African Colonialism and HIV

The article I found this week is about the spread of HIV through the colonization of Africa. The source and consequent spread of HIV has long been sought so that scientist and doctors may be able to isolate the exact strain that jumped from chimpanzee to human, ultimately in hopes of creating a vaccine or at the very least some new treatments. The article highlights the evolution of the virus and effect that colonization had on its spread. The most interesting thing that it points out is that had it not been for African colonization the virus could have and most likely would have died in the jungles of Cameroon long ago. You can acsess the artical here: African Colonization

Fighting To Protect Ancient Manuscripts

The article that I have found this week is about the city of Timbuktu and its ancient manuscripts. The locals there have a very rich written history and are very proud of the written texts which they have. The average people in the city are in fact so fond of these works that they have for years buried them in the floors of their houses and plastered them into the walls, all in an attempt to protect them from which ever army has decided to invade them this week.Timbuktu is in the country of Mali which is in civil war and being divided up into the north and the south of the country. The article talks about how a librarian and a security guard smuggled thousands of these ancient texts out of the library in burlap sacks loaded into donkey carts before the invading jihadist could collect and burn them. From there they brought them by boat down the Niger river to safety. This is truly an incredible story and is sure to make any bibliophile smile. You can access the article here: Timbuktu