In an address at the United Nations in September 2008, Evo, as he is popularly known, proposed “Ten Commandments” to save the planet, life and humanity:
Put an end to the capitalist system
Renounce wars (Evo says “I don’t believe there can be peace under capitalism”)
Create a world without imperialism or colonialism
Honor the right to water
Develop clean energies
Respect Nature (Pachamama)
Recognize basic services as human rights
Combat inequalities
Promote diversity of cultures and economies
Seek “Vivir bien” — living well (what is known in Ecuador as “sumak kawsay,” living fully), instead of living better at the expense of others
Evo pointed out that Bolivia’s recently drafted constitution “is to support a new pact with all humanity and Pachamama, from the heart of the Andes, from the South, for all the world.”
Upon assuming the presidency, Evo ordered the CIA desk in the presidential palace removed..
wordpress
Somatic hypermutation
Immune response. one week after the infection...
[rainy Sunday education, I realised I had no idea how B Cells got more accurate by 'mutation' this may be interesting to a tiny few...]
Somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes occurs in many vertebrates including sharks, frogs, camels, humans and mice.
...the proliferating B cells also undergo class-switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation in their Ig V region...
... in the Spleen germinal centres ...
peaks 10- 12 days... (thats a fair while to wait for a fever to rise and fall)
error prone DNA polymerase...
...non-random the RGYW motif is the preferred target of the hypermutation machinery
R =A or G Y =C or T W =A or T
... 2k bases down from the promoter...
.
. most of the accumulated mutations are point mutations that alter antibody CDRs
AID an RNA editing enzyme specific to germinal centre B Cells seems to be important
converts Cytosine to Uracil (not a DNA base)
.. hi-fi DNA polymerase reads U as T
.. or U removed by uracil glycolase, then the gap filled at random by
.. Lo-Fi DNA polymerase (Error Prone)
v
.
Then the best selected by Affinity - how well they adhere to the antigen ... Presumably Self-antibodies are eliminated...
else dangers like ...lupus erythematosus,, lymphoma?. may be a result of 'rogue' hypermutated B cells... the system aint infallible ..
aint nature grand? (not the Journal, which rarely allows rubes in)
I love the idea of randomness via sloppy DNA repair as a defence against the pathogenic world ...
., Neuberger and Scott, highlight another genetic mechanism called RNA editing ??? pay-walled at ScIence .. I bet theres some hanky panky with RNA as well, cells are frantic tinkerers with their RNA.
.
Immunology By Sulabha Pathak, Sulabha Pathak, Ph.D., Urmi Palan see google books ...
Natural Gas Glut
March 20, 2009 ... the first globalized natural gas glut in history..
.. gas from Qatar, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria that otherwise would be going to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Spain are beginning to arriveUSA...
gas 1/5 electric utilities ..... fertilizers, plastics...
The global capacity for LNG exports of 200 MT/yr will increase by 25%...
six new plants in Qatar, Russia, Indonesia and Yemen, $48 B.. upgrading of a seventh plant in Malaysia...
NG in USA $4 per thousand cubic feet, down from a peak of more than $13 last year
2006..Russian Gas
... Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, announced that it would develop on its own ..the fabulous Shtokman deposit,..3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million tonnes of gas condensate in the Barents Sea, 360 kilometers off the coast, at a depth of 320 meters.
(thats easier than 6 miles down as off Cuba)
..it would send most of the gas ..to Europe, rather than to the United States.
Shtokman was initially expected to yield 30 bcm annually, of which 22-24bcm would be converted into 15 million tons of LNG [1 bcm = 0.63MT]
..the field will be able to produce 70-90bcm, > Norway.
... mostly through the North European Gas Pipeline that is being constructed under the Baltic Sea with German collaboration, rather than shipped as liquefied gas to the US ..
55bcm/yr to Germany ..by Russia at present, .... Shtokman could be 25-45bcm/yr
..reserves .. for 50-70 years. This creates an absolutely stable and sustainable situation in the economy and on the European energy market..
Shtokman gas would have diversified US suppliers, now mostly in the Middle East, Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago...would have been highly profitable business for US oil majors.
..Washington has been hopping mad about Russia's accelerating energy integration with France and Germany.
In 2005, EU consumed 470bcm of natural gas,... by 2010,.. 610-640bcm.
M K Bhadrakumar ..wrote this article for Asia Times.. 10, 2006..
Lotsa Gas
Rough figures: world reserves = 180E12 M³ production... 3E12M³ 2007 ... 60 years at this rate
- reserves grew a lot since 1964, but not hugely recently? consumption is set to increase a lot??
But moving the gas around requires pipes or expensive compress-ship-decompress facilities.
In a hot climate I guess evaporating LNG could give cold water, which could be used for 'district cooling' ... dont thing thats ever been economic.
If the economy still exists then LNG/pipelines look likely to heat us for way past peak oil.
Thats 100+ billion Tons of carbon.
During the recent ice ages around 200 bT has flipped from oceans to air and back. Auto-Industrial man has pushed another 200bT into the air.
So were betting that Medea-Gaia can handle another 100 bT from drilled methane, burned to CO2 of course.
Another 'Climate' 50 year event
The long stretch of minimal solar activity in 2008 and early 2009 prompted some questions about whether the Sun’s quiescence was beginning to rival that of the Maunder Minimum in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Of the 2008 minimum, solar physicist David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center says, “It’s definitely been an exceptional minimum, but only compared to the past 50 years.” Citing human observations of the Sun extending back four centuries, he continues, “If we go back 100 years, we see that the 1913 minimum was at least as long and as deep as this one.”
nasa
maybe the lack of warming is down to cool sun?
eoearth
but no, eoearth pretty well demolishes that theory
I read a Singer book "Unstoppable globl warming" (Singer is a senior demialist)
Sadly, or Laughably, the apotheosis of his argument, [that cool sun = more cosmic rays = more low clouds = higher albedo = cooler earth] is completely self-trashed.
On page 194 he says cosmic rays increased (sic) by 1.2% 1975-89. [a previous reader of this library book had inked in a ? - understandable vandalism]
This is either a mis-print (of the central argument of the book) or contradicts his central argument.
pity, because it appears 6000 oil paintings had a lot of clouds during the little ice-age....
Daya in Egypt ...'traditional midwives' were associated with fgm?? regarded as anti-contraception??
How much credit do they get for Egypt halving its MMR in the 90s??
Daya (TBA) Delivery has dropped from 58% in 1986 to 34% in 1998...DAYA DELIVERY In 1912 Egypt’s first daya school was opened; by the 1930s, health centers had daya schools attached. However, in 1954 the government issued a decree to gradually abolish these schools, and by 1962 all had been closed...n 1969, the Egyptian MOH revoked the license of dayas. Despite these legal restrictions, dayas... t that time attended over 90% of deliveries in Egy ...Since the early 1980s, however, activities aimed at training daya’s, rather than excluding them, have been undertaken, including programs under the auspices of UNICEF and the Child Spacing Program of the Egypt MOHjapanfocus.org
DAYA DELIVERY
...early detection and referral of women with obstetric complications. They ave each been handed a bag with instruments and tools that will ai Despite uch training, dayas clearly have a diminishing role today. In 2000, they did only 36 % of deliveries.
created around 300 BC and show scenes from the core Mayan mythology, the Popol Vuh.
...El Mirador, the biggest ancient Mayan city ...
On one panel, the twins are depicted surrounded by cosmic monsters and above them is a bird deity with outstretched wings. On the other, there is a Mayan corn god framed by an undulating serpent, said Hansen who worked as a consultant for Mel Gibson's 2006 movie about the Maya, "Apocalypto." (is that a recommendation?)
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