FDA approves first treatment for kids with peanut allergy

WASHINGTON -- The first treatment for peanut allergies is about to hit the market, a big step toward better care for all kinds of food allergies -- but still a long way from a cure.

Friday’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration promises to bring some relief to families who’ve lived in fear of an accidental bite of peanuts at birthday parties and play dates, school cafeterias and restaurants. Named Palforzia, it was developed by Aimmune Therapeutics.

“It’s been a life-changer,” said Nina Nichols, 18, of Washington, whose first encounter with peanuts as a toddler -- a peanut butter cracker shared by a friend -- required a race to the emergency room. She entered a Palforzia research study as a teen and calls it “a security blanket.”

The treatment is a specially prepared peanut powder swallowed daily in tiny amounts that are gradually increased over months. It trains children’s and teens’ bodies to better tolerate peanut so that an accidental bite is less likely to cause a serious reaction, or even kill in severe cases.

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Breaking News: Impeachment trial of President Trump

Senate Republicans rejected a mid-trial effort to call witnesses and documents on Friday, paving the way for President Trump’s acquittal on two articles of impeachment passed by the House.

Senators voted 49-51, with Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) breaking ranks to join Democrats in voting for witnesses. Fifty-one votes were needed to approve witnesses.

The vote is a significant win for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Trump, letting them bypass a messy floor fight over hearing testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses.

The GOP leader has said publicly and privately that he did not want witnesses, warning that it set up a “mutually assured destruction” because both sides would call controversial witnesses. 

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6,000 passengers held on cruise ship in Italy as Wuhan coronavirus fears spread

The Costa Smeralda cruise ship is docked in the Civitavecchia port near Rome, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. Italian health authorities are screening passengers aboard after a passenger from Macao came down with flu-like symptoms amid the global scare about a new virus. Passengers are being kept on board pending check to determine the type of virus. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Six thousand people are being kept on a cruise ship in Italy as one passenger shows symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus, while Russia is shutting its border with China to stem the spread of the outbreak.

The number of cases of the virus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan has shot up by 30% in just a day to more than 7,700 on the country's mainland. Elsewhere, more than 100 people have been infected in 20 countries or territories across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Most concerning, instances of human-to-human transmission . A spokesperson for Costa Cruises told CNN that a 54-year-old woman was showing symptoms of the virus, namely a fever.  "All the other passengers are, at the moment remaining on board," the spokesperson said.



See CNN for the rest of the story;

My worst nightmare. As much as I love Italy being stuck on a cruise ship potentially being quarantined...I’m not good with water at the best of times 🙀 https://t.co/QNGlWSNUZA

— No Strange Kate AKA Cathy Chesham (@WhosKateStrange) January 30, 2020

Why it's time to redesign the old air conditioner

Jacopo Prisco, CNN

The air conditioner is nearly 100 years old, and yet it hasn't evolved much -- the technology is essentially the same as it was the day it was invented.

It has, however, changed our lives, making it possible for humans to thrive in places where heat would otherwise make life unbearable. Air conditioning is also essential to businesses and technologies that rely on controlled temperatures and humidity, such as the very internet servers that are sending this story to your device.

But this all comes at a cost: The cooling of our air is responsible for 10% of the planet's electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. And as the world heats, demand for air conditioners will only grow, especially in developing countries. This, in turn, will increase the impact that cooling appliances have on the climate, thus warming the Earth further and creating a vicious cycle.

The current technology is unsustainable. That's why a new coalition -- led by India's government and America's Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a nonprofit environmental research organization -- has launched the Global Cooling Prize, a $1-million competition to design the next generation of air cooling systems.

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Weekly Editorial. Why is the sin of being gay treated as the worst sin? Think about that.

Hello everyone. Recently I posted an article that was really offensive to the gay community and was anti Vaxers. I wont repeat what they said or post the stories URL. My intention was not to promote but to call them out for what they are bigots.

I am not one to shy away for something that is wrong. No matter how uncomfortable it is. Here we go.

As most of everyone here knows my youngest son is gay. I didn't really think about how mean and disgusting people were until I seen it first hand. To this day my son and his husband are not allowed at Christmas in my fathers laws house. My son is but not his husband.

My father in law goes to church every Sunday. I used to go the same no longer. The preacher who has passed away would preach about being gay was a sin. Down right put them down going to hell and all that other garbage that goes along with. A story caught my eye the other day on the Reverend Franklin Graham, Billy Grahams Son.

Franklin Graham was slated to speak at Liverpool in June. The engagement was cancelled the reason.
"We can no longer reconcile the balance between freedom of speech and the divisive impact it is having in this city."


So Billy Graham wrote an open letter to the city of Liverpool which was eye opening.
A letter to the LGBTQ community in the UK— It is said by some that I am coming to the UK to bring hateful speech to your community. This is just not true. I am coming to share the Gospel, which is the Good News that God loves the people of the UK, and that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us from our sins. The rub, I think, comes in whether God defines homosexuality as sin. The answer is yes. But God goes even further than that, to say that we are all sinners—myself included.

There is more to the letter. Which got me thinking again. Graham is right. We are all sinners. But what makes this sin so much more controversial than all the other sins? Why is it this sin is so much preached upon and divides families so much more than all the other sins combined including murder. 

Preachers preach if you are gay you are going to hell. Using that logic that means for the simple sin of lying you are going to hell. So does that mean you do not let anyone in your home for lying? 

If being gay is so bad why is not in the 10 commandments? 

Where in the bible does it list one sin is worse than other sins? If you know please inform me because I know of no place that it does. 

I suggest everyone read the letter. It is not hateful in anyway. It does point out we are all sinners. No sin is above another sin. 

See you all in hell. 

Maryland police officer charged with murder in killing of handcuffed man

A police officer in the US state of Maryland has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a man who had been handcuffed inside a patrol car.

Corporal Michael Owen Jr, a 10-year police force veteran, shot William Green, 43, seven times on Monday night in Temple Hills, police say.

Police were responding to calls that a driver had struck multiple cars and was suspected of being intoxicated.

According to the Prince George's County Police Department, Cpl Owen and another officer were sent to the area - a suburb of Washington DC - at about 19:20 local time on Monday (00:20 GMT Tuesday).

After being advised by witnesses, they approached Green who was in a car nearby. Green was removed from his car, handcuffed and placed in the front seat of the patrol car as the officers waited for a drug recognition expert.

Cpl Owen then entered the patrol car and sat next to Green. A short time later, Green, who had his hands behind his back, was shot seven times for reasons that were still being investigated, according to police. The officers provided medical help to Green, who was taken to a hospital where he later died.

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I have a transgender chicken !

While this news is hardly going to make global headlines .... I wondered if it might not just help our travels over this week's hump day with a smile ...

I raise chickens .. Not many, but for long enough to have learnt a bit about them ... I have tried several breeds and a couple of years ago bought some Old Swedish Rhode Island Red eggs .. and I raised a rooster and 2 hens from them..

In the Spring I took a couple of my own fertilised Rhodie eggs and let my broody hen hatch them ....

Soon after they hatched the behaviour differences in the chicks were quite obvious ... and I guessed I had one rooster and one hen, and over the next few months they grew just as I had expected ...

My little hen looking like this .... just as she should ...

   

Now it's been an unusually warm and very grey autumn and winter, and I kind of 'lost track' of my individual chickens (they all have names) as I just fed them and cared for them as a group, as they mostly chose to be in their hen shed ...

but over the weekend ... I realised one of my 'hens' was missing .... I did a head count and all my birds were present and correct but my little Rhodie Hen had grown MUCH bigger and was now sporting a large comb and wattle ... and looked very much more like the roosters

I was as confused as my chicken .... 'She' still exhibits hen behaviour, doesn't crow, or try to mate ... but she also doesn't lay eggs ... but she looks like a rooster ...

So I have spent some time googling this phenomena ... and although rare ... it is believe it or not a 'thing'  that some hens can 'become' roosters ...

Something I had certainly never heard of ....

Hen To Rooster Link 


So after much discussion ... we have decided that as the unique individual they are .... my chicken gets a free trans gender pass into safe pet-hood..


Luckily being Swedish we actually have a gender neutral pronoun we can use ... HAN is HE
HON is SHE ..... and would you believe HEN is either ...  😂

Happy Hump Day

Feinstein leans toward acquitting Trump as his defense team ends impeachment arguments

Just after President Trump’s defense lawyers ended arguments in their Senate trial Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California became the first Democrat to suggest that she could vote to acquit him, despite serious concerns about his character.

“Nine months left to go, the people should judge. We are a republic, we are based on the will of the people — the people should judge,” Feinstein said Tuesday, after the president’s team finished a three-day presentation in his defense. “That was my view and it still is my view.”

Still, she indicated that arguments in the trial about Trump’s character and fitness for office had left her undecided. “What changed my opinion as this went on,” she said, is a realization that “impeachment isn’t about one offense. It’s really about the character and ability and physical and mental fitness of the individual to serve the people, not themselves.”

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'Doctor Who' casts 1st black Doctor in show's 56-year history

"Doctor Who," one of the longest-running television shows of all time, has made a historical casting decision.

On Sunday, the iconic 56-year-old BBC science fiction show revealed that Jo Martin, a black actress, will play The Doctor -- alongside current Doctor Jodie Whittaker. If that sounds confusing, well, it's meant to be.

"Doctor Who" follows the interstellar adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling alien who is able to regenerate into a new form. Whittaker, the first woman to play the role, is officially the thirteenth Doctor. Since the show was rebooted in 2005, the character has also been played by Christopher Eccleston, Matt Smith, David Tennant and Peter Capaldi.


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After 3,000 years, we can hear the “voice” of a mummified Egyptian priest

The mummy of Nesyamun, a priest who lived in Thebes about 3,000 years ago, is ready for his CT scan.

Around 1100 BC, during the reign of Ramses XI, an Egyptian scribe and priest named Nesyamunspent his life singing and chanting during liturgies at the Karnak temple in Thebes. As was the custom in those times, upon death, Nesyamun was mummified and sealed in a coffin, with the inscription "Nesyamun, True of Voice (maat kheru)." 

His mummy has become one of the most well-studied artifacts over the last 200 years. We know he suffered from gum disease, for instance, and may have died in his 50s from some kind of allergic reaction. The coffin inscription also expressed a desire that Nesyamun's soul would be able to speak to his gods from the afterlife.

In 2016 Italian scientists reconstructed Ötzi the Iceman’s vocal tract.

And now, Nesyamun is getting his dearest wish. A team of scientists has reproduced the "sound" of the Egyptian priest's voice by creating a 3D-printed version of his vocal tract and connecting it to a loudspeaker. The researchers revealed all the gory details behind their project in a new paper in Scientific Reports.

                    Voice of a 3,000-year-old mummy has been recreated by scientists"

He had a desire that his voice would be everlasting," co-author David Howard of Royal Holloway University of London told IEEE Spectrum. "In a sense, you could argue we've heeded that call, which is a slightly strange thing, but there we are."

Continue the story Here in Ars Technica

Americans in Wuhan Prepare to Flee Coronavirus—or Weather Outbreak in Isolated City

“U.S. evacuation flight set to ferry some citizens to California, while hundreds remain”

                  

SHANGHAI—Hundreds of Americans were preparing to fly out of Wuhan, bound for California, as Sfears grew at the epicenter of China’s health crisis. But more U.S. citizens aren’t leaving, having failed to secure a seat on the single U.S.-bound flight—or decided to ride out the emergency where they are.

 A State Department evacuation flight promised relief for a segment of Wuhan’s roughly 1,000 Americans, as a lockdown triggered by a coronavirus outbreak turned the focus to the dangers of contagion and a long quarantine in China’s eighth-most-populous city. Roads, restaurants and many shops in Wuhan, a city of 11 million, are now shut as China tries to contain the virus.

Benjamin Wilson displays the paraphernalia he uses for protection on ventures outdoors in downtown Wuhan and for disinfecting afterward.PHOTO: BENJAMIN WILSON

A U.S. charter jet was expected to arrive at Wuhan’s closed airport on Tuesday and quickly depart for the U.S., ferrying 230 or so U.S. diplomats, their family members and an “extremely limited” number of private citizens back to the U.S., according to a State Department notice and passengers who have been in contact with the U.S. Embassy in China. The flight is intended primarily to evacuate staff of the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan during a temporary shutdown of the diplomatic

A woman checked her son's forehead during an outing on the quiet streets of Wuhan, China, on Tuesday. PHOTO: STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES

The plane will land in Ontario, Calif., a city about one hour east of Los Angeles, a State Department spokeswoman said Monday. She added that all travelers would be screened for symptoms before departing. During a refueling stop in Anchorage, passengers will disembark into a terminal closed to the general public and receive another health screening before continuing on to California, said Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer.

Medics will be on the flight, Dr. Zink said. If a passenger shows symptoms between Wuhan and Anchorage, health officials will determine what to do on a case-by-case basis, she said, adding that Anchorage hospitals were prepared to treat any ill passengers.

Representatives for the California state Department of Public Health didn’t respond to requests for comment about the state’s plans for the plane’s arrival.

An ambulance crew wore protective gear in Wuhan on Sunday. PHOTO: /ASSOCIATED PRESS

Check out the rest of the story HERE in the WSJ;

State Department removes NPR reporter from Pompeo trip

The State Department has removed an NPR reporter from a group of journalists traveling this week to Europe and Central Asia with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, days after Pompeo publicly feuded with the news outlet following a tense interview.

An organization representing correspondents covering the State Department made the announcement in a statement on Monday. The group says it believes the removal of Michele Kelemen from the press pool was a response to the flare-up between Pompeo and her NPR colleague Mary Louise Kelly. 

“We can only conclude that the State Department is retaliating against National Public Radio as a result of this exchange,” Shaun Tandon, president of the State Department Correspondents' Association, said in the statement.

“Michele is a consummate professional who has covered the State Department for nearly two decades. We respectfully ask the State Department to reconsider and allow Michele to travel on the plane for this trip,” Tandon added.

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Federal prosecutors in New York and FBI ask to interview Prince Andrew as part of Epstein investigation

Federal prosecutors in New York along with the FBI have asked to interview Prince Andrew as part of their ongoing criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman for the Southern District of New York said Monday.

"The Southern District of New York and the FBI have contacted Prince Andrew's attorneys and requested to interview Prince Andrew, and to date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation," Berman said while standing on the front doorstep of Epstein's former East 71st Street mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where you can still see where the initials "J.E." were pasted on the inner wall.

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Supreme Court allows Trump administration to move forward with 'public charge' rule

The Trump administration can move forward with a rule to make it harder for immigrants who rely on public assistance to gain legal status while a court challenge plays out, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 along ideological lines to lift a nationwide injunction on the proposal imposed by a federal judge in New York while the case is playing out in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

The rule, from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would make it easier for immigration officials to deny entry or legal status to people likely to rely on government assistance.

Under current regulations, the criteria for deciding if an immigrant would become a public charge is whether they are likely to rely on certain cash benefits. The new rule would expand that, defining public charge as someone who relies on cash and non-cash benefits such as housing or food assistance for more than 12 months in a three-year period.

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Opinion: Mike Pompeo is a disgrace

Mike Pompeo

Here is a modest proposal for future presidents of the United States: Secretaries of state — who act as the nation's chief diplomat — should actually be diplomats.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has neither the education nor the instincts of a diplomat, a flaw that becomes apparent nearly every time he encounters a female journalist. 

So it was last week when he was interviewed by NPR's Mary Louise Kelly and she asked him questions about President Trump's Ukraine scandal. Pompeo cut the interview short, and then — according to Kelly — privately and profanely chewed her out. 

He even challenged her to find Ukraine on a map

And then, when the incident was publicized, he attacked her integrity and smarts.

"It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in the media when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity,"  Pompeo said in a statement released by the State Department.

Source for the rest of the story.

Rocket attack strikes US Embassy in Baghdad

“I am closely monitoring reports of a rocket attack targeting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Violent acts against our diplomatic facilities are simply unacceptable. We must ensure the safety of American diplomats, troops and other Americans in Iraq.” -LR @RepMcCaul

— House Foreign Affairs GOP (@HouseForeignGOP) January 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/HouseForeignGOP/status/1221550817947410432?s=20

One rocket struck a dining facility on the embassy compound.

A rocket attack targeting the US embassy in Baghdad resulted in one rocket striking a dining hall on the compound on Sunday, reports said.

Three rockets were fired at the embassy, a senior Iraqi official told AFP, with one rocket hitting the dining hall and two others landing nearby.

A US official also confirmed to CNN that a rocket hit the dining facility.

The US embassy did not immediately comment. It was not clear if anyone had been injured in the strike.

See the rest of the story, HERE at the _.

BREAKING NEWS: Kobe Bryant among those killed in California helicopter crash, reports say

Kobe Bryant was reportedly among those killed in a helicopter crash in California on Sunday. He was 41.

Bryant was on a helicopter flying over Calabasas a city of 23,000 people located about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. TMZ Sports first reported that Bryant was killed in the crash. ESPN and ABC Los Angeles also confirmed the report of Bryant’s death

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Coronavirus Live Updates: Death Toll Reaches 56 as U.S. Finds Third Case

Stocking up on food at a market in Wuhan on Sunday.Credit...Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Hundreds of medical personnel are being deployed to Wuhan, China, and affected areas to treat the ill and stem the outbreak.

RIGHT NOW

A third infection has been confirmed in the United States, in Orange County, Calif., and Ivory Coast announced a suspected case.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The death toll rises to 56, with one fatality in Shanghai.
• Virus is ‘much more contagious’ than originally thought.
• A third U.S. case is confirmed in California.
• Hong Kong protesters set off fires at a possible quarantine site.
• China halts the trade in wildlife across the country.
• Americans in Wuhan are being evacuated to San Francisco.
• Global concern grows as the outbreak spreads.

Read the rest of the article in the NYT Here:

Race to exploit the world’s seabed set to wreak havoc on marine life

The lead author of an analysis, published last week in the journal One Earth, which involved synthesising 50 years of data from shipping, drilling, aquaculture, and other marine industries and which paints an alarming picture of the impact of future exploitation of the oceans.

This threat comes not just from seabed mining – which is set to expand dramatically in coming years – but from fish farming, desalination plant construction, shipping, submarine cable laying, cruise tourism and the building of offshore wind farms.

This is “blue acceleration”, the term that is used by Jouffray and his co-authors to describe the recent rapid rise in marine industrialisation, a trend that has brought increasing ocean acidification, marine heating, coral reef destruction, and plastic pollution in its wake.

“From the shoreline to the deep sea, the blue acceleration is already having major social and ecological consequences”.

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