Category Archives: environment
Upsala Glacier Retreat : Image of the Day
This photograph by an astronaut on the International Space Station highlights the snout of the Upsala Glacier (49.88°S, 73.3°W) on the Argentine side of the North Patagonian Icefield. Ice flow in this glacier comes from the north (right in this rotated image). Dark lines of rocky debris (moraine) within the ice give a sense of the slow ice flow from right to left.
WHO reports millions of TB/MDR-TB patients missed by health care system | Vaccine News Daily
WHO reports millions of TB/MDR-TB patients missed by health care system | Vaccine News Daily. The report estimates that roughly three million people are currently infected with TB without access to quality medical care; it is believed 75 percent of this population is concentrated in 12 countries. The WHO also reports that treatment for those with MDR-TB infections must be improved, as the disease continues to gain strength.
“The WHO Global TB report highlights the very big gains the global community has made in the fight against tuberculosis,” Osamu Kunii, head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said. “We are now at a crucial moment where we cannot afford to let these gains go into reverse. We need the commitment of the international community to address the significant funding gap to fight this disease.”
Pesticide illness triggers anti-Monsanto protest in Argentina | Environment | DW.DE | 25.10.2013
Sofía Gatica sits in the sun on a café patio in the Argentine city of Córdoba. She talks about raising her three children in Ituzaingó, a Córdoba suburb surrounded by soy fields. In the mid-1990s her oldest son became extremely ill.
\”When he was four years old, he came down with the illness that left him temporarily paralyzed,\” she recalls. \”He was admitted to the hospital. They told me that they didn\’t know what was wrong with him.\”
The Gatica family lived just fifty meters from fields planted with genetically-modified soy. Planes regularly flew overhead, spraying the plants with the herbicide glyphosate. Slowly, the entire suburb started getting sick.
Argentina is the world\’s third-largest soy producer
\”Children were being born with deformities,\” Sofia says, \”little babies were being born with six fingers, without a jawbone, missing a skull bone, with kidney deformities, without an anus – and a lot of mothers and fathers were developing cancer.\”
In 1999, Sofía Gatica gave birth to her fourth baby, a little girl. Three days later, the baby died of kidney failure. The loss of her child prompted Gatica to take action. She decided to find out what was happening in her neighborhood.
\”I went door-to-door and did a survey – asking each mother for the sick person\’s name, address, clinic, everything. And each mother sent me to another, and to another, and so on.\”
via Pesticide illness triggers anti-Monsanto protest in Argentina | Environment | DW.DE | 25.10.2013.
Scientists creating super bird flu virus to prevent epidemic | World | News | Toronto Sun
Ultra-dangerous hubris at work in Netherlands Lab –
Steven Salzberg, a professor of medicine and biostatistics from John Hopkins School of Medicine, accused them of \”an outrageous display of chutzpah\” and says Fouchier \”is deeply confused about the possible benefits of this work\”, which Salzberg argues are marginal at best.
\”The notion of \’gain of function\’ research on pathogens is very, very dangerous,\” he told Reuters.
via Scientists creating super bird flu virus to prevent epidemic | World | News | Toronto Sun.
Human Milk Purchased Via the Internet May Contain High Levels of Bacteria – HealthyChildren.org
The milk samples were sent to a rented mail box in Ohio, and later compared with samples of unpasteurized, donated milk obtained through a milk bank. Seventy-four percent of the Internet milk samples were colonized with high bacterial counts overall, or had at least some Gram-negative bacteria; and 64 percent of the Internet samples tested positive for staphylococcus, compared to 25 percent of the milk bank samples. Three of the Internet samples were contaminated with Salmonella. The high overall bacterial growth and frequent contamination with disease-causing bacteria in the Internet milk reflected poor collection, storage or shipping practices, according to the study authors.
via Human Milk Purchased Via the Internet May Contain High Levels of Bacteria – HealthyChildren.org.
Avian Flu Diary: Cambodia Reports 21st H5N1 Case Of 2013
While a worrisome trend, so far, all of the cases this year appear to be widely scattered, and are attributed to direct contact to infected poultry. There are no indications of human-to-human spread of the virus.
via Avian Flu Diary: Cambodia Reports 21st H5N1 Case Of 2013.
Cold temperatures and chilli peppers help burn fat, Japanese study says
Turn up the AC and eat chilis or how about some chilli smoothies?
Exposure to cold and consuming natural substances found in chilli peppers could help burn fat, a new Japanese study has found. Spending time in low temperatures and consumption of these capsinoids found in chilli peppers both appear to increase the number and activity of so-called brown fat cells, which burn energy, rather than store it as typical \”white\” fat cells do, said Takeshi Yoneshiro, a researcher at Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan
via Cold temperatures and chilli peppers help burn fat, Japanese study says.
Second Oarfish In A Week Washes Ashore : LAist
An oceanic canary in the mine? Something needs investigating!
For the second time in a week, a rare serpentine oarfish has surfaced on a Southern California beach, NBC reports.
The one found Friday afternoon at Oceanside Harbor wasn\’t quite as large as the 18-foot behemoth found near Catalina Island. This one was only 13-and-a-half feet long. It weighed an estimated 200 pounds and took 15 people to carry.
That is actually quite small for an oarfish. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it\’s the largest bony fish in the sea and can grow to more than 50 feet long.
Over half a million pensioners dead and the Tories have gone from long johns to jumpers | Pride’s Purge
Tories are making exactly the same mistake – this time ‘advising’ elderly people who can’t afford to heat their homes properly that they should avoid hypothermia by wearing jumpers.
This ‘advice’ unsurprisingly isn’t working because Age UK estimate that as many as 200 old people die every day in the UK from cold during the winter. That’s around 24,000 old people dying of cold every year because they don’t have enough money to keep themselves warm.
Which means during the 25 years it’s taken the Tories to go from woolly hats and long johns under the Thatcher government to jumpers under David Cameron’s – well over half a million old people have died from the cold in the UK.


You must be logged in to post a comment.