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Investing in gender equality creates positive impact—Delivers positive long-term shareholder returns by selecting companies with a strong competitive advantage from recognizing and acting on the strategic importance of improving gender equality.
Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals —Supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by investing in companies that exhibit strength in the retention of female talent, equal remuneration and employee well-being.
The RobecoSAM Global Gender Equality Impact Equities Strategy invests globally in companies that are leaders in promoting gender diversity and equality. Through this strategy, we aim to drive change at companies, ultimately creating a positive societal impact.
The Fund employs systematic, bottom-up stock selection that combines proprietary Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) data and rigorous Sustainability Investing (SI) analysis throughout the investment process. Universe exclusions, gender equality indicators, and proprietary ESG filters are used to determine the starting universe. Gender equality scores combined with fundamental analysis are used to further refine the remaining stock pool. An in-house SI research team integrates financially-material sector and company-specific sustainability analysis into investment cases. Impact assessments of controversial incidences affecting portfolio holdings provide additional risk management. An active ownership and engagement team interacts directly with company management of fund holdings, offering additional channels for sustainable impact.
Junwei Hafner-Cai is the Portfolio Manager for the Global Gender Equality Impact Equities Strategy and deputy Portfolio Manager for the Global SDG Equities Strategy. Prior to taking over the role as deputy PM, Junwei was also a Senior Analyst covering thematic research within RobecoSAM’s Thematic Equities Team. Prior to joining, Junwei was a Junior Portfolio Manager at EFG International. Moreover, she was an Assistant Relationship Manager within the International Wealth Management Desk at Credit Suisse Private Banking and an Assistant Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Wegelin & Co., Private Bankers. Junwei holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business (major in Banking & Finance) from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and is a Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA). She joined RobecoSAM in 2010.


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industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


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In the other articles in this section we have provided a decisive demonstration that Preterism is an unbiblical view of eschatology. However, before Preterists can even begin to argue with the points we have addressed in those articles, there is one very large obstacle they must first overcome. That obstacle is the date when Book of Revelation was written or more appropriately when the vision was seen by John.
The Book of Revelation has been traditionally dated by scholars to have been written in or about 96 AD. Obviously this date would completely prevent anyone from accepting the Preterist theory that the events described in Revelation took place some 25 years earlier in 70 AD. Preterist scholars quickly recognize that dating the book in 96 AD utterly destroys their theory, therefore, they must challenge this dating. And so they have.
So where do we get this date? From Irenaeus' work, Against Heresies, Book 5, Chp. 30, written in the mid to late 100's AD. Let's take a look at the quote.
This is the main source traditional scholars use to a date when John was given the Revelation. Until the development of Preterist doctrines, its reliability has stood the test of time. Scholars, and indeed, Preterists themselves, can find no basis for suggesting that Irenaeus is mistaken with regard to history here. The specific part of this quote that is used to date the Book of Revelation is as follows.
"for if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign."
Most scholars interpret the pronoun "that" in the phrase "that was seen" to be "the apocalyptic vision." This seems to make sense and to flow naturally allowing the pronoun "that" to stand in for the nearest previous noun "vision." This assumes the least confusing grammar for the statement. Given that Domitian reigned from 81-96 AD, if John wrote near the end of his reign, that would place the writing of Revelation somewhere in the 90's.
Irenaeus states clearly "For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign." The key question, therefore, is what Irenaeus' was referring to by the phrase "that was seen." What was seen towards the end of Domitian's reign (which would be sometime near 96 AD or so)? Was he referring to "him who beheld the apocalyptic vision" (John) or was it "the apocalyptic vision" itself?
Traditionally, this short phrase has been taken to indicate "the apocalyptic vision" itself. This seems particularly logical because Irenaeus is referring to something, which was "seen." His use of "seen" reflects the apocalyptic vision that he had just previously said was "beheld" by John. This interpretation seems to provide the most intuitive and simple understanding of the syntax, and this is exactly the way in which Irenaeus' words have been traditionally been interpreted.
Preterists attempt to get around this interpretation by asserting that it was John, not John's vision, that was seen towards the end of Domitian's reign. In doing so they allow for a more confusing grammatical structure of this passage in which "that" refers not to the immediately preceding noun "vision," (which would be the most natural reading of the text), but instead they insist "that" refers to the next closest preceding noun, "John."
This is a solid example of circular reasoning. One wonders how Preterists would read this statement if the phrase Domition's reign were replaced with Nero's reign. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate a very simple truth. One wonders what it is that the Preterists find so compelling to cause them to disagree with scholars traditional dating?
On this point we cannot ignore the fact that the entire Preterist doctrine hangs in the balance on this one simple question. With that in mind, there is little doubt that what Preterists find so compelling to cause them to disagree with the traditional date is the fact that their theory cannot survive so long as the traditional date stands.
It is not that Preterists read this short excerpt from Irenaeus and believe that the traditional interpretation is impossible or even implausible. Rather, what the Preterists have done is to go into this text and find a loophole, a loophole without which their entire theory could not survive.
And the solution to their problem was easy enough to find, simply change the pronoun "that" from a reference to the vision and make it instead a reference to John himself. In this sense, we can see that Preterists are not primarily concerned with how Irenaeus SHOULD be read but instead with how Irenaeus CAN be read. The reason they are focused on the versatility of the meaning of "that" is simply because it is the only available loophole to keep Preterism alive in the face of the Traditional model.
On this point, Preterists' do not have the luxury of being nonbiased. They simply have to find a way to avert the traditional dating. So, there interpretation of Irenaeus here has nothing to do with an objective, accurate judgment of what the author probably meant. Instead, it has everything to do with finding a way around the traditional dating of Revelation.
This interpretation, however, deprives us of any information as to when "the apocalyptic vision" was "beheld." We would have no idea whether it was written in the 60's, 70's, 80's, or 90's AD. Under the Preterist theory there would be no way to know.
Logically speaking, it is not necessary that Preterism provide us with a way to firmly date Revelation. Their failure to provide firm evidence for a date in itself does not invalidate their theory or their interpretation of Irenaeus. It does however bring to light their bias.
In other words, if we interpret Irenaeus as the Preterists want we are left without any certain date for the writing of Revelation. That means, it could have been written at any point prior to John's death. If it was not written in the 90's, it could have been written in the 70's or 80's. Yet the Preterists argue that it was written in the 60's. And why? Since apart from Irenaeus there is no direct source for dating Revelation, we have no other choice but to assume the only evidence Preterists have for an early dating of the book is their own theory that it was fulfilled in 70 AD. Any date after 70 AD would negate their entire theory.
Let's take a look at it one last time in the simplest format.
Hypothesis: The prophecies in the book of Revelation were fulfilled in 70 AD.
Test the Hypothesis Using Existing Evidence: Scholar's traditional date for the writing of Revelation is around 96 AD.
Preterist Conclusion: Tradition scholars are wrong because the hypothesis is true.
Or in other words, Preterists throw out the existing evidence simply because it disagrees with their hypothesis. Then they reconfigure the evidence to fit with their pre-existing conclusions. The Preterists are clearly molding the evidence to arrive at their desired conclusion. This is faulty logic and their assessment should be rejected as biased.
There could be no clearer case of bias and no clearer case of circular reasoning. The Preterists early dating of Revelation is driven entirely by the assumption that Preterism is true. According to their line of thinking, since Preterism is true and Jesus came back in 70 AD, Revelation could not have been written after 70 AD. Therefore, traditional scholars are wrong and Irenaeus could not have meant that the vision was seen in the end of Domitian's reign. As we can see, Preterists start their analysis of Revelation's date by assuming that Preterism is true. Here they have a clear conflict of interest and their exegesis is operating in reverse.
Preterists' convenient re-interpretation of Irenaeus' statement betrays their bias in the matter. Furthermore their insistence and confidence in this unwarranted supposition is highly suspicious, nonobjective, and quite unscholarly to say the least.
But, for the sake of argument, let's assume for a moment that the Preterist interpretation of Irenaeus' statement is correct. Let's assume that it is "John" and not "the apocalyptic vision" that was seen near the end of Domitian's reign. Is the scenario that they are depicting a reasonable one? Not at all. Let's take a look at the logical outcome of their interpretation. A Preterist view unequivocally upholds the following.
1. John was a witness and disciple of Jesus during Jesus' life on earth.
2. John understood that Jesus would return in his lifetime from what Jesus taught him regarding his return. This information he effectively taught to the Church of his day.
3. God used John to record and instruct the church with regard to the teachings of Jesus' through his own ministry and through the writing of one Gospel, and three epistles.
4. God revealed to John a vision of Christ's return in the 60's AD.
5. John witnessed and lived through the fulfillment of Jesus' revelation, prophecy and teaching regarding his return when these events occurred in 70 AD.
6. John lived for another 25 years or so after his "apocalyptic vision" was fulfilled and Jesus returned in 70 AD.
7. During these 25 years after Jesus return, John (the writer of one Gospel, three epistles, and recorder of "the apocalyptic vision" describing Jesus' return), did not manage to successfully communicate the fact that his "apocalyptic vision" had been fulfilled 25 years earlier in 70 AD.
8. (By extension) Either God chose not to use John to inform the Church that Jesus' second coming and the apocalyptic vision were fulfilled in 70 AD, or God did chose to use John in this way but for one reason or another John did not accomplish that mission.
Based on the above Preterist scenario and the fact that all orthodox church writers and scholars for at least two centuries after 70 AD upheld a Futurist view of eschatology, one of the four highly unreasonable conclusions must be drawn regarding John, the church, and Jesus' return in 70 AD.
1. John DID NOT understand that his "apocalyptic vision" had been fulfilled in 70 AD and so did not teach this to the church.
2. John DID understand that his "apocalyptic vision" had been fulfilled in 70 AD yet chose not to teach this to the church.
3. John DID understand that his "apocalyptic vision" had been fulfilled in 70 AD and attempted to teach this to the church, but was completely ineffective and wholly failed in this task.
4. John did understand that his "apocalyptic vision" had been fulfilled in 70 AD and effectively taught this to the church only to have his teaching on the matter universally rejected by the church.
One last item to remember on this point: we have no record of either John or any other member of the early Church writing to instruct the Church that the events prophesied in the New Testament surrounding the return of Christ ever came to pass in 70 AD. If those events did come to pass, then the Church was left with no instruction regarding that fact.
In summary, we conclude that Preterists have failed to demonstrate an objective, reasonable basis for rejecting the traditional interpretation of Irenaeus' statement. And therefore, Preterists have failed to make the case for a pre-90's dating of Revelation. This is based on two points, which we have argued thoroughly above. One, the traditional intepretation of Irenaeus' statement and the traditional dating of Revelation are inherently more reasonable, intuitive, and simple from a grammatical standpoint. Two, the unavoidable, logical extensions of the Preterist view on this matter inevitably lead to an absurd understanding of how the early Church arrived at a Futurist doctrine.

industry_corpus2: Others


text: JOUR 863. Data Analysis. 3 Hours.


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CodePush, still in preview, was announced about two years ago, providing a way to update certain apps directly without going through an app store redeployment.
Program manager Ian Geoghegan noted that since its debut in 2015, "mobile app developers have deployed thousands of releases to in-production apps -- deploying quick bug fixes, feature improvements and content updates via the cloud. In a world where updates submitted through the app store can sometimes take days, these developers have enjoyed a huge market advantage because they can respond to customer feedback more quickly with instant app updates to some or all of their end-users."
He further explained the inner workings of the CodePush service and how to use it with Mobile Center for updating a React Native "hello world" app.


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during the year ended December 31, 2016. For the three months ended March 31, 2017, no amounts were paid under this agreement.
In addition, certain employees of TerraForm Power provide general management services to the Company, and a portion of the costs associated with such employees is allocated to the Company. As of March 31, 2017, the cost to the Company for the services being provided to the Company by employees of TerraForm Power is $0.1 million.
Also, concurrently with the execution of the Renova Settlement Agreement, TerraForm Global, Inc. and Parent entered into a letter agreement (the “Renova Letter Agreement”), pursuant to which Parent has agreed that upon the later to occur of (i) the effective time as described in the Renova Settlement Agreement and (ii) the closing of the share purchase contemplated by the PSA (as defined and described below), the condition to the obligations of Parent and Merger Sub to effect the Merger set forth in Section 7.2(c) (Litigation Settlement) of the Merger Agreement, solely with respect to Renova’s claims in the Renova Arbitration, has been satisfied and the aggregate payment made by the Company (net of any amounts funded directly or indirectly by insurance proceeds) under the Renova Settlement Agreement in connection with the settlement of Renova’s claims in the Renova Arbitration will be deemed to be zero. Also, concurrently with the execution of the Renova Settlement Agreement, Renova and Parent entered into a Purchase & Sale Agreement (the “PSA”) with respect to all of the shares of Class A common stock of TerraForm Global, Inc. owned by Renova (excluding the shares to be released from escrow to TerraForm Global, Inc. pursuant to the Renova Settlement Agreement). Pursuant to the terms of the PSA, an affiliate of Brookfield has agreed to purchase 19,535,004 shares of Class A common stock of TerraForm Global, Inc. from Renova for a purchase price in cash of $4.75 per share, or $92,791,269 in the aggregate. The consummation of the share purchase contemplated by the PSA is subject to customary conditions to closing and is conditioned upon the satisfaction of certain conditions set forth in the Renova Settlement Agreement described above, including the effectiveness of the mutual releases and release of the shares in escrow. The Company recognized $3.8 million of general and administrative expenses as of December 31, 2016 as a result of this settlement.
Since December 2016, the Company has directly employed Al Dahya, the son of Hanif Dahya, a member of the Company's Board, as its Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy. Prior to December 2016, Al Dahya was an employee of SunEdison and was compensated directly by SunEdison. In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, Al Dahya received RSUs with a fair market value at the time of their granting of $63,400 as a retention payment from the Company pursuant to the Company’s general retention program implemented following the SunEdison Bankruptcy. Since his employment by the Company, Al Dahya receives a base salary of $260,000, and may be eligible to receive an annual bonus for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2017, additional retention payments and certain bonuses relating to the closing of the Brookfield Transaction consistent with the Company’s general employee compensation practices and programs.
The Company has two reportable segments: Solar Energy and Wind Energy. These segments include the Company’s entire portfolio of power plants and are determined based on the “management” approach. This approach designates the internal reporting used by management for making decisions and assessing performance as the source of the reportable segments.

industry_corpus2: Power & Energy


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Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science Dean Prof Ir Dr Goi Bok Min was elected as one of the Academy of Science Malaysia (ASM) Fellows 2018 for his contributions in IT & Computer Sciences Discipline at Sunway Putra Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 11 November 2018.
Prof Goi has contributed his expertise through the engagement as a consultant and a panel of expert with various organisations such as the Panel Expert for the Development of a National Cryptology Policy, Cyber Security Malaysia and Malaysian Society for Cryptology Research (MSCR) and Technical Committee member of Information Security and Smartcard in SIRIM (TC5). He was an Editorial Board member for various international journals and often invited as a reviewer for Journal of Information Processing and Systems (JIPS), Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier, International Journal of Information Security, Springer and many more.
Prof Goi is also an expert in the area of cryptology, which is the underpinning technique to provide digital security services. Since 2001, he has designed and implemented secure efficient cryptographic algorithms and cryptanalyzed several published cryptographic schemes. He managed to merge and integrate various techniques to propose some new variant of security techniques such as bio-encryption and key binding (biometrics and cryptography) as well as video and image crypto watermarking and multi-modal authentication schemes. He has also broken several published cryptographic security schemes, especially the PAKE, BSW schemes and watermarking schemes. He also uses his engineering knowledge and skills on embedded systems design and telecommunication to examine security aspects, design and implementation of security algorithms, smart expert and communication networking systems.
Prof Goi was awarded the 2014 Top Research Scientists Malaysia (TRSM) Award and 2013 UTAR Research Excellence Award. Aside from that, Prof Goi collaborates with local institutes for his research work such as MIMOS, Multimedia University and international research institutes from Korea, China, Japan, USA, Singapore and New Zealand. His research outcomes have been published and presented in high-impact journals and conferences. He has published more than 140 technical papers, which includes 80 journal papers, cited in Scopus-700 and h-index of 20.


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Ariana Grande has debuted the breathin music video, which you can watch above. The breathin music video was directed by Hannah Lux Davis, and produced by Fuliane Petikyan and Brandon Bonfiglio. The song was written by Grande, Savan Kotecha, Peter Svensson, and its producer Ilya Salmanzadeh.
breathin is a track from Ariana Grande’s fourth album, Sweetener, which was released on August 17. The song is the third single from the album and hit the radio waves on September 18. It follows No Tears Left to Cry and God is a Woman. Promotional single The Light is Coming, featuring Nicki Minaj, was also released on June 20.
Last month, Ariana Grande announced the first leg of The Sweetener World Tour, which will kick off in North America on March 18 and continue through June 18, with four Canadian dates in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver. You can view The Sweetener World Tour dates here. Additional international tour dates will be announced at a later date.
Grande’s previous album, Dangerous Woman, was released in 2016 and featured guest appearances from Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Macy Gray and Future.
The superstar also released a new song, thank u, next, over the weekend and it is from her upcoming fifth studio album of the same name. It was written by Grande, Taylor Parks, Victoria McCants and its producers Tommy Brown, Charles Anderson and Michael Foster. You can view the lyric video below.

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


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De don Andrés Henestrosa, El son Paulina, con la Interpretación de la Banda Santa Cruz.
Paulina Lake. Paulina Lake is one of the twin crater lakes (the other being East Lake), located 6,350 feet above sea level in Newberry Crater, Central Oregon.

industry_corpus2: Travel & Geography


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Building, painting and finishing aircraft models of all scales.
A-7E VF-105 , CVW 3, USS Saratoga 1976, 1/72 Italeri.
Riverside Scale Modellers club group build, 2013.

industry_corpus2: Aerospace


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30 x 15 ¾ in.
30 ½ x 22 in.
39 x 21 ½ in.
Each of the paintings in this series has begun with a line or pattern found in a stone, in a natural formation. I keep an eye out for erosion patterns and fracture lines that have a sense of language about them, where something about the configuration has, to me, an ambiguity about it as to whether it was naturally formed, or whether it could have been created by human hand. I look at these found forms as gestures, perhaps relics of some form of writing for a language we no longer understand. From there I work with the mystery of it, composing the painting, amplifying shape and line and layering colour to develop a sense of, or suggestion of, a narrative, buried, unearthed, undefined.
Each person will "read" the marks differently, depending on the life experience s/he brings to the viewing. Each painting acts, in a way, as the opening sentence of a story that renews itself with each viewer.


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Special forces have blockaded a gang of militants believed to have links to Al Qaeda in Russia's southern republic of Chechnya. Six gunmen were reportedly killed since the operation kicked off on Wednesday.
“Two of the six militants killed have been identified and the operation is continuing,” Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Those killed were part of a group of around 30 militants hiding in the republic's mountainous region. Chechen president had earlier said that the group has connections with Al-Qaeda.
Three police officers have died and two were injured in the fighting, which is still going on.
The operation is part of a major crackdown on insurgents. It was launched soon after the lifting of a ten-year-long counter-terrorism regime in April 2009 in response to escalating violence.

industry_corpus2: Politics & Administration


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According to the World Health Organization, 28,616 people contracted Ebola and 11,310 lives were lost during the Ebola epidemic. After so many lives lost and the hopeful, but understandably tentative countdown of Ebola free days continues once again in West Africa, it is imperative that we take a moment to consider what we learned from the devastating and tragic epidemic.
I spoke with Dr. Ali S. Khan, former senior administrator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, former Assistant Surgeon General, and current Dean of the University Of Nebraska College Of Public Health. He noted initially, that there is always the risk of importation of cases; that is how it started he reminds us. He elaborated further that the epidemic “changed the response from the WHO and caused a change in political focus by the nations involved that will affect future outbreaks and ensure native capabilities, as well as link them to the global response.” He also noted that new medical counter measures, such as vaccines and related therapeutics, were also the result of the Ebola impact. When asked about what we learned, he did not hesitate. “The first thing was a new vaccine that permits a novel prevention strategy using ring vaccination to prevent spread and new cases. The second is the new monoclonals and antivirals for treatment.” He also noted the better understanding of the viral progression and clinical diseases that will influence options for acute treatment and follow up of convalescents.
Ebola has provided us with a virtual plethora of opportunities to learn about the disease, its treatment and control, as well as the control of other infectious illnesses through our attempts to prevent its spread as well as through our failures, and successes. We gained valuable treatment modalities and tactics that will likely be used in future outbreaks of Ebola, as well as many other infectious diseases.
Ebola taught us other things too. It has been some time since global health has taken center stage. Ebola changed that. During the epidemic, one could not watch the news or go through a day without hearing an update on the latest development in the Ebola crisis. Although other infectious diseases like Plague, Polio, AIDS, SARS, H1N1, Cholera, and now Zika have captured the world’s attention, few diseases have made such an intense impact, nor caused the uproar and fervor that Ebola elicited. Ebola reminded us that global health is public health and affects us all, and as such, deserves to be a priority for national and international focus and funding for everything from vaccine development and research, to capacity for response locally, nationally, and internationally. Global health has teetered on the edge of public awareness, and remained a quiet player in the competition of priorities in national budgets. Today, it is abundantly clear how vital this sector is to each nation’s, as well as the world’s health, safety, success and even its survival.
Another effect from the Ebola crisis was the opportunity to educate people about public health and the transmission of infectious disease. Through education, public health officials were able to promote behaviors that ensured the safety and health of the public. It is stunning that in this day and age, we persist in so many behaviors that put us and those we interact with at risk. The discrepancy in what we say we will do, and what we are actually willing to commit to and take action on, looms large. Persisting low vaccination rates and the prevalence of infectious diseases such as sexually transmitted diseases, measles, pertussis and influenza show this. Ebola offers yet another opportunity to demonstrate the connection between our behaviors and our risks and disease.
Ebola also showed us that many nations continue to lack sufficient financing, infrastructure, facilities, support and medical staff to treat their own populations. Endemic conditions like malaria, and neglected tropical diseases like Guinea worm disease, Yaws, Leishmaniasis, Filariasis, and Helminths, as well as other conditions continue to affect millions globally. Maternal and childhood morbidity and mortality rates remain deplorable as well. And millions of children around the world continue to suffer and die of malnutrition and disease before they reach the age of five. This is unacceptable, especially because proper treatment and cures for these conditions exist. Ebola also highlighted the need for treatments for chronic non-infectious conditions as well.
Moreover, Ebola clearly demonstrated the enormous need that remains for sufficiently trained medical professionals and healthcare staff to provide adequate care for many populations throughout the world. The loss of so many extraordinary and heroic staff that dedicated their lives to helping others in need under the most daunting and challenging of circumstances was devastating to those whom they served, and must not be in vain.
Additionally, Ebola provided us with yet another chance to relearn lessons about the role of safety in giving aid to others in need. We learned that we cannot just rush in with aid, but must recall the basics that every first responder and medical student must learn: Ensure scene safety before giving care, and first do no harm. Ebola showed us the necessity to strategize and prepare to give care by utilizing personal protective equipment. It also reminded us very quickly that we could indeed do harm, and worsen the epidemic when we acted without first assessing the situation and ensuring proper protection and preparation.
So, it remains to be seen just how much we will learn from Ebola. Will we learn from our mistakes? Will we take the global view in the future, or the narrow one? Will we truly live by the motto of the Three Musketeers and be "one for all and all for one", or persist in "it's all about me"? Only time will tell.
As revolting as it sounds, there are places in the world where the chances of consuming one’s neighbours’ faeces are quite high if one is not vigilant regarding sanitation and hygiene. That being the condition of many areas in low and lower-middle income countries does not mean that high and higher-middle income countries are exempt from any environmental conditions that are harmful to health.
But, what is environment health? The World Health Organization (WHO) defines the term as, “All the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting behaviours”. It, however, excludes genetics and the social and cultural environment.
In low-income settings, concerns for environmental health may arise in the context of sanitation and hygiene, as well as indoor and outdoor pollution. In high-income countries, many chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are associated with sedentary lifestyles. While these might be attributed to behaviour, one must consider that such behaviours can arise from changes in the environment. Over 80% of communicable and non-communicable diseases can be attributed to environmental hazards. Overall, conservative estimates indicate that about one quarter of the total global burden of disease is owing to this cause (WHO, 2011). Furthermore, the biggest killers of children under 5 years are all environmental-related diseases, including diarrhoea, respiratory infections, and malaria.
Other diseases of concern are helminthic infections, trachoma (a bacterial eye infection), Chagas disease, leishmaniosis, onchocerciasis, and dengue fever. All of which are associated with impoverished conditions and can be mitigated by improving sanitation, hygiene, and housing. Although conflicts and natural disasters might be catastrophic for any country, struggling economies tend to suffer more because disasters worsen the poor conditions which directly affect sanitation and hygiene practices, creating conducive conditions for various infectious diseases, and ultimately feeding into the vicious cycle of poverty.
Many interventions are underway to address these conditions, including Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) initiatives, Integrated Vector Management, Programme on Household Air Pollution, International Programme on Chemical Safety, Health and Environment Linkages Initiative, and Intersun Programme for the effects of UV radiation. The acknowledgement of the effects of the environment has grown. One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was, “To ensure environmental sustainability.” The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are more extensive and thorough in placing focus on the environment. Goal 1 is to end poverty, goal 6 is to make provision of clean water and sanitation possible, and goal 13 is to stop climatic change resulting in floods and drought (United Nations, 2014).
It is encouraging to see steps being taken to control environmental hazards; however, the journey to measuring and eradicating such conditions still remains a challenge, which will hopefully be overcome through future endeavours.
Technology is progressively becoming a bigger part of our lives. This holds true in high-income countries and in low- and middle-income countries. By 2012, three quarters of the world’s population had gained access to mobile phones, pushing mobile communications to a new level. Of the over 6 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide in 2012, 5 billion of them were in developing countries. The Pew Research Center’s Spring 2014 Global Attitudes survey indicated that 84% of people owned a mobile phone in the 32 emerging and developing nations polled. Internet access is also increasing in low- and middle-income countries. The 2014 Pew Research Center survey indicated that the Internet was at least occasionally used by a median of 44% of people living in the polled countries.
The increase in Internet and mobile phone access has significant implications for how infectious diseases can be better tracked around the world. Although robust and validated traditional methods of data collection rely on established sources like governments, hospitals, environmental, or census data and thus suffer from limitations such as latency, high cost and financial barriers to care. An example of a traditional infectious disease data collection method is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance system. This system has been the primary method of measuring national influenza activity for decades but suffers from limitations such as differences in laboratory practices, and patient populations seen by different providers, making straightforward comparisons between regions challenging. On an international scale, the WHO receives infectious disease reports from its technical institutions and organizations. However, these data are limited to areas within the WHO’s reach and may not capture outbreaks until they reach a large enough scale.
Compared to traditional global infectious diseases data collection methods, crowdsourcing data allows researchers to gather data in near real-time, as individuals are diagnosed or even before diagnosis in some instances. Furthermore, getting individuals involved in infectious disease reporting helps people become more aware of and involved in their own health. Crowdsourcing infectious disease data provides previously hard to gather information about disease dynamics such as contact patterns and the impact of the social environment. Crowd-sourced data does have some limitations, including data validation and low specificity.
Internet-based applications have resulted in new crowd-sourced infectious disease tracking websites. One example is HealthMap. HealthMap is a freely available website (and mobile app) developed by Boston Children’s Hospital which brings together informal online sources of infectious disease monitoring and surveillance. HealthMap crowd-sources data from libraries, governments, international travelers, online news aggregators, eyewitness reports, expert-curated discussions, and validated official reports to generate a comprehensive worldwide view of global infectious diseases. With HealthMap you can get a worldwide view of what is happening and also sort by twelve disease categories to see what is happening within your local area.
Another crowd-sourced infectious disease tracking platform was Google’s Flu Trends, and also their Dengue Trends. Google was using search pattern data to estimate incidence of influenza and dengue in various parts of the world. Google’s Flu Trends was designed to be a syndromic influenza surveillance system acting complementary to established methods, such as CDC’s surveillance. Google shut down Flu Trends after 2014 due to various concerns about the validity of the data. As an initial venture into using big data to predict infectious diseases, Flu (and Dengue) Trends have provided information that researchers can use to improve future big data efforts.
With the increase of mobile phone access around the world, organizations have started using short message service (SMS), also known as text messaging, as a method of infectious disease reporting and surveillance. Text messaging can be used for infectious disease reporting and surveillance in emergency situations where regular communication channels may have been disrupted. After a 2009 earthquake in Sichuan province, China, regular public health communication channels were damaged. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention distributed solar powered mobile phones to local health-care agencies in affected areas. The phones were pre-loaded with necessary software and one week after delivery, the number of reports being filed returned to pre-earthquake levels. Mobile phone reporting accounted for as much as 52.9% of total cases reported in the affected areas during about a two-month time period after the earthquake.
Text message infectious disease reporting and surveillance is also useful in non-emergency settings. In many malaria-endemic areas of Africa, health system infrastructure is poor which results in a communication gap between health services managers, health care workers, and patients. With the rapid expansion and affordability of mobile phone services, using text-messaging systems can improve malaria control. Text messages containing surveillance information, supply tracking information and information on patients’ proper use of antimalarial medications can be sent from malaria control managers out in the field to health system managers. Text messaging can also be sent by health workers to patients to remind them of medication adherence and for post-treatment review. Many text message based interventions exist, but there is a current lack of peer-reviewed studies to determine the true efficacy of text message based intervention programs.
Increasing global access to the Internet and mobile phones is changing the way infectious diseases are reported and how surveillance is conducted. Moving towards crowd-sourced infectious disease reporting allows for a wider geographical reach to underserved populations that may encounter outbreaks, which go undetected for a delayed period. While crowdsourcing such data does have limitations, more companies than ever are working on using big data and crowd-sourced data in a reliable way to inform the world about the presence of infectious diseases.
Rabies is a neglected viral disease that is found on all continents except Antarctica and is endemic in 150 countries and territories. While rabies can be found almost everywhere, 95% of cases occur in Africa and Asia. Rabies is almost always fatal following the onset of symptoms. However, rabies is vaccine-preventable and can be eliminated. The World Health Organization (WHO) in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control is raising awareness about rabies. September 28th is World Rabies Day and this year’s theme is “End Rabies Together”.
Rabies is usually transmitted to humans from the deep bite or scratch of an infected animal. Domestic dogs are responsible for more than 99% of human rabies cases throughout the world. According to the WHO, “while infected domestic dogs cause human rabies deaths in Africa and Asia; in the Americas, Australia and Europe, bats are the primary source of human rabies infections.” Children are disproportionately affected by rabies. Forty percent of people who are bitten by suspected rabid animals are children under 15 years of age.
No tests are available to determine if a person is infected with rabies before they show clinical symptoms. Once a person begins to show clinical symptoms of rabies, the disease is almost always fatal. There have been a few cases of people developing rabies symptoms and surviving, with the use of the Milwaukee Protocol. In 2004, a Wisconsin teenager was bitten by an infected bat. She did not seek medical treatment and did not receive PEP. Dr. Willoughby, an infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin near Milwaukee, tried an experimental treatment that included an induced coma and antiviral medication. The teen survived with few lasting complications. However, many experts caution that the Milwaukee Protocol is not the cure for rabies, at least not yet. The first 43 human rabies cases where doctors attempted to replicate the Milwaukee Protocol resulted in only five survivors. Admittedly, five survivors are pretty good for a nearly always fatal disease, but not enough to say that the Milwaukee Protocol is a cure for human rabies.
Vaccinating dogs is the most cost effective way to prevent human rabies deaths because it results in a decrease in the global deaths attributable to rabies and a decrease in the need for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Post-exposure prophylaxis is the administration of rabies immunoglobulin and rabies vaccine to an exposed person immediately after exposure, in order to prevent infection. Timely PEP can prevent the onset of rabies symptoms and death. However, PEP is expensive and not widely available in many of the resource poor settings with high rabies burden. Eighty percent of dog-mediated rabies deaths occur in rural areas that lack awareness about, and access to, PEP.
Rabies elimination is achievable for many of the countries with a high burden of dog-mediated rabies cases. Achieving a dog vaccination rate of at least 70% is accepted as the most effective way to prevent human rabies deaths. Rabies transmitted by dogs has been eliminated in many Latin American countries including Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, most of Argentina, the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and large parts of Mexico and Brazil. A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation project, led by WHO, has made great strides against human rabies cases in the Philippines, South Africa and Tanzania. Furthermore, many countries in WHO South-East Asia Region have begun elimination campaigns with the goal of meeting the 2020 target for regional rabies elimination. Bangladesh, for example, launched an elimination program in 2010 and has seen human rabies deaths decrease by 50% during 2010-2013.
While there are still challenges in achieving a high vaccination rate in some areas of the world, such as vaccine availability and community support, some countries have been able to achieve rabies elimination. Events like World Rabies Day help draw attention to the high burden of rabies in resource poor settings and help to highlight the work being done to eliminate rabies.
This is my final post of a three part series on climate change and health. The first post looked at how climate change will influence the onset and severity of droughts in some areas. The second post examined how some regions are predicted to see an increase in droughts, which would decrease food supply; thus, increasing nutrient deficiencies in those areas. This post will briefly discuss the influence of climate change on waterborne diseases.
Change in climate, including the increases in temperature and changes in rainfall patterns may lead to an increase in waterborne diseases, where insect vectors contaminate the water (Shuman, 2010). Often, higher temperatures are needed for some insects to complete their life cycle. This is the case for mosquitoes, as they live in warm, aquatic habitats (Shuman, 2010). With an increase in temperature and more flooding, there will be an increase in mosquitoes (Shuman, 2010). Thus, there may be an increase in the transfer of dengue and malaria (Ramasamy & Surendran, 2011). These warm, aquatic habitats will also be ideal for snails, which transfer schistomiasis (Ramasamy & Surendran, 2011). Furthermore, with a rise in sea levels, there is likely to be an increase in saline levels (Ramasamy & Surendran, 2011). Certain types of mosquitoes and snails have a high tolerance for salt water and are thus able to breed in water with high salt concentrations (Ramasamy & Surendran, 2011).
The relationship between climate change and health is complex because there are many different contributing factors and there is limited scientific evidence for many regions, several of which are under-resourced (New York Times, 2015). Furthermore, areas of high-resource have not been impacted in the same way, due to advantages as simple as air conditioning (New York Times, 2015). Thus, more scientific evidence is needed, to determine more ways in which climate change could possibly influence the health of a population. More recognition also needs to be given to this issue so that contingency plans can be made for possible outbreaks of diseases that were discussed in this blog post.
Shuman, E. K. (2010). Global Climate Change and Infectious Diseases. The New England Journal of Medicine , 362 (12), 1061-1063.
Ramasamy, R., & Surendran, S. (2011). Possible impact of rising sea levels on vector-borne infectious diseases. BMC Infectious Diseases , 11 (18).
The day Macchu Picchu was discovered in 1911.
The day Apollo XI returned to the Earth after the first successful mission of taking humans to the moon in 1969.
Yet, in Nigeria, that day in 2014 will always be marked as the day Patrick Sawyer—the index patient of Ebola—died and set an outbreak in motion in one of the most populated cities in Africa. Patrick Sawyer was a Liberian-American citizen and a diplomat who violated his Ebola quarantine to travel to Nigeria for an ECOWAS convention. His collapse at the airport, coupled with an ongoing strike by Nigerian doctors in public hospitals, landed him at a private hospital in Obalende, where he infected eight other people.
Patrick Sawyer’s death marked the beginning of an Ebola epidemic in Lagos, a city of 21 million. Lagos is a major economic hub in Africa and one of its biggest cities. An uncontrolled Ebola epidemic would have a far-reaching economic impact beyond the borders of the city, its country, and even its continent.
A recent study has shown that Ebola virus remains active in a dead body for more than a week. Add to this that the body is most infectious in the hours before death, and it is a "virus bomb" waiting to happen if handled incorrectly. West Africa, especially Nigeria, has a strong funeral culture. This Ebola-infected Liberian diplomat’s body was transported and incinerated in accordance with the WHO and CDC protocol. This feat was achieved despite immense political and diplomatic pressure to return the body for funeral rites. It represents one of the many cases of collaboration and "clinical system governance" that are at the heart of the successful containment of Ebola in Nigeria. It is one of the many stories that I'm hoping to highlight in my research on the role of the private sector in Nigeria’s successful Ebola containment.
As part of my research, I am looking at 10 different economic sectors to understand how the Ebola outbreak impacted the private sector and how the private sector dealt with the challenges that the Ebola outbreak posed. My hope is that this research will lead to lessons for the private sector on how, in times of an epidemic, they can help the government to mitigate the disease’s economic impact. I also hope that the resulting report will help governments engage with the private sector more effectively in times of emergencies.
With many outbreaks, especially of highly fatal diseases such as Ebola, fear is the biggest demon. This fear has led to the crippling of economies of Ebola-affected countries. This fear has cost Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia 12 % of their GDP in foregone income and unraveled the years of progress made by these countries. However, this fear is not just a phenomenon limited to West Africa. I had a very personal encounter with this fear recently, when I was quarantined for a few hours in the United States (despite Nigeria being declared Ebola free since October 2014).
It has been a humbling experience so far, as I try to understand how this fear and the hysteria around Ebola can lead to significant behavioral changes—some of them necessary but some extreme. Everyone I speak to has a story to share. Some people tell of how they bought more than two bus tickets to prevent sitting next to other people. Others tell of hospitals resembling "ghost buildings" as people avoided hospitals and doctors like the plague. Many tell of the "Ebola elbow-shake" that replaced the usual handshake or hug. The reality is that although the Ebola outbreak infected 21 people in Nigeria, it actually affected the lives of 21 million people in Lagos alone, in one way or another. I have come to realize that there is a thin line between precaution and hysteria. Maintaining the equilibrium between the two is the key to controlling the disease and mitigating its economic impact.
As I wrap up my interviews, a few questions resonate with me time and time again from these sessions.
These are the questions that keep me going. Although my report may not be able to answer all of the aforementioned questions, I do hope it will at least get policy makers, students, and advocacy groups talking about how countries can be better prepared for the next big outbreak and how public-private collaboration can lead a country out of an epidemic and on a path of recovery.
To end on a positive note, 24th July, 2015 also marked one year since the last polio case in Nigeria—an achievement that clearly shows what collaboration in global health can achieve.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of diseases with different causative pathogens that largely affect poor and marginalized populations in low-resource settings and have profound, intergenerational effects on human health and socioeconomic development. The WHO has prioritized 17 NTDs that are endemic in 149 countries, of which some such as dengue, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis are epidemic-prone.
NTDs can impede physical and cognitive development, prevent children from pursuing education, frequently contribute to maternal and child morbidity and mortality, and are a cause of physical disabilities and stigma that can make it difficult to earn a livelihood. Largely eliminated in developed, high-resource countries and frequently neglected in favor of better-known global public-health issues, these preventable and relatively inexpensive to treat diseases put at peril the lives of more than a billion people worldwide, including half a billion children. Several reasons have been postulated to explain the neglect of these diseases; an underestimation of their contribution to mortality due to the asymptomatism and lengthy incubation period that is characteristic of many of the diseases, a greater focus on HIV, malaria and TB because of their higher mortality, and a lack of interest in developing (non-profitable) treatments by pharmaceutical companies.
Progress has been made in recent times in combating these diseases and several international measures have been taken. Resolution WHA66.12 adopted at the sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in May 2013 highlighted strategies necessary to accelerate the work to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases. Previously in January 2012 at the “London Declaration”, representatives of governments, pharmaceutical companies and donor organizations convened to make commitments to control or eliminate at least 10 of these diseases by 2020. They proposed a public-private collaboration to ensure the supply of necessary drugs, improve drug access, advance R&D, provide endemic countries with funding and to continue identifying remaining gaps.
Pharmaceutical Companies - In 2013, drug companies met 100% of drug requests, donating more than 1billion treatments. On the R&D front, clinical trials for some NTDs have been started. In addition, several drug companies have enabled access to their compound libraries.
Governments - Compared to 37 in 2011, 55 countries requested drug donations at the end of 2012. Also, over 70 countries have developed national NTD plans. Within a year of the Declaration, Oman went from endemic trachoma to elimination and by 2014, Colombia eliminated onchocerciasis.
Donors - NTDs have become more visible on the development and aid agenda, especially with the £245 million earmarked in 2012 by DFID for NTD programs. Other donors have since followed suit.
However, despite these strides, challenges remain as treatments are not reaching everyone in need. Although 700 million people received mass drug administration (MDA) for one or more NTDs in 2012, only 36% of people in need worldwide received all the drugs they needed. There’s also the anticipated challenge of environmental and climate change on NTDs; with dengue being identified as a disease of the future due to increased urbanization and changes in temperature, rainfall and humidity.
The spotlight needs to remain on NTDs and their contributions to ill-health and poverty for efforts to be sustained.
To sustain these efforts, greater advocacy has to be made for integrating NTD control into other community and even national level programming, without losing them in the crowd. Some anthelminthic drugs for preventive chemotherapy are on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines and their distribution has been effective and economical. However, to succeed at NTD elimination, we have to look beyond mass drug administration to the removal of the primary risk factors for NTDs (poverty and exposure) by ensuring access to clean water and basic sanitation, improving vector control, integrating NTDs into poverty reduction schemes and vice versa, and building stronger, equitable health systems in endemic areas. There needs to be a consensus as to how to ensure this. At present, it seems there is a gap between elimination objectives and how to incorporate them into other health and development initiatives such as water and sanitation, nutrition and education programs. It has long been established that helminth parasite infection contributes to anemia and malnutrition in children. The presence of other protozoan, bacterial and viral diseases also contribute to school absenteeism. Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) can be recurrent when there is no access to safe drinking water.
There is also a need to maintain a surveillance and information system for NTDs in light of increasing migration and displacements. Another way to ensure that the spotlight is kept on NTDs is research that provides evidence of interactions and co-infections with other diseases. For example, epidemiological studies from sub-Saharan Africa have shown that genital infection with Schistosoma haematobium may increase the risk for HIV infection in young women (Mbah et al, 2013). Understanding that neglected diseases can make the “big three” diseases (malaria, HIV and tuberculosis) more deadly and can undermine the gains that have been made in health, nutrition and education is important (Hotez et al, 2006).
Erroneous overstating of the progress made in controlling and eliminating NTDs can have a detrimental effect on funding and public perceptions of their importance. Thus, there is a need for increased synergy between stakeholders. Achievements in polio eradication do not equal achievements in human African trypanosomiasis eradication. While some NTDs can be managed with specific drugs, some such as dengue do not have a specific drug. Therefore, while keeping the spotlight on NTDs collectively, it is important to emphasize their diversity and to also keep in mind the subgroup of NTDs categorized as emerging or reemerging infectious diseases, which are deemed a serious threat and have not been adequately examined in terms of their unique risk characteristics (Mockey et al, 2014).
Lastly, it is important to keep the heat on NTDs in the UN’s post-2015 sustainable development agenda by advocating that proposed goals support efforts to monitor, control and eliminate NTDs. As highlighted by the Ebola crisis, strengthening health systems is paramount. Nevertheless, the future looks optimistic regarding NTDs. Encouraging is the inclusion of neglected and poverty-related diseases on the agenda of the 2015 G7 Summit, which will be held in Germany in June.
Holmes, Peter. "Neglected tropical diseases in the post-2015 health agenda." The Lancet 383.9931 (2014): 1803.
Feasey, Nick, et al. "Neglected tropical diseases." British medical bulletin 93.1 (2010): 179-200.
Mbah, Martial L. Ndeffo, et al. "Cost-effectiveness of a community-based intervention for reducing the transmission of Schistosoma haematobium and HIV in Africa." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110.19 (2013): 7952-7957.
Hotez, Peter J., et al. "Incorporating a rapid-impact package for neglected tropical diseases with programs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria." PLoS medicine 3.5 (2006): e102.
Mackey, Tim K., et al. "Emerging and Reemerging Neglected Tropical Diseases: a Review of Key Characteristics, Risk Factors, and the Policy and Innovation Environment." Clinical microbiology reviews 27.4 (2014): 949-979.
World Health Organization. Investing to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases: third WHO report on neglected diseases 2015.
As 2014 draws to a close and we review what has happened over this past year, we also look forward to 2015 and all of it challenges. Numerous organisations and commentators have written of the challenges that lie over the horizon for 2015, as regards Global Health. From my own experience of working on the continent I have identified the following challenges for 2015 for Africa.
Some of the issues/challenges overlap and/or influence one another. They do not stand alone, the one can exacerbate the other.
Africa faces endemic poverty, food insecurity and pervasive underdevelopment, with almost all countries lacking the human, economic and institutional capacities to effectively develop and manage their water resources sustainably. North Africa has 92% coverageand is on track to meet its 94% target before 2015. However, Sub-Saharan Africa experiences a contrasting case with 40% of the 783 million people without access to an improved source of drinking water. This is a serious concern because of the associated massive health burden as many people who lack basic sanitation engage in unsanitary activities like open defecation, solid waste disposal and wastewater disposal. The practice of open defecation is the primary cause of faecal oral transmission of disease with children being the most vulnerable. Hence as I have previously written, this poor sanitisation causes numerous water borne disease and causes diarrhoea leading to dehydration, which is still a major cause of death in children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa has faced the emergence of new pandemics and resurgence of old diseases. While Africa has 10% of the world population, it bears 25% of the global disease burden and has only 3% of the global health work force. Of the four million estimated global shortage of health workers one million are immediately required in Africa.
Community Health Workers (CHWs) deliver life-saving health care services where it’s needed most, in poor rural communities. Across the central belt of sub-Saharan Africa, 10 to 20 percent of children die before the age of 5. Maternal death rates are high. Many people suffer unnecessarily from preventable and treatable diseases, from malaria and diarrhoea to TB and HIV/AIDS. Many of the people have little or no access to the most fundamental aspects of primary healthcare. Many countries are struggling to make progress toward the health related MDGs partly because so many people are poor and live in rural areas beyond the reach of primary health care and even CHW's.
These workers are most effective when supported by a clinically skilled health workforce, and deployed within the context of an appropriately financed primary health care system. With this statement we can already see where the problems lie; as there is a huge lack of skilled medical workers and the necessary infrastructure, which is further compounded by lack of government spending. Furthermore in some regions of the continent CHW's numbers have been reduced as a result of war, poor political will and Ebola.
The Ebola crisis, which claimed its first victim in Guinea just over a year ago, is likely to last until the end of 2015, according to the WHO and Peter Piot, a scientist who helped to discover the virus in 1976. The virus is still spreading in Sierra Leone, especially in the north and west.
The economies of West Africa have been severely damaged: people have lost their jobs as a result of Ebola, children have been unable to attend school, there are widespread food shortages, which will be further compounded by the inability to plant crops. The outbreak has done untold damage to health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Hundreds of doctors and nurses and CHW's have died on the front line, and these were countries that could ill afford to lose medical staff; they were severely under staffed to begin with.
The outcome is bleak, growing political instability could cause a resurgence in Ebola, and the current government could also be weakened by how it is attempting to manage the outbreak.
Countries that are politically unstable, will experience problems with raising investment capital, donor organisations also battle to get a foothold in these countries. This will affect their GDP and economic growth, which will filter down to government spending where it is needed most, e.g.: with respect to CHW's.
Studies on political instability have found that incomplete democratization, low openness to international trade, and infant mortality are the three strongest predictors of political instability. A question to then consider is how are these three predictors related to each other? And also why, or does the spread of infectious disease lead to political instability?
Poverty and poor health worldwide are inextricably linked. The causes of poor health for millions globally is rooted in political, social and economic injustices. Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of poor health. Poverty increases the chances of poor health, which in turn traps communities in poverty. Mechanisms that do not allow poor people to climb out of poverty, notably; the population explosion, malnutrition, disease, and the state of education in developing countries and its inability to reduce poverty or to abet development thereof. These are then further compounded by corruption, the international economy, the influence of wealth in politics, and the causes of political instability and the emergence of dictators.
The new poverty line is defined as living on the equivalent of $1.25 a day. With that measure based on latest data available (2005), 1.4 billion people live on or below that line. Furthermore, almost half the world, over three billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
Not many people probably paid much attention to public health, much less global public health, before Ebola arrived in the US and Spain. Despite the focus on Ebola, there have been other global infectious disease developments in 2014.
A major threat to humans worldwide is the emergence of antibiotic resistance. According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the CDC, WHO, the European Union, and President Obama, the problem of antibiotic resistance has reached crisis level. This is due to the overuse of antibiotics worldwide and major pharmaceutical suppliers who have basically abandoned antibiotic development because they don’t make enough money to justify the expense. This is a major problem because we could end up going back to death rates akin to the pre-antibiotic era, where something as simple as a minor cut could be deadly. Another fact to mention is the huge use of antibiotics in agricultural animals. Agricultural use accounts for 80% of antibiotic use in the US and that continued usage gives bacteria more exposure to the antibiotics and more opportunity to develop resistance.
In case you didn’t hear, in only a 25 year span from the discovery of hepatitis C virus (HCV), we now have a treatment that cures 95% of the people who take the pill once a day for 8-12 weeks. I want you to let that soak in a minute…….because this is huge. HCV affects something like 250 million people around the world and now we can not just suppress the virus, but can actually clear it from someone’s body. Unfortunately, right now the cost of this treatment is $74,000 or more per person, basically putting this cure out of reach of anyone in middle or low income countries. Also in 2014, the world reached the tipping point for HIV/AIDS. That means that for the first time in the 30+ year epidemic, the number of people newly infected was less than the number of HIV positive people who got access to HIV medicines. While not every individual country has reached this milestone, and we still have a ways to go to get everyone access to life-saving medication, this tipping point shows that with continued effort the end of HIV/AIDS may be nearer than we thought.
Vaccines have been around for a while and humanity has tried to create vaccines for all sorts of diseases. Work is being done to create vaccine platforms that don’t involve a needle such as embedding the “stuff” of the vaccine into a microneedle array (a small disk with several microscopic points that dissolve when embedded in the skin). There is also an effort to create a universal influenza vaccine. A universal vaccine would target viral proteins that are conserved between the different strains of influenza and don’t mutate very often, so the vaccine could be effective no matter what strains are circulating each influenza season.
I just want to touch on a few of the epidemics you may not have heard much about this year. There was an epidemic of enterovirus D68 this year that caused more severe disease than we had expected as enterovirus infections generally only cause mild respiratory symptoms in kids. A mosquito-borne disease, Chikungunya, has been sweeping the Caribbean and causing fever and severe joint pain. Guinea worm, affecting people living in Africa and Asia, grows inside the body and then erupts from anywhere in the body causing severe and debilitating pain. Guinea worm is on target to be the second disease eradicated in human history (after smallpox) and is being eradicated not with the use of expensive medicines but through inexpensive but challenging to implement behavioral change.
Values are critical in shaping the global health (GH) dialogue and landscape. Values and the actions that arise from them (virtues) underlie the policies that ensure universal access to necessary health services, adequate responses to health emergencies and resource allocation. Similarly, the values of health governing bodies can create chasms between people and their health necessities. This truth has been unfolding poignantly on an international level during the handling of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa.
What values did the actions or inaction of the international GH community endorse in handling the current EVD outbreak? Although the uniqueness of the outbreak in terms of location and challenges in diagnosis should be considered, many experts agree that the greatest force contributing to the rapid spread of EVD was inaction (1-4). In June 2014, signs that EVD was spiraling out of control throughout Guinea were flashing brightly but the response from the international community remained slow. The exception was Doctors without Borders (MSF), whose staff was already on the ground, helped to diagnose the first case and pleaded for a more robust response from international health governing bodies (3).
Criticisms of health regulatory bodies grew stronger when EVD entered rich countries, which appeared to produce a marked increase in global support efforts. It is hard to say unequivocally, whether this heightened interest and commitment was inevitable or whether the cases in the US and Europe were the impetus. But it is fair to say that many mistakes were made in terms of prioritizing EVD eradication and surveillance. It may also be accurate to say that major economies responded when EVD was perceived as an immediate threat to their economy. This, I believe, is inevitable in a GH system that is built upon a market-driven approach.
Can a GH agenda that is framed around economics prioritize the eradication of emerging diseases and neglected diseases of poverty? Although there are compelling arguments for why high-income countries should help to combat EVD and similar diseases, it is unlikely that great achievements will be made without a values shift (5).
A market driven approach inherently prioritizes the need of a few versus the need of many. This model enables the interests of major economies to outweigh the greater good of the whole, if left unchecked. The most important consequence of this approach is that it undermines international health regulatory bodies, whose actions and budgets are heavily influenced by larger economies. This is a problem which, when combined with poor health systems, harmful microbes and permeable borders will inevitably lead to threats in local communities and global security. More importantly, with the movement of people forming a major characteristic of this era, the market driven approach is an unsustainable value upon which to build GH interventions.
There are many points worth considering (schematic above). Major questions moving forward should consider creating a GH model that is more oriented toward equity, security and creativity. Resolutions that create a space in which poor nation states help to set the GH agenda without being threatened by the loss of aid from larger economies must be discussed. Additionally, addressing ways in which the GH dialogue can be re-framed to include stakeholders that currently operate based on virtues stated above should be considered. For example, is there a way to ensure a more official decision-making role for organizations like MSF?
What is next for GH governance and what will the values shift towards? EVD 2014 is a strong indicator of the limits of theoretical values, political indifference and passivity in achieving health and well-being for all. But the stories emerging from West Africa provide an opportunity for EVD 2014 to serve as a “meaning making” event in GH. It provides an impetus for changing priorities from passive verbiage of values of human dignity to a model of creativity, equity and accountability which proactively contextualizes GH policies, innovation and interventions.
1. Gostin LO and Friedman EA 2014 Ebola: a crisis in global health leadership. The Lancet, 384; 1323-1324.
2. Cohen J 2014.Ebola vaccine: Little and late. Science, 345 (6203): 1441-1442.
4. Farrar JJ and Piot P 2014. The Ebola Emergency-Immediate Action, Ongoing Strategy N. Engl J Med 371(16):1545-1546.
5. Rid, A., & Emanuel, E. J. (2014). Why Should High-Income Countries Help Combat Ebola? JAMA, 312(13), 1297-1298.

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


text:
Ottawa – The Community and Protective Services Committee is recommending a zero per cent increase in taxi fares this year to Council, following the withdrawal of a request from CAW Local 1688 Ontario Taxi Union for a 10 per cent meter increase.
Recognizing the economic impact of a fare increase on taxi users, CAW Local 1688 Ontario Taxi Union rescinded its request at the Community and Protective Services Committee Thursday. A staff report recommended a 2.5 per cent increase in taxi fares.

industry_corpus2: Transportation


text:
STATE COLLEGE - Kyle Taylor and Chaquille Pratt, the senior leaders of the Lincoln Park boys basketball team, weren't going to let the Leopards go out with a whimper.
With the Leopards facing a 46-33 deficit in the third quarter of the PIAA Class A title game against Math, Civics & Science, Pratt and Taylor led the team back to within striking distance.
Pratt started the run with a pair of free throws, and Taylor followed with a one-handed runner from the baseline. Another hoop by Pratt brought the deficit to seven before MCS's Jeremiah Worthem scored just before the end of the third quarter to push the lead back to nine.
But Taylor opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer - the Leopards' only field goal from the perimeter all afternoon - and Pratt added an old-fashioned 3-point play. Suddenly, MCS's lead was down to three.
"I told my coach (Mark Javens) today that it's my last game at Lincoln Park, and I'm going to put it all out on the line," Taylor said. "I've got nothing to lose. I'm not going to be here next year, and I wanted to give this to my coach and my teammates and our fans who I'm not going to see next year.
"I couldn't go down not playing hard. We had to finish. I had to finish."
Taylor had seven of his nine points in the second half, and he and Pratt (15 in the second half) scored all but four of the Leopards' points after halftime. He also had two assists, a block and a steal before fouling out late.
Taylor actually shot the best of the mostly cold-shooting Leopards, making four of his nine field-goal attempts.
The disappointment was clear in Taylor's voice after the game. He felt satisfied, however, that he and his teammates gave their all.
"We've been through a lot," Taylor said. "We overcame a lot of disappointing losses this season, and to come here and lose on the big stage, it's tough. But I think we had the best season we could have."
While the Leopards will lose four of five players who were in the starting lineup at the end of the season - Pratt, Taylor, Sharron Moreland-Jones and Jevar Smith - but they also will have a solid foundation returning.
Chief among the players who will return is Devontae Watson, the 6-foot-10 center who already has several Division I scholarship offers. He will anchor a front line that will likely include 6-2 B.J. Lipke and 6-5 Jaylyn Cottrill.
Cottrill, a sophomore, got some early playing time Friday against the taller, more athletic Mighty Elephants. He figures to get a lot more minutes next year.
-- Pratt had a scary fall late in the first quarter. He was fouled hard on a drive to the basket and came crashing down on his right side. Fortunately for the Leopards, Pratt got up unhurt.
-- Lincoln Park misfired on two long pass attempts downcourt. Both times the player cutting to the basket was open, and both times he was overthrown.
-- St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli and Temple's Fran Dunphy were in attendance. Both are actively recruiting Watson. And, since the game was played in his "house," Center Township native and Penn State men's coach Ed DeChellis was on hand.
-- Watson was the only player besides Pratt and Taylor to score points for Lincoln Park in the second half. Watson had four.
-- Math, Civics & Sciences' Jeremiah Worthem had two buzzer-beating shots in the game. He hit a 3-pointer just before the end of the first quarter to put the Mighty Elephants up 17-12. He also beat the third-quarter buzzer with a field goal to give MCS a nine-point lead. Worthem made 10 of 14 field-goal attempts and finished with 22 points.
-- MCS committed two lane violations. The second came on a missed free throw by Pratt, and, on his do-over, Pratt connected to cut MCS's lead to 52-49.
-- Lincoln Park senior Sharron Moreland-Jones had four assists, four steals and six rebounds but only two points.
-- Both teams were the runner-up in their respective districts, and both defeated the teams they lost to in districts to advance to the PIAA final. MCS defeated Constitution, the District 12 champ, in one semifinal, and Lincoln Park beat WPIAL champ Vincentian in the other Class A semi.
-- Lincoln Park coach Mark Javens: "I finally got the Sewickley Academy (loss) out of me when I walked through the doors here." Javens was referring to the loss to eventual 2010 Class A state champ Sewickley Academy in the semis last year.

industry_corpus2: Sports


text:
It sure has been a busy month here at our new Wilsonville dermatology clinic. In August, we opened our doors for business in the Wilsonville community. In September, we had our community Open House, which was then followed up by our official Ribbon Cutting one week later. We want to thank everyone that came out to meet us during these events.
Our dermatologists in Wilsonville truly feel the support and love from the community, and it is our absolute pleasure to help protect the skin care needs of the community as your local dermatologist.
It was so exciting to say hello to the Wilsonville community during our Open House September 14th. We gave away 100 Swag bags, shared refreshments, introduced our providers and featured three live demonstrations. What a night!
In addition to the food and fun, we also demonstrated some of the advanced and exciting treatment options available from our dermatologists in Wilsonville. Whether you’re looking to eliminate frown lines, smooth out wrinkles, or to rejuvenate your appearance, our team at Dermatology Clinic, P.C. Wilsonville can help you look and feel your best.
We’d also like to take a minute to thank our providers and partners who were able to help make this day such an enormous success!
The Dermatology Clinic’s board certified doctors and healthcare professionals have been providing comprehensive dermatology care to patients in Oregon for over 60 years. We specialize in diseases of the skin, acne care, and laser and surgical treatments. Our state-of-the-art dermatology clinics enable us to provide a full range of general, surgical, and cosmetic procedures to patients of all ages.
We pride ourselves in providing all of our patients with the very best in dermatological care. All of our dermatologists offer decades of experience in treating many kinds of skin conditions. Our staff is trained to respond to our patients’ needs in the most caring and compassionate way possible. If you need a dermatologist, come experience for yourself what so many of our patients already know – that at Dermatology Clinic, we treat you like family.
← Join us for our Grand Opening in Wilsonville!


text:
Alas, it has become necessary for me to add a disclaimer. I do not need to agree with a source, page, or author, to add it to my friends, sources or resources. Good people are allowed to disagree with me, they may be right, I just don't happen to see it their way at the moment. Blessings to all that study their Bible.
HETERONYM There is a sewer in the sewer.
Christian Education is the process of nurturing a person to be the best at what God wants them to be.
is a temptation Jesus rejected, not because it was dangerous, but because it was trivial compared with his mission. C. S. Lewis had it right: 'If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. the Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in.' Aim at earth and you will get neither.' Our eyes should be lifted skyward--toward the company of heaven. The time has come for believers to focus on the next world, not just the next election cycle." Cal Thomas, Newsweek, March 29, 1999, Page 60.
"C. S. Lewis wrote in his essay 'The Weight of Glory,' about what he called 'the overwhelming possibilities' of eternity, he concluded: 'There are no ordinary people. you have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry , snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours" C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, (San Francisco: Harper 2001) as quoted in A Life God Rewards, by Bruce Wilkinson ( Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah 2002).
forgiveness .. prayer .. paradise .. more... ..
(2.1)The mud ball floated in darkness. God created day, night and time, the first day. The Second day he extracted the water from the mud and made dirt and separated the sea from the land and said it was good. The next day he formed a garden as large as the World itself. On the fourth day he created the Sun, Moon and galaxies of stars as part of the Glory of God [Romans 1:20]. We see the Sun as necessary for light, but God is so far above our thoughts [Isaiah 55:8-9] He doesn't need light holders...He is Light! [1 John 1:5] On the Sixth Day He made a man from the mud but withheld his approval until woman walked on His sod at dusk. On the seventh day God rested from creating the World and the universe around it. Can you imagine the satisfaction on his face as he sipped tea from the banisters of heaven and viewed his creation?
God's University started not long after this with God walking in the garden talking with them every evening. After the fall God came showing Adam and Eve how to make clothes, probably how to start a fire for sacrifices.
God did not stay in heaven, but evening-by-evening God walked with his toes in the same grass with man and woman [with no bellybuttons. Which came first, the chicken or egg? Man and woman came before the baby. The chicken and rooster came before the egg.] Can you imagine what God talked to them about? And then Man made a choice to do what he wanted to do and disobey God. Man ate fruit God asked him not to eat. Adam and Eve chose double-breasted leaves suit over God's clothing. God's holiness cannot live with sin and so God extracted himself from sinful man's presence, but before he left God continued to teach Adam and Eve in his classroom. He showed them how to make wool suits (clothes from sheep) and to make a pleasing sacrifice and I imagine a hundred things your parents taught you. Then God walked slowly back into the heavens, God's holy nature required separation from sin. How many times did Adam and Eve feel God left them, when they not God, did the leaving?
We meet God with his sleeves rolled up working. In the Beginning God created. But part of His time, if that is the right word for an eternal God was to talk and teach Adam and Eve. This hasn't changed over the millennia. The God of Eternity in his good time walked into time and gave us his Word in written record we normally call The Book or Bible.
God talked eyeball to eyeball with Adam. God chiseled the commands on rock tablets. Isaiah probably wrote with stylus on skins and rolled His words just like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Paul may have written in codex (book) format. But today we can see God enjoying His Word moving into the lives and hearts of men and women. 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21.
God not only thinks, and writes, but God acts. We meet God creating and God realized his love, men and women had no hope. It would be like having children guaranteed to die of an illness you could prevent. You most certainly would do anything including giving your life to make your children's lives long and successful. And that is exactly what God did: he sent his Son to die so we could live with him forever. John 3:14-17.
We evaluate God by who we are. If we had billions of dollars we would buy things for ourselves and those we love. But God has more money and resources than this, and what God wanted was to love you and me and for us to love him in return. We call this worship. God loves us so much he gave his Son, Jesus. This short comparison of the nature of God and man shows how self-centric, selfish and sinful we are.
Again, God walked in the dirt, but this time as a man [Matthew 1:23]. He hurt just like other men hurt. He felt every pain and temptation just like every other person. [1 Corinthians 10:13] He felt the humiliation of the scorn and the pain of the cross just like other men would feel pain. Why did he do this, because God is Love. God doesn't just love, God is Love! [1 John 4:16] God can do anything he wants, and he wants to love us. He wanted to save us from the "illness" of sin that will kill us. God wants to walk and talk with us for eternity. In the Garden God walked in the evening, in Eternity we will be with him all the time forever.
Romans 1: 20 NASB, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." God's Universe then is God's University.
"If I tell you only part of the evidence and you believe it, you have been indoctrinated.
Love then is a verb. In the beginning God created. For God so loved the world he sent his Son. He asks us to Go into all the world and preach and teach. Can't you see God grinning and helping those that love him?
As I read my Bible I find the premium is on doing, not knowledge. If knowledge was the end in itself, God could have placed ten questions at the end of each chapter and if you didn't answer seven correct, a trap door could propel you to the depths. Now you need to know, to do, but organized activity is where God puts the premium. I believe all knowledge in the church and Christian school and all other activities of Christian Education should leave us needing to do, not just sit in the pew satisfied we have learned our nugget of truth for the week.
"About this time I met with a track written by an atheist. It read as follows: "Did I firmly believe, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought, and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labour in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of Eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences should never stay my hand nor seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its grief's, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon Eternity alone, and on the Immortal Souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season and my text would be, "WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOOSE HIS SOUL?" C.T. Studd, Autobiography, pg 40.
Will you go and share the Good News of Jesus with others on your block and world?
Just suppose, when I pray, there really is someone listening who cares about me and wants to know what is on my mind.
Just suppose, when I pray it changes me and my view of how the universe operates and who is involved.
Just suppose, I put my doubts aside for a minute and consider the possibility that someone who knew me before I was born loves me, warts and all, without conditions or reservations, no matter how badly I have behaved in the past.
Just suppose, a prayer was my first response instead of my last resort when facing a new challenge or an old temptation.
Just suppose I lived each day, knowing that there is an inexhaustible supply of love for me to pass along to others.
Pray--when you are content or miserable; with fear & trembling...your prayer will be acceptable to the Lord. Theodoras the Ascetic c.4th C.
"No labor is more difficult than prayer. Demons understand that prayer is a path to God & they will hinder the journey. " Agathon d.c.400 B.C.
Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life.--Dietrich Bonhoefier.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." --George Santayana, 1905.
"Correlation does not equal causation"!
"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
True peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of God--Loveless.
A wise Rabbi once said, "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; writing an exact man -- Francis Bacon born 1561.
I do not chose the colors, He worketh steadily.
Forget He sees the upper, and I the under side.
"We live under the illusion that if we can acquire complete control, we can understand God. ...But the only way we can brush against the hem of the Lord...is to have the courage, the faith, to abandon control. For the opposite of sin is faith, and never virtues, and we live in a world which believes that self-control can make us virtuous. But that's not how it works." Madeleine L'Engle in "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art"
On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this , I'll give you a twenty-year life span."
On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."
On the fourth day, God created humans and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years." Could you possibly give me my twenty, the fourth the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back: that makes eighty, okay?"
"Okay," said God. You asked for it."
So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next fourty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
"A soul that refuses to submit to daily tilling of its inner fields will end up with nothing but thorns and thistles." Shoebat.
I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this: that I may die to self, and live wholly for Him.
What you believe determines how you think.
"There's a fine line between a long sermon and a hostage situation."
The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. -- Socrates.
Daydreams may be pleasant but accomplishments are more satisfying.
but being saved will direct what we do.
Human dignity cannot survive in a society that insists that a baby inside the womb has no right to live while that same baby, just seconds later, is a murder victim. Respect for human life cannot endure when a baby inside the womb is just a fetus, but when moved only a few centimeters is a full citizen.
-Dr. Richard Albert Mohler, Jr. is an American theologian and the ninth president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him...Sin is what we do when we are not satisfied with God."
1. What we want most?
2. What we think about most?
3. How we use our money?
4. What we do with our leisure time?
5. The company we enjoy?
6. Whom and what we enjoy?
7. What we laugh at?
See, then, how God educates your soul through prayer, nurturing your desires for truth, love and beauty, and teaching you to discover them in himself. Play truant from the school of prayer and you will never learn these things. You will be a spiritual ignoramus, shallow and undeveloped and unable to understand the things of the Spirit. What Happens When I Pray.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."
Commenting on Psalm 6:6,7 C.H. Spurgeon said that tears are liquid prayers that need no interpretation.
Don's Axiom reads, "Every organization starts with vision and zeal, moves to complacency and ends killing itself with rules and regulations--always with the best intentions."
When you have an unforgiving spirit,you put yourself in prison spiritually and emotionally, you pay dearly for the luxury of carring a grudge. Is it worth it???
"Intercession is the link between our powerlessness and God's omnipotence." Andrew Murray - "Power in Prayer"
4. Numbers Become the Measurement "
Chase, Mitchell (2010-11-15). The Gospel is for Christians (p. 174). Lucid Books. Kindle Edition.
How to really love a child -- Be there. Say yes as often as you can. Let them bang on pots and pans. If they're crabby put them in water. Read books out loud with joy. Go find elephants and kiss them. Encourage silly. Giggle a lot. Remember how really small they are. Search out the positive. Keep the gleam in your eye. Go see a movie in your pajamas. Teach feelings. Realize how important it is to be a child. Plan to build a rocket ship. Stop yelling. Invent pleasures together. Surprise them. Express your love, a lot. Children are miraculous! -- copied from Facebook.
Mr. Scott died this weekend. One of my best memories in life occurred with his son Mike and daughter-in-law Laura. His last words after saying good-bye to his family around his bed was, "Well it is now just you and me Lord Jesus." Suddenly, the activity of life became unimportant. I have not been able to break the spell of these simple words. Life is after all about what happens after the last breath.
Steven Hawking said, "Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." John Lennox responded, "Atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the Light."
This web page is in constant change. I began this HTML page on April 11, 1996 and as I learn I improve the page.
Chesterton's Everlasting Man, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/ownwords/joy.html The ebla tablets, dead sea scrolls, or qumran scrolls, writings from Egypt such as, rosetta stone, behistun inscriptions, mesha stele, Rosetta Stone, the Tell el-Amarna Letters, the Stela of Merneptah, the Elephantine Papyri, and the Sinai Inscriptions. Writings From Mesopotamia such as Behistun Inscription, the Creation and Deluge Tablets [Epic of Creation, Sippar Tablet, Gilgamesh Epic, Nippur Tablet, other generally unnamed but important tablets from Nineveh, Nippur, Kish, etc], the Code of Hammurabi, the Mari Tablets, the Nuzi Tablets, the Records of Shalmaneser [his Monolith, Bronz Plates, Black Obelisk, etc], Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, Cylinder of Sargon II, Cylender of Sennacherib, Archives of Ashurbanipal, Babylonian Chronicle Records From Syria: These include [among others], the Ras Shamra Tablets, the Gebal Inscriptions, the Dog River Gallery. Records From Palestine: These include [among others], the Lachish Letters, the Siloam Inscription, the Samaria Ostraka, the Moabite Stone, the Gezer Agricultural Tablet, the Lachish Ewer.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


text: Spike's Tactical Pipe Hitters Union (PHU) combat rifle is the result of a collaboration with Pipe Hitters Union attitude apparel and has been built to the specifications of the Pipe Hitters Union CEO. The chrome moly vanadium, cold hammer forged barrel is chrome lined with 1/2x28 threads and mil-spec phosphate coated. Its upper receiver is constructed of 7075-T6 with a free-floating 13.2" M-Lok rail and Spike's Gen 2 billet sights, while the lower has a low shelf, RDIAS compatibility, Pipe Hitter Skull logo, and Q.D. attachment points. The mid-length gas tube has a black nitride finish inside and out. The MFT Battlelink Minimalist stock features a 6-position mil-spec buffer tube and MFT grip. The Crusader also features a two-stage CMG trigger, ambidextrous safety and includes a hard case and Hexmag.

industry_corpus2: Manufacturing