|
The
following items are posted for educational and information purposes
only and may not represent
the
views of Global Action.
Breaking
News Plus
1st June 2010
__________________________________________________
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"Isreal has become like a
drunken
whore with a loaded pistol." – Unknown
_____________________________________
Gaza aid flotilla
attacked, 10 killed
 Israeli forces have attacked the
international aid convoy Freedom Flotilla en route to the besieged Gaza
Strip, killing at least 10 people and leaving more than 50 injured.
The attack came
on Monday morning after one of the six ships in the convoy was hit by
Israeli navy forces before being stormed by commandos descending from
helicopters.
The interception
reportedly took place in international waters, more than 150km (90
miles) off the coast of Gaza.
Israel had
earlier deployed warships and threatened to stop the flotilla from
reaching the Palestinian territory where the war-ravaged residents were
impatiently eying the arrival of the aid convoy.
Israeli navy
forces and helicopters have taken over the ships in the humanitarian
aid convoy and are using force against those on board, a Press TV
correspondent reported.
Israeli soldiers
have also reportedly detained activists accompanying the convoy.
In Gaza,
Palestine's democratically elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
strongly condemned the attack on the flotilla and called on the
international community to protect the aid mission.
The convoy
carries 10,000 tons of supplies and hundreds of politicians, activists
and journalists.
The flotilla was
seeking to break Israel's crippling blockade of Gaza and deliver basic
necessities to the impoverished Palestinians in the coastal
enclave. Full
Story
# Editors Note: Isn't this the same as what the Nazis
were accused of doing to Jews
in the Warsaw Ghetto?
Couldn't this small incident, like the assassination in 1914 of the
Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo, spark a world war?
_____________________________________
A breakthrough cure for
Ebola
 Ebola is one of the nastiest, most
frightening viruses known to man. Its victims suffer fevers, muscle
weakness, and other symptoms that progress to severe bleeding, both
internal and external, that eventually causes them to bleed to death.
All known strains of Ebola virus have very high mortality rates,
ranging from 25% to 90%, and there is no cure. Ebola virus was the
subject of a dramatic and frightening 1995 disaster movie, Outbreak,
starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, and Morgan Freeman.
Last week, in
what may be the biggest medical breakthrough of its kind in years, a
group of scientists published results in The Lancet describing a
completely new type of anti-viral treatment that appears to cure Ebola.
They report a 100% success rate, although admittedly the test group was
very small, just 4 rhesus monkeys.
This is a
breakthrough not only because it may give us a cure for an uncurable,
incredibly nasty virus, but also because the same method might work for
other viruses, and because we have woefully few effective antiviral
treatments. We can treat bacterial infections with antibiotics, but for
most viruses, we have either a vaccine or nothing. And a vaccine,
wonderful as it is, doesn’t help you after you’re already infected.
The scientists,
led by Thomas Geisbert at Boston University, used a relatively new
genomics technique called RNA interference to defeat the virus. Here’s
how it works. First, a little background: the Ebola virus is made of
RNA, just like the influenza virus. And just like influenza, Ebola has
very few genes - only 8. One of its genes, called L protein, is
responsible for copying the virus itself. Two others, called VP24 and
VP35, interfere with the human immune response, making it difficult for
our immune system to defeat the virus.
Geisbert and his
colleagues (including scientists from Tekmira Pharmaceuticals and
USAMRIID) designed and synthesized RNA sequences that would stick to
these 3 genes like glue. How did they do that? We know the Ebola
genome’s sequence – it was sequenced way back in 1993. And we know that
RNA sticks to itself using the same rules that DNA uses. This knowledge
allowed Geisbert and colleagues to design a total of 10 pieces of RNA
(called “small interfering RNA” or siRNA) that they knew would stick to
the 3 Ebola genes. They also took care to make sure that their sticky
RNA would not stick to any human genes, which might be harmful. They
packaged these RNAs for delivery by inserting them into nanoparticles
that were only 81-85 nanometers across.
In the key
experiment, the scientists infected rhesus monkeys with a dose of Ebola
that was 30,000 times greater than the normal fatal dose. They injected
the siRNA treatments 30 minutes later, and again each day for 6 days.
All the monkeys survived with no long-term effects.
When I read this
story in The Lancet, my first reaction was: wow. A brand-new antiviral
treatment, and against Ebola? In a commentary in The Lancet, Heinz
Feldmann wrote that we are “in desperate need of approved
countermeasures against Ebola-virus infections,” and called the new
study a “milestone.” That’s putting it mildly.
Somehow, except
for the UK Daily Mail, the major media outlets seem to have entirely
missed this story, which I think is by far the biggest medical story of
the week, if not the year. Ebola virus doesn’t get much attention
(notwithstanding the 1995 movie about it), primarily because it occurs
in central Africa. But air travel has made our world much smaller, and
even a relatively isolated virus could easily get out of control.
There’s still a
much work needed to turn the new Ebola treatment into an approved drug,
but the prospect of a cure is suddenly very real, and the techniques
used to create it are truly remarkable. Link
_________________________________________
Top Chinese Central Banker:
Our Property Crisis Is Worse Than The US
And UK Bubbles
 The FT snagged an interview (via
Yvees Smith) with Chinese professor and PBOC monetary committee member
Li Daokui on the much talked about subject of the Chinese property
situation.
“The housing
market problem in China is actually much, much more fundamental, much
bigger than the housing market problem in the US and UK before your
financial crisis,” he said in an interview. “It is more than [just] a
bubble problem.”
What does that
mean? Basically that high prices cause their own societal problems.
Mr Li said the
high cost of housing could hamper future growth by slowing
urbanisation. Rising prices were also a potential political flashpoint,
especially among younger people who felt locked out of the property
market.
“When prices go
up, many people, especially young people, become very anxious,” he
said. “It is a social problem.”
Meanwhile,
Chinese premier Wen Jaibao is urging the world to maintain a "sense of
crisis" in regards to the economy and that the global economy is too
fragile to start withdrawing stimulus.
In other words:
Dear countries that import our products, don't start slowing down. Link
IMPORTANT
STUFF
Senior Golf Rule
Modifications
Rule 1.a.5
A ball sliced or
hooked into the rough shall be lifted and placed on the fairway at a
point equal to the distance it carried or rolled into the rough with no
penalty. The senior should not be penalized for tall grass which
groundskeepers failed to mow.
Rule 2.d.6 (b)
A ball hitting a
tree shall be deemed not to have hit the tree. This is simply bad
luck and luck has no place in a scientific game. The senior player must
estimate the distance the ball would have traveled if it had not hit
the tree and play the ball from there.
Rule 3.b.3 (g)
There shall be
no such thing as a lost ball; the missing ball is on or near the course
and will eventually be found and pocketed by someone else, making
it a stolen
ball. The player is not to compound the felony by charging
himself or herself with a penalty.
Rule 4.c.7
(h)
If a putt passes
over a hole without dropping, it is deemed to have dropped. The law of
gravity supercedes the Rules of Golf.
Rule 5.
Putts that stop
close enough to the cup that they could be blown in, may be blown
in. This does not apply to balls more than three inches from the hole. No
one wants to make a travesty of the game.
Rule 6.a.9 (k)
There is no
penalty for so-called "out of bounds." If penny-pinching golf
course owners bought sufficient land, this would not occur. The
senior golfer deserves an apology, not a penalty.
Rule 7.g.15 (z)
There is no
penalty for a ball in a water hazard, as golf balls should float.
Senior golfers should not be penalized for manufacturers' shortcomings.
Rule
8.k.9(s)
Advertisements
claim that golf scores can be improved by purchasing new golf
equipment. Since this is financially impracticable for many
senior golfers, one-half stroke per hole may be subtracted for using
old equipment.
Please advise
all your senior friends of these important rule changes.
______________________________________
Explore the Global Action Website with the following
links
"Rule number one. There
are no rules. The future is ours to fashion!" Lyn Vickery.
"Five thousand
years of lawmaking have failed to achieve what simple human
RESPECT, TRUST and GOODWILL do
each day to make
society function. If there was right attitude, respect, trust and
good faith
there would be no
work for lawyers." Lyn Vickery
Thank you for your
interest.
email address: issues@globalactint.com
|
