In the News

[Pentagathus]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48190351?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cwwwnvp4e4pt/turkish-local-elections-2019&link_location=live-reporting-story

I don't have any idea what the situation is atm in Istanbul but this was armadilloty.

[Jubal]

Australia is a little bit very much on fire Hope all our Australians are OK - I don't think any of them live in those parts. It's very grim both for humans and wildlife anyhow.

[Jubal]

In which it turns out that hunting some of our favourite scaly mammals to extinction may have come with a sting in the tail:

Pangolins are possible coronavirus hosts, Chinese scientists say
By Caitlin O'Kane
February 7, 2020 / 11:27 AM / CBS News

Pangolins are possible hosts of coronavirus, a study led by South China Agricultural University has found.

Experts believe the outbreak originated at wild animal markets in Wuhan, China. After analyzing more than 1,000 samples, scientists found that the genome sequence of the virus in pangolins was 99% identical to that from infected people. That means pangolins are the most likely intermediate host of coronavirus, Liu Yahong, president of the university, said, according to state media.

Pangolins, which look like scaly anteaters, are considered a delicacy in China and other countries, and  pangolin scales are used in traditional medicine.

Rest of article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pangolin-coronavirus-scale-anteater-possible-host-of-virus-chinese-scientists-say/

[Jubal]

More where that came from if the bastards don't stop with the poaching 

[Jubal]

In A++ grade political trolling, Pirate Party politicians running Prague have renamed a square after murdered Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov.

The kicker? It's the square where the Russian embassy is, making it now part of the embassy's official address

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51614958

[Tusky]

Do you mean... China? Or the specific place it started? I'm not sure if anyone has 100% verified the latter.

Should we have nuked the US for swine flu?

[Jubal]

Yes, I think they never perfectly confirmed it and also now it's made the jump to humans, from a risk perspective what happens with the source is a bit negligible - in most of the world the big danger is human to human contact and transmission. I agree the source needs tackling, but it's spreading so fast between humans now that people are thinking of source dealing as China's problem not theirs.

[Jubal]

Effective ban on abortion in Poland sparking big protests. Poland is super split with a tiny majority behind a very hard right government: it's a grim time for friends there

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54669257

[BagaturKhan]

My condolences about the situation in Britain now.

[Jubal]

Which part of it? I don't think it's much worse than it's been for the past few years right now...

[BagaturKhan]

I mean, the situation with the Prince Philipp.

[Jubal]

Oh right! I'm not a huge royalist myself so it didn't make a lot of difference for me: I mean it's sad for his family of course, but he was 99. With COVID we've had many more tragic and avoidable deaths in the past year honestly.

[dubsartur]

same here.   There have been so many unnecessary deaths in the plague year that the death of a 99 year old I never met is not shocking.  And of course in the UK right now there is sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and a hard right, very corrupt government passing bills.

[BagaturKhan]

I also want to say my condoldences about the coronavirus situation too. Many my friends had this disease, and its really terrible.
I hope, this all will be finished soon. Sometimes i think, that XXI century is a survival age for humanity

[Tusky]

same here.   There have been so many unnecessary deaths in the plague year that the death of a 99 year old I never met is not shocking.  And of course in the UK right now there is sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and a hard right, very corrupt government passing bills.

Very good point. I agree as well. I was already thinking the amount of coverage it was getting was a little excessive, and maybe I am not alone according to this article. He absolutely deserves dignity and respect what he did - at times which included a great focus on ecological concerns during the 80's and 90's.

I think it's too much though - and out of touch with a larger chunk of the population than much of the media seem to realise