Pope Francis: World Not Over-Populated So Have More Children
Less than a month after saying Catholics don’t have to multiply “like rabbits,” on February 11, 2015, Pope Francis once again praised big families, telling a gathering in St. Peter’s Square that having more children is not “an irresponsible choice.” He also said that opting not to have children at all is “a selfish choice.” A society that “views children above all as a worry, a burden, a risk, is a depressed society,” Francis said. Citing European countries where the fertility rate is especially low, the Pope said they are depressed societies because they don’t want children. They don’t have children. The birth rate doesn’t even reach 1 percent. He once again praised the 1968 encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, that reiterated the ban against artificial contraception while enjoining Catholics to practice “responsible parenthood” by spacing out births as necessary. Francis added, however, that having more children “cannot automatically become an irresponsible choice.” Not to have children is a selfish choice, he said. Life rejuvenates and acquires energy when it multiplies: It is enriched, not impoverished!also, During an in-flight news conference on his return to Rome from the Philippines in January, Francis was asked about his strong defense of traditional families during his visit and he answered by again urging parents to have children and not to heed those who say that over-population is the source of the world’s problems.
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Death Did Not Part Them
Archaeologists in southernGreece have discovered the grave of a man and woman buried as they died some 5,800 years ago still in a tight embrace. A senior member of the excavation team, Anastassia Papathanassiou, says the discovery which was made in 2013 and publicized this week after DNA testing determined each skeleton's sex, is the oldest of its kind in Greece. She says the couple most likely died holding each other. Papathanassiou told The Associated Press that the remains of the couple, estimated to be in their 20s, were found near the Alepotrypa Cave, an important prehistoric site. It's unclear how they died and whether they were related, but Papathanassiou says further DNA testing should answer the last question.
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Penis Reduction Surgery
Surgeons in Florida have given a 17-year-old boy what’s being called the “world’s first” penis reduction surgery. The teen came to doctors complaining of a penis “too large for intercourse,” according to an article in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, published online in November. He was also unable to play sports or even wear most clothing without his phallus showing through the fabric. The penis was 7 inches long and had a circumference of 10 inches, according to the Daily Mail. His penis had inflated like a balloon, said Rafael Carrion, a urologist at the University of South Florida who treated the patient. The shape and massive size of the penis was the result of the teen’s sickle cell anemia. Irregular blood cells would block penile blood vessels and lead to swelling and priapism which is a long-lasting and painful erection. This had happened three times since the boy was 10, which progressively led to a deformed penis. Carrion said he could not find any precedent for penis reduction surgery. His team ended up opting to slice along the patient’s circumcision scar, unwrap the skin, and then remove chunks of tissue from each side. He added that the teen is “very satisfied” with his new penis, which is still “generous” in size but is now more standard in appearance.
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Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Cancer
Fifty-two separate studies found that hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of ovarian cancer. University of Oxford research which was reported in The Lancet found an extra case for every 1,000 women taking the drugs for five years from the age of 50. Lead researcher Sir Richard Peto said claims there was no risk for short courses of HRT simply isn't true. A leading cancer charity said this was a modest increase on a relatively uncommon cancer. Medical charities said the findings were robust, but said the risk did fall after HRT stopped. HRT drugs are used to alleviate the symptoms of the menopause, which can be so severe they interfere with day-to-day life. In the UK, women take HRT mostly for between two and five years. There is an increased risk of breast cancer, which has been well documented. However, the drugs have also been found to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and bowel cancers. But, the impact on ovarian cancer has been debated, particularly for those taking the drug for less than five years. Scientists behind the latest study, which looked at data from 21,500 women with ovarian cancer said it proves there is a link. Professor Peto told the BBC News website, It's a risk, about a million women in this country have HRT and 1,000 will get ovarian cancer from it.
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Thai Official: Buy Smaller Condoms
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health said teens are promoting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by buying condoms that are too big for their penises. Somchaichote Piyawatchwela, a spokesman for the ministry, said teenagers in the country often spring for the larger-sized condoms to avoid being mocked by their friends for having "a small one." Somchaichote said condoms that are too big for the wearer can "slip in action" and fail to protect against pregnancy and the spread of disease. The Thai Bureau of Epidemiology said the infection rate of sexually transmitted infections among teenagers rose from 7.53 for every 100,000 people in 2005 to 34.5 per 100,000. The Health Ministry said it will spend a total $1.95 million to distribute 43 million free condoms this year. A three year running survey Srinakharinwirot University found that Thai men are the most unfaithful in the world with one researcher citing Thai men's small penis size a cause of the infidelity. And, psychologist and adviser for human development at the same university, Dr. Wanlop Plyamanotham, told reporters that Thai marital problem are often related to penis size.
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Super Drought in the U.S. South
The American south-west, central plains and the southern coast are likely on course for super-droughts the likesof which they have not witnessed in over a 1,000 years. Places like California are already facing very dry conditions, but these are quite gentle compared with some periods in the 12th and 13th Centuries. Scientists have now compared these earlier droughts with climate simulations for the coming decades. The study suggests events unprecedented in the last millennium may lie ahead. These mega-droughts during the 1100s and 1200s persisted for 20, 30, 40, 50 years at a time, and they were droughts that no-one in the history of the United States has ever experienced, said Ben Cook from Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The droughts that people do know about like the 1930s 'dustbowl' or the 1950s drought or even the ongoing drought in California and the Southwest today - these are all naturally occurring droughts that are expected to last only a few years or perhaps a decade. Imagine instead the current California drought going on for another 20 years, he added. Dr Cook's new study is published in the journal, Science Advances, and it has been discussed also at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His team took reconstructions of past climate conditions based on tree ring data, the rings are wider in wetter years, and compared these with 17 climate models, together with different indices used to describe the amount of moisture held in the soils. And, what the group found was clear and consistent: that after 2050, the Southwest and the Central Plains would likely shift to drier conditions that would exceeded even the great drought epochs of the so-called "Medieval Climate Anomaly" in the 12th and 13th Centuries. The cause of the drying was twofold: reduced precipitation (reductions in rainfall and snowfall) and increased evaporation driven by higher temperatures and leading to more parched soils. In both the Southwest and Central Plains, we're talking about levels of risk of 80% of a 35-year-long drought by the end of the century, if climate change goes unmitigated, said co-author Toby Ault from Cornell University. And that's a really important point. We're not necessarily locked into these high levels of mega-drought risk if we take actions to slow the effects of rising greenhouse gases on global temperatures, he added. The states most likely to be affected are: California, Texas, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.