Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, January 12, 2015
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - respect is due.
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Title by BAND
|
|
|
|
|
Top News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Air pollution at this level for 10 more years will put a generation at risk
By Justine Thornton
|
|
|
The science is clear: nitrogen dioxide from road traffic is seriously bad for our health – particularly for children and elderly people, because it can inflame our lungs and lower our resistance to respiratory infections such as bronchitis. So much so that 23,500 people in the UK are expected to die prematurely every year because of this air pollution. Imagine if knife crime or terrorism were killing people in these numbers – it would be described as a national crisis.
. . .
Great swaths of the UK have nitrogen dioxide levels that are considered unsafe for human health. One of the main culprits is emissions from diesel vehicles. As we now know from the Volkswagen scandal, the emissions from diesel vehicles are often much higher than predicted in lab tests.
Public disquiet about all this is, at last, beginning to stir. There is concern about the impact a third runway at Heathrow would have on already shockingly bad air pollution levels in the capital. The House of Commons environment committee recently said Heathrow should not be allowed to expand unless the government can demonstrate that air quality is within legal limits.
. . .
The stage is set for a fascinating tussle between law and politics. The British court will have to roll up its sleeves and decide whether this government is doing what it can to make our air as safe as possible. No matter how tough the political choices, EU law has consistently made clear that financial and political difficulties are no defence for countries that fail to comply with their legal obligations. The European court has said it is up to national courts to call their governments to account for air pollution failures.
|
|
|
U.S. Panel Finalizes Breast Cancer Screening Recommendations
By Andrew Seaman
|
|
|
An influential panel of U.S. experts issued final recommendations on Monday reaffirming their controversial position that mammogram screening should start at age 50, but also said some women may benefit from screening starting at age 40.
. . .
The new, more inclusive wording of the guidelines is more in line with new recommendations from other cancer groups, such as the American Cancer Society. The society released new breast cancer screening guidelines in October pushing back the starting age for screening mammograms to 45 from 40, and recommending that younger women should have the choice to start screening as early as 40.
. . .
According to the task force, screening 10,000 women in their 50s will result in eight fewer deaths, versus four fewer deaths for women who start screening at age 40.
. . .
As long as women understand the balance between benefits and harms, they can make a reasonable decision to start screening anytime in their 40s, LeFevre said.
|
|
|
Sexism Valley: 60% of women in Silicon Valley experience harassment
By Jana Kasperkevic
|
|
|
. . .
“The inspiration for this survey came out of the incredible conversation from the Ellen Pao and [Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers] trial. What we realized is that while many women shared similar workplace stories, most men were simply shocked and unaware of the issues facing women in the workplace,” wrote the survey’s authors.
. . .
, at 77%, were 40 years or older. Three quarters of them had children. One in four had C-level positions, which are some of the highest-level jobs within a company. One in 10 were founders and another 11% worked in venture capital. Women surveyed included employees from companies including Apple and Google, and more than 90% of the women surveyed work in the Silicon Valley area in and around San Francisco Bay.
. . .
“At Company X we had a joke that there were only two reviews for women – you are either too reticent or you are too bossy – no middle ground,” said one respondent.
About 47% of women had also been asked to do lower-level tasks, like taking notes or ordering food, that were not expected of their male colleagues. Additionally, two-thirds of the women surveyed felt excluded from networking opportunities, including lunch meetings at Hooters and on the golf course, because they were women.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
International |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Half of South Sudan children 'not in school' because of conflict
By (BBC)
|
|
|
Government forces have been battling rebels for the past two years, although a peace deal was signed in August.
. . .
Even before the conflict began, 1.4 million children were already missing class in South Sudan, Unicef said.
Since the war broke out, more than 800 schools have been demolished and more than 400,000 children had to abandon their classrooms, the agency said.
. . .
Enrolment went up from under 30% after South Sudan became independent in 2011, but the war and a lack of school buildings and qualified teachers have slowed the growth, according to a South Sudanese official, the AP news agency reports.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
100,000 NYC School Children Face Airport-Style Security Screening Every Day
By Cecilia Reyes and Jenny Ye
|
|
|
. . .
Almost as many New York City students run the gauntlet of x-ray machines each day as pass through the scanners at busy Miami International Airport. And the procedure is numbingly similar. Students must remove belts, shoes, and sometimes bobby pins as the wait stretches as long as an hour.
. . .
Dinkins, up for re-election against Rudy Giuliani, who was campaigning on a “tough on crime” platform, put police officers in all of the city’s then 1,069 schools where they have remained ever since.
Over the next three years the city steadily added metal detectors to its schools. By 2003, 88 middle schools and high schools had them. Some of these schools have since been replaced by multiple smaller schools, yet the scanners remain.
. . .
One of the few school buildings that has managed to remove the scanners, the former Eastern District High School in Brooklyn, did so by enlisting students in the effort to quell violence. In 2006, the high school was on its way to be shut down and replaced by three smaller schools in the same building. The three new principals joined forces with elected local officials, parents and persuaded the Board of Education to remove the machines.
. . .
“Weapons will get into the building without metal detectors. Weapons will get into a building with metal detectors,” Jusino said. “The idea is ‘What do you do. What programs do you do. What’s the trust and values you have in your school.’”
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
Culture Club’s music transports you back to a time where things were not disposable. As Boy George pointed out on stage, the world is finally starting to get its first taste of sexual equality and this was the world Boy George has wanted to create and live in since the onset of his career. When you think of how far we’ve come since Culture Club debuted in 1982, you realize how many barriers were broken down by this band. How many other bands do you know that were multi-racial, straight, had an extremely outspoken, openly gay lead singer and had crossover appeal throughout the world? Not many! Boy George has always been uncompromising in his stance on being yourself under any circumstance and not giving a fuck what anyone thinks of you. In a time where you faced much more persecution from your peers and the media for being flamboyant, out and proud than you do today, gay culture owes a huge debt of gratitude to Boy George for never backing down.
Culture Club shows still attract a widely diverse audience. I’ve seen the band together and Boy George solo on many occasions, and you will rarely find a more diverse crowd. Last night, you could readily find young and old people, gay, straight and of all races and that is a great thing. I think the audience had a collective realization of all these things I said after “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” was played and the ovation after the song went on for several minutes and Boy George even had to tell the audience to stop cheering because he was about to get emotional from the outpouring of love
Back to what's happening:
|
|
|
|
|
Environmental |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tumbling oil prices fall to 12-year low
By (Al Jazeera)
|
|
|
Oil fell briefly below $30 a barrel - for the first time in 12 years - before recovering slightly on a day that has seen a drop in prices of almost four percent.
. . .
Traders have all but given up attempting to predict where the new-year rout will end, with momentum-driven dealing and overwhelmingly bearish sentiment engulfing the market. . . .
"Once the crude surplus turns into a product surplus and we start running out of storage capacity, there will be even more pressure on prices and an imminent collapse."
Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian riyal hit a record low in the forwards market, breaching the key 1000-point mark that raised fears that the kingdom will eventually scrap or loosen its currency peg to the US dollar.
. . .
British oil and gas company BP will slash 4,000 jobs in the face of a continued slump.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Science and Health |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Colorectal cancer more likely to affect minorities at younger age
By (ScienceDaily)
|
|
|
Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of cancer and the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The chance of developing colorectal cancer increases with age. Now, a study by University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers shows that minority and ethnic groups are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer at younger ages and more advanced stages than non-Hispanic whites.
. . . "On average, minorities were diagnosed between the ages of 64 and 68, while non-Hispanic whites were typically diagnosed at age 72. When diagnosed, minority groups also had more advanced stages of cancer."
Ibdah said that several issues could influence the development of colorectal cancer at a younger age, such as hereditary and environmental factors, diet and lifestyle. Possible reasons for advanced stage diagnosis among minorities may include lower screening rates, lower income levels, and reduced access to education and health care.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Technology |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Will the W3C strike a bargain to save the Web from DRM?
By Cory Doctorow
|
|
|
The World Wide Web Consortium, which makes the standards the Web runs on, continues to pursue work on DRM -- technology that you can't connect to without explicit permission, and whose bugs can't be reported without legal jeopardy lest you weaken it.
. . .
So we (ed. EFF) came back with another proposal, modelled on the W3C's existing policies: make DRM, but require those who participate in DRM-creation to promise not to sue people just for making interoperable technology or reporting vulnerabilities. If the companies who've joined the W3C for the purpose of making interoperable DRM are really there to make something interoperable -- rather than to get the W3C's blessing on a technology whose major purpose is to let them sue programmers engaged in normal activity that's vital to the open Web -- they'll agree.
. . .
. . .
The World Wide Web Consortium is at a crossroads. Much of the "Web" is disappearing into apps and into the big companies' walled gardens. If it is to be relevant in the decades to come, it must do everything it can to keep the Web open as an alternative to those walled gardens. We're trying hard to help them do that. But if the W3C executive won't take the lead on keeping the Web open, they must, at a minimum, not impede those who haven't given up the fight.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cultural |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Village of Whitesboro Votes to Keep Racist Seal of White Man Strangling Native American Man
By Alissa Walker
|
|
|
. . .
When the US finally decided to start taking down its more overt symbols of racism last year, Whitesboro’s seal made national headlines, spurred by a very popular petition to remove it. But six months later, there has been no call from higher-ups to change the seal, which greets visitors on their way into town.
. . .
Whitesboro’s website says the emblem dates to the early 1900s and depicts a friendly wrestling match between village founder Hugh White and an Oneida Indian. It says White won the match and the lasting respect and goodwill of the Oneidas.
Of course White won lasting respect! And the Oneida Indian probably won smallpox.
This whole issue apparently has come up before. In the 1970s, after some residents found the seal offensive, the illustration was modified. A new version was drawn “with White’s hands on the Indian’s shoulders instead of on his neck,” village historian Dana Nimey-Olney told the AP.
|
|
|
Do we need more than two genders?
By (BBC)
|
|
|
. . .
Germany, Australia, Nepal and Pakistan now offer a third gender option on official forms with other countries set to follow suit. And scientists are finding more evidence to suggest that even biological sex is a spectrum.
. . .
"Ideally we would not make gender such a huge focus of our culture, which would give people the freedom to inhabit their gender in ways that feels most comfortable to them.
. . .
"We know there's a gender continuum, because there have always been effeminate boys and masculine girls. Transgender is certainly not a western phenomenon. In many cultures all over the world there are traditionally third gender or gender-fluid identities.
. . .
"We know that the outcomes of surgeries that were undertaken 10, 20 years ago are not necessarily as good as we would like them to be. Now is the next stage: in 10 or 20 years' time we will find out the outcome of not doing the surgery or maintaining these children in a certain sex, whereas previously they would have been changed to a different sex...”
. . .
"I've been saying for more than 15 years that gender as a legal category must be suppressed, because it is a way to deny rights or grant rights to male or female. Gender has the same effect that race or religion had in the past: there were two groups, one that was privileged and had rights, another that was underprivileged and didn't have rights.
|
|
|
|
|
Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already.