Online ID Theft Ruins NJ Teen's Life, Reputation

This is a very harrowing story every parent should read

Nafeesa Onque's Facebook page had all the trimmings of a teenage girl's internet home: Her cell phone number, favorite movies, relationship status and photo albums were just a click away, lined up neatly beneath a smiling photograph of the pretty 15-year-old.

But the person who built the profile was nothing like the Newark teen who was a popular cheerleader for years and spends most of her time working toward a Rutgers University scholarship. Someone else was behind the computer screen, someone who stole Nafeesa's online identity and was using it to destroy her real one.

Source; VictoriaAdvocate.com Read More

Bullying May Accompany Drive to be Popular

Teens who are already popular but trying to become even more so are the most likely to bully other kids, new research suggests.

The kids seem to think that antagonizing others will raise their own status in the eyes of their peers, according to the study, published in the February issue of the American Sociological Review.

Researchers asked about 3,700 students in 8th, 9th and 10th grades from three counties in North Carolina about their behavior toward others and how often they were the target of physical aggression, verbal aggression (such as teasing or threats), rumors or indirect bullying (such as ostracism). Teens were also asked how often they did this to a classmate.

Source: Valleynewslive.com Read more

Craig D. Allen, (USGS), Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Craig D. Allen, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

This year 503 members have been awarded this peer-nominated honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows for 2010 were announced today in the journal Science and will be formally recognized during the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., in February.

Allen was elected as an AAAS Fellow, "for outstanding leadership in the synthesis of global forest responses to climate change, built from worldwide collaboration and a deep understanding of the environmental history of the southwestern United States."

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well asScience Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.


[source: USGS]

The Death of Christina Taylor Green - Tucson Arizona - January 8, 2011

This tragedy takes me back to that terrible day in November 1963 when we lost a President. The promise and hope Christina Taylor Green meant to the children of America, is no less significant than the promise and hope John F. Kennedy meant to the American people in 1963. I know, I was there.

The death of that beautiful little girl is really the centerpiece of this assassination attempt, because along with Christina, a little bit of America died.


Read this poem by Newsvine member magz


On The Death, By Shooting, Of Christina Taylor Green

Money is the Apple That Separates the Men From the Serpents    

    You will be tested many times in your lifetime with opportunities and temptations involving money, illegal opportunities are easy to back away from because they are illegal, ethics should take a back seat in decisions about things that can put you in jail!
    Handcuffs are enough to scare me away from doing stupid things, no matter how much money is involved.

    Ethics on the other hand should be the main pivot point when it comes to advising friends or business clients. During the journey of your life, you will often be faced with decisions where you will have to advise friends or clients as to what will be in their best interest.

    Many times honest advise in these situations may cost you money, but whenever you come to a "fork in the road" such as this, You must always take the road that allows you to take your ethics with you. Because you and your self esteem will not get along too well if you don't have your ethics with you.
    Knowing you have done the right thing is always worth something no amount of money can buy.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 An old Cherokee  Indian was speaking to his grandson:

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil--he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.


The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."


The grandson thought about it for a long minute, and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"


The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Cyber-Bullying Coming To A Cell Phone Near You

Cyber bullying in the form of text messages, emails, photos, and website postings can go school-wide in minutes and global in days. Slanderous information sent out into cyberspace is difficult, if not impossible, to expunge. Cyber bullying often takes the form ... In 2005, studies of 1500 Internet-using adolescents found that over one-third had been cyber bulled and half of those admitted to cyber bullying others.


Read entire article on Cyber-World

What Would You Do About Climate Change?

Someone asked me that question on my Newsvine column the other day, and all I could answer was ....  "something" However, it did caused me to do a little research and pull my thoughts together as to why I have no answer his question. 

I think we need to get a majority of the people that are being affected by the changes (which is everybody), to agree that there are changes. Then, I think what we should do is ...... something!

The affects the changes are having on the earth are very complex, making the question of what we should do about them very complex.

The melting of the polar caps is not making the ocean levels rise (ie; an ice cube in a glass displaces more water frozen than it does when melted), but it is not just the polar caps that are melting, the ice glaciers, caps and ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica plus the Himalayas, the Rockies and the Andes that are also melting, causing sea levels to rise. It is also changing the salinity of the oceans, which in addition to having an affect on sea life, is having an affect on the oceans currents, for instance the Gulf Stream, which brings moderate temperatures to the northern hemispheres.

The Gulf Stream has already slowed down, causing colder temperatures in the north, if (when, actually) the GS stops completely, the Northern Hemisphere will get very cold, as in very, very cold. (that's where all that talk of a new ice age comes from).

Studies are indicating that main affect the melting of the Polar Caps is having, is the change the caps are having on the pressure they exert on the earths plates. As the caps melt the pressure is lessened, causing earthquakes to be more frequent, and to occur in places they have never occurred in the past (like Kansas). It is also causing the same phenomenon with volcanoes (ie; the recent Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland.)

Climate change is also causing more widespread and more severe drought than in the past, like in China, Russia, Africa, South America, and the United States. Drought affects water supply and it affects food supply, which causes mass migrations, which in turn causes food and water supply shortages in other places due to increased population of those places.

So, what do I think we should do about the problem? As I said, first we have to recognize we have a problem, only then will any solutions have any meaning. And I certainly don't know what those solutions will be, those answers will have to come from folks like the boys and girls that met in the tiny atoll nation of Kiribati last week.