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hip-young-beamslinger · 4 years

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Stupid Ask List, feel free to answer these questions yourself

1. What’s one animal you wish you could have as a pet but can’t? Probably one of those huge Frisian horses? I can’t have them because I have no money and horses intimidate me.

2. Favorite thing to wear to sleep? When I’m cold I wear a long nightgown. I love long nightgowns

3. What song really gets you going? That is actually a song I came across on tumblr once: Mahishasura Mardini (Droplex Remix) - Shanti People https://open.spotify.com/track/3NWXBvMdXaoEvW8Tvw8qk3?si=XlTRbI01TPu1K11kiPRZbg

4. Where do you usually eat your meals? On the couch, in front of the tv

5. Favorite meal: breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Dinner!

6. Most embarrassing habit? I pick at scabs a lot. And I sniff my fingers.

7. Chocolate or fruity candy? Chocolate 1000%

8. Soft or hard tacos? Soft ones!

9. Worst way to break up a fight? Getting punched?

10. Best thing to say in an elevator of strangers? NOTHING.

11. What color/design are your bedsheets? Something IKEA. I believe it’s the purple one with a Baroque pattern.

12. Any hidden talents? Can sleep everywhere.

13. Favorite thing to drink out of (mug, glass, etc.)? Mugs for everything and I like to drink my tea out of small cups (like the Japanese type of cups)

14. Socks or bare feet around the house? Feetsies!

15. Favorite board game? Rummikub (I hate board games)

16. Do you sleep with the fan on or off? On, I am super bad at regulating my body temperature.

17. Heat on or keep it cold with lots of layers? Keep it cold, I get warm very easily.

18. Do you sing in the shower? Nope.

19. Favorite song to belt out at the top of your lungs when you’re alone? Love me Wrong by Allie X & Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

20. Last thing you cried about? I wrote a sad RP tag

21. At what age did you first have alcohol? Sixteen, Fifteen? It was Baileys.

22. Relationship status? Single with cats

23. What’s the most amount of money you’ve spent on a single item of clothing? Nike Air Max shoes for 250 Dutch guilders.

24. What do you typically wear to formal events? Fancy dress

25. Favorite memory? My trip to China and Tibet in 2013.

26. Gum or breath mints? None.

27. Favorite shoes? I love my Dr. Martens boots. They’re high boots with embroidery on the side.

28. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My nose.

29. What is the natural state of your hair? Straight and uninteresting.

30. Have you ever had braces? I think in total for at least 10 years, yeah

31. Most dangerous thing you’ve ever done? Jumped from a boat into the sea

32. Most embarrassing thing your parents have caught you doing? Probably finding my collection of sex ads. I collected sex ads from the newspaper which were mostly texts like ‘my ____ are so big and your ___ is huge’

33. Last time you had an orgasm? A week ago? I don’t know, don’t keep up.

34. Celebrity crush(es)? Richard Madden

35. Windows or Mac? Mac!

36. How old were you when you learned to ride a bike? Six or seven.

37. Makeup or natural? Both.

38. What color do you wear the most? Yellow and black, but also blue.

39. Favorite season? Spring

40. Umbrella or rain coat? Umbrella

41. Have you ever fallen out of a tree? Nope

42. First car you ever owned? None.

43. What time do you usually go to bed? Midnight

44. Are you a competitive person? A little.

45. Least favorite color? Bright fluorescent things

46. First pet you’ve ever owned? A bunch of fish

47. Sweet or salty? Salty

48. Favorite pasta dish? Chicken with pesto

49. Favorite kind of chips? Ringlings!

50. Talk about something you’re passionate about. I am deep into Fate hell recently, won’t recommend it. 0/10, won’t do ever again.

51. What are some of your hobbies? Drawing, embroidery, online roleplay, being a goddamn boring hermit

52. Caffeine? If so, what kind? Tea and sweet iced coffee (frappuchinos)

53. Favorite kind of pizza? The truffle pizza from New York Pizza. Also 4 cheeses.

54. Fast food or sit-down restaurant? Sit down 100%

55. Lots of acquaintances or a handful of close friends? Handful of friends

56. Something that ruins your appetite? Bugs.

57. Favorite labels about you? I don’t get this question. Define labels?

58. Are you a religious person? Oh no. Noooo.

59. Night out with a bunch of friends in public or night in with one friend having deep conversations? I’m too old to go out so deep conversations it is

60. What size shoe do you wear? European size 40

61. Favorite thing about yourself? I’m creative??

62. Have you ever told someone you loved them first? Nope.

63. Have you ever had sex on the first date? I have had 2 dates in my entire life, come on.

64. Heroes or villains? Villains

65. Favorite fruit? Banana and apple

66. Least favorite fruit? Not too wild about melon

67. Favorite vegetable? Spinach

68. Least favorite vegetable? Celery and cauliflower

69. How many plates can you eat at a buffet? One well filled one

70. Favorite dessert? Ice

71. Do you play any sports? Not currently, no

72. Age you learned how to swim? The moment we got swimminglessons at school. I was 5 or 6

73. Tell a funny story. I was once in New York together with my friend. We were attending NYCC and who do we encounter? An old friend I haven’t seen in ages. Like this Dutch dude just being there after 8 years. That was funny.

74. What’s one interesting thing about your culture? Idek, really.

75. What’s one annoying thing about your culture? Probably Black Pete

76. What job would you be terrible at? Anything with children. I don’t like kids.

77. Would you rather watch a TV show or a movie? TV show

78. What’s your favorite compliment to give? Any compliment.

79. What’s your favorite compliment to receive? That my art is good.

80. Has your opinion changed on something recently? Yep.

81. Do you always order the same thing at a restaurant or order something different each time? I’m an adventurer

82. What’s something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet? Going to the gym. I really need to do something about my stamina.

83. If you could learn to do anything right now, what would it be? Probably proper digital coloring

84. Favorite physical feature about yourself? I have an hourglass figure?

85. Least favorite physical feature about yourself? I have a big butt and there’s this extra lump on it that makes me an L on the top and an XL on the bottom. My nose.

86. What’s one amazing thing you did that nobody was around to see? I scuba dived

87. If you could change your height, would you? Nope

88. What’s something you would rate 10/10? My ability to eat large amounts of food in a short time.

89. Heels or flats? Flats!

90. What’s something you wish you had more knowledge about? Programming

91. Would you want to be famous? Never! :D

92. What’s something you would get arrested for? I jaywalked.

93. What’s your spirit animal? A sloth

94. What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you? That the previous owner of my apartment accepted my offer instead of the other two.

95. Are you the type to have an organized mess, or no mess at all? Organized mess.

96. Do you tend to make decisions based on the past, present, or future? Future

97. Are you a planner or a more spontaneous person? Planner

98. Thoughts on the oxford comma? It’s a comma and it has to do with English grammar and I’m Dutch.

99. What do you hope never changes? I hope my family will be alive for a long time.

100. How would you celebrate your 100th birthday? Alone in a nursing home

#about me

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tinyshe · 4 years

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Sweden, a country that has handled the pandemic differently than most of the globe, is being chided for its looser restrictions and lack of lockdowns, even as data suggest their refusal to implement a full shutdown of their society may have been the best approach after all.

While most other countries instituted stay-at-home orders and shuttered schools and businesses, Sweden did not. While high schools and universities closed and gatherings of more than 50 people were banned, elementary and middle schools, shops and restaurants have remained open during the pandemic.2

Now, news outlets are trying to use Sweden as an example of what not to do to fight COVID-19, citing a high death toll. "The country's mortality rate from the coronavirus is now 30% higher than that of the United States when adjusted for population size," CBS News reported,3 but this doesn't tell the full picture of how Swedes have fared in comparison to the rest of the world.

Sweden May Be Close to Reaching Herd Immunity

If a novel virus is introduced to a population, eventually enough people acquire natural immunity so that the number of susceptible people declines. When the number susceptible is low enough to prevent epidemic growth, the herd immunity threshold, or HIT, has been reached.

With SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, some estimates have suggested that 60% to 70% of the population must be immune before HIT will be reached, but researchers from Oxford, Virginia Tech, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine4 found that when individual variations in susceptibility and exposure are taken into account, the HIT declines to less than 10%.5

Independent news source Off-Guardian6 cited data from Stockholm County, Sweden that showed an HIT of 17%,7 as well as an essay by Brown University Professor Dr. Andrew Bostom, who explained:8

"… [A] respected team of infectious disease epidemiologists from the U.K. and U.S. have concluded: 'Naturally acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2 may place populations over the herd immunity threshold once as few as 10-20% of its individuals are immune.'"

And, as pointed out in Conservative Review:9

"… Naturally acquired herd immunity to COVID-19 combined with earnest protection of the vulnerable elderly — especially nursing home and assisted living facility residents — is an eminently reasonable and practical alternative to the dubious panacea of mass compulsory vaccination against the virus.

This strategy was successfully implemented in Malmo, Sweden, which had few COVID-19 deaths by assiduously protecting its elder care homes, while 'schools remained open, residents carried on drinking in bars and cafes, and the doors of hairdressers and gyms were open throughout.'"

Off-Guardian continues with Stanford's Nobel-laureate Michael Levitt, who is among those in support of Sweden's lighter restrictions. Levitt successfully predicted the trajectory of COVID-19 deaths in China, including when the deaths would slow, and has stated that the pandemic would not be as dire as many have predicted.

Have Sweden's COVID-19 Deaths Peaked?

What's more, in an interview with The Stanford Daily, Levitt stated in May 2020, "If Sweden stops at about 5,000 or 6,000 deaths, we will know that they've reached herd immunity, and we didn't need to do any kind of lockdown."10

As of July 17, 2020, there were 5,619 deaths in Sweden due to COVID-19,11 and in a study released by Levitt and colleagues June 30, 2020, which analyzes COVID-19 outbreaks at 3,546 locations worldwide, it's predicted that Sweden's total COVID-19 deaths will plateau at about 6,000.12

So far, Levitt is spot-on, and it appears, indeed, that Sweden's COVID-19 deaths have slowed, peaking at more than 100 deaths per day and now, midsummer, tallying in the low teens. The intensive care unit at Stockholm's Sodertalje Hospital has also cleared out, housing 77 cases during the pandemic's peak and only four cases as of July 17, 2020.13

Sweden's Epidemiologist Calls Lockdowns 'Madness'

Sweden continues to stand by their handling of the pandemic, despite heavy criticism. The country's state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, even described the rest of the world's lockdowns as "madness," considering the steep side effects they ultimately cause.

Levitt suggested that not only did lockdowns not save lives, but likely cost lives due to social damage, domestic abuse, divorces, alcoholism and other health conditions that were not treated.14 Bloomberg reported:15

"'It was as if the world had gone mad, and everything we had discussed was forgotten,' Tegnell said in a podcast with Swedish Radio … 'The cases became too many and the political pressure got too strong. And then Sweden stood there rather alone.'"

Tegnell stated that shutting down schools was also unnecessary during the pandemic, and scientists from the Institut Pasteur in France indeed found that there was no significant transmission of COVID-19 in primary schools, either among the students or from students to teachers.16

"The study also confirmed that younger children infected by the novel coronavirus generally do not develop symptoms or present with minor symptoms that may result in a failure to diagnose the virus," study author Bruno Hoen added.17

Meanwhile, while Sweden has encouraged its citizens to engage in social distancing, mask usage is another story, and Tegnell has stated that there's little evidence for wearing face masks.18

Stanford Expert Slams Lockdowns

Outside of Sweden, other experts, including epidemiologist Dr. John Ioannidis of Stanford University, have also spoken out against statewide lockdown measures in response to COVID-19. Ioannidis suggests that 150 million to 300 million people may have already been infected globally and may have developed antibodies to the virus, and the median infection fatality rate has remained low at about 0.25%.19

As continues to be demonstrated, the elderly and those with underlying health problems appear to be most vulnerable, and protecting such populations should have been a priority. But lockdowns for young, healthy people are far more questionable. Speaking with Greek Reporter, Ioannidis said:20

"The death rate in a given country depends a lot on the age-structure, who are the people infected, and how they are managed. For people younger than 45, the infection fatality rate is almost 0%. For 45 to 70, it is probably about 0.05-0.3%.

For those above 70, it escalates substantially, to 1% or higher for those over 85. For frail, debilitated elderly people with multiple health problems who are infected in nursing homes, it can go up to 25% during major outbreaks in these facilities."

Overall, Ioannidis said the mathematical models that predicted hospitals would be overrun by COVID-19 patients were "astronomically wrong," and although a handful of U.S. hospitals did become stressed, no health systems were overrun.

"Conversely," he said, "the health care system was severely damaged in many places because of the [lockdown] measures taken," while lockdown measures have also significantly increased the number of people at risk of starvation while leading to financial crisis, unrest and civil strife.21

What's more, one study even found that 81% of people not exposed to SARS-CoV-2 were still able to mount an immune response against it, which "suggests at least some built-in immune protection from SARS-CoV-2 …"22

US Surgeon General Opposes Mask Mandate

With mask usage becoming an increasingly polarized debate, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams encouraged mask usage but spoke out against making them mandatory due to concerns that it could lead to rebellion.23

In my interview with Denis Rancourt, Ph.D., a former full professor of physics, and a researcher with the Ontario Civil Liberties Association in Canada, we also discussed the controversial topic of masks. Rancourt did a thorough study of the scientific literature on masks, concentrating on evidence showing masks can reduce infection risk, especially viral respiratory diseases.

If there was any significant advantage to wearing a mask to reduce infection risk to either the wearer or others in the vicinity, then it would have been detected in at least one of these trials, yet there's no sign of such a benefit. He said in our interview:

"It makes no difference if everybody in your team is wearing a mask; it makes no difference if one is and others aren't. Wearing a mask or being in an environment where masks are being worn or not worn, there's no difference in terms of your risk of being infected by the viral respiratory disease.

There's no reduction, period. There are no exceptions. All the studies that have been tabulated, looked at, published, I was not able to find any exceptions, if you constrain yourself to verified outcomes."

This is another area where Sweden has stayed ahead of the curve, as they've resisted asking the public to wear masks based on lack of evidence of effectiveness and the risk that they offer wearers a false sense of security. Tegnell did state that officials are considering whether to recommend masks during use of public transportation, but stressed masks "definitely won't become an optimal solution in any way."24

Sweden Speaks Out Against WHO Warning

In late June 2020, the World Health Organization counted Sweden among European countries at risk of seeing a resurgence of COVID-19. The warning was based on WHO data showing Sweden had 155 infections for every 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days, a higher rate than in most of Europe.25

Tegnell, however, said that this was a "total misinterpretation of the data" and WHO was confusing Sweden with countries just at the outset of their epidemics. Instead, any rise in infections is likely due to increases in testing, Tegnell said, adding, "They didn't call to ask us. The number of admissions to intensive care is at a very low level and even deaths are starting to go down."26

Time will tell whether Sweden's strategy, which avoided lockdowns and widespread mask usage, turns out to be the right one after all, but some believe the writing is already on the wall.27

"Dr. Michael Levitt and Sweden have been right all along," Off-Guardian reported. "The only way through COVID-19 is by achieving the modest (10-20%) Herd Immunity Threshold required to have the virus snuff itself out.

The sooner politicians — and the press — start talking about HIT and stop talking about new confirmed cases, the better off we will all be. Either way, it's likely weeks, not months, before the data of new daily deaths will be so low that the press will have to find something new to scare everyone. It's over."

To read this article in full ...

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leahloox · 5 years

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TV Shows People MUST Checkout (Including Google Overviews.)

It’s just facts 🤷‍♀️

WARNINGS! Please note that some of these shows involve nudity, sexual scenes, violence and other mature themes that aren’t for everybody! (Red text)

-Downton Abbey (I love this series, every character, plot, and scene is always a masterpiece.) This historical drama follows the lives of the Crawley family and their servants in the family's Edwardian country house. The programme begins with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, which leaves Downton Abbey's future in jeopardy, as Lord Grantham's presumptive heir -- his cousin James -- and his son, Patrick, die aboard the ship, leaving him without a male offspring to take over the throne upon his death. As a result, Lord Grantham must search for a new heir. As the programme progresses through the decade, other historical events happen leading up to Lord Grantham declaring in 1914 that Britain is at war with Germany, marking the beginning of World War I, which becomes a major plot on the programme. Does deal with difficult topics!

-Outlander (I actually just started this one but I’m really enjoying it.) After serving as a British Army nurse in World War II, Claire Randall is enjoying a second honeymoon in Scotland with husband Frank, an MI6 officer looking forward to a new career as an Oxford historian. Suddenly, Claire is transported to 1743 and into a mysterious world where her freedom and life are threatened. To survive, she marries Jamie Fraser, a strapping Scots warrior with a complicated past and a disarming sense of humour. A passionate relationship ensues, and Claire is caught between two vastly different men in two inharmonious lives. `Outlander' is adapted from the best-selling books by Diana Gabaldon. Maturity Warning! This show contains vivid violence and sexual scenes! GRAPHIC!

-Game Of Thrones (Lets be real everybody and their mother knows the existence of this series but just in case you hadn’t here it is. This series is my personal favorite regardless of the disaster that was the last season. Honestly everything until that point I loved, I watched it all in a month) George R.R. Martin's best-selling book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" is brought to the screen as HBO sinks its considerable storytelling teeth into the medieval fantasy epic. It's the depiction of two powerful families -- kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and honest men -- playing a deadly game for control of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and to sit atop the Iron Throne. Martin is credited as a co-executive producer and one of the writers for the series, whose shooting locations include Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia and Spain. (Way more families are involved, but okay google.) Maturity Warning! This show contains vivid violence and sexual scenes! GRAPHIC!

-Anne with an E (SO underrated! Very good though!) This reimagining of the classic book and film is a coming-of-age story about a young orphan who is seeking love, acceptance and her place in the world. Amybeth McNulty stars as Anne, a 13-year-old who has endured an abusive childhood in orphanages and the homes of strangers. In the late 1890s, Anne is mistakenly sent to live with aging siblings, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, who live on Prince Edward Island. Anne, who proves to be uniquely spirited, imaginative and smart, transforms the lives of Marilla, Matthew and everyone else in their small town.

-Glee (It’s just good folks, a very enjoyable show up until season 5 personally.) Optimistic teacher Will Schuester heads up McKinley High School's glee club -- New Directions -- a place where ambitious and talented students can find strength, acceptance and their voice. As the students find themselves, they also enjoy a respite from the harsh realities of life. Mr. Schuester hopes to help the kids in every way he can, and also dreams of taking the group to nationals. As Schuester and the glee club pursue their goal, they face opposition from a conniving cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, who tries to sabotage the group at every turn.

-Stranger Things (At this point if you haven’t seen it I’m shocked. I will say I wasn’t a huge fan of season 1, and questioned if I should continue, but I assure you the next two seasons were great. If you were kinda like me and not into the first season, I’d highly recommend to keep going as I loved it. Season 1 had to world build. I won’t insert a overview because the overview is for season 2, so I’d just head to Netflix and read what season 1 is all about.)

-Jane the Virgin (I haven’t completed it but the story is overall compelling and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.) The daughter of a teen mother, Jane Villanueva grew up determined not to repeat her mom's mistakes. At 23, her life is on track; Jane is studying to be a teacher and engaged to a handsome detective who supports her decision to remain a virgin until marriage. Then a routine clinic visit flips her life upside down. Inseminated by a specimen meant for a patient in the next room, now-pregnant Jane is in a situation made only more insane when she learns that the sperm donor is her boss, Rafael. As her meticulously planned life gets more like the telenovelas she loves, she faces a lot of complicated decisions about where to go from here.

-Lucifer (If none of these peak your interest, please atleast check this one out. It’s just. So good. It’s something that anyone can get enjoyment out of. ) Based on characters created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg, this series follows Lucifer, the original fallen angel, who has become dissatisfied with his life in hell. After abandoning his throne and retiring to Los Angeles, Lucifer indulges in his favorite things (women, wine and song) -- until a murder takes place outside of his upscale nightclub. For the first time in billions of years, the murder awakens something unfamiliar in Lucifer's soul that is eerily similar to compassion and sympathy. Lucifer is faced with another surprise when he meets an intriguing homicide detective named Chloe, who appears to possess an inherent goodness -- unlike the worst of humanity, to which he is accustomed. Suddenly, Lucifer starts to wonder if there is hope for his soul.

#downton abbey #anne with an e #outlander #game of thrones #stranger things #lucifer #television #glee cast

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batglinda-blog · 4 years

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They didn't all have to die -- a moment of reflection as US Covid deaths reach 100,000

(CNN)The first tragedy of America's bleak coronavirus milestone is that 100,000 people didn't have to die. The second is that no one knows how many more will perish before the pandemic fades.

The desperate toll passed into six figures on Wednesday afternoon: 100,000 victims, who were living Americans several months ago, when the viciously infectious virus made landfall. The landmark is a story of lost mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, spouses and even children. Families are shattered, and the dying expire alone. They can't even be mourned owing to social distancing — one of Covid-19's cruelest impositions.The 100,000 include Americans like 44-year-old Martin Addison, of New Jersey, the type of dad who'd do Donald Duck impressions to delight his infant son. Geraldine Slaughter of Detroit, who was in her eighties, died from Covid-19 within days of her two sisters.

The virus has been disproportionately infecting communities of color. Black Americans represent 13.4% of the American population, according to the US Census Bureau, but counties with higher black populations accounted for more than half of all Covid-19 cases and almost 60% of deaths as of mid-April,

a study

by epidemiologists and clinicians found. The virus has also exploited monetary divides, as

infections at meat-packing plants show

, while many white-collar workers work from home.The victims also include the living — the more than

30 million Americans

whose livelihoods disappeared in the most dramatic collapse in American economic history. A generation born amid the fear of 9/11 just graduated high school during another national trauma. Families near and far haven't gathered for months — and may not for months to come.

close dialog

A daily analysis of US politics for global readers.Sign Me UpNo ThanksBy subscribing, you agree to our

But a pandemic -- a signature moment alongside civil war, world wars, assassinations and economic crises, in the near 250-year history of the US -- is also a political, governmental story. Politicians, few so vociferously as President Donald Trump, want the credit when things go well. So must they carry the can when they fail.Covid-19's assault is a once-in-a-century event, and no set of detailed plans, war games and batch of epidemiological theories could have prepared the nation for every unknown challenge.Yet it's also true that the US has been plagued by one of the most mismanaged, and certainly one of the most politically divisive, coronavirus mitigation efforts in the world.In years to come, in inevitable congressional commissions and medical research, there will be plenty of blame to be shared.Supply chains outsourced to China, Beijing's own response to an emerging public health disaster, the World Health Organization's missteps and loopholes created by a US federal system that often sparks power struggles in disasters will be criticized. The way state governors were slow to recognize the threat in nursing homes could turn out to be one of the most egregious mistakes.But despite his crisis-defining

comment

back in March -- "I don't take responsibility at all" -- much of the blame must fall inevitably on Trump. He didn't address the grim milestone until Thursday morning -- and after tweeting or retweeting two dozen other messages ranging from stoking a culture debate over wearing masks to criticizing the Democratic governor of Michigan -- when he called it "sad" and extended his "heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent."Such moments of national peril are exactly what presidents are for. There is a reason the buck stops on the commander in chief's desk — that's the place where the problems that no one else can solve land.Trump's 2016 convention vow — "I alone can fix it" -- and his entire leadership model of fomenting divisions, inventing his own facts and distracting from his failings by sparking new scandals has been irredeemably exposed. The steadily rising fatality toll brings its own awful judgments — that no number of attacks on the previous administration or raging tweets can disguise.'We have it totally under control'Experts said that the death toll could have been lower had the government and the health system been ready."It didn't have to happen if we had been prepared," William Haseltine, president of the think tank ACCESS Health International, said on CNN's "AC360" on Wednesday."It was totally predictable that another coronavirus was on its way," Haseltine said. "The mechanism exists, the stockpile, the drugs," he continued, adding, "There was a hole in our safety net."Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Infectious Diseases Division at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the US needs to continue "socially disturbing" routines for some time to prevent many more deaths."I'm in deep mourning as a person. I'm in deep mourning as a clinician, and also as a person who works in public health," Schaffner said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "Many of these deaths could have been prevented, but going forward, we want to prevent many, many more deaths, right?"The verdict on Trump's failure to stand up a rapid and nationwide coronavirus testing effort and his frequent and premature declarations of victory would not be so harsh had he taken the obvious approach of a pandemic more seriously.China locked down Wuhan and Hubei province on January 23. Hong Kong, which turned into a model of how to flatten the curve, recorded its first case at the same time. The White House has disputed when and if Trump was warned by US intelligence agencies about the coming storm. But it was all over the news — and given the interconnected nature of the globalized world it was obvious that it would soon arrive in the US.More alarm bells rang on March 8 when Italy clamped a lockdown on its Lombardy region amid a massive spike in infections.Yet Trump spent the time between late January and announcing a "15 days to slow the spread" initiative in mid-March in denial, floating misinformation about the virus and creating an alternative reality in which it might "miraculously" disappear."We have it totally under control," the President

said

on January 22. "We pretty much shut it down coming from China," he said on February 2. But concern was already rising in the US public health community about what came to be seen as the almost certain spread of the virus to the US and whether the country was prepared for its onslaught on hospitals.On February 25, Nancy Messonnier, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, infuriated the White House by warning that disruptions to daily life in the US could be "severe."She told schools to start thinking about closures and businesses to prepare for telecommuting in a prediction that turned out to be an entirely accurate summation of America's destiny.The preferred White House narrative was delivered the same day by economic czar Larry Kudlow — not for the first time in the weeks to come that an unqualified political appointee would pronounce on medical matters. "We have contained this. I won't say it's air tight, but it's pretty close to air tight," Kudlow

said

."We have had tremendous success, tremendous success, beyond what people would have thought," Trump said the next day before launching into one of his frequent tributes to China's President Xi Jinping, weeks before turning on China when he needed a scapegoat for his own government's under performance.Weeks of denial worsened the tollIn years to come, Trump's denial in the early weeks will likely come to be seen as one of the most damaging passages of the crisis. It contributed to the disastrous deficit the US later experienced in developing a testing infrastructure — already hobbled by a failed CDC diagnostic kit — and the shortages of protective gear for emergency responders and doctors and nurses.The megaphone given to a President is one of the most effective methods of girding a nation into action. When it is silent, that causes its own issues, as the lack of urgency shown by many states in preparing for the onslaught shows.A Columbia University study released last week found that had the US started social distancing a week earlier, it could have prevented the loss of at least 36,000 lives.In the New York metro area alone, 17,500 fewer people would have died if the US had acted one week earlier, Columbia epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman said.New York's leaders put the blame on the Trump administration's failure to build a robust testing system that would have shown how deeply the virus had penetrated the community.The first months of the pandemic's deadly path across America were dominated by fierce political arguments over deficiencies in testing needed to assess the virus' hold on the country.In recent weeks, with most hotspots concentrated in big, more liberal cities and urban areas, a bitter debate has unfolded about the pace of opening the shuttered economy.Trump says that the US has "prevailed" in the pandemic and has frequently boasted that the United States now leads the world in testing — a claim not supported by the crucial, per capita metric. According to the latest data from the Covid Tracking Project, the US has now conducted 15 million tests during the pandemic. Data collected by Oxford University shows that the after a slow start, US testing is catching up. The US has now carried out 45 tests per 1,000 people, ahead of countries like Canada and the UK, but trailing states like Australia, Italy and New Zealand, which has been widely praised for its handling of the crisis.While Trump would like to boast the world's best Covid response, the data doesn't bear out his claims. The US has a rate of 30 deaths per 100,000 in the population, significantly lower than hard-hit nations like Britain, France and Italy. But the US is worse off than Germany with 10 deaths per 100,000 in the population and South Korea with 0.52 deaths per 100,000, according to figures prepared by Johns Hopkins University. There is currently a mixed picture of the pandemic in the US suggesting a pivot point could be near. Currently, infections are rising in 14 states, are steady in 17 and falling in 19 states.What's to come

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, or IHME, at the University of Washington has now shifted its prediction for US deaths down to 132,000 by August, amid signs that widespread wearing of masks is helping reduce infections. That figure doesn't take into account a feared spike in the virus in the fall.Still, the wearing of masks has become a fierce political controversy with

Trump refusing to wear one in public

as some conservative supporters portray such precautions as an infringement on basic freedoms. Trump's presumptive 2020 opponent Joe Biden on Tuesday

called him a "fool"

for taking such a position.

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husheduphistory · 4 years

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“Tiger Woman” and her Trunks: The Horrible Case and Cargo of Winnie Ruth Judd

It is difficult to imagine what was going through Ruth’s mind when she arrived at the train station on October 19th 1931. She was only twenty-six years old but she had lived in numerous states, moved to Mexico, had her marriage fall apart, reestablished herself in Arizona, and was beginning a new life. But now, she was unexpectedly in California to meet her brother with a bandaged hand and a lot of luggage to pick up. When she arrived at the Los Angeles train station the baggage agent refused to let her pick up her trunks until they could inspect the contents. She informed them she did not have a key and that she would come back for them later. She never went back. Within a matter of days she was given many new names, became the subject of a manhunt, and surrendered herself to police inside a funeral home. The story was shocking, but it was far from done.

Winnie Ruth Judd.

Born on January 29th 1905 in Oxford, Indiana, Winnie Ruth McKinnell (who went by Ruth) was only seventeen when she married Dr. William C. Judd, a World War I veteran who was twenty-two years her senior. Dr. Judd was a morphine addict and his pursuit of a steady job brought the pair to Mexico where he worked as a medic for an American mining company. By 1930 the two were living apart and Ruth returned to the States by herself looking for a place to call home. What she found was Phoenix, Arizona and a job working for a wealthy governess. It seemed that Ruth had finally left the troubled times behind and was on her way to forging a new life. Then she met Happy Jack.

John J. “Happy Jack” Halloran was very well known in Phoenix. At forty-four years old he made a name for himself running an extremely lucrative lumber business and with his success came friends in high places. Both he and Ruth were married, but that did not stop the two from igniting a relationship and Ruth soon found two new friends during their alcohol-infused parties with Halloran’s associates. Agnes “Ann�� Leroi was thirty-two years old, twice divorced, and was working as an x-ray technician. Her partner, Hedvig ‘Sammy” Samuelson, was twenty-four and the pair had moved to Phoenix from Alaska after Sammy’s battle with tuberculosis. Ann and Sammy lived together in a small three-room bungalow and it wasn’t long before Ruth moved in, cementing the house as thee location for Halloran and his drinking buddies’ parties and card games. After several months Ruth moved out and got her own apartment, but the three women remained best friends. On the night of October 16th 1931 Ruth went to visit the two friends for dinner and drinks. Ann and Sammy were never seen alive again.

“Happy Jack” Halloran. Image via the Arizona Memory Project https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/

Three days later in Los Angeles the train station baggage handler was waiting for Ruth to come back and open her luggage for inspection, but he couldn’t wait anymore. The luggage was leaking, it smelled horrific, and there were flies gathering around them. He was convinced she was smuggling deer meat and he called the Los Angeles Police Department. When the police arrived and opened the luggage out tumbled the body of Ann Leroi and three sections of what was once Sammy Samuelson. When Ruth was picked up by her brother he had no idea what his sister was hiding, he dropped her off somewhere in the city and she vanished.

The luggage that contained the remains of Ann Leroi and Sammy Samuelson.

The headlines exploded with the horror story, screaming “TWO WOMEN’S BODIES SHIPPED HERE IN TRUNKS BY FIENDISH KILLER!” and dubbing Ruth with names like “The Blonde Butcher”, “The Tiger Woman”, and “The Trunk Murderess.” Back in Phoenix the owner of the bungalow didn’t waste a moment and immediately placed ads in the local paper offering tours of the crime scene for ten cents. The frenzy raged on for four days before Ruth finally turned herself in to the police on October 23rd.

The question on everyone’s mind was what could have caused anyone to kill their two best friends and shove their bodies into luggage, but it was a question that was difficult to answer. By the time the police were able to investigate the crime scene the house had already had thousands of people walking through it and one mattress was inexplicably missing. Ruth released a statement through her attorney explaining her version of the story. According to her account, she visited the two women for a nice evening but ended up getting into an explosive argument with Sammy. Her account goes on to claim that Sammy:

“got hold of a gun and shot me in the left hand, Mrs. LeRoi grabbed an ironing board and started to strike me over the head with it. In the struggle, I got hold of the gun, and Sammy got shot. Mrs. LeRoi was still coming at me with the ironing board, and I had to shoot her. Then I ran from the place.”

Then came another shockwave, Ruth said she fled to her apartment where Jack Halloran was waiting. She claimed he returned to the house with her and it was he who cut up Sammy and shoved the bodies in the luggage while she cleaned up the bloody scene.

The story was a sensation, but it did not overly make sense. The police and medical examiners at the scene determined that the women were shot in the head at close range while laying in their separate beds. The location of the injuries did not match with gunshots fired during a fight, especially a fight involving three people, one of which was holding an ironing board. Another question swirled in the minds of Phoenix, why was Halloran waiting at Judd’s apartment and why did he help her dispose of the bodies of their friends?

Newspaper reporting the discovery of the bodies in the trunks.

The trial of Ruth Judd began on January 19th 1932 and from the beginning Judd claimed she only shot Ann and Sammy in self defense. Amazingly, she was only tried for the murder of Ann, and the court did not buy her story. In the eyes of the court the tension between the women was evident for weeks, beginning with Judd moving out of the house they shared. The theory was that the source of the bitterness was venomous jealousy over Halloran’s affection for the other women and that Judd went to their house that night with the intent to kill. On February 8th 1932 Judd was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death by hanging.

Judd at her trial in 1932.

Judd was not the only person defending herself in court over the gruesome crime. When Halloran’s name was brought into the story he too was eyed for his involvement in the bloody scene. On December 30th 1932 he was indicted by a grand jury as an accomplice to murder, and Judd was the star witness against him. In Judd’s testimony she told the story of how she got into a fight with Sammy over her introducing Halloran to another woman. She then shot them in self defense, met Halloran at her apartment, and it was he who dismembered Sammy, dragged in the luggage, packed the bodies into a single large trunk, and made her promise to tell no one. Even though Judd admitted to the shooting and later unpacking and repacking the bodies in different pieces of luggage so they were easier for her to manage, she insisted that Halloran was just as guilty as she was. She stated in court “I am going to be hanged for something Jack Halloran is responsible for ... I was convicted of murder, but I shot in self-defense. Jack Halloran removed every bit of evidence. He is responsible for me going through all this. He is guilty of anything I am guilty of.”

Halloran’s lawyers argued that since Judd said the women were killed in self defense there was no crime to charge their client with. And besides, she was obviously insane. The charges against Halloran were dismissed on January 25th 1933. He may have been found innocent in court but he never regained his beloved image in Phoenix, losing his business and most of his associates.

Judd’s execution was scheduled for February 17th 1933 but only days before she was supposed to die Arizona authorities changed her sentence. Following a huge outpouring of people who believed that Judd was mentally unsound and should not be put to death she was instead committed to the Arizona State Mental Hospital, beginning her stay there on April 24th 1933.

Everyone assumed that Judd would live the rest of her days behind the walls of the hospital, but they were wrong. On October 24th 1939 she constructed a dummy out of boxes and towels, arranged it under her blankets, and escaped from the hospital. She was at large for six days before she was caught and brought back but Judd was able to escape six more times. Her last escape took place on October 8th 1963 when she simply walked out the door, a friend inside the hospital had given her a key. Most of her previous escapes only lasted a few days but this time was different. Judd somehow ended up in the San Francisco Bay Area and formed an entirely new identity. Living as “Marian Lane” she worked as a live-in housekeeper in a mansion owned by an elderly woman for seven years before her true identity was discovered and she was again arrested. Considering she was able to escape multiple times and resume a “normal” life outside, she was then judged sane by medical examiners and relocated to the state penitentiary where she remained until she was released in late 1971. When released Judd made her way back to California where she again took up the name “Marian Lane” and she went on to live a quiet life until her death in 1998 at the age of ninety-three.

A nurse holds up a rope used by Judd in her 1952 escape. Image via azcentral.com.

Although Judd was found guilty of first degree murder in 1932 the reason for the killings was never crystal clear. In 2014 a letter was discovered in the Arizona State Archive. It was dated April 6th 1933, it was handwritten by Judd, and it states that it is her “first and only confession.” In the text of the letter Judd details the murders of Ann and Sammy, claiming she was pushed to kill by the incessant “taunts” of Ann Leroi who tormented her by flirting with Halloran. She states: “Those taunts kept me awake, I could not sleep. I cried. I even prayed. I was losing my mind…No human was ever going through so much turmoil of mind.”

According to Judd, on the evening of October 16th with her “brain whirling” with “insane thoughts” she “got up and went over to Ann’s house,” carrying her .25-calibre handgun. Both women were asleep and she snuck in through the front door, deciding to sit down on the couch where she eventually fell asleep. She was woken up by Sammy walking into the bathroom and she then remembered what she “had come to do.” She moved toward the bedroom but turned away because she was “shaking inside.” Returning to the couch she fell back to sleep. She was woken up by the sound of the milkman outside and when she realized Sammy was again in the bathroom she got up, went into the bedroom, and shot Ann in the head. Hearing the gunshot Sammy rushed into the bedroom and tried to wrestle the gun from Judd, accidentally shooting her in the hand. Judd then claims they both fell on the floor, “and I finally got the gun and in my wild state I shot her in the head.”

After both her friends lay dead Judd went into the garage, pulled a large trunk into the house, and stuffed Ann’s body inside. Then, Judd went to work and carried out a normal day. According to her letter, she had nothing planned out other than killing Ann, “I really had nothing definite in my mind. No plans made. In fact except for an irresistible impulse to get Ann I had no other plans.” After a brief trip to her apartment after work she returned to the scene of the crime and got inside through a bathroom window. She attempted to fit Sammy in the trunk but “that was utterly impossible, I couldn’t possibly lift her, she was too heavy and her body was stiff. I then got two cheap knives from the kitchen and severed her body into portions I could lift.” She then shoved the pieces of Sammy into a smaller trunk and a suitcase.

Ann Leroi and Sammy Samuelson. Image via azcentral.com.

Those who only knew “Marian Lane” in California probably had a very difficult time reconciling the person they knew with the Winnie Ruth Judd from Phoenix. She was a little old lady who always had a friendly smile and her hair done, a hugely far cry from the “Trunk Murderess” that filled the headlines decades before. She never fully denied her past though, once commenting “how she was sorry she wasn't going to live long enough to see the day when people would finally stop remembering Winnie Ruth Judd.”

Today, the bungalow where the murders of Ann Leroi and Sammy Samuelson took place still stands in Phoenix at the corner of Second Street and Catalina Drive. It was recently purchased by someone who hopes to restore it to show what it looked like the night of the infamous Trunk Murders.

You can read the full confession of Winnie Ruth Judd here.

A 2010 photograph of the Trunk Murders bungalow. Image via Wikipedia.

*********************************************************************************

Sources:

The Arizona Memory Project https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov

The Yale Review yalereview.yale.edu/trunk-murders-1931

AZCentral.com

The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd by Jane Bommersbach

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yarpiebrit · 4 years

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Let’s establish two things up-front about J.R.R. Tolkien the creator of ‘The Hobbit’ and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, firstly he was a South African and secondly, he was a soldier. His formative years and war experience are the backdrop to the creative mind that produced the legendary sentence “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” a mind that unleashed the worlds of Middle Earth, Mordor, Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Gandalf the Grey, Dragons, Mining Dwarves and not forgetting our ‘precious’ Gollum on us.

A ‘South African’

It’s seldom acknowledged, even in the country of his birth, that Tolkien was born in South Africa (technically however, he was born in the Orange Free State Republic). Tolkien was born John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien in Bloemfontein on the 3 January 1892. His father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien was a bank manager, his parents left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of a British bank called The Bank of Africa which involved itself primarily in financing diamond and gold mining.

The reason for the move to the ‘colonies’ with The Bank of Africa was that it enabled Arthur to marry Mabel Suffield and support a family. So, before he was born, J.R.R Tolkein’s Mum and Dad were married in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr in Cape Town in the Cape Colony on 16 April 1891 and then moved on to the Orange Free State Republic.

The couple eventually reached the capital of the Free State – Bloemfontein, after a 32-hour train journey, Mabel was not impressed by the place. “Owlin Wilderness!… Horrid Waste!” she wrote of Bloemfontein. The independent Boer Republic capital at the time had a population of 3500, it was windy, dusty and treeless – however on the up-side the nearby veld still contained abundant game.

A picture of Church Street (currently known as Oliver Tambo Road) Bloemfontein, circa 1900

John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien was born at Bank House in Bloemfontein, he was later baptised in the Anglican Cathedral of St Andrew and St Michael, one of the oldest churches in Bloemfontein. His third name ‘Reuel’ sounded so unusual that the vicar misspelt it in the baptismal register. One of his godparents was George Edward Jelf, the Assistant Master at Bloemfontein’s now legendary boys school – St Andrew’s College.

Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, who was also born in Bloemfontein on 17 February 1894.

Generally, the harsh African climate did not sit well with Mabel and the scorching Bloemfontein summer followed by freezing winter did not appeal to her at all. She took the boys on a short holiday to the seaside in the Cape Colony in 1894 – a holiday which Tolkien himself remembered vividly and had very strong impressions of the landscape.

Shortly afterward the sea-side trip Mabel took the boys on another holiday to England. Tolkien’s father was heavily engaged in work and was to join the family in England for the holiday later. The separation had a huge influence and Tolkien would later recall powerful separation anxiety; he recalled his father painting ‘A.R. Tolkien’ on their cabin trunk. Tolkien retained the trunk as a treasured in memory of his father.

They waited for their father to join them in Birmingham, but he never arrived. He had developed Rheumatic Fever in Bloemfontein and died from complications brought on by the illness. He was buried near the old Cathedral in Bloemfontein in what is now the President Brand Cemetery. For many years his grave was lost and was unmarked until in 1992 the Tolkien family was able to trace the grave and consecrate a new headstone.

With little to come back to Mabel decided not to return to South Africa and the young family settled in the hamlet of Sarehole near Birmingham

An African Influence

So how could South Africa possibly have influenced the wonderful mind of such a young J.R.R Tolkien having only spent 3 years there? People who study Tolkien (yup, there is a fraternity of Tolkienists who dedicate study to him and his books), point to a number of interesting instances which happened to him in South Africa which influenced his formative mind.

Firstly, he was kidnapped. Now that’s not common knowledge. An African male domestic helper in the Tolkien family employ named Isaak kidnapped baby Tolkien for a day to show him off to nearby villagers, Isaak had a great affinity to Tolkien and was immensely proud of the young lad – the family forgave him and funnily Isaak went on to name his first son Isaak Mister Tolkien Victor.

Secondly, he was bitten by a poisonous spider. Some sources point to a baboon spider and others point to a tarantula as the culprit who bit him on the foot when he was a toddler learning to walk, either way, very luckily, a quick-witted family nurse sucked the poison out.

Tolkien himself later said he had no real fear of spiders, however Tolkienist researchers claimed that this experience prompted Tolkien’s evil spirits in the form of huge venomous arachnids. In the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings we read of battles with the horrifying giant Spiders, Shelob and Ungoliant. When asked to comment on this theory, Tokien himself didn’t confirm or deny it, saying only that the researchers were “welcome to the notion”.

Thirdly, and this is the most significant influence South Africa made on Tolkien is his future love of languages – a love which led him to imagine entirely new invented languages – there is hardly a hard core Hobbit fan out there who is not swept away with the Elvin language. Of this influence there is no denial and the language which did it – Afrikaans. Yup, believe it.

Tolkien’s father learned to speak a little ‘Dutch’ in his local dealings and Mabel interacted with local Bloemfontein residents – English and Afrikaners alike. She even performed in amateur plays staged by the Fischers and the Fichardts, two of the most prominent Free State families.

In one of the earliest photographs of J.R.R. Tolkien he can be seen with in the arms of his Afrikaner nurse. He was also surrounded by servants all of whom spoke Afrikaans. His nurse taught him some of her language and phases and Tolkien would later say of himself – “My cradle-tongue was English with a dashing of Afrikaans”.

Photograph of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, November, 1892 with J.R.R in the hands of his nurse

Tolkien would develop his love for new languages and later studied Latin and Greek. He went on to get his first-class degree at Exeter College, specialising in Anglo-Saxon and Germanic languages and classic literature.

In The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, he invented an entirely new language for his elves, Quenya – also known as Qenya or High-Elven, with its grammar rooted in Germanic languages, Greek and Latin. Tolkien compiled the “Qenya Lexicon”, his first list of Elvish words, in 1915 at the age of 23, and continued to refine the language throughout his life.

Ah, but he was just ‘too young’ for South Africa to have any influence whatsoever would be the chorus of the sceptical readers of this article, he was only 3 years old when he left – not so, we are dealing with a brilliant mind and consider this, by the time he was 4 years old Tolkien could read and he could write fluently very soon afterwards.

Back in England tragedy was to strike the Tolkin boys again, when their mother Mabel also died in 1904, and the Tolkien brothers were sent to live with a relative and in boarding homes, with a Catholic priest assuming guardianship in Birmingham.

Tolkien had a highly imaginative upbringing in England and by October 1911 he began studying at Excreter Collage at Oxford University. He initially started with classics but switched to Languages and Literature, graduating in 1915 with first-class honours.

World War 1

Being a soldier is one of Tolkien’s biggest influences and of that there is little doubt, war awoke in Tolkien a taste for a fairy story which reflected the extremes of light and darkness, good and evil which he saw around him, especially when you consider the battles he took part in and witnessed.

World War 1 broke out whilst Tolkien was at university. He elected not to join until he finished his degree. Upon graduating Tolkien immediately found himself in the British Army in July 1915, volunteering to join up. Aged 22 ,he joined the 11th Lancashire Fusilliers and studied signalling, emerging as a 2nd Lieutenant, he married whilst in the Army in March 1916 and in short time, by June was ordered to go to France to take part in the Battle of the Somme, at the time he said of the order “It was like a death,”

The Battle of Somme in 1916 was singularly the biggest bloodletting of World War 1 as one million men (get your head around that) on both sides were either killed or wounded as the British advanced a front along the Somme river for only 7 miles. The Battle of the Somme is no doubt the background to Tolkien’s future Middle Earth – Mordor (the Black Land and Quenya Land of Shadow) and the realm and base of the arch-villain Sauron.

Battle of Albert. Roll call of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in a communications trench. IWM image copyright

Fortunately for Tolkien he was spared from the first Somme assault (unlike many of his university educated officer class friends and colleagues who were mowed down), the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers were held in Reserve. When sent ‘over the top’ the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers helped capture the German stronghold at Ovillers two weeks later.

Tolkien was appointed the battalion signalling officer and spent the next three months in and out of trenches. The biggest inspiration for Tolkien’s future The Lord of Rings lies in his respect for the ordinary British infantryman under such intense adversary, these infantrymen would later be the bedrock for Tolkien’s loyal, brave and resilient hobbit – Samwise Gamgee.

Wiring party of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers going up to the trenches. Beaumont Hamel, July 1916. IWM copyright

In late October, after seizing a key German trench, the Fusiliers were sent on to Ypres. But Tolkien was ��lucky’ to be spared the slaughter in Belgium, a tiny louse bite gave him trench fever, so he landed up in a Birmingham hospital and here he started writing about mechanistic dragons, inspired by the invention of the military tank in warfare and formulating Mordor in his mind instead.

Tolkien spent the rest of the war in and out of hospital and training troops in Staffordshire and Yorkshire. Here in 1917, whilst walking in the woods with his wife he was inspired to write the love story of the fugitive warrior Beren and the elven-fair Lúthien.

In all Tolkien summed up war in the trenches as “animal horror” and he was not far wrong.

More South African twists and turns

After the war ended in November 1918 the lure of South Africa endured and Tolkien in 1920 applied for a professorship of English Literature at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and was to be sponsored by De Beers Mining consortium, His application was approved, but, in the end, he had to decline the offer for family reasons and retained his post as reader at the University of Leeds and was later appointed professor at Oxford.

Tolkien settled in to write the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy, however war (and South Africa) was never to really leave him. When World War 2 came about, his youngest son Christopher joined the Royal Air Force and, in 1944 he was dispatched to South Africa to train in Kroonstad (also in the Orange Free State) to train as a fighter pilot and he was later moved to Standerton.

Christopher Tolkien (marked with X) training in South Africa 1944

J.R.R. Tolkien resumed his work on The Lord of the Rings and sent chapters from the future book to his son in South Africa, in a letter he told Christopher that he wished he could travel to South Africa – the country of his birth. He wrote of his curiosity in Africa and wrote to Christopher of the “curious sense of reminiscence about any stories of Africa, which always moves me deeply. Strange that you, my dearest, should have gone back there…’

To say that Christopher or his experiences did not have any influence on The Lord of the Rings, consider that after the war in 1950 he become a freelance tutor completing a B.Litt and worked very closely with his father through the creation of The Lord of the Rings and later works, and he was given the task of creating the original maps for the first edition of The Lord of the Rings.

The truth is, South Africa never really left J.R.R. Tolkien, he was native to it, intrinsically linked to his land of birth, ever wanting to return to it and it continued to have a deep influence on him all his life.

Legacy in South Africa

So where are we with remembering one of South Africa’s most successful authors of all time? The reading is grim I’m afraid. Apart from the generally Hobbit crazy Hogsback village and nature park in the Eastern Cape there is little else. Hogsback has used the Tolkien/South Africa link to an insane level naming just about everything in the nature park after something to do with The Lord of the Rings, but it’s an indirect link – there is no evidence that Tolkien never visited Hogsback. The biggest disappointment however is Bloemfontein where there is a direct link – he is after all one of their most famous ‘sons’ – and a very big tourist opportunity for the city.

Hogsback – Tolkien’s Middle Earth in the Amathole Mountains?

However, in Bloemfontein the Tolkien Society is now defunct, the municipality on Tolkien’s birth centenary mooted a Tolkien walk (to see places he grew up in etc) but that never really materialised. There is a plaque at the Church in which he was baptised, but that’s about it. Travel guides list Tolkien’s father’s grave as ‘too dangerous’ to visit. The brass plaque on commemorating his birthplace was stolen and never replaced.

In Conclusion

This general apathy to Tolkien in South Africa is best summed up UK journalists from the Mail and Guardian who made their way to Bloemfontein when Peter Jackson launched his epic movie trilogy of Lord of the Rings – they expected to get a scoop on South Africans embracing what is arguably one of their most famous author, if not the most famous. Instead they were surprised to learn that the average modern South Africa did not know Tolkien was a South African and here is the key part – when interviewed they felt that The Lord of the Rings was ‘European’ mythology and had nothing to do with African culture, so they deduce that was simply not a real African.

Therein lies the essence, South African education today simply dismiss anything with a ‘colonial’ heritage, including what is arguably one of the best-selling authors the entire world has ever seen. The truth is Tolkien was South African, his biggest influence was that of the World War 1, a war that South Africa also took part in, and in the Battle of the Somme his original ‘countrymen’ – South Africans were defending Deville Wood a little way down the Somme salient shoulder to shoulder with him.

The lack of adoption of a South African like Tolkien in his country of birth is a travesty to understanding history correctly, South Africa is made up of many cultural parts and all its history needs to be preserved, not just one or the other.

I for one hope this missive goes a little way to re-education, and as a fellow South African and military veteran I salute you John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

Written and Researched by Peter Dickens

References: Tolkien’s War: Mordor Was Born in WW1 by Mark Shiffer, Tolkien Gateway on-line, J.R.R. Tolkien Biography by Biography.com Editors, South African History on-line. A plaque, a Hobbit hotel and a JRR Tolkien trail that’s petered out … David Smith, ‘Africa… always moves me deeply’: Tolkien in Bloemfontein by Boris Gorelik. Bloemfontein: On the trail of Tolkien by David Tabb.

A South African, Mordor and a Hobbit Let’s establish two things up-front about J.R.R. Tolkien the creator of ‘The Hobbit’ and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, firstly he was a South African and secondly, he was a soldier.

#Battle of the Somme #J.R.R Tolkien #Lord of the Rings #The Hobbit #World War 1

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years

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Secret proposals to ration care by age in pandemic branded ‘unacceptable’

Secret plans to withdraw hospital care from over-70s in the case of a catastrophic pandemic have been branded “totally unacceptable” by charities representing older people.

Confident documents produced following a pandemic planning exercise in 2016 proposed a “triaging” system to be put into operation if healthcare resources were exhausted, under which people in nursing homes could be offered “end of life pathways” instead of medical assistance.

The government said the proposals related to “hypothetical scenarios” and had never been adopted as official policy.

But Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams told The Independent that Britain had come “perilously close” to an approach of this sort at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

And she said that the government and NHS should be clear that treatment decisions must always be based on clinical need.

The documents on “NHS surge and triage” and adult social care in the case of a pandemic, labelled “confidential” and “official sensitive”, were obtained by an NHS doctor under freedom of information legislation and published on Saturday by the Daily Telegraph.

Written in 2017 and 2018, they suggested that in the case of a serious flu outbreak which overwhelmed the NHS’s ability to respond, patients could be “triaged” – or prioritised for treatment – based on their “probability of survival” rather than “clinical need”.

In a severe pandemic, the health secretary could authorise medics to prioritise some patients over others and even stop providing critical care altogether, the documents suggested.

Ms Abrahams expressed deep concern that the approach had even been considered.

UK news in pictures

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1/50UK news in pictures

UK news in pictures

30 July 2021

Great Britain’s Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan

UK news in pictures

29 July 2021

Great Britain’s Mallory Franklin celebrates on the podium after she won silver in the women’s C1 Canoe Slalom at Tokyo Olympics

Reuters

UK news in pictures

28 July 2021

Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status

UK news in pictures

27 July 2021

A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants.

UK news in pictures

26 July 2021

A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel

UK news in pictures

25 July 2021

Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London

AFP/Getty

UK news in pictures

24 July 2021

Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main

UK news in pictures

23 July 2021

Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery’s new free programme of art-inspired activities for families

UK news in pictures

22 July 2021

Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk

UK news in pictures

21 July 2021

A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer

UK news in pictures

20 July 2021

People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London

UK news in pictures

19 July 2021

Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England

UK news in pictures

18 July 2021

A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent

UK news in pictures

17 July 2021

Cyclists ride over the Hammersmith Bridge in London. The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave

Getty

UK news in pictures

16 July 2021

The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool

UK news in pictures

15 July 2021

Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a £7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport’s Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe

UK news in pictures

14 July 2021

Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the world’s first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July

UK news in pictures

13 July 2021

Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford

UK news in pictures

12 July 2021

A local resident puts love hearts and slogans on the plastic that covers offensive graffiti on the vandalised mural of Manchester United striker and England player Marcus Rashford on the wall of a cafe on Copson Street, Withington in Manchester

Getty Images

UK news in pictures

11 July 2021

England’s Bukayo Saka with manager Gareth Southgate after the match

Pool via Reuters

UK news in pictures

10 July 2021

Australia’s Ashleigh Barty holds the trophy after winning her final Wimbledon match against Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova

Reuters

UK news in pictures

9 July 2021

England 1966 World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst stands on top of a pod on the lastminute.com London Eye wearing a replica 1966 World Cup final kit and looking out towards Wembley Stadium in the north of the capital, where the England football team will play Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday

UK news in pictures

8 July 2021

Karolina Pliskova celebrates after defeating Aryna Sabalenka during the women’s singles semifinals match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London

UK news in pictures

7 July 2021

The residents of Towfield Court in Feltham have transformed their estate with England flags for the Euro 2020 tournament

UK news in pictures

6 July 2021

A couple are hit by a wave as they walk along the promenade in Dover, Kent, during strong winds

UK news in pictures

5 July 2021

Alexander Zverev playing against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round of the Gentlemen’s Singles on Court 1 on day seven of Wimbledon at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

UK news in pictures

4 July 2021

Aaron Carty and the Beyoncé Experience perform on stage during UK Black Pride at The Roundhouse in London

Getty for UK Black Pride

UK news in pictures

3 July 2021

England’s Jordan Henderson celebrates after scoring his first international goal, his side’s fourth against Ukraine during the Euro 2020 quarter final match at the Olympic stadium in Rome

UK news in pictures

2 July 2021

Dan Evans serves against Sebastian Korda during their men’s singles third round match at Wimbledon

Getty

UK news in pictures

1 July 2021

Prince William, left and Prince Harry unveil a statue they commissioned of their mother Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London

UK news in pictures

30 June 2021

Dancers from the Billingham Festival and Balbir Singh Dance Company, during a preview for the The Two Fridas, UK Summer tour, presented by Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance in collaboration with Balbir Singh Dance Company, inspired by the life and times of female artists Frida Kahlo and Amrita Sher-Gil , which opens on July 10 at Ushaw Historic House, Chapel and Gardens in Durham

UK news in pictures

29 June 2021

A boy kicks a soccer ball in front of the balconies and landings adorned with predominantly England flags at the Kirby housing estate in London

UK news in pictures

28 June 2021

Emergency services attend a fire nearby the Elephant & Castle Rail Station in London

Getty

UK news in pictures

27 June 2021

People walk along Regent Street in central London during a #FreedomToDance march organised by Save Our Scene, in protest against the government’s perceived disregard for the live music industry throughout the coronavirus pandemic

UK news in pictures

26 June 2021

A pair of marchers in a Trans Pride rally share a smile in Soho

Angela Christofilou/The Independent

UK news in pictures

25 June 2021

Tim Duckworth during the Long Jump in the decathlon during day one of the Muller British Athletics Championships at Manchester Regional Arena

UK news in pictures

24 June 2021

A member of staff poses with the work ‘The Death of Cash’ by XCopy at the ‘CryptOGs: The Pioneers of NFT Art’ auction at Bonhams auction house in London

EPA

UK news in pictures

23 June 2021

Bank of England Chief Cashier Sarah John displays the new 50-pound banknote at Daunt Books in London

Bank of England via Reuters

UK news in pictures

22 June 2021

Actor Isaac Hampstead Wright sits on the newly unveiled Game of Throne’s “Iron Throne” statue, in Leicester Square, in London, Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The statue is the tenth to join the trail and commemorates 10 years since the TV show first aired, as well as in anticipation for HBO’s release of House of the Dragon set to be released in 2022

UK news in pictures

21 June 2021

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon receives her second dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

AFP/Getty

UK news in pictures

20 June 2021

Joyce Paton, from Peterhead, on one of the remaining snow patches on Meall a’Bhuiridh in Glencoe during the Midsummer Ski. The event, organised by the Glencoe Mountain Resort, is held every year on the weekend closest to the Summer Solstice

UK news in pictures

19 June 2021

England appeal LBW during day four of their Women’s International Test match against India at the Bristol County Ground

UK news in pictures

18 June 2021

Scotland fans let off flares in Leicester Square after Scotland’s Euro 2020 match against England ended in a 0-0 draw

Getty

UK news in pictures

17 June 2021

Members of the Tootsie Rollers jazz band pose on the third day of the Royal Ascot horse racing meet

AFP/Getty

UK news in pictures

16 June 2021

A woman and child examine life-size sculptures of a herd of Asian elephants set up by the Elephant Family and The Real Elephant Collective to help educate the public on the elephants and the ways in which humans can better protect the planets biodiversity, in Green Park, central London

AFP/Getty

UK news in pictures

15 June 2021

Hydrotherapists with Dixie, a seven-year-old Dachshund who is being treated for back problems common with the breed, in the hydrotherapy pool during a facility at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home’s in Battersea, London, to view their new hydrotherapy centre

UK news in pictures

14 June 2021

Scotland’s David Marshall in the net after Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick scored their second goal at Hampden Park

Reuters

UK news in pictures

13 June 2021

Raheem Sterling celebrates with Harry Kane after scoring England’s first goal of the Euro 2021 tournament in a match against Croatia at Wembley

Reuters

UK news in pictures

12 June 2021

Oxfam campaigners wearing costumes depicting G7 leaders pose for photographers on Swanpool Beach near Falmouth, Cornwall

EPA

UK news in pictures

11 June 2021

Members of the Vaxinol team, who are commercial, industrial and residential cleaners specialising in disinfection and decontamination, use electrostatic spray systems to deep clean the Only Fools Bar in Liverpool

“Whatever the status of this planning document may be, we know from other reports that during the early part of this pandemic we got perilously close to triage approaches being introduced in hospitals that took age heavily into account,”she said.

“If they had been put into practice the result would have been that a relatively healthy 70-year-old would not have got access to the intensive treatment they needed – they would effectively have been written off.

“At that time there was huge uncertainty and fear, as doctors struggled to cope with a virus that was threatening to overwhelm the NHS.

“However, we said at the time and repeat now that there is no place for treatment decisions based on age in a civilised society. Whatever the pressures, these decisions should always be based on clinical need.

“To do otherwise is blatantly ageist and totally unacceptable.”

Prof Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent providers of adult social care, told The Independent: “The NHS should not have blanket policies and every single person should be assessed on the basis of need.

“The NHS should be available to all citizens and any scenario planning for a pandemic should focus on the needs of citizens, not the needs of organisations.”

Dr Moosa Qureshi, who obtained the plans, said it was “unprofessional” that they were not given to medics.

“The Information Commissioner held that clinicians must be supported by a clear framework when allocating care during a severe pandemic, and that the framework needs public debate,” he said. “The NHS triage paper provides real guidance for front-line staff if NHS services are overwhelmed. Why did the Department of Health, NHS England and BMA keep it secret from healthcare professionals?”

An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS was asked to produce this discussion document based on a specific and extreme hypothetical scenario to inform the Government’s pandemic flu preparedness programme rather than for operational use and it did not form the basis of the NHS response to coronavirus.”

A government spokesman said the reports were “historical draft briefing papers that include hypothetical scenarios which do not and have never represented agreed government policy”.

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world-of-wales · 4 months

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─ •✧ CATHERINE'S YEAR IN REVIEW : FEBRUARY ✧• ─

1 FEBRUARY - Catherine appeared in a video for Shaping Us Campaign.

2 FEBRUARY - Catherine appeared in a video with Roman Kemp as part of the Shaping Us Campaign.

4 FEBRUARY - Kensington Palace released a childhood photo of Catherine with Michael Middleton for the Shaping Us Campaign.

5 FEBRUARY - She visited St. John's Primary School to mark the start of Children's Mental Health Week 2023.

8 FEBRUARY - Catherine was received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire (Mrs. Elizabeth Fothergill) as she visited Landau Forte College along with Captain Harpreet Chandi.

9 FEBRUARY - Catherine and William were received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall (Colonel Edward Bolitho) at the National Maritime Museum Falmouth in Discovery Quay. Afterwards, they visited the Dracaena Centre.

19 FEBRUARY - Catherine and William attended the British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall where and were received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London (Sir Kenneth Olisa).

21 FEBRUARY - She was received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire (Mr. James Puxley) at the Oxford House Nursing Home in Slough.

22 FEBRUARY - Catherine held an Early Years Meeting.

23 FEBRUARY - Catherine received Mr. Ian Hewitt (Chairman, AELTCC ) at Windsor Castle. Subsequently, she received Major General Christopher Ghika and Lieutenant Colonel James Aldridge (Regimental Lieutenant Colonel & Commanding Officer) of the Irish Guards.

25 FEBRUARY - Catherine and William met the volunteers and staff of the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust and attended the Six Nations Rugby Match between Wales and England at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. They were received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of South Glamorgan (Mrs. Morfudd Meredith).

28 FEBRUARY - Catherine and William were received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of West Glamorgan (Mrs. Louise Fleet) at Brynawel House Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Pontyclun. Afterwards, they visited Aberavon Celtic Leisure Centre, where His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Mid Glamorgan (Mr. Peter Vaughan) received them. Subsequently, they were received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Dyfed (Miss Sara Edwards) as they opened the new patient room at Wales Air Ambulance in Dafen.

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years

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Coronavirus live news: global cases near 22m as Wall Street record defies economic gloom | World news

8.03pm EDT 20:03

The US postmaster general has tried to take the heat out of the growing anger about possible disruption to mail-in voting in November’s election by announcing that all proposed operational changes to the postal system will be delayed until after the vote.

Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

House speaker Nacy Pelosi said the promise by Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee whose changes threatened to disenfranchise millions of voters as the pandemic impacts the abulity oif people to vote in person, were “insufficient”.

Follow all the voerage of this and the Democratic convention at our US live blog:

7.39pm EDT 19:39

Testing and contact tracing are crucial measures for slowing the spread of Covid-19, but are not enough on their own to contain the disease, according to a new study by researchers at Imperial College, London.

The work published on Wednesday in the The Lancet Infectious Diseases says that test-and-trace can reduce the virus’ reproduction rate, or R number, by 26%, AFP reports.

A test station in Marseille, France. Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA

But lead author Nicholas Grassly, a professor at Imperial College’s School of Public Health, said the test and trace work had to be carried out very quickly in order to be effective. That meant

immediate testing with the onset of symptoms and results within 24 hours

the quarantine of contacts, also within 24 hours;

and the identification of 80% of cases and contacts.

Very few countries – notably South Korea, Taiwan and Germany – have come close to staying within these guidelines, and most are still falling well short.

Updated at 7.39pm EDT

7.23pm EDT 19:23

Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, says it will be compulsory for people to have a Covid-19 vaccine once it is available.

Australia had earlier revealed it has agreed a deal with AstraZeneca to supply the potential Oxford University vaccine. People will receive the vaccine for free in Australia, Morrison said, calling the Oxford vaccine “one of the most advanced and promising in the world”.

Meanwhile, the Australian state of Victoria, the epicentre of the country’s second wave of infections, recorded 216 new cases in the past 24 hours and 12 deaths, officials said on Wednesday morning.

You can follow all the updates from there at our Australia live blog here:

7.14pm EDT 19:14

Wall Street’s S&P500 hits record high

The S&P 500 stock index on Wall Street closed at a record high on Tuesday night marking the complete recovery of shares after the shock of the pandemic.

The record confirms that Wall Street’s most closely followed index entered a so-called bull market – or upward curve – after hitting its pandemic low on 23 March. It has surged about 55% since then thanks to massive intervention by the US government and the Federal Reserve central bank. It closed 7.79 points, or 0.23% higher at 3,389.78.

Michelle Fleury (@BizFleury)

The S&P500 closed at a record high – wiping out all of its coronavirus losses

S&P today – 3,389.78 March 20 – 2,304.92 (pandemic low)

The resurgence comes despite historic job losses, bankruptcies and shrinking corporate profits pic.twitter.com/Bq5DhCZUUG

August 18, 2020

That makes the bear market – or downward movement – that started in late February the S&P 500’s shortest in its history. The S&P 500 is a broader index of US companies than the Dow Jones industrial average, which represents only 30 companies.

The story of how share prices have roared back as workers around the world find themselves out of a job or on reduced pay is one of the central issues of the pandemic. Read more about how it has panned out in the US here:

And from a UK perspective here:

Updated at 7.15pm EDT

7.09pm EDT 19:09

Good morning/afternoon/evening. I’m Martin Farrer and thanks for joining me for live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Here are the main developments in the past 24 hours:

Global coronavirus cases are approaching 22 million and the global death toll has risen to almost 776,000. The biggest drivers of the case counts are the United States and Brazil, according to John Hopkins University. The US has recorded over 5.45 million cases and more than 170,000 lives have been lost.

Stocks on Wall Street’s S&P500 index hit an all-time high on Tuesday night completing their recovery from the pandemic shock. The world’s most closely watched measure of share prices has increased 55% since its coronavirus low on 23 March after huge government and central bank stimulus.

Young are not invincible amid the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization warned. The WHO said Covid-19 is now being spread mainly by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, who may be unaware they are infected, potentially transmitting the disease to more vulnerable groups. “We are seeing young people who are ending up in ICU. Young people are dying from this virus,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said.

The Netherlands could go “back to square one” if the country doesn’t control new infections, the Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, warned. Without imposing mandatory restrictions, Rutte gave people urgent advice not to hold parties at home and to limit events like birthday celebrations and other private house gatherings to a maximum of six people.

A hotel quarantine security guard in Sydney has contracted Covid-19. The guard most likely was infected by a traveller from the US, officials said, rasing questions about whether nurses should replace security personnel.

Ireland’s nationwide coronavirus restrictions are being “significantly tightened” until at least 13 September as cases surged at the fourth highest rate in Europe. Following the rise in the last three weeks, people have been urged to restrict visitors to their homes, avoid public transport and for older people to limit their contacts. “We’re absolutely not at a stage where we can return to normality. We are at another critical moment,” the taoiseach, Michael Martin, said.

Germany is expected to extend its pandemic furlough scheme to 24 months. The chancellor Angela Merkel indicated she welcomed the proposal to let the kurzarbeit programme run on until 2021. A final decision is expected on 25 August.

Lebanese authorities announced a new lockdown and an overnight curfew to rein in a surge in infections. The new measures will come into effect on Friday and last just over two weeks. Areas damaged by the devastating explosion that hit Beirut on 4 August will be exempt from the restrictions, as clean-up efforts continue across multiple neighbourhoods.

South Africa will launch clinical trials of a US-developed coronavirus vaccine with 2,900 volunteers this week. It’s the second such study in the African country worst hit by the disease. Known as NVX-CoV2373, the vaccine was developed by US biotech company Novavax from the genetic sequence of SARSCoV2. It will be administered to the first volunteer in the randomised, observer-blinded trial on Wednesday.

The post Coronavirus live news: global cases near 22m as Wall Street record defies economic gloom | World news appeared first on Shri Times News.

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bassclarinetprincess · 6 years

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I’ve seen like one ask meme full of year-end asks going around, but I didn’t really like the questions on it and also it’s not the one I’ve been doing for the past three years. So, despite the fact that no one asked for this, here is a wrap-up of 2017! Answers under the cut, as always.

1. What did you do in 2017 that you had never done before? This year wasn’t as full of exciting firsts as last, but let’s see what I can come up with. I stayed at a hospital (twice), I visited the state of West Virginia (for spring break), I wore my binder at home, I participated in a Secret Santa gift exchange (three to be exact), I attended group therapy, I got a couple new diagnoses and tried new medications, I met David Sedaris, I saw John and Hank Green, I went to New York City, I tried sangria, I went to a brewery, I went to a film festival, I developed a crush on a boy, I went to a Classics conference, I won an award for a podcast I produced, I spoke at my school’s chapel, and I met Peter Staley.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? My New Year’s resolution was to make more media than I consume and to Tweet more. I definitely do not Tweet more, and I’ve been working on the media thing (my job at the school newspaper ensures I do) but I would argue I definitely haven’t upheld that one either. My only resolution for the next year is to get through graduation, and to find something to do this summer that will enable me to eat/pay rent for an apartment and focus on my mental health.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nobody I feel super close to, no.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit? I stayed in the US of A.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017? Stability. Peace and quiet. A brain that remembers to pick up my medication when I need to.

7. What dates from 2017 will remain etched in your memory, and why? January 20 -- Inauguration and the protests surrounding it. February 18 -- the day I met ACTUP activist Peter Staley at a Chicago art museum. March 9 -- the day my LGBT alliance’s spring speaker came to campus (and all the ruckus surrounding that). May 1 -- protests at my school and the class shut-down, and the day I spent so many waking hours in the school newsroom producing a podcast about it. May 5 -- Dylan’s second birthday, and the day I was admitted to the hospital for the first time. May 15 -- the Classics department BACCHANALIA, the thought of which got me through my first hospital stay. June 11 -- the day I began a relationship with my second girlfriend. June 18 -- the day my second relationship ended (shut up). June 21 -- the day of my second hospital admittance. August 19 -- Hannah’s 21st birthday, for which I flew into Chicago (we had a fantastic time). October 14 -- the day Kit and I visited Stonewall and got Big Gay Ice Cream. October 20 -- my 22nd birthday dinner, which was an excuse to eat calamari and cake with friends. October 21 -- the day Hannah, Kit, and me made Halloween cookies and watched Sense8. October 22 -- the day I saw John and Hank Green. November 3 -- the day I saw Tegan and Sara for the second time! November 5 -- the day Kit and I went to a David Sedaris reading. November 10 -- the day Katie and I saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch. November 20 -- my chapel talk. December 23 -- the day I wore my binder to my Grandma’s house and faced my fears! (Yes, most of this is off the top of my head.)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Being alive, getting all A’s and a B+ for the fall semester, FINISHING all of my coursework for the spring semester and my summer class after the two hospitalizations, giving my incredibly vulnerable chapel talk.

9. What was your biggest failure? Hard to say. I’m really not proud of the B+, though, since it was a class that I found easy and that I should have blown out of the water. Oh well. I’m also learning not to consider the hospitalizations a failure. I might have a few months ago. But I didn’t go to the hospital because I messed anything up (for example, I was taking all of my medications! both times!!!), I went because I was sick and couldn’t manage it by myself. Not my fault.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I was deeply depressed for six months and low-grade depressed for four more. So that sucked.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A button-down shirt with cats on it from Wildfang, a green hat with a very wide brim, all the various bath bombs I got, a Tegan and Sara baseball cap, these mussels during my vacation in Portland.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All the nurses and doctors in the hospital, and my therapists outside the hospital. My academic adviser for keeping me on track academically, giving me life advice, and visiting me in the hospital and bringing me books (especially American Gods). And all my friends, once again, that stuck around in the spring, visited me in the hospital in the summer, and have driven me to therapy in the fall and winter (in no particular order that would be both Josephs, Maggie, Mickey, Katie, Kit, Athena, Emma, Becky, Spencer, Hannah, Ella, Jacob, and everyone else in Aquifer Pod). Plus my campus pastors for letting me crash in their office when I was dissociating, and for helping me with my confirmation.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled? It’s always our president, isn’t it? Ajit Pai also goes on the list this year. And the bastards that murdered a trans girl who lived in my county. Fuck those assholes.

14. Where did most of your money go? I spent a good chunk of it at the end of the year on film festival entrance fees for the documentary I produced in the fall. I also did buy way too many bath bombs. Otherwise, probably food.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Seeing Tegan and Sara, David Sedaris, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Also my birthday! I was so excited I woke up at 5 in the morning. Oh, and of course going to New York City!

16. What song will always remind you of 2017? "Feel It Still” -- Portugal. the Man “1-800-273-8255″ -- Logic ft. Alessia Cara and Khalid “Young, Dumb and Broke” -- Khalid “The Cure” -- Lady Gaga “Yet Another Dig” -- Bob the Drag Queen ft. Alaska Thunderfuck “Sissy That Walk” -- RuPaul “Green Light” -- Lorde “I Miss Those Days” -- Bleachers “Praying” -- Kesha “Humble” -- Kendrick Lamar

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? © richer or poorer? a. DEFINITELY HAPPIER, DEFINITELY HAPPIER. b. Like twenty pounds fatter. I don’t want to talk about it. c. The same, probably?

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Stayed present and mindful in all my activities.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sleeping. There was so much sleeping. Also self-harming. I’d have liked less self-harming.

20. How did you spend Christmas? On the 23rd, my grandma hosted the big family ordeal. We ate food and opened presents, and played this gift card swap game that turned out to be pretty fun. On Christmas Day, I woke up at 9. We ate French toast, opened presents, watched Christmas specials and Stranger Things 2, and for dinner Dad made steak and potatoes.

21. Did you fall in love in 2016? Nope.

22. What was your favourite TV program? Bojack Horseman, Please Like Me, Stranger Things, Great British Baking Show, RuPaul’s Drag Race.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I’m a bit pissed off at the doctor at the hospital when I went in April who said I was seeking attention and didn’t think I was “bad” enough to be admitted. Fuck him. But I don’t hate him, you know? I don’t think I hate anyone.

24. What was the best book you read? Columbine by Dave Cullen. I devoured it in three days. Also Turtles All the Way Down by John Green.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? The song “Material Girl” by Madonna! Also music by drag queens (I’m a fan of Adore Delano, Trixie Mattel, and Bob the Drag Queen). 26. What did you want and get? A shit ton of lavender products, a new audio recorder, a graphic novel called The Fifth Beatle, that zine about mental health featuring a contribution from Sara Quin, fancy Oxford shoes.

27. What did you want and not get? My family to use my name and pronouns. *whomp whomp*

28. What was your favourite film of this year? Time to consult the movie list. New movies: Moonlight, Get Out, Moana, Rogue One, Fences, Hidden Figures, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Baby Driver. Old movies: The Blue Angel, M, The 400 Blows, Finding Vivian Maier, Matilda (no, I had not seen it before 2017), Paris Is Burning. (Yes, some of the new movies I have on here were made in 2016. That’s how my school’s movie theater works.)

29. What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Friendship, music.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017? Depression chic. Lots of gray monochrome outfits.

31. What kept you sane? YouTube and Spotify, mood stabilizers, about thirty mental health professionals, my podmates.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy most? The answer is always Tegan and Sara. Janelle Monae and Annie Clark are in a battle for second and third. I’m also really into that video of Tom Holland and Zendaya doing a lip sync battle. Also, can I put RuPaul on here?

33. What political issue stirred you most? Hoo boy. This was a very politically stirring year. I feel like I was often pushed into a box of being only a spokesperson for trans issues, especially when the military ban came about. I also got pissed about Russian influences on the election, the Roy Moore election, the events in Charlottesville, the attempt to repeal healthcare, Sean Spicer drama, and the Muslim ban. (This I did not get off the top of my head, I consulted my Twitter.)

34. Who did you miss? For some reason I missed my grandparents a lot this year -- I think it’s because I’m starting to become more and more aware of their mortality, and any moment I’m away from them makes me anxious that they’re going to die. Also, the death of Tom Petty really got to me.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017. I feel like I didn’t learn a whole lot. I learned a lot about myself and how much I can handle, and I learned for sure who is in my corner. I learned about the importance of faith, at least in my life. And I learned firsthand through the process of giving my chapel talk how important sharing your story and being vulnerable is. There’s zero good in keeping secrets and staying silent if you have something to say. Also, like, being alive is pretty OK I guess.

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "I’ve been on the low, I’ve been taking my time / I feel like I’m out of my mind, it feel like my life ain’t mine” -- “1-800-273-8255,” Logic feat. Alessia Cara and Khalid “Come on motherfucker, you survived, you’ve gotta give yourself a break (hey!)” -- “Everybody Lost Somebody,” Bleachers

TL;DR: If my life were a book, 2016 would be a chapter where a ton of shit happened to advance the plot while 2017 was the following chapter where it looked kinda stagnant plot-wise but the character’s internal life went from being an absolute mess to -- well, it’s still kind of a mess but he’s doing better at the end of the year than he was in the beginning or the middle. I’m tempted to write it off as just another year, and in fact a pretty shitty one, but there have been good things too and overall I’d call it a very important year in my development. I really can’t wait for 2018 though!

Here’s 2016′s.

Same thing for 2015…

And 2014.

Feel free to read others if you want.

#d rants #about me #end of the year 2017

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tipsycad147 · 5 years

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Rebecca Nurse

Nurse, Rebecca (1621–1692) Accused witch executed in the Salem Witches hysteria in Massachusetts in 1692–93.

Rebecca Nurse and her husband Francis were two of the most prominent and well-respected citizens of Salem. They had established a prosperous farm compound that was almost self sufficient, supporting a large extended family of several generations. Their prosperity was envied, and they angered some of the residents by their involvement in a land dispute.

However, the Nurses were regular churchgoers, and Rebecca was known for her meek demeanour and good deeds; she was saintlike. Of all the people who might be candidates for witchcraft, she was probably the least likely. By the time of the hysteria, she was old and infirm as well, suffering from stomach problems and weakness that kept her confined for days to her home.

Historians have speculated that had she been the first to be accused, few would have believed the charges, and the hysteria might have died an early death with no, or perhaps few, casualties. But the hysteria of the girls by then were believed by too many residents. When the girls cried out against Nurse, their charges were taken seriously by many. Envy of the Nurses’ prosperity and status, and simmering resentments over the land dispute, may have played a role in the fate of Rebecca. It is possible that the accusing girls picked up on gossip against re becca and her family. She also was vocal in her criticism of the examinations and upheld the innocence of the first women accused. Soon the girls were muttering against Rebecca as a witch.

Some of the Nurses’ friends paid a visit to the Nurse farm to warn Rebecca. There they found her in ill health, sick for about a week with a stomach ailment. Nurse voluntarily raised the issue of the hysteria and how badly she felt for reverend Samuel Parris and his family. She said she believed the girls were indeed afflicted by an “evil hand,” but that the accused were innocent. When told that she was being cried out against as a witch herself, Nurse was astonished. She replied, “If it be so, the will of the Lord be done . . . I am as innocent as the child unborn; but surely, what sin hath God found out in me unrepented of, that he should lay such an affliction upon me in my old age?”

On march 23, 1692, a warrant was issued for Nurse’s arrest. She was questioned the following day before a public audience that included the girls. When told that several of the girls claimed she had harmed them by beating and afflicting them with pain, Nurse said God would declare her innocence. It appeared that she might be set free. Then Ann Putnam Sr., worked into an emotional frenzy, declared that Nurse had appeared to her with the “black man,” the Devil, and tempted her. Putnam’s charge incited the crowd. When Nurse then beseeched God to help her, the girls fell into terrible fits, claiming that Nurse and her familiars were harming them.

There was more damning testimony. A neighbour Sarah Houlton claimed that Nurse had cursed her husband to death because his pigs got loose on the Nurse farm. Another neighbour, Henry kenney, said Nurse bewitched him so that he could not breathe properly whenever he was near her.

Hathorne had Nurse examined for Witch’s Marks. Several were found. Nurse protested that any older person such as herself would have growths on their body.

Judge John Hathorne questioned Nurse at length. She either repeated her innocence or said she could make no reply. The latter answer seemed most troubling to the magistrates and the crowd. The girls mimicked every body movement that Nurse made and fell into repeated fits. Nurse acknowledged that she thought the girls were bewitched. Even more damning to herself was her answer that she thought the Devil could indeed appear in her shape. Ann Putnam went into such violent fits that she had to be carried from the meeting house. Nurse was sent to jail to await further examination, which took place on April 11.

Sentiments about Nurse were mixed. Even Hathorne was doubtful that such a pious woman could be in league with the Devil. Thirty-nine of her friends signed a petition in her favor—including even Jonathan Putnam, who had been one of her original accusers.

Nurse was tried in the Court of Oyer & Terminer on June 30 with four others. Ann Putnam Jr. testified that Nurse had killed six children, and Houlton retold the story of her husband’s cursed death.

Despite the testimony against her, Nurse was the only one found not guilty by the jury. The accusers fell into fits in protest. Not all of the judges were happy with the verdict, and William Stoughton said he would seek a new indictment against her. Accused witch Abigail Hobbs was brought out from jail to testify against Nurse. Rebecca recognised her as “one of us.” She probably meant as a fellow prisoner and accused, but the court took her words to mean a fellow witch. Asked to explain herself, Nurse remained silent. The jury changed the verdict to guilty.

Nurse’s friends appealed to Governor William Phips, who granted Nurse a reprieve. It did no good. Nurse’s church in Salem excommunicated her on July 3. Nurse was executed by hanging on July 19. Her death Demonstrated that no one was safe from the accusations of witchcraft.