ellenrr
ellenrr's JournalTurkey: Istanbul hit by ‘suicide bomb’
Source: Euronews
Reports from Turkey say there has been an explosion in the centre of Istanbul.
It is said to have been a suicide bombing on a main shopping street in a tourist area.
Istanbul’s governor says four people are known to have died and 20 wounded, including three in a critical condition.
TV pictures show an area being cordoned off by police, reportedly in Istiklal Street, a wide pedestrian boulevard lined with international stores and shopping centres.
Helicopters were seen circling overhead and people were seen running from the area.
Turkey has been hit by a rising tide of violence in recent months.
Read more: http://www.euronews.com/2016/03/19/explosion-hits-central-istanbul-some-people-wounded-turkey-s-dogan-news-agency/
---trying to turn Turkey into another failed state in the area...
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders appears in court to answer charges of hate speech
Source: Euronews
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders is back in court to answer charges of discrimination and hate speech against the country’s Moroccan minority.
The charges date back to a rally in March 2014 where he called for ‘fewer Moroccans’. Wilders claims that his comments are protected by his right to freedom of speech. At the hearing the lead prosecutor, Wouter Bos, said free speech came with responsibilities within a democracy.
“The suspicion is that with these words Wilders insulted Moroccans as a group. Further, the suspicion is that with these words he incited discrimination and hatred. Thank you.”
A handful of his supporters and the Dutch branch of the German anti-Islam Pegida party rallied outside the courtroom.
Read more: http://www.euronews.com/2016/03/18/dutch-far-right-leader-geert-wilders-appears-in-court-to-answer-charges-of-hate/
Interbreeding with archaic humans helped our immune system
Neanderthals boosted our immune system
The mixing of archaic human forms played an important role in shaping the immune system of modern humans
January 07, 2016
When modern humans met Neanderthals in Europe and the two species began interbreeding many thousands of years ago, the exchange left humans with gene variations that have increased the ability of those who carry them to ward off infection. This inheritance from Neanderthals may have also left some people more prone to allergies. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS in Paris, France, report about the discoveries in two independent studies, adding to evidence for an important role for interspecies relations in human evolution and specifically in the evolution of the innate immune system, which serves as the body's first line of defense against infection.
"We found that interbreeding with archaic humans, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, has influenced the genetic diversity in present-day genomes at three innate immunity genes belonging to the human Toll-like-receptor family," says Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. "These, and other, innate immunity genes present higher levels of Neanderthal ancestry than the remainder of the coding genome," adds Lluis Quintana-Murci of the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS in Paris. "This highlights how important introgression events, the movement of genes across species, may have been in the evolution of the innate immunity system in humans."
Earlier studies have shown that one to six percent of modern Eurasian genomes were inherited from ancient hominins, such as Neanderthal or Denisovans. Both new studies highlight the functional importance of this inheritance on Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes TLR1, TLR6, and TLR10. These TLR genes are expressed on the cell surface, where they detect and respond to components of bacteria, fungi, and parasites. These immune receptors are essential for eliciting inflammatory and anti-microbial responses and for activating an adaptive immune response.
Quintana-Murci and his colleagues set out to explore the evolution of the innate immune system over time. They relied on vast amounts of data available on present-day people from the 1000 Genomes Project together with the genome sequences of ancient hominins. Quintana-Murci's team focused on a list of 1,500 genes known to play a role in the innate immune system. They then examined patterns of genetic variation and evolutionary change in those regions relative to the rest of the genome at an unprecedented level of detail. Finally, they estimated the timing of the changes in innate immunity and the extent to which variation in those genes had been passed down from Neanderthals.
These investigations revealed little change over long periods of time for some innate-immunity genes, providing evidence of strong constraints. Other genes have undergone selective sweeps in which a new variant came along and quickly rose to prominence, perhaps because of a shift in the environment or as a result of a disease epidemic. Most adaptations in protein-coding genes occurred in the last 6,000 to 13,000 years, as human populations shifted from hunting and gathering to farming, they report. But, Quintana-Murci says, the biggest surprise for them "was to find that the TLR1-6-10 cluster is among the genes presenting the highest Neanderthal ancestry in both Europeans and Asians.
Kelso and her colleagues came to the same conclusion, but they did not set out to study the immune system. Their interest was in understanding the functional importance of genes inherited from archaic humans more broadly. They screened present-day human genomes for evidence of extended regions with high similarity to the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes, then examined the prevalence of those regions in people from around the world. Those analyses led them to the same three TLR genes.
Two of those gene variants are most similar to the Neanderthal genome, whereas the third is most similar to the Denisovan genome, Kelso's group reports. Her team also provides evidence that these gene variants offered a selective advantage. The archaic-like variants are associated with an increase in the activity of the TLR genes and with greater reactivity to pathogens. Although this greater sensitivity might protect against infection, it might also increase the susceptibility of modern-day people to allergies.
"What has emerged from our study as well as from other work on introgression is that interbreeding with archaic humans does indeed have functional implications for modern humans, and that the most obvious consequences have been in shaping our adaptation to our environment - improving how we resist pathogens and metabolize novel foods," Kelso says.
As surprising as it may seem, it does make a lot of sense, she adds. "Neanderthals, for example, had lived in Europe and Western Asia for around 200,000 years before the arrival of modern humans. They were likely well adapted to the local climate, foods, and pathogens. By interbreeding with these archaic humans, we modern humans gained these advantageous adaptations."
https://www.mpg.de/9819763/neanderthal-genes-immune-system
Rabbis, Jewish leaders plan boycott of Donald Trump at AIPAC
Source: CNN
Several groups of rabbis and Jewish religious leaders are planning to protest Donald Trump's speech to a major pro-Israel conference in Washington on Monday, accusing the presidential candidate of encouraging hatred.
Trump is scheduled to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference Monday night, and several groups are organizing boycotts of the speech.
Rabbis David Paskin and Jesse Olitzky organized one such campaign, called Come Together Against Hate, a play on the conference's theme of "Come Together."
The pair and their allies have created a website and Facebook group to organize a protest that they say is not designed to disrupt AIPAC but to signal their condemnation of Trump.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/17/politics/donald-trump-aipac-boycott-protest-rabbis-jewish-leaders/index.html
--- I'm glad to see this..
on edit:
However, I cannot agree that AIPAC is about "love and decency"
"Come Together Against Hate's plan is to either skip the speech altogether or silently walk out after Trump is introduced, then assemble outside and study Jewish scripture about what Paskin called the "opposite" of Trump -- love and decency."
Edward Snowden interviewed by wnyc's Brian Lehrer and Laura Poitras
WNYC's Brian Lehrer interviews Snowden along with Laura Poitras, an artist, journalist and director of the Academy Award-winning film Citizenfour, recorded as part of RadioLoveFest, produced by WNYC and BAM on March 11.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/long-edward-snowden-interview-brooklyn-bam/
Samantha Bee interviews Trump supporters - did anyone watch this?
I'm sure it has been posted.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_samantha_bee_sat_down_with_diverse_group_of_trump_supporters_20160316
I tried to watch it, I got as far as 3 minutes (it is 7 minutes long).
One would like to think these are actors that she is interviewing but they are not.
-------------
On edit:: maybe they ARE actors.
It seems like a segment that would be on SNL or the daily show.
But today it is impossible to tell truth and satire.
Study: Mindfulness Meditation Provides Opioid-Free Pain Relief
In a study published in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, a team led by Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, reports that mindfulness meditation does not employ the endogenous opioid system to reduce pain.
...
“This study adds to the growing body of evidence that something unique is happening with how meditation reduces pain. These findings are especially significant to those who have built up a tolerance to opiate-based drugs and are looking for a non-addictive way to reduce their pain.”
http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2016/Mindfulness_Meditation_Provides_Opioid-Free_Pain_Relief,_Study_Finds.htm
re Palin's husband's accident:
Ya know, I don't give a shit if the guy lives or dies.
but this comment on fb from a self-professed Christian" saying the accident came about bec. Sarah is backing dtrump---
nice...what a moron.
"This is venturing into an area I know some Christians will not agree, but I've been saying for a while high profile Christians like Sarah Palin are not "getting under the spout where the blessings come out" by backing an immoral, profane, reality star like Donald Trump over godly men. I sincerely believed her actions would put her family in jeopardy and things would not go as well for them because of her turning her back on God's design for leaders, and influencing many people across the country. I'm convinced she has not been thinking straight and rebelling against choosing a godly leader. That is why we need to fear the Lord."
nice christian thot.
(via fb)
Nuclear emergency at plant in Gujarat, India
An emergency was declared within the nuclear plant at Kakrapar in Gujarat, India, after a major heavy water leak in a nuclear reactor. No worker has been exposed to radiation, according to the officials. The heavy water leak affected the reactor’s cooling system which can pose an extremely serious security risk if the emergency cooling systems do not kick in an event like this, the rising temperature can cause the core of the reactor can melt down completely.
Although nuclear energy accounts for only two per cent of India’s energy needs the current government hopes to push it to 25% by 2025. When such lapses in the security of the nuclear facility can occur despite maintaining rigorous standards, the Indian government should think twice before increasing the nuclear energy capacity of a country that does not prioritize highly the safety of the poor population or the environment that they live in.
http://nation.com.pk/editorials/14-Mar-2016/a-nuclear-emergency
What's going on in Republican-run state legislatures is just as terrifying as the GOP pres. race
"After Thursday night’s Republican debate, where candidates competed to see who was most eager to commit war crimes, it’s understandable to be very afraid of the dark place Republicans want to take this country. Unfortunately, the news is even worse than that. While the nation’s eyes are riveted to the national stage, Republicans continue the multi-decade project of turning our nation into a right-wing wasteland by focusing their efforts where they can have the most impact with the least attention: state legislatures."
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/where-right-wing-radicalism-festering-while-nation-watches-presidential-race-scary
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