Red Cross: We walk the talk

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Red Cross volunteers. EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, PhilippinesWalk the talk.

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said it practices what it preaches as it educates its people first before promoting an awareness campaign on the deadly Ebola virus, according to PRC secretary general Gwendolyn Pang.

Pang made the statement before more than 100 PRC chapter heads during the opening of a two-day workshop on Ebola in Binondo, Manila, to start a nationwide information campaign on the deadly virus, which will be disseminated to all barangays. Pang said local chapters are expected to have ownership of their campaign so they can execute it the best way they can.

After the workshop, every chapter or province will come up with their own Ebola awareness campaigns in their own dialects, Pang said.

The workshop focused on educating PRC chapter heads on the symptoms and treatment of the deadly disease, how it is transmitted and the current situation of afflicted countries.

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Red Cross: We walk the talk

The Red Tent miniseries a feminist twist on biblical story

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They loll on coloured cushions, heads thrown back while they laugh at nothing. Their hair is artfully tousled as a saucy beige garment slides up to reveal a slender leg. These are the women of The Red Tent, and they seem more like The Real Housewives of Mesopotamia than the chattel of the Old Testament.

Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah are women first, and wives of Israelite patriarch Jacob Second. So posits the miniseries The Red Tent, based on Anita Diamants 1997 novel. In four hours, it turns the biblical story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah essentially Two Girls, a Guy and a Drinking Well into the sprawling tale of Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob who was mentioned only briefly in the text.

For thousands of years, Ive been lost to the world. My name means nothing to you, Dinah (Rebecca Ferguson) intones in the opening voice-over. My memory is dust. Only the names of my father and brothers are remembered, their tales celebrated in your holy texts while mine is but a footnote sad, violent.

Starring Minnie Driver, Morena Baccarin and a cast with vaguely British accents, The Red Tent adds feminist sentiment to the popularity of sheep-and-sandals fare such as Mark Burnetts 2013 miniseries The Bible, this past springs film Noah and the upcoming big-screen feature Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Even The Red Tents title celebrates the extra X chromosome: It refers to the place where menstruating or birthing women in Jacobs camp must take refuge by law, though Diamant has acknowledged that in fact theres no historical evidence of such a sacred shelter.

But with The Red Tents frames bathed in fetching golds and browns and light and shadows, does it really matter? Fact blends into fiction as freely as the winds ruffle Jacobs hair in a very Sundance Kid sort of way.

To wit, the Bible tale says Laban tricked Jacob into consummating a marriage with his daughter Leah even though Jacob had his eyes set on Rachel. But here its Rachel (Baccarin) suffering cold feet who sends Leah (Driver) secretly to Jacob (Will Payne). Laban, meanwhile, is drawn as a drunken wife-beating caricature.

Whats more, the lingering jealousy between Leah and Rachel that led to a game of fertility one-upmanship is summed up with just one line: It took Leah and Rachel years to learn how to share a husband. Each one longed for what the other could give him.

Finally, it seems the sexual revolution has swept into the camp a couple thousand years early, a potent mix of dust and lust. For example, as Leah and Jacob bask in a post-coitus glow on their wedding night, he generously says, Show me what to do. And she does, with her hand rustling under the sheets and a few rhythmic gasps.

But the star of The Red Tent remains Dinah. Strong-minded and sure-footed, she revels in her familys sisterhood but refuses its Sister Wives setup. Instead, by the end of the first half, she falls in love and weds a prince without her fathers blessing. Throw in a kooky sidekick and an Idina Menzel song, and youd think you were watching Disney.

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The Red Tent miniseries a feminist twist on biblical story

Retired Marine heads volunteer-staffed club that helps vets, avoids red tape

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(TNS) The media, virtually on a daily basis, tells us of the plight of American war veterans, whether from the wars in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, and details the mistreatment at VA hospitals, pointing out the difficulty in navigating the red-tape maze to obtain necessary treatment while inevitably featuring the homeless veterans.

The good news, if there is such a thing in these tragic situations, is that there exist organizations, staffed by dedicated volunteers, offering much-needed help to veterans.

The Leatherneck Club of North Texas, established in 2012, with a mission to provide financial support and assistance to veterans, is just such an organization. It is a tax exempt non-profit corporation, which means that all donations are tax deductible.

Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Tom Stephens, and Melissa resident, is one of those dedicated volunteers. Gunny Stephens, as he is known in military parlance, is a Vietnam veteran who participated in combat operations at such memorable sites as Con Thien, The Rockpile, Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Cam Lo, in the DMZ along the Ben Hai River and moving south to Hill 10, Hill 44 outside Danang and on to Chu Lai and An Wah, completing his tour at Dai Loc Pass and Hai Von Pass. He retired after 22 years in the Marine Corps, having served in various capacities both stateside and overseas.

Stephens, a modest man, who is also the president of the Leatherneck Club, had one request for this article: Please focus the article on the Leatherneck Club and not on me. It is really about getting veterans the help they need. I have had my time in the spotlight. Were a small local non-profit with a goal to find the people that need help, said Stephens.

The Leatherneck Club supports the Veterans Resource Center (the old National Guard Armory) located just a few blocks south of the Veterans Hospital in Dallas. This is a one stop shop to triage veterans and direct them to the help they need.

We take those that need VA benefits to get them processed and we dont leave until it is done, said Stephens.

Another program that the Leatherneck Club supports is Wounded Warriors, in which volunteers drive wounded warriors to and from their appointments at the VA hospital. Wounded veterans who cannot transport themselves are provided transportation from their home to the hospital.

The Club also financially supports the Fisher House, which is similar to a Ronald McDonald house, providing severely wounded warriors families the ability to be close during treatment.

We provide financial assistance to those veterans in need. They may lose their car, now cant get to work and begin to slide, Stephens explained. We also focus on getting the homeless off the streets so that they can get the help they need.

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Retired Marine heads volunteer-staffed club that helps vets, avoids red tape

NASA: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News – The Huffington Post

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While the first launch of Orion (a program which has already been around for a decade) is an important step, NASA is nowhere close to having its own manned space system.

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Fund NASA, invest in SpaceX, write your congressperson, and vote. Space travel isn't just cool. It isn't just something to do because we can. If Interstellar has anything to teach us, it's that space travel can save our species. The truth is we might need saving very soon.

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In early December, NASA will take an important step into the future with the first flight test of the Orion spacecraft -- the first vehicle in history capable of taking humans to multiple destinations in deep space.

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NASA: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News - The Huffington Post

NASA's Orion splashes down

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- With one 4-hour flight Friday, the new spacecraft series that NASA hopes will take astronauts to Mars passed its first test above Earth.

NASA's Orion capsule -- part of America's bid to take crews beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo missions -- splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday morning after lapping the planet twice on an uncrewed test flight.

The cone-shaped craft, slowed by a series of parachutes, settled onto the water at 8:29 a.m. PT (11:29 a.m. ET) about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.

"America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge into the future," a NASA announcer said as the capsule bobbed on the ocean's surface during the agency's TV broadcast of the event.

The flight took Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972 -- a confidence builder for a program that NASA hopes will take its first human crew into space in 2021.

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

Orion -- NASA's next giant leap

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NASA's Orion splashes down

NASA tries again to launch new Orion spacecraft

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AP Photo/NASA In this frame grab from NASA-TV, the Orion spacecraft descends before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, following a dramatic test flight that took it to a zenith height of 3,600 miles and ushered in a new era of human exploration aiming for Mars.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASA's new Orion spacecraft made a "bull's-eye" splashdown in the Pacific on Friday following a dramatic test flight that took it to a zenith of 3,604 miles and ushered in a new era of human exploration aiming for Mars.

The unmanned test flight ended 4 hours after it began and achieved at least one record: flying farther and faster than any capsule built for humans since the Apollo moon program.

"There's your new spacecraft, America," Mission Control commentator Rob Navias said as the Orion capsule neared the water 270 miles off Mexico's Baja peninsula.

Navias called the journey "the most perfect flight you could ever imagine."

Blast off! NASA launches Orion spacecraft on first Mars test flight

NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts beyond Earth's orbit, to asteroids and ultimately the grand prize: Mars.

The agency reported some positive results, saying onboard computers were unaffected by high radiation in space.

The capsule reached a peak altitude more than 14 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station. No spacecraft designed for astronauts had gone so far since Apollo 17 NASA's final moon shot 42 years ago.

NASA needed to send Orion that high in order to set the crew module up for a 20,000-mph, 4,000-degree entry. That was considered the most critical part of the entire flight testing the largest of its kind heat shield for survival before humans climb aboard.

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NASA tries again to launch new Orion spacecraft

Nanotechnology can even provide solutions to everyday problems

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A tea stall is not what you may expect at an exhibition of cutting-edge nanotechnology. But complete with a transistor radio belting out Bollywood music, this incongruous stall demonstrated an important and affordable technology that used nanoscience to solve the problem of contaminated water.

Dubbed Arsenic and metal removal by Indian technology, the water purifier developed by IIT Madras uses nanoparticles to trap microbes and heavy metals from water, at a cost of less than 2 paise a litre. Silver nanoparticles set in a cage of aluminum and chitosan (derived from crustacean shells) absorb arsenic or other contaminants, while silver ions kill microbes.

Better still, the nanoparticle filtration system does not require electricity, therefore promising access to clean water for some of the poorest communities.

Inaugurating the 7th Bangalore India Nano conference on Friday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called upon scientists to come up with tangible nanotech-based solutions for waste management and other challenges faced by the common man, whether in food security, energy security, water purification or medicine.

The State is likely to soon get permission from the Centre to establish a state-of-the-art Nano Park and Nano Incubation Centre, for which the State has allotted 14-acre area on Tumakuru Road, said Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary, Department of IT, BT, Science and Technology. A Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences has also been planned there.

The Prof. C.N.R Rao Bangalore India Nano Science Award 2014 was presented to Shantikumar Nair, Dean of Research, Amrita University and Director of Amrita Center for Nanosciences, Kochi.

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Nanotechnology can even provide solutions to everyday problems

Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) and the Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF) Announce Merger Plan – Video

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Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) and the Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF) Announce Merger Plan
The Genetics Policy Institute (GPI), producer of the annual World Stem Cell Summit, and the Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF) have agreed to merge in order to leverage their resources...

By: worldstemcell

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Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) and the Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF) Announce Merger Plan - Video