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[Andrea]

Just another step towards taking our freedoms away. Government agencies have ways to view your naked body walking down the street (see article) or at the airport. They scan cars too. Next it will be your house. We were upset when they just wanted in our bedrooms.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087996/NYPD-developing-body-scanner-detect-guns-suspects-street.html

[Vlasta]

Originally Posted by Andrea

Just another step towards taking our freedoms away. Government agencies have ways to view your naked body walking down the street (see article) or at the airport. They scan cars too. Next it will be your house. We were upset when they just wanted in our bedrooms.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087996/NYPD-developing-body-scanner-detect-guns-suspects-street.html

Than you for posting this article . I just can say since, I grew up in the communist country it was bad and many times dangerous , but I was under impression , I arrived to a land of freedom . Hence , I feel like I am regressing back to worse conditions . Not even there these things were non existing .

I am aware nobody here it's interested in this type of upbringing , but I wish people would know in this country what we had been through and being proactive in many ways .

[Cin]

Tucson schools bans books by Chicano and Native American authors

Native authors include Leslie Marmon Silko, Buffy Sainte Marie and Winona LaDuke

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Outrage was the response to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including "Rethinking Columbus," with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu.

The decision to ban Chicano and Native American books follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.

Students said the banned books were seized from their classrooms and out of their hands, after Tucson schools banned Mexican American Studies, including a book of photos of Mexico. Crying, students said it was like Nazi Germany, and they were unable to sleep since it happened.

The banned book, "Rethinking Columbus," includes work by many Native Americans, as Debbie Reese reports, the book includes:

Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate"
Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying"
Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians"
Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas"
N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee"
Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving"
Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony"
Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song"
Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility"
The now banned reading list of the Tucson schools' Mexican American Studies includes two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda.

Jeff Biggers writes in Salon:

The list of removed books includes the 20-year-old textbook “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” which features an essay by Tucson author Leslie Silko. Recipient of a Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, Silko has been an outspoken supporter of the ethnic studies program.

Biggers said Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest," was also banned during the meeting this week. Administrators told Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any class units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes."

Other banned books include “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by famed Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña, two books often singled out by Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, who campaigned in 2010 on the promise to “stop la raza.” Huppenthal, who once lectured state educators that he based his own school principles for children on corporate management schemes of the Fortune 500, compared Mexican-American studies to Hitler Jugend indoctrination last fall.
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/whos...est/singleton/

Bill Bigelow, co-author of Rethinking Columbus, writes:

Imagine our surprise.
Rethinking Schools learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district: Tucson, Arizona ...

As I mentioned to Biggers when we spoke, the last time a book of mine was outlawed was during the state of emergency in apartheid South Africa in 1986, when the regime there banned the curriculum I’d written, Strangers in Their Own Country, likely because it included excerpts from a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Confronting massive opposition at home and abroad, the white minority government feared for its life in 1986. It’s worth asking what the school authorities in Arizona fear today.
http://rethinkingschoolsblog.wordpre...nned-in-tucson

Roberto Rodriguez, professor at University of Arizona, is also among the nation's top Chicano and Latino authors on the Mexican American Studies reading list. Rodriguez' column about this week's school board decision, posted at Censored News, is titled: "Tucson school officials caught on tape 'urinating' on Mexican students."http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Rodriguez responded to Narco New about the ban on Sunday.

"The attacks in Arizona are mind-boggling. To ban the teaching of a discipline is draconian in and of itself. However, there is also now a banned books list that accompanies the ban. I believe 2 of my books are on the list, which includes: Justice: A Question of Race and The X in La Raza. Two others may also be on the list," Rodriguez said.

"That in itself is jarring, but we need to remember the proper context. This is not simply a book-banning; according to Tom Horne, the former state schools' superintendent who designed HB 2281, this is part of a civilizational war. He determined that Mexican American Studies is not based on Greco-Roman knowledge and thus, lies outside of Western Civilization.

"In a sense, he is correct. The philosophical foundation for MAS is a maiz-based philosophy that is both, thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. What has just happened is akin to an Auto de Fe -- akin to the 1562 book-burning of Maya books in 1562 at Mani, Yucatan. At TUSD, the list of banned books will total perhaps 50 books, including artwork and posters.

"For us here in Tucson, this is not over. If anything, the banning of books will let the world know precisely what kind of mindset is operating here; in that previous era, this would be referred to as a reduccion (cultural genocide) of all things Indigenous. In this era, it can too also be see as a reduccion."

The reading list includes world acclaimed Chicano and Latino authors, along with Native American authors. The list includes books by Corky Gonzales, along with Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street;” Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Black Mesa Poems,“ and L.A. Urreas’ “The Devil’s Highway.“ The authors include Henry David Thoreau and the popular book “Like Water for Chocolate.”

On the reading list are Native American author Sherman Alexie's books, “Ten Little Indians,“ and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.“ O’odham poet and professor Ofelia Zepeda’s “Ocean Power, Poems from the Desert” is also on the list.
DA Morales writes in Three Sonorans, at Tucson Citizen, about the role of state schools chief John Huppenthal. "Big Brother Huppenthal has taken his TEA Party vows to take back Arizona… take it back a few centuries with official book bans that include Shakespeare!"

http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonor...th-mas-ruling/

[UofMfan]

Costa Concordia Captain's Excuse: 'I Tripped' ~ HuffPo

[Cin]

Originally Posted by UofMfan

Costa Concordia Captain's Excuse: 'I Tripped' ~ HuffPo

Luckily in the words of tina turner "we don't need another hero", cause we sure didn't get one.

Here is a translation of the transcript of the conversation between Capt. Francesco Schettino, commander of the grounded Costa Concordia, and Capt. Gregorio De Falco of the Italian coast guard in Livorno.

In the conversation, De Falco repeatedly orders Schettino to return to the ship to oversee the evacuation, while Schettino resists, making excuses that it's dark and that the ship is listing.

The audio was first made available on the website of Corriere della Sera, and the Italian coast guard confirmed its authenticity Tuesday to The Associated Press.

_De Falco: "This is De Falco speaking from Livorno. Am I speaking with the commander?"

_Schettino: "Yes. Good evening, Cmdr. De Falco."

_De Falco: "Please tell me your name."

_Schettino: "I'm Cmdr. Schettino, commander."

_De Falco: "Schettino? Listen Schettino. There are people trapped on board. Now you go with your boat under the prow on the starboard side. There is a pilot ladder. You will climb that ladder and go on board. You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear? I'm recording this conversation, Cmdr. Schettino..."

_Schettino: "Commander, let me tell you one thing..."

_De Falco: "Speak up! Put your hand in front of the microphone and speak more loudly, is that clear?"

_Schettino: "In this moment, the boat is tipping..."

_De Falco: "I understand that, listen, there are people that are coming down the pilot ladder of the prow. You go up that pilot ladder, get on that ship and tell me how many people are still on board. And what they need. Is that clear? You need to tell me if there are children, women or people in need of assistance. And tell me the exact number of each of these categories. Is that clear? Listen Schettino, that you saved yourself from the sea, but I am going to... I'm going to make sure you get in trouble. ...I am going to make you pay for this. Go on board, (expletive)!"

_Schettino: "Commander, please..."

_De Falco: "No, please. You now get up and go on board. They are telling me that on board there are still..."

_Schettino: "I am here with the rescue boats, I am here, I am not going anywhere, I am here..."

_De Falco: "What are you doing, commander?"

_Schettino: "I am here to coordinate the rescue..."

_De Falco: "What are you coordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?"

_Schettino: "No, I am not refusing."

_De Falco: "Are you refusing to go aboard commander? Can you tell me the reason why you are not going?"

_Schettino: "I am not going because the other lifeboat is stopped."

_De Falco: "You go aboard. It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'abandon ship.' Now I am in charge. You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me? Go, and call me when you are aboard. My air rescue crew is there."

_Schettino: "Where are your rescuers?"

_De Falco: "My air rescue is on the prow. Go. There are already bodies, Schettino."

_Schettino: "How many bodies are there?"

_De Falco: "I don't know. I have heard of one. You are the one who has to tell me how many there are. Christ."

_Schettino: "But do you realize it is dark and here we can't see anything..."

_De Falco: "And so what? You want go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!"

_Schettino: "...I am with my second in command."

_De Falco: "So both of you go up then ... You and your second go on board now. Is that clear?"

_Schettino: "Commander, I want to go on board, but it is simply that the other boat here ... there are other rescuers. It has stopped and is waiting..."

_De Falco: "It has been an hour that you have been telling me the same thing. Now, go on board. Go on board! And then tell me immediately how many people there are there."

_Schettino: "OK, commander"

_De Falco: "Go, immediately!"

But he never did. This guy is a piece of work.

[Kobi]

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. January 18, 2012 (AP)

A spokeswoman says a suburban Atlanta teacher has resigned after an investigation over third-grade students being assigned math homework with word problems about slavery.

One of the problems read: "Each tree has 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

Another was: "If Frederick got two beatings each day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

Gwinnett County schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said Wednesday an investigation has concluded into four teachers who gave out the assignments at Beaver Ridge Elementary. She says the school system accepted the resignation of one teacher but declined to elaborate on the rest.

Parents were angered by the math problems, and the NAACP had called for teachers to be fired.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/g...esson-15387799

[Kobi]

After years of complaints in African-American circles about the lack of attention paid to missing black women in this country, a U.S. cable network dedicated to black programming begins a revolutionary series this week.

The program, called “Find Our Missing,” is scheduled to begin airing tonight on TV One, a black cable network available in 56 million homes.

The network is working with the Black and Missing Foundation, a group of black professionals who keep track of missing black Americans — cases that are often ignored or unreported. The sheer number of faces that peer back from its website is startling. Most of the missing are from New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland and Florida.

According to FBI figures, nearly 40 percent of all missing persons are people of color, but critics say that the most media attention is reserved for white women.

Craig Henry, executive in charge of production at TV One, says the presumption in this country is that “black people live in impoverished conditions, so there’s not the same sense of outrage” when black Americans disappear.

“We are also accustomed to seeing stories and news reports of black people involved in criminal activity, and not very often the victims of crimes,” he said.

Derrica Wilson, the CEO and co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, says it is the public’s attention and media coverage that help find the missing, and this new effort could save lives or give families closure. She said many of the missing black women are victims of human trafficking. Since 2008, her organization has helped to either locate or bring closure to 71 missing persons cases. This January alone, the organization helped find six people, and all six were found alive.

“We all know that black and Latinos, or any person of color, who go missing oftentimes do not receive the much needed media coverage, which could drastically increase the odds of their safe recovery,” she said.

“It is time for all people — regardless of race — to be treated equally in their times of greatest need,” said Natalie Wilson, another co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation.

“When we hear the term ‘missing persons,’ most people conjure up images of Chandra Levy, Caylee Anthony or Natalee Holloway,” Wilson said. “As a result, the public is misled in believing that victims of abductions and kidnappings are [all]blond, blue-eyed and female.”

Both the Black and Missing Foundation and TV One point to the cases of 36-year-old Stacey English of Atlanta, and 23-year-old Phoenix Coldon of St. Louis. Both women went missing at the end of December, and authorities say the cases are strikingly similar.

For example, the vehicles of both women were found abandoned and still running just miles from their homes. And the man authorities say English had last seen was from St. Louis, where Coldon disappeared. Their families say neither case has generated the kind of national attention or questions they believe would have occurred if the young women had been white.

“It’s sad that this may be the case,” said Cindy Jamison, the mother of Stacy English. She, her husband, Kevin Jamison, and a small army of relatives and friends have been searching Atlanta for weeks. On the phone today she told me, “Here we are crying for everyone to show Stacey’s face, trying to get whoever would listen to listen, and whoever would have us to tell her story…. and [the lack of national attention] does make us think.”

Craig Henry of TV One says the new series is a set of “mystery tales,” and this is the best way to grab viewer interest in these cases, many of them quite cold.

“These are stories, and we immerse you in the lives of these missing people,” he said. “These are people you get to know, you see their families, see their normal lives, and then one day you learn that they are gone. We want to get people to empathize and get people to care about these stories.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...g-black-women/

[Hollylane]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Tucson schools bans books by Chicano and Native American authors


http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonor...th-mas-ruling/

#@#)(*)(%*@_)$*@#$

As a person of Native American descent, and a native Tusconan, I am yet again disgusted by the behavior of more than a few Arizonans. What fucking country do you think you're living in??? Have you read the constitution???

[SoNotHer]

Poe fans call an end to 'Toaster' tradition
By SARAH BRUMFIELD | Associated Press – 23 mins ago



FILE - A flashlight shines on items left on the gravestone of Edgar Allen Poe by people who pretended to be the mysterious "Poe Toaster" in Baltimore, early Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Fans waited long past a midnight dreary to see if the true "Poe Toaster" would return after a two-year hiatus to leave cognac and roses upon the writer's grave on the anniversary of his birth, or whether the tradition had reached an end. The "Poe Toaster" was a no-show for a third year.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Edgar Allan Poe fans waited long past a midnight dreary, but it appears annual visits to the writer's grave in Baltimore by a mysterious figure called the "Poe Toaster" shall occur nevermore.

Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the "Poe Toaster" was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer's legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition.

"It's over with," Jerome said wearily. "It will probably hit me later, but I'm too tired now to feel anything else."

It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's original grave on the writer's birthday, date to at least the 1940s. Late Wednesday, a crowd gathered outside the gates of the burial ground surrounding Westminster Hall to watch for the mysterious visitor, yet only three impersonators appeared, Jerome said.

The gothic master's tales of the macabre still connect with readers more than 200 years after his birth, including his most famous poem, "The Raven," and short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is considered the first modern detective story. Jerome, who was first exposed to Poe through Vincent Price's movies, believes people still identify with Poe's suffering and his lifelong dream to be a poet. He has kept a vigil for the "Poe Toaster" each year since 1978 and built up a team of other dedicated Poe fans who stay awake all night to scan the shadows of the burial ground for the visitor.

"I've been part of a ritual that people around the world read about," he said. "I'll miss it." One Poe tradition may have ended, but Jerome said a reading of tributes by Poe fans at the gravesite planned for Thursday night may develop into a new ritual to mark the writer's birthday.

Jerome says that wherever he travels, he's asked whether the "Poe Toaster" is real. He believes the mystery of the "Poe Toaster" tradition will remain in the public consciousness despite the end of the visits. That mystery is what has kept Jessica Marxen, 33, a programmer from Randallstown, Md., coming back to watch for the "Poe Toaster" for years. She and her sister Jeannette, 31, an administrative assistant, got involved after Jerome visited their high school and recruited them as volunteers at the Poe House. Though she has watched for the "Poe Toaster" for years, Jessica Marxen said she wouldn't want to know who he is. "There are so few mysteries," she said. "It's a throwback to a more romantic time when people could have secrets."

Poe, who was born in Boston, lived in Baltimore, London, New York, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va. During a visit to Baltimore in 1849, he died under mysterious circumstances at age 40. The cause of his death has been the subject of much speculation over the years, with theories ranging from murder to rabies. Poe was buried in his grandfather's lot in Westminster Burial Ground, in what is now downtown Baltimore. In 1875, his body and that of his aunt and mother-in-law Maria Clemm were moved to a prominent spot by the entrance with a memorial marker. The body of his young wife and cousin, Virginia, was exhumed and reburied with him 10 years later.

Baltimore recently cut funding for the museum at the rowhouse where Poe lived with relatives from 1832 to 1835, before he found fame as a writer. It must close if it does not become self-sustaining by June. The annual graveside tribute was first mentioned in print in 1950 as an aside in an article that appeared in The Evening Sun of Baltimore about an effort to restore the cemetery, Jerome said. When Jerome spoke to older members of the congregation that once worshiped at the church, they recalled hearing about a visitor in the 1930s.

The visitor has occasionally left notes with his tributes, but they haven't offered much insight into the identity of the "Poe Toaster." A few indicated the tradition passed to a new generation before the original visitor's death in the 1990s, and some even mentioned the Iraq War and Baltimore Ravens football team, which was named for Poe's poem. The vigil inside the former church is closed to the public, but over the years, a crowd has gathered outside the gates to watch. After the "Poe Toaster" failed to show in 2010, last year's vigil attracted impersonators, including a man who arrived in a limo and a few women.

The crowd outside the gates of the burial ground into Thursday morning was more respectful than last year. Even the impersonators were more solemn, perhaps because of the sense that this could be the last vigil, according to Sherri Weaver, 40, of Randallstown, who works in finance. Weaver and a few dozen others — some from as far away as California and Chicago — braved a windy night with temperatures around 30 degrees, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mystery visitor.

"Some people held out some optimism, but this may be the end," she said as dawn approached and it was becoming clear that the "Poe Toaster" was not showing up for a third time. "People know this is not a fluke, it's a quiet end."

[Cin]

Kucinich proposes public financing to overturn Citizens United ruling

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a constitutional amendment to the U.S. House on Thursday that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission.

The court held that corporations have the same First Amendment rights as people and that money was a form of speech.

“Because of the decision by the Supreme Court majority in the Citizens United case, more money was spent on campaigns in the 2010 election than has ever been spent in a mid-term election,” Kucinich said. “Because of the Citizens United case, more money will be spent in the 2012 elections than has ever been spent in an election in the history of our country. Because of the Citizens United case, American democracy has been put up on the auction block.”

A number of other Members of Congress, including Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have proposed constitutional amendments to overturn the Citizens United ruling. Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Michael Bennet of (D-CO) have also introduced less ambitious constitutional amendment that would give Congress and the states the authority to regulate the campaign finance system.

Kucinich’s proposed amendment would completely bar interest groups from influencing elections by requiring that all federal campaigns be financed exclusively with public funds and prohibit any expenditures from any other source.

“We must rescue American democracy from unlimited corporate money,” Kucinich added. “This is the most fundamental issue facing the future of our nation. With corporate, private financing we have officials working for the interest of corporations. With public financing we have officials working for the public. And public financing will actually save taxpayers’ money, by eliminating any incentive of public officials to reward campaign contributors with taxpayer subsidies.”

[Kobi]

This has nostalgic and historical significance for those of us in the social work profession.



CHICAGO—Hull House, the Chicago social services organization that Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams founded in 1889 to help thousands of immigrants adjust to life in America, will close this spring because of financial reasons, the charity's board chairman said Thursday.

Jane Addams Hull House Association has provided child care, domestic violence counseling, job and literacy training, services for senior citizens and housing assistance for 60,000 people annually in the Chicago area at nearly four dozen sites. The organization cited the current economic climate for increasing demand for services while compromising fundraising.

"During these challenging times, we have remained committed to the mission established by Jane Addams more than 120 years ago," said Board chairman Stephen Saunders. "Now, our goal is to ensure the families and individuals we serve continue to have access to the services they need. This was a very difficult decision, but it was the responsible thing to do."

Hull House was the most well-known of the 400 settlement houses in the United States in the early 1900s. The settlements were designed to provide services to immigrants and to the poor while uplifting them through culture, education and recreation. At its peak, Hull House served more than 9,000 people a week, offering medical help, an art gallery, citizenship classes, a gardening club and a gym with sports programs.

The organization will file bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of this year. The decision to close came after the agency's management and board of trustees worked for two years to reduce operating costs and improve services, officials said.

A spokeswoman for Metropolitan Family Services said the organization is in talks with Hull House on taking over that organization's programs. The last events listed on the calendar posted on the Hull House website take place in March.

The Hull House agency isn't affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, which will remain open. The Hull House site on Chicago's West Side is a National Historic Landmark.

[JustBeingMe]

It's so messed up and sad that organizations like that one are closing there doors because of the lack of funding and ecomony situation. It only hurts those that truly need assistance. I work with my local church to help serve food to the elderly and disabled that can't get out and about, to have a lunch taken to them on the second sat. each month, and we also open our food pantry that day for those in need. The need for food has increased sooo much this past year. It's really bad out there in the world today. I can't say at my age of 48, that I have ever seen so many people in need of some sort of help with food, paying rent, utility assistance, etc. I can't even watch the news anymore, it just depresses me even more. I wish there some way to fix our economy and get people back to work. OH yeah, and the food stamp programs are cutting benefits really bad too. Anyway, thanks for the post. Kobi, I always enjoy them.

[Kobi]

Someone asked me to post the links to the Hull House story so here they are.

The story: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...close-15398893

Hull House itself : www.hullhouse.org

The History : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_House

[SoNotHer]

Globally, 9 of the 10 warmest years on record occurred since 2000



Smoke rises from burning grass at a village near Bangkok March 31, 2008. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:57pm EST

(Reuters) - The global average temperature last year was the ninth-warmest in the modern meteorological record, continuing a trend linked to greenhouse gases that saw nine of the 10 hottest years occurring since the year 2000, NASA scientists said on Thursday.

A separate report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the average temperature for the United States in 2011 as the 23rd warmest year on record.

The global average surface temperature for 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline temperature, researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies said in a statement. The institute's temperature record began in 1880.

The first 11 years of the new century were notably hotter than the middle and late 20th century, according to institute director James Hansen. The only year from the 20th century that was among the top 10 warmest years was 1998.

These high global temperatures come even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina ocean temperature pattern and low solar activity for the past several years, said Hansen, who has long campaigned against human-spurred climate change.

The NASA statement said the current higher temperatures are largely sustained by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is emitted by various human activities, from coal-fired power plants to fossil-fueled vehicles to human breath.

Current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceed 390 parts per million, compared with 285 ppm in 1880 and 315 by 1960, NASA said.

Last year was also a year of record-breaking climate extremes in the United States, which contributed to 14 weather and climate disasters with economic impact of $1 billion or more each, according to NOAA . This number does not count a pre-Halloween snowstorm in the Northeast, which is still being analyzed.

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said the average 2011 temperature for 2011 for the contiguous United States was 53.8 degrees F, which is 1 degree above the 20th-century average. Average precipitation across the country was near normal, but this masks record-breaking extremes of drought and precipitation, the agency said.

Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80I29320120119

[theoddz]

Etta James, the "Matriarch of R&B", has passed away at age 73 of leukemia.

She will be sadly, sadly missed.

Thank you, Etta, for all of the many wonderful things you did, throughout your career, for the worlds of R&B, and music and society, in general. Your heart, soul and talent contributed greatly towards changing the heart of a nation in a time when change was so desperately needed.

I want to post this as a loving tribute to this lovely woman, along with my most heartfelt sympathies for her family and friends in this sad time.

Rest in peace, lovely Ms. Etta......





~Theo~

[Gentle Tiger]

Originally Posted by theoddz

Etta James, the "Matriarch of R&B", has passed away at age 73 of leukemia.

She will be sadly, sadly missed.

Thank you, Etta, for all of the many wonderful things you did, throughout your career, for the worlds of R&B, and music and society, in general. Your heart, soul and talent contributed greatly towards changing the heart of a nation in a time when change was so desperately needed.

I want to post this as a loving tribute to this lovely woman, along with my most heartfelt sympathies for her family and friends in this sad time.

Rest in peace, lovely Ms. Etta......





~Theo~

She is one of the few that provoked a reaction when I heard the news. Very sad indeed. I really appreciate her love her music and had a big time crush on her.

[*Anya*]

1/19/2012

Vagifresh Ball, Vagifresh Gel, Female One: Recall - Undeclared Drug Ingredient, Bacterial Contamination

AUDIENCE: Consumer, OB/GYN

ISSUE: USA Far Ocean Group Inc. notified the public of a recall of Vagifresh Ball and Vagifresh Gel, sold as cosmetics. Vagifresh Gel was found by FDA analysis to contain benzocaine, an active ingredient for many anesthetic drug products. FDA analysis of Vagifresh Ball found the product contains bacteria. The FDA has also determined that marketing material for these products contained unsubstantiated therapeutic claims related to various gynecologic conditions that could have caused women taking these products from seeking appropriate medical care for potentially serious medical conditions.

BACKGROUND: Vagifresh Ball and Vagifresh Gel products are marketed as cosmetics, and applied by inserting deeply into the vagina for a prolonged period of time. These products were sold via herbal stores, beauty shops, drug stores, internet and mail order.

These two products were also sold under the mixed package named Female One, which contained Vagifresh Ball, Vagifresh Gel and Vagifresh Liquid (this recall does not involve Vagifresh Liquid). FDA analysis of Vagifresh Ball found the product contains bacteria:

Staphylococcus lentus, S. sciuri, Bacillus Lantus, Alloiococcus otitis, Aerococcus viridans, Aeromonas salmonicid, Gemella spp, and Leuconostoc spp.

RECOMMENDATION: Consumers in possession of these products should stop using it immediately and contact their physician if they experienced any problem that may be related to using any of these products.

Healthcare professionals and patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program:

Complete and submit the report Online: www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm
Download form or call 1-800-332-1088 to request a reporting form.

[Hollylane]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

1/19/2012

Vagifresh Ball, Vagifresh Gel, Female One: Recall - Undeclared Drug Ingredient, Bacterial Contamination

This one really deserves a

[Sassy]

"Today, in a huge victory for women’s health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception."
...
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012...age/?mobile=nc

[SoNotHer]

Tender Photos Unearthed from a Turbulent Time
By Sarah B. Weir




When Mildred and Richard Loving married in Washington, D.C. in 1958, they didn't think they were breaking the law. Both were from the small town of Central Point, Virginia. Mildred was of African-American and Native American decent and Richard was white. They did know it was illegal for them to marry in their state-as well as 15 others--which is why they left to tie the knot. Within a month of returning home, police burst into their bedroom in the middle of the night and arrested them under the state's anti-miscegenation law. They were sentenced to a one-year in prison term that could be suspended if they left Virginia.

Related Link: Kentucky Church Bans Interracial Couples from Becoming Members

Banished to Washington, D.C., Mildred Loving, who did not consider herself a political person, wrote about her plight to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The American Civil Liberties Union took up the case and brought it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In 1967, in a landmark Civil Rights ruling, the court struck down America's laws against interracial marriage.

On the 40th anniversary of the ruling, Loving issued a statement that read, "I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life."

In 1965, Life Magazine sent photographer Grey Villet to photograph the Lovings and their three children. Writing for the New York Times, Villet's widow Barbara recalled that he approached the assignment with the aim of creating a tender family portrait, not an overtly political statement. "He chose as he did in every essay…to seek out the literal heart of the matter: a love story." However, the images were utterly groundbreaking exactly because of the intimate and emotionally transparent way they portrayed a taboo subject.

Filmmaker Nancy Buirski rediscovered Villet's photographs while making a documentary for HBO called The Loving Story. Twenty of the images are on display at the International Center of Photography in New York City from January 20 through May 6, 2012. The Loving Story will debut on February 14.