Monday Open Thread

Welcome to your Monday open thread. How many of you are stuck away from home because of the snow? How many of you are stuck at home?

Balloon Juice gives praise to Jimmy Carter for some of his humanitarian work – his
work in eradicating the gineau worm infection.

News came this week that he is on the verge of eradicating the horrible Guinea Worm disease. This is a parasite driven disease where water fleas—carrying guinea worm larvae—enter the body in contaminated drinking water. The larvae penetrate the walls of the small intestine and breed. The male dies and the pregnant female grows to a 3 foot worm that travels through the body to emerge out of a boil on the legs or arms. Once the boil comes in contact with water thousands of new larvae are released, the worm dies and the cycle begins anew.

Or at least it used to begin anew until Jimmy Carter decided to take the worm out.

Back in 1950 more than 50 million cases of the disease were reported each year. This was not a hard disease to prevent as straining water through a simple cloth filter keeps the parasites out of the drinking water. The key is to educate people about how to protect themselves and their drinking water.

When Jimmy Carter began his effort to take out this disease back in 1986 education efforts had reduced the number of reported cases down to 3.5 million. These were in the 20 Countries where education efforts were difficult to do because of remoteness, poverty and war. By 2009 Carter had reduced the list down to 3,200 cases in 4 Countries. And it looks like in 2010 the number will be below 1,700 cases in Ethiopia,Ghana, Mali and Sudan.

Jimmy Carter is a great humanitarian and ex-president. He doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves.

The shocking news came last night that R&B singer Teena Marie has died. She was 54 years old.

Born Marie Christine Brockert, Teena Marie rose to prominence in the late 70s and 80s, striking a musical and personal partnership with funk legend Rick James. She released 13 studio albums, six of which went platinum on the US R&B chart. Two of her albums went platinum, and six altogether were gold.

Marie’s biggest hit came in 1984 with her single ‘Lovergirl,’ which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Here’s my favorite song of hers “Lovergirl:”