All posts by nedhamson

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

Illegal loggers remain hidden in Peru’s forest but timber finds global buyers | Environment | The Guardian

In this remote part of Peru’s 700,000 sq km of Amazon rainforest, there is not much beyond subsistence fishing and farming as a way to earn a living. Other options are mostly illegal: logging Amazonian hardwoods, growing coca, hunting and selling bushmeat. These activities are all prohibited, but in a region larger than Germany, the state is virtually absent. Levels of poverty and illiteracy are far above the national average. Organised crime and evangelical sects fill the vacuum. As in the Rudyard Kipling poem, here the “law of the jungle” is “as old and as true as the sky”.

The murder of forest campaigner Edwin Chota with three fellow Ashaninka leaders – Jorge Rios, Leonicio Quintisima and Francisco Piñedo – at the beginning of last month briefly drew the world’s attention to Peru’s rainforest. The remains of just three men, shot dead in the forest, have been found. DNA profiling using relatives’ hair samples are being used to identify the bodies. The authorities arrested the alleged killers, illegal loggers Adeuzo and Eurico Mapes, a father-and-son pair who are reported to have threatened Chota when he informed officials of their activities. These complaints fell on deaf ears, say members of his community, Alto-Tamaya Saweto.

via Illegal loggers remain hidden in Peru’s forest but timber finds global buyers | Environment | The Guardian.

Where’s Monty Hall when we need him? SoCal Researcher Launches Crowdfunded Effort To Find Cure For Ebola: LAist

{Is the race to find a vaccine or cure for ebola – which had more or less been ignored for 30 some years globally for lack of profit – becoming the new “Let’s Make a Deal!” for researchers and drug firms? The first to find a real advance will be able to trade on that for investments and support for other more profitable efforts in the future!}

Professor Saphire is leading the charge at Scripps to find a cure for Ebola, having already led in the development of the experimental ZMapp serum has cured five patients this past summer of the virus. In order to find the antibodies that will fight the virus effectively, her work requires samples being shipped in from around the globe. Unfortunately, her lab is limited in resources, and has started a CrowdRise fundraiser in order to get the money for personnel and equipment. So far, we’re at $14,000 of her $100,000 goal.

Saphire was on KPCC’s Take Two this morning to talk about her efforts, and addressed the concerns that research for a cure isn’t what the current epidemic needs right at this moment:

It’s true that none of these experimental therapies are going to be available in enough doses to treat everybody; it’s just not possible. To contain this outbreak the focus really needs to be on medical supplies and medical care. We just can’t have people dying in the streets and infecting their families at home. They need to be cared for by doctors and nurses that have supplies to protect themselves, but the contain and control isn’t enough. One of the things about crowdfunding is it gives people the control. They can choose what they want to invest in and maybe they want to put some of their resources toward supplies like medical gloves and bleach and maybe they want to put some of their resources toward getting a cure ready to treat this thing.

via SoCal Researcher Launches Crowdfunded Effort To Find Cure For Ebola: LAist.

Race for Status May or May Not Help Stop Ebola… Chinese firm pushes Ebola drug it says can cure deadly virus | South China Morning Post

{Russia says it has a cure, Canada and US have a cure, UK has a treatment, India and Japan will be next to claim they are working on a cure and/or vaccine – and those dying of Ebola are really not as important as status to be won in eyes of world – and hoped for profit in other drugs later}

A Chinese drug maker with close military ties is seeking fast-track approval for a drug that it says can cure Ebola, as China joins the race to help treat a deadly outbreak of a disease that has spread from Africa to the United States and Europe.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical has signed a tie-up with China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) last week to help push the drug called JK-05 through the approval process in China and bring it to market. The drug, developed by the academy, is currently approved for emergency military use only.

“We believe that we can file to the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) before the end of the year,” Sihuan’s chairman Che Fengsheng said during an investor call last week.

“They are looking at this very seriously … and we could get on the ‘green light’ track,” he added.

Sihuan’s drug is only one contender among a number of experimental cures worldwide to treat Ebola, although if successful it would be a huge boon for China’s developing pharmaceutical sector and the country’s soft power in Africa, an increasingly important partner for the world’s No.2 economy.

via Chinese firm pushes Ebola drug it says can cure deadly virus | South China Morning Post.

America The Whiny: Everyone Blames Everyone For An Ebola Disaster That Has Yet To Occur

s there absolutely nothing left in this country that we can take on as a nation without someone heading for the nearest cable TV news studio or on-line publication to lay the blame for our latest problem on the President, the government, racism or some other convenient entity?

via America The Whiny: Everyone Blames Everyone For An Ebola Disaster That Has Yet To Occur.

Pumpkin Seed Pesto by Williams Sonoma recalled over botulism threat | OregonLive.com

Pumpkin Seed Pesto by Williams Sonoma recalled over botulism threat | OregonLive.com.

 

Williams Sonoma is recalling Pumpkin Seed pesto sold nationwide over a botulism threat.

The California Department of Public Health, which discovered the problem, warned consumers not to eat the product because it was improperly manufactured and may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. The bacterium produces a nerve toxin that can cause paralysis.

The pesto, produced by California Olive and Vine of Sutter, Calif., has been distributed nationwide in Williams Sonoma stores since September. They were sold in 8-oz. ounce glass jars with screw-on metal lids, marked with the stocking numbers 6404305 and 6389043.

Israeli military training targets Children in Aida Camp

Local sources said that on Sunday 12 October the Israeli Occupation Forces stormed into Aida refugee camp without any provocation and began shooting tear gas, sound bombs and rubber coated steel bullets at children in the streets.

Eye wittness and photographer Mohammad AL-Azza said that “They were searching houses, occupying rooftops and invading the whole camp”.

He added “Yesterday, they were training soldiers by using families, children and homes as military practice. Tamer Abu Salem, 13 years old, was in Lajee Center moments before he was shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet. Tamer underwent emergency surgery after arriving at the hospital and he is still in the ICU. Before the soldiers left the camp, they shot two bullets through Lajee Center’s windows as punishment. The occupation is on-going, and our struggle continues.”

via Israeli military training targets Children in Aida Camp.

Columbus’ Discovery – Vatican Encouraged Slavery

The principles of “discovery” come out of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V declared war on all non-Christians. He provided King Alfonso of Portugal a papal bull known as Romanus Pontifex. In this papal bull, Nicholas directed King Alfonso to “capture, vanquish, and subdue the saracens, pagans, and all other enemies of Christ,” to “put them into perpetual slavery,” and “to take all their possessions and property.” Pope Nicholas claimed that those who were not Christian did not have the right to be viewed as human beings. To emphasize this point, Pope Nicholas also issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which legalized slavery as an act of a just war. Under the authority of these two papal bulls, King Alfonso traveled up and down the western coast of Africa claiming all the lands that he discovered, and enslaving the people. This gave rise to a monumental expansion in the African slave trade, which followed Columbus to this country.

Forty years after King Alfonso pillaged the West African coastline, Columbus set off to find Asia. By that time, a well-known tradition of Christian “discovery” had been established in Europe. This gave Columbus the express authority to take possession of any lands that he discovered that were not already under Christian rule. Following his accidental discovery of the Americas, Columbus returned to Europe where Pope Alexander VI ratified Spain’s claim to the lands that he had discovered, by issuing the papal bull Inter Cetera. Inter Cetera granted Spain the right to officially conquer the lands that Columbus had discovered during his 1492 voyage. Thus, acting under the authority of the Catholic Church, Columbus returned to the Americas where he engaged in heinous acts of genocide,

via Columbus’ Discovery.