alan ‘We Roar’: Economist Alan Blinder calls the pandemic ‘one of the most extreme economic events that has ever taken place’ By www.princeton.edu Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 10:33:57 -0400 Alan Blinder, the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, is the latest guest on the "We Roar" podcast. Full Article
alan What’s keeping you out of balance? By www.womenoftheelca.org Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 06:00:57 +0000 Sometimes the toll life takes on us seems too high a price to pay. We get stressed out; it happens Read More The post What’s keeping you out of balance? appeared first on Women of the ELCA. Full Article Daily Grace LWT
alan PandO Cruises extends Australia and New Zealand cancellations By www.travelmole.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 13:50:01 -0400 Agents' commission 'will be fully protected' Full Article
alan New Zealand In Shut Down Due to Covid 13. No Travel This Year. By www.travelblog.org Published On :: Oh Wow In the words of the song from Star Trek. It's Life Jim But Not As We Know It .World wide this is the cry. Whats happened Life has suddenly changed. Different Countries Different Continents Different Societies Different Cultures.Bu Full Article
alan New Zealand Day 2 By www.travelblog.org Published On :: I have totally lost track of the days. Today was jammed pack of learning and fun. Many of you know I always like an adventure and try something fun. It is winter here and snow is on the mountain tops. This morning several of us opted to take a jet boat rid Full Article
alan The rest of New Zealand what an incredibly beautiful country. By www.travelblog.org Published On :: Hello everyone I hope you are all well and enjoyed the half term break. Since I last wrote I have been busy exploring more of New Zealand so let me fill you in on what we have been up to whilst visiting the South Island. Mount CookWe spent a n Full Article
alan New Zealand Taupo and Mordor By www.travelblog.org Published On :: In Taupo we slept one Night near the Lake. The next Day was Hammer Time again. 15000 feet Skydive. Unbelievable Feeling. At the same Day we driven along the Desert Road Highway 1 to see Mt. Doom and Mordor from the Lord of the Rings. Very cool Scenerys Full Article
alan New Zealand Way to Taupo over Gisborne East Coast Road Opotiki and Rotorura By www.travelblog.org Published On :: Arrived in Hasting we're slept on a nice Campsite near a Beach. The german Couple was 3 Days before us there. Manu and Vera are now 9 Month in NZ and have a Working Visa for 1 Year. On the next Day our 2 Vans heading to the North. We visit the Peninsula Ma Full Article
alan Spring season in New Zealand By www.travelblog.org Published On :: Premier jour Taupo.. o il ne fait pas spcialement beau L'occasion pour moi de revisiter mes premiers jours en NouvelleZlande Full Article
alan Losing jobs, saving jobs: As unemployment soars, the nation and individual states try to balance health and economic concerns By www.nydailynews.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 08:10:00 +0000 The patient, laid up in the ICU, gets sicker. Thursday, 3.2 million more people joined the ranks of the unemployed, bringing to 33.5 million the number of Americans who’ve lost jobs since mid-March. Believe it: One in five of those employed before this living, dying hell began is now seeking jobless benefits. Full Article
alan Elliott: USA Hockey's Lamoureux twins balance elite competition with motherhood By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 20:15:04 -0500 Twins Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux are among the first players to take advantage of the maternity and child-care provisions in their new labor agreement with USA Hockey. Full Article
alan Colorado Avalanche player tests positive for COVID-19 By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:32:14 -0400 A player on the Colorado Avalanche has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, making him the third NHL player known to have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Full Article
alan A second Colorado Avalanche player tests positive for COVID-19 By www.latimes.com Published On :: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 17:57:40 -0400 The four NHL players known to have tested positive all faced the Kings at Staples Center in the last few days before the NHL suspended play March 12. Full Article
alan Feds tweak driverless-car guidelines, seek to balance safety and tech development By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 8 Jan 2020 16:13:03 -0500 Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says safety is the top priority for robot cars – but so is intellectual property. Full Article
alan FIFA 20 TOTW 19 confirmed as Mbappe, Van Dijk, Haaland, Casemiro and Suarez make FUT XI By www.express.co.uk Published On :: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 16:52:00 +0000 FIFA 20 – EA Sports have announced their latest FIFA 20 FUT Team of the Week, so who has received a stats boost for their most recent performances? Full Article
alan Alan Shearer warns Premier League against promoting Leeds and West Brom if season ends now By www.express.co.uk Published On :: Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:04:00 +0000 Leeds United and West Brom should not be automatically promoted to the Premier League from the Championship if the current season is forced to end, owing to the coronavirus suspension, according to Alan Shearer. Full Article
alan Alan Titchmarsh: Ground Force hero’s genius gardening hack exposed By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 10:56:00 +0100 ALAN TITCHMARSH, celebrated and much loved TV gardener, once revealed a genius gardening hack to ensure one of his favourite flowers will grow even better in your own home. Full Article
alan Alan Titchmarsh: Ground Force legend's top tips for juicy strawberries revealed By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 10:31:00 +0100 ALAN TITCHMARSH, TV legend and much loved gardener, once revealed his top tips to get the very best strawberries grown at home. Full Article
alan A pest that caps them all, says ALAN TITCHMARSH By www.express.co.uk Published On :: Sat, 22 Sep 2018 05:01:00 +0100 TOADSTOOLS are simply fascinating, scientifically speaking. The familiar caps-on-stalks are only part of a much bigger threadlike organism that lives entirely underground, sending up the familiar parasol structures to distribute their microscopic spores. Full Article
alan Illinois' Alan Griffin is ejected after stepping on Purdue's Sasha Stefanovic By rssfeeds.indystar.com Published On :: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 01:02:03 +0000 Stefanovic was on the court after scoring when Griffin stepped on his chest Full Article
alan Illinois' Alan Griffin gets suspension for stepping on Purdue's Sasha Stefanovic By rssfeeds.indystar.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Jan 2020 22:27:36 +0000 First-half incident resulted in an ejection for Illini player as he stepped on Boilermakers guard Full Article
alan Timeline: New Zealand By news.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:24:22 GMT A chronology of key events Full Article Country profiles
alan Country profile: New Zealand By news.bbc.co.uk Published On :: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:17:27 GMT Key facts, figures and dates Full Article Country profiles
alan Google Search Console now supports SpecialAnnouncement schema By feeds.searchengineland.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 10:24:38 +0000 The Rich Results Test tool now also supports SpecialAnnouncement markup. Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. Full Article
alan velocityconf: Free webcast from our friends at @citrix 5/29 http://t.co/IOeY4U0wUP Learn to consolidate 40 load balancers and ADCs into single platform By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 21 May 2013 15:01:58 +0000 velocityconf: Free webcast from our friends at @citrix 5/29 http://t.co/IOeY4U0wUP Learn to consolidate 40 load balancers and ADCs into single platform Full Article
alan AT#104 - Travel to New Zealand By traffic.libsyn.com Published On :: Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:20:00 +0000 New Zealand Full Article
alan AT#240 - Travel to New Zealand's North Island By pacific.amateurtraveler.com Published On :: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:00:00 +0000 Chris, the Amateur Traveler himself, talks about a recent trip to New Zealand’s North Island where he went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and took a dolphin watching cruise up by the Bay of Islands. He visited the Coromandel Peninsula with Cathedral Cove and Hot Water beach, toured but can’t talk about Hobbiton near Matamata, climbed Mt Maunganui, saw (and smelled) the geysers and baths at Rotorua, journeyed south to the Capital at Wellington, visited a ski area on a volcano and rafted the caves of Waitaomo. Full Article
alan AT#341 - Travel to New Zealand's South Island By amateurtraveler.com Published On :: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:30:00 +0000 The Amateur Traveler talks to Erik Smith about his month long visit to New Zealand. We focus in this interview about the South Island of New Zealand. Erick started in Christchurch and then visited The Banks Penninsula, Lake Tekapo, the Dunedin, the Otago Peninsula, the Southern Scenic Route including the Catlins, Fiordland National Park (including cruising both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound) Queenstown, the rainy west coast, Abel Tasman National Park, Kaikoura, and Picton. Full Article
alan AT#641 - Travel to New Zealand By amateurtraveler.com Published On :: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 15:00:00 +0000 Hear about a two week New Zealand road trip as the Amateur Traveler talks to Hanson Cheng. Full Article
alan Guatemalan Black Howler Monkey By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 03 Jul 2015 17:05:00 +0200 The endangered Guatemalan Black Howler (Alouatta pigra) (sometimes called the Yucatan Howler or Yucatan Black Howler) is one of many species of howler monkey, which is what is known as a ‘New World’ monkey. Its range is throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, and includes the areas of Mexico, Belize, and of course Guatemala. The Guatemalan Black Howler prefers to live in very lush areas, mostly sticking to all types of rain forests such as the semi-deciduous, lowland and evergreen. Of its cousins and relatives, the Guatemalan Black Howler is the largest, and is also one of the largest ‘New World’ monkeys (which include marmosets, owl monkeys, sakis, spider, and woolly monkeys). It weighs in at 25 lbs on average in males (11-12 kg) and 14 lbs for the females (6-7 kg). Their fur is usually black and their tails are very long, and prehensile (meaning it can grab and be used to hang from branches with). They also have specialized teeth for their diet of mostly leaves, along with the males possessing a larger hyoid bone located near the vocal chords, which enables their loud calls. The Guatemalan Black is a diurnal howler, which means it is active during the day and it sleeps at night, as well as being arboreal, meaning it dwells in the trees most of its life. They are a social species that lives in groups up to ten members strong, which helps in alerting, foraging, and general upkeep through grooming. Some groups can be as large as sixteen, while larger groups are plausible, however at these sizes it is unlikely to function as well as a smaller group. Their diets consist of mostly leaves, and fruits, however they will snack on a flower here and there and their favorite tree of all is the breadnut, which provides most food during some seasons. Not a particularly active species, the Guatemalan Black Howler would rather lounge about during the day; eating takes up a quarter of the day while moving locations for eating consists of only about a tenth of their daily activity. The rest of the day is devoted to socializing and grooming, with some other random antics. Females are old enough to have offspring by four years of age, while males may take up to eight years to reach maturity, and their total life-spans are an average of twenty years. The Guatemalan Black Howler’s binomial name (its species and genus) is Alouatta pigra, the Alouatta’s as a genus make up most of the Howler Monkeys, which are the largest of the New World Monkeys with but a few possible exceptions. Alouatta is home to all of the howler monkeys (ten species and ten subspecies), and belongs to the subfamily Alouattinae. Alouattinae belongs to the family Atelidae which is one of the four families of New World Monkeys; this includes the howler monkeys, along with spider monkeys, woolly monkeys, wooly spider monkeys, and Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkeys. Atelidae belongs to the Parvorder Platyrrhini, which contains all New World Monkeys, and includes Marmosets and Muriquis. Platyrrhini belongs to the infraorder Simiiformes, or ‘higher primates’, and this includes all New World and Old World monkeys from South America and Africa, and includes gibbons, great apes, and the family Hominidae of which we are members. Simiiformes belongs to the Suborder Haplorrhini, otherwise called dry-nosed primates; this includes all of the higher primates as well as Tarsiers. Haplorrhini belongs to the Order Primates, which is all related apes, monkeys, lorids, galagos, lemurs and human ancestors. Primates are in the class of Mammalia of the phylum Chordata in the Kingdom of Animalia. Fact The Guatemalan Black Howler is sympatric with another species, the Mantled Howler. Sympatric means that they share the same niche and territory, and encounter each other in the wild, they are also closely related. Warning The Guatemalan Black Howler is an Endangered Species, and is close to being classified as Critically Endangered if nothing is done to curb the loss of the species. In the next 30 years the IUCN expects to see a population loss of over 60%, making this species on the more endangered alive today. Major threats are habitat loss, poaching, and capture for use as ‘pets’. Full Article default
alan Brain manganese and the balance between essential roles and neurotoxicity [Molecular Bases of Disease] By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: 2020-05-08T03:41:14-07:00 Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient required for the normal development of many organs, including the brain. Although its roles as a cofactor in several enzymes and in maintaining optimal physiology are well-known, the overall biological functions of Mn are rather poorly understood. Alterations in body Mn status are associated with altered neuronal physiology and cognition in humans, and either overexposure or (more rarely) insufficiency can cause neurological dysfunction. The resultant balancing act can be viewed as a hormetic U-shaped relationship for biological Mn status and optimal brain health, with changes in the brain leading to physiological effects throughout the body and vice versa. This review discusses Mn homeostasis, biomarkers, molecular mechanisms of cellular transport, and neuropathological changes associated with disruptions of Mn homeostasis, especially in its excess, and identifies gaps in our understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying Mn homeostasis and neurotoxicity. Full Article
alan Can the UK Strike a Balance Between Openness and Control? By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:07:34 +0000 2 March 2020 Hans Kundnani Senior Research Fellow, Europe Programme @hanskundnani Rather than fetishizing free trade, Britain should aim to be a model for a wider recalibration of sustainable globalization. 2020-03-02-Johnson.jpg Boris Johnson speaks at the Old Naval College in Greenwich on 3 February. Photo: Getty Images. This week the UK will start negotiating its future relationship with the European Union. The government is trying to convince the EU that it is serious about its red lines and is prepared to walk away from negotiations if the UK’s ‘regulatory freedom’ is not accepted – a no-deal scenario that would result in tariffs between the EU and the UK. Yet at the same time the story it is telling the world is that Britain is ‘re-emerging after decades of hibernation as a campaigner for global free trade’, as Boris Johnson put it in his speech in Greenwich a few weeks ago.The EU is understandably confused. It’s a bit odd to claim to be campaigning for free trade at the exact moment you are creating new barriers to trade. If Britain were so committed to frictionless trade, it wouldn’t have left the EU in the first place – and having decided to leave, it would have sought to maintain a close economic relationship with the EU, like that of Norway, rather than seek a basic trade deal like Canada’s. As well as creating confusion, the narrative also absurdly idealizes free trade. Johnson invoked Richard Cobden and the idea that free trade is ‘God’s diplomacy – the only certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace since the more freely goods cross borders the less likely it is that troops will ever cross borders’. But the idea that free trade prevents war was shattered by the outbreak of the First World War, which brought to an end the first era of globalization.We also know that the domestic effects of free trade are more complex and problematic than Johnson suggested. Economic liberalization increases efficiency by removing friction but also creates disruption and has huge distributional consequences – that is, it creates winners and losers. In a democracy, these consequences need to be mitigated.In any case, the world today is not the same as the one in which Cobden lived. Tariffs are at a historically low level – and many non-tariff barriers have also been removed. In other words, most of the possible gains from trade liberalization have already been realized. Johnson talked about the dangers of a new wave of protectionism. But as the economist Dani Rodrik has argued, the big problem in the global economy is no longer a lack of openness, it is a lack of democratic legitimacy.The UK should therefore abandon this confusing and misleading narrative and own the way it is actually creating new barriers to trade – and do a better job of explaining the legitimate reasons for doing so. Instead of simplistically talking up free trade, we should be talking about the need to balance openness and economic efficiency with democracy and a sense of control, which is ultimately what Brexit was all about. Instead of claiming to be a ‘catalyst for free trade’, as Johnson put it, the UK should be talking about how it is trying to recalibrate globalization and, in doing so, make it sustainable.In the three decades after the end of the Cold War, globalization got out of control as barriers to the movement of capital and goods were progressively removed – what Rodrik called ‘hyper-globalization’ to distinguish it from the earlier, more moderate phase of globalization. This kind of deep integration necessitated the development of a system of rules, which have constrained the ability of states to pursue the kind of economic policy, particularly industrial policy, they want, and therefore undermined democracy.Hyper-globalization created a sense that ‘the nation state has fundamentally lost control of its destiny, surrendering to anonymous global forces’, as the economist Barry Eichengreen put it. Throughout the West, countries are all struggling with the same dilemma – how to reconcile openness and deep integration on the one hand, and democracy, sovereignty and a sense of control on the other.Within the EU, however, economic integration and the abolition of barriers to the movement of capital and goods went further than in the rest of the world – and the evolution of the principle of freedom of movement after the Maastricht Treaty meant that barriers to the internal movement of people were also eliminated as the EU was enlarged. What happened within the EU might be thought of as ‘hyper-regionalization’ – an extreme example, in a regional context, of a global trend.EU member states have lost control to an even greater extent than other nation states – albeit to anonymous regional rather than global forces – and this loss of control was felt intensely within the EU. It is therefore logical that this led to an increase in Euroscepticism. Whereas the left wants to restore some barriers to the movement of capital and goods, the right wants to restore barriers to the movement of people.However, having left the EU, the UK is uniquely well placed to find a new equilibrium. The UK has an ideological commitment to free trade that goes back to the movement to abolish the Corn Laws in the 1840s – which Johnson’s speech expressed. It is difficult to imagine the UK becoming protectionist in any meaningful sense. But at the same time, it has a well-developed sense of national and popular sovereignty, and the sense that the two go together – which is why it was so sensitive to the erosion of them through the EU. This means that Britain is unlikely to go to one extreme or the other.In other words, the UK may be the ideal country to find a new balance between openness and integration on the one hand, and a sense of control on the other. If it can find this balance – if it can make Brexit work – the UK could be a model for a wider recalibration of sustainable globalization. That, rather than fetishizing free trade, is the real contribution the UK can make.A version of this article was originally published in the Observer. Full Article
alan Evasive balancing: India's unviable Indo-Pacific strategy By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 11:37:22 +0000 8 January 2020 , Volume 96, Number 1 Read online Rajesh Rajagopalan India has adopted the Indo-Pacific concept with uncharacteristic speed. This article examines India's Indo-Pacific strategy, which evolved out of its earlier ‘Look East’ and ‘Act East’ policies but is much more focused on strategic concerns than on trade or connectivity. As such, the strategy is subset of its China policy, and includes contradictory elements of balancing China by building partnerships with the United States as well as with regional powers, while simultaneously pursuing a reassurance strategy to convince Beijing that India is not really balancing China. The combination of these contradictory elements is characterized as evasive balancing, which is a more useful concept than either pure balancing or hedging for understanding the policies of India and of many other countries in the region that are trying to manage China's rise. However, reassurance strategies rarely work and the combination of balancing and reassurance is even less likely to be viable. Full Article
alan Brain manganese and the balance between essential roles and neurotoxicity [Molecular Bases of Disease] By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: 2020-05-08T03:41:14-07:00 Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient required for the normal development of many organs, including the brain. Although its roles as a cofactor in several enzymes and in maintaining optimal physiology are well-known, the overall biological functions of Mn are rather poorly understood. Alterations in body Mn status are associated with altered neuronal physiology and cognition in humans, and either overexposure or (more rarely) insufficiency can cause neurological dysfunction. The resultant balancing act can be viewed as a hormetic U-shaped relationship for biological Mn status and optimal brain health, with changes in the brain leading to physiological effects throughout the body and vice versa. This review discusses Mn homeostasis, biomarkers, molecular mechanisms of cellular transport, and neuropathological changes associated with disruptions of Mn homeostasis, especially in its excess, and identifies gaps in our understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying Mn homeostasis and neurotoxicity. Full Article
alan Unconstrained Presidency? Checks and Balances in the Trump Era By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 03 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0100 Full Article
alan Restraining Great Powers: Soft Balancing Strategies Reconsidered By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Full Article
alan A Balancing Act for Europe: Stop the Migrants, Support Greece, Assuage Turkey By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 16:30:44 +0000 Source The New York Times URL https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/world/europe/europe-migrants-turkey-greece.ht... Release date 04 March 2020 Expert Robin Niblett In the news type Op-ed Hide date on homepage Full Article
alan Evasive balancing: India's unviable Indo-Pacific strategy By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 11:37:22 +0000 8 January 2020 , Volume 96, Number 1 Read online Rajesh Rajagopalan India has adopted the Indo-Pacific concept with uncharacteristic speed. This article examines India's Indo-Pacific strategy, which evolved out of its earlier ‘Look East’ and ‘Act East’ policies but is much more focused on strategic concerns than on trade or connectivity. As such, the strategy is subset of its China policy, and includes contradictory elements of balancing China by building partnerships with the United States as well as with regional powers, while simultaneously pursuing a reassurance strategy to convince Beijing that India is not really balancing China. The combination of these contradictory elements is characterized as evasive balancing, which is a more useful concept than either pure balancing or hedging for understanding the policies of India and of many other countries in the region that are trying to manage China's rise. However, reassurance strategies rarely work and the combination of balancing and reassurance is even less likely to be viable. Full Article
alan Maintaining a Balance Part 2 By www.ams.org Published On :: Tue, 11 Oct 2016 13:26:48 -0400 Researcher: Daniel Rothman, MIT. Dan Rothman talks about how math helped understand a mass extinction. Full Article
alan CBD News: Integral to the balance of nature, wildlife nurtures us with a sense of wonder and serves as a source of inspiration. By www.cbd.int Published On :: Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT Full Article
alan Balancing Act: Consumers Are Willing to Sacrifice Privacy to See Fewer Digital Ads, According to New Columbia Business School Research By www8.gsb.columbia.edu Published On :: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 18:01:28 +0000 Business Economics and Public Policy Marketing Media and Technology Tuesday, February 4, 2020 - 12:45 NEW YORK – In the era of online surveillance, consumers continually express concerns about how their digital footprint is being tracked and their privacy compromised. Full Article
alan Can the UK Strike a Balance Between Openness and Control? By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:07:34 +0000 2 March 2020 Hans Kundnani Senior Research Fellow, Europe Programme @hanskundnani Rather than fetishizing free trade, Britain should aim to be a model for a wider recalibration of sustainable globalization. 2020-03-02-Johnson.jpg Boris Johnson speaks at the Old Naval College in Greenwich on 3 February. Photo: Getty Images. This week the UK will start negotiating its future relationship with the European Union. The government is trying to convince the EU that it is serious about its red lines and is prepared to walk away from negotiations if the UK’s ‘regulatory freedom’ is not accepted – a no-deal scenario that would result in tariffs between the EU and the UK. Yet at the same time the story it is telling the world is that Britain is ‘re-emerging after decades of hibernation as a campaigner for global free trade’, as Boris Johnson put it in his speech in Greenwich a few weeks ago.The EU is understandably confused. It’s a bit odd to claim to be campaigning for free trade at the exact moment you are creating new barriers to trade. If Britain were so committed to frictionless trade, it wouldn’t have left the EU in the first place – and having decided to leave, it would have sought to maintain a close economic relationship with the EU, like that of Norway, rather than seek a basic trade deal like Canada’s. As well as creating confusion, the narrative also absurdly idealizes free trade. Johnson invoked Richard Cobden and the idea that free trade is ‘God’s diplomacy – the only certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace since the more freely goods cross borders the less likely it is that troops will ever cross borders’. But the idea that free trade prevents war was shattered by the outbreak of the First World War, which brought to an end the first era of globalization.We also know that the domestic effects of free trade are more complex and problematic than Johnson suggested. Economic liberalization increases efficiency by removing friction but also creates disruption and has huge distributional consequences – that is, it creates winners and losers. In a democracy, these consequences need to be mitigated.In any case, the world today is not the same as the one in which Cobden lived. Tariffs are at a historically low level – and many non-tariff barriers have also been removed. In other words, most of the possible gains from trade liberalization have already been realized. Johnson talked about the dangers of a new wave of protectionism. But as the economist Dani Rodrik has argued, the big problem in the global economy is no longer a lack of openness, it is a lack of democratic legitimacy.The UK should therefore abandon this confusing and misleading narrative and own the way it is actually creating new barriers to trade – and do a better job of explaining the legitimate reasons for doing so. Instead of simplistically talking up free trade, we should be talking about the need to balance openness and economic efficiency with democracy and a sense of control, which is ultimately what Brexit was all about. Instead of claiming to be a ‘catalyst for free trade’, as Johnson put it, the UK should be talking about how it is trying to recalibrate globalization and, in doing so, make it sustainable.In the three decades after the end of the Cold War, globalization got out of control as barriers to the movement of capital and goods were progressively removed – what Rodrik called ‘hyper-globalization’ to distinguish it from the earlier, more moderate phase of globalization. This kind of deep integration necessitated the development of a system of rules, which have constrained the ability of states to pursue the kind of economic policy, particularly industrial policy, they want, and therefore undermined democracy.Hyper-globalization created a sense that ‘the nation state has fundamentally lost control of its destiny, surrendering to anonymous global forces’, as the economist Barry Eichengreen put it. Throughout the West, countries are all struggling with the same dilemma – how to reconcile openness and deep integration on the one hand, and democracy, sovereignty and a sense of control on the other.Within the EU, however, economic integration and the abolition of barriers to the movement of capital and goods went further than in the rest of the world – and the evolution of the principle of freedom of movement after the Maastricht Treaty meant that barriers to the internal movement of people were also eliminated as the EU was enlarged. What happened within the EU might be thought of as ‘hyper-regionalization’ – an extreme example, in a regional context, of a global trend.EU member states have lost control to an even greater extent than other nation states – albeit to anonymous regional rather than global forces – and this loss of control was felt intensely within the EU. It is therefore logical that this led to an increase in Euroscepticism. Whereas the left wants to restore some barriers to the movement of capital and goods, the right wants to restore barriers to the movement of people.However, having left the EU, the UK is uniquely well placed to find a new equilibrium. The UK has an ideological commitment to free trade that goes back to the movement to abolish the Corn Laws in the 1840s – which Johnson’s speech expressed. It is difficult to imagine the UK becoming protectionist in any meaningful sense. But at the same time, it has a well-developed sense of national and popular sovereignty, and the sense that the two go together – which is why it was so sensitive to the erosion of them through the EU. This means that Britain is unlikely to go to one extreme or the other.In other words, the UK may be the ideal country to find a new balance between openness and integration on the one hand, and a sense of control on the other. If it can find this balance – if it can make Brexit work – the UK could be a model for a wider recalibration of sustainable globalization. That, rather than fetishizing free trade, is the real contribution the UK can make.A version of this article was originally published in the Observer. Full Article
alan Lipid sensing tips the balance for a key cholesterol synthesis enzyme [Images in Lipid Research] By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: 2020-05-05T06:33:39-07:00 Full Article
alan Amylin/Calcitonin Receptor-Mediated Signaling in POMC Neurons Influences Energy Balance and Locomotor Activity in Chow-Fed Male Mice By diabetes.diabetesjournals.org Published On :: 2020-03-09T12:48:09-07:00 Amylin, a pancreatic hormone and neuropeptide, acts principally in the hindbrain to decrease food intake and has been recently shown to act as a neurotrophic factor to control the development of AP->NTS and ARC->PVN axonal fiber outgrowth. Amylin is also able to activate ERK signaling specifically in POMC neurons independently of leptin. To investigate the physiological role of amylin signaling in POMC neurons, the core component of the amylin receptor, calcitonin receptor (CTR) was depleted from POMC neurons using an inducible mouse model. The loss of CTR in POMC neurons leads to increased body weight gain, increased adiposity, and glucose intolerance in male knockout mice, characterized by decreased energy expenditure (EE) and decreased expression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Furthermore, a decreased spontaneous locomotor activity and absent thermogenic reaction to the application of the amylin receptor agonist were observed in male and female mice. Together, these results show a significant physiological impact of amylin/calcitonin signaling in CTR-POMC neurons on energy metabolism and demonstrate the need for sex-specific approaches in obesity research and potentially treatment. Full Article
alan Has the balance of screening for AAA tipped towards harm? By feeds.bmj.com Published On :: Fri, 06 Mar 2015 16:32:30 +0000 Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) are usually asymptomatic until they rupture, which is fatal in more than 80% of cases. Screening aims to detect the aneurysm before it ruptures, enabling preventive surgery and hence reducing morbidity and mortality. However, preventive surgery has a mortality of 3.9-4.5%. As the prevalence of risk factors, ie... Full Article
alan Dementia prevalance in 2040 By feeds.bmj.com Published On :: Wed, 05 Jul 2017 17:07:08 +0000 The Alzheimer’s society, in the UK, predicts that if the rates of dementia remain constant there’ll be 1.7 million people in the country living with the condition by 2050. We also know that things like improvements in cardiovascular health are changing those rates. New research published on bmj.com attempts to model what the outcomes of those... Full Article
alan Britain Must Balance a Transatlantic Heart With a European Head By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 19 Dec 2019 20:03:10 +0000 19 December 2019 Robin Niblett Director and Chief Executive, Chatham House @RobinNiblett Returning from an EU-rooted foreign and economic policy to one which is more international in outlook will be difficult, take time, and be more costly than the new UK government currently envisages. GettyImages-1189074470.jpg Boris Johnson chairs the first cabinet meeting after winning a majority of 80 seats in the 2019 UK general election. Photo by Matt Dunham – WPA Pool/Getty Images. The convincing general election win for the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson opens a new chapter in British history. On 31 January 2020, Britain will withdraw from the EU and return to its historical position as a separate European power.Recognising the strategic significance of this change, the Queen’s speech opening the new parliament stated that 'the government will undertake the deepest review of Britain's security, defence, and foreign policy since the end of the Cold War'. But in what context?Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other Brexit supporters have yearned for Britain to return to its exceptional trajectory. In their view, Britain can once again become a trading nation - more global in outlook and ambition than its European neighbours, freed from the shackles of an ageing and fractured European continent and its deadening regulatory hand.This imagery makes good copy. But the 21st century does not offer Britain the same opportunities as did the 18th, 19th or early 20th centuries. This is a different world, and Britain’s position in it needs to be crafted with a sharp eye to what is possible.Geopolitics undergoing wrenching changeThis is not declinism. The UK remains an economically strong and politically influential country by relative global standards – it is currently the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world, and the second largest donor of official development assistance. It has ubiquitous cultural brands from fashion and music to the royal family, and an eminent diplomatic and security position at the heart of all of the world’s major international institutions and alliances, from NATO and the UN security council to the IMF, G7, G20 and Commonwealth. But Britain leaves the EU just as the geopolitical landscape is undergoing wrenching change. The United States has turned inwards, closer to its own historic norm, and is undermining the international institutions which it created alongside Britain in the 1940s. China’s international influence is on the rise alongside its vast and still growing economy, challenging traditional norms of individual freedom and public transparency.Russia is navigating the cracks and crevices of the fracturing rules-based international order with ruthless efficiency. Sensing the change in the wind, many governments are now back-tracking on their post-Cold War transitions to more open and democratic societies.The implications of this new context have yet to be fully internalised by those who look forward to Britain’s future outside the EU. Britain will be negotiating new trade deals in an increasingly transactional, fragmented and protectionist international economic environment. It will be trying to sell its world-class services into markets where national control over finance, law, technology and media is increasingly prized.Making new diplomatic inroads will be no easier. The government will face strong internal and external criticism if it lends security assistance to states that are simultaneously clamping down on their citizens’ rights. With the number of military personnel in decline and investment in new equipment stretched across multiple expensive platforms, the UK could struggle to project meaningful defence cooperation to new security partners in Asia at the same time as upholding its NATO commitments and its deployments in conflict zones around the world.Britain also opens its new global chapter at a time when it is changing domestically. There is no over-riding reason for a missionary British foreign policy – neither the economic returns or image of national glory that drove Empire, nor the existential defence of its land, interests and freedom that drove it during the Cold War.Stretching liberal interventionism to Iraq, as Tony Blair did when he was prime minister, and to Libya as David Cameron did in 2011, has injected a deep dose of popular scepticism to the idea that Britain - with or without allies - can or should help make the world in its own image.This more defensive mindset – epitomised by parliament’s refusal to use military force to punish President Bashar al Assad’s regime for using chemical weapons against its citizens in 2013 – will not abate soon. Especially when the new government’s political bandwidth will be stretched by fiendishly complex trade-offs between its financial promises to support domestic renewal, the imperatives of striking and implementing a new free trade agreement with the EU, and the economic consequences of leaving the single market.All this points to the fact that the most important step for Britain at the beginning of this new national chapter will be to establish an effective partnership with the EU and its member states. They face the same international risks as Britain and have as much to gain from the preservation of rules-based international behaviour. Recognising the continued interdependence between Britain and the EU will offer both sides greater leverage in a more competitive and hostile world.A new transatlantic relationshipOnce it has agreed its new relationship with the EU, Britain can turn to crafting its new relationship with the mighty United States. US-UK economic interdependence and close security ties should help discipline the bilateral economic relationship. The more difficult challenge will be for the UK to avoid falling into fissures between the US and the EU over how to manage bilateral relations with China and Russia, particularly if President Trump wins a second term.Britain will have to get used to this difficult balancing act between its transatlantic heart and European head after Brexit. This makes it all the more important for the UK to develop new diplomatic and commercial initiatives with countries that are also struggling to cope with the current uncertain, transactional international environment.Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand can grow as bilateral economic partners and as allies in international institutions, such as the G7, OECD and WTO. They may even open a door to British engagement in regional trade arrangements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CP-TPP), which do not require the same political commitments as EU membership.Turning from an EU-rooted foreign and economic policy to one that is once again more international in outlook will be difficult, take time and be more costly than the government currently envisages. The irony is that for this to be successful requires sustained political investment by the Johnson government to build a strong relationship with the EU that it is focused on leaving. Full Article
alan Balancing Acts: Policy Frameworks for Migrant Return and Reintegration By www.migrationpolicy.org Published On :: Tue, 23 Oct 2018 18:55:10 -0400 In recent years, questions of whether, when, and how to return failed asylum seekers and other migrants to their origin countries have dominated migration debates in many countries. These issues were also taken up in the negotiation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, moving the discussion beyond the typical bilateral one. This policy brief outlines how states might more constructively work together on returns and reintegration programs. Full Article
alan Dental sealant webinar to stream Feb. 6 By www.ada.org Published On :: Fri, 17 Jan 2020 13:12:00 -0600 The ADA will present a free webinar Feb. 6 on dental sealants, especially designed to help dental providers in communities that do not yet have sealant programs in place. Full Article
alan [ Politics ] Open Question : Why are other countries like New Zealand and Australia destroying the virus while America is killing people off to restart the economy? By answers.yahoo.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 17:22:00 +0000 Full Article