Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina
( aug 2005 )

Among the messages and essays circulating in cyberspace that lament the lost lives and missed opportunities is one by Mark Naison, a white professor of African-American Studies at Fordham University in the Bronx.

"Is this what the pioneers of the civil rights movement fought to achieve, a society where many black people are as trapped and isolated by their poverty as they were by segregation laws?" Mr. Naison wrote. "If Sept. 11 showed the power of a nation united in response to a devastating attack, Hurricane Katrina reveals the fault lines of a region and a nation, rent by profound social divisions."

That sentiment was shared by members of other minority groups who understand the bizarre equality of poverty.


"We tend to think of natural disasters as somehow even-handed, as somehow random," said Martín Espada, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts and poet of a decidedly leftist political bent who is Puerto Rican. "Yet it has always been thus: poor people are in danger. That is what it means to be poor. It's dangerous to be poor. It's dangerous to be black. It's dangerous to be Latino."

Just Some Thoughts On The Tragedy...

FUN FAQs & LESSONS

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:

1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:

1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is...not piddling in your pants.
At age 12 success is ... having friends.
At age 17 success is ... having a drivers license.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not piddling in your pants.

Always remember to forget the troubles that pass your way;
BUT NEVER forget the blessings that come each day.

Daylight Savings Time

Remember to spring forward and set your clocks ahead one hour at 2AM this Sunday. The time change gives us an extra hour of daylight; it originated during wartime as a way to get people to use less electricity.

FYI:

Arizona and Hawaii and the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and American Samoa are the only places in the U.S. that do not observe DST but instead stay on "standard time" all year long.

And if you've spent any time in the sweltering summer sun in those regions you can understand why residents don't need another hour of sunlight.

Word Whimsies

Confusing English Words?

forgiving ( adjective ) = willing or able to forgive...
forgiven ( verb ) = Has been forgiven- released from err or wrong doing...
given ( adjective ) = presented as a gift : bestowed without compensation...
giving ( verb ) = to care to the extent of: to give of oneself: unselfish act of sharing...

red (noun) =A Color- Normal Blood Color
read (adjective) =Past Tense- Of reading (pronounced like the color "red")
read (noun) =the action or an instance of reading - The action of reading
read (verb) =To interpret- Understand- to learn the nature of -

And There are So Many Others..
Can you spell fish "phisch"?
Road or Rode?
bite - byte?
OH MY!!

True Tidbit

FAQ:
A ten year old mattress weighs double what it did when it was new, because of the (ahem) debris which is absorbed through the years.
That debris includes dust mites (their droppings and their decaying bodies), mold, millions of dead skin cells, dandruff, animal and human hair, secretions, excretions, lint, pollen, dust, soil, sand and a lot of perspiration, of which the average person loses a quart per day.
YIKES!!! Good night?

FYI - HIV - STDs

Young Americans living with HIV are worse off -- and having much more risky sex -- since powerful AIDS drugs came along.
You might think that the drugs, known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART, would make life better for HIV-infected youths. You might think that when teens learn they have the AIDS virus, they would be more careful about unsafe sex and substance abuse. But you would be wrong.
Those that have taken the "HAART" drug are having more unprotective sex, using drugs, are more emotionally distress, and are living a "lower" quality of life.
Youths (before-HAART therapy} averaged 5-6 sex partners, having unprotected sex 27% of the time.After HAART became available, numbers changed, they had more than 10 sex partners and unprotected sex 42% of the time. They also were twice as likely to have sex with an (injection) drug user.
Don't any of them learn- or fear this deadly disease? Are We "leaving it" to stronger drugs to save us? As If That Where The Solution!
This Is Not A Way To live!

** American Journal of Health Behavior-February Issue
UCLA researcher Marguerita Lightfoot, PhD, and colleagues.
Info Based On 13 to 24 year olds living with HIV from:
Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Miami.

Just 13 ... and With Aids!? That Is Scarey!

You already know about the birds and the bees.
But what about the snakes in the trees?
Know your STDs?

Concerns about AIDS in recent years have overshadowed other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) that also have serious health consequences, including sterility, cancer or death.
Some STDs can even make you more prone to the AIDS virus.
Learn how to safeguard your health and recognize signs of an STD.
http://www.thehealthpages.com/articles/ar-stds.html
READ ABOUT IT

Vive Le Sex

"Libido Meter" May Be First True Sexual-Arousal Gauge
Israeli scientists have developed a test that they say can measure brain waves to objectively determine the level of a person's sexual desire.

A Measure of Health
Keeping track of sexual desire may be a more serious health issue than many people realize. Sex contributes to the overall physical and mental health of a person, researchers say.

"I think having frequent, satisfying sex keeps the hormone levels up and keeps us young, both physically and mentally," said Barbara Bartlik, a psychiatry professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York State.

In describing how sex helps, scientists are looking at three neurotransmitters released in the brain during sex:

Oxytocin: Promotes emotional bonding. "It is probably oxytocin that helps to explain the benefits of sexual experience," said Sue Carter, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This hormone influences the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates and can reduce heart rate and blood pressure."

Endorphins Provide natural relief from the pain of arthritis, injury, and even migraines. Endorphins also boost the immune system by dampening the harmful hormones that stress stimulates.

Serotonin Contributes to the feeling of pleasure, satiety, and relaxation that people usually experience after good sex.

"Take all of that together, and its easy to see how pervasive sexual pleasure is to our well-being," said Jim Pfaus, a behavioral neuroscientist at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Well...
"Vive Le Sex"!

Crazy Climate??

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW....
We all have seen/heard the movie- now of course it is a bit exaggerated (is it?)
Looking at the way things are going on our planet ...it is possible.
It may not come as "quickly" (as in the movie)- but it is happening!
Research:
Continued global warming could have many damaging effects. It might harm plants and animals that live in the sea. It could also force animals and plants on land to move to new habitats. Weather patterns could change, causing flooding, drought, and an increase in damaging storms. Global warming could melt enough polar ice to raise the sea level. In certain parts of the world, human disease could spread, and crop yields could decline.

The impact of global warming
Harm to ocean life
It Kills Our Coral reefs/ spreads diseases affecting sea creatures.
Changes of habitat.
Widespread shifts might occur in the natural habitats of animals and plants
Many species would have difficulty surviving in the regions they now inhabit.
Weather damage.
rainfall patterns could increase-flooding and drought in some areas. More hurricanes/ tropical storms might occur, and they could become more powerful.
Rising sea level.
melting of ice (a vast sheets covering most of Antarctica) Results: sea level would rise - coastal areas would experience: flooding/erosion/loss of wetlands/entry of seawater into freshwater / submerging some coastal cities/small island/nations, and other inhabited regions.
Threats to human health.
Tropical diseases, ie:malaria /dengue, spread to larger regions. Intense heat waves causing more deaths and illnesses. Floods/droughts increasing hunger and malnutrition.
Changes in crop yields.
floods/hurricanes- washing away crops - high temps in tropics- where plant cannot tolerate the heat and die.. etc etc
---------------------------------------------------------

Qori Kalis (glacier-Andes Mountains-Peru )
melted substantially - 1983 and 2000 (17 yrs).
This melting provides a clear sign of global warming.


Technology/Progress - Has a Price...
but should it be this high?

I BELIEVE...

I believe-
that two people
can look at the exact same thing
and see something totally different.

I believe-
that even when you think
you have no more to give,
when a friend cries out to you,
you will find the strength to help.

I believe-
that when you think you've reached
your end of the road-
a new crossroad appears before you-
offering a path to more possibilities.

I believe-
You should think before you speak-
'cause, sticks and stones
can break your bones...
but some spoken words-
can really harm thee.

I believe-
That confession and true forgiveness
is a private matter kept within oneself...
And if made public-
for self-righteous reasons,it only belittles,
and "nulls" the act in itself.

I believe-
That "those" that Go Around
"speading untrue-beliefs/stories"
will Have to answer to a "higher authority"...
One that does not discriminate-
nor pass judgment..
but will be be just in giving back
"just deserved" for your actions.

I believe-
That Only God can mark a person-
mortals just mark themselves.

I beleive-
that whatever you do in life-
weather be right or wrong-
you'll see the day that you pay for it-
before darkness takes over your life.

I believe-
that credentials on the wall
do not make you a decent human being.
Only shows, that You are Vein!