December 25, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The global aid group, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF / Doctors Without Borders) has released its 11th annual report on the ten most severe humanitarian crises around the world. This years list cites mass poverty, resource scarcity and ungovernability in Somalia, Ethiopia and DR Congo, severe health risks to the populations of Zimbabwe, Burma (Myanmar) and DR Congo, and the constant danger of violence against civilians in Iraq, DR Congo, and Sudan’s Darfur region, along the Chad border.
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December 17, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A long-running bellwether legal case in Canada’s farming industry, which has left at least one farmer unable to farm any crop variety of rapeseed (canola) —for fear of having to pay accidental royalties to bio-chemical giant Monsanto—, highlights the need for comprehensive reform of international seed regulation standards. The Canadian courts ruled that the individual farmer had to shoulder the burden of ferreting out any instance of “contamination” of his crop by pollen from nearby genetically-modified (GM) planting, as Monsanto held a patent on the seeds. The farmer, and those who support his claims, argue that there is no means by which anyone can prevent cross-pollination from GM plants.
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December 12, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Zimbabwe’s embattled president Robert Mugabe, whose critics charge he is illegally clinging to power after losing this year’s presidential vote, angered foreign governments and medical workers by claiming that his country had “erased” the cholera epidemic that has killed 800 since August. Mugabe claimed that Britain and the US were conspiring to invade his country using cholera as a pretext but that his government had “arrested” the spread of cholera and removed the pretext.
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December 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
President-elect Barack Obama held a press conference today in Chicago to announce his choice for Health and Human Services secretary, former Democratic Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. Daschle is a top adviser to Obama and the two have made clear their commitment to ending the problem of underinsurance and the uninsured and making sure that no Americans go without treatment.
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December 9, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The spread of cholera due to Zimbabwe’s foundering hygienic infrastructure is reaching crisis proportions. UNICEF is calling for an emergency fund of $17.5 million to fight the spread of cholera in Zimbabwe, calling the outbreak “a cholera crisis of unprecedented levels”. With 13,960 cases already declared and an estimated 589 dead to date, the UN warns upwards of 60,000 people could become infected if drastic and immediate action is not taken to contain the epidemic.
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December 8, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A hybrid super-computer has reached the astounding speed of 1,000 trillion calculations per second, termed a petaflop. The Roadrunner super-computer at Los Alamos National Laboratory operates on a conventional paradigm of computational mechanics — meaning it operates over semiconductors and established systems of computer circuitry, not quantum computing innovations or molecular processors.
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November 24, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. George W. Bush has been planning a broad array of sweeping rules changes, related to environmental regulation of industry, and the protection of wildlife and unspoiled natural preserves. One rules change would open 2 million acres of protected parkland across three states to oil-shale development, which is one of the dirtiest, least efficient fuel production methods in the world.
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November 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
President-elect Barack Obama’s healthcare proposal, as laid out, aims to expand availability of safe generic prescriptions drugs, in order to bring down costs across the system and help secure full treatment for all Americans. High prescription-drug costs inflate insurance premiums and often determine whether patients will receive adequate treatment for sometimes serious health conditions. A prescription-drug plan, passed by George W. Bush, in concert with a bipartisan coalition in the then Republican-controlled Congress, aimed to help increase availability, but was not aggressive in reducing costs.
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November 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Critics have sought to characterize President-elect Obama’s healthcare proposal as “socialized medicine”, despite its relying almost entirely on market dynamics and the private sector. Government spending is considered to be one area where Obama’s plan could be unacceptable to fiscal conservatives, though Obama’s fiscal policy is largely in line with conservative fiscal policy and aims to cover new spending with spending cuts elsewhere. New analysis suggests there is already money to cover his plan and to reach near universal coverage with a few workable adjustments in current legislation.
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October 24, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The city of New Delhi, the Indian capital, is reporting it has reached over 1,000 new cases of dengue fever this year. Dengue is a “vector-borne” disease, meaning it is transmitted from one host to another by way of an intermediary such as a microbe or small insect. There have only been two reported cases of deaths this year from the disease, in the capital, and authorities suggest a prolonged rainy season and consequent chronic humidity are to blame for the increase in cases.
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October 15, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Vice President Dick Cheney has, for the second time in one year, been hospitalized in order to correct an irregular heartbeat. Found to be suffering from atrial fibrillation during a routine check-up, the vice president then canceled his schedule for the day and was scheduled for an outpatient procedure to restore a normal heartbeat, at George Washington University Hospital.
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July 9, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
After many accusations and much speculation, a US government whistleblower has said the vice-president ordered testimony altered to hide findings of the negative impact of carbon emissions and the threats from global warming. VP Cheney is accused of demanding that official EPA findings be altered and that sworn testimony before Congress be “redacted” to exclude [...]
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August 2, 2007 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A new study has shown that the most serious risk rural Mexican women face of contracting HIV is by sexual intercourse with their own husbands, in cases where the husband is a migrant worker traveling to and from the US. The result of the irregular migration policy regarding the US-Mexico border is that men who migrate without papers to work in factories or on farms often spend large amounts of time alone, with no contact with their wives or families.
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July 7, 2007 :: staff :: Comments Off
ADVISORY GROUP IS PART OF EFFORT BY GOOGLE TO ENSURE THAT USERS NOT NEED TO SORT THROUGH RANDOM OR POSSIBLY ERRONEOUS INFORMATION ON SERIOUS MATTERS Google has launched a new special advisory group for health issues. The aim is to improve its overall search technology so that the end-user’s experience is not a confusion of [...]
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