text:
In the News
Sexting: Should Teens Be Prosecuted?
BettyConfidential.com's correspondent Lisa Bloom will appear on "Dr. Phil" on Thurday, April 16, to discuss sexting
-Lisa Bloom
Sexting is a new word for the most obvious thing an adolescent will do with a new camera phone: snapping a picture of a forbidden body part, or videoing sexual activity, and then sending it around to friends.
Prosecutors, on a mission to protect kids from themselves, have deemed sexting to be possession and distribution of child pornography, and have subsequently commenced a rash of felony prosecutions against minors. Prosecuting kids for sexting?
In at least a dozen states, kids have been arrested or charged with child porn crimes that carry with them possible penalties of many years in prison, and mandatory lifetime registration as sex offenders. The phenomenon is so prevalent that suspects can find specialist attorneys at sextinglawyer.com.
Have we lost our minds?
In a recent Pennsylvania case, six teens aged 14 to 17 were charged with creating, distributing and possessing child porn. A 14-year-old New Jersey girl is charged with distribution of child porn for posting sexually explicit photos of herself and her boyfriend on MySpace. In October a Texas eighth-grader spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a nude picture on his cell phone that a fellow student sent him.
This is lunacy. Sure, sexting is a terrible idea. Jesse Logan, an 18-year-old Cincinnati teen, committed suicide after her ex-boyfriend emailed around naked cell phone photos of her. Logan was harassed daily by other girls calling her "slut" and "whore" and throwing objects at her. Kids who forward pictures without the subject's consent, to demean and torment another, should suffer consequences. But girls have been told if they came forward and admitted they have been involved in sexting, they would be charged themselves as child pornographers.
Here's why we must stop this nonsense immediately, and return some sanity to our criminal justice system:
1. Charging kids for taking pictures of their own bodies violates the spirit of the laws. The purpose of strict child porn laws is to protect children from exploitation by adults. This is analogous to statutory rape laws in most states, which criminalize sex between, say, 25-year-old adults and 15-year-old kids, but not between two 15-year-olds. We get that the power imbalance is so great that an adult-underage adolescent sexual relationship is inherently exploitative. And most of us get that two kids groping each other is a normal part of growing up. Adding a camera does not change that.
2. We are already #1 in the world in incarcerating our own kids. Sad but true. Amnesty USA decries our penchant for throwing underage American kids in prison, often adult prisons, for petty crimes. Locking up kids significantly increases the likelihood that they will become hardened criminals. Incarcerated teens are four times more likely to commit suicide.
3. Sexting hysteria diverts scarce resources from more worthy criminal justice needs. Thousands of rape kits sit on a shelf untested in Chicago, the rapists roaming free. DNA testing that could exonerate death-row inmates? Too expensive to order in most cases, states argued before the Supreme Court last month. But we find the money for police, prosecutors, public defenders, court personnel, judges and prisons in cases against knuckleheaded kids for emailing body-part pictures to their beaus?
4. Allowing teens to be charged as felons for sexting gives way too much authority to power-drunk local prosecutors. Last week a federal judge stepped in to tell a rural Pennsylvania prosecutor to stop threatening teenage girls with arrest if they refused to take a plea and go to mandatory classes he demanded. Two of the girls were wearing bras and towels in the photos, no naughty bits exposed, no sexual activity.
5. It's a parenting issue. Don't give your kids the technology without educating them about the consequences of misuse. Monitor their online behavior. Check their phones. One blurry boob picture and they lose the phone and computer for a week. Oh, will they scream! Their heads will explode! They will HATE you, Mom, you are so mean! What-ever. Beats trying to sneak snacks to them at the Big House, and little Johnny's lifetime registration as a sex offender.
6. Oh, the hypocrisy. A national poll revealed that 20 percent of teens have sexted. Another says 33 percent of adults have done it. I unscientifically surveyed a bunch of my otherwise responsible, mature grownup friends. One hundred percent confessed to sexting at least once, most giggling at the silliness of the memory. Shall we lock up one in five kids for doing what a larger number of adults do?
Compassion, out of vogue in our hang-'em-high criminal-justice system these days, would really go a long way. Have we adults, who make the rules, forgotten what it was like to be post-pubescent, with raging hormones and weird new bodies? We just didn't have the technology. We should thank the Almighty that our high school antics of mooning, flashing, and sex in parking lots were not digitally preserved, in a prosecutor's court file somewhere, Exhibit A against us as we faced prosecution for sexting, staring down a decade in prison and a lifetime of registering as a sexual predator.
Let he who never Xeroxed his butt cast the first stone.
Lisa Bloom hosts "Lisa Bloom Open Court" daily on the legal network, In Session, on truTV 9-11 a.m., and is a CBS News Legal Analyst.


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get sth down (sb)
— phrasal verb with get uk /ɡet/ us /ɡet/ verb present participle getting, past tense got, past participle got or US usually gotten
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
(Definition of "get sth down (sb)" from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
Get a quick, free translation!
Create and share your own word lists and quizzes for free!
Word of the Day
A platonic relationship or emotion is loving but not sexual.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Here is a list of ESL resources including printable worksheets, materials, games, videos, flash cards for teaching tag questions to ESL students.
Simple ESL Worksheets
ESL Activities From Other Sites
Have you made any ESL Materials that others Could benefit from? Please spare a moment to upload them here so that we can offer them to others for free. Email 1+1=?
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Can't wait!!! Will Siri work with iPhone 4??!
If Siri was available for the "standard" 4, I think ATT & Verizon sales on the new 4S would be S#%!
iOS 5 GM seed is live at the app developer site. Downloading now.
Looking forward to iOS 5 GM Jailbreak and Ultrasn0w Hopefully it'll all be ready for the public release of iOS 5
Hopefully there's a sn0wbreeze update, I like my baseband as low as possible
Even if the A4 is powerful enough to handle it smoothly, Apple needs some features for the relatively underwhelming 4S. I mean, they spent more time on Siri during the keynote than the rest of the 4S combined.
yep.... preinstalled


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Get an overview of this hotel3-star family-friendly hotel, walk to Merchant Adventurers' Hall
Collecting Nectar Points
Special Offer: Book by 2 August 2017 and collect double Nectar points!
Simply enter your Nectar card number when you check out. Your points will be credited 35 days after you return from your trip.
*Terms and conditions apply.
Popular property highlights
Located in the heart of York, this family-friendly hotel is steps from York Castle Museum and Clifford's Tower. Merchant Adventurers' Hall and York Dungeon are also within 10 minutes.
Hotel Features
A restaurant, a bar/lounge, and self parking are available at this smoke-free hotel. WiFi in public areas is free. Additionally, coffee/tea in a common area, meeting rooms, and dry cleaning are onsite.
Room Amenities
All 100 rooms provide free WiFi, room service, and LCD TVs. Guests will also find coffee makers, hair dryers, and showers.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Opens in a new window
Hotel 53
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
The hotel offers a restaurant. A bar/lounge is on site where guests can unwind with a drink. Public areas are equipped with complimentary wireless Internet access. Event facilities measuring 1292 square feet (120 square meters) include meeting rooms. This family-friendly hotel also offers multilingual staff, coffee/tea in a common area, and complimentary newspapers in the lobby. Limited onsite parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis (surcharge).
Hotel 53 is a smoke-free property.
- Total number of rooms - 100
- Number of floors - 5
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Free WiFi
- Luggage storage
- 24-hour front desk
- Bar/lounge
- Elevator/lift
- Meeting rooms 3
- Multilingual staff
- Parking (limited spaces)
- Restaurant
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Year Built 2002
- Conference space size (feet) - 1292
- Conference space size (meters) - 120
- Number of meeting rooms - 3
- Smoke-free property
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Television in common areas
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Free Wi-Fi
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Self parking (surcharge), Parking (limited spaces)
Room Amenities
- Access via exterior corridors
- Phone
- Coffee/tea maker
- Daily housekeeping
- Designer toiletries
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Shower only
- Desk
- Free WiFi
- Room service (limited hours)
- Free cribs/infant beds
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
Where to Eat
Buffet breakfasts are available for a surcharge and are served each morning between 7 AM and 10:30 AM.
Onsite venue - This restaurant specializes in British cuisine and serves breakfast and dinner. A children's menu is available. Open select days.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Nearby Things to Do
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Golf lessons available nearby
If you have requests for specific accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
Hotel Policies
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Kids stay free! Up to 2 children 12 years old and younger stay free when using existing bedding.
- Rollaway/extra beds are not available.
- Free cribs (infant beds)!
- Pets not allowed (service animals welcome)
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Only service animals are allowed
No rollaway/extra beds available
Noise-free rooms not guaranteed
The sofa bed in the Family Room can accommodate up to 2 children 12 years of age and under (not suitable for adults). For more details, please contact the office using the information on the reservation confirmation received after booking.
Additional policies and fees may apply when booking more than 6 rooms. For more details, please contact the office using the information on the reservation confirmation received after booking.
- Deposit: GBP 30 per stay
Optional extras
- Fee for buffet breakfast: GBP 10.75 for adults and GBP 5.00 for children (approximately)
- Self parking fee: GBP 10.00 per day
- Late check-out fee: GBP 20
Hotel Name
- 53 Hotel
- 53 York
- Hotel 53
- Hotel 53 York
- 53 Hotel York
We should mention
This property's policy is to refuse certain bookings for the purpose of group events or parties, including pre-wedding stag/bachelor and hen/bachelorette parties. Up to 2 children 12 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding. Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms. The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.


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Kanye West To Roll Out New Fashion Line
Listen to Kanye West Radio on iHeartRadio
Kanye West is rolling out his second clothing collection with French brand A.P.C. The fall and winter collection will arrive in stores and online July 17th. Kanye worked with designer Jean Touitou for the military-inspired collaboration.
In an interview with Style.com, Touitou says that to come up with the designs, he and Kanye scoured archives of military apparel. Working with the outspoken rapper for the second time was "surprisingly easier" than their first collaboration last year.
However, as the deadline neared, Touitou says Kanye made a number of last minute changes. Touitou also explains that Kanye had a hand in "every part" of the design process.
Kanye's new A.P.C. line will feature fur-line parkas, bomber jackets, camo T-shirts, and sweaters.
Photo: Getty Images


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PetSugar Community member putalittlefireonit introduces us to her kitty Gridley, who's new to city life, in the Cat Palace group:
Meet Gridley — a Tabby formerly from Danville, CA, and now a resident of San Francisco! He enjoys watching "Cat TV" from one of three main windows. He loves his cat tree, small mouse-shaped toys and hiding from the noise of the heater. Gridley was named for a city in California, but I have nicknamed him Linus because he sucks on his baby blanket.


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first ever World
report on disability,
produced jointly by WHO and the World Bank, suggests that more than a
billion people in the world today experience disability.
with disabilities have generally poorer health, lower education
achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of
poverty than people without disabilities. This is largely due to the
lack of services available to them and the many obstacles they face
in their everyday lives. The report provides the best available
evidence about what works to overcome barriers to health care,
rehabilitation, education, employment, and support services, and to
create the environments which will enable people with disabilities to
flourish. The report ends with a concrete set of recommended actions
for governments and their partners.
pioneering World
report on disability
will make a significant contribution to implementation of the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. At the
intersection of public health, human rights and development, the
report is set to become a "must have" resource for
policy-makers, service providers, professionals, and advocates for
people with disabilities and their families.
World Health Organization)
With flexible hours and from the comfort of your home
or office, the population can enjoy, in the second half of the year, the most
varied courses in telecommunications, that CONATEL through CEDITEL offered for
those interested in studying in the form of distance or semi personal
learning, thanks to the virtual platform SAD (Distance Learning System),
developed by the institution.
From July 5, the Centre for Telecommunications and
Information Development, Ceditel, plans to offer courses about the Law of
Social Responsibility in Radio, Television and Electronic Media, Education
Development, Accounting for Social Organizations and Basic Tool Open Office.
Regarding telecommunications, the community can deepen
their learning on Wireless Local Area Networks and Person, Technology and Basic
Telecommunications Services and the Computer and Communications Security.
Also, the training offered by CEDITEL highlights the study
Model of Community Media, to publicize the promotion and strengthening of
People's Power through these media.
SAD, brings a new image, offering to users an
educational portal, more intuitive, to only one-click information to facilitate
all processes related to registration and classification of information content
as well as the latest in news in the virtual world.
The online course offerings for the period of June to
November 2011, is now available on the website www.conatel.gob.ve. For more information, enter to http://sad.ceditel.gob.ve/sad/
(Source: Conatel Venezuela)
Further details
Saturday June 11th there will be an expert panel for Vive Digital TV from ICT
Ministry, which is transmitting every Saturday by the Institutional Channel. In this
issue, parents can discuss with the invited experts, the risks faced by their
children when surfing the Internet.
The Program "Vive
Digital" expert panel is led by the Ministry on ICT, María Carolina
Hoyos Turbay and this time with the participation of two experts on the
protection of children's rights, Senator Gilma Jimenez, and Freddy Bautista,
Head of the Dijin cybercrime.
During this half hour, they will discuss the
attitude that parents should take to protected against activities that develop
their children on the web. Also discuss the technological tools that exist to
prevent children from entering malicious sites that could put on risk their
personal security.
In terms of laws, experts will present the
measures that have being advanced to prevent the vulnerability of the rights of
children via the Internet. For her part the Minister Hoyos Turbay, will present
the progress of "Healthy Internet", an initiative that guides parents
and children on digital behaviors to be taken while browsing the Internet. www.tus10comportamientosdigitales.com
(Source: Mintic - Colombia)
new internet portal "Citizenship 2.0-transforming Latin
America", was launched on Monday, May 30. Its aim is to
encourage participation of citizens, especially young people, in the
preparatory discussions of the XXI Ibero-American Summit of Heads of
State and Government, whose central theme will be "State
Transformation and Development" which will be held in Asuncion,
Paraguay, on 28 and October 29, 2011.
This project is an initiative of the General
Iberoamerican Secretary, Enrique V. Iglesias, who aims to encourage
citizen participation in the issues being discussed at the Summit,
as well as boosting the use of new information technologies and
social networks. The portal is part of a plan of joint activities of
the General Iberoamerican Secretariat and the Institute for Latin
America at the University of Salamanca.
Monday 30th also were launched two other priority activities within
the project. The first is a Young Researchers Seminar about
"Transforming the state and development." The second is an
essay contest whose theme is "New strategies to strengthen the
state and improve the conditions for development in Latin America."
Both activities will have a specialized jury that will choose the
best best paper. The award will be an invitation to attend the next
Summit of Heads of State and Government.
the coming months, workshops of Debate 2.0 will be held in four Latin
American cities (Quito, Cordoba, Mexico and São Paulo), from which
further discussions will also be presented to the Summit. They will
complement the "Recommendation Document" prepared by the
participants of the first Workshop Salamanca 2.0, held in the Latin
American Institute at the University of Salamanca on 23 May 2011. To
access: http://www.ciudadania20.org/
(Source: SEGIB)
How can the mobile miracle be replicated to extend broadband access to all?
Broadband is
todays transformational technology. By revolutionizing access to
content and changing the delivery paradigms for a whole host of
public and private sector services, it is becoming essential basic
infrastructure for every countrys future development. Yet for the
moment, access to high-speed Internet is very much a rich-world
privilege. To truly harness the power of information and
communication technologies to create tomorrows Knowledge Societies
and meet the Millennium Development Goals, new approaches to driving
broadband roll-out across economic barriers are urgently needed. This
report looks at what broadband can bring, the state of deployment
around the world, and innovative models that can help bring
high-speed connectivity to the worlds poorest communities.
report comes from the Broadband Commission for Digital Development,
led by ITU and UNESCO: www.broadbandcommission.org
full report and Executive Summary will be available for download from
12:00 CET on Monday 6 June at:
The United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a
specialized agency of the United Nations. Established in 1946, UNESCO
works for world peace and international understanding through its key
programme areas: education, natural and social sciences, culture, and
communication and information.
ITU Newsroom)
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova will welcome participants to
the event, followed by opening remarks from United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The
keynote speech for the Forum will be made by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh,
Sheikh Hasina.
Prime Minister of Mali Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé, the Aga Khan,
founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network Foundation, and
representatives of several corporate giants participating in the
partnership including Nokia, Procter and Gamble, GEMS Education, Microsoft and
the Packard Foundation, will also participate.
Globally, some 39 million girls of lower secondary age are
currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary education, while two
thirds of the worlds 796 million illiterate adults are women. Only about one
third of countries have achieved gender parity at secondary level.
To democratize the processes of access to information
for citizens in the web portals of government agencies, the Ministry of
Telecommunication and Information Society, through the Office of Electronic
Government and Competitiveness, UNESCO and Research Center for Information
Society IMAGINAR organized the workshop on "Usability of Government Web
sites", on 17th, 18th and May 19th in Quito, Guayaquil and
Cuenca, respectively.
The workshop's objective was to incorporate and
strengthen the criteria for usability of government websites to ensure citizens
access to current information and timely; also, for facilitating the
implementation process of public procedures in line with functionality and
quality, to optimize time and resources,
and benefit from the Information and Communication Technology.
Access to public information is a fundamental right of
citizenship that can generate a culture of transparency and strengthens
democracy. Therefore, the Government through
the Ministry of Telecommunications, supports the use of ICT and considers the Electronic
Government as a powerful tool to implement administrative reforms with numerous
benefits such as efficiency and effectiveness, the transparency and democratic participation.
It is important to note that at the moment most of the
public institutions have Web sites, through those they report its activities,
its services and allow the completion of documents on line.
(Source: Mintel - Ecuador)
- Two villages of "Wayuu" community will
- In 2001 "La Guajira" registered 335 students for each computer, today
the number is 22 and the target for the next four years is 12 children per
- Around 6,000 computers were received by the department of La Guajira
from this national program.
Computers for Schools program from the ICT Ministry will present this
Saturday, May 21st computers to three public educational centers in
the capital of La Guajira, two located in villages, benefiting about 400
children from the Wayuu community.
Computers for Schools have reached 100% of the municipalities
of this area. However, not all sites located in 15 municipalities have full
coverage. "We still have 52 seats for benefit and with the work made today;
we started to reduce this gap. The goal we've set from the National Government
is to reach 12 children per computer when we finish the next four years" said
the Deputy Minister.
Guajira department was one of the most backward in terms of equipment
per student, now in its campus-there are 22 children per computer, which means
that it has reached over 80% of institutions in that department. This contrasts
with the situation in 2001, when they started Computers for Schools, which
registered 335 students for each computer.
Up to date, the ICT Ministry's program has benefited nearly
174,000 students with 5,990 computers delivered to 292 campus-La Guajira, which
have supported the educational work of 3,726 teachers. "But more
importantly we have also trained over 800 students in the incorporation of ICT,
which makes it really add to the time to contribute to the quality of education
in Colombia", noted the Program Director, Martha Castellanos.
The National
Government "committed to bridging the digital gap in Panama announced an
ambitious program of literacy and digital inclusion through Senacyt Infoplazas
220, that from now they will provide free Internet service around countrywide
for the benefit of all Panamanians. The announcement was made by the president,
Ricardo Martinelli during an event organized in the framework of the
celebration of World Telecommunication and Information Society.
Berrocal, National Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation said
"we have reformed the management model and created a grant Infoplazas, an
associated incentive plan based on productivity rates, which will allow
Infoplazas Senacyt provide free Internet throughout the country".
The National
Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation in compliance with the
National Strategic Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (PENCYT
2010-2014) has opened 90 Infoplazas in the last two years. Berrocal added,
"We are working to double the number of facilities in Panama for the year
Infoplazas Senacyt are community centers for public access to information and
knowledge through the use of information, training programs, and Internet
access available to facilitate public access to new Information Technology and
Communication (ICT ), particularly those with limited resources and are located
in areas of difficult access, helping to bridge the digital gap and
incorporating the knowledge society.
Eduardo Jaen, general manager of the National Authority
for Government Innovation, said that "the country makes strides to close
the digital gap with the announcement of this ambitious digital literacy
program that includes free Internet access through the Infoplazas Senacyt
National Network and the Internet For All. Starting today, all Panamanians will
have access to a computer with Internet to process electronically with the
government and businesses, raising the country's competitiveness".
The National
Internet Network with more than 120 thousand registered users who use it
regularly to access web pages, email and instant messaging services for free.
Current access 655 sites in 22 cities are located in places of concentration of
people such as schools and municipalities, libraries, community clubs, museums,
health centers and hospitals. It was announced that there will be 1,000
National Internet access points by the end of 2011.
(Source: Presidence - Panama)
ITU announces
significant new landmarks in the fight against cyberthreats
ITU has cemented new global
partnerships designed to make cyberspace a safer, more secure place
to be for consumers, businesses, and most crucially children
and youth.
A Memorandum of Understanding signed between
ITU and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at this
years WSIS Forum event in Geneva will see the two organizations
collaborate in assisting ITU and UN Member States mitigate the risks
posed by cybercrime.
The MoU will enable the two bodies to work
together to make available the necessary expertise and resources to
establish legal measures and legislative frameworks at national
level, for the benefit of all interested countries. It is the first
time that two organizations within the UN system have formally agreed
to cooperate at the global level on cybersecurity.
This new alliance with
UNODC is a major milestone in implementing a coordinated global
approach to an increasingly serious global problem. Together, our two
agencies will generate powerful synergies that will help all
interested countries fight the scourge of cyberthreats and cybercrime
and create a safer
online environment for all, said ITU Secretary-General Dr.
Hamadoun Touré.
In line with its long tradition of
public-private partnership, ITU has also signed an MoU with Symantec,
a leading provider of security, storage and systems management
solutions. ITU will use Symantecs security intelligence, in the
form of its quarterly Internet Security Threat Reports, to increase
understanding of and readiness for cybersecurity risks.
By distributing this report which captures
data from across Symantecs Global Intelligence Network to
interested Member States, ITU aims to help better prepare governments
in developing and developed nations alike to respond to the
ever-growing risk from malware, cyber attackers and information
thieves. This will facilitate awareness raising and knowledge
transfer, complementing the work of ITU and strengthening its
effectiveness as a global forum for governments and private sector to
build confidence and security in the use of ICTs.
Commenting on the
partnership, Enrique Salem, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Symantec, said: Over the past year and a half, the researchers
that make up Symantecs Global Intelligence Network have noted a
dramatic increase in the number of cyberattacks, as well as the
growing sophistication and impact of threats. The partnership
between ITU and Symantec will facilitate an increased understanding
of cybersecurity risks and how they can be reduced, increasing
confidence in new and emerging technologies and facilitating the
evolution of the digital world.
(Source: ITU
Full Story
Foundation will expand its helpline to young people Quechua´s
speaker who live at risk, thus they expected to be available to
population of 1 million 270 thousand children, adolescents and youth,
in most excluded areas of the country.Under
the slogan "Your voice will protect you", the foundation
Anar expand its service line from Friday May 20th to all calls in
Quechua to be made from landline or public telephone, conducted at
national level, free of charge and confidential from Monday to
Saturday (from 09:00 to 21:00).Germán
Guajardo, president of Telephone Anar said that the Quechua service
arose from the need to expand the practice of counseling psychology
with an inclusive approach that benefits the most excluded
populations in the country, figures that come to 850 thousand
children 420 thousand adolescents and young people, according to
statistics from INEI (2007). He noted that from July 1998 until
April 2011, 342.478 calls were received nationwide. The most
recurrent problems reported by children and adolescents are physical
violence, psychological and sexual problems; and difficulties with
their parents as well as psychological problems.These
cases are treated with due confidentiality, they
receive support and guidance that they need to strengthen personal
aspects of the victim by promoting a culture of peace and good deal
with zero tolerance for violence.Finally,
Mr. Guajardo
said that any request, advice or guidance needed by children and
young people can also be performed via email, entering in the
www.anarperu.org website, in the link: Need help?.
(Source: Andina News)
Further details
The Minister Errazuriz
said "it
will be a real transformation, a
connectivity revolution".
With a commitment to have all educational establishments connected to broadband
in March 2012, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Pedro Pablo
Errazuriz, with his pair of Education, Joaquin Lavin, visited the School República of Paraguay in
Recoleta, where they
shared with students and where they have seen the areas with some technological
The Minister Errazuriz stressed the objective of this initiative:
"We want everyone
in Chile have these same tools and time
to reach the knowledge revolution. This is a true transformation, a connectivity
revolution". "I opened the bidding that will allow us to fulfill this presidential commitment. Reaching this year with
high-quality broadband to 90% of students in the country and complete 100% by
2012", said
Minister Lavin said that "for the Ministry of
Education this is very important because it means that in March 2012 all
schools in Chile will have broadband internet. And when we say all, is all, even some school of the rural or more remote areas with satellite
connection. The Education Minister noted the work that they have being done
through links, asserting that "Chile is reaching a level of 10 children
per computer. There are 3 and a half million students and 350 thousand
computers in schools. In all, notebooks, netbook, and a standard of 10 children per computer for a computer is quite reasonable compared with other countries".
Currently, 5,600 schools have some connection to the Internet but without
quality guaranteed, through this program will raise the standards of these schools,
also the schools without connectivity, will be connected, and reaching a
universe of more than 11,600 establishments.
For the implementation of this project will be used in 2011 about $ 7
billion and a similar public investment figure in 2012, through the Global
Telecommunication Development.
"Additionally, we will have for the first time the online system
monitoring and control to ensure full compliance with the quality of broadband
service contract, which will connect all schools. So we can ensure that
resources invested by the State and the objectives of this initiative are
effectively met", concluded the Minister Errazuriz.
(Source: Subtel - Chile)
American Community of Nations held on May 17th the seventh edition of
the World Internet Day with over 300 activities and events in 23
countries. The event already has more than 800 developers worldwide
who join all kinds of organizations with a common goal: to bring new
technologies to the unconnected and develop the use of the Internet
to the public. The
Seventh Internet Day Edition puts its focus on the debate about how
the Internet and new technologies affect human rights. The Senate
will host the main events of Awards and plenary discussion that will
be attended by leading figures such as Eduard Punset, science writer,
Rosa Conde, President of the Fundación Carolina, Jordi Sevilla,
former government minister and the journalist Nacho Escolar, among
debate will be broadcast live over the Internet. To guide the
conversation, the speakers will leave the more than 300 contributions
that users around the world are stuck in the wall of Rights, the wall
that will remain open to encourage citizen participation and may
enter the conversation
by using the tag #Internet Day in Twitter.
connects us with Latin America.
Latin America is also very present in this edition of Internet Day
with activities aimed at using social networks as a meeting point
among all Spanish-speaking countries.
BBVA Foundation celebrates anniversary with an open debate on the use
of Spanish in new media from www.manualdeestilo.com work. This portal
is the embryo of what will be the 'Manual of Style for new media'
that BBVA Fundèu prepared with contributions from Internet users.
The workshop will be led by Mario Tascon (@mtascon), and will be
attended by Antonio Fraguas (@forges), the content director of
Hypertext, Marilín Gonzalo (@ marilink) or the Mexican
writer Cristina Rivera Garza (@criveragarza).
diadelainternet.org and Ahciet)
In northern Ghana, a bottom-up approach to improving the health and
environment of rural villages is logging positive results. ICT interventions
relying on mobile technology and e-learning play a big role in implementation.
A project in Ghana seeks to
improve the lives of rural villagers by marrying information and communication
technologies with the use of change agents selected community members who
receive special training. Operating out of their head office in Kumasi, near
the middle of the country, the eCAP Ghana Foundation
works in the northern villages of Niliyungdo and Nagbi. The project focuses on
topics related to health, the environment, microfinance and education.
transformation of one of the participating villages has been remarkable,
according to Eva Kagiri, who works for eCAPs international partner, the
Swedish NGO MKFC. In an April interview
with ICTWorks , Kagiri described how eCAP trained three young men to be
change agents. They then taught village residents in Niliyungdo how to clean
water using the solar
disinfection method, and about waste disposal and environmental issues to
avoid spread of diseases. To convey information to residents in an engaging
manner, the young men used using role play, pictures and videos.
We learned
how to clean our water, a female resident of Niliyungdo later told the eCAP team. We also learned to keep our
water covered. Some of us who did not believe what we were doing would make a
difference now believe. We are no longer going to the hospital because of the
sickness from the water. Explaining
their approach to implementation, Kay Obiri-Mainoo, the Project Coordinator of
eCAP Ghana, says they try to establish a close bond with community members so
that they feel comfortable opening up and talking about anything that might be
bothering them. Obiri-Mainoo also emphasized that his organization believes in
the bottom-up approach, where they target and train individuals and later
scale up to the larger community.
The goal of
the project is not only to encourage positive change in the lives of community
members themselves. The project also prepares these communities to become
agents of change and pass knowledge on to other communities within their
district. One of the
projects biggest challenges, says Obiri-Mainoo, has been language barriers.
Facilitators often do not speak the local dialect of the communities where they
are working, thus forcing them to rely on an interpreter which sometimes
complicates the flow of communication.
In addition
to video, mobile phone technology is central to the project. In between visits
to the village, team members stay in touch by communicating with community
leaders, chiefs, teachers and opinion leaders through mobile phones. Typical
mobile correspondences are done by either text message or voice calls. The
project also uses mobile phones as a broadcast mechanism for sending out
regular reminders. For example, text messages are sent to the community to
remind them to disinfect their water using the solar method. Mobile phones
invariably save project facilitators time and travel costs.
(Source: AudienceScapes)
People living in the poorest countries in the
world are benefiting from a mobile cellular miracle which has
seen access to voice and simple data connectivity rise from an LDC
average of 1.2% of the population to almost 30% in just ten years,
according to figures released by ITU at the LDC IV conference this
This steep rise in phone connectivity far
exceeds the targets set out in the LDC III Brussels Programme of
Action, which called for average telephone density in LDCs to reach
5% by 2011.
The democratization and
rapid spread of mobile cellular technology which, in 2001, was
still considered the province of people in wealthy countries has
transformed the ICT landscape in the worlds 48 UN-designated
Least Developed Countries,
bringing connectivity to almost 250 million people in LDCs.
ITUs latest analysis of
strategies to boost ICT penetration and leverage this to accelerate
development in other economic and social sectors was also released at
the conference, in the form of two new reports: ICTs
Telecommunications in Least Developed Countries
and The
Role of ICT in Advancing Growth in Least Developed Countries.
ITU figures confirm that while the number of
fixed lines has barely risen in LDCs over the past decade, reflecting
global trends, mobile access has mushroomed, with cumulative annual
growth rates over the past five years of 42.6% in LDCs compared to
just 7.1% in developed countries.
In 2009, only a tiny handful of LDCs
Myanmar, Kiribati, Eritrea and Ethiopia still had mobile
penetration below the LDC III target of 5% and that number is
expected to shrink further by mid-2010.
But still far too few Internet users in LDCs
The past decade has also seen significant
progress in getting people in LDCs online, with 2.5% average Internet
penetration by the end of 2010, compared to under 0.3% in 2001. But
that is nothing like enough, according to ITU Secretary-General Dr
Hamadoun Touré, and remains well below the Brussels III target of
People ask me if Internet
penetration is really such a high priority for people who, on a daily
basis, face a lack of safe drinking water, rising food prices, and a
chronic shortage of healthcare, said Dr Touré. My answer is a
resounding yes. Because the Internet and especially
broadband is an extraordinary enabler which has potential to
massively expand the effective delivery of vital services, such as
healthcare and education. Nowhere is this more important than in
countries where people are chronically deprived of these services.
(Source: ITU
Newsroom)Full Story
Source: ITU
Events)Full Story
(Source: UN News Centre)
on the AudienceScapes nationally representative survey of Tanzania,
conducted in July 2010.
report focuses on how people of different social groups in Tanzania
consume, share and assess information on key health issues including
HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Maternal and Child Health. Specifically, the
report helps development organizations to identify health information
needs for Tanzania adults and ways to share such information with key
demographic groups.
is inequitable access to health information in Tanzania - with
significant differences between rural and urban dwellers and among
socioeconomic groups. As in most developing countries, the rural
residents or those of lower socioeconomic status are disadvantaged in
terms of access to communication tools and health information in
general. This report provides insights into how development
practitioners should craft their health campaigns.
1 The General Health Landscape:
an overview of self-reported health status and level of access to
health services, and variations by socioeconomic groups;
2 Health Information Gathering and Sharing:
general access to and use of health information, as seen through the
prism of the rural-urban divide and the gender gap in Tanzania;
3 HIV/AIDS Education: A Demand for Better Information,
with a focus on vulnerable populations;
4 Malaria Education: Tapping Into All Means of Outreach,
exploring the rural-urban divide and the gender gap;
5 Family Planning And Maternal And Child Health: The Need for a
Holistic Approach,
with a focus on reproductive-age women;
This report draws
from a nationally representative survey of Tanzanian
individuals, conducted in July 2010. The survey included
modules on access to information sources generally as well as access
to information about health-related issues, plus questions about
trust in various information sources and use of word-of-mouth
networks to stay informed about health issues. The survey was based
on face-to-face interviews and covered all regions of the country.
FAO-Dimitra Project,
a participatory information and communication initiative whose goal
is to improve the visibility of rural men and women, recently
launched Communicating
Gender for Rural Development: Integrating Gender in Communication for
Development. This handbook is designed for all
development practitioners (not only communication/ information
specialists) and was born out of the observation that all too often,
gender is overlooked in the design of communication initiatives for
development in rural areas and that rural populations, women
particularly, are rarely viewed as primary sources of information.
This has an impact on the action of communication with consequences
that vary from reduced efficiency to adverse results.
The publication
reviews the concepts and approaches of gender and communication and
the reasons for including gender in communication for development
initiatives in rural areas; it also provides practical guidance on
achieving this successfully.
conventional communication initiatives that often deliver top-down
messages to a sometimes passive audience, communication for
development initiatives are based on a dialogue process that aims to
achieve sustainable changes within a community. They are implemented
on the premise that change will take hold only if the community takes
ownership. Therefore, this type of initiative promotes a
participatory process that involves all the members of the target
population from the start and empowers them to shape the project as
it unfolds.
populations face serious challenges in accessing information and
means of communication: they are geographically isolated with very
limited access to services and infrastructure, have low rates of
literacy and no possibility to seek out information, and their
knowledge and skills are for the most part undervalued and
unsolicited. Rural women, particularly, are disadvantaged. Customary
practices often prevent them from accessing education and
participating in public life, farmers organizations, and
decision-making authorities such as village councils.
FAO - Gender)
UN Programme on Youth (UNPY) is hosting a briefing session
on Empowering Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Girls and Young Women, in
the context of the International Year of Youth. Kicking off the
session will be the presentation of a video followed by a panel
discussion with young people, civil society and UN experts. The
panel, which will be moderated by Ms Susana Vas Patto from the
Permanent Mission of Portugal to the UN, will discuss the
root causes of disadvantage and vulnerability in girls and
young women and will explore mechanisms for improving their
participation in society, through active leadership, education and
access to basic services.
join us in discussing the importance of enhancing opportunities for
girls and young women:
Ms. Susana Vaz Patto,
Moderator, Permanent Mission of Portugal to the UN
Ms. Sylvia Wong,
Technical Specialist on Adolescents/Youth, UNFPA
Mr. Jimmie Briggs,
Executive Director, Man Up Campaign
Ms. Itzel Delgado,
Teen Advisor, Girl Up Campaign
Video Presentation and
Monologue Readings, V‐Girls, V‐Day
in adolescent girls and young women is key to development and
a priority of the UN system. Furthermore, ensuring the participation
of girls and young women at all levels is central to the
International Year of Youth. Girls and young women can face
disadvantage and vulnerability for a multitude of reasons, including
poverty, lack access to education and health care, violence and
conflict. These factors serve to limit the chances of girls
and young women to actively participate in society, exposing
them to greater vulnerability and marginalization. Through
education, awareness raising and enhanced participatory
opportunities, young womens role in society can be greatly
improved. The promotion of education for girls and young women as
well as the development of young women as leaders are some of the
tools which ensure young women role and visibility in society is
International Year of Youth - IYY)
With many countries now forecasting a shortage of skilled ICT
professionals within the next ten years, its vital that we attract
young women into technology if we are to sustain healthy growth rates
for the industry overall, said Hamadoun Touré, the Secretary-General of
the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in a statement announcing the launch of the Day.
With excellent employment opportunities and very good remuneration, a
career in technology represents an excellent choice for girls in every
country worldwide, Mr. Touré added.
The Girls in ICT Day will be observed on the fourth Thursday of April
every year to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women
through the use of ICTs. It results from a resolution adopted at ITUs
Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, last year.
Under the resolution, ITU pledged to incorporate a gender perspective in
the implementation of all its programmes and plans, following which the
Global Network of Women in ICT was established.
The network is designed to encourage girls and young women to choose
technology careers by providing mentoring resources, high-profile role
models and toolkits that help national authorities and organizations
promote technology careers to women. It is supported by ITUs
Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), which, through its Gender
Unit, is working on a range of strategies to use ICT to improve the
livelihood of women worldwide.
Under the resolution, ITU pledged to incorporate a gender perspective in
the implementation of all its programmes and plans, following which the
Global Network of Women in ICT was established.
The network is designed to encourage girls and young women to choose
technology careers by providing mentoring resources, high-profile role
models and toolkits that help national authorities and organizations
promote technology careers to women. It is supported by ITUs
Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), which, through its Gender
Unit, is working on a range of strategies to use ICT to improve the
livelihood of women worldwide.
(Source: UN News Center)
Family planning and Maternal and Child Health (FP-MCH) are key
components of the UNs Millennium Development Goals, given their central
role in healthy and productive populations. Tanzania has made some
progress in these areas in recent years - for example, mortality rates
among infants and children under five have declined. However, Tanzania
has lagged in maternal health, with the UN MDG Monitor declaring that
the countrys goal of reducing the maternal mortality ratio and
increasing access to reproductive health is off track.
The 2010 AudienceScapes survey of Tanzania included a module to measure people's access to
information in general, and access to health information in particular,
as well as access to health services. The data yield some helpful
guidelines for public health professionals seeking to educate the
Tanzanian public about FP-MCH:
Only 23% of the UKs tech workforce is female, but this figure
might change in the future thanks to the arrival of Apps for Good to the
Central Foundation Girls´ School (CFGS) in East London.
The Apps for Good course inaugurates its second location in the UK at
the Central Foundation Girls School on 15th September, after launching
its first CDI Community this March at the High Trees Community
Development Trust, in Tulse Hill, South London.
Apps for Good is the new programme by CDI Europe where young people
learn to create apps that change their world. It is focused around
solving real life issues that matter to young people or the communities
they live in. During the course, young people work together to find out
what issues they want to tackle, and how best to solve them with mobile
and web applications. Apps for Good encourages young people to use their
creativity to develop the problem solving and design skills which are
extremely valuable not only in the mobile app industry, but also in
todays complex information society.
Ben Cole, Head of Community at CFGS, assures: This is the perfect
project and we are the perfect place to develop it. All the girls who
applied for the course want to achieve something and they see this
programme as a real opportunity for them. They see themselves as
privileged kids because they are getting an education and Apps for Good
has given them the chance to put their passion for technologies to the
service of the community in a practical way by developing apps that will
solve specific problems around them.
More than 40 girls applied for a place on the Apps for Good course,
but only 20 of them will be able to attend the course, where some of the
former Apps for Good students will now be working as educators.
It was really difficult to make the selection of students, explains
Cole, because all of them showed a great interest, and in the end we
tried to come up with a mix of skills, abilities and attitudes.
The lessons will take place twice a week as part of the Central+
programme. Central+ is an activity project for after school hours
developed by CFGS, which offers the girls the opportunity to follow
different activities such as learning street dance, joining a cinema
club or going horse riding, among others. All we want is for the girls
to enjoy the same opportunities as any other student in the UK,
explains Cole.
(Source:Central Digital Inclusion - CDI)
International tender was won by Global Consortium
Systems Chile SA which must deliver a platform of national coverage that will
operate at, no cost to users, the five mobile companies in the country.
Emergency alerts received on mobile handsets with compatible format will be
similar to an SMS text message, targeted by geography, by location and type of
emergency determined by ONEMI.
All Chile remember to Martina Maturana, the girl who
ran to the square of the Robinson Crusoe Island in the morning of 27F, to alert
their neighbors to the tsunami by ringing a bong. Thanks to this timely warning
thousands of life could be saved. Beyond the heroic act of Martina, for the
Government is a social duty that security people do not depend only of the
luck. In this context, the Department of Telecommunications awarded today the
international tender for the implementation of the massive warning system for
cell phones that ONEMI will use massively to warn people how to act in cases of
Emergency alerts received on compatible mobile
handsets will be similar to the format of an SMS text message, targeted by
geography, by location and type of emergency determined by the ONEMI. One of
the major strengths of this technological system, which sends messages of 93
characters, is that operates in RF channels that are not directly affected by
congestion, giving greater security at the reception of messages.
"This is a very important step to meet one of the
commitments of the President in emergency issues. That families may have a
mechanism for timely information that will help save lives before a natural
disaster", said the Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter.
Pedro Pablo Errazuriz, Minister of Transport and Telecommunications,
said that this development is part of joint efforts made by the SUBTEL and
ONEMI: "2010 was succeeded in establishing a new emergency communications
system of the State that has multiple backups, and the task this year is to
have a communication system operating automatic with the families which will be
useful to inform people on time".
For his part, the sub secretary of Telecommunications, Jorge Atton,
stated that "this system of massive messages to compatible phones, that
will operate from December 2011, may be used in a second stage of gradually in
television, as the Free digital TV reception will be deployed in the country,
another reason to accelerate the adoption of digital TV law that sets a
deadline for TV channels to carry digital coverage areas. In three years 85% of
the country will have digital coverage and in five years 100%, after regulatory
Further Details
disrupt national economies, severely weaken the poor and vulnerable
and are recognized as major impediments to sustainable development
and reduction of poverty especially in poor countries. The impact is
even worse for those living in remote and isolated areas with no
access to basic information and communication facilities that are
essential to providing vital alerting information.
order to mitigate the impact of disasters, timely dissemination of
authoritative information before, during, and after disasters is
critical. ITUs activities in the field of radiocommunications
make invaluable contribution to disaster management as they
facilitate the prediction, detection, and alerting through the
coordinated and effective use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the
establishment of radio standards and guidelines concerning the usage
of radiocommunication systems.
ITUs telecommunication
technical standards
also play a strategic role in ensuring global interconnection and
interoperability of telecommunications networks for monitoring and
management at the onset and during emergency and disaster situations.
A number of Recommendations have been developed for call priority
schemes that ensure that relief workers can get communication lines
when they need to, whether using traditional or next generation
communications networks. Complementary to the need to provide call
priority during emergencies is the ability to deliver warnings to
users, and standards are fundamental to ensure that warnings are
timely delivered uncorrupted from the source to the end users no
matter how they can be reached.
Emergency Telecoms - ITU)
ITU welcomes
the establishment of an international Girls in ICT Day, which will be held
every year on the fourth Thursday in April, beginning this year.
The new Girls
Day is the direct result of the adoption of Resolution 70 by ITUs
Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara in 2010. The Resolution, Gender
mainstreaming in ITU and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of
women through information and communication technologies, resolved to
incorporate a gender perspective in the implementation of all programmes and
plans of ITU, and established the new Global Network of Women in ICT: http://witnet.org/index.php.
The network is designed to encourage girls and young
women to choose technology careers by providing mentoring resources, positive,
high-profile role models and toolkits that help national authorities and
organizations promote technology careers to women. It is being supported and
promoted by ITUs Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), which, through
its Gender Unit, is working on a range of strategies to leverage ICTs to
improve the livelihood of women worldwide.
A toolkit
designed to provide all the information and resources needed to run a national
Girls in ICT Day is now available at: http://witnet.org/documents/girlsday-toolkit.pdf.
ITU actively encourages its Member States and Sector Members to get involved
and organize local, regional and national events designed to showcase ICTs and
technology careers to young female students. It also invites Ministries of
Education, Ministries of Communications and other government entities to
support the initiative by partnering with private sector companies to reach out
to young girls through schools, tertiary institutions and in-house mentoring
and shadowing programmes.
This new Girls
in ICT Day will provide a much-needed boost to female participation in the ICT
sector, said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. With many countries now
forecasting a shortage of skilled ICT professionals within the next ten years,
its vital that we attract young women into technology if we are to sustain
healthy growth rates for the industry overall. With excellent employment
opportunities and very good remuneration, a career in technology represents an
excellent choice for girls in every country worldwide.
At the Third Global
Forum telecentres, April 5-7, 2011, Santiago, Chile, during the Global
Telecentre Leaders Forum attended by over 200 representatives of various
countries, organizations and institutions involved in telecentre movement,
developed the first version of the declaration, which covers some important
issues relating to telecentre work, such as:
1. To encourage
the use of ICT in creating opportunities for social, economic, and civic
participation for the poor and undeserved;
2. To establish
collaboration, support, and sharing among the different regional and national
telecentres worldwide in order to come together as a united force working
towards the improvement and sustainability of the telecentre movement;
3. To promote
the role of telecentres in harnessing information technology for development
and serving as community resources that facilitate employment, productivity and
community empowerment, especially at the grassroots level, specifically to
those living in remote and undeserved communities, through skills development,
empowerment and pro-poor services.
4. To promote
the inclusion and participation of women in all telecentre programs and support
initiatives that aim to bridge the digital divide, providing women with ICT
skills and resource mobilization to empower themselves and others, in
particular, the Telecentre Women: Digital Literacy Campaign, which aims to
provide for wide-scale digital literacy training for women at the grassroots
level and recognition of women achievers in the telecentre movement.
5. To establish
a platform for sharing knowledge among members of the global telecentre
movement and various actors and organizations working towards the achievement
of social development through the use of information and communication
draft declaration is provided for your consideration. All constructive
comments, corrections and recommendations are welcome, for improvements and to have all inclusive document. Download the full text of the declaration Here.
(Source: Telecentre.org)
Partnership with
will extend access to basic ICT training to more than one million
disadvantaged women worldwide
launched a digital literacy partnership with Philippine-based NGO
Foundation that over the next 18 months will train one million
unskilled women to use computers and modern information and
communication technology (ICT) applications to improve their
The new Womens Digital Literacy Campaign
will leverage the combined reach of telecentre.org Foundations
global network of 100,000 telecentres worldwide and ITUs 192
Member States and 700 Sector Members to deliver training in ICT use
following a train the trainer model.
Basheerhamad Shadrach,
Executive Director of telecentre.org Foundation, said that offering
digital skills to over one million women at the grassroots will help
reverse the paradigm whereby, in many countries, technologies most
often benefit
men more than women. These telecentre women, once trained to take
advantage of the power of technology, will help their communities to
access locale-specific information, time-tested knowledge, market
opportunities, enhanced skills for employment and productivity, and
more importantly, participate in the modern knowledge era, not only
as mere consumers, but also as providers and producers of knowledge
assets", he said.
(Source: ITU
Press release)
Like many other villagers in Malhaur, Anil Kumar and Ramesh Yadav
normally listen to one of the many commercial FM channels that are
broadcast from Lucknow, the largest city near them. Yet it was a
community radio station that not only discussed their nagging problem on
the air, but also raised it with the authorities and got it resolved.
This is the kind of tangible change that the City Montessori School
community radio station is bringing to villages in Uttar Pradesh.
During a phone-in program,Community Baat Cheet (Community
Conversation), Malhaur residents complained that filthy roads were
causing them a lot of problems and the authorities response had been
apathetic. The community radio team presented the issue to officials
from the District Rural Development Authority, inviting them to respond
on air. A few days later their village roads were cleaned up.
The City Montessori School (CMS) Community Radio Station, 90.4 MHz,
was launched by Jagdish and Bharti Gandhi in 2005. Based in Lucknow, the
Montessori school became the first educational institution in Uttar
Pradesh to have a community radio station (CRS). Since its inception,
the station has primarily broadcast educational programs with a focus on
serving the urban community of Lucknow.
Beginning two years ago, however, the CMS radio team began working in
communities around Lucknow. This outreach helps the station produce and
broadcast community-based programs alongside educational programs.
Currently, the broadcast is two-and-a-half hours long with repeat
broadcasts in the evening. Its reach is a mix of urban and rural areas.
Neelima Deepak, the stations media coordinator, says when they got
the license there was no clarity about the kind of programming they
would produce. During a regional workshop of community radio station
managers in New Delhi, Deepak says she realized that community
participation in programs was an approach that CMS station should
immediately adopt.
The Minister of Information and Communications Technologies, Diego Molano Vega, will kick off the international agenda of the "Plan Vive Digital", with a visit to Washington DC The official will meet with multilateral agencies, universities and representatives of the telecommunications sector, in order to establish partnerships to strengthen international connectivity through the Pacific and to achieve cooperative agreements for the financing of social programs in the ICT sector in Colombia.The Minister of ICT, Diego Molano Vega, will hold a series of meetings with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and American operators in Communications and Information Technology.
In this way, the minister will meet with Julius Genachowski, director of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to review issues concerning the regulatory framework to the challenges facing the region, which will be deepened later in the World Symposium Regulators International Telecommunication Union - ITU, which will take place from 20 to 23 September this year in Armenia, Quindio.As part of the agenda, the ICT Minister will attend the Leaders Forum of the Public Sector, where he will participate in the plenary sessions of participatory democracy and preventive health, computing and regulation.During his stay in the U.S. capital, the official will present the "Plan Vive Digital", the technology plan that seeks to give Colombia a technological leap, thanks to the mass use of Internet. The great goal is to multiply by 4 times the number of Internet connections and develop a digital ecosystem in the country in the following dimensions: infrastructure, services, applications and users.
In an interview with The Newspaper Telégrafo,
the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Society, Jaime Guerrero Ruiz, highlighted the importance of advances in technology, based on statistics provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), which from 2006 to 2010 show, remarkably, the level of implementation and access to information and
communication technologies (ICT) in the country.
Without doubt, advances in telecommunications services and use of ICTs at the national level, improved dramatically, as three of every 10 Ecuadorians use the Internet, in two years this figure increased by more than half a million people, so the Minister Guerrero called the developments in the field of telecommunications as a "true technological revolution".
The use of Internet in Ecuador increased by 3.3 points, it means 29% of Ecuadorians used the Internet in 2010 compared to 25.7% in 2008. According to Minister of Telecommunications, the state investment was 400 million dollars for the implementation of Internet networks and all services in telecommunications and information technology.
Until 2013 it will be invested $ 900 million, only in
the public sector to achieve connectivity, added the Minister.
The increase in the use of the
Internet responds the Government's policy of providing communication
technologies to rural sectors, as well as public schools nationwide. Similarly, Mr. Guerrero noted
that Internet access costs were reduced to eight times what it did in previous
years and so is "democratizing" access to ICT.
(Source: Mintel Ecuador)
Creating an ethical and open government is a goal
with which every country struggles. Armed with information and communication
technologies, a diverse array of projects are sprouting in developing nations
to make government more responsive to its citizens. A prime example of how ICT
is being used to improve government accountability is the emergence of
e-government projects: Countries around the world are making government
services accessible online. Some are also creating digital procurement
processes to reduce corruption in contract awards.
In this issue of the AudienceScapes Field Blog, our
fellows report on two very different approaches to improving government. In
Zimbabwe, Tawanda Karombo describes a new campaign using social media to expose
and confront corruption, whether committed by public officials or private
citizens (More). Dinfin Mulupi reports on a Web-based platform that
encourages Kenyans to post reports about how well the government is functioning
(More). While both projects aim their resources at slightly different
targets, the ultimate goal is to put pressure on governments to serve the
The Ministry of Communications of Brazil (minicom) has
launched a tool of communication for the society: WikiCom, a kind of virtual
encyclopedia. Access to http://wikicom.mc.gov.br.
The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel), in partnership with the Attorney General's Office and the General Director of Prisons, has installed more than 20 technology rooms in many correctional centers nationwide. The information was provided by the chairman of the board of Indotel, Dr David Perez Taveras, and the Attorney General of the Republic, Dr. Radhames Jimenez Pena, during the inauguration of a new Computer Training Centre (ITC) in the correctional center of Liberty Bani-Men, located at 1 Kilometer from the road Sánchez in the town of Bani, Peravia province. Perez announced that Indotel will install virtual rooms in all new places of deprivation of freedom that the General Attorneys Office will build in the near future. Perez Taveras said that in addition to the installation of more than 20 virtual rooms in the prison correctional systems in the country, it was also installed 27 Computer Training Centres (ITC) by Indotel in the province of Peravia, which he said has great value, not only economical for the investment made in the acquisition of these modern equipment, but the message that this institution and the government sent trough the installation of these rooms is social benefits of these projects. "However, I think the greatest satisfaction we will have is when you reap the fruits of intellectual training that can be acquired in this project", said the official. He said that each of the interns will be responsible for the use they give to these technological tools that the Attorney and Indotel put in their hands, so they can be formed, mainly in information technology and communication technology (ICT) a branch of knowledge that the inmates need "at the time of return to society that demands that kind of knowledge in a global world we live". He urged to the interns to take this opportunity to train in the use of this technological tool, and said that it will depend on the success of each intern training.
(Source: Indotel
Dominican Republic)
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text:
Hettie from Vancouver writes:
Can Mozilla Thunderbird make a "group list" of addresses so I can send messages to specific groups?
Making a group or distribution list is an important skill to have when it comes to sending the same message to multiple people on a regular basis.
Even with all those people in your address book, it gets tiresome choosing them one at a time and we all know that someone always seems to be left out of the list.
So to avoid that problem we set up a distribution list – a named list of people from our contacts that we address the message to so that Thunderbird will send it to everyone you've designated as a member of the list.
You only have to address it to a single name and you can't possibly forget someone unless you never added them to the list.
Sounds like an all-around winning situation to me, so let's take a look.
I'll begin by stating that my instructions and pictures are coming from Thunderbird 9.0.1 so that there's no guessing at the version.
To start you'll need to go to your address book.
Once there click the New List button.
When the mailing list dialog box opens you'll need to name your list at the top…
… and add the members of the list at the bottom.
As you can see, the naming part can be very simple or more detailed depending upon how you use the 3 fields at the top.
When adding members to the list simply start typing a contact's name like you would to address a message. When either the correct address is suggested in the blue highlight or you've finished typing the address hit the Enter button.
This will move you to the next line in order to add another person to your list.
When everyone is there click OK.
In your contact list you can now see the distribution list as an entry.
To edit it (add or delete members of the list) simply double-click the name in the contact list to re-open the same dialog box we used when it was first created.
That's all there is to it… one small dialog box and you've got endless combinations of distribution lists to meet all your needs.
~ April


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Post's Allen employed Republican rhetoric about Democratic obstructionism
Research ››› ››› MARCIA KUNTZ
Efforts by Bush administration supporters to persuade the mainstream media that any action taken by Senate Democrats short of complete acquiescence to a Bush Supreme Court nomination constitutes obstructionism are already bearing fruit. A July 3 Washington Post article by staff writer Mike Allen offers a good example. Within a few paragraphs, Allen (1) suggested that Democrats' questioning nominees on specific issues is inimical to the "dignity and respect" with which Republicans purportedly would like to see confirmation hearings conducted and (2) wrote without basis or elaboration that Democrats have "called for an unprecedented amount of consultation with the White House before the announcement of a nominee."
From the article titled "Parties Line Up Strategies for Hearings on Nomination":
Lawmakers and aides said leaders are conscious of the poor image of Congress in recent polls and are determined to avoid having the two to three days of nationally televised hearings come off like a trial. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) appealed for hearings marked by "dignity and respect."
That does not appear likely. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on courts, said an effort to choke off inquiries about specific issues would fail because Democrats believe they have "an obligation to our country and the Constitution to thoroughly vet the nominee."
Allen appears not to have asked Schumer, but had he done so, it seems likely that the senator would have affirmed his commitment to "dignity and respect" for the nominee, regardless of the content of the questions. In fact, when he appeared on the July 3 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Schumer said: "I think it's a dereliction of our responsibilities if we don't ask these kind of questions. No, be respectful, be dignified, for sure. To take one person's writings 30 years ago and say that disqualifies them, that's wrong. But to then just say, 'OK, tell us your -- where you went to law school and what your career was and have you ever broken the law?' and you're on the Supreme Court? No way."
As for Allen's second claim -- that the Democrats' calls for consultation with the White House on the nomination are "unprecedented" -- Allen need look no further than the memoir of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hatch wrote that not only did President Clinton consult with him as the ranking Republican on the committee (the Republicans were in the minority at the time), but Clinton actually nominated the two judges Hatch recommended for vacancies on the Supreme Court created by the retirements of justices Byron R. White and Harry A. Blackmun -- then-D.C. Circuit judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and then-First Circuit judge Steven Breyer. In his 2002 memoir Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator (Basic Books, 2002), Hatch recounted the conversation in which he recommended both Ginsburg and Breyer to Clinton:
Our conversation moved to other potential candidates. I asked whether he had considered Judge Stephen Breyer of the First Circuit Court of Appeals or Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg [sic] of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. President Clinton indicated that he had heard Breyer's name but had not thought about Judge Ginsberg.
I indicated I thought they would be confirmed easily. I knew them both and believed that, while liberal, they were highly honest and capable jurists and their confirmation would not embarrass the President. From my perspective, they were far better than the other likely candidates from a liberal Democratic Administration.
In the end President Clinton did not select [Interior] Secretary [Bruce] Babbitt. Instead, he nominated Judge Ginsberg [sic] and Judge Breyer a year later, when Harry Blackmun retired from the court. Both were confirmed with relative ease. [p. 180]
- Posted In
- Government, Nominations & Appointments, The Judiciary
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Updated rules for commenting are here.


text:
I just wanted to see how many different kinds of people we got going on this site :D
Just give a holler and let everyone know what area you represent!
I'm from Brampton, but for the sake of simplicity I'll say Toronto! WOO!
Views: 23815
John, I too will go off subject. In the news a few weeks ago: a court in Kuala Lumpur convicted Bush, Cheney and a few allies of war crimes and forwarded their judgement to the World Court. I doubt that Bush, Cheney and their allies will leave the US of A soon; they won't get arrested and put on trial here.
Going back on subject: I was at the University of Florida when I left Catholicism for agnosticism. Until I retired and moved to California, I was too busy (and too happy) to consider the matter further. I recently left agnosticism for atheism.
Very few xians give me any flak. When one does, I tell him religion is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on humankind.
Robert, you stated Republican (Tea Party?) views well, but most of the people who post on this thread tell us what part of the world they are from.
Hey Tom,
Typical of a liberal, like religious people, to discount someones views because they don't fit with their own. You are right I am conservative, but you ignore the fact that the nobel peace prize winner Obama has started several wars without congressional or U.N. approval and has an assasination list and is murdering innocent people as we speak. I could have easily been an anti-war leftist except as everyone knows, they are silent about Obama's war crimes. They just don't like unsanctioned murders when it is done by conservatives. Perhaps the peace prize gives him the pass that I am unaware of?
I listed where I am currently living weeks ago, but will do so again. Currently South Dakota USA, previously, California, Germany, Texas, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, and now South Dakota in that order.
Well, I am an outsider, so will offer a kind of unbiased opinion.
You were not doing anything much more than logically extending their mention of Bush/Chenys actions, so a person unaware of US political feeling would have just said "Yep, I suppose that is quite right". And they did raise the topic after all, which made Obama not just fair game, but perfectly logically in play as game. A sitting duck in fact.
And you are right, if the UN ever became more than a toy for the countries with vetos, more than a few heads of state would join milosevic and Thomas Lubanga Dyilo in Brussells prison.
But he didn't "discount" your views at all, you realise. Merely linked them to the team we know them from, which must be thought to be kind of cheeky to you I suppose. But they are on your side of the fence, right?. ( Which must be a bit of an unhappy thought, but that is politics eh? :P )
Which is your favourite state to live in?. Such a big place, the USA.
Belleville, NJ! woooo
Small town Yuma, AZ here. There are a lot of Atheists (non-Theists) here but they're more closeted than our GLBTQ people. I try to spread my Atheist and Humanistic philosophies best I can without being tarred, feathered and run outta Dodge, ha.
My latest rants, raves have been about how bible-thumpers are destroying women's rights and the new bible challenge game show on game show network.
In the 1970s, while driving through your town from our Phoenix home to San Diego, I told my wife that living in Yuma would require a sense of humor, and I see you have one. Welcome to A/N.
shaffi , India
now Malaysia ......
too much sufferings !!!!!
Windermere in rainy Cumbria, the UK. Pretty but damp... Anyone else from around here?
Texas Gulf Coast, tip of the heart of the Bible Belt. Mostly Catholic population. In my mind it is Nueces City. That is because it sits on the Nueces River, and although in Spanish nueces usually contemplates pecans or walnuts, in Spanish it's also a word of choice for "nuts" as in Donald Duck crazy. We have our very own local Joel Osteen wannabee, too. Has a local mega-church now seen on the Booblical TV networks.
Hello, Poland here :) A city called Lodz. I wonder how many other Polish atheists have joined this site!
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- All
- Angels and Demons
- Atonement
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Some Dance to Forget
It is a sure sign of the fall that we so egregiously miss what we lost. Jesus calls us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness precisely because our priorities are all out of line. Even that …Read More
Someone is Wrong on the Internet
It takes two to tango, and that doesn't even include the band. Our choices, our behaviors, are rarely as discreet as we think they are. Not only do our decisions bleed into our other decisions, they touch on other people's …Read More
Something Different
Matt, I don't understand how you and Steve can be a part of the same church given what you each believe and practice." This came from a young woman with whom my wife and I had been sharing the gospel. …Read More
Something New Under the Sun
Imagine, if you would, that you are the most powerful person in the world. Now imagine that you are also the richest person in the world. Would your life be fundamentally different? Would everything that is now ordinary about your …Read More
Something Old, Something New
How can confessional Reformed churches provide a safe haven for New Calvinists? A simple answer to this may fail to appreciate the diversity of each new Calvinist's spiritual pilgrimage, and thus runs the danger of not ministering particular grace to …Read More
Some Will Apostatize
The Bible never sugarcoats the painful realities of living in a fallen world. Sin is portrayed in all of its dark hues, and the best of men are acknowledged to be at best, mere men. Similarly, the church is portrayed …Read More
The Song of Solomon
I confess the Song of Solomon has always intimidated me as a preacher. Its vivid and excitable statements of marital sexual intimacy and the penchant of commentators to interpret it allegorically have combined to make me cautious. Even the ancients recommended …Read More
Songs from Exile
In exile the people of Israel faced the question: "How do you sing the Lord's song in a strange and foreign land?" The question is similar to that faced by contemporary American Christians. Ours is a spiritual exile as we …Read More
The Son Rising in the East
The early church faced at least two distinct and competing enemies. While Jesus walked the earth and after, the great challenge to the kingdom of God was found both in the Roman Empire and in Judaism. An armed force that …Read More
Sons, Not Slaves
Have you ever stopped to consider that Christians who live after the coming of Christ are in a more privileged position than Jews who lived before the coming of Christ and even those believers who lived during His first advent? Jesus …Read More


text:
Brevard, N.C. – The Brevard College women's tennis team fell to NCAA Division I opponent Western Carolina on Tuesday, 6-1. The Catamounts won five of six singles matches.
Brevard (4-2, 0-1 South Atlantic Conference) took the top-flight doubles match, as Lindsay Shaeffer and Kim Dixon took down Amanda Massey and Ainhoa Iglesias, 8-6. WCU (2-3) won the final two rounds, though, as Izabella Glinska and Layne Arnold beat Lindsay Hostetter and Kayley Duval, 9-7 and Emily Turke and Chelsea Best took down Merek Slagle and Sara Douglas, 8-3.
In No. 1 singles, Glinska beat Shaeffer, 6-1, 6-4, and the No. 2 match went to Massey, 7-5, 6-1 over Hostetter. The third flight belonged to Iglesias, 6-0, 6-0 over Jennifer Nyman, and the No. 4 match was Best's, 6-3, 6-4 over Duval. Arnold beat Dixon, 7-5, 6-0, in the fifth flight.
Brevard's lone singles point was won by Douglas, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 over Turke.
Brevard returns to the courts Saturday, when they play at Pfeiffer at 1 p.m. The Catamounts play Murray State on Saturday at 10 a.m.


text:
*Old man voice*
Back when I was less old - 100TX had a heck of a lot of problems
with auto-negotiation.
I thought that was a thing of the distant past - but maybe this
is just that.
I would say you should try putting a switch/hub in between the WAN
port and your apt.
If that works great.. You can either leave good enough alone or
look into it more. I would start with trying to reproduce the
problem with a standard PC and the same NIC chipset and FreeBSD
4.10 - then try 5.2.1... Then find out what the heck this device
is that you're connected to. Report the failure to the FreeBSD
devel list with as much data as possible :)
-josh bardt
> On Mon, 6 Sep 2004 10:45:48 +0200, Patrik <paake at telia dot com> wrote:
>> Running m0n0wall on a wrap and it cant find my WAN for some reason. It
>> did work at my other place where we had ADSL. Now I have Internet
>> through fiber via a DHCP server in my apartment building. I do get
>> carrier when connecting my computer, my IP-telephone box (Handytone),
>> or my switch. But when connecting it to sis1 which is WAN I get no
>> carrier, no leds turned on. I have tried changed to sis2 but no effect.
>> I do get carrier if I connect sis1 to a computer instead. I have tried
>> with straight cable (which it should be) and with crossover cable.
>> Any clues?
> Sounds like you have some sort of odd connection. Definitely doesn't
> sound like a m0n0wall issue, since you get a light when connecting to
> a PC.
> Did you have to do any special configuration on your phone or PC to
> get it to connect, or did it just work?
> Sounds like you've probably already done this, but I'd try a different
> cable. Not sure what else to suggest.
> -Chris
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: m0n0wall dash unsubscribe at lists dot m0n0 dot ch
> For additional commands, e-mail: m0n0wall dash help at lists dot m0n0 dot ch


text:
Luke Combs Cover Of Keith Urban Will Give You Chills (VIDEO)
Luke Combs can pretty much sing anything he wants and it would sound amazing.
He recently posted this cover of Keith Urban's "Blue Ain't Your Color" on Facebook and it's so good that even Keith would be proud.
Having received almost 1 million views, fans seem to love the cover as well.
The range of his voice is incredible, we just hope to see Luke post more covers.
He's currently out on tour with Brantley Gilbert.


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text:
Consider, for example, whether it makes sense to plow ever-greater sums into college educations if wages are stagnant?
We all know you only plow into trees and fire hydrants if your wife is coming after you with a nine-iron.
The horse has always been a tool for man, whether it was tied to a plow or pulling a carriage.
Think the Frogtown settlers rinsed their tonsils with something that was "too wet to plow and too thick to drink"?
The only thing left is to tie her to the bed with plow line, but he wants her father to help him do it.
A better way is not to keep land down in grass long at a time, and, when under the plow, manure thoroughly.
How deep to plow, how to cultivate this land, few of them knew.
Finally he found work in a plow store at a salary of six hundred dollars a year.
She had put her hand to the plow, and she must go on with it.
The plow passes along on both sides of the rows, just near enough for the wing to fairly reach the tap-root, which it severs.
late Old English plog, ploh "plow; plowland" (a measure of land equal to what a yoke of oxen could plow in a day), possibly from a Scandinavian source (cf. Old Norse plogr "plow," Swedish and Danish plog), from Proto-Germanic *plogo- (cf. Old Saxon plog, Old Frisian ploch "plow," Middle Low German ploch, Middle Dutch ploech, Dutch ploeg, Old High German pfluog, German Pflug), a late word in Germanic, of uncertain origin. Old Church Slavonic plugu, Lithuanian plugas "plow" are Germanic loan-words, as probably is Latin plovus, plovum "plow," a word said by Pliny to be of Rhaetian origin.
Replaced Old English sulh, cognate with Latin sulcus "furrow." As a name for the star pattern also known as the Big Dipper or Charles's Wain, it is attested by early 15c., perhaps early 14c. The three "handle" stars (in the Dipper configuration) generally are seen as the team of oxen pulling the plow, though sometimes they are the handle.
late 14c., from plow (n.). Transferred sense from 1580s. Related: Plowed; plowing.
To do the sex act with or to a woman; screw (1606+ and probably before)


text:
Payroll-processing firm ADP and their partner Moody's Analytics released the May employment reportweaetxdyvaydzcwq today, stating that the U.S. economy added 179,000 private-sector jobs last month. This number reflects slowed growth from the increase of 215,000 jobs in April and 198,000 in March—which were both revised up from the initially reported 220,000 and 191,000, respectively. "The job market has yet to break out from the pace of growth that has prevailed over the last three years," says Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi in a press release.
The change in employment in the construction industry lines up with the change in total employment. The industry added 14,000 jobs last month—down from 16,000 in April and 21,000 in March. Zandi echoed his statements from last month in a conference call about his expectations for increased construction activity in the next few years due to a shift from an oversupplied market to an undersupplied market.
The manufacturing industry was the outlier in the report, with an increase of 10,000 jobs—up from a mere 2,000 in April and 5,000 in March. This industry has seen significant growth this year, except in January when the year began with a loss of 11,000 manufacturing jobs.
The professional and business services sector, a broad category that most likely includes architects and engineers, had seen consistent growth since the beginning of year, but took a downturn last month. The sector added 46,000 jobs in May, following 75,000 in April and 57,000 in March.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report is scheduled for release on Friday morning, providing more detailed information about the economic state of the construction and architecture fields.
Charts: Maggie Goldstone; Source: ADP, Moody's Analytics


text:
Octavia Spencer Gossip
Octavia Spencer gossip, latest news, photos, and video.
Octavia Spencer/Eliza Coupe To Save TV
Mark Davis /Robyn Beck /Getty Images
There are so few things in life that a person can feel %100 good about. French fries, sunshine, even Beyonce -- most things that are ostensibly pure have a destructive and evil side. BUT we've got some news today that can do nothing but spread joy and cheer across the land – Octavia Spencer is going to star in a reboot of…MURDER…SHE WROTE! It's like…you know that thing where Ryan Murphy tries to make a show for/about gay stuff, so he just takes every single gay thing on Earth – Kathy Bates, teen witches, Dylan McDermott's ass, etc. Full Story
Worst Oscar Mislabel: Octavia Spencer
Pascal Le Segretain/ Kevin Winter/ Jason Merritt/ Getty
Octavia Spencer wore a gorgeous sort of pale ochre-y deep cream piece of fanciness which suited her really nicely with an off-centre neckline of which is surprising and unusual without being too try-hard-y. This is exactly the right note you want to strike for the year after you win an Oscar – understated and beautiful and it's not about you but oh, how good the year has been to you. Full Story
Best Oscar Satisfaction: Octavia Spencer
JOE KLAMAR/Kevin Winter/Kevork Djansezian/Getty
Obviously nobody wants to use a cliche any more than they want to be a cliche, right? It's not flattering or bragworthy to say that what you do or have been doing can be summed up in a cliche or its sister, the catchphrase. But Octavia Spencer did just that. She kept her eye on the prize. Full Story
Winning every weekend
Mark Davis/Frederick M. Brown/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
Viola Davis was honoured by the NAACP on Friday night in LA. Orange looks amazing on her. And the accessories are beautiful too. But the breasts all out like that and so, um, smushed... I just think maybe it cheapens someone who is never, ever cheap. Much better on Sunday at the Writers Guild Awards, lovely in black and white by RAOUL, with Octavia Spencer, who also seems to be collecting an award every weekend, with The Help director Tate Taylor. Full Story
Best Random Duo: Daniel Radcliffe & Octavia Spencer
Chris Jackson/Getty
I cannot tell you how much these pictures make me laugh. This is what happens in Hollywood. You are Daniel Radcliffe, barely out of your teens, and you are there because Harry Potter, your stunningly successful magic franchise, is up for some final awards, none glamorous, and which will require you to be the smiling face of the enterprise when everyone takes pictures of the Harry Potter team at the last BAFTAs that will celebrate the production. Full Story
The Help is surging
The Artist may have won Best Film and Best Director last night but The Help's victories in acting ensemble and lead and supporting actresses gave it a huge boost as we head toward Oscar nomination day on January 24. The Help is exactly the kind of film the Academy would love to honour. Remember Crash? Crash was a gross simplification. Full Story
Viola in the right category
Wenn, Splash
Viola Davis was joined by Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and director Tate Taylor to promote The Help in Madrid today. Right now she's an early lock for one of the five spots in the Best Actress category for the Oscar. NOT Supporting. Best. And word is she campaigned for that. Supposedly she insisted on her role being considered in the lead category even though some say she'd have a better shot at it if nominated in Supporting. Full Story
The Help trailer
I read the book like everyone else who reads books on lists. I thought it was … OK. It certainly didn't change my life or anything. Found the ending rather underwhelming. And, well, I have some serious fundamental issues with it that, um, are probably best left to another discussion. So I guess I'm not as excited about the movie as others may be. Full Story