Filipina American scientist Katherine Luzuriaga, who helped find a cure for HIV baby, among TIME’s most influential people
One of two Filipinos who made this year’s TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World is Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, a pediatric allergist and immunologist from the University of Massachusetts. She was part of the team that developed a cure for an HIV-positive infant.
The other awardee is Philippine President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino. They were among the prominent and distinguished personalities who were honored at an April 23 awards ceremony at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. Aquino was not present.
“We consider this a great achievement,” Luzuriaga, speaking for her team, told The FilAm. “We’re very honored and actually very humbled to be among the ranks of these individuals that have been chosen.”
Later, she asked me, “Pilipino ka ba? Darating ba si presidente?”
Luzuriaga, who is also a professor of pediatrics and medicine, said her team is honored “to have our work considered to be of great influence. To a scientist, that means a lot.”
The work does not end with the TIME honor, she said. “One of the things about the finding is that it points the way to new studies that we can do and we’d like to go on and continue to make progress again for pediatric HIV infection.”
As explained by the doctor to PBS: “This baby was born to a very high-risk mother who was not diagnosed as HIV-infected until she presented in labor. So she had no prenatal care, which put the baby at risk for HIV infection. Customarily, if you’ve got a mom that’s HIV-positive, antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy are recommended and then you treat the baby for a period of time afterward to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
“Because this baby was at risk, Dr. Gay decided to begin treatment very early and to treat the baby with three drugs. The baby had blood drawn at 30 hours and then was started on antiretrovirals without knowledge of what the baby’s status was. The tests turned up positive.”
The team of Luzuriaga included AIDS researchers Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatrician at the University of Mississippi, and Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. They were also honored at the awards ceremony.
Luzuriaga, a Filipino American, has been at the forefront of pediatric HIV/AIDS research. Her bio says she has over 20 years experience in “patient-oriented research focused on mother-to-child transmission of HIV.” Her father’s family is from Bacolod, Negros Occidental. She grew up in Metro Manila, and graduated from the American-International School.
Among the TIME 100 are artist and music entrepreneur Jay-Z, conservative politician Rand Paul, and 15-year-old blogger-activist Malala Yousafzai who was almost killed by the Taliban because she became the voice of young Pakistani women who aspire to be educated and independent.
“I know that TIME Magazine spends a great deal of time selecting their people and some of them are very controversial and that’s what makes the list so interesting,” journalist Barbara Walters told The FilAm.
Echoed journalist Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post. “They’re not just picking people for the good they do, but for the influence they’re having in the world.”
Follow this link for the complete list of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.
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- Turbans on the Runway: What does it mean for Sikhs? by Sonny Singh Brooklynwala (July 10th, 2012)
^^^this^^
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This is a good watch , particularly for any White people that only accept the truth when it comes from other White people.
The riots also offered a glimpse into how photographs can be used out of context:
‘Sir: In last week’s article about the poll-tax riot in Trafalgar Square (‘THE MOB’S BRIEF RULE’, 7 April) there is a large photograph labelled ‘A West End shopper argues with a protester’. The woman in the photograph is me, and I thought you might like to know the true story behind the picture.
I was on my way to the theatre, with my husband. As we walked down Regent Street at about 6.30pm, the windows were intact and there was a large, cheerful, noisy group of poll-tax protesters walking up from Piccadilly Circus. We saw ordinary uniformed police walking alongside, on the pavement, keeping a low profile. The atmosphere was changed dramatically in moments when a fast-walking, threatening group of riot-squad police appeared.
We walked on to the top of Haymarket, where the atmosphere was more tense and more protesters were streaming up Haymarket from the Trafalgar Square end. Suddenly a group of mounted police charged at full gallop into the rear of the group of protesters, scattering them, passers-by and us and creating panic. People screamed and some fell. Next to me and my husband another group of riot-squad appeared, in a most intimidating manner.
The next thing that happened is what horrified me most. Four of the riot-squad police grabbed a young girl of 18 or 19 for no reason and forced her in a brutal manner on to the crowd-control railings, with her throat across the top of the railings. Her young male companion was frantically trying to reach her and was being held back by one riot-squad policeman. In your photograph I was urging the boy to calm down or he might be arrested; he was telling me that the person being held down across the railings was his girlfriend.
My husband remonstrated with the riot-squad policeman holding the boy, and I shouted at the four riot-squad men to let the girl go as they were obviously hurting her. To my surprise, they did let her go – it was almost as if they did not know what they were doing.
The riot-squad policemen involved in this incident were not wearing any form of identification. Their epaulettes were unbuttoned and flapping loose; I lifted them on two men and neither had any numbers on. There was a sergeant with them, who was numbered and my husband asked why his men wore no identifying numbers. The sergeant replied that it did not matter as he knew who the men were. We are a middle-aged suburban couple who now feel more intimidated by the Metropolitan police than by a mob. If we feel so angry, how on earth did the young hot-heads at the rally feel?’
Mrs R.A. Sare, Northwood, Middlessex Source
(via cognitivedissonance)
Did Benghazi just become a Republican scandal?
That email release from the White House is proving to be a real problem for Republicans. Earlier reports showed that versions of emails leaked by the GOP had been selectively edited, smearing the State Department and the administration with incomplete information that left an inaccurate impression of the email conversations.
Now it turns out that it’s much worse than lies of omission. The Republican version contain outright lies.
CBS News: …On Friday, Republicans leaked what they said was a quote from Rhodes: “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.”
But it turns out that in the actual email, Rhodes did not mention the State Department.
It read: “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.”
Republicans also provided what they said was a quote from an email written by State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland.
The Republican version quotes Nuland discussing, “The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.”
The actual email from Nuland says: “The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.”
As I pointed out earlier, Benghazi is rapidly spinning out of Republican control. The ever escalating hype has finally inflated their Benghazi conspiracy theory to the point that the facts can’t possibly support it, so the facts must be abandoned and now the whole thing is propped up almost entirely by fiction.
The question is what are they going to do now? You don’t make shit like this up if you have anything concrete. By leaking these phony emails (and there is no doubt the GOP leaked them) , they practically admit that the whole thing is frosting — there’s no cake here. If anyone has an “editing the talking points” scandal brewing here, it’s the elephant party.
And Darrell Issa’s going to stretch this thing out until 2014? That ought to go well. The whole thing’s in a tailspin now. Keeping it up in the air that long would be a good trick in itself. Keeping from crashing directly into Republican Party HQ and leveling the place would be an even better one.
(via cognitivedissonance)
I rather enjoy number 3, being as I’m in college because I actually want to learn and will probably be in debt 4ever over it. Whatevz, life is short.
Can we talk about how this is only ‘average’ to white middle class dudes a generation ago?
Can yougo to college without working your ass off to even be considered and driving yourself into an abyssal debt hole? You might be privileged!
Can you afford a nice vacation overseas, to a sheltered resort? You might be privileged!
Can you find and maintain a single 40-hour-a-week job (9-5, Monday through Friday) doing light office tasks? You might be privileged!
Can you be accepted for a mortgage? Can you afford one at all? Are you allowed to buy a home in an area that you feel safe and secure in? You might be privileged!
Can you work the same job long enough to get a lifetime excellence award, a gold watch, and a pension? You might be privileged! Also, it might be 1950.
This is only ‘average’ if you’re already on the lowest difficulty setting. The rest of us have to work really fucking hard to attain what this comic thinks is ‘average’ and ‘effortless’.
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Gentlemen, I’ve only been here five months, but this is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I’ve been to since I’ve been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today. The Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, clearly says that the Congress has the power to declare war. This—this authorization, the AUMF [Authorization for Use of Military Force], is very limited. And you keep using the term “associated forces.” You use it 13 times in your statement. That is not in the AUMF. And you said at one point, “It suits us very well.” I assume it does suit you very well, because you’re reading it to cover everything and anything. And then you said, at another point, “So, even if the AUMF doesn’t apply, the general law of war applies, and we can take these actions.” So, my question is: How do you possibly square this with the requirement of the Constitution that the Congress has the power to declare war?
This is one of the most fundamental divisions in our constitutional scheme, that the Congress has the power to declare war; the president is the commander-in-chief and prosecutes the war. But you’re reading this AUMF in such a way as to apply clearly outside of what it says. Senator McCain was absolutely right: It refers to the people who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks on September 11. That’s a date. That’s a date. It doesn’t go into the future. And then it says, “or harbored such organizations”—past tense—”or persons in order to prevent any future acts by such nations, organizations or persons.” It established a date.
I don’t disagree that we need to fight terrorism. But we need to do it in a constitutionally sound way. Now, I’m just a little, old lawyer from Brunswick, Maine, but I don’t see how you can possibly read this to be in comport with the Constitution and authorize any acts by the president.
— Senator Angus King (I-ME) at a Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on May 16, 2013, quoted in “‘Astoundingly Disturbing’: Obama Administration Claims Power to Wage Endless War Across the Globe” (May 17, 2013), Democracy Now! (via thepeoplesrecord)Google+ demonstrates deforestation and other man-made climate disasters with satellite images
May 18, 2013It’s one thing to talk about deforestation, disappearing habitats, and shrinking glaciers and water resources, and another thing entirely to demonstrate it with actual satellite imagery. And thanks to Landsat images and the Google Earth Engine, we’re getting a glimpse at some key locations across the planet as they are changed by the hands of man. A series of interactive timelapse GIFs that use Landsat satellite data to display massive changes to the Earth’s surface could be a potent tool for motivating individuals and organizations to take action on key issues.
Google’s Animated GIFs of Earth Over Time focuses our attention on key features of our planet, such as the Amazon rainforest, the coal beds of Wyoming, the Columbia Glacier, the Aral Sea, and the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
Today, we’re making it possible for you to go back in time and get a stunning historical perspective on the changes to the Earth’s surface over time. Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME, we’re releasing more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space, compiled for the first time into an interactive time-lapse experience. We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.
Some of the visualizations are kind of subtle, and need to be put into context to really hit home (such as the massive increase in irrigated areas in Saudi Arabia, which affects local water supplies, or the urban sprawl of Las Vegas, which also puts increased demands on local resources), but some of them, such as this one documenting the rapidly disappearing rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon, speak for themselves:
Explore a global timelapse of our planet, constructed from Landsat satellite imagery. The Amazon rainforest is shrinking at a rapid rate to provide land for farming and raising cattle. Each frame of the timelapse map is constructed from a year of Landsat satellite data, constituting an annual 1.7-terapixel snapshot of the Earth at 30-meter resolution.
- Google Earth Engine
These interactive time-lapse images can be manipulated by pausing or zooming in to them, as we’ve come to expect from Google Earth, and may serve as a pivot point for those who are on the fence about the effects that our booming population and its increased demand for resources has on our Big Blue Marble.
You can view all of the images at Google +, and you can read a backstory at TIME.
How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists | Common Dreams
important breakdown on the case, in case you haven’t heard.
essential to sit this case along side what is happening to assata shakur.
(via iinventedeverything)
(via searchingforknowledge)
When the Korean wrote the long series on Korea-Japan relations to explain why Koreans are still angry with the Japanese, a lot of people responded: “Today’s Japan is a very different place from the Imperial Japan during World War II. So Koreans should just get over it.”
Is it now? Today’s Japan has a mayor of a major city, who is considered a potential future Prime Minister, telling the world that sex slaves are necessary in times of war and the U.S. forces in his own country should visit brothels more often. Today’s Japan has a Prime Minister who is a grandson of a Class A war criminal. But rather than having a heightened consciousness about his country’s past crimes, he sits in an airplane with the number 731—clear invocation of Unit 731, which conducted live human experimentation during World War II—grinning and giving a thumbs-up.
The fact that these two leaders think Japan did nothing wrong during World War II was hardly a secret. Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announced to the world that he would withdraw Japan’s apology to former Comfort Women, and denied that Imperial Japan forcibly recruited the Comfort Women to serve as sex slaves. Yet the Japanese people overwhelmingly elected Abe, as well as the candidates for the far-right Japan Restoration Party, to which Mayor Hashimoto belongs.
—The Korean, “Japan Didn’t Really Change”
Must-read.
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Outraged against austerity, students & teachers in Philadelphia resist the machine of capitalism
May 17, 2013Dozens to hundreds of Philadelphia students, teachers and school staff protested outside one of the city’s premiere high schools in an effort to fight proposed budget cuts to the district.
Wearing signs and handing out pamphlets to drivers, members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers lined the sidewalk outside the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts along South Broad Street Friday morning. The teachers are fighting a series of severe budget cuts proposed by the district to close a more than $300 million funding gap. The proposed cuts include ending arts and music programs, sports and cutting auxiliary staff like secretaries, librarians and counselors.
“With the austere budgets schools have received, schools will not be able to provide a high-quality education for Philadelphia’s children,” said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Jordan says the teacher’s union has been discussing labor concessions with the district. However, he says a concession that results teachers taking a pay cut is a non-starter.
“The school district is asking for salary cuts for all PFT members of anywhere between 5, 10 and 13-percent,” he said. “I don’t think that you’ll find employee in the school district and the PFT…who are going to tell you that they can afford to take that kind of pay cut.”
The teacher protest is just the first of many demonstrations planned Friday over the funding flap.
Students from Philadelphia public schools around the city have also walked out of class and are marching on the School District of Philadelphia and Philadelphia City Hall. Similar walkouts were organized last week by students, who also marched on the same spots.
District spokesman Fernando Gallard says staff will not stop students from walking out, but says officials have asked principals remind students that leaving early will results in being marked as cutting. “Schools will follow the district’s attendance policy and will take the appropriate action which triggers at least a phone call to parents to notify them of the student’s absence, a request for a parent conference at the school, or after school detention,” he said.
Students are using Twitter to organize and document their protests. The group Philly Student Union is promoting the hashtag #walkout215 as a digital rally point during the event.
Just thought I’d share this charming piece of graffiti from near my home.
By the way, this is the ONLY women’s library in the country, it has only women’s work in it and also serves as a sort of feminist museum. They’re affiliated with a university close by and hold regular events such as workshops and talks on subjects like the poetry of immigrant women of colour or the representation of mental health in women’s literature. Its also due to be closed down by the Conservatives.
Can men go in and borrow books written by women?
Yeah, totally, they even do events for men by women on intro to feminism, rape culture stuff sometimes!
Imagine what the response would be if there was a book store that only sold works by men… Just think about that for a second
Maybe because among other things, women writers were dismissed and had to use male names or remain anonymous so that their work could be taken seriously so now there exist libraries to celebrate their work…hilarious you’d have the gall to tell people to ”just think about that for a second”. You’re the one who needs to do some critical thinking bb.
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