Violence against women act passed!

Struggling again with an issue important to women and minority groups, House Republicans on Thursday failed to pass their version of a new Violence Against Women Act and then split over a Senate version that won approval with unanimous Democratic support.

The measure now goes to President Barack Obama, who said in a statement that it was "an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear." "I look forward to signing it into law as soon as it hits my desk," Obama said.

 

Thursday's votes reflected an emerging political reality in the GOP-led House, with a minority of Republicans joining Democrats to pass legislation supported by the public, including increasingly influential demographics such as Hispanic Americans. By a vote of 166-257, the GOP version of the Violence Against Women Act failed to win a majority after almost 90 minutes of debate. The House then voted 286-138 to pass the Senate version, with 87 Republicans joining all 199 Democrats to provide majority support.

Originally passed in 1994 and reauthorized since, the act provides support for organizations that serve domestic violence victims. Criminal prosecutions of abusers are generally the responsibility of local authorities, but the act stiffened sentences for stalking under federal law. Supporters credit the act with sharply reducing the number of lives lost to domestic violence over the past two decades.

Last year, the House and Senate were unable to compromise on another extension of the act, with Republicans opposing Democratic attempts to specify inclusion of native Americans, undocumented immigrants and lesbian, transgender and bisexual women. However, exit polling showed Obama won strong support among women and Latino voters in the November election that also strengthened the Democratic majority in the Senate and weakened the Republican majority in the House.

Unsolved mystery

The unidentified family of four — including two children under 8 — had been sailing a small vessel Sunday west of Monterey Bay. Forecasters had issued a weekend advisory warning boaters of rough seas in the area, and water temperatures typically are in the 40s and 50s, making long-term survival difficult. The group made its first distress call late Sunday afternoon. Investigators used the boat's radio signal and radar to determine the call came from an area about 60 miles west of Monterey. The boaters reported that their 29-foot sailboat was taking on water and the electronics were failing. Crews planned to search by sea and air through the night Monday to find the family, who said in the calls that they were fashioning a raft from a cooler and a life-preserver ring before they lost contact with the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard released one of the family's recorded distress calls, in hopes that it would lead to new information from the public that could help in the search. So far the agency has received no reports of missing persons in the case. The agency believes the boat's name was Charmblow. In the crackling recording, a man's voice is heard saying, "Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the (Charmblow), we are abandoning ship."

Investigators determined from the broken distress calls that the family included a husband and wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin. The boat's location initially was reported farther north, but investigators now believe the call came from west of Monterey Bay, about 100 miles south of San Francisco. The boat did not have a working GPS system. Calls to harbors in California have failed to locate the boat, and database searches have come up empty. . The Coast Guard was expanding its search to Hawaii, the Seattle area and north into Canada.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0226/Family-missing-at-sea-An-unsolved-mystery-video

Up and Away

A balloon had exploded, and its 21 passengers and operators plummeted about 1,000 feet to the ground. The number of dead had climbed to 19, making it the world's deadliest hot air balloon accident in at least 20 years. It was a gas explosion. Passengers in the balloon included 19 foreign tourists: nine from Hong Kong, four from Japan, three from Britain, and two from France and one from Hungary, officials said. An Egyptian pilot and another Egyptian also were on board. Two people, a Briton and the pilot, are hospitalized

Conflicting reports emerged about the company that operated the doomed balloon, Sky Cruise. The head of the country's civil aviation authority said the company was licensed and working legally. The agency has begun an investigation of the incident. The balloon's basket was divided into four parts, he said, each holding five passengers.

Meanwhile, Luxor's chamber of tourism said the company had previous violations. Several balloon companies had terminated contracts with the local meteorological service after the Egyptian revolution. Sky Cruise and other companies were known to violate safety and security instructions by flying out of East Luxor, instead of the recommended West Luxor. Luxor is among Egypt's top tourist draws. Visitors go to see ancient temples and tombs, and travel sites often recommend the hot air balloon trips.

The last hot air balloon accident in Luxor occurred in 2009, when 16 foreign tourists were injured after a balloon struck a cell phone transmission tower. Until Tuesday's incident, the deadliest accident in recent memory took place in 1989, when 13 people were killed as two hot air balloons collided in Australia.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/26/world/africa/egypt-balloon-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

Seals and Science

Elephant seals wearing head sensors and swimming deep beneath Antarctic ice have helped scientists better understand how the ocean's coldest, deepest waters are formed, providing vital clues to understanding its role in the world's climate. The tagged seals, along with sophisticated satellite data and moorings in ocean canyons, all played a role in providing data from the extreme Antarctic environment, where observations are very rare and ships could not go.

Scientists have long known of the existence of "Antarctic bottom water," a dense, deep layer of water near the ocean floor that has a significant impact on the movement of the world's oceans. Three areas where this water is formed were known of, and the existence of a fourth suspected for decades, but the area was far too inaccessible, until now, thanks to the seals.

Southern Ocean Elephant seals are the largest of all seals, with males growing up to six meters (20 feet) long and weighing up to 4,000 kilograms (8,800 lbs). Twenty of the seals were deployed from Davis Station in east Antarctica in 2011 with a sensor, weighing about 100 to 200 grams, on their head. Each of the sensors had a small satellite relay which transmitted data on a daily basis during the five to 10 minute intervals when the seals surfaced.

The scientists get four dives worth of data a day but the seals actually doing up to 60 dives. The elephant seals ... went to the very source and found this very cold, very saline dense water in the middle of winter beneath a polynya, which is what we call an ice factory around the coast of Antarctica. Previous studies have shown that there are 50-year-long trends in the properties of the Antarctic bottom water, and Williams said the latest study will help better assess those changes, perhaps providing clues for climate change modeling.

http://news.yahoo.com/seals-scientists-antarctics-ocean-floor-035440809.html

Fighting the Lions

This kid is a genius. Really though! no training, hardly and materials, just pure brain power. He managed to put together a contraption that helped save his father's cows. He learned from experience that the lions are afraid of flashing lights. So, being the genius he his, he earned himself a scholarship, a trip to the TED conference, and his family's honor. Hell yeah I'd be proud of my kid if he did this all by himself. Seriously though, all he did was gather dozens of LED lights and rig them to a battery and solar panel that powered the family television. He devised a way to make the lights flash and placed the bulbs on poles surrounding the livestock enclosure. What a smart guy!

He mentioned his other tactics on how he was planning on to save the cows, one was a fire, which just let the lions actually see and be able to get through the enclosure. Another was a scarecrow. The scarecrow didn't quite work the second day and on, because just like the kid said, lions are smart. They noticed that the scarecrow didn't move. What sneaky kitties.

 

I'm sure this guy is hella honored to be able to speak at the TED conference. and get a full blown scholarship? damn. I wish I would of thought of this! But, i don't live in Africa, and I don't have to protect my cows from giant cats.

Oh, and by the way, this guy's name is Richard, and he's 13.



http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/51172/kenya+boy+13+gains+fame+for+protecting+livestock+from+lions/

Colorado child

This little girl, who is physically a boy, is being told that she cannot use the girl's bathroom. Even though the little girl, Coy, dresses, looks, and acts like a girl, she is told to either use the teacher bathroom or the nurse’s bathroom. She is six years old, and lives in Colorado. There is a lawsuit going on between her parents, and the school district.

I think that the parents, and Coy, should win. I know this is a psychological disorder and all, but this is her. Just as the quote goes, "This is me, take me as I am" the school just should deal with it. The parents had a good point stating that using the bathroom is a private thing in general. How is this little girl going to get bullied for using the proper bathroom? If anything, she'll be bullied for having to go to the teachers/nurses bathroom, and not the girl’s bathroom, like all the other little girls.

 
What I can’t believe, is that Coy knew about getting “fixed”. She specifically told her parents that she wanted to go to the doctor and get fixed. I’m pretty sure that Disney channel and Cartoon Network aren’t talking about transgender problems. Another thing, you can’t blame the parents for this. They had triplets, two boys, 1 girl, even though the other two seem “normal” something could have happened, such as if this was invitro, and something happened during the science thing. The world should just let people be themselves, with no judgment, especially to this little girl.


http://news.yahoo.com/colo-transgender-girl-cant-school-bathroom-214244912.html

Violence for a cause

A controversial group opposing Japanese whaling in the Antarctic region on Monday released video showing one of its ships, the Bob Barker, being sandwiched tightly between two larger vessels: a Japanese whaling ship and a Korean refueling tanker. It also shows what's said to be a flash-bang grenade explosion near the stern of the refueling ship, Sun Laurel. The dramatic incident surely ranks as among the most tense in the years-long history of clashes between the whalers and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The latter group, which annually opposes Japan's whaling effort with harassment techniques, reports that the Bob Barker has been badly damaged but its crew is safe. Sea Shepherd also stated that another of its vessels, the Sam Simon, was dinged during another collision with the Nisshin Maru, and that there was a third collision that involved the Nisshin Maru. All three Sea Shepherd vessels are experiencing engine room flooding caused by water cannons, the group claims.

"The Bob Barker has sustained major damage from being sandwiched between the Nisshin Maru and the fuel tanker Sun Laurel," Sea Shepherd stated. "The engine room is now visible through a crack in the floor of the galley. The Sam Simon has massive scratches and dings along their hull, and a smashed satellite dome." Sea Shepherd's boats, trying to thwart refueling attempts, had been trailing propeller-fouling ropes when the collisions occurred.

This is the second set of collision incidents that occurred during the whalers' attempts to refuel. After last week's incidents, the government of Japan and the Institute of Cetacean Research, which manages the annual minke whale hunts, announced that they had temporarily suspended whaling operations. The ICR blamed Sea Shepherd for last week's collisions.

Japan annually targets nearly 1,000 whales, claiming the missions are scientific and using a lethal research loophole in the wording of an international moratorium on commercial whaling to skirt the ban