Monday, August 14, 2006
NPR : Seeing in Beautiful, Precise Pictures
NPR : Seeing in Beautiful, Precise Pictures: "Morning Edition, August 14, 2006 · Because I have autism, I live by concrete rules instead of abstract beliefs. And because I have autism, I think in pictures and sounds. I don't have the ability to process abstract thought the way that you do. Here's how my brain works: It's like the search engine Google for images. If you say the word 'love' to me, I'll surf the Internet inside my brain. Then, a series of images pops into my head. What I'll see, for example, is a picture of a mother horse with a foal, or I think of 'Herbie the Lovebug,' scenes from the movie Love Story or the Beatles song, 'Love, love, love...'"
Coalition for Darfur
Coalition for Darfur: "The latest analysis from Eric Reeves
There is quite simply no remotely adequate pressure on Khartoum to implement the terms of the DPA, either from the European Union, the US, or other important governments. Nor is there currently any meaningful pressure on Khartoum to accept a robust UN force. It is thus deeply disingenuous for US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack to declare that,
“a United Nations peacekeeping force must deploy without delay. Only a large, robust, mobile, and fast-reacting UN force is capable of stopping the violence and protecting innocent lives and bringing general peace and security under the peace agreement. [ ] Such a transition should take place by October 1 [2006].' (Associated Press [dateline: Washington], August 10, 2006)"
(..)
US leadership, as well as that throughout the international community, has recognized only with terrible belatedness the need for a large, robust, well-armed and -equipped force to protect civilians and humanitarians in Darfur. This has taken over two and a half years.
If the world community waits another two and a half years to deploy an adequate force to Darfur, there will be little to protect other than ashes and bones.
There is quite simply no remotely adequate pressure on Khartoum to implement the terms of the DPA, either from the European Union, the US, or other important governments. Nor is there currently any meaningful pressure on Khartoum to accept a robust UN force. It is thus deeply disingenuous for US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack to declare that,
“a United Nations peacekeeping force must deploy without delay. Only a large, robust, mobile, and fast-reacting UN force is capable of stopping the violence and protecting innocent lives and bringing general peace and security under the peace agreement. [ ] Such a transition should take place by October 1 [2006].' (Associated Press [dateline: Washington], August 10, 2006)"
(..)
US leadership, as well as that throughout the international community, has recognized only with terrible belatedness the need for a large, robust, well-armed and -equipped force to protect civilians and humanitarians in Darfur. This has taken over two and a half years.
If the world community waits another two and a half years to deploy an adequate force to Darfur, there will be little to protect other than ashes and bones.
Wired News: Gates Urges AIDS Drug for Women
Wired News: Gates Urges AIDS Drug for Women: "A cream, gel or pill that women can use to protect themselves from the AIDS virus is key to stopping the AIDS pandemic, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has given hundreds of millions of dollars to HIV programs, said on Sunday.
Gates said he would step up funding for prevention research but said governments and other donors needed to do so, also."
Gates said he would step up funding for prevention research but said governments and other donors needed to do so, also."
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Macleans.ca | Top Stories | Health | How to wipe out AIDS in 45 years
Macleans.ca | Top Stories | Health | How to wipe out AIDS in 45 years: "Dr. Julio Montaner, the Argentinian-born director of the internationally acclaimed B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and president-elect of the International AIDS Society, doesn't exactly think small. On Aug. 4, The Lancet published a paper in which Montaner and his colleagues outline a theory to eradicate the global spread of HIV within 4 1/2 decades. And it has nothing to do with condoms, abstinence or free needle exchanges.
The Lancet paper, ambitiously entitled 'The case for expanding access to highly active anti-retroviral therapy [HAART] to curb the growth of the HIV epidemic,' contends that HAART -- which suppresses the number of copies of a virus in an infected individual -- is responsible for the reduction and stabilization of HIV infection rates in the developed world, and that aggressively expanding its use could effectively halt the spread of the virus in its tracks. Furthermore, Montaner maintains that implementing such a strategy, which he acknowledges would cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, is not only good health policy but cost-effective as well."
The Lancet paper, ambitiously entitled 'The case for expanding access to highly active anti-retroviral therapy [HAART] to curb the growth of the HIV epidemic,' contends that HAART -- which suppresses the number of copies of a virus in an infected individual -- is responsible for the reduction and stabilization of HIV infection rates in the developed world, and that aggressively expanding its use could effectively halt the spread of the virus in its tracks. Furthermore, Montaner maintains that implementing such a strategy, which he acknowledges would cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, is not only good health policy but cost-effective as well."
HIV prevention pill shows early promise - Yahoo! News
HIV prevention pill shows early promise - Yahoo! News: "The first test of a daily pill to prevent
HIV infection gave a tantalizing hint of success, but a real answer must await a larger study due out next year.
The experiment, done in Africa, mainly showed that the drug Viread is safe when used for prevention. Fewer people given the drug caught the
AIDS virus than those given dummy pills, but so few in either group became infected that valid comparisons cannot be made, scientists said.
Still, 'it's incredibly encouraging,' said Dr. Helene Gayle, president of the antipoverty group CARE and co-chair of the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, where the results were released on Saturday.
If future studies show effectiveness, the drug 'would be an incredibly important new prevention tool that we should make available as soon as possible,' she said.
"
HIV infection gave a tantalizing hint of success, but a real answer must await a larger study due out next year.
The experiment, done in Africa, mainly showed that the drug Viread is safe when used for prevention. Fewer people given the drug caught the
AIDS virus than those given dummy pills, but so few in either group became infected that valid comparisons cannot be made, scientists said.
Still, 'it's incredibly encouraging,' said Dr. Helene Gayle, president of the antipoverty group CARE and co-chair of the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, where the results were released on Saturday.
If future studies show effectiveness, the drug 'would be an incredibly important new prevention tool that we should make available as soon as possible,' she said.
"
. . . And in Another, AIDS in Retreat - New York Times
. . . And in Another, AIDS in Retreat - New York Times: "Twenty-five years into the H.I.V. pandemic, there remain few developing countries that have had success in controlling the virus. Thailand is one of them."
(..)
It became clear early on that the commercial sex industry — illegal but popular among Thai men — was at the core of the virus’s explosive spread. The Thai response was the 100 Percent Condom Campaign.
As part of the campaign, public health officials aggressively focused on bars, brothels, nightclubs and massage parlors for condom education, promotion and distribution. Sex workers were likewise offered counseling, testing and treatment. The openness of sex venues there and health officials’ access to the women in them made this a relatively simple intervention.
Venues that did not agree to require condom use were shut down. Signs appeared over bar doors saying, “No condom, no sex, no refund!” And the government put resources behind the effort, distributing some 60 million free condoms a year.
(..)
This national mobilization was classically Thai — funny, nonthreatening and sex-positive. When we briefed the Thai surgeon general on an H.I.V. prevention program for soldiers, he said, “Please be sure the program maintains sexual pleasure, otherwise the men won’t like it and won’t use it.”
It worked. By 2001, fewer than 1 percent of army recruits were H.I.V. positive, infection rates had fallen among pregnant women, and several million infections had been averted.
The 100 Percent Condom Campaign proves that H.I.V. prevention efforts can succeed by focusing on at-risk populations, providing tangible services and making healthy behavior, like condom use, social norms. Cambodia, the Dominican Republic and other countries have successfully adopted the Thai model.
It’s troubling then that the United States now requires all foreign and domestic recipients of H.I.V. and AIDS funding to pledge to oppose prostitution. After all, the “100 Percent Condom Campaign” and similar efforts have been shown to decrease the spread of the epidemic through sexual intercourse; the pledge policy can make no such claim.
Quite the opposite: the policy may even limit outreach and access to sex workers, and make condom distribution more difficult. This is why Brazil rejected some $40 million in AIDS funding from the United States last year rather than take the pledge.
(..)
It became clear early on that the commercial sex industry — illegal but popular among Thai men — was at the core of the virus’s explosive spread. The Thai response was the 100 Percent Condom Campaign.
As part of the campaign, public health officials aggressively focused on bars, brothels, nightclubs and massage parlors for condom education, promotion and distribution. Sex workers were likewise offered counseling, testing and treatment. The openness of sex venues there and health officials’ access to the women in them made this a relatively simple intervention.
Venues that did not agree to require condom use were shut down. Signs appeared over bar doors saying, “No condom, no sex, no refund!” And the government put resources behind the effort, distributing some 60 million free condoms a year.
(..)
This national mobilization was classically Thai — funny, nonthreatening and sex-positive. When we briefed the Thai surgeon general on an H.I.V. prevention program for soldiers, he said, “Please be sure the program maintains sexual pleasure, otherwise the men won’t like it and won’t use it.”
It worked. By 2001, fewer than 1 percent of army recruits were H.I.V. positive, infection rates had fallen among pregnant women, and several million infections had been averted.
The 100 Percent Condom Campaign proves that H.I.V. prevention efforts can succeed by focusing on at-risk populations, providing tangible services and making healthy behavior, like condom use, social norms. Cambodia, the Dominican Republic and other countries have successfully adopted the Thai model.
It’s troubling then that the United States now requires all foreign and domestic recipients of H.I.V. and AIDS funding to pledge to oppose prostitution. After all, the “100 Percent Condom Campaign” and similar efforts have been shown to decrease the spread of the epidemic through sexual intercourse; the pledge policy can make no such claim.
Quite the opposite: the policy may even limit outreach and access to sex workers, and make condom distribution more difficult. This is why Brazil rejected some $40 million in AIDS funding from the United States last year rather than take the pledge.
In One Country, AIDS on the Rampage . . . - New York Times
In One Country, AIDS on the Rampage . . . - New York Times: "When I arrived in Swaziland in 1999, no one even wanted to call AIDS by its name. “Silwane,” people whispered, using a siSwati word for a fearsome animal, “Silwane got him.” Others said it was witchcraft.
In some measure, it was the failure of Swaziland to recognize the disease that gave it the world’s highest prevalence of H.I.V. More than 17,000 people in this tiny kingdom nestled in the hills of southern Africa have been dying each year of AIDS, in a population of about one million. At last count in 2004, 56 percent of pregnant women ages 25 to 29 had H.I.V.
The ascent was swift. H.I.V. prevalence among pregnant women was less than 4 percent in 1992, when the takeoff began, 16 percent in 1994, 26 percent two years after that, and upward ever since. H.I.V. bides its time, leaving young women looking beautiful and men feeling lusty for years before it wears down their immune systems and the debilitating infections of AIDS appear.
That has meant plenty of opportunity for those with H.I.V. to spread the virus unknowingly, and sometimes knowingly. Policies imported from the West haven’t helped to encourage widespread testing."
In some measure, it was the failure of Swaziland to recognize the disease that gave it the world’s highest prevalence of H.I.V. More than 17,000 people in this tiny kingdom nestled in the hills of southern Africa have been dying each year of AIDS, in a population of about one million. At last count in 2004, 56 percent of pregnant women ages 25 to 29 had H.I.V.
The ascent was swift. H.I.V. prevalence among pregnant women was less than 4 percent in 1992, when the takeoff began, 16 percent in 1994, 26 percent two years after that, and upward ever since. H.I.V. bides its time, leaving young women looking beautiful and men feeling lusty for years before it wears down their immune systems and the debilitating infections of AIDS appear.
That has meant plenty of opportunity for those with H.I.V. to spread the virus unknowingly, and sometimes knowingly. Policies imported from the West haven’t helped to encourage widespread testing."
Grandmothers Rally to Raise AIDS Orphans - New York Times
Grandmothers Rally to Raise AIDS Orphans - New York Times: "TORONTO, Aug. 12 — After burying their children, they must take care of the children of their children.
They are the “AIDS grannies” of Africa: women like Matilda Mwenda, 51, of Zambia, who has lost two of her seven children to AIDS, leaving five orphaned grandchildren in her care, along with two nieces who were orphaned when her sister died of AIDS."
(..)
The pandemic has created an estimated 12 million orphans in Africa, with the number expected to grow to 18 million by 2010. The burden of care has fallen on grandmothers, whose extended families often exceed a dozen children.
(..)
“Governments haven’t the faintest idea what to do,” said Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations who is Secretary General Kofi Annan’s representative to Africa for AIDS.
“The policies for orphans, more often than not, are a grab bag of frantic interventions, where faith-based and community-based groups try desperately to cope with the numbers, but rarely have either the capacity or the resources,” he said.
His nonprofit Stephen Lewis Foundation (stephenlewisfoundation.org) sponsored the gathering here. As the foundation prepared for the gathering, it learned that a small number of Canadian grandmothers had established connections with grandmothers in Africa, particularly a group called the Go Go Grannies in Alexandria Township near Johannesburg.
(..)
Twenty-five years after AIDS was first detected, no master plan exists to deal with its orphans.
“What the world fails to recognize is that these children don’t become orphans when their parents die, they become orphans while their parents are dying,” said Mr. Lewis, the United Nations representative.
In the absence of a grandmother or other relative to care for AIDS orphans, the oldest child becomes the head of the household and looks after the siblings.
“Many orphans play, beg for food and sleep on the streets,” Ms. Matimuna said. Some go naked for lack of clothes. As the orphans grow up, some commit crimes. Some become prostitutes, get pregnant and are infected with H.I.V.
The transfer of love, knowledge and values from one generation to the other is gone, and with it goes the confidence, security and sense of place that children normally take for granted, Mr. Lewis said.
They are the “AIDS grannies” of Africa: women like Matilda Mwenda, 51, of Zambia, who has lost two of her seven children to AIDS, leaving five orphaned grandchildren in her care, along with two nieces who were orphaned when her sister died of AIDS."
(..)
The pandemic has created an estimated 12 million orphans in Africa, with the number expected to grow to 18 million by 2010. The burden of care has fallen on grandmothers, whose extended families often exceed a dozen children.
(..)
“Governments haven’t the faintest idea what to do,” said Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations who is Secretary General Kofi Annan’s representative to Africa for AIDS.
“The policies for orphans, more often than not, are a grab bag of frantic interventions, where faith-based and community-based groups try desperately to cope with the numbers, but rarely have either the capacity or the resources,” he said.
His nonprofit Stephen Lewis Foundation (stephenlewisfoundation.org) sponsored the gathering here. As the foundation prepared for the gathering, it learned that a small number of Canadian grandmothers had established connections with grandmothers in Africa, particularly a group called the Go Go Grannies in Alexandria Township near Johannesburg.
(..)
Twenty-five years after AIDS was first detected, no master plan exists to deal with its orphans.
“What the world fails to recognize is that these children don’t become orphans when their parents die, they become orphans while their parents are dying,” said Mr. Lewis, the United Nations representative.
In the absence of a grandmother or other relative to care for AIDS orphans, the oldest child becomes the head of the household and looks after the siblings.
“Many orphans play, beg for food and sleep on the streets,” Ms. Matimuna said. Some go naked for lack of clothes. As the orphans grow up, some commit crimes. Some become prostitutes, get pregnant and are infected with H.I.V.
The transfer of love, knowledge and values from one generation to the other is gone, and with it goes the confidence, security and sense of place that children normally take for granted, Mr. Lewis said.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Treehugger: Solar Wi-Fi To Bring Internet to Developing Countries
There are some really neat solar powered devices out there, including e.g., solar powered rechargers for ipods, which my friend Teresa, a peace corp worker, recently took back with her to Niger, as a gift from the local Comp USA mangager. He also gave her an ipod nano...
Treehugger: Solar Wi-Fi To Bring Internet to Developing Countries: "It's nice when green thinking can be applied to closing the gaps between underdeveloped countries; indeed, when power's not available, green solutions are practically a neccessity. Already, MIT and the UN have teamed up to provide kids living in the world's least developed nations $100 laptops, their 2 watts of juice provided by hand or foot crank. Cool, but—and this was one of Bill Gates' criticisms—what's a computer without internet access? Enter Green Wi-Fi, a non-profit that seeks to provide 'last mile internet access with nothing more than a single broadband internet connection, rooftops and the sun.' "
Treehugger: Solar Wi-Fi To Bring Internet to Developing Countries: "It's nice when green thinking can be applied to closing the gaps between underdeveloped countries; indeed, when power's not available, green solutions are practically a neccessity. Already, MIT and the UN have teamed up to provide kids living in the world's least developed nations $100 laptops, their 2 watts of juice provided by hand or foot crank. Cool, but—and this was one of Bill Gates' criticisms—what's a computer without internet access? Enter Green Wi-Fi, a non-profit that seeks to provide 'last mile internet access with nothing more than a single broadband internet connection, rooftops and the sun.' "
Tale of the Tapeworm (Squeamish Readers Stop Here) - New York Times
Tapeworm and Vit B12 deficiency...
Tale of the Tapeworm (Squeamish Readers Stop Here) - New York Times: "This is a Jewish fish story. Or more accurately a Jewish fishworm story."
Tale of the Tapeworm (Squeamish Readers Stop Here) - New York Times: "This is a Jewish fish story. Or more accurately a Jewish fishworm story."
Airliners.net Photos: British Airways Boeing 777-236/ER
Check out this incredible photo of an air wake from a jet...
Airliners.net Photos: British Airways Boeing 777-236/ER: "URL (link) to this photo: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1091105/L/"
Airliners.net Photos: British Airways Boeing 777-236/ER: "URL (link) to this photo: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1091105/L/"
Monday, August 07, 2006
Cheap Solutions Cut AIDS Toll for Poor Kenyan Youths - New York Times
Cheap Solutions Cut AIDS Toll for Poor Kenyan Youths - New York Times: "At a time when millions of people each year are still being infected with the virus that causes AIDS, particularly in Africa, a rigorous new study has identified several simple, inexpensive methods that helped reduce the spread of the disease among Kenyan teenagers, especially girls.
In Kenya, where poverty drives some girls to sleep with older men for money or gifts, teenage girls are seven times more likely to be H.I.V. positive than boys the same age.
The new study found that when informed that older men are much likelier to be infected, teenage girls were far less likely to become pregnant by so-called sugar daddies.
The $1 million study, financed by the Partnership for Child Development, a London-based nonprofit group, did not seek blood tests for H.I.V., since its subjects were minors. Instead, it relied on pregnancy as evidence of unprotected sex.
The study found that when girls in impoverished rural areas were given free school uniforms instead of having to pay $6 for them — the principal remaining economic barrier to education in Kenya — they were significantly less likely to drop out and become pregnant.
Researchers also found that classroom debates and essay-writing contests on whether students should be taught about condoms to prevent "
In Kenya, where poverty drives some girls to sleep with older men for money or gifts, teenage girls are seven times more likely to be H.I.V. positive than boys the same age.
The new study found that when informed that older men are much likelier to be infected, teenage girls were far less likely to become pregnant by so-called sugar daddies.
The $1 million study, financed by the Partnership for Child Development, a London-based nonprofit group, did not seek blood tests for H.I.V., since its subjects were minors. Instead, it relied on pregnancy as evidence of unprotected sex.
The study found that when girls in impoverished rural areas were given free school uniforms instead of having to pay $6 for them — the principal remaining economic barrier to education in Kenya — they were significantly less likely to drop out and become pregnant.
Researchers also found that classroom debates and essay-writing contests on whether students should be taught about condoms to prevent "
Class Questions
Class Questions: "THE SHEPHERD PROGRAM for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability is that rare kind of thing that can change your life. It is, its founders say, the only program of its kind in any undergraduate institution in the country. Any student in any major can sign up, but to earn the program's certificate, one must do not only the academic work -- reading liberal and conservative thinkers on theories of poverty and attending lectures on what it is to be poor -- but also complete a rigorous eight-week summer internship. Side by side with undergrads from Berea College, a largely low-income school in Kentucky, and from the historic black colleges of Morehouse and Spelman in Atlanta, they work, live with and live like the poorest of the poor, subsisting on $10 or less a day and bunking at institutions like the District's N Street Village women's shelter."
That the program is based at Washington and Lee University, a school for the elite and the privileged since 1749, is somewhat ironic. This is a school that, in some media and college rankings, turns out among the most CEOs, corporate presidents and political leaders per capita of any university in the nation -- about one-third of all graduates in a given year are from its Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics. W & L students are overwhelmingly white, largely from families who can easily pay the $27,960 annual tuition. Its reputation is Southern and conservative: It was one of the last all-male schools to admit women, in 1985, and this spring men from one fraternity were proudly sporting T-shirts with lines from a Hank Williams Jr. song: "If the South woulda won, we woulda had it made."
(..)
He wanted to hear Ehrenreich's views on Sen's progressive theory. "The lack of money is not the only thing that makes people poor. There are questions of human capability," he said. "What are some things we should look at, like functional literacy, to measure poverty?"
"Stop thinking of it as something wrong with the person or there's something wrong with the choices they made," Ehrenreich snapped. "You have no idea how easily people can get derailed. I know that undermines the nice Protestant work ethic virtues if you can be blown off course so easily."
(..)
One day, Ingrid was helping the trainees practice for job interviews. Some were so filled with self-doubt and gripped by fear that they simply froze up. That night, Ingrid wrote in her journal that, "I like to pretend that I am being selfless and kindhearted by being here and 'working so others can have a better life.' I am learning how blessed I am and how ridiculous it is to think anything I am doing is all that special . . . I have had people telling me since I was born that I would be successful. What is hard is growing up with only negative influences, voices and feedback and finding confidence in yourself."
(..)
As she wrestles with her future, trying to be a good daughter and wanting to lead a purposeful life, she's been thinking lately of a poster she saw during her summer internship and noted in her journal. Perhaps it will guide her choices. "Don't try to save the world," it said, "but do what makes you come alive."
That the program is based at Washington and Lee University, a school for the elite and the privileged since 1749, is somewhat ironic. This is a school that, in some media and college rankings, turns out among the most CEOs, corporate presidents and political leaders per capita of any university in the nation -- about one-third of all graduates in a given year are from its Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics. W & L students are overwhelmingly white, largely from families who can easily pay the $27,960 annual tuition. Its reputation is Southern and conservative: It was one of the last all-male schools to admit women, in 1985, and this spring men from one fraternity were proudly sporting T-shirts with lines from a Hank Williams Jr. song: "If the South woulda won, we woulda had it made."
(..)
He wanted to hear Ehrenreich's views on Sen's progressive theory. "The lack of money is not the only thing that makes people poor. There are questions of human capability," he said. "What are some things we should look at, like functional literacy, to measure poverty?"
"Stop thinking of it as something wrong with the person or there's something wrong with the choices they made," Ehrenreich snapped. "You have no idea how easily people can get derailed. I know that undermines the nice Protestant work ethic virtues if you can be blown off course so easily."
(..)
One day, Ingrid was helping the trainees practice for job interviews. Some were so filled with self-doubt and gripped by fear that they simply froze up. That night, Ingrid wrote in her journal that, "I like to pretend that I am being selfless and kindhearted by being here and 'working so others can have a better life.' I am learning how blessed I am and how ridiculous it is to think anything I am doing is all that special . . . I have had people telling me since I was born that I would be successful. What is hard is growing up with only negative influences, voices and feedback and finding confidence in yourself."
(..)
As she wrestles with her future, trying to be a good daughter and wanting to lead a purposeful life, she's been thinking lately of a poster she saw during her summer internship and noted in her journal. Perhaps it will guide her choices. "Don't try to save the world," it said, "but do what makes you come alive."
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Vitamin D often low in seemingly healthy girls - Yahoo! News
This was a well known problem in Saudi Arabia, but it is a bit surprising that it would occur in a Western society...
Vitamin D often low in seemingly healthy girls - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a study of healthy adolescent girls, researchers found that insufficient vitamin D levels were a relatively common finding, with non-white girls more severely affected.
According to the UK-based study team, 'reduced sunshine exposure rather than diet explained the difference in vitamin D status of white and non-white girls' in the study, reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood."
Vitamin D often low in seemingly healthy girls - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a study of healthy adolescent girls, researchers found that insufficient vitamin D levels were a relatively common finding, with non-white girls more severely affected.
According to the UK-based study team, 'reduced sunshine exposure rather than diet explained the difference in vitamin D status of white and non-white girls' in the study, reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood."
Alcohol contributes substantially to cancer burden - Yahoo! News
Alcohol contributes substantially to cancer burden - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An international team of researchers reports that 3.6 percent of all cancer cases worldwide are related to alcohol drinking, and these lead to 3.5 percent of all cancer deaths"
Friday, August 04, 2006
New Scientist News - Popular curry spice is a brain booster
New Scientist News - Popular curry spice is a brain booster: "Call it yellow ginger, haldi, turmeric or E100, the yellow root of Curcuma longa, a staple ingredient in curry, is turning out to be gratifyingly healthy. Now Tze-Pin Ng and colleagues at the National University of Singapore have discovered that curry eating seems to boost brain power in elderly people."
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Seed: A Hostile Climate
Seed: A Hostile Climate: "n recent years, increasing drought cycles and the Sahara's southward expansion have created conflicts between nomadic and sedentary groups over shortages of water and land. This scarcity highlighted the central government's gross neglect of the Darfur region—a trend stretching back to colonial rule. Forsaken, desperate and hungry, groups of Darfurians attacked government outposts in protest. The response was the Janjaweed and supporting air strikes."
(..)
Desertification and increasingly regular drought cycles in Darfur have diminished the availability of water, livestock and arable land. "The effect of climate change on these resources has been a latent problem," said Leslie Lefkow, an expert on Darfur with Human Rights Watch. "And instead of addressing the cause of that tension and putting money into development of water resources...the government has done nothing. So the tensions have grown. And these tensions are one of the reasons why the rebellion started."
Chalking the Darfur conflict up to climate change alone would be an oversimplification, argues Eric Reeves, a leading advocate and a professor of English literature at Smith College. "The greater cause, by far, lies in the policies of the current National Islamic Front regime," he said. Marc Lavergne, a researcher with the French National Center for Scientific Research and former head of the Centre D'Etudes et de Documentation Universitaire Scientifique et Technique at the University of Khartoum, agrees. "The problem is not water shortage as such, and water shortages don't necessarily lead to war. The real problem is the lack of agricultural and other development policies to make the best use of available water resources since colonial times." ...
(..)
Desertification and increasingly regular drought cycles in Darfur have diminished the availability of water, livestock and arable land. "The effect of climate change on these resources has been a latent problem," said Leslie Lefkow, an expert on Darfur with Human Rights Watch. "And instead of addressing the cause of that tension and putting money into development of water resources...the government has done nothing. So the tensions have grown. And these tensions are one of the reasons why the rebellion started."
Chalking the Darfur conflict up to climate change alone would be an oversimplification, argues Eric Reeves, a leading advocate and a professor of English literature at Smith College. "The greater cause, by far, lies in the policies of the current National Islamic Front regime," he said. Marc Lavergne, a researcher with the French National Center for Scientific Research and former head of the Centre D'Etudes et de Documentation Universitaire Scientifique et Technique at the University of Khartoum, agrees. "The problem is not water shortage as such, and water shortages don't necessarily lead to war. The real problem is the lack of agricultural and other development policies to make the best use of available water resources since colonial times." ...
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Larry Brilliant talks about the WHO campaign to eradicate smallpox
Another great talk from ted.com--check it out...
TEDPrize winner Larry Brilliant is an epidemiologist who presided over the last case of SmallPox on the planet. He also founded the Seva Foundation,
which works to reverse cases of blindness, and co-founded several
technology start-ups, including the legendary online community, The Well. He was recently named Executive Director of the Google Foundation.
In this talk, he explains in fascinating detail the key behind the
successful WHO campaign to eradicate Smallpox, and then unveils his
TEDPrize wish: to build a global system that detects each new disease
or disaster as it emerges or occurs.
(Link from boingboing)
TEDPrize winner Larry Brilliant is an epidemiologist who presided over the last case of SmallPox on the planet. He also founded the Seva Foundation,
which works to reverse cases of blindness, and co-founded several
technology start-ups, including the legendary online community, The Well. He was recently named Executive Director of the Google Foundation.
In this talk, he explains in fascinating detail the key behind the
successful WHO campaign to eradicate Smallpox, and then unveils his
TEDPrize wish: to build a global system that detects each new disease
or disaster as it emerges or occurs.
(Link from boingboing)
Ted talks: Jeff Han
Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University's Media Research Lab. Here, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen,
which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds
to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA.
Duration: 09:32)
which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds
to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA.
Duration: 09:32)
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Four countries commit to buying 4 million Linux-powered OLPC laptops
Four countries commit to buying 4 million Linux-powered OLPC laptops: "spokesperson for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program revealed July 31 that the countries of Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand have each tendered commitments to purchase 1 million Linux laptops through the U.S.-based program.
Several media outlets reported last week that Nigeria had committed to buying 1 million of the laptops, and others reported (incorrectly) that $1 million worth of computers -- or about 10,000 -- had been requested by the African nation.
OLPC program director for Middle East and Africa Khaled Hassounah confirmed to DesktopLinux.com July 31 that Nigeria has indeed committed to buy 1 million machines, and then revealed that Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand also have placed similar commitments.
(via engadget)
"
Several media outlets reported last week that Nigeria had committed to buying 1 million of the laptops, and others reported (incorrectly) that $1 million worth of computers -- or about 10,000 -- had been requested by the African nation.
OLPC program director for Middle East and Africa Khaled Hassounah confirmed to DesktopLinux.com July 31 that Nigeria has indeed committed to buy 1 million machines, and then revealed that Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand also have placed similar commitments.
(via engadget)
"
The Borowitz Report .com
The Borowitz Report .com: "According to the plan hammered out with the U.S., Starbucks will create a buffer zone between the two warring nations by building a Starbucks franchise every two blocks along the Israel-Lebanon border.
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Monday, July 31, 2006
Saturday, July 29, 2006
War’s Chaos Steals Congo’s Young by the Millions - New York Times
War’s Chaos Steals Congo’s Young by the Millions - New York Times
July 30, 2006
War’s Chaos Steals Congo’s Young by the Millions
By LYDIA POLGREEN
RUTSHURU, Congo — Children die here from the same ailments that needlessly kill children all over Africa — malaria, diarrhea, measles, malnutrition — but on a vast and cataclysmic scale.
The child mortality rate here in the most volatile eastern provinces is almost twice that of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, which already has the world’s highest rate, according to the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit organization that has documented the death toll here in a series of detailed mortality studies from 1998 to 2004.
Though Congo’s civil war supposedly ended four years ago, and the nation’s first democratic elections in more than four decades are scheduled for Sunday, the fighting and chaos here continue to kill about 1,250 people each day, mostly from hunger and disease. In all, nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998, almost half of them children under the age of 5, according to the International Rescue Committee.
The stakes in the election are highest for those far too young to vote, but even the most optimistic candidates and international observers say there is little chance that the voting will stop the dying anytime soon. In a report released in July, Unicef described the death toll in Congo as a “tsunami of death every six months.”
“It is fair to say that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the deadliest for children in the past 60 years,” said Richard Brennan, health director of the International Rescue Committee. “No other conflict has had the same lev- els of excess mortality, and children have borne a disproportionate degree of this burden.”
About 30,000 children have been forced into militias, while untold thousands of girls have been raped, according to the Unicef report. Children labor under toxic conditions in gold and diamond mines. Orphans choke the streets of Kinshasa, the capital, bedraggled platoons in Congo’s vast army of want.
July 30, 2006
War’s Chaos Steals Congo’s Young by the Millions
By LYDIA POLGREEN
RUTSHURU, Congo — Children die here from the same ailments that needlessly kill children all over Africa — malaria, diarrhea, measles, malnutrition — but on a vast and cataclysmic scale.
The child mortality rate here in the most volatile eastern provinces is almost twice that of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, which already has the world’s highest rate, according to the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit organization that has documented the death toll here in a series of detailed mortality studies from 1998 to 2004.
Though Congo’s civil war supposedly ended four years ago, and the nation’s first democratic elections in more than four decades are scheduled for Sunday, the fighting and chaos here continue to kill about 1,250 people each day, mostly from hunger and disease. In all, nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998, almost half of them children under the age of 5, according to the International Rescue Committee.
The stakes in the election are highest for those far too young to vote, but even the most optimistic candidates and international observers say there is little chance that the voting will stop the dying anytime soon. In a report released in July, Unicef described the death toll in Congo as a “tsunami of death every six months.”
“It is fair to say that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the deadliest for children in the past 60 years,” said Richard Brennan, health director of the International Rescue Committee. “No other conflict has had the same lev- els of excess mortality, and children have borne a disproportionate degree of this burden.”
About 30,000 children have been forced into militias, while untold thousands of girls have been raped, according to the Unicef report. Children labor under toxic conditions in gold and diamond mines. Orphans choke the streets of Kinshasa, the capital, bedraggled platoons in Congo’s vast army of want.
Do or Die Against Iraq's Death Squads
Do or Die Against Iraq's Death Squads: "Nouri al-Maliki does not strike a commanding pose as Iraq's new prime minister: Slouching, stubble-faced, uneasy before foreign audiences, he looks more like a doughy Mukhabarat officer than the sleek exile politicians who have been making the rounds in Washington over the past decade.
His visit seemed almost a sideshow this week in the apocalyptic mood caused by the Lebanon war. Certainly Democrats in Congress treated it that way, bizarrely hectoring Maliki for not embracing Israel's war in Lebanon. But the visit was important in its own right because it offered a chance to assess the Bush administration's strategy as the Iraq war spins toward the point of no return."
Maliki's government is the last good chance for a democratic Iraq. Many Americans seem to take it almost for granted that the Iraq project has failed. But as bad as the situation is now, it could get worse. If Maliki cannot rally the country behind his so-called unity government, the civil war will shift into a grim new phase, with pitched sectarian battles for control of territory and the prospect of tens of thousands more dead...
His visit seemed almost a sideshow this week in the apocalyptic mood caused by the Lebanon war. Certainly Democrats in Congress treated it that way, bizarrely hectoring Maliki for not embracing Israel's war in Lebanon. But the visit was important in its own right because it offered a chance to assess the Bush administration's strategy as the Iraq war spins toward the point of no return."
Maliki's government is the last good chance for a democratic Iraq. Many Americans seem to take it almost for granted that the Iraq project has failed. But as bad as the situation is now, it could get worse. If Maliki cannot rally the country behind his so-called unity government, the civil war will shift into a grim new phase, with pitched sectarian battles for control of territory and the prospect of tens of thousands more dead...
Pander and Run
Pander and Run: "After years of struggling to define their own approach to post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, Democrats seem finally to have hit on one. It's called pandering. In those rare cases when George W. Bush shows genuine sensitivity to America's allies and propounds a broader, more enlightened view of the national interest, Democrats will make him pay. It's jingoism with a liberal face.
The latest example came this week when Democratic senators and House members demanded that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki either retract his criticisms of Israel or forfeit his chance to address Congress. Great idea. Maliki -- who runs a government propped up by U.S. troops -- is desperate to show Iraqis that he is not Washington's puppet. And the United States desperately needs him to succeed because, unless he gains political credibility at home, his government will have no hope of surviving on its own."
The latest example came this week when Democratic senators and House members demanded that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki either retract his criticisms of Israel or forfeit his chance to address Congress. Great idea. Maliki -- who runs a government propped up by U.S. troops -- is desperate to show Iraqis that he is not Washington's puppet. And the United States desperately needs him to succeed because, unless he gains political credibility at home, his government will have no hope of surviving on its own."
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
WSJ.com - Doha Is Dead...
WSJ.com - Doha Is Dead...
Trade diplomats have been quick to point fingers after negotiations in the Doha Round collapsed Monday, and for once they're all correct. Far more important, however, will be whether the world's economic powers continue to push for the free trade of goods and services by other means, or simply retreat and let the protectionists pounce.
The U.S. has taken most of the criticism so far, some of it deserved. The Bush Administration has never escaped the subsidy shadow cast by the 2002 farm bill, which increased government aid to American agribusiness to $190 billion over six years. This largesse, pushed by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley among others, made it more difficult for the U.S. to cut farm handouts enough for a successful Doha.
It also eroded confidence in the White House's ability to deliver any real cuts in the face of Congressional opposition, particularly with midterm elections coming up. To clear Congress, a Doha deal would have to be ambitious enough in other areas -- such as services and manufactured goods -- to offset the steep farm subsidy cuts that the U.S. would have to make. This is where the talks really collapsed.
Trade diplomats have been quick to point fingers after negotiations in the Doha Round collapsed Monday, and for once they're all correct. Far more important, however, will be whether the world's economic powers continue to push for the free trade of goods and services by other means, or simply retreat and let the protectionists pounce.
The U.S. has taken most of the criticism so far, some of it deserved. The Bush Administration has never escaped the subsidy shadow cast by the 2002 farm bill, which increased government aid to American agribusiness to $190 billion over six years. This largesse, pushed by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley among others, made it more difficult for the U.S. to cut farm handouts enough for a successful Doha.
It also eroded confidence in the White House's ability to deliver any real cuts in the face of Congressional opposition, particularly with midterm elections coming up. To clear Congress, a Doha deal would have to be ambitious enough in other areas -- such as services and manufactured goods -- to offset the steep farm subsidy cuts that the U.S. would have to make. This is where the talks really collapsed.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
WSJ.com - More Reasons to Eat Your Veggies
WSJ.com - More Reasons to Eat Your Veggies: "Published jointly by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, the more-individualized advice usually adds up to more than the old five servings, which equaled 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables. People can calculate their individual needs at www.mypyramid.gov.
The push to step up produce consumption is fueled in part by a growing body of evidence that fruits and vegetables offer even more health benefits than previously understood, and may play roles in preventing heart and eye disease, as well as stomach, colon and other cancers. Also, in 2004, the Institute of Medicine, a federal advisory body, recommended that adult Americans increase their intake of potassium, a mineral that helps to lower blood pressure and is plentiful in many fruits and vegetables."
(..)
People who eat fruits and vegetables more than three times a day reduce their risk of having a stroke and dying from cardiovascular disease by nearly a quarter, compared with those who eat them less than once a day, according to an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study examining data from a national epidemiological survey. Many other studies find a similar inverse relationship between various chronic diseases and fruit and vegetable consumption.
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables may also be one of the best ways to lose weight. For instance, a survey of 7,356 adults published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that those who ate at least 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables a day were less likely than people who ate less to be obese -- even if their diet was high in fat, says Barbara Rolls, one of the study's authors. "Fruits and vegetables really are key players in determining weight status," she says.
There are signs that high consumption of produce may improve bone health, helping stave off osteoporosis. One recent study, also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found an association between high fruit and vegetable intake and bone mineral density in boys and girls ages 16 to 18, and a similar association involving fruit intake in women ages 60 to 83. Vitamin C and other antioxidants in fruit may play a role, the study's authors concluded.
The push to step up produce consumption is fueled in part by a growing body of evidence that fruits and vegetables offer even more health benefits than previously understood, and may play roles in preventing heart and eye disease, as well as stomach, colon and other cancers. Also, in 2004, the Institute of Medicine, a federal advisory body, recommended that adult Americans increase their intake of potassium, a mineral that helps to lower blood pressure and is plentiful in many fruits and vegetables."
(..)
People who eat fruits and vegetables more than three times a day reduce their risk of having a stroke and dying from cardiovascular disease by nearly a quarter, compared with those who eat them less than once a day, according to an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study examining data from a national epidemiological survey. Many other studies find a similar inverse relationship between various chronic diseases and fruit and vegetable consumption.
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables may also be one of the best ways to lose weight. For instance, a survey of 7,356 adults published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that those who ate at least 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables a day were less likely than people who ate less to be obese -- even if their diet was high in fat, says Barbara Rolls, one of the study's authors. "Fruits and vegetables really are key players in determining weight status," she says.
There are signs that high consumption of produce may improve bone health, helping stave off osteoporosis. One recent study, also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found an association between high fruit and vegetable intake and bone mineral density in boys and girls ages 16 to 18, and a similar association involving fruit intake in women ages 60 to 83. Vitamin C and other antioxidants in fruit may play a role, the study's authors concluded.
WSJ.com - The Mossberg Solution
WSJ.com - The Mossberg Solution: "For the blind and visually impaired, technology has been helpful in many ways. Software can dictate the text on a computer screen, and advancements in voice recognition have made it possible to navigate a computer more easily.
But, for reading printed documents, like magazines, menus and mail, many blind and visually impaired people must still rely on other people to read to them, or must use large, deskbound reading machines that do nothing to allow reading while on the go. These dependencies are affecting more and more people, as aging Boomers confront diseases like macular degeneration and the effects of diabetes on eyesight.
[Device Photo]
The $3,495 Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader takes digital pictures of text and reads them out loud. www.knfbreader.com.
Starting this month, there's a new portable gadget for the blind that permits them to 'read' printed documents anywhere, at home or away, without the aid of sighted people. This gadget takes a digital picture of a page of text, and then reads it aloud to the blind person, either through a speaker or through earphones. It's called the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, and we've been testing it."...
But, for reading printed documents, like magazines, menus and mail, many blind and visually impaired people must still rely on other people to read to them, or must use large, deskbound reading machines that do nothing to allow reading while on the go. These dependencies are affecting more and more people, as aging Boomers confront diseases like macular degeneration and the effects of diabetes on eyesight.
[Device Photo]
The $3,495 Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader takes digital pictures of text and reads them out loud. www.knfbreader.com.
Starting this month, there's a new portable gadget for the blind that permits them to 'read' printed documents anywhere, at home or away, without the aid of sighted people. This gadget takes a digital picture of a page of text, and then reads it aloud to the blind person, either through a speaker or through earphones. It's called the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, and we've been testing it."...
The Would-Be Terrorist's Explosive Tell-All Tale
The Would-Be Terrorist's Explosive Tell-All Tale: "JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- When Abdullah Thabit recently saw a photo of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers for the first time, he felt a jolt of fear, and then a sadness so intense that tears streamed down his cheeks. The hijacker, Ahmed Alnami, was from Thabit's home town, and he looked familiar.
Thabit is the author of 'The 20th Terrorist,' which recounts his years as a religious extremist. He thinks he could easily have been in Alnami's place.
'I felt like someone who'd gotten off a b"
Thabit is the author of 'The 20th Terrorist,' which recounts his years as a religious extremist. He thinks he could easily have been in Alnami's place.
'I felt like someone who'd gotten off a b"
Monday, July 24, 2006
The abolition of slavery - TLS Highlights - Times Online
The abolition of slavery - TLS Highlights - Times Online: "Within fifty years of Columbus’s arrival in the New World, the native population of Hispaniola had fallen from around 500,000 to less than 500. Elsewhere, the collapse was scarcely less dramatic. In Mexico and Peru, it was hastened by the brutal regimens imposed by the conquistadores. Yet, as far away as the Great Plains of North America, people were sickening and dying. Had the Spanish and Portuguese embarked on a policy of deliberate genocide they could not have wreaked a fraction of the havoc caused by the pathogens they had introduced. Unable to comprehend what was happening, they stood amazed as the thriving communities they had conquered evaporated before their very eyes. Within a century of the Europeans’ arrival, roughly 90 per cent of the population of the Americas perished.
What would have happened to Native Americans had they proven less susceptible to Old World disease may be inferred from the fate of the 12.5 million Africans imported to take their place. Africa had been a source of slave labour since ancient times. Over the centuries it is likely that as many slaves had been marched northward across the Sahara as would be shipped westward across the Atlantic. Some were employed as household servants, others as eunuchs and concubines. Many, however, laboured on the sugar plantations that, from the time of the Crusades onward, advanced steadily westward from Palestine to Cyprus, Majorca, the Iberian Peninsula and thence out into the Atlantic. Well before Columbus’s first American voyage, Madeira had become a wealthy sugar colony employing largely African slave labour."...
(..)
H. Lecky describes England’s crusade against slavery as “among the three or four perfectly virtuous acts recorded in the history of nations”. Great powers do not as a rule behave selflessly. Not surprisingly, Lecky’s comment has generally been regarded with scepticism. Now, knowing vastly more than he did about slavery and its abolition, Davis believes Lecky was basically right. Although the American abolition movement came later and assumed a somewhat different character, the same might equally well be said of it. Slaves had never liked being slaves, but the rise of a climate of opinion that objected to slavery on moral grounds was something new. There had been nothing like it in ancient or medieval times or in any other society of which we have record. The upsurge of popular support for abolition both in Britain and the northern USA was unprecedented. Perhaps, David Brion Davis hypothesizes, moral progress is possible.
Whatever lay behind it, the cost of doing away with what up to then had been a resilient, flexible and expanding institution proved formidable. “I thank God”, declared Wilberforce on his deathbed, “that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of slavery.” In terms of loss of trade, the cost was much greater. The United States, confronted by a far larger problem and lacking a central government capable of solving it peacefully, barely survived the ordeal.
What would have happened to Native Americans had they proven less susceptible to Old World disease may be inferred from the fate of the 12.5 million Africans imported to take their place. Africa had been a source of slave labour since ancient times. Over the centuries it is likely that as many slaves had been marched northward across the Sahara as would be shipped westward across the Atlantic. Some were employed as household servants, others as eunuchs and concubines. Many, however, laboured on the sugar plantations that, from the time of the Crusades onward, advanced steadily westward from Palestine to Cyprus, Majorca, the Iberian Peninsula and thence out into the Atlantic. Well before Columbus’s first American voyage, Madeira had become a wealthy sugar colony employing largely African slave labour."...
(..)
H. Lecky describes England’s crusade against slavery as “among the three or four perfectly virtuous acts recorded in the history of nations”. Great powers do not as a rule behave selflessly. Not surprisingly, Lecky’s comment has generally been regarded with scepticism. Now, knowing vastly more than he did about slavery and its abolition, Davis believes Lecky was basically right. Although the American abolition movement came later and assumed a somewhat different character, the same might equally well be said of it. Slaves had never liked being slaves, but the rise of a climate of opinion that objected to slavery on moral grounds was something new. There had been nothing like it in ancient or medieval times or in any other society of which we have record. The upsurge of popular support for abolition both in Britain and the northern USA was unprecedented. Perhaps, David Brion Davis hypothesizes, moral progress is possible.
Whatever lay behind it, the cost of doing away with what up to then had been a resilient, flexible and expanding institution proved formidable. “I thank God”, declared Wilberforce on his deathbed, “that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of slavery.” In terms of loss of trade, the cost was much greater. The United States, confronted by a far larger problem and lacking a central government capable of solving it peacefully, barely survived the ordeal.
Foreign Affairs - The India Model - Gurcharan Das
I have been to India five times since 1968. The last trip was about 7 years ago. The turnabout in India's economy has always been a bit of a mystery to me, given the pervasice beaurocracy and corruption. The author touches upon many aspects of the state of the current Indian economy. He feels that the key to the turnaround were modest liberal refroms initiated by Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s. This increased economic growth markedly, but also brought India to the point of fiscal crisis in the early 1990s. This led to critical reforms, created by the current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who was then finace minister.
India is a fascinating case study of economic development, and perhaps a model for other developing countries. The article is long, but a good read if you have interest in international economic development...
Foreign Affairs - The India Model - Gurcharan Das: "Although the world has just discovered it, India's economic success is far from new. After three postindependence decades of meager progress, the country's economy grew at 6 percent a year from 1980 to 2002 and at 7.5 percent a year from 2002 to 2006 -- making it one of the world's best-performing economies for a quarter century. In the past two decades, the size of the middle class has quadrupled (to almost 250 million people), and 1 percent of the country's poor have crossed the poverty line every year. At the same time, population growth has slowed from the historic rate of 2.2 percent a year to 1.7 percent today -- meaning that growth has brought large per capita income gains, from $1,178 to $3,051 (in terms of purchasing-power parity) since 1980. India is now the world's fourth-largest economy. Soon it will surpass Japan to become the third-largest.
The notable thing about India's rise is not that it is new, but that its path has been unique. Rather than adopting the classic Asian strategy -- exporting labor-intensive, low-priced manufactured goods to the West -- India has relied on its domestic market more than exports, consumption more than investment, services more than industry, and high-tech more than low-skilled manufacturing. This approach has meant that the Indian economy has been mostly insulated from global downturns, showing a degree of stability that is as impressive as the rate of its expansion. The consumption-driven model is also more people-friendly than other development strategies. As a result, inequality has increased much less in India than in other developing nations. (Its Gini index, a measure of income inequality on a scale of zero to 100, is 33, compared to 41 for the United States, 45 for China, and 59 for Brazil.) Moreover, 30 to 40 percent of GDP growth is due to rising productivity -- a true sign of an economy's health and progress -- rather than to increases in the amount of capital or labor.
But what is most remarkable is that rather than rising with the help of the state, India is in many ways rising despite the state. The entrepreneur is clearly at the center of India's success story. India now boasts highly competitive private companies, a booming stock market, and a modern, well-disciplined financial sector. And since 1991 especially, the Indian state has been gradually moving out of the way -- not graciously, but kicked and dragged into implementing economic reforms. It has lowered trade barriers and tax rates, broken state monopolies, unshackled industry, encouraged competition, and opened up to the rest of the world. The pace has been slow, but the reforms are starting to add up."
India is a fascinating case study of economic development, and perhaps a model for other developing countries. The article is long, but a good read if you have interest in international economic development...
Foreign Affairs - The India Model - Gurcharan Das: "Although the world has just discovered it, India's economic success is far from new. After three postindependence decades of meager progress, the country's economy grew at 6 percent a year from 1980 to 2002 and at 7.5 percent a year from 2002 to 2006 -- making it one of the world's best-performing economies for a quarter century. In the past two decades, the size of the middle class has quadrupled (to almost 250 million people), and 1 percent of the country's poor have crossed the poverty line every year. At the same time, population growth has slowed from the historic rate of 2.2 percent a year to 1.7 percent today -- meaning that growth has brought large per capita income gains, from $1,178 to $3,051 (in terms of purchasing-power parity) since 1980. India is now the world's fourth-largest economy. Soon it will surpass Japan to become the third-largest.
The notable thing about India's rise is not that it is new, but that its path has been unique. Rather than adopting the classic Asian strategy -- exporting labor-intensive, low-priced manufactured goods to the West -- India has relied on its domestic market more than exports, consumption more than investment, services more than industry, and high-tech more than low-skilled manufacturing. This approach has meant that the Indian economy has been mostly insulated from global downturns, showing a degree of stability that is as impressive as the rate of its expansion. The consumption-driven model is also more people-friendly than other development strategies. As a result, inequality has increased much less in India than in other developing nations. (Its Gini index, a measure of income inequality on a scale of zero to 100, is 33, compared to 41 for the United States, 45 for China, and 59 for Brazil.) Moreover, 30 to 40 percent of GDP growth is due to rising productivity -- a true sign of an economy's health and progress -- rather than to increases in the amount of capital or labor.
But what is most remarkable is that rather than rising with the help of the state, India is in many ways rising despite the state. The entrepreneur is clearly at the center of India's success story. India now boasts highly competitive private companies, a booming stock market, and a modern, well-disciplined financial sector. And since 1991 especially, the Indian state has been gradually moving out of the way -- not graciously, but kicked and dragged into implementing economic reforms. It has lowered trade barriers and tax rates, broken state monopolies, unshackled industry, encouraged competition, and opened up to the rest of the world. The pace has been slow, but the reforms are starting to add up."
Women back under wraps with Taliban vice squad | The World | The Australian
Women back under wraps with Taliban vice squad | The World | The Australian: "AFGHANISTAN'S notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was set up by the Taliban to enforce bans on women doing anything from working to wearing nail varnish or laughing out loud, is to be recreated by the Government in Kabul.
The decision has provoked an outcry among women and human rights activists who fear a return to the days when religious police patrolled the streets, beating or arresting any woman who was not properly covered by a burka or accompanied by a male relative.
'This is a very bad idea at a bad time,' said Sam Zia-Zarifi, the Asia research director of Human Rights Watch. 'We're close to the edge in Afghanistan. It really could all go wrong and it is alarming that the United Nations and Western governments are not speaking out on this issue.'"
The decision has provoked an outcry among women and human rights activists who fear a return to the days when religious police patrolled the streets, beating or arresting any woman who was not properly covered by a burka or accompanied by a male relative.
'This is a very bad idea at a bad time,' said Sam Zia-Zarifi, the Asia research director of Human Rights Watch. 'We're close to the edge in Afghanistan. It really could all go wrong and it is alarming that the United Nations and Western governments are not speaking out on this issue.'"
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Cuts in Africa Aid Thwart U.S. Goals - New York Times
Cuts in Africa Aid Thwart U.S. Goals - New York Times: "WASHINGTON, July 22 — The Bush administration and Congress have slashed millions of dollars of military aid to African nations in recent years, moves that Pentagon officials and senior military commanders say have undermined American efforts to combat terrorist threats in Africa and to counter expanding Chinese influence there.
Since 2003, Washington has shut down Pentagon programs to train and equip militaries in a handful of African nations because they have declined to sign agreements exempting American troops from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But the policy, which was designed to protect American troops, has instead angered senior military officials, who say the cuts in military aid are shortsighted and have weakened counterterrorism efforts in places where the threat of international terrorism is said to be most acute."
Since 2003, Washington has shut down Pentagon programs to train and equip militaries in a handful of African nations because they have declined to sign agreements exempting American troops from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But the policy, which was designed to protect American troops, has instead angered senior military officials, who say the cuts in military aid are shortsighted and have weakened counterterrorism efforts in places where the threat of international terrorism is said to be most acute."
Read All About It - New York Times
Read All About It - New York Times: "Q: You’re one of several Microsoft entrepreneurs who seem eager to live out some fantasy of saving the world. As the founder of Room to Read, do you really believe you can personally “educate the world’s children,” as the subtitle of your forthcoming book, “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World,” proclaims?
We’re trying to open libraries and schools, mostly for kids K to 5, in the developing world at a pace that emulates Starbucks’. With 850 million illiterate people in the world, we need the nonprofit sector to scale rapidly.
But can libraries open as quickly as coffee bars?"
We’re trying to open libraries and schools, mostly for kids K to 5, in the developing world at a pace that emulates Starbucks’. With 850 million illiterate people in the world, we need the nonprofit sector to scale rapidly.
But can libraries open as quickly as coffee bars?"
Friday, July 21, 2006
Seed: How We Know
Seed: How We Know: "This revealed the essential connection between learning and doing. The human mind understands the world by interacting with it. When we see an inanimate object that we are familiar with, our mirror neurons instinctively imagine what they could do with that object. A tennis racquet causes our cells to imagine swinging it; a violin causes our cells to imagine playing it. If you happen to be taught algebra by Bob Moses, a math equation might trigger thoughts of taking the subway. A separate brain imaging study has shown that our mirror neurons can even be activated by the sound of words. When we say 'tennis' or 'violin' or 'algebra,' cells in our motor cortex automatically get excited.
What's the point of all this neural activity? Mirror neurons let us comb the world for practical things. Because they translate our ideas into actions, they naturally focus on whatever ideas we know how to use, ignoring the abstract and the theoretical. This makes evolutionary sense. The brain, after all, is an adaptive organ: It evolved to help us cope with a world full of concrete problems, not so that we could excel at metaphysics. (As Goethe quipped, 'In the beginning was the deed.') And even though mirror neurons are just a small cluster of cells, their predilection for action is an essential part of the human mind. They have been implicated in every"
What's the point of all this neural activity? Mirror neurons let us comb the world for practical things. Because they translate our ideas into actions, they naturally focus on whatever ideas we know how to use, ignoring the abstract and the theoretical. This makes evolutionary sense. The brain, after all, is an adaptive organ: It evolved to help us cope with a world full of concrete problems, not so that we could excel at metaphysics. (As Goethe quipped, 'In the beginning was the deed.') And even though mirror neurons are just a small cluster of cells, their predilection for action is an essential part of the human mind. They have been implicated in every"
Thursday, July 20, 2006
NPR : New Autism Study Shows Discrepancy in Brains
NPR : New Autism Study Shows Discrepancy in Brains: "July 19, 2006 · Men and boys with autism have fewer neurons in a part of the brain involved in memory and emotion, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California in San Diego and the MIND Institute at UC Davis.
The study, which appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, offers the latest evidence that this area of the brain, called the amygdala, may be one of the keys to understanding autism."
The study, which appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, offers the latest evidence that this area of the brain, called the amygdala, may be one of the keys to understanding autism."
NPR : New Autism Study Shows Discrepancy in Brains
NPR : New Autism Study Shows Discrepancy in Brains: "July 19, 2006 · Men and boys with autism have fewer neurons in a part of the brain involved in memory and emotion, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California in San Diego and the MIND Institute at UC Davis.
The study, which appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, offers the latest evidence that this area of the brain, called the amygdala, may be one of the keys to understanding autism."
The study, which appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, offers the latest evidence that this area of the brain, called the amygdala, may be one of the keys to understanding autism."
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Inside Congo, An Unspeakable Toll
Inside Congo, An Unspeakable Toll: "But has Congo -- nominally at peace since a truce in 2002 ended its eight-year civil war, but still suffering spasms of violence -- ever occupied its rightful place on that list? Has the scale of the tragedy engulfing the Congolese people received proper attention? The answer, sadly, is no. Ignorance of the calamity occurring in Congo remains almost universal, even though the numbers that reflect it -- particularly the key indicator 'excess mortality,' the number of deaths above normal levels -- are staggering.
The International Rescue Committee, which has been providing humanitarian assistance in Congo since 1996, conducted four mortality surveys in the country between 2000 and 2004. We found that in the most affected zones, the mortality rate over the years covered by our studies (1998 to 2004) exceeded the 'normal' rate for sub-Saharan Africa by nearly 4 million people. This makes the crisis in Congo the deadliest anywhere since the end of World War II, dwarfing Bosnia, Kosovo, Darfur and even the South Asian tsunami. Yet for the most part, these deaths have gone all but unnoticed.
Perhaps this is because of the nature of the dying. In an era of instant news cycles, more attention is paid to those who die violently than to those who die of disease. In our most recent Congo survey, only 2 percent of the deaths"
The International Rescue Committee, which has been providing humanitarian assistance in Congo since 1996, conducted four mortality surveys in the country between 2000 and 2004. We found that in the most affected zones, the mortality rate over the years covered by our studies (1998 to 2004) exceeded the 'normal' rate for sub-Saharan Africa by nearly 4 million people. This makes the crisis in Congo the deadliest anywhere since the end of World War II, dwarfing Bosnia, Kosovo, Darfur and even the South Asian tsunami. Yet for the most part, these deaths have gone all but unnoticed.
Perhaps this is because of the nature of the dying. In an era of instant news cycles, more attention is paid to those who die violently than to those who die of disease. In our most recent Congo survey, only 2 percent of the deaths"
RGJ.com: Macular degeneration: Help's in sight, but at what cost?
This feature about lucentis vs avastin for macular degeneration in the local Reno paper, demonstrates the need for precision in speaking with the media. All the direct quotes attributed to me have a "folksy" feel, as though the interviewer had the preconceived notion to "paint" me as a local country doctor. I don't remember speaking as informally as I was quoted. But the article presented a fairly balanced view of the debate, notwithstanding the unsubstantiated claims by Genentech that avastin is "not as pure" as lucentis and the claim that lucentis is less inflammatory then avastin...
My only other beef with the article is that the author chose not to highlight the fact that we offer 360 macular rotation surgery here and have had some impressive improvemnts in vision...
RGJ.com: Macular degeneration: Help's in sight, but at what cost?: "Several questions about cost and the manufacturer's motives are dampening enthusiasm for the first approved drug that reverses a potentially devastating eye disease seen in the elderly."
My only other beef with the article is that the author chose not to highlight the fact that we offer 360 macular rotation surgery here and have had some impressive improvemnts in vision...
RGJ.com: Macular degeneration: Help's in sight, but at what cost?: "Several questions about cost and the manufacturer's motives are dampening enthusiasm for the first approved drug that reverses a potentially devastating eye disease seen in the elderly."
Touch Messenger sends and receives text messages in Braille
 |
View all images for this article |
Touch Messenger sends and receives text messages in Braille
July
17, 2006 Samsung’s “Touch Messenger” mobile phone for
the visually impaired has landed a Gold Award at the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA).
The innovative Touch Messenger enables the visually impaired users to
send and receive Braille text messages. The 3-4 button on the cell
phone is used as two Braille keypads and text messages can be checked
through the Braille display screen in the lower part. Once this product
is commercialized, it is expected to dramatically boost the quality of
life for visually impaired people, numbering as many as 180 million
worldwide.
The Boy Who Sees with Sound
The Boy Who Sees with Sound
 |
There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch
the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in
the face. That's when Ben started his clicking thing. "I chased him,
clicking until I got to him, then I socked him a good one," says Ben, a
skinny 14-year-old. "He didn't reckon on me going after him. But I can
hear walls, parked cars, you name it. I'm a master at this game."
Ask people about Ben Underwood and you'll hear dozens of stories like
this – about the amazing boy who doesn't seem to know he's blind.
There's Ben zooming around on his skateboard outside his home in
Sacramento; there he is playing kickball with his buddies. To see him
speed down hallways and make sharp turns around corners is to observe a
typical teen – except, that is, for the clicking. Completely
blind since the age of 3, after retinal cancer claimed both his eyes
(he now
wears two prostheses), Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects
by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for
the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him. About as loud as
the snapping of fingers, Ben's clicks tell him what's ahead: the echoes
they produce can be soft (indicating metals), dense (wood) or sharp
(glass). Judging by how loud or faint they are, Ben has learned to
gauge distances.
The technique is called echolocation, and many species, most
notably bats and dolphins, use it to get around. But a 14-year-old boy
from Sacramento? While many blind people listen for echoes to some
degree, Ben's ability to navigate in his sightless world is, say
experts, extraordinary. "His skills are rare," says Dan Kish, a blind
psychologist and leading teacher of echomobility among the blind. "Ben
pushes the limits of human perception."
Kish has taught echolocation to scores of blind people as a
supplement to more traditional methods, such as walking with a cane or
a guide dog, but only a handful of people in the world use echolocation
alone to get around, according to the American Foundation for the
Blind. A big part of the reason Ben has succeeded is his mother, who
made the decision long ago never to coddle her son. "I always told him,
'Your name is Benjamin Underwood, and you can do anything,' " says
Aquanetta Gordon, 42, a utilities-company employee. "He can learn to
fly an airplane if he wants to."
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Sleep deprivation doubles risks of obesity in both children and adults
Sleep deprivation doubles risks of obesity in both children and adults: "Research by Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick has found that sleep deprivation is associated with an almost a two-fold increased risk of being obese for both children and adults.
Early results of a study by Professor Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School were presented to the International AC21 Research Festival hosted this month by the University of Warwick.
The research reviewed current evidence in over 28,000 children and 15,000 adults. For both groups Professor Cappuccio found that shorter sleep duration is associated with almost a two-fold increased risk of being obese.
The research also suggests that those who sleep less have a greater increase in body mass index and waist circumference over time and a greater chance of becoming obese over time.
"
Early results of a study by Professor Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School were presented to the International AC21 Research Festival hosted this month by the University of Warwick.
The research reviewed current evidence in over 28,000 children and 15,000 adults. For both groups Professor Cappuccio found that shorter sleep duration is associated with almost a two-fold increased risk of being obese.
The research also suggests that those who sleep less have a greater increase in body mass index and waist circumference over time and a greater chance of becoming obese over time.
"
Friday, July 14, 2006
Chirac warns of 'African flood'
Chirac warns of 'African flood'
 Thousands of Africans are risking their lives to reach Europe |
French President Jacques Chirac has warned that Africans "will flood
the world" unless more is done to develop the continent's economy.
In a TV interview, Mr Chirac said nearly 50% of Africa's
950m population was under 17 and that by 2050 there would be two
billion Africans.
He said the necessary resources had to be made available to help Africa.
"We have an immense problem [in Africa] ... which is that of development," he said in the Bastille Day interview.
'Back to basics'
"If we do not develop... Africa... if we do not
make available the necessary resources to bring about this development,
these people will flood the world," he said.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
George Bush singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
| Thanks to http://onegoodmove.org and Rx @ http://thepartyparty.com/ | |
Yahoo! Answers - What can we do to make poverty history?
Bono is asking what you what can be done to end global poverty...
Yahoo! Answers - What can we do to make poverty history?: "What can we do to make poverty history?
Because of people like you, leaders of the world’s richest countries met in July 2005 and made a number of historic promises to help end the kind of extreme poverty that is needlessly killing 9,000 people a day in Africa. Millions of lives and the future of a continent are at stake.
Click here to watch Bono’s video message:
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=f3...
Discuss Bono and ONE.org with other fans:
http://action.one.org/blog/comments.jsp?...
Yahoo! Answers staff note: This is the real Bono!
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-d8ph0dcor...
29354 answers "
Yahoo! Answers - What can we do to make poverty history?: "What can we do to make poverty history?
Because of people like you, leaders of the world’s richest countries met in July 2005 and made a number of historic promises to help end the kind of extreme poverty that is needlessly killing 9,000 people a day in Africa. Millions of lives and the future of a continent are at stake.
Click here to watch Bono’s video message:
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=f3...
Discuss Bono and ONE.org with other fans:
http://action.one.org/blog/comments.jsp?...
Yahoo! Answers staff note: This is the real Bono!
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-d8ph0dcor...
29354 answers "
GetReligion: July 13, 2006
GetReligion: July 13, 2006: "ut here is what hit me, as I read one of those Noonan-esque blitzes of words, issues and images — what percentage of the issues that haunt our non-naked public square are rooted, to one degree or another, in issues of religion, morality and culture? Check them off as you read the following from Noonan’s column:
We are asking our politicians, our senators and congressmen, to make judgments, decisions and policy on: stem cell research, SDI, Nato composition, G-8 agreements, the history and state of play of judicial and legislative actions regarding press freedoms, the history of Sunni-Shiites tensions, Kurds, tax rates, federal spending, hurricane prediction and response, the building of a library annex in Missoula, the most recent thinking on when human life begins, including the thinking of the theologians of antiquity on when the soul enters the body, chemical weaponry, the Supreme Court, U.S.-North Korean relations, bioethics, cloning, public college curriculums, India-Pakistan relations, the enduring Muslim-Hindu conflict, the constitutional implications of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, Homeland security, Securities and Exchange Commission authority, energy policy, environmental policy, nuclear proliferation, global warming, the stability of Venezuela’s Chavez regime and its implications for U.S. oil prices, the future of Cuba after Castro, progr"ess in gender bias as suggested by comparisons of the number of girls who pursued college-track studies in American public high schools circa 1950 to those on a college-track today, outsourcing, immigration, the comparative efficacy of charter and magnet schools, land use, Kelo, health care, HMO’s, what to do with victims of child abuse, the history of marriage, the nature and origin of homosexuality, V-chips, foreign competition in the making of computer chips, fat levels in potato chips, national policy on the humanities, U.N. reform, and privacy law.
And that was just this week.
(..)
P.S. Here is my all-time favorite Noonan blitz of information and images, drawn from her classic column about the “Culture of Death,” written immediately after the Columbine High School massacre.
Your child is an intelligent little fish. He swims in deep water. Waves of sound and sight, of thought and fact, come invisibly through that water, like radar; they go through him again and again, from this direction and that. The sound from the television is a wave, and the sound from the radio; the headlines on the newsstand, on the magazines, on the ad on the bus as it whizzes by — all are waves. The fish — your child—is bombarded and barely knows it. But the waves contain words like this, which I’ll limit to only one source, the news:
. . . was found strangled and is believed to have been sexually molested . . . had her breast implants removed . . . took the stand to say the killer was smiling the day the show aired . . . said the procedure is, in fact, legal infanticide . . . is thought to be connected to earlier sexual activity among teens . . . court battle over who owns the frozen sperm . . . contains songs that call for dominating and even imprisoning women . . . died of lethal injection . . . had threatened to kill her children . . . said that he turned and said, “You better put some ice on that” . . . had asked Kevorkian for help in killing himself . . . protested the game, which they said has gone beyond violence to sadism . . . showed no remorse . . . which is about a wager over whether he could sleep with another student . . . which is about her attempts to balance three lovers and a watchful fiance . . .
This is the ocean in which our children swim. This is the sound of our culture.
We are asking our politicians, our senators and congressmen, to make judgments, decisions and policy on: stem cell research, SDI, Nato composition, G-8 agreements, the history and state of play of judicial and legislative actions regarding press freedoms, the history of Sunni-Shiites tensions, Kurds, tax rates, federal spending, hurricane prediction and response, the building of a library annex in Missoula, the most recent thinking on when human life begins, including the thinking of the theologians of antiquity on when the soul enters the body, chemical weaponry, the Supreme Court, U.S.-North Korean relations, bioethics, cloning, public college curriculums, India-Pakistan relations, the enduring Muslim-Hindu conflict, the constitutional implications of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, Homeland security, Securities and Exchange Commission authority, energy policy, environmental policy, nuclear proliferation, global warming, the stability of Venezuela’s Chavez regime and its implications for U.S. oil prices, the future of Cuba after Castro, progr"ess in gender bias as suggested by comparisons of the number of girls who pursued college-track studies in American public high schools circa 1950 to those on a college-track today, outsourcing, immigration, the comparative efficacy of charter and magnet schools, land use, Kelo, health care, HMO’s, what to do with victims of child abuse, the history of marriage, the nature and origin of homosexuality, V-chips, foreign competition in the making of computer chips, fat levels in potato chips, national policy on the humanities, U.N. reform, and privacy law.
And that was just this week.
(..)
P.S. Here is my all-time favorite Noonan blitz of information and images, drawn from her classic column about the “Culture of Death,” written immediately after the Columbine High School massacre.
Your child is an intelligent little fish. He swims in deep water. Waves of sound and sight, of thought and fact, come invisibly through that water, like radar; they go through him again and again, from this direction and that. The sound from the television is a wave, and the sound from the radio; the headlines on the newsstand, on the magazines, on the ad on the bus as it whizzes by — all are waves. The fish — your child—is bombarded and barely knows it. But the waves contain words like this, which I’ll limit to only one source, the news:
. . . was found strangled and is believed to have been sexually molested . . . had her breast implants removed . . . took the stand to say the killer was smiling the day the show aired . . . said the procedure is, in fact, legal infanticide . . . is thought to be connected to earlier sexual activity among teens . . . court battle over who owns the frozen sperm . . . contains songs that call for dominating and even imprisoning women . . . died of lethal injection . . . had threatened to kill her children . . . said that he turned and said, “You better put some ice on that” . . . had asked Kevorkian for help in killing himself . . . protested the game, which they said has gone beyond violence to sadism . . . showed no remorse . . . which is about a wager over whether he could sleep with another student . . . which is about her attempts to balance three lovers and a watchful fiance . . .
This is the ocean in which our children swim. This is the sound of our culture.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Camus and Zidane Offer Views on How Things End - New York Times
Camus and Zidane Offer Views on How Things End - New York Times: "Camus, writing during World War II, the son of a man killed in World War I, captured a 20th-century senselessness in his story of a man driven to an irrational act for which he feels no remorse, for which in fact he feels nothing. The story of Zidane in the World Cup final is also a story of his age."
(..)
Zidane chose his fate. We all do, or so Camus believed. Zidane chose his moment, 10 minutes before the end of his career. What he could not determine was what would happen afterward in the age of the global conversation.
Already, theories are swirling, a planetary fog of electronic opinion arising from an act virtually nobody who was there saw. Lip-readers and others claim to know what Materazzi said. Zidane's agent is promising a revelation.
Some defend Zidane, or even perceive a certain elegance in his head butt. Others recoil in horror or anger. One or two hail Zidane's cosmic joke. Jacques Chirac, the French president, thanks Zidane for what he has done for France and for showing "the greatest human qualities." Zizou wins the Golden Ball award for best player.
On my World Cup blog (blogs.iht.com/worldcupcohen), I have been deluged with mail about the incident. Jessica Torres wrote from Dallas, Texas: "Two minutes before his fall from grace I was sure he was going to go down in history as a man full of honor, grace and control and take his place with the greats. And then he re-wrote his own destiny. But his actions also made me love him more. Before he was a god. But then he showed us all that he was just a man. A man with weakness and hate."
She concluded: "I am much more affected by him than I would have been had things gone as I hoped. But, my Lord, was that head butt sexy."
Another correspondent, writing from Oakland, California, said: "I think Zidane's performance has always been about controlling rage and focusing it, in one way or another. It was, most of the time, a beautiful thing to behold."
The comment continued: "The zone out of which Zidane's football brilliance came was likely some kind of deeply personal state that he indulged and called upon. Zidane believed that he could do impossible things, or that impossible things could flow out of him if he gave himself over to this state."
Certainly, Zidane was in a place denied most mortals during the French victory over Brazil. His smile was that of a man seeing things others could not. And it is true that he could give the impression that the ball was propelled not precisely by him, but by some force emanating from him.
Camus was averse to judgment. Acts themselves, explicable or not, were all that we could know existed. Meursault felt nothing at his mother's funeral and he killed the Arab in the stunning sunlight. We may wish that the story had been otherwise - as we may wish that love not be close to hate - but the story was what it was.
Zidane, it seems, lost his head. Or perhaps he kept his head and chose to write a coda to his story that would have all the complexity of a great novel. Perhaps he sought an almost unseen act of anger that would prompt a global, virtual argument about the merits or demerits of a gesture without sense.
(..)
Zidane chose his fate. We all do, or so Camus believed. Zidane chose his moment, 10 minutes before the end of his career. What he could not determine was what would happen afterward in the age of the global conversation.
Already, theories are swirling, a planetary fog of electronic opinion arising from an act virtually nobody who was there saw. Lip-readers and others claim to know what Materazzi said. Zidane's agent is promising a revelation.
Some defend Zidane, or even perceive a certain elegance in his head butt. Others recoil in horror or anger. One or two hail Zidane's cosmic joke. Jacques Chirac, the French president, thanks Zidane for what he has done for France and for showing "the greatest human qualities." Zizou wins the Golden Ball award for best player.
On my World Cup blog (blogs.iht.com/worldcupcohen), I have been deluged with mail about the incident. Jessica Torres wrote from Dallas, Texas: "Two minutes before his fall from grace I was sure he was going to go down in history as a man full of honor, grace and control and take his place with the greats. And then he re-wrote his own destiny. But his actions also made me love him more. Before he was a god. But then he showed us all that he was just a man. A man with weakness and hate."
She concluded: "I am much more affected by him than I would have been had things gone as I hoped. But, my Lord, was that head butt sexy."
Another correspondent, writing from Oakland, California, said: "I think Zidane's performance has always been about controlling rage and focusing it, in one way or another. It was, most of the time, a beautiful thing to behold."
The comment continued: "The zone out of which Zidane's football brilliance came was likely some kind of deeply personal state that he indulged and called upon. Zidane believed that he could do impossible things, or that impossible things could flow out of him if he gave himself over to this state."
Certainly, Zidane was in a place denied most mortals during the French victory over Brazil. His smile was that of a man seeing things others could not. And it is true that he could give the impression that the ball was propelled not precisely by him, but by some force emanating from him.
Camus was averse to judgment. Acts themselves, explicable or not, were all that we could know existed. Meursault felt nothing at his mother's funeral and he killed the Arab in the stunning sunlight. We may wish that the story had been otherwise - as we may wish that love not be close to hate - but the story was what it was.
Zidane, it seems, lost his head. Or perhaps he kept his head and chose to write a coda to his story that would have all the complexity of a great novel. Perhaps he sought an almost unseen act of anger that would prompt a global, virtual argument about the merits or demerits of a gesture without sense.
Seed: Mice Can Feel Cagemates' Pain
Seed: Mice Can Feel Cagemates' Pain
If the world's smallest violin is tiny enough, perhaps a couple of mice could play the world's saddest song on it.
A Canadian research team in the Pain Genetics Lab at McGill University discovered that a mouse's response to pain is intensified in the presence of another mouse that is also in pain. In addition, according to a study published in the June 30th issue of Science, the mice appear to synchronize their pain responses.
"Both of those things, ultimately, are suggestive of empathy," said Jeffrey Mogil, a psychology professor and one of the study's lead authors.
(..)
Surprisingly, this only occurred if the mice knew each other—that is, if they had been cagemates for at least two weeks.
(..)
"The message 'I'm in pain' appears to be transmitted visually," Mogil said. "Humans are very, very good at telling when another human is in pain by looking at the face, and we think that probably mice can do it, too."
If the world's smallest violin is tiny enough, perhaps a couple of mice could play the world's saddest song on it.
A Canadian research team in the Pain Genetics Lab at McGill University discovered that a mouse's response to pain is intensified in the presence of another mouse that is also in pain. In addition, according to a study published in the June 30th issue of Science, the mice appear to synchronize their pain responses.
"Both of those things, ultimately, are suggestive of empathy," said Jeffrey Mogil, a psychology professor and one of the study's lead authors.
(..)
Surprisingly, this only occurred if the mice knew each other—that is, if they had been cagemates for at least two weeks.
(..)
"The message 'I'm in pain' appears to be transmitted visually," Mogil said. "Humans are very, very good at telling when another human is in pain by looking at the face, and we think that probably mice can do it, too."
Monday, July 10, 2006
Lexington | Faith, race and Barack Obama | Economist.com
Lexington | Faith, race and Barack Obama | Economist.com: "For someone so inexperienced, and whose policies are so ill-defined, Mr Obama is extraordinarily popular. He is only 44, but people are already begging him to run for president. Something about him fills a gap in American politics: he seems not to be faking when he talks of mending America's religious and racial divides. He is that rare thing, a black politician who addresses the whole nation, not just an ethnic enclave.
That this is rare is tragic. It is also virtually inevitable, given the way the electoral system works. As a senator, Mr Obama is accountable to an entire state's voters. But every other black member of Congress sits in the House of Representatives, where most represent gerrymandered majority-black districts. Unlike Mr Obama, they need not bother appealing to whites. They need not worry about the ideological centre ground, either; since no Republican can win a majority-black district, the crucial contest is the Democratic primary, in which only the most passionate Democrats vote."
That this is rare is tragic. It is also virtually inevitable, given the way the electoral system works. As a senator, Mr Obama is accountable to an entire state's voters. But every other black member of Congress sits in the House of Representatives, where most represent gerrymandered majority-black districts. Unlike Mr Obama, they need not bother appealing to whites. They need not worry about the ideological centre ground, either; since no Republican can win a majority-black district, the crucial contest is the Democratic primary, in which only the most passionate Democrats vote."
Project Syndicate - Print Commentary
From Jeffrey Sachs--Politicians will follow committed world citizens who commit to global projects...
Project Syndicate - Print Commentary: "Twenty years ago, a grass-roots movement led by Rotary International, a voluntary organization with around 1.2 million members in more than 200 countries, decided to attack. As of the mid-1980’s, there were more than 300,000 cases of polio per year worldwide, despite the disease’s virtual elimination in the richest countries, where vaccination was routine. Rotary took on the challenge of getting vaccines to the poor, in regions with weak or non-existent public health systems. Rotarians dreamed not only of reducing the number of polio cases, but of eradicating the disease entirely. This goal is now within reach.
Rather than wait for politicians to take up the fight against polio, Rotarians led the way. A few years later, the World Health Organization, and then other international agencies and donor countries, joined the cause, creating a coalition of official and private organizations that now support Rotary’s vision. By 2006, the number of polio cases had been cut dramatically, to well under 3,000 cases per year."
(..)
Still, despite the difficulties of rooting out the very last cases, the progress made against polio has been historic. More importantly, Rotary’s leadership on polio offers a more general lesson in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger, and disease. Even when politicians don’t lead, it is still possible for committed individuals and voluntary organizations to change the world. The key is to link a bold idea with a practical and powerful technology, and then to push the idea and technology forward through mass citizen action.
(..)
These same lessons can be applied to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), the targets for fighting poverty, disease, and hunger that the world’s governments adopted in 2000.
(..)
Consider hunger in Africa. Most of Africa’s farmers, working tiny plots, do not produce enough food to feed their families, much less to earn an income. The root of the problem is that Africa’s farmers are too poor to obtain the basic modern inputs—including high-yield seed varieties, fertilizers, and small-scale water management systems—that could enable them to double or triple their output of food and cash crops.
The solution is therefore not much more complicated than a polio vaccine. If organizations like Rotary International can help African farmers to get a 50 kilogram bag of appropriate fertilizer and a 10 kilogram tin of improved seeds, the rise in farm output could be enough to relieve extreme hunger and help farm households begin to earn some income.
(..)
The time has arrived for a massive effort by voluntary organizations to take up the MDG’s through private action. We need not wait for the politicians. In a short period of time, the world’s citizens can make deep inroads in the fight against disease, hunger, and poverty. Then the politicians will follow.
The key is practicality, boldness, and, most importantly, a commitment by those who are better off to volunteer their time and money to bring practical help–in the form of high-yield seeds, fertilizers, medicines, bed nets, drinking wells, and materials to build school rooms and clinics—to the world’s poorest people.
Project Syndicate - Print Commentary: "Twenty years ago, a grass-roots movement led by Rotary International, a voluntary organization with around 1.2 million members in more than 200 countries, decided to attack. As of the mid-1980’s, there were more than 300,000 cases of polio per year worldwide, despite the disease’s virtual elimination in the richest countries, where vaccination was routine. Rotary took on the challenge of getting vaccines to the poor, in regions with weak or non-existent public health systems. Rotarians dreamed not only of reducing the number of polio cases, but of eradicating the disease entirely. This goal is now within reach.
Rather than wait for politicians to take up the fight against polio, Rotarians led the way. A few years later, the World Health Organization, and then other international agencies and donor countries, joined the cause, creating a coalition of official and private organizations that now support Rotary’s vision. By 2006, the number of polio cases had been cut dramatically, to well under 3,000 cases per year."
(..)
Still, despite the difficulties of rooting out the very last cases, the progress made against polio has been historic. More importantly, Rotary’s leadership on polio offers a more general lesson in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger, and disease. Even when politicians don’t lead, it is still possible for committed individuals and voluntary organizations to change the world. The key is to link a bold idea with a practical and powerful technology, and then to push the idea and technology forward through mass citizen action.
(..)
These same lessons can be applied to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), the targets for fighting poverty, disease, and hunger that the world’s governments adopted in 2000.
(..)
Consider hunger in Africa. Most of Africa’s farmers, working tiny plots, do not produce enough food to feed their families, much less to earn an income. The root of the problem is that Africa’s farmers are too poor to obtain the basic modern inputs—including high-yield seed varieties, fertilizers, and small-scale water management systems—that could enable them to double or triple their output of food and cash crops.
The solution is therefore not much more complicated than a polio vaccine. If organizations like Rotary International can help African farmers to get a 50 kilogram bag of appropriate fertilizer and a 10 kilogram tin of improved seeds, the rise in farm output could be enough to relieve extreme hunger and help farm households begin to earn some income.
(..)
The time has arrived for a massive effort by voluntary organizations to take up the MDG’s through private action. We need not wait for the politicians. In a short period of time, the world’s citizens can make deep inroads in the fight against disease, hunger, and poverty. Then the politicians will follow.
The key is practicality, boldness, and, most importantly, a commitment by those who are better off to volunteer their time and money to bring practical help–in the form of high-yield seeds, fertilizers, medicines, bed nets, drinking wells, and materials to build school rooms and clinics—to the world’s poorest people.
When Genocide Worsens - New York Times
When Genocide Worsens - New York Times: "genocide by its nature would seem to be the rock bottom of human behavior. But in Darfur, we see a genocide that is growing worse.
The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed on May 5, signaled a ray of hope in a desperate land. But on the ground, its deadlines are not being met, security is deteriorating, and the violence is rippling from Sudan ever wider into both Chad and the Central African Republic.
One measure of how awful the situation has become in eastern Chad is that at least 15,000 villagers have fled ... into Darfur!
In one broad swath of the Chad border region, the only Westerners brave enough (and crazy enough) to stay are French doctors with Doctors Without Borders. Hats off to them."
(..)
One problem is that provisions of the Darfur Peace Agreement aren't actually being carried out so far — and in the meantime it has inflamed tensions among the African tribes that have been victimized by the genocide. The Fur tribe, one of the biggest in Darfur ("Darfur" means "Homeland of the Fur"), has mostly opposed the deal, and so there has been fighting between Fur and men of the Zaghawa tribe, whose top commander signed the agreement.
(..)
The two most important Bush administration officials on Darfur, Robert Zoellick and Michael Gerson (who has been the conscience of the White House), have both announced their resignations, so there is a vacuum in Washington as well. President Bush should address this vacuum by appointing a top-level envoy for the crisis. Mr. President, how about calling in James Baker, or else Colin Powell?
(..)
There are specific measures I can suggest. We need to amplify (though not reopen) the peace agreement to bring the Fur in, and we need to ensure that its deadlines are met. We need a U.N.-led or French-led protection force in eastern Chad. We need to bolster the African Union force in Darfur immediately and push harder for Sudan to admit U.N. peacekeepers. We need a no-fly zone. We need to press Europeans to become more involved and to remind Arabs that the slaughter of several hundred thousand Muslims in Darfur is every bit as worthy of protest as cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
But most of all, we must put genocide squarely on the international agenda. One lesson of history is that world leaders always prefer to ignore a genocide, but when forced to face the horrors — as in Bosnia or Kosovo — they figure out ways of responding. The most acute need is not for policies but for political will.
(..)
So here's a suggestion: Let's charter a few cargo planes to carry the corpses of hundreds of new victims from Darfur and Chad to the U.N. The butchered victims of Darfur could lie in state as a memorial to global indifference — and as a spur to become serious about the first genocide of the 21st century.
The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed on May 5, signaled a ray of hope in a desperate land. But on the ground, its deadlines are not being met, security is deteriorating, and the violence is rippling from Sudan ever wider into both Chad and the Central African Republic.
One measure of how awful the situation has become in eastern Chad is that at least 15,000 villagers have fled ... into Darfur!
In one broad swath of the Chad border region, the only Westerners brave enough (and crazy enough) to stay are French doctors with Doctors Without Borders. Hats off to them."
(..)
One problem is that provisions of the Darfur Peace Agreement aren't actually being carried out so far — and in the meantime it has inflamed tensions among the African tribes that have been victimized by the genocide. The Fur tribe, one of the biggest in Darfur ("Darfur" means "Homeland of the Fur"), has mostly opposed the deal, and so there has been fighting between Fur and men of the Zaghawa tribe, whose top commander signed the agreement.
(..)
The two most important Bush administration officials on Darfur, Robert Zoellick and Michael Gerson (who has been the conscience of the White House), have both announced their resignations, so there is a vacuum in Washington as well. President Bush should address this vacuum by appointing a top-level envoy for the crisis. Mr. President, how about calling in James Baker, or else Colin Powell?
(..)
There are specific measures I can suggest. We need to amplify (though not reopen) the peace agreement to bring the Fur in, and we need to ensure that its deadlines are met. We need a U.N.-led or French-led protection force in eastern Chad. We need to bolster the African Union force in Darfur immediately and push harder for Sudan to admit U.N. peacekeepers. We need a no-fly zone. We need to press Europeans to become more involved and to remind Arabs that the slaughter of several hundred thousand Muslims in Darfur is every bit as worthy of protest as cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
But most of all, we must put genocide squarely on the international agenda. One lesson of history is that world leaders always prefer to ignore a genocide, but when forced to face the horrors — as in Bosnia or Kosovo — they figure out ways of responding. The most acute need is not for policies but for political will.
(..)
So here's a suggestion: Let's charter a few cargo planes to carry the corpses of hundreds of new victims from Darfur and Chad to the U.N. The butchered victims of Darfur could lie in state as a memorial to global indifference — and as a spur to become serious about the first genocide of the 21st century.
The Immigration Equation - New York Times
A long (11 page) article from the New York Times magazine yesterday that is an excellent digest of the issues surrounding the current immigration debate...
The Immigration Equation - New York Times: "The debate among economists is whether low-income workers are hurt a lot or just a little — and over what the answer implies for U.S. policy. If you believe Borjas, the answer is troubling. A policy designed with only Americans' economic well-being in mind would admit far fewer Mexicans, who now account for about 3 in 10 immigrants. Borjas, who emigrated from Cuba in 1962, when he was 12 (and not long after soldiers burst into his family's home and ordered them at gunpoint to stand against a wall), has asserted that the issue, indeed, is 'Whom should the United States let in?'
Such a bald approach carries an overtone of the ethnic selectivity that was a staple of the immigration debates a century ago. It makes many of Borjas's colleagues uncomfortable, and it is one reason that the debate is so charged. Another reason is that many of the scholars who disagree with Borjas also hail from someplace else — like gardeners and seamstresses, a surprising number of Ph.D. economists in the U.S. are foreign-born."
The Immigration Equation - New York Times: "The debate among economists is whether low-income workers are hurt a lot or just a little — and over what the answer implies for U.S. policy. If you believe Borjas, the answer is troubling. A policy designed with only Americans' economic well-being in mind would admit far fewer Mexicans, who now account for about 3 in 10 immigrants. Borjas, who emigrated from Cuba in 1962, when he was 12 (and not long after soldiers burst into his family's home and ordered them at gunpoint to stand against a wall), has asserted that the issue, indeed, is 'Whom should the United States let in?'
Such a bald approach carries an overtone of the ethnic selectivity that was a staple of the immigration debates a century ago. It makes many of Borjas's colleagues uncomfortable, and it is one reason that the debate is so charged. Another reason is that many of the scholars who disagree with Borjas also hail from someplace else — like gardeners and seamstresses, a surprising number of Ph.D. economists in the U.S. are foreign-born."
Immigration — and the Curse of the Black Legend - New York Times
A fascinating article on the role of the Spanish in American history...
Immigration — and the Curse of the Black Legend - New York Times
This national amnesia isn't new, but it's glaring and supremely paradoxical at a moment when politicians warn of the threat posed to our culture and identity by an invasion of immigrants from across the Mexican border. If Americans hit the books, they'd find what Al Gore would call an inconvenient truth. The early history of what is now the United States was Spanish, not English, and our denial of this heritage is rooted in age-old stereotypes that still entangle today's immigration debate.
Forget for a moment the millions of Indians who occupied this continent for 13,000 or more years before anyone else arrived, and start the clock with Europeans' presence on present-day United States soil. The first confirmed landing wasn't by Vikings, who reached Canada in about 1000, or by Columbus, who reached the Bahamas in 1492. It was by a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida.
Most Americans associate the early Spanish in this hemisphere with Cortés in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru. But Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States, too. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachians, the Mississippi, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the East Coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Me., and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon.
From 1528 to 1536, four castaways from a Spanish expedition, including a "black" Moor, journeyed all the way from Florida to the Gulf of California — 267 years before Lewis and Clark
(..)
The Spanish didn't just explore, they settled, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States at St. Augustine, Fla., in 1565. Santa Fe, N.M., also predates Plymouth: later came Spanish settlements in San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego and San Francisco. The Spanish even established a Jesuit mission in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay 37 years before the founding of Jamestown in 1607.
(..)
The early history of Spanish North America is well documented, as is the extensive exploration by the 16th-century French and Portuguese. So why do Americans cling to a creation myth centered on one band of late-arriving English — Pilgrims who weren't even the first English to settle New England or the first Europeans to reach Plymouth Harbor? (There was a short-lived colony in Maine and the French reached Plymouth earlier.)
The easy answer is that winners write the history and the Spanish, like the French, were ultimately losers in the contest for this continent. Also, many leading American writers and historians of the early 19th century were New Englanders who elevated the Pilgrims to mythic status (the North's victory in the Civil War provided an added excuse to diminish the Virginia story). Well into the 20th century, standard histories and school texts barely mentioned the early Spanish in North America.
While it's true that our language and laws reflect English heritage, it's also true that the Spanish role was crucial. Spanish discoveries spurred the English to try settling America and paved the way for the latecomers' eventual success. Many key aspects of American history, like African slavery and the cultivation of tobacco, are rooted in the forgotten Spanish century that preceded English arrival.
There's another, less-known legacy of this early period that explains why we've written the Spanish out of our national narrative. As late as 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War, Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States (in 1775, Spanish ships even reached Alaska). As American settlers pushed out from the 13 colonies, the new nation craved Spanish land. And to justify seizing it, Americans found a handy weapon in a set of centuries-old beliefs known as the "black legend."...
Immigration — and the Curse of the Black Legend - New York Times
This national amnesia isn't new, but it's glaring and supremely paradoxical at a moment when politicians warn of the threat posed to our culture and identity by an invasion of immigrants from across the Mexican border. If Americans hit the books, they'd find what Al Gore would call an inconvenient truth. The early history of what is now the United States was Spanish, not English, and our denial of this heritage is rooted in age-old stereotypes that still entangle today's immigration debate.
Forget for a moment the millions of Indians who occupied this continent for 13,000 or more years before anyone else arrived, and start the clock with Europeans' presence on present-day United States soil. The first confirmed landing wasn't by Vikings, who reached Canada in about 1000, or by Columbus, who reached the Bahamas in 1492. It was by a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida.
Most Americans associate the early Spanish in this hemisphere with Cortés in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru. But Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States, too. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachians, the Mississippi, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the East Coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Me., and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon.
From 1528 to 1536, four castaways from a Spanish expedition, including a "black" Moor, journeyed all the way from Florida to the Gulf of California — 267 years before Lewis and Clark
(..)
The Spanish didn't just explore, they settled, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States at St. Augustine, Fla., in 1565. Santa Fe, N.M., also predates Plymouth: later came Spanish settlements in San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego and San Francisco. The Spanish even established a Jesuit mission in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay 37 years before the founding of Jamestown in 1607.
(..)
The early history of Spanish North America is well documented, as is the extensive exploration by the 16th-century French and Portuguese. So why do Americans cling to a creation myth centered on one band of late-arriving English — Pilgrims who weren't even the first English to settle New England or the first Europeans to reach Plymouth Harbor? (There was a short-lived colony in Maine and the French reached Plymouth earlier.)
The easy answer is that winners write the history and the Spanish, like the French, were ultimately losers in the contest for this continent. Also, many leading American writers and historians of the early 19th century were New Englanders who elevated the Pilgrims to mythic status (the North's victory in the Civil War provided an added excuse to diminish the Virginia story). Well into the 20th century, standard histories and school texts barely mentioned the early Spanish in North America.
While it's true that our language and laws reflect English heritage, it's also true that the Spanish role was crucial. Spanish discoveries spurred the English to try settling America and paved the way for the latecomers' eventual success. Many key aspects of American history, like African slavery and the cultivation of tobacco, are rooted in the forgotten Spanish century that preceded English arrival.
There's another, less-known legacy of this early period that explains why we've written the Spanish out of our national narrative. As late as 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War, Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States (in 1775, Spanish ships even reached Alaska). As American settlers pushed out from the 13 colonies, the new nation craved Spanish land. And to justify seizing it, Americans found a handy weapon in a set of centuries-old beliefs known as the "black legend."...
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Drugs firm blocks cheap blindness cure
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Drugs firm blocks cheap blindness cure: "Company will only seek licence for medicine that costs 100 times more "
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Dr. Peter Rost: Liquid Gold
Dr. Peter Rost: Liquid Gold: "Wet Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of legal blindness in people over 65. And it is a wonderful thing when a new drug gets approved, which can treat this terrible disease.
But what if it turns out that new drug isn't really so new, that it is really the equivalent of selling bottled water at $2 per bottle instead of paying perhaps 2 cents for hundreds of gallons of tap water?
Don't get me wrong, water is essential, and so is this new drug, developed by Genentech.
The drug is called Lucentis, and a doctor needs to inject it into the eye. Here's a description of the drug: Lucentis is a humanized antibody fragment designed to bind and inhibit Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A), a protein that is believed to play a critical role in angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels). These blood vessels cause the blindness.
But here's the description of another Genentech drug, called Avastin: AVASTIN® is a recombinant humanized monoclonal IgG1 antibody that binds to and inhibits the biologic activity of human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
Detect the very similar language? Yep. The reason is that these are virtually the same drugs.
So what's going on here, you may wonder?
Well, Avastin is a great cancer drug. It costs about $50,000 a year when used intravenously to treat colon cancer.
But it can also be used to treat Wet Macular Degeneration. The "problem" is that very low doses are needed, so the cost for an injection into the eye is only about $20 to $100. So annual cost is "only" about $1,000.
That's not good news for Genentech.
So they "developed" Lucentis.
And whops, now the cost for an injection of the "new" drug Lucentis is expected to be from $1,500 to well over $2,000. And the annual cost will be over $10,000.
And the world is back to where it should be, with very expensive drugs.
And that's the way Genentech likes the world.
posted by Peter Rost @ 9:54 AM"
But what if it turns out that new drug isn't really so new, that it is really the equivalent of selling bottled water at $2 per bottle instead of paying perhaps 2 cents for hundreds of gallons of tap water?
Don't get me wrong, water is essential, and so is this new drug, developed by Genentech.
The drug is called Lucentis, and a doctor needs to inject it into the eye. Here's a description of the drug: Lucentis is a humanized antibody fragment designed to bind and inhibit Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A), a protein that is believed to play a critical role in angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels). These blood vessels cause the blindness.
But here's the description of another Genentech drug, called Avastin: AVASTIN® is a recombinant humanized monoclonal IgG1 antibody that binds to and inhibits the biologic activity of human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
Detect the very similar language? Yep. The reason is that these are virtually the same drugs.
So what's going on here, you may wonder?
Well, Avastin is a great cancer drug. It costs about $50,000 a year when used intravenously to treat colon cancer.
But it can also be used to treat Wet Macular Degeneration. The "problem" is that very low doses are needed, so the cost for an injection into the eye is only about $20 to $100. So annual cost is "only" about $1,000.
That's not good news for Genentech.
So they "developed" Lucentis.
And whops, now the cost for an injection of the "new" drug Lucentis is expected to be from $1,500 to well over $2,000. And the annual cost will be over $10,000.
And the world is back to where it should be, with very expensive drugs.
And that's the way Genentech likes the world.
posted by Peter Rost @ 9:54 AM"
Thursday, July 06, 2006
OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts
OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts: "My kids want me to stay home tonight so that they can play Hop on Pop. But I'm hoping that my wife and I will somehow manage to hop on a plane to Finland instead.
Finland, you see, will play host this weekend to the 11th annual World Championship of Wife-Carrying, a bizarre sports festival held in a country that loves peculiar competitions. (The Finns also hold annual contests in mosquito-killing, sand-skiing, beer-barrel rolling, and 'air guitar' playing.)
In the wife-carrying competition, men physically transport their spouses over a grueling 831-foot obstacle course that includes log hurdles, hairpin curves, changing terrain, and a four-foot-deep pool of cold water. Husbands can haul their brides any way they wish--piggyback, fireman's carry, over-the-transom style--but they are severely penalized if they drop their wives at any point."
After everyone has finished the course, the husband with the fastest time wins an array of prizes, including--get this--the equivalent of his wife's weight in beer!
(..)
But I think there may be more to this than just a bunch of oafs trying to get in touch with their Inner Caveman by competing to win their wife's weight in beer.
Indeed, I find it curious that a He-Man event of this kind is held every year in the most androgynous region of the world. And I find it even more curious that the Finns--who determinedly promote gender equality in all of their "official" decrees--just as determinedly promote gender-specific roles in the World Championship of Wife-Carrying.
(..)
Still, it is important to note that the World Championship of Wife-Carrying doesn't fit very neatly into the Western world's official framework for gender relations.
Over the past half-century, our official gender debate has often forced people to choose between gender equality and gender-specific roles. You could be against misogyny. Or against androgyny. But you couldn't be against both. At least not in the official debate.
But in our private lives--especially in those leisure pursuits that often (unconsciously) reveal our deepest hopes and aspirations--I get the impression that most couples somewhat paradoxically want both gender equality and gender-specific roles....
Finland, you see, will play host this weekend to the 11th annual World Championship of Wife-Carrying, a bizarre sports festival held in a country that loves peculiar competitions. (The Finns also hold annual contests in mosquito-killing, sand-skiing, beer-barrel rolling, and 'air guitar' playing.)
In the wife-carrying competition, men physically transport their spouses over a grueling 831-foot obstacle course that includes log hurdles, hairpin curves, changing terrain, and a four-foot-deep pool of cold water. Husbands can haul their brides any way they wish--piggyback, fireman's carry, over-the-transom style--but they are severely penalized if they drop their wives at any point."
After everyone has finished the course, the husband with the fastest time wins an array of prizes, including--get this--the equivalent of his wife's weight in beer!
(..)
But I think there may be more to this than just a bunch of oafs trying to get in touch with their Inner Caveman by competing to win their wife's weight in beer.
Indeed, I find it curious that a He-Man event of this kind is held every year in the most androgynous region of the world. And I find it even more curious that the Finns--who determinedly promote gender equality in all of their "official" decrees--just as determinedly promote gender-specific roles in the World Championship of Wife-Carrying.
(..)
Still, it is important to note that the World Championship of Wife-Carrying doesn't fit very neatly into the Western world's official framework for gender relations.
Over the past half-century, our official gender debate has often forced people to choose between gender equality and gender-specific roles. You could be against misogyny. Or against androgyny. But you couldn't be against both. At least not in the official debate.
But in our private lives--especially in those leisure pursuits that often (unconsciously) reveal our deepest hopes and aspirations--I get the impression that most couples somewhat paradoxically want both gender equality and gender-specific roles....
Friday, June 30, 2006
Giant Bat-Eating Centipede
David Attenborough tells the story of the land-living invertebrates. He delves into the private life of Europe's dramatic leopard slug, a common garden resident with a truly bizarre end to its marathon mating ritual; watches the courtship ballet of tiny springtails on the underside of a leaf; sees swarms of bright red South African millipedes find partners, and in the caves of Venezuela meets the giant bat-eating centipede...
David Attenborough tells the story of the land-living invertebrates. He delves into the private life of Europe's dramatic leopard slug, a common garden resident with a truly bizarre end to its marathon mating ritual; watches the courtship ballet of tiny springtails on the underside of a leaf; sees swarms of bright red South African millipedes find partners, and in the caves of Venezuela meets the giant bat-eating centipede...
(BLOG) RED: Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin
(BLOG) RED: Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin: "Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin
Sunday in France
Spent 8+ hours around a table with our brothers and sisters from DATA, talking through how and when best to work collectively, steps to ensure good cross-communication, and updates on summer/fall events.
Covered plenty of (RED) ground too, as we gear up to bring punk rock capitalism to America.
Clear vibe on a cloudless day.
It's been an uplifting session despite the length. We push away from the formal meeting and walk along the beach towards a postcard perfect little cafe right on the water. The tide is rising so we run through waves lapping at the shore. I chuckle as each of us sprint periodicaly across the sand and stones to avoid a soaking.
Just as we sit down a call comes in that hits like a miracle. Bono puts will phone on speaker: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates share news of bracing proportion, which hits the news wires the following day. These men now both have devoted the large bulk of their fortunes to the world's poorest people. They are investing their capital in a mission that won't leave their names on buildings but rather will save individual human beings, most of whom they'll never see or meet.
We are stunned. The whole place seems elevated We say a prayer and make a toast. And smile smile smile.
Towards the end of the night, I have a memorable conversation with Ken, COO of DATA. We fall into a conversation about poetry -- a natural path for two old lit majors after a glass or two of the local grape. I try to recall a favorite e.e. cummings line. Ken confirms it later by email:
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
There's another part that appears earlier, which also bears repeating:
...whatever life you wear/it will become you..."
Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin
Sunday in France
Spent 8+ hours around a table with our brothers and sisters from DATA, talking through how and when best to work collectively, steps to ensure good cross-communication, and updates on summer/fall events.
Covered plenty of (RED) ground too, as we gear up to bring punk rock capitalism to America.
Clear vibe on a cloudless day.
It's been an uplifting session despite the length. We push away from the formal meeting and walk along the beach towards a postcard perfect little cafe right on the water. The tide is rising so we run through waves lapping at the shore. I chuckle as each of us sprint periodicaly across the sand and stones to avoid a soaking.
Just as we sit down a call comes in that hits like a miracle. Bono puts will phone on speaker: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates share news of bracing proportion, which hits the news wires the following day. These men now both have devoted the large bulk of their fortunes to the world's poorest people. They are investing their capital in a mission that won't leave their names on buildings but rather will save individual human beings, most of whom they'll never see or meet.
We are stunned. The whole place seems elevated We say a prayer and make a toast. And smile smile smile.
Towards the end of the night, I have a memorable conversation with Ken, COO of DATA. We fall into a conversation about poetry -- a natural path for two old lit majors after a glass or two of the local grape. I try to recall a favorite e.e. cummings line. Ken confirms it later by email:
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
There's another part that appears earlier, which also bears repeating:
...whatever life you wear/it will become you..."
(BLOG) RED: Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin
(BLOG) RED: Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin: "Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin
Sunday in France
Spent 8+ hours around a table with our brothers and sisters from DATA, talking through how and when best to work collectively, steps to ensure good cross-communication, and updates on summer/fall events.
Covered plenty of (RED) ground too, as we gear up to bring punk rock capitalism to America.
Clear vibe on a cloudless day.
It's been an uplifting session despite the length. We push away from the formal meeting and walk along the beach towards a postcard perfect little cafe right on the water. The tide is rising so we run through waves lapping at the shore. I chuckle as each of us sprint periodicaly across the sand and stones to avoid a soaking.
Just as we sit down a call comes in that hits like a miracle. Bono puts will phone on speaker: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates share news of bracing proportion, which hits the news wires the following day. These men now both have devoted the large bulk of their fortunes to the world's poorest people. They are investing their capital in a mission that won't leave their names on buildings but rather will save individual human beings, most of whom they'll never see or meet.
We are stunned. The whole place seems elevated We say a prayer and make a toast. And smile smile smile.
Towards the end of the night, I have a memorable conversation with Ken, COO of DATA. We fall into a conversation about poetry -- a natural path for two old lit majors after a glass or two of the local grape. I try to recall a favorite e.e. cummings line. Ken confirms it later by email:
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
There's another part that appears earlier, which also bears repeating:
...whatever life you wear/it will become you..."
Clear vibe on a cloudless day - A note from Tamsin
Sunday in France
Spent 8+ hours around a table with our brothers and sisters from DATA, talking through how and when best to work collectively, steps to ensure good cross-communication, and updates on summer/fall events.
Covered plenty of (RED) ground too, as we gear up to bring punk rock capitalism to America.
Clear vibe on a cloudless day.
It's been an uplifting session despite the length. We push away from the formal meeting and walk along the beach towards a postcard perfect little cafe right on the water. The tide is rising so we run through waves lapping at the shore. I chuckle as each of us sprint periodicaly across the sand and stones to avoid a soaking.
Just as we sit down a call comes in that hits like a miracle. Bono puts will phone on speaker: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates share news of bracing proportion, which hits the news wires the following day. These men now both have devoted the large bulk of their fortunes to the world's poorest people. They are investing their capital in a mission that won't leave their names on buildings but rather will save individual human beings, most of whom they'll never see or meet.
We are stunned. The whole place seems elevated We say a prayer and make a toast. And smile smile smile.
Towards the end of the night, I have a memorable conversation with Ken, COO of DATA. We fall into a conversation about poetry -- a natural path for two old lit majors after a glass or two of the local grape. I try to recall a favorite e.e. cummings line. Ken confirms it later by email:
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
There's another part that appears earlier, which also bears repeating:
...whatever life you wear/it will become you..."
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Questions Over New Eyesight Drug That May Be as Good as Older, Cheaper One
A drug that can restore eyesight to some elderly people, even allowing them to read or drive again, is expected to win federal approval this week.
But for patients, doctors, Medicare and other insurers, the drug's arrival will pose a conundrum. That is because the medicine, Lucentis, is expected to be 10 to 100 times as expensive as a similar drug that many ophthalmologists say is every bit as good.
But for patients, doctors, Medicare and other insurers, the drug's arrival will pose a conundrum. That is because the medicine, Lucentis, is expected to be 10 to 100 times as expensive as a similar drug that many ophthalmologists say is every bit as good.
Business Joins African Effort to Cut Malaria
BELULUANE, Mozambique — With malaria spread across southern Mozambique, executives at the international mining company Billiton expected some workers to call in sick as it began building a massive new aluminum smelter amid the cornfields here.
What they did not expect was that nearly one in three employees would fall ill — 6,600 cases in just two years. And they certainly did not expect 13 deaths, not after the company had built a medical clinic, doused the construction site with pesticides and handed out bed nets to thwart malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
"You can imagine, it was a huge disaster," said Carlos Mesquita, the general manager. "We could not deal with that level of absenteeism, and we would have had more fatalities. If we didn't treat malaria we could not operate."
But confining measures to the plant, executives realized, would not protect their 1,100 employees, or their $1.3 billion investment, so long as malaria raged all around it, including in the capital, Maputo, just 10 miles up the highway.
And so one of the world's biggest aluminum producers joined in an exceptional partnership with the governments of three countries and with other businesses to take on malaria systematically across a broad region. Six years later, the scorecard is in. Amazingly, malaria is losing....
What they did not expect was that nearly one in three employees would fall ill — 6,600 cases in just two years. And they certainly did not expect 13 deaths, not after the company had built a medical clinic, doused the construction site with pesticides and handed out bed nets to thwart malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
"You can imagine, it was a huge disaster," said Carlos Mesquita, the general manager. "We could not deal with that level of absenteeism, and we would have had more fatalities. If we didn't treat malaria we could not operate."
But confining measures to the plant, executives realized, would not protect their 1,100 employees, or their $1.3 billion investment, so long as malaria raged all around it, including in the capital, Maputo, just 10 miles up the highway.
And so one of the world's biggest aluminum producers joined in an exceptional partnership with the governments of three countries and with other businesses to take on malaria systematically across a broad region. Six years later, the scorecard is in. Amazingly, malaria is losing....
An Iron Fist Joins the Malaria Wars - New York Times
An Iron Fist Joins the Malaria Wars - New York Times: "he tuberculosis world, Dr. Kochi said, used to be just as fragmented and hostile as the malaria field is now. Then, in the early 1990's, an explosion of multidrug-resistant cases everywhere from New York City to Peru to Siberia forced the advent of a new paradigm: four-drug cocktails, taken daily for six months, always under the eye of a nurse or someone else appointed to oversee treatment, even an imam or a faith-healer.
Under Dr. Kochi's leadership, countries were urged to diagnose and treat in standard ways (sputum smears instead of chest X-rays, for example, or four cheap antibiotics instead of exotic drugs and pulmonary surgery). Drug companies were asked to standardize products so each patient could be handed a box with six months' worth of pills. As a result, some partners, like tuberculosis hospitals and makers of the old BCG vaccine, were very unhappy.
Malaria, he said, will need a similar shift, because everything is wrong with the efforts to fight it: lax counting of cases, mixed messages on which medicines to use, counterfeit drugs, expensive consultants, slothful national governments, weak international leadership."
Under Dr. Kochi's leadership, countries were urged to diagnose and treat in standard ways (sputum smears instead of chest X-rays, for example, or four cheap antibiotics instead of exotic drugs and pulmonary surgery). Drug companies were asked to standardize products so each patient could be handed a box with six months' worth of pills. As a result, some partners, like tuberculosis hospitals and makers of the old BCG vaccine, were very unhappy.
Malaria, he said, will need a similar shift, because everything is wrong with the efforts to fight it: lax counting of cases, mixed messages on which medicines to use, counterfeit drugs, expensive consultants, slothful national governments, weak international leadership."
Push for New Tactics as War on Malaria Falters - New York Times
Push for New Tactics as War on Malaria Falters - New York Times: "The mosquito nets arrived too late for 18-month-old Phillip Odong."The roly-poly boy came down with his fourth bout of malaria on March 16, the same day the nets were handed out at the makeshift camp where he lived in northern Uganda. "It was because of poverty that we could not afford one," his mother, Jackeline Ato, recalled recently, seated in rags beneath a mango tree.
The morning after his fever spiked, she took him to a clinic, but it did not have the medicines that might have saved him. He died four days later, crying, "Mommy, Mommy," before losing consciousness.
It is no secret that mosquitoes carry the parasite that causes malaria. More mystifying is why 800,000 young African children still die of malaria per year — more than from any other disease — when there are medicines that cure for 55 cents a dose, mosquito nets that shield a child for $1 a year and indoor insecticide spraying that costs about $10 annually for a household.
An emerging consensus on solutions, combined with fresh scrutiny and a windfall of new financing, are prompting major donors to revamp years of failed efforts to stem malaria's mortal toll....
The morning after his fever spiked, she took him to a clinic, but it did not have the medicines that might have saved him. He died four days later, crying, "Mommy, Mommy," before losing consciousness.
It is no secret that mosquitoes carry the parasite that causes malaria. More mystifying is why 800,000 young African children still die of malaria per year — more than from any other disease — when there are medicines that cure for 55 cents a dose, mosquito nets that shield a child for $1 a year and indoor insecticide spraying that costs about $10 annually for a household.
An emerging consensus on solutions, combined with fresh scrutiny and a windfall of new financing, are prompting major donors to revamp years of failed efforts to stem malaria's mortal toll....
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