Art Celebrity Feet

Thoughts of a wandering mind ...

while driving home from work I was remembering some of the slang from my youth. Slang is a unique form of communication because it differs from region to region, ethnicity to ethnicity, but wherever it was that you grew up, your slang was the coolest. And, as I was remembering and laughing to myself, I began to deduce how some of these words came into being ... When I was in junior high it was

3G wireless technology enables more responsive health care systems

The Philippine Department of Health, Tarlac Provincial Health Office and Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Wireless Reach initiative, announced the successful completion of the Wireless Access for Health project’s pilot phase.

The project participants leveraged their expertise and resources in public health, medical care, technology and training to create an electronic health record system that meets the needs of health care decision makers on varying levels, ranging from midwives to doctors to policy makers.
Results at the conclusion of the pilot phase, which recorded over 12,000 patient consultations, indicate that such a system is not only feasible and improves patient care in rural health clinics, but also has a real impact for decision makers.
Wireless Access for Health utilizes 3G wireless technology to enable a locally developed electronic health record system. In the Philippines, local health care providers compile and report public health data to the Field Health Service Information System (FHSIS), which is the major source of data used for policy analysis and planning.

The Wireless Access for Health project aims to streamline this reporting process by building on and strengthening the existing Community Health Information Tracking System (CHITS), an electronic medical record system developed by the University of the Philippines Manila. CHITS improves patient care and access to public health information by consolidating data captured during patient visits into reports for health care workers in four health units in the Tarlac region of the Philippines.

“The Wireless Access for Health project’s electronic health record system is the appropriate response to the DOH’s need for finding innovative ways of transmitting reliable health data to allow for speedier decision making and action,” said Dr. Esperanza Cabral, secretary of the Department of Health in the Philippines.

The pilot project’s results have been positive at the rural health units in Gerona, Moncada, Paniqui and Victoria.

A process that previously took hours to complete, CHITS now can instantly generate all 23 of the DOH’s FHSIS reports, allowing for improved patient care and more efficient patient visits, as the time needed to search for records is reduced to just seconds.

The ability to easily view, record and share patient information simultaneously across multiple computers within a health clinic allows clinicians to complete patient consultations earlier, resulting in increased capacity to provide further support to community health workers.

“Wireless Access for Health is truly beneficial for the entire public health system, from patients to doctors to health care authorities at the local, regional and national level,” stated Dr. Ricardo P. Ramos, chief of Tarlac provincial health unit.

“The system’s accurate and timely submission of health data is important in helping the government to identify and prevent disease outbreaks across the Philippines.”

Source @ MB

Aquino statement to bolster LTO campaign vs 'wang-wangs'

Presidential Decree 96 was issued 37 years ago to limit the use of sirens — colloquially called "wang-wang" — on the roads. However, high-ranking politicians intimidate law enforcers who prevent the unauthorized use of the devices.

On Thursday, outgoing Land Transportation Office head Alberto Suansing said President Benigno Aquino III's statement's about the abuse of the devices may hopefully give teeth to the enforcement of the law.

"Mabuti naman at inanunsyo ang bagay na iyan. Ang mga enforcers natin, di na maa-andap (It's a good thing he announced that matter. Our law enforcers would no longer be intimidated)," Suansing said in an interview on GMA News' Unang Hirit.

He added the public could send a text message to 09189447951 to report violators.

PD 96, issued in 1973 by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, regulates the use of sirens, bells, whistles, horns and other similar devices.

"The gadgets or devices mentioned above may be attached to and use only on motor vehicles designated for official use by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation, Land Transportation Commission, Police Departments, Fire Departments, and hospital ambulances," a portion of the law said.

For government officials, only the following are entitled to use vehicles with these devices: President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Read more @ GmaNews

Celtics coach Doc Rivers will return for 2010-11

BOSTON – Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers will return for another season, staying with the team he led to the NBA finals twice in three years for a run at another championship.

"Doc is a fantastic coach and leader and I am thrilled he is coming back for the upcoming season," Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca said Wednesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Rivers' decision was first reported in the Boston Herald. Four hours later, the Celtics released a statement confirming Rivers would return.

"Doc is re-energized and enthusiastic about coming back to make another run at winning a championship with the Celtics," general manager Danny Ainge said in the two-sentence statement.

Rivers did not immediately return a message left at his hotel in San Antonio, where he was watching his son, Austin, play in an international under-18 tournament.

The inability to watch his four children play in sports was one of the major things pulling Rivers toward taking time off from coaching. He said at last week's NBA draft that he was hoping there would be some compromise that would allow him to give both his personal and professional lives proper attention.

Rivers lives in the Orlando area in the offseason, and his family remains there.

Rivers' decision does not mean that the nucleus of the Celtics team that won the franchise's unprecedented 17th NBA title in 2008 will be back for a run in 2010-11. Paul Pierce has reportedly said he will opt out of his contract and become a free agent, and Ray Allen is also due to become a free agent on Thursday.

Without them, the Celtics would need to make a big splash in free agency to contend.

Kevin Garnett is under contract for two more years and point guard Rajon Rondo signed an extension last fall that would keep him in Boston through the 2014-15 season. Kendrick Perkins, who could miss six months or more with torn knee ligaments, has one year left on his deal.

Rivers has a career coaching record of 451-380, with a 46-40 playoff mark. With the Celtics, he is 280-212 with a 41-30 postseason record.

He guided Boston to a 66-16 record and the Celtics' record 17th NBA title two years ago. This season, the Celtics returned to the NBA finals before losing in seven games to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rivers said last week that it was a difficult decision between two families: While he has missed the opportunity to watch his four children — all athletes — compete, he has grown close to the Celtics' players. He called Ainge "one of my best friends."

"You look around the league, and you don't see that," Rivers said after the NBA draft, adding that both players and management have lobbied him to stay. "They've been doing their jobs, I'll put it that way. So have the players. They've been very vocal in their support. But that's good. We're very close."

Source: GmaNews

Geena Davis vs negative media images of women

NEW YORK, United States—With her ground-breaking roles in such films as Thelma and Louise and A League of Their Own, Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis is no stranger to playing strong women on the silver screen.

Off-camera, she is fighting passionately to ensure that women and girls are accurately depicted in the media, warning that they hyper-sexualization and other negative portrayals could roll back hard-won progress in achieving the United Nations-backed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

Acknowledging the hard work of the UN and other organizations aimed at promoting economic development and curbing violence against women, “we don’t want to see it undermined by a culture of hyper-sexualization or stereotyping of women in the media because it will… start to take away some of the progress if we’re not taking care of the image of women,” she told the UN News Center.

“As an actor, I had the good fortune of being in a few movies that resonated particularly with women, and it really was a lesson for me in the power of media images,” said Ms. Davis, who early this week addressed the opening of the annual high-level segment of the UN Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), focusing this year on the empowerment of women and girls.

Some six years ago, while watching television programming and movies targeted at children with her then two-year-old daughter, she noticed a marked disparity in the portrayal of men and women.

“I find that to be disturbing because it means that we’re raising generation after generation of boys and girls to become used to the idea that girls hold a lesser position in our society, that they’re less important, their stories are less interesting,” she stressed.

For more than half a century, the ratio of female to male characters has held constant at 1:3, Ms. Davis said, resulting in many people not noticing or questioning the paucity of women in movies and TV shows.

Her research organization, See Jane, has carried out a large-scale analysis of movies and TV shows aimed at children under the age of 11, finding that between 1990 and 2005, there was no improvement in the ratio of female to male characters.

“So it’s not something that’s getting better or improving,” Ms. Davis said, in spite of isolated cases of popular female characters, such as Dora the Explorer. “The general trend is for things to stay where they are.”

Also the mother of two boys, she said that she calls attention to how women and girls are portrayed in programming, asking her children why they think certain characters are girls and not boys.

“It’s getting to the point now where occasionally I’ll lean over to say, ‘Hey did you notice?’” Ms. Davis said, recalling conversations with her now eight-year-old daughter while watching TV and movies.

“Yeah, there’s not enough girls,” her daughter responds. “She’s been very well educated,” Ms. Davis pointed out, laughing.

Source: Inquirer

'Old school' Montreal gangster gunned down

MONTREAL—A reputed Montreal gangster with ties to the Rizzuto crime family was gunned down in a brazen daylight shooting, police said Wednesday.

Agostino Cuntrera, 66, and his 48-year-old bodyguard were shot Tuesday afternoon outside an east-end Montreal restaurant said to be owned by Cuntrera.

Two men in a black Chevrolet Impala similar to one spotted leaving the scene were arrested shortly after the slayings. One of them was released while the other is still being held on unrelated charges, police told AFP.

Cuntrera was believed to have taken over the helm of the Rizzuto clan after the 2006 extradition to the United States of crime boss Vito Rizzuto on murder charges, according to public broadcaster CBC.

Cuntrera was described by local media as being "old school," low-key and shy of the limelight. He is the third high-profile Mafioso to be murdered since Rizzuto's arrest in 2004.

Vito Rizzuto is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Colorado for racketeering, related to three underworld murders in Brooklyn in 1981.

In December, Rizzuto's son Nick Rizzuto Jr. was gunned down in broad daylight in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace district.

An elderly man associated with the powerful Rizzuto mafia was also reported missing in May.

Paolo Renda, 70, had been recently released from prison after a serving a sentence for criminal association among other charges, but did not arrive home one night, police sources said.

His wife -- sister of Vito Rizzuto -- found his car near their home and alerted police, who found the car doors open and keys on the dashboard.

Montreal's Sicilian Mafia is facing new competition for criminal spoils from a Calabrese clan, street gangs, and even Haitian groups, according to crime experts.

Each wants a piece of Rizzuto territory, possibly with the backing of the New York Mafia which cut ties to the Rizzuto family after a falling out over the Brooklyn murders.

Born in Sicily in 1944, Cuntrera moved to Canada in 1965 and helped establish the Rizzuto clan's criminal reign in Montreal. He served five years in prison for conspiracy in the 1978 murder of then crime boss Paolo Violli, who headed a rival Calabrese clan.

Upon his release, Cuntrera started several small businesses in Montreal, including restaurants.

Source: Inquirer

Natural Hair Thinning Medication

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