Ebola – What You’re Not Being Told.

The information I’m about to present here is frightening. There’s really no way around that. However, I request that you do your very best to maintain a calm state of mind. 

Right now in West Africa the worst Ebola outbreak in history is in full swing and is jumping borders at an alarming rate. Already it has spread to four countries, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Nigeria. This latest jump into Nigeria is particularly serious since the infected individual carried the virus by plane to Lagos Nigeria, a city with a population of over 21 million. Doctors without borders has referred to the outbreak as “out of control”. 

To make matters worse, there is something very, very important that the corporate media and public health officials are not telling you regarding this crisis. 

You’ll notice if you read virtually any mainstream article on the topic that they make a point of insisting that Ebola is only transferred by physical contact with bodily fluids. This is not true, at all. 

A study conducted in 2012 showed that Ebola was able to travel between pigs and monkeys that were in separate cages and were never placed in direct contact. 

Though the method of transmission in the study was not officially determined, one of the scientists involved, Dr. Gary Kobinger, from the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada, told BBC News that he believed that the infection was spread through large droplets that were suspended in the air. 

“What we suspect is happening is large droplets; they can stay in the air, but not long; they don’t go far,” he explained. “But they can be absorbed in the airway, and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way.”

Translation: Ebola IS an airborne virus. 

Now I’m not going to speculate as to whether these so called “journalist” and public health agencies who keep repeating the official line regarding the means of transmission are lying, or are just participating in some massive display of synchronized incompetence, but what I will say, is that this shoddy reporting is most likely getting people killed right now, and may in fact put all of humanity in danger. 

How so? 

By convincing people that the virus cannot travel through air, important precautions that could reduce the spread of the virus are not being taken. For example the other passengers on the plane that traveled to Lagos, Nigeria were not quarantined. 

To put this into context, Ebola kills between 50% and 90% of its victims, so the stakes are very, very high here. 

This particular strain of Ebola is not Ebola Zaire. This is a new strain, and it may in fact be more dangerous than the Zaire variety. Not because of any difference in the symptoms (the symptoms are identical), but because this new virus seems to be harder to contain. Whether this is due to some characteristic of the virus itself or merely dumb luck is uncertain at this time, but the rate at which this outbreak has extended its range is unprecedented. 

Right now the question on everyone’s minds is whether this virus will spread outside of Africa. Considering the fact that Ebola has a three week incubation period, can travel through the air, and has already hitchhiked onto an international flight, this is a very real possibility. There are some that are downplaying the probability of this outcome, and to be honest, I hope that they are right, but the simple fact of the matter is that these people are basing their assessment on the faulty premise that Ebola is not an airborne virus. 

Now the first thing you might be feeling when looking at this situation is a sense of fear and helplessness, and while that’s a perfectly normal reaction it’s really not helpful. Instead we should be thinking in terms of practical steps we can take to influence the outcome. 

One thing we can all do is to start confronting journalists and public officials who keep making false statements regarding the way Ebola spreads. Use the links to the original study, the BBC report from 2012 and this video to put them in their place. 

We also need to confront the fact that there isn’t a full out, coordinated, international effort to contain this. This is being treated like a sideshow but it has the very real potential to become a main event. 

The doctors on the ground in West Africa don’t have enough staff or resources to deal with this situation. It is absolutely inexcusable for the U.S. and the E.U. to be investing billions of tax payer dollars into their little power games inUkraine and Syria (which are both in the process of escalating right now by the way) while Ebola is getting a foothold in Africa. Every available resource should be shifted to West Africa in order to contain and extinguish this epidemic right now.

This is serious. Call them, write them, heckle them in the streets if you have to, but don’t allow them to ignore this issue. 

Now whether or not official policy towards the Ebola crisis changes there are some precautions that you should take right now for yourself and your family. 

1. Know where you would go if you needed to leave your home on short notice. If Ebola escapes Africa the last place you want to be is in a densely populated metropolitan area. It may be that the most practical destination for your family would be a rural area near your current home, but if you already have concerns about the government you are living under, and how they may handle a crisis like this, then you might want to start looking at alternatives. Finding an alternative location that suits your family’s needs is something that requires a lot of time and research, so don’t put this off. The primary characteristics you should be examining in an alternative destination are geography , political environment, climate, population density and visa terms and requirements. Ideally you would want to end up somewhere that is geographically isolated to some degree. 

2. If you don’t have passports for yourself and each of your dependents, get them now. This is not to say that you should leave your country, but you should have the means to do so. In countries where the Ebola outbreak is underway it is getting harder and harder to exit. Borders are being closed down. Flights are being cut off. This didn’t happen right away, but you definitely don’t want to be waiting for your passport to show up if Ebola arrives in your city. 

3. Know what you would carry with you if you had to leave on short notice. Have those items ready, and have the luggage to carry them. It would be wise to consider buying a pack of surgical masks as part of this. 

Now if you think about it, these preparations are wise steps to take regardless of whether the Ebola situation deteriorates or not. Knowing where you would go in an emergency, and having the means to get there on short notice is important for a wide variety of situations. The civilian population of Iraq, Syria, east Ukraine, and Gaza can attest to that. 

Whatever you do don’t let fear take control of your mind. Take the steps you can take now, monitor the situation calmly, and be prepared to adapt if necessary. 

http://consciousmedianews.com/ebola-what-youre-not-being-told/

Learning English from the news.

By Geoffrey Mohan

August 14, 2013, 3:03 p.m.

Don't press the like button: Facebook is a bummer that makes us feel worse about our lives, according to new research.

Facebook users in a study led by the University of Michigan wound up feeling worse about themselves after two weeks, and their moment-to-moment mood darkened the more they browsed the social medium. It didn't seem to matter how big their network was, how supportive they thought their friends were, nor why they went to Facebook in the first place, according to the study published online Wednesday in PLOS One.

"We were able to show on a moment-to-moment basis throughout the day how people’s mood fluctuated depending on their Facebook usage,” said University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, lead author of the study.

"We measured lots and lots of other personality and behavioral dimensions, like, for example, frequency of Facebook use," Kross said. "But none of the factors that we assessed influenced the results. The more you used Facebook, the more your mood dropped."

The study adds to a body of work examining social media's effect on well-being, much of it offering mixed diagnoses. Looking at your own profile can be self-affirming, according to a recent study. And a survey of Facebook users suggested that it modestly increased life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation.

But other studies have suggested Facebook can evoke envy of others' activities and profile, leaving users with diminished self-images. Another study suggested that people with low self-esteem don't reap a benefit from tinkering with their online image, either.

None of those studies, however, followed people over time. The University of Michigan study involved 82 college-aged volunteers -- a core demographic among Facebook's nearly 700 million active daily users -- who answered questionnaires five times a day for 14 days, and rated their well-being at the beginning and end.

Worry did not predict changes in Facebook use, but loneliness did, according to the study. Nonetheless, when researchers controlled for loneliness, the relationship between Facebook use and mood and satisfaction was insignificant, Kross said.

“Loneliness predicted Facebook use, and loneliness also predicted how bad people felt," Kross said. "But the effect of Facebook on how people felt was independent of loneliness.”

“One of the things we don’t know is what aspect of Facebook use is contributing to these results,” Kross said. “Facebook and online social networks more generally represent a very new way in which human beings are interacting, and we’re really just beginning to scratch the surface as to how exactly these interactions work and how they influence us.”

Catalina Toma, a University of Wisconsin communication researcher who found that Facebook users could increase their self-esteem, said seemingly contradictory findings among studies reflect the complexity of the medium and point out the need to drill deeper into what people do while on Facebook.

"I think what's happening, honestly, is that Facebook is such a gigantic space where so many different activities take place," said Toma, who was not involved in the study. "So for us to be simply talking about Facebook use is an over-simplification. Facebook use is not just one thing; it is many, many different things."

Kross and fellow researchers conducted an exploratory analysis of the data that suggests a linear relationship between online communication and face-to-face interaction. As both increase, feelings of well-being decline.

“The negative effect of Facebook use on happiness became more pronounced the more you interacted with other people within that time frame," Kross said. “It’s very likely that there are going to be a multitude of mechanisms that explain this effect.”

Like other social media, Facebook affords people the opportunity to contemplate, edit and enhance their presentation in ways that are difficult if not impossible during impromptu social interactions in the flesh. You can take hours to come up with a clever response, whereas most people have long left the cocktail party when they think of the perfect riposte.

Toma suggested that users' emotions and sense of worth may be negatively influenced by the discord between tailored online images of others and their unedited view of themselves.

"Instead of doing a person-to-person profile, you're comparing a profile and a person," Toma said.

Studies have shown that users tend to put their best foot forward, both Toma and Kross noted.

Still, other studies indicate that the information in people's profiles closely matches their actual personality -- enough so that researchers could make predictions based only on the person's "like" preferences. You are what you like, in other words.

Whether any of this will make you feel better, however, may depend on whether you're reading this on Facebook.

From (HERE)

English In The News.

I always read this blog (the English Blog) and that’s why I recommend it. Here I have just published three examples of how we may learn a lot of things from the news. I confess that I feel that many people do not take some time to read something from the news today, but I still believe that real English comes from real situations like those reports.

I hope you enjoy reading and learning from them.

The Daily Express carries a warning that the value of UK savings and pensions could be cut by up to 20% because of an EU tax on financial deals. Full story >>

VOCABULARY 

If you say that businesses are being hammered, you mean that they are being unfairly harmed, for example by a change in taxes or bad economic conditions.

• The company has been hammered by the downturn in the construction industry.

The Daily Mail claims grieving families and MPs are calling for NHS head Sir David Nicholson to be sacked over the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal. Full story >>

VOCABULARY

To sack [British English informal] means to dismiss someone from their job [= fire]

• Hundreds of workers are to be sacked at the factory.

• They couldn't sack me - I'd done nothing wrong.

• He was sacked from every job he had.

• He was sacked for being drunk.

 Millions of workers will lose up to £70,000 from their State pension under a new deal, it was revealed yesterday.

VOCABULARY

If you slash something (informal, often used in newspapers) you reduce it by a large amount.

• to slash costs/prices/fares, etc.

• The workforce has been slashed by half.

Learning English from Cartoons: The Queen's Historic Handshake.

This cartoon by Andy Davey from The Sun relates to the historic handshake between the Queen and the former IRA commander, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, now Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, in Belfast on Wednesday. The Daily Telegraph puts the handshake into context:

The Queen, once a prime target for the IRA, shook hands not once but twice with Martin McGuinness, a former commander of the terrorist group, in a gesture that meant every bit as much as the sovereign’s historic visit to Ireland last year.

Barely a decade ago, the idea of the monarch, the ultimate symbol of British rule in Ulster, even being in the same room as Mr McGuinness, arguably the most recognisable former member of the IRA, would have been unthinkable. Full story >>

THE CARTOON

In the cartoon, we see the Queen reaching out to shake McGuinness's hand over the bombed-out wreck of a car—a clear reference to The Troubles, in which IRA terrorist attacks claimed the lives of hundreds of victims. Note the 'History' numberplate on the car, another reminder of past events.

VOCABULARY

You shake hands with someone or give someone a handshake.

From: theenglishblog.

GLOBAL WORKSHOP ASSESSES ASTEROID 2011 AG5

ESA, NASA and international researchers met last week to assess the latest data on asteroid 2011 AG5, discovered in January 2011. The workshop consensus finding is that the object will most likely fly safely past Earth in 2040.

Current findings and analysis data from scientists and engineers worldwide were reported at a 29 May workshop at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Discussions focused on observations of ‘potentially hazardous asteroids’ – those whose orbits take them near Earth.

Observations to date indicate there is a slight chance that AG5 could impact Earth in 2040. Attendees expressed confidence that in the next four years analysis of space and ground-based observations will show the likelihood of 2011 AG5 missing Earth to be virtually certain. 

Some 140 m across, the space rock was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA. Several observatories monitored 2011 AG5 for nine months before it moved too far away and grew too faint to see.

Europe watches asteroid

“While the workshop shows that 2011 AG5 is nothing to worry about, Europe is keeping track of the asteroid,” says Detlef Koschny, Head of the Near-Earth Object team at ESA’s Space Situational Awareness office.

“The German-led NEOShield project in particular has been performing studies on how to best deflect this asteroid were it to come close to Earth.

“ESA is building up the capability of ensuring that these objects are tracked within its Space Situational Awareness programme.”

  

More observations of 2011 AG5 to follow

Several years ago another asteroid, Apophis, was thought to pose a similar impact threat in 2036. Additional observations taken from 2005 through 2008 enabled scientists to refine their understanding of the asteroid’s path, which showed a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter.

Observations of 2011 AG5 have been limited to date because of its present location beyond the orbit of Mars and in the daytime sky on the other side of the Sun.

  

In autumn 2013, conditions will improve to allow space- and ground-based telescopes to track the asteroid’s path better. At that time, 2011 AG5 will be 147 million kilometres from Earth but favourably located for observations in the late evening sky.

"After more observations in 2013, experts expect to be able to reduce the impact risk to zero," says Detlef.

  

ODDS MAY RISE

Although scientists widely expect it to be a safe flyby, they acknowledge the slight chance that computed odds could rise as a result of observations to be taken from 2013 to 2016.

According to the experts at the workshop, even if the odds do increase, there is still ample time to plan and carry out at least one of several viable missions to change the asteroid’s course.

Read more: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SSA/SEMR00BXH3H_0.html

Words in the News: Civil Servant.

The Daily Telegraph reports that under-performing civil servants will be identified and fired.

VOCABULARY

A civil servant is a person who works in the Civil Service in Britain and some other countries, or for the local, state, or federal government in the United States.

 • Another 3800 civil servants are being told their jobs are on the line because of federal budget cuts.

From: TheEnglishBlog.

RIP Davy Jones, Monkees Singer And Pop Idol

Davy Jones, lead singer of '60s pop sensations and television band The Monkees has died at the age of 66 in his home state of Florida, according to the Martin County medical examiner's office. He suffered a heart attack.

The Monkees were created initially to be a sort of "safe" Beatles by record and TV producers in 1965, but ended up making hit singles, a cult TV series, and a film, 1968'sHead, which would prove to be one of the first salvos of the psychedelic era.

The group broke up in 1970, and reunited in the mid-'80s around the time Nickelodeon began re-airing their series. They went on a few tours, sans Michael Nesmith who never warmed up to reunion plans.

The list of the Monkees hits, staples of oldies radio, is immense. "I'm A Believer", written by Neil Diamond, was one of their most enduring, along with their stomping debut "Last Train to Clarksville". They also could make the girls swoon with cuts like "Daydream Believer". Just ask Marcia Brady...

From: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2012/02/rip_davy_jones_monkees_singer.php

Brazil unprepared for 2014 World Cup: Pele

Pele spoke to ESPN on Wednesday, the same day that Brazil's sports minister Orlando Silva resigned amid corruption allegations. He was the sixth minister forced out of Rousseff's government. Four of the others had also faced corruption allegations.

A recent government report on Brazil's preparations for the World Cup said that as of September, renovation work had not begun on five of the 13 airports that will be used during the tournament.

The report also said that seven of the 12 host cities have not begun other infrastructure work, and only nine of the nearly 50 transportation projects planned for the tournament were under way.

Earlier this month former Brazil striker Romario, now a congressman, told Agencia Brasil, the government's news agency: "Maybe because of politics, work which was supposed to be halfway done hasn't even started."

The government, however, does not seem worried about the apparent lack of progress and is confident that everything will eventually get done. Officials also dismiss the notion Brazil is not doing enough.

"Brazil is doing the necessary work for the World Cup and there are no signs that deadlines will be missed," the Sports Ministry's media office said in a recent email to The Associated Press.

From: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2011/10/28/sp-pele-world-cup-brazil.html

Quem tem medo da entrevista em inglês?

Pesquisa de consultoria internacional de RH mostra que apenas um terço dos executivos brasileiros domina o idioma. Limitação pode ser fatal em processos seletivos

Imagem meramente ilustrativa

Onde existir informação ou noticia referente à língua inglesa, lá estaremos para trazer esse conhecimento aos seguidores do blog. Aqui segue uma rápida reportagem retirada do site da revista VOCÊ/SA. Deixo claro que as informações contidas na mesma não refletem a opinião desse blogueiro.

Você está preparado para uma entrevista em inglês? Apesar dos avanços, uma parcela ainda pequena de executivos brasileiros domina bem o idioma. É o que mostra uma pesquisa da consultoria de recursos humanos Michael Page. Segundo o estudo, só 33% dos profissionais do Brasil consegue se comunicar com desenvoltura em inglês, um índice que nos coloca atrás do México, Argentina e Chile. O levantamento da Michael Page mostra que nesses países a fluência dos executivos é de 52%, 49%, 46%, respectivamente.

Para o consultor de RH Rogério Sepa, da DBM, em longo prazo essa limitação complica o avanço na carreira. Porém, enfrentar uma entrevista em outro idioma não é um bicho de sete cabeças. Um dos tabus dessa etapa do processo seletivo é a exigência do nível de inglês acima da real função do candidato. "Isso acontece em algumas empresas porque o contratante quer testar o profissional já pensando em um futuro plano de carreira", esclarece. Infelizmente, diz Sepa, muitos desistem da vaga, mesmo quando a avaliação não é eliminatória. "Não percebem que o teste serve como aferição do nível atual de inglês. Algo que pode ser otimizado posteriormente até com incentivo da própria companhia", explica o consultor.

CURSO NO EXTERIOR AJUDA A SE COMUNICAR

Outros elementos prejudiciais são a timidez e a mania de perfeição dos executivos.

Learning English from three Cartoons: Meet the new boss, Carol singers, Yetis off to UK

Cartoon: Meet the New Boss.

This cartoon by Dave Brown from The Independent relates to claims that Libyan rebels are 'torturing suspected Gaddafi mercenaries'. According to a report released on Wednesday by Amnesty International, the mercenaries are being held by armed militias without warrants and are routinely beaten to force them to confess to pro-Gaddafi crimes. 

The cartoon shows a Gaddafi loyalist being beaten by a group of rebels in a prison cell. The rebels are trying to force their prisoner to reveal the whereabouts of the former Libyan dictator—but the irony is that they all have the same features as Gaddafi himself.

NOTE

The title of the cartoon 'Meet the New Boss' is a phrase taken from 'Won't Get Fooled Again' by The Who. In this song about revolution, the singer expresses his disappointment that the new regime is the same as the old one — "Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss". You can listen to the song here (the 'Meet the New Boss' line comes at 7.52).


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Cartoon 2: Carol Singers

This cartoon by Mac from The Daily Mail relates to the snow which continues to cause disruption in the UK.

It is Christmas time (note the wreath on the door and the  Christmas tree). A husband and wife are having breakfast. Outside the front door, three snow-covered figures with a lantern are visible. The wife says to her husband: 'Was it my imagination or did I hear the first carol singers last night?'

EXPLANATION