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I Have a Rare Form of Eczema That Makes It Painful to Walk – Health.com

Posted: August 5, 2017 at 5:45 am

It started with a persistentitch between two of my toes. I tried everything:tea tree oil, over-the-counter creams, moisturizers. But it just wouldn'tgo away. I was inthe final months of my post-graduate studies, and I couldn't wait to begin my career. I felt like I didn't have time to go see a doctorand even if I did, I would have felt embarrassed to get treatment for an itchy toe. It was annoying and frustrating, but I tried to ignore it.

But thenthe week before I was supposedto start a new job in a new city, a blister the size of my palm suddenly appeared on the ball of my foot. It quicklyspread from my big toe to the centerof my foot. I couldn'tget my shoe on, and it was agony to walk barefoot or in flip-flops. This time, I went to the doctor.

My general practitioner was baffled by the large blister that had appeared seemingly overnight. I was prescribed an antifungal, antibiotic, and steroid cream (I guess to cover all the bases) and the blister was drained. I was able to hobble out of the doctor's office and set about moving to London for my new job.

The thing is, the blisters came back, only worse. My feet wept from the lymph that was building up in them, and they started to spread, first across my toes then, across the bottom of my feet and finally like a rash up the sides of my feet and onto the top. I was in agony.

I had to find a new doctor in my new city very quickly and when I did quickly diagnosed a fungal infection. He prescribed me antifungal medication that was so strong and for so long, that I had to have blood checks to make sure my liver was still functioning properly. Unfortunately, the medication he gave me didnt work, and shockingly, my doctor tried to claim that I wasnt taking the medication properly, and that was the only reason my skin condition hadnt cleared up.

I begged the doctor for a referral to a dermatologist who might be able to do some tests or checks or anything. Grudgingly he agreed.

By this time I was struggling to get to work and had to use crutches to get to the train station every morning, due to the amount of pain the blisters caused me when I was when I was walking. I was learning to drive at the time and had to cancel lessons at short notice, as I would wake up with blisters that were just too painful for me to have been able to use the pedals in the gear stick car I was learning in.

I would wake up at night due to the incessant itching in my feet that never stopped. My skin was bleeding from my scratching, and the skin I didnt scratch would fall off in sodden layers as the blisters oozed fluid all over my feet. As you can imagine, I was pretty desperate by the time I finally saw a dermatologist at the local hospital.

Pompholyx eczema was what he diagnosed, tut tutting at way I had been given enough antifungal medication to kill an elephant as he put it. Pompholyx eczema is a rare form of eczema that causes the formation of fluid filled blisters on the hands and feet. It is normally an adult-onset form of the disease, most commonly being diagnosed in people in their early 20s with a history of childhood eczema. I filled all of those counts.

I was sent away with a new, super-potent prescription-only steroid cream and emollient to sooth my sore, cracked eczematous skin, and stern advice to follow a strict daily routine that involved me wrapping my feet in saran wrap after I had put on the steroid cream to help in sink in. Yes really.

Slowly my skin got better and I started to learn the various triggers for my condition. Stress and anxiety are the big two, so it is perhaps no surprise that I first got the condition at a time when I was sitting exams, job searching and getting ready to move to a new city. Caffeine is problematic, which isnt a surprise as it also causes acne-flare ups from time to time. Heat and anything that makes the skin on my feet sweaty and chaffing can also lead to me limping about for a couple of days.

Later investigation at a different hospital found that I am one of the many people with eczema who reacts to the presence of the bacteriumStaphylococcus Aureuson their skin, so I now manage my condition following some hygiene tips a dermatology nurse gave me, (such as washing my socks, sheets and towels on a hot wash each week) and it seems to be working well.

Today I have no visible signs of eczema on my feet and I dont use any medication except when I have a flare up. Though there is still some stress from the condition, such as worrying about a flare up happening at an important time, I am now much more confident in my ability to deal with my condition and heal my skin, which helps me take it all in my stride.

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Childhood Cancer Radiation May Cause Unwanted Gene Mutation in Some – Sioux City Journal

Posted: at 5:45 am

FRIDAY, Aug. 4, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Some adult survivors of childhood cancer go on to develop brain tumors, and now researchers say they've found a gene mutation that seems to increase that risk.

The researchers said their findings could lead to ways to prevent these brain tumors.

Adults who had radiation to their head and spine to treat childhood cancer have a greater risk of meningiomas. These tumors, which are often benign, are the most common type of brain tumor in adults, according to the American Brain Tumor Association.

In this study, Canadian researchers looked at 31 radiation-induced meningiomas in patients who underwent head and spine radiation during childhood. Most of them (74 percent) had survived either leukemia or pediatric brain cancer.

These brain tumors were compared with 30 meningiomas among people in the general population.

Gelareh Zadeh, the study's co-principal investigator, said that radiation-induced meningiomas appear to be the same as those that just occur sporadically. They look the same on MRI scans and under a microscope. And, they feel the same during surgery, Zadeh said.

"What's different is [that radiation-induced tumors] are more aggressive, tend to recur in multiples and invade the brain, causing significant morbidity and limitations (or impairments) for individuals who survive following childhood radiation," Zadeh said.

Zadeh is a brain tumor researcher and associate professor in the neurology division at the University of Toronto.

Ken Aldape is a co-principal investigator on the study. He said the research team found a specific rearrangement involving the NF2 gene in radiation-induced meningiomas. He said there are likely other genetic rearrangements caused by radiation-induced DNA damage.

"So one of the next steps is to identify what the radiation is doing to the DNA of the meninges," Aldape said in a University Health Network news release. Aldape is a professor of laboratory medicine and pathobiology at the University of Toronto.

Figuring out which group of childhood cancer patients have the highest risk of these radiation-induced tumors is critical. These patients could be followed closely for early detection and management, Aldape explained.

The study was published online Aug. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.

The American Brain Tumor Association has more on meningiomas.

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Childhood Cancer Radiation May Cause Unwanted Gene Mutation in Some - Sioux City Journal

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Study examines altered gene expression in heart failure – Medical Xpress

Posted: at 5:45 am

August 4, 2017 Pictured are heart tissue sections showing a normal mouse heart (left) and one with heart failure (right). The tissue sections were stained to enhance visualization. The failing heart is larger, thinner, and contains a blood clot filling one of its atria (upper right chamber). Photo courtesy of the Grueter laboratory. Credit: Grueter laboratory, University of Iowa Health Care

Heart failure refers to a condition in which heart muscle becomes weakened over time, making it increasingly difficult for the heart to pump blood through the body like it should.

It's a progressive disease that begins when the heart adapts to stressorshigh blood pressure, coronary artery disease, or diabetes, for examplein order to work properly. These stressors can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy, in which the heart's left ventricle (pumping chamber) stretches, enlarges, and becomes thinner. Eventually, the heart cannot return to its normal shape, thus worsening its ability to pump blood and potentially leading to irregular heartbeats, blood clots, or even sudden death.

Researchers know that changes in gene expression occur during cardiomyopathy, but it remains unclear whether these changes are due to declining heart function or whether these changes are part of the progression to heart failure. A better understanding of the role transcription co-factorsproteins that are key to the regulation and expression of genescould provide important clues into how heart failure develops.

In a new study, University of Iowa Health Care researchers report on the role of a proteinpart of a large group of transcription co-factors called the Mediator complexin regulating gene expression in heart muscle cells.

"A key question is how does the heart go from a normal state to a failing one after undergoing stress in some manner?" says Duane Hall, research assistant professor of internal medicine in the UI Carver College of Medicine and lead author of the study published in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal JCI Insight. "A lot of labs are trying to understand how that progression occurs."

"It's known that many genes are expressed during heart failure that are representative of a developing heart, so in these instances the heart may be trying to re-install developmental programs in order to adapt to those pressures," adds Chad Grueter, assistant professor of internal medicine in the UI Carver College of Medicine and senior author of the study. "But we don't fully understand how that transcriptional gene regulation happens, so we looked at how gene expression occurs through this Mediator complex."

Grueter, Hall, and colleagues examined heart tissue samples from patients with heart failure and saw that levels of the protein Cdk8 in heart muscle cells were elevated. Knowing that Cdk8 is part of the Mediator complex and is involved in regulating the expression of thousands of genes, the researchers then over-expressed the protein in mouse heart cells. The increase in Cdk8 levels resulted in declining heart function and heart failure in these mice.

When the researchers examined the heart cells of the mice before a decrease in heart function was detectable, they found that more than 3,400 genes already were expressed with a profile similar to that of human heart muscle cells with dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

"Other studies have looked at tweaking the contraction and metabolism in heart cells as a possible cure for heart failure," Hall says. "Our study is one of the first to show that something in the cell nucleus is capable by itself of inducing the structural changes that occur in heart failure."

The study results suggest that modifying gene expression may provide a path to preventive treatments for heart failure.

"In terms of disease progression, heart failure is the end stage. Our study suggests that the transition, or 'switch,' from a stressed, enlarged heart to a failing heart is key," Grueter says. "Looking ahead, hopefully we'll be able to test whether a drug can block that switch from occurring."

Explore further: Popular class of drugs reverse potentially harmful genetic changes from heart disease

More information: Duane D. Hall et al, Ectopic expression of Cdk8 induces eccentric hypertrophy and heart failure, JCI Insight (2017). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.92476

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Study examines altered gene expression in heart failure - Medical Xpress

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Gene Editing for ‘Designer Babies’? Highly Unlikely, Scientists Say – New York Times

Posted: at 5:45 am

Thats because none of those talents arise from a single gene mutation, or even from an easily identifiable number of genes. Most human traits are nowhere near that simple.

Right now, we know nothing about genetic enhancement, said Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford. Were never going to be able to say, honestly, This embryo looks like a 1550 on the two-part SAT.

Even with an apparently straightforward physical characteristic like height, genetic manipulation would be a tall order. Some scientists estimate height is influenced by as many as 93,000 genetic variations. A recent study identified 697 of them.

A new technique known as Crispr has revolutionized humans ability to edit DNA. See you if you can identify whether a given development has already happened, could eventually happen or is pure fiction.

You might be able to do it with something like eye color, said Robin Lovell-Badge, a professor of genetics and embryology at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

But if people are worried about designer babies, theyre normally thinking of doing special different things than the normal genetic stuff.

The gene-modification process used in the new study also turns out to be somewhat restrictive. After researchers snipped the harmful mutation from the male gene, it copied the healthy sequence from that spot on the female gene.

That was a surprise to the scientists, who had inserted a DNA template into the embryo, expecting the gene to copy that sequence into the snipped spot, as occurs with gene editing in other body cells. But the embryonic genome ignored that template, suggesting that to repair a mutation on one parents gene in an embryo, a healthy DNA sequence from the other parent is required.

If you cant introduce a template, then you cant do anything wild, Dr. Lovell-Badge said. This doesnt really help you make designer babies.

Talents and traits arent the only thing that are genetically complex. So are most physical diseases and psychiatric disorders. The genetic message is not carried in a 140-character tweet it resembles a shelf full of books with chapters, subsections and footnotes.

So embryonic editing is unlikely to prevent most medical problems.

But about 10,000 medical conditions are linked to specific mutations, including Huntingtons disease, cancers caused by BRCA genes, Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and some cases of early-onset Alzheimers. Repairing the responsible mutations in theory could eradicate these diseases from the so-called germline, the genetic material passed from one generation to the next. No future family members would inherit them.

But testing editing approaches on each mutation will require scientists to find the right genetic signpost, often an RNA molecule, to guide the gene-snipping tool.

In the study reported this week, it took 10 tries to find the right RNA, said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a co-author and geneticist at the Salk Institute.

Dr. Greely noted that while scientists work to get human embryonic editing ready for clinical trials (currently illegal in the United States and many countries), alternate medical treatments for these diseases might be developed. They may be simpler and cheaper.

How good one technique is depends on how good the alternatives are, and there may be alternatives, he said.

The authors of the new study do not dismiss ethical implications of their work. In fact, Dr. Belmonte served on a committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine that in February endorsed research into gene editing of human embryos, but only to prevent serious diseases and conditions, and as a last resort.

In theory this could lead to the kind of intervention which, of course, Im totally against, said Dr. Belmonte. The possibility of moving forward not to create or prevent disease but rather to perform gene enhancement in humans.

For example, soon we will know more and more about genes that can increase your muscle activity, he said. The hormone EPO, which some athletes have been disciplined for taking, is produced by a gene, so you could in theory engineer yourself to produce more EPO.

That is the kind of genetic engineering that raises alarm.

Allowing any form of human germline modification leaves the way open for all kinds especially when fertility clinics start offering genetic upgrades to those able to afford them, Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, said in a statement. We could all too easily find ourselves in a world where some peoples children are considered biologically superior to the rest of us.

Scientists and ethicists share the concerns about access. Any intervention that goes to the clinic should be for everyone, Dr. Belmonte said. It shouldnt create inequities in society.

Unequal access is, of course, a question that arises with almost any new medical intervention, and already disparities deprive too many people of needed treatments.

But there is a flip side to ethical arguments against embryo editing.

I personally feel we are duty bound to explore what the technology can do in a safe, reliable manner to help people, Dr. Lovell-Badge said. If you have a way to help families not have a diseased child, then it would be unethical not to do it.

Genetic engineering doesnt have to be an all or nothing proposition, some scientists and ethicists say. There is a middle ground to stake out with laws, regulation and oversight.

For example, Dr. Lovell-Badge said, Britain highly regulates pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, in which a couples embryos are screened for certain harmful mutations so that only healthy ones are implanted in the womans womb.

They allow sensible things to be done, and they dont allow non-sensible things, he said. And every single embryo is accounted for. If someone tries to do something they shouldnt have done, they will find out, and the penalties for breaking the law are quite severe.

According to a 2015 article in the journal Nature, a number of countries, including the United States, restrict or ban genetic modification of human embryos.

Other countries, like China, have guidelines but not laws banning or restricting clinical use, the article noted. Chinese researchers have conducted the only previously published gene editing experiments on human embryos, which were much less successful.

In the future, will there be nations that allow fertility clinics to promise babies with genetically engineered perfect pitch or .400 batting averages? Its not impossible. Even now, some clinics in the United States and elsewhere offer unproven stem cell therapies, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

But R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, who co-led the national committee on human embryo editing, said historically ethical overreach with reproductive technology has been limited.

Procedures like I.V.F. are arduous and expensive, and many people want children to closely resemble themselves and their partners. They are likely to tinker with genes only if other alternatives are impractical or impossible.

You hear people talking about how this will make us treat children as commodities and make people more intolerant of people with disabilities and lead to eugenics and all that, she said.

While I appreciate the fear, I think we need to realize that with every technology we have had these fears, and they havent been realized.

Nicholas Wade contributed reporting from New York.

A version of this news analysis appears in print on August 5, 2017, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Designer Babies Still Seem Unlikely.

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Gene Editing for 'Designer Babies'? Highly Unlikely, Scientists Say - New York Times

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Lena Dunham Epitomizes Our Self-Enforcing Police State – The Federalist

Posted: at 5:44 am

Lena Dunham had a delayed flight and was walking through the airport when she overheard two American Airlines employees having an unapproved private conversation about transgender children. So she did what you naturally do when you are a well-known liberal who believes in free speech and distrusts big corporations: she ratted them out to their employer on Twitter.

What took this from being merely bullying and repressive to being creepy and totalitarian in style is that Dunham didnt just make a general complaint. She then posted what looks like direct messages or text message between her and the American Airlines account, in which she enthusiastically provides detailed information about exactly where the conversation took place.

Saying I overheard a conversation but giving no specifics might prompt American Airlines to send out a general notice to its employees to watch what they say while in the terminalwhich is a little unsettling in itself. But giving specific information only has one purpose: to help the airline locate, identify, and punish these specific employees for holding politically incorrect views.

Its the hashtag #acrossfromthewinebar that sent chills down my spine. Dunham is acting like an informant working for a totalitarian police statebut boastfully, in public, on social media. With a hashtag.

Undoubtedly, someone will point out that this isnt really totalitarianism because these are all voluntary actions by private citizens and organizations, not the government. Dunham isnt a paid stooge of the police, but a citizen acting on her own initiative. American Airlines isnt doing this because the government told them to, but because theyre terrified of bad press. (Which they are still going to get, but from the other side.)

Yet somehow this makes it all worse, because it implies we are being trained to internalize the ethos of the police stateand to enact it voluntarily, on our own initiative, without having to be coerced. Were building a self-enforcing police state.

Recently, I warned that The New York Times is trying to rehabilitate Communism. When the Left finally succeeds in resuscitating totalitarianism, we will already know all about how to inform on our neighbors by way of Twitter.

There are three substantial ways in which this incident shows how we are preparing ourselves for totalitarianism.One of the hallmarks of totalitarianism is that the officially approved truth was capricious and unpredictable, and that was on purpose. They wanted the approved ideology to change so quickly that there was no way to comply with it by sincere personal conviction. The only way to comply with it was out of a habit of obedience.

Now, lets apply that to the substance of the conversation Dunham was reporting, which she reports to American Airlines in highly specific and intellectual terms: I heard 2 females attendants walking talking about how trans kids are a trend theyd never accept a trans child and transness is gross. The idea that gender identity disorder, which has now been renamed to the more politically correct gender dysphoria, is not a mental illness but instead a valid lifestyle to be encouraged and humored is relatively recent, working its way into the mainstream in the past ten years. The idea of transgender childrenof taking a childs normal confusion about gender roles, encouraging it, magnifying it, and using it as the basis for irreversible medical treatmentswould have been considered a form of child abuse to most people until about last year. For many of us, it still is.

But why wait for the process of changing mores and attitudes to work their way through the culture and bring people around to your side? After all, if you wait for people to be convinced, theres a chance that they wont be. Its like what Stalin said about elections: the problem is that you dont know ahead of time whos going to win. Intead, people have to immediately update their views to be consistent with the Current Truth, subject to change without notice.

Now lets look at Dunhams reaction. She hears two people saying something she disagrees with, and it never occurs to her to talk to them directly, to attempt to persuade them or to listen to their point of view and engage with it. She might have changed someones mind or least gotten to understand the reasons for their views. But why wait for persuasion when you can use fear? Why engage individuals directly, as if they are fellow human beings with equal rights, when you can go over their heads and use your fame and influence to pressure their employers?

While reading about this story, I was reminded of this scene from The Lives of Others, based on life within the oppressive police state of East Germany.

Apparently, the same rules apply now. Better watch what you say, or powerful person might ask for your employee number and your life will be ruined.

Finally, consider the role of the employer. When the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel formulated his ideas for how to resist Communist tyranny, he noted the role of the small business or employer who agreed to enforce the rules and post the propaganda of the regime out of fear and conformity. Well, thats exactly what were up against now.

If the proper response for Dunham was to converse with those flight attendants directly (or maybe just to mind her own business), then the proper response of American Airlines was to tell Dunham that it is not in the business of policing the private conversations of its employees. But thats another way were being prepared for the police state. While the Left blusters about how they dont want big corporations to tell us what we can think, their actions say otherwise. They absolutely do want employers to be responsible for the private views and political activity of their employeesso long as the views they are enforcing are politically correct.

So all the elements are being put together. We have a dogma propagated from the top down, a cadre of informants who are proud and eager to report their fellow citizens, and private institutions that are cowed and co-opted, ready to deprive dissidents of their livelihoods.

Its no mystery why, despite loud protestations that things will be different this time, socialism always ends with the midnight knock on the door. By the time government begins arresting people, the public will already have the mentality needed to accept and cooperate with the police state.

When we talk about and celebrate the fall of Communism, we frequently focus on the positive role of people power. When the oppressed people of Eastern Europe chose to reject and resist Communism en masse, it collapsed seemingly overnight. But we dont like to think too much about the flip side of that coin. Totalitarian regimes came into existence, and maintained their existence, not just because dissenters were killed or kept in a state of terror, but also because the regimes enjoyed the active complicity of a large segment of the population. East Germanys Stasi, after all, had a lot of employees.

The recent exploits of Comrade Lena are a warning that the new police state will have plenty of its own enthusiastic enforcers.

Follow Robert on Twitter.

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Uh Oh: More Bot Trouble for Microsoft and Tencent in China – Fortune

Posted: at 5:44 am

Chinese social media giant Tencent took two rogue chatbots offline this week, according to a Financial Times report Thursday.

Both of the chatbotsincluding XiaoBing, developed by Microsoft , and BabyQ from Turing Robotstarted offering decidedly politically incorrect answers to user questions.

For example, before disappearing from Tencent's chat app, XiaoBing said its "China dream is to go to America" according to the Times, citing screen grabs posted on another site. The story was picked up by local news site Shanghaiist and Business Insider.

BabyQ got in trouble because it answered in the negative when asked if it loved the Communist party, according to the Times.

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Neither Tencent ( tcehy ) or Microsoft ( msft ) could be reached for comment.

Misbehaving bots are nothing new. Last year, Tay, another Microsoft chatbot, was also taken down after it started issuing racist and misogynist statements. Bots use artificial intelligence techniques to learn new things from interacting with others. If those others fill the model with racist or other responses, things like this can happen.

Last week, Zo, another chatbot successor to Tay, started badmouthing Microsoft Windows 10, according to tech bulletin board Slashdot .

These glitches are important to track given that businesses are putting big faith in chatbots which they think can save money and deliver better customer service. Online chat buttons on banking and retail websites are often chatbots, which simulate human interaction, to help customers navigate the site or answer questions.

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Prince Philip’s best and worst public gaffes ahead of his final royal engagement – relive 96 classic quotes – Mirror.co.uk

Posted: at 5:44 am

Prince Philip is today poised to bow out of public life with his final royal engagement at the age of 96.

The Duke of Edinburgh's last royal duty will be at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday at The Captain General's Parade.

It comes following an announcement in May that Philip was stepping down from public life.

One of the hardest working royals, the Duke of Edinburgh is patron, President or member of more than 780 organisations and charities.

They will be hoping another royal or public figure will step into his shoes - but whoever they are, they will not be quite the same...

Philip has made a series of public gaffes with his politically incorrect, off the cuff comments over the years. Some have been funny, others have been plain embarrassing - or offensive.

These are some of his classic quotes...

1. After being told that Madonna was singing the Die Another Day theme in 2002: Are we going to need ear plugs?

2. To a car park attendant who didnt recognise him in 1997, he snapped: You bloody silly fool!

3. To Simon Kelner, republican editor of The Independent, at Windsor Castle reception: What are you doing here? I was invited, sir. Philip: Well, you didnt have to come.

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4. To female sea cadet: Do you work in a strip club?

5. To expats in Abu Dhabi in 2011: Are you running away from something?

6. After accepting a conservation award in Thailand in 1991: Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species.

7. At a project to protect turtle doves in Anguilla in 1965, he said: Cats kill far more birds than men. Why dont you have a slogan: Kill a cat and save a bird?

8. To multi-ethnic Britains Got Talent 2009 winners Diversity: Are you all one family?

9. To President of Nigeria, who was in national dress, 2003: You look like youre ready for bed!

10. His description of Beijing, during a visit there in 1986: Ghastly.

11. At Hertfordshire University, 2003: During the Blitz, a lot of shops had their windows blown in and put up notices saying, More open than usual. I now declare this place more open than usual.

12. To deaf children by steel band, 2000: Deaf? If youre near there, no wonder you are deaf.

13. To a tourist in Budapest in 1993: You cant have been here long, you havent got a pot belly.

14. To a British trekker in Papua New Guinea, 1998: You managed not to get eaten then?

15. His verdict on Stoke-on-Trent, during a visit in 1997: Ghastly.

16. To Atul Patel at reception for influential Indians, 2009: Theres a lot of your family in tonight.

17. Peering at a fuse box in a Scottish factory, he said: It looks as though it was put in by an Indian. He later backtracked: I meant to say cowboys.

18. To Lockerbie residents after plane bombing, 1993: People say after a fire its water damage thats the worst. Were still drying out Windsor Castle.

19. In Canada in 1976: We dont come here for our health.

20. I never see any home cooking all I get is fancy stuff. 1987

21. On the Duke of Yorks house, 1986: It looks like a tarts bedroom.

22. Using Hitlers title to address German chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1997, he called him: Reichskanzler.

23. We go into the red next year... I shall have to give up polo. 1969.

24. At party in 2004: Bugger the table plan, give me my dinner!

25. To a woman solicitor, 1987: I thought it was against the law for a woman to solicit.

26. To a civil servant, 1970: Youre just a silly little Whitehall twit: you dont trust me and I dont trust you.

27. On the 1981 recession: A few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyones working too much. Now everybodys got more leisure time theyre complaining theyre unemployed. People dont seem to make up their minds what they want.

28. On the new 18million British Embassy in Berlin in 2000: Its a vast waste of space.

29. After Dunblane massacre, 1996: If a cricketer suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, are you going to ban cricket bats?

30. To the Aircraft Research Association in 2002: If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort provided you dont travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.

31. On stress counselling for servicemen in 1995: We didnt have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun. You just got on with it!

32. On Tom Jones, 1969: Its difficult to see how its possible to become immensely valuable by singing what are the most hideous songs.

33. To the Scottish WI in 1961: British women cant cook.

34. To then Paraguay dictator General Stroessner: Its a pleasure to be in a country that isnt ruled by its people.

35. To Cayman Islanders: Arent most of you descended from pirates?

36. To Scottish driving instructor, 1995: How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?

37. At a WF meeting in 1986: If it has four legs and its not a chair, if its got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and its not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.

38. You ARE a woman, arent you? Kenya, 1984.

39. A VIP at a local airport asked HRH: What was your flight, like, Your Royal Highness? Philip: Have you ever flown in a plane? VIP: Oh yes, sir, many times. Well, said Philip, it was just like that.

40. On Ethiopian art, 1965: It looks like the kind of thing my daughter would bring back from school art lessons.

41. To a fashion writer in 1993: Youre not wearing mink knickers,are you?

42. To Susan Edwards and her guide dog in 2002: They have eating dogs for the anorexic now.

43. When offered wine in Rome in 2000, he snapped: I dont care what kind it is, just get me a beer!

44. Id like to go to Russia very much although the bastards murdered half my family. 1967.

45. At City Hall in 2002: If we could just stop the tourism, we could stop the congestion.

46. On seeing a piezo-meter water gauge in Australia: A pissometer?

47. You have mosquitoes. I have the Press. To matron of Caribbean hospital, 1966.

48. At a Bangladeshi youth club in 2002: So whos on drugs here?... HE looks as if hes on drugs.

49. To a childrens band in Australia in 2002: You were playing your instruments? Or do you have tape recorders under your seats?

50. At Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, 2006. Young people are the same as they always were. Just as ignorant.

51. On how difficult it is in Britain to get rich: What about Tom Jones? Hes made a million and hes a bloody awful singer.

52. To Elton John on his gold Aston Martin in 2001: Oh, its you that owns that ghastly car, is it?

53. At an engineering school closed so he could officially open it, 2005: It doesnt look like much work goes on at this university.

54. To Aboriginal leader William Brin, Queensland, 2002: Do you still throw spears at each other?

55. At a Scottish fish farm: Oh! Youre the people ruining the rivers.

56. After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, smoked salmon, kedgeree, croissants and pain au chocolat from Gallic chef Regis Crpy, 2002: The French dont know how to cook breakfast.

57. To schoolboy who invited the Queen to Romford, Essex, 2003: Ah, youre the one who wrote the letter. So you can write then?

58. To black politician Lord Taylor of Warwick, 1999: And what exotic part of the world do you come from?

59. To parents at a previously struggling Sheffield school, 2003: Were you here in the bad old days? ... Thats why you cant read and write then!

60. To Andrew Adams, 13, in 1998: You could do with losing a little bit of weight.

61. Wheres the Southern Comfort? When presented with a hamper of goods by US ambassador, 1999.

62. To editor of downmarket tabloid: Where are you from? The S*n, sir. Philip: Oh, no . . . one cant tell from the outside.

63. Turning down food, 2000: No, Id probably end up spitting it out over everybody.

Prince Philip: Through the years

64. Asking Cate Blanchett to fix his DVD player because she worked in the film industry, 2008: Theres a cord sticking out of the back. Might you tell me where it goes?

65. People think theres a rigid class system here, but dukes have even been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans. 2000.

66. After hearing President Obama had had breakfast with leaders of the UK, China and Russia, 2010: Can you tell the difference between them?

67. On students from Brunei, 1998: I dont know how theyre going to integrate in places like Glasgow and Sheffield.

68. On Princess Anne, 1970: If it doesnt fart or eat hay, she isnt interested.

69. To nursing-home resident in a wheelchair, 2002: Do people trip over you?

70. Discussing tartan with then-Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie: Thats a nice tie... Do you have any knickers in that material?

71. To a group of industrialists in 1961: Ive never been noticeably reticent about talking on subjects about which I know nothing.

72. On a crocodile he shot in Gambia in 1957: Its not a very big one, but at least its dead and it took an awful lot of killing!

73. On being made Chancellor of Edinburgh University in 1953: Only a Scotsman can really survive a Scottish education.

74. I must be the only person in Britain glad to see the back of that plane. He hated the noise Concorde made flying over Buckingham Palace, 2002

75. To a fashion designer, 2009: Well, you didnt design your beard too well, did you?

Prince Philip: Through the years

76. To the General Dental Council in 1960: Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, which Ive practised for many years.

77. On stroking a koala in 1992: Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.

78. On marriage in 1997: You can take it from me the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.

79. To schoolchildren in blood-red uniforms, 1998: It makes you all look like Draculas daughters!

80. I dont think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing. 1988.

81. To female Labour MPs in 2000: So this is feminist corner then.

82. On Nottingham Forest trophies in 1999: I suppose Id get in trouble if I were to melt them down.

83. Its my custom to say something flattering to begin with so I shall be excused if I put my foot in it later on. 1956.

84. To a penniless student in 1998: Why dont you go and live in a hostel to save cash?

85. On robots colliding, Science Museum, 2000: Theyre not mating are they?

86. While stuck in a Heriot Watt University lift in 1958: This could only happen in a technical college.

87. To newsreader Michael Buerk, when told he knew about the Duke of Edinburghs Gold Awards, 2004: Thats more than you know about anything else then.

88. To a British student in China, 1986: If you stay here much longer, youll go home with slitty eyes.

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Prince Philip's best and worst public gaffes ahead of his final royal engagement - relive 96 classic quotes - Mirror.co.uk

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Nico Hulkenberg shrugs off F1 ‘Halo’ device censorship | Autoweek – Autoweek

Posted: at 5:44 am


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Nico Hulkenberg shrugs off F1 'Halo' device censorship | Autoweek
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Nico Hulkenberg says he is not bothered by being edited out of an official F1 video about the controversial "Halo" concept. In Hungary last weekend, drivers ...

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Apple CEO Cook Defends Move to Censor Chinese Apps – Fortune

Posted: at 5:44 am

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc.David Paul MorrisBloomberg via Getty Images

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a staunch advocate for civil rights, and even keeps a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. in his office. So it's probably not surprising that Cook is a little defensive about a recent decision by Apple to go along with a repressive computer policy in China.

In recent days, Apple pulled a number of apps from its app store in China that could be used to circumvent China's Internet censorship laws. Known as virtual private network, or VPN, apps, the programs let iPhone and iPad users mask their origins from the "Great Firewall of China" and thereby access sites banned by the government and better shield their communications from surveillance.

On Tuesday, Cook said Apple had no choice but to remove the VPN apps.

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"We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries, we follow the law wherever we do business," Cook said on a call with analysts to discuss quarterly financial results. "We strongly believe in participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well."

In a column published earlier on Tuesday, New York Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo called out Apple for caving to the Chinese censorship demands. Conceding that Apple was probably forced to remove the VPN apps, Manjoo concluded that "Apples quiet capitulation to tightening censorship in one of its largest markets is still a dangerous precedent."

Cook also went on to explain why he thought the situation in China was quite different from the standoff between Apple and the FBI last year over decrypting information on an iPhone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino.

"Some folks have tried to link it to the U.S. situation last yearthey're very different," Cook said on the analyst call. "In the case of the U.S., the law in the U.S. supported us. It was very clear. In the case of China, the law is very clear there."

But Apple ( aapl ) did state its point of view in China "in the appropriate way," Cook added. That has not, at least so far, included any public criticism of the Chinese demand, or even more drastically, pulling out the country in protest.

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Apple CEO Cook Defends Move to Censor Chinese Apps - Fortune

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Seafair Pirates, accused of targeting women and showing up drunk, no longer welcome at some festivals – The Seattle Times

Posted: at 5:43 am

Four former members of the Seafair Pirates say they have left the group due to what they described as a growing emphasis on drinking alcohol and targeting women. Five organizations have suspended the pirates or disassociated from them because of problematic behavior.

The Seafair Pirates, Seattles beloved rogues, have sometimes acted the part too well.

A fixture on the summer parade circuit since their inception in 1949, the Pirates have spent the past seven decades alternately entertaining and frustrating the masses. The Pirates of old came under fire throughout the 1960s and 70s for piratical behavior shackling a woman to a hotel bed, faux kidnappings and general alcohol-induced misbehavior that led to a four-year ban from Seafair events and a rebranding effort.

In later years, they continued to update their methods to keep pace with Seattles evolving standards of decency. They focused less on women and more on entertaining children, and spent less time drinking and more time at charity events.

But there are signs the organization has slid back toward its rowdier roots in recent years. Four former pirates among them two former captains said they have left the group due to what they described as a growing emphasis on drinking alcohol and targeting women. Five organizations have suspended the pirates or disassociated with them because of problematic behavior. In April, one of the pirates was cited for fourth-degree assault after forcibly kissing a woman at an event in Puyallup.

Weve seen the Pirate organization evolve, or devolve, and it hasnt been a great mix for our family audience, said Tim Kuniholm, the director of public affairs at the Seattle Aquarium, one of the locations that is no longer inviting the Pirates to events. In the last few years, theres been more open drinking in public and interactions with our volunteers and folks here that are inappropriate.

Current Pirates President Daniel Sullivan said the group hasnt had any complaints for a long time and that The Seattle Times was not the first to attempt to besmirch the groups name.

We are an outstanding group of men who do great work in our community, we have tremendous support and after almost 70 years, theres a lot of credibility there, he wrote in an email to The Times.

At gatherings and parades, the pirates have long entertained children from a ship adorned with nautical flags stretching from bow to stern. Each flags colorful stripes and shapes represent a letter of the alphabet, which can be decoded into a message.

At many events, including the parade in Puyallup earlier this April, the message was directed at the women in the crowd: Show us your tits.

One of five groups in the Seafair family, the Pirates are composed of several dozen volunteers, clad in swashbuckling vests and equipped with swords, whose aim is to support Seafair and promote goodwill by participating in parades and charity events throughout the year.

Becoming a Seafair Pirate is a lengthy process that requires a prospective member to obtain a sponsor who is a current pirate. Only after 12 months of training can a candidate ride Moby Duck the groups mobile ship as a full-fledged Seafair Pirate.

One of the typical events on the pirate calendar is the Marysville Strawberry Festival.

The pirates had attended the event for years. But in 2013, the parades organizing body warned them that the continuance of a trend of unsafe and inappropriate behavior would result in a suspension, according to Marysville Police Department spokesman Mark Thomas.

The following year, the Pirates were again found in violation of festival rules and received a three-year ban from the Marysville parade and festival.

Behavior included accusing a festival-board member of lying to cover up an issue in the Pirates parade application, consuming alcohol during the parade and an unpleasant interaction with local law enforcement, according to a letter from the Maryfest Executive Board informing the Seafair Pirates of their suspension.

It would seem as though the Pirates have lost their way and believe the Festival is about them and not that of a guest, the Maryfest Executive Board wrote in the letter. The Parade and festival community is a small one and the numbers of comments made about the Pirates the last couple of years are not flattering. I would hope that your leadership takes this to heart.

At the Seattle Aquarium, the Pirates historically had an open invitation to participate in events at the Aquarium during Seafair and around Halloween, Kuniholm said. But after what he described as inappropriate interactions with volunteers and visitors, plus growing concern for animal safety due to the Pirates refusal to tone down the noise of their cannon, that invitation was rescinded around 2013.

And in Issaquah, three years of public complaints about the Pirates behavior during the parade culminated in a verbal confrontation between the Issaquah police chief and a Pirate.

The police chief called me in and said thats not appropriate behavior for our event and they cant be back, said Robin Kelley, who served as the festival director for Issaquah Salmon Days festival until 2016. And when our police chief says they cant come back, its pretty definitive.

Emails exchanged between Kelley and the Issaquah police chief at the time indicate that the final straw occurred in 2009, though the Pirates told Kelley they couldnt attend the following year anyway, citing not enough available members.

Pirates president Sullivan, who has been involved with the group for five years, initially said the only complaint the group received in recent years was at the Ballard 17th of May parade. When a reporter described other organizations that complained about the Pirates, he called the allegations old news.

An administrator for the Ballard parade, Laura Hanson, confirmed the Pirates have not been in the 17th of May parade since 2014. Sullivan said the fractured relationship with Ballard stemmed from a communication error involving the parade route.

Vicki Hoyt, the chief of the Seafair Parade Marshals, said she wasnt aware of any issues or complaints about the Pirates other than in Ballard, but added that those complaints likely would have gone straight to the Pirates.

The four former Pirates described a culture in which poor behavior was the norm and pirates frequently showed up to parades inebriated or made lewd remarks to female paradegoers.

The drunkenness and not showing up to things we were supposed to show up to got us into a lot of trouble, said Ron Paul, who joined the Pirates in 1998 and served as the groups captain in 2005.

Paul described instances of Pirates falling down drunk during parades and members skipping charity events or showing up hungover. He said he left the group in 2015 after growing increasingly concerned by what he perceived as a shift away from entertainment and toward womanizing and drinking.

Sullivan insisted the group is serious about moving away from that reputation.

The flags on their ship, for example, that had flown for at least 17 years were immediately changed in recent months when we took a closer look and realized the message, Sullivan said. The flags now spell out Seafair Pirates.

But, last week at the Greenwood Seafair Parade, while handing out pins that said Ive been had by the Seattle Seafair Pirates, one pirate wore a vest with a similar tone: Got breastmilk?

In the Cayman Islands, which used to coordinate subsidized travel to the island nation for its annual Pirates Week Festival each fall, the Seafair Pirates sent delegations as early as 1984 and as recently as 2013, according to former Pirates Week Festival committee member Colin Wilson and current executive director Melanie McField.

However, in 2013, the groups six-man delegation did not show up to several scheduled appearances and were hungover at others, Wilson said. Though the government has not disinvited the group, it has not offered sponsored airfare and hotels since, and the pirates have not gone.

Mark Jensen, a former Pirate who left the group in 2012 after serving as special assistant to the captain for more than a decade, estimated that he received approximately two complaints each year accusing pirates of sexual harassment.

One woman, Lesley Harrison, recalled a 2009 incident when the Pirates visited her workplace. She said a pirate stuck a sticker on her lower chest, then grabbed and hugged her.

I felt really kind of violated, she said of the interaction, which she reported to the police.

The following year, while attending the Greenwood Seafair Parade, Bonnie Johnson who suffers from PTSD and has autism said she was cornered by a Pirate, who began yelling at her for not smiling.

I assume everyone just thought it was part of his pirate act, but I think he used that position to his advantage to excuse what he did, she wrote in an email to The Times. I still couldnt speak and eventually he backed off and went to leave. I was relieved until he leaned back in and shoved his fake doubloons (gold coins) down the front of my dress. It was humiliating.

And this year, on April 8, a woman stopped by Sparks Firehouse Deli in Puyallup to grab a Coke with a co-worker. When a Seafair pirate offered a button in exchange for a kiss, the woman and her friend agreed. But, the woman told the Puyallup Police, when she went in to kiss the pirate on the cheek, he turned his head and forced his tongue into her mouth, splitting her lip in the process.

The woman later pressed charges, and the Pirate Stephen Cox, 55, of Redmond was cited for fourth-degree assault, a gross misdemeanor offense.

Sullivan, the president of the Pirates, declined to comment about the incident, and Cox did not return phone calls from The Times requesting comment.

Like any organization, we are constantly self reviewing and evaluating our processes, Sullivan said.

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