8-Year-Old Girl Crushes Led Zeppelin's 'Good Times Bad Times'

『Hit Like A Girl Contest 2018』Good Times Bad Times - LED ZEPPELIN / Cover by Yoyoka , 8 year old drummer from よよか on Vimeo.

the shoe that grows

https://theshoethatgrows.org/

lucas etter broke the rubik's cube record solving it in only 4.9 seconds

Why Do European Zoos Kill Healthy Animals?

On Thursday, the Odense Zoo in Denmark is scheduled to dissect a lion for the educational benefit of children on school holidays.

The 9-month-old female lion was considered "surplus." Officials at Odense said they had too many female lions. And they also were concerned about inbreeding, according to reports. The lion was offered to other zoos, but when no takers were found she was killed and stored in a freezer earlier this year.

The zoo has been dissecting animals in front of guests for 20 years. The zoo's killing and dissection of this lion has outraged some, especially in the U.S. It's cumulative anger, because last year the Copenhagen Zoo carried out a similar double play — killing a healthy animal, Marius the giraffe, with a bolt gun then dissecting the body in front of schoolchildren and feeding the remains to its lions. At that time, Copenhagen Zoo Scientific Director Bengt Holst came under widespread fire outside Denmark;petitions called for his resignation.

But it's not just Denmark. The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA)issued a statement on Tuesday supporting the Odense Zoo's plan. The statement notes that "culling of animals is one of a range of scientifically valid solutions to the long term genetic and demographic sustainability of animal populations in human care." It goes on to say that the dissection "for educational purposes is a valid choice of the zoo."

According to the BBC, between 3,000 and 5,000 healthy zoo animals are killed in Europe every year.

Here in the U.S., the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) says flatly that incidents of killing healthy surplus animals "do not happen at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums." The whole thrust of captive management in this country centers around birth control.

Certainly, I can't picture elementary school children gathered at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park or the San Diego Zoo to observe as an animal, once put on display to delight them, is taken apart joint-by-joint for their anatomical enlightenment.

A yawning cultural gap clearly exists in the European and American visions for the role of zoos in captive management of animals.

Earlier this week, I contacted the Copenhagen Zoo to ask Bengt Holst for his views on the Odense Zoo controversy. Told that Holst is traveling for business, I was directed to a page from the zoo's web site that he wrote. Key passages, which I excerpt here, explain that European zoos focus on the health of populations rather than of individual animals:

"When an animal's genes are well represented in the breeding programme and there is no place for the animal in another zoo, the European Breeding Programme has agreed that the animal is to be euthanized.

We see this as a positive sign and as insurance that we in the future will have a healthy animal population in European zoos. The most important factor must be that the animals are healthy physically and behaviourally and that they have a good life whilst they are living whether this life is long or short. This is something Copenhagen Zoo believes strongly in."

Why not administer birth control in order to achieve this same end, healthy animal populations? Holst continues:

"In Copenhagen Zoo we let the animals breed naturally. With naturally we mean that they will get young within the same intervals as they would in the wild. That means that the animals get to carry out their natural behaviours."

I'm struck by the terrible irony represented here: Zoos like this enclose animals in captivity, allow them to practice "natural behavior" of mating and reproduction, then slaughter them when they are no longer viewed as helpful to the project of coaxing visitors through the gates.

In a televised interview from last year, Holst talks about the killing and dissection of Marius the giraffe, defending the "natural" act of feeding Marius's body to lions. "Why protect schoolchildren from real life?" he asks.

But listen to the very first answer Holst offers to the interviewer. It is revealing: Children weren't invited to attend the slaughter of Marius because "when looked upon, the killing can be pretty cruel."

Zoos are entrusted to care for animals. There is no place in zoos — there should be no place, despite differences in cultural attitudes — for cruelty. npr

Australia to deny benefits to parents refusing to vaccinate children

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Sunday his nation will adopt a "no jab, no pay" policy to block parents who refuse to vaccinate their children from accessing some government benefits.

The policy change comes amid a debate over immunisation for children, with some parents believing vaccines against deadly diseases are dangerous.

The anti-vaccination movement has coincided with the resurgence of measles, a preventable disease, in some European countries as well as in parts of the United States.

"It's essentially a 'no jab, no pay' policy from this government," Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

"It's a very important public health announcement. It's a very important measure to keep our children and our families as safe as possible."

Under current Australian laws, parents who have "conscientious objections" about immunisation can claim childcare and welfare payments.

If the measures are passed those parents would be denied the payments -- which include childcare rebates, benefits and family tax benefit supplements -- reportedly missing out on up to Aus$15,000 (US$11,500) per child annually.

Parents unwilling to vaccinate their children on medical or religious grounds will still be allowed to tap into the benefits, although under tighter eligibility requirements.

Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said there were no mainstream religions that had registered vaccination objections with the government. msn

elementary school kids playing led zeppelin

Optical Illusion Paintings By Rob Gonsalves

why i think "personal belief exemptions" for highly recommended to required vaccinations is ridiculous- vaccinate!

After a few cases here and there, measles is making a big push back into the national consciousness.

An outbreak linked to visitors to the Disneyland Resort Theme Parks in Orange County, Calif., has sickened 67 people in California and six other states according to the latest count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far this year there have been 84 measles cases in 14 states. That's already more cases than the U.S. typically sees in a year, the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters on a conference call Thursday. "This is a wake-up call to make sure measles doesn't get a foothold back in our country."

Measles is highly contagious. Ninety percent of people who aren't immune get sick after being around an infected person. Vaccination against the virus is highly effective. Schuchat said the current outbreak is happening because people haven't been vaccinated — not because the measles vaccine isn't working.

Widespread vaccination led to a decline in measles, and the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. Vaccination has kept the illness at bay. But the disease remains common in many countries, and travelers bring cases back to the U.S. A big bump in 2014 was tied to Amish missionaries who traveled to the Philippines when a measles epidemic was underway.

Schuchat told reporters that measles outbreaks have been much harder to control in recent years.

Children are supposed to receive their first dose of measles vaccine at a year to 15 months of age, followed by a second dose between 4 and 6. But 1 in 12 kids isn't getting the first dose on time, Schuchat said.


The "overall picture has been getting better, not worse" for vaccination, Schuchat said. But pockets where many people haven't been vaccinated, such as the Amish communities in Ohio back in 2014, provide fertile ground for the measles virus.

One issue is schoolchildren whose parents seek nonmedical exemptions from vaccine requirements. The proportion of children receiving those exemptions varies widely — from 7 percent of kindergartners in Oregon to none in Mississippi and West Virginia where they aren't allowed.

Schuchat said medical exemptions are needed. Some children, such as Rhett Krawitt, a 6-year-old boy in California boy whose immune system was compromised by leukemia treatment, can't be vaccinated. But Rhett relies on what's called herd immunity to keep him safe. His father and mother have asked the school district to bar unvaccinated children, who could pass on diseases such as measles, from attending school.

Research published Monday in the journal Pediatrics finds that people who seek personal-belief exemptions for their children often live near one another. "We think it's the microcommunities that are the problem," CDC's Schuchat said of the way that measles has erupted recently. npr

Police Fire Tear Gas On Kenyan Kids Protecting A Soccer Field

Hundreds of elementary schools were protesting the illegal seizure of their playground by a private developer in Nairobi, Kenya, when police fired tear gas into the crowd.

The incident sparked outrage across the city — and on social media, where Kenyans tweeted with the hashtag #OccupyPlayGround.

But the shocking images and videos of the ordeal provoked a surprisingly proactive response. In the end, these Kenyan kids did what ordinary Kenyans are rarely able to do: Defend disappearing public space.

The process is known as "land-grabbing." A fence suddenly appears overnight around a parcel of government property. Those who protest are warded off — sometimes violently — by police. In time, a new high-rise or hotel or parking lot appears, owned by a politically connected magnate.

But this time, the land in question was next to an elementary school, Langata Road Primary School. And the protesters were kids as young as 8, who used the land to play soccer.

When developers set up a fence separating the school from the playground over the winter break, several hundred kids showed up on Monday to protest. They ended up breaking down the new fence. In response, heavily armed police fired tear gas on the kids.

"The tear gas was so bad!" Kevin Sande, 10, said Tuesday.

The gas made their eyes red and caused them to cough, other kids said.

In full disclosure, I can't be sure that Sande and his classmates I interviewed at Langata Road Primary School were the ones that got tear-gassed. In the disturbing photos from that day, it's hard to make out the faces on the green uniforms engulfed in white smoke.

"I didn't understand whether we are in Kenya or the Gaza Strip," says Rahab Mwikali, an activist, who came to the school to express sympathy. "I thought what could this be?" npr

rights of the child

the US and Somalia are the only two to not sign the treaty

"38 countries now have agreed that corporal punishment of children, including spanking, 

violates children's human rights. And they have banned spanking altogether, both in homes 

and in schools" npr

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state's own domestic legislation.^[4]

The Convention deals with the child-specific needs and rights. It requires that states act in the best interests of the child. This approach is different from the common law approach found in many countries that had previously treated children as possessions or chattels, ownership of which was sometimes argued over in family disputes.^{[citation needed]}

In many jurisdictions, properly implementing the Convention requires an overhaul of child custody and guardianship laws, or, at the very least, a creative approach within the existing laws.^{[citation needed]} The Convention acknowledges that every child has certain basic rights, including the right to life, his or her own name and identity, to be raised by his or her parents within a family or cultural grouping, and to have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated.

The Convention obliges states to allow parents to exercise their parental responsibilities. The Convention also acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions and to have those opinions heard and acted upon when appropriate, to be protected from abuse or exploitation, and to have their privacy protected, and it requires that their lives not be subject to excessive interference.

The Convention also obliges signatory states to provide separate legal representation for a child in any judicial dispute concerning their care and asks that the child's viewpoint be heard in such cases.

The Convention forbids capital punishment for children. In its General Comment 8 (2006) the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that there was an "obligation of all state parties to move quickly to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment and all other cruel or degrading forms of punishment of children".^[14] Article 19 of the Convention states that state parties must "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence",^[15] but it makes no reference to corporal punishment. The Committee's interpretation on this point has also been explicitly rejected by several state parties to the Convention, including Australia,^[16] Canada and the United Kingdom.

BAJAU LAUT: LAST OF THE SEA NOMADS

the bajau laut are some of the world’s last true sea normads, living as they have for centuries almost entirely in the waters of the coral triangle ("the amazon of the seas") on long boats known as lepa lepa.
hunters of fish, pearls and sea cucumbers, the bajau people free dive to depths of 20 meters, hold their breath for up to three minutes, and spend up to 60% of their time in the water submerged - the equivalent of a sea otter.  it is a common practice amongst bajau people to intentionally burst their ear drums at an early age to deal with the problem of equalizing.
as photographer james morgan explains, “traditional bajau cosmology - a syncretism of animism and islam - reveals a complex relationship with the ocean, which for them is a multifarious and living entity. there are spirits in currents and tides, in coral reefs and mangroves." the bajau people, for example, will not spit in the ocean.
in the last few decades, dwindling fish stocks and government efforts have forced many to settle permanently on land and abandon a life of self sufficiency known as cari laut, or ‘searching the ocean’. a dwindling few, however, still choose to live the majority of their lives at sea

link

nautilus case

hrc does not support paul ryan

GLAAD for boy scouts

child poverty rates

the achievement gap

dinosaurs and homosexuals

from Mean Girls (2004)

teen birthrates

U.S. Teen Birthrates Are Down, But Still High in the Bible Belt

Teen birthrates are highest in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and New Mexico, with slightly lower concentrations in the neighboring states of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arizona. New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have the lowest rates of teen births.
What factors lie behind this geographic pattern? […]
Teenage births remain high in more religious states. The correlation between teenage birthrates and the percentage of adults who say they are “very religious” is considerable (.69). The 2009 study posited that attitudes toward contraception play a significant role, noting that “religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself.”
Teen birthrates also hew closely to America’s political divide. They are substantially higher in conservative states that voted for McCain in 2008 (with a correlation of .65) and negatively correlated with states that voted for Obama (-.62).
Class plays a substantial role as well. Teen births are negatively associated with average state income (-.62), the share of the workforce in knowledge, professional, and creative class jobs (-.61), and especially with the share of adults who are college graduates (-.76). Conversely, teen birthrates are higher in more working class states (with a positive correlation of .58).
Read more at The Atlantic Cities. [Image: Centers for Disease Control]

why you should wear sunscreen

santorum on paternity tests

"[I]n order for Mom to be able to go on welfare if she has a child out of wedlock, you have to tell us who the father is… If you don’t tell us who the father is, you’re not eligible for any welfare benefits, none, not even medical care. You tell us who the father is or you don’t receive benefits…We say to Mom that you tell us the wrong name, and we’ll bring that guy in and we’ll do a blood test and that’s not Dad, you lose your welfare benefits."

— Rick Santorum, 1994, advocating paternity tests for every single mother on welfare.