by Tula Connell This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog. Economics is scary. Or boring. Or both. Say the word and watch people yawn. But what’s going on around us right now—the U.S. mortgage crisis, skyrocketing oil and food costs, tanking wages and disappearing health care and retirement benefits, to name a few of […]
Burkina Faso: Meningitis, Mask Dances and a Special Horse Festival
Burkina Faso is the diamond stud near the middle of Africa’s meningitis belt, stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia, containing a population of roughly 14 million people. The region’s dusty winds and relatively cool nights from December to June decreases peoples’ immunity to respiratory problems. This, along with the area’s high population density adds up to […]
Verification of 22 Historic Climate Studies Pinpoints Patterns in Data Errors
We’re swamped with information about anticipated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But the indicators vary wildly. A new study compared the historic numbers of 22 trendsetting organizations to actual findings and found out where data fouls up. The researchers compared the composite output of 22 leading global climate models with actual data. Many […]
World ‘must do more’ for children
More must be done more quickly to make the world fit for children by 2015, the UN children’s agency, Unicef, has said. In a new report it noted considerable strides had been made to meet pledges in education and areas of health care. But it stressed that "much more must be done" in order to […]
Star Rating For Local Government?
DARO,SARAWAK,MALAYSIA: Wednesday; The performance of our Local Authorities [in the State of Sarawak,Malaysia] will be graded starting from next year. The State Minister for Environment and Public Health, Mr Michael Manyin, told the press after this morning’s session of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly. He reiterated that this step is taken inorder to upgrade our […]
Southern Africa’s TB Response Needs Integrated Approach
In 1882, Robert Koch, a German physician and scientist, discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). Announcing the discovery, Koch said: "If the importance of a disease for mankind is measured by the number of fatalities it causes, then tuberculosis must be considered much more important than those most feared infectious diseases, […]