This is what a typical rural primary school layout usually look like.Buildings on the left are staff quarters. Top right is the kitchen/dining hall. The double storey block is usually the office cum staff room.(Middle top). The one with green door houses the 24 hour diesel electric generators. The other buildings will be the classrooms.
Besides this, usually there is a football field and a badminton court.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who snore are more likely to develop chronic bronchitis, the hacking cough most often associated with cigarette smoking or breathing polluted air, Korean researchers reported on Monday.
Why snoring might lead to bronchitis is not clear, said a team led by Inkyung Baik of Korea University Ansan Hospital in South Korea.
The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, covered 4,270 men and women between 2001 and 2006. Of the group, 314 came down with chronic bronchitis.
"We collected information on snoring at baseline and identified incident cases of chronic bronchitis during a four-year follow-up period," Baik's team wrote.
After taking into account whether those in the study smoked or were otherwise at risk for bronchitis, the investigators concluded that people who snored five nights a week or less were 25 percent more likely to develop bronchitis than those who never snored.
The risk was 68 percent higher for those who snored six to seven times a week.
"Our findings provide support for the hypothesis that snoring is associated with chronic bronchitis," the researchers wrote.
It could be that snoring vibrates the upper airways, stressing them and leading to inflammation, the researchers said.
(Reporting by Michael Conlon; editing by Maggie Fox)
Natural and technological disasters can lead to the release of toxic chemicals with the potential to harm large numbers of people. When a natural gas well in Gaoqiao, China erupted in 2003, the release of hydrogen sulphide killed more than 240 people. A further 9000 people attended hospital and 64 000 people had to be evacuated from the area.
Poisoning may also be an indirect consequence of a disaster. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, there was an increase in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning – this was due to the incorrect use of portable gasoline-powered generators during power outages.
Sometimes there is no overt chemical release, and it is only when people start showing signs and symptoms of poisoning that the possibility of a release is suspected. Examples include mass chronic arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh from tube wells drawing on contaminated water, and an outbreak of tropane alkaloid poisoning in Slovenia caused by contamination of buckwheat flour with seeds from Datura stramonium.
Carbon monoxide is a gas that is toxic, odourless, colourless gas. It is known as The Silent Killer. Take caution that this silent killer does not become an unwanted guest in the spaces you consider safe?
Your whole home is in need of protection from this silent killer. Areas like: your home including bedroom areas and especially your basement, garage, cottage, ski chalet, car, recreational vehicle and workplace. The same cautions apply when staying with friends or away on holiday, so spread the word.
It is important to know the symptoms of this fatal invisible contaminant. The symptoms can often often be mistaken for those of flu by family members and physicians. Even exposure to low levels of CO can cause health problems, brain damage or death. What specific actions have you taken to be sure tasteless, toxic CO cannot leak into your sleeping rooms and other spaces where you live, work, play and breath? Invest in a carbon monoxide detector, as well as a smoke detector.
CO poisoning symptoms include:
Carbon monoxide is consume gas, oil, coal or wood. CO is produced in car exhaust, poorly-ventilated gas heaters, indoor fires and tobacco smoke. You're vulnerable if you are near, or you breath air that is near, a fuel-burning gas furnace, boiler, engine, water heater, open fire or oil burner.
The solution is to attack both these failings in all the spaces you and your family use. Which of the following safety steps have you taken to protect yourself and your family?
Counter-terrorism alert as a Dutch right-winger launches a movie that will denounce the Koran
Jason Burke, Europe editor
Sunday January 20, 2008
Observer
The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise desecrated.
Cabinet ministers and officials, fearing a repetition of the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper two years ago, have held a series of crisis meetings and ordered counter-terrorist services to draw up security plans. Dutch nationals overseas have been asked to register with their embassies and local mayors in the Netherlands have been put on standby.
Geert Wilders, one of nine members of the extremist VVD (Freedom) party in the 150-seat Dutch lower house, has promised that his film will be broadcast - on television or on the internet - whatever the pressure may be. It will, he claims, reveal the Koran as 'source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror'.
Dutch diplomats are already trying to pre-empt international reaction. 'It is difficult to anticipate the content of the film, but freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend,' said Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Minister, who was in Madrid to attend the Alliance of Civilisations, an international forum aimed at reducing tensions between the Islamic world and the West. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other towns with large Muslim populations, imams say they have needed to 'calm down' growing anger in their communities.
Government officials hope that no mainstream media organisation will agree to show the film, although one publicly funded channel, Nova, initially agreed before pulling out. 'A broadcast on a public channel could imply that the government supported the project,' said an Interior Ministry spokesman.
Bisphenol-A (BPA), a material used in household products such as baby bottles, food-storage containers and the lining of soda cans, imitates the sex hormone estradiol. It has been discovered that even the smallest amount of BPA can trigger detrimental changes in the body, including an increased risk of breast cancer.
However, BPA is not the only packaging material to be wary of, for reports have found all the plastics commonly used for food packaging can leach suspected hormone disruptors. That's why, according to a source from the International Plastics Task Force, the wisest heath choice is to store foods in glass or ceramic containers when possible and to avoid heating or microwaving foods in plastic.
Specific Plastics to Avoid
*
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC or vinyl): used to make Reynolds Wrap and Polyvinyl Films cling wraps, the cling wrap most popularly used in grocery stores.
*
Polystyrene (PS): found in its non-inflated form in some disposable plastic cups and bowls and in most opaque plastic cutlery.
*
Polycarbonate (or "other" resins): used to make plastic baby bottles, 5-gallon water bottles, clear plastic "sippy" cups for children and some brands of plastic cutlery.
Further, since most grocery stores use PVC for their cling-wrapped cheeses and meats, it would also be wise to trim off the outer layer of such pre-packaged foods to reduce ingestion of DEHA--which has been found to cause reproductive effects and liver tumors in test animals. Canned foods, which can contain traces of bisphenol-A from the plastic inner lining of the can, may also be a source of concern.
International Plastics Task Force June, 2005
Atheism, as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism.When defined more broadly, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, alternatively called non theism. Although atheism is often equated with irreligious, some religious philosophies, such as secular theology and some varieties of Buddhism such as Theravada, either do not include belief in a personal god as a tenet of the religion, or actively teach non theism.
Many self-described atheists are skeptical of all supernatural beings and cite a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Others argue for atheism on philosophical, social or historical grounds. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism and naturalism,there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.
The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion.With the spread of free thought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and has been increasingly used as a self-description by atheists.
In order to control the distribution and use of their works, copyright owners are increasingly embedding access (keep you from accessing the work) and copy (control what you do with the work) protection schemes in their digital works. Under section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the circumvention of these access mechanisms is illegal, with only a few narrow statutory exemptions. The DMCA also prohibits the distribution of programs that can be used to circumvent both copy control and access control technologies.
The anti-circumvention provisions affect the way software engineers, computer scientists, and computer security specialists do their work. But the law also affects how librarians and educational institutions acquire new works, how Internet users can protect their privacy, and even how journalists can report on stories involving technical protection measures. By using a technical device to protect music, images or words the copyright holder can turn traditionally permissible access to or use of digital content into a civil violation. This new law has complex provisions and a few narrow exemptions, which are reviewed in greater detail in the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions FAQ, linked below.
Some activities affected by this law might include:
* manipulating the computer code of a digital toy to make it perform new functions;
* disabling an access control device on the storage media of an entertainment product;
* creating a patch for a software program or electronics product
* performing cryptanalysis on security systems that control access to digital data;
If you’ve received a letter accusing you of violating the DMCA, this section will help you understand the claims against you. If you are engaged in an activity which involves disabling an anti-copying measure, reverse engineering an encrypted computer system, conducting research on cryptography or security systems, or altering how a computer program or product works, this section is intended to provide you information about how the DMCA affects your activities. Distributing a program that performs these functions by selling, making available for download, or even linking to it, may also be a violation of the circumvention device provisions of the DMCA.
Pragmatism refers specifically the philosophy espoused by early American philosophers like William James and C. S. Peirce, and generally to later philosophies which are derived from those earlier efforts. As Peirce, who coined the term, wrote:
Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.
William James wrote:
Ideas become true just so far as they help us to get into satisfactory relations with other parts of our experience.
According to Pragmatism, the truth or meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences rather than in anything more metaphysical. Basically, it can be summarized by the phrase "whatever works, is likely true." Because reality changes, "whatever works" will also change - thus, "truth" must also change over time. This means that no one can claim to possess any final or ultimate truth.
Pragmatism became popular with American philosophers and even the American public because of its close association with modern natural and social sciences. The scientific worldview was growing in both influence and authority; pragmatism, in turn, was regarded as a philosophical sibling or cousin which was believed to be capable of producing the same progress with inquiry into subjects like morals and the meaning of life.
Idealism is any philosophy which argues that the only things knowable are consciousness or the contents of consciousness - not anything in the outside world, if such a place actually exists. Indeed, idealism often takes the form of arguing that the only real things are mental entities, not physical things.
Idealism comes in several flavors:
Subjective Idealism, only ideas can be known or have any reality (also known as solipsism).
Transcendental Idealism, developed by Kant, this theory argues that all knowledge originates in perceived phenomena which have been organized by categories.
Absolute Idealism, all objects are identical with some idea and the ideal knowledge is itself the system of ideas. It is also known as Objective Idealism, and is the sort of idealism promoted by Hegel. Unlike the other forms of idealism, this is monastic - there is only one mind in which reality is created.
Platonic Idealism, there exists a perfect realm of Form and Ideas and our world merely contains shadows of that realm.
Nihilism derives its name from the Latin root nihil, meaning nothing, that which does not exist. This same root is found in the verb “annihilate” -- to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. Nihilism is the belief which:
* labels all values as worthless, therefore, nothing can be known or communicated.
* associates itself with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism, having no loyalties.
The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), is most often associated with nihilism. In Will to Power [notes 1883-1888], he writes, “Every belief, every considering something true, is necessarily false because there is simply no true world.” For Nietzsche, there is no objective order or structure in the world except what we give it. The objective of nihilism manifests itself in several perspectives:
* Epistemological nihilism denies the possibility of knowledge and truth, and is linked to extreme skepticism.
* Political nihilism advocates the prior destruction of all existing political, social, and religious orders as a prerequisite for any future improvement.
* Ethical nihilism (moral nihilism) rejects the possibility of absolute moral or ethical values. Good and evil are vague, and related values are simply the result of social and emotional pressures.
* Existential nihilism, the most well-known view, affirms that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.
Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature.
In simpler terms, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. And personal choices become unique without the necessity of an objective form of truth. An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.
Axiology involves the values, ethics, and belief systems of a philosophy/paradigm. Within the critical race theory, axiology is the paradigm's leading influence on research studies. Ontology and epistemology are secondary to the axiology. Critical race theory's axiology is composed of two elements: equity and democracy. This perspective sees immense systemic racial inequities in housing, the legal system, employment, and the educational system. Cornerstone beliefs of the critical race theory are that racism is an "endemic facet of life in our society and that neutrality, objectivity, colorblindness, and meritocracy are all questionable constructs". Western civilization is built around reproducing inequity, not creating it, for the non-dominant races.
Epistemology looks at how one knows reality, the method for knowing the nature of reality, or how one comes to know reality. It is the relationship between the knower and the known. For scientists, the way of knowing reality is via the scientific method. For social researchers, like those working from the critical race theory, the way of knowing reality is by asking about it (i.e., via experience stories). The critical race theory acknowledges an interactive relationship between the researcher and participants as well as between the participants and their stories. Within this world view, people's stories of their experiences are counted as empirical evidence, as fact. This paradigm disagrees with the assumption that narratives from the disenfranchised are biased and subjective. Stories, experiences, and voices are the mediums through which we know reality. Critical race theorists argue that only by looking at the stories and having access to the "experiential knowledge" of those who have been victimized by racial inequities can we understand the "socially ingrained" and "systemic forces at work in their oppression".
Ontology regards how the philosophy defines the nature and form of reality (i.e., what can be known). Each philosophy, paradigm, approach, etc., defines reality differently. In critical race theory, the nature of reality is interpreted as something that has been shaped over time and history by a series of "social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender factors and then crystallized into a series of structures that are now inappropriately taken as 'real'". For critical race theorists, the historical development and "context must be understood in searching for deeper meanings that underlie contemporary social problems").
The term Metaphysics can be used in a general (and even poetic and metaphoric) sense to means the opposite of science. Science uses "right-brain thinking", reason and scientific method to come to an understanding of reality. Metaphysics uses "left-brain thinking", reason in the service or intuition, or even intuition or imagination alone.
Used in this context, Metaphysics incorporates Religion, Non-materialistic Philosophical speculation, Mysticism, and Esotericism, and even fantasy, mythology, and imagined worlds.
In a more precise context however, Metaphysics means literally "after (not "beyond") physics". This confusing word was originally used in the context of Aristotle's writings. When the great philosopher's works had all been compiled, the volumes on Theology and other such subjects came after those on the natural world ("physics": phusis - nature), and hence were collectively referred to as "metaphysics".
Metaphysics begins with questions like: what is the nature of the World? Of the Soul, if any? Of God, if such a being does exist? In other words, questions concerning the ultimate nature and meaning of existence.
Metaphysics can be divided into various secondary fields of inquiry, such as the relationship between mind or spirit and body (the "mind-body problem"), the problem of free will and determinism, the nature of God (Theology), of man, and of the universe (Cosmology), the nature of Being (Ontology), and so on.
Not one of Mars' experiments on animals is required by law. Even so, Mars has paid experimenters to kill untold numbers of animals in tests:
* Mars is currently funding an experiment on rats at the University of California, San Francisco, to determine the effect of chocolate ingredients on the animals' blood vessels, even though the experimenter admits that studies have already been done using humans. Experimenters force-feed the rats by shoving plastic tubes down their throats and then cut open the rats' legs to expose an artery, which is clamped shut to block blood flow. After the experiment, the animals are killed.
* Mars funded a deadly experiment on mice that was published in a 2007 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience in which mice were fed flavanols (phytochemicals that are found in chocolate) and forced to swim in a pool of water mixed with white paint to hide a submerged platform, which the mice had to find in order to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later on.
* In one experiment supported by Mars and conducted by the current Mars, Inc., endowed chair in developmental nutrition at the University of California, Davis, rats were fed cocoa and anesthesized with carbon dioxide so that blood could be collected by a needle injected directly into the heart—a procedure criticized by U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Dr. William T. Golde, who notes: “This is not a simple method. … Missing the heart or passing the needle completely through the heart could lead to undetected internal bleeding or other complications.”
* Mars supported a cruel experiment to learn how a chocolate ingredient called PQQ affects metabolism by cramming baby mice into 200-milliliter Plexiglas metabolic chambers—around half the size of a 12-ounce soda can—and then submerging the chamber for nearly five hours in a chilled water bath, inducing labored breathing in the distressed mice. Experimenters then shoved tubes down the mice’s throats every day for 10 days to force-feed them the PQQ, after which they were killed and cut up for analysis.
* Mars funded a test in which experimenters forced rabbits to eat a high-cholesterol diet with varying amounts of cocoa, then cut out and examined tissue from the rabbits' primary blood vessel to the heart to determine the effect of cocoa on rabbits’ muscle tissue.
* Mars supported a test in which experimenters attached plastic tubes to arteries in guinea pigs' necks and injected cocoa ingredients into their jugular veins to examine the effect of cocoa ingredients on their blood pressure.
Tell Mars to Drop Deadly Animal Tests!
1. Repeated, disturbing memories, thoughts or images of past trauma
2. Repeated, disturbing dreams of past trauma
3. Suddenly acting or feeling as if trauma from the past were happening again
(as if you were reliving it)
4. Feeling very upset when something reminds you of past trauma
5. Avoiding thinking or talking about past trauma or avoiding having feelings related to it
6. Avoiding activities or situations because they remind you of past trauma
7. Trouble remembering important parts of past trauma
8. Loss of interest in activities which you previously enjoyed
9. Feeling distant or cut off from people
10. Feeling emotionally numb or unable to have loving feelings for those close to you
11. Feeling as if your future will be cut short
12. Having physical reactions (such as heart pounding, trouble breathing, sweating)
when something reminds you of past trauma
13. Trouble falling or staying asleep
14. Feeling irritable or having angry outbursts
15. Difficulty concentrating
15.Difficulty concentrating
16. Being 'superalert' or watchful or on guard
17. Feeling jumpy or easily startled
17. Feeling jumpy or easily startled
Women around the world suffer greatly. They suffer from all kinds of situations such as wars and sexual discriminations by men. Children suffer as a consequent of their sufferings. In many cultures, men look upon women as inferior and as such they are forced to do all the heavy and hard work.
Ninety percent or 4.5 million Papua New Guineans depend on the forests for their livelihoods and have done so for hundreds and even thousands of years. The forests provide food, building materials, medicine and a source of culture and spirituality for the people.
Within the various cultures in Papua New Guinea, there is very little variation in the role that women play. While men act as the head of the family, their role is quite minimal. They act as the guardian of the family, and possibly the hunter or the fisherman depending where they live. The man will also spend a considerable amount of time at the men's house in some cultures and can be away from their families for weeks, even months, leaving the women by their own to fend for themselves and their families.
A day in the life of women in the communities may start with cooking food for the family very early in the morning, almost at the crack of dawn, and then it is off to the garden to tend to the crops or to the forests to gather food, often with the young ones in tow. Then she has to go and collect firewood and water to prepare the evening meal.
Women hardly ever have time to try and sort their personal problems out and on many occasions, they will endure these problems in order to carry out their responsibilities. A woman has to try and fulfil these tasks without failure for if she doesn't, she can be deemed to be an unfit wife and mother. In some customs, a man can get a new wife if he or his people feel that the current wife is not performing her traditional obligations.
Women are traditional collectors and gatherers of the many foods found in the forests. As primary forests are cleared through large-scale logging or for commercial developments such as plantations, their traditional harvesting and gathering grounds can be greatly affected by such large scale activities in the forests so again, they must walk very long distances in order to satisfy the needs of the family.
The destruction of forests by logging also results in the depletion of water resources, meaning that women will need to walk many kilometres to fetch good and clean drinking water, thus resulting in added work burdens for women. During dry seasons, women can spend 10-12 hours a day making more than two trips for water.
The activities of logging can destroy suitable land for gardening through the effect of top soil erosion, so again women have to wander far from their homes to find suitable land to plant their food.
The social impact of large scale logging on a forest dependent community is yet another area that women and the community in general are forced to face.
Logging activities generate money within a community not often familiar with the cash economy, especially through the payment of royalty money. This can lead to increased drunkenness not only amongst grown men but also youths and teenagers, prostitution, greater levels of sexually transmitted diseases and an increase in malnutrition, low birth weight babies and malaria. Such activities can also lead to law and order problems like armed robbery, stealing and crimes committed against women. Examples of these kinds of problems have been documented in many parts of Papua New Guinea where logging has taken place.
Women bear the brunt of the negative effects of industrial logging as it is their task to supply their families with water and collect food while they hardly participate in the decision-making on logging and in the distribution of timber royalties.
The introduction of other foreign methods of living such as style of clothing, diets, entertainment and social activities can have an adverse effect on women and the community in general.
In the words of Baida Bamesa, a women's representative from the Kiunga/Aiambak area of Western province where a large-scale road and logging project exists, "Our bush was really green and healthy before the arrival of the logging company, but nowadays, it is black. The company came and spoilt our environment and the animals are now very far away. We are very worried because we women are facing a very hard problem. They did not benefit us with any good things, nothing".
Authors: Waris Dirie, Cathleen Miller
By age 6, Waris Dirie was herding her family's sheep and goats, fending off hyenas and wild dogs as the family carved a path through Africa. She was just twice that age when she ran off into the vast furnace of the Somali desert to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. Traveling for days without food and water, she made her way to Mogadishu and later to London as a servant to her uncle, the Somalian ambassador. There she wrestled with culture shock and got her first taste of the modeling life that eventually brought her into the public eye. Dirie is resilient, having survived drought, hunger, and the ritual female genital mutilation that marks a step toward womanhood among some traditional Moslems but, argue critics, steals or ruins many girls' lives. "As we traveled throughout Somalia," says Dirie, "we met families and I played with their daughters. When we visited them again, the girls were missing. No one spoke the truth about their absence or even spoke of them at all." As a special ambassador to the United Nations, Dirie has spoken out loudly on this subject and championed environmental causes, too. How much of her sometimes breathless story is gospel truth and how much embellished is hard to say. Like Dirie herself, though, the combination is intriguing, powerful, and unique. --Francesca Coltrera
Waris Dirie leads a double life -- by day, she is an international supermodel and human rights ambassador for the United Nations; by night, she dreams of the simplicity of life in her native Somalia and the family she was forced to leave behind. Desert Flower, her intimate and inspiring memoir, is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered about the beauty of African life, the chaotic existence of a supermodel, or the joys of new motherhood.
Waris was born into a traditional Somali family, desert nomads who engaged in such ancient and antiquated customs as genital mutilation and arranged marriage. At twelve, she fled an arranged marriage to an old man and traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu -- the first leg of an emotional journey that would take her to London as a house servant, around the world as a fashion model, and eventually to America, where she would find peace in motherhood and humanitarian work for the U.N.
Today, as Special Ambassador for the U.N., she travels the world speaking out against the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation, promoting women's reproductive rights, and educating people about the Africa she fled -- but still deeply loves.
Dramatic, humorous, and enormously uplifting, this is a wonderful self-portrait of a courageous woman whose spirit is as breathtaking as her beauty.
Desert Flower will be published simultaneously in eleven languages throughout the world and is currently being produced as a feature film by Rocket Pictures UK.
