cu km) of magma volume. The eruption produced a cloud of suffocating gas and ash that blackened the sky and forced the evacuation of villages at Katmai Bay, Kukak Bay, and Kaguyak or Douglas in present-day Katmai National Park and Preserve. No one perished in the volcanic eruption because all of residents were working at a commercial saltery in Kaflia Bay at the time. When the ash started falling most inhabitants were evacuated by boat, but the eruption rendered the area uninhabitable. One month after the eruption, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Manning returned to the Alaska Peninsula with 78 of the Katmai refugees to establish a new village. After a failed first village site selection, the natives were relocated again to a location 200 miles (322 km) south of Mount Katmai. The new village was named ‘Perry’ after Captain Perry who had relocated them. The community has maintained a steady population and strong ties to the Alutiiq culture and a subsistence way of life. Perryville residents have close connections with residents of Chignik Lake and lvanof Bay, and to a lesser extent, Chignik Bay. Read more here and here. Explore more of Perryville and the Alaska Peninsula here:


The new Pixel phones are just a few months away from launch and while anticipation has increased in the last few weeks, a few features which have been speculated upon may have just been confirmed if recent reports are to be believed.
As was reported earlier, the phones will be made by LG and HTC and as such, may not feature the same design language as the first two Pixels did, which may be concerning for some as design consistency is what defines the future successors of smartphones in this day and age. The smaller of the duo will be made HTC while the XL variant is said to be made by LG. One of the latest new features to be added to the handset will be the always-on display, which XDA Developers had found while rummaging through the Android O Developer Preview 3 code.
The next big feature that the phone will come with are the new LG-supplied displays which are said to be flexible. On a design-node, the “two-parts” design that the first Pixel phones were known for, will again make a comeback this time around too, meaning that the phone’s back could feature both glass and metal back-plates. How different the two variants will be different from the originals is yet to be seen, however.
Elaborating more on the always-on display, Value Walk have surmised that owing to the LG displays which are AMOLED displays, this feature will make a lot more sense to be integrated onto the phone. This means that Google will be taking full advantage of its new OLED screens this time around and while the feature is currently being said to be in the trial mode and has not received finalization so far, it seems likely that the new Pixel phones will come with the new always-on mode. The current developer build of Android O does not allow for developers to take advantage of the software’s ambient display properties just yet, probably because the version of Android is not yet final.
A few new concept designs have also emerged online of the Pixel 2 XL that show a very Nexus 6P inspired design that borrows from the Pixel’s original design. The concept does look like a reality that Google might want to invest in when it comes to the form of smartphone.


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The stage is set, after a four year absence, for the World Series to return to London’s iconic Aquatics Centre for the fifth and final leg of the 2019 FINA/CNSG Diving World Series.
With the previous four legs taking place across the globe in Japan, China, Canada and Russia, all eyes are now on London, where the series winners will be decided in what is set to be a show stopping finale.
The British camp is full of momentum and motivation after recent successes in Montreal and Kazan, most notably Tom Daley and Jack Laugher claiming golds in the Men’s 10m Platform and Men’s 3m Springboard respectively. After Kazan last weekend, both men now sit top of the pile heading into the deciding round.
Daley returns to his home pool in search of more silverware, as he looks to wrap up one of his most successful World Series campaigns to date; commenting at the press conference on the eve of the event the reigning World champion said:
“The World Series for me this year has been great one. After my break last year and the arrival my son Robbie, I’ve rediscovered my love of the sport again and I think that has shone through in my diving and results.
“This might be my best World Series yet and I’m hoping I can finish well in front of a vocal home crowd. I love this venue [London Aquatics Centre], I have loads great memories from it and I have the bonus of training here every day.”
For Olympic champion Jack Laugher MBE, Kazan was big step forward, as he struck gold for the first time on the world circuit this year. Naturally, he is full of confidence as he prepares to compete on home soil again.
“I can’t wait for the action to get underway now. I was really pleased to win gold last weekend in Kazan and feel things are really starting to come together at the right time. Competing in London is always special, especially having won gold and silver at the European Championships in this venue in 2016."
Reflecting on how the GB divers have performed on the international stage in 2019 so far, British Diving National Performance Director, Alexei Evangulov, added:
“Our athletes have continued to demonstrate why we are one of the best diving nations in the world. The team have dived consistently well across the previous legs, with some great results and also very encouraging progression for those that have made their debuts at this level of competition.
“This year we have new synchro partnerships in Jack Laugher and Dan Goodfellow, and also Tom Daley and Matty Lee; both pairs have proved that we made the right decisions last autumn.
“Hosting the World Series in the UK gives our divers an excellent international competition opportunity, in front of a home crowd, as we continue our preparations towards Gwangju and Tokyo 2020.”
Also present at the press conference were international stars Jennifer Abel and Hao Yang, both of whom have been in great form in recent weeks. Abel used all of her experience in Russia to turn a shaky start into individual gold from the 3m Springboard, a performance she was naturally delighted with.
“I’m pretty happy about my year so far and last week I got to win my first gold medal of the year in Kazan, so I was pretty excited about that, especially before this week, which brings back good memories for me. I got my Olympic medal here in London seven years ago so I’m really happy to be back here and pretty excited to contend this week.
Having competed in front of a home crowd in Montreal last month, Abel was asked what advice she had for the Brits who would be dealing with a similarly vocal London crowd.
“The World Series in Montreal was very good – the pool was packed and the energy the crowd can bring for you as a diver is amazing. It’s so nice to hear people cheering when you’re under the water, so my biggest advice is to take that positive energy and bring that energy to your dives.”
Another Kazan success story was China’s Hao Yang, who scored double gold in the Men’s 10m and Men’s 10m Synchro. The two time World Champion will be looking to further boost his ranking in the overall series, where he currently lies fifth, commenting:
“I hope I can perform well in London as well – I have competed here once before in 2015 and the venue is good. It won’t be easy but I’m looking forward to it.”
action begins in earnest at noon on Friday 17th May, with the
Women’s 10m Synchro the first evet of the weekend, followed by the Men’s 10m
Synchro featuring Tom Daley and Matty Lee.
Results and start lists can be found by clicking here
Tickets for all sessions are available on the door throughout the weekend – please note tickets are no longer available online.
For more details about the London leg of the of the FINA/CNSG Diving World Series 2019 click here to visit our event hub.


text:
And the Winner Is...HIV Treatment and Prevention
The red carpet was rolled out at CROI, where talk centered on exciting new treatments and prevention strategies and the need to continue progress on both fronts
By Kristen Jill Kresge
The 79th Annual Academy Awards were the big news in Los Angeles on the evening of Sunday, February 25. Headlines around the world focused on this year's Oscars ceremony—who won, who lost, and what everyone was wearing. American film director Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar and former US Vice President Al Gore also took home a gold statuette for his documentary film about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. But on that same night a red carpet was also rolled out at another ceremony across town.
This affair, though decidedly less glitzy and glamorous, also grabbed its share of headlines in the following days, including a front-page article in the New York Times. The occasion was the 14th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), and instead of attracting movie stars from Hollywood it drew nearly 4000 HIV researchers and clinicians from around the world.
Although CROI may not attract the same level of celebrity as the Academy Awards, it is still a highlight on the conference calendar of researchers working in the HIV/AIDS field—an opportunity to showcase the latest advancements in prevention and treatment. This year's conferences satisfied all of those interests, ushering in two new classes of antiretrovirals (ARVs) to the treatment armamentarium and focusing on several HIV prevention strategies of the past, present, and future. Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), male circumcision, suppression of herpes simplex-2 virus (HSV-2), and vaccines topped the agenda while many other presentations at the meeting covered the nitty-gritty of HIV transmission and pathogenesis. Researchers shared their gains in the fundamental understanding of HIV biology and possible ways to exploit the dynamics of infection in order to control the virus (see Molecular snapshots from CROI 2007). And although the Oscars probably inspired better afterparties, the research presented at CROI could have much more profound and enduring effects.
'A convenient truth'
The Bernard Fields Lecture on the opening night of CROI was delivered by Edward Berger of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who told the story of the seminal discovery of the cellular co-receptors on the surface of CD4+ T cells that HIV uses during entry into the cell. Early work in this area was motivated by the study of some rare individuals that were immune to HIV infection, and this immunity was eventually attributed to a genetic deletion, known as a Δ32, in their CCR5 gene. The lack of CD4+ T cells expressing CCR5 at the surface is still the only molecular explanation for resistance to HIV infection, despite repeated exposure to the virus.
Subsequent work has illustrated the precise interaction between gp120 and CD4+ T cells, which triggers fusion of the virus and therefore subsequent infection. This original discovery held great promise for both prevention and therapy and recently significant advances occurred in both areas.
Just a few weeks ago AIDS vaccine researchers came a step closer to understanding how this interaction between CD4+ T cells and a highly conserved region of the viral surface protein gp120 can be disrupted by a broadly neutralizing antibody known as b12 (Nature 445, 732, 2007). Dennis Burton of Scripps Research Center in La Jolla, California who participated in this research with Peter Kwong and colleagues at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at NIAID said, "This provided us for the first time with very detailed molecular information," which can now be used to design improved immunogens. "That's still an enormous structural challenge," said Burton, "but we have some of the best structural scientists in the world working on this." (See Interview with Dennis Burton).
Also at CROI, the field of HIV treatment was reenergized by news of the first drugs in two novel classes of ARVs. The first is a small molecule designed to obstruct the CCR5 receptor-binding pocket and effectively block attachment. This CCR5 inhibitor, known as maraviroc, dramatically reduced the level of viral replication in HIV-infected individuals (Abstract 104aLB and 104bLB). The data presented at CROI is now also being considered by the US Food and Drug Administration as the basis for licensure.
Another novel ARV is also a step closer to becoming a reality. For more than a decade researchers have been trying to interfere with HIV's integrase to prevent the virus from inserting its genetic material into chromosomal DNA, but identifying safe and effective compounds has proven an arduous task. Now, based on Phase III trial results presented by US pharmaceutical company Merck, a new drug called raltegravir is highly effective at lowering viral replication, as measured by a significant drop in viral load in individuals given the drug in addition to their highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen (Abstract 105aLB and 105bLB).
News of these novel ARVs caused quite a stir at CROI and many insisted that there hasn't been this much enthusiasm since the first studies showed that HAART was an effective strategy for controlling HIV infection.
And the nominees for HIV prevention are...
In the prevention sessions the enthusiasm was more tempered. "This has been quite a remarkable year in the study of HIV interventions," said Judy Wasserheit of the University of Washington in Seattle. She mentioned both the highs-the very encouraging results of the circumcision trials-and the lows, including the recent results from the cellulose sulfate trial that show the candidate microbicide may actually enhance risk of HIV acquisition (seeAdvisory panel considers complexities of HIV prevention trials).
Ronald Gray of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore presented results from the US National Institutes of Health-sponsored trial in Rakai, Uganda that enrolled 5000 men who were randomized to be circumcised either immediately or after two years (Abstract 155aLB). This trial was stopped prematurely by the data safety monitoring board in December 2006 because of indications that the intervention could lower the risk of HIV acquisition by greater than 50%, supporting earlier results from another randomized, controlled clinical trial of circumcision in South Africa (see Cutting HIV transmission, IAVI Report 9, 3, 2005).
At the time the trial was stopped, 44% of the men had completed the full two-year follow-up. Only 22 of the circumcised men acquired HIV during this time, compared to 45 men in the control group—a cumulative HIV incidence rate of 0.7% in circumcised men compared to 1.3% in uncircumcised men over the two-year study.
All circumcised men were counseled to avoid sexual contact for the first 30 days following surgery while the wound was still healing and 89% said they followed these instructions. Despite this reported curtailing of sexual activity, researchers observed that HIV incidence actually decreased more among circumcised men during the second year of the trial. Gray hypothesized that this may be due to complete keratinization of the wound, but researchers are unsure how long this process actually takes. There is some concern, based on data shared with the World Health Organization (WHO) after CROI's completion, that if men do engage in sexual activity before the wound heals, they may be more likely to transmit HIV to their female partner(s).
Investigators in the Rakai study also collected data from the trial volunteers on sexual risk behaviors, including number of sexual partners and condom use. This data indicated that behavioral disinhibition was not a dominant influence in this trial.
The investigators also found that circumcised men who reported multiple sexual partners or partners outside of marriage had even lower HIV incidence rates than monogamous circumcised men. Circumcised men who reported having symptoms of genital ulcer diseases—including herpes, syphilis, or chancroid—were also significantly less likely to contract HIV (Abstract 155bLB); researchers observed a 0.6% HIV incidence among circumcised men who reported a genital ulcer disease and 1.8% in those who didn't, compared to 1.1% and 6.3% among uncircumcised men with or without genital ulcer diseases respectively. Overall, circumcision reduced the rate of symptomatic genital ulcer diseases by 47%. Although circumcision is protective irrespective of co-infection with these STIs or number of sexual partners, this data indicates it could have the most profound impact in men who are at the highest risk of HIV infection.
The role that other STIs play in HIV transmission has long been speculated-especially for HSV-2, the cause of genital herpes. There are currently several ongoing studies to test whether treating HSV-2 with acyclovir or valacyclovir can reduce the levels, or frequency, of HIV shedding in the genital tract or reduce transmission of the virus by reducing the symptomatic ulcerations (see HIV prevention in a pill?, IAVI Report 9, 4, 2005).
Two studies presented at CROI looked specifically at the genital shedding of HIV in women given acyclovir to treat their HSV-2 co-infection. The first study of 67 women in Chang Rai, Thailand, conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that women taking acyclovir had a modest reduction in HIV shedding (-0.4 log copies of virus) as determined by cervical vaginal lavage (Abstract 30). Eileen Dunne of the CDC suggested this could predict acyclovir's protective effect in preventing HIV transmission in women co-infected with both viruses, particularly in women experiencing symptomatic HSV-2 infection or in those who are more severely immunocompromised and therefore have higher viral loads.
The second study, a Phase IIb trial involving 299 HIV/HSV-2 co-infected women presented by Sinead Delany of the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, South Africa, indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the levels of HIV in the genital tract of women given acyclovir over a four-month period (Abstract 154LB). Acyclovir therapy did however seem to reduce the periodic frequency of HIV shedding in the genital tract. Delany said further study is required to determine whether acyclovir therapy can limit the HSV-2 ulcerations and thereby lower HIV transmission rates. Results from these ongoing trials won't be available until 2008.
If interventions like HSV suppression or pre-exposure prophylaxis (see Treatment as prevention, IAVI Report 10, 3, 2006) are found to work, the big challenge will be delivering them. That's where the provision of ARVs for PMTCT can provide a sobering lesson (see New strides in protecting infants from HIV, IAVI Report 9, 2, 2005). The first trial showing that this simple intervention could protect infants from contracting HIV was completed 13 years ago but currently only 9% of pregnant women globally have access. The number of pediatric AIDS cases in the US reached an all-time low of 58 in 2005, but "each of these cases represents a failure of prevention," said Harold Jaffe from Oxford University in the UK. "We do need better prevention tools," he said, "but until we have them we have to do better with what we've got."
Measure twice, cut once
Researchers are now facing this challenge as they begin to consider recommending and implementing safe circumcision programs. WHO officials are currently compiling guidelines on how circumcision should be utilized as an HIV prevention tool. Their primary concern now is safety, not acceptability. Surveys done during the Rakai study showed that 60% of men said they were willing to be circumcised and some of the volunteers randomized to the control arm actually tried to re-enter the trial under false names in the hope of getting circumcised, said Gray. The biggest concern with broad implementation of circumcision is that the procedure must be performed in a sterile setting to avoid the risk of HIV infection. During the Rakai trial, almost 4% of the surgeries led to a modest or severe adverse event, although Gray believes this to be an overestimate. At a meeting in March the WHO discussed surveillance plans for monitoring safety outcomes once circumcision becomes more widespread outside the controlled setting of a clinical trial.
The HIV envelope please
Interest in the somewhat beleaguered research into AIDS vaccine candidates that induce potent humoral immune responses was boosted by recent structural work by Peter Kwong of the VRC and colleagues and some of this excitement spilled over into CROI. Burton summarized the importance of this study in a plenary talk entitled "Toward broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV," but also made it clear that it's a long way until this work is translated into the design of better vaccine candidates (Abstract 99). "Studying natural infection doesn't give the answer." Instead, he said, AIDS vaccine researchers are left to "make up new rules."
Meanwhile some of the leading cellular immunity-focused vaccine candidates are now, or will soon be, in preliminary efficacy trials. A summary of these candidates-including Merck's adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) vaccine and the DNA and Ad 5 candidates developed at the VRC-was provided by Merlin Robb of US Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) and was greeted with optimism (Abstract 103). "We really are entering a new era of vaccine development," said Scott Hammer of Columbia University in New York City. "We have vaccines now that are immunogenic, at least in early phases of development."
But David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City cast some doubt on this immunogenicity. In his overview presentation on the evidence to support possible clinical efficacy of T-cell based vaccines, he reminded the mixed audience of vaccine researchers and HIV clinicians that there is still no way of knowing if the number of spot-forming cells (SFCs) determined by the ELISPOT assay actually corresponds to T cells that can limit the virus's spread. "Reason tells us that they might, but formally this has not been documented." He was much more careful in his assessment of current research efforts. "Incremental progress is happening in the field, but it is happening at a rather slow pace," he said. "We should've appreciated earlier how difficult the task at hand is."
Even if the leading Ad-5 based candidates are immunogenic their efficacy in humans may be compromised by pre-existing immunity to the viral vector, which has motivated researchers to start looking at other serotypes or novel chimeric adenovirus vectors that can be used in heterologous prime-boost regimens with Ad5 (see Figure 1). Dan Barouch, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and his colleagues determined first the seroprevalence of 51 known serotypes of human adenovirus in different countries in Africa and then the immunogenicity of four of these serotypes (Ad26, 48, 49, and 35) in rhesus macaques (Abstract 98) and found that Ad26 was the most immunogenic. They also constructed a chimeric Ad5 vector with all of the hypervariable regions of the hexon capsid protein-the viral protein to which antibodies are directed-replaced by the same regions of a much lower seroprevalent adenovirus, Ad48. They then tested the immunogenicity of both the Ad5/Ad48 chimera and the Ad26 vectors with HIV inserts in rhesus macaques who had already received two injections of an unadulterated Ad5 vaccine candidate. After boosting, the animals had T-cell responses that ranged from 1000 to 15,000 SFCs per million peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), indicating that pre-existing immunity could be overcome with these non-Ad5 vectors.
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Barouch also conducted a series of experiments with different heterologous prime-boost regimens, including Ad26/Ad5, Ad48/Ad5, and Ad49/Ad5. Data he presented at CROI showed that the Ad48 primed better than Ad49, but to a lesser extent than Ad26. The Ad26/Ad5 combination also "boosted remarkably well," Barouch said, with responses in the range of 2400 SFCs. This heterologous prime-boost was 5-fold more immunogenic than a homologous prime-boost with Ad5 in rhesus macaques.
Both the Ad26 and the Ad5/Ad48 chimeric vaccine candidates encoding clade A HIV env genes will go into Phase I clinical trials to assess their safety and immunogenicity in humans. Pending regulatory approval, Barouch expects these trials to start before the end of the year.
Protocols are also in development for other new vaccine trials that will test Merck's Ad5 vaccine candidate and the VRC's DNA/Ad5 candidates in different populations. The VRC is currently planning a Phase IIb test-of-concept trial with this prime-boost regimen, in partnership with IAVI, USMHRP, and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). This trial, known as PAVE 100, may start before the end of the year and the VRC is now also considering testing these candidates in a cohort of adolescent volunteers.
Merck's Ad5 vaccine candidate is already in two Phase IIb test-of-concept trials in the Americas, Caribbean, and Australia, as well as in South Africa (see Vaccine Briefs, IAVI Report 10, 6, 2006), and now the company is also preparing a protocol to evaluate the candidate in a trial involving infants born to HIV-infected mothers to see if the vaccine could protect babies from HIV infection through breastfeeding. This is particularly important in light of new research at CROI that showed that replacing breastfeeding with formula feeding in developing countries, where women have limited access to clean water, can be equally problematic. For several years researchers have promoted formula feeding as a safer alternative to breastfeeding for infants of HIV-infected women; however, a study in Botswana found that use of infant formula increased a baby's chance of dying from a diarrheal disease by 50 times (Abstract 9).
Early weaning is another alternative strategy researchers tried to control the transmission of HIV through breastfeeding—instead of breastfeeding for more than a year women were asked to stop after four months. A study measuring the efficacy of this approach in Zambia found that early weaning had absolutely no effect on the number of HIV infections or mortalities by age two (Abstract 74LB). A trial with Sanofi Pasteur's canarypox vaccine candidate, vCP1521 is already being tested in infants born to HIV-infected mothers in Uganda.


text:
In april prices of diesel over the past two weeks, on average, almost unchanged, increased by a tiny one tenth of a cent. Petrol is the most expensive in the history of the 22 EU countries. Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden do not reach these figures in case of petrol or oil.
The price of petrol was reduced in four EU countries last week, diesel in 19 and petrol became more expensive in 19 countries. Prices of petrol went up mostly in Belgium and Slovenia. It is the cheapest in Sweden and Denmark. The biggest rise of diesel in union has seen in Germany and Belgium. The largest price decrease occurred in Sweden and Estonia. Slovakia is on the 15th place in the EU ranking of petrol prices.
Many people keep asking when it is going to stop. Petrol stations are not empty but many people think twice whether they really need it. The analyst says that as long as American ships are gulf the price will be high. At this moment there are 4 American ships. Also the crisis in Eurozone and weak Euro will keep the prices high. The prices are the highest in Italy, Netherlands and Greece.
European comission also planned to cancel “good prices of diesel” which are caused by lower taxation. It would raise the price again by 22 cents per litre. The main reason for this step is ecology when EU parliament members want to lower the use of fuels. If the proposal was passed the price would rise right at the time when the prices of fuels are the highest already.


text:
By'r Lakin. An oath, meaning “By our Lady-kin,” or Little
Lady, where little does not refer to size, but is equivalent to dear.
“By'r Lakin, a parlous [perilous] fear.” —Shakespeare: A
Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
More on Lakin from Fact Monster:
- Super Capers - Starring Doug Jones, Tom Sizemore, Christine Lakin, Adam West, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister

domain: literature


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