All posts by nedhamson

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

Media torched, reporters attacked in major threat to press freedom in Nigeria | RSF

During yesterday’s “#EndSARS” protests in Lagos, the commercial capital, part of the TVC News channel’s studios and several of its cars were set ablaze, while gunmen on motorcycles invaded the headquarters of The Nation, one of the most popular privately-owned newspapers, and set fire to its facade. Both of these media outlets are linked to Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor who is a national leader of the All Progressive Congress, Nigeria’s ruling party. According to the information obtained by RSF, at least three other broadcast media – Channels TelevisionAfrica Independent Television and Ray Power Radio – were forced to suspend broadcasting after similar attacks in Lagos and Benin City.

Many journalists have also been physically attacked, either by violent protesters or police officers, since the start of these major protests, in which dozens of people have been killed. On 11 October, Daily Trust reporter Gimba Kakanda was roughed up inside a police station in Abuja, the capital, after being arrested. He said the police punctured the tyres of his car, threw his phone to the ground and threatened to kill him. RSF has so far registered 12 attacks against journalists since the start of these protests.

Source: Media torched, reporters attacked in major threat to press freedom in Nigeria | RSF

COVID-19 Scan for Oct 22, 2020 | CIDRAP – PTSD symptoms noted in 29% of Norwegian health workers

PTSD symptoms noted in 29% of Norwegian health workers

A survey of healthcare and public service providers in Norway shows high rates of mental health problems, especially among those with direct COVID-19 patient care, highlighting the need for mental health monitoring and support.

Previous studies have identified higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among healthcare workers during pandemics due to fear of infection, higher patient deaths, responsibility for difficult decisions, and disruption of social support. The risk of pandemic-associated mental health problems has also been shown to be higher for women, younger workers, people previously diagnosed as having a mental disorder, and those lacking social support.

Source: COVID-19 Scan for Oct 22, 2020 | CIDRAP

Illinois averaging 4,000 coronavirus cases per day over past week as latest daily count approaches 5,000 – Chicago Tribune

Illinois continues to experience a resurgence of the coronavirus, with the state now averaging more than 4,000 positive diagnoses a day over the past week and a record high number of newly confirmed daily cases announced Thursday.

Source: Illinois averaging 4,000 coronavirus cases per day over past week as latest daily count approaches 5,000 – Chicago Tribune

Christianity in Britain

in the year 597, St. Augustine had to be sent to instruct the Anglo-Saxons in Christianity, as if all knowledge and remembrance of it had died out of the land.

English History

Chapter 5, 296 AD to 410 AD – Christianity in Britain – Continued

Various accounts are given as to the time when, and the persons by whom, the gospel was first introduced, some claiming St. Paul, others St. Peter, or Joseph of Arimathea, or the disciples of Polycarp, as the instruments by whom the gospel was first preached; and fixing different dates, from A.D. 43 downwards. A legend existed in the time of Bede, who wrote in the seventh century, that in the year 156, Lucius, king of the Britons, sent ambassadors to the pope Eleutherius, beseeching him to issue a mandate that he might be made a Christian, and afterwards he obtained the object of his pious petition, and the Britons preserved immaculate and sound, in peace and tranquillity, the faith which they had received, until the reign of the emperor Diocletian.

Modern writers have tried to account for…

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A new domestic cat genome assembly based on long sequence reads empowers feline genomic medicine and identifies a novel gene for dwarfism (Translation: Good news for new medicines for cats!)

The generation of Felis_catus_9.0, a new high quality reference genome for the domestic cat, helps facilitate the expansion of genomic medicine into the Felis lineage. Using Felis_catus_9.0 we analyze the landscape of genomic variation from a collection of 54 cats within the context of human gene constraint.

Source: A new domestic cat genome assembly based on long sequence reads empowers feline genomic medicine and identifies a novel gene for dwarfism

At 12, She’s a Covid ‘Long Hauler’ – The New York Times

More than seven months into the coronavirus pandemic, it has become increasingly apparent that many patients with both severe and mild illness do not fully recover. Weeks and months after exposure, these Covid “long-haulers,” as they have been called, continue experiencing a range of symptoms, including exhaustion, dizziness, shortness of breath and cognitive impairments. Children are generally at significantly less risk than older people for serious complications and death from Covid-19, but the long-term impacts of infection on them, if any, have been especially unclear.

Although doctors recognize that a small number of children have suffered a rare inflammatory syndrome shortly after infection, there is little reliable information about how many who get Covid-19 have prolonged complaints like Maggie Flannery. That could change as the proportion of children who are infected rises.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children represented 10.9 percent of reported cases nationwide as of mid-October, up from just 2.2 percent in April.

US Ice officers ‘used torture to make Africans sign own deportation orders’ | US immigration | The Guardian

According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened, choked, beaten, pepper-sprayed and threatened with more violence to make them sign. Several were put in handcuffs by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, and their fingerprints were taken forcibly in place of a signature on documents called stipulated orders of removal, by which the asylum seekers waive their rights to further immigration hearings and accept deportation. Source: US Ice officers ‘used torture to make Africans sign own deportation orders’ | US immigration | The Guardian

One Of Those Nights

yaskhan

When I am on the brink of sleep
Like a nomad trespassing the indigo night
This journey that takes me to a new morning.
When, in the fold of sleep, I hear
Birds sigh to the moon's lyre
As the glitter of nova floats
To the wind's ballad pealing the eventide
The amber of whispering breeze fades
To the hum of Cereus blooms..

In the calm of a turquoise night
Even as I sleep...
My quill lies awake
Writing the gentlest of dreams for me.

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