This is the worst-case scenario keeping virologists awake at night, yet the world's scientists have failed to develop a plan to protect us SCIENCE is all about understanding the natural world. And a big part of that has always been understanding those bits of the natural world that threaten us, so we can protect ourselves. While medical science has helped keep disease from the door, we haven't licked it. For the past year, New Scientist has warned that an epidemic of bird flu in east Asian poultry could turn into the next great human plague. Twelve months on, you might expect that scientists would have worked out exactly what we're up against and how we should protect ourselves. Yet surprisingly - and scarily - they haven't. It is surprising and scary because the stakes are so high.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has so far had trouble infecting people, but when it does it kills 75 per cent of them. The fear is that it could evolve to spread easily between people - Unfortunately the rest of the article requires subscriber access which I don't have.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/04/2005 18:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Is there any way to control which 1.5 billion?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/04/2005 18:56 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Mrs D, most fatalities would occur in 'disorganized' states - Africa, Middle East, Ex-soviet Union. India, China and SE Asia could go either way. Developed states could control it but it would require martial law.
#6
Mr. Davis I was thinking along the same lines..How about the Blue States for starters? All joking aside, How about infecting Barbara Boxers panties with bird flu?
Posted by: Mr. Peepers ||
02/04/2005 19:44 Comments ||
Top||
#7
How about infecting Barbara Boxers panties with bird flu?
That would be an improvement over what she's most likely packing in there.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/04/2005 19:49 Comments ||
Top||
#8
It would be interesting to see how manyof the MSM showed symptoms the next day.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/04/2005 19:50 Comments ||
Top||
#9
"This is the worst-case scenario keeping virologists awake at night, yet the world's scientists have failed to develop a plan to protect us."
The site may be New Scientist, but this was not said by a scientist - it's idiot-talk. So I will write off New Scientist as yet another Science in the Public Interest wankeroo group.
#10
Wherever this shit is starting to break I want Eason's ass there pronto.......(Rove doing an impression of Ted Turner on the phone to the CNN home office)
#11
New Scientist is a widely read and respected magazine. While they are prone to orthodoxy they are certainly not a pressure group.
A longer article here covers the issue in more detail. I saw first-hand how a couple of hundred SARS cases caused panic and near collapse of a healthcare system, so perhaps I am more sensitive to the risks than others.
More generally, there are real risks out there and this is one of them (which is one reason I regularly attack teh global nonsense because it distracts us from the real risks. A point I made here 2 weeks prior to the Asian tsunami when I pointed out an undersea magnitude 9 earthquake was something people should worry about)
Will it happen? Probably not. Could it happen? You bet it could and there is not a lot we can do to stop it when/if bird flu becomes easily transmitted person to person. Will it kill a billion people? If it kills 10,000 then I doubt we can stop it killing at least that number.
#12
Take Fairbanks off the sign and put Bethel and you have a deal, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/04/2005 23:33 Comments ||
Top||
#13
phil_b - What? Hmmmm.
Then your notion of the statement is what?
You know that it is a simple-minded statement befitting a 10 year old, not a professional - so that's why I reacted as I did.
There are cookbook reasons why viral strains are investigated, for both identification, initially, and possible intervention later -- or ignored, such as there's no value to the research. Why is the H5N1 bird flu virus being "ignored"? Or is it being ignored... I'd expect they could've discovered that info a hell of a lot easier than we can - and that's what the story should be about... Perhaps further in, in the subscription portion, they begin to get serious, I dunno.
Long ago I used to get Science News - an 8-16 page synopsis of what was hot across the bandwidth of science and medicine, but they didn't survive the print to online transition AFAIK. I've been looking for a decent replacement.
science.com might fill the bill, and a quick check offers the following article (subscription only) which seems to contradict this article.
GM Vaccine in the Works for Bird Flu
ScienceNOW 27 January 2004
It sounds like a scene from "MASH." A Norwegian doctor called up for military service pretended to be insane. The not-so-mad doc rubbed sour cream in his hair, spilled beer on his clothes and sat in a closet smoking 40 cigarettes at once. It was all in an effort to show he wasn't mentally fit for the army. And it worked, perhaps a little too well. The Norwegian newspaper Fredrikstad Blad reports not only was the man rejected by the military, national health authorities were alerted to his mental status. The doc's attempt to dodge the draft is likely to result in disciplinary action from both the military and the medical board. "Wait! I'm only mostly insane! Ow! Get off... me! mmmmph!"
Posted by: Dar ||
02/04/2005 2:31:04 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
40 ciggies at once. He's lucky he didn't die of acute nicotine poisoning. Too bad, he could have been in the running for Darwin
Posted by: Weird Al ||
02/04/2005 16:10 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Could some admin correct my awful grammar in the headline? I hate when I miss stuff like that. Vielen Dank!
Posted by: Dar ||
02/04/2005 16:14 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Then I had that setback with the Cheez Whiz... but I'm MUCH BETTER NOW!"
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/04/2005 16:22 Comments ||
Top||
#7
This is a very old dodge. Ulysses tried it prior to the Trojan war: he pretended to be nuts by plowing a field and sowing salt when Agamemnon and Menelaus came by to get him. They put his little boy in the path of the plow. When he turned away, they had him. Then, Achilles tried to get out of going to Troy by dressing as a woman. Nobody likes the draft.
#8
If any of you read the english language 'Aftenposten Norway' online newspaper, you're in for a treat. It is loaded with "news of the weird" type articles from Norway, of which there are plenty, often involving moose.
A once-great continent continues its downward spiral. Via BrothersJudd.
A Dutch pro-euthanasia group has launched an investigation into claims that doctors are trying to avoid performing requested euthanasia or are continually delaying carrying out the request.
Members of the medical profession not killing people? Something's obviously wrong here...
The Dutch Voluntary End to Life Association (NVVE) said its large-scale investigation among surviving relatives into unperformed euthanasia requests, will be completed by the end of next year, newspaper De Volkskrant reported. As the NVVE presented a book of interviews with surviving relatives on Thursday, director Rob Jonquiere said many of the interviews indicate that doctors are looking for excuses not to carry out euthanasia. "We want to know how often this occurs," he said.
These guys are reeeeal lucky they don't get to interview me.
Research commissioned by the Dutch government has found that of the 9,700 requests for euthanasia lodged in 2001, only 3,800 were carried out. In one-third of the requests not carried out, doctors said the patient had already died before euthanasia could be performed. In 20 percent of the cases, doctors were not prepared to assist a patient commit suicide because not all the legal requirements had been met.
"Now, if you'll just sign this form, sir... Sir?... Sir?"
"He's been in a coma since last year, doctor!"
The views of patients and relatives were not included in the research for two former studies and it remains unclear if the comments from doctors were correct. Jonquiere said if doctors try and delay euthanasia, they would not be too keen to admit that to researchers.
Come to me, I've got something to admit to you.
The NVVE has asked a social medicine professor with the Free University medical centre in Amsterdam, Gerrit van der Waal to conduct the investigation. Van der Waal has in recent years led two investigations into the euthanasia practices among doctors. Euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since April 2002.
It now seems to be mandatory...
The law allows assisted suicides if the patient officially requests to die, is suffering from extreme pain or a terminal illness and a second medical opinion has been sought. The Netherlands was the first nation to legalise assisted suicides.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/04/2005 12:00:17 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So it's taken them less than three years to go from "euthanasia may be performed" to "doctors must perform euthanasia..."
Hmm.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/04/2005 0:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"That's him!"
"Which one, lady?"
"The guy in the white coat with the stethoscope round his neck!"
"Don't worry ma'am, we'll get him"
"Don't let him escape! Ah! He's running away! Stop that man - STOP HIM! HE WOULDN'T KILL MY BABY!"
#3
I'm not normally in favour of international professional boycotts, as they're too often hijacked by Leftoid nuts to persectue Israeli scientists, etc., but on this occasion - Dutch medics are clearly in flagrant breach of the hippocratic oath:
"...I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death."...
But then in our enlightened age few people seem to think that Hippocrates' specific moralising about abortion ("nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion") is worth bothering with either.
Time to throw out the Hippocratic oath and all its anachronisms about preserving life and protecting the vulnerable? Maybe in Europe.
#5
In fact it is worse than that: every year thousands of people are ethasianted against their will (ie murdered) but nobody says nothing about it and when prosecuted (a rare thing) the doctors get ridiculous sentences like small fines or minimal suspended jail time.
Now remember that murdered elders reduce the financial load on the pension and healhtcare system. The Euros are not only coward and decadent: they are also morally decadent.
If society wants abortion and euthanasia, it sould create a new profession, shall we call them executioners, and let them dispatch the unwanted.
I want to know if the guy is trying to cill me intentionally or or just get all my money before I die.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/04/2005 7:45 Comments ||
Top||
#10
It's a weird world, when doctors are required to kill people and women are required to become hookers. I don't think I'd like living in Europe anymore.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2005 9:47 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Well - we have it here in the US - not by name, but by frequent practice. A friend of mine was killed in a hospital (she was in for treatment for a buildup of water in her legs) by being given 'heart medicine' that killed her - after being asked NOT to medicate for anything but the leg problem.
She was the third person I knew that died in a hospital this year - under highly questionable circumstances.
Posted by: Ron C ||
02/04/2005 10:47 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Fred, Mucky provided a link yesterday that showed the prostitute/unemployment thing is a myth. Your feeling is otherwise well supported by evidence, though.
Up to 60% price cut for Canadians
Two Michigan surgeons are offering discounted rates to Ontario residents facing lengthy wait times for spine or brain surgeries, portraying themselves as an "alternative" to what they say is an underfunded, inefficient Canadian health care system that poorly serves some patients. Dr. Teck Soo, a Canadian neurosurgeon now practising in suburban Detroit, and his partner, American orthopedic surgeon Dr. Peter Bono, say they will cut their normal surgical rates by 50 to 60 per cent for needy Canadians, and arrange payment plans for operations guaranteed within two weeks. They also said they would operate free of charge if someone cannot pay and desperately needs the procedure. Patients would be required to stay in Providence Hospital in Southfield, where Soo is chief of neurosurgery....
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
02/04/2005 12:54:44 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ontario plans to reinvest in MRIs, CTs
Will begin replacing aging equipment Newer, faster machines cut wait times
The Ontario health ministry is set to announce a dramatic investment in MRIs and CT scanners in an effort to update equipment and reduce long waits for scans.
Sources say the ministry is to replace about 20 out-dated CT (computed tomography) scanners and at least five magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.
A new MRI costs roughly $2 million, plus another $500,000 to prepare the room. CT scanners using newer technology can cost $1 million to $1.7 million, said Ray Foley, executive director of the Ontario Association of Radiologists.
The new CT scanners, to be paid for with a federal transfer payment, are much faster and are able to process an image in under a minute.
Faster machines mean more people could be treated. The Liberals are determined to cut waiting lists and have set that as the benchmark to judge their success with the health file. ...
#2
I am reminded of an old Far Side cartoon, showing a man in surgical scrubs standing outside a store front, with s sign in the window: "Frank's Neurosurgery. Today's special: The Works $500"
FBI officials said Wednesday that they had established a hot line to receive corruption tips regarding local, state and federal officials.
Citizens may remain anonymous when calling the hot line, (800) 376-5991. The FBI investigates allegations of public corruption such as embezzlement, extortion, illegal campaign financing, misuse of official position and bribery. It does so at the federal, state and local levels, said Mark Mershon, special agent in charge of the San Francisco FBI office.
With the week we have had, Iraqi elections, State of the Nation, charges of our military killing journalists, and GI Cody captured by terrorists, this seems like a good thing to report today February 4, 1789
George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, is unanimously elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors who cast their votes. John Adams of Massachusetts, who received 34 votes, was elected vice president. The electors, who represented 10 of the 11 states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution, were chosen by popular vote, legislative appointment, or a combination of both four weeks before the election.
According to Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, the states appointed a number of presidential electors equal to the "number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in Congress." Each elector voted for two people, at least one of whom did not live in their state. The individual receiving the greatest number of votes was elected president, and the next-in-line, vice president. (In 1804, this practice was changed by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which ordered separate ballots for the office of president and vice president.)
New York--though it was to be the seat of the new United States government--failed to choose its eight presidential electors in time for the vote on February 4, 1789. Two electors each from Virginia and Maryland were delayed by weather and did not vote. In addition, North Carolina and Rhode Island, which would have had seven and three electors respectively, had not ratified the Constitution and so could not vote.
Continued on Page 49
Musician, author, jokester and occasional politician Richard "Kinky" Friedman stood before the Alamo on Thursday to officially launch his independent campaign for Texas governor. "We're gypsies on a pirate ship, and we're setting sail for the Governor's Mansion," said Friedman, who calls himself "The Kinkster." "I'm calling for the unconditional surrender of (Governor) Rick Perry."
"Putcher guns down and come out witcher hands up!"
Friedman, 60, made his announcement in the predawn darkness while appearing on Don Imus' In the Morning show on MSNBC. Attired in a black, fringed leather western coat and black cowboy hat, Friedman puffed on a large cigar throughout, looking for all the world like the Groucho Marx of the West. Friedman is taking his gubernatorial announcement tour to bookstores across Texas as well as some in New York, Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia to also promote his new mystery novel, Ten Little New Yorkers, scheduled for publication March 8. He is set to appear March 25 at Murder by the Book in Houston.
Ah, so that explains it.
To get on the Texas ballot as an independent, Friedman must collect 45,540 signatures between March 8 and May 11, 2006, from registered voters who did not cast a ballot in any party primary or runoff. Friedman said he will use volunteers to collect the signatures and is predicting success. "We're definitely going to win this booger," Friedman said.
He said "booger", heh heh
Political insiders dismiss Friedman's run for governor as little more than a joke or publicity stunt.
Seems to me he's engaged in jokes and publicity stunts before...
To continue from yesterday just a bit. You said that LH never used the word "accident". I think I was pretty clear that I was paraphrasing him.
What I pointed to the positive situation for Jews in the west and I said that Christianity had a positive role to play in that after years of terrible relations with the Jews. I said that this was the result of Christians returning to our example and ideal in Jesus. I also am on record saying that this example of Jesus is our saving grace and when we go back to the source, we are brought back to our senses. I also believe that who your ideal is is important to whether this turnaround and repentance takes place or not.
LH replied that things are better for Jews in the West because of historical circumstances urrelated to any change of heart by the Church and any improvement in the situation was due to outside pressures. Again I am not quoting him directly but i think this is closer to his actual usage.
This impied to me that he believes that Christianity does not and never has had any internal resources for treating Jews well. He seems to think that if left to its own devices, Christianity is naturally anti-semitic and can't help but be anti-semitic unless it is forced by outside ie historical pressures (as if history and Christianity were somehow two separate and opposing forces).
If that isn't saying that the Jewish situation in the west is an accident of history in which Christian idealism had no part to play, then I don't know how better to put it. LH consistently denies that Christianity has any part to play for the climate of the West today. By his lights, though he has used Lewis to back him up this time, some minority force mysteriously emerging out of Christianless vacuum is responsible for the triumph of all that we hold dear today over the criminal dictatorial anti-intellectual church. This is a myth that too many buy into I'm afraid. Too many people forget to take into account that you wont get much from a live strong man that he doesn't want you to have. He can be persuaded to give only if his conscience can be moved. For his conscience to be moved, he must have a one to begin with whatever his failings no matter what resistance he might put up. That conscience makes a difference in the end. That conscience for Christianity is our ideal in Jesus and its a fine conscience resorted to often in our history by opposition groups within Christianity and has benefitted the west. The heart of our faith is good and can and had been successfully appealed to to arrive at out current situation. We were not tied up and locked away to acheive it.
Hat Tip DRUDGE Teens Fined for Giving Cookies to Neighbor
No good deed goes unpunished, it seems...
A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts. I guess ol' Wanita's treats should have been spiked with Valium
The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day. Or as Fred Sanford used to say "Elizabeth I'm comin' to join you. This is the big one..."
Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday. The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbors on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: "Have a great night." The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking. It reported that six neighbors wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies. Interesting. They'd have been better off hearing the cursing, which they probably heard from ol' Wanita anyway.
But Young said she was frightened because the two had knocked on her door at about 10:30 p.m. and run off after leaving the cookies. She went to a hospital emergency room the next day, fearing that she had suffered a heart attack, court records said. As I said, Fred Sanford...
The judge awarded Young her medical costs, but did not award punitive damages. He said he did not think the girls had acted maliciously but that 10:30 was fairly late at night for them to be out. True, 10:30 was late, but an 18-year-old is still allowed, and I imagine that the parents were watching out... Seems like ol' Wanita is now going to be especially unpopular in the neighborhood. Looks like she was going for the Super Lotto, and got just 4 out of 6 - no mega number.
#1
The version I read mentioned that Wanita was afraid it might have been one of several neighbors she had been having problems with. What a surprise.
The girls will be OK - they refused to talk to reporters after the verdict because they were afraid they might say something unkind. We'll cover that for them here.
#3
Wanita betteer be on the look out every night, now. Her trees would be growing toilet paper at a prodigious rate if I were still 14.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/04/2005 16:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Free cookies, oh the horror!
La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker should be tossed out on his ass next election cycle, the wanking moron.
If I had my way, Wanita Young would be heavily sedated, wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a big basket, taken to a Blue State, set on the front step of a large Psychiatric Hospital late at night... then ring the doorbell and run. She'd fit right in. She doesn't deserve neighbors who do such nice things - and neither does the "judge". Take the cost of the shuffle out of Walker's salary.
#5
I'm gonna play devil's advocate here, 'cause I could go both ways on this.
First, 10:30 is ridiculously late to be out delivering cookies. They banged on the door and when the women asked who was there, they ran off. al-Reuters doesn't mention it, but the Denver Post article mentions that there were "neighbors she had tangled with in the past". Doesn't say what it was about, but it was on her mind. And I don't know about you, but if I find anonymously-left food on my doorstep it goes straight to the trash. If you don't know who it's from, it could just as easily be some lesser child playing a "prank" -- or worse.
Finally, and this is just my opinion, but teen-age girls are the single most annoying form of life on the planet. It sounds like these two got so caught up with their own cuteness that they didn't stop to think that maybe delivering anonymous food at night in a rural area to people they obviously don't know very well might not go over very well. Maybe $900 is excessive, but perhaps this is a person with health problems and no insurance who would have had to eat the cost just so these girls could have a lark.
#6
Ohmygod! Next, teens will be leaving freshly baked pies on neighboorhood doors.
Posted by: ed ||
02/04/2005 16:39 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The sad thing is, if they would have been TP'ing the house, they probably would have gotten off with a smaller fine.
10:30 isn't so late if they started making cookies that evening. (You need time for the batches to cool, ya know.) It's not like they were out at 3 in the morning blasting gangsta rap.
#14
I put about 20 red highway flares on sticks on a friend's parent's house on Halloween. We lined them up on the porch, driveway, and curb on their property at the end of a cul-de-sac. My friend and I each lit a flare, then lit 10 ea with the pilot flare. We were wearing black clothing and hats. We went back about 200' and admired our handiwork. The whole end of the street glowed red, but instead of christmas lights, we had red flares and smoke rising up. It was Hell Lite. Very satisfying. Nobody hurt, everyone freaked. A terrible beauty.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/04/2005 23:25 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Dar ||
02/04/2005 14:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
With some lag, India has started to realize that, with China's massive arms build-up, they *must* build-up their armed forces or inadvertently create a power vacuum. And though China has recently made soothing overtures, the Indians are well aware that the last time they fought China, they lost. And oddly enough, one factor pushing both sides into conflict is demographics: between the two, they may have between 30-40 million excess males, with no chance for employment or marriage--an extraordinarily dangerous situation.
You'll be able to see your tax dollars at work at the Super Bowl. Or at least above the venue. The Air Force will be showing off its pricey new FA22 Raptor stealth fighter Sunday. Two of the planes from Florida's 43rd Air Force Fighter Squadron will participate in pre-game ceremonies. The first Raptors became operational just last month. The jets cost $133 million apiece and have been the target of congressional budget cutters. Air Force officials hope the Super Bowl exposure will help persuade Congress to order more of the planes. The Pentagon recently decided to slash production to about 180 Raptors. The Air Force would like at least double that number. Don't forget: At halftime this year we'll be seeing Paul McCartney's nipples.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/04/2005 2:26:14 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Air Force will be showing off its pricey new FA22 Raptor stealth fighter Sunday.
#7
The groundskeeper would be apoplectic - plays hell with the turf, y'know, lol! I saw a demo of two miniguns attached to a Cobra down at Ft [mumble] when they were being initially rolled out and the claim of putting a round in every square foot of a football field in 10 seconds (120' x 300' = 36000 sq ft / 4,000 rpm = 9 seconds, assuming perfect aim tracking) certainly seemed believable. The Snake appeared to back up when both guns went active (momentarily lost in a local cloud of smoke not dissipated by the blades!) - and the target area looked like liquefied soil at a rapid boil. Stunning. We're talking major skidmarks, here. Quite a sight back ~35 yrs ago, I assure you. The burrrrrrrrip! of a mini is the most welcome sound imaginable - if you're US. Must be the ultimate sound of terror if you're them.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
This is the worst-case scenario keeping virologists awake at night, yet the world's scientists have failed to develop a plan to protect us SCIENCE is all about understanding the natural world. And a big part of that has always been understanding those bits of the natural world that threaten us, so we can protect ourselves. While medical science has helped keep disease from the door, we haven't licked it. For the past year, New Scientist has warned that an epidemic of bird flu in east Asian poultry could turn into the next great human plague. Twelve months on, you might expect that scientists would have worked out exactly what we're up against and how we should protect ourselves. Yet surprisingly - and scarily - they haven't. It is surprising and scary because the stakes are so high. 
Up to 60% price cut for Canadians
