RIP, Miss James.
"Tell Mama" below
RIP, Miss James.
"Tell Mama" below
Friday, 20 January 2012 in Current Affairs, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The report warns that allowing women to drive would ‘provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce’.
Within ten years of the ban being lifted, the report’s authors claim, there would be ‘no more virgins’ in the Islamic kingdom.
And it pointed out ‘moral decline’ could already be seen in other Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive.
Here's the best part:
In the report Professor Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state.
‘All the women were looking at me,’ he wrote. ‘One made a gesture that made it clear she was available... this is what happens when women are allowed to drive.’
Really, Proffessor Subhi? All the women were looking at you? Really?
Imagine all these Arab men in their keffiyahs whispering the story to one another in deep dismay, believing that in this universe there is something that will cause women to become sexually insatiable. And it's a drivers license.
Friday, 02 December 2011 in Current Affairs, Islam , Silly, Weird News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Love it, hate it, view it as a necessary evil. However you feel about social media sites, they are tracking you one way or another, cataloging your movements on their site — and sometimes off it. Take Facebook.
Facebook was recently exposed as “inadvertently” tracking your web movements, even after you logged off its site. Australian blogger Nik Cubrilovic, like many alarmed by the upcoming Timeline changes to Facebook that will automatically populate your profile with items from your past or sites you’re viewing, looked into how to disable this feature, which could “accidentally share a page or an event that you did not intend others to see.” Cubrilovic writes another blogger’s advice to combat this problem is to log off Facebook. But that isn’t enough:
[...] logging out of Facebook only de-authorizes your browser from the web application, a number of cookies (including your account number) are still sent along to all requests to Facebook.com. Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit. The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011 in Current Affairs, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
In 2005 I walked the Susan Komen Three-Day. What an experience that was. Darn near killed me but I bet George that I would walk every inch of the 60 miles. It was in memory of my mom Mary Voda Daniels who died of breast cancer; it was in honor of my co-mother-in-law Linda Siegle who was diagnosed the same year I was and who also had a double mastectomy -- and who also has survived. (She and I were born the same day, same year. My son married her daughter.) And it was in gratitude to my oncologist Ben Chue, MD. The Seattle PI interviewed me the following autumn -- entire article is here:
During the summer there was advance word about the promising clinical trials for a breast cancer drug called Herceptin.... And rightfully so. Herceptin appears to be a direct and effective match for many women with tumors that churn out too much of a protein called HER2. About 20 percent of breast cancer patients are HER2-related cases....The drug doesn't help every single HER2 patient -- common among medications -- but that didn't stop early buzz about the Herceptin trials in July when Catherine Daniels participated in a three-day, 60-mile walk for breast cancer.
"Everyone was talking about it," said Daniels, 58, a breast cancer survivor. "Every day."
Daniels got a chance to tell her story to fellow walkers. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2000...While browsing the Internet, she found out about Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, known for its integrative medicine approachD
Dr. Chue talked to George and me about Herceptin and asked us to consider trying it. Before I'd met with him I had read the book Her-2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer and sort of understood in a foggy way. Wasn't sure it was the best thing to do and asked him how this Her-2 thing is measured and he said "A scale of one to three."
I asked, "Where do I fall?" "Three-plus," he said, "If you were my mother I would strongly encourage you to do this." So I did. And I'm alive now. Don't think it would have this happy an ending without Herceptin because these tumors tend to be "aggressive and resistant to treatment". As it was I had three tumors and the disease had spread to my lymph nodes.
Fast forward to the present. My beautiful niece Leigh has done.the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and mentioned Mom and me on her webpage: http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk/LosAngeles?px=6205640&pg=personal&fr_id=2060
I got my credit card ready and was just about to go there and click my donation -- I was closing a news site when I read this about a "Holy Grail" treatment for breast cancer:
The new drug combines an existing drug, Herceptin, which revolutionised breast cancer treatment 10 years ago, and a new anti- cancer treatment. It is the first time two drugs have been used in this way.
My bolding. Entire article is here: ://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273486
I've learned that many cancer treatments are introduced with a great fanfare (think Interferon) and then quietly fade away. So we'll see if this one really is the grail or another tin cup.
Meanwhile, Leigh and thousands of other walkers are helping to cure this awful disease, one step at a time. Thank you so much, Leigh and all of you. Thank you.
Note for my family below:
Sunday, 25 September 2011 in Current Affairs, Family, Health, Mom, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Sometimes it's hard to wrap your mind around the national financial situation. This makes it easier. (I'd like to attribute this but can't remember where I found it.)
Why S&P Downgraded the US:
U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
April budget cut: $38,500,000,000Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt (this year) on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Budget cuts: $385
Friday, 23 September 2011 in Current Affairs, Politics | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
I remember who did it -- and after ten years of studying and trying to understand, I know why. If you really want to honor the brave and the innocent dead, educate yourself. Read the Koran. Then look up "Abrogation". There is a lot more to know but that will give you a start.
All this self-indulgent wallowing around in "tribute" -- maybe it would be better to quietly put a plaque somewhere at the Pentagon, at the WTC site, and in Shanksville. All this other hoopla is a bit too show-biz for my taste. We are not that weak, that teary, that old-womanish. If this were a movie, somebody would slap us silly and order us to get a grip.
We are Americans, strong and brave. That is what we should never forget.
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Having said all that, and in a nod to inconsistency: Here's the Budweiser 9/11 tribute -- shown once. I remember I saw it and tried to describe it to George and could not stop crying. Still affects me like that.
Sunday, 11 September 2011 in Current Affairs, History, Islam , Islam and the West | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Man with dead weasel accused of assault |
Associated Press, by Staff Original Article |
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Wednesday, 08 June 2011 in Animals, Current Affairs, Silly, Weird News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Strange to find this article in Salon.
Two arguments for switching to renewable energy -- the depletion of fossil fuels and national security -- are no longer plausible.
Also addresses the global warming issue:
The scenarios with the most catastrophic outcomes of global warming are low probability outcomes -- a fact that explains why the world’s governments in practice treat reducing CO2 emissions as a low priority, despite paying lip service to it. But even if the worst outcomes were likely, the rational response would not be a conversion to wind and solar power but a massive build-out of nuclear power. Nuclear energy already provides around 13-14 percent of the world’s electricity and nearly 3 percent of global final energy consumption, while wind, solar and geothermal power combined account for less than one percent of global final energy consumption.
Worth reading the whole thing.
Friday, 03 June 2011 in Current Affairs, Energy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Saturday, 21 May 2011 in Current Affairs, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
End of world next Saturday -- begins with earthquake in Pacific Northwest.
Sunday, 15 May 2011 in Current Affairs, Religion, Silly, Weird News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)