Clipmarks | Marcariel's 'children' clips

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè - Happy Chinese New Year

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:12:17 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: This article was very interesting. Lots of info such as the tradition of giving a red envelope with money inside to children and unmarried adults. Also the number "4" is bad luck and stands for death, so the money amount can never have a "4" in it.

Fireworks scare away the evil spirits and are still unrestricted in Taiwan and Mainland China where "there are many displays of fireworks lighting up the evening skies."

Happy Year of the Rat!

Clip Source: mandarin.about.com

Chinese New Year is the most important festival in Chinese culture. It is celebrated on the new moon of the first month according to the lunar calendar

Chinese New Year traditionally lasts from the first day to the 15th day of the New Year

a chance to leave the problems of the previous year behind

start the New Year fresh, and this means cleaning up the house and buying new clothes.

Houses are decorated with red paper banners which have auspicious couplets written on them. These are hung around doorways and are intended to bring luck to the household for the coming year.

Red is an important color in Chinese culture, symbolizing prosperity. Many people will wear red clothing during the New Year celebrations, and houses will have many red decorations

Red envelopes (►hóng bāo) are given to children and unmarried adults. Married couples also give red envelopes to their parents.

The envelopes contain money

Evil spirits are driven away by loud noise

“Happy New Year” – ►Xīn Nián Kuài Lè.

MySpace Security - Ineffective Against Predators

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:02:22 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: I have monitored my youngest child's progress on the web (she's now 20), and have taught her how to survive and evade the predators.

MY OPINION: Nothing (no online security measures) can take the place of proper parental concern and instruction!

Clip Source: crime.about.com

MySpace Safety Effort Called 'Window Dressing'

In the aftermath of several recent incidents in which young people were exploited by adult predators on MySpace.com, and a lawsuit filed against the Web site, the company announced efforts to increase public awareness about safety issues for children using its social networking service. But Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott called those efforts "window dressing" and not real safety measures

Abbot contacted executives of social networking Web sites in May of this year, asking that they strengthen safeguards against pornography and sexually explicit solicitations

MySpace responded with plans to partner with Hollywood movie stars in launching national television public safety advertisements and a downloadable guidebook to Internet safety for parents.

window-dressing that offers no real protection to the millions of children and teenagers who use their networking sites and chat rooms.

Tags: myspace, security, predators, social networks, pornography

Iris Scan - The ID of the Future

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:47:08 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: "It's part of the growing surveillance society. We're going to be identified and tracked everywhere we go." The ACLU is not happy.

This is the same concept as in the movie "The Minority Report". With GPS in your cell phone and your car, and iris scan everywhere else, you will never be able to be "lost" again. Bad news for the bad guys and the "cheaters" in society.

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

A growing number of sheriff's departments are using iris scans to identify sex offenders, runaways, abducted children and wandering Alzheimer's patients.

More than 2,100 departments in 27 states are taking digital pictures of eyes and storing the information in databases that can be searched later to identify a missing person or someone who uses a fake name

Most of the sheriffs are doing voluntary iris scans of senior citizens and children.

At least 10 metro areas are doing scans of criminals to identify them should another crime occur or to be sure the right inmate is released.

the level of detail and central database can make matches within seconds, compared with weeks for fingerprints and months for DNA.

use harmless infrared light to record the iris' minute ridges and valleys.

They can detect 235 unique details

A fingerprint has about 70 details.

Irises aren't affected by age, Lasik eye surgery or disease.

gaining more than 2,000 scans every week.

Tags: iris, scan, indentification, children, elderly, government, aclu

Health and Poverty - How To Stop Dying In America

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:48:40 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: I have many personal testimonies to this article. Poverty leads to many, many health related issues. If you don't have enough money you don't go to the doctor. If you don't go to the doctor you can get worse or continue in ill health. Without money you can't afford to buy medicine when you need it, so your health can decline even more. You don't get enough good food ... you don't exercise ... you can't afford to maintain good dental practices ... you can't afford to get your children proper medical care. You end up with hospital bills in the tens of thousands of dollars that you will never be able to pay.

How are health and poverty related? They are related in every way you can possibly imagine!

Clip Source: healthcommentary.org

When I was a young boy in the early 1950s watching my father care for patients and their families in his office attached to our house, it was clear that his roles as counselor, coach and confidant on a broad range of issues was at least as important as his functions as clinician and scientist.

Now, as a new presidential election approaches, and a change in leadership is assured, the connection between poverty, education and health is coming into sharper focus.

Poverty is on the rise in the United States. It rose overall from 11.3 percent to 12.6 percent from 2000 to 2005.

Except for the top 10 percent, U.S. household income is declining.

Income inequality -- that is, the distance between our richest and poorest citizens -- is rising.

what does this have to do with health? The simple answer? Everything!

the greater your poverty, the more limited your health insurance, the lower your adherence to treatment plans, the more likely you are to forego medicines

these effects compound in children

Tags: health, poverty, medicine, diabetes, disease, children, income

Children "Fattened Up Before Ritual Killing

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:29:10 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: We may never really know the full reasoning behind all of the ritualistic killing in native cultures. If there are no written documents to shed light on what we view as pagan, cruel rituals, we can only study and continue to speculate on the religious significance.

These killings, or sacrifices to the religious powers (gods or goddesses), are in evidence world wide, on every continent. Interesting reading.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Children selected for Inca ritual sacrifice were "fattened up" with high-protein diets in the months leading up to their deaths, a new study has found.

By studying the ratios of chemicals present in the hair, the team helped show how victims were prepared for death as far as a year in advance, sent on grueling highland journeys, and drugged before the sacrificial ceremonies.

"It is chilling that the children themselves, through their own tissue, give us graphic details and evidence that they were not killed on a whim but were part of a complex process for which they were selected some considerable time before,"

One extremely well preserved mummy—a 15-year-old girl known as "La Doncella" or the "Llullaillaco Maiden"—appears to have been selected for sacrifice a year in advance

12 months before her death, her diet becomes protein rich," Wilson said, adding that she was likely fed "elite" food such as maize and llama meat.

insights into the preparatory stages leading to Inca ritual killing

Tags: inca, ritual killing, children, food, drugs

America's Near-Poor - There But For Grace ...

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:24:54 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: I see this a lot here in America. I may even be one of these people myself! One paycheck from welfare or becoming a "street person" with no home. Women are in more vulnerable to this than men.

I recently spent the day with a homeless woman. I saw where she lived (in the woods behind a shopping center) I saw where she slept (in a sleeping bag on some plastic bags and newspaper) and I went to the grocery store with her to buy her meal for the day (after she had earned $3.00 answering some questions at a market research office ... where I met her). I took her to a county office to get 6 public bus coupons so she could get across town to pan-handle for money to continue paying for her small storage room where everything she owned was stored.

There but for grace my friends!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_But_For_the_Grace_of_God_(Stargate_SG-1)

Clip Source: chronicle.com

More than 50 million Americans live in the netherworld of strapped finances and grueling workweeks

Call them "the missing class," the near poor whose incomes place them above the poverty line, but well below the middle class. Near-poor families with two parents and two children subsist on $20,000 to $40,000 a year, which disqualifies them for virtually all public subsidies, but is a far cry from what they need to be self-sufficient.

Near-poor women work in clothing stores, minimarts, and child-care centers; they clean subway cars on the night shift. Near-poor men often hold down more than one job, working days as aides for the mentally impaired and nights as security guards. Native-born members of minority groups are well represented in the ranks of the missing class, as are immigrants, many of whom gave up good jobs in Brazil or China or Russia so their children could grow up in a land of opportunity.

the near poor are compensated too little, and their gains remain precarious.

Tags: missing class, near-poor, welfare, medicaid, taxes, medical, wages

"Kids" Medicine Not Recommended - FDA May Ban Use

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:01:30 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Raising children is hard enough without worrying that the medicine you give them, to hopefully make them feel better, is going to kill them!!

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

They are widely available in drugstores across the country -- over-the-counter cold and cough remedies, with fruity flavors specifically marketed for kids.

growing consensus that these medicines may not always be safe — and for young children, aren't worth the risks.

there have been some deaths associated with cough and cold preparations

Even more amazing, the industry itself — while insisting its medicines are safe — now agrees they should not be given to very young children.

review found 54 reported deaths from decongestants over the past four decades, most in children under the age of 2.

osslyn Goldner knows how dangerous over-the-counter medication can be. Her son, Max, wound up in the emergency room after he took the prescribed dose of a popular kids' medicine — one that isn't even under FDA review.

"I'm trying to be a little bit more selective and proactive, and not assume that companies that are in the business to make money, are going to actually be worrying so much about my child,"

Tags: medicine, fda, kids, deaths, safety

Japanese Men Can Take "Daddy Exam"

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:20:48 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: This would probably be a good "exam" for men in any country. There are way too many men in this world who also believe that raising children falls only to women.

Get with the program dad! Male input into children's lives is immeasurable. These are your children too! Love 'em ... but don't leave 'em to their mothers to raise!

Clip Source: today.reuters.com

"Who played the father in the movie 'Kramer versus Kramer'?"

That's one of the 50 questions Japanese men could face in a "daddy exam", meant to raise awareness about fatherhood in a country where men tend to work long hours and leave their wives in charge of childcare and household chores.

Even men who remember Dustin Hoffman struggling as a father in the movie may have a hard time answering questions ranging from potty training and baby food to politics

the exam was a catchy way to get fathers into parenting.

There just isn't enough information about parenting for fathers. Through the exam, we want men to realize that they don't know anything about child-rearing,

The image of fathers is gradually changing in Japan as younger men eschew their own dads' hands-off approach in favor of closer involvement

But it is still hard for Japanese fathers to cut down on their work hours and spend more time with their families.

Tags: japan, daddy exam, parenting, child-rearing, parental leave