Daytime talk host Ellen DeGeneres dressed up as her guest and fellow CoverGirl, Sofia Vergara, on Wednesday's show.
By Rebecca Macatee, E! Online
Ellen DeGeneres kept things in the family -- the CoverGirl family -- this Halloween. The 54-year-old comedian dressed up as fellow makeup spokeswoman Sofia Vergara on Wednesday's episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
Wearing a recreation of the "Modern Family" star's teal Zuhair Murad Emmys dress (yes, the one that split down the backside! ), Ellen did a pretty hilarious Sofia impersonation.
"Muchas gracias everybody, muchas gracias, hola! My name is Sofia Vergara," Elen said in a thick accent. "I am easy breezy beautiful CoverGirl from Colombia. Happy Halloween. As you can see, I put my pumpkins out."
LOL! Avril Lavigne's ex-husband dressed up as her for Halloween
"I like being Sofia Vergara, but it's hard being this beautiful," Ellen quipped. "I'm so busy with CoverGirl and Diet Pepsi and Burger King and my clothing line, the award-winning 'Modern Family.' I get so much work with this fake accent. People think it's real but...."
At that point, Sofia walked out, surprising Ellen. "Your ass looks huge...Ellen," she exclaimed.
"What? Sofia. Hi Sofia, I didn't know you were here," Ellen said.
Here are more stars' TV Halloween ensembles
Sofia, 40, questioned Ellen about her costume's padded rear end. "I mean what is this?" she asked. "You look ridiculous."
"I feel sexy!" said Ellen.
Sofia graciously taught Ellen a few phrases in Spanish before suggesting to her fellow CoverGirl, "Let's go dancing!"
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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? The big U.S.money market funds are loaning more to banks in the 17-country eurozone as fears ease over the continent's debt crisis and shaky financial system.
Fitch, the credit ratings agency, said Monday that the 10 largest U.S. funds increased their exposure for the third straight month in September. The funds now have 10.6 percent of their holdings in credit to European banks, up 16 percent from August.
The agency said that is because actions by central banks have reduced turmoil and volatility in the financial system. The European Central Bank has said it is willing to buy the bonds of indebted governments on financial markets, lowering their borrowing costs and the chance they might default.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is also buying financial assets to increase the supply of money in the U.S. economy and support growth.
Money funds take cash from investors and put it to work in credit markets ? by lending to banks for short periods of time, for example.
The money funds had pulled back from lending to European banks because of fears they might run into trouble and not repay the money. But now fund managers are making modest increases in the amounts of bank commercial paper and CDs that they hold.
European banks are troubled because many are still working off big losses on government bonds that have fallen in value and on loans made during soured real estate booms in countries like Spain and Ireland.
Despite the recent increase, money funds' exposure to Europe remains just 70 percent what it was before the crisis, and won't soon return to earlier levels, Fitch analysts said.
That's because of lingering investor caution toward the eurozone. It's also because banks are relying less on the more volatile forms of getting credit. Borrowing from money funds can be volatile for a bank because borrowing rates can fluctuate. As a result, some banks are focusing on safer ways of financing, such as attracting more customer deposits.
The Fitch Ratings study measured the lending of the top 10 prime money funds by size, with $646 billion under investment, or about 45 percent of the $1.4 trillion in total U.S. money fund assets.
Ann Arbor public art commission meeting (Oct. 24, 2012): After three public forums held earlier this month as part of a new community outreach effort, AAPAC members got an update on those meetings and talked about how to increase participation.
From left: Public art commissioners Bob Miller and Marsha Chamberlin. (Photos by the writer.)
Turnout was lower than hoped ? as only one resident attended the meeting held on Oct. 22 at Clague Middle School, though about 10 people came to a forum at Bryant Community Center the previous week. A fourth event will be held?on Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Open @Mack cafeteria, 920 Miller Ave.
John Kotarski, who had attended all the forums, felt the events had?achieved their purpose of achieving a presence in the community, and introducing residents to different kinds of public art. Bob Miller advocated adding an online element for soliciting more input. Commissioners discussed the possibility of using the city?s new?A2 Open City Hall, a blog-type feature that allows people to get information and give feedback on specific projects.
Commissioners took action on other projects, voting to approve a $910 budget for the dedication of a new mural at Allmendinger Park ? an event to take place on Sunday, Oct. 28 from 2-4 p.m. The mural was designed by?Mary Thiefels of?TreeTown Murals, incorporating artwork and found objects from the community.
Also approved was the location of a sign for the Herbert Dreiseitl water sculpture in front of city hall, though there was concern about the placement of a fence there. The city has decided to put the mesh metal fence on a section of the pedestrian bridge overlooking the sculpture. Some commissioners are frustrated that this safety issue wasn?t raised earlier, when it might have been addressed by the sculptor as part of the site design. Marsha Chamberlin, AAPAC?s chair, noted that Dreiseitl intended people to interact with the water that runs down from the fountain. ?What?s driving this process ? the aesthetics of the piece or risk management?? she asked. She ultimately abstained from the vote, stating??I want to go on the record of being ornery about this.? It was approved by all other commissioners present at the meeting.
Commissioners were also updated on a range of other projects that are in various stages of development. The process has begun for soliciting artists for work at the East Stadium bridge and for an ongoing mural program. The deadlines for submitting statements of qualifications (SOQs) are in November. Aaron Seagraves, the city?s public art administrator, expects to post another SOQ ? for artwork at Argo Cascades ? next month. And legal staff is reviewing a request for proposals (RFP) for art at a rain garden being built at Kingsley and First.
Seagraves also reported that installation of a $150,000 hanging glass sculpture at the Justice Center lobby will be delayed a few months, until March or April of 2013. Fabricators selected by the artist Ed Carpenter aren?t available to do the work as soon as expected.
Another potential project emerged during the meeting. Chamberlin?noted that the city has about 100 old aluminum canoes that it?s planning to get rid of. She said that Cheryl Saam, facilities supervisor for the city?s canoe liveries, had raised the possibility of using the canoes for some kind of community art project. After getting feedback from other commissioners that this is an idea worth pursuing, Chamberlin said she?d work up a more formal proposal for consideration at a future meeting.
As part of the Oct. 24 meeting packet, AAPAC got a budget update of?Percent for Art funds, showing a balance of $1.533 million. Of that,?$847,104 has been earmarked for previously approved projects, leaving about $686,000 unallocated. [.pdf of budget summary]
One notable topic was not discussed at the meeting ? a public art millage that?s on the Nov. 6 ballot. Several commissioners are involved in advocating for the millage, but have taken a conservative approach to dealing with it during their regular business, and AAPAC meetings have not included discussion on the topic since the?August 28, 2012 ?meeting. That approach stands in contrast to a recent park advisory commission meeting, when one of the park commissioners spoke during public commentary to urge support for the parks millage renewal.
Public Outreach
John Kotarski gave a report on AAPAC?s series of outreach meetings, as part of an effort to engage the community better?about public art. He delivered the report on behalf of Connie Rizzolo Brown, who?s spearheading this effort but who was running late for the Oct. 24 meeting.
This new approach uses?four quadrants of Ann Arbor that are designated in the city master plan?s ?land use elements? section: west, central, south and northeast. [.pdf map of quadrants] Two or more of the nine AAPAC members are responsible for each quadrant, charged with soliciting input from residents in selecting public art.
Three meetings have been held in October to kick off this effort. About 10 or so people attended each of the first two meetings, held at the Ann Arbor Art Center and the Bryant Community Center. The third meeting at Clague Middle School, which The Chronicle attended, had less of a turnout. Councilmember Sabra Briere showed up, but no one else came until about 20 minutes after the meeting?s start, when the two commissioners there ? Kotarski and Brown, along with public art administrator Aaron Seagraves ? had already packed up and were ready to leave. They stayed and talked to the resident for about 15 minutes.
At AAPAC?s Oct. 24 meeting, Kotarski told commissioners that the meetings so far had achieved their purpose: To make a presence in the community, and to introduce the many faces of public art. It lets residents know that AAPAC is making an effort, he said. At the final meeting held at Clague, Kotarski said the one resident who attended didn?t want to spend tax dollars on public art. The man had presented his view, and Kotarski felt the resident had left the meeting feeling that his view had been heard.
The final meeting ? for the west quadrant ? will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Open @Mack cafeteria, 920 Miller Ave.
Later in the meeting, Bob Miller suggested exploring how to incorporate an online component into the process, to increase participation. He noted that in the past, AAPAC had received hundreds of responses to its online surveys. Marsha Chamberlin pointed out that the high number of responses were because a previous commissioner had alerted a large network of artists in the community via email, asking them to do the survey. ?So it was a little bit of a biased sample,? she said, and distorted the response. [Chamberlin was referring to former AAPAC chair Margaret Parker.]
The group discussed using A2 Open City Hall, a new feature on the city?s website that?s used to share information about projects and solicit feedback. Seagraves was tasked with looking at that possibility and reporting back at AAPAC?s next meeting.
Allmendinger Mural
A public dedication of the new mural at Allmendinger Park is planned for Sunday, Oct. 28 from 2-4 p.m. at the park. The city commissioned?Ann Arbor muralist Mary Thiefels of?TreeTown Murals?to do the work,?which incorporates found objects and artwork by students at Slauson Middle School as part of?mosaics on pillars of the park?s building.
In addition to the previously approved $12,000 budget for the project, at their Oct. 24 meeting AAPAC was asked to approve an additional $810 to cover the costs of the dedication ceremony. The total budget for the event is $910, with $100 coming from funds remaining in the original project budget. The event budget will pay for food, music, printing & postage, decorations, podium rental, and a plaque.
Responding to a Chronicle query after the meeting, Aaron Seagraves, the city?s public art administrator, explained that the source of that additional $810 hasn?t yet been determined. It will come from either the Percent for Art pooled funds for parks projects, or from funds allocated for administration, he said.
Outcome: Commissioners unanimously voted to approve funding for the Allmendinger Park mural dedication ceremony.
Dreiseitl Sign & Fencing
The topic of a sign for the Herbert Dreiseitl water sculpture in front of city hall has been discussed at multiple AAPAC meetings. It came up again on Oct. 24.
Proposed sign for Herbert Dreiseitl sculpture on pedestrian bridge in front of city hall.
The city has decided to install a metal mesh fence along the pedestrian bridge overlooking the sculpture, for safety reasons. Separately, AAPAC has been working on a descriptive sign for the piece. At their Sept. 26, 2012?meeting, commissioners were presented with a schematic showing the sign positioned on top of the fence. [See image to the right.]?Some commissioners had objected, saying that the sign and fence detracted from the artwork. Aaron Seagraves, the city?s public art administrator, promised to see if any alternative locations could be offered.
On Oct. 24, commissioners were presented with a second possibility ? keeping the mesh fence in place, but positioning the sign atop an adjacent concrete wall. [.jpg of drawing that shows alternative location]
Commissioners had previously approved text for the sign.?[.pdf of text for the sign] The sign?s graphic design has not been completed.
Bob Miller and Marsha Chamberlin both expressed frustration that the city now wanted to put up a fence. They felt that if safety was a concern, that issue should have been raised earlier in the process so that it could have been addressed as part of the project?s overall design.??What?s driving this process ? the aesthetics of the piece or risk management?? Chamberlin asked.
Malverne Winborne was surprised that the issue hadn?t been brought up before ? ?as it seemed to him an obvious concern that the city would have. Tony Derezinski, who also serves on city council, said no one had mentioned it, as far as he knew. He noted that he is a member of the city?s insurance board, indicating that it would have been a logical topic for that group.
Miller wondered where the safety concern would end. People could climb the sculpture, or someone in a wheelchair could roll over the edge, he noted ? there would always be potential safety issues. At some point, personal responsibility should be a factor. Winborne said he agreed with that, but he also was aware that we live in a litigious society.
Aaron Seagraves, Ann Arbor?s public art administrator.
John Kotarski and Derezinski both felt it was a city decision ? not something for AAPAC to decide. Chamberlin agreed that it?s the city?s call, but argued that AAPAC?s role is to protect the integrity of the artwork. She noted that years ago, when a large sculpture at Sculpture Plaza was refurbished, for example, there was a lot of discussion about whether to paint it. [The Arch?by David F. Heberling ? located in the small city park at Fourth and Catherine ? was removed, repaired and painted in 2007-08.]
Chamberlin recalled that when she talked with Dreiseitl after his sculpture?s dedication in October of 2011, he told her that he had intended for people to interact with the water ? and children were playing in it that night, she said. With that in mind, the surfaces had been treated so that they?d be less slippery, she reported. Kotarski said he could confirm that ? he had walked down the watery surfaces himself, to see how slippery they were, and he didn?t slip. That convinced him that there?s not a risk, but he still felt the decision should be left to the city staff.
Chamberlin wondered who was making these decisions at the city. She wanted to make an inquiry about the fencing.?Matt Kulhanek, the city?s facilities supervisor, is making the call, Seagraves said. Derezinski cautioned that if AAPAC makes an inquiry about it, they should ?be prepared to accept the answer.?
?I?m not going to take this lying down,? Chamberlin replied. AAPAC might have to accept the fence this time, she added, but they need to be very clear in the future that it?s not acceptable.
Miller asked if transparent glass could be used, rather than metal mesh. Seagraves reported that maintenance would be a concern with glass. He noted that Dreiseitl preferred having the sign attached to the top of the fence, rather than the alternate option.
Outcome: Commissioners voted to support the placement of the Dreiseitl sign atop the new fence on the pedestrian bridge. Marsha Chamberlin abstained, stating??I want to go on the record of being ornery about this.?
Kingsley Rain Garden Art
Aaron Seagraves, the city?s public art administrator, reported that in September a request for proposals (RFP) was forwarded to the city?s legal staff for review regarding artwork for a rain garden that the city is building at the corner of Kingsley and First.
John Kotarski questioned why an RFP was being used, rather than an SOQ (statement of qualifications). For other projects ? like artwork for Argo Cascades and East Stadium bridges ? AAPAC is using an SOQ, he noted. That approach solicits a pool of artists from which finalists are selected. The finalists are paid a stipend to develop a proposal that?s then selected. He felt that was the proper way to proceed. With no stipends, he said, serious artists wouldn?t respond.
John Kotarski
Seagraves explained that with this particular project, AAPAC wanted an artist to work hand-in-hand with the landscape architect who?ll be designing the rain garden. They don?t want a design done prior to that, he said. Another factor is that the city procedurally can?t issue a contract with an artist directly from an SOQ ? the SOQ usually leads to an RFP. So in this case, an RFP was being used instead, skipping the SOQ step.
There was a fair amount of confusion about how the process would work. Seagraves eventually explained that the process would actually work like an SOQ. A task force will use the RFP responses to choose a group of finalists, who?ll then be interviewed before the task force recommends someone for the project. Unlike typical RFPs, however, none of the artists will be asked to develop a specific design for the project, he said. The task force recommendation will be forwarded to AAPAC for review ? and if approved, at that point the city will develop a contract with the artist for the work.
Kotarski said it sounded like the city would be hiring the artist?s services, much like an artist in residence. In that light, he said it made sense to him to proceed in this way.
Outcome: This was not a voting item.?
Canoe Art
At the end of the Oct. 24 meeting, Marsha Chamberlin floated an idea for a possible art project to pursue. She noted that the city has about 100 old aluminum canoes that it?s planning to get rid of. She reported that Cheryl Saam, facilities supervisor for the city?s canoe liveries, had raised the possibility of using the canoes for some kind of community art project. One idea is to cut the canoes in half and stand them upright, to serve as a base. The visual analogy is a cr?che made from an old bathtub, Chamberlin said. They could be painted, embellished, or transformed in any way ? the common theme would be the canoe. The project could involve artists, the general community, or both. The final artwork could be sold, donated as a fundraiser, or used as installations throughout the city.
Chamberlin wanted feedback from other commissioners to see if this was something they?d like to pursue. There was general agreement among the five other commissioners who attended the meeting, so Chamberlin said she?d work on a more formal proposal for a future meeting.
Outcome: This was not a voting item.
State & Ellsworth Roundabout
A roundabout is being built at the intersection of South State and Ellsworth, and AAPAC plans to incorporate public art into the project. Aaron Seagraves, the city?s public art administrator, told commissioners that they needed to select a ?champion? for the project.
Bob Miller volunteered, saying he wanted to tie in the roundabout art into a corridor study of South State that?s underway. [See Chronicle coverage: "Sustainability Goals Shape Corridor Study."]
There was some discussion among commissioners about the importance of integrating artwork not just at the roundabout, but throughout the length of the corridor as well. Marsha Chamberlin suggested developing a ?visual database? of ideas that could be drawn on, showing how artwork could be integrated into the design of fencing, road dividers and signs, for example. Otherwise, art will just be ?plopped? onto a site, she said.
Miller said he?d touch base with Jeff Kahan, the city planner who?s working on this corridor project, to see how AAPAC can coordinate with it.
Outcome: This was not a voting item.
Other Project & Budget Updates
Aaron Seagraves gave several brief project updates during the meeting. Here are some highlights:
Justice Center lobby sculpture: The $150,000 project will be delayed for a few months because the fabricators selected by the sculptor ? Ed Carpenter ? aren?t available until later this year. The installation of the hanging glass work now isn?t expected until March or April, rather than January. The sculpture, called ?Radius,? was approved by city council in May of 2012 based on AAPAC?s recommendation.
East Stadium bridge artwork: The statement of qualifications (SOQ) has been issued for artwork at the new East Stadium bridge and nearby areas. [.pdf of SOQ-837] The deadline for submissions is Nov. 30 at 10 a.m. The $400,000 budget for that project was recommended by AAPAC in March of 2012.
Mural program: Also issued is a statement of qualifications (SOQ) to select a pool of artists for future mural projects. [.pdf of SOQ-835] The deadline for submissions is Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. AAPAC had approved this approach at its?June 27, 2012 meeting, to facilitate faster development of mural projects.
Argo Cascades: The city attorney?s office has signed off on an SOQ for artwork at Argo Cascades. Seagraves expects that the SOQ will be released in November. [SOQs for the city are posted online here.] AAPAC approved a $150,000 budget for that project in April of 2012.
Forest Avenue Plaza: Seagraves reported that Marsha Chamberlin and Bob Miller had met with park planner Amy Kuras earlier in the month, and would be meeting again in November with other task force members who?ll be selected from the neighborhood. AAPAC voted at its?Aug. 22, 2012?meeting to move ahead on a public art project for the plaza, located?next to the Forest Avenue parking structure near South University.
Seagraves also provided commissioners with a budget summary on Percent for Art funds, showing a balance of $1.533 million. Of that,?$847,104 has been earmarked for previously approved projects, leaving about $686,000 unallocated. [.pdf of budget summary] There was no discussion of the budget.
Commissioners present: Connie Rizzolo Brown, Marsha Chamberlin, Tony Derezinski, John Kotarski, Bob Miller, Malverne Winborne. Also Aaron Seagraves, the city?s public art administrator.
Next regular meeting: Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. at city hall, 301 E. Huron St. [Check Chronicle events listing to confirm date]
The Chronicle relies in part on regular?voluntary subscriptions?to?support our artful coverage?of publicly-funded programs like the Percent for Art, which is overseen by the Ann Arbor public art commission. Click this link for details:?Subscribe to The Chronicle.
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombed suburbs of Damascus and a car bomb killed 10 people in the capital on Monday, the last day of a four-day truce which U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon acknowledged had failed.
Each side blamed the other for breaching the Eid al-Adha truce arranged by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who nevertheless promised to pursue his peace efforts.
"I am deeply disappointed that the parties failed to respect the call to suspend fighting," Ban said in Seoul, where he was visiting to receive the Seoul Peace Prize.
"This crisis cannot be solved with more weapons and bloodshed ... the guns must fall silent," he said.
Brahimi, after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, voiced regret that the ceasefire had not worked better. Asked whether U.N. peacekeepers might be sent to Syria, he said there was no immediate plan for that.
Although President Bashar al-Assad's government and several rebel groups accepted the plan to stop shooting over the Muslim religious holiday, it failed to stem the bloodshed in a 19-month-old conflict that has already cost at least 32,000 lives.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition watchdog, 420 people have been killed since Friday.
Damascus residents reported heavy air raids on the suburbs of Qaboun, Zamalka and Irbin overnight and on Monday which they said were the fiercest since jets and helicopters first bombarded pro-opposition parts of the Syrian capital in August.
Syrian state television said women and children were among those killed by a "terrorist car bomb" near a bakery in Jaramana, in the southeast of Damascus. Damascus residents say the district is controlled by Assad loyalists.
State media said Assad's armed opponents had broken the truce throughout the Eid.
"For the fourth consecutive day, the armed terrorist groups in Deir al-Zor continued violating the declaration on suspending military operations which the armed forces have committed to," state news said, later adding that rebels had attacked government forces in Aleppo and the central city of Homs.
The Damascus air raids followed what residents said were failed attempts by troops storm eastern parts of the city.
"Tanks are deployed around Harat al-Shwam (district) but they haven't been able to go in. They tried a week ago," said an activist who lives near the area and who asked not to be named.
Brahimi, who will visit Beijing after Moscow, said the renewed violence in Syria would not discourage him.
"We think this civil war must end ... and the new Syria has to be built by all its sons," he said. "The support of Russia and other members of the Security Council is indispensable."
Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad's government for the violence.
Beijing has been keen to show it does not take sides in Syria and has urged the government there to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change. It has said a transitional government should be formed.
Big-power rifts have paralyzed United Nations action over Syria, but Assad's political and armed opponents are also deeply divided, a problem which their Western allies say has complicated efforts to provide greater support.
Syrian opposition figures, including Free Syrian Army commanders, started three days of talks in Istanbul on Monday in the latest attempt to unite the disparate groups.
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Michael Martina in Beijing; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
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October 28th, 2012 | Leave a comment Written by Arpita Posted in Featured, Featured Blogger
Shannon with Daughter Moira
Shannon, our former Featured Blogger Editor and current Pinterest pinner, and her husband, Walker, live in the Pacific Northwest with?their two children. Baby Davis, who was born this past?December?and big sister, four-year-old Moira. Shannon and Walker?recently moved to a larger home with?her parents. Due to?Shannon?s mother?s MS, the two-story home she was residing in?was no longer meeting her needs. Together as a family, they strive to practice equally shared parenting.? Shannon and Walker are eager to share?their love of gaming, music, reading, the arts, cars, and geekery with?their two beautiful?children.
What has surprised Shannon the most about being a parent is the struggle that it is. As a nanny for 12 years,?she always knew that parenting would be harder than?caring for someone else?s children, but she didn?t realize exactly how much harder it can be. While much tougher than she imagined, Shannon is grateful for her time as a nanny as she saw firsthand the benefits of natural parenting. ?My experience as a nanny let me see lots of other parenting styles. The children I knew who were raised in the Attachment Parenting style have turned into the happiest and most interesting adults. I also saw first hand the changes that fear- and shame-based parenting can cause in a child.?
Even through the grind of?daily life Shannon is able to appreciate the beauty of her world around her.? She says ?I think?[being a parent]?has made me a better partner. As I become more practiced at honoring my children?s true selves, I find it easier to do so for everyone. I have read much parenting advice that says you should treat your kids the way you would treat an adult, and I really took that to heart in the other direction. If I don?t think it?s appropriate to yell at my child for forgetting to put her clothes in the hamper, maybe I also shouldn?t yell at Walker when he leaves the sponge in the sink.?
Everyone could benefit by taking a page from Shannon?s book which clearly includes making lots of time for her family as well as honouring the bond she and her husband share. As part of their daily routine, at dinner every night?the whole family takes turns talking about?their favorite part of the day. After dinner is bedtime for the kids?while the adults all spend quality time together and relax.
Sometimes, the way to being the best mother and partner that you can be is ensuring that you are taking time to honour and cherish yourself as well, which is clearly something Shannon and Walker work together on. ?On the weekends, we try to make sure there is time together as a family, as well as time alone for Walker and I each. We also take turns sleeping in.?
Shannon?s blog is always insightful, inspiring, creative, and sometimes just downright funny. Always evolving, she started her blog on LiveJournal quite some?time ago. After her daughter was born?she realized?she had more to share with a wider audience then was available on LiveJournal, and she switched to Blogger.?If you randomly click around her blog, you might stumble upon one of the following posts which are among Shannon?s favorite posts.
??Let?s Talk About Diversity,?is one of her favorites because the subject is near and dear to her heart. She feels pride that our world seems to be moving in the direction of more tolerance and that?her children will look back on the way people treated the LGBT community and wonder what we were thinking.
This is All New to Me?is a post that every new mother can relate to!? It was written very early in her parenting when?she first realized that people were comparing themselves to other parents favorably and unfavorably.?Over four years and two babies later, Shannon?still agrees with what?she wrote. She notes the only?exception is?that the longer?she parents, the less?she?judges others.
Wait, What?? is a wonderfully inspiring post about another topic that is?near and dear to?her heart, size acceptance. Shannon wishes that people could embrace their whole selves, including their body, where ever it is in the size spectrum.
You know you want more Shannon! And you can get it over on?Pineapples & Artichokes!? You can follow her?on Pinterest and Google +?too!??Thank you Shannon, for sharing your journey through parenthood with us! Your blog is always refreshingly honest and inspiring, and it?s a blessing to be able to learn with you through your journey of natural parenting!
Related posts:
Featured Blogger: Julia
Featured Blogger: Amy Phoenix
Featured Blogger: JW
Featured Blogger: Christine Powell
Featured Blogger: Cynthia
About the Author - Arpita
UpDownNatural
Sometimes the world of trying to live greener, and switching to chemical free organics is enough to turn you upside down. However, when these changes are made for our children, and the earth we bring them into, it only seems natural.? My name is Arpita, and I blog at Up, Down & Natural about mine and my husband's journey into natural parenting, and the things we're learning along the way.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2012) ? Getting a flu shot may not only protect you from getting sick, it might also prevent heart disease. Two Toronto-based researchers presented studies at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress which found that the influenza vaccine could be an important treatment for maintaining heart health and warding off cardiovascular events like strokes and heart attacks.
Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiologist at Women's College Hospital and the University of Toronto, and his team from the TIMI Study Group and Network for Innovation in Clinical Research looked at published clinical trials on this subject, dating back to the 1960s.
"For those who had the flu shot, there was a pretty strong risk reduction," says Dr. Udell.
The flu vaccine provided an approximate 50 per cent reduction in the risk of a major cardiac event (heart attack, stroke, or cardiac death) compared with placebo after one year of follow-up. A similar trend was seen for the flu vaccine reducing death from any cause (approximately 40 per cent).
The influenza vaccine reduced cardiovascular events and cardiovascular death in people with or without heart disease.
The combined studies examined a total of 3,227 patients, with an almost equal split between patients with and without established heart disease. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive flu vaccine and those that did not typically received a placebo vaccine.
Dr. Udell says these results provide support for current guideline recommendations for influenza vaccination of individuals with a prior heart attack, but for a different reason than simply reducing flu risk. And although it was encouraging to see a reduction in non-fatal cardiac events, he believes a large, lengthier multi-national study would comprehensively demonstrate the vaccine's effectiveness to reduce fatal cardiac events and save lives.
"A large study that was international in scope and representative of patients such as those in North America and Canada in particular could help answer this question," he says.
This research could also potentially boost use of the vaccine, which Udell believes is still woefully low. "The use of the vaccine is still much too low, less than 50 per cent of the general population; it's even poorly used among health care workers," he says. "Imagine if this vaccine could also be a proven way to prevent heart disease."
An Ipsos Reid survey conducted by B.C. and Quebec Lung Associations this year found that 36 per cent of Canadians reported having received a flu shot in 2011.
And according to the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the 2008 Adult National Immunization Coverage Survey found that vaccination rates for adults 18 to 64 years of age with a chronic medical condition is low at 35 per cent.
It also found that non-institutionalized seniors aged 65 and older have higher coverage, at 66 per cent.
According to the NACI, rates for both groups have declined somewhat since their 2006 survey and fall short of the 80 per cent national targets for influenza vaccine coverage in adults under age 65 with chronic conditions and in seniors.
People with ICDS who get the shot have fewer adverse events The second study, conducted by cardiologists Drs. Ramanan Kumareswaran and Sheldon Singh from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre examined the use of the influenza vaccine in patients with implantable cardiac defibrillators or ICDs.
"Anecdotes suggest that patients have more ICD shocks during flu season. We were trying to figure out what we can do to reduce the amount of shocks in (our clinic's) ICD population during the flu season," says Dr. Kumareswaran.
Patients with ICDs that had appointments at the Sunnybrook Hospital ICD clinic between September 1st 2011 and November 31st 2011 completed a survey that identified their demographics, health status, if they received a flu shot in the past year and opinions towards the vaccine.
The patients' health charts were reviewed to determine all ICD therapies in five months preceding the 2010 flu season (June to October) and for three months during the 2010-2011 flu season (December to March).
A total of 230 patients with an average age between 70 and 74 completed surveys with 179 (78 per cent) patients reported receiving the vaccination in the previous year. Just over 20 per cent did not receive the vaccine.
The patients who did not receive the flu vaccine had a trend toward experiencing more ICD therapies on average. Specifically, 10.6 per cent of patients who received the vaccine received at least one ICD therapy during flu season compared to 13.7 per cent of patients who did not receive the influenza vaccine.
"What is interesting is that if this is consistent over time, it could be of significant benefit to our patient population who already have compromised survival to start with," says Dr. Singh.
"We would like to look at this on a larger scale to determine whether or not our results can be replicated. We're in the process to determine how best to do that." An ICD is a small battery-powered electrical impulse generator implanted in patients who are at risk of sudden cardiac death.
The device is programmed to detect cardiac arrhythmia and correct it by delivering a jolt of electricity or increasing the heart rate to restore a healthy rhythm once an irregular beat has been detected.
About 5,000 Canadians get ICDs every year and there are about 100,000 Canadians who currently have them. (Most Canadians with advanced heart disease are potential candidates for ICDs.)
Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson says these studies strengthen National Advisory Committee for Immunization recommendations for the use of the influenza vaccine in those at high risk of developing influenza related complications, such as patients with heart disease or diabetes, and those who have close contact with those at high risk of developing complications.
"In addition to leading a heart healthy life, having an annual flu shot could be another easy way to help prevent cardiac events," she says.
Dr. Abramson notes that the Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends an influenza vaccination for those at high risk of influenza-related complications or hospitalization (including people with heart conditions, those with diabetes, people over 65 years of age, people with a BMI at or above 40 and children or adults treated with ASA). It is also recommended for people who are most likely to transmit influenza to high risk individuals (family members, friends, coworkers, healthcare provider and caregivers).
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An award-winning disabled artist is to spend three days in bed in front of an audience, in an attempt to portray the contradictions of her impairment, and the government?s ?miserable, terrifying, punishing? fitness for work assessment regime.
The writer-director-activist Liz Crow is forced to spend much of her life in bed because of her impairment, but has always managed to keep that part of herself hidden from view.
?I have developed this incredibly stark way of living,? she says, ?and what other people see of me in public spaces is not how I am for most of my life. Even the people close to me don?t really know me at the most extreme.?
In?Bedding In?, she will make her ?twilight existence visible?, exposing the part of her life she spends in bed to public scrutiny, and for the first time ?parading? this private self in public.
The piece, part of this year?s SPILL Festival of Performance, in Ipswich, is Crow?s response to the government?s harsh benefits reassessment programme.
But rather than lying low for fear of being penalised by the Department for Work and Pensions, she has decided to ?stare that fear in the face?.
She is one of the hundreds of thousands of long-time incapacity benefit claimants who have been tested through the government?s reassessment programme, and subjected to the infamous work capability assessment, carried out by the government?s contractor Atos Healthcare.
Even though Crow has used a wheelchair for 26 years, Atos decided that she had no difficulty walking. She was placed in the work-related activity group (WRAG), for those thought able to move towards paid work.
But she knows she cannot make herself available for work, and so ? unless she wins her appeal ? she has resigned herself to having her benefits taken away because of the inevitable failure to co-operate with the regime.
?The consequences are that I may have no income coming in and don?t know how as a single parent I will care for my child, let alone my home, etc.?
Less than two weeks after her performance ends, she will need to parade her private self again, when she appeals to a tribunal against the decision to place her in the WRAG.
Crow is clear that she wants Bedding In to be about the complexity of her impairment, and not its ?tragedy?.
?I live a pretty good life with the complicated set of circumstances that I have got,? she says, ?but if I step out of my bed then it is not seen as complexity or contradiction, and in the current benefits system it means you fall through the gaps.?
Each day during the performance at Ipswich Art School Gallery, members of the public will gather around her bed to discuss the work, and its politics. The hope is that Crow will take the ?data? from these conversations and use them to further develop the piece.
?It is a political statement,? she says of the performance, ?but it is also trying to make visible this kind of internal wrestling that goes on for a lot of us with the benefits stuff.
?Since I got personal assistants 15 years ago I have managed to find a kind of fragile security in my life. I have rarely earned but I have, I hope, contributed.
?Now the benefits thing has kicked in it has all gone. Suddenly I don?t feel I have any security left whatsoever.?
Even if she wins her appeal, she faces the likely prospect of being reassessed again in another year or so, and then again, and again.
?The idea that this is life now: that is just dire. There are hundreds of thousands of us going through this assessment. There is some small comfort that there are a lot of us in it together but it is not much comfort because of the toll it takes.
?I have this tiny amount of time when I am well enough to do stuff and I am looking at that time being taken away.
?It has been really hard to create the life I have got, a reasonable life, and this big system comes along with these politicians who are so extraordinarily removed from a life like mine and they demolish what I have built up.?
The whole process feels, she says, like ?punishment?, not assessment, ?an endless round of justifying myself and fighting for a grain of security?.
?There are layers and layers of why it is so hard. One of the things is that if you fall through the gaps, for the press it is evidence that you are a scrounger and a fraudster.?
She is among the many disabled activists who believe that this cruel assessment process ? and the callous and incompetent way it is carried out by Atos ? are responsible for the premature deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of disabled people.
Even if these deaths are not caused by the process, she says, ?actually they died among all this shit, their last few months were so miserable and so frightening, and I think that?s unforgivable. To condemn people to a really miserable last few months is diabolical.?
Crow feels there is an affinity between her performance and the direct action protest carried out by members of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) at Marble Arch in central London last weekend.
One of the reasons she is so impressed with DPAC?s campaigning work, she says, is that ?they have created an incredible visible presence but have found ways for all sorts of people to contribute?, particularly through social media.
She also sees links with her most recent piece of work, Resistance, an award-winning video installation about the Aktion-T4 programme, which led to the targeted killing of as many as 200,000 disabled people, and possibly many more, in Nazi Germany.
She began working on Resistance in 2008, and started thinking about its themes several years earlier, and felt even then that there were contemporary ?connections?.
?Those contemporary connections have just got stronger and stronger,? she says. ?I am appalled to feel that we are under greater threat now than we have been in all the years I have been involved in activism.?
She points to newspaper reports of alleged disability benefit fraud and the use of language like ?shirkers?, ?scroungers? and ?fakers? to describe disabled people. This kind of propaganda, she says, is ?eerily familiar? from descriptions of pre-Holocaust Germany.
The ?specifics? of what is happening now are not the same as in Nazi Germany, she adds, but ?the values beneath it are, this idea that we are somehow dispensable, more dispensable than others?.
She also points to the Paralympics, which she says ?makes the scrounger-fraudster rhetoric stronger, and leads to a backlash?.
There are even similarities between the Paralympic classification system, and the benefits assessment system. Both suit those who have a ?bio-mechanical, quantifiable impairment?, rather than less clear and easily-determined impairments.
Would-be Paralympians with ?nebulous impairments? fall through the gaps, she says, just as she and many tens of thousands of other disabled people have fallen through the yawning gaps in the benefits system.
Bedding In is part of?Disability Arts Online?s??Diverse Perspectives project, which is funded by Arts Council England, and is commissioning eight disabled artists to make new artwork that ?sparks conversations and debate about the creative case for diversity?.
Bedding In?takes place at the Ipswich Art School Gallery from 1-3 November, from 11am to 6pm, as part of the SPILL Festival of Performance in Ipswich.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Time Warner Cable Inc. says it has reached its first major agreements to receive payment for carriage of two new channels carrying Lakers basketball games.
The company said Friday it had signed up Charter Communications Inc., which has around 290,000 subscribers in the Los Angeles area. Time Warner Cable also said it had agreed to terms with Verizon Communications Inc., whose subscriber numbers in the region were not immediately clear.
The first regular-season game to be carried on the channels is Wednesday night at Portland. The Lakers' season opener is at home against the Mavericks on Tuesday in a game to be broadcast on TNT.
Time Warner Cable bought the regional TV rights to Lakers games last year for an estimated $3 billion over 20 years, in a deal that also included games of pro soccer's LA Galaxy and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. It must sign deals with other TV distributors to help offset costs.
Earlier this month, Time Warner signed up partner Bright House Networks, which only has a few thousand subscribers in Bakersfield.
Time Warner Cable has about 1.7 million customers in the region, but there are more than 2 million other pay TV subscribers, including customers of DirecTV and Dish Network Corp., who might lose access to games if their providers don't reach a deal to carry the channels.
There are also nearly 700,000 TV households in the area that get their signals for free via antenna that will lose access to the Lakers' away games this year unless they opt to pay for TV. Lakers away games used to be broadcast over the airwaves for free by KCAL, a CBS Corp. TV station.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The nanny suspected of slaying a Manhattan professional couple's two young children began stabbing herself as the mother entered the bathroom and began screaming when she saw the dead bodies in the bathtub, New York's police commissioner said on Friday.
The nanny, YoSelyn Ortega, had been employed by the family of Kevin and Marina Krim for two years before she killed their children and attempted suicide on Thursday in the family's luxury apartment, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Ortega, who lived with her son and sister near the Krims' apartment off Central Park, has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for a decade, Kelly said, adding that she had been referred to the Krims by another family.
New York police were hoping to interview the critically wounded nanny later on Friday, said an NYPD official who requested anonymity. Ortega, 50, has not been charged because police have not been able to interview her.
"We know now that the nanny began to stab herself as the woman entered the bathroom," Kelly said. "We initially thought it was, it had already been done, but now information is coming out that she did it as the mother entered the room."
Ortega remains the prime suspect in the stabbing death of the two children, Leo, 2, and Lulu, 6, Kelly said.
Marina Krim had entered the apartment at about 5:30 p.m. Thursday with her 3-year-old daughter, returning home after Ortega failed to meet her as planned at a local dance studio with the two other children.
Krim saw that the apartment was dark and returned to the lobby to ask the doorman if the nanny and kids had gone out, Kelly said. The doorman said no, and she returned to the apartment and went into the bathroom, he said.
Police spokesman Paul Browne said the children suffered "multiple stab wounds," and were pronounced dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
Kevin Krim, the children's father and an executive with CNBC, had been heading home from a business trip, He was met by police at the airport and notified of the killings, police said.
A spokesman for CNBC released a statement Friday expressing the "sadness we all feel" for Krim and his wife. The couple's "unimaginable loss ... is without measure."
Marina Krim, whose Facebook page lists her as originally being from Manhattan Beach, California, taught art classes to children, according to a website for the Hippo Playground Project, a New York organization where she volunteered.
She also maintained a photograph-laden blog to document her daily life with her children, with the final entry dated Thursday, three hours before the discovery.
"Leo speaks in the most adorable way possible," she wrote. "And he does things like, '(I) want a fresh bagel' and 'Lito (what he calls himself) wants cold milk' and most adorable of all, 'No thank you' - he never uses 'No' alone, it's always paired with 'thank you.'"
The blog was later blocked from public view.
A source at NBC News confirmed that the blog - which contains pictures of the Krim family - was Krim's.
(Editing by Dan Burns, Doina Chiacu and Philip Barbara)
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Tom Crean didn't look like any of the other people in the Maui airport that day.
He had just coached his third, fourth and fifth games in his first season at Indiana. He looked how you would expect a coach to look after losing games by 38 and 26 points, then managing to beat Division II Chaminade in the seventh-place game of the Maui Invitational by only two points. The Silverswords got off a possible game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Others waiting for flights to the mainland on the day before Thanksgiving in 2008 were wearing leis and flowered shirts and were carefully carrying pineapples. Not Crean. He had a lot of things on his mind and looked like he was ready to blow the whistle and start practice.
"This is going to take a while," Crean said at the time. "We can do it. This place has so much in so many ways."
He was standing and pacing now, the way he piles up the miles on the sideline.
"We can do this," he said. "We can do this."
Not many people would have believed it then. They do now. Another step in the return of the fabled Hoosiers program came Friday as Crean is about to start his fifth season in Bloomington.
Indiana was ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press' preseason Top 25, a first for the Hoosiers since 1979-80, when they were coached by Bob Knight and the 3-point line was still in the experimental phase.
The Hoosiers and their fans are quite familiar with the next two teams in the voting: Louisville and Kentucky.
The three schools are from the basketball-rabid area known as "Kentuckiana." Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are all within an easy drive of each other and they are schools which have known basketball success over the years and recently, as well.
The Hoosiers, who return all five starters including 7-foot sophomore Cody Zeller, received 43 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel. Indiana is a preseason No. 1 for the third time.
Louisville, which reached the Final Four last season, and Kentucky, the reigning national champions who beat Indiana in the regional semifinals and Louisville in the national semifinals, received the rest of the first-place votes. Louisville was No. 1 on 20 ballots and the Wildcats got the other two.
Louisville has most of the team back from last season including Gorgui Dieng, a defensive force in the middle. Kentucky, on the other hand, has another roster full of talented freshmen after four players left early and were taken in the first round of the NBA draft including overall No. 1 and 2 picks Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
This is the fifth time that Indiana, Louisville and Kentucky were all ranked in the preseason top 10. The last time was 1982-83 when Kentucky was No. 4, Louisville No. 8 and Indiana was ninth.
Indiana's other preseason No. 1 was in 1975-76 when the Hoosiers put together the last unbeaten run to a national championship.
Ohio State and Michigan joined Indiana as Big Ten teams ranked in the top five. The last time a conference had three teams in the preseason top five was 2008-09 when Connecticut, Louisville and Pittsburgh of the Big East were second, third and fifth, respectively.
North Carolina State, Kansas, Duke, Syracuse and Florida round out the top 10.
North Carolina led the second 10 and was followed by Arizona, UCLA, Michigan State, Missouri, Creighton, Memphis, UNLV, Baylor and San Diego State.
The last five ranked teams were Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Cincinnati and Florida State.
The Big Ten led the way with five teams in the preseason poll, while the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference had four each. Along with the Southeastern Conference's three teams, those four leagues accounted for 16 of the 25 teams.
Crean took over an Indiana program in 2008-09 that had plenty of history ? five national championships ? and a lot of current problems. Only two players returned from a team that was facing NCAA discipline over a phone call scandal that led to the ouster of coach Kelvin Sampson.
The program was back on the national scene last season when Christian Watford's 3-pointer at the buzzer beat No. 1 Kentucky and the fans rushed the court at Assembly Hall. Three straight losing seasons seemed long ago as the Hoosiers added two more wins over teams ranked in the top five and got back in the NCAA tournament.
Now Crean has a team that will start the season No. 1
"It's great. Those things are great," Crean said. "I think now, it's just so much about the daily challenge of getting better. That to me is what the focus is. It's a big deal, but you don't get any banners for your preseason rankings. You've got to go out and you've got to earn it every day. I think that's what this team is really doing a good job of, and I know it's early, but they're doing a good job of it."
Duke has the longest current streak of consecutive poll appearances at 97, a run that started with the preseason poll of 2007-08. Kansas has the second-longest current run at 65 weeks.
Myanmar Buddhist monks hold banners and placards during a rally against recent violence in Rakhine state, outside the city hall in Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Nearly 200 protesters including Buddhist monks called for the stop of renewed violence in western coast of Myanmar. Rakhine state spokesman Myo Thant said clashes between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists - reported in other parts of the coastal region Sunday - engulfed the townships of Kyaukphyu and Myebon late Tuesday. (AP Photo)
Myanmar Buddhist monks hold banners and placards during a rally against recent violence in Rakhine state, outside the city hall in Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Nearly 200 protesters including Buddhist monks called for the stop of renewed violence in western coast of Myanmar. Rakhine state spokesman Myo Thant said clashes between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists - reported in other parts of the coastal region Sunday - engulfed the townships of Kyaukphyu and Myebon late Tuesday. (AP Photo)
Myanmar Buddhist monks offer prayers during a rally against recent violence in Rakhine state, at Sule pagoda in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Nearly 200 protesters including Buddhist monks called for the stop of renewed violence in western coast of Myanmar. Rakhine state spokesman Myo Thant said clashes between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists - reported in other parts of the coastal region Sunday - engulfed the townships of Kyaukphyu and Myebon late Tuesday. (AP Photo)
KYAUKTAW, Myanmar (AP) ? At least 56 people were killed and nearly 2,000 homes destroyed in the latest outbreak of ethnic violence in western Myanmar, a government official said Thursday.
The 25 men and 31 women were reported dead in four Rakhine state townships in violence between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities that re-erupted Sunday, local government spokesman Win Myaing said.
He said some 1,900 homes had been burned down in fresh conflict, while 60 men and four women were injured. It was unclear how many of the victims were Rohingya people and how many were Rakhine.
In June, ethnic violence in the state left at least 90 people dead and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. Tens of thousands of people remain in refugee camps.
The United States called for Myanmar authorities to take immediate action to halt the violence. The United Nations appealed for calm.
An Associated Press photographer who traveled to Kyauktaw, one of the affected townships 45 kilometers (75 miles) north of the Rakhine capital of Sittwe, said he saw 11 wounded people brought by ambulance to the local 25-bed hospital, most with gunshot wounds.
One was declared dead after arrival. All the victims being treated were Rakhine, but that could reflect an inability or unwillingness of Rohingya victims to be treated there.
A male volunteer at the hospital, Min Oo, said by telephone that five bodies, including one of a woman, had also been brought there. He said the injured persons were brought by boat from Kyauktaw town 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, and taken from the jetty by the ambulances.
An account by a Rakhine villager in the area suggested great confusion and tension. The villager said that when groups of Rakhine and the Rohingya had a confrontation, government soldiers shot into a crowd of Rakhine, even though, according to his claim, it had been dispersing. The villager would not give his name for fear of violent reprisals.
There have been concerns in the past that soldiers were failing to protect the Rohingya community, but the Rakhine villager's account hints that the military may have been defending the Rohingya in this case.
Curfews have been in place in some areas since June, and been extended to others due to the recent violence.
Tensions still simmer in part because the government has failed to find any long-term solution to the crisis other than segregating the two communities in some areas.
The United Nations called for calm Thursday in response to the new violence.
"The U.N. is gravely concerned about reports of a resurgence of inter-communal conflict in several areas in Rakhine State ? which has resulted in deaths and has forced thousands of people, including women and children, to flee their homes," U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Ashok Nigam said in a statement.
Nigam said the United Nations was appealing for "immediate and unconditional access to all communities in accordance with humanitarian principles."
The statement said large numbers of people fleeing the new violence were headed for already overcrowded refugee camps currently housing about 75,000 people previously made homeless.
"Short term humanitarian support and action towards long term solutions are urgently required to address the root causes of the conflict," said the statement.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was deeply concerned about the reports of increasing ethnic and sectarian violence in Rakhine state and urged restraint.
The unrest broke out days after the U.S. held what it described as an encouraging human rights dialogue with Myanmar ? the latest sign of diplomatic re-engagement with the former pariah state, which has also seen the easing of sanctions to reward it for democratic reforms.
The unrest is some of the worst reported in the region since June, after clashes were set off by the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in late May.
The crisis in Myanmar's west goes back decades and is rooted in a dispute over where the region's Muslim inhabitants are from. Although many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are widely denigrated as foreigners ? intruders who came from neighboring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.
The U.N. estimates their number at 800,000. But the government does not count them as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups, and so ? like neighboring Bangladesh ? denies them citizenship. Human rights groups say racism also plays a role: Many Rohingya, who speak a distinct Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim Bangladeshis, have darker skin and are heavily discriminated against.
The conflict has proven to be a major challenge for the government of President Thein Sein, which has embarked on democratic reforms since a half century of military rule ended in 2011.
It also poses a dilemma for the opposition New Light of Myanmar party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which has been reluctant to go against the tide of popular anti-Rohingya sentiment. Suu Kyi has been criticized by some Western human rights advocates for failing to speak out strongly against what they see as repression of the Rohingya.
Buddhist monks have been spearheading anti-Rohingya protests, and on Thursday staged their latest one in Yangon, the country's biggest and most important city. More than 100 staged a peaceful protest at the historic Sule Pagoda.
_____
Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
Megan Fox Legal Threat Over Nude Pic ... Those Aren't My Boobs!
EXCLUSIVE
DO NOT Photoshop Megan Fox's naked face on another chick's naked body ... and then publish it online ... because she will sue the crap out of you -- at least that's the threat she sent to one website this week.
Megan's legal team fired off the cease and desist letter to a parody website called Celebrity Jihad -- after the site published a shockingly good Photoshopped pic last week, depicting Megan's face on a naked chick's body.
But Megan's lawyers aren't impressed with the image-doctoring skills -- claiming the photo is 100% fake (no duh) and must be taken down ASAP ... or they'll sue.
A rep for Celebrity Jihad tells TMZ ... "While we appreciate Megan Fox's concern for her image, we find it hard to believe that a woman who spent two Transformers movies bent over with her breasts pressed together could have her reputation damaged by a blatantly satirical website."
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