Asthma rates going down

There was a sharp fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma after smoke-free legislation was introduced in England, say researchers. A study showed a 12% drop in the first year after the law to stop smoking in enclosed public places came into force. The authors say there is growing  evidence that many people are opting for smoke-free homes as well.

Asthma UK says the findings are "encouraging". Researchers at Imperial College in London looked at NHS figures going back to April 2002. Presenting their findings in the journal Pediatrics, they said the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma attacks was rising by more than 2% a year before the restrictions were introduced in July 2007. Taking that into account, they calculated the fall in admissions in the next 12 months was 12%, and a further 3% in each of the following two years. They say over the three-year period, this was equivalent of about 6,800 admissions. The fall was seen among boys and girls of all ages, across wealthy and deprived neighborhoods, in cities and in rural areas.

Prior to the smoke-free law much of the debate on the legislation centered on protection of bar workers from passive smoke. At the time many critics said smokers would respond by lighting up more at home - harming the health of their families. But the authors of this study say there is growing evidence that more people are insisting on smoke-free homes.  The lead researcher, Prof Christopher Millett, said the legislation has prompted unexpected, but very welcome, changes in behavior. We increasingly think it's because people are adopting smoke-free homes when these smoke-free laws are introduced and this is because they see the benefits of smoke-free laws in public places such as restaurants and they increasingly want to adopt them in their home. This benefits children because they're less likely to be exposed to second hand smoke. These findings reinforce evidence on the impact of smoke-free legislation from studies in North America and Scotland, which also showed a fall in hospital admissions for children with severe asthma attacks. The law in England has also resulted in fewer admissions for heart attack.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21067532

Fat kids

Children from poor backgrounds are more likely to be overweight, a minister has claimed, blaming "an abundance of bad food" for the situation. Anna Soubry said 50 years ago youngsters from deprived households were taunted for being "skinny runts", but this state of affairs had reversed.

Ministers have threatened food manufacturers with legislation unless they cut the amount of fat, sugar and salt in their products and urged firms to sign up to the voluntary "responsibility deal" to reduce calories. The Conservative MP for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, a junior minister in the Department of Health who is in charge of public health, said a third of children leaving primary school were overweight or obese and the poorest were among those most at risk.

During her school days, Ms Soubry said poorer children were known as "skinny runts", because there were not getting the right food. You could tell the demography of children by how thin they were. You could see by looking at their eyes. But she said there was a now a link between childhood poverty and obesity: "Obviously, not everybody who is overweight comes from deprived backgrounds but that's where the propensity lies."

If the government fails to act we will continue storing up huge problems for the country and the NHS in the long term. It is a heartbreaking fact that people who are some of the most deprived in our society are living on an inadequate diet. But this time it's an abundance of bad food. Too many parents believed there was no alternative to junk food because it was cheap. She expressed concern at the number of children whose breakfast consisted of packet of crisps and a fizzy drink or fried meat in a bun. She also said she lamented the growth of "TV meals" at the expense of families sitting around their dinner tables. According to Department of Health figures, the poorest children are almost twice as likely to be obese than the richest.

The Child Poverty Action Group said there was clear connection between deprivation and obesity but ministers needed to revisit their own policies rather than blame parents. "The real reason why our obesity problem is going to get bigger in the years ahead is because our child poverty problem is going to get much bigger as a result of the government's own policies," said the organisation's head of policy Imran Hussain. "Poor children are much more likely to miss out on healthy food on cost grounds than children living in households with average incomes. And research shows that when the incomes of poor families rise, parents spend the gains on improving the diets of their children through buying fresh fruit."

Labour, which has launched a consultation on the case for statutory limits on the amount of sugar and salt in children's food, said the government was "doing nothing" to tackle the obesity crisis among children. "It is clear that their voluntary approach is not working," said shadow health minister Diane Abbott. "If the government fails to act we will continue storing up huge problems for the country and the NHS in the long term." Education Secretary Michael Gove has asked two restaurant owners to examine how nutrition in schools can be improved, but TV chef Jamie Oliver has criticised the government's approach, saying healthy food standards are being eroded

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21158087

This is Bad.

A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.

House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence."
“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," the bill says.
Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.
Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a progressive nonprofit opposing the bill, called it "blatantly unconstitutional" on Thursday.

“The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” he said. “According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case.“
The bill is unlikely to pass, as Democrats have a majority in both chambers of New Mexico's state legislature.

  Brown said in a statement Thursday that she introduced the bill with the goal of punishing the person who commits incest or rape and then procures or facilitates an abortion to destroy the evidence of the crime.

“New Mexico needs to strengthen its laws to deter sex offenders,” said Brown. “By adding this law in New Mexico, we can help to protect women across our state.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/new-mexico-abortion-bill_n_2541894.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Oh My Good Lord...

Somewhere in this world, this little boy is recovering from multiple major surgeries. This little guy got beat up, cut open, and severely damaged. Why was this poor little boy beat to death? He knew his attackers, the men who tried forcing him into begging. It is quite popular in India, and the only reason we know about this is because of the brave souls over there who have the courage to report this and try to make things right.

This seven year old boy was tricked by his neighbors, beat up by his fathers friends, and was found, practically dead, by his mother. Four men had surrounded the 7-year-old boy, bound his hands and feet and cracked open his head with a brick. They held him down and took a switchblade to his throat. They sliced his chest and belly in an upside down cross. And in a final brutal act, they hacked him sideways, chopping off his penis and his right testicle.

These men are did a horrible act. There are millions of people out in this world that do this to poor, innocent children, just so they can be greedy and take all the money. They are selfish, horrid people. They intentionally beat up children and dismantle them so people feel sorry for them and give them more money.

The only reason we know about this story is because of a human rights activist. She saw how this man was helpless to his child, and how wrongly the system  is in India. Some "uncle" reported that this all happened with a school boy. The police believed only the uncle's story, and not the fathers. Honestly, what kind of seven year old boys are able to smash open heads and carry around switchblades?

So, thanks to technology, this lucky little boy is alive, and somewhat living a normal life.


wwws.cnn.com/2012/12/06/world/freedom-project-operation-hope/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Rape: Social Media's Role In It

 

Images and messages posted to social media that appear to depict the sexual abuse of a girl in Steubenville, Ohio, have been taken out of context, the attorney for one of the teenagers charged in the incident said Friday. "One of the main concerns we have is that this matter has been, by special interest groups all over the world, tried in the court of public opinion," said Walter Madison, the attorney for defendant Ma'lik Richardson. Richardson and another 16-year-old member of the town's highly regarded football team, Trent Mays, are charged with raping the girl at a series of back-to-school parties in August. Mays also is charged with "illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material." Although the teenagers are juveniles, CNN is identifying them because they have been publicly named by a juvenile court judge, by defense attorneys and in media accounts. CNN is not identifying the girl, who also is a juvenile, in accordance with its policy not to release the names of alleged rape victims. Special prosecutors from the state attorney general's office allege the teens repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl while she was unconscious.

The case gained national attention after The New York Times reported on it in December and an activist hacker group this week posted a previously unpublicized video of teenagers in the small Ohio River valley town cracking jokes about the case. The controversy has shaken the city, with some residents accusing outsiders of trying to ruin the reputation of the town's high school football team, one of the few bright spots in the economically depressed community of 18,000.

Early hearings in criminal cases often hinge on the prosecution showing it has sufficient evidence for the case to go forward, not to prove a defendant's innocence.

Madison said more information will come out at trial, which is scheduled for February 13.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office is investigating and prosecuting the case, declined Friday on "Starting Point" to say if anyone else could be charged in the case.

But, he said, investigators are continuing to follow leads.

On Thursday, the police chief who initially investigated the case before the Jefferson County prosecutor asked state officials to step in said he's puzzled why no one intervened in the alleged assault. "Why didn't somebody stop it?" Steubenville police Chief William McCafferty said. "You simply don't do that. ... It's not done."

The case has attracted the attention of bloggers and even Anonymous, a loosely organized cooperative of activist hackers. Anonymous has released information about the town and the football team, and is threatening to release more unless everyone comes clean about what happened that August night.

"The town of Steubenville has been good at keeping this quiet and their star football team protected," an Anonymous member wearing the group's trademark Guy Fawkes mask says in a video posted to the group's LocalLeaks website.The organization, he says, will not allow "a group of young men who turn to rape as a game or sport get the pass because of athletic ability or small-town luck."

The girl was assaulted the night of Saturday, August 11, and early the next morning, according to authorities.

 Involved, according to authorities, were members of the Steubenville High School football team, popular among many in the small, down-on-its-luck town along the banks of the Ohio River.

Police got involved on August 14, when the girl's mother reported the alleged assault, according to McCafferty, the police chief. The family provided a zip drive showing a Twitter page, possibly with a photo, the chief told CNN. A kidnapping charge was dropped by the juvenile court judge at a probable cause hearing last October, said McCafferty and Adam Nemann, who is Mays' attorney.

I don’t think that everyone has all their “cookies”. The whole thing seems very suspicious to me. You shouldn’t protect some guys who decided to gang-rape a girl. That’s just plain wrong. Why in the bloody hell would you go rape a girl, that you know, and then let all your friends do it too. This just sickens me.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/04/justice/ohio-rape-online-video/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Fix This, Please

This child is only 16 months old, and weighs half of what she should be.

Malnutrition is not unknown in Mali - in the past decade, the country has faced three droughts which all led to major food shortages - this year the country has struggled to cope with a prolonged drought and food crisis that is affecting large areas of the Sahel region of West Africa. The crisis has been made worse by a spreading internal conflict.

Islamist militant groups with ties to Al Qaeda control about two-thirds of Mali after hijacking a secular rebellion by Turaeg nomads in the north at the start of this year and seizing more territory in the wake of a March 22 military coup, which toppled the president based in Bamako.

More than 320,000 Malians have fled the north in search of food or safety, 200,000 of them seeking sanctuary in neighboring Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. The remaining 120,000 are internally displaced.

This boy is suffering from acute malnutrition, something that is very common here in Mali.

Despite the vast need, international aid efforts in Mali have been hampered by political chaos and uncertainty, and in the conflict-ridden north, by Islamic extremists who have prevented outsiders from operating in the region. However, IRC staff members who are natives of the north have managed to deliver vital aid to displaced people.

These intrepid aid workers are distributing water purification kits and conducting hygiene promotion campaigns. Still, many people continue to lack clean water, putting them at high risk of cholera.

The Malian people expressed sadness and disbelief over the severity and rapidity of the humanitarian crisis in a country long viewed as stable.

 

This is actually a fairly common thing that happens here. Not with the same terroist group each time, but the act of taking over ones land and food, and ruining their lives.

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/10/16/world-food-day-mali/?hpt=wo_mid

Make it Safe!

Violence keeps girls out of school. Globally, nearly half of all sexual assaults are committed against girls who are 15 and younger. Fear of this type of violence restricts where girls are allowed to go and when they are allowed to be out of the home. Often, parents do not send their daughters to school for this reason.
Violence in the home can also hold girls captive and out of school. For instance, nearly half the girls in developing countries are married during their teenage years, with many before age 15. They may experience profound violence at the hands of their often much older husbands.

But sadly, school does not equal safety. Even girls who are able to go to school still face violence -- in the classroom, of all places. A girl may walk up to five kilometers between home and school in the company of friends or an older brother to avoid the inevitable harassment by groups of men or boys she passes, only to receive more harassment from a teacher once she finally reaches school.

 In schools around the world, teachers pressure girls for sex in exchange for grades. In Zambia, for example, more than 2,000 cases of teacher rapes were reported in 2010 alone. Of these cases, only 240 teachers were convicted. While these numbers may be shocking, Zambia is not the only country with this problem. Schools should be a safe haven for girls, but instead, they are too often a place of fear and danger.

 However, despite the violence that can happen in schools, going to school tends to increase girls' safety outside school. A recent study in Swaziland found that the risk of childhood sexual violence was greatest among those who were not attending school, suggesting that greater educational opportunities decrease vulnerability to violence. Girls in school have an opportunity to escape early marriage and early motherhood, and to gain skills that give them enhanced economic and social opportunities.

 As part of the global community, we can all do our part to help girls by making school safe and making sure they can get to school.

 The benefits of education for girls are undeniable. But until we can ensure that schools are places of learning, rather than places of danger, girls will be held back. When girls are educated—and safe—they, along with our entire societies, will flourish.

This is always going to be a problem around the world. We can’t save everyone, but we will still try. It is such a shame that people have to do these things just to make themselves happy. The world is full of greedy, disgusting people who need to see the big picture.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/opinion/buffett-girls-safety/index.html?iref=allsearch