A petition titled The Urgency of Reading states that reading and writing are 'essential to healing and reconstruction' after disasters, and the document has been signed by more than 100 writers, literary groups and others.
By Husna Haq / November 29, 2012
A petition is promoting the idea that books should be an essential part of emergency relief efforts like those which occurred after the earthquake in Haiti.
Paul Chiasson/AP
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Sure, disaster victims need food, clothing, and shelter during humanitarian emergencies ? but books?
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That?s what a new campaign is fighting for.
Books are ?nourishment for the mind? and should be a critical part of emergency relief efforts after disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Haitian earthquake, or the Indian Ocean tsunami occur, according to a literary-humanitarian campaign circling the globe.
To date, more than 100 writers, intellectuals, literary groups, and public figures including four Nobel laureates and the humanitarian organization Libraries Without Borders have signed The Urgency of Reading petition, which states, ?In humanitarian emergencies, reading and writing are essential to healing and reconstruction.?
?While there is no question that organizations and governments must devote the majority of their efforts to promoting the physical wellbeing of disaster victims, more attention should be given to nourishing the mind as a second measure to help victims cope with catastrophe and move forward,? the petition states.
Nobel literature laureates JM Coetzee, Doris Lessing, and Toni Morrison, along with Nobel peace laureate FW de Klerk and authors Jeffrey Eugenides, Junot Diaz, Michael Cunningham, Joyce Carol Oates, and Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, are among those who have signed the petition. The campaign, organized by Libraries Without Borders, is challenging the UN and other international organizations to include ?nourishment of the mind? as a fundamental post-disaster necessity.
?The first priority is life, but when life is secure, what can people do if they are staying in a camp?? Libraries Without Borders chairman Patrick Weil told the UK?s Guardian newspaper. ?They cannot do anything, and they can become depressed. Once life is secured, books are essential. They're not the first priority, but the second... They are so important. They're the beginning of recovery, in terms of reconnecting with the rest of the world, and feeling like a human being again.?
CAIRO (AP) ? Protesters flooded Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday in the second giant rally this week, angrily vowing to bring down a draft constitution approved by allies of President Mohammed Morsi, as Egypt appeared headed toward a volatile confrontation between the opposition and ruling Islamists.
The protests have highlighted an increasingly cohesive opposition leadership of prominent liberal and secular politicians trying to direct public anger against Morsi and the Islamists ? a contrast to the leaderless youth uprising last year which toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The opposition announced plans for an intensified street campaign of protests and civil disobedience and even a possible march on Morsi's presidential palace to prevent him from calling a nationwide referendum on the draft, which it must pass to come into effect. Top judges announced Friday they may refuse to monitor any referendum, rendering it invalid.
If a referendum is called, "we will go to him at the palace and topple him," insisted one protester, Yasser Said, a businessman who said he voted for Morsi in last summer's presidential election.
Islamists, however, are gearing up as well.
The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, drummed up supporters for its own mass rally Saturday. Islamists boasted their turnout would show that the public supports the push by the country's first freely elected president to quickly bring a constitution and provide stability after nearly two years of turmoil.
Brotherhood activists in several cities passed out fliers calling for people to come out and "support Islamic law." A number of Muslim clerics in Friday sermons in the southern city of Assiut called the president's opponents "enemies of God and Islam."
The week-old crisis has already seen clashes between the two camps that left two dead and hundreds injured. On Friday, Morsi opponents and supporters rained stones and firebombs on each other in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the southern city of Luxor.
The Islamist-led assembly that worked on the draft for months passed it in a rushed, 16-hour session that lasted until sunrise Friday.
The vote was abruptly moved up to pass the draft before Egypt's Constitutional Court rules on Sunday whether to dissolve the assembly. Liberal, secular and Christian members and secular members had already quit the council to protest what they call Islamists' hijacking of the process.
The draft is to be sent to Morsi on Saturday to decide on a date for a referendum, possibly in mid-December.
The draft has a distinctive Islamic bent ? enough to worry many that civil liberties could be restricted, though its provisions for enforcing Shariah, or Islamic law, are not as firm as ultraconservatives wished.
Protests were first sparked when Morsi last week issued decrees granting himself sweeping powers that neutralized the judiciary. Morsi said the move was needed to stop the courts ? where anti-Islamist or Mubarak-era judges hold many powerful posts ? from dissolving the assembly and further delaying Egypt's transition.
Opponents, however, accused Morsi of grabbing near-dictatorial powers by sidelining the one branch of government he doesn't control.
Anger at Morsi even spilled over into a mosque where the Islamist president joined weekly Friday prayers. In his sermon, the mosque's preacher compared Morsi to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, saying the prophet had enjoyed far-reaching powers as leader, giving a precedent for the same to happen now.
"No to tyranny!" congregants chanted. Morsi took to the podium and told the worshippers that he too objected to the language of the sheik and that one-man rule contradicts Islam.
Friday's crowd in Tahrir appeared comparable in size to the more than 200,000 anti-Morsi protesters who thronged the central plaza three days earlier. Tens of thousands more marched Friday in Alexandria and other cities.
The atmosphere was festive, with fireworks going off and banners stretched over the crowd. One showed a popular pop star singing in a cartoon bubble, "Your constitution is void." More tents sprung up in the plaza's central traffic circle, as protesters sought to increase their week-old sit-in.
Large marches from around Cairo flowed into the square, chanting "Constitution: Void!" and "The people want to bring down the regime."
Figures from a new leadership coalition took the stage to address the crowds. The coalition, known as the National Salvation Front, includes prominent democracy advocate Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.
"We are determined to continue with all peaceful means, whatever it takes to defend our legitimate rights," ElBaradei told the crowd. He later posted on Twitter that Morsi and his allies are "staging a coup against democracy" and that the regime's legitimacy "is eroding."
Sabbahi vowed protests would go on until "we topple the constitution."
"The revolution is back ... We shall be victorious," said Sabbahi, who came in a surprisingly close third in the presidential election.
The coalition is aiming to rally together the disparate opposition factions, hoping to focus a movement that critics say failed to capitalize on its gains after Mubarak's fall. That they appear to have won a degree of acceptance among protesters is a significant shift, since mainstream liberal politicians were dismissed by many activists as out of touch, disorganized and out for their own interests.
ElBaradei's strong move to the fore is particularly notable. He was an inspiration for some of the youth in the 2011 anti-Mubarak uprising, but long appeared reluctant to play a leadership role and was criticized as remote and elitist.
The politicians still lack grassroots, warned Manal Tibe, a rights activist who was the first member of the constitutional assembly to withdraw in protest against the Islamists.
The street "is moving faster than the political opposition leaders," and some protesters worry they won't push strong enough demands, she said.
Protester Mohammed Taher, a 45-year-old computer engineer, said the rallies have been fueled by widespread outrage, not politicians' organizing. "People came here without a rallying machine," he said.
If the charter does go to a referendum, the politicians do not have the public reach or enough time to galvanize a "no" vote, she said.
The opposition also is counting on a revolt by the judiciary. Many judges have gone on strike, raising the possibility they would not serve as election monitors as required. Two top judicial bodies, the High Administrative Court and the State Council, said they would confer with the main Judges' Association on whether to monitor.
The Salvation Front warned on Friday that holding a referendum would "deal a deadly blow to the legitimacy of the president."
But if a referendum is held, the opposition faces the tough choice of whether to boycott ? and risk sidelining itself ? or trying to rally a "no" vote ? and risk losing in the face of Islamists' powerful grassroots electoral machine.
The Brotherhood and harder-line Islamists won nearly 75 percent of the seats in last winter's parliament election. The Brotherhood's Morsi, however, won only about 25 percent in a first-round presidential vote and just over 50 percent in the runoff.
Safwat Hegazy, a hardline cleric allied to the Brotherhood, challenged the opposition in a Tweet to "go to the people in the referendum ... If the people are by your side and say no, we'll know who you are and who we are."
The opposition has been emboldened by the anger at the Brotherhood's rule after Morsi's edicts ignited criticism brewing for months that the group has used election victories to monopolize power in Egypt.
Many at Friday's protest mocked the constitutional assembly session, after watching it all night on television. During the marathon gathering, the 85 remaining members of the 100-member body voted on each of the more than 230 articles, passing all by wide margins.
The assembly's white-bearded president, Hossam al-Ghiryani, kept the voting at a rapid clip, badgering members to drop disputes and objections and move on.
At times the process appeared slap-dash, with fixes to missing phrasing and even several entirely new articles proposed, written and voted on in the wee hours of night.
In Tahrir on Friday, protesters carried signs reading, "Inside the Brotherhood kitchen, al-Ghiryani cooked the constitution."
Ahmed el-Kedwani, a spare parts shop owner, said he watched as well, adding despairingly, "These are the people who wrote the future of Egypt."
The Brotherhood " have been chasing the dream of ruling Egypt for 80 years and its only by blood that they will leave power," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy contributed to this report.
Sjogren?s?syndrome?(pronounced showgren?s) is an?autoimmune disorder?affecting the glands in your body that secrete fluid, like?saliva?glands?and tear ducts.? Researchers estimate that over 3 million?people in the US are affected with Sjogren?s syndrome though most?experts agree that number to be deceiving as they estimate that at?least half of all cases go unreported. ?Approximately 90% of those?diagnosed are women.? Although you can develop Sjogren?s syndrome at?any age it is usually diagnosed in people between 50-60 years of age.
In Sjogren?s syndrome your immune system attacks the healthy cells in?the fluid secreting glands in your body. They don?t know the exact?cause but believe it to be triggered by a combination of factors?including genetics and environmental factors.? Some believe that?hormonal factors may also be involved.
Sjogren?s syndrome is?classified into two categories, primary and secondary Sjogren?s.?Primary Sjogren?s syndrome is when it manifests on it?s ownwithout the?involvement of another condition.? Secondary Sjogren?s syndrome is?when it develops either in combination with or as the result of?another autoimmune disorder like rhuematoid arthritis or lupus.
In Sjogren?s syndrome, the fluid secreting glands become inflamed?narrowing the glands preventing them from secreting fluid.? In most?cases the first areas affected are the tear ducts and saliva glands.?As the tear duct becomes inflamed your eye gets dry and irritated.?Some experience a ?gritty? sensation and abraisions on the cornea.?Dry eyes can also lead to multiple eye infections.? When your salivary?glands become inflamed you?ll experience a dry mouth as well as?difficulty swalowing.? The potential effects of a dry mouth from?Sjogren?s syndrome are numerous including tooth decay, gum disease as?well as swelling and sores in your mouth.? Some people also develop?infections and/or stones in the parotid gland in your cheek.? Women?frequently also experience vaginal dryness due to inflammation of the?glands that are responsible for keeping it moist which can lead to?recurrent infections as well as pain with intercourse.? The glands?that provide the moisture to the lining of the lungs can also be?affected by Sjogren?s syndrome leading to respiratory infections and?breathing problems.? Sjogren?s syndrome can also affect other parts of?your body including your kidneys, liver, thyroid gland, nerves and?joints leading to numerous potential complications like impaired?kidney function and infection as well as cirrosis or hepatitis.? Some?people also develop peripheral neuropathy.
As Sjogren?s is an autoimmune disorder there is no cure for the?condition, treatment is directed at managing your symptoms and?preventing any complications.? If your symptoms are mild you may be?able to manage them by using over the counter eye drops to moisten?your eyes and sip water more frequently to help your dry mouth.?However, if your symptoms are more severe your Dr may recommend?certain medications that can increase production of saliva and tears.
Your Dr will also want to address any other conditions that you may?have like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.? Some Drs prefer the use of?system wide immunosuppressants like methotrexate or cyclosporine.?With proper eye and oral care most people with Sjogren?s syndrome have?minimal difficulty and are able to avoid complications.? Maintaining?optimal oral hygiene is crucial to avoiding numerous complications.?There are also numerous new products available to help improve your?dry mouth ask your dentist about them.? Researchers continue to look?for new treatments and expect there to be several new treatments?available in the future.
Kimberly Allen is a registered nurse with an AND in nursing. She has worked in ACF, LCF and psychiatric facilities, although she spent most of her career as a home health expert. She is now a regular contributor to HealthAndFitnessTalk.com, dispensing advice and knowledge about medical issues and questions. You can reach her with any comments or questions at? mussatti3@gmail.com.
So I have three siblings- one brother and two sisters :) Needless to say, Conner was a lone ranger growing up! And now he and his wife are having their first baby BOY!! I was SO thrilled when we found out they were having a boy. First, because, well, Boys Rule ;) and second because our family name through my parents will be carried on :) While we were all home during Thanksgiving weekend, we threw a simple family baby shower for them- with the men included! The simple gift table. I love making diapers cakes- it's been awhile and it was fun! I did this one more simply based on?THIS tutorial. I also made a diaper satchel for them and some fun burp clothes. I got the cutest wipes case from a friend in our ward at a craft fair recently and gave that to them too :)? We played a quick baby animal matching game using THIS cute sheet. But everyone's favorite part of the whole thing I think was filling out and reading these "Wishes for Baby" cards that I printed HERE. We all got to put our advice in the prompts on these cute little sheets above. It included things like "I hope you ignore_________, "I hope you respect_______," "I hope you aren't afraid ________."
Conner and Jodie took turns reading them out loud.
This ended up being both funny and tender too.
My funny brother-in-law that went on his mission to Japan wrote,
"I hope you learn Japanese," and "I hope you don't forget your name!"
If I ever have a hand in future baby showers, I'll be using these again for sure! :)
Afterwards I tied them all together between some card stock
so they have a little booklet of all our advice :)
I couldn't help but snag a picture of my Grandpa and Grandma Waddoups-
wish they would've been looking, but I'll take it- they look happy :)
My mom made these adorable blankets! The colorful one is all out of minky-?Conner was thinking he might need to keep it for himself it was so soft!?
We are all looking forwards to welcoming a new little one into our family!
Catherine Taylor, associate professor of writing, who began her writing career as a nonfiction writer, defies the separation of genres in creative writing with her latest book, ?Apart.? The anthropology department at Columbia University invited Taylor to give her lecture, titled ?Between Art and Politics: ?Ficto-Criticism? and Suspended Genres,? and a reading from ?Apart? on Thursday. Taylor?s newly released book discusses the politics of South Africa and her personal connection with the country.
Courtesy of Catherine TaylorCatherine Taylor, associate professor of writing, will be speaking at Columbia University Thursday.
Staff Writer Nicole Arocho spoke with Taylor about her book and life as a creative writer and a scholar.
Nicole Arocho: What?s your latest book about?
Catherine Taylor: It?s a quirky book mainly because it is a multi-genre book, although it?s more nonfiction than the other genres. The book shifts from essays, prose poems, photographs, archives and excerpts from archives. It?s all related to South African political history but also my family?s history in South Africa.
NA: How do you feel about being invited by the Columbia University Anthropology Department to give a lecture and a reading?
CT: It was exciting to get that kind of validation in a discipline that is not my own. Professor Michael Taussig [of Columbia] read the book and wrote me a paper letter, because he couldn?t find my email, which I will treasure forever.
NA: What was your writing process behind ?Apart?? How did it end up being a multi-genre book instead of just nonfiction?
CT: The book started as a very normal, standard memoir, but it became apparent to me very early on that that wasn?t going to work, because the topic was so complex, and I had a difficult time understanding it. It seemed to me that the book wanted to be as broken and fragmented as my understanding was. Otherwise it felt like a lie.
NA: How would you describe writing in collage mode?
CT: It was fun and liberating; it gave me the freedom of writing poems, essays, gathering pictures. Working this way let me use the archive material in a way that made sense to me. Using collage as my mode of writing gave me the opportunity of telling more stories rather than choosing a few and focusing on those only.
NA: Were there any authors that inspired you to write a cross-genre book?
CT: Yes, Michael Taussing is definitely one of them. He coined the term ?ficto-criticism,? which mixes fiction and criticism. Also the documentary poet Charles Reznikoff, with his book ?Testimony,? and Anne Carson, with her wildly lyrical essay poems. Susan Griffin is in there too. I?m going to teach her book ?A Course of Stones: The Private Life of War? next semester.
NA: How is this lecture different from any other lectures you?ve done so far?
CT: Well, this is the first time that I?ll be giving a lecture related to ?Apart? after the book was published, after I?d written the whole thing. Another thing that?s different is that I?m being invited to both read both as a creative artist and as a scholar.
NA: What would you recommend to students who want to be both writers and scholars like you?
CT: I would say, be patient. Some things you may want to do just take a really long time. It takes a long time to find yourself as a writer, to develop your craft, to find a place in the world and to find your community of writers. To those students who are torn between scholarly work and creative writing: You can be both.
NA: Are you already working on a new book?
CT: I am. I?m working on a project about military drones. What interests me is the complex place of the drone in human life by those who are being attacked by them. That?s what I want to explore.
Three bizarre-looking springtails, tiny insectlike creatures, have been discovered in a Spanish cave.
Springtails are among the most ancient and widespread animals on the planet. Like insects, they have six legs, but are small, more primitive and lack wings. They usually have a furca, or a tail used to spring away from danger, hence the name "springtails." Many cannot be seen with the naked eye; the largest species is about 0.24 inches long (6 millimeters).
The three species ? dubbed Pygmarrhopalites maestrazgoensis, P. cantavetulae and Oncopodura fadriquei ? are very different from one another.
But each of the new species has the requisite springy tails and hairy, tiny bodies, resembling Lilliputian monsters. One of them, O. fadriquei, lacks eyes.
They were found by researchers from Spain's University of Navarra in the isolated Maestrazgo caves in the Teruel region of Spain, at elevations up to 6,560 feet (2,000 meters).
Outside the isolated caves, winter temperatures drop to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius). Inside, however, temperatures stay between 41 and 54 F (5 to 11 C).
The scientists plan to study how these creatures adapt to the cold, wet and lightless conditions in the cave, according to a release from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.
"Like other cave-adapted animals, the (springtails) require greater chemical sensitivity as they cannot use their sight in the absence of light," said University of Navarra researcher Enrique Baquero in the statement.
"Studying fauna in the caves allows us to expand on our knowledge of biodiversity," Baquero said.
"In the case of the three new species that we have found in Teruel, they are organisms that have survived totally isolated for thousands of years. Having 'relatives' on the surface means they act like relics from the past that have survived the climate change (that has) taken place on the outside of the caves."
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The new species are described in a study published in October in the journal Zootaxa.
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VANCOUVER ? A 2010 Statistics Canada survey found 64 out of 100 Canadians age 16 years or older searched the Internet for medical and health related information. Usage in United States is even higher; a 2011 survey found eight out of 10 Americans go online for health and medical reasons. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently estimated 17,828 health and fitness apps and 14,558 medical apps are currently available for mobile phones. These statistics illustrate how modern electronic technologies such as smart phones and tablets, coupled with social media and the Internet, are rapidly changing how the general public is seeking health information and services.
EHealth ? the use of modern electronic technologies to access health information and services ? has clearly shown health benefits. For example, citizens living in rural and remote parts of our province and country can consult nurses, doctors, or specialists online if they are not in the same communities where they live. People use text messaging to quit smoking or remind them to take medications. Family members use video conferencing to virtually visit their loved ones being treated in hospitals miles away from their own communities. High school students program smartphone apps to help detect falls of the elderly and automatically email or text for help if necessary.
These are but a few innovative examples of how eHealth can help us take care of ourselves and receive health services online. However, eHealth is still far from being a routine part of our health system. While we now regularly use the Internet and our mobile phones for banking, travel, or accessing government services, how many of us can make doctors or hospital appointments, find our own test results, or talk to health professionals about our health concerns online, safely and securely? Surveys on eHealth point to these types of activities as those many would like to have but don?t regularly yet. How long will it take before we can count on these and other eHealth innovations being available for us to use routinely, safely, and in a cost-effective way?
Thanks to governments, hospitals, health professionals and technology companies, eHealth is making progress. For example, Canada Health Infoway, the federal government-funded organization charged with ensuring Canadians have access to secure and useful electronic health records, has been actively working with all the provinces and territories to set national eHealth standards, and raise awareness of eHealth with the general public. Provincial governments and health authorities are investing in technology infrastructures and setting policies to guide the implementation of eHealth. Educational organizations such as the UBC Faculty of Medicine are helping health professionals to learn more about eHealth and use it in practice with their patients. Active research is also happening to refine existing ways and imagine new approaches to use modern technologies for health and treatment improvement for our citizens.
Meanwhile, what can you do to bring eHealth benefits to yourself and your loved ones? I would suggest four immediate steps for you to get involved:
1. Commit to be an active health consumer: Take an active interest in your own health and go online to find information that is of interest and can be useful to you. For example, try to find at least one app to start thinking about how you can use it to help you achieve wellness and better health. Go to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or social media sites to look for information and participate in discussions. Lots of health information is out there waiting for you to discover.
2. Get to know the new technologies and use them for health: Knowing where treasures are buried, we need to have tools to dig them out. Learn to use social media, SMS and smart-phone apps and use these skills to search for health information that is relevant to you and your loved ones.
3. Think of eHealth ways to help you help yourself: Just imagine for a minute, what do you need right now to improve your health? Exercising more? Losing a few pounds? Knowing how your blood pressure and heart rate are doing or how well you are sleeping at night? Once you have an idea, check out if ?there?s an app for that.? Very likely you will find someone else has already thought of it and developed something for you to use. If there isn?t, you may have uncovered a super idea that is worth exploring further with others.
4. Work with your health professionals to ensure safety and accuracy: While valuable health resources can be found online, you need to make sure they are accurate and suitable for you. Make sure you determine with your own doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or trusted health professional first if the information is helpful or harmful to you, especially if it involves taking pills or supplements, or doing unusual or even extreme activities.
In Canada, we are blessed with excellent electronic infrastructure and technologies for us to stay connected, and a great health system to support our health. Current and future developments in eHealth require partnerships and participation of policy-makers, health professionals, industry and citizens like yourselves who are familiar with and want to use eHealth.
When it comes to getting to know eHealth, think of Steve Jobs? two famous mottoes: ?Stay hungry, stay foolish.? Hungry for health information and apps that can help you live healthier lives and manage your illnesses better; foolish to keep asking questions and learning about your own body in partnership with your health professionals. And, ?Think different.? Keep thinking how can eHealth help me achieve better health?
Dr. Kendall Ho is a professor in emergency medicine and director of the eHealth Strategy Office, faculty of medicine, University of British Columbia. @eHealthStrategy.
This is my ninth installment in a new series on leading a nonprofit (see my Guide to Effective Job Search and Career Development ? 2, postings 267-274 for Parts 1-8.) So far I have primarily focused on leading an established nonprofit with a history and structure, and an ongoing cash flow and an established supporting community. With this posting I turn to consider the challenges of starting a nonprofit, as its founding leader and visionary. And chances are that if you are looking to found and build a nonprofit, you do so driven by the imperative of a specific mission and vision and its societal significance.
I have been writing on an ongoing basis about startups in this blog, and in that more general context I cite my various postings and series as can be found at: Startups and Early Stage Businesses. My hope is that at least some of that material would be of value to the founder of a nonprofit startup, even as the same general principles would apply to the new for-profit business as well. And in that regard and with the stringent cash flow requirements needed to gain and maintain a tax exempt nonprofit status, I specifically cite my series: Understanding and Navigating Burn Rate: a startup primer, as included there as postings 67-78. But in keeping with the basic thrust of this series, I focus here on issues particular to nonprofits and their leadership. And I begin with some basic questions.
? What is the specific value defining core idea or issue that gives your proposed mission and vision statements meaning? ? Can you clearly and compellingly explain it and with the brevity of an elevator pitch that you would use if seeking a job? (See Structuring an Effective Elevator Pitch.)
Who is your natural audience for this message? Throw a wide net in answering that, as you want to include everyone who is or is likely to be directly impacted upon by the challenges you would address in your nonprofit, and you also want to include people and groups who would wish to support those so afflicted. Think in terms of potential donors here who have discretionary income to share with charitable organizations and nonprofits, but also think in terms of the people who would influence them to pick your mission and vision statements to support, and your nonprofit for seeking to actively, meaningfully address them.
So I write here about the dual and deeply interconnected tasks of crafting a message and knowing who that message could favorably reach as a call to action.
This is a short posting by word count but it covers a lot of ground in outlining steps that need taking, and that would come from the founder and people they can bring in early on. I am going to pick up on the second half of that last sentence in my next series installment, where I will look into some of the issues that nonprofit founders face in building a team. And I note in anticipation of that, that an effective founder of a nonprofit need not be an effective chief executive officer. But they do need to know if someone else should be found to actually manage the organization as a business, and they do need to be able to find and bring onboard such a person if needed, as well as help to find the rest of a starting team. Meanwhile, you can find this and related postings at my Guide to Effective Job Search and Career Development ? 2. I have also posted extensively on jobs and careers-related topics in my first Guide directory page on Job Search and Career Development. You can also find this and related postings at Nonprofits and Social Networking.
A woman riding a wild manatee, received an award from the State of Florida..
A woman riding a wild manatee, received an award from the State of Florida.
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 53, was arrested by Deputies in the Pinellas County Sheriff?s Office, but soon after she was released into the custody the Florida Manatee Rider Association (FMRA).
Gutierrez won an award from the organization in two categories: ?longest ride, and most tricks performed on a manatee.
In October, deputies had received reports of a woman, later identified as Garcia Gutierrez, who had been seen?touching and riding a manatee. She turned herself in to deputies in October claiming she was new to the area and didn?t realize it was against the law to touch or harass manatees.
And then last week, she and other members of FMRA were riding manatees and entertaining children watching from the shore.
Here she is walking to great her fans at FMRA.
She was originally charged with a second-degree misdemeanor under Florida?s Manatee Sanctuary Act, which makes it illegal for people to ?intentionally or negligently ? molest, harass, or disturb any manatee.?
The hulking marine mammals, with their paddle-like forelimbs, have been on Florida?s endangered list since 1967, according to the Wildlife Advocacy Project.
But the FMRA has received approval from the State of Florida to have a ?weekend of wild manatee riding? every year. ?Once deputies realized that Gutierrez was a legitimate member of the organization, they realized her.
Authorities said they don?t believe the manatee was physically harmed, although the manatee seemed ?happy.?
The Coast Guard?called off its search Monday for a teenager who was swept to sea with his parents in northern California over the weekend while trying to rescue the family dog, saying it's not likely the 16-year-old boy could have survived the cold waters.
Officials recovered the bodies of the teen's mother and father Saturday afternoon at Big Lagoon, about 32 miles north of Eureka, Calif., in Humboldt County.?Authorities say the family was trying to rescue their dog from powerful surf, after the?canine?was pulled into the ocean by powerful, 10-foot waves, The Associated Press reported.
The Humboldt County Coroner's office on Monday identified the parents as?Mary Elena Scott, 57, and?Howard Kuljian, 54, of?Freshwater, Calif.?The missing teen was identified as?Gregory Kuljian.
Coast Guard Lt. Bernie Garrigan told the AP the search for the missing boy was stopped Monday, saying that a person without a wetsuit could not survive for long in the frigid surf.
On Saturday,?the teen had gone after the dog, and the father followed him into the water to attempt a rescue,?State Parks District Superintendent Dana Jones told the AP. The 16-year-old was able to get out of the waves, but then went back into the water with his mother to find his father, the AP reported.
"Both were dragged into the ocean," Jones told the AP, noting that the dog got out of the water on its own.
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The Coast Guard said the parents'?daughter?reportedly was the one who called 911, The Times-Standard in Eureka reported.
Earlier, the AP reported the Coast Guard tried using a helicopter and two motor life boats to try to find the missing teen, but thick coastal fog had suspended the aerial search.
Officials say the Big Lagoon beach has a steep shoreline where the waves roll in and crash onto the sand, which makes the area dangerous, the AP reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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The 100-plus workers who died in a fire late Saturday at a high-rise garment factory in Bangladesh were working overtime making clothes for major American retailers, including Wal-Mart, according to workers' rights groups.
Officials in Bangladesh said the flames at the Tazreen Fashions factory outside Dhaka spread rapidly on the ground floor, trapping those on the higher floors of the nine-story building. There were no exterior fire escapes, according to officials, and many died after jumping from upper floors to escape the flames.
As firemen continued to remove bodies Sunday, officials said at least 112 people had died but that the number of fatalities could go higher.
The Tazreen fire is the latest in a series of deadly blazes at garment factories in Bangladesh, where more than 700 workers, many making clothes for U.S. consumers, have died in factory fires in the past five years. As previously reported by ABC News, Bangladesh has some of the cheapest labor in the world and some of the most deplorable working conditions.
READ the original ABC News report.
"The industry and parent brands in the U.S. have been warned again and again about the extreme danger to workers in Bangladesh and they have not taken action," said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, an American group working to improve conditions at factories abroad that make clothes for U.S. companies. Nova said the fire was the most deadly in the history of the Bangladesh apparel industry, and "one of the worst in any country."
WATCH the 'Nightline' report on deadly factories.
Workers' activists went into the burned-out remains today to document which major retailers were using the Tazreen factory.
They say they found labels for Faded Glory, a Wal-Mart private label, along with labels they said traced back to Sears and a clothing company owned by music impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs.
"There's no question that Wal-Mart and the other customers at this factory bear some blame for what happened in this factory," Nova said.
Nova also said that Wal-Mart "knew exactly what's going on at these facilities. They have staff on site in Bangladesh."
Wal-Mart actually warned of dangerous conditions at the Tazreen factory last year, in a letter posted online by the factory owner.
Wal-Mart told ABC News that the company has not yet been able to confirm that it was still making clothes at the factory.
In a statement, Wal-Mart told ABC News, "Our thoughts are with the families of the victims of this tragedy. ... [F]ire safety is a critically important area of Wal-Mart's factory audit program and we have been working across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh.
"As part of this effort, we partnered with several independent organizations to develop and roll out fire safety training tools for factory management and workers. Continued engagement is critical to ensure that reliable, proactive measures are in place to reduce the chance of factory fires. "
Spokespeople for Combs and Sears did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. often isn?t the first nation to come to mind when you think of countries with healthy eating habits to adopt, but it turns out we may be influencing how our friends across the Atlantic dine.
The ?all things fiber? trend taking over American supermarkets is also on the rise in Spain, Germany, Poland, and the U.K., where 62 percent of people say consuming enough fiber is important, a new European report found. Fiber even trumps calories, as only 56 percent said reducing calories was important.
This study intrigued me because while there are a number of foods with fiber added on the market?everything from pasta to yogurt?the latest nutrition data indicates that the average intake in the United States is less than half the recommended 14 grams per 1,000 calories (which works out to roughly 25 grams a day for women and 38 for men). And when I talk to my clients, most don?t know much about this nutrient, other than it?s generally good for you.
RELATED: Oatmeal is super versatile. Try these 10 new ways to eat oatmeal and you'll never be bored with breakfast!
In a nutshell, fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body can?t digest or absorb, and there are two primary types: soluble and insoluble. Soluble is the soft, sticky type found in oats, barley, beans, and the ?meat? of fruits, which helps to lower cholesterol and soften waste so it can pass through your system more easily. Insoluble is the tough type, found in whole wheat and the skin, stalks, and seeds of fruits and veggies, that helps to push waste through the GI tract and improve bowel regularity.
Fiber also has a number of weight-control benefits, which I?ve often touted on this blog. First, it fills you up, but because you don?t break it down and absorb it into your bloodstream, you don?t have to worry about burning off fiber in order to prevent it from getting socked away in your fat cells.
There is also some research showing that for every gram of fiber you eat, you eliminate about seven calories. That means if you gobbled 30 grams a day, it would essentially ?cancel out? 210 of the calories you ate, which could result in shedding up to 20 pounds in a year?s time.?
Lastly, fiber has been found to slow the digestion and absorption of other carbs, which results in a slower, steadier rise in blood sugar and a delay in the return of hunger.
RELATED: In addition to fiber, be sure you're eating these eight super nutrients that help you slim down.
But fiber?s powers don?t stop at weight loss. It may also reduce the risk of death from any cause, according to a recent paper in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Women who ate about 25 grams of fiber a day were 22 percent less likely to die during the nine-year study than those who ate only 10 grams daily. And the risk of death from heart disease, infections, and respiratory diseases was reduced by as much as 50 percent in the high-fiber eaters, with the greatest benefit seen from consuming grains. Pretty powerful stuff!
To boost your intake and hit the daily target, I recommend bulking up on naturally fiber-rich foods, primarily fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, and nuts. Just a cup of raspberries, a cup of black bean soup, a medium orange, and an ounce of almonds packs more than 25 grams, so meeting the recommendation doesn?t require a drastic change in your diet.
Some good general rules of thumb for upping your intake include:
Choose more fruits with edible seeds, skins, and membranes, including apples, raspberries, and oranges.
Reach for veggies with tough stalks and edible skin, such as artichokes and broccoli.
Opt for whole rather than refined grains. Oats, barley, quinoa, brown and wild rice, and 100% whole-wheat versions of bread, pasta, and crackers are good options.
Replace meat with beans or lentils at least five times a week.
Snack on nuts and seeds, or use them to garnish salads, stir-fries, cereal, and yogurt.
Oh, and one more thing: As you increase your fiber intake, be sure to drink plenty of extra water. It's key to help the fiber move through your system. Too little H2O and too much fiber can be a recipe for bloating and constipation, or a pretty uncomfortable tummy ache!
What?s your take on this topic? Has fiber been part of your weight control and health strategy? Please share your thoughts @cynthiasass and @Shape_Magazine.
Cynthia Sass is a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she's a SHAPE contributing editor and nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays. Her latest New York Times best seller is S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches.
Two years after narrowly losing one of the nation?s most closely watched House races to Republican Dan Lungren, Democrat Ami Bera prevailed in a rematch with the help of favorable redistricting and the presence of President Obama on the ballot.
Bera was born in Hollywood, Calif., the son of parents who immigrated to the United States in the 1950s to attend college. His mother studied education and became a public elementary school teacher; his father paid for his engineering degree by ushering at Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games. The younger Bera said he grew up believing that he lived in a land of opportunity where ?if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could reach your full potential.?
Bera excelled in science and math, and went to the University of California to study biology and then earn his medical degree. As a second-year medical student, he met his future wife, Janine, then an undergraduate. They married in 1991, the day after Bera?s last med school class. He said in an interview that he was drawn to medicine by the opportunity to help total strangers and quickly form intimate connections with them. He also says that the listening skills required for a good bedside manner have served him well in politics.
After several years practicing internal medicine, Bera took on a half-time role as the medical director of care management for Mercy Healthcare Sacramento in 1998. There, he says, he learned the extent of inefficiency within the health care sector and set about identifying and implementing ?simple solutions? to reduce waste. He cited as an example a project in which his unit examined 911 calls that weren?t actually emergencies and found that most originated from a small group of widows and widowers. By reaching out to that group, the unit dramatically reduced unnecessary calls.
Realizing that other hospital groups in Sacramento County faced similar challenges, Bera took on the role of the county?s chief medical officer in 1999. He said he was motivated partly by a ?desire to truly create that public-private partnership.? At the time, the county was unprepared to meet the demands of its uninsured population, which became a top priority for Bera. He said that Obama?s Affordable Care Act ?is not the direction I would have gone,? but believes the law offers a solid starting point for reform on such concerns as bringing down spiraling medical costs.
After his stint in county government, Bera entered academia as a professor and associate dean of admissions at UC-Davis Medical School. But he remained interested in government and in 2010 decided to challenge Lungren, who had had a close election in 2008, in the 3rd District. Bera showed surprising strength as a fundraiser, drawing on donations from Indian-Americans across the country to become the only Democratic challenger in mid-2010 to outraise a sitting House Republican. He accused Lungren of being out of touch with district voters, while the incumbent portrayed him as a rubber stamp for Speaker Nancy Pelosi?s agenda. A late-breaking wave of nearly $700,000 in ads from GOP strategist Karl Rove?s American Crossroads organization helped seal Lungren?s win?a development featured on the syndicated radio show This American Life about how campaign money has affected politics.
Bera began almost immediately to consider a second run. In 2012, he was the only Democrat to garner a significant share of the vote in his district?s open primary, receiving 41 percent to Lungren?s 53 percent and setting up a general-election rematch. Redistricting put the race in a new 7th District, which was 3 percentage points more Democratic than before. He continued to outraise his opponent, and benefited from a Sacramento Bee endorsement that said, ?Bera has matured, and Lungren has failed to meet local expectations.?
(Reuters) - Gap Inc posted a bigger quarterly profit on Thursday and quelled fears of a possible slowdown ahead of the holiday season as the retailer raised its profit view for the year, sending its shares up 3 percent after the bell.
The owner of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic chains expects to earn between $2.20 to $2.25 a share, up from its August forecast of $1.95 to $2.
Wall Street was expecting it to make $2.27 a share, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"When you're giving guidance, what's the point of being wrong on the upside? I think they are giving conservative guidance," said retail consultant Jan Kniffen.
"The stock's traded up because people were concerned about a slowdown in sales last month and thought it might be affecting their quarterly numbers," he said.
The company missed October same store sales estimates, after topping them for many months before that.
Gap has staged a turnaround after a decade of critics derided its fashions as boring and it lost out to rivals such as Zara parent Inditex SA and homegrown competitors such as Forever21.
Banana Republic's tie-in with television show Mad Men was a big success. Redoing Gap's classic Khakis in bright colors proved to be a crowd pleaser.
The company said all three brands posted positive comparable sales in North America, with Old Navy rising 9 percent.
For the third quarter, Gap earned $308 million, or 63 cents a share, compared with $193 million, or 38 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting the company to earn 63 cents.
Sales for the third quarter ended October 27 rose 8 percent to $3.86 billion.
Gap shares were trading up at $34.21 after the bell. They closed at $33.26 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago. Editing by Andre Grenon and David Gregorio)
As many of us in the US prepare to give thanks next week, we thought it would be a great opportunity to share some of the small business marketing resources we?re thankful for.
Take a look at our list of places you can find great information to help you grow your small business. If we missed any of your favorites, drop a link in the comments below and tell us why you?re thankful for them.
Here?s our list in no particular order:
1. Copyblogger ? Get advice about growing your small business online by delivering quality content. The site also offers tutorials on copywriting, content marketing, SEO copywriting, email marketing, keyword research, landing pages, and internet marketing.
2. Jeff Bullas?s Blog ? Get advice on how to get found online by using the Internet to market your small business in a non-intrusive way, through engagement and conversations that build trust and relationships.
3. Big Brand System ? Pamela Wilson?s Big Brand System offers practical advice on how to grow your business with great design and marketing. Find out how to make a great first impression with what your audience sees so you don?t lose customers before you?ve had a chance to start a conversation.
4. Business 2 Community ? An open community where professionals and businesses can connect with one another and the consumers of their products and services. Get a balanced view of the current business landscape based on industry news and trends.
5. NY Times Small Business Blog ? The ?You?re the Boss? blog offers insights into the art of running a small business.
6. SEOmoz ? Learn search engine optimization in this vibrant community of members willing to discuss the latest news about what works and what doesn?t. Other resources include a downloadable ?Beginner?s Guide to SEO.?
7. Social Triggers ? Derek Halpern?s Social Triggers gets into the psychology of what makes people tick online. Derek regularly breaks down psychological research and business case studies into simple, actionable steps that can help you improve your online business.
8. The Cogent Coach ? Michael Nelson?s blog on small business mastery has a mission to help as many small businesses as possible to succeed. You?ll find tips for improving your marketing so you can stay in business, grow, and thrive.
9. Small Business Trends ? News, tips, and advice covering issues of key importance to the small business market. Track, explore, and learn from trends, issues, and news updates.
10. Psychotactics ? Marketing strategist, Sean D?Souza, offers tons of free marketing advice focused on why customers buy (and why they don?t).
11. American Express OPEN Forum ? The AmEx Open Forum features contributions from top small business experts designed to help you succeed.
12. MarketingProfs ? Find practical advice you can use culled from the know-how of experts and in-the-trenches marketers mixed with the marketing smarts of the MarketingProfs editorial team.
13. Social Media Examiner ? Designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect with customers, generate more brand awareness, and increase sales.
14. Duct Tape Marketing ? Small business expert, John Jantsch, offers practical real-world ideas and strategies for small businesses.
15. Wall Street Journal Small Business ? The Wall Street Journal?s small business team reports breaking news and delivers features on entrepreneurs, start-ups, and existing small businesses.
What small business resources did we miss? Share your favorites and tell us why you like them in the comments below.
Tumor cells circulating in a patient's bloodstream can yield a great deal of information on how a tumor is responding to treatment and what drugs might be more effective against it. But first, these rare cells have to be captured and isolated from the many other cells found in a blood sample.
Many scientists are now working on microfluidic devices that can isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs), but most of these have two major limitations: It takes too long to process a sufficient amount of blood, and there is no good way to extract cancer cells for analysis after their capture.
A new device from researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital overcomes those obstacles. Inspired by the tentacles of a jellyfish, the team coated a microfluidic channel with long strands of DNA that grab specific proteins found on the surfaces of leukemia cells as they flow by. Using this strategy, the researchers achieved flow rates 10 times higher than existing devices ? fast enough to make the systems practical for clinical use.
Using this technology, described in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doctors could monitor cancer patients to determine whether their treatment is working.
"If you had a rapid test that could tell you whether there are more or less of these cells over time, that would help to monitor the progression of therapy and progression of the disease," says Jeff Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
This type of device could also enable personalized treatments: Once cells are isolated from a patient, doctors could test different drugs on them to determine which are most effective.
The new technology grew out of a collaboration between Karp's lab and that of Rohit Karnik, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Lead authors of the paper are Weian Zhao, a former postdoc in Karp's lab and now an assistant professor at the University of California at Irvine; Cheryl Cui, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; and Suman Bose, a graduate student in Karnik's lab.
DNA 'tentacles'
The number of CTCs found in a milliliter of a particular patient's blood can range from just a few to several thousand. To isolate those rare cells, researchers have tried building microfluidic channels dotted with antibodies specific to a protein found on the target cells. However, because the antibodies only extend tens of nanometers from the bottom of the channel, the capture of cells by the antibodies is slow.
To extend the reach of the capture molecules, Karp and Karnik's team mimicked the tentacles of jellyfish, creating long strands of repeating DNA sequences. Those sequences, known as aptamers, target a protein found in large numbers on leukemia cells.
The DNA strands are attached to a microchannel with a herringbone pattern on its floor. Those patterned ridges cause the blood to swirl as it flows through the channel, improving the chances that individual cells will come into contact with the tentacles, which extend hundreds of microns into the channel. This allows the researchers to increase the rate of blood flow.
"Normally what happens at high flow rates is the cells don't really come close to the surface, and it's very challenging to capture the target cells," Karnik says. "But this combination of these herringbone grooves to mix the solution and bring the cells into contact with surfaces, plus having aptamers that are sticking out into the solution, enables very high capture rates at very high flow rates."
Flow rates in the new device are 10 times higher than those reported for previous devices, and the system can capture 60 to 80 percent of the target cells. In the current model, which measures 1 square centimeter, the flow rate is 1 milliliter per hour. By making the device larger, the researchers say they could boost the flow rate to 100 milliliters of blood per hour ? fast enough to rapidly process the 10- to 20-milliliter samples that would be needed to get an accurate CTC count from an individual patient.
Because the "tentacles" are made of DNA, they can easily be cleaved with enzymes, freeing the captured cells for further analysis.
Minimally invasive
Devices that capture CTCs could offer a better alternative to sampling bone marrow in determining whether cancer treatment is working in a leukemia patient.
"If one could improve the sensitivity of detection in blood, then this approach may enable a transition from isolating marrow to isolating blood, which is much less invasive and you can do it more often. It could change the paradigm for how residual disease is detected," Karp says.
"The beauty of this technology is its versatility," Zhao says. "You can easily modify the length and density of the DNA chains; you can include different sequences in the DNA to capture different types of cells."
This feature makes it a platform technology that can be broadly applied in the clinic and research laboratories. For instance, another possible application is capturing fetal cells, which are very rare in a pregnant woman's bloodstream. Analyzing these cells could help doctors perform prenatal diagnostic tests for a range of diseases using an approach that is far less invasive than amniocentesis.
The researchers are now working on adapting the DNA strands to target other molecules, such as receptors found on the surfaces of cells dislodged from solid tumors.
###
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice
Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This is part one of a Technically Baltimore series about Digit All Systems. Part two, on Digit All?s work teaching certification classes in city schools, nonprofits and the Housing Authority, will be published tomorrow.
As a teenager, Lance Lucas ran his own counterfeiting operation, making duplicate tickets to movies, parties and special events. His tickets looked identical to the originals, which meant Lucas didn?t need to mark them up to make a profit. He recruited classmates to push his product for him?in seven different high schools across three school systems.
At 17, he was a consummate salesman: suave, attentive and eloquent. Even more, he was damn clever. But one day, Lucas was peddling a story, not tickets.
As a senior at Woodlawn High School, he was in the cafeteria when he was called to the principal?s office. He ditched his pager first, passing it to a classmate at the table behind him. He threw away the fake tickets he still had on him. To a friend, he handed the wad of $1,500 in his pocket. Lucas then walked into the principal?s office and told his principal and the policeman that, yes, he did sell some of those duplicate tickets to Woodlawn?s Pow Wow to friends, but, no, he didn?t know who the ringleader of the operation was.
For a high school student, $1,500 before noon is a handsome take, had he gotten away with it. Instead, that was the day Lucas was expelled two months before graduation. ?You?re a very smart young man,? the policeman tells him. ?You just use it in a totally wrong way.?
Today, people know Lance Lucas as the gregarious, fast-talking, pencil-mustached founder of Digit All Systems, a nonprofit group on East Lexington Street that offers computer certification courses, Microsoft certification, programming courses?even a class in Lego Mindstorm robotics. In an economy where the unemployment rate for computer hardware engineers and network architects was a combined 2.7 percent in 2011, compared to the battered countrywide unemployment rate of 7.9 percent today, Digit All Systems is providing a pathway out of poverty for unemployed Baltimoreans, one A+ computer programming certification course at a time.
?We treat the symptoms of poverty, but we do not treat the actual flu,? said Lucas, 37, whose outfits?on a recent morning it?s black wingtips, dark trousers, a striped sweater and a Phillies flat brim cap?can be as eclectic as the sequence of his thoughts in conversation.
?The only inoculant for poverty is education,? said Lucas, forcefully. It?s a line he repeats often to as many people who?ll listen.
Lance Lucas talks about ?fighting poverty? through STEM education
Since its founding 14 years ago, Digit All has provided computer training and certification to nearly 2,400 people, about 180 certifications each year. For a company with just seven full-time employees and 10 contract teachers, Lucas boasts, his certification classes get results.
An 85 percent certification rate in A+ classes?the starter course for anyone interested in a career in information technology?which takes two months of 15-hour weeks to complete
A 90 percent certification rate with Microsoft programs
On average, 80 percent of the people Digit All certifies find a job, and half of that number are hired in IT or computing, Lucas says.
?His certification numbers really seemed too good to be true,? said Daniel Atzmon, a policy analyst with the city Mayor?s Office of Information Technology who helps Lucas out as a volunteer from time to time. ?Once I started meeting the teachers he works with, I became a believer.?
Still, Lucas knows that 80 percent employed leaves another 20 percent looking for work, but he insists it?s better than nothing. And in many of the neighborhoods that Digit All focuses its work, that?s what the job prospects are like without its certifications: nothing. For Lucas, low-cost computer certification courses are the way to create jobs in Baltimore city?s overlooked neighborhoods, places like Edmonson Village on the West Side, where the unemployment rate tops 16 percent. Lucas focuses on that 16 percent and works to make most of them job prospects.
It?s that 16 percent Lucas is after mainly because, at one time, Lucas was just as overlooked.
He grew up in the Liberty Heights neighborhood of northwest Baltimore, and his parents separated when he was eight, making paying bills more difficult for his mother, Brenda, a schoolteacher. He thought things would improve once she finished her master?s degree in special education.
?We begged mom to work in a county school to make more money,? Lucas recalled. ?But she wouldn?t. ?They need me here,? she said?in the city schools.?
His father, whom he visited often, lived a different life in Baltimore County, throwing parties, keeping girlfriends and eventually falling into recreational drug use.
?I was emotionally disturbed, [my father] living it up and us suffering,? said Lucas. ?It caused me to act out.?
Act out Lucas did, running with a crew on Park Heights Avenue near Pimlico Race Course?a notorious drug area in the late 1980s?when he was just 14, a rage growing inside him for the life he felt cheated out of. Although Lucas says he never sold hard drugs himself, he did lose interest in school and focused instead on making money.
?I wasn?t a bad kid. I was just the one who slipped through the cracks,? he said.
Watch testimonials from students on what they?ve learned through programs Digit All sponsors:
Early in his senior year, Lucas was recruited into the U.S. Army, with plans to start basic training upon graduating. His counterfeit-ticket operation slowed that down. After he was expelled from Woodlawn High, it took his Army recruiter crying in front of a judge to keep him out of juvenile detention, he said. Lucas? mother then had to drive him to night classes in Catonsville and Dundalk just so he graduated on time.
From there, life moved quickly: in the Army, Lucas was trained as a medical lab technician at Fort Sam Houston in Texas and eventually worked at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, his mother moved from his childhood home in Liberty Heights to his great aunt?s home in Randallstown in Baltimore County. When Lucas, now 18, came back to the city in early 1993, he moved in with his father?who had just finished a stint in rehab?and was broke within six months, his savings from the military used up.
Salvation, so to speak, for Lucas came abruptly, and in the last place he expected.
After getting a job in fast food, Lucas moved in with his Aunt Francine on his father?s side and entered?Coppin State University in 1994. He was working two other jobs and taking classes full-time, but flipping burgers at McDonald?s was getting old. Aunt Francine, who had worked for IBM, owned a color Macintosh with speakers, which Lucas discreetly carted to class with him often as a way to show off. Lucas? entrepreneurial endeavors took a decidedly different tack after setting eyes on that Macintosh.
In 1998, still in school, Lucas had moved into his own apartment, quit his other jobs and began working for Staples, selling eMachines to make ends meet. On the side, Lucas recruited his classmates for a new money-making venture: computer instruction. They taught classes in computer certification out of Coppin State?s computer lab, and Lucas soon advertised his services to customers at Staples. Digit All Systems was born.
Since then, computer instruction is all Lance Lucas has done. Students, former prisoners and drug users and homeless Baltimoreans have been certified through Digit All Systems. This, ultimately, is the point of Lucas? work: to take technology education to neglected people in the hope that some can work themselves out of poverty.
Not all who are Digit All-certified find work. Some with certifications end up working, like Lucas did for a time, at fast-food joints. But the soft skills his students learn?like coming to class on time, following directions and realizing cooking fries is a first job, not the job?keep them employed. Chipping away at unemployment, slowly, is continuing work that excites Lucas.
Over coffee one morning, Lucas tells Technically Baltimore about one man, Willy. Formerly incarcerated, once on drugs, Lucas convinced Willy to start taking A+ classes, and then ?dogged him,? as Lucas said, to make sure he kept showing up. For a month now, Willy has been clean.
?I kept looking at this dude, I just kept looking at him and saying, ?My father, my father, my father,? ? said Lucas. ?[Digit All Systems] is helping me, and it?s helping people like my dad too.?
Sjogren?s syndrome is?classified into two categories, primary and secondary Sjogren?s.?Primary Sjogren?s syndrome is when it manifests on it?s ownwithout the?involvement of another condition.? Secondary Sjogren?s syndrome is?when it develops either in combination with or as the result of?another autoimmune disorder like rhuematoid arthritis or lupus.
