Tag: news

New York City health officials have released Morgan Dixon, the 30-year-old fiancée of recently diagnosed Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer, to her West 147th Street Manhattan apartment where, as WSJ reports, she will remain under mandatory quarantine. This ‘good’ news comes as New York’s Department of Health issues a statement on the deteriorating condition of Dr. Spencer who “is entering the next phase of the illness, which is anticipated gastrointestinal symptoms.” This was expected apparently, as NYC’s health commissioner Mary Basset noted, “we’ve seen with this disease that it continues to get worse before it gets better.” A large CDC team is actively involved.

Wearing a scarf and coat, Morgan Dixon the fiancée of NYC doc with Ebola just returned to their apt for quarantine. http://ift.tt/1tUnQz0

— Don Champion (@DonChampionTV) October 25, 2014

The good news… (via WSJ)

New York City health officials were preparing Saturday to release the fiancée of a recently diagnosed Ebola patient to her Manhattan apartment where she will remain under quarantine.

 

Morgan Dixon, 30 years old, was in close contact with Dr. Craig Spencer since he returned to his New York City home on Oct. 17 from treating Ebola patients in Guinea, officials said, and had been with her fiancé at Bellevue Hospital Center since he was diagnosed with the virus on Thursday.

 

Ms. Dixon was free to leave the hospital Saturday, according to Dr. Bassett. She had no symptoms and had been admitted out of caution, the health commissioner said.

 

Dr. Bassett said she was confident the city had tracked down everyone that Dr. Spencer had come into contact with.

The bad news…Dr. Spencer’s condition deteriorates…

Ebola patient entering next phase of illness, which is anticipated gastrointestinal symptoms, according to joint statement from Health and Hospitals Corp., Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

 

Patient is awake and communicating

 

Bellevue clinical team is in constant communication with CDC and other leading medical centers such as Emory University Hospital and Nebraska Medical Center

 

Large CDC team has been advising Bellevue staff

 

In addition to required supportive therapy, Bellevue initiated antiviral therapy within hours of admission; also administered plasma therapy yesterday; these therapies have been used at Emory and Nebraska

“We’ve seen with this disease that it continues to get worse before it gets better,” Dr. Bassett said.

*NY EBOLA PATIENT RECEIVED CHIMERIX’S BRINCIDOFOVIR (the same drug that did not work for Thomas Duncan in Dallas)

As NY Times reports,

The statement was careful not to convey a sense of pessimism, and patients undergoing treatment can worsen before they recover. In a brief telephone interview from his room at Bellevue, Dr. Spencer spoke in a neutral tone that seemed stripped of illusions: “I’m still undergoing treatment,” he said.

*  *  *

Joint Statement of Health and Hospitals Corporation and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

The patient at Bellevue Hospital Center is entering the next phase of his illness, as anticipated with the appearance of gastrointestinal symptoms.

 

The patient is awake and communicating. The Bellevue clinical team in charge of care for the patient is in constant communication with CDC and with other leading medical centers such as Emory University Hospital and the Nebraska Medical Center.  A large CDC team has been actively involved in advising the Bellevue staff and we are very appreciative of the additional guidance. 

 

In addition to the required supportive therapy, we initiated antiviral therapy within hours of admission. We also administered plasma therapy yesterday. These therapies have been used at Emory and Nebraska.

 

The patient’s fiancée will return to her home this evening under quarantine. 

*  *  *

The full timeline of Dr. Spencer’s time since arrival, in NYC…

On 10/14, the patient departed Guinea on a flight to Brussels. Patient reported no symptoms.

On 10/17, the patient boarded a flight to the U.S. on Brussels Airlines Flight SN0501. Patient reported no symptoms.

On 10/17, the patient arrived at JFK. The patient was screened at JFK and had no symptoms upon arrival.

On 10/21 at 7 AM, the patient reported fatigue and exhaustion. No fever, vomiting, diarrhea. Fatigue is a symptom of Ebola, but it is very unlikely that people he came into close contact with on 10/21 are at risk. Out of an abundance of caution, we are  actively monitoring the health of these close contacts.

On 10/21, around 3:00 PM, the patient visited The Meatball Shop. The Meatball Shop is located at 64 Greenwich Avenue. Spent 40 minutes at The Meatball Shop.

On 10/21, around 4:30 PM, the patient visited the High Line. Walked on High Line and stopped at the Blue Bottle Coffee stand (10th Ave & W 16th St)

On 10/21, around 5:30 PM, the patient got off the High Line at 34th Street and took the 1 train to the 145th Street station.

On 10/22, around 1:00 PM, the patient went running along Riverside Drive and Westside Highway

On 10/22, around 2:00 PM, the patient went to pick up Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share at 143rd St and Amsterdam Avenue (Corbin Hill Farm) Patient picked up box and brought back to apartment

On 10/22, around 5:30 PM, the patient left for The Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with two friends. For his arrival at Gutter, the patient took the A train at 145th Street and transferred at 14th Street and took the L train to Bedford Avenue.

On 10/22, around 8:30 PM, the patient left The Gutter. For his return trip, the patient used Uber as his means of transportation.

On 10/23, around 10:15AM, the patient first reported a fever. At this point, the patient called Medecins Sans Frontieres and the New York City Health Department. He was immediately taken to Bellevue by FDNY EMS. The patient was tested for Ebola at the Health Department’s Public Health Lab. Test results are presumptive positive for Ebola. A confirmatory test will be conducted by the CDC; results will be available within the  next 24 hours.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1t3DtAp Tyler Durden

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

Russell Lee Sharecropper mother teaching children in home, Transylvania, LA. Jan 1939

Europe is fast turning into a freak comedy show. Very fast. Or maybe we should say it’s always been one, and it’s just that the Larry, Curly and Moe moves are only now coming out in droves. Or maybe, what do I know, we’re just starting to understand how much talent for farce and slapstick the boys from Brussels have always had.

Just Wednesday, I wrote in 40% of Eurozone Banks Are In Bad Shape about a Reuters report based on Spanish source Efe, that claimed 12 banks would fail the ongoing stress tests, results of which are due this Sunday at 12pm CET (their daylight savings time will be over by then). I noted how the indignation expressed over the leaked data by Brussels seemed odd, since in 2014 everything leaks.

Then, I cited Pimco’s global banking specialist, Philippe Bodereau, saying he thought 18 banks would fail, and moreover, almost a third would narrowly pass. Something that according to several sources was important than who actually failed. Because all banks have had many many months to shore up their capital positions, and if they’re now still below or just above the dividing line today, that’s suspect at best.

130 banks were supposed to have been tested, and ‘almost a third’ of that is some number north of 40. Add the 12 to 18 sure failures, and you’re north of 40%.

But today Bloomberg reports on a new draft they have obtained, which raises the numbers even further.

ECB Set to Fail 25 Banks in Review, Draft Document Shows

25 lenders in the European Central Bank’s euro-area bank health check are set to fail the regulator’s Comprehensive Assessment, according to a draft communique of the final results, seen by Bloomberg News. 105 banks are shown passing the review, according to the draft statement. Of the lenders that failed, about 10 will still face capital shortfalls they need to plug, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified…

If 25 fail, and ‘almost a third’, i.e. at least 40, narrowly make it, 50% or more of Europe’s banks are in trouble. And that’s after they’ve been given ample time to borrow, sell assets, do whatever it takes to pass. More than half of all banks. And sure, Europe has scores of ‘systemic’ or Too Big To Fail banks, and they’ll never be put in the corner with the dunce hat on. But that’s not as great as it may seem, it just means we’re not allowed to know what shape they’re really in, and if they threaten to topple over, taxpayers will need to pay up.

And that’s still not all. Catherine Boyle explains a few things at CNBC about the stress tests:

What’s Missing From The EU Bank Stress Tests

The EBA stress tests involve running banks’ books through shocks like a 14% drop in house prices from current predictions. However, they do not involve deflation, or a sustained period with higher or lower prices for commodities such as oil – both of which the euro zone is potentially facing.

If ‘shocks’ like these are the worst case scenario of the tests, and half of the banks fail that, you might want to speak of a systemic problem. Many housing markets are still very expensive, let’s see interest rates go up to any historic average of your choosing and then see what happens to home prices. No review of what havoc deflationary pressures or oil and gas prices might do to banks sounds hardly serious either.

There is also disagreement over how certain assets may be classed. In weaker economies like Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy, the governments have passed laws allowing banks to convert deferred tax assets (DTAs), which are tax payment deferrals generally awarded during times of weaker profitability, into more capital-enhancing deferred tax credits (DTCs).

Translation: local accounting tricks are still alive and well. Deferred tax credits are just one example, obviously.

Oliver Burrows, senior analyst at Rabobank, told CNBC: “European banks have actually done quite a lot in terms of balance sheet repair and capital raising. To give it additional credibility, you need to have some victims, and those are going to be quite predictable. Another fear is that if there is a rush of these weaker “victims” to raise more capital, there may not be much demand for it – and that could weaken the sector further. “Who would want to support or buy new equity in these banks?” Burrows asked.

That’s it right there: they’ve done a lot, and still fail. So where are they going to get the rest of the investments they need?

And then the EU comes this morning with a new stunt worthy of Larry, Curly and Moe. They’ve sent new calculations about members’ economic data, and the contributions they need to send to Brussels based on those data, around, and it’s a shame all the news is about how Britain is told to pay a billion and a half or so extra. Holland must fork over much more per capita, for one thing.

But what makes it even better is that Greece has been told to pay more, and that can go straight to Germany, which is set to receive a billion. Explain that. Italy has to pay extra, France receives.

The problem is of course, Brussels feels it doesn’t have to explain anything it does. They put the data on some webpage before even informing the member nations, as per the Dutch finance minister. Who, like Cameron, had no idea where the numbers came from. Brussels thinks: you don’t have the guts to break up the EU, anyway. So what are you going to do about it? Well, Cameron feels Nigel Farage breathing down his neck, that’s what.

The best part is that everyone’s falling over one another to assure us that the new accounting methods, which include drugs and prostitution, have nothing to do with this madness. But isn’t it just great to ponder that Britain has to fork over an additional billion only because the French have cheaper hookers?

Someone finish off that inane union before it starts to do real serious harm. Because it will.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1xp5YJD Tyler Durden

The Queen unleashed her first tweet on Friday from the official account of the British Monarchy, explaining her pleasure at opening a new exhibit at The Science Museum…

It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.

— BritishMonarchy (@BritishMonarchy) October 24, 2014

The news media were exultant and instantly went to Social Media for their reaction… Unfortunately for The BBC, they live broadcast a less-than-BBC-esque remark from one @WolfgangDikface…

The account has since been removed/disabled.

h/t usvsth3m

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1yzzuNY Tyler Durden

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics,

They are saying that this week’s attack in Ottawa was because Canada was supporting the USA in sending troops to fight against ISIS (after passing the bill to lauch combat missions against Islamic State by 157-134 in their House of Commons).

The European powers are very much afraid to do the same because of the high domestic Muslim populations.

What took place in Canada does illustrate the risks of a religious war.

Japanese pilots would crash their planes into ships because they believed the Emperor was the virtual son of God on Earth.

What someone believes is paramount.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1uWaQ6p Tyler Durden

We are now less than a year away from the day when Robert Zemeckis and Michael J. Fox inspired an entire generation to expect nothing less from 2015 than flying cars. Sadly, as a result of the past 6 years of human “progress” being redirected to finding creative ways of preserving crony capitalism, the failed way of Keynesian life and masking insolvent banks as lipsticked pigs, the only automotive question we have of 2015 is whether there are any GM cars that haven’t been recalled; cars which one hopes will never be airborne. And yet, there is one aspect of 2015 that the Back to the Future trilogy may have gotten correct: that “other” thing which every 80’s kid wants to have more than anything: hoverboards.

As a recent Kickstarter campaign by Los Gatos, CA company Hendo claims, a campaign which has already raised well over $100,000 more than its goal of $250,000, the company is preparing to introduce “the world’s first REAL hoverboard and hover developer kit.”

Are hoverboards really just around the corner? This is what the funding-strapped company claims:

So where does the HENDO hoverboard stand today? Well, about 1 inch off the ground. As you can see from the video above, the prototype is real and it works! But to see it hover in person, and better yet, to defy gravity by riding it, is something you need to experience as well.

 

With the support of the Kickstarter community, we all can. We need your help to put the finishing touches on the Hendo Hoverboard, to help us produce them, and to create places to ride them.

 

Our engineering team has been amazing, rapidly iterating on design after design. In fact, this our 18th prototype, and we continue to make advances week after week.

 

The magic behind the hoverboard lies in its four disc-shaped hover
engines. These create a special magnetic field which literally pushes
against itself, generating the lift which levitates our board off the
ground.

While our hoverboard is primarily intended to be self-propelled, the actions which stabilize it can also be used to drive it forward by altering the projected force on the surface below.

Currently, this surface needs to be a non-ferromagnetic conductor.  Right now we use commonly available metals in simple sheets, but we are working on new compounds and new configurations to maximize our technology and minimize costs. 

While one day we expect to have hoverboards that can effortlessly
float over any medium (even water!), our current technology requires
special types of surfaces. 

Therefore, we need a hoverpark to go
with our boards, and we have been busy designing a park befitting the
awesomeness of our technology.

Levitation using magnets seems simple – just put one magnet over
another, same poles facing, and the top one will float. Voila, right?
 Sadly, as we all find out (usually as heartbroken little kids) this
never works. Due to something called Earnshaw’s Theorem, a stable static
equilibrium between two magnets is impossible. There have been a number
of ways around this, but none have proven feasible enough for everyday
applications. Until now.

 

Lenz’s law explains how eddy currents are
created when magnets are moved relative to a conductive material.
 These eddy currents in turn create an opposing magnetic field in the
conductor.  Our core technology, which we call Magnetic Field
Architecture (MFA™), focuses this field more efficiently. 

You can
go ahead and google both of these scientific principles, but to sum it
up in regards to levitation: Lenz = Easy, Earnshaw = Hard.

 

The Hendo Hoverboard is a first-step product, a precursor to the
broader implementation of the world-changing technology of MFA.  It
enables a new generation of lift and motion technology that will change
the way we view transportation. Additional applications for MFA
technology are virtually limitless – from business, to industry, to
healthcare, and beyond.

 

Unlike magnetic levitation systems
employed today, our hover systems are comparably inexpensive and
completely sustainable. Hovering modes of transportation are now
possible and practical. Lifting a wide range of loads – whether it’s a
person riding a hoverboard (what we were all expecting) or a building
riding out an earthquake (what we never imagined could be possible) – is
all within reach.

For the skeptics, Wired did a summary of the underlying technology and came away with the following conclusion: “Ok, so the physics for this type of hoverboard seems possible. Looking at other sites talking about this online, I am fairly certain it’s real.  One last physics note: I’m really not sure if a hoverboard powered by electromagnetic repulsion would be frictionless.  I suspect there would be some type of electromagnetic drag as the coil moved over the metal surface – but I could be wrong.”

But it can’t go everywhere (at least not yet), one would complain. And one would be, of course, right. But neither can one (or rather should) drive their car off the road. In principle, it wouldn’t take much to coat every road surface with whatever magnetic alloy is required to convert all existining cars into the hovering vehicles first seen in Star Wars.

The company’s take on the practical appliances of its technology:

We have a number of applications in mind, with industries that range from warehouse operations, to building foundation improvements, to novel methods of electromechanical fluid separation.

 

But what really excites us are the possibilities of applications we have no idea even exist – from new ways to harness energy, to replacing specific pieces of equipment in manufacturing processes; from the ordinary, to the exotic.

Surely there is much more, especially if and when the big corporations come sniffing. And sadly, once said corporations come knocking, the “magic” will immediately disappear because this technology, should it prove feasible, will be disruptive enough to threaten the existence of various, and numerous, trillion-dollar markets.

Usual cynicism aside, one can hope with less than 365 days until October 21, 2015, that for only the second time in the recent past a futuristic vision revealed several decades ago will actually coincide with reality. When was the first time? Why George Orwell’s “1984” of course…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1z8BUpW Tyler Durden

While the analogy of Vladimir Putin playing geopolitical chess (while the rest of the world plays checkers) has been a popular one, the French ambassador Gerard Araud has a different – somewhat stunningly honest  – persepctive: Putin “is more a poker player really, putting all the money on the table; saying, ‘Do the same’ and of course we blink. We don’t do the same.” As Bloomberg reports, Araud goes on to express entirely un-Juncker-like, how Putin has outmaneuvered his opponents and humiliated Ukraine. Simply put, he adds, the Russian president “has won because we were not ready to die for Ukraine, while apparently he was,” leaving the ominous question, “when is Putin going to stop? Whatever we decide is a disaster for us.”

As Bloomberg reports,

Vladimir Putin has outmaneuvered his opponents and humiliated Ukraine by continuing to back pro-Russian separatists and flouting a cease-fire, making it crucial that sanctions on Russia remain firm, France’s ambassador to the U.S. said.

 

The Russian president “has won because we were not ready to die for Ukraine, while apparently he was,” Ambassador Gerard Araud said yesterday at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington… Echoing the view of other European envoys in Washington, Araud expressed concern that the Ukraine conflict has hit an impasse, leaving Putin the winner by default.

 

Poroshenko is “kneeling in front of Putin with the cord around his neck and saying, ‘You know, you have won,’” and Putin is still not backing down, Araud said.

 

While many observers have called Putin a geopolitical chess player, he said, the Russian leader is more a “poker player really, putting all the money on the table, saying, ‘Do the same,’ and of course we blink. We don’t do the same.”

 

…

 

The economic sanctions against Russia must stay in place to prevent Putin from going further, said Araud, who moved to Washington in September after serving as the French ambassador to the United Nations.

 

…

 

“Whatever we decide is a disaster for us,” Araud said, again expressing his personal view. On one side, he said, lies France’s credibility as an arms supplier who delivers on contracts, and on the other, the difficulty of delivering a weapons system to Putin, who might use it against Ukraine or a European ally.

Araud concludes – rather ominously – and far too honestly for a paid-up member of the European elite:

“The question is there on the table: When is Putin going to stop?” Araud said. “That’s the reason that we need to keep the sanctions” because, “let’s be frank, it’s more or less the only weapon that we have. We are not going to send our soldiers in Ukraine. It does not make sense to send weapons to the Ukrainians, because the Ukrainians would be defeated real easily, so it will only prolong the war” and lead to a “still bigger Russian victory.”

*  *  *

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1t2Z4ZK Tyler Durden

Submitted by Erico Tavares of Sinclair & Co.

California – A Food Powerhouse In Peril

Now in its third year, the drought in California has forced local farmers to switch their water use from rivers and reservoirs, which are at historic low levels, to underground sources. This has mitigated substantial production losses, but given that underground reservoirs take a long time to replenish, if the drought continues the food situation in California might get much more dicey.

Food export data provided by the US Department of Agriculture for 2012, that is, before the current drought started to bite, can provide a sense of what is at stake. [Note: while a State’s actual agricultural export value cannot be measured directly, the USDA provides estimates per major food variety based on farm cash-receipts data]. The following table shows the crops where California was ranked either #1 or #2 based on 2012 export values:

Source: USDA.

(1) Includes live animals, other meats, animal parts, eggs, wine, beer, other beverages, coffee, cocoa, hops, nursery crops, inedible materials and prepared foods.

Last July, a study on the effects of the drought on California’s food production by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences highlighted that “consumer food prices will be largely unaffected. Higher prices at the grocery store of high-value California crops like nuts, wine grapes and dairy foods are driven more by market demand than by the drought.”

However, looking at the table above, future production losses could extend to a wider variety of staples: California represents almost one-fifth of all US States’ milk exports, a third of all vegetable and rice exports, almost half of all fruit exports and over 90% tree nut exports. What is equally striking is how distant the #2 States are in some cases in terms of production volumes.

So if the drought continues into the foreseeable future (and this is a real possibility), here’s a really interesting question: who will make up for any shortfall in California’s gigantic contribution to US food production?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nF2x1w Tyler Durden