Showing posts with label Noteworthy News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Noteworthy News. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

#MissUtah 'Epic Fail'?


 The news about the Miss Utah debaucle is now almost old news, having happened almost 5 full days ago.  But before it totally fades into obscurity in favor of another flub-up from another public persona in the public eye, I'd just like to weigh in a bit.  First of all, as a 'light-on-the-T.V.' household, usually only watching at most 2-3 shows in any one season, if that, I may never have even heard about the Miss USA Competition, it being quite low on my priority list of things to pay attention to.  But yes, Miss Utah was all over the news.  So I saw the footage.  I heard the question.  

I actually had to do a double-take myself because of the wordiness of the question:  "A recent report shows that in 40% of American families with children, women are the primary earners yet they continue to earn less than men.  What does this say about society?"  I know that these contestants have been primed, rehearsed, coached and trained for this kind of thing.  But still, if this young lady has even a hint of ADD, like I do, I can see how this type of question could go right into the ear but miss the brain.  And thus out came the jumbled answer. 

Ok, it wasn't a very good answer, in fact it was funny and even SHE realized it as you could see it plainly on her face.  But to her credit, she kept her composure.  But wow, out came the sharks.  The meaness was unleashed.  I find it so funny that many of the same institutions and news organizations that decry bullying in our society hire reporters that perpetuate it.  It seems to me that the same bullies that made it hard for their classmates in grade school through high school, graduated from college and are still doing it as adults, only now it's for real and they are doing it for monetary gain and fame.  Punishment for bullies?  Not so much!  The rest of society eats it up and gleefully consumes it on their diet of celebrity gossip and scandal.  I think it's sad.

I loved what Guy Cundell from Australia said about it on Facebook: "Blow up the internet! It is cancerous. OK, it is a beauty pageant, but...
The question posed is a non sequitur and confusing. The first two thirds are a red herring. Given the immense pressure that the contestant is under, with the size and staging of the event and with no time to construct an answer, I think she can be forgiven for not picking the intent. What is interesting is how vicious and unsympathetic the baying mob can be, and what an extreme amplifier social media is."

  
Also to Miss Utah's credit, she came out the next day and spoke about it and gave the question another go.  Her answer to the question was, "So, this is not OK, it needs to be equal pay for equal work.  It's hard enough already to earn a living and it shouldn't be harder because you're a woman."    Yes, a little too late to earn her the title, but not to late to show the critics that she isn't afraid to face the firestorm of criticism that happened.  Good job, Marissa!  I might add that another thing this says about society is that women work doubly hard for the pay and recognition they DO get! 

Sunday, October 21, 2012

An Ending More Dramatic Than Fiction

I'm somewhat enthralled with choosing your own ending on the interactive type of movies and books..  You can choose option a or b, maybe even more.  I would choose a happy ending every time.  I'm just that way...

I recently finished reading 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jody Picoult, written in 2004.  Yes, I have just started reading her books and am still up in the air as to whether or not I am a fan.  'My Sister's Keeper' was a NYT Best Seller, so chances are you might have read it already, plus it's been 8 years since it was published, not to mention the movie, starring Charlize Theron.  But just let me tell you, if you haven't read or seen it and intend to do so, this is a spoiler alert.

In the story, the main character is a young teenager who is sick and tired of being her sister's perfect genetic match, practically living in the hospital to donate blood, plasma, marrow and whatever else she is expected to do to keep her older sister alive.  It is for that purpose that she was conceived.  Her parents wanted a perfect genetic match and went to the lab to create her.   But the girl is so tired of it, sues her parents in court and eventually wins.  In the middle of all this, her sister's kidneys go out.  Of course, then she starts having 2nd thoughts, because after all she loves her sister.  Unfortunately, before she can do anything about it, she is killed in a car wreck and she ends up donating her kidney anyway through organ donation.  
   
I have what I think would be a great 2nd ending for the book!  The thing is, it's actually true!  Here is the 2nd ending - The girl decides to go ahead and donate her kidney because she loves her sister.  She goes through with the operation, which is a major surgery with risks of its own.

The surgery turns out fine, no complications.  She is in recovery and her sister is going into surgery to receive the donated kidney.  When the surgery team goes to retrieve the kidney, which has been packed on ice, it is nowhere to be found.  After looking high and low, it is discovered that a nurse just coming on duty threw it away in the trash! So in the end, no one gets the kidney and it sucks for everyone!

This actually happened in Ohio. A nurse just coming off break didn't hear the surgeon announce that the kidney was on protective slush, ready to be donated and threw it away in a dirty utility room.  I would be so mad if I had just given one of my kidneys away and found out that it had been essentially thrown away.  And the poor organ recipient.  Talk about dashed hopes! 

OMG, I just did what?
It just goes to show that fiction is hard-pressed these days to be more dramatic than what we live everyday in real life!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Rivers And Treehouses

     Have you heard about Tremain Albright in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho who built a beautiful treehouse in a tree on his property overlooking the River, even getting a variance so that he could build it?  Of course, the Army Core of Engineers decided that it needed to come down because it "Could" impede river flow if it "Did" fall down.  It looks to me as if that treehouse isn't going anywhere, nor the tree, for a really, really long time! I saw a picture of the tree and small it isn't!
     It's kind of like me going out to drive my car.  I "Could" hit someone if I "Did" drive over the yellow line.  First of all, that's not going to stop me or others from driving, and second, that's why I took and passed the driver's test!  Furthermore, the Core of Engineers made it even more difficult to oppose them by tying it to money given to the city, Bonner's Ferry.  Originally, the town supported the treehouse owner and his right to keep it.  But now, if the house doesn't come down, the town may not be getting the $128,000 of Fed money for levee repairs this year.  I guess the treehouse goes.  It's crazy how the government decides when and how to get involved in private citizens' lives.

     More close to home is the Provo River debate where I live.   The Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission, a federal agency, is ready to take lands around the Provo River Route by means of eminent domain, and turn them into marshlands so that the June Sucker can survive.  The June Sucker is a little fish that is native to Utah Lake and was declared endangered in 1986.  Never mind that it has been coming back recently, thanks to fisheries planting them into the lake every year, plus the predatory carp are being extincted from the lake to the tune of 5 million carp per year.  (Ironically, these carp were originally planted in the lake by the Government in the late 1880's!) 
     So already many things are being done and lots of money is being spent to bring about the preservation of this little, teeny, fish.  Now, even more money will be spent--taxpayer dollars--to save this fish!  And really, not a lot of support for it here in Provo, UT.. Certainly not from the dozens of farmers whose lands will be effectively  taken from them or if not, dictated to on how they will be used.  Certainly not the people who live surrounding the greater Provo area.  Marshlands means mosquitoes and we've got enough of those already, thanks!  And certainly not any citizens who realize that this is another earmark by the government, using tax dollars that could be used better in some other way than disturbing life as we know it here in Provo, UT!  

      One good citizen looked at it this way:
"The June sucker restoration plan hinges on constant intervention by man.
Utah Lake would cease to exist if it weren't for structures on the lake's outlet which prevent continued downcutting through the old Lake Bonneville sandbar. If allowed to return to a natural ecosystem, the lake would naturally disappear. In geological time, lakes are short-lived.
The other component is continued removal of carp, in perpetuity.
If either of these steps is terminated, the June sucker is doomed. This is hardly a natural ecosystem. This whole endeavor only will delay, at great cost, what nature will do anyway."
So, like Tremain Albright in Bonner's Ferry, ID whose beautiful dream of a little, harmless getaway overlooking the river could be doomed, a way of life for a town soon could be but a memory.  But there is still some time to try and influence government intervention.  Please sign the petition here and help Save The Provo River and save taxpayers 20 - 30 million dollars! 


Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Hope For Spina Bifada Babies!

  I am really amazed at what medical breakthroughs are actually coming through!  Who would have thought that babies with spina bifida, which can be determined before birth through tests, now have a chance to be operated on before they are born to correct this birth defect?  It is one of the most common birth defects in the United States, affecting about 1,500 babies each year.  About 10% of these babies die. Those who survive may have lifelong disabilities that include leg weakness or paralysis and loss of bowel and bladder control.  The most severe form of spina bifida is called myelomeningocele, in which the lower backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth. 
   An eight-year trial has just been completed, actually having been ended early because the results were very overwhelming - Children's odds of a good outcome from spina bifida surgery are better if the operation is done before birth, a major clinical trial shows.
   For the trial, 80 mothers were chosen to receive the corrective operation before birth.  "They cut you from hip to hip, and you can imagine having a major surgery, cut twice and have a baby mov(ing) around and kick(ing).  I was in crazy amounts of pain for a long, long time."  But for one mom, it was a sweet sacrifice because at just one week old, an MRI showed her little son's brain malformation, which was a symptom of the spina bifida, completely reversed. 
   For many unborn babies, a diagnosis of spina bifida will result in death by abortion.  For those babies allowed to live, surgery is often performed soon after birth.  But unfortunately, the months spent in utero with the spina bifida untreated can result in leg paralysis, brain damage, or other problems. Hydrocephalus usually requires a shunt to drain the excess fluid and can even result in death.  
    When surgery is performed before birth, doctors have concluded that the operation decreased the need for shunts and reduced the incidence of brain herniation, but increased likelihood of premature delivery.  As these children grow, the doctors will be able to determine if the surgery prevented other effects of spina bifida, such as leg paralysis.
    
There is an elevated risk to the mothers, who elect to have this surgery.  It is a major surgery and any subsequent children she gives birth to would need to be done with C-Section.  But for most parents, this is wonderful news and gives hope to the children they so fondly hope to have and to nurture.   
 
Sources from articles here, here and here

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A New Way To Monitor Tailgaters

  Driving is something that almost everyone does.  But what makes somebody a good driver vs. a bad driver?  I've noticed that anyone going slower than me is an idiot and anyone going faster than me is a maniac! 
  One of the most annoying things is when someone is tailgating you.  Nothing can incite road rage like someone who is following too closely.  For one thing, someone driving too closely on your tail is telling you that you're driving too slowly.  I can somewhat understand that when you're on the freeway in the fast lane and someone is not driving faster than the other lanes of traffic.  They need to MOVE OVER!
  One time I was actually driving along in the fast lane and came upon a car that I swear to you, was driving 45 miles an hour.  I couldn't believe it.  I, apparently, was following this car too closely for its comfort.  All of a sudden, the brake lights came on and it slowed down even more.  Whereas before it was slightly dangerous, now it became high risk.  This car slowed down to 35 miles an hour!  I got the heck around this idiot and avoided potential danger. But there are all kinds of speeds on the freeway, each person thinking that theirs is the ideal. Tailgating is not a great way to enforce speed, however.  
  And what about in town? So many crashes could be avoided by just following your state's following laws.  Most states say that at speeds over 35 mph, you need to have 2 second following space.  I think one of the only things I remember from my Driver Ed days, fifty billion years ago, is the directive to say "one--one thousand, two--one thousand," to yourself for judging the two second following distance. It's actually a very helpful rule because if I were to actually rear-end someone, I would be given a ticket, without question, as the one who was at fault.  
  Well, now there is a new instrument in the law enforcement arsenal to help police officers enforce that law even more.  It's called the 'TruCam' and it targets tailgaters before the accident happens.  Ohio already has it on the law books and my state of Utah will soon follow suit.  'TruCam' is a radar gun that measures actual distance between cars and then videotapes the actual cars involved.  Police say that it really isn't to give more tickets, but to educate and show people how badly they really are driving.  (Great, just what I needed!)  "We're hoping this will help us be proactive and actually educate the public and stop the accidents from happening rather than just responding to them after they happen."  Alrighty then, maybe I'll have a little less irritation from those pesky tailgaters.  Good idea?  What is the most irritating thing for you when driving?  Will these Trucams be a big help? 

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Was This 3rd Grade Teacher Going Overboard?

Last month was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  In an attempt to illustrate what it was like for the slaves to ride in a ship, below deck, without moving for days or even months, a teacher made her 3rd graders lay down on a rug and not move for 45 minutes.  Now, for me, I'd love it.  I'd pass out and not wake up for awhile and totally come out of the teaching experience thinking that while it must have totally sucked to have had to travel worse than steerage class, and against my will at that, I definitely needed the rest.  But for a classroom full of 3rd graders, that might be a little bit of a  hard lesson.  A real concept of time and a sense of empathy for others based on their own experiences are things that we don't really expect them to fully grasp at this time in their short lives
   I think that possibly a 15 minutes stretch would have been ample time to show them how hard it must have been to lay like that on a ship coming to America. 
  Evidently, though, a parent feels so strongly that this was a misuse of a teacher's authority that she has filed a complaint with the Canyons School District's office of civil rights.  The mother, a legal emigrant from an Eastern European country several years ago said this kind of teaching tactic hits too close to home.  She grew up in a school system ruled by the old Soviet Union, which "introduced a destructive educational system: teachers enjoying corporal punishments, verbal abuse and humiliation, voiceless students and helpless parents."   
    I believe that the above is a true statement, based on my acquaintance with my friend, Viktoriya, who grew up in the Ukraine and told me tales of the teachers there, who were very cruel and humiliating to students.  
   I do not believe, however, that this teacher was acting irresponsibly or cruelly.  Perhaps, uninformed and overly dramatic would be better descriptions.  I don't believe there is any looming danger of our school systems becoming encumbered with teachers who are empowered with weapons of corporal discipline and lack of guidelines.  Not a chance. I think this teacher was a young and zealous teacher, with strong beliefs about this historical event in America.  I say no harm, no foul!