Category Archives: Uncategorized

Gaza cease-fire might lead to indirect Egypt involvement

Nervana

Gaza

( Kids in Gaza celebrate the ceasefire agreement, via Twitter)

I wrote this piece for Al-Monitor, warning that in the future a failed Gaza can easily end its existence as an autonomous entity, and snooker Egypt into a very tricky corner.

After seven weeks of confrontations in the Gaza Strip, a cease-fire has been reached. The details are still sketchy, and needless to say, it is still too early to judge if this truce will last. However, regardless of the durability of the new deal and its implications for Israel, it’s safe to say that a new reality may unfold in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority (PA) could return to the Gaza Strip, at least to run the Rafah border with Egypt. While this seems a benign move, it is not; it could open the door to a new scenario that was previously considered far-fetched — an indirect…

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THINGS I HAVE SEEN

keithgarrettpoetry

 

Born with these eyes that for a lifetime have seen,

Wonderful pictures of a world that seem like a dream.

Things I have seen are those of beauty and life combined,

Things I have seen are of darkness and quite horrible things.

Things I have seen should not have been there to ever see,

Not from eyes of the Innocent child whom hasn’t had time to dream.

Things I have seen are of hope, love, and courageous things,

Things I have seen are of views from so many different ways.

The things I have seen of mystery and unusual scenery,

A lifetime that makes up a movie of all that I am to be.

Keith Garrett

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No Harvest This Year #california #drought #haiku

penned in moon dust

John Deere John Deere

out to pasture

headed for the city

furrows of weeds

fallfarms bothofs2 A normal year with water

cattle and corn

crops on the horizon

a good year

The prompt for Carpe Diem “Harvest Dusk” brought a tear to my eye. The harvest season is upon us but there are only weeds to harvest. If you haven’t heard, California has not only had a drought but the government has mismanaged water allocations so agriculture was allowed to return to weeds and sagebrush aka DESERT.  Friends in Porterville have no water out of the tap.

The good news – your grocery bills will be higher this fall!!!

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Vaccination against “unfamiliar” flu viruses could protect against other strains | Vaccine News Daily

Researchers previously discovered that patients infected with the 2009 H1N1 flu virus developed broad cross-reactive antibodies, and most of them had never before been exposed to the virus. After the virus began circulating in the general population and was included as part of standard flu immunizations, however, studies of immune responses showed antibodies were generated against the head region of the protein and not the stem.

“Our findings delineate a potential vaccination strategy where H5N1 or H7N9 immunization could be used not only for immunologically priming the population to quickly respond to serious pandemic influenza threats, but also for generating broadly neutralizing antibodies against influenza in humans,” the authors of the study said.

via Vaccination against “unfamiliar” flu viruses could protect against other strains | Vaccine News Daily.