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huffingtonpost:

Chagas disease, a tropical illness that is transmitted by biting insects, may pose a major unseen threat to poor populations in the Americas and Europe, according to areport published May 29 in the journalPLoS.

The editorial, which was co-authored by several experts in tropical diseases from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, likens some aspects of the disease to that of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“Endemic Chagas disease has emerged as an important health disparity in the Americas,” the authors wrote. “As a result, we face a situation in both Latin America and the US that bears a resemblance to the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.”

Like AIDS, Chagas disease, which is already prevalent in Central and South America,“has a long incubation time and is hard or impossible to cure,” The New York Timesreports.

The PLoS report found “a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people… who contracted the [HIV/AIDS] in the first two decades of the… epidemic.” Among other similarities, the paper notes that both are chronic diseases that require prolonged treatment, and disproportionately affect those living in poverty.

1. What is more difficult for you, looking into someones eyes when you are telling someone how you feel, or looking into someones eyes when they are telling you how they feel?

2. Think of the last time you were REALLY angry. WHY were you angry? Do you still feel the same way?

3. You are on a…

(Source: kylegeraghty)

theatlantic:

the-feature:

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions. Today, the Pentagon deploys a fleet of 19,000 drones, relying on them for classified missions that once belonged exclusively to Special Forces units or covert operatives on the ground. American drones have been sent to spy on or kill targets in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and Libya. Drones routinely patrol the Mexican border, and they provided aerial surveillance over Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In his first three years, Obama has unleashed 268 covert drone strikes, five times the total George W. Bush ordered during his eight years in office. All told, drones have been used to kill more than 3,000 people designated as terrorists, including at least four U.S. citizens. In the process, according to human rights groups, they have also claimed the lives of more than 800 civilians. Obama’s drone program, in fact, amounts to the largest unmanned aerial offensive ever conducted in military history; never have so few killed so many by remote control.

See also: Drones Won’t Be Taking Over Our Wars Anytime Soon, C.J. Chivers

This is a remarkable story. Read it!

(via loveyourchaos)