Educational Testing Service released a report that shows that very little is being done to stop the rising high school drop-out crisis.
In the United States alone, in 2007, almost 6.2 million students dropped out of high school. That is approximately 16% of all Americans in that age range.
If a butterfly flaps its wings in Beijing and a plane falls out of the sky in New York, who is sneezing where, to make multi-storey buildings collapse?
First there was the notorious 13-floor Lotus Riverside apartment building in Minhang, Shanghai, China, that fell over, fortunately before it was occupied. The foundation of the building was being excavated to make way for a garage.
The business of the developers of the building have been closed down, while the government investigates the mater. Prospective home owners are now demonstrating against the unfair payout they have received.
Now the No. 9 building complex of Zhongxiang Longbowan residential area in Minhang, has been slowly sinking for the past month. The back of the building has risen around 2.5 cm while the rest of the building has sunk downwards almost 10 cm, an increase of 6 cm in just one month.
People are still living in the building. Even though it has been reported to the authorities, no one appears to be doing anything to deal with the problem.
Now a five storied building has toppled into the raging flooded river in Taitung country. This is in the wake of the deadly Typhoon Morakot, which hit Taiwan, causing a mudslide that buried an entire village, while the inhabitants slept. There are around 4 - 600 people still missing. “A part of the mountain above us just fell on the village,” said one shocked survivor.
Taiwan is experiencing the worst flooding in half a century, after Typhoon Morakot dumped up to 80 inches of rain over the weekend. The waves reached heights of 26 feet and more than 2,000 houses have collapsed.
Typhoon Morakot swept on into China, causing the evacuation of nearly 1 million people. Five apartment buildings have collapsed in China.
Typhoon Morakot killed 22 people in the Philippines.
Further north Japan was slammed with Tyhpoon Etau, killing 12 people, with 10 still missing.
There were times when he may not have been the most loved person in the world, but he certainly was one of the most controversial, has died at the age of 50, having collapsed at his home in Los Angeles. Michael Jackson was taken to hospital in a coma, he was announced dead.
It is thought Jackson’s death could possibly be related to a large injection of Demerol, given to the singer for pain, after a rehearsal for 50 comeback concerts. It was believed that Jackson had managed to kick a morphine and Demerol addiction, but has experienced health concerns since the early 1990’s.
Dr Conrad Robert Murray, cardiologist from Houston, Texas, was reportedly with Jackson when he lost consciousness. Murray had been living with Jackson in his rented mansion, in the role of a personal physician. Police are now searching for Murray, who has disappeared, leaving his car outside Jackson’s house.
Entertainer extraordinaire, businessman and recording artist, the seventh of nine children of the Jackson family, whose sensational singing gift was discovered when he was just 6 years old. He was later referred to as the ‘King of Pop’, just as Elvis Presley has been dubbed the ‘King of Rock and Roll’. Some likened his unique dancing style to Fred Astaire and in particular Jackson’s ‘Moon Walk’. Jackson’s entertaining life spanned almost four decades.
Jackson revolutionized the music world, being the first to make music visual through videos, rather than merely audio. Jackson was also the first African-American entertainer to successfully break the black and white barriers on MTV, an American music cable television network, based in New York. His very distinctive high tenor vocal style heavily influenced hip hop, pop, as well as many contemporary artists. Jackson sold 61 million albums in the US alone.
Jackson supported 39 charities, as well as donating and raising millions of dollars for benefits and his own charity. Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Jackson in 1993 became the most-viewed non-sport program in the history of the United States.
Changing his appearance to a lighter skin, narrower nose, as well as controversial and at times bizarre behavior in his private life, drastically damaged his public image. Jackson made an out of court settlement when accused of molesting a child in 1993. Reports of the the singer suffering financial difficulties surfaced in 2006, after the child sex abuse trials of 2005. It is believed the musical icon died around $400 million dollars in debt.
Twice married, having fathered three children, another cause for controversy, Jackson’s closest companion was a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles. Elizabeth Taylor has always been a high profile friend of Jackson.
Jackson is one of the few artists to be twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jackson also appears several times in the Guiness World Book of Records, including an entry as the ‘Most Successful Entertainer Of All Time’ and the biggest selling album of all time.
From July 13, 2009 – March 6 2010, Jackson was to perform concerts to over one million people, at London’s O2arena. Sales for the tickets to the concerts broke several records. The first ten concerts alone would have earned the iconic singer around $100 million. The concerts were organized by entrepreneurs who recently bundled Jackson’s debt into one place. Reports say that Jackson’s finances were getting back in order, but the concert promoter, AEG Live, is facing the task of refunding $85 million in ticket sales, for the sold-out concerts.
The question is what will happen to Jackson’s three children - Prince Michael Jackson aged 12, Paris Michael Katherine aged 11 and Prince Michael Jackson11 aged 7? Children who never went to school, living a nomadic life with their famous father. Michael Jackson was the only parent the children knew.
When you’re aboard a commercial Boeing 777, flying high over the Atlantic Ocean and the pilot, with 32 years experience, has a heart attack and dies during the flight, the chances are that none of the 247 passengers aboard, will even be aware of the emergency.
Fortunately Dr. Julien Struyven, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels was aboard the Continental flight COA 61, enroute from Brussells to New Jersey, earlier this week and responded to the call for a doctor. Struyven went to the cockpit and examined the pilot, before announcing the pilot dead. The body was removed to a crew rest area.
The co-pilot and a relief pilot took over and safely landed the aircraft on schedule. None of the passengers learned of the death on board, until after the plane had landed, though some had wondered what was happening when the flight crew asked if there was a doctor on board.
Airlines are required to have a captain, a first officer and a relief pilot on board all flights that are longer than an eight hour flight. On flights that are over 12 hours airlines are required to have two complete sets of captains and first officers on board. Each crew doing approximately a four and half hour shift.
“The 60-year-old Newark-based pilot, is believed to have died of natural causes,” said Kelly Cripe, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based airline.
This was not the first time a pilot has died aboard an aircraft. A Continental flight between Texas and Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing after the pilot fell ill and died, in January 2007. The co-pilot landed safely at a nearby Texan airport.
A Taiwanese China Airline turned back shortly after takeoff, in May 2000 when the pilot suffered a heart attack. The pilot died shortly after arriving at hospital.
A Gulf Airbus A-320 skidded to a stop at Abu Dhabi airport after a pilot had a heart attack during the take-off procedure, in March 1997.
Perhaps the most spectacular incident of all was in April 2009 when Doug White, took over and landed a twin engine plane, with the unconscious pilot strapped in beside him. White had first got his license in 1990, but had only recently resumed flying again. White had a pilot’s license and had flown a single-engine Cessna 172, but had never flown a twin engine King Air before. The White family was returning from Marco Island, in a company plane, where Doug’s brother had just died from a heart attack.
As the King Air continued to ascend, White managed to grab the controls. Listening to the air traffic controllers instructions, White said later “It was a focused fear. I was in some kind of a zone that I can’t explain.” White had little time to pay attention to his crying wife and two daughters.
Thirty harrowing minutes later, 56 year-old White safely landed the plane, under the instructions of an air controller, who was receiving directions from a pilot who was familiar with the King Air aircraft.
The pilot died, never having regained consciousness, in spite of all efforts to revive him, once they were on the ground.
Controversy has raged over the recently crowned Miss California, Carrie Prejean. She has fast become the most disliked and controversial Miss California since 1975.
Last year Miss California, Carrie Prejean modeled lingerie for a pre-Oscar show, “Countdown to the Red Carpet.” Dressed in a bra, underwear and stilettos. However, at the ripe age of 20 years old Carrie did a professional, in a partially nude gig, for underwear. Carrie now claims the photo was taken when she was unaware of it and it was the wind that blew her skimpy clothing aside. Yet other photos of her in hot pink underpants, are no ‘accident’.
Carrie first hit the news a month ago, when she spoke against gay marriages, to a gay judge. “I exercised my freedom of speech and I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America. It undermines the constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought for (in World War Two). I believe no one should be silenced if they are speaking from their heart. I am a model. I am a Christian. Apart from that Satan was tempting me through the judge’s question.”
Just last week Carrie starred in a new $1.5 million anti-gay ad campaign funded by the National Organization for Marriage.
Immediately following Carrie’s statements on same sex marriage, during USA pagent, the former beauty queen Shanna Moakler, resigned as executive director of the Miss California USA pagent, saying she no longer believes in the organization.
So far, American business magnate, socialite, television personality and motivational author, Donald Trump, owner of Miss USA contest, has ruled that Carrie may keep her Miss California crown, saying. “We’ve reviewed the pictures carefully. We’ve made a determination that the pictures taken were acceptable. Some were risque, but we are in the 21st century… She gave an honorable answer. She gave an answer from her heart, and I think for that she has to be commended.”
Katie Rees, was dethroned, after being crowned Miss Nevada in 2006, when some racy photos came to light. “Semi nude photos are semi nude photos,” she said. Donald Trump deemed the photos inappropriate and stripped Rees of her Miss Nevada USA title. There would appear to be little difference between the privately taken photos of Rees and the professionally taken photos of Prejean. Both girls signed contracts swearing there were no nude or semi-nude photographs of them in existence, when they entered the Miss USA quest.
“At least when those pictures of me came out, I admitted I was wrong and told young women in America how big of a mistake it was and to be careful because everything can affect your future,” said Rees “That’s more than Carrie has done. She has lied about her age when she took the photos, lied about how many there were and hasn’t acknowledged that she was wrong by breaking the contract. I don’t think that is a good role model and I hope young women recognize that.”
Maybe Miss California does not have the BEST BEST Job in the World. You can check one out at Win A Resort. It could be YOURS!
Things are worse in India. Forced into marriage at the age of around 6 – 8 years of age, a mother by the age of 12 and their body ravaged by multiple pregnancies by the age of 20. It is not unknown for a young woman in India to have a hysterectomy by the age of 23.
“When I was getting married, I had no idea what was going on,” says Manemma, a child bride. “I was six years old and all I knew was that I had to leave home. I cried and cried and said I didn’t want to, but they made me.”
Girls are expected to adjust to the situation and to conceive as soon as they reach puberty. Around 300,000 girls under the age of 15 give birth, some for the second time, according to a census.
A young girl in the village of Kottaiyur Kollai, was married at the age of 10. At 20 she has five surviving children. Mallamma is 20, married at 12 and has 6 surviving children. Malli married at age 8 has 8 children.
With their bodies underdeveloped and often malnourished, early childbirth for these girls can often prove fatal. Some 100,000 mothers and one million babies die in India every year. Doctors report there are frequent cases of rape of prepubescent girls.
During the May festival of Akshaya Tritiya, the most auspicious day in the year for weddings, streets resound to the cacophony of steel bands, firecrackers and women’s voices singing as they prepare young brides to meet their grooms. Most girls never lay eyes on their husbands prior to the wedding ceremony. The girls will have no opportunity to continue their education in their in-law’s homes, as they enter a term of slavery to their mother-in-law and abuse from their husbands. The girls have nothing more to look forward to than repeated pregnancies and unremitting childcare, if they manage to survive their first pregnancy.
Marriages are known to take place with four years old girls. All this in spite of the fact that child marriages are illegal in India and unregistered, where social customs are stronger than the law. Ancient texts claim that a girl who has fully arrived at puberty should be avoided as a wife. Some even consider it a sin to keep a girl in her parental home after she has attained puberty.
When a young woman becomes too weak to conceive and unable to work in the fields, the husband discards them. Young girls continue to be ripped out of their childhood, for a life that has no future.
You can help kids like these. Education is the only thing that will lift third world countries out of the dark dim ages and give the next generation a fighting chance. Take a few minutes to check out how You can help for less than the cost of a romantic dinner for two.
Janet Moses, a 22 year old mother was drowned when the family poured water down her throat during an exorcism, in Wainuiomata, near Wellington, New Zealand.
“The family believed Janet was demon-possessed and were performing a makutu cleansing ceremony,” said Kate Feltham, the Crown Prosecutor. “Janet’s behavior changed after her grandmother died, several months before the exorcism.”
The Moses family were convinced that Janet was under punishment after her sister stole a lion statue from a local bar. They poured water over her face, into her eyes and down her throat, while she was restrained.
Janet Moses’ 14-year-old cousin had her eyes gouged and water poured down her throat also, at the same ceremony.
Six women and three men of the Moses family have been charged with manslaughter.
The decision has been handed down from the court, at a time when the New Zealand Press has been calling for the best spectral images, following a British competition that judged ghost photographs from around the world.
The British competition was won by a photo taken in 2008, that showed a supposedly a person in Tudor dress staring out of a barred window, from a ruined fortress castle. Photographic experts claim this has not been photoshopped.
However, don’t be concerned about things that go bump in the night. This is the 21st century! Our guess is that newspapers were having a ‘no-news’ day, just as the Fiji newspaper did, when the military government put a gaggle on them. They had nothing of real interest, that they were permitted to report about!
It was education that led us out of the dim Dark Ages where people were burned at the stake for being witches. Only education will continue to life the kids in third world countries. You can help as well as win a 7 Day holiday to an exotic tropical island. Take a few minutes to before the offer closes.
The Egyptian government has ordered the deaths of thousands of pigs, in an over-reaction to the Swine Flue threatened pandemic. Approximately 300,000 pigs have ordered to be slaughtered as a ‘precaution against Swine Flu’, in a country where there have been no reported cases of the disease.
Farmers are furious and some have resisted the order, demanding they receive compensation. The order comes in spite of the fact that Swine Flu cannot be caught through the eating of pork.
The Egyptian parliament wants all pigs slaughtered in the country, where the pig industry caters largely to the 20% non-Muslim minority.
Will there really be no more porkies in Egypt? It is estimated 60,000 pigs are being raised in the Manshiyat Nassir slum, by rubbish collectors.
One commercial ‘confined animal feeding operation’ just north of Cairo, refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who were sent to slaughter the animals. The government workers left without completing with the government order.
Cairo says it does it only has the capacity to slaughter around 1000 pigs a day, even if the slaughterhouses worked a full twenty-four hours. Pigs killed will be tested for the disease and the meat stored in freezers for the owners to sell. Egyptian officials are claiming the slaughter is a general health measure.
The threat of a global pandemic is causing a lot of nations to take extra precautions. Particularly in poor countries where there are very weak public health systems. Egypt took a similar type of over-reaction a few years ago, when there was a threat of an outbreak of Avian Flu. Thousands of poultry was ordered destroyed by the government.
Official studies reveal that Swine Flu is present in most pig populations, worldwide. Twenty-five percent of animals, when tested show signs of having either had the disease, or the disease is currently present. It is not common for workers in pig farms, who have contracted Swine Flu, to infect anyone else, apart from their close family members.
A member of the World Health Organization believes claims of over 150 deaths from Swine Flu in Mexico is an error. Mexico says it has 1,614 cases under observation. “The WHO had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths in Mexico and only 97 confirmed cases of the disease,” says Vivienne Allan, from WHO’s patient safety programme. It is reported there are 109 confirmed cases in the US, with one death. 19 confirmed cases in Canada, 13 in Spain, 8 in Britain, 3 in both Germany and New Zealand, 2 in Israel and one each in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The World Health Organization says it will stop using the term Swine Flu, so as to avoid confusion and danger to the pig population. Swine Flu will be known by the term H1N1 influenza A. WHO has raised the pandemic flu alert to level 5. This is one step lower than the highest level, which would indicate a global outbreak of the disease. WHO does not expect to raise the level any higher.
“A and B type influenza, the seasonal influenza accounts for approximately between 250,000 – 500,000 deaths globally each year,“ says the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Only three influenza pandemics have occurred in the last century.
The US has declared a Public Health Emergency, as it leads a worldwide rush to minimize the impact of the never before seen particular virus, of the swine flu strain. There have been 20 cases reported in five states. The cases have been mild, with people recovering from the outbreak.
There have been up to 149 deaths reported in Mexico, over 1,500 people falling ill since April 13. Young, healthy people between 20-40 years old are dying. It appears the Mexican government may have been slow to react to the outbreak in March and early April. All schools and all public meetings have been cancelled until May 6th.
Twelve million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile, to where it can be more easily obtained if necessary. Priority will be given to the five already affected states: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas.
Director of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, says “People need to think of it as a declaration of emergency preparedness”. Nations around the world are on high alert for any symptoms that could be related to the swine flu. There is evidence of an efficient human-to-human spread of the virus.
Margaret Chan, WHO Director General says, “The virus has clearly a pandemic potential”. Pandemics occur when there is a radical mutation of a virus, to which people have no immunity. People are getting sick without any contact with pigs.
“The situation is uncertain and unpredictable and likely to be a marathon more than a sprint,” says Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New viruses form when at least two viruses combine. Pigs are especially known to be ‘mixing vessels’. The new virus has gene segments of the bird flu, one gene segment from a human flu and two gene segments from a pig virus.
The bird flu is thought to have killed approximately 157 people, while infecting over 335 people. Over 150 million birds are thought to have been affected by the bird flu and could take several years to control the disease in poultry. It has affected birds in Southern Asia, Turkey, and Nigeria, while Britain, Austria, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, France and Germany all have confirmed cases. Humans catch it through contact with live infected birds. Some believe the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was Avian flu virus, which killed approximately 40 million people world-wide.
The pandemics of 1957 and 1968 in Hong Kong, originated from flu viruses in birds.
The possibility of a swine flu pandemic, (where only American one soldier died from the flu) was contained in 1976. Some 40 million Americans were inoculated in a controversial nationwide campaign, where the manufacturers of the vaccine insisted the government take liability for any harmful side effects from the vaccine. The program was stopped when some apparently related serious neurological conditions and in particular the rare Guillian-Barre syndrome, were found in several hundred people. The government of the day hundreds of law suits, from families of victims who had died after receiving the vaccine, for an ‘Epidemic That Never Was’.
Then of course there was the near global pandemic, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2001, which affected 8,096 people and killed 774. The cause still not confirmed.
The world series of the 105th US Open Polo Championship, the most prestigious and oldest polo tournament in the United States, was disrupted when 14 magnificent polo ponies, valued at up to $200,000 each, stumbled disorientated and dizzy out of their trailers and one by one, collapsed onto the grass. Officials bent over backwards in an effort to ascertain what really happened.
In spite of vets pouring water onto the feverish animals, 14 horsed died 45 minutes before the game was to commence. Blue tarps were hastily erected to shield the dying horses from the ultra-rich, well dressed, champagne drinking crowd. Rumours tore like wild-fire, as the announcement came to replace the featured tournament game with an exhibition game.
Dr Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian at the Palm Beach Equine Club, treated some of the sick horses. He said “It appeared the animals died of heart failure. It may have been caused by some kind of toxin that could have come from tainted food, vitamins, or supplements, or a combination of something given in error to the horses.” It could take weeks before the toxicology tests are in.
More horses died overnight until 21 of the Venezuelan-owned horses, belonging to the Lechuza Caracas polo team, were dead. While some officials from the International Palm Beach Polo Club said the horses may have been killed by some type of poison, others believed the deaths were purely accidental. Still others said it was a reaction to a steroid derivative that may have been tainted with a cleaning solution. The shots are thought to have been administered by an Argentine vet, not licensed in the United States.
Reclusive middle aged multimillionaire Victor Vargas, the owner, as well as a player in the Lechuza Caracas polo team, is said to have openly wept as he held dying horses. Scott Swerdlin, said: “Vargas is very enthusiastic about polo. He loves to play and hang out with the players. He gives great parties for the groom and the players. They’re all like his family.”
The Lechuza Caracas team has played in the US Open every year since 1999 and was a favourite to win the title. The team included around 40 thoroughbreds, players and horses mainly being Argentinean. The team spends the major part of the year travelling.
There have been no public comments since the death of the horses. In spite of his outgoing nature, Vargas is a very private person. According to the North American Polo League website, Vargas has various banking and oil holdings in the US, Venezuela, Panama and the Dominican Republic. The site reports that he is also president of the Venezuelan Bank Association and director of the Latin American Banks Federation.
“The reaction throughout the polo community worldwide has been one of disbelief and grief,” said Coppola, the Palm Beach Polo Club announcer. The tournament resumed after three days.
