Injecting mosquitoes with bacteria could stop dengue fever, scientists find
August 25, 2011 No Comment
Australian researchers think they can slow spread of disease among humans by preventing insects from picking up the virus Injecting bacteria into mosquitoes can block them from transmitting the dengue virus and help control the spread of a disease that kills 20,000 people a year in more than 100 countries, scientists have said. In two papers published in the journal Nature on Thursday, researchers in Australia showed how female mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria passed the bug easily to their offspring, making them all dengue-free. They said such infected mosquitoes should be released into the wild, so that the spread of dengue to people may be reduced. “The main feature we saw was their ability to reduce dengue transmission,” said Professor Scott O’Neill, lead author and science faculty dean at Monash University. “It almost completely abolished dengue virus in the body of the mosquito.” In their experiment, O’Neill and his colleagues injected the bacteria into more than 2,500 embryos of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that can spread dengue fever. After they hatched, they were treated to blood meals laced with the dengue virus, and none picked up the virus. “The [Wolbachia] bacteria doesn’t spread environmentally. It gets passed on from mother to children through the eggs,” O’Neill told Reuters. “When an infected male mates with an uninfected female, all her eggs die. That gives an indirect benefit to the females with Wolbachia because when they mate with infected males, their eggs hatch normally … all their eggs have Wolbachia in them so Wolbachia gets more and more common with every generation.” O’Neill said there were two theories to explain why the Wolbachia was able to block the uptake of dengue. One was that the Wolbachia boosts the mosquito’s immune system and protects it from viruses such as dengue. The second was that the Wolbachia competes with dengue for food inside the mosquito, making it harder for the dengue virus to replicate. More than 50 million people in more than 100 countries fall sick and 20,000 die each year from dengue fever. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease. The only method of prevention is to control mosquito populations through eliminating breeding sites and using insecticides. O’Neill’s team released nearly 299,000 infected mosquitoes in January at more than 370 sites in north-eastern Australia, and the bacteria spread into the wild mosquito population successfully, with their offspring also infected over a three-month period. The team is seeking approval to release such infected mosquitoes into dengue-endemic sites in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Brazil to see if it reduces rates of dengue transmission in people. “It is an alternative strategy for dengue control which could be low-cost and sustainable and suitable for deployment in large urban cities in the developing world,” O’Neill said. But he added: “With any control [measure] over time, we might expect them to become less effective, like insecticides. “We don’t know how long that might take to occur. If it provides effective control for 20-30 years, that is still a very good step forward for dengue control.” Medical research Australia guardian.co.uk
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US report revealing fears over military growth is dismissed by Chinese officials as ‘cold war mentality’ China appears on track to forge a modern military by 2020, a rapid buildup that could be potentially destabilising to the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon has said. Fuelled by its booming economy, China’s military growth in the past decade has exceeded most US forecasts. Its aircraft carrier programme, cyberwarfare capabilities and anti-satellite missiles have alarmed neighbours and Washington. Some China watchers, including members of the US Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defence spending coincides with Washington’s plans for defence cuts. “China clearly believes that it can capitalise on the global financial crisis,” said the house armed services committee chairman, Howard McKeon, adding that the US military presence in the Pacific must not be sacrificed in an attempt to control US spending. The US defence department’s annual assessment to Congress on the Chinese military flagged all the major concerns about China’s growing military might, including Beijing’s widening edge over Taiwan. It also noted cyber-attacks in 2010 – including those on US government computers – that appeared to have originated in China. “We have some concerns [on cyber] about some of the things that we’ve seen. And we want to be able to work through that with China,” said Michael Schiffer, a deputy assistant secretary of defence. The report focused on 2010, a year when the Pentagon said China’s military modernisation programme paid “visible dividends”. It cited China’s fielding of an operational anti-ship ballistic missile, continued work on its aircraft carrier programme and the completion of a prototype of China’s first stealth fighter jet, the J-20. The J-20 programme, the Pentagon report said, would not achieve “effective operational capability” before 2018. “Despite continued gaps in some key areas, large quantities of antiquated hardware and a lack of operational experience, the PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] is steadily closing the technological gap with modern armed forces,” the report said. A spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington said the report was “a reflection of cold war mentality” and would be used as a tool to depict China as a threat. “We hope the US will take practical steps to work with China for stable and healthy military ties by following the spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust, reciprocity and mutual benefit,” the embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said in an email. The military buildup could have a destabilising effect on the region, Schiffer said, calling for greater openness by the PLA and more bilateral military dialogue. “The pace and scope of China’s sustained military investments have allowed China to pursue capabilities that we believe are potentially destabilising to regional military balances,” Schiffer said. The Pentagon said that despite its progress at becoming a more potent regional military power, Beijing was not expected to be able to project and sustain large forces in high-intensity combat operations far from China before 2020. That is something the United States, still the predominant military power in the Pacific, has been able to do throughout the world for decades. One of the best ways for a military to project power is with aircraft carriers and China launched its first carrier – a refitted former Soviet craft – for a maiden run earlier this month. Schiffer said he believed Beijing was working towards building its own domestically produced aircraft carriers and sources told Reuters China was building two carriers. Still, the report said any domestically produced Chinese aircraft carrier would not be operational until at least 2015 if construction were to start this year. “Whether or not this [China's carrier programme] proves to be a net plus for the region or for the globe or proves to be something that has destabilising effects and raises blood pressure in various regional capitals I think remains to be seen,” Schiffer said. One of the biggest irritants in the US-Chinese relationship is Taiwan. The PLA suspended military ties with the United States for most of 2010 over US arms sales to Taiwan and warned that a renewed flurry of engagement could again be jeopardised by new arms sales to an island China sees as a renegade province. Schiffer said the US government had not yet made a decision on any new arms sales to Taiwan, comments echoed at the state department. A Reuters report this month said the US sale of 66 new Lockheed Martin F-16 C/D fighter jets to Taiwan appeared unlikely. China US foreign policy United States guardian.co.uk
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Switzerland wants to end the exploitation of its banking system The Treasury has struck a deal with the Swiss government to repatriate unpaid British taxes from private bank accounts and end the exploitation of the country’s secretive banking system. Switzerland has agreed to make a one-off deduction from all existing accounts held by people who are liable for British taxes but have not paid them. The tax grab could raise as much as £5bn for the Treasury and will be applied in 2013. The Swiss are giving Britain 500m Swiss francs (£384m) up front as a gesture of goodwill. From 2013 onwards, the Swiss government and banks have jointly agreed to apply a new “withholding” tax on behalf of the British government of 48% on investments and 27% on gains where the records show the person is liable for unpaid British taxes, effectively ending the country’s reputation as a tax haven. The deal will mean that the Swiss government and banks will identify accounts held by British taxpayers acting on information from HMRC, withhold the funds and return them to the UK. HMRC will never see the details of the accounts, but if people want to challenge a payment they will be expected to disclose them to UK tax inspectors. George Osborne said that the days when people could “stash the profits of tax evasion” in Switzerland were over. However, campaigners against tax evasion said that it would mean that people would be offered discounted rates of tax in Switzerland compared with the UK; that the Swiss had retained most of the secrecy in the system which they will operate and that it could undermine a more ambitious EU-wide deal that is still being negotiated. Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research UK, said: “It’s an appalling deal for the UK, an appalling deal for Europe. The one-off tax of 34% is much lower than they would have paid in the UK and in fines for avoiding it. This government is deliberately letting these people off. All those people who have been honest and paid their taxes are now saying ‘why did I bother?’ “The Swiss will not pass over the details from the British accounts. The UK will never know who these people are unless they decide to disclose their details and challenge the payments. We have now outsourced British tax justice to the Swiss, who to date have done their utmost to avoid this. We’ve also given them a competitive advantage over British banks with lower tax rates.” John Christensen, director of Tax Justice, said: “This sets back European-wide attempts to create a proper framework for information exchange and Britain and Germany have done disservice to the rest of the world because this maintains Swiss secrecy. This is a shabby deal.” The Treasury said that the rates of the withholding tax had been set slightly lower than the normal British ones to account for the fact that deductions will take effect sooner than would happen under the British tax system and that the one-off tax rate accounted for the fact that the taxpayer wouldn’t have to fund lengthy investigations to recoup the money. Treasury insiders acknowledged that the negotiations with the Swiss system had been “painstaking” and, at times, “delicate”. It follows shortly after a similar deal was struck between the Swiss and the Germans, which is almost identical apart from the upfront payment, which was nearly four times the amount. The deal will also apply to people who are non-domiciled for tax purposes – they will be approached by the Swiss and given the option of either paying the one-off tax on their whole account unless they can prove that some or all of the money was from elsewhere in the world. Osborne said: “Tax evasion is wrong at the best of times, but in economic circumstances such as the present ones, it means that hard-pressed taxpayers are forced to pay even more. That is why this coalition government made it a priority to go after those who don’t pay their fair share. We will be as tough on the richest who evade tax as on those who cheat on benefits. The days when it was easy to stash the profits of tax evasion in Switzerland are over.” The Swiss Bankers Association welcomed the fact that the deal maintained account holders “financial privacy” and stressed that while the maximum rate would be 34%, the “effective” rate for most clients would be closer to between 20% and 25% of total assets. Despite suggestions that the move could bring in £5bn for the Treasury, the Swiss banks suggested it could also cost them hundreds of millions of pounds if people withdrew savings. Tax avoidance Switzerland Europe George Osborne Banking Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Title: Solid Artist: Ashford And Simpson Another sad night as R&B legend Nick Simpson has passed of throat cancer. Ashford and his wife Valerie Simpson were both songwriters and artists whose songs were recorded by the likes of Ronnie Milsap and Ray Charles. As artists they had many hits including tonight’s selection, which was a favorite of mine as a boy. R.I.P.
Continue reading …Title: Solid Artist: Ashford And Simpson Another sad night as R&B legend Nick Simpson has passed of throat cancer. Ashford and his wife Valerie Simpson were both songwriters and artists whose songs were recorded by the likes of Ronnie Milsap and Ray Charles. As artists they had many hits including tonight’s selection, which was a favorite of mine as a boy. R.I.P.
Continue reading …Shoe-Shining David Shuster: It’s ‘Absolutely Crazy’ to Question Obama’s Libya Triumph
August 24, 2011 No Comment
On Tuesday's edition of the Stephanie Miller radio show, she welcomed the one she called “Dreamy News Man,” the former MSNBC anchor David Shuster, now just picking up anchoring scraps from that flailing show with the terminally arrogant former sportscaster on Current TV. Predictably, Shuster pleased the persistently Obama-cheerleading Miller by suggesting the Republicans were in “Crazy-land en masse” on Libya. It's apparently “absoultely crazy” to question the patience, the firmness, the wisdom of Team Obama's foreign policy: This just goes to show what Republicans are really after. I mean they will try and destroy and smear President Obama using anything they possibly can even if it’s completely and totally illogical. As it turns out, I mean, the President has been following the right strategy for all these many months. He’s been patient when a lot of other people haven’t. He’s been firm when a lot of other people suggested that we have no business being there. And it turned out that this has worked. I mean, the strategy of the Obama administration and others around the world pursued of sort of helping the rebels, arming them and giving them the time and pace to sort of make their move, it’s worked. And anyone who says otherwise, anybody who says 'Oh the President was too slow' or 'Why didn’t the President move faster' is absolutely crazy! Miller complained that the Republicans weren't giving Obama enough credit, and gave Bush credit when Osama bin Laden was killed. Shuster said the Republicans are trying really hard to “resuscitate George W. Bush,” to the extent that they're considering Gov. Rick Perry, which he called “frightening.” Shuster said this shows the dire state of the GOP: “They're so unhinged, they're so off the deep end, that even someone completely insane like Rick Perry can possibly get the nomination.” He suggested all the Republican candidates are losing their marbles: We’re getting into the silly season where the press releases are going to get increasingly bizarre. It’s so clear that the Republicans, no matter who the winner is, are going to be [for] who can ever be the craziest, who can ever be the most irrational, and illogical, and cynical about the American people, that the American people are so stupid that they might believe some of this nonsense that they’re spewing.
Continue reading …Shoe-Shining David Shuster: It’s ‘Absolutely Crazy’ to Question Obama’s Libya Triumph
August 24, 2011 No CommentOn Tuesday's edition of the Stephanie Miller radio show, she welcomed the one she called “Dreamy News Man,” the former MSNBC anchor David Shuster, now just picking up anchoring scraps from that flailing show with the terminally arrogant former sportscaster on Current TV. Predictably, Shuster pleased the persistently Obama-cheerleading Miller by suggesting the Republicans were in “Crazy-land en masse” on Libya. It's apparently “absoultely crazy” to question the patience, the firmness, the wisdom of Team Obama's foreign policy: This just goes to show what Republicans are really after. I mean they will try and destroy and smear President Obama using anything they possibly can even if it’s completely and totally illogical. As it turns out, I mean, the President has been following the right strategy for all these many months. He’s been patient when a lot of other people haven’t. He’s been firm when a lot of other people suggested that we have no business being there. And it turned out that this has worked. I mean, the strategy of the Obama administration and others around the world pursued of sort of helping the rebels, arming them and giving them the time and pace to sort of make their move, it’s worked. And anyone who says otherwise, anybody who says 'Oh the President was too slow' or 'Why didn’t the President move faster' is absolutely crazy! Miller complained that the Republicans weren't giving Obama enough credit, and gave Bush credit when Osama bin Laden was killed. Shuster said the Republicans are trying really hard to “resuscitate George W. Bush,” to the extent that they're considering Gov. Rick Perry, which he called “frightening.” Shuster said this shows the dire state of the GOP: “They're so unhinged, they're so off the deep end, that even someone completely insane like Rick Perry can possibly get the nomination.” He suggested all the Republican candidates are losing their marbles: We’re getting into the silly season where the press releases are going to get increasingly bizarre. It’s so clear that the Republicans, no matter who the winner is, are going to be [for] who can ever be the craziest, who can ever be the most irrational, and illogical, and cynical about the American people, that the American people are so stupid that they might believe some of this nonsense that they’re spewing.
Continue reading …AP Has No Problem Tagging Resigned N.J. Lawmaker as a Republican Multiple Times in Racial Dispute — Over His Wife’s Email
August 24, 2011 No Comment
Even by the non-standards of the Associated Press, its treatment of the resignation in New Jersey of a state Assembly member is remarkable.
Continue reading …Is he a liar? Is he just clueless? Or does he live in a parallel universe? From Center for Economic Policy and Research: “Greenspan also said he believes that the sharp rise in gold prices is due to market concerns about inflation taking off in the long run. He noted how there has never been such a major expansion of credit in U.S. economic history.” Let’s look this one up. There is an organization called the “Federal Reserve Board” that puts out really good data on credit. If we look at its most recent Flow of Funds accounts , we see that credit for the economy as a whole expanded at a 3.0 percent annual rate in 2009, a 4.2 percent annual rate in 2010, and a 2.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2011, the most recent quarter for which data is available. Has there ever been “such a major expansion of credit in U.S. economic history?” Well, actually credit expanded more rapidly than the 4.2 percent rate in 2010 in every single year that Greenspan chaired the Fed. In fact, it expanded more rapidly in every year in this series (going back to 1976) and probably every year since the Great Depression. In other words, for Alan Greenspan night is day, up is down, he is looking at an extraordinarily slow pace of credit expansion and telling reporters that is the fastest on record… read on The media built him up for some reason. Maybe it was the glasses or his love of Ayn Rand, but usually they then tear you down after you get everything wrong. However, Alan escapes that path and still hangs around to sprout off nonsense that is usually listened to by the confidence fairies. Matt Taibbi wrote an excellent chapter on Greenspan in his book Griftopia and talks about it in this interview: Taibbi: Greenspan is a classic con man. A guy who reached power by sounding smart and giving pretty speeches to politicians who didn’t know what he was talking about much of the time. He’s like religious con men who get to where they are by saying vague things and letting people reach their own interpretation. And he stayed in power by giving the powerful what they wanted. There were disastrous consequences for everybody but him. In the process, he presided over this period where more and more political decisions were moved to unaccountable financial bureaucracies. That’s a big part of the story too: how guys like him gained power and the politicians officially lost power. Greenspan’s whole career was built on media exposure. He was romantically involved with key members of the media, such as Barbara Walters and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who is his wife. He was very, very cunning in getting people to write articles about what a genius he was. That’s how he got into power: first economist to make the cover of Newsweek. He established himself as an infallible oracle, and a lot of it had to do with his ability to seduce key media figures, sometimes literally. In the book, I show his record as an actual economist was complete shit. And here’s another interview: AVC: There’s an entire chapter in Griftopia devoted to systematically dismantling the character of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. It’s called “The Biggest Asshole In The World.” Maybe we should just start with that title. MT: [Laughs.] There are three things going on with Greenspan, three reasons why I thought it was worthwhile doing that chapter, and doing it in that way. He had a specific role, as a politician, in the sense that he was one of the primary people pushing deregulation—and a specific kind of deregulation—that ended up being a major factor in the crisis. So there was that. Then there was the second thing, which was his role as the head of the Fed, which basically allowed Wall Street to bail itself out every time it got into a speculative disaster. And then the third thing was, he was really a symbol of the kind of mindset, the ideology, that sort of Ayn Randian belief in complete and total deregulation, and the cult of the producer, and all of that stuff. The superficial pushing of that ideology, on the one hand. On the other hand, the sort of backdoor use of the government as an insurance policy and welfare program for the financial-services industry. Those contradictions were so perfectly symbolized in Greenspan, I just thought he was the ideal way to start out the whole discussion of what Wall Street was all about. He had a specific role as a villain, and he also had a sort of general role as an ideological leader of everything that went wrong.
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Lawyer representing families of deceased visited Justice Department to discuss claims reported in Daily Mirror US attorney general Eric Holder has promised relatives of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks he will begin a preliminary criminal investigation into reports that News Corporation journalists tried to gain access to the phone records of the dead. Family members who lost loved ones on 11 September 2001 met Holder at the Justice Department on Wednesday to discuss allegations first reported by the Daily Mirror that News of the World reporters attempted to gain unauthorised access to 9/11 victims’ voicemails. Norman Siegel, a lawyer representing some of the families, told reporters that the attorney general had said it was “very disturbing” that phones of 9/11 victims and their family members might have been hacked. The relatives met Holder for over an hour to discuss the allegations. The hacking allegation was made in an article in the Mirror last month. The paper said NoW journalists had approached a former New York police officer working as a private detective and asked him to do the hacking, which he declined to do. So far, no evidence has emerged to corroborate the story, which has been strenuously denied by News Corp. If the Justice Department finds any truth in the claims, News Corp would face a damaging battle with the US authorities as well as a rash of civil law suits from family members. The US authorities have considered investigating News Corp, a company listed on the US stock markets, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act over payments allegedly made to police . But the 9/11 allegations are the most serious issue the firm has faced in the US over the scandal. The Mirror story was based on unnamed sources, including one described as a former New York police officer who became a private investigator. Heclaimed to have rejected requests by journalists from the now closed NoW to retrieve private phone records of victims. News Corp has dismissed the report as “anonymous speculation” with “no substantiation” and said earlier this month that the company was fully co-operating with all investigations into the firm. Ahead of the meeting Siegel told Associated Press the families were working with the FBI to determine if hacking “was attempted, and/or occurred”. “We are going to the meeting with the attorney general to listen to what he can tell us about the investigation and to ascertain the scope, the goals and timetable of the inquiry,” Siegel said. Rupert Murdoch was asked about the 9/11 hacking claims when he was questioned by parliament last month. He said: “we have seen no evidence at all and as far as we know the FBI haven’t either”. He said he did not know if NoW employees or the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire took it upon themselves to do it. United States September 11 2001 Phone hacking News of the World News Corporation Rupert Murdoch Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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