Is AIDS of animal origin?

The tragedy of AIDS is destroying nations in Sub-Sahara Africa with 30% infection rates and leaving behind orphaned and infected children. A debate is ongoing about whether AIDS is a zoonosis, a disease of animals that may be transmitted to man under natural conditions.” The New York Times ran the headline, “Chimpanzee meat blamed for AIDS epidemic.” The problem with the headline is that humans have been eaten SIV infected meat for thousands of years but only with the 20^th century had AIDS emerged. In fact, over the last 50 years only 11 cases of SIV infection has been recorded in humans.

The source of the HIV-2 virus has been identified as the Sooty Mangabeys (monkey). Five criteria were used to determine this:

1. HIV-2 has an identical genome structure as SIVsm.
2. The two strains are phylogentically (evolutionary development) are closely related.
3. Sooty Mangebeys are numerous in the HIV-2 infected region of West Africa.
4. Geographic coincidence.
5. Sooty Mangabeys are hunted for food.

“Evidence of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection has been reported for 26 different species of African nonhuman primates. Two of these viruses, SIVcpz from chimpanzees and SIVsm from sooty mangabeys, are the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. Together, they have been transmitted to humans on at least seven occasions.” The virus for which the majority of HIV infection in the world is believed to have occurred is the result from just one cross-species transmission.

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.metrostate.edu/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=120&sid=dc68a5e2-a84a-4000-9371-7db2b083f24f%40sessionmgr104

Journal of Medical Primatology:

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.metrostate.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=108&sid=d9b5b547-d595-4516-8adb-335cd3fb20d0%40sessionmgr102

Reindeer

The reindeer’s ancestors were hunted by the Neanderthal during the Middle Paleolithic era. Herding in Alaska was started in 1892 (first importation of domestic reindeer from Russia) by the Native population as a means of combating underdevelopment. In 1902 the Russian government stops the exportation of reindeer to Alaska. During the 10 years a total of 1280 reindeer are shipped to Alaska.

By 1968 an estimated 30,000 reindeer exist in Alaska with 11 privately managed herds, ranging in size from a few hundred to many thousand. Today there are an estimated 463,000 reindeer in Alaska. One threat reindeer herders have is the comingling of the herds with Wild Caribou with some herds losing 75-100%.

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.metrostate.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=115&sid=350c7cde-ecd8-4281-84c1-12097f666e4d%40sessionmgr103

http://www.alaskool.org/projects/reindeer/history/iser1969/RDEER_1.html

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.metrostate.edu/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=115&sid=350c7cde-ecd8-4281-84c1-12097f666e4d%40sessionmgr103

Reindeer meatballs with a cold beer:

http://flickr.com/photos/oliverw/240889181/

Saving Species in Madagascar

Madagascar is an ecological masterpiece that has been brewing for 160 million years. Sitting between the continents of Asia and Africa the people’s heritage is a combination of both. Madagascar has become a symbol of the struggle that exists between the best way to save endangered species and the struggle of local people who depend upon the land to survive. The center of this story is the Ranomafana National Park with the main character being a American Patricia Wright. The park was created, with USAID money, to protect the various species of lemur that live in the area. The conflict arises due to the fact that after many years of being controlled by a socialist dictator Madagascar is one of the poorest in the world. The locals view the parks as an empty promises the have benefited the rich while leaving the poor even worse off including the spread of disease that is killing as much as 10% of the population of some villages..

Stille uses the crayfish to show the catch-22 nature of the Madagascar experiment. The forest has been closed to logging and other economic uses so the locals need to find income from another source. The locals began harvesting the crayfish which the ecotourists enjoy eating. The result has been the endangerment of crayfish. As a local villager Nobert Butovao says, “For us, the park means death.”

The thought that came to mind as I was reading was Kipling’s poem,” The White Man’s Burden.” It is the self appointed “burden” of Americans to know what is best for these people even if it kills them.

The Ganges’ Next Life

How best to clean up the Ganges River in such a manner that will not create a conflict with the people’s Hindu beliefs is the essence of this chapter. Stille is exploring the conflict that exists between religion and science using a Hindu setting. Presently the river is dangerously high in fecal coli form caused by the dumping of human waste directly into the river by Varansi and other major cities along the river. The Hindu views the Ganges as a goddess “Maa Ganga.” Located on the river is the holy city of Varansi, the “chief center of Hindu learning and culture”. The story centers on a man by the name of Mishra who is both a holy man of one of the principal temples of Varansi and a professor of hydraulic engineering at Baharas Hindu University.

Because the river is viewed in such a holy way people journey to the river to dip themselves and drink from it to cleanses their sins. This is causing major health concerns due the dumping of human waste. Recently the Indian government has made attempts using European technology to clean up the sewage. The problem was that the technology used only makes the water livable for fish not humans. Add to the sewage is the human pollution caused by the dumping of dead bodies and cattle the river creating a potential crisis. A new proposal is being made to use a pond system to clean the waste water from Varansi. The Indian government is considering the idea but of concern is how to explain it the people using “Ganga is our mother. Come and see what is being thrown on the body of our mother – sewage and filth” as compared to “Ganga is polluted”.

Domesticated Animals – Llama

Llamas (Lama glama) and the alpaca are two species of four species (guanaco, vicuna being the others) of New World camelids located in the South American Andes. Originally located in the North Amercian plains the ancestor of the camelids migrated south due the Ice Age and inhabited the Andes. Domestication of the guanaco, from which the llama descents, began in Peru about 2000 B.C. and became a “silent partner” to the Incas. The llama was used as a food source, a beast of burden; its wool was used for textiles, for building bridges to roofs to clothing, and worshipped (and a nice golf bag carrier).

The alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is descendant of the vicuna and was domestication may have occurred as early as 4000 B.C. The alpaca was associated with the goddess Pachmana, Mother Earth, in Andean mythology. “It was believed that alpacas were loaned to humans, to be left on earth for only as long as they were properly cared for and respected. According to this legend, alpacas were given as a gift at the mountain Ausangate in Peru.” The animals are similar to the llama but the wool was also used as currency in the Andean regions of South America.

The Spanish conquest brought a systematic attempted to destroy these animals. The result was that only those llamas and alpaca located in the highest reaches of the Andes survived, some estimates is that 90% of the alpaca were destroyed.

Today these animals are used as pack animals and their wool continues to be used for textiles in South American.

http://www.llamapack.com/text/history.html

http://www.llama.org/history.htm

http://www.gatewayalpacas.com/alpacas/history-of-alpacas/alpacas-history.htm

Looting History

The looting of ancient cities has become big business for the poor in the area of ancient city of Mortgantina. Located on the island of Sicily, Mortgantina was the last Greek hold out on the island against the Roman armies in the 3^rd century B.C. The city lay buried for 1900 years until Princeton University began excavations in 1955. The contrast that exists is shown by a chance meeting in 1968 between Mascara, a tombaroli (tomb raider) who was raiding a site and Malcolm Bell, an American archeologist. Mascara has been arrested many times attempting to loot antiquities. What has been created is a black market in ancient artifacts that involves museums throughout the Western world including even the mafia. Stille goes into great detail about Cammarata who was arrested for smuggling trafficking of antiquities including to private collectors inside the United States. able.

In 1972 the United States ratified the UNESCO treaty making the smuggling of antiquities illegal. Museums, i.e. Getty and Metropolitan, have spent millions of dollars to purchase these artifacts. And in only the last few years have these museums become interested in helping to deal with this illegal smuggling trade.

Should these museums be required to return these artifacts being if not for the smuggling of these items they may never have been discovered. Some believe that the restrictive Italian laws are part of the problem. The laws have created fear among Italian collectors about purchasing illegal artifacts thus the items are sold overseas. Another question arises because the city of Mortgantina was a Greek city not Italian. Should the artifacts be considered Greek or Italian?

Have you ever looked at yourself and realized there is more important things in life then your petty problems. When I hear about the people who need help I understand who Christ wants me to help. There are children dying of malaria and starving. These are the people Father has called me to help. Compassion International

The Culture of the Copy and the Disappearance of China’s Past

The chapter is about Western man’s attempt to preserve the historical Chinese culture. It is a look at a trip that he took to China with an Italian named Cordaro. Historically the Chinese have a cyclical view of time. This view allows the Chinese to continually copy and rebuild the old with the new. The Chinese even have a word for this type of copying called Fu Zhipin. The view is in contrast to the traditional Western view that time is linear. During the Cultural Revolution Mao made an attempt to destroy the past with the destruction of several thousand monuments. This view of the past has forced many western museums to cancel exhibits of Chinese artifacts because the Chinese will send copies instead of originals. The preservation of the past has taken a backseat to the rapid modernization effort that China has been going through. In the city of Xi’an a school of art preservation was created to train Chinese students. The key word from the students was to make money. An exception was at Luoyang were it has been realized that the old cultural heritage of the region could be used to attract tourism dollars.

One are that the chapter touched upon was how the Chinese have traditionally placed more importance of the whole (i.e. The Great Wall) versus the Western view of placing the importance on the individual (i.e. Michelangelo’s David). This view is seen in the rewriting of ancient Chinese works throughout history. This view influences how the Chinese view a wholistic medicine compared to the Western symptom oriented view. The road ahead has tremendous opportunity for the future of Chinese archeology which is still considered in it infancy.

The Sphinx – Virtual and Real

How should the modern view the past? The chapter talked about a conflict that exists concerning the view of the Great Pyramid and Sphinx. The scientific community looks at the evidence using technique like carbon dating and concludes that the structures were built during the Old Kingdom. A second group based on the teachings of Edgar Cayce and similar types believe that the structures were built by descendants of Atlantis thousand of years earlier. What the chapter brings out is the conflict that exists between the modern and the past. There are groups of people who view the past as superior to the present, modern world. These people look to the ancients as the source for life’s problems. The Cayce group would be those people who believe the pyramids hold secrets to the universe. The scientific community is represented by men like Lehner who base the arguments on the evidence found at the sites.

The problem for the scientific is that in order to continue the restoration and preservation projects they are depended upon those who visit the monuments, who provide needed revenue, many of whom are there because they are adherers to Cayce or Graham Hancock types. Also, the merchants that surround the Sphinx are depended upon those same people for their livelihood.

Living with a Dead Language

What is the future of a language that is no longer used? Since Vatican II the usage of Latin has declined from a common language used throughout the Catholic Church to a dying language on the deaths door. Enter Reginald Foster, a Carmelite monk from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Foster has been the Latin Language Department of the First Section of the Vatican Sectariat of State since 1969. Foster is a man with more passion toward Latin than for his religion, though his religion appears to be Latin, a passion he developed while attending St. Francis Minor Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when he was thirteen. A man who can best be described as a loud arrogant know it all who prefers wearing a blue jumpsuit from JC Penny’s above his religious garb.

Foster was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and for as long as he can remember he wanted to be a priest, when he was six he would pretend he was a priest. When he was twelve he spent a time being overly religious, counting all sins, etc; a stage many people experience in life. When he was fifteen he had decided he wanted to be a teacher of Latin and join a religious community ending up as a Carmelite monk. Foster has lived for 40 years in a monastery, isolated from the real world, on Rome’s Janiculum Hill.

Foster teaches Latin to anyone willing to learn using Latin from throughout the centuries, so students could be reading Cicero, Augustine, etc while learning as compared with the technique most textbooks use by making Latin seem as much like English as possible. With no textbook Foster writes study lessons (ludi) for every class on a typewriter with only capital letters.

At the end of each year Foster takes his study lessons and burns them forcing himself to rewrite each year and losing for history a wonderful study aid created by a lover of Latin. Though today there are websites with him material. In many ways the future of Latin no longer exists in the confines of the Catholic Church but in teaching students the use of Latin to help better learn the English language.

The term used to describe the transmission of disease from animals to humans is Zoonoses and it has a fascinating history.The best know diseases are rabies, anthrax, tuberculosis, plague, yellow fever, influenza, and certain zoonotic parasitic diseases. The most famous plague, also called the Black Death, was caused by the fleas being carried by black rats. In 1346 the plague entered Constantinople and by December 1348 London. By the end of the outbreak “The death toll throughout Europe was at least 25 million out of a total population of 40 million. (In warmer months and in southern Europe, at this time, there was at least one family of black rats per household and an estimated average of three fleas per rat.)” http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/bugl/histepi.htm#plague

Another transmitted disease is Yellow Fever. Yellow Fever is caused when a mosquito bites a human after it has bitten an infected monkey. Located in Western Africa this disease became know as “White Man's Grave” after killing colonists by the hundreds. http://www.cbwinfo.com/Biological/Pathogens/YFV.html

The diseases continue to infect humans as we move closer to wildlife areas. Between 2000 and 2005 and estimated 50 million people where infected with zoonotic diseases causing the death of an estimated 78,000 people. “For instance there has been a global resurgence in the Dengue virus – which is transmitted between monkeys in the jungle by the mosquitoes that feed on them. The cycle can move into nearby urban areas where it can then be transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes” says Dr Jonathan Heeney, Chair of the Department of Virology at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands. http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/medizin_gesundheit/bericht-73607.html

The rise of zoonoses as even produced an article “Zoonoses Likely to be Used in Bioterrorism” by C. Patrick Ryan in Public Health Reports, May-June 2008.

The Man Who Remembers

What is the future of cultures that use oral traditions to pass down myth from one generation to the next when the influence of another culture is introduced? The essay centers on an Italian anthropologist by the name of Giancarlo Scoditti and his travels to the island of Kitawa in order to study the culture of the native people. Give the name Toruruwai, “the man who remembers” by a local sorcerer Scoditti is being sought after today by the natives to help revise some of the old customs that are being forgotten. Stille bases this essay upon discussion he had with Scodotti without ever visiting the island to verify the information he received.

Scoditti’s first visit to Kitawa was in 1973 when he was able to find passage with an Australian official abroad an old motorboat who left him on the island promising to return in one month but never came back. An experience he describes near the beginning of his island adventure was the spiral dance which led to a “nights of love” by the unmarried men and women. A contrast exists between the colorful description of Scoditti versus earlier “grayness” writings of Malinowski.

After the experience with the dance Scoditti began a period of depression in which time he was bitten by thousands of bugs, suffered protein deficiency and experienced illness. He was treated by the local sorcerer who packed his legs with paste to cure the bug bites and met Towitara, a master canoe craftsman. He was aloud to watch the creation of a ceremonial canoe including who a canoe is cut down and transported to the beach without touching the ground; reminiscent of Kula Ring, the myth of the flying canoe. Towitara would come to his dwelling at night and teach him the ways of the Kitawa and after much convincing the witches and sorcerers also began meeting him at night.

The Kitawan culture has been in decline. In the past the changes were gradual but today, like so many throughout history, the change is taking place in a more rapid fashion causing concern that the Kitawa culture will be lost. The man who remembers has become the recorder of a dying culture.

I found an interesting website which I highly recommend. I even bought a t-shirt.

http://who-would-jesus-kill.blogspot.com/

I was thinking about what is know in the Club as Heresy Hunters. These are the people who have committed themselves from clearing the religious landscape of all heresy by their definition. The question is always asked at what point do they disagree with my beliefs. These are the dangerous people within the club. Most Bible teachers either teach prosperity or politics but these man teach that you are all wrong if you don't agree with them. If you don't have it right your damned. I use to be one of these fools until I realized that I was hurting the body of Christ but I had the "right" doctrine.
Today the club in America has degenerated into nothingness and I think I may understand why. I have struggled with porn for 30 years and there are books out there to help the club doesn't real want to deal with this. I understand the 50% of Christian men and 20% of Women are trapped in this area. I also have heard that 50-60% of ministers are in bondage to porn. How can the body of Christ help others when they themselves are trapped. I understand this, the need to point fingers against people because not relationship with Father exists. My desire is to have that relationship and to walk away from the dangers of religion that effect the club.

I had to write a short note about Social Darwinism for a Geography class I have so I thought I would attached it for your reading and comments. A note the book we are reading for the class is Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel so this looks at a comment he made.

Social Darwinism is social theory created from the writing of Charles Darwin, Thomas Malthus and others that can be defined “to describe the idea that humans, like animals and plants, compete in a struggle for existence in which natural selection results in ‘survival of the fittest.’” http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761579584/social_darwinism.html

The idea is based upon Charles Darwin’s work The Descent of Man as applied to human society. As Darwin himself wrote in the Descent of Man, “at some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world.” http://www.reference.com/search?q=social%20darwinism

Social Darwinism gave permission to the European powers to conquering the “savages” located throughout the world because these people were inferior to the white race as Rudyard Kipling called it the “The White Man’s Burden.” Throughout the nineteen and first half of the twentieth century it was used to justify the elimination of less desirables from society. Social Darwinism lost favor after World War One as anthropologists started emphasizing culture or biology. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761579584_2/Social_Darwinism.html

For Diamond the less fit are eliminated by a high murder rate from New Guinea thus producing a more intelligent population. Diamond makes the impression a high murder rate can be good because it eliminates those misfits from society. I think what he is trying to show is that those who are being murdered in New Guinea are the misfits who are the burdens on society, such as law breakers, who are causing the problems. I think Diamond’s main point is that the traditional Western way of defining intelligence is not the world’s way.

I was listening to a podcast called The God Journey this morning. Wayne Jacobsen read a letter from a lady about how torn she was between freedom and grace and at the other end of the religious dial performance based acceptance. For most of my Christian walk it has been based upon performance, I belonged to a Word of Faith club for 17 years before the ministerial temper tantrum make me leave. I understand that conflict within. On one side the Freedom and Grace Christ purchased and on the other having to do something to earn favor with God. I would confess the word so I could get stuff from God. Make sure you do all these things or else. And God forbid bad things will happen if you leave the club. I left the club and I am waiting to see what Father has for me. My goal is to discover how much He loves me and to experience that love.

Yesterday I talked with a friend about the spiritual abuse that has taken place. He is a member of the same group. His counsel was helpful. Christ has set each believer free from the law. We died to the law. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Christ has given no one permission to use their "anointing" to spiritually abuse his body.

I grew up Baptist and went to an Assembly of God church for several years. For the last 17 years I attended a fellowship that met at a Lutheran church. When I started the group had 40 to 50 people. My last class where the abuse occurred maybe 15 including the teacher and family (6). I never realized it but he had done this same thing with many people. We have had many people come through which he made sure he drove away.

I stared reading Grace Walk by Steve McVey this week. I am also going through a Grace Walk workbook for daily morning devotions. I do it because I want to not because I think I better or else. I want to experience the Journey Father has for me not some religious system that makes me fell empty at the end of the day.

I experienced an attack this past week that has me deciding my "church" life, aka the club. The who leads this group for which I have attend for 1 years was teaching about using Grace to obey the Law, Old Testament. I asked a question and I thought was given a poor answer. He was raised Catholic so works and obedience are important. I thought it was done but at the end of class he threw a temper tantrum like an 8 year old. He left the class and would not acknowledge me in the parking lot, he was hiding in his truck.
This is not the first time this has happened. I remember golfing with him and he was about to begin teaching the Word of Faith spirit man teaching. I made the comment that I was convinced yet about the teaching. For five holes of golf he gave me the cold shoulder. He never once came to me about this issue to talk to me about him. I've concluded that he is a typical Charismatic teacher were the world circles around him. Any way back to the original story.
I went home thinking about all the ways I could talk this out with him but I realized that he will never come to me and talk about this. He thinks he has special anointing from God to be a teacher so anyone who disagrees is anathema. When I first joined that group he taught there was probably fifty people involved. Today a good day is 15. Why?
I have decided to listen to Wayne Jacobsen at Lifestream.
The Journey Father has for me looks like, I don't know but I have started using the material of Steve McVey "Grace Walk."