Jekyll2026-09-24T04:13:58+00:00/feed.xmlBrunoMauritian Londoner. Bruno20u3zfyy@anonaddy.meTake Your Privacy Back2013-06-07T18:00:00+00:002013-06-07T18:00:00+00:00/2013/06/07/take-your-privacy-back]]>Bruno20u3zfyy@anonaddy.meThe Fog Index2012-06-24T16:00:00+00:002012-06-24T16:00:00+00:00/2012/06/24/the-fog-indexThe Fog Index is a rough measure that quantifies the readability of a written passage. The index was invented by an American called Robert Gunning. An index of around 7 is considered to be clear and precise. An index of 15 and above denotes a murky text that needs to be re-written. The Fog Index is calculated as follows:

  1. Count the number of words in a section of the written work. This section should be at least 100 words long.
  2. Count the number of complete thoughts in the sections. These thoughts are short sentences, or part of sentences that are separated by commas, colons or semicolons.
  3. Divide the number of words by the number of thoughts. This number is the average thought length.
  4. Count the number of words with three or more syllables in the section. Ignore proper names, compound names that are formed of simple words, and words which are three syllables because of the following suffixes: -ed, -s, and -es.
  5. Calculate the percentage of multi-syllable words in the section.
  6. Add this percentage to the average number of thoughts, and multiply the sum by 0.4 to obtain the Fog Index.
]]>Bruno20u3zfyy@anonaddy.meClimate and Poverty2009-08-24T18:16:00+00:002009-08-24T18:16:00+00:00/2009/08/24/climate-and-povertyA novel study has attempted to understand and predict the impact of climate change on the price of staple foods. Ahmed et al. (2009) established that extreme climate events places huge pressure on the price of staple food; these staple foods are essential to poor households in developing countries and form a significant portion of their expenditure. The research provides an understanding of which countries and group are more vulnerable to poverty directly linked to extreme climate events. Staple food, e.g. rice, wheat … is a significant source of the expenditure for a typical poor family living in a developing country. This large dependence is worrying since fluctuations in staple food price are bound to have a significant impact on poverty. This vulnerability of poor households to changing food prices motivates the need to understand the link between climate fluctuations, food prices and poverty.

Recent climate studies showed that hot, wet and dry extremes are becoming more and more frequent. There is direct evidence that such changes in climate patterns are already occurring. Crop damages resulting from this climate volatility will increase; the resulting reduction in crop production will put stress on food prices, which will shoot up.

The paper ‘Climate volatility deepens poverty vulnerability in developing countries’ suggests that wage earners in urban areas are hit the hardest when the price of staple food goes up. This category is extremely exposed to food prices increase: since food form a large portion of their expenditure, rising prices push them below the poverty threshold for consumption. This is a worrying pattern since rural populations are expected to decrease by more than one third between 2010 and 2050. Rural food producers are less hardly hit by rising food prices; they are partially insulated from these effects since they benefit from the higher selling prices.

The report recommends sub-Saharan countries to invest in measures mitigating extreme climate effects, e.g. irrigation upgrading in Tanzania. These measures aim at increasing agricultural productivity, thereby buffering the impact of climate volatility. However the authors warn that these investments must also be accompanied by the removal of barriers to both credit and information.

Reference:
S.A. Ahmed, N.S. Diffenbaugh and T.W. Hertel, Climate volatility deepens poverty vulnerability in developing countries. Environ. Res. Lett. 4 (2009) 034004 (8p)

]]>Bruno20u3zfyy@anonaddy.meDangerous Homeopathy2009-08-21T20:10:00+00:002009-08-21T20:10:00+00:00/2009/08/21/dangerous-homeopathyThe World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned against the use of homeopathy for the treatment of HIV, TB, malaria, influenza and infant diarrhoea. Scientists and medics around the world have welcome WHO’s clear position. Early career scientists in the UK have previously appealed to the WHO to formally condemn the use of homeopathic treatment for these five serious diseases. This appeal aims at discouraging the use of inappropriate medication when people’s lives are at risk. The WHO currently works in partnership with many organisations promoting homeopathy or alternative treatment in developing countries.

Homeopathy is presented as a safe, natural and long term treatment for various illnesses. The basis of homeopathy lies in the beliefs that:

  1. substances causing the same symptoms as the disease to be treated can effectively cure people, and
  2. an over-diluted dose of the substance reduces its potential to harm and becomes very effective for healing.

However, scientific investigations have not proven these claims, but rather show that homeopathy merely acts as a placebo.

Placebos (from the latin I will please) are inert prescriptions which can induce physiological changes. The belief that the patient is receiving treatment is what brings relief to him. However, the placebo effect simply alleviates the symptoms of the disease and is by no way a cure. Homeopathy cannot thus cure serious diseases, such as HIV, TB, malaria, flu and diarrhoea.

Promoting irrational and ineffective treatments for these serious illnesses can lead to catastrophic consequences. This has been demonstrated in South Africa, where Thabo Mbeki’s reckless policy has led to an estimated 365,000 premature deaths. Advocating homeopathy for AIDS and flu in place of proper treatment is unethical, since homeopathy is no replacement for effective medication developed through rigorous clinical trials.

]]>Bruno20u3zfyy@anonaddy.meThe Problem of Life2009-07-21T19:43:00+00:002009-07-21T19:43:00+00:00/2009/07/21/the-problem-of-lifeI am currently reading the latest issue of Physics World. The current issues contains a series of captivating articles on the interface between physics and biology. One of them caught my attention: “The quantum life”. Life has always be problematic for us, physicists. Living organisms have long be regarded as magic entities, endowed with some obscure ‘life force’. Today, we know it’s no magic at all; living cells are merely made up of ordinary matter which do extraordinary things. This ordinary matter obeys the laws of physics. But then, why does life has so many astonishing characteristics?

In the 1940s and 1950s, physicists hoped that quantum mechanics would evolve to a point that the mystery of life could be explained. The founders of the quantum theory, boosted by successful prediction of the behaviour of non-living matter at atomic level, hoped that quantum mechanics would be powerful enough to explain the behaviour of living matter. 50 years later, this dream is yet to be fulfilled.

One big question is the problematic origin of life, which proves to be a stubborn mystery. How could the simplest known living organism, which is still astonishingly complex, arise by assembly of inanimate matter? These questions are still open, and this is what makes biophysics so interesting.

Reference:
Davies, P., The quantum life. Physics World. Vol 22 No 7 July 2009, pp 24–28.

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