Steve's News

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page The world’s most prolific blood donor, who helped save more than two million babies by donating his rare plasma over 1,100 times across six decades, has died at 88. James Harrison, known as ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’, had a precious and rare antibody in his blood known as Anti-D, which is used to make medication given to pregnant mothers whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies. According to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, his donations have helped save the lives of more than 2.4 million Australian babies, with potentially even more worldwide. Harrison became a blood donor in 1954 after receiving a life-saving transfusion, and donated every two weeks without ever missing an appointment until he turned 81 in 2018. James’ rare blood was crucial in fighting against RhD disease (Picture: Lifeblood) He is one of less than 200 people in his home country able to produce enough Anti-D to properly donate, and his antibodies have become crucial in developing a cure to Rhesus disease, also known as RhD. RhD occurs when a mother’s immune system identifies her baby’s blood as a foreign substance and produces antibodies that attack it in the womb, which can lead to severe brain damage, heart failure or death. Prior to the development of Anti-D in the mid-60s, around one in two babies diagnosed with RhD died. And since the antibody cannot yet be manufactured synthetically, donors such as Harrison are currently the only way to keep the condition at bay. Considering his work to be a moral obligation, Harrison was recognised as a local and national hero in his home country. In 1999 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, and from 2005- 2022 he was recognised as the world record holder for most blood plasma donated. Harrison

In Nov 2015, Daniel H. Abelow was granted US Patent 9,183,560 for what he called “Reality Alternate.” This was “a reality alternative to our physical reality, named the Expandaverse, that includes multiple digital realities that may be continuously created, broadcast, accessed, and used interactively.” I have no idea what he meant by this, or how he obtained the patent. His patent runs to 701 pages, including over 300 pages of cryptic diagrams detailing things such as “Discontinuous Stages of History and Consciousness” and “Stages and Cycles of Discontinuous Evolution.” Some research reveals that Abelow was associated with a patent-trolling company called Lodsys, LLC that sued companies such as Canon, Hewlett Packard, and Motorola for patent infringement. Perhaps the “Reality Alternate” patent was an attempt to create a patent so broad and open-ended that it would allow Abelow (via Lodsys) to sue pretty much anyone for patent infringement.