Facts or Phantasies

http://www.transad.pop.upenn.edu/
Young Adults in the United States, 2005:
A Mid- Decade Profile by
Rubén G. Rumbaut and Golnaz Komaie
updates trends on living arrangements, work,
education, marriage, parenthood and more for young adults.
SOURCE
Fast Facts--

Parenthood, 2006
Age 18-24: 11% had children
Age 25-29: 37% "       "
Age 30-34: 57% "     "

Never married
45.3% women
56.3% men

Cohabiting:
8.5% women
7.7% men

Currently married
40.2% women
32.6% men

Divorced, separated, widowed
6.0% women
3.4% men

Has one or more children
39.9% women
24.1% men

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Sussex | Homeless man 'lived in airport'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/7252598.stm
Homeless man 'lived in airport'
 
An Asbo(court order) banned Delaney from the airport and its railway station
A homeless chef who ate, showered and slept at Gatwick Airport for more than
three years has admitted breaching an (court order) banning him from the site.

Anthony Delaney, 43, made the West Sussex airport his home in scenes
similar to the 2004 Spielberg-directed film, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks.
Lewes Crown Court heard that he only left the airport's south terminal to collect his Jobseeker's Allowance
(unemployment comp check)

BBC NEWS--British Police --"Don't slap me Bro"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7253207.stm
Pcs' 'squabble' over police van

Pc Byron Emerson-Thomas has been suspended since the attack.
A police officer punched a colleague in the face following a "petty squabble" over
who was going to drive a force van, Newport Crown Court has heard.
Pc Byron Emerson-Thomas, 37, wanted first go in the van at the start of a night shift
because it was fitted with a new radio, the trial heard.
He denies wounding Pc Aled Bartlett, who needed eight stitches after
the incident at a Cardiff police station.

Snack sleuth: What's in a Twinkie? - Inside Bay Area

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8294583?source=rss
Snack sleuth: What's in a Twinkie?
Author crosses globe to find natural sources of ingredients
By Suzanne Bohan, STAFF WRITER
Article Created: 02/18/2008 02:35:46 AM PST

.....Although Ettlinger chose Twinkies for his in-depth exploration of food additives, he's quick to point out that the book is a treatise on processed foods in general.

"This book is not just about Twinkies, I keep telling the lawyers from Hostess," he quipped to another crowd who gathered Wednesday at the University of California, Berkeley, to hear his talk. "All of these ingredients are in processed foods."
What he discovered continually astounded Ettlinger. "So many of the items are made directly from petroleum products, including natural gas or crude oil" he said. "That just blows my mind."
Tyler Shores, a Google employee who invited Ettlinger to speak, also expressed amazement after the talk. "It's not one of those things that you would ever think about until you're exposed to it," Shores said.
While eight of the ingredients in Twinkies come from domestic corn, and three from soybeans, others are derived from sources as divergent as rocks, trees and petroleum products (The latter are used to make niacin and food coloring, among other food products).
Still, despite the astonishing origins of many of these ingredients, he stops short of calling them a public health concern...SOURCE

Toyota tests satellite service facilities

http://feeds.autoblog.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~3/237550434/

Posted Feb 19th 2008 7:54AM by Chris Shunk
Toyota has so far resisted expanding its dealer body in the wake of the Japanese automaker's unprecedented climb up the sales charts.
In eight years, Toyota has gone from having 15 million of its vehicles on the road to 22 million today.
Toyota has piloted off-site service centers and oil change centers.
The early results show that the nine dealers in the pilot received significantly more customer pay (non-warranty) repairs than the average Toyota dealership...SOURCE

Magazine Roundup - signandsight

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1657.html

The New York Review of Books 03.03.2008 (USA)

History is being made in the USA, believes writer Darryl Pinckney. He first sensed it on the evening of the Democratic primary in New Hampshire while at the hairdressers in Harlem: America is on the verge of voting for a black president. "Though Obama has been praised by some for not making race an issue in his campaign, and for not coming off as the black candidate, his race most certainly is crucial to his broad appeal. Black people can appreciate as much as white people the inclusiveness of his mixed-race heritage and that his story is in part that of an immigrant. But this is not a color-blind election. People aren't voting for Obama in spite of the fact that he is black, or because he is only half-black, they are voting for him because he is black, and this is a whole new feeling in the country and in presidential politics. Forty years ago, Robert Kennedy was sharply criticized for saying that a black man probably could be elected president of the United States in fifty years' time. 'Victory tonight,' my barber, Mr. Sherlock, said as we shook hands."...SOURCE

Best You Can Be Without a Degree :: Inside Higher Ed

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/14/veterans

"A coalition of veterans’ groups, including IAVA and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, joined Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) on Capitol Hill Wednesday to advocate for a “GI Bill for the 21st Century.” Citing the lagging purchasing power of veterans’ educational benefits relative to increasing college costs – the American Association of State Colleges and Universities estimates that the $9,909 annual benefit for former active duty service members covers only about three-quarters of the average total cost of attendance at public four-year universities ($13,145) — veterans’ groups called for a dramatic re-envisioning of the current Montgomery GI Bill, passed in peacetime."

The Next Crisis Will Be Over Food

http://food.netscape.com/story/2008/02/17/the-next-crisis-will-be-over-food

The Next Crisis Will Be Over Food

"what is really catching the attention of Goldman Sachs now is the outlook for agricultural prices. Or as Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at the US bank, says with disarming cheer: "We think we could go into crisis mode in many commodities sectors in the next 12 to 18 months... and I would argue that agriculture is key here."..SOURCE

msnbc.com: U.S. college drop-out rate sparks concern

U.S. college drop-out rate sparks concern
The latest government figures say that just 54 percent of students
entering four-year colleges in 1997 had a degree six years later,
sparking a debate in educational circles about how to get students all
the way to graduation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10053859/from/ET/

Snuggly the Security Bear Explains: Warrantless Wiretapping Is All About Love and Freedom

http://gizmodo.com/356837/snuggly-the-security-bear-explains-warrantless-wiretapping-is-all-about-love-and-freedom

Warrantless Wiretapping Is All About Love and Freedom
If you're still confused about the whole warrantless domestic spying program that the telecoms colluded with the government on (which is being conveniently shuffled away from official scrutiny, forever), Snuggly the Security Bear by Mark Fiore sums it all up in the absolute cuddliest way possible. [Mark Fiore via BoingBoing]

Fridays Links: Health Insurance for the Self-Employed - Shifting Careers - Small Business - New York Times Blog

February 14, 2008,  9:28 pm
Friday’s Links: Health Insurance for the Self-Employed
By MARCI ALBOHER
I’m often asked about where independent workers and other self-employed people can get health insurance. I would like to hear from you, readers, about how you get your insurance. What kinds of policies are you choosing, and why? Where do you get it? What does it cost? If you have a resource to share, do it in the comments...SOURCE

TomPaine.com - Prisons Warp the Vote

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2008/01/08/prisons_warp_the_vote.php
Prisons Warp the Vote
Brett Blank, TomPaine.com
The Census Bureau counts people in prison where their bodies are located on census day, not where they come from and where they will return, on average, 34 months later.
Forty-eight states bar prisoners from voting, and most states have constitutional clauses or election law statutes which explicitly declare that prisoner remains legal residents of their home addresses. When states draw districts based on the Census Bureau's padded counts of prison locales, they give those districts extra representation just because the prison industry has a facility there...SOURCE

NPR: Correctional Officers Protest Inmate Work Cuts

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18937764&ft=1&f=3
Correctional Officers Protest Inmate Work Cuts

by Laura Sullivan
Morning Edition, February 13, 2008 · Federal correctional officers are gathering outside the Justice Department on Wednesday to protest
budget cuts and cutbacks to the federal inmate work program.
The officers say it's the only program they have left to keep inmates out of trouble...SOURCE

Better World Campaign Statement on Budget Request for UN Peacekeeping

http://www.undispatch.com/archives/2008/02/better_world_ca.php

SOURCE:
http://www.betterworldcampaign.org/
Budget Request for UN Peacekeeping
"The United States is already more than $1 billion behind in honoring its commitments to UN peacekeeping, and the Administration's budget request would add at least another $600 million to our growing and worrisome unpaid peacekeeping assessments. UN peacekeeping is a tremendous value for the United States, ensuring that we don't have to pay all the bills or take all the risks for securing peace and stability in the world. By working with other nations, we can promote peace at a fraction of the cost. Simply put, in today's complex and dangerous world the United States can't afford to go it alone and therefore we can't afford not to pay our fair share of international peacekeeping....SOURCE

Black-on-Black Thought Crime - January 2, 2008 - The New York Sun

http://www.nysun.com/article/68809
Black-on-Black Thought Crime
Review of: Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal
By JOHN McWHORTER
Special to the Sun
The slaves who informed their masters of plans other slaves were making to rebel, for example, were alarmed at the crushing response from whites that such rebellions would attract, and saw themselves as protecting blacks, not "selling them out." Today's blacks who argue against racial preferences in admissions often bring to bear evidence that these policies harm students more than they help them: They honestly believe that they are the progressives in this case...SOURCE

Education Week: AP Scores Fall as Test-Taking Rises

Updated: February 13, 2008
AP Scores Fall as Test-Taking Rises
By Scott J. Cech
New York
More students are taking Advanced Placement tests, but the proportion of tests receiving what is deemed a passing score has dipped, and the mean score is down for the fourth year in a row, an Education Week analysis of newly released data from the College Board shows...SOURCE

from Spanish Word A Day

http://www.google.com/reader/view/

regular = not very good / below average

Pronounced: reh-góo-lahr
Type: adjective
Example: ¿Cómo estás hoy? -Me siento regular.
Translation: How are you today? -I don't feel very good.

Ámbitos no. 34 (Bulletin of the Fundación Largo Caballero (in Spanish))

Boletín Digital de Actividades número 34 - enero de 2008 Actividades
Culturales Exposición "De la España que emigra a la España que acoge",
en Huelva --
La exposición itinerante "De la España que emigra a la España que acoge"
ha hecho parada, en esta ...

Virtual Path to Diversity :: Inside Higher Ed

http://www.insidehighered.com/

Feb. 12

Virtual Path to Diversity

At UMUC, the population of black students includes a large percentage with some previous college education, but without a bachelor’s degree, said Susan Aldridge, the president. Their experience suggests that there may be significant numbers of black people who could complete bachelor’s programs without starting from scratch, if provided with the right flexibility, which typically includes online education, she said.

Most of the black students — like most of UMUC’s other students as well — are holding down jobs and can only consider educational programs that can fit into tight schedules. The students aren’t necessarily looking for online programs, and sign up for the in-person courses that UMUC offers, but typically use a “mix and match approach” in which they rely on online education to get the required credits. “This is about giving access to students so they can take care of their work schedules,” Aldridge said.

While these students have jobs, Aldridge said that the university was also trying to reach a more disadvantaged population through new scholarships for unemployed people, and was raising money to create a fund to provide laptops for them. Most of these students are gravitating to certificate programs, not degree programs, at least at first, Aldridge said. A bachelor’s program can be “daunting,” she said...SOURCE

Over Five Million Dead in Congo? How Truth is Hidden, Even When it Seems to Be Told

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=519&Itemid=37

Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
blackagendareport.com -
The International Rescue Committee in late January 2008 released a new report on the mortality in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The report caught the eye of some news agencies, who quickly whipped up trite little articles as supposed expressions of horror. Over and over the DRC has been declared "the world's forgotten crises." There are reasons why Darfur is the crises of the day, the poster crises, and why Congo is hardly mentioned....SOURCE