title: Scrapie

text: Natural transmission of scrapie in the field seems to occur via the alimentary tract in the majority of cases, and scrapie-free sheep flocks can become infected on pastures where outbreaks of scrapie had been observed before. These findings point to a sustained contagion in the environment, notably in the soil.


title: Scrapie

text: Prion concentration in birth fluids does not alter the infectivity of the prions. Naturally or experimentally infected does and ewes transmit the infection to the lambs, even when placentas have little PrP. PrP is shed at a higher percentage in sheep placentas (52–72%) than in goat placenta (5–10%) in study trials at the USDA Agricultural Research Service.


title: Scrapie

text: Detectable PrP has been reported in the feces of sheep both in the terminal and the early preclinical stages of the disease, suggesting the prions are likely to be shed into the environment throughout the course of the disease. Several sources of prions in feces could be postulated, including environmental ingestion and swallowing infected saliva; however, the most likely source is shedding from the gut-associated lymphoid tissue. Ruminant animals have specialized Peyer's patches that, throughout the length of the ileum, amount to about 100,000 follicles, and all of these could be infected and shedding prions into the lumen.


title: Scrapie

text: Scrapie prions have been found in the Peyer's patches of naturally infected asymptomatic lambs as young as four months of age.


title: Scrapie

text: Ingestion of soil by grazing sheep has been measured in two soil types, at two stocking rates, and over two grazing seasons. Animals ingested up to 400 g soil per kg of body weight between May and November. Rainfall and stocking rate emerged as factors influencing ingestion. The effect of soil type and vegetation type was less evident.


title: Scrapie

text: The average weight of an adult sheep is around 250 pounds. If an adult sheep ate 400g/kg of soil as predicted by D. McGrath "et al.", then the average sheep would ingest about 45,000 g over six months, or 251 g per day. Assuming the soil was contaminated with prions (PrP) from feces or birth fluids, then potentially the sheep would become infected. The concentration of the prions in the soil is uncertain, and concentration is not directly proportional to infectivity. Factors affecting prion infectivity in the soil have been shown to include the length of time in the soil and the binding abilities of the soil.


title: Scrapie

text: For a detailed risk assessment of scrapie-contaminated soil, it was of major importance to analyze whether the detectable PrP in the soil extracts still exhibited oral infectivity after incubation times up to 29 months. A bioassay with Syrian hamsters was performed by feeding the animals with contaminated soil or aqueous soil extracts that had been collected after soil incubation for 26 and 29 months, respectively. Hamsters fed with contaminated soil exhibited their first scrapie-associated symptoms at two weeks to six months (95% CI) after the first feeding. The hamsters reached the terminal stage of scrapie at five to 21 months (95% CI) after the first feeding. This indicated substantial amounts of persistent infectivity in soil that had been incubated for 26 and 29 months. In Iceland in 1978, a program was implemented to eradicate scrapie, and affected flocks were culled, premises were disinfected, and sheep houses were burnt; after two to three years, the premises were restocked with lambs from scrapie-free areas. Between 1978 and 2004, scrapie recurred on 33 farms. Nine recurrences occurred 14–21 years after culling as a result of persistent environmental contamination with PrP.


title: Scrapie

text: The binding abilities of different soil types have been shown to enhance disease penetrance into a population. Soil containing the common clay mineral montmorillonite (Mte) and kaolinite (Kte) binds more effectively with the prions than soil containing quartz. Enhanced transmissibility of soil-bound prions may explain the environmental spread of scrapie despite low levels shed into the environment. The mechanism by which Mte or other soil components enhances the transmissibility of particle bound prions remains to be clarified. Prion binding to Mte or other soil components may partially protect PrP from denaturation or proteolysis in the digestive tract, allowing more disease agent to be taken up from the gut. Adsorption of PrP soil may alter the aggregation state of the protein, shifting the size distribution toward more infectious prion protein particles, thereby increasing the infectious units. For prion disease to be transmitted via ingestion of prion contaminated soil, prions must also remain infectious by the oral route of exposure. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin investigated the oral infectivity of Mte-bound and soil-bound prions. The effects of prion source (via infected brain homogenate and purified PrP) and dose on penetrance (proportion of animals eventually exhibiting clinical signs of scrapie) and incubation period (time to onset of clinical symptoms) was evaluated. About 38% of animals receiving orally 200 ng of unbound, clarified PrP derived from soil exhibited clinical symptoms, with an incubation period for infected animals of 203 to 633 days. All animals orally dosed with an equivalent amount of Mte-bound PrP manifested disease symptoms in 195 to 637 days. By contrast, animals orally receiving Mte soil alone or one-tenth as much unbound clarified PrP (20 ng) remained asymptomatic throughout the course of the experiment. These data established that Mte-bound prions remain infectious via the oral route of exposure, and that the binding agent Mte increases disease penetrance, enhancing the efficiency of oral transmission.


title: Scrapie

text: "With scrapie, the archetypical TSE, which is a natural disease in sheep and goats, the disease can appear suddenly in a flock in the absence of any known exposure to infected flocks (Palsson, 1979). Finally, fields in Iceland, that were left empty for up to 3 years after the destruction of scrapie-infected flocks, were repopulated with known scrapie-free sheep, and some of the sheep in this latter group subsequently developed scrapie (Palsson, 1979). This last 'experiment in nature' has yielded similar results a number of times in Iceland and in the United Kingdom. In one Icelandic farm, flocks have been eradicated three times; each time, the farm was left without sheep for 2 years, and after restocking with sheep from scrapie-free areas, the disease reappeared. Several years ago, a suggestion was made (S Sigurdarson, personal communication) that hay mites would be a good candidate as a vector for scrapie; this led to infection of mice with mite samples prepared from hay obtained from five Icelandic farms. Ten of these 71 mice became sick after injection with mite preparations from three of the five farms (Wisniewski et al, 1996; Rubenstein et al, 1998). The incubation periods ranged from 340 days to 626 days, and these mice had the protease-resistant form Prp of a host-coded glycoprotein, PrP . The protease-resistant form is a marker of TSE disease (Prusiner, 1991; Parchi et al, 1996). For some of these clinically positive mice, the banding pattern on WB analysis was unique (Wisniewski et al, 1996; Rubenstein et al, 1998)."


title: Scrapie

text: Prions (PrP) are shed from sheep and goats in birth fluids, feces and other excrement. The concentration of the prions is uncertain, but is not directly proportional to infectivity. Sheep ingest a considerable amount of soil, so soil represents a plausible environmental reservoir of scrapie prions, which can persist in the environment for years. Longevity of the prions and the attachment of soil particles likely influences the persistence and infectivity of prions in the environment.


title: Scrapie

text: Effective methods of inactivating prions in the soil are currently lacking, and the effects of natural degradation mechanisms on prion infectivity are largely unknown. An improved understanding of the processes affecting the mobility, persistence and bioavailability of prions in soil is needed for the management of prion-contaminated environments. A system for estimating the prion-binding capacity of soil on farms using simple soil analysis may allow an estimate of the prion risk in the environment, and whether altering prion binding by the use of soil amendments may help to mitigate the infectious prions. Lichens, specifically, "Parmelia sulcata", "Cladonia rangiferina" and "Lobaria pulmonaria", may have potential for reducing the number of prions because some lichen species contain proteases that show promise in breaking down the prion. Further work to clone and characterize the proteases, assess their effects on prion infectivity, and determine which component organism or organisms present in lichens produce or influence the protease activity is warranted and is currently under investigation.


title: Scrapie

text: The prion gene that codes for the prion protein is highly conserved in most mammals, meaning the gene is similar and present in most species of mammals. Three locations on the prion protein gene have been identified as highly polymorphic and may have an effect on scrapie: codons 136, 154, and 171. Codon 154 has not shown any evidence of having a high effect on scrapie susceptibility, but is most likely having an effect on incubation time of the disease. Codons 136 and 171 are thought to control the incubation time as well as the susceptibility of the disease, and are the ones the USDA uses in its breeding standard. Codon 171 has been determined to be the major genetic factor in scrapie susceptibility.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: Juju is the fourth studio album by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was recorded at Surrey Sound studio with Nigel Gray as co-producer, and was released on 19 June 1981 by record label Polydor. Two singles were released from "Juju": "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights".


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: The album was commercially successful in the UK. It was acclaimed by critics upon its release, with praise given particularly to John McGeoch's unconventional guitar playing and Siouxsie's vocal performances. It remains a critical favourite and is seen as a landmark album of post-punk.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: After the slightly electronic bent of their previous album, 1980's "Kaleidoscope", Siouxsie and the Banshees returned to a guitar-based sound for "Juju", due to the presence of now-official guitarist McGeoch. The album also prominently featured the intricate percussion work of band member Budgie. According to Steven Severin: ""Juju" was the first time we'd made a "concept" album that drew on darker elements. It wasn't pre-planned, but, as we were writing, we saw a definite thread running through the songs; almost a narrative to the album as a whole".


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: The album was recorded at co-producer Gray's Surrey Sound studio. There, McGeoch experimented with a rarely used guitar effects device called the Gizmo for the album track "Into the Light". Attached to the guitar's bridge, the Gizmo used keyed wheels to press the strings, giving a McGeoch's guitar the sound of a classical string instrument. For "Arabian Knights", McGeoch transformed a tune by Siouxsie, initially in waltz rhythm, that she had composed on a Vox Teardrop guitar.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: The sleeve reproduced a picture of an African statue that the group found at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: "Juju" is a post-punk album, and was listed solely as such by AllMusic. The record was also qualified as "art rock" by "The Guardian", which also dubbed the two singles as "pop marvels". However, "Juju" has also been cited by certain critics as gothic rock, though the band dispute such categorisation.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: A 180g vinyl reissue of the album, remastered from the original ¼” tapes and cut half-speed at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, was released in August 2018.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: "Sounds" praised the album, observing that Siouxsie's voice "seems to have acquired a new fullness of melody" with "a rich, dark smoothness". Assessing the band's music, writer Betty Page commented: "The way this unit operates is impressively cohesive, like one brain the inventive musical talents of [guitarist] McGeoch, [drummer] Budgie and [bassist] Severin mesh perfectly with Siouxsie". She also hailed McGeoch as being "the only man who can make an acoustic guitar sound foreboding". "NME" considered that ""Juju", their fourth LP [might be] their second best", qualifying it as "a peak in entertainment". Critic Paul Morley wrote that Siouxsie "exult[ed] with priceless poise". He concluded, naming all the songs, saying : "Side one's highlights – 'Spellbound', 'Into the Light', 'Arabian Knights', 'Halloween' and 'Monitor'. The most consistent side since "The Scream". Side two's highlights – 'Night Shift', 'Sin in My Heart', 'Head Cut' and 'Voodoo Dolly'. "Juju" is the first integrated and sparkling-complete Banshees since "The Scream"."


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: In a retrospective review, AllMusic wrote, "The upfront intensity of "Juju" probably isn't matched anywhere else in the catalog of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Thanks to its killer singles, unrelenting force and invigorating dynamics, "Juju" is a post-punk classic." The 2004 edition of "The Rolling Stone Album Guide", gave a 3 ouf 5 rating while pairing "Juju" with "Kaleidoscope" as albums that, refined "the Banshees' attack, diversifying the sound without losing its swirling impact". Rating the album three out of five in the MusicHound album guide book, Doug Pullen described "Juju" as "a dark sensual record that combined Sioux's pained lyrics with smartly evocative grooves".


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: In 2007, "The Guardian" placed "Juju" on its "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" list, writing, "Perennial masters of brooding suspense, the Banshees honed their trademark aloof art rock to its hardest and darkest pitch on "Juju"." "Juju" was also featured in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: In 1995, "Melody Maker" writer Cathi Unsworth described "Juju" as "one of the most influential British albums ever".


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: McGeoch's guitar playing in particular was singled out for praise by critics and musicians. In 2006 he was listed at number 89 on "Mojo"'s list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time" for his work on "Spellbound". Johnny Marr of the Smiths said on BBC Radio 2 in February 2008 that he rated McGeoch highly for his work on "Spellbound". Marr qualified it as "clever", with a "really good picky thing going on which is very un-rock'n'roll". In "Uncut", Marr rated McGeoch as his 10th favourite guitarist for his work on "Juju" and "Real Life" by Magazine. Another member of the Smiths, singer Morrissey, commented on "Spellbound" during an interview for the US KROQ-FM radio station in 1997: "Another great single. A hit in England. Certainly not here, I don't think. But they were one of the great groups of the late '70s, early '80s. [...] Siouxsie and the Banshees were excellent [...]" Morrissey later named "Juju" as a major album of the Banshees.


title: Juju (Siouxsie and the Banshees album)

text: Radiohead cited "Juju", with Thom Yorke, Ed O'Brien and Colin Greenwood all mentioning their liking for the album. O'Brien remembered recording "Spellbound" on a tape recorder after listening to the charts, noting that "it was a great era of music". John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers mentioned it as one of his influences for the album "By the Way". He said: "John McGeoch is a guitarist I want to be. He's got a new brilliant idea at each song. I generally listen to the records he recorded with Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Juju"". Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins selected "Arabian Knights" when he talked about some of his favourite music on BBC radio: commenting the song, he said that "Siouxsie and the Banshees were able to unlock certain rhythms and feelings that are still in alt rock today". William Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain selected "Spellbound" in a playlist including some of his favourite tracks. Suede's singer Brett Anderson cited "Juju" as one of his reference points.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Annam (; alternate spelling: "Anam"), or Trung Kỳ (), was a French protectorate and colony encompassing the territory of the Empire of Đại Nam in Central Vietnam. Before the protectorate's establishment, the name "Annam" was used in the West to refer to Vietnam as a whole; Vietnamese people were referred to as Annamites. The protectorate of Annam became a part of French Indochina in 1887, along with two other Vietnamese regions, Cochinchina () in the South and Tonkin () in the North. The region had a dual system of French and Vietnamese administration. The government of the Nguyễn Dynasty still nominally ruled Annam and Tonkin as the Empire of Đại Nam, with the emperor residing in Huế. In 1948, the protectorate was merged in the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam, which was replaced the next year by the newly established State of Vietnam. The region was divided between communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam under the terms of the Geneva Accord of 1954.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Annam means "Pacified South" in Sino-Vietnamese, the toponym being derived from the Chinese (). In the history of Vietnam, the designation is one of several given by the Chinese to the Tonkin, the core territory of modern-day Vietnam surrounding the city of Hanoi, which included land from the Gulf of Tonkin to the mountains which surround the plains of the Red River.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: The name has also been applied to the Annamite Range (), a mountain range with a height ranging up to that divides Vietnam and Laos. The Vietnamese language or its central dialects were called "Annamese", as in the seminal dictionary .


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Towards the end of the 18th century a rebellion overthrew the Nguyễn lords, but one of its members, Gia Long, by the aid of a French force, in 1801 acquired sway over the whole of present-day Vietnam (Annam, Tongking and Cochinchina). This force was procured for him by Pigneau Monsignor de Béhaine, Titular Bishop of Adran. The Monsignor saw in the political condition of Annam a means of establishing French influence in Indochina and counterbalancing British power in India. Before this, in 1787, Gia Long had concluded a treaty with Louis XVI, whereby in return for a promise of aid he ceded Tourane and Pulo-Condore to the French. That treaty marks the beginning of French influence in Indochina.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: After conquering Cochinchina in 1858–1862, the French resumed in 1883 their expansion in Southern Asia. The first protectorate treaty was signed in 1883, although it was replaced the next year by a slightly milder treaty. With the treaty of Tientsin, China recognised the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin and implicitly abandoned her own claims to suzerainty over Vietnam. Annam and Tonkin became part of French Indochina in 1887. On 9 May 1889, they were split in two "Résidences supérieures", each subordinated to the Governor-General of French Indochina. The Nguyễn dynasty still nominally ruled over both protectorates. Tonkin was "de facto" ruled directly by the French, while the imperial government maintained some degree of authority over Annam. On 27 September 1897, the Vietnamese imperial council in Annam was replaced by a council of ministers, presided "de jure" by the French representative.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Annam comprised a sinuous strip of territory measuring between 750 and in length, with an approximate area of . It had a rich, well-watered soil which yields tropical crops, and was rich in naturally occurring minerals.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: The country consisted chiefly of a range of plateaus and wooded mountains, running north and south and declining on the coast to a narrow band of plains varying between 12 and in breadth. The mountains are cut transversely by short narrow valleys, through which run rivers, most of which are dry in summer and torrential in winter. The Song Ma and the Song Ca in the north, and the Song Ba, Don Nai and Se Bang Khan in the south, are the only rivers of any size in the region. The chief harbour is that afforded by the bay of Tourane (also known as Đà Nẵng) at the centre of the coastline. South of this point, the coast curves outwards and is broken by peninsulas and indentations; to the north it is concave and bordered in many places by dunes and lagoons.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: In Annam, the rainy season begins during September and lasts for three or four months, corresponding with the northeastern monsoon and also with a period of typhoons. During the rains the temperature varies from 59 degrees Fahrenheit (or even lower) to 75 °F (from 15 degrees Celsius to 24 °C). June, July and August are the hottest months, the thermometer often reaching or 90 °F (30 °C or more), though the heat of the day is to some extent compensated by the freshness of the nights. The southwest monsoon which brings rain in Cochin China coincides with the dry season in Annam, the reason probably being that the mountains and lofty plateaus separating the two countries retain the precipitation.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Silk spinning and weaving were carried on in what the "Encyclopædia Britannica" Eleventh Edition called "antiquated lines ...silkworms [are] reared in a desultory fashion". Other crops were tea, tobacco, cotton, cinnamon, precious woods and rubber. Coffee, pepper, sugarcane and jute were also cultivated to a minor extent. The exports comprised tea, raw silk and small quantities of cotton, rice and sugarcane. The imports included rice, iron goods, flour, wine, opium and cotton goods. There were coal mines at Nong Son, near Da Nang, and as well as mining of gold, silver, lead, iron and other metals which occur in the mountains. Human trafficking in Annamite women and children to China occurred from the 1870s to the 1940s. Trade, which was controlled by the Chinese, was mostly carried out on the sea, with the chief ports being Da Nang and Qui Nhơn, open to European commerce.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Annam was ruled in theory by its emperor (from the Nguyễn Phúc family, which was also the ruling dynasty of the previous Vietnamese state in the region), assisted by the ""comat"" or secret council. This council was composed of the heads of the six ministerial departments nominated by the emperor, namely interior, finance, war, ritual, justice, and public works. Formally the four protectorates of French Indochina were ruled by their respective monarchs, but in fact the protectorates were all under the close control of the French senior residents. As the Governor-General of French Indochina Pierre Pasquier stated: “The King reigns but the Resident superior rules.” The effective power in the protectorate was in the hands of the resident-superior with both the monarch and the local high officials playing a subordinate role to his office.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: The Resident Superior, stationed at Huế, was the representative of France and the virtual ruler of the country. He presided over a council ("Conseil de Protectorat") composed of the chiefs of the French services in Annam, together with two members of the ""comat""; this body deliberated on questions of taxation affecting the budget of Annam and on local public works. A native governor ("Tong Doc" or "Tuan Phu"), assisted by a native staff, administered each of the provinces into which the country was divided, and native officials of lower rank governed the areas into which these provinces were subdivided. The governors took their orders from the imperial government, but they were under the eye of French residents.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Native officials were appointed by the court, but the Resident Superior had power to annul an appointment. The mandarinate or official class was recruited from all ranks of the people by competitive examination. In the province of Tourane (Da Nang), a French tribunal alone exercised jurisdiction, but it administered native law where natives were concerned. Outside this territory the native tribunals survived.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: From 1 January 1898, the French directly took over the right to collect all taxes in the protectorate of Annam and to allocate salaries to the Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty and its mandarins. In a notice dated 24 August 1898, the Resident-Superior of Annam wrote: "From now on, in the Kingdom of Annam there are no longer two governments, but only one" (meaning that the French government completely took over the administration).


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: During the French period the Confucian-oriented education system was slowly being replaced with a localised version of the French education system. Prior to French domination teachers were held in high regard in the Confucian system and as such one of the traditional values of the Vietnamese people is the promotion of learning and to have high respect for educators. In this old system teachers were deemed to be "Only lower than the King" (Emperor) according to a 2010 report by the World Bank. In order to become a teacher in Imperial Vietnam, the mandarins would request of those that applied to become teachers to already have both high grades in competitive Confucian-style exams as well as excellent prior learning achievements. The 2010 report by the World Bank also noted that historically in Vietnam teachers would often be invited to reside together with well-to-do villagers so they would be able to tutor the children of these wealthy families as well as other children that lived in the village.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Immediately after the establishment of the colony of French Cochinchina the French established schools to teach the Vietnamese French and the French Vietnamese in order to train interpreters for the army. In Cochinchina the French immediately began replacing the Nguyễn government apparatus with the French government apparatus and education formed an important part of this process. This education and training system that was established in French Cochinchina initially met the two basic goals that the French had set up in helping to train both interpreters and secretaries for the French military and colonial government, while organising a new form education for the indigenous population that popularised French words and romanised the local languages, the latter was done to gradually replace Chinese characters. Despite their efforts French words weren't easily adopted and Chinese script persisted as these goals only found limited success in French Cochinchina.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Following the establishment of two protectorates over the Nguyễn dynasty the French expanded the education system they had set up in Cochinchina to the rest of Vietnam. The new French-based education system was created in the hopes of training indigenous people that could serve French interests in the colonial system. During the colonial period the French built elementary schools, primary schools, primary colleges, secondary schools, and three universities across Vietnam, all these places of education had the French language as the main language that was used for instruction.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Education during the French protectorate period started at the primary school-level (小學, "Tiểu học") as early childhood education would only become a concern in Vietnamese society following the abolition of the Nguyễn dynasty in 1945. During most of the French protectorate period as well as before early childhood education was not considered to be a social task, and therefore, there existed no form of a formal educational system and curriculum for preschool children at during this period.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: In the year 1906, France enacted its first educational reform in French Indochina to expand their influence over the local populations. These reforms were aimed at controlling the spiritual lives of the people and limit the influence of the Confucian mandarins. The traditional mandarins were seen as a threat to French influence as they used Confucianism to promote Vietnamese nationalism. The 1906 reforms implemented French at every level. In the 1906 the basic subjects for boys were reading and writing, mathematics, history, geography, morality, and accounting, while the basic subjects for girls were reading and writing, mathematics, morality, hygiene, and housework. Vocational education was also established to train the indigenous population to work for French capitalists as skilled labourers.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: Because only a small number of schools were constructed across Vietnam access to these schools was extremely limited and as much as 95% of the Vietnamese population would remain illiterate during most of the period of French domination showing the inefficiency of the education system.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: In the year 1917 clear educational guidelines were established for French Indochina and at the primary school and elementary school level Vietnamese classes were given with instructions written in Chữ Quốc Ngữ to replace Chinese characters. The Quốc Ngữ alphabet was used to turn Vietnamese into "a vehicle used to transport French ideology and interests in Indochina".


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: While apologists for the French colonial regime would claim that French rule led to vast improvements to Vietnamese education system. The official statistics that were compiled and kept by the French authorities in Indochina cast doubt on such assertions.


title: Annam (French protectorate)

text: In the year 1939 no more than 15% of all school-age children had received any amount of education while still 80% of the general Vietnamese populace remained illiterate. This was in contrast to pre-colonial times when the majority of the Vietnamese people were in possession of at least some degree of literacy.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Simonetta Vespucci (née Cattaneo; 1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed "la bella Simonetta", was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci. She was known as the greatest beauty of her age in Italy, and was allegedly the model for many paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, and other Florentine painters. Some art historians have taken issue with these attributions, which the Victorian critic John Ruskin has been blamed for promulgating.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Simonetta Vespucci was born Simonetta Cattaneo 1453 in a part of the Republic of Genoa that is now in the Italian region of Liguria. A more precise location for her birthplace is unknown: possibly the city of Genoa, or perhaps either Portovenere or Fezzano. The Florentine poet Politian wrote that her home was "in that stern Ligurian district up above the seacoast, where angry Neptune beats against the rocks ... There, like Venus, she was born among the waves."


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Her father was a Genoese nobleman named Gaspare Cattaneo della Volta (a much-older relative of a sixteenth-century Doge of Genoa named Leonardo Cattaneo della Volta) and her mother was Gaspare's wife, Cattocchia Spinola (another source names her parents slightly differently, as Gaspare Cattaneo and Chateroccia di Marco Spinola.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: At age sixteen she married Marco Vespucci, son of Piero, who was a distant cousin of the explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. They met in April 1469, when she was with her parents at the church of San Torpete in Genoa; the doge Piero il Fregoso and much of the Genoese nobility were present. Marco had been sent to Genoa by his father, Piero, to study at the Banco di San Giorgio. Smitten with Simonetta, Marco was accepted by her parents as their daughter's prospective bridegroom; they likely felt that the marriage would be advantageous because Marco's family was well connected in Florence, especially to the Medici family.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Simonetta and Marco were married in Florence that same year. According to legend, Simonetta quickly became popular at the Florentine court, and attracted the interest of the Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano. Lorenzo permitted the Vespucci wedding to be held at the palazzo in Via Larga, and held the wedding reception at their lavish Villa di Careggi. At La Giostra (a jousting tournament) in 1475, held at the Piazza Santa Croce, Giuliano entered the lists bearing a banner upon which was a picture of Simonetta as a helmeted Pallas Athene, painted by Botticelli, beneath which was the French inscription "La Sans Pareille", meaning "The Unparalleled One." Giuliano won the tournament, and nominated Simonetta as "The Queen of Beauty" at that event. It is clear that Simonetta had a reputation as an exceptional beauty in Florence, but Giuliano's display should be considered within the conventions of courtly love. Simonetta was a married woman and a member of a powerful family allied to his. It is unknown and unlikely that they became lovers.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Simonetta Vespucci died just one year later on the night of 26–27 April 1476. She was twenty-two at the time of her death. Traditionally, it was thought that death was caused by tuberculosis; however, new evidence suggests that Simonetta suffered from a pituitary adenoma secreting prolactin and growth hormone secretion. The increase in tumor volume led her to death.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: She was carried through the city in an open coffin for all to admire, and there may have existed a posthumous cult about her in Florence. Her husband remarried soon afterward. Giuliano de Medici was assassinated in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, two years to the day after Simonetta's death.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Among other subjects, Sandro Botticelli painted portraits of noblewomen, several of which are attributed as portraits of Simonetta, but proof is difficult to establish. It has been postulated that some of his later works also contain representations of her. He finished one of his most famous paintings, "The Birth of Venus", around 1486, 10 years after Simonetta's death; some have claimed that Venus, in this painting, closely resembles her. This claim, however, is dismissed as a "romantic myth" by Ernst Gombrich, and "romantic nonsense" by historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto:


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Some art historians, including John Ruskin, suggest that Botticelli had fallen in love with Simonetta, a view supported by Botticelli's request to be buried in the Church of Ognissanti – the parish church of the Vespucci – in Florence. His wish was carried out when he died 34 years later, in 1510. However, this had been Botticelli's parish church since he was baptized there, the church contained works by him, and he was buried with his family.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Botticelli painted the standard carried by Giuliano at the joust in 1475, which carried an image of Pallas Athene that was very probably modeled on her; so he does seem to have painted her once at least, though that particular image is now lost. Botticelli's principal Medici patron, Giuliano's younger cousin Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, married Simonetta's niece Semiramide in 1482, and it is likely that Botticelli's famed allegory "Primavera" was painted as a wedding gift for this occasion. Again, this is a work that some have claimed contains a representation of Simonetta.


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Regarding each "Portrait of a Woman" pictured above, credited to the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, Ronald Lightbown claims they were creations of Botticelli's workshop that were likely neither drawn nor painted exclusively by Botticelli himself. Regarding these two paintings he also notes that "[Botticell's work]shop...executed portraits of "ninfe", or fair ladies...all probably fancy portraits of ideal beauties, rather than real ladies."


title: Simonetta Vespucci

text: Simonetta Vespucci may also be depicted in the painting by Piero di Cosimo titled "Portrait of a woman, said to be of Simonetta Vespucci", which portrays a woman as Cleopatra, with an asp around her neck. Yet how closely this resembles Simonetta is uncertain, not least because it is a posthumous portrait created about 14 years after her death. (Worth noting as well is the fact that Piero di Cosimo was only 14 years old the year of Simonetta's death.) The museum that currently houses this painting, the Musée Condé, questions the identity of its alleged subject and titles it "Portrait of a woman, said to be of Simonetta Vespucci", noting that the inscription of her name at the bottom of the painting may have been added at a later date.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Peyton Randolph (September 10, 1721 – October 22, 1775) was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the first two Virginia Conventions, and president of the First Continental Congress. He also served briefly as president of the Second Continental Congress.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: In 1774, Randolph signed the Continental Association, a trade boycott adopted by the First Continental Congress in response to the British Parliament's Intolerable Acts. Randolph was a first cousin once removed of Thomas Jefferson and was also related to John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, and Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Randolph was born in Tazewell Hall, his family's estate in Williamsburg, Virginia. His parents were Sir John Randolph, the son of William Randolph, and Susanna Beverley, the daughter of Peter Beverley. His brother was John Randolph.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Peyton Randolph was 15 when his father died. He attended the College of William & Mary and later studied law at Middle Temple at the Inns of Court in London, becoming a member of the bar in 1743. A lifelong resident of Williamsburg, the colony's capital, Randolph was to follow in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of whom served as speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: In 1748, Randolph was appointed attorney general of the Colony of Virginia and the same year was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he would serve for the remainder of his life. It was Randolph's dual roles as attorney general and as burgess that would lead to an extraordinary conflict of interest in 1751. Governor Robert Dinwiddie had imposed a fee for the certification of land patents, which the House of Burgesses strongly objected to. The House selected Randolph to represent their cause to Crown authorities in London. In his role as attorney general, though, he was responsible for defending actions taken by the governor. Randolph left for London, over the objections of Governor Dinwiddie, and was replaced for a short time as attorney general by George Wythe. Randolph resumed his post on his return at the behest of Wythe as well as officials in London, who also recommended the governor drop the new fee.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: In 1765, Randolph found himself at odds with a freshman burgess, Patrick Henry, over the colony's response to the Stamp Act. The House appointed Randolph to draft objections to the act, but his more conservative plan was trumped when five of Henry's seven Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions passed. Henry's proposals were approved at a meeting of the House in which most of the members were absent and while Randolph was presiding in the absence of the speaker.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Randolph resigned as king's attorney (attorney general) in 1766, as fellow Burgesses elected him as their speaker upon the death of his relative, the powerful Speaker John Robinson. Sitting as the General Court, they also appointed Randolph one of the executors (along with Wythe and Edmund Pendleton) of the former speaker's estate, which was a major financial scandal. As friction between Britain and the colonies progressed, Randolph grew to favor independence. In 1769 the House of Burgesses was dissolved by Governor Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt, in response to its actions against the Townshend Acts. In 1773, Randolph chaired the Virginia committee of correspondence. The next governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, also dissolved the House of Burgesses in 1774 when it showed solidarity with Boston, Massachusetts, following the Boston Port Act.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Randolph chaired meetings of the first of five Virginia Conventions of former House members, principally at a Williamsburg tavern, which worked toward responses to the unwelcome tax measures imposed by the British government. On March 21, 1775, he was president of the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond that debated independence (the setting of Patrick Henry's famous "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech). In April, Randolph negotiated with Lord Dunmore for gunpowder removed from the Williamsburg arsenal during the Gunpowder Incident, which was a confrontation between the governor's forces and Virginia militia, led by Henry.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: The House of Burgesses was called back by Lord Dunmore one last time in June 1775 to address British Prime Minister Lord North's Conciliatory Resolution. Randolph, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, returned to Williamsburg to take his place as Speaker. Randolph indicated that the resolution had not been sent to the Congress (it had instead been sent to each colony individually in an attempt to divide them and bypass the Continental Congress). The House of Burgesses rejected the proposal, which was also later rejected by the Continental Congress. Randolph was thus the last speaker of the House of Burgesses (their role was replaced by the Virginia Conventions and later the House of Delegates in 1776). Randolph also served as the president of the Third Virginia Convention in July 1775, which as a legislative body elected a committee of safety to act as the colony's executive since Lord Dunmore had abandoned the capital and took refuge on a British warship. Pendleton succeeded Randolph as president of the later conventions.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Virginia selected Randolph as one of its delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774 and 1775. Fellow delegates elected him their president (speaker) of both the First Continental Congress (which requested that King George III repeal the Coercive Acts and passed the Continental Association) as well as Second Continental Congress (which extended the Olive Branch Petition as a final attempt at reconciliation). However, Randolph fell ill during each term. Henry Middleton of South Carolina succeeded him as president from his resignation on October 22, 1774, two days after presiding over the passage and signing of the Continental Association, until his return on May 10, 1775. He was again elected president of Congress, but Randolph left for Virginia four days later and was succeeded as president by John Hancock.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Randolph returned as a Virginia delegate but suffered a five-hour-long fit of apoplexy and died while dining with Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia on October 22, 1775. His remains were returned to Williamsburg and were interred at the chapel of the College of William & Mary. As the Continental Congress had assumed governmental duties for the colonies as a whole, such as appointing ambassadors, some consider Randolph to have been the first President of the United States, even though he died in 1775.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: The Continental Congress honored Randolph by naming one of the first naval frigates as the USS "Randolph", as well by naming a fort at the junction of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers as Fort Randolph.


title: Peyton Randolph

text: Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, Massachusetts, and Randolph County, Indiana, were named to honor the colonial statesman. During World War II, the early "Essex"-class aircraft carrier USS "Randolph" (CV-15) was named for him. The Peyton Randolph House in Colonial Williamsburg was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.


title: Health effects arising from the September 11 attacks

text: The health effects arising from the September 11 attacks refers to the illnesses and negative health effects experienced by survivors of the terrorist attacks. Within seconds of the collapse of the World Trade Center, building materials, electronic equipment, and furniture were pulverized and spread over the area of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.


text: In the five months following the attacks, dust from the pulverized buildings continued to fill the air of the World Trade Center site. Increasing numbers of New York residents are reporting symptoms of Ground Zero respiratory illnesses.


text: Various health programs have arisen to deal with the ongoing health effects of the September 11 attacks. The World Trade Center Health Program, which provides testing and treatment to 9/11 responders and survivors, consolidated many of these after the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act became law in January 2011.


text: As of December 2017, the most common conditions certified by the World Trade Center Health Program were rhinosinusitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), asthma, sleep apnea, cancer, posttraumatic stress disorder, respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and anxiety disorder. The most common cancers were skin cancer and prostate cancer. The World Trade Center Health Program regularly publishes the most commonly certified condition on its website.


text: The dust from the collapsed towers was "wildly toxic", according to air pollution expert and University of California Davis Professor Emeritus Thomas Cahill. Much of the thousands of tons of debris resulting from the collapse of the Twin Towers was pulverized concrete, which is known to cause silicosis upon inhalation. The remainder consisted of more than 2,500 contaminants, more specifically: 50% non-fibrous material and construction debris; 40% glass and other fibers; 9.2% cellulose; and 0.8% of the extremely toxic carcinogen asbestos, as well as detectable amounts of lead and mercury. There were also unprecedented levels of dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the fires which burned for three months. Many of the dispersed substances (asbestos, crystalline silica, lead, cadmium, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are carcinogenic; other substances can trigger kidney, heart, liver and nervous system deterioration. This was well known by the EPA at the time of collapse. A case report funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and performed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine observed carbon nanotubes in dust samples and in the lungs of several 9/11 responders. The composition of the smoke and dust in the air was not fully understood at the time; the World Trade Center Health Program's Dr. Michael Crane touched upon this issue in an interview with "Newsweek" stating:


text: These toxic exposures have led to debilitating illnesses among rescue, recovery, and cleanup workers, and the pulmonary fibrosis death of NYPD member Cesar Borja. Increasing numbers of cases are appearing in which first responders are developing serious respiratory ailments. Health effects also extended to some residents, students, and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.


text: Dr. Edwin M. Kilbourne, a high level federal scientist, issued a memo on September 12, 2001, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising against the speedy return to buildings in the area because of possible hazards from various toxic materials.


text: On October 6, 2001, Associate City Health Commissioner Kelly McKinney said that proper safety protocol for WTC site workers was not being enforced.


text: A study of 5,000 rescue workers published in April 2010 by Dr. David J. Prezant – the chief medical officer for the Office of Medical Affairs at the New York City Fire Department – found that all the workers studied had impaired lung functions, with an average impairment of 10 percent. The study found that firefighters who arrived on the Sept. 11 morning had the worst impairments, which presented themselves within the first year after the attack, with little or no improvements in the ensuing six years. Thirty to 40% of workers were reporting persistent symptoms and 1000 of the group studied were on "permanent respiratory disability". Dr. Prezant noted that medication given to the victims can ease but not cure the symptoms. Dr. Byron Thomashow, medical director of the Center for Chest Disease and Respiratory Failure at New York – Presbyterian/Columbia hospital, said that "The drop-off in lung function initially is really quite significant and doesn't get better. That's not what we've generally come to expect in people with fire and smoke exposure. They usually recover."


text: A study published in December 2012 in "The Journal of the American Medical Association" observed the possible association between exposure to the World Trade Center debris and excess cancer risk. Over 55,000 individuals enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry, separated by rescue and/or recovery workers and non-rescue and/or recovery workers, were observed from 2003 or 2004 to December 31, 2008. The findings showed the overall incidence of all cancers among rescue and/or recovery workers was not significantly elevated, compared to non-rescue and/or recovery workers. Despite this, the incidences for prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and multiple myeloma were significantly elevated among the rescue and/or recovery workers, in the final year of observation.


text: On November 28, 2006, the "Village Voice" reported that several dozen recovery personnel have developed cancer – as opposed to having contracted respiratory ailments, and that doctors have argued that some of these cancers developed as a result of the exposure to toxins at the Ground Zero site:


text: "To date, 75 recovery workers at ground zero have been diagnosed with blood cell cancers that a half-dozen top doctors and epidemiologists have confirmed as having been likely caused by that exposure."


text: On September 11, 2018, 17 years after the attacks, a New York City law firm reported that at least 15 men were diagnosed with male breast cancer in the intervening years due to the attacks.


text: Through the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer as a result of their physical exposure to the toxins in the World Trade Center blast zone or the surrounding New York City area between September 11, 2001, and May 30, 2002, are able to receive financial compensation for the collateral damage they personally suffered because of the attack. Through free legal guidance, affected individuals can clarify their specific eligibility for the VCF, while receiving the necessary logistic aid in order to fulfill a compensation claim by the current cut-off date for "timely" applications, July 29, 2021.


text: A study published two months after 9/11 found that Americans across the country experienced substantial symptoms of stress after the attacks. Two subsequent studies found that exposure to the attacks was a predictor of the development of PTSD. Additional studies also looked at the psychological effects of those who lost a family member or friend in the attacks, or viewed the attacks on television.


text: Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital said "Why isn't the whole nation mobilizing to take care of the chronic health impact of this disaster?". Dr. Norton cited the 70 percent illness rate among first responders as "a wake up call." Dr. Nathaniel Hupert of Weill Cornell Medical College, quoted by Jill Gardiner of the October 4, 2006, issue of the "New York Sun" said that premature deaths and other ailments of dogs in the area are "our canary in the coalmine."


text: Richard Clapp and David Ozonoff, professors of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health; Michael Thun, director of epidemiological research at the American Cancer Society; Francine Laden, assistant professor of environmental epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health; Jonathan Samet, chairman of the epidemiology department at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Charles Hesdorffer, associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine argue that the cancer incidence among monitored individuals cannot be called a coincidence. They assert that the Ground Zero cloud was likely the cause of the illnesses. The American College of Preventative Medicine is concerned that malignant mesothelioma will develop among persons exposed to Ground Zero air.


text: About 400,000 people that were directly affected by the attack are eligible to be enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry, and can be referred to the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides free monitoring and health care to those enrolled.


text: There is scientific speculation that exposure to various toxic products and the pollutants in the air surrounding the Towers after the WTC collapse may have negative effects on fetal development. Due to this potential hazard, a notable children's environmental health center (Columbia University Center for Children's Health) is currently analyzing the children whose mothers were pregnant during the WTC collapse, and were living or working near the World Trade Center towers. The staff of this study assesses the children using psychological testing every year and interviews the mothers every six months. The purpose of the study is to determine whether there is significant difference in development and health progression of children whose mothers were exposed, versus those who were not exposed after the WTC collapse.


text: Mount Sinai Medical Center is conducting an ongoing monitoring program, World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program.


text: A leader of Mt. Sinai monitoring efforts is Stephen M. Levin, Medical Director of the Mount Sinai – Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. First responders met in a conference, November 11, 2006, in an effort to monitor responders' health. The event was organized by the World Trade Center Monitoring Program.


text: An ongoing Pennsylvania State University/Monmouth University study reported that respiratory illnesses grew by more than two hundred percent in the year and a half after the September 11 attacks. (This was the first study that monitored police officers at the Ground Zero site. It was published in the "Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.") In this study of 471 police officers, 19 percent of the officers in October 2001 experienced shortness of breath; 44 percent of the officers experienced shortness of breath in April 2003. The percentage of the 471 officers coughing up phlegm increased from 14 percent in October 2001 to 31 percent in 2003.


text: A 2006 medical study of fire fighters reported that those personnel who inhaled Ground Zero air essentially lost 12 years of lung function. Additionally, a Mount Sinai report found that 70 percent of recovery and rescue workers reported an increase in debilitated respiratory function between 2002 and 2004. A 2008 report by New York City's Department of Health indicated that up to 70,000 people might have stress disorder due to the attack. The findings were the result of the city's health registry of September 11 first responders, residents, and others.


text: Apparently, out of at least 100,000 eligible, fewer than 14,000 have registered, as reported by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. The final registration deadline for September 11-related workers' compensation was August 14, 2007.


text: On July 12, 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer extended to August 14, 2008, the filing deadline for worker's compensation claims, for people who worked or volunteered at Ground Zero. Individuals would register with the State Workers' Compensation Board. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo granted a third extension for Ground Zero rescue, recovery or clean up workers to file a notice of participation for worker' compensation benefits. This applies to workers who had not yet filled or who were denied between September 2015 and September 2017, with the new deadline being September 11, 2022.


text: In April 2022 a bill was introduced in the New York State Legislature, and was referred to the Committee on Governmental Employees. The bill aimed to provide coverage for any illness or death incurred due to the individuals participation in rescue, recovery and cleanup operations related to the attacks. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention World Trade Center Health Program Certification would be deemed presumptive medical evidence of a causally related diagnosis under workers compensation law.


text: In 2008, the lead researcher of a New York State Department of Health study informed "The New York Post" of a study documenting at least 204 deaths of rescue and recovery workers since September 11, 2001. The researchers for the study confirmed 98 deaths with death certificates. The researchers showed that 77 persons died of illnesses, including 55 from lung and various other cancers. Kitty Gelberg, New York state Bureau of Occupational Health's chief epidemiologist said, "We're not saying they are all World Trade Center related; we're just saying this is what people are dying from." Many of the 55 responders who died from cancer had cancer before September 11, 2001, but most of the cancer patients developed the disease afterward.


text: In particular, "first responders," New York Police Department and Fire Department of New York members that reported to Ground Zero, have asserted that they are victims of diseases associated with the toxic cloud from the pulverized buildings and equipment.


text: NYPD Detective James Zadroga, 34, was the first 9/11 responder whose 2006 death was directly linked with toxic Ground Zero substances.


text: Gerard Breton, a pathologist of the Ocean County, New Jersey medical examiner's office (which conducted an autopsy), reported that "It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident." In addition to "first responders" that responded to the initial attack on the World Trade Center many assisted during recovery operations.


text: In 2017, 24 members of the NYPD died of cancer linked to toxins from the terrorist attack. In the first five months of 2018, another 24 members of the NYPD died of the same cause.


text: In 2020, the NYPD confirmed that 247 NYPD police officers had died due to 9/11-related illnesses. In September 2022, the FDNY confirmed that the total number of firefighters that died due to 9/11-related illnesses was 299. Both agencies believe that the death toll will rise dramatically in the coming years. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD), which is the law enforcement agency which has jurisdiction over the World Trade Center due to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owning the site, has confirmed that four of its police officers have died of 9/11-related illnesses. The chief of the PAPD at the time, Joseph Morris, made sure that industrial-grade respirators were provided to all PAPD police officers within 48 hours and decided that the same 30 to 40 police officers would be stationed at the World Trade Center pile, drastically lowering the number of total PAPD personnel who would be exposed to the air. The FDNY and NYPD had rotated hundreds, if not thousands, of different personnel from all over New York City to the pile which exposed so many of them to dust that would give them cancer or other diseases years or decades later. Also, they weren't given adequate respirators and breathing equipment that could have prevented future diseases.


text: Cesar Borja, a veteran of the NYPD, died, falling ill from lung disease. He had spent 16-hour days at the smoldering wreckage of Ground Zero. Detective Robert Williamson, 46, died from pancreatic and lung cancer on May 13, 2007. He worked for 16-hour days, without taking days off, in performing recovery work at the Ground Zero site. After the clean up effort, he was among individuals that lobbied Governor George Pataki to sign a bill permitting retirees suffering from Ground Zero illnesses to have their illnesses reclassified and to receive additional pension benefits. His family and union believe that his cancers were directly caused by exposure to Ground Zero dust at the World Trade Center site. Twenty year veteran of the NYPD, Officer Kevin Hawkins, 41, died in May 2007 from kidney cancer, soon after filing for a Ground Zero disability pension. He had worked two months at the Ground Zero site.


text: On September 3, 2007, NYPD Officer Frank Macri died of lung cancer that spread throughout his body, including to his spine. Macri's lungs were filled with dust when the towers collapsed and he later spent two months working on the site. The long hours on the site gave him vomiting spells and he was diagnosed with an already rapidly progressing stage four cancer only one year after the attack, despite being a non-smoker and cancer free before the attacks. In 2011, a lower court ruled that 9/11 toxins were the likely cause of Macri's death. In 2012, the New York Supreme Court ruled that Macri's widow is entitled to line-of-duty death benefits of his full salary. On December 12, 2017, NYPD Captain Douglas Greenwood took his own life after a long battle with lung disease, brought on by deadly chemicals in the air while working alongside other officers at Ground Zero. The pain he suffered over the years became too much to manage, causing him to take his own life by shooting himself in the chest near his home in Suffolk County, New York.


text: Surviving first responders and their advocates are asserting that their illnesses have resulted from exposure to toxins at Ground Zero. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) filed a lawsuit to secure benefits for Officer Christopher Hynes, 36. In March 2004 he was diagnosed as having sarcoidosis. However, the NYPD has refused to bestow line-of-duty injury status to him. Hynes had worked for 111 hours at Ground Zero and its vicinity. He claims that he was never given a proper respirator for his work at Ground Zero. He has had difficulty in paying medical bills because of the denial of line-of-duty status. One medical provider sued him for $3,094 for medical bills. The provider eventually settled out of court for $1,625. The PBA noted that firefighters, by contrast, have been given line-of-duty status for their injuries.


text: Hundreds of volunteer firefighters, construction workers, health professionals, clergy, and other individuals descended upon the scene in the days immediately following the attacks. These individuals volunteered directly at the Ground Zero site or cared for traumatized responders. Among individuals in the latter group, newspaper accounts have cited South Carolinian Episcopal nun, Sister Cindy Mahoney's death as a fatality of Ground Zero illness. Mahoney spent several months attending to first responders' spiritual needs. Two weeks prior to her death, she was cut off from her insurance. She choked to death on November 1, 2006, following five years of lung troubles.


text: Sen. Hillary Clinton on Sister Mahoney and Ground Zero illness: "We know that so many are now suffering health effects from breathing the toxic air at Ground Zero … Yet there are still some who doubt the link. By raising attention to her own devastating illness, Sister Mahoney will continue as she did in life, to help those affected by 9/11."


text: Communications recovery worker Mark DeBiase, aged 41, died on April 9, 2006, from a Ground Zero illness. He worked without protective gear for restoring communications at the site. "DeBiase's work was so crucial in emergency workers to communicate that he was shuttled between locations in a military helicopter," according to his father, Angelo DeBiase.


text: Manuel Checo is one of many janitors that performed cleanup work who now suffer from "World Trade Center cough." He spent six months at the site. Compounding janitorial workers' troubles, three-quarters of them lack health insurance.


text: Civil rights attorney Felicia Dunn-Jones, 42, died February 10, 2002, from sarcoidosis. The city's chief medical examiner belatedly attributed her death to her being engulfed in the dust cloud from the collapse of the Twin Towers, one block from her office.


text: Mayor Rudy Giuliani acted quickly to "reopen Wall Street." The Wall Street area reopened for business on September 17.


text: Students and staff at Stuyvesant High School returned to the school which lies within one-third of a mile north of the World Trade Center site, while fires were still burning at Ground Zero. Alumni are circulating a petition for greater attention to health problems related to the Ground Zero air. There is a debate over whether the 2002 Class President Amit Friedlander's developing cancer is related to Ground Zero air.


text: In addition, the students and staff members at the Murry Bergtraum High School returned to the building a couple of days after the attack, with the air system in the school severely affected and damaged from the debris and dust from the World Trade Center site (the school is three-quarters of a mile east of the site). Several teachers, particularly from the business department, and students have developed asthma and other breathing problems because of the lack of unpolluted air and the failure to clean the school's central air system thoroughly years after the attack. Some students who were in the schools at the time of the attacks suffered from trauma related conditions such as depression, anxiety and PTSD.


text: President George W. Bush has been faulted by the Sierra Club for allegedly interfering with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) interpretations and pronouncements regarding air quality.


text: On September 18, 2001, EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman told the public, via a press release, "We are very encouraged that the results from our monitoring of air-quality and drinking-water conditions in both New York and near the Pentagon show that the public in these areas is not being exposed to excessive levels of asbestos or other harmful substances" and that "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York … that their air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink."


text: An August 2003 report by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA said the Bush administration pressured the EPA to remove cautionary information about the air quality at Ground Zero.


text: Numerous key differences between the draft versions and final versions of EPA statements were found. A recommendation that homes and businesses near ground zero be cleaned by professionals was replaced by a request that citizens follow orders from NYC officials. Another statement that showed concerns about "sensitive populations" was deleted altogether. Language used to describe excessive amounts of asbestos in the area was altered drastically to minimize the dangers it posed.


text: In September 2006, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security held a two-day hearing on illnesses caused by post-9/11 air quality. Former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman was a frequent target of criticism.


text: EPA scientist Dr. Cate Jenkins said on CBS television on September 8, 2006, that agency officials lied about the air quality in the weeks following September 11, 2001. She said that in her opinion the EPA knew about the toxicity of the air, and that WTC dust included asbestos and disturbingly high PH levels. She said that some of the dust was "as caustic and alkaline as Drano." Dr. Marjorie Clarke also warned of the consequences of breathing toxic dust and fumes. Yet, agencies did not heed her warnings.


text: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation conducted a study of the World Trade Center site, but refused to release the results of its study, saying they were part of a criminal investigation.


text: On September 13, 2006, Congressmen Jerrold Nadler (NY), Anthony Weiner (NY), Bill Pascrell Jr. (NJ) filed a request with US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate whether criminal charges may be brought against Whitman for lying about air safety in the Ground Zero area.


text: Critics assert that government officials – notably Bush, Christine Todd Whitman (former head of the US EPA), and New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani – downplayed the health risks of the area and rushed to reopen the area around Ground Zero, although this posed a grave and immediate health risk to first responders. Many corporations were eager to hear the news of the New York Stock Exchange being reopened only a few days after the collapse. On June 25, 2007, Whitman testified before a House of Representatives committee chaired by Jerrold Nadler. She said that a White House official informed her that President Bush expected that the Financial District would reopen within three days, that is, by September 14. She said that she replied that this would be cumbersome, since the EPA was still judging the health situation in the area.


text: Investigations after the attacks suggest that the Bush administration pressured Whitman and Giuliani to provide health reassurances in order to keep Wall Street operating.


text: Two days after the collapse of the World Trade Center, mayor Giuliani said, "The air is safe as far as we can tell, with respect to chemical and biological agents." Giuliani, in attempting to deflate "New York Daily News" journalist Juan Gonzalez' reportage of the 9/11 air issue, claimed that "the problems created… are not health-threatening."


text: In November 2001, Giuliani wrote to the city's Congressional delegation and urged that the city's liability for Ground Zero illnesses be limited, in total, at $350 million. Two years after Mayor Giuliani finished his term, FEMA appropriated $1 billion to a special insurance fund to protect the city against 9/11 lawsuits.


text: In a September 18, 2006 "New York Daily News" article, Sally Regenhard, mother of firefighter Christian Regenhard who died on September 11, is quoted, "There's a large and growing number of both FDNY families, FDNY members, former and current, and civilian families who want to expose the true failures of the Giuliani administration when it comes to 9/11." She told the "New York Daily News" that she intends to "Swift Boat" Giuliani.


text: Then-senator Hillary Clinton contemplated calling Giuliani to testify before a Senate committee on whether the government failed to protect recovery workers from the effects of polluted Ground Zero air.


text: Congressman Nadler was quoted in a March 1, 2007, "New York Sun" article saying that he "absolutely" wishes to interview Giuliani administration officials regarding the environment in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. He asked, "Who made decisions, if any, that resulted unnecessarily in a lot of people getting sick?"


text: A May 14, 2007, "New York Times" reported that thousands of workers at Ground Zero have become sick and that "many regard Mr. Giuliani's triumph of leadership as having come with a human cost." The "Times" reported that he seized control of the cleanup of Ground Zero, taking control away from established federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He instead handed over responsibility to the "largely unknown" city Department of Design and Construction. Documents indicate that the Giuliani administration never enforced federal requirements requiring the wearing of respirators. Concurrently, the administration threatened companies with dismissal if cleanup work slowed.


text: Workers worked without proper respirators. They wore painters' masks or no covering. Specialists claim that the only effective protection against toxins such as airborne asbestos, is a special respirator. New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health industrial hygienist David Newman said, "I was down there watching people working without respirators." He continued, "Others took off their respirators to eat. It was a surreal, ridiculous, unacceptable situation."


text: The local EPA office sidelined the regional EPA office. Dr. Cate Jenkins, a whistle-blower EPA scientist, said that on September 12, 2001, a regional EPA office offered to dispatch 30 to 40 electron microscopes to the WTC pit to test bulk dust samples for the presence of asbestos fibers. Instead, the local office chose the less effective polarized light microscopy testing method. Dr. Jenkins alleged that the local office refused, saying, "We don't want you f—ing cowboys here. The best thing they could do is reassign you to Alaska."


text: First responders and other individuals have sued the City of New York. Lawyers have criticized the city for failing to provide proper facial ventilators to clean-up workers.


text: On October 17, 2006, federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rejected New York City's motion to dismiss lawsuits that requested health payments to the first responders.


text: On November 19, 2010, attorneys said that plaintiffs accepted a settlement which should lead to $625 million being paid to more than 10,000 workers experiencing problems as a result of inadequate preparation to work at Ground Zero. Not all affected participated, but those who did not would be eligible for a portion of $7.4 billion provided by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which the U.S. House passed in September 2010. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked the Senate to do the same. The plaintiffs in the settlement would also be eligible for compensation under the Zadroga Act.


text: On December 22, 2010, the United States Senate passed a 9/11 Health Bill running against opposition of the Republican Party and aided by advocacy from comedian Jon Stewart. The measure calls for providing $1.8 billion until 2015 to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at World Trade Center site. There are nearly 60,000 people enrolled in health-monitoring and treatment programs related to the 9/11 attack. The bill is formally known as the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named after a New York police detective who took part in the rescue efforts at ground zero and later developed breathing complications.


text: On October 28, 2007, Jim Riches reported that the City of New York and litigating first responders have shown interest in a legal settlement, to resolve lawsuits against the city. The settlement would yield a financial settlement apportioned in the following manner: forty percent to lawyers, and sixty percent to litigants.


text: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health issued a study on July 17, 2007, indicating that the estimates for monthly costs of treating Ground Zero workers had increased from around $6 million per month to $20 million per month by the end of 2007. The causes of the increased expense lie in the increasing numbers of workers getting sick and the worsening illnesses of workers. This indicated that the planned U.S. House appropriation legislation (of $50 million) for the sick workers, for the coming year, would be inadequate. The number of workers that have registered with area hospitals' Ground Zero programs has reached 37,000. With about 500 new workers registering each month, the institute estimated that the number of registrants could reach 65,000 in two years. (The institute is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.) 40 percent of the World Trade Center workers being monitored by a Mount Sinai Hospital study lack health insurance.


text: In June 2008, New York City argued in federal court that 30 percent of the September 11 plaintiffs did not have serious injuries. This is part of a larger debate over the number of people sickened by the collapse of the Twin Towers.


text: On June 11, 2007, Mayor Bloomberg appointed Jeffrey Hon as World Trade Center health coordinator. Hon had previously worked as the spokesman for the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program. People have offered conflicting statements, however, regarding Hon's role. In an interview with the "New York Daily News" Hon said that his role was to correct inconsistencies in city agencies and to handle related pension issues. Yet, Mayor Bloomberg said that Hon's role would not involve handling pension-related issues. A press release also indicated that the coordinator will "provide a central repository of WTC health information and ensure effective communication with those who may be experiencing 9/11-related health effects."


text: Dr. John Howard was appointed the medical administrator of the federal World Trade Center Health Program funded through the James Zadroga Act. On July 22, 2011, Howard's report on a study of a link between particulate exposure in the aftermath and cancer was released. The report said that there was insufficient evidence of a link between particulate exposure and cancer. The report's findings meant that many first responders to the attacks would be limited in their access to funds for medical treatment. Three New York Congressional delegation Representatives, Peter T. King, Carolyn B. Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, said that they believed that further studies would indicate a link between exposures and cancer.


text: Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn residents brought a 111-page lawsuit against the EPA for purported deception of the public about hazards of Ground Zero air and dust. A major force behind this effort is Brooklyn resident Jenna Orkin of the World Trade Center Environmental Organization. On February 2, 2006, Federal Court Judge Deborah Batts issued an 83-page statement, indicating that there are sufficient grounds for the case to proceed. She also rejected granting Whitman immunity from the lawsuit.


text: On December 10, 2007, legal proceedings began in a case on the question of responsibility of government officials in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Former EPA Director Whitman is among the defendants in the suit; plaintiffs in the suit allege that Whitman is at fault for saying that the downtown Manhattan air was safe in the aftermath of the attacks.


text: On April 22, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that EPA head Whitman could not be held liable for saying to World Trade Center area residents that the air was safe for breathing after the buildings collapse. The appeals court said that Whitman had based her information on contradictory information and statements from President Bush. The U.S. Department of Justice had argued that holding the agency liable would establish a risky legal precedent because future public officials would be afraid to make public statements. Judge Deborah Batts had previously declined to dismiss Whitman as a defendant, saying that her actions were "conscience-shocking".


text: An arbitrator has said that most of the complainants that did not participate in an earlier fund (created by Congress) would be granted settlement awards. The awards would total $500 million. This resolution would involve all but 3 of the nearly 100 litigants.


text: On January 30, 2007, Ground Zero workers and groups such as Sierra Club and Unsung Heroes Helping Heroes met at the Ground Zero site and urged President George W. Bush to spend more money on aid for sick Ground Zero workers. They said that the $25 million that Bush promised for the ill workers was inadequate. A Long Island iron-worker, John Sferazo, at the protest rally said, "Why has it taken you 5½ years to meet with us, Mr. President?"


text: Area residents joined the protest. Mariama James, who lives within blocks of the Ground Zero site, said that she became ill after cleaning the Ground Zero debris and dust from her apartment. "Recovery workers aren't the only people that were affected by this disaster," she said. "There are other people in need of treatment and monitoring."


text: Families of Ground Zero workers have filed a mass lawsuit against the city. Andrew Carboy of the firm, Sulivan, Pappain, Block, McGrath and Cannovo said of the deaths of Cesar Borja, James Zadroga, and Mark DeBiase, "If Borja, Zadroga and now DeBiase isn't a wakeup call for the city, I don't know what will wake them."


text: By June 2007, the number of people filing claims against the city, regarding exposure to Ground Zero toxins, reached 10,000. Attorney David Worby is leading a class action lawsuit representing 8,000 people. By September 2007, the number of plaintiffs in the case reached 10,000. "I started this suit on behalf of one cop that got sick." He continued, "Nobody would touch the case with a 10-foot pole because it was considered unpatriotic to say anything against the cleanup or the EPA.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone, sold under the brand name Proviron among others, is an androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) medication which is used mainly in the treatment of low testosterone levels. It has also been used to treat male infertility, although this use is controversial. It is taken by mouth.


title: Mesterolone

text: Side effects of mesterolone include symptoms of masculinization like acne, scalp hair loss, increased body hair growth, voice changes, and increased sexual desire. It has no risk of liver damage. The drug is a synthetic androgen and anabolic steroid and hence is an agonist of the androgen receptor (AR), the biological target of androgens like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It has strong androgenic effects and weak anabolic effects, which make it useful for producing masculinization. The drug has no estrogenic effects.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone was first described by 1966 and introduced for medical use by 1967. In addition to its medical use, mesterolone has been used to improve physique and performance, although it is not commonly used for such purposes due to its weak anabolic effects. The drug is a controlled substance in many countries and so non-medical use is generally illicit.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone is used in the treatment of androgen deficiency in male hypogonadism, anemia, and to support male fertility among other indications. It has also been used to treat delayed puberty in boys. Because it lacks estrogenic effects, mesterolone may be indicated for treating cases of androgen deficiency in which breast tenderness or gynecomastia is also present. The drug is described as a relatively weak androgen with partial activity and is rarely used for the purpose of androgen replacement therapy, but is still widely used in medicine.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone is used in androgen replacement therapy at a dosage of 50 to 100 mg 2 to 3 times per day.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone has been used for physique- and performance-enhancing purposes by competitive athletes, bodybuilders, and powerlifters.


title: Mesterolone

text: Like other AAS, mesterolone is an agonist of the androgen receptor (AR). Mesterolone is described as a very poor anabolic agent due to inactivation by 3α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3α-HSD) in skeletal muscle tissue, similarly to DHT and mestanolone (17α-methyl-DHT). In contrast, testosterone is a very poor substrate for 3α-HSD, and so is not similarly inactivated in skeletal muscle. Because of its lack of potentiation by 5α-reductase in "androgenic" tissues and its inactivation by 3α-HSD in skeletal muscle, mesterolone is relatively low in both its androgenic potency and its anabolic potency. However, it does still show a greater ratio of anabolic activity to androgenic activity relative to testosterone.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone is not a substrate for 5α-reductase, as it is already 5α-reduced, and hence is not potentiated in so-called "androgenic" tissues such as the skin, hair follicles, and prostate gland.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone is not a substrate for aromatase, and so cannot be converted into an estrogen. As such, it has no propensity for producing estrogenic side effects such as gynecomastia and fluid retention. It also has no progestogenic activity.


title: Mesterolone

text: Because mesterolone is not 17α-alkylated, it has little or no potential for hepatotoxicity. However, its risk of deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system is comparable to that of several other oral AAS.


title: Mesterolone

text: The C1α methyl group of mesterolone inhibits its hepatic metabolism and thereby confers significant oral activity, although its oral bioavailability is still much lower than that of 17α-alkylated AAS. In any case, mesterolone is one of the few non-17α-alkylated AAS that is active with oral ingestion. Uniquely among AAS, mesterolone has very high affinity for human serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), about 440% that of DHT in one study and 82% of that of DHT in another study. As a result, it may displace endogenous testosterone from SHBG and thereby increase free testosterone concentrations, which may in part be involved in its effects.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone, also known as 1α-methyl-4,5α-dihydrotestosterone (1α-methyl-DHT) or as 1α-methyl-5α-androstan-17β-ol-3-one, is a synthetic androstane steroid and derivative of DHT. It is specifically DHT with a methyl group at the C1α position. Closely related AAS include metenolone and its esters metenolone acetate and metenolone enanthate. The antiandrogen rosterolone (17α-propylmesterolone) is also closely related to mesterolone.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone was developed in the 1960s and was first described by 1966. It was introduced for medical use by Schering under the brand name Proviron by 1967. The well-established brand name Proviron had previously been used by Schering for testosterone propionate starting in 1936. Following the introduction of mesterolone as Proviron, Schering continued to market testosterone propionate under the brand name Testoviron. A number of sources incorrectly state that mesterolone was synthesized or introduced for medical use in 1934.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone is available widely throughout the world, including in the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa, as well as many non-English-speaking countries. It is not available in the United States, Canada, or New Zealand. The drug has never been marketed in the United States.


title: Mesterolone

text: Mesterolone, along with other AAS, is a schedule III controlled substance in the United States under the Controlled Substances Act and a schedule IV controlled substance in Canada under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.


title: Mesterolone

text: In one small scale clinical trial of depressed patients, an improvement of symptoms which included anxiety, lack of drive and desire was observed. In patients with dysthymia, unipolar, and bipolar depression significant improvement was observed. In this series of studies, mesterolone lead to a significant decrease in luteinizing hormone and testosterone levels. In another study, 100 mg mesterolone cipionate was administered twice monthly. With regards to plasma testosterone levels, there was no difference between the treated versus untreated group, and baseline luteinizing hormone levels were minimally affected.


title: Karan Thapar

text: Karan Thapar (born 5 November 1955) is an Indian journalist, news presenter and interviewer working with The Wire. Thapar was associated with CNN-IBN and hosted "The Devil's Advocate" and "The Last Word". He was also associated with India Today, hosted the shows "To the Point" and "Nothing But The Truth" and is doing an exclusive series of Interviews with "The Wire" on his show "Access Journalism".


title: Karan Thapar

text: Karan Thapar is the youngest child of former Chief of the Army Staff General Pran Nath Thapar and Bimla Thapar. The journalist Romesh Thapar and the historian Romila Thapar are his cousins.


title: Karan Thapar

text: Thapar is also related distantly to the family of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru's niece, the writer Nayantara Sahgal, was married to Gautam Sahgal, brother of Bimla Thapar, his mother.


title: Karan Thapar

text: He is an alumnus of The Doon School in Dehradun and the Stowe School in England. While at Doon, Thapar was the editor-in-chief of the school magazine "The Doon School Weekly".


title: Karan Thapar

text: He began his career in journalism with "The Times" in Lagos, Nigeria and later worked as their Lead Writer on the Indian subcontinent till 1981. In 1982 he joined "London Weekend Television" in the United Kingdom where he worked for the next 11 years.In London he was one of the co-presenters of Eatern Eye magazine program for South asian minorities in UK. He moved to India in 1991 and worked with "The Hindustan Times Television Group", "Home TV" and "United Television" before setting up his own production house in August 2001, Infotainment Television, which makes programmes for amongst others BBC, Doordarshan and Channel News Asia.


title: Karan Thapar

text: Thapar is noted for his aggressive interviews with leading politicians and celebrities. A few of his shows which have been much watched are "Eyewitness", "Tonight at 10", "In Focus with Karan", "Line of Fire", "War of Words" "Devil's Advocate" and "The Last Word". In 2007, Thapar famously interviewed current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then the Chief Minister of Gujarat). After struggling to answer a few tough questions, Modi abruptly stopped the interview just three minutes in while saying ""dosti bani rahe"" (Hindustani for "Let the friendship be intact") which is a popular internet meme. He later said that interviewing A. R. Rahman was the toughest in his career due to Rahman's shy nature.


title: Karan Thapar

text: In 2020–21, Thapar wrote a column "As I see it" in the daily newspaper "The Asian Age". In August 2021, the management of "The Asian Age" objected to Thapar's regular column after he wrote about the '1947 Violence Against Jammu Muslims'. The violence against the Muslim residents of Jammu during the partition led to their mass displacement from the Jammu region. Thapar stopped writing for the column and said "The 1947 violence against Jammu's Muslims that unfolded over a period of three-four months in 1947 is well-documented and has been historically accounted for. It is something that no one can contest. So I gather that the owners are under enormous pressure, presumably from Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah."


title: Zombies 3

text: Zombies 3 is a 2022 American science fiction musical film that premiered on Disney+ on July 15, 2022 and Disney Channel on August 12, 2022. A sequel to the 2018 film "Zombies" and the 2020 film "Zombies 2", it stars Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly reprising their lead roles as Zed and Addison, respectively. Much of the main supporting cast from the first two "Zombies" films also return. The film follows the town of Seabrook, which now hosts zombies, normal humans, and werewolves all coexisting in harmony, as they attempt to repel an alien invasion.


title: Zombies 3

text: In the town of Seabrook, werewolves, humans and zombies coexist in peace. It's their last year at Seabrook High (their high school) and Addison has been accepted into Mountain College. Zed is pursuing an athletic scholarship at Mountain College and is hoping to join Addison. During the night before a highly anticipated football game, where, should they win, Seabrook's going to have their first zombie/monster recruited into college, therefore bringing down a barrier for all other monsters, a UFO arrives and causes mass panic. Its alien passengers arrived in search of an interstellar map to Utopia, a perfect new home for their species. To cover up their real purpose, they claim to be here to compete in the National Cheer Off, which Addison previously had organized. While being interrogated by the Z-Patrol, A-Spen finds a loophole so Zed can get into college by having an exceptional scholarship.


title: Zombies 3

text: Willa, Wyatt and Wynter are extremely distrustful of the aliens, who settle into Seabrook temporarily. The aliens interrogate the werewolves and scan their minds with their Luma Lenses. Eliza, who is currently interning at Z-Corp, the maker of the Z-bands, helps Zed with his scholarship. However, the aliens beat Zed's records, both athletic and academic, lowering his chances of entering college. Zed, in return for the aliens altering his report card, helps the aliens identify the moonstone, which they scan for coordinates and discover is lethal to them. A-Spen meets Addison, whom they reveal to that they are in love with Zed. At cheer practice, the cheer team is threatened after witnessing the aliens practice. The aliens are almost caught by the werewolves and head to their Mothership where Zed helps them with his knowledge of Seabrook, whereas Addison is mistakenly beamed up to the Mothership. A-Spen, A-Li and A-Lan reveal their true reasons for arriving in Seabrook. After fixing and watching the Scout's logs, they discover that the scout is none other than Addison's maternal grandmother, Angie.


title: Zombies 3

text: Zed is nervous for his home college interview, which is the last thing he needs to overcome before figuring out if he is accepted in Mountain College or not. Addison's alien powers cause him to "zombie out" during his interview, causing his interviewer, Ms. Crabtree, to leave. Addison questions her identity as an alien, asking her mom about her grandma. The trio of aliens suspect that the Seabrook Cup, which is the trophy Angie created, now awarded to the winning team of the Cheer Off, which is crafted with materials from their home world, is their map home. Addison discovers this same thing soon after and realizes either the aliens win it or she does. The werewolves discover the aliens' mission and alert the Z-Patrol. Zed, after learning he was accepted into college, discovers the Z-Patrol's orders and tries to stop the aliens from competing in the Cheer-Off. The extraterrestrial team is disqualified, leaving Addison being their only chance of finding Utopia. The Seabrook Mighty Shrimp are victorious at the competition and win.


title: Zombies 3

text: The werewolves crash into the cheer pavilion and reveal the aliens' plans. The aliens, Addison and Zed escape before Addison reveals to the town her alien heritage. Zed reveals his college news and the aliens realize that the coordinates to Utopia lie in Addison's DNA. Unfortunately, their map is dynamic, meaning they must take Addison to their new home. A conflicted Addison agrees to go. Zed offers to go with her, but it's impossible as he would be killed by their stardust energy within minutes. The day the aliens and Addison are set to leave for Utopia, the aliens' ship is critically damaged, so the werewolves offer their moonstone and Eliza states that they could charge the ship by filtering the moonstone's energy through their Z-Bands. Zed risks his life by interfering with the power of the aliens and the moonstone, though he survives. As the others race to exit the ship before it releases into space, Addison and Zed share one last kiss before he is beamed back to Earth.


title: Zombies 3

text: A few days later, in a world without Addison, the group celebrates their graduation as the aliens compute their coordinates. Addison realizes where her grandma Angie wanted her species to live. The aliens then return to Seabrook. Zed, Bree, Willa, Wynter, Wyatt, Bonzo, Bucky and the Aceys celebrate their return. Afterwards, the aliens fully move in to Seabrook, along with several other monsters and creatures including vampires and merpeople.


title: Zombies 3

text: During the credits, Bucky is shown boarding Mothership and activating it for launch, aiming to "bring cheer to the farthest reaches of the galaxy".


title: Zombies 3

text: On March 22, 2021, a third film, titled "Zombies 3", was announced, with filming set to take place in the spring in Toronto, Canada. Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly reprised their respective roles of Zed and Addison. Paul Hoen served as the director, while Bloor Street Productions served as the production company. David Light, Joseph Raso, Suzanne Farwell, and Resonate Entertainment served as executive producers. On May 19, 2021, it was announced that Matt Cornett, Kyra Tantao, Terry Hu were cast in the film in the respective roles of A-Lan, A-Li, and A-Spen. Chandler Kinney, Pearce Joza, Baby Ariel, Trevor Tordjman, Carla Jeffery, Kylee Russell, James Godfrey, and Kingston Foster also returned in their respective roles. Production on the film began on May 31, 2021 and wrapped in July 2021. On May 20, 2022, RuPaul was announced to have joined the cast as the voice of "The Mothership", described in the official synopsis as "a comedically passive-aggressive UFO".


title: Zombies 3

text: Due to her pregnancy, Kylee Russell was unable to film with the rest of the cast; her scenes were accomplished through only showing her torso-up in shots and interacts with the rest of the cast through a robot body.


title: Zombies 3

text: "Zombies 3" was released on July 15, 2022, on Disney+. The movie also aired on Disney Channel on August 12, billed as a "Lost Song edition". The scene where A-spen reveals to Addison that they are in love with Zed, Bree, Addison, Willa, Wynter and A-spen sing about the feeling of being in love, the song being titled as "What Is This Feeling?"