President Bush declared on Saturday that the "bitter differences" between the U.S. and Europe were over, and that NATO had a responsibility to help Iraqis with their own security.

In the newly crowded nexus of film and politics, instead of trying to compete with summer movies, politicians seem to be starring in them.

Stellantis, the automobile conglomerate that owns Jeep, formed recently from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, defended its use of the Cherokee name claiming "our vehicle names have been carefully chosen and nurtured over the years to honor and celebrate Native American people for their nobility, prowess and pride."  This argument echoes the same arguments used for decades by Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly the Redskins) and the owners of the Cleveland Indians (who have also recently agreed to change the team name after phasing out the offensive Chief Wahoo logo a few years ago).  For Stellantis, the Grand Cherokee is one of Jeep's most popular models selling more than 200,000 units in 2020.

Suzan Shown Harjo, long an activist fighting against cultural misappropriation and offensive use of American Indian imagery, is not buying the "honor" argument.  "Of course it's not an honor" states Harjo, "That’s the assumption that was made by so many people about our land, water, gold, silver, copper — name a mineral. Now it’s about our imagery, our names and our cultural icons . . . When does this thievery stop?"  

The Cherokee Nation describes itself as a sovereign tribal government. "Upon settling in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) after the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee people established a new government in what is now the city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A constitution was adopted on September 6, 1839, 68 years prior to Oklahoma’s statehood.  Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the United States with more than 380,000 tribal citizens worldwide. More than 141,000 Cherokee Nation citizens reside within the tribe’s reservation boundaries in northeastern Oklahoma. . . . The Cherokee Nation is committed to protecting our inherent sovereignty, preserving and promoting Cherokee culture, language and values, and improving the quality of life for the next seven generations of Cherokee Nation citizens."

Whether Jeep drops the moniker will likely depend on whether the same kind of financial pressure is brought against Jeep and Stellantis similar to what was brought to bear on Daniel Snyder and the Washington Football Team and corporate entities like Aunt Jemima, Land-O-Lakes and Uncle Ben's.  Each of these entities have been persuaded to change/drop racist depictions and monikers because of the economic pressure of threatened boycotts and sponsorship withdrawals, particularly in light of the 2020 summer of protests following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

hat tip: Savannah Johnston, Arkansas Little Rock Bowen School of Law, 3L

images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The debate rages between the Fraunhofer encoder and the LAME encoder for encoding podcasts. Listen for yourself and see if you can tell the difference.

The post Which is the Best MP3 Encoder for Podcasts? appeared first on Richard Farrar.

Using Skype to conduct interviews with guests for your podcast is fairly easy but potential inexperience of your guests can lead to sub-optimal audio quality. The following simple tips can significantly improve the audio quality of such an interview ensuring that you and your guest come across at your very best in the final podcast.

The post Podcast Skype Interview Guidelines for Guests appeared first on Richard Farrar.

THE NRL draw was released yesterday, revealing Campbelltown Stadium has secured matches against two NSW teams in its annual four regular season matches.

Yellow Brick Cafe has been a local stalwart since it opened in 2014.

Wests Tigers players raised $22,000 to support flood-devastated Picton overnight, after walking more than 80km from the club’s Concord Oval base to the Wollondilly shire town.

AN ASSOCIATE of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Gang and his girlfriend have been charged with firearms offences.

THE ICAC is investigating planning decisions taken by the former Canterbury Council after investigators raided Campsie council offices last week.

POLICE have failed to stop any daring drivers taking their chances on Sydney’s best illegal rat run, cutting a 7km commute to the city to just 330m.

A DECISION to move Open High School to Petersham will alleviate capacity issues at an eastern suburbs primary school – but there will be no such relief for overcrowded inner west schools.

POLICE seized nearly 1000 cannabis plants in two simultaneous raids at industrial premises at Brookvale and Cromer this morning with six men taken into custody over the $3m haul.

The 1000 word Save Wisdom Questions. – SaveWisdom.org https://ift.tt/xKEtq7W history, future

Don't panic! Here's how to tactfully answer salary expectations questions without costing yourself a ton of money (updated for 2020)

SYDNEY’s oldest cemetery was left to perish but now St John’s Cemetery in Parramatta will get a new lease on life.

La Audiencia de Barcelona condenó al activista Marcel Vivet a cinco años de cárcel por golpear a un policía y el TSJC rebajó la pena a un año y medio La Audiencia de Barcelona ha rechazado amnistiar al independentista Marcel Vivet, con una condena ya extinguida por golpear a un mosso d’esqu via Pocket

WashingtonLa Pamela va a comprar al supermercat dues vegades a la setmana. La carn, el pollastre i l’arròs són alguns dels productes que no poden faltar a la nevera del seu apartament de Washington D.C. Explica que compra la vedella de la millor qualitat: “Això implica que gastaré més. via Pocket

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Jelly is a new shared inbox for your team’s shared email addresses. It’s simple, intuitive, and actually affordable (we don’t charge per seat).

The sense of celebration is palpable throughout and if this indeed does turn out to be the end of the band, what an end it is.

Something Corporate played to a sold out crowd at the Concord Music Hall in Chicago on September 21st. The show was part of the Riot Fest after shows

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The People for a New America organization has announced the inaugural Unity, Peace & Freedom Festival

In this edition of Quick Flicks we screen a new live release from Todd Rundgren and a documentary about the career of Billy Preston.

You have been sent a MALICIOUS file!

This is not an e-mail from David Tanguay, it is from oldest-trick-in-the-book-419-scammer.

An extremely legitimate looking phishing scam aimed at NatWest credit card holders.

A SCREAMING 419 scammer. Maybe he is frustrated because nobody believes in the $700,000 prize money.

Cleverly disguised WebCam Spam from MySafeStreams.com

Mr James Morrison, the Trustfund Loan Lender. Sounds like a 419 superhero.

An eBay phishing scammer trying to pique your curiosity.

Je website is in deze tijd vaak de plek waar potentiële klanten een eerste indruk van je krijgen. En zoals ze zeggen: de eerste indruk is enorm belangrijk. Een gebruiksvriendelijke website kan het verschil maken tussen een klant die bij jou blijft of verder zoekt naar een concurrent. Helaas worden er nog steeds veel fouten […]

Ben jij altijd op zoek naar sterke content-ideeën waarmee je jouw socialmedia-kanalen kunt vullen? Dan komt een contentplanning goed van pas. Daarmee kun je vast vooruitkijken en belangrijke themadagen en inhaakmomenten noteren: een fijne leidraad. Of je nu (Belgische of Nederlandse) nationale feestdagen wil uitlichten of minder bekende dagen die goed aansluiten bij jouw product […]

How white-nose syndrome threatens bat colonies in California. Tracking college graduate earnings based on their major. Finally, how to address anxiety and stress after the election.

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Quebec City melodic punk rockers Drop It First (ft. members of Our Darkest Days) release video for debut single 'Where The Wind Blows',

Within Destruction, Slovenia's most awesomely audacious, genre defying metal act, have unleashed brand new single 'Kanashibari,'

We would like to warn our visitors about the latest phishing scam trend involving very legitimate looking e-mails containing an HTML attachment that redirects to the actual phishing site. This method seems to be very effective and a lot of people are tricked by this. Review the comments section of this scam example and make sure you apply these hints to every e-mail that appears to be from your bank to distinguish the fake e-mails from the real ones. Feel free to contact us if you have doubts about the legitimacy of an e-mail that your received.

Aurora's decades-long debate over whether to ban pit bulls should finally find resolution in the Nov. 5 election, when voters will have the final say on whether to repeal an existing ban. Here's an explainer.

Westminster voters chose to continue selecting their elected leaders in the way they always have: by a citywide vote rather than dividing the city up into three geographic wards.

By Fran Kritz, NPR

The ancient scourge of tuberculosis for years was the deadliest infectious disease. Then SARS-CoV-2 came along and grabbed the notorious title of #1 killer: In 2020, COVID-19 was responsible for 3.5 million deaths worldwide vs 1.5 million for TB.The 2024 Global Tuberculosis Report, published last week by the World Health Organization, puts TB back in the top slot with 1.25 million deaths in 2023 compared to 320,000 COVID-19 deaths. There's also been an increase of hundreds of thousands of new TB cases in 2023 compared to the year prior.

The 1.25 million TB deaths in 2023 is down from 2022’s number of 1.32 million (which that year was second to the COVID toll). But it's still indefensibly high, say public health leaders.

“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a statement issued on October 29.

According to the report, approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 — the highest number since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995 and a “notable increase” from 7.5 million people newly diagnosed in 2022.

TB sleuths are trying to figure out the reasons behind the increase. Anand Date, global TB branch chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says population growth may account for the increase in cases last year -- and that it may take until the 2024 to find out if that is so or if the leap in 2023 reflects an undercount of annual TB totals during the pandemic.

“Disruptions to TB programs during the height of the pandemic led to more people going undiagnosed and untreated for TB. [And] guidance to shelter in place may have also limited the spread of TB, says Yogan Pillay, who heads efforts to improve TB program delivery at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which is a funder of NPR and this blog).

COVID-19 did trigger a new setback in the effort to control TB. But most of the reasons the infection persists are frustratingly well-known, says Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership. There's too little money for research, treatment. and patient care needs. And there's stigma that can keep the most common victims of TB, impoverished people including migrants and sex workers, from seeking help or being offered treatment.

In addition, health conditions like malnutrition, diabetes and smoking that can exacerbate TB and keep medications from being fully effective, says Luke Davis, a TB and HIV specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. “TB is unusual,” says Davis, in that most people who are exposed to the bacteria won’t progress to infectious TB. Only about 10% do, and they are usually among the world’s poorest people often with poor health to begin with, which exacerbates their condition.”

So what's the solution?

And that brings us to the Tedros point. The world knows how to vanquish TB — but is not doing a good job.

Money reigns as perhaps the biggest obstacle to conquering tuberculosis. A spokesperson for WHO tells NPR: “Compared with global funding targets for TB set at the 2023 U.N. high-level meeting on TB, there are large funding shortfalls for TB research as well as prevention, detection and treatment services. To close these gaps, more funding is needed from both domestic sources in the countries most impacted by TB and from international donors.”

Global funding for TB prevention and care decreased in 2023 from $6 billion in the three previous years to $5.7 billion and remains far below the yearly target of $22 billion, according to WHO.

What would more money bring? WHO cites expanded rapid diagnostic testing as critical. Then treatment can start sooner. And people wouldn’t have to travel long distances to a clinic then wait for days for the results.

Increased funding would also help reimburse families for lost wages and food and travel expenses incurred as they go for treatment. Those costs keep some patients and their families from seeking care.

The WHO report and other investigations also say that countries burdened by TB also have to step up and spend more money on prevention, diagnosis and treatment. A report by MSF/Doctors Without Borders published last month, for example, found that, only 5 out of 14 countries have adapted their guidelines — based on WHO recommendations -- to initiate TB treatment in children when symptoms strongly indicate TB disease, even if bacteriological tests are negative.

And increased funding would speed up the pace of research says the CDC’s Date. Funding for TB research has stagnated at around $1 billion per year, constraining progress, according to WHO. The target at the U.N. meeting: $5 billion per year by 2027. “The world also has the most promising R&D pipeline of new TB tools in decades,” says Pillay. “What’s needed now is greater investment to deliver on the promise of that pipeline and ensure patients and those at risk of TB have affordable and equitable access to these tools when they are available.”

Vaccines in the works

Pillay says there are more than a dozen TB vaccine candidates in clinical trials, including one whose late stage (stage 3) clinical trial is sponsored by the Gates Medical Research Institute. The trial began recruiting patients last March. That vaccine candidate is called M72/AS01E and if proven effective would be the first new TB vaccine in 100 years. The lone TB vaccine available now is not predictably effective in adults, and can cause a false positive result on TB skin tests.

But even an effective vaccine won’t do that much good if there aren’t funds to purchase it for countries impacted by TB. Janeen Madan Keller, deputy director of the Global Health Policy Program at the Center for Global Development, based in Washington, D.C., says that while Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, pays for [a variety of] vaccines in some of the poorest countries such as Afghanistan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some countries with high rates of TB are middle income countries, like Indonesia, and no longer eligible for support. Ahead of a TB vaccine’s approval, says Keller, there needs to be a better match of policy and funding.

“Often it seems that when we find a way to help vanquish TB,” says Lucica Ditiu, “we also find another barrier.”

Fran Kritz is a health policy reporter based in Washington, D.C., and a regular contributor to NPR. She also reports for the Washington Post and Verywell Health. Find her on X: @fkritz