MikeLigalig.com

LOL kaluuy pood

Shocking. Hollywood lost a great actor.

My personal kryptonite is probably my religiosity in work ethic, my overbearing nature when it comes to studies, which reflects to others a rather strict regimen and can be translated by another person as being 'too serious' at times.

I have a tendency to brush people aside when academics and studies are in my priority list.

Though I do not mean to offend anyone outright, sometimes, it can be translated that way as first impression. I've been told by my students, that I'm 'harder' in grading than the professor, I currently function as a Teacher's Assistant/ Lab Instructor for Molecular Biology Lab. And I will admit, I am extremely strict when it comes to grading, lab protocol (I will fail a student if he/she shows total disrespect for protocol vis-a-vis gum chewing in acids/bases tables, excessive talking in lab, cheating etc.)

hahaha!

A hilarious video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK5CTd0OVLw

Great news. I must say, she has a lot of guts.

Written by: A. Lorenzo Lucino Jr.


Nationalist Difficulties

Militarist Japan’s attempt to conquer China began by seizing Manchuria in 1931 and became a full-fledged invasion from 1937 to 1945. Japanese historians saw Japan following the footsteps of the Manchu conquerors of 1644, while Tokyo’s modernizers saw Japan shepherding the Chinese people into the modern world. But times had changed. Japan’s aggression only strengthened China’s new nationalism.

While the GMD and the CCP were both party dictatorships in form, they were very different political creatures in fact. The GMD had two incarnations, first in the associates of Sun Yatsen in 1911 revolution, second in the followers of Jiang Jieshi in the Nanjing government after 1927. The GMD’s forced removal in 1938 from Nanjing to Wuhan and then beyond the Yangtze gorges to Chongqing cut it off from its roots. Its revenues from the Maritime Customs and the opium trade to Shanghai were knocked out. China’s nascent Sino-liberal educational system suffered a grievous destruction of plant and facilities. Missionary colleges kept at work under the Japanese occupation but in purely Chinese Universities many students and faculties migrated in 1937-1938 up the Yangtze or to the southwest. The Southwest Associated University at Kunming was set up by Qinghua University and Beijing University from Beijing and Nankai University from Tianjin.

With admirable fortitude but little foresight, the nationalist’s regime met its problem by short-term expedients and gave it little strength for the future. The Chongqing government got control of the land tax in grain as the wherewithal to feed its administration. Its industrial developers had arsenals at work to support the war. The Japanese bombing of Chongqing stimulated the spirit of resistance, but meanwhile the spirit of the united front deteriorated. Radical intellectuals in Chongqing began to drift northward to Communist Yan’an, except for those who were already “outside cadres” of the CCP assigned to work as ostensible liberals in the GMD area. The Nationalist government during World War 2 displayed all its earlier weaknesses. Local warlord power-holders in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi made Chongqing’s extension of local control very difficult. The governor of Yunnan, where Kunming had become the airbase doorway to Free China, was able to keep Jiang Jieshi’s secret police and troops largely out of his province until the end of the war in 1945. Famine led to hoarding supplies for profit and an immense growth of corruption. The unfortunate result was that the government received little more in the way of resources while the petty officials and landlords found out how to profit in the inflation. By the war’s end, peasant rebellion was incipient in several provinces of Free China.


Mao’s Sinification of Marxism

To control and direct the widespread organization of the CCP movement over the broad stretches of North China required dedicated and disciplined party members, experienced cadres in the villages, and attempt at self sufficiency in each base and the use of radio telegraphy to transmit messages. The principle of centralized control over a decentralized situation was exhibited in the government organization. The Central Committee of the party had its departments at Yan’an dealing with military affairs, organization, united front work, enemy occupied areas, labor, women and the like, a total of twelve categories. The secret to Mao’s success at Yan’an was his flexibility at combining short term and long-term goals. In the short term he espoused in 1940 the New Democracy as a united front doctrine that would embrace all the Chinese people who would subscribe to CCP leadership.
Meantime, the real sinews of power grew up in the CCP mobilization of the peasantry in North China. The Japanese were excellent targets to mobilize against. Invading China along the rail lines, they tried to seal off the areas in between, but their rail-line blockhouses could not control trade and contact across the lines. In general their invasion cultivated the ground for CCP mobilization.

The war of resistance against the Japanese Empire provided the sanction for a CCP mobilization of the Chinese masses in the countryside; and this, once achieved, gave a new power to the CCP based not on the cities but on the villages. CCP expansion and base building across North China and even in the Yangtze region reached a new high point in 1940. The Japanese had been extending their control by setting up blockhouses every one to three miles along the rail lines. They then sent columns out from these strong points to invade the villages. One of the major offenses by the Chinese against the Japanese aggressors was the Hundred Regiments Offensive that began in August 1940, which resulted in Japanese rail lines being repeatedly cut off.

Mao Zedong Thought

In time the Chinese historical consciousness would undermine the verisimilitude of Marxism in China. But for Mao’s purposes it could be asserted that the “imperialist” exploiters backed the domination of the landlord class from abroad, while the rise of a Chinese merchant class centered in towns produced a capitalist “national bourgeoisie”. Only an establishment of central state authority to complete the tasks of the “bourgeois-democratic revolution” might cure its “comprador” wing sold out to the imperialist exploiters, and the situation. Sinification was still a two front enterprise because the CCP had to maintain its credentials as part of international Marxism-Leninism by using orthodox European lingo. Thus, earl on the GMD at Guangzhou could not be defined as representing simply a bourgeois class trying to carry through its phase of bourgeois democratic revolution. No, the GMD government, instead of representing the bourgeois capitalist class had been a multi-class government or “block of four classes,” in which the proletariat could participate.

Mao began with the Marxist assumption of a bourgeois democratic revolution as the transformation from feudalism to capitalism, which could be followed by another revolution as the transition from capitalism to socialism. Chinese Marxists could only conclude that the May Fourth Movement had ushered the bourgeois democratic revolution.
The Rectification Campaign of 1942-1944

Mao pushed not only to consolidate his position but to unify the party and to ensure discipline. The rectification campaign of 1942-1944 was limited to party members, who had increased in number and lacked the cohesion of the Long March generation. The targets of the campaign were “subjectivism, sectarianism, and party formalism.”
The methods whereby Mao’s thought reform movement was carried out at Yan’an in 1942-1944 would become very familiar in CCP history from the o. The individual whose thoughts were to be reformed was first investigated and persuaded to describe himself and his life experience to the point where the group could begin to criticize him. In study group criticism the individual was at once isolated and subjected to the rebukes or admonishments of everyone else.

In 1943, Mao put forward his doctrine of the “mass line.” Like many of Mao’s intellectual formulations, this was double-ended and ambiguous so that it could be applied in either of two ways. While it asserted the need of consulting the masses and having a mass participation of some sort in the government, it also reaffirmed the necessity for central control and leadership. Thus some contradiction made you an enemy of the people and some did not, depending on how you were perceived. All in all, it was a very flexible structure of ideas, as though Marx and Engels had been seduced by Yin and Yang. Once Mao had control over it, he was truly in a position of leadership. Unity resulted because those who held out against Mao were vilified, penalized, jailed, or even executed.

American Support of Coalition Government

In 1943, the Soviets successfully defended Stalingrad, the western allies won North Africa, the US Navy began to get the upper hand in the Pacific and the American forces had invaded the Solomon Islands on their way to Tokyo. The Japanese had to relax their pressure on the North China Liberated areas and border region.  In these circumstances, the CCP expansion was resumed in the period 1943-1945, but its policy was prudent and avoided haste and superficiality. By the time the American Army military observer group, or so called Dixie Mission, reached Yan’an in mid 1944, the CCP was on an upswing again and preparing for the postwar showdown with the GMD.

Unfortunately, by the time the US got an observer mission into Yan’an in 1944, it was too late to use the Washington-Chongqing alliance to prepare the way for a Nationalist victory in the obviously upcoming civil war. Nevertheless, the Americans tried. The Americans could not get the nationalists trained, fed and armed to fight off the Japanese effectively. The American idea of using a Free China as a base for the struggle against Japan absorbed the American’s attention but at the same time distracted them from the Chinese Revolution.  With the end of the united front in 1941, American observers could see the split widening between the GMD and the CCP party dictatorships.

   After Japan’s surrender in August1945, Jiang and Mao under Hurley’s auspices met in Chongqing and in October agreed upon an ideal set of principles that would gladden any liberal in the world. The GMD and CCP regimes would cooperate in a representative assembly, scrambling their armies and meanwhile guaranteeing all civil liberties and good things dear to men and women everywhere.  This would not last. Communist forces moved across North China to compel the Japanese to surrender to them. The Nationalists reacted by ordering the Japanese to fight off the communists and recover from them any territories they had gained. The United States sent its troops to north china to aid the nationalists.

Chapter 17: The Civil War And The Nationalists on Taiwan

   When peace broke out in August 1945, the Nationalist armed forces were at least twice the size of the CCP’s and moreover had the advantage of American equipment and supplies plus the assistance of the US Navy in transporting troops and the US Marines in the Tianjin-Beijing area. The Nationalists held all of the major cities of China, while the communists held the countryside. Jiang continued the out of date use of the war by taking the cities and in doing so overextended his forces. In addition to mishandling the economy, the nationalists mishandled its citizens and had corrupt officials as well as corrupt soldiers. In these ways, the GMD lost public support and seemed to be the instigator of the civil war even more than the communists. It was evident that the nationalists government had become so militarized that it could only think of a military solution to the civil war without the regard for its functions as a government to serve the public.

Nationalist Attack and Communist Counter Attack

   Ironically, the Nationalist forces pursued a war rather similar to what the Japanese had inflicted upon China in their day. By the end of the first year of the three year struggle, the Nationalists held all major cities and rail lines, and their forces were far more superior in firepower. However, the CCP armies had merely withdrawn, refusing to stand and fight and so avoiding casualties. Thus in the classic guerilla strategy, they helped the nationalists become overextended. They fought only when they could bring overpowering force to bear on some small GMD unit. When the CCP began to counterattack in mid 1947, its forcers were soon able not only to dominate Shandong, but also to recover the base area between the Yellow River and the Yangtze stretching between the Beijing-Hankou Railway on the west and Beijing-Nanjing on the east. The nationalists lost and were evacuated to Formosa, later called Taiwan, while the Communists took over of the mainland, Greater Chinese Empire.

Written by: A. Lorenzo Lucino Jr.

Looking at American society, one observes that there have been drastic changes in the perception of African American male sexuality ever since the antebellum era of the United States. The pre-civil war era was a testament of white supremacy over the black man, as seen in the gross endorsement and utilization of slavery by southern society as means to harvest crops. In essence, this era fueled the lavish lifestyle of the land owning aristocratic class of the south. The enslavement of the black male serves as the clearest historical representation of the presumed concept of white supremacy over the innate black male. Southerners demonized black male sexuality as an unnatural mixing of the white and black races, which had actually been occurring ever since the arrival of black slaves during the 17th century. This pretentious fear of black male sexuality was familiarized within American society during the time spanning the post civil war and progressive eras. Clear representation of this psyche can be observed in films such as Birth of a Nation. Although there were pockets of black rights speakers such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett that spoke for black equality, the general beliefs about black male sexuality were degrading. One can observe a clear difference in the perception of black male sexuality in the post civil rights era. At present, black male sexuality has become accepted as legitimate and less demonized by American society, unlike it had been during the post civil war to the progressive era. Modern American society respects the black male psyche and understands that within the bulk of his masculinity is the presence of intelligence and the quest for equality. Evidence of the change in societal perceptions of black male sexuality can be seen in Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice and the blaxploitation film, Shaft.
   
During the progressive era, the United States industrialized throughout the northern and southern states. Popular American historians also refer to this age as the Gilded Age. With the Gilded Age came the vices of society that would eventually lead to the problem of alcoholism and eventual backlash by prohibitionist. Complementary to this backlash came racist ideologies by Darwinists in American society that said African American was inferior in intellect and in genetics (Michaels) and that continual amalgamation between black men and white women would destroy the white woman and in essence the white race. White American progressive era thought condemned African American male sexuality. Proof of such degrading and immoral acts was the ratification of laws that outlawed interracial marriages (Foust) and the lynching campaigns committed by whites to galvanize and terrorize African American males in response to amalgamation (Royster 50-70).
   
While most of the White American society frowned upon the unrestrained sexual nature of African American males, there were African writers such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett that supported African males and condemned the atrocious actions committed upon them by racist southern whites. Ida B. Wells denied the very notion that it was the African American male’s primal sexual potency that led to the intermixing of black and white blood. On the other hand, Wells-Barnett demonized the southern white woman’s sexual curiosity in initiating any relationship between the white female and of the black male persuasion (Royster 29). When one looks at any of the evidence given to us by the white accounts, the primary charges against black men were usually of rape, which was in many cases preposterous. As best stated by Ida B. Wells-Barnett in reference to the southern white woman’s sexual decadence, “ White women were not being violated at all but were instead very willing partners, belying the fallacy that white women were uninterested in sexual pleasure and uninterested in African American men.”
   
Despite the provocations by the African American community in the United States for equality and enforcement of the anti-lynching laws, the majority of white Americans felt it necessary to maintain the status quo of racial divide. African male sexuality was addressed as a threat to the purity of the white woman and the white race itself in the early 20th century movie Birth of a Nation (Birth of a Nation). The movie itself was racist and propagandist in character, as was the norm of black male characterizations in the progressive era. In the film, one noticed that the “good” blacks were the ones that were fervently loyal to the white master and his family. Other than this, the African male was portrayed as a sexual demon of the Federal Army; an example of this was the character of Gus, who was a lusty black soldier of the Federal army that tried to rape Flora, the innocent white girl that represented purity. The movie also demonized black civil rightists as well as carpetbaggers during the post civil war era in the portrayal of Mr. Stoneman as a “black lover”. In clear analysis of the movie, one observes that during the 1910’s, white supremacist thought was at an all time high; this movie clearly validated the general consensus of the times, concerning rampant black inbreeding with whites and how it would destroy the white race in the United States (Birth of a Nation).

Progressive era racism that meticulously condemned African Americans, particularly African American males, was partially fueled by Eugenics thought. Eugenics was the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding, which itself was critical in claiming that the Negroid and Mongoloid races were of inferior stock to the Caucasoid race (DeCorte). Eugenics activists warned of black male sexuality as the main factor of undermining white racial superiority in that inbreeding would not only destroy the white genes but also create an inferior mulatto race (DeCorte). The progressive era fostered the belief that African American male sexuality was a threat to the white race; this belief would continue to be upheld until the civil rights era all the way to the modern age when beliefs of eugenics and interracial relationship as negative would be proved to be complete fallacy.

Black male sexuality and its centrality to the racial thought in the post civil rights era evolved from the racial thought of the progressive era in that American society generally accepted black male sexuality. Although there were pockets of American society that still feared the potency of African American sexuality, the general consensus saw African American men as equals to the white man with a clearer understanding of the black man’s mind. One can observe this in Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, in which a black man who raped white women and other vices of American society turned into a self educated black philosopher and thinker (Cleaver 30-150). Cleaver justifies his actions against the white woman he raped as the only way of taking revenge on white men; this justification of rape transcends to the fact that white men have taken advantage of black women for over 3 centuries and that it was only fair if this occurrence was paid back. Soul on Ice examines the mind of the black man, which in this case is Cleaver himself; through time Cleaver identifies himself with Christian and Muslim ideological thought and eventually gains a respect for white women but also for white people in general. Validation of this drastic change from Cleaver’s once hateful stance on white people in general from Soul on Ice, “Let me say this. I was 22 when I came to prison and of course I have changed tremendously over the years. But I had always had a strong sense of myself and in the last few years I felt I was losing my identity. There was deadness in my body that eluded me, as though I could not exactly locate its site. I would be aware of this numbness, this feeling of atrophy, and it haunted the back of my mind. Because of this numb spot, I felt peculiarly off balance, the awareness of something missing, of a void, a certain intimation of emptiness. Now I know what it was. And since encountering you, I feel life strength flowing back into the spot. My step, the tread of my stride, which was becoming tentative and uncertain, has begun to recover and take on a new definiteness, a confidence, a boldness which makes me want to kick over a few tables!”(Cleaver 171)
   
In analyzing Soul on Ice, once can observe that the historical interpretation of ‘black male sexuality’ has truly been a result of the white man’s propaganda in instilling fears to white society of black people as a preventive means to maintain the status quo; The same theme was addressed by progressive era writer Ida B. Wells almost a century before.
   
The blaxploitation film Shaft, was central to racial thought and the perception of black male sexuality in modern era. This film, unlike The Birth of a Nation, examines the complexity of the black man, played by John Shaft, in expressing his sexuality, maintaining the professional agenda as well as defending the rights of his fellow black brothers and sisters (Shaft). Throughout Shaft, one observes the free spirit of the complex black mind and sexuality in the scene in which Shaft’s superiors look down on him for his ‘questionable tactics’ yet Shaft holds his ground. Shaft’s role embraces his African American male sexuality in that Shaft embraces sexual intercourse with both black and white women. For the first time in American society, we observe the African American male embrace his sexuality in motion pictures and be proud of it; the impression one has in watching Shaft is of respect and envy that Shaft is able to subdue such beautiful women. Shaft epitomizes the black man; his sexuality, his optimism, his quest for equality and justice, his complex mind and his intelligence. 
   
In observing the racial thought of black male sexuality, one can assert that black males have gained respect by their white contemporaries as time progressed to the modern age. Progressive Era racial thought primarily was aimed in maintaining the status quo of the white and black divide and the maintenance of the purity of the white race; hence we have propagandist films such as Birth of a Nation, which was aimed to dissuade amalgamation of whites and blacks. However, this racist ideology that was quite common in the early 20th century due the presence of Darwinist believers and the popularity of Eugenic science. The racist ideology that was common in early 20th century would later change due to the civil rights era that were vehemently powered by the African American activists. This insurgence of black activism led to the rise of respect for the African American and in particular, the African American male. Proof of this ‘birth of a newfound respect for the African American male’ can be observed in Cleaver’s Soul on Ice as well as in the blaxploitation film Shaft. Continual exposure of African American men and women in the media will eventually destroy the racist beliefs of black inferiority and rightly so. As James Baldwin said, “If we- and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others-do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!” (Baldwin 106).


Enjoy~

 Faithless - Insomnia (Dance Remix)

[mp3tube]b7da97b122c1e51f8bac1d9054c57015[/mp3tube]

by DJ Ypsilonta Hard Dance Remix

A great rendition. 

[mp3tube]ab9e02f73afab341d1ca3f11bbbce920[/mp3tube]

Awesome!

good

morning

'Te's

hungry

drowsy

frisky

It explains everything.   




LoL!

 LoL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygI-BKW794E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-JWNdahtGI

LOL. Dave Smith.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVcHhJD9bh0&feature=related

Hilarious.

Peter: Hey hey I got an idea. Lets play "I Never." You got to drink if you did the thing that the person says they never did.
Cleveland: Oh I got one, I never slept with a women with the lights on.
(They all drink.)
Joe: I'll go next, uh I never had sex with Cleveland's wife.
(Quagmire and Cleveland drink.)
Peter: alright lets see uh, I never did a chick in a Logan airport bathroom.
(Only Quagmire drinks.
*About 33 drinks later*
Peter: God lets see what else is there um...I never gave a reach-around to a spider monkey while reciting the Pledge of Alligence.
Quagmire: Oh God.
(Quagmire takes a drink.)
Joe: I uh I never picked up an illegal alien at Home Depot to take home a choke me while I touch myself.
Quagmire: Oh come on!
(Quagmire drinks again.)
Peter: I never did the same thing except with someone from Joann Fabrics.
Quagmire: Oh God this is ridiculous. You guys suck! (Drinks more and passes out.)


LOL!!

Stewie:Ha! I got your hat! Take that, hatless! Now go back to the quad and resume your hackey sac tourney! I'm not gonna lay down for some frat boy bastard with his damn teether sandals and his Skoal Bandits and his Abercrombie and Fitch long sleeved, open stitched, crew neck Henley smoking his sticky buds out of a soda can while watching his favorite downloaded Simpsons episodes every night! Yes, we all love "Mr. Plow"! Oh, you've got the song memorized, do you? SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE! That is exactly the kind of idiot you see at Taco Bell at 1 in the morning! The guy who just whiffed his way down the bar skank ladder!

Quote from: jtabaco on January 17, 2008, 03:12:55 AM
Lorenzo...You're most welcome! So what's your take on what I presume will be called the Carlos P. Garcia International Airport in Panglao, since it has a lot better chance of coming off than the bridge between Mactan and Jetafe...joey

I understand the logistics of it all, as well as the strategic initiative in terms of tourism. I'm a proponent of the proposed PIA.

South America, 'te. The country borders Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Chile.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued a public health advisory stating that over-the-counter cough and cold medicines should not be given to infants and children under the age of 2.

Although concern about the safety of these medications when used in the very young has been widely aired in recent months, FDA officials said they were concerned the public wasn't getting the message.

"We strongly recommend that over-the-counter cough and cold products should not be used in young children under 2, because serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur from use of these products," Dr. Charles Ganley, director of the FDA's Office of Nonprescription Products, said during a morning news conference. "We have not come to a final decision on the use of cough and cold products in children aged 2 to 11 and continue to work within [the] FDA to arrive at a decision."

"We were concerned that parents would continue to use these products in children under 2, even with all the publicity," Ganley added.

"The public health advisory from the FDA is definitely a good thing," said Catherine Tom-Revzon, clinical pediatric pharmacy manager at Children's Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City. "A lot of health-care professionals, including myself, have always taken the approach of not giving medication to children where there isn't enough evidence to show that it's safe and actually works. This actually supports that idea, so it gives more credibility when we speak to patients about this."

"I'm a parent of a toddler myself, and my daughter has had multiple colds, and it is difficult to watch and not do anything," she noted. "Now, parents are being told that they can't give medication. It's probably going to be difficult for them to accept, but the reality is it's better to be safe by not giving medication that could potentially harm young children. It's the right thing to do."

Last November, the FDA became aware of a number of surveys that indicated that individuals or parents were continuing to use the products without getting advice from a health-care provider.

The medicines, which include decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines and cough suppressants, have been associated with different rare but serious events including convulsions, rapid heart rates, decreased levels of consciousness, and even death.

A review of records filed with the FDA between 1969 and September 2006 found 54 reports of deaths in children associated with decongestant medicines made with pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine or ephedrine. It also found 69 reports of deaths associated with antihistamine medicines containing diphenhydramine, brompheniramine or chlorpheniramine. Most of the deaths involved children younger than 2.

The current advisory is based on an agency review of data and recommendations discussed during a joint meeting of the Nonprescription Drugs and Pediatric Advisory committees last October. The committees recommended a ban on cold medicines in children under the age of 2.

Right before the meeting, makers of dozens of cough and cold remedies targeted to infants voluntary recalled these products. In particular, products with pictures of infants on the label or use of the word "infant" in the name were taken off shelves. Overall, there are approximately 800 popular cough and cold medicines sold in the United States. Experts estimate that Americans spend about $2 billion annually on these types of medications.

An internal working group at the FDA was not able to come to a consensus as to recommendations for children aged 2 to 11. A decision on this issue is expected by the spring.

Dr. Lisa Mathis, associate director of the FDA's Office of New Drugs, Pediatric and Maternal Health Staff, had this advice for those caring for children over the age of 2:

    * Always remember that these medications do not cure colds, they don't shorten the time the child has the cold and are only meant to help a child's symptoms.
    * If you choose to give medication, look at the active ingredients' section of the label and what symptoms each active ingredient is intended to treat.
    * Be very careful in giving more than one over-the-counter cough and cold medication to your child. Remember that many OTC cough and cold products have multiple medications in them. If you use two medications with similar active ingredients, this could hurt a child.
    * Make sure to carefully follow directions on the label.
    * Only use the dropper or cup that comes with the medicines, not household measuring devices.
    * If you have the opportunity to use cough and cold medicines with childproof safety caps, you should do so.
    * Store all medicines out of the reach of children.
    * Call your physician or pharmacist or other health provider if you have any questions regarding the use of these medications in children 2 years or older.

"We're not trying to dictate the practice of medicine. We understand that health providers on an individual basis have to make certain decisions based on the facts presented to them, but we do need to recognize that there have been reports of serious adverse events in the less-than-2 age group related to misdosing and in attempting to choose the correct product," Ganley said. "Clearly, there have been instances where more than one product was used or it was not clear to the parent as to what the ingredients are in the products."

Tablets containing a combination of the blood pressure medication aliskiren and water pill hydrochlorothiazide have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the product's manufacturer, Novartis AG, said Monday.

Sold under the name Tekturna in the United States, the hypertension compound aliskiren was approved last March. It acts by targeting renin, an enzyme responsible for high blood pressure. The newly approved version also includes hydrochlorothiazide, a compound that inhibits the kidney's ability to retain water. This water pill is commonly used to treat high blood pressure.

Tekturna HCT tablets are intended for patients whose blood pressure has not been controlled by a single drug. They will be available in early February the company said.

Side effects associated with the new combination tablets include dizziness, flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, cough, tiredness and skin rashes.

Attempts to reach FDA officials to confirm the approval were not immediately successful.

Tekturna is known as Rasilez outside of the United States.

The company's U.S. affiliate Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. is based in East Hanover, N.J.

The anti-HIV medication entravirine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults who have failed treatment with other antiretrovirals.

Sold under the trade name Intelence, entravirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, which helps block an enzyme that the AIDS-causing virus needs to multiply, the FDA said in a statement. This is aimed at reducing the amount of HIV in the blood and boosting infection-fighting white blood cells.

In clinical testing, 599 adults who received entravirine and additional antiviral therapy had greater reductions in blood HIV levels than adults who received a non-medicinal placebo and the same additional therapy. The most common side effects reported were rash and nausea.

The long-term effects of entravirine haven't been studied, nor have the drug's effects in pregnant women or among people age 16 or younger, the agency said.

Entravirine is distributed by Tibotec Therapeutics, whose parent firm -- Ortho Biotech Products -- is based in New Jersey.

Obesity and depression often go hand-in-hand in middle-aged women, a new U.S. study found.

The research collected information on the height, weight, dietary and exercise habits, and body image of 4,641 women, ages 40 to 65, enrolled in a health plan. The women also completed a questionnaire used to measure depression symptoms.

Women with clinical depression were more than twice as likely to be obese (a body mass index of 30 or more), and obese women were more than twice as likely to be depressed, the study found.

It also found that women with BMIs of 30 or higher exercised the least, had the poorest body image, and consumed 20 percent more calories than women with lower BMIs.

The link between obesity and depression remained intact even when the researchers factored in marital status, education, tobacco use and antidepressant use.

The study was published in the January/February issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

It's likely that depression and obesity fuel one another, said lead author Dr. Gregory Simon, a psychiatrist and researcher at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle.

"When people gain weight, they're more likely to become depressed, and when they get depressed, they have more trouble losing weight," he said in a prepared statement.

The stigma of being overweight can damage self-esteem and efforts to lose weight.

"It's not that these women are clueless. It's that they're hopeless," said Simon, who suggested that if obese women focus on rebuilding their self esteem, it may help them lose weight.

Barack Obama challenged Bill Clinton's truthfulness Monday in a deepening feud with the husband of Obama's Democratic presidential rival.

Obama's rebuke of the former president, who is still extremely popular with Democrats, came on the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., when both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton focused on the civil rights leader.

In an interview on ABC, Obama twice questioned Bill Clinton's veracity.

"I have to say just broadly, you know, the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling. You know, he continues to make statements that aren't supported by the facts, whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq, or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas.

"You know, this has become a habit. And one of the things that I think we're going to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's not making statements that are factually accurate."

The former president recently has accused Obama of exaggerating his anti-war record and handing out undeserved praise to Republicans. Clinton said he personally witnessed Obama's union forces intimidating Nevada caucus voters and said an Obama radio ad suggested how Democrats could keep votes from his wife.

In a King Day interview that aired on NBC's "Today" Show on Monday, Bill Clinton agreed that King would be excited about Obama's candidacy.

"A great speaker, a smart man, someone who loves our country," the former president said of the Illinois senator.

The former president said King "would get a kick out of the fact that it appears the nominee of the Democratic Party would either be an African-American senator who's profoundly eloquent, or a woman senator who got her Methodist youth minister to take her to see Dr. King when she was a young high school student, who shared his lifelong commitment and who idolized him."

Clinton said he and his daughter, Chelsea, witnessed voter intimidation in Nevada, prior to the caucuses that his wife won on Saturday.

He said a representation of the Culinary Workers Union, which endorsed Obama, was "following along behind us going up to everybody ... saying, 'If you're not gonna vote for our guy we're gonna give you a schedule tomorrow so you can't be there.' So, is this the new politics? I haven't seen anything like that in America in 35 years."

The Las Vegas Sun said it checked out potential intimidation and concluded it depended on who was talking.

The Sun's column, by Michael Mishak, said, "After the Sun worked the story for two hours, this much is clear: What exactly happened this afternoon (Jan. 16) at Paris Las Vegas depends on whom you talk to. To hear Clinton's campaign and her supporters tell it, the union intimidated a member into caucusing for Obama, demanding that she sign a pledge card â€" or face exile from the caucus.

"To hear the alleged victim tell it, it was much more of a misunderstanding."

The union denied engaging in any intimidation.

Bill Clinton has criticized an Obama radio spot, saying, "There's a radio ad up in the northern part of Nevada telling Republicans that they ought to just register as Democrats for a day so they can beat Hillary and go out and be Republicans next week and vote in the primary. Doesn't sound like the new politics to me."

Obama's ad did say Nevada independents and Republicans could switch their registration, but it did not mention Hillary Clinton.

The former president also criticized Obama for his comments about Republicans.

He contended that Obama "said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas. ... I can't imagine any Democrat seeking the presidency would say they were the party of new ideas for the last 15 years."

Obama did praise Republicans, but criticized them in the same comment.

He said, "I think it's fair to say the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom. Now, you've heard it all before. You look at the economic policies when they're being debated among the presidential candidates and it's all tax cuts. Well, you know, we've done that, we tried it. That's not really going to solve our energy problems, for example. So, some of it's the times."

Earlier this month, Bill Clinton had harsh words regarding Obama's stance against the Iraq war.

He said Obama "got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, 'Well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution, you said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war, and you took that speech you're now running on off your Web site in 2004, and there's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since."

When Obama was the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic convention, he focused on the conduct of the conflict.

"When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going," said Obama. "... And to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace and earn the respect of the world."

When Obama spoke to the Chicago Tribune in July 2004, he did comment on his position and that of Bush, but clearly qualified his remark.

"There's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute."

Both Hillary Clinton and Obama have voted against legislation that paid for the war but lacked a timetable for troop withdrawal. Obama has supported withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months.

The New England Patriots' path to perfection has one last hurdle: a New York team of road warriors hoping for a Giant upset.

"We'll try to elevate our game for one last performance," said Tom Brady, the Patriots' dimple-chinned, record-setting quarterback with the model girlfriend.

Brady and the Patriots (18-0) will try to match the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only teams to complete an undefeated season when they face Eli Manning and the Giants on Feb. 3 in the Super Bowl at Glendale, Ariz.

"I think you enter the season and you're hoping to put together a bunch of great wins and you realize there's challenges every step of the way," Brady said after beating San Diego 21-12 in the AFC championship game Sunday. "To not have a letdown like most teams have â€" we had a few letdowns or times where we didn't play our best, but we overcame them."

Standing in the Patriots' way are the Giants (13-6) and Manning â€" Peyton's little brother, whose moxie and leadership abilities no longer can be questioned.

"We haven't been given a shot, but we're here," Manning said of his Giants, who have won 10 straight on the road â€" including a 23-20 overtime win at Green Bay in the NFC title game. "I think we're deserving of it."

Las Vegas oddsmakers might think differently. They installed New England as a 13 1/2-point favorite in the big game, in which New York will get another shot at destroying the Patriots' path to perfection.

New England won 38-35 in its final game of the regular season, rallying from a 12-point second-half deficit against the Giants. The teams also played in the preseason finale, when New England won â€" with Brady sitting that one out.

Brady and the Patriots are playing in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven years. A win in this one would rank the Patriots as perhaps the greatest champion in NFL history â€" Spygate a long-forgotten speedbump.

In that scandal, the Patriots were fined $250,000 and coach Bill Belichick $500,000 for violating league rules by training a sideline camera on New York Jets coaches in their season-opening win. New England was stripped of its first-round draft pick next season, but the team stood by its coach.

And the Patriots never wavered.

"I think there's special guys on this team that have stepped up all year when they needed to," Brady said.

Maybe none more than New England's record-breaking â€" and heartbreaking â€" quarterback.

Brady started this special season by becoming a father for the first time as his ex-girlfriend, actress Bridget Moynahan, gave birth to their son. Brady's now dating former Victoria's Secret model Gisele Bundchen, making them gossip fodder around the world.

When the football-hurling heartthrob got back to business, he became a cover story for other reasons.

Brady threw an NFL-record 50 touchdown passes in the regular season, with 23 of those to Randy Moss, who topped Jerry Rice's record. Brady was also the league's Most Valuable Player in helping New England score an NFL-record 589 points.

"They played great all year," Belichick said. "I'm very lucky to coach this team."

Linebacker Junior Seau quickly returned the compliment: "Bill is definitely the best coach ever."

And the Patriots are on the verge of making NFL history.

"Now we can look ahead," Belichick said.

They sure can. And they'll see a familiar foe in the Giants, whose run through the playoffs into their first Super Bowl since 2001 was jump-started by their valiant effort against the Patriots in the last week of the regular season.

"That got us going, momentum," Manning said.

This is the same New York team that gave up 80 points in its first two games and had fans calling for coach Tom Coughlin to be fired. Those same fans also wondered whether Manning, acquired in a draft-day deal in 2004, would ever become a franchise-type quarterback like his brother.

Little brother is now in the Super Bowl with a chance to bring home a title of his own.

"It's exciting, but it's not about me," Manning said in his typical aw-shucks manner. "It's about this whole team."

Sure, Manning had a big hand in the Giants' success, especially when the games took on greater meaning. He has been flawless in the postseason, completing a number of clutch throws without a turnover.

"It's just a matter of getting hot at the right time," Manning said. "It feels good because this is what you work for."

New York became the first NFC wild-card team to reach the Super Bowl since Dallas in 1975. And the Giants did it the hard way, winning all their road games after dropping their season opener at Dallas.

"We're going on the road again," Coughlin said. "That's good."

New York visited Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay in the playoffs and went home winners. Next up is the biggest game of them all and a chance to make history by ending New England's attempt at football immortality.

"We have a lot of faith and trust in ourselves," Manning said.

At least neither team will have to worry about a frigid forecast in Arizona. On Sunday, New England beat San Diego in 23-degree temperatures at Foxborough, Mass., while New York edged Green Bay in subzero conditions at Lambeau Field.

"I'm glad it's warm weather," Brady said, flashing that familiar smile. "Weather won't be a factor. It should be exciting."

Former Indonesian dictator Suharto moved his hands and spoke in a whisper Sunday in what doctors called a "miraculous" recovery from a potentially fatal blood infection after more than two weeks on life support.

Suharto, 86, was hospitalized Jan. 4 with severe kidney, lung and heart trouble. His condition deteriorated rapidly a week ago when he developed pneumonia and sepsis, a blood infection particularly dangerous for the elderly.

Preparations had begun for a state funeral, the family mausoleum was put in order and passes were handed out to the media for a memorial service after his heart briefly stopped.

"We are amazed that he has come back from alarming stages several times," said Dr. Marjo Subiandono, a member of Suharto's medical team. "We believe he has a strong will to live, maybe because he trained as a soldier and was a real fighter."

Although Suharto remains in intensive care, he whispered Sunday in response to questions and lifted his hands to scratch. Doctors say his heart and lungs are stable, and is ready to begin basic physiotherapy and speech training.

Dr. Hadiarto Mangunegoro, a physician treating Suharto, called his recovery "miraculous because he has survived sepsis, which is life threatening." Doctors treated the blood infection with antibiotics.

Suharto led a regime widely regarded as one of the 20th century's most brutal and corrupt for 32 years until he was toppled in May 1998 amid massive pro-democracy street protests. Since then, he has lived a reclusive life in a comfortable villa in downtown Jakarta.

Between 300,000 and 800,000 alleged communist sympathizers were killed during his rise to power from 1965 to 1968, a spasm of violence led by the Indonesian army and conservative Muslim groups.

His troops killed another 300,000 in military operations against independence movements in Papua, Aceh and East Timor, while hundreds of thousands of others were jailed without trial or disappeared. No one has been punished for the killings.

Suharto's current hospital stay â€" one of several in recent years following strokes and intestinal bleeding â€" stirred fresh debate about the role of justice in an impoverished country with a notoriously corrupt judiciary.

A few victims and students have demonstrated for him to stand trial, but the political elite led popular calls for forgiveness.

"I believe Indonesians want him to recover and prayed for him," said Murdiono, who served as a minister in Suharto's Cabinet. "It is a miracle. Thank God. He remains a hero and his services to this country deserve to be recognized."

For years, Suharto's lawyers have successfully argued that he was too sick to stand trial on charges of embezzling billions from the people. State prosecutors are pressing ahead with a $1.5 billion civil suit, but nothing has ever been recovered.

Transparency International, an anti-graft organization, ranks Suharto among the most corrupt leaders of recent history, saying he amassed up to $35 billion in stolen state funds and private wealth.

Suharto's inner circle became fabulously wealthy under his leadership and critics say he escaped prosecution thanks to weak courts and a network of political and military loyalists who fear they could be implicated if he were to take the stand.

Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million, is still recovering from the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, with around a quarter of the population living on less than $2 a day.

Thailand's crown prince on Monday opened the country's first elected parliament since a coup 16 months ago, with allies of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra back in charge under the People Power Party.

Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, representing 80-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, urged a return to stability and national unity as he formally opened parliament in front of lawmakers wearing immaculate white ceremonial uniforms.

"Parliament convening is a sign of the good beginning of democracy in our country," the prince said in a brief ceremony.

"I am confident that the members of this parliament ... see there are still some problems threatening our nation. Your mission is very important -- to restore stability and make the country unite, with stability and peace."

Thaksin's allies in the People Power Party (PPP) dominate the body after winning 233 of 480 seats in last month's elections and forming a coalition with five smaller parties.

The opening day is largely ceremonial, with real work getting underway Tuesday with the election of the house speaker.

On Friday, parties will nominate and vote for Thailand's 25th prime minister, widely expected to the PPP's bullish leader Samak Sundaravej.

One of the new government's first big tasks will be to restore confidence in an economy bashed by instability and a series of policy blunders by the previous, junta-appointed government.

Jockeying is also underway for the top cabinet posts, with analysts and local press predicting battles between the coalition partners, which share 315 seats, and also with the military, which is keen to hold on to its influence.

"The government is comprised of many parties, which will bargain for the best ministries, and they will come up with different policies," said Sukhum Chaleysub, an analyst from Bangkok's Rajabhat Suan Dusit university.

Much press speculation has focused on the defence ministry, with reports of a back-room deal reached between the new government and the junta to have former army chief General Prawit Wongsuwan at the helm.

Analysts have said the junta will also try to retain its influence by populating the Senate with allies. The nomination process for the Senate's 150 seats, nearly half of which are appointed, also began Monday.

The local press has also touted Surapong Suebwonglee, a former government spokesman under Thaksin and one of his close confidants, as finance minister.

Surapong, now PPP secretary general, refused to confirm or deny whether he had been approached for the post, but told reporters that the finance role was of key importance.

"The talk of a cabinet line-up will be more serious after we know who will be the prime minister. All earlier news is speculation," he said.

"All positions related to economics are important positions, which will solve the crisis and drive the country," he added.

The PPP has in recent weeks been tight-lipped about its policies, but ran on a platform almost identical to Thai Rak Thai, the party formed by Thaksin but dissolved by a junta-appointed tribunal after his ouster.

A key pre-election promise was to shore up investor confidence.

Thailand's economy is expected to grow by 4.5 percent this year, which ranks among the lowest in Southeast Asia, with consumer confidence plummeting to five-year lows due to prolonged political uncertainty under military rule.

Just after claiming victory in the elections, the PPP said it would abolish stringent capital control rules, which were imposed by the junta to try to halt a spike in the Thai baht.

The move caused the biggest one-day drop on the Thai stock market in late 2006 with losses worth 23 billion dollars.

Thaksin, who has been living in self-imposed exile in England since his ouster, has said he plans to return to the kingdom by April, where he faces arrest over two corruption cases.

The lawyer at the centre of a Malaysian corruption inquiry said Monday he was too drunk to remember a conversation captured on video where he appears to broker judicial appointments.

The footage, released by dissident former premier Anwar Ibrahim last year, triggered a furore in Malaysia and cast a shadow over the reputation of the judiciary.

Lawyer V.K. Lingam said he did not recall the phone conversation where he purportedly assured Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, who was then a judge, that he would push him for a top position, with the help of a prominent businessman and a politician.

"I do not know who I was talking to. But certainly I was not talking to Ahmad Fairuz," Lingam told the royal commission.

"Looking at the video, there's a bottle of wine, bottle of whisky, bottle of brandy, and a bottle of 7-Up. Obviously there is a drinking session going on," he said.

"I must have had too many drinks, I do not know what I said. Now I cannot recollect. It is more than six years ago."

Ahmad Fairuz went on to be appointed to the nation's number-two post and was then quickly elevated to the top position of chief justice. He completed his term and stood down last year.

But Lingam denied he had ever tried to influence judicial appointments.

"I never influenced anybody in the appointment of Ahmad Fairuz as chief judge of Malaya, president of Court of Appeals or chief justice. I have never spoken to the former prime minister on the appointment of judges."

However, Lingam had earlier even refused to directly confirm he was the man in the video, said to be made in December 2001, admitting only that "it looks like me, the voice sounds like me".

The maker of the video clip, 34-year-old businessman Loh Gwo Burne, also appeared before the inquiry and said it was recorded when he went to Lingam's house to discuss a legal matter.

"Yes, I recorded V.K. Lingam speaking on the telephone," he said, dismissing suggestions that the lawyer was drunk at the time or that he could have been play-acting.

About 50 white separatists protested the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday in this tiny town, which was thrust into the spotlight months ago by 20,000 demonstrators who claimed prosecutors discriminated against blacks.

Police separated participants in the "pro-majority" rally organized by the Learned, Miss.-based Nationalist Movement from a racially mixed group of about 100 counter-demonstrators outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse. There was no violence and one arrest, a counter-demonstrator.

Chants of "No KKK" from the mostly college-age counter-demonstrators were met with a chant from the separatists that contained a racial epithet.

At one point, dozens of state police forced back about 10 people, dressed in New Black Panther uniforms, who had gathered around a podium where the separatist group's leader Richard Barrett was to speak.

One man who broke away from that group was arrested and booked with battery on a police officer and resisting arrest; authorities identified him as William Winchester Jr. of New Orleans and said he was a member of the New Black Panthers. Members of the group at the scene declined to comment.

Race relations in Jena (population about 2,800) have been in the news ever since six black teenagers were arrested in the beating of a white classmate at Jena High School in December 2006.

About 20,000 people peacefully marched in support of the so-called Jena Six in September, and Monday's demonstration was organized in opposition to both the teenagers and the King holiday.

Five of the black teens were originally charged with attempted murder, leading to accusations that they were being prosecuted harshly because of their race. Charges have since been reduced.

Critics of the prosecutor have noted that months before the beating, no charges were filed against three other white students accused of hanging nooses â€" seen as signs of racial intimidation â€" in a tree at the high school. The prosecutor has said that the noose hangings, while "abhorrent," violated no state law.

Many Jena residents said that coverage of the controversy last year unfairly portrayed them as racists, and that Barrett's group brought renewed unwanted attention. Only when faced with a lawsuit did the town drop a requirement that the Nationalists post a $10,000 security bond for a permit.

Almost all the demonstrators and counter-demonstrators appeared to be from outside of Jena.

"I'd like to see more people from Jena here," said George Ferguson, a local resident who wore a T-shirt reading "Justice for Justin," referring to Justin Barker, the white teen beaten in the school attack. "I haven't seen anyone else I know."

A few locals, black and white, watched from the sidelines.

"I wanted to see what was going on," I've heard a lot about it," said Charles Bailey, a white 58-year-old Jena resident. "It looks like a big waste of my tax money."

Police from several organizations, including Louisiana State Police and at least three parish sheriff's departments, were on hand. Snipers staked out the roofs of buildings across the street from the courthouse.

Jena resident Dayna Brown, a black woman who made a scrapbook on the September protest, had her camera in hand Monday. She said she was ready to see Jena's time in the spotlight end.

"I'm hoping this is the last of it," Brown said. "Jena's not a bad place to live if you're black or white. We'd just all like to see things settle down."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, an organizer of the September march, preached at a Jena church Sunday but was not among the counter-demonstrators; he said he had prior commitments.

Some of the Nationalist supporters were armed despite a call from Barrett to leave guns behind.

Acting LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin told a father and son from Tioga, about 30 miles from Jena, to put away two shotguns. Franklin allowed them to continue to wear holstered sidearms, but Jena Police Chief Paul Smith told David Dupre Jr. and his father that they would have to put away all weapons during the march, under Louisiana law.

"I'm here to protest black-on-white crime," David Dupre Sr., 53, told reporters.

His 31-year-old son, at times using racial slurs, said: "It's time for us white folks to start getting some of our rights back."

One of the Jena Six, Mychal Bell, 17, pleaded guilty in December in juvenile court to second-degree battery. A judge sentenced him to 18 months with credit for the 10 months he'd already served in jail. Trials are pending for the others charged.

Nothing gives principal Suraya Sarwary more pleasure than the sound of her second-grade girls reciting a new lesson out loud. Six years ago, that sound could have gotten her executed. The Taliban had outlawed education for girls, but a few brave teachers taught them in secret. Sarwary, now the principal of Karokh District Girls High School in Afghanistan's Herat province, recalls gathering students furtively in her home and imparting lessons in whispers for fear that her neighbors might report her to the Taliban.

These days the biggest risk posed by the girls' enthusiastic recitation is that it may drown out the math lesson next door. Basira, a thin 8-year-old whose obligatory white head scarf is actually a cotton dish towel printed with Korean characters, stands before the class. She is learning to read today's lesson, which the teacher has written out on a makeshift blackboard propped up on a wobbly easel. "A vegetable should be washed before it is eaten," she reads aloud as she slowly traces each word with her fingertip. Her teacher beams, and her classmates applaud.

Karokh District Girls High School is one of the most successful in Herat. And in terms of girls' education, Herat is the most successful province in Afghanistan. Even so, conditions are far from ideal. Sarwary's tiny school doesn't have enough classrooms: second-graders huddle in a ragged tent in the courtyard, where a torn strip of khaki canvas hangs between rusting metal struts, blocking many of the girls' view of the blackboard. The fierce desert wind howls through the holes and threatens to tear the class's one textbook from the students' hands as they pass it around for reading lessons. There is no playground or running water. The toilet, a pit latrine located at the far corner of the school compound, serves 1,500 students. Only two of the 23 female teachers have graduated from high school. Half the second-grade students, ranging in age from 7 to 12, can read; the rest just recite from memory. The freedom to study is a blessing, but Sarwary knows it is not nearly enough. "Our students have talent and a passion for learning I've never seen before," says the slim, stylish 33-year-old. "But we still have problems."

The parlous status of girls' education belies one of the greatest hopes raised when the Taliban was toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2001: the liberation of Afghanistan's women. Yes, they can now vote, they have a quarter of the seats in parliament, and they are legally allowed to find jobs outside the home. Foreign donors and nongovernmental organizations have expended a great deal of energy and capital on building women's centers and conducting gender-awareness workshops. But more than six years since the fall of the Taliban, fewer than 30% of eligible girls are enrolled in schools, and the infrastructure is so poor that only a tiny fraction are likely to get the education they need to enjoy the fruits of emancipation.

The stakes for Afghan society are high. Every social and economic index shows that countries with a higher percentage of women with a high school education also have better overall health, a more functional democracy and increased economic performance. There's another payoff that is especially important to Afghanistan: educated women are a strong bulwark against the extremism that still plagues Afghanistan, underscored by the Jan. 14 bombing of a luxury hotel in Kabul, which killed eight. "Education is the factory that turns animals into human beings," says Ghulam Hazrat Tanha, Herat's director of education. "If women are educated, that means their children will be too. If the people of the world want to solve the hard problems in Afghanistan--kidnapping, beheadings, crime and even al-Qaeda--they should invest in [our] education."

For girls in much of the country, education remains a dream no more attainable now than it was under the Taliban. In the past six years, 3,500 new schools have been built across the country, but fewer than half of them have buildings. Most are in tents, in the shade of trees or wherever open space can be made available. This has a direct bearing on the number of girls enrolled: most Afghan families won't allow their daughters to be where they may be seen by men. "Girls in this society have certain needs," says Education Minister Hanif Atmar. "They cannot be in a tented school or in an open space with no sanitation facilities, so they simply do not go." Competing demands for government money and more obvious problems such as a raging insurgency, poppy cultivation and widespread corruption leave education to nibble from the crumbs. Atmar figures he needs $2.5 billion for the next five years just to cover basic improvements such as training teachers, printing textbooks and building 73,000 classrooms--even tented ones--that might just accommodate all Afghan schoolkids if they study in shifts.

But a five-year plan is a luxury. Atmar can't find enough money for his most pressing needs. He got only $282 million this year, $216 million short of his bare-bones operating budget. Of the 40,000 teachers the Education Ministry said were necessary to meet the demand for schooling this year, the central government has been able to budget for only 10,000.

The shortage of university-educated instructors means that the higher grades suffer the most. Najeeba Behbood, 26, an 11th-grader at Karokh High School, was lucky to land in a chemistry class taught by a former college professor. Even then, the course was pure theory: with no laboratory, the teacher had to make rough drawings on the blackboard to demonstrate the use of cathodes and anodes in producing electricity. But Behbood is happy to be in the class at all--it was a struggle persuading her parents to permit her to attend, because the professor was male.

The Taliban policy of keeping girls out of school was based on a very strong cultural prohibition against having women mix with unrelated men. Those traditions still define large swaths of Afghan society--even in urban areas like Kabul. "My family says that they would rather I be illiterate than be taught by a man," says Yasamin Rezzaie, 18, who is learning dressmaking at a women's center in Kabul. Her parents refused to let her go to her neighborhood school because some of the teachers are male. Both her parents are illiterate, and they don't see the need for her to learn to read when the risk of meeting unrelated men is so high.

"In Afghan culture, women are seen as the repository of family honor, and the education of girls--whether in terms of the design of school buildings or in the way in which classes are conducted--needs to reflect that reality," says Matt Waldman, the Afghan policy adviser for Oxfam, which released a damning report in 2006 on the state of education in Afghanistan. It shows that the ratio of boys to girls in primary school is roughly 2 to 1, but by the time girls enter secondary school (and puberty), the ratio drops to four boys for every girl. In more than 80% of rural districts, there are no girls in secondary school at all. Overall, only 10% of girls in school actually obtain a diploma.

The Oxfam report identifies another critical factor holding back girls' education: only 28% of the country's accredited teachers are women. "It is absolutely crucial to increase the number of female teachers if you want to see more girls in school," says Waldman.

But if there are so few girls completing their education, how do you grow the next generation of female teachers? The first answer, says Atmar, is to remove all other impediments to girls' going to school. That means constructing new buildings so classes aren't held in the open. In the meantime, unconventional inducements can help. In a successful program in some rural areas, girls are given a free ration of oil and flour at the end of every month. This encourages their poor families to keep sending them to school. Increasing teachers' salaries would convince more parents that their daughters should take up the profession. Teachers with high school diplomas earn $50 to $75 a month, a tiny return on investment for families whose daughters could be spending those 12 years at home weaving carpets, tending the fields or taking care of the household.

While struggling to build the new infrastructure, educators must also contend with Afghanistan's old demons: the Taliban is making a comeback in several provinces and reimposing its rules. In little over a year, 130 schools have been burned, 105 students and teachers killed and 307 schools closed down because of security concerns. Many of those schools were for girls, and most of them were in the southern provinces, where a Taliban-driven insurgency has made it nearly impossible to secure the schools. But the violence is creeping closer to the capital. In June 2007, two gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead three female students coming out of high school in the central province of Logar, a 1 1?2-hour drive from Kabul.

But if Afghanistan has any reason for hope, it is the sheer determination of the girls who do have a chance to go to school. Lida Ahmadyar, 12, whose sister was one of the girls killed in the Logar shooting, has started going back to school. Every day she walks past the spot where her sister died, but she clings to her dream of becoming a doctor. "I am afraid," she says. "But I like school because I am learning something, and that will make me important. With education, I can save my country." If enough of Afghanistan's girls get the chance, they may do just that.

Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.

t was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

That was just the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who â€" under Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules â€" can no longer live together. They sued to reverse the ruling, publicized their story and sought help from a Saudi human rights group.

But the two remain apart and Fatima said she is considering suicide if her recent appeal to King Abdullah does not reunite her with her husband.

"Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima told The Associated Press by telephone in a rare interview. "I want to return to my husband, but if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."

Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Recently, the king did intervene and pardon another high-profile defendant â€" a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The two cases have brought Saudi human rights once again into the international spotlight, revealing not only the weakness of the kingdom's justice system, but the scant rights of Saudi women.

"When I heard that the (rape victim) was pardoned, I couldn't believe it. My case is so much simpler than hers, since my divorce is invalid," Fatima said.

Fatima said her husband, a hospital administrator, followed Saudi tradition in asking her father for permission to marry her in 2003.

"My brother reported good things about him, so my dad accepted his proposal," said Fatima, a computer specialist who was 29 when she married.

She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe than hers, but that he did not mind because he "cared about the man himself."

A few months after the wedding, several of Fatima's relatives, including a half brother, persuaded her father to give them power of attorney to file a lawsuit demanding an annulment, she said.

Then her father died, and Fatima said she had hoped the case would be dropped.

But on Feb. 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve Mansour with divorce papers â€" which said his marriage had been annulled nine months earlier.

"We were shattered. How did this happen? Why?" Fatima asked.

Under Saudi law, a woman needs the permission of her family to marry.

Saudi lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, who used to represent the couple, said local interpretations of Islamic law hold that relatives of a married couple have the right to seek an annulment if they feel the marriage lowers the extended family's status.

He said authorities are reluctant to overrule such annulment orders, believing they are private matters within extended families.

Fatima took the couple's 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son to live with her mother, who had persuaded her to let Mansour deal with the legal issues on his own.

But after three months without her husband, Fatima and the children sneaked out of her mother's house and flew with Mansour to the western seaside city of Jiddah, where they sought to live in anonymity.

Saudi police soon discovered them and imprisoned the family for living together illegally.

"The police told me I either return to my (mother's) family or go to jail," Fatima said. "I chose jail."

"My children and I were thrown in a cell with women sentenced for pushing drugs, practicing witchcraft and behaving immorally," Fatima said. Authorities allowed her to send her daughter back to live with her father, but the infant stayed with Fatima in jail.

"He learned to speak in jail, he learned to walk in jail and his teeth came out in jail," she said.

Meanwhile, Mansour went to court to appeal the divorce ruling, but a Riyadh appeals court upheld the decision in 2007.

Last September, the head of a prominent Saudi human rights group reportedly asked the kingdom's highest court to review the case.

Bandar al-Hajjar, head of the National Society of Human Rights, submitted two Islamic studies concluding that the divorce was invalid, according to the Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily.

The studies, conducted by Islamic researcher Adnan Al-Zahrani and Bassam Al-Bassam, a counselor at the Court of Cassation in Mecca, said that if a woman's legal guardian represented her at the original wedding, then other relatives have no right to object to the marriage based on compatibility.

Both studies concluded that Fatima married Mansour with her father's permission, and that only the wife can decide whether she wants her marriage annulled, the paper reported.

Despite their legal fight, Fatima and Mansour remain apart.

After nine months in jail, Fatima moved to an orphanage where she and her son share an apartment with several other women.

Fatima said she is holding out hope the king might pardon her, and recognize her as "married to Mansour, before God."

"I love him more than ever. He's the only one who has stood by me," she said.

I just went out with friends to watch "Cloverfield" this past Saturday. Great Movie. Highly recommended for all the sci-fi fanatics out there.

Its back!

Yea, I mentioned this incident to my relatives when I was back home, and they all were angry about the late/delayed response by the municipal government. Please extend our condolences to the mother and father of the victim, as well as the fiance' and child.

They are in our prayers.

Thanks,

Beautiful. Alaska, the untapped treasure of the United States.

This state has so much potential, not to mention the vast natural resources in its breast.

You're welcome, 'te.
Extend my big congratulations to Kyle for his Top Honors! I'm very proud of him

Always,

Thanks for the updates, Precious. Please keep us updated on further developments.

Kuyawa pood na uy, "Lets keep it up" LOL!

So is it pretty expensive in Montreal, B:) ?
I've never been to other Canadian provinces besides the greater Toronto area.

LOL!

So how about them Patriots?

Quote from: benelynne on January 17, 2008, 08:48:29 AM
1. Boracay Island, Philippines
2. Nassau, The Bahamas
3. Cebu, Philippines
4. Phan Thiet, Vietnam
5. Montego Bay, Jamaica
6. Phuket, Thailand
7. Cozumel, Mexico
8. San Diego, CA
9. Honolulu, HI
10. San Juan, Puerto Rico

From Yahoo! Travel

Two Philippine beaches in the top three! Hey, TB members, let's help put our dear Bohol on the map this year! We're supposed to be Boracay Plus, so we should claim that place up there.

Wow. Two areas are in the Philippines! Im surprised they didn't mention Palawan, the beaches over there are beautiful.

LOL. hahaha! Sexy bitaw iyang legs. Sus lucky guy jud na iyang partner.

Adto sa local general store, Glen, naa bitaw na sila oral analgesic sprays. Pero, as soon as your local pediatrician is open, i-pa schedule si Kyle sa meeting kai usually soar throat is a symptom of an allergery, cold, etc. Ning cough ba si Kyle? Runny nose? Kai those are the symptoms jud of allergy. Ug naa siya symptoms aforementioned above, palit lang any cough suppressant/expectorant, nasal decongestant (or both) pood. I suggest Vicks 44, Tussin, Robitussin, Sudafed.

Pero if di ka gusto mo gawas sa balay, sigoro naa ka analgesics sa balay nimo for his soar throat. You can give him acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol), ibuprofen (brand names: Advil, Motrin, Nuprin) or naproxen (brand name: Aleve). Pero temporary relief ra ni, Glen.

Primary jud i-pa schedule si Kyle sa pediatrician/Family Practitioner.

Sige, 

Quote from: B:) on January 21, 2008, 12:13:24 PM





the bottom are Quebec City

Those are sexy legs.

HAH? ngano gi apil man ang itlog? Ah di pood na i-include sa retinue uY! That is my #1 sensitive spot. LOL!!!

Aguyyy! 

LOL!! Kuyawa pood na imung katawa, 'te UY! Mo vibrate diay ang bintana pood? Jati!! hahahahaha!
Na ligid ligid jud ko dinhi

I butang lang absorbing pads sa imung walls. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

LOL! Very passionate bitaw ka, B:)
Di ko mo imagine ug na suko-suko na jud ka. Sigoro mo sumbag ka nako?

hahaha then by all means. Punch my arm

Hahahahaha Ate Belle uy!
Don't worry if i do get eaten by the Bear, he'll have a hard time eating through too much muscle. Ma guba sigoro iyang ngipoon. LOL!!!
Ingoon ang bear, "Pisti pood ni, unsa man ning tao, Pilipino ba ni?" LOL!

@ Glen. Thank you ma'am for the advice. Maybe I can ask my Uncle steve if I could use his Semi-Automatic M16. That should pound hole in a bear's skull 4-5 inches wide.

Quote from: swakee on January 17, 2008, 10:43:40 AM
oi, hala mao ba Dong? sige ako na lang ning panagsaan... i-minimize na lang ni nako... huhuhu... faets!

Ah its okay for ladies Di man na sa inyong physiology. LOL!

LOL!

'te uy!

Kuyawa pood ni uy. Naa diay strategy in how to act after breaking up?
Ang style nako is just to tell the woman face to face di na ko gusto mo continue sa ang relationship.
Usually mo suko ang baji nako--after 2-3 weeks mo talk man mi. 'Distant' friends na lang.

Ang problem sa ani is that there is no way to stop friends from spreading false rumors about the break up etc. From personal experiences, my X's usually blow up on my friends--pero natural man na.

For the men in here. Just take it. Its a natural healing process. If the woman takes it really bad and goes abusive or verbal on you--then thats a sign that it was not meant to be. I had an X that drove to my friend's house and asked  my friend's parents to call me. She would keep on calling me and when I answered the phone, she would hang up, that or she would leave messages. Thank god thats over with tho.

The pleasure is all mine, Glen.

Mao ba, Glen? Sige, i-ingnan nako ahong amigo so we can plan for a spring season. What kind of gun did your husband use to hunt a brown bear? Shotgun or semi-automatic rifle?

Oh you can count on it, beb. I'll be pounding my chest like the other millions of fanatical Patriots Fans.



Hahaha mo ka-on diay ka cheese and crackers with beer?

Got this from this site: http://www.blogsouthernvermont.com/shorthops/2008/01/giants_vs_patriots_super_bowl.html
Interesting read.


While this weekend of NFL playoff action certainly had its surprises, the Giants defeating Dallas wasn't really one of them, at least not to me. I thought that the Cowboys were the most overrated team in this year's playoffs, and that any one of the other NFC teams could have beaten them.

But I can't help but be intrigued by the possibility of a Pats-Giants championship game. The Giants have the talent and ability to beat Green Bay, and as we have seen so often, any team can indeed win on any given day, especially in the playoffs. I would bet anything that San Diego is going to be little more than fodder for New England in the AFC title game, but it is possible that the G-Men could upset Brett Favre and company - especially in a low-scoring, rushing-and-defense kind of game like New York used to be so great at winning back in the Bill Parcells days.

This would set up a truly fantastic Super Bowl showdown. Of course, you have the Giants' heroic performance against Tom Brady and his guys in the final week of the regular season. Many Pats fans argue that their team wasn't nearly as "up" for that game as New York was, but the reality is that the Patriots wanted to go undefeated just as bad - if not worse - than the G-Men wanted to pull off the upset. And what we were left with is this: New York is capable of beating New England. Period.

Such a championship game would also add a whole new chapter to the classic New York - Boston sports rivalry. Big Apple sports fans have been dying for a chance to knock the "Massholes" off their high horse, and if the Giants could beat the Pats in the Super Bowl, that would tip the scales mightily back in New York's favor, and break a million Pats fans' hearts all at once. It is probably NY's best chance of accomplishing such a feat within the near future - it's not like the Knicks are going to knock the Celtics off course any time soon, and with the Bruins still climbing back toward respectability and the Yankees in the midst of a youth movement, this might be the best NY-Boston sports matchup we can get.

You can bet that lots of New York fans are DROOLING over a scenario in which the Giants spoil the Pats' magical season. And New England fans have to get at least a little bit nervous thinking about it.

Thats what I'm worried about. I'm interested in how the Patriots will perform in that environment against the Giants.

Glen, don't worry. Its all in good, harmless, fanatical Football fun

LOL

What can I say, I'm a hardcore football fanatic. Its built in me, , plus I have to deal with alot of Patriots haters here in campus, most of em are huge Steelers fan. LOL. I sounded serious diay? Didn't mean to come across that way.

Yea, Brady is good, and but so is Eli. You guys are a good team. Who knows.

Quote from: B:) on January 21, 2008, 12:59:31 PM
mao lagi ms da binsi oi, grabeha jud bitaw ni Lorenzo oi. I wonder if he knew Brady has 3 interseptions today, while our Eli did well, thank God. Basta proud of our NYG whatever happen.

I'm still smiling hehehehe. I gotta wear my NYG's Champion hat, kay mo cheers gyud ko.
Go Giants

You guys did pretty well. Winning the game in extended play. 23-20 in frigid -2 degrees temperature. Your team did good.

LOL. Cute hat. I have a Patriots swim trunks but that wouldn't be appropriate to show in here. LOL

No hard feelings, eh? Whoever wins the SuperBowl, may the best team win.
Wa jud ko'y intent to hurt anyone's feelings. Game ra bitaw ni uy!

Quote from: B:) on January 21, 2008, 12:42:00 PM
be careful Lorenzo, it's not game time yet
You hurt my feelings!

It was not my intent to hurt your feelings. Im just a big Patriots fan. Don't take it personally.

GO BOYS!!

Quote from: ms da binsi on January 21, 2008, 12:41:19 PM
Bear-elk hunting?!!*&%$#

are you out of your mind?

Dong kita ka sa INTO THE WILD?

hahahahhaha

Dodong East coast are more historic than the west part...

you dont missed a lot but you have to see San Fran...

San Francisco is the best city in the west...

Far far west, alaska is the best!!!

ive never been there too...

hala kalami ug mag cruise ta mga TB peeps sa Alaska noh??? (pantasyerang Unggoya baje raba!)

aguuYyyy!

Unsa man diay ang story sa 'into the wild', Ate Belle? 'Te gusto na gusto ko mo hunt Grizzly Bears jud. I have a friend who hunts black bears and showed me pictures of the bears he's killed before--ingoon man shya very testosterone filled kono na ug mo hunt ka sa black bears kai mo charge bitaw na sila nimo. Only way to stop them is to shoot them. Gusto jud ko mo hunt grizzly bears--so among plano is to someday go hunting together in the future. Hahaha don't worry. I'll make sure to use a shotgun on em. Can't get me

Quote from: Glen on January 21, 2008, 12:42:17 PM
West coast always raining and wet. Alaska is beautiful during summer time and fall just the winter is long and very cold.
Visit Alaska during summertime like June or July you can experience the 24 hrs. of daylight.

Ang plano nako, Glen, is to visit it next winter. I'm planning to go hunting brown bears with my friend Bryan Kramer. Kanang 1 week hunting pass--with a scout guide bitaw. Ah sus excited kaayo ko. I also hear bear meat is delicious.

Yea I saw the last game the Patriots had with the Giants, the game illustrated what the Giants are as a team. The team has a questionable defense, and its offense, though is reputable, is not as strong as the battered and tested Patriots Offensive coordinated plays. Im not trying to be mean, on the contrary, Im only speaking according to the game play and the stats both teams provide. The beauty about the Patriots, isn't only Tom Brady's throwing arm etc, its the team's ability to work vis-a-vis symbiosis with one another. Our kick off return team is one of the best in the league, our defense is as impregnable as that of the Pittsburgh Steelers, which we CRUSHED in the last game we played them.


But In the Friendliness of FOOTBALL (speaking as a Defensive NoseGuard). May the BEST team win.



HOOORAAH!!

Ah mao ba? mostly ning adto mo sa west coast/ north west coast no? Guapo ba ang lugar sa west coast? Wa pa jud ko naka visit 'far west' ang last time was in 1995 to visit my Lola Babing and my Lolo Ino. East Coaster ra jud mi kai the only states we've visited extensively are: New Jersey (live here) New York (lived there for 4 years), Massachusets, Rhode Island, Vermont, Pennsylvania (lived here for 4 years for college), Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South and North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Mostly ning adto ra mi sa east coast and sa deep Antebellum South.

How is Alaska, Glen? I have never been there, however, I want to go there to go bear/elk-hunting in the future.

                                                       PATRIOTS                            OPPONENTS

TOTAL FIRST DOWNS                                     24                              22
FIRST DOWNS (Rushing-passing-by penalty)     11 - 12 - 1                    4 - 15 - 3
THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS                          6/10                       4/10
FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS                        1/1                     2/3
TOTAL OFFENSIVE YARDS                                     403                        350
OFFENSE (Plays-Average Yards)                          58 - 6.9                       56 - 6.2
TOTAL RUSHING YARDS                                   145                          80
RUSHING (Plays-Average Yards)                         29  -5.0                       22 - 3.6
TOTAL PASSING YARDS                                  258                          270
PASSING (Comp-Att-Int-Avg)                      26 - 28 - 0 - 9.4              22 - 33 - 1 - 8.4
SACKS                                                                   1                       1
FIELD GOALS                                                        1/2                     2/2
TOUCHDOWNS                                                      4                           2
(Rushing-Passing-Returns-Defensive)                 1 - 3 - 0 - 0                0 - 2 - 0 - 0
TIME OF POSSESSION                                        32:20                    27:40

There is no contest. Absolutely no contest. The Giants have a really weak defense and their offense is limited to/and only if they are able to contend a decent kick off. The Patriots, on the other hand, have a Brilliant offense, thanks to Tom Brady's Magic Hand. LOL.

The Steelers are a greater Team than the Giants. Hands Down. The Browns are a better team than the Giants. Hands Down. All of these teams were CRUSHED by the Patriots.

Patriots have an unprecedented 18-0 RECORD. No one in the League can boast that.

This is the same team that CHOKED the Steelers, which have THE BEST Defense in the ENTIRE league.

GO PATRIOTS! GO BOYS!

People in Montreal have nice tans. I rate 5/5.

The New England Patriots SHALL CRUSH all those who lay in their path! The League's UNDEFEATED Team!


[mp3tube]e5dd871b85bb86015cc704a3e34d3689[/mp3tube]

New England WILL  DESTROY New York.

My boys, the Patriots have an 18-0 record, undefeated and have DESTROYED all teams that mouth talked them this season. The Steelers, which everyone in the league predicted would crush the Patriots' undefeated record were annihilated by the Patriots.

Hands down, the Patriots will C.R.U.S.H  New York.

My boy Tom Brady will show em all, yo!

Happy Birthday, Elsie.
God Bless you and may He shine on you always.
Keep on smiling, darling!


A Big Bear Hug,
Bran Lorenzo

Quote from: Glen on January 21, 2008, 11:05:08 AM
Wow very nice city. I love the architecture great pictures Lorenz. Thanks for posting.

You're very welcome, Glen. Have you visited Philly?

Quote from: lindy on January 21, 2008, 11:51:53 AM
is this the Center in Philadelphia dong Lorenz? wala ra gyud ko kalahos ining dapita adtong pag visit nako sa Reading kay kadali lang mi ug nilahos mi sa Baltimore ug New York.

Location varies. The areas where I focus on statues and the old architecture were taken in downtown Philadelphia, near the Capitol District. The rest were taken in the outskirts of the greater Metropolitan Philadelphia Zone. Philadelphia is expansive, unlike most urban centers, its skyscrapers aren't limited to downtown district. Philly's arms reach far north to Allentown, as far south as Doylestown and even far east to Camden, New Jersey.

Did you guys visit historic South Street in Philly? Its a great place to go shopping and has really gorgeous picturesque areas.

Regards,

You know they played in -2 degs temperature? These guys are troopers, indeed.

But I'm a big Patriots fan. From head to foot.

Gorgeous aerial views. What mountain range is that, Lindy?

Pictures taken in 2006-2007.

Welcome to Philly!
[mp3tube]f9ba8816371dce9a86ded721e97550ee[/mp3tube]

For those who are living in winter climate (North America, Europe, Northern Asia), the following is something you might need to know about your immune system and response to bacterial/viral pathogens. This is the same data that I forwarded to my students in Microbiology where Im a Teacher's Assistant (Laboratory). Hope this becomes useful to you all.


And remember. Stay clean, safe and aware:

48.2 Specific immune defenses require recognition of antigens

The Immune response: the third line of defense
-B cells respond to antigens by producing antibodies that provide humoral immunity.
-T cells regulate the immune response of the other cells, directly attack cells carrying specific antigens, and produce cell mediated immunity
-Active immunity can be gained due to exposure to a pathogen, passive immunity occurs when one individual obtains antibodies from another individual

Cells of the specific immune system
-T cells and B cells are both produced in the bone marrow, but B cells develop and mature in bone marrow, while T cells complete development in the thymus.

Initiating the Immune Response
-Helper T cells are activated when antigen-presenting cells present foreign antigens with MHC-II proteins
-Cytotoxic T cells interact with foreign antigens presented with MHC-I proteins.

48.3 T cells organize attacks against invading microbes

T cells: The cell mediated immune response
-In the cell-mediated immune response, Cytotoxic T cells kill abnormal or virus infected body cells
-Interleukin 1 is secreted by macrophages and stimulates helper T cells, while Interleukin 2 is secreted by other T cells and activates Cytotoxic T cells and B cells

48.4 B cells label specific cells for destruction

B Cells: he Humoral Immune System
-B cells place markers on pathogens to alert complement proteins, macrophages, and natural killer cells to attack those cells.
-When B cells recognize antigens, they produce plasma cells and large numbers of circulating antibodies to fight the antigens.
-Antibodies are proteins in a class known as immunoglobulins, which is further divided into subclasses.
-IgM antibodies are produced first and activate the complement system, while IgG antibodies are produce later to promote phagocytosis.

Antibodies
-Each antibody molecule consists of light chains and heavy chains containing variable and constant regions. Most of the sequence variations between antibodies is found in a cleft that only allows a specific antigen to bind.
-Somatic rearrangement and DNA mutations assemble the genes that encode for the huge numbers of antigen receptors.
-Immunological tolerance occurs when an animal’s immune system accepts the animal’s own tissue; it can occur through clonal deletion or clonal suppression.
-A primary immune response occurs the fist time the body encounters a pathogen and the binding of an antigen stimulates cell division. As a result of the first infection, the body is prepared to recognize and fight off the same pathogen and the next time it encounters it.

Antibodies in Medical Diagnosis
-Blood type notes the class of antibodies found on the surface of red blood cells. The major group is known as the ABO system, while another system is the Rh factor. Mixing different blood types ca lead to agglutination.
-Monoclonal antibodies exhibit specificity for one antigen and are commercially prepared for medical diagnosis and research.

Evolution of the Immune System
-Early organisms utilized a cellular immune response
-Vertebrates appear to be the first group to evolve an immune system based on lymphocytes

48.5 The Immune system can be defeated

T Cell Destruction: AIDS
-HIV inactivates CD4 T cells and thus leaves the immune system incapable of mounting a response to a foreign antigen.
-HIV exhibits a high mutation rate resulting in antigen shifting, thus making it difficult to develop an effective vaccine.

Antigen Shifting
-A pathogen may escape recognition by the immune system if it changes its surface antigens. Such antigen shifting is an example of evolution by natural selection.

Autoimmunity and Allergy
-Autoimmune diseases are produced by a failure of the immune system to recognize and tolerate self-antigens and can result from a variety of mechanisms.
-Allergies, or hypersensitivity, can be divided into immediate hypersensitivity and delayed hypersensitivity, both of which can cause the release of histamine.
-In extreme cases, the widespread release of histamine can lead to anaphylactic shock


48.1 Many of the body’s most effective defenses are nonspecific

Skin: The First Line of Defense
-Skin, the largest of the largest organ of the vertebrate body, provides a nearly impenetrable barrier and reinforces defense with surface chemical weapons.
-Mucous membranes of the digestive, respiratory and urogenital tracts help trap and eliminate microorganisms before they invade body tissues.

Cellular Counterattack: The Second Line of Defense
-Nonspecific cellular and chemical defenses respond to any microbial infection without the necessity of determining the specific identity to the invader
-Macrophages ingest microbes via phagocytosis; neutrophils ingest and kill bacteria by phagocytosis; and natural killer cells kill cells of the body infected by the virus.
-The complement system consists of approximately 20 different blood proteins that aggregate to form a membrane attack complex, which then forms a pore into the foreign cell’s plasma membrane.
-Body cells infected by a virus secrete interferon to protect neighboring cells.

The Inflammatory Response
-The inflammatory response is a localized, nonspecific response to infection
-Histamine and prostaglandin promote blood vessels dilation and capillary permeability, while a fever stimulates phagocytosis and causes the liver and spleen to store iron.

Disgusting. May the full force of the law send this man to the deepest abyss of state penitentiary.
It would be understandable if the individual killed himself due to his mental illness (whatever he is suffering from), however, for him to kill another human being, an innocent one at that, is a totally different story.

God have mercy on his soul.

Quote from: Bohol Bol-anon on April 25, 2007, 08:15:40 PM

Beautiful

God Bless you, Goebel Gurang!
You truly are an inspiration to all!

Truly Madly Deeply (Dance Remix)

by Cascada

[mp3tube]7a1988762d8ac97cbd157a187662fd30[/mp3tube]

Ah the Philippine Eagle. Such a regal species.

Some pictures of last month's interview process at LECOM (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine).


Medical School banner--pretty big, as soon as i went inside the building, i saw this 20 foot banner hanging in the lobby. Pretty intimidating, actually.


A picture of a Medical Student's retinue: Medical Neurology Review. I sat in for this class--following my host for a day. Pretty interesting, great info. Medical Neurology was 4 hours long; these guys were reviewing for their final examinations. Fun.


My host rachelle (right) and one of her friends. We went to the local restaurants to celebrate a 'Friday' night out, lol. Cool guys.


My medical student hosts took me out to a formal club. Got this.


Fancy schmancy. lol.

Sige, Hazel. Dont be surprised if I water-tackle you tho. LOL!

Ang importante ay iyang key immune system; importante kaayo naa siya pediasure or any pediatric nutritional supplement to strengthen his immuno-suppressed body. Proper bedding, especialamente the humid weather and probability of bacterial infection that can develop without proper hygiene. Mao na ang key issues. Ingna pood si Ms. Lumine to purchase necessary mosquito repellents to inhibit and evade the instance of Dengue infection to occur, particularly this time of the year--dengue is ravenous.

Once Matt's body has acclimated to the environment sa Pilipinas, mo adapt man na siya, key lang--mo reiterate ko--is the assistance in strengthening his immune system w/ proper vitamins.

Ayaw lang pa worry-worry, importante pood ma tulug ang mom and dad; they too need to look after their own bodies. God Speed to the fast recovery of our little member.

Take it easy, 'te. 

Aah! Kuyawa pood uy! Gusto na jud ko mo balik! hahaha!
Ondoy, salamat kaayo for these pictures. My heart jumps with joy to see Badjang again, it has changed so much since I was there back in 1998. You know i could still remember being 5 y/0 and swimming in their large pool. LOL!

Did you guys go to the therapeutic Badjang Hot Springs? Mao na ang plano nako karoong summer '08 pohon.

I really appreciate these pictures, Kyle. Thank You, lil bro.

Quote from: Dong Bonite on January 02, 2008, 01:41:19 AM
I see.. New Jersey. kaila ka ni Betty Veloso?

btw, my 3rd daughter, Ethel Gladys, is in New York now with my wife's sister. Ethel is granted half-scholarship in International Graduate University (IGU), Washington D.C. She's taking Masters Degree in Business Administration and Management. They are traveling to Washington D.C. tomorrow as Ethel has to report to IGU on the 3rd of January.

I dont think I've heard of Ms. Veloso. There is a large Filipino-American community here in New Jersey. There's about 40,000-50,000 Filipinos in North Jersey, and a considerable amount of Filipinos in south jersey, where I am from (probably about 10,000 or so in south jersey). My extended congrats to your daughter. She will begin graduate school the same time I will begin Medical School for my 5 year M.D/Ph.D program--I begin on Fall 2008, but we're pretty much on the same page. Good luck to your daughter on her MBA program; it will be a fulfilling experience, I can assure--I have friends who are currently working on their Ph.Ds after finishing their MBA. Does she have plans in continuing with her Ph.D?

My warm regards.
-Bran Lorenzo

PS. Are you stationed in Bohol?

Bro, there are increased regulations here. I know that my cousin is a graduated nurse and is currently working in Bohol as a nurse, and at the same time waiting for response to come to the states. Ang 'Ok' states that are open to immigrant nurses are Texas, California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, etc. There should be more. You're friend would do better if she/he were to contact the United States Embassy in Manila vis-a-vis a phone or email and relay the same question. They can better elucidate the matter than I could.

New Jersey is a great state to live, the standard of living in New Jersey is pretty high, one of the highest in the entire country; but the rate of pay is also pretty nice. As far as im concerned, nurses are pretty much needed here, despite the saturation in the present.

If you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a line in my email.


Cheers Kapatid,
Bran Lorenzo

Good luck sa imung studies and everything that must be completed, 'te. I know you will do great.


Till the next time we talk again,

With Big Bear Hugs,
Bran

Well said, Ate Anel. The people are as much to blame for acquiescing to the system of vote buying. The moralistic and ethical way to handle this was to have reported corruptive actions to the DILG, or to the Provincial Government. Stand up for yourselves.

Insik:  Pedlo, ako kamaguwangan

Pedro:  Ako ni Pa.

Insik:  Juan, ako kamanghulan

Juan:  Dia ra ko Pa.

Insik:  Maliya, ako asawa

Maria:  Dia ra ko.

Insik:  Mga wala silbi! Naa mo tanan dinhi. Wala bantay ato tindahan!!!

Kulas:  Bay Tasyo, matod sa mga silingan andir-di-saya man kuno ka.

Tasyo:  Unsay andir-di-saya nga bag-o lang nakong gikasab-an ang akong misis!

Kulas:  Ngano man?

Tasyo:  Gisugo man ko niya sa pamalantsa.  Mao nga akong gisinghagan ug UNYA RA KAY MAGLUTO PA KO!!!


LOL!!

Impyerno

Si Badong namatay ug nahiadto sa impiyerno. Didto sa impiyerno niadto siya og nightclub diin siya nag-inom-inom og iyang gika-table ang sexy nga babae.

Iya nga gidala ang babae sa motel.  Paghukas na sa ilang mga sanina, namatikdan niya ang babae nindot kaayo og lawas pero ang dakong problema walay lungag didto sa ilawon niya.

Ni-reklamo si Badong sa manager sa night club kung kay way lungag ang babae ngaiyang napili.

Mitubag ang manager, Dinhi sa impiyerno, walay mga lungag ang mga babae.  Ang mga babae nga naay lungag tua tanan sa langit.

Quote from: Bohol Bol-anon on July 22, 2007, 06:24:35 PM
We have about 40 families of Valenciahon in Southern California.  About a year ago,
tismis (rumor) was coming back about something going on at Valencia High School, Bohol involving
young girls and pornography.

We got together at a meeting and voted to pick up some expenses to have someone
investigate.  We contacted Neneng Corrales in Tagbilaran, (Bohol, Philippines) who is from Valencia.

Neneng found out that a local cell phone store owner and a local photographer
Michael Tanahagan were involved in pornography.

It worked like this:

Young girls 14-16 would come to the Cell phone store.  (Most of the girls were ‘taga
bukids’) The owner would snap a picture of the girl and send it to his customers.
If the customer was interested, he would order a photo.  At first they were topless.
Later full frontal nudity.  The girl would go to Tanahagan’s place and pose.
Tanahagan sold the pictures for P1,000 a set.  The girl got P500, Tanahagan and the
cell guy split P500.  The girl would now be able to buy a load.

If the girl wanted a phone, it would take more sales to ‘earn’ a phone.  When we
(The Americans) got into this we found out this had been going on for three or four
years.

Earlier, they were talking about that women’s group ‘Gabriela” over at BNN well,
they are a bunch of phonies, we told Gabriela about this.  We also wrote letters to
all the Tagbilaran papers, the Cebu papers,  ABS/CBN, all the papers in Manila and
the TV Networks.  We wrote the Dept of Social Welfare, and the School system
officials  in Valencia, Tagbilaran and Nationally. 

Nobody did anything.

One day one of the  Taga bukid girls was seen in town with a new phone and a lot of
money.  Neneng Corrales happened to be in town at that time and Neneng grabbed the
girl and got her to talk.  The girl told the story, and now said the girls were now
having sex with the customers, and one had even been videotaped, and one was
pregnant.

All hell now broke loose, and Dionisio Balite heard about it.  Balite, an enemy of
Conching Lim the mayor, was only too happy to put it in the paper, and he helped
with some legal services.  Ten girls came forward and signed statements. A warrant
was issued for Tanahagan and the cell phone store guy.  The both of them
disappeared.

A couple of months ago, we finally got to go to court and file charges.  Prior to
that, the people here set up a fund for legal expenses and transportation, meals and
housing for the girls and their parents in Tagbilaran.

We had a court date set.  Before the girls could testify in court.  Conching Lim
paid all ten families P45,000 each.  ($1,000)    The girls signed affidavits of
desistance. (dropped charges) 

Tanahagan appeared in court, but the primary defendant who was to testify against
Tanahagan was kidnapped by Tanahagan’s brother.  With out a witness to testify
against Tanahagan, the charges were dropped.

The whole thing just went away.

Here in the States it's called statuory rape.  It is not consensual sex.   If the
girl is under age, below the age of consent, she cannot give consent.  This is a
crime, and the charges change with each year under 18.  At one point it would become
child pornography (age 12 I think)  Here in the states, you do not need a
complainant,  the state files charges, not the individual.

And then again, they don't have jury trials in the Phils.  A well placed bribe can
get some pretty good rulings from the judge.

--a forwarded e-mail source: confidential

This is the first time I ever heard of this, Mike. I am shocked.
Thanks for sharing.

Attention seeker ra sigoro to'ng taw-hana, 'te.

You know Ate Ethyl has that most ADDICTIVE laughter. Whenever I talk to her on the phone, I just start laughing--lol! Ah i miss my big sis already.

Ang problem sa ani kai wa man gud proper waste disposal sa community close sa dagat dinha sa Valencia. Ang current administration, under Mayor Lim, has to take decisive action in assessing this. I've talked to my Tito, Mr. John Palaca, who also ran for Mayor in Valencia couple of years back and he elucidated me on this current situation. Ang problema sa Valencia, as much as I don't like to step on any toes--it must be said. Corruption is a problem in Valencia. Vote buying is  a problem; there are people in the barangays in Anas, Cansibao, etc that complain about the re-election of Consing Lim, however, people give in to the bribery that is clearly manifested. True there have been positive changes in Valencia, however, there are other issues to tackle, primarily proper waste pipes, and the current situation of vote buying.

To those who accept bribery in Valencia, don't complain, because you are as responsible for the act as the person propagating the act of vote buying. Don't be hypocritical.

I do agree that it is unfair to have one family in power for such a long time; I have a problem with this so called 'dynastic sytem'. Though I have respect for the Lim family in Valencia, they are friends of my family, however, I cannot say that I condone the acts of vote buying and corruption that is in place.

Secondly. This issue of mosquitoes, proper action needs to be taken to reduce mosquito nests. Dengue and other communicable diseases that rely on the mosquito as vector form can manifest on to the local human hosts. This problem should be taken care of by the Provincial government, and the DILG.

Sexy Filipiniana, indeed.

My condolences. A great mind has passed away.

The comfort in prayer.



Have you prayed today?