Wednesday, October 23, 2013

NBC News clips


Baby-snatchers or scapegoats? Mystery girl case shines spotlight on Roma

The couple who were found with a 4-year-old blonde girl named Maria who's unrelated to them have explained how they obtained custody, telling authorities that a prostitute handed them the girl to care for. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

LONDON -- For generations, children growing up in Europe have been warned not to wander away from their parents in case a "Gypsy" would steal them.
The stereotype of the child-snatching Gypsy -- a term for Roma people that is now considered derogatory -- has resurfaced with the case of Maria, the mystery blonde, blue-eyed girl found living in Greece with a couple who were not her biological parents.
Her discovery, during a police raid on a Roma camp last week, has fueled long-held suspicion of the minority group. 
"My mother told me I should never go with the Gypsies in the wood," said Gary Craig, professor of social justice at Britain’s Durham University, echoing the lines of a common U.K. nursery rhyme. "That’s a song you will still hear sung. What sort of image does it portray? [That] they are dangerous." 

More than 10 million Roma live in Europe, many of them in impoverished conditions on the outskirts of large cities.
They have been labeled as kidnappers, thieves, swindlers and beggars for centuries.
Maria's case has shone a light on recent real examples of members of the Roma community involved in kidnapping and subjecting children to forced labor, involving them in begging schemes or illegal adoptions. 
In 2010, police busted a Romanian gang that had kidnapped 181 children from poor families and brought them to Britain to commit petty thefts or beg for money – with some deliberately mutilated to appear disabled so that they would earn more money.
According to a State Department report on human trafficking, 2012 saw an increase in the number of Roma children from Bulgaria being brought to Greece with promises of employment – only to be subjected to forced petty crimes and begging.
Since their arrival from India into Eastern Europe in the 16th century, Roma have suffered from discrimination, according to Craig.

In the same century, Queen Elizabeth I expelled Roma from Britain, blaming them for the country’s faltering economy. Tens of thousands of Roma were killed in Nazi Germany.
"Romanis have always been regarded with suspicion," Craig added. "Because they’re not settled, they've tended to be regarded as foreigners and others. Because they’re from a minority culture they get treated in the way that many minorities have been for hundreds of years.”
Roma used to travel to find work, but nowadays the majority are no longer truly nomadic.
Underemployed and under-educated, Roma communities tend to live under the radar across Europe, in a climate of mistrust between them and their host country’s majority population. 
Their camps have been shut down in Italy and the U.K. In France, Interior Minister Manual Valls has said the ethnic group should be expelled from the country because “only a minority” of them can be integrated into French society.
“This is stigmatizing the whole Roma community in Europe,” said Ivan Ivanov, executive director of the Brussels-based non-profit advocacy group European Roma Information Office.

Thunde Buzetzki, a facilitator at Decade of Roma Inclusion, an international partnership aimed at improving the community’s socio-economic status, said that negative stereotypes remained ingrained.
“No one sees the Roma families who are struggling to survive, discriminated against in the labor market, in health, but this is a large population trying to survive by migrating to other countries," she said.
Buzetski said that while "a certain percentage ... may be petty criminals," the Roma have been "scapegoated."
Figures from the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, show one in three Roma is unemployed and as many as 90 percent live below the poverty line. Only 15 percent of Roma children obtain minimum schooling requirements.
Viviane Reding, vice president for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship at the European Commission, called improving the situation for Roma people “one of the biggest challenges facing Europe.”  
While not denying that kidnappings and selling children do occur in some Roma communities, Ivanov said it’s usually as a last resort and a means for survival.
“There is no evidence that this child [Maria] was kidnapped," he added.
DNA tests show Maria was not born to the Romas. The couple has been accused of abducting Maria. However, they told a court Monday that the girl’s biological mother gave her to them willingly as a baby because she could not take care of her. 
Police have launched an international appeal to find Maria's biological parents. Thousands of calls have flooded in since officials released photos of Maria. The Smile of the Child charity is currently caring for her in Athens. 

Gypsy! Gypsy! I came across some people begging who I decided must be Roma. They were very dark and small in stature and dressed in plain, dark clothing. I didn't give them any money, because I could tell they were professional beggars. There were three of them in a group canvassing the cafeteria where I was eating. I felt sorry for them, but I didn't trust them. They didn't stay very long – just collected some money and left. I felt guilty for not giving them any money. I felt like a privileged person being discriminatory, though in fact I didn't have much money myself to give them. I felt that they pursue their lifestyle purposely, which they do, but of course their whole frame of reference is different from settled working people who are of our cultural background. I have taken a clip from Wikipedia's information on Gypsies. Gypsy, by the way, is now considered a pejorative term. There are about a dozen different groups who have a nomadic lifestyle in modern times. See the Wiki article below.



Ethnic groups
Gypsy, an English term for Romani or other groups with a traditionally non-sedentary lifestyle (sometimes considered pejorative)
Romani, a traditionally nomadic ethnic group, mostly of South Asian origin
Sri Lankan Gypsies, an ethnic group from Sri Lanka of South Asian origin
Banjara, a class of nomadic people in South Asia
Dom, an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, mostly of South Asian origin
Domba, an ethnic group in India
Lyuli, an ethnic group in Central Asia
Lom, an ethnic group in Turkey and Armenia
Travellers and other traditionally itinerant groups in Europe, mostly of European ethnic origin
Irish Travellers, a traditionally itinerant group, mostly of Irish/British origin
Norwegian Travellers, a traditionally itinerant group, mostly of Norwegian origin
Scottish Travellers, a number of diverse, unrelated communities in Scotland, mostly of Scottish/British origin
Yeniche people, a traditionally nomadic group in Western and Central Europe, mostly of Swiss/German/French origin
Sea Gypsies, several Southeast Asian nomadic groups living on houseboats

From a web-site called “Gypsy Roma Traveler Leeds”, here below is a quick history of the Roma or Romani in Europe.

Early Years
Around 1000
Romany people reach the area of modern Turkey and Greece.
1322
Simeon Simeonis, a visiting monk, writes an account of Gypsies in Crete and living in "oblong tents, black and low like the Arahs" and in caves.
1505
First record of Gypsies in Britain.
1530
First law expelling Gypsies from England.
1554
First law making being an immigrant Gypsy in England a crime punishable by death.

Illustration from a book published in 1552 of Gypsies in Switzerland
1596
106 men and women condemned to death at York just for being Gypsies, but only 9 are executed. The others prove they were born in England.
1650's
Last known execution for being Gypsies, in Suffolk. Others are transported to America.
18th Century
Dutch government follows policy of getting rid of Gypsies. Some Gypsies tried to charter ships to escape to America. They were chased by Rotterdam port authorities who forced them to jump overboard.
1700

The map above shows the main routes of the Gypsies out of India up to about 1700. (I apologize. This map will not copy.) The greatest numbers stayed in Eastern Europe and were called Rom. In Northern and Western Europe many were called Romanichals. In Spain and southern France were the Cale. These names included many smaller groups. Non-Gypsies called them different names e,g. 'Gypsies' in England, 'Gitanos' in Spain. from' Gypsies' by T Acton 1981.
1750's
By selling themselves as slave labour a few reached Pennsylvania. They escaped and formed a community known as the Chi-keners or "Black Dutch" and are still to be found in America today.
1768 - 1782
Maria Theresa and Joseph II try to force Gypsies to settle with several government decrees.
1782
Census in Hungary of Gypsies. Of 43,787 Gypsies counted 1,582 were musicians.


 
The 19th Century
1816
John Hoyland, a Quaker, writes the first serious book calling for better treatment for Gypsies in England. Several charitable projects follow; but many Gypsies are transported as criminals to Australia.
1830's
First wooden horse-drawn caravans developed.


1880's
Agricultural depression brings poverty to many Gypsies, who move to squatter areas near towns.
1885-95
Unsuccessful attempts to introduce Moveable Dwellings bills in Parliament to regulate Gypsy life.
1889
The Showmen's Guild formed to oppose Moveable Dwellings Bills: Showmen begin to become a distinct group from other Travellers or Gypsies.


 
The 20th Century
1908
Children's Act: Education made compulsory for Travelling Gypsy children, but only for half the year. This was continued in the 1944 Education Act, but many Gypsy children still have no schooling.


1939-45
Second World War. Up to 500,000 Gypsies killed in Europe; Nazis draw up lists of English Gypsies for internment. British government creates caravan sites for families of Gypsies in the army or doing farm labour. These sites are closed after the war.
1945-60
Gypsies begin to use motor-drawn trailers, and buy land for their own stopping-places.
1960
Caravan Sites (Control and Development) Act stops new private sites being built until 1972. Eviction and harassment of Gypsies starts to reach a crisis.


1966
Growing eviction and harassment leads to formation of Gypsy Council to fight for sites.
1967
First Gypsy Council summer school, in Essex. National Gypsy Education Council follows in 1970 (renamed Gypsy Council for Education, Culture, Welfare and Civil Rights in l991).
1968
Caravan Sites Act insists that from 1970, local authorities should provide caravan sites for Gypsies. This Act is never fully enforced.
1971
First World Romany Congress held in London.
1972
Government begins to exempt some councils from building sites. The Gypsy Council begins to split. Government starts to give grants only to Gypsy organizations who co-operate with it.
1978
Second World Romany Congress in Switzerland, founds International Romani Union - accepted as representing Gypsies by the United Nations in 1979.
1989
22 May: European Union starts five-year programme for the education of Gypsy children.
1994
Criminal Justice Act abolishes Caravan Sites Act leaving about 5,000 families with no legal home. British Gypsies look to Europe for protection.

A longer and more detailed history can be found on the website entitled “Scottishgypsies.co.UK.” I would like to find a book about the Roma, their culture and history. This article said that they have a very close-knit community and as a result don't tend to blend with the local populations and settle down. They also don't usually get an education, so they don't read about the established people in the area or change their “other” mind-set. The following, about their religion, is taken from Wikipedia.

Beliefs[edit]
The ancestors of modern day Romani people were previously Hindu but adopted Christianity or Islam depending on their respective countries due to missionary activities.[110]
Deities and saints[edit]
Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla is considered a patron saint of the Romani people in Roman Catholicism.[111] Saint Sarah, or Kali Sara, has also been worshipped as a patron saint in the same manner as the Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla, but a transition has occurred in the 21st century, whereby Kali Sara is understood as an Indian deity brought from India by the refugee ancestors of the Roma people, thereby removing any Christian association. Saint Sarah is progressively being considered as "a Romani Goddess, the Protectress of the Roma" and an "indisputable link with Mother India".[112]
Ceremonies and practices[edit]
Romanies often adopt the dominant religion of their host country in the event that a ceremony associated with a formal religious institution is necessary, such as a baptism or funeral (their particular belief systems and indigenous religion and worship remain preserved regardless of such adoption processes). The Roma continue to practice "Shaktism", a practice with origins in India, whereby a female consort is required for the worship of a god. Adherence to this practice means that for the Roma who worship a Christian God, prayer is conducted through the Virgin Mary, or her mother, Saint Anne—Shaktism continues over one thousand years after the people's separation from India.[113]
Besides the Roma elders, who serve as spiritual leaders, priests, churches, or bibles do not exist among the Romanies—the only exception is the Pentecostal Roma.[113]





White House Staffer Jofi Joseph Fired for Tweets

A White House staffer is out of a job after posting hundreds of critical anonymous tweets about his bosses, NBC News has confirmed.
Jofi Joseph was a director in the non-proliferation section of the National Security Staff at the White House, The Daily Beast reported. For the last two and a half years, Joseph posted snarky tweets that criticized government policies and his bosses, including President Barack Obama.
Joseph also openly criticized Republican figures.
While the White House has not confirmed the details of the tweets, other sources have, NBC News' Chuck Todd confirmed.
All of the tweets were posted under the handle @natsecwonk, according to the Daily Beast. The account was popular among Washington insiders. While the account is now closed, Favstar, a web service that tracks tweets, has an archive of Josephs' tweets. (Warning: Many of them feature offensive language.)
Daily Beast senior correspondent Josh Rogin was among those who believed the anonymous @natsecwonk was an insider.
"His Twitter feed was a mix of leaking sensitive national security information, criticizing the policies of the administration he worked for and insulting the personalities and appearance of very famous national security officials," Rogin said during an interview on NBC's Today Show.
In his Twitter bio, Joseph listed himself as a keen observer of the national security scene who was  unapologetic in saying what everyone else only thought. He was fired last week, NBC Washington has learned.
According to Rogin, White House and State department officials worked for months to uncover @NatSecWonk's true identity. The search intensified after he tweeted repeatedly about his doubts on the official accounts on the attack in Benghazi.
In an email to POLITICO, Joseph admitted to being the creator of the account, writing, “What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments.  I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted."
There's no word on how his termination will impact his wife, who also has a high profile job on Capitol Hill.

People seem to think that computer geeks can't find out their identities when they post on the web. I never trust any information coming from an anonymous source, anyway. Such comments only increase the hostility in on the job situations. I always hated the gossip groups on jobs. I am very sensitive to a poisonous atmosphere among people. It's a good thing they fired him.




Police Officer Accused of Stealing Pricey Sneakers Shoes During Drug Raid

A veteran police sergeant in North Texas was arrested Tuesday and accused of stealing fancy new tennis shoes during a drug raid.
Sgt. Antoine Williams, 37, a supervisor in the Fort Worth Police Department's narcotics unit, took the sneakers during a search of a suspected drug house in East Fort Worth on Oct. 16, according to court documents.
Two officers involved in the raid reported what had happened, and the department's Special Investigations Section searched Williams' Arlington home on the following day, the documents said. Inside, investigators seized four pairs of shoes, including Air Jordans similar to the shoes missing in the drug raid.
The original drug raid quickly drew the attention of neighbors in the 4800 block of Richardson Street in Fort Worth.

But Green, 21, said police didn't find what they were looking for.
"They didn't find no drugs in the house at all," he said. "They just took shoes that I ain't never wore."
As police were raiding his house, two officers pulled him over nearby, accused him of running a red light and took him to jail, Green said. He insists that he never ran any red light.
After a night in jail, he noticed several pairs of brand-new, expensive shoes were missing from his closet, along with a "Grand Theft Auto" video game and thousands of dollars in cash that he and his girlfriend were saving to rent an apartment, Green said.
Police reported finding $1,060 in the raid, but Green said he had closer to $3,000.
According to court documents, two officers tipped off the department that Williams, who was in charge of the drug raid, kept the pricey shoes.
Williams remains on restricted duty at the police department, which means he cannot carry a gun or badge.
He is the third Fort Worth police officer to be fired or accused of a crime in recent weeks.


I wonder why he is still on duty. The police need to punish their officers if they commit a criminal offense. For an amoral person, there is too much temptation in a chaotic situation like a drug bust. It's too easy to get away with theft. It looks like he stole some of the money, as well as the shoes. There was $3,000 and he only reported finding $1,060.




Vatican suspends Germany's 'bishop bling' after multimillion-dollar renovation

A senior member of the Catholic Church known as the "luxury bishop" has been suspended from his diocese in Germany while the Vatican investigates a house refurbishment that reportedly ran into the millions of dollars.
Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg, who had been under pressure to resign, will leave his diocese for an unspecified period, the Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday. Monsignor Wolfgang Roesch will be in charge of the diocese during the bishop's absence, the Vatican added.
Tebartz-van Elst "cannot presently exercise his episcopal ministry," the statement said.
The Vatican also said it would audit spending on renovations to the bishop's residence, which Germany's Spiegel magazine reported cost up to 31 million euros ($42.70 million).
The move comes as Pope Francis, who has shunned many aspects of past pontiffs' lavish lifestyles, has been calling for simplicity, humbleness and an increased focus on serving the poor. 
According to a statement from the diocese, Tebartz-van Elst met with Francis Monday and was "grateful for the very heartening meeting."
German media, which had dubbed Tebartz-van Elst "bishop bling" and the "luxury bishop," reported that his residence had been fitted with expensive items such as a $35,000 conference table and a private chapel that cost almost $4 million. 

The bishop has denied any wrongdoing.


This Pope has made a number of forward-looking and unexpected decisions. He may be bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century. He is a free-thinker and a courageous man. Below is a biography from Wikipedia.

Francis (Latin: Franciscus; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church[2] having been elected Bishop of Rome. He is thereby also the Sovereign of Vatican City.
Born in Buenos Aires as the son of Italian parents, Bergoglio worked briefly as a chemical technician before entering seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1969. From 1973 to 1979 he was Argentina's Provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and a cardinal in 2001. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, on 13 March 2013 the papal conclave elected Bergoglio, who chose the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. [3]
Throughout his life, both as an individual and a religious leader, Bergoglio has been noted for his humility, his concern for the poor, and his commitment to dialogue as a way to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and faiths.[4][5][6] He is known for having a simpler and less formal approach to the papacy, most notably by choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace formerly used by his predecessors. In addition, he is known for favoring simpler vestments void of ornamentation, by starting to refuse the traditional papal mozzetta cape upon his election.[7][8]
Pope Francis, according to news reports summarizing the August 2013 La Civiltà Cattolica interview, claims the Church has concentrated on supervising sex, particularly abortion, contraception and homosexuality while neglecting other important teachings, notably the duty to help those who are poor and marginalized.[9][10][11]
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Flores,[12] a barrio of Buenos Aires. He was the eldest[13] of five children of Mario José Bergoglio, an Italian immigrant accountant[14] born in Portacomaro (Province of Asti) in Italy's Piedmont region, and his wife Regina María Sívori,[15] a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian (Piedmontese-Genoese) origin.[16][17][18][19][20] Bergoglio's sister María Elena told reporters decades later that their father often said that "the advent of fascism was the reason that really pushed him to leave" Italy. She is the pope's only living sibling.[21] His brother Alberto died in June 2010.[22]
Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of the San Lorenzo de Almagro football club.[23][24] Bergoglio is also a fan of the films of Tita Merello[25] and claims to have seen all the Italian movies with Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi; in a lengthy interview with La Civiltà Cattolica he said that La Strada (1954) is "the movie that I perhaps loved the most" and that he identifies with it (he sees an implicit reference to St. Francis in it).[26] He also likes neorealism and of tango dancing, with an "intense fondness" for the traditional music of Argentina and Uruguay known as the milonga.[25] In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco, in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires.[27] He attended the technical secondary school Escuela Nacional de Educación Técnica N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen[28] and graduated with a chemical technician's diploma.[29] He worked for a few years in that capacity in the foods section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory.[30] In the only known health crisis of his youth, at the age of 21 he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts. He had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards.[28][31]
Bergoglio has written about his commitment to open and respectful interfaith dialogue as a way for all parties engaged in that dialogue to learn from one another.[117] In the 2011 book that records his conversations with Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Sobre el cielo y la tierra, Bergoglio said:[117]
Dialogue is born from an attitude of respect for the other person, from a conviction that the other person has something good to say. It assumes that there is room in the heart for the person’s point of view, opinion, and proposal. To dialogue entails a cordial reception, not a prior condemnation. In order to dialogue it is necessary to know how to lower the defenses, open the doors of the house, and offer human warmth.
Religious leaders in Buenos Aires have stated that it was Bergoglio who "opened up the Cathedral in Buenos Aires for interfaith ceremonies".[118] For example, in November 2012 he brought "leaders of the Jewish, Muslim, evangelical, and Orthodox Christian faiths" together in the Cathedral to pray for peace in the Middle East.[118] Leaders quoted in a 2013 Associated Press article said that Bergoglio has a "very deep capacity for dialogue with other religions", and considers "healing divisions between religions a major part of the Catholic Church's mission".[118]
Shortly after his election, the pope called for more interreligious dialogue as a way of "building bridges" and establishing “true links of friendship between all people".[119] He added that it was crucial “to intensify outreach to nonbelievers, so that the differences which divide and hurt us may never prevail".[119] He said that his title of "pontiff" means "builder of bridges", and that it was his wish that "the dialogue between us should help to build bridges connecting all people, in such a way that everyone can see in the other not an enemy, not a rival, but a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced."[119
Bergoglio is recognized for his efforts "to further close the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with the Orthodox Churches".[120] Antoni Sevruk, rector of the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Catherine the Great Martyr in Rome, said that Bergoglio "often visited Orthodox services in the Russian Orthodox Annunciation Cathedral in Buenos Aires" and is known as an advocate on behalf the Orthodox Church in dealing with Argentina's government.[121]
Bergoglio's positive relationship with the Eastern Orthodox Churches is reflected in the fact that Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople attended his installation.[122] This is the first time since the Great Schism of 1054 that the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, a position considered first among equals in the Eastern Orthodox Church organization, has attended a papal installation.[123] Orthodox leaders state that Bartholomew's decision to attend the ceremony shows that the relationship between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is a priority of his, but they also note that Francis's "well-documented work for social justice and his insistence that globalization is detrimental to the poor" may have created a "renewed opportunity" for the two Church communities to "work collectively on issues of mutual concern".[122][e]
Protestantism
Gregory Venables, Anglican Bishop of Argentina, said that Cardinal Bergoglio had told him very clearly that the Personal Ordinariate(s) (the branch of the Catholic Church set up for defecting Anglicans) was "quite unnecessary", and that the Catholic Church needed Anglicans as Anglicans. A spokesman for the Ordinariate said the words were those of Venables, not the Pope.[125]
Mark Hanson, then presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), greeted the news of Bergoglio's election with a public statement that praised his work with Lutherans in Argentina.[126]
Evangelical leaders including Argentine Luis Palau, who moved to the US in his twenties, have welcomed the news of Bergoglio's election as Pope based on his relations with Evangelical Protestants, noting that Bergoglio's financial manager for the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires was an Evangelical Christian whom Bergoglio refers to as a friend.[127] Palau recounts how Bergoglio would not only relax and "drink mate" with that friend, but would also read the Bible and pray with him, based on what Bergoglio called a relationship of friendship and trust.[127] Palau describes Bergoglio's approach to relationships with Evangelicals as one of "building bridges and showing respect, knowing the differences, but majoring on what we can agree on: on the divinity of Jesus, his virgin birth, his resurrection, the second coming."[127] As a result of Bergoglio's election, Palau predicts that "tensions will be eased."[127]
Bergoglio has close ties to the Jewish community of Argentina, and attended Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year) services in 2007 at a synagogue in Buenos Aires. Bergoglio told the Jewish congregation during his visit that he went to the synagogue to examine his heart, "like a pilgrim, together with you, my elder brothers".[130] After the 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish Community Center there that killed 85 people, Bergoglio was the first public figure to sign a petition condemning the attack and calling for justice. Jewish community leaders around the world noted that his words and actions "showed solidarity with the Jewish community" in the aftermath of this attack.[130]
A former head of the World Jewish Congress, Israel Singer, reported that he worked with Bergoglio in the early 2000s, distributing aid to the poor as part of a joint Jewish-Catholic program called "Tzedaká". Singer noted that he was impressed with Bergoglio's modesty, remembering that "if everyone sat in chairs with handles [arms], he would sit in the one without."[130] Bergoglio also co-hosted a Kristallnacht memorial ceremony at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral in 2012,[130] and joined a group of clerics from a number of different religions to light candles in a 2012 synagogue ceremony on the occasion of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.[131]




Pregnant woman thanks Obama for catching her before she fainted

A pregnant woman has thanked President Barack Obama for catching her before she fainted as he delivered a White House speech on Monday.
San Diego resident Karmel Allison began to feel lightheaded as she stood directly behind the president at the event in the Rose Garden.  
She had been invited to the White House after she wrote a blog post titled What Obamacare Feels Like to a Diabetic. 
Towards the end of Obama's speech, Allison swayed and seemed to struggle to stay on her feet. Obama turned to her and supported her, saying, "I got you, you're OK."
He then quipped, "This happens when I talk too long."

The White House said Allison was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was nine years old, and has stayed on the same insurance ever since out of fear she would not be able to find a plan that would cover her due to her pre-existing condition.
She was escorted out of the event and later tweeted her thanks to the president.
I'm ok world- just got a little lightheaded.Thanks, @BarackObama for catching me! And good thing this pregnant diabetic is pregnant :)
— Karmel Allison (@karmel_a) October 21, 2013
Allison's husband also chimed in with thanks of his own.


Obama does have the common touch. He's basically a good guy, whatever I think of his policies, and I do agree with most of his policies. Also, he has no personal scandals, except for the Right Wing rumor that he is gay. He has a wife who obviously likes him and two children, so I don't think he is gay. I think he represents our country well.




Astronaut uses single strand of hair to move in zero gravity

It doesn't take much of a push to get around in space, as NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg recently demonstrated aboard the International Space Station.
In a video to describe the effects of weightlessness, Nyberg used a single strand of her own hair to propel herself, tumbling slowly backward after pushing off a blue handrail on the orbiting lab. The brief experiment, which NASA posted online last week, was inspired by a conversation fellow astronaut Cady Coleman had with Sandra Bullock, star of the blockbuster space thriller "Gravity."
Coleman helped Bullock prepare for her role as an astronaut in the film, which opened Oct. 4. Bullock said she was particularly struck by Coleman's description of how effortlessly spacefliers can float around the orbiting lab. "The thing that resonated the most with me — you said something about your hair. You could take one strand of hair and push off the wall with that hair, and it would propel you backwards," Bullock told Coleman.
While Coleman is a veteran of three spaceflights, she hasn't been in orbit since May 2011. Nyberg, however, is a crew member of the International Space Station's current Expedition 37, and she decided to put Coleman's assertion to the test.
"Since I have the resources, I thought I would give it a try," the long-tressed Nyberg said in the Oct. 18 NASA video.
She then plucked one strand of hair, held it between her two hands and pressed it against a space station handrail. The slight force Nyberg applied sent her falling backward in slow motion, her white-socked feet rising as her head dipped down.
Nyberg arrived at the space station in late May and is scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 10. She had flown in space once previously, as a crew member aboard the space shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission in 2008.


NASA has produced a number of additions to our cultural life, beginning with the drink Tang. This story struck me as being both eye-opening and humorous. It really illustrates the meaning of gravity better than anything I've ever seen. I'm not very knowledgeable about physics, so I need these little demonstrations.


2:08 Well, that is all the unusual news I spotted on the NBC site today, but it seems to me to be enough for one day. I'm going to read now. I have vowed that I would read fewer mystery novels and more challenging things, from which hopefully I can learn something. There isn't much non-fiction or classic fiction at my library branch, but I did manage to get The Canterbury Tales, which I only “read at” when I took it in school, so I will at least read several of the tales now. Maybe I can even make it all the way through. I may find the language difficult, but I'll try to work through it.