#multicountry

[yumenosakiacademy]

i hav a whole Two (2) posts of mh/yk as tumblr posts (mayb more if i split it up a bit better, as 1 of the 2 posts hit Image Limit lmao thts why the 2nd 1 was made) but i never posted em 4 w/e reason.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Even mild COVID-19 cases can have major and long-lasting effects on people's health. That is one of the key findings from our recent multicountry study on long COVID-19 – or long COVID – recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Long COVID is defined as the continuation or development of symptoms three months after the initial infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These symptoms last for at least two months after onset with no other explanation.

We found that a staggering 90% of people living with long COVID initially experienced only mild illness with COVID-19. After developing long COVID, however, the typical person experienced symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive problems such as brain fog – or a combination of these – that affected daily functioning. These symptoms had an impact on health as severe as the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury. Our study also found that women have twice the risk of men and four times the risk of children for developing long COVID.

We analyzed data from 54 studies reporting on over 1 million people from 22 countries who had experienced symptoms of COVID-19. We counted how many people with COVID-19 developed clusters of new long-COVID symptoms and determined how their risk of developing the disease varied based on their age, sex and whether they were hospitalized for COVID-19.

We found that patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had a greater risk of developing long COVID – and of having longer-lasting symptoms – compared with people who had not been hospitalized. However, because the vast majority of COVID-19 cases do not require hospitalization, many more cases of long COVID have arisen from these milder cases despite their lower risk. Among all people with long COVID, our study found that nearly one out of every seven were still experiencing these symptoms a year later, and researchers don't yet know how many of these cases may become chronic.

You can also read the full article at our covid archive!

[mariacallous]

A former F.B.I. informant accused of making false bribery claims about President Biden and his son Hunter — which were widely publicized by Republicans — claimed to have been fed information by Russian intelligence, according to a court filing on Tuesday.

In the memo, prosecutors portrayed the former informant, Alexander Smirnov, 43, as a serial liar incapable of telling the truth about even the most basic details of his own life. But Mr. Smirnov told federal investigators that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.

Those disclosures, including Mr. Smirnov’s unverifiable claim that he met with Russian intelligence officials as recently as three months ago, made him a flight risk and endangered national security, Justice Department officials said. Mr. Smirnov had been held in custody in Las Vegas, where he has lived since 2022, since his arrest last week.

He was released from custody on Tuesday on a personal recognizance bond after a detention hearing, said his lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld.

Prosecutors did not specify which story Russian intelligence is said to have been fed to Mr. Smirnov, an Israeli citizen. But they suggested they could not believe anything he said. And they had many tales to choose from.

The memo describes Mr. Smirnov as a human hall of mirrors: He fed the F.B.I. bogus information about the Bidens and misled prosecutors about his wealth, estimated at $6 million, while telling them he worked in the security business, even though the government could find no proof that was true.

“The misinformation he is spreading is not confined” to his false claims about the Bidens, wrote prosecutors working for David C. Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges.

“He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November,” they added.

That appeared to refer to Mr. Smirnov’s claim, made in late 2023 to the F.B.I., that he had spoken to the head of a Russian intelligence unit who said he had intercepted phone calls made by guests at a hotel overseas. Those included “several calls placed by prominent U.S. persons the Russian government may use as ‘kompromat’ in the 2024 election,” according to prosecutors.

Mr. Smirnov also told his F.B.I. handler that he was involved in meetings to help resolve the war in Ukraine, and that he had knowledge of assassination squads operating in “a third-party country.”

Last week, Mr. Weiss charged Mr. Smirnov with fabricating claims that President Biden and his son each sought $5 million bribes from a Ukrainian energy giant, Burisma, demanding the money to protect the company from an investigation by the country’s prosecutor general.

Those allegations, which prosecutors now say were brazen fabrications motivated by Mr. Smirnov’s animosity toward the president, were widely promoted by congressional Republicans who cited it as a justification for their now-stalled effort to impeach Mr. Biden.

Mr. Smirnov was taken into custody last week as he walked off an international flight from what prosecutors described as “a monthslong, multicountry foreign trip.” During that trip, he claimed to have had contacts with multiple foreign intelligence agencies and had planned to embark on a similar trip days later, according to the memo.

What makes the Smirnov case so unusual, aside from its political significance, is the willingness of the F.B.I. to publicly burn a confidential informant who had been on the bureau’s payroll as recently as last year. The filing contained excerpts from his source reporting documents, raw notes from interviews between handlers and informants that are considered some of the most sensitive federal law enforcement documents.

Also on Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s legal team filed motions in federal court arguing that the arrest of Mr. Smirnov — while unrelated to the charges Mr. Biden faces — has tainted the public’s perception of their client, making fair trials impossible.

“It now seems clear that the Smirnov allegations infected this case,” said Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden’s lawyer, who accused Mr. Weiss of following “Mr. Smirnov down his rabbit hole of lies.”

[nodynasty4us]

From the February 19, 2024 article (emphasis mine):

The report specifically looked at adverse events following administration of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

The researchers looked for 13 adverse events of special interest that occurred in vaccine recipients for up to 42 days after shots were administered. These conditions included Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell’s palsy, convulsions, myocarditis and pericarditis.

...

“The safety signals identified in this study should be evaluated in the context of their rarity, severity, and clinical relevance,” the researchers wrote.

“Moreover, overall risk–benefit evaluations of vaccination should take the risk associated with infection into account, as multiple studies demonstrated higher risk of developing the events under study, such as GBS, myocarditis, or ADEM, following SARS-CoV-2 infection than vaccination.”

[coochiequeens]

Ladies please share this info with any expectant mothers you know

Azithromycin to Prevent Sepsis or Death in Women Planning a Vaginal Birth

List of authors.

Alan T.N. Tita, M.D., Ph.D., 

Waldemar A. Carlo, M.D., 

Elizabeth M. McClure, Ph.D., 

Musaku Mwenechanya, M.D., 

Elwyn Chomba, M.B., Ch.B., 

Jennifer J. Hemingway-Foday, M.P.H., 

Avinash Kavi, M.D., 

Mrityunjay C. Metgud, M.D., 

Shivaprasad S. Goudar, M.D., 

Richard Derman, M.D., M.P.H., 

Adrien Lokangaka, M.D., M.P.H., 

Antoinette Tshefu, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., 

et al.,

 for the A-PLUS Trial Group*

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The use of azithromycin reduces maternal infection in women during planned cesarean delivery, but its effect on those with planned vaginal delivery is unknown. Data are needed on whether an intrapartum oral dose of azithromycin would reduce maternal and offspring sepsis or death.

METHODS

In this multicountry, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, we assigned women who were in labor at 28 weeks’ gestation or more and who were planning a vaginal delivery to receive a single 2-g oral dose of azithromycin or placebo. The two primary outcomes were a composite of maternal sepsis or death and a composite of stillbirth or neonatal death or sepsis. During an interim analysis, the data and safety monitoring committee recommended stopping the trial for maternal benefit.

RESULTS

A total of 29,278 women underwent randomization. The incidence of maternal sepsis or death was lower in the azithromycin group than in the placebo group (1.6% vs. 2.4%), with a relative risk of 0.67 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.56 to 0.79; P<0.001), but the incidence of stillbirth or neonatal death or sepsis was similar (10.5% vs. 10.3%), with a relative risk of 1.02 (95% CI, 0.95 to 1.09; P=0.56). The difference in the maternal primary outcome appeared to be driven mainly by the incidence of sepsis (1.5% in the azithromycin group and 2.3% in the placebo group), with a relative risk of 0.65 (95% CI, 0.55 to 0.77); the incidence of death from any cause was 0.1% in the two groups (relative risk, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.51 to 2.97). Neonatal sepsis occurred in 9.8% and 9.6% of the infants, respectively (relative risk, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.10). The incidence of stillbirth was 0.4% in the two groups (relative risk, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.74 to 1.53); neonatal death within 4 weeks after birth occurred in 1.5% in both groups (relative risk, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.86 to 1.24). Azithromycin was not associated with a higher incidence in adverse events.

CONCLUSIONS

Among women planning a vaginal delivery, a single oral dose of azithromycin resulted in a significantly lower risk of maternal sepsis or death than placebo but had little effect on newborn sepsis or death. (Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and others; A-PLUS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03871491. opens in new tab.)

see rest of article

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

By Glenn Thrush

A former F.B.I. informant accused of fabricating a claim that President Biden and his son Hunter were each paid a $5 million bribe by a Ukrainian oligarch has agreed to plead guilty to a range of federal charges, according to a court filing on Thursday.

Alexander Smirnov, a profiteer, fixer and gossip based in Las Vegas, reached a deal with David C. Weiss, the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden, that could lead to 48 to 72 months in prison, according to the filing in federal court in California.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Smirnov agreed to plead guilty to creating a false record in a federal investigation, obstructing justice and failing to pay taxes and penalties on $2.1 million in income for 2020 through 2022.

He is also required to pay $675,502 in restitution, according to the filing.

The plea deal effectively ends the work of Mr. Weiss, whom Donald J. Trump appointed as a U.S. attorney in Delaware during his first term. A federal judge could review the deal as soon as Monday.

By admitting to felonies, Mr. Smirnov, who stored more than a half-dozen firearms at his luxurious apartment off the Vegas strip, will no longer be able to legally own a gun.

For more than a decade, Mr. Smirnov played a double game, giving the F.B.I. tantalizing and, at times, valuable intelligence about a rogues’ gallery of oligarchs and public officials while offering himself as a consultant, with a fuzzy skill set, to some of the same people he was keeping tabs on.

But his charm, confidence and daring finally caught up with him in 2020 when he told his F.B.I. handler what prosecutors say was a brazen lie — that the oligarch owner of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had arranged to pay $5 million bribes to both President Biden and his son.

The explosive claim was leaked to Republicans, who made Mr. Smirnov’s allegations a centerpiece of their now-stalled effort to impeach President Biden, apparently without verifying the allegation. Many of the politicians who highlighted his fake allegations have remained silent about his indictment.

Mr. Smirnov was accused of falsely telling the F.B.I. that Hunter Biden, then a paid board member of Burisma, had demanded the money to protect the company from an investigation by the country’s prosecutor general at the time.

Mr. Smirnov’s motivation for lying, prosecutors wrote, appears to have been political. During the 2020 campaign, he sent his F.B.I. handler “a series of messages expressing bias” against Joseph R. Biden Jr., including texts, replete with typos and misspellings, boasting that he had information that would put him in jail.

At the time he was arrested, Mr. Smirnov, 43, was preparing to leave for what prosecutors called “a monthslong, multicountry foreign trip” during which he claimed to have plans to meet with contacts from multiple foreign intelligence agencies.

Prosecutors argued in court that his arrest and detention were necessary because Mr. Smirnov was “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”

In a memo arguing for his indefinite detention, deputies to Mr. Weiss described him as a hall-of-mirrors fabulist. He not only fed the F.B.I. bogus information about the Bidens and misled prosecutors about his wealth, estimated at $6 million, but he also told officials there that he worked in the security business, even though the government could find no proof that was true.

He was initially held in Las Vegas and later transferred to California, and was scheduled to face trial in January before the same judge who presided over Mr. Biden’s case.

Mr. Smirnov’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Weeks earlier, Mr. Weiss charged Mr. Smirnov with tax evasion after his indictment in February on charges that he lied to investigators about the Bidens.

Mr. Smirnov — who was born in the former Soviet Union and became a U.S. citizen in 2015 — received millions in consulting fees from various sources without reporting the income, prosecutors found when they began digging into his bank records.

He used the cash to subsidize a lavish lifestyle with his live-in girlfriend, spending $1.4 million on his Vegas condominium, running up $400,000 in credit card debt and paying $122,000 for a Bentley, according to court documents.

He was so brazen about dodging taxes that he even claimed — falsely — that he was eligible for the coronavirus pandemic rebate for people earning less than $80,000 a year, prosecutors said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/smirnov-bidens-russia.html

[sunaleisocial]

3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/3-questions-community-policing-in-the-global-south/

3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South

The concept of community policing gained wide acclaim in the U.S. when crime dropped drastically during the 1990s. In Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere, police departments established programs to build more local relationships, to better enhance community security. But how well does community policing work in other places? A new multicountry experiment co-led by MIT political scientist Fotini Christia found, perhaps surprisingly, that the policy had no impact in several countries across the Global South, from Africa to South America and Asia.

The results are detailed in a new edited volume, “Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing: Experiments on Building Trust,” published this week by Cambridge University Press. The editors are Christia, the Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences in MIT’s Department of Political Science, director of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and director of the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center; Graeme Blair of the University of California at Los Angeles; and Jeremy M. Weinstein of Stanford University. MIT News talked to Christia about the project.

Q: What is community policing, and how and where did you study it?

A: The general idea is that community policing, actually connecting the police and the community they are serving in direct ways, is very effective. Many of us have celebrated community policing, and we typically think of the 1990s Chicago and Boston experiences, where community policing was implemented and seen as wildly successful in reducing crime rates, gang violence, and homicide. This model has been broadly exported across the world, even though we don’t have much evidence that it works in contexts that have different resource capacities and institutional footprints.

Our study aims to understand if the hype around community policing is justified by measuring the effects of such policies globally, through field experiments, in six different settings in the Global South. In the same way that MIT’s J-PAL develops field experiments about an array of development interventions, we created programs, in cooperation with local governments, about policing. We studied if it works and how, across very diverse settings, including Uganda and Liberia in Africa, Colombia and Brazil in Latin America, and the Philippines and Pakistan in Asia.

The study, and book, is the result of collaborations with many police agencies. We also highlight how one can work with the police to understand and refine police practices and think very intentionally about all the ethical considerations around such collaborations. The researchers designed the interventions alongside six teams of academics who conducted the experiments, so the book also reflects an interesting experiment in how to put together a collaboration like this.

Q: What did you find?

A: What was fascinating was that we found that locally designed community policing interventions did not generate greater trust or cooperation between citizens and the police, and did not reduce crime in the six regions of the Global South where we carried out our research.

We looked at an array of different measures to evaluate the impact, such as changes in crime victimization, perceptions of police, as well as crime reporting, among others, and did not see any reductions in crime, whether measured in administrative data or in victimization surveys.

The null effects were not driven by concerns of police noncompliance with the intervention, crime displacement, or any heterogeneity in effects across sites, including individual experiences with the police.

Sometimes there is a bias against publishing so-called null results. But because we could show that it wasn’t due to methodological concerns, and because we were able to explain how such changes in resource-constrained environments would have to be preceded by structural reforms, the finding has been received as particularly compelling.

Q: Why did community policing not have an impact in these countries?

A: We felt that it was important to analyze why it doesn’t work. In the book, we highlight three challenges. One involves capacity issues: This is the developing world, and there are low-resource issues to begin with, in terms of the programs police can implement.

The second challenge is the principal-agent problem, the fact that the incentives of the police may not align in this case. For example, a station commander and supervisors may not appreciate the importance of adopting community policing, and line officers might not comply. Agency problems within the police are complex when it comes to mechanisms of accountability, and this may undermine the effectiveness of community policing.

A third challenge we highlight is the fact that, to the communities they serve, the police might not seem separate from the actual government. So, it may not be clear if police are seen as independent institutions acting in the best interest of the citizens.

We faced a lot of pushback when we were first presenting our results. The potential benefits of community policing is a story that resonates with many of us; it’s a narrative suggesting that connecting the police to a community has a significant and substantively positive effect. But the outcome didn’t come as a surprise to people from the Global South. They felt the lack of resources, and potential problems about autonomy and nonalignment, were real. 

[jcmarchi]

3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/3-questions-community-policing-in-the-global-south/

3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South

The concept of community policing gained wide acclaim in the U.S. when crime dropped drastically during the 1990s. In Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere, police departments established programs to build more local relationships, to better enhance community security. But how well does community policing work in other places? A new multicountry experiment co-led by MIT political scientist Fotini Christia found, perhaps surprisingly, that the policy had no impact in several countries across the Global South, from Africa to South America and Asia.

The results are detailed in a new edited volume, “Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing: Experiments on Building Trust,” published this week by Cambridge University Press. The editors are Christia, the Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences in MIT’s Department of Political Science, director of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and director of the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center; Graeme Blair of the University of California at Los Angeles; and Jeremy M. Weinstein of Stanford University. MIT News talked to Christia about the project.

Q: What is community policing, and how and where did you study it?

A: The general idea is that community policing, actually connecting the police and the community they are serving in direct ways, is very effective. Many of us have celebrated community policing, and we typically think of the 1990s Chicago and Boston experiences, where community policing was implemented and seen as wildly successful in reducing crime rates, gang violence, and homicide. This model has been broadly exported across the world, even though we don’t have much evidence that it works in contexts that have different resource capacities and institutional footprints.

Our study aims to understand if the hype around community policing is justified by measuring the effects of such policies globally, through field experiments, in six different settings in the Global South. In the same way that MIT’s J-PAL develops field experiments about an array of development interventions, we created programs, in cooperation with local governments, about policing. We studied if it works and how, across very diverse settings, including Uganda and Liberia in Africa, Colombia and Brazil in Latin America, and the Philippines and Pakistan in Asia.

The study, and book, is the result of collaborations with many police agencies. We also highlight how one can work with the police to understand and refine police practices and think very intentionally about all the ethical considerations around such collaborations. The researchers designed the interventions alongside six teams of academics who conducted the experiments, so the book also reflects an interesting experiment in how to put together a collaboration like this.

Q: What did you find?

A: What was fascinating was that we found that locally designed community policing interventions did not generate greater trust or cooperation between citizens and the police, and did not reduce crime in the six regions of the Global South where we carried out our research.

We looked at an array of different measures to evaluate the impact, such as changes in crime victimization, perceptions of police, as well as crime reporting, among others, and did not see any reductions in crime, whether measured in administrative data or in victimization surveys.

The null effects were not driven by concerns of police noncompliance with the intervention, crime displacement, or any heterogeneity in effects across sites, including individual experiences with the police.

Sometimes there is a bias against publishing so-called null results. But because we could show that it wasn’t due to methodological concerns, and because we were able to explain how such changes in resource-constrained environments would have to be preceded by structural reforms, the finding has been received as particularly compelling.

Q: Why did community policing not have an impact in these countries?

A: We felt that it was important to analyze why it doesn’t work. In the book, we highlight three challenges. One involves capacity issues: This is the developing world, and there are low-resource issues to begin with, in terms of the programs police can implement.

The second challenge is the principal-agent problem, the fact that the incentives of the police may not align in this case. For example, a station commander and supervisors may not appreciate the importance of adopting community policing, and line officers might not comply. Agency problems within the police are complex when it comes to mechanisms of accountability, and this may undermine the effectiveness of community policing.

A third challenge we highlight is the fact that, to the communities they serve, the police might not seem separate from the actual government. So, it may not be clear if police are seen as independent institutions acting in the best interest of the citizens.

We faced a lot of pushback when we were first presenting our results. The potential benefits of community policing is a story that resonates with many of us; it’s a narrative suggesting that connecting the police to a community has a significant and substantively positive effect. But the outcome didn’t come as a surprise to people from the Global South. They felt the lack of resources, and potential problems about autonomy and nonalignment, were real. 

[farooqahamed]

A multicountry MBA program is highly beneficial as it offers a unique blend of diverse cultural experiences and global networking opportunities. 

[andronetalks]

Largest multicountry COVID study links vaccines to potential adverse effects

The Hill BY JOSEPH CHOI – 02/19/24 7:23 PM ET A new study on COVID-19 vaccines that looked at nearly 100 million vaccinated individuals affirmed the vaccines’ previously observed links to increased risks for certain adverse effects including myocarditis and Guillain-Barré syndrome. The researchers noted in their analysis that COVID-19 infections have consistently been found to be more likely to…

[womenanddisability]

Exploring Disability as a Determinant of Girl Child Marriage in Fragile States: A Multicountry Analysis

Purpose

Fragile states are countries characterized by poverty, conflict, political instability, insecurity, and disaster. In such settings, there are high levels of disability and women and girls are disproportionately impacted by violence. Despite the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal's call for both the elimination of violence against women and girls and disability-disaggregated data, few studies have investigated how disability may be associated with girl child marriage (GCM) and how these two factors impact intimate partner violence (IPV). This study sought to assess the prevalence and associations of disability with GCM and IPV among currently married/cohabiting women (aged 20–24 years) in fragile states.

Methods

A secondary data analysis of pooled nationally representative data from four Demographic and Health Surveys were analyzed using multivariable regressions to examine the associations between disability, GCM, and IPV (N = 3,119). The association between disability and GCM was further analyzed by multinomial regressions. These weighted analyses accounted for complex survey designs.

Results

Overall, 54.4% of GCM occurred among women with disabilities. Disabled women were more likely to report GCM compared to women without disabilities (adjusted odds ratio = 1.62, 95% confidence interval = 1.16–2.28). Among disabled women with a history of GCM, 41.3% experienced past-year IPV. Disabled women with a history of GCM were more likely to report past-year IPV compared to nondisabled women and no GCM (adjusted odds ratio = 1.78, confidence interval = 1.21–2.62).

Discussion

GCM and IPV (e.g., past-year, lifetime) among disabled girls may be pervasive in fragile states, underscoring the need for additional research examining the mechanisms driving these observations and to inform inclusive programming and policy.

Keywords

Disability

Child marriage

Fragile states

Humanitarian crisis

Intimate partner violence

Violence against women and girls

[swldx]

BBC 0419 17 Jul 2023

12095Khz 0357 17 JUL 2023 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55545. English, dead carrier s/on @0357z then ID@0359z pips and newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by David Harper. Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov asked people to refrain from travelling on the Crimean Bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia due to "an emergency" situation. Aksyonov said the emergency occurred on the 145th pillar of the bridge, without giving further details. Some Russian and Ukrainian media reported that explosions were heard on the bridge. Kyiv did not immediately comment on the news. US climate envoy John Kerry was in Beijing on Monday to revive stalled talks and pressure China to step up its efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions. South Korea's president vowed Monday to "completely overhaul" the country's approach to extreme weather from climate change, after at least 39 people were killed by recent flooding and landslides during monsoon rains. In China, the unemployment rate for those aged 16-24 reached a record 21.3% in June, up from 20.8% in May. Conversely, overall urban surveyed jobless rate remained static at 5.2% last month. An extreme heatwave peaked in the western United States on Sunday, with temperatures reaching 128 Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) in the California desert, while flash flooding continued to menace the Northeast, killing at least five people. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population fell under extreme heat advisories, partly due to a stubborn heat dome that has been parked over western states. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is embarking on a trip to the Gulf this week, marking his first post-reelection multicountry tour that is expected to yield new agreements to further diplomacy and economic cooperation with the region. Sports. A reburial ceremony has been held on an Irish island as 13 human skulls that were stolen by academics more than 100 years ago were returned. The skulls, thought to be around 400 years old, were taken from a monastery on the island of Inishbofin off Ireland’s west coast by two Trinity University-affiliated academics in 1890. @0406z "Newsday" begins. 250ft unterminated BoG antenna pointed E/W, Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2257.

[void-botanist]

fantasy & romance?

Fantasy ✨: what is something in your wip/s that is unique to your world?

The city Keearo and Aza live in, Olinfa, is nestled into the mountains, and for both cultural and topographical reasons is arranged in a wheel-like shape. The hub is downtown, where you'll find typical downtown stuff like clubs and bars (but those aren't limited to just downtown), most government offices, offices and stores for international things (imported goods, multicountry organizations like the Avestrian Sports Association, etc.), the city's central train station, and anything that pertains to all of the neighborhoods of the city. Very few people live downtown—most commute in from the neighborhoods on the train lines that form the spokes of the wheel. The neighborhoods are also connected with train lines, so you can do what's known as "riding the rim" to reach any neighborhood from any other neighborhood. In the local language the neighborhoods are called "little Olinfa"s with a number to designate which one. (In the common language people usually leave off the "little".) Part of the reason they're called that is because each neighborhood is like a self-contained little city—everything you need will be there, usually within walking distance. This also enables the classic Olinfa pastime of block parties.

Romance 👩‍❤️‍👩: a relationship dynamic in your wip/s that you want to talk about

Lately I've been thinking a lot about Syndy and Hoven and how they're terrible for each other in the best way. This doesn't really come out until their own book, post-TFA, where they take their long road trip (is it a road trip if there are no cars?) to the places Syndy's builder/Hoven's friend Gweltsen had wanted to take Syndy before their death. The short version is Syndy handles her grief about Gweltsen by embracing hedonistic nihilism and becoming actually mean, especially to Hoven, and Hoven is trying desperately to keep the trip in order and live up to his Responsibilities as Syndy's guardian instead of actually confronting his grief. Syndy ultimately abandons the trip after she realizes that she is functionally immortal and almost everyone she knows is going to die, and she doesn't want to deal with that ever again. It's only once Hoven calls her to tell her that he's leaving to see his dad in the hospital that she realizes she's wasting the time she could be (and wants to be) spending with Hoven and that she doesn't want him to be worrying about her and his dad at the same time. By this point, though, Hoven really does not trust her to keep her word, or even be genuinely nice to him, and it's both funny and a little heartwrenching to see this doormat of a guy confront her with a sarcastic take-no-shit attitude.

[thirdstageconsulting]

Netsuite - An Advanced Ecommerce Platform

Many organizations are frustrated by incompatible systems that don't share data or give visibility across different functional areas. This is a result of technology's rapid evolution. Netsuite integrates ecommerce, marketing and order management into a single platform. This unified platform approach helps to build enterprise integrity for new and existing websites.

Netsuite pricing provides affordable and cost-effective solutions for website design, business integration, and other services. Centralized content management provides control over inventory, image usage and fulfillment. Language, currency, pricing, and language can all be controlled. The applications are easy to use for daily business operations without the need to learn programming. Website changes can be made easily and are easy to update Netsuite Vs Salesforce.

Netsuite can be easily adapted for international customers. It allows you to link multiple websites in different languages and currencies, depending on your global customer base. Netsuite OneWorld provides a business solution platform for ecommerce that allows multi-language, multicurrency, multicountry, and multi-product webstore flexibility. Netsuite ECommerce platform is database-driven and integrates seamlessly into your business financials, giving you visibility to inventory, accounting, reporting and tax requirements.

B2B (Business to Business) opportunities can be managed in a similar flexible manner. Netsuite Ecommerce allows for customized pricing, billing, and invoicing to meet the needs of each client. Transactions across multiple channels, automated cross sell and upsell features increase performance and improve sales. B2B and Netsuite Ecommerce functionality can also be integrated into one business management platform. This allows for greater control over inventory and fulfillment as well as accounting.

Netsuite ECommerce offers intuitive business management features with shopping cart-specific functionality and a webstore. Easy integration of marketing promotions, such as discounts, coupons or multi-payment options, is possible. For greater customer satisfaction, real-time order visibility allows for faster order processing and fulfillment. Customers can access their self-service tools 24/7 to place orders, review orders and answer questions online. Customer experience, retention, and loyalty are enhanced by customisable responses and cross-sell suggestions across webstores.

Netsuite Ecommerce Analytics and Reporting provides a comprehensive, consolidated review of financial and business performance. Clear and concise presentation of indicators such as website effectiveness and cart abandonment, and transaction details is possible. Netsuite Ecommerce provides indicators that are specific to ebusiness performance, such as Search Engine Optimization tracking, webstore visits compared with purchases, online marketing, advertising leads and conversions. Netsuite offers multi-channel flexibility. Ad Hoc reporting analysis allows you to compare store sales and ECommerce results.

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U.S. involved in multi-country Shigella outbreak#involved #multicountry #Shigella #outbreak

A dozen countries, including the United States, have reported more than 250 Shigella infections in people who went to Cape Verde. An increase in shigellosis cases, mainly caused by Shigella sonnei, among travelers returning from Cape Verde, also known as Cabo Verde, has been reported in Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States since September 2022. Twelve countries have recorded 221…