There is a new Afghan law states that it will allow men to deny giving food to thier wives if they refuse to have sex. The law also allows a rapist to pay his victim “blood money” to avoid prosecution. [Guardian]
A French teenager’s claim that an Apple iPhone shattered in his face is a first involving the device but similar incidents have occurred with the iPod according to a US television station.
Marie-Dominique Kolega, whose 18-year-old son was struck in the eye by a piece of glass when the screen shattered on his girlfriend’s iPhone, has threatened to file a complaint against Apple following the incident.
According to Kolega, the phone began making a hissing noise and the screen suddenly broke, sending pieces flying in the air.
“My son was frightened but he did not lose an eye,” Kolega, of Aix-en-Provence in southern France, told AFP.
The report is the first such incident involving an iPhone.
But US television news station KIRO reported in late July that an “alarming number” of iPods “have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property.”
The station said that Apple lawyers tried to stop it from getting hold of hundreds of pages of iPod-related documents from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in California, where Apple has its headquarters.
It said the 800 pages of documents included information on “15 burn and fire-related incidents blamed by iPod owners on their iPods.”
There were no reports of serious injuries, and the cause of the trouble appeared to be overheated lithium ion batteries, according to the Seattle-based television station’s review of the paperwork.
The CPSC indicated that the number of incidents was low considering the tens of millions of iPods sold and that such reports diminished after Apple evidently changed the battery technology, according to KIRO.
There was no immediate response from Apple to AFP requests for comment.
After trying to revive a premature baby for over an hour, doctors declared him dead and his parents began to make funeral arrangements, they even already issued a death certificate to the parents. The baby, however, was still alive, and made it known by crying-at the funeral home.
According to Guanabee, , the baby’s father, Jose Alvarenga of Paraguay, heard the child crying from within the box they’d placed him in preparation of his wake: “I opened it to look at his remains and found that the baby was breathing. I began to cry.” The baby is now in intensive care; the BBC claims, that the hospital had not properly checked his vital signs before declaring him dead.
‘Dead’ Baby Wakes Before Funeral [BBC]
Dead Baby Wakes Up Before Funeral [Guanabee]
The Candie’s Foundation claims that its mission is “to educate America’s youth about the devastating consequences of teenage pregnancy.” So why, then, is it pushing abstinence, and “sexy” abstinence, at that, as an ideal solution?
The foundation is currently pushing their new t-shirt design, created in partnership with Seventeen, which reads: “I’m Sexy Enough To Keep You Waiting.” A number of other designs were considered, shown on the website in this charming graphic, with girls in flirty tees surrounding text that reads: “Be Sexy! It Doesn’t Mean You Have To Have Sex!”
No, it doesn’t. But as Lisa at Sociological Images points out, why aren’t there any boys wearing these t-shirts? Why is it only girls who are expected to “be sexy!” but remain chaste? Why are we pushing this ridiculous “I’m so sexy,” bullshit slogan as a means to really address the issues behind teen pregnancy rates? Why aren’t there any references to condoms, or safe sex, or birth control pills? It seems a bit disturbing that the foundation’s main method of reaching young girls is to tell them to “be sexy” but remind them that having sex might lead to “devastating consequences.” Mixed messages much?
I suppose this fits in with the company’s current split between its retail spokesperson, Britney Spears, and its recent foundation spokesperson, Bristol Palin: they push a sexy image on consumers, and hope that teens will buy into their sexy brand, but then expect young women to push their sexuality aside (or apologize for it) and abstain, or else face “the consequences.” Are there consequences of having sex? Yes. But it seems as if pregnancy is the only one this foundation wants to address, and abstinence is their main method of doing so, all while reminding girls that they can still “be sexy!” It’s disappointing and frustrating, and just feeds into the bizarre culture that wants young women to exude sexuality, as long as they don’t dare to actually claim some sort of control over their own.
If the Candie’s Foundation really wants to fight teen pregnancy, perhaps they should tone down the “sexy” angle and focus on the actual sex. Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt to note that teen pregnancy isn’t a female issue alone: turning it into the sole responsibility of young women, who have too many mixed messages thrown at them as it is, simply makes it easier for the world to expect them to remain both sexy and sexless, an unfair notion that will only lead to more confusion. It’s education, openness, and honesty that’s the key, not pushing girls away from their own sexuality while slapping the word “sexy” across their chests.
Source: Jezebel.com
Some play with power and lose it all by a fatal mistake. Some go too far or not far enough. Yet others make all the right moves and are able to draw power unto them with an almost superhuman dexterity.
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and a Joost Elffers book, was a piercing distillation of three thousand years of history of power. This new concise edition of the 500-page bestseller distils yet further the wisdom of great thinkers such as Machiavelli, Sun-tzu and Carl von Clausewitz, and the legacies of statesmen, warrior, seducers and con men throughout the ages.
The 48 Laws of Power is the definitive guide to modern manipulation. It could be one of the most entertaining and most useful books you will ever buy
Wait!? This word really keeps ringing on my ear since I observed that I’m getting in a hurry on some of my plans. But before I delve in deeply, have we ever asked ourselves where on earth this word “wait” comes from? From the worldly point of view, this means remaining or resting in expectation of something. All of us have been waiting for something to happen in our lives even to the extent of being aggravated which sometimes make us stop on every thing we do. Like in my case, I’m getting too excited of what lies ahead of my life until I get to the point of forgetting some of the simplest things life has offered. Every night, before I close my eyes to get a very deep sleep after a long day’s work, I talk to the Lord and ask Him whether some of the plans I set will be realized. I even find myself funny whenever I imagine all my plans as if I’m watching a movie but in this case, I’m the sole actor. We kept on asking God why we are in these situations where we are expected to wait on something to come.
Yes, we all have numerous plans set by days, weeks, months or even years. Even others could be in short or long term plans. In my case, after I finished my BS degree here in the Philippines, the question
I have in my mind is, Where do I go from here? What will happen to my life if I choose to be with this or that? What happens if I take this step or the other way around? There are too many questions that we seek for answers. There are many roads that we need to take in life, but others may be twisted while some are straight as a stick. With this sort-of-confusion ringing in my head, whether to wait or go ahead of God’s plan, I found out that we just need to imbibe in our own minds and hearts these concepts.
Remember, life is an even keel. All of us are perfectly created by God. Our eyes, ears, hands, feet and other body parts are placed in their perfect spots. The number of senses and even the intricacy of our entire human body system have its own raison d’être. I remember the explanation of my teacher about the reason why humans have one pair of ears and only one mouth. He emphasized that we need to have this number of senses for a person needs to listen twice as much as he speaks. So better not pray to have two mouths and one ear because time will come gossips and lies will proliferate not just once but twice. Just wait because life is like a balanced weighing scale. We are the only ones outweighing it. Let’s just keep this equilibrium in state whatever happens.
Don’t run ahead of God’s plan. Yes, it’s normal that we sometimes run ahead of time. In this fast paced world of ours, feeble people are well disregarded. We beat deadlines and plan out things in advance. Human as we are, we always do these stuffs. We even put a schedule on the simplest things we do daily. You bathe, eat, and prepare things as fast as you can even to the extent of forgetting that you haven’t worn your underpants. But wait guys! Have we tried halting and pausing for a while and contemplate on the significant things that we did? Are all these things and plans we have are in accordance to our God’s plan? Sometimes, I seek deep silence for a while after being busy with so many things. Sometimes, I reflect whether I’m not losing out of my plans as well as His plans for me.
Then, answers just come along the way barely discernible.
Live life to the fullest. We can never turn back time so let’s make it possible to really live life to the fullest. We should keep our loved ones on our side and value the people around us. Let’s not be always in a hurry coz we tend to forget the more significant ones. Sometimes, it is us who creates not just a gap but a chasm between relationships with other people who are so important within our own lives.
Waiting on what lies ahead is so tedious but we should not forget that every second offers tranquility and peace of mind, every thing that happens reminds us to just be patient because there is a greater glory ahead of us and it pays to wait since He knows we are waiting. He sympathizes, for He himself had a very long suffering and patience towards His people. Human as we are, we tend to disregard this reason, but it is on the latter part when we come to realize the importance of this concept, “waiting”.
Life is great! Because after I occupied my mind with much life’s worries, destiny offered me blessings worth to be shared and new people meant to be loved. Sooner, my mother will give birth to the third child of our family, and this goes to show that I’ll be having a new person meant to be kept and loved.
With regards to my career, I was tasked to do something I really loved to. This is something that is within my inclination. With this, I get to deal and listen to some ordinary people sharing their simple yet fascinating stories in life.
Indeed, sometimes all of us just need to wait. For I thought back and think that life is an even keel and everything is on God’s control especially if we get to live our life to the fullest.
Why would anyone want to go back to a country in such terrible state of decay, particularly when war is still ranging on several fronts? At best, Afghanistan has an extremely uncertain future with peace apparently an ever-receding speck on the horizon. Not surprisingly, many Afghan refugees prefer to consolidate their lives in their asylum country for the time being.
Life in Pakistan is difficult, but life in Afghanistan may turn out miserable, war doesn’t stop, many people are dying, hungry, homeless, crying for help. Families are surviving on boiled water and bread scraps begged from house to house. War planes and bombs are airing through the sky night and day. One old woman saved herself by snuggling deeply into a gunny sack stuffed with straw. Some have erected protective mud walls around their tents, signifying a degree of permanence to their suffering. War is already a decade, outraging the peoples lives until now and still, until when?
Irrigation systems have collapsed. Even bridges and other structures which escaped the ravages of war are falling down because of lack of maintenance. The land is one huge and deadly obstacle course with millions of deadly mines buried just beneath the topsoil. An unknown number of people have been disfigured. The ongoing armed conflict continues to claim scores of lives daily. Hundreds of thousands on internally displaced people remain homeless.
The destruction has not only been physical. Afghan society has been ripped apart, too. A whole generation has grown up without any education beyond the primary level. Many youngsters have not received any teaching at all. The literacy rate, especially among females, is probably the lowest in the world. Administrators and technocrats who ran government departments and businesses have either fled or been killed. A once friendly and cheerful population is now ruled by intolerance and fanaticism.
Even if the war stops today, it will take years to repatriate Afghanistan’s remaining refugees and to rebuild the country. Given such a bleak outlook there are few, if any jewels remaining in the rusted crown of Afghanistan.
Most, however, insist they want to go home as soon as their security can be guaranteed. Given the unpredictable nature of the internal situation, that may not be for a very long time.
The question is, “When will the war ends?”
I found this old picture showing victims of a devastating drought in the Sahel region of western Africa in 1974. Women and children scramble in the sand for fallen grain after a cereal distribution along the border between Mali and Upper Volta.
Such a dreadful event and sight. Just looking at the picture, makes me tearyeyed. What if we are in this situation?
Educational site about self deve- lopment and self evaluation that helps the hard working and smart Filipina that focus on how you will improve your work capacity.
