Top Cop rejects placing police in schools:
By CANDIA DAMES, NG News Editor -
Nassau, Bahamas:


Acting Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson expressed opposition to placing police officers in schools, and was against legalizing gaming for Bahamians, when he appeared before the House Select Committee on Crime this week, but he voiced support for capital punishment.

"I really don't agree with policemen in the schools," said Ferguson during the committee hearing at the British Colonial Hilton. "I think if we get to the point where we have to put policemen in the schools, if we determine that's our only salvation, I think it is an indictment on us."

The acting commissioner suggested that placing policemen in schools would give the impression that a police camp or police state exists.

What is needed, he said, is better collaboration between parents and teachers, and he added that administrators ought to have autonomy to deal with disciplinary matters.

Ferguson said the police are currently working with school officials to address security concerns, although officers are not stationed on school campuses.

Committee Chairman Dr. Bernard Nottage, who is the leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly, asked Ferguson how a police presence would threaten the autonomy of teachers.

The acting commissioner said, "I think the presence of police on a campus almost automatically interferes in an adverse way." He said police officers are authority figures, more so than teachers.

"And so, it provides that kind of conflict," Ferguson added.

The issue of police officers on school campuses had been a controversial one in the months before and after last year's general election, with former Prime Minister Perry Christie repeatedly touting the benefits of having officers stationed on campuses, and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham voicing objections to it.

While Christie once brought a large assortment of weapons confiscated from students to the House of Assembly to support his case, Ingraham has said police officers are not baby-sitters and should not be in schools. With a change in government came a change in the policy of school policing, which was abandoned.

Ferguson said Wednesday that there is school policing in the United States, but he said The Bahamas shouldn't put police in schools just because other people do it.

On the issue of legalizing gambling for Bahamians, Ferguson said he is against it. He was responding to a question asked by Kennedy MP Kenyatta Gibson, who is a former chairman of the Gaming Board. Gibson, the only independent member of Parliament, has repeatedly stated his support for a national lottery. He repeated it during Wednesday's hearing when he questioned the acting commissioner.

"There's a school of thought to legalize," Ferguson acknowledged. "I don't agree that we should." He said he could not comprehend how anyone would want to gamble their hard earned money.

"I do not believe that we as a people, as a nation, ought to be [gambling]," Ferguson added, saying that was his personal view.

He insisted that the police do conduct regular raids of numbers houses, but told the committee, "We seem to be the villain whenever we take such action."

The prime minister said in Parliament several months ago, that he had expressed a view to the police commissioner that perhaps gambling should be legalized for Bahamians. His statements in this regard had re-ignited a long-running debate. On the issue of capital punishment, the acting commissioner said while he did not know whether it was a deterrent, he knows it is punishment for murderers.

"From that perspective," he said, "I think we need to carry out capital punishment."

The last hanging in The Bahamas took place in January 2000, when David Mitchell met his fate at the gallows.

У меня появилось новое слово-фаворит qualunquistichi (куалюнкуистики), что значит любые, какие бы то ни были, но как прилагательное, для мужского рода.

Я и не сразу поняла, что, помимо ажурного спеллинга, слово имеет большой исторический багаж, ибо означает еще и относящийся к qualquinismo и политической риторике.
Т.е поосторожней с ним надо в Италии

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - The recent trouble with the ISS, caused by simple computer virus capable of stealing logins and passwords for computer games only, was minor compared to possible environmental changes that could make space flights impossible. This could also cripple aviation and television, and even put terrestrial life at risk.

It's about the Earth's geomagnetic field, changing rapidly and frequently. Scientists from the Institute for Geomagnetism at the Russian Academy of Sciences say the Earth's magnet poles are gradually drifting towards the Equator, with the field intensity falling slowly, but steadily. The latter was considered to reach zero point in about 2,000 years, which would be a disaster for living organisms. The rate of changes happening to the planet's liquid core (movement of the liquid and the solid parts of the Earth's core generate an electric potential, making the planet a sort of an electric generator - A.K.), however, could mean that the polarity shift is going to happen much sooner.

If a hundred years ago somebody said that the South and the North could switch places, he would be definitely taken to a mental hospital. Nevertheless, as early as 1906, it was revealed that in the past magnetisation of some rocks was opposite to that of the present day, making it clear that some time ago it was different from the modern time.

In 2001, an international polar expedition revealed that in the recent seven years the North magnetic pole shifted around 300 km (186.4 miles). Currently, it is drifting 40 km (24.85 miles) a year from the Canadian Arctic shelf towards Russia's Severnaya Zemlya islands. Scientists predict the North Pole could eventually be found in South Atlantic. An extensive anomaly area with the magnetic field intensity at around 60% of the predicted value shows the forecast is likely to score.

In the recent 20 years, the planet's magnetic field intensity has decreased by 1.7%, and in South Atlantic by 10%. In the last two hundred years, the Earth's magnetic field has seen a 10% decrease in intensity.

What is the danger, after all? Russian scientists say changes in the magnetic field would lead to the anti-radiation protection falling, with space flights becoming impossible and energy-dependent systems, including mobile phones and satellites, failing. Then, solar and space radiation would affect the genome of the organisms inhabiting the Earth, causing some of them to become extinct, and others to have a much larger per cent of mutations. Taking into account the solar flares, accompanied by extremely powerful electrojet currents, life is likely to become impossible on Earth before the full magnetic field collapses.

Sounds terrible. But may be there's no need to dramatise and we will not face giant blood-thirsty killer ants from Hollywood horror movies? May be. Recent reports say that in the last 90 million years, the magnetic poles changed around every 500,000 years, with no total extinction of mass genetical mutations of living organisms taking place and the atmosphere remaining a reliable guarantor of security of the Earth's biosphere.

Equipment, created by the human genius and becoming his incorruptible prison ward, would have it harder.

The above mentioned processes are especially hazardous for computer systems, which are vital for the modern economy. Even today, magnetic storms caused by solar activity inflict huge losses to mankind. A decrease in the Earth's magnetic field intensity would boost the power of magnetic storms and therefore cripple flight connection, with avionics failing.

Besides that, any flight by plane would be dangerous to man. Today, in the low-pressure upper atmosphere, the effect of radiation is becoming more marked. In 2000, a Euro Commission directive relegated pilots and flight attendants to high risk jobs. The geomagnetic field keeps protecting us during flights so far, but what lies ahead?

On the other hand, scientists haven't established so far, if the changes happening to the geomagnetic field are reversible. Nobody has ever found out why the Earth's history has seen times when the magnet poles remained unshifted as long as 50 million years. May be, things will turn out well anyway?


rian.ru

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

16:50 | 05/ 09/ 2008

После загрузки Chrome, Гугл попросил меня официально признаться в своих языковых предпочтениях.

For Colorss Foundation the months of July and August had been hectic. We were busy carrying out surveys and meeting people. As mentioned in the last blog we are still doing a survey to find out the monetary transaction patters of visually impaired people. Its really important to trust when it comes to monetary transactions.

We are about to launch Project Iris - 'Iris' is a small, easy to use and simple mechanical device that will help identify Indian currency to visually impaired people of India. The device 'Iris' would empower visually impaired people. In the initial phase we plan for national launch and then move to other countries as well.

Survey response has been good, we do encourage more who can help us get questionnaires filled up by visually impaired people. These inputs will enhance us.

Our website is under constructions, we are looking for volunteers who can help design us a website. We need volunteers for other areas of work too.. If anyone is interested please email me at anand.koti@gmail.com.

Thanking you very much for your time and energy.

For Love,
Anand

Refreshed and ready for Med 2.0 day two.  One of the topics that I’m finding most interesting here is the discussion about online patient support groups and patient generated content.

Yesterday, while presenting his study of people living with HIV/AIDS use of online support groups, Neil Coulson challenged the assumption that those receiving support online are feeling more supported, and thus experiencing better health outcomes.  Although he mentioned that there might be some difficulty with his study methods, his results indicated that there didn’t seem to be much difference between people who were frequent, infrequent or non users.

On the other hand, though, this morning Joanne Mayoh made a case for patient generated content, citing Darwikinism (the rigourous patrol of content by online peers and experts) as the main reason to trust it.

I realize that I can sometimes judge technologies based on the theory, rather than reality.  Closer looks is what this conference is all about.

A growing chorus against EPA:
The Nassau Guardian Editorial -
Nassau, Bahamas:




The Bahamas government has recently announced its intentions to hold a series of town meetings on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to discuss and hopefully, clarify matters of concern to the general public, special interest groups, academics and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

That course of action is not only timely, it is critical to addressing a topic which appears to be gathering detractors at an increasing rate, both here in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean, as the days go by.

State Finance Minister Zhivargo Laing correctly noted that one of the most vociferous local critics of the agreement is the BARF group and although that group apparently opposes The Bahamas entering into any trade agreements, it is not the only one, and the many other less vocal individuals and groups would also need to be heard on this important issue.

This proposed EPA with the European Union is attracting much attention and consternation both here and in the Caribbean because it differs radically from all former trade agreements executed by Caribbean nations.

To begin with the earlier trade agreements with the U.S. (Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act); the European Union (Lome Agreements followed by the Cotanou Agreements); Canada (CARIBCAN) were essentially one-way-street preferential agreements which were restricted to Caribbean products having tariff-free entry into the markets of those developed countries on a non-reciprocal basis.

The EPA on the other hand, would make provisions for tariff-free access for both goods and services from the Caribbean countries to enter European markets while at the same time, extending the same market access privileges to European goods and services entering the Caribbean.

In addition to the denunciation of the proposed trade agreement by the government of Guyana, the list of detractors now includes the Barbados Manufacturers Association which is of the view that the agreement is not in the best interest of the region and that the repercussions are likely to be so severe that the matter should not proceed without a referendum; a number of trade consultants who are of the view that the fiscal implications of the agreement have not been fully fleshed out and may cost Caribbean governments much more than originally estimated, not to mention the impact the EPA might have on any future trade agreements the region might wish to entertain.

The Barbados Agricultural Society was somewhat less subtle but more to the point in its conclusion that the agreement was a "bad deal" and that the governments, intellectuals and trade unions who negotiated the agreement had failed the region. The newly installed government in Grenada is reported to have said that they will delay signing-on until it has had the opportunity to properly review the implications.

Other experts were more optimistic while acknowledging that mistakes were made, they were of the view that the Caribbean governments and that of the Dominican Republic were determined to sign the agreement in September and in those circumstances, manufacturers, businesses and other members of civil society ought to look ahead and make the best of the situation by finding ways and means to exist in the new trading order.

It is difficult to determine the precise impact the EPA will have on any member of CARICOM including The Bahamas since comprehensive trade data is lacking in some instances; the differing timetables for full implementation; the inability to project or anticipate any new services areas that may become available in the future; and the exact nature of non-tariff barriers that may exist in Europe to derail the cross-border flow of goods and investment.

What we could determine at this point however, is that the growing concern and uncertainty regarding the likely impact of the EPA needs to be carefully explained both here in The Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean region.

The Pigalle is not short of trendy downtown charm. It’s a little bit glitzy and supper-clubbish: definitely not the usual setting for “2% jazz, 98% funk” kind of music. Luckily, there is no better man to bring a venue to life than Maceo Parker, playing here with his nine-piece band featuring UK trombone star Dennis Rollins. Early on, the saxophonist stirred people up by patrolling dinner tables, many of which then gave way to open up a heaving dancefloor.

Song lengths went well into double figures without exception, moving up and down the dynamic spectrum with frightening rigidity. At times it felt a little like too much filler and not enough funk – Maceo would go through long periods without lifting horn to mouth – but since the set lasted almost three hours, we probably shouldn’t complain. And when he did play, he really played – with a towering stage presence, signature piercing tone and perfectly controlled melodic phrasing. It’s no exaggeration to state Maceo as the seminal influence on a generation of funk saxophonists.

Despite the drawbacks of the club, this was a rare chance to see Maceo on stage in such an intimate venue. Even at the age of 65, the former James Brown sideman shows no sign of slowing down. The king is dead, long live the king.



< Published in London Tourdates, 5/9/08.

Deputy Dog has some neat photos of six cars designed to be insanely environmentally friendly.

the term ‘eco-friendly’ is on everybody’s lips at the moment and thankfully it’s not going to disappear any time soon. let’s take a quick look into the near future and find out what we may be driving 20 years from now, in a time when, hopefully, gas-guzzlers are a thing of the past and our robotic butlers will have to plug our cars into the mains overnight.

Assassination attempts foiled:
By CANDIA DAMES, Guardian News Editor -
Nassau, Bahamas:




The Royal Bahamas Police Force is increasingly driven by intelligence-led policing, which has thwarted assassination attempts on magistrates, prosecutors and witnesses, Acting Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson revealed yesterday while testifying before the House of Assembly's Select Committee on Crime.

But he noted that some witnesses have "paid the ultimate" price. Ferguson was referring to the murders of some witnesses who were lined up to testify in certain cases.

Such occurrences led to the government establishing a Witness Protection Program, but the acting commissioner was not questioned on how the program was functioning.

He was also not asked to name the magistrates, prosecutors and witnesses whose lives were threatened.

Ferguson, the first witness to appear before the committee, also told the five-member panel during the hearing at the British Colonial Hilton Nassau that police intelligence has foiled bank robberies; led to the interdiction of major drug shipments; resulted in the confiscation of millions of dollars, the seizure of high powered firearms and grenades and assisted in tracking suspects.

The police chief said intelligence-led policing is one of nine strategies being employed to address the high level of crime in The Bahamas.

"Intelligence-led policing will continue to be a focal point of the force's strategy to enable officers to prevent and detect crimes that may otherwise go undetected," he said. "It has been proven that with the effective gathering of information, the police can work smarter in its efforts to stem the flow of lawlessness in all segments of the community."

Ferguson also reported that while the level of crime is still far too high, the fear of crime seems to be decreasing. This is seen from the feedback that the force is getting from various areas of the community, he said.

Pointing to the impact lifestyle choices are having on the level of crime in the country, the police chief said that for 2008 statistics have shown that eight out of 10 murder victims knew their assailant.

"The force has beefed up its intelligence gathering capacity," Ferguson said. "And while we are still inviting members of the public to come forward with more information on crimes and suspects, we are pleased that the numbers are increasing. There is also a concern with the seemingly increasing use of violence in the commission of the most basic crimes. This lends itself to the likelihood of a minor offense becoming a major one."

The acting police commissioner, who was speaking under oath, also told the panel that the impact of the increased cost of living has caused some people who would normally be honest to "resort to being tempted" to purchase goods that they know may have been gotten through criminal activity.

Despite the challenges, Ferguson insisted that the Police Force was doing "an excellent job" in fighting crime. He was responding to a question asked by committee chairman, Dr. Bernard Nottage, who is the leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly.

Nottage also pressed the police chief on whether reported acts of corruption involving police officers and politicians were being properly investigated. Ferguson assured that corruption claims against police are properly dealt with and he asked Nottage whether he wanted to point to a specific case involving a politician. No such case was highlighted, however.

Ferguson agreed that a national agency to investigate corruption would be beneficial.

The acting commissioner also raised concerns about what he called the ever increasing number of criminal deportees from North America and other countries.

"These individuals that have very little connection to The Bahamas can in time become the next wave of criminal underclass that local law enforcers have to deal with," he said.

Ferguson is expected to testify before the committee again at a date to be announced. The select committee on crime will make recommendations to Parliament on how to address the issue, Nottage said. Other committee members are Kennedy MP Kenyatta Gibson, FNM MP Kendal Wright and PLP MPs Glenys Hanna-Martin and Frank Smith, who each got a turn to question the acting commissioner on the crime situation in The Bahamas and how the Police Force is responding to it.

Superintendent of Prisons Dr. Elliston Rahming is scheduled to testify before the committee this morning.

Senator John McCain, the US Republican choice for presidential nominee, has made an ill-advised, highly political choice of vice presidential candidates in Sarah Palin. She is an incredibly under-accomplished, far-right wing, inexperienced woman whose only significant political experience is being the governor of Alaskaa and an Alaskan city of 9,000 people, Wasilla.

One might think that this woman, who only holds an undergraduate degree from Idaho State and whose policies reflect her utter lack of education and grip on reality, foreign policy, economics, defense, environment, etc, might be unelectable. Unfortunately, as the election of George W Bush before her proves, Americans are apt to vote based purely on personality, looks and lifestyle, not on qualifications, education, policy or experience.

Beyond Palin's corrupt political career, abandonment of her own home state in pursuit of national political aims (her lobbying for a $200 million bridge to connect an empty town in Alaska to a local airport, and then voting against her own bridge after it became clear the country was in uproar, as other bridges in other states collapsed and multiple fatalities resulted), her undistinguished careeer as an almost-beauty queen, her support for oil-drilling on the Alaskan coast to support her personal and family oil company financial interests, and anti-environment policies, etc, Sarah Palin is a rabid right winger against women's human rights.

Ironically, her stance against sex education in schools, and her support of abstinence-only until marriage education, has resulted in her own daughter, Bristol, becoming an unmarried pregnant teenager at 17 years old. Her boyfriend Levi vows on his since-erased MySpace page that he "doesn't want kids." Yet this week, Palin has forced her daughter into becoming engaged to her underaged boyfriend still in high school, in order to uphold her political appearance and candidacy for vice president.

Terrifyingly, McCain is the oldest potential incumbent in the United States, at 70 years old. Were McCain to pop off during the presidency, this woman would become President of the United States. Even more ironically, this woman who is the staunchest opponent to women's rights wishes to reverse the slow and painstaking progress made to gender inequality over the past 100 years. She would reverse Roe v. Wade and she opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

Here's some information about how "Sarah Barracuda", a self-termed "hockey mom" and mother of five, feels about people's ability to make their own choices about their sexual and reproductive health:

Source:
[Think Progress]

Palin Is A Member Of Anti-Abortion Group Feminists For Life. Palin is a member of an “anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life.” When running for governor in 2002, she “sent an e-mail to the anti-abortion Alaska Right to Life Board saying she was as ‘pro-life as any candidate can be’ and has ‘adamantly supported our cause since I first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion.’”

[Anchorage Daily News, 8/6/08]

Palin Opposes Abortion Even In Cases Of Rape Or Incest. In 2006, Palin said that even if her daughter were raped, “I would choose life.” She said that she would support abortion only if the mother’s life were in danger.

[Anchorage Daily News, 11/3/06]

Palin Slashed Funding To Help Teenage Mothers. Earlier this year, Palin used a line-item veto “to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.” Funding for Covenant House Alaska, which provides transitional housing for teen mothers, was cut by 20 percent — from $5 million to $3.9 million.

[Washington Post,9/3/08]

Palin Supports Abstinence-Only Policies. In 2006, the Eagle Forum Alaska asked Palin whether she would “support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education.” Palin replied, “Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.”

[Politico, 9/1/08]

Palin Supports Parental Consent Laws For Minors Seeking Abortions. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin was “disappointed lawmakers let a bill die requiring girls under 17 to get parental consent for an abortion. ‘My belief is parents have the right to know about the health and welfare of their children,’ she said.”

[Anchorage Daily News, 8/14/08]

Если мне когда-нибудь доверят написать главу некоего Пособия для гостей и тусовщиков, то правило номер один будет звучать так:
Не стоит спать в гостях до 11 утра.

Оговорка.
Если, конечно, вы не вместе с хозяевами заснули в 8 утра, как водится в некоторых радушных домах, например, в Одинцово

There has been a lot of interest into using algae has a fuel before, and recently we on Things Are Good we saw that algae can be used for nearly any engine. The aviation industry is no different when it comes to celebrating algae as they are looking into mixing kerosene with algae.

According to the ASU researchers, their kerosene provides a competitive advantage because it eliminates an expensive thermal cracking process which is necessary for traditional kerosene production.

The new algae kerosene fuel is compatible with jet planes when mixed with a small amount of fuel additives.

And with the increasing speed of new developments in algae fuel, we may all be driving around in algae-powered cars and flying algae-powered planes within the next few decades.

alberton: Off to a meeting in covent garden.

First day of Medicine 2.0 today.  In general, the conference hasn’t focused on my global health and tech interests but is looking at practical solutions for Western health issues.  It was probably naive of me, but I didn’t expect such an academic focus: the presenters keep reminding us that they’re not tech people, but rather sociologists, anthropologists and epidemiologists.  In my head, technology is this explosive, creative, exciting thing that constantly surprises and challenges me.  The approaches highlighted here are pragmatic rather than mindblowing.  So I’m missing the global health elements, but learning a lot about practical approaches to public health and physician support online.

I always need a few days to process, but for now here are some links:

Jason Bonander from the Center for Disease Control presented on his research into how people are presenting their health behaviours and risks online by collecting data from 100 open Myspace profiles (eg, people who identified their body type or who could be seen smoking in their profile pictures).  His view seems to be that people are already sharing health data online — lets build widgits to channel this info into prevention.  He also mentioned a project called RiskBot that seems very interesting but I can’t find any more online…

Canadian Medical Association’s online initiatives MyDoctor.ca and the just-launched Asklepios offer services for Canadian physicians including professional networking and web development.  The patient platforms are geared towards chronic disease monitoring and electronic health records.

OntarioMD offers similar (but seemingly more polished and responsive) sites for Ontario doctors.  They have broken things down into three work modes and three corresponding sites: clinical, practice management and collaboration, acknowledging that physicians are spending significant amounts of time outside of clinical activities.

Bloggers Jen McCabe Gorman and Berty Mesko presented as well, though I only caught the end of the presentation.

More tomorrow!