March 31, 2014

Ebola outbreak in Guinea an 'unprecedented epidemic'

Source: AFP

Aid organisation Doctors Without Borders said Monday an Ebola outbreak suspected of killing at least 78 people in Guinea was an "unprecedented epidemic" that had spread across the west African nation.

We are facing an epidemic of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution of cases in the country: Gueckedou, Macenta, Kissidougou, Nzerekore, and now Conakry," Mariano Lugli, the organisation's coordinator in the Guinean capital, said in a statement.

The group known by its initials in French MSF said by the end of the week it would have around 60 international field workers with experience in working on haemorrhagic fever divided between Conakry and the south-east of the country.

Its team includes doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, water and sanitation experts as well as anthropologists.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-outbreak-guinea-unprecedented-epidemic-150950731.html

March 29, 2014

I caught TB from my pet cat

A teenager told last night of her horrific ordeal of catching TB from her pet kitten.

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the world, Jessica Livings was struck down with pneumonia and had to have emergency surgery.

The 19-year-old was later rushed back to hospital in agony for further treatment for severe lung damage.

Another victim suffered the same symptoms of bovine tuberculosis and Jessica’s mother Claire contracted the dormant form of the disease.

It also emerged that a child from the south west caught TB from a pet dog.

Read More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2591930/I-caught-TB-pet-cat-Teenager-tells-rushed-hospital-severe-lung-damage.html

March 29, 2014

Microsoft to Stop Inspecting Private Emails in Investigations

Microsoft will no longer snoop on customers’ private communications during investigations of stolen property, the company’s general counsel said on Friday.

Instead, the general counsel, Brad Smith, said Microsoft would hand over any such investigations to law enforcement agencies. Those agencies can then obtain court orders to inspect private communications on Microsoft’s various Internet services, which include Outlook.com and Skype.

The change came a week after Microsoft faced an uproar over the methods it used in 2012 to investigate the suspected leak of software code by a former employee. An important break in that inquiry, which was conducted by an internal team at Microsoft, came when Microsoft read the private Hotmail emails and instant messages by an unnamed French blogger, which led it to the former Microsoft employee, Alex Kibkalo.

Microsoft said it performed such searches of private communications only in rare circumstances. Even though the searches appeared to be legal and in compliance with its own terms of service, the company faced criticism from privacy advocates and others who warned that it would discourage bloggers, journalists and others from using Microsoft communications services.

Read More: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/microsoft-to-stop-inspecting-private-emails-in-investigations/

March 28, 2014

PG&E expects criminal charges for deadly San Bruno blast

Source: SFGate

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. expects to face criminal charges from the federal government over the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion that killed eight people and leveled a neighborhood, the company reported Thursday.

The U.S. attorney's office investigating the blast will probably charge the utility with violating the federal Pipeline Safety Act in areas related to record-keeping and pipeline maintenance, PG&E said. The utility's parent company, PG&E Corp., made the prediction in a filing Thursday to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company maintains that its employees did not intentionally violate federal law and that criminal charges are unwarranted. The company has committed to spending $2.7 billion of its shareholders' money on upgrading its vast natural gas network in response to the accident, which destroyed 38 homes and damaged 70 more.

"San Bruno was a tragic accident that caused a great deal of pain for many people," said Tony Earley, CEO of PG&E Corp., in a prepared statement. "We're accountable for that and make no excuses. Most of all, we are deeply sorry. We have worked hard to do the right thing for victims, their families and the community, and we will continue to do so."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PG-amp-E-expects-criminal-charges-for-deadly-San-5355143.php

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PG&E is a bad actor that needs to be put out of business.

March 27, 2014

Michigan Chief Justice: I’m ‘So Sick’ Of Medical Pot Cases

The chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court says he’s seen enough medical marijuana cases.

Robert Young Jr. told The Grand Rapids Press that the law approved by voters in 2008 is “no model of clarity” and says “it’s a mess.”

He spoke to the newspaper Tuesday while in Grand Rapids for a judicial conference, summing it up by saying  he’s “so sick of medical marijuana cases.

The current Michigan law allows patients with diseases and conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease, PTSD, glaucoma and hepatitis C to use and possess the drug without state-level repercussions.

Young says supporters of medical marijuana took parts of laws from other states when they drafted the Michigan ballot proposal. Since the law’s passage, the state Supreme Court has interpreted it many times.

Read More: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/03/26/michigan-chief-justice-im-so-sick-of-medical-pot-cases/

awe poor baby needs to think these tough issues through. Lets make it easy for him...

Legalize it and regulate it like cigarettes.

March 27, 2014

Pseudocyesis - 'Phantom' quints pregnancy devastates dad-to-be

A man who believed for months that he was going to be the father of quintuplets instead found out in hospital his girlfriend was never pregnant.

Delivery day came and went on Wednesday and only then did Paul Servat, 35, realize Barbara Bienvenue, 37, wasn't with children.

A disappointed and tearful father recounted his dashed dreams to QMI Agency at his home south of Montreal, in the baby room filled with five colourfully adorned cribs that lie empty.

"She let me choose the names," Servat, 35, said between sobs, surrounded by donated gifts for the five fictitious babies.'

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/03/20/dad-to-be-shocked-girlfriend-wasnt-even-expecting

wow!

March 27, 2014

She Wanted To Help Her Disabled Son Walk. But This Mom’s Invention Just Might Change Everything.

Necessity is the mother of invention and this is especially true of one mother who set out to help her young boy with cerebral palsy. Debby Elnatan is a music therapist and mother who came up with an idea that could change lives of thousands of wheelchair-using children around the world.



After doctors told her her son Rotem had no understanding of how his legs worked, Debby cried for a week after and then tried to find something that could help him and ended up inventing a harness that attaches to an adult and allows the child to stand upright and walk.

http://www.reshareworthy.com/harness-helps-disabled-children/

March 26, 2014

World Vision reverses decision to hire gays

Facing a firestorm of protest, the prominent Christian relief agency World Vision on Wednesday reversed a two-day-old policy change that would have allowed it to hire Christians in same-sex marriages in the US.

The aid group sent a letter to supporters saying the board had made a mistake and was returning to its policy requiring celibacy outside of marriage "and faithfulness within the Bible covenant of marriage between a man and a woman."

"We have listened to you and want to say thank you and to humbly ask for your forgiveness," the agency said in the letter, signed by World Vision president Richard Stearns and board chairman Jim Bere.

Based in Washington state and started by evangelicals, World Vision has an international operating budget of nearly $1 billion and conducts economic development and emergency relief projects.

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/World-Vision-reverses-decision-to-hire-gays-5351721.php

March 26, 2014

Climate Name Change

March 26, 2014

The women of Cairo University over the years.

Cairo University 1959. - Women are dressed in a western style, they don't wear head scarves,
Women are wearing short sleeves, form fitting tops that show off their figure, and are wearing skirts that show some bare skin on the legs. Apparently they managed to pose for a picture dressed like this without causing a riot.


Cairo University 1978 - Nasser has been deposed, arab nationalism has been crushed and the soviet socialist influence on Egypt has been suppressed, women continue to dress in a western manner with some diversity. (This is the year the camp david accords were signed.) The state is run by the military with the cooperation and "aid" of the United States.


Well well what happened between 1978 and 1995, holy shit! something big. While American women were in the midst of a sexual/womens rights revolution. The heretofore progressive women of Egypt are taking a trip to the middle ages.

Now roughly 50% of the women are "pious" muslims who dress conservatively. Keep in mind the majority of the 1959 women identified themselves as muslim, the religion didn't change how they practice it did.

Now a much more extremist conservatism is forcing itself on the women of Egypt.


By 2004 the disenfranchisement of women in Egypt is complete. Gone are the short sleeves, the leg baring skirts and tight fitting tops. Women are covered from head to toe in loose clothing.

The evolution of these pictures shows these "traditions" are not native cultural practices. These are fashions imposed by extremists promoting extreme versions of Islam.

The enslavement of Egyptian women by conservative Islam is a recent phenomena.

The same process of dismepowerment has been underway in "liberated" Libya over the last three years.