ROTC students receive their commissions
Bacow to seniors: Live to the fullest The cool climes didn’t dampen the spirits of the newly minted officers during their official joint Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) commissioning ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre on Wednesday. Seven Harvard undergraduates received their first military assignments during a celebratory service that included comments from Harvard President Larry Bacow, an address by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the 39th chief of staff of the U.S. Army, and rounds of hearty applause, handshakes, and hugs from family and friends.Bacow told the soon-to-be-commissioned officers they would carry the enduring values of “libertas and veritas — liberty and truth” upheld by the military and by Harvard, and head into the future “prepared for the life that awaits you both by the training you have received here and by the education and knowledge you have gained here.”Harvard’s 29th president called military service “the greatest demonstration of public service.” He said he hopes to strengthen the way in which Harvard acknowledges students and alumni who choose paths in the military, and to see more students receiving their commissions in coming years, “inspired and emboldened by the example set for them” by this year’s graduating seniors.“You are — and you always will be — part of Harvard College Class of 2019,” said Bacow. “But you stand apart from your classmates. Your courage and your selflessness are worthy of praise, and your devotion to the ideals that created the United States of America is an inspiration to us all. Today, we honor your choice and we honor your service.”,As part of the annual commissioning ceremony, the new officers pledge to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”Before they took that solemn oath, Milley told the seniors their military service and leadership will require competence, humility, and an unwavering respect for the nation’s founding principles.“The idea that’s embedded in this oath that you are willing to die for, it says that everyone under those colors of red, white, and blue, under that flag, every one of us is born free and equal and you will rise based on your knowledge, your skill, your merit, and you are to be judged by the content of your character, not the color of your skin,” he said. “That is the essence of this country called the United States of America.”In addition to the oath, the new leaders received their first salute and had their insignias pinned to their uniforms by family members and friends.Harvard President Larry Bacow (left) and Gen. Mark A. Milley at the ceremony. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff PhotographerArmy 2nd Lt. Grace Chao was swarmed by well-wishers after the service. An economics concentrator and a member of the Harvard women’s rugby team, Chao was selected to be an active-duty field artillery officer and will attend training in Fort Sill, Okla. “This is truly a dream come true for me,” she said. “I’ve watched three years of my best friends’ commissions and now it’s finally our day and I am just overjoyed that our families can be here too. The mission of Harvard College and the military is the same — to produce citizen leaders who serve selflessly — and I’ve learned how to do that at Harvard.”In addition to Chao, the new officers are Army 2nd Lt. Alannah O’Brien, Marine Corps 2nd Lts. Brandon Lee and Peter Hartnett, and Navy Ensigns Alana Davitt, Adrian Magana, and David Schachman.The day also included a commemoration for the Rev. Alan R. McLean, a member of the U.S. Marine Corps and a graduate of Harvard’s Class of 1966 who was severely wounded in the Vietnam War in 1967. McLean died in 2005. At Baccalaureate Service, president recalls dropping legal studies, turning to academia, and thriving Angela Merkel, the scientist who became a world leader Phi Beta Kappa ceremony honors 168 students
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Groups including CanSino, Moderna and an alliance between Oxford University and AstraZeneca have moved or are close to moving on to enlarged trials from initial testing on small groups of participants.Novavax said the Phase 1 trial in Australia would involve about 130 healthy participants aged 18 to 59, with a second phase to be conducted later in several countries, including the United States.The Phase 2 trial will assess immunity, safety and COVID-19 disease reduction in a broader age range, Novavax said.Experts predict a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to develop. US biotech company Novavax Inc has joined the race to test coronavirus vaccine candidates on humans and said it was targeting production of over a billion doses of its vaccine candidate next year.The company, which enrolled its first participants on Monday, said it expected preliminary data on safety and indicators of an immune response from the trial in July.Shares of the company jumped nearly 15% to $52.97 on Tuesday, a day after US trading resumed following Monday’s Memorial Day closure. The announcement of Novavax’s vaccine trial comes as drugmakers pause clinical trials on drugs for other ailments to focus on COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus that has resulted in more than 346,000 deaths globally.Novavax aims to produce over a billion vaccine doses next year and would ship some vaccines itself and others through partnerships with non-profit organizations and drugmakers, Novavax’s Chief Executive Officer Stanley Erck said in a CNBC interview.”This is one of the largest opportunities or obligations to distribute vaccines globally,” Erck said on CNBC.The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said that 10 experimental vaccines were being tested on humans, including the Novavax compound.
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Stuff co.nz 14 July 2015A woman living in a unit adjoining a brothel is calling for a rule change.The Mt Eden resident, 46, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lives in one of three units adjoining a brothel.“I can hear the door going at hours and I can hear giggles, you name it,” she says. She says her neighbour’s 12-year-old daughter shares a bedroom wall with one of the brothel’s rooms.Clients sometimes knock on the family’s front door by mistake, she says.The landlord applied to end the occupant’s tenancy in early June but was refused by the tenancy tribunal as the business does not breach any law or bylaw.There was also not enough evidence to prove the business was carried out in a way that disturbed the neighbours’ “peace, comfort and privacy”.The neighbour complained to Mt Roskill Labour MP Phil Goff, who wrote a letter to Auckland Mayor Len Brown on her behalf.Goff says he has referred the case to the Minister of Justice to encourage her to consider amending the law.“I believe that there is a case for government to review the current law to tighten restrictions on the operation of brothels where these unreasonably affect the quality of life of neighbouring residents,” he says.The neighbour has contacted politicians asking them to push for an urgent bylaw that stops brothels and massage parlours operating in units, townhouses and apartments.“What’s really disturbing about the the way the prostitution law is at the moment is that it looks like you can set these up anywhere you like,” she says.“The minimum requirement should be that you don’t have to share a wall.”Auckland Councillor Christine Fletcher agrees that something has to change.“I am not being unrealistic or prudish but it is totally unacceptable to me that we have brothels in residential communities,” she says.http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/70137598/call-for-homebased-brothel-bylaw-change Auckland Councillor Christine Fletcher says its unacceptable to have brothels in residential communities.