 House advisor on this at the time, Dr. Deborah Birx. Some flu.
The second thing the Doctor then adds is equally alarming from a moral point of view. In fact, it is a tumbril. (“A tumbril” is a figure of speech for when someone opens up a vent and lets something out really uncontrollably fast, usually a prejudice, like the original tumbrils that suddenly unloaded waste or worse at a dump somewhere.) She says in answer to the question is Covid like the flu, “78% des Americains, qui ont eu besoin d’un respirateur ou qui sont mort du Covid, avaient un excès de poids”. What is the implication in her choosing this answer? That they deserve to die? That they are less valuable? What kind of comment is this? Does the journalist not have any follow-up question to ask to help the Doctor see the meaning of her words?
In fact, the Doctor continues in this unfeeling vein: “On n’insistera jamais suffisament sur l’importance d’entretenir notre ‘capital santé’, ce qui ne relève que de notre responsabilité et non pas celle du gouvernement”. What does this mean?  What kind of talk is this? And from a medical practitioner? And it passes for normal? Has L’Express, too, lost its boussole to print this without comment?
Really, one has to think ahead when publishing an interview like this. What effect does it have on present measures that we are all taking to limit the speed of spread of the virus? And what effect does it have on our idea of morality, of our care for those who are fragile? And will it not lengthen the time borders are closed?
Science had, five days before the interview but without L’Express being aware, published the statistics for “excess deaths” world-wide over the Covid period – and they are 3.1 million. This means 3.1 million people died in excess, despite all lockdown measures, as the numbers who died in the same 14 months, averaged over the previous five years. And that figure, 3.1 million, includes lower death rates than the previous 5-year average in almost all countries where the epidemic was under control, like New Zealand and Mauritius – lower rates because, presumably, of less accidents and less other infections because of lockdowns and mask-wearing, respectively. And the pandemic is not yet over.
We do not mean to say that the economic consequences of measures like lockdowns and border closures are not onerous. Of course, they are. But, the better controlled the epidemic, the better the vaccine roll-out done by government, the quicker borders can be opened and the better adverse economic consequences can be reversed. In any case, it would do well for commentators to remember that the more equality in society, the less drastic the effects of Covid and its measures for controlling it.
The pandemic has been haunted by coming after an on-line campaign of totally irrational anti-vaccine propaganda and lies, led mainly by extreme-right wing groups, particularly in the USA and France. These groups have infiltrated natural-healing circles and, as an add-on, used “anti-big Pharma” propaganda. The pre-existing campaign got up-and-running fast against Covid vaccines, as they were being developed.
In this context, when the Government is rolling out its vaccination campaign, L’Express has a duty of care in what it publishes. We know L’Express and the bosses are in favour of vaccination, but it seems that selling newspapers trumps even this. So, on page one of 26 May L’Express, there is a sub-title, “Hypertension ou vaccin? Une patiente partiellement paralysée,” which is followed by a most confused report under the title, “Une patiente partiellement paralysée après l’administration de l’AstraZeneca”, quoting the patient’s husband’s understanding of, and recollection of, what a doctor told him at a time when he and his wife were appropriately in a state of distress because she was paralyzed on one side. The report confuses veins and arteries, attributes phrases to a medical practitioner, which, taken out of context, can only be called unlikely – and no doubt translated by an amateur at L’Express, with little understanding of veins and arteries or of translating Kreol into French.
The first thing L’Express should be careful to do is to avoid reporting “en primeur”, as one radio unabashedly announced it was doing, in favour of reporting accurately. Then readers do need a gentle reminder that, without Covid or vaccines, people do get partial paralysis, which is often temporary in nature. It exists outside vaccines. So, because the woman patient’s paralysis came after the vaccine, it is not automatically the cause. That is surely the first law of logic. Then, the most cursory visit on-line, would have informed journalists that cases of blood-clots after AstraZeneca have occurred, up till now, four days or more after the jab, not the same day. It is still not certain if there is a causal relationship. So, that, too, needs to be taken note of by a journalist before linking the woman’s symptoms to the vaccine.
All this to say that the Press needs to maintain a higher standard of ethics during an epidemic. This means noting the context of issues. It also means seeking appropriate doctors to interview. It means knowing a minimum of the science. It means awareness of the real-life experience for health care workers. It means being humane towards the fragile. It means being aware that a press article can contribute to an on-going dangerous propaganda campaign, for example, against vaccination. Words matter. The Press needs to be able to predict the consequences of the articles it prints. Is this consequence useful? Or harmful? If useful, go with it!What? American Chemical Society is sponsoring a table at the ODK earth day event.
ACS will have a table at this event. We plan on setting up chemistry demonstrations for the Canton community. The theme is earth week, so this is a great opportunity for to advocate green chemistry!Properties of anosovite in titanium slag, anosovite flotation response in a collector solution of sodium oleate, and adsorption behaviour of sodium oleate on the mineral surface were studied in the present work using XRD, Raman spectra, flotation tests, zeta potential analysis, FTIR and XPS. The results show that the anosovite crystal contains magnesium, and its chemical composition is Mg0.09Ti2.91O5. The chemical bonds on the anosovite surface mainly comprise Ti-O bonds. Micro-flotation tests indicate that anosovite has better floatability at a wide pH range and the recovery reaches 88% at pH=6, when the dosage of sodium oleate is only 4·10−6 mol/dm3. The point of zero charge of anosovite was determined near pH 3.2 by the zeta potential measurement. In the flotation process, chemical adsorption occurs between the carboxyl of sodium oleate and the titanium sites on the anosovite surface.
Expect to see the 2016 Camaro gain a number of performance enhancements
Chevrolet will likely outfit the Camaro with the enthusiast-special 1LE package once again.
Although it was conspicuously absent when Chevrolet initially revealed the Camaro, Automotive News reports 1LE package availability will be made official later this week at the Chicago Auto Show.
Details are still under wraps, but the 2016 Camaro 1LE is expected to turn up the heat through a number of performance modifications. If the previous Camaro 1LE was any indication, expect to see wider tires, thicker sway bars and a shorter final drive ratio, along with more robust suspension components.
Chevrolet’s 455-horsepower, 6.2-litre V8 will remain under the hood. With the exception of a revised exhaust system, don’t count on seeing any significant powertrain enhancements.WARNING: THESE CHANGES ARE PERMANENT! YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE PEDALS AGAIN IN A RACING GAME!
NOTE: It looks like the Linux versions of the Quake engines do not support Advanced Joystick features. This means that foot pedals (even with these mods) will not work with the Linux versions.
If you've messed with electronics before, about 30 minutes.
The pedals are actually one axis (the wheel is the other), and because of the way that potentiometers are configured, when the right pedal is depressed, a potentiometer's resistance changes, causing the total resistance to increase. When the left pedal is depressed, it reduces the resistance. In this configuration, the right pedal acts as the accelerator, and the left acts as the gas.
The way the advanced joystick settings works for Quake-style games, we need to have the "at rest" resistance set at a middle value, and when the left pedal is depressed, reduce the resistance, and when the right pedal is depressed, increase the resistance (this is how "normal" joysticks operate). We don't care what happens when the left and the right are pressed simultaneously, because it does not make sense when strafeing.
If you have Sega Saturn pedals, then you are in luck! The modifications are much less invasive (we will create an adapter instead of hacking the internal wiring), because the axis return independent values! Please go to this page for modifying the Sega Saturn pedals. People with PC-pedals, read on...