Friday, January 24, 2014
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips For The Day



North Korea calls for end of hostilities in letter to South

By Julie Yoo and Alexander Smith, NBC News


SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has written an open letter to South Korea ahead of its joint military drills with the United States calling for end to hostilities between the two nations.

The appeal, published by the North’s state-run news agency KCNA on Thursday, also warned that the decades-old tensions could lead to "an all-out…nuclear war" from which "no Korean can escape."

"(A) halt to all military hostile acts will become a starting point in improving the inter-Korean relations," the letter said.
South Korea responded by saying it had doubts over the true intentions behind the statement and called for actions rather than words.

About 10,000 U.S. personnel participated in last year's annual drills with South Korea, known as Exercise Foal Eagle, which are some of the largest joint military exercises in the world.

The drills often coincide with a period of raised tensions, and last year North Korean leader Kim Jong Un conducted a series of internationally-condemned missile tests and suggested he was about to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S., South Korea, and Japan.

The open letter also said: "If the South Korean authorities value the nation's desire for cohesion and harmony, they should stop clinging to war gambles against the fellow countrymen," referring to the North Korean people.

"Only then, peace can settle down on the Korean Peninsula with circumstances favorable for improving the inter-Korean relations."
The plea was delivered by its National Defense Commission on Jan. 16, according to the letter. It comes one month after reports in South Korean media that the North sent a fax threatening a "merciless" attack without warning in response to a critical rally in Seoul.

Although the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953, the countries are still officially at war. Analysts believe North Korea has a small nuclear arsenal but not the capability to deliver a warhead to the U.S.

The open letter to the South added that "the peninsula has always been prevailed with the touch-and-go situation that even a slightest conflict may lead to an all-out war. If an all-out war, a nuclear war, breaks out on the peninsula, no Korean can escape from the nuclear disaster."




This doesn't show the North pledging not to attack the South or even mentioning its recent threats, it merely asks the South to stop showing off its alliance with the US. That is all those military exercises are – a show. Un should release the political prisoner Kenneth Bae for a start. There is little hope for much diplomatic progress with North Korea. The following selections from an article on Kim Jong-un are from Wikipedia.


Kim Jong-un
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

No official comprehensive biography on Kim Jong-un has yet been released. Therefore, the only known information on his early life comes from defectors and people who have claimed to witness him abroad, such as in Switzerland.

According to reports first published in Japanese newspapers, he went to school in Switzerland near Bern. First reports claimed he attended the private English-language International School in Gümligen near Bern under the name "Chol-pak" or "Pak-chol" from 1993 until 1998.[13][14][15] He was described as shy, a good student who got along well with his classmates and was a basketball fan.[16] He was chaperoned by an older student, who was thought to be his bodyguard.[17]

Officially, Kim Jong-un is part of a triumvirate heading the executive branch of the North Korean government along with Premier Pak Pong-ju and parliament chairman Kim Yong-nam (no relation). Each nominally holds powers equivalent to a third of a president's powers in most other presidential systems. Kim Jong-un commands the armed forces, Pak Pong-ju heads the government, and Kim Yong-nam handles foreign relations. Nevertheless, it is generally understood that Kim Jong-un, like his father before him, exercises absolute control over the government and the country.

Nuclear threats
On 7 March 2013, North Korea threatened the United States with a 'pre-emptive nuclear attack',[92] and Kim Jong-un issued a detailed threat to "wipe out" Baengnyeong Island, the scene of previous naval clashes.[93] North Korea has revealed its plans for conducting nuclear strikes on U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.[94]

At a plenary meeting of the WPK Central Committee held on 31 March 2013 in the wake of war threats with South Korea, Kim Jong-un announced that North Korea will adopt "a new strategic line on carrying out economic construction and building nuclear armed forces simultaneously".[95]

Purges
Ri Yong-ho, Kim Yong-chun, U Tong-chuk, and Kim Jong-gak were handpicked to groom the young leader and were close confidants of Kim Jong-il. They have either been demoted or disappeared. One South Korean government official said Kim Jong-un is trying to "erase all traces of his father's rule" 11 months after stepping into power and "replacing top brass with officers who are loyal to him alone."[96] By the end of 2013, three defence ministers and four chiefs of the army's general staff had been replaced and five of the seven men who had escorted his father's hearse two years earlier had been purged,[97] with his uncle Jang Sung-taek one of the most prominent.[98] At the time of Jang's removal it was announced that "the discovery and purge of the Jang group... made our party and revolutionary ranks purer..."[99] and after his execution on 12 December 2013 state media warned that the army "will never pardon all those who disobey the order of the Supreme Commander."[100]

On 29 August 2013, The Chosun Ilbo reported that key members of the Moranbong Band were made to watch the execution by firing squad of Hyon Song-wol and members of the Unhasu Orchestra and Wangjaesan Light Music Band, on the orders of Kim Jong-un.[101] Kim had organized the Moranbong Band (Korean:모란봉악단), an all-female music group, on 7 July 2012.[102][103][104][105] Official state media denied that Hyon Song-wol had been executed, however.



Kim has even executed members of musical groups. I wonder what he would think of some of our rappers here in the US. I am glad that our constitution, as written by our forefathers, protected most of the personal and private issues of individuals, and that our country has grown strong in that tradition rather than breaking down as an entity during our Civil War and the dark days of the 1930's. We are lucky.





For Virginia attorney general, gay marriage fight is just the latest challenge – NBC

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

He hasn't even been attorney general for two weeks, and he is already picking a battle that could have repercussions for marriage equality throughout the South.
But Democrat Mark R. Herring, who started in his new post as Virginia's attorney general on Jan. 11, is no stranger to challenges — especially ones that change the political DNA of his state.

Even securing his seat as attorney general was trying: He won a razor-thin election against his Republican challenger in November, marking the first time Democrats swept the top positions on the ballot in the state since 1969.
His latest fight comes in the form of supporting gay rights — something he had previously voted against.

On Thursday, Herring announced he had reviewed the state's ban on same-sex unions, and concluded that the ban was unconstitutional. He said he would support gay couples who have filed lawsuits challenging the ban — and if he wins his fight, he will make Virginia the first state in the old Confederacy to allow gay marriage.

Currently, only Washington, D.C., and 17 states allow gay marriage, most of which are in the Northeast.

"After a very careful and thorough analysis, I believe Virginia's ban on marriage between same-sex couples violates the fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution, and as attorney general, I cannot and will not defend laws that violate Virginian's rights," Herring told NPR's "Morning Edition" in an interview that aired Thursday.

Herring's predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli, had been vocal in his opposition to gay marriage. While Herring himself had voted in favor of the ban on same-sex marriage in 2006 when he was a state senator, he says his view have evolved since then.

"I saw very soon after that how that hurt a lot of people and it was very painful for a lot of people," he told NPR.

Before he was elected to serve as attorney general, Herring, 52, was a state senator for eight years, representing parts of Loudoun and Fairfax counties. Prior to that, Herring, who was born in Johnson City, Tenn., but has lived most of his life in Virginia, was a lawyer in Leesburg, Va., and then began his public service career in 1999 as a member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

He embodied an open-government mentality as a state senator. Some of his most lauded achievements protected the most vulnerable of his constituents: He led efforts to protect kids by cracking down on synthetic drugs, and promoted legislation to target scammers who committed financial crimes against seniors. He also was a member of an advisory board that strengthened penalties for domestic violence.

While job creation, transportation improvements and education have always been central themes to his platforms, in running for attorney general, he also campaigned in part on marriage equality.

Family has always been important to the father of two: daughter Peyton, 21, and son Tim, 17. Last August, he told the Roanoke Times that part of why he changed his views on gay marriage was because he "talked to my family, and I have seen how I would not want the state to tell my son or my daughter who they can and cannot marry."
In a campaign ad released in September, he told voters, "The moment your kids are born, your mission changes to giving them the best opportunities in life. For me, family is everything."

He and his wife Laura have been married for 24 years and are members of the Leesburg Presbyterian Church.
Leesburg Presbyterian Church Rev. Deborah Dodson Parsons, who has known Herring for years, described him as a faithful and active church member who is "reserved, maybe even a shy person."

"You know how you think of a politician? He does not wear that on his sleeve. Everyone always comments on that," she said. "He does not work the crowd at all; he is not pushing himself out there. He's the least politician of any politician."
He and his family attends church every Sunday, Parsons said, and are involved in the youth ministry.

"He's a great guy. Very active and very steady and quiet with his participation of the church," she said.
She added that she supported his decision to no longer defend the state's ban on gay marriage in federal lawsuits.

"I think it's a very courageous move on his part," she said.

Herring got a bachelor's degrees in foreign affairs followed by a combined foreign affairs/economics Master's of Arts from the University of Virginia. He graduated from University of Richmond School of Law before he returned to Loudoun for his law practice in Leesburg.

Last November, he was declared winner of the attorney general's race by a mere 165-vote margin over Republican Mark Obenshain, out of more than 2.2 million votes cast. Obenshain asked for a recount; the official recount results showed Herring won by 907 votes.

As attorney general, Herring oversees an office of more than 425 employees. He is not the first attorney general to declare that he believes a state law is violating the Constitution: Last year, then-Attorney General Cuccinelli said his office would not defend one of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's education measures. His analysis concluded that the law, which created a statewide school division to take over local schools that were failing academically, was unconstitutional.

He also isn't the first attorney general to stop defending their state's gay marriage ban, alleging it's unconstitutional. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane did the same thing last year.




Little by little social issues in the US are making progress. It isn't surprising that it's taking awhile. Gay marriage is not an intuitive conclusion – most of us who are not gay simply don't understand the importance of the right to marry your lover. It seems like something that should simply be accepted “warts and all.”

When I actually talked to some gay people about it, and learned that gay partners couldn't see their loved one in a hospital ICU unit or get certain benefits from the IRS, I saw the reasoning. I have always fitted in easily with my natural sexual heritage, but not everyone does. Such teenagers face real problems adjusting as they are growing up, and are even bullied in school over it.

It's time society stops putting on the pressure to conform about this issue. Psychologists have tried to “cure” people of homosexuality to no avail. It is a hard-set psychological factor, that does not make the person evil. There are other wars for our society to fight. Let's move on.




Sheriff Joe Arpaio puts inmates on 'bread and water' for flag desecration --NBC

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio says 38 inmates have rebelled against his new policy of putting American flags in jail cells, desecrating the Stars and Stripes and earning them what he calls a diet of "bread and water."

The regimen actually is a baked loaf of ground-up fruits, vegetables, milk powder, dough and other ingredients and, though it fulfills nutritional requirements, is decidedly unappetizing.

Arpaio said that any inmate who damages a flag will be eating the so-called nutra-loaf — without utensils — for two weeks.

"I run a patriotic jail system," said Arpaio. "I am somewhat disappointed that 38 inmates recently desecrated the flags, tearing them up and writing on them and throwing them in the toilet."

The Maricopa County sheriff has made headlines in the past for making prisoners wear pink underwear and questioning President Barack Obama's birth certificate. A federal judge ruled last year that his office has racially profiled Latinos, a decision the five-term sheriff is appealing.

The Arizona American Civil Liberties Union said it did not have a comment on Arpaio's flags-in-cells program or the punishment he's devised.

"This is not a First Amendment situation," Arpaio said. "When they tamper with the flag, they are tampering with government property."

Arpaio said he did not know why the inmates were damaging the flags, "but I don't believe there is any conspiracy."



Arpaio's name does keep popping up in the news, and always for something outrageous. He has no business putting a flag in every prisoner's cell. It's an unnecessary and disturbing intrustion. I don't agree with the worship of the flag that is so common in this country, anyway. I do put my hand over my heart when I say the pledge of allegiance, and I say it willingly. I do get a thrill when I see the flag flapping in the wind. It's a beautiful flag, and besides it's my flag.

I have no problem with saying “under God” or “In God we trust,” but I sympathize with those who want to refrain from it if they are atheists, and I don't think it means that they are not sufficiently patriotic or respectful. I think those kinds of things just aren't very important, and the absolute conformity of the individual mind should not be required in a democratic society. Besides, I think Arpaio is a showman and a sham. He never really does anything that I consider to be useful, and besides, he's a bully. He just gets a kick out of demeaning his prisoners. Thumbs down on Arpaio!





German farmers post online 'moo-vies' to calm consumers
By Andy Eckardt, Producer, NBC News

MAINZ, Germany – A group of German milk farmers has been entertaining thousands of cow-loving viewers with short "moo-vies" posted online.
The videos posted on the increasingly popular "My Cow Tube" come after several food scandals that have rocked Germany  – including horse meat being found in frozen lasagna last year and the first diagnosis of mad-cow disease since 2009 earlier this month.

More than 170,000 people have watched the cow videos, which are posted twice a week by a group of 16 dairy farmers and are meant to give a humorous insight into their work.

"The negative discussions are getting louder, therefore we want to give the consumer a behind-the-scenes look into the places where their products come from," said Christine Licher from the state association for the diary industry in Lower Saxony, where the group is from.

The videos come against the backdrop of an industry trying to assure consumers that products "made in Germany” are safe and meet adequate livestock breeding. The campaign also has pages on YouTube and Facebook.

In a clip called "Look Who's Munching," farmer Eike lies in the hay among his cows and explains why they have four compartments in their stomachs and regurgitate their food, a process known as rumination. (See above). 

Other topics include cow reproduction, how the animals learn to use a water pump for drinking, and a process they call "cow styling" with rotating brushes – a mechanical back rub that the animals seem to enjoy.

"We now use the camera as often as possible, so that we can capture the special moments and to show that we have nothing to hide," said 44-year-old farmer Amos Venema, from Jemgum, in north Germany, who has 165 cows on his farm.

Stories about cows seem to have a history of captivating German news audiences. In 2011, then 6-year-old cow Yvonne escaped from her farm and hid in the woods for several weeks. After an enormous search and rescue mission the runaway animal was captured and has been living at a sanctuary in Bavaria ever since.

Today, Yvonne has her own live camera, where registered fans  can watch the famous cow in real time at her retirement home.
"Yvonne has calmed down significantly," said Michael Aufhauser, head of the sanctuary Gut Aiderbichl.
"She still has strong charisma, but now lives happily with her two sons in southern Germany and has made no attempts to escape again."




I really like cows, sheep and goats, though they all will sometimes “act out” – kicking or running at people, especially goats. I especially like to see the prize animals at fairs. They really are beautiful. It is a shame that they have to die so we can eat them, but I am not likely to become a vegetarian in my latter years. I do feel strongly that they should be healthy (no mad cow disease) and happy while they are alive. Let them be out in a pasture instead of cooped up in small spaces. They shouldn't suffer unnecessarily in death, either.

I think those “moo-vies” are probably fun to watch, and a good technique to relax the public away from their fears. Mad cow disease pops up occasionally spontaneously, according to the news articles from a few years ago during the scares in England and America. It doesn't always mean that the whole herd is sick or that the farmer caused it.




­

Poll Of U.S. Latinos Offers Snapshot Of Immigrant Vs. Nonimmigrant Experience – NPR
by Gene Demby
­
Our poll on the life experiences of Latino Americans underscored just how different those experiences can be. But many of the most interesting comparisons among our respondents were between folks who were born here in the United States or Puerto Rico and those who were born elsewhere and came here later. A little more than half of the nearly 1,500 participants said they were born outside the U.S., a proportion roughly consistent with the breakdown in the larger U.S. population. (The specific percentage born outside the U.S. varied among the different Latino subgroups in our sample — Mexicans, Dominicans, Central Americans, South Americans and Cubans — and when it came to the ages at which they arrived in the U.S.)

The researchers identified immigrants by asking respondents first if they were Latino and then if they were born in the United States or Puerto Rico. Those who weren't the latter were classified as "immigrants," although we acknowledge that the term is somewhat imperfect. (The pollsters did not ask about respondents' citizenship status.)

The U.S.: Expectations Vs. Reality
Immigrants listed several major reasons for coming to the U.S. Eight in 10 said one reason was to have a better life, while strong majorities said they came for a better job or other economic motives, or to live in a safer community. About half said they came to join family members already in the country, and around a third said they wanted better health care.

So what did they find when they got here? On a bunch of measures — like opportunities to get ahead, safety from crime and violence, treatment of the poor, quality of schools and women's legal rights — strong majorities of immigrants gave the U.S. higher marks than their native countries. But smaller percentages rated the U.S. better than their countries of origin by other measures: Less than 40 percent said the same about the moral values of society, the strength of family, the friendliness and openness of people, and relations between different races and ethnic groups.

And there were some fascinating tidbits when the data here were broken out. Cuban immigrants were much more likely than other groups to answer affirmatively on the question of whether the amount of political freedom was better in the U.S. than in their home country — 95 percent said so — than were immigrants of Mexican heritage. Only 55 percent of Mexican immigrants felt the same way. On the flip side, Mexicans overwhelmingly gave the U.S. higher marks than back home when it came to safety from crime and violence — 82 percent compared with 51 percent of Cubans.

One more factoid: While most Latino immigrants felt their diets in the U.S. were as healthy or healthier than their diets in their countries of origin, Cubans were far more likely than Dominicans, Mexicans and people of South American heritage to say their diets were healthier in the U.S.

Prospects For The Future
Immigrants were more optimistic about their children's future prospects than were U.S.-born Latinos. More than 90 percent said their children were likely to have better employment opportunities. And 90 percent said their children would have better educational opportunities than they themselves had. But among the native-born, those numbers were 68 percent and 55 percent, respectively.

In the short-term, though, the poll found that immigrants felt more economically insecure than the native-born. They were significantly more likely to say their finances were not so good or poor, and nearly 60 percent of employed immigrants said they were concerned that they or someone in their household would be out of work in the next 12 months. Two-thirds said they weren't confident that they had adequate money or health insurance to pay for a major illness, and they were more likely than the native-born to say they didn't have insurance at some point over the preceding 12 months.

Other Interesting Findings
Not too surprisingly, there was a big gap between the percentage of immigrant respondents who said they spoke Spanish or mostly Spanish at home (69 percent) and the native-born who said the same (18 percent).

Immigrants reported being more religious — the native-born were more likely to say religion was somewhat, not too important, or not at all important to their lives. (Forty-one percent said so, compared with 30 percent of immigrants.) Among the religious, majorities of both groups identified as Roman Catholic, but immigrants were more heavily so (71 percent to 56 percent).

Immigrants were more likely than the native-born to say their local entertainment venues were excellent or good.

About 7 in 10 folks from both groups said they were better off financially than were their parents.

On the question of homeownership, there was no major statistical difference between the native-born and immigrants. Both groups were about as likely to own their homes as opposed to renting.

There are lots of fascinating data to be found in the full report, which you can see here, and you can see our Twitter chat on our findings at #LatinoViews.



I'm surprised there weren't more immigrants saying they were having trouble making ends meet now that they are here. Maybe they are able to find work better than I thought. I'm sorry they find some people aren't open to foreigners and our society is not very highly moral. Those are two of the problems everybody has here, and if they are from an outside group it would be even worse.

The immigrants hopefulness for the future of their children was very great, and the American born Latinos had lost some of that hope. I think you have to struggle in this country to get ahead, and for an outside group it is undoubtedly harder. I don't think white people coming up out of poverty here have an easy time, either. They don't get full acceptance from more privileged people, generally speaking. That's why I try not to say things like “trailer trash” about anybody. The first generation usually makes limited progress economically and educationally, while their children as they reach adulthood do better. If those children can make improvements in their life without becoming snobbish themselves, the whole society will benefit.





­ Contagious Cancer In Dogs Leaves Prehistoric Paw Prints – NPR
by Michaeleen Doucleff
­
Our four-legged friends suffer from many of the same cancers that we do. But one type of dog tumor acts like no other: It's contagious.
The tumor spreads from one pooch to another when the dogs have sex or even just touch or lick each other.

"It's is a common disease in street dogs all around the world," says geneticist Elizabeth Murchison at the University of Cambridge. "People in the U.S. and U.K. haven't heard of it because it's found mostly in free-roaming dogs in developing countries."

Now this strange disease just got even stranger.
Alaskan malamutes were bred about 4,000 years ago and are the closest living relatives to the ancient dog that developed the contagious cancer.
Murchison and her colleagues found that the infectious cancer is a living fossil. The modern tumors contain the DNA of an ancient pooch that hung out with prehistoric people thousands of years ago.

The contagious cancer first arose about 11,000 years ago in a wolf-dog hybrid that's most closely related to an Alaskan malamute, Murchison and her team report Thursday in the journal Science.

About 500 years ago, the tumor jumped from continent to continent via the world's pooches. And the cells have been living and hiding out in dogs ever since.
"When I look down the microscope and see these cells that came from a dog 11,000 years ago, it boggles my mind," Murchison tells Shots." It's really incredible."
So how did she figure all that out?

To start off, she and her team sequenced the DNA of tumors from two dogs: a cocker spaniel from Brazil and an aboriginal camp dog in Australia. They then compared the genetic patterns of the tumors with more than 1,000 modern dog breeds.

Their conclusion?
The contagious cancer first appeared in a dog that looked something like an Alaskan malamute: gray-brown or black coat, short straight fur, pointy ears and a medium-size snout.

But this pooch probably wasn't as cuddly as a malamute. The ancient doggie also contained a fair number of wolf genes, Murichson found.
"The dog was around during the early days of domestication," she says. "But it seemed to be relatively inbred and had some signs of domestication." For instance, the dog probably could digest carbohydrates, she says, which is a trait found in Fido but not his wolf cousins.

Health
Startling New Evidence Cancer Is Contagious
Veterinarians have known about the contagious dog cancer since the late 1800s, Murichson says. The disease even offered scientists one of the first tools for studying live cancers.

"When Russian scientists figured out the tumors were transmissible in the 1870s, it was a hugely important insight," Murichson says. "At the time there wasn't a model for [studying] cancer. Scientists could only study it in people who had already died."
After the discovery, she says, many labs started trying to figure out how cancer arises and spreads in the body.

Now Murchison hopes the genome of the dog tumor will help solve one of the major outstanding questions about human cancers: how they evade the immune system.
"We found mutations that confer that ability in the dog tumor," she says. "They could potentially offer clues for human cancers, as well."



Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is now known to cause vaginal cancer, and it is transmissible, so that is not entirely new information. It is scary, though. But one of the most interesting things to me about this article, is that the writer said the DNA of the dog itself is actually found in the virus. This is what she said: “The modern tumors contain the DNA of an ancient pooch that hung out with prehistoric people thousands of years ago.” She could even describe the way the Huskylike dog looked from the DNA in the virus. So virus DNA is (at least partly?) composed of the host animal's tissue? That would make sense if viruses can't live without their hosts, which is true, but I had never heard it before and it's surprising. I thought the virus was a totally separate entity. Maybe I can find something about virus DNA in Wikipedia.


DNA virus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“A DNA virus is a virus that has DNA as its genetic material and replicates using a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase. Notable diseases like smallpox and chickenpox are caused by such DNA viruses.”

“All viruses in this group require formation of a replicative form – a double stranded DNA intermediate – for genome replication. This is normally created from the viral DNA with the assistance of the host's own DNA polymerase.”



The language in this article on DNA viruses is too unfamiliar and complex for me to get much sense out of it, but the last paragraph that I quoted above does seem to imply that doggy DNA matter is essential to make the virus grow, but it still doesn't say that it is included in the virus.

Oh, well. I'll live without knowing this. Somehow the scientists can get an exact reading of the dog's DNA enough to tell what kind of dog it was. It's surprising and very informative what strides genetics has made since my ex-husband used ether on fruit flies in the lab and sorted them by eye color. You can really learn a lot from reading news articles. It's a great pastime!