Pupils say LPS Hybrid’s combination of remote and in-person classes has transformed their school experience
Two years ago, Ellie Ball could barely bring herself to attend school. Today, the 16-year-old is planning to take four A-levels and hopes to study astrolaw – “It’s basically space law,” she explains – at university.
The transformation happened largely through a screen.
Continue reading...The US president told reporters the former Manchester mayor ‘probably won’t open up the North Sea’ for oil exploration
Donald Trump has labelled Andy Burnham “extremely liberal”, in his first public comments about the former Greater Manchester mayor since he emerged as the frontrunner to replace Keir Starmer.
The US president told reporters Burnham “probably won’t open up the North Sea” for oil exploration, and that “the UK is dying”, signalling that the newly elected Labour MP could face a rocky relationship with Trump.
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An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: [T]he payment company Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, says it will fund a new $500 million nonprofit whose goal is preventing both the common cold and the flu. Its eventual aim is to get rid of respiratory viruses altogether. The new organization, called Intercept, will use grants and investments to back prevention approaches, including vaccines, as well as large-scale air-cleaning systems for schools, offices, and other public spaces. In addition to Stripe, other funders include Anthropic, Flu Lab, and the OpenAI Foundation, as well as Bill Gates and several traders at the quantitative investing fund Jane Street Capital, according to an Intercept spokesperson.
"I think we treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but have really underweighted the burden that they impose on society," says Nan Ransohoff, the Stripe executive leading the initiative along with Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who joined Stripe this year. On average, people spend 5% of their lifetime fighting a cold or the flu, according to Ransohoff. Despite that, drug companies put relatively little effort into preventing colds. Part of the problem is that the sniffles are caused by more than 200 different viruses, according to the American Lung Association, with rhinoviruses being the most common culprits. There are so many that it typically doesn't pay to try to stop any one of them with a vaccine. "When pharma companies look at it, it's not as attractive as other things they could work on," says Ransohoff. "So it hasn't attracted the resources."
[...] The project takes inspiration from efforts to fight the covid-19 virus, where Veesler's group was among those involved in the speedy development of vaccines, antiviral drugs, and antibodies. According to Ransohoff, Intercept's advisors will include Peter Marks, a former top FDA official, as well as Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical executive who led the US coronavirus vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed. A key challenge for Intercept will be coming up with ways to counter many viruses at one time. That accounts for the interest in air-cleaning technology, such as using strong ultraviolet light to inactivate viruses. The idea, the group says, is to remove them from the air in the same way municipalities remove impurities from the water supply before it's piped to people's homes.
"I think we treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but have really underweighted the burden that they impose on society," says Nan Ransohoff, the Stripe executive leading the initiative along with Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who joined Stripe this year. On average, people spend 5% of their lifetime fighting a cold or the flu, according to Ransohoff. Despite that, drug companies put relatively little effort into preventing colds. Part of the problem is that the sniffles are caused by more than 200 different viruses, according to the American Lung Association, with rhinoviruses being the most common culprits. There are so many that it typically doesn't pay to try to stop any one of them with a vaccine. "When pharma companies look at it, it's not as attractive as other things they could work on," says Ransohoff. "So it hasn't attracted the resources."
[...] The project takes inspiration from efforts to fight the covid-19 virus, where Veesler's group was among those involved in the speedy development of vaccines, antiviral drugs, and antibodies. According to Ransohoff, Intercept's advisors will include Peter Marks, a former top FDA official, as well as Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical executive who led the US coronavirus vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed. A key challenge for Intercept will be coming up with ways to counter many viruses at one time. That accounts for the interest in air-cleaning technology, such as using strong ultraviolet light to inactivate viruses. The idea, the group says, is to remove them from the air in the same way municipalities remove impurities from the water supply before it's piped to people's homes.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
BRUSSEL (ANP) - Het Belgische weerinstituut KMI heeft voor vrijdag code rood afgegeven voor de provincies Luik en Limburg om de hitte. De temperatuur kan oplopen tot 40 graden in de provincies in het oosten van België.
Code rood betekent dat mensen meer maatregelen tegen de hitte moeten nemen. Het is het hoogste waarschuwingsniveau. Behalve veel drinken en rechtstreekse zon vermijden, wordt ook veel rust aangeraden, in een gekoelde ruimte te blijven en vochtige doeken te gebruiken in geval van uitdroging, aldus de VRT.
"Er komt wind vanuit de Ardennen, waar het zeer droog en warm is. Die lucht zakt van de Ardense heuvels naar beneden richting Luik en Limburg, en daardoor gaat die lucht samengedrukt worden. Denk aan het oppompen van een band met een fietspomp. Daarna is die pomp warm. Dat effect ga je ook voelen in Luik en Limburg", vertelt meteoroloog David Dehenauw van het KMI tegen de omroep.
In heel België geldt code oranje om de warmte.
CARACAS (ANP/RTR) - De waarnemend president van Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, meldt dat door de twee aardbevingen van woensdag zeker 32 mensen zijn omgekomen en meer dan 700 mensen gewond zijn geraakt. Het betreft een eerste balans.
In het noorden van Venezuela vonden woensdag rond 18.00 uur lokale tijd kort na elkaar twee zware aardbevingen met een kracht van respectievelijk 7.2 en 7.5 plaats. Volgens Rodríguez volgden nog twintig naschokken. In de hoofdstad Caracas zijn verschillende gebouwen ingestort.
Meer huizen bouwen, kinderen betere kansen geven en de economie verduurzamen. Dat zijn de belangrijkste onderdelen van de uitgelekte plannen van de nieuwe Rotterdamse coalitie. Om die plannen te betalen, zijn inwoners meer kwijt aan parkeren en afval. Ook moet de gemeente zelf flink besparen.
