Over 250 Years Ago, The Skies Above Asia Turned A Fiery Red And Now We Know Why

Nearly three centuries ago ominous red skies hovered parts of Asia for days and days, mystifying local people who recorded what they saw, but had very little understanding of what was happening.

Now for the first time researchers think they have finally worked out what caused the apocalyptic scenario. And concluded the event actually went on for far longer than we had previously believed. 

Historians have long understood that on the 16 -18 September 1770, during the Edo period, fiery skies lit up across Kyoto, Japan, for two days in an aurora of unparalleled power.

At the time local people, both on an individual level and in government, took notes and made drawings depicting the event.

A painting of the red aurora fanning out radially appears in the old Kyoto text ‘Seikai’, according to Japan’s national English-language newspaper The Mainichi.

And a diary from the Higashihakura family reads: “Half of the sky was enveloped in red clouds. A sliver of white clouds penetrated the Milky Way.”

The team of scientists, led by Hishashi Hayakawa from Osaka University, have access to hundreds of documents like this, but now have combined the information with geometric data giving them new levels of unparalleled insight.

They concluded that what happened was actually the longest geometric storm ever recorded.

Hayakawa said: “We believe that this storm is the longest ever known as inferred from the equator-ward extension of the aurora, although magnetic field data is unavailable at that time.”

NASA explains that geometric storms occur when the earth’s magnetic field is “peeled open like an onion” allowing energetic solar wind particles to stream down the field lines to hit the atmosphere over the poles.

This decrease lasts about 6 to 12 hours, after which the magnetic field gradually recovers over a period of several days.

And this type of ‘space weather’ doesn’t just affect what is going on beyond our planet, in fact storms of this nature have huge consequences for us living here on earth. 

A solar storm in 1859, named the Carrington Event, which lasted two nights, caused such disruption that it is believed if it happened today, it would leave a trail of destruction costing up to £1.5tn in damage.

The Carrington Event lasted two nights, the geomagnetic storm in East Asia is now thought to have lasted nine.

“Facing such extreme and long-lasting magnetic storms, we have to expect the disturbance of communication, wide-range blackouts, radioactive exposure of aircraft, failure of GPS, and so on,” says Hayakawa.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/skies-above-asia-turned-a-fiery-red-and-now-we-know-why_uk_5a0c4271e4b0b17ffce188cd

Among Scores of Trump-Pence’s Anti-LGBTQ Nominees, HRC Spotlights Five Who Represent Greatest Threat

Today, HRC aimed a bright spotlight on five federal judicial nominees — Jeff Mateer, Damien Schiff, Leonard Steven Grasz, Mark Norris, and Stephen Schwartz. If confirmed by the Senate, the nominees could seriously threaten the future of LGBTQ equality in America. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Grasz and Norris on Thursday.

“In their crusade against the LGBTQ community, Donald Trump and Mike Pence are doing everything they can to stack our federal courts and all agencies of the government with anti-LGBTQ nominees and appointments,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “This is a deliberate attempt to undermine the progress we’ve made and weave discrimination into every part of our government. There are scores of under-qualified nominees with terrible anti-equality records, and Jeff Mateer, Damien Schiff, Leonard Steven Grasz, Mark Norris, and Stephen Schwartz are among the worst of the worst. The Senate must reject their nominations to lifetime appointments to the federal bench.”

In less than one year, the Trump-Pence Administration has unleashed a torrent of attacks on the LGBTQ community and undermined the rights of millions of Americans. Through rollbacks, rescissions, and re-interpretations, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have systematically and meticulously eroded years of progress and protections. What’s more, Trump and Pence have appointed and nominated scores of extreme and unqualified anti-LGBTQ officials to crucial agencies and court benches — some of whom will serve lifetime appointments.

Jeff Mateer has been nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In a 2015 speech titled “The Church and Homosexuality,” Jeff Mateer objected to a transgender student using a restroom consistent with her gender identity, saying “I mean it just really shows you how Satan’s plan is working and the destruction that’s going on.” He defended then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s ‘license-to-discriminate’ bill and objected to efforts to alter the legislation. Mateer fought against non-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community in Plano and San Antonio, Texas, and he even supports the dangerous and debunked practice of so-called “conversion therapy.” Mateer also claimed that marriage equality will lead to bestiality.

Damien Schiff, nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, has been unabashed in his anti-LGBTQ views. He called Anthony Kennedy a “judicial prostitute,” opposed anti-bullying policies, opposed the decriminalization of same-sex relationships, and has been a longtime critic of marriage equality. In his writings, Schiff has encouraged parents to opt out of public schools in response to new curriculum that discouraged LGBTQ bullying and normalized families with same-sex parents; opposed the Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing same-sex relationships; defended supporters of Prop 8, falsely claiming same-sex couples had the same legal benefits as married opposite-sex couples before Prop 8.

L. Steven Grasz, nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, served on the board of a non-profit that backed the abusive practice of conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors and was unwilling to clarify his own views during his confirmation hearing. Grasz said that language protecting people on the basis of “sexual orientation” opened the door for protections for pedophiles and argued Nebraska should not recognize marriage equality in other states. Grasz also opposed allowing same-sex parents to adopt. The American Bar Association has deemed Grasz unqualified to serve in the position Trump has nominated him for.

Mark S. Norris has been nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Currently the Senate Majority Leader of the Tennessee General Assembly, Norris has voted to support legislation giving business a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people and supported a state law preventing local municipalities from passing LGBTQ non-discrmination protections. Among a host of other positions supporting discrimination, Norris opposed federal guidance from the Obama administration helping to protect transgender students from discrimination and harassment in public schools.  

Stephen Schwartz, nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, has a demonstrable anti-LGBTQ record. HRC joined in an opposition letter with 27 LGBTQ groups, including Lambda Legal and the National Center for Transgender Equality, opposing Schwartz. His work opposing equality includes defending North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2. He also notably served as co-counsel to the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia after it was sued by transgender student Gavin Grimm for discrimination. Grimm challenged the school board in court for denying him use of the boy’s restroom.

www.hrc.org/blog/among-trump-pences-anti-lgbtq-nominees-hrc-highlights-five-who-represent-gr?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Alex Jones: Most Trans People Weigh 500 Pounds and ‘Sexualize Children’

The far-right wack job made the comment while pointing to a transgender Trump supporter as the exception.

www.advocate.com/transgender/2017/11/15/alex-jones-most-trans-people-weigh-500-pounds-and-sexualize-children

Woman Claims Viral Anti-Homophobia Ad Personally Violates Her Because Her Name is ‘Gay’

The most ridiculous discrimination complaint of the day comes from a woman in New Zealand, claiming this viral anti-homophobia ad — many of you will remember it — discriminates against her because her name is “Gay”.

The ad, which features sheep farmers, uses humor to explain that when you call something “gay” when it’s really just a disappointment you could be unintentionally hurting those around you.

A 57-year-old woman named Gay Fairweather complained to the Advertising Standards Authority in New Zealand.

Wrote Fairweather:

“I’m complaining about the slogan “if it’s not gay it’s not gay”. It’s meaning is happy & I’m hetrosexual (sic). I am deeply insulted with the slogan as I feel it’s saying unless I’m a lesbian I’m not me. I have never been offended or insulted that my name is Gay. There has been the looks & laughter, which I’m fine with. I’ve accepted that I’ve had to change the spelling of my name for emails & other software that requires my name. I am not fine with a slogan saying I am not me because I’m not a lesbian. I feel the slogan is insulting to all the females who’s name is Gay & is unacceptable.”

The ASA responded that the ad was “unlikely to cause serious and widespread offence to most people” and concluded that “the advertisement before her was promoting the appropriate use of the word ‘gay’ in relation to homosexuality and to discourage its use in a derogatory way.”

The post Woman Claims Viral Anti-Homophobia Ad Personally Violates Her Because Her Name is ‘Gay’ appeared first on Towleroad.

Woman Claims Viral Anti-Homophobia Ad Personally Violates Her Because Her Name is ‘Gay’

The Drugs Don’t Work: Antibiotic Resistance And The End Of Modern Medicine
Antibiotics have arguably been the single most important discovery of modern medicine and their invention has saved millions of lives.

But, to understand the current problem with antibiotics, you need to go back to Albert Alexander, a policeman working in Oxford in 1941. He had the misfortune of being scratched on the face by a rose. A bacterium, called Staphylococcus caused such a severe infection that one of his eyes had to be removed, and he became critically unwell.

Luckily for Albert, he became the first patient to be treated with Penicillin, the first commercially available antibiotic. Unluckily, not enough of the drug was available, and despite an initial improvement he succumbed to his infection.

Mass production was the key, and manufacturing was scaled in time for the Normandy invasion in 1944. And so, the global antibiotic arms race began.

Resistance is futile

Over 154 million prescriptions for antibiotics are now written each year in the USA. The problem is that 30% are unnecessary; 44% of these are written to treat patients with acute respiratory conditions which are often not caused by bacteria.

Bacteria are very clever. Resistance to drugs can be acquired by sharing mobile genetic units (called plasmids) between bacteria; this is known as “horizontal’ evolution. When resistant bugs are in the hospital where you are getting treatment, it is therefore very easy for them share resistance genes.

If you want to see what this looks like, check our this terrifying experiment. It demonstrates that bacteria can withstand a dose of antibiotic 1000 times the initial strength within 5 generations:

Antibiotics are also widely used for preventing infections in live stock, and as a result they are in our food chain and resistance be passed from food to fork as well as from person to person.

But, resistance is not a new problem. I work at St. Mary’s Hospital, London (Now Imperial College London) where Sir Alexander Fleming famously discovered Penicillin. He warned us about this problem at the time and he even noted in his Nobel acceptance speech:

“It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them.”

But, we didn’t listen.

New drugs now cost about $2 billion to develop and it may take 10 to 20 years to bring to market. The FDA approval rate for new antibacterial drugs has also fallen from about 20 from 1980 to 1984, to less than five from 2005 to 2009. Antibiotics are cheap, and you may only use them intermittently, so there is very little incentive for drug companies to make more.

Is this the end of modern medicine?

Probably not. BUT antibiotic resistance will cause 10 million deaths globally by 2050 at a cost of £66trillion ($100trillion) to the global economy.

We are now effectively in a post-antibiotic era, where the drugs literally don’t work. This means that common infections and minor injuries can kill, and we may not be able to safely perform operations where we rely on antibiotics to prevent complications.

Which bugs should we be afraid of?

The WHO recently published a list of 12 families that pose the greatest threat to human health.

In the USA, the first case of multi drug resistant E.Coli was identified that was resistant to antibiotics colistin and carbapenems. This may have even contributed to the death of Hugh Hefner.

We have also seen the first death from a multidrug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bug that often causes of urinary tract infections. Testing at the hospital showed resistance to all 26 drugs the hospital had.

There has also been an alarming rise in the spread of multi drug resistant gonorrhoeaIs there a solution for antibiotic resistance?

Yes, but we need to act now.

This week is Antibiotic Resistance Awareness Week!

In 2016, the United Nations passed a resolution to tackle drug-resistant infections, calling for an international effort across human, animal and environmental health.

The UK government has a strategy and it wants to halve inappropriate prescribing by 2020 and to halve healthcare-associated, Gram negative bloodstream infections (GNBSI) by 2020.

New antibiotics are also coming. For example, teixobactin, was discovered in a screen of uncultured bacteria and it does not demonstrate resistance.

But the most important thing we can do now is maintain the value of existing and future antibiotics. This means:

• Only take antibiotics when you need them. So don’t ask your GP or family doctor to give you an antibiotic for your sniffles. It won’t work, and it will make the situation worse.

• If you are in contact with someone who has a bacterial infection, wash your hands and use sensible precautions to prevent spread.

• If you do have a bacterial infection, The NHS has issued advice for this, and this can be found here:
• 
• If you are given antibiotics, take the full course you are prescribed. This view is being challenged but for now it’s sensible.

One thing is certain. If we don’t act now, then we will go back to a time when a simple scratch from a rose thorn could be fatal.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-james-kinross/the-drugs-dont-work-antib_b_18549512.html

‘EastSiders’ Takes a Monogamish Road Trip

Thanks to incredible crowdfunding from eager fans, EastSiders is back.

www.advocate.com/current-issue/2017/11/15/eastsiders-takes-monogamish-road-trip

‘Cards Against Humanity’ Buys Border Land So Trump Can’t Build His F**king Wall

The nice folks behind massively insulting and essentially free game Cards Against Humanity have bought a chunk of land on the U.S./Mexico border to stop Donald Trump building his wall.

The company, which describes the product as “a party game for horrible people,” announced the holiday promotion Cards Against Humanity Saves America on Monday.

RELATED: Randy Rainbow Treats His Trump Fatigue with the ‘Good Old Days’ of Manageable Scandals: WATCH

“Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a $20 billion wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing,” the website states. “So we’ve purchased a plot of vacant land on the border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built.”

Mashable reports:

Fork over $15 of your hard-earned cash to Cards, and they’ll send you “six surprises” in the month of December, including an illustrated map of the land, a certificate of promise to fight the wall, and some new cards.

Given the nature of the game, the company has no problem being a bit brash, and because they are self-owned, and don’t rely on big box stores to push their product, the company can get away with a bit more.

On its FAQ page for the new expansion, one question asks: I don’t like that you’re getting political. Why don’t you just stick to card games?

Their answer? “Why don’t you stick to seeing how many Hot Wheels cars you can fit up your asshole?”

You can buy the new pack here.

The post ‘Cards Against Humanity’ Buys Border Land So Trump Can’t Build His F**king Wall appeared first on Towleroad.

‘Cards Against Humanity’ Buys Border Land So Trump Can’t Build His F**king Wall

Five Tips For Telling Your Partner You Want A Divorce
There is no easy way to tell your spouse you want to call time on your marriage. It may not have been an easy decision for you, there could be ill feeling and there is likely to be trepidation at what lies ahead. In addition, there may be some regret and some sympathy for your partner, however bad things have got.

So, how do you do it? We wouldn’t suggest breaking the news in a crowded restaurant or public place as some you may have witnessed on social media. Neither would we suggest making it a snap announcement after a particularly frustrating argument or incident. It should be carefully considered, with thought given to the chain of events it will set in motion. You should be clear on the process and, most importantly if children are involved, make sure they are a primary consideration.

Photo credit: iStockSow the seeds

Making a sudden announcement out of the blue is unlikely to get proceedings off to a good start. If you have not been getting on, it will come as no surprise to the other that things are not good, but they may not think you are anywhere near splitting up. Have gentle conversations in advance. Talk about how you feel there may be no long-term solution. Suggest counselling. Talk about what arrangements you might have to make if you split.

Careful how you say it

Show some compassion. Do not just announce it is over and you want a divorce. Sit down with no distractions and gently break the news. If you have properly sown the seeds, it will not come as a surprise. Suggest how you should start moving forward. Look to a brighter future. Do not enflame an already charged situation with harsh or careless words no matter what you think of the person at that point in time. This approach will reap rewards in the end and should lead to a more amicable relationship after divorce, which is particularly important when you have children.

Don’t point the finger of blame

A marriage involves two people – and so does a divorce. There is little point apportioning blame. It does not help, and it will not change anything. Like the point above around avoiding course words, heaping blame on your spouse will enflame a situation. That may make them angry, it may simply upset them further and there is no gain in this. Sadly, the divorce process in England and Wales does still require reasons for divorce. This cannot be avoided but it can be done in a sympathetic way. Use the word “I” more than “you” to explain your decision and feelings about what’s gone wrong between you.

Don’t let it drag on

Once you’ve had the difficult conversation, be ready to separate. Don’t just carry on as normal and think about how it will work a week later. Have the talk and make the move. This means giving it thought in advance. Will you still both stay in the same house? While this is increasingly common, it should involve moving to separate rooms. Better is for one of you to be staying somewhere else, but think about the implication of this on everyday life, such as seeing the children, additional budget required and simple things like will it affect your commute to work.

Plan your future parenting

Children can be knocked sideways by their parents divorcing. When speaking to your spouse about divorce, ensure you talk about arrangements for the children. Like all of these points, it involves giving it some thought in advance.

Reassure your partner that whatever happens, you still want them to be involved as a parent and that this is important to you. You will need to discuss how to break the news to the children and, ideally, this will be done with both of you at the same time, in a calm and familiar environment.

For advice on these issues speak to one of the experienced family lawyers at Woolley & Co, Solicitors on 0800 321 3832.

Written by Andrew Woolley, Woolley & Co Family Solicitors.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew-woolley/five-tips-for-telling-you_b_18548938.html

Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment: FAQ

Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues until December 15. If you still haven’t signed up or debating if you’re even eligible for a plan then check out some frequently asked questions below.

Am I eligible for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act?

• If you don’t have health insurance through your job, Medicare, Medicaid or another source, you may be eligible to purchase insurance through HealthCare.gov.

How do I enroll? What is the deadline?

• Signing up is easy and can be done in several ways – via the Internet at Healthcare.gov or by phone at the Marketplace Call Center 1-800- 318-2596.
• If you prefer in-person help, go to LocalHelp.HealthCare.gov to find a location in your area.
• Spanish speaking consumers should visit CuidadoDeSalud.gov.
• Open enrollment ends on December 15. This is much earlier than last year so sign-up early to beat the rush.

I am young and healthy. Do I need to get covered?

• Most definitely. No one plans to get sick or hurt, but it happens.
• Getting covered means you can go to the doctor’s office when you get sick, instead of the emergency room and you won’t have to worry that unexpected health costs will place you and your family at financial risk.

What do plans cover?

• Health plans offered through the marketplace all cover preventive care at no charge and have no co-pay. This means free check-ups, vaccinations, and more.
• All plans provide coverage for a range of important health benefits such as prescription drugs, including Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), doctor visits, hospitalization, mental health and substance use disorder services, maternity care and much more.
• Healthcare.gov has Doctor and Prescription Drug Lookup tools so you can find out which plans cover your doctors and prescriptions.

How much will it cost?

• Healthcare.gov has an Out of Pocket Cost estimator that will help you estimate your total costs for the year including premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.
• Most people can find plans available for less than $75 dollars a month.
• Tax credits, which many individuals are eligible to receive, help make plans affordable.
• If you choose to go without insurance, you may have to pay a penalty.

www.hrc.org/blog/affordable-care-act-open-enrollment-faq?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed