Venice, World Heritage Site

"We are used to flooding and we know how to deal with it, but my generation has never seen anything like this."
"When I was a kid, it was normal to have an acqua alta [high tide] of 1.1 metres. But now it's normal to experience 1.3, 1.4 metres."
"Sooner or later people's resilience will run out. About ninety percent of my classmates from school have left because living here is a battle."
Alexandro Guggia, 42, Castello District, Venice

"We have to keep going."
"Many people are abandoning Venice and if these dramatic floods continue, you fear that it will one day turn into some sort of legend, like Atlantis."
Chiara Tonello, Venice

San Marco Square remains covered in flood waters days after the second highest tide since 1966 on November 15, 2019, in Venice, Italy.  Getty Images

The 1.87-metre flood inundating Venice on Wednesday last damaged the Byzantine basilica of St.Mark's, while swamping St.Mark's Square and left a tide's-worth of debris in the narrow alleyways leading off the square in the murky brown sludge that crept its way into shops, hotels and homes. But that wasn't the end of it, there was no relief in sight as two days later flood warning sirens once again gave notice that another high tide arrived to raise the lagoon's level 1.6 metres, leaving the city to cope once again with its new underwater emergency and Venetians had little option but to make their way through the flooded alleyways in rubber boots.

The high-water mark hit about 74 inches on Nov. 12, over  85% of the city was flooded.

Luca Bruno, AP

Desperate shopkeepers and restaurateurs made use of mobile pumps in an effort to free their establishments from the floodwaters. Venetians are accustomed to living uncertainly in this most beautiful of heritage cities, like none other. Tourism brings millions of people to the city annually and cruise ships value it as a destination, frustrating residents even as their presence generates badly needed income to help pay for potential solutions to flooding issues. Rising sea levels have played havoc with the city, and many of its residents have fled the pressures of stress.

In the 1950s, Venice had a population of 175,000 fortunate residents. By 2000 that population base was reduced to 65,000 and the ongoing trickle of those leaving the city for good has further eroded its population numbers to its current 52,000 inhabitants. As morale of the people living there is eclipsed by ongoing flooding whose inundation levels continue to grow, people increasingly see no future for themselves in Venice. "We've seen a lot more flooding in recent years. It's the frequency that is concerning", Paolo Brandolisio, a maker of wooden oars to equip the 450 gondoliers who ply the canals of Venice, explains.

Water starts rising again in Venice, northern Italy on Nov. 16, 2019. High tidal waters returned to Venice on Saturday, four days after the city experienced its worst flooding in more than 50 years.

Andrea Merola, EPA-EFE

His oar-making workshop has been flooded time and again. In this latest super-flood he was able to rescue his power lathe and electric belt saw last Friday when his workshop was thigh-deep in water. He lost the use of his wood supplies along with other tools that the floodwaters swamped in his shop and they were unsalvageable. Despite the tribulations owing to increased flooding, the regional government of Veneto rejected measures meant to ward off climate change. And then its historic offices located on the Grand Canal were themselves under flood water, shortly afterward.

Tourists take pictures in a flooded St. Mark's Square.

Luca Bruno, AP

Majority right-wing parties had rejected the climate action plan. "It's rather ironic that the council chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority parties rejected our proposals", ventured Andrea Zanoni, a member of the centre-Left Democratic Party, leaving a senior League member to dismiss any criticism reminding critics that the regional government had set aside 965 million euros ($1.4 billion) in the past three years to address air pollution and climate change problems.

"This is Venice's last hope. I think we should be able to manage our own affairs. We should be separate. It's logical. And it's the only way out of our current situation", stressed Matteo Secchi, president of Venessia.com, a campaign group urging Venetians to vote in favour of a referendum on Venice having a dedicated city council, away from the mainland currently administered as Veneto. "A mayor looking after just Venice would have more time to dedicate to the things that really matter to the city", remarked Jane da Mosto, British head of We Are Here Venice think tank.

Pedestrians walk across the flooded St. Mark's Square past St. Mark's Basilica.

Marco Bertorello, AFP via Getty Images

An Obscure and Timeless Manuscript

"Realistically, it's [the ambition to collect every book every published in a single, privately-held collection] not doable. There were too many cities printing too many books."
"It's great to have it all [an immense library representing the sum total of all the world's published books], but it's pointless if you can't find your way around it [know where each book is in its specialty niche, filed in order and readily retrieved]. That's one of the great things about his thoroughness, and how meticulous he was. He annotated all his books the same way."
"When you see a book that belongs to him, you know right away. He always puts the call number in the same place, int he same way. Any scholar that was not familiar with Columbus's library and its very unique cataloguing and referencing system couldn't have recognized it [the "book of summaries"].
"I didn't know it was THE missing catalogue. I had found the only surviving copy. I didn't think for a second it would interest anybody. Most of us [historian-scholars] go through our entire careers looking at documents that interest our colleagues, a relatively small circle of scholars. I didn't really realize  how important it was, the magnitude when I saw it."
Guy Lazure, historian, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario

The Libro de los Epítomes, a manuscript summarizing the contents of Christopher Columbus' son's library, was discovered at the University of Copenhagen. ( Suzanne Reitz/Arnamagnæan Institute)

"It's an extraordinary object. He was trying to prove himself his father's legitimate spiritual heir even if he wasn't his father's legitimate son by building a universal library which had every book in the world in it."
"He personally went around and bought books on these extraordinary book shopping sprees where he was purchasing thousands of titles at a time."

"How print really revolutionized the world was by making it possible to distribute cheap print — you know, information in news sheets and popular ballads and erotica and weather forecasts and things like that. But no one at the time actually thought of collecting this stuff."

"This was someone who was, in a way, changing the model of what knowledge is. Instead of saying ‘knowledge is august, authoritative things by some venerable old Roman and Greek people’, he’s doing it inductively: taking everything that everyone knows and distilling it upwards from there." "It’s much more resonant with today, with big data and Wikipedia and crowdsourced information. This is a model of knowledge that says, 'We’re going to take the breadth of print – ballads and pornography and newsletters – and not exclude that from the world of information'."

Edward Wilson-Lee, literature professor, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, U.K. 

Books have a special place in the human imagination; books that chronicle history, botany, medicine, science, geography, wars, and human experience. Novels are actually chronicles of human experience. One of the most serious crimes against intellectual freedom was to condemn certain books as unworthy of existence, and to destroy them. Bonfires to burn books proscribed by dictatorial regimes, libraries, like the fabled library at Alexandria, Egypt with its vast collection of manuscripts of the ancient world represented an irreplaceable loss when it was burned in 48BC as an act of war.

Bibliophiles and just ordinary people who love reading books aspire to own their own libraries of books. They provide education and entertainment for the fertile mind, eager to learn. Ownership of a vast store of books enables a busy mind to take its choice of stimulation at any given time, but it is entirely feasible that private libraries holding copies of classic literature as well as scholarly treatises, histories and technical books will never be entirely read; the human trait of acquisitiveness leads people to amass collections and take pride in them.

Printing Press - HISTORY

www.history.com 

 

Christopher Columbus's illegitimate son took his inner resources in a direction to explore that which appeals to the human mind and spurs the imagination, just as  his father used vast material resources in his exploration and discovery trips around the unknown Americas. He was said to have acquired a library of 20,000 books of his day representative of every book ever published, but not actually every book ever published was represented in his collection; some 4,000 volumes remain in existence now, housed in the cathedral in Seville, Spain.

Professor Guy Lazure had gone to Copenhagen for a research project looking for a manuscript in a Scandinavian archive, holding some 20 books from 15th-Century Spain. Known to be an expert in the history of Seville the archive's director asked if he would examine whether within that modest collection anything of note was represented. A massive book of 973 folded leaves of paper with close to 2,000 pages caught his interest, as perhaps representing an index but it had no title page, no author credit and no indication what the tome might represent, much less why it would be among old Icelandic and Scandinavian literature.

It took him a bit of thought before the realization struck that he had come across the only surviving copy of two originals of the collection of summaries of Hernando Colón's collection of summaries of his book collection, called the Libro de los Epitomes; "book of summaries". A Danish ambassador to Spain in the 17th Century bought it from a Spanish noble at a time of economic decline in Spain. It languished in obscurity ever since, its historical value and provenance unrecognized. This discovery was made in 2013, when Professor Lazure spent a few hours poring over the vast manuscript.

It was only much, much later, when his attention focused on a biography written by a colleague of his, Edward Wilson-Lee, in his The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books that focuses on this story of the vast book collection, that it dawned on Professor Lazure that his experience and discovery had great current importance. Out of this coincidental discovery has come a resolve to digitize the manuscripts for a virtual reconstruction. It will be done eventually, as long as the financing becomes available.

Hernando Colón was the son of Christopher Columbus, born out of wedlock and therefore not his father's heir. (Insitucíon Colombina, Seville)

No! Not Black: Cream and Sugar, Please....

"Coffee today is like God in the Old Testament. It will either save you or kill you depending on how much you believe in its magic powers."
"After a certain point, all that ridiculous information can make you wonder, is science bullshit?"
John Oliver, Last Week Tonight

"Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter than muscatel wine!"
"I must have my coffee..."
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1732, aria, 'Kaffee Kantate'

Coffee, according to some scientists is packed with vitamins from Bs 1,2,3 and 5 to minerals such as magnesium. An antioxidant powerhouse. Anyone imbibing an average amount of coffee daily, say two to three cups (ha!), derives more antioxidants than they might from their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. Which might, of course, speak to the fact that most people ignore the need to consume produce on a daily basis, but coffee lovers cannot overlook their daily cravings.

Coffee starts the day for almost everyone, and its most immediate effects are reliably, that energy surge, pinpoint focus, alert state, mellow mood and enhanced cognitive function. Deprived of that morning coffee life gets bogged down, we can't start the day, feel cranky and tired, and everything's a rotten bore. Nothing perks up mood, attention and ability to function quite so much as that requisite coffee.

Oh, there's much more, there's long-term benefits. How about a reduced risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's? Oh, and, just incidentally a lowered risk of various types of cancer. Coffee, according to the American Diabetes Association, can assist in lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. A 2011 Harvard study even claimed a 20 percent lower risk of depression for coffee drinkers.

And if that's not enough, how about the World Health Organization's dietary recommendation for 2015 - 2020 associating health benefits linked to consuming three to five cups of coffee daily? Oh, you didn't need to be convinced? What on Earth did people do before 1600 and the introduction in the West to that wonderful brew?

Well, at about that time in history, coffee was considered a cure for alcoholism in Britain. Not everyone was convinced, however. There was a Women's Petition Against coffee promulgated in 1674 that read: "We find of late a very sensible Decay of that true Old English Vigour. Never did Men wear greater Breeches, or carry less in them."

So coffee's a boon to humankind, isn't it? Except ... except for a few niggling, perhaps unwarranted doubts. The consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest based in Washington warns that any coffee consumption at all during pregnancy may result in low birth weights, in miscarriage and !gasp! childhood leukemia.

A significant positive association was linked in a 2010 meta-analysis of 5,347 lung cancer cases and 104,911 non-cases which concluded that high, very high coffee intake may lead to lung cancer. Researchers at Maastricht University, The Netherlands, linked coffee consumption to a 20 percent risk increase for urinary tract cancer, through a 2010 study.

Oh, and there's more; the claim that coffee makes people less intelligence. People who drink coffee black, some studies contend, are likelier to be psychopaths. Yes, there are the trifling irritations resulting from coffee use, when too much caffeine can lead to anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, digestive issues and high blood pressure. 

Coffee, above all, is a.d.d.i.c.t.i.v.e.....

Bottoms up!

Ancient Primitive Funerary Rites

"[The] zig-zagging incisions were undoubtedly engraving marks, produced with no utilitarian purpose but purely for artistic or symbolic representation."
Researchers, Natural History Museum, University College London, Britain

Bones with markings  Credit: Natural History Museum

"The engraved motif on the Gough's Cave bone is similar to engravings observed in other Magdalenian [later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic age] European sites."
"However, what is exceptional in this case is the choice of human bone and the cannibalistic context in which it was produced."
"The sequence of modifications performed on this bone suggests that the engraving was a purposeful component of the cannibalistic practice, rich in symbolistic connotations."
"Although in previous analyses we have been able to suggest that cannibalism at Gough's Cave was practised as a symbolic ritual, this study provides the strongest evidence for this yet."
Silvia Bello, Calleva researcher, Natural History Museum, London

A prehistoric forearm bone appears to have been disarticulated, filleted, chewed, and then engraved with a zig-zag design before being broken to extract bone marrow, said scientists from Britain's Natural History Museum. (Trustees of the Natural History Museum via Reuters)

When survival hangs in the balance, desperate people in our modern age resort to the unthinkable; with sadness and distaste but obeying nature's endowed irresistible urge to continue existing, they will make the decision to carve away the flesh of their companions who have died. These are castaways whose ships have met with disaster awaiting rescue, or survivors of plane crashes, or explorers of centuries past who turned to the desperate mode of survival through cannibalism. There are few who would fault them.

In some primitive societies it was part of the mourning ritual on the death of a loved one to wish to retain their spirit within the living, and to do this it was thought that eating their vital organs represented the ritualized manoeuvre that would ensure that the dead one's spirit was not lost, living on within the corpus and spirit of others. In other societies cannibalism was practised for other reasons, the taste of human flesh acquired a religious connotation, perhaps tinged with symbolically vanquishing an enemy, in death as in life.

So it should hardly be surprising to discover, as British paleontologists recently affirmed through their published research in the journal PLOS ONE, that some 15,000 years ago, unearthed ancient bones show evidence of having been cannibalized. That early cave dwellers ate their dead relatives, perhaps ritualistically; filleting their flesh and cracking their bones to extract the marrow, then scribbling markings on the bones, perhaps leaving a message relating to the departed.

Cheddar Gorge in Somerset  Credit: Joe Daniel Price

Hundreds of incised marks discovered on human and animal bones out of Gough's Cave were being studied by researchers in the field. The field happened to be in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, at Cheddar Gorge, a natural geological site of great beauty complete with limestone cliffs and vast rocky chambers. The discovery lends itself to the opinion that it represents the first Paleolithic age -- dating from 2.5 million years ago to around 12,000 BC -- evidence of ritualized cannibalism.

At Gough's Cave, an impressive cavern at Cheddar Gorge, researchers discovered one human bone that had been disarticulated, filleted, chewed and finally a zigzag design was tooled onto it -- and then it was cracked to extract the bone marrow. The marks appear not to have been produced through the process of butchery, evidently. The speculation is that they may represent details of the dceased's life, perhaps alternately memorializing the manner in which death arrived.

People are seen inside Gough's Cave in April 1934. Discovered in the 1880's, Gough's Cave in Somerset, southern England, was excavated over several decades ending in 1992. (Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Frequent excavations at Gough's Cave have unearthed evidence that humans had lived there for thousands of years, with human bones discovered in the cave, along with the remains of butchered mammals. Scientists from the Natural History Museum and University College in London found ample bones with carefully incised patterns marked on them to understand that the patterns are not random cuts but deliberate patterning for some obviously important purpose in mourning the dead.

Descendants of the early humans who lived in that far-off early era are known through DNA analysis of "Cheddar Man" the earliest complete human skeleton dating to 7150 B.C. to be living today in the area.

Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge

Historical Retrospective

"It seems horrible to hang five men at once."
"Yet the blood of 21 whites calls for retribution."
Justice Matthew Baillie Begbie, 1864, British Columbia supreme court chief justice

"[The six chiefs were not  criminals and they were not outlaws."
"They were warriors, they were leaders, and they were engaged in a territorial dispute to defend their lands and their peoples."
B.C. Premier Christy Clark, Quesnel, B.C., 2014

The Law Society of B.C. will remove a statue of Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, known as B.C.'s 'hanging judge,' from its lobby because it’s a colonial symbol that offends natives. Arlen Redekop / PNG

The event named the Chilcotin War between Canada's First Nations tribes and the provincial government of the 1860s is seen at the present time through the lens of colonialist fault, when native peoples found themselves, their heritage and culture and the land they lived on in dispute by Europeans who claimed it for themselves as sovereign territory the original inhabitants had no right to. There were efforts at treaties that would defuse the hostilities between the two sides, but they were placatory in nature with little substance to support any recognition of equality.

At the-then provincial capital of New Westminster in 1964, news was received of a massacre, warranting the dispatch of two volunteer militias to seek revenge on a war party comprised of some 25 Tsilhqot'in warriors whose Chief Klatsassin lead an attack on a work camp. Three of the work camp members escaped the deadly assault. The crew had been building a road to the interior. The work crew had been fast asleep and when dawn broke found themselves facing a war party.

Fifteen of the work crew were killed in the attack, and a following attack killed another six. The volunteers dispatched to meet the war party in combat succeeded only in doing physical harm to each other in friendly fire. Five Tsilhqot'in chiefs offered to negotiate for peace. As they approached the white camp they were manacled, charged, convicted and hanged though one of the condemned chiefs explained "We meant war, not murder".

When another chief advanced toward authorities with gifts in a traditional method of seeking forgiveness for his part in the massacre, he was hanged in New Westminster. The chiefs had a defined and planned purpose for the attack, it was to influence the colonial authorities to move away from their ancestral territories. Their presence had brought epidemics of smallpox whose result was destructive to Tsilhqot'in communities.

Some of the road crew that had been slaughtered by the road party had contemptuously promised the Tsilhqot'in that they could expect an increase in the incidence of smallpox, thanks to the roads they were building to advance the presence of whites in the geography that the First Nations considered their own. And which brought not only whites with their hostile arrogance, but disease and exploitation to the indigenous communities their presence suffocated.

The Law Society of British Columbia has issued authorization to remove a statue of Justice Begbie from the lobby of their building for the purpose of making people "feel comfortable and included on the premises". In response, Chief Joe Alphonse, Chair of Tsilhqot'in National Government sang praise for the society's removal of "this monument to injustice and symbol of B.C.'s colonial past."

In one fell swoop phasing out the honours that historically fell to the first chief justice of the province for representing the tenor of the times. Also obliterated will be the school names in honour of the man, street names, and plaques dedicated to Justice Begbie located province-wide. The Tsilhqot'in Nation has called for the name of Justice Begbie to be removed "from all public places".

This politically correct move to assuage the present-day indignation of First Nations over past events perceived to represent wrongs against their ancestors leaves little room for negotiations. Writing into the record, for example, that matters might have taken a different turn but could not, reflecting the political/social tenor of the times. Justice Begbie was adhering to a code of conduct and laws enacted that reflected the values of those times in which he lived.

In any society at any time, a planned assault for the purpose of destroying lives whose presence and purpose were perceived to be potentially injurious to the interests of the attackers, would see them being held liable for murder in the first degree. Frontier, colonialist justice made quick work of exacting the ultimate penalty from those involved in the war party and the deaths of 21 human beings.

History attests that Justice Begbie officially represented a racist system, but he was himself inclined to be more socially liberal, representing a personage who acknowledged indigenous title, accepting indigenous testimony when the majority of British Empire colleagues would not hear non-Christian witnesses. Justice Begbie familiarized himself with a number of indigenous languages, giving him the capability of speaking with indigenous witnesses, including the chiefs and surviving work crew members.

Undated photo of Matthew Baillie Begbie, B.C.'s first chief justice. VANCOUVER SUN


He presided over courts in barns, cabins and fields of stumps. He became fluent in Secwepmc and Tsilhqot’in. He told the government in 1860 that First Nations held aboriginal title that had to be recognized. He opposed efforts to displace First Nations from land desired by settlers. He forced provincial legislation ensuring that First Nations women were entitled to a share of the estates of white partners. And often he commuted the expected death sentences for First Nations — something he never did for a non-aboriginal offender. Some of his best judgments thwarted racist provincial legislation directed at Chinese communities, which he denounced as infringing on their personal liberty and equality before the law. Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun, April 2017 

The Looted Gift That Keeps On Giving

"She grew up in the very rural South during the era of segregation. She was descended from slaves who had worked this tobacco plantation that eventually she came to own a piece of."
"She was sort of like this uber-mother. She just took care of everyone; her kids, her cousins' kids, the neighbours' kids. If you didn't have a girlfriend, she'd find you one; if you didn't have a place to stay, you slept on a mattress in her hallway."
"They [the Lacks family] talk about that [scientific advances HeLa cells have supported], how they feel it's so important for scientists to really learn the story of Henrietta and her family and the impact  this had on them. They hope that in the future other people don't have to have the same experiences."
"Nothing like this ever happened where either research participants or tissue donors are part of the process. [The family] wanted this genome to help the world, but also basically wanted this whole [lack of consent] process to stop with this generation."
"They went in and they took these samples and it was totally standard at the time. They were taking samples from really anybody they could get their hands on. We didn't even have the term 'informed consent' [until recently]."
Rebecca Skloot, writer, author: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks' cells were essential in developing the polio vaccine and were used in scientific landmarks such as cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. (Courtesy of the Lacks family)

"Pretty much every university, every hospital research lab has these cells [the legacy cells named HeLa after Henrietta Lacks]." 
". . . Normally cells will divide only a certain number of times, even under the best conditions, and then they'll stop."
"Immortalized cells will just divide and divide and divide and they don't tend to be contact-inhibited. They'll pile up on top of each other and they also grow indefinitely."
Dr. Jim Woodgett, biochemist, director, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto

"If Henrietta Lacks were to walk into John Hopkins today and get her cervical cancer biopsied [for research] ... they would need to get her consent prior to doing that."
Dr. Michael Szego, acting director, Centre for Clinical Ethics, St.Michael's Hospital, Toronto

These very special cells named 'immortal' in recognition of their special ability to forever divide, giving scientists and research the upper hand through an endless source of biological cells, have given immeasurable assistance to science and medicine for the past sixty-six years. Because they are plentiful and reliable, they comprise a kind of even playing field whereby scientists anywhere in the world can begin their scientific medical process of enquiry with the very same platform, enabling replication of successful formulae and findings.

And all this endless supply of biological cells used as a basis for scientific enquiry and work can be traced to one single individual. She had never been informed that her cells had been casually harvested, much less a request made for her permission, nor had anyone in her family. Those thriving cells with their unique properties whose duplication is ongoing, favouring science and strides in medicine were named HeLa cells to distinguish them as having been sourced from Henrietta Lacks, who died at age 30, a mother of five young children, from cervical cancer.

She was being treated at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a poor African American woman whose husband was a tobacco farmer from Virginia, when a biopsy was taken of her cancerous tumour as was common practise at the time, to be used for human tissue research. And then they were recognized as biomedical tools of semi-miraculous provenance. Henrietta Lacks died of her cancer, but the cells that hosted the cancer that killed her now serve the biomedical research community universally.

The Involvement Of HeLa Cells Helped To Create The Polio Vaccine

Dr. Jonah Salk's polio vaccine of the early 1950s owe their success to those HeLa cells, as do likewise countless drugs and research advances valued in billions of dollars, over the years that followed her death. Once it became publicly known that this woman who died of cancer unknowingly and without her permission has provided the wherewithal for biomedical research to proceed, the issue of ethics and compensation entered the picture, a hugely controversial subject.  One woman's cellular immortality had an enormous impact on worldwide medical research.

HeLa cells have been used for a wide variety of purposes; to grow viruses for vaccine development, to study cancer, AIDS and cell division as well as to test radiation effects and poisons on human tissues. Normal cells will grow in a laboratory Petri dish until they touch one another, which signals them somehow to stop growing; the contact inhibiting further growth. To persuade them to grow again they must be separated, but even then their growth becomes limited and eventually stops, whereas 'immortalized cells', an extreme rarity, go on forever.

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, and in 1973 researchers contacted her family to hope to persuade them to take part in studies, the purpose of which was initially puzzling to them, since they had no idea that wife and mother Henrietta Lacks's cells had been purloined for use among the international medical research community. Some family members were appalled and resentful that consent was never sought nor given. The fact that this was a poor family eking out a living on the land, while their family member's cells had generated billions of dollars in profits was infuriating.

A public outcry arose, and those in the medical community responded with their own shame at the neglect of this woman's contribution to medical science. Two of Henrietta Lacke's descendants now sit on a U.S. National Institutes of Health board whose purpose is to determine who will be given clearance to use her genetic information as well as for what purposes. As Dr. Szego of St.Michael's Hospital points out, no tissues of genetic anomalies used in research today can be used without a patient's consent, nor can it be labelled with identifying data.

Even so, cells or other biological materials taken through routine surgical treatments; an artery snipped out in heart surgery as an example; are thought of in the light of medical waste and thus conventionally can be used with conscience in laboratories, without the approval of the patients from whom they have been taken, according to Dr. Szego.

HeLa cells -- Photo credit: National Institutes of Health

Cogito Ergo Sum

"By going back in one leap millions of centuries, [science] has succeeded in being witness to that primordial Fiat Lux (Latin for 'let there be light'] when, out of nothing, there burst forth with matter a sea of light and radiation, while the particles of chemical elements split and reunited in millions of galaxies ... Hence, creation took place."
"We say: therefore, there is a Creator. Therefore, God exists!"
Pope Pius XII

"Even when science cannot provide satisfactory answers -- Why is there more matter than antimatter? How did life begin? How does a material brain produce the subjective experience of thought? -- those who are skeptical of the textbook answers are lonely voices among a faithful mainstream, and shamed for it."
Joseph Brean, National Post: Redeeming Thomas

"We have a society that has a secular government [Canada] and there is a general assumption of faith being very private."
"On the other hand, when you actually take a look at everyday society, the majority of people are people of faith to one degree or another, and faith informs and influences many of the ways we deal with each other on a day-to-day basis."
"Some of the discomfort about some of the language [e.g. morality, forgiveness, mercy] does pose a challenge to faith leaders that perhaps they have not been as effective as they should at explaining themselves to their fellow citizens."
"We've conditioned ourselves to think that faith is extremely private and personal and not something to be talked about in polite company."
"The reality is we do that at our peril. Faith shapes how we relate to each  other, and if we're going to prosper as a society in the future we need to understand each other in a context of increasing faith diversity."
Ray Pennings, executive vice-president, think tank Cardus

"[The privately faithful 30 percent of poll respondents] are people who actually believe in God, believe in heaven, believe in an afterlife. They have largely not been involved in organized religion. They will go to funerals and weddings and that sort of thing, but their faith is largely a private matter, and it's really driven by their prayer. They pray on a regular basis."
"[The spiritually uncertain also 30 percent] seem to be a bit confused about where they want to be. On some issues they kind of side with the non-believers, but they haven't given up totally on everything."
"They ... believe that there's a God, but they're uncertain about the role of God."
"The word 'religion' itself has become a little bit of a four-letter word."
"The march toward secularism that has dominated Canadian society for the last couple of decades appears to be in a bit of a reversal and will be reversed over time if these trends continue, because clearly population growth is coming from immigration."
Angus Reid, founder, chairman, Angus Reid Institute

Actors perform the Stations of the Cross to mark Easter during the Holy Week in Ourem, central Portugal. (Photo credit FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images)

A new poll taken to test the prevalence or lack of faith among Canadians at a time when the general assumption is that religion plays less of an important role in most peoples' lives in Canada than ever before, paints a picture of a robust percentage of Canadians fully invested in their faith. The Angus Reid Institute along with Faith in Canada 150 placed poll respondents within four distinct categories reflecting their responses to poll questions engineered to gauge the level of their beliefs and religious practices.

The outcome of that classification resulting from the poll is that 21 percent of Canadians have been identified as religiously committed to hold a strong belief in God or a higher power, regularly attending religious services. Their direct opposite is the 19 percent of Canadians who have been designated into the category of non-believers (otherwise known as atheists). The larger group taking the middle ground have also been divided equally representing the "privately faithful" and "spiritually uncertain" (likely those said to be agnostic, in more familiar terms).

Each of these middle section groups have been divided equally to represent 30 percent. The poll's purpose was to distinguish and identify the numbers of Canadians categorized as believers and non-believers, and those who fall into a less clearly-defined category in the medium level of the spectrum. Respondents' reactions to a series of words toward which they were asked to register 'negative' or 'positive' resulted in 25 percent saying religion was positive, and 33 percent speaking of it as 'negative'.

"Evangelism", and "theology" gained the lowest estimation scores, while "forgiveness", "morality" and "mercy", on the other hand, were given the highest positive scores to reflect how those words generated a positive energy among respondents. Notable variations across regions in Canada were also identified where in the Prairie provinces about 30 percent of respondents gained the classification of religiously committed in comparison with 14 percent in Quebec, and 19 percent in British Columbia.

According to pollster Angus Reid, British Columbia represents "in many respects the most godless part of Canada", 27 percent fitting into the non-believer category. Quebecers, on the other hand, while deigning to avoid church attendance, still retain deep religious roots from their heritage, with only 18 percent identified as non-believers, while 36 percent are spiritually uncertain, and 32 percent privately faithful. "It's not that Quebecers have totally given up on God. They have given up on religion", clarified Mr. Reid.

Immigrants and visible minorities appear far likelier to be committed to religious faith, with visible minorities making up 16 percent of the group sampled, yet accounting for 29 percent of all religiously committed respondents.

Religious beliefs: All Canadians (in percentages)

• 67%   God or a  higher power exists;

  60%   Life after death;

  53%   God is active in this world;

  57%   Heaven;

  41%    Hell 

  

  The Denver Post      Pope Francis lies down in prayer for Easter services at the Vatican

One-Industry Town Producing Light-Magic

"It's a magical, marvellous town. We are a people of artisans, musicians, pyrotechnics. It's a form of expression, of art, of making people happy."
"There are a lot of people who criticize this art, but we see it differently. It's our daily life."
Jose Guadalupe Solono Sanchez "Doc Pyrotecnia", Tultepec, Mexico

"It's incredible to see the work that people do here. It's what moves the town."
"[She heard  the sound of fireworks; a whistle, a pop and a crack] Then, it was no longer normal [when a loud blast shook the ground]."
Mary Rubio, resident of Tultepec, Mexico

"You couldn't see anything [through the flames and the smoke]."
"I've never felt something this sad [devastating loss of lives, destruction of the open-air fireworks market]."
"It's what sustained the municipality [its pyrotechnic industry]."
Solano Sanchez, Tultepec resident, Mexico

Fireworks explode from the San Pablito market in Tultepec, Mexico, on Tuesday, December 20. Authorities say dozens were killed in blasts at the market, which was especially busy with people buying fireworks for the holidays. CNN

"I came back and I helped her [his 83-year-old mother]. We were halfway the distance we had to cover to get out when I got hit by a large piece of brick and broke my hand and my hand was like hanging."

"I thought she was dead but no, thank God, no she wasn't. At that moment one of my nephews came in with other people and they carried us out, risking their lives because shrapnel was flying all over the place."

"Yes, we're going to keep on working. It's our livelihood,"
Miguel Urban Bojas, 49, injured fireworks vendor

Mr. Bojas the fireworks vendor was injured, along with his elderly mother, and both hospitalized. When they recover they will return to the livelihood they have been engaged in for all of their lives. Generation after generation in this Mexican town of 150,000 people located north of Mexico City, have been employed in the pyrotechnics industry, producing fireworks. The town is known for its spectacular fireworks displays that take place regularly in celebration of all manner of special occasions.

Those who produce the fireworks are master at the trade and take pride in their unique handicraft. These artisans consider themselves to be experts at the tradecraft they take such care with in imaginative and traditional design, supported by the town, and supporting the town. And the community in which they live cannot imagine themselves bereft of their fabulous, popular pyrotechnics events which can bring in tourists from all over Mexico and from abroad to witness for themselves the spectacular displays of colourful explosives.

Fireworks 'castles' waiting to be set off for a competition. Photo: Alejandro Linares Garcia

Mr. Bojas and his mother, though unfortunate victims of a fireworks display gone awry, were fortunate in that they came away with their lives intact. The death toll from that run-amok pyrotechnical event was 35, with many more others in the crowded market wounded from burns, from shrapnel, from smoke inhalation. There were eleven people reported as missing, somewhere in the remains of that conflagration waiting to be discovered.

The ear-splitting, multicoloured violence of the blast provided its own show, one that people of the town had experienced before in the relatively recent past when magic turned to tragic. The firestorm was the result of a powerful chain-reaction in the open-air fireworks market which also destroyed over 80 percent of the 300 stalls in the San Pablito fireworks market. The booths packed with firework merchandise on display and for sale, provided additional fuel for the run-amok fire to feed upon.

Tuesday's massively destructive explosion was the third such calamity to have occurred at this market since 2005. In the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz at a similar market, 29 people died in a 2002 explosion. An explosion of illegally stored fireworks destroyed part of the city of Celaya in 1999 when 63 people died. Another 58 people died in 1988 when a fireworks explosion at the La Merced market in Mexico City occurred.

It has been over two centuries that the people of Tultepec have specialized in the artisanal production of fireworks, skills handed down from generation to generation. The fireworks season lasts from August through to December and in that period of time the vendors of the town's fireworks expect they will sell 100 tonnes of fireworks. During fireworks festivals, music is matched to the pyrotechnical displays.

Elaborate "castle" contests take place where towers constructed of wood, reed and paper are festooned with fireworks that are set off, illuminating the towers and the atmosphere above in a spectacular display of fairyland showers of brilliant colour and scintillating light. Solano Sanchez's mother, father and grandparents all work in the production of fireworks. He is himself a specialized musician promoting the industry of the town's dedication to fireworks production.

Visiting survivors of the catastrophe that destroyed the market, burning it to the ground, and with it also damaging nearby houses, Mexican President Pena Nieto declared: "We made a commitment to support everyone, the 300 stall owners of that market to recover and support them so that they can continue their activities next year normally".

Threatened Lake Baikal

"This stuff [green-black sticky algal blooms] stretched far into the distance for several kilometers."
"The beach was in terrible condition."
Yury Azhichakov, 61,   Lake Baikal, Russia

"[The lake is] absolutely ill."
"Will we Russians be able to show the world that Baikal can avoid the common fate of so many other lakes?
"That is a question I ask from the bottom of my heart."
Dr. Oleg Timoshkin, biologist, Russian Academy of Science

General view of Lake Baikal, Russia -- United Nations Environment Programme

Lake Baikal in Siberia is recognized as the globe's oldest, deepest, most voluminous lake, holding twenty percent of the Earth's unfrozen freshwater. It has long held the reputation of being the world's cleanest lake. No longer. When Mr. Azhichakov fondly approached his favourite beach, Senogda Bay, on the northwestern shore of Lake Baikal, he almost fell off his bicycle with astonishment. Its sands now lay under a thick mat of reeking algal blooms.

These algal blooms are notorious for their ability to produce neurotoxins deleterious to fish and crustaceans, and upward in the food chain, to the humans who eat those fish and crustaceans. The blooms have emerged as a threat to freshwater lakes worldwide. Lake Baikal is a World Heritage site, where over 3,700 species -- more than half of which are to be found nowhere else, live and thrive. Or, they did traditionally when the lake was still pristine; their survival is now threatened.

Eutrophication has taken place, resulting from an excessive growth of algae and other plants in competition for nutrients, fed by runoff from fertilizers and other pollutants. As the blooms gradually starve the water of oxygen, aquatic plants and animals suffocate and the algae blooms proliferate. It was always assumed by Russian biologists that Lake Baikal was protected by its size and depth, from being struck by such an ecological disaster. That was before the growth in tourism and development.

Spirogyra, a specimen of green algae rarely before seen in the shallow zones of Lake Baikal has been recognized in the algal outbreak. There was little difference found by researchers in the presence of phosphorus and nitrogen contact -- identifiers of synthetic detergents and fecal matter -- in treated and untreated water that enters the lake. It also emerged that Russian Railways has been spilling industrial grade waste into the town's sewage system, effectively overwhelming its treatment capacity.

This has led Dr. Timoshkin and his colleagues to insist that an immediate ban on synthetic detergents  be instituted. They are asking for assistance from the government of the Russian Federation to reform sewage facilities. In response, some government officials and academics claim that it is not pollution that has caused this deterioration in Lake Baikal, but rather climate change, while others state that scientists' calls for greater funding has used the fiction of eutrophication as a false claim.

Lake Baikal, the world’s largest lake by volume, is a national treasure in Russia. The freshwater lake is home to an impressive array of plants and animals   

Photo courtesy onurati via Flickr Creative Commons

Lake Baikal's problems with eutrophication represents only one of the threats overtaking the fabled body of water. There are plans by Mongolia to build up to eight hydroelectric dams on the Selenga River and its tributaries, which just happen to be the source of fifty percent of the lake's surface water. The government of Mongolia, while importing 8 percent of its energy from Russia and 12 percent from China, insists the dams would effectively lead to energy independence, reducing coal use that affects climate and the environment.

China, which finds itself in the centre of a dispute between Russia and Mongolia, through its funding of the largest of the projects, has decided to freeze dam construction until such time as an assessment is carried out to more fully understand potential stress on the lake. Despite which, Chinese and Russian tourism companies have announced the investment of $11-billion meant to develop new hotels, tourism attractions and infrastructure in close proximity rimming the lake.

Summer surface waters at Lake Baikal have already warmed about two degrees Celsius since 1977, auguring ongoing  and unstoppable 'progress' in exploiting this unique natural wonder which in the final analysis will utterly compromise the very elements that make it so uniquely admirable. To the point, presumably, where matters will continue to fester so that as tourism increases the new hotels will overlook beaches entirely polluted and a once-beautiful lake that has become a fetid death trap for aquatic life.

Lake Baikal is the world's most voluminous lake—holding about 20 percent of Earth's liquid freshwater—and a treasure trove of biodiversity and unique species. However, the lake is in one of the world's most rapidly warming regions. The lake's temperature has risen dramatically since the 1940s,threatening its fish and other aquatic creatures.

Disinterring the Past

Epidemics spread through First Nations communities in advance of explorers. Some researchers have suggested epidemics reached the Northwest Coast as early as the 1500s, believing the well-known epidemics from the Caribbean and Central America may have spread to the Pacific Coast through native trade networks and social contact. Some of the recorded epidemics in the Interior were known to have originated on the prairies during the historic period (early ​1800s). The introduction of infectious diseases from Europe and Asia into the Northwest Coast and adjacent areas, and an increase in the severity of warfare, had devastating effects on the people. 

Lacking biological or cultural adaptations to these diseases, First Nations were overwhelmed. Smallpox, influenza, measles, and whooping cough were recorded epidemics, with smallpox particularly recurring with devastating effects in the native population. In some cases, people who were sick may have otherwise survived if provided with basic care. First Nations health systems had never encountered these diseases and were unprepared to deal with them. These epidemics continued throughout the historic period and caused ongoing and dramatic population decline. When these epidemics struck, people died in such mass numbers that it was a common occurrence for bodies to remain unburied. 

With so many people affected by these diseases, at times regular food harvest was impossible. The disruption in harvesting during these times made matters worse with a lack of available food for the remaining tribe members and further reduced their immune systems’ resistance to disease due to lack of nutrients. Chronic diseases also entered the population at this time and included Tuberculosis and venereal diseases. It is clear that in some cases entire villages were significantly reduced in single disease events, with mortality rates ranging from 50% to 90% of the population. During this time there was a vaccine for smallpox, which was discovered in Europe in the late 1700s; however it was rarely provided to First Nations people. 

Without a written culture, First Nations lost large pieces of their oral knowledge when experts died off in large numbers during the epidemics. The population collapse seriously unbalanced traditional health care systems. These new diseases overwhelmed and infected the traditional healers themselves, while simultaneously discrediting their methods when they proved ineffective against new maladies. Healers were nearly powerless in the face of the new diseases. During this time, the smallpox epidemic undermined the power of many coastal First Nations, clearing the way for the colonization and repression that followed. The concept of terra nullius, or settlement of ‘empty land’ was advanced at this time, based on the recently depopulated landscape that resulted from these waves of epidemics. 

"This is the first genome-wide study - where we have population-level data, not just a few individuals - that spans 6,000 years,"

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-11-nations-people-effects-european-contact.html#jCp

"This is the first genome-wide study -- where we have population level data, not just a few individuals -- that spans six thousand years."
"We saw that there was [a] signal of positive selection on this gene related to immunity. That can be interpreted as the ancient group had adapted to their environments. Because the gene was involved in immunity, we can infer that maybe it was adapted to the pathogens in their ancient environments."
"After Europeans arrived and changed the environment, those genetic variants that were possibly adapted to the environment were no longer well-suited."
"It [the old DNA] would have been not neutral, but possibly had some detriment [in its capacity to withstand physical introduction by Canada's indigenous people to the new European-influenced disease environment]."
"We don't know what the mechanism is. We can infer there's a possibility that it [the genetic detriment] might be associated with smallpox. It suggests a huge drop in population."
Ripan Malhi, anthropology professor, University of Illinois

Two Canadian First Nations, the Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatia located close to Prince Rupert, British Columbia whose geographic heritage reflects their having lived where they are now located for at least the past six thousand years, agreed to cooperate with research undertaken by University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi. Two people representing the communities undertook travel to the research lab in Illinois for the purpose of observing how the fragments of bone and teeth of their ancestors were handled throughout the research period.

There is a huge sensitivity to the disposition and respect given to aboriginal remains among Canada's First Peoples communities. The delegates from the First Nations communities being studied would obviously be curious about the conclusions that would result from the scientific anthropological investigation into their history and health background relating to conditions pre-contact and following European arrival in North America. When the conclusions were reached by the investigators courtesy demanded they be communicated for the First Nations' communities' information.

The paper that resulted from the investigation was published in Nature Communications. The genetic material that formed the basis for the study was on loan from collections held in trust by the Canadian Museum of History. And one of the results of their study was the affirmation that those two first nations had an uninterrupted heritage of belonging to the land for the past six thousand years. The DNA that was studied indicated that an immunity had been developed over evolutionary time protecting the tribal people from disease-carrying local pathogens.

A natural enough result within any geographically located population exposed to local disease-carrying elements in their environment through natural selection aiding survival odds. The DNA responsible for that level of local immunity was noted by the research team to have fallen from roughly the advent of European contact in the human remains under study. And a study of current members of the tribes indicated that most community members no longer share that particular DNA, according to Professor Malhi.

Dr. Malhi and his research team drew the logical conclusion that the old DNA, rather than providing a useful purpose at that point might instead have become harmful to the community members who had been subjected to a new, European-influenced disease-vector environment. The research team did not succeed in identifying precisely how that genetic detriment might have manifested itself, but pointed out that oral history out of the communities speak of massive outbreaks of disease corresponding to the time of contact.

Added to the exposure to virulent new strains of disease that the local population had no natural defences within their immune system toward, making them lethally susceptible to the effects of the diseases communicated to them, was the added reality of inter-tribal and tribal-European warfare and resulting social upheavals and the cultural alterations that would have resulted from these new threats to existence leading to fallen survival rates.

The research team's findings appeared to indicate that within the period encompassed between 225 and 125 years ago the tribes had lost approximately 57 percent of their genetic diversity. This data reflects a wholesale loss of population density as tribal people were felled by the calamitous incidence of diseases they had no natural immunity to.

Professor Malhi appears, from the success realized in this study area, to be prepared to continue this area of research, planning future similar studies on the genetic consequences of European contact related to other aboriginal groups who were located in Alaska, California and in Mexico.

Early history: First Nations -- British Columbia, Wikipedia