Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Italy imposes ‘green pass’ restrictions on unvaccinated people | Italy | The Guardian

From 5 August, entry to stadiums, museums, theatres, cinemas, exhibition centres, swimming pools and gyms will only be allowed upon presentation of a “green pass”.

The pass, which is an extension of the EU’s digital Covid certificate, will also be required in order to be served indoors at restaurants.

Source: Italy imposes ‘green pass’ restrictions on unvaccinated people | Italy | The Guardian

Argentina threatens to cancel deal for Sputnik vaccine as Russia fails to deliver | Global development | The Guardian

Argentina’s gamble on Sputnik V vaccine has left it in a “very critical situation” because of Russia’s failure to fulfill delivery commitments, according to an official letter to Moscow leaked on Thursday.

Russia owes Argentina 18.5m doses of its Sputnik V jab, over two-thirds of them vital second-component doses.

Only 12% of Argentinians are fully vaccinated so far, partly due to failed Sputnik deliveries of its second component. Another 37% have received only a single dose.

This compares disastrously with double-dose vaccination rates of over 60% in neighbouring Chile and Uruguay, countries that did not bet so heavily on the Russian vaccine.

Its low two-dose vaccination rate leaves Argentina particularly exposed to the arrival of the Delta variant. Neighbouring Uruguay, meanwhile, has already approved moving to a three-dose regimen.

Source: Argentina threatens to cancel deal for Sputnik vaccine as Russia fails to deliver | Global development | The Guardian

Some B.C. restaurants remove wild salmon from menu in response to declining stocks | CBC News

Director of fisheries and seafood at Ocean Wise, Sophika Kostyniuk, explained there are a number of complex factors that contribute to the current decrease in salmon populations. This includes, but is not limited to, warming waters from climate change, industrial pollution, agricultural runoff, barriers to salmon migration such as dams, predator-prey interactions and potential overfishing.

Ocean Wise currently rates only two Pacific salmon species from very specific locations as sustainable: coho and chinook caught with gillnets in the Stikine and Taku rivers.

However, there currently is not an Ocean Wise recommendation for the other three species: pink, sockeye and chum.

Kostyniuk explained that this is due to a lack of data from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Ocean Wise is currently waiting on this data to make a recommendation.

Source: Some B.C. restaurants remove wild salmon from menu in response to declining stocks | CBC News

As a teenage girl with Asperger’s syndrome, I’m tired of trying to be someone I’m not | CBC News

More recently, I realized that my problem was never with my diagnosis — it was with the impossible-to-achieve norms I had set for myself, trying so hard to be normal in a social setting and just ending up even more lost than I was before. If you try to be normal when you’re not, it will simply not work. It’s like a fish trying to walk on dry land. It’s literally impossible.

But I have been obsessed, my entire life, with being normal. I didn’t want to stand out and get any unwanted trouble or attention that I would not know how to deal with.

But how is that any way to live my life?

I’m learning now that restricting and defining myself based on the actions of others around me just leaves me unsatisfied and unhappy. The space in myself I used to fill with others’ personalities and quirks is now empty. I yearn to fill that gaping hole, but I do not know how.

But I am sure of some things.

I have values that have stuck with me because of my upbringing: honesty, compassion for others, empathy (sometimes too much), growth, love, creativity, equality and justice.

And I don’t think I could go a day without acquiring knowledge, it is too crucial for me. What I want is a space in which I have complete control to pursue whatever I desire.

I’m not sure what’s next, but I know I will keep learning.

Source: As a teenage girl with Asperger’s syndrome, I’m tired of trying to be someone I’m not | CBC News

As a teenage girl with Asperger’s syndrome, I’m tired of trying to be someone I’m not | CBC News

More recently, I realized that my problem was never with my diagnosis — it was with the impossible-to-achieve norms I had set for myself, trying so hard to be normal in a social setting and just ending up even more lost than I was before.

Mathilde says that after high school she knows she’ll keep up her pursuit of acquiring knowledge. (Submitted by Mathilde Brunet-Mercier)

If you try to be normal when you’re not, it will simply not work. It’s like a fish trying to walk on dry land. It’s literally impossible.

But I have been obsessed, my entire life, with being normal. I didn’t want to stand out and get any unwanted trouble or attention that I would not know how to deal with.

But how is that any way to live my life?

I’m learning now that restricting and defining myself based on the actions of others around me just leaves me unsatisfied and unhappy. The space in myself I used to fill with others’ personalities and quirks is now empty. I yearn to fill that gaping hole, but I do not know how.

But I am sure of some things.

I have values that have stuck with me because of my upbringing: honesty, compassion for others, empathy (sometimes too much), growth, love, creativity, equality and justice.

And I don’t think I could go a day without acquiring knowledge, it is too crucial for me. What I want is a space in which I have complete control to pursue whatever I desire.

I’m not sure what’s next, but I know I will keep learning.

Source: As a teenage girl with Asperger’s syndrome, I’m tired of trying to be someone I’m not | CBC News

US government to space tourists: You’re not astronauts

the transportation agency listed two ways to qualify for FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings:

  1. You have the appropriate flight crew qualifications and training, have flown beyond 50 miles above Earth on a licensed launch, and have demonstrated activities during flight that were either essential to public safety or contributed to human space flight safety.
  2. Your “contribution to commercial human space flight merits special recognition.”

Source: US government to space tourists: You’re not astronauts

COVID-19 vaccine immune response weaker in older adults – Study Finds

“Our older populations are potentially more susceptible to the variants even if they are vaccinated,” says senior author Fikadu Tafesse, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the OHSU School of Medicine, in a university release.

To be clear, researchers stress that even though older adults show a lower antibody response to vaccination, vaccines are still quite capable of stopping infection and severe illness in most people of all ages.

“The good news is that our vaccines are really strong,” Prof. Tafesse adds.

Higher vaccination rates may cut down on COVID variants

More vaccinations mean less overall COVID transmission and less of a chance of new variants emerging, two developments that can place older vaccinated adults at serious risk.

“The more people get vaccinated, the less the virus circulates,” Tafesse continues. “Older people aren’t entirely safe just because they’re vaccinated; the people around them really need to be vaccinated as well. At the end of the day, this study really means that everybody needs to be vaccinated to protect the community.”

Source: COVID-19 vaccine immune response weaker in older adults – Study Finds