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Thursday, January 3, 2013
India gang rape spurs national dialogue
An Indian woman who was the victim of a gang rape and brutal beating earlier this month in New Delhi has been flown to Singapore for treatment, while the rest of India debates women's safety.
Indian protesters listen to a speaker during a protest against a recent gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus in New Delhi, India, Thursday. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged Thursday to take action to protect the nation's women while the young rape victim was flown to Singapore for treatment of severe internal injuries.
Altaf Qadri/AP
EnlargeThe Indian government?s crackdown on the anti-rape protests that have continued for nearly two weeks in New Delhi has only aggravated public anger and concern about women?s safety.?
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The protests were sparked by the gang rape and brutal assault of a 23-year-old student on a bus in the elite South Delhi district on Dec. 16.?
As the girl battles for her life in a Singapore hospital, Indians are debating how to make the country safer for women. Ten days after the incident, it dominates newspaper headlines and op-ed pages, pushing to the margins stories like the retirement of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, the popular Indian sportsperson, highlighting just how much the case has affected people.
Sexual harassment is rampant in India, and the public has been largely apathetic to women?s plight, but many are hoping the attack could be a turning point in the way India treats women.
Calls for capital punishment, including the chemical castration of rapists, have died down, with various women?s groups decrying them. Given that in 94 percent of rape cases the rapist is known to the victim, Nilanjana S. Roy, writing in The Hindu newspaper she wonders if the protestors would be okay with death penalty if it were their father, uncle, neighbors, or even if it meant convicting Indian security forces in conflict zones. ?
The Monitor reported that India is considering a fast-track court process to expedite rape cases and step up punishment for sexual violence on the heels of the bus rape incident.?
Beyond the law, what needs to happen, writes Shilpa Phadke, author of a book on women?s safety in Mumbai, has to do with how Indians use their streets: ?We are safer when there are more women (and more men) on the streets. When shops are open, when restaurants are open, when there are hawkers and yes, even sex workers on the street, the street is a safer space for us all.?
The outrage that this case has spurred might finally bring about a cultural change in India, Stephanie Nolen of The Globe and Mail suggests in a report:?
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Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A Look At The Art Of Portrait Photography ? Arts and Entertainment
Portrait photography is a creative form of art and needs patience, knowledge of lighting and other technical skills to make your good photograph for good memories such as Auckland portrait photography. Portraits have become a passion among the rich and famous who mount their portraits in ornate frames to give a distinguished look to the living rooms, bedrooms, stairways and hallways.
If you want to have you portrait done, who has a good rapport and knows how understand and capture the true personality of their subject. A professional portrait photographer should be aware of getting the right balance between all the elements and possibly provide the subject with the natural settings as the most positive character trait of a subject shows through in a comfortable setting.
Portraits can be best taken using natural light especially if the photographer is not too adept with creating the perfect studio effect/artificial lighting as it needs to be evenly distributed to prevent shadows around the face. It is also advisable to use light backgrounds to emphasize the subject as these are believed to lend more character to the subject, especially if a serious pose is required and if the subject is wearing a dark garment, which will show up best against a light backdrop. The wrong choice of a background can give off a very undesirable effect to an otherwise attractive person in a portrait photograph and thus, photographers must beware of indiscriminately using just any old background or even a cluttered one.
Speaking of succeeding in running through a portrait photo shot, the photographer must pay close attention to all things he or she may require for the event: e.g equipment, conversation starters, light beverage or snacks, music to help the subject relax etc. and treat the occasion with a professional but friendly approach to establish a natural trust and confidence in the subject for best results. One can always visit http://photographersinc.co.nz/contemporary/sitting-types/couples for the related information.
Tags: photography, portrait photography
Source: http://artsandentertainment.deadale.com/uncategorized/a-look-at-the-art-of-portrait-photography/
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Prostate cancer research 'lagging'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20875488#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
01.01.13
?Prostate cancer is the poor relation when it comes to funding for research to find a cure, says a charity.
Though it is the most common male cancer, prostate cancer is 20th in the league table of research funding, says Prostate Cancer UK, which is launching a campaign to highlight the issue.
It has been said that the disease will be the UK?s most common cancer by 2030.
The Department of Health said prostate cancer was a key target of its efforts to improve cancer survival rates?.?
Source: http://www.pmflegal.com/blog/index.php/2013/01/02/prostate-cancer-research-lagging/
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US has more Internet-connected gadgets than people
4 hrs.
There are now more Internet-connected devices, such as smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles, in the U.S. than there are people: 425 million gadgets in homes, according to The NPD Group.
While laptop and desktop?computers remain the primary way for Americans to go online from home, these other means?are "diminishing the computer's relevance" to the Internet, said John?Buffone, NPD's director of device research for Connected Intelligence, in a report.
The "shared screen" experience???streaming a movie or photos from your smartphone or tablet to the TV???is expected to be used by more Americans in 2013, he said.?
"Smaller screens such as the smartphone have the greatest reach now with an estimated 133 million users, with tablets contributing another 31.8 million screens."
There are?311.5 million Americans, and many of them have a growing appetite for such screen-sharing. But using the TV itself as an Internet device has yet to catch on, in part because consumers haven't much wanted to fiddle with them (many of us?view the TV as simple a great couch potato device only, no work, please). Manufacturers at the Consumer Electronics Show next week plan to make a stronger?case for them this year.
Buffone says that through this year, "multi-screen and multi-device synergy will lead the growth in the broader connected device market, but only if services consumers desire are delivered in a simplistic manner."
The NPD Group based its findings on a survey of more than 4,000 U.S. consumers over age 18 in the fourth quarter of 2012. ?Routers, modems mobile hot spots and pay TV set-top boxes were not included as Internet-connected products, nor were e-readers because of the "limited content" they offer in terms of a true Internet device.
Check out Technology, GadgetBox, Digital?Life and InGame on?Facebook,?and on?Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/us-has-more-internet-connected-gadgets-people-1C7782791
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First gay church becoming more 'mainstream'
On that Sunday in 1968 when Troy Perry borrowed a minister?s robe and started a church for gays in his living room, the world was a very different place.
Perry?s Metropolitan Community Churches was then a lone spiritual refuge for openly gay Christians, an idea so far from the mainstream that the founders were often chased from places where they tried to worship. Four decades later, some of the most historically important American denominations, which had routinely expelled gays and lesbians, are welcoming them instead.
MCC now has a presence in dozens of U.S. states as well as overseas, reporting a total membership of more than 240 congregations and ministries. But as acceptance of same-sex relationships grows ? gay and lesbian clergy in many Protestant traditions no longer have to hide their partners or lose their careers, and Christians can often worship openly with their same-gender spouses in the mainline Protestant churches where they were raised ? the fellowship is at a crossroads.
Is a gay-centered Christian church needed anymore?
?There are many more options than there used to be,? said the Rev. Nancy Wilson, moderator, or leader, of the Metropolitan Community Churches. ?But there is not a mass exodus.?
The denomination has never been gays-only. But for a long time, straight allies were scarce.
The founding congregation, MCC of Los Angeles, opened a year before the Stonewall riots in New York. Few people had ever heard the argument that the Bible sanctioned same-gender relationships and no one of any influence in the religious world was saying it. MCC congregations became targets of arson, violence, pickets and, in at least one case, a vice squad.
Al Smithson, a founder in 1969 of the fellowship?s San Diego church, said his pastor would point to Orange County?s famous Crystal Cathedral and joke that he was praying for a bulletproof version.
The church today is a bit more diverse. MCC pastors say they see a growing number of straight friends and relatives of gays and lesbians among their new congregants, along with heterosexual parents who want their children raised in a gay-affirming environment. While some MCC congregations haven?t changed much over the decades, Wilson said, many are emphasizing a broad social justice agenda including serving the homeless and poor.
?We don?t have a rainbow flag on our website, nor do we have it on our building,? said the Rev. Dan Koeshall, senior pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of San Diego, which draws about 220 people for Sunday services.
?It wasn?t a decision that caused any controversy or split. It?s just been moving in that direction. We know that our target audience is the LGBT community. But we?re also attracting people who are saying, ?Yes, I stand in solidarity with you and I want to be part of this.??
It?s remarkable the denomination has endured at all. Metropolitan Community Churches brings together many different Christian traditions under one banner that often struggle to stay friendly in the outside world. Perry, now 72 and retired, is a Pentecostal who started preaching when he was just a teenager in rural Florida. The Rev. Mona West, the fellowship?s director of clergy training, graduated from the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. But a large number of MCC clergy train in liberal Protestant seminaries. The common denominator is a belief that Christians can be in a same-sex relationship and still be faithful to Scripture.
?You can go from one MCC to another and have a radically different flavor, depending on the region, the clergy and congregants,? said Scott Thumma, a Hartford Seminary sociologist and co-editor of the book ?Gay Religion.?
The fellowship expanded relatively quickly from its humble beginnings. Within months of founding the first congregation in Los Angeles, Perry started receiving letters and visits from people hoping to establish MCC churches in other cities. Two years later, new congregations had formed as far away as Florida. Within five years, the church had spread overseas.
Then, the 1980s arrived and with it, the AIDS crisis. Metropolitan Community Churches plowed its resources into ministries for the sick, dying and grieving. The fellowship lost several thousand members and clergy to the virus, and the business of starting new churches slowed. As a result, Wilson and others say the denomination missed out on crucial period for potential growth.
But the church has also lost some congregations, including its biggest, to other denominations. The Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, a megachurch with about 4,200 members, split off around 2003, and eventually joined the United Church of Christ. Cathedral and MCC officials say the break resulted from disagreements between local church members and local leaders, not a rejection of MCC?s mission. The Cathedral maintains its focus on reaching out to gays, lesbians and transgender people.
Still, the United Church of Christ, which has more than 5,000 congregations and roots in colonial New England, can offer much that the MCC cannot, including more resources, greater prominence and a broader reach. In some communities, local churches are affiliating with both the Metropolitan Community Churches and United Church of Christ. But at least one other MCC congregation broke away in recent years: The Columbia, S.C., church became the Garden of Grace United Church of Christ.
?It makes us more than a one-issue church,? the Rev. Andy Sidden, the church?s pastor, told The State newspaper of Columbia, in a 2006 interview.
Like many other churches coping with a weak economy, the MCC has cut or restructured staff jobs in the last five years and reduced the annual payment congregations pay the national office, Wilson said. Some smaller MCC churches have closed.
Yet, despite the losses, Wilson and others see a continuing role for Metropolitan Community Churches, given the wide range of responses to gays and lesbians in organized religion, even in the more liberal churches that have moved toward accepting same-gender relationships.
Of the mainline Protestant groups, only the United Church of Christ supports gay marriage outright. The Episcopal Church last month released a provisional prayer service for blessing same-sex unions. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have eliminated barriers for gay clergy but allow regional and local church officials to decide their own policies. One of the largest mainline groups, the United Methodist Church, with about 7.8 million U.S. members, still bars ordination for people in same-sex relationships, although many individual Methodist churches openly accept gay and lesbian clergy.
?There?s ?Come and don?t say anything,? ?Come, but we won?t marry you,? or ?Come and be fully accepted,?? said the Rev. Jo Hudson, senior pastor of the Cathedral of Hope. ?We?re always glad when churches welcome gay and lesbian people, but it?s just a different experience in a church that is historically and predominantly led by heterosexual people. Everyone is going to find the church where they most fit in.?
Wilson said a large percentage of newer MCC members are from conservative Christian churches teaching that gay and lesbian Christians should try to become heterosexual or remain celibate. Koeshall was a pastor in the Assemblies of God, one of the largest U.S.-based Pentecostal groups, until 1997, when he says, ?I came out and I got kicked out.?
New MCC congregations have recently started in Peoria, Ill., and in The Villages retirement community north of Orlando, Fla. (In a recent announcement in local gay media, the Peoria congregation described MCC as a fellowship created for gay and lesbian Christians now known as ?the human rights church.?) Mary Metcalf, 62, a seven-year member of Heartland Metropolitan Community Church in Springfield, Ill., which started the Peoria congregation, said she was a lector and liturgy coordinator at her Roman Catholic parish until some friends brought her to a service.
?When it came time for communion, when the presider said that the table is open to everyone, I started crying,? said Metcalf, on a break from painting Heartland church with other volunteers. ?I came from the Catholic Church. I?m straight, but I just finally had to come to a parting of the ways. I didn?t think Jesus kept anyone away from the table.?
Still, like most denominations, MCC is seeing its strongest growth overseas. In Latin America, the fellowship had seven churches in five countries a decade ago, and now reports 56 congregations or ministries in 17 countries, according to the Rev. Darlene Garner, director of MCC?s emerging ministries. A congregation in Australia for young adults, called Crave, is thriving, Wilson said. Garner?s office is also developing an online church with worship, Bible study and support in several languages. MCC has already conducted its first virtual baptism on the web, a relatively new practice that is gaining popularity among evangelical churches with online worship.
Thumma contends MCC should not be judged by the standards used for other denominations. Only a small percentage of Americans are gay or lesbian, and a limited number want to be active in a Christian church, no matter its outlook. Like other minority groups moving toward mainstream acceptance, some gay Christians are assimilating into bigger denominations while others choose the focus and freedoms MCC provides, Thumma said.
?MCC still has a clear function,? Thumma said. ?Like an immigrant community, it gives gay Christians a place of their own.?
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Source: http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/01/02/first-gay-church-becoming-more-mainstream
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FDA approves 1st new tuberculosis drug in 40 years
FILE - This July 19, 2002 file photo shows the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer, File)
FILE - This July 19, 2002 file photo shows the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.
The agency approved J&J's pill, Sirturo, for use with older drugs to fight a hard-to-treat strain of tuberculosis that has not responded to other medications. However, the agency cautioned that the drug carries risks of potentially deadly heart problems and should be prescribed carefully by doctors.
Roughly one-third of the world's population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. The disease is rare in the U.S., but kills about 1.4 million people a year worldwide. Of those, about 150,000 succumb to the increasingly common drug-resistant forms of the disease. About 60 percent of all cases are concentrated in China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe.
Sirturo, known chemically as bedaquiline, is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. That's a form of the disease that cannot be treated with at least two of the four primary antibiotics used for tuberculosis.
The standard drugs used to fight the disease were developed in the 1950s and 1960s.
"The antibiotics used to treat it have been around for at least 40 years and so the bacterium has become more and more resistant to what we have," said Chrispin Kambili, global medical affairs leader for J&J's Janssen division.
The drug carries a boxed warning indicating that it can interfere with the heart's electrical activity, potentially leading to fatal heart rhythms.
"Sirturo provides much-needed treatment for patients who have don't have other therapeutic options available," said Edward Cox, director of the FDA's antibacterial drugs office. "However, because the drug also carries some significant risks, doctors should make sure they use it appropriately and only in patients who don't have other treatment options."
Nine patients taking Sirturo died in company testing compared with two patients taking a placebo. Five of the deaths in the Sirturo group seemed to be related to tuberculosis, but no explanation was apparent for the remaining four.
Despite the deaths, the FDA approved the drug under its accelerated approval program, which allows the agency to clear innovative drugs based on promising preliminary results.
Last week, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized that approach, noting the drug's outstanding safety issues.
"The fact that bedaquiline is part of a new class of drug means that an increased level of scrutiny should be required for its approval," the group states. "But the FDA had not yet answered concerns related to unexplained increases in toxicity and death in patients getting the drug."
The FDA said it approved the drug based on two mid-stage studies enrolling 440 patients taking Sirturo. Both studies were designed to measure how long it takes patients to be free of tuberculosis.
Results from the first trial showed most patients taking Sirturo plus older drugs were cured after 83 days, compared with 125 days for those taking a placebo plus older drugs. The second study showed most Sirturo patients were cured after 57 days.
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