by MICHAEL WARREN
AP Associated Press
updated 7/15/2010 10:53:53 AM ET
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38251758/ns/world_news-americas/
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples.
After a marathon debate in Argentina's senate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 against and 3 abstained in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already approved it and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin, which should happen within days.
The law is sure to bring a wave of marriages by gays and lesbians who have found Buenos Aires to be a welcoming place to live. But same-sex couples from other countries shouldn't rush their Argentine wedding plans, since only citizens and residents can wed in the country, and the necessary documents can take months to obtain. While it makes some amendments to the civil code, many other aspects of family law will have to be changed.
The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress and urged parents in churches and schools to work against passage. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio led the campaign, saying "children need to have the right to be raised and educated by a father and a mother."
Nine gay couples had already married in Argentina after persuading judges that the constitutional mandate of equality supports their marriage rights, although their validity was later challenged by other judges. Congressional passage now removes that doubt.
As the debate stretched on for nearly 16 hours, large crowds held rival vigils through the frigid night outside the Congress building. When the final vote came, cheers and hugs broke out among the bill's supporters, with police keeping them separate from frustrated opponents who prayed and held rosaries.
"Marriage between a man and a woman has existed for centuries, and is essential for the perpetuation of the species," insisted Sen. Juan Perez Alsina, who is usually a loyal supporter of the president but gave a passionate speech against gay marriage inside the Senate chamber.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Where I have been in the US
visited 31 states (62%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
So i have been thinking that i need to at least visit all of the US in the next 10 years, and visit some other amazing places. After that i need to fill up my passport and visit the world and take a few months and just travel and enjoy life. So who's with me?
Friday, July 9, 2010
If I am an adult stop treating me like such a child....
.... sometimes my family drives me crazy, they dont think that i can do anything by my self at all i swear. Ok maybe some things, but you get my drift. And since I am the "baby" in the family, i am left out of things that people dont think i should be a part of knowing until the very last second. Or the fact that it seems that all my points or ideas are not valid to be taken seriously.
Some examples.
Not knowing that my sister was going to buy my parents house till after the papers were signed for it.
Telling my parents there was a bad storm coming in and the weather will clear up enough tomorrow to take care of my sisters yard while she was gone. They want to go over anyway, we get there, the storm hits with lighting as i show them how to start the push mower before getting on the riding mower. I hit the kill switch on the mower and then head home only to drive thru 70 mph wind almost getting hit by a 18-wheeler, and have two branches fall on my car and then they dont leave me space to park in the garage and i have to run thru the storm and they just laugh about it all.
When making dinner they want to add bland things to cover up the taste of most foods, and my suggestions are overruled, and twice the amount of food is made in the end because of it, and then it sometimes is thrown out because it has gone bad.
And when i suggest or tell them that something needs to be done about a situation at work because it is unprofessional or is wasting time, money, space or turning people away. It is never taking seriously at all. But when i do something that is considered unprofessional, a small grammar error, or writing an informal email to someone i have to get talked to about it.
All of these and at the same time i was spose to have a job right out of college when only 2 people in my department out of the 20+ of us have a job in their field. And one of those is an internship they had last year with no promise of a job after the summer is over. And the fact that i dont have a job like that supporting myself and such is a disappointment. When both of my sisters during this time in their life had to come back home for a while.
I am just sick and tired of the back and forth of what they want me to be. I am a college grad and should be treated as such, not like a 4yr that doesnt know how to do anything at all.
Some examples.
Not knowing that my sister was going to buy my parents house till after the papers were signed for it.
Telling my parents there was a bad storm coming in and the weather will clear up enough tomorrow to take care of my sisters yard while she was gone. They want to go over anyway, we get there, the storm hits with lighting as i show them how to start the push mower before getting on the riding mower. I hit the kill switch on the mower and then head home only to drive thru 70 mph wind almost getting hit by a 18-wheeler, and have two branches fall on my car and then they dont leave me space to park in the garage and i have to run thru the storm and they just laugh about it all.
When making dinner they want to add bland things to cover up the taste of most foods, and my suggestions are overruled, and twice the amount of food is made in the end because of it, and then it sometimes is thrown out because it has gone bad.
And when i suggest or tell them that something needs to be done about a situation at work because it is unprofessional or is wasting time, money, space or turning people away. It is never taking seriously at all. But when i do something that is considered unprofessional, a small grammar error, or writing an informal email to someone i have to get talked to about it.
All of these and at the same time i was spose to have a job right out of college when only 2 people in my department out of the 20+ of us have a job in their field. And one of those is an internship they had last year with no promise of a job after the summer is over. And the fact that i dont have a job like that supporting myself and such is a disappointment. When both of my sisters during this time in their life had to come back home for a while.
I am just sick and tired of the back and forth of what they want me to be. I am a college grad and should be treated as such, not like a 4yr that doesnt know how to do anything at all.
::NEWS:: Britain Paves Way for Gay Refugees
(Newser) – Gay refugees have a right to asylum in Britain, a high court has ruled. The decision, which cites "rampant homophobic teaching" in parts of Africa and "the ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law" in Iran, will stop those fearing imprisonment, torture or execution from being shipped back to their home countries. "This gives me hope," a Ugandan asylum seeker tells the Guardian. "I feared for my life in Uganda."
Anti-immigration groups worry the move will flood the country with asylum seekers. "Millions of people around the world" could apply, says a rep from Migrationwatch. But the government reps defended the plan, noting that there are strict conditions and that it is simply "not acceptable" to ask people to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution.
Read more: http://www.newser.com/story/94952/britain-paves-way-for-gay-refugees.html#ixzz0tEKkTmj6
Anti-immigration groups worry the move will flood the country with asylum seekers. "Millions of people around the world" could apply, says a rep from Migrationwatch. But the government reps defended the plan, noting that there are strict conditions and that it is simply "not acceptable" to ask people to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution.
Read more: http://www.newser.com/story/94952/britain-paves-way-for-gay-refugees.html#ixzz0tEKkTmj6
::NEWS:: Discovery Helps Researchers Close In on HIV Vaccine
AOL News(July 8) -- American scientists are touting a major stride toward a vaccine that can ward off HIV, after finding two key proteins that neutralize 91 percent of the virus' 190 strains.
The team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center hopes the antibody discovery can spur successful work toward a method of preventing HIV, which already afflicts an estimated 33 million people worldwide.
The discovery, published in this week's Science, is courtesy of Donor 45, an unidentified African-American man whose body produced the antibodies, called VRC01 and VRC02.
This image shows the atomic structure of the antibody VRC01 (blue and green) binding to HIV (grey and red). The precise site of VRC01-HIV binding (red) is a subset of the area of viral attachment to the primary immune cells HIV infects.
NIAID VRC
This image shows the antibody VRCO1, pictured in blue and green, binding to HIV, colored gray and red.
Scientists have already identified the 12 cells in his body that produced the proteins. If they can harness the mechanisms by which the antibodies were made, they might be able to create a vaccine that would spur anybody's body to make the HIV destroyers.
"We're going to be at this for a while," Gary Nabel, director of the center and a leader on this research, told The Wall Street Journal.
The last few years has seen a flurry of effort -- much of it futile -- toward creating a vaccine for HIV, much like those that helped eradicate small pox and polio. Until now, however, single antibodies only appeared to block one or two HIV strains.
Trials on the first promising vaccine, AIDSVAX, were largely a disappointment. In American and Thai trials, the vaccine yielded success rates that varied from statistically insignificant to 30 percent.
In this case, researchers seem to have found a sweet spot on the surface of the human immunodeficiency virus.
"The antibodies attach to a virtually unchanging part of the virus, and this explains why they can neutralize such an extraordinary range of HIV strains," Dr. John Mascola, one of the study's researchers, said in a statement.
Turning these newly discovered antibodies into a useful HIV vaccine remains a tall order. Scientists would need to isolate the specific part of the virus that the antibodies latch onto, then craft a vaccine using that viral snippet to train the body to produce VRC01 and VRC02.
"It's an important step in the right direction of adding a degree of precision to vaccine development," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC News. "But there's no way to tell when a vaccine could happen."
Now that scientists have a better understanding of the actual virus, and areas on its surface that appear vulnerable, new tactics in treating HIV/AIDS might also be an area for further research.
"In infected people, we may be looking at it in combination with medication and determine whether you can get more effective control of the virus and suppress it down to low levels," Nabel said. "The hope would be that we could suppress the virus and increase life span and improve quality of life."
Discovery Helps US Researchers Close In on HIV Vaccine: http://bit.ly/bRiX0y via @addthis
The team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center hopes the antibody discovery can spur successful work toward a method of preventing HIV, which already afflicts an estimated 33 million people worldwide.
The discovery, published in this week's Science, is courtesy of Donor 45, an unidentified African-American man whose body produced the antibodies, called VRC01 and VRC02.
This image shows the atomic structure of the antibody VRC01 (blue and green) binding to HIV (grey and red). The precise site of VRC01-HIV binding (red) is a subset of the area of viral attachment to the primary immune cells HIV infects.
NIAID VRC
This image shows the antibody VRCO1, pictured in blue and green, binding to HIV, colored gray and red.
Scientists have already identified the 12 cells in his body that produced the proteins. If they can harness the mechanisms by which the antibodies were made, they might be able to create a vaccine that would spur anybody's body to make the HIV destroyers.
"We're going to be at this for a while," Gary Nabel, director of the center and a leader on this research, told The Wall Street Journal.
The last few years has seen a flurry of effort -- much of it futile -- toward creating a vaccine for HIV, much like those that helped eradicate small pox and polio. Until now, however, single antibodies only appeared to block one or two HIV strains.
Trials on the first promising vaccine, AIDSVAX, were largely a disappointment. In American and Thai trials, the vaccine yielded success rates that varied from statistically insignificant to 30 percent.
In this case, researchers seem to have found a sweet spot on the surface of the human immunodeficiency virus.
"The antibodies attach to a virtually unchanging part of the virus, and this explains why they can neutralize such an extraordinary range of HIV strains," Dr. John Mascola, one of the study's researchers, said in a statement.
Turning these newly discovered antibodies into a useful HIV vaccine remains a tall order. Scientists would need to isolate the specific part of the virus that the antibodies latch onto, then craft a vaccine using that viral snippet to train the body to produce VRC01 and VRC02.
"It's an important step in the right direction of adding a degree of precision to vaccine development," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC News. "But there's no way to tell when a vaccine could happen."
Now that scientists have a better understanding of the actual virus, and areas on its surface that appear vulnerable, new tactics in treating HIV/AIDS might also be an area for further research.
"In infected people, we may be looking at it in combination with medication and determine whether you can get more effective control of the virus and suppress it down to low levels," Nabel said. "The hope would be that we could suppress the virus and increase life span and improve quality of life."
Discovery Helps US Researchers Close In on HIV Vaccine: http://bit.ly/bRiX0y via @addthis
Thursday, July 1, 2010
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