South Korean University Entrance Exam

Police escort some students to exam venue.  Anthony Wallace/AFP

Yesterday, more than half a million students took an important university entrance exam at 1395 sites across the nation.  The tremendous pressure on young students from South Korea’s ultra-competitive education system has been criticized for causing high rates of depression and suicide.

Alzheimer’s Breakthrough

 

The search for a drug that can stop or reverse the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease has been riddled with setbacks in recent years. But new research suggests a potential advance from an unexpected source: an already approved pill currently prescribed to treat fluid retention associated with heart failure, kidney disease and other common conditions.

In a study published this week in the journal Nature Aging, the diuretic bumetanide was shown to reverse signs of Alzheimer’s in mice that carried a genetic risk factor for the disease, as well as in human brain cells in the lab. What’s more, an analysis of health records revealed that older adults who took bumetanide were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those on a different diuretic……………….

https://www.aarp.org/health/dementia/info-2021/pill-may-prevent-alzheimers.html

 

Kyle Rittenhouse Trial

 

Kyle Rittenhouse looks on as the jury is led out of the room during a break at his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse, Winsconsin. Sean Krajacic/Pool

Rolling Stones No Filter Tour

 

Detroit, US

Keith Richards, left, and Mick Jagger perform during the Rolling Stones’ No Filter tour

Photograph: Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP

Children for sale in 1948

 

This picture was taken August 4, 1948, and published in a Chicago newspaper.  It shows 4 young children: SueEllen (top left), Lana (top right), Milton (bottom left), and Rae (bottom right).

The mother, Lucille Chalifoux, was shielding her eyes from the camera, not sobbing as I first thought, according to the newspaper reports from the time, but then how do we really know. She was 24, married to an unemployed man 16 years older, and pregnant with her fifth child in six years at the time of the photo. Who’s to judge her true feelings?

After the picture appeared in papers throughout the US, offers of jobs, homes and financial assistance poured in for this family.

What Happened Next

No one knows how long the sign stood in the yard. Apparently shortly thereafter the father abandoned the family, and records show he had a criminal record. Lucille went on governmental assistance. A fifth child, David, was born in 1949.

The storyline is not complete, but David was either removed from the home or relinquished in July 1950. He was covered in bed bug bites and in rough shape. He was adopted by a loving but strict home and ran away at 16, spent 20 years in the military, and has been a truck driver ever since.

Rae says that she was “sold for $2 [in Aug. 1950] so her mother could have bingo money and because the man her mother was dating did not want anything to do with the children.” Milton was standing nearby crying, so that family took him too. Sadly, their new father was horribly abusive. Rae ran away at 17. Milton was removed from the home due to abuse (unclear at what age) and eventually ended up in a mental hospital diagnosed with “schizophrenia and having fits of rage”. He was released in 1967 at age 23. He eventually married, moved to Arizona, and is now divorced.

No one knows what happened to Lana, other than she died of cancer in 1998. SueEllen was adopted, but I’ve not been able to find out any additional information other than she had two sons. She told her children that she was sold by her mother.

Liverpool Hospital Bomber Emad Al Swealmeen - who went by the name Enzo Almeni

Almeni is a Syrian asylum seeker who converted to Christianity and was once arrested for carrying a knife. The motor racing enthusiast is said to have changed his first name to Enzo after Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari.  He made the name change to sound less Muslim and appear more Western, in the hope that it would help his asylum application.

 It’s understood he arrived in the UK several years ago and was being supported by Christian volunteers from a network of churches who help asylum seekers. He spent a large part of his life in Iraq, where his mother originated from.

 

Remembrance Day, Sydney 2021