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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

President Obama to Urge a Skeptical Congress to Back Initiatives In State of the Union Speech. WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to use Tuesday night’s State of the Union address to outline a wide-ranging agenda intended to address income inequality and help Americans afford things like education and child care. Meeting a skeptical Congress on its own turf, Mr. Obama will press to capitalize on the economic recovery to achieve some of his long-held goals. He is expected to call on Republicans to work with him on potential areas of consensus, including a new push to approve far-reaching trade deals in Europe and Asia. But the president will also use the annual primetime address to sketch an activist vision for his final two years in office and to set the terms of a debate that will sharpen the distinctions between the two parties in advance of the 2016 elections. Mr. Obama will call on Congress to join him in enacting new initiatives to make community college free and to enhance tax credits for education and child care, financed by new taxes and fees on high-income earners and large financial institutions. The plan, unveiled by the White House over the weekend, indicates that the president — bracing for a season of conflict and compromise with Republicans on Capitol Hill — is nonetheless determined to have a loud voice in defining the choices at hand. Republicans, who tapped Joni Ernst, the newly elected senator from Iowa, to give their official response to the speech, are grappling to have their say as well. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he hoped the president would use the speech to change the dynamic and “turn the page” on a season of confrontation and gridlock. “The American people aren’t demanding talking-point proposals designed to excite the base but not designed to pass,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement before the speech. “They said they’re ready to see more constructive cooperation, especially on bipartisan jobs initiatives.” Even as Mr. Obama addresses a newly-empowered Republican majority, his standing in the country is improving in the wake of several aggressive moves he has made in the wake of the 2014 midterm elections, including executive action on immigration and a move to normalize relations with Cuba. After spending nearly a year hovering at about 40 percent approval, the president’s popularity has improved markedly since the contests. On average, the president’s approval rating stands at about 46 percent, and a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday shows it at 50 percent for the first time since just after the 2012 presidential election. The survey reflects a nine-point increase in the last month, though other polls have shown smaller gains. The bump in popular support comes as the economy continues to improve, with unemployment sinking to 5.6 percent and the pace of job growth accelerating. Mr. Obama has said he wants to work with Republicans on a business tax overhaul, trade liberalization and bolstered cybersecurity protections. He also promised Republican leaders at a closed-door meeting at the White House last week that he would soon send the text of a new authorization for the use of military force against the Islamic State militant group, and would work with them to ensure both parties could accept the language. The White House took the unusual step of previewing many of the new initiatives to be discussed in the speech in the two weeks leading up to it, working to maximize public attention on Mr. Obama’s agenda and prevent the address from devolving into a laundry list of policy proposals. Also among the initiatives Mr. Obama has unveiled this month are efforts to widen the availability and affordability of broadband Internet access, and legislation to allow employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave.

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Welcome to Musa HRS007 blog: TIPS FOR KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE IN THE CAR. The number of infants kept in potentially dangerous positions in moving cars on Nigerian roads roads is quite alarming. Even worse is the fact that the adults/caregivers who should know better are totally oblivious to the danger they have placed their loved ones. Feeling helpless, it is impossible to provide caution to passengers in a moving vehicle. Hopefully, its important to increase awareness on this subject to ensure that our little men and women who we all loved so dearly are kept safe at all times. Here are some tips to address some of the potential dangers I have spotted in moving vehicles on Nigerian roads: • No kids sitting on your lap while you occupy the driver’s seat. I know you want to take that cute selfie of you and your little one and post on facebook, BB, instagram, but if you must do so, ensure the vehicle is motionless and off the road • Resist the temptation to allow you kids stand up at the back seat of the car because they want to have a view of the road, your face or be your gist companion while you drive. Strap them into their car seats and keep them entertained. Invest in an ipad, kiddies tablets or book – whichever matches your pocket. • Car seats: People, it appears there’s no escaping doing some good research and reading the manual on this one. Weight and height of your infants and kids need to be considered before taking a decision on the appropriate car seat to purchase. It is advised that, you do not place care seats in the front passenger seat. If you must, airbags need to be de-activated. The UK Government even advises that kids shouldn't use a child car seat until they are 12 years old or 135cm tall. • Following from the above, any child under the age of 12 should ride properly buckled in the back seat and should not be allowed to occupy the front passengers’ seat. This also applies to kids being carried by adults in the front seat, this is also a very dangerous act. • Ensure children (hands, feet, face, etc) are clear of doors before shutting them. This incident has been observed on a couple of occasions. • Always double check to ensure your kids are not locked in the car before you step away. Research reveals an alarming rate of kids suffer fatal accidents from car related dangers. Here are some types of accidents which have been recorded by KidsAndCars.org (KAC) – a nonprofit child safety organization in the United States of America dedicated to preventing injuries and death to children in or around motor vehicles. Unfortunately we don’t have a track on similar incidents in Nigeria: “Backovers: typically takes place when a car is backing out of a drive-way or parking space. In the US, at least fifty children are being backed over by vehicles EVERY week and at least two are fatally injured. Tragically, in over 70% of these incidents, a parent or close relative is behind the wheel. Front-overs: Every year, thousands of children are hurt or die because a driver moving forward very slowly didn’t see them. These incidents for the most part take place in residential drive-ways or parking lots. Heat-stroke: In the US, on average, 38 children die in hot cars each year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside motor vehicles. Even the best of parents or care-givers can unknowingly leave a sleeping baby in a car; and the end result can be injury or even death. Power windows: Power windows in vehicles have killed or injured thousands of children. It takes just 22 pounds of force to suffocate or injure an infant while power windows can exert an upward force of 30-80 pounds of force. Trunk-Boot Entrapment: Internal trunk release mechanisms are now required in all vehicles with trunks. There has not been one fatality in the trunk of a vehicle with this glow-in-dark release! Vehicles set in Motion: Stories about kids and cars have a tendency to end badly. Each year hundreds of children are hospitalized or even killed after accidentally setting a car into motion.” Do spread awareness on these dangers to all around you and share any additional tips you have, you may just be saving one or even multiple lives. I am also hopeful that the relevant authorities would do more in the area of creating regulations, sensitizing the public on proper road use, safety and generally making our roads less accident prone. musabello.blogspot.com

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Welcome to Musa HRS007 blog: TIPS FOR KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE IN THE CAR. The number of infants kept in potentially dangerous positions in...

TIPS FOR KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE IN THE CAR. The number of infants kept in potentially dangerous positions in moving cars on Nigerian roads roads is quite alarming. Even worse is the fact that the adults/caregivers who should know better are totally oblivious to the danger they have placed their loved ones. Feeling helpless, it is impossible to provide caution to passengers in a moving vehicle. Hopefully, its important to increase awareness on this subject to ensure that our little men and women who we all loved so dearly are kept safe at all times. Here are some tips to address some of the potential dangers I have spotted in moving vehicles on Nigerian roads: • No kids sitting on your lap while you occupy the driver’s seat. I know you want to take that cute selfie of you and your little one and post on facebook, BB, instagram, but if you must do so, ensure the vehicle is motionless and off the road • Resist the temptation to allow you kids stand up at the back seat of the car because they want to have a view of the road, your face or be your gist companion while you drive. Strap them into their car seats and keep them entertained. Invest in an ipad, kiddies tablets or book – whichever matches your pocket. • Car seats: People, it appears there’s no escaping doing some good research and reading the manual on this one. Weight and height of your infants and kids need to be considered before taking a decision on the appropriate car seat to purchase. It is advised that, you do not place care seats in the front passenger seat. If you must, airbags need to be de-activated. The UK Government even advises that kids shouldn't use a child car seat until they are 12 years old or 135cm tall. • Following from the above, any child under the age of 12 should ride properly buckled in the back seat and should not be allowed to occupy the front passengers’ seat. This also applies to kids being carried by adults in the front seat, this is also a very dangerous act. • Ensure children (hands, feet, face, etc) are clear of doors before shutting them. This incident has been observed on a couple of occasions. • Always double check to ensure your kids are not locked in the car before you step away. Research reveals an alarming rate of kids suffer fatal accidents from car related dangers. Here are some types of accidents which have been recorded by KidsAndCars.org (KAC) – a nonprofit child safety organization in the United States of America dedicated to preventing injuries and death to children in or around motor vehicles. Unfortunately we don’t have a track on similar incidents in Nigeria: “Backovers: typically takes place when a car is backing out of a drive-way or parking space. In the US, at least fifty children are being backed over by vehicles EVERY week and at least two are fatally injured. Tragically, in over 70% of these incidents, a parent or close relative is behind the wheel. Front-overs: Every year, thousands of children are hurt or die because a driver moving forward very slowly didn’t see them. These incidents for the most part take place in residential drive-ways or parking lots. Heat-stroke: In the US, on average, 38 children die in hot cars each year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside motor vehicles. Even the best of parents or care-givers can unknowingly leave a sleeping baby in a car; and the end result can be injury or even death. Power windows: Power windows in vehicles have killed or injured thousands of children. It takes just 22 pounds of force to suffocate or injure an infant while power windows can exert an upward force of 30-80 pounds of force. Trunk-Boot Entrapment: Internal trunk release mechanisms are now required in all vehicles with trunks. There has not been one fatality in the trunk of a vehicle with this glow-in-dark release! Vehicles set in Motion: Stories about kids and cars have a tendency to end badly. Each year hundreds of children are hospitalized or even killed after accidentally setting a car into motion.” Do spread awareness on these dangers to all around you and share any additional tips you have, you may just be saving one or even multiple lives. I am also hopeful that the relevant authorities would do more in the area of creating regulations, sensitizing the public on proper road use, safety and generally making our roads less accident prone. musabello.blogspot.com

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SCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS! Psychologists can give you false memories of having committed a crime. You’ve probably heard of “false confessions,” when pressure from the police and long interrogations can make someone confess to a crime they didn’t actually commit. According to this study, it’s actually not that difficult to give someone a false memory of a serious crime. Here, researchers tried to make undergraduate volunteers believe they had committed a crime when they were younger by conducting interviews in which the researchers used “suggestive memory-retrieval techniques.” They tried, for example, using false evidence (“According to your parents, you did this…”), applying social pressure (“Most people are able to retrieve lost memories if they try hard enough”), and using guided imagery to try to get the person to fill in the details of the crime. The scientists found that after several interviews, 70% of participants believed they had committed a crime (theft, assault, or assault with a weapon) in early adolescence, and they were able to give a detailed false account of this event. Be sure to check out the excerpt below for a list of other false memories that researchers have been able to implant. (Tea with Prince Charles, anyone?) Constructing Rich False Memories of Committing Crime. “Memory researchers long have speculated that certain tactics may lead people to recall crimes that never occurred, and thus could potentially lead to false confessions. This is the first study to provide evidence suggesting that full episodic false memories of committing crime can be generated in a controlled experimental setting. With suggestive memory-retrieval techniques, participants were induced to generate criminal and noncriminal emotional false memories, and we compared these false memories with true memories of emotional events. After three interviews, 70% of participants were classified as having false memories of committing a crime (theft, assault, or assault with a weapon) that led to police contact in early adolescence and volunteered a detailed false account. These reported false memories of crime were similar to false memories of noncriminal events and to true memory accounts, having the same kinds of complex descriptive and multisensory components. It appears that in the context of a highly suggestive interview, people can quite readily generate rich false memories of committing crime.”

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Monday, January 19, 2015

Yes, Buhari Is Sick, And So I Am By Vitus Ozoke Nigerians and their infinite capacity for facile propaganda. I wake up this morning and what I see all over social media is some poor taste, childish diagnosis of Major General Buhari as being sick. Well, I agree. I agree that Buhari is sick. I am sick, too. Any Nigerian who is not sick is not sick because he or she is incurably sick. We are all sick. And we should be sick. So, yes,… …Buhari is sick of the monumental corruption that has become institutionalized in Nigeria.  Buhari is sick of the incompetence of a government that cannot protect the lives and properties of its citizens; …Buhari is sick of the lack of a sense of urgency in the circles of government in Nigeria.  Buhari is sick of a country that has placed itself on permanent reverse gear.  Buhari is sick of a country that has left itself naked as it is raped dry by vagabonds in power.  Buhari is sick of a youth population without jobs.  Buhari is sick of a country where university education has become comparable to 8th grade competence in advanced civilizations.  Buhari is sick of a country where roads are death traps.  Buhari is sick of a country where people go into political offices near poor, but turn stupendously wealthy overnight.  Buhari is sick of a country where education is priced beyond the reach of the common masses.  Buhari is sick of a country where $20 Billion (possibly $40 Billion) of public fund develops legs and walks away, its whereabouts knowingly unknown.  Buhari is sick of watching the country he loves ranked at the bottom of corruption index by Transparency International.  Buhari is sick of a country that earns billions of dollars in oil revenue, yet has not a single functional oil refinery.  Buhari is sick of a country where government has bowed to the dictates of power generator cabals in a conspiracy that ensures perpetual darkness.  Buhari is sick of a country where senators and congressmen earn more than the president of the United States of America.  Buhari is sick of a country where soldiers are so demoralized to confront a ragtag Boko Haram terror sect.  Buhari is sick of a country where convicted looters are pardoned and fast tracked for senate positions.  Buhari is sick of a country where life expectancy is among the lowest in the world.   Buhari is sick of a country that is on international news for all the wrong reasons.  So, yes, Buhari is sick; and so am I.  The big Question is, why is Jonathan not sick as well? Why has Jonathan remained healthy in the face of all the above-listed filth and diseases? The Question is why is not every Nigerian sick of all the social maladies and existential outbreaks?  It is a time to be sick, my friends. Buhari is; I am. Are you? Let’s all get sick of where and how Nigeria is! Let’s get real sick!!And the sicker we are, the healthier we are going to be.  Let’s schedule a doctor’s visit on February 14. Let’s not forget our health insurance card (voter card) as we go for this February appointment.  We need to feel better. But until February 14, let’s feel sick… …Real sick!    My footnote: There is no medical institution known as Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital as the fake letterheads read.  What everybody but the brainless GEJ pathetic propagandist know is Ahmadu Bello UNIVERSITY Teaching Hospital.   Vitus Ozoke, Ph.D is a lawyer and professor of conflict analysis and dispute resolution at Salisbury University, Maryland, USA

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