Most recent armed conflicts around the world have been flare-ups of previously settled wars, concludes a new report from University of Maryland researchers. The report also identifies current terrorism as largely ‘a by-product of the war in Iraq. ‘Strikingly, of the 39 different conflicts that became active in the last 10 years, 31 were conflict recurrences – instances of resurgent, armed violence in societies where conflict had largely been dormant for least a year, reports the 2010 edition of Peace and Conflict, a biennial report produced by the University of Maryland’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM). http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/pc/executive_summary/exec_sum_2010.pdf ‘This is a sobering reminder that we’re entering a period of destabilization that we have characterized as a conflict syndrome, says report co-author and CIDCM researcher Joe Hewitt. ‘Conflicts are becoming increasingly resistant to peace efforts. It’s clearly easier to stop conflict than to rebuild countries torn apart by war. Without adequate resources and international commitment, there is no certainty that the obstacles can be overcome. http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/staff/staff_member.asp?id=111 The report adds that internationally brokered settlement or containment initiatives launched since the early 1990s ‘did not deal effectively with root causes. Slow economic growth, badly timed international aid and […]
Failure to agree a new UN climate deal in December will bring a ‘global health catastrophe’, say 18 of the world’s professional medical organisations. Writing in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal, they urge doctors to ‘take a lead’ on the climate issue. In a separate editorial, the journals say that people in poor tropical nations will suffer the worst impacts. They argue that curbing climate change would have other benefits such as more healthy diets and cleaner air. December’s UN summit, to be held in Copenhagen, is due to agree a new global climate treaty to supplant the Kyoto Protocol. But preparatory talks have been plagued by lack of agreement on how much to cut greenhouse gas emissions and how to finance climate protection for the poorest countries. ‘ Effects of climate change on health will… put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk Lancet/UCL report ‘There is a real danger that politicians will be indecisive, especially in such turbulent economic times as these,’ according to the letter signed by leaders of 18 colleges of medicine and other medical disciplines across the world. ‘Should their response […]
Israeli researchers have located an area in laboratory rats’ brains that controls their consciousness, a finding that might herald new treatments for various states of loss of consciousness. Loss of response to painful stimuli and loss of consciousness are the most striking characteristics of surgical an aesthesia and an aesthesia-like states, such as concussion, reversible coma and syncope. These states also exhibit behavioral suppression, loss of muscle tone and depressed brain metabolism. It has been widely presumed that this constellation of dramatic functional changes reflects widely distributed suppression of neuronal activity in the brain due to dispersed drug action or to global oxygen or nutrient starvation. However, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem research team, led by Professor Marshall Devor, revealed ‘a radically different architecture,’ said the university in a statement on Monday. ‘A small group of neurons near the base of the brain … has executive control over the alert status of the entire cerebrum and spinal cord, and can generate loss of pain sensation, postural collapse and loss of consciousness through specific neural circuitry,’ said the statement. […]
The average family premium for health insurance offered through an employer surpassed the $13,000 mark this year, and the cost of coverage continues to outpace increases in wages and inflation, according to a report released Tuesday. The average annual premium rose 5 percent in 2009, similar to the prior year’s increase and considered modest compared with double-digit increases earlier this decade. Over the past 10 years, premiums have risen 131 percent while wages have increased just 38 percent. In that time, inflation has gone up 28 percent. The report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, based on a survey of more than 3,100 U.S. firms earlier this year, comes at a time when the country is embroiled in a debate to overhaul its health care system by building upon the existing employer-sponsored model. The report found if premiums to cover families increase by 6.1 percent, the average growth over the past five years, they will exceed $24,000 a year by 2019 – a level many health experts consider unsustainable without efforts to rein in costs. ‘When health care costs continue to rise so much faster than overall inflation in a […]
NEW YORK — Your shower may not be getting you as clean as you think with a U.S. study finding many showerheads are dirty and may be covering you in a daily dose of bacteria that could make you sick. An analysis of 50 showerheads from nine U.S. cities found that about 30 percent harbored high levels of Mycobacterium avium — a group of bacteria that can cause lung infections when inhaled or swallowed. Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder found the levels of Mycobacterium avium were 100 times higher than those found in typical household water. ‘If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy,’ said researcher Norman Pace in a statement. Mycobacterium avium is linked to pulmonary disease, causing symptoms such as a persistent drug cough, breathlessness and fatigue, and most often infects people with compromised immune system but can occasionally infect healthy people. Pace said research at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver found that increases in pulmonary infections in the United States in recent […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
