April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Debra

Her Sight is Worth It!

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Imagine losing your site to a preventable or treatable cause simply because your are poor or simply because you are female.

“We know her sight is worth it. The ripple effect of providing eye care to a single person is life-changing. You not only give that person their sight and life back, you also free their caregivers. Consider that 75 per cent of blindness is preventable or treatable, often with no more than a 15 minute cataract surgery costing $50 or less”
[snip]
Of the estimated 45 million blind worldwide, 90% live in developing countries. Of these, 2 out of 3 blind are girls and women, because they receive only half the access to eye care that men do.

To raise awareness SEVA Canada is holding a video contest

You are invited to create a compelling video on the topic of Gender and Blindness. The top three winning short films will be used to inspire and educate the world about the importance of sight and raise awareness of the 30 million blind women and girls.

Basic rules are:

* Videos cannot be longer than 3 minutes.
* You must be 13 or older to enter.
* Contest is open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
* Deadline for submissions is 12:00 pm PST, December 15th, 2009. All videos submitted after this time will be disqualified.
* All videos must contain the Seva logo either at the beginning, end or both.
* Three winners will be determined through a combination of audience choice (45%) and our celebrity jury (55%).

So all you budding film makers and YouTube junkies have a chance to showcase your talents for a good cause. And best of all,
The the top three winners will also be honoured by having sight restored to one girl and one woman in their name.

Click here for further information.

Attention Self Hosted WordPress Bloggers

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Many bloggers are busy or just don’t feel the need to upgrade on a regular basis. However, many upgrades are for or at least include, security features.

When a security breach is found hackers are more than aware of these breaches and know which blogs to attack. Currently there are numerous blogs being attacked. Do yourself a favour and upgrade before you are one of them.

Writes Lorelle on her WordPress-centric blog:

There are two clues that your WordPress site has been attacked:

First, there are strange additions to permalinks, such as example.com/category/post-title/%&(%7B$%7Beval(base64_decode($_SERVER%5BHTTP_REFERER%5D))%7D%7D|.+)&%/. The keywords are “eval” and “base64_decode.”

The second clue is that a “back door” was created by a “hidden” Administrator. Check your site users for “Administrator (2)” or a name you do not recognize.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/05/security-threat-wordpress-under-attack/

If you have already been hacked see this thread for fixes.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/307660?replies=1

At the UN Women’s Rights Fall Victim to Politics

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Stephen Lewis, a co-director of AIDS-Free World and one of the strongest advocates of the gender proposal, told IPS: “I have been following this story with much intensity over the last 48 hours, and I myself have spoken to several ambassadors (both from the South and the North), to impress upon them the fact that under no circumstances can this resolution be postponed”.

He said that it would be “a terrible slap in the face to the women of the world, a dreadful rejection of the views of the secretary-general, and a deep blow to the credibility of the United Nations.”

As things now stand, the consensus that had emerged is being sabotaged by a consortium of countries, belligerently disruptive and destructive, led by Cuba, Sudan, Iran and Egypt, he said.

The nation states of the U.N. overwhelmingly want to approve the creation of the women’s agency by resolution on Sep. 14, and begin the process of a global search for an under-secretary-general, “but this little group of malcontents is holding the world to ransom”.

“They’re using women as a bargaining chip in the effort to exact concessions on governance and finance, the other prongs of the System-Wide Coherence process. They care not one whit for the rights and needs of the women of the world,” Lewis charged.

Health Canada Considering Death Bed Photos on Cig Packs

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Lets face it — everyone knows smoking isn’t good for you. Adults who have made the choice to smoke are aware of the dangers and the things that exist to help stop smoking. Pictures of blackened lungs and limp members have not made a difference so why on earth would Health Canada think this is going to?

Health Canada is considering ordering cigarette companies to put deathbed photos of an emaciated cancer victim on every package.

Health Canada is now testing 49 new health warnings for possible placement on cigarette packages. Two of the new warnings feature photographs of Edmonton anti-smoking activist Barb Tarbox, taken just before her death from cancer.

This is just gruesome and odd. Go back to the drawing board Health Canada — seriously — NOW!

Source

Defendant Duct Taped in Court

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In a stunning display of violation of rights a judge ordered that not only could the defendant not change counsel he was to have his mouth duct taped shut and his public defender was ordered to sit in the audience.

At the start of the hearing, Brown told Belden that he

wasn’t happy with his public defender, who he claimed hadn’t done enough work on the case.

Belden said he wasn’t going to appoint a different attorney. If Brown didn’t want the public defender, he could represent himself, although he would be a fool to do so, the judge said.

Brown and Belden went back and forth for about four minutes, at times talking over each other, until Belden told his bailiff, Jeffrey Smith, to get the duct tape.

Full Story

Of course many in the comments section are cheering the judge, however, this is denying the same rights to change counsel that a more wealthy person would have [big surprise I know] and also goes against the supposed system of innocent until proved guilty.