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Accumulated from multiple sources ...
If the world were a village comprised of only 100 people, there would be ...
60 Asians
14 Africans
12 Europeans
8 people from Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean
5 people from North America
1 person from Australia or New Zealand
These people would have a terrible time communicating with one another ....
14 people would speak Mandarin
8 people would speak Hindi / Urdu
8 English
7 Spanish
4 Russian
4 Arabic
But this list only accounts for less than half the villagers. The others speak (in descending order of frequency) Bengali, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French, and 200 other languages.
In this 100-person village ...
80 live in sub-standard housing.
Two-thirds are adults and one-half of them are illiterate.
One-half of the village suffers from malnutrition.
One-third of the village does not have access to safe drinking water.
One-quarter of the villagers live without any electricity, and of the three-quarters that do have access 10% can use it only for light at night.
In the village there are 42 radios, 24 televisions, 14 telephones and 7 computers (some villagers own more than one of each).
7 people own automobiles (some of them own more than one).
5 people in the village possess one-third of the entire villages wealth.
One-third of the villagers possess only 3% of the village wealth.
Less than one half of the children in the village are immunized against preventable diseases such as measles and polio.
Fewer than one-half of the married women in the village would have access to and be using modern contraceptives.
The village would have 6 acres of land per person, 600 acres in all of which:
70 acres are cropland
140 acres pasture
190 acres woodland
200 acres desert, tundra, pavement, and other wasteland.
The woodland would be declining rapidly; the wasteland increasing; the other land categories would be roughly stable. The village would allocate 83 percent of its fertilizer to 40 percent of its cropland -- that owned by the richest and best-fed 27 people. Excess fertilizer running off this land would cause pollution in lakes and wells. The remaining 60 percent of the land, with its 17 percent of the fertilizer, would produce 28 percent of the food grain and feed 73 percent of the people. The average grain yield on that land would be one-third the yields gotten by the wealthier villagers.
So ...
- If you woke up this morning healthy ... you are more fortunate than the one million who will not survive the week.
- If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the fear and loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pain of starvation ... you are better off than 500 million people in the world.
- If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep ... you are more comfortable than 75% of the people in this world.
- If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
- If you can read this, then you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
- Location:Home
- Mood:
thankful
Good news for my pets!
Kenya has an open pet policy, so they will be able to travel with me in December w/o being quarantined, as well as travel back and forth with me in the coming years. This is great news because I'm tired of leaving them behind. Usually I am only away for 2 - 12 weeks and finding temporary accommodations for them with friends or family always worked. I suppose it would continue to work, but I would rather bring them with me. I've contacted the airlines and transporting them is no problem, though Chloe will have to go in the cargo hold because the flights are International. She is usually allowed in the cabin because she is only 5.5 lb. However, she will be able to travel with Marcy in the same crate because Marcy is under 40 lbs.
In the coming months I will have to:
-
Submit a letter stating the pet owners name and address and include the veterinary certificate issued by your veterinarian.
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Submit a money order in the amount of US $50.00. Include a self addressed postage paid envelope or prepaid FedEx envelope. The Embassy will return to you the stamped certificate from your veterinarian to use as an entry document.
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The veterinarian certificate should state that the pets shots are current. The inoculation should occur not less than 30 days prior to travel and not more than 1 year. It should contain the type of vaccine used. The statement must also state that the pet is in good health and free from parasites.
All quite simple and fine, though I still have many reservations about putting my dogs in the cargo holds of airplanes without me being there to supervise. I am especially concerned for Chloe. I'm considering various flight options with layovers to make the travel consist of multiple mid-length flights rather than the full 20-24 hours that it typically takes. My dad has suggested a side trip to the Azores to visit my brother, which would be fun and may be less stressful for Chloe.
ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!
My life is once again being ruled by a Chihuahua!!!!! How did I allow this to happen? When did it happen? I feel so ashamed ...
- Location:Home
- Mood: pleased
- Music:Rain ...
Transgender Experience Led Stanford Scientist To Critique Gender Difference
Ben Barres has a distinct edge over the many others who have joined the debate about whether men’s brains are innately better suited for science than women’s. He doesn’t just make an abstract argument about the similarities and differences between the genders; he has lived as both.
Barres’ experience as a female-to-male transgendered person led him to write a pointed commentary in the July 13 issue of Nature rebuking the comments of former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers that raised the possibility that the dearth of women in the upper levels of science is rooted in biology. Marshalling scientific evidence as well as drawing from personal experience, Barres maintained that, contrary to Summers’ remarks, the lack of women in the upper reaches of research has more to do with bias than aptitude.
“This is a street fight,” said Barres, MD, PhD, professor of neurobiology and of developmental biology and of neurology and neurological sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, referring to the gang of male academics and pundits who have attacked women scientists critical of arguments about their alleged biological inferiority.
Where Summers sees innate differences, Barres sees discrimination. As a young woman—Barbara—he said he was discouraged from setting his sights on MIT, where he ended up receiving his bachelor’s degree. Once there, he was told that a boyfriend must have solved a hard math problem that he had answered and that had stumped most men in the class. After he began living as a man in 1997, Barres overheard another scientist say, “Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but his work is much better than his sister’s work.”
From Barres’ perspective the only thing that changed is his ability to cry. Other than the absence of tears, he feels exactly the same. His science is the same, his interests are the same and he feels the quality of his work is unchanged.
That he could be treated differently by people who think of him as a woman, as a man or as a transgendered person makes Barres angry. What’s worse is that some women don’t recognize that they are treated differently because, unlike him, they’ve never known anything else.
- Location:Home
- Mood:
contemplative
- Location:Office
- Mood:
bouncy - Music:duh ... isn't it obvious
It's been approximately two weeks since I returned from Italy and it has taken me that long to gather all my receipts and prepare my expense report. Is this because I have never prepared an expense report? Oh no, it is because I don't even like to balance my checkbook. I did so one time back in 1989 or something like that and it appeared that I was broke, so I decided right then and there that it was a waste of my time. And that is the real reason I am getting a PhD. I have no useful or practical skills to offer society. I feel sorry for our secretary because her working life amounts to dealing with incompetent Dr. Morons day in and day out. She rocks and if it weren't for her, I can't even imagine how we would get through our days.
- Location:Office
- Mood: relieved
- Music:Staind - Break The Cycle