Category Archives: Anatomy

Anatomy

The Anatomy of Loneliness – Modern Diplomacy

Youre the star signs of a fortunate man in realms. I wont fly into you again. You wont come around like clockwork on a Sunday evening. I think I love you. You never say the same. So, I guess thats my answer then. Wish me luck. Wish you luck.Im a flame. Im a flame in a pantomime. Look out for the sleeping satellite. Souls are like the rooms in a mansion. Youre

gone into the arms of another woman. Your skin is like velvet, but taste like regret. Guess this is goodbye. Or just a veil. Ive romanced you. Youve seduced me. Im learning thatIm a celestial. Youre free. I thought wedbe together forever. Youre nearly a married man, my friend. Could have been me. But would we have been happy? I could never have given you the children you wanted.

I know you would have been satisfied with one. Sleeping with her, your muse, shes fallen. Goodbye mysterious lover. Goodbye never boyfriend. Goodbye for never given you areal chance at loving me. Again, Im dying inside. Whatever this is, I look within. I say goodbye with my head held high. Guess I wont be invited to the wedding, or, the wedding reception. Too much history there. Here. In the dark. Goodbye, old friend. To your new life. We wont be sharing anything together any more.I thought you always were half-ashamed of me. Didnt know we could have spent eternity together. So much wasted potential, so much pain. Ill always understand you. You me. I wish you and your future wife all the gladness and happiness in the world. It wont be with me. So much wasted time. I let the years go by. You were loved. Take that with you. You were cherished friend once. Now youre in love. Dont return my phone calls. Youre free. I understand everything now. Look at me. My smile stays on while my heart is breaking. Nobody wants to love wretched me. Let go.Im already gone. Faded into memory. Dont speak. Dont speak. You do that so well, so well.I will always love you. That is all I am taking with me. Tears and joy. And the despair of loneliness.

We want the same thing. Just not with each other. We desire other people to fill those hours.

You dont love me in the way I need to be loved. You see, I want a man who deserves me.You want a woman who deserves you, and who fits your high profile. Im not the one. Im not the one.If I was, youd be here now, not in hiding. Shell be your wife. Shell be your wife, and it cuts like a knife. I had feelings for you once, once. Ive surrendered you to the universe. It gave you a wife. You never came around all that often anyway. Youre feeling good. Im feeling the blues. Your wife is your hope now. Your hands. Im no superwoman. Dont even have a man to call my own. No one to love. Those days are long gone. No one. No one like the one I love. Ive gone the distance. Followed my heart. Tell you something. Must be karma. They say, read the books your father read. I waste time. I waste time. When I do, I cry.I dont need a shield for that. To display emotion. Im more together now than Ive ever been. Im letting go. Im saying good bye.Youre still beautiful to me. This morning the love of my life said that she didnt care for me, to listen to me. Perhaps sisters are like that. I dont love the men anymore. Theyve gone to the cemetery of the mind. Im not ashamed of anything Ive done. I dont have any regrets. I never started a war. Conflict makes my blood boil. Once I was under his spell,but he never chose me. Did not love me. He wanted to hide me away from the world. Your sad songs stopped my heart. They kill me now. I tried to fall in love, I failed, but Im wiser now. I tried to teach him that I was hurt too, but he walked right on by, said goodbye.

I wanted to say, please dont go, but he didnt give me a chance. He just made me wise. Dont dedicate anything to me, he said. Im not that kind of person. Did Einstein have fangs like me, did he love like me? For sure science stopped his heart like it does me. You were always there.I am in space dementia, my collective soul feeling megalomaniac. Ive been bruised black and blue.I have been wounded, eyes on fire with no cash.Time has all the answers, whether you want to decode the moon, the planets, the sun, or just want to love, fall in love, leave a lover. My lungs are made of iron, and flightless bird. I want it all.I want everything. Who will I love eventually? Who will love me for a lifetime, an eternity? Im tired of waiting. It feels like Ive been waiting forever. There are micro cuts on my fake heart. Say that you will love me anyway. Hes gone.And all I want to be is where the boys are, the guys. The older men with their ways, premium brand of cigarettes. Take me up there all the time. Take me.Take me to the museum. Take me to the muscle museum. Teach me to love him. Teach me to care for him. To bury my secrets deep. Encore. Nothing like love to heal the broken-hearted. Encore, after encore. Im falling like a flightless bird. A flightless little bird, scared-shitless, yet still flying.

And I still believe in freedom, you know that.Youre king. Your land is king. Your ocean-sea isking. Together we go. Im going to make a mistake. Im going to get gone. No one loves me in this place. Waiting for someone to save me is a useless exercise. It kills me to say this that nobody loves me like I do. That I matter like nuclear energy to no one. Im priceless. Love me for me. No ones around. So, I walk alone. Always on my own.No more hurt now. Only triumph. No more trials. Step back wolf. Dont embrace me. Im a ghost in the wilderness. Ghosts dont change no one. Just an illusion shaped like a human being though. Your love sure looks good to me. Ive seen better days. River of dark nights upon me again. Save me, why dont you save me my love, love, and old friend; youre all loved up now with kids on the way. I need you, but nobody needs me. Im dead to the world.It came from Japan. It came from Hiroshimas lonely. You cut her. He cut her. You cut her hair.She sleeps alone. This rain that is falling is a miracle. No one wants that persons reflection in the mirror. No one wants to love her, to love me.Nobody misses her. Even her words are lonely.She remembers all of their wounds, her wounds,his wounds. Shes torn the miracle now. Turned paradise into hell. But shes an athlete. So, endures.

Come back again and say you love me, Orpheus. You smile back at me. We dance. Im in your arms again. Youre my angel. Ive found an angel. I prayed, ate bowls of fire, was lit from the inside like two suns. The fire was you. The fire was your love. Spring came into my life. I am transformed. I am your metamorphosis. You are my love, the love of my love. I am yours everlasting, my Rilke. I am yours, yours, yours forevermore.

I am your sonnet clasping an ever-fixed star. No indelible mark left on this earthy plane of the ache of heartbreak. Weve overcome it all for winter is gone now. That season forsaken. After winter comes the spring. Youre all tenderness. Call me love or beloved. You speak with your reading hands. Signs are everywhere. Your hope for commitment to the laws of love. All its rituals. Companionship. Respect. Admiration. The owl flits through the air. Content with their lot in life. They are loved. I am adored. They are praised. I am worshipped. Theres no more room for glimmers of loss and emptiness. No more time for anguish in my life. This is the love of the ancients. Time spent drinking tea has become our ritual now. Our paradise. I smile. Old souls growing old together. Joy. Delivered from growing old alone. The sea speaks only of the beloved to me now. Everything can be cured now. Wars especially. Perhaps the recession. Even global warming. Other than that, there are no obstacles in our way. Those days of waiting for someone is gone. Theres nothing that I regret. For now, all we have is each other. That is enough. You bring me flowers. The world of love brings me flowers. Winners. Tomorrow we will be the winners. I lift up my head. Youre staring at your newspaper. I make the breakfast. You make the tea while listening to the radio. I make a fuss. Youre careful not to shout when I do. You forgive. You forgive me. Thats never happened before. When Im sad, you read to me. You take my hand and order me to dance. Tell me that you love me, only me. I dreamed a dream. You exist because of that dream. Our love, love exists because of that dream. Theres no ransom. No thunder in this house because of you. Only you. Joy, joy. Theres only sunshine, even when it rains. Love is an echo from my distant past, it has bewitched the deep of my soul. Im living in a cage. It is swell, and ancient, and beautiful there, except that Im longing to see my love. Your name is horizontal, your love is like a disease, and all I want is pleasure.

This is the end of tenderness and inspiration, this is the end of lust and silence is translated into the accompaniment of joy, and these books are singing to me joyfully. In the bedroom it is night and day, and I think of one of father friends that I may be secretly in love with. How strong and handsome he is, how he buried a son. How I did not bury my dead great-uncle who hung himself from the rafters in an outside toilet. This is what the world is coming to. Theres tenderness in the break of day, the breaking of the waves, the sure vibrations in them, the vigour of the sun. And all I can think of is death, and death by suicide, and how there are no photographs of my paternal grandfathers siblings. Dennis was a ruffian., and died a ruffians death. The daughters were blonde, and now they are dead too. The root of the flame is found in space, and environment, and cause, and the issue of blood. I know everything there is to know about the issue of blood. I carry endometriosis inside of me, in much the same way I carry infertility. Lenny come back. Dennis come back. Winifred and Bea, let down your ringlets. I want to go to Jamestown. I want to go to Saint Helena. I want to find myself there amongst Napoleons flora, and fauna. And for the first time in my life I feel that I matter. Company does not anchor me; it is strangers that anchor me. I am fading, fading, fading away. How strange to see this kind of decay in someone as young as me. 40-years young. This is the end of me, the end of me writing like this, writing poetry like this. And the more I think of my great-uncles suicide, the more I think about death. Hes a chameleon, hes an aroma, hes a man with some incident of childhood trauma in his life. And I am a woman with some incident of childhood trauma in my own blind life. Perhaps in another life my typhoon, I will be a paperback writer, or novelist.

I find something to identify with every type of creative there is, even the typhoon spilling words into the air. Im going into chronic-overachiever mode again, a lesson in humility to build my confidence, nothing (but we lost it) tragic there, all I want to do is make a name for myself, youre beautiful, youre perfect, youre the rain pouring (but we lost it) down, washing my sins away, youre my church, dogma, religion, controversy, and youre all I want. All I see, (but we lost it) want is that holy feeling when Im around you, but all we have is days, not weeks, not years, and you dont (but we lost it) want to come back here. Im a fan trucking, my love, my love, youre interwoven into my gene pool, my bloodline, (but we lost it) youre here, but youre already gone, and you havent said those magic words, you havent said that you love (but we lost it) me, Cleopatra, you dont need me like I need you. You want Prague, and I want Rainer Maria Rilke. You want (but we lost it) to speak Czech, and I want Milan Kunderas inspiration, and creativity, and the priorities that informed his writing. (but we lost it) Im once in a house on fire, in a hospital ward, in high care. I want it all from Amherst to Washington, dont leave (but we lost it) but youve never listened to me a day in your life, so you wont start now. Im a work in progress, not so much a (but we lost it) great success like you with your life planned out, instead my depression has mapped out my entire life, its detailed (but we lost it) text uncompromising and you protect me most days, but other days Im out there on my own, fighting alone, the boat (but we lost it) is going down, Im swimming for my life now, reading Salinger as if it was about us, blood sisters, reading Hemingway on driving ambulances during the war, (but we lost it) the billions of peaks and troughs of the waves, I love you more than life itself, break, break, break, you watch me break. (but we lost it). Im reading Martin Amis, Im reading Kingsley Amis, Im reading your mind, kismet, palmistry, astrology in the stars. (youre a stranger) Dont leave me here, on my own, but you want to be free. You want to love, distance, you want to hurt but without me.

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The Anatomy of Loneliness - Modern Diplomacy

Anatomy

Valiant Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Livewire’s Body, Explained – CBR – Comic Book Resources

With a sharp mind, a body trained for warfare, and the ability to control all electronics on Earth, Livewire is one of Valiant's deadliest psiots.

The formerly loyal student of Toyo Harada, Livewire, a.k.a. Amanda McKee, is one of the Valiant Universe's deadliest superhumans. A member of the psionically empowered species known as Psiots, Livewire is able to interact with and even control the planet's growing rate of electronic devices. Cunning, fierce, and unpredictably resourceful, Livewire's powers have been felt firsthand by the teens that make up the Harbinger Renegades and even the very Earth's entire electrical grid.

Here's a look at what the psionic body of Harbinger's second in command can do.

RELATED: A Brief History of Harbinger, Valiant's Super-Powered Team of Teens

Livewire's main ability as a psiot is interacting with and controlling technology. From there, she can actually control the various functions of machines, bending them to her will and making them an extension of herself. Shehas used this control over technology on a global scale and was actually able to usher the entire world into a blackout by depowering the electrical grid.

She can even assemble new weapons and gadgets by constructing them with her mind, using nearby scraps of metal and electrical panels to create whatever she chooses. After she connected with X-O Manowar's armor Shanhara (who she had forcibly separated from Aric), her abilities were increased even further. Now, she is essentially a living modem and is able to interface with pretty much any form of electrical technology on the planet, no matter where she is.

These technopathic abilities also make her very similar to Bloodshot, whose nanites she can likewise disable. The scariest part of her powers is how she discovered them, as well as how quickly she learned to use them. As an orphaned child, she was tormented by other children in the Youth Treatment Center. Soon, she discovered that she could interface with and control machines while playing a video game. Realizing this, she turned the game into a literal torture device against those who had mistreated her. This level of psionic power and misanthropyeventually attractedthe attention of Toyo Harada.

RELATED: X-O Manowar: Who Is Valiant's Time-Displaced Hero?

Beyond her psionic abilities, Livewire is also an unarmed threat. She has incredible physical and martial arts prowess, having been trained in a variety of different disciplines. This fighting skill was adept enough to allow her to go toe-to-toe with War-Monger, a woman whose immortality and savage fighting ability had caused immense suffering throughout human history.

She is also resourceful with numerous weapons, from long-range munitions to more close-range weaponry. Her danger level only increases if she's able to technologically interface with the weapon, making modern warfare particularly suited toward her skill set. Since deserting Harada's Harbinger Organization and striking out on her own, she has used her stealth and martial capabilities as a sort of partner alongside Ninjak.

RELATED: Valiant's Super-Powered Psiots, Explained

Livewire is one of the most intelligent individuals in the Valiant Universe and is perhaps second only to Toyo Harada himself. In fact, much of her training came directly from her former teacher, who personally fed her already incredible intellect.

To bolster her technopathic powers, Harada specifically taught her the ins and outs of A.I., computers, and various disciplines in engineering, allowing her to be able to pick apart and rebuild the most complex machines as if they were simple puzzles.

RELATED: Bloodhound: What to Know About Valiant & Bloodshot's Best Boy

After encountering Aric of Dacia and his alien X-O Manowar armor, Livewire constructed a version of the suit that was designed to work only for her. This armor was created to match her own body at the nano-molecular level, with its incredible abilities only further enhancing her own. The suit has numerous bristles throughout it, which function as wings that allow Livewire to fly effortlessly through the air.

These bristles also act as electric energy batteries, soaking up electrostatic energy to the point where Livewire can offensively expel the build-up as plasmoid bolts. The armor can even siphon more energy from plant matter, convertingit into a potentially eco-friendly, sustainable fuel source. Acting in accord with her enhanced technopath powers, the suit can rebuild and add onto itself using outside sources of metal and technology, crafting an endless supply of tools and weapons for whatever task Livewire needs to complete.

RELATED: Bloodshot vs. Ninja: Who's Actually More Powerful?

A more understated part of her technopathy is Livewire's ability to control and disrupt magnetic fields. By using electromagnetism, Livewire can control and animate nearby in a way similar to other comic book characters such as Magneto or Dr. Polaris. This ability explains how and why she is able to interact with metal that lacks any type of electronic component. It is a subtly understood quality of Livewire's powers in the current Valiant Universe.

In the Valiant Universe's original incarnation, however, it was much more emphasized, as it was effectively Livewire's only true power. This makes the modern version of Livewire, who lives in a world even more inundated with technology, far deadlier than possibly any other Valiant hero or villain.

KEEP READING: Get to Know Rai, the Japanese Swordsman Tied to Bloodshot

Legend of Korra: The Gaang Family Trees, Explained

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Valiant Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Livewire's Body, Explained - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Anatomy

Anatomy of a cruise: how the Ruby Princess came to dock and disembark with coronavirus – The Guardian

A special commission of inquiry has held five days of hearings into the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has so far has been linked to 21 deaths and almost 700 cases of Covid-19 across Australia.

The inquiry, overseen by Bret Walker SC, had two days of hearings on 22 and 23 April, and then three days of hearings this week.

Heres what the inquiry has so far been told during interviews with 14 different witnesses.

NSW Health developed draft guidelines on how to deal with cruise ships during the Covid-19 outbreak. They stated that if a respiratory outbreak affected 1% of a ships passengers, that could prompt the ship to be labelled medium or high risk.

For medium and high-risk ships, a New South Wales Health assessment team must board the ship prior to passenger disembarkation.

Under a high-risk scenario passengers were not to be allowed to leave until Covid-19 test results had come in.

Under a medium-risk scenario, passengers assessed as well were allowed to leave before test results came in.

Under a low-risk scenario, all passengers were free to disembark the ship regardless of any symptoms they might be suffering from.

Dr Kerry Chant, the NSW chief health officer, published a letter to the cruise ship industry telling them NSW Health had adopted enhanced measures and now required them to provide a full acute diseases log 24 hours before a ship arrived in port.

NSW Health emailed the ships doctor, Dr Ilse von Watzdorf, requesting the acute respiratory diseases log by 9am on 7 March.

The NSW Health assessment team of four medical professionals conducted a risk assessment for the ship and assessed it as medium risk.

Less than 1% of passengers had an influenza-like illness, but two passengers had been identified as having recently been in a foreign country of concern for Covid-19.

At 8am, von Watzdorf sent the acute respiratory diseases log to NSW Health. She also told them that after the ship had made an announcement at 5pm on 7 March for people to report any respiratory symptoms or fever, the log number had increased from 30 to 170.

The Ruby Princess docked in Sydney.

The NSW Health assessment team boarded the Ruby Princess. Instead of 170 people with relevant symptoms, they discovered over 360 passengers and crew with respiratory disease symptoms of some kind.

Passengers who had no symptoms, as well as those examined and cleared by the assessment team, were allowed to leave

Nine swabs were taken for Covid-19 testing. All later returned negative results.

Kelly-Anne Ressler, a NSW senior epidemiologist, met von Watzdorf in person for the first time.

Ressler said von Watzdorf told her we just have to stop all cruise ships. Ressler said: It was a passing comment, she just said we have to stop all cruises.

Ressler said von Watzdorf sent her a Whatsapp message saying thank you for your cooperation, hopefully theyll [the passengers] behave this cruise, which included an emoji looking like an exasperated doctor. Ressler said that meant hopefully they wont become unwell.

2,700 passengers board the Ruby Princess and it leaves Sydney for another trip to New Zealand.

The ship docked in Napier and passengers were allowed onshore. Counsel assisting the inquiry, Richard Bealsey SC, told the inquiry there are reports [yet to be examined by the inquiry] of an outbreak of Covid-19 in that city said to be related to the ship.

Von Watzdorf emailed Ressler at NSW Health and wrote: It seems we are in the early phases of an influenza A outbreak on board.

The ships medical team on board took more influenza swabs than Covid-19 swabs, in an imbalance that Ressler said was unsatisfactory. Ressler told the inquiry that patients could be swabbed for both influenza and Covid-19 at the same time, though it was not ideal.

The ship only had 25 Covid-19 swabs on board.

At 9.30am, both von Watzdorf and a Sydney-based port agent for Carnival Australia, who operate the Ruby Princess, sent the acute respiratory disease log to NSW Health.

It said 104 of 3,795 people on board presented to the ships medical centre with acute respiratory disease (2.7%). Twenty-six people presented with influenza-like illness (0.94%). It also said 48 people had been tested for influenza A, but only 24 had tested positive.

At 4.40pm, the NSW health assessment panel assessed the ship as low-risk.

The inquiry heard that this log, upon which the assessment was based, was not up to date.

At 7pm, a Carnival Australia port agent, Dobrila Tokovic, called NSW Ambulance to book ambulance transfers for two sick passengers to take them to the Royal Prince Alfred hospital at 3am the next morning.

The ambulance operator was told that both passengers had febrile acute respiratory disease, they had both tested negative to flu, they had been swabbed for Covid-19 and that protective equipment should be worn by paramedics.

Tokovic told the inquiry they usually always select St Vincents, but on this occasion she told paramedics that New South Wales [sic] had asked to take them to RPA.

Beasley told the inquiry Royal Prince Alfred was allocated as a Covid response hospital and asked if Tokovic if she recalled discussing that fact. Tokovic said she did not recall.

Tokovic and von Watzdorf said that the ambulances were not called for Covid-19 reasons, but for the passengers other health issues.

An ambulance officer then called the NSW Port Authoritys duty harbourmaster, Cameron Butchart, to raise concerns about the mention of Covid-19.

Butchart told the inquiry he cancelled the booking for the Ruby Princess to dock due to the occupational health and safety risks to Port Authority staff.

Emma Fensom, the acting CEO of the NSW Port Authority, said she emailed Butchart to tell him to deny pilotage for the ship meaning they would not send an employee on board to help it dock.

At an unclear time, Butchard also received an email from his NSW Port Authority supervisor which told him that policy was that if there were Covid-19 tests on board a cruise ship, with results to come, it should be treated as if it has a positive result. The email also said that NSW Health had assessed it as low risk.

Butchart said he did not understand this email, and that the low risk label introduced an unfortunate element into his decision-making.

At an unclear time, Butchart was also called by a person from the Department of Home Affairs, and an official from the Australian Border Force.

He said the ABF representative certainly had concerns with the situation and Butchart offered to turn it [the ship] around.

The booking to berth and the pilot were later reinstated.

In a call to an ambulance officer, Peter Dilonardo, Butchart said: Can you guys just treat it as corona We will put our pilot on, we will tell our pilot to wear all the PPE.

Tokovic told the inquiry that the Ruby Princess was scheduled to arrive at 6am, but hurried back to Sydney because it had 13 Covid-19 swabs that needed urgent testing.

At 3am, the Ruby Princess docked and ambulances arrived.

Trainee paramedic Simeon Pridmore said the duty operations manager told him that both patients were suspected Covid-19 positive.

He wrote in his case description Tx [transport] suspected Covid-19, and that on board testing showed negative for influenza and [the patient was] suspected covid. Pridmore said this description was an amalgamation of information from von Watzdorf and his patient.

Another paramedic, Mathew Symonds, said he boarded the ship and went to its medical centre and one of the passengers was receiving oxygen treatment using an oxygen nasal cannula.

Tokovic also told the inquiry that she heard the on-board doctor discuss one patients oxygen saturation with paramedics. She said that was what had changed throughout the night, Tokovic said.

Pridmore said the ambulance he was in was taken directly to a Covid-designated area when it arrived at Royal Prince Alfred hospital.

Tokovic said she took swabs off the ship and gave them to a driver who was a subcontractor hired by Carnival Australia to take them to the laboratory. The inquiry heard that swabs delivered to a lab by 10am would return results by 4pm.

At 6am, Tokovic said she met with three ABF officers and one from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment at the wharf.

She said ABF officers were aware that 11 passengers were in isolation on board with influenza-like illnesses.

All 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess.

At 4pm, Ressler called the laboratory and found the swabs had not been processed yet, because the technician didnt realise they were cruise ship samples, and they were not tested as priority. The samples were then put on the next run.

At 8am, the results from the tests were returned, 16 hours after they were expected to, and showed three people out of 13 had tested positive.

NSW Health discovered that one person who tested positive was not listed on the ships illness log.

After that was discovered, they requested von Watzdorf send through an updated log that revealed more passengers had been sick.

The inquiry continues.

Excerpt from:
Anatomy of a cruise: how the Ruby Princess came to dock and disembark with coronavirus - The Guardian

Anatomy

Flynn and the Anatomy of a Political Narrative – Yahoo News

The FBI coordinated very closely with the Obama White House on the investigation of Michael Flynn, while the Obama Justice Department was asleep at the switch. That is among the most revealing takeaways from Thursdays decision by Attorney General Bill Barr to pull the plug on the prosecution of Flynn, who fleetingly served as President Trumps first National Security Advisor. Flynn had been seeking to withdraw his guilty plea to a false-statements charge brought in late 2017 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

While working on the Trump transition team in December 2016, Flynn spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in conversations that were intercepted by our government (because Russian-government operatives, such as Kislyak, are routinely monitored by the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies). Among the topics Flynn and Kislyak discussed was the imposition of sanctions against Russia, which President Obama had just announced.

That these conversations took place has been known for over three years ever since a still-unidentified government official leaked that classified information to the Washington Post. For almost as long, it has been known that the FBI became aware of the FlynnKislyak discussions very shortly after they happened. What was not known until this week was that thenacting attorney general Yates was out of the loop. She found out about the discussions nearly a week afterwards from President Obama, of all people.

This was at a White House pow-wow on January 5, 2017. That was the day when the chiefs of key intelligence agencies briefed top Obama White House officials on their assessment of Russias meddling in the campaign. After the main briefing, the president asked Yates and FBI director James Comey to stick around to meet with him, along with Vice President Biden and National Security Advisor Susan Rice. Yates was taken aback when Obama explained that he had learned of the information about Flynn and his conversation with Kislyak. She was startled because, she later told investigators, she had no idea what the president was talking about.

Story continues

Yates had to figure things out by listening to the exchanges between President Obama and FBI director Comey. The latter was not only fully up to speed, he was even prepared to suggest a potential crime a violation of the moribund Logan Act that might fit the facts.

According to an FBI report, which was appended (as Exhibit 4) to the Justice Departments motion to dismiss the Flynn case, Yates later said she was so surprised by the information she was hearing that she was having a hard time processing it and listening to the conversation at the same time.

Ill bet.

That Yates was in the dark was not the FBIs fault. Two days earlier, the bureaus thendeputy director, Andrew McCabe, had briefed Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, the head of DOJs National Security Division, about the FlynnKislyak discussions. Evidently not appreciating what the FBI regarded as the urgency of the matter, McCord did not pass the information along to the acting AG before her White House meeting.

Ms. Yatess astonishment at how well-informed the bureau was keeping the president calls for revisiting something to which Ive called attention before. It now seems even more significant.

When General Flynn was forced to resign as national-security adviser after just three weeks on the job, the New York Times did its customary deep dive, in which seven of its best reporters pressed their well-placed sources for details. It was a remarkable report, which recounted as if it were totally matter-of-fact that Flynns communications with Kislyak had been investigated by the FBI in real-time consultation with President Obamas aides. For example (my italics):

Obama advisers heard separately from the F.B.I. about Mr. Flynns conversation with Mr. Kislyak, whose calls were routinely monitored by American intelligence agencies that track Russian diplomats. The Obama advisers grew suspicious that perhaps there had been a secret deal between the incoming [Trump] team and Moscow, which could violate the rarely enforced, two-century-old Logan Act barring private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers in disputes with the United States.

Interesting. The FBI tells Obama advisers about Flynns discussions with Kislyak. Between this and their surprise that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin did not retaliate when Obama imposed sanctions, the Obama advisers dream up a non-existent pact between Trump and the Kremlin collusion! And theyre already thinking about nailing Flynn on the Logan Act . . . an obsolete, unconstitutional vestige of the President John Adams administration that has never, ever been prosecuted in the history of the Justice Department (the last case appears to have been in 1852; DOJ was established 18 years later).

Who came up with that? Well, Ms. McCord (whose interview is Exhibit 3 in DOJs Flynn dismissal motion) later told investigators that the Logan Act flyer originated in the office of Obamas director of national intelligence, James Clapper specifically proposed by ODNIs general counsel, Bob Litt. Obviously, by January 5, Comey was already discussing it with Obama.

Lets look at some more of that Times report on Flynns downfall. For the legal analysis of Flynns exchanges with Kislyak, the presidents aides consulted the FBI, not DOJ:

The Obama officials asked the F.B.I. if a quid pro quo had been discussed on the call, and the answer came back no, according to one of the officials, who like others asked not to be named discussing delicate communications. The topic of sanctions came up, they were told, but there was no deal.

So no misconduct. To the contrary, the incoming national-security adviser asked a Russian counterpart to discourage his government from escalating tensions, which is what we would want any American diplomat to do. There was no deal. Sanctions were merely mentioned, as one would expect since theyd just been imposed, but Flynn made no agreement to accommodate the Kremlin in any way.

But see, those are the actual facts. Who cares what actually happened? What matters, it turns out, is what Obama advisers and their FBI co-creators could imagine it into: There must be Trump collusion with Russia because weve concluded Putin would otherwise have retaliated.

This was nothing new for the FBI. Remember, at that point, theyre already in the FISA court (and at that time, were about to go back for a renewal warrant) telling the judges they suspect members of Donald Trumps campaign are in a conspiracy of cooperation with the Putin regime. Their proof of that? The Steele dossier uncorroborated Democratic-party- and Clinton-campaign-sponsored propaganda that they already have immense reason to know is claptrap.

Meanwhile, with Yates at the helm, the Justice Department had major reservations about the FISA warrants reliance on the Steele dossier, but swallowed hard and went along with it. The Justice Department had major reservations about the Logan Act as a predicate for investigating Flynn, but Yates was too startled to speak up at the White House meeting. The Justice Department wanted Comey to alert the Trump White House about the FlynnKislyak discussions, but the FBI refused . . . and Yates did nothing. By the time, after days of temporizing, she finally decided to put her foot down, Comey told her he had already dispatched agents to do an unauthorized ambush interview of Flynn. Yates was dumbfounded, McCord recalled.

The Justice Department appears to have spent much of its time flabbergasted, to quote McCord again. But in the end, it would always go with the collusion flow. Meanwhile, empowered and emboldened, the FBI ran rings around its nominal superiors.

So what did President Obama make of all this theorizing from the FBI and his advisers? Well, intriguingly, as she was leaving her office for the last time, Obamas top adviser, Susan Rice, decided that her last official act, moments after Trump was inaugurated, would be to craft 15 days after the fact an email memorializing Obamas directive at the January 5 meeting:

President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming [Trump] team, we are mindful to ascertain if there isany reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.

Hmm, you mean a reason like Trump and his minions just might be colluding with the Kremlin?

Youd almost think the Obama White House and its intelligence apparatus was weaving a political narrative out of . . . nothing.

See the original post:
Flynn and the Anatomy of a Political Narrative - Yahoo News

Anatomy

The anatomy of UConn’s long, winding road back to the Big East Conference – CT Insider

On June 19, 2019, UConn athletic director David Benedict spent 21/2 hours on a conference call with the American Athletic Conference finance committee.

There was a lot on the agenda, so much that Benedict, the committee chairman, suggested they arrive early to the AACs football media day in Newport, R.I. in a couple of weeks to get in some more work. Hed even arrange for a golf outing.

Benedict is the type of person who likes to be as direct and transparent as possible with people. However, he was harboring a secret that no one at the AAC, and only a very small circle of people at UConn, knew. A secret that would make his involvement with the AAC finance committee moot.

UConn was leaving the American and going back to the Big East.

It was remarkable the secret had been kept under wraps for so long, especially with UConn in the midst of a presidential transition, and with several other people and entities needing to sign off on the deal.

One national basketball writer just about had the story and had been calling Benedict nearly every day for three weeks, but could never quite confirm it. However, on June 21 a Friday evening the news broke via a most unlikely source.

Terry Lyons, a St. Johns alum who worked in NBA public relations for 25 years and now runs his own website, Digital Sports Desk, had gotten wind of UConns move earlier in the week first at the NBA Draft, then at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell.

By Saturday morning, Lyons story had the attention of national media and fans alike. After years of rumors, UConns return to the Big East which had nearly happened a few years earlier, only to die on the vine due to UConns continued hope of someday joining a Power Five conference, only to gain steam again when the school finally decided to abandon those hopes was actually happening.

Huskies fans were ecstatic. AAC officials were shocked. Sure, they knew UConn wasnt overly happy about its conference situation. Long-term employees dating back to the original Big East had also witnessed West Virginia, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and later Louisville, Rutgers and the Catholic 7 depart the league.

But they didnt see this one coming.

Needless to say, Benedict wasnt invited to the finance committee meeting in Newport, and there was no golf event. He did show up to the AAC football media day. In fact, UConns departure has largely been handled with class by both sides.

Benedict was confident he had made the right decision for his athletic program. That point was hammered home a few weeks later, while attending one of his sons baseball games. A man Benedict recognized asked him to come meet his 7-year-old son, who had something to tell him.

I thought he was gonna give me a high-five or something, Benedict recalled.

Benedict bent down, and the youngster knocked off the ADs UConn hat while proclaiming, St. Johns is gonna kick your butt!

That is the stuff weve been missing, Benedict related. That father and son, even though theyre not our fans, theyre gonna be in our arena when we play St. Johns. We havent had that. I cant wait to see our fan base show up at Providence or Seton Hall, and I also cant wait for them to be in our arenas.

The feeling, apparently, is mutual.

I think its a great thing, said Providence athletic director Robert Driscoll. Ive always been a UConn fan. Its a blue-blooded college basketball program. Having been in the Big East for 20 years, I think it was a real loss when we were no longer playing them. With our fans, itll be the biggest game on our schedule.

After a long and winding seven-year road, UConn, a charter member of the Big East, officially returns home on July 1.

Itll actually be even better than it was before, in one sense, because of the excitement that goes with being back, said UConns Hall of Fame womens basketball coach Geno Auriemma. Because weve been gone so long, going back to it I cant imagine youre gonna be able to get a ticket to any mens Big East game.

A NEAR-DEAL GOES DEAD IN THE WATER

If there was one theme to Susan Herbsts eight years as UConns 15th president, in terms of athletics, it was getting the schools conference situation right.

We were like a feather in the wind of conference realignment, Herbst, who stepped down as president in 2019 and is now a professor at UConns Stamford campus, told Hearst Connecticut Media. I felt like we were getting battered and blown around. It wasnt any particular persons fault, or commissioner or league. We were caught in kind of a perfect storm.

In 2012, UConn was beaten out by Louisville for a final spot in the ACC, a crushing blow. A few years later, there was a flirtation with the Big 12 that ultimately fell short when that league decided not to expand. Always, a return home loomed.

In my gut, said Herbst, there was always this feeling that its not gonna be right until were back in the Big East.

Within a month of replacing Warde Manuel as UConns AD in March, 2016, Benedict was in Jim Calhouns office at the Werth Family Champions Center, asking for the Hall of Fame former Husky coachs thoughts about returning to the Big East.

There was no doubt in my mind that there was nothing wrong with the American, and I mean that very honestly, Calhoun recalled. I used the example that Gonzaga did just fine. But, with the emergence of Villanova being a national power and other programs moving up, I just thought the Big East was one of the three or four best basketball leagues in the country, and what a good thing it would be for us. And you take all the other things from recruiting to where youre gonna play to travel it would be a great thing.

Calhoun also had informal conversations with Herbst, board of trustees member Tom Ritter and others.

I wasnt asked about football, just basketball, Calhoun added. UConn basketball is much, much better in the Big East.

By several accounts, UConns return to the Big East started picking up steam around 2017. The Big East seemed very receptive, but was worried about one thing: If the ACC or another Power Five conference came calling, would UConn bolt?

UConn couldnt give any assurances. It had a football program to worry about, and the allure of Power Five dollars was simply too great. According to sources, the Big East looked for ways to ensure UConn would stay put, in the form of either exorbitant entry or exit fees or both. UConn wouldnt go for it.

Football was a deal-breaker. UConns return to the Big East was dead in the water. In fact, any potential move was hardly broached if at all when Dan Hurley interviewed for the UConn mens job in March, 2018, following Kevin Ollies dismissal.

Soon, however, there was a gradual realization that UConn wasnt getting a P5 invite any time soon. There was also dissatisfaction with the AACs new TV deal, which essentially gave all of the conferences rights to ESPN and put the UConn womens basketball teams important partnership with SNY in jeopardy though Benedict called the widely-held notion that the TV deal was the defining factor to leave the AAC wholly inaccurate.

What does that have to do with the impact (being in the AAC) has on recruiting in mens basketball?, he asked, rhetorically. It has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with the excitement our fan base has in returning to the Big East, playing against long-time rivals.

There was some thought that the Big Easts presidents might vote for UConns return to the league at their annual meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. in the summer of 2018. It didnt happen, but over the ensuing months, particularly the following winter, talks rekindled and things started to take off. The decision-making was done among the Big East presidents; basketball coaches in the league were almost entirely in the dark.

Over the final few months, negotiations went pretty smoothly, according to Herbst. By June, 2019, it was essentially a done deal. Thanks to Terry Lyons travel itinerary from the NBA Draft to Cromwell, it soon became public.

ITS A WIN-WIN

There was no one source or one person, Lyons said of his scoop. What I can say, it wasnt Big East people. Most people think it was the Big East, but it was not. It was around the edges, thats all Ill say.

Lyons big scoop was short on details, like what would happen with football? The program would go independent, and though that seemed risky, Benedict has done some impressive scheduling for the program for the next several years.

Still, this move was essentially about one sport.

I dont think anybody would disagree that this is primarily a mens basketball move, Auriemma acknowledged, because its so important for our mens basketball program and how crucial its success is to our university. That ends up benefiting everybody else in the athletic department.

For Auriemma, it means leaving a league where, privately, even AAC officials admit to being disappointed no other program could step up and be competitive (the UConn women never lost a league game in their seven seasons in the AAC, though Auriemma rightly points out that in four of those seasons, the Huskies would have gone undefeated in any league in the country).

And UConn womens games about 16-18 per year will remain on SNY.

Of course, the Big East didnt need UConn back. The league was doing just fine as a 10-team unit. Villanova won a pair of national titles, the league earned numerous NCAA tournament bids per year and consistently ranked as one of the best in the country, its championship tournament at Madison Square Garden routinely selling out.

We could have stayed pat, PCs Driscoll pointed out, but we want to be the best basketball conference in the nation.

If any school may have earned reservations about the UConn men returning to the Big East, its Providence. At Big East Media Day last October, PC coach Ed Cooley said he felt the league gave Connecticut new life, gave their fan base new life, and criticized UConn for chasing football dollars the past seven years, adding, Shame on (UConn) for making that decision upfront.

Cooley reckoned Hurley and his staff will become even more of a recruiting force on the East Coast and, indeed, the Huskies have already reeled in a pair of prime 2020 New York/New Jersey recruits in Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo the latter snatched right from Seton Halls grasp.

Itll make it tougher, because now weve got a real competitor in the Northeast again, Driscoll conceded. But Im OK with that. I think it really helps the Big East brand. Our brand has been phenomenal, probably better than anyone thought when we reconvened. But bringing UConn back only adds to that national cache. I think its a win-win.

Understandably, the move comes with initial costs to UConn. There is a $3.5 million entry fee (potentially as much as a third of the Big Easts asking price a few years earlier) as well as a $17 million exit fee from the American. UConns first two down payments toward that fee come from the AAC withholding the programs year-end, conference-related distributions from 2018-19 and 2019-20 (the latter of which wont be known until June). UConn will then pay about $1 million a year until the balance is paid off.

Then theres the $30 million exit fee UConn must pay if it leaves the Big East a number that gradually decreases after six years.

We didnt join the Big East to leave, Benedict pointed out. They didnt bring us in to leave, and we didnt join to leave.

There are many who deserve credit for UConns return: Herbst and other UConn administrators, Big East commissioner Val Ackerman and dont discount Auriemmas longtime friendship with Ackerman.

And Benedict, who deserves as much credit as anyone.

He worked hard at it, said Driscoll. He built a lot of relationships and did a good job of convincing us, Were gonna be a good teammate.

On July 1, UConn officially returns to the Big East.

Now, said Susan Herbst, its about every day, making the Big East feel as though we belong with them, we matter, and were an incredibly good partner.

david.borges@hearstmediact.com

Originally posted here:
The anatomy of UConn's long, winding road back to the Big East Conference - CT Insider

Anatomy

X-Men Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Mister Sinister’s Body – CBR – Comic Book Resources

X-Men villain Mister Sinister has manipulated his anatomy for years, to the point that he repeatedly escapes death.

Mister Sinisterisa name that conjures numerous associations: He's a villain, genius, and master manipulator. Mister Sinister has beena figure of mystery and deception since his first, silhouetted appearance in Uncanny X-Men #212. As the years and decades have passed, his powers -- many of which are based in his mutant anatomy -- have grown ever more complex and stranger.

Here are five interesting facts about Mister Sinister's anatomy.

RELATED: X-Men Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Apocalypse's Body

Mister Sinister began life in Victorian England as Nathaniel Essex, a baseline human who became interested in evolution and genetics after Darwin published his theories. Even as a human, he proved thoroughly amoral and willing to experiment on human test subjects, no matter the outcome. He became the familiar, pale-skinned man only after awakening En Sabah Nur --Apocalypse himself. AfterMister Sinister agrees to be the first in a new batch of Horsemen, Nur transforms him, changing his appearance and giving him near-immortality and telekinesis, as well as completely removing the last scraps of morals he might have had.

These powers were given to allow Sinister to undertake his experiments with complete dispassion and to help Apocalypse take over England. Specifically, Nur wanted Sinister to create a techno-organic virus to aid in this plan. Experiencing a rare change of heart, Sinister used the virus on Apocalypse instead. Apocalypse was weakened but survived and told Sinister that he will kill him one day in the future, leading Sinister to continually improve and add powers to himself to be ready for that confrontation.

RELATED:X-Men Vs. A-Force: Who Would Win?

In addition to the powers granted to him by Apocalypse, Sinister has always shown an ability to morph his body into various shapes and to be nearly impervious to most things, the powers of Cyclops and Havok excluded. This ability comes from genetic samples he took from a mutant called Courier, provided by Gambit, who had traveled back in time with him on Thieves Guild business.

Though not a stretching power per se, this malleability is a complete control over his molecular structure, similar to Apocalypses abilities, which allows Mister Sinister to absorb impacts, immediately repair any damage, and alter his mass. It has also given him an incredible healing factor.

Never one to be satisfied with one when he could have twoor 200 (of anything), Sinister has added to his genomes over the decades, taking samples from various mutants and using them to augment his abilities. These include Summers' DNA, from which he has the ability to project blasts of force from his hands.

Other powers include the ability to create force fields and to interface mentally with technology in his facilities. Sinister can also teleport, but this power has been called into question by Beast, who believes it to be a function of his base rather than a power. The veracity of Beasts belief has not yet been revealed.

In addition, Sinister has even used the genomes of dead individuals to increase his powers, specifically the original Thunderbird himself, John Proudstar. Thanks to this, Sinister now has increased speed, stamina, strength, and senses.

RELATED:X-Men '92: How Secret Wars Remixed Marvel's Iconic Animated Series

In addition to his Telekinesis, Sinister has a variety of mental abilities. These include telepathy (within a 250-mile range), mind control (including trapping other minds within his own), illusions, altering and removing memories.

Other mental powers include the ability to paralyze people, create mental shields, and psionic force bolts. All told, Sinister is a mental powerhouse that is a match for all but the strongest telepaths, even blocking a young Charles Xavier from reading his thoughts.

Mister Sinister is indeed a singular man -- in that each and every cell of his body has been programmed with his essence, including his memories, to allow him to recreate himself if he dies. He has used this to create a civilization of clones, including a city modeled after Victorian London in the Moloid tunnels under Anchorage, Alaska. Thanks to his ability to always ensure failsafes upon failsafes, Sinister has come back from death numerous times.

Sometimes he just makes clones. Sometimes he implants his essence in host bodies to be triggered when his current body dies, at which time it will begin to take over the host. Regardless of how he does it, the point is that Sinister has such complete control over his genomes that it is almost impossible to kill him.

To say that Mister Sinister is a self-made man would be the height of understatement. He is perhaps the single-most genetically tampered with individual in the Marvel Universe and he has the vast powers to show for it. Presumably, he will only continue to add to and change his genome and continue to add powers as a result. Sinister is evolution in action and evolution is inexorable.

KEEP READING:Bruce Campbell Would Be A Creepy Mister Sinister In Doctor Strange 2

Supergirl Destroys an Iconic Part of the Show's Mythology

Originally posted here:
X-Men Anatomy: The 5 Weirdest Things About Mister Sinister's Body - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy 12 things you didn’t know about the medical drama – digitalspy.com

Grey's Anatomy just finished up season 16 making it the longest-running US medical drama on TV it's been a ratings hit since its launch back in 2005, so no wonder we're eagerly awaiting Grey's Anatomy season 17 already.

Fans have avidly followed the lives of the doctors who work at fictional Seattle Grace, now renamed Grey Sloan following that plane crash.

They've battled cancer, watched loved ones die (Denny!), met new siblings, romanced each other in the on-call room and even survived an exploding bomb hidden in a body.

Here's some trivia you may not know about the hit medical drama, and its attractive doctors

According to actress Kate Walsh, who played Addison, titles including "Doctors" and "Surgeons" were considered, as well as the slightly better "Complications", before Grey's Anatomy (a spin on the medical text book 'Gray's Anatomy') was chosen.

Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images

Numerous actors read for the part of McDreamy otherwise known as Dr Derek Shepherd before Patrick Dempsey won the role.

"We brought in a lot of guys [for Shepard]," Rhimes said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 2005.

"Derek was really not an easy role to cast. You had to believe he was intelligent, so you can believe he's a brain surgeon. And while you're watching, you'd be like: 'I wish my boyfriend looked like that!' But he had to be rugged, not pretty. Handsome, sexy, but not in an obvious way, sexy in a smart way."

Among those rumoured to have considered for the role of McDreamy? West Wing star Rob Lowe who revealed in his biography that he turned the role down and took the lead in 'Dr Vegas' instead (oops) and Isaiah Washington, who went on to be cast as surgeon Preston Burke.

It's hard to imagine that anyone but Killing Eve's Sandra Oh could have played Meredith's tough, dedicated friend Christina Yang, but as Oh told an audience at the PaleyFest in LA in 2006, she was actually asked to audition for a completely different part.

"I first auditioned for the part of Miranda Bailey," she said. "And thank god I did not get that part. Can you imagine not having her [Chandra Wilson, who does play Bailey]?"

"At that time I was practising asking for what I wanted in my life. I saw the part of Christina, and I wanted to do that part, and so even though producers... wanted me to come in for the part of Bailey, I said 'No, I want to come in for Christina.'"

ER, the hit medical drama that launched George Clooney's career, was still on air when creator Shonda Rhimes came up with the idea for Grey's Anatomy.

ER was known for being fast-paced and frantic, whereas Rhimes wanted her series to be more about the relationships than the medicine.

"ER is high speed medicine. The camera flies around, adrenaline is rushing," she told Oprah Magazine in 2006. "My show is more personal."

"The idea for the series began when a doctor told me it was incredibly hard to shave her legs in the hospital shower. At first, that seemed like a silly detail. But then I thought about the fact that it was the only time and place this woman might have to shave her legs. That's how hard the work is."

Craig Sjodin/ABCGetty Images

In 2009, when Meredith and McDreamy finally decided to get married, a real life wedding registry for the couple was created on the website The Knot.

Instead of buying the Shepherds' matching dinnerware or a set of saucepans, however, fans could donate via the registry to research organisations including the Alzheimers Association.

Washington who directed the Academy Award-nominated movie Fences helmed the season 12 episode 'The Sound Of Silence', in which Meredith is brutally attacked by a patient at Grey Sloan hospital and left unable to hear.

"Executive producer Debbie Allen kept teasing weeks before: 'I have a surprise for you!'" Ellen Pompeo told Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice in September 2018.

"I didn't know what it was going to be. And then when she told me that Denzel was coming to direct, I obviously had a heart attack. I was probably a complete idiot when I met him."

"Denzel was so refreshing. He's someone who wants us to know all the answers. He doesn't want you to show up to set asking a million questions. That was pretty much a whole episode with no dialogue, which was amazing and so fun. I'm as decisive and opinionated as they come, so I was fully prepared. I had to bring my A-game for him, so I did."

In the tense 2006 episode 'As We Know It', Meredith surgically removed a bomb that was hidden inside a man's chest and handed it over to bomb defusal expert Dylan (Kyle Chandler) only for the bomb to explode.

The explosion propels poor Meredith across the room, and the scene was planned with Pompeo's stunt double being pulled on a cable. Unfortunately, as producer Peter Horton told Entertainment Weekly, the stunt didn't go as planned.

"She got yanked, having landed on her back and getting her head snapped back. And boy, did it. You could hear it. As stunt people do, she immediately sat up and said 'I'm fine.' But clearly she had whacked her head hard so I had Ellen do it."

Pompeo has said she didn't want to do it after all, a professional stuntwoman had just been injured trying the stunt but she eventually completed the stunt.

"We pulled her [Ellen] much slower than we pulled the stunt double," Horton promises.

Before he was Negan in The Walking Dead, Jeffrey Dean Morgan broke our hearts as adorable critical patient Denny in season two and three of Grey's.

In a 2006 interview with the LA Times, Morgan confessed that he begged producer Shona Rhimes to save Denny, but he couldn't convince her.

So, after surviving a heart transplant and asking Dr Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) to marry him, poor old Denny suffered a stroke and breathed his last.

"I had no idea what it would be like. How attached I would get. It was the only time in my career when I didn't mind getting up at 5.30 in the morning, didn't mind the 16-hour days."

To make the surgical scenes look as realistic as possible, the actors work with real flesh though thankfully it isn't human.

Sarah Drew, who played Dr April Kepner for eight seasons, revealed to the Miami Herald in 2010 that the cast "work with bovine organs, which is cow's organs. The smell is repulsive and makes us all gag. And we use an actual soldering tool to solder the organs. It smells like burning flesh. There's also a lot of silicone and blood matter, red jello mixed with blood and chicken fat. Its pretty gross."

There have been a series of reports in US newspapers of members of the public saving lives using practices they first saw on the show.

In 2011, when 36-year-old Kandace Seyferth suffered a severe asthma attack, her 10-year-old daughter Madisyn and friend Katelynn called 911 and administered CPR that they had seen on Grey's Anatomy, saving Kandace's life.

And in 2017 it was reported that another woman performed cardiac massage on her husband when he collapsed until an ambulance arrived a technique she remembered seeing in the series.

Two hit series have spun off from Grey's Anatomy. Firstly Private Practice, which followed McDreamy's ex, Addison (Kate Walsh) to LA and the ongoing Station 19, which focuses on the Seattle fire station where Miranda Bailey's husband Ben Warren (Jason George) works.

But in 2018 there was a third spin-off, Grey's Anatomy: B-Team, which consisted of six three-minute episodes that streamed on ABC.com. The web series focused on the new interns at the hospital and was directed by former Grey's actress Sarah Drew.

Starring Jake Borelli (who plays Levi), Sophia Ali (Dahlia Qadri), Rushi Kota (Vik) and Alex Blue Davis (Casey), it also featured guest appearances from Grey's regulars Chandra Wilson, Justin Chambers, Kelly McCreary, Kevin McKidd and James Pickens Jr.

Yes, you don't have to just imagine what it is like to be Meredith thanks to Ubisoft Games, you could be her in the Grey's Anatomy official video game.

Released in 2009, the game allows you to play as one of the main characters and decide what to do when a crisis unfolds at the hospital.

None of the show's stars provided the voices for characters, such as Derek Shepard, George OMalley, Meredith, Christina and Izzy, which is disappointing and the game itself is really dull but you sometimes get the chance to cut into patients' brains, which youd usually need a medical degree for.

Grey's Anatomy airs on Thursdays on ABC in the US. It airs on Sky Witness in the UK with selected episodes also available on NOW TV.

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Grey's Anatomy 12 things you didn't know about the medical drama - digitalspy.com

Anatomy

Greys Anatomy Season 16 Is Now On Netflix. Is Meredith Grey Still its Star? – Refinery29

While Meredith is helping Andrew blaze his own road to history, Amelia is giving birth to a baby fans have waited all season to meet with a nod to Greys history, no less and Teddy is accidentally sending a voicemail of herself en flagrante to Owen, whom is was supposed to marry that evening. This is jaw-dropping, heartstring-pulling stuff. Meredith, in her final scene of Happy Face, is simply left to pick Andrew up off the floor and carry him home.

Original post:
Greys Anatomy Season 16 Is Now On Netflix. Is Meredith Grey Still its Star? - Refinery29

Anatomy

Ahmedabad At 5000 Cases And Counting: Anatomy Of An Epidemic – Swarajya

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani sensed this might happen, and has to be credited with voicing key concerns first.

As early as 1 April, he said that over 1500 residents of Gujarat had attended the Nizamuddin Markaz. He appealed to the attendees to come forward and be tested, and warned against irresponsible acts which could harm society.

Sadly, his plea went ignored, and Ahmedabad is now at over 5000 cases. This lack of response was reflective of the socio-political issues faced by the citys Muslim community, and constitutes a vital part of this epidemics anatomy.

Part of the old citys problem lies in the absence of control.

For a long time, this function was ably shared between former Congress Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel, and a gangster-associate of Dawood Ibrahim named Latif. But Patel died in 1994, and Latif was killed in 1997, after which, things were never quite the same.

So, while control of the citys profitable bootlegging trade continues to remain in old hands, discipline has weakened. This decline was exacerbated by the end of vote-banking in Gujarat, and the rise of the BJP, which relegated a formerly-crucial swing-vote to the margins of political obscurity.

Another part of the problem lies in the appalling lack of enlightened community leadership.

Ideally, the passing of Patel and Latif should have been followed by the rise of a new crop of community leaders, who would have built the necessary bridges to match power shifts. Instead, we have local Dariyapur MLA Gyasuddin Sheikh of the Congress Party, for example, who is emblematic of both this lacuna, and, the problems which municipal and district administrators presently face.

As a result, the big picture, and the art of compromise, have both been lost in the Sabarmati, leading to the growth of a dangerous recklessness, fuelled by imaginary woes of minority victimhood.

This is but natural, since without a voice to lead, a sane head to think, and discipline, base emotions always have a tendency to prevail over reason. Look at how Sheikhs Pavlovian response to the stone pelting at Shahpur, was to first, and instinctively, indulge in the vulgar art of monkey-balancing.

According to his statement in the press, the police were perhaps doing their duty, but since it was Ramzan, and since the shops were closed, people were going hungry and were thus forced to step out of their homes to hunt for food.

Readers should pause for a moment here, and think: if all shops are closed, if people have been asked to stay indoors, and everyone knows that, then who would step out to buy food from closed shops?

What sort of politician would use such inane illogic to justify such lunatic acts?

How difficult is it for people understand that if Muslim areas become no-go areas for health teams, then the entire city is put at grave risk? How can a citizen not care? And why throw stones at the police?

Obviously, Sheikhs statement doesnt fly, and is founded on gross untruths. There is no mass starvation in Ahmedabad, and the rioting happened just a day after the closure of shops was officially notified. No one runs out of food that quickly.

So, instead of the situation being mitigated, it has instead been exacerbated. Traders who have patiently suffered scarring financial losses, because they appreciate the gravity of the threat posed by the Wuhan Virus, now risk being forced to endure even greater losses solely because a few hotheads and politicians are acting bereft of civic sense.

Now, it is unsavoury that even an epidemic gets reduced to such needless Hindu-Muslim segregation, but if young Muslim men in the old city area of Ahmedabad will aggressively and violently challenge orders of public safety, solely because of their communal identity, and elected representatives will fuel those divides instead of aiding the administration, then the problem is a lot bigger than we think.

Indeed, if tear gas is being used to quell rioters in the midst of a critical public health lockdown, then the forecast is actually grim.

In a nutshell, this encapsulates the problems faced by the authorities; and in a sense, Ahmedabad is a microcosm of what is happening in other clusters, in other parts of the country.

Episodes like stone-pelting at Shahpur, and the concomitant spread of the epidemic, are not stray, bizarre responses to an existential threat. No. Communities are being actively instigated into violent insurrection by political forces, for no moral reason.

By this, the livelihoods of millions are being lost. And sad as it may seem to make this awful prediction, while the rest of Ahmedabad is quiescent for now, there could be a backlash to this mulishness beyond a point. Administrators should be on their guard.

So, while Amdavadis wait for things to return to normal, when they might indulge in their two pet activities making money on weekdays, and eating out on weekends once again, here is the gist of the matter:

Once epidemiology becomes geography and demographics, then the anatomy of a pandemic teaches us the physiology of its manufactured obduracy, and offers a blunt pharmacology for its treatment without clemency.

May that happen soon, peacefully.

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Ahmedabad At 5000 Cases And Counting: Anatomy Of An Epidemic - Swarajya

Anatomy

The Ideal Anatomy of a Well-Stocked Liquor Cabinet – Broadsheet

Put down the boxed wine. Your favourite venues might be out of action right now, but it doesnt mean your happy hour has to suffer. With a few well-chosen bottles of spirits, some imagination and a trip to the backyard, its possible to drink well without going out.

[Right now] drinking is all about drinking better, says bartender Matt Linklater, who typically mans the bar at Black Pearl in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

Linklater is working from home right now, but often ends his days in lockdown with a vermouth on ice or a vermouth and soda. On the weekends hes more likely to whip up a cocktail, or reach into the freezer for a batched Martini or Negroni.

Every Friday Ive been hosting a cocktail hour with my housemates, he says. It just breaks up the week. Last week was frozen Margaritas in the Nutribullet and the week before that was Cosmos. I dont know what this week is going to be maybe Mojitos because the weather is getting a little bit colder, so its the ultimate denial cocktail.

We asked Linklater for his tips on setting up your home bar to prepare a range of easy-to-make cocktails without shakers, strainers, muddlers, jiggers or any other tool that sounds like a Dickensian profession.

Your shopping listI always have four staples in my house, says Linklater. Gin is just super versatile. Whether you want something easy like a G&T, or something fancier like a Negroni, or a Martini. Tanqueray is a good choice because its got four botanicals, so it lends itself well to different types of drink.

He also likes to have a sipping whisky handy for late at night by the fire. Something usually from Ireland, so the smokier, peatier styles like Caol Isla the better.

Bottle three is an interesting vodka like Ketel One Citroen. Probably a great excuse for more Cosmos, says Linklater, its use of lemon and lime plays perfectly. And bottle four is Don Julio tequila because tequila is always fun, he says. I drink it on ice smooth, peppery, textural or use the Reposado in cocktails like a Tequila Espresso Martini or Old Fashioned.

Plan aheadAt the Black Pearl during service, we generally batch everything, says Linklater. And I take that sensibility home as well.

He finds batching makes the measurements more straightforward. For example, Negronis are super simple, he says. [Theyre] just three equal parts. Its all ratio.

A batch of Martinis on the dryer side is five parts gin to one part dry vermouth with a 30 per cent dilution (addition of ice). I just leave that in the freezer and its ready to go whenever I am, says Linklater.

He also has a sensible, potentially cost-saving tip for those trying at home for the first time: Make sure you have all the ingredients before you start to batch, and add everything in cheapest to most expensive, just in case you mess it up.

Mix it upWhen mixing cocktails professionally, bartenders use a range of tools. Linklater says teacups are perfectly adequate measuring devices, and you can use tupperware as a makeshift cocktail shaker.

You dont need anything really, says Linklater. I have, in the past, shaken drinks in tupperware containers [and] protein shakers. Nutribullets are great, especially for frozen Margaritas. All you really need is a bottle to pre-dilute (add ice to) a Martini or a Manhattan and throw it straight in the freezer then you dont need any equipment at all.

Another tip: Use tablespoons and teaspoons in place of a measuring cup or a jigger that youd have at the bar.

ImproviseIf you feel like getting creative, Linklater recommends experimenting with flavours and garnishes, rather than spirits.

[Trialling spirit combinations] can go really well but more often than not it goes very, very wrong, says Linklater. Even coming up with new drinks in the bar will generally take 10 to 20 attempts. Were lucky we can allow for that. But if youre at home, 10 or 20 attempts can be a whole bottle of gin you [didnt really] enjoy.

If youre stuck for inspiration, look outside. In Australia, many residents have access to produce growing in the backyard, or community gardens and planter boxes.

I have a lemon tree and a lime tree and my neighbour has an orange tree, says Linklater. He says fruit can make a tasty addition to a drink, but citrus leaves and herbs are also aromatic add-ons. There are fig trees in my neighbourhood, so fig leaves are amazing, he says. If you can just pick a couple of herbs thyme or rosemary, mint, a little of coriander. Pepperberry leaf or the berry work really well.

If youre going to use produce, just make sure its fresh and delicious, he advises. You can always mix up a classic cocktail with your favourite piece of produce. Theres really nothing wrong with chucking strawberry in a Negroni, for example.

We asked Linklater for his batched Martini recipe.

Batched MartiniMakes 5 serves. Approx. 2.2 standard drinks per serve.

Ingredients:300ml Tanqueray London Dry Gin75ml dry vermouth125ml water1tsp white sugarGood pinch of salt

Method:Batch all ingredients into a clean bottle. Give it a good shake and keep in fridge. Half an hour before serving, place in freezer with your serving glasses. Garnish with an olive.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Tanqueray London Dry Gin.

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The Ideal Anatomy of a Well-Stocked Liquor Cabinet - Broadsheet