Good Morning
As Boston Boomer mentioned in yesterday’s post, the news is just too depressing to even mention. So aside from the stupid immature humorous pictures of both real and made up book titles that I’ve got featured in this morning’s thread, we are going to have a quick look at the “shitty” news…and then get to some interesting fun stuff.
Geez ——> Looks like she is about to toss her own salad….doesn’t it?
(BTW- the pictures come from this website: ebaumsworld.com and most are from this one post: The 19 Worst Children’s Book Titles Ever! – Gallery)
There was some horror in the latest Ebola outbreak in Africa. This is some frightening news, because from what I understand, one person who was infected with the disease managed to escape medical custody in a major city.
First Ebola victim in Sierra Leone capital on the run | Reuters
Sierra Leone officials appealed for help on Friday to trace the first known resident in the capital with Ebola whose family forcibly removed her from a Freetown hospital after testing positive for the deadly disease.
Radio stations in Freetown, a city of around 1 million inhabitants, broadcast the appeal on Friday to locate a woman who tested positive for the disease that has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak was first identified in February.
“Saudatu Koroma of 25 Old Railway Line, Brima Lane, Wellington,” the announcement said. “She is a positive case and her being out there is a risk to all. We need the public to help us locate her.”
Koroma, 32, a resident of the densely populated Wellington neighborhood, had been admitted to an isolation ward while blood samples were tested for the virus, Health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis. The results came back on Thursday.
“The family of the patient stormed the hospital and forcefully removed her and took her away,” Tunis said. “We are searching for her.”
And then there is this distressing story:
Nigeria on high alert after man dies of Ebola at Lagos airport | Al Jazeera America
Nigerian officials said Saturday that they are screening passengers arriving from foreign countries for symptoms of Ebola, following the death of an infected traveler from Liberia who died after collapsing at the airport in Lagos, Africa’s largest city with a population of 21 million.
Unni Krishnan, the head of disaster response for the international advocacy group Plan International, warned that an Ebola outbreak in Lagos could be disastrous. There is no cure or vaccine for the highly contagious virus.
Across the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, at least 660 people have died from the illness since February, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), placing great strain on the health systems of some of Africa’s poorest countries. Sierra Leone now has the highest number of cases, at 454, surpassing neighboring Guinea, where the outbreak originated.
More here: First case of ebola reported in Africa’s most populous city Lagos | World news | The Guardian
The pathogen is passed through contact with bodily fluids of infected patients, and has no known cure, although chances of survival improve dramatically with early detection and treatment.
But weak health systems and frequent cross-border travel have hampered efforts to contain the virus in a region which has never before experienced an outbreak.
Lagos state authorities said they had requested the flight’s manifest to contact the other passengers, and began distributing protective clothing to health workers, state health advisor Yewande Adeshina said. Sawyer flew from Liberia’s capital of Monrovia, with a brief flight stopover in nearby Togo. His sister is believed to have died of ebola in the last month, a Liberian official told the Guardian.
Rumours about the virus – which causes a painful fever that degenerates into internal and external bleeding – were met with scepticism from residents in the crowded business district where Sawyer was treated. “I cannot believe it is true,” said trader Segun Kosoko, who said he had seen two traders donning face masks.
Experts have also been alarmed by the disease’s wide geographical spread, from Guinea’s remote interior forest region, where it originated, to densely populated coastal regions.
Ghana has had several unconfirmed scares, while Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown recorded its first confirmed case this week. Authorities there were forced to launch a public appeal after the victim slipped out of hospital. Her family forcibly removed her – as many have done, either fearing they would catch the disease while in quarantine, or doubting its existence.
Radio stations in Freetown, a city of about 1 million people, broadcast the appeal to locate the woman, named as Saudatu Koroma. “She is a positive case and her being out there is a risk to all. We need the public to help us locate her,” the appeal stated.
Also in Liberia, news that an American doctor has become sick: Fort Worth doctor in Africa tests positive for Ebola virus | wfaa.com Dallas – Fort Worth
A Fort Worth doctor working with Ebola patients in Liberia has tested positve for the virus, according to Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief agency.
Dr. Kent Brantly is medical director at the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia.
The relief group says the 33-year-old physician with a private practice in Fort Worth is undergoing treatement in an isolation center at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city.
Samaritan’s Purse says Brantly is married and has two children, and that the agency is committed to doing everything possible to assist him.
He has worked with the agency in Liberia since last October. Before that, he was a family practice doctor in Fort Worth, where he finished his residency at John Peter Smith Hospital.
I can’t imagine what his family must be going through.
That is scary as hell…but here is something on par with Gozilla scary: Japanese monkeys’ abnormal blood linked to Fukushima disaster – study | Environment | theguardian.com
Wild monkeys in the Fukushima region of Japan have blood abnormalities linked to the radioactive fall-out from the 2011 nuclear power plant disaster, according to a new scientific study that may help increase the understanding of radiation on human health.
The Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) were found to have low white and red blood cell levels and low haemoglobin, which the researchers say could make them more prone to infectious diseases.
Okay, I know I was exaggerating but still…
The scientists compared 61 monkeys living 70km (44 miles) from the the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant with 31 monkeys from the Shimokita Penisula, over 400km (249 miles) from Fukushima. The Fukushima monkeys had low blood counts and radioactive caesium in their bodies, related to caesium levels in the soils where they lived. No caesium was detected in the Shimokita troop.
Professor Shin-ichi Hayama, at the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University in Tokyo, told the Guardian that during Japan’s snowy winters the monkeys feed on tree buds and bark, where caesium has been shown to accumulate at high concentrations.
“This first data from non-human primates — the closest taxonomic relatives of humans — should make a notable contribution to future research on the health effects of radiation exposure in humans,” he said. The work, which ruled out disease or malnutrition as a cause of the low blood counts, is published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports.
White blood cell counts were lowest for immature monkeys with the highest caesium concentrations, suggesting younger monkeys may be more vulnerable to radioactive contamination. Hayama noted: “Abnormalities such as a decreased blood cell count in people living in contaminated areas have been reported from Chernobyl as a long-term effect of low-dose radiation exposure.” But other blood measures did not correlate with caesium levels, which vary with the seasons.
Meanwhile:
Rockets hit Israel as Hamas rejects longer cease-fire – CNN.com
And…
U.S. Embassy in Libya closes, staff evacuates amid militia fighting – LA Times
Ugh…enough already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now for the easy reads, after the jump…
Since I overslept, big time the rest of this post will be in dump form…as illustrated in the pictures below:
I will start with the shittiest of all: Ice Cream Shop Hit With ‘Scary’ Anti-Abortion Harassment | Care2 Causes
Jodie Ostrovsky, who runs an ice cream shop called “What’s The Scoop?” in Portland, Ore., didn’t expect to wade into the culture wars. But that’s exactly what happened when she agreed to do a fundraiser with Planned Parenthood. After right-wing groups caught wind of the fact that What’s The Scoop? dedicated an ice cream flavor to the women’s health organization, the nasty comments started pouring in.
“Some of them have been scary,” Ostrovsky told the Willamette Week. “We’ve gotten quite a number of phone calls, a lot of Facebook stuff—we’ve gotten comments through the form on our web page. Some of them are bizarre and odd. We don’t know why they’re telling us that we have problems when they’re saying terrible, threatening things.”
Ostrovsky has worked with Planned Parenthood before without much incident, so she was surprised to spark so much controversy this month. The difference appears to be that this partnership — which involved creating a new flavor called “Rose City Revolution” for a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, which was sold at Ostrovsky’s shop for a three-hour window last week, with 10 percent of the proceeds going to the women’s health group — was covered on LifeNews.com.
“Abortion giant Planned Parenthood has announced that a local ice cream parlor has created an ice cream just for them. No it will not be called Blood and Scream!” the anti-abortion site reported at the end of last week.
Soon, the ice cream parlor’s Facebook page was inundated with criticism. “Mmmm…murdered baby flavor,” one individual wrote. “Thank you for supporting underage girls to be raped by their stepfather then go to planned Parenthood and get a no questions asked abortion,” another posted.
“Good grief! It’s an ice cream flavor, people!” a Planned Parenthood affiliate responded on its own Facebook page.
More at the link.
Dulcolax Drops an Ad With Poop People in Butt Jail | The Mary Sue
Laxative company Dulcolax has partnered with ad agency McCann Healthcare Worldwide and production company The Visionary Group to push this turd of an ad out into the world. It depicts anthropoomorphised poops trapped in a prison waiting, presumably, for Dulcolax to come break them out? It bet this really gets sales moving again.
The ad ran in Singapore, and the agency said they wanted to show the problem from the point of view of the excrement rather than the patient. Mission accomplished, McCann Healthcare Worldwide. That sure is an ad from excrement’s point of view.
It would be less horrifying if they didn’t look so much like Mr. Tastee.
Mr. Tastee? I don’t remember him….but the resemblance is striking. Was there a distant relative who drove a ice cream truck in the “chocolate” part of town? Who knew that that side of the family would be making dough as “poop” people?
If it isn’t raining turds down upon us, what about toads. Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Showers of Toads
The old folks always like to talk about how the weather was so much more extreme in their youth. Well, maybe they are right.
Here is a copy of the weather record of July 1887 for Klamath Falls, Oregon. What a month.
Temperatures getting into the 90s on several days.
Forest fires the first half of the month.
Thunderstorms on the 6th.
And SHOWERS OF TOADS the same day.
Yes, showers of toads. Remember this report has been certified by the U.S. Government
It turns out that showers of toads may be rare, but not unheard of, as documented by an article in the Guardian.
Here is the explanation they offer:
The young toads, or frogs, on leaving the water do not always find conditions suitable for travelling; in hot and dry weather they cannot find food and are apt to be slain by their skins getting parched. All batrachians, however, can subsist for a long time without food, and grow little during this fast; they seek shelter under damp wood, stones, or other cover; they practically aestivate, a summer slumber similar to hibernation. The sudden deluge gives them the opportunity for which they are waiting; they emerge from their shelters and set off on their travels in search of new homes. It was one of these happy bands of pilgrims, travelling in all directions, that my correspondent saw.
Plenty more examples at the link.
I think Maher is on to something here: VIDEO: Bill Maher to Neil deGrasse Tyson: ‘Republicans Dislike You Because You’re a Scientist and Black’ | Alternet
Here is a bunch of links from Raw Story:
NASA: Solar storm in 2012 nearly ‘knocked modern civilization back to the 18th century’
Medea is as relevant today as it was in Ancient Greece
Shipwreck excavation may explain 349-year-old mystery of how warship blew itself up
A little post about Richard Pryor: moviemorlocks.com – Pryor convictions
In Russia…some news that is not about Putin (So far.): Giant crater in Russia’s far north sparks mystery
A look back at the Panama Canal…100 years! The Panama Canal August 1914–August 2014 [Slide Show] – Scientific American
Finally, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Delightfully Responds to Admirer’s Wedding Invite
It’s not uncommon for people to send wedding invitations to celebrities or their personal heroes as a token of appreciation with no expectation for a response. While the recipient may not even lay eyes on the invitation, it’s still an interesting and sweet gesture to reach out to those who have had a big impact on your life and invite them to the most expensive, exhausting and exciting party you’ll throw.
When Staci Zaretsky, a writer over at Above the Law sent an invitation along with a hand-written letter to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressing her admiration for the inspirational figure, she realistically did not expect Justice Ginsburg to get back to her. But alas, she was wrong. She received a kind note from Ginsburg a FULL WEEK before the RSVPs were due:
How amazing is that?! Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an American Hero and one gracious lady. And as Zaretsky notes, she puts most wedding invitees to shame:
P.S. A Supreme Court justice took the time to respond to our wedding invitation, and yet we still have 50+ outstanding RSVPs. I hope you have a really good excuse for keeping us waiting, friends.
Cool innit?
I’ll end with another gallery of funny pictures. Y’all have a great day!