South Korea
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Preferring Girls Over Boys - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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low national birth rate (the lowest in the world) means that parents who are planning just one child believe a girl will care for them emotionally in their old age.
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France Crippled by Nationwide Strike Over Retirement Age - 0 views
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Shark Fin Soup Facts - 0 views
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But we’re not paying enough attention to what we are taking out of our oceans – sharks – and they’re being killed at the rate of up to 73 million per year.
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You may not really care much about sharks but our oceans account for about half of the planet’s oxygen supply and sharks play a key role in maintaining the health of the oceans.
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If you feel this way, you’re not alone, but it might surprise you to know that although there are more than 350 distinct species of sharks, only a few even bother with humans. The giant Whale Shark doesn’t even have teeth.
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show that for the 181 species of sharks for which they have adequate data, over 64% of those populations are noted as “threatened” or “vulnerable”. Of those, over 21% are categorized as “endangered” or worse. At least one species is already listed as “extinct in the wild.”
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Sharks are pulled onto fishing boats where their fins are cut off and their bodies are thrown back into the ocean as waste. A large percentage of these animals are still alive and suffocate. Even though less than 5% of the shark is fin, the rest is usually thrown away because of the economics of it. Shark meat must be properly refrigerated and takes up a lot of space on a boat. Fins, however, can be cut off, bundled, and hung to dry in large nets. It is the fin that produces the largest profit by far and can be sold for hundreds of dollars per pound.
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STOP SHARK FINNING - 0 views
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Shark finning is the practice of slicing off the shark's fins while the shark is still alive and throwing the rest of its body back into the ocean where it can take days to die what must be an agonising death.
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Shark fin soup, which can easily cost $100 a bowl, is often served at wedding celebrations so that the hosts can impress their guests with their affluence. Because there is such a high demand for shark fins, traders can make a lot of money from shark fin, but it is the restaurant owners who really "make a killing" in this foul trade.
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Tens of millions of sharks are slaughtered every year to satisfy the demand for shark fin soup; at least 8,000 tonnes of shark fins are shipped to restaurants around the world.
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Shark populations take a long time to recover as they can take over seven years to reach maturity and they only raise one or two pups a year. Twenty species of sharks are listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
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In a few years many species of shark could become extinct if action is not taken immediately. Populations of many shark species have fallen by over 90%. Since 1972 the number of blacktip sharks has fallen by 93%, tiger sharks by 97% and bull sharks, dusky sharks and smooth hammerheads by 99%.
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once they are gone, all hell will break loose. For example along the US East Coast where large sharks such as black tip and tiger sharks have been virtually elimated, there have been declines in shellfish numbers and a reduction in water quality (shellfish filter sea water).
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Shark fin soup alters an ecosystem - CNN - 0 views
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Yet, in a relatively short period of time, humans and their technological arsenal have driven most shark populations to the verge of extinction.
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These are ecosystems that have evolved over millions and millions of years," said Knights. "As soon as you start to take out an important part of it, it's like a brick wall, you take out bricks [and] eventually it's going to collapse."
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What is rarely reported is that worldwide, sharks kill an average of 10 people every year. It's usually when people venture into a shark's habitat and not the other way around. By contrast, humans kill around 100 million sharks every year - a number that has ballooned in recent years because of the enormous demand for shark fins to make shark fin soup.
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Shark fin soup is a delicacy reserved for the wealthy on special occasions and it has been part of Chinese culture for centuries. For years, only rich Chinese mostly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore consumed it, so the impact on the overall shark population was negligible
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Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising - HealthyPlace - 0 views
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In recent survey by Teen People magazine, 27% of the girls felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body
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and by the time she is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media.
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This constant exposure to female-oriented advertisements may influence girls to become self-conscious about their bodies and to obsess over their physical appearance as a measure of their worth
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but many more implicitly emphasize the importance of beauty--particularly those that target women and girls.
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ty, and the bodies idealized in the media are frequently atypical of normal, healthy women. In fact,
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Women frequently compare their bodies to those they see around them, and researchers have found that exposure to idealized body images lowers women's satisfaction with their own attractiveness.
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Dissatisfaction with their bodies causes many women and girls to strive for the thin ideal. The number one wish for girls ages 11 to 17 is to be thinner
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One study found that 47% of the girls were influenced by magazine pictures to want to lose weight, but only 29% were actually overweight
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Research has also found that stringent dieting to achieve an ideal figure can play a key role in triggering eating disorders.
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Girls who were already dissatisfied with their bodies showed more dieting, anxiety, and bulimic symptoms after prolonged exposure to fashion and advertising images
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Ohio teenager Daniel Petric killed mother over Halo 3 video game | News.com.au - 0 views
www.news.com.au/...story-e6frfro0-1111118553464
Addiction Obsession Death Murder Games Teenager Psychology
shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10
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Teen not allowed to play Halo 3 Gets gun, says he "has a surprise" Shoots both of his parents in the head
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A TEENAGER obsessed with a video game has been found guilty of murdering his mother and injuring his father after they took the game away from him.
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Daniel Petric, 17, planned to kill his parents because he was angry that his father would not allow him to play Halo 3.
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On the night of the murder, the Ohio teenager used his father's key to open a box and remove the game, plus a 9mm handgun, the Associated Press reported.
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Petric's father, Mark, said he was expecting a nice surprise. Instead, his head went numb from the gunshot, the Associated Press reported.
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udge James Burge said his obsession with Halo 3 may have warped his sense of reality, but rejected the defence lawyer's plea of insanity.
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I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever," Judge Burge said.
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Petric faces a maximum possible penalty of life in prison without parole as he has been tried as an adult.
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The Entertainment Software Association - Industry Facts - 0 views
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The best-selling video game of 2007, "Halo 3," took in more revenue ($170 million) on its first day of sales than the opening weekend receipts of "Spider Man 3," ($151 million), the highest-grossing movie opening ever.
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computer and video games to meet the demands and tastes of audiences as diverse as our nation's population.
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Today's gamers include millions of Americans of all ages and backgrounds. In fact, more than two-thirds of all American households play games. This vast audience is fueling the growth of this multi-billion dollar industry and bringing jobs to communities across the nation.
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Forty percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (20 percent).
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In 2010, 26 percent of Americans over the age of 50 play video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.
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Forty-two percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.
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Eighty-two percent of all games sold in 2009 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+.
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Parents who have children under 18 with a gaming console in the home are present when games are purchased or rented 93 percent of the time.
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'FarmVille' power user: 'I'm not obsessed' - Technology & science - Games - msnbc.com - 0 views
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Cathy Hinz is really into “FarmVille.” But she swears she’s not obsessed. “I can, you know, walk away and say, ‘I’m not going to worry about it.’ I don’t worry about it, but I will plan my farm around my life,” she says.
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she has time to be online, fiddling with the farm simulation game as much as she wants. And she’s far from the only one.
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She’s online a lot — spending two to three hours a day on “FarmVille,“ but usually not all at one time. Most of her family plays the game, including her eldest daughter (hooked), her three grandkids (hooked) and her husband, a hard-core gamer who reluctantly allowed his wife to rope him into virtual horticulture. Now, she says, he’s really concerned about his crops.
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Hinz loves tweaking her virtual plot of land, and her schedule affords her plenty of time to do that.
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Some of the “FarmVille” updates are free, and some you have to pay for, but Hinz says the cost is negligible. “I would spend more than $10 to see a movie, and I’d get to sit there for two hours and that would be it. Whereas 10 bucks on this, I can get enjoyment out of it every day.”
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She likes leveling up, and the competitive nature of the game. But Hinz also really likes the interaction on “FarmVille.”
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“When I started my Facebook account, I had two friends — my daughters. At one point, while playing “FarmVille,” I had over 200 friends on Facebook,” she says.
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At first, Hinz was indignant. “I’m 50 years old, and I’m not going to do something where you ‘ice’ people, or you rob banks or stuff like that, where that’s the objective.” But then she got to thinking. The Hot Rod Tractor can plow nine plots simultaneously. It’s got flames on it. “I figured, what the hell, I’ll just get to level 10 and do it. And now I’m a level 40 in ‘Mafia Wars’ as well,” she laughs. “It’s a lot funner than I thought it would be. It’s something I can do while I’m waiting for things to harvest.”
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Still, Hinz says she’s got the games under control, and that they’re not controlling her. “If I started putting things off in order to do ‘FarmVille,’ if it becomes a priority over work, or spending time with my family, that would be an addiction.” Is she there yet? “No. I do it because I can.”
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The gaming-violence connection: why society finds it comforting - 0 views
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the attempts to legislate restrictions on violent video games and the ambiguous science that supports those efforts.
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why these legislative efforts gain so much traction despite their lack of a solid scientific foundation.
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in the journal Contexts, USC sociology lecturer Karen Sternheimer analyzes these efforts in terms of ongoing societal fears regarding the influence of media on children.
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despite the proliferation of violent, first-person shooters in the wake of Doom, juvenile homicide rates have fallen in the decade since its release. Random school shootings remain incredibly rare; for all forms of homicide, students face a seven in 10 million chance of being a victim.
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Random school shootings remain so rare, in fact, that Sternheimer reports that the FBI found it impossible to generate a profile of a "typical" shooter.
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society doesn't really understand its youth. As a result, adults fear their loss of control over the factors that influence childhood development in an increasingly connected world.
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Far from being a new danger, the Sternheimer report suggests that gaming is simply the latest in a long series of media influences to take the blame. "Over the past century, politicians have complained that cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books caused youth immorality and crime, calling for control and sometimes censorship." She terms the targets of such efforts "folk devils," items branded dangerous and immoral that serve to focus blame and fear.
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These folk devils can be used for political advancement or financial gain via lawsuits such as those that have targeted game makers. But, based on Sternheimer's description, their primary function appears to be to distract people from identifying the real causes underlying our discomfort with youth culture. It also may distract people from getting to know their kids.
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Anorexia: A Media-Borne Illness - BusinessWeek - 0 views
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he top shows watched by female college students: Gossip Girl, Project Runway, and America’s Next Top Model. Likewise for magazines: Vogue, Seventeen, and Allure.
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The media I’ve listed contribute to shaping what society considers beauty. The common denominators are tall, desperately skinny women who look fabulous. It should come as no surprise the media is to blame for today’s artificial standard of beauty.
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The constant bombardment of skinny models and diet plans will certainly have an effect on women whose bodies are just not meant to be that small.
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Low self-esteem and eating disorders are the side effects from the media’s portrayal of artificial beauty
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as of 2004, 8 million people—7 million of them women—had an eating disorder (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, etc.).
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According to the American Psychiatric Assn.’s Diagnostic & Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, people who suffer from anorexia typically have an underlying personality disorder and seek more control over their environment.
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66% of Americans do not even come close to conforming to that supposed ideal. Meanwhile, less than 3% of the U.S. population suffers from an eating disorder
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blaming the media for eating disorders is a lot like laying the blame for underage smoking on TV characters
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"over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in 20 are above average in size.
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Stress over teen's 'addiction' | Perth Now - 0 views
www.perthnow.com.au/...story-e6frg13u-1111113958526
Stress Games Addiction Teens Entertainment Psychology Runescape
shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10
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THE father of a 15-year-old Perth computer-game addict has described the family's extraordinary nightmare - comparing it to heroin addiction.
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The Year 11 Ballajura Community College student has not attended classes for two months. He spends his time alone in a dark room playing the RuneScape game for up to 16 hours a day.
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The son used to dress in his school uniform each morning, but after his mother left for work he would change out of the uniform and spend the day playing the interactive game.
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The family is struggling to find help for him, and a succession of psychologists and counsellors have not yet made any progress with him.
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The boy's parents are divorced, and he lives with his mother. His sister moved out because she couldn't cope with his bizarre addiction.
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His son had been transformed from a typically bright, sports-mad teenager to being reclusive and aggressive.
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"It just got worse and worse,'' he said. ``He just wouldn't come off it at night. He'd play until two or three o'clock in the morning.
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"He displayed the characteristics of a heroin addict. You haven't got someone putting a needle in their arm and having a high, but you've got all the telltale collateral damage of a heroin addict _ withdrawal from his family, withdrawal from his friends, lies to cover his addiction. He'll do anything.
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"He was an outdoor kid. Every sport you could name, he was playing. Now he's white, doesn't go outside. He was very bright, he was going to be a forensic scientist.
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"Recently he has admitted it, before he was in denial. He wants to get back to what he was like. He wants to get better. He wants to go to school. He can't -- it won't let him. It's like any addiction.''
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Euthanasia: Should it be made legal? Why? - 0 views
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The difference is, in euthanasia, the person who is dying performs the last act while in assisted death another person performs the act. For example a physician can help in the process by giving lethal medications through the oral or intravenous routes. If the physician himself administers it then it is physician-assisted suicide, but, if he sets up the injection apparatus and the person who wants to die presses the button then it translates into euthanasia.
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On one side it has been argued that for people on life support systems and people with long standing diseases causing much pain and distress, euthanasia is a better choice
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it is much more practical and humane to grant the person his/her wish to end his/her own life in a relatively painless and merciful way
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It will lead to a person having an option to consult his/her medical practitioner and choosing the right time and right way to end his/her life.
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But at the same time laws should be in place to make sure that there are proper standards in place to avoid unnecessary deaths in our present day stress filled lives.
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Foreign Aid for Development Assistance - Global Issues - 0 views
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both the quantity and quality of aid have been poor and donor nations have not been held to account.
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world’s rich countries agreed to give 0.7% of their gross national income as official international development aid, annually
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Furthermore, aid has often come with a price of its own for the developing nations:Aid is often wasted on conditions that the recipient must use overpriced goods and services from donor countriesMost aid does not actually go to the poorest who would need it the mostAid amounts are dwarfed by rich country protectionism that denies market access for poor country products, while rich nations use aid as a lever to open poor country markets to their productsLarge projects or massive grand strategies often fail to help the vulnerable; money can often be embezzled away.
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The donor governments promised to spend 0.7% of GNP on ODA (Official Development Assistance) at the UN General Assembly in 1970—some 40 years ago
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developed countries will rapidly and progressively take what measures they can … to reduce the extent of tying of assistance and to mitigate any harmful effects
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Developed countries will provide, to the greatest extent possible, an increased flow of aid on a long-term and continuing basis.
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almost all rich nations have constantly failed to reach their agreed obligations of the 0.7% target. Instead of 0.7%, the amount of aid has been around 0.2 to 0.4%, some $100 billion short.
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USA’s aid, in terms of percentage of their GNP has almost always been lower than any other industrialized nation in the world, though paradoxically since 2000, their dollar amount has been the highest.Between 1992 and 2000, Japan had been the largest donor of aid, in terms of raw dollars. From 2001 the United States claimed that position, a year that also saw Japan’s amount of aid drop by nearly 4 billion dollars.
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In 2009, the OCED and many others feared official aid would decline due to the global financial crisis. They urged donor nations to make aid “countercyclical”; not to reduce it when it is needed most, but those who didn’t cause the crisis.
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And indeed, for 2009, aid did increase as official stats from the OECD shows. It rose 0.7% from just under $123 bn in 2008 to just over $123 bn in 2009 (at constant 2008 prices).
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Manhunt blamed for UK murder - News at GameSpot - 0 views
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n the UK, the parents of a teenage murder victim have blamed the crime on the Rockstar game Manhunt.
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The parents of Stefan Pakeerah, 14, said their son was lured to a park by a 17-year-old player of the game, who stabbed and beat their son to death with a knife and claw hammer.
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"When one looks at what Warren did to Stephan and looks at the brutality and viciousness of the game, one can see links,"
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"Stefan's murder compares to how the game is set out, using weapons like hammers and knives. If games like this influence kids, they should be taken off the shelves."
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Rockstar also defended itself by stating, "We reject any suggestion or association between the tragic events and the sale of Manhunt." However, the publisher/developer did offer its condolences to the victim's family.
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As was to be expected, erroneous news reports in the wake of the murder have reignited the controversy that surrounded Manhunt when it was first released.
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However, the madman/snuff-filmmaker who has kidnapped the convict does offer him rewards based on the grisliness of his killings, albeit in a very unglamorous fashion.
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the BBC also talked to a child psychologist about whether or not there is a link between violent games and violent behavior in children. "There's been no longitudinal research, following adolescents over a long period, looking at how gaming violence might affect their behavior," said Professor Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University, who called for more research.
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The BBC also pointed out that Manhunt has an 18 certificate--the equivalent of an "M" rating--and shouldn't be played by minors at all.
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EBSCOhost: India Confronts Gender-Selective Abortion - 0 views
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Before I Die: Opinions - 0 views
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The two most common reasons that lead people to think about or to commit suicide, whether they are terminally ill or not, are untreated pain or depression
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should be a lawful medical procedure for competent, terminally ill adults, because it is a compassionate response to relieve the suffering of dying patients.
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But good medical care can give patients relief from pain and control over their medical destiny without creating the severe risks posed by assisted suicide.
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In a workable system, the option of physician-assisted suicide would arise only after all treatment options are exhausted, the best of hospice and palliative care has failed to relieve unbearable suffering
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Legalizing assisted suicide would be profoundly dangerous. The risks would extend to all who are ill, but would be greatest for patients who lack access to high quality medical care.
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Then, with outside opinion concurring, a physician would be permitted to prescribe medication that the patient could use to hasten death at a time of the patient's choice.
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Patient and family anxiety about future suffering and death would be reduced; care and comfort at the end of life would be improved.
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A request for suicide is often a plea for help. How many doctors know their patients well enough to hear that plea
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A more rational law than the current ban on assisting a terminally ill patient who requests help in dying will extend the length of lives of those who are dying by preventing the suicide of those who will benefit from relieved suffering.
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Should fast food restaurants be forced to serve healthier food? - Yahoo! Answers - 0 views
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It seems to me that the fast food industry should be blamed for most if not all of the obesity in America. People want to eat healthy but the fast food industry has taken over. There are no other alternatives. Sure they claim to have healthy alternatives but when you look at their version of a healthy alternative in most cases you are back where you began. For instance the salad that they offer has the same deep fried chicken loaded with sodium that they put on the sandwich and the salad dressing is loaded with empty calories. Shouldn't the fast food industry be held more accountable for the products they serve. One sandwich can have the entire days worth of fat and calories. Like it or not fast food is a way of life and the industry should bear some of the blame. We should start a campaign to reduce calories across the board.
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United States of America: Foreign Aid - 0 views
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Most donations come from individuals (76 percent of the total), and some nonprofit sectors were hit harder last year than others
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absolute figures are less significant than the proportion of gross domestic product (GDP, or national wealth) that a country devotes to foreign aid
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50% of its aid budget is spent on middle-income countries in the Middle East, with Israel being the recipient of the largest single share.