What started out as a leisurely stroll through the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Nov. 11 with his girlfriend, quickly turned into quite a surreal experience for Max Galuppo, 20, of Bloomsbury, N.J. Galuppo, a Temple University student, found his doppelganger in a 16th century...
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Canada seen needing to spell out rules for natural gas projects
Labels: World 0 commentsCALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – The fate of a handful of liquefied natural gas projects planned for Canada’s Pacific coast may depend on the Canadian government‘s willingness to spell out rules for foreign investment in the country’s energy sector, according to a study released on Thursday.
Apache Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Petronas, BG Group Plc and others are in the planning stages for LNG projects that would take gas from the rich shale fields of northeastern British Columbia and ship it to Asian buyers.
But the federal government’s decision last month to stall the C$ 5.2 billion ($ 5.2 billion) bid by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas C$ 5.2 billion for Canada‘s Progress Energy Resources Corp could lessen the appetite of Asian buyers for Canadian LNG, energy consultants Wood Mackenzie said.
“Some potential off-takers of Canadian LNG like the idea … because it’s perceived as having low political risk, and another reason is because they see the potential for investment opportunities,” said Noel Tomnay, head of global gas at the consultancy.
“If there are going to be restrictions on how they access those opportunities, if acquisitions are closed to them, then clearly that would restrict the attractiveness of those opportunities. If would-be Asian investors thought that corporate acquisitions were an avenue that was not open to them then Canadian LNG would become less attractive.”
The Canadian government is looking to come up with rules governing corporate acquisitions by state-owned companies and has pushed off a decision on the Petronas bid as it considers whether to approve the $ 15.1 billion offer for Nexen Inc from China’s CNOOC Ltd.
Exporting LNG to Asia is seen as a way to boost returns for natural-gas producers tapping the Montney, Horn River and Liard Basin shale regions of northeastern British Columbia.
Though Wood Mackenzie estimates the fields contain as much as 280 trillion cubic feet of gas, they are far from Canada’s traditional U.S. export market, while growing supplies from American shale regions have cut into Canadian shipments.
Because the region lacks infrastructure, developing the resource will be expensive, requiring new pipelines and multibillion-dollar liquefaction.
Still Wood Mackenzie estimates that the cost of delivery into Asian markets for Canadian LNG would be in the range of $ 10 million to $ 12 per million British thermal units, similar to competing projects in the United States and East Africa.
($ 1 = $ 1.00 Canadian)
(Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:10 PM
U2′s Bono to urge U.S. politicians not to cut aid programs
Labels: Lifestyle 0 commentsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bono will appeal to Democrats and Republicans during a visit to Washington this week to spare U.S. development assistance programs from cuts as Congress tries to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending reductions early next year.
The U2 lead singer’s visit comes as the Obama administration and congressional leaders try to forge a deal in coming weeks to avoid the economy hitting the “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and spending cuts worth $ 600 billion starting in January if Congress does not act.
Analysts say the absence of a deal could shock the United States, the world’s biggest economy, back into recession.
Kathy McKiernan, spokeswoman for the ONE Campaign, said Bono will hold talks with congressional lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials during the November 12-14 visit.
During meetings he will stress the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and the need to preserve them to avoid putting at risk progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she said.
Bono, a long-time advocate for the poor, will argue that U.S. government-funded schemes that support life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS sufferers, nutrition programs for malnourished children, and emergency food aid make up just 1 percent of the U.S. government budget but are helping to save tens of millions of lives in impoverished nations.
The One Campaign would not elaborate which lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials Bono will meet.
On Monday, Bono will discuss the power of social movements with students at Georgetown University. He will also meet new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a web cast discussion on Wednesday on the challenges of eradicating poverty.
(Editing by W Simon)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:06 PM
¿Quién califica online a los profesionales de la salud y qué se puede hacer al respecto?
Labels: Health 0 commentsATLANTA (Reuters Health) – “Cada médico, cada asistente,
cada enfermero de Estados Unidos está siendo calificado en este
momento. No hay nada que podamos hacer para protegernos, excepto
proporcionar atención de calidad centrada en el paciente”,
aseguró el doctor Scott Manaker durante la última reunión anual
del Colegio Estadounidense de Neumonólogos (ACP, por sus
iniciales en inglés.
Manaker y tres colegas del Sistema de Salud de University of
Pennsylvania, hablaron en una sesión plenaria de CHEST llamada
“Calificaciones Médicas: ¿quién está escribiendo sobre ti y qué
están diciendo?”.
“Sea buena o mala, precisa o sesgada, la publicación de la
información es parte de la práctica moderna de la medicina y
necesitamos ocuparnos de esos datos”, indicó Manaker por correo
electrónico.
Un informe de la Fundación Robert Wood Johnson revela que
“unos 38 millones de personas están observando en algún momento,
de alguna manera, y evaluando lo que usted está haciendo como
profesional de la salud. Y esa cifra seguirá creciendo”, dijo en
la misma sesión Ed Dellert, vicepresidente senior para
educación, informática y educación clínica de ACP.
Entre las agencias oficiales y privadas que monitorean la
atención clínica y califican a los profesionales de la salud
están los Centros para los Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid
(CMS, por sus siglas en inglés); el sitio online Hospital
Compare y, próximamente, Physician Compare, y beneficiarios
privados, entre otros.
Manaker consideró que para que un profesional obtenga una
buena calificación, deberían brindar la mejor atención y
utilizar un código preciso y completo de diagnósticos para
ajuste de riesgos.
Es “extremadamente importante que todos comprendan que como
profesional, como hospital, negociará con las empresas de
seguros de salud, que reunieron información durante años sobre
los resultados en los pacientes. A diario, les envían un detalle
de la facturación, los servicios prestados y el diagnóstico del
paciente a cambio de un pago. ¿Piensan que las empresas tiran
esa información a la basura? La usan para armar una base de
datos de qué funciona y qué no”, precisó Adrian W. Scipione en
otra presentación. Scipione es abogado y jefe operativo de
Respiratory Specialists, Wyomissing (Pensilvania).
En cambio, la calificación de los consumidores es otro
desafío, y los médicos necesitan otra estrategia para defender
su reputación online.
El doctor Burt Lesnick, de Georgia Pediatric Pulmonary
Associates (Atlanta), mencionó durante su presentación a los
sitios online US News & World Report Top Doctors, Consumer’s
Guide to Top Doctors y Super Doctors como algunos ejemplos donde
los profesionales pueden nominar colegas excelentes en su
especialidad, mientras que Vitals y UCompareHealthCare incluyen
las evaluaciones de los pacientes.
Señaló que un comentario negativo con pocos comentarios más
puede reducir la calificación. En el sitio Healthgrades, dijo
que “cualquiera puede registrarse. En teoría, deberían ser los
médicos quienes lo hagan, pero cualquiera puede fingir la
identidad”.
Agregó que “pocas empresas son independientes. Todos
comparten la información. Otros sitios compran los datos de
Healthgrades para publicar”, agregó Lesnick.
El sitio Angie’s List es independiente. Sólo los miembros
que pagan una tarifa mensual pueden leer las evaluaciones, pero
cualquier puede publicarlas.
“El sitio Superior Business Network me atribuye un teléfono
profesional que no tengo desde hace trece años en una dirección
que ya no existe, mientras que HIPAASpace publica mi código
identificador nacional de proveedores (NPI, por su sigla en
inglés) y mi número único de identificación médica (UPIN, por su
sigla en inglés)”, puso Lesnick como ejemplo.
Aun así, no todo está fuera de control. Lesnick recomendó
ser proactivos: “Tengan una cuenta de Facebook para compartir
información sobre sus servicios. Twitter es una buena
herramienta para mantener a los pacientes actualizados sobre los
servicios médicos, los riesgos ambientales, las advertencias de
la FDA, las alertas de contaminación ambiental, los retiros de
fármacos”.
Enviar un mensaje diario es una buena opción, como así
también “monitorear los sitios de consumidores (…) Busque
sitios que denigren su dirección web (…) Si uno encuentra un
sitio cuya dirección es su nombre más la palabra
sucks(apesta).com es posible que exista algún paciente
disgustado y ese sitio podría aparecer primero en la lista de
búsquedas si muchas personas lo consultan”.
“Lo mejor sería registrar esos dominios proactivamente” para
que nadie pueda utilizarlos, agregó el doctor.
Y si un sitio se niega a rechazar información imprecisa o
negativa, Lesnick sugirió contratar a una consultora
especializada que podrá ocultarla a cambio de una tarifa.
Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:04 PM
Probe shows federal power to access email
Labels: Business 0 commentsWASHINGTON (AP) — Your emails are not nearly as private as you think.
The downfall of CIA Director David Petraeus demonstrates how easy it is for federal law enforcement agents to examine emails and computer records if they believe a crime was committed. With subpoenas and warrants, the FBI and other investigating agencies routinely gain access to electronic inboxes and information about email accounts offered by Google, Yahoo and other Internet providers.
"The government can't just wander through your emails just because they'd like to know what you're thinking or doing," said Stewart Baker, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and now in private law practice. "But if the government is investigating a crime, it has a lot of authority to review people's emails."
Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, federal authorities need only a subpoena approved by a federal prosecutor — not a judge — to obtain electronic messages that are six months old or older. To get more recent communications, a warrant from a judge is required. This is a higher standard that requires proof of probable cause that a crime is being committed.
Public interest groups are pressing Congress for the law to be updated because it was written a quarter-century ago when most emails were deleted after a few months because the cost of storing them indefinitely was prohibitive. Now, "cloud computing" services provide huge amounts of inexpensive storage capacity. Other technological advances, such as mobile phones, have dramatically increased the amount of communications that are kept in electronic warehouses and can be reviewed by law enforcement authorities carrying a subpoena.
"Technology has evolved in a way that makes the content of more communications available to law enforcement without judicial authorization, and at a very low level of suspicion," said Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, has proposed changing the law to require a warrant for all Internet communications regardless of their age. But law enforcement officials have resisted because they said it would undercut their ability to catch criminals.
A subpoena is usually sufficient to require Internet companies to reveal names and any other information that they have that would identify the owner of a particular email account. Google, which operates the widely used Gmail service, complied with more than 90 percent of the nearly 12,300 requests it received in 2011 from the U.S. government for data about its users, according to figures from the company.
Even if a Gmail account is created with a fictitious name, there are other ways to track down the user. Logs of when messages are sent reveal the Internet address the user used to log onto the account. Matching times and dates with locations allow investigators to piece together the chain.
A Gmail account figured prominently in the FBI investigation that led to Petraeus' stunning resignation last week as the nation's spy chief. Petraeus, a retired Army general, stepped down after he confessed to an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer and his biographer.
The inquiry began earlier this year after Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who was friends with Petraeus and his wife, Holly, began receiving harassing emails. Kelley is a Tampa socialite. That is where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located.
Petraeus served as commander at Central Command from 2008 to 2010.
FBI agents eventually determined that the email trail led to Broadwell, according to two federal law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the sources were not authorized to speak about the matter on the record. As they looked further, the FBI agents came across a private Gmail account that used an alias name. On further investigation, the account turned out to be Petraeus's.
The contents of several of the exchanges between Petraeus and Broadwell suggested they were having an affair, according to the officials. Investigators determined that no security breach had occurred, but continued their investigation into whether Petraeus had any role in the harassing emails that Broadwell had sent to Kelley, which was a criminal investigation.
Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teen-agers alike, to conceal their email traffic.
One of the law enforcement officials said they did not transmit all of their communications as emails from one's inbox to the other's inbox. Rather, they composed some emails in a Gmail account and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic "dropbox." Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail which is easier to trace. It's a technique that al-Qaida terrorists began using several years ago and teen-agers in many countries have since adopted.
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
Posted by Gagalha at 10:02 PM
BBC must reform or die, says Trust chairman
Labels: World 0 commentsLONDON (Reuters) – The BBC could be doomed unless it makes radical changes, the head of its governing trust said on Sunday, after its director general quit to take the blame for the airing of false child sex abuse allegations against a former politician.
Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, said confidence had to be restored if the publicly funded corporation was to withstand pressure from rivals, especially Rupert Murdoch‘s media empire, which would try to take advantage of the turmoil.
“If you’re saying, ‘Does the BBC need a thorough structural radical overhaul?’, then absolutely it does, and that is what we will have to do,” Patten, a one-time senior figure in Prime Minister David Cameron‘s Conservative Party and the last British governor of Hong Kong, told BBC television.
“The basis for the BBC’s position in this country is the trust that people have in it,” Patten said. “If the BBC loses that, it’s over.”
George Entwistle resigned as director general on Saturday, just two months into the job, to take responsibility for the child sex allegation on the flagship news programme Newsnight.
The witness in the report, who says he suffered sexual abuse at a care home in the late 1970s, said on Friday he had misidentified the politician, Alistair McAlpine. Newsnight admitted it had not shown the witness a picture of McAlpine, or approached McAlpine for comment before going to air.
Already under pressure after revelations that a long-time star presenter, the late Jimmy Savile, was a paedophile, Entwistle conceded on the BBC morning news that he had not known – or asked – who the alleged abuser was until the name appeared in social media.
The BBC, celebrating its 90th anniversary, is affectionately known in Britain as “Auntie”, and respected around much of the world.
But with 22,000 staff working at eight national TV channels, 50 radio stations and an extensive Internet operation, critics say it is hampered by a complex and overly bureaucratic and hierarchical management structure.
THOMPSON’S LEGACY
Journalists said this had become worse under Entwistle’s predecessor Mark Thompson, who took over in the wake of the last major crisis to hit the corporation and is set to become chief executive of the New York Times Co on Monday.
In that instance, both director general and chairman were forced out after the BBC was castigated by a public inquiry over a report alleging government impropriety in the fevered build up to war in Iraq, leading to major organisational changes.
One of the BBC’s most prominent figures, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, said since the Iraq report furore, management had become bloated while cash had been cut from programme budgets.
“He (Entwistle) has been brought low by cowards and incompetents,” Paxman said in a statement, echoing a widely-held view that Entwistle was a good man who had been let down by his senior staff.
Prime Minister Cameron appeared ready to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt, believing that “one of the great institutions of this country” could reform and deal with its failings, according to sources in his office.
Patten, who must find a new director general to sort out the mess, agreed that management structures had proved inadequate.
“Apparently decisions about the programme went up through every damned layer of BBC management, bureaucracy, legal checks – and still emerged,” he said.
“One of the jokes I made, and actually it wasn’t all that funny, when I came to the BBC … was that there were more senior leaders in the BBC then there were in the Chinese Communist Party.”
Patten ruled out resigning himself but other senior jobs are expected to be on the line, while BBC supporters fear investigative journalism will be scaled back. He said he expected to name Entwistle’s successor in weeks, not months.
Among the immediate challenges are threats of litigation.
McAlpine, a close ally of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, has indicated he will sue for damages.
Claims for compensation are also likely from victims who say Savile, one of the most recognisable personalities on British television in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, sexually abused them as children, sometimes on BBC premises.
INQUIRIES
Two inquiries are already under way, looking at failures at Newsnight and allegations relating to Savile, both of which could make uncomfortable reading for senior figures.
Police have also launched a major inquiry into Savile’s crimes and victims’ allegations of a high-profile paedophile ring. Detectives said they had arrested their third suspect on Sunday, a man in his 70s from Cambridgeshire in central England.
Funded by an annual licence fee levied on all TV viewers, the BBC has long been resented by its commercial rivals, who argue it has an unfair advantage and distorts the market.
Murdoch’s Sun tabloid gleefully reported Entwistle’s departure with the headline “Bye Bye Chump” and Patten said News Corp and others would put the boot in, happy to deflect attention after a phone-hacking scandal put the newspaper industry under intense and painful scrutiny.
He said that “one or two newspapers, Mr. Murdoch’s papers” would love to see the BBC lose its national status, “but I think the great British public doesn’t want to see that happen”.
Murdoch himself was watching from afar.
“BBC getting into deeper mess. After Savile scandal, now prominent news program falsely names senior pol as paedophile,” he wrote on his Twitter website on Saturday.
It is not just the BBC and the likes of Entwistle and Patten who are in the spotlight.
Thompson, whom Entwistle succeeded in mid-September, has also faced questions from staff at the New York Times over whether he is still the right person to take one of the biggest jobs in American newspaper publishing.
Britain’s Murdoch-owned Sunday Times queried how Thompson could have been unaware of claims about Savile during his tenure at the BBC as he had told British lawmakers, saying his lawyers had written to the paper addressing the allegations in early September, while he was still director general.
(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Sophie Hares)
Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:10 PM
BBC head says broadcaster must reform or die
Labels: Lifestyle 0 commentsLONDON (Reuters) – Britain‘s BBC could be doomed unless it makes radical changes, the head of its governing trust said, after its director general quit to take the blame for the airing of false child sex abuse allegations against a former politician.
BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten said on Sunday confidence had to be restored if the publicly funded corporation was to withstand pressure from rivals, especially Rupert Murdoch‘s media empire, which would try to take advantage of the turmoil.
“If you’re saying, ‘Does the BBC need a thorough structural radical overhaul?’, then absolutely it does, and that is what we will have to do,” Patten, a one-time senior figure in Prime Minister David Cameron‘s Conservative Party and the last British governor of Hong Kong, told BBC television.
“The basis for the BBC’s position in this country is the trust that people have in it,” Patten said. “If the BBC loses that, it’s over.”
George Entwistle resigned as director general on Saturday, just two months into the job, to take responsibility for the child sex allegation on the flagship news programme Newsnight.
The witness in the Newsight report, who says he suffered sexual abuse at a care home in the late 1970s, said on Friday he had misidentified the politician, Alistair McAlpine. Newsnight admitted it had not shown the witness a picture of McAlpine, or approached McAlpine for comment before going to air.
Already under pressure after revelations that a long-time star presenter, the late Jimmy Savile, was a paedophile, Entwistle conceded on the BBC morning news that he had not known – or asked – who the alleged abuser was until the name appeared in social media.
The BBC, celebrating its 90th anniversary, is affectionately known in Britain as “Auntie”, and respected around much of the world.
But with 22,000 staff working at eight national TV channels, 50 radio stations and an extensive Internet operation, critics say it is hampered by a complex and overly bureaucratic and hierarchical management structure.
THOMPSON’S LEGACY
Journalists said this had become worse under Entwistle’s predecessor Mark Thompson, who took over in the wake of the last major crisis to hit the corporation and is set to become chief executive of the New York Times Co on Monday.
In that instance, both director general and chairman were forced out after the BBC was castigated by a public inquiry over a report alleging government impropriety in the fevered build up to war in Iraq, leading to major organizational changes.
One of the BBC’s most prominent figures, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, said since the Iraq report furore, management had become bloated while cash had been cut from programme budgets.
“He (Entwistle) has been brought low by cowards and incompetents,” Paxman said in a statement, echoing a widely-held view that Entwistle was a good man who had been let down by his senior staff.
Prime Minister Cameron appeared ready to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt, believing that “one of the great institutions of this country” could reform and deal with its failings, according to sources in his office.
Patten, who must find a new director general to sort out the mess, agreed that management structures had proved inadequate.
“Apparently decisions about the programme went up through every damned layer of BBC management, bureaucracy, legal checks – and still emerged,” he said.
“One of the jokes I made, and actually it wasn’t all that funny, when I came to the BBC … was that there were more senior leaders in the BBC than there were in the Chinese Communist Party.”
Patten ruled out resigning himself but other senior jobs are expected to be on the line, while BBC supporters fear investigative journalism will be scaled back. He said he expected to name Entwistle’s successor in weeks, not months.
Among the immediate challenges are threats of litigation.
McAlpine, a close ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has indicated he will sue for damages.
Claims for compensation are also likely from victims who say Savile, one of the most recognizable personalities on British television in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, sexually abused them as children, sometimes on BBC premises.
INQUIRIES
Two inquiries are already under way, looking at failures at Newsnight and allegations relating to Savile, both of which could make uncomfortable reading for senior figures.
Police have also launched a major inquiry into Savile’s crimes and victims’ allegations of a high-profile paedophile ring. Detectives said they had arrested their third suspect on Sunday, a man in his 70s from Cambridgeshire in central England.
Funded by an annual license fee levied on all TV viewers, the BBC has long been resented by its commercial rivals, who argue it has an unfair advantage and distorts the market.
Murdoch’s Sun tabloid gleefully reported Entwistle’s departure with the headline “Bye Bye Chump” and Patten said News Corp and others would put the boot in, happy to deflect attention after a phone-hacking scandal put the newspaper industry under intense and painful scrutiny.
He said that “one or two newspapers, Mr. Murdoch’s papers” would love to see the BBC lose its national status, “but I think the great British public doesn’t want to see that happen”.
Murdoch himself was watching from afar.
“BBC getting into deeper mess. After Savile scandal, now prominent news program falsely names senior pol as paedophile,” he wrote on his Twitter website on Saturday.
It is not just the BBC and the likes of Entwistle and Patten who are in the spotlight.
Thompson, whom Entwistle succeeded in mid-September, has also faced questions from staff at the New York Times over whether he is still the right person to take one of the biggest jobs in American newspaper publishing.
Britain’s Murdoch-owned Sunday Times queried how Thompson could have been unaware of claims about Savile during his tenure at the BBC as he had told British lawmakers, saying his lawyers had written to the paper addressing the allegations in early September, while he was still director general.
(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Sophie Hares)
TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:06 PM
Boy Donates Bar Mitzvah Money to Fund Veterans’ Reconstructive Surgeries
Labels: Health 0 commentsAt a time when he’s supposed to be celebrating himself, 13-year-old Josh Neidorf decided to make his bar mitzvah about celebrating those who serve their country. As a result, he donated most of his bar mitzvah money to Operation Mend, a groundbreaking program out of UCLA that repairs extreme injuries and disfigurements in soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before anyone shrugs off the gesture as a boy giving up the equivalent of his allowance for a good cause, rest assured Neidorf gave away much more than that. The Associated Press reports this child personally donated $ 13,000 to the medical facility.
Neidorf explained his decision to local news outlet, KCAL9, “I just love knowing that it’s going somewhere to help the people who save our lives and keep us safe everyday.”
Operation Mend is a privately-funded program that was founded in 2007, by philanthropist Ron Katz. According to The Huffington Post, Katz was inspired by the news of returning vet Aaron Mankin and the dozens of surgeries he would need to repair an explosives injury to his face. Mankin eventually became the first Operation Mend patient.
Katz told the Post, “My wife and I soon realized that there were dozens of Aarons out there. These men and women deserve not only the best that the defense sector has to offer, they deserve the best that the private sector has to offer as well.”
Though it started with plastic reconstruction, Operation Mend has expanded to include a host of other highly technical specialties including orthopedic reconstruction, airway reconstruction and mental health programs for both soldiers and their caregivers.
Veterans face some incredible odds upon their return to civilian life, chief among them being their health issues. Of the 2 million veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who’ve already returned home, the Los Angeles Times reports most endure recurring issues from physical trauma that include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hearing loss and tinnitus, and head injuries.
Operation Mend may be small in terms of the number of patients it can serve at any time (it will have served 72 this year), but it provides a place for our most severely injured to be treated by the nation’s most skilled medical staff using the latest in advanced techniques.
Obviously our returning soldiers are the most deserving of ample and expert medical care. But adopting veteran care as a cultural priority clearly has positive results for all of us. Children like Joshua Neidorf learn and can demonstrate real generosity and people in general come to understand we’re so much stronger when we refuse to leave any of our own behind.
Are you a veteran or the loved one of a returning soldier? What would you like to see provided for them to make the transition to civilian life smoother?
Related stories on TakePart
• 9 Military Animals
• A Fair Education? Military Kids Struggle With New Schools, Red Tape, and High Stress
• Celebs Who Served in the Military
A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer. In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a web editor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com
Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:04 PM
Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city
Labels: World 0 commentsBEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.
SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.
Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 10:10 PM
Are Twitter’s Sports Trolls Out of Control?
Labels: Technology 0 commentsThe Los Angeles Lakers — a star-stacked superteam with four potential Hall of Famers — have struggled out of the gate this NBA season, and many have placed the blame squarely on new head coach Mike Brown, who was fired on Friday after just five games. Fan frustration, however, reached an ugly crescendo earlier this week, with sports trolls using Twitter to threaten Brown’s teenage son, according to an Orange County Register report.
That’s just the latest in a seemingly increasing series of harassments and even death threats against sports figures. When NFL player Kyle Wilson was hit with death threats in January, the incident was perceived as — if not unprecedented — novel and shocking. Since then, reports of players being threatened on Twitter have become more and more common. Sportscaster Erin Andrews was a high profile victim less than three weeks ago, and posted this response:
[More from Mashable: Twitter Hacked? Here’s How to Protect Your Account]
The growing frequency and severity of sports trolling has raised a number of relevant questions: Have Twitter’s sports trolls gone too far? Can anything be done about them? And, if not, what are the consequences?
A Spiraling Culture of Abuse
Bill Voth, whose company Spiracle Media helps with social media for a number of colleges as well as NBA star Stephen Curry and Olympic gold medalist Ricky Berens, says he’s seen a rise in venomous, execrable behavior by fans on Twitter. He also believes it could eventually lead athletes and celebrities — who played an integral role in raising the microblogging network to its current omnipresence and popularity — to migrate away.
“It just seems like it’s every week now, and it’s gone from just small trolling to threats of physical harm,” he told Mashable. “Trolls are getting louder and more powerful, and I think ultimately this is one of the biggest threats to Twitter itself.”
In addition to physical threats, players regularly receive racial abuse and overly harsh criticism after injuries or disappointing performances. According to Voth, Curry was inundated with “dozens” of messages, many of them vulgar, each day while dealing with nagging ankle problems that forced him out of fantasy basketball lineups last season.
“This sounds cheesy, but these athletes and celebrities are humans too,” Voth says. “When you keep picking at them and sending them messages that they suck, it could get out of hand and eventually affect Twitter’s business model.”
There’s also the question of what would happen if crazed but, by all appearances, delusional and harmless online troll actually carried out a tweeted threat of physical harm. That would obviously raise the stakes and attention paid to harassment, but likely not have any direct effect on Twitter, according to Bradley Shear, an attorney who specializes in social media issues.
“It would be very difficult to hold Twitter and/or any other social media liable for death threats made on their platform,” Shear told Mashable in an email. “However, under the right set of facts, it is conceivable that a digital platform would be liable if they knew or should have known about a potential danger and they did not properly warn others.”
Anti-Troll Legislation
A Twitter spokesperson pointed to the company’s terms of abusive behavior and law enforcement guidelines, but also emphasized the notion that social media doesn’t motivate people to express feelings they don’t already have. The company says it follows up on every reported case of abuse, and works to facilitate law enforcement investigations when applicable. Twitter, however, has also long been vocal about its stance on not moderating content.
While it may seem repulsive in the United States, where freedom of speech is a sacred trope of national identity, trolls who harass athletes in England can be prosecuted and land in jail. In one high-profile case this summer, British diver Tom Daley outed a hateful abuser during the Olympics, and the troll was later arrested. In March a racist Twitter troll was sentenced to 56 days in jail.
Voth, for one, doesn’t rule out the possibility that similar legislation could eventually be a necessity stateside.
“It’s gone from bad to worse in just a year or two, so what’s it going to be like in another year or two?” he says. “Is this something where we need to pass laws against trolls?”
Do you think sports trolls — or Twitter trolls in general — are out of control, or just an unfortunate reality that can’t be dealt with? How would you like to see the issue addressed, either by Twitter or legally?
BONUS GALLERY: Our Favorite Sports Social Media Moments of 2012
1. Devin McCourty Tweets While Playing in the Super Bowl (Sort of)
As New England Patriot Devin McCourty took on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, his followers were still able to receive real-time updates from his social feeds. But he wasn’t sneaking tweets between plays or during timeouts. Devin and twin brother Jason, who plays for the Tennessee Titans, share their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Super Bowl showcased one of the more creative approaches to social media in the sports world.
Image courtesy of Devin and Jason McCourty’s Instagram.
Click here to view this gallery.
Thumbnail image credit: Mashable composite, iStockphoto asiseeit
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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