All posts by nedhamson

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

Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga | Fit and Feminist

This was definitely a tough race, and while I would have liked to have gone into it with better training, I still can’t complain about it too much.  I mean, for one, I PRed.  It would be completely obnoxious for me to be upset about that. I also managed to finally have an OK run during a half-ironman. I think that’s because I finally have a bit of experience at this distance to draw on, so I knew when to pull back and when to push and how to manage my nutrition. That said, I still have a LOT to learn.  Which is great!  It makes for a fun adventure. And then of course there’s the fitness side of things.  I’ve noticed over the years that my level of base fitness has gradually increased to the point where races I used to have to train my ass off for – like, say, half-marathons or Olympic distance triathlons – are now things where I can go out and race pretty hard without a ton of preparation, and I’m apparently starting to reach that level with even longer events. I have to say I’m pretty pleased by this.  I enjoy feeling strong and fit and healthy. I like being capable of doing hard physical shit. I particularly like seeing how my body and my mind continue to develop into a person who would have been unrecognizable to previous versions of myself.

Source: Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga | Fit and Feminist

WHO: Angola yellow fever deaths cross 300 | News | DW.COM | 27.05.2016

Yellow fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Symptoms include a mild infection with fever, back pain and fatigue. But in 15 percent of cases, a second, toxic phase is experienced. This can lead to bleeding in the mouth, eyes and gastrointestinal tract. Around 20 percent of those who experience the toxic phase die. Although there is no specific treatment for yellow fever infection, vaccinations are recommended for travelers to tropical regions of Africa and Latin America’s Amazon region. Aid groups say poor health facilities and vaccine shortages are limiting Angola’s ability to cope with the outbreak. The WHO said 2.4 million doses of the yellow fever vaccine have been received and a further 2.6 million people will be receiving a jab in the next few weeks.

Source: WHO: Angola yellow fever deaths cross 300 | News | DW.COM | 27.05.2016

Putin signs economic deals with Greece | News | DW.COM | 27.05.2016

Moscow also seems to be interested in investing money in a number of privatization deals in Greece, such as the port of Thessaloniki. Greece has repeatedly turned to Russia in the past to ask for funds, as the economic crisis in the country deepened. In addition to its debt problems, Greece also now has to deal with being on the frontline of the biggest mass migration in Europe since the end of World War II. Sanctions in the way of stability Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras criticized what he branded a vicious circle of sanctions imposed on Russia, while stressing that Greece belonged to the EU “and respects absolutely its commitments to the international organizations to which it belongs.”

Source: Putin signs economic deals with Greece | News | DW.COM | 27.05.2016

Douban …A new perspective to folklore dance — nadiaharhash

I am not a big fan of Dabkeh, probably because I am not a performer, and I have never been trained to dance. But there is something about Dabkeh that definitely identifies internally with our Palestinian identity. A state of connectedness that immediately rushes in your blood giving it a new flow … […]

via Douban …A new perspective to folklore dance — nadiaharhash

Misremembering Tivoli — Petchary’s Blog

A blogger friend in Guyana, Mark Jacobs, used this word in the context of a tragic event in his own country: The unsolved murder of a human rights activist just before the general elections of May 11, 2015. Mark starts his latest blog post thus: because you have choose to misremember, don’t think everyone else […]

via Misremembering Tivoli — Petchary’s Blog

Bratton: There’s An “Epidemic” Of People Filming Police: Gothamist – doing the one foot in and one foot back dance!

Bratton’s defense of Martinez is inconsistent with his stark condemnation of four undercover NYPD officers that were caught on video harassing and arresting Crown Heights postal worker Glen Grays without cause. “You do not have a right to resist arrest and in so many of those videos, people are resisting violently and being encouraged by the crowd,” Bratton said Wednesday. Two years ago, Eric Garner was arrested and put in a chokehold by plainclothes NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island. Garner was killed in the incident, and his death was ruled a homicide. (A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo.) His deadly arrest was filmed by Ramsey Orta, and the footage ignited heated nationwide debate about police brutality, racist policing patterns, and the potential benefits of placing mandatory body cameras on law enforcement officers. Filming police with your cellphone is completely legal, but plenty of NYPD cops will still arrest you for it.

Source: Bratton: There’s An “Epidemic” Of People Filming Police: Gothamist

US warns of nearly invincible superbug | News | DW.COM | {The final “oops!”?}

US health officials reported Thursday that they had discovered the first case in the country of a patient with an infection resistant to all known antibiotics. The discovery raises fears that the so-called superbug could pose serious danger for routine infections if it spreads. “We know now that the more we look, the more we are going to find. We risk being in a post-antibiotic world,” said Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to the urinary tract infection of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who had not travelled within the prior five months. “We need to do a very comprehensive job of protecting antibiotics, so we can have them and our children can have them,” Frieden added.

Source: US warns of nearly invincible superbug | News | DW.COM | 26.05.2016

Quote of the Day: “You’re a Bigot, Lady”

The witness, University of San Diego law professor Gail Heriot, lambasted the recent Departments of Justice and Education guidance on transgender students’ rights, declaring that “[i]f someone had said in 1972 that one day Title IX would be interpreted to force schools to allow anatomically intact boys who psychologically ‘identify’ as girls to use the girls’ locker room, he would have been greeted with hoots of laughter.” Heriot went on to dismiss trans students’ gender identities as “a fantasy,” asserting that, “I [am not] a great-horned owl just because, as I have been told, I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures.”

Lofgren wasn’t having any of it. She condemned Heriot’s transphobia, noted the disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination that trans students suffer, and declared her objection that Heriot’s hateful comments — many of which, by the way, are legally suspect in addition to unethical and bigoted — were ever entered into the record to begin with. Then, over the objections of Republican Chairman King — who demanded “civil” language from Lofgren but (of course) not from Heriot — Lofgren declared: I think you’re a bigot lady. I think you’re an ignorant bigot. Mic drop.

Source: Quote of the Day: “You’re a Bigot, Lady”

Eurosurveillance – Europe at risk for Dengue, Zika, and CHIKV? You bet and at your nearest airport!

The outbreak of seven autochthonous dengue cases reported by Succo et al. in this issue of Eurosurveillance [6] was triggered by one infected traveller returning from French Polynesia in the summer of 2015, and occurred in an area where another vector, Ae. albopictus, the Asian Tiger mosquito, was established in 2005. This is not the first event of local transmission of DENV reported in Europe in recent years. Since 2010, at least 23 dengue cases were detected. In September 2010, two autochthonous cases of dengue fever were identified in Nice, southern France. The index case had friends from the West French Indies staying with him, while the second case was an individual living nearby [7]. In the summer of the same year, another transmission event occurred in Croatia [8,9]. The index case was a German man returning in mid-August from a two-week holiday spent at the Peljesac peninsula and the isle of Korĉula, ca 100 km north-west of Dubrovnik. A second autochthonous case, and other 15 individuals with serological evidence of recent infection, were identified in October 2010. How the virus was introduced in Croatia remains unclear. In 2013 and 2014, five autochthonous case of dengue were identified in southern France, one in Bouches-du-Rhône (2013) [10], and four in Aubage and Toulon-Hìres (2014) [11]. Ae. albopictus was the vector in all the transmission events listed here. Dengue is not the only Aedes-borne viral disease threatening the health of European citizens. Nearly 10 years ago, in the summer of 2007, more than 250 cases of chikungunya occurred in the north-east of Italy [12]. The primary case was a viraemic individual arriving from the Indian State of Kerala. The chikungunya virus (CHIKV) implicated in the sustained outbreak carried the A226V mutation, which increases virus fitness and is usually detected in areas where the Tiger mosquito is the predominant vector [13]. In September 2010, autochthonous transmission of the CHIKV was also identified in south-east France, where chikungunya was diagnosed in two children living in the same area as another child who developed a febrile illness after returning from Rajasthan, India [14].

Source: Eurosurveillance – View Article

Douban …A new perspective to folklore dance

نادية حرحش

I am not a big fan of Dabkeh, probably because I am not a performer, and I have never been trained to dance. But there is something about Dabkeh that definitely identifies internally with our Palestinian identity. A state of connectedness that immediately rushes in your blood giving it a new flow … excitement … pride…. Steadfastness…. Deep and high.

I encouraged my children when they decided to join Dabkeh groups. I was fascinated with their interest in learning it.

Somewhere….

It is a new generation.

With a new taste. Even when it comes to folklore….

It’s Douban.

This mélange of modern and tradition in such a breathtaking image, beautifully painted with youthful lines and cheerful colors.

Joy and hard work…

Stumping forcefully on the ground and

Flying softly off to the sky….

Penetrating your sensations into unidentified horizons…

Breaking through your roots …

Inside an awakening dream

Of a…

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