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This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.
Summer means mosquitoes, those vampires of the insect world. We're going to talk about another vampire insect that is probably less familiar to you. It's known as the kissing bug, which sounds kind of lovely, but it doesn't kiss. It bites and feeds on the victim's blood. Those bugs live in warm climates and are mostly found in South and Central America and Mexico. The bite can carry a parasite, which in some cases can lead to the destruction of the heart, esophagus or colon. My guest's aunt was a victim.
Daisy Hernandez is the author of the new book "The Kissing Bug: The True Story Of A Family, An Insect, And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease" (ph). Hernandez was raised in New Jersey by her mother, who's from Colombia, and her father, who's from Cuba. When Hernandez was 5, her aunt, who was living in Colombia, came down with a mysterious ailment that caused her large intestine to swell so much people assumed she was pregnant. The aunt's sisters flew her to New Jersey to care for her and get the medical help she needed. It was too late to completely stop the progression of the disease, which eventually killed her after many surgeries and years of suffering.
Hernandez's new book is in part the history of the disease, a history that includes Charles Darwin, who may have had it, and a research experiment very similar to the notorious Tuskegee experiment. The book is also part-memoir, about growing up in an immigrant family and coming out as bisexual, which her aunt was never able to accept.
Hernandez is a former New York Times reporter who writes about the intersections of race, immigration, class and sexuality. She's the author of a previous memoir called "A Cup Of Water Under My Bed" and is the co-editor of the book "Colonize This! Young Women Of Color On Today's Feminism."
Daisy Hernandez, welcome to FRESH AIR.
DAISY HERNANDEZ: Thank you so much for having me.
GROSS: You know, I should start by saying I've seen the name of this disease written, but you should pronounce it so we all know how to say it.
HERNANDEZ: Yes, the actual name is Chagas disease.
GROSS: And it's named after the doctor who discovered it.
HERNANDEZ: Dr. Carlos Chagas from Brazil, who discovered it in 1909.
GROSS: So your aunt got very sick when you were 5 or 6. You - she was flown to America by her sisters. She lived with you, right?
HERNANDEZ: She did. Yeah, she did. It was quite a gamble at that point for her to come because doctors in Colombia had told her that she maybe had a year or two to live. They were not able to diagnose her with the disease. My mother and my auntie did not have a lot of money, but they believed in all things American, including medicine, and so were just taking a gamble in the hope that they might find a doctor here who could help, and they did.
GROSS: So you grew up watching her be in and out of hospitals, be nauseous, be sick, be unable to eat. Her colon had swelled up. Her esophagus was becoming destroyed. How old were you when you learned that this was because she was bitten by a bug?
HERNANDEZ: So I learned about the kissing bug when I was probably around 12 or 13. And I think it was pretty horrifying, and it probably cemented my fear of insects for the rest of my life at that point. I also learned that another family member, another auntie, had died in Colombia when she was very young not from contact with kissing bugs, but probably some kind of hookworm or something like that.
So I learned at a really young age to be terrified of the natural world, you know, and to be terrified of what could happen to me out in a rural area because that was the connection as well with these insects is to rural areas of South America.
GROSS: So can you describe what the bug, what the kissing bug looks like?
HERNANDEZ: You know, there are more than a hundred species of kissing bugs. It's about five of them that are very - considered to be very dangerous. And they vary in size but are around an inch long. And can - you know, sometimes they'll be described as very large beetles. Sometimes people describe them as a variety of a cockroach, actually. I think they look very distinctive, actually. I don't think they look like another insect. They have a cone-shaped nose. They have very large eyes. They have a proboscis that is very straight, so that needle part of their mouth is very straight. They also have - they have wings, but they are very weak flyers. So in Quechua, they're actually called - they're called vinchucas, which means - in Quechua means the bug that falls, or one that falls down, because they actually kind of scuttle down the walls of homes when they're trying to get closer to a victim. And, yeah, they're pretty - I think they're pretty terrifying-looking.
Over the course of working on this book, I came to see ways that they might look a little pretty because around their abdomen or their back, a lot of the species will have different colors, including sort of shades of red and orange. It kind of looks like they're almost wearing a skirt, which is very unusual.
GROSS: So the parasite that causes the destruction is transmitted by the kissing bug, but it's transmitted by the bug's feces, not by the bite itself. Could you describe this phenomenon?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah. It's a point of confusion. You know, we associate so much bug bites with the transmission of disease, but in this case, the kissing bug will bite a person, and then there's a lag time before there's fecal material that's deposited, and that actually makes - can make a pretty big difference. So if they bite you and they also expel their fecal matter, which is carrying the parasite because the parasite has gone through a whole process inside of this kissing bug - to be transformed, it has several stages. So when it's coming out in that fecal matter, that's actually what ends up in either the bite wound, or it can end up in a person's eye or nose or mouth area. And sometimes it's simply because the person is asleep, just feels a little itch and starts to rub at the wound site or starts to rub around their eyes or their mouth. And so they can actually - you know, the person themselves can actually introduce that fecal material into their own body
GROSS: By touching the bite and then rubbing their eye.
HERNANDEZ: Exactly.
GROSS: So most Americans, I think, have never heard of Chagas disease or of the kissing bug. How widespread a disease is this in the areas where the bug lives?
HERNANDEZ: That's what was shocking to me because growing up, I thought it was an incredibly rare disease. We never met another family who knew about this disease or had a family member with this disease. So it was really shocking for me to find out that this is a disease of the Americas. So as you said, it's mostly in South America, Central America and Mexico. It's about an estimated 6 million people who have this disease in the Americas. In the United States, however, there's 300,000 people who have Chagas disease, which is an incredible number. And all of those people are similar to my auntie in that they are immigrants from this part of Latin America.
GROSS: Watching your aunt suffer, the unspoken rule was, like, you don't talk about it with her. Why wouldn't she talk about it? And what was it like for you to not be able to acknowledge the obvious thing that was in control of her life?
HERNANDEZ: I think that a large part of why we didn't talk about it was that kind of intersection of immigration and public health. So my auntie came here in 1980 and was here in the '80s. So we were growing up, and she was getting to witness the start of the AIDS epidemic. And so I think and suspect that, you know, she really saw the kind of stigma that people suffered with that disease, and, you know, not because we knew someone in our family, but simply by just, you know, we - I mean, we lived through it. So watching the news, reading the papers, the way people talked about it, I think she was really afraid to be stigmatized. She very much saw herself, you know, as a new arrival in the United States. And here she had this disease that no one had heard of that, you know, by all accounts sounds really scary.
And I also think she was a very ambitious woman. She came here when she was 30, and she wanted to stay, actually, after her initial surgeries. She wanted to stay. She wanted to continue the teaching career that she had started in Colombia. She was the first person in her family - the first girl in her family to go to college. And I think she very much saw that if anyone knew about this disease, it would interfere with that kind of ambition that she had for her life because she was so determined that she was going to get well and that she was going to overcome this.
GROSS: Was she able to teach?
HERNANDEZ: She was. She did, actually. She ended up becoming a Spanish teacher in the Jersey City public school system and taught everyone from kindergartners to third- or fifth-graders Spanish, actually. And a lot of the students were themselves from Latin America, so she was actually helping them to preserve their language.
GROSS: She managed to get good medical care. Your mother took her to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (ph) in Manhattan. Would she have been able to get that medical care today? She wasn't a citizen. The family didn't have money.
HERNANDEZ: She would not have been able to receive that level of care today because of her citizenship status. She came on a tourist visa, and she stayed, so she was undocumented. I have no indication from any family member that her doctors or anyone actually in the hospital ever asked about her status. They treated her as any other American who did not have health insurance at that time. Today in the U.S., I mean, just by being undocumented, she would not have been able to receive that level of care. She would've had to rely on emergency rooms and safety-net hospitals.
GROSS: Let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Daisy Hernandez, author of the new book "The Kissing Bug: The True Story Of Family, An Insect, And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease" (ph). We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Daisy Hernandez. Her new book is called "The Kissing Bug: A True Story Of Family, An Insect, And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease" (ph).
Have the treatments for Chagas disease gotten any better than when your aunt had it?
HERNANDEZ: Not yet, unfortunately. There are two treatments that are used for Chagas when it's in the acute stage. So that acute stage lasts for about two months after the bug bite. And if you're an adult, that's the time to get treatment. However, very few people know that they have been bitten, know that it's dangerous. And so there's really - they're not getting treatment in that acute phase. Those drugs, though, are also effective for children, so anyone under that age of 18, even after that acute stage. And researchers don't know why exactly it's so effective in children and not necessarily in adults once it goes into the chronic stage, but it's incredible that it is. And one of those drugs has actually been approved by the FDA for use in the United States at this point. Also, the parasite can be transmitted from mother to child.
GROSS: During pregnancy.
HERNANDEZ: During pregnancy can be transmitted from mother to child. And so when that baby is born, that baby can be treated with those medications and essentially be cured. The other thing that can happen is that a woman who is thinking about having a child and has maybe been - you know, is infected herself, she could receive that treatment, and it seems to lower the chances of passing the parasite on to her child. But once it's in the chronic form, like it was for my auntie, there isn't a cure. It's managing the disease for the rest of your life.
GROSS: You write that Charles Darwin probably suffered from Chagas disease for years. Why have researchers or historians reached that conclusion or that hypothesis?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, yeah. It's very much a hypothesis, and it can get controversial depending on who you talk to. Charles Darwin was in South America in the 1830s. He was a young man. And he ended up getting pretty sick. He ended up - when he was back in England, he spent decades suffering from different gastrointestinal disorders. He was often nauseous, vomited, had headaches and suffered on and off. Actually, when I read about his life, it was a little strange how much it reminded me of what my auntie experienced.
Part of the reason that some historians have thought that there was a link to Chagas disease is because he came into contact with the kissing bugs in Argentina and also in Chile. And he documents that very well, of course, in his notes. He spent a night actually sleeping on the ground, just, you know, out in the open, of course, feeling the insects, the kissing bugs, all over his body. And he didn't sleep that night because he was basically fighting them off. So the fact that he had these gastrointestinal disorders that could not be - were never diagnosed and that he had had contact with the kissing bug has led some historians to think there could be a connection that he may have suffered from this disease.
GROSS: One of the very disturbing things in the history of Chagas disease and the kissing bug is that in the 1940s, a very unethical research study similar to the Tuskegee syphilis study, the Tuskegee experiment, was conducted on a young Black man. And bugs were planted on him so that he could get the disease so that they could study it. Tell us a little bit about this experiment.
HERNANDEZ: Yeah. This did happen in 1940. A researcher was actually sent to Texas to investigate possible cases of Chagas disease, and he was not able to find cases of the disease at that point. And what he ended up doing was - he worked with what is now the Austin State Hospital, and this was a psychiatric hospital in Austin, Texas - and took a patient, a young Black man. He was 24 years old and, as you said, purposefully infected him with kissing bugs that were native there to South Texas. What he wanted to see was the progression of the disease. He wanted to see if the kissing bugs in the United States were similar to those in South America because at this point, you know, news had already come out of Brazil about this disease and out of Argentina. And he wanted to see if the insects in the United States could transmit the parasite, could cause disease. And so he experimented on this young Black man.
And indeed, two weeks after infecting him, the young man had swollen lymph nodes. He had a swollen eyelid. He was running a fever. He was very sick. And four weeks after that, the researcher needed to confirm that the parasite was actually in his body. And so what they did at that time - because this is 1940, at that point, we don't have antibody tests. So what they would do is they would take kissing bugs that had been raised in the lab that the researcher knew were not infected. And they basically placed these bugs on the young man's body so that the insects could feed and then be dissected, and then they would look for parasites. And so four or six weeks after he was infected, there were parasites in the insects, which was a confirmation for this researcher that the insects in the United States could transmit this disease. It was a really horrifying part of the history. I had never expected to come across this.
GROSS: And just to briefly explain part of the research, the insects pick up the parasite by feeding on an animal or a person who is already infected.
HERNANDEZ: Absolutely. Yes, yes.
GROSS: So I had never heard of this experiment. It is very disturbing. How documented has it been? Is this this kind of, like, secret that you managed to uncover?
HERNANDEZ: No, it was mentioned in one book that looked at infectious diseases in the United States by the parasitologist Robert Desowitz. That's where I first heard the mention. And then I basically - I wanted to find out everything that I could. So with the help of librarians who helped me to access correspondence and by reading the article more carefully, I was able to piece together that this young man had been a patient at this hospital. There was a reference in some of the letters with the researcher that there may have been other patients involved, as well. I could not find more evidence of that. But no, it hasn't been well documented at all.
One of the things that I tell people, especially now in light of the coronavirus and the hesitancy in the Black community, is that even though this was a case where - that is not well-known, it's really hard for me to imagine that word did not get out in some way - you know, that this young Black man's story was not known at least among other patients, among staff who worked at the hospital, by his family, perhaps, you know. So there are just so many stories of medical racism that we don't hear about, but that I think get known in the community.
GROSS: What makes this story so horrifying, too, is that this is somebody who likely had some kind of mental health issues because he was recruited for this study at a mental health hospital. And so you're already suffering from some kind of mental health issue, perhaps paranoia, and then somebody is putting this, like, deadly insect on your body to feed on you. I just - it's unimaginable.
HERNANDEZ: Yeah. And by 1940, what I was able to find is that a high number of patients were either suffering from what today we would call schizophrenia or bipolar. So it's exactly as you say. There was probably, you know, already certain levels of paranoia. And then to be subjected to this is just horrifying.
GROSS: Well, there's so much more to talk about here, but we have to take another break. So let me reintroduce you. If you're just joining us, my guest is Daisy Hernandez. Her new book is called "The Kissing Bug: A True Story Of Family, An Insect And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease."
We'll be back after a short break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with Daisy Hernandez, author of the new book "The Kissing Bug: A True Story of Family, An Insect, And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease." It's about the disease Chagas disease carried by the bloodsucking insect known as the kissing bug, which is found mostly in South and Central America and Mexico. This disease killed her aunt, who's from Colombia. The aunt lived with Hernandez and her parents for years while she was treated for the disease, which eventually killed her. The new book is both a history of Chagas disease and a memoir about growing up in an immigrant family, helping care for her aunt and coming out as bisexual, which her aunt was never able to accept.
In the research that you did about Chagas disease - the disease caused by the parasite, carried by the kissing bug - and in your own experiences helping taking care of your aunt who had this disease from when she was living in Colombia and came in contact with one of these bugs, what did you learn about the kind of economic health divide, not only between people, say, in the U.S., but between countries?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah. So this is a disease that disproportionately affects very poor people in Latin America, and that's usually folks who have spent time in rural areas where these insects are found. It really varies throughout Latin America, the kind of health care systems that are in place. I really focused on the United States and what was happening here, in part because I realized that if my auntie had come to the U.S. more recently, she would not have been able to access any kind of health care because of - she would be undocumented at that point. So I realized her situation was really unusual.
And when I started interviewing and finding families like mine in the United States, the really big struggle that they had had was accessing health care, either because they were undocumented or because - I interviewed a number of people who - they had green cards. But if you have a green card, you still have to wait five years to qualify for Medicaid. And so these are folks who are not working jobs that come with health insurance and so yet to access Medicaid. Even if they do have this deadly parasitic disease, they have to wait quite a number of years. So I really had a chance to see that, yeah, we have policies in place that make decisions about who we take care of.
GROSS: And your mother used to go to a health fair for some of her health care needs and for her mammograms.
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, all the women in my family did. I grew up without health insurance. My mother and my father both worked in textile factories in New Jersey. This was back in the '80s and early '90s. And so those jobs also did not come with health insurance, so the way that we would access health care is through health fairs that would sprout up periodically throughout the year. Sometimes they would be - they would happen at a church parking lot. Sometimes they would happen at a local park. And they would kind of offer basic services like screening people for cholesterol and diabetes.
My mother would also go - we found a hospital in Manhattan that offered free mammograms. So I remember when she was in her 40s, I would go with her to interpret because she only spoke Spanish. So I would accompany her to get that testing done. And the same was true for me. I grew up - I was luckily very healthy as a child. I did need to see the dentist quite a bit, so we used a dental clinic at a school, a dentistry school near my home. And yeah, so I grew up very much with a family that did not have access to health care, which I think gave me another understanding when I finally did start to interview other families with Chagas disease, the kind of struggles that they were going through to get care.
GROSS: Your aunt, who had Chagas disease, lived with you when you were growing up. She was like a second mother to you, but you were in conflict much of the time. She didn't approve of you. And she didn't approve of you even before you came out as bisexual. What were the points of conflict?
HERNANDEZ: I think she - this is, of course, my version of the story.
GROSS: Right.
HERNANDEZ: I think she brought with her to United States ideals of what a proper Colombian child would be like and would behave like. And I was - I did not meet those ideals. I was very outspoken as a child. I did not believe in being quiet and cordial. I was not interested in learning how to pour coffee for people. So I - you know, I did what she considered to be talking back and I thought of as expressing my opinions. I was - and then as I became older, even in high school, I was also very interested in politics. And again, just pretty being pretty outspoken. And she wanted me to be polite and demure and obedient. So I write in the book about, you know, when she would call me, when she would call for me, she wanted me to respond with si senora, which would be like, yes, ma'am. You know, so very, very polite, even within our own family.
GROSS: And formal. That sounds very formal.
HERNANDEZ: And very formal, yes. Yes, very formal. And I was, you know, I was watching American TV shows. And the teenagers pouted and shot back. And I was in love with Madonna, you know. And I wanted to dress like Madonna dressed. And so, yeah, even before I came out to my family, we had these points of conflict. And we had a lot in common, too. I loved school and very much wanted to go to college. And so we had a lot of points of similarity. So sometimes I think it was also a little bit like looking in a mirror, but not quite seeing yourself fully, for her.
GROSS: It sounds like she wanted to be very independent and to pursue a career, to be the first person in her family to go to college, but that she still insisted on the standards of girlhood, of traditional Colombian girlhood, of, you know, being, like, polite and learning how to pour coffee in the proper way and not talking back, being quiet.
HERNANDEZ: Absolutely. I think she herself, even though she never expressed it to me this way, I think she herself was a little bit in between both cultures as well, between what she wanted for herself and then the kind of experiences that she wanted to cultivate. And these were not actually experiences from her own family. Her own family was quite poor in Colombia. So I also think that it's what - she was striving for another kind of class experience than the one that she had growing up.
GROSS: Did she get that from TV (laughter) - from TV in Columbia?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I actually suspect that it was probably from the infamous telenovelas, the soap soaps operas and I think from magazines, from women's magazines of that time period. And - yes - and fantasies of what that lifestyle would be like of a more formal, elite family life.
GROSS: So I think I read this correctly, that in 2000 when you were filling out the census and - you had to put how you identify ethnically. Your mother urged you to write that you're white.
HERNANDEZ: My mother - yeah, absolutely - she sees us all as being white.
GROSS: Can you talk about that and how you perceive it and how she perceives it and what that means?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah. That was actually a really shocking moment for me because we had never spoken explicitly about whiteness and how we each identified. And I very much identified as brown, as Latina. I had mixed feelings about - I didn't feel comfortable identifying as mixed race. I don't feel like that's - in the U.S. context, I don't feel like that's the appropriate designation because it invokes usually a white parent and a Black parent. I think there's already ideas set like that. But there wasn't a box on there for me (laughter) - brown, Latina, diaspora Cuban Colombian. Like, that box didn't exist. But - so for me, it was shocking to realize that my mother very much identified as white. She actually identified my father as being even whiter than she is, which was also really surprising to me because he practices an Afro Cuban religion.
Part of what ended up happening later was realizing, yeah, I've actually have had a lot of privileges as a Latina. I usually - I don't get identified by anyone other than my mother as white (laughter). But I get identified - you know, people sometimes think I'm Greek. They think I'm Italian. They think I'm Pakistani. Like, there's - I've sort of been categorized. You know, depending on who I'm talking to, I've been categorized in different ways ethnically. But I don't get identified as being Afro Latina. And so I began to realize later, like, oh, yes, I've definitely have had an experience around privilege that we have not been talking about as a family, that I have not been recognizing myself either. But it was quite a shock to me to realize that she identified as white.
And, you know, years later - I haven't written about this - but I did - we did do the DNA - the infamous DNA test (laughter) with the saliva. And what was really shocking for me was I expected to turn up Indigenous. I expected that my mother would as well. I grew up often being told - and this is something that my auntie often said. There were oftentimes disparaging remarks about Indigenous people. And this was coming from Columbia, so I knew that I knew there was Indigenous ancestry. I was really shocked when my mother's DNA results came back and showed her to be half Indigenous, which means that, you know, somehow in this mix of her parents, there was quite a significant Indigenous ancestry, actually.
GROSS: Let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Daisy Hernandez. Her new book is called "The Kissing Bug: The True Story Of Family, An Insect And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Daisy Hernandez, author of the new book "The Kissing Bug: A True Story Of Family, An Insect And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease." The book is both a history of Chagas disease, which is spread by the insect known as the kissing bug, and it's a memoir about growing up in an immigrant family, helping care for her aunt who had the disease and coming out as bisexual, which her aunt was unable to accept.
You came out as bisexual to your family when you were 25. Your parents handled it OK, but your aunt did not. What was her reaction?
HERNANDEZ: She actually stopped talking to me. We didn't speak for about seven years. I...
GROSS: Oh, that's a really long time.
HERNANDEZ: It's a very long time, yes. Yeah, it's a very long time. And it was difficult because, you know, I've described it in my other book. I described it as being a kind of death because there was no connection at all. But I still knew about her life through my other - you know, through family members. And I sent her some gifts. She threw them away. She really struggled. And I don't think she struggled so much with my identity as being bisexual, but with the fact that I was having a relationship at that time with a woman because the moment that I started dating someone who was actually a transgender man - but I didn't tell my auntie that; she just saw a picture - and once she thought I was, like, you know, dating men again, whether transgender or not, she started talking to me again. We started having a relationship again. And we were able to be in contact. The last - I guess it was last two years of her life.
GROSS: You took care of her at the end of her life. You were in the hospital with her pretty constantly toward the end of her life. And I'm trying to understand what you must have been feeling since she didn't speak to you for seven years and she sent back your gifts. What was your relationship like with her at the end?
HERNANDEZ: It was actually quite beautiful. I think that I changed a lot in those seven years. I stopped needing her approval. I think I came to a place of acceptance that she was not going to accept who I was. I also - to be very honest with you, I did not expect her to die. I thought we were going to have many, many years together. So I think even when she was getting really sick, I did not believe that she would die. And I think that's hard to understand. But we had been with her in - so close to death so many times that it really just felt like that will never happen. You know, she's going to grow to be very old, so I didn't realize that they were actually the last years.
But, you know, I think for me, I had accepted that - you know, where she was at. And I focused more so on like, can we have a relationship of some kind, you know? I was living across the country at that point, so I wasn't getting to see her every single weekend. So when we were together, I was really appreciating watching movies, going shopping together, in some ways, actually having the kind of relationship we had not been able to have when I was younger. And I think a lot of that was that I changed my perspective about our relationship.
GROSS: Were you more accepting of her lack of comprehension of gender fluidity and sexual orientation, knowing the background that she was from and how she was raised?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I think that definitely made a difference. I think that - I think - although to be honest with you, I think a lot of what made a difference was, you know, having - creating my own chosen family and having friends in my life, both who were queer and allies, to kind of give me the support and love that I think I wanted from her that whole time. And so I think that made it possible to actually have more compassion for what she was going through and having friends and meeting people who had faced even worse situations with their family in terms of people who are in the LGBTQ community and who had been thrown out by family members, exiled from families - I think helped me to appreciate, like, OK, I'm not the only one who's gone through this. And it gave me a sense of compassion both for myself and for, like, our whole family.
And I think because of the disease, you know, as I said, she was so ambitious. You know, she wanted to have a better economic life than the one that she had grown up with. And I think I also finally was able to see, like, oh, she sees sexuality as part of that, you know? I was supposed to be an obedient daughter, and I was supposed to be straight and heteronormative, as well. It was part of a whole picture that she had for me and for her life, as well. And so I think I was able to have some compassion that, you know, she was not getting what she had wanted.
GROSS: Let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Daisy Hernandez. Her new book is called "The Kissing Bug: A True Story of Family, An Insect And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Daisy Hernandez, author of the new book "The Kissing Bug: A True Story Of Family, An Insect, And A Nation's Neglect Of A Deadly Disease." The book is both a history of Chagas disease, which is spread by the insect known as the kissing bug, and it's a memoir about growing up in an immigrant family, helping care for her aunt who had the disease and coming out as bisexual, which her aunt was unable to accept.
Can you talk about some of the generational differences in the Latino community over sexuality and gender?
HERNANDEZ: Sure. You know, the story that I often tell is actually when I came out to my mother, when I told her that I was dating women, that I identified as bisexual. And her response was - well, first, she almost fainted, actually (laughter). So I had to take a moment to make sure that she was OK. And when she finally regained her composure, my mother said to me, oh, this doesn't happen in Colombia. And I said, Mommy, there's queer people in Colombia. Oh, no, this doesn't happen in Colombia. And for me, it reminded - you know, it underscored that it was not only generational, but it was also in terms of countries, that she was not - my mother was going to say, OK, this has to do with the United States. My daughter being queer in any way has to do with the country that I've ended up in.
GROSS: Was that a way of saying - of your mother saying to herself, it wasn't my fault? It's not my daughter's fault. It's America's fault.
HERNANDEZ: Absolutely. I will blame this country (laughter) for doing this to my daughter. And, you know, it ended up being a wonderful educational opportunity. There's amazing LGBTQ activists in Colombia. There's definitely amazing progress that has been made on gender and sexual orientation in her own country. She just didn't know about it. As I said to my mother at the time, I said, you haven't been back in your country in almost 30 years (laughter). But she was holding on to a very specific idea of her home country from when she was growing up. And I think my auntie was, as well - talking about sexuality was very taboo for their generation. Even heterosexual sexuality (laughter) was very taboo. So the idea that I would - you know, I would not only identify as bisexual but that I would write about it, that I would speak about it publicly I think was multiple shocks from my mother's generation and my auntie's generation.
GROSS: Well, another thing that I think is very new is the use of the word Latinx, which is a gender-neutral nonbinary word that's been adopted by, you know, I think mostly younger people and people who are, like, gender queer. And so I'm interested in hearing about how you use that versus Latina or Latino or Hispanic, for that matter, and what kind of - like, what kind of reaction you get from people who are Latino and aren't so aware of the word or are resistant to a new word and think that the language is already adequate?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, and it's true. This can actually be very generational as well. I love using the word Latinx because I'm so happy to have a word that does away with referring to that kind of binary system of female and male. For a long time, Terry, I was actually using Latina to include men and everyone under that umbrella. So I would tell people I'm using Latinas, but that includes everyone because the expectation was that we would use Latinos with an O and that that would include women and folks who are gender queer or non-binary. But I actually really, in terms of using the word, I really pay attention to who I'm speaking with.
So when I'm back home with family extended cousins, I'm not necessarily using the word Latinx. And that's oftentimes because when you're in a family or in a community, you're not using the word Latinx or Latino too often. You're actually talking about very specific countries. So, you know, my mother's from Colombia. My father's from Cuba. And when there are family and community gatherings, there's always references to very specific countries, you know, even teasing each other like, oh, that's so Cuban of you, you know. So it doesn't always necessarily come up.
And in Spanish, the word Latina never even really caught on when you're talking to someone in Spanish, especially people like my parents, who are working class - part of that working class Latinx community, they're usually in Spanish using the word Hispano or Hispanic. And if I'm, you know, it depends on what situation I'm in, but if I'm working as a journalist and I'm talking to someone, I'm listening and - for the words that they're using. So if they're using Hispano, I use that too. I don't feel like, as a journalist, that's my role to introduce new terms to them.
But in terms of my family, it just really hasn't come up, I think, because we're usually talking about such specific communities. But I think it's exciting. You know, I always tell people who are resistant to the word Latinx that I actually - I understand because I think we can get very attached to certain words. It's really exciting to actually watch language change as communities change and as experiences change.
GROSS: You know, it's funny because like, you know, French and Spanish, they're gendered languages. Like, table was a gender, and window as a gender. You know, like, all these inanimate objects have have genders. I found that very confusing when I was trying to learn French in school because, how are you supposed to remember what gender a table is, whether it's a leau (ph) or a la (ph)? And so I don't know. How do you deal with gender in languages where gender applies to objects that aren't even alive?
HERNANDEZ: That's a great question. I actually had a similar experience. I mean, I grew up speaking Spanish at home, but I would get the genders wrong. The one I remember is map. I would always la mapa (ph) and it's el mapa (ph), I think, if I'm remembering correctly. I would always sort of flip them around. And to me it seemed like I simply had to memorize the gender of different of objects. What's been funny for me now is - I don't know funny is the right word, but - has been sort of negotiating, you know, with my family in terms of language because my partner does not identify as female or male. And so when we first started dating, I couldn't use the word amiga, which is a friend, female friend. And it didn't seem - it wasn't also right to say amigo, a male friend. So I kept kind of referring to friendship. I have una amistad (ph) And that was sort of my way of like kind of getting around it for a little bit. But yeah, the languages have a lot of challenges. But I still think - I still stand by the fact that, like, it's exciting for us to figure this out.
GROSS: Well, Daisy Hernandez, it's really been a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much.
HERNANDEZ: Thank you.
GROSS: Daisy Hernandez is the author of the new memoir "The Kissing Bug." Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we'll talk about the early years of the U.S. space program with historian Jeff Shesol. In his new book, "Mercury Rising," he writes about how American rockets were blowing up in test flights while Soviet satellites and cosmonauts soared through the heavens. He also describes the conflicts among America's first astronauts, in part over their personal conduct. I hope you'll join us.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with assistance today Charlie Kaier. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley, Kayla Lattimore and Joel Wolfram. Our associate producer of digital media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. I'm Terry Gross. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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20 Years Ago: Johnny Cash Dies
Nineteen years ago today, country music lost one of its most beloved stars: Johnny Cash. The legendary singer died on Sept. 12, 2003, of complications from diabetes; he was 71.
Cash began his historic career in 1955 with his first single, "Hey Porter." He went on to record more than 100 albums and release over 150 singles, including "Ring of Fire" and "Folsom Prison Blues." It's been estimated that he penned in excess of 1,000 songs.
The Arkansas native also had his own share of well-publicized personal problems, including a lengthy history with drug and alcohol abuse. It was his marriage to June Carter Cash in 1968 that Cash often credited with helping him overcome his addictions. The couple recorded five albums together and released nine singles, each while pursuing their own solo career.
"She has saved my life more than once. She's always been there with her love, and it has certainly made me forget the pain for a long time, many times," Cash said of his wife, who passed away just four months before him. "When it gets dark and everybody's gone home and the lights are turned off, it's just me and her."
Among Cash's many achievements are his induction into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He also won more than 30 major awards -- including 17 Grammys -- and became one of the few artists in history to sell in excess of 90 million records.
The Man in Black's legacy continues to live on long after his death as well: In 2005, his life was chronicled in the Oscar-winning film Walk the Line, and more than a dozen albums have been released since his death, including Icon: Johnny Cash, LIFE Unheard and Out Among the Stars, the latter of which was released in 2014 and debuted at No. 1. In 2018, son John Carter Cash co-produced Forever Words, which featured family members (Rosanne Cash, Carlene Carter) and peers (Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson) setting Cash's poems, letters and writings to music.
This story was originally written by Gayle Thompson, and revised by Annie Zaleski.
WATCH: Unforgettable Johnny Cash Moments
LOOK: Country Stars Who Suffered Terrible Tragedies

subset: commoncrawl


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Alyn, who works as a Post Production Sound Engineer and has been involved in the sound of blockbusters like Spectre, Rogue One, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and whatnot gets straight to the point.
"My experience of Antelope Audio products is consistent clocking with great sounding conversion". With the Warner Bros. Studio rocking a 10MX master clock and Sclosa himself equipped with an Orion32+ and Zen Studio+, which he's been using for both sound post-production and music mixing and mastering, we guess, he can be trusted on this one.
Let's not spoil this further for you. Check out the video and if you want to see more, keep an eye on our YouTube channel.


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PRP 3602 - Majors, Minors, Career Concentrations and Teacher Certification
Issued by: James Mackin, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Effective Date: Summer 2009
Notes: Approved by CCAA, 10/26/83. Amended and accepted by RAX, 11/16/83. Accepted by Representative Assembly, 11/30/83. Reviewed by BUCC 4/26/95. Presented to University Forum September 20, 1995. Revised by BUCC 2/4/09. Presented to University Forum 2/25/09.
Major - Each student must complete a major field of study for graduation. A major field of study is one of the approved degree programs prescribed by the major department or the college in which the student is enrolled. The specific course requirements for the options within each of the degree programs leading to the degrees as described in the Catalogue. At least fifty percent (50%) of the semester hours of courses in a major (excluding cognate courses) must be earned at Bloomsburg University.
Minor - A minor field of study consists of a minimum of 18 hours. While courses counting toward a minor may also fulfill General Education or Career Concentration requirements, no more than 6 credits toward the minor may come from the student's major and/or certification area. A minor offered in an academic discipline may have multiple advisement options. A student may choose to pursue minors in more than one academic discipline. At least fifty percent (50%) of the semester hours of courses in a minor (excluding cognate courses) must be earned at Bloomsburg University.
Career Concentrations - Career concentrations are multidisciplinary advisement programs to help students select courses to develop appropriate skills and knowledge to prepare for entry and mobility in specific professions or careers. For example, career advisory committees exist in areas such as community services, public administration, gerontology, and environmental management and planning.
Teacher Certifications - Certification is the result of completing a teacher education program approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as defined by Chapter 49 of the Regulations of the State Board of Education - Certification of Professional Personnel. Certificates are issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Education upon the recommendation of the University, based on its approved teacher education programs. Certification does not apply to certificates issued by the University for completion of a University program. Minors cannot lead to certification to teach or supervise in the public schools of Pennsylvania.


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Yellow and Rose Gold Sunflower Dangle Earrings
Yellow and Rose Gold Sunflower Dangle Earrings
Yellow and Rose Gold Sunflower Dangle Earrings
Colours: brown background topped with rose gold foil small circle, yellow and copper petals with brown middle sunflower dangle.
Please note this dangle can also be purchased with the sunflower ONLY on a hook or hoop. Please see photos attached for reference.
All pieces have been gloss varnished for a truly high quality finish.
The circle stud is approx 1cm in height and the sunflower dangle is approx 2.6cm in height. Total height of the earring is approx 3.6cm.
The stud version photographed has been made using earring posts and butterfly backs and are made from either surgical steel or sterling silver depending on your selection. Hooks can also be selected if required.
Please note if selecting one of the hook options, these will make the earrings approximately 3.5cm longer in length.
CARING for your BEAUTIFUL EARRINGS!
Please be careful with these delicate earrings. Polymer clay is very strong but needs removing carefully from the card and your ears. Please don't wear these earrings near any water. These earrings need looking after with care.
Patterns and colours may slightly vary from the photos attached. These are handmade earrings so each pair is completely unique to the next.
All items come beautifully packaged and posted via Royal Mail 2nd class.


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Are you interested in KONE as a corporate business or a career opportunity?
Corporate siteThe World Green Building Trends 2016 paint a positive picture of the future of buildings. It found that more than 1000 respondents in 69 countries projected more than 60% of their work to be green by 2018. That's an ambitious target, which, if achieved, will mean eco- efficient buildings could soon be the norm.
The report also states emerging economies like Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia and South Africa to be the engines of green growth in the next three years, with development varying from two-fold to six-fold over current green building levels. Expansion is also expected to continue in developed countries like the US, Germany and the UK.
The growing popularity of green buildings is no surprise as it offers significant operational cost savings compared to traditional buildings. Even respondents of the World Green Building Trends 2016 expect a 14% savings in operational costs over five-year savings for new green buildings and 13% savings in operational costs over five years for green retrofit and renovation projects.
That explains the rising interest in acquiring green building certifications such as LEED and BREEAM.
KONE too is charging ahead with its green plans. Its targets are two-pronged. It aims to further improve eco-efficiency of its solutions, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations.
The company's Sustainability Report 2015 measures up to both counts. Let's look at its solutions.
KONE MonoSpace® 500, the company's current machine room-less volume elevator, is up to 90% more energy efficient than KONE's elevators from the 1990s. The company's high- rise hoisting technology, UltraRope™, too, cuts the energy consumption of a 500-meter elevator ride by 15%, and its regenerative solution provides energy savings of 20–35% by recovering the energy that is released when the elevator is used.
Escalators spell gains too. KONE's eco-efficient solution cuts energy consumption by slowing down or stopping the escalator when it is not in use or by increasing the efficiency of the motor when traffic volumes are low, KONE's destination control system optimizes traffic, which reduces the size and number of elevators needed in a building.
According to the European Lift Association (ELA), over 50% of the elevators and escalators in Europe are already more than 20 years old, and this figure is estimated to increase to 60% by 2020. This means it's time to modernize. KONE's eco-efficient technological innovations come into play here as well.
Modernizing an elevator pumps up energy savings up to 70%. The gains are also attractive because building owners incur lower operating costs and predictable lifecycle management.
As technological innovations take lead, the road ahead looks promising as well. This is because new technology is a significant enabler of improved sustainability. Technologies in smart buildings can help facility owners and managers improve the overall energy and resource efficiency of their buildings, while improving people flow. Add to that the power of digitalization and the results are impressive.
Take for instance, KONE's recent partnership with IBM, earlier this year. It will bring cognitive analytics to KONE's services. In practice, this means KONE can resolve issues before they occur, since its analytics platforms will constantly learn and become better at identifying future needs.
For now, every initiative to 'go green' adds up. It's a trend that won't go out of fashion for years.


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Are you working on a local or state policy effort in this state? Are you involved with a project supported by a federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative grant? Let us know at [email protected] or visit the Contact Us page to add to the Portal.
We encourage you to check out the following resources to learn more about or get involved with food access issues in your state:
- Research Your Community: Plug in your city, ZIP code, or state into this mapping tool to better understand key health, demographic, food access, and healthy retail characteristics in your community.
- Tap Into Your Local Food System: Read how you can get involved, including connecting with your local food policy council.
For a full understanding of Healthy Food Financing Initiatives from advocacy to implementation, see The Food Trust's Healthy Food Financing Handbook.


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Twisted Extracts: Sativa-Cherry
Wherever your happy place is, our Sativa Jelly Bombs will take you there. They're great for many uses like sparking creativity (feel like Bob Ross), unwinding from the day (enhancing your binge watching netflix abilities), and making you feel like a kid again (regardless of how long it's been).
Uses: Stress | Pain | Lack of Appetite | Fun
Effects:Euphoric | Energetic | Uplifted | Creative
Each Jelly Bomb is infused with 80 mg of THC derived from a sativa dominant cannabis strain (8 x 10 mg THC servings each).
- All of our gummies are lab tested and hand wrapped for quality assurance purposes.
- Disclaimer: Cannabis affects all people differently based on factors like genetics, physiology and lifestyle.
- How an edible affects others may not affect you in the same way.
- Side effects may include: giggle fits, spontaneous interpretive dance, and getting along unusually well with your family members.


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Posted on June 29th, 2011
China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (Caiga) of Zhuhai, China, completed its acquisition of Duluth, Minn.-based Cirrus Aircraft today. Sellers include private-equity firm Arcapita, which owned 60 percent of Cirrus, and minority shareholders (including former Cirrus chairman and co-founder Alan Klapmeier). The plan to buy 100 percent of the light aircraft manufacturer for an estimated $210 million—minus Cirrus's outstanding debts—was announced on February 28. However, U.S. concerns about technology transfer stretched out the consummation of the agreement. "We're excited to have joined forces with Caiga," said Cirrus president and CEO Brent Wouters. "This partnership will benefit our business and our customers. Caiga has the resources that will allow us to expedite our aircraft development programs and accelerate our global expansion." Chief among these development programs is Cirrus' single-engine Vision jet, a program that lack of funding has slowed to barely more than a snail's pace for some time. At the Sun 'n' Fun Fly-in in late March, Cirrus chairman Dale Klapmeier said it would take about 36 months from the close of the deal to achieve FAA certification and initial deliveries of the Vision jet. He added that the Chinese view the jet as Cirrus's "growth engine."
Tags: Cirrus, Cirrus sale, caiga


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Pakistan's Malala challenges world leaders to educate Syrian refugees
Pakistani education crusader Malala Yousafzai and other youth activists challenged world leaders on Monday to come up with $175 million to educate 400,000 Syrian children who fled to neighboring Lebanon to escape a civil war in their homeland.
As leaders gather in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Yousafzai, 16, who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year for demanding education for girls, and U.N. education envoy Gordon Brown received $1 million from campaign group Avaaz to kick off the push for money to send Syrian refugees to school.
U.N. children's agency UNICEF said 257,000 Syrian children were seeking education in Lebanon in 2013 and that was set to rise to 400,000 next year, swamping the Lebanese public school system that already educates 300,000 children.
"I can feel what's happening in Syria because it's what happened to us in Pakistan," Yousafzai said of being displaced by violence as she spoke with Syrian student Farah Haddad, 20, in New York. Yousafzai is now at school in Britain because she cannot safely return to Pakistan.
Haddad, who finished high school in Syria and moved to the United States in 2011 to attend college, has taken up the fight for education for Syrian refugee children.
"When the war is ended, there will be no way for us to bring back the dead, or mend the hearts of mothers in Syria, but we can surely equip Syrian children to wrestle with a Syria when the bombs stop exploding," said Haddad.
Former British Prime Minister Brown announced on Monday a plan by the Overseas Development Institute to educate those 400,000 Syrian children by employing Syrian refugees who were teachers, opening Lebanese schools 24 hours a day to teach children in double or triple shifts and providing school meals.
"A 100 years ago the Red Cross secured the right that health care should be provided even in conflict. We want in this generation to secure the right of every child to education even when there's a conflict," Brown told reporters.
"Instead of 400,000 Syrian children doing nothing ... perhaps becoming unemployable, a lost generation, a wasted generation, childhood destroyed, we can actually show that in the next few months these 400,000 children can actually get the opportunities they so richly deserve," Brown said.
Brown said $175 million was needed to implement the education plan in Lebanon. Avaaz raised its $1 million donation in the past week from more than 32,000 people in 143 countries, and Western Union also announced it will match consumer donations to its newly created education fund up to $100,000.
"The U.N. Security Council ... has failed the people of Syria. We can't fix that problem today but I can think we can still determine whether the children of this war become a lost generation or a generation of leaders that can rebuild and renew the hope of the country," said Avaaz co-founder Ricken Patel.
The U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked over how to try and end the two-and-a-half year Syrian conflict. Russia and China have refused to consider sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government and have vetoed three resolutions condemning Assad's crackdown on opposition groups.
A World Bank report said Syria's conflict will cost Lebanon $7.5 billion in cumulative economic losses by the end of 2014. The report was prepared for a U.N. meeting this week to provide humanitarian aid and development assistance and strengthen Lebanon's armed forces.
Syrian refugees no longer welcomed by Egyptians
Syrian Ghassan el-Shahada enjoyed tolerance and an affordable life when he first ...
Featured Perspectives
Number of Syrian child refugees reaches one million, says U.N.
The number of Syrian children forced to flee their conflict-ravaged homeland has ...
Middle East
Pakistan's Malala in school for first time since shooting
Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai returned to school for the first time since ...


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As Internet users, Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) totally respects your online privacy. So it goes without saying that we are fully committed to safeguarding your online privacy while you are here at the www.gamaswp.org website.
And that is precisely why we have decided to include the following, which discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for this website.
Log Files
Like most standard websites, this website uses log files. These include Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses), browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and the number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user movement in the aggregate, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc., are not linked to personally identifiable information.
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Web cookies (also known as HTTP cookies, or just cookies) are parcels of text that are sent by a server to a Web browser, and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. In other words, a cookie is a piece of data stored on a user's computer that is tied to information about the user.
Web beacons are objects that are embedded in a webpage or email that are invisible to the user, but allow checking that a user has viewed the page or email. Other names are web bug, tracking bug, tag or page tag.
This website does use cookies. Additionally, some partners (for example, advertisers) may use cookies and web beacons as well. This site has no access to, or control of advertisers' web cookies or web beacons.
If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. Please check your browser's help section for instructions on how to do this.
This website may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. I encourage you, when you leave this website, to read the privacy policy (or privacy statement) of each and every website you visit, as this particular privacy policy applies solely to this particular website.
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Last updated on March 31, 2022


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Julia, my sister, is going to give our Grammie and Aunt Mattie homemade bread for Christmas this year. Last night we decided to do a run-through to see how it would come out. I found a recipe for a Cardamom braid in Cooking Light, so I modified it (a lot) and came up with my very own. It's quite simple to make and came out better than any bread I have made in the past.
Spiced Holiday Bread Braid Recipe
- 1 1/3 cups almond milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Lemon rind from one lemon plus a dash of lemon juice
- 1.5 teaspoons spices – allspice/pumpkin pie spice/cinnamon
- Dash of salt
- 4.5 cups whole wheat flour (separated), plus extra for kneading
- 2.5 teaspoons yeast
- 1 egg white
- Cooking spray
- 1 egg white mixed with 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Mix together the first 6 ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, lemon, spices, salt) in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. The temperature should be about 120 – 130 F.
- Combine 2.5 cups of the flour with the yeast. Then add the milk mixture from the saucepan and mix together. Gradually add the remaining two cups of flour. (You can do this in a mixer – mine was not very cooperative. I think it would be better to try by hand.)
- Once you have a ball of dough, knead for about 10 minutes over a floured surface. Continue to add flour as the dough absorbs it; the dough should remain slightly sticky.
- Spray the inside of a bowl with cooking spray, then place the ball of dough inside. Cover and keep in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has about doubled in size.
- Punch down the dough and let it rest for a few minutes.
- Preheat the over to 375F.
- Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and roll them into ropes – if you want a long, thin, braid try for about 20 inches; if you want it fatter, try for 15 inches. Pinch together the ropes and then braid them. When you have finished the braid, pinch the other end together.
- Place the braid on a sprayed cookie sheet; cover and let it sit for another 25 minutes.
- Paint the braid with the egg white and water mixture, then sprinkle the additional sugar over the top. Bake in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes. Remove and let it cool.
We had it with butter and that fresh fruit dip I keep raving about.
I really like using almond milk – it's light and naturally sweet. I'm not a huge regular milk fan anyway (though I do like whole milk and heavy cream).
More posts to come – I expect to make A LOT of cookies over the next day or so.


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BathBlocks Seaplane & Helicopter
BathBlocks Seaplane & Helicopter lets children build floating towns, bridges, towers and more in the bath. The seaplane and helicopter add action, fun and imaginative play to the floating playscapes.
Sometimes the most educational toys are the simplest toys-- toys with lots of open-ended possibilities that encourage young minds to think, to create and to explore. The best of these toys provide progressive layers of challenge for children to discover as they grow. At their very best, these toys encourage exploration, reward discovery and empower our children.
BathBlocksBlocks bring classic block play into a fun, fascinating, new, watery environment. The bath tub is the perfect places to create towers, tunnels, bridges and more. The "sticky" viscosity of water creates a helpful cling between blocks, and the movement, buoyancy and flow of water add an engaging twist to classic block play.
BathBlocks empower children to create their vision and build STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) as they experiment with geometry, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, balance, structure and cause-effect.
BathBlocks have won Oppenheim Gold awards. BathBlocks are made from bacteria and mildew resistant EVA and contain no PVC or phthalates. WARNING: Age: 3+ years due to small parts.


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Facebook said Friday that it will flag all "newsworthy" posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from President Donald Trump.
Separately, Facebook's stock dropped more than 8%, erasing roughly $50 billion from its market valuation, after the European company behind brands such as Ben & Jerry's and Dove announced it would boycott Facebook ads through the end of the year over the amount of hate speech and divisive rhetoric on its platform. Later in the day, Coca-Cola also announced it joined the boycott for at least 30 days.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously refused to take action against Trump posts suggesting that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud, saying that people deserved to hear unfiltered statements from political leaders. Twitter, by contrast, slapped a "get the facts" label on them.
Until Friday, Trump's posts with identical wording to those labeled on Twitter remained untouched on Facebook, sparking criticism from Trump's opponents as well as current and former Facebook employees. Now, Facebook is all but certain to face off with the president the next time he posts something the company deems to be violating its rules.
"The policies we're implementing today are designed to address the reality of the challenges our country is facing and how they're showing up across our community," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page announcing the changes.
Zuckerberg said the social network is taking additional steps to counter election-related misinformation. In particular, the social network will begin adding new labels to all posts about voting that will direct users to authoritative information from state and local election officials.
Facebook is also banning false claims intended to discourage voting, such as stories about federal agents checking legal status at polling places. The company also said it is increasing its enforcement capacity to remove false claims about local polling conditions in the 72 hours before the U.S. election.
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Civic Media, said the changes are a "reminder of how powerful Facebook may be in terms of spreading disinformation during the upcoming election."
He said the voting labels will depend on how good Facebook's artificial intelligence is at identifying posts to label.
"If every post that mentions voting links, people will start ignoring those links. If they're targeted to posts that say things like 'Police will be checking warrants and unpaid traffic tickets at polls' — a classic voter suppression disinfo tactic — and clearly mark posts as disinfo, they might be useful," he said.
But Zuckerman noted that Facebook "has a history of trying hard not to alienate right-leaning users, and given how tightly President Trump has aligned himself with voter-suppressing misinfo, it seems likely that Facebook will err on the side of non-intrusive and ignorable labels, which would minimize impact of the campaign."
Earlier in the day, shares of Facebook and Twitter dropped sharply after consumer-product maker Unilever announced a new ad boycott on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through at least the end of the year.
The European company said it took the move to protest the amount of hate speech online. Unilever said the polarized atmosphere in the United States ahead of November's presidential election placed responsibility on brands to act.
In addition to the decline in Facebook shares, Twitter ended the day more than 7% lower.
Unilever, which is based in the Netherlands and Britain, joins a raft of other advertisers pulling back from online platforms. Facebook in particular has been the target of an escalating movement to withhold advertising dollars to pressure it to do more to prevent racist and violent content from being shared on its platform.
"We have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S.," Unilever said. "Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society."
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Verizon joined others in the Facebook boycott.
Unilever "has enough influence to persuade other brand advertisers to follow its lead," said eMarketer analyst Nicole Perrin. She noted that Unilever pulled back spending "for longer, on more platforms (including Twitter) and for more expansive reasons" — in particular, by citing problems with "divisiveness" as well as hate speech.
Sarah Personette, vice president of global client solutions at Twitter, said the company's "mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely."
She added that Twitter is "respectful of our partners' decisions and will continue to work and communicate closely with them during this time."


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TEAM Builders
2512 White Tail Drive
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
We are proud to be a member of the DotCom Backlink Network - a network of high-quality websites coming together for the mutual benefit of each member.
The network extends across over 3,000 websites but only a fraction of those sites may appear in any one list.
Other high-quality fence companies across the U.S. that we support and who support us


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We have a gorgeous project for you today from Doreen, the last of our newest DTMs to join us this month. Doreen has a very different style for a lot of her makes - very elegant - and we love it...
Doreen of Doreen's Dream
Hello to you all, for my second project this month I have done a little masking and inking up:
You can get full details on how I made this from my blog.
Stunning Doreen - beautiful stamping, such an attractive and elegant card, thank you!
We love all genres of crafting here so whether you're a card maker, a scrapper, into tag art, mixed media, even knitting and sewing, whatever it is we'd like to see what you've made please.
If you think it's all over, you'd be wrong because we STILL have more posts to come. On Thursday we have another guest highlight so please pop back and take a peek!


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LaFleur accepts offer to become Packers coach
By TERESA M. WALKER , AP Sports Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers are turning to fast-rising offensive whiz Matt LaFleur to aid Aaron Rodgers and end a two-year absence from the postseason.
LaFleur accepted an offer Monday to become the next head coach of the Packers, according to a person familiar with the decision. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the Packers nor the Titans had announced the decision.
The 39-year-old LaFleur spent this season as offensive coordinator for the Titans, his first calling plays in the NFL. He takes over for Mike McCarthy, who was fired during the season following a stunning home loss to Arizona on Dec. 2. Offensive coordinator Joe Philbin went 2-2 to close out the season as the Packers failed to reach the playoffs for the second straight year with a 6-9-1 record that was the second straight under .500 for the storied franchise.
He was offensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams in 2017, leading a group that paced the NFL in scoring and was 10th in total offense under coach Sean McVay, who called the plays on offense. LaFleur was the quarterbacks coach in Atlanta for two seasons, including when Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was the NFL MVP in 2016. LaFleur also has coached with Washington and Houston, and was the quarterbacks coach for Notre Dame in 2014.
He will be charged with returning the Packers to the playoffs on a regular basis. McCarthy's tenure of 12-plus seasons was by and large successful, highlighted by the 2010 Super Bowl season and nine playoff appearances.
Still, the once potent offense that could make up for other deficiencies slowed in 2018, a tumultuous year that began with Rodgers leading a stirring comeback victory in the opener over the Bears. The two-time NFL MVP returned after halftime from a left knee injury that nagged him the rest of the season.
Rodgers' 62.3 percent completion rate was his lowest since 2015 (60.7) and his 25 touchdown passes were a low for a season in which he played at least 15 games, though so were his two interceptions. Injuries to Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison forced the Packers to turn to rookies perhaps earlier than expected, though Davante Adams emerged as an elite receiver.
The relationship between LaFleur and Rodgers will be closely watched after the sometimes tenuous moments between the star QB and McCarthy. They characterized their relationship as close, but with ups and downs that come with two headstrong competitors who had worked together for more than a dozen years.
The Packers reportedly interviewed several candidates with head-coaching experience, including Philbin, Chuck Pagano, Adam Gase and Jim Caldwell. The instead opted for LaFleur, who had never called plays before this season and until now has never been in charge of an entire roster.
It is just one element of an offseason of change ahead in Green Bay.
Clay Matthews, one of the last remaining links to Green Bay's Super Bowl-winning season, is a free agent after finishing with a career-low 3½ sacks in his 10th season with the Packers but the first under the tweaked 3-4 scheme installed by first-year coordinator Mike Pettine.
Cobb is also a prominent free agent for Green Bay, and a steady, experienced target for Rodgers — if he returns.
The running game could be a strength next season behind Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones, who led the NFL in yards per carry before suffering a knee injury in mid-December. The coordinator's job could be in flux, too. Philbin is well-liked by Rodgers and the 16-year NFL coaching veteran and he won respect from players for his even-keeled and straightforward demeanor in the transition following McCarthy's firing.
Pettine's defense showed flashes in his first year on the job. First-round draft pick Jaire Alexander displayed the potential of playing like the top cornerback the Packers desperately need. Injuries struck the defensive line, which was one of the team's strengths coming into the season, and the Packers lacked a consistent rush at outside linebacker outside of surprise sacks leader Kyler Fackrell (10½).
Tennessee has changes coming, too. The Titans went 9-7 and missed the playoffs, ending the season ranked 27th in scoring and 25th in total offense while injuries took a toll. Quarterback Marcus Mariota will soon be working with his fourth offensive coordinator in five seasons.
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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U.S. Officials Sound Worldwide Alert for Yosemite Hantavirus Risk
U.S. health officials have sent warnings to 39 other countries that their citizens who stayed in Yosemite National Park tent cabins this summer may have been exposed to a deadly mouse-borne hantavirus, a park service epidemiologist said on Tuesday.
Of the 10,000 people thought to be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from their stays in Yosemite between June and August, some 2,500 live outside the United States, Dr. David Wong told Reuters in an interview.
Wong said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials notified 39 countries over the weekend, most of them in the European Union, that their residents may have been exposed to the deadly virus.
The lung disease has so far killed two men and sickened four other people, all U.S. citizens, prompting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health alert.
Officials are concerned that more Yosemite visitors could develop the lung disease in the next month or so. Most of the victims identified so far were believed to have been infected while staying in one of 91 "Signature" tent-style cabins in the park's popular Curry Village camping area.
There is no cure for the disease, but early detection through blood tests greatly increases survival rates.
"I want people to know about this so they take it seriously," Wong said. "We're doing our due diligence to share the information."
Last week, park officials shut down the insulated "Signature" tent cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through holes the size of pencil erasers, infesting the double walls.
Officials are continuing to investigate additional possible cases of the disease, which has killed 64 Californians and about 590 Americans since it was identified in 1993, Wong said.
Early symptoms include headache, fever, muscle aches, shortness of breath and coughing. The virus may incubate for up to six weeks after exposure and can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death.
Experts say hantavirus, which kills 36 percent of those it infects, has never been known to be transmitted between humans.
Four of those known to be infected at Yosemite this summer slept in the insulated tent cabins. One slept elsewhere in Curry Village, located in a valley beneath the iconic Half Dome rock formation, and the sixth case remains under investigation.
One man from northern California and another from Pennsylvania died, while three victims have recovered and a fourth remains hospitalized, the state Department of Public Health said.
Nearly 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, attracted to the park's dramatic scenery and hiking trails. Roughly 70 percent of those visitors congregate in Yosemite Valley, where Curry Village is located.
Hantavirus is carried in viral particles inhaled from rodent feces and urine. People also can be infected by eating contaminated food, touching contaminated surfaces or being bitten by infected rodents.
Hantavirus previously infected two Yosemite visitors, one in 2000 and another in 2010, but at higher elevations.