May 12, 2015

Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans - now he tells us (Borowitz)

MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report) – Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.

“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”
More worryingly, Logsdon said, “As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.”

While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain. “The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified,” Logsdon said.

While reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, Logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future. “Our research is very preliminary, but it’s possible that they will become more receptive to facts once they are in an environment without food, water, or oxygen,” he said.



www.borowitzreport.com

May 6, 2015

My 21 year old Cousin Sara - reporting from the heart of Kathmandu/Nepal - and 3 photos

My 21 year old second cousin Sara is a butterfly on the surface of the world. She grew up in Vienna where her parents live, is smart, educated, and gathers money where she can and then is off again into the world.
She is teaching English and German to Nepalese children at the moment and was taking them for a walk outside of Kathmandu when the earthquake hit.
Our family has been worried sick about her. Every now and then she was able to get through and report about her condition and the situation she is now in.

Emails have gone around the world to family and friends, we had to come to terms with her decision to not try to come home which would be our wish, but instead she is asking us for all the money we can send to her. The need is great.
All the begging for money has now brought in over 8000 Euros they have been sent on to a bank she has found that will not charge her any fees. She says she feels incredibly strange to have custody of the money and the huge power to decide whom of the many needy people to help.

LOOK, here she has spent 1700 of the Euros and is distributing food

She has since the earthquake lived in a tent in the street, well chaperoned by the family with whom she was staying and who all survived and are with her.

She says that some stores are opening, the schools are closed. The after shocks are terrifying, and one at 4.6 Richter scale night before last really frightened the people especially the children who have seen too much and who are still in shock. The after shocks are abating slowly, she says.

Here are a couple more photos she somehow managed to send, my first cousin, her uncle, sent them on to me by email.




Needless to say I am incredibly proud of this very young courageous relative.

May 4, 2015

The most racist areas in the United States - Map / Daily Kos

http://dailykos.com/story/2015/05/03/1381214/-The-most-racist-areas-in-the-United-States?detail=email



There are neighborhoods in Baltimore in which the life expectancy is 19 years less than other neighborhoods in the same city. Residents of the Downtown/Seaton Hill neighborhood have a life expectancy lower than 229 other nations, exceeded only by Yemen. According to the Washington Post, 15 neighborhoods in Baltimore have a lower life expectancy than North Korea.
North Korea.
And while those figures represent some of the most dramatic disparities in the life expectancy of black Americans as opposed to whites, a recent study of the health impacts of racism in America reveals that racist attitudes may cause up to 30,000 early deaths every year.

The study, Association between an Internet-Based Measure of Area Racism and Black Mortality, has just been published in PLOS ONE and has mapped out the most racist areas in the United States. As illustrated above, they are mostly located in the rural Northeast and down along the Appalachian Mountains into the South. How they did it and what it may mean are below the fold.
We already know about the racism that led to Jim Crow, the KKK, and lynchings. We also know about the racism that has become embedded in our justice system, from cops who kill, to prosecutors who ensure that blacks receive longer prison terms than do whites. We know that those sentencing disparities lead to greater disenfranchisement of blacks.

We think we know how racism has injured and killed black Americans. But do we really? There are the obvious cases, like Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, but what about the silent killers? The hypertension and the chronic medical conditions that lead so many more blacks to an early grave than they do whites. Could racist attitudes lead to 30,000 early deaths every year?
According to the authors of the study, current research points to a variety of causes for the disparities in health between white and black Americans, many of which can be traced to racial segregation. Many blacks are restricted to high-crime neighborhoods that are lacking in outdoor recreational areas, access to healthy foods, and decent health care. Discrimination in employment leads to lower wages that further impact the ability to enjoy healthy food, exercise, and recreation.

more of the study at link above

?1417020476