unicef:

A girl stands in front of a broken chalkboard at a school in Pyechal, a mountainside village in the Department of Sud-Est, Haiti. She participated in a UNICEF-supported programme to promote local, sustainable solutions for improved sanitation to prevent the spread of diseases and illnesses, such as cholera and diarrhoea.

Haiti and its approximately 4.3 million children continue to recover from the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Progress has been substantial: a new national government is in place; about half of the mounds of rubble have been cleared; almost two thirds of those displaced by the quake have moved out of crowded camps; and the country’s health, education and other core services are being rebuilt on a stronger foundation. Still, the country remains a fragile and impoverished state, requiring international support. Working with multiple international and national partners, UNICEF continues to address the emergency needs of children, while focusing on building the Government’s capacity to uphold and sustain children’s rights.

© UNICEF/Dormino
 
http://www.unicef.org
 

discoverynews:

American ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’?

Benjamin Radford looks at the history and phenomena of cannibalism.

Cannibalism has occasionally been practiced by murderers; serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer infamously killed and ate parts of several victims during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in 1994 an Ohio man named Henry Heepe killed his mother, dismembered her, and cooked some of her body parts. Heepe said he killed his mother because he believed she was a “vampire devil.”

Perhaps the strangest case was that in 2006 of German Armin Meiwes, who solicited for — and found — a willing victim to cannibalize. Meiwes posted an online ad “looking for a well-built 18- to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.” A man named Bernd Jürgen Brandes volunteered, and Meiwes ate Brandes over the course of the next ten months. Despite his victim’s participation Meiwes was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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discoverynews:

Jurassic Squid Ink Same as Modern Squid Ink

Ink from 160-million-year-old giant squid is essentially identical to today’s squid ink.

The discovery suggests that the ink and the ink-screen escape mechanism of squid have not evolved much (if at all) since the Jurassic Period. The finding, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, might just prove that if it isn’t broken, nature isn’t going to fix it.

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theatlantic:

If We Are What We Read, Who Are We, Exactly?

We love books for being books. But books are more than just words on pages, lovely or terrible adventures, weird imaginings, plot twists and romances and things that would never happen to us in real life and therefore we should read about. Books have the power to change us—but not just in our minds, apparently. According to research recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Geoff Kaufman of Tiltfactor Laboratories at Dartmouth College and Lisa Libby of Ohio State, the act of reading of and identifying with a fictional character means also that we tend to subconsciously adopt their behavior. In reading about our favorite characters, we may actually become more like them.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: Shutterstock]

gstps:

Ivy League school janitor graduates with honors

For years, Gac Filipaj mopped floors, cleaned toilets and took out trash at Columbia University.A refugee from war-torn Yugoslavia, he eked out a living working for the Ivy League school. But Sunday was payback time: The 52-year-old janitor donned a cap and gown to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in classics.

As a Columbia employee, he didn’t have to pay for the classes he took. His favorite subject was the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca, the janitor said during a break from his work at Lerner Hall, the student union building he cleans.

“I love Seneca’s letters because they’re written in the spirit in which I was educated in my family — not to look for fame and fortune, but to have a simple, honest, honorable life,” he said.

His graduation with honors capped a dozen years of studies, including readings in ancient Latin and Greek.

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reuters:

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives defied a White House veto threat on Friday and voted to take money from President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare overhaul to pay for an extension of low-interest federal student loans.

Democrats and Republicans have until July to find an election-year compromise. That’s when the rate is set to double on Stafford loans to 6.8 percent for more 7 million students, who represent an important voting bloc.

On a mostly party-line vote of 215-195, the House sent the measure to the Senate where Obama’s Democrats are certain to reject it.

Like Obama, Senate Democrats want to renew the low interest rate for students, but favor covering the $6 billion cost for one year by ending a tax break for the rich.

READ MORE: Republicans insert healthcare into student loan fight