Every day, we wake up with a choice. We can choose to embrace the day as a new opportunity to learn, grow, and make a positive impact on the world, or we can let fear, doubt, and negativity hold us back. It's easy to get caught up in the challenges and obstacles we face, but it's important to remember that these challenges are what shape us into who we are. Each obstacle is a chance to learn something new, to become stronger, more resilient, and more capable than we were before. But we don't hav
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Monday, September 14, 2009
Police found body of missing girl in wall
Police in Conn. say a body has been found in a building where a Yale University graduate student Annie Le, vanished.
The human remains were found inside a wall in a Yale laboratory by Connecticut State Police just after 5 p.m., reports CBS affiliate WFSB - Hartford. It was in an area holding utility cables that run between floors. More than
100 police officials have been searching for Le since Tuesday, when she was last seen.
New Haven's assistant police chief says officials presume the body is that of the missing doctoral student. He says Le's family has been told. Police also say the missing persons investigation is now being treated as a homicide.
New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard says the body has not been identified as doctoral student Annie Le, who has been the focus of a massive police search since she vanished in the building on Tuesday.
Le swiped her identification card to enter the building that morning, but there was no record of her leaving, despite some 75 surveillance cameras that cover the complex. Investigators pored over blueprints and surveillance video footage while searching for her.
Le was from Placerville, California. She was set to get married Sunday in Syosset, N.Y., on Long Island's north shore.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Caster Semenya is a woman right? Or really a Man?
Speaking at a news conference in Pretoria on Friday, Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said he was "shocked and disgusted" at the treatment that Semenya has received from both the international media and the IAAF. He said lawyers were being consulted over possible human rights violations amid concerns that Semenya was tested without her consent. (See pictures of Caster Semenya's triumph and trials.)
The press conference came after an Australian newspaper reported that a gender test revealed that Semenya has an intersex condition. In a story published on Friday, the Daily Telegraph said that the test shows the 18-year-old has no ovaries, but rather internal male testes. Semenya came to the world's attention after winning the African Junior Championships in Mauritius in August and then the 800 meters at last month's World Championships in Berlin by an amazing 2 seconds. Her extraordinary times and masculine appearance led the IAAF to request gender verification tests. (Read: "Is a Female Track Star a Man? No Simple Answer.")
South African athletic officials say they have not received results from the tests — and the IAAF has refused to confirm the Telegraph's story. But Stofile said the results are irrelevant: "She may be a hermaphrodite, but so what? She is still a girl ... a young girl enjoying growing up." Stofile added that if Semenya is ruled ineligible for further competition by the IAAF, "it will be a third world war."
On Friday, the IAAF issued a statement confirming that it had results from the tests in hand but urging caution over the Australian reports. "We would like to emphasize that these [reports] should not be considered as official statements by the IAAF," the federation said. "We can officially confirm that gender verification test results will be examined by a group of medical experts. We do not expect to make a final decision on this case before the next meeting of the IAAF Council which takes place in Monaco on November 20-21." (See pictures of the Beijing Olympics.)
Concerns over Semenya's understanding of the gender verification process first surfaced earlier this week, when Wilfred Daniels, her coach at the time of her World Championships victory, told a British paper that Semenya had undergone gender testing before leaving for Berlin with the mistaken belief that they were anti-doping investigations. But that assertion contradicts claims by Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene, who has insisted that no gender tests were carried out on Semenya prior to her departure for Berlin. (IAAF spokesman Nick Davies could not be reached for comment on the South African government's possible lawsuit against the federation over human rights abuses.)
In its story, The Daily Telegraph did not say which intersex condition the test has revealed Semenya has. But if the paper's report is accurate, it is possible that she has partial androgen-insensitivity syndrome (AIS), a condition in which a genetic male is partially resistant to androgens, the male sex hormones that include testosterone. In many cases of partial AIS, the testes never descend from the abdomen, the genitalia may resemble female genitalia, and the individual will display both female and male characteristics. People with AIS often have high levels of testosterone as the body produces more to try to exert its actions. Last month, a British paper reported that Semenya's testosterone levels were three times as high as normally expected in a female, which could be in keeping with an AIS diagnosis. (Read a TIME postcard from the home of South Africa's gender bending runner.)
Athletes with AIS and similar intersex conditions are often allowed to compete in international athletics. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, seven genetically male athletes with AIS were allowed to compete as women. On Friday, the IAAF emphasized that Semenya's gender verification tests were a medical issue, not a doping one, and there were no insinuations that the athlete — whose family in South Africa insist she is female — cheated.
IAAF spokesman Davies told the Associated Press on Friday that, whatever the test reveals, Semenya would probably keep her world championship medal. "Our legal advice is that if she proves to have an advantage because of the male hormones, then it will be extremely difficult to strip the medal off her, since she has not cheated," he said. "She was naturally made that way, and she was entered in Berlin by her team and accepted by the IAAF." (See pictures of South Africa.)
The report in the Daily Telegraph and South Africa's response only serve to keep in the public sphere that which is a very private matter. Semenya, at least, seems to be displaying the same gritty fortitude that propelled her to victory in Berlin. When asked by South African magazine You about the gender issue, she reportedly said: "I see it all as a joke, it doesn't upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself. I don't want to talk about the tests — I'm not even thinking about them."
Okay when you look at the pictures she realyy does not look much like a woman and to make matters worse when she talks, she sounds like a man...So if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck right? You tell me, although I am sure that their is some man out their claiming this young lady.
18-foot-long Burmese python was removed from the owners home.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials removed the Burmese python from a home on Section Drive on Friday due to concerns about Delilah's size and whether the chain-link cage she was in was secure enough to contain her.
A complaint prompted wildlife officials to visit the home and check out the snake, which some officials called the largest python they had ever seen.
The snake was removed from her enclosure and brought to a caregiver with a permit for reptiles of concern. Officials were trying to determine if the Burmese python's owner had the proper permit for Delilah.
"To me it's a Goliath. It's a monster of a snake," Lt. Rick Brown with Fish and Wildlife's Investigations section said, adding it is the "largest I've ever seen."
Recently, the snake was being cared for by Melvin Cheever of Apopka, the brother of her owner.
Cheever said his brother was moving to West Virginia and left the snake behind to prepare her new accommodations. Cheever said his brother has owned the snake for 16 years.
"I fed her this morning, gave her seven rabbits," Cheever said soon after the snake was placed in a container and prepared to move Friday from the small community alongside Lake Apopka. "She is as docile as can be. She's as happy as can be."
Cheever acknowledged the snake, which measures 30 inches around, had escaped its enclosure in the past.
The snake's discovery comes at a time when Burmese pythons are being hunted in South Florida and state lawmakers are looking at legislation to make laws governing python owners tougher.
Fears about the snakes escalated following the early July death of a 2-year-old girl in Sumter County killed by her family's pet python.
Cheever said that snake was maltreated and blamed its owners. Delilah, meanwhile, was well fed and not aggressive, he said.
But her history of wandering out of her cage and her immense size caused wildlife officials to investigate Friday in the small community alongside Lake Apopka. The snake was kept in a chain-link cage behind a duplex-style home.
Charlene Boush, 39, who lives in the home where the snake was living, said she had reservations about letting her two dogs near Delilah.
"She got out just last week. They had to put her back in," she said.
"I don't let them go back there at all."
Friday, September 11, 2009
Don't fall for the scam.
THIS IS THE LAYOUT OF THE EMAIL!
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Ellen DeGeneres is the fourth American Idol Judge
Extra: No joke! Ellen
We've been dealing with this for the last couple of weeks and I've been dying to tell everyone," she told the audience. "It's just been so hard to keep it a secret and we just finally got the okay and I'm so excited. It is going to be so much fun."
As to what "Idol" fans can expect, she said, "Hopefully I'm the people's point of view because I'm just like you. I sit at home and I watch it and I don't have that technical... So I'm hopefully going to be that voice of what we're all doing at home."
"I could not be more excited to have Ellen join the 'American Idol' family," said creator and executive producer Simon Fuller. "Ellen has been a fan of the show for many years, and her love of music and understanding of the American public will bring a unique human touch to our judging panel. I can't wait for this next season to begin."
In May, Ellen chatted with Simon Cowell about the addition of Kara DioGuardi to the judging table, and even called Simon "mean"!
The ninth season of "American Idol" premieres January 2010. Meet the "Idol" guest judges.
As for Paula, she has other plans. Still, Simon says he "misses" Paula -- and says the chemistry of the show is different without her.
Read what a white professor wrote in a Georgia Newspaper...
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it?
Now I want to ask:
"When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent.
Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes.
Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president.
But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?"
How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us?
How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?
How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?
How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin?
How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners?
How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem.
But here's my three-point plan:
First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.
Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice,
"We HAVE overcome."
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It takes a Village to protect our President!!!
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Wednesday, September 9, 2009
How not to become a victim!
Crucial information to help you not become a victim |
Because of recent abductions
In daylight hours, refresh yourself
of these things to do
in an emergency situation....
This is for you,
and for you to share
with your wife,
your children,
everyone you know.
After reading these 9 crucial tips,
forward them to someone you care about.
It never hurts to be careful
in this crazy world we live in.
1.Tip from Tae Kwon Do :
The elbow is the strongest point
on your body.
If you are close enough to use it,do!
2.Learned this from a tourist guide.
If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse,
DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM..
Toss it away from you...
Chances are that he is more interested
in your wallet and/or purse than you,
and he will go for the wallet/purse.
RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!
3.If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car,
kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole
and start waving like crazy..
The driver won't see you,but everybody else will.
This has saved lives.
4.Women have a tendency to get into their cars
after shopping, eating, working, etc.,and just sit
(doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.
DON'T DO THIS!)
The predator will be watching you,and this
is the perfect opportunity for him to get in
on the passenger side,put a gun to your head,
and tell you where to go.
AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR,
LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.
If someone
is in the car
with a gun
to your head
DO NOT DRIVE OFF,
Repeat:
DO NOT DRIVE OFF!
Instead gun the engine
and speed into anything,wrecking the car.
Your Air Bag will save you.
If the person is in the back seat
they will get the worst of it..
As soon as the car crashes
It is better than having them find your body
in a remote location.
5.A few notes about getting
into your car in a parking lot,
or parking garage:
A.)Be aware:
look around you,
look into your car,
at the passenger side floor,
and in the back seat
B.)If you are parked next to a big van,
enter your car from the passenger door..
Most serial killers attack their victims
by pulling them into their vans while the women
are attempting to get into their cars.
C.)Look at the car
parked on the driver's side of your vehicle,
and the passenger side...If a male is sitting alone
in the seat nearest your car,you may want to walk back
into the mall, or work,and get a
guard/policeman to walk you back out.
IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)
Stairwells are horrible places to be alone
and the perfect crime spot.
This is especially true at NIGHT!)
7.If the predator has a gun
and you are not under his control,
ALWAYS RUN!
The predator will only hit you(a running target)
4 in 100 times;and even then,
it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ.
RUN,Preferably in a zig -zag pattern!
8.As women,we are always trying
to be sympathetic:
STOP
It may get you raped,or killed.
Ted Bundy, the serial killer,was a good-looking,
well educated man,who ALWAYS played
on the sympathies of unsuspecting women.
He walked with a cane,or a limp,and often
asked' for help into his vehicle or with his vehicle,
which is when he abducted
his next victim.
9.Another Safety Point:
Someone just told me that her friend heard
a crying baby on her porch the night before last,
and she called the police because it was late
and she thought it was weird.The police told her
'Whatever you do,DO NOT
open the door.'
The lady then said that it sounded like the baby
had crawled near a window,and she was worried
that it would crawl to the street and get run over.
The policeman said,'We already have a unit on the way,
whatever you do,DO NOT open the door.'
He told her that they think a serial killer
has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax
women out of their homes thinking that someone
dropped off a baby. He said they have not verified it,
but have had several calls by women saying that
they hear baby's cries outside their doors
when they're home alone at night.
10.. Water scam!
If you wake up in the middle
of the night to hear all your taps outside running or what you think is a
burst pipe, DO NOT GO OUT TO INVESTIGATE! These people turn on all your
outside taps full ball so that you will go out to investigate and
then attack.
Stay alert, keep safe, and look out for your neighbors!
Please pass this on
Please take this message seriously because
the Crying Baby Theory was mentioned on
America's Most Wanted when they profiled
the serial killer in Louisiana
I'd like you to forward link this to all the women you know.
It may save a life.A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle..
I was going to send this to the ladies only,
but guys,if you love your mothers,wives,sisters,daughters, etc.,
you may want to pass it onto them, as well.
Send this to any woman you know that may need
to be reminded that the world we live in has a lot of crazies in it
and it's better to be safe than sorry..
Everyone should take 5 minutes to read this. It may save your life or love one's life!