evildevil
ontd_political

"The only reason we had garlic put in was so we could keep the vampires out of town. And since we have had garlic I haven't seen one single solitary vampire in town."

bloodyknuckles
skinsfans

(Posted with permission from pinkbutterflies)

We're re-watching episode 7 "JJ" on Thursday, January 7th at my journal. Synchronized viewing for both days will start at 4PM Central Time in the US (Chicago time), 10PM London UK time, with an encore viewing at 10PM Central Time in the US. If you need help matching up your part of the world with the synchronized viewing schedule, use the world clock. For any further details, check out the discussion thread. Anybody is welcome to join, just make sure to bring the STUN™.

evildevil
ontd_political

This time, it's not the food, but the soda fountains to be worried about. According to Tom Laskawy, a media and technology professional and blogger for grist.org, a team of microbiologists from Hollins University found that 48% of sodas tested from the fast food fountains contain coliform bacteria, which is typically fecal in origin. And most bacteria found were antibiotic resistant, as icing on the cake.

The microbiologists published their findings in the International Journal of Food Microbiology. They tested 90 beverages from 30 soda fountains. Their abstract states:

...Coliform bacteria was detected in 48% of the beverages and 20% had a heterotrophic plate count greater than 500 cfu/ml. [...] More than 11% of the beverages analyzed contained Escherichia coli [E. Coli] and over 17% contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum. Other opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms isolated from the beverages included species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia. Most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested.

Laskawy notes that only one recorded outbreak linked to a soda fountain has occurred, and that was ten years ago. But on a smaller scale, these bacteria could cause sickness on an individual level that can go unreported.

acmeeoy
ontd_political

By Sharmeen Gangat

Women from a country in the news for its dysfunction and poverty are reaching out to grasp economic opportunities in their new U.S. home, even as they stay true to traditional roots.

January 6, 2010

In Brooklyn, New York, a group of Yemeni women have become microentrepreneurs so that, among other goals, they can buy Metrocards for travel to a center where they learn English. Coming from the poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula, one that has ranked lowest for the last four years on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, they refuse to let the current distressed economic climate in this country confine them to their homes.

These immigrant women—most of whom have been in the United States for less than two years—prepare greeting cards that they sell with the support of the organization that houses their project: the Arab American Family Support Center. As they work to improve their communications skills and gain economic independence, they defy Western notions that veiled women are conservative and insular. Such were the initial assumptions, for example, of a staff writer for the Observer, who was “dismayed” that her English-speaking translator for a story on Yemen women was fully veiled—though she realized as she got to know her that the issue of a veil was a “red herring.”

 

evildevil
ontd_political

CAVUTO: Retired Army Sergeant First Class and tea party activist Steve McQueen saying, “Not so fast Mr. Steele.” He joins me right now. Steve, you would say “not quite,” right?

MCQUEEN: Not quite, Neil. Actually the Tea Party is, I liken that to an army of Davids which I am only one. I do confer with Tea Party organizations all over the country so I feel confident that I understand what the movement’s about and as I understand it right now, the GOP is currently on probation with the American people and obviously you can’t be on probation and probably be a member of the Tea Parties at the same time.

evildevil
ontd_political

STEELE: And that kind of approach that the administration has taken, where it was two weeks after the event before the President stands up there. If he had given that speech on Christmas Day — that he gave yesterday?

BRZEZINSKI: You know, it took six days for President Bush to respond to the Richard Reid shoe bomber. [...]

STEELE: I think the timing was right in the moment because you can’t afford to go much further without being very clear the direction the administration wants to go on this matter.

perfectisafault
ontd_political

An additional 4,000 cases could be accepted and awarded compensation

The Chilean government is reopening its report on torture, which resulted in the registration and compensation of more than 28,000 cases from the Pinochet era, five years after its original assessment.

The government announced last week that, starting immediately following the run-off presidential election on Jan. 17, the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, also known as the Valech Commission, will begin collecting new cases for a six-month period.

More than 28,000 cases of political detention and torture were accepted during the commission’s original investigation in 2004 and 2005. Then-president Ricardo Lagos had ordered the eight-member commission, lead by Catholic Church leader Mons. Sergio Valech, to address the need for reparation. More than 35,000 people gave their written testimony of alleged torture during General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship — between Sept. 11, 1973 and March 10, 1990.
( Read more... )