All posts by nedhamson

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

WOLF: Swiss victory of biodiversity — EUROPE DIPLOMATIC

More than half of Swiss voters (51.9%) have rejected changes to the hunting laws, proposed by the Parliament. The regulation of the wolf population as protected species, has been in the focus. (Image: @nywolforg courtesy). “The result shows that the Swiss population wants to strengthen and not weaken species protection,” said Gabor von Bethlenfalvy, large […]

WOLF: Swiss victory of biodiversity — EUROPE DIPLOMATIC

Covid-19 in Scotland: Sharp spike in infections among teenagers – BBC News

Source: Covid-19 in Scotland: Sharp spike in infections among teenagers – BBC News

The largest outbreak is at the University of Glasgow, where 172 students have tested positive.

There are also clusters of cases among students in Dundee, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. More than 1,000 students across the country are now believed to be self-isolating.

Farmers Are Plagued by Debt and Climate Crisis. Trump Has Made Things Worse.

Source: Farmers Are Plagued by Debt and Climate Crisis. Trump Has Made Things Worse.

Farmer Mary Agnes Rawlings and her husband have been trying to break out of the industrial agriculture “trap” since returning to her husband’s family farm around two decades ago. One hundred ten acres of the 154-acre central Illinois farm are now organic row crops, with the help, in part, of USDA grants. On August 10, 2020, the Trump administration announced it would be reducing the amount the government reimburses farmers as part of the program to 50 percent, or $500 per project, due to “limited funding.”

“It hurts,” Rawlings said, “when farmers are already struggling with $3 dollars a bushel corn,” she says, noting that at those prices, farmers are losing fifty cents per bushel of corn they produce.

The alternative to organic, Rawlings points out, is using GMO seeds, but foods grown with them have been linked to a decline in kidney and liver function in animal studies. Putting themselves at risk takes a psychological toll, she says. Rawlings suspects her father, who worked on the family farm until he died of colon cancer, may have gotten sick because of chemicals the USDA continues to allow, like glyphosate, the synthetic herbicide under trademark by Monsanto. In spite of studies providing evidence that associates glyphosate with increased cancer risk, in January 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency announced there were “no risks of concern to human health” related to the chemical.

“There’s so many issues I don’t even know where to turn,” Rawlings told Truthout. But amid all her concerns, climate tops her list of agricultural issues, she says.

Enslaved African Saved America From Smallpox

Onesimus told Mather that he had been inoculated against smallpox in Africa and explained the process. Pus from an infected patient was rubbed into a cut on a healthy person’s arm. This deliberate infection, now known as variolation, resulted in immunity. Mather researched the therapy and discovered that it had also been used in Turkey and China. With the zeal of an evangelical Christian, he tried to get the medical establishment to test the cure.

Jamaica Woman Tongue

In 1706, the congregation of a Puritan church in Boston bought an African as a present for their pastor, Cotton Mather. You might think that an upstanding man of the cloth would have rejected that inhumane gift. He did not. Christian piety is totally compatible with exploitation of presumably inferior creatures. Mather promptly branded the African with a Biblical name, Onesimus. Perhaps, he was benevolently predicting Onesimus’ destiny. The biblical character ran away from slavery. The real-life Onesimus eventually bought himself out of slavery. True-true redemption!

The city of Boston had suffered from waves of smallpox infection in 1677, 1689-90 and 1702. Ships were quarantined and afflicted citizens were isolated in ‘pesthouses’ or held under guard. Perhaps we should have used these primitive methods on all of those potential spreaders of COVID-19 from abroad who irresponsibly violated quarantine orders. Cell-phone tracking was clearly inadequate. The honour system simply does not…

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‘They don’t want us here’: Native Americans struggle to vote in US election

Many members of the Oglala Lakota tribe on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation live in abject poverty. The system is stacked against them — even when it comes to basic rights like voting in the presidential election.

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Many members of the Oglala Lakota tribe on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation live in abject poverty. The system is stacked against them — even when it comes to basic rights like voting in the presidential election.

COVID Cases Rising 3.3 Times Faster In Hot Spot Areas Than Rest Of NYC – Gothamist

“These areas account for over 23% of new cases citywide over the past two weeks despite representing just under 7% of the City’s overall population,” the DOH said in a statement. “The growth of cases in these ZIP codes is 3.3 times the citywide average over the past 14 days.”

Source: COVID Cases Rising 3.3 Times Faster In Hot Spot Areas Than Rest Of NYC – Gothamist

COVID-19 presser halted after maskless Jewish activists harasses officials – The Jerusalem Post

Source: COVID-19 presser halted after maskless Jewish activists harasses officials – The Jerusalem Post

Former Brooklyn City Council candidate Heshy Tischler forced a press conference covering the recent spike in coronavirus cases to pause after he began verbally harassing the city health officials present, according to The New York Post.

Tischler – who is an observant Jew and wears a kippah – began yelling at Dr. Michael Katz, who heads the city’s public hospitals, with his mask in his hand, repeatedly calling the official a liar – even at one point calling the health department officials “violent Nazi stormtroopers.”

“Your numbers today are lies. Go ahead, continue to lie, you piece of garbage,” he continued. “You do not belong here. Why are you making a press conference here? Why isn’t it at City Hall?”

Katz repeatedly asked Tischler to put back on his mask, to which Tischler told Katz to “get the hell out of my community, you filthy animal.”

“Move away. You are not six feet away. Put on your mask,” Katz said to Tischler.

IDF Chief of Staff orders troops to remain on base for a month – The Jerusalem Post

The IDF announced Sunday that all soldiers due back at their bases on Tuesday following the Yom Kippur holiday must prepare for an extended stay amid efforts to contain the continued spread of the coronavirus.

In a statement, the military said that all combat soldiers as well as those currently in training and those in units where they don’t go home on weekends must prepare to stay for an extended stay for a period of up to one month. Source: IDF Chief of Staff orders troops to remain on base for a month – The Jerusalem Post