Kennebec journal fire and furry

Sophia Carodenuto is looking for ways to make food more sustainable in an unusual place: The business practices used by the companies who control the world’s chocolate trade. “On the one hand, you have the private sector driving deforestation” in cocoa-producing regions, said the professor at the University of Victoria. “(But) the private sector can also be the instigator of sustainable land use.” Carodenuto — along with Janina Grabs, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich’s Environmental Policy Lab — wants to know how, and if, these businesses can drive widespread change to sustainable farming. Each year, the world consumes about four million tonnes of cocoa, most of it grown by small farmers in West Africa. The beans then pass between middlemen along increasingly concentrated supply chains. By the time they reach supermarket shelves, over 60 per cent of the beans will have been controlled by three international commodity companies, she said. That creates an “hourglass” … [Read more...] about Can companies make chocolate more sustainable? One researcher is trying to find out

SINGAPORE: In addressing the issue of fake news, new prescriptive laws are not an ideal solution, according to industry association Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), whose members include social media companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Instead, a “stringent self-regulatory approach”, executed in coordination and cooperation with the authorities, will have a better outcome. The association made this point in its written representation to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods. It gave oral evidence to the committee on Thursday (Mar 22), together with representatives from Google, Facebook and Twitter. Explaining its rationale, AIC’s managing director Jeff Paine said in his written representation that prescriptive legislation will not adequately address the issue effectively, due to the highly subjective, nuanced and difficult task of discerning whether information is true or false. “There is also a real risk of compromising freedom of expression and speech … [Read more...] about New, ‘prescriptive’ laws not the ideal solution against online falsehoods: Social media, Internet giants in written submissions

LONDON: A study of coronavirus infections that covered almost everyone in the quarantined north Italian town of Vò found that 40 per cent of cases showed no symptoms, suggesting that asymptomatic cases are important in the spread of the pandemic. The study, led by a scientist at Italy's Padua University and Imperial College London, also produced evidence that mass testing combined with case isolation and community lockdowns can stop local outbreaks swiftly. "Despite 'silent' and widespread transmission, the disease can be controlled," said Andrea Crisanti, a professor at Padua and Imperial who co-led the work. "Testing of all citizens, whether or not they have symptoms, provides a way to ... prevent outbreaks getting out of hand." READ: Italian study shows lower viral load in COVID-19 patients in May than April peak Crisanti has become something of a celebrity in Italy for advocating widespread testing well before it became official World Health Organization  guidance. … [Read more...] about Italian whole-town study finds 40% of COVID-19 cases had no symptoms

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs is reviewing its laws to better deal with the rising threat of new psychoactive substances, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Amrin Amin said in Parliament on Monday (Mar 2). This comes as rogue chemists swiftly produce new variants of such substances by changing their chemical structures, to avoid classification as Class A controlled drugs. The trafficking, manufacture, import, export, possession or consumption of Class A controlled drugs constitute an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act. “This poses a challenge to drug enforcement agencies in the world over," Mr Amrin said in the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Committee of Supply debate. “MHA is reviewing our laws to stay ahead of drug trends. Details will be announced in due course.” READ: More new drug abusers arrested in 2019: CNB READ: More admitted to drug rehab centre in 2019, driven by changes in law aimed at reducing relapse The move comes after … [Read more...] about As rogue chemists play cat and mouse, MHA reviews laws to better tackle new psychoactive substances

WASHINGTON, DC: Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published on Monday (Jun 29) in the US science journal PNAS. Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009. It possesses "all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans," say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2011 to 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses. The majority were of a new kind which has been dominant among pigs since 2016. The researchers then carried out various experiments including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans -- principally fever, coughing and sneezing. G4 was observed to be … [Read more...] about New swine flu found in China has pandemic potential: Study