All posts by nedhamson

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

UN: 50 new Ebola cases in 2 African countries since last week, deadly virus still spreading

The U.N. health agency says there have been 50 new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Liberia since last week as the disease, among the deadliest in the world, keeps spreading in West Africa.

The World Health Organization says 34 new cases were reported by Sierra Leone and 16 by Liberia since July 3.

WHO officials said in a statement Tuesday the outbreak in those two countries and Guinea shows “a mixed picture” because of a reduction in the number of new cases in Guinea, where no new cases have been reported during the past week.

The agency says as of Sunday, there have been 844 cases of Ebola in the three countries, including 518 deaths.

via UN: 50 new Ebola cases in 2 African countries since last week, deadly virus still spreading.

Latino, Asian farmers lead strawberry industry | Turlock | Modesto Bee

The report is titled “Growing the American Dream: California Strawberry Farming’s Rich History of Immigrants & Opportunity.”

It said 65 percent of the farmers are Latinos, a quarter of them former field workers. The 20 percent who are Asian include Japanese American farmers, who have been part of the industry for about a century, and people with roots in Laos.

via Asian, Latino farmers lead strawberry industry | Turlock | Modesto Bee.

Loyalty of oil producers? To Profit$, not America – Qatar and Exxon Mobil seek LNG exporting through Houston company Golden Pass Products – Houston Business Journal

A final investment decision is expected in 2015, after which Golden Pass Products would invest approximately $10 billion over five years to build the proposed facility. Golden Pass claims the effort would create about 45,000 direct and indirect jobs across the nation during the construction phase.

The company also is awaiting Department of Energy authorization for export to non-free trade agreement nations in Asia and Europe.

via Qatar and Exxon Mobil seek LNG exporting through Houston company Golden Pass Products – Houston Business Journal.

82 shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago over July 4th – chicagotribune.com

It was just one of dozens of shooting scenes across Chicago over the long Fourth of July weekend. In all, at least 82 people were shot, 14 of them fatally, since Thursday afternoon when two woman were shot as they sat outside a two-flat within a block of Garfield Park.

Five of the people were shot by police over 36 hours on Friday and Saturday, including two boys 14 and 16 who were killed when they allegedly refused to drop their guns.

Many of the long weekend’s shootings were on the South Side, clustered in the Englewood, Roseland, Gresham and West Pullman neighborhoods that rank among the most violent in the city.

The victims ranged from the 14-year-boy shot by police in the Old Irving Park neighborhood to a 66-year-old woman grazed in the head as she walked up the steps of her porch on the Far South Side.  Most victims were in their late teens and 20s.

via 82 shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago over July 4th – chicagotribune.com.

ADM Buys Wild Flavors

“We intend to maintain the Wild Flavors name and grow the brand and the innovative, entrepreneurial culture that sustains it,” said Woertz. “We appreciate the difference in our business models, and will support continued success of the Wild Flavors model by establishing a new business unit called Wild Flavors and Specialty Ingredients. The new unit will include many of our specialty ingredients.”

via ADM Buys Wild Flavors.

Translation: GMO and artificial ingredients will soon be added and with no labeling requirements – who will be the wiser?

Soylant Green is People! Consumer Reports survey ranks McDonald’s McGriddle above Taco Bell’s Waffle Taco – Louisville – Business First

Three out of three taste testers concurred: Taco Bell’s Waffle Taco doesn’t tickle taste buds like a McDonald’s McGriddle breakfast sandwich.

Consumer Reports, a Yonkers, N.Y.-based nonprofit that reviews consumer products, decided to have some fun this year while compiling stories and information related to its fast-food restaurant chain survey released this month. The survey ranked 65 fast-food chains using more than 96,000 of its subscribers’ dining experiences.

via Consumer Reports survey ranks McDonald’s McGriddle above Taco Bell’s Waffle Taco – Louisville – Business First.

Tissue Alert – Free at last: Elephant ‘cries’ while being rescued after 50 years of abuse and being kept in chains in UP – The Times of India

An elephant that was kept in chains for 50 years and abused by a drug addict who used the animal to beg has been freed.

Raju had been beaten and starved since being poached from the wild as a baby and resorted to eating paper and plastic to fill his stomach.

The chains and spikes wrapped around his legs had left him with chronic wounds and arthritis and he was in almost constant pain.

But now he is walking free for the first time after a daring rescue by conservationists with a court order by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department to take the elephant from his abusive owner.

The charity took Raju in the middle of the night on Thursday, supported by police and state officials.

The elephant’s mahout and previous owner tried to stop him being taken by adding more chains and having people block the roads for the rescue lorry.

Experts worked for hours to gain the elephant’s trust with fruit and encouragement until they could get him into the van that would take him to a sanctuary.

When Raju was being rescued, volunteers said they saw tears rolling down his face.

Pooja Binepal, from Wildlife SOS UK, said: “The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was so incredibly emotional for all of us.

“We knew in our hearts he realised he was being freed.

“Elephants are not only majestic, but they are highly intelligent animals, who have been proven to have feelings of grief, so we can only imagine what torture half a century has been like for him.”

Kartick Satyanarayan, the charity’s co-founder, said the mahout tried to make the elephant charge by shouting commands.

He added: “We stood our ground and refused to back down – and as we did so, tears began to roll down Raju’s face.

“Some no doubt were due to the pain being inflicted by the chains, but he also seemed to sense that change was coming.

“It was as if he felt hope for the first time in a very long time.”

Almost two days later and 350 miles away in Mathura, the chains were removed after 45 painstaking minutes.

A video showed the moment they cut the painful spikes and chains binding the animal’s legs so he could walk freely for the first time.

Mr Satyanarayan said: “We all had tears in our eyes as the last rope which held the final spike was cut and Raju took his first steps of freedom.”

Other elephants at the Conservation and Care Centre at Mathura came to watch the new arrival.

He is being fed to restore him to a healthy weight and vets are treating his many wounds and abscesses from beatings and chains.

via Free at last: Elephant ‘cries’ while being rescued after 50 years of abuse and being kept in chains in UP – The Times of India.

Order of Melchizedek

Steve A. Wiggins

WhyPriests?A considered reflection from a long-time believer is a force never to be taken lightly. Garry Wills is a lifelong Catholic and an intellectual. His book, Why Priests? A Failed Tradition, was recommended to me by a friend and it is indeed a book that raises most profound questions. To someone born Protestant, such as the current writer, many of the arguments Wills marshals are strangely familiar. Many were lobbed in Fundamentalist harangues where clergy that believe in a literal six-day creation proved surprisingly adroit at finding the chinks in Catholic armor. The New Testament says nothing about the Christian movement having its own priests. And even the explicit command that seems to have come from Jesus—call no man father—is immediately reversed once priests become a fixture in a priestless faith. Wills explores the origins of these practices not to tear apart the religion of which he remains a…

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Afifa Aza: There’s More to Life Than Just Getting By

Petchary's Blog

“People are leaving here, because it’s not livable. I want to make it livable.”

I often see Afifa Aza in our favorite café in Kingston, perched at a table with headphones on her ears. She has a self-deprecating smile and tufty hair. She is an artist – an artist who is also an activist. She wants to “guide ideas,” to help them grow. And to help Jamaica grow into a living, breathing, vibrant, inclusive society – so that people will not want to leave. She doesn’t want them to leave (and nor do I). So, we sat down and talked, recently, in our favorite café.

Afifa Aza says she is "grounded in an African/Rastafarian spirituality." Afifa Aza is “grounded in an African/Rastafarian spirituality.”

Afifa is the co-founder (with feminist Georgia Love, who is an active member of Women’s Media Watch) of two alternative spaces – for art, learning, culture, growth, dialogue. One is SO((U))L HQ, in Stony Hill, just…

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