Category: Science
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Avian flu spread
More news on the avian flu front. It appears that the cases in Turkey have been confirmed as H5N1, meanwhile The EU has banned all bird and poultry products from Romania after tests confirmed the presence of a strain of bird flu there. Duck samples tested positive for the H5 virus, contradicting earlier findings. But…
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EU to ban all Turkish bird products
Another development on the avian flu front. I have not heard of any flu outbreaks in Turkey so I imagine this is a precautionary measure. The BBC notes: The decision came after Turkish authorities slaughtered up to 2,000 birds in the north-west of the country in an effort to control the disease. As many as…
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Romania isolates bird flu village
It gets ever closer, and what has Ireland done to prepare? I’d hazard pretty much nothing. Romanian officials quarantined a Danube delta village of about 30 people Friday after three dead ducks there tested positive for bird flu — the first such cases reported in the region. Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said the virus found…
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Space tourism
Yet another space tourist makes it to the ISS. He paid an estimated $20 million for the pleasure. I would hope that in my lifetime the price of a trip into orbit, not suborbit, will come down into the 5-figure bracket. It seems a little more likly with Space Ship Two on the way, and…
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What keeps me up at night too
Dan Drezner links to some recent articles relating to avian flu, including the recent news that some strains of avian flu could be resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. The figure of 7.4 million deaths globally as a result of a flu pandemic seem frightfully small to me. I have recently heard that Ireland has…
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Bird flu 'could kill 150m people'
Finally someone is quoting some figures (more reasonable to me anyway) that the inevitable flu pandemic could bring. Foreign Affairs had a special edition a while back on the avian flu threat, and back then I guesstimated a figure of 500 million was more likely than the figure of 20 million being suggested by most…
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A tankful of sugar, Brazil's ethanol
I never knew that Brazil had previously gone down the road of ethanol based fuel for cars. Prompted by the oil shocks of the 1970s, Brazilian governments used laws and subsidies to promote ethanol-only cars, which had 90% of the market by the late 1980s. But supplies of sugar-based fuel dried up suddenly when planters…
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Flu vaccine stockpile faces delay
Why does this not surprise me. I suppose I should be grateful they are doing something. The Department of Health is expected to tell the Government’s Working Group on Emergency Planning tomorrow that it will be next year before it has the one million packs of anti-viral drugs which international trends suggest would be best…
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NASA unveils vision for return to Moon
Well hopefully I will see this in my lifetime, to think we have left it so long before going back is strange. But I think there are reasons other than scientific here, space will become a very important place in the next few decades, and controlling it will be pretty important, the US appears to…
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Pluto mission
Go and add your name to a list being put on a CD and being sent to Pluto, it will arrive there in 2015.