Paralympic dream for London attacks survivor

When Martine Wright headed to work just over seven years ago and began reading about London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in a newspaper, taking part had not entered her head.

The previous day, July 6, 2005, the International Olympic Committee had awarded the British capital the Games at a ceremony in Singapore, triggering scenes of widespread celebration.

But during the morning rush hour on July 7, the mood was shattered when four Islamist suicide bombers detonated their explosives on three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing themselves and 52 others.

Martine Wright could easily have been one of the victims. One of the bombers blew himself up in the carriage of her Circle Line train. She lost her legs and only awoke from a coma in hospital more than a week later.

Yet, as she prepares to represent the host nation at sitting volleyball in the Paralympics next Friday, Wright counts herself fortunate.

"I can't believe it (the Paralympics) is just days away now, I can't wait," said the 39-year-old, who was born and raised in London, even going to college near the site of the Olympic Stadium in east London.

"We've been watching the countdown for so many days, months and years and I can't wait to get there now.

"I was unlucky to get on that Tube that day but I was so lucky to survive and I think about the 52 people who died that day. I'm the lucky one, I'm embarking on that dream. I feel I was meant to make this journey."

Sport has been a key part of Wright's rehabilitation. She tried a number of different sports at a British Paralympic Association (BPA) open day but plumped for sitting volleyball and started playing in 2009.

The fast-paced game is similar to the non-disabled version but played on a 10m x 6m court with a lower net and involves two teams with six of differing disabilities playing at one time.

Athletes have to keep their pelvis on the ground at all times with games played as best of five sets. The first team to reach 25 points with at least a two-point lead winning a game.

Britain is represented in all 20 sports at the Games, which open on Wednesday and end on September 9.

The team members, brought together only in the last two to three years, readily admit they are not medal-contenders yet are thrilled to be performing on home soil in front of British fans.

"I'm here living a dream," said Wright, in comments issued by the BPA. "The goal is to go out there and do the best we can. We've got to make sure we do our absolute best on court and make our nation and our families proud."

Participation is also another achievement for a determined woman whose story provides a remarkable beginning and end to London's Games.

"I really wanted to have a new ambition after I lost my legs. I tried out lots of different sports but I fell in love with sitting volleyball," she said.

"It's absolutely brilliant. It's a unique sport, I found it quite liberating to be able to get on to the floor and do a sport without any adaptive equipment, like a wheelchair."

Britain's women play their first match against Ukraine on Friday August 3, with Wright undoubtedly set to be the focus of attention.

"My friends and family are the inspiration for me. They're why I can't wait to get on that court, just to make them proud," she said.

But after all she has endured, she has surely already done that.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paralympic-dream-london-attacks-survivor-170700550--oly.html

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Golf Cart Scavenger Hunt to benefit New Beginnings Monthly Food Distribution

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - The?2nd Annual New Beginnings Golf Cart Scavenger Hunt will be held on Saturday, September 22nd from 1:00-3:00 PM?to benefit New Beginnings Monthly Food Distribution. The organization is now in its?second year serving all of Horry and Georgetown Counties. Participants are needed to fill the event.
?
Details below:

Golf Cart Scavenger Hunt

Sat. Sept 22 , 2012

1 to 3 PM in Surfside Beach, SC

Join in for an afternoon of fun and relaxation as you explore the town of Surfside Beach on your golf cart. Don?t have one? No problem! You can rent one, at a discounted rate, from our partner, Fat Boy Golf Carts.

With your team, follow clues, scavenge for items, solve riddles and discover new parts of Surfside Beach. You?ll have fun while raising funds for New Beginnings Monthly Food Distribution, a food ministry for the needy. ?

There is a $25.00 entry fee per cart. Trophy and prizes will be awarded. Contact Lyle Werner for details at 843-957-8568.

Copyright 2012 WMBF News. All rights reserved.

Source: http://florencecounty.wmbfnews.com/news/community-spirit/49670-golf-cart-scavenger-hunt-benefit-new-beginnings-monthly-food-distribution

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Robert J. Shiller's Finance and the Good Society off the Mark on

in his new book, Finance and the Good Society, just published by Princeton University Press.

Actually, the majority of the book that deals with finance per se seems reasonable ? but I can?t say for sure because I am not an economist. However, as field director of NCRP and a career nonprofit executive, I know about philanthropy, and the section of his book that focuses on philanthropy is a mess ? and on many levels.

Still, I would leave Shiller alone if his wrongheaded arguments remained buried in a thick economic treatise. But unfortunately he also propounds them in a recent New York Times op ed. So critique them I must.

In a nutshell, Shiller advocates for an expansion of the charitable tax deduction (as well as creating other types of tax breaks for charitable giving) with the goal of helping private charity to supplant government programs to the extent possible. Shiller lays out the essence of his argument in a single, awful passage on p. 203. He writes:

?The government could give special tax incentives for contributions to organizations designated as filling particular national needs, instead of just raising taxes to pay for government expenditures for those needs. This would be an alternative form of public financing of important activities. For example, in a time of recession, directed contribution tax incentives could be implemented that would encourage donations to organizations that would create jobs for the unemployed. Or, at time of rising inequality, there could be a special tax incentive for donations to organizations that embrace the concerns of the poor or foster a sense of community between rich and poor."

Does Professor Shiller actually believe that ?a thousand points of light? of private charity can replace government in addressing the massive, systemic problems of unemployment and income inequality in an advanced capitalist economy? Worse, he wants to drain money away from government and give it to private charity during one of the worst economic downturns in our nation?s history and at a time of massive government deficits. Shiller?s naive faith in the efficacy of private charitable service provision seems especially puzzling considering the (soft) Keynesianism he has advanced throughout his career ?and which he advanced in an earlier chapter of this very book by portraying Keynesian counter-cyclical fiscal policy as a proper antidote to recession.

?The tax breaks would be much bigger than the usual contribution deduction. They could take the form of a partial tax credit, rather than just a deduction, so that the gift-giving would be just as meaningful for people in the lower tax brackets.?

The current tax deduction already drains $40 billion per year from the U.S. Treasury ? and here Shiller wants to drain even more!

?The government could afford such high tax incentives if the specifications for the qualifying organizations were written so as to encourage them to carry out work that the government itself would have to do.?

?Encourage?? If lawmakers want to tackle unemployment, should they attack the problem directly through law ? or ?encourage? voluntary philanthropic efforts? What has a better chance of reducing massive unemployment: A well-financed and centrally directed government program backed by the force of law or a scattershot, under-financed, private effort?

As we scratch our heads wondering how somebody as smart as Shiller could be so na?ve, we finally figure out the key to the puzzle. For at the end of the passage, Shiller reveals that he is less interested in solving society?s problems than in empowering donors and making them feel good about themselves:

?Such tax breaks would allow people to put their own mark on these causes, giving their own personal direction to these programs while at the same time promoting the public-goods programs of the government. They would give the wealthy a sense of personal satisfaction and at the same time allow them to feel the gratitude of others for their contributions. Such a plan might receive far greater public acceptance than one to merely ?tax the rich and give to the poor.??

Hey, Professor Shiller, is the goal to reduce our nation?s staggering unemployment rate and historic levels of income inequality ? or is it to bolster Billionaire Man?s self-esteem? Also, why do you think plutocrats would craft better solutions to unemployment and income inequality than the people?s democratically elected representatives? Whom should we trust more to make public policy: President Obama or Jamie Dimon?

Finally, informing the entire passage is an assumption that bigger tax breaks necessarily incentivize charitable giving. Yet, the most authoritative, recent studies find little or no correlation as noted in this LA Times op ed, in Giving USA 2012 (p.35), a Congressional Research Service report, a study by the Tax Policy Center and analyses conducted by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities and The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Shiller seems unaware of this research ? an oversight surprising for such a famously empirical scholar.

To summarize: With a real unemployment rate stuck above 10 percent, with Gilded-Age levels of income inequality getting worse each day, and with mounting government deficits, the very last thing lawmakers should do is drain federal government coffers and thereby lame the federal government?s ability to solve these mega-problems ? all in the hopes that ?encouraging? privately philanthropy would somehow solve these problems better. Only a strong federal government ? not a ?thousand points of light? of private charity ? can make the massive, coordinated investments in public education and? public infrastructure that can simultaneously jumpstart the economy and lay the groundwork for a greener future of shared prosperity. If that hurts the feelings of a handful of plutocrats, they can move to a different country (don?t let the door hit you on the way out, Donald).

But even if Shiller believes that private charitable service provision can somehow accomplish such gargantuan national tasks, the preponderance of empirical evidence indicates that increasing the tax breaks for charitable giving would not appreciably augment philanthropy?s means to do so.

America does not need a bigger nonprofit sector (as Shiller believes); American needs a better nonprofit sector, one that does not attempt the hopeless task of replacing government services but instead empowers marginalized communities so their voices, too, get heard in civic discourse and the corridors of power ? not just the voices of the 1% and too-big-to-fail corporations.

Sean Dobson is field director at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).

Source: http://blog.ncrp.org/2012/08/robert-j-shillers-finance-and-good.html

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Iran Policy Committee: Whistleblower Charges UN Collusion with Baghdad against Iranian Dissidents in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On 23 August 2012, the Iran Policy Committee (IPC) examined three sets of events regarding Iranian dissidents in Iraq, who are members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) and concluded in a press release that certain actions are necessary to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe as well as to correct wrongs. These events include: 1) A 21 July interview with as well as a 22 July article by a high level whistleblower who is a former official of the UN in Iraq and whose job was to monitor the condition of the Iranian dissidents; 2) ?The whistleblower's allegations and his comments on remarks made by a State Department spokesperson on 25 July about the status of the dissidents; and 3) A "goodwill gesture" offered on 17 August by the dissidents to send 400 additional residents from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, Iraq.

Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney (Ret), former assistant vice chief of staff, U.S. Air Force; and Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, U.S. Army (Ret), former Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army, Pacific interviewed the whistleblower, Tahar Boumedra, who had charged that actions of the United Nations against the Iranian dissidents were "a shameful story of hiding the truth and looking the other way when we knew there were violations ... complicity with wrongdoers, and neglect of human rights and humanitarian responsibilities."

Because the Boumedra accusations are in accord with research on Iraq that McInerney and Vallely conducted, they said, "We concur with the allegations of Boumedra and condemn the UN for failure to protect the unarmed innocent civilian Iranian dissidents; going beyond Boumedra, furthermore, we charge the Department of State with colluding against the unprotected to curry the favor of Baghdad and Tehran." McInerney and Vallely called for "an independent investigation of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), to look into the allegations by Boumedra with special reference to discovering if prosecutable offenses may have occurred under international humanitarian law." ?

As former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment in the Reagan and Bush administrations and member of the Advisory Board of the Iran Policy Committee, William A. Nitze, interviewed Boumedra and said, "I concur with the call for an investigation of UNAMI in light of specific charges by one of the most senior UN officials in that part of the world."? ??

General McInerney applauded the "goodwill gesture" on 17 August by the dissidents to send 400 additional residents from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, Iraq. "What is not clear," McInerney added, "is whether there would be a reciprocal move by the State Department regarding the designation of the MEK on the Department's foreign terrorist organizations list."

Professor Raymond Tanter, President of the IPC and former senior member of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush administration, stated that, "Although IPC research shows that linkage of designation of the MEK to non-statutory criteria, such as cooperation in Iraq, is not in accord with the June 2012 Federal Appeals Court ruling ordering the Secretary of State to make a determination on the status of the MEK by 1 October 2012, the Department of State has an opportunity to act now, and do what some 100 bipartisan Members of Congress have asked it to do, i.e., to delist the MEK," added Tanter.

Tanter asked Boumedra for a response to remarks of 25 July by the State Department spokesperson. Victoria Nuland who stated, "The Government of Iraq has recently taken constructive steps ... On July 15, it transported from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya [Liberty] a cargo convoy of 300 additional air conditioners, several large water tanks, additional generators, and other goods to improve the residents' quality of life at Camp Hurriya ... We commend the Government for these positive measures and for its stated commitment to a peaceful resolution of this issue, which is the only acceptable outcome."

Boumedra responded by saying, "Such statements contradict Iraq's officially announced policy of making lives of Ashrafis 'unbearable.' Documents are available. It also does not correspond to my own firsthand experience of three and a half years dealing with this matter."

Boumedra added, "Furthermore, whatever improvement registered, if any, during the last six months in Camp Liberty, they did not happen thanks to the generosity of the Iraqi Government. They are the achievements of Ashrafis at their own expense, despite imposed restrictions on their freedom of movement and contact with the outside world."

State Department and UN officials concede that living conditions at Camp Liberty are significantly lower than that of the former home of the dissidents in Ashraf. On 1 August 2012, however, the State Department claimed, "Allegations of dire humanitarian conditions at Hurriya [Liberty] are inconsistent with observations made by U.S. Government officials who have visited Hurriya, as well as reporting from UN monitors. Based on these reports, and other information, it is clear that the quality of life at Hurriya exceeds accepted humanitarian standards."

Notwithstanding Department of State claims, Boumedra said in an interview that the head of the UN in Iraq had "directed his staff to cover up the prisonlike conditions of a relocation camp for Iranian dissidents in reports to the world body."

On a broader note, Boumedra said, "Camp Ashraf residents have been evicted from their settlement residence of 26 years without due process of law. It is an arbitrary eviction. UN rules on this matter hold that when an eviction takes place, it should be done according to due process, and the State must compensate with similar standards or higher?in any case not lower."

SOURCE Iran Policy Committee

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-policy-committee-whistleblower-charges-un-collusion-baghdad-231200510.html

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College Sports | Erskine College Sports

Posted

Many people may well imagine that athletics and social activities aren?t of importance to students. Nonetheless, I believe this statement that university or college institutions should fund sports and social activities as well as they do for instructional classes and libraries because all these respects are equally important for the students.
Firstly, it really is easy to understand that almost all of the colleges and university students are interested in activities evidenced by scenes from gymnasiums and many other exercises spots. Unquestionably, this youth are usually energetic, taking pleasure from these activities, in fact it is really important the students to relieve themselves from demanding academic program as well as strengthen themselves through different kinds of sporting activities. Imagining the conditions that these students would go through without sporting activities would be really hard. Therefore, colleges along with schools have the obligation of offering students appropriate sporting facilities, which in reality necessitates sizeable financial assistance similar to the funds spent on classes and libraries.

As it is well known that after students graduate from their college and universities, many enter the advanced community, in which sociable interactions are required. When teaching institutions sponsor sports in colleges, these sociable programs will help these students a good deal. As an example; through a variety of sports activities funded by colleges and universities, students will surely have additional options to connect socially, understanding their flaws and strengths which help their self improvement. College Sports help a lot students that usually will have low self esteem, exposure to these social activities helps such kind of individual to be self confidence and discover talents they didn?t know they had.

There are various kinds of sport ranging from ball games, athletics and ice and water games. There are those sports that are less competitive referred to as intramural and the more competitive one called intercollegiate sports
College intramural sports are clubs that allow students to participate in a sport with their friends and fellow students. Students form their own teams and compete against one another within the school?s ?intramural league.? University intramural sporting activities tend to be groups in which allow students to be able to take part in a sports that are less competitive. Teams are selected from the same colleges or universities For instance; a school may have intramural games in softball, soccer and floor hockey league.

For those students who are interested in participating in a sport at a more competitive level, many schools have their own varsity sports teams, intercollegiate sports have much more pressure to be athletically successful. Most teams will hosts tryouts and make training mandatory. These kind of games are demanding because participants represents their entire institutions unlike intramural or club sports, in Intercollegiate sports there is pressure to win games and bring home championship titles.

College Sports are an important facet of the learning process for the society at large; College Sports bolster social skill, physical and mental balance that becomes important for the society regardless of the nature of life that these students will engage in. Colleges should do much more to achieve a realistic balance between sporting activities and academic timetables

Many students even travel overseas to take part in matches and athletic meets. For students traveling abroad and international students coming to US colleges, purchase international student insurance for each person.

If you want to watch college sports online, head over to ULive where you can find live sports, athletics and interviews. College Sporting News also has a lot of information and updates.

What is an athletic scholarship? Athletic as well as academic scholarships are much more common in the US than in most other countries. Athletic scholarships are awarded to athletes ?of outstanding performance in order to enable them to finance their studies in the US. The athlete participates fully in practice sessions with the college team and represents the university in various tournaments and competitions. The coaches? job is to professionally [...]

Athletic trainers try to prevent injuries by educating people on how to reduce their risk for injuries and by advising them on the proper use of equipment, exercises to improve balance and strength, and home exercises and therapy programs. They also help apply protective or injury-preventive devices such as tape, bandages, and braces. Athletic trainers help prevent and treat injuries for people of all ages. Their patients and clients include [...]

Source: http://www.erskinecollegesports.com/college-sports/.aspx

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7 Take-Aways from the Health Communications Marketing and ...

The National Conference on Health Communications, Marketing and Media in Atlanta is one of the largest and most informative gatherings to address issues of communication in the health field.? I provided live updates from the conference, but here are seven quick take-aways from this year?s conference (with an assist from my colleague, Diana Dijardi)

1)????? Include your target audience (aka people you are serving) in the planning and decision making process. Seems logical enough, but many community members are left out of the conversation.

2)????? Humanize your health message. This was a key theme in many of the workshops. This popular tweet explains it all: ??People don?t march in D.C. because of pie charts.?

3)????? With new technology you just need a few tools to create an effective health message.?Kerry Shearer said the ?days of 10,000 dollar videos are gone.?

4)????? ??Health literacy vs. Low literacy,? no matter how you simplified your health message is, you need to make sure the proper communications channels are used to reach limited English proficient populations. Some people respond better to video messages than written messages.

5)????? The internet is self-correcting; so don?t be afraid of negative comments. In a Facebook session with Ayla Tolosa, she shared that for every negative comment received; five positive comments popped up in support. As long as comments don?t violate your commenting policies you should try not to erase comments.

6)????? Know what inspires you. Your passion can be your purpose that leads you to innovation and implementation of new ideas.

7)????? Use humor to deliver health messages. Tim Washer shared we can use humor because it evokes positive emotions, cuts the noise, humanizes the brand, and shows authenticity. (This was a relief to hear, because we tried this for a health disparities conversation.)

What take-aways do you have from the conference?

Health Justice CT provides a public forum for conversations, ideas and collective action. The opinion expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of HealthJusticeCT or our funder.

Source: http://www.healthjusticect.org/7-take-aways-from-the-health-communications-marketing-and-media-conference-hcmmconf

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User:KinserO'donnell648 - HealthICT Wiki

[unable to retrieve full-text content]boat insurance - The first thing you have to do before they'll properly execute a marine insurance coverage comparability is always to judge their demands. Initially you must clearly establish what kind of boat you possess.

Source: http://www.healthictportal.com/wiki/index.php/User%3AKinserO'donnell648

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Intellectual Property and Technology Forum DIGITAL COPYRIGHT ...

The advent of the digital age and the wide diffusion of copyrighted works over the Internet have brought about a drastic challenge to the pre-existing rules and legal standards governing the exchange of information. This article points out one of the ways the development of these new technologies has altered the boundaries of copyright, specifically by enabling copyright holders to strategically expand the scope of protection through the strategic use of Digital Rights Management (hereinafter, DRM). After a brief overview of these technologies and their contribution to the development of online markets for copyrighted works, the article discusses the risks of using DRM as a means of stretching the legal protection conferred by Intellectual Property law.

As a potential solution to such problem, the article looks at the role of the courts and the approach embraced vis a vis specific cases of abuse of DRM in the copyright context. In carrying out this analysis, some considerations are made on the pro-competitive benefit that may derive from these practices, and thus the different outcome that would result from an application of a pure antitrust scrutiny to the same situation. The article then concludes recommending a two-fold approach to the assessment of the legality of such practices, where antitrust analysis and IP principles are intermingled, proposing a legal test to facilitate this complex assessment.

Nicolo Zingales

Source: http://bciptf.org/2012/08/23/digital-copyright-%E2%80%9Cfair-access%E2%80%9D-and-the-problem-of-drm-misuse/

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Oil Companies May Have Been Helping Combat Climate Change (A Little)

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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7290227c0a927f7f65484de2cbd9d28d

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