Category Archives: Culture

Culture, disease, Health

Looking at the new HIV map that offers a detailed look at the epidemic

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The United Nations has established a target of ceasing the global HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The tide, in other areas, is slowly turning in southeastern Africa — which involves international locations like South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho and Botswana — and which remains the epicenter associated with the epidemic and home to over fifty percent the 36.9 million people living with the disease. The rates of fatalities and infections one can find declining overall. However, a July 2018 report through the United Nations’ AIDS agency found a $5.4 billion shortage in international financing needed to accomplish ultimate triumph.

A first-of-its-kind new map can help boost the precision associated with HIV/AIDS response as some data-savvy scientists narrow their focus on the continent’s worst-affected areas — into the size of a tiny town.

Research published presents what these scientists explain as the most step-by-step map ever produced of HIV prevalence across sub-Saharan Africa. The group behind the map is a global consortium of epidemiologists led by the University of Washington-Seattle’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Their work appears when looking at the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

The researchers do not just go country by country. Researchers break down the continent into a grid of tens and thousands of 9.6-square-mile squares. The effect is a view of HIV distribution that is more fine grain compared to general national or province level statistical data, and that could have a significant effect on how resources are assigned to diagnose, treat and stop new infections.

Reference
Fan, Yaxin, Xinyan Zhu, et al. “Network-Constrained Spatio-Temporal Clustering Analysis of Traffic Collisions in Jianghan District of Wuhan, China.” PLoS One, vol. 13, no. 4, Public Library of Science, Apr. 2018, p. e0195093.

New HIV Map Offers Most Detailed Look Yet At The Epidemic …. https://www.tpr.org/post/new-hiv-map-offers-most-detailed-look-yet-epidemic

Culture, Ethics, Philosophy and Religion, Religion

The difference between Judaism and Christianity

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Christianity is based in Second Temple Judaism, however the two religious beliefs diverged in the first hundreds of years of the Christian age. Christianity stresses proper belief or orthodoxy, concentrating on the New Covenant as mediated through Jesus Christ, as documented in the New Testament. Judaism places importance on proper behavior or orthopraxy, focusing on the Mosaic covenant, as documented in the Torah and Talmud.

Christians believe in individual redemption from sin through accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord (God) and messiah. Jews believe in individual and cumulative involvement in an endless conversation with God through custom, traditions, praying and moral behavior. Christianity commonly believes in a Triune God, one individual of whom became a human being. Judaism stresses the Oneness of God plus decline the Christian idea of God in human form.

Culture, Politics

Misimpression of House Speaker Pelosi speaks volumes

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It took Facebook more than on a daily basis to downgrade a doctored video making House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seem like she was slurring her words — therefore the video itself remains on the webpage, with copycats proliferating.

A group called Politics WatchDog posted the manipulated video of Pelosi — which was slowed up to give the misimpression she was speaking in an impaired fashion at a think-tank event — at 1:29 p.m.

Nonetheless it wasn’t until after 9 p.m. on May 23, some 32 hours later, that Facebook began suppressing the video after a fact-check from 1 Facebook partner, LeadStories, was published. Facebook partner Politifact didn’t post its very own fact-check through to the following morning on May 24.
One basis for the delay: The fact-checkers needed to do their own reporting — finding audio and digital forensics experts who could verify that the video had been manipulated.

The flap on the Pelosi video reveals the limits of Facebook’s third-party fact-checking system into the battle against misinformation heading into the 2020 election cycle — and also as the company faces increasing scrutiny in Washington, including calls for this to be split up from Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others.

The social networking giant has taken a hands-off way of policing the veracity of content on the webpage, instead partnering with independent organizations that have get to be the company’s first and main type of defense against misinformation.

But fact-checking a post or video takes precious time, during which rumors and misinformation can continue to spread at internet speeds.
Facebook works only with fact-checkers which are an element of the International Fact-Checking Network, a global coalition of vetted fact-checkers founded by the Poynter Institute, a number one journalism think tank situated in Florida. Other people in the network through the Washington Post’s fact-checking arm, as well as the Associated Press and Factcheck.org, IFCN director Baybars Orsek said in an interview.

Culture, equal rights, Ethics, human rights, Jewish Community, Judaism, Social Justice

Jews in Dayton cautioned to keep away from the KKK rally

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The representative of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Dayton called on the Jewish public to avoid a Ku Klux Klan rally arranged for Saturday in the Ohio metropolis.

Rabbi Ari Ballaban mentioned in a statement issued previously this week that a counter gathering planned to take place right next to the Honorable Sacred Knights, an Indiana-based white supremacist group, would just give the crowd the conflict it is looking for.

Ballaban called on the Jewish community to either remain home or attend the “positive alternative programming” sponsored by the localized NAACP chapter and a coalition of some forty city organizations. Titled “An Afternoon of Love, Unity, Peace and Diversity,” the program is being presented about a mile from the KKK gathering in the downtown area Courthouse Square.

About twenty participants of the KKK cluster are anticipated to march on Saturday. They reportedly will be permitted to carry legal sidearm weapons but not rifles, bats or shields, Newsweek reported. About one thousand demonstrators are also anticipated.

The city authorized the rally in February after the application to use the general public space was filled out correctly and submitted.

Mayor Nan Whaley also called on citizens to steer away of the KKK gathering.

“This hate group that is coming in from outside the community wants to instigate troubles in the community and people need to end that from happening,” she advised Ohio’s Fox45. The people actually do not need people to go downtown because that is what this hate group wants, and we don’t want to render this hate group exactly what they want.

Whaley in her comments additionally stated that Judaism standards the preservation of life on top almost anything else.

Culture, disease, environmental, Health

Does air pollution effects: Global Warming?

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Global warming can be defined as an increase in the normal temperature of the planet due to air-borne pollutants, which accumulate sunlight and radiation and produce the greenhouse end product. This particular air pollution layer prevents the reflection of sunlight rays by Earth’s surface towards space, which raise the temperature in our planet among a lot more outcomes.

Air pollution effects: Global Warming

It is a authentic challenge since statistics and research are there. In accordance to NASA’s data:

  • Carbon monoxide amounts in the the open air tend to be the highest in 650.000 years, concretely up to 408 ppm (parts per million).
  • 17 out of the eighteen hottest years in the history (which have been documented) have taken place following 2001. Global temperature has enhanced 1°C (1,8°F) since 1880.
  • Arctic ice minimum levels have diminished 13,2% each decade. In 2012, Arctic summer deep-sea ice shrank to the lowest extent on record.
  • Satellite data reveal that Earth’s polar ice sheets are losing mass at speed of 413 gigatonnes each year.
  • Ocean level is currently increasing  by 3,2 millimeters per year.
Culture, disease, environmental, Health

Toxic Air may shorten children’s lifespans

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Air pollution is presently shortening life-span by an average of twenty months around the world. This problem means that children born today will live twenty months less than they would definitely on a planet with no contaminated air.

The State of Global Air is a yearly report developed by the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health prosody and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease Project. The goal of the report is to accumulate global air quality and health information to provide information on the polluting of the environment and the health impacts it produces. The phrase “air pollution” is the total description of particulate matter in ambient air, ozone, plus domestic polluting of the environment.

This is the first year that life span is included in the record, and the impacts astonished Robert O’Keefe, the vice-president regarding the Health Effects Institute. He informed The Guardian “that the life of children is being reduced so much came as quite a shock…there is absolutely no magic bullet, however governing bodies must try to taking action.”

Polluting of the environment is now almost comparable to cigarette smoking as a health threat, and contributed to one in every ten fatalities in 2017. Short-term health consequence consists of the throat, ear, and nose discomfort. It may also worsen allergic reactions, symptoms of asthma, or other breathing circumstances. Extended exposure to polluting of the environment enhances the risk of death from type 2 diabetes, stroke, COPD, lung cancer, ischemic cardiovascular condition, and lower-respiratory bacterial infections.

Air pollution’s effect on life span includes regional differences. For children in evolved regions, life expectancy is expected to be reduced in five months. In the least-developed areas of the world, air pollution exposure is the greatest, causing further substantial declines in life-span.

Some locations may experience more or less ambient polluting of the environment and household pollution. Cooking food with solid fuels is an illustration of exposure to domestic polluting of the environment. In locations where ambient air fine particulate matter amounts tend to be high as well as domestic air pollution amounts, truth be told there is a more significant life-span loss. In the Southern parts of Asia, the blended air pollutants decrease life-span by thirty months. In sub-Saharan Africa only 80% cook with solid fuels—ambient polluting of the environment is low, and household air pollution is responsible for the majority of the life-span loss.

Enhancing air quality will benefit life expectancies all over the world. China, which is one of the most populated areas with significant air pollution, has noticed an extraordinary reduction in unfolding to delicate particulate matter in ambient air.

Ancestry, Culture, genealogy, History

Henry Fonda, 6th cousin 3x removed

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Henry Jaynes Fonda is my 6th cousin 3x removed, the ancestor who connects us as relatives is John Anderson (1694-1746), my 8th great grandfather.

Henry Jaynes Fonda was born on May 16, 1905 and died on August 12, 1982. Fonda was an American film and stage actor with a vocation spanning five decades.

Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also starred in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. He established his Hollywood debut in 1935, along with his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west throughout the Dust Bowl.

My genealogical chart showing the ancestor who connects Henry Fonda and I as relatives:

Henry Jaynes Fonda (1905 – 1982)
6th cousin 3x removed

William Brace Fonda (1879 – 1935)
Father of Henry Jaynes Fonda

Ten Eyck Hilton Fonda (1838 – 1921)
Father of William Brace Fonda

Rachael Palkey Polhemus (1809 – 1844)
Mother of Ten Eyck Hilton Fonda

Cornelius Polhemus (1780 – 1866)
Father of Rachael Palkey Polhemus

Jacob Polhemus (1752 – 1810)
Father of Cornelius Polhemus

Neeltje ” Eleanor ” Anderson (1714 – 1746)
Mother of Jacob Polhemus

John Anderson (1694 – 1746)
Father of Neeltje ” Eleanor ” Anderson

Culture, Ethics, Politics

Is Nancy Pelosi the master of shade?

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President Donald Trump — so far — happens to be reluctant to provide Nancy Pelosi any nickname.

Five months after Pelosi got Trump to own the shutdown during an Oval Office conference, their communications along with his frustrations, led Trump to walk off of his job, in the middle of your day, on the White House Lawn.

She then agreed to pray for him. Ardently. Moreover, perhaps a family group involvement is in order? She mused that possibly the President, unlike her, maybe was not in control of his very own White House. She challenged his work moral principle. Pelosi waved off one of his top aides, requiring that she only deals with Trump.

For the reason that it is what Pelosi does, moreover, Trump, who respects (fears?) Pelosi because of her power, her wealth along with her family lineage, is her most reliable target.

She doles out shade, the kind which takes a while to show itself. Pelosi goes on detours and tangents — in some instances about Jefferson and Roosevelt and Eisenhower together with Erie Canal — after which it becomes apparent that the path leads right to Shadytown. All the while, there was a sort of detached bemusement — a businesslike aloofness towards the whole affair.

While Trump fumes, Pelosi gently waves an admirer. It is not that she is mad. Just disappointed.

These are classic Jedi-mind tricks, perfected by a woman who had five kids in six years and five kids in six years.

She has got a means of delivering her message towards the intended without rubbing their face inside it — without directly telling them why she is so disappointed. Moreover, for Trump, Pelosi, in most of her dispassionate, unemotional glory, eventually ends up being a giant warning sign, a perfect foil. Though, she embodies what he has got never had — a check up on his behavior.

Behavioral Science, Culture, Health

Health Benefits from Burning Sage

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Some spiritual healers and alternative practitioners often utilizes smudging — or burning sage — to help rid her clients of negative emotions simply.

The sage smoke unburdens people of their negative power and makes them feel much better. Patients begin to flake out and go into a more neutral state within a few minutes.

Native Americans, along with other indigenous peoples, have burned sage for years and years as part of a spiritual ritual to cleanse a person or area, also to market healing and wisdom. It has been used because the time of the ancient Egyptians and Romans to deal with digestion issues, memory issues, and sore throats. The name sage arises from the Latin “salvia,” which means “to feel healthy.”

It’s seen to metaphysically un-cling things that cling to us which can be no more needed — spiritually, mentally, and actually. … nearly how a sponge can cleanse thoughts away from you that is stuck to you personally.

While sage burning might offer a kind of metaphysical or spiritual cleansing, its medicinal virtues have not been well-studied. Almost no research has been done on burning sage in general, and there isn’t much proof to verify what it may do for the health.

Here’s what you should find out about sage burning.

Sage comes in a lot of varieties. Healers and herbalists typically utilize white sage, also known as Ca or bee sage, for burning. Common sage, lavender sage, blue sage, black sage, as well as other types each have their own characteristics. For example, blue sage is used in cleansing and healing rituals, while desert sage can be used for purifying and protection. Other herbs, including juniper and sweetgrass, can be burned for comparable purposes.

Culture, Religion

Transactions

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The 245th mitzvah is that we are commanded regarding the laws of buying and selling, in other words. the methods in which acquisitions and product sales amongst the purchasers plus the sellers become legally binding.

The Torah taught about one technique in G-d’s statement (exalted be He), “When you sell something to your neighbor, [or buy one thing from your neighbor’s hand…]” Our Sages said, “[The word ‘hand’ teaches that the purchase] refers to something that can pass from a single hand to some other,” in other words. meshichah [physically moving the object].

It really is explained that in Biblical law, transfer of money is adequate to complete the deal, and meshichah is necessary only by Rabbinic decree, as is mesirah [giving the automobile of control, e.g. the reins of a horse, to your buyer] and hagba’ah [lifting the object].

The Gemara explicitly states, “just like our Sages enacted a requirement of meshichah to ensure that a purchase to be valid, therefore too they needed meshichah to help a watchman relationship to become legitimate.” It is clear that the requirement of meshichah in exchanging is of Rabbinic origin, as explained within the relevant spot.

However, other methods of acquiring land, etc., in other words. by means of a document or chazakah are traced to Biblical verses [and are consequently of Biblical, not Rabbinic, origin.

Reference: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/961606/jewish/Positive-Commandment-245.htm