Be Vegan

Dalam laporan PBB (FAO)  yang berjudul Livestock's Long Shadow, PBB  mencatat bahwa industri peternakan adalah penghasil emisi gas rumah kaca yang terbesar  (18%), jumlah ini lebih banyak dari gabungan emisi gas rumah kaca seluruh   transportasi di seluruh dunia   (13%). Emisi gas rumah kaca industri peternakan meliputi  9 % karbon dioksida,   37 % gas metana (efek pemanasannya 72 kali lebih kuat dari CO2 dalam 20 tahun dan 23 kali dalam 100 tahun), 65 % dinitrogen oksida (efek pemanasan  296 kali lebih kuat dari CO2),   serta 64  % amonia penyebab hujan asam. Peternakan menyita 30% dari seluruh permukaan tanah kering di Bumi dan 33% dari area tanah yang subur dijadikan ladang untuk menanam pakan ternak. Peternakan juga penyebab dari  80% penggundulan Hutan Amazon

Fashion and Brain

Fashion not a betrayal of feminist ideals, says leading headteacher | Education | guardian.co.uk

Girls interested in fashion and their appearance are not betraying feminist ideals, a leading headteacher said today.

Jill Berry, president of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA), said a desire to look attractive and intelligence are not "mutually exclusive".

Speaking ahead of the GSA's annual conference in Harrogate today, she said: "A lot of us are interested in fashion, it doesn't mean it's a betrayal of our intelligence or feminist principles."

Every girl should feel confident about the different aspects of their character, she added.

Citing recent reports about female Cambridge undergraduates posing in their underwear for an online magazine, The Tab, Berry said that although some believed it to be "a little bit distasteful", there was a need to be careful about "pigeonholing" intelligent women.

Addressing delegates at the conference, she said: "You may have read recently a story about Cambridge female undergraduates posing scantily clad, which led to media stories about 'bluestockings and bimbos'.

"Girls can be highly intelligent and interested in being seen to be attractive – the two aren't mutually exclusive.

"I love shoes but it doesn't make me shallow. Girls can have fun and also be taken seriously."

Berry, who is headteacher of Dame Alice Harpur school in Bedford, defended cheerleading – seen by some people as "low" – by saying that the activity is actually skilful, using gymnastics and dance.

She said that women are sometimes judged "harshly" for their choices, and women are often guilty of judging other women.

"We must resist the impulse to judge women, to judge them harshly and judge them narrowly," she said.

Berry said that "it is ok for girls to have fun and work hard", adding that sometimes women take themselves "too seriously".

Girls' schools want their pupils to have a "balanced life", she said.

Last week, Berry said that girls should not feel guilty for taking time out of future careers to raise children, and expectations that women can "have it all" may be overly ambitious.

Today she said that while it was right that there should be women at the top of every profession, many are choosing not to be.

"I think sometimes women choose not to do these things," she said. "It's not that they can't, not that they have tried and failed.

"There are some women who say at this stage of life, 'this is not what I want for myself, my family, my life'."

The GSA represents 187 fee-paying girls' schools in England, Wales and Scotland, collectively teaching 110,000 girls.

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour revealed as research scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti - Times Online

The secret life of Dr Brooke Magnanti, an obscure research scientist, is revealed today as she unmasks herself as the writer behind the pseudonym Belle de Jour.

Her identity has been one of the great literary mysteries of the decade after the publication of bestselling books about her secret life as a prostitute.

Magnanti is a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology in a hospital research group in Bristol. Six years ago, in the final stages of her PhD thesis, she ran out of money and turned to prostitution through a London escort agency, charging £300 an hour. Already an experienced science blogger, she began writing about her experiences in a web diary that was adapted into books and a television drama starring Billie Piper.

There has been huge speculation about Belle’s real identity, including a theory that she was a well-known author because of the quality of her writing. The blog and books were also criticised for suggesting prostitution could be glamorous. Last week Magnanti contacted one of Belle’s sternest critics, India Knight, the Sunday Times columnist, saying she wanted to reveal her identity.

The scientist, a petite 34-year-old, has no regrets about her 14 months as a prostitute. “I’ve felt worse about my writing than I ever have about sex for money,” she said. Anonymity had become “no fun”, however: “I couldn’t even go to my own book launch party.”

Until last week, not even her agent knew her real name. A month ago she revealed her secret to her colleagues at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health, who were “amazingly kind and supportive”. She was preparing to tell her parents this weekend.

Magnanti said she was working on a doctoral study for the department of forensic pathology of Sheffield University in 2003 when she took up prostitution. “I was getting ready to submit my thesis. I saved up a bit of money. I thought, I’ll just move to London, because that’s where the jobs are, and I’ll see what happens.

“I couldn’t find a professional job in my chosen field because I didn’t have my PhD yet. I didn’t have a lot of spare time on my hands because I was still making corrections and preparing for the viva; and I got through my savings a lot faster than I thought I would.”

When she could no longer afford her rent, she started to think: “What can I do that I can start doing straightaway, that doesn’t require a great deal of training or investment to get started, that’s cash in hand and that leaves me spare time to do my work in?”

She found an escort agency and started her secret life. “I did have another job at one point, as a computer programmer, but I kept up with my other work because it was so much more enjoyable.”

Her future lies in medical science, but she also has a literary streak. She has been writing a novel, and the Belle blog will “continue for a bit — I’d like her to have happy ending”.

Alpha Generation

Babies born from 2010 to form Generation Alpha | Health & Lifestyle | News.com.au

WE'VE all heard of Gen X, Gen Y, even Gen Z - but in January we go to a whole new alphabet and welcome to the world the next instalment: Generation Alpha.

Social researchers and sociologists claim the babies born into new Generation Alpha - dubbed Gen A - will be the most formally educated generation in history.

Researcher Mark McCrindle said sociologists came up with the name because scientists moved on to the Greek alphabet when they had exhausted the Latin, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

"It's not so much going back to the beginning as starting a brand new page," said Mr McCrindle, the author of a new book about global generations, The ABC Of XYZ.

He said 2010 babies and other Australians born over the next 15 years would begin school earlier and study for longer than those from previous generations.

Gen A members were also expected to be more materialistic and technology-focused.

"As the children of older, wealthier parents with fewer siblings and more entertainment and technological options, it's likely they'll be the most materially supplied generation ever," said the McCrindle Research director.

He said the material aspect was a key issue, with research groups showing one-third of households spent more than $500 per child per year.

"Half of the toys children have are electric or battery-powered, which are more expensive," he said. "These 'Google' kids are really being shaped in a world of technology and consumerism."

Nicole Le Lievre's twin boys will be among the first Australians born into the Gen A demographic next year.

The Wahroonga 33-year-old said she was thrilled her boys, due on January 3, would be part of the next generation.

"It's exciting to think of the types of opportunities that will be open to them," she said.

"We're excited, but also a little bit daunted by that amount of information and the security around that - it's a bit frightening in regard to how they can be protected.

"We don't want them to see too much too young - it's important that they still get to be kids."

This sentiment is echoed by social commentator Neer Korn, who said there could be a backlash against consumerism in Generation Alpha, with some parents going back to basics in the hope their children will hold on to their youth for longer.

"What we can't predict is (whether) the opposite could happen and there could be a backlash," he said. "There are already discussions about kids starting school at six - so a reassessment may be taking place."

Generation Alpha takes the reins from Gen Z - those born since 1995, who will make up 36 per cent of the workforce in 2020.

About 90 per cent of the class of 2020 are expected to complete Year 12, and 40 per cent will go on to further tertiary study.

They are expected to work longer and have an average of five careers and 20 different employers in their lifetimes, according to data from McCrindle Research.

Helensburgh mother-of-three Kathie Upcroft said her youngest son, Harry, 6, was a prime example of Gen Z.

"I've been saying to my children for a few months now, 'You're so fortunate to be going through your generation in this era right now,' " Ms Upcroft said. "And as a parent, seeing it all is pretty special."

Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja, Iraq

guardian.co.uk

Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.

"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies," said Falluja general hospital's director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."

The rise in frequency is stark – from two admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."

After several years of speculation and anecdotal evidence, a picture of a highly disturbing phenomenon in one of Iraq's most battered areas has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried babies, including those with birth defects or infants who were not given ongoing care, were not listed as abnormal cases.

The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.

Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital's children's ward, this week urged international experts to take soil samples across Falluja and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments, most of which he said had been "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy.

Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf – areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.

Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.

"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."

The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic.

Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned with former Ba'athists and Iraqi army elements.

The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US. The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets. Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the US government admitted deploying.

Statistics on infant tumours are not considered as reliable as new data about nervous system anomalies, which are usually evident immediately after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a neurosurgeon, said: "With neuro-tube defects, their heads are often larger than normal, they can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and their lower limbs are often listless. There has been no orderly registration here in the period after the war and we have suffered from that. But [in relation to the rise in tumours] I can say with certainty that we have noticed a sharp rise in malignancy of the blood and this is not a congenital anomaly – it is an acquired disease."

Despite fully funding the construction of the new hospital, a well-equipped facility that opened in August, Iraq's health ministry remains largely disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a response to the city's pressing needs.

The government's lack of capacity has led Falluja officials, who have historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from the international community. "Even in the scientific field, there has been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries," said Dr Salah. "But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself."