| Tuesday, February 28, 2006 |
| DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS???? |
BOEING 747
Birthplace: Everett, WA.
Originator: Joe Sutter
Hometown Now: Everett, Wa.
Date Introduced: February 9,1969
Number of Variants: 9
Maximum Number of Pax: 568(400 series)
Freighter Version Payload:285,000 lbs.
Number Made: 1,381
In one of aviation history's flukes, the most iconic airline of all time nearly did'nt happen. Originally intended as a military transport airplane, the 747 did'nt win the contract, coming second to the Lockheed C-5, Galaxy. However, Boeing was not despondent and developed the plane as a passenger jet instead. What became the "jumbo jet"was then the largest and heaviest passenger aircraft every built. The distinctive hump on its upper deck made it stand out from the crowd. The aircraft's wife, capacious body made it relatively economic to operate in terms of its high passenger-to-fuel ratio it could carry up to 600 economy passengers.
This mass transport capacity opened up the skies to millions more people. By 2005, the plance had been in service with world airlines for 35 years and was still in productions. The SP (Special Performance) vatriant of the 747 100 was a shorter by 47 feet. In March 1976, an aircraft of this type set the world non-stop flying distance record of 8,940 nautical miles.
DID YOU KNOW?
* A 747-400 has six million parts.
* When pressurized, a 747 fuselage holds over a ton of air.
* One 747-tubrbofan engine produces more thrust than all four engines on a Boeing 707.
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Bubble Wrap
Birthplace: Hawthorne, NJ
Originators: Al Fiielding and March Chavannes
Hometonw Now: Saddle Brook, NJ
Date Introduced: 1960
Today's Price: $6.85
Annual Revenue: $3.5 billion plus
Stock Exchange Symbol: SEE (Sealed Air Corporation)
Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes discovered Bubble Wrap by accident, when they were trying to develop plastic-backed wallpaper. The pair found Sealed Air and started selling the materials in 1960. The material is composed of polyethylene encapsulating air. Bubble Wrap is now produced in several varieties, and with vairous "air cell" sizes. But apart from pink, anti-static Bubble Wrap, the material remains unviersally transparent.
DID YOU KNOW?
* Bubble Wrap starred on the cover of Playboy in July 1977, wrappinmg Farah Fawcett's assests.
* The Museum of Modern Art, New York featured Bubble Wrap in its "Humble Masterpieces" exhibition.
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Coca-Cola
Birthplace: Atlanta, GA
Originator: John Stith Pemberton
Hometown Now: Atlanta, GA
Date Introduced: 1886
Spokesperson: Rhe Coca-Cola Company
Original Price: $0.05 a glass
Today's Price: Variable
Number of Products: Over 400 brands
Number Sold: 1.3 billion servings daily
Stock Exchange Symbol:COKE
Coca-Cola is probably the world's best-known taste, and was the first truly global brnad, Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia, invented the drink. He mixed the Coca-Cola syrup, which was combined with carbonated water to make a popular soda fountain drink, in the local Jacobs pharmacy. First customer who paid 5 cents a glass, pronounced ythe drink to be "excellent", delivious and refreshing.
Frank M. Robinson, suggested the product's unusual name and wrote it down in his rather florid handwriting, feeling that the "Two C's would looke well in advertising". The first ad for the drink appeared in the Atlanta Journal, and hand painted in oilcloth signs indicated which soda fountains offered the product. This was just the first step in a fantastic cooperation between the brand and advertising, which had made the trandemark universally recognized.
A continous stream of slogans have entered the colective consciousness, from "Drink Coca-Cola" in 1886, the iconic "I'd like to teach the World to Sing" television advertisment of 1971, right up to the simple assertion "Real" of todays' campaign.
From its original output of around nine drinks a day, Coca-Cola is now the world's most ubuquitous brand, serving over 1.3 billion drinks very day.
DID YOU KNOW?
* Coca-Cola advertising helped to create the modern image of Santa Claus.
* In 1985, Coca-Cola was the first soft drink consumed in space.
* Coca-Cola has originated a range of recipes based on beverage, including French Onion soup.
* Coca-Cola appears in countless fils, including "It's a Wonderful Life "- there is a 1914 Coca-Cola soda fountain in Gower Drugs.
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Converse All Star Sneakers
Birthplace: North Andover, Ma.
Originator: Marquis M. Converse
Hometown Now: North Andover, Ma
Date Introduced: 1917
Chuck Taylor Joins Company: 1921
Sales per Week: 30,000 pairs
Types of Fabric: 11
Total Sales: 580 million pairs plus
When Charles "Chuck" H. Taylor played basketball for the Akron Firestones, he appreciated the fit of a new pair of canvas shoes with high tops that he was given. In fact, he was so impressed that he toured the country promoting both basketball and the Converse range shoes. The shoes were a product of the Converse Rubber Company, founded by Marquis M. Converse in 1908. Chuck used his basketball knowledge to help improve the All Star shoes, and addes his signature to the ankel patch in 1923. Known as the "Ambassador of Basketball", Chuck's reputation was such that his endorsement of All Stars led virtually every player in the National Basketball League to wear the shoes. In World War II Chich became the fitness consultant to the U.S. Armed Forces, and the shoe became the official sports sneaker of the mobilized men. IN 1962 a new low cut versionof the "Chuck" the "Oxford", was introduced. By 1966 this was available in seven cool colors. Sadly, Chuck, died in 1969, when his beloved shoes were in the height of popularity. The All Star is now available in an array of fabrics; canvass, hemp,flanne;,leather,suede,nubuck, corduroy, denim,velvet, vinyl and even gold lame'. The shoes are now back in fashion right now, as part of the "post-pop-tart-punk" revival.
DID YOU KNOW?
* 60percent of all Americans have owned at least one pair of Converses.
*Kurt Cobain was wearing a pair of "One Star" Converse when he died.
* The shoe is 90 years old and still in fashion.
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Levi's 501s
Birthplace: San Franciso, Ca.
Originators: Levis Strauss and Jcob Davis
Hometown Now: San Francisco , Ca.
Date INtroduced: 1873
Date Patented: May 20, 1873
Original Price: $0.20
Sales Volume (2004): $4.16 billion
Main Levi Straus Brands: 3
Owners: Privately owned.
Levis Strauss (1829-1902) came to New York from his brithplace in Bavaria in 1847. Other members of his family had previously established a dry goods firm in the city, and after working alongside them for about six years, Levi moved to San Franciso, where he set up a prosperous wholesaling business selling frabrics and other merchandise. In 1873, he and one of his clients, a tailor from Nevada named Jacob W. Davis, obtained a joint patent, financed by Strauss, for a method of strengthening "a pair of pantaloons" by "having their pocket-openings secured at each end by means of rivets.... whereby the seams .... are prevented from ripping." Almost immediately, Strauss started manufacturing reinforced "waist overalls" (as they were called) to Davis specifications, eventually as working clothes, but Strauss did not live long enough to witness the gradual transformation of his company's robust denim pants, later known as "Levis", into fashionable leisure wear -- a process that probably began when Vogue magazine featured them in 1935, and was further boosted by movie stars,pop musicians, anbd other trend setters during the 50's and 60's.
DID YOU KNOWN?
* The red tab sewn into the side of the right-hand back pockets of Levis' pants made its debut in 1936.
* In 2001, Levis Strauss & Co. paid $46,532 at auction for a pair of workpants it had made in the 1880s.
* In 2004, the firm proclaimed that May 1(5/01) would henceforth be officially known as "501 Day."
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Marlboro Cigarettes
US Birthplace: New York, Ny
Originator: Philip Morris
Homewtown Now: Richmond, Va
Date INtroduced: 1902
Today's Price: c. $14.95 200 carton
Number of Products: 4 varieties
Inventor of Marlboro Man: Leo Burnett Co.
Marlboro Box Designer: Frank Gianininoto
Stock Exchange Symbol: MO
The Marlboro story is one of the most fascinating marketing stories of the twentieth century, the history o a brand that went from zero to hero with a brilliant campaing tht tapped deep into the American psyche. In 1954, the Marlboro brand accounted for less than 1 percent of the total cigarette market. In fact, it had struggled so badly during the war that slogan, "Mild as May" had tainted the brand for many men. But a new advertising campaing in 1955, featuring a series of "Marlboro Men", togehter with a switch to filtered brands from orlder smokers, caused a huge %5,000 percent) upsurge in the popularity of the brand. These "Marlboro Men" included a lifeguard, a sailor, a drill sergeant, a construction worker and a gambler, and (of course) a cowboy. They were all rugged, lean, healthy outdoorsmen with a masculine dignity. "The Marlboro Man speaks for himself"
The cowboy proved to be the most popular character, and was adopted as Marlboro's sole image in 1963. By December 1975, Marlboro was the top selling brand in the world with a market worth of $32 billion. Philip Morris cigarette brand now account for 38percent of the American cigarette market. Their parent company, the Altria Group, Inc. also own Kraft, General Food, Oscar Meyer and Miller Brewing.
DID YOU KNOW?
* English cigarett manufacturer Philip Morris originally established the brand.
* Morris opened his first tobacco shop in Bond Street, London, in 1854.
* The Marlboro brand was named for the London street where the company had its headquarters.
* The "Marlboro Man" Wayne McLarenm, died from lung cancer.
* "Marlboro Country" is one of the most widely recognized fictional landscape in the world.
(Source: Made in America by:Nick Freeth) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 10:37 PM |
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| HAVE YOU HEARD OR READ THESE WORDS??? |
** Baby Signing -- a controversial new practice that teaches babies how to communicate by "signing" before they are old enough to speak -- as young as six months. Advocates argue that the practice -- which was codified and promoted by Dr. Joseph Garcia -- reduces frustration, gives babies a sense of control andlets parents communicate with their children earlier, and more successfully. Critics believe that the process has little value, and can actually slow the natural process of learning to speak. It seems to us that the pressure to turn babies into tiny communication factories is an outgrowth of our urgent need to accelerate the development of our children and make them smarter, faster.Many, like Neil Postman, author of the seminal Disappearance of Childhood are highly critical of a society that over programs and over stimulates children. Nonetheless, baby signing isprobably an unstoppable force, and it won't be long before a major baby products marketer, like J & J jumps on the bandwagon, or before we see a whole industry of Signing-Friendly Day Care Centers.
** Brain Fingerprinting - a procedure for determining if someone is telling the truth that could very well become the new standard, replacing the unreliable polygraph and the controversial voice-stress analysis.Brain fingerprinting, developed by Dr. Lawrence Farrell, is based upon the fact that neurological responses donot lie. A series of electronic sensors read the subject"s "Brain Fingerprinting" as he or she reponds to images flashed on a screen. Preliminary tests, conducted with federal agencies, have found it to be 100 percent accurate.
** Fusarium Oxysporum - forget your drug-sniffing dogs and your police sweeps. The real way to wipe out cocaine, marijuana and heroin is biological warfare. A fungus known as fusarium oxysporum is being tested as a devastatinly effective -- and environmentally safe - way to destroy the growing fields. It's a bioherbicide, in other words; the stuff is so effective, reports The New York Times that Monatna State University suspended its research two years ago, afraid that they would be a target of drug cartels. It looks as though fusarium oxysporum could be the drug lord's worst nightmare.It's a narrative made for Hollywood evil drug chief battle bioherbalist.
** Cubanglo - coined by the writer Juan Flores to describe those residents of Miami's Cuban community who were born in the United States.
** Dem - to pinpoint a specific individual based on his or her demographic and psychographic characteristis. While this has always been done, sophisticated database marketers have dramatically elevated their ability to target with stunning precision, spurred by behavioural information gleaned from the Internet: they know who you are, where you live, what you buy, what groups you belong to, what magazines you read, how you like your coffee. In the future, we will be demmed by a posse of observant marketers (not to mention political candidates and nonprofit groups) just about every day.
** Edgewalkers - descrines those of mixed background like Tiger Woods (Asian and African American) who are creating a new America. In her book Edgewalkers, Nina Boyd Kreba writes the they "donot shed one skin when they move from theri cultures of origin to the mainstream and back. Edgewalkers maintain continuity wherever they go, walking the edge between two cultures in the same persona". The writer Walter Mignolo called this phenomenon "Bilanguaging" Basho Fujimoto, a young man who has an Irish-Welsch mother and a Japanese-American father, is quoted in the book as saying, "Our interest is not in taking traditional elements from our old cultures and mixing them all together, making from our old cultures and mixing them all together, making a nice, evenly distributed multicultruralism. It is more like taking the consciousness of all our heritage ... and working with that to create something new." This something new is going to be the most radical culture change we've seen since the great waves of early 20th century immigration -- influencing everything from food and literature to structures of thought.
** Generation 1.5 - descrines those Asians who came to the United States as Children; the segment was named by Asia Link Consulting Group. Depending on when they immigrated and their family circumstances here, some Generation 1.5ers assimilate rapidly, others try to hold on to their roots.
** H-1B Debate -- H-1B is the category that Immigration and Naturalization Service uses for visas that are issued to skilled foreign workers. The technology explosion has created great demand for these workers, and the tech industry keeps pushing to raise the ceiling; the current cap is 195,000 visas per year, but it is expected to go to even heigher, since 850,000 tech jobs are open. Immigration has alwys been a hugely sensitive issue, as Americans are torn between ourlong history of welcoming newcomers and our desire to keep Americans employed. Clearly, there is a shortage of skilled tech workers now, but in a forseeable future, when Americans are battling with foreign workers over jobs, a large national debate will erupt over H-1B and it will be on the tip of everyrone's tongue. Also, with unemployment well over 10 percent among some minority groups, the growth in H-1B workers is an ongoing example of our own demestic educational failures.
** Neoyorquinos - used to describe the polygot nature of Latino culture in the New York region. This dynamic, fast growing group -- which includes Puerto Rican, Domincans, Colombians and Cubans, -- makes it difficult, if not impossible to generalize about Latino culture and politics.
** Millennium Generation - used to describe those between 15 and 25; the most racially diverse group in American history; one third are black, Latino, Asian or Native American. While its predecessor generation is 60 percent more likely to be non-white than its parents' generation. They won't lean, shop or vote like any group we've seen, and - because they believe that rules aren't inherited, but invented - they will define the America to be.
** Nowherians -- coined by writer -- and nowherian himself - Pico Iyer to describe those born in one place -- often from parents of diverse ethnicity - raised somehwere else, shcooled in yet a different place and now engaged in a career in which they travel around the world. Nowherians, onne could argue, are the citizens of the future, as they are increasingly disscociated from geography and are creatures of transport and motion. The matra of previous generations was "there's no place like home"; for Newherians it's "There's no place that is home ". The open question; where will their loyalties and emotional center reside?
** Authethnic - whether it's food or literature or entertainment, authethnic describes the real thing: cultural expressions that are unadulterated, unmodified, uncompromised. These come from the pure heart of ethnic expreience, as opposed to that which has been put through the homogenizing mill of American Culture. When we seek out the Vrazilian restaurant run by a family from Rio, buy tickets for a singer of Portugese Fado in a part of twon we've never been or track down a Russian 'emigre' artist before her work gets swept up by the chic galleries, we are in pursuit of the Authethnic. And it's even becoming harder to find, even globally: Travel and Leisure magazine writes of sushi bars in Dublin, Mariachi bands in Kathmandu and Thail hill people drinking bottles of Guinnes..
** Britafornia - while you might think that there are few places on earth as different as Britain and California. Britafornia describes the transformation of England in a manner that parallels the demographic shifts in California. How? Consider that a large and increasing number of Britain's college graduates and successful enterpreneurs are Asian newcomers. These recent immigrants, amny from China, India and Pakistan, have achieved higher living standards that average whites, and the resulting demographic and income shifts will have profound (and not always positive) implications for British social life.
(Source: Dictionary of the Future by: Faith Popcorn and Adam Hanft) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:38 AM |
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| POPE'S CARDINAL PICK COULD IRRITATE CHINA |
One of 15 new men to wear red hat is thorn in Beijing's side.
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI named his first batch of cardinals Wednesday, sending strong political messages with nominations in Hong Kong and Venezuela.
Benedict named 15 new "Princes" of the Roman Catholic Church. One was sentimental favorite Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II's longtime private secretary.
The cardinals come from 11 countries on five continents and include the archbishops of Boston, Krakow, Poland; Seoul, South Korea; Bordeaux, France; Bologna, Italy; Manila, Philippines and Toledo, Spain.
Along with the Boston archbishop, Sean P. O'Malley, the other American selected was Archbishop William Levada.
A key appointment is that of HongKong Bishop Joseph Zen, an outspoken China critic and supporter of the underground church.
Benedict has sought to restore diplomatic relations with China, and Zen's nomination could be seen as an affront to Beijing. However, China experts said Benedict's selection was also practical, given that Zen is an expert on the Chinese Church and as cardinal will serve as a close papal adviser.
China broke ties with the Vatican in 1951 and demands that Catholics worship only in churches approved by the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, which does not recognize the pope's authority.
"What the church, Monsignor Zen and the Vatican would like is just to be free to express our own faith, to express the freedom of religion, not to be involved in politics." said the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, a China expert.
Benedict also nominated Caracas Archbishop Jorge Urosa Savino, who has sought to defuse recent tensions between the church in Venezuela and socialist President Hugo Chavez.
(Source: Assocaited Press by: Nicole Winfield) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:13 AM |
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| Monday, February 27, 2006 |
| DE PAUL UNIVERSITY OFFERS FIRST 'QUEER STUDIES' MINOR |
College student Eric Oliver sits in the classroom's front row, ready to learn about Italian poet Dante and Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and theri views in morality and sin.
This isn't a religion, philosophy or literature class. It's an introductory course in queer studies, and tfor the next 90 minutes, Oilver and his calssmates study the history of same-sex desire, the biology of gender indentity and government reactions to homosexual behavior dating back for centuries. It is no longer remarkable that the subjects are taught, but on this day, it is notable where the discussions is taking place. The classroom is on the DePaul campus, the country's largest Catolic University and, it is believed, the first Catholic school to offer an undergraduate minor in queer studies. The minor became available in January.
"I can see how it may seem like a big step", said Gary Cestaro, Director of Lesbian, Gat, Busexual, Transgender and Queer Studies, the offical name of the minor.
Other Catholic schools, including Georgetown and Santa Clara in California, offer coruses in the subject, but they fall under Women and Gender Studies programs. Notre Dame offers a course on sex and sexuality in U.S. history that includes discussion on homosexuality and gay liberation.
Several non-religious colleges offer degrees in the subject, including the Illinois. which allows students to focus on queer studies within the gender and women's studies department.
"Institutions of higher learning, Catholic or not, are about open investigation and free inquiry. DePaul particularly has a strong indentity that involves commitment to social justice and to the urban community . At least from that perspective. LGBT studies make a lot of sense here," Cestaro said.
The new program, whcih began this semester, comes as religiously affilitated universities are grappling with potential conflicts between contemporary issues and religious values. Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, recently limited the campus 'Queer Film Festival' and "The Vagina Monologues" show, requiring the festival to change its name and banning fundraising for the performance.
Jenkins, who wants the Catholic view point represented in discussions of morality, has requested faculty and student inout before deciding whether the shows should continue in future years.
Nicholas Lund-Molfese, who works with the higher education ministry at the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, said teh archidiocese isn't necessarily opposed to the program at DePaul.
"I dont' have any allergic reaction per se to the subject matter. There were ways it could be treated good and ways it could be treated bad, which is true of any course that deals with history or sociology", he said. "Are there ways of doing this that would be according to Catholic teaching? Tes. Are there ways of doing this that would be opposed to Catholic teachings? Yes"
Although DePaul officials say the minor has'nt been cmtroversial, it does have critics.
Karl Maurer, spokesman for Catholic Citizens of Illinois, said he plans to send a letter to DePaul's president, denouncing a program that he contends "validates people in sinful lifestyle". Catholicism teaches that homosexual activity is immoral.
"I am very disappointed that anti-Catholic propaganda would be given such a high level of attention by DePaul", said Maurer of New Lenox, a DePaul graduate. "Keep in mind this is a university that calls itself the largest Catholic school in the country. This is almost truth in advertising."
Rev. James Halstead, chair of DePauls' religious studies department, said he has no academic qualms about the minor, but said he has had concerns about how it would affect DePaul's image.
"For those who don't know the inner workings of a university, study means study. Advocacy means advocacy. How does this play in circles outside the university that is a concern," Halstead said. "From the university's point of view, this is a matter that ought to be studied in a multidisciplinary study."
Students seem to agree. Cestaro, who is teaching the introductory course Tuesday and Thursday mornings this semester,s aid demand exceeded the 30 spots in the class.
(Source: REDEYE from Chicago News Services) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 4:04 AM |
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| FIVE OH: MEN SAY SEX GETS BETTER WITH AGE |
Study: 50-years-olds more satisfied thatn men in 30s and 40s.
Maybe 50 really is nifty.
A new study finds that men in their 50s are more satisfied with their sex lives than men in their 30s and 40s. And they're almost as satisfied as men in their 20s, researchers say.
Least satisfied: men 70 and 79.
Some 1,185 Norwegian men were asked to rank, on a scale of zero to four, their overall satisfaction with their sex live. Tops were the twentysomethings, who averaged an overall satisfaction level of 2.79.
Men 50 to 59 were next, with a score of 2.77. The fortyish crowd scored a 2.72 and the thirtysomething froup a 2.55. Men between the ages of 70 and 79 trailed with a 2.14 rating.
Researchers were particularly intrigued that these numbers were recorded even as men in their 50s reported higher levels of sexual performance problems, such as difficulty maintaining erections.
"Although men experience more problems and less sexual function as they get older, it does'nt necessarily follow that they are less satisfied with their sex lives as a result." says lead author Sophie D. Fossa, who conducted the research with experts from the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen and Harvard Medical School.
The findings which came from responses from both married and single men, appear in this month's British Journal of Urology.
Men in their 50s may be "more settled" that their younger counterparts, said Xenia P.Montenegrp, who has studied the sex lives of older Americans. Older men have "different expectations" when it comes to sex - when you're in your 50s "you know what sex is and what it's going to be", said Montenegro, who co-authored the 2004 report "Sexuality At Middle and Beyond" for AARP.
It may be that men in their 30s and 40s have higher stress levels from trying to build their careers while caring for their youg families - pressures that can erode enjoying pleasure of all kinds, Montenegro added.
In the AARP study, 54 percent of men 50 to 59 said they had intercourse at least once a week in the past six months. Some 28 percent reported having oral sex. But Montenegro said frequency of sex and satisfaction levels are not always linked.
In other studies, Unversity of Chicago researchers have detected a connection between commitment and sexual satisfcation. The longer couples are together, the more they learn how to please each other, say Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher in the Case for Marriage.
Not that the gray temple guys are completely satisfied. In the AARP study, one out of three respondents said they would be more satisfied if their partner showed more initiative in the bedroom.
(Source:CHICSUNTIMES/Andrew Herrmann/Staff Reporter) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:44 AM |
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| Saturday, February 25, 2006 |
| GIRL 7, WEDS DOG TO PROTECT FAMILY FROM 'EVIL EYE' |
NEW DELHI - A 7 year old girl wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the "evil eye" on her and her family in eastern India, a news agency reported Wednesday.
Shivan Munda's uppet teeth appeared before her lower teeth - considered a bad omen by members of the Shantal ethnic group to which she belons, the Press Trust of India said in a report from Dhanbad, a coal mining town in the eastern state of Bihar.
Kundan Munda, a coal mine worker, said his daughter married the dog only to "remove the evil eye" a superstitious belief that some misfortune could befall her and the family, and that she would be free to marry a man later.
Friends and family participated in three days of traditional ceremonies and festivities that are part of a Shantal tribal marriage, Unda sais, according to the report.
(Source: Assocaited Press) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:19 PM |
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| Thursday, February 23, 2006 |
| NATIVISM |
NATIVISM IS A STRONG DISLIKE FOR ETHNIC,RELIGIOUS, OR POLITCAL MINORITIES WITHIN ONE'S CULTURE.
In North America it was founded principally upon the fear that immigrant attitudes will erode the distinctive features of the majority culture. Unlike ethnocentrism, a generalized, largely passive perception of the superiority of one's own culture, Nativisim leads to pronounced activism and sometimes hostile measures taken in order to avert a perceived dnager. Nativism is common in most cultures during times of economic or political turmoil, and thee have been periodic waves of Nativism in both the United States and Canada throughout their histories.
In the United States, there had been from the earliest colonila days a mistrust among settlers from different countries and of different religions. These general antiphaties first rose to form Nativist movements to the 1790s, when the Federalists hoped to keep out what they saw as the corroding influence of radical immigrants by passing the ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS. With the majority of settlers in British territories being Protestant Anglicans and Puritans, Quakers and Roman Catholics were seen as potential threats to the traiditonal English order. While these attitudes persisted in the early republic, there was no full Nativist frenzy until the 1830s. Yhe influx of more than a quarter of a million Irish, most of them Catholic, between 1820 and 1840 led to the second great wave of Nativism in the United States.
As most Americans were members of Protestant denominations that fostered the ethic of American individualism, it was easy to convince people in hard times that "Papal Schemes" to control American societies were afoot. SAMUEL F.B. MORSE'S Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the United States (1834) and Reverend Lyman Beecher's A Plea for the West (1835) sought to alert American to clandestine plots being mastermined in Rome for the cultural takeover of the country.
Sensational exposes of Catholic practices were common in the press. Maria Monk's Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal (1836), purporting to tell the firsthand account of the author's imprisonment in a Catholic monastery, many Americans feared the potential power of the Roman Catholic Church to overrun the Protestant foundation of the emerging public system of education. This sometimes led to violence, as in the Philadelphia riots in 1884, when a number of Iriah Catholics were killed and several churches burned. Thsi anti-Catholic Nativism led during the 1850s to the rise of the Secret Order of the Star Spangled Banner, more commonly known as the Know Nothing or American Party.
The Know Nothings were particularly strong in the Northeast and border regions. In the wake of their strong shwoing in 1854 and 1855, in which they gained control of several state governments and sent more than 100 congressmen to Washington, tehy attempted to restrict immigration, delay natrualization and perceived Catholic abuses. Finding little evidence to support Catholic crimes or conspiracies and with the country embroiled in the states rights and slavery issues. Know Nothing political influence and anti Catholic Nativism waned. Many non-Catholic Americans remained suspcious of Catholics, and occassionally anit Catholic Nativism reemerged, as in the formation of the AMERICAN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION (1887)
The Theory of racial eugenies and international politics combined during World War I (1914-18)to produce an especially virulent strain of Nativism. Widely read pseudo-scientific works such as Madison Grant's Passing of the Great Race (1916) and Lothrop Stoddard's The Rising Tide of Color (1920) argued that Anglo Saxon vitality and success were threatened with mongrelization if immigrantion continued unabated.According to Grant, interraccial unions led to reversions to a "more ancient, generalized and lower" race. Blaming the Central Powers for World War I and Russians and Jews for the Bolshevik Revolution, which led to the establishment of the world's first communist state ifn 1917, Americans widely accepted the distinction between "old", pre-1880 immigration from westen and northern Europe. Throughout kuch of the 1920s, fear of German, Russians and Jewish subversives was commonplace and led to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan as an antiforeign organization and to a wholesale adoption of restrictive immigration legistlative witht he JOHNSON-REED ACT (1924) and the ORIENTAL EXCLUSION ACT (1924), the former practically eliminating immigration from eastern and southern Europe and the latter prohibiting virtually all Asian immigration.
Nativism undoubtedly contributed to President Franklin Roosevelt's unwillingness to suppor the Wagner-Rogers Bill (1939)which would have allowed annual admissions beyond quota, for two years, of 20,000 German refugees under the age of 14. Also during the depression years of the 1930s, more than 500,000 Mexican Americans were repatriated to Mexico. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, restrictions on immigration were increased. Fear of undercover agents led to a drastic reduction of admission from Nazi-occupied countries, the Alien Registration Act was passed in 1940, the IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE (INS) was moved from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice, and a network of law enforcement agencies was authorized to compile a list ofaliens for possible internment should the United States enter the war. This eventually led to the internment of some 3,500 Italians, 6,000 Germans and under the provisions of Executive Order 9066, 113,000 Japanese, more than 60 percent of whom were American Citizens.
Nativism began to ebb after World War II. THE McCARRAN-WALTER IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT (1952) maintained guotas but eliminated race as a barrier. U.S. Cold War commitments led to the admission of a variety of refugess on an exceptional basis. Finally, the IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT of 1965 abolished the national origins system and favored reunification of families, regardless of homeland.
Source: Abstracted from the book NORTH AMERICAN IMMIGRATION by: John Powell) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 2:23 PM |
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| Wednesday, February 22, 2006 |
| ALLIANCE OF FILIPINO AMERICANS FOR THE PROTECTION OF IMMIGRANTS RIGHTS |
February 2006
To the Honorable Senator of the U.S. Congress:
We, the undersigned members of the Filipino American community express our serious discontent with the ongoing abuses suffered by immigrants in this country. In particular, the descriminatory treatment of undocumented and temporary workers is causing us great concern. We appeal to you as an elected member of the U.S. Congress to stand against the expansion of all forms of injustice, but most especially the insensitive policies and erosion of rights perpetrated on immigrant communities.
In recent years, immigrants of color have been suffering the most severe rollback of rights and liberties. Arab and Muslim Americans live in fear of biased initiatives like Special Registration and domestic spying. Latinos are frequently victims of workplace raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many Filipino Americans suffer through life-threatening medical conditions rather than seek emergency care at a public hospital. Immigrants of color are treated as second-class members of society as a matter of policy.
Every human being deserves the same opportunity to pursue life, and happiness, including immigrants.
Today, our country is mired in a polarized debate over immigrants policy, which is really about how to integrate newcomers into civil society. On one side are those who see immigrants as cheap instruments of production who should be denied to basic public services and workplace equality. On the other side are those who support the rights of all people to live with dignity and respect. We've been here before as a nation, it was called segregation and Jim Crow.
Rights are approximately 2.4 million Filipino-Americans in the U.S., 65 percent of whom are foreign-born. Within this group, anywhere rom 6percent to 35 percent are undocumented (respective estimates of the U.S. and Philipine Government). This amounts to thousands upon thousands of Filipino living under the constant threat of deportation and vulnerable to employer abuse.
There are those in the U.S., who fear social progress and seek to exploit and abuse newcomers to our country. We hope you are not one among them.
The solution to this complex issue is not out of our reach. Proposals that grant permanent resident status to the undocumented, restore fairness to the deportation process, and reject the further expansion of existing guestwoker programs are among the most equitable ways to show our respect for the contributions of immgirants and integrate newcomers into American society.
We must also reject all attempts to further rollback the rights if immigrants, including the REAL ID ACT and bills such as HR 4437, the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act.
As members of the Filipino community, we implore you to back the current trend fo racist laws and policies that relegate immigrants to second-class status in society.
Instead, we invite you to stand for the rights and dignity of all people.
For further information, you may contact the Fellowship of Filipino Migrants at telephone (224)281-6888 or e-mail nerisaafpmc@yahoo.com, lead convenor of AFAPIR.
(Source: an open letter from The Filipino-American Community Builder/ Feb '06 issue) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:14 PM |
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| FILIPINO AMERICAN ALLIANCE FIGHTS CRIMINALIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS |
CHICAGO, Illinois - On January 21, after the Chicago Koneks educational forum on the impact of HR 4437 to the immigrant communities, more than 40 leaders of FilAM grassroots organization organized the Alliance of Filipino Americans to Protect Immigrants' Rights (AFAPIR).
AFAPIR's immediate concern is to promote the passage of the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S.1033) which was introduced in the Senate by Sen. John McCain of Arizona on May 12,2005 and the defeat of HR4437 or the Border Protection, anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act which was approved on December 16th 2005 by the House of Representatives.
Senator Durbin, in his letter to Grace Villamor of AFAPIR's Lobbying committee, said "S. 1033 includes provisions desgined to improve border security and to reduce the number of undocumented immigrant wrokers in ou country by reforming our nation's immigration policies. The legistlation would create a porcess for immigrant workers who pay taxes and otherwise obey the laws to come out of the shadow encourage the reuniting of families spearated by immigration, require the development of a national strategy for border security, and strengthen enforcement of labor and immigration laws"
Meanwhile, Atty, Maricar Madrid Crost, one of the panelists in the forum said, "This measure (HR 4437), which is presented in the guise of promoting national security, is not the answer to illegal immigration. Its venom has a far-reaching adverse impact upon illegal aliens and family memebrs, legitimate businesses and even well meaning social service entities. It will also burden the average American who will end up paying for the cost of implementation."
Rev. Fr. Caludio Holzer, the representative of the Scalabrini Mission Center to the forum said, "The bill is the manifestation of the rising tide of anti-immigration sentiment. It is insensitive to the long-tradition of the church to open its doors to anyone, without exception, needing help".
Indeed, HR4437 is considered in the immigrant and civil rights circles as nasty and draconian bill meant to make immigrant and refugee communities suffer even more.
Crost added, "THis bill is loaded with punitive, mean-spirited provisions that will harm not only millions of immigrants but also many people who work with immigrants on a daily basis. Among the lowlights of the bill are:
-- The Bill would turn millions of hard working immigrants into criminals by making unlawful presence in the US (previously a non-criminal matter) a felony.
-- It would make anyone who provides any aid to an undocumented immigrant a felon (including relatives, lawyers, teachers, clergy members, and social service workers).
-- It would force employees to verify Social Security numbers, inlcuding those of current employees, in effect forcing millions of immigrant workers out of work.
-- It would spend #2billion on a nearly 800-mile long fence along the Arizonea and California border.
-- It would broaden many grounds for deportation and increase penalties for many immigration-related offenses; and
-- Abolish the Diversity Visa program, a major immigration program enables thousands of immigrants who lack a family or employer sponsor to lawfully come to the US."
On another hand, Elsie Sy Niebar, a columnists of Via Times and a long time community activitist, implores the participation of well-meaning leaders. She said, "this is an issue we should all unite and work together. We should not allow our kababayan exploited by anyone, especially by another kababayan".
Please collect signatures and send our community's Statement of Concern to:
Sen. Richard Durbin
332 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING,
WASHINGTON DA, 20510
Sen. Barack Obama
713 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING,
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(Source: Abstracted from "The Filipino-American COMMUNITY BUILDER,Feb. 06 Issue) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 10:41 PM |
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| Tuesday, February 21, 2006 |
| A FILIPINO LABOR ACTIVIST |
CARLOS BULOSAN (1911 - 1956)
Carlos Bulosan, a Filipino migrant worker, emerged as one of America's most respected writers and labor activist during the 1940s. Although he was disillusioned later in life, his novels reflect the optimism of immigrant opportunity in the United States.
Bulosan emigrated from Luzon Island in the Philippines in 1930. Having had considerable contact with Americans and having heard favorabale reports from relatives and friends, he traveled to Seattle, Washington, where poverty forced him to sell his services to a labor contractor, who put him to work in the Alaskan canneries. From the dangerous first season in the canneries through a variety of low-wage agricultrual jobs in Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, Bulosan learned firsthand the deceptiveness of the "American Dream". Not only were jobs hard to find during the depression, but racial prejudices was common. Riding boxcars across the West, he witnessed the plight of the African Americans, Chinese, Jews, and fellow Filipinos, who alng with poor whites were struggling tomake ends meet with dignity. Bulosan nevertheless met with many acts of kindness by ordinary Americans and marveled at the moral complexity of the country: "America are all Americans that have toiled and suffered and known oppression and defeat, from the first Indian that offered peace in Manhattan to the last Filipino pea pickers."
Determined to give his people a voice and to help immigrants cope with their difficultires, Bulsoan expressed his exprience in stories and poems. In 1934, he established the radical magazines The New Tide and became active in labor politics. He also published in mainstream magazines such as the New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar. In 1950, he became editor of the highly politicized yearbook of the United Cannery and Packing House Workers of America. At the time of his death from tuberculosis in 1956, he was little known, but Filipino immigrants of the 1960s and 1970s revived interest in his life and work. Bulosan is best remembered for three semiautobiographical World War II-era works dealing with the paradox of American attitudes toward Asian Immigrants: The Voice of Bataan (1943), The Laughter of My Father (1944), and America Is in the Heart (1946). The 1973 republication of the latter novel led to its widespread use in college classrooms and a greater appreciation for Bulosan.
(Source: Abstracted from the Book/ NORTH AMERICAN IMMIGRATION by: John Powell) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:41 PM |
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| REMOTE REDUX |
Be a control freak with hot new gadgets.
The remote control must be pushing all the right buttons - it's no longer just the meek little touch pad presiding over the family TC or DVD player.
The year, it will be empowerd beyond its wildest AAA battery powered dreams. It'll be asked to operate an Xbox 360 and a Windows Media Center PC. It'll bulk up with Wi-Fi. And, in its most daring mission, it'll control an entire house -- turning up the heat, truning on the home theater and closing the blinds with a single command.
Logitech's Harmony 890 Advanced Universal Remote($400, www.logitech.com)
New Z-Wave technology from Zenys of Denmark. (www.Zen-sys.com) promises control-coordinating appliances, light switches and home-entertainment devices with a remote-without expensive rewiring.
Leviton (lighting) and Wayne-Alton (garage doors) are among the manufacturers developing products using Z-Wave technology, which delivers RF, of radio frequency, signals from one device to another throughout the house. (Other manufacturers have adopted a similar technology called ZigBee).
The 890, whcih can operate up to 15 devices whithin 100 feet, uses a simple online setup wizard for programming commands. It uses a rechargeable lithum-ion battery and comes with a charging station.
Gyration Media V=Center Remote Control (Model GPR6005,$150. www.Gyration.com. due in the spring)
This part remote, part mpuse performs all the basic tricks with a home theater, but it also controls a Media Center PC. A mini-gyroscope turns this remote into a wireless, motion-sensing mouse, so you can summon, video or music files off your Media Center PC from the sofa.
Accoustic Research Wl-Q Universal Remote Control (Model APR2470, $299, www.thomson.net, due this spring)
The Wi-Q won't close your motorized blinds, but this Wi-Fi equipped home threater remote displays a program guide -- along with localized news, weather and sports uwing technology developed by TVcompass of Chicago-on a full color screen thatmeasure a little more than a square inch.
Using its INternet connection, the Wi-Q updates the program guide automatically. It'll remind you with a written prompt, too, when your favoraite programs are about to start. But a program guide on a tiny remote control screen? Well, it means a little less clutter on the TV screen.
Logitech's Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360 ($130, www.logitech.com)
A home theater remote with a set of buttons dedicated to the Xbox 360. Press a button and the 42-inch plasma, the audio video receiver and 360 fire up, ready to play Condemed: Criminal Origin in high-definition with surround sound.
Miracle Remote from Dynatron ($30, www.miracleremote.com)
The Miracle Remote isn't much of a miracle - but it works. Dynatron sells these replacement remotes for a TV brands. They won't work with a TV/VCR or TV/DVD, just TVs. The Miracle Remote does a few things an $8 drugstore remote can't like calling up picture in picture and running the auto-program feature that dials in all your channels.
Otherwise, they're pretty much the same. But these cheaper replacement remotes requires the owner to input coding to match TV, DVD player or CVR brnads.
GE, Find it Universal Remote ($40. www.jascorpoducts.com)
Here's another strange but true remote that includes two way paging technology. It's not just a remote control, it's a search party. The remote comes with a "Lost Item Locator" that attaches to a key chain, cell phone, purse-anything that might get lost. The remote finds a lost item by sending out an RF signal. When you hear beeping, that means your lost item is found. One caution: The remote can only locate item within 30 feet.
(Source: REDEYE/THE HARTFORD COURANT) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:11 PM |
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| MAN IN ANIMAL CASE ARGUES HE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO REGISTER AS SEX OFFENDER. |
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - A man who pleaded no contest to a sodomy charge involving a sheep says he should not have to register as a sex offender.
Jeffrey S. Haynes said the state registry is intended to keep track of people wjo have committed crimes against humans.
But Valhoun Country Circuit Court Judge Conrad Sindt told Haynes at his sentencing hearing that once he is released from prison, he must register with the Michigan State Polic Public Sex Offender Registry.
Haynes, 42, of Battle Creek, was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years to 20 years in prison. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
Tamara Towne, an assistant prosecutor for the county, argued that Haynes should be ordered to register as a sex offended because once out of prison, he could prey on children or vulnerable adults.
Haynes said he isnot a violent person and would not assault children.
"The prosecutor is being real hard on me for what I did", he said. "But I should not be treated as a child molester."
A telephone call seeking commment wasleft Tuesday at the Marshall office of defense attorney John B. Sullivan.
Police said Haynes had sex with a sheep at a Bedford Township farm on Jan. 26, 2005. The animal's owner caught him on the property and the sheep was found injured.
Haynes was arrested in June after a DNA sample taken from the animal matched Haynes genetic material.
Haynes has prior conviction for burglary, home invasion and uttering and publishing, and was on parole for burglary at the time of the sex crime.
(Source:CHICSUNTIMES/Associated Press) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:00 PM |
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| THE HOLE TRUTH |
WHAT'S UP WITH THE GOOFY OLYMPIC MEDALS?
TURIN, Italy., Some folks think it looks like a doughnut. Others see a bagel. Or a giant Life Saver, or a CD.
An Austrian Olympian used it as an eye patch. Whatever the view, it really is an Olympic medal.
Designed by Italians who thought long and hard about the best way to symbolize their country, the Turin medals ae very different from any predessor, and for the first time in Winter Games history, the gold, silver and bronze all have a hole in themiddle.
Designer Dario Quatrini sayas the hole represents the open space of an Italian piazza, or city sqaure. Except the medal isn't square at all -- it's round. And when worn, Quatrini has explained, it has yet another meaning.
"Circling and revelaing the area near the heart and focusing attention on the athlete's vital energy and human emotions", says Turin Olympic Committee.
The Winter Games, unlike the Summer Olympics, allows organziers great freedom in designing the shape and size and content of medals.
At 1994 Lillehammer Games in Norway, for instance, themedals contained sparagamaite, a stone extracted from the ski jump site. At Nagano in 1998, Japanese organizers used lacquer.
In 2003, at Salt Lake City, themedals were'nt round at all, but rather had uneven edges that were supposed to look like river rocks found in Utah streams and rivers.
Jennifer Heil of Canada wong a gold medal in women's mogul on the opening day of competition. She likes her medal just fine.
"I just wanted it to be heavy, because I knew there was, like, a big hole in it, and I was'nt disappointed", she said, "It hink it's trully cool".
(Abstracted from REDEYE/Associated Press) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 4:48 AM |
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| Saturday, February 18, 2006 |
| PICTURE BRIDES (MAIL-ORDER BRIDES)TO THE UNITED STATES |
This informal term refers to women who married single immigration men they had never met but with whom they had exchanged photographs, usually through family intermediaries. Securing picture brides was most common among Japanese and Korean laborers in Hawaii during the early 20th century and was viewed as an extension of the traditional custom of arrangedmarriages. By the start of the 20th century, thousands of single laborers from Japan and Korea had become established in the United States, but with few single women from their home countries, family life was impossible. The costs of a return trip to Asia to marry was prohibitvely expensive, so they used the picture-bride system instead, as they were usually known in Europe, though with fewer immigrantion restrictions, there was less gender imbalance in the 1990s, as women seeking escape from poverty and gender limitations in countries in Souteast Asia and Europe advertised themselves through more than 200 matchmaking agencies for marriage to men from economically advanced, western nations.
The vast majority of Asian immigrants arriving in North America were single males, most hoping to earn enough money to return to their homelands and enjoy a better life. More often than not, they stayed, building a new life in America. With a rising tide of anti-Asian sentiments in the United States and Canada,however, and increasingly restrictive regulations in measures such as the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT (1882), the CHINESE IMMIGRANTION ACT (1885), and the GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT (1907), it became clear that the gender imbalance would not be redressed. Workers often turned to families or other matchmakers to help them arrange marriages in theri home countries. The practice became especially prevalent after 1907. when a loophole in the Gentlemen's Agreement provided that wives of Japanese immigrants were excluded from the new restrictions. As Japan formalized its protectorate of Korea after 1907, the labor immigration of Koreans that had begun in 1903 was curtailed, though families and Japanese marriage agents did arrange for abaout 1,100 Korean pictures brides to enter the United States before the JOHNSON-REED ACT halted the practice in 1924. Most Japanese and Korean picture brides immigrated to Hawaii, marrying men much older than themselves. They were often shocked to see husbands who looked mothing like their pictures, though most chose to stay rather than return to their previous circumstances.
With ecnomic malaise characteristic of many former Soviet territories, by the late 1990s it is estimated that more than 150,000 women from these region were usingmail-order bride agencies to advertise themselves in an attempt to escape their economic and social ciccumstances. Western men who sought out wives in this way tended to be well-educated and generally prosperous but, based on recent evidence, felt threatened by the effects of greater gender equity in western countries. The exact number of these arrange marriages is uncertain but probably averaged around 5,000 annually throughout 1990s, less than 6 percent of the total number of spouses entering the United States and Canada each year. During 1990s and early 2000s, the great majority of women advertising in North America as potential brides came either from Southeast Asia or the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Although the divorce rate in mail-order marriages appears to be lower than in the population generally, the system is open to abuse by both spouses. A sginificant number of women clearly used the policy provisions of both the United States and Canada, permitting the naturalization of wives regardless of birth country, in order to bypass ordinary immigration restrictions. Before 1986, foreign spouses in the United States generally were granted permanent rsidency as a matter ov course. Concern over fraudulent marriage led to the passage of IMMIGRATION MARRIAGE FRAUD AMENDMENTS (1986,1990), requiring a two-year wait for condiitonal resident status for the alien spouse, after which both parties were required to petition Immigration and Naturalization Service and to undergo personal interviews to determine that the marriage was legitimate. On the other hand, the rate of spousal abuse by men seeking more submissive wives seems to be higher than in the general population. In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed a bill providing for a conditional residency waiver if the spouse could demonstrate that battering or extreme cruelty had led to the dissolution of a good faith marriage. A series of high profile murders in Washington State involving mail-order brides led to passage of Washington State Senate Bill 6412 (2002), requiring matchmaking businesses to provide a state background check and marital history upon request to prospective brides in their native language. Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a Democrat and author of the bill, led discussions with memebrs of the U.S. Congress during 2002 about the possibility of passing similar measure at the Federal Level.
(Source: abstracted from the book: NORTH AMERICAN IMMIGRATION by: John Powell) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 9:58 AM |
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| TABULATED FILIPINO MIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES |
Immigration by Region and Selected Country of Last Residence
Fiscal Year 1820 - 2002
Region and Country of Last Residence:
Philippines
1820 ----- 16
1821-1830- 16
1831-1840- 16
1841-1850- 16
1851-1860- 16
1861-1870- 16
1871-1880- 16
1881-1890- 16
1891-1900- 16
1901-1910- 16
1911-1920- 16
1921-1930- 16
1931-1940- 528
1941-1950- 4,691
1951-1960- 19,307
1961-1970- 98,376
1971-1980- 354,987
1981-1990- 548,764
1991-1993- 195,634
1991-1994- 248,466
1991-1995- 298,162
1994------ 52,832
1995------ 49,696
1996------ 54,588
1997------ 47,842
1998------ 33,176
1999------ 29,590
1991-1995- 463,358
2000------ 40,587
1991-2000- 503,945
2001------ 50,870
2002------ 48,674
Persons Naturalized by Region and Country of Birth
Fiscal Year 1991-2002
Philippines:
Total 179 years
from 1820-1998
1,460,421
Total 180 years
from 1820- 1999
1,490,011
Total 181 years
from 1820- 2000
1,530,598
Total 182 years
from 1820- 2001
1,581,468
Total 183 years
from 1820 to 2001
1,630,142
Refugees and Asylees Granted Lawful Permanent Residence Status in the United States by Region and Selected Country of Birth, Fiscal Year 1946-2002 (by decade)
Philippines
1946-1950--- NA
1951-1960--- NA
1961-1970--- NA
1971-1980--- 213
1981-1990--- NA
1991-2000--- 968
Total from 1946-2003
1,368
Persons Naturalized by Region and Country of Birth
Fiscal Year 1991-2002
Philippines
1991--- 34,450
1992--- 28,587
1993--- 33,925
1994--- 40,777
1995--- 37,870
1996--- 51,346
1997--- 30,898
1998--- 24,872
1999--- 38,944
2000--- 46,563
2001--- 35,431
2002--- 30,487
(Source: Abstracted from the book/NORTH AMERICAN IMMIGRATION By: John Powell) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:49 AM |
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| Thursday, February 16, 2006 |
| FILIPINO IMMIGRATION IN NORTH AMERICA |
Because the United States had acquired the Philippines as a colonial territory in 1898, Filipinos were in some ways privileged immigrants during the 20th century and second in number only in Chinese among Asian immigrants to the Unied States. They were third in Canada, behind Chinese and East Indian immigration. In. U.S. census of 2000 and the Canadian census of 2001, 2,364,815 Americans and 327,550 Canadians claimed Filipino descent. The largest concentrations of Filipinos in the United States are in California, Hawaii and Chicago, Illinois with significant areas of settlement in cities with large naval bases, including San Diego, California; Bremerton, Washington; Jacksonville, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina. More than half of Filipino Canadians kive in Ontario, with a large settlement also in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Philippines is a country of 7,000 islands occupying 115,000 square miles in the South China and Philippine Seas between 5 and 19 degrees north latitude. Nearby countries includes Taiwan to the north and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south. Most of the population, an estimated 82,841,518, resides on 11 major mountainous islands that take up the greatest part of the country's land area. About 83 percent of the population practices Roman Catholicism; 9 percent Protestantism and 5 percent Islam. Malay peoples indeginously inhabited the Philippine Islands when Magellan landed there with his Spanish fleet in 1521. Spain governed the isalnds until 1898, when they were ceded to the United States following the Spanish-American War. A nationalist uprising broke out the following year but was successfully suppressed by U.S. forces by 1905. From 1941 to the end of World War II in 1945, the islands were occupied by Japan. In 1946, the Philippines was granted independence and a republican government was formed between 1972 and 1981. President Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, leading to significant political destabilization under President Corazaon Aquino. Between the 1965 election of Marcos and his 1986 overthorw, some 300,000 Filipinos immigrated to the United States. Communist and Muslim insurgents launched a coup in 1989 that was defested with the hekp of the United States. A Muslim region in the south was evetnually granted autonomy in 1996, ending the ongoing rebellion.
Some of the earliest Filipino immigrants to North America were sailors who left their ships in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the 19th century. The number of immigrants remained small, however, until the first decade of the 20th century. With provisions of the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT (1882) and the GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT (1907) largely excluding Chinese, Japanese, and Korean laborers, there was high demand for cheap agricultural labor in Hawaii and California. In 1906, teh Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association began to actively redruit in the Philippines, and by the mid-1920's, there were a large voluntary workforce seeking admission. By 1931, 113,000 Filipino workes had come to Hawaii. About 39,000 eventually returned to the Philippines, but more than 18,000 enventually migrated to California. In addition to these, some 27,000 Filipinos immigrated directly to the mainland, most hired under the PADRONE SYSTEM of labor supply. Most Filipini immigrants were young men, and as late as 1940, the ratio of Filipino men to women was still 3.5 to 1. With the rise of unemployment during the depression, the TYDINGS McDUFFIE ACT of 1934 limited Filipinis immigrantion to 50 per year. As important, with the Philippines being made a commonwealth and detined for independence, Filipinos were classified from nationals to alien.
A second period of immigration, particularly associated with military developments, occurred between 1946 and 1964. Filipino Americans had occurred between 1946 and 1964. Filipino Americans had served with distinction during World War II, helping substantially in driving the Japanes from the Philippines. The WAR BRIDES ACT of 1946 enabled American soldiers to bring some 5,000 Filipina brides to the United States following the World War II. The Military Bases Agreement of 1947 permitted the United States to make use of 213 sites in the Philippines and thus to maintain a formidable presence there into the 1990s. Exemption to the Tydings-McDuffie Act enabled the United States to recruit more than 22,000 Filipinos into the navy (between 1944 and 1973), most of whom were assigned to work in the mess halls or as personal servants. Exemptions also enabled some 7,000 additional Filipino agricultural workers into the country.
A new phase of immigration began with the IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT of 1965, which both eliminates race as a factor in the selection process and classified immediate relatives of U.S. citizens as a special immigrants., thus admitted outside the annual quotas of 20,000. The significant family reunification numbers were augmented in 1974 when the Philippines instituted an ongoing overseas employment program. This led to an average of more than 600,000 Filipino workers migrating each year, though most of these went to countries of the Middle East and East Asia. A large percentage of these immigrating to the United States were highly trained professionals,especially doctors and nurses. Emigration to Canada remained small in part because Canadian immigration police encouraged migration only of professional and skilled workers.
As in most developing countries, workers migration was seen as beneficial to the Philippines. In 1995, for instance, remittances totaled to US$4.87 billion, or about 2.5 percent of the gross national product, and the amounts remained high into the first decade of the 21st century. Between 1991 and 2002, more than 600,000 Filipinos immigrated to the United States.
It is difficult to arrive at precise figures for Filipino immigration to Canada. Not only were Filipinos grouped under the cateogry of "Other Asians" until 1967, but they also followed a distinctive pattern of immigration with no precedents in the Chinese, Japanese, or Asian Indian communities. There were virtually no immigrants prior World War II, and fewer than 100 by 1964. Beginning in 1965, however, a steady immigration began, which was accelerated by the new IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS of 1967, which included a points system that gave preference to skilled workers in high demand areas, such as health care. Between 1971 and 1992, total immigration from the Philippines placed them in the top 10 of source countries and between 1994 and 2002, the country ranked from second to sixt each year, with a total of about 110,000 immigrants. Unlike other Asian groups, most Filipino immigrants were women who came for job opportunites in medical fields, especially nursing, and clerical areas. Although the gender differential gradually became more balanced, by 1990 Filipina women still composed about 60 percent of the immigrant populations.
Another difference between Filipino and other Asian immigration is that most early immigrations came first from the United States, where their relationship afforded special opportunities for access to tje country. Sometimes unable to remain in the United States, they learned that visas were available for skilled technicians in Canada, particularly in Ontario. By early 1970s, they were bringing family members and encouraging others to migrate directly from the Philippines. As Canadian immigration policy in the 1980s gave special weight to family reunification, more Filipinos took advantage of the provisions. During the 1980s and 1900s. Filipino immigrants were less likely to choose Toronto, though it remained the foremost Filipino community in Canada with a population of 140,000 in 2001. Vacouvers's was second, with more than 60,000. Of 232,670 Filipino immigrants in Canada in 2001, about 96 percent arrived after 1970.
(Source: Abstracted from ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NORTH AMERICAN IMMIGRATION) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:44 AM |
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| Wednesday, February 15, 2006 |
| WHAT IS VIRGIN COCONUT OIL? |
VIRGIN COCONUT OIL or VCD in short, is coconut oil processed from fresh coconuts. This is in contrast to the common way of processing coconut oil from crudely dried, long stored and aged coconut meat called "Copra". Copra in storage accumulates two harmful elements; mold (therefore Aflatoxin) and rancidity (free fatty acids). Oil extracted from Copra has to be treated with caustic soda; thus refined, bleached and deodorized at 400 degrees F to become edible.
A continous extracting process starting with fresh coconuts, results in oil that does not have Aflatoxin, free fatty acids and caustic soda residues. The VCO is extracted either by fermentation of freshly extracted coconut milk or two (2) hours of drying and mechanical separation. The fermentation system can yiled VCO that is absolutely cold processed whereas the mechanical or expeller method requires the coconut meat to be quick-dried first at 80degrees C temperature.
Answers to the Negative Information on Coconut Oil.
Coconut Oil is 92percent saturated fat and for this reason, coconut oil was considered "bad oil". Doctors and nutritionists have generally taken the position that mono-saturated fats and poly-unsaturated fats are the good fats and saturated fats are the bad fats. The distinction between saturated fats from animal and from coconuts and palm oil was lost. Furthermore, most of the research on coconut oil was done on hydrogenated coconut oil, which has been transformed to produce trans fatty acids. Transfats from even on mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated oils.
Recent research has shown that not all saturated fats are alike and that the fatty acids in coconut oil are medium-chain fats which can be metabolized by the liver into energy and donot reach the blood vessels to raise serum cholesterol or contribute to heart disease.
The other properties of coconut oil, particularly its lauric acid content, were ignored. The anti-bacterial effect of lauric acid is of recent findings. Coconut oil is becoming recognized as a "functional food" that is powerful tool against immune disease.
Health Functions of VCO.
* Anti viral/anti-bacterial function
Coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, which is known for being antiviral and antibacterial. Studies have been done on its effectiveness in "lowering the viral load of HIC/AIDS patient." Most bacteria and viruses are encased in a coat of lipids. Lipid-coated viruses and bacteria are easily killed by MCFA,(Medium Chain Fatty Acids) which primarily destroy these organisms by disrupting their lipid membranes. Medium-chain fatty acids, being similar to those in the microorganism's membrane, are easily attracted to and absorbed into it. The membrane literally slits open, spilling its insides and killing the organism. Our white blood cells quickly clean up and dispose of the cellular debris. MCFA kill invading organisms without casuing any known harm to human tissues.
* Increase Body Metabolism
Coconut Oil is also being used by Thyroid sufferers to increase body metabolism and to lose weight. Coconut oil and palm oil are the only plant oils that are medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) Even the "good oils" such as soya oil, corn oil, etc. are long chain fatty adics. MCFA are digested and utilized differently. They are not packaged into lipoproteins and donot circulate in the bloodstream like other fats, but are sent directly to the liver where they are immediately converted into energy. As a consequense you can eat much more coconut oil than you can other oils before the excess is converted into fat. Replacing LCFA with MCFA results in a decrease in body weight gain and a reduction in fat deposition. MCFA also shift the body's metabolism into hgiher gear, so that you burn more calories. MCFA are dietary fats that can actually promote weight loss.
* Promotes Healthy Skin
Virgin Coconut Oil is also used for making natural soaps andotehr health products, as it is one of the healthiest things one can put on their skin. The surface of the skin consists of a layer of dead cells. As these dead cells fall off, new cells take their place. As we age, this process slows down and dead cells need to accumulate, giving the skin rough, flaky texture. Coconut oil aids in removing dead cells on the outer surface of the skin, making the skin, smoother, creating a helathier, more youthful appearance. The removal of excessive dead skin and the strengthening of underlying tissues are two of the key advantage of using Virgin Coconut Oil.
(Source: Carica Health Products/caricaphil@yahoo.com) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 2:23 PM |
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| ASSORTMENT OF OLD WIVES' TALES |
You Can Catch VD from a Toilet Seat.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) received this name precisely because they are transmitted throught sexual contact. The list of STDs includes syphillis, gonorrhea, genital herpes,chlamydia, and HIV. Although the bodily fluids of an infected person can theoretically carry STD bacteria or viruses, most of these germs have an exceedingly short survival rate when exposed to light, heat, or air. Therefore, the chance of catching anything from a toilet seat is nonexistent - unless, of course, that's where you had sex. And you can't "get infected" by swimming in the same pool as someone who is infected, as long as the chlorine concentration is at least 1.5 parts-per-million; in the open sea, the sun and the salt essentially counteract the risk. Likewise, you know that girl everybody heard about in school who sued the pool owner because she got pregnant by swimming near a boy who ejaculated in the water? It did'nt happen at least, not in the pool.
The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is a Staight Line.
Thhe shortest distance between two points is a straight line only in teh abstract world of plane (Euclidean) geometry. As any airline pilot knows, a curved line is a always the shortest distance between two points on the curved globe, such as London and New York, where the "Great Circle Route" adds the third dimension to Euclid's postulate. In teh 1960s, a third mathematical theorem was offered by this highly respected scholarly journal, MAD magazine. "The shortest distance between two points is a taxi".
He Drinks Like a Fish.
Although it looks as though they are constantly swallowing water, fish don't drink. They absorb any water they need from the food they eat. The mouth action is to force water over their gills, where oxygen is extracted so they can breathe. In any event, fish certainly "don't drink"in the sense of consuming alcohol.
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining.
This refers, of course to being optimistic, not to a meteorological phenomenon. Taken with sayings as "It's always darkest just before the dawn" and "Put on a happy face." it means that one should always try to find something good in a bad situation. Before this starts tos ound like a sermon, remember that "everyone loves a winner" and, human nature being what it is, nobody wants to hang around a loser. A positive attitude may hide the sad truth, but being upbeat is contagious and helps to provide emotional relief.
Don't Swim for an Hour after Eating.
For about an hour after eating, the body focuses its energy on digesting the meal; the blood goes to the stomach, the energy supply dips, and the metabolism thinks food. But this has nothing to do with the dreaded "stomach cramps" that every mother warns her child about. There is no such thing as a stomch cramp. And there is no connection to a muscle cramp that may, indeed, endagner a swimmer. Most likely, Mom just does'nt want you to blow lunch.
Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Knave, Dinner like a Pauper.
The days of eating " healthy breakfast with one item from each of the four basic food groups" are over. On the other side of the plate, Pop Tarts don't cut it either. Stiff, eating something in the morning cuts the hunger and provides enough energy to make it through the first part of the day. Most agree that school children who are denied breakfast have trouble concentrating, lack energy, and fall behind in their studies.
On the other hand, if you eat a big meal late at night, you fell sluggish and gain weight because there's not enough time to work off the calories before bed. What's a body to do?
That's how the expression, "Breakfast like a king (large), lunch likee a knave(mediunm), and dinner like a pauper(small)" came about. The theory is to eat when you need the energy and practically fast when you donot. Informal diest advice adds that you should never eat after 8:00PM That gives your metabolism four hours to work before you hit the sack.
Marijuana Leads to Heroin.
There are many variables which come into play when an individual takes drugs; pain, peer pressure, depression, finacial ability, medical necessity, and of course, opportunity. Smoking one marijuana cigarette today won't lead to shooting heroin tomorrow, although the people with whome one associates -- and the conviviality in doing so - may make further experimentation attractive. Once you're already in a restaurant, as the saying goes, why not try the whole meny? On the other hand, nobody can force you to eat Brussels sprouts.
Society has long held that a drug is a drug is a drug, even if the legal inconsistency borders on hypocritical. The two most addictive drugs in the arsenal - alcohol and nicotine - are widely available and culturally accepted, even encouraged through advertising. Indeed, a frequent argument is that more people (politicians, the police, lawyers and the prison industry, not to mention the drug dealers) benefits from the drug problem than from preventive drug education.
Dogs Don't Sweat.
Of course, dogs sweat. You would, too, if you had to wear a fur coat in hot weather. Dogs excrete moisture through the pads on their paws. Any excess moisture (not "Sweat", although it sure smells as bad) leaved Fido's body through his mouth in the form of vapor and a slobbering, wet tongue. That's why dogs pant so much in hot weather).
Gout Is Caused by Eating Too Much Rich Food.
Gout is an inflammation of the joints (frequently the big toe). It is not caused by righ food, although its actual casue is not definitely known. What is known is that gout is crystalline deposit of purines stemming from an excess uric acid in the blood. Caffeine may also be involved. If eating rcih foods or consuming alcohol causes an individuals' metabolism to produce uric acid, that acid might exacerbate an existing condition, but it's after the fact. The image of an old man, hid gouty foot wrapped in bandages, banging into walls and screaming in pain may have been mainstay of silent comedies. But it certainly is not funny to those who suffer from the affliction.
People Go Nuts During a Full Moon.
According to journalist Paul Katzeff in Full Moons, there is some truth to this asserion, although scientists differ in their explanations. The murder rate does spike during lunar fullness, but so does romance. The birthrate rises slightly during the full Moon, but so does female ovulation. The word Lunacy, meaning insanity, derives from the Latin words luna/lunaris, for the Moon. Anecdotes hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds when it glows full in the sky. Emergency room personnel and paramedics report that their business picks up during the full Moon, and supervisors in psychiatric institutions also insists that their patients grow restive at those times. There may be some chicken-and-eggism going on here. Do people act differetnly during the full Moon, or does the full Moon serve as a convenient timing device to peg behavior that goes on all the time? If the brightness of a full Moon keeps light-sensitive people from sleeping, their behavior may well be affected. Some people insist that the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun on Earth's tides also affects the human body, which is "98 percent water". On this point, the jury of scientific research is still out, but collective mind is finally looking into quantifying what the average nonscientist has "known" all along.
Middle Children Are Ignored, so They Grow Up More Independent.
In a family of three children, the firstborn is egocentric, teh third born is the perennial baby, and the secondborn learns to be independent because nobody pays any attention to her. Right? The firstborn is insecure at having been pushed aside by the secondborn, who then gets all the attention. The the thirdborn becomes the independent one, because everybody is still paying attention to the first two, Or maybe, the firstborn is the independent one. She helps raise the secondborn and teaches him how to raise the thirdborn when the time comes. No,wait!. Maybe all three get together and form a singing group. Studies of the psychological effects of birth order are as varied as teh personalities of the subjects they try to analyze, and just as irregular, Many other factors contribute to a child's personality - for example, the age of the parents, the stability of the marriage, the socioeconomic circumstances, and the years separting the siblings arrivals. The only thing that can be proved beyond a doubt is that, in a family with three children, teh firstborn will be the oldest.
(Abstracted from the book:TALL TALES, LEGENDS, AND OUTRAGEOUS LIES B0OK by: Nat Segaloff) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:40 AM |
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| Tuesday, February 14, 2006 |
| TALL TALES......AESOP |
AESOP
The wrold knows very little about Aesop other than his fables, which describe human nature as freshly now as when he first told them in the sixth century, B.C. Aesop is believed to have been a slave who lived in ancient Greece from 560 B.C. to 520 B.C. Regardless of his intellect or politcal acumen, his slave status doomed him to a lifetime of servitude. It is also thought that he was of African origin.
Popular myth holds that Aesop's storytelling skills made him so beloved by the Greeks that he was permitted to travel as a free man. When he arrived in the realm of King Croesus, he was invited to stay as a citizen. There Aesop ingratiated himself, using his illustrative fables to reconcile people. His ambassadorial skills inspired Croesus to send him on a mission to Delphi to dispense a quantity of gold to the populace. But the greed displayed there so offended Aesop that he theatened to return the gold to Croesus. This action enraged the Delphis and they executed Aesop.
(Source: EVERYTHING TALL TALES,LEGENDS & OUTRAGEOUS LIES BOOK by Nat Segaloff) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 10:51 PM |
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| ANATOMY OF AN UPROAR |
September 2005
Fleming Rose,culture editor of the Danish weekly, Jyllands Posten, solicits illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad, hoping to spark a debate about self-censorship in Denmark.
September 30
Jyllands-Posten publishes 12 cartoon caricatures of the Prophet.
October 14
Some 3,500 Muslims demonstrate peacefully in Copenhagen, demanding an apology from the newspaper.
October 17
Al-Fagr, a weekly newspaper based in Cairo, publishes the cartoons. Three Egyptian magazines reprint the drawings to little reaction.
October 19
Ambassadors from several Muslim countries request a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He declines.
November 19
A group of Danish Muslims announces a visit to the Middle East to publicize the cartoon controversy.
December 2005
Danish Muslim delegations visit Cairo, Damascus and Beirut and present a 43-page dossier with the original 12 cartoons and three others that had not been published.
December 9
After a meeting in the holy city of Mecca, leaders from 57 Muslim nations condemn the "desecration of the image" of Mohammad.
January 10, 2006
A Norwegian paper reprints the cartoons in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten.
January 26,2006
Saudi Arabia recalls its Ambassador from Denmark, and several groups in the Middle East launch a boycott of Danish products.
January 29, 2006
Libya announces it will close its embassy in Denmark.
January 30, 2006
Jyllands-Posten apologizes on its website to any Muslims it has offended but stands by its decision to publish the cartoons.
February 1, 2006
Newspapers around Europe reprint the cartoons in a defense of press freedom.
February 3, 2006
Prime Minister Rasmussen meets the foreign diplomatic corps in Copenhagen and calls for calm.
February 4-5, 2006
Mobs set fire to Danish and Norweigan embassies and the Danish consulate in Beirut.
February 8, 2006
Three people are killed in protests in Afghanistan, bringing the total dead there to 11.
Febraury 10, 2006
Rose takes a leave of absence from Jyllands-Posten, citing exhaustion.
(Source: TIMEMAG/WORLD Feb.20 issue) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:09 AM |
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| Monday, February 13, 2006 |
| ON VALENTINE'S DAY......OF MARRIED LOVE |
SONG OF SONGS (1:1-1:6)
The most beautiful of songs, by Solomon
The Woman
Your lipes cover me with kisses;
yourlove is better than mine.
There is frangrance about you;
the sound of your name
recalls it.
No womam could keep from
Loving you.
Take me with you, and we'll run
away;
by my king and takeme to your
room.
We will be happy together,
drink deep, and lose ourselves in
love.
No wonder all women love
You!
Women of Jerusalem, I am dark
but beautiful,
dark as teh desert tents of
Kadar,
but beautiful as the draperies in
Solomon's palace.
Don't look down on me of
My color,
because the sun has tanned me.
My brothers were angry with me
and made me work in the
vineyard.
I had no time to care for myself.
SONG OF SONGS (1:7-2:7)
The Man
Tell me, my love
Where will you lead your flock
to graze?
Where will they rest from the
noonday sun?
Why should I need to look for you
among the flocks of the other
sheperds?
Don't you know the place,
loveliest of women?
Go and follow the flock;
find pasture for your goats
near the tents of the shepherds.
You, my love, excite men
as a mare excites the stallions of
Pharoah's chariots.
Your hair is beautiful upon your
cheeks
and falls along your neck like
jewels.
But we will make for you a chain
of gold
with ornaments of silver.
The Woman
My king was lying on his couch,
and my perfume filled the air
with fragrance.
My lover has the scent of myrrh
as he lies upon my breasts.
My lvoer is like the wild flowers
that bloom in the vineyards at
Engerdi.
The Man
How beautiful you are, my love;
how your eyes shine with love!
The Woman
How handsome you are, my
dearest;
how you delight me!
The green grass will be our bed;
the cedars will be the beams of
our house.
And the cypress trees the ceiling.
I am only a wild flower in the Sharon,
a lily in amountain valley.
The Man
Like a lily among the thorns
is my darling among women.
The Woman
Like an apple tree among the trees
of the forest
so is my dearest compared to
other men.
I love to sit in its shadow,
and its fruit is sweet to my taste.
He brought me to his banquet hall
and raised the banner of love
over me.
Restore my strength with raisins
and refresh me with apples!
I am weak from passion.
He left hand is under my head,
and his right hand caresses me.
Promise me, women of Jerusalem;
swear by the swift deer and the
gazelles
that you will not interrupt our
Love. |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 1:26 AM |
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| SHORT NOTES.... ON THIS VALENTINES DAY. |
Love took up the glass of Time, and turnd' it in his glowing hands;
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in folden sands.
Love took up the harp of Life, and somote on all the
chords with might;
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in
music out of sight.
(ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, from Locksley Hall)
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LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM
The days are gone, when beauty bright
My heart's dream wove;
When my dream of life, from morn till night
Was love still love.
New hope may bloom,
And days may come,
Of milder, calmer beam;
But there's nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dream.
(THOMAS MOORE, from Irish Love Poems: Danta Gra)
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WHEN LOVE IS KIND
When Love is kind,
Cheerful and free,
Love's sure to find
Welcome from me.
But when love brings
Heartache or pang,
Tears, and such things --
Love may go hang!
If Love can sigh
For one alone,
Well pleased am I
To be that one.
But should I see
Love given to rove
To two or three,
Then -- good-by, Love!
Love must in short,
Keep fond and true,
Through goor report,
And evil too.
Else, here I swear,
Young Love may go,
For aught I care --
To Jericho.
(THOMAS MOORE)
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My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange, one for the other given.
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a better bargain driven.
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
His heart in me, keeps me and him in one.
My heart in him, his thoughts and senses guides;
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his, because in me it bides....
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
from The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:47 AM |
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| STRANGE ILLNESS.... |
TESTICULAR FEMINIZATION SYNDROME
(androgen insensitivity syndrome,AIS;
complete androgen insensitivity)
This is an intersex condition, in which the reproductive organs differ from the genetic sex of the person. Affected individuals are born with female external genitalia and are thought to be females at birth.
At purberty, their breasts develop, and though they usually have little body, they otherwise have normal female appearance. However, the CHROMOSOMES are those of a male; an XY chromosome pair, rather than the XX found in normal females.
Every FETUS, whether genetically male (XY) or female (XX), starts life with the capacity to develop either a male or female reproductive system. All fetuses have undifferentiated, non-specific genitals for the first few weeks after conception. After a few weeks, in an XY fetus (without AIS), these non-specific genitals develop inside the body and start to produce androgens. IN AIS, the child is onceived with male (XY) sex chromosomes. Embryonic testes develop inside the body and start to produce androgens. In AIS, these androgens cannot complete the male genital development due to a rare inability to use the androgens that are being produced by the testes. The problem lies in the androgen receptor GENE on the X CHROMOSOME received from the mother. This affects teh responsiveness, or sensitivity, ot the fetu's body tissues to androgens. The developmenty of the external genitals continues along female lines, but another hormone produced by the fetal testes acts normaly and suppresses the development of female internal organs. Thus a person with AIS has external genitals that are completely female. However, internally there are testes instead of uterus and ovaries.
Affected individuals typically come to medical attention when they fail to begin menstruating at the time of puberty. Upon examination, the vagina is shallow, and there are ni Fallopian tubes or uterus. The testicles may be in teh abdominal atrea and are incapable of producing viable sperm.
The testes are generally removed and plastic surgery can enlarge the size of the vagina, enabling continued female gender identification. (Some physician suggest that affected males never be told their true genetic sex for psychological reasons.However, most professional now view the witholding genetic and gonadal information as an old-fashioned and paternalistic attitude and recommend full disclosure with psychological support and counseling.)
Following treatment and continued estrogen theraphy, affected individuals live as normal women. Although they are sterile. Life span and intelligence are normal.
It has been proposed by one genetic researchers that Joan of Arc was actually a male with this SYNDROME. The suggestion is based on examination of extensive documentation of her physical characteristics presented at her trial for heresy in 1431 and at her posthumous Trial of Rehabilitation in 1456. This documentation includes accounts by those who lived in close quarters with her that while she had well-developed breasts, she has had no pubic hair and did not menstruate. This hypothesis had led to specualtion concerning elevated testosterone levels and her behavior. The same suggestion had been made regard Queen Elizabeth I, England's "Virgin Queen" (1533-1603)
A nationwide registry of Danish patients suggested an incidence of one in 20,400 male births. The androgen receptor gene is locted on teh X chromosome, and the disorder is therefore an X-LINKED trait. In about two-thirds of cases, AIS is inherited from the mother. The other third result from spontaneous MUTATION in the fetus. CARRIER females can be detected by biochemical means and PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS has been accomplished by CHORIONIC VILLUS SAMPLING.
(Source: GENETIC DISORDERS AND BIRTH DEFECTS BY: James Wynbrandt and Mark D. Ludman, MD., FRCPC) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:04 AM |
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| Saturday, February 11, 2006 |
| THE E-2 VISA: THE ENTERPRENEUR'S OPTION |
THE HOUSE HAS PASSED A TOUGH ANTI-IMMIGRATION BILL, and the Senate has yet to begin deabte on its counterpart package. The immigration system is more stressed and backlogged with the unavailability of H-1B visas and backlogs for green card numbers. Productive immigrants are finding that avenues for working in the U.S. and contributing to the country are becoming more limited. Until meaningul immigration reform is passed, foregin workers must explore other options that tney would not normally consider.
One option is the E-2 visa category, also known as the nonimmigrant investor visa. It is a temporary category that is granted in two-year increments with no limits on the number of extensions. In comparison, the H-1B is limited to six years. The E-2 category is available to citizen of countries such as the Philippines that have a treaty of trade or commerce with the U.S.
An E-2 allows Philippine nationals to manage investments that are at least 50 percent Filipino-owned. The visa requires that the U.S. investment be substantial and generates a substantial income. While there are no hard and fast figures on what the minimum investment amount is, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services generally require a business investment of US$100,000 or more, but the investment amount depends on the nature of the business. For example, opening up an automobile manufacturing plant would require several million dollars while opening up a CPA firm may only require a start-up costs of US$75,000. This is why there is no fixed figures on a minimum investment amount.
The E-2 investor must show that its return on investment is more than what is necessary to merely support the investor in the U.S. For example, an E-2 investor wishes to establish a hotdog stand and will invest US$25,000 to buy the equipment. He expects the hotdog stand to generate US$90,000 in gross sales. This business would probably not qualify becase the gross income generated would not be substantial. The hotdog stand would only generate enough money to support the investor.
Compare this to a business where the investors buys and runds a fleet of hotdog stands. He invests US$95,000 setting up and equipping ten hotdog stands, and expects each stand to generate US$90,000 in gross annual sales. This E-2 investment will generate US$900,000 a year and will be seen as a substantial investment.
The E-2 investments may be in any lawful endeavor that till generate a substantial income. Some successful E-2s include professional services such as accounting or CPA firms, import-export companies, real estate managements companies, retail stores, beauty salons, restaurants and construction companies. The E-2 is not limited to these type of businesses, but rather by the amount of income it generates.
E-2s may include intercompany transferees in manamgement or specialized knowledge positions. For example, a Filipino marketing manager may be transferred on an E2 visa to the U.S. to fill a management position. The company must be majority owned and controlled by citizens of the Philipines. The manager does not have to be an owner of the company. Another example of a specialized knowledge professional is a programmer for a filipino software consulting company. If the programmer knows special, proprietary knwoledge of the Philippine company's product, he cana be transferred to the U.S. on E-2. Unlike the H-1B, the E-2 visa holder's spouse can also obtain workd authorization for the duration of their E-2 status. He or she may then work anywhere.
Because the E-2 is a temporary visa as opposed to a green card, E-2 managers can justify to the U.S. embassy's satisfaction the bringing of their household workers temporarily to the U.S. For many enterpreneurs, setting up and establishing a new company in the U.S. is very time consuming. Knowing that trusted household workers can also travel to the U.S. and help care for the enterprenuer's children will provide added peace of mind.
The E-2 visa is beneficial to many who wish to work and conduct business in the U.S. It is not limited to just the owners of companies, but may be used by their managers and specialized knowledge workers. The process for obtaining an E-2 is complex and should not be attempted without a qualified immigration lawyer.
(Source: Attorneys Robert L. Reeves and Joseph I. Elias/FILIPINASMAG)
Nota Bene: The analyzis and suggestions offered inthis column do not create a lawyer-client relationship and are not a substitute for the personalized representation that is essential to every case. Att. Reeves has represented clients in numerous landmark immigration cases that have set new policies regarding INS action and immigrants rights. His many successes have been published in Interpreter Releases Immigration Briefing and AILA Menthly which are nationally recognized immigration periodicals widely read by Immigration lawyers, State Department and Immigration officials. His cases are also cited in text books as a guide to other immigration practitioners. His offices are located in Pasadena, San Francisco, Beijing and Makati City. Telephone (800) 795-8009. E-mail: immigration@rreeves.com. Website www.rreeves.com |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 9:43 AM |
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| Friday, February 10, 2006 |
| IN BRIEF....... |
BUSTING A BREAST-FEEDING MYTH.
A glass of wine might make dinner with your mother in law easier, but contrary to the old folktale, it won't help with breast-feeding. A new study from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia founD hat mothers made about 13 percent less milk after drinking juice spiked with the amount of alcohol in 1 to 2 glasses of wine than they did after downing a virgin concoction. Why? Probably because theie levels of a key lactation hormone plunged 73 percent after they imbibed.
A SHORT OR RELIEF FOR CARPAL TUNNEL
Surgery is usually the first resort for serious carpal tunnel pain, but it turns out cheaper, less-painful steroid injections are a better remedy for immediate relief. In a recent Spanish study of 163 wrists (belonging to 101 people), roughly one third more wrists were healed 3 months after an injection that after surgery; the methods were equally effective at curbing pain and numbness after a year. If two courses of injections fail to deliver relief, the researchers say, then it's time for surgery.
THE NEW DISH ON FISH AND MERCURY
Fish lovers may want to breathe a sigh of relief -- and order swordfish once in a while. While it's possible to get neurological damage from eating too much of fish such as swordfish or tuna that have high level of mercury, a new study suggests that low levels of mercury aren't dangerous. After testing almost 500 people aged 50 to 70 with typical eating habits, and average levels of mercury in their blood, researchers reported in the journal of the American Medical Association that there was no clear link between mercury and problems with thinking, memory, or coordination. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency agree that for most people eating any type of fish now and then isn't dangerous. But women who are or might get pregnant and children are still advised to stick with low mercury seafood like shrimp, salmon, and canned light tuna.
CHARM SCHOOL FOR DOCTORS
Everybody has run-ins with rude physicians - the onew how make snide comments about your weight or berate the nurses. What they needs is an attitude makeover, and an Arizona company is offering weeklong retreats to get the job done. Classes cover etiquette, how to handle stress, and how to talk to patients and staff with respect. If you see a bad doctor, Amy Esplin,CEO of the company behind the classes, has some advice: Out it's Web address (www.passusa.org) on a note, and slip it to the MD's unlucky office manager- or tell your insurance company, hospital administrator or state medical board about your experience.
(Source:LIVINGMAG/HEALTH) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:19 AM |
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| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 |
| THE COUGH THAT JUST WON'T GO AWAY |
DID YOU EVER HAVE A COUGH THAT JUST WOULD NOT GO AWAY? You try Robitussin and drink it day after day after day with no resolution and think "I don't feel like I have a cold, but why am I coughing?" Although guite common, but perhaps not well known, your chronic cough may be caused by either Postnasal drip, GERD( gastroesophageal reflux disease) or asthma.
The fact is that in the case of chronic cough - or a cough lasting more that six weeks - these three causes are the most common, in the absence of smoking. A short-lived cough is often due to the common cold. This may occur in the setting of a viral infection, which causes inflammation to the mucous membranes inside your nose and airway with production of copious amounts of mucous. Viral syndromes such as these usually last 7-10 days.
Persistence of a cough for a longer period should promprt consideration of a sinus infection. These infections are characterized by secreations, which are either green or yellow and associated with pain and pressure in the cheekbones and midforehead. The process of coughing occurs due to irritation of the airway. Mucous drips down into the airway and irritates nerve endings in the lungs, which -- through a feedback to the brain -- stimulates you to cough and expel the foreign contents invading your lungs. It should be pointed out that in the elderly, this reflex does not work well, and the foreign lung contents remian in the lung leading to further inflammation and the potential development of pneumonia.
In the case of chronic cough caused by the three aforementioned diseases, the same process is at hand. With GERD, there is a backflow of stomach contents mainly characterised by acid , which travels back up the throat and down the airway causing irritation of nerve endings. This happens mainly at night, and people are often unaware of it. The treatment for this is a trial of anti-acid medication, namely proton pump inhibitors that prevent acid production. These tablets are sold over the counter, but recommendations from a physician is advised.
Postnatal drip is a condition often found in people who have runny noses whether due to allergies or non-allergic causes. In either scenario, mucous drips down the back of the throat, enters the airway leading one to cough. People with this condition often find themselves clearing their throat on a regular basis and may never have thought there was anything that could be done to get rid of it.
Although by no means a serious conditions, a cough with symptoms of runny nose and constant throat clearing can be quite disruptive to one's life. In most cases, postnasal drip responds very well to treatment, primarily by menas of a decongestant and in some cases a steroid nasal spray. Some people who have an allergic component causing their postnasal drip also benefit from an anti-histamine.
As far as asthma being a cause for cough -- also known as cough variant asthma -- a person may not get the typical features of an asthma attack, but rather present with a simple cough after exposure to either a chemical irritant or an allergic inrritant. In many instances, one may not be aware they have asthma.
Cough variant asthma can be diagnosed by a lung doctor, or pulmonologist, by way of a breathing test or pulmonary function test, which tests lung volumes and airflow rates. The physician performing the test can also give you a breath of methylcholine, which will cause you to cough if you do in fact have asthma. This disorder is treated with albuterol inhalers or pumps, which are used only as needed, but are available in longer acting formulations for those with more consistent and predictable symptoms.
Many people think that nothing can be done for a chronic cough, that is just part of the common cold, but be aware that there are many things that can cause a cough, most of which are treatable.
Source: CHICHEALTHMAG by: Melissan J. Robledo, MD) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:34 PM |
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| APHRODISIACS: FACT OR FICTION? |
Anchiovies, caviar, oysters, peaches, truffles and chocolate have all been considered Aaphrodisiacs at one time or another, but many of these so called aphrodisiacs were based on folklore and not in fact.
AN APROHRODISIAC IS USUALLY AN AGENT, WHICH CAN EVOKE OR STIMULATE THE AROUSAL OF SEXUAL DESIRE. The name originated from the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. An Aphrodisiac can be any food, drink, drug, scent or device that can arouse or increase sexual desire or libido.
If you look hard enough, you will find that almost anything is considered an Aphrodisiac by one person or another. Anchovies, caviar, oyster, peaches, truffles and chocolate have all been considered Aphrodisiac at one time or the another.
In 1989, the Food and Drug Administration declared that many of these so-called Aphrodisiacs were based in folklore and not in fact. The agency declared there is no scientific proof most of the commonly named Aphrodisiacs worked to enhance sexual stimulation. So then, why are some of these foods considered to be such sexual stimulatns? Simply put, they have developed an aura of their own. An aura that evokes exoticism, mystery and sexuality.
Chilies and spicy foods have long been viewed as Aphrodisiacs, because their physiological effects - a raised heart rate and occasional sweating - are similar to the physical reaction sometimes experienced during sexual intercourse.
Similarly, chocolate is considered a powerful Aphrodisiac that stimulate the nervouse system, and heightens a person's mood and energy level.
Not all Aphrodisiacs can be considered as benign and pleasurebale as a good curry or chocolate souffle'. One of the most infamous Aphrodisiac is the Spanish fly, which is the popular name for Cantharides. Made from dried beetle remains, the sexual excitement from ingesting Cantharides comes from the irritation to the urogenital tract from this compound, and the resulting rush of blood to the inflamed area. If medical help is not available, ingestion of Cantharides can lead to sacrring of the urogenital system and even death.
If you are feeling like you want to experiment and see if a particular food or product Aphrodisiacs can be an untapped source of romance, love and good sex -- but stick to foods and items familiar to you. The most successful path to good sex is a healthy attitude and body.
(Source: CHICHEALTHMAG by: Rose Kyler, MD) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:07 PM |
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| YOUR TABOO, NOT MINE |
The furor over cartoons of Muhammad reveals the zealot's double standard.
THE ICONIC IMAGE OF LAST WEEK WAS IN THE GAZA STRIP. It was of a Palestinian gunman astride the local office of the European Union. All the diplomatic staff had fled, tipped off ahead of time. The source of the militant's ire? A series of satirical cartoons originally published in Denmark. Yes, cartoons.
A Danish paper, a while back, had commissioned a set of cartoons depicting the fear that many writers and artists in Europe feel when dealing with the subject of Islam. To Western eyes, the cartoons were not in any way remarkable. In fact, they were rather tame. One showed Muhammad with his turban depicted as a bomb - not exactly a fresh image to describe Islamic terrorism. Another used a simple graphic device; it showed Muhammad surrounded by two women in full Muslim garb, their eyes peering out from an oblong space in their black chadors. And on Muhammads' face there was an oblong too, blacking out his eyes. The point was that Islam has a blind spot when it comes to women's freedom. Crude but powerful; exactly what a political cartoon is supposed to be.
The result was an astonishing uproar in the Muslim world, one of those revealing moments when the gulf between our world and theirs seems unbridgeable. Boycotts of European goods are in force; demonstrators in London held up signs proclaiming EXTERMINATE THOSE WHO MOCK ISLAM AND BE PREPARED FOR THE REAL HOLOCAUST; th editor of the French newspaper France-Soir was fired for reprinting the drawings; Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the publication; and protesters set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. The Egyptian ambassador to Denmark expressed disbelief that the government would not prevent further reprinting. Freedom of the press, the Egyptian explained, "means the whole story will continue and that we are back to sqaure one again. The government of Denmark has to do something to appease the Muslim world."
Excuse me? In fact, the opposite is the case. The Muslim world needs to do soemthing to appease the West. Since Ayatullah Khomeini declared a death sentence against Salman Rushdie for how he depicted Muhammad in his book The Stanic Verses, Islamic radicals have been essentially threatening the free discussion of their religion and politics in the west. Rushdie escaped with his life. But Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician who stood up against Muslim immigrant hostility to equality for women and gays, was murdered on the street. Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who offended strict Muslims, was killed thereafter,. Several other Dutch politician who have dared to criticize the intolerance of many Muslims live with police protection.
Muslim leaders say the cartoons are not just offensive. They're blasphemy - the mother of all offenses. That's because Islam for-non-Muslims respect the taboo? I see no reason why. You can respect a religion without honoring the taboos. I eat pork, and I'm not before an altar. As a Catholic, I dont expect atheists to genuflect before an altar. If violating a taboo is necessary to illustract a political point, then the call is an easy one. Freedom means learning to deal with being offended.
Blasphemy, after all, is commonplace in the West. In America, Christians have become accustomed to artists offending their religious symbols. They can protest, and cut off public funding -- but the right of the individual to say or depict offensive messages or symbols is not really in dispute. Blasphemy, moreover, is common in the Muslim world, and sanctioned by Arab government. The Arab media run cartoons depicting Jew and the symbols of the Jewish faith with imagery indistinguishable from that used in the Third Reich. But I have yet to see Jews or Israelis threaten the lives of Muslims because of it.
And there is, of course, the other blasphemy. It occured on Sept. 11,2001, when fanatics murdered thousands of innocent in the name of Islam. Surely, nothing could be more blasphemous. So where were the Muslim boycotts of Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan after that horrifying event? Sine 9/11 mosques have been bombed in Iraq by Islamic terrorists. Where was the rioting condemning attacks on the holiest shrines? These double standards reveal something quite clear: this call for "sensitivity" is primarily a cover for intolerance of others and intimidation of free people.
Yes, there's no reason to offend people of any faith arbitrarily. We owe all faiths respect. But the Danish cartoons were not arbitrarily offensive. They were designed to reveal Islamic intolerance -- and they have now done so, in abundance. The West's principles are clear enough. Tolerance? Yes. Faith? Absolutely. Freedom of speech? Nonnegotiable.
(Source:TIMEMAG/Essay by: Andrew Sullivan) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:13 PM |
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| ARE WE LOSING OUR EDGE? |
The U.S. still leads the world in scientific innovation. But years of declining investment and fresh competition from abroad threaten to end our supremacy.
SLOWING DOWN WHILE OTHERS SPEED UP
SPENDING ON RESEARCH
The U.S. pours more money into science than does another country,
but Federal funding - has been shrivering.
Six countries now devote a larger share of their economy to science.
Top 10 countries in research spending as a percentage of GDP*
Israel .......... 4.43 percent
Sweden .......... 3.98 percent
Finland ......... 3.49 percent
Japan ........... 3.15 percent
Iceland ......... 3.04 percent
South Korea ..... 2.64 percent
United States ... 2.61 percent
Switzerland ..... 2.57 percent
Germany ......... 2.55 percent
Denmark ......... 2.53 percent
* 2003 data, except Israel (2001), Switzerland (2003), and Denmark (2002)
TRAINING THE NEXT WAVE
The U.S. still awards for more science Ph.D's
than any other country, but that number is tapering
off as China is jumping. The U.S. also has the most
science majors in the world but ranks 25th when that
number is adjusted for population.
Countries with the highest percentage of 24-year olds
with science degrees*
Findland ......... 13.2 percent
Hungary .......... 11.9 percent
France ........... 11.2 percent
South Korea ...... 11.1 percent
Singapore ........ 10.9 percent
Britain .......... 10.7 percent
Sweden ........... 9.5 percent
Australia ........ 9.3 percent
Ireland .......... 8.5 percent
Russia ........... 8.5 percent
United States .... 5.7 percent(25th in the world)
*2001 date except Singapore(1995)
)2001) Britain andRussia (1999)
Source: TIMEMAG/National Science Foundation/O.E.C.D.; European Commission,National Academy of Sciences;U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by: Michael D. Lemonick) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:30 AM |
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| Tuesday, February 07, 2006 |
| A BUSH WITHOUT BOLDNESS |
ON THE DAY BEFORE PRESIDENT BUSH'S EMINENTLY DISPOSABLE STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH, I heard a story that I'll never forget. It was told by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who was addressing a small audience in Washington. A military helicopter pilot from Iowa, serving in Iraq, was killed when he noticed a ground-to-air missile headed his way and, in a split-second reaction, swerved his chopper so that he and his co-pilot split second reaction, swerved his chopper so that he and his co-pilot would take the hit and his 18 passengers would be spared. Vilsack placed a condolence call to the widow, who stopped him in midsentence, "I think about it this way", the woman said. "Those 18 men needed my husband more in that split second than I'll need him for the rest of my life."
Vilsack, who is probably running for President- and should be - used the story to illustrate the sacrifice and sense of community that is at the heart of a successful democracy. The current Administration, he said, "is ripping away at the fabric of the American community". The story lingered as I listened to Bush once again ask nothing from the American people in his speech and, worse, issue his annual call for lower taxes. The President's addiction to tax cuts had become rhetorical boilerplate, so totally expected that it's no longer noticed. But I found it particularly this time.
There was a case for mild cuts when Bush came to office. The economy was stalling, and there was a budget surplus. We have big deficits now, and an economy chugging along at 4percent growth. Bush's addiction is a reflection of ideology run amok and a twisted reading of recent history. Yes, the economy began to pick up when Ronald Reagan offered his famous 1981 tax-reduction plan, but it continued to grow when Reagan raised the taxes in 1982 and '83. And how to explain the economic boom of the 1990s? Bill Clinton's tax increases for the wealthy, whcih were smaller proportionally than Reagan's certainly didn't seem to dampen the irrational exuberance of the wealthy.
A case can be made for targeted tax cuts to encourage socially beneficial behavior like research into alternative cars and fuels. A case can also be made -- though Bush would rather see Brokeback Mountain than make it -- for targeted tax increases to discourage things like, well, an addiction to oil. But what are we to the elimination of the estate tax, which would cost $750 billion over 10 years? Republicans have done a clever bit of marketing here by calling it the death tax. Perhaps Democrats should nickname estate-tax repeal the Paris Hilton Empowerment Project. Whatever you call it, it is an obscenity to ask nothing of heiresses while helicopter pilots are giving everything.
The tax obsession certainly makes it hard for the Presiden to propose anything useful in his State of the Union speeches. His vaunted energy independence initiative was a mirage, a minor reshuffling of programs that already exist or a reinstatement of those cut in previous years. At least one of Bush's proposals - the goal of reducing our dependence on "Middle Eastern" oil 75percent by 2025 - resulted in an embarrassing retreat. Bush's Energy Secretary, Samuel Bodman, retracted the pledge a day later, saying the President had offered an "example", not a promise.
Actually, I missed Bush's exhilarating, if oft misguided, boldness. And there were ways Bush could have broken new ground last week and remained true to his values. Some conservatives - including the authors of a recent cover story in the Weekly Standard magazine - believe it's time for Republicans to embrace a mandatory universal health-insurance plan. Representatives of American industry - which is staggering under its health car burden-have been meeting quietly with labor unions, think tanks and interest groups in Washington to try to find common graound. In 1993, Senator John Chafee proposed a Republican model of universal coverage that subsidized the wroking poor and taxe the rich to pay for it; if the Clinton had been willing to compromise. They weren't and later regretted it. Perhaps the President shoudl reintroduce a version of the Chafee plan and see if the Democrats are still opposed. That would be a fight worth having.
But Bush seemed too tired, defensive and preoccupied by a multitude of Middle Eastern woes to be up for any such heavy lifting. His speech was a dispiriting spectacle for both parties. The Democrats only noticeable contributions came when they, led by a smirking Hilary Clinton, aplauded the failure of Social Security reform. I kept thinking about the woman out in Iowa, wondering if she was watching, embarrassed by how unworthy this government is of her husband's sacrifice.
(Source: IN THE ARENA/TIME MAG by: Joe Klein. To see a collection of Klein's recent columns, visit time.com/klein) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:27 PM |
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| MALE CALL: START ACTING LIKE IT'S THE YEAR OF THE DOG |
"MEN ARE DOGS". How many times have you heard that? One minute you're minding your own business, innocently checking out the waitress while your date scans the menu, and next thing you know, you've got a basket of bread dumped over your head. What's a guy supposed to do?
It's true, of course: We are like dogs. We're loud, messy, lazy. We love playing ball, tearing into a piece of meat, prowling with the gang at night, crashing on the couch. We have a soft spot for mating indiscriminately. And we hate that vacuum cleaner.
But now that it's officially the Year of the Dog,according to the Chinese calendar, it's time we embraced out canininity. Let's take a moment and see if man's best friend does'nt have a trick or two to teach us about getting along with that other person sharing our bed.
Gentlemen: Get ready to embrace your inner puppy.
Trick No. 1: Speak, boy! Speak!
Men often hesitate to tell the ones we love what's bothering us -- we spend so much time in the "discussions" she initiates that there's barely enough time to tinker with the stereo. But that's short term thinking. Over the long haul, it's not healthy to leave one party always in charge of when, and over what, you argue. If you smell trouble, brother, start barking.
Trick No 2: Mark your territory.
Look at any old couple who have "made it" and you'll see: The man pretty much does as he likes, and the woman pretty much does as she likes. But there are many paths to that happy ending. Defend whatever's important to you early on, and you'll have a smoother ride. Ask yourself; How do you secretly wish your relationship were different? You want poker night every Thursday? No shaving on the weekends? Stake your claim and on't be a martyr; it's your relationship too.
Trick No. 3: Be loyal.
You are part of a pack; don't forget that. Never agree with negative assessments of your male friends, even if it means the difference between sex and no sex. "Don't you think your friend Johnny is a little immature?" No, you don't. "Is'nt that cruddy what Phil did to his girlfriend?" You dont know; you're not a judge. Defend your boys, even in the pure privacy of pillow talk; it sends a powerful message that you stand by the ones you love even when it's irrational to do so, a sentiment that has obvious applications inside your relationship too.
Trick No. 4: Stand your ground.
Too often, men throw in the towel so they can fast-forward to the makeup sex. Who cares who wins the muddy-shoes-in-the-bedroom debate, right? Wrong! Sometimes a woman will pick a fight just to make sure you're paying attention, and if you don't call her on it, she'll start believing she's right to accuse you of whatever trumped up, overdramatized thing bugs her about you this week. Then she'll be on you like a blackmailer who smells more disposable income. You don't have to let your gal win just to get back to the game anymore. We TiVo now.
Trick No. 5: Bury the bones.
Don't hold grudges or rehash old arguments; it only keeps the relationship from moving forward. But, when leaving the past in the dust, remember where a few of the bones are buried. Women have a better memory for arguments past than men do, and this way, If she decides to raise a dead issue, you can call a statute of limitations violation. "Hey -- I don't keep bringing up the Great Pool Boy Flirtation of '02, do I?"
Good luck, see you in the doghouse!.
(Source: CHICTRIB by: Keith Blanchard) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 12:17 PM |
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| NATIONAL BESTSELLERS |
FICTION HARDCOVER
(as of last week/last week of Jan '06)
1. The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown (Doubleday)
A murder mystery involving the head curator of the Louvre.
2. The Hostage
By W.E.B. Griffin (Putnam)
U.S. security agent Charley Castillo investigates a murder.
3. Every Breath You Take
By Judith McNaught (Ballantine)
A romantic thriller in Chicago.
5. Death Dance
By Linda Fairstein (Scribner)
Prosecutor Alexandra Cooper investigates the murder of a ballerina.
6. Mary, Mary
By James Patterson (Little, Brown)
Detective Alex Cross returns to find a Hollywood murderer.
7. S is for Silence
By Sue Grafton (Putnam)
Kinsey Millhone searches for a woman who disappeared 34 years earlier.
8. At First Sight
By Nicholas Sparks (Warner)
Continue the story of columnist Jeremy Marsh begun in "True Believer".
9. The Last Templar
By Raymond Khoury (Dutton)
A case involving medieval knights and the Catholic church.
10.Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
By Anne Rice (Knopf)
Retells the early years of Jesus life.
NON-FICTION HARDCOVER
(as of last week/last week of Jan.'06)
1. Marley and Me
By John Grogan (Morrow)
Life with a rambunctious dog.
2. The World is Flat
By Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux)
A look at globalization.
3. My Friend Leonard
By James Frey (Riverhead)
Continues the author's story begun in "A Million Little Pieces".
4. For Laci: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss and Justice
By Sharon Rocha (Crown)
Laci Peterson's mother tells her story.
5. Freakonomics
By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (MOrrow)
Uses economic theories to explain social phenomena.
6. Love Smart
By Phil McGraw (Free Press)
Offers advice on relationships.
7. Bad Childhood, Good Life
By Laura Schlessinger (HarperCollins)
How to overcome difficult childhood.
8. Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About
By Kevin Trudeau (Alliance)
Looks at alternative theraphies.
9. The Sonoma Diet
by Connie Guttersen (Meredith)
A weight loss plan.
10.The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion (Knopf)
The author recounts her husband's death and her daugther's battle with illness.
(Source: CHICTRIB / Publishers Weekly) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 2:27 AM |
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| IS EUROPE COMMITTING 'DEMOGRAPHIC SUICIDE'? |
Projected decline in population is a sign of success.
BERLIN -- Will the last person in Europe please turn off the lights?That's the question being asked from Moscow to Madrid, where people are having fewer babies than ever before. The continent is anticipating something hard to imagine 30 years ago: a shrinking population.
A generation ago, we were warned that the "population explosion" would lead to famine, war and environmental catastrophe. Today, the alleged danger is a population implosion.
No one disputes the basic trend, Here in Germany, the average woman has 1.4 children, well short of the 2.1 needed to keep the population roughly stable without immigration. In Italy, Spain and Greece, the rate is around 1.3. IN the United States, by contrast, the rate is around the replacement level.
Even with the addition of immigrants, Europe's population is projected to decline after the 2025. Germany alone will probably lose some 8 million people by the middle of the century.
European leaders have begun taking action. Last week, the French government announced higher government stipends for parents who take leave from their jobs to have a third child. German family affairs minister Ursula von de Leyen- the mother of seven - wants the Berlin government to increase subsidies for child bearing.
Pessimism abounds - "Germans are at risk of dying out" warns one expert. American Catholic theologian George Weigel says Europe is committing "demographic suicide". He fears for the fate of a continent that "declines to create the human future in the most elemental sense, by creating a next generation".
But rest easy. There will be a next generation of Europeans, and another one after that. To call a decline in population "suicide" is like referring to a diet as "starvation". Europeans are not refusing to reproduce -- they are just doing it at a slower pace than their parents and grandparents did.
This is not a sign of failure. It is a sign of success. For millenia, parents had to produce babies in large numbers just to see some survive to adulthood. Today, thanks to better nutrition and medical care, prople can bear fewer children but still count on having grandchildren.
The economic calculus has also changed radically. Children used to become productive assets early in life, laboring in fields, factories or the home. So people generally had lots of them.
But in the developed world, kids no longer contribute much to their upkeep until well beyond adolescence. On the contrary, they require ever-increasing investments in education, as well as designer clothes, music lessons, sports camps and iPods. When the cost of a child rises. It's not surprising that most parents would choose to have one or two instead of three or six.
Once upon a time, of course, many people had little choice on whether to bear children. Let's call these people "women" Lacking birth control on many alternatives beyond marriage and motherhood, they got to spend a lot of time pregnant whether they wanted it or not.
For women in Europe, things have improved. They have other options -- pursuing demanding careers, extending their educations, remaining single -- and many embrace them.
Men, too, enjoy more choices than before, some of which are incompatible with large families. If males and females conclude that the pursuit of happiness entails fewer children, it's hard to see why governments should encourage them to have kids they don't especially want.
The only real problems is that the combination of fewer births and longer lives makes the European welfare state even less affordable than it already is. As the retiree population grows and the number of working adults falls, the tax burden and the number of working adutls falls, the tax burden on workers will get excruciatingly heavy.
Europe could increase its population by admitting immigrants. But there are other obvious remedies to the problem. The first is for people to extend their working lives, supporting themselves instead of asking younger folks to support them. It's hardly cruel to say that the trade off for getting to live past 80 is to keep working until past 65.
The other antidote is to boost economic growth -- gnerating greater income and wealth that can be used for a variety of purposes. That is something many countries in Europe know they need to do anyway. The looming demographic change may serve the useful purpose of getting them to do it sooner rather than later.
Like any major change, a declining population will cause some pain. But with intelligent adjustments, there is no reason Europe can't be prosperous and stable with fewer Europeans. A couple of years ago, after all, it was exactly that.
(Source:CHICTRIB by: Steve Chapman. He is a member of the Tribune editorial board. E-mail : schapman@tribune.com) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 1:49 AM |
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| Monday, February 06, 2006 |
| A STRANGE SYMBIOSIS... |
BIN LADEN, BUSH BOTH WANT IRAQ WAR TO CONTINUE
A DOZEN DAYS before the 2006 State of the Union Message, Osama bin Laden reached out from some cave halfway around the world to give the president a much needed public-relations boost for the sedonc time in about 15months.
This new appearance by the leader of Al Qaeda came as the president's polling numbers are at a low ebb and he is under serious pressure to pull at least some troops out of Iraq. Bin Laden's earlier appearancd helped re-elect Bush.
BUsh and bin Laden each will get exactly what they want from the latest message, reinforcing the view that both halves of this odd couple really need each other -- and neither wans to quit the other.
The fact is, each plays the role of organizing symbol for the other, strengthening respective political bases. Nothing helps a political leader really his troops more than having a clearly defined enemy.
The American invasion and occupation of Iraq have done more to discredit the United States worldwide than any other acion in our history. From the first shock and awe carpet bombing of Baghadad to the "mission accomplished" speech through the last two years of blood and blundering across the land, most of the world condemned us while more and more of Islam rallied to bin Laden's side.
There are two wars going on in Iraq: a multipronged revolt and a guerrilla style civil war that is partly ethnic and partly political. Even granting the potential salutary effects of democratic elections, we have not even been able to define a victory in either wa.
Rather, the occupation turned Iraq into a new nexus of terror providing a far more fertile training ground and launching pad for the TalibaN. The insurgencies in Iraq continue, while worldwide acts of terrorism are on the increase.
All of which enhance the stature of bin Laden, clearly expanding his base.
'Stay the course!'
There can be little doubt that he wants us to remain there -- and he wants Bush to keep telling the world that this administration will continue to "Stay the course!'
So why would bin Laden make public an audio clip Jan 19 saying, among a host of provocative statements (as translated by the BBC) , "What prompted me to speak are the repeated fallacies of your President Bush in his comment on the outcome of the U.S. opinion polls, which indicated that the overwhleming majority of you want the withdrawal of the forces from Iraq, but he objected to this desire and said that the withjdrawal of troops would send a wrong message to the enemy".
Here and elsewhere in the speech he balsts Bush and endoreses the postion of the U.S. peace movement, then -- boasting of the insurgents successes in teh guerilla war - he proceeds to the ultimate threat:
"As for the delay in carrying out similar operations in America, this was not due to failure to breach your security measures. Operations are under preparation, and you will see them on your own ground once they are finished, God willing".
But he later offers, "We donot object to a long term truce with you on the basis of fair conditions that we respect."
The administration and its right wing echo chamber seemed to take the speech at face value. They gloomed on to it as a vindication of their own "Stay the course" position and used it to attack anti-war Democrats as witting tools of the enemy.
An editorial in the Tribune said: "The reaction to the tape Friday in much of the European press wat that bin Laden , with his boasts of terror sucessess in Iraq and promises of more attacks, did a favor for George W. Bush. The president's critics chafe each time he calls Iraq the central battlefield of the war on terror and not, as many of them believe, a diversion from that war. But bin Laden's relentless obsession with Iraq suggests that he and Bush agree. As Iraq goes, so perhaps, goes that larger war."
So why would bin Laden make such a speecj at this time? Does he really think he is convincing the American public? Is he nuts?
Of course not.
As author Thomas Friedman often points out, nothing in the Middle East dialogue is as it seems, everything is arced and elliptical and sometimes means exactly the opposite of what it says.
Bin Laden fully undertands that he is the most universally despised person in America. He is a master of what used to be called "reverse English" or backspin.
Bin Laden understands that by attacking Bush he enhances him and by seeming to support America war critics he discrdits them in many quarters. In short, he wants Bush as long as possible, he wants Bush to have public support and he wans the occupation to continue for all the reason stated above.
Why do you think he make a video public on Oct. 29, 2004, fully aware that it was only four days before the presidential election, reminding us that he was alive and kicking and still mighty dangerous?
Because he, and most of the world, knew that the so-called war on terror and U.S. security were Bush strongerst suits, and his appearance would outrage Americans and still enhance Bush on Election Day.
On the Firday the video aired, Democrats Dmocracy Corps poll showed John Kerry ahead by 3 points and possibly growing. On Saturday the tracking poll showed an immediate drop of 1.5 points and the next day an even race. We know what happened on that Tuesday.
Similarly, in the course of the past year Bush has been steadily sinking.
In need of PR boost
Our troops are maimed or killed almost every day in Iraq. His attempt to privatize Social Security was topped dead in its tracks. His prescription drug plan is foundering. The economy is still rocky. Unemployment looms larger as bedrock industries such as airlines and atumotive companies flirt with bankcruptcy.
Hurricane Katrina exposed incompetence and perhaps even a bit of insitutional racism in the administration. The president's vaunted political capital is running a deficit.
The latest polls show the public disapproves of his handling of the war; he was forced tomake a token troop reduction just to reduce the pressure. He is losing on the economy, health care and virtually every other issue except homeland security. On that he is still trusted more than the Democrats -- though for how much longer?
Obviously he needed a little PR. Bush beofre the State of the Union message, and bin Laden was there for him with skillfull backspin.
Bin Laden denounces him, and Bush once again can really his troops, shout "stay the course" and denounce the Democratic peaceniks. Most of all he can again ecxho bin Laden's threat to attack us on our homeland and reassure us all that only he can keep us safe and secure.
Bin Laden's re-emergence was so perfect it might as well have been staged by Bush strategist Karl Rove.
(Source: CHICAGOTRIB by Don Rose. A freelance writer and political consultant who has worked for Democrats and Republicans) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:16 AM |
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| Sunday, February 05, 2006 |
| A STIRRING REVELATION ABOUT TRENDY TEA |
The so-called healthy pick-me-up has, gulp, caffeine: scientists.
YERBA MATE, is becoming the next trendy drink, following on the heels of coffeehouse fads such as chai and green-tea lattes. It's showing up in everything from energy drinks to cocktails.
Its main selling point? That it's a healthy pick me-up without caffeine side effects, according to companies that make and sell the South American herbal tea.
The only problem: Scientis now say the main stimulant in mate isn't an alternative mateine, as its champions claim, but, instead, is plain old caffeine.
NO such thing as Mateine?
And though mate (promounced mah-tay) is widely marketed as a health drink, some health care practitioners warn that it might worsen blood pressure and anxiety.
The research comes from scientists at Florida International University who are studying mate and related plants. According to Bradley Bennett, director of the state university's Center for Ethnobiology and Nature Products, the main stimulant in mate is caffeine. It also has theophylline, which gives most teas their kick, plus theobromine the stimulant in chocolate.
Mateine, says Bennett, doesnt exits.
The controversy over Yerba Mate has caused several companies to change their marketing language. Tea packages from Pixie Mate, which was introduced last April, say that "the zip" in mate comes from the compound "mateine, a wholly different kind of boost than coffee's caffeine." Co-founder T.J. McIntyre says that now that the company knows that mate is full of caffeine -- about the same amount as in coffee - it's cahnged the labels.
Doctor has concerns
Guayaki,another brand, saw sales increase by 35 percent in 2005 and plans to introduced ready-to-drink mate tea, as well as three flavors of mate-based energy drinks., nationwide in March. Its Web site lists how many milligrams of caffeine are in each of its drinks.
In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil, mare is made by stuffing a hollowed-out gourd with loose leaves, wetting them with boiling water and sipping the bitter infusion, through a metal straw. Many of the new beverages mask mate's bitterness with sugar and flavorings, such as ginger, cloves and vanilla.
Some health professionals have concerns about mate. Dr. David Goldenberg, director of head and neck surgery at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa, has reviewed studies that he says suggest a link between South America's mate and head and neck cancers. The link isn't well understood -- it might be due in part to the fact that many South Americans drink large amounts of hot, concentrated mate -- and some of the studies looked at populations that smoke and also drink alcohol, which are known risk factors for cancer.
(Source: Wall Street Journal by: Katy Mclaughlin) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 5:47 AM |
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| Saturday, February 04, 2006 |
| PREVIOUS STATES OF THE UNION |
George W. Bush is the fifth president since World War II to give six State fo the Union addresses. How the nation was faring economically in the year before each president's sixth speech:
DWIGHT EISENHOWER
1957
Economic growth: 2.0 percent
Inflation rate: 3.3 percent
Unemplyment rate: 4.3 percent
Federal spending (not adjusted for inflation) $76.6 billion
***
RICHARD NIXON
1973
Economic growth: 5.8 percent
Inflation rate: 6.2 percent
Unemployment rate: 4.9 percent
Federal spending (not adjusted for inflation) $245.7 billion
***
RONALD REAGAN
1985
Economic growth: 4.1 percent
Inflation rate: 3.6 percent
Unemployment rate: 7.2 percent
Federal spending(not adjusted for inflation) $946.4 billion
***
BILL CLINTON
1997
Economic growth: 4.5 percent
Inflation rate: 2.3 percent
Unemployment rate: 4.9 percent
Federal spending (not adjusted for inflation) $1.6 trillion
***
GEORGE W. BUSH
2005
Economic growth: 3.5 percent
Inflation rate: 3.4 percent
Unemployment rate: 5.1 percent
Federal spending (not adjusted for inflation) $2.5 trillion
(Source: Census Bureau,Bureau of Labor Statistics and Office of Management and Budget) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:26 PM |
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| CHICAGO: CITY WANTS 'TENS OF THOUSANDS' OF FIREFIGHTER APPLICANTS |
WANTED FIREFIGHTERS
STARTING SALARY:
$44,838
EXAM DATE:
May 25-26,2006
LOCATION:
McCormick Place
APPLICATION PERIOD:
March 29 through April 11
WHERE TO APPLY:
Chicago Pu;ic Libraries
Chicago City Colleges
online at www.citychicago.org/fire
MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS:
Must be at least 19 at time of exam andhave high school diploma or GED.
Applicants must lie in Chicago and be under age 35 at time of appointment.
BENEFITS:
24 Hours on and 48 hours off;
raise after six months;
tuition reimbursements;
generous health and pension benefits.
(Source: CITY OF CHICAGO) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 10:40 PM |
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| 1906 - 2006 FIRST CENTENNIAL OF THE FILIPINO DIASPORA |
IF YOU CAN MAKE IT HERE
For Filipinos working overseas, the simple goal of survival sometimes ends up being a lucrative blessing in disguise.
THE FILIPINOS who ventured overseas and made their way to Hawaii and then the U.S. mainland in the early 1900s were mostly farm workers and laborers with few skills and little in terms of education and chances for upward mobility. In contrast, many of OFWs in recent recent decades are college-educated inidividuals who gave up trying to leverage their professinal degress towards earning a decent living. Gor them, the only option was to seek employment abroad.
In the mid-'60s, amendments to the U.S. immigration law enbaled professionals from the Philippines, such as doctors, accountants and engineers, to easily secure green cards based on job offers. But the flood of immigration dried up job availabilities in America, except fo minimum wage service occupations.
Other overseas destination within Aisa, Australia, the Middle East and Europe, beckoned with the promise of jobs, but those that were available were mostly menial, although better paying than office positions in the Philippines. In Europe, for instance, it is estimated that over 80 percent of Filipino immigrants are domestics, yet they earn considerably more than junior executives in Makati (a business disctrict in the Philippines). Many are former school teachers, office workers and government employees with college degrees.
Once settled in their foreign enviornment , the more enterpreneurial of them decide that they can do better than wait at tables or take care of other people's housework. Others have no choice. Subjected to cruelty by employers or exploited by recruiters, they set out on their own, scramble to survive and, somehow, manage to achieve a measure of success.
In London, Consuelo Farochelin has been publicized in the mainstream press as a bon fide millionaire. She has, in fact, built up enough assets to deserve that description. She owns a commercial building in central London, plus residential units in the city, operates a grocery store and a cargo forwarding, money remittance and travel business and publishes a community newspaper.
What Farochelin is not embarassed to point out is that she began over two decasdes ago as a domestic. She did not think that her family's earnings in her native Pampanga were enough to keep body and soul together, so she left her brrod and sought employment in Europe. London was where she found it.
Typical of overseas Filipinos, she regularly saved up foodstuff, clothing and sundry items and packed them in a box to send home to her family. Noting this, her Filipino friends began asking to hitchhike in her box -- for free. She decided to make a business out of the service and soon became the "Balikbayan Box Queen" (Returning back to town)of London. Her enterpreneurial instincts spurred the business and her operations flourished and expanded.
In Bonn, Zeny Krug owns and manages a hotel with her German husband. Some 25 years ago, she had walked out of a job as a maid in the home of a Middle Eastern diplomat, after having been treated harshly. Despeate, she agreed to a pertnership of convenience with a German who operated a small bed and breakfast. Together, they grew the enterprise. In the process, they decided to wed.
Perhaps it is desperation that brings out the entepreneurial insitancts of a person. But is takes strength of character, brain and dissatisfaction with one's status in life, and a willingness to swear and strive to get our of the mire. These are qualities that are usually attributed to the Chinese. Many of the wealthy Chinese i the Philippines trace their beginnings to peddling in the streets or collecting recyclable bottles and newspapers, or their parents emigrated from China their lives in the Philippines as cooks, waiters and laundryment.
Dignity of labor is something that Filipinos learn to appreaciate abroad. Where, in the Philippines they would smirk at the idea of working as a bus driver or a garbage collector, they soon discover that theser are high-paying jobs in America.
Overseas, the need to survive makes any source of income acceptable. IN Florence, Italy, a Filipino owns operates and entertains in his own Karaoke bar. A couple in London set up a restaurant without any previous experience, except for the fact that the husband had worked as a waiter there. The wife was in the military in the Philippines. In Rome, outside the Philippine embassy, a woman sells balut and snacks on the sidewalk. She and her husband have been doing this for years. With their earnings, they have been able to send their children in the Philippines to college.
Asked where her latest child graduated, she declares with pride: "At La Salle."---
(Source:FILIPINASMAG by GBM) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 9:57 PM |
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| 1906 - 2006 FIRST CENTENNIAL OF THE FILIPINO DIASPORA |
Among the first to become part of the great Filipino Diaspora were teh "Alaskeros", the thousands of Filipino men who labored to remote salmon canneries between 1900 and 1959, when Alaska became the 50th state of the Union. Canning salmon was a labor-intesive business, and the work was very hard. Cheap Asian labor turned Alaska/s annual slamon spawning migration into a major food production industry.
The first to labor in the canneries were the Chinese, followed by the Japanese, who would sail each year from San Franciso and Seattle to the remote coastal canneries that dotted Alaska's coastline on the mouth's of Alaska's salmon-spawning rivers and streams. However, Chinese and Japanese labor dired up when America passed the notorious exclusionary laws banning their futrher immigration into the U.S.
Shortly after these exclusionary laws were passed, the Alaskeros replaced the Chinese and Japanese cannery workers, when Filipinos became American nationals free to immigrate to the Unitd States. Many Alaskeros were initally employed as migrant farm workers in California's Central Valley. They soon heard word of the cannery jobs in Alaska. Labor contractors recruited them in mush the same way farm labor contractors did. Some cannery labor contractors began hiring Alaskeros directly from the Philippines.
The Alaskeros worked hard 12-hour days from spring to fall, and even longer hours when the salmon runs were thick. The wages were low, $25.00 a month in 1910, rising to $65.00 by 1936 just before cannery labor became unionized. But compared with wages at home in the Philippines, the pay seemed high to the Alaskeros, who were unfamiliar with prevailing wage rate in the U.S. The labor contractors made their profit from the difference btween the low wages they paid the Alaskeros and the prevailing wage rates they charged the canneries. On the average, a cannery worker signed a six month contract with the labor contactor and the Cannery store and leave just a few hundred dollars in their wallets.
Alaskeros often left the canneries in the fall to return to California, Oregon and Washington towork the orchards and the fields, and then returned to Alaska in the spring. But inevitably, some Alaskeros stayed to beomce resident Alaskans. Many worked in the gold mines of Juneau and Douglas in Southeast Alaska. Others married Indian, Eskimo or Aleut women and raised their children as Filipinos and as members of their wives' clan and tribes.
Until the 1960s, Alaskeros and their families formed the core of Filipino communities in Ketchikan, Juneau and Bristol Bay.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Filipino community grew as Filipinos began migrating to Alaska as family sponsored immigrants or as military members,and they soon outnumbered the Alaskeros descendants. New Filipino immigrants and their families formed communities in Juneau, Barrow, Ketchikan, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Sitka and Kodiak, may representing various regions of the Philipines.
America's Civil Rights Act, which outlaws the racial segregation, now prohibits the exploitative conditions under which the Alaskeros worked. Today, Filipinos working in the fish processing plants that produce both canned and frozen salmon for the world market, ae often the cannery supervisors and foreman. They are the modern heirs tot he old and rich Alaskero tradition that the foundation for Alaska's Filipino community.
(Source: FILIPINASMAG by: Thelma Buchholdt, an attorney in Alaska. She is the author of the book, Filipinos in Alaska: 1788-1958, and is the current national president of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS). For more information about FANHS, visit www.fanhs-national.org for more information about FANHS Alaska Chapter, visit www.fanhs17.com) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 2:55 AM |
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| Thursday, February 02, 2006 |
| AND THE REST OF THE NOMINEES ARE....... |
The 78th annual Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif., by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
ACTOR:
Philllip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"
Terrance Howard, "Hustle and Flow"
Heath Ledger, "Brokeback Mountain"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk the Line"
David Stratharin, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
ACTRESS:
Judi Dench, "Mrs. Henderson Presents"
Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica"
Keira Knightley, "Pride and Prejudice"
Charlize Theron, "North Country"
Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line"
SUPPORTING ACTOR:
George Clooney, "Syriana"
Matt Dillon, "Crash"
Paul Glamatti, "Cinderella Man"
Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain"
William Hurt, "A History of Violence"
SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Amy Adams, "Junebug"
Catherine Keener, "Capote"
Frances MacDomand, "North Country"
Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
MIchelle Williams, "Brokeback Mountain"
DIRECTOR:
Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
Bennett Miller, "Capote"
Paul Haggis, "Crash"
George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Steven Spielberg, "Munich"
FOREIGN FILM:
"Dont Tell", Italy
"Joyeux Noel", France
"Paradise Now", Palestine
"Sophie Scholl - the Final Days", Germany
"Tsotsi", South Africa
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Larry McMurty and Dianna Ossana, "Brokeback Mountain"
Dan Futterman, "Capote"
Jeffrey Caine, "The Constant Gardener"
Josh Olson, "A History of Violence"
Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, "Munich"
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, "Crash"
George Clooney, and Grant Heslov, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Woody Allen, "Match Point"
Noah Baumbach, "The Squid and the Whale"
Stephen Gaghan, "Syriana"
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
"Howl's Moving Castle"
"Tim Burton's Corpse Bride"
"Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit"
George Clooney, an Oscar Nominees in three categories , arrives at the Directors Guild Awards last weekened.
ART DIRECTIONS:
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
"KIng KOng"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Pride and Prejudice"
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
"Batman Begins"
"Brokeback Mountain"
"Good Night and, Good Luck"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"The New World"
SOUND MIXING:
"The Chronicle of Narnia: The LIon, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
"KIng KOng"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Walk the LIne"
"War of Worlds"
SOUND EDITING:
"King KOng"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"War o the Worlds"
ORIGINAL SCORE:
"Brokeback Mountain", Gustavo Santaolalia
"The Constant Gardener", Alberto Iglesias
"Memoirs of a Geisha", John Williams
"Munich", John Williams
"Pride and Prejudice", Dario Marianelli
ORIGINAL SONG:
"In the Deep" from "Crash", Kathleen "BIrd" York and Michael Becker
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp", from "Hustle and Flow",Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beaugard.
"Travelin Thru" rom "Transamerica", Dolly Parton
COSTUMES:
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
"Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Mrs. Henderson Presents"
"Pride and Prejudice"
"Walk the Line"
FILM EDITING:
"Cinderlla Man"
"The Constant Gardener"
"Crash"
"MUnich"
"Walk the LIne"
(Source: Abstracted from Associated Press by:Mark J. Terrill) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 4:49 AM |
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| GEORGE BUSH STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH |
CHECKING THE FACTS
President Bush skipped over some complex realities in his State of the Union speech. Here's how it looks:
OIL
* By identifying only Mideast oil imports for reductions, Bush was ignoring some of the largest sources of U.S. petroleum, among them Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela.
* Bush has spoken of reducing reliance on oil in every State of the Union speech, if not as explicitly as in this one, and presidents back to Richard Nixon outlined similar goals, to little or no effect.
HEALTH CARE
Noting that the government must help provide health care for the poor and elderly, Bush said, "We are meeting that responsibility."
* It's true that a new prescription drug benefit for the elderly took effect this year, but the administration's top Medicare official acknowledged that tens of thousands of recipients probably did'nt get medicine because of confusion and computer glitches.
* An incomplete picture also emerges on health care for the poor. The number of uninsured has increased nearly 5 million since Bush took office, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
IRAQ
* Bush's upbeat account of progress in Iraq left unstated a variety of setbacks in turning control over to Iraqi forces, including Iraqi Army desertions.
KATRINA
Addressing Hurricane Katrina aid, Bush said a hopeful society "comes to the aid of fellow citizens in times of suffering and emergency" and the government is meeting New Orleans "Immediate needs."
* Federal money is indeed being used to build stronger levees and provide business loans and housing assistance. But the government has declines to rebuild levees strong enough to sustain a Category 5 hurricane, and it recently rejected a $30 billion redevelopment plan for Louisiana that state officials condered key.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Bush urged American to back his domestic spy program, saying he was using his "authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute" and nothing that "appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed."
* Bush did not address the counterarguments that he failed to heed a separate 1978 law athat specifically calls for court approval to conduct the surveillance. Some lawmakers have also questioned why Bush did not brief more that eight members of Congress about the program, which has been in effect since 2001.
(Source: Associated Press) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 4:14 AM |
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| Wednesday, February 01, 2006 |
| FORD MOTORS: DRIVING TOWARD A SNAZZIER STYLE |
Profits may be scarce in Detroit, but it's a bountiful time in design, judging by the new products for the 2007 model-year. Carmakers plan to launch more than 60 vehicles, starting next month, swelling auto malls with all manner of compacts, coupes,wagons, minivans, muscle cars and SUVs. For manufacturers, producing acar that stands out is getting tougher every year. And as Ford and GM are painfully aware, if your metal does'nt shine in the style department -- and you can't beat your rivals on performance or reliability -- all you can offer is a cut-rate deal, a path to financial ruin. What's a carmaker to do?
At Ford, the road map looks like this: assemble a squad of ace designers. Put the engineers, bean counters and marketers in the backseat. Wait for the artists to produce gorgeous metal and interior. Then pray the company execute.
BORN IN THE U.S.A.
*1903 Henry Ford launches the Ford Motor Co. with about $30,000 in cash after teh failure of his Detroit Automobile Co.
*1904 In skunk works on the third floor of the Piquette Avenue plant, Ford and his engineers experiment with lighter-weight materials that allow the company to mass-produce cars.
*1905 Named for it's engine, Ford's Model T puts America on wheels as the first mass produced car; Ford builds more than 15 million over 19 years.
*1914 Ford introduces the $5-a-day wage at a new factory in Highland Park, Michigan.
*1917 Ford begins 11 years of construction of the Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, which becomes an Icon of American industry, an ore-to-assembly, completely vertical enterprise.
*1927 To replace the Model T, Ford launches the second Model A. (The orignal was built in 1903.) The company sells 4 million of them.
*1920s Ford dominates automobile production, with 55percent of output in 1921 and nearly 65percent in 1924. But by 1931, General Motors eclipses a flailing Ford to become the world's largest automaker.
*1930s Auto sales drop; labor unrest rises, as does the U.A.W; Congress passes labor-relations laws as part of the New Deal.
*1937 Years of resisting union efforts come to a head at the Battle of the Overpass. In 1941 the U.A.W. organizes Ford.
*1940s In the U.S., Ford factories, including its famed Willow Run plant, churn out tanks, cannons and planes for the war effort.
*1945 Henry Ford II becomes president of Ford Motor.
*1956 Ford goes public, but the founding family maintains control with class-B shares that carry disproportionate voting power.
*1958 The Ford Edsel is a famous $400 million flop, its failure blamed on its name, styling and launch timing.
*1960 Robert McNamara is named president; he leaves for a job as Kennedy's Defense Secretary.
*1964 Mustang is a hit,a sports car for Everyman, with options that added to profits.
*1970s The Pinto's infamous fuel-system defects and the oil crisis are setbacks for Ford.
*1978 Lee Iacocca, the mind behind Mustang, clashes with Henry II and is fired, then becomes Chrysler's CEO.
*1986 A design Icon, the Taurus reinvigorates the company and sets the standard for aerodynamic exteriors; other automakers follow suit.
*1987 Henry Ford II dies, and William Clay (Bill) Ford Jr. joins the board of directeors in 1988.
*1999 Jacques Nasser becomes CEO with a mandate to shake things up; Bill Ford is named chairman.
*2000 Firestone tires on Ford explorers are blamed for rollovers and deaths.
*2001 Bill Ford takes over as CEO after firing Nasser, whose aggressive restructuring rolls the firm; costs from the Explorer mess lead to losses of $5.5 billion.
*2002 Bill Ford vows to make Ford greener. The company returns to profitability but continues to lose share.
(Source: abstracted from TIMEMAG/BUSINESS by: Dorinda Elliott/Detroit) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 4:33 AM |
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| About Me |
|
Name: infraternam meam
Home: Chicago, United States
About Me: I am now at the prime of my life
and have been married for the past 25 years.
Sickly at times, but wants to see the elixir vita,
so that I will be able to see my grandchildren from my two boys.
See my complete profile
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