#--has-additional-byline

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Rowe

* * * *

Struggling with the news narrative

December 3, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Covering the news during Biden-Trump interregnum is a challenge. I am not looking for sympathy; rather, I want to be explicit about my approach. It is guided by “where” readers appear to be in their desire for wholesale engagement with the news versus “Tell me the highlights and avoid depressing me, if you can.” The same spectrum of reactions maps onto the readiness of readers to re-engage in grassroots activities.

Some readers and members of the grassroots movement are itching to get back into the fight and are growing impatient with those of us who are still re-calibrating our compasses after what seems to be a non-sensical election result. Women have suffered a special psychological injury because the majority of the electorate who voted on November 5 told them that they remain second-class citizens under the US Constitution.

Trump's nomination of multiple men accused of sexual assault, rape, and harassment can only be viewed as a form of psychological terrorism directed toward women. Trump seems intent on rubbing women’s faces in his misogyny—classic abusive behavior. So, before you start expressing irritation with people still recovering, try to find out where they are and what they need. Lead by example, not by chastising or exhorting people to act based on the assumption that everyone feels like you do. It is a near certainty they do not.

On Monday evening, the news is dominated by President Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden. I am not going to write about the merits of that decision because it has roiled the readers of the newsletter in an uncharacteristic manner. In Concluding Thoughts (below), I address how that decision has affected the emotional state and political outlook of many readers (and, presumably, many Americans).

But here’s the high-level takeaway from the pardon: Fair-minded people are in violent disagreement about the merits of the pardon. Keep that in mind if you express your strongly held views about the pardon in mixed company.

[...]

Additional revelations regarding Pete Hegseth should doom his nomination to lead the Department of Defense

Trump nominated Fox-TV personality Pete Hegseth to serve as DOD Secretary. As with most Trump nominees, Hegseth was not vetted by the FBI before his nomination. That fact explains the ongoing rude series of shocks and surprises regarding Hegseth.

The Department of Defense is home to more than 50% of the US agencies that comprise the US Intelligence Community. Leading the DOD requires impeccable credentials, rock-steady judgment, and personal character that is beyond reproach (and blackmail). Hegseth has none of those attributes. Indeed, he has the opposite of those attributes in spades.

On December 1, The New Yorker magazine published a lengthy article detailing new allegations of sordid behavior by Hegseth. The New Yorker articles is here (paywalled): Pete Hegseth’s Secret History byline Jane Mayer.

A non-paywalled summary can be found at the Huffington Post, Report: Wild Drinking... Vile Racism... Vet Org Hotbed for Misconduct...

Per The New Yorker,

A trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.

I will spare you the details, but let’s say that the Huffington Post headline is not clickbait. Hegseth has apparently been out of control in his personal and public life for several years (at least).

Hegseth denied the allegations in the story through a “personal advisor” rather than the Trump administration spokesperson. The denial is printed below. A salient fact is that the “denial” denies nothing by stating:

We’re not going to comment on outlandish claims laundered through The New Yorker by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth’s. Get back to us when you try your first attempt at actual journalism.

Hegseth’s friend did not deny the allegations, merely calling them outlandish. That is classic defensive behavior designed to avoid being caught in a lie (a false denial) at a confirmation hearing.

If one-tenth of the allegations are true, Hegseth’s nomination should be pulled. But his nomination should have been pulled based on pre-existing reports about alleged rape, public intoxication, and white supremacist tattoos.

Moreover, if Hegseth had been subjected to an FBI background check—or if he had disclosed the damaging information himself—the incoming Trump administration would not have been caught off guard.

Per the author of The New Yorker story, Jane Mayer, she has been deluged with additional reports concerning Hegseth in the 48 hours following the publication of The New Yorker article. It looks like things are only going to get worse for Hegseth. Let’s hope that he is the second nomination to be withdrawn.

Mother Jones reports on Kash Patel’s ties to QAnon

Kash Patel’s nomination to replace sitting FBI Director Christopher Wray is controversial for many reasons. One reason is that Wray is seven years into a ten-year term—after having been appointed by Trump in 2017. By design, the tenure of FBI Directors exceeds the maximum two terms of presidents to de-politicize the FBI. Trump will circumvent that design feature by firing Wray on Trump's first day in office.

Among the many disqualifying factors for Patel is his “QAnon curious” history. As a refresher, QAnon is a cult run by a non-existent “Q” who believes that the federal government is run by an international gang of pedophiles who kill and drink the blood of innocents--which is a core antisemitic slur. See QAnon Backgrounder | ADL

David Corn of Mother Jones takes a look at Kash Patel’s history of courting support from QAnon on Truth Social, podcasts, and public appearances. See Mother Jones, How Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI Pick, Embraced the Unhinged QAnon Movement.

The Mother Jones article documents Patel’s embrace of QAnon to advance support for Trump. Per Mother Jones,

As Media Matters reported: “Patel’s catering to the QAnon community has also gone beyond the @Q account. In July, he posted an image featuring a flaming Q on Truth Social and starting in at least April, he went on numerous QAnon-supporting shows to promote Truth Social—urging [QAnon] viewers to join the platform, praising [QAnon] hosts for being on the platform, and promising to promote the [QAnon] hosts there.”

David Corn concludes his article in Mother Jones with this:

Patel’s relationship with QAnon shows either that he has a severely distorted view of reality or that he will recklessly exploit dangerous, misguided, and false ideas for political benefit. Neither is an approach suitable for the most powerful and important law enforcement agency in the land.

Another reason that Patel’s infatuation with QAnon should disqualify him from the position of FBI Director is that the FBI has, in the past, investigated QAnon as the source of domestic terror threats (although the QAnon belief system has not itself been identified as a domestic terror organization). See FBI director Wray says bureau is not investigating QAnon conspiracy ‘in its own right’ | CNN Politics.

If QAnon is inspiring domestic terror threats, Kash Patel does not seem inclined to investigate them. That should give the US Senate reason enough to reject Patel’s nomination.

Giving Tuesday

Tuesday, December 3, 2024, is Giving Tuesday. I hope everyone will consider supporting their favorite charitable organization at this time of the year. Many organizations depend on year-end donations for the next calendar year.

Two charitable organizations (501(c)(3)) that are especially relevant after the 2024 election are The Civics Center and VoteRiders.

The Civics Center

The Civics Center is on a mission to make voter registration part of every high school in America. They provide free training and resources so high school students can, with the support of their teachers, run peer-to-peer VR drives in school twice a year, every year, regardless of election cycle. In this way, TCC is working to reach all of the 4 million Americans who turn 18 every year, so they’re ready to make their voices heard as soon as they’re eligible. The Civics Center also provides hyper-local registration data, revealing where engagement among 18-year-olds is lacking, and showing the public how High School Voter Registration can improve rates. Because most high schools do not yet accept their responsibility to help all their eligible students register, TCC is urgently working to expand for the 2026 cycle and beyond. The Civics Center is a project of Community Partners, which is a 501(c)(3) organization, so perfect for individual year-end charitable giving, DAFs, IRA withdrawals, and family foundations. A donation link is here.

VoteRiders

Registering voters is just the start. After they register, they must navigate the confusing and onerous “Voter-ID” laws designed to make it difficult to vote. That is where VoteRiders comes in. VoteRiders is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens are able to exercise their freedom to vote. VoteRiders informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts. Check out the VoteRiders website here (VoteRiders: Voter ID Help) or make a donation here: Donate to VoteRiders.

[Robert B. Hubbell]

[black-arcana]

SPIRITBOX Announces Spring 2025 North American Tour With LOATHE, DYING WISH And GEL

Two-time Grammy-nominated progressive metal band SPIRITBOX has announced the "Tsunami Sea" North American tour. Kicking off April 3 in Dallas, Texas, produced by Live Nation, the 24-date tour will hit cities across the U.S. and Canada with LOATHE, DYING WISH and GEL as support.

Tickets will first be available through a Citi presale starting today, December 3. The official artist presale begins on December 4 and will include a special Spiritboxoffice pop-up event in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Palladium from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. where fans can purchase tickets and meet the band. Additional presales will follow on December 5, ahead of the general onsale and Citi Cardmember Preferred Tickets, beginning Friday, December 6 at 10 a.m. local time on Spiritbox.com.

The tour wants to give fans, not scalpers, the best chance to buy tickets at face value. To make this possible they have chosen to use Ticketmaster's Face Value Exchange. If fans purchase tickets for a show in the U.S. or Canada and can't attend, they'll have the option to resell them to other fans at the original price paid. To help protect the Exchange, the tour has requested all tickets be mobile only and restricted from transfer. This applies to all shows except those in Colorado, Illinois, and New York where Face Value Exchange cannot be mandated. Please note, a valid bank account or debit card within the country of your event is required to sell on the Face Value Exchange.

Citi is the official card of the "Tsunami Sea" North American tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday, December 3 at 12 p.m. ET until Thursday, December 5 at 10 p.m. local time through the Citi Entertainment program.

The announcement follows SPIRITBOX's second consecutive Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance" ("Cellar Door") which no woman has ever won this sole category. The tour announcement also follows the reveal of their anticipated sophomore album, "Tsunami Sea", slated for release on March 7 via Pale Chord / Rise Records. The album's first two singles, the heavy hitter "Soft Spine" and melodic "Perfect Soul", showcase the band's dynamic range and their ability to seamlessly fuse diverse sonic influences, offering a glimpse into the depth and ambition of the forthcoming record.

In addition to SPIRITBOX's headline U.S. and European tours in 2025, the band will jump on select dates of LINKIN PARK's world tour, joining the rock icons for performances in Italy, the Netherlands and the U.K.

SPIRITBOX with LOATHE, DYING WISH and GEL 2025 North American tour dates:

April 03 - Dallas, TX - South Side Ballroom April 04 - San Antonio, TX - Boeing Center at Tech Port April 05 - Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center April 07 - Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy April 08 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live April 11 - Washington, DC - MGM National Harbor April 12 - Pittsburgh, PA - UPMC Events Center April 14 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore April 15 - Montclair, NJ - The Wellmont Theater April 18 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom April 19 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway April 21 - Montreal, QC - M TELUS* April 23 - Toronto, ON - Great Canadian Casino April 25 - Chicago, IL - Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom April 26 - Madison, WI - The Sylvee April 27 - Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live at 20 Monroe April 29 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant April 30 - Des Moines, IA - Vibrant Music Hall May 02 - Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium May 03 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex May 06 - Vancouver, BC - PNE Forum May 07 - Tacoma, WA - Temple Theatre May 09 - San Francisco, CA - The Masonic May 10 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium*

* Without GEL

Formed in 2017 in the picturesque-yet-isolated region of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, by singer Courtney Laplante and guitarist Mike Stringer, SPIRITBOX became a household name in rock circles in the summer of 2020 with the release of their blistering breakout single "Holy Roller", along with a host of other captivating singles shortly after, resulting in a media firestorm of hype.

With new and existing fans eagerly watching their next move, SPIRITBOX exceeded every expectation imaginable in 2021 with the release of their genre-defining debut studio album "Eternal Blue" via Pale Chord/Rise Records. "Eternal Blue", which debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, kicked open the doors of the heavy metal scene and rewrote the genre's playbook with 12 stunning tracks that incorporated everything from djent and post-metal to infectious synth-laden pop sensibilities and cinematic arrangements, brought fully to life by the inimitable Laplante's ethereal and commanding vocal performances.

The album cycle for "Eternal Blue" saw SPIRITBOX not only grace the covers of esteemed music publications such as Revolver, Alternative Press, Rock Sound and Kerrang!, among many others but would also solidify the band as one of the most in-demand groups in live music today with their one-hundred percent sold out, first-ever headlining tour in support of the album which saw ticket sales over 40,000. The band would also share the stage with seasoned metal veterans such as LIMP BIZKIT and GHOST and win "Best International Breakthrough Band" at the 2021 Heavy Music Awards.

In 2022, SPIRITBOX secured highly-coveted spots at numerous major U.S. rock and metal festivals and were nominated for two Juno awards, respectively. SPIRITBOX would also round out their current lineup with the inclusion of drummer Zev Rose and bassist Josh Gilbert in addition to releasing their sonically experimental EP "Rotoscope" in June of that year as well as a cross-genre collaboration with dubstep artist Illenium for the track "Shivering".

During another whirlwind year for the band, including a U.S. tour with SHINEDOWN and PAPA ROACH, SPIRITBOX wrote and recorded their critically acclaimed EP "The Fear Of Fear", released in November 2023. The EP features the single "Jaded", which was nominated for "Best Metal Performance" at the 66th annual Grammy Awards. In the same month, the band would make another genre-bending splash with a high-profile collaboration with rapper Megan Thee Stallion for a remix of her song "Cobra".

Photo credit: Jonathan Weiner

[duckprintspress]

How We Plan, Implement, and Publish Anthologies: Max Jason Peterson’s Planning Approach

Last week, I posted my personal notes from the Press’s Patreon Panel about lead-editing multi-contributor projects such as journals, anthologies, and fanzines. This week, I’ve got the notes from a second participant in that panel, Max Jason Peterson. He generously provided this write up so I could post it as a guest post on our blogs!

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Most of my editing experience has been on behalf of nonprofits, who had their own budget, marketing, graphic design, printing, and distribution in place. I did spread the news and actively call for submissions. I also handled mailing (or arranging for mailing of) contributors’ copies.

This is not all my editing experience, but it’s what I’ll be discussing. It occurred under various bylines such as C. A. Gardner, Lyn C. A. Gardner, and Adele Gardner.

I’ve organized it along the timeline of when it occurred.

(read more)

Virginia Library Association (Virginia Libraries)

9 years; coeditor (with Cy Dillon) of VLA’s quarterly print journal, 2003-2012

The journal is archived online by Virginia Tech. Some issues are now only visible in HTML (transcription imperfect); others can also (or only) be downloaded as PDFs (for accuracy and original formatting).

Sample issues:

52.2, Welcoming Everyone

54.3, For the Love of Reading

56.4, The Particular Delight of Special Libraries

Sample interviews:

“History and the Work of Memory: An Interview with Luisa A. Igloria”

“Painting out of the Past: An Interview with Jay S. Paul”

Cy and I rapidly hit upon the idea of having themed issues. We actively promoted and solicited for submissions to these. For each issue, themed or not, we took turns or collaborated to provide an opening statement bringing the issue together.

This job often required a great deal of developmental editing. Since it was a professional journal rather than a newsletter, we sought a somewhat more formal style of writing. While many articles arrived in near-perfect condition, others held a more colloquial style and underwent rewrites. Cy and I also conducted interviews, wrote additional articles and book reviews, and covered sessions at VLA conferences (as well organizing coverage of other sessions from volunteers).

We worked to a deadline, as the journal was mailed to the entire membership on a quarterly schedule. From the beginning, often by email, sometimes by phone, Cy and I discussed each issue and the articles we had in mind (ones we’d solicit, or write, or had received over the transom), including our progress, division of labor, issues that arose, etc. We each solicited and/or developed articles by others, as well as conducting interviews and writing articles and book reviews. We each did the copyediting for the articles we’d brought in, and divided the editing for those that came in on their own. For each issue, one or both of us would create an introduction, which often became an article in itself.

While Cy and I did contribute book reviews from time to time, for many years the journal was fortunate to have a book review column organized by Sara B. Bearss and written by staff at the Library of Virginia. When Sara retired, Cy and I took on the task of organizing this column as well.

Throughout, Cy and I were always brainstorming future articles and special issues, which we would discuss and plan along with our ongoing work. Once we decided upon a theme and timeframe for a special issue, we would announce it in our introduction and put out several calls for submissions to the membership via the newsletter (while that was still in operation) and the general VLA listserv.

As coeditors of the journal, we were also part of the VLA Council and would attend their quarterly meetings and provide them with reports. We also found it helpful to announce upcoming themed issues and general calls for submissions, asking the council members to spread word among their contacts.

Cy and I set a timeline for each issue, though we did have a certain amount of flexibility. We needed a schedule so we could follow up with people who planned to provide articles (who might have queried us, or whom we might have asked to write about a topic they’d engaged with recently). We also needed to schedule times for interviews and make sure we received books we’d be reviewing (and, later, coordinate this with the other reviewers as well).

For the articles written by others, I would send changes back to the authors for approval wherever and whenever needed. Some articles only needed light copyediting; others might go through a few rounds of revision with the authors. Sometimes I requested additional content, including images or more exploration of an interesting point. I had a lot of background in this sort of work from my time as editor for The Mariners’ Museum.

Once Cy and I had everything ready, I assembled all the content into a big file and did a final copyediting sweep. For issues that included conference coverage, both of us selected images from those provided by VLA’s official conference photographer, Pierre Courtois. Many articles had visual elements as well. I sent all of these things to our graphic designer. The graphic designer sent us galley proofs. Both Cy and I reviewed the galleys, and I did the final proofreading. Once all changes had been made, the graphic designer sent the issue to the printer, along with the VLA mailing list, so the issue got mailed directly to the members.

The mailing list included extra copies sent to both Cy and myself (we specified the number we needed per issue). When the issues came back from the printer, I mailed copies to contributors I’d worked with, including those who were not members of VLA, such as the interviewees and subjects of book reviews. Cy did the same.

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Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association

SFPA provides detailed guidelines to all editors, covering the expectations of work to be performed and deadlines for all aspects, such as when/how submitters will be notified of acceptance/rejection, delivery of the content to the graphic designer, publication dates etc. The selected editor agrees to these terms.

Eye to the Telescope, Arthuriana

Issue 27, Jan. 2018

Eye to the Telescope is the online journal of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association.

Each issue focuses on a theme proposed by that particular guest editor. To become a guest editor, you submit a proposal to SFPA with information about your suggested theme as well as your credentials. Once you’re accepted, SFPA gives you a slot and a timeline. Selected poems are purchased at the SFPA rate; there’s a budget cap for the issue, of which the editor must be mindful. 

SFPA continually refines its guidelines. Here are the current guidelines for guest editors of Eye to the Telescope (including how to apply for the job).

The editor is generally expected to help publicize the issue, including spreading the news through all professional and personal channels available to them, both to call for submissions and share news of the publication. The editor also has a chance to participate in nominating published works for awards, such as Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Because Eye to the Telescope has a different guest editor per issue, each editor will submit suggestions from their issue, and the SFPA Executive Committee then decides what to nominate.

As submissions arrived, I evaluated them and decided whether to pass immediately or hold some for further consideration. Some editors send a blanket rejection at the end to all poets at once; this is probably a better workload than what I did. I sent individual responses as the poems arrived, for two reasons: in a few cases, I wanted to run a possible change past the poet with no pressure on either side; and by sending rejections as the works came in, I invited the poets to try again if they wished during the open submission period.

I did end up with a large core group of strong poems that I wanted to include. The existence of a budget cap meant I had to make quite a number of hard choices. However, all the poems in the issue are ones I absolutely loved.

As I accepted works, I got in touch with the poets immediately to make sure the work was still available and the terms acceptable. I had a shortlist longer than my ability to publish, just in case any declined (I notified these poets that their work was held on the shortlist). As soon as I had the contents firmed up, I sent regrets to the remaining poets whose works I’d held but couldn’t use.

Then I assembled all the poems and wrote an introduction for the issue. I proofread, getting in touch with the poets as needed, and sent the material to the webmaster to create the mockup. I shared this proof with the poets for their review. One of the poets raised a few concerns, which we addressed. And then the issue went live and I helped spread word about that (and got a chance to help nominate some of the poems).

Dwarf Stars 2022 (coedited with Greer Woodward)

As with ETTT, SFPA has guidelines for editors which are regularly updated. A link to the most current “Dwarf Stars editor guidelines” may be found here.

The editor of the annual Dwarf Stars anthology is also the chair for that year’s Dwarf Stars Award. The anthology itself is the voting tool for the award. So achieving the deadline is imperative.

SFPA has set a specific nomination period when submissions may be sent (open from April 1-May 1). (This has since been revised so that people can send nominations any time using a form, as well as submit directly to the editor during the open submissions period). Anyone may nominate as many works as they like by anyone (including themselves), provided the work was first published in the previous year as a poem of 10 lines or less (100 words or less for a prose poem) containing speculative content (with the broadest definition of speculative).

Although many nominations did come in via email, the editors are expected to be familiar with a broad range of work published, to scour both literary and speculative journals for eligible works, and to be sure to consider the global field of speculative poetry. We did our best to peruse all the journals we could from around the world. From the very beginning, I reached out to both literary and speculative contacts and venues to spread word of the submissions period and request journals from editors.

Excerpts from the introduction [with additional comments in square brackets & italics]:

We sought far and wide to find qualifying poems, reaching out to organizations, editors, individual poets, and lovers of speculative verse. From 88 individuals who sent their own work and that of others, we received nominations that resulted in 1,371 qualifying poems covering the work of 408 separate poets and multiple issues of 171 journals and anthologies. As part of this mix, we ourselves carefully reviewed and collected work from multiple issues of 78 different magazines, and consulted all the SFPA members’ Rhysling-eligible files.

[These are files prepared for the Rhysling Award; some members had Dwarf Stars eligible poems but did not submit these works directly to us.]

Every single poem, as well as the cover art, was carefully rated by both of us and rose to the high spot through multiple rounds and styles of voting and discussion. Since we had such a large pool of poems we both loved, we found ways to showcase not only our convergence, but also where we shine as individual editors […]. We also decided to include one work per poet, so we might include as many poets as possible. Ultimately, we selected 120 small-but-mighty poems […] from multiple issues of 55 different publications, journals, anthologies, and collections. Our poets bring the world to us, currently hailing from Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vietnam, and more. We’re so grateful to cover artist Elisabeth Alba, who created Oberon, the Wizard Cat. We did a lot of looking to find him, scrolling through 700 or more images […].

[I leaned heavily on my membership in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, particularly the Illustrators Gallery, in which I also take part. The fact that I was a fellow member helped when I reached out to our shortlisted artists and inquired whether they’d be amenable to their work being used for our cover. Our first choice, Elisabeth Alba, a pro artist frequently published by Llewellyn,agreed in part because SFPA is a nonprofit.]

A number of the poems we wanted to include were ones we found rather than having sent to us. And some of those sent to us were nominated by others, not the poet. So we did have to do some legwork to find some of the poets. In many cases I reached out to the editors who’d published them. A few we were unable to reach by the tight deadlines we needed to meet. But we had such a long list of poems we wanted to include. In order to stay on schedule, I had to give deadlines by which we needed interested poets to respond to verify that the work was eligible, that it could be reprinted, and that they wanted us to do so, as well as be available to review the proofs. When the deadline passed for those we couldn’t reach, we contacted the next ones on the list.

We did have some technical difficulties with the official email address for submissions, which was set up to forward to the editors’ actual email addresses. Fortunately, some people got in touch with us through alternate routes to let us know that submissions were randomly bouncing from the official email address. But this meant that we needed to respond to all nominations immediately (rather than sending a blanket thank you) so that people were aware of whether their messages had reached us.

Considering this number of poems was challenging for a number of reasons—including not only the agreement of two editors, but multiple nominations for the same works. I created spreadsheets galore to tackle everything, including whether we’d responded to people who’d nominated work, titles and publication details for nominated works, who sent it, and the contact details for everyone involved. And then, whether it had been selected, whether we’d let the poet know, and whether they’d agreed, etc.

I created massive files of eligible works for both of us to consider and vote on. We held several rounds of voting as we narrowed down our selections. (We did the same with our potential cover art—which has the earliest deadline.)

With the acceptance letters, we asked the poets to confirm or provide an official copy of their work. I assembled these into one big file and proofread, getting in touch with the poets as needed, and giving them all a chance to review their work at multiple proof stages. Meanwhile, Greer and I created the introduction for the book. Then I sent everything to SFPA’s graphic designer, F. J. Bergmann. In addition to Greer and myself reviewing the proofs, I sent them out for the poets to review and passed on the changes. We were up against the deadline and had a lot of proof reviews at the last minute.

I also wrangled the mailing addresses for all the included poets to receive their contributor copies. When there were issues, there was some back and forth with me acting as go-between.

I obtained and passed on information about contributors’ discounts and postage breaks if ordered before printing. I was told that there were quite a lot of additional orders for this edition of Dwarf Stars.

Dwarf Stars 2022 contains truly exceptional work. Please check out the winners and honorees here.

It’s well worth mentioning that in addition to taking second place in the 2022 Dwarf Stars Award for his poem “Colony,” Jamal Hodge is the first black man to win or place in the competition.

[ao3feed-nace]

Byline Rivals

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/orB2jMn by Reviewdiaries Rival reporters at the Bayside Chronicle, Nancy Drew has one thing on her mind - crushing Ace Hardy like a bug beneath her excellent front page record. But when their boss Nick needs them to collaborate on an expose to take down Everett Hudson, the line between rivalry and lust becomes a little blurry. Words: 10463, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Nancy Drew (TV 2019) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M Characters: Nancy Drew, Ace (Nancy Drew), Ryan Hudson, Laura Tandy, Ned Nickerson, George Fan, Bess Marvin, Everett Hudson, Tristan Glass Relationships: Ace/Nancy Drew Additional Tags: Rivals to Lovers, Reporter AU, Happy Ending, Fluff and Smut read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/orB2jMn

[grantmentis]

are there good journalists on the woho beat you'd recommend?

Sadly a big problem we have is that a lot of very good reporters end up not being able to stay in womens hockey for a long time because a lot of outlets haven’t had a dedicated space for it, and so much is changing, but here is who I think is the best that are consistently on in no order

Here are my recommendations!

Erica Ayala and her outlet Black Rosie Media I think is THE standard in women’s hockey. Ayala had done bylines for women’s hockey in various outlets and also appeared on a few different locked on networks which can be found in muckrack here

The Ice Garden is the longest running women’s hockey blog. It’s a rotating cast and I like some authors way more than others but I think if you’re just looking for start and probably has the most extensive coverage. It’s one of the only sources to get English language coverage of international league play and a lot of times players or former players will guess write. I am also a fan of the analytical work that An Nguyen has done, for example this article. Some stuff is paywalled, some isn’t, some is paywalled then becomes available later.

Kyle Cushman has recently been on the PWHL beat specifically, including some more long form / deeper look articles as well as being at practices with information, and I’ve enjoyed his work. He mainly writes for The Score

Christine Roger of Radio Canada is probably the main French Canadian reporter for the PWHL and team Canada

Hailey Salvian of The Athletic is usually pretty credible, tho it’s very clear that she is very careful not to be critical of her inside sources in the PWHL and I think had sometimes been a little bit of a PR arm she’s not going to say something straight up false or anything and is pretty in line with hockey reporters on that stuff. That said the athletic is usually paywalled and I really do not like the athletic as a paper overall just from a “owned by the New York times who is constantly spreading transphobic misinfo.” But if you just follow her socials and stuff you’ll get the breaking news and she’s usually accurate there.

Not a journalist but if you’re just looking for an aggregate of roster transactions and rumors pwhlreport on most platforms will do that for you, I’d say they’re accurate a solid 85% of the time and it’s little opinions or anything just who what when where and why

More statistical analysis than news but I enjoy Giants in the Crease for all things goaltenders and appreciate that they do a good job with the ncaa and international goalies as well

Women’s sports highlights on twitter will get you literally every single women’s hockey highlight from every tournament ever I swear it rules. Unfortunately am unsure if they’re on other platforms

I don’t think he’ll be writing anytime soon because of his new job, but if you want to get into the data world, the PWHL Montreal director of analytics Mikael Nahabedian has a substack page

EDIT: Karissa Donkin of CBC is a recent addition to the best I’ve enjoyed!

These are just some I like that I think do a good job of keeping it straight. Unfortunately I am limited by my own language barrier and haven’t found really anyone consistently covering the SDHL or other leagues in the English language that I’ve enjoyed, but if any of my followed from other countries have their own writers who I may be missing because of this language barrier please share

[mitchipedia]

Today's news and links that got my attention

Pope Francis is in critical condition after a respiratory crisis

Measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico sickened nearly 100 people, with the number of cases is expected to rise. Only five of the victims are known to be vaccinated.

A Democratic trustee at Chula Vista Elementary School District in San Diego ran for a different seat on the school board in order to unseat another Democrat, who the first trustee and a board ally opposed. This set off events that led to a Republican being appointed to the board, changing a 4-1 Democratic majority on the board to 3-2. The county Democratic Party is not happy. This whole thing is more complicated than a season of “Slow Horses.”

A self-described American Christian missionary, Daniel Martindale, went undercover in Ukraine to spy for Moscow. He’s part of a growing ultraconservative American embrace of Russia and rejection of the US.

Six things E.R. doctors wish you’d avoid: Don’t wear crocs in ice and snow. “Don’t trust trampolines.” “Don’t ignore sudden symptoms … If you experience something like severe chest pain or paralysis of a body part, come to the E.R. immediately….” “Don’t pet strange dogs.” Fuck that last one; I am absolutely petting every dog I can.

In 2011, Ray Richmond, his brother and sister discreetly deposited their mother’s ashes (her “cremains”) in Clifton’s, a Los Angeles cafeteria. This short essay has one surprise after another.

The perfect girl next door: How do you live your mediocre life in the shadow of a hipster goddess?

Man, it was so great to be horrible, back when I was young and pretty! In fact, I want to urge every young and youngish woman out there to take advantage of their hotness for as long as possible, because it’s fun and it’s good for you and everyone should literally be punished by how amazing you look. You need to grind their faces into the shag carpet of what an unbearable smoke show you are. Because so many complete dolts are going to make you pay for so many stupid reasons moving forward — for being interesting, for having a brain in your skull, for being bored by them because they are objectively boring, for growing into a mature adult with firm boundaries and clear expectations. So smear your raw hotness all over their dumb-dog faces for as long as you possibly can.

I did not note the byline so I had to read the whole thing to get to the tagline at the end, which told me the writer is the talented Heather Havrilesky.

More from Heather on the perfect girl next door:

Being stubborn about trivial things is sometimes a way of protecting yourself from acknowledging far more important things that you want but can’t admit to wanting. If I had more compassion for myself, I would’ve figured out that what I wanted very badly was to be understood, to be seen clearly, to be recognized as a loving person in spite of my resting bitch face. But I didn’t respect my own core needs – I was raised to ignore and ridicule my core needs, quite honestly; that’s just how my people do it – so I couldn’t stop inflating the importance of absolutely trivial irritations and superficial obstacles.

Additional source: The New York Times Today’s Headlines

[handeaux]

One Hundred Years Ago, A Cincinnati Newspaper Campaigned For A Ban On Pistols

Cincinnati has never developed a taste for satire or parody. From Lafcadio Hearn’s and Henry Farny’s 1874 “Ye Giglampz” to Frank Diekmann’s 1983 “Cincinnati Inquirer,” our town has proven to be pathetically satire resistant. That was surely the situation one hundred years ago in 1923 when a Cincinnati Post stalwart attempted to use satire in a campaign against cheap pistol sales.

In 1923, the United States was far more violent than it is today, with around 8 murders per every 100,000 people, compared to 6.5 murders per 100,000 people today. Over the years, the primary weapon of choice was a firearm of some sort.

Al Segal of the Cincinnati Post was fed up. In addition to reporting on all sorts of incidents, Segal wrote two columns for the Post, one under the byline “Cincinnatus” and one as “The Village Gossip,” and he brought all his journalistic weight to bear on the city’s carefree attitude towards pistol sales. On 24 September 1923, Segal’s “Village Gossip” column published a letter purportedly written by a Chicago burglar, signed “X-23,” who had relocated to Cincinnati to ply his trade. At the time, every hardware store, sporting goods store, and department store in the city carried a selection of firearms and our burglar found no difficulty at all in procuring a pistol. He effused over the courtesy extended by Cincinnati’s arms merchants, but admitted he had run into a bit of a problem:

“I found a woeful lack here of the other tools of my trade. I need a jimmy, a crowbar, some nitroglycerin and a noiseless sledgehammer. I am not writing this in a spirit of criticism, but merely to give a business tip to the people of your city. I suggest that a line of jimmies, noiseless hammers, crowbars and nitroglycerine would go well with a line of pistols.”

The Village Gossip responded to X-23 by announcing his plans to open just such an emporium:

“Taking X-23’s tip, I beg to announce that I have opened a store for the sale of pistols and other tools of burglary and banditry. I feel as X-23 does about it. We offer pistols for the asking to men of his profession and yet we prevent them from obtaining the other necessary tools of their profession. My card reads:

Village Gossip, Gun Dealer, Also, Full Line of Jimmies, Nitroglycerine, Crowbars And Noiseless Hammers.”

As expected, Segal got a lot of pushback from the Post’s readers, accusing him and his newspaper of promoting crime and lawlessness by selling criminal tools to criminals. He attempted a reasoned response [25 September 1923], but discovered, as so many others have, that Cincinnati is immune to satire.

“It seems to me absurdly unfair that we should permit the sale of pistols to burglars and yet deny them the right to buy other tools, less deadly, such as jimmies, crowbars, noiseless hammers and nitroglycerine. In justice to burglars, I have opened my burglar tool store and intend to keep it open until Council passes an ordinance prohibiting the sale of pistols as well as other burglar tools.”

The impetus for Segal’s crusade were two murders committed with cheap, locally purchased, pistols. The first was Cincinnati Policeman Lawrence Klump, killed while breaking up a boisterous crowd in the West End on 11 August 1923. Klump’s assailant shot him at point-blank range with a pistol he had purchased for $3. As the Post pointed out, that $3 pistol cost the City of Cincinnati $7,500 after the murderer’s trial rang up $3,000 in expenses and the city paid out $4,500 to Officer Klump’s widow.

It was the murder of 14-year-old Minnie McFerrin of Covington that truly fired up Segal’s righteous anger. Minnie and her 12-year-old sister Mattie were the daughters of a drunken ne’er-do-well named William McFerrin. Their mother had deserted the family because of McFerrin’s cruel treatment. The girls were taken in by a neighbor, Sallie Padlon. McFerrin resented the bond his daughters formed with Mrs. Padlon and was jealous of the affection the girls showed to her. One night, McFerrin got roaring drunk and wandered over to Cincinnati, where he purchased a pistol, then took a streetcar back to Covington. He decided to confront the woman his daughters called “Aunt Sallie” and barged into the kitchen where Mrs. Padlon and Minnie were cleaning. He fired one shot at Mrs. Padlon, who fled the room and fired a second round after her, which fatally wounded his daughter.

The Post spread coverage of Minnie McFerrin’s funeral across the front page on 25 September 1923. Minnie’s white coffin was carried to her grave in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. The pallbearers were Minnie’s classmates from Saint Walburg’s Academy in Covington. The Post’s front-page news story included an indictment of Cincinnati’s reluctance to enact regulations on pistol sales:

“Since Minnie McFerrin was killed with a pistol bought by her father in Cincinnati the day before her death, her funeral was a proper occasion on which to ask Mayor George Carrell a certain question, namely: ‘Mr. Mayor, what are you going to do with the ordinance to regulate the sale of pistols in Cincinnati, as proposed by the Post?’”

The answer, despite continual nudging by Segal and the Post, was nothing. Cincinnati in 1923 remained in the clutches of the Boss Cox machine. Although George Barnsdale Cox himself had been dead for several years, his minions kept the sputtering political machine alive. When the city solicitor, finally bowing to public pressure, sent a draft ordinance regulating pistol sales to council, it was met with a legislative yawn. The Post [29 October 1925] was livid:

“The city solicitor sent it to Council to be presented there. But ‘party responsibility’ that governs all acts of Council would have nothing to do with it. ‘Party responsibility’ that approves a bootlegger and a bribe-giver in Council would not give its approval to this ordinance to keep guns out of irresponsible hands.”

Within two weeks of that complaint, Cincinnati had a new City Council, dominated by the new Charter Party and mostly free of Cox Machine interference. When presented with a new version of a city ordinance to regulate handgun sales, the new, progressive council punted. The state, they said, should oversee firearm laws.

Al Segal may have sighed in frustration, but his days as a satirist were over.

[navigatorwrongway]

The genre of paleodocumentary – documentaries focusing on extinct ancient life – reemerged with Apple TV’s Prehistoric Planet in 2023. It draws heavily on traditional nature documentaries, tying together disparate segments with a common theme, and echoing the prestige of productions like Planet Earth, The Hunt, and The Blue Planet with renowned presenter Sir David Attenborough. This pedigree situates Prehistoric Planet as successor to the last landmark paleodocumentary series, the BBC’s wildly successful Walking With Dinosaurs. Released in 1999, the series set a standard that has scarcely been met since. Two and a half decades later, Prehistoric Planet might represent a renaissance, apart from one glaring flaw that undermines the project’s educational value.

Where most wildlife documentaries utilize on-location filming and stock footage, paleomedia by nature cannot rely on actual footage. Instead, a combination of practical effect modeling and computer-generated imagery (CGI) is used to depict extinct creatures. As this is prohibitively expensive, material often gets reused long past its expiration date. One clip from Walking With Dinosaurs has featured in at least three ‘talking head’ style documentaries, as recently as 2016.

Cross-pollination between documentaries is common in other respects. Many of Prehistoric Planet’s segments are extrapolated from documentary footage of modern animals, and as such are largely speculative in their presented behavior and physical appearance (neither of which fossilize well). While its visual material is a new breath of life for the genre, the copycat elements and influence of extant wildlife are such that the onscreen byline, ‘Planet Earth, 66 million years ago,’ might more accurately be, ‘Planet Earth, 66 million years ago.’

This may actually be beneficial; although derivative, the format is familiar and effectively demonstrates extinct creatures’ probable complexity and versatility. Documentaries are designed for accessibility — they speak to a layman’s understanding, encourage development of a deeper interest, and double as entertainment — even as they counter misinformation stemming from other forms of entertainment. Alongside the equivalent Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor-the-movie-monster dominates the public consciousness, having featured as a primary plot element in no fewer than six massively popular entertainment productions. Prehistoric Planet aims to correct resulting misconceptions, drawing a distinction between Velociraptor, animal, and Velociraptor, movie monster, in the familiar format of a nature documentary.

Considering that the goal of any documentary is to distill dense, difficult-to-digest information into the need-to-know, science communicators shoulder an important responsibility, because they serve as an educational touchstone. Jaques Cousteau was the educational touchstone for oceanography just as Carl Sagan was the touchstone for an entire era of astrophysics and Stephen Hawking the touchstone for theoretical physics. For seventy years, David Attenborough has been the touchstone for wildlife and ecology.

Those who take up that role are obligated to present their data with care. Data may be disproven or incomplete, but to encapsulate 25 years of paleontological advancement, given those limitations you need to get the science right — and in one critical respect, Prehistoric Planet drops the ball.

The final episode of Prehistoric Planet’s second season features Pectinodon and Styginetta. Attenborough’s narration states that every year, “Styginetta, a primitive relative of modern ducks, stop here on their travels. And they’re not alone; dinosaurs are here, too.” The implication that Styginetta are not dinosaurs in their own right misrepresents the science, and might have been amended with the addition of a single word: "other dinosaurs are here, too." If the writers, editors, researchers, producers, and fact checkers uniformly didn’t catch this, Attenborough should have; he has (and is) the authority, having been a titan of wildlife presentation since before the advent of color television. He should have changed the script.

This neglect of the scientific consensus is disconcerting, the equivalent of the next Planet Earth including a line in reference to ‘whales, and other fish…’ Not all dinosaurs were wiped out by the asteroid impact; modern-day birds, it has been established, are the dinosaurs that survived. Alongside the extinct dinosaurs, Prehistoric Planet features their contemporaries, the flying pterosaurs and marine reptiles such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, which were wiped out and have no surviving lineages. Lacking living examples to draw upon, Prehistoric Planet embraces speculative potential to present these extinct creatures as interesting — but educational media cannot sacrifice accuracy for entertainment. Styginetta are recognizable as birds, having the expected beaks, feathers, and flight-capable wings. Notably, Pictinodon are also feathered, and yet this correlation is never directly addressed – another missed opportunity. Both look photorealistic, move energetically, and read as alive in a way that has only been made possible in recent years, thanks in part to advances in CGI revolutionized by the production of Jurassic Park.

In the post-Jurassic Park era, it is impossible to consider early paleomedia (e.g., the work of Ray Harryhousen) as plausible. Clunky stop motion using puppets or clay, charming as it is, cannot be mistaken for reality. A photorealistic degree of visual acuity is possible with CGI, but this development predicates an ethical responsibility to avoid blurring the lines of truth. Even though (one hopes) nobody actually believes there was a camera running 66 million years ago, the viewer’s brain still buys it and processes it as visual input.

There is an obligation to communicate when something is speculative; an ethical responsibility to not misrepresent known science. And while conflating the speculative with the factual is an endemic problem within the genre, most paleomedia simply does not have the reach and influence of Prehistoric Planet. When a production has the backing of both Apple Inc. and the BBC, and is being played on repeat on every showroom test screen at Best Buy (as was recently the case) it has weight behind it. The farther the reach, the more critical it is to get it right.

One only needs to look at Jurassic Park's impact on the public perception of dinosaurs to corroborate this. ‘Velociraptors’ in those films are nominally based on Deinonychus and Utahraptor — but because the name Velociraptor appealed more, in accordance with the ‘rule of cool’ it was taken from the turkey-sized creature in the fossil record and reconfigured as a reptilian grizzly bear.

Misrepresented data is thus embedded in the social mythos, becoming exponentially more difficult to correct as time goes on. Prehistoric Planet is many people’s first introduction to non-avian dinosaurs (et al.) as anything other than movie monsters. In fact, multiple segments throughout both seasons are in direct dialogue with Jurassic Park; there is no reason Velociraptor specifically should be as heavily featured as it is, except to counteract Jurassic Park’s pervasive misrepresentation. That Prehistoric Planet excludes birds from the category of dinosaurs will inevitably set back the entire genre. Just as Prehistoric Planet attempts to redress Velociraptor, the next production to cover this ground will be forced to redress Prehistoric Planet.

In an age of scientific illiteracy, the documentary is one of the most accessible formats for communicating the basic information necessary to understand the world around us. Those involved in the production of educational material have a responsibility to their audience and to their topic, and for all its many strengths, Prehistoric Planet fails to deliver.

[latenightcinephile]

Film #577: 'Ace in the Hole' / 'The Big Carnival', dir. Billy Wilder, 1951.

For the first half an hour of Ace in the Hole, the audience I was with at the Embassy Theatre were having a great time. Billy Wilder's script follows a washed-up journalist looking for the big story that will get him out of the small Albuquerque newsroom he's wound up in, and it's filled with the kind of crackling, acerbic one-liners that are familiar to fans of Wilder's work. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) admits to his new editor that he's been fired three times: once for inciting a libel case, once for starting an affair with the editor's wife, and once for drinking on the job. His editor replies that he's a lawyer, so he's not concerned about libel, and that his wife is three times a grandmother - "if you wanted to start something with her, she'd be very flattered." For those that have seen other films of Wilder's, like Some Like It Hot (1959), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Apartment (1960), this sort of wisecracking is to be expected.

Chuck Tatum is one of Billy Wilder's antiheroes, driven in increasingly dangerous directions out of a sense of what they deserve. Tatum feels hard done by, practically owed a cushy office and a front-page byline, and he has a keen sense of what drives readership and increased newspaper circulation. On the way to another rattlesnake hunt, he stops off at a Native American cliff dwelling, now a neglected tourist attraction, and finds that Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), the owner of the nearby gas station, has become trapped in the caves while looking for relics to sell. Tatum quickly realises that the situation has a strong resemblance to the (real-life) Floyd Collins incident from a few decades before, which occupied the American public's attention for weeks. In addition, Leo's predicament has a few other angles for good reporting: the possibility of a Native American curse, and the presence of Leo's attractive wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling). He rapidly decides to use this story to rebuild his reputation. First, he has to persuade the local sheriff to give him exclusive access to the scene, promising him coverage that will guarantee his re-election. Lorraine proves a little harder for Chuck to manage. From the first moment he meets her, it's clear that she's deeply unhappy with her life with Leo, and looking for an opportunity to escape. Chuck's magnetism makes Lorraine stick around, but Chuck insists she continue to play the role of the worry-sick wife, something she is vocally resistant to doing, especially as Chuck defies her advances.

Almost immediately, Chuck's approach to this life-or-death situation becomes reckless. Convinced that Leo is hardy enough to survive a few extra days in the cave, he insists that the rescue team drill down through the mountaintop rather than shoring up the existing passageways. He parades Lorraine and Leo's grieving parents before the cameras, denigrates anyone with experience who suggests the rescue might be conducted faster, and monopolises all the channels of information. Despite the high wages offered by the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, he quits his job and uses his access to play the big-city newspapers off against each other. Suddenly, the tide turns - Leo falls ill with pneumonia, and Chuck tries desperately to reverse course, but it's too late. The drilling at Tatum's insistence has made it impossible to approach Leo's position safely in any other way. With his position of power slipping through his fingers, Chuck takes it out on Lorraine, aggressively forcing her into the role that will bring the newspaper stories to a satisfying conclusion. For his trouble, he gets a pair of scissors to the gut. Leo dies with the drill only feet away from him, and the carnival is over. Lorraine is left still trying to escape the life she has made for herself, Leo's parents are distraught on the trash-strewn plains, and Chuck, disillusioned, returns to the Sun-Bulletin offices to demand his job back, but dies while pitching his pay rate.

On its initial release, Ace in the Hole was not particularly appreciated - it was considered too bitter. The Hollywood Reporter called it a "brazen, uncalled-for slap in the face" to democracy and the free press. With the benefits of hindsight, though, it does feel like the real world has caught up to the depiction of the journalism industry. This is also partly because of the dialogue - the language throughout the script feels very contemporary, and wouldn't be out of place in any Netflix series about political corruption.

One thing that seemed to escape specific criticism, but which almost certainly influenced these early reviews, was that the film depicts corruption as contagious. The local newspaper's photographer, Herbie (Robert Arthur), doesn't seem to have a clue about anything outside Albuquerque, but rapidly falls into step with Tatum. Before long he has been encouraged to quit alongside Tatum, and it is only when things have truly turned south that he is able to pull himself out of the protagonist's orbit. It's unclear whether Lorraine is already corrupted - she's certainly jaded - but Tatum provides an opportunity for that to blossom.

What dooms Chuck, in the end, is his inability to take responsibility for anything. This is obvious from the very beginning: he's a risk for the Sun-Bulletin to hire, but he has the experience that the editor finds intriguing. Once Chuck feels that he's outgrown that paper, he ditches it, but tries to return as things fall apart. He's benevolent to Lorraine, until it becomes clear that Leo will die, at which point he forcibly pivots her towards the role of the grieving wife. He's dismissive of the feelings that she's developed for him, but keeps her on the hook until it's clear that he can't maintain that illusion any longer. He lies to the sheriff, to Leo, to Leo's parents - often switching stories in the middle of a scene, once he's out of earshot of the last person he spoke to. Anyone who suggests shoring up the passageways is steamrolled by the force of Tatum's charisma, until it becomes clear that that approach is necessary, at which point he becomes a full-throated advocate for it. "When you get people steamed up like this, don't ever make suckers out of them," he says, wilfully blind to the fact that he was the one doing the steaming. The last half-hour of the film becomes unbearably tense, as we watch Chuck kicking frantically against anything that might keep him above water, kicking so hard that everything breaks apart under his urgent force. Before long, he's on the phone to New York, turning himself into the story: "Listen to this: 'Reporter Keeps Man Buried for Six Days'!"

One of the things that I found interesting about this film, which sets it apart from many other films of this genre, is that there doesn't seem to be anyone that we unreservedly support. Normally we would be expected to pity Leo, and we do to some extent. Because we've already been shown how little his wife cares for him, though, he becomes a pathetic figure. He lacks the self-awareness required for him to be admirable: too easily taken advantage of, and too quick to believe that the fast-talking newspaperman has his best interests at heart. The only people who really seem to earn our respect and pity are those on the outskirts of the affair - the newspaper editor, who knows why Tatum is doing what he does, but doesn't want it to contaminate his publication, or Leo's parents, who are at the mercy of the whirlwind that has sprung up around them. It is humorous, at first, to see the carnival spring up, and to watch the entry fee increase every time we see the billboard in an establishing shot. By the end, though, Leo's father is left alone, abandoned both physically and morally by everyone around him. "I don't want their money," he plaintively tells Lorraine as she invites the amusement park rides in through the gate, "I just want Leo."

Is this a good film? Perhaps. The acting is never substandard, but often a bit overwrought. Chuck gets stabbed, and then wanders around until nightfall trying to tie his report up in a nice neat bundle, until the plot decrees that it's time for him to die. If you're looking for a film where you can't see the machinations, this isn't the one - it's too obvious; it replaces all its blood with vinegar far too early to be subtle about where it's going. At the end of the film, with the exception of Lorraine, every character regrets getting swept away. "Leo Minosa is dead," Chuck announces. "There's nothing anyone can do." A long shot follows him walking back to his car as, in the background, everyone immediately makes a move to leave. We see the embarrassment on their faces. I think the audience I was with felt the same way: the laughter was quickly gone, replaced by a stony silence as we all realised we had been taken in, too.

[a-riot-pixie]

Sick of all the Bullshit

I am sick of killing myself at work to be ignored.

I had a moment at the beginning of the week where my new editor noticed that my old editor, now just a lowly reporter because he sucks at life, tried to impress him by attempting to steal my story.

The new editor watched as over and over, the idiot hobbit interrupted and talked over me, went behind my back for information, got excited like a little kid over a murder.

I was told after that he saw the behavior and not only knew it was a problem, but planned to address it.

It made me feel seen for the first time since I started this job.

That lasted not even 24 hours before my general manager was trying to basically give my story to the idiot hobbit because, "he's been writing crime for a long time."

Yeah, well, he fucking sucks at it.

He is so bad at writing crime the police don't want to give him information for a story because he gets it wrong.

He gets everything wrong.

But the sun shines out of his ass.

He works when he wants if he wants and while after a year of him sitting on his ass and fucking shit up he got demoted but not fired.

Since then he has stolen multiple stories from me and continues to do that.

He talks over me, talks down to me, gaslights me, steals not just my stories but my ideas. He takes credit for my work and takes my name off of bylines just because he can.

Nobody is going to do anything to stop him.

In addition to that, he is supposed to work every other weekend. After a year of my working every day. Being on call every single day. I was told we are supposed to take turns now.

Well, to combat this, not only does he not tell me what days he is working, what events or stories he is covering, but he just decided that he wasn't going to work this weekend, despite it being his weekend, and that I was just going to have to deal with that.

I hate my job and the people I work with but I still care about it being done, so of course I'm going to work.

Why not? Why would I want to start packing all of my things to put in storage or spend time with my kid before I have to send him back to Florida because the very same job doesn't pay me enough to pay rent, even if I didn't have other bills.

Why do I keep doing any of it?

I literally have nothing else right now.

My boyfriend who might be my ex, "needs space" isn't talking to me, might never talk to me again.

My kid doesn't care what happens so long as he has video games, internet access, or a dark room to hide in.

I don't have friends here, not really.

I don't have money to go anywhere or do anything.

I can't find another job, or extra work, or any additional way to make money.

I am writing for real again and that is something, but it doesn't mean I can't work or be on call.

I hate all of these people. They don't like me either.

They don't respect me, my work, my integrity, my feelings, expertise, or energy.

If I had somewhere to go I would leave. If I had any other option for work I would take it.

I am demoralized and hate myself every day. I have panic attacks before coming to the office. I hide in my house while I still have one to hide in.

I scream and shout and beg for anyone to notice and get into trouble, told to shut up, complaints aren't allowed and then shamed for failing or giving up or not succeeding.

I can't win if I try and I can't win when I do nothing and the other option is failure, which I am remarkably good at.

For doing nothing and for failing I am punished and when I succeed I am ignored.

I can't take the stress of all of this anymore.

I can't take the idiocy and the cruelty and the theft. I can't take the violence of this town or the racism or the secret agendas or the secrecy.

I hate my job and every single person I work with.

They are awful, selfish, miserable people who think they are the center of the world in this small town and that they have worldly experiences because one time they went on a cruise to Miami, because they have gone to Dallas, or driven to New Orleans. They think having life experience means having flown on a plane or visiting Disney World.

They don't know the meaning of the words they keep using to explain things they don't understand to me and get mad when I tell them the thing isn't the thing and I don't know what they are talking about because what they are trying to say makes no sense at all.

Oh, and I complain. I am a champion at complaining, but they have taken that shit to a new level.

Nothing is ever positive.

The office is negative all the time. They are all so angry all the time I just hide away in my office, shut the door and shut them out because the energy makes me hurt.

Listening to the inane conversation and the shit vocabulary, the explanations of how things work in places they have never been to, the way people think who they have never met, "a city is a city is a city," and "allegators don't like cleaned out water areas," and on and on and on.

I hate them. I hate my job. I need out. I need an option. I need a dream, a goal, one small tiny fucking piece of hope.

I can't take this much longer. I am going to break.

Nobody gets to be surprised this time.

[lboogie1906]

Ralph Wiley (April 12, 1952 - June 13, 2004) was an influential writer on both sports and race. Born in Memphis, began his career playing college football at Knoxville College. His mother, Dorothy Brown, was a college teacher who inspired in him a love for writing early in his childhood.

An unfortunate knee injury unexpectedly ended his football career. He turned to writing and began working as a professional journalist at the Knoxville Spectrum during college. He moved west and continued his career at the Oakland Tribune. He began as a copyboy and worked his way up the ranks to become a regular columnist. He came up with the term “Billy Ball” to describe the style of baseball the Oakland A’s employed under manager Billy Martin. The term grew to be used within the baseball world. He left the Oakland Tribune and began writing for Sports Illustrated, where he wrote 28 cover stories and over 200 bylines.

He wrote critically acclaimed books. His books included Serenity: A Boxing Memoir, a survey of the boxing world, and three books on race: Why Black People Tend to Shout: Cold Facts and Wry Views From a Black Man’s World, What Black People Should Do Now: Dispatches From Near the Vanguard, and Dark Witness: When Black People Should Be Sacrificed (Again). These books established him as an important cultural critic.

He had become well known for his provocative and satirical writing style in addition to his usage of literary references in combination with street slang. His books criticized both Black and white America, casting blame without mincing the words. He made television appearances. He made regular guest appearances on SportsCenter along with occasional showings on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters.

He married Holly Cypress and Monica Valdiviez-Wiley, but both marriages ended in divorce. He has two children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #kappaalphapsi

[jacobjones2110]

What Is Article Schema & How to Implement It

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Importance of Article Schema in SEO The implementation of the Article Schema is a significant factor in your SEO strategy as it assists search engines in categorizing and indexing content more proficiently. This enhanced understanding afforded to search engines often translates into better visibility in search results for your articles. By leveraging Article Schema, you signal to search engines the relevancy and utility of your content, which can lead to improved rankings. Furthermore, when search results come with rich snippets that draw from your structured data, potential visitors get a preview of what to expect, which can lead to higher click-through rates and increased user engagement.

Types of Article Schema

General Article Schema General Article Schema serves as the foundational structure for marking up a wide variety of content on your website. It provides a set of properties that you can use to define articles, opinion pieces, or other forms of written content. When you integrate Article Schema into your web pages, you outline crucial details such as the headline, author, publication date, and main body of the article. This basic schema acts as a starting point for search engines to interpret your content and present it appropriately in search results, making it a versatile and critical tool for any content that doesn’t fit into a more specific schema category.

Specific Types of Article Schema Delving into more specific types of Article Schema allows you to tailor the structured data to the nature of your content, thus sharpening the focus for search engines and enhancing content discoverability. Each specialized schema type incorporates additional properties for describing content more precisely, which can lead to more targeted search results and better user experiences.

NewsArticle The NewsArticle schema is designed for content that reports on current events or topical subjects. By using this schema type, you provide search engines with context-specific metadata about the news content you’re publishing, such as the publication date, author, and a specific section of your publication—if applicable. Here’s a closer look at what makes NewsArticle schema essential:

Dateline: A dateline property can be added to clarify where and when the news story was originally reported, enhancing authenticity. Print Edition: For news content that also appears in print, details about the print version can be included. Headline: Crafting a compelling headline is important, as it’s often prominently displayed in search results. Byline: Identifying the article’s author can establish authority and trustworthiness. Article Body: Marking up the main content ensures that search engines can capture the essence of the article. Implementing the NewsArticle schema properly allows your journalistic content to gain greater visibility and attract more engagement from an audience seeking the latest news.

BlogPosting The BlogPosting schema is the go-to structure for personal or corporate blogs. This schema type is optimized for content that has a less formal or more conversational tone compared to a NewsArticle. Applying BlogPosting schema to your blog content enables search engines to better classify and showcase it in search results, with rich snippets that can include:

Comment Count: Reflecting user engagement, the number of comments can be displayed, highlighting interactivity. Author or Contributor: Giving credit to content creators, which can increase credibility and build personal or brand authority. Publish Date: Indicating when the post went live, which is particularly relevant for timely discussions or seasonal topics. Blog Title: Highlighting the subject of the blog post, helps users quickly understand what the post is about. Article Section: Categorizing the blog post within a particular section or category of the website for better content organization. Incorporating the BlogPosting schema for your blog content not only helps in getting favorable positions in SERPs but also encourages user interaction by showcasing elements that are unique to the blogging experience.

AdvertiserContentArticle The AdvertiserContentArticle schema is a specialized schema markup designed for content that has been sponsored or created as part of advertising and promotional efforts. This structured data helps clarify the nature of such content to search engines, which can lead to a more accurate representation in search results. It’s crucial to maintain transparency with your audience through this schema, as it denotes:

Sponsor: The entity that paid for the content can be indicated, helping to maintain trust with your audience. Published Time: Knowing when an advertorial was released can be relevant, especially for time-sensitive offers or information. Impressions Counter: If available, showing how many times an ad has been seen can emphasize popularity or reach. Call to Action: Including the primary action you want readers to take, which can be highlighted in rich snippets or search results. Educational/Informative Content: While promotional, also ensure it provides value or information to readers, not just advertising. Using AdvertiserContentArticle schema properly ensures that while your content is promotional, it is also appropriately classified and users can make informed decisions about the credibility and intent of the content they are consuming.

[ao3feed-nace]

Byline Rivals

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/f3KcdFn by Reviewdiaries Rival reporters at the Bayside Chronicle, Nancy Drew has one thing on her mind - crushing Ace Hardy like a bug beneath her excellent front page record. But when their boss Nick needs them to collaborate on an expose to take down Everett Hudson, the line between rivalry and lust becomes a little blurry. Words: 10463, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Nancy Drew (TV 2019) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M Characters: Nancy Drew, Ace (Nancy Drew), Ryan Hudson, Laura Tandy, Ned Nickerson, George Fan, Bess Marvin, Everett Hudson, Tristan Glass Relationships: Ace/Nancy Drew Additional Tags: Rivals to Lovers, Reporter AU, Happy Ending, Fluff and Smut read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/f3KcdFn

[readingsrantsrambles]

My Parkinson’s Crisis—And Ours The still-mysterious disease is spreading wildly, and Washington isn’t doing enough. As a physician and a sufferer, I should know.

Washington Monthly by E. Fuller Torrey & Wendy Simmons November / December 2023

The still-mysterious disease is spreading wildly, and Washington isn’t doing enough. As a physician and a sufferer, I should know.

Parkinson’s disease is a puzzle. I know because I have had it for more than a decade. Some of its symptoms, such as tremors, are easy to understand, but others are weird. For example, turning my body is difficult, and it’s even more difficult if I try to turn it clockwise rather than counterclockwise. I have lost my ability to swim. And what happens when I suddenly freeze, as if my feet were glued to the floor? My brain has sent a message to my feet to step forward. Did the message not arrive, or did my feet simply ignore it? It’s impossible to know. (This article has a shared byline, but the “I” refers to Torrey.) 

Parkinson’s disease is not just a puzzle; it’s an expensive one. A recent detailed study, based on 2017 data, reported that just over 1 million individuals in the United States were living with Parkinson’s. The disease costs our health care system $51.9 billion annually—and that price is expected to balloon to $79.1 billion by 2037, or roughly $1.36 billion a year. Since 90 percent are 65 or older, these patients place a particularly heavy burden on Medicare. 

Even more alarming, the researchers estimated that by 2037 an additional 600,000 people will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Such projections are consistent with other studies showing that Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological disease globally, increasing even faster than Alzheimer’s disease. Indeed, an editorial in The Lancet Neurology reported that “the prevalence, burden of disability, and number of deaths associated with Parkinson’s disease all more than doubled between 1990 and 2016.” Some observers call this a “Parkinson’s pandemic.”

Part of this increase is attributable to people living longer and to the large, aging Baby Boomer population. But that is only a partial explanation. Another part might be due to factors related to the causes of this disease. Studies have shown that you are more likely to get Parkinson’s if you have red hair or melanoma, or if you still have your appendix. Other studies have reported that having numerous dental amalgam fillings or living downwind from a golf course are risk factors. Perhaps strangest is data showing that drinking large amounts of milk or never having smoked tobacco increases your chances of getting Parkinson’s disease. Examining some of the leading theories of causation—genetics, infection and inflammation, toxic metals, and pesticides—can illuminate this puzzling potpourri of claims and determine whether research dollars are being effectively deployed in halting the rise of the disease.

Genetics

Genetic research on Parkinson’s has identified more than 20 genes that can potentially cause the disease. However, most of them rarely do. Some genes were only identified in single families, and several only in individuals with early disease onset. The relative lack of importance of genes as a primary cause of Parkinson’s disease has been confirmed by studies in which identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, are compared to fraternal twins, who share only 50 percent. If a disease has a genetic cause, one expects both identical twins to be affected—this is called the “concordance rate”—significantly more often than both fraternal twins. Large studies of twins and Parkinson’s disease, however, have reported that the concordance rates for identical and fraternal twins are not significantly different. Twin studies thus confirm the relative lack of importance of genes as a primary cause of Parkinson’s disease and support researchers’ estimates that genes cause only 5 to 15 percent of cases. 

In addition to genes that directly cause diseases, there are dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of so-called risk genes for each disease. Risk genes do not cause the illness but, rather, predispose individuals to it or protect them from it. For example, scientists know that a particular kind of Mycobacterium can cause tuberculosis. Once M. tuberculis enters a body, risk genes determine whether it will cause clinical symptoms and, if so, how severe they will be.

Scientists have identified more than 90 risk genes for Parkinson’s disease. One of these also controls the quantity and distribution of melanin, which determines hair color. Redheads have almost double the chance of developing Parkinson’s compared to people with black hair; blondes and brunettes have intermediate risks. This genetic association also explains why someone with Parkinson’s has an almost fourfold increased probability of developing melanoma and why someone with melanoma has a fourfold increased likelihood of developing Parkinson’s. 

Infection and Inflammation

Infectious agents are also potential causes of Parkinson’s disease. Many viruses that affect the brain can cause symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as tremor and stiffness. Research has shown that the influenza virus, for example, caused the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica—a neurological syndrome—in the 1920s, which followed the 1918 influenza pandemic and resulted in thousands of cases of parkinsonism. (When individuals have symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but it is unclear whether they have the full disease, it is referred to as “parkinsonism.”) The residual cases from that epidemic became the subject of Oliver Sacks’sAwakenings, subsequently made into a movie starring Robin Williams as the doctor giving his patients a new medication that produces a dramatic but temporary improvement in their symptoms. The possible role of the influenza virus in causing Parkinson’s disease is a subject of ongoing debate among researchers. Other viruses that have been shown to cause parkinsonism include Coxsackie, Japanese encephalitis, western equine encephalitis, herpes simplex, hepatitis C, and the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency disorder. How often such viruses actually do so is not yet known.

Other researchers take a broader approach to the relationship between infections and Parkinson’s disease. A large Swedish study identified individuals who had been hospitalized for any infection of the central nervous system. They found that individuals with Parkinson’s were 50 percent more likely than controls to have previously been hospitalized for a CNS infection. The researchers reasoned that it was not the specific infectious agent that was the problem but that all the infections produced inflammation in the brain. 

In support of this theory, many studies have reported increased levels of inflammatory markers in the blood of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. This has led to speculation that the disease is not a brain disease but a disease of the immune system. 

Some studies show a relationship between inflammatory bowel disease and Parkinson’s disease. Additional evidence linking the gastrointestinal tract to Parkinson’s is that the wall of the intestine contains alpha-synuclein, a protein also found in the brain of individuals with Parkinson’s. Alpha-synuclein is especially prominent in the wall of the appendix. An international consortium of researchers extensively studied the appendix in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Looking at the records of more than 1.6 million individuals over 52 years, they found that patients who had had their appendix removed had a modest but statistically significant 19 percent reduction in their chances of developing Parkinson’s. Furthermore, those who had had their appendix removed at least 30 years previously but still developed the disease did so almost four years later than those who still had their appendix. 

Toxic Metals

Researchers have also noted that exposure to high levels of certain metals—among them aluminum, bismuth, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, and zinc—causes parkinsonism. (Workers at a manganese ore–crushing facility, for example, reported parkinsonian symptoms.) Other studies show geographic associations, such as a higher prevalence of Parkinson’s disease in urban counties that also report a higher industrial release of copper or manganese. 

Among the most promising research involving metals and Parkinson’s is in studies about mercury. Most human exposure to mercury comes from amalgam dental fillings and eating fish. Amalgam fillings, which consist of 50 percent mercury and a 50 percent mix of silver, copper, zinc, and other metals, were introduced almost 200 years ago. Individuals with amalgam fillings have between two and 12 times more mercury in their bodies than those without amalgam fillings. An autopsy study of 34 individuals reported a statistically significant correlation between the number of amalgam fillings and the mercury level in their brain’s occipital lobe. Studies have also shown that amalgam fillings slowly leak mercury vapor; when inhaled, it can easily pass through the blood-brain barrier. (Based on toxicity studies, amalgam fillings have been banned in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They are still used in the United States, where 58 percent of adults have them.)

Studies of mercury that were specifically focused on Parkinson’s patients have confirmed this link. A study of 54 Parkinson’s patients and 95 controls reported a significant association between blood mercury levels and the diagnosis. A large study from Taiwan found that amalgam fillings significantly increased the risk of a subsequent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. One study used data from Denmark’s Faroe Island, where there is a high prevalence of Parkinson’s, to examine the dietary history of 79 individuals with the disease and 154 matched controls. A statistically significant association was found between individuals who ate more whale, which is high in mercury, and those with Parkinson’s. Most recently, an Australian study compared the distribution of mercury in the autopsied brains of two individuals who had died with Parkinson’s disease and 12 who had not. Some mercury was found in all the brains, but only in the Parkinson’s-infected brains was it found in neurons in the substantia nigra, striatum, and thalamus, areas associated with this disease. The researchers often found Lewy bodies—abnormal deposits of alpha-synuclein and one of the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease—along with the mercury. 

Pesticides 

In the 1980s, an unusual outbreak of Parkinson’s disease occurred among young adults in California. It turned out that all had used a designer street drug, MPTP, that was chemically similar to a widely used pesticide called paraquat. This caused researchers to wonder whether pesticides or other chemicals might be causes of Parkinson’s disease.

Four decades later, research suggests that the answer is yes. A 2017 analysis of 23 such studies concluded that pesticide exposure increases the risk of an individual developing Parkinson’s by 50 percent or greater. This was true for pesticides in general and also for each class of pesticides—insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides—examined individually. Some pesticides seem worse than others; for example, a meta-analysis of 13 case-control studies of paraquat alone demonstrates its association with Parkinson’s disease. Paraquat has already been banned in more than 30 countries, but it is still widely available in the United States, and according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, its use more than doubled between 2008 and 2018. 

The assessment of pesticide exposure differs widely in these studies. For example, a study in Iowa and North Carolina determined the incidence of Parkinson’s disease in individuals who worked in agriculture as professional pesticide applicators. By contrast, a study in Nebraska reported a geographic association between the incidence of Parkinson’s disease and the use of pesticides by counties. Several studies have examined whether rural residents who live next to fields on which pesticides have been used have a higher incidence of Parkinson’s. The results have been mixed. In 2012, researchers in Raleigh, North Carolina, published a letter in a neurology journal asking, “Is Living Downwind of a Golf Course a Risk Factor for Parkinsonism?” They observed that among 26 cases of parkinsonism, 19 individuals lived on or within two miles of a golf course. Furthermore, 16 of the 19 lived downwind from the course, and two others were said to have had additional golf course exposure. The researchers invited readers to confirm their findings with a larger sample size, but we could not ascertain whether anyone had done so.

Other Theories

Many Americans associate Parkinson’s disease with head trauma. The boxer Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1984, at the age of 42. Studies were subsequently done asking people with Parkinson’s about their history of head trauma. Such studies were subject to recall bias because subjects might have been more likely than controls to remember such incidents. A meta-analysis of 22 such studies, all done since 1984, reported a significant association with Parkinson’s disease, but only for head trauma that resulted in a loss of consciousness or a concussion. Recent studies have also emphasized that sports-related head injuries are more likely to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, with symptoms such as depression and cognitive deficits; some subjects will also have tremors, but other symptoms of parkinsonism are not prominent in such cases.

Clues to the causes of Parkinson’s disease have also been sought in prospective, longitudinal health studies in which data on dietary habits and smoking is collected on large groups who are followed for years. A meta-analysis of five longitudinal studies unexpectedly identified milk—but not cheese, yogurt, or butter—as a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. The more milk people drank, the greater the risk. In a study of men in Hawaii, those who consumed the most milk doubled their chances of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life. The risk does not appear to be related to milk’s calcium; milk causes a decrease in blood chemicals, which are thought to be a protective factor for Parkinson’s.

Even stranger than the milk story is the nicotine story. Everyone knows smoking is bad for your health and is associated with several cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, and stroke. However, several longitudinal studies have identified nicotine, including in cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco, as one of the strongest protective factors for Parkinson’s disease, reducing the risk of developing it by more than half. Current smokers have the lowest risk, followed by past smokers and then by people who have never smoked. The danger is inversely related to how long and heavily the person smoked. The decrease in smoking among men in recent decades has been cited as one possible reason Parkinson’s disease is increasing in prevalence. It is possible that nicotine has neuroprotective effects on the brain.

These are all important clues to ultimately discovering the causes and better treatments for Parkinson’s. Given the disease’s increasing prevalence, and the rising cost of caring for Parkinson’s patients, more research needs to be done. 

How much federally funded research on Parkinson’s disease is currently being carried out? In 2021, the National Institutes of Health supported 526 research projects on Parkinson’s, totaling $254 million. Based on the titles of the 526 projects, it appears that 58 focus on genetic causes; 17 on infectious and inflammatory causes; 14 on pesticides (including paraquat); and only seven on toxic metals, none of which include mercury. Given the limited number of cases of Parkinson’s disease known to be caused by genes, genetic research is probably being adequately covered. However, the other possible causes all appear to be disappointingly under-researched.

How much should the NIH be spending? One way to assess this is to compare it to research expenditures for Alzheimer’s disease. In 2021, the NIH spent $254 million on Parkinson’s research and roughly $3.1 billion on Alzheimer’s research. There are 6.5 million people with Alzheimer’s, compared to the approximately 1 million with Parkinson’s, meaning that the NIH spent roughly $254 per Parkinson’s patient and more than $470 per Alzheimer’s patient. If we use this comparison, Parkinson’s is being underfunded by the NIH by about $216 million a year. Perhaps it is time to review the NIH research portfolio. This may lead to a better understanding of the causes of Parkinson’s disease, leading to better treatments and control of Medicare costs.

[hedgewitchgarden]

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Boar's Head this week expanded a massive recall of deli meats. U.S. Food Safety officials cited an outbreak of listeria that, so far, has killed two people and sickened 34 more. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports the latest recall includes an additional 7 million pounds of sliced and packaged meat and poultry.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: The company added 71 new products to a related recall last week of more than 200,000 pounds of meat. The newly recalled products bear the Boar's Head or Old Country brand and were made at the company's facility in Jarratt, Va., between May 10 and July 29. Thomas Gremillion is director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America.

THOMAS GREMILLION: This is significant just by virtue of volume.

NOGUCHI: He says the fact the recall now covers more than 7 million pounds of meat suggests some of the routine checks to catch foodborne illness had failed.

GREMILLION: So there should be - in addition to the end product testing, there should be environmental testing, and they're supposed to kind of step up the testing and the cleaning when they get a positive sample. And maybe there were some warning signs that weren't sufficiently heeded.

NOGUCHI: Usually, recalls are caught somewhere along the manufacturing and testing process before people get sick.

DONALD SCHAFFNER: This is different because it started with an outbreak.

NOGUCHI: That is Donald Schaffner, a food safety expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He says listeria adulteration had previously been found in samples of Boar's Head liverwurst, and regulators likely couldn't determine whether the bacteria had spread to a huge number of other products made in the same Virginia facility.

SCHAFFNER: Once that happens, that's when we have these cascading or expanding recalls because the agency goes in and they say, well, you know what? We don't like that you're doing this. We don't like that you're doing that. You have not convinced us that you really have this problem under control.

NOGUCHI: Listeria can be especially dangerous to those who are pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised. When sickened, people can get fever, diarrhea, head and muscle ache, stiffness or convulsions. Schaffner says once food is contaminated, the bacteria can be hard to contain. It spreads quickly, including potentially through the retail deli slicers grocers use.

SCHAFFNER: As they sit at room temperature jammed up inside a deli slicer, those listeria begin to multiply. And then the next thing that you go to slice on that deli slicer now gets cross-contaminated with those listeria.

NOGUCHI: He says concerned consumers should check the label on their sliced or packaged meats. If it does not bear the facility or establishment No. 12612, he says, rest assured. If the product is included in the recall, consumers can cook the product before consuming it or simply throw it out. One last tip - if it's been recalled, thoroughly clean your refrigerator and countertops as well. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.

[swissforextrading]

ALICE gets the green light for new subdetectors

ALICE gets the green light for new subdetectors Two detector upgrades of ALICE, the dedicated heavy-ion physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), have recently been approved for installation during the next long shutdown of the LHC, which will take place from 2026 to 2028. The first one is an upgrade of the innermost three layers of the Inner Tracking System (ITS3), and the second is a new forward calorimeter (FoCal), optimised for photon detection in the forward direction of the ALICE detector. High-energy collisions of heavy ions like lead nuclei at the LHC recreate quark–gluon plasma: the hottest and densest fluid ever studied in a laboratory. Besides studying the properties of quark–gluon plasma, the ALICE programme covers a broad array of topics involving strong interaction, such as determining the structure of nuclei and the interactions between unstable particles, as presented in "A journey through the quark-gluon plasma and beyond". Inner Tracking System (ITS3) ALICE’s current Inner Tracking System, installed for the ongoing LHC run, is the world’s largest pixel detector to date, with 10 m2 of active silicon area and nearly 13 billion pixels. The new Inner Tracking System, ITS3, builds on the successful use of monolithic active pixel sensors and takes this concept to the next level. “ALICE is like a high-resolution camera, capturing intricate details of particle interactions. ITS3 is all set to boost the pointing resolution of the tracks by a factor of 2 compared to the current ITS detector,” said Alex Kluge and Magnus Mager, the project leaders of ITS3. “This will strongly enhance the measurements of thermal radiation emitted by the quark–gluon plasma and provide insights into the interactions of charm and beauty quarks when they propagate through the plasma.” The ITS3 sensors are 50 µm thick and as large as 26×10 cm2. To achieve this, a novel stitching technology was used to connect individual sensors together into a large structure. These sensors can now be bent around the beampipe in a truly cylindrical shape. The first layer will be placed only 2 mm from the beampipe and 19 mm from the interaction point. It can now be cooled by air instead of water and has a much lighter support structure, significantly reducing the materials and their effect on the particle trajectories seen in the detector.   Forward Calorimeter (FoCal) The FoCal detector consists of an electromagnetic calorimeter (FoCal-E) and a hadronic calorimeter (FoCal-H). FoCal-E is a highly granular calorimeter composed of 18 layers of silicon pad sensors, each as small as 1×1 cm2, and two additional special layers with pixels of 30×30 μm2. FoCal-H is made of copper capillar tubes and scintillating fibres. “By measuring inclusive photons and their correlations with neutral mesons, and the production of jets and charmonia, FoCal offers a unique possibility for a systematic exploration of QCD at small Bjorken-x. FoCal extends the scope of ALICE by adding new capabilities to explore the small-x parton structure of nucleons and nuclei,” said Constantin Loizides, project leader of FoCal at the ALICE collaboration. The newly built FoCal prototypes have recently been tested with beams in the CERN accelerator complex, at the Proton Synchrotron and Super Proton Synchrotron, demonstrating their performance in line with expectations from detector simulations. The ITS3 and FoCal projects have reached the important milestone of completing their Technical Design Reports, which were endorsed by the CERN review committees in March 2024. The construction phase of ITS3 and FoCal starts now, with the detectors due to be installed in early 2028 in order to be ready for data taking in 2029. ckrishna Thu, 04/18/2024 - 14:52 Byline ALICE collaboration Publication Date Thu, 04/25/2024 - 10:00 https://home.web.cern.ch/news/news/experiments/alice-gets-green-light-new-subdetectors (Source of the original content)