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description=10 posts published by Randy McDonald during July 2012;

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link, the, and, bone, marrow, transplant, eliminates, hiv, traces, from, two, patients, dna, call, it, cure, vietnam, considers, legalizing, same, sex, marriage, amid, crisis, europeans, flock, to, learn, chinese, isl, on, senkaku, diaoyu, islands, dispute, bit, more, detail, archive, for, july, 2012, how, blogosphere, is, dispersed, by, social, networking, services, hot, caffeinated, expanding, global, geography, of, coffee, tea, yerba, mate, pages, search, blogroll, archives, categories, meta,

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Text of the page (random words):
ortant producers such as colombia venezuela and ethiopia exhibit moderate levels of consumption whereas low levels of coffee drinking characterize such major exporters as vietnam indonesia and peru the geography of coffee has changed greatly since the early modern era several places that were once redolent of coffee now drink little yemen was world s first major coffee exporter with one of its ports mocha giving its name to a particular coffee preparation today qat obsessed yemen has little use for the drink indonesia is still a major exporter but consumption remains low even on the island of java which has lent its name to the beverage more generally turkish coffee is famous as once were the coffee houses of istanbul but turkey today consumes little of the black beverage much preferring tea ethiopia coffee s homeland does both export and imbibe substantial quantities but trouble lurks according to a recent report ethiopia s coffee export continues to plummet due to chaotic government controls and enforcement of bad policies coffee consumption is generally quite low in asia with south korea and especially japan forming exceptions but coffee producers are excited by prospects for growth in the asian market particularly that of china although the average chinese person drinks only 5 cups a year the figure in shanghai is now over 20 and consumption is growing quickly as starbucks and other chains proliferate the biggest growth in the coffee market however has occurred in the gulf states according to a recent report the uae has been the fastest growing market by volume for coffee in the world with coffee volume sales expected to register an 80 per cent growth from 2009 2014 or a compound annual growth rate cagr of more than 12 per cent year on year over the same period on the production side of the coffee ledger the biggest change over the past two decades has been the rise of vietnam now the second largest producer by a healthy margin the rise of vietnamese coffee has often been described as economically destabilizing generating distress in several poor coffee dependent countries as can be seen on the wikipedia map below vietnam competes in the robusta coffee market which is otherwise heavily concentrated in africa lewis also comes up with interesting patterns in the distribution of tea drinking and growing broadly paralleling coffee and in yerba mate apparently starting to take off beyond southern south america in the united states as well as the middle east ties of migration with syria and lebanon are key here go read and see the maps written by randy mcdonald july 31 2012 at 10 57 pm posted in assorted tagged with coffee economics globalization links link bone marrow transplant eliminates hiv traces from two patients dna call it a cure via towleroad i found this cbs article by ryan jaslow reporting on a noteworthy step in the development of a cure for hiv two men who ve had hiv for years may now be free of the disease following bone marrow transplants researchers at brigham and women s hospital in boston announced thursday both patients were being treated for cases of cancer one of the patients underwent a bone marrow transplant two years ago at the dana farber brigham and women s cancer center in boston the other had the procedure done four years ago at the same hospital nbcnews com reports that one of the patients is in his 50s and has been infected since the early 1980s towards the beginning of the aids epidemic and the other man in his 20s was infected at birth both stayed on their antiretroviral medication regimens the standard treatment of hiv following the transplants the researchers discovered that overtime as the patients cells were replaced by cells from the donor evidence of hiv in the patients blood tests disappeared the researchers also said both patients have no signs of hiv in their dna or rna and levels of their disease fighting antibodies have also decreased the researchers think the medications helped allow these cells to be replaced this gives us some important information one of the researchers dr daniel kuritzkes an infectious disease specialist at the hospital and harvard medical school said in a press release it suggests that under the cover of antiretroviral therapy the cells that repopulated the patient s immune system appear to be protected from becoming re infected with hiv the researchers announcement comes days after timothy ray brown the man known as the berlin patient held a press conference in washington d c to say he s still cured of aids five years after undergoing a bone marrow blood transplant however the researchers noted differences in their two patients treatment compared to that of brown in brown s case his donor was specifically chosen because he possessed a genetic mutation that s found in one person of caucasian people that makes them resistant to developing hiv but the donors for the two boston patient were selected at random additionally brown had stopped taking his antiretroviral medications following his transplant while the boston patients have stayed on the drugs written by randy mcdonald july 31 2012 at 8 09 pm posted in science tagged with hiv aids links medicine science link vietnam considers legalizing same sex marriage a post at joe my god alerted me to the somewhat surprising news that vietnam is considering legally recognizing same sex marriages this recognition would make vietnam the first asian country and the first communist country to do so i think i m entitled to a fair amount of surprise at this news granted vietnam s gay rights record seems among the best in the region characterized by a sort of repressive tolerance with an absence of laws against gay sex but considerable social stigma no one seems to have expected this the activist who s quoted as predicting that vietnam will legally recognize same sex marriage does seem to be making a plausible argument inasmuch as the authoritarian structure of vietnam s government seems to make said government s adoption of a proposed policy more likely than in other equally conservative but more pluralistic societies or am i wrong dinh thi hong loan grasps her girlfriend s hand and the two gaze into each other s love struck eyes smiling they talk about their upcoming wedding how they ll exchange rings and toast the beginning of their lives together the lesbians marriage ceremony in the vietnamese capital won t be officially recognized but that could soon change vietnam s communist government is now considering whether to allow same sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights positioning the country to be the first in asia to do so even longtime gay rights activists are stunned by the justice ministry s proposal to include same sex couples in its overhaul of the country s marriage law no one knows what form it will take or whether it will survive long enough to be debated before the national assembly next year but supporters say the fact that it s even being considered is a victory in a region where simply being gay can result in jail sentences or whippings with a rattan cane i think everyone is surprised said vien tanjung an indonesian gay rights activist even if it s not successful it s already making history for me personally i think it s going to go through vietnam seems an unlikely champion of gay rights issues it is routinely lambasted by the international community over its dismal human rights record often locking up political dissidents who call for democracy or religious freedom up until just a few years ago homosexuality was labeled as a social evil alongside drug addiction and prostitution vietnam s state run media unable to write about politically sensitive topics or openly criticize the one party government have embraced the chance to explore gay issues they have run lengthy newspaper stories and television broadcasts including one live special that won a top award video of vietnam s first publicized gay wedding went viral online in 2010 and a few other ceremonies followed capturing widespread public attention the justice ministry now says a legal framework is necessary because the courts do not know how to handle disputes between same sex couples living together the new law could provide rights such as owning property inheriting and adopting children i think as far as human rights are concerned it s time for us to look at the reality justice minister ha hung cuong said tuesday in an online chat broadcast on national tv and radio the number of homosexuals has mounted to hundreds of thousands it s not a small figure they live together without registering marriage they may own property we of course have to handle these issues legally written by randy mcdonald july 31 2012 at 4 47 pm posted in politics tagged with glbt issues links marriage rights politics vietnam link bone marrow transplant eliminates hiv traces from two patients dna call it a cure via towleroad i found this cbs article by ryan jaslow reporting on a noteworthy step in the development of a cure for hiv two men who ve had hiv for years may now be free of the disease following bone marrow transplants researchers at brigham and women s hospital in boston announced thursday both patients were being treated for cases of cancer one of the patients underwent a bone marrow transplant two years ago at the dana farber brigham and women s cancer center in boston the other had the procedure done four years ago at the same hospital nbcnews com reports that one of the patients is in his 50s and has been infected since the early 1980s towards the beginning of the aids epidemic and the other man in his 20s was infected at birth both stayed on their antiretroviral medication regimens the standard treatment of hiv following the transplants the researchers discovered that overtime as the patients cells were replaced by cells from the donor evidence of hiv in the patients blood tests disappeared the researchers also said both patients have no signs of hiv in their dna or rna and levels of their disease fighting antibodies have also decreased the researchers think the medications helped allow these cells to be replaced this gives us some important information one of the researchers dr daniel kuritzkes an infectious disease specialist at the hospital and harvard medical school said in a press release it suggests that under the cover of antiretroviral therapy the cells that repopulated the patient s immune system appear to be protected from becoming re infected with hiv the researchers announcement comes days after timothy ray brown the man known as the berlin patient held a press conference in washington d c to say he s still cured of aids five years after undergoing a bone marrow blood transplant however the researchers noted differences in their two patients treatment compared to that of brown in brown s case his donor was specifically chosen because he possessed a genetic mutation that s found in one person of caucasian people that makes them resistant to developing hiv but the donors for the two boston patient were selected at random additionally brown had stopped taking his antiretroviral medications following his transplant while the boston patients have stayed on the drugs written by randy mcdonald july 31 2012 at 4 09 pm posted in assorted tagged with hiv aids links medicine science link amid crisis europeans flock to learn chinese the eu observer s peter ebels reports on the latest incarnation of a standard trope when one economy experiences significant troubles while an up and coming economic power with a language not yet widely spoken emerges people in the first economy will learn the language of the second compare the vogue for japanese in the 1990s also note that while the number of people fluent in chinese may be growing it is doing so from a low level ever since europe s economy began spiralling downwards a growing number of people from dublin to athens is taking to learning the language of opportunity chinese aggregate data are not available but figures from local language centres across the continent suggest that the number of people in europe enlisted in taking the official chinese proficiency test or hsk over the last two years has grown by close to a factor five i think the economic reason plays a very important role says lili lei of the confucius institute in munich where the number of students rose by more than 100 percent in 2011 and is expected to grow even further this year many people learn chinese because they must or want to work in china many even think it can bring them a better future lu zhu of the confucius institute in dublin where attendance this year rose from an average of less than 50 students per year to almost 100 so far says that apparently the job opportunity is the main reason for the increase in athens where europe s woes are most acute the number of test takers went from 100 in 2010 to 400 in 2011 to 300 so far this year asked whether the increase could have anything to do with greece s dire state of affairs xiuqin yang co director of the city s confucius institute responded with a simple yes w hile the actual knowledge of chinese or mandarin the official language of china in europe remains relatively low in 2007 according to the eu s latest figures it was around 0 2 percent the current crisis china s gradual rise towards superpowerdom and its promotional efforts are proving an effective cocktail of incentives written by randy mcdonald july 31 2012 at 3 01 pm posted in economics popular culture tagged with china chinese language economics european union language conflict links link vietnam considers legalizing same sex marriage a post at joe my god alerted me to the somewhat surprising news that vietnam is considering legally recognizing same sex marriages this recognition would make vietnam the first asian country and the first communist country to do so i think i m entitled to a fair amount of surprise at this news granted vietnam s gay rights record seems among the best in the region characterized by a sort of repressive tolerance with an absence of laws against gay sex but considerable social stigma no one seems to have expected this the activist who s quoted as predicting that vietnam will legally recognize same sex marriage does seem to be making a plausible argument inasmuch as the authoritarian structure of vietnam s government seems to make said government s adoption of a proposed policy more likely than in other equally conservative but more pluralistic societies or am i wrong angel80 dinh thi hong loan grasps her girlfriend s hand and the two gaze into each other s love struck eyes smiling they talk about their upcoming wedding how they ll exchange rings and toast the beginning of their lives together the lesbians marriage ceremony in the vietnamese capital won t be officially recognized but that could soon change vietnam s communist government is now considering whether to allow same se...