#Francis S Collins

[nycreligion]

A Reflection on Tim Keller of NYC who Moved to Heaven 1-year ago

Tim Keller. Photo: Tony Carnes/A Journey through NYC religions Timothy James Keller went to Heaven in the morning of May 19th, 2023. The New York City pastor was one of the world’s most insightful presenters of the good news of God’s forgiveness, acceptance, and charge to change the world for the better. He was born on September 23, 1950, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and founded Redeemer…

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This distinctive pearl necklace was designed by Joseff of Hollywood, who created jewelry for many films during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Because Joseff was not contracted to a particular studio, he was able to rent out his pieces to all of the film studios.

The above necklace first appeared on Kay Francis as Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez in the 1941 adaptation of Charley’s Aunt. In 1945 it appeared on Marsha Hunt as Constance Scott in The Valley of Decision. The following year saw it worn on the neck of Nella Walker as Mrs. Lawrence Tyburt Patterson Sr. in Two Sisters from Boston. 1947’s Northwest Outpost used it on Lenore Ulric as Baroness Kruposny. Ilona Massey was next to wear the piece as Madame Egelichi in the 1949 Love Happy. 

In the 1952 adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel, Olivia de Havilland wore the necklace as Countess Rachel Sangalletti Ashley, and it features somewhat in the plot of the production. Richard Burton’s character gives the necklace to Rachel as a symbolic gesture that he wishes to marry her, which sets the remainder of the story into motion. The passage in the novel describing the necklace says:

There were four strands. They fastened around the neck like a band, with a single diamond clasp.

The description in the novel obviously does not match its representation on screen, but it is a beautiful necklace nonetheless. 

Finally, in 1987, the necklace was seen on Joan Collins’ character Alexis Carrington Colby in the episode of Dynasty entitled The Fair. 

The necklace eventually went up for auction at Julien’s Auctions in the 2017 Joseff of Hollywood: Treasures from the Vault. The action describes the piece as: 

A triple-strand, tiered necklace of alternating simulated diamonds and pearls with pearl drops. The necklace has four simulated mabe pearl medallions and is stamped on the back “Joseff Hollywood.”

To learn more about Joseff of Hollywood jewelry, you can visit their official website, or read Jewelry of the Stars: Creations from Joseff of Hollywood by Joanne Dubbs Ball.

Costume Credit: Dean, Eugene Joseff (Joseff of Hollywood), Veryfancydoilies, Katie S., Solidmoonlight

Follow: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram

[walker-extended-universe]

Walkerverse Character Tier List

Hello Walker Family! I'm here announcing the beginning of the Walkerverse Character Tier List series!

I've created a list of characters from Walker and Walker: Independence to put in a tier list ranking. I will be releasing a series of polls with all these characters (including pictures and brief reminders of their roles) to determine which Tier List ranking they get. Whichever option from S to F gets the most votes will become the official ranking of that character.

Here is the criteria I used to select the characters I'm putting in the poll series:

They must have a name on the imdb page

They must have a minimum of two appearances

I have to remember them, regardless of their appearance count

Single appearances that were special/memorable will also be included (ex: Uncle Willy, Minnie Jayne)

The rankings will be as follows:

S tier: Best character in the show, love them with all my heart, they can do literally nothing wrong

A tier: Beloved blorbo, one of my favorites, I'd want to be friends with them if they were real

B tier: I like them, but I have my critiques. A good character that I mostly enjoy

C tier: Mid character, not the biggest fan of them but I won't complain when they show up

D tier: I don't like them. I have many criticisms of their actions and personality. I may even dislike whole episodes because of them

F tier: Literally the worst character in the entire show. Hate them. Much dislike. I fastforward over them on rewatches.

I currently have pictures (for the poll and the complete tierlist that I will link when it is public) for 39 of the 120+ characters I put on the list, so that's where I will be starting. I will include the full list of all the characters from both shows below the cut along with the taglist.

The first poll will go up on Monday, September 23rd! Can't wait to see what you guys think!

@theladywyn, @jaredwalkertexasranger, @laf-outloud, @aborddelimpala, @mysterybeau, @sweet-sammy-kisses, @kickingitwithkirk, @rhl74, @peachparakeet, @dumb-fawkin-bitch, @loveforwomenstuff, @low-soduimfreak, @ihavepointysticks, @waywardmaslow, @arte-mishuntress, @the-slythering-raven, @deeranger, @duo-kun, @inafieldofdaisies, @not-your-housekeeper98, @nancymcl, @sammysnaughtygirl

Walker:

Cordell Walker

Liam Walker

Abeline Walker

Bonham Walker

Stella Walker

August Walker

Larry James

Trey Barnett

Geri Broussard

Cassie Perez

Micki Ramirez

Colton Davidson

Ben Perez

Dan Miller

Denise Davidson

Emily Walker

Todd

Gale Davidson

Stan Morrison

Clay Cooper

Clint West

Kelly James

Kevin Golden

Isabel Munoz

Bret

Trevor Strand

Ruby

Detective David Luna

Julia Johnson

Hoyt Rawlins

Twyla Jean

Sadie Yoo

Witt

Connie

Faye

DJ James

Keesha Barnett

Carlos Mendoza

Officer Randall

Dr. Adriana Ramirez

Sean

Serano

Earl

Mercedes Ruiz

Miles Vyas

Coach Bobby

Principal Heaney

Byron Santos

Garrison (GM)

Nate Smith

Tessa Graves

Crystal West

Cali

Rita

Lana Jones

Tommy Adams

Jaxon Davis

Grant McLawson

Neo

Mike

Horace

Alma Munoz

Fenton Cole

Shannon

Lorezno Munoz

Snyder

Oswald

Marv Davidson

Jim

Mr. Golden

Spider

William

Owen Campbell

Minnie Jayne

Maybelline

Mehar

Henry

Becca Furgeson

Joanna Rawlins

Cole Tillman

Rebecca Tillman

Walker: Independence:

Abigail Walker

Hoyt Rawlins

Kate Carver

Tom Davidson

Augustus

Calian

Kai

Lucia Reyes

Shane Davidson

Hagan

Chief Taza

Francis Reyes

Luis Reyes

Ruby

Nascha

Ethan (Pinkerton Detective)

Salty Dog

Molly Sullivan

Anna Maria Reyes

Cordell the Horse

Burlesque Dancers

Teresa Davidson

Matthew

Jacob

Otis Clay

Martha Sullivan

Griffin

Liam Collins

Eli McDowd

Charlotte “Charlie” Collins

Gil Santiago

Randall

Lily

Stella Rawlins

Wordell Calker

Olivia

Topsannah

Amos Acorn

Parker Briggs

Judge Parker

Kirby Smith

Andrew Jones

Judge Carter

[nomilkinmyteaplease]

The Terror’s New Year Resolutions

James Fitzjames - to finally make 2024 the year he goes beyond page 1 of “How to be a Good Listener” 

Harry Goodsir- to stop stopping s*x in the middle in order to make diagrammes and take notes, shouting "Imagine"!

Edward Little - to sign up to a standup comedy club 

Francis Crozier - to give gin a go with an open mind 

Dr Stanley - to find if his daughter likes birds 

Henry Collins - to finally tackle his arkoudaphobia

William Gibson - to perfect his popping dance skills

George Hodgson - to publish his memoir "How I Looked Inside Myself and What I Found" (spoiler: 300 pages to figure out he found not much)

John Irving - to actually learn watercolors instead of just recommending them to everyone left, right and centre

Sir John- to stop pulling people’s legs

Solomon Tozer- well, he tried Veganuary, but failed on day 1

[nigesakis]

one of your patented the Terror listicles but about them running a Summer Camp. (Except Hickey: he failed the background check because he once beat a nun with a collection plate) also i definitely feel like JFJ would be the swim instructor and and lead campfire sing a longs (badly) and Sir Jon is contemplating selling the camp to a mining company.

i feel honored. i dont know shit about camps though

The Terror if it played in a Summer Camp (1980's-2000's)

Francis: staff, camp manager (in his cabin office doing papework most of the time, so when he comes out the kids go OOOOOOH🫨🤙🤙 like in regular show; they like him tho, its in good fun)

Franklin: staff, camp owner (he doesnt have to be here, but decides to check it out once because he's thinking of selling. kids like him 'cause he lets them do what they want; he doesn't know theyre supposed to do tasks (Francis has to do double the paperwork now))

Fitzjames: staff, boys head counselor and program manager (he's everywhere... whys this guy suddenly at the swim instruction and does the swim instructors job? too motivated and the kids know hes trying to get them to like him; works)

Sophia: staff, girls head counselor and photographer/videographer (everyone who hates getting their picture taken doesn't mind if its her. only counselor the kids respect)

Collins: staff, swim instructor/lake guard (lets Fitzjames do the classes so he doesnt have to talk so much)

Blanky: staff, counselor and woods master (i made that up), leads the forest expeditions (suddenly all the kids like walking?? (he has a better prosthetic now))

Bridgens: staff, horsemanship instructor (popular with the kids)

Peglar: staff, overnight counselor (tells good stories when you cant sleep, lets the older ones smoke weed behind the cabins, whys the horsemanship instructor here?)

Hodgons: staff, counselor (easiest to pull pranks on; he thinks theyre doing it because they like him)

Irving: staff, counselor and worship leader (i didnt know this existed but well)

Dundy: staff, archery instructor (i think hed look cool doing it)

Jopson: staff, assistant, nobody knows what hes actually doing here

Little: staff, runs the inventory and snack bar, lets them steal

Wall & Diggle: staff, kitchen staff. you can hear them arguing from the outside

Silna: kid, sneaked in her fucking dog ("You think Neptune is gonna protect us from the killer?" watched Friday 13th before coming)

Tozer: kid, acts like hes a counselor

Goodsir: kid, the others rather come to him than the actual camps nurse (Stanley)

Manson & Hartnell: kids, got lost in the woods tying to smoke weed

Armitage: kid, got lost in the woods because he wanted to go home

Gibson: kid, only came cause Hickey told him he'd be a staff volunteer and let them break rules but now Hickey isnt there?

Des Voeux: missed the bus

[marta-bee]

I put together my Christmas wish list for family, which this year included a lot of history and politics books I've been wanting to read. It actually felt good, a low risk way to tell family this is what I stand for. But it's also a good round-up of vaguely liberal if not outright progressive titles that caught my interest, which is a rec list in its own way, so I thought I'd share.

Non-Fiction/RL-ish Books

Built from the Fire: The Epic story fo Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street (Victor Luckerson)

Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 312 Days That Changed America's Politics (Chris Wallace)

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade (Ann Fessler)

The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson)

The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust (Francis S. Collins)

War (Bob Woodward)

White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy (William J. Barber)

And the more fannish ones:

The Fall of Numenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth (J.R.R. Tolkien)

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 (Joseph Loconte)

The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science fiction, and Fantasy (Ursula K. LeGuin)

Norse Mythology (Neil gaiman)

A Place Called District 12: Appalachian Geography and Music in the Hunger Games (Thomas W. Paradis)

The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Tom Shippey)

A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (Ed. Dimitra Fimi)

Star Trek: Open a CHannel: A Woman's Trek by Nana Visitor

Tolkien and the Modernists: Literary Responses to the Dark New Days of the 20th Century (Theresa Freda Nicolay)

And finally, some charity groups I suggested family and friends donate to, all of which are doing work near to my heart:

Carolinas Care Partnership [an LGBT support group around here, particularly focused on housing access, health care and therapy access, especially for people affected by HIV/AIDS but not exclusively]

Life After Hate [supporting people leaving far-right and white nationalist groups]

NC Immigrant Solidarity Fund [they do financial grants for families facing deportation, also legal and social support for all kinds of recent immigrants]

Pro Publica [doing important independent investigative journalism, and boy is their work vital]

Promising Pages [you've heard of food banks? that, but for books]

Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom [doing good work to build Jewish-Muslim solidarity, The Kid and I particularly like that they're woman-centric and spotlight some lesser-known voices]

Sojourners [a good general left-leaning evangelical group, good at producing journalism and educational resources for *cough* less progressive evangelicals, they're good at speaking that community's language]

[iishmael]

Global Reading Challenge: 140/200

A personal reading project, where I endeavour to read a book from each of the 193 United Nations member states plus 7 extra* ones. My main goal is to have fun and to learn, but I do have rules for myself:

The book should be fiction, and preferably a novel. I allow plays and poetry, but non-fiction only as the very last resort

The author should have the nationality of their country. If they have lived a good portion of their life there and genuinely represent the local culture, then it's ok if they've been born somewhere else

I want to read books that represent the local literary tradition. Preferably a "classic", a book that illustrates the local culture, or a book that is famous within the country. I avoid popular and contemporary fiction, and books that play outside of the country.

*Extra states have been determined based on UNESCO membership and personal interest where I want to read more books from. This is not a political statement.

The List

Afghanistan: Atiq Rahimi - Earth and Ashes

Albania:

Algeria: Albert Camus - The Stranger (FR)

Andorra: Teresa Colom - Mlle Keaton et autres creatures (FR)

Angola: José Eduardo Agualusa - The Book of Chameleons

Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina: JL Borges - Fictions

Armenia: Raffi - The Fool

Australia: Doris Pilkington/Nugi Garimara - Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence

Austria: Elfriede Jelinek - Die Klavierspielerin

Azerbaijan

Bahamas: Telcine Turner - Woman Take Two

Bahrain: Sarah Al Shafei - Yummah

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus: Uladzimir Karatkievich - King Stakh's Wild Hunt

Belgium

Belize: Zee Edgell - Beka Lamb

Benin

Bhutan: Karma Ura - The Hero with a Thousand Eyes

Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ivo Andrić - The Bridge on the Drina

Botswana: Bessie Head - Maru

Brazil: Paulo Coehlo - The Alchimist

Brunei Darussalam: K.H. Lim - Written in Black

Bulgaria: Elias Canetti - Komödie der Eitelkeit (GER)

Burkina Faso: Norbert Zongo - Le parachutage (FR)

Burundi: Samoya Kirura - La femme au regard triste (FR)

Cabo Verde: Germano Almeida - The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo

Cambodia

Cameroon: Francis Bebey - King Albert

Canada: S. Alice Callahan - Wynema: A Child of the Forest

Central African Republic: Étienne Goyémidé - Le dernier Survivant de la caravane

Chad: Told by Starlight in Chad - Joseph Brahmin Seid

Chile

China

Colombia

Comoros: Ali Zamir - A Girl Called Eel

Congo

Cook Islands*: Kauraka Kauraka- Oral tradition in Manihiki

Costa Rica: Carlos Luis Fallas - Mamita Yunai (Die Grüne Hölle, GER)

Côte D’Ivoire

Croatia

Cuba

Cyprus: Kyriakos Charalambides - Selected Poems

Czech Republic: Jan Neruda - Prague Tales

DPRK (North Korea): Bandi - The Accusation

DRC

Denmark

Djibouti: Abdourahman A. Waberi - Passage of Tears

Dominica: Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

Egypt: Naguib Mahfouz - Palace Walk

El Salvador: Horacio Castellanos Moyà - Le bal des vipères (FR)

Equatorial Guinea: Trifonia Melibea Obono - La Bâtarde (FR)

Eritrea: Helen Berhane - Song of the Nightingale

Estonia: Jaan Kross - The Czar's Madman

Eswatini: Malla Nunn - A Beautiful Place to Die

Ethiopia

Fiji: Rajni Mala Khelawan - Kalyana

Finland

France: Pierre Louys - Aphrodite: Ancient Manners

Gabon: Daniel M Mengara - Mema

Gambia

Georgia

Germany: Thomas Mann - Buddenbrooks

Ghana: Ayi Kwei Armah - The beautiful ones are not yet born

Greece: Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba the Greek

Greenland*: Knud Rasmussen - Eskimo Folktales

Grenada: Merle Collins - The Colour of Forgetting

Guatemala: Miguel Angel Asturias - Strong Wind

Guinea: Camara Laye - The Radiance of the King

Guinea Bissau: Abdulai Sila - The ultimate tragedy

Guyana

Haiti: Jacques Roumain - Gouverneurs de La Rosée

Honduras: Froylan Turcios - El Vampiro (SPA)

Hungary: Arthur Koestler - Darkness at Noon

Iceland: Halldór Laxness - Independent People

India: Rabindranath Tangore - The Home and the World

Indonesia: Eka Kurniawan - Man Tiger

Iran: Sadegh Hedayat - The Blind Owl

Iraq: Andrew George - The epic of Gilgamesh

Ireland: James Joyce - Dubliners

Israel

Italy: Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller

Jamaica: Andrew Salkey - Hurricane

Japan

Jordan: Amjad Nasser - L'ascension de l'amant (FR)

Kazakhstan

Kenya: Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Petals of blood

Kiribati: Teresia Teaiwa & Vilsoni Hereniko - Last Virgin in paradise

Kosovo*: Flora Brovina - Call me by my name

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan: Chingiz Aitmatov - Jamila

Laos: Outhine Bounyavong - Mother's Beloved

Latvia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia: Bai T. Moore - Murder in the Cassava Patch

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania: Vingas Kreve - The Herdsman and the Linden Tree

Luxembourg: Norbert Jacques - Dr Mabuse der Spieler (GER)

Madagascar: Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo - Traduit de La nuit (FR)

Malawi: William Kamkwamba - The Boy who harnessed the Wind

Malaysia

Maldives: Abdullah Sadiq - Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu

Mali

Malta: Oliver Friggieri - Koranta and other short stories

Marshall Islands: Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner - Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter

Mauritania: Moussa Ould Ebnou - L'Amour Impossible (FR)

Mauritius: Ananda Devi - Eve out of her ruins

Mexico: Mario Bellatín - Beauty Salon

Micronesia: Emelihter Klieng - My Urohs

Monaco: Louis Notari - La légende de Sainte Dévote (FR)

Mongolia: Galsan Tschinag - Die Karawane (GER)

Montenegro: Petar II Petrovic Njegos - The Mountain Wreath

Morocco: Abdellatif Laâbi - Le bâpteme chacaliste (FR)

Mozambique: Mia Couto - Under the Frangipani

Myanmar

Namibia

Nauru: Nancy Viviani - Nauru, phosphate and political progress

Nepal: Prajwal Parajuly - Land where I flee

Netherlands

New Zealand: Witi Ihimaera - The Whale Rider

Nicaragua: Rubén Dario - Azul… (SPA/ENG)

Niger: Abdoulaye Mamani - Sarraounia: Le drame de la reine magicienne (FR)

Nigeria: Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

Niue*: John Puhiatau Pule - The Bond of Time: An Epic Love Poem

North Macedonia

Norway: Henrik Ibsen - A Doll's House

Oman

Pakistan: Jamil Ahmad - The Wandering Falcon

Palau: Hermana Ramarui - The Palauan Perspective: a poetry book

Panama: Ricardo Miró - Las Noches de Babel (SPA)

Palestine*: Ibrahim Nasrallah - Prairies of Fever

Papua New Guinea: Vincent Eri - The Crocodile

Paraguay: Augusto Roa Bastos - I the Supreme

Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa - In Praise of the Stepmother

Philippines

Poland: Isaac Singer - The Magician of Lublin

Portugal

Qatar

Republic of Korea

Republic of Moldova

Romania: Ioan Slavici - The lucky mill

Russian Federation: Leo Tolstoi - The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Rwanda

Saint Kitts and Nevis: Caryl Philips - Cambridge

Saint Lucia: Derek Walcott - Omeros

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Samoa: Albert Wendt - Leaves of the Banyan Tree

San Marino: J. Theodore Bent - A freak of Freedom: or, the Republic of San Marino

São Tomé e Príncipe: Conceição Lima - No Gods Live Here

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Seychelles: Antoine Abel - Coco Sec (FR)

Sierra Leone

Singapore: Cyril Wong - Tilting our Plates to catch the Light

Slovakia: Milan Rúfus - Strenges Brot

Slovenia: France Prešeren - Poems

Solomon Islands: John Saunana - Cruising Through the Reverie

Somalia: Hadraawi - The Poet and the Man

South Africa: JM Coetzee - Disgrace

South Sudan: Nyuol Lueth Tong - There is a country

Spain: Miguel de Unamuno - Abel Sanchez and Other Stories

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Suriname

Sweden: August Strindberg - The Red Room

Switzerland: Gottfried Keller - Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe

Syrian Arab Republic: Ibn al-Nafis - Theologus Autodidactus

Taiwan*: Qiu Miaojin - Notes of a Crocodile

Tajikistan: Shavkat Niyazi - At the Foot of Blue Mountains: Stories by Tajik Authors

Thailand

Timor-Leste: Xanana Gusmão - Mar Meu

Togo: Sami Tchak - La fête des masques (FR)

Tonga: Epeli Hau'ofa - Tales of the Tikongs

Trinidad and Tobago: VS Naipaul - A House for Mr Biswas

Tunisia: Albert Memmi - The Pillar of Salt

Turkey

Turkmenistan: Magtymguly - Poems from Turkmenistan

Tuvalu: Neil Lifuka - Logs in the current of the sea

Uganda: Okot p'Bitek - Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol

Ukraine: Andrey Kurkov - Death and the Penguin

United Arab Emirates

UK: Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway

United Republic of Tanzania

USA: John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath

Uruguay

Uzbekistan: Abdullah Qoqiriy - Bygone Days

Vanuatu: Grace Molisa - Black Stone

Vatican City*: Andrew Graham-Dixon - Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

Venezuela

Viet Nam

Yemen: Abdul-wali - They die strangers

Zambia

Zimbabwe

[beardedmrbean]

Infected blood victims could each receive payments of more than £2 million under a compensation scheme announced by the government.

Ministers set out the figures as they unveiled the proposed scheme following publication of the public inquiry's report into the scandal on Monday.

That said authorities covered up the scandal and exposed victims to unacceptable risks.

The government said the first payments will be made by the end of the year.

In the meantime, it said it would make extra interim payments of £210,000 over the summer.

Those will be to 4,000 victims who have already received payments of £100,000.

But the government said compensation would eventually be made available to a much wider group of people, including to the family and loved-ones of those who have been infected. This could include the children or parents - the first time they will have received any financial payment.

The total cost could eventually be in the region of £10 billion.

The infected blood inquiry has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

More than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C from 1970 to 1991 by contaminated blood products and transfusions.

About 3,000 of them have since died - many haemophiliacs given infected blood products as part of their treatment.

'Five criteria'

The compensation due will be judged under five criteria:

injury and harm caused

social impact from stigma and isolation

impact on autonomy and private life, such as not being able to have children

care costs

financial loss

The government said payments would depend on individual circumstances, but typical payouts for those infected with HIV, or for HIV plus hepatitis, would be in excess of £2 million.

Those with a hepatitis infection causing liver damage would get around £1 million.

Those who face extreme care costs or who were very high earners before infection could get even more.

The figures released also give examples of compensation awards for the family members of those infected.

The partner of someone infected with HIV who is still alive today, for example, should expect to receive around £110,000, while a child could get £55,000.

If their loved-one has died and they were financially dependent on them, annual payments are available.

The scheme will be administered by a new body called the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, which will be led initially by Sir Robert Francis, who chaired the inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.

It is proposed that the compensation will be taken as a lump sum or series of payments. The plans will be consulted on over the coming weeks.

From next April, the compensation scheme will effectively replace the existing financial support scheme - versions of which have been in place since 1989. In recent years they have been worth more than £40,000 a year to some, such as those who have been infected or, if they have died while benefitting, their partners.

Announcing the details in the House of Commons, paymaster general John Glen repeated the apology made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, saying the victims had suffered "unimaginable pain".

He said the publication of the public inquiry's report was a "day of great humility for everyone".

He hopes the compensation package will be welcomed: "The infected blood community know their cries for justice have been heard."

Des Collins, of Collins Solicitors, which is representing over 500 families, said the news was a "positive step and broadly encouraging".

But he criticised the government for not acting earlier, pointing out they were told to act on compensation by the public inquiry two years ago.

"The government has wasted valuable time. Why the promised further consultation has not happened sooner is also bewildering, but better late than never."

Jason Evans, of the campaign group Factor 8, said he would need to carefully consider the compensation sums before commenting.

But he said he was concerned about the wait some face given the interim payments are only available to certain individuals.

"Today's announcement will be a gut-punch to most bereaved families, who have still received no compensation at all."

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 48, 2023

Principles of nociceptive coding in the anterior cingulate cortex. Acuña, M. A., Kasanetz, F., De Luna, P., Falkowska, M., & Nevian, T. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(23), e2212394120.

VTA multifaceted modulation of CA1 local circuits. Adeyelu, T., & Ogundele, O. M. (2023). Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 202, 107760.

Amplified cortical neural responses as animals learn to use novel activity patterns. Akitake, B., Douglas, H. M., LaFosse, P. K., Beiran, M., Deveau, C. E., O’Rawe, J., … Histed, M. H. (2023). Current Biology, 33(11), 2163-2174.e4.

Early-life experience reorganizes neuromodulatory regulation of stage-specific behavioral responses and individuality dimensions during development. Ali Nasser, R., Harel, Y., & Stern, S. (2023). eLife, 12, e84312.

Neural bases of loss aversion when choosing for oneself versus known or unknown others. Arioli, M., Basso, G., Baud-Bovy, G., Mattioni, L., Poggi, P., & Canessa, N. (2023). Cerebral Cortex, 33(11), 7120–7135.

Cerebellar associative learning underlies skilled reach adaptation. Calame, D. J., Becker, M. I., & Person, A. L. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(6), 1068–1079.

Cholinergic and noradrenergic axonal activity contains a behavioral-state signal that is coordinated across the dorsal cortex. Collins, L., Francis, J., Emanuel, B., & McCormick, D. A. (2023). eLife, 12, e81826.

Perspective-taking and social inferences in adolescents, young adults, and older adults. De Lillo, M., & Ferguson, H. J. (2023). Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 152(5), 1420–1438.

Probabilistic and deductive reasoning in the human brain. Gazzo Castañeda, L. E., Sklarek, B., Dal Mas, D. E., & Knauff, M. (2023). NeuroImage, 275, 120180.

Development of brain state dynamics involved in working memory. He, Y., Liang, X., Chen, M., Tian, T., Zeng, Y., Liu, J., … Qin, S. (2023). Cerebral Cortex, 33(11), 7076–7087.

The nematode worm C. elegans chooses between bacterial foods as if maximizing economic utility. Katzen, A., Chung, H.-K., Harbaugh, W. T., Della Iacono, C., Jackson, N., Glater, E. E., … Lockery, S. R. (2023). eLife, 12, e69779.

Slow neural oscillations explain temporal fluctuations in distractibility. Lui, T. K.-Y., Obleser, J., & Wöstmann, M. (2023). Progress in Neurobiology, 226, 102458.

Risk and aversion coding in human habenula high gamma activity. Manssuer, L., Ding, Q., Zhang, Y., Gong, H., Liu, W., Yang, R., … Voon, V. (2022). Brain, 146(6), 2642–2653.

Multisensory perception and decision-making with a new sensory skill. Negen, J., Bird, L.-A., Slater, H., Thaler, L., & Nardini, M. (2023). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 49(5), 600–622.

The development of oscillatory and aperiodic resting state activity is linked to a sensitive period in humans. Ossandón, J. P., Stange, L., Gudi-Mindermann, H., Rimmele, J. M., Sourav, S., Bottari, D., … Röder, B. (2023). NeuroImage, 275, 120171.

Development of frequency tuning shaped by spatial cue reliability in the barn owl’s auditory midbrain. Shadron, K., & Peña, J. L. (2023). eLife, 12, e84760.

Spontaneous activity in cortical neurons is stereotyped and non-Poisson. Swindale, N. V, Spacek, M. A., Krause, M., & Mitelut, C. (2023). Cerebral Cortex, 33(11), 6508–6525.

Spatiotemporal neural dynamics of object recognition under uncertainty in humans. Wu, Y., Podvalny, E., & He, B. J. (2023). eLife, 12, e84797.

Aberrant neural processing of event boundaries in persons with Parkinson’s disease. Wyrobnik, M., van der Meer, E., & Klostermann, F. (2023). Scientific Reports, 13, 8818.

Encoding history enhances working memory encoding: Evidence from attribute amnesia. Yan, N., Grindell, J., & Anderson, B. A. (2023). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 49(5), 589–599.

[pulquedeguayaba]

EP8 thoughts

All the titles in the show are said in all of them, and they tend to catch you unaware. I wonder what's the logic behind who said what or in what situations were they said.

Does Armitage even have lines? In all his scenes he looks like a mixture of 🥺 and 🫥

Des Voux, you horrendous slimy racist asshole 💩 you're not even funny, unlike Stanley

Hickey really had it against Irving, hadn't noticed he also cut off his fingers. Dude, he was just repressed and didn't deserve what happened to him.

And Hogdson going along with his bullshit story 'cLeArLy oNlY sAvAgE mEn cOuLd hAvE dOnE tHaT' you're so right, only people indoctrinated into such a barbaric imperialistic mindset could have done that

Love love love the way they used and shot space in the camp, all that background movement, very dynamic

James getting his moment of bravery after telling Francis the truth, also last time he's looking a bit composed, despite the bullet holes and the St. Sebastian shot of it, before his body gives up and decays in such an unpretty way.

It's all vanity, always has been. And we're at the end of vanity

This show is so filled with l i n e s ✨

The sheer horror in Tozer's face as he sees how Collin's soul is being sucked out of him, and running into the fog, towards the wrong choice, tho tbf at this point they're all standing on a mountain of bad choices

[nycreligion]

A Reflection on Tim Keller of NYC who Moved to Heaven 1-year ago

Tim Keller. Photo: Tony Carnes/A Journey through NYC religions Timothy James Keller went to Heaven in the morning of May 19th, 2023. The New York City pastor was one of the world’s most insightful presenters of the good news of God’s forgiveness, acceptance, and charge to change the world for the better. He was born on September 23, 1950, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and founded Redeemer…

[mossfishschool]

@ospreyonthemoon

No! Other kelp forests have their own defenders, there are kelp forests all around the world. In the Northeast Pacific Ocean (the west coast of North America) sea otters play a vital role but don't work alone.

A really good example of this is the US state of Oregon located above California, in the Northeast Pacific. The sea otter has been extinct in Oregon since 1907 but urchin barrens were limited due to the Sunflower Sea Star (Pycnopodia helianthoides)! They are another keystone species in kelp forests. They helped pick up the slack created by sea otters going extinct.

In 2013 we saw the emergence of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome (SSWS) which is a syndrome where sea stars appear to disintegrate into nothing. (first photo is of SSWS progression on ochre sea stars, second is sunflower sea star with SSWS)

Large and soft bodied sea stars were more susceptible to it due to their surface area and soft body. In 2015 the Northeastern Pacific experienced a marine heat wave which increased the cases of SSWS, which is believed to be temperature dependent.

Between 2017 and 2020 there was a 99-100% decline of wild populations of Sunflower Sea Stars from Baja California, Mexico to Cape Flattery, WA, USA. In the northern part of their range from the Salish Sea to the Gulf of Alaska there was a decline greater than 87.8%. (this is part of the temperature sensitive theory)

Sunflower sea stars are now listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the California, Oregon, and Washington Range they are extremely close to being extinct in the wild. I have researched this topic and looked at a ton of data, as well as designing educational programs for an aquarium on SSWS and Sunflower Sea Stars. The way I would describe it is that in California, Oregon, and Washington there aren't really any populations left but there are individuals.

As some might know, when conservationists are creating a campaign to give the public about a large issue like habitat loss, they will often pick a "charismatic" animal to be the spokesperson for the issue. For kelp forest conservation the fluffy round-faced sea otter was chosen. Picking one animal also keeps the message simple. Despite what I believe and like to dream about being true, many people struggle to empathize with invertebrates. Which is another reason that sunflower sea stars aren't frequently included.

TLDR;

Grrrr

But also

I cannot speak specifically to the keystone species of non-Northeastern Pacific kelp forests. There are kelp forests all over the world. But just looking at the Northeastern Pacific; sea otters play a massive role in kelp forest health, but they don’t do it alone, the Sunflower Sea Star plays an equally vital role.

Sources:

Heady, W.N., R. Beas-Luna, M.N Dawson, N. Eddy, K. Elsmore, F. T. Francis, T. Frierson, A.L. Gehman, T. Gotthardt, S.A. Gravem, J. Grebel, S. L. Hamilton, L. Hannah, C.D. Harvell, J. Hodin, I. Kelmartin, C. Krenz, L. Lee, J. Lorda, D. Lowry, S. Mastrup, E. Meyer, P. T. Raimondi, S. S. Rumrill, V. R. Saccomanno, L. M. Schiebelhut, C. Siddon. 2022. Roadmap to recovery for the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) along the west coast of North America. The Nature Conservancy, Sacramento, CA, US. 44 pages.

First photo:

Eisenlord, Morgan & Groner, Maya & Yoshioka, Reyn & Elliott, Joel & Maynard, Jeffrey & Fradkin, Steven & Turner, Mo & Pyne, Katie & Rivlin, Natalie & van Hooidonk, Ruben & Harvell, Catherine. (2016). Ochre star mortality during the 2014 wasting disease epizootic: Role of population size structure and temperature. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 371. 20150212. 10.1098/rstb.2015.0212.

Second photo: Jenn Collins

Ready to assemble your very own kelp forest?

Just follow these easy steps:

✅ Assemble kelp parts in cold, nutrient-rich water  ✅ Add fish and invertebrates  ✅ Add sea otters! 🦦 ✅ Watch your kelp forest thrive  ⚠️Warning: Without sea otters, your kelp forest may end up with an urchin overload!

[gnatswatting]

• We are in serious trouble when some believe that their faith requires them to distrust science, or when others believe that political allegiances are a better source of wisdom than truth, faith, or science. —Francis S. Collins

The Atlantic The Atlantic (captured at archive.today)

[p4557]

Stanford’s Jay Bhattacharya emerges as a top candidate to lead NIH - The Washington Post

"

Stanford University physician and economist Jay Bhattacharya, whose views on the coronavirus pandemic response proved controversial, could be poised for a major health agency role in the Trump administration. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/AP)

By Dan Diamond

November 16, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. EST

When three academics in October 2020 insisted it was time to roll back coronavirus lockdowns — writing an open letter known as the Great Barrington Declaration that attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures — public health leaders rebuked their proposal as premature. Francis S. Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health, privately dismissed the authors as “fringe” experts and called for a “take down” of their suggestions to reopen schools and businesses, according to emails subsequently released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Now, one of the authors of that declaration — Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford physician and economist — appears poised for a top government health role, perhaps as head of NIH itself. Bhattacharya is a strong candidate to lead the nearly $50 billion agency in the coming Trump administration, with his name on an internal list of contenders being compiled by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Kennedy was selected Thursday by President-elect Donald Trump to run the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH.

The rise of Bhattacharya — from being scorned by the nation’s NIH director to possibly occupying his office four years later — reflects how the backlash to coronavirus policies has helped reshape conservative politics and elevate new voices. While Collins and other public health experts maintain that the Great Barrington Declaration’s ideas were rash and would have put vulnerable people at risk, many Americans have come to believe that school shutdowns and other pandemic-related policies lasted too long.

Bhattacharya, who has said he was a victim of what felt like a “propaganda attack” led by public health experts after the Great Barrington Declaration, has testified in Congress, met with lawmakers in both parties and offered advice to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and other leaders navigating the pandemic. Republicans have hailed him as a truth-teller, contrasting the Stanford physician with government officials whom they blame for an overly stringent response to the health crisis.

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“He is respected within the medical community and would ensure that public health returns to science-based solutions — not bureaucratic failed practices,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the House panel investigating the coronavirus response, said in a statement about Bhattacharya’s candidacy for a government role.

Bhattacharya has also won support from Trump allies and power brokers such as Kennedy, who has called for major changes to federal health agencies in the coming administration; Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who has helped shape GOP politics during the past decade; and Elon Musk, who has said Bhattacharya was wrongly suppressed by Twitter executives before Musk bought the social media service and overhauled it. His academic mentors include Alan Garber, now president of Harvard University. His media cheerleaders include popular podcaster Joe Rogan.

But his stances — and alliances — have also alienated him from many public health professionals, including on Bhattacharya’s own college campus.

“We need to have an honest conversation about how a handful of prominent contrarian academics backed by corporate interests continue to tank evidence-backed policy, including COVID-19 protections,” Mallory Harris, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland who received her PhD in biology from Stanford this year, wrote last month in the Stanford Daily, the university’s student newspaper.

Harris, who led a Stanford student group focused on combating scientific misinformation, said in an interview that she believed Bhattacharya’s supporters, who include libertarian and conservative think tanks, were pushing policies that favored business interests rather than public health — one reason she is opposed to his candidacy for a government role.

“I think his decision-making can be called into question,” she said.

The Trump transition team declined to comment on Bhattacharya and his possible appointment.

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will be announced when they are made,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Bhattacharya, who holds a medical degree and PhD from Stanford, has never held a senior government position, nor any role overseeing a large bureaucratic organization. While that might have stymied his candidacy in prior administrations, Kennedy and his allies view his inexperience as a positive, saying they are seeking reformers willing to battle the bureaucracy.

Jay Bhattacharya

@DrJBhattacharya

·

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RFK Jr. and @NicoleShanahan had the causes of free speech & non-authoritarian public health as the center of their campaign.

I will always be grateful to them for that.

I'm disgusted by the establishment figures who attacked them for their integrity and courage.

9:26 PM · Aug 23, 2024

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Bhattacharya has long called for changes to NIH and other government agencies in critiques that began before the pandemic. In a 2018 working paper, Bhattacharya and co-author Mikko Packalen, an economist at the University of Waterloo, wrote that NIH could “do more to promote innovative science,” arguing that scientific and political considerations may have led the agency to inadequately fund exploration into new ideas. Two years later, Bhattacharya and Packalen concluded in another working paper that scientific breakthroughs had stagnated because scientists were wrongly focused on being cited by other researchers.

Now, Bhattacharya’s criticism possesses a sharper edge, saying his covid-era experience taught him the agency is wrongly stifling dissent. He argues that NIH officials have amassed too much power, pointing to Anthony S. Fauci, who led one of the agency’s centers — the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — for 38 years.

“I would restructure the NIH to allow there to be many more centers of power, so that you couldn’t have a small number of scientific bureaucrats, dominating a field for a very long time,” Bhattacharya said in a January 2024 interview with The Washington Post.

He also maintains that his critics should engage in self-reflection, pointing to declining trust in public health experts and their agencies. “Personally, I’ve lost almost all confidence in the American public health establishment,” Bhattacharya told Reason Magazine in June. He declined to comment for this article.

Rise to prominence

Before the pandemic, Bhattacharya was best known as a researcher who led Stanford’s Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, writing papers on Medicare policy and behavioral economics, and serving on NIH review panels. Colleagues and trainees who studied under him describe him as warm and intellectually curious, supportive of their personal pursuits and apolitical, according to six people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personal interactions.

Then came a virus that reshaped daily life — and minted a new generation of telegenic physicians and academics, as nervous Americans sought answers.

Some of those pundits, such as Brown University’s Ashish Jha, urged measures such as social distancing and vaccinations, gaining influence in the Biden administration. Others such as Bhattacharya pushed an alternative approach — less government control, more individual decision-making — that won fans on the right.

And while many public health experts issued dire warnings about the need to shutter schools and businesses, Bhattacharya coauthored an April 2020 study that drew a different conclusion: The coronavirus was far more widespread than previously assumed, suggesting its risks were overstated.

The findings drew criticism from academics who challenged the study’s methods and data. Harris, the Stanford PhD, said she volunteered to help with Bhattacharya’s study by providing information to participants after they donated their blood — and felt “betrayed” by the authors’ messages to the public.

“They interpreted the results to mean that COVID was not going to be a big deal … not very deadly,” Harris said.

But the study’s key contention — that many Americans were unknowingly infected and showing no symptoms — was hailed by some conservative leaders eager to end lockdowns. Scott Atlas, a Stanford colleague who had become a White House adviser, helped arrange an August 2020 Oval Office conversation in which Bhattacharya and similarly minded academics met with Trump, who initially imposed coronavirus lockdowns at the urging of officials such as Fauci but had come to regret the decision.

Bhattacharya and his co-author on the April 2020 paper, Stanford infectious-disease specialist Eran Bendavid, provided consulting services drawing from their findings, maintaining children could safely return to school and young adults to work.

“The argument that easing restrictions is prioritizing the economy at the expense of killing people from COVID-19 is a false choice,” according to a September 2020 presentation by Bendavid and Bhattacharya obtained by The Post."

https://archive.is/2024.11.16-131650/https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11/16/nih-director-jay-bhattacharya-covid-great-barrington-declaration/#:~:text=Stanford%20University%20physician,by%20The%20Post.

[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

They knew and it was a full on WW II Nazi experiment. They, like the Nazi Dr.'s, Nurses, and all others involved should also hang.