Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire-Not so happy ever after
This was in the Lincoln Journal Star.
Rubina Ali's house is flooded with water. She uses a bucket to throw it out, but it's no use. The water, and the rats, keep coming back.
To keep herself and the neighborhood children entertained, they start a mud fight. She rubs the mud onto her friend's face. The girl, in turn flings mud back. They laugh with delight, and Rubina is washed off with gray water.
At least there is some happiness since the child stared in the hit movie only three months ago. But everything else isn't going the way it should be. Even after a trust, named Jai Ho, was set up for her hasn't brought much. They want to provide her and her family a house thousands of miles away from her hometown in India. They won't hear of it. Her estranged mother suddenly appeared. Pictures of her mother and step-mother pulling each others hair out filled tabloids. Her father tried to sell her, he needed drinking money.
It's so disgusting to think that a child that was in such a popular movie that earned $326 million at the box office would still be in such poor conditions. More than $700,000 was donated to a local charity, but things seem to be worse. Won't anyone help them? I think that it's right for Rubina wanting to stay in her homecountry and hometown, but I think that the producers of the movie need to try harder to ensure that she and her family have a safe place to live in, not the slum that she is all-too-familiar with.
Rubina Ali's house is flooded with water. She uses a bucket to throw it out, but it's no use. The water, and the rats, keep coming back.
To keep herself and the neighborhood children entertained, they start a mud fight. She rubs the mud onto her friend's face. The girl, in turn flings mud back. They laugh with delight, and Rubina is washed off with gray water.
At least there is some happiness since the child stared in the hit movie only three months ago. But everything else isn't going the way it should be. Even after a trust, named Jai Ho, was set up for her hasn't brought much. They want to provide her and her family a house thousands of miles away from her hometown in India. They won't hear of it. Her estranged mother suddenly appeared. Pictures of her mother and step-mother pulling each others hair out filled tabloids. Her father tried to sell her, he needed drinking money.
It's so disgusting to think that a child that was in such a popular movie that earned $326 million at the box office would still be in such poor conditions. More than $700,000 was donated to a local charity, but things seem to be worse. Won't anyone help them? I think that it's right for Rubina wanting to stay in her homecountry and hometown, but I think that the producers of the movie need to try harder to ensure that she and her family have a safe place to live in, not the slum that she is all-too-familiar with.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Charity George: A Living Miracle
Hello, my name is Charity George. I'm 29 years old and I am a miracle.
Charity is beautiful, with short brown hair and blue eyes. She is the wife to a wonderful husband named Jeremy, a pastor at Christian Homes in Holdrege. She is the mother of two beautiful girls, ages two and four, and is expecting another in early September. She is a daughter and a friend. She is an avid blogger. And She survived a brain tumor that affected her body to the point that only her eyes could move in her frozen body.
On April 19, 2007, Charity greeted the morning with numbness on her left side. April 23 revealed to Charity and the doctors that a massive brain tumor was attached to her brain stem. Twenty-six days later, Charity was trapped in her own body. The doctors at the Mayo clinic hung their heads and predicted dark and limited days ahead. But Jeremy prayed to God and promised to take her on a cruise once she was better. Charity blinked in agreement. Once for yes, two for no.
Four days later, Charity's thumb twitched. The steroid treatments were working. As Charity describes, the next six months floated by like a dream. On November 12, Charity looked at her mother and said, "I'm awake."
March 13, 2008, found Charity with another MRI, this time with good news. The tumor had shrunk from three centimeters to two point two. Her vertebrae was healing. On March 25, Charity was able to move to Omaha to Quality Living, a home for those in rehabilitation, after nine months at the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln.
Nearly a year after her first symptoms, Charity was able to eat and swallow, speak small sentences, type with a regular keyboard, use a manual wheelchair, operate a powered wheelchair, sit in a chair and remain standing with most of her own strength. She began to take over her father's blog that he wrote on to keep family and friends updated on her progress. "I used to spend all day talking, now saying a sentence can be taxing," wrote Charity.
In December 2008, Charity moved to Christan Nursing Homes in Holdrege, Nebraska where her husband and children lived. Charity was almost home. She blogged daily to vent her frustrations and praise those around her. Her biggest pet peeves included handling early morning showers and her speech.
On January 31 she wrote, "It drives me nuts when people just give up understanding me or get super frustrated and walk away saying, "well,I can't understand her," as if I'm some third-party or when they pretend to understand me. Uh, this new life of mine has given me radar for this and I KNOW WHEN YOU ARE FAKING. It's not their fault if they can't understand me, I am well aware I have a speech problem. People don't have to feel bad saying 'what, I didn't get that.' Not in a million years would I be offended, ask away, I would so much rather be understood, than misunderstood."
Charity kept blogging daily until April 18, 2009. She greeted the morning with anticipation and a smile on her face. Her husband and children welcomed her in the main lobby. Jeremy helped her into the new handicap-accessible van and drove her to the new handicap-accessible home. After two years away, Charity came home. As a wife. As a mother. As a friend. As an equal. And her speech isn't all that bad, either.
And as for that cruise, it's scheduled for 2010, Charity and Jeremy's 10th anniversary.
Hello Charity George, you are a miracle.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
How much does a painting by Hitler go for?
This just stunned me-I didn't even know that he painted. According to an article , a pair of paintings of a farm on a riverside signed by Adolf Hitler were auctioned off for about $42,000.
When Hitler was young, he tried to sell his paintings as a living. One source said he made many paintings.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Most Polluted Places in America
In honor of Earth day on Wednesday, April 22, I bring you the most polluted places in America.
Air: Los Angeles
"Each year the American Lung Association releases a list of the 10 most air polluted U.S. cities, and each year Los Angeles makes it into the top three on these lists in all categories: Short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution."
Part of this is due to the land. The backdrop of L.A. is mountains and the only outlet is a narrow mountain pass that goes through Palm Springs. Don't forget the 18 million people and two of the largest ports in the country.
"PM 2.5 is a fine particulate that can get deeply imbedded into your lungs," says Kerry Drake, Associate Director in the Region 9 Air Division of the EPA. "There are health impacts that can range from asthma to premature death."
Air: Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, Calif., north of Los Angeles in the southernmost tip of the San Joaquin Valley, has also made the American Lung Association’s list of top 10 cities with the worst air quality.
Bakersfield is also a victim of its location. "The San Joaquin Valley is surrounded on three sides by mountains that trap air pollution," says Drake. "The only inlet is San Francisco Bay. Adding to the area’s troubles are two major freeways going through the valley: I-5 and 99. There are 3.5 million people in the valley. So in many ways they have a very difficult chore when it comes to improving air quality."
Air: Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh was number one in the country for short-term particle pollution and number two for year-round particle pollution. "The big factors affecting the air pollution rating in Pittsburgh are its unique geography, meteorology and industry," says Bonnie Smith, a spokesperson for the EPA's mid-Atlantic region. "In Pittsburgh there are high mountains and then deep valleys where the air gets trapped."
Is this sounding familiar yet? I'm starting to see a pattern.
Water: Streams and Headwaters in Appalachia
Mountaintop removal mining, in which coal companies blast off the tops of entire mountain ranges to get to thin seams of coal buried deep below, is the cause for the West Virginia area.
Rubble and waste rock from the mountains are pushed into adjacent valleys, creating what is called "valley fill," where an entire valley is literally filled in with the soil from the mountain top, burying existing streams.
According to the EPA, who did a study last summer, it showed that in coal mining areas, more than 90 percent of the downstream waters have been significantly impaired. "Over 2,000 miles of streams have been buried over the last 15 years by mountaintop removal."
Water: Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is considered a hypoxic zone in which no plant or fish life can grow. As the Mississippi flows into the Gulf, it carries with it a lot of pollution, including excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates that feed the growth of plants.
"It's estimated that there’s now a dead area the size of Connecticut in a water system that was previously abundant with life, including fish and shellfish that had been the mainstay of the economies in this area," says Mulhern.
Water: Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is one of the nation's most important estuaries. Its fish and shellfish have been an economic mainstay for fishing communities that have lived on the bay for years. "The number one problem is the runoff from urban and agricultural resources," she says. "There's runoff from large factory farms, including large poultry farms, and raw sewage from Washington D.C. that overflows into the bay when it rains. Three billion gallons of raw sewage flows from our nation's capital into the Chesapeake Bay each year."
Land: The Nelson Tunnel, Creede, Colorado
The Nelson Tunnel sits on five acres in the Historic Creede Mining District, about one mile North of Creede, Colo. The main concern is the tunnel and a large waste rock pile that sits next to it. Both contain high levels of heavy metals -- including arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc -- that spill into nearby West Willow Creek. "Tests showed that Willow Creek contained heavy zinc concentrations, and that the water draining from the Nelson Tunnel was one of the largest contributors of that zinc," says Peggy Linn, Community Involvement Coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Land: Iron King Mine Humboldt Smelter, Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona
The town of Humboldt, Arizona is situated near the mine, and "if dust contaminated with metals like arsenic or lead is disturbed, it can be inhaled or ingested," says Dawn Richmond, Section Chief for the Arizona and Navajo Sites Remedial Section. There is also a possibility of groundwater pollution.
Land: Escambia Wood, Pensacola, Florida
The former Escambia Wood Treating Company in Pensacola, Fla., was on a 26-acre property surrounded by commercial and residential communities. The company manufactured wood products treated with creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP) between 1942 and 1982, when it was abandoned by the owner. "The spent chemicals on the wood were stored in unlined ponds, and would seep into the ground and penetrate the soil." Pollution from the site has impacted 96 acres of land and has created a groundwater plume of contamination that extends about 1.3 miles from the site. Pollution at the site has been deemed toxic enough to relocate the people in several of the surrounding communities.
Now, doesn't this make you feel better about living in Nebraska? No mountains to hold polluted air, no major bodies of water that are used for industrial purposes, and nowhere to mine since it's all used for growing crops.
Inhale deeply, fellow Nebraskans, we've got it pretty good out here in the boondocks.
Air: Los Angeles
"Each year the American Lung Association releases a list of the 10 most air polluted U.S. cities, and each year Los Angeles makes it into the top three on these lists in all categories: Short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution."
Part of this is due to the land. The backdrop of L.A. is mountains and the only outlet is a narrow mountain pass that goes through Palm Springs. Don't forget the 18 million people and two of the largest ports in the country.
"PM 2.5 is a fine particulate that can get deeply imbedded into your lungs," says Kerry Drake, Associate Director in the Region 9 Air Division of the EPA. "There are health impacts that can range from asthma to premature death."
Air: Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, Calif., north of Los Angeles in the southernmost tip of the San Joaquin Valley, has also made the American Lung Association’s list of top 10 cities with the worst air quality.
Bakersfield is also a victim of its location. "The San Joaquin Valley is surrounded on three sides by mountains that trap air pollution," says Drake. "The only inlet is San Francisco Bay. Adding to the area’s troubles are two major freeways going through the valley: I-5 and 99. There are 3.5 million people in the valley. So in many ways they have a very difficult chore when it comes to improving air quality."
Air: Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh was number one in the country for short-term particle pollution and number two for year-round particle pollution. "The big factors affecting the air pollution rating in Pittsburgh are its unique geography, meteorology and industry," says Bonnie Smith, a spokesperson for the EPA's mid-Atlantic region. "In Pittsburgh there are high mountains and then deep valleys where the air gets trapped."
Is this sounding familiar yet? I'm starting to see a pattern.
Water: Streams and Headwaters in Appalachia
Mountaintop removal mining, in which coal companies blast off the tops of entire mountain ranges to get to thin seams of coal buried deep below, is the cause for the West Virginia area.
Rubble and waste rock from the mountains are pushed into adjacent valleys, creating what is called "valley fill," where an entire valley is literally filled in with the soil from the mountain top, burying existing streams.
According to the EPA, who did a study last summer, it showed that in coal mining areas, more than 90 percent of the downstream waters have been significantly impaired. "Over 2,000 miles of streams have been buried over the last 15 years by mountaintop removal."
Water: Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is considered a hypoxic zone in which no plant or fish life can grow. As the Mississippi flows into the Gulf, it carries with it a lot of pollution, including excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates that feed the growth of plants.
"It's estimated that there’s now a dead area the size of Connecticut in a water system that was previously abundant with life, including fish and shellfish that had been the mainstay of the economies in this area," says Mulhern.
Water: Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is one of the nation's most important estuaries. Its fish and shellfish have been an economic mainstay for fishing communities that have lived on the bay for years. "The number one problem is the runoff from urban and agricultural resources," she says. "There's runoff from large factory farms, including large poultry farms, and raw sewage from Washington D.C. that overflows into the bay when it rains. Three billion gallons of raw sewage flows from our nation's capital into the Chesapeake Bay each year."
Land: The Nelson Tunnel, Creede, Colorado
The Nelson Tunnel sits on five acres in the Historic Creede Mining District, about one mile North of Creede, Colo. The main concern is the tunnel and a large waste rock pile that sits next to it. Both contain high levels of heavy metals -- including arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc -- that spill into nearby West Willow Creek. "Tests showed that Willow Creek contained heavy zinc concentrations, and that the water draining from the Nelson Tunnel was one of the largest contributors of that zinc," says Peggy Linn, Community Involvement Coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Land: Iron King Mine Humboldt Smelter, Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona
The town of Humboldt, Arizona is situated near the mine, and "if dust contaminated with metals like arsenic or lead is disturbed, it can be inhaled or ingested," says Dawn Richmond, Section Chief for the Arizona and Navajo Sites Remedial Section. There is also a possibility of groundwater pollution.
Land: Escambia Wood, Pensacola, Florida
The former Escambia Wood Treating Company in Pensacola, Fla., was on a 26-acre property surrounded by commercial and residential communities. The company manufactured wood products treated with creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP) between 1942 and 1982, when it was abandoned by the owner. "The spent chemicals on the wood were stored in unlined ponds, and would seep into the ground and penetrate the soil." Pollution from the site has impacted 96 acres of land and has created a groundwater plume of contamination that extends about 1.3 miles from the site. Pollution at the site has been deemed toxic enough to relocate the people in several of the surrounding communities.
Now, doesn't this make you feel better about living in Nebraska? No mountains to hold polluted air, no major bodies of water that are used for industrial purposes, and nowhere to mine since it's all used for growing crops.
Inhale deeply, fellow Nebraskans, we've got it pretty good out here in the boondocks.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
KFC goes grilled
Recenlty, KFC released their new food line, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, in an attempt to draw in more health-conscious customers. The food is promising-
"KFC says each piece of its grilled chicken has 70 to 180 calories and four to nine grams of fat. By contrast, the Original Recipe items have between 110 and 370 calories and 7 to 21 grams of fat, depending on the piece. The grilled chicken contains from 160 to 440 milligrams of sodium per piece, as opposed to 290 to 1,050 milligrams of sodium per piece of Original Recipe chicken."
The down side is the amount of sodium, "the 440 milligrams listed by KFC in a grilled chicken breast still amounts to more than one-fourth the amount that someone middle aged or older should consume daily."
Bascially, this is something that is heading in the right direction, but it still isn't all that great for you. I doubt we will ever see any fast food that can really be that good for you, some of the sandwhiches in Subway are even a bit doubtful. But, it is a good idea, and I applaud KFC for joining the health-conscious wagon.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Charity George-a miracle
My sister is friends with a woman who is paralyzed from the waist down. She originally had a form of a brain tumor and has spent years in rehabilitation. She has two young daughters and her husband is the minister at the chapel in a nursing home where my sister works in Holdrege. This blog is amazing because she is now writing her own journal entries using a pencil to push on each key. She is an amazing person and her stories touch your heart.
Read here:
chairitygeorge.com
Read here:
chairitygeorge.com
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