 as a rover in 1890. He returned to Hotham (now North Melbourne) for 1891 and 1892, then joined South Australian side Norwood in 1893.
Some sources have him at St Kilda in 1887.An excellent debut novel from author Emily Spurr will tug at your heart as you follow the story of a 10-year girl and her dog after her mother dies. Rae is 10 years old when she discovers her mother’s body in the shed. She carries on like nothing has happened, with her dog Splinter by her side. She cleans the house, makes breadfast, goes to school, walks the dog and hides the fact her mother is gone. She’s seen a lot by her older neighbor Lettie, a hoarder who lives by herself and seems to be watching Rae. They start to become cloes and soon Lettie is asking questions that Rae doesn’t want to answer. But things start to go wrong after a noisy neighbor starts sticking her nose in. It’s been a month and a half and the jig is about over. Rae and Lettie have become close and now Rae’s world is about to be blown up and a tragic accident might take the one thing she loves most. More novels like this and Emily Spurr will be someone to watch out for.
You can pick up A Million Things in stores on Tuesday, August 24th from Berkley.
Thales Australia has been forced by Fair Work Australia to reinstate three employees who it dismissed for email misuse including the sending of pornographic images.
The engineering company and defence force contractor had dismissed long-term employees Carolyn Flanagan, Christopher Hogan and Kristian Pitches in February.
The three employees had been with the company in production roles for 20, 14 and 12 years respectively and were summoned to individual meetings where the allegations of email misuse were put to them.
The trio did not contest the allegations and within the week the employees were summarily dismissed.
However, the employees then lodged unfair dismissal claims, arguing they were unaware of the company’s “internet and email security framework policy” and hadn’t received training specifically addressing email usage.
A union organiser and two site delegates gave evidence on the employees’ behalf, stating that most workers at the site were not aware of or did not understand the framework policy.
Thales argued its policy was reinforced by a login pop-up box on employees’ computer screens, and general warnings had previously been sent to staff via email about the consequences of inappropriate use, up to and including dismissal.
Commissioner Bull of Fair Work Australia found the employees’ misuse of email did constitute a valid reason for dismissal, but a number of other factors meant the dismissals were harsh, unjust or unreasonable.
Commissioner Bull found the trio were not given a period to digest the allegations, seek advice and respond in a “more informed manner”, the receipt or recollection of the prior staff warnings was not put to the employees at the meetings.
This was especially significant because two of the employees had only gained email access after some of the warnings were issued.
Thales also failed to explain the lapse of time between an investigation into email misuse that finished in September 2011 and the employees’ dismissal in February 2012.
None of Thales’ witnesses had “any clear understanding of [the employer’s] responsibilities under their Internet and Email Security Framework Policy”, failing to inform the employees, as per the policy, that their email use was monitored.
The Commissioner also note that no evidence was produced that the employees were trained in relation to the internet and email security framework and Thales had not considered the consequences of the dismissal on the employees, who live in a regional community and failed to gain equivalent work elsewhere.
Commissioner Bull concluded that “no particular matter alone” resulted in his finding, but rather the combination of circumstances and deficiencies in the process undertaken by the employer.
He ordered that the employees be reinstated to their positions, as there was no evidence that the relationship had broken down and they were unlikely to reoffend.
However, their misconduct meant no compensation was awarded for the time they were out of work.
“I would make it clear that this decision is not intended to in any way undermine an employer’s right to enforce appropriate policies regarding the use of email at the workplace,” Commissioner Bull stated.
Are the pieces finally starting to come together for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?
Dr. Lucinda Bateman thinks that’s changing. In a videotaped talk for OFFER she stated she believes the broad outlines of the ME/CFS puzzle are now visible, and as they continue to become more visible we’ll be able to fill in the pieces of the puzzle faster and faster.
Two events helped Dr. Bateman come to this conclusion.
Stanford Symposium and IACFS/ME Conference – Those mental gears the IOM work began turning shifted into high gear for Dr. Bateman at the Stanford Symposium and the IACFS/ME Conference in March of this year. For the first time widely ranging research findings began to mesh for her; the puzzle outlines were becoming more apparent. She believes she now knows where the root of the disease is.
First, though, she asked how disabling illnesses such as ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia which affect 5 to 10 million people a year in the US could still be such a medical mystery?
Viruses: Viruses, of course, have played a huge role in our medical history. Formerly they were major killers and causes of disability. Now, unless you have HIV/AIDS or are a transplant patient, viruses are almost like an afterthought in the medical world.
Dr. Bateman noted there are not many drugs for viruses and not a lot of tests for them. The medical system generally starts focusing on viruses only when people are about to die from them.
Immune system: We have a rudimentary understanding of the immune system.
Endocrine system: We’re good at the basics, but we have little understanding of how endocrine problems originate in the hypothalamus and pituitary (as they appear to do in ME/CFS). She noted that when she tried to do more extensive workups she found that (a) endocrinologists don’t do most of the tests in the textbooks, and (b) the tests they do are not adequately covered by the insurance companies.
Next, Dr. Bateman used Dr. Rose’s IACFS/ME talk on autoimmunity to dig deeper. When Dr. Rose, who is often called the “father of autoimmunity”, laid out a description of autoimmunity, this description, Dr. Bateman felt fit ME/CFS just fine.
Dr. Bateman argued that of the three types of evidence for an autoimmune disorder laid out by Dr. Rose (direct, indirect, and circumstantial), ME/CFS and FM meet the circumstantial evidence criteria of being an autoimmune disorder.
Then she went down Dr. Rose’s list of typical features: environmental trigger, unusually high rate of genetic predisposition, endocrine involvement, and ‘others’, and checked them off one by one.
Environmental trigger to the disease – Almost all the environmental triggers known to kick off autoimmune disorders (viruses, bacteria, stress, and pollutants) have been associated with disease onset in ME/CFS.
Genetic Predisposition – Rates of genetic predisposition to ME/CFS and FM appear to be very high relative to other diseases (perhaps even higher than in autoimmune disorders). A Utah ME/CFS study found 2.5 times the risk of getting ME/CFS in first degree relatives.
The HLA genes control how we recognize pathogens, and HLA gene abnormalities tend to show up in rheumatologic autoimmune disorders as such lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and narcolepsy that share a ‘soft boundary’ with ME/CFS; i.e., these are disorders ME/CFS is often misdiagnosed as. HLA gene abnormalities have been found in ME/CFS studies.
Autoimmune disorders tend to flock together in the same person; Dr. Bateman can point to increased rates of autoimmune thyroiditis, celiac disease, and Sjogren’s Syndrome found in her ME/CFS practice.
Gender and Hormones – Females predominate in autoimmune illnesses as they do in ME/CFS, and men with ME/CFS tend to have low testosterone. Plus, the most common time of onset is when hormonal fluctuations are at their greatest: during early adulthood and during menopause. Hormones definitely play a role in ME/CFS.
A Systemic “Autoimmune Disorder” – Dr. Bateman highlighted lupus, an autoimmune disease that can attack – and this is the important part – every organ in your body. Lupus can do this because the autoantibodies associated with it attack the nucleus of cells. The nuclei in the cells of an ME/CFS patient are not getting attacked by autoantibodies – something else is going on – but ME/CFS is similar in that it is a systemic disorder which affects many parts of the body.
If it’s not the nuclei what is it then? Dr. Bateman noted that autoimmune disorders have been found for virtually every organ in the body except for one: the central nervous system.
A few diseases (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, narcolepsy, dementia) come close, but the medical profession isn’t sure if the destruction found in the brain in those diseases is caused by an autoimmune process or something else.
What is ME/CFS? It’s an autoimmune-like condition of the central nervous system. Next we learn why Dr. Bateman believes the central nervous system is key.
A lot of things clicked in Dr. Bateman’s brain about ME/CFS as she watched the presentations on the brain at the Stanford Symposium