ROME (AP) — A blaze, possibly sparked by a gas canister explosion, destroyed part of an historic bridge spanning the Tiber River in Rome before firefighters extinguished the flames early Sunday.

Firefighters said the fire erupted before midnight Saturday near the Ostiense neighborhood and by 4 a.m. Sunday they had completed their work.

No one was injured in the fire that involved the Industry Bridge, but three nightclubs near the riverside neighborhood popular with young people were evacuated as a precaution, Italian state TV said.

The blaze appeared to have started in an area of shacks occupied by homeless people on the river banks near Industry Bridge before spreading to the span itself. State radio said authorities believe the fire might have been started by an explosion of a cooking gas canister by one of the homeless people.

A section of the bridge’s outer pedestrian walkway and stretch under the roadbed carrying utility lines broke off and fell into the Tiber. State radio noted that another fire several years ago had also involved the shacks.

Firefighters said in a tweet that the bridge is currently too dangerous to be used. They also banned any navigation under it until the span can be repaired.

Pope Pius IX attended the 1863 inauguration of the bridge, one of the last major construction works in Rome in the waning years of the papal state controlling the city, which would soon become the capital of unified Italy.

Dubbed by Romans the “Iron Bridge,” the span originally served as a railway bridge. Later it was outfitted to instead serve cars and foot traffic.

A plaque near one of the span’s ends pays tribute to 10 women who were executed on it in 1944 by German SS troops occupying Rome during the latter years of World War II. The women were punished for having occupied a bakery to feed their families in the city where war made food scarce.

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It was all going so well. Successful vaccination programmes were driving the post-pandemic recovery of the global economy, stock markets were back at record highs, and prices were rising just enough to make deflation fears a thing of the past.

But a supply crunch that initially put a question mark over the availability of luxury cars or whether there would be enough PlayStations under our Christmas trees is instead morphing into a full-blown crisis featuring a shortage of energy, labour and transport from Liverpool to Los Angeles, and from Qingdao to Queensland.

All the problems are in one way or another tangled up in the surge of post-pandemic consumer demand, but taken together they threaten what one leading economist calls a “stagflationary wind” that could blow the global economy off course.

Mohamed El-Erian, and adviser to the insurance giant Allianz and president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, says this week’s surprise fall in factory output in China was a clear warning that the world economy could slump while prices were still rising quickly, a doomsday double whammy that almost sank the UK in the 1970s.

“The supply chain problems are much more persistent than most policymakers expected, although companies are less surprised,” he said.

“Governments are having to rethink quickly because the three elements – supply side, transport, labour – are coming together to blow a stagflationary wind through the global economy.”

Energy shortages are providing the starkest illustration of the problem, with increasing numbers of petrol stations in the UK running out of fuel, and cities in northern China having to ration power and force factories in the world’s number one manufacturing nation to shutter just when pre-Christmas demand is reaching a peak in the west.

Both countries have been caught out by not having enough reserves amid a scramble throughout the world for natural gas and for oil, which has almost doubled in price in 12 months to nearly $80 a barrel.

Along with ongoing Covid-related restrictions in some large manufacturing countries such as Vietnam, and a well-documented shortage of components such as computer chips, factories are simply not producing enough.

Volkswagen was among the carmakers forced to close plants amid a shortage of semiconductors. Photograph: Reuters

British car production dropped by 27% year on year in August as a lack of semiconductors and led to a big drop in the number of vehicles exported to Australia, the US and China. On Thursday, Volkswagen, Ford and Opel maker Stellantis announced fresh temporary closures in Germany because of the chip problem. Opel is closing a plant until 2022 – the longest such stoppage so far.

In Japan, an index of stocks of finished goods has dropped to levels not even seen in the wake of 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

But even if they could get their hands on more sources of energy and materials, and factories could make more goods, it would still cost more to ship things. Drewry’s shipping index, which measures the cost of containers, is up 291% compared with a year ago. On some busy routes, such as from China to Europe’s biggest port Rotterdam, the cost of shipping a container has risen sixfold in the past year.

The problems don’t end when the goods arrive at a port, with labour shortages presenting a final problem in the increasingly tortuous journey of products to their final destination. A lack of truck drivers in many parts of Europe, partly because of disputes over conditions and partly because of ongoing Covid restrictions, is causing delays.

Flavio Romero Macau, a supply chain expert at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, says that massive pent-up consumer demand in the wake of the pandemic has strained the world’s delicately balanced economic ecosystem.

“Consumers are crazy to buy things because the world is awash with dollars from government stimulus, higher savings and pent-up demand. PlayStations, laptops, phones, gym equipment – you name it people are trying to buy it,” he says.

“Higher demand and restricted supply equals inflation: there’s no way out of it. You put all these things together and its a perfect storm.”

While warnings increase about the threat of stagflation, more economists believe central banks might have to move more quickly to raise interest rates if inflation takes hold across the developed world.

The Bank of England has signalled that interest rates could go up next year. Photograph: John Sibley/Reuters

The Bank of England has flagged that rates could go up next year, and the US Federal Reserve has at last signalled the end of its massive pandemic stimulus plan that could push up the cost of borrowing in 2022.

Neil Shearing, the chief economist at Capital Economics, said the UK and the US were most at risk from overheating into inflation, leading to central bank action.

“Risks are generally skewed to the upside and there is a real possibility that inflation increases to a much higher rate that would, in time, necessitate a more substantial tightening of policy,” he said.

A paradigm shift in monetary policy after years of cheap credit could be accompanied by a rebalancing of the global economy as countries seek to shorten supply chains and become more self-sufficient through more autarkist policies, which promote non-reliance on imports. Romero Macau believes many companies could take the chance to move manufacturing away from China, where the supply of cheap labour that launched its economic miracle is drying up, to countries such as Vietnam and Mexico. The latter, he said, has cheaper labour costs than China, making it attractive especially for American companies.

Richard Flax, the chief investment officer at digital wealth manager Moneyfarm, said the crisis was already prompting a rethink by policymakers and business leaders.

“Large corporates and governments are reviewing their supply chains for crucial goods, with a mind towards security of supply as well as cost. We would expect to see supply chains in some sectors shorten as a response to Covid, either via reshoring, or as companies try to diversify their sources of supply.”

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"We are introducing the requirement for air travellers aged 17 and over, who are not New Zealand citizens, to be fully vaccinated to enter New Zealand," COVID-19 response minister Christ Hipkins said.

The national flag carrier Air New Zealand also announced it was introducing a "no jab, no fly" policy for passengers on all international flights from February 1.

The country has been hugely successful at containing the virus—reporting just 27 deaths in a population of five million—thanks to tight border controls and lockdowns, allowing pre-pandemic life to mostly resume.

But the upped border restrictions come as Hamilton city and neighbouring Raglan town were put into a five-day lockdown, with only essential movement permitted, after two people tested positive.

The cases are not believed to be connected to the latest outbreak in Auckland, 160 kilometres away.

The city of two million has been in lockdown for nearly seven weeks as officials grapple with an outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant that has so far infected 1,320 people.

About 2,000 people attended an anti-lockdown rally in Auckland over the weekend, with Jacinda Ardern describing the demonstration as "a complete slap in the face" for people who had been abiding by the strict rules banning public gatherings.

"It was illegal and also it was morally wrong," the prime minister said.

New Zealand is pursuing a "COVID zero" elimination strategy.

It had been free of community transmission for six months before the latest Auckland outbreak.

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National Aviary

A Steller’s sea eagle escaped from its enclosure at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh last Saturday, and despite the valiant efforts of the Aviary staff, and numerous sightings in the local neighborhood posted to social media, Kodiak —Kody to his friends— is still on the loose and we are all a little worried about him, to be perfectly honest.

 

This is a bird that would be difficult to miss: he’s large (although in Pittsburgh we probably wouldn’t call him “giant” because “Giant Eagle” is a grocery store chain here), with a yellow beak, white tail and white feathers on the tops of his wings. He’s bigger than a bald eagle, and has a wingspan of about six feet. Kody has been spotted in and around the Pittsburgh neighborhood where the Aviary is located, which seems like a good thing. But he’s been tough to catch because you can’t just toss a net over him and call it a day, as licensed falconer Richard Lawson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; a specialized (and obviously humane) trap is going to be necessary.

 

The Steller’s sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) typically weighs between 13 and 20 pounds, and stands about four feet tall. It has no natural predators, according to the Aviary, but Kody has lived in captivity for 15 of his 16 years, so he may be a little rusty on the whole hunting/prey thing. Steller’s sea eagles eat fish, and more fish, “scavenged mammals” (ew) and even other birds “when fish is in short supply.” And in case you wondered, they’re named for German naturalist Georg W. Steller, who encountered the birds on a visit to Alaska in 1741.

 

The Aviary has been posting updates to social media and getting tantalizingly close to retrieving Kody, but he’s eluded them so far. I was half-hoping Kody might make some kind of majestic appearance at the Steelers’ game last Sunday since Heinz Field is not far from the Aviary, and the team was at home against the Bengals (we’re not going to talk about that game today, though). Alas, he did not.

 

On Thursday, the Aviary’s animal care experts camped out to monitor his roost in a high tree in the North Park area of the city, and they confirmed he was in good condition. They tried to entice him with some food, but he didn’t come down. But look at this handsome, handsome boi:

 

 

Many people— including me, before I moved to Pittsburgh a thousand years ago— don’t know what a hidden gem the National Aviary is, or, that it’s in Pittsburgh. Their penguins are usually the big celebrities (hi, this is Pittsburgh), but they also have very cute— as well as very large—owls, eagles, flamingos, falcons, and canaries among other birds. You can sign up for educational “animal encounters” with many of the birds— I recall visiting when my son was little; we sat in a large auditorium where some birds of prey were flying around, and we got like a popsicle stick with some food on it (I would prefer not to think about what the food actually was) and you’d hold it up until one of the birds swooped down to eat it. Extremely awesome.

 

If you are in Pittsburgh and see Kody call the National Aviary at 412-323-7235. Don’t try to approach him, you run the risk of scaring him off. And when the Aviary team shows up, stay out of their way. They want to get him safely home.

A very big eagle escaped from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and is still at large

In New Zealand, People (and Moths) Rediscover Dark Skies

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Even President Vladimir Putin referred to them this week in a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bragging about why he avoided infection even though dozens of people around him caught the coronavirus, including someone who spent a whole day with the Kremlin leader.

"I have high titers," Putin said, referring to the measurement used to describe the concentration of antibodies in the blood. When Erdogan challenged him that the number Putin gave was low, the Russian insisted, "No, it's a high level. There are different counting methods."

But Western health experts say the antibody tests so popular in Russia are unreliable either for diagnosing COVID-19 or assessing immunity to it. The antibodies that these tests look for can only serve as evidence of a past infection, and scientists say it's still unclear what level of antibodies indicates protection from the virus and for how long.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention says such tests should not be used to establish an active COVID-19 infection because it can take one to three weeks for the body to make antibodies. Health experts say tests that look for the virus's genetic material, called PCR tests, or ones that look for virus proteins, called antigen tests, should be used to determine if someone is infected.

In this Sept. 29, 2021, file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talk to each other during their meeting in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia. In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test for the coronavirus and share the results. Putin referred to his own test results while talking to Erdogan, bragging about how he avoided infection even though dozens of people around him caught the virus, including someone who spent a whole day with him. Credit: Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik, Kremlin/Pool Photo via AP

In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country's low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again.

In Moscow and the surrounding region, millions of antibody tests have been done at state-run clinics that offered them for free. Across the country, dozens of chains of private labs and clinics also offer a wide variety of antibody tests for COVID-19, as well as tests for other medical conditions.

"In some cities I went to, I needed to take a PCR test and it wasn't possible, but I could take an antibody test—it was much easier," said Dr. Anton Barchuk, head of the epidemiology group at the European University in St. Petersburg and an associate professor at the Petrov National Cancer Center there.

An employee, left, works at one of Invitro's drop-in clinics for antibody testing in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test for the coronavirus and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country's low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again. Credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Antibody tests for COVID-19 were first widely publicized in Moscow in May 2020, shortly after Russia lifted its only nationwide lockdown, although many restrictions remained in place. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced an ambitious program to test tens of thousands of residents for antibodies.

Many Muscovites greeted this enthusiastically. Contrary to Western experts, some believed antibodies represented immunity from the virus and saw a positive test as a way out of restrictions.

The test looked at two different types of antibodies: ones that appear in one's system soon after infection, and ones that take weeks to develop. To their surprise, some of those who tested positive for the former were handed a COVID-19 diagnosis and ordered to quarantine.

Irina Umarova, 56, spent 22 days confined to her studio apartment, without experiencing any symptoms. Visiting doctors took six PCR tests that came back negative. But they also took more antibody tests, which continued to show a certain level of antibodies.

Employees work at the LabQuest laboratory, a clinic that does antibody testing and processing, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, July 12, 2021. In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test for the coronavirus and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country's low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again. Credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

"They kept telling me I was infected and needed to stay home," she said.

More interest in antibody testing came this summer when Russia had a surge of infections. The demand for tests spiked so sharply that labs were overwhelmed and some ran out of supplies.

That's when dozens of regions made vaccinations mandatory for certain groups of people and restricted access to various public spaces, allowing in only those who were vaccinated, had had the virus, or had tested negative for it recently.

Daria Goryakina, deputy director at the Helix Laboratory Service, a large chain of testing facilities, said she believed the increased interest in antibody testing was connected to the vaccination mandates.

In the second half of June, Helix performed 230% more antibody tests than in the first half, and the high demand continued into the first week of July. "People want to check their antibody levels and whether they need to get vaccinated," Goryakina told The Associated Press.

Maria Bloquert speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at her apartment in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test and share the results. Bloquert recovered from the coronavirus in May, and a test she took shortly after revealed a high antibody count. She has put off getting vaccinated but wants to get a shot eventually, once her antibody levels start to wane. Credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Both the World Health Organization and the CDC recommend vaccination regardless of previous infection.

Guidance in Russia has varied, with authorities initially saying that those testing positive for the antibodies weren't eligible for the shot, but then urging everyone to get vaccinated regardless of their antibody levels. Still, some Russians believed a positive antibody test was a reason to put off vaccination.

Maria Bloquert recovered from the coronavirus in May, and a test she took shortly after revealed a high antibody count. She has put off her vaccination but wants to get it eventually, once her antibody levels start to wane. "As long as my antibody titers are high, I have protection from the virus, and there is no point in getting injected with more protection on top of it," the 37-year-old Muscovite told AP.

A medical worker prepares an injection of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Gostiny Dvor a huge exhibition place in Moscow, Russia. In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test for the coronavirus and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country's low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again. Credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

High-profile officials, like Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliament, both have been quoted as saying they didn't need to get vaccinated due to having high levels of antibodies, but they eventually decided to get their shots.

Contradicting guidelines may have contributed to Russia's low vaccination rate, said Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva, leader of the Alliance of Doctors union.

"People don't understand (what to do), because they're constantly given different versions" of recommendations, she said.

Even though Russia boasted of creating the world's first vaccine, Sputnik V, only 32.5% of its 146 million people have gotten at least one shot, and only 28% are fully vaccinated. Critics have principally blamed a botched vaccine rollout and mixed messages the authorities have been sending about the outbreak.

Employees work at a LabQuest laboratory, a clinic that does antibody testing and processing, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, July 12, 2021. In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test for the coronavirus and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country's low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again. Credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

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Dr. Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading in England, said antibody tests shouldn't influence any health-related decisions.

Getting an antibody test "is for your own personal satisfaction and curiosity," he added.

Barchuk, the St. Petersburg epidemiologist, echoed his sentiment, saying there are too many gaps in understanding how antibodies work, and the tests offer little information beyond past infection.

But some Russian regions disregarded that advice, using positive antibody tests to allow people access to restaurants, bars and other public places on par with a vaccination certificate or a negative coronavirus test. Some people get an antibody test before or after vaccination to make sure the shot worked or see if they need a booster.

Dr. Vasily Vlassov, an epidemiologist and a public health expert with the Higher School of Economics, says this attitude reflects Russians' distrust of the state-run health care system and their struggle to navigate the confusion amid the pandemic.

"People's attempt to find a rational way of acting, to base their decision on something, for example the antibodies, is understandable—the situation is difficult and bewildering," Vlassov said. "And they opt for a method that's available for them rather than for a good one. Because there is no good method to make sure that you have immunity."

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The man, who was not identified for reasons of patient confidentiality, was admitted to hospital in the Baltic port city of Klaipeda with severe abdominal pain.

An X-ray of his stomach showed up pieces of metal - some measuring up to 10 centimetres.

"During the three-hour operation with X-ray control, all foreign bodies, even the smallest ones, in the patient's stomach were removed," said surgeon Sarunas Dailidenas.

The hospital provided local media with a photograph of a surgical tray heaped with nails and screws.

"We've never seen anything like it," Algirdas Slepavicius, head surgeon at Klaipeda Hospital told local media.

The doctor said that the man had begun swallowing the metal objects over the last month after he had stopped drinking.

The patient was in a stable condition following the operation, he added.

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The possibility of precious objects hidden in secret chambers can really ignite the imagination. In the mid-1960s, British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield pondered whether it was possible to detect hidden areas in Egyptian pyramids by capturing cosmic rays that passed through unseen voids.

He held onto this idea over the years, which can be paraphrased as “looking inside a box without opening it.” Ultimately he did figure how to use high-energy rays to reveal what’s invisible to the naked eye. He invented a way to see inside the hard skull and get a picture of the soft brain inside.

The first computed tomography image—a CT scan—of the human brain was made 50 years ago, on October 1, 1971. Hounsfield never made it to Egypt, but his invention did take him to Stockholm and Buckingham Palace.

AN ENGINEER’S INNOVATION

Godfrey Hounsfield’s early life did not suggest that he would accomplish much at all. He was not a particularly good student. As a young boy his teachers described him as “thick.”

He joined the British Royal Air Force at the start of World War II, but he wasn’t much of a soldier. He was, however, a wizard with electrical machinery—especially the newly invented radar that he would jury-rig to help pilots better find their way home on dark, cloudy nights.

After the war, Hounsfield followed his commander’s advice and got a degree in engineering. He practiced his trade at EMI—the company would become better known for selling Beatles albums, but started out as Electric and Music Industries, with a focus on electronics and electrical engineering.

Hounsfield’s natural talents propelled him to lead the team building the most advanced mainframe computer available in Britain. But by the ’60s, EMI wanted out of the competitive computer market and wasn’t sure what to do with the brilliant, eccentric engineer.

While on a forced holiday to ponder his future and what he might do for the company, Hounsfield met a physician who complained about the poor quality of X-rays of the brain. Plain X-rays show marvelous details of bones, but the brain is an amorphous blob of tissue—on an X-ray it all looks like fog. This got Hounsfield thinking about his old idea of finding hidden structures without opening the box.

A NEW APPROACH REVEALS THE PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN

Hounsfield formulated a new way to approach the problem of imaging what’s inside the skull.

X-rays beam through each ‘slice’ of brain, oriented at each degree from 1 to 180 in a semicircle. [Image: Edmund S. Higgins, CC BY-ND]

First, he would conceptually divide the brain into consecutive slices—like a loaf of bread. Then he planned to beam a series of X-rays through each layer, repeating this for each degree of a semicircle. The strength of each beam would be captured on the opposite side of the brain—with stronger beams indicating they’d traveled through less dense material.

Calculating the strength of each X-ray once it’s passed through the object, and working backward with an impressive algorithm, it is possible to construct an image. [Image: Edmund S. Higgins, CC BY-ND]

Finally, in possibly his most ingenious invention, Hounsfield created an algorithm to reconstruct an image of the brain based on all these layers. By working backward and using one of the era’s fastest new computers, he could calculate the value for each little box of each brain layer. Eureka!

But there was a problem: EMI wasn’t involved in the medical market and had no desire to jump in. The company allowed Hounsfield to work on his product, but with scant funding. He was forced to scrounge through the scrap bin of the research facilities and cobbled together a primitive scanning machine—small enough to rest atop a dining table.

Even with successful scans of inanimate objects and, later, kosher cow brains, the powers that be at EMI remained underwhelmed. Hounsfield needed to find outside funding if he wanted to proceed with a human scanner.

Schematic diagram of the CT scanner included in Hounsfield’s U.S. patent. [Image: Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield]

He knew there were no grants they could obtain quickly, but reasoned the U.K. Department of Health and Social Security could purchase equipment for hospitals. Miraculously, Hounsfield’s boss Bill Ingram sold them four scanners before they were even built. So, Hounsfield organized a team, and they raced to build a safe and effective human scanner. Hounsfield was a brilliant, intuitive inventor, but not an effective communicator. Luckily he had a sympathetic boss in Ingram, who saw the value in Hounsfield’s proposal and worked with EMI to keep the project afloat.

Meanwhile, Hounsfield needed patients on whom to try out his machine. He found a somewhat reluctant neurologist who agreed to help. The team installed a full-size scanner at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in London, and on October 1, 1971, they scanned their first patient: a middle-aged woman who showed signs of a brain tumor.

It was not a fast process—30 minutes for the scan, a drive across town with the magnetic tapes, 2.5 hours processing the data on an EMI mainframe computer and capturing the image with a Polaroid camera before racing back to the hospital.

The first clinical CT scan, with brain tumor visible as darker blob.
[Image: Medical Imaging Systems: An Introductory Guide, Maier A, Steidl S, Christlein V, et al., editors., CC BY]

And there it was—in her left frontal lobe—a cystic mass about the size of a plum. With that, every other method of imaging the brain was obsolete.

MILLIONS OF CT SCANS EVERY YEAR

EMI, with no experience in the medical market, suddenly held a monopoly for a machine in high demand. It jumped into production and was initially very successful at selling the scanners. But within five years, bigger, more experienced companies with more research capacity such as General Electric and Siemens were producing better scanners and gobbling up sales. EMI eventually exited the medical market—and became a case study in why it can be better to partner with one of the big guys instead of trying to go it alone.

Hounsfield’s innovation transformed medicine. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1979 and was knighted by the Queen in 1981. He continued to putter around with inventions until his final days in 2004, when he died at 84.

In 1973, American Robert Ledley developed a whole-body scanner that could image other organs, blood vessels, and, of course, bones. Modern scanners are faster, provide better resolution, and most important, do it with less radiation exposure. There are even mobile scanners.

By 2020, technicians were performing more than 80 million scans annually in the U.S. Some physicians argue that number is excessive and maybe a third are unnecessary. While that may be true, the CT scan has benefited the health of many patients around the world, helping identify tumors and determine if surgery is needed. They’re particularly useful in the ER for a quick search for internal injuries after accidents.

And remember Hounsfield’s idea about the pyramids? In 1970 scientists placed cosmic ray detectors in the lowest chamber in the Pyramid of Khafre. They concluded that no hidden chamber was present within the pyramid. In 2017, another team placed cosmic ray detectors in the Great Pyramid of Giza and found a hidden, but inaccessible, chamber. It’s unlikely it will be explored anytime soon.

Edmund S. Higgins is an affiliate associate professor of psychiatry & family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Edmund S. Higgins is an affiliate associate professor of psychiatry & family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The chill was exceptional, even for the coldest location on the planet.

The average temperature at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station between April and September, a frigid minus-78 degrees (minus-61 Celsius), was the coldest on record, dating back to 1957. This was 4.5 degrees lower than the most recent 30-year average.

We first learned of this record through a tweet from Stefano Di Battista, who has published research on Antarctic temperatures. The legitimacy of Di Battista’s information was confirmed by Richard Cullather, a research scientist at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office.

The temperature averaged over September was also the coldest on record at South Pole, wrote David Bromwich, a polar researcher at Ohio State University, in an email.

The extreme cold over Antarctica helped push sea ice levels surrounding the continent to their fifth-highest level on record in August, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Extraordinarily cold weather continues to grip the Antarctic Plateau. Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist who monitors world weather extremes, tweeted that temperature at Russia’s Vostok Station sunk to minus-110.9 degrees (minus-79.4 Celsius) on Thursday (Sept. 30), which was just one degree (0.6 Celsius) from the world’s lowest temperature on record during October.

The current temperatures are still some distance from the coldest ever observed on the continent. In 1983, Vostok plummeted to minus-129 degrees (minus-89.6 Celsius). Satellites have detected temperatures as low as minus-144 degrees (minus-98 Celsius).

Matthew Lazzara, an expert on the meteorology of Antarctica and scientist at the University of Wisconsin, monitored the South Pole temperatures in recent months from his office in Madison with awe. In an interview, he said it was around minus-100 degrees on numerous occasions. Over the years, he’s traveled to Antarctica numerous times to support his research.

“At these temperatures, it is difficult to operate aircraft,” he wrote in an email. “[B]etween -50°C and -58°C you put the aircraft at risk with the hydraulics freezing up or fuel turning into a jelly.”

Once he visited the South Pole in late October. “I got to experience -50°C weather … with a wind chill beyond that. I was *thrilled* to be wearing my 75 lbs of Extreme Cold Weather gear to stay warm,” he joked.

The conditions over Antarctica are in stark contrast to much of the rest of the planet which notched its fourth hottest June through August on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Northern Hemisphere registered its second hottest summer.

Scientists credited a very strong polar vortex, or a ring of strong winds in the stratosphere, surrounding Antarctica for the intensity of the cold.

The stratospheric polar vortex is a seasonal phenomenon. In the Southern Hemisphere, it forms in the fall, persists through the winter and weakens before reversing course in spring.

The strength of the vortex has connections to weather at the ground, said Krzysztof Wargan, a research scientist with NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. He said a strong vortex is associated with low surface temperatures.

Whether the vortex is strong or weak depends on a cycle known as Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Right now, the mode is in its positive phase and the vortex is intense.

“Basically, the winds in the polar stratosphere have been stronger than normal, which is associated with shifting the jet stream toward the pole,” wrote Amy Butler, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA in a message. “This keeps the cold air locked up over much of Antarctica.”

Butler wrote the strong polar vortex not only makes it very cold over Antarctica, but accelerates processes that lead to stratospheric ozone depletion, which in turn can strengthen the vortex even more. This year’s ozone hole over Antarctic is much bigger than average at around 24 million square kilometers, a reflection of the vortex’s strength.

Although the stratospheric ozone layer is on the mend since some ozone-depleting chemicals were banned by the Montreal Protocol in the 1980s, Wargan said year-to-year variations are expected to influence the size of the ozone holes in the coming decades.

Scientists stressed the record cold over the South Pole in no way refutes or lessens the seriousness of global warming. Antarctica is notorious for its wild swings in weather and climate which can run counter to global trends.

Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, wrote in an email that the Antarctic climate is extremely sensitive to high-altitude winds and Pacific Ocean conditions and prone to rapid change. He pointed out that its sea ice, which was close to a record high at the end of August tanked to “to one of the lowest extents for this time of year that we’ve seen” by the end of September.

To evaluate what’s happening with the climate of Antarctica, one must look beyond a seasonal snapshot, scientists said.

“One cold winter is interesting but doesn’t change the long term trend, which is warming,” wrote Eric Steig, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington in an email.

Not only is Antarctica warming over the long term, but its ice is rapidly melting, contributing to sea level rise:

At the moment, though, the Antarctic cold is beyond numbing.

The temperature at the South Pole at the time of publication of this article on Oct. 1 was minus-67 degrees with a wind chill of minus-101.

This story was originally published at washingtonpost.com. Read it here.

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They believe features and archaeological remains on the site in Saudi Arabia directly line up with the passage in the holy tome, some of which are fenced off as protected areas by the Saudi theocratic regime. 

According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, Moses leads the Israelites to Mount Sinai which is enveloped by fire, smoke and thunder.

The prophet then ascends the mountain where he convenes with God to receive the Ten Commandments.

For this reason, Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions.

Certain scholars claim the Exodus is a myth because no evidence at the traditional Mount Sinai in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, but what if they were looking in the wrong spot?

Ryan Mauro Doubting Thomas Research Foundation

But while most people think this miraculous event is a work of fiction — written hundreds of years after it supposedly took place — there are some who claim mounting evidence that indicates it really happened.

A mountain range in Egypt was for hundreds of years thought to be the site of the holy mountain. 

But sleuths from the biblical archaeologist organisation the Doubting Thomas Research Foundation claim this is wrong and have compelling evidence to prove this. 

Foundation president Ryan Mauro, who is a Middle East expert, told the Sun: "One of the main reasons certain scholars claim that the Exodus is a myth is because little to no evidence for what the Bible records has been found at the traditional Mount Sinai in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. 

"But what if these scholars have actually been looking in the wrong spot?

"Move over into the Arabian peninsula and you find incredibly compelling evidence matching the Biblical account."

'SCORCHED MOUTAIN PEAK'

The real holy site, he says, is in the northwestern province of Saudi Arabia and there is strong evidence to prove this. 

The researchers then went on to identify Jabal Maqla, a peak within the Jabal al-Lawz mountain range, as Mount Sinai.

The Bible said God descended on Mount Sinai as a fire. 

And they claim the mountain, with its clearly blackened peaks, suggests this is the site. 

Jabal Maqla, a peak within the Jabal al-Lawz mountain range,has blackened peak

'SIGNS OF PATH UNDER RED SEA'

In the Book of Exodus Moses holds out his walking stick and God parts the waters and they manage to flee.

The story goes that the water then came rushing back in and crushed the pursuing troops. 

The foundation believes Nuweiba Beach is the most likely crossing point because studies have found land paths below the water. 

They argue this evidence found by Swedish scientist Dr Lennart Moller reveals the remnants of the fleeing army. 

It is claimed they found what they believe were the shapes of chariots which were encased in coral, although the metal and wood was long since dissolved. 

Across the Red Sea, there is said to be evidence that is allegedly a possible match for the Biblical campsite Elim, noted to have 12 wells and 70 palm trees with a dozen of the water sources remaining today. 

Moses parts the Red Sea and guides the Israelites across with the Pharoh's army in pursuitCredit: Paramount

An apparent land passage was found under the Read Sea

It is claimed coral formed around the remnants of the Pharohs' army, in this image a chariot wheel is allegedly shown

MOUNT HOREB SPLIT ROCK

On the path to the suspected Mount Sinai is a towering split rock sitting upon a large hill. 

The rock and hill beneath show signs of massive amounts of water erosion — yet this is in an area that receives very little rainfall.

Mr Mauro said: “We believe this distinct landmark could be the rock that God commanded Moses to strike which water then gushed forth from, miraculously providing for the Israelite population."

In the Old Testament bible, Moses splits a rock and water gushes outCredit: Getty

This is said to be the rock that was split by Moses

'MOSES' ALTAR'

At Jabal al-Maqla there is an ancient altar site composed of uncut granite stones at the base of the mountain and the remains of what appear to be small, ancient pillars composed of marble beside it just as in the Book of Exodus.

Moses is said to have built an altar made of uncut stones at the base of Mount Sinai and sets up 12 pillars representing the 12 tribes of Israel beside it. 

So far nine pillars have been found with several broken pieces of marble scattered throughout the area. 

The site suspected to be Moses' altar

'GOLDEN  CALF WORSHIP SITE'

Two more crucial pieces of evidence at this mountain are what is believed to be the Golden Calf worship site and signs of a graveyard. 

Chapter 32 of Exodus tells of the Golden Calf incident, where the Israelites make a golden calf, which was an Egyptian god, and worship it while Moses is on Mount Sinai. 

When Moses comes back down the mountain, the golden calf worshippers are killed for their idolatry.

Mr Mauro said: "Close to the mountain, we have this site covered with depictions of people worshipping bulls and cows. 

"And what's really significant is that these petroglyphs are isolated to this area. It's not like they're carved all over the mountain."

It comes as the Doubting Thomas Research Foundation and others have discovered what they believe might be Noah's Ark.

A depiction of the Golden CalfCredit: Getty 

This has been identified as that same temple with depictions of calves on its side

<  View the video at the source page. >

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Women who participated in the study were critical of healthcare providers for failing to understand their experiences while over-prescribing antibiotics as a treatment option.

"We were inspired to conduct the study due to the large number of women coming to us feeling hopeless and helpless when it came to the management of their UTIs," said lead author Victoria Scott, MD, a urologist at the Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery clinic at Cedars-Sinai.

To help give voice to those suffering with recurrent urinary tract infections, researchers led a focus group study of 29 women who experienced recurrent UTIs to learn about gaps in their care. UTIs are infections of any part of the urinary tract, including the kidneys, ureters, bladder or the urethra. The term is most commonly used to describe a bladder infection.

One of the biggest concerns expressed by study participants revolved around the frequent prescribing of antibiotics and fears of the potential adverse and long-term effects of the medication.

"Many of the participants were aware of the risks of bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics," Scott said. "They also were aware of the 'collateral damage' of antibiotics and disruption they can have on the normal balance of good and bad bacteria throughout the body."

The focus group discussions also reported concern with the medical system and limited research efforts to investigate new non-antibiotic management strategies.

Participants voiced frustration and resentment toward their medical providers for "throwing antibiotics" at them without presenting alternative options for treatment and prevention, and for not understanding their experience. In addition, many women described seeking advice from herbalists and acupuncture practitioners, as well as from peers in online forums and chatrooms.

Treatment and Prevention

Although studies show that antibiotics are often the most effective treatment option for urinary tract infections, research also shows that up to 40% of bladder infections can be cleared with non-prescription steps that can include increased water intake and pain relief medications such as ibuprofen.

Taking these steps when UTI symptoms initially develop and urine test results are pending can be important for avoiding unnecessary antibiotics and ensuring that appropriate antibiotics are prescribed when needed.

Among steps women can take to avoid a urinary tract infection are drinking water, taking cranberry supplements or a low-dose antibiotic after sexual intercourse, and using vaginal estrogen for those who are postmenopausal.

While over-the-counter treatments are preferred by many, Scott recommends seeing a doctor if a fever develops or symptoms persist beyond a day, as antibiotic therapy can be crucial for some infections to ensure they don't spread from the bladder to the kidneys.

"Antibiotics are amazing drugs and in certain settings are lifesaving," Scott said. "There are absolutely some instances in which antibiotics are necessary, but it's also important for women to be educated regarding all their options."

Those who experience recurrent urinary tract infections should seek evaluation by a specialist. Some women will benefit from undergoing a kidney ultrasound or a cystoscopy, which uses a small camera that can be inserted into the urethra to give a view of the urethra and bladder to rule out anatomic abnormalities.

Scott notes that while less common, men also can experience urinary tract infections.

Improving Care

Some healthcare providers might not think that a single episode of a urinary tract infection could have a significant impact on a patient's life. But when UTIs recur, often without warning, they can have a negative impact on social life, work, families and relationships.

The study recommended that physicians modify management strategies to address women's concerns and to devote more research to improving non-antibiotic options for prevention and treatment of recurrent urinary tract infections, as well as management strategies that better empower patients.

"Unfortunately, we see many women who blame themselves for developing UTIs. It's important to understand that UTIs are a very common problem and should not invoke shame" Scott said. "If you are experiencing recurrent UTIs I encourage you to connect with a doctor who specializes in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery to work together to come up with individualized prevention and management strategies."

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US lawmakers have left Facebook in no doubt this week that revelations about the impact of its Instagram app on teen mental health have further damaged the company’s reputation.

The Democrat senator Richard Blumenthal said the social network was “indefensibly delinquent” in its behaviour and had “chosen growth over children’s mental health”, after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Facebook’s internal research had flagged concerns that its photo-sharing app was damaging the wellbeing of young users.

The pressure on Facebook is likely to increase on Sunday when a whistleblower appears on US TV to claim that the company is lying to the public and investors about the effectiveness of its attempts to remove hate, violence and misinformation from its platforms.

The whistleblower, who has submitted thousands of internal documents to the US financial regulator, will then appear at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

The WSJ report and the whistleblower’s appearance take place against a backdrop of active attempts to rein in the power of Facebook and other tech companies. Here are some of the proposals being considered for regulating Facebook.

A break-up

The US competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, has lodged a lawsuit demanding that Facebook sell off Instagram and its messaging app WhatsApp. “After failing to compete with new innovators it illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat,” said Holly Vedova, an FTC director.

An earlier lawsuit was dismissed by a US judge, but even if this one goes ahead it will be a years-long battle. If Facebook is forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp there is also the question of whether this will help reduce misinformation, hate speech or damage to wellbeing on those platforms.

One idea floated in the book Social Warming, by the former Guardian journalist Charles Arthur, is to split Facebook into discrete geographical entities, which would allow the new Facebook companies to concentrate on moderating smaller networks.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has argued that only companies as large as Facebook have the resources to fight misinformation, election meddling and harmful content.

Greater transparency

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a US- and UK-based campaign group, argues that requiring more transparency from Facebook on several fronts, for instance on lobbying, enforcement of its own guidelines and its advertising system, will make a positive difference. Imran Ahmed, the CCDH’s chief executive, argues that Facebook must also be more transparent about how its algorithms can spread misinformation and create discord.

“If users knew for sure what the algorithm was doing, that there is transparency, and that governments, regulators and watchdogs can independently confirm whether Facebook’s algorithms are pushing misinformation, social media firms would find it impossible to carry on doing business as they are,” Ahmed said.

Asked about transparency at Thursday’s hearing, Facebook’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, said the establishment of bodies such as the Facebook oversight board underlined the company’s commitment to transparency.

Copy the online safety bill – globally

In the UK, the online safety bill is a landmark piece of legislation that imposes a duty of care on social media companies to protect users from harmful content. Social media firms are also required under the draft bill to submit to Ofcom, the communications watchdog, a risk assessment of content that causes harm to users.

According to the Conservative chair of a Westminster committee scrutinising the bill, Damian Collins, failing to declare the Instagram research in a risk assessment would expose Facebook to substantial fines under the draft terms of the bill. The legislation also gives Ofcom the power to scrutinise algorithms, which tailor the content that a user consumes and are the subject of much debate among politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Facebook says it shares the UK government’s objective of “making the internet safer while maintaining the vast social and economic benefits it brings”.

Reform section 230

Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act is seen as a founding text for social media networks because, in broad terms, it means internet companies cannot be sued for what users publish on their platform – but neither can they be sued if they decide to take something down. The Democrat senator Amy Klobuchar is attempting to amend section 230 so that social media companies are accountable for the publishing of health misinformation. Along with fellow Democrat senators Mark Warner and Mazie Hirono she is also backing wider proposals to amend the law (Donald Trump called for section 230 to be repealed altogether), and there are other proposals too. It is a vexed issue, even before you get to the first amendment.

Give users more power over their data

Facebook’s all-important advertising system relies on data from its users, and regulators are considering whether users should be given more control over that data. For instance, users could be given the power to withhold data if they do not think a service meets their standards, which could in turn make social media companies behave more responsibly.

Ensure the metaverse is properly regulated

Facebook’s next big strategic push is the metaverse, where people lead their personal and professional lives online whether through virtual-reality headsets or Pokémon Go-style augmented reality (think a highly developed version of Facebook’s recently launched glasses product). There are obvious privacy implications around living in a virtual world hosted by Facebook, Google or Apple – Facebook’s policy chief, Nick Clegg, talks about multiple metaverses meshed together – that regulators will need to scrutinise, although Facebook says a fully fledged metaverse is many years away. Last month, Facebook launched a $50m (£37m) fund to help find solutions to those concerns and said it would collaborate with policymakers and experts.

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A 29-year-old man alleged to have been part of a group that blew up at least 15 cash machines in Germany managed to kill himself and injure an associate last year while filming a video tutorial on how to blow up ATMs, according to European authorities.

Europol in a statement this week said the Dutch and German police had arrested a total of nine suspects over the course of an 18-month investigation that concluded earlier this week.

The inquiry began in February 2020, according to Europol, after authorities in Osnabrück, Germany, took note of unusual orders of ATM machines from a German ATM vendor.

"Special surveillance measures were put in place, which led the investigators to Utrecht, the Netherlands, where a 29-year-old individual and his 24 year-old accomplice were running an illegal training center for ATM attacks," Europol said. "There, the pair was ordering different models of ATMs and recording tutorials on how to most effectively blow them up."

These tutorials were reportedly intended to be presented in-person to like-minded individuals, presumably out of concern that posting the videos to the internet would attract the wrong kind of attention.

In September 2020, the pair were filming one of these tutorials when things didn't go as planned. The 29-year-old died and the 24-year-old was injured and taken into custody, according to Agence France Presse.

A report in the NLTimes last year says that a 29-year-old was killed in an explosion in Utrecht on September 5, 2020. It does not explain the source of the blast and does not mention any other survivors.

The investigation found ties between the bomb video makers and more than 15 attacks on ATMs in Germany estimated to have cost €2.15m (~$2.5m) in lost funds and property damage.

By April 2021, Dutch and German authorities had set up a Joint Investigation Team, with funding from Eurojust, and Europol took part in a separate Operational Taskforce to coordinate the sharing of resources between the two countries.

The investigation wrapped up on September 28, 2021, when a search of seven houses in Utrecht, Amsterdam and the Hague in the Netherlands led to the arrest of three suspects. These three now await extradition to Germany. The six others in custody were arrested during the past year.

In April, the European Association for Secure Transactions (EAST) published a report on ATM crime in 2020. Overall, ATM crime in the EU was down as a result of the social consequences of COVID-19.

"While it is good news to see such a significant fall in terminal fraud attacks, there is concern that explosive attacks at ATMs have only fallen by 6 per cent, and that related losses are up by 39 per cent," said EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn in a statement. "The average cash loss for a solid explosive attack is estimated at €28,218, and collateral damage to equipment and buildings can be significant."

There were 923 explosive attacks on ATMs in the EU last year, down from 977 in 2019.

However, malware and logical attacks against ATMs increased 44 per cent during the same period (from 35 to 129). All of these were "Black Box attacks" in which unauthorized hardware sends commands to empty or "jackpot" cash dispensers. ®

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French Queen had secret correspondence with her rumored lover, Hans Axel von Fersen

Most people associate Marie Antoinette with the affair of the diamond necklace, "Let them eat cake!" and the onset of the French Revolution. The French queen and her royal husband, Louis XVI, were guillotined in 1793, 10 months apart. But her colorful life also included a possible clandestine love affair with a Swedish count, and historians have been diligently working to decipher the surviving letters between the two for years.

 

The letters were cyphered, as was the custom at the time for politically sensitive correspondence. Fifteen of the surviving letters in the collection of the French National Archives also have significant portions redacted, amounting to some 108 illegible lines in all. Thanks to cutting-edge x-ray imaging techniques and data processing methods, the redacted portions of eight of those letters have finally been revealed, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances. The research is a collaboration between the National Archives, the French Museum of Natural History, and the Fondation de France.

 

Marie Antoinette and Count Hans Axel von Fersen of Sweden met as teenagers at a masquerade ball, when she was still Dauphine of France, and he became a frequent visitor to Versailles thereafter. Her royal husband famously proved unable to consummate the marriage for the first seven years.

 

Some speculated that Louis XVI had a medical condition that made it difficult to perform, but the queen's brother, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, concluded during a visit that it was primarily due to the king's inexperience and the queen's lack of interest.  He described the pair as "complete bumblers," and as for the young king—let's just say that the emperor's letters home included very frank references to what is currently making the social media rounds as the Mormon practice of "soaking."

 

Eventually the couple figured things out and Marie Antoinette went on to have four children, only one of whom lived to adulthood. But by then rumors were already swirling about her supposed infidelity, and von Fersen was among her rumored lovers. (Other candidates included the Duc d'Orleans and the Comte d'Artois.) They were certainly quite close. In 1780 von Fersen requested a transfer to America, as an aide-de-camp to General Rochambeau, and fought valiantly at the Siege of Yorktown. Eventually he returned to France as a Swedish ambassador to Versailles, and became part of the queen's private inner circle.

 

When the French Revolution ignited, the royal family were placed under house arrest at the Tuileries Palace in 1791. The ever-loyal von Fersen helped devise the botched escape plan that resulted in the royals being recaptured in Varennes before they reached a safe haven. It was during this period that the queen and the count exchanged the letters now housed in France's National Archives.

 

Von Fersen was in Brussels when he heard the news that Marie Antoinette had been executed, pronouncing himself "devastated" and "tortured" by the thought that she might have doubted his attachment to her. He survived the Revolution but also suffered a violent death: He was beaten to death by a Swedish mob who thought he was among those responsible for the demise of the Swedish Crown Prince. (He wasn't).

The ability to finally read the redacted portions of those letters could help researchers decipher other censored or defaced historical documents. Studying fragile ancient artifacts with cutting-edge, non-invasive imaging technology has become a powerful tool for unlocking the secrets of the past. As we've reported previously, back in 2016, an international team of scientists developed a method for "virtually unrolling" the badly damaged En Gedi scroll  found on the western shore of the Dead Sea, revealing the first few verses from the book of Leviticus.

 

In 2019, a team of German scientists used a combination of cutting-edge physics techniques to virtually "unfold" an ancient Egyptian papyrus, part of an extensive collection housed in the Berlin Egyptian Museum. Their analysis revealed that a seemingly blank patch on the papyrus actually contained characters written in what had become "invisible ink" after centuries of exposure to light. In 2020, micro CT imaging enabled researchers to conduct a virtual postmortem on the remains of a mummified Egyptian cat. 

 

Earlier this year, we reported that scientists had used multispectral imaging on four supposedly blank Dead Sea Scrolls and found the scrolls contained hidden text, most likely a passage from the book of Ezekiel. Researchers have also used x-ray tomography to virtually "unlock" a 17th century letter sealed with an intricate folding method known as "letterlocking," a type of physical cryptography, to safeguard the contents from prying eyes.

 

So when Fabien Pottier and several colleagues at the Museum of Natural History's Research Center for the Conservation of Collections (CRCC) took on the task of uncovering the censored portions of letters between Marie Antoinette and von Fersen, they naturally turned to similar techniques. The challenge was to disentangle the ink used for the original text from the ink used to black it out. So the first stage of the project involved testing various potential techniques that might be capable of distinguishing between the physical or chemical properties of the different inks, to see if one could achieve sufficient contrast to disentangle them.

 

Hyperspectral imaging in the visible and near-infrared ranges initially seemed promising. Unfortunately, the black redaction ink absorbed almost all light in the visible range, and in the NIR range, the two inks were rendered largely transparent. They were too similar to draw any conclusive results. Pottier and his collaborators got the best results with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy in a microscanning mode, and their preliminary analysis revealed that all the letters (and redactions) were written with metal-gall ink. The metal component is predominantly iron, but other metals can sneak in as impurities during preparation of the ink (copper and zinc, for example). These can provide a signature of sorts to help researchers differentiate between different inks.

The XRF imaging yielded helpful elemental maps, but the team still needed to employ some customized imaging processing and other strategies in specific cases to read the redacted text—included instances where redacted passages were written on both sides of the paper. Thus far, Pottier et al. have been able to "de-censor" eight of the 15 redacted letters.

 

As for the remaining seven redacted letters, "All the methodological tools that are presented failed at recovering any of the censored writings," the authors wrote. "In these cases, both inks (redaction and underlying text) seem to have similar compositions, making it impossible to read the redacted passages by the data processing described in this article."

 

But they were able to conclude that von Fersen himself likely censored the letters, and that the queen's letters to von Fersen were actually copies made by the count (a common practice at the time). "He decided to keep his letters instead of destroying them, but redacting some sections, indicating that he wanted to protect the honor of the queen (or maybe also for his own interests)," the authors wrote. "These redactions are a way to identify the passages that he considered to be private."

 

While scholars are still transcribing all of the once-redacted paragraphs, one such letter, written by Fersen and dated October 10-12, 1791, contained the phrase "Goodbye my good friend, I will never stop worshipping you." There are many examples of similar vocabulary in the letters ("beloved," "tender friend," "adore," "madly") that hint of a passionate attachment, but the authors are careful not to hypothesize beyond the evidence.

 

"To read under the censorship does not make it possible to know the truth about the nature of their feelings as the interpretation of texts is always questionable," they wrote. "But for the historian, this correspondence remains a precious testimony of a troubled time, and of the way in which the tragic political events influence the transformation of the emotions and the exacerbation of the feelings visible, in particular in the personal writings here in these redaction sections."

 

DOI: Science Advances, 2021. 10.1126/sciadv.abg4266  (About DOIs).

X-rays reveal censored portions of Marie Antoinette’s letters to Swedish count

The study is the largest ever undertaken of its kind in Europe. Data has now been collected from 44,689 adults from 27 European countries, including all countries from the European Union as well as the UK, Norway and Switzerland.

Preliminary findings show that among 21,401 members of the general population, 47.9% of people 18 years of age or older self-reported at least one skin condition. On average, those people affected declared a median of two skin diseases.

Projecting these figures to the total NEUKS (Norway, European Union, UK and Switzerland) population of 408M inhabitants aged 18 years shows that more than 195M adults in Europe self-reported at least one skin condition.

The most common skin conditions among those surveyed is fungal skin infection, affecting almost 1 in 10 people (9.07%). Other common conditions, each affecting more than 1 in 20 people, were atopic dermatitis (eczema) (5.34%), alopecia (5.22%), and acne (5.49%). Furthermore, skin symptoms / unpleasant skin sensations including tightness and itch as a specific consultation request were reported by 20% of people 18 years of age or older.

Before EADV undertook this study, little was known about the prevalence of skin diseases in the general population across Europe. In addition, there is a lack of solid, objective and homogeneous data at the European level on the quality-of-life impact of skin diseases, including stigmatization, or on the perception of and access to dermatologists.

The EADV therefore commissioned an adult population-based survey—The Burden of Skin Disease in Europe—to:

• Evaluate the prevalence of dermatologic or venereological conditions across Europe

• Understand the reasons for consulting a dermatologist; the impact of skin conditions on patients; the public perception of skin conditions; skin disease care pathways; prescribed treatment; and confidence in dermatologists

"As the leading European organization in dermato-venereology, the EADV is taking on an important role in determining the prevalence and impact of skin disease across Europe," says Marie-Aleth Richard, Professor at the University Hospital of La Timone, Marseille and the EADV Board Member leading the survey. "The fact that one in two people across Europe live with skin disease on a daily basis makes the skin the most affected organ in the body and as an organization we are therefore committed to making skin disease a public health priority."

Following the Congress, the Academy plans to fully analyze the data and submit the initial findings to JEADV for potential publication before rolling out further results from the survey over the next several months.

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If cleared, the drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major step forward in global efforts to control the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

A pill that could be taken at home, by contrast, could keep many patients out of the hospital, easing the workload on strained health care professionals. It could also help curb outbreaks in lower-income countries that don’t have access to the more expensive infusion therapies.

Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease. The results have not been peer reviewed by outside experts, the usual procedure for vetting new medical research.

Among patients taking molnupiravir, 7.3% were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days, compared with 14.1% of those getting the dummy pill. There were no deaths in the drug group after that time period compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, according to Merck.

An independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so strong. That is typical when early results show so clearly that a treatment works that there is no need for further testing before applying for authorization.

Company executives said they plan to submit the data for review by the Food and Drug Administration in coming days.

Once the submission is complete, the FDA could make a decision within weeks — and, if OK’d, the drug could be on the market soon after. Merck only studied its drug in people who were not vaccinated. But FDA regulators may consider authorizing it for broader use in vaccinated patients who get COVID-19 symptoms.

“It exceeded what I thought the drug might be able to do in this clinical trial,” said Dr. Dean Li, vice president of Merck Research Laboratories. “When you see a 50% reduction in hospitalization or death that’s a substantial clinical impact.”

Patients take eight pills per day for five days. Side effects were reported by both groups in the Merck trial, but they were slightly more common among the group that received a dummy pill. The company did not specify the problems.

Earlier study results showed the drug did not benefit patients who were already hospitalized with severe disease.

The U.S. has approved one antiviral drug, remdesivir, specifically for COVID-19, and allowed emergency use of three antibody therapies that help the immune system fight the virus. But all the drugs have to given by IV or injection at hospitals or medical clinics, and supplies have been stretched by the latest surge of the delta variant.

Health experts including the top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci have long called for a convenient pill that patients could take when COVID-19 symptoms first appear, much the way the standard flu medication Tamiflu helps fight influenza. Such medications are seen as key to controlling future waves of infection and reducing the impact of the pandemic.

Vaccines remain the most effective way of protecting against COVID-19, but effective drugs are critical given that billions of people around the world remain unvaccinated.

Merck’s pill works by interfering with the coronavirus’s ability to copy its genetic code and reproduce itself. It has shown similar activity against other viruses.

The U.S. government has committed to purchase 1.7 million doses of the drug if it is authorized by the FDA. Merck has said it can produce 10 million doses by the end of the year and has contracts with governments worldwide. The company has not announced prices.

Several other companies, including Pfizer and Roche, are studying similar drugs that could report results in the coming weeks and months.

Merck had planned to enroll more than 1,500 patients in its late-stage trial before the independent board stopped it early. The results reported Friday included patients enrolled across Latin America, Europe and Africa. Executives estimated about 10% of patients studied were from the U.S.

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This story has been updated to correct that patients take eight pills per day, not two.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Also:  Covid antiviral pill halves hospitalisations and deaths, maker says  &  Merck's Covid pill hailed after cutting hospitalizations by 50%.

A New York realty firm is caught in a battle between brick-and-mortar department store Macy's and e-commerce goliath Amazon.

At issue is the 2,200-square-foot wrap-around billboard adjacent to Macy's flagship store in Herald Square, where the retailer has advertised for nearly 60 years.

Since 1963, Kaufman Realty has been bound by a restrictive covenant, which prohibits the firm from allowing a Macy's competitor (i.e. Amazon) to advertise on the billboard. Six decades (and four original agreement amendments) later, the three-story display has been temporarily abandoned.

According to a complaint filed last week with the New York State Court, Macy's learned in May that Kaufman was in talks with a "prominent online retailer" about renting the high-visibility space. "There was little doubt that [they were] talking about Amazon," the document said.

"The damages to Macy's customer goodwill, image, reputation, and brand, should a 'prominent online retailer' (especially, Amazon) advertise on the billboard are impossible to calculate," Macy's claimed, adding that its online business "grows every year" and online retailers are "direct competitors."

Macy's right to advertise on the 2,200 square-foot billboard—a bonafide New York City landmark—expired on Aug. 31, 2021. Now the department store wants the court to officially declare the restrictive covenant "is in effect, valid, and enforceable," and that Kaufman Realty (and any successor) may not use the placard to advertise with any other merchant.

Even before the global pandemic, Macy's, like many brick-and-mortar retailers, has been systematically closing stores and laying off or shifting employees. Last year, the company shuttered its Cincinnati headquarters and consolidated operations in New York City.

Neither Macy's nor Amazon immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment.

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According to HaveIBeenPwned.com, a website that tracks data breaches around the world, 11.5 billion online accounts have been affected by breaches since 2007. But which online accounts are people worried about the most?

RouterNetwork surveyed 1,007 Americans and found that 54% were worried about their Facebook accounts, the highest percentage of any service. It's followed by Instagram (43%), financial accounts (33%), Amazon (28%), and email (24%). Broken down by generation, it becomes clear that younger people worry more about their social media accounts than bank accounts or work accounts.

The survey shows that 56% of millennials worry most about Facebook, and 45% worry most about Instagram. Meanwhile, 44% of baby boomers worry most about financial accounts. And 13% of boomers also worry about work accounts, compared with just 7% of millennials and Gen Xers.

It's easy to conclude that young people care less about their personal financial data and more about their social media presence, but maybe that's not really what's happening—31% of millennials are still worried about their bank accounts, while 41% of boomers are also worried about their Facebook accounts. It should also be noted that Facebook has had the most users affected—2.2 billion—by breaches over the last 20 years, which may account for some of the concern.

The RouterNetwork survey found that 63% of respondents were involved in a previous breach, and another 8% weren't sure if they had been affected. Add to that 64% of respondents thinking their data is likely to be leaked in the future, and it's easy to see how social media users would worry about their Facebook data, even if it's not the most "important" data.

While you can't prevent a data breach from happening, you can take actions when your data has been exposed. In the interim, you can work on making your data more secure.

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The claim was made in court, as Google made its case to appeal against a €4.3bn ($5bn) fine from the European Union for abusing its market power.

The EU accused Google of using Android's success in the smartphone market to make Google the default search engine.

But Google says its service is simply the most popular.

"We have submitted evidence showing that the most common search query on Bing is, by far, 'Google'," lawyer Alfonso Lamadrid told the EU General Court, as first reported by Bloomberg. "People use Google because they choose to, not because they are forced to.

"Google's market share in general search is consistent with consumer surveys showing that 95% of users prefer Google to rival search engines."

Google's argument users choose its services is a key part of its appeal to the record 2018 fine.

At the time, Google boss Sundar Pichai blogged Android "has created more choice for everyone, not less".

But Margrethe Vestager, then the EU's Competition Commissioner, said Google had made Android manufacturers pre-install its search app and Chrome web browser - and paid some to make it the only pre-installed app - meaning only 1% of people downloaded a different search app.

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The Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 was directed into the midst of Hurricane Sam, a category 4 hurricane, which is currently on a path that fortunately will miss the U.S. east coast.  SD1045 is battling 50 foot waves and winds of over 120 mph to collect critical scientific data and, in the process, is giving us a completely new view of one of earth’s most destructive forces.

Equipped with a specially designed “hurricane wing,” enabling it to operate in extreme wind conditions, SD 1045 is braving Hurricane Sam in the open ocean, collecting real-time observations for numerical hurricane prediction models, which are expected to yield new insights into how large and destructive tropical cyclones grow and intensify.

SD 1045 is one of a fleet of five ‘hurricane’ Saildrones that have been operating in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season, gathering data around the clock to help understand the physical processes of hurricanes. This knowledge is critical to improving storm forecasting and is expected to reduce loss of human life by allowing better preparedness in coastal communities.

“Saildrone is going where no research vessel has ever ventured, sailing right into the eye of the hurricane, gathering data that will transform our understanding of these powerful storms,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO. “After conquering the Arctic and Southern Ocean, hurricanes were the last frontier for Saildrone survivability. We are proud to have engineered a vehicle capable of operating in the most extreme weather conditions on earth.”

The Saildrones provide data directly to NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Saildrone’s partners in this mission.

“Using data collected by saildrones, we expect to improve forecast models that predict rapid intensification of hurricanes,” said Greg Foltz, a NOAA scientist. “Rapid intensification, when hurricane winds strengthen in a matter of hours, is a serious threat to coastal communities. New data from saildrones and other uncrewed systems that NOAA is using will help us better predict the forces that drive hurricanes and be able to warn communities earlier.”

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Any mechanical motion deforms the device, such as squishing, stretching, twisting.

Liquid metal encased in hydrogel makes a promising energy-harvesting device

And then this month, at age 105, Primetta Giacopini’s life ended the way it began — in a pandemic.

“I think my mother would have been around quite a bit longer” if she hadn’t contracted COVID,” her 61-year-old daughter, Dorene Giacopini, said.

“She was a fighter. She had a hard life and her attitude always was ... basically, all Americans who were not around for World War II were basically spoiled brats.”

Primetta Giacopini’s mother, Pasquina Fei, died in Connecticut of the flu in 1918 at age 25. That flu pandemic killed about 675,000 Americans — a death toll eclipsed this month by the 2020-21 coronavirus pandemic.

Primetta was 2 years old when her mother died. Her father, a laborer, didn’t want to raise Primetta or her younger sister, Alice. He sent Alice back to Italy, their ancestral homeland, and handed Primetta to an Italian foster family that then relocated to Italy in 1929.

“The way Mom talked about it, he didn’t want to raise those kids alone, and men didn’t do that at that time,” Dorene recalled. “It’s ridiculous to me.”

Primetta supported herself by working as a seamstress. Raven-haired with dark eyes and sharp features, she eventually fell in love with an Italian fighter pilot named Vittorio Andriani.

“I didn’t see too much of him because he was always fighting someplace,” Primetta told the Golden Gate Wing, a military aviation club in Oakland, California, in 2008.

Italy entered World War II in June 1940. The local police warned Primetta to leave because Mussolini wanted American citizens out of the country. Primetta refused. Several weeks later, the state police told her to get out, warning her that she could end up in a concentration camp.

In June 1941, Andriani was missing in action; Primetta learned later that he had crashed and died near Malta. While he was missing, she joined a group of strangers making their way out of Italy on a train to Portugal.

“In Spain, one can still see, after 2-3 years, the traces of the atrocities of the past,” Primetta wrote in a letter to a friend in the midst of her flight. “At Port Bou, the Spanish border, not one house is left standing; everting got destroyed because the town is an important train transit point that brought supplies to the “Reds”, the enemy . . . I’ve seen so much destruction that I’ve had enough. The day after tomorrow, I get on the ship, and I’m sure all will go well.”

In Lisbon she boarded a steamer bound for the United States. She returned to Torrington, bought a Chevrolet sedan for $500 and landed a job at a General Motors plant in Bristol grinding steel to cover ball bearings for the war effort. She met her husband, Umbert “Bert” Giacopini, on the job. They stayed married until he died in 2002.

Primetta gave birth to Dorene in 1960 and received devastating news: The infant had been born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal cord doesn’t fully develop. For the first 50 years of her life, Dorene needed crutches to walk. Worried that Dorene would slip during Connecticut’s winters, the family moved to San Jose in 1975.

“My folks were born a long time ago,” she said. “Their attitude about disability, and my mother’s attitude about disability, was it was lucky I was smart and I should get a good job I really liked because I probably wouldn’t be getting married or have children. They did not take parenting classes.”

But Primatta was “pushy,” Dorene said, and never stopped fighting for her.

She once convinced school officials to move accelerated classes from the third floor of Dorene’s school to the first floor so Dorene could participate. During the springs in Connecticut, she demanded that city sweepers clear their street of salt and sand so Dorene wouldn’t slip.

This year, during a visit on Sept. 9, Dorene noticed her mother was coughing. She knew her mother’s caretaker had been feeling sick after her husband returned from a wedding in Idaho. All three had been vaccinated. But as she drove away, Dorene guessed that her mother had contracted COVID-19.

“I made sure we said ‘I love you.’” She did the ‘See you later, alligator.’ I think we both said ‘After a while, crocodile,’” Dorene said. “That was the last time I saw her.”

Two days later, Primetta was in the emergency room. Her oxygen levels dropped steadily over the next six days until nurses had to put an oxygen mask on her.

She became confused and fought them so hard she had to be sedated, Dorene said. Chest X-rays told the story: pneumonia. Faced with a decision of whether to put Primetta on a ventilator — “They said nobody over 80 makes it off a ventilator,” Dorene said — she decided to remove her mother’s oxygen.

Primetta died two days later, on Sept. 16. She was 105 years old.

“She had such a strong heart that she remained alive for more than 24 hours after they removed the oxygen,” Dorene said. “I’m full of maybes, what I should have done with the ventilator . . . (but) it broke through three vaccinated people.”

She added: “I’m reminding myself that she was 105. We always talk about ... my grandmother and mother, the only thing that could kill them was a worldwide pandemic.”

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* 98% cases in Sydney and Melbourne out of Australia's 2,400

* Federal govt to wind down emergency business payments (Adds quote from Victoria premier, details of cases)

SYDNEY, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Melbourne's COVID-19 cases surged to record levels on Thursday with officials blaming illegal home gatherings to watch a key sporting event for the spike as a hard lockdown to combat the spread of the Delta variant neared two months.

Authorities in Victoria, home to Melbourne, estimated nearly a third of Thursday's 1,438 new infections could be traced back to home parties last weekend to watch the Australian Rules Football Grand Final on television.

"Many of these cases were completely avoidable ... I'm not trying to blame anyone, I'm simply trying to explain because a lot of people will be scratching their heads - how could it have gone up by so much, so fast," state Premier Daniel Andrews said during a media briefing.

Officials admitted Thursday's numbers, a 50% jump to Wednesday's 950 cases, is a "major setback" in managing the flare-up, as they race to vaccinate the state's 5.5 million adult population.

Half of the state's population above 16 have received their first dose, below the national average of 53%, as officials halved the intervals between Pfizer shots in state-run vaccine hubs to three weeks after supplies rose.

Australia's largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and the capital Canberra are in a weeks-long lockdown to combat a third wave of infections fuelled by the fast-moving Delta variant. Authorities have ditched a COVID-zero strategy and are looking at higher vaccination as their exit strategy from lockdowns.

A total of 941 new cases were reported in New South Wales on Thursday, the majority in state capital Sydney, while Queensland recorded six and the Australian Capital Territory 31 infections.

EASING FINANCIAL SUPPORT

The record cases in Victoria come as the federal government on Thursday decided to phase out its emergency financial support for businesses impacted by the lockdowns, in line with its plan to end support to virus-impacted employees.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the temporary payments will stop once 80% of the adult population in states and territories becomes fully vaccinated.

But Victoria's businesses will receive a fresh A$2.27 billion ($1.65 billion) support from the federal government through the next six weeks at which point the state should hit that dosage target, from around 50% now.

"We can't eliminate the virus, we need to learn to live with it in a COVID-safe way", Frydenberg said in a statement.

The federal government decision to wind down support payments, shared equally between states and Canberra, will put pressure on virus-free states to keep their economies open and avoid lockdowns to fight future outbreaks.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been pressing all states and territories to begin living with the virus once full inoculations reach 70%-80% but Queensland and Western Australia, largely COVID-free, flagged they may delay their reopening.

Despite the latest Delta outbreaks, total cases in Australia stand at around 105,000 and deaths at 1,291, well below other comparable nations.

Eleven new deaths were recorded in the country.

($1 = 1.3778 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Renju Jose; additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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Students constantly hear from their parents, coaches, and teachers that the decisions they make and the grades they attain in high school will dictate how the rest of their lives go. It’s a slippery slope, and often told as a cautionary tale. “If you don’t get an A+, you won’t get into the college you want, and then you’ll never land your dream job!”

While all of that may be somewhat true to a certain extent, that’s an incredible amount of pressure to place on a 15 or 16 year-old’s shoulders.

“High academic achievement is lauded and celebrated across the globe,” says lead study author Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt in a university release.

“Doing well in high school is linked to future academic opportunities like attending university, which increases job prospects and earnings. There is a lot on the line and teens are feeling the pressure. What is not clear, however, is whether there is a dark side to high academic achievement, and this was the focus of our research.”

The drive for perfection gets worse with age

Study authors tracked 604 Canadian teens from seventh to 12th grade and looked to examine both the relationship and typical sequence of events between academic achievement and perfectionism. Researchers defined perfectionism as a “maladaptive personality style” involving self-imposed high standards that have a link to the development of anxiety and depression.

That analysis led to the troubling conclusion that most if not all teens who consistently achieve very good grades end up developing an unhealthy degree of perfectionism as well. Across the board, researchers say good grades predicted higher perfectionism. So, if a student achieves great grades in the seventh grade, they will likely show greater perfectionism in the eighth grade, which leads to strong grades in high school, and on and on.

“Although achieving good grades seems fine on the surface, its link to increased perfectionism is worrisome because high perfectionism often leads to higher academic burnout, lower school engagement, and lower semester GPA in the long run, as well as increased anxiety and depression,” Dr. Vaillancourt adds. “As much as it feels good to do well and be praised for it, youth need to accept that achieving perfection is not possible. It is important for them to understand that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and that is what makes us human.”

Remember that no one is perfect

Study authors say it’s important for the adults in a teen’s life to remind them that no one is perfect and academic perfection isn’t realistic. In other words, foster an environment of self-acceptance, not self-loathing.

“Avoid putting pressure on youth to be perfect and instead acknowledge their successes, even the little ones, as well as their effort. Also, work to counteract ‘all-or-nothing’ thinking (i.e., standards are either met or not met). Not attaining perfection does not mean one is a failure,” Dr. Vaillancourt concludes.

The study appears in the International Journal of Behavioral Development.

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When Teiranni Kidd walked into Springhill Medical Center on July 16, 2019, to have her baby, she had no idea the Alabama hospital was deep in the midst of a ransomware attack.

For nearly eight days, computers had been disabled on every floor. A real-time wireless tracker that could locate medical staff around the hospital was down. Years of patient health records were inaccessible. And at the nurses’ desk in the labor and delivery unit, medical staff were cut off from the equipment that monitors fetal heartbeats in the 12 delivery rooms.

Doctors and nurses in the unit texted each other with updates. “We have no computer charting for I don’t know how long,” one manager informed a nurse in a message later filed in court. “They are printing out the labs in the laboratory and sending them by paper,” another worker wrote. One overwhelmed nurse texted, “I want to run away.”

Ms. Kidd’s daughter, Nicko Silar, was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The condition triggers warning signs on the heart monitor when the squeezed cord cuts off the supply of blood and oxygen to the fetus. Nicko was diagnosed with severe brain damage. She died nine months later.

Amid the hack, fewer eyes were on the heart monitors—normally tracked on a large screen at the nurses’ station, in addition to inside the delivery room. Attending obstetrician Katelyn Parnell texted the nurse manager that she would have delivered the baby by caesarean section had she seen the monitor readout. “I need u to help me understand why I was not notified.” In another text, Dr. Parnell wrote: “This was preventable.”

Screenshots of texts between obstetrician Katelyn Parnell and the nurse manager, and between Dr. Parnell and another colleague, submitted as evidence in the lawsuit.

Ms. Kidd has sued Springhill, alleging information about the baby’s condition never made it to Dr. Parnell because the hack wiped away the extra layer of scrutiny the heart rate monitor would have received at the nurses’ station. If proven in court, the case will mark the first confirmed death from a ransomware attack.

The hospital denies any wrongdoing. In an emailed statement to The Wall Street Journal, Springhill CEO Jeffrey St. Clair said the hospital handled the attack appropriately: “We stayed open and our dedicated healthcare workers continued to care for our patients because the patients needed us and we, along with the independent treating physicians who exercised their privileges at the hospital, concluded it was safe to do so.”

Dr. Parnell, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, didn’t respond to detailed requests for comment. In a court filing, Dr. Parnell said that she had been aware of the cyberattack, but “believed Ms. Kidd could safely deliver her baby at Springhill” at the time she was admitted.

The hospital is arguing in a motion that any obligation to inform Ms. Kidd about the hack fell on Dr. Parnell, who has not yet responded to that motion.

Ms. Kidd declined an interview request through her attorneys, citing the pending litigation.

A decade ago, ransomware was a novelty in the cybercrime world—a nuisance for consumers and small businesses that often cost victims a few hundred dollars. Today, U.S. authorities are alarmed at the rising sophistication of ransomware operators, who have taken in hundreds of millions of dollars while causing major outages for transportation systems, gas pipelines and other critical infrastructure. The security firm Recorded Future estimates that there were about 65,000 incidents world-wide last year.

Hospitals have increasingly become targets, with hackers betting that executives will pay quickly to restore lifesaving technology—adding even more pressure to healthcare providers already strained by the pandemic. In May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that ongoing ransomware attacks on medical providers and first responders were putting the public in danger and risked delays in medical care.

Springhill declined to name the hackers, but Allan Liska, a senior intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, said it was likely the Russian-based Ryuk gang, which was singling out hospitals at the time.

The Journal reported in June that Ryuk had attacked at least 235 general hospitals and inpatient psychiatric facilities, plus dozens of other healthcare facilities in the U.S., since 2018. Ryuk ransomware collected at least $100 million in ransom payments last year, according to the bitcoin analysis firm Chainalysis. The group’s average ransom demand is just under $700,000, according to ransomware negotiation firm Coveware. The hackers sign their ransom notes with the image of a fictional death god, Ryuk, from a Japanese graphics novel, giving them their name. Inquiries from the Journal to email addresses used in some of the Ryuk attacks went unanswered.

Teiranni Kidd

So far, no deaths have been definitively linked to a hospital attack. However, a statistical analysis by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency found evidence that ransomware can lead to dire consequences for hospitals, said Joshua Corman, a senior adviser for the agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

“We can see that a cyberattack can strain you enough to contribute to excess deaths,” he said.

At Springhill, the hospital refused to pay the ransom when the hackers struck on July 8, 2019, according to a spokesman. He declined to say how much the hackers wanted.

Instead, the hospital raced to contain the damage by shutting down the network and scrambling workarounds used for brief outages. It carried on with its normal patient load during the outage, which stretched on for at least three weeks. The hospital said it was ultimately able to return its systems to service without paying the ransom.

At first, staffers were largely in the dark about what was going on, according to three former medical workers who were there during the attack. Employees arrived to find vague notes taped to their computers saying the hospital’s medical records system, called Sunrise, was down until further notice, according to a former Springhill resident nurse.

“I heard it was Ransomware,” one doctor wrote in a message submitted as evidence in the case by the plaintiffs. “May be a very extended problem.”

< View the video at the source page. >

Ransomware attacks are increasing in frequency, victim losses are skyrocketing, and hackers are shifting their targets. WSJ’s Dustin Volz explains why these attacks are on the rise and what the U.S. can do to fight them. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann

Tasks that were previously automated, such as recording vital signs, were suddenly arduous and unfamiliar, particularly for younger nursing staff who had never worked without modern technology, according to two workers at the time.

In the medical imaging departments, radiologists peered into the cramped screens attached to scanning equipment because the dedicated workstations with high-resolution monitors they normally used to examine CT scans and MRIs were down.

In anesthesiology, the absence of medical records “put lives at risk,” said Jeffrey Planchard, an anesthesiologist who worked at Springhill during the outage and now works at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago. “Having access to previous anesthesiology records is crucial. What kind of airway are you looking at? What kind of allergies that they may or may not remember?” he said.

The hospital didn’t say anything about an attack at first, saying instead, in response to an inquiry from a local TV news broadcast, that it had experienced a “network event” that had “not affected patient care.” A week later it acknowledged in another press statement that it had suffered a security incident.

That was the same day that Ms. Kidd was admitted.

An ultrasound a week earlier had shown no troubling signs for the pregnancy, according to the lawsuit, but an increase in her blood pressure worried doctors enough to schedule her to be induced in Springhill’s labor and delivery unit. Ms. Kidd didn’t know about the attack when she entered the hospital, according to her lawsuit.

With the computer systems out, nurses in the second-floor maternity ward had to start keeping handwritten paper records. Older staffers tutored their younger colleagues on paper charting, including hand-drawing graphs showing patients’ vital signs.

The lack of central monitoring of the delivery rooms was harder to work around. Normally, vital signs were displayed in real time on a large monitor at the nurses’ station, which a half-dozen nurses and doctors closely track for complications, such as potentially troubling patterns in the fetal heart rate. But those monitors were dark.

“Usually the nurses will instinctively just look at the monitor most of the day, and if anything concerning comes up, they’ll go check on that room,” Dr. Planchard said. A major concern: whether the fetus is getting enough blood and oxygen through the umbilical cord.

To work around the outage, nursing staff put patients in the rooms closest to the nurses’ station and turned up the volume on their bedside fetal heart monitors, according to Dr. Planchard and the former Springhill nurse. Those monitors also spooled out paper showing the rate of the heart beat. The hospital said nurses were instructed to stay in or near their patients’ rooms at all times.

About an hour before the birth, the strip of paper from the monitor recorded clear signals the fetus was in distress, including an abnormally fast heart rate, the lawsuit says.

Monitors on the wall displayed fetal heartbeats at the nurses’ station for Springhill’s delivery unit in 2015.
PHOTO: FRANK MODARELLI/ENVISIA360

Because an entangled umbilical cord can cut off the supply of blood and oxygen to the fetus, the condition can be accompanied by an abnormal increase to the heart rate on the monitor as the heart tries to compensate, according to nurses who specialize in obstetrics and newborns. Doctors commonly opt to deliver by C-section when they grow concerned by an increased heart rate or other signals of conditions that could cause brain injury.

It couldn’t be determined if the attending nurse noticed the baby’s rising heart rate, and if so, how it was interpreted. What is clear is that the ransomware outage left only one set of eyes on the monitor.

“If that nurse didn’t recognize it, it would have gone unnoticed,” said Dr. Planchard, who said he was often in the delivery unit to administer epidural anesthesia during the ransomware attack.

At 11:23 a.m., Ms. Kidd’s baby, Nicko, was born unresponsive, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

On a test of infant health done repeatedly minutes after birth, Nicko scored 0’s and 1’s out of 10, the lawsuit says. A “code blue” was called, where healthcare workers resuscitated the baby, who was soon transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit at a nearby hospital.

She had to be fed intravenously and required medication “around the clock,” according to the lawsuit. She was diagnosed with significant brain damage.

The day after the delivery, the nurse manager said in a text to Dr. Parnell that she was examining the heart monitor’s printout for “what we missed or if we could have called sooner.” Dr. Parnell wrote that, had she known what the strip recorded earlier, she would have C-sectioned Ms. Kidd.

Ms. Kidd filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Mobile County in January 2020, and amended it after her daughter died in April of last year. Trial is set for November 2022.

A truck outside Springhill in July.
PHOTO: NICOLE CRAINE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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