Society's ChildS


Family

Spanish Childcare Case Provokes International Campaign

Giles Tremlett
The Guardian, UK
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:37 UTC
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© David Sillitoe/the GuardianChildcare activist Sheila Kitzinger has thrown her weight behind the campaign to have the baby returned to her mother.
Childcare experts are backing an international campaign to reunite a woman with her child after the infant was removed by Spanish authorities concerned about her "chaotic" breastfeeding patterns.

Madrid's social services department insisted there were more serious reasons for taking the 15-month-old girl into care, but an official report criticises the mother's habit of breastfeeding on demand and letting the child sleep in bed with her.

"She uses breastfeeding as a pacifier and a toy, offering her breast any time the girl cries and letting her take it anywhere, no matter the time and context," says an edited version of the report produced by supporters of the 21-year-old mother, known as Habiba.

These criticisms have angered Spanish paediatricians and also prompted childcare activist Sheila Kitzinger and mothers' groups in Britain, the US and elsewhere to throw their weight behind the campaign to have the baby, known as Alma, returned to her mother.

"This baby must be returned to her mother as a matter of urgency and should be able to suckle whenever she wants to," Kitzinger told one of the campaign groups petitioning for Alma's return.
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Laptop

Job Screening Agency Archiving All Facebook

Jackie Cohen
All Facebook
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:51 UTC
head in sand
© Unknown
If you're still not using any of the privacy settings on Facebook, here's the most compelling reason why you need to change that as soon as possible.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given the thumbs up to Social Intelligence Corp, which keeps files of Facebook users' posts as part of a background-checking service for screening job applicants.

A spokesperson for Social Intelligence has clarified in an email:
Data is archived purely for compliance reasons and not used for any other purposes. This is to provide a verifiable chain-of-custody in case the information is ever needed for legal reasons. Archived data is never used for new screens.

As per our policies and obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the only information we collect on job applicants is employer defined criteria that is legally allowable in the hiring process. Examples of this include racist remarks, sexually explicit photos or videos, or illegal activity such as drug use

We are not building a database on individuals that will be evaluated each time they apply for a job and potentially could be used adversely even if they have cleaned up their profiles. It is important for job applicants to understand we are not storing their historical information to be used against them the next time they apply for a job.
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Cookie

Is 'Big Food's' Big Money Influencing the Science of Nutrition?

Dan Harris
Abcnews.go.com
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:14 UTC
Image
© Unknown
David Allison is a renowned scientist who runs an obesity research center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He has a 108-page resume and was honored at the White House.

But even though study after study have shown soda to be a significant contributor to America's staggering obesity crisis, he says there is too little "solid evidence."

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control last week warned teenagers to cut down on their soda consumption, citing studies that show soda contributes to obesity and other health problems such as diabetes.

Allison has said such studies haven't been rigorous enough to prove soda contributes to obesity, but critics say his skepticism stems from his financial ties to entities such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and the American Beverage Association, who, critics say, have paid Allison to poke holes in the scientific consensus.

Comment: For more information on the dangers of soda, see these Sott links:

The Real Dangers of Soda to You and Your Children

The Facts, Statistics and Dangers of Soda Pop

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Attention

US: North Carolina man robs store for a dollar so he can get health care in prison for medical problems

Nina Mandell
NY Daily News
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:26 UTC
Richard V
© Gaston County JailJames Verone handed a bank teller a note demanding money and claimed he had a gun.

A North Carolina man robbed a local store for a dollar just so he could get health care in prison, he said.

James Verone, 59, handed the teller a note demanding $1 and claimed he had a gun, ABC News reported.

He then walked away and sat down, waiting for police.

"I started to walk away from the teller, then I went back and said, I'll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police," he said, according to local television station 9News. "I wanted to make it known that this wasn't for monetary reasons, but for medical reasons."

Verone, who committed the robbery on June 9, does not plan to pay his bail, which was recently reduced to $2,000.
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Arrow Down

No Justice: Louisiana: BP Wins a Big One in Oil Spill Litigation

Sabrina Canfield
Activist Post
Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
Deepwater Horizon
© Wikimedia commonsThe Deepwater Horizon
Ruling in favor of Transocean and BP, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed third-party environmental claims in a giant pleading bundle in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, saying the fact that the oil flow has stopped makes those lawsuits irrelevant. 


"The injunction at this stage would be useless, as not only is there no ongoing release from the well, but there is also no viable offshore facility from which any release could possibly occur," U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier wrote. "The Macondo well is dead, and what remains of the Deepwater Horizon vessel is on the ocean floor, where it capsized and sank in 5,000 feet of water.



Comment: Dead?

Five-Mile Wide Suspected Oil Slick Spotted Just North of Deepwater Horizon Explosion Site


"Moreover, BP and the agencies comprising the Unified Area Command have been and are cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico. An injury is not redressable by a citizen suit when the injury is already being addressed."

Judge Barbier is overseeing the massive, consolidated oil spill litigation, which has been divided into "bundles," based upon the nature of the claims.


Comment: Even the mainstream media says Gulf Oil Spill Called the Biggest Cover-up in the History of America.

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Laptop

UK: Hackers 'steal entire 2011 census'

Christopher Williams
The Telegraph UK
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:49 UTC
The entire 2011 UK census database has been stolen by hackers and will be published online, it has been claimed.

Hacker
© Clare Kendall
Ryan Cleary, an alleged member of the hacking group behind the claim, LulzSec, was arrested in Essex this morning by specialist cyber crime officers from Scotland Yard.

The 19-year-old was taken to a central London police station and remains in custody on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act offences.

A "significant amount of material" was also seized from an address in Wickford, Essex.

The "pre-planned intelligence-led operation" in collaboration with the FBI followed claims online that the 2011 census database had been stolen and would be published in full.

Comment: Or is this 'hacking' just a convenient excuse for those in power who wish to expose the private information of UK citizens?

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Yoda

Alice Walker: Why I'm Sailing to Gaza

Alice Walker
CNN.com
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:27 UTC
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker will join an international flotilla of boats sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade of the territory. Here, Walker, best known for her 1983 novel "The Color Purple," explains why she will be taking part.
Image
© Alice Walker

Why am I going on the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza? I ask myself this, even though the answer is: What else would I do? I am in my sixty-seventh year, having lived already a long and fruitful life, one with which I am content.

It seems to me that during this period of eldering it is good to reap the harvest of one's understanding of what is important, and to share this, especially with the young. How are they to learn, otherwise?

Our boat, The Audacity of Hope, will be carrying letters to the people of Gaza. Letters expressing solidarity and love. That is all its cargo will consist of. If the Israeli military attacks us, it will be as if they attacked the mailman. This should go down hilariously in the annals of history. But if they insist on attacking us, wounding us, even murdering us, as they did some of the activists in the last flotilla, Freedom Flotilla I, what is to be done?

There is a scene in the movie "Gandhi" that is very moving to me: it is when the unarmed Indian protesters line up to confront the armed forces of the British Empire. The soldiers beat them unmercifully, but the Indians, their broken and dead lifted tenderly out of the fray, keep coming.
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Nuke

Radioactive Tritium Leaks Found at 48 US Nuke Sites

Jeff Donn
The Associated Press
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:48 UTC
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© Charles Rex Arbogast/APA decoy sits on Bob Scamen's pond in Braidwood, Ill., within view of the Braidwood Nuclear Power Station in Braceville, Ill. Braidwood has leaked more than six million gallons of tritium-laden water in repeated leaks dating back to the 1990s — but not publicly reported until 2005.
You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected, whistleblower says

Braceville, Illinois - Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.

Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants.

Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard - sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.

While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies.

Comment: Tritium - is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium (sometimes called a triton) contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of protium (by far the most abundant hydrogen isotope) contains one proton and no neutrons. Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare on Earth, where trace amounts are formed by the interaction of the atmosphere with cosmic rays. The name of this isotope is formed from the Greek word "tritos" meaning "third."

..

Health risks

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, which allows it to readily bind to hydroxyl radicals, forming tritiated water (HTO), and to carbon atoms. Since tritium is a low energy beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally (its beta particles are unable to penetrate the skin), but it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food or water, or absorbed through the skin. HTO has a short biological half life in the human body of seven to 14 days, which both reduces the total effects of single-incident ingestion and precludes long-term bioaccumulation of HTO from the environment.

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Stop

Ash cloud's return causes flight chaos in Australia

Alison Rourke
Guardian
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:51 UTC
Ash from Chile's Cordón Caulle volcano grounds domestic flights in and out of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

Image
© Greg Wood/AFP/Getty ImagesA Qantas and a Virgin plane sit on the tarmac at the international airport in Sydney as the Chilean ash cloud grounds flights.
Australia faces air transport chaos after ash from Chile's Cordón Caulle volcano shut the country's busiest airports.

Thousands of travellers were stranded after Qantas cancelled all domestic flights in and out of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra on Tuesday afternoon, until at least Thursday. International flights have also been affected, with all Qantas planes due to land on Wednesday diverted or delayed until Thursday.

Virgin has also cancelled flights out of Sydney and Melbourne until further notice. "The ash plume is at a very low level and we're not comfortable flying at those levels," said Virgin Australia spokeswoman Danielle Keighery.

The ash cloud from the volcano is circling Earth for a second time, after last week delaying about 700 flights across Australia and New Zealand.
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X

Ten worst plane crashes in the world


The Telegraph
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:40 UTC
A Russian Tupolev-134 passenger jet crashed late on Monday night killing forty four people. Here is a list of the ten worst plane crashes in history around the world.

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© AFP/GETTYRussian rescuers inspect the wreckage of the Polish government Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft which crashed near Smolensk airport
1. 1977: 583 people died after two Boeing 747s (KLM and Pan Am) collided on a runway in Tenerife in the worst accident in the history of commercial aviation.

2. 1985: 520 people perished after a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and slewed into Mount Osutaka. To date, it is the worst single-aircraft disaster in history.

3. 1996: 349 people died after a mid-air collision in India between a Boeing 747 operated by Saudi Arabian Airlines and a Soviet-era Ilyushin-76 plane operated by Air Kazahkstan.
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