Nancie+I

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Posted- February 18, 2010

Smelly Passanger Kicked Off Plane Scott Mayerowitz Travel/Unusual Event?

While preparing for a two hour flight from Charlottetown to Montreal, the Air Canada Jazz flight staff was getting complaints from some unhappy passengers about an odor. The odor complaints were about a male passenger, who reportedly smelled so bad that he was asked to leave the flight. An Air Canada Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said via e-mail, "As an airline, the safety and comfort of our passengers and crew are top priorities. Therefore, any situation that compromises either their safety or comfort is taken seriously and in such circumstances the crew will act int he best interest of the majority of our passengers." An Air Canada Jazz employee had to move Penny Walsh, a flight passenger sitting next to unpleasant smelling man, to a new seat so she wouldn't have to endure the two hours sitting next to him. Walsh told the Prince Edward Island Guardian, "People were just mumbling and staring at him. The guy next to me said, 'It's brutal.' Kudos to the staff because it's a very uncomfortable situation. I honestly think in this situation, they handled it appropriately." The incident only delayed the flight 15 to 20 minutes. Luckily for the man, he was allowed to board a flight the next morning.

I think that if you are going to ride on a plane with a lot of other people, that it's only sanitery to bathe before the flight. People want to be comfortable during their flight, so they should include being bathed and clean to the "being-relaxed-and-comfortable-during-a-flight" list. I wouldn't want to bother the passenger beside me with my odor, and I wouldn't want to be bothered by someone else's odor. The Air Canada Jazz staff, I think, dealt with the situation very well considering that this probably is a rare occurance. I hope it wasn't too embarrassing for the poor smelly guy. Maybe next time he'll remember to bathe before boarding a plane. This is also a good reminder for those who don't shower regularly. LOL!

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Posted- February 10, 2010

Courts to jurors: Stop tweeting David Kravets Technology

In federal courts, there has been a problem with jurors wanting to discuss the cases that they are hearing. Judges are being told that they need to tell the jurors that any kind of technology being used to do any kind of research on a case, or talk about a case on social networking sites. "You may not communicate with anyone about the case on your cellphone, through e-mail, Blackberry, iPhone, text messaging, or on Twitter, through any blog or website, through any internet chat room, or by way of any other social networking websites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube," read the instructions the Judicial Conference released to the federal judiciary in late January. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson of Kansas said in a memo that the new jury instructions "address the increasing incidence of juror use, of such devicess as cellular telephones or computers. to conduct research on the internet or communicate with others about cases." Robinson also told fellow judges that "more explicit mention in jury instructions of the various methods and modes of electronic communication and research would help jurors better understand and adhere to the scope of the prohibition against the use of these devices." An example of how this is effecting trials is a federal drug trial in Florida from last year that ended in a mistrial when eight jurors admitted that they were doing internet research on the case they were hearing. Another example was when a juror was caught tweeting and posting trial updates on Facebook during the prosecution of Vincent Furno, a former Pennsylvania state senator convicted of graft. Each state adopts its own set of jury instructions, so there aren't any nationwide instructions for the state courts. Although Florida is recommending to their judges that they instruct their jurors multiple times "that they cannot perform outside research using the internet, or use electronic devices to communicate about the case." I think that tweeting and posting Facebook updates during a court trial is just something that should stop. Those on trial, I'm sure, don't want the whole world knowing what's going on in their trial. What happens in court, stays in the court- unless stated otherwise. I wouldn't want people knowing what was going on if I was on trial. I'd be embarrassed. I'd want people to respect my privacy, and to keep mum on the subject. I also don't really see a problem with doing research, but then again, it could affect the way the jurors think when they do do research. It'll give them a second opinion, and it'll just either complicate things, or make them better. But yes, I do believe that jurors shouldn't do any of the communicating or researching that is going around causing drama. This could all be avoided by either the courts taking up all cell phones and computers, or having the jurors follow their instructions.

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Posted- February 5, 2010

Ancient Tribe become extinct as last member dies Harmeet Shah Singh Middle East

Boa Sr, one of the last members of an ancient tribe that has inhabited an Indian island chain for around 65,000 years has died in New Delhi. Boa, who was around the age of 85, died last week in the Andaman islands, about 750 miles off India's eastern coast. Survival International, a London-based group, works to protect indigenous peoples, said that she was the last member of one of ten distinct Great Andamanese, the Bo. "The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman islands for as long as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on earth," it said in a statement by Survival International. "Boa's loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman islands," Stephen Corry, Survival director said in the statement. Along with India losing one of its ancient tribes, it also lost one of its most endangered languages, also called Bo. "She was the last speaker of (the) Bo language. It pains to see how one by one we are losing speakers of Great Andamanese and (their) language is getting extinct. (It is) A very fast erosion of (the) indigenous knowledge base, that we all are helplessly witnessing," read the obituary in Boa Sr's honor posted on the Web site of the Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese project. Anvita Abbi, VOGA project director, and professor at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, had the opportunity to meet Boa as recently as last year. She recounted that Boa was "the only member who remembered the old songs," and "was the only speaker of Bo and had no one to converse with in that language." Her husband and children had already died. According to Abbi, Boa also knew local Andaman languages which she would use to converse. Boa was believed to be the oldest of the Great Andamanese members of ten distinct groups, and according to Survival International, there are now only an estimated 52 Great Andamanese tribes left. Boa survived the tsunami that hit India in 2004. Abbi recorded Boa describing what she saw and posted the translation on the VOGA Web site. "While we were all asleep, the water rose and filled all around. We did not get up before the water rose. Water filled where we were and as the morning broke the water started to recede." According to Corry's group, many of the surviving Great Andamanese are living off of the Indian government for food and shelter. One of these groups is are the Sentinelese, who inhabit a 60-square-kilometer island. It is believed that the group is probably the world's only surviving Paleolithic people without contact with any other community. They said the Sentinelese are very hostile and never leave their Island and that very little is known about them.

I think that we should do something to help indigenous peoples. I would die if I were the only one left of my kind. I would be very miserable if I were the last remaining member of my "tribe." And I can't imagine how it would be like to actually go threw it. Honestly, I didn't know about tribes, and people going extinct. And along with these amazing people, we are also losing their inspirational cultures, languages, and lifestyles. Where would our world be without these incredible people? It's sad. We should do something along the lines of recording everything that we know about them. Start off small, and then eventually have a whole big selection of things to look through. The sooner we start, the more knowledge we will have of these tribes.

[] Posted- January 28, 2010

Born Without Eyes and Ultrasound Couldn't See Associated Press Health

When Taylor Garrison gave birth to her daughter Brielle in October, she was confused as to why the doctors whisked her daughter out of the delivery room with no explanation. And after six hours of tests, the doctors let Garrison see why they were so concerned. "She looked like a normal baby, but I could just tell something was wrong," said Garrison, 15, from Wellington, Florida. Her daughter Brielle was born without any eye tissue, a rare condition called anophthalmia that leaves a person irrevocably blind. Garrison also learned that this rare condition is one of the almost always missed by an ultrasound, even though hundreds of genetic diseases and deformities are discovered with today's ultrasound technology. "If you look at the ultrasounds, where the eye sockets are they're just black because the eyes are made of water," Garrison said. Brielle's eye sockets are empty. The director of Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dr. Aaron Fay, is currently treating ten different patients with the rare condition. This condition of either partially or completely missing eye tissue is something that occurs in 30 out of 100,000 births. Fay says that doctors can perhaps see the missing eyes in utero with an MRI, but it is rarely diagnosed in the womb. "There are skeletal stigmata that could be picked up," Fay said. "But it's most frequently diagnosed at birth." Fay also said that this deformity is not inherited, so families expecting babies can't tell if their unborn baby is carrying the deformity. The deformity can possibly be a genetic mutation, or an unexplained occurence in the first few weeks of the pregnancy. Baby Brielle's screen test came back, and the results came up clear. "She got a chromosome test, and she came back as a normal baby girl," Garrison said. Eye and genetic screening specialists say genetic mutation can sometime lead to anophthalmia.

I think that technology will be better in a couple of years, so that doctors can catch this rare type of condition. Before reading this article, I have never heard of anophthalmia. Now that I know what it is, I feel bad for those people that are diagnosed with it. They're blind. I know that a lot of people are blind all over the world, or they have worse deformities, but it's still sad. If we had the technology to discover these types of genetic mutations or deformities, I'm sure the doctors would be able to do something so that the unborn baby could be born with it's eye tissue. Hopefully sometime in the future this type of deformity and any other rare genetic mutations will like, disappear off the face of the planet. I'm sure that will never happen, but it's just a thought/wish. I hope those babies that are born with any type of condition live happy lives. Being born with a deformity doesn't change anything, they're still a person with feelings, emotions, and dreams. Hopefully living with anophthalmia, or any deformity, won't stop them from reaching their goals.

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Posted- January 21, 2010 Updated- January 22, 2010

Parents Accused of Starving Daughter Associated Press Justice

A couple in Dodge County, Wisconsin is accused of starving their daughter for several years. Kathryn and Kenneth Krier are the parents accused in a twelve page criminal complaint. Police said that Kathryn, the step-mother of the starved girl, would lock the family refridgerator door and cupboards to keep her from getting food. Krier eventually pulled the girl out of school because they would feed her breakfast when she was hungry. According to the court records, the girl weighed 98 pounds when she twelve, the documents then showed that she weighed 70 pounds a year later. The girl had the appearance of a "concentration camp survivor" according to a doctor who examined her. The girl had been seen by numerous docters and social workers but no problem has ever been discovered because of Kathryn's "manipulated information and misled service providers, the school and social services." Prosecutors charged her father, Kenneth Krier, because he didn't do anything to stop it. The girl is now in the care of her grandparents. If found guilty, Kathryn faces up to 15 years in jail, and Kenneth faces up to 12.5 years.

I think that this kind of abuse that goes on at home is horrible. I don't believe that anyone deserves that kind of pain in their life. This girl was starved for years by her step-mother, and her father didn't do anything to stop it. I think he should have done something, she is his daughter, and he should have stepped up and been a dad to his daughter. They decided to have a child, they decided to keep said child, so they should take responsibility and take care of their child! They should make sure that it's fine and healthy, not hurting them. It's very depressing knowing that someone, somewhere is getting abused as I type. :( Hopefully, the abuse in the world will eventually end. I know it won't.. but I can still hope.