A podcast of an interview with John Farndon who wrote Everything You Need to Kow: Bird Flu.
bird flu
Thursday, February 23, 2006
India seals off town
No-one will be allowed in or out of Navapur, in India's Maharashtra state, which has a population of nearly 30,000, or 19 nearby villages. Bird flu has been discovered.
H5N1
The measures come after reports that blood samples from people in hospital have tested positive for bird flu. Health officials deny the reports.
Hundreds of thousands of birds are being culled after deadly H5N1 bird flu was found in Navapur last week.H5N1
Sunday, February 19, 2006
China's market for IT
The China Center of Information Industry Development(CCID) reported the market for information technology services in China is expected to grow 20.6 pct annually for the next five years. Last year, China's IT service market volume hit 82.27 bln yuan, up 20.1 pct year-on-year, the Times quoted a CCID report as saying.
The sector is booming partly due to rising computer sales and Internet usage. In 2005 about 19.9 mln personal computers were sold in the Chinese market, with sales volume totaling 121.09 bln yuan, up 18.8 pct and 8.7 pct year-on-year, according to CCID figures. The number of Internet users has also risen to more than 110 mln in the past year.
(1 usd = 8.05 yuan)
China
The sector is booming partly due to rising computer sales and Internet usage. In 2005 about 19.9 mln personal computers were sold in the Chinese market, with sales volume totaling 121.09 bln yuan, up 18.8 pct and 8.7 pct year-on-year, according to CCID figures. The number of Internet users has also risen to more than 110 mln in the past year.
(1 usd = 8.05 yuan)
China
History of CIA interrogation exposed
Alfred McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonis the author of “A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror” and also “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade.”
The U.S. made a pledge against torture when Congress ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in 1994 - but it was ratified with reservations that exempted the CIA’s psychological torture method. So what were the results? Although seemingly less brutal, "no touch" torture leaves deep psychological scars on both victims and interrogators. The victims often need long treatment to recover from trauma far more crippling than physical pain. The perpetrators can suffer a dangerous expansion of ego, leading to escalating cruelty and lasting emotional problems.
In the CIA's first stage, interrogators employ simple, non-violent techniques to disorient the subject. To induce temporal confusion, interrogators use hooding or sleep deprivation. To intensify disorientation, interrogators often escalate to attacks on personal identity by sexual humiliation.
Once the subject is disoriented, interrogators move on to a second stage with simple, self-inflicted discomfort such as standing for hours with arms extended. In this phase, the idea is to make victims feel responsible for their own pain and thus induce them to alleviate it by capitulating to the interrogator's power.
To be sure, torture is a violation of human rights. Have terrorists given up that right to be human? According to many critics and watchers of the Bush Administration and the war on terror the answer is yes. That answer was given by those who use torture as a method of interrogation. But that is how torure works...treat your victims as "less human" and the torturer will have power over the prisoner. A circle has thus been created. I have power because I torture, I torture because I have power. The United Nations Convention Against Torture has received new interest because of the tales coming from Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Will the U.N. adopt new anti-torture resolutions? If so, will those resolutions be effective? Probably not because someone will be exempt.
torture
The U.S. made a pledge against torture when Congress ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in 1994 - but it was ratified with reservations that exempted the CIA’s psychological torture method. So what were the results? Although seemingly less brutal, "no touch" torture leaves deep psychological scars on both victims and interrogators. The victims often need long treatment to recover from trauma far more crippling than physical pain. The perpetrators can suffer a dangerous expansion of ego, leading to escalating cruelty and lasting emotional problems.
In the CIA's first stage, interrogators employ simple, non-violent techniques to disorient the subject. To induce temporal confusion, interrogators use hooding or sleep deprivation. To intensify disorientation, interrogators often escalate to attacks on personal identity by sexual humiliation.
Once the subject is disoriented, interrogators move on to a second stage with simple, self-inflicted discomfort such as standing for hours with arms extended. In this phase, the idea is to make victims feel responsible for their own pain and thus induce them to alleviate it by capitulating to the interrogator's power.
To be sure, torture is a violation of human rights. Have terrorists given up that right to be human? According to many critics and watchers of the Bush Administration and the war on terror the answer is yes. That answer was given by those who use torture as a method of interrogation. But that is how torure works...treat your victims as "less human" and the torturer will have power over the prisoner. A circle has thus been created. I have power because I torture, I torture because I have power. The United Nations Convention Against Torture has received new interest because of the tales coming from Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Will the U.N. adopt new anti-torture resolutions? If so, will those resolutions be effective? Probably not because someone will be exempt.
torture
Egypt detected first cases of deadly bird flu strain
The government of Egypt has detected the flu strain in chickens at Cairo, Giza, and Minya. Four chickens were infected at Cairo and 2 each in Giza and Minya. No human cases were detected. The first cases found in Africa were in the country of Nigeria. The disease has spread west from the original detection location of Southeast Asia. The disease can spread from birds to humans. So far there has been no human-to-human contact.
H5N1
Thursday, February 16, 2006
news source choice
A growing number of people read the news online, but the format of choice uis still the newspaper, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. Here are the results from a recent survey:
Primarily print newspaper 71%
Primarily online newspaper 22%
Split between the two 7%
News
Primarily print newspaper 71%
Primarily online newspaper 22%
Split between the two 7%
News
outsourcing on the rise
By 2007, total global offshore spending on IT services will reach $50 billion according to Gartner. India maintained its top position among the global sourcing destinations despite growing competition. Although more options for external service provision are becoming available worldwide, India reamins the market leader with a majority of essential resources and a sufficiently robust technology infrastructure.
outsourcing
business
outsourcing
business
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