Gross.Associated Press_sl said:RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Athletes in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.
An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues - results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea.
It is the first independent comprehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites.
Extreme water pollution is common in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated. Raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites.
As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact withdisease-causing viruses that in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach.
"What you have there is basically raw sewage," said John Griffith, a marine biologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Griffith examined the protocols, methodology and results of the AP tests.
Aren't you supposed to be the pro-science champion of the forums?Latest bird flu/ebola non story imo
I'm bird flu/ebola-ed out.Aren't you supposed to be the pro-science champion of the forums?
Zika virus 'spreading explosively,' WHO leader says - CNN.com
Damn, that's fucked up. Kid looks just like a bucket.The scary part is the birth defects associated with it.
Here is the policy dilemma. The pesticide DDT was used to kill mosquitoes for several decades. It had the negative side effect of being a possible carcinogen plus a threat to birds (kills their eggs). The environmentalists got the pesticide DDT banned worldwide back in the 1970s.That shit is scary, and it is transmitted by the same mosquito that gives yellow fever and dengue, the aedes aegypti.
I am all for the eradication of mosquitos. I keep seeing articles about how it can be done by breeding mosquitos that can't reproduce, but I don't really understand that.Here is the policy dilemma. The pesticide DDT was used to kill mosquitoes for several decades. It had the negative side effect of being a possible carcinogen plus a threat to birds (kills their eggs). The environmentalists got the pesticide DDT banned worldwide back in the 1970s.
In perhaps the best example in the history of mankind, the Law of Unintended Consequences kicked in as a result of the DDT ban. There are estimates that up to 60 million people have died from malaria since the ban on DDT.
Now some people are suggesting that to fight the Zika virus we should either 1) unban DDT or 2) engage in genetic engineering where the end result is the complete eradication of mosquitoes from existence.
Is it safe to proclaim that option 1 is the least radical option?
Something about them blowing their load once from what I remember reading about it a long time ago but I am no entomologist.I am all for the eradication of mosquitos. I keep seeing articles about how it can be done by breeding mosquitos that can't reproduce, but I don't really understand that.
The question then becomes what unforeseen consequence is out there if we eradicate mosquitoes? If the world had known 60 million people would die largely thanks to the DDT ban would that have changed someone's opinion on whether to ban it or not? I'm not aware of any positive contribution mosquitoes provide to the ecosystem. Are they in the food chain somewhere?I am all for the eradication of mosquitos. I keep seeing articles about how it can be done by breeding mosquitos that can't reproduce, but I don't really understand that.
Listen to the podcast I linked earlier.I am all for the eradication of mosquitos. I keep seeing articles about how it can be done by breeding mosquitos that can't reproduce, but I don't really understand that.
Well they're the B in BRICS, after all so... yeah. They can't be anywhere near as bad as India though. Brazilians DO poo in their loos, it's just that they flush it all straight into the river.Is Brazil, "India" of the Americas?
No, nothing eats mosquitos. God literaly put them here to punish us for multiculturalism.The question then becomes what unforeseen consequence is out there if we eradicate mosquitoes? If the world had known 60 million people would die largely thanks to the DDT ban would that have changed someone's opinion on whether to ban it or not? I'm not aware of any positive contribution mosquitoes provide to the ecosystem. Are they in the food chain somewhere?
Basically these genetically altered male mosquitoes are released. They breed with the female normal mosquitoes. The eggs the female lays turn to mush because science.I am all for the eradication of mosquitos. I keep seeing articles about how it can be done by breeding mosquitos that can't reproduce, but I don't really understand that.