NEWS FROM THE U.S. DEMOCRATIC LEADERS
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid
For Immediate Release
Date: Thursday, June 28, 2007
Call and tell them you appreciate their support of Enviromental action!
www.liveearth.org
CONTACT: Jim Manley / Rodell Mollineau, Reid, 202-224-2939
Brendan Daly / Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi, 202-226-7616
REID, PELOSI SIGN ‘LIVE EARTH PLEDGE’
Pledge Calls On Individuals to Fight Climate Change at Home and Work
WASHINGTON: Senate Majority Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were proud to be among the first to sign the “Live Earth Pledge,” created by former Vice President Al Gore. The pledge is in conjunction with the global “Live Earth” event to be held on every continent on July 7 (7-7-07).
“I am proud to sign this pledge to do my part to solve the climate crisis,” said Reid. “By working together on all levels, at home, school, work, and church, we can all play a role in protecting our planet for future generations. I encourage everyone to sign this pledge and get involved in this important movement to help raise awareness about the things we can and must do to avert global warming.”
“By signing this pledge, I rededicate myself to the prevention of dangerous global warming,” Pelosi said. “The climate crisis is as local as our neighborhoods and as global as the planet. We must act swiftly to protect God’s creation from dramatic changes that threaten our national security and health, our crops and coastlines, and the very survival of many species on earth. Reducing global warming is also an opportunity to stimulate new and innovative technologies, create new ‘green’ jobs, and reduce pollutants that are harmful to human health.”
Reid and Pelosi have long been leaders in efforts to protect the environment and address climate change. Most recently, Senator Reid led the passage of major energy legislation to make cars and trucks more fuel efficient, grow the production and use of clean renewable fuels, and reduce America’s reliance on oil. This morning, Pelosi announced the House’s “Energy Independence Day” legislation to make the nation energy independent and reduce global warming.
Reid and Pelosi, who believe Washington must lead by example, are working together on an initiative to “green” the U.S. Capitol.
The pledge as signed by Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi is below.
I PLEDGE:
1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral;”
3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;
4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;
5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Science shows why Meditation works
Melinda Wenner
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Sat Jun 30, 1:35 PM ET
If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.
Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”
Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.
UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.
They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.
When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.
When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.
By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.
“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.
In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.
Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”
When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.
“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine.
Video: Here's to Your Brain Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind Using the Mind to Cure the Body
Original Story: Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Sat Jun 30, 1:35 PM ET
If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.
Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”
Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.
UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.
They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.
When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.
When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.
By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.
“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.
In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.
Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”
When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.
“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine.
Video: Here's to Your Brain Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind Using the Mind to Cure the Body
Original Story: Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Fired Walmart worker wins 2 million dollar award
Fired Wal-Mart pharmacist awarded $2M 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
A pharmacist who claimed she was fired by Wal-Mart after asking to be paid the same as her male colleagues has won a nearly $2 million award against the retail giant.
A Berkshire Superior Court jury concluded Wal-Mart discriminated against Cynthia Haddad and awarded her nearly $1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages Tuesday.
"It sends a message that you can't treat people poorly because of who they are," said David Belfort, Haddad's attorney.
Wal-Mart's attorneys didn't comment after the verdict.
Haddad was fired in April 2004 after more than 10 years at a Wal-Mart store in Pittsfield. She claimed in court that she was fired because she asked to be paid the same as her male counterparts, including a bonus given to pharmacy managers. The company paid the bonus, then fired her two weeks later.
Lawyers for the retailer said she was fired because she left the pharmacy unattended and allowed a technician to use her computer security code to issue prescriptions during her absence, including a fraudulent prescription for a painkiller.
Haddad's lawyers argued that the prescription was filled 18 months before she was dismissed and without her knowledge, and that more severe infractions by male pharmacists went unpunished.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
A pharmacist who claimed she was fired by Wal-Mart after asking to be paid the same as her male colleagues has won a nearly $2 million award against the retail giant.
A Berkshire Superior Court jury concluded Wal-Mart discriminated against Cynthia Haddad and awarded her nearly $1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages Tuesday.
"It sends a message that you can't treat people poorly because of who they are," said David Belfort, Haddad's attorney.
Wal-Mart's attorneys didn't comment after the verdict.
Haddad was fired in April 2004 after more than 10 years at a Wal-Mart store in Pittsfield. She claimed in court that she was fired because she asked to be paid the same as her male counterparts, including a bonus given to pharmacy managers. The company paid the bonus, then fired her two weeks later.
Lawyers for the retailer said she was fired because she left the pharmacy unattended and allowed a technician to use her computer security code to issue prescriptions during her absence, including a fraudulent prescription for a painkiller.
Haddad's lawyers argued that the prescription was filled 18 months before she was dismissed and without her knowledge, and that more severe infractions by male pharmacists went unpunished.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Satellite eyes on Darfur
By Michelle Nichols
Wed Jun 6, 6:54 AM ET
Amnesty International started posting satellite images on the Internet of villages in Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur on Wednesday in a bid to pressure Khartoum to allow U.N. peacekeepers into the region.
The rights group invited people around the world to log on to www.eyesondarfur.org, which will be updated regularly with new photographs, and help it monitor 12 vulnerable villages and put Khartoum on notice that these areas are being watched closely for signs of any further violence.
It also includes archived images that include some from the village of Donkey Dereis, which is shown in 2004 with hundreds of huts, but two years later had 1,171 homes gone and the landscape overgrown with vegetation.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2 million been driven from home since the conflict in western Sudan between ethnic African rebels and the government, backed by the Arab Janjaweed militia, began in 2003. Khartoum says 9,000 have died and rejects accusations of genocide.
The U.N. Security Council last year adopted a resolution to deploy a 23,000-strong "hybrid" U.N.-African Union force. But Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called that figure too high. He has agreed to the deployment of 3,000 U.N. police and military personnel to aid the A.U. force of about 7,000.
However, the final plan for the hybrid force has not yet reached Khartoum because of differences between the African Union and United Nations about control of the operation.
Amnesty said the satellite images could show objects as small as 2 feet across, which would allow the display of destroyed huts, massing soldiers or fleeing refugees.
"We expect the Sudanese government to protect these and all villages throughout Darfur," said Ariela Blatter, director of Amnesty USA's Crisis Prevention and Response Center, who led the development of the Eyes on Darfur project. "We expect these villages to be intact today, tomorrow and well, well into the future."
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited
Wed Jun 6, 6:54 AM ET
Amnesty International started posting satellite images on the Internet of villages in Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur on Wednesday in a bid to pressure Khartoum to allow U.N. peacekeepers into the region.
The rights group invited people around the world to log on to www.eyesondarfur.org, which will be updated regularly with new photographs, and help it monitor 12 vulnerable villages and put Khartoum on notice that these areas are being watched closely for signs of any further violence.
It also includes archived images that include some from the village of Donkey Dereis, which is shown in 2004 with hundreds of huts, but two years later had 1,171 homes gone and the landscape overgrown with vegetation.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2 million been driven from home since the conflict in western Sudan between ethnic African rebels and the government, backed by the Arab Janjaweed militia, began in 2003. Khartoum says 9,000 have died and rejects accusations of genocide.
The U.N. Security Council last year adopted a resolution to deploy a 23,000-strong "hybrid" U.N.-African Union force. But Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called that figure too high. He has agreed to the deployment of 3,000 U.N. police and military personnel to aid the A.U. force of about 7,000.
However, the final plan for the hybrid force has not yet reached Khartoum because of differences between the African Union and United Nations about control of the operation.
Amnesty said the satellite images could show objects as small as 2 feet across, which would allow the display of destroyed huts, massing soldiers or fleeing refugees.
"We expect the Sudanese government to protect these and all villages throughout Darfur," said Ariela Blatter, director of Amnesty USA's Crisis Prevention and Response Center, who led the development of the Eyes on Darfur project. "We expect these villages to be intact today, tomorrow and well, well into the future."
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited
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