From fancy chocolates to jet airplanes to teeth, gold makes things better. Devialet took this to heart when they introduced their 4500 Watt Gold Phantom, a powerful speaker with gold-plated side panels and audio quality that, in the right environment, is out of this world. Devialet, as you recall is a French speaker company that has 80 patents in the realm of music reproduction. Their… Read More
TransCanada, the company behind the infamous Keystone XL pipeline, just demonstrated the dangers that corporate trade pacts pose to communities and to our air, water, and climate.
On June 24, the Canadian oil company filed a trade case against the U.S. seeking more than $15 billion in damages from American taxpayers as compensation for the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline that spared us the threat of increased climate disruption and spills of dirty tar sands oil.
TransCanada is able to bring this case thanks to rules in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — rules that would be expanded in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact — that give foreign corporations, including big polluters, expansive rights to challenge environmental protections in unaccountable trade tribunals. In fact, TransCanada’s case against the U.S. will be heard before a private trade tribunal with no accountability to our domestic legal system.
Here are 4 key pieces of information you should know in order to fully understand the implications of this case.
1) TransCanada’s case is not an anomaly. Foreign investors — including Shell, BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil — have already launched nearly 700 of these so-called “investor-state cases” against the policies of more than 100 governments. These cases have challenged for example, a moratorium on fracking in Quebec, a court order to pay for oil pollution in Ecuador, an environmental panel’s decision to reject a mining project in Canada, and a decision to phase out nuclear energy in Germany.
And while all sorts of public interest policies are at risk, environmental policies have been a favorite target of corporations. Half of the new investor-state cases in 2014 targeted policies affecting power generation, mining, or oil and gas extraction. In the first five months of this year, mining corporations used private trade and investment tribunals every 2.5 weeks on average to launch, advance, or win cases against mining restrictions in Latin America alone.
2) The Trans-Pacific Partnership could mean an explosion of new cases. While investor-state cases are being used far too often to challenge policies to protect our air, water, and climate, what we’ve seen so far could be just the tip of the iceberg if the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a new proposed trade agreement, were approved by the U.S. Congress.
The TPP would expand nearly the same exact corporate tribunal system that TransCanada is using more than any past U.S. trade deal, roughly doubling the number of corporations that could follow TransCanada’s example and could challenge U.S. climate and environmental safeguards in private tribunals. That includes big polluters like the U.S. subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters and one of the U.S.’s largest foreign investors in fracking and offshore drilling.
In fact, the TPP would nearly double the number of foreign fracking corporations that could challenge new U.S. fracking restrictions in unaccountable tribunals, and it would enable oil and gas corporations with nearly one million acres’ worth of U.S. offshore drilling leases to use this private tribunal system to try to undermine new offshore drilling restrictions.
3. TransCanada’s case has implications beyond the KXL pipeline. TransCanada’s NAFTA case will not reverse the Keystone XL decision: Keystone is dead, thanks to years of organizing by a diverse and dogged movement. However, the case could put taxpayers–to the tune of $100 per each individual tax return — on the hook for the Keystone XL rejection.
Equally troubling, however, is the signal that this case may send to our or other governments considering rejection of a dirty fossil fuel project. And, as we noted in our report, Climate Roadblocks, law firms specializing in these cases are now explicitly advising “foreign investors operating in the energy sector” that they could use these tribunals “as a tool to assist lobbying efforts to prevent wrongful regulatory change.”
This is another powerful reason why we can’t expand this system of corporate rights through the TPP.
4. You can join the growing fight against corporate trade deals. Opposition to the TPP is steadily growing. Last month, more than 450 environmental, landowner, Indigenous rights, and allied organizations sent a letter to Congress warning that pending trade deals like the TPP threaten efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Passionate activists and diverse partners came together to defeat the Keystone XL pipeline, and we can defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership – with your help. Take action here to ask your members of Congress to commit to vote no to the TPP, and join the growing movement calling for a new model of trade that puts the health and safety of people before the profits of big corporations that are already polluting our air and water.
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It’s that time of year again. College decisions were just released in April, and College Decision Day took place about a month ago. Now, after an arduous application process and endless college tours, high school seniors around the country are patiently awaiting for August to roll around so they can jump-start their college experiences. But is going to college right after high school always the right choice for everyone?
Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year. After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn’t it? And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn’t feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.
But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years. There’s always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or a lucrative career. But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not impede the success of academic pursuits — in fact, it probably enhances it.
Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not. Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes — all things that first-year students often struggle with the most. Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.
If you’re not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once. This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of the vast academic possibilities that await them in college. Many students find themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game. At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department. Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.
Many people. however, argue that the gap year itself can take a toll on students’ bank accounts. That’s a myth. While gap years are often associated with the rich and privileged who boast of stories about sailing through Thailand or eating crepes in Paris for a year, the truth is that there are many opportunities to take a financially accessible gap year. There are formal gap year programs that are rather pricey, usually costing between $10,000 and $20,000, but there are also ample opportunities to volunteer and receive free housing or even get paid for your gap year. The federally funded AmeriCorp, for example, offers 75,000 Americans an opportunity to volunteer each year with local and national nonprofit groups. In exchange for a 10-month commitment, each student receives $4,725 for college — and some colleges and universities will even match that award. Other gap year alternatives, which vary in price, include working in a field of interest, completing civil service, pursuing athletics, partaking in language immersion, seeking out adventure travel and doing just about anything else you can think of.
Perhaps the most compelling reason for taking a gap year is that it offers a unique opportunity that will likely never reappear. After graduating from college, it’s possible to take some time off, but it will be more stressful with loans and other obligations. For prospective students thinking about the next step in their lives: Don’t rule out anything, including a gap year.
Samantha Savello ’18 wishes she had taken a gap year and can be reached at samantha_savello@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
Graduating from high school and taking the next big step toward college can be daunting, so a growing number of students are choosing to take a gap year to focus on personal growth. Whether you spend a year traveling, volunteering or working, we’d love to share your story. If you’d like to contribute a text or video piece, please email gapyear@huffingtonpost.com and tell us all about your experience.
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By Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog
Every now and then things go right, really, really right. In an immunotherapy clinical trial, 27 of the 29 leukemia patients went into sustained remissions, which is a whopping 93 percent success rate!
Acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, is a cancer that arises in the bone marrow, the soft center of flat bones. In the bone marrow, blood stem cells give rise to all blood cells. ALL arises from the cells that become lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. Acute in the name means that it can progress quickly and if not treated can be fatal within a few months. If the ALL cancer cells occupy more than 25% of the bone marrow, the disease is called leukemia.
Lymphocytes are a major part of the immune system found in lymphoid tissues as well as circulating in the blood. Lymphocytes come from immature cells called lymphoblasts and mature into 2 main types of cells, B cells and T cells. T cells serve a variety of functions, from orchestrating the immune response to an invader, to killing infected cells or killing microbes directly.
ALL does not form masses, but rather takes over the bone marrow and spreads to the lymph nodes, spleen and liver. The prognosis for ALL depends on age – the younger you are, the better. Prognosis also depends on the numbers of cancer cells, abnormalities the tumor DNA, and how quickly the leukemia responds to treatment. Treatment usually involves chemotherapy, targeted therapy or stem cell transplants and can last about 2 years. About 80-90 percent of adult patients have complete remissions, but about half relapse giving an overall cure rate of about 40 percent.
The study with the 93 percent response rate involved patients whose other treatments had failed and they had only a few months to live. Scientists isolated what are called killer T-cells from the patients. These cells can attack and kill cancers cells. The researchers engineered these T cells to target the patients ALL cells. They genetically engineered the T cells with synthetic molecules called chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs, that enable them to target and destroy tumor cells. Cells were expanded and then infused into the patients. More than ninety percent of the patients achieved remission of their cancers within 30-60 days however, 7 developed a severe immune response that required time in intensive care and an additional 2 patients died. Adjusting T cell dosages infused eliminated these unwanted effects. Unlike other treatments, the T cells will continue to grow and provide ongoing protection. These results from patients with such advanced stages of ALL is impressive.
This is a relatively new type of approach called immunotherapy by which our body’s own immune system is programmed to attack a cancer. An advantage of this type of therapy is that it is likely to have fewer side effects and would have long lasting cancer-killing abilities should cancer cells arise later. For those patients that relapse or for whom conventional treatments fail, this approach provides new hope. So stay tuned, we will undoubtedly be hearing much more about immunotherapy in the future and the future looks pretty good already.
Medical Discovery News is a weekly radio and print broadcast highlighting medical and scientific breakthroughs hosted by professor emeritus, Norbert Herzog, and professor, David Niesel, biomedical scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Learn more at www.medicaldiscoverynews.com
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Leah Remini isn’t done telling all.
The self-proclaimed troublemaker is reportedly helming a new TV series about “the way Scientology rips apart families” — a subject with which she is all too familiar. Journalist Tony Ortega, who lent his expertise to the 2015 Scientology exposé “Going Clear,” wrote in a blog post Monday morning that production for the series is already underway.
“We’ve confirmed that Leah’s series is currently shooting footage and appears to be on a fast track,” Ortega stated.
Remini, inducted by her mother into Scientology at age nine, was one of its most visible and relatable faces until she made her exit from the church in 2013. Allegedly, the straw that broke Xenu’s back came when the actress challenged Scientology leader David Miscavige, who subjected her to “years of ‘interrogations’ and ‘thought modifications‘” and eventually blacklisted her from the organization.
After 30 years in the church, Remini wished to save her own children from a similar fate, but her decision to leave was not without difficult consequences.
“As time goes on, you start to lose touch with the real world. The mindset becomes ‘us against them,’” Remini revealed in an ABC 20/20 special in 2015. “The decision to leave is you are giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life.”
The Huffington Post has reached out to Remini’s representation and will update the post accordingly.
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Matera, famous for its “Sassi,” is a city in the region of Basilicata located essentially where the heel of the “boot” of Italy starts. “Sassi” means rocks, but in this case we’re not talking about big boulders like those of Stonehenge. Here, the Sassi—the first site in southern Italy to be taken under UNESCO’s protective wing, in 1993—are two ancient districts that constitute the town’s historic center. They were carved into the calcareous rock referred to locally as tufo. Houses, alleys, wells: there are layers of history right before your eyes in the Sassi, which developed around what is called the Civita, the oldest inhabited part of Matera. Visiting the Sassi means discovering an intricate urban system clinging to the slopes overlooking the Gravina Valley, making Matera a spectacular landscape. This is the place Mel Gibson chose to film The Passion.
Rocks and human constructions play a key role here in a dense dialogue that has culminated in breath-taking beauty. There are rock dwellings and churches, streets and bell towers. The two quarters, the Rione Sasso Barisano and the Rione Sacco Caveoso, visually represent centuries of history through which you’ll walk as you take in the sights. And there is plenty to see in Matera, which is 1,300 feet above sea level. First of all, there is the 13th-century Romanesque cathedral in Piazza della Civita, and it houses wooden statues and paintings by local artists. The 17th-century Palazzo Lanfranchi is now home to the Museum of Medieval and Modern Art, boasting 17th- and 18th-century paintings as well as wooden sculptures and the various artistic traditions typical of the area. And then there are countless churches, starting with San Francesco d’Assisi—be sure to see it—that was built over an ancient basilica in the rock (below ground level) and can still be accessed via a trapdoor in a side chapel. Tramontano Castle, built in the Aragonese style in the early 16th century to defend the city, is a massive structure in pale stone. Currently it can only be viewed from the outside, as it is undergoing major restoration work.
As to where to sleep and eat, in Matera these places too are dramatic-looking, in a setting bound to channel your inner spelunker.
B&B ALL’ANNUNZIATA VECCHIA
Recinto Annunziata Vecchia 13 Tel. +39 330 364753
Alongside the cathedral, in the highest part of Matera, this recently renovated bed & breakfast offers one of the most beautiful views of Sasso Barisano. The rooms have a kitchenette.
B&B RESIDENCE SASSI
SAN GENNARO
Via San Gennaro 24, tel. +39 0835 334582
Ready to feel like an archaeologist? The spaces in this eight-room residence were built between the 15th and 17th centuries over prehistoric caves and a cistern from the Bronze Age.
Ristorante Pizzeria La Talpa (Via Fiorentini 167, tel. +39 0835 335086). Carved entirely in the rock face, it has traditional utensils hanging from the walls and checkered tablecloths. This home-style place is famous for its appetizers and freshly made pasta.
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WASHINGTON — After spending more than two years and $7 million, the House Select Committee on Benghazi released a report Tuesday that found — like eight investigations before it — no evidence of wrongdoing by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or other members of the Obama administration.
The House voted to create the committee after Republicans were frustrated that even their own GOP-led committees failed to find wrongdoing in the events surrounding the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
But the new report also fails to find evidence of wrongdoing, revealing as all previous reports did that the administration’s response to the terror attacks was flawed, but not malicious or derelict.
The select committee report largely repeats the findings of other reports, with a handful of new details and a lot of fresh condemnation.
“We expect our government to make every effort to save the lives of Americans who serve in harm’s way. That did not happen in Benghazi,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), a committee member. “Politics were put ahead of the lives of Americans, and while the administration had made excuses and blamed the challenges posed by time and distance, the truth is that they did not try.”
Pompeo’s conclusion, however, runs counter to statements of his committee’s top lawyer, who said during the probe that the Department of Defense did all it could.
Democrats were quick to hammer the exercise, pointing to “new” revelations that actually surfaced three years ago, such as testimony in 2013 at the House Oversight Committee that Clinton had hoped to open a permanent facility in Benghazi. The report presents that as a fresh revelation.
Democrats, who were excluded from drafting the GOP report, countered with the release their own report.
Their version, less than half the length of the 800-page Republican report, also reaffirmed earlier work, repeating the conclusions that U.S. forces that were able responded courageously. At the same time, the Democrats’ version says: “The State Department’s security measures in Benghazi were woefully inadequate as a result of decisions made by officials in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.”
That is also old news.
Democrats have repeatedly accused the GOP of using the committee as a partisan crusade aimed at hurting Hillary Clinton in the presidential election and firing up the GOP base.
It failed to achieve that goal as well, if early comments from conservatives are any indication.
“While the report from the Select Committee on Benghazi shines some light on widespread incompetence reaching the highest levels of government, I find it incomprehensible and insulting that this Committee spent two years and $7 million in taxpayer dollars to release an 800-page report with no firm findings or conclusions,” said David Bozell, who heads the group ForAmerica.
“Congressional Republicans, by lacking the courage to bring those responsible to justice, have wasted everyone’s time and money, plain and simple,” Bozell said. “Hillary Clinton is sure to take a victory lap today due to the fecklessness of the Majority on this committee.”
Still, the select committee’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, appealed to Americans to read the report if they wanted to make up their own minds.
“I simply ask the American people to read this report for themselves, look at the evidence we have collected, and reach their own conclusions,” Gowdy said. “You can read this report in less time than our fellow citizens were taking fire and fighting for their lives on the rooftops and in the streets of Benghazi.”
Gowdy insisted some of the information really was new, including details of why Clinton wanted to open a facility in Benghazi. He also said his report reveals for the first time that no armed response had actually been mobilized, although it had been extensively discussed.
Still, even he declined to say that the two Americans who died later in the attacks — Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods — would have lived if the administration showed better coordination.
“I’m not going to make a reckless allegation that [they] could have been saved,” Gowdy said.
Asked directly if Gowdy thought Americans who read the report should find culpability for Clinton, Gowdy declined to say so.
Here is the GOP report, and here is the Democratic version.
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First off, I want to say for the record that I truly understand your frustration, your anger, your general discontent with income inequality, your fears of terrorism and your desire for secure borders, homeland security, and real change. The poor and middle classes should share in America’s wealth and prosperity by having good jobs, rising wages, affordable health care, housing and education, and a chance to live out the American dream that our parents and grandparents–most of them immigrants–experienced. I get all of that. But what I don’t get is your support for Donald Trump and your belief that he is the answer to your problems.
Also for the record, I am not the product of a wealthy real estate family…or any wealthy family. My father drove a New York City taxi for 35 years. The job took such a toll on him physically that he would often come home bent over in a 90° angle from sitting behind the wheel 15 hours a day. Nobody handed him anything. I shared a room with two brothers, and when I was old enough to work (14) my parents had me pay room and board. I paid my way through college, holding down two jobs while squeezing in my studies, racking up thousands in student loan debt that took me a decade to pay off.
Just to be clear, and regardless of my current political/socioeconomic status, what I’ve earned, and what I’ve saved, like you, is all I have. There is no inheritance waiting in the wings. As the years quickly pass, I’ve excitedly looked forward to the day when I can retire, sit on a park bench, read the paper, feed some pigeons, and live out my remaining days in peace, tranquility and relative financial comfort and security. Which is why I need to issue you a very serious warning. A grave warning for all of us.
Take a look at the fallout from Brexit, the United Kingdom’s controversial and, to many, shocking exit from the European Union, thus ending a 40-year relationship with this giant economic and political bloc. The referendum, which ended in a 52-48 vote, was largely fueled by the same type of voter anger, frustration and disenchantment that you feel. But there’s a tremendous cost to voting out of anger and emotion. Of sending “protest” votes. The consequences can be devastating and irreversible, as the Brits are now experiencing. The political system collapses, the currency craters, financial markets tank, and the economy risks falling into a protracted tailspin, wiping out trillions in savings and wealth in the blink of an eye.
The parallels between the intense economic concerns and nationalistic motives behind the Brexit vote, and the sentiment that’s fueling Trump’s incendiary campaign, are more than worth noting. To be sure, what happened across the Atlantic could very well happen here. Think about that for a second. Think about your retirement, your savings, the plans you hatched decades ago and how quickly it all could disappear if the American economy and political system is turned on its head and thrown into chaos with the election of Trump, a divisive, polarizing figure with zero political experience, and with rapidly dwindling faith and trust within the Republican Party, in the financial community and on Wall Street, and on the global stage.
In just the past two trading sessions alone the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped almost 900 points and 5%. And we may not be done with the carnage yet. Keep in mind these losses are merely the impact of what’s taking place in England which, by the way, is not even among our top five trading partners. Think about what would happen to the U.S. markets if this was our political and economic system that was thrown into complete disorder and confusion. The Brits are already having serious buyers’ remorse, evidenced by the over 4-million citizens who’ve signed a petition calling for a new referendum. The Leave movement’s leaders are already backing off their promises regarding key issues such as health care and immigration, realizing that the lies which fueled their hate-filled campaign can’t realistically result in policy or change. Don’t make the same horrible mistake British voters now know they’ve made.
I know you’re not terribly fond of Hillary Clinton. Ok, some of you despite and hate her and can’t fathom her back in the White House, this time sitting in the Oval Office as president and commander-in-chief. But let me assure you this: a Clinton presidency will not cause an upheaval in our political and economic system. The dollar will not plunge to 30-year lows. The stock markets will not devolve into crisis, triggering massive selloffs domestically and from investors abroad. America’s credit ratings will not be lowered. There will not be a run on banks by terrified small investors like you. You will not lose everything you’ve worked hard for your whole life because we have an “un-PC” self-serving racist maniac in charge. You may not like Hillary or her politics, but you will be able to sleep at night with Madam President at the helm.
But I will promise you this: “President Trump” will make you regret the day you ever pulled the lever for him. He’ll renege on his wild promises, just as he’s already backing off the Muslim ban. The anger you feel now will be nothing like the anger you’ll feel when you see your retirement account cut in half, or worse. America won’t feel so great again. You know the old adage, be careful what you wish for. Because as John Oliver so aptly put it, “there are no fucking do-overs.”
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