Huffington Post: laptops carry health risks

Huffington Post ran a story today, "How Hazardous Are Laptops To Your Health?." Apparently, by the research they survey, they are risky.

Vigilance pays: 10 Things the HR Department Won’t Tell You

Be vigilant!
Shine at Yahoo posts:

"10 Things the HR Department Won’t Tell You"

Do not forget the wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan

Just heard the Wounded Warriors Project.

The Veterans Administration (VA) is too hastily discharging veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Too many vets are suffering from concussions and other head injuries, and from post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). The process of getting designated with disability status is too cumbersome.

This veteran's day I'm sending my support by publicizing these links:

Personal stories from more than just the "Front Lines of War"
A Perfect Storm: PTSD
http://www.ptsdsupport.net/a_perfect_storm-ptsd.html

Coalition for Iraq + Afghanistan Veterans
http://coalitionforveterans.org

Wounded Warriors Project
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

From Utne Reader:
Treating Wounded Soldiers: Beyond PTSD, March/ April, 2010
http://www.utne.com/Science-Technology/Treating-Wounded-Soldiers-PTSD-Polytrauma.aspx

From The Boston Globe, May 30, 2010:
Veteran's PTSD Rates Reportedly Higher in Current Iraq Conflict
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/14263/veterans-disability-ptsd-2.html

Healing Veterans PTSD, blog:
http://healingveteransptsd.blogspot.com/

A name with that ubiquitous tanned newswoman in advert sidebars on so many sites

So, we now get a name with that face.
You see her in ads in the sides or the bottoms of websites, always linked with some product being pushed. For a while her image was connected with an advertising campaign about the "truth" about akai berries.
Her name is Melissa Theuriau, a sports newscaster on the French television channel, LCI.

Her image is so routinely used. I wonder whether she has given permission for the use of her likeness, here, there and everywhere in the Internet. I really doubt it.

ALERT: Lead found in New York City drinking water

This in, Thursday: Mireya Navarro in The New York Times reports:

New York City health and environmental officials on Thursday advised residents to run their tap water for at least 30 seconds before drinking or cooking with it after testing showed a rise in the percentage of homes with elevated levels of lead.

Read more at The New York Times article at their website.

States' redistricting: brace yourselves for the 2010s as a Republican decade

The coming Republican decade derives from state level Republican lawmakers' self-serving redistricting.

This will make the task of progressives' pushing for electoral victories much more difficult.

The November 2, 2010 Republican sweep of the elections handed state-level Republicans great redistricting power.
Mother Jones explains. Read: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/republican-decade-congressional-redistricting

Not a fan of your new GOP-dominated House of Representatives? You'd better get used to it. After winning almost unprecedented power over the congressional redistricting process, Republicans are poised to lock in their gains for a decade or more. And there's very little the Democrats can do to stop them. This year, the Dems could draw less than half the districts the GOP does.

Advertise on MotherJones.com

The Republican wave couldn't have come at a worse time for Dems. America's once-a-decade census has wrapped up, and many states are due to change the boundaries of their congressional districts. Population-based adjustments mean that slower-growing states (like Ohio) will lose seats, while faster-growing states (like Florida) will gain them.

The only solace is that rising Hispanic populations in Sun Belt states will lead to realignment of states to blue state or purple state status. Witness the strong Latino support for Democratic candidates in this week's elections in California and Nevada.

Rand Paul shows another ugly side of his philosophies

As Daily Kos alerted us this morning, in "Rand Paul explains Republican economic philosophy," Senator-elect Paul, speaking to CNN, enunciated the essential Republican philosophy, in 30 terse seconds:

Rich people are the backbone of our economy because they are the only people who buy things and create jobs. Therefore we should cut their taxes and cut spending on everything else.

Yes, it will be unpleasant having to contend with a larger Republican share of the U.S. Senate, but the quotes out of their supposed "bright, young leaders," are going to be delicious foils for Democrats to oppose in the 2012 election. Quotes like this one and Paul's callous disregard for civil rights laws, will show the Republicans in the most unflattering light. Paul will be the poster boy for what is wrong, selfish, heartless in the Republican economic philosophy.
Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin are easily dismissible as light-headed; Paul will be dismissible as offering nothing to 85% of the American public.

Washington Post's go-to site (& book) explaining 2010 health care reform law

Here's a great book by the Washington Post staff, explaining in simple, straight-forward terms, how Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the March 23, 2010 health care reform law helps Americans.

See also this handy Washington Post interactive website "What does the health care bill mean to me?," explaining how the health care reform law affects you. The search tool has individualized features such as consideration of your marital status and your income level.

The health-care overhaul will change the way millions of Americans get health insurance and require nearly everyone to have health insurance or face penalties. A number of factors - including income, age, location and family size - will determine how it specifically impacts your life. This tool estimates what it could mean for your health coverage and taxes based on your income, family size and current insurance status.

These are essential tools for activists and voters, for understanding the health care reform law ("Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act"), in advance of Tuesday's midterm U.S. Congressional elections, November 2, 2010. The election will be a referendum, in part, on the legislation.

Is US' TSA going too far in pat-down guidelines?

New pat-down guidelines for airplane security issued by the United States Transportation Security Administration venture to territory many passengers might feel uncomfortable with.

Beginning Friday, October 29, 2010, the TSA instituted more intrusive pat-downs, as ABC News reported:

Pat-downs are normally given at random or to passengers who set off an alarm. Right now, TSA officials are restricted as to how and where someone can be touched. But, these new guidelines now give them access to body parts that were once off limits.

This body scan machine has only been at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport for less than three months, and already security measures are changing.

TSA officials said, "If they don't want to go through the advanced imaging technology, or a metal detector, they will receive alternate screening to include a thorough pat down."

Right now, TSA officials search passengers using the common pat down method. Starting Friday, they'll be able to use a sliding motion and search parts of the body some say are too private ... like the underside of a woman's bra.

We showed a video clip of what the new searches would look like to passengers ... particularly women. Their reaction was all the same.

Pat Leppo said, "I don't think they should be able to touch anything that's kinda private."

The decision of these guidelines is timely. The announcement of the guidelines came right before the announcement Friday that British and Dubai authorities intercepted possibly explosive packages headed to Jewish targets in the Chicago, Illinois area.

AFL-CIO Now Blog: Work Till 70? Yes, if Boehner and Republicans Have Their Way

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | Work Till 70? Yes, if Boehner and Republicans Have Their Way

Massive oil stretch discovered outside the mouth of Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico

Amidst the media talk of the resolution of the oil nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico: this in from New Orleans' "Times Picayune:"

"Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta."
Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

HCR Explained: The New Health Care Law and Affordable Health Insurance, Policy, Plan Website - AARP Bulletin

HCR Explained: The New Health Care Law and Affordable Health Insurance, Policy, Plan Website - AARP Bulletin

Why the November 2 election is important. We cannot risk losing the gains we made.

Tea Party Republican Carl Paladino really goes off deep end with remarks on gays

This weekend Carl Paladino, Republican Party nominee for New York State governor, of the Tea Party stripe, really went off the deep end with comments about gays. In reacting to Democrat Andrew Cuomo's marching in the Gay Pride Parade, Paladino said,

I didn't march in the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did. And that's not the example that we should be showing our children, and certainly not in our schools.
I just think my children and your children would be better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family. And I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. It isn't.

Paladino has already shown himself to be a third-rail candidate. Remarkably, these words are worst than a hot-headed slip of the tongue, these were premeditated comments, iin a prepared statement.
And the latest word is that he is standing by his comments. The New York Times reports Paladino's Today show appearance this morning, "Paladino Strongly Defends Remarks on Homosexuality."

Global warming and detailed rising sea levels map

There is an excellent global map at geology.com for the seeing effects on coastlines from rising sea levels, due to global warming, or what some call climate change.

The map has zooming capabilities, so that you can closely look at the country or region and see just how intensely the particular areas would be affected by rising se levels. You can also set the interactive map to see how different levels of increases in the sea level, from 1, to 2, to 3, and so on up to 14 meters will affect the coastlines.

The map shows that even at modest increases, such as 2 meters, about half of the Netherlands, the entire Venice region and the lower islands of the Florida Keys will be submerged under water.

You will also note that, despite dire predictions for New York City, the areas to see the worst effects are in eastern Brooklyn and southern Queens.

Heidi Cullen's "The Weather of the Future," an urgently relevant book for our times

Heidi Cullen, a climatologist with a PhD from Columbia University, and who has appeared on PBS News Hour," has written "The Weather of the Future." Its subtitle, "Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed" contains elements of the some of the extreme weather trends in North America in the last few years.
New York City has seen two tornadoes in the past three months, something that we rarely expect to see in the city. Frequently, storms in recent months have involved uprooting of trees, felling of major tree branches and heavy local flooding.
Heat waves in cities have become longer, devastating wildfires have become more damaging.
Cullen's book notes how low-lying areas such as nearly the entire nation of Bangladesh could become devastated due to rising sea levels. In the United States, much of the southern half of Florida is similarly low-lying.

The profound vulnerabilities that the world faces high-lights the need to take decisive action to reverse the ill effects of greenhouse gases. Republicans like to rant against carbon caps as job killers. They need to realize that inaction will lead to disaster-movie scenario with variations across the planet. In terms of life-style policies we need to expand mass transit, encourage tree planting, and encourage local food networks to minimize the carbon impact that is attendant with transporting food.

Join MoveOn's campaign to Turn Off Fox

There is so much to dislike with Fox News:
the constant drumbeat of a right-wing Tea Partier, Republican agenda that permeates the political talk and the "news,"
the Islamophobia.
If one needs a brief overview of the role of FoxNews as a transmission belt for the Republican Party, one should just view Robert Greenwald's quintessial video, "Outfoxed!"



And visit BraveNewFilms' site with continuing updates about the lies and disinformation on the Fox News Network.

Click to this Facebook link on the MoveOn campaign to "Turn Off Fox: Bad News for America."