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WPCNR MILESTONES. By John F. Bailey. April 14-15, 2024

At  2:10 A.M tonight, in the wee hours far out on the North Atlantic, the Titanic sank off the Grand Banks of New Foundland

She began her first voyage, four days ago, 112 years ago, April 10, 1912.

She carried over 2,200 passengers and crew and was the largest ocean liner of her time.

The people were of walks of life:  the rich and famous, the poor and hopeful.

She was guaranteed unsinkable.

Her owners, the White Star Line, wanted to set a new speed record for crossing the Atlantic.

Her captain Edward Smith had been warned their northerly course would take it through an iceberg field. Wireless messages warned them of icebergs ahead.

On April 14, a Sunday  evening, 108 years ago, sailing  under a crisp clear,calm starlit sky at 11:40 PM after an evening of partying aboard ship, prior to arrival in New York on Monday, the ship sideswiped an iceberg.

She was the Titanic.

She was the ship of dreams.

And she was going down.

Today, she is the ship of nightmares as hundreds of passengers from all walks of life perished together in the ruthless sea. The cold fateful, unforgiving frigid  indifferent eternity of the sea.

The Titanic’s fate was a lesson that changed maritime laws.

Two  hours and 40 minutes  after the iceberg collision the Titanic sank at 2:10 A.M., 112 years on April 15, (this morning) on that night to remember.

This is an excerpt from  the testimony of a survivor, Emily Maria Borie Ryerson watching from a lifeboat desperately trying to row away from the suction of the sinking ship, at the 1912 U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing on the  sinking:

“The order was given to pull away. Then they rowed off—the sailors, the women, anyone – but made little progress; there was a confusion of orders; we rowed toward the stern, someone shouted something about a gangway, and no one seemed to know what to do. Barrels and (deck) chairs were being thrown overboard.

“Then suddenly, when we (in the lifeboat) still seemed very near, we saw the ship was sinking rapidly. I was still in the bow of the boat with my daughter and turned to see the great ship take a plunge toward the bow, the two forward funnels seemed to lean and then she seemed to break in half as if cut with a knife, and as the bow went under, the lights went out; the stern stood up for several minutes, black against the stars, and then that, too, plunged down and there was no sound for what seemed like hours, and then began the cries for help of people  drowning all around us, which seemed to go on forever.”

Dorothy Gibson, the silent screen actress and survivor – from her testimony before the committee—observed from a lifeboat– in an excerpt from her testimony before the same committee, said:

“Suddenly there was a wild coming together of voices from the direction of the ship of the ship and we noticed an unusual commotion among the people huddled about the railing. Then the awful thing happened, the thing that will remain in my memory until the day I die.

The Titanic seemed to lurch slightly more to the side and then the fore. A minute, or probably two minutes, later she sank her nose into the ocean, swayed for a few minutes and disappeared, leaving nothing behind her on the face of the sea but a swirl of water, bobbing heads and lifeboats that were threatened by the suction of the waters.”

The Titanic’s fate was traced to the negligence and reckless disregard of the risk of sailing at 22 knots through an icefield, and 16 lifeboats for 2,200 persons, insufficient number of lifeboats.

In recent years, analysis of the hull plates recovered from the wreck of the ship on the ocean floor indicated a faulty, economical brittle bolt selection in constructing  the hull. Aflaw in the heights of the bulkheads of the watertight doors designed to block seawater were found to be too low allow the indifferent seawaters to surge over each watertight compartment as the ship sank nose first, dooming the unsinkable design.

The White Star Line owner J. Bruce Ismay, onboard that night,  callously saved his own life by slipping into a lifeboat.

Ismay in a statement, denied telling the Captain of the Titanic to set a new speed record and denied telling the Captain to increase the ship speed in the ice field region.  Also said he just happened to be near a lifeboat about to be lowered and no more women and children around to board, and that was why he got into the lifeboat.

So much for corporate responsibility and guilt of any kind, even then.

Not much has changed in corporate world over the decades since this night and morning to remember.

Maybe corporate world should consider that.

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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. April 13, 2024:

112 years ago this day the RMS Titanic with 2,229 crew and passengers aboard was under sunny skies and sailing a calm sea in the middle of the cold North Atlantic on the third day of its maiden voyage to America.

Aboard were the who’s who of the rich and famous of the time, immigrants in steerage all eager to enjoy then the greatest ship ever built, the fastest ship ever built, and the safest.

It was declared  the safest by its owners the White Star Line because of its connected below the waterline compartments designed to close off should one be breeched or collided with.

The ship sailed from Southampton England April 10.  The opulence of the ship was luxury and large. It’s four smokestacks belching black smoke, its bow cutting the ocean like butter, the speed over 20 knots as the owner Bruce Ismay pushed its Captain to pour on the coal to set a speed record from England to America.

The Titanic which 112 years ago was sailing westward and on Monday  112 years ago rested on the bottom, thousands freezing and drowning in frigid waters,  has a lesson for us.

What is that message?

The voyagers enthralled with the great ship and its  intoxicating smooth voyage over the sea did not know what was coming: their worst nightmare just two days from now.

I always think of the innocence and yes, hubris this ship demonstrated through no fault of its own.

The unspeakable disaster looming in the icy waters, was caused by  hubris: choosing to ignore  warnings of iceberg fields ahead and going full steam ahead into giant icebergs, and at top speed of 26 knots, not giving the ship’s helmsman enough turn space to avoid anything that might be ahead.

It was hubris and the  Achilles’ Heel of Businessmen: cost-cutting that did not equip the RMS Titanic with enough lifeboats. Over 1,500 persons drowned.

This very bad habit of businesses cutting costs that results in killing people is still a deadly unintentional practice.

I was struck by the similarity of the Titanic situation to the state of the country today.

America is on a voyage too.

Just  like the 2,029 “souls” on the Titanic.

We are all of us: white, black, Latino, immigrant, migrants all passengers on the USS TRUMPTANIC.

Our leaders in the wheelhouse, (the U.S. Congress) are controlled by small factions advocating dangerous to the country policies; delaying funds to help persons who need it,, or worse cutting them, and when brief compromises delayed for weeks to preserve controversial services, the growing problem is not resolved.

Just like the Titanic management and crew long term decisions to aid policy agendas and politicians own seats and bottom lines of caviling factions not with citizen’s  health, survival, and rights in mind fail to do what any person who hears what God—(The voice in your head that warns you when you are doing wrong and you hear it and choose to ignore)  decides on the path of political demands,  (as Ismay the owner limited lifeboats, operated recklessly in an icefield he knew about for  the sake of promotion that cost 1500 lives.

There is no difference between the political infighting nationally creating misery for women, immigrants educators, and people coming across the borders and being housed in the streets, limiting health care, not controlling guns more tightly, and judicial decisions that rely on semantics instead of humanity of their decisions.

We have two captains, two crews battling for the helm  of the USS Trumptanic and where it will sail now in the  sea  of  the world, fraught with more danger than any iceberg.

The wrangling at the helm in Washington, unfortunately now with two houses of congress and the confused Presidential administration trying to get some rational solutions through, but Senators and Congress members vacillating on which way to turn the ship, not considering the humanity of the USS Trumptanic that will suffer losses if thoughtful humane decisions are not made. Americans need more lifeboats not less. They need sensible business policies and regulation on the corrupt leadership of the captains of industry in the country today.

Should the USS Trumptanic with one Captain trying to please all, while his challenger continues to tell people what sounds good, selling slogans with without concrete plans (nothing unusual for any politician), while the opposing Captain seeking to retain the helm of  USS Trumptanic  and turn it into the USS Bidenomic even should he win reelection, will need a far more intelligent and responsible two houses of conference to make the legislation that helps all the passengers on the USS America of 2025 get off the sinking ship.

Right now the USS Trumptanic  commanded already by the instructions over the ship’s national intercom is veering starboard to port, port to starboard inexorably avoiding safe passages to the left or the right, and are very reluctant, both parties to change their desperate pulling at the helm.

Where is the USS Trumptanic taking us?

The passengers on this great ship of a country have their chance in November to take the helm firmly.

Running the greatest country in the world, despite or present confusion of what we want to be is not a job for self-serving politicians.

It’s up to you, America to rename the ship USS My America Again

An America that helps unconditionally. That aids the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. That defends the passengers against the forces of tyranny.  That respects the truth and reports the truth. Where you speak your mind and are not jailed or killed for it. That is why people come here they respect us for what we once were. Where you get a fair trial, and no one is above the law. Where the judges think and wear their robes to right wrongs and not inflict new wrongs.

Where all men and women are created equal. All have the right to the pursuit of happiness, All have the right to come here and come aboard, because you make our imperfect country stronger, free-er and as the Statue of Liberty inscription says “I hold up my torch beside the Golden Door…come on in you huddled masses”

Passengers on the USS Trumptanic, save the ship take control of the helm responsibly on November 5.

You are your own lifeboats.

Remember the crybaby politicians will get in the boats first.

 Women and children  will not get seats.

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Key Highlights Hudson Valley Daily Freeman: Hinchey, Local Activists Rally in Kingston for the Equal Rights Amendment  “Local activists and organizations rallied in support of the Equal Rights Amendment on Saturday, urging Ulster County residents to vote ‘yes’ on the ballot in November…Liz Roth, member of Hudson Valley Strong, attended the event, on behalf of Dutchess County. ‘We’re just trying to help each other as much as we can,’ she said. ‘This New York ERA is very powerful, very important legislation.'” Buffalo  WGRZ: Grassroots Group Makes Push for New York Equal Rights Amendment “The Buffalo Young Feminist Party was getting the word out Saturday about the measure that it endorses, the group’s co-founder told 2 On Your Side.

Olean Olean Times Herald: League of Women Voters hosts Walk for Equality in Olean “The League of Women Voters of Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties hope about 50 people who walked for equality in Olean will take the message they heard to the polls this November. A launch event on Saturday to bring awareness to an amendment to the New York State Constitution was held with supporters from Cattaraugus, Erie, Allegany and Chautauqua counties walking from Jamestown Community College to Lincoln Park in Olean.”New York City Politico NY: Equal Rights Amendment push intensifies “A campaign to get the New York Equal Rights Amendment passed in November will intensify its efforts by kicking off 25 ‘day of action’ events around the state, Playbook has learned…

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Budget Remains at a 1.6 tax increase at this time. Decision on returning cut school aid is awaited. Board Member warns of possible need to exceed tax cap in future. Plans for trade education take shape.

THIS JUST IN: NO RESPONSE YET TO TEACHERS UNION REQUESTS FOR TRANSITION PERIOD, RETAINING SCIENCE AND MATH COORDINATORS FOR YEAR.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey  April 9, 2024 UPDATED 11:07 AM EDT APRIL  10 UPDATED 11:55 A.M. EDT :

(Editor’s Update:) A person with The White Plains Teachers Union moments ago confirmed to WPCNR  the passage of the legislation terminated the positions of Science and Math Coordinators in the District Monday night. In a statement the individual wrote: 

The legislation was passed to abolish the positions shortly after our speech (Monday))without any discussion or consideration to our statements.

It was Scholar Athlete Recognition night at the Board of Education meeting at White Plains High School Monday evening, followed by updates on construction of projects in the district, and a budget update.

But something totally unexpected happened. Something this reporter has not seen in the 20 years I have covered the school district.

After the awards which took about 52 minutes, The Board cleared the room so parents of the honored athletes could leave.

The Library was then entered by 50  White Plains teachers (not the 18 visible on the telecast) milling through the entrance of the high school library.

Board President Rosemarie  Eller allowed them to speak on the issue of reorganization of the school district structure that is ending of employment of the two present Curriculum Coordinators of Science and Mathematics.

Seven teachers expressed shock that the two were leaving the district at the end of this school year with one year to go before their retirement that had served the district for 20 years. They called the two indispensable, highly knowledgeable and experts in state requirements.

In the following 16 minute video shown below, they made their concerns clear:

DR. JOSEPH RICCA (3RD FROM RIGHT) RESPONDS TO THE TEACHER COMMENTS:

SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER HRICAY WARNS TAX CAP MAY HAVE TO BE EXCEEDED NEXT YEAR AFTER THE REPEAT OF THE PROPOSED SCHOOL BUDGET BY DR. RICCA

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SciCheck Digest

An international study of around 99 million people confirmed known serious side effects of COVID-19 vaccination. It also identified a possible relationship between the first dose of the Moderna vaccine and a small risk of a neurological condition. Social media posts about the study left out information on the vaccines’ benefits and the rarity of the side effects.

How safe are the COVID-19 vaccines?

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Full Story

COVID-19 vaccines — like all vaccines and other medical products — come with side effects, including serious side effects in rare cases. The vaccines were rolled out to protect people from a novel virus that has killed millions of people globally and would likely have killed millions more without the arrival of the vaccines. There is a broad consensus from experts and governmental health agencies that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks.

Researchers have scrutinized the COVID-19 vaccines’ safety and continue to do so.

A study published Feb. 12 in the journal Vaccine reported on an international group of more than 99 million people who received COVID-19 vaccines, primarily finding links to known rare side effects.

The study largely focused on the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which have been widely given in the U.S., as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was never authorized in the U.S.

“What we take away, is that the Covid-19 vaccination campaigns have been very effective in preventing severe disease,” study co-author Anders Hviid, head of the department of epidemiology research at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, told us in an email. “The few serious side effects that we have observed in this and other studies have been rare.”

Many popular posts on social media have shared results from the study, some lacking the context that the identified health problems are rare, that most aren’t new and that the vaccines have proven benefits.

Various posts made unfounded claims, stating or implying that people should not have received the vaccines, that the risks outweigh the benefits or that the risk of the rare side effects is greater than was reported in the study.

“Hundreds of millions of people were used as lab rats and now the truth that WE ALL ALREADY KNEW can no longer be denied,” said one popular  referring to the vaccines as “experimental” and “UNTESTED.”

“This thing was forced on people who faced almost no risk from Covid,” said another. “It is completely unacceptable.” The post shared statistics from the  (research) paper without making it clear that serious health problems after vaccination were rare and that risk varied by vaccine type and dose.

The Vaccine study confirmed that the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines are linked in rare cases to myocarditis and pericarditis, conditions involving inflammation of the heart muscle and lining.

The rate of myocarditis was most elevated after the second dose of the Moderna vaccine. Myocarditis risk — which is greatest in men in their late teens and early twenties — was identified via vaccine safety monitoring and first reported in 2021.

Based on the current evidence, the CDC says, the benefit of vaccination outweighs the risk of these conditions, which improve for most people after medical treatment and rest.

The study confirmed neurological and blood clotting conditions associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. In the U.S., these problems were linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, contributing to this vaccine no longer being recommended or available.

The study also identified a new possible safety signal indicating a potential link between the first dose of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines and rare neurological conditions. This included an association between the first doses of the vaccines and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, an autoimmune condition that causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.

Anders Hviid emphasized that the researchers only saw these neurological events after first doses of the two vaccines. “We did not see these signals following further doses of these two Covid-19 vaccines, nor did we see them after any dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which has been more widely used,” he said.

“We are also talking about very rare events,” Hviid continued. “As an example, the association between the first dose of Moderna and acute inflammation of the brain and spine would, if causal, correspond to 1 case per 1.75 million vaccinated. It is only due to the sheer scale of our study, that we have been able to identify this minute potential risk.”

Study Bolsters the Evidence Serious COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects Are Rare

The Vaccine study drew on national or regional health records from eight countries with institutions participating in the Global Vaccine Data Network, an international group that studies vaccine safety. The researchers analyzed health outcomes after around 184 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 36 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 23 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The researchers focused on 13 health problems that either had a known association with vaccination or for which there was some rationale to investigate whether there was an association. To determine whether the health problems were associated with vaccination, they compared the expected rates of the health problems — or the number of health events that should occur based on background rates in the regions studied — with the number of events they observed in the 42 days after vaccination.

“This study confirms the primary already detected and validated side effects established by previous literature,” Jeffrey S. Morris, director of the division of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, told us via email, referring to the rare heart conditions associated with the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, as well as the rare conditions associated with the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. 

Morris said that findings on ADEM — the rare autoimmune neurological condition linked to first doses of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines — “might be a new safety signal.”

ADEM involves inflammation to the brain and spinal cord, arising most often in children following an infectious illness. It has a sudden onset and typically eventually improves, with a full recovery in many, although not all, cases.

After the first dose of the Moderna vaccine, researchers observed seven ADEM cases, when they expected two. As we’ve said, Hviid calculated the rate of this side effect — if ultimately shown to be related to vaccination — to be 1 in 1.75 million following the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. 

The data show “this was indeed an EXTREMELY rare adverse event,” Morris said, referring to ADEM. “It is understandable at this incidence rate why it may not have been detected before now, and why a study with 99 million participants like this is important to find even the most rare serious adverse events that are potential minority harm risks of these vaccines.”

The authors of the study wrote that more research is needed into ADEM following COVID-19 vaccination, saying that “the number of cases of this rare event were small and the confidence interval wide, so results should be interpreted with caution and confirmed in future studies.”

The authors also wrote that neurological events have been found to occur at a much higher rate after COVID-19 than after COVID-19 vaccination.

The study means that “early warning systems are solid,” said Marc Veldhoen, an immunologist at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes in Portugal, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “To avoid any adverse reaction is not possible, but, identifying those at higher risk may be possible.”

Identifying those at greater risk of side effects can help guide decisions on which vaccines to recommend and what problems doctors should watch for in their patients.