Category Archives: Viva!

Raising Money for Clinton, Cher Sounds Off (and Not Just About Trump) – The New York Times

She compared him to Hitler, likened his campaign to a “racist” version of “Fun with Dick and Jane” and even said he evoked the murderous child star in “The Bad Seed.”“I just think he’s” an idiot, Cher said of Donald J. Trump, adding a decidedly unprintable modifier.The crowd in Provincetown, Mass., one of the country’s gay capitals, roared its approval at Cher’s succinct and salty assessment. But the famed singer and actress was not just riffing between songs at a concert: She was introducing Hillary Clinton at a fund-raiser for her presidential campaign.Cher did more than just blister Mr. Trump. She also offered a blunt appraisal of Mrs. Clinton’s strengths and weaknesses. “This chick is just tougher than Chinese algebra,” Cher said of the Democratic nominee.Prompting a mix of nervous laughter and applause, she added: “She is shy, and she’s not the greatest speaker in the world.”

Source: Raising Money for Clinton, Cher Sounds Off (and Not Just About Trump) – The New York Times

Quincy Jones: the day Michael Jackson’s pet snake got loose in the studio | Music | The Guardian

What does he make of the controversy surrounding recent deaths of African Americans at the hands of armed police? “Police and black kids? It’s been like that all the time. You should have seen it in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Racism? Are you kidding me? It was really bad then.” Jones got his start in the music business playing four dates a night with Ray Charles, gigging at whites-only country clubs and strip joints. When Jones was backing Frank Sinatra at the Sands casino in Las Vegas in 1964 as part of the Count Basie Orchestra, stars such as Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne were being served their meals in the kitchens, not the casinos, and had to stay at ’black’ hotels. Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Frank was tough, man’ … Jones with Sinatra in 1964. Photograph: John Dominis/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image“When we came in, Frank said, ‘We’re not going to have that.’ I was told that the old man wanted to see me by the slot machines. Basie’s whole band was lined up there with 18 goombahs.” Jones flattens his nose so he looks like a mobster’s mugshot. “Frank put one with each guy, like a bodyguard. And he said, ‘If anyone so much as looks at them funny, I want you to break both of their legs.’ Frank was tough, man. But he got rid of racism there.”

Source: Quincy Jones: the day Michael Jackson’s pet snake got loose in the studio | Music | The Guardian

The Right Not To Wear A Burkini

Excellent explanation of the double-bind that Muslim women find themselves in. Stop the silly Islamophobia and let women choose what they want to wear and work for their own freedom of choice within their community.

Nervana

TUNISIA-ISLAM-LEISURE Tunisian women, one (R) wearing a “burkini”, a full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim women. Photo credit should read FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images)

The ban on the Islamic burkini, or full-body swimsuit, on the beaches of the French Riviera has triggered heated debates and controversies. For some, it is a ban on freedom of choice; for others, the ban is a symbol of Islamist extremism. For me, however, it triggers painful memories of another struggle by women in the Muslim world who were stripped of the right to make their own choice on the matter.

“Maybe it is not a good idea to swim on a public beach,” one of my mother’s friends once told me with a stern look on his face. He then added, “You would be harassed in such a conservative culture as ours.” I was only 11 at the time and was struggling to swim. To be honest…

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Dr. Donald A. Henderson, Who Helped End Smallpox, Dies at 87 – The New York Times

Smallpox, caused by the variola virus, was long one of mankind’s most terrifying scourges. Called the “red plague” or the “speckled monster,” it killed almost a third of its victims, often through pneumonia or brain inflammation. Many others were left blind from corneal ulcerations or severely disfigured by pockmarks.It is thought to have emerged from a rodent virus more than 10,000 years ago, and signs of it are found in the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses V of Egypt. Some terrified ancient civilizations worshiped it as a deity.It carried off many European monarchs and buried the lines of succession to thrones from England to China. Because it killed 80 percent of the American Indians who caught it, it was a major factor in the European conquest of the New World.Three American presidents survived it: George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. In the 20th century, before it was extinguished, it was blamed for at least 300 million deaths.The victory over smallpox proved the power of vaccine. Before the 18th century, some peoples, especially in Asia Minor and West Africa, inoculated themselves by piercing their skin with pus from victims or inhaling dried pox scabs. Although that sometimes produced a full-blown lethal infection, it killed much less often than epidemics did.In 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner, an English physician, infected a young boy with cowpox taken from a blister on a milkmaid’s hand. Cowpox, a mild disease, protected those who had it from smallpox, and the modern vaccine era began. The word “vaccine” come from the Latin for “cow.”

Source: Dr. Donald A. Henderson, Who Helped End Smallpox, Dies at 87 – The New York Times

Ask Well: Eating Before Exercise – The New York Times

Both runners and those lifting weights vigorously should ingest carbohydrate-rich foods or drinks within an hour after a workout, said John L. Ivy, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin who has long studied sports nutrition. During that time, muscles are “primed” to slurp blood sugar out of the bloodstream, he said, replenishing lost fuel stores. If the food or drink also includes protein, the muscle priming is prolonged, Dr. Ivy has found, meaning you can store more fuel and be better prepared for your next workout. Protein also aids in rebuilding muscle fibers frayed during the workout, he said.

Source: Ask Well: Eating Before Exercise – The New York Times

Dani Garavelli: Show mercy for suffering of Ebola nurse – The Scotsman

Dani Garavelli: Show mercy for suffering of Ebola nurseCafferkey in January 2015 just before her release from the Royal Free Hospital, where the virus nearly killed her. Photograph: Lisa FergusonDANI GARAVELLI23:22Saturday 20 August 20160HAVE YOUR SAYI remember when I first heard the name, Pauline Cafferkey. It wasn’t when she became the first Scottish aid worker to contract Ebola. It was a week earlier – a few days after Christmas 2014 – when Scotland on Sunday published a diary of the vital work she was doing caring for the victims of the virus in Freetown, Sierra Leone.At the time, West Africa was in the grip of the epidemic. Every night, our TV screens were dominated by images of doctors dressed head-to-toe in contamination suits as reporters rattled off terrifying statistics about the spread of the disease.There were few images of those who had contracted Ebola; they were all in isolation. But the tales – of fever, vomiting and internal bleeding – were like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. “What kind of person would have the courage to go out and help in these circumstances?” we asked ourselves from the comfort of our living rooms.The answer, of course, was someone like Cafferkey: an ordinary woman from South Lanarkshire who was inspired to go into nursing by images of the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s and who – having acquired the requisite skills – was willing to jeopardise her own health to put them to good use.In her diary, she acknowledged the risks she faced. But she focused more on the plight of the victims; her sadness for entire families wiped out by the virus and the air of celebration that greeted each fresh discharge.Since that diary appeared, many terrible things have happened. First, Cafferkey contracted Ebola, hovering for weeks between life and death. Then, 10 months after her supposed recovery, she fell ill with meningitis as a result of the virus persisting in her brain. Four months after that, she was hospitalised again after suffering a second relapse.In interviews, she has talked about some of her long-term symptoms: thyroid problems, joint pains, her hair falling out. And she may never be able to go running again.Alongside her medical problems, however, she has been forced to endure another trauma – one that has been drawn out for far longer than seems fair or necessary: the threat of disciplinary action as the result of complaints passed from Public Health England (PHE) to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).Last week, 20 months since she first became ill, the NMC finally outlined the case against her. It claims Cafferkey deliberately tried to conceal a temperature higher than 38 degrees during a screening in Heathrow Airport. She is also accused of failing to inform medical staff that she had taken paracetamol, which lowers temperatures.If the hearing, to be held in Edinburgh next month, finds against her, she could be struck off. In the meantime, she is being abused on social media by trolls who have accused her of “turbo virtue-signalling” and of exposing other people on the connecting flight she boarded from Heathrow to Glasgow to unnecessary risk.Of course, I have not seen the evidence that will be put in front of the hearing. But you do have to wonder at the wisdom of pursuing a woman who has already suffered so much for what was – even if true (and the allegations may well be false) – a misjudgment made in extremis.I imagine months of dealing with death in the African heat plays havoc with both body and mind (in her diary Cafferkey talks about the way the oral hydration salts made her vomit). And I imagine aid workers – exposed every day to Ebola – frequently overreacted to minor symptoms; that they fretted every time they coughed or sneezed, and were consumed by the possibility the virus was already working its way through their bodies.How easy would it be to convince yourself that a slightly inflated temperature was another over-reaction – a projection of your worst fears, especially when you were so close to home?Admittedly, Cafferkey’s flight from London to Glasgow could have been catastrophic (although Ebola is spread by bodily fluids and there is no suggestion she was vomiting). Those on board had to be contacted and checked, a process which must have been inconvenient and scary for all. But no-one did contract the virus during that flight.Surely there ought to be a balance between the need to enforce the rules and an acknowledgment of the nurse’s contribution to society. After all, not only did Cafferkey save lives, she provided scientists with vital information about the way the disease behaved; by studying her medical history, they learned more about the recurrence of the disease in survivors and how to treat it.At the very least, any investigation that had to be held should have been swiftly resolved not dragged out over a year and a half. She has already spoken of the additional stress the protracted inquiry has caused her. And – let’s be blunt – t

Source: Dani Garavelli: Show mercy for suffering of Ebola nurse – The Scotsman