Monday, September 29, 2014

CAMPBELL'S - MISSING CLAM REPORT



IF YOU OPENED A CAN OF 
CAMPBELL'S NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

And you could not find a single clam in it,

Please let me know.

I found a few microscopic bits in my bowl.

It may be that when Campbell's

Were sealing the tins of potato soup,

The clam designated for your can

Fell into mine, by accident.


I will testify on your behalf
If you decide to sue.
Sorry, 
I am unable to present the evidence:
The bits were so tiny,
I swallowed them before I could catch them.
But my word is good.






THE CANADIAN INJUSTICE SYSTEM





Pretend you are insane,

And you can get away with murder.

Oy! Canada !

The nation that loves criminals.


Friday, September 26, 2014

MONTREAL DOCTOR WHO MURDERED HIS OWN CHILDREN GRANTED BAIL

 
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
 
Quebec law protects criminals:
Just claim "temporary insanity"
And you are free to kill:
No one is safe in Montreal, Quebec,
Where corruption rules.
 

MONTREAL - The Crown will ask Quebec's highest court to review a decision to grant bail to a former doctor facing murder charges in the killing of his two children.

Guy Turcotte was given bail two weeks ago while awaiting a new trial on two counts of first-degree murder.

That trial is scheduled to take place in September 2015.

The province's director of criminal and penal prosecutions has filed a motion with the Quebec Court of Appeal, asking it to review the bail decision.

In granting bail, Superior Court Justice Andre Vincent said Turcotte does not represent a danger to society and is entitled to the presumption of innocence as he awaits the new proceedings.

Turcotte, 42, is charged in the stabbing deaths of Olivier, 5, and Anne-Sophie, 3, at a rented family home north of Montreal in early 2009.

A jury found Turcotte not criminally responsible in 2011 and he was released from a psychiatric institution the following year.

The appeals court overturned that verdict last November and ordered a new trial.

http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/crown-appeals-decision-to-grant-turcotte-bail 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

COMPUTER HACKERS - I.D. THIEVES - PREFER MEDICAL RECORDS TO CREDIT CARDS

 

Your medical information is worth 10 times more than your credit card number on the black market.

Last month, the FBI told healthcare providers to guard against cyberattacks after one of the largest US hospital operators, Community Health Systems Inc, said suspected Chinese hackers had broken into its computer network and stolen the personal information of 4.5 million patients.

Security experts say cyber criminals are increasingly targeting the US$3 trillion US healthcare industry, which has many companies still reliant on aging computer systems that do not use the latest security features.

"As attackers discover new methods to make money, the healthcare industry is becoming a much riper target because of the ability to sell large batches of personal data for profit," said Dave Kennedy, an expert on healthcare security and CEO of TrustedSEC LLC. "Hospitals have low security, so it's relatively easy for these hackers to get a large amount of personal data for medical fraud."

Interviews with nearly a dozen healthcare executives, cyber security investigators and fraud experts provide a detailed account of the underground market for stolen patient data.

The data for sale includes names, birth dates, policy numbers, diagnosis codes and billing information. Fraudsters use this data to create fake IDs to buy medical equipment or drugs that can be resold, or they combine a patient number with a false provider number and file made-up claims with insurers, according to experts who have investigated cyberattacks on healthcare organizations.

Medical identity theft is often not immediately identified by a patient or their provider, giving criminals years to milk such credentials. That makes medical data more valuable than credit cards, which tend to be quickly canceled by banks once fraud is detected.

Stolen health credentials can go for US$10 each, about 10 or 20 times the value of a US credit card number, according to Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence at PhishLabs, a cybercrime protection company. He obtained the data by monitoring underground exchanges where hackers sell the information.

The percentage of healthcare organizations that reported a criminal cyberattack had risen to 40 percent last year from 20 percent in 2009, according to an annual survey by the Ponemon Institute think tank on data protection policy.

Fueling that increase is a shift to electronic medical records by a majority of US healthcare providers.

Healthcare providers and insurers must publicly disclose data breaches affecting more than 500 people, but there are no laws requiring criminal prosecution. As a result, the total cost of cyber attacks on the healthcare system is difficult to pin down. Insurance industry experts say they are one of many expenses ultimately passed onto US citizens as part of rising health insurance premiums.

Consumers sometimes discover their credentials have been stolen only after fraudsters use their personal medical ID to impersonate them and obtain health services. When the unpaid bills are sent on to debt collectors, they track down the fraud victims and seek payment.

The US government's efforts to combat Medicare fraud have focused on traditional types of scams that involve provider billing and over billing. Fraud involving the Medicare program for seniors and the disabled totaled more than US$6 billion in the past two years, according to a database maintained by Medical Identity Fraud Alliance.

"Healthcare providers and hospitals are just some of the easiest networks to break into," said Jeff Horne, vice president at cyber security firm Accuvant, which is majority-owned by private equity firm Blackstone Group.

KPMG partner Michael Ebert said security has been an afterthought for many medical providers — whether it is building encryption into software used to create electronic patient records or in setting budgets.

"Are you going to put money into a brand new MRI machine or laser surgery or are you going to put money into a new firewall?" he said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/09/26/2003600636

EBOLA - THE WORLD IS ROUND - MILLIONS COULD DIE - THIS IS NOT FICTION


A health worker sprays disinfectant on a colleague who had loaded a suspected Ebola victim into an ambulance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 24. (Michael Duff/Associated Press)
 

An idea long viewed as an unlikely possibility is now becoming increasingly real: Ebola might not go away for a very long time.

It has never happened before in the 38-year history of the virus. Every other time Ebola has made the unlikely jump from the animal world to the human one, it has been snuffed out within days, weeks or, at most, months.

This time, though, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Ebola virus is raging like a forest fire, in the words of several public health officials. And some of them are raising the possibility that the outbreak-turned-full-fledged-epidemic could become fundamentally different from any other Ebola outbreak on record, in that it might stick around.

"What's always worked before – contact tracing, isolation and quarantine – is not going to work, and it's not working now," said Daniel Lucey, a professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center, who spent three weeks treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and will soon travel to the Liberian capital of Monrovia for another five-week stint.

"In my opinion," Lucey added, "a year from now, we won't have one or two cases; we'll have many cases of Ebola."

Unlike past outbreaks, in which Ebola emerged in the sparsely populated countryside of Central Africa, this outbreak has become an exponentially spreading urban menace.

With the number of infected and dead in the thousands and growing quickly -- and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection warning that it could surge past 1 million within four months -- finding and quarantining every person who might come into contact with the virus is a herculean task.

In cramped and chaotic large cities, Lucey said, it might be near impossible to adequately track Ebola infections without the help of medical interventions such as vaccines, anti-viral drugs or immune therapies, most of which could be months or more away from approval. "We would need a campaign like the global smallpox eradication program from the '60s and '70s," he said.

Even in the rural areas, there are worrying signs.

In some parts of West Africa, such as the rural area in southwestern Guinea near where the outbreak began, there are troubling indications that infections are continuing at relatively low but steady level from week-to-week.

That suggests a simmering, steady-state rate of transmission that is just as troubling as the exponential growth observed in the outbreak as a whole, according to Christopher Dye, the World Health Organization's director of strategy. In a new study he co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dye even raised the possibility that Ebola might become endemic in West Africa.

"The question we're raising is to put in people's minds that the epidemic might not be eliminated from the human population completely for a very long time," Dye said this week in an interview from Geneva. Unless global intervention begins to kick in soon, "at the moment we see no reason why that steady state will not continue to go on and on," he said.

A Liberian woman weeps over the Ebola death of a relative on the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. (Ahmed Jallanzo/European Pressphoto Agency)
A Liberian woman weeps over the Ebola death of relative on the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. (Ahmed Jallanzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

Epidemiologists consider a disease "endemic" if the transmission rate hovers around one per infection, and a region that's grappling with a constant low level of continued Ebola transmissions could find it impossible to resume normal public health operations.

In late August, when Lucey was in Sierra Leone, the country's only large referral hospital for children -- nicknamed Cottage Hospital -- shuttered its doors to keep Ebola out. A single child out of a steady stream of hundreds that passed through the facility on a regular basis had been treated for two days before anyone realized he had Ebola.

With Cottage Hospital closed, children and pregnant women in Sierra Leone have nowhere else to go to be treated for basic, life-saving medical care, Lucey said. In Liberia, the situation is similar: With Ebola crippling the health system, Liberians are dying of routine medical problems, as The Post reported last week.

That is how things are right now, with Ebola raging unabated.

But with this virus, there is no middle ground. The presence of even a small number of continued transmissions of Ebola can also wreak havoc on already fragile health-care systems.

When Ebola is present in the population, it is nearly impossible to know whether a patient who walks in is sick with the deadly virus rather than another of the many other conditions that can result in similar symptoms.

"So when a child has a fever and they spit up and they have some loose stools and diarrhea — that is very, very common in a child," said Lucey. "How can you tell it's not Ebola or something else? That means that the health-care providers have to wear this really comprehensive, hot, personal protective equipment for all of them."

Most public hospitals are closed because they do not have the ability to treat Ebola patients safely; the risk of treating non-Ebola conditions with similar symptoms – such as dengue fever or even diarrhea — is simply too great.

In Sierra Leone and Liberia, some of these concerns are already coming to pass.

Lassa fever – a similar, but less deadly hemorrhagic fever – is on the rise as the dry season begins.

"There's not even a place really to put all the Ebola patients, so now we're going to have to be thinking about how do we separate the lassa patients from the Ebola patients – because that is not something that we want to mix," Joseph Fair, a virus expert and special adviser to the health minister of Sierra Leone, said in testimony before Congress on Wednesday. "The chances of survival with lassa are much greater than with Ebola."

It is possible, however, that Ebola is not capable of enduring in the human population for long – in part because it is far too deadly. Daniel Bausch, an associate professor in the Department of Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, has spent years researching Ebola and other viruses at the CDC; he is an endemic Ebola skeptic.

"I actually don't buy it; I don't see how this disease could become endemic," Bausch said. "It would have to become much less deadly so you would have something where this can be maintained in a human population independently, long-term -- independently of its maintenance in the wild. You would have to have drastic mutations of the virus."

At least so far, there is no evidence that the virus has mutated significantly to make it any more or less deadly. According to Dye's WHO study of the first nine months of the outbreak, the mortality rate for the virus is 70 percent -- which is on par with previous outbreaks.

But whether Ebola becomes endemic or a just a very long, sustained epidemic that eventually ends, both outlooks are fairly grim.

"We'll either get a handle on it and stop transmission in those places, or we won't and the virus will rifle through the population," Bausch said. "Once it's gone through population, then pretty much everybody gets Ebola and lives or dies."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/09/25/terrifying-new-normal-an-ebola-outbreak-that-never-really-goes-away/

YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT COMPUTER HACKERS CAN DO - NOT SCIENCE FICTION

 
 
MIND BOGGLING REALITY
 
If you see what quantum physics experts can do,
It will make you wonder what God can do.
 
 
http://www.denverpost.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=6247159
Cyber-security experts Liam O Murchu, left, and Eric Chien at Symantec. Their job is to investigate the viruses that pop up on your computer. (Provided by BBC)

 

How sly of those "Nova" folks. They've concocted a science show masquerading as an espionage tale, a story about math that pretends to be about our Internet passwords, an educational overview of our data-dependent world that wants us to find it entertaining.

Amazingly, it works. Even the math-averse will find this hour fascinating.

PBS's "Nova: Rise of the Hackers" manages to make a complex and rapidly changing corner of computing comprehensible to non-science majors. With plenty of suspense, cultural connections and quotable experts — there are reasons to settle in, 8-9 p.m. Sept. 24, on RMPBS.

You've heard about Target losing control of your credit card numbers. You know about the hacker who spread nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence around the Internet. You may have read about the 15-year-old kid who hacked into NASA just for fun, shutting down computers that control the International Space Station.

Turns out, those are low-hanging fruit when it comes to computer hacking.

Wait until you learn about "ultra-paranoid computing" (really, that's a thing) and get a handle on the worm that is Stuxnet.

Hackers have moved on from taking over Amazon accounts to the more globally threatening business of cyber terrorism.

"Nova" makes this frightening reality understandable while informing us ever so gently about quantum physics, quantum cryptography and the various kinds of con jobs going on online every day. If you're not at least a little worried, you're not paying attention.

"The Internet is a bad neighborhood," says Patrick Lincoln of SRI International, one of the cyber-security experts interviewed. "In the digital world there are ne'er-do-wells coming by to rattle the door all the time."

The esteemed PBS series isn't above using clips of George Clooney in dashing action-adventure mode, switching out security-camera footage to make it look like nothing's wrong during a heist, to explain how hackers get into supposedly secure systems.

"Nova: explains how mischievous teenagers are going head to head with powerful nation-states in the hacking game. There's enough "quantum weirdness" explored here to make you want to rewind, pause or go back to school. What's that? Scientists are using video games to encode password sequences in the human subconscious brain? I think I saw that movie.

It's creepy-cool stuff, even if each chapter could use another few minutes to expand on the concepts, stick to laymen's terms and let the general public catch up.

(I'm still working on the notion of multiplying prime numbers.)

This tale of super spies and hackers tricks us into watching a show about math and physics. Who knew it could be this dramatic — and frightening?


http://www.denverpost.com/television/ci_26554544/pbs-nova-rise-hackers-explores-modern-code-crackers

TWO DOCTORS ACCUSED OF DRUGGING, SEXUALLY ASSAULTING STUDENT FOUND NOT GUILTY

 

Canadian law protects even the worst criminals. 

The politicians and the lawyers,

The police and the courts

All focus on the rights of criminals.

Victims usually lose - 

Until the time comes

When the people rise up in the streets

 And start screaming for justice.

 

An Ontario ( Canada ) judge has found two doctors not guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a medical student in 2011.

Amitabh Chauhan and Suganthan Kayilasanthan were accused of allegedly drugging and then sexually assaulting the woman after a night of drinking and dancing at a Toronto club.

Justice Julie Thorburn says she understands that the trial has been a "long and emotional journey" for all involved and that her decision might be "difficult" for some.

But she says she has reasonable doubt as to whether the victim was drugged and then sexually assaulted.

Chauhan had also been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting another woman in 2003 with whom he had a relationship years earlier.

He was found not guilty on those charges as well.

Ontario Police investigate second sexual assault claim in case against two Ontario doctors

Sexual assault Medical student in sexual-assault case a naval reservist

Justice Doctors charged with sexual assault win bail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/two-ontario-doctors-found-not-guilty-of-drugging-sexually-assaulting-woman/article20785545/

 

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

WHILE THOUSANDS STARVE, INDIA SPENDS MILLIONS TO CHECK OUT MARS

 
 
An Indian space probe has successfully entered Mars' orbit, marking the first interplanetary mission for the country.

Scientists broke into wild cheers Wednesday morning local time as the orbiter's engines completed 24 minutes of burn time and maneuvered into its designated place around the red planet.

The success of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, brings India into an elite club of Martian explorers that includes United States, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union.

The Indian Space and Research Organisation described the mission as flawless.

"We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, standing alongside ISRO scientists at the command center in the southern tech hub of Bangalore. "We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few."

India is the first country to reach Mars' orbit on a maiden venture and the first Asian country to launch a successful Mars mission, all with a much cheaper price tag than any Mars mission before it.

NASA congratulated the ISRO for the successful mission on Twitter.

And the ISRO amplified its moment in the spotlight with a little humor, referencing NASA's own historic Mars-related feat in a tweet after getting a welcome message from Curiosity's Twitter handle.

The ISRO launched the small unmanned satellite Mangalyaan (Hindi for "Mars craft") in November of last year. The probe has spent the last 300 days journeying more than 420 million miles between Earth and the red planet at a speed of 13.7 miles per second.

The mission's success was not guaranteed. If the onboard rocket engine did not slow the satellite to just the right speed, it could have either careened off into space or crashed down to the planet's surface, wrote science writer Pallava Bagla in an article for BBC News.

Only about 42% of the 51 probes sent to Mars since 1960 have completed the mission
Only about 42% of the 51 probes sent to Mars since 1960 have completed the mission, Bagla said.

The probe is expected to use five tools to map the planet's surface and search for signs of life, including a color camera, a methane sensor and a thermal imaging spectrometer. To cut down on costs, the probe has a relatively small payload and used a smaller-than-average rocket engine to break into Earth's orbit.

In June, India's prime minister Narendra Modi claimed that, at a cost of just $74 million, the Mars Orbiter Mission was less expensive than production of the Oscar-winning science fiction film "Gravity," which cost a reported $100 million to make. For comparison, NASA's most recent Mars probe, Maven, which made orbit on Sunday, ran up a cost of about $671 million and the European Space Agency's 2003 mission's price tag was roughly $386 million.

India's space agency has honed its ability to make do with limited resources over the years out of "sheer necessity," according to the Wall Street Journal. In addition to operating on a comparatively paltry budget, many international agencies refused to share expertise with ISRO's scientists after the country began conducting nuclear weapons tests.

While some critics question whether a nation that is home to a third of the world's poorest people should be spending roughly a billion dollars per year on space exploration, India counters that the program drives innovation and fuels employment in the country. Modi hopes the mission will help establish India as the world leader in cheap space exploration.

K. Radhakrishnan, ISRO's chairman, said the mission is a "natural progression" from the success of India's first lunar probe, the Chandrayaan 1 orbiter mission, which played an instrumental role in proving the existence of water on the Moon in 2008. ISRO is currently in the development stage on a second lunar probe.

"Just getting there is a big, bold statement. Succeeding would be a giant one about India's place in the region and in the world," Bagla told The Guardian.

http://mashable.com/2014/09/23/india-mars-mission-history/

FANATICS PRETENDING TO BE MUSLIMS ARE DESTROYING ANCIENT HISTORICAL SITES

 
 
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 23, 2014

The damage and looting of historic sites in Iraq and Syria, which have been preserved for millennia, have destroyed irreplaceable evidence of ancient life and society. Further damage to these countries' treasures increases the loss of their common heritage and cultural legacies of universal importance. Fragile sites and buildings have suffered as collateral damage to battles, targets for purposeful ideological destruction, and prey for systematic looting:

  • The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has proudly trumpeted their destruction of many of the most historic monuments of Islamic architecture in Mosul, including the tomb of Nebi Yunus/Prophet Jonah, which is sacred to Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
  • The Syrian regime's indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes, notably on the historic centers of Homs and Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have decimated or irrevocably damaged large areas of these historic sites.
  • The medieval castle Crac des Chevaliers, also a World Heritage site, dating to the 11th century, has been severely damaged and scarred by war.
  • Looters, exploiting the vacuum of government control in ISIL-run territory in eastern Syria, have destroyed the ancient Roman city of Dura Europos, where pagans, Jews, and Christians once lived and worshipped side-by-side.
  • In Raqqa, ISIL publicly ordered the bulldozing of a colossal ancient Assyrian gateway lion sculpture dating to the 8th century BC.

As the international community responds to the wanton destruction perpetrated by extremists in Iraq and to the brutality and suffering facing the Syrian people, we also recognize that preserving these countries' cultural heritage is a critical step towards reconstruction, reconciliation, and building civil society.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced September 22, 2014, that the Department of State has partnered with the American Schools of Orient Research (ASOR) to comprehensively document the condition of, and threats to, cultural heritage sites in Iraq and Syria to assess their future restoration, preservation, and protection needs. Findings are posted weekly at: http://www.asor-syrianheritage.org/

In Iraq, the United States government has provided nearly $33 million since 2003 for a broad range of cultural heritage projects, including infrastructure upgrades to the Iraq National Museum, establishment of a cultural heritage preservation training institute in Erbil, and site management planning and conservation work at the site of ancient Babylon. The Department of State also partnered with international organizations to develop the Emergency Red List of Iraqi Antiquities at Risk to enable customs officials to identify and detain objects from Iraq that are particularly at risk of looting, theft, and illicit trafficking. Since 1990, the United States has restricted the importation of cultural property of Iraq and other items of archaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific or religious importance.

For Syria, the Department of State sponsored the publication of the Emergency Red List of Syrian Cultural Objects at Risk to alert international customs authorities to the illicit trafficking of Syrian artifacts and produced a map featuring 1,000 important museums, historic buildings, and archaeological sites to raise awareness of threats to Syrian cultural heritage.

We urge all parties in Iraq and Syria and the international community to respect and protect archaeological, historic, religious, and cultural sites, including museums and archives, and reaffirm that all those who destroy important cultural property must be held accountable.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/09/232028.htm

 

A WORLD WITHOUT WAR ?

 
 
It might happen,
If
Those without blood on their hands,
Reached out to
Those without blood on their hands.
 
Aren't there more of us
Than there are of them?
 

Back in ye olden bible days, the patriarch, Abraham, pleaded with God to have mercy on the wicked towns of Sodom and Gomorrah: ( Plus ca change )

 

GENESIS 18

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.[a] 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."

20 Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[b] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

26 The Lord said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?"

"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."

29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"

He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."

30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"

He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."

31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"

He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."

32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"

He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."

33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2018:16-33

COMPANIES KNEW TALCUM POWDER CAN CAUSE OVARIAN CANCER - DANGER TO BABIES

 
 
For years, medical professionals knew that talcum powder was dangerous for babies and children to breathe. Now women claim in lawsuits that the fine-powder products gave them ovarian cancer. They're taking action against Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant and talcum powder distributor.

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson finds itself the subject of two class-action lawsuits filed in 2014, both of which claim the company is responsible for giving women ovarian cancer through its high-selling talcum powder products, Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower.

The class-action filings came one year after South Dakota resident Deane Berg won her legal claim that J&J was negligent because it did not warn her during three decades of Baby Powder use could put her at greater risk for developing ovarian cancer. Berg was diagnosed with that type of cancer in 2006.

Together, the litigation's point to increased scrutiny on how responsible J&J is for not warning consumers – primarily women – about the dangers of its talc-based powders. 

Over many decades, women applied talc-based powders to dusted their private parts with talcum powders or sprinkled them on undergarments and sanitary pads to keep the groin area cool and comfortable and discourage the development of vaginal odors. Additionally, the reproductive tracts of many women were exposed to talcum powder via diaphragms sprinkled with the product or condoms that were coated with it.

Although there is some conflicting research, most published medical studies indicate that talc-based powders, when used by women long term to keep moisture, odor and chafing under control around their vagina, are associated with ovarian cancer.

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies is a subsidiary of J&J that researches, markets, distributes and sells consumer products aimed at mothers and babies. That includes Johnson's Baby Powder.

Stockton, Calif., resident Mona Estrada filed a class action in the Eastern District of California in April 14, charging Johnson & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.

Estrada claims "Johnson's Baby Powder is not safe" and that studies document that women who used talc-based powders on their genital area have a 33-percent increased risk of developing ovarian cancer than women who did not use the products. J&J knew the risks of its powder products that have talc as an ingredient and yet took no action to warn consumers like her of the dangers of using them as an odor stopper or to help with sweat or moisture.

Estrada used Baby Powder from about 1950 to 2013 but does not have ovarian cancer. According to her law firm, her claim was filed on behalf of her and other women.

She cited research conducted as early as 1961 that showed the harmful effects of talcum powder. She also cited a lengthy list of other studies that linked talc to ovarian cancer.

A month after Estrada's filing, Illinois resident Barbara Mihalich also filed a class-action claim against J&J and Johnson Consumer Companies. Her lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Illinois. Milalich claims that the defendants violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practice Act and profited unjustly from its talcum powder products.

Her claim said she brought the legal action for herself and on behalf of "other similarly situated Illinois consumers" that bought Baby Powder.

Like Estrada, Mihalich was not diagnosed with ovarian cancer and does not claim any physical harm from the powder products.

Deane Berg, a South Dakota woman, used Johnson's Baby Powder and its Shower to Shower powder as a feminine hygiene product and to ease chafing virtually daily from 1975 to 2007, according to her lawsuit. In late 2006, a pelvic exam showed clotting blood in her ovaries, and more tests led to a diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

In her claim against J&J, she said that talc – a key ingredient in Johnson's Baby Powder and in Shower to Shower – caused her cancer. She said J&J should have put a warning about the association of talc and ovarian cancer on the products, both of which women use to control odor and moisture in their vaginal areas.

 In Berg's case, cancerous tissues were removed from her body and examined by three doctors that found talc particles embedded in those tissues and concluded that talcum powder was the cause of her cancer. One of those doctors, Daniel Cramer of Harvard University, has studied the issue of talcum powder and ovarian cancer for three decades. In court testimony, he stated that talcum powder was likely a contributing factor in 10,000 cases of ovarian cancer annually.

Berg won her claim that the pharmaceutical company was negligent not to warn consumers about its talcum powder product dangers. Her victory, however, was a partial and Pyric one. The court sided ruled that J&J that it was not part of a conspiracy, and the jury decided the drug company did not have liability. The jury also awarded no financial damages in the case. Berg's appeal for damages was denied by Judge Karen E. Schreier.

Did you use talcum powder and develop ovarian cancer or another serious complication? Fill out our Free Case Review form to find out what legal options you may have.

  • Ovarian Cancer
  • Respiratory Issues
  • Pelvic Pain
  • Urinary Symptoms Despite the mounting evidence of serious health affects with genital use of talcum powder, major manufacturers of talcum powder products do not warn consumers of the potential dangers.

Lawyers across the country are reviewing potential cases of those who feel they were injured by talcum powder, an indication that manufacturers of these products can expect to see a lot more lawsuits filed against them.

View Sources
  1. Mihalich v. Johnson & Johnson, and John & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc. (2014, May 23). U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois. Case No. 3:14-cv-00600-MJR-SCW.
  2. Estrada v. Johnson & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc. (2014, April 28). U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California. Case No. 2:14-cv-01051-TLN-KJN.
  3. Berg v. Johnson & Johnson, et al. (2009, Dec. 4). U.S. District Court, District of South Dakota, Southern Division. Case No. 4:09-cv-04179-KES.
  4. Talc And Carcinoma Of The Ovary And Cervix Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471­0528.1971.tb00267.x/abstract
  5. Cramer, D., Welch, W., Scully R. and Wojciechowski, C. (1982, July 15). Ovarian cancer and talc: a case­control study. PubMed. Abstract. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7083145#
  6. Terry, K., et al. (2013, August). Genital powder use and risk of ovarian cancer: a pooled analysis of 8,525 cases and 9,859 controls. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3766843/
  7. Huncharek, M., Geschwind, J., Kupelnick, B. (2003, March-April). Perineal application of cosmetic talc and risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer: a meta­analysis of 11,933 subjects from sixteen observational studies. Abstract. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12820486
  8. The Associated Press. (2013, Oct. 3). Jury Ties J&J Talc Powder to Ovarian Cancer. Retrieved from http://www.dddmag.com/news/2013/10/jury­ties­j­j­talc­powder­ovarian­cancer

ARE YOU THINKING OF BUYING INSURANCE? PRUDENTIAL - "THE ROCK" - ABANDONED ME

 
 
For thirty years, I paid "The Rock" - Prudential Insurance (Assurance) - for coverage - house, valuables, and car - through an established agency in Beaconsfield on the West Island of Montreal.
 
When I was attacked and robbed in my home at 4995 Prince of Wales, NDG, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, October, 1996, Prudential and my friendly, smiling agent, Gerry Thornily and his son, Brian, dropped me like a hot potato. All of a sudden, they didn't know me.
 
I did not want compensation. It was either the same day or the day after I was attacked and robbed, that I telephoned Brian Thornily from the pay phone at the Fraser-Hickson Library in NDG, and reported the robbery. I asked him to investigate and recover my stolen belongings. Everything I owned was still in the house where I had been living with my parents for two years - and where I had just been attacked and robbed - with the help of a Montreal Police officer.
 
Once Prudential heard "police officer", they abandoned me - left me high and dry. They refused to investigate. They refused to do anything.
 
Why?
 
Prudential blamed the Montreal Police for not making a report on time.
 
ATTACKED AND ROBBED -
PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE BLAMES THE MONTREAL POLICE
 
CORRUPTION DEEPLY ROOTED IN MONTREAL CITY HALL
 
 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

WORLD WAR THREE

 
 
We speak of World War I.
Many of us remember World War II
But those wars barely touched North America.
 
World War III
Targets every nation on earth.
 
Strange that no one is calling it
"World War III."
 
If we pretend it isn't,
Will it go away?
 

Monday, September 22, 2014

CHRISTIAN TOWN IN SYRIA UNDER THREAT OF DESTRUCTION BY ISLAMIST MILITANTS

 
 
 
The "Jabhat al-Nusra" extremist terrorist group has already for a month been besieging the Syrian village of Muhradah also known as Mhardeh, 25 kilometres from the city of Hamah—the majority of its population being Orthodox Christian, report the news agencies.
 

The Christian village in central Syria, surrounded by takfirist militants on three sides, has been living under threat of physical destruction for a month now. The village was deprived of electricity by the extremists as early as July 24 when an "al-Nusra" shell hit the local thermal power-station. 43 people, including women and children, fell victim to the subsequent shellings. Should there be another siege, the village is threatened with a local humanitarian catastrophe, experts are convinced.

According to the eyewitnesses who left Muhradah over the last days, the settlement is constantly attacked by missiles, tanks, and machine guns from the "Jabhat al-Nusra" road blocks; over the last week alone the territory of the village was the target for 34 shells in the span of three hours. The residents have organized self-defense squads, holding back attacks of the takfirists' forces, as well as "ambulance" brigades to give necessary medical aid to injured people during and after bombardment.

According to the residents' evidence, in spite of the continuous fire, the intensity of attacks mostly comes in waves.

On the days of especially massive shellings, the number of refugees to other towns of the governorate increases, but the larger part of the village's Christian population of 20,000 people is remaining inside the besieged settlement—the men of Muhradah intend to defend their homes and shrines (there are five ancient churches in the village).

Nevertheless, many refugees consider the current situation to be critical. In their view, the inequality of forces threatens the village's Christians with the fate of Sadad and Mosul.

 

SICK AMERICA - WONDER WHY YOUNG PEOPLE JOIN EXTREMIST GROUPS?

 
 
You can see evidence of the problems
On American television every day:
 
Jerry Springer
Maury Povitch
Bill Cunningham
 
The filthy backside of America
Is flaunted for millions to witness
On U.S. television.
 
Is it so surprising
That young people are disgusted with America?
 And long for something else?
 

Sunday, September 21, 2014

THE CREATION WE CALL "WOMAN" - A FAIRY TALE VERSION

 
 
When God created woman he was working late on the 6th day.

An Angel came by and asked,  "Why spend so much time on her ?".
                                        
The Lord answered. " Have you seen all the  specifications I have to meet to shape her?

She must function on all kinds of foods,

She must be able to embrace several kids at the same time,

She can give a hug that can heal anything from a bruised knee to a broken heart ,

She must do all this with only two hands.

She cures herself when sick and can work 18 hours a day."

The Angel was impressed. .." With just two hands.....impossible !

And this is the standard model ? !"

The Angel came closer and touched the woman.

" But you have made her so soft, Lord"

" She is soft", said the Lord,

" But I have made her strong. You can't imagine what she can endure and overcome."

"Can she think?" The Angel asked.

The Lord answered. " Not only can she think, she can reason and negotiate" ...
.
The Angel touched her cheeks.

" Lord, it seems this creation is leaking !  You have put too many burdens on her. "

."She is not leaking...it is a tear."

" What's it for?" Asked the Angel..... .
.
The Lord said. " Tears are her way of expressing - her grief, her doubts, her love,
her loneliness, her suffering and her pride."

This made a big impression on the Angel,

"Lord, you are genius. You thought of everything. A woman is indeed marvellous !"

The Lord said."Indeed she is - 

She has strength that amazes a man.

She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens.

She holds happiness, love and opinions.

She smiles when she feels like screaming.

She sings when she feels like crying, cries when happy and laughs when afraid.

She fights for what she believes in.

Her love is unconditional.

Her heart is broken when a next-of-kin or a friend dies

But she finds strength to get on with life."

The Angel asked, "So she is a perfect ?"

The Lord replied : "No. She has just one drawback -

She often forgets what she is worth".

Source Unknown

Saturday, September 20, 2014

I BELIEVE - FOR PEOPLE WHO USE THE BRAINS THEY ARE GIVEN, IT IS NOT SO SIMPLE

 
 
Deep in my spirit,
I believe in God -
An omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent,
Just and loving
God.
 
And then I see this.
 
 
 
Shall I say then,
I am glad I have eyes ?
 
Or
 
Shall I say,
God is not what we think "He" is,
And we had better take care of things
Ourselves ?
 

THE ROOSEVELTS - ELEANOR - SHE WAS THE BEST OF THEM

 

Picture of Eleanor Roosevelt in a school portrait. - (Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library) 

Eleanor Roosevelt was a writer, activist, and wife of 32nd United States President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Using her intellect and influence, she redefined what it meant to be a female member of the upper echelons of society, First Lady of New York, First Lady of the United States, and ultimately she expanded the role of women in society.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born October 11, 1884, to Elliot Roosevelt, brother of future president Theodore Roosevelt, and Anna Rebecca Hall, a debutant known for her height and beauty. Eleanor, as she was known, was the oldest of three children—brother Elliot was born in 1889, brother Gracie "Hall" was born in 1891. Her father was independently wealthy and never held a salaried position, though he was listed as a partner in a real estate firm, had a brief stint in mine development, and was a big game hunter. He was also an alcoholic and was institutionalized for treatment several times during Eleanor's childhood. She was a shy, serious child, made to feel very self-conscious of her looks.

Eleanor began her education at the age of 7 by being privately tutored in her New York home. She was placed in a convent school in Italy briefly during a family trip to Europe in 1890—her mother and brother Elliot lived in Italy while her father was in an asylum in France being treated for alcoholism. The family returned to the United States in 1891, but her parents remained estranged. In addition, some time between 1889 and 1891, Elliot had an affair with a servant, Katy Mann, and fathered another son, Elliot Roosevelt Mann. Theodore Roosevelt handled the paternity claim in 1891, agreeing to provide support for Katy and Elliot out of court.

In 1892, Anna contracted diphtheria and died on December 7 at the age of 29. Knowing her husband was unstable, Anna had asked her mother, Mary Hall, to care for the children. Grandmother Hall's large home in Manhattan was somber, in spite of the full house—two unmarried aunts and two uncles also lived there, along with the servants. Grandmother Hall felt she had been too lax of a mother with her own children and determined not to make the same mistake with Eleanor and her brothers. In 1893, both of Eleanor's brothers got scarlet fever and four-year-old Elliot died. Eleanor's father died on August 14, 1894, from a seizure that was the result of a suicide attempt; Grandmother Hall did not allow Eleanor and her brother Hall to attend the funeral.

Eleanor turned to books for solace and escape from these staggering personal losses and the stifled upbringing in her Grandmother Hall's house. In the following years, Eleanor continued to receive her grandmother's idea of a proper upbringing—she still studied with the tutor her mother had hired, took classes in French and music, and practiced dancing—all skills of wealthy society women. Summers were spent at her grandmother's Hudson River Valley country house in Tivoli, New York. She had little contact with her father's family but did occasionally visit her Uncle Theodore Roosevelt's family, who also lived in Manhattan and had a summer house in the Hudson Valley.

In 1899, Grandmother Hall enrolled 14-year-old Eleanor at Allenswood Girl's Academy in Wimbledon Common, London, England, a finishing school that she would attend for three years. Allenswood was run by Marie Souvestre, the daughter of philosopher E?mile Souvestre. As an educator of children from prominent European and American families, Souvestre was unusual in her determination to expand the minds of her students and help them become intellectually independent. She took Eleanor under her wing, became her friend, mentor, and traveling companion. At Allenswood, Eleanor learned French, German, Italian, English literature, composition, music, drawing, painting, and dance. Souvestre directed her independent study of history, geography, and philosophy, imparting a rigorous intellectual method based in analysis and independent thought. Souvestre also championed the working class, showing Eleanor impoverished areas during their travels and defending working class rights.

In September 1901, Eleanor's uncle Theodore became President of the United States after the assassination of William McKinley. In the summer of 1902, Grandmother Hall insisted Eleanor return to the United States for her social debut. Eleanor spent the summer and fall attending society events leading up to that debut. On a train to Tivoli, she ran into Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her father's godson, and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, her father's cousin, who were on their way to their summer house in Hyde Park, New York. Eleanor and Franklin saw each other several more times that fall—Franklin was attending Harvard University and would sometimes have lunch or tea with Eleanor when he was in New York.

On December 14, 1902, Eleanor was presented to society at a debutante ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. She was tall and awkward, felt entirely out of place, and went home early. December 31, 1902, Eleanor attended a party at the White House given by her Uncle Theodore—Franklin also attended, sitting near her at the theater the guests went to on New Year's Day. Throughout 1903, Eleanor attended dinners, parties, and dances, some with Franklin, who was attending Columbia Law School in New York, having graduated from Harvard in the spring of 1903. Their friendship grew and in October 1903, he proposed. Although Eleanor accepted, Franklin's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, asked them to keep the engagement private; if they felt the same about each other after a year, they could announce it. The couple reluctantly agreed and Eleanor began spending more time with Sara, getting to know her.

That fall, Eleanor also joined the Consumers League, an organization that lobbied for labor laws. She was asked to check on the working conditions of children, many of whom worked at their tenement homes. She was also a member of the Junior League and was assigned to teach calisthenics and dancing at a settlement house, early community centers that allowed educated, wealthy people to provide social services and education to the urban poor.

In November 1904 Eleanor and Franklin announced their engagement. On March 17, 1905. they were married in New York City. President Theodore Roosevelt, inaugurated on March 4, 1905, walked Eleanor down the aisle and gave her away. The couple moved into a home selected and decorated by Sara Delano Roosevelt, who also selected the staff for the house. Sara held the purse strings and dominated the first years of the marriage—in 1908, she gave the young family a townhouse in New York adjacent to her own, with doors connecting to her townhouse on every floor.

Eleanor spent the next ten years focused on her growing family and supporting her husband in his career. She had six children, five who lived to adulthood—Anna Eleanor (May 3, 1906), James (December 23, 1907), Elliot (September 23, 1910), Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (August 17, 1914), and John Aspinwall (March 13, 1916). Her fourth child, also named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., was born on March 3, 1909, but died of influenza on November 7 that same year.  

In 1907, Franklin passed the New York state bar exam and left Columbia without a degree—he began practicing law with a prominent firm in New York City. In 1910, he entered politics and in 1911 was elected to the state senate as a Democrat from a predominantly Republican district. Of the family's move to Albany, New York, Eleanor said, "For the first time I was going to live on my own. I wanted to be independent. I was beginning to realize that something within me craved to be an individual."

Franklin's campaign against the Tammany Hall block in the senate opened Eleanor's eyes to politics and government. He supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election and was rewarded with an appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913. Eleanor managed the transition from New York to Washington, positioning herself and her husband in Washington society. With the United States entry into World War I, she became active in the American Red Cross, volunteered in Navy hospitals, and began to take on a more public political role.

In 1918, Eleanor discovered that Franklin had been having an affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer, who would become, at the very least, his life-long friend—although she married in 1920, she spent time with Franklin throughout the remainder of his life. Eleanor offered Franklin a divorce, but her mother-in-law insisted that they stay together. Eleanor then insisted that Franklin end the affair or she would divorce him. Although they remained married, the intimacy was gone and their relationship became more of a political partnership.

In June 1920, Franklin received the nomination for Vice-President on the Democratic ticket with Governor James M. Cox of Ohio. Eleanor threw herself into the campaign despite her grandmother's and mother-in-law's insistence that her place was not in the public eye. She worked closely with Franklin's advisor and press liaison, Louis Howe, helping to make daily political decisions in the campaign.

When Republican Warren G. Harding won the election, the Roosevelts returned to New York City, where Franklin practiced law and Eleanor joined organizations in which she felt she could make a real difference, rather than just lend her name to a cause: the Women's City Club, the National Consumers League, the Women's Division of the Democratic State Committee, and the New York chapters of the League of Women Voters and the Women's Trade Union League. Her practical approach, urging the organizations she worked with to set realistic goals and prioritize and delegate tasks, won her clout and a measure of respect in New York politics.

During a family vacation at their summer home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, in the summer of 1921, Franklin contracted polio and never recovered the full use of his legs. For the next three years, he and Eleanor searched for a cure or therapy that would help him recover. In 1924, he traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia, where he found some relief in the hot springs. 

During this same time, Eleanor continued to become more active in New York political circles. She cultivated a public persona and life all her own, including writing articles for magazines and taking part in radio shows. She became the Democratic Women's Committee vice-president and finance chairman and, in 1924, joined the board of the bi-partisan Women's City Club. She also helped establish the non-profit Val-Kill Industries in 1926 in Hyde Park, New York, which was designed to teach local farmers skills to create colonial furniture reproductions to supplement their income. In 1927, she became part owner of and began teaching at the Todhunter School, a finishing and college preparatory school in New York City for upper-class girls. Like her mentor Marie Souvestre, Eleanor blended a rigorous curriculum with exercises designed to help the girls think for themselves and become aware of the problems facing others.

In 1928, Franklin ran in and won the New York Governor's race. Eleanor pared down her activities outside of Albany, but maintained a measure of independent public and political life by spending three days a week at the family's home in New York City, supporting the Val-Kill factory and teaching classes at Todhunter. The 1932 presidential campaign and Franklin's ambition to become president came as no surprise to Eleanor—he had been working toward the Democratic nomination since being reelected Governor of New York—but her future role and the likely necessity to pare down her own public and political life weighed on her. When he won the election, he asked Eleanor to resign from her positions with the Democratic National Committee, the Todhunter School, the League of Women Voters, the Non-Partisan Legislative Committee and the Women's Trade Union League. She also curtailed her participation on commercial radio and said she would not discuss politics in her magazine articles.

In spite of this, Eleanor began carving out a role as a new kind of First Lady, a role that would satisfy her own need to be independent and active in public and political life. To avoid being relegated to an endless social schedule, she offered to become Franklin's administrative assistant, sorting his mail and acting as a listening post, as the Vice President John Garner's wife had done. Franklin rejected the proposal, so instead, in an interview she gave on March 4, 1933—inauguration day—she set an agenda all her own: she would focus on reducing the White House budget by 25%, simplify the social calendar, and be the president's eyes and ears. Two days later, she held her own press conference—the first and only First Lady to do so—and announced she would have a "get together" with female reporters once a week. She greeted guests at the White House herself, refused Secret Service protection, and converted the Lincoln bedroom into her study.

Throughout Franklin's first 100 days, she used her influence in the Democratic National Committee to urge the administration to appoint women to influential positions in New Deal programs. Rather than jump behind New Deal programs, she waited to see how they were implemented and made suggestions for improvements and alternatives and pushed hard to have oversights addressed, such as the plight of unemployed women and youth. Throughout her husband's presidency, she traveled extensively, visiting relief projects, observing working and living conditions, and providing Franklin and the administration with her findings.

In August 1933 her first monthly column for Woman's Home Companion was published. Titled "I Want You to Write to Me," Eleanor invited the readers to write her with "the particular problems which puzzle or sadden you, but I also want you to write me about what has brought joy into your life, and how you are adjusting yourself to the new conditions in this amazing changing world." By January 1934, she had received 300,000 letters and opened a valuable discussion forum that helped propel her husband's New Deal agenda. In 1936, Eleanor began writing My Day, a syndicated newspaper column much like her monthly column for the Woman's Home Companion. She wrote My Day six days a week until her death in 1962, missing only four days after Franklin's death in 1945.

Through the 1930s, Eleanor became increasingly interested in civil rights. Although Franklin would not allow her to attend the 1934 and 1935 NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) annual conventions, she did join the Washington, D.C., chapter of the organization, becoming the first white D.C. resident to do so. She eventually became a board member. She actively supported anti-lynching legislation in 1934 and 1935, unlike her husband who was afraid of alienating Southern voters, which he thought would cost him reelection in 1936. When the Daughters of the American Revolution would not allow African American contralto Marion Anderson to give a concert in Constitution Hall in February 1939, Eleanor used her newspaper column to publically announce her resignation from the organization and her reasons for doing so as a means of protest.

With the approach of World War II, Eleanor expanded her sphere of influence, doing what she could to help European refugees, including Jews trying to escape Nazi-occupied Europe, and worked with many groups, including the Emergency Rescue Committee and the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children. She tried to address individual cases on her own, but U.S. immigration laws hampered her efforts. She unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to change the laws.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered World War II, Eleanor made sure that Franklin did not lose focus on the New Deal and social initiatives begun during the 1930s, because the country was still facing an economic emergency in addition to the new military challenge—a stance that would divide the Roosevelt administration by the 1944 election, Franklin's fourth. Part of the administration—notably Franklin's campaign manager, Robert Hannegan—appeared too focused on winning the election at the cost of issues Eleanor considered important, and she was far less involved in this campaign than in the previous three.

On April 12, 1945, while on vacation at Warm Springs, Georgia, Franklin suffered a massive stroke and died a few hours later. Eleanor was hurt to discover that Lucy (Mercer) Rutherford had been with Franklin at the time of his death. However, she had also built a life independent of her marriage and soon resumed her activities. Within a week of Franklin's death, she had coordinated the funeral and her move from the White House back to New York, handling 12 years' worth of possessions and papers.

She received many offers and suggestions about what she should do next, and ultimately accepted Harry Truman's appointment to the United States delegation to the United Nations in December 1945. She helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, in her initial assignment to the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee, helped address the repatriation of displaced people. She became chairman of the Human Rights Commission and during her seven years as a delegate, traveled the world extensively investigating social, political, and economic conditions.  

In 1953, she resigned her UN position so that incoming President Dwight D. Eisenhower could make his own appointment. She volunteered with the American Association for the UN and was an American representative to the World Federation of the UN Associations. She was in great demand as a lecturer and speaker and continued to write many articles and books. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy reappointed her to the UN and later to the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corps and chair of the President's Commission on the Status of Women.

Although she was ill with aplastic anemia and tuberculosis during the last two years of her life, she refused to slow down, maintaining a busy speaking and writing schedule, advocating for human rights, civil rights, and women's rights. She died November 7, 1962, in New York City and is buried next to her husband on the family estate in Hyde Park, New York.

http://www.historynet.com/eleanor-roosevelt

Eleanor worked with the underprivileged in the East Side slums of New York City. She taught the children of the slum dwellers dance and literature. In fact she cared for them and did whatever she could do to make their lives better.


In 1913, Franklin was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Eleanor had displayed keen interest Franklin was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Eleanor had displayed keen interest in politics during this period.

On March 17, 1905, her uncle and the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt gave her away in marriage to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).
 
In 1910, Franklin Roosevelt was elected as a Democratic representative to the Senate of New York City and Eleanor acted as hostess to the Democratic caucuses held in her drawing room.
 
In 1913, Franklin was appointed as the Assistant Secretary States, Theodore Roosevelt gave her away in marriage to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).
 
In 1910, Franklin Roosevelt was elected as a Democratic representative to the Senate of New York City and Eleanor acted as hostess to the Democratic caucuses held in her drawing room. In 1913, Franklin was appointed as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Eleanor had displayed keen interest in politics during this period.

She visited soldiers in the hospitals, worked at the local canteens; also set up organizations to cater to the rising demand for woolen clothes for the Navy. She showed great leadership qualities and exhibited her love for civic affairs by participating actively in social work during the World War I. She created a niche for herself during this period by volunteering for Red Cross.

She actively participated in the women's suffrage movement. In 1921, she became the political surrogate for Franklin Roosevelt who was crippled by a bout of polio. Her constant encouragement and support helped Franklin Roosevelt to return to politics. During his tenure as the Governor of New York (1929- 1933), she opened a furniture factory, Val-Kill, in New York for the unemployed youth. This factory was later expanded to include weaving and pewter.

Eleanor Roosevelt, along with her friend Marion Dickerman, bought a private school, Todhunter, for girls from Winifred Todhunter. Here she implanted the principles of her headmistress, Mlle. Souvestre. Eleanor taught history in this school and also worked as an assistant principal. She enjoyed her active participation in the activities of the school.

Her husband, FRD, was impressed by her accomplishments and he used it as his groundwork to win the presidential elections in 1932. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt became the American President and she the First Lady. Eleanor Roosevelt held exclusive press conferences with women reporters to promote jobs for women in the newspaper and media industry, and also to discuss the current issues. She delivered public lectures to explain the objectives of the "New Deal", a program formulated by Franklin to recover from Depression.

In 1935, she started to write a syndicated column in a leading newspaper called "My Day". She addressed her issues of concern and her opinions in this column.

Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental in creating an organization called National Youth Administration (NYA) to provide financial aid to students and hands-on job training to both men and women.

She worked for the betterment of African-Americans. The issues relating to African-Americans were of great concern to her and she worked with organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and National Council of ***** Women. In 1939, an African-American singer Marian Anderson was not allowed to perform at Constitution Hall. Eleanor made her protest against discrimination by resigning from the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Eleanor Roosevelt volunteered for the war effort second time, when United States entered World War II. She became the assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). She had worked towards gathering civilian volunteers to participate in the war effort. She also visited the US troops abroad.

In 1945, Franklin died in office and Eleanor stepped down as the First Lady. By then she had already created individuality and space for herself through her social work. United Nations appointed her as their delegate. She was an expert in issues relating to humanitarianism. In 1946, she became the chairperson of the UN Human Rights.

In 1948, Eleanor drafted the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". This law affirmed liberty and equality to all people regardless of their creed, race and color. She was instrumental in the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1952, even though she had resigned from the United Nations she remained an unofficial ambassador of the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

In her lifetime, she authored books on her personal experiences. They are This is My Story, This I Remember, On My Own and Tomorrow is Now.