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HuckleB
HuckleB's Journal
HuckleB's Journal
April 18, 2016
"‘Homeopaths without Borders’ have been the subject of this blog before. I repeat what David Shaw, senior research fellow, Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Switzerland, wrote about this organisation in a BMJ-article: Despite Homeopaths Without Borders’ claims to the contrary, “homeopathic humanitarian help” is a contradiction in terms. Although providing food, water, and solace to people in areas affected by wars and natural disasters certainly constitutes valuable humanitarian work, any homeopathic treatment deceives patients into thinking they are receiving real treatment when they are not. Furthermore, training local people as homeopaths in affected areas amounts to exploiting vulnerable people to increase the reach of homeopathy. Much as an opportunistic infection can take hold when a person’s immune system is weakened, so Homeopaths Without Borders strikes when a country is weakened by a disaster. However, infections are expunged once the immune system recovers but Homeopaths Without Borders’ methods ensure that homeopathy persists in these countries long after the initial catastrophe has passed. Homeopathy is neither helpful nor humanitarian, and to claim otherwise to the victims of disasters amounts to exploitation of those in need of genuine aid.
Now ‘Homeopathy without Borders’ seem to promote the idea – or should I say madness? – that homeopathy offers a cure for the Zika virus infection. Given their track record this was to be expected. Whenever the world is facing a serious medical problem, homeopaths are at the ready to help. Only that they don’t really help; they make false promises and distract from the task of solving the problem. Need I to remind you of the disaster they almost caused when they set out to treat Ebola?
Tragically, ‘Homeopaths without Borders’ are not alone. Other homeopaths seem to agree with them and promote the madness of a homeopathic cure fro Zika. For instance, Dr Vikas Sharma, a homeopath from India, informs us that “Homeopathic medicines Eupatorium Perfoliatum, Belladonna, Rhus Tox can be safely used in Zika virus infection treatment. These medicines come the closest in treating the symptoms of Zika virus infection. In an epidemics when a huge number of person are attacked by acute and similar sufferings from similar cause, Homeopathy can be of great prophylactic help. Homeopathy has been highly successful in treating epidemic diseases. Among them are cholera, dengue fever, yellow fever typhus, and conjunctivitis. “
Confronted with stupidity on such a scale, I am lost for words. Luckily, David Shaw already said it all: Homeopathy is neither helpful nor humanitarian, and to claim otherwise to the victims of disasters amounts to exploitation of those in need of genuine aid."
-------------------------------------------------------
Zika Virus Prompts "Homeopaths Without Borders" To Potentiate Ineptitude
http://edzardernst.com/2016/04/zika-virus-prompts-homeopath-to-potentiate-ineptitude/"‘Homeopaths without Borders’ have been the subject of this blog before. I repeat what David Shaw, senior research fellow, Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Switzerland, wrote about this organisation in a BMJ-article: Despite Homeopaths Without Borders’ claims to the contrary, “homeopathic humanitarian help” is a contradiction in terms. Although providing food, water, and solace to people in areas affected by wars and natural disasters certainly constitutes valuable humanitarian work, any homeopathic treatment deceives patients into thinking they are receiving real treatment when they are not. Furthermore, training local people as homeopaths in affected areas amounts to exploiting vulnerable people to increase the reach of homeopathy. Much as an opportunistic infection can take hold when a person’s immune system is weakened, so Homeopaths Without Borders strikes when a country is weakened by a disaster. However, infections are expunged once the immune system recovers but Homeopaths Without Borders’ methods ensure that homeopathy persists in these countries long after the initial catastrophe has passed. Homeopathy is neither helpful nor humanitarian, and to claim otherwise to the victims of disasters amounts to exploitation of those in need of genuine aid.
Now ‘Homeopathy without Borders’ seem to promote the idea – or should I say madness? – that homeopathy offers a cure for the Zika virus infection. Given their track record this was to be expected. Whenever the world is facing a serious medical problem, homeopaths are at the ready to help. Only that they don’t really help; they make false promises and distract from the task of solving the problem. Need I to remind you of the disaster they almost caused when they set out to treat Ebola?
Tragically, ‘Homeopaths without Borders’ are not alone. Other homeopaths seem to agree with them and promote the madness of a homeopathic cure fro Zika. For instance, Dr Vikas Sharma, a homeopath from India, informs us that “Homeopathic medicines Eupatorium Perfoliatum, Belladonna, Rhus Tox can be safely used in Zika virus infection treatment. These medicines come the closest in treating the symptoms of Zika virus infection. In an epidemics when a huge number of person are attacked by acute and similar sufferings from similar cause, Homeopathy can be of great prophylactic help. Homeopathy has been highly successful in treating epidemic diseases. Among them are cholera, dengue fever, yellow fever typhus, and conjunctivitis. “
Confronted with stupidity on such a scale, I am lost for words. Luckily, David Shaw already said it all: Homeopathy is neither helpful nor humanitarian, and to claim otherwise to the victims of disasters amounts to exploitation of those in need of genuine aid."
-------------------------------------------------------
April 16, 2016
Homeopathic Surgeon saves Trump's life.
Hey, he's really smart and good at surgery, and he informed Trump that he saved the Donald's life. So it must be true.
Trump has decided to make the homeopath the US' next Surgeon General.
April 15, 2016
"...
What makes buying food different from other forms of commerce is this: It’s a trust-based system. How do you know the Dover sole on your plate is Dover sole? Only that the restaurateur said so.
And how can you be sure the strawberries your toddler is gobbling are free of pesticides? Only because the vendor at the farmers market said so.
Your purchases are unverifiable unless you drive to that farm or track back through a restaurant’s distributors and ask for invoices.
I did.
...
My conclusion? Just about everyone tells tales. Sometimes they are whoppers, sometimes they are fibs borne of negligence or ignorance, and sometimes they are nearly harmless omissions or “greenwashing.”
..."
------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2 covers Farmers Markets:
Tampa Bay farmers markets are lacking in just one thing: Local farmers
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/farmers-markets/
"...
Around the country, farmers markets have become ritual weekly opportunities for us to connect in some small way. In Tampa Bay, people park dog strollers to browse beeswax candles and wait for grilled cheeses while listening to one-man bands Rolodexing the Buffett oeuvre.
They fill string bags with produce. And few people seem to know that there are nearly no farmers. That this stuff came from Mexico, Honduras, Canada. That your grocer has already passed it over.
Over several weeks, I visited Tampa Bay’s outdoor markets. At a dozen different markets, I counted 346 discrete vendors, many of whom sell at multiple markets. Of that number, only 16 sold their own produce, honey, eggs, meat or dairy. Plenty of wind chimes and hot sauces, but less than 5 percent represented Florida farmers growing their own food.
Many vendors at the outdoor markets are not growers but resellers, and there’s a reason for that. Publix, one of the 10 largest-volume supermarket chains in the country and the largest in Florida, is based in Lakeland.
..."
------------------------------------------------------------
Sure, it's just about Tampa Bay. But does it happen elsewhere?
At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you’re being fed fiction
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/restaurants/"...
What makes buying food different from other forms of commerce is this: It’s a trust-based system. How do you know the Dover sole on your plate is Dover sole? Only that the restaurateur said so.
And how can you be sure the strawberries your toddler is gobbling are free of pesticides? Only because the vendor at the farmers market said so.
Your purchases are unverifiable unless you drive to that farm or track back through a restaurant’s distributors and ask for invoices.
I did.
...
My conclusion? Just about everyone tells tales. Sometimes they are whoppers, sometimes they are fibs borne of negligence or ignorance, and sometimes they are nearly harmless omissions or “greenwashing.”
..."
------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2 covers Farmers Markets:
Tampa Bay farmers markets are lacking in just one thing: Local farmers
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/farmers-markets/
"...
Around the country, farmers markets have become ritual weekly opportunities for us to connect in some small way. In Tampa Bay, people park dog strollers to browse beeswax candles and wait for grilled cheeses while listening to one-man bands Rolodexing the Buffett oeuvre.
They fill string bags with produce. And few people seem to know that there are nearly no farmers. That this stuff came from Mexico, Honduras, Canada. That your grocer has already passed it over.
Over several weeks, I visited Tampa Bay’s outdoor markets. At a dozen different markets, I counted 346 discrete vendors, many of whom sell at multiple markets. Of that number, only 16 sold their own produce, honey, eggs, meat or dairy. Plenty of wind chimes and hot sauces, but less than 5 percent represented Florida farmers growing their own food.
Many vendors at the outdoor markets are not growers but resellers, and there’s a reason for that. Publix, one of the 10 largest-volume supermarket chains in the country and the largest in Florida, is based in Lakeland.
..."
------------------------------------------------------------
Sure, it's just about Tampa Bay. But does it happen elsewhere?
April 15, 2016
"Three months ago, after more than a year in a New Zealand aquarium tank, Inky the octopus decided to pursue — or maybe accidentally ended up pursuing, according to one octopus expert — a life of freedom in the Pacific Ocean. It’s a big ocean, so he’s almost certainly gone for good.
Before Inky, however, many other captive animals have tried to make their own great escapes into more human-populated terrain, and a few have been successful. But most that fought the law found that the law won.
...
(My Favorite)
In the steamy summer of 2013, Rusty the red panda was a new kid in town, having come just weeks before from a children’s zoo in Nebraska. And he evidently wanted to explore the nation’s capital. He slipped out of the Smithsonian National Zoo on a Monday morning and immediately became the talk of the town (and the subject of a question at a White House news conference).
But shortly after lunchtime, he’d been done in by Twitter: A family spotted him in Adam’s Morgan and tweeted his photo, then called the zoo. Zoo and Washington Humane Society personnel found him in a tree and nudged him with a pole into a safety net.
..."
----------------------------------------------
Run, Rusty Run!
8 times other animals wanted freedom as much as Inky the octopus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/04/15/8-times-other-animals-wanted-freedom-as-much-as-inky-the-octopus/"Three months ago, after more than a year in a New Zealand aquarium tank, Inky the octopus decided to pursue — or maybe accidentally ended up pursuing, according to one octopus expert — a life of freedom in the Pacific Ocean. It’s a big ocean, so he’s almost certainly gone for good.
Before Inky, however, many other captive animals have tried to make their own great escapes into more human-populated terrain, and a few have been successful. But most that fought the law found that the law won.
...
(My Favorite)
In the steamy summer of 2013, Rusty the red panda was a new kid in town, having come just weeks before from a children’s zoo in Nebraska. And he evidently wanted to explore the nation’s capital. He slipped out of the Smithsonian National Zoo on a Monday morning and immediately became the talk of the town (and the subject of a question at a White House news conference).
But shortly after lunchtime, he’d been done in by Twitter: A family spotted him in Adam’s Morgan and tweeted his photo, then called the zoo. Zoo and Washington Humane Society personnel found him in a tree and nudged him with a pole into a safety net.
..."
----------------------------------------------
Run, Rusty Run!
April 15, 2016
"A 14-year-old boy was burned and blinded in his left eye after a vape pen exploded in his face at a kiosk at the Kings Plaza mall.
Leor Domatov, who lives in Mill Basin, was at the mall on April 5th with his friends when he visited the Plaza Vapes kiosk. Though the law requires a person to be 21 to buy or handle vapes, the clerk at the kiosk allowed Domatov and his friends to handle the products. While Domatov held one of the vapes, the clerk apparently plugged the device into the wrong battery, causing it to explode. "The guy was showing me different products of the vaporizers. He connected one of the vaporizers to the battery at the store,” Domatov told CBS 2. “When he gave it to me to hold, it exploded in my hands and my face.”
Domatov didn't know what was happening until he saw blood. “I see like red stuff on the floor, and I’m like ‘oh my god, is this blood?’ So I start crying, why does it hurt me in my hands?” he told the station. He spent five days at a local hospital, where he was treated for cuts to his eyes, chemical burns, and injuries to his hands. He currently cannot see out of his left eye. "In my left eye, I have a cut through the cornea and I can’t see out of it, and on my right eye, the cornea was cut halfway through and I can see a little bit," he told the Daily News.
The kiosk is being investigated by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. "It is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to customers under 21 in New York City, and we will be visiting this retailer to ensure they follow the law," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement."
---------------------------------------------------
Yowza.
Teen Partially Blinded After Vape Pen Explodes In His Face At Brooklyn Mall
http://gothamist.com/2016/04/15/teen_partially_blinded_after_vape_p.php"A 14-year-old boy was burned and blinded in his left eye after a vape pen exploded in his face at a kiosk at the Kings Plaza mall.
Leor Domatov, who lives in Mill Basin, was at the mall on April 5th with his friends when he visited the Plaza Vapes kiosk. Though the law requires a person to be 21 to buy or handle vapes, the clerk at the kiosk allowed Domatov and his friends to handle the products. While Domatov held one of the vapes, the clerk apparently plugged the device into the wrong battery, causing it to explode. "The guy was showing me different products of the vaporizers. He connected one of the vaporizers to the battery at the store,” Domatov told CBS 2. “When he gave it to me to hold, it exploded in my hands and my face.”
Domatov didn't know what was happening until he saw blood. “I see like red stuff on the floor, and I’m like ‘oh my god, is this blood?’ So I start crying, why does it hurt me in my hands?” he told the station. He spent five days at a local hospital, where he was treated for cuts to his eyes, chemical burns, and injuries to his hands. He currently cannot see out of his left eye. "In my left eye, I have a cut through the cornea and I can’t see out of it, and on my right eye, the cornea was cut halfway through and I can see a little bit," he told the Daily News.
The kiosk is being investigated by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. "It is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to customers under 21 in New York City, and we will be visiting this retailer to ensure they follow the law," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement."
---------------------------------------------------
Yowza.
April 15, 2016
Study: Worm infection counters inflammatory bowel disease
Worm infection influences greater numbers of certain bacteria in the gut that help reduce inflammation.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016/04/15/Study-Worm-infection-counters-inflammatory-bowel-disease/6871460722072/
"Worm infection may protect against inflammatory bowel diseases, according to a recent study, leading researchers to suggest a lack of exposure to worms in the overly-sanitized modern world is increasing cases of the conditions.
Researchers at New York University suggest exposure to worms, or at least to immune chemicals produced when worms are present in the gut, could prevent IBD in some people.
The worms trigger reactions in the gut microbiome -- the production of specific bacteria, clostridia, which help counter inflammation -- but in their absence, the researchers found inflammation occurs, leading to IBD.
The researchers say the findings support the hygiene hypothesis, a theory that too-clean homes, pervasive overuse of hand sanitizers and a general avoidance of "germs," has contributed to changes in the collection of bacteria in the gut essential to bodily function.
..."
----------------------------------------
Interesante.
April 15, 2016
"As the Zika virus bears down on the United States, federal health officials are divided over a politically and ethically charged question: Should they advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating?
Some infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only sure way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who serve on various advisory panels.
Women’s health specialists, on the other hand, counter that the government should not tell women what to do with their bodies. Indeed, federal health officials have never advised all the women in a region of the country to stop having children. Moreover, they say, most babies conceived during Zika epidemics in Latin America have been born healthy.
Several federal experts central to the discussion declined to be interviewed for this article. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as “a very long conversation.”
..."
--------------------------------------------------------
OK, then.
Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?_r=0"As the Zika virus bears down on the United States, federal health officials are divided over a politically and ethically charged question: Should they advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating?
Some infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only sure way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who serve on various advisory panels.
Women’s health specialists, on the other hand, counter that the government should not tell women what to do with their bodies. Indeed, federal health officials have never advised all the women in a region of the country to stop having children. Moreover, they say, most babies conceived during Zika epidemics in Latin America have been born healthy.
Several federal experts central to the discussion declined to be interviewed for this article. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as “a very long conversation.”
..."
--------------------------------------------------------
OK, then.
April 14, 2016
http://www.nature.com/news/mutated-mitochondria-could-hold-back-stem-cell-therapies-1.19752
"Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) — those derived from adult cells — are inching closer to the clinic. But as a new study helps to show, much work remains before the field can yield mainline treatments.
The older a patient is, the more likely it is that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from them will carry genetic mutations that could affect the cells’ function, researchers report in Cell Stem Cell1. These mutations are found in the DNA of mitochondria, organelles that power the cell and have their own genomes. Each cell can contain hundreds of mitochondria.
To test how genetic variations in mitochondria might affect iPS cells, a team led by reproductive biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland collected skin and blood samples from a 72-year-old volunteer. The scientists sequenced DNA from the samples, then transformed the adult cells into stem cells by infecting them with viruses that cause the expression of several genes involved in early embryonic development.
When the researchers isolated and sequenced DNA from the resulting stem cells, they did not find a high rate of mutations in the mitochondria overall. But when they examined DNA from individual cells chosen at random, they found a wide variety of mutations in mitochondria that had been obscured in the larger pool of cells.
..."
-----------------------------------------------
Mutated mitochondria could hold back stem-cell therapies
Stem cells derived from older people may need to be screened before use in therapies.http://www.nature.com/news/mutated-mitochondria-could-hold-back-stem-cell-therapies-1.19752
"Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) — those derived from adult cells — are inching closer to the clinic. But as a new study helps to show, much work remains before the field can yield mainline treatments.
The older a patient is, the more likely it is that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from them will carry genetic mutations that could affect the cells’ function, researchers report in Cell Stem Cell1. These mutations are found in the DNA of mitochondria, organelles that power the cell and have their own genomes. Each cell can contain hundreds of mitochondria.
To test how genetic variations in mitochondria might affect iPS cells, a team led by reproductive biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland collected skin and blood samples from a 72-year-old volunteer. The scientists sequenced DNA from the samples, then transformed the adult cells into stem cells by infecting them with viruses that cause the expression of several genes involved in early embryonic development.
When the researchers isolated and sequenced DNA from the resulting stem cells, they did not find a high rate of mutations in the mitochondria overall. But when they examined DNA from individual cells chosen at random, they found a wide variety of mutations in mitochondria that had been obscured in the larger pool of cells.
..."
-----------------------------------------------
April 14, 2016
"...
Yinong Yang, a plant pathologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, engineered the mushroom — the common white button (Agaricus bisporus) — to resist browning. The effect is achieved by targeting the family of genes coding for polyphenol oxidase (PPO) — an enzyme that causes browning. By deleting just a handful of base pairs in the mushroom’s genome, Yang knocked out one of six PPO genes — reducing the enzyme's activity by 30%.
The mushroom is one of over 30 genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to sidestep the American regulatory system in the last five years. In each case, the USDA‘s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has said that the organisms — mostly plants — don’t qualify as something the agency must regulate.
Several of those unregulated plants were made using gene-editing techniques such as the zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) and transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) systems. But until now, it was not clear whether the USDA would give the same pass to organisms engineered with science’s hottest new tool, CRISPR–Cas9.
...
Yang's mushroom did not trigger US regulatory oversight because it does not contain foreign DNA from 'plant pests' such as viruses or bacteria. Such organisms were common tools for genetically modifying plants in the early days of the biotechnology industry, when the US government developed its framework for regulating GMOs. But it has been decades since those rules were updated, and newer gene-editing techniques that do not involve plant pests are quickly supplanting the old tools.
..."
-----------------------------------------
Hmm.
Gene-edited mushroom escapes US government regulation
http://www.nature.com/news/gene-edited-mushroom-escapes-us-government-regulation-1.19754"...
Yinong Yang, a plant pathologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, engineered the mushroom — the common white button (Agaricus bisporus) — to resist browning. The effect is achieved by targeting the family of genes coding for polyphenol oxidase (PPO) — an enzyme that causes browning. By deleting just a handful of base pairs in the mushroom’s genome, Yang knocked out one of six PPO genes — reducing the enzyme's activity by 30%.
The mushroom is one of over 30 genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to sidestep the American regulatory system in the last five years. In each case, the USDA‘s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has said that the organisms — mostly plants — don’t qualify as something the agency must regulate.
Several of those unregulated plants were made using gene-editing techniques such as the zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) and transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) systems. But until now, it was not clear whether the USDA would give the same pass to organisms engineered with science’s hottest new tool, CRISPR–Cas9.
...
Yang's mushroom did not trigger US regulatory oversight because it does not contain foreign DNA from 'plant pests' such as viruses or bacteria. Such organisms were common tools for genetically modifying plants in the early days of the biotechnology industry, when the US government developed its framework for regulating GMOs. But it has been decades since those rules were updated, and newer gene-editing techniques that do not involve plant pests are quickly supplanting the old tools.
..."
-----------------------------------------
Hmm.
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