Category Archives: planetkillers

Opinion: Manipulate and Mislead – How GMOs are Infiltrating Africa | Inter Press Service

About 80 percent of Africa’s food is produced by smallholders, who seldom farm on more than five hectares of land and usually on much less.  The majority of these farmers are women, who have scant access to finance or secure land tenure.

That they still manage to provide the lion’s share of the continents’ food, usually without formal seed, chemicals, mechanisation, irrigation or subsidies, is testament to their resilience and innovation.

African farmers have a lot to lose from the introduction of GMOs – the rich diversity of African agriculture, its robust resilience and the social cohesion engendered through cultures of sharing and collective effort could be replaced by a handful of monotonous commodity crops owned by foreign masters.

via Opinion: Manipulate and Mislead – How GMOs are Infiltrating Africa | Inter Press Service.

CDC puts C difficile burden at 453,000 cases, 29,000 deaths | CIDRAP

The CDC found that about two thirds of the 453,000 cases were related to a stay in a hospital or nursing home and the other third were community-associated cases, involving people with no recent hospital or nursing home exposure. Most of those who died were elderly.

“Eighty percent of deaths from C difficile infections happened in people 65 and older,” said Michael Bell, MD, deputy director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion in the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, at a press conference today.

“One of nine patients over 65 with C difficile dies within 30 days of diagnosis,” he added. “That’s a frightening statistic.”

via CDC puts C difficile burden at 453,000 cases, 29,000 deaths | CIDRAP.

Plants found to alter soil types

{Australia has a reputation for messing up its environment with rabbits and camels, now they want to “engineer” their soil. Maybe being short-sighted and dumb is in their soil?}

Exciting research has revealed some plants have the ability to alter soil types, suggesting opportunities may exist to re-engineer WA’s hostile soils to better suit agricultural purposes.

via Plants found to alter soil types.

Modi bets on GM crops for India’s second green revolution | Reuters

Modi bets on GM crops for India’s second green revolution | Reuters.

His bet will mean many deaths for India when monocrops succumb to massive crop failures due to unforeseen new fungi, bacteria, or rust. Will also open doors for new Bhopal type disasters but its all about money and not people or the planet. 

Measles makes its mark all over again: One of humanity’s oldest foes is back on the increase – Features – Health & Families – The Independent

Since al-Razi first carefully documented it (about 900 AD), this little strand of RNA tucked in a protein envelope has enjoyed a rare kind of notoriety, even in the shock-and-awe world of infectious diseases. In 1529, the Spanish introduced it to Cuba, killing two out of three natives. Over the next decade or so, the virus ravaged Central America, decimating many populations and killing up to half of all Hondurans. And, in 1693, in colonial America, Virginia governor Edmund Andros issued a proclamation for a “day of humiliation and prayer” in the hope of waylaying the virus.

It’s not like that today, but the disease is no slouch either. In 2013, according to the World Health Organisation, there were 16 deaths from the virus each hour, around the world, for the entire year. It is one of the leading causes of death among young children, despite our ability to safely vaccinate against it. It is estimated that between the years of 2000 and 2013, vaccination has prevented 15.6 million deaths. Do you recognise it yet?

via Measles makes its mark all over again: One of humanity’s oldest foes is back on the increase – Features – Health & Families – The Independent.

Parking dispute sparks 3 shooting deaths near University of North Carolina, police say

A racist psychopath – Police are trying to determine whether hate played any role in the killing of three Muslims, a crime they said was sparked by a neighbour’s long-simmering anger over parking and noise inside their condominium complex.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, describes himself as a “gun toting” atheist. Neighbors say he always seemed angry and frequently confronted his neighbours. His ex-wife said he was obsessed with the shooting-rampage movie “Falling Down,” and showed “no compassion at all” for other people.

His current wife, Karen Hicks, said he “champions the rights of others” and said the killings “had nothing do with religion or the victims’ faith.” Later Wednesday, she issued another statement, saying she’s divorcing him.

via Parking dispute sparks 3 shooting deaths near University of North Carolina, police say.

Free from Ebola, survivors complain of new syndrome | Reuters

Ben Neumann, a virologist at Britain’s Reading University who studies Ebola and other viruses and their effects, notes that Lassa virus, which comes from West Africa and causes a similar disease to Ebola, has also been reported as having longer-term health effects.

“(Lassa) survivors often report signs of nerve damage such as loss of hearing,” he told Reuters, adding that it would be “surprising that something as damaging as Ebola did not have lasting effects.”

The current lack of knowledge about post-Ebola health effects is probably “due to Ebola being a rare virus that left few survivors before this outbreak,” he said.

via Free from Ebola, survivors complain of new syndrome | Reuters.

Tests reveal H5N1 in Israeli turkeys, four countries report other strains | CIDRAP

{Will resist joke about Israeli turkeys and their upcoming elections – but too many have been looking the other way or have had heads in sand hoping that global trade in live chicks of ducks, turkeys, geese, chickens, quail did not

blow up in their our faces. Problem has now come home to roost and attempts to “blame” wild birds will not fly!}

Israel outbreak details

Israel’s agriculture ministry said tests have confirmed H5N1 as the cause of an outbreak at a turkey farm in Haifa, the largest city in the northern part of the country, according to a Jan 18 report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The event began on Jan 14 at a fattening facility, with deaths occurring in 5 of the farm’s 13 pens. Of 141,000 susceptible birds, the illness sickened 30,000 of them, killing 15,000.

via Tests reveal H5N1 in Israeli turkeys, four countries report other strains | CIDRAP.

Keeping the people down/amused 2015! Five killed in second day of Charlie Hebdo protests in Niger | Reuters

Callous political move to create a mob to pillage and burn to avoid their seeing that there government does nothing to help its people – A man holds a copy of the Koran during a protest against Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou’s attendance last week at a Paris rally in support of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which featured a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad as the cover of its first edition since an attack by Islamist gunmen, in Niamey January 17, 2015.

via Five killed in second day of Charlie Hebdo protests in Niger | Reuters.

Abou Ali Issa: The Lebanese Hero Of The Tripoli Explosions | A Separate State of Mind | A Lebanese Blog

In a few days from now, no one will remember that there were two suicide bombers in Tripoli who targeted innocents, let alone the existence of a man who prevented those terrorists from doing so much more harm hadn’t he sacrificed his own life to save everyone else.

Today, there are hundreds of families in Tripoli and Jabal Mohsen who owe their wholeness to Abou Ali Issa. They owe him the presence of their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. They owe him the sheer relief they felt when their loved ones came back home that day.

Abou Ali Issa’s family, his wife and seven children, did not get that same sense of relief and happiness. Their family will never be whole again, and justice for their father and husband will probably never come.

This is my attempt to make the memory of their father and husband that of a national hero, as it should be, as he is the kind of people who deserve to be paraded around as national symbols, as household names who should never be forgotten, because people like him are rare to come by and they should always be cherished and honored and respected.

May he rest in peace. There are fewer people deserving of such peace.

via Abou Ali Issa: The Lebanese Hero Of The Tripoli Explosions | A Separate State of Mind | A Lebanese Blog.