text:
Regarding this: entitled Liar, Liar, Books on Fire! I left the following comment, and once again I felt it too long that it should not be included here as a regular entry.
There is a book or two that, due to my advancing years, I cannot now remember having read–or not. Still this is an interesting topic. As a young man of science, I could not have imagined the reason or cause for "peacocking," if I am using the offered term correctly.(?)
And, as a young man, the nature of the books I read, filled as they were with diagrams, equations and very, very densely specialised text, such fakery would have been inconceivable. As a much (much, much, much) older man, I do of course understand the nature of a man who might wish to be thought greater than he is.
Still I would not commit this act of bravado. And, as it happens, I myself have a very solid reason to commit such an act. I have a standing agreement with a colleague of mine, who has some kind of irrational aversion to the reading of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," to wit, that he will read the book in question if and when I complete Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamozov."
I have tried. Indeed I have. I am some few chapters in at my last attempt. But I believe my friend will win this contest of ours if I play fair. And I will, I am afraid, even though I believe Miss Rand's book will, for him, answer some very important questions which he has to me voiced over the many decades.
I have read Orwell's '1984' I wish I could claim to have read it During the year itself, but I cannot now remember. Most likely, I read it a few years before that time.
My sweet wife and I have read the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy aloud, taking turns over many successive evenings. These books read very well in this way, almost as though they were written with such a method in mind.
I attempted, but did not finish "Pride and Prejudice" as a very young man. I will here state that I enjoyed, to some degree, the 1/5th that I did read, but that its language was a bit too much for my equation-addled brain to parse. Merely having fallen in love with a "humanities girl" was not then enough to grant me the gift of comprehension of such language. (This failure is partly what led me to study the poetry of various periods–to my scientific mind, a much more efficient way to survey the language of various eras) I have not attempted it yet again, but I believe that, were I to do so, it would afford me no trouble at all at this late date.
And, even though it was not so very long ago, my failed attempt to read "Catcher in the Rye" induced a kind of glaze of the eyes, which condition still has not completely abated.


text:
National Security Tools and Gun Violence
Within days after Nidal Hasan killed 13 people in Fort Hood, TX, Crazy Pete Hoekstra leaked FBI intercepts to the press to suggest Anwar al-Awlaki had pushed Hasan to attack, with the underlying implication that the Obama Administration had failed to prevent terrorism.
And while a number of Democrats have come forward to say that this time we have to do something to prevent massacres like the one in Sandy Hook, no one has yet suggested that it was a failure not to.
It may not have been a failure; thus far, the evidence suggests Adam Lanza's attack might have been a failure of our mental health system, but there's no indication he came on the law enforcement radar outside a failed attempt to buy a gun.
All that said, there's a shocking underlying assumption there, that the President and the National Security bureaucracy has more responsibility to protect the soldiers in Fort Hood than the 6-year olds in Newtown's elementary schools from crazed gunmen.
Which is where this Charlie Savage story comes in. It explains how, in the wake of the Gabbie Giffords shooting (by a guy whose profile may be similar to Lanza's), DOJ moved to ramp up the background checks on gun buyers.
Instead, it focused on ways to bolster the database the F.B.I. uses for background checks on gun purchasers, including using information on file at other federal agencies. Certain people are barred from buying guns, including felons, drug users, those adjudicated mentally "defective," illegal immigrants and people convicted of misdemeanor offenses related to domestic violence.
For example, the study recommended that all agencies that give out benefits, like the Social Security Administration, tell the F.B.I. background-check system whenever they have made arrangements to send a check to a trustee for a person deemed mentally incompetent to handle his own finances, or when federal employees or job applicants fail a drug test. It also proposed setting up a system to appeal such determinations.
Although advocates for gun rights and privacy protection would probably object to the sharing of such information among agencies, the Justice Department concluded such activity would be lawful and appropriate.
Savage explains that the effort was shelved because of increasing pressure on DOJ because of Fast and Furious. I don't find that explanation remotely adequate (it may be true, but if so, it's a measure of the Administration's failure to defend its own rather than a real political measure). DOJ could have said Border Patrol Brian Terry's death demonstrated that gun-walking–one intelligence response to the urgent problem of drug gangs using US-purchased guns–had failed, and that this data-driven focus represented DOJ's new approach to deal with the still urgent problem. (Note, Savage says DOJ also called for increased penalties for straw buyers, which would have fit with that explanation.)
Whatever the excuse, the Administration backed off this plan, even as it rolled out its effort to do something similar, but even more intrusive–to make some of the same databases available for NCTC's counterterrorist data mining. Once again, the NatSec bureaucracy uses far more intrusive methods against terrorists–who have killed fewer people since 9/11 than the number that died at Sandy Hook Friday–than against gun violence generally.
Mind you, while the scrapped plan sounds fairly reasonable, I'd want to learn more before I agreed this is the right solution. And it would amount to a half measure if it didn't come with increased accessibility for mental health care.
Though if it happened, I suspect it would trigger the kind of debate about privacy that we should be having over the counterterrorist measures, and we might see the same kind of privacy protections, such as DOJ's plan to set up an appeal process, in those CT efforts.
As we go forward with this debate, we need to do something about gun violence. But we also need to make it clear that the government has every bit as much–more–responsibility to protect children from crazed gunmen as it has to protect military bases from terrorism. It's time to stop treating unarmed radicalized Muslims as a bigger threat than mentally ill or imbalanced young men bearing Bushmasters, because far more people are being killed by the latter.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tag: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Kafka, Salinger and Watterson: the Gift
I guess I was a little distracted when I sat with my wife to watch Metamorphosis last week. We were really looking forward to watching this play. Back when I was a kid I re-read the first line of the book several times: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed… Read More ›


text:
Verizon All But Confirms 4G LTE iPhone 5
Even before Apple announced the 4G LTE enabled third-generation iPad, there had been speculation that the next version of the iPhone would come equipped with those blazing fast data speeds. Well, in statements made today to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon pretty much confirmed what we think we know.
The carrier has made it known that it only plans to release 4G LTE smartphones in 2012 as it looks to expand its coverage to a grand total of 400 markets around the United States.
Right now, the carrier boasts a mere 200.
So, unless the carrier plans on releasing a single, solitary 3G smartphone that is Apple's next iPhone, or it doesn't release the next iPhone at all (not happening), we can pretty much assume that Apple will indeed be launching a 4G LTE smartphone later on this year.
Apple's move to 4G LTE makes sense not only for it, but for carriers and consumers alike.
For consumers, they'll be able to pull down data speeds that can hit up to 10 times faster than normal 3G.
For carriers, it will give them the device they need to convince people to get off of their aging 3G networks and onto LTE.
And for Apple, it'll mean a lot of satisfied customers and a boatload of cash.
A 4G LTE iPhone 5 also makes sense because the three carriers that currently carry the iPhone 4S – AT&T, Sprint and Verizon – will have 4G LTE networks in place by the time the fall rolls around which is when Apple is expected to announce the new device.
Throw in the fact that C-Spire, the fourth American carrier that carries the iPhone 4S, plans to have its 4G LTE network in place by September and you start to get a clearer picture of not only Apple's plans to release a 4G LTE iPhone but also, a September or October launch date.
We're still in March and plans could change but at this point, a 4G LTE iPhone for later in the year looks pretty good.
3 Comments
Ah, the art of deduction….
I had a 4S and went back to Android because I missed 4G too much. I'm grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with Verizon. But if the iPhone 5 is indeed 4G, I will have an upgrade available right around the time they release it!


text:
How Getting Buttoned Up Can Help You Lose Weight
Year after year in city after city, weight loss tops the charts for New Year's resolutions.
But by the third or fourth month into the year, the majority of us have fallen off the weight loss wagon. Why? For the time stretched (and who isn't these days!) sticking to a healthy regimen can be hard work. When unexpected events and stresses put pressure on our already time-compressed schedules, diet and exercise often are the first to be compromised. But with a few organizational tricks you can avoid these pitfalls and get back on track for swimsuit weather!
Alicia on 'An Hour a Day'
'The National Association of Professional Organizers estimates that the average American wastes an hour a day hunting for misplaced papers. That's enough time to get to the gym, work out for 30 minutes, shower, and change — all you theoretically need to achieve a healthier body. So an essential step in setting yourself up to succeed at weight loss probably should be getting your basic information in order. The less time you waste searching unnecessarily for lost bits of data, the more time you'll have to take care of yourself.'
Sarah on 'Ditching Perfection'
'Getting healthy is a journey, not a destination. Very few individuals will ever make it through a weight loss program without slip ups. So relax and remember you're likely to surrender to the siren call of a cookie (or chips, or whatever your weakness is) during your journey. If you don't expect to be 'perfect' you'll be much more likely to rebound from the less than ideal food choices you're bound to make along the way.'
Organizing Yourself for Weight Loss Success
Here are three simple ways to get organized so that you reach your weight loss goals.
#1: Create a Daily Recipe Hat/Bowl
One of the most difficult tasks associated with weight loss is planning and preparing healthy meals. Who among us hasn't been 'good' all day, come home exhausted, looked in the fridge and said 'we've got nothing to eat,' and then proceeded to blow the day by eating junk food or bad take-out? To beat those dinner disasters, create a recipe hat. Cut out healthy recipes from magazines, print online recipes or write down your cookbook favorites and put them all in a big bowl. As you walk out the door in the morning, pick a recipe and commit to making that for dinner. At lunch or on your way home, stop by the grocery store and pick up the items you need to make the meal. That way, when you walk in the door — you're already on your way to a healthy meal!
#2: Write it Down
There's nothing like recording your meal plans to help you stay on track. So incorporate it into your daily to do list. Write down your menu for the day in the same place you write your regular 'to-dos' and cross each foot item off the list as you eat it. That way you can monitor your progress and will be more inclined to stick to your plan as the day wears on.
#3: Start Your Day With Five Minutes
You might be surprised at how important a measly five minutes at the start of your day can be in maintaining your weight loss momentum. Minute 1: calm your thoughts and get quiet. Minute 2: remind yourself about the specifics of your weight loss goal and why you wanted to achieve that goal in the first place. Minutes 3-4: picture yourself achieving your goal, writing down on a piece of paper specifically what you'll look and feel like. Finally, use minute five to commit to the tasks you need to do today in order to stay on course to a healthier you.


text:
Sometime you have to get away from the daily grind, sit back, and recharge. I enjoy getting back to nature as often as I can and marvel at the beauty that surrounds us every day.
A few photos from the RECOIL Magazine assignment were included in RECOIL's web page summary of the Greenside Combat Tracking Course. The full story, written by Editor in Chief Iain Harrison, will be published in the next print edition.
It was a great trip working with some fantastic people from RECOIL, Greenside Training, STA Training Group, B5 Systems, Women's Tactical Association, Ares Gear, and AWC Silencers.
Spent a few days in the 107 degree Arizona desert learning and photographing a Combat Tracking Class for Recoil! Magazine. The instruction was by former USMC Scout Sniper Freddy Osuna of Greenside Training, LLC.
I'm pictured here with my camera and a suppressed M4A1 with the under barrel M203 grenade launcher provided by AWC Silencers and a Tomcar. The Tomcar is one seriously bad-ass all terrain vehicle.
Kit Up! posted a nice article about Q Concepts on 23 April 2013. Check out the full article at
On 21 September 2012, the Space Shuttle Endeavour took its last flight atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport. Thousands of people took the streets to view this historic occasion with jovial spirits and excitement. They shut down freeways, climbed roof tops and jammed roads in this giant community event.
Additional photos are in the Transportation Gallery.
Glimpses at the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight and arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport. Endeavour, piggybacked on top of the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flew over many of LA's landmarks including the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory, and Disneyland.
Additional photos are in the Transportation Gallery.
In July 2012, the World War II vintage battleship the USS Iowa (BB-61) came to Long Beach, CA to become a floating museum. The Iowa has seen service since the 1940s and was finally retired in the 1990s. At that time she was a modern warship with cruise missiles, but still retained her massive 16-inch cannons which are shown here. Truly a fantastic piece of naval history.
One cool place to visit while in Los Angeles is the Petersen Automotive Museum in the Miracle Mile area, where you can also find other museums like the La Brea Tar Pits and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).
On display at the Petersen are two life-size characters from the "Cars" movies, including Mater. It's pretty amazing to see how they look in real life.
Being a geek, I thought this BMW motor with the Star Wars Imperial logo was really cool. It must be a secret pre-speeder bike prototype for Stormtroopers.
While trekking through Sequoia National Park in California, I ran across this little guy. I followed him for a bit... until I figured out it wasn't Yogi and he didn't have my picnic basket.
Sometimes National Parks have the funniest signs... made funnier by vandals. Apparently, crossing the fence without your head is prohibited. This was at the General Sherman Giant Sequoia tree,
A somber, yet beautiful location: the Los Angeles National Cemetery. I was truly humbled and reinforced my respect for all those that have served our Nation.
El Camino Concept Car 2012
(Work in progress)
This is a modern take on the coupe/ pick-up hybrid. I always thought it was an interesting concept that needed to be revived.
To celebrate UCPD's 50th anniversary, I drew this while I worked there. A select few officers have framed copies. Unfortunately, and ironically, the original was stolen.
I like to shoot, and not just cameras. Here I'm taking a carbine course to learn and develop from the pros.
Photo by Ning Wong
When I'm shooting firearms, I also try to get shots with my camera. I'm using a handy dandy weapons catch to strap my camera to my side while going through drills. With this set up, I can un-velcro and quickly get the camera up and going.
One of the pleasures of heading the graphic design and photography departments at Sideshow was 'playing' with toys on the clock. This set up was for a shot in the print catalog to represent the Civil War 12" figure line. The poses were mimicking a famous old photo from the era.
It's a real challenge to pose and stand up unsupported 1:6 action figures. These are Star Wars Endor Rebel Commandos on a custom built set and matte printed background.
Horrible photo, but here I am presenting the new Thousand Oaks Chief of Police, Randy Pentis, a model police car that I made representing the city's patrol Crown Victoria. You can see a better shot of the car in the Photography/ Display gallery.
Ventura County Sheriff, Geoff Dean at the East Valley Sheriff Station. I always feel so dang short next to these gentlemen.
Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca at the School Terrorism and Response exercise that I participated in, both photographing as well as a 'bad guy' against the LASD and FBI SWAT teams.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton at the LAPD Academy in Elysian Park.
I had the opportunity to direct a photo shoot of director, Guillermo del Toro at his house, which is literally filled with mementos and collectibles. It was pretty crazy. Mr. del Toro was such a nice and talented guy!
This is Guillermo del Toro's living room... but the whole house was just like this!
These are the guys from Triple Aught Design (aka TAD Gear) of San Francisco. I absolutely love their stuff and they're really cool peeps, too. Patrick (middle) is the owner and founder. Looks like Iron Man was trying to photo bomb the shot!
Check them out at http://www.tripleaughtdesign.com
Ah... the joy that is the San Diego International Comic-Con, where tens of thousands of fans, geeks, and looky-loos all come together. Sometimes undercover artists and celebrities stop by and here I caught Marvel artist Jim Lee looking around.
Another actor sighting at the San Diego International Comic-Con... Chekov! Walter Koenig was also a super nice guy,
Good ol' Jamie Foxx hanging out at the movie theater. He was hiding in a corner, but he's one of my favorite actors, so I had to say hello.
My puppy Trinity shortly after bringing her home at 9 weeks old. She was pooped after exploring her new home.
Trinity at 9 weeks old. I've always had a great fondness for dogs, and especially Beagles.
Trinity again at 9 weeks. She's quite the model.
This is my concept for a sleek modern ambulance, which are typically not very sexy. The wide shoulders create additional storage for life-saving gear, and the overall more aerodynamic shape reduce fuel costs.
In my free time, I like to sketch whatever comes to mind. Obviously I was thinking of scoops... and lots of them.
Often times it's easy to get into the habit of drawing from the same perspective. Here I took the point of view down, and slightly off the ground.
Having been fascinated with Search and Rescue, many of my activities and inspiration comes from the people and equipment whose purpose is to go in harm's way to save a stranger.
I drew this back in high school just after Desert Storm, the 'first' Iraq war. I was an avid student of military history and hardware and included the major weapon systems employed by the U.S. during the brief conflict.
Another drawing from my high school days. It started off as my attempt to illustrate a submarine, which turned into and exercise in drawing marine animals, with a humorous twist.
As a student of the evolution of military hardware, the advent of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was amazing. This drawing was done early in its development stage and the V-22 has recently finally entered operational status with the US Marine Corps and Air Force.
Many of my drawings were made on whatever medium I had on hand. In this case, notebook paper. The F-117 was shrouded in mystery for a very long time and the unveiling was a pretty big deal.
A 1:18 scale rendition of a San Francisco Police Department patrol car.
One of my hobbies is model building and police cars is one of the subjects I really enjoy. Many of the cars I've built have some background and in this case, it commemorated my frequent visits to San Francisco. There's a lot of research done on each car to create as accurate model as possible, from the exterior markings to antenna size/locations, to the interior.
This owl decided to hang out outside the office one day. I had never seen an owl 'in the wild' before, so I grabbed my camera and shot away. I piqued his interest and his head swiveled to track me at every moment. I wasn't quite sure if I was supposed to head to Hogwarts or not...
I have yet to see an ugly dragonfly, and this is no exception.
Ah, how I love dolphins. They're such intelligent creatures. I spotted this frolicking pair off the coast near Point Mugu, CA.
Hipstamatic... so fun to use.
This is my homage to Search and Rescue professionals and their K9 partners. After much reading and research, I 'kit bashed' this 1:6 scale (12-inch) figure based on an Air Force Pararescue Jumper (PJ) and K9 on a snowy mountain search for avalanche victims.
This was a fun 1:6 scale figure project based on US Special Operations during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. The figure was kit bashed based on available information at the time and the rifle was customized with fabricated parts and camouflage paint job.
This was an exercise in how realistic a set I could make in 1:6 scale. The round table measured about 4 inches in diameter.
One of the things I enjoy is painting, usually with an aerosol spray can. I spray model cars, 1:6 scale accessories, and even life-size rifles and gear.
This was my tutorial on a simple paint job on a 1:6 scale machine gun. The final step, not shown, is weathering the paint for a well-worn look.


text:
Ready for an amazing spectacle of dance, food, cultural arts, and music this weekend? The "Rising Tohoku Food Fair" at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Torrance will offer all that and more.
From August 20 through August 23, visitors can enjoy presentations of delicious foods, traditional craft activities, colorful pageantry, and mesmerizing dances from the Japanese region of Tohoku. The hilly and mountainous Tohoku region, the northeastern segment of the largest island in Japan, was heavily damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Yet a massive rebuilding effort has brought a robust recovery to the region, which is now re-introducing its diverse food and culture to a global audience.
"We are so pleased that the Rising Tohoku Food Fair hosted by Mitsuwa Marketplace helps draw the world's attention to the seriousness of the Japanese earthquake and brings awareness to the ongoing recovery of the culturally rich Tohoku region, which has so much to offer in terms of flavorful and refined cuisine, beautiful crafts, and goodwill," said Hiroshi Kamata, chairman of the Federation of Six Tohoku Prefecture Chambers of Commerce and Industry (chairman of the Sendai Chamber of Commerce) and spokesperson for the Rising Tohoku Food Fair. "We want visitors to our live event to experience this wonderful and abundant Tohoku region as if they were really there."
Children and adults alike can enjoy activities such as making origami Samurai armor helmets; writing wishes on tanzaku paper to be hung at the Tanabata Festival in Sendai next year; and taking photo opportunities with local Tohoku city mascots.
The huggable mascots include Miyagi City's iconic Musubi-maru, who wears a samurai costume and resembles onigiri (a rice ball); Fukushima City's Momorin rabbit who represents Fukushima momo (peaches) and ringo (apples); Hanagata Beni-Chan who wears a cherry-patterned kimono and hanagata flower hat; and Nebutan, a pig dressed in the haneto costume worn at Aomori prefecture's world-renowned Nebuta festival.
Other attractions include a Da-te Busho-tai (samurai) performance; Aomori City's Nebuta orchestra, dances from Sendai City (Suzume), Yamagata City (Hanagasa) and Morioka City (Sansa).
Over in the food section you'll find an amazing selection of regional specialties, including Wagyu beef from Sendai, Seiken apple juice from Aomori, Odate Kiritanpo (mashed rice) skewers from Akita, fruit juices from Yamagata, and specialty dried fruits from Fukushima. A special Maguro Bowl (tuna sashimi) with an ohba leaf is $8.50, and a Kuroge Wagyu Bento. a sukiyaki and yakiniku (BBQ) combination bento is $18.50.
One food highlight that we especially enjoyed was the karinto manju, a Tohoku delicacy kind of like a donut filled with sweet bean curd. The dough is made with black sugar and the exterior is crispy, sweet, and addicting.
Wash it down with some peach juice from Yamagata, and you've got the perfect snack.
Ready to go? The schedule for the weekend's events is as follows:
Food Fair (open to public): August 20-23, 2015, 11 am – 6 pm
Dance Performances (open to public): August 20-23, 2015, 11:30 am – 1 pm; 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Craft Workshops (open to public): August 20-23, 2015, 11 am – 11:30 am; 1:30 pm – 2 pm; 3 pm– 4:00 pm; 5:30 pm – 6 pm
Photo Session with Mascots (open to public): August 20-23, 2015, 1 pm – 1:15 pm; 5:30 – 5:45 pm
The Mitsuwa Marketplace is located at 21515 S. Western Ave., Torrance, CA. Phone: 310-782-0335.


text:
The Catholic University Leuven in Belgium is a haunted place. It is haunted not by a ghost, not by a vampire, but by a Zombie Scientist: Catherine Verfaillie, director of the Stem Cell Institute (SCIL) at the KU Leuven. Verfaillie's infamous discovery was that of the alleged pluripotency of bone marrow cells, for which she was celebrated by everyone including the Catholic Church. Adult stem cells in the blood can create every tissue, exactly like the ethically problematic embryonic stem cells. The clinical potential for lab-grown organs was immediately obvious. Verfaillie became a star, Nobel Prize was all but sure. Now it's time for exorcism, with the help of non other but Elisabeth Bik.
Even if her findings were debunked right after they appeared in Nature in 2002, the damage is still continuing. Clinical researchers used Verfaillie's "discovery" as basis to test outrageously brain-dead and dangerous regenerative medicine ideas, where bone marrow cells are extracted form the patient and deployed to repair or even create organs. In particular, the surgeons Paolo Macchiarini and Martin Birchall applied bone marrow "stem cell" woo to test lab-grown tracheas on over 20 human guinea pigs. Almost every one of these patients died, but the experiments continue.
Verfaillie was even put on a stamp in her home county, so every Belgian had the opportunity to lick her behind. Despite the many data manipulations and the fact that her research was debunked long ago, Verfaillie was never found guilty of any research misconduct by her former employer, the University of Minnesota in USA. In fact, it seems Macchiarini's & Birchall's pioneering trachea transplant in 2008 might have saved her career: it namely proved that even if Verfaillie's discovery of bone marrow pluripotency was based of falsified data, it was scientifically perfectly sound! Look, a whole trachea was grown in a lab to save the life of a young woman, just when Verfaillie was investigated for research misconduct. Only that that trachea transplant was the first big lie in a long string of lies, which left many patients dead. And there were and still are also many other bone marrow regmed enthusiasts, with their own countless victims. This carnage is the legacy of Verfaillie's dishonest preclinical research.
She is still being paraded as Belgium's greatest scientist and showered in funding cash: after the initial €5mn grant in 2011, Verfaillie became in 2015 project head of a €10 mn Consortium "Hepatic Microfluidic Bioreactor", funded by the EU Commission, making artificial livers. In 2016, Verfaillie was part of the team awarded with €11.5 mn by EU to study Zika virus. Apparently, Verfaillie's Photoshop skills are needed there. And in summer 2019, Verfaillie and her SCIL got €2.9 mn from Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship to collaboratate with a pharma company in designing therapies for myelin-related neurological diseases. There is truly nothing Photoshop cannot cure.
In February 2013, Verfaillie congratulated Macchiarini to his announced plastic trachea transplant on the 2-year-old patient (who died just 8 weeks after the operation):
"Creating a windpipe out of the blue is certainly a major event," says Verfaillie on the phone. "The evolution has been going fast in recent years. Techniques have been developed to make tissues by implanting stem cells on all kinds of constructs. But the effective applications are still rare. Apart from the windpipe and the bladder [reference to Anthony Atala's bizarre experiment, -LS], which are both simple organs, I don't see much coming yet. "
The article went on to describe Verfaillie's own stem cell research where she aimed to use her freshly awarded EU grant to treat "patients with gangrene in the lower leg".
Just this year, in spring 2019, Verfaillie was recruited by the Belgian MEP Petra De Sutter (gynaecologist and stem cell enthusiast) as a list candidate for European Greens to the EU Parliament. On that occasion, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen celebrated again Verfaillie's discovery of pluripotent bone marrow cells and declared:
"Verfaillie's work was the basis of hundreds of publications and a Nobel Prize."
Also this was not meant ironically – Verfaillie's programme for the EU is research integrity, as she herself explained on De Sutter's website:
"Only if there is room for independent research, with integrity and quality going hand in hand. Biomedical research funded by European public funds must serve the public interest in the first place".
Incidentally, the biggest critic of Macchiarini's and Birchall's stem cell experiments was another KU Leuven professor: the surgeon Pierre Delaere, but he doesn't get the publicity his genius colleague Verfaillie enjoys. KU Leuven eventually had Delaere silenced, maybe they wanted to divert attention from their own role in making the Macchiarini disaster possible.
Instead of fixing what they started, KU Leuven prefers to hold image integrity events (like this one on 12 December 2019), where Verfaillie most definitely never be mentioned. As my distant, unsolicited and unwelcome contribution, I asked the famous image Integrity sleuth Elisabeth Bik to have a look at Verfaillie's papers. Bik kindly agreed, below are some of her discoveries, more is on Pubpeer.
This was the disastrous Nature paper which set in motion the deadly bone marrow quackery worldwide:
Y Jiang, BN Jahagirdar, RL Reinhardt, RE Schwartz, CD Keene, XR Ortiz-Gonzalez, M Reyes, T Lenvik, T Lund, M Blackstad, Ji Du, S Aldrich, A Lisberg, WC Low, DA Largaespada, CM Verfaillie Pluripotency of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adult marrow Nature (2002) – doi: 10.1038/nature00870
In June 2007, the paper received a mega-correction. Elisabeth Bik now commented on PubPeer:
"In summary the following errors were found and corrected:
- In Figure 1b, the IgG isotype control tracings for several of the plots (n=5) differ by 1 log in fluorescence intensity; a new version of Figure 1b are provided but for a different set of MAPC cells
- in the original Fig. 1b, the plot for MHC I was a duplication of the FACS plot for Mac-1
- In the legend to Fig. 1b, the superscripts 'k' in MHC II (I-Ak) and MHC I (H- 2Kk) should be 'b'.
- In the Methods under 'Differentiation culture and analysis', the concentration of 109 M dexamethasone should be 0.05 mM.
- In the Supplementary Information, the sequence of the primers rex-1 and oct-4 were incorrect; correct sequences are provided.
However, what the Correction does not address is that six of the panels in Figures 1b and S1b from this Nature paper are also shown in a second paper by the same group, i.e. Yuehua Jiang et al. Experimental Hematology 30 (2002) 896–904, DOI: 10.1016/s0301-472x(02)00869-x. See: https://pubpeer.com/publications/9F0F20DFB792B0606731DB6E20C3CE Although this Nature paper was published before the Exp Hem paper, the Exp Hem manuscript was submitted and accepted earlier than the Nature paper.
The six panels duplicated between the two papers represent different MAPC cell lines, as can be learned from the Erratum belonging to the Exp Hematology paper, found at: https://www.exphem.org/article/S0301-472X(06)00305-5/abstract. "
And then Bik found another new problem, somehow ignored in that mega-corrected Nature paper. It is the same image, but showing different mice (control vs chimeric) and different antibody stainings, with the green signal removed in one case. In order to produce some result Verfaillie needed to prove her ground-breaking discovery:
Also Figure 6m shows traces of Photoshop manipulation: the repetitive patterns suggest an undesired feature was retouched:
That 2002 Nature opus was suspicious from the very beginning. Nobody could reproduce Verfaillie's results, while she prevented her peers from accessing the allegedly pluripotent bone cells which only her lab was able to extract from mice.
Maybe that Nature paper should be retracted after all? Especially considering how much damage it still keeps doing? Or will Verfaillie and Macchiarini eventually share a joint Nobel Prize?
In March 2009, Verfaillie had the following infamous retraction, initiated by the University of Minnesota in October 2008. This 2001 Blood paper was the precursor to Nature's pluripotency claims and served to establish bone marrow cells as a magic source to grow all organs.
M Reyes, T Lund, T Lenvik, D Aguiar, L Koodie, CM Verfaillie Purification and ex vivo expansion of postnatal human marrow mesodermal progenitor cells Blood (2001) doi: 10.1182/blood.v98.9.2615
The retraction notice was unspecific, just saying:
"Based upon the conclusions of the investigation by the University of Minnesota and Blood, the paper was found to contain duplications and other irregularities in multiple figures."
The first author Morayma Reyes was assigned the entire blame, as Nature reported:
"Lead author Catherine Verfaillie, now director of the Stem Cell Institute at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, was cleared of academic misconduct but blamed for insufficient oversight. That suggests the blame rests with the only other scientist under investigation, Verfaillie's graduate student Morayma Reyes, now at the University of Washington. However, the findings regarding Reyes cannot be released because of privacy laws. Reyes says that she made "honest unintentional errors".
Verfaillie again fingered Reyes, even for the papers where Reyes was not coauthor, and declared herself a victim:
"The University indeed concluded that another individual working in my lab committed academic misconduct by improperly manipulating western blots in the Blood paper. Although the University Panel did not conclude that the conclusions of the paper are invalid, it has requested that the Blood paper be retracted.
The University concluded that allegations against me personally were not substantiated, and that I was not responsible for the alleged manipulations. Nevertheless, I am extremely sorry about this, as I was the senior author on the paper and did not notice the problems with these figures. The University's statement also concluded that I did not provide sufficient oversight and mentoring. I do not agree with the University's conclusion with regard to the question of oversight and mentoring.
I am committed to honesty in the pursuit of science. The methods that were followed in my lab at the time of the research in question were, and still are, common practice in the scientific community."
Verfaillie is actually right. Data forgery is indeed common practice in the scientific community, and this was exactly what many regenerative medicine researchers do, while building on Verfaillie's work.
Faced with a cryptic retraction notice, Bik performed a "Post mortem analysis" of that Blood paper, and found fake western blots and some Flaw Cytometry:
Another Verfaillie paper was retracted in same year 2009, there is no Reyes on it:
J Lin, Feng, Y Hamajima, M Komori, TC Burns, S Fukudome, J Anderson, D Wang , CM Verfaillie, WC Low Directed differentiation of mouse cochlear neural progenitors in vitro AJP Cell Physiology (2009) doi: 10.1152/ajpcell.00324.2008
The notice went:
"This article has been retracted by APS on the grounds that aspects of the data presented have now been shown to be unreliable."
As Bik discovered, something was very, very wrong with Figure 3B. Who was responsible for that sickening parade of copy-pasted bands? Surely not the Belgian genius scientist Verfaillie? I mean, they just tried to use stem cell technology to cure deafness, and surely the Photoshop means justify the goal, right?
Bik also analysed this 2002 paper by Verfaillie, corrected in November 2008 for some unspecified errors with certain figures. The University of Minnesota decided there was definitely no research misconduct there, just some "problematic images". The paper claimed to have discovered that bone marrow cells can generate vascular endothelium, a scientifically very shaky claim which had to be substantiated by some Flaw Cytometry:
M Reyes, A Dudek, B Jahagirdar, L Koodie, PH Marker, CM Verfaillie Origin of endothelial progenitors in human postnatal bone marrow Journal of Clinical Investigation (2002) doi: 10.1172/jci200214327
Another two corrections of a figure shared between two papers were explained by Bik here:
Y. Jiang , R. C. H. Zhao, C. M. Verfaillie Abnormal integrin-mediated regulation of chronic myelogenous leukemia CD34+ cell proliferation: BCR/ABL up-regulates the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, p27Kip, which is relocated to the cell cytoplasm and incapable of regulating cdk2 activity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2000) – doi: 10.1073/pnas.190104497
That paper was corrected in April 2009, where the authors declared to have "inadvertently inserted the Western blot from a different experiment (Western blot for Cdk2, following immunoprecipitation of Cdk2 from a different experiment), instead of the correct Western blot for Cdk4, following immunoprecipitation of Cdk4 for the study described in Fig. 3"
As Bik found out, the panel arrived not from some obscure long-lost experiment, but from another Verfaillie paper published in parallel: Jiang et al. Blood 2000, which was corrected in August 2009.
Y Jiang, F Prosper, CM Verfaillie Opposing effects of engagement of integrins and stimulation of cytokine receptors on cell cycle progression of normal human hematopoietic progenitors Blood (2000) doi: 10.1182/blood.v95.3.846.003k31_846_854
It turned out that neither the cdk4 blot in PNAS not cdk2 blot in Blood ever existed as presented. The authors provided replacement for both, and were made to clearly indicate previously underhand gel splicing:
"a validated Cdk2-IP/WB gel was located and has now been used to replace the row in question. In addition, black lines have been added to the row showing the IP + WB for cyclin E and the row showing the kinase assay, per Blood's current policies, to indicate that blank lanes were spliced out. The authors removed the quantification under the lanes and revised the figure legend…"
The PNAS paper contained another issue, which was reported by some whistleblower(s) to New Scientist, but which evaded correction. Bik highlights it now on PubPeer, with "blue boxes marking similarity between de Cdk2 panel in Figure 5A and the p27KIP panel, if one of the two panels is rotated 180 degrees and stretched a bit".
It was very wise of University of Minnesota not to have screened Verfaillie's papers properly (presumably they just acted on the concrete evidence of a long-sacked whistleblower). This is namely the kind of science with which Verfaillie's career as director of the Stem Cell Institute at University of Minnesota took off:
R C Zhao, R S McIvor, J D Griffin, C M Verfaillie Gene therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): a retroviral vector that renders hematopoietic progenitors methotrexate-resistant and CML progenitors functionally normal and nontumorigenic in vivo Blood (1997) 15;90(12):4687-98
Would you like to know how Minnesota professor Verfaillie announced to cure leukaemia? Hold on to your seat.
This is a truly some cock-sure handiwork of data forgery, a wanton debauchery of gel band cloning, probably done with scissors and glue, years before Photoshop became the standard tool. If only Verfaillie's science was exposed back then, over 20 years ago – that disastrous Nature paper would not have happened.
The following flow cytometry duplication does not seem like an innocent mistake of oversight anymore:
V Roy, CM Verfaillie Expression and function of cell adhesion molecules on fetal liver, cord blood and bone marrow hematopoietic progenitors: implications for anatomical localization and developmental stage specific regulation of hematopoiesis Experimental Hematology (1999) -doi: 10.1016/s0301-472x(98)00031-9
The next case does not look like a mistake at all. Even if once might accidentally reuse a flow cytometry plot, how can one accidentally calculate slightly different numbers from it? Unless, that was done intentionally, to make the two plots look different:
CED Lamming, L Augustin, M Blackstad, TC Lund, RP Hebbel, CM Verfaillie Spontaneous circulation of myeloid-lymphoid–initiating cells and SCID-repopulating cells in sickle cell crisis Journal of Clinical Investigation (2003)
doi: 10.1172/jci200315956
Update 6.12.2019. Bik now found another Verfaillie coauthored paper with serious issues. This time, the authors appealed to kidney failure patients on dialysis: a regenerative medicine cure is possible, with just a little bit of Photoshop.
S Gupta, C Verfaillie, D Chmielewski, Y Kim, ME Rosenberg A role for extrarenal cells in the regeneration following acute renal failure Kidney international (2002) doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1755.2002.kid569.x
The Verfaillie scandal exploded in around mid 2000s, it included misconduct investigations by University of Minnesota, and ended with two retractions and some embarrassing corrections. In the middle of that, Verfaillie moved back to Belgium in 2005. By 2010, everyone moved on, the scientific community forgave Verfaillie and showered her and her SCIL with public funding. But the shenanigans continued, as Bik now uncovered.
MB Sahin, RE Schwartz, SM Buckley, Y Heremans, L Chase, WS Hu, CM Verfaillie Isolation and characterization of a novel population of progenitor cells from unmanipulated rat liver Liver Transplantation (2008) doi: 10.1002/lt.21380
Maybe the rat liver was "unmanipulated", but the data in this paper is a different story. It definitely does not look like an accident or mistake of oversight. Same field of cells was rotated and cropped in two different ways to stand in for two different antibody stainings. And it happened already at KU Leuven, after the scandal in Minnesota.
This collaborative paper was also made with Verfaillie's KU Leuven affiliation:
M Luo, Z Liu, H Hao, T Lu, M Chen, M Lei, CM Verfaillie, Z Liu High glucose facilitates cell cycle arrest of rat bone marrow multipotent adult progenitor cells through transforming growth factor-β1 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 signalling without changing Oct4 expression Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology (2012) doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1681.2012.05747.x
There are even worse collaborative Photoshop jobs, with Verfaillie's name on them: Kwan et al 2006, Lu et al 2010, or this Verfaillie co-production with the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Netherlands, Huls et al 2010:
Actually that Photoshop art is too fancy for Verfaillie's lab. Her KU Leuven lab issued in 2013 this simple and traditional image fabrication, the good old shifted picture motif:
Y Li, K Eggermont, V Vanslembrouck, CM Verfaillie NKX2-1 activation by SMAD2 signaling after definitive endoderm differentiation in human embryonic stem cell Stem Cells and Development (2013) doi: 10.1089/scd.2012.0620
The most recent Verfaillie paper Bik reported on PubPeer is this, from 2014. So far, "just" one cloned gel band.
K Vanuytsel, Q Cai, N Nair, S Khurana, S Shetty, JR Vermeesch, L Ordovas, CM Verfaillie FANCA knockout in human embryonic stem cells causes a severe growth disadvantage Stem Cell Research (2014) doi: 10.1016/j.scr.2014.07.005
Verfaillie is 62 now, presumably KU Leuven would like her to retire in piece soon, and close the chapter. But of course Verfaillie will not leave her SCIL institute to some Tom, Dick or Harry when she retires. She namely installed Maurillo Sampaolesi as her second-in-command at SCIL. And Sampaolesi has extensive Photoshop experience, as his PubPeer record certifies. Look at this for example, Cassano et al PLOS One 2008, published by Sampaolesi's new lab at SCIL:
This is why Sampaolesi is the perfect successor for Verfaillie: he published in all the big journals, with the help of some Photoshop. The example of the disassembled Figure 2B in Sampaolesi et al Science 2003 shows his skills:
The elite journal Science did exactly nothing about that, not a thing. In a different case, the Journal of Cellular Biology accepted a forged correction from Sampaolesi and Cossu, for Galvez et al 2006. Look at the PubPeer discussion, and the illustration on the right.
Would you like to know why the journals behaved so meekly? Sampaolesi's mentor and last author Giulio Cossu was namely investigated and whitewashed by his then-employer UCL in 2013, including for this paper. Cossu paid back his gratitude by lead-authoring in 2017 a white paper in The Lancet, where he, together with the UCL trachea transplanters Martin Birchall and Paolo De Coppi declared that Macchiarini's technology works while calling for more human experimenting.
Full circle for the magic bone marrow of Catherine Verfaillie.
The article was updated on 6.12.2019
Update 27.01.2020
A reader pointed me to these papers:
M Delforge , MA. Boogaerts , PB. McGlave , CM. Verfaillie BCR/ABL− CD34+HLA-DR−Progenitor Cells in Early Chronic Phase, But Not in More Advanced Phases, of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Are Polyclonal Blood (1999) doi: 10.1182/blood.v93.1.284
In another case, it seems the publisher BioMedCentral (BMC, owned by Springer Nature) issued a silent correction:
F Ulloa-Montoya , BL Kidder , KA Pauwelyn , G Chase , A Luttun , A Crabbe , M Geraerts , AA Sharov , Y Piao , MSH Ko , WS Hu , CM Verfaillie Comparative transcriptome analysis of embryonic and adult stem cells with extended and limited differentiation capacity Genome Biology (2007) doi: 10.1186/gb-2007-8-8-r163
The duplication is clearly present in the version initially deposited by the publisher BMC at NCBI PMC (PubMed). However, the online version at BMC itself shows a different plot for the sample mClone-3 CD44. No correction was announced.
Meanwhile, KU Leuven opened a misconduct investigation into Verfaillie affair. The research integrity manager Inge Lerouge offered to keep me updated, provided I sign a legally binding Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which would prevent me from reporting, sharing or discussing any of that information for all eternity. Lerouge explained:
"both the respondent and the notifying party are subject to strict confidentiality and this obligation remains applicable after the closure of the entire CRI procedure and even after eventual public statements by the KU Leuven about it (see sub 4).
- The possibility exists that the Rector (or his delegate) decides to make a public statement, he being, according to article 9 of the CRI Procedure, the only person responsible for external communication about CRI cases. Although we cannot at this stage predict the future nor guarantee that such public statements will be made, we can agree that, if they are, you will be duly alerted. The information included in public statements by the Rector is by its nature not covered by confidentiality obligations."
I refused to sign the NDA, since it would allow KU Leuven to control my reporting with legal threats.
Update 16.07.2020
KU Leuven now completed the investigation and issued a press release, which was reported by Belgian newspapers. I was not notified, only learned of it from Twitter follower. TL;DR: Only KU Leuven period papers were analysed, Verfaillie is innocent, someone else did it, conclusions not affected, Schneider (though unnamed) is slanderous scum.
"No breach
In accordance with the applicable regulations, the CRI examined four recent publications. Other universities have examined those publications for which they were competent.
From the investigation conducted by the Leuven Commission and the confirmation thereof by the external expert, it is apparent that there was no breach of research integrity in the publications investigated. It is true that a limited number of figures contained an inaccuracy that is not in line with the high standards that are rightly set for scientific figures. Nevertheless, a thorough study of all aspects of the case has shown that these figures were composed in good faith and that there can be no question of an infringement of research integrity.
Professor Catherine Verfaillie was explicitly mentioned in the media as co-author of the publications and supervisor of the researchers concerned. She had already rectified problems that she had noticed in the publications under investigation before any mention was made of them. She was not aware of the other problems until the time of the complaint. The CRI also points to the efficiency of the quality assurance system used by Professor Verfaillie. Thanks to this system, the investigation committee had access to all the raw data of the publications concerned and the experiments could be checked in detail. The investigation showed that there was no intention to misrepresent results.
On the basis of these findings, the CRI has concluded that Professor Verfaillie cannot be blamed for any breach of research integrity. "
KU Leuven Rector Luc Sells than lashed out in the press release at journalists like Schneider, without naming anyone:
"We therefore want to protect our researchers against gratuitous reports or complaints via public forums even before an investigation could be carried out. There is an essential difference between expressing a suspicion and openly naming and shaming."
Update 19.05.2023
A Rectification to this article was published here, after the former science journalist and now lawyer Eugenie Reich took issue with the mention of "whistleblowers" above.
I thank all my donors for supporting my journalism. You can be one of them!
Make a one-time donation:
I thank all my donors for supporting my journalism. You can be one of them!
Make a monthly donation:
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.DonateDonate monthly


text:
"The best measure of a wine's worth is an empty bottle,"said Germán di Cesare the winemaker for Botega Trivento, the 3,185-acre estate in Mendoza Argentina,as I sat down to lunch with him. Germán is very personable and passionate about wine and an authority on traditional Argentine culture. He is also a skilled cook specializing in Argentinian cuisine.
Speaking about the climatic conditions in Mendoza, German told me that he pays close attention to location, soil and climate, and, at Trivento, the "Three Winds" that sweep through Mendoza and forge the identity of the terroir and are the true key to understanding the region. How to harness and work with these distinctive winds can be difficult, but German grew up here and instinctively knows what do.
He said that he is going back to older techniques, using concrete tanks and larger foudres for aging and pulling back on oak treatments. In his wine he is looking for freshness, fruit without heaviness, a wine that is both easy to understand and complex in flavor.
Amado Sur Chardonnay, 2013, the production zone is Mendoza, Argentina. Made from Chardonnay with moderate amounts of Pinot Grigio and Viognier. The Chardonnay and Viognier come from the Finca Los Ponchos Vineyard, located in the Tupungato area of the Uco Valley, the highest altitude sub region of Mendoza. The Pinot Grigio comes from the Finca del Alto Vineyard in the prime Lujan de Cuyo region. The grapes are hand picked in the beginning of March and placed in small cases for protection. The 3 grape varieties undergo a period of cold skin contact after they are destemmed and crushed. The juices are fermented separately in stainless steel for 2-3 weeks, preserving the grapes' rich aromatic flavor. The wines are blended and aged for 2 months in bottle before release. The wine has hints of pear, pineapple and peach. $15
Torrontés Reserve 100% Torrontés 2014. Harvest takes place the first week of March. After crushing, a period of cold skin contact follows. The juice is then fermented in stainless steel at 55/60 degrees F for 20 days to preserve the grapes' aromatics and flavor. The wine has hints of peach and apricot with notes of violets and tropical fruit. $18
Amando Sur Malbec Blend 2013 The soil is alluvial. The grapes are hand harvested in April and undergo cold maceration prior to separate fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Natural malolactic fermentation follows. The separate wines are aged for 8 months in French oak barrels. After assemblage the wine is aged for six months in stainless steel and then another 5 months in bottle before release. It has hints of cherry and strawberry with a touch of vanilla, and a nice finish and pleasing aftertaste. $15
Malbec "Golden Reserva" 2013, 2012, 2011 100% Malbec Production zone Luján de Cuy, Mendoza. The grapes are harvested by hand in mid-April. Germán said that the grapes are hand sorted only by women because they have soft hands. The grapes are cold macerated prior to fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Aging takes place in French oak barrels of second and third passage for 12 months and another 12 months in bottle before release. The wines have hints of berries, plums and notes of coffee and tobacco with a nice finish and pleasing aftertaste. The 2011 is drinking the best at this time. All three went very well with the steak.$22
After we finished lunch, Germán looking around the table, repeated what he had said at the start: the best measure of a wine's worth is an empty bottle.


text:
In January 2018, I was inspired by an Australian Women's Adventure Magazine Travel Play Live. Offering grants to support Aussie female adventurers, I finally felt like a publication understood the true value of adventure – creating and developing community connection, enhancing personal growth, and inspiring change.
After spending endless nights on Google maps, I created a grant-worthy route that would take me to Tuktoyaktuk. Tuktoyaktuk is a western Arctic town that most people have never heard of, never lone seen.
Until November 2017, this remote Inuvialuit community was only accessible by plane in the summer and ice road in the winter. After the completion of an all-season road, the town was connected to mainland Canada. I want to be the first person to walk the permafrost path to Tuktoyaktuk.
As I was preparing my application for the Travel Play Live grant, I found myself engaged in a late night facebook conversation with Kevin Schon. Little did I know that our chat about women's empowerment, the visible invisibility of adventurous women in mainstream media, and my long-term plan to start a non-profit would result in the Kevin and Suzanne Schon Foundation supporting my adventure and life mission.
FINDING TUKTOYAKTUK begins May 24, 2018. The 2000km journey begins in Skagway, Alaska. Honoring the Klondike Gold Rush Miners, I will hike the Chilkoot trail and cross the border into British Columbia, Canada. Following the miner's route, I will paddle 900km along the Yukon River to the heart of the former gold rush town, Dawson City. Using a push cart to carry 35kg of supplies, I will complete the final 900km to Tuktoyaktuk capturing the spirit of the landscape, wildlife, and its people.
You can follow my journey here, on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/remoteleigh/ and on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/remoteleigh/
Create your own adventure,
Remote Leigh
P.S After securing support from the Schon foundation, I decided not to apply for the Travel Play Live grant. With that said, I am a huge fan and supporter of the magazine and will continue to encourage other women to become part of their Travel Play Live community.


text:
I just arrived in LA for the IPAM Workshop on Algorithmic Challenges in Protecting Privacy for Biomedical Data. I co-organized this workshop with Cynthia Dwork, James Zou, and Sriram Sankararaman and it is (conveniently) before the semester starts and (inconveniently) overlapping with the MIT Mystery Hunt. The workshop has a really diverse set of speakers so to get everyone on the same page and anchor the discussion, we have 5 tutorial speakers and a few sessions or shorter talks. The hope is that these tutorials (which are on the first two days of the workshop) will give people some "common language" to discuss research problems.
The other big change we made to the standard workshop schedule was to put in time for "breakout groups" to have smaller discussions focused on identifying the key fundamental problems that need to be addressed when thinking about privacy and biomedical data. Because of the diversity of viewpoints among participants, it seems a tall order to generate new research collaborations out of attending talks and going to lunch. But if we can, as a group, identify what the mathematical problems are (and maybe even why they are hard), this can help identify the areas of common interest.
I think of these as falling into a few different categories.
- Questions about demarcation. Can we formalize (mathematically) the privacy objective in different types of data sets/computations? Can we use these to categorize different types of problems?
- Metrics. How do we formulate the privacy-utility tradeoffs for different problems? What is the right measure of performance? What (if anything) do we lose in guaranteeing privacy?
- Possibility/impossibility. Algorithms which can guarantee privacy and utility are great, but on the flip side we should try to identify when privacy might be impossible to guarantee. This would have implications for higher-level questions about system architectures and policy.
- Domain-specific questions. In some cases all of the setup is established: we want to compute function F on dataset D under differential privacy and the question is to find algorithms with optimal utility for fixed privacy loss or vice versa. Still, identifying those questions and writing them down would be a great outcome.
In addition to all of this, there is a student poster session, a welcome reception, and lunches. It's going to be a packed 3 days, and although I will miss the very end of it, I am excited to learn a lot from the participants.


text:
Project Veritas video 2: Hillary Clinton operatives tell others how to commit voter fraud
1940 pm
Deep State DNC and Operatives openly tell how to commit voter fraud, incite violence and suppress votes once again.
In an ongoing report that promises more, the DNC and its dark operatives are busy attacking our Republic from an underground approach. These Hillary Clinton operatives are seeking cover of night to do her dirty work.
Wide spread abuse, laws broken now seems to be the narrative for the DNC, Hillary Clinton and her band of evil doers.
Watch this video, get mad if you want and pass around to your friends.
It's sad we the people have to do the work of MSM and spread the truth. We at BCNN can rely on our friends to spread this "underground" if need be.
Our near 1 million or so readers can spread the news as we have done many times before.
Please visit our site on Facebook also and like us.
Spread the news and let's take our country back.


text:
Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, a stocky 16-year-old Mexican boy died face down on a pitted concrete sidewalk in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. José Antonio Elena Rodriguez had been shot seven times. His alleged killer, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, had gunned him down from the Arizona side of the border.
The Border Patrol, in a statement to The Daily Beast, claims the FBI is investigating the shooting, which began when Border Patrol agents came upon smugglers dropping loads of narcotics in Nogales, Ariz. As the smugglers hightailed it back into Mexico, the agents were "assaulted" with rocks from the Mexican side, the statement says. The agents ordered the rock throwers to "cease." When the rocks kept coming in from Mexico, an agent "discharged his service weapon." The Border Patrol did not say an agent killed the boy, but said instead "one of the subjects appeared to have been hit."
The unlikely scenario of Border Patrol agents in the United States gunning down Mexican rock throwers in Mexico has played out several times in the last two years, outraging the Mexican government, raising questions about the Border Patrol's use of force, and causing diplomatic huddles between the two countries.
"This is happening with a disturbing frequency," a high-placed Mexican official who is very familiar with the Rodriguez shooting investigation tells The Daily Beast. "It's about use of force. How much of a threat is a rock compared to a firearm?"
Not counting the Rodriguez case, in the last two years, Border Patrol agents in the United States have reportedly shot and killed at least three Mexicans in Mexico, and injured at least one other, according to press reports. In each case, rocks were allegedly thrown from Mexico into the United States either as a way to divert agents from arresting Mexicans or as a mean-spirited taunt.
At least one other killing may have occurred in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. On Jan. 5, 2011, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres when he and others on the Mexican side of the fence allegedly began throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents making a drug bust in the United States, according to Nogales International newspaper.
A year before, a Mexican teen was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The agent claimed the boys were running into the United States, then running back into Mexico. When he grabbed one of the boys, the agent said, the others began throwing rocks at him. He fired. The family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the agent in the United States, but it was dismissed, according to the El Paso Times, because the shooting occurred in Mexico.
Another fatal shooting occurred in September. A Mexican man on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande near Nuevo Laredo was shot by a Border Patrol agent aboard a boat in U.S. waters, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The family said the man was picnicking; the Border Patrol said the victim was pelting the agent with rocks.
The Mexican official familiar with all the investigations tells The Daily Beast that in addition to the shootings in Mexico, in the last six years, more than two dozen Mexicans have been "shot, Tazered, or otherwise abused" by Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officials on the American side of the border. Very often, rock throwing is part of the scenario. Since the shootings are found to be justifiable by U.S. officials, the message to Border Patrol agents is, "it's fair game for a Border Patrol agent to shoot a Mexican," he says.
"What would happen," the official asks, "if the tables were turned? What would happen if an American teenager threw rocks at a Mexican agent and the Mexican agent shot the American? This is the question we always ask Americans."
Mexican leaders met Friday in Mexico City to discuss the Rodriguez killing, according to The Arizona Republic, and the shooting has been roundly condemned by all levels of Mexican government. In Washington on Thursday, the Mexican Embassy issued a blistering statement saying preliminary information about the Rodriguez shooting raises "serious doubts about the use of lethal force by U.S. Border Patrol agents, something that both the Mexican Government and Mexican society strongly deplore and condemn."
The shootings have sparked "conversations" between the United States and Mexico, says Christopher Wilson, an expert on Border Patrol issues and associate in the Mexico Institute Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. No one wants to deprive the Border Patrol of the use of weapons to deter and defend, says Wilson. But the shootings "have happened several times" and bear similarities—young victims, rock throwing, and a debate over whether the victims were really rock throwers, narco-traffickers, or innocent bystanders.
"There's a lot of space for conversations on creative ways" for the United States to manage Border Patrol "protocols," Wilson says, so such incidents don't occur in the future.
At least one method—shooting things other than bullets—seems to work. Last year, a Nogales-based Border Patrol agent "used a pepper ball launcher to repel a rock-throwing smuggling suspect and seize $12,500 worth of marijuana," the Nogales International reported.
No one was injured.


text:
I wrote this on May 25th of this year but it felt too vulnerable for to me to share at the time. Today seems like a good day to post it. I'm sitting in my office with the luxurious gift of time, courtesy of Jonas and his aftermath….
It's a holiday weekend, and I should feel relaxed. Instead, anxiety is gnawing at me; and I want to eat everything in sight.
This has been going on since yesterday. I thought that if I took care of some things I had been putting off, I would feel relief. This is how I usually manage my anxiety, and this is what I have taught our children since–sorry, girls–they have inherited some of my bits.
There are many necessary tasks I do not enjoy. I am good at my job but I am a poor housekeeper. I can bake all night long but I can think of a million reasons to avoid working in the yard.
One of my most dreaded tasks is my core exercises. These exercises are the same routine I have been enduring since my nanny days, and I am bored to tears. I begrudge the 20 or so minutes I need to do them properly. Add the extra exercises and stretches I have incorporated to to help offset all the sitting I do since I began counseling full time, and you have dread with a capital D. I tend to forget that without this discipline, I start stooping like a crone, and people start asking when I'm due. Should I be happy or alarmed that, being as I'm into my 50's, the pregnancy question has tended to give way to inquiries about beer consumption?
I blame my father, by the way. I seem to have gotten his undiluted posture genes. I also inherited a flat chest and somebody's tiny hips, which meant that my abs ripped further during each pregnancy and left me looking pregnant forevermore. Thank goodness, I got a decent butt and a pretty nice pair of legs out of the deal.
Feeling so anxious has had me trying to deduce which Dreaded Task I need to tackle to get the monkey off my back. I cleaned the master bathroom, dealt with the laundry, tidied the kitchen, did my exercises, walked the dog, and made sure all my agency paperwork was up to date.
Nope. Still anxious.
I had an eating disorder in the 80's. I learned in 1987, when I decided to start being honest with myself, that I would keep eating until I figured out what was eating me. I made a rule for myself: When I get the urge to Eat, I have to immediately stop what I am doing and sit quietly until I figure out what it is I don't want to feel. THEN I can eat–whatever I want and as much as I desire. Except, at that point, I no longer want to.
Since those early days of truth, I've used this strategy here and there when I've found it difficult to hit the off switch. I'm happy to report I have gotten out of practice.
It finally dawned on me that I needed to draw on old experience. I sat down alone with myself until one part of me spoke to the other and cleared up the mystery.
It was ridiculously simple.
I don't want to go shopping.
Yes, really.
I don't want to go shopping.
I have a wedding to go to next month. A Southern wedding, in fact. I think that ups the ante, and I think the itch on the back of my neck is a hive.
Knowing how much I dislike trying to make a silk purse out of this sow's ear, I had given myself a deadline: One month before the event, I was to assess my wardrobe and shop for whatever clothing I would need. I knew to put this mandate in place because of wardrobe crises past. This weekend marked 4 weeks until the event.
I have not yet addressed the wardrobe problem, and I am prickling with anxiety.
My sister Gwen gets upset with me and tries to boost my self esteem. I get mad back and tell her I like myself just fine. This is mostly true. I feel like a million bucks sitting here in my flip flops and battered cargo shorts. I am sporting the oversized t-shirt our oldest daughter made me for Mother's Day back in 1997. She finger painted a portrait of me and signed it with a handprint. I feel every inch the loved and desired woman. I am showered, shaven, and deodorized. My teeth are flossed and brushed. My clothes are clean. My body works fine. What else is required?
I have come to accept dressing for work. I stick to a uniform of bland pants and interchangeable tops and scarves so I can mix and match until kingdom come. This checks the box. I am not my clothes.
But a wedding? I feel faint. I am an outsider in the sisterhood of women. Some things I just don't get: clothing, makeup, nail care, home decorating, and talking about home decorating. I feel like an alien.
The only way to get over this is to get through it.
I have made an appointment for advising and moral support with Claire, our 17-year-old daughter, for 6:30 tonight. She is going to accompany me on a shopping trip and talk me down when I go into fight or flight. I want to honor our niece at her wedding. I love her enough to speak the language of the normal. I'm going to play dress up. I am going to shut my mouth. I am going to like it.
I'm getting this out of my system now because once I commit, I am going to hold my head high and wear those threads like a princess at a ball.
Glass slippers in size 10, please.


text:
Lester, Red Sox shut out Giants
San Francisco, CA – Jon Lester was able to stop the bleeding for Boston with 8 1/3 scoreless frames and the Red Sox churned out a 7-0 win in Monday's three-game series opener with the San Francisco Giants.
With only three wins in their previous 10 games and the Tampa Bay Rays hot on their tail for the lead in the AL East, the Red Sox needed a strong performance and got it out of Lester (11-7), who limited Giants not named Andres Torres or Buster Posey to just one hit.
"Jon was exactly what we needed tonight," said Boston manager John Farrell.
Shane Victorino, Stephen Drew and Will Middlebrooks each supplied an RBI in support of Lester, with the trio leading the way in Boston's rattling of Tim Lincecum.
Over five-plus innings, Lincecum (6-13) was charged with five runs on nine hits and four walks. In the six starts since his no-hitter on July 13, Lincecum has a 5.40 ERA.
Torres had three hits and Posey had two for San Francisco, which has dropped two straight following a three-game winning streak.
"I do think we've had a tough year as far as travel goes. It has caught up with them at times. That pitcher out there makes you look flat because you're not doing anything offensively," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
The Sox loaded the bases to start the second and got on the board with Middlebrooks' sac fly. A balk by Lincecum allowed another run to come in and Boston held a 3-0 lead after a two-out RBI single from Victorino.
A two-out single by Daniel Nava in the fifth extended the inning, and Drew came through with a double into center that plated Nava and gave the Sox a four-run cushion.
Lincecum was relieved after Jacoby Ellsbury reached him for a single to start the fifth. Ellsbury eventually came around to score when reliever Guillermo Moscoso had a pitch get away from him and bounce to the backstop.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia had an RBI double in the ninth and later came in to score on Nava's base hit to make it 7-0.
Lester tried for his second complete game of the season, but served up a pair of one-out singles and was removed from the game. Brandon Workman notched the last two outs to preserve the win.
Game Notes
The Red Sox made a bevy of moves on Monday, most notably selecting the contract of highly touted shortstop prospect Xander Bogaerts from Triple-A Pawtucket. Bogaerts did not get into the game. The team also activated catcher David Ross from the 60-day disabled list and recalled pitcher Brayan Villarreal from Pawtucket. Catcher Ryan Lavarnway, infielder Brock Holt and pitcher Rubby De La Rosa were optioned to the Triple-A affiliate, while the Red Sox transferred pitchers Andrew Bailey and Clay Buchholz to the 60-day disabled list ... The Giants have lost 18 of their last 25 home games.


text:
Turning on the news now is a dismal experience. It's bleak. Most of the reporting and opining is ignorant or superficial, and it's all depressing. We need some dramatically different news. When I was a kid, I read Mad Magazine, and enjoyed their "commercials we'd like to se" and "movies we'd like to see." Here's some news I'd like to see:
Bernie Madoff is sentenced to four years in the Obama administration. He will do hard time as special investigator and prosecutor of financial fraud within banks, financial institutions, public corporations and government bail-outs, rescues and stimuli. And, he must simultaneously serve as head of the SEC and Fed chairman.
Well, why not? Bernie is obviously smarter and more capable than any of the officials in these regulatory agencies, including the woman who was responsible for watch-dogging him (whom Obama is giving a promotion to run the SEC) and the petty thief or imbecile (choose A or B) who claims he didn't know he owed taxes from his self-employed earnings or that he couldn't deduct costs of sending his kid to summer camp as child care. Obama has appointed him to run the entire Treasury, including, ironically, the IRS. You can't make this stuff up.
Serving in these jobs should be more punishing than sitting in a minimum security prison playing poker. By the way, Bernie only stole $50-billion. The banks, the auto-makers, Paulson, Congress and others conspired to steal trillions. It took Bernie 30 years. It took Congress about three months. If only the Congress-criminals were a flight risk.
Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and others in Congress who spurred on the policies that destroyed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that encouraged companies like Countrywide to lend so recklessly, that saw no evil in the financial institutions they were regulating, are all sent to GITMO.
The terrorists there are relocated to Congress, to serve out the GITMO-bound crooks' terms. This allows Obama to come close to keeping one campaign promise to the Left, it makes better use of a federal asset, and it ends all the trouble with finding some place to put the current wards of GITMO. Odds are, the terrorists committed to America's destruction will do less damage in Congress than the thieves they're replacing.
Every executive at Citi, Bank of America, Chrysler and GM, fired, tarred and feathered, and driven into exile by huge crowds with flaming torches and pointed sticks.
Bill Parcells replaces all of them by himself. If he can turn the pitiful Dolphins around in one season, operating within a salary cap, imagine what he could do with a trillion dollars. Parcells immediately hires Romney, who should have been elected president in the first place.
Anyone using the phrase "too big to fail" is immediately hauled off to a labor camp in Alaska – where they can see Russia while they work.
Al Gore is appointed Global Freezing Emergency Czar.
And to save on energy, he has to share a small office with that annoying environmental nutball Ed Begley Jr.
In a shocking turn of events, entrepreneurs and small business owners have formed a union and gone on strike.
They're refusing to re-open their businesses, meet payrolls or create any taxable income until they are guaranteed no less than $72 an hour in net income, full health care benefits, 20 paid vacation days a year, and pensions paying 80 percent of the income they earned when managing their businesses. They demand these guarantees regardless of whether their businesses make or lose money, make and sell products people will buy or not, or endlessly pile up mountains of unmanageable debt periodically requiring federal bail-outs.
In a related story, homeowners who have paid their mortgages as agreed – that is, more than 93 percent of all mortgages – have also formed a union.
They are refusing to make any payments until all their loans are re-written with 50 percent reductions in principal owed, 0 percent interest for 30 years, and free swimming pools or game rooms provided as signing bonuses.
Finally today, the White House press corps is surprised by an impromptu press conference called by President Obama, at which he delivered the shortest speech in presidential history.


text:
Adventures in Eating: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
August 23, 2016
As summer closes and fall begins, the cooks of the southland welcome the new season with open arms. Harvest season is upon us and it beckons us back to our kitchens, tempting us with thoughts of pumpkin pies and succulent stuffed turkeys. Fall marks the beginning of the holidays. It is a time for families… read more »


text:
An amateur video appears to show Libyans trying to rescue U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens from a room filled with smoke at the U.S. mission where he was found unconscious after last week's attack by a mob protesting against a film that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad.
The video, which appeared on the internet and a copy of which was obtained by Reuters in Benghazi, confirms reports that suggested the U.S. envoy died of asphyxiation after the building caught fire.
The footage also sheds new light on the circumstances of the ambassador's death, apparently showing for the first time that some of the people who forced their way into the U.S. compound later tried to rescue Stevens after they found him lying alone, with no security detail, in one of the rooms in the building.
The video shows a group of young men who had earlier stormed the compound telling other protesters by the light of torches and mobile phones that they had found someone who appeared to be a foreigner lying on the floor.
"There is someone inside ... He is a foreigner, he is a foreigner. Take him out," said one man, shouting for help.
"Bring him out, man! Bring him out," another said.
"The man is alive. Bring him out, man. Bring him out," said a third.
"Alive, Alive! God is Greatest," the crowd cried. Someone called for a car.
"Make space, is there someone who is a medic around? Anyone who can get a car quickly?" another man can be heard saying.
Stevens and three other embassy staff died when gunmen attacked the U.S. consulate and a safe house in the eastern Libyan city on Tuesday night. The attackers were part of a crowd blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.
Security personnel were separated from Stevens during the attack, U.S. officials said, in the chaos of smoke and gunfire that ensued.
The identity and motive of the attackers remain unclear. Activists who took part in the protest said the motive was rage at the video produced in California and which describes the Prophet as a homosexual and womaniser.
Some Libyan officials blamed the attack on radical Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda, such as regional affiliate Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and Ansar al-Sharia. Both groups back the introduction of Islamic Sharia law rather than democracy.
The footage shows Stevens lying on the floor in a smoke-filled room after protesters had stormed the compound and set fire to its buildings.
Minutes later he was pulled out of the room through a window, and then placed on the courtyard's stone tile floor. A young man is seen putting his hand on his neck to check if he was breathing.
A protester wearing a white T-shirt who had carried Stevens out of the room was hugged by a fellow protestor in a traditional expression of gratitude.
Seconds after the protesters found Stevens was alive, a young man in the background can be heard shouting: "Take him to my car, bring him to my car."
A doctor on duty in the emergency room at the Benghazi Medical Centre that night has said local civilians brought in the ambassador at around 1 a.m. While the doctor performed CPR for 45 minutes, Stevens died of asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation. His body was later returned to U.S. custody.
Fahd Al-Bakoush, a young activist who took the video, said he saw the ambassador "moving his lips and his eyes moving and his body darkened by smoke."
Bakoush told Reuters the storming of the embassy happened shortly after several armed Libyan guards at the entrance refused protesters' demands to enter the compound and take down the U.S. flag.
He said the violence began after shots fired from the compound to scare demonstrators provoked angry protesters outside, prompting hardline elements within the protesters to throw home made grenades and fire RPGs.
Shortly afterwards, nearly 100 mainly Islamist protesters broke into the large compound with little resistance from embassy security. The intruders were then free to rampage through the large complex in the affluent Al-Hawari neighbourhood.
Bakoush said he only realised the next day that it was the ambassador who had been found and was surprised that he was left on his own in the villa with none of his aides.
"I did not expect the ambassador to be on his own and I had thought the ambassador had been the first to escape," he said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement that Tuesday's assault was partly motivated by the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi, a Libyan al Qaeda leader in Pakistan killed in a U.S. drone strike.
A spokesman for President Barack Obama said last week that officials had no evidence the attack was pre-planned, an assertion which has added to confusion over the incident. Immediately after the attack, U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, were widely quoted as saying they believed the attack was well-planned and organised.
Deccan Herald News now on Telegram - Click here to subscribe
Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Dailymotion | YouTube
Get a round-up of the day's top stories in your inbox
US readies new $2 bn Ukraine package: Report
Minister backs more research into cannabis' medical use
Mangaluru's Reader's Delight to shut shop at June-end
Delhi: ChatGPT founder stresses on regulations for AI
Women drive Maharashtra state buses for 1st time
700 Indian students in Canada face deportation: Report
Covid-19 can cause brain cells to fuse, study finds
Joe Biden to host thousands at White House Pride party
Zomato slammed for 'casteist' Kachra ad, deletes video
Elephant captured in Bandipur


text:
I approached this screening with some trepidation. I read Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children in 1982, identifying strongly with its central theme. It felt like the cutting-edge of a fiction in tune with the cultural shifts towards post-colonialist literature. But only a few years later I started to go off Rushdie. I remember a key moment being the attack he made on Black Audio and Film Collective's film Handsworth Songs in 1987. It's ironic that Handsworth Songs is now rightly recognised as an important intervention in the development of a Black aesthetic in Britain, whereas Rushdie has lost some of his cultural status. That status appears to have been diminished further with the reception of the film adaptation of Midnight's Children – scripted by Salman Rushdie who also provides several passages of narration. On its second week of release in the UK, the film was screened only once a day, in the afternoon, in the Vue multiplex at The Light in Leeds. There were just five of us in the audience. This already looks like a lack of confidence from its distributor eOne Entertainment, the new Canadian major .
So, is it as bad as all that? Well, no. I decided not to go back to the book before the screening and I watched in as objective a manner as possible. I was surprised to find myself in tears at the end of the film. That probably says more about me than about the film but in most respects this is a very impressive production. The Indian director Deepa Mehta who makes her films from her Canadian base has achieved what many thought was the impossible feat of adapting Rushdie's novel with a wonderful cast drawn from the vast array of Indian performers working in India and North America in all forms of cinema. More than sixty location shoots in Sri Lanka stand in for India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Mehta has said many things about the production and my guess is that she chose Sri Lanka for two reasons. First she had previously suffered from protests by Hindi fundamentalists when she made Water (Canada 2005), the third film of her 'elements trilogy'. (See my earlier posting about this film.) She moved that production to Sri Lanka where she discovered that Columbo and its environs has preserved much more of the 'heritage buildings' from the colonial period than equivalent cities in India. Midnight's Children was a much more demanding shoot in terms of locations so Sri Lanka was very attractive. Rushdie's novel has also been controversial in both India and Pakistan and the shoot was interrupted for a few days when the Iranian government tried to pressurise the Sri Lankans to withdraw permissions. It will be interesting to see what happens when the film finally opens in India (there were protests after its screening at the Kerala International Film Festival). PVR are going to distribute the film in India with a release date of February 1st. I suspect the Indian release will create a stir. I'm not sure if critics and audiences will like the film, but at least they will know the history. It is, of course, unlikely that it will be released in Pakistan except on pirated DVDs. I'm not sure yet whether it will make Bradford – where street demonstrations and a book burning were part of the reaction to Rushdie's later novel, The Satanic Verses in 1989.
Rushdie's long novel (500 pages of dense text in the paperback edition) tells the story of two characters born within seconds of each other at the stroke of midnight on August 14/15 1947, the moment of the end of the British Raj and the birth of two new nations separated by Partition. For reasons explained in the plot, the babies are switched at birth (in Bombay) with the poor child given to the wealthy (Muslim) mother and named Saleem and her 'real' son going to the poor Hindu father after his wife dies in childbirth (and named Shiva). As the two boys grow up knowing each other (but not their true identities) in the same district, they gradual discover their special powers, individual to each of the Midnight's Children born at that one moment across the old Raj. We follow the boys through the major events of the next thirty years when they are separated only to be re-united in very different circumstances towards the end of the story. Rushdie also provides us with further background in the form of the story of Saleem's Muslim family since his grandfather first met the woman he was to marry in Kashmir in 1915. This means that we have a story that covers 62 years of tumultuous history in South Asia with the birth of three new countries (i.e. including Bangladesh in 1971) and a host of important characters. It shouldn't be difficult to work out from this brief outline that a 'magic realist' treatment of these events enables Rushdie to create symbols, metaphors and allegories for much of 'Indian' history in the 20th century. The story is essentially about the failure of the children with magical powers to help create India and Pakistan as viable democracies. Rushdie was writing at a time when Indira Ghandi had just been deposed after the period of 'Emergency' in 1977.
Production and reception
Rushdie's novel was seen to be unfilmable, although a stage production was mounted in 2003 (see this review) and Wikipedia suggests that a BBC five part serial was considered in the 1990s (ironically featuring Rahul Bose who appears in Mehta's film) but not developed when it was feared that there would be protests in Sri Lanka where it was to be shot. Deepa Mehta and Salman Rushdie share a background as diaspora 'creatives'. Mehta was born in 1950 in Amritsar, Punjab province close to the Indo-Pakistani border created by Partition. Her 1998 film Earth is one of the best Partition films. She and Rushdie worked very closely on the adaptation of Midnight's Children, agreeing on how much to cut from the novel's plot to enable a runtime of 146 minutes. It would also seem that Mehta urged Rushdie to write and perform the narration – and that he agreed with some reluctance. I think that on the whole the script works (though I did feel that the last section of the film was less satisfactory in that there were ellipses that seemed to suggest cuts having been made). For me, the one big mistake was the narration. I'm not one of those who never like narration. On the contrary, I like narration when it's done well and when it fits the narrative style of the film. But Rushdie's voice is so well-known and his delivery for me was so flat that I winced each time it came on the soundtrack. I think an actor could have 'performed' the narrator's role much more successfully.
The other criticisms of the film seem much less valid to me. Partly, I think, critics in the UK and North America don't know the history well enough to understand the somewhat schematic presentation of some of the events and they don't necessarily know much about the different types of Indian cinema or are familiar with the acting talent on display here. Just to take a couple of examples, Kate Stables in what is otherwise a perceptive and balanced review in Sight and Sound (January 2013), refers to "snapshots of Indo-Pakistan wars and cross-border wanderings". There are two major wars shown in the film, the India-Pakistan War of 1965 and the conflict of 1971 which saw Indian forces crossing into East Pakistan to help secure independence for what would become Bangladesh. I'm not sure what she means by 'cross-border wanderings'. The Guardian's film editor Catherine Shoard refers to "actors perfectly cast to the point of blandness" and music in which "wooden flutes, xylophones and wind chimes patter about on the soundtrack". The actors include Seema Biswas, Anupam Kher, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and many more known in India as well as the American-based Satya Bhabha who makes a good job of the lead. Perfectly cast, yes. Bland? I don't think so. Mehta works in a form of parallel cinema that requires actors to work largely (but not completely) in English and to deal with scripts quite unlike those which they would find in mainstream Indian popular cinemas such as Bollywood or Tamil/Telegu. The overall effect is not necessarily as 'coherent' as we might expect in the commercial cinemas of South Asia or Hollywood/Europe. It is usually more 'realist' but sometimes more expressionist. The fantasy elements of this particular property (largely achieved without CGI) make this seeming contradiction more noticeable. The music in Midnight's Children is by Nitin Sawhney. If Catherine Shoard doesn't like his music that's fine but as a world-class musician, a British Asian with an international reputation, he deserves not to be treated with disdain.
Midnight's Children is not a perfect film by any means but it is a decent attempt at a literary adaptation that will please the more open-minded of the novel's many admirers and would also please many new audiences – if they got the chance to see it. Its message of protest about what has happened in India and Pakistan over the years is still something that needs to be shouted out. I think I cried at the end because the film brought together memories of many of my favourite stories from India, partly by reminding me of the films I've seen and the novels I've read. I'll try to keep track of what happens to Midnight's Children in India.
Material on the background to the film's production has mostly been taken from the Press Pack uploaded by Mongrel Films in Canada.
Here's the UK trailer which gives some indication of the difficulties discussed above:


text:
Cell No. : Cell Name
HES1245 : 1V-91329-2C update : 2021/11/18
|Currently not ready. Genetically-modified human embryonic stem cell line. Please follow the guidelines of the Japanese Government for the procedure.
|Comment from the depositor
|transgene:human CBX8 (W01 A062F21), gene induction system: Tet-ON system, parental cell line: Human Embryonionic stem cells, SEES3, gender: XY, culture medium: AK02, feeder cells: none (Laminin 511 coating)
|Terms and conditions
|Please read carefully the Japanese governmental guidelines on the utilization of human embryonic stem (ES) cells .
|Order Form
|Order Form(C-0061.pdf)   MTA(C-0062.pdf)
|Regarding MTA between user institutions and RIKEN BRC, there are two kinds of MTA, not-for-profit academic purpose (C-XXXX) and for-profit research purpose (C-XXXXp) , depending on the sort of user institutions and the purposes of use. Please use an appropriate MTA(to see). In relation to commercial use and use for patent filing, first of all Please contact RIKEN BRC (firstname.lastname@example.com).
|Basic information
|Expected time
|Upon a request we will start preparation. Contact us: email@example.com
|KO. S. H. Minoru
|KO. S. H. Minoru
|Original cell
|human < Mammals
|Reference information
|User's Publication
|12278 Yuhki Nakatake, Shigeru B H Ko, Alexei A Sharov, Shunichi Wakabayashi, Miyako Murakami, Miki Sakota, Nana Chikazawa, Chiaki Ookura, Saeko Sato, Noriko Ito, Madoka Ishikawa-Hirayama, Siu Shan Mak, Lars Martin Jakt, Tomoo Ueno, Ken Hiratsuka, Misako Matsushita, Sravan Kumar Goparaju, Tomohiko Akiyama, Kei-Ichiro Ishiguro, Mayumi Oda, Norio Gouda, Akihiro Umezawa, Hidenori Akutsu, Kunihiro Nishimura, Ryo Matoba, Osamu Ohara, Minoru S H Ko Generation and Profiling of 2,135 Human ESC Lines for the Systematic Analyses of Cell States Perturbed by Inducing Single Transcription Factors Cell Rep 2020 31(7):107655 PubMed ID: 32433964 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107655
|User's Publication