Saturday, May 11, 2013
The suicide rate for people aged 35 to 64 increased 30 percent from 1999 to 2010, the New York Times reports.
Are Americans in the middle of their lives being stretched to the breaking point? The first decade of this century witnessed a dramatic rise in suicides among middle-aged people, The New York Times reports. The increase, about 30 percent among 35- to 64-year olds, has raised the question of whether "a generation of baby boomers who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm," according to the Times. The paper cites a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who says the financial and family situations of baby boomers might be creating unique stresses, such as taking care both of their aging parents and their young adult children. The …
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The home city of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects is asking a funeral home director not to request a burial there. Should cities be allowed to turn down burial requests?
It’s been nearly three weeks since his death, but it remains unclear where the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev will be buried. The Associated Press reports that while Tsarnaev's mother says she wants the body returned to Russia, the funeral director in charge of Tsarnaev’s body believes the country will not accept the body. The funeral home director, Peter Stefan, said he plans to ask for a burial in the city where Tsarnaev lived, but officials in Cambridge, Mass., are urging him not to do so. "The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment," Cambridge…
Monday, May 6, 2013
A runner’ gesture cost his high school a trip to the state championships. Tell us if you think the ruling on the gesture was right on, or if the disqualification was unwarranted.
A high school’s chance to compete in the state championships was halted last month despite a winning performance from four of its athletes. Columbus High School saw four of its athletes take first in the 4 x 100-meter relay. But the team was disqualified, according to KHOU 11 News, after its final runner, Derrick Hayes, pointed up to the sky as he crossed the finish line. The DQ was levied as the gesture violated a rule that prohibits excessive acts of celebration, and it cost the school an opportunity to make it to the state championships. Hayes’ father said he believes his son made the gesture to give thanks to God. “It was a reaction,” K.C. Hayes said. “I mean you’re brought up your whole life that God gives you good things, you’re …
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Robert Redford is a former '60s radical out to clear his name.
When Sharon Solarz, a former member of the radical Weather Underground (Susan Sarandon) is arrested, her capture sets in motion a twisted series of events. Nick Sloan (Robert Redford), a clean cut, upright attorney in Albany, refuses to take her case, which leads to an ambitious young newspaper (yes, they do still exist) reporter, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBoeuf), outing Sloan as another member of the Weather Underground wanted for killing a guard during a bank robbery. To clear his name, Sloan must reach his former lover Mimi (Julie Christie) before the FBI nabs him. Here's what the critics are saying: There is enough plot here to stuff a trilogy, but the film never finds itself. It doesn’t powerfully condemn or condone the ’70s radicals, …
More needs to be done to assure our safety.
For once, I agree with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when in a press conference last week he said: “The investments we’ve made in counterterrorism operations, technology, and intelligence help reduce the possibility of a successful terrorist strike, but they certainly do not eliminate it. Nothing can do that. We don’t know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists, had they arrived here from Boston, we’re just thankful we didn’t have to find out that answer.” The news conference that Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner, Kelley were holding was to inform the people of New York they had been notified by the FBI that the two men involved in the bombings in Boston also planned to place bombs in New York City. Our nation, …
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Has math changed so much that your help is confusing your child more than helping him or her?
According to a recent story by The Daily Mail concerning parents’ ability, or more like inability, to help their middle school-age children in the UK, there is a problem. The Daily Mail reports that only one in 20 can do the math required to help their child with homework. It’s not that the parents aren’t smart, it’s just that methods have changed so much since they were in school that they can no longer explain it. They can still get to the same answer, the students just cannot understand how they got to it. According to the article, the government in the UK is considering reinstating tried and true techniques to tackle this problem. So what about here in the U.S.? Is the math homework your middle schooler brings home the math you did in …
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Former Atlanta Hawks player Jason Collins, most recently with the Washington Wizards, recently came out as gay. Tell us what impact, if any, you think his announcement will have.
"I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay," says Jason Collins in a story set to be published in the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated. The pro basketball veteran has been a member of six teams in 12 seasons in the league, including three in Atlanta—he last donned a Hawks jersey during the 2011-2012 season. But many are likely to deem his coming out as something bigger than his on-the-court career, as he has become the first male U.S. athlete in a major professional sport to declare that he is gay. "I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation,” Collins told Sports Illustrated. Collins’ announcement was lauded by several of his …
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Do we move ahead as if nothing has happened? Where to do we go from here? Tell us in the comments below.
In the days since the Boston Marathon bombing and the firefight that ensued to capture the men suspected of planting the bombs, the national conversation has once again turned to the horror of attacks like the bombing and 9-11 as we try to process the tragedy. While some are reminded that for all the darkness in times like these, there are those who shine a light by running toward destruction to help. Others, however, process the mayhem differently and tend to become somewhat anxious about recurrences and potential vulnerability.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Unaware he was already on air, A.J. Clemente muttered the infamous F-word before being introduced during his first day on the job with an NBC affiliate in North Dakota.
It was his first day on the job—and his last. According to ABC News, A.J. Clemente didn’t make it far past his awkward introduction on KFYR television when he was fired. The reason: Before uttering his first words as a rookie news anchor, Clemente dropped the “F-bomb,” apparently unaware his microphone was already on. All this happened Sunday evening. By Monday, the clip had hit YouTube [Editor's note: Graphic language in clip] and Clemente was looking for a new job. The television station quickly apologized for the mishap and promised it would never happen again. But viewers, ABC reports, were more forgiving of Clemente than his now former employer. The video clip went viral, as did support for Clemente's rookie mistake. After all, didn’t…
Thursday, April 25, 2013
It has been rolled out slowly since October 2012, but those who hadn’t converted voluntarily since then are being switched over now anyway.
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Thursday, April 25
The LA Times reports that not everybody is happy with the new compose feature on Gmail, but the product manager for the company, Phil Sharp, says it's faster and easier to use. If you haven’t seen it already, it is a pop-up screen, a little “like G-chat, only larger” Gmail claims. In explaining the new system, Sharp says it helps when you’re writing a new e-mail and have to reference another one. In this new system, you don’t have to save it as a draft, open the old one, then go back to your draft. You can do a search or be watching new mail come in as you’re composing a new message. The problem is, as we’ve learned with Facebook, we don’t like change. Once we’ve gotten used to a system, we like it to stay that way. So what do you think of…
William Compton
2:18 pm on Saturday, May 11, 2013
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