Mexico’s murder rate has led to decrease in men’s life expectancy, UCLA-led study shows
Mexico’s staggering homicide rate has taken a toll on the mortality rate for men — and it could be even worse than the statistics indicate, a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health suggests.
Improvements in living standards and in the availability of health care helped boost life expectancy throughout Latin America during the second half of the 20th century. But that trend slowed in the early 2000s and began reversing after 2005 due to the rising homicide rate in Central America and Mexico. In Mexico, that rate more than doubled from 9.5 per 100,000 deaths in 2005 to 22 per 100,000 by 2010.
As a re...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 5, 2016 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Egypt To Scan Ancient Pyramids With Cosmic Rays
ImageContent(562de397e4b0aac0b8fd508e,562de058140000e800c7ac86,Image,HectorAssetUrl(562de058140000e800c7ac86.jpeg,Some(),Some(jpeg)),Credit: Donyanedomam/Getty Images,The Pyramid of Chephren, pictured here on the right, is one of four Egyptian pyramids to be scanned by scientists in the coming months.) The study of archaeology can be a double-edged sword. As renowned archaeologist Kristen Romey put it in 2012 while discussing the fate of the as-yet unopened tomb of China's first emperor, it’s “ultimately a destructive science. You have to destroy stuff in order to learn about it.” But ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - October 26, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
IDWEEK: Smother and pull, but don’t chop – how to identify and remove botfly larvae
SAN DIEGO – Identifying a botfly infestation can be the toughest part of treating it. It’s not uncommon for travelers to return from Costa Rica, Belize, and other Central and South American countries with Dermatobia hominis infestations, but clinicians in North America are not necessarily... (Source: Skin and Allergy News)
Source: Skin and Allergy News - October 23, 2015 Category: Dermatology Source Type: news
How Fishermen Can Replenish the Seas
It may sound like a tall order: By 2020, the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal for oceans calls on the world to "manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems...effectively regulate harvesting...end overfishing...restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible...[and] produce maximum sustainable yield." Can we really meet those targets in five years? I believe we can. Promising signs, backed by groundbreaking research, show how quickly we can replenish the world's seas while providing enough seafood to feed an additional 600 million people at today's per capita consumption rate -- if we get the incentives right. The...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 21, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Fighting the Scourge of Phantom Boats on the High Seas
What a difference a decade makes. As the world stands poised to launch the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at transforming our planet by 2030, the ocean is at last firmly on the agenda. It's a welcome change from when the seas were woefully marginalized in the Millennium Development Goals. This time, the ocean is getting its own goal -- SDG 14 -- backed up by seven ambitious targets, including to combat the illegal fishing that is destroying vital stocks, and to protect far more of the ocean from exploitation. To help achieve these targets, governments should look to the collaborative initiatives already makin...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 21, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
World 'well being' league suggests Brits would be happier in Belize, Gallup and Healthways find
The UK has ranked below Venezuela and Kyrgyzstan in a global index of well being.Britain came in 44th out of 145 countries which also places it lower than Nicaragua and Bolivia. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - June 26, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Into the light: how lidar is replacing radar as the archaeologist’s map tool of choice
A technology using rapid pulses of light is helping archaeologists to chart ancient settlements hidden beneath dense forest canopiesColorado State University archaeologist Chris Fisher found out about lidar in 2009. He was surveying the ruins of Angamuco in west-central Mexico the traditional way, with a line of grad students and assistants walking carefully while looking at the ground for bits of ceramics, the remains of an old foundation or even a tomb.He had expected to find a settlement, but instead he happened upon a major city of the Purepecha empire, rivals of the Aztecs in the centuries immediately preceding the Sp...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 20, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Guy Gugliotta for the Washington Post Tags: Archaeology Mapping technologies Science Technology Belize Mexico Source Type: news
Into the light: how lidar is replacing radar as the archaeologist ’s map tool of choice
A technology using rapid pulses of light is helping archaeologists to chart ancient settlements hidden beneath dense forest canopiesColorado State University archaeologist Chris Fisher found out about lidar in 2009. He was surveying the ruins ofAngamuco in west-central Mexico the traditional way, with a line of grad students and assistants walking carefully while looking at the ground for bits of ceramics, the remains of an old foundation or even a tomb.He had expected to find a settlement, but instead he happened upon a major city of thePurepecha empire, rivals of the Aztecs in the centuries immediately preceding the Span...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 20, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Guy Gugliotta for the Washington Post Tags: Archaeology Mapping technologies Science Technology Belize Mexico Source Type: news
Redefining "Sustainability" as More, More and, Well, More
Since its birth in 1987, for many, the term "sustainable development" has become synonymous with "less."
"Sustainability" seemed to lock us into a static, zero-sum game of painful sacrifices. Facing finite or shrinking ecological limits, we felt forced to: ensure future food security only by inhibiting demands today; increase jobs and revenues only at the expense of wild nature; and restore wildness only by crimping economic growth.
But this week, groundbreaking research redefines sustainability more positively. Two years' collaboration with university scientists revealed that, through a transition to sustainable fishin...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - June 5, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Two new creeping water bug species found in Belize, Peru
Two new saucer bugs (also called the creeping water bugs) have been found in streams in western Belize and southeastern Peru. Now the scientists say that more needs to be done in order to obtain records of other insects that have not yet been discovered before it's too late. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Source: ScienceDaily Headlines - April 28, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Two new creeping water bug species found in Belize and Peru
(Entomological Society of America) Two new saucer bugs (also called the creeping water bugs) have been found in streams in western Belize and southeastern Peru. Descriptions of the new species appear in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - April 28, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Farming in the forest in Belize
A video on how integrating agriculture with the natural forest cycle can improve resilience and sustainability. (Source: SciDev.Net)
Source: SciDev.Net - March 25, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news
Watch Orderly Hermit Crabs Line Up Biggest To Smallest, Swap Shells In 'Conga Line'
Even hermit crabs, it turns out, aren't safe from a housing crisis.
In the above clip from the BBC show, "Life Story," several hermit crabs on a small Caribbean island off the coast of Belize are shown in their quest for suitable shelter, which involves lining up according to size and swapping shells in an orderly fashion.
Hermit crabs rely on shells (and flotsam, in some cases) to protect their soft abdomens from predators and the elements. They are always on the lookout for shells that might better suit their size and situation since, as the video states, "To be left without a shell is a death sentence."
Amazingly,...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - March 6, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Spiny lobster abundance study at Glover's Reef, Belize finds fishery in good shape
(Wildlife Conservation Society) A recent study conducted in the waters of Glover's Reef Marine Reserve in Belize by the Wildlife Conservation Society and its partners has revealed good news for spiny lobsters: the abundance of these commercially valuable crustaceans should support local fisheries into the future, an indication that no-take areas and other regulations are protecting the nation's marine resources. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - February 2, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news
