Scientists Try to Design a Safer Mosquito

For decades, the Global Health community has been trying find ways to kill or re-design the mosquito.  This is crucial, considering that just one mosquito-born virus, dengue fever, affects about 100 million people each year, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia.

One strategy was the design of a Death-Star-like laser that could shoot down up to 100 mosquitos. (Or any other flying insect of that size, for that matter.)

Now, scientists are trying to find ways to stop mosquitoes from flying at all. Scientists are breeding female mosquitoes with stunted wing growth, and plan to distribute thousands of their eggs throughout various regions.  When these grounded mosquitoes breed, they will create a new generation of grounded mosquitoes.  Scientists estimate that this could cut down the rate of dengue fever by half in just 6 to 9 months.  Right now the concern is that the new mosquitoes will be less hardy than their wild counterparts and will die before they reproduce.

Other scientists take different approaches.  One is trying to shorten the life cycle of mosquitoes by just one or two days, to reduce the time in which they can transmit diseases to humans.  Another researcher has created mosquitoes with florescent testicles that can be sterilized.

http://globalhealth.change.org/blog/view/scientists_try_to_design_a_safer_mosquito

Mexico’s top druglord

This week’s Economist has a great article about Mexico’s biggest drug gang, Sinaloa.

Sinaloa is responsible for 45% of the drug trade in Mexico, but only 941 of the 53,174 people arrested for organized crime in the last 6 years were associated with the gang.  One might quickly assume that the gang simply pays off the right people, or even works with them, but The Economist proposes another explanation.  Sinaloa has been hit less hard because it operates differently.  Unlike its rival gangs, Sinaloa has not diversified into extortion and kidnappings.  Instead, they stick to drugs and money laundering,  without ostentatious displays (like leaving dead bodies outside of elementary schools.)

The article also hints at the difficulties involved with capturing the men at the top of Sinaloa.  Mr. Guzman, the top Sinaloa drug lord, owns 23,000 square miles of territory in rugged mountains.  “You’d need 100,000 soldiers surrounding the area and even then I’m not sure you’d succeed [in capturing him].”

Craziness.  My stance continues to be that we should legalize all drugs in the United States.  Gang murders would drop. We would save billions on the war on drugs.  And the new drug industry would create billion of dollars of taxable revenue for the government.  Why is this still being debated?

nuns and non-profits

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - pushing the boundaries of 501(c)3 status

I’m in the process of starting a nonprofit and am a little (okay, very) intimidated by the process of incorporation.  It takes months, it costs thousands of dollars in legal fees, it consumes your time and soul…

But a recent article in the NYTimes made me feel better. The article “Charities Rise, Costing US Billions in Tax Breaks,” indicates that 95% of applicants for 501(c)3 status are approved.  Including the recent Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of cross-dressing “nuns” who raise money for AIDs treatment with a live S&M show.   If cross-dressing nuns can get approved, then so can I!

The article does bring up the interesting question of whether the fast growth of nonprofits (up 60% in just a decade) is really bringing enough benefits to Americans to warrant $50 billion in lost tax revenue.  I personally think – YES – the more the better.  I would rather support small-scale charities and nonprofits fighting for social change, than fund massive and often ineffective government programs.

To read the article, check out: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/us/06charity.html

William Kamkwamba inspires me to fix the toaster.

I am a woman incapable of building or fixing things.  I fear hammers as I fear Jenga towers, which I inevitably bring down upon first touch.  My boyfriend often mocks my attempts to build coffee tables or fix toaster ovens, watching my futile attempts as one would watch a monkey with a plunger.  “No! I can do this!” I shout back, hopelessly gripping a set of pliers that I have mistaken for a wrench. “But WHAT do these Ikea instructions MEAN??”

So imagine my shock when I stumbled upon the story of William Kamkwamba, who is affectionately called “the boy who harnessed the wind.” At the age of 14, William was forced to drop out of his school in Malawi because his parents could not afford the tuition. Frustrated, William visited the local library, where he found a book that described how windmills are used to harness energy.  William wanted his family to have electricity so that he could read at night, so HE BUILT A WORKING WINDMILL OUT OF TRASH FROM THE  LOCAL DUMP.  He literally used items like bottle caps, broken bicycles, and hangers to create a structure that created enough electricity to power 4 lights in his house!  UNBELIEVABLE!  To read more about William, check out: http://gizmodo.com/5370752.

I study my broken toaster with shame and disbelief.  What an incredible kid.

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