Reflectarob @drobwalker - Tumblr Blog

photography-cnl

annajoganiyan

allofberlin

Walk along the Spree

guardian

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but these little ones are less than thrilled to sit with Santa Claus. We pulled together a gallery of some of our favorite photos of kids weeping in the arms of old St. Nick.

allofberlin

Night in Wuhlheide

4newswall

Scientists breed mutant mosquitos that can resist malaria infection

U.S. scientists claim to have genetically modified a mosquito that can resist the malaria infection. If the technique is successful then it could offer a new way of stopping the insects from spreading malaria to humans. With half of the worlds population at risk of contracting malaria this and 580,000 people dying of it a year the experiment could be life-saving. The scientists worked their magic by putting a new “resistance” gene into the mosquitos DNA using a method called Crispr. PNAS journal reports that when these new GM mosquitoes mated their offspring inherited the same resistance too.

Other scientists have been looking at genetically modifying the insects to render them infertile, so that they die out. But some experts fear that eliminating mosquitoes entirely may have unforeseen and unwanted consequences. This method of replacing disease-carrying mosquitoes with harmless breeds is a potential alternative.

#Malaria

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-kTFIO3wkA)

4newswall

The Big Issue goes into the coffee business.

Big Issue have teamed up with entrepreneur Cemal Ezel to establish a new coffee brand aimed at helping the homeless. The charity ‘Change Please’ has been given the go ahead in London to open a coffee truck scheme where homeless people, trained as baristas, will serve £2.50 cups of speciality brew. In return they will earn the London living wage of £9.15 an hour and will be housed in temporary accommodation during their training. The non-for-profit organisation will also underwrite tenancies for the workers, who would otherwise struggle to persuade landlords to let them rent a property.

The scheme, that harnesses the Latte liberal in all of us, will be later extended to Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

#BigIssue