The Big Game is almost here, but for This Is Usfans everywhere Super Bowl Sunday is known as The Big Cry.
Ever since the NBC drama revealed the tragic death of America’s TV dad, Jack Pearson, in a “Super Bowl Sunday” episode that rudely aired immediately after the game in 2018, the day has had somewhat of a dark cloud over it. Sure, Super Bowl Sunday is still a day of food, fun, and games, but now each year marks an anniversary of sad firsts.
It marks the time we saw the Pearson family home engulfed in flames from a slow cooker fire, Jack die of cardiac arrest brought on by smoke inhalation, Rebecca grief-eat a Mars bar in the hospital before breaking down in tears, and a whole bunch of other NOPE moments.
So this Super Bowl Sunday, since there’s no heartbreaking This Is Us episode to remind us, we came up with a few ways you can honor the memory of Jack Pearson.
To start, no matter which teams are playing, the head of the Pearson family would have wanted us all to gather round and watch the game with loved ones. So call your friends, family, and favorite co-workers over for a Super Bowl bash.
If you’re not a Patriots or Rams fan, consider wearing a Steelers jersey to the party as a nod to Jack’s favorite team. And if that’s too dramatic for you, just opt for a plaid shirt, because he loved to rock those, too.
We all know that Jack Pearson met his early demise as a result of forgetting to unplug his old, faulty slow cooker when he cleaned up the Super Bowl snacks in the kitchen before going to bed. So it’s important be mindful when engaging in sensitive slow cooker-related convos on the big day. For those who are still grieving, we’ve compiled a few delicious recipes that don’t require slow cookers.
Before the big game, you might consider re-watching the episode in Jack’s honor. That’s very nice, but it’s very sad, so perhaps just watch that first Super Bowl fire scene. That scene is also incredibly sad though, so perhaps just listen to “To Build A Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra and pregame the Big Game with another Big Cry.
In wake of that devastating Super Bowl episode, Milo Ventimiglia (who plays Jack) and other This Is Us cast members rallied to support Crock Pots and slow cookers everywhere, reminding the world that not all of them have faulty switches and will spontaneously combust. And much like the cast members, if Jack Pearson were alive right now I’ll bet he’d say something encouragingly profound like, “Never let the fear of slow cooker fires keep you from enjoying the game.”
So carry on with your slow cooking, and enjoy your chili and delicious dips, but please, do not forget to unplug the slow cooker when the game’s over. Unplug it for your own safety, of course, but also do it for Jack.
If you recall, the Pearson family also forgot to replace the batteries in their smoke detector, which is why it took so long for them to realize the house was on fire that night. So if you haven’t changed your smoke detector batteries in a while, Super Bowl Sunday is the perfect time to do so.
Ventimiglia shared a slew of other fire safety tips with us back in 2018, which you can review before the football game. But after that, kick back, relax, and enjoy the game for Jack.
Nissan announced it cancelled plans to make its X-Trail SUV in the United Kingdom – a sharp blow to British Prime Minister Theresa May who fought to have the model built in northern England as she sought to shore up confidence in the British economy after it leaves the European Union.
Nissan said on Sunday it will consolidate production of the next generation X-Trail at its plant in Kyushu, Japan, where the model is currently produced, allowing the company to reduce investment costs in the early stages of the project.
That reverses a decision in late 2016 to build the SUV at Nissan’s Sunderland plant in northern England, which employs 7,000 workers. That plant will continue to make Nissan’s Juke and Qashqai models. The announcement on Sunday made no mention of any layoffs relating to the X-Trail decision.
“While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the continued uncertainty around the UK’s future relationship with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future,” Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy said in a statement.
Less than two months before Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, Britain still doesn’t have an agreement on what will replace 45 years of frictionless trade. This has caused an enormous amount of concern among businesses in Britain, which fear the country is going to crash out of the vast EU trade bloc without a divorce deal, a scenario economists predict would hurt the UK economy.
Change of heart
The Nissan decision is a major setback for May’s Conservative government, which had pointed to Nissan’s 2016 announcement that Sunderland would make the SUV – months after the country’s Brexit referendum – as proof that major manufacturers still had confidence in Britain’s economic future.
Nissan’s change of heart comes just days after Britain’s carmakers issued a stark assessment about Brexit’s effect on the industry, warning their exports are at risk if the UK leaves the EU without an agreement.
Investment in the industry fell 46 percent last year and new car production dropped 9.1 percent to 1.52 million vehicles, in part because of concerns over Brexit, the Society of Motor Manufacturing said.
The group’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, described the threat of a no-deal Brexit as “catastrophic”.
He said the drop in investment is only a foreshadowing of what could happen if the UK leaves the EU on March 29 without a deal.
Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, called Nissan’s move disconcerting for Sunderland’s community.
“It’s very worrying for the northeast and the workers and their families. I think that’s the utmost concern. But I think it does raise fundamental questions about the Brexit strategy,” said Cable.
Back to Brussels
Members of parliament, who last month rejected May’s Brexit deal with the EU, have instructed May to return to Brussels to renegotiate the arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The EU has rejected reopening talks on the so-called “backstop”, an insurance policy to keep an open border on the island of Ireland if Britain and the EU fail to reach a longer-term trade agreement before the end of a transition period.
Fears are growing over the risk of a disorderly “no deal” exit.
“The no-deal Brexit is an uncertainty that’s completely unacceptable for all sorts of people: farmers, car manufacturers, consumers. The government needs to absolutely take that off the table,” said Shami Chakrabarti of the UK’s main opposition Labour Party.
“I don’t think that the House of Commons will tolerate a no-deal Brexit. So Theresa May needs to stop running down the clock and using that terrible threat as some kind of bargaining chip with the EU.”
May said on Sunday she would seek a “pragmatic solution” to the parliamentary impasse over the terms on which Britain leaves the EU when she tries to reopen talks with Brussels.
“MPs said that, with changes to the Northern Ireland backstop, they would support the deal that I agreed with Brussels to take us out of the EU,” May wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
“When I return to Brussels I will be battling for Britain and Northern Ireland, I will be armed with a fresh mandate, new ideas, and a renewed determination to agree a pragmatic solution that delivers the Brexit the British people voted for.”
Pro-Brexit Trade Minister Liam Fox said it would be “irresponsible” for the EU to refuse to reopen the Brexit negotiations.
“Are they really saying that they would rather not negotiate and end up in a ‘no-deal’ position?” Fox told Sky News.
“It is in all our interests to get to that agreement, and for the EU to say we are not going to even discuss it seems to me to be quite irresponsible.”
Nairobi, Kenya – It is 11:10am on a hot, quiet Sunday in Nairobi’s Dandora suburb.
Frida Syshia bends down to open a black door leading into her sister’s one-bedroom house.
Wearing an olive-green blouse and a matching turban, she enters the house and calls out to one of her three children.
“Go and peel these potatoes. I found them at the dumpsite. We are having fries for lunch today,” she orders her second-born daughter. She then proceeds to clean up the house.
Syshia suffers from constant severe chest pain.
The 36-year-old worked at Dandora dump site, one of Africa’s largest rubbish sites.
Dandora is Nairobi’s main dumping ground. Every day, it receives more than 2,000 metric tonnes of waste from the capital city’s 4.5 million residents.
Her initial job was searching for used plastics, electronics, and metals to resell.
After two years of doing this, “I saw a niche and opened up a makeshift restaurant next to the dumpsite to sell food mainly the people who work here,” she says.
As a result, Syshia has been exposed to the smoke coming out of the dumpsite for years – the cause her chest pains.
“I closed my restaurant after seven years. I was running away from recycling thinking this will be better for my health. It was worse,” says Syshia, who cannot afford further checkups. She used to make an average of $25 a month.
The 12-hectare land, located in the east of Nairobi, hosts an informal recycling economy which feeds nearly 3,000 families in surrounding slums.
Residents like Rehema Ayako, who live in slums, trek to Dandora to collect metals, electronics, rubber and plastics bags for recycling.
For 12 years, she has been walking the three kilometres from her iron-sheet walled house to the dumpsite in search of a living.
“It is my second home. I sell whatever I get that can be sold to pay my bill,” says the 62-year-old mother of nine.
Despite this, Ayako has been suffering from abdominal pain. Doctors say her symptoms show that she has kidney problems.
“This illness started while working at Dandora. I get exposed to heavy metals and liquids of different colours which have a heavy smell,” she says, standing outside her house.
“I get depressed,” Ayako continues, as she bends down to spread the plastics and electronic items to sell.
“This is because when this pain gets into me, it means I have to limit my days of working. But this hard since I need to pay my bills.”
Professor Jared Onyari is an environmental expert who has studied the affect of Dandora to the almost one million people residing around it.
“The dumpsite continues to pose environmental and health risks,” he said. “It has a terrible impact on the environment because [of] the unrestricted dumping of domestic, industrial, hospital and agricultural waste at the city’s main dumping site.
“Before the garbage is dumped, it should be separated into recyclable, products, biodegradable and non-biodegradable products. The recyclable will be recycled and the rest should be kept together and burned. This way, the dumpsite will be cleared and the amount of air pollution will be much less.”
But Syshia is bewildered. Her health is deteriorating and, as the sole breadwinner, she is coerced to go back to the dumpsite.
“My sister took me in with my children. But I have to look for income to feed them and pay school fees,” she concludes, serving her children the fries.
Over the past few years, our camera-equipped phones have given us the gift/curse of the panorama fail. Some of these photos end up being truly hilarious, while other’s look like something that walked straight out of a Stephen King novel.
From distorted dogs to disturbingly flat faces, here are some of the funniest, and most horrifying panorama fails that are honestly real works of art.
1. This man is truly a pano fail king
2. Poetry in motion
3. I often feel like I’ve forgotten my head, but this isn’t what I had in mind
4. We’re not entirely sure if this is a sheep or a dog, but either way it’s a baaaaa-d panorama
5. “Who you callin’ pinhead?”
6. Nice
7. It’s a twin thing
8. This one’s actually pretty smooth
9. These dogs seem to have the opposite problem
10. Just a very normal 2-legged horse
11. Don’t worry, girl, I have close-set eyes too
12. Heads up, bro
13. Riding the bus is for squares
14. Ahh, the ghosts of Crocs past
15. This is like the slinky dog just like the one in Toy Story
Hope you enjoyed these pano fails, which if you did makes them more of pano wins.
We know that the news has been depressing recently. It’s been causing a lot of unpleasant feelings.
Thank goodness we have a bright spot on the horizon this weekend, an event that will be bound to lift our spirits and perhaps make us momentarily forget the current state of America.
Enter Superb Owl Sunday, the greatest celebration of the most magnificent of birds!
When you don’t care about football….
Image: Shutterstock / allanw
Oh wait, you thought we were going to talk about the Super Bowl? Yeah, we’re not going to do that here. We’d much prefer to discuss the bounty of Superb Owls there are in the world.
It’s the bird that gave us Hedwig, Tootsie Pop’s Mr. Know it All and the Pokemon Rowlet. It’s the bird who stands as a role model for our youth with its reputation for wisdom and looking adorable in graduation caps.
Given all this, why would we not take the time every year to honor the owl?
Well, we will and we are. Right here. Right now. We present to you some of the great owls of our time, so great in fact that you might say they were superb.
1.
Image: Shutterstock / Mr Lemon
2.
Not one, but TWO Superb Owls.
Image: Shutterstock / Prashant Meswani
3.
4.
Move over, Tom Brady. The real star today is this Superb Owl.
Image: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images
5.
A Superb Owl chills in the woods.
Image: Shutterstock / vagabond54
6.
A superb owl with big eyes, no football abilities.
Image: Shutterstock / Todd Maertz
7.
A truly Superb Owl who would not commit pass interference
Image: Sergen Sezgin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
8.
“Ahhhhh” – This Superb Owl
Image: Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images
It’s 12:09 p.m. at Buena Vista Horace Mann school in San Francisco’s Mission district.
Laura Ramirez, a curriculum technology integration specialist, is waiting for 14 girls to stream into her classroom. She’s laid out old Dell CPUs alongside tool kits that contain screwdrivers, Allen wrenches, and pliers. The girls’ job today is to carefully open the computers, explore and label the components, and then put the hardware back together again.
The girls, who are in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, arrive and place their backpacks into cubbies. They’re here for Tech Chicxs, a club Ramirez founded to encourage girls at the K-8 school to explore science, technology, engineering, and math. Approximately 80 percent of the school’s students are Hispanic or Latino, and Ramirez is particularly set on engaging girls who are rarely represented in Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry.
“My heart is devoted for students to get the tech skills, take the risks, learn computer science at a very young age …. and not be consumed with failing,” she says. “I thought it was important to create a group where our brown girls, and [all] girls, can be fierce at trying new things in technology. That’s my mission.”
You could walk into this club and mistakenly think it’s the personification of “you can’t be what you can’t see,” an upbeat slogan popularized by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, meant to inspire girls who felt like Silicon Valley’s dreams and ambitions weren’t for them to pursue.
But what happens in Tech Chicxs is far more complex than giving these girls the proverbial pat on the back when they code something. Instead, it’s the grueling, rewarding work of helping students develop not just technical skills but also character traits like leadership and resilience — and it’s happening all across the San Francisco Unified School District.
SFUSD is the first large district in the nation to attempt offering computer science classes to every student grades kindergarten through eight, a benchmark it plans to reach in 2020. Nearly half of the district’s 54,000 students are participating in computer science courses this academic year. If the district’s efforts are successful at engaging girls and students from underrepresented backgrounds while providing a pathway for them to pursue STEM in college or the workforce, it could yield one antidote to tech’s infamous diversity problem.
Laura Ramirez, a a curriculum technology integration specialist for San Francisco Unified School District, founded the Tech Chicxs club.
Rebecca Ruiz/Mashable
“In terms of ambition and number of students, there’s no other district in the country that’s trying to do something as ambitious in computer science,” says Pat Yongpradit, chief academic officer of Code.org, a nonprofit organization that promotes computer science education.
“If you extrapolate from what San Francisco is doing and move it forward, you’ll see more people from underrepresented backgrounds graduating from college with computer science credentials, and eventually you’ll see more [diverse] people in the workforce.”
While women comprise half of all STEM workers, they’re concentrated in health-related jobs and are woefully underrepresented in fields like engineering (14 percent) and computer science (25 percent). Black and Hispanic workers make up 9 percent and 7 percent of the STEM workforce, but they participate in the overall workforce at higher rates.
“In terms of ambition and number of students, there’s no other district in the country that’s trying to do something as ambitious in computer science.”
Ramirez doesn’t need to know these stats to know that girls of color, in particular, haven’t been getting the same opportunities to explore STEM as some of their peers. For years she noticed that no girls participated in the after-school robotics club at Buena Vista Horace Mann.
“Even though there are scholarships for them to join these robotics classes, there isn’t a want or will for girls to join,” she says. That’s why she took the idea for Tech Chicxs to the school administration and the district. She won their support.
At first Ramirez named the club Tech Chicas. Then she replaced the “a” with an “x” to be inclusive of trans and non-gender conforming students, similar to the term Latinx. The girls’ portraits, proud and smiling, line the wall. Underneath each image is a sticky note that details their skills. “I know how to update Firefox,” reads one. “I accept my failures / I change the toner / I can add a computer account,” reads another.
Bios of women in STEM to inspire the Tech Chicxs.
Rebecca Ruiz/Mashable
A reminder that failure is a good thing.
Rebecca Ruiz/Mashable
“All eyes on the board, please,” says Ramirez, before launching into the day’s warm-up activity: a binary coding exercise where the students convert numbers into code “just like the computer does.” The students answer her questions in unison about bytes and bits and turning switches “on” and “off.” Ramirez tells the girls to skip to more challenging problems denoted by a chili pepper if they solve the first few problems quickly. “If this is too easy for you,” she says, “then you could try the spicy ones.”
Tech Chicxs is what it looks like to change the narrative that only white brogrammers belong in tech. Art on the wall pays homage to seven “incredible women” in computer engineering, including the NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, programmer Ada Lovelace, and actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. Another display emphasizes the importance of making mistakes: “Failing is another word for GROWING.”
Ramirez, who teaches computer science and tech skills in different grade levels at the school, delivers instruction in both Spanish and English. She’s trained and deputized the club members to troubleshoot hardware problems in the club and in their classrooms. She’s even trusted them with administrative rights so they can update browsers and software. Ramirez doesn’t just want the Tech Chicxs to be tech savvy; she wants them to feel and act like problem solvers and leaders.
If this sounds like far too easy of a victory based on the bureaucracy that can plague schools, you should know that one key factor — money — separates SFUSD from many districts of similar size and resources. Salesforce, which is headquartered in San Francisco, began granting millions of dollars to SFUSD to support its computer science and STEM programming, back in 2013. In total, the district has received more than $35 million over the past six years, including $8.5 million last September.
First came the devices and equipment: Chromebooks, iPads, and computer carts. After the initial rush of putting technology into classrooms, it became clear that brand-new devices weren’t the answer. Unless a teacher or student knows how to effectively use a Chromebook or iPad in a classroom setting, it might as well become a paperweight. Fancy equipment also provides an exciting distraction from the fact that access to devices is ultimately a small part of engaging students who have limited exposure to STEM.
“We can have all of the equipment and yet nothing changes for the girls and kids of color,” says Ramirez.
Ramirez leads Tech Chicxs members in an exercise taking apart a Dell computer.
Rebecca Ruiz/ Mashable
“We can have all of the equipment and yet nothing changes for the girls and kids of color.”
Laura Ramirez, SFUSD
So Ebony Frelix Beckwith, executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer for Salesforce’s social enterprise, Salesforce.org, began convening twice-monthly meetings with representatives from the district and mayor’s office to learn how the millions of dollars it’d been funneling into the school system could be best spent. Beckwith says they adopted a mantra that she credits to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s vision: “Let them try and fail, let them try and succeed.”
“The principals are the CEOs of the school. Our teachers are executives,” says Beckwith, who was born and raised in San Francisco. “They are trusted to do what they need to do in the schools. It’s not about Salesforce being a company coming in and [saying] you need to do this, this and this. We trust you.”
If she’s honest, though, Beckwith says the grant administrative team was a bit curious when one school used its “principal’s innovation fund” of $100,000 to hire a librarian. That didn’t strike them as particularly innovative. But the next year that school put computers, along with a security guard, in that same library. The following year it launched a maker’s club in the space. “They were laying the foundation,” she says.
Ramirez’s ongoing professional development is paid for by the Salesforce grant. That training, which includes courses to update knowledge and discussions about how to effectively teach computer science to every student, is also available for the district’s 3,582 teachers who already specialize in technology or want to develop that expertise.
Ebony Frelix Beckwith works with students on projects they invented from the Age of Makers club at Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco.
Salesforce.org
Reimagining computer science
Bryan Twarek, the district’s computer science supervisor, says SFUSD wants to avoid replicating what’s happening in STEM courses and programming at the college level.
“We want to reimagine how computer science is taught and design it for our targeted population,” he says. “We design computer science classes to be creative, collaborative, and relevant. When we design it for students’ own voices to shine, and present it as a means for personal expression, then it is natural for students to be engaged and want to use this new skillset and medium for telling their stories and creating things they care about.”
“We design computer science classes to be creative, collaborative, and relevant.”
Bryan Twarek, San Francisco Unified School District
In other words, the district is running as far away as possible from the presentation of computer science as something that only hoodie-wearing coders and programmers do. For that to work, however, teachers must also learn how to recognize and check their own biases about who’s good at STEM. The district’s efforts to positively expose every student to computer science will have diminished impact if teachers consistently call on white male students to problem-solve or use technology in front of the class.
That’s why the professional training addresses the fact that some students might experience “stereotype threat,” a phenomenon in which a student’s performance may suffer when they feel at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their social group. To combat that effect, teachers are encouraged to identify and meaningfully engage students from underrepresented backgrounds.
The elementary school curriculum relies on a co-teaching model in which trained staff like Ramirez go into a classroom and lead computer science coursework while the full-time teacher ideally provides support. The setup is meant to bring expertise into the classroom without overwhelming teachers with expectations that they also learn computer science in addition to their regular duties.
This academic year is Alba Akrabawi’s first in that role, and her position is funded by the Salesforce grant. At Dolores Huerta Elementary school, she visits every classroom for one period each week. Her third graders started the semester learning how to use their Chromebooks. Since they’re still developing fine motor movements, simply “chicken pecking” the keyboard to log in was a task. Once they mastered that, they moved on to discussions about concepts, including algorithms and programs. By November, the students started simple coding using what’s known as “motion blocks” in the educational app Scratch.
Alba Akrabawi’s “All About Me” sample project.
Alba Akrabawi
For their latest project, Akrabawi has the students designing what looks like a profile page that features interactive images and elements. If you’re Akrabawi, that means your biographical collage includes an image of a cat that meows and moves when clicked, as well as Mexican soccer fans programmed to cheer. Akrabawi, who is Mexican-American and bilingual, likes to create examples of the class project that are relatable and neither overly feminine or masculine. She emphasizes to students, many of whom are immigrants or the children of immigrants, that she speaks Spanish and is there to answer their questions.
The curriculum doesn’t require a lot of reading, and the Scratch app translates into dozens of languages, which means that Akrabawi often sees students from underrepresented backgrounds stepping up to help others or show off their skills.
“The one thing I like about this curriculum is that it gives agency to the kids that normally aren’t the academic leaders in the classroom,” she says.
Two members of Tech Chicxs deconstruct a computer.
Rebecca Ruiz/Mashable
As the 20 students in the classroom navigate their projects, the girls happily plug along. One pair of female classmates giggle as they Google images of pomeranians and Grumpy Cat GIFs to import into their collages. Their full-time teacher floats around the room helping students with basic questions while Akrabawi bounces from desk to desk to troubleshoot coding and software problems.
“I see this as an equity issue,” says Akrabawi. “I need to do whatever I can to make it possible for my students who were born and raised in San Francisco to be able to stay in the city … especially my girls.”
The district’s efforts seem to be paying off for now. The percentage of girls participating in computer science courses has shot up from 25 to 45 percent in the past several years. At the same time, the percentage of students from underrepresented racial groups (African American, Latinx, and Native American) getting the same exposure skyrocketed from less than 10 percent to nearly 40 percent.
When the district surveyed students last year about whether they felt capable of succeeding in computer science, even amidst challenges, the district saw no differences based on race or gender. It did, however, notice that on average 10 percent fewer female students expressed a “high affinity” for computer science curriculum, a gap that Twarek, the computer science administrator, says the district wants to close.
The big unknown is how SFUSD will maintain its momentum once the Salesforce grant money slows or even comes to a halt. Twarek says the district is currently in the “startup phase” where it’s teaching students and staff computer science skills for the first time. The key to making the program indispensable, adds Twarek, is tracking measures of success and ultimately making the case that “this is worth ongoing investment of precious funding.”
“This is not an overnight change. This is a systemic shift and we take a multi-year approach to this problem.”
Ebony Frelix Beckwith, Salesforce.org
Beckwith, of Salesforce.org, suggests the company isn’t ready to walk away anytime soon.
“This is not an overnight change. This is a systemic shift and we take a multi-year approach to this problem,” she says, when pressed about how long Salesforce.org’s commitment will last. “I guess the answer is as long as it takes.”
Back in Ramirez’s classroom, the Tech Chicxs are scrambling to reassemble their CPUs before the bell rings. Some of the girls don’t have the right size screwdriver while others are still sorting through their parts. Ramirez gently reminds them to improvise and work together as they problem solve.
“Girls, let’s support each other,” says Ramirez. “If you see someone who’s not finished yet, help them out.”
London, United Kingdom – The British parliament is currently in turmoil as politicians argue about the terms on which the United Kingdom should leave the European Union and whether there should be a second referendum on the matter.
One of the key messages of the “Vote Leave” campaign was a £350m ($458m) figure – the sum the campaign stated the National Health Service (NHS) would receive each week after leaving the EU.
This slogan, notoriously plastered on the sides of buses during the lead-up to the referendum, was later revealed to be a lie.
The potential impact on the country’s health service has been well documented by doctors and scientists since the referendum in June 2016. A poll by the British Medical Association in 2017 showed that one in five EU doctors working for the NHS had made plans to leave as a result of the Brexit vote.
One of the concerns as the deadline approaches is a potential shortage of medicines and a spike in prices of available ones.
Last November, Matthew Shaw, then-medical director and now chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the UK’s biggest paediatric research hospital, told a medical conference how Brexit will impact paediatric care in the UK.
“The European scheme for research Horizon 2020 has 40 child health projects and the UK is involved in 32 of these. We punch far above our weight. The funding for these projects is 200 million euros ($229m). All of these programmes are at risk. Even before transition, world-leading clinicians at GOSH are being excluded from European research programmes after years of being at the forefront of them,” he said.
Shaw also voiced his worries about the availability of radioisotopes, which cannot be stockpiled, after Brexit. Radioisotopes are essential for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers in both children and adults. In the UK, it is estimated that around 700,000 nuclear medicine procedures using radioisotopes are carried out each year.
The UK does not produce any of the longer-lived radioisotopes used to treat a range of cancers. They are currently imported via road or air with a majority arriving through Coventry Airport.
In the event of a no-deal Brexit, it is uncertain how delays at borders could affect the transport of these isotopes, some of which have a half-life of just six hours.
Andrew Kuc, a doctor and medico-legal writer told Al Jazeera that a number of components with regards to radioisotopes remain unclear.
“The European Commission have proposed basic measures on aviation in the event of no-deal. This is reassuring given the UK’s contingency plan to airlift medical radioisotopes. But will the UK have the specialist capacity to receive these supplies by air? Will delivery supply chains be as seamless as now? We know that supply disruption can quickly lead to procedures being cancelled or re-scheduled. This can be distressing for patients and families, especially when children are being treated. And, of course, this is suboptimal in terms of care.
“And what will be the cost for the NHS? I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question where the NHS would get the additional money. Either new funds are found or diverted, or ultimately less people get treated.”
I have no trust in the future economy and I think the quality of life will deteriorate.
Sara, Dutch paediatrician
“We too are worried about the availability of key diagnostic tools using isotopes – without regulations allowing their transport to the UK, tests can’t be conducted and this could affect treatment outcomes,” Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics told Al Jazeera. “Medicines for children are very different from those for adults.
“The EU allows a much broader array of drugs, which is particularly important for patients with rare diseases – it also allows access in a frictionless way. The European market is substantially larger than ours, and manufacturers are more likely to seek approval on the continent prior to the UK.
“Legislation isn’t in place in the UK to be able to approve drugs in the way that we need to do in the future and this concerns us. In addition, differences in the way the UK regulates paediatric medicines will mean added licensing costs to manufacturers and possible delays.”
Sara, a Dutch paediatrician working in London who wishes to remain anonymous because of the work she carries out with children, told Al Jazeera she would have returned to the Netherlands already if she didn’t have a family here.
“I’m married to an Englishman and I’ve got a daughter who goes to school here,” she said. “If that wasn’t the case, I certainly would have gone back, the reason being I have no trust in the future economy and I think the quality of life will deteriorate.
“The hospital doesn’t have a pathway or a plan for no-deal Brexit, at least not that has been communicated with the staff, apart from helping and paying for staff to apply for the permanent right to stay in the UK.
“I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen in terms of import of medication. I know that the government is saying they are stocking up for six weeks, which is a relatively short amount of time.”
Sara is also concerned about the impact of not being able to apply for EU funding for research and not being involved in EU research programmes.
“Pharmaceutical companies may not choose the UK for clinical trials if it has separate legislation to Europe.”
Any Brexit deal will be worse than remaining in the EU.
Martin McKee, professor
Late last year, Lord Shaughnessy, who had previously been the parliamentary under-secretary for health, resigned.
Some medical professionals who had been working with him, particularly on the supply of radioisotopes, have privately told Al Jazeera of their disappointment at this resignation, which they believe puts them back to square one on this issue.
“The biggest problem is uncertainty,” says Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a vocal campaigner about the problems Brexit will create for the NHS. “Any Brexit deal will be worse than remaining in the EU.”
No law prohibits collecting such data or using it in the exam room. The justification for risk scoring is the opioid epidemic, which kills about 130 Americans a day. | AP Photo/Patrick Sison
Information used to gauge opioid overdose risk is unregulated, used without patient consent.
Companies are starting to sell “risk scores” to doctors, insurers and hospitals to identify patients at risk of opioid addiction or overdose, without patient consent and with little regulation of the kinds of personal information used to create the scores.
While the data collection is aimed at helping doctors make more informed decisions on prescribing opioids, it could also lead to blacklisting of some patients and keep them from getting the drugs they need, according to patient advocates.
Story Continued Below
Over the past year, powerful companies such as LexisNexis have begun hoovering up the data from insurance claims, digital health records, housing records, and even information about a patient’s friends, family and roommates, without telling the patient they are accessing the information, and creating risk scores for health care providers and insurers. Health insurance giant Cigna and UnitedHealth’s Optum are also using risk scores.
There’s no guarantee of the accuracy of the algorithms and “really no protection” against their use, said Sharona Hoffman, a professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University. Overestimating risk might lead health systems to focus their energy on the wrong patients; a low risk score might cause a patient to fall through the cracks.
No law prohibits collecting such data or using it in the exam room. Congress hasn’t taken up the issue of intrusive big data collection in health care. It’s an area where technology is moving too fast for government and society to keep up.
“Consumers, clinicians and institutions need to understand that personalized health is a type of surveillance,” says Harvard University professor Eric Perakslis. “There is no way around it, so it needs to be recognized and understood.”
The justification for risk scoring is the terrible opioid epidemic, which kills about 130 Americans a day and is partly fueled by the overprescribing of legal painkillers. The Trump administration and Congress have focused billions on fighting the epidemic, and haven’t shied from intrusive methods to combat it. In its national strategy, released Thursday, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy urged requiring doctors to look up each patient in a prescription drug database.
Health care providers legitimately want to know whether a patient in pain can take opioids safely, in what doses, and for how long — and which patients are at high risk of addiction or overdose. Data firms are pitching their predictive formulas, or algorithms, as tools that can help make the right decisions.
The practice scares some health care safety advocates. While the scoring is aimed at helping doctors figure out whether to prescribe opioids to their patients, it might pigeonhole people without their knowledge and give doctors an excuse to keep them from “getting the drugs they need,” says a critic, Lorraine Possanza of the ECRI Institute.
The algorithms assign each patient a number on a scale from zero to 1, showing their risk of addiction if prescribed opioids. The risk predictions sometimes go directly into patients’ health records, where clinicians may use them, for example, to turn down or limit a patient’s request for a painkiller.
Doctors can share the patients’ scores with them — if they want to, the data mongers say. “We stop really short of trying to advocate a particular opinion,” said Brian Studebaker from one of the risk scoring companies, the actuarial firm Milliman.
According to addiction experts, however, predicting who’s at risk is an inexact science. Past substance abuse is about the only clear red flag when a doctor is considering prescribing opioid painkillers.
But several companies POLITICO spoke with already are selling the predictive technology. None would name customers. Nor would they disclose exactly what goes into the mathematical formulas they use to create their risk scores — because that information is the “secret sauce” they’re selling.
Congress has shown some interest in data privacy; a series of hearings last year looked into thefts of data or suspect data sharing processes by big companies like Facebook. But it hasn’t really delved into the myriad health care and health privacy implications of data crunching.
Consumers have a “basic expectation” that the data they provide to websites and apps “won’t be used against them,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who co-sponsored legislation last year barring companies from using individuals’ data in harmful ways. The HIPAA privacy law of the late 1990s restricted how doctors share patient information, and Schatz says “online companies should be required to do the same.”
A bill from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), S. 1815 (115), would require data brokers to be more transparent about what they collect, but neither his bill nor Schatz’s specifically address data in health care, a field in which separating the harmful from the benign may prove especially delicate.
The use of big data in this arena impinges on human rights beyond simple violation of privacy, says data governance expert Martin Tisne. He argues in a recent issue of Technology Review for a Bill of Data Rights that includes the right to be secure against “unreasonable surveillance” and unfair discrimination on the basis of data.
Risk scores may be ‘the way of the future’
Research into opioid risk factors is nascent. The University of Pittsburgh was awarded an NIH grant last year to determine whether computer programs incorporating Medicaid claims and clinical data are more accurate than ones based on claims alone.
Risk scores could be helpful if they help clinicians begin candid conversations about the unique circumstances that could make a patient more vulnerable to opioid use disorder, said Yngvild Olsen, a board member at the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
But the algorithms could be relying on inaccurate public data, and they may disempower patients, leaving them in the dark about the Big Brotherish systems rating them. Another key challenge, says Case Western’s Hoffman, is ensuring that the predictions don’t override a clinicians’ instinct or reinforce biases.
It’s difficult to imagine what a robust safeguard against the misuse of predictive algorithms would even look like, she said. One approach might be to revise health care privacy law to prohibit groups from profiting from health data or algorithms that crunch it. But that won’t keep tech companies from making predictions based on whatever they can access.
Algorithms predicting health risk are likely “the way of the future,” she said. “I’m afraid we need to learn to live with them. … but get more education.”
The companies using predictive analytics to address the opioid crisis include insurer Cigna, which announced last year it was expanding a program flagging patients likely to overdose. The insurer has a “number of tools that enable further insights,” Cigna’s Gina Papush said. Optum has also begun stratifying patients by opioids-related risk. It said a spokesperson was unavailable to comment.
Milliman won an FDA innovation challenge to create an artificial intelligence-based algorithm that predicts whether patients will receive an opioid use disorder diagnosis in the next six months. The company offers to provide a list of high-risk patients to payers, who can hand the relevant information to clinicians.
Milliman has signed early-stage contracts with some accountable care organizations. It assigns patients a risk score from zero to 1, and also compares them to other patients.
Another company, called HBI Solutions, uses a mathematical formula that learns from deidentified claims data, said senior vice president Laura Kanov. Payers or providers can run the formula on their own patient data. Unlike some companies, HBI displays the reasoning behind each risk score, she said.
LexisNexis sells health plans a tool that flags patients who may already have opioid use disorder. Someone could be at greater risk if their relatives or roommates abuse opioids, or if they use a pharmacy known for filling high volumes of pills, said LexisNexis’s Shweta Vyas. LexisNexis can draw “relatively strong connections” between people based on public records showing they live at the same address, she said. If both parties are enrolled in the same health plan, the software can find patterns “in the aggregate behavior of those two people.”
Sally Satel, an American Enterprise Institute fellow and psychiatrist, warned that risk scores could reinforce what she sees as a mistaken idea that doctors who overprescribe are the key drivers of the opioid crisis. A patient who’s been in a serious car accident could exceed the recommended duration of opioid use because of their mental and emotional state, not just because a doctor gave them too much, she said.
“I don’t know how much an algorithm can examine all those much more personal dimensions,” she said. “I’d love to see this being studied more, instead of being sold.”
Doha, Qatar – Thousands of Qataris and expat residents gathered in the capital Doha to give a hero’s welcome to the national football team following its historic Asian Cup title in the UAE.
Qatar beat four-time winners Japan 3-1 in the final on Friday, sealing the Gulf nation’s first major football triumph.
On Saturday, fans holding national flags, banners and wearing replica jerseys cheered the team as it paraded through Doha’s landmark Corniche on an open-top bus.
The fans, some of who had waited more than four hours to catch a glimpse of the team, threw flower petals and screamed ecstatically as the bus went past.
Earlier on Friday, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani congratulated his country’s football team for an “historic victory” after it arrived back in the country from Oman where the players went to on Friday evening.
“A tribute to our heroes who made this tournament an Arab achievement and… realised the dreams of millions of Qatari football fans across the great Arab world,” Sheikh Tamim wrote on his personal Twitter account.
En route to the final, Qatar beat Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two of the countries that have placed an air, land and sea blockade on the country since June 2015. It also beat Japan and South Korea, teams that have reached semi-finals of the football World Cup in the past.
A large number of expat workers, that make up the majority of Qatar’s population, were seen celebrating for the second night running.
Rawda Hamad, a Qatari, lauded the fact that residents had joined in on the celebrations and gave the national team so much backing and support.
“I am here to celebrate the win and to see the trophy come back home. I just feel so blessed that we won, I didn’t expect it. I am just so proud of our team,” Hamad told Al Jazeera.
“Expatriates here make a large part of our community and I hope they feel that this place is home just like we do.”
The chambers, which were cut out of rock, belonged to a middle-class family [Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters]
Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a tomb containing 50 mummies that date back to the Ptolemaic era (323-30BCE).
The mummies, 12 of which were of children, were discovered inside four nine-metre deep burial chambers in the Tuna el-Gebel archaeological site in Minya, south of Cairo, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Saturday.
The identities of the mummies – which are said to be in good condition – were still unknown, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the council.
An Egyptian archaeologist examines a mummy in a coffin [Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters]
“We have not found names written in hieroglyphics,” he said, adding it was obvious from the mummification method that the individuals whose remains were found had to some extent held important or prestigious positions.
Officials told reporters at the site that the chambers, which were cut out of rock, belonged to a middle-class family.
Some were decorated with demotic handwriting, a form of ancient Egyptian script used by ordinary people. Pottery, papyri and colourful mummy cases were also unearthed.
Mummy cases lie in a recently discovered burial chamber in the desert province of Minya [Roger Anis/AP]
Some of the mummies were found wrapped in linen while others were displayed in their stone coffins or wooden sarcophagi during an announcement ceremony attended by ambassadors and cultural attaches from 11 countries.
This archaeological find was the first of 2019 and was realised through a joint mission with the Research Centre for Archaeological Studies of Minya University.
Egypt has made a series of archaeological finds recently and has been heavily promoting them to revive its tourism industry, a staple of its economy that was decimated by the chaos that followed its 2011 uprising.
![The chambers, which were cut out of rock, belonged to a middle-class family [Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/2/3/8cdc3210dffb4c27bd1c61b241df7a69_18.jpg "Egypt uncovers ancient burial site of 50 mummies")
Daily Trends Hunter 
