Travel Risk

The War to Our South – Mexico Dissolves Their FBI And Moves To Legalize Drugs

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President-elect Enrique Pena and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who won control of Mexico’s government on July 1st, moved to dissolve the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI). Modeled after the United States FBI, the AFI was founded in 2001 to crack down on Mexico’s pervasive government corruption and drug trafficking. With rival drug cartels murdering between 47,500 to 67,000 Mexicans over the last six years, the move by the PRI represents the total surrender of Mexico’s sovereignty back to the money and violence of Mexico’s two main drug cartels, the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas. Coupled with the Obama Administration’s “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of illegal aliens, a hands-off policy on both sides of the border foreshadows a huge increase in “narco-trafficking” violence and corruption flooding into the United States.

via Testosterone Pit – Home – Mexico Dissolves Their FBI And Moves To Legalize Drugs.

Fugu or Not to Fugu?

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Tetrodotoxin poisoning

  • Numbness around the mouth followed by paralysis and death by respiratory failure – the victim remaining conscious throughout
  • First recorded case found in the logs of Captain Cook in 1774, after crew members ate the fish
  • Tetrodotoxin is named after the Tetraodontiformes order of fish, which includes blowfish
  • It is also found in blue-ringed octopuses, some toads, newts and other animals

via BBC News – Dicing death: The fish more poisonous than cyanide.

I refuse to eat sushi in Oklahoma.  I doubt I’ll ever eat Fugu.

Lassa Fever in Nigeria – CDC

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The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health has reported an increased number of cases of Lassa fever. Nineteen of the country’s 36 states have reported cases since the beginning of 2012. As of April 13, 2012, there were reports of 818 suspected cases, including 84 deaths. At this time, 131 cases have been confirmed by laboratory testing. Seven deaths have also been reported among health care workers.

via Lassa Fever in Nigeria – Travelers’ Health – CDC.

Avoid contact with rats, especially rat urine and feces. Put food away in rodent-proof containers.

  • Keep the home clean and rodent proof.
  • Trap rats in and around homes.
  • Do not eat rats.

Latin America: Where the world’s jobs are

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Latin America: Where the world’s jobs are – CSMonitor.com.

So far, 200 entrepreneurs from 30 different countries have traveled to Chile to try to get their ideas off the ground through Start-Up Chile. The program aims to fund 1,000 entrepreneurs by 2014, and not only benefits the grantees – 80 percent of whom are foreigners – but is a boon to Chile, too, says spokeswoman Brenna Loury.

Interesting little article that offers minimal facts to back up the author’s assertion in the title.  How does 200 entrepreneurs equal “where the world’s jobs are”?

The War to Our South – 8/27/11

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BBC News – Mexico drugs crisis: Monterrey shocked by casino attack

The attack was a bold move by the gangs. It happened in broad daylight, was aimed at civilians and took place in the heart of the city.

BTW, the last travel warning for Mexico from the US State Department is dated 4/22/11 or approximately 5,000 corpses ago.  One of the world’s largest life reinsurance company’s manual still maintains a Standard rating for Mexico.

Well, OK then.

Marijuana and Psychosis – Possible Link

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Pot Use in Youth Ups Risk of Psychotic Symptoms in Later Life

The new findings are based on data on about 2,000 individuals in Germany who were 14 to 24 years old when they enrolled in the study, and who were then followed for 10 years. 

None of the participants had ever tried marijuana before entering the study, nor had any experienced psychotic symptoms.

The researchers found that those who started smoking pot during the 10 years of the trial had double the risk of developing psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, even after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, other drug use and other psychiatric diagnoses.

And the more persistent the use, the more persistent the symptoms.

Chandler police link beheading to theft of marijuana from Mexican cartel – East Valley Tribune: Cop Shop