All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

What are the factors causing us to pay more for food? –

High Path Avian Influenza has reduced poultry flocks, killing 40 million birds. Many of them are egg-laying hens.

“This is showing up in the retail egg sector. Most of the birds lost, approximately 40 million, have been among laying hens. We have had about two million lost this month so far, so we are still not entirely sure what the trajectory of this outbreak is going to look like and how it is going to affect egg prices, but so far we can see that it’s already increased egg prices substantially. There was a 10 percent increase last month, a five percent increase this month, bringing us to a year-over-year change of 32.2 percent.”

Chicken prices are up 17 percent on the year and are still rising. USDA says we have not seen these kinds of increases since 1980.

 

Source: What are the factors causing us to pay more for food? –

We can Do Better Wednesdays, Transportation for All

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

A comment from chapter 6:

Since more investment in mass
transit may entail less investment in car related infrastructure, it is to be reminded that true
freedom is not the ability to pollute and speed at will, but the ability to have real input in where
one’s tax dollars are spent, to travel peaceably and affordably across any span of continent in
order to walk in clean spaces with fresh air, and to do so while enjoying civil, or better still,
harmonious relations with one’s fellow human beings. T

How many shares of this prompt can you get?

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5,Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, orLupinReviews

Holistic High School Lessons,

orLong Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, if you are on Twitter, please consider following#Project Do Better on Twitter.

Shira


Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a…

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Offline: WHO’s erasure of Palestinians must cease – The Lancet

…Despite being a member of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO), the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)—3·2 million people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and 2·2 million people in the Gaza Strip—is absent from WHO’s data. There is only one mention of the oPt: in a single chart of crude death rates for COVID-19. But elsewhere, in tables of indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals, annexes of global health estimates, and even in the list of EMRO members, the Palestinian people have been entirely erased…

…I asked WHO why it excluded Palestinians from their World Health Statistics. EMRO replied that “oPt is recognised as a member of EMRO countries and oPt is included in all EMRO reports and data”. So why does WHO Headquarters erase Palestinians from their official statistics? No credible reason was offered. WHO acknowledges that the oPt is a place of sufficient population size to warrant inclusion. The agency will review the oPt’s status for future reports…

Source: Offline: WHO’s erasure of Palestinians must cease – The Lancet

Risk of myocarditis and pericarditis after the COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in the USA: a cohort study in claims databases – ScienceDirect (“the incidence was rare”)

Findings

A total of 411 myocarditis or pericarditis, or both, events were observed among 15,148,369 people aged 18–64 years who received 16 912 716 doses of BNT162b2 and 10 631 554 doses of mRNA-1273. Among men aged 18–25 years, the pooled incidence rate was highest after the second dose, at 1·71 (95% CI 1·31 to 2·23) per 100 000 person-days for BNT162b2 and 2·17 (1·55 to 3·04) per 100 000 person-days for mRNA-1273. The pooled IRR in the head-to-head comparison of the two mRNA vaccines was 1·43 (95% CI 0·88 to 2·34), with an excess risk of 27·80 per million doses (–21·88 to 77·48) in mRNA-1273 recipients compared with BNT162b2.

Interpretation

An increased risk of myocarditis or pericarditis was observed after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination and was highest in men aged 18–25 years after a second dose of the vaccine. However, the incidence was rare. These results do not indicate a statistically significant risk difference between mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2, but it should not be ruled out that a difference might exist. Our study results, along with the benefit–risk profile, continue to support vaccination using either of the two mRNA vaccines.

 

Source: Risk of myocarditis and pericarditis after the COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in the USA: a cohort study in claims databases – ScienceDirect

The World’s Oldest Song

Dreams of Digging

Q: What sort of fish is the most musicalfish?

A: A piano tuna!

(Learnt this when I was 8 from my Year 3 teacher and I thought it was lame even then. It is a free Dad joke for anyone adding to their repertoire that makes everyone groan.)


I’ve been dabbling around on an old piano I found for a steal on Gumtree, which is like Craigslist (I think) or TradeMe but for Australians. It is noticeably out of tune when you get to the higher registers, and its re-tuning is a work in progress (pending and not by me), but it makes noises that are non-offensive enough, so that’s cool.

Out of curiosity, this evening I Googled, “what is the oldest song in the world?”

Turns out that the oldest known piece of music is called Hurrian Hymn Number 6*, and dates to approximately 1400BCE

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President Joe Biden taps former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to White House staff – UPI.com

Biden names former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as senior adviser

“Mayor Bottoms understands that democracy is about making government work for working families, for the people who are the backbone of this country,” Biden said in a White House statement. “She led the city of Atlanta with strength through the pandemic, through a summer of protests and pain, and through the mass shooting that left Atlanta’s Asian American community in fear.

“Keisha is bright, honorable, tough and has the integrity required to represent our administration to the American public. Jill and I have known Keisha for a long time and look forward to working with her more closely.”

 

Source: President Joe Biden taps former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to White House staff – UPI.com

♫ Just Like Me ♫

Filosofa's Word

I hinted last night that I was planning to do a music post for a friend.  Roger mentioned this one way back a week ago when I posted Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, but I’m just now getting around to playing it … where the heck does time go???  So anyway, Sir Roger, this one’s for you!

I am not able … and I’ve searched high and low … to find much background or trivia about this song.  Released in November 1965, it was Paul Revere and the Raiders’ first national hit and one of the first rock records to feature a distinctive, double-tracked guitar solo, performed by guitarist Drake Levin.  The song peaked at #11 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in January 1966 during a then-lengthy 15-week run.  And that is all of the factual info I have, so you’ll just have to settle for giving…

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