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Praise :: Voters to go for candidates who promote contraceptives –surveys | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

Kudos to the Filipinos!!

Voters to go for candidates who promote contraceptives –surveys

by Lilita Balane, Newsbreak | 03/12/2010 7:03 PM
MANILA, Philippines – Most Filipino voters would choose presidential candidates who openly support a national family planning law, according to surveys released on Friday by 2 major polling firms.
The surveys were commissioned by 2 different groups advocating family planning.
In the survey on family planning conducted by Pulse Asia, more than 6 out 10 (or 64%) of respondents said they would vote for candidates who promote the use of contraceptives.
In Congress, the provision for government funding for contraceptives has been the most divisive part of the reproductive health bill, which lawmakers failed to put to vote in almost a decade.
Now, an election year, Pulse Asia’s survey also shows that about 75% of the voters  deem important that family planning be included in a candidate’s program of action.
Only 6% of the respondents in the February 21-25 survey, said that they will not support candidates backing modern family planning; 30% are undecided. The survey interviewed 1,800 respondents, and has ± 2% nationwide margin of error.
via Voters to go for candidates who promote contraceptives –surveys | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

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Quote :: Marginal Revolution: The role of the blogosphere

This reminds me of the experiment they did on how you create solidarity. The answer being find a common enemy. The long form of the quote below is also nice to read. Read it at the linked site.

The role of the blogosphere

New research supports the notion that we fixate on enemies, and inflate their power, as a defense mechanism against generalized anxiety.

The longer article is  here.
….
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 10, 2010 at 06:45 AM in Science, Weblogs | Permalink
via Marginal Revolution: The role of the blogosphere.

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rePost :: "Work Expands to the Time Allowed" – Office culture – Lifehacker

Why some hacks where you set a short time for yourself to finish something work. It kind of helps you against Parkinson’s law.

The name “Parkinson’s Law” can mean at least four different things:

  1. The 1957 book by C. Northcote Parkinson
  2. The first chapter of Parkinson’s book
  3. The principle expressed in the book’s opening line, as understood by Parkinson
  4. The principle in the opening line as understood today.

via “Work Expands to the Time Allowed” – Office culture – Lifehacker.

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rePost::Poor Pinoy kids off to 'World Cup' | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

I pray this is the beginning of a good life for him. The path won’t be easy but it can be done.

RP Futkaleros join Street Child World Cup
PIER DOS, Tondo — He grew up inside a truck yard–a little boy dwarfed by 18-wheelers maneuvering non-stop to and from the gates. An almost-permanent cloud of dust is kicked about by the many turning wheels, or the occasional breeze wafting from the sea. There is nothing in this place but rubber, steel, grease, and dirt. But to 15-year-old Roberto Orlandez, this is home.
…
Street child World Cup
And with the heart of a Tondo kid, and a desire to get his family out of their container van life, Roberto then left the truck yard and tried out for the Street Child World Cup, an international competition of children from poor backgrounds coming from all over the world.
Street Child World Cup aims to give street children a voice, and a chance to rise from the conditions they were born into.
“When you live in a place like this, you should really have the courage to dream. It’s important to aim for something, because if you don’t, you’ll never leave this place. You’ll be stuck here for the rest of your life. You will amount to nothing,” he says.
For months, Roberto trained and tried out with boys and girls from orphanages, from the streets, or from informal homes like his own. Those who will be picked in the 10-member football team will compete in South Africa against street children from eight other nations, namely Brazil, Tanzania, United Kingdom, South Africa, Ukraine, Nicaragua, India, and Vietnam.
And when the final roster was announced, there was his name, next to a position so befitting of his mission in life – ROBERTO ORLANDEZ: GOALIE.
…..
via Poor Pinoy kids off to ‘World Cup’ | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

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rePost :: Lesbian panic shuts down Mississippi high-school prom – Boing Boing

Lesbian panic shuts down Mississippi high-school prom

Cory Doctorow at 6:51 AM March 11, 2010

Mississippi’s Itawamba County school district has cancelled a prom after Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old student, asked permission to bring her girlfriend as her date. The student planned to wear a tux. The school district’s bureaucratic non-excuse for the cancellation is that it’s “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.” The district appears to be tap-dancing around the reason for the cancellation in an effort to avoid openly saying “We are scared of teh ghey,” since that would open them up to legal liability. The ACLU isn’t buying it. They’ve told the school district that they’ve got until Wednesday to change the policy or else.
“A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it’s really retaliation,” McMillen told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson. Calls to McMillen by The Associated Press late Wednesday went unanswered…
via Lesbian panic shuts down Mississippi high-school prom – Boing Boing.

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rePost :: How to save a friend from the brink | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

Nice article on trying to save someone from committing suicide. I found the don’t dos more useful than the dos.

1. Don’t say, “I know how you feel.”
“You don’t know how I feel,” Moore says. “Even if you’ve been suicidal, you don’t know how I feel, because everyone’s situation is different.”
Sharing your own experiences of psychological distress isn’t helpful, either, she says.
“The last thing anyone in that situation wants to hear is someone else’s story,” she says.
2. Don’t say, “Just snap out of it.”
If they could, they would.
3. Don’t say, “There was an earthquake in Haiti. Your situation isn’t that bad.”
You might think you’re encouraging your depressed friend to realize how fortunate he or she is, but you’re probably not succeeding, Rappaport says.
“The idea of counting your blessings does help, but it’s hard to hear,” she says. “It can feel like you’re diminishing the psychic pain someone is in.”
via How to save a friend from the brink | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

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rePost :: Neurosurgical patients get closer to God

If the various churches don’t get their act together we are going to have a century that is defined with tension between religous groups and between theist and non-theist. I ‘ve said this before but I feel that the line is about even that religions of any kind would one day be treated as simple organizations such as corporations and non-profits, and religiosity of any kind would be viewed more as a mental disability like alcoholism , or any form of substance abuse.

Neurosurgical patients get closer to God

Category: Neuroscience • Religion
Posted on: February 27, 2010 3:58 PM, by Mo
REMOVAL of specific parts of the brain can induce increases in a personality trait which predisposes people to spirituality, according to a new clinical study by Italian researchers. The new research, published earlier this month in the journal Neuron, provides evidence that some brain structures are associated with spiritual thinking and feelings, and hints at individual differences that might make some people more prone than others to spirituality.
via ScienceBlogs.com here

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rePost :: Harry Gives ‘Em Hell

Wow. this was really really frank. Pass Healthcare Reform NOW!!!!

Harry Gives ‘Em Hell
Wow. Harry Reid’s letter to Mitch McConnell.

As you know, the vast majority of bills developed through reconciliation were passed by Republican Congresses and signed into law by Republican Presidents – including President Bush’s massive, budget-busting tax breaks for multi-millionaires. Given this history, one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class. Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority. Either way, we disagree.

As Ezra says, this can be summed up as: Reconcile this.