Sunday, December 1, 2013
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips For The Day




After six decades, Berlin's legendary headstanding biker cops hang up their helmets – NBC

By Andy Eckardt, Producer, NBC News

MAINZ, Germany -- After nearly 60 years of performing spectacular stunts, police officers from Berlin's record-holding motorbike display team are being forced to hang up their tight green leather uniforms. The biker cops were forced to discontinue their dazzling performances -- which often included headstands and multiple riders on the same motorcycle -- because of a lack of funding.

The biker cops were forced to discontinue their dazzling performances -- which often included headstands and multiple riders on the same motorcycle -- because of a lack of funding.

"The bikes, the additional equipment and the uniforms have come to age and an investment of nearly 150,000 euro (around $200,000) would be needed immediately," Berlin police spokesman Stefan Redlich said. "We need to invest any available money in the security of our city and the daily police duties. It would be difficult to justify the high spending for a display team."

The news made the front page of Berlin's BZ tabloid, which ran the headline: "It's over. After 59 years, police no longer allowed to stand on heads."
The 32-member group, which includes several female officers, "survived the Cold War and the fall of the wall," the Berlin newspaper noted. 

"Back in the 1950s and 1960s motorbike and car stunts fascinated crowds and helped us to get young people interested in police work," Redlic added. "Today, it does not have the same public-relations effect."

Among the artistic repertoire were daring stunts such as "the eight-man-headstand-pyramid," "the rotor," "the mill," and "the big ladder," which often included dozens of police officers performing acrobatic stunts on their police motorcycles.
One of the group's main attractions and a highlight in night-time performances was a so-called "illuminated parade drive."

"Our colleagues used to perform at so-called police sports meetings that filled Berlin's Olympic Stadium and had several gigs a year in Germany and abroad," Redlich recalled. "But this year, they only had one public appearance."

Over the years, the globetrotting German amateur acrobats showed their special police skills in countries including the United States, Japan, South Africa and Sweden.
Back in 1994, the display team set up its first world record while appearing on a popular German TV show called "Wanna Bet." At the time, 83 men held onto each other on nine motorcycles. Four years later, the display team set another record, when it performed with 46 men and four women on just one motorcycle.

"It is making us all very sad," Georg Franke, an 80-year-old former officer who headed the group since 1957, told NBC News. "We have already been disbanded, returned our uniforms and as far as I know the motorbikes will later be auctioned off."


This group makes the “stuntz” of the ad hoc biker group that assaulted the driver in New York City last month look like child's play. 83 men riding 9 motorcycles while holding on to each other is quite a feat, but it sounds possible. Forty-six men and four women on one motorcycle doesn't. It's a shame for such a show to come to a stop simply over lack of funds.

Maybe the citizens of the community could come up with the money – $200,000 isn't that much, at least not in the US, if enough people donate. Maybe it shouldn't be funded by the Police Department, but rather as a charity event for which a moderately-priced ticket would be required, and a part of the proceeds could be donated to a local children's hospital or other good cause.





Arrests made in Wal-Mart Black Friday wage protests – NBC

By CNBC's Ismaela Best with reporting by CNBC's Phil LeBeau.
Nov. 29, 2013


CNBC's Phil LeBeau reports on protests over low wages at stores around the country. Only 3 of the 75 or so protesters outside a Chicago store are actually employees

Several protesters, including one dressed as Santa Claus, were arrested in demonstrations at Wal-Mart stores across the nation on Black Friday as some workers and supporters tried to draw attention to what they say is pay that's too low to live on at the world's largest retailer.

Ten protesters were arrested at a demonstration by about 75 people outside a store in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, allegedly for blocking traffic. Two of the people arrested were Wal-Mart employees, CNBC reported. 

"Everyone has a living wage and we need one, too," said Myron Byrd, 45, one of the Wal-Mart workers who was led away in handcuffs by police.
The Los Angeles Times reported that police arrested one protester dressed as Santa Claus at an early-morning demonstration in Ontario, Calif. The protester was holding a sign that read: "Santa supports workers, why doesn't Wal-Mart?"

The protesters want the retailer to increase wages by 42 percent from $8.81 an hour to $12.50 an hour, which would boost the salary to $25,000 from $17,000 annually.
In a statement, Wal-Mart officials said the company "provides wages on the higher end of the retail average with full-time and part-time associates making, on average,close to $12.00 an hour. The majority of our workforce is full-time, and our average full-time hourly pay is $12.81 an hour. We are also proud of the benefits we offer our associates, including affordable health care, performance-based bonuses, education benefits, and access to a 401K."

"Of course, we have entry-level jobs and we always will. The real issue isn't where you start. It's where you can go once you've started." It added that "by year's end, we will have promoted 160,000 associates, including 25,000 this holiday season alone."
Unions and their supporters have been targeting big retailers and restaurant chains to persuade them to boost wages. Critics of the movement say few of the protesters are actual workers -- but supporters counter that's because the workers fear retaliation.

"Walmart workers are part of the protests nationwide – despite Walmart trying to suggest otherwise," a spokeswoman for Making Change at Walmart, an advocacy coalition, said via email. 


In spite of the fact that not all of the protesters are Wal-Mart workers – the management's complaint – $8.01 a hour or $17,000 a year is not a living wage in the US. That is for one person. Rent is on average at least $500.00 a month and food is over $200.00. Yet, $8.01 is better than restaurant workers get if they receive tips, and lots of young mothers are working as waitresses to support their babies. Going after employers one by one is an uphill climb. We need to raise the minimum wage and then they would have to comply.





Amazing ice circle found spinning on North Dakota river – NBC
Becky Oskin LiveScience

A spinning ice disk spotted on the Sheyenne River in North Dakota is a totally natural phenomenon and not the work of aliens or secret government spies, according to reports.

Retired engineer George Loegering saw the giant frozen circle on Saturday while on a hunting trip with relatives, The Associated Press reported. About 55 feet (17 meters) around, the icy disk was spinning in the river current like a record on a turntable.
The massive pancake-shaped ice pans often turn up on flowing rivers in cold climates. Video and photos posted online show similar disks discovered in Canada, England and Sweden during winter.

Theories abound to explain their formation. National Weather Service forecasters told The Associated Press that the Sheyenne giant likely appeared because cold, dense air slowly froze the river surface in bits and pieces. The floating ice chunks were trapped in a river eddy, creating the rotating circle discovered by Loegering. In 1993, MIT researchers who sought to explain smaller ice swirls on Boston's Charles River also suggested current-driven eddies.

By Tuesday, the twirling had ground to halt but the circular shape of the disk was still visible in the river, Loegering said. "I'm not sure how long it was there (spinning)," he told the AP. "It had to be quite a long time. If you look at the picture, you can see growth rings on the disk."


What I like about science is that there are truly mysterious things to find. The fact that the eddies cause the motion is not surprising once I heard it, but it didn't occur to me when I saw this on the TV news. The circle itself forms because the ice is in chunks, not a sheet as is usual on a river or pond. It's fascinating!





New housecat-size feline species discovered in Brazil – NBC
Douglas Main LiveScience
Nov. 27, 2013


An oncilla (Leopardus guttulus) found in southern Brazil. They are one of the smallest cats in South America, maxing out at 3 kilograms (about 6.5 pounds).

Don't judge a cat by its cover.
Oncillas are housecat-size felines found throughout much of South America, and are also known as little tiger cats, little spotted cats or tigrinas. But not all oncillas are the same: New research suggests that little tiger cats in northeastern Brazil belong to a different species from those elsewhere on the continent, although they look virtually identical.  

Researchers analyzed the genetic material of oncillas in northeastern Brazil, and compared them with nearby populations in the south. They found that there was no flow of genes between the two populations of oncillas, and hasn't been any for millennia, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology.

This, along with other genetic differences, led researchers to conclude the two populations do not interbreed and are in fact different species, said study co-author Eduardo Eizirik, a researcher at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. [In Photos: Tiger Species of the World]

The study "illustrates how much is still unknown about the natural world, even in groups that are supposed to be well-characterized, such as cats," Eizirik told LiveScience. "In fact, there are many basic aspects that we still don't know about wild cats, from their precise geographic distribution and their diets to even species-level delimitation, as in this case."

Since this population of oncillas is a unique new species, there is an urgent need to learn more about it and its rarity; for example, whether or not it may need protection under conservation laws, Eizirik added.

Both species of little tiger cats live in rain forests and savannahs, and sport yellowish-ochre fur with a black rosettelike pattern. Though the cats primarily live on the ground, they are agile tree climbers, and feed on birds and small mammals such as rodents, according to the University of Michigan. They are one of the smallest cats in South America, maxing out at 3 kilograms (about 6.5 lbs.).

Eizirik and colleagues have given the species in the south a new name, Leopardus guttulus, while the species in the northeast shall be known as Leopardus tigrina. The authors found that in the distant past, the northeastern species interbred, or hybridized, with an entirely different species known as the Pampas cat. This interbreeding may have helped the two oncilla species diverge, Eizirik said.


The destruction of the rain forests by loggers and farmers will eliminate the environment for these and other animals and plants. That, plus the fact that the rain forests give off oxygen and use up CO2, are reason enough to stop cutting down the trees. In the US, Georgia Pacific company cuts down forests, but replenishes with saplings. Other companies could do the same.



­

Palestinian Refugee Agency Running Out Of Money – NPR
by Emily Harris
­
The United Nations agency that provides basic health care and education to Palestinian refugees doesn't have enough money to pay local salaries this month.
The shortfall could directly affect 30,000 teachers, doctors and social workers, as well as the people using their services in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

Filling Basic Needs
Sit for an hour in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency office in the al-Amari camp for Palestinian refugees, and you get a sense of what people expect the agency to provide.

An old woman asks where she can pick up food basics next month. An aunt wants to get her grown nephew his own refugee card. An unemployed carpenter, Mehedin Sheik Kassam, wants help finding work.

"I am 55 years old," Kassam says. "I have lived in this camp all my life. The UN is supposed to support all aspects of our life: health, economy, education."
The agency's general fund pays for health clinics and schools for some 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Mideast. The budget shortfall would affect salaries of the people who work in those places.

Year-End Budget Gap
Agency director Filippo Grandi says a cash crunch is normal toward the end of the year. "In past years, toward the end of the year, governments usually have some spare money, unspent money," Grandi says. "But this year, especially with Syria draining a lot of ... humanitarian resources, it has become difficult for governments to help us."

For the past two years, first Britain then the European Union let the agency borrow against future contributions to cover a year-end gap. But that doesn't make sense to Guy Lawson, U.S. regional coordinator for Palestinian refugees. The United States is the agency's single biggest donor country.

"We try to provide our contributions very early in year, and we try to do it in a way that allows them to plan and program effectively," Lawson says. "If we use our 2014 contributions to meet 2013 needs, then the needs will just become greater in 2014."
Adding pressure right now in the West Bank and Gaza is a union request for salary increases for local UN employees — all refugees themselves.

"The UN is responsible for me and my children," says Mohammad Katami, who has worked for the agency for 22 years. "We have to think about the people who provide refugee services. I need to be paid to keep the whole system healthy."

Cousins play in the courtyard of their family compound. The Abu Isba family moved out of Qalandiya camp 35 years ago and has done well in construction. Four brothers live here with their wives and children.

Local UN workers have gone on strike over pay disputes in the past. There have also been protests when the UN has cut or limited programs.

Some Palestinian refugees have built lives outside the camps. In a family compound not far from the Qalandiya camp, young cousins race across a mosaic-tiled courtyard. Their fathers' family left Qalandiya 35 years ago and became successful contractors.
They are still eligible for UN schools and clinics. Amal Abu Isba, who married in to the family, says they used to get food like sardines, flour and oil from the UN. She wishes they still did.

"Even though I don't need the food supplies, I still feel it is my right, because they used to give it to me, and I am still a refugee," Isba says.
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Is At The Heart Of The Problem
Major donors say they want the agency to be more efficient and take a hard look at what it really can provide, as the number of registered Palestinian refugees continues to grow.

Grandi says he tells donors the only real solution is to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"I'm telling them, if you want to stop this bleeding of money to a very old problem, the answer is not to stop that funding," he says. "The answer is to solve the problem where it needs to be solved — which is in the political sphere."

If the UN cannot meet payroll by payday, the third week in December, Grandi isn't sure what will happen. Maybe, he says, staff will work without pay. At least until January, when next year's donations are in.


In the US, though it seems heartless, homeless people often have to leave their shelter space for the day and come back at night, when of course they may not get a bed if they don't arrive soon enough. That is so they will not become adapted to living at the shelter and dependent on the free services.

I think something like that needs to happen in this case. Those families who left the refugee camp and established businesses or other work on their own have done the right thing. Becoming permanent “refugees” who take aid since 1948 is surely not what was intended to happen, and it seems to me, shouldn't be allowed. One man is quoted in the article as follows: ­ "I am 55 years old," Kassam says. "I have lived in this camp all my life. The UN is supposed to support all aspects of our life: health, economy, education."

The UN could perhaps negotiate an agreement with those nations that take refugees so that Palestinians would become citizens rather than refugees, and then be required if necessary to take work or set up a business to support themselves. Waiting for a peaceful solution between Israel and Palestine does not seem like a viable answer.




Bill Gates: Where to put the smart money to end AIDS – CNN
By Bill Gates
updated 1:01 PM EST, Fri November 29, 2013

Editor's note: Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, is co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This is one in a series of columns CNN Opinion is publishing in association with the Skoll World Forum on people who are finding new ways to help solve the world's biggest problems.

(CNN) -- A decade ago, over 1 million people in Zambia were living with HIV.
Only 143 of them were receiving treatment. The average cost of that treatment was more than $10,000 per year. Being infected with HIV in Zambia was akin to a death sentence.

When I visited Zambia in 2012, the picture had changed. Eighty percent of Zambians living with HIV now had access to treatment. I met Florence Daka, a mother of four, who received anti-retroviral treatment five years ago to prevent her from passing the virus to her baby while she was pregnant. Florence now takes medicine that allows her to work full time and care for her children. It costs about 50 cents per day.

On World AIDS Day, December 1, we have an opportunity to make Florence's story a reality for more families by supporting an organization that is helping developing countries respond to three of the world's biggest health challenges -- the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Since it was founded in 2002, the Global Fund has been a leader in the world's successful response to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. All told, its efforts have saved nearly 9 million lives.

The Global Fund also plays a key role in helping developing countries change the course of these three epidemics. For example, when people have early access to HIV testing and treatment, they not only save their own lives but they dramatically reduce their chances of infecting others. Moreover, a simple preventive procedure like voluntary medical male circumcision lowers a man's chance of acquiring HIV -- and potentially transmitting it to his partner -- by about 60%. Overall, effective prevention and treatment programs have helped reduce new HIV infections by a third since 2001.

That last number is crucial, because preventing new HIV infections is absolutely essential to ending AIDS. Developing a vaccine to prevent HIV remains critical, and scientific researchers are achieving exciting breakthroughs. In the meantime, we need to develop new technologies that women can use to protect themselves. Condoms are a great way to prevent the spread of HIV, but they require the cooperation of both partners.

Even if a vaccine or a revolutionary new prevention method were discovered tomorrow, our work wouldn't be over -- because they won't end AIDS if they don't reach people at risk. That is what the Global Fund has been so successful at doing for the past decade: delivering the best tools available to the people who need them most.
The Global Fund doesn't just provide money for pills and other health products. It channels its resources into training new generations of doctors, nurses, and health care workers. It helps developing countries build stronger health systems. This approach guarantees that the money donors invest in the Global Fund has a long-term impact on overall health and quality of life in dozens of countries.

Put simply: The Global Fund isn't just one of the kindest things people have ever done for each other -- it's also one of the smartest investments the world has ever made.

On Monday and Tuesday, leaders from around the world will meet in Washington for the Global Fund's fourth pledge conference, called the Global Fund Replenishment, to raise the necessary funding for the next three years.

The gathering is a reminder that the Global Fund was founded by the world to address an urgent need. We still need the entire world's support to continue the incredible progress we've made.

This World AIDS Day, we need governments, private donors, NGOs, activists and leaders to reaffirm their commitment to an organization that has helped change the course of three epidemics.


Presumably the Global Fund depends on donations from individuals as well as government funding. According to Wikipedia it is a “public private partnership” receiving most of its funds from government sources around the world. Gates is one of the main donors.