| Tata launches a $10,000 electric car for India |
The Tiago.ev electric hatchback from India's home-market automaker ranks as one of the best in india. The Endurance EV pickup Made in Lordstown Ohio. |
Today, President Joe Biden held an event in the Rose Garden at the White House to celebrate the lower drug costs possible thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed without any Republican votes in either the House or the Senate. Phasing in over the next few years, the measure will cap the out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2000 a year and make vaccinations free for seniors on Medicare. If the price of drugs rises faster than inflation, drug companies will have to rebate the difference to Medicare. And Biden noted that today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the premium for Medicare Part B, which pays for doctor visits, will decrease this year. — Notes:  https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/27/politics/fact-check-nrsc-warnock-kelly-medicare/index.html https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/doug-mastriano-said-2019-women-182053703.html  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/25/desantis-perla-migrant-flight-marthas-vineyard/   https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/27/hurricane-ian-forecast-florida-track/
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Cancers and viruses: why not pit two of our biggest biological foes against each other?
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust used a drug made from a genetically modified form of herpes simplex — the cold sore virus — to attack tumors in cancer patients' bodies, developing a cutting-edge form of cancer therapy in the process.
While experts caution that more follow up studies will be needed, the treatment has seemingly already saved the life of at least one patient, according to BBC News.
That patient, Krzysztof Wojkowski from West London, underwent the experimental therapy after he received a diagnosis of salivary gland cancer 2017.
"I was told there was no options left for me and I was receiving end-of-life care," he told the BBC. "It was devastating, so it was incredible to be given the chance to join the trial."
Many experimental treatments fail. But this one appears to have been the exception, at least for now — which is extraordinary news for Wojnowski, and just may help blaze a trail to help others as well.
"I had injections every two weeks for five weeks which completely eradicated my cancer," Wojnowski told the BBC. "I've been cancer-free for two years now."
The virus injections, known as RP2, are administered directly into the tumor. How it works, in simple terms, is by invading cancer cells and causing them to burst, the BBC reports, where the immune system is also activated to help finish the job.
All in all, of the 40 total patients participating in the trial, three out of nine that received only the RP2 injection had their tumors shrink, while seven out of 30 who received a combined treatment of RP2 of another cancer drug nivolamb also similarly benefitted. The researchers presented these findings at the ESMO Congress medical conference in Paris last week.
"It is rare to see such good response rates in early stage clinical trials, as their primary aim is to test treatment safety, and they involve patients with very advanced cancers for whom current treatments have stopped working," said project lead researcher Kevin Harrington to the BBC.
Using viruses to treat cancer isn't new, but such promising — and lifesaving — results, even in a trial this small in scale, is something to be excited about.
More on cancer: New Treatment Turns Cancer Genes Into "Eat Me" Signs For Immune System
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Our only child is coming over for lunch today. In tow, she's bringing her giant Weimaraner (Bruce the impossibly regal) and her husband.
She's coming over to do laundry and to take a break from her roommates. They rent a tiny apartment; four people, three dogs, two bedrooms, one bathroom and a living room. I'd be pulling my hairs out with tweezers. But she can't do better.
The rent ticked up when she renewed their lease; $1000 became $1500 for a shitty apartment in a complex with rats in their communal dumpster and an ongoing cockroach invasion from the neighbors.
She can't afford anything else so she compromises and hopes they can get better jobs. But that takes more education, so she's been working and studying.
Her manager expects her to work on weekends for free. Her phone keeps going and they won't hire extra staff or pay for weekends. Can someone say wage theft? My poor daughter is fuming mad with all the 'favors' her boss requires at all hours. She can't even plan her weekends.
And she can't leave the job because it's the first one she's had that pays $14 an hour. She's stuck.
We've had the talk about grandchildren and you know what my darling daughter said?
"We can't afford children dad, you know that. We have no choice. We make just enough to pay the bills and eat. There's not much left over for a child."
Right here is when I can honestly say, America is destroying itself. We are taking away our children's choices; they'll react the only way they know how, by making the choices they can make.
There are no grandchildren in my near future.
"I can't afford to go to school dad, not full time anyway." That's the second thing she can control.
Maybe that's exactly what the powers that be, actually want. I remember a President saying "I love the poorly educated."
My little one will spend the next four to five years finishing her degree, one credit at a time. Painfully, struggling with each step forward, leaning on us to get her there.
Without our help, she probably wouldn't make it. We're forcing our children to endure conditions that no parent wishes on their enemies, far less their loved ones.
We came here as immigrants do, with visions of plenty. Of an unspoilt country where there was enough for all. Where hard work paid off and the people were nice. Most of that is still true; there is much good here.
But the price we pay for it hasn't been fairly accounted.
The food is plentiful but lacking nutrition.
The environment is deteriorating around us. We keep pretending we have time to fix it but things are unraveling faster than we thought.
Everyday work is hard but inflation is stealing the value of what we earn. I don't have to get into that do I? Prices at the pump aren't for the faint hearted. Neither are prices at the grocery store.
Add all of these things together and now you're getting the predicament our children face.
They're in debt traps if they have student debt. They're imprisoned in sub-par housing because they don't have living wages and mortgage rates are going up. They're unable to plan education because of unpredictable shift and work conditions.
And to add insult to injury, people are becoming increasingly hostile and homicidal.
How do we expect our kids to suck it down and become productive members of society? We've destroyed their tomorrow.
There will be fewer and fewer children in the future.
Japan may be a harbinger of what a country looks like without children.
There will be fewer and fewer well educated people in our future. Education will once again become the preserve of the elite and the well connected. We will once again experience a civilization split into royalty and the rest.
There will be reduced economic activity.
If we can't earn enough to pay for the things we need, we won't buy. If we can't afford gas, we won't go anywhere. If we can't afford education, we'll stay home and play video games. It's not hard to see how killing our children's future will collapse the economy.
As my daughter says, "What's the point of doing anything? I can't get a better job, I can't get a better education, I can't get a better life no matter what I do. I might as well stay home and read."
There will be more violent outbursts from our boys in particular.
Riffing off what
No argument from me, I've spent much of my misspent youth inside of clubs looking for hookups that never came. Drinking when I shouldn't, smoking because I was already inhaling second hand smoke and shooting pool. Best years of my teenaged life.
But where do our boys go? Where do they find a place to blow off steam amongst their peers? It's online.
But who is saying what they want to hear? Who is telling them their fears are founded, that there really are people out to get them. That it's some minority, immigrants, black people, Jews, women?
It's obvious, there are radicalizing elements hidden in the dark places on the net. Where bad ideas fester in even worse people and they're drip fed into the minds of impressionable youth. Youths as
explains, whose brains and personality aren't even fully formed.These are the trends we're living through right now, today. This is the future we're barreling towards at full speed, crashing through every sane legislative guiderail, cultural barrier and social norm. As Gerald Celente puts it "Present trends form future events."
I believe him.
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