Thursday, October 2, 2014


News Clips For The Day


BRAIN Initiative Bets on Wearable Scanners, Laser-Controlled Cells – NPR
by JON HAMILTON
September 30, 2014

Eighteen months after its launch, President Obama's plan to explore the mysteries of the human brain is finally taking shape. During separate events Tuesday, the White House and National Institutes of Health offered details about which projects are being funded and why.

At a morning press conference, NIH officials announced $46 million in grant awards to more than 100 investigators. Most of the researchers are working on tools that can "transform how we study the brain," said NIH Director Francis Collins.

Among the grants:

Researchers at West Virginia University will try to engineer a "wearable PET scanner" intended to monitor the brain activity of people while they do things like take a walk in the park.

Several teams will develop systems that use lasers to control the activity of individual cells and circuits in the brain.

A team from the Allen Institute for Brain Science will attempt to characterize the different cell types in brain circuits involved in vision and other sensations.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will try to adapt functional MRI so that it can show the activity of individual brain cells.

Researchers badly need new tools like these because, despite recent advances, the brain is still an enigma, said Dr. Tom Insel, director of the National Institutes of Health. "Relative to what we know about the heart and the kidney and the liver, we don't even have a parts list for the brain," he said. "This is a time of discovery."

Today, "we can look at hundreds or even thousands of neurons, but we need [to be able to look at] millions," said Cornelia Bargmann of The Rockefeller University during an afternoon media event at the White House. "The tools need to be 100 times better than they are now."

The BRAIN Initiative is an attempt to push science ahead very quickly and to involve investigators who haven't previously been involved in brain research, Collins said. As a result, grants went to physicists and engineers as well as researchers in the biological sciences.

The effort is likely to take a decade or more and to cost at least $4.5 billion, Collins said. He described the effort as a "moon shot," but one with the potential to dramatically improve treatments for problems ranging such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, epilepsy and autism.

In May, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced $70 million in contracts related to the BRAIN Initiative. These included development of implanted devices intended to treat problems including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.




“At a morning press conference, NIH officials announced $46 million in grant awards to more than 100 investigators. Most of the researchers are working on tools that can 'transform how we study the brain,' said NIH Director Francis Collins.... Tools: a 'wearable PET scanner' … lasers to control the activity of individual cells and circuits in the brain... characterize the different cell types in brain circuits involved in vision and other sensations... adapt functional MRI so that it can show the activity of individual brain cells.... Today, 'we can look at hundreds or even thousands of neurons, but we need [to be able to look at] millions,' said Cornelia Bargmann of The Rockefeller University during an afternoon media event at the White House. 'The tools need to be 100 times better than they are now.'... The effort is likely to take a decade or more and to cost at least $4.5 billion, Collins said. He described the effort as a 'moon shot,' but one with the potential to dramatically improve treatments for problems ranging such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, epilepsy and autism.... In May, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced $70 million in contracts related to the BRAIN Initiative. These included development of implanted devices intended to treat problems including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The article describes this as a “moon shot,” which is a good description, since the work of NASA over the years stimulated scientific discovery over a wide range of subjects. Information, almost exclusively, is built not on individual achievement alone but on the existing background of prior knowledge. As Sir Isaac Newton put it, “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants.” He also said, “Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but my greatest friend is truth.” This project of Obama's is a great example of what liberal thinking is for. Conservative politics has always tried to stifle new information, as did the Catholic Church during the Enlightenment period, and when I see modern conservatives blindly ranting against a liberalized teaching of history and science, I am angered and a little scared. I can only hope that a majority of the citizens of this country will vote down those people who would take us back to the Middle Ages in our thinking and government.







Where Activists See Gray, Albuquerque Police See Black And White – NPR
by KELLY MCEVERS
September 30, 2014

To understand the tension between the cops and some people in Albuquerque, you have to go back to a Tuesday in April.

It was after the Justice Department had accused the Albuquerque police of engaging in a pattern of excessive force. In March, a homeless camper named James Boyd was shot and killed. Then a 19-year-old woman was killed.

Music teacher Caro Acuna Olvera was eating dinner when a friend called her with the news.

"She was like, 'Caro, Facebook is blowing up, do you know what's happening? ... They killed Mary!' And I was like, 'Who? Who killed Mary?' 'The police killed Mary,' " Olvera recalls.

The victim was Mary Hawkes, a former student of Olvera's. She was a woman whose parents were drug addicts, who had grown up in foster homes, who wrote poetry, lived on the street, loved animals, sold drugs and did drugs, too.

The night Hawkes was killed, police say, an officer spotted a young woman driving a stolen truck. They later found the truck with a phone Hawkes used. They looked at her Facebook profile, matched her picture with a police database, then found her near an old address.

When they found her, she ran and an officer chased her. Police say when she waved a gun, the officer shot her three times — in the head, upper arm and shoulder.

On a video released by police, officers told rescue units that Hawkes was "heavily bleeding and not breathing."

The shooting outraged some people in Albuquerque. Olvera helped arrange vigils and protests.

Protesters wondered: The Justice Department scrutinizes the police for excessive force, and then cops go and kill a 19-year-old?

The officer who shot Hawkes has not spoken publicly. The case is still under investigation.

Many other cops say the reason some people in the community are mad about the Hawkes shooting, and all the other shootings, is that the public just doesn't get it.

Before the Justice Department released its findings, local criminal investigators found all previous Albuquerque police shootings to be justified, says Shaun Willoughby, vice president of Albuquerque's police union.

"There's a lot of shootings that people are really upset about that we would call good shoots," he says.

Shoots, he says, will never go away. No matter what the feds say.

"If you threaten a police officer, you point a gun at a police officer, they ... have the right to protect themselves and are trained to do so," Willoughby says. "And nothing the Department of Justice or any entity says is going to change that."

Some officers argue that in these situations, it's black and white. There is no gray. If someone has a weapon and points it at police, police are going to shoot. And they don't shoot to wound, police told NPR; they shoot to kill.

But the Justice Department says it is gray sometimes. In its report, the Justice Department said Albuquerque police sometimes use force when there is not an imminent threat to officers or others, and that they themselves sometimes escalate the situation until there is a reason to use force.

Sam Costales, a former Albuquerque cop for more than 20 years, says of course there is a gray area.

Back in 2001, Costales was chasing an armed robbery suspect who grabbed a piece of pipe from the back of his truck and came at him. Costales took out his gun.

"I could've shot him," he says. "I had every right to shoot him. But I didn't want to shoot him."

Instead, he put his gun back in the holster, maced the guy and arrested him.

Back at the station, Costales put the suspect in an interview room and went to get him something to drink. A couple of detectives walked by.

"And they go, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm getting the guy a Coke.' 'You're getting the guy a Coke? This guy that just came at you with a pipe? A guy that's gonna kill you, you're gonna buy him a Coke now?' I said, 'He didn't kill me, and he's thirsty,' and I left it at that," Costales says.

Costales says he tried to treat suspects with respect. But other cops yelled at people, beat people up, used their weapons against people and then covered it up, he says.

A lot of this bad behavior is the work of a good-old-boys network, where it's all about who you're related to, says Cassandra Morrison, another former Albuquerque cop of 20 years.

It's about "who you know, who you hang out with, who you smoke cigars with, who you go have a beer with," she says.

If you're in the club, she says, you don't get punished when you act like a cowboy, break the rules and use excessive force. It's a system that won't change until some of those cowboys get punished, she says.

Morrison says she's been told several Albuquerque police officers could be indicted in federal court for previous shootings.

"So I think once those indictments come down, it's gonna be like, 'Uh-oh,' " she says.

In other words, those who are part of the club aren't so invincible.

"It's kind of like taking down Teflon Don, the head of the mafia," Morrison says. "You take down one of them, everybody else kinda sits back and goes, 'Oh, we need to chill out for a while.' Well, you need to hit 'em so hard that they're gonna chill out forever."

The Albuquerque police chief recently told USA Today that there are some police who shouldn't be on the force. He says the rest of the police are working hard to regain the community's trust, mainly through new training.

The Justice Department has confirmed that at least one Albuquerque police shooting is now being investigated by its criminal division.




“To understand the tension between the cops and some people in Albuquerque, you have to go back to a Tuesday in April. It was after the Justice Department had accused the Albuquerque police of engaging in a pattern of excessive force. In March, a homeless camper named James Boyd was shot and killed. Then a 19-year-old woman was killed.... The night Hawkes was killed, police say, an officer spotted a young woman driving a stolen truck. They later found the truck with a phone Hawkes used. They looked at her Facebook profile, matched her picture with a police database, then found her near an old address. When they found her, she ran and an officer chased her. Police say when she waved a gun, the officer shot her three times — in the head, upper arm and shoulder.... Many other cops say the reason some people in the community are mad about the Hawkes shooting, and all the other shootings, is that the public just doesn't get it. Before the Justice Department released its findings, local criminal investigators found all previous Albuquerque police shootings to be justified, says Shaun Willoughby, vice president of Albuquerque's police union. 'There's a lot of shootings that people are really upset about that we would call good shoots,' he says. 'If you threaten a police officer, you point a gun at a police officer, they ... have the right to protect themselves and are trained to do so,' Willoughby says. 'And nothing the Department of Justice or any entity says is going to change that.'.... But the Justice Department says it is gray sometimes. In its report, the Justice Department said Albuquerque police sometimes use force when there is not an imminent threat to officers or others, and that they themselves sometimes escalate the situation until there is a reason to use force....Sam Costales, a former Albuquerque cop for more than 20 years, says of course there is a gray area. Back in 2001, Costales was chasing an armed robbery suspect who grabbed a piece of pipe from the back of his truck and came at him. Costales took out his gun. 'I could've shot him,' he says. 'I had every right to shoot him. But I didn't want to shoot him.' Instead, he put his gun back in the holster, maced the guy and arrested him....Costales says he tried to treat suspects with respect. But other cops yelled at people, beat people up, used their weapons against people and then covered it up, he says. A lot of this bad behavior is the work of a good-old-boys network, where it's all about who you're related to, says Cassandra Morrison, another former Albuquerque cop of 20 years.

“... and that they themselves sometimes escalate the situation until there is a reason to use force.” This is what I see as being immoral and which should be illegal. The case of Sam Costales who chose to use his non-lethal can of mace and made a clean arrest should be the example that some younger police officers should follow. Police used to be viewed as heroes and too often now they are behaving like villains instead. They really need to be retrained so that they see the gray area, and many of them should be fired and/or put in prison.

Cassandra Morrison talks about the “good old boy network” – who you socialize with defines whether or not you will be punished for bad behavior. “'It's a system that won't change until some of those cowboys get punished,' she says.... 'So I think once those indictments come down, it's gonna be like, 'Uh-oh,' she says. In other words, those who are part of the club aren't so invincible.” In other words, it's not just a training problem, it's a management problem – and it should simply be called corruption. When the top cop is complicit, and probably so are the Mayor and City Council, it's corruption. The Albuquerque police chief told USA Today that some cops “shouldn't be on the force.” That's obvious, but I must insist that he has the authority to fire those officers, and should have done so. Maybe he will try to clean their department up in the future with the help of the Justice Department.

Unfortunately I don't think these problems occur in Ferguson and Albuquerque alone, but are part of a plague of abuse occurring across the country. Blacks, Hispanics, drug users, the homeless, and the mentally ill are too often injured or killed by police officer for minor reasons (like walking down the middle of the street obstructing traffic – annoying, but hardly a major problem) when the can of mace or the TAZER could have been used instead. I would like to point out that Costales and Morrison are not “activists” as the headline states, but simply good cops.






From Kale To Pale Ale, A Love Of Bitter May Be In Your Genes – NPR
by ALLISON AUBREY
October 01, 2014

The roots of your hankering for hoppy beers and cruciferous vegetables may be genetic.

The word bitter can make some of us wince. In conversation, we talk of "a bitter pill to swallow" or "bittersweet" memories.

But if you're puzzled by the bad emotional rap on bitter — perhaps you even like the taste of bitter greens or bitter beer — it may say something about your genes.

Scientists have been studying a particular taste receptor gene to understand why some of us may be more predisposed to liking bitter foods and hoppy beers. And a new study sheds new light on the bitter gene connection.

"What we're really looking at is that people differ in how intense bitterness might be to them," says researcher John Hayes, a food scientist at Penn State.

Several years back, Hayes and researcher Valerie Duffy of the University of Connecticut set out to do an experiment.

They already knew that some people (about a quarter of the population) have a version of one taste receptor gene, known as TAS2R38, that makes them more sensitive to the perception of bitter.

"The idea of how bitter you taste something is [tied to] how strongly the bitter [compounds] in food bind with a receptor," explains Duffy. Then, the receptor sends a signal to the brain that says, "Oh, this is bitter."

Duffy says she herself must not have a version of the gene that enables bitter compounds to bind tightly. She describes herself as a "nontaster." So when she eat greens or Brussels sprouts, she experiences them as sweet.

"To me, they're naturally sweet," Duffy says. And she enjoys them.

Compare this with people who have a version of the receptor gene that makes them very sensitive to bitter. For these individuals, the strong perception of bitterness overwhelms the natural sweetness in greens.

Duffy's hunch was that this may lead them to avoid greens. So she decided to test the theory.

"We recruited young adults and asked them to come into the lab and did taste tests with them," Duffy explains.

They sampled asparagus, Brussels sprouts and kale, and Duffy's team assessed their sensitivities. The young adult volunteers were also tested for the gene, and they filled out questionnaires and kept food diaries to document what they were eating.

"We found that individuals who are least sensitive to these bitter compounds consumed significantly more vegetables" compared with those who are most sensitive, Duffy says.

In fact, over the course of a year, the difference was about 200 more servings of vegetables.

Duffy's study was not the first to find this association. Another study, conducted in 2007 at the Centre for Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention in Turin, Italy, with about 600 volunteers, pointed to the same link between the bitter gene and the consumption of vegetables.

Duffy says what surprised her about her findings is that the people who were sensitive to bitter ate fewer of all kinds of vegetables, not just bitter, cruciferous ones.

"What we think [is that] if somebody finds some vegetables too bitter, they sort of generalize to all green vegetables," Duffy explains.

The same study also found a connection with papillae, those little dots on your tongue that we've reported on in the past. People with more papillae reported eating more vegetables, compared with those with fewer papillae.

This suggests that there are multiple factors, both biological and environmental, influencing our food and beverage choices, including — as Duffy is quick to point out — how our parents raise us.

People can learn to like vegetables, Duffy says, even if they carry the version of the taste receptor gene that makes them more sensitive to bitter. A big piece of the puzzle is figuring out ways to make them taste good.

For instance, "roasting brings out the sweetness," she says. Adding salt is also an effective way to cut the intensity of bitter. A study she published previously demonstrates that it's possible to mask the bitterness in vegetables with salt and sweeteners to make them more palatable.

So, does an aversion to bitter tend to be lifelong? Not necessarily.

Duffy points to studies that suggest there are changes over a lifetime. For instance, she says, we know that during pregnancy, many women become more sensitive to bitter.

And then, in older age, as smell and taste perceptions begin to fade, the taste of bitter foods can seem much less intense.




'What we're really looking at is that people differ in how intense bitterness might be to them,' says researcher John Hayes, a food scientist at Penn State.... Duffy says she herself must not have a version of the gene that enables bitter compounds to bind tightly. She describes herself as a 'nontaster.' So when she eat greens or Brussels sprouts, she experiences them as sweet. …. They sampled asparagus, Brussels sprouts and kale, … 'We found that individuals who are least sensitive to these bitter compounds consumed significantly more vegetables' compared with those who are most sensitive, Duffy says.... The same study also found a connection with papillae, those little dots on your tongue that we've reported on in the past. People with more papillae reported eating more vegetables, compared with those with fewer papillae.... This suggests that there are multiple factors, both biological and environmental, influencing our food and beverage choices, including — as Duffy is quick to point out — how our parents raise us.”

I am a strong advocate of parents cajoling and encouraging their kids to “try one bite” of a new food. It is often enough to turn them from a hater to a lover of some food that “looks funny.” A very cute young boy was on some news show as his face changed from horror to delight over a roasted spear of asparagus. People who are picky eaters are very annoying dinner guests, and children who “won't eat anything but hot dogs” are well on their way to being spoiled brats. Punishing kids around their eating can end up making them even more averse to the food, however, and even more afraid to try new things. Be patient with the child, but guide him repeatedly toward a wider span of food choices. No woman wants to marry a man like that.

I was watching one of my many documentaries in which the lowland gorilla was featured. Animal Planet is a great source of information. The narrator said that gorillas show a particular taste for bitter foods. Let's face it, any wild vegetarian is going to experience many bitter tastes, because plants down through their evolution have developed lots of extraneous chemicals in their cells which are toxic. It is thought that it may discourage bugs from chewing holes in their leaves. The green leaves of members of the nightshade family are dangerously toxic, but if you stick to the non-green ripened fruit or underground tubers you can have a great addition to your meal. That is tomatoes and tomatillos, peppers, the non-green tuber of the Irish potato plant, the eggplant, an Asian berry called “wolfberry,” and the wild cousin of the tomatillo called “ground cherry.” I was introduced to the ground cherry by my father. They are distinctive looking, with a lampshade-like cover over the fruit. They are very pretty to look at, and pleasantly sweet and crunchy.

I am a “non-taster,” and I particularly enjoy bitter greens like turnip and mustard, or sulfur tasting things like squash. Okra has a great “odd” flavor, which is a lot like the squash taste, though they aren't in the same family. I like vegetables because they add so much variety to my eating experience, and I have always enjoyed food. Luckily I can eat a fair amount without gaining weight. When I begin to do a dessert at every meal, however, I do gain – need to lose some weight now. I am limiting myself to three chocolate sandwich cookies with my morning coffee for breakfast. All other sweet tastes have to come from yogurt, fresh fruit, or raisins.





TEXAS EBOLA PATIENT UPDATES – THREE ARTICLES


http://news.yahoo.com/traveler-liberia-first-ebola-patient-diagnosed-u-003007621--finance.html

Up to 18 exposed to U.S. Ebola patient, including children
By Lisa Maria Garza and Marice Richter
October 1, 2014

DALLAS (Reuters) - Health experts were observing up to 18 people, including children, who had contact with the first person to be diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus in the United States, officials said on Wednesday.

Confirmation that a man who flew to Texas from Liberia later fell ill with the hemorrhagic fever prompted U.S. health officials to take steps to contain the virus, which has killed at least 3,338 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the World Health Organization said.

The patient was evaluated initially last Friday and sent home from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital with antibiotics, a critical missed opportunity that could result in others being exposed to the virus, infectious disease experts said.

The man was admitted to the same hospital on Sunday, where he was in serious condition, a spokeswoman said. The hospital cited the man's privacy as the reason for not identifying him, but the Associated Press gave his name as Thomas Eric Duncan.

Five Dallas-area students were being monitored for possible exposure to Ebola after coming into contact with the man over the weekend, Dallas officials said. A Dallas County health official said 12-18 people were being monitored because of possible contact with the patient.

"The students did not have any symptoms and so the odds of them passing on any sort of virus is very low," Mike Miles, Dallas Independent School District superintendent, told a news conference.

Miles said the five had been in school since then but were now at home. He said the schools would be staffed with additional health professionals and classes would remain in session.

Texas officials said health workers who took care of the patient had so far tested negative for the virus and there were no other suspected cases in the state. Texas Governor Rick Perry told a news conference he was confident the virus would be contained, as did other officials.

"People can be confident here in this country that we have the medical infrastructure in place to prevent the broad spread of Ebola," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on CNN.

U.S. stocks fell sharply. Airline and hotel company shares dropped over concerns that Ebola's spread outside Africa might curtail travel. Drugmakers with experimental Ebola treatments in the pipeline saw their shares rise.

Anyone who might have had contact with the patient will be closely monitored for the next 21 days, the time it can take for symptoms to appear.

"We have a seven-person team in Dallas today helping to review that with the family and make sure we identify everyone that could have had contact with him," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in an interview with NBC TV's "Today" show.

Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids like blood or saliva, which health experts say limits its potential to infect others, unlike airborne diseases. Still, the long window of time before patients exhibit signs of infection, such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea, means an infected person can travel without detection.

While past outbreaks killed as many as 90 percent of victims, the current epidemic's fatality rate has averaged about 50 percent in West Africa.

FLIGHT PATH

The patient in the United States arrived in Texas on Sept. 20, and first sought treatment six days later, according to the CDC. The Liberian government said that the man showed no signs of fever or other symptoms of Ebola when he left Liberia on Sept. 19. A Liberian official said the man traveled through Brussels to the United States.

Several leading U.S. airlines said they were in close contact with federal health officials about Ebola-related travel concerns.

On Wednesday, officials repeated a call to healthcare workers to be vigilant in screening patients in the United States for possible signs of the virus.

"If you have someone who's been in West Africa in the past 21 days and they've got a fever or other symptoms that might be consistent with Ebola, immediately isolate them, get them tested," Frieden told NBC.

Meanwhile, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, the first public health expert to lead the institution, said fighting Ebola means confronting inequality, as people in poor countries have less access to knowledge and infrastructure for treating the sick and containing it.




“The patient was evaluated initially last Friday and sent home from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital with antibiotics, a critical missed opportunity that could result in others being exposed to the virus, infectious disease experts said. The man was admitted to the same hospital on Sunday, where he was in serious condition, a spokeswoman said. The hospital cited the man's privacy as the reason for not identifying him, but the Associated Press gave his name as Thomas Eric Duncan.... Miles said the five had been in school since then but were now at home. He said the schools would be staffed with additional health professionals and classes would remain in session. Texas officials said health workers who took care of the patient had so far tested negative for the virus and there were no other suspected cases in the state. Texas Governor Rick Perry told a news conference he was confident the virus would be contained, as did other officials.... U.S. stocks fell sharply. Airline and hotel company shares dropped over concerns that Ebola's spread outside Africa might curtail travel. Drugmakers with experimental Ebola treatments in the pipeline saw their shares rise. Anyone who might have had contact with the patient will be closely monitored for the next 21 days, the time it can take for symptoms to appear.... Meanwhile, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, the first public health expert to lead the institution, said fighting Ebola means confronting inequality, as people in poor countries have less access to knowledge and infrastructure for treating the sick and containing it.”

The first time this patient went to the hospital on Friday, even though he told them where he had been and was having symptoms, the hospital staff gave him some antibiotics and sent him home. Bad move. We have to be more aware of the very real possibility that the next patient who walks into the emergency room may be sick with Ebola and not with the flu. We think of ourselves as being “safe” in this country from such things as a plague, which is what this disease is. We must change our thinking pattern, and soon.





Ebola Researchers Have A Radical Idea: Rush A Vaccine Into The Field – NPR
by CAITLIN DICKERSON
September 30, 2014

Today, the World Health Organization concludes a two-day meeting to discuss a radical idea: bringing a vaccine into the field without having tested its effectiveness.

Traditional means of containing Ebola — such as isolating people who are infected with the disease and tracing the people they've come into contact with — aren't working fast enough to get ahead of the epidemic. So the question is: Will giving an experimental vaccine to willing volunteers help contain the disease or put people at greater risk?

Dr. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford, says the urgency of the Ebola situation has led to throwing traditional timelines "out the window."

He's part of a team of doctors at Oxford University, the National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical companyGlaxoSmithKline who are rushing to create one of several new Ebola vaccines.

Hill says their vaccine could be ready to give to health care workers as early as late November. That would be an extremely fast pace compared with the typical timeline for developing a new vaccine.

Moncef Slaoui, who's in charge of vaccines for GlaxoSmithKline, says his company has been working on a malaria vaccine for 31 years. While that may be an extreme example, five to 10 years is considered average.

A typical vaccine trial starts small. Scientists inject about 20 healthy volunteers and closely monitor their health for six months to a year. They test volunteers' blood every other week and check for signs like fever or swelling, which could indicate the vaccine is unsafe. Eventually, the scientists add more volunteers to the study. And they test higher doses.

Ebola researchers at the NIH, Oxford and GlaxoSmithKline are compressing those steps to meet the November deadline. They plan to look at volunteers' blood for antibodies they know are protective against Ebola. But before vaccinated people come into contact with the disease, developers can't know for sure that the vaccine works.

For that kind of certainty, they'd need to set up a trial with thousands of people in places where Ebola outbreaks are occurring. One group would get the real vaccine; the others would get a placebo.

By comparing the two groups, developers could begin to understand whether their vaccine is effective. But Ebola vaccine researchers are debating whether to bypass this phase of testing because so many lives are at stake.

Nancy Kass, a public health ethicist at Johns Hopkins University, says that the best way to study a new vaccine is to test it against a placebo. But the situation in West Africa complicates that decision. "The problem is that all of our norms change when thousands of new cases of Ebola are happening all the time and 50 to 60 percent of these people are dying. That changes the rules about what we have to lose when we try something new," she says.

Some scientists think moving forward without a control group of people who don't get the vaccine isn't worth the risk — notably Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases at NIH.

"If you did it in the way where you never could tell whether it worked well, worked a little, didn't work at all, or actually made people worse ... you could actually propagate a disaster," he says.

Fauci has experience with vaccines that appeared to be safe during the initial phases of testing but turned out to be ineffective and even dangerous. Most recently, an HIV/AIDS vaccine was deemed safe but in later tests "increased the risk of HIV infection in the people who were vaccinated," he says.

WHO said in a statement last month that it supports the use of unproven interventions to treat Ebola. It held a meeting in Geneva this week to come up with a strategy for how to move forward. The organization says it will release the outcome of that meeting Wednesday.



“Today, the World Health Organization concludes a two-day meeting to discuss a radical idea: bringing a vaccine into the field without having tested its effectiveness. Traditional means of containing Ebola — such as isolating people who are infected with the disease and tracing the people they've come into contact with — aren't working fast enough to get ahead of the epidemic. So the question is: Will giving an experimental vaccine to willing volunteers help contain the disease or put people at greater risk? Dr. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford, says the urgency of the Ebola situation has led to throwing traditional timelines 'out the window.'... Hill says their vaccine could be ready to give to health care workers as early as late November. That would be an extremely fast pace compared with the typical timeline for developing a new vaccine.... Ebola researchers at the NIH, Oxford and GlaxoSmithKline are compressing those steps to meet the November deadline. They plan to look at volunteers' blood for antibodies they know are protective against Ebola. But before vaccinated people come into contact with the disease, developers can't know for sure that the vaccine works.... WHO said in a statement last month that it supports the use of unproven interventions to treat Ebola. It held a meeting in Geneva this week to come up with a strategy for how to move forward. The organization says it will release the outcome of that meeting Wednesday.”

It's high time the scientific community said this. I've been advocating it ever since the epidemic became so widespread – if the patient is going to die anyway without it, just use the treatment. The blood of victims who have recovered from the disease has been used without the development of a vaccine and with good results in a significant number of cases, for instance. To use an old Southern saying “it's time to fish or cut bait.” I wouldn't recommend it to patients who have not yet shown signs of having the disease, though, in case it should prove to give them Ebola. Some live vaccines have been known to do that. During this epidemic a number of people who were sick, and therefore likely to die, were given “sera” containing Ebola antibodies, and they recovered from the illness. Of course, some people are recovering without sera.

Yesterday's article did say that the death rate is now 60% with early treatment. I took that to mean palliative care. The article contrasts these experimental vaccines with a preventative vaccine for HIV/AIDS which turned out to cause the patient to contract AIDS instead of preventing it. Therefore it may not be safe to give an untested Ebola vaccine as a preventative measure rather than as a treatment for someone who is already infected. Over the last few years, Several people who had contracted Ebola and were showing symptoms, were treated with transfused blood or antibodies in a serum and recovered from it fully. Hopefully WHO and other doctors will start using untested preparations now if a patient has definitely developed the disease. I feel a real grief over the number of deaths that are occurring among poor people who are afraid of their government and afraid of the doctors, even suspecting them of starting the epidemic rather than trying to stop it. Hopefully WHO will step forward now and make strides against this new plague of ours.



List of those connected to Dallas Ebola patient grows
CBS NEWS October 2, 2014, 8:25 AM

More than 80 people have had at least indirect contact with an Ebola patient in Dallas, Texas health officials say.

On Wednesday, officials said 12 to 18 people were potentially exposed to the patient, identified as Thomas Eric Duncan. According to Dallas County Health and Human Services, officials have gathered the names of additional individuals who have been in contact with those 12 to 18.

Hospital officials were questioned Wednesday on why Duncan wasn't isolated on his first visit to the emergency room last week. A nurse learned that he had recently traveled from Africa during his visit to the emergency room Friday but hospital officials said that information wasn't passed along.

Officials emphasize that the kids have not shown any symptoms of Ebola and they believe the student population is safe.

Still, state and county health officials on Thursday ordered four close family members of Duncan stay at home and not have any visitors until at least October 19.

If a person does not follow health control measures, he or she may face criminal charges.

This is an excerpt from the October 2 article, most of which is repetitive. The morning TV news report on NBC said that authorities have had trouble getting those told to stay home to comply. Humans can be frustratingly obtuse. Still, it takes physical contact to spread Ebola, or so they say. How one person can make indirect contact with some 80 people in four days does show why epidemics can be so difficult to contain, though. I hope for the best, and will keep clipping articles with new information as they come out.




TWO VERY TELLING ARTICLES FROM BLUE NATION REVIEW –
CONSERVATIVES ACTING UP CATCH HEAT:


While it is true that the Blue Nation Review is a liberal publication, neither of these stories is exaggerated. I confirmed both in the standard news media, on ABC and Washington Post. Smug and privileged people need to clean up their act. Bullying and abuse cannot be passed off as a joke, and groups of people who are not a part of the conservative social circles must not be mistreated because of that. Beatings like this case in Philadelphia absolutely should be treated as a felony because they are truly endanger life and are hate crimes – this gay man sustained multiple broken bones.

The Pennsylvania state Supreme Court, however, apparently has abolished the concept of a “hate crime,” but maybe there will be an effort made to work on their constitution now, making the failure to punish hate crimes unconstitutional rather than the laws that protect LGBT groups. Blue Nation Review is a very good publication, like Daily Kos, both of which highlight legal unfairness where it exists.



http://bluenationreview.com/veterans-now-taking-aim-fox-news-eric-bolling-boobs-ground-joke/

Veterans Now Taking Aim At Fox News’ Eric Bolling For “Boobs On The Ground” Joke
By Kayode Kendall
September 29, 2014

Eric Bolling is still getting plenty of heat for comments he made on Fox News’ The Five last week, in regards to the United Arab Emirates’ first female air force pilot, Mariam Al Mansouri. Both Bolling and Greg Gutfeld saw fit to make jokes referencing her gender, with Bolling asking if her presence in the fight against ISIS would be considered, “Boobs on the ground.”

This was certainly bad enough on its own merits, but even Jon Stewart from The Daily Showmanaged to expose how ridiculously hypocritical it was for Bolling to disrespect a member of the armed forces in such a way, after calling out President Obama for not properly saluting marines last week, in the same episode of The Five.

Bolling did apologize the following night for his comments, although most felt it was disingenuous:

“I want to go back to last night, about this time I made a joke. When I got home, I got the look and I realized some people didn’t think it was funny at all. I said sorry to my wife and I apologize to all of you as well, I just want to make that very clear.”

All of this has certainly struck a nerve, ESPECIALLY with military veterans here in the United States. Members of the Truman National Security Project even wrote a lengthy letter to Bolling as well as Greg Gutfeld:

Dear Mr. Bolling and Mr. Gutfeld,

We are veterans of the United States armed forces, and we are writing to inform you that your remarks about United Arab Emirates Air Force Major Mariam Al Mansouri were unwarranted, offensive, and fundamentally opposed to what the military taught us to stand for.

First, foremost, and most obvious to everyone other than yourselves, your remarks were immensely inappropriate. Your co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle was so right to call attention to an inspiring story of a woman shattering glass ceilings in a society where doing so is immeasurably difficult. We never heard an answer to her question: why did you feel so compelled to “ruin her thing?”

As it turns out, women have been flying combat aircraft since before either of you were born. Over 1,000 Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) flew during World War II. Seeing as U.S. Army Air Forces Commander “Hap” Arnold said “Now in 1944, it is on the record that women can fly as well as men,” we can probably guess he thought their parking was adequate. The WASP legacy reaches into the present day; on 9/11, then Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney scrambled her F-16. Completely unarmed, she was ready to lay down her own life to prevent further devastating attacks on American soil.

Thus the skill of women as fighter pilots is well established. And before you jump to the standby excuse that you were “just making a joke” or “having a laugh,” let the men amongst our number preemptively respond: You are not funny. You are not clever. And you are not excused. Perhaps the phrase “boys will be boys”—inevitably uttered wherever misogyny is present—is relevant. Men would never insult and demean a fellow servicemember; boys think saying the word ‘boobs’ is funny.

The less obvious implication of your remarks, however, is that by offending an ally and cheapening her contribution, you are actively hurting the mission. We need to send a clear message that anyone, male or female, who will stand up to ISIS and get the job done is worthy of our respect and gratitude.

We issue an apology on your behalf to Major Al Mansouri knowing that anything your producers force you to say will be contrived and insincere. Major, we’re sincerely sorry for the rudeness; clearly, these boys don’t take your service seriously, but we and the rest of the American public do.

Very Respectfully,

U.S. Army: Michael Breen, Richard Wheeler, Aryanna Hunter, Welton Chang, Michael Smith, Matt Runyon, Jon Gensler, Scott Holcomb, Terron Sims II, Josh Weinberg, Daniel Savage, Matt Pelak, LaRue Robinson, Anthony Woods, Dustin Cathcart, Kayla Williams, Dan Espinal, Jonathan Hopkins, Andy Moore, Kevin Johnson, Brett Hunt, Russell Galeti, Mick Crnkovich, Jonathan Freeman, Dan Hartnett, Dan Futrell, Matt Zeller, Jason Cain, Adam Tiffen, Sharmistha Mohpatra, Justin Graf, Lach Litwer.

U.S. Navy: Shawn VanDiver, Andrea Marr, Kristen Kavanaugh, Leo Cruz, Scott Cheney-Peters, Margot Beausey, Tony Johnson, Gail Harris, Alex Cornell du Houx.

U.S. Marine Corps: Geoff Orazem, Gordon Griffin, Timothy Kudo, Jonathan Murray, Richard Weir, Rob Miller, Sonia Fernandez, John Margolick, Katelyn Geary van Dam, Rob Bracknell, Andrew Borene, William Allen.

U.S. Air Force: Kelsey Campbell, Erik Brine, Chris Finan, Robert Mishev, Karen Courington.

U.S. National Guard: Kristen Rouse.
Bolling would ultimately make a more passionate apology on Friday’s program:



http://bluenationreview.com/privilege-entitlement-look-philadelphia-gay-bashing-suspect-kathryn-knott/

Privilege & Entitlement: A Look at Philadelphia Gay Bashing Suspect Kathryn Knott
guest post by Tim Peacock
September 28, 2014

Though most have heard about the brutal attack on two gay men in Philadelphia that transpired earlier this month, many haven’t learned much about the suspects indicted this week for the attack. Of the three suspects arrested, one in particular stands out as a shining example of privilege and entitlement: 24-year-old Kathryn Knott. The daughter of (Philadelphia-area) Chalfont Township Police Chief Karl Knott, Kathryn Knott serves as a living example of virtually every stereotypical child-of-privilege and law enforcement cliché including abuse of police power for personal gain.

After her arrest (with her two male accomplices), Knott’s past came to light fairly quickly since she leads an active and open social media life. Not only does her Twitter feed glorify binge drinking (and ejection from public spaces due to that drinking), it also contains evidence of xenophobic and homophobic behavior as well as potentially illegal behavior related to her X-Ray Technician work at a local hospital.
In a collection of tweets first aggregated by Memeograph’s Scott Wooledge, Knott’s sordid history reads more like a Ke$ha music video than of an upstanding respectable citizen that “couldn’t bust a grape” (her attorney’s words).

Privilege and prejudice aside, Knott faces additional troubles after her arrest and subsequent national attention: potential violations of HIPAA law. After a deep examination of Knott’s Twitter account, many noticed what appears to be patient information (x-rays and photos of patients) posted to her account. Responding immediately to the allegations, Lansdale Hospital (Knott’s employer) issued a statement condemning the alleged activity and announcing Knott’s suspension pending investigation. They said in part:

“We can confirm that Kathryn Knott has been employed at Lansdale Hospital since May 2011. Because of the nature of the charges against her, she has been suspended from her job as an Emergency Room tech. We are investigating an additional issue that was brought to our attention related to this employee’s Twitter account for potential violations of patient privacy and our organization’s social media policy. Abington Health takes patient privacy and confidentiality very seriously and is fully investigating this matter.”

Thus far Knott has only spoken through her attorney Lou Buscio who claims Knott had no involvement in the attack. Buscio has gone so far as to argue that Knott is innocent and that the brutal attack on two gay men was nothing more than a “simple assault” undeserving of national media attention.

Because nothing says “simple assault” more than facial fractures, a broken orbital bone, lacerations requiring 24 stitches, hospitalization and having your jaw wired shut due to extensive injuries.

Knott and the two other attack suspects have been released on bail after their arraignment. In the meantime, public officials including openly gay Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims (video below), Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, and several Philadelphia city council members have renewed calls for reinstating sexual orientation and gender identity into city and state hate crime laws after they were removed in 2008 by the state Supreme Court.




“Thus far Knott has only spoken through her attorney Lou Buscio who claims Knott had no involvement in the attack. Buscio has gone so far as to argue that Knott is innocent and that the brutal attack on two gay men was nothing more than a “simple assault” undeserving of national media attention. Because nothing says “simple assault” more than facial fractures, a broken orbital bone, lacerations requiring 24 stitches, hospitalization and having your jaw wired shut due to extensive injuries.... Knott and the two other attack suspects have been released on bail after their arraignment. In the meantime, public officials including openly gay Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims (video below), Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, and several Philadelphia city council members have renewed calls for reinstating sexual orientation and gender identity into city and state hate crime laws after they were removed in 2008 by the state Supreme Court.”

Hatred is an entrenched part of our culture, especially in “conservative” parts of the country. Liberalism is hated by the religious right, but their doctrine of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” hasn't solved the problem of hatred and abuse within the areas where they dominate the culture. Liberal and legal remedies have done much more good in enforcing the Golden Rule.

My mother was fond of quoting her favorite conservative radio personality Paul Harvey as he said “You can't legislate brotherly love.” In those days he wasn't talking about gays, but about equal rights for blacks. I quickly counter that though you can't legislate love you sure can criminalize abuse. It is sometimes more effective than the politically correct mouthing of the doctrine of love by the conservative Christians. Now the liberal Christians, on the other hand, are doing a great deal to help the downtrodden in all ways. They're good guys. They're trying to live the gospel in their daily lives. When his disciples asked him what they should do he said “Feed my sheep” and “clothe the naked.” He didn't say “blame the poor for being poor.”

Also, he said absolutely nothing about gays. Perhaps there were so few of them in evidence that it wasn't an issue. In those days young men and women were married off by their parents in their teens, so any sexual activity of a homosexual kind was probably largely invisible in the society, as it was in the US – or the South at any rate – in the 1950's when I was growing up. Of course a man could get a reputation for being a “sissy,” just for not being macho enough, and women were punished for not being docile enough.

Luckily for me I was not in a sexually restrictive household, and my being “a tomboy” was considered part of the range of “normal.” My parents knew I would have boyfriends, which I did, in spite of being interested in fishing and being outdoors. As a result of being a tomboy I roamed the woods with my dog and saw all kinds of interesting plant and animal life, giving me a background for learning biology. I was not gay, but I could have been, and I would hate to be ostracized or subject to arrest by the authorities for such a reason.








Ferguson grand jury probed for possible misconduct
CBS/AP October 2, 2014, 5:16 AM

ST. LOUIS -- Prosecutors are investigating a Twitter post claiming that grand jurors hearing evidence in the police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old near St. Louis haven't seen enough evidence to justify prosecuting the officer.

The Twitter user claimed in a tweet posted Wednesday that a friend serving on the grand jury said the panel lacked evidence to warrant an arrest of Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

The tweet and its Twitter account were deleted by Wednesday evening. Ed Magee, spokesman for St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch, said there was no evidence to suggest information in the tweet was credible.

"We just got it this morning also and will be looking into the matter," Magee told The Associated Press.

The AP has not confirmed the identity of the Twitter user.

The grand jury is expected to complete its work by mid-October or early November. The proceedings are conducted in secret, and a juror's sharing of information with outsiders would likely be considered misconduct.

A law professor at Washington University in St. Louis told CBS affiliate KMOV-TVhe doubts that a member of the grand jury leaked information about the proceedings.
 
"These are experienced, seasoned individuals so it's hard for me to imagine that a grand jury would do something like this," Peter Joy said.

The grand jury, which is made up of 12 members, only requires nine affirmative votes to hand down an indictment. Joy said the panel could continue to hear evidence even if one member was removed for misconduct.

"It wouldn't fold up the grand jury unless that person contaminated the rest," Joy said.

Joy said he expects investigators to find the source of the tweet. He also said the presiding judge may ask to meet with each member of the grand jury individually.

Brown's killing sparked nightly scenes of unrest in Ferguson and stoked national debate over how white police officers handle blacks in their communities.

Critics have called on McCulloch to either step aside or ask Gov. Jay Nixon to appoint a special prosecutor, citing concerns about whether McCulloch could fairly oversee the case. McCulloch's father was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty when McCulloch was a child, and he has many relatives who work in law enforcement.

McCulloch, who has been the county's elected prosecutor for more than two decades, could have filed charges himself but chose to take the case to a grand jury to decide whether the use of lethal force was justified.



“The tweet and its Twitter account were deleted by Wednesday evening. Ed Magee, spokesman for St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch, said there was no evidence to suggest information in the tweet was credible.... The grand jury is expected to complete its work by mid-October or early November. The proceedings are conducted in secret, and a juror's sharing of information with outsiders would likely be considered misconduct. A law professor at Washington University in St. Louis told CBS affiliate KMOV-TVhe doubts that a member of the grand jury leaked information about the proceedings. 'These are experienced, seasoned individuals so it's hard for me to imagine that a grand jury would do something like this,' Peter Joy said. The grand jury, which is made up of 12 members, only requires nine affirmative votes to hand down an indictment. Joy said the panel could continue to hear evidence even if one member was removed for misconduct....Critics have called on McCulloch to either step aside or ask Gov. Jay Nixon to appoint a special prosecutor, citing concerns about whether McCulloch could fairly oversee the case. McCulloch's father was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty when McCulloch was a child, and he has many relatives who work in law enforcement.”

McCulloch chose to use a Grand Jury rather than investigate the case himself, so though he hasn't stepped down, he did take measures to treat the situation fairly. Hopefully no member of the Grand Jury sent the tweet, but the tweet and its origin was deleted quickly. “Joy said he expects investigators to find the source of the tweet.” Maybe some hot shot computer experts can trace the tweet and name the tweeter. I certainly hope so. We don't need misconduct on this Grand Jury.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-patient-confirmed-as-first-ebola-case-diagnosed-in-us-205031312.html

Texas patient confirmed as first Ebola case diagnosed in US
By Jason Sickles, Yahoo
September 30, 2014

DALLAS – A Texas man just back from West Africa has been confirmed as having the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the U.S.

Authorities with the Centers for Disease Control revealed the finding Tuesday, two days after the unidentified patient arrived at a Dallas hospital with suspicious symptoms.

Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas put the man into “strict isolation” and sent a blood specimen to state and federal labs for testing.

The CDC said results show the man has the deadly disease which has been linked to more than 3,000 recent deaths in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 6,500 cases confirmed in Africa, with Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone among the hardest hit.

Dr. Christopher Perkins with the Dallas County health department told reporters that the Texas man didn’t start showing symptoms until he arrived home.

“We know at this time this person was not symptomatic during travel but became symptomatic once arriving here and being home for several days,” said Perkins, according the Dallas Morning News. “So that decreases the threat that might be to the general population.”

The CDC has a team enroute to North Texas to help health officials re-trace the man's contacts since he has been back in the states.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, said the man arrived from Liberia on Sept. 20, but didn't start feeling ill until Sept. 24. The man sought medical treatment last Friday before being sent home, but later admitted to the hospital on Sunday.

Ebola is highly contagious and deadly, but only spread through contact with bodily fluids. Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson spent most of his day trying to calm the fears of North Texans.

“It is easier to get the flu than it is to get the Ebola virus,” Thompson told KTVT-TV. "You have to get it through secretion, blood, that type of transmission. So this is not a situation where you go to the grocery store and you get infected with the virus.”

Ebola symptoms include sudden fever, fatigue and headache. Officials said symptoms may appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure.

Four American aid workers have contracted Ebola in West Africa and been evacuated to the U.S. for treatment since late July. Three of them were released after making full recoveries. A fourth patient arrived in Atlanta on Sept. 9, but spokespersons at Emory University Hospital have said privacy laws prevent the release of an updated condition. On Sunday, a U.S. doctor who had been volunteering in an Ebola clinic in Sierra Leone was brought to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland as safety precaution after he was exposed to the disease.

In past years Ebola has killed up to 90 percent of those it has infected, but officials say the death rate in the current outbreak is closer to 60 percent due to early treatment.




“Dr. Christopher Perkins with the Dallas County health department told reporters that the Texas man didn’t start showing symptoms until he arrived home. 'We know at this time this person was not symptomatic during travel but became symptomatic once arriving here and being home for several days,' said Perkins, according the Dallas Morning News. 'So that decreases the threat that might be to the general population.' The CDC has a team en route to North Texas to help health officials re-trace the man's contacts since he has been back in the states.... Ebola symptoms include sudden fever, fatigue and headache. Officials said symptoms may appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure.... Four American aid workers have contracted Ebola in West Africa and been evacuated to the U.S. for treatment since late July. Three of them were released after making full recoveries. A fourth patient arrived in Atlanta on Sept. 9, but spokespersons at Emory University Hospital have said privacy laws prevent the release of an updated condition.”

“In past years Ebola has killed up to 90 percent of those it has infected, but officials say the death rate in the current outbreak is closer to 60 percent due to early treatment.” This is the first time I have heard this. Apparently just treating the symptoms can give a greater survival rate from Ebola. That's a good sign, especially as no vaccine is ready for patients who are now sick. I feel fairly secure about the safety of the American public in this particular case in Texas. A case in which the patient did make close contact with others would be more unnerving. Maybe the newly constructed hospitals which the US, French and UK governments sent last week will make a great difference in the survival rate in Africa.





http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/harpists-mellow-tone-soothes-apes-st-paul-zoo-25746245

Apes Soothed by Harpist's Mellow Tone
By Jeff Baenen
Associated Press
September 25, 2014

Harpist Terri Tacheny long enjoyed taking her young daughters to Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota, except for the Primate House, where she thought the gorillas, orangutans and monkeys seemed a little lethargic.

Her solution: A little music.

Now Tacheny, 57, a zoo volunteer, plays once a month for an appreciative audience that ambles down to the barrier as soon as Tacheny begins setting up her beautifully carved wooden harp. She's been doing it for nearly a decade.

"I don't speak gorilla, but there's a gorilla purr that occurs when I begin to play. And that's their happy sound," Tacheny said.

As the shimmering sounds of Tacheny's harp drift through the leafy zoo, a male gorilla stares through the fence at the musician, then chews contentedly on vegetation. Families stop to snap pictures.

A therapeutic harpist, Tacheny plays for hospital patients to help them deal with pain and anxiety. She thought if the soothing sounds helped calm humans, it would work for the primates too.

"I would love to see every zoo have a harpist. I think it benefits the animals," said Tacheny, a quick-to-smile woman.

Tami Murphy, a zookeeper at Como, said Tacheny has played for all the animals at the zoo. Some animals appear ambivalent, Murphy said, but the harp music "seems to be a really calming thing for the apes to listen to."

Tacheny says she's never gotten a negative review from her ape audience.

"I've never had anything thrown at me," she said.

Online:
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory: http://www.comozooconservatory.org



https://www.thedodo.com/zoo-gorillas-find-comfort-in-l-548696144.html

Zoo Gorillas Find Comfort In Listening To “Sounds of Nature”
By Stephen Messenger 
13 May 2014

Although they have never been given the chance to live in their wild homeland in Africa, primates held captive at zoos still find solace in listening to the sounds of the jungle.

Researchers studying the effect of music on a group of lowland gorillas at the Buffalo Zoo in New York found that nature sounds, more than classical music or even silence, reduced outward indications of anxiety and stress.

Over the course of several weeks, the gorillas were introduced to three different types of music, played through hidden speakers inside their enclosure: a mix of classical compositions from composer Chopin; songs from the rock band Muse; and tracks from a “Sounds of Nature” compilation. While the sounds were played, researchers watched for tell-tale signs that the animals were stressed -- for example, repetitive behavior like hair-plucking or regurgitation of food.

Interestingly, while this behavior increased by as much as 40 percent when both rock and classical music was played, it actually decreased when sounds resembling their natural habitat played -- even more so than when no sounds were played at all.

“I wasn’t surprised that the natural sounds had a positive effect,” says Susan Margulis, a primatologist who co-authored the study.

Despite being confined to a zoo, the gorillas still find solace in hearing the sounds of their native, natural home.




“Tami Murphy, a zookeeper at Como, said Tacheny has played for all the animals at the zoo. Some animals appear ambivalent, Murphy said, but the harp music 'seems to be a really calming thing for the apes to listen to.'” These two situations, one in which the gorillas had increased anxiety symptoms and the other decreased, are different in one or two ways. First, both rock and a concerto are complex musical sounds, sometimes loud and emotionally stimulating, whereas a harp is only one instrument and an extremely serene sound. Second, in the first zoo experiment the sound was coming from a speaker inside an enclosure with no visual evidence of the origin of the sounds. When the harpist sat just outside the apes' enclosure where they could see her and understand where the sounds were coming from, and perhaps were drawn to the softer and more melodic sounds of a harp, they reacted as though they were at a concert, and sat in the grass watching her. I think simpler music is probably the key. Zoo keepers should try a flautist next. Flutes sound like birds, and the gorillas reacted positively to nature sounds. The human voice singing would probably be calming, too.

Hopefully more zoos will start to use either nature sounds or simple music to make their animals happier. Life in a zoo is too much like life in prison. I'm fascinated with the great apes, but I often feel pity for them when I see them in zoos. I did have one positive encounter with a female gorilla and her baby in the National Zoo at Washington, DC. She had brought her baby up to the glass that separated us and when the human children put their hands up on the glass, the female gorilla put hers up to theirs. It was a lot like the belulga whale in at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut who was recently caught on camera playing an extensive game of “Peek a boo” with kids on the other side of the glass. We humans should be interacting with zoo and aquarium animals more, because they are definitely bright enough to enjoy it.

The case of Koko the gorilla and her “mom” Penny Patterson shows that gorillas respond very warmly and intimately to humans when they are accustomed to them. Likewise a similar case is a group of orangutans which are rescued as babies from poachers – baby orangutans are adorable, and they are sold in markets in some Eastern parts of the world as pets. Unfortunately they get really large as adults, and then people want to take them to a zoo.

These orangutans were in a large enclosure where they could climb in the trees freely, but were being fed and taught various things to prepare them to be reintroduced to the wild. This was another of my documentaries. The startling thing about one of the orangs was that she was sitting beside one of the handlers who was washing clothes in a spring, and she took up some of his laundry and started washing it, too. The great apes aren't as intelligent as humans, but they are more intelligent than most other animals, at least in ways like trying to communicate with us or doing the things that we are doing. Psychologists have taught both gorillas and chimpanzees to use ASL to express themselves and interact on testing functions. One chimp in particular named Kanzi responds to a wide variety of commands in spoken English and also used ASL to communicate. Koko made the news a couple of years ago for using ASL to tell Penny that she had a pain equal to a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 in her mouth. They put her to sleep and a dentist extracted the decayed tooth. That was clearly not “monkey see monkey do,” but intelligent use of language.

Koko and another gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation named Michael both were taught American Sign Language (ASL) and, interestingly, painting. Another documentary showed an elephant with a paint brush in her trunk painting on a canvas, so it isn't just apes that are highly intelligent. Paintings by both of Penny's gorillas are on sale at the Gorilla Foundation's website. Penny asked Koko and Michael what they had painted, and they used ASL to tell her. Koko painted two recognizable things, one the head of Penny's border collie and another a bouquet of flowers. The border collie consisted of a bold, wide swipe of black paint, curving upward to form the ears with a complementary stroke of white paint for the muzzle. The bouquet was round daubs of three or four colors grouped in the center of the paper, showing a dozen or so “flowers.” Nobody coached her or taught her what to do. Penny just gave her the tempera colors, paint brush and paper.

It doesn't surprise me that apes are attracted to beautiful and calming music enough to leave their feeding area and come down to sit near the harpist. Even gorillas in the wild have shown themselves to be accepting to the many groups of ecotourists who come into the jungle with their guides and sit near the gorillas, watching them feed and interact. Gorillas have been known to make overtures to the people, especially in the case of those scientists who study them such as Dian Fossey. One young male whom she befriended reached out and touched her hand. Gorillas In The Mist is a great book, if you haven't read it. Sadly Fossey was killed by poachers. Detractors who object to that kind of science, such as certain churches, put out the story that the gorillas had killed her. That's very sad. Poaching of different kinds is an ongoing problem in Africa, so often for some reason like the fact that rhinoceros horn is believed in China to be an aphrodesiac for men. It's hard to get the population in general around the world to really care about the growing extinction of our wealth of animal life.





Californians: Plastic bag ban is no big deal – CBS
By KIM PETERSON MONEYWATCH October 1, 2014, 5:15 AM

California will begin phasing out single-use plastic bags at stores statewide over the next two years, a move environmentalists are hailing as historic and significant.

For many of the state's residents, however, it will just be business as usual. That's because more than 100 local plastic bag bans are already in place in the state, including in San Francisco and Los Angeles. People across wide swaths of California already bring their own bags to shop, paying fees of 10 cents to 25 cents for a paper bag or not using bags at all.

As a result, grocers in the state aren't expecting shock waves once the ban goes into effect.

"I think it'll be fine," Gabrielle Stadem, marketing manager for New Earth Market in Yuba City, told CBS MoneyWatch. "People will come around pretty quickly. It's the natural progression for all of California and hopefully at some point the entire U.S."

Stadem said her market has never offered plastic bags. The environmental harm from doing so was just too great, she added. Customers adjusted to the policy with no problem.

In fact, many of the local jurisdictions that have implemented similar bans say grocery stores and shoppers responded positively -- although perhaps not immediately.

"It didn't happen overnight," Laura Kasa, executive director for ocean conservation group Save Our Shores, told CBS MarketWatch. The group is based in Santa Cruz County, which banned bags in 2012.

Kasa said her group watched shoppers leaving stores before the ban and found that only 10 percent of them brought their own bags. A month after the ban took effect, anywhere from 60 percent to 80 percent of shoppers had their own bags in hand or decided not to take any bag.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday that would slowly phase out plastic bags at grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies. Businesses that don't comply with the law could receive fines of up to $5,000.

But groups of retailers and grocery stores support the law, saying it's better to have a statewide standard than a patchwork of different rules and fees.

How will consumers respond to the ban? Surveys across California show that once a bag ban is in place, reusable bag usage increases by 40 percent, according to a report last year by Equinox Center, an environmental think tank in San Diego. But paper bag use increases as well, rising from 3 percent to 16 percent.

Environmentalists have crusaded for years to ban plastic bags in the state. The plastics that go into most single-use plastic bags take between 400 and 1,000 years to break down, according to the Equinox report. Across the country, only about 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled.

Could California lead the way for an eventual nationwide ban? Ireland, Denmark and Australia have all implemented a bag fee and have seen dramatic reductions in plastic bag usage.

Kasa at Save Our Shores said more states would have to pass bag bans before the federal government would get on board. California was not ready to pass a statewide ban years ago, but the prohibitions by dozens of localities helped make a statewide ban possible.

Added Kasa: "If more states can make it happen, then that will tip the federal government to do something."




“In fact, many of the local jurisdictions that have implemented similar bans say grocery stores and shoppers responded positively -- although perhaps not immediately. 'It didn't happen overnight,' Laura Kasa, executive director for ocean conservation group Save Our Shores, told CBS MarketWatch. The group is based in Santa Cruz County, which banned bags in 2012. Kasa said her group watched shoppers leaving stores before the ban and found that only 10 percent of them brought their own bags. A month after the ban took effect, anywhere from 60 percent to 80 percent of shoppers had their own bags in hand or decided not to take any bag.... Businesses that don't comply with the law could receive fines of up to $5,000. But groups of retailers and grocery stores support the law, saying it's better to have a statewide standard than a patchwork of different rules and fees.... The plastics that go into most single-use plastic bags take between 400 and 1,000 years to break down, according to the Equinox report. Across the country, only about 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled.... Ireland, Denmark and Australia have all implemented a bag fee and have seen dramatic reductions in plastic bag usage.”

About a year ago I bought two reusable cloth bags and I have consistently forgotten to put them in the front seat of my car. Having them in the back seat doesn't work any better than if they are at home on the kitchen floor. I just now put the cloth bag on the door handle to carry down to the car, and when I get down there I'll move the other one out of the back seat of the car. Then I will carry the many bags that are collected by the door down to the car to take to Publix's recycling bins. Great. I've done my duty.





Former convict with a gun rode elevator with Obama
By LINDSEY BOERMA CBS NEWS September 30, 2014, 6:17 PM

A security contractor convicted thrice for charges of assault and battery was allowed on an elevator with President Obama earlier this month, CBS News has confirmed - adding another tally mark to a score of headaches that have recently besieged the United States Secret Service.

The Washington Post reports that the incident occurred during the president's Sept. 16 trip to Atlanta, where he discussed the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the contractor refused their requests to stop using a phone camera to videotape Mr. Obama in the elevator, agents ran a database check and unveiled his criminal history.

Informed of the agency's concern, the contractor's employer fired him immediately and demanded he turn over his gun, which Secret Service did not realize he had during his encounter with the president.

It's hapless timing for the agency, which has come under heightened scrutiny this month after an armed man managed to scale the White House fence, sprint across the lawn and make it all the way through the doors of the North Portico and into the East Room before being apprehended. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday grilled Secret Service Director Julia Pierson about the incident and several other high-profile security failures.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, argued during the hearing that the recent debacles call into question Pierson's leadership. Speaking with the Post about the latest whistleblower report, the hard-right conservative drove that home: "Words aren't strong enough for the outrage I feel for the safety of the president and his family.

"...You have a convicted felon within arms reach of the president and they never did a background check," Chaffetz went on. "[Mr. Obama's] life was in danger. This country would be a different world today if he had pulled out his gun."




“After the contractor refused their requests to stop using a phone camera to videotape Mr. Obama in the elevator, agents ran a database check and unveiled his criminal history. Informed of the agency's concern, the contractor's employer fired him immediately and demanded he turn over his gun, which Secret Service did not realize he had during his encounter with the president....

I notice the article didn't say what the contractor was going to do with the film he was shooting. At least he was fired “immediately” from his agency. It seems to me he should be investigated for spying. I don't like any of these contractors who have been in the news for a good fifteen or twenty years, and have given trouble before. The CIA with such contractors, that time from Blackwater, abused and tortured prisoners of war at Abu Ghraib. The organizations that hire them don't properly vet them or supervise them, and worse still the US government hasn't done it either.

Using contractors is thought to be cheaper than using regular army personnel, so it is still apparently going on. Congress needs to bite the bullet and spend more money to avoid using those people. The military can save money in other ways, such as by not giving away perfectly usable weapons and other equipment to city police forces around the country and then spending more money on buying new things. The Secret Service, too, should have checked this man's records and in my opinion, not used contractors. It's shameful.





Hong Kong Protesters Vow To Step Up Pro-Democracy Campaign – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
October 01, 2014

Protesters shout slogans outside a flag-raising ceremony that Hong Kong's embattled leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, attended in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

A deadline set by Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators for the territory's leader to step down has passed without his resignation, triggering a new phase to the protests that have brought parts of the Asian financial hub to a standstill.

Protesters, who took to the streets by the tens of thousands last week to demand the open election of Hong Kong's next leader, heckled the territory's Beijing-appointed chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, during a flag-raising ceremony to mark China's National Day.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn, reporting from Hong Kong, tells Morning Edition that the unpopular leader has been derisively nicknamed "689" by many people in the city in a reference to the fact that he was hand-picked by a committee of 689 Chinese professionals with strong ties to the Beijing government.

As part of the agreement handing the former British colony over to China in 1997, Beijing was supposed to allow open elections for the territory's leader, but in recent months, the Chinese leadership has said it will tightly control the list of nominees.

With Leung standing firm, some of the student-led protesters have vowed to occupy key government buildings — a move that would up the ante in what many view as a dangerous game of chicken with Chinese authority.

The South China Morning Post reports: "At a news conference this afternoon they gave [Leung] until Thursday to step down, vowing to occupy important government buildings if he failed to do so. Their actions, if carried out, would almost inevitably lead to physical confrontation with security agencies."

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, says Leung has adopted a wait-it-out strategy, hoping that the inconvenience caused by the protests would eventually cause a shift in public opinion against the activists.

The Journal reports:

" 'Beijing has set a line to C.Y. You cannot open fire,' this person said. 'You must halt it in a peaceful way.'

"The thinking behind the tactic is to resolve the standoff by peaceful means and comes after a move on Sunday to deploy tear gas backfired on the government.

" 'The strategy is to control the situation and let them occupy until a time that the inconvenience caused to others in Hong Kong will swing the public opinion against Occupy or pressure the organizers to call it off,' this person said. 'They can wait to a time the public opinion will swing.' "

NPR's Kuhn says the backlash from police use of teargas and pepper spray over the weekend to try to break up the protests "stung" Hong Kong authorities.
Now, he says, "they've pulled back all the riot police — they are nowhere to be seen here, so it's unlikely that there will be a quick government responses. But, this is a city that thrives on business and it's happened before those protesters have outlived their welcome."




“A deadline set by Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators for the territory's leader to step down has passed without his resignation, triggering a new phase to the protests that have brought parts of the Asian financial hub to a standstill.... NPR's Anthony Kuhn, reporting from Hong Kong, tells Morning Edition that the unpopular leader has been derisively nicknamed "689" by many people in the city in a reference to the fact that he was hand-picked by a committee of 689 Chinese professionals with strong ties to the Beijing government.... With Leung standing firm, some of the student-led protesters have vowed to occupy key government buildings — a move that would up the ante in what many view as a dangerous game of chicken with Chinese authority. The South China Morning Post reports: 'At a news conference this afternoon they gave [Leung] until Thursday to step down, vowing to occupy important government buildings if he failed to do so. Their actions, if carried out, would almost inevitably lead to physical confrontation with security agencies.'... Now, he says, 'they've pulled back all the riot police — they are nowhere to be seen here, so it's unlikely that there will be a quick government responses. But, this is a city that thrives on business and it's happened before those protesters have outlived their welcome.'”

So everybody waits to see who blinks. If the population of Hong Kong is firmly behind the protesters, Leung will have to step down, or the Beijing government will step in and violently put down the rebellion. I do hope they don't. China and the US, willingly or not, are allies in economic and some cultural ways. I have read that Beijing is involved in keeping North Korea from causing a war, which could be a nuclear war. Likewise, Britain is tied up economically with Hong Kong businesses, which could end up in a loss of those businesses to Beijing. With so much tension around the world at this time, a small war could become a large one very fast. Beijing promised to set up free elections in the HKSAR in an international agreement with Britain. Wars usually start over economic issues, with cultural events playing a part. This may be no exception.

See the following in Wikipedia: Sino-British Joint Declaration, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

“The Sino-British Joint Declaration, formally known as the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, was signed by Prime Ministers Zhao Ziyang of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom (UK) on behalf of their respective governments on 19 December 1984 in Beijing.[1]

The Declaration entered into force with the exchange of instruments of ratification on 27 May 1985, and was registered by the PRC and UK governments at the United Nations on 12 June 1985. In the Joint Declaration, the PRC Government stated that it had decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories) with effect from 1 July 1997, and the UK Government declared that it would hand over Hong Kong to the PRC with effect from 1 July 1997. The PRC Government also declared its basic policies regarding Hong Kong in the document.

In accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle agreed between the UK and the PRC, the socialist system of PRC would not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR), and Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years until 2047. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies should be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law and that the socialist system and socialist policies shall not be practised in HKSAR.

The background of the Sino-British Joint Declaration was the pending expiration of the lease of the New Territories on 1 July 1997.[2] The lease was negotiated between the UK and the Guangxu Emperor of China, and was for a period of 99 years starting from 1 July 1898 under the Second Convention of Peking.  In the early 1980s the territory and its business community grew concerned about the future of Hong Kong....  Upon his return, MacLehose attempted to allay investors' worries about the scheduled reversion, but reiterated that the PRC asserted its intention to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong.[4] The first formal negotiations began with chairman Deng Xiaoping of the PRC during the visit of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, to China in September 1982.[4]

As a result, the two sides discussed possible measures besides continued British administration, and came up with the concept of Hong Kong as a Special Administration Region of the PRC. In April 1984, the two sides concluded the initial discussion of these matters, and arranged that Hong Kong would retain a high degree of autonomy under Chinese sovereignty with the preservation of the maintained lifestyle in Hong Kong.[

Between 1985 and 2000 the Joint Liaison Group held 47 plenary meetings whereof 18 were held in Hong Kong, 15 in London and 14 in Beijing.

One of the main achievements had been to ensure the continuity of the independent judiciary in Hong Kong, including agreements in the areas of law of Merchant Shipping, Civil Aviation, Nuclear Material, Whale Fisheries, Submarine Telegraph, Outer Space and many others. Furthermore it agreed to a network of bilateral agreements between Hong Kong and other countries. Within those agreements were reached on the continued application of about 200 international conventions to the HKSAR after 30 June 1997. Hong Kong should also continue to participate in various international organisations after the handover.

Pressures from the mainland government were also apparent, for example in 2000, after the election of pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian as Taiwan's president, a senior mainland official in Hong Kong warned journalists not to report those Taiwan independence news. Another senior official advised businessmen not to do business with pro-independence Taiwanese.[13]

With this and other changes,[13] ten years after the return, in 2007, The Guardian wrote that on the one hand, "nothing has changed since the handover to China 10 years ago",[14] but this was in comparison to the situation before the last governor Chris Patten had introduced democratic reforms three years before the handover. Now, the Guardian continued, a chance for democracy had been lost as Hong Kong had just begun to develop three vital elements for a western-style democracy (the rule of law, official accountability and a political class outside the one-party system) but the Sino–British deal had prevented any of these changes to continue.”





Mexico Pays To Help Its Citizens Avoid Deportation From The U.S. – NPR
by HANSI LO WANG
September 30, 2014

Mexico is helping some of its citizens apply for a controversial immigration program in the U.S. called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Since the Obama administration created the program in 2012, more than 580,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors have received temporary relief from deportation and been given work permits that last for at least two years.

But 45 percent of those who are eligible for DACA have not applied, and the cost may be holding some back. Immigrants have to pay a total of $465 to the Department of Homeland Security for fees related to the work permit and for required fingerprinting.

Mexican consulates around the U.S. have been paying those fees for some applicants through a little-known program for Mexican citizens with financial need.

Money A Big Factor

Before applying for DACA, Tania Guzman was worried about revealing to the U.S. government that she left Mexico City and crossed the border illegally when she was 7 years old.

Now 30, Guzman says she also worried about the cost, especially after she learned she would have to pay at least a couple of thousand dollars for immigration attorneys to help prepare her DACA application.

"It was a big factor," says Guzman, who works as a part-time personal assistant and baby sitter in Los Angeles. "It's a lot of money, and I was struggling."

She finally managed to apply last October after her lawyer from Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm based in California, told her she qualified for financial assistance from the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. Since 2012, that consulate has set aside $250,000 to help, so far, more than 260 Mexican citizens apply for DACA.

Guzman, who was granted deferred action in May, says she paid $50. The rest of her attorney's and application fees were covered by Mexico.

"We are here [in the U.S.] basically not doing anything for our country, I will say. So it's a great thing to know that even though you're not in Mexico, you still get help from them," Guzman says.

Helping Mexicans Wherever They Are

The Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., does not keep track of how many DACA applications the consulates have funded nationwide, according to Julian Escutia, head of the embassy's consular coordination and Hispanic affairs section.

Escutia, who oversees national programs for Mexico's 50 consulates around the U.S., stresses that financial assistance for Mexican citizens applying for DACA is limited and based on need.

"This is on a case-by-case basis," he explained in an interview at the embassy. "We are not in the position of assisting all of them financially."

Paying for DACA applications, he added, is just one way Mexican consulates are trying to support Mexican citizens living in the U.S.

"If it's a program that helps youth to work in this country, well, that helps our nationals, and that helps us," he said.

When asked why Mexico is helping its citizens find ways to stay in the U.S., Escutia said that is not the Mexican government's main objective.

"Our main objective is the well-being of our nationals wherever they are," he said. "So what we want for them is that they are successful and really continue contributing to this country [the U.S.]."

An official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which reviews DACA applications, told NPR that foreign governments are not restricted from providing filing fees because the agency has "no way of knowing where any fees might have originated."

About 80 percent of immigrants applying for DACA come from Mexico, according to USCIS. Among the other top five countries of origin, neither El Salvador nor South Korea has provided financial assistance to applicants, while the embassies of Guatemala and Honduras did not return requests for comment by deadline.

Raising 'An Eyebrow Or Two'

DACA has sparked heated debate in Congress, with House Republicans questioning whether President Obama had the constitutional authority to enact the program. In August, they passed a measure to end the DACA program, which was also the focus of a lawsuit by a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Escutia said the controversy about DACA was a "domestic issue" for the U.S. to sort out.

"We are not entering into the political debate about DACA," he said. "It's one option that is available to our nationals, and if they choose to apply for it, we are certainly happy to help them."

Mexico's support for DACA applicants may seem counterintuitive, says Emily Edmonds-Poli, a professor who teaches Mexican politics at the University of San Diego, but she said it shows that the Mexican government is acknowledging a decades-long migration trend that led to 9 percent of people born in Mexico now living in the U.S.

That has driven Mexico to build better relations with Mexicans abroad in hopes of maintaining remittance flows and other cross-border economic activity.

"I think the message that it's trying to send is that the Mexican government supports its population living in the U.S.," Edmonds-Poli says. "I don't think that that is the message that will be received in the U.S."




“Mexico is helping some of its citizens apply for a controversial immigration program in the U.S. called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Since the Obama administration created the program in 2012, more than 580,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors have received temporary relief from deportation and been given work permits that last for at least two years. But 45 percent of those who are eligible for DACA have not applied, and the cost may be holding some back. Immigrants have to pay a total of $465 to the Department of Homeland Security for fees related to the work permit and for required fingerprinting. Mexican consulates around the U.S. have been paying those fees for some applicants through a little-known program for Mexican citizens with financial need.... Guzman, who was granted deferred action in May, says she paid $50. The rest of her attorney's and application fees were covered by Mexico. 'We are here [in the U.S.] basically not doing anything for our country, I will say. So it's a great thing to know that even though you're not in Mexico, you still get help from them,' Guzman says.... Escutia, who oversees national programs for Mexico's 50 consulates around the U.S., stresses that financial assistance for Mexican citizens applying for DACA is limited and based on need. 'This is on a case-by-case basis," he explained in an interview at the embassy. 'We are not in the position of assisting all of them financially.'... About 80 percent of immigrants applying for DACA come from Mexico, according to USCIS. Among the other top five countries of origin, neither El Salvador nor South Korea has provided financial assistance to applicants, while the embassies of Guatemala and Honduras did not return requests for comment by deadline.... In August, they [House Republicans] passed a measure to end the DACA program, which was also the focus of a lawsuit by a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.... That has driven Mexico to build better relations with Mexicans abroad in hopes of maintaining remittance flows and other cross-border economic activity.”

“Remittance flows and other cross-border economic activity” is possibly Mexico's main incentive to pay these application fees. This subject was mentioned a month or so ago when the fact that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were in favor of their people coming to the US and then sending part of their pay home to their families. Apparently the amount of money immigrants send home is a significant amount economically. A man I know who married a Filipino woman said she does the same thing. They don't seem to me to be making very much money, but they scrimp and save so that they are able to share it with their family. It's astounding, and even admirable, but it somehow seems that they are cheating the US economy, though of course they pay income and social security taxes, so what they want to do with their money is their business.

Nonetheless, I don't like to see those governments encouraging their people to walk across the border. The good news in the last couple of months is that Mexico has started closing its southern border to the groups of migrants who try to make it through, so they're doing something toward solving the immigration problem, and the other governments have begun trying to stop the migration as well. They need to improve the lives of the people there, basically, and if they need international aid to do that, I would be for the US giving them some help.

Likewise if we could do something to help stop the massive amount of drug abuse in this country everyone would be better off. The Honduran president recently said that "the root cause" of the overweening power of the drug lords down there, which makes the common people's lives full of daily danger, is our people's heavy abuse of drugs. Our use of street drugs is making drug lords richer and richer every day. That would involve a large scale effort to treat drug users here, making it a public health issue rather than a crime, but perhaps mandating that the users get treatment.

I do think that selling drugs should be a crime, but being addicted is a health matter. It really is at epidemic proportions here, and not always among the “down and out” population either. In fact, it takes a pretty large amount of money to be able to afford drugs, especially street drugs. The person who springs to my mind immediately is Rush Limbaugh. He was addicted to pain medication which involves the cooperation of an unscrupulous doctor, but it's a part of the overall addiction problem. I've heard no more about him since he made the news, so maybe he has kicked the habit.