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From a NYT's Editorial: The libraries are where poor children learn to read and love literature, where immigrants learn English, where job-seekers hone résumés and cover letters, and where those who lack ready access to the Internet can cross the digital divide. They are havens for thinking, dreaming, studying, striving and — for many children and the elderly — simply for staying safe, and out of the heat.
Ferida Wolff writes: Our periwinkle has blossomed again, as it does each year, a groundcover that takes its mission seriously. Last year we planted four different kinds of tomatoes and feasted on red, yellow, and mottled varieties. We also set up a small greenhouse that had a way of breaking loose from its boundaries despite the spikes we used to hold it down. It flipped over uprooting our peas and beans but the tomato plants were least affected. We couldn't figure out if an animal pushed it over or some of the neighborhood kids were having fun but it isn't going back up this season.
Drs. Groopman and Hartzband (also husband and wife) reveal that each of us has a 'medical mind,' a highly individual approach to weighing the risks and benefits of treatment. Are you a minimalist or a maximalist, a believer or a doubter, do you look for natural healing or the latest technology? Drs. Groopman and Hartzband explain how pitfalls in thinking and the way statistics are presented in pharmaceutical advertisements, the media, and even scientific reports can mislead all of us. Streaming at NCCIH and a YouTube at the Aspen Institute.
House and Senate Bills Introduced; V: H.R. 2101—Rep. Jim Cooper (D-CA)/Energy and Commerce (4/29/15)—A bill to provide for expedited review of drugs and biological products to provide safer or more effective treatment for males or females, to enhance the consideration of sex differences in basic and clinical research. A bill to clarify the ability to request consumer reports in certain cases to establish and enforce child support payments and awards.
Sonja Zalubowski writes: The scenes stirred something in my bones, my blood, my very genes. This sense of witnessing how the world must have been once at the very beginning. The Serengeti is not far from the Olduvai Gorge where Mary Leakey in 1978 discovered the footprints of our earliest known ancestors, the hominids known as Australopithecenes from more than three million years ago. No cattle drivers or farmers here. The animals were doing quite well at maintaining nature's balance all on their own. I felt humbled, reverent and in awe. But, I also recognized how raw and dangerous and right there in front of us all this was.
In New Jersey, legislation enacted requires officers or the vehicles they routinely use in traffic stops to have cameras. Texas is going to be probably the first state with a full comprehensive body camera bill. The New Orleans PD plans to purchase 350 body cameras, but is budgeting $1.2 million over five years, mostly for data storage. Many states are debating the issues that surround police cameras without tackling the funding question said Richard Williams, a criminal justice policy specialist.
Editor's Note:Editor's Note: Hearings of arguments in 14-556, Obergefell v. Hodges, and consolidated cases on Tuesday, April 28th have been completed. Stay up to date with the audio recordings and transcripts and read opinions from links to the ScotusBlog and The New York Times. Audiotapes of the hearings and transcripts are on the Court's website.
For some of the states looking to cut taxes, it’s an effort to stop older folks from decamping to more tax-friendly places when they retire. For others, it's a way for lawmakers to curry favor with one of the most politically plugged-in demographic groups, which also is the wealthiest. "They are worth more, dollar-wise, than young people," said US Census Bureau spokesman Robert Bernstein.
About a half dozen states are considering giving new tax breaks to seniors over 65, although they already enjoy favorable treatment by the federal government and by most states on their income and property taxes.
For some of the st…
The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art, 1760 –1860 comprises more than 300 paintings, sculptures, medals, watercolors, drawings, prints, and photographs by such iconic artists as William Blake, John Constable, Honoré Daumier, David d'Angers, Eugène Delacroix, Henri Fuseli, Théodore Géricault, Francisco de Goya, John Martin, and J. M. W. Turner that expanded the view of Romanticism as a movement opposed to reason and the scientific method.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — the agency that administers Medicare — could use electronically readable cards in Medicare for a number of different purposes. Three key uses include authenticating beneficiary and provider presence at the point of care, electronically exchanging beneficiary medical information, and electronically conveying beneficiary identity and insurance information to providers.
Joan L. Cannon writes: In my teens I came to the realization that without words we could not actually think. Feel, emote, react — of course, but it takes words to think. My father was a perfectionist. A musician and writer, he did his best to reorder his world to an ideal of regularity and esthetic standards. That included his growing daughter's handling of the English language.
Senator Dianne Feinstein: "Europe has a robust system, which includes consumer protections like product registration and ingredient reviews. I am pleased to be introducing this bipartisan legislation with Senator Susan Collins that will require FDA to review chemicals used in these products and provide clear guidance on their safety. From shampoo to lotion, the use of personal care products is widespread, however, there are very few protections in place to ensure their safety."
Although men are generally at higher risk for heart attack, it appears women fared worse than men after divorce, although the differences were not statistically significant. Men who had been divorced had about the same risk as those who stayed married. It was only after two or more divorces that the risk for men went up, the study found.
The painting, one of the most recognizable and important paintings in the combined collections of the Springfield Museums, will be on display as part of a new exhibit titled American Master: Winslow Homer in the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts. The Homer exhibit runs concurrently with a display of etchings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler giving visitors an opportunity to view works by two of America’s most influential artists.
With all the attention focused on California's water woes, an observer might conclude that the Golden State's drought is the exception. It isn't. Forty states expect to see water shortages in at least some areas in the next decade, according to a government watchdog agency. In a 2013 survey by the Government Accountability Office state water managers from around the country said they expect freshwater shortages to continue into the next decade, even under what they described as "average" conditions.
"This boils down to a very simple concept: if someone is paid to give you retirement investment advice, that person should be working in your best interest," said Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. "As commonsense as this may be, laws to protect consumers and ensure that financial advisers are giving the best advice in a complex market have not kept pace. Our proposed rule would change that. Under the proposed rule, retirement advisers can be paid in various ways, as long as they are willing to put their customers' best interest first."
Jo Freeman Reviews: Although best known for running for President in 1884 and 1888, Lockwood was one of the pioneers who broke the barriers to women practicing law. She was the second woman admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and the first admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court. Active for suffrage, peace, temperance and other causes, she was constantly pushing the boundaries of the possible.
Tam Gray writes: Usually, after a professional makeup session, I'd run back home or to the ladies room to remove a large portion of what had been applied. Shockingly, Maia didn't even take my elbow and try to steer me to those products that would be 'for me only' at a 'special price,' perhaps expecting that I would splurge on a specific brand of cosmetics. I went back to the office feeling quite pleased with the way I looked: fresher and rested. "There are many reasonably priced products made for different skin types that will give the older woman a clean, healthy appearance and a natural, radiant look."
Santa Fe, New Mexico, a remote town of about 70,000 that became the darling of urban expats in the early parts of the last century, thanks to its beautiful mountain vistas and pueblo-style architecture. Artists and nuclear scientists alike came and decided they never wanted to leave. Today, Santa Fe is a foodie haven, home to a world-class opera, a booming arts scene and quirky shops. Other exurban outposts looking to establish themselves could learn from this "Santa Fe effect," Garreau said. "You've got to give them a reason to stay."
Reviewed by Serena Nanda: Wadjda is the story of a quietly but ingeniously, rebellious ll year old girl in Saudi Arabia, determined to buy and ride a bicycle. In Hold Tight, Don't Let Go, Magdalie makes one unsuccessful effort after another to survive after the Haiti earthquake, particularly after her decision to refuse to sink to selling sex. Malala recounts her experiences as she and her father fight the Taliban for the right of girls to go to school in Pakistan. Hawaii, The Lost Kingdom, introduces us to Hawaii’s last queen, Lili’ukalani, not widely known to Americans, perhaps because her fight for independence was ultimately unsuccessful.
Just a weeks' worth of training can improve vision in older adults, according to new research in the journal Psychological Science. The findings show that training boosted older adults' sensitivity to contrast and also their ability to see things clearly at close distances. While some age-related declines in vision can be traced to the eye itself, research suggests that decline in other aspects of vision are the result of changes in brain function.
Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily — including 24% who say they go online "almost constantly," according to a new study from Pew Research Center. More than half (56%) of teens — defined in this report as those ages 13 to 17 — go online several times a day, and 12% report once-a-day use. Just 6% of teens report going online weekly, and 2% go online less often. Much of this frenzy of access is facilitated by mobile devices. Nearly three-quarters of teens have or have access to a smartphone and 30% have a basic phone, while just 12% of teens 13 to 17 say they have no cell phone of any type.
Rose Madeline Mula writes: Hamlet had it easy. All he had to figure out was whether "to be or not to be?" — a one-time dilemma, at least if he chose "not to be." My soul-searching question, which I am compelled to ask of every item in my closets and drawers, is "to pack or not to pack?" You'd think that it would get easier every time I travel. Wrong. If anything, it seems to get harder.
A study by Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins on the perceived risk of regularly using cannabis and the characteristics associated with these perceptions found that non-white, low-income women over the age of 50 were most likely to perceive a risk in using the drug. Least likely were those 12 to 25 years old, with a high school diploma or more, and a total family income above $75,000.
Bringing together remarkable loans, some rarely exhibited, from galleries and private collections in Europe and America, the exhibition will follow Sargent's time in Paris, London and Boston as well as his travels in the Italian and English countryside. Musée Rodin, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Musée d’Orsay, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts are amongst the institutions that have lent works.
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