Category Archives: Fail!

This Islamic State nightmare is not a holy war but an unholy mess | Jonathan Freedland | Commentisfree | The Guardian

“Islamic State are jihadis with MBAs,” says Dodge, speaking of a movement so modern it has its own gift shop. He notes its combination of fierce religious ideology, financial acumen and tactical nous. “It’s Darwinian,” he adds, describing IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his inner circle as those strong enough to have survived the US hammering of al-Qaida in Iraq between 2007 and 2009. But what has been crucial, Dodge says, is “not ancient hatreds but this collapse of state power”.

Which partly explains IS’s choice of targets. It attacks wherever it sees a gap, an area of weakness where the state’s writ does not run or that will be too feeble to resist. So when IS’s advance south to Baghdad was repelled, the organisation turned and looked for vacuums to fill. Christian areas were one such target; the remote Sinjar stronghold of the Yazidis is another. With a merciless appetite for territory, IS hunts down any patches of Iraq or Syria it believes can be conquered easily.

via This Islamic State nightmare is not a holy war but an unholy mess | Jonathan Freedland | Commentisfree | The Guardian.

This Tick’s Bite Can Turn You Vegetarian: Gothamist

If you enjoy a juicy hamburger or a well-seared steak, we’d advise steering clear of any wooded areas unless wearing full protective gear. A type of tick spotted on Long Island called the Lone Star tick can cause its victims to develop an allergy to red meat, reports NBC New York. All in favor of renaming it Vegan’s Revenge say aye!

via This Tick’s Bite Can Turn You Vegetarian: Gothamist.

WHO | WHO Statement on the Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee Regarding the 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

< Me: The nut of the problem is still that in responding to pressure from many governments is that no one wants to close borders to trade and travel because of economic worries and that health is still not number one! >

But read the whole announcement – don’t rely on what others, say they said.

 

There should be no general ban on international travel or trade; restrictions outlined in these recommendations regarding the travel of EVD cases and contacts should be implemented.

States should provide travelers to Ebola affected and at-risk areas with relevant information on risks, measures to minimize those risks, and advice for managing a potential exposure.

States should be prepared to detect, investigate, and manage Ebola cases; this should include assured access to a qualified diagnostic laboratory for EVD and, where appropriate, the capacity to manage travelers originating from known Ebola-infected areas who arrive at international airports or major land crossing points with unexplained febrile illness.

The general public should be provided with accurate and relevant information on the Ebola outbreak and measures to reduce the risk of exposure.

States should be prepared to facilitate the evacuation and repatriation of nationals (e.g. health workers) who have been exposed to Ebola.

via WHO | WHO Statement on the Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee Regarding the 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa.

Australian Eric Abetz under fire for backing false claims linking abortion to breast cancer | World | The Guardian

{Aussies are pretty famous for the swimming crawl and it seems their politicians pretty good at back stroke as well?}

A senior government minister, Eric Abetz, has faced criticism from the Australian Medical Association and the Breast Cancer Network of Australia for giving credence to a debunked link between abortion and breast cancer.

The employment minister, who is also the government’s leader in the Senate, said during a television interview: “I think the studies, and I think they date back from the 1950s, assert that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer.”

Abetz was defending his support for the upcoming World Congress of Families event in Melbourne where the speakers will include an American anti-abortion campaigner and doctor, Angela Lanfranchi, who also opposes use of the contraceptive pill.

But the World Health Organisation and leading medical bodies have said there is no evidence of a link, and the AMA and the Breast Cancer Network of Australia described Abetz’s comments as irresponsible because they could cause women unnecessary concern.

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The AMA president, Brian Owler, told Guardian Australia: “I respect his right to have a view about abortion and I recognise there’s a range of views in the community … but what is inappropriate is for a senior member of the government to go on national television and use this pseudoscience of these false claims that have been put out by a group that is pushing a particular ideology to spread that ideology.

“That is irresponsible and not the behaviour we’d expect of a senior member of the government.”

Abetz has since tried to hose down the controversy, saying he “was cut off before being able to acknowledge that Dr Angela Lanfranchi’s views on this topic were not the accepted medical view”.

“Media reports that I have drawn or believe there is a link between abortion and breast cancer are incorrect,” he said in a statement.

The senator said he did not endorse the views of every speaker at the conference, but added that Lanfranchi was a breast cancer surgeon and had “the right to free speech in Australia”. “I accept the AMA has a right to disagree with Dr Lanfranchi’s views,” Abetz said.

The statement was designed to head off controversy generated by the minister’s interview with Ten’s The Project on Thursday night.

In the interview, Abetz said he was supporting the World Congress of Families “based on their basic views and beliefs that they support the traditional view of marriage and that they are pro-life”.

“They are two values that I personally and, might I add, many of our fellow Australians do hold dear,” he said.

via Eric Abetz under fire for backing false claims linking abortion to breast cancer | World | The Guardian.

Contagious Disease Surveillance | Virus Awareness | Ebola Map | HealthMap

“The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread. On Friday, WHO announced the Ebola outbreak — the largest and longest in history — is worrying enough to merit being declared an international health emergency. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu pandemic in 2009 and for polio in May. This agency had convened an expert committee this week to assess the severity of the ongoing epidemic in West Africa. The current outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea in March and has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola and the death rate has been about 50 percent.”

via Contagious Disease Surveillance | Virus Awareness | Ebola Map | HealthMap.

After taking Sinjar, IS draws Iraqi Kurds into full-scale war – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The very essence of the terror strategy – unconditional and irrational killing to scare their target for control into running away or joining in.”

“[IS’] most successful tactic has been their propaganda,” Harsin said as he headed toward Makhmour Thursday morning. “They scare people that way; otherwise, they don’t have a large fighting force.”

via After taking Sinjar, IS draws Iraqi Kurds into full-scale war – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

IRIN Middle East | Gaza diary: Life under Israeli assault | Israel | OPT | Conflict | Security | Urban Risk

{Like London Calling in 1940 – Gaza calling for the 3rd time!}

Many Palestinians are tired and sad. In the rest of the world I am 26 years old, but here in Gaza we have a different measure of time – I am 3 wars old. Too many years of Israeli attacks have worn us down. When I graduated I had options to work in many countries. Instead I returned to Gaza to rebuild the city I know and love. Now we are faced with starting again.

Yet we also share a common spirit of resilience. We have paid a high cost in lives in this conflict. But if that’s the price for long-term changes – breaking the siege and obtaining freedom – it’s one many of us feel we have no choice but to swallow. Otherwise, we would merely be replacing the quick death of an airstrike with the slow death of the blockade.

Haytham Besaiso is a civil engineer who has an MSc from the University of Manchester in the UK

via IRIN Middle East | Gaza diary: Life under Israeli assault | Israel | OPT | Conflict | Security | Urban Risk.

Azerbaijan’s president threatens war with Armenia via Twitter | World | The Guardian

AKA: He thinks no one is looking, so now is his big chance to look tough and lord over Armenians! Enough! Leave Armenians alone!

Azerbaijan’s president has threatened war with Armenia via Twitter, after dozens were killed in clashes over a disputed area of land that both countries lay claim to.

In a lengthy series of tweets, President Ilham Aliyev said several Azeri lives had been lost in clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, and pledged to restore what he said was his country’s “territorial integrity”.

The two sides began fighting over the mountainous region in the final years of the USSR. Armenian forces took de facto control of Nagorno-Karabakh, where some 90 per cent of the population is ethnic Armenian, but it remains part of Azerbaijan under law.

A Russia-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1994 after six years of fierce fighting, which claimed the lives of an estimated 30,000 people. The dispute has become one of the world’s ‘frozen conflicts’, and dozens are killed in clashes along the highly-militarised ‘line of contact’ each year.

via Azerbaijan’s president threatens war with Armenia via Twitter | World | The Guardian.

Pro-Palestine supporters urged to ditch Garnier over its support for Israeli army

‘It’s time to ditch Garnier’. That’s the message from Palestinian human rights organisation, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, as it emerged that Garnier has, over the last few days, provided ‘care packages’ of face creams, deodorants, soaps and other cosmetics to female members of the Israeli army.

The company says it has provided the ‘girly’ packages to the women ‘so they can still pamper themselves, even in times of war!’

Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: ‘It’s beyond words that, while the Israeli army is raining death and destruction on Palestinian children, men and women in Gaza with its bombs and shells, Garnier is providing face creams and facial soaps to that army’s female soldiers.

via Pro-Palestine supporters urged to ditch Garnier over its support for Israeli army.

How Siberia’s methane craters affect the whole planet | Green Prophet

“Gas pressure increased until it was high enough to push away the overlaying layers in a powerful injection, forming the crater,” “href=”http://www.nature.com/news/mysterious-siberian-crater-attributed-to-methane-1.15649″>explained geochemist Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten of Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute.

The other two craters have diameters of 45 feet and 13 feet. And while the pockmarked peninsula poses a particular risk to local people, especially considering that industrial plants have been erected on the frozen land that is now melting away, the global community will be affected as well.

Despite the danger of investigating this “spooky” unstable landmass, archaeologist Andrei Plekhanov from the Scientific Center of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia reported in a recent Nature article that the air at the bottom of the crater consists of up to 9.6 percent methane – compared to the standard 0.000179 percent.

Related: Giant plumes of gurgling methane could fast-track planetary warming

This is worrisome because methane is far more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere – the one atmosphere that everyone on planet Earth shares.

“Pound for pound, the comparative impact of [methane gas] on climate change is over 20 times greater than [carbon dioxide] over a 100-year period,” the Environmental Protection Agency reported.

NIMBYism refers to the idea that as long as something bad (pollution, mining, social injustice) is taking place anywhere other than my back yard, it’s not my problem. But the thawing permafrost and subsequent release of methane bombs is everyone’s problem.

via How Siberia’s methane craters affect the whole planet | Green Prophet.