From HarlemEnglish.com

Incredibly, the face, neck, and hands of the pretty young woman have become wrinkled and saggy, and she says even her stomach looks like she had a few children.

It happened in 2008 when after eating seafood her face broke out in a rash and became itchy.

She thinks she used to scratch her face even in sleep.

Her husband Nguyen Thanh Tuyen (34) got her some medicines but they did not work and he had to take her to a local doctor. Phuong was diagnosed with dermatitis and prescribed some pills. However, after taking them for a week, her face swelled up and hives appeared on her skin.

She then stopped taking the medicines and went to some traditional Chinese doctors in town. The medicine they gave reduced the swelling but she says she put on weight. But the drugs cost VND30,000 (US$1.5) a day.

Soon she had to wear a mask all day to avoid curious stares.

“We consider it as fate decreed by God and so we stopped trying to cure the disease,” said Phuong.

Recognize only by voice

Ho Thi Hiep, a neighbor, said Phuong used to be a beautiful girl. But people meeting Phuong for the first time after her disfigurement were no longer able to recognize her until they heard her voice.

Le Van Thiem of Giong Trom town says: “A couple of days ago, Phuong went back to her hometown for her grandmother’s death anniversary. I met her and thought some old lady was visiting us. Only when I heard her voice did I realize it was her.”

Her saggy skin notwithstanding, Phuong still has the voice and posture of a young woman and black hair.

“It is not just my face that has become saggy but also my stomach,” Phuong says.

“I have never given birth but the skin on my stomach looks like I have had two or three kids.

“Last September when I had a stomachache and went to a doctor, he said I was caught with early aging syndrome.

But Phuong’s condition has not put off her husband Tuyen.

“When we got married, Phuong was a beautiful girl,” he says. “It’s difficult to talk openly about conjugal matters, but just understand that I still love my wife.”

The couple now live in Bu Dop District in Binh Phuoc Province where she has a job shelling cashew while he works as a carpenter.

What doctors say?

Dr Mai The Trach, former head of the Ho Chi Minh City Endocrine Association, says allergies cause changes in facial skin. But Phuong has not aged since her memory and organs like heart, kidneys, liver, and lungs are normal, he says.

Hoang Viet, head of the Dong Nai Province-based Nguyen Dinh Chieu hospital, says he has dispatched personnel to Giong Trom to gather more information about Phuong’s condition.

He plans to bring Phuong to his hospital and, if he is unable to help, then to take her the Ho Chi Minh Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology.

Researchers from the University of Leeds hope their development leads to smaller, cheaper and safer gadgets. Once on the market, the lithium jelly batteries could allow lighter laptop computers, and more efficient electric cars.

In 2006, Dell recalled four million laptop batteries because of concerns that they might catch fire. Dell replaced them with batteries that used lower-performance electrodes, but these batteries were significantly larger.

Battery size still dictates the size and weight of most laptops, say the developers of the new battery.
Electronics manufacturer Apple got around the safety problem for their lightweight laptops with a solid polymer electrolyte, but in doing so, the power output of the computers suffered.

Overheating is also an issue for electric cars. Developers have had to use reinforced, steel-clad battery housings, multiple fuses and circuits to protect the battery during charging. All of these contribute to the cost and weight, and hence efficiency, of electric cars.

Thermal runaway

The newly developed jelly batteries should prevent “thermal runaway”, during which batteries can reach hundreds of degrees and catch fire.

The Leeds-based researchers are promising that their jelly batteries are as safe as polymer batteries, perform like liquid-filled batteries, but are 10 to 20% the price of either.

The secret to their success lies in blending a rubber-like polymer with a conductive, liquid electrolyte into a thin, flexible film of gel that sits between the battery electrodes.

“The polymer gel looks like a solid film, but it actually contains about 70% liquid electrolyte,” explained the study’s lead author, Professor Ian Ward from the University of Leeds.

“The remarkable thing is that we can make the separation between the solid and liquid phase at the point that it hits the electrodes.

“Safety is of paramount importance in lithium batteries. Conventional lithium batteries use electrolytes based on organic liquids; this is what you see burning in pictures of lithium batteries that catch fire. Replacing liquid electrolytes by a polymer or gel electrolyte should improve safety and lead to an all-solid-state cell,” said Professor Peter Bruce from the University of St Andrews, who was not involved in the study.

story from the BBC

“It’s disgusting,” said Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who has lead the charge against what he sees as an irresponsible and dangerous book.

Every mention or depiction of Muslims or Islam in the book titled “We shall never forget 9/11″, is accompanied by the word “terrorist” or “extremist” and there are no counterbalancing images or references to the Muslims who were killed in the attacks or were among the first responders searching for survivors, Walid said Tuesday.
AFPBy Mira Oberman |
Nor does the book mention that the vast majority of Muslims in the United States and around the world condemn terrorism, he added.

“It’s silly to think that a young person who colors that book who has no contact with Muslims would come away with anything but fear of Muslims and thinking that Muslims are bad people,” Walid told AFP.

Really Big Coloring Books publisher Wayne Bell insists that the book is an honest portrayal of events.

“We tell this truth and tell it in black in white,” Bell said in a telephone interview from his St. Louis, Missouri office.

“This book is about 19 evil terrorists who murdered 3,000 people,” he said. “It just so happens that the people who flew those planes into the buildings were radical Muslim jihadists.”

The book was released earlier this month ahead of the 10th anniversary of the attacks and comes after the specialized publishing house had seen customers search repeatedly on its websites for coloring books about the attacks.

“We did a lot of research, talked to a lot of parents and the recurring theme we heard was do not make a book that’s politically correct and is going to whitewash this event,” Bell said.

People also wanted a book that would be patriot and focused on a theme that became the book’s title: “We shall never forget 9/11.”

Subtitled “The Kids’ Book of Freedom,” the book teaches children that “freedom-hating radical Islamic Muslim Extremists” attacked America because they “hate the American way of life because we are FREE.”

Walid said this overly simplistic and populist interpretation of events is simply not true.

He pointed to statements made by Osama bin Laden and the conclusions of the US congressional 9/11 commission which found the attacks were rooted in a belief that American foreign policy and its ‘immoral’ culture are at war with Islam and Muslim countries.

The cartoon of bin Laden hiding behind his wife as he is shot by a Navy SEAL is also not a true depiction of events, Walid noted.

Bell dismissed the criticism as an attempt to exploit an “innocent book” to promote a political agenda.

The controversy has had a positive impact: all the headlines have spurred sales.

By Mira Oberman |

Facebook said in a statement Friday it decided to end Deals after four months of testing. The service will wind down in coming weeks. It was available only in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco.

Facebook says it remains committed to serving local businesses through ads, pages and other products. And it will continue to offer “check-in deals.” These lets businesses like restaurants and stores offer deals to customers who “check in” through Facebook to let their friends know where they are.

Leininger is not widely known outside of Texas, but inside the state he is seen as a pioneer of political donations to conservative politicians and causes. The conservative activist made his millions selling hospital beds, and since the 1980s he has pushed a mix of religious right fervor and pro-business activism, which is now reflected in the politics of all major Texas Republican figures, particularly Perry. Since 1989, Leininger, who is worth more than $300 million, and his wife have donated at least $6.9 million to political parties, political action committees and state and federal candidates, according to data obtained by TransparencyData.com, a site run by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to increase government transparency. He has also created a host of nonprofits, most prominently the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), to advance his conservative political agenda.

“James Leininger has been the sugar daddy of the far right in Texas,” said Kathy Miller, the president of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit supporting religious freedom and individual liberties in Texas. “He is probably one of the biggest donors to the Republican Party of Texas’ move to far-right extremism.”

Leininger has been particularly helpful to Perry over the years. In 1998, Perry was in a close contest for Texas lieutenant governor with Democrat John Sharp. In the waning weeks of the campaign, Perry and Sharp were neck-and-neck, and Perry was running low on funds. Leininger stepped forward with a $1.1 million loan to the campaign, enabling Perry to increase advertising when many voters were just beginning paying attention. Perry won that race by a hair. Since then, Leininger has donated more than $250,000 to Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns. A request put into Leininger’s office for comment was not returned by Saturday morning.

A report released on Wednesday by Texans for Public Justice documented the many ties between Perry and Leininger. Of particular note, Perry and Leininger have participated together in a number of financial transactions, including investments by Perry in one of Leininger’s companies.

Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice, told The Huffington Post, “What puts the relationship between Perry and Leininger apart is these personal financial deals.”

According to the report, Perry made a quick $4,500 from a stock purchase and sale in Leininger’s Kinetic Concepts, Inc., the hospital bed manufacturer that made Leininger a millionaire. Perry’s stock purchase came after meeting with Leininger and immediately before an investment group started buying up Kinetic Concepts shares, driving up the price of the stock. In total, Perry would wind up making $38,000 off of Kinetic stock investments.

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The Cherokee Supreme Court (the tribe is a sovereign nation) ruled this week a 2007 constitutional amendment that required Cherokee blood in order to belong to the tribe could stand.

“This is racism and apartheid in the 21st century,” Marilyn Vann, the lead plaintiff in the case and a freedman leader, told Reuters.

The controversy over the freedmen’s status is at least in part about money. The Cherokee nation, the second-largest Native American tribe in the country, receives money from the federal government and earns money from its stake in the lucrative gambling industry, which totaled $26.4 billion for all tribes in 2009. In the run-up to the 2007 amendment vote, some proponents of expelling the freedmen suggested that more blacks might apply for membership to receive tribal money.

In the 1800s, the U.S. government passed a law forcing members of the Cherokee nation from their ancestral lands in the Deep South to make room for white settlers. The Cherokee — as well as their black slaves — were forcibly marched west of the Mississippi River to the Oklahoma territory during the “Trail of Tears,” resulting in the deaths of thousands of Native Americans.

After the Civil War, the Cherokee formally admitted by treaty their slaves’ descendants into the nation.

Before the 2007 passage of the amendment, some descendants of the freedmen said the vote on their status within the nation expressed a desire by many tribe members to paper over their slave-owning past. But the tribe’s leadership disagreed. “It’s a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry,” a Cherokee leader told the Washington Post. “We paid very dearly for those rights.”

Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to the July 22 shooting massacre at a youth camp conducted by the governing party, in which 69 people died, and the car bombing hours earlier in Oslo’s government quarter that killed eight.

Breivik, in a manifesto issued shortly before the attacks, denounced Norway’s left-leaning government and its tolerance of Muslim immigration. In the manifesto, he claimed contact with extremists elsewhere.

“We still think he was alone, but we cannot conclude about that. He holds back some information, and that worries us,” prosecutor Christian Hatlo told The Associated Press.

Hatlo also said Breivik has been questioned about his travels to 10 other countries and about equipment bought for the attacks. He declined to elaborate on either thread of inquiry.

The 32-year-old Breivik appears to have planned the attacks meticulously, but failed to anticipate one consequence — that he would be held in isolation after his arrest.

“He told us he had not thought of that, and he should have,” Hatlo said.

Earlier Thursday, former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who left the Utoya island youth camp just hours before the massacre, said the day will be remembered as one of the country’s darkest.

Speaking at the funeral of 16-year-old victim Marianne Sandvik in the southwestern city of Stavanger, a tearful Brundtland said “the loss of a young life can never give any meaning.”

Brundtland, who was prime minister for 10 years, led a left-leaning government with liberal immigration policies. In his manifesto, Breivik denounced Brundtland.

Hatlo also said that police have questioned a blogger whose anti-Muslim writings under the name of Fjordman were cited as an influence by Breivik in his manifesto.

Meanwhile, Oslo’s deputy mayor Baard Folke Fredriksen told The Associated Press that a request by authorities to close the street where Breivik’s explosive-laden car was parked had been approved last year. The necessary construction work to close it for vehicles was expected to be completed in September, he said.
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Korea’s Samsung made the biggest jump, from No. 4 in the first quarter to No. 2 in the second, on the strength of its Galaxy phones, which run Google Inc.’s Android software. It sold 17.3 million smartphones in the second quarter, up from 10.8 million in the first, IDC said.

Apple rose to No. 1, taking the spot from Nokia, by selling 20.3 million iPhones, up from 18.7 million in the first quarter. That relegated Finland’s Nokia, the long-time leader, to third place. Apple has yet to top Nokia’s high-water mark of 28.1 million phones in a quarter.

“But given Apple’s momentum in the smartphone market, it may not be a question of whether Apple will beat that milestone, but when,” IDC said.

Remarkably, Apple’s sales record comes nearly a year after it released its latest model, the iPhone 4, and it’s still selling millions of the even older iPhone 3GS. Competitors such as Samsung put out new models every few months.

Nokia sold 16.7 million smartphones, a sharp drop from 24.2 million in the previous quarter. The company has struggled to come up with an answer to the iPhone. Nokia is now transitioning to smartphone software from Microsoft Corp., but it’s first Windows Phones won’t be on sale until late this year, at the earliest.

Canada’s RIM fell from third to fourth place, as it saw a decline in BlackBerry sales from the first quarter to the second. Like Nokia, it has been struggling to update the high end of its line to compete with touch-screen phones such as the iPhone. It unveiled five new models with updated software this week.

HTC Corp. of Taiwan remained in fifth place, but it’s seeing rapidly growing sales. Like Samsung, it has bet on Google’s Android software for its phones.

Abdulkadir Omar, 22, filed his federal lawsuit July 15 in Seattle against Sacramento-based American Patriot Security, seeking back pay and unspecified damages for emotional pain and loss of enjoyment of life, among other reasons.

“Growing up in this country, where the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion, I was let down,” Omar said Thursday at a press conference.

According to the lawsuit, Omar was hired by a local manager of the security company in May 2009 and earned $9 an hour guarding a FedEx warehouse in Kent, Wash. He said he started the same day he was hired, and was not told about the clean-shaven policy.

In November 2009, a supervisor from headquarters told him he had to shave his beard because of company policy. Omar responded that his beard is part of his religious beliefs and refused. He was suspended, and then fired the following spring, the lawsuit said.

A representative from American Patriot Security declined to answer questions.

“Everyone in the company is clean shaven,” Omar said. “And I chose not.”

Omar filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found that he was wrongfully terminated and had the right to sue, according to a press release by the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

“There’s no policy that can go against the law of the land,” said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington state chapter of CAIR. “Civil Rights Act trumps any (company) policy.”

Bukhari said companies need to accommodate someone’s religious beliefs unless it’s an “undue burden.”

Mary Fan, a law professor at the University of Washington, said that there are very limited exceptions to the protections provided by the Civil Rights Act against employers impinging on a person’s religious grooming.

“If the company is worried about customers who don’t like people who have beards and look Muslim — that’s exactly what the law is set to protect against,” she said.

Omar, originally from Yemen, immigrated to the U.S. when he was 10 years old. He said he’s a naturalized citizen. His beard covers his face and doesn’t extend past his chin.

Omar said he learned about the security guard job through his brother, who worked for the company as well. Asked if his brother experienced similar difficulties or if he still worked for the company, Omar declined to answer.

He did say that he doesn’t want his job back because found a better job.

Asked if he’s ready for the attention the lawsuit will bring, Omar said he was ready, but didn’t allow photographers to take pictures of his face.
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Though the scenery has changed, pigeons’ nesting habits have not. In cities, even though we see pigeons hopping around the sidewalk, they tend to lay their eggs in nests built against the trusses of huge bridges and the sides of tall buildings. That’s where the baby pigeons are.

The birds tend to spoil their young. They feed them almost to maturity. By the time fledging pigeons, at about six weeks old, take flight and join the flock in city parks and plazas, they’re almost adult-sized and largely indistinguishable from the rest of their kind.

To spot a young pigeon, look for strands of down poking through feathers. Look for narrower heads. Lastly, look for shy birds. It takes time for pigeons to develop their boldness around humans. Younger birds will be more reticent.

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