Category Archives: planetkillers

Airborne flu detection at bird markets hints at human exposure risk | CIDRAP – Duh! Virus is passed on in feces, urine, and saliva, so how can you not walk in it, breathe it, move it from place to place?

Viable avian flu virus is easily detectable in the air of live-poultry markets, which may explain why those who visit markets but don’t have direct contact with the birds become infected, according to air sampling from sites in China and Hong Kong.

Source: Airborne flu detection at bird markets hints at human exposure risk | CIDRAP

Antibiotic resistance prompts new WHO STD guidance | CIDRAP

Quinolones out for gonorrheaAffecting an estimated 78 million people each year, Neisseria gonorrhoeae has become widely resistant, and older, cheaper antibiotics have lost their treatment effectiveness. The WHO said antibiotic resistance has appeared and expanded with every release of a new antibiotic class for managing gonorrhea.According to the guidance update, countries should track antibiotic resistance patterns in the strains that are circulating in their populations.Quinolone antibiotics are no longer recommended for treating gonorrhea because of widespread high levels of resistance.The WHO also said strains are showing decreased susceptibility to extended-spectrum (third-generation) cephalosporins, a recommended first-line treatment from its 2003 guidelines. Several countries have reported treatment failures, the agency said.New guidance now covers recommendations for treating oropharyngeal infections and retreatment after treatment failure. The WHO said dual therapy is now preferred over single therapy, with single therapy based on local resistance data.Updated guidance contains changes to some dosages and suggests new topical medications for the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum, a type of conjunctivitis contracted by babies born to infected mothers.Single injection recommended for syphilisSyphilis affects about 5.6 million people each year, and infected mothers can pass the disease to their unborn babies, which can result in early fetal death or stillbirth. In its guidance, the WHO said resistance to azithromycin has been reported in some strains of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis.To cure the disease, the WHO’s new guidance strongly recommends a single dose of benzathine penicillin, an antibiotic injected into the patient’s buttock or thigh. The drug is more effective and cheaper than oral antibiotics, the WHO said.Though benzathine penicillin was deemed an essential medicine in May by the World Health Assembly, shortages have been reported for the past several years, and the WHO said it has received out-of-stock reports from antenatal care groups and from health providers in countries that have high syphilis burdens.The WHO said it is working with partners to monitor the global supply of the drug and to help bridge the gaps between needs and supply.New guidelines also address congenital syphilis, including considerations for pregnant women, people living with HIV, immunocompromised patients, and key populations such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender people.First-line chlamydia treatmentThe WHO estimates that 131 million people are infected with chlamydia each year, making it the most common bacterial STI. People infected with Chlamydia trachomatis are frequently co-infected with gonorrhea.Treatment failures have been reported for tetracyclines and macrolides, according to the WHO. The new guidance provides updates for first- and second-line treatment of the disease.The chlamydia module includes nine treatment recommendations for genital infections and lymphogranuloma venereum, the more invasive, chronic form of the disease caused by a different subtype. Recommendations also address key populations, such as those living with HIV, and include specific recommendations for genital chlamydia infection in pregnant women and for prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum.

Source: Antibiotic resistance prompts new WHO STD guidance | CIDRAP

CDC Foundation, Partners Launch Zika Contraception Access Network | News | PND

The CDC Foundation has announced the launch of an initiative in Puerto Rico to give women the option of delaying or avoiding pregnancy during the Zika outbreak in that country.The Zika Contraception Access Network (Z-CAN) will provide women with information, counseling, and a full range of same-day contraceptive options free of charge. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 65 percent of all pregnancies in Puerto Rico are unintended, and approximately one hundred and thirty-eight thousand women of childbearing age are in need of effective contraception and counseling.Initial funding for Z-CAN has been provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pfizer Foundation, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, while pharmaceutical companies have pledged large-scale product donations. To date, the CDC Foundation has trained hundreds of physicians and staff and secured funding to provide contraception, information, and counseling to fourteen thousand women, but an additional $18 million is needed to reach tens of thousands more women.

Source: CDC Foundation, Partners Launch Zika Contraception Access Network | News | PND

Colonial nostalgia is back in fashion, blinding us to the horrors of empire | Kehinde Andrews | Opinion | The Guardian

Lest we forget: far from being a benevolent saviour, the British empire was based on the exploitation, murder and devastation of people across the globe. Some notable atrocities include, but are by no means limited to: transatlantic slavery, famines in the British Raj, and brutal settler colonial regimes in Zimbabwe and Kenya. Hundreds of millions of people died as a result of Britain’s vicious regime. The empire collapsed after campaigns, rebellions and revolutions from the people who were oppressed by Britain. The natives did not happily accept colonial rule; they resisted at every turn because they understood the cost of the system to their nations.Walter Rodney’s classic book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, goes into forensic detail as to how colonialism set back the continent by creating political and economic systems that impoverished Africa, with the direct purpose of enriching Europe. Even after independence, Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of liberated Ghana, explained in the 1960s that the economic policies of the country had an “Alice in Wonderland craziness about them”, with Britain extracting all the wealth from the resources of the nation.It is essential that the legacy of the British empire is understood because it still plays a key role in the world today. The devastation of nations by European colonialism goes a long way to explaining extreme poverty and conflict in many parts of the world, and is continued in manifestly unjust trade relations. Reminiscing about the days of empire and pining for Britain to be great again is a device to avoid any reckoning with Britain’s terrible colonial legacy and debt.Perhaps a recognition of the brutality, violence and horror at the dark heart of empire would shake the nation out of its postcolonial melancholia. To acknowledge the dark side of colonialism, however, would destroy the nostalgia that is such a strong part of British imperial identity. It is far easier to get lost in national pride from Olympic success than to reckon with Britain’s history and real place in the world.

Source: Colonial nostalgia is back in fashion, blinding us to the horrors of empire | Kehinde Andrews | Opinion | The Guardian

Zika, a Formidable Enemy, Attacks and Destroys Parts of Babies’ Brains – The New York Times

The images tell a heartbreaking story: Zika’s calamitous attack on the brains of babies — as seen from the inside.With a macabre catalog of brain scans and ultrasound pictures, a new study details the devastation done to 45 Brazilian babies whose mothers were infected with Zika during pregnancy. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Radiology, is the most comprehensive collection of such images so far, and it reveals a virus that can launch assaults beyond microcephaly, the condition of unusually small heads that has become the sinister signature of Zika.Most of the babies in the study were born with microcephaly, but many of them also suffered other impairments, including damage to important parts of the brain: the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain; the cerebellum, which plays a significant role in movement, balance and speech; the basal ganglia, which are involved in thinking and emotion.

Source: Zika, a Formidable Enemy, Attacks and Destroys Parts of Babies’ Brains – The New York Times

‘Next year or the year after, the Arctic will be free of ice’ | Environment | The Guardian

Why should we be concerned about an Arctic that is free of ice in summer? People tend to think of an ice-free Arctic in summer in terms of it merely being a symbol of global change. Things happen, they say. In fact, the impact will be profound and will effect the whole planet and its population. One key effect will be albedo feedback. Sea ice reflects about 50% of the solar radiation it receives back into space. By contrast, water reflects less than 10%. So if you replace ice with water, which is darker, much more solar heat will be absorbed by the ocean and the planet will heat up even more rapidly than it is doing at present.Sea ice also acts as an air-conditioning system. Winds coming over the sea to land masses such as Siberia and Greenland will no longer be cooled as they pass over ice and these places will be heated even further. These effects could add 50% to the impact of global warming that is produced by rising carbon emissions.

Source: ‘Next year or the year after, the Arctic will be free of ice’ | Environment | The Guardian

Meet Palestine’s animal rights activists | +972 Magazine

Ahmad Safi, a PAL employee, gave us a presentation about their work. I was amazed by the amount of knowledge he had on animals in Palestine. He told us about their rescue operation to save animals from Gaza’s Khan Younis zoo who hadn’t eaten for 52 days during the 2014 Gaza War, and on treating working animals: the volunteers go to villages where donkeys and horses work the land, vaccinate them and instruct the owners about treating them respectfully.They also have a campaign to raise awareness among children about their pets.“We have to break the cycle of violence,” he said. “We have to tell these kids that what they see the occupation doing – killings, incursions and raids into their villages and schools – is not a natural reality. This violence eventually comes out on defenseless animals, and kids think it’s all right because violence is king. Everybody harms the weaker, and animals are an easy target.”“We try to convey to them that we are all living creatures, and we all have feelings – animals and human beings alike, “Sham, a volunteer, explains. “The same way we fear a tank or an armed soldier, they do too. We are under the occupation together, and therefore should help every living creature.”“It says so in the Qura,” Jiwa adds.Our ancestors didn’t eat meatI ask them whether they are vegan – khudaryat, in Arabic, meaning “herbivores.”“Sort of,” says Siham. “I barely eat meat. Since I became involved in this I noticed I don’t like the taste that much.”“I am vegetarian,” says Dana. “I gradually stopped eating murdered stuff, I can’t put in my mouth something that was once living.Sham says she does not proselytize or try to enforce anything on her family. “Palestinian cooking has so many vegetables. Even if they eat meat and I eat salad and rice, I’m happy.”“So many vegetables, yes,” adds Jiwa. “And how can you open a cafeteria without falafel? It has all the iron and protein that you need. Who needs shawarma?”“But meat is a requirement at any special meal,” I say. “Look at the iftar meal after Ramadan. Is there an Arab dinner party anywhere that doesn’t have meat?”“That’s right, Safi says. “We were taught meat was prestigious. But what did our ancestors eat? Plants and vegetables. They ate meat only once a week because they couldn’t afford it. Meat-eaters were considered the rich ones, that’s why it took over our diet. The meat industry here uses hormones profusely, we learned that from Israel. The owner of one of the biggest chicken farms in Palestine said that he learned from Israelis how to feed his chickens a mixture of chicken meat leftovers, intestines, hormones, antibiotics and some seeds, instead of the regular food, to make them fat quickly, and cash in on it. Since when did Palestinian farmers start growing chickens like that? It’s all about the money. Jews and Palestinians want to be as rich as they can.”

Source: Meet Palestine’s animal rights activists | +972 Magazine

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief – The New York Times

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.

Source: Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief – The New York Times

Sadder than sad :>(

https://youtu.be/OZynXM2mgxo

I am breaking with my tradition of posting only one article on weekends so I can spend more time doing stuff other than thinking about the world going to crap. Since I was young and living in Europe I have been a Ferrari fan…..I was living on the island of Mallorca and one day I […]

via This Is Just Wrong! — In Saner Thought

False Promises: Avoid ‘Miracle’ Rice and Just Eat a Carrot | Inter Press Service

Golden rice is a false miracle. It is a disease of nutritionally empty monocultures offered as a cure for nutritional deficiency. In fact, golden rice, if successful, will be 400 per cent less efficient in providing Vitamin A than the biodiversity alternatives that women have to offer. To get your daily requirement of Vitamin A, all you need to eat is one of the following:Two tablespoons of spinach or

Two tablespoons of spinach or cholai (amaranth) leaves or radish leavesFour tablespoons of mustard or

Four tablespoons of mustard or bathua leavesOne tablespoon of coriander chutneyOne-and-a-half tablespoon of mint chutneyOne carrotOne mangoSo, if you want to be four times more efficient than 107 Nobel laureates, just eat a carrot!Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

One tablespoon of coriander chutneyOne-and-a-half tablespoon of mint chutneyOne carrotOne mangoSo, if you want to be four times more efficient than 107 Nobel laureates, just eat a carrot!Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

One-and-a-half tablespoon of mint chutneyOne carrotOne mangoSo, if you want to be four times more efficient than 107 Nobel laureates, just eat a carrot!Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

One carrotOne mangoSo, if you want to be four times more efficient than 107 Nobel laureates, just eat a carrot!Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

One mangoSo, if you want to be four times more efficient than 107 Nobel laureates, just eat a carrot!Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

So, if you want to be four times more efficient than 107 Nobel laureates, just eat a carrot!Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vitamin A than golden rice ever will, and at a lower cost, but also provide multiple other nutrients.Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

Our critique of golden rice is that even if it is developed, it will be inferior to the alternatives women have in their hands and minds. Women are being blocked from growing biodiversity and spreading their knowledge to address malnutrition, by rich and powerful men and their corporations who are blind to the richness of the earth and our cultures.Through their monoculture of the mind, they keep imposing monocultures of failed technologies, blocking the potential of abundance and nourishment. As I wrote in 2000, blindness to biodiversity and women’s knowledge is a blind approach to blindness prevention.

Source: False Promises: Avoid ‘Miracle’ Rice and Just Eat a Carrot | Inter Press Service