Category Archives: Uncategorized

Equal pay, respect, promotion – now!

Always the same – she works hard for the money but get the respect, pay, honor and … that she deserves? Not yet – why not?

Statists Posing as Conservatives?

According to a new law in Michigan, the Governor and the State Treasurer can declare any unit of local government in financial emergency, take it over and then disband it. Local voters, democracy, forget it! Government at whim of Governor and State Treasurer. Benton Harbor, Michigan: “A state-appointed emergency financial manager has suspended the decision-making powers of Benton Harbor officials in a move that’s likely the first act of its kind under a new state law.” http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20110416/NEWS05/110416011/Emergency-chief-takes-action-against-Benton-Harbor

Amplify’d from michiganmessenger.com

First suit filed over Emergency Manager law

The city’s two pension funds sued Gov. Rick Snyder and state Treasurer Andy Dillon in federal court today to block part of a new emergency manager statute.

Read more at michiganmessenger.com

 

Big Macs, Deforestation, and Slavery?

In Brazil the Big Mac attack and the Crave bring on deforestation and slave labor – are you loving it – getting outside the bun – and oops killing the planet and the Amazon?

Amplify’d from www.greenpeace.org

Deforestation and slave labour still linked to Brazilian cattle industry

14 slaughterhouses in the Brazilian state of Acre. These slaughterhouses are being sued by the public prosecutor for buying cattle from farms who have been fined by the Brazilian Environmental Police for illegal deforestation, and from farmers who are accused of using slave labour. One of the slaughterhouses being sued is JBS – the largest exporter of meat products in the world.

Read more at www.greenpeace.org

 

25% chance your meat will make you sick!

One in four samples bought in supermarkets contained meat with bacteria resistant to at least three drugs against staph infections. If you gotta eat meat – eat organic or cook it until it resembles cardboard…

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Multi-Drug Resistant Staph in 1 in 4 Meat Samples

A team of researchers from Arizona bought meat and poultry in five cities across the United States
52 percent of those staph isolates were resistant to at least three antibiotics that are commonly used in both veterinary and human medicine.

That is: Roughly one in four packages of meat and poultry from across the United States contained multidrug resistant staph.

Read more at www.wired.com

 

Mimi – Unplugged ’bout birthers – oh my!

Funny as always; good for Friday on a week that has fried more than one of us!

Amplify’d from mimiwrites.blogspot.com
I have a few things to say. This is Mimi unplugged.
Hide your children.
To Elizabeth Taylor:
Thank you for your glamorous and giving ways.
To all the Birthers out there:
I want to see the Ten Commandments written on the original stone tablets too. In triplicate signed by God.
Fat chance on both counts.
If Donald Trump had Sarah Palin’s hair, I would vote for him. That is my deep political opinion on the matter.

Read more at mimiwrites.blogspot.com

 

BP, DC – Can You Hear Me Now?

Shouldn’t have to walk 1,200 miles to get someone to not take their eye off the Gulf and what BP has done to it but in a world of short attention spans and lying oil companies – that is exactly what this woman had to do!

Amplify’d from switchboard.nrdc.org

A Year after the Gulf Oil Disaster, a Mom Walks to DC to Fight for Health

On a picture perfect spring day, Cherri Foytlin and an entourage of friends and associates from the Gulf marched across the Memorial Bridge into Washington, completing a 1200 mile journey to raise awareness about the health impacts of the BP oil disaster.

See more at switchboard.nrdc.org

 

How was your DC fieldtrip?

Nice gift to these students. President Obama drops in and stays to talk!

Amplify’d from www.whitehouse.gov

Surprise! It’s the President

When eighth graders from Longmont, Colorado’s Altona Middle School left for the East Coast, they knew they’d be coming to see the White House and some of D.C.’s famous monuments. Little did they know they’d also get the chance to not just see, but meet, President Barack Obama himself.

one of the students had written President Obama as he was negotiating a budget with Congressional leadership, telling him how much her son and his classmates were looking forward to visiting Washington. The President mentioned that letter in his remarks after reaching an agreement late Friday night, and decided to say hello while they were in town.

The mother of one of the students had written President Obama as he was negotiating a budget with Congressional leadership, telling him how much her son and his classmates were looking forward to visiting Washington. The President mentioned that letter in his remarks after reaching an agreement late Friday night, and decided to say hello while they were in town.

Read more at www.whitehouse.gov

 

Unemployed, forgotten – still standing

Too common an experience due to HR folks and others who just do not have a clue what the marketplace is really like. I can attest to the truth of the reactions she got, since I got the same ones. Eighteen years as a professional business editor and writer and three books published were worthless, once you had not been hired doing exactly the same thing within 6 months.

Amplify’d from thestory.org

kelly wiedemerKelly Wiedemer lost her job in the financial sector at the start of the recession almost three years ago. She says the problem now is that she has been out of work for so long, many employers won’t even give her resume a second look. Kelly says the one thing that has changed is that she’s become a lot more politically involved – she’s started writing and she’s determined to speak up on behalf of people who are being ignored because they’ve been out of work. Music: Flint, Sufjan Stevens

Read more at thestory.org

 

Evolution of Reading in one picture

Nothing more to be said: Youngest is reading her Smart Phone, 30-something is reading a magazine, and senior is reading Financial Times?

Three ages of Reading on the Tube
Regular readers will know I’m always keen to see what people are reading on the London Underground, as it’s usually a good indicator of trends in popular fiction, non fiction and now reading devices. Last week the trio opposite me looked very much like an advertisement for how people read

Read more at london-underground.blogspot.com

 

Ultimate hubris: Cloning nature

Leaves me almost speechless. Redwoods and their forest are almost magical – quite inspiring. How did they become so strong and lost lasting? Did they clone each other in a lab and plant millions of just-like-me trees? Silly question? Why did the “scientist” in this story ask it of himself? Because, like many science mechanics, he thinks/believes/self-deludes that he and his cohorts are above nature and can manufacture nature.

Natural selection is as much about natural diversity and errors, as it is about survival and adaptation. Until we understand that, we will not leave forests to themselves and just cordon them off from our interference.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

From Ancient Giants, Finding New Life to Help the Planet

It is just those sprouts that lie at the heart of a plan hatched by a group of tree enthusiasts to clone — and then mass-produce — a collection of colossal redwoods, some of which date to before the birth of Jesus and can soar nearly 40 stories, the tallest living things on earth.

“We want to get the biggest, best genetic representations of the species,” said David Milarch, the co-founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. “And make millions and millions and millions of them.”

Read more at www.nytimes.com