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Why Is PrEP for HIV Prevention Not Being Discussed in This Southern US City?

An Opinion Editorial

October 20, 2013

Josh Robbins

Josh Robbins

Call it being naive or maybe just too ambitiously involved in real HIV-prevention discussions since I was diagnosed as HIV-positive on January 24, 2012, but I simply do not understand why PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is not being discussed more in this city.

For those of you that are not aware yet of PrEP, it "involves taking daily medication that helps to prevent the transmission of an HIV infection. It also includes other risk-reducing techniques, such as treatment for drug addicts or education about safe sex practices." (source: Healthline)

With new HIV infections hovering around the 50,000 mark, according to the most recent CDC data, and according to statistics provided from Nashville CARES, there are over 5,200 individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Nashville, the discussion of PrEP is more than timely. The time is now!

But there is this new stigma associated with HIV-negative folks that are considered at the highest risk of HIV-infection (gay men who have anal sex) to begin such a preventative method -- PrEP. WHY? Is it because that many are worried about the costs associated with the prevention method? Most insurance plans just require a co-pay. Is it because these drugs are from pharmaceutical companies and some feel they are a big money-hungry establishment? These are the drugs that are keeping some of our friends and family living with HIV alive! It is no longer just a last option. It's insane to not, at the least, allow and foster a discussion of all the methods that are available, in my opinion. And the fact of the matter remains that PrEP is the ONLY FDA tested and FDA approved prevention method for men that have anal sex with men. Condoms are still an important and necessary tool, of course. But there are no condoms that have the FDA stamp of approval on them for anal sex.

PrEP? HIV Op-Ed.

On my blog, I have an Open Letter on PrEP from HIV influencers that has over 50 signatures from high profile advocates in the country, including local Nashville CARES CEO Joseph Interrante and Street Works' Robbie Maris, agreeing that the time is now for our community and others to support a healthy and much needed opportunity to discuss, between a patient and their physician, if the use of PrEP is advantageous.

I do not believe that PrEP is an option for everyone. However, I do believe that we, as a community, should foster these discussions between individuals and their doctors sooner than later -- and allow those informed decision makers the right to weigh the options.

Many of you may be confused by the different voices in the debate on the practicality, safety, adherence requirements and benefits of this prevention tool. While not minimizing any of these concerns, we believe that individuals should be empowered to make informed decisions about their use of PrEP as a, FDA-approved prevention strategy. Moreover, I do not believe it is necessarily a matter of choosing between PrEP or condom use/other forms of behavior change. PrEP can and should be viewed as an addition to, not a substitution for, our current arsenal of prevention strategies. These may or may not be used in combination depending upon the individual situation. I do also recognize the importance of safer sex counseling and regular HIV and STI testing, provided by authorized organizations and methods.

Let's get off our asses, community, and recognize that the time is now for all of us to stand up, again, agree that discussions about this modern tool is necessary, effective, needed. Please discuss PrEP with your physicians.

This article originally appeared on

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A Kiss Is Just a Kiss
Why You Don't Need to Worry About Mouth-to-Mouth Transmission of HIV

By Paul A. Volberding, M.D.

October 1997

If you were anywhere near a television set last summer, you inevitably heard about that case of HIV infection that appears to have resulted from kissing and kissing alone. And, admit it -- the news gave you at least a moment's pause. You couldn't help but wonder if kissing really is risky, and it didn't really help to be told that the odds are better that you will be hit by lightning than that you will get infected -- or infect someone -- by kissing them.

The problem is that none of us have a very good grasp of the concept of "odds." If we did, we wouldn't risk billions of dollars each year on state lottery tickets, we wouldn't bet on the 40-to-1 shot at the track, and we would never, ever try to fill an inside straight. We know, for example, that the risk of transmitting HIV during unprotected vaginal intercourse is 1 in 500, and we know the risk is even higher for unprotected anal intercourse -- yet some people are apparently willing to risk those odds, because new HIV infections attributable to unprotected sex occur every day in this country.

On the other hand, we know that the risk of transmitting HIV by kissing someone is so small it is almost unquantifiable -- maybe 1 in 2,000,000. Yet we can't quite shake the conviction that kissing might, just might, be risky. Because we don't fully understand the notion of relative risk, some of us assume we can continue to beat very short odds... and some of us worry unduly about very long odds.

The inadequacy of "odds" as a way of explaining relative risk was brought home to all of us last summer, when the Centers for Disease Control reported a case of apparent mouth-to-mouth transmission of HIV. Although this case was a highly unusual, one-of-a-kind event, it got picked up by the mass media -- and generated a kind of mass hysteria. What television commentators often failed to report was just how isolated and exceptional this case actually was. It occurred because both partners, the HIV-positive man and the HIV-negative woman, had undergone dental surgery. He had an exceedingly high viral load at the time; she had mouth lesions that were large enough to make her susceptible to infection by this route; and there was extensive mouth-to-mouth contact. The odds that this same set of circumstances would ever arise again are, well, astronomical. You've got a better chance of winning the lottery or being hit by lightning -- and we all know how long those odds are.

This isolated and unusual case does have two lessons to teach us, however. The first is that poor oral hygiene is a potential mode of infection -- and HIV-positive individuals with bleeding mouth sores shouldn't kiss anyone on the mouth. The second is that we should avoid talking about odds, and we shouldn't let one-of-a-kind cases worry us inordinately. The vast preponderance of all new HIV infections are transmitted through unprotected vaginal or anal intercourse, and this is where we need to focus our prevention efforts. What we need to remember is this: Kiss anyone you want, anywhere you want. But never, ever have unprotected sex.

Paul A. Volberding, M.D., is Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Care and AIDS Program Director at San Francisco General Hospital.

Back to the October 1997 AIDS Care contents page.

This article was provided by San Francisco General Hospital. It is a part of the publication AIDS Care. You can find this article online by typing this address into your Web browser:

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UCF Research Re-Awakens Old Genes to Help in Fight Against HIV

By Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala

April 28, 2009

Professor Alexander Cole works with students in his lab at the University of Central Florida.
Professor Alexander Cole works with students in his lab at the University of Central Florida.
A new vaginal cream containing a re-awakened protein could someday prevent the transmission of HIV.

Scientists at the University of Central Florida in Orlando have revived a dormant gene found in humans and coaxed it to produce retrocyclin, a protein that resists HIV.

Lead scientist Alexander Cole used aminoglycosides, drugs commonly used to fight bacterial infections, to trigger the production of the sleeping protein expressed by the retrocyclin gene.

"It could make a huge difference in the fight against HIV," Cole said. "Much more work would be needed to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of this approach. We would certainly have to have human trials, but these findings represent a promising step in that direction."

Findings from his three-year investigation are published in this month's PLOS Biology, a well-respected scientific journal.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. The disease, most often transmitted sexually, affects 4.3 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. About 14,560 people die annually from HIV-related complications each year in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Dozens of scientists around the world are looking for ways to prevent the transmission of the disease. Cole's journey into this area of research began while he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles. While there, he and his colleagues discovered that similar retrocyclin proteins found in early primates appeared to prevent HIV infections in cell cultures. The same gene exists in humans, but because of a mutation, it no longer produces the protein.

Now, in collaboration with researchers at UCLA, the Centers for Disease Control and his team at UCF, Cole has found that restoring the production of retrocyclins prevents HIV entry. He found a way to get the gene to produce the retrocyclins and then showed that the retrocyclins appear to prevent the transmission of HIV. He applied aminoglycoside antibiotics to vaginal tissues and cervical cells in his lab and found the antibiotic appears to stimulate those cells and tissues to produce retrocyclins on their own.

He said there is a good possibility the aminoglycoside antibiotics will be used in a cream or gel format that could someday be a simple way to prevent the transmission of HIV from men to women.

Cole joined UCF's Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medicine in 2003. He continues his work here with more than $4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Cole has degrees from the College of William and Mary and The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, and he was an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at UCLA before teaching at UCF.

He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and has been a grant reviewer for several agencies, including the NIH, the Wellcome Trust and the National Science Foundation.

This article was provided by University of Central Florida. You can find this article online by typing this address into your Web browser:

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Quick Take
or the 2000 model year, Subaru has completely redesigned the Legacy/Outback range. The car has... Read more »
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Browse Subaru Legacy Outback (Natl) inventory in your area.

by Ted Grozier

or the 2000 model year, Subaru has completely redesigned the Legacy/Outback range. The car has grown slightly, received an excellent new interior, and been given a modest power increase.

It continues to be sold in Legacy form under the Brighton, L, and GT trim levels; the previous Sport Utility Sedan moniker has been dropped in favor of "Outback Limited Sedan." Outback and Outback Limited wagons are again available and are expected to remain the most popular models.

Styling changes are best appreciated in the sedan; it in particular is vastly more attractive than its predecessor. Fashionable jeweled headlamps and an enlarged grill opening have been added to all models, while the car's lines have been strengthened throughout. The controversial hood scoops on Outback models have been deleted.

Not just a pretty face

Improvements to the unibody go beyond vanity, though. The new structure is greatly stiffer, offering twice the longitudinal bending resistance and 20 percent greater torsional strength than the outgoing model. We noticed a more composed ride over rough surfaces and a near absence of shakes and rattles, even on our pre-production test car. What we thankfully did have occasion to experience is the claim of increased crashworthiness, although we will take Subaru's word for it.

2000 legacy wagon

2000 legacy wagon

Subaru’s 2000 Legacy Wagon.

The wheelbase has grown almost an inch to 104.3, while overall length is up just shy of three inches to 184.4 and 187.4 for the sedan and wagon, respectively. Both increases provide more passenger and cargo space, but the biggest improvement in roominess comes from the new multi-link rear suspension. It frees five additional inches between the rear wheelhouses yet retains the same wheel travel of the previous strut design. In the wagon, three large suitcases will now fit standing upright.

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Our automotive experts then also collect and show you what other websites say about these different aspects of any vehicle. We do this leg work for you to simplify your research process.

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Coastal Athletics Summer Camp

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Sinopec Corp (NYSE: SNP, SHA: 600028, HKG: 0386), Asia's biggest oil refiner, posted ¥1.23 trillion in revenues and ¥40.24 billion in net profits for 1H 2011, up 31.5% and 9.4% respectively from the same period a year ago. Its refining business lost ¥12.2 billion during this period due to rising oil prices and refinery production.

Aluminum Corporation of China (NYSE: ACH, SHA: 601600, HKG: 2600), the nation's largest aluminum producer, posted ¥65.97 billion in revenues and ¥412.58 million net profits for 1H 2011, up 10.4% and down 22% year on year respectively. Rising electricity prices and the collapse of its alumina project in Australia were blamed for the decline in earnings.

Suntech Power Holdings Co (NYSE: STP), a leading Chinese solar panel maker, plans to invest ¥60 billion in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, building a 5GW photovoltaic plant over the next three to five years. The project is expected to create 30,000 local jobs. Inc (NASDAQ: SOHU), a leading Chinese online media, search, gaming, community and mobile service group, said that its board of directors has authorized a combined share purchase program of up to $100 million of the outstanding American Depositary Shares of Limited (NASDAQ: CYOU), Sohu's online game subsidiary, and/or outstanding shares of common stock of Sohu over a one-year period from September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2012.

SAIC Motor Corp (SHA: 600104), China's biggest automaker, posted ¥183.88 billion in revenues and ¥8.58 billion in net profits for 1H 2011, up 24.6% and 46.1% year on year respectively. It sold 2.01 million vehicles during the period, up 12.9% from a year earlier.

China Pacific Insurance Group Co (SHA: 601601, HKG: 2601) posted ¥86.88 billion in revenues and ¥5.82 billion in net profits for 1H 2011, up 14.2% and 44.7% year on year respectively.

Hebei Iron & Steel Co (SHE: 000709) posted ¥68.59 billion in revenues and ¥803 million in net profits for 1H 2011, up 16.9% and 11.6% year on year respectively. Its steel output was down 3.7% to 12.45 million tons and iron output fell 1.6% to 12.54 million tons during the period.

Poly Real Estate Group Co (SHA: 600048) posted ¥15.2 billion in revenues and ¥2.8 billion in net profits in 1H 2011, up 35.1% and 71.7% year on year respectively. The developer sold 3.41 million m2 in floor space during the period, up 27.6% from a year earlier.

China State Construction Engineering Corporation (SHA: 601668) said it recently signed ¥41.89 billion of contracts. The amount was equivalent to 11.3% of its revenue in 2010.

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The return of the University to a peace basis is accompanied not only by the break-up of the S. A. T. C. and the Naval Unit, but also by that of the Junior S. A. T. C., whose work has been eclipsed by the larger military organizations of the College. This company has been doing a piece of work which ought not to be overlooked. It has been training hard since the opening of College, and has been drilling early every morning,--more frequently and in many respects more frequently and in many respects more intensively than the R. O. T. C. of last year. The vigorous and business-like way with which the men went into the work has won the deserved commendation of their commander and many others.

Now that the organization is coming to a close, the question of how much academic value should be attached to it has been raised. We understand that it is to count as only one-sixth of a course toward the degrees of the men who have been working in it.

The University is technically justified in giving the work of the Junior Company one-sixth of a course credit because it appeared in the catalogue as a half course for the year; but this seems quite unfair. Wholly aside from the fact that the hard work which the men have done deserves greater recognition, to give only one-sixth of a course credit is giving practically no credit at all. In order to complete the work necessary to make up a full course, a man would have to take five sixths of a course, -- an impossibility. He cannot take two thirds of a course to complete his work, since it will leave him lacking a sixth. The result will be that he will receive no credit for the military work.

This procedure is literally doing things by halves. The only practical as well as the only fair thing to do is to let this work count as a third of a course. It is bad enough juggling with thirds and two thirds without introducing the doubly complicated element of sixths. Give the Junior Company some real credit for what they have done. To their disappointment at being too young to enter the regular service ought not to be added the disappointment of having unrecognized what sincere efforts they have been able to make.


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New Football Seating Plans Up to Faculty

Faculty Committee Reviews Two Proposals from Councils

Two new seating plans for football games took shape last night as the result of a meeting of the Faculty Committee on Athletics.

Although the Committee would not announce specific details, it revealed that it is considering two similar plans, one submitted by the Undergraduate Committee on Athletics, and the other by the Student Council.

Faculty committee members said that final ticket arrangements would be made public sometime during June or early summer.

Facing the nine-man board are three problems: the size of groups which can sit together; the allocation procedure; and punitive measures to be taken against illegal sale of tickets.

The plan of the Undergraduate Committee on Athletics calls for groups of no more than six undergraduates, plus their dates, sitting together at a game. It also proposes that recognized organizations be allowed to sit together as separate groups. Their application for tickets would be taken at random from the lowest class in any group.

The Student Council plan does not specify the size of any group of students which can apply for tickets.

The Faculty Committee is further weighing the merits of an Athletic Council plan to distribute tickets through the House athletic secretary. This plan, if adopted, might include a provision for the House superintendent to assist in allocation.

Under the Student Council proposal, tickets would be distributed by mail. This plan would require students to carry a special athletic identification card with their own picture printed on it.


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Are You Ready for Tamar and Vince on WE TV?

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Say what you want about Tamar “Have Several Seats + Get Your Life” Braxton, the girl is entertaining. After being the “breakout star” on Braxton Family Values, she is embarking out on her on reality show with her music mogul husband, Vince, called Tamar and Vince. The reality show will spotlight Tamar as she tries to make a name for herself as a bonafide singer, and how she and her husband manage to mix business with pleasure while keeping it all in the family.

I have not been a fan of Tamar during her BFV antics, but I can see why she now has her own show. She makes for good television, and her husband seems to mellow her out, so I will probably be watching to see how her singing career and family life pans out on the show.

Tamar and Vince will premiere Thursday, September 20th on We TV at 10/9 CST after the Braxton Family Values finale.

Below is a first look at Tamar and Vince. Will you be watching?

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04.20.124:45 AM ET

Michelle Obama’s Friendship Secrets

The first lady has no use for frenemies—and neither should you. An excerpt from Allison Samuels’s new book, What Would Michelle Do?

Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett’s paths crossed during a major transition in Michelle’s life. After leaving the world of corporate law in 1991 to pursue work opportunities in the public sector, Michelle decided to interview for a position in the mayor of Chicago’s office. Jarrett, a well-connected lawyer and businesswoman, was the deputy chief of staff for then-mayor Richard Daley and handled most of the hiring for his staff.

Surprise, surprise, Jarrett was so enamored with Michelle’s sly wit and quick smarts that she offered her a position on the spot. Ever cautious in her decisions, Michelle had one request of Jarrett before agreeing to accept the job—she wanted Jarrett to meet her fiancé, Barack Obama. The three soon broke bread and within months, Jarrett, a high-society darling of sorts, had introduced the young couple to many of the most prominent and wealthy citizens in Chicago. Those well-placed introductions would later prove essential to Obama’s short- and long-term political pursuits.

In fact, the Obama/Jarrett friendship produced much fruit for both parties. Jarrett would later serve as the co-chair of the Obama-Biden presidential transitional team and senior adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign. She now serves as a senior adviser to President Obama. Though it should never be the main objective of your connection with people in your life, never underestimate where having and being a good friend can take you.

On the flip side, just as good friendships can open doors for major new opportunities and unexpected windfalls, wonderful chances can also turn into painful disappointments. Case in point: longtime Obama family friend Desiree Rogers was appointed White House social secretary by President Obama in 2008.

What Would Michelle Do? by Allison Samuels

Unfortunate circumstances required Rogers to leave that position prematurely, which could have put an uncomfortable strain on her friendship with Michelle. Smartly, both women were wise and mature enough to understand that when it comes to business, it should never ever become personal. The reality of life is that even if a dear friend does manage to hook you up with the job of your dreams, it’s still not guaranteed to pan out exactly the way you’d like. Not surprisingly, Desiree was less than pleased at losing such a wonderful and history-making position, but she didn’t blame her good friend for the unfortunate end. She took the high road and Michelle was grateful for it.

Neither woman let a rather difficult situation get the best of their friendship, and you shouldn’t either if faced with a similar predicament. Michelle and Desiree continue to enjoy a healthy bond to this day and still share mutual friends and connections. Consider the alternative if these two women hadn’t been able to put their issues aside for the sake of friendship. Their saga would have no doubt gone on to make fabulous fodder for the countless tabloids and less savory news shows.

Choose friends who understand that true conflict resolution is best handled one-on-one and not in front of an audience.

Tune in on any given day to a reality show of your choice and you’re destined to see women of all backgrounds, races, and intelligence feverishly disagreeing over a man or actually physically roughing one another up due to any number of issues. Audiences seem to enjoy a good old-fashioned catfight and the new female faces of reality television seem quite happy to oblige. What television networks enjoy are huge ratings and they’re not all that concerned with how they get them. If there’s big money to be made by showcasing women willing to degrade themselves with fistfights, hair pulling, and verbal insults on national television, so be it, right?

The misguided illusion that women, and particularly women of color, can’t get along with one another due to petty jealousies and insecurities is not only untrue, but it’s a particularly dangerous message for all young women still attempting to master the fine art of navigating their own friendships. It can also send just as troubling a message to any woman of any age who is still struggling with exactly how to develop solid female bonds.

“What young girls and all women to some extent are learning today is that another woman is not a friend, but always an enemy,” says Gail Wyatt, professor of behavioral studies at UCLA. “That sets up a lifetime of distrust and mistrust of people of the same gender. It eliminates the chance for a womanly bond.”

Don’t kid yourself. There will always be some valid reason to mistrust a few of the women you’ll meet along life’s way. Yes, it hurts to be lied to and talked about by a girlfriend you thought sincere. But don’t let a bad experience rob you from fully appreciating the joy of having other women in your life. Michelle’s never been seen giving the side eye to the other wives of foreign heads of state and she enjoys the friendships she has with many women. You wouldn’t kick all men to the curb because of the heartbreak or rejection inflicted by one man. The same rule should apply for girlfriends as well. Mimic Michelle’s no-nonsense approach to everything she encounters by taking the necessary precautions when deciding who should and shouldn’t enter your inner circle. By using your smarts and basic common sense, you can sidestep the majority of arguments thought to plague female friends.

Michelle never fails to emphasize the importance of strong female relationships to anyone who’ll listen, particularly her two young daughters, Malia and Sasha. To that end, a source within the White House reveals that Michelle insists her daughters not watch any shows that depict women belittling each other or themselves. Translation: little to no reality television. Michelle tries to enforce the no reality TV rule regularly but admits to friends that it can be very difficult to monitor her girls’ viewing habits when friends come over or if they have sleepovers at a classmate’s house. “She does what she can to make sure they don’t waste time watching complete mess,” says the source. “Barack really hates for them to watch that trash and the little they do see doesn’t include women using violence against each other. Michelle won’t have that.”

Maybe you shouldn’t either. As much as you may try to deny it, your brain regularly retains a great deal of mess from the outside world—mess you don’t need and mess that isn’t at all beneficial to your overall being or your plans for future success. While many consider the regular consumption of shows such as Basketball Wives or Mob Wives a guilty pleasure, never underestimate how easily the underlying negative message of such shows can float into your mind, take root, and flourish.

And in the same way you might avoid these shows, there may be certain types of “friends” to steer away from too, in order to ensure that you are growing strong friendships.

Five Girlfriends a Woman Should Avoid—Michelle Certainly Would

The Woman with No Girlfriends
Any woman who doesn’t have other girlfriends and brags about it is probably guilty of the same behavior she finds so appalling in other women. If she doesn’t befriend other women as a rule, don’t attempt to become the exception. It’s not worth it. Move on.

The Drama Queen
There are some women who live for drama in their lives and don’t mind passing their mess on to whoever happens to be around. Don’t let that be you. Stay away from this type of woman. She’s the woman who always seems to be having trouble with someone in her life and one day it will be you. Who needs it? You don’t.

The Narcissist
This woman thinks the world is her stage and she’s the only star. She thrives on being the center of attention and fumes when anyone else steals her thunder. She sucks the air out of a room, which means there’s none left for you or anyone else. When you see her coming, run—don’t walk— the other way.

The Hang-up Girl
This woman is so filled with so many insecurities she can barely contain her dislike for others because of their looks, possessions, or any number of reasons. She projects her own unhappiness onto others, and that includes you. No thank you. Keep it moving.

Ms. Needy
This woman doesn’t understand the basic give-and-take foundation of friendship. She always needs a shoulder to lean on, money to borrow, or some other favor, like purchasing a last-minute ticket for her to Maui. Of course, she can never be found when you need the same from her.

Allison Samuels’s new book, What Would Michelle Do? A Modern Day Guide to Living With Substance and Style, published by Penguin/Gotham Books, arrives in stores April 19.


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04.19.131:34 PM ET

Creepy Tweets Supposedly Written by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Save for a chilling message that reads like a warning, the surviving Boston suspect’s supposed Twitter account mostly shows a bored teenager.

As Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains on the lam amid a massive manhunt, a few fake online profiles of the 19-year-old have made the rounds. But this one seems to be the real deal—and what at first glance appear to be the musings of an average teenager have now taken on a chilling subtext.

A cached profile photo of the handle @J_tsar matches images released by law-enforcement officials, and classmates on Twitter use it when they reference Tsarnaev. Other classmates confirmed to BuzzFeed that the profile is legitimate. People who knew Dzhokhar say he went by Jahar because it was easier to pronounce.

As such, as there are a few tweets that have taken on an ominous new light. Namely, this Jay-Z lyric, sent the day of the bombing, urging his followers to stay safe.

And this, the morning of the bombing:

The supposed suspect continued to tweet in the days following the bombing, including debunking this story:

His lastl tweet, on April 17:

On the whole, however, it reads like the account of an ordinary 19-year-old kid. Maybe a little angsty:

He does make a 9/11 joke:

About which he seems to be a truther.

But mostly he tweets about being lazy, racing cars, and hanging out. He seems to be a fan of Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and Sons of Anarchy. He writes about Nutella, Hot Pockets, and cereal, and tweets lyrics from Kanye, Eminem and the musical Rent.

He talks about smoking, once at the Boston Marathon.

He also tweeted about missing Chechnya:

On Twitter, acquaintances expressed shock that he could be the bomber:


text:
09.15.139:40 AM ET

Emilia Wickstead and Manolo Blahnik: #LFW Day 3

Gorgeous show from Emilia Wickstead at an art gallery on Bond Street this morning - tangerine and turquoise stripes, sculpted fish-tailed evening gowns and her trademark 1950s prom skirts in pink, lemon and lime. The modest calf-length skirts and dresses could be tailor made for Kate Middleton.

Lady Edith - aka Laura Carmichael - was dressed in dark green silk Emilia Wickstead and seated on the front row. She faced a constant barrage of questions on whether or not she was going to stay with the newspaper editor in the next series. She remained tight-lipped.

Earlier in the day we were at the Covent Garden Hotel for Manolo Blahnik's debut LFW show - a short film starring Rupert Everett. Someone kept sighing and gasping and giggling in the screening I was at. Terribly disrespectful, I thought, who could it be?

None other than Manolo himself, watching it all the way through for the first time.

He pronounced himself delighted with the film and relieved. We will have the movie online tomorrow shortly after 11am EST.


text:
Better Read

06.26.145:45 AM ET

Why the CIA Loved ‘Doctor Zhivago’

Boris Pasternak’s classic novel caused him endless trouble in Russia even as it won him acclaim abroad, where his abiding fans included the CIA, which used the book as a propaganda tool.

Isaiah Berlin called it a novel “of unexampled imaginative power,” and Edmund Wilson predicted that it would “come to stand as one of the great events in man’s literary and moral history.” To these and other eminences, Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was a seminal text.

No one agreed more than the members of an ardent and motivated fan base within the CIA.

“Pasternak’s humanistic message—that every person is entitled to a private life and deserves respect as a human being, irrespective of the extent of his political loyalty or contribution to the state—poses a fundamental challenge to the Soviet ethic of the individual to the Communist system.” So said an influential CIA staffer in a July 1958 memo. Two months later, the agency would enact an elaborate scheme under which copies of the novel, banned in the Soviet Union, were surreptitiously given to Russian readers at the World’s Fair in Belgium.

This cloak-and-dagger saga—the details of which have remained largely secret for more than a half-century—is at the heart of Peter Finn and Petra Couvée’s The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book. The product of a deep dive into agency archives—the CIA finally turned over the relevant documents three years after Finn, a Washington Post editor and onetime Moscow bureau chief, requested them—it’s a rich and unanticipated story. By no means, however, is it the only intriguing episode in this account of one of the era’s defining literary crucibles.

Toggling back and forth between Pasternak’s dacha in Peredelkino and the offices of the Cold War’s chief adversaries in Washington and Moscow, Finn and Couvée, a writer and translator in Russia, ably juggle a host of busy storylines. Throughout, they demonstrate a sophisticated appreciation for an artistic quest that was haunted by dread, persecution, and loss. They also share an avid eye for detail, although this does desert them at a key moment in their book.

Long before it found an international audience, helped secure him a Nobel Prize, and inspired a famous film, Doctor Zhivago was an agonized undertaking.

At the end of 1948, three years into a creative ordeal that would consume the last decade-and-a-half of his life, Pasternak posted a letter to family members living in Britain. Zhivago was still taking shape, but he knew that the story he was telling— a sweeping tale of a politically and romantically vexed doctor’s disenchantment with his homeland after the revolution of 1917—would enrage Soviet censors. Having boldly shared portions of the manuscript with fellow artists and friends, Pasternak confided that he was now increasingly anxious about the book’s future, and his own. “Publication abroad,” he wrote, “would expose me to the most catastrophic, not to mention fatal, dangers.”

For the CIA, Pasternak’s novel presented a unique opportunity to distribute a notorious new work penned by a persecuted Russian author.

With countless dead as a result of Stalin’s purges, Pasternak had reason to be fearful. Russian intellectuals enjoyed a moment of guarded hopefulness after the war, Finn and Couvée write, but by the summer of 1946 the Kremlin had resumed its practice of putting the screws to writers who were viewed as treasonous, frivolous, or immoderately independent. Pasternak’s status as an internationally respected poet—he was seen as a contender for the Nobel by the late ’40s—made him a prime target. By the time he turned 60 in 1950, he would be censured by the Union of Soviet Writers as “an author lacking in ideology and remote from Soviet reality,” denounced within the pages of several Kremlin-sanctioned newspapers, and deprived of outlets for his verse and translations.

His mistress, Olga Ivinskaya, had it even worse. She was hauled in by police, interrogated about the scandalous novel Pasternak was said to be writing, and put in prison, where she suffered a miscarriage. (Their handling of Ivinskaya typifies Finn and Couvée’s meticulous approach; the model for Zhivago’s cherished Lara, she was later rumored to be a Kremlin snitch, but the authors say that a look at the evidence “simply doesn’t support the label of informer.”)

None of this could stop Pasternak. He finished Doctor Zhivago in 1955, and was duly exultant. “You cannot imagine what I have achieved!” he wrote to a friend. “I have found and given names to all this sorcery that has been the cause of suffering, bafflement, amazement, and dispute for several decades. Everything is named in simple, transparent, and sad words.” Recognizing that domestic publication was out of the question, Pasternak furtively partnered with Milan-based publisher Feltrinelli to bring out an Italian edition in 1957. A French edition followed in June 1958, and in September the book was published in Britain and America.

That same month the CIA rolled out its Pasternak-as-propaganda operation. The agency had done this kind of thing before. In 1956 the CIA-funded Free Europe Press started supplying a handful of Eastern European students and government officials with translated copies of suppressed and banned books by Camus, Orwell, Milosz, and others. “Members of the Moscow Philharmonic, who were passed books while on tour in the West, hid them in their sheet music for the trip home,” Finn and Couvée write. “Books were also spirited home in food cans and Tampax boxes.”

For the CIA, Pasternak’s novel presented a unique opportunity to distribute a notorious new work penned by a persecuted Russian author. Doctor Zhivago had been an instant hit in the U.S. After the stateside press reported on Pasternak’s plight, it sold 70,000 copies in its first six weeks, according to Finn and Couvée. But the book remained little more than a rumor to Russian readers. And so, after taking care to distance itself from the project—Soviet censors could identify paper stock manufactured in the U.S., so the CIA’s Russian translation of Zhivago was printed in the Netherlands—agency officials settled on the recently opened World’s Fair in Brussels.

Doctor Zhivago could not be handed out at the American pavilion, but the CIA had an ally nearby,” Finn and Couvée write. Volunteers staffing the Vatican’s building agreed to help, seeing to it that “the novel was pressed into the hands of Soviet citizens. Soon the book’s blue line covers were found littering the fairgrounds. Some who got the novel were ripping off the cover, dividing the pages, and stuffing them in their pockets to make the book easier to hide.”

The Zhivago Affair is deeply researched, but this is one instance in which it comes up short. How Vatican volunteers actually got hold of the CIA’s copies of Zhivago is never quite explained. A large portion of their book is built around this very moment, but Finn and Couvée rush through the scene in a few hundred words. Sixty years after the fact, it’s understandable that they failed to unearth more detail about a particular aspect of a clandestine operation. But from a reader’s perspective, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Finn and Couvée paint a more vivid picture of the agency’s second effort to distribute Zhivago to Russian readers, which occurred in 1959 in Vienna. That summer the city hosted a confab for Communist youth groups, during which the CIA, with help from native Russians who no longer lived in the country, used a variety of methods to distribute a batch of undersized books to the visitors. “Crowds of Russian emigres swarmed the Soviet convoy when it entered the city and tossed copies of the CIA miniature edition of Doctor Zhivago through the open windows of the buses …” the authors write. “[C]opies of it and other novels were handed out in bags from Vienna department stores to disguise the contents; in the darkness of movie theaters; and at a changing roster of pickup points, the locations of which were circulated by word of mouth.”

This is colorful, cinematic stuff, but Finn and Couvée’s poignant depiction of Pasternak is the book’s greatest strength. His Nobel win, which should’ve been a career-capping triumph, wasn’t that at all. Fearing for his safety, and the wellbeing of those close to him, he declined to accept the award. But this did not appease the Kremlin. He was soon forced to publicly apologize for writing what he considered his masterwork. Menacing strangers turned up at his house, and threats arrived in the mail.

At his lowest point, Pasternak was suicidal, and even his death, in 1960—he had stomach cancer and his heart was failing—didn’t end the campaign against him, Finn and Couvée write: “The secret police moved among the crowd [at his funeral], eavesdropping or taking photographs.” His oft-neglected wife Zinaida outlived him by six years, but she “never saw a ruble” of the money generated by his success. Almost three decades would pass before Doctor Zhivago was legally published in his home country.


text:
07.27.145:45 AM ET

Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers

Before anti-vaxxers, there were anti-fluoriders: a group who spread fear about the anti-tooth decay agent added to drinking water. It causes cancer! It’s a communist plot! It’s poison! None are true, but the debate won’t die.

Whatever kills you will probably be very, very small. It could be a few misplaced molecules in your genome, a buildup of lipids in your artery, or a virus so tiny that a high school chemistry lab’s microscope wouldn’t come close to discerning its spiky form.

Unlike your ancestors, you will be given a chance to contemplate this smallness—to understand, as you have understood nearly all of your life, that death comes in invisible packages, and that it can be anywhere—in the rays of the sun, on the skin of unwashed fruit, in the oil that impregnates your french fries.

Before the cholesterol molecules knock you to the kitchen floor, you will also confront some microscopic things that have been foisted upon you by something huge. Maybe you’ll trust the government, corporation, or scientific establishment that gave you this invisible gift. Maybe you won’t. Perhaps you’ll come to worry about some of those tiny things—the genetic tumblers that have been turned in your tomato, or the chemicals in your children’s vaccines.

For more than a century, Americans have been fretting about these sorts of ghosts. When cities started adding chlorine to their water supplies, in the early 1900s, it set off public outcry. The government was dumping chemicals into water! Milk pasteurization inspired fierce opposition, too. So did early smallpox vaccines.

None of these, though, has inspired quite the same backlash as fluoride. First added to an American water supply at the end of World War II, fluoride has been the subject of controversy, hysteria, conspiracy theories, reasoned argumentation, and bitter municipal friction since 1949.

This agitation is no aberration. The story of fluoridation reads like a postmodern fable, and the moral is clear: a scientific discovery might seem like a boon. But in this anxious world, when a very big entity forces a very small substance into people’s lives, some of those people are going to get upset. It’s worth paying heed to this moral, because in fluoridation controversies, we can see the template for so many disputes to follow. Debates over electromagnetic fields, nanotechnology, GMOs, vaccines, and, to a lesser extent, climate change, all follow the pattern established by fluoride.

On the whole, fluoride makes for an unsexy flashpoint. It is an ion beloved by dentists. Added to drinking water at concentrations of around one part per million, fluoride ions stick to dental plaque. From there, they help reverse decay. Placed in drinking water, fluoride can serve people who otherwise have poor access to dental care. “It’s been quite a successful public health program,” Dr. Howard Pollick, an American Dental Association spokesperson and University of California, San Francisco clinician, told The Daily Beast.

As a means of preventing tooth decay in those cities that do fluoridate, the practice certainly looks like a success. But fluoride been rejected by most European countries and regularly defeated by citizen’s referenda in the United States (most recently and prominently in Portland, Oregon, last year). As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.

Fluoride first entered an American water supply through a rather inelegant technocratic scheme. In 1945, just a few years after the discovery that fluoride could slow tooth decay, the United States Public Health Service chose two neighboring cities in Michigan. They fluoridated the water in Grand Rapids. They used Muskegon as a control. (I’m indebted, here, to the wonderful historical work of Donald R. McNeil). To put it rather uncharitably, the USPHS practiced a major dental experiment on a city full of unconsenting subjects.

Not to be left behind, progressives in neighboring Wisconsin clamored to join the cutting edge of public health. Dental leaders barnstormed the state, and cities began to fluoridate.

The backlash started in Stevens Point, a small city in central Wisconsin, where the city council decided to introduce fluoridation in 1949. Led by a local activist who adapted popular songs into anti-fluoride ballads, and who claimed that fluoride was still experimental (which was true) and highly poisonous (less true), citizens forced the city to hold a referendum. In secret, before the referendum, the council went ahead and fluoridated the water anyway. Once discovered, this maneuver did not endear the councilors to their constituents. The citizens of Stevens Point defeated fluoridation by a healthy margin.

Throughout the fifties, in city after city, fluoridation became the subject of fierce debate. Was it too experimental? Was it rat poison in the water? Did it cause cancer? Was it a communist plot to incapacitate American citizens?

Throughout the fifties, in city after city, fluoridation became the subject of fierce debate. Was it too experimental? Was it rat poison in the water? Did it cause cancer? Was it, along with the polio vaccine and mental hygiene programs, a communist plot to incapacitate American citizens, as the Keep America Committee claimed in 1953?

Since the 1950s, fluoride has adapted itself to the prevailing concerns of the time. When communism was a threat, it was construed as a communist plot. As the environmental movement grew in prominence, fluoride additives were grouped with dangerous pollutants, and later portrayed as the product of a corporate scheme (Greenpeace has opposed both fluoridation and water chlorination).

In 1992, in the John Birch Society magazine, libertarian writer Murray Rothbard chalked up fluoridation to the excesses of the welfare state. More recently, channeling the zeitgeist, Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher has invoked the language of individual rights and government interference in his anti-fluoride stance. In other words, fluoride is a broad-spectrum, bipartisan, long-lasting magnet for dissent. Certain features of its history suggest why this may be the case.

As Brian Martin, a social scientist at the University of Wollongong, in Australia, and a researcher of fluoridation debates, explained to me, fluoridation controversies follow a pattern that’s been replicated in debates over everything from GMOs to vaccines.

First, scientists work in partnership with a governmental agency, an industry, or both, in order to develop some new tool or policy. Eager to apply their findings to the public good, they don’t get much citizen input on their project, and, says Martin, “they’ve already started to implement it before anyone gets a say” (by, for example, fluoridating the entire city of Grand Rapids). And when citizens do protest, the government or corporation may not take those concerns seriously (recall the city council of Stevens Point, secretly starting fluoridation before a referendum had even been held). The result is a familiar narrative, in which noble citizen dissenters face up to a powerful alliance between scientists and government or corporate interests.

The critical detail here, though, seems to be the lack of control that citizens have over policies like fluoridation, or mandatory vaccinations, or electromagnetic waves from cellphones. More blatantly dangerous practices—such as putting carcinogenic flame retardants in couches—don’t inspire quite the same level of backlash, because there, at least, consumers have the illusion of control over their chemical fates. Something like fluoride, which is too small for normal filters, yanks away that feeling of agency.

Meanwhile, as with nearly every other subject of scientific inquiry for the past 50 years, it’s not hard to cast aspersion on fluoride. There’s always a study, a story, a suspicion, a dental dissenter—something that can be spun into a plausible image of doubt. And, in the case of fluoride, at least, that doubt might actually be justified. There are reasons that European countries tend to avoid fluoride. The stuff really does have toxic effects at concentrations that aren’t that much higher than what crops up in our water.

Really, is it any wonder that fluoride should freak people out? It’s a story of uncertainty and powerlessness, and it feeds into that most modern of anxieties: the feeling of being sandwiched between an entity too large to grasp—the government; science—and something too small too see—the ions in your water; the waves passing through the air.

“It’s a paranoid universe,” says the spymaster in Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock, “but don’t overdo it.”

Don’t overdo it, indeed. But what to do?

For a start, a little transparency can help. Have you seen the national Centers for Disease Control’s overcrowded webpages, even on hot-button issues like vaccination? Have you looked around the American Dental Association website for an explanation of how fluoridation actually works? (Hint: it’s buried in a 71 page-long PDF.) Have you tried to access the research that your tax dollars finance, almost all of which is kept behind a paywall? Has your doctor ever told you what’s in the fluid that she’s injecting into your arm?

The policy recommendations that emerge from scientific institutions might seem like the work of a distant, inaccessible, exclusive, homogenous, and byzantine elite. After all, they come from a world that is, for 99 percent of Americans, distant, inaccessible, exclusive, homogenous, and byzantine.

Brian Martin, the Wollongong professor, suggests that randomly selected panels of citizens could help formulate policy on topics like fluoridation. That strategy has been used in some cases to help determine GMO policy. At least in principle, it gives regular citizens a voice. At the same time, it’s a more sober, well-informed process than holding a referendum, which tend to give a platform for extremists and scare-mongers.

After all, science-and-society issues won’t be resolved just by communicating science to citizens. Citizens, perhaps, need to feel like they can communicate something to science.


text:
News Corp. Lets Murdoch Off Easy

    ARCHIV: News about Rupert Murdoch is displayed on the Fox News ticker at a building which houses the News Corp. headquarters in New York, USA (Foto vom 15.07.11). Murdoch accepted the resignation of The Wall Street Journal's publisher and the chief of his British operations on Friday as the once-defiant media mogul struggled to control an escalating phone hacking scandal with apologies to the public and the family of a murdered schoolgirl. The controversy claimed its first victim in the United States as Les Hinton, chief executive of the Murdoch-owned Dow Jones & Co. and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, announced he was resigning, effective immediately. (zu dapd-Text) Foto: Mary Altaffer/AP/dapd

    Mary Altaffer / AP Photo

    News Corp. board members have a cushy job that “pays over $200,000 a year and requires lifting nothing heavier than a rubber stamp.” Sounds posh, but that’s precisely the problem at a company that requires some serious oversight, media reporter and columnist David Carr argues in The New York Times. There are plenty of reasons why the News Corp. board, which recently expressed its “full confidence” in chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, should be asking tough questions as the company is battered from all sides by hacking and corruption investigations. But that the board is stacked with family friends doesn’t help, Carr writes. Nor does the fact that “the board of News Corporation has no independence, little influence, and no stomach for confronting its chairman.”

    Read it at The New York Times


text:
Mia, Sophie, Prince Charming

Cat Tips

Limit treat intake for your cat. Treats should never exceed more than 10 percent of your pet's daily diet.

read more

Cat Survivors of Japan’s Earthquakes and Tsunami

By Elijah Merrill

Cat Survivors of Japan’s Earthquakes and Tsunami

On March 11, when an 8.9-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that struck Japan’s eastern coastline, the world watched one astounding video after another, documenting the enormity of the disaster.

The Japanese government urged all evacuees to leave their pets at home. The area already had a significant stray population, so tens of thousands of cats were left behind in the disaster zone. Animal welfare organizations and volunteers, however, continue to work tirelessly to save these cats.

Rescue Efforts Save Pet Lives

Animal Rescue Kansai is one of several organizations that have funneled their resources and expertise to aiding animals affected by the tsunami. “We’ve been taking in animals, both those rescued on the road or those belonging to evacuees,” says Elizabeth Oliver, founder of Animal Rescue Kansai. “After coming in, they are processed by our on-site vet: deworming, vaccination, microchipping and neutering. Some animals are boarded; some are given up for adoption.”

Other local organizations doing similar work include the Japan Animal Welfare Society, the Japan Veterinary Medical Association, the SPCA and Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS). JEARS was formed by a small group of animal welfare activists -- including David Wybenga, founder of the Japan Cat Network -- as a direct reaction to the tsunami.

“We’ve put out our info, gone to human shelters and put out flyers asking if anyone has left animals behind,” he says. “People call, and we go check on the cats in their house or pick them up.” Wybenga says his group is also supporting people who made the effort to save their pets. “There are people who stayed with their pets, and maybe also gathered up their neighbor’s pets, but don’t have any resources,” he says. “So we’re also looking for people who need our help caring for and feeding their pets.”

Preparing Your Cat for a Disaster

While it’s inherently difficult to prepare for an unpredictable act of nature, there are some steps you can take:

  • Have your cat microchipped or at least make sure its collar contains your name, address and phone number. “Most of the animals we’re finding have not been microchipped, so we have to post pictures and descriptions and hope that someone will see that and claim the pet,” says Wybenga. “If there’s a microchip, you get the name and address of the owner by scanning it.”
  • Make a “go bag.” This should be something portable and filled with nonperishable food, water bottles, a water/food bowl, a can opener and a flashlight (ideally a human-powered one that doesn’t require batteries).
  • Take your cat with you. It’s actually common for local government agencies to tell people to leave pets behind. “Take your pet with you, even if they say you can come back for it later,” says Oliver. “If it’s not safe for you to be there, then it is not safe for your pet either.”
  • Have an exit strategy. This is especially important if your exit may mean leaving the country. Know what the requirements and procedures are for animal travel for the departure airport, the airline and the country you’ll be traveling to.

How You Can Help the Japanese Effort
The most obvious way to help is by donating money, which will still be needed months from now. You can also donate goods, such as cat food or bedding, and have them sent directly to the organization. Finally, you can help urge Japanese legislators to make animal rescue an official priority for future disasters.

“The hurricane Katrina disaster was the largest cat-dog rescue process in the world, and as a result of that, the U.S. -- specifically FEMA -- has required that projects must have a contingency for pets,” he says. “We’re hoping people will write the Japanese embassy or the American embassy in Japan, and tell them to please do something more for the animals that are in distress.”

Elijah Merrill is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to The Daily Cat. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Discover.

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Posted on September 10, 2011

Lynn says: If you can't take litter box with you, take a harnes and leash, and it's best if your cat is accustomed to it in advance of ever having too use it in an emergency. My family members took four cats with them when they fled Katrina in Texas. They were trapped for hours in standstill traffic, again when they ran out of gas, and none was availble, and their first shelter didn't allow animals indoors. Feeding and watering the cats was no problem. Toileting them was a big problem!

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text:
Perfect conditions for Maiden II

Maxi-cat flying in "perfect conditions"

Sunday April 14th 2002, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic
Maiden II - stats 14 April 2002

Daily run: 358.7 miles
Position: 25 20N 22 15W at 1112
Club Med position end Day 3: 27 40N 23 30W

Distance to finish:2847nm
Average speed to finish required to break record: 15.6knots
Average speed for Maiden II since start 15.18knots
Maiden II has 182.5 hours to get to finish line.

SOG 20-22knots
COG 260degT
TWS 20kts
TWD 030degT
TWA 130deg

It's now midday at the start of the fourth day and we are charging along in near perfect conditions. For the first time since the start we have not had to do a sail change for our entire watch. The numbers have been consistently high and on course.

'Game's on and it's all to play for,' announced Brian Thompson with a big grin across his face. You work hard on these boats dreaming of these conditions. The sailing is fast, dry and easy and we are all dressing for the beach.

The sails all stacked aft and to windward make for a comfortable bench seat from which to trim from. You still must not get complacent. The helmsman, whoops, helmsperson, is the one doing all the work but is reluctant to hand over the hotseat.

Guillemo Altadill during his helm change briefing with Helena Darvelid while steaming along at 26 knots simply said 'perfect' and walked below. We laughed at how cool this exchange was but soon realised he had summed it up beautifully.

Mind you, it goes against my policy of saying few words when many will do! The night was not without incident as the new breeze filled in a highly loaded block controlling the gennaker sheet exploded while Fraser Brown was down to leeward checking trim. Fortunately we had a safety sheet rigged which saved the gennaker from a flogging, Fraser's head from a one throw game of frisbee and allowed us to get back on the gas in short time. The blocks dismembered parts were later found spread all over the boat.

We took advantage of the new headed breeze to sail lower on the course into the southwest as this we hope will pay dividends later in the lighter winds expected for the upcoming night. The breeze has since moved aft and as a result we are quickly getting back to the required average for a successful attempt. We are currently sailing in 20 knots of northeast wind which may lighten and go further into the E/NE at about 10 to 15 knots.

We are sailing in traditional tradewind conditions taking the old fashioned southern route around the bottom of the high pressure system.

Signing off Paul Larsen helped by Fraser and Adrienne.

Front to back - Christine Haffa, Emma Richards and navigator Adrienne Cahalan furl the gennaker

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text:
Remembering in the rain

Memorial Day, 2013.

Stories this video appears in:

Tease photo

Soggy Service

With Video USMC Capt. (retired) Dan Brophy addressed about 50 community members who braved the rains of May 27 to attend the annual Memorial Day observance at Kelly Viewpoint.

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text:
The adult children of Judy Buchs and John Litevich Jr. are pleased to announce the marriage of their parents.

The wedding took place at Christ Lutheran Church on Sept. 14, 2012. A reception followed at the Water's Edge.

The wedding was attended by many family and friends of the bride and groom including 13 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

A wedding trip followed on a river cruise in Europe.

The bride is a retired administrative assistant from Pitney-Bowes and director of her own daycare facility.

The groom is a retired teacher from the Guilford school system.

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text:
a daily newsletter & podcast
from brian thompson

(while this site has been discontinued and is not longer being updated, the huge archives remain)

inspire. educate. motivate.

 Delivering Daily:

  • motivation
  • a kick in the ass
  • marketing advice
  • creative inspiration
  • music industry news
  • personal development
  • social media tips & tools

    The DIY Daily Podcast - Ep. #222 - October 2, 2012

    Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - Ep. 222

    Today's Topic:
    6 Ways To Keep Going When Your Goal Seems Out Of Reach
    The Wisdom of Learning What's Right and True for You

    Today's Featured Song of the Week is Touch ME from Summer Cult. Visit Summer Cult online at www.summercult.com.

    This podcast is also brought to you by MusicXray.

     Submit your song to be the Featured Song Of The Week on The DIY Daily Podcast here.

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Default 02-07-2007, 08:32 PM

Awesome game you have here! Did you make this yourself? I think it's pretty cool. I'm gonna try it out, but I don't know if it'll work... ^.^;;

Band: Hilary Duff

1. Are you male or female? I Am

2. Describe yourself: Weird

3. How do some people feel about you? Who's That Girl?

4. How do you feel about yourself? Dangerous To Know

5. Describe your girlfriend/boyfriend/interest: Mr. James Dean

6. Where would you rather be? Jericho

7. Describe what you want to be: The Last Song

8. Describe how you live: The Getaway

9. Describe how you love: Do You Want Me?

10. Share a few words of wisdom: Rock This World
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text:
Mexican Billonaire To Finace A New Internet Tv Network: just reported that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is financing an internet TV network which will be called Ora.Tv

The network will  feature on-demand content and will produce “a wide range of programs that transcend traditional formats,” the website said and a show with former television host Larry King.

“Slim’s America Movil, one of the world’s biggest telecommunications firms, will fund the station that will be led by Jon Housman, who was formerly the president of digital journalism at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation” will be launched this year but it does not have a start date yet.

Ora in  English is “Now” is owned by  Fotonauts Inc out of Palo Alto California

This could  certainly a big boost for the .Tv extension.

  1. Rich says

    Ora in English is “Now” ,u mean spanish

    is this the seven figure u talked about last week ?

    I began buying in too .tv, i like it

  2. Michael H. Berkens says

    Well the English translation of Ora is Now.

    The .Tv transaction a commentator to the blog indicated would be released said it was a two word domain so this would not be that one.

  3. says

    From what I’ve read, Senor Slim doesn’t enter into a new venture unless he’s quite certain he’s going to be successful; he makes a plan, deploys capital, and executes the plan with perfection.

    Very nice news, indeed for .tv investors.

  4. says

    Headline News Network is launching sometime in 2013 – I’ll be wearing my bathrobe, sitting at my kitchen table, streaming each day’s headlines straight to your ipads via HNN.

    I’ve no doubt that millions in ad dollars will flow into my coffers.

  5. says

    Direct to web productions, both TV & movies, are the wave of the future. Big Media will get left in the dust as scores and scores of small start-ups launch begin streaming quality content over the web, reaping billions in advertising dollars.

    The .TV extension is a natural fit for all of the above.

  6. says

    What this tells you, I, and everyone in the world is that

    represents established, well funded companies.

    You will see hedge funds, banks, large/huge companies only solely using short brandable domains that are

    LLL.Co’s and to a little lesser extent’s

  7. says

    this article has everything to do with short domains

    period. end of story whether

    in .com, .tv, .Co

    it don’t matter.

    look the best in everyone’s opinion.

  8. says

    Shake, shake, shake my boottie, shake my boobie, shake by bootie

    just got more valuable.

    If this is the type of domain that the richest money is being poured into,

    then you got GOLD.

    This is the type of news that everyone, I mean every one 6,200,000,000 people of this planet earth will take notice. At least 6,200,000 will say hey if I have my website also on a

    my company can be seen to be as established as the Billionaire and his ORA.

  9. says

    .co is for people who forget to type the “m” on the end of a .com domain. I’d never use a .co for business, maybe a personal blog or something, but NEVER for a business.

  10. says

    Oh man,

    every single day there is exciting news on

    in one shape or form.

    now people like

    is jealous he don’t got any game

    in LLL’s

    boy, this is a one, two combination.

    just last week it was announced that all LLL.Co’s are taken

    now it looks like the richest fattest Billionaires are betting their $Millions on LLL’s

    hell yeah,

    LLL.Co’s all the way baby.

  11. says

    just a side note

    was sold for $1,500.00 (they got a great deal)
    and is now transferred. It still has the old data but you can see it is now with enom which is the new buyer’s registrar. This one is for the 1 person that called me out.

  12. Mr.T says

    “now it looks like the richest fattest Billionaires are betting their $Millions on LLL’s

    hell yeah,

    LLL.Co’s all the way baby.”

    @Robert – yeah, a mexican billionaire is investing in .TV, not .Co. I can only think of one LARGE Corp that invested in .Co, and we all know how that story ended.

    Mr Slim is playing his cards right, he got Larry King in on .TV.

    Time will tell how this new collab will affect the .TV extension.

  13. Back in the real World says

    I have a client, Liquified Petroleum Energy Company, that are looking for a short domain, does anyone have one for sale? They have £50,000 to spend.

  14. Tom SAutter says

    Could the hype for .Co that’s being posted here be an opportunity to take advantage of the news about the investment in .TV by the worlds richest man? It’s more pump and dump for .CO?

  15. says

    I have nothing against LL or LLL or LLLL domains but I don’t believe this announcement is really about the investment merit of LLL domains in alt TLDs. “Ora” has a meaning in Italian (now) and the domain was also registered the same day (similar meaning in Spanish). Why a foreign-language domain was chosen to brand what appears to be English-language content is not clear. However, despite a number of .TV domain registrations, I don’t intend to start looking for LLL .TVs to register.

    My wife and I plan to go to Colombia in 2012 but I don’t hold any .CO domains (even in Spanish where they make more sense).

  16. domo sapiens says

    ORA not spanish for Now.

    I can’t imagine the traffic bleed eventually towards / and

    Not one semi-educated spanish speaking person would write that…

    Even Trillionaires can make mistakes ja ja.

    Time will prove me right.

  17. Michael H. Berkens says

    All I can tell you that when you type in Ora the Spanish word and ask it to translate it to English it comes up with “now” so bitch to Google

  18. domo sapiens says

    MHB I believe you , I just question the I.Q. of the person that choose the domain for a mega project (not the extension).

    Ora is a low as you can get as far as misspelling a Sspanish word.
    (perhaps they will be targeting the tex-mex market)

    Televisa has been somewhat successful using .tv ‘s in Mexico mainly made up names (TV shows)

    It’s a powerful combination. (Owning a TV Broadcaster / combined with a catchy memorable URL)

  19. says

    Yes, good news for .tv. I wish he’d chosen a Spanish
    IDN for the identity ‘though; it would help Mexicans
    realise that Spanish letter names, like ó.com, really
    do exist…

  20. says

    CAA (largest Hollywood Talent Agency), HDNet (owned by Mark Cuban), & Ryan Seacrest are partnering to launch a Huge entertainment network.

    Their website will be on …..

    Looks to me like .tv is slowly gaining mainstream traction – good for aftermarket prices.

  21. .tv is rockin' says

    Thanks, man. That is big news for .TV; Mark Cuban is the biggest name yet to go with a .TV domain for his site.

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Ask Dot :: He is cheating

Hi Dot,

My husband of 17 years came home and said he was involved in a road rage incident, prompting him to get a blood test done. This is after I saw the mark on his arm where blood was taken. Blood test account was emailed to me for payment (am main member of med aid), he was tested for HIV, gonorrhea, syphilys and chlamydia. I confronted him and he got on the offensive, accusing me of not trusting him when he told me why he’d had the blood test done, he can’t say why the doctor ordered the other tests.

I don’t believe him and I’m pretty sure who he had unprotected sex with, an acquaintance who shares a lift club with me and pretends to be my friend. I don’t have proof, but lots of subtle hints on her bbm statuses. May or may not be aimed at me, but, hey, after this I have a right to be suspicious. Someone whose breasts are continually falling out of her tops, even at school. She also went for a bood test just before my husband went.

I am in no position to divorce, we are financially very strained at the moment and only have one car, neither of us can afford to move out. There are other issues involved but I am sucking it up and pretending to believe him in order for my kids’ life to remain relatively normal. My son is at a critical stage in his high school career and doesn’t need his life falling apart. They don’t know about any of this and I’ve decided that for now, while we are financially strained, I am going to carry on as normal.

Things might be looking up financially and, once we’re back on our feet, I am not going to live like this. I am very concerned about stds because he has had unprotected sex with me before the account arrived in my mail box. He is probably expecting it again because I so-called believe him. It’s an issue I will have to work out.

Carrying On As Normal

Dear Coan

I think you know 100% what is going on and by denying your instincts by ‘carrying on as normal’ you’re only going to be hurting yourself further. I’m not going to focus on whether or not your husband is cheating or how he’s choosing to do so and with whom. frankly, if he’s not going to be honest with you, all you have to work with is you. so let’s look at that.

you’re making it a choice between honesty and divorce, and living a lie and staying married. and you’re choosing the latter based on two things: kids and money. so what i’m hearing is that you’ll stay resentful, lied to, being made a fool of and victimised because you want the best for your children and because it’s safer financially.

so indirectly you’re making your children responsible for your happiness and the course your marriage takes. that is unfair to them and patronising if you think your kid in high school has no idea something is up. by not living honestly you are showing him that this is how conflict is managed: stick your head in the sand and don’t rock the boat to keep everyone else happy. also, you’re waiting for a day that might never come – the day you feel financially safe enough to divorce your husband.

this is a big thing that is happening to you now, but it is not something you can put off facing until some better day when your kid is ok and you have enough money. your reality has already changed and life, as you think you’re protecting your kid from, is already falling apart for you. pretending this is not the case for just a little bit longer is not going to make it change back or get better or keep you physically healthy.

saying that. you need to take as much time as you need to look at your options before you start diving off into the deep end with divorce. these could involve couples counselling (if you’re with a church you trust you could look there for a resource) or separation — either legally or by agreement. Although it is not easy to get your head around at first, I know couples who have separated or divorced but have stayed living in the same house (separate rooms though) due to financial constraints. This would come with an incredibly strict set of rules to begin with, but it can be done.

if i were you i would find someone close, someone i trust, to confide in. I would find a way of having as little as possible to do with your girlfriend who you think is sleeping with your husband. I would go for a blood test and no longer have sex with my husband unprotected. or, have no sex with him at all. i would move towards legal separation.

but that is me. and that is based on experience from a kid’s perspective over two divorces. an unhappy, resentful or loveless home is no place to grow up in.

good luck

(dudes, if you’re going to comment, please don’t be a trolling douchebag. i will smite you.)

  1. As a child of divorced parents who should have gotten divorced loooong before they eventually did, I completely agree with Dot’s response. I survived the divorce (I was 16 at the time) quite easily.. a hell of a lot more easily than surviving living with unhappily married parents and KNOWING they were only together for my & my sisters’ sakes.

    Affairs are, however, very complicated. I highly recommend reading the book “Sex at Dawn” to understand SOME of the potential reasons for affairs. Affairs are also not the end-all of relationships – with counselling and commitment to be honest, you can get through it. You just have to determine if the will to get through it is there. And that is actually the hardest part – because society has told the cheater that they must lie, hide, be ashamed etc so they will not easily immediately open up – they will be scared of your reaction and this influences the level of honesty. Good luck.

    April 18, 2012 at 2:18 pm
  2. Hi Dot,
    You always seem to help out the ladies, but as a guy, I need your input!
    I’m a 30yr guy, separated from my wife at the moment. We met when we were young, together for 7years, married for 3yrs. 6 months ago she cheated on me. Then lied about it, slept with the guy a few more times, lied again. Carried on lying throughout but I always managed to find out.
    Everything she says is about how much she loves me (we hardly had any major fights) and how much she wants to spend her life with me and have kids BUT every action revolves around the complete opposite, she just keeps fucking up.
    I’m battling, she was the woman of my dreams and now she makes me more unhappy than ever before.
    She still messages me, says she misses me. I’ve started to ignore her now.
    So all I want is for someone to say, you’re crazy to stick around, leave!
    I just feel like it’s always the nice guys who finish last? I have always treated her like a queen, there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her, friends and family said we were perfect. Now i’m like, what the hell must I do, I try do everything right and it blows up in my face, should I just try becoming more of an asshole?
    Blah, writing it all down just makes the answer seem more visible!
    Thanks for the blog, keep up the hard work!

    April 13, 2012 at 2:13 pm
  3. I really hope those two replies (which are great), really encourage you to make the changes necessary for a healthier emotional life for all involved. Good luck!

    April 13, 2012 at 12:24 pm
  4. Excellent reply Dot. To support your advice (a) my sister stayed in an abusive relationship until the kids had finished school to “give them stabiltiy” All it taught them was how to have a dysfucntional relationship with their own partners and (b) my son was in matric when I was hijacked and my company went insolvent, not only did he survive the turmoil he did prettty well. Get out of that situation now Coan, before you end up with HIV

    April 12, 2012 at 4:14 pm
    • Thanks for your reply to Dot’s comment, I have a lot to think about with both your comments, I did know as I wrote my story that it wasn’t going to work by carrying on as normal, no matter that I was determined to do it. I realise I’ll be hurting my kids and making them responsible for me letting myself be made a victim and a fool. I don’t ever want my daughter to think that it is ok to let yourself be used like that or my son to think that actions have no consequences. I appreciate both of you taking the time to open a complete strangers eyes. I am sorry for what you and your son went through when he was in matric, that is hard for anyone to cope with. You have a good weekend.

      April 13, 2012 at 9:34 am

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The Ecologist

Chris Packham. Photo courtesy 2020VISION

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My Green Life: An interview with Chris Packham

by Sharon Garfinkel

Sharon Garfinkel quizzes the TV naturalist on his diet, political views, and being fodder for mosquitos........

Concern for the environment should always transcend party politics

What does the word ‘environment' conjure up to you?

It's a radiating scale of where I am in space and time. The environment is very often packaged - it certainly was when I was at school. The environment was nothing to do with me. It was the rainforest. It was the Antarctic waste. It was all of these places that were confined and idealised. But for me the environment is where we live. The most important part is our own community: our home, our neighbourhood, our school, our workplace and where we live.

A day in the country, or a day on the beach?

Oh, country, without a shadow of a doubt. I can't stand beaches. Should I tell you why I don't like beaches? Water, sand and salt - they erode all the things I like most, which includes fabrics, photographic equipment, things like that.

A day in the country, or a day in the office?

A day in the country - although in a way the country is my office on many occasions!

Do you eat organic foods?

I do. I'm not fortunate enough to constantly shop for organic food, but when I have a choice I eat organic. I make a lot of active decisions about what I eat. I've given up eating tuna. I don't eat meat. I don't eat cod. I have a great debate about whether I should eat farmed or wild salmon, because wild salmon are under tremendous pressure and farmed salmon can do no end of damage to the environment. That's a debate that I constantly play out with myself.

Do you get scared of any insects or animals you encounter on your trips?

No, never. Only humans! They're the only scary species for me. I love life. I love all life, without any exception, so if a mosquito is biting me, even in a malarial zone, very often I don't take the tablets. People laugh at me because I dislodge the mosquito without killing it and send it on its way. The creature is there because it has a job to do in that community. I've moved into that community. I'm a resource and I don't mind being a resource. Ultimately I will become the simplest resource, because my body will rot down and will become something else. I like that.

Which political party do you think does the most for the environment?

There's a question, isn't it? I'd like to say whichever party is governing. What I would have hoped to witness in my voting life is a steady progress of all the political parties that have had the opportunity to govern, making sound environmental decisions. What I have actually witnessed is an increasing awareness amongst politicians of an environmental agenda.

I don't think the environment is at the right place on the agenda yet. But, as we progress and have younger politicians who learn more about the importance of the environment, hopefully it will be more embedded in their psyche. Then we will gradually see the environment attaining the importance it needs on the political agenda.

I would be very keen to work with any political party to ensure we constantly inform and educate. But I would be a lot more comfortable if a lot of environmental issues were apolitical. Climate change is not a political issue. It's a global, real issue. If we can take environmental issues out of the political agenda and not worry about terms or duration of office, our ability to deal with some of the bigger of these issues will be a lot easier.
Concern for the environment should always transcend party politics.

Who are your environmental heroes?

I don't think there's enough activism in the environmental movement at the moment. I remember the days when people like David Bellamy tied themselves to trees in Tasmania. Everyone thinks that's a bit too freaky these days and many don't have the courage to do that kind of protest. Everyone is scared of getting arrested. I nearly got arrested the other day for feeding the birds! That would have been on my CV faster than anything. It was seagulls and apparently they're a nuisance although I don't see it that way.

I like the activists of the early days - passive; I'm not into violence. It's about generating awareness to get people to engage with their environment so they love it enough to want to protect it.

What does Nature teach you?

Nature teaches me that if it weren't for us, the world would be a dynamically perfect place.

Sharon Garfinkel is PR Manager for The Resurgence Trust.

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FedEx Fiscal Q1- Restructuring Efforts Yield Positive Results

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FedEx reported its fiscal Q2 earnings last week and sent a strong signal that its re-structuring efforts associated with previous overcapacity in the air express are bearing results.

Total revenues increased 2.7 percent while overall profits rose by 14 percent. Operating income in the air express segment increased 42 percent despite nearly flat revenues. The express division Q2 results reflect fairly significant impacts from previous multiple quarters of re-structuring-efforts coupled with higher rates and lower operating expenses.

Results from ground operations were somewhat impacted by the shorter holiday surge period this year.  None the less, operating income in ground increased 3 percent coupled with a 10 percent increase in revenues.

The company indicated that it handled 22 million surge shipments on December 16, which was the third consecutive Monday of record volumes. Prior to the current holiday surge, FedEx expected a 22 million shipment peak on December 2nd, which as Cyber Monday.

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Old 05-17-2013, 07:52 PM
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Default Re: I'm so tired of getting ripped off!

If my earlier post contributed to any of the bickering, I will apologize now. This wasn't my intent. I don't have have any political agendas, and do appreciate American made products, over the alternatives. At the same time, I was able to read though this thread without even developing a hint of anger. I honestly liked seeing everyone's opinions, many of which came across as much more informed than my own.

Different opinions are just a fact of life. Personally, I take pride in a catch and release philosophy. I have good friends who disagree with my approach. This does not affect our ability to debate the topic.

Controversy, will always remain apparent as long as this country still allows individual minds to express singular opinions.