Cerebral Diva: Bullying, Transgender Women & Domestic Violence ...

I think it's common knowledge that most trans-people have/will be the victims of abuse at some point in their life. The perpetual abuse and lack of empathy or often the motivation for many in the gender variant community to end their own lives in the quest for eternal peace.

For those who choose to stay and fight the world can be a very cruel place, one filled with ostracism, prejudice, homelessness, excommunication and unemployment.

In order to survive in an unforgiving world you need more than a thick skin, you need a suit or armor and arsenal of weaponry (figuratively speaking).

After being beaten up in school on a daily basis, misunderstood at home and feeling an extraterrestrial of sorts, at some point trans-people grow tired of being the one on the receiving end of ass-whoopin's and you learn to fight back (verbally and physically). But through it all...what transgender people really want is love. They desire love and companionship just as most humans desire.

Its the quest for love, combined with a history of violence that can create a dangerous cocktail for many emotionally maladjusted trans-people and their prospective lovers.

Imagined feeling unloved and unwanted for most of your life and then finally finding that special someone that makes you feel complete. Compound that with years of beatings, ridicule, abuse and psychological trauma. You are in for a serious roller coaster ride. Especially if the gender variant person chooses a person who is not comfortable in their own skin or a person who lacks fidelity and sensitivity required to nurture a relationship with a transgender person.

I believe this is why transgender women (especially those of color) often find themselves in relationships where domestic violence is the norm. When you've been abused it creates so many layers of insecurity and unworthiness. It will allow you to make the illogical sound sane for the purpose of maintaining an unhealthy relationship.

If you've been beat up, called "faggot" and "he-she" for the bulk of your life you've essentially been conditioned for an abusive relationship. Violence isn't out of the ordinary, its the standard.

Violence is not atypical in the romantic relationships of many trans-people neither is the escalation and frequency of the violence. The problem is when the trans-person comes out on the winning end of a life or death domestic violence altercation.

There are many transgender women who are now imprisoned or on trial for the death of their lovers. Lovers who were in many cases equally culpable. Yet its the transgender person who is in jail for simply employing one of the most primitive laws known to man: "Kill or be killed".

Don't get me wrong...I am in no way endorsing violence in any capacity. If you do the crime....you do the time. Trans-people have to follow the laws of our society just like anyone else.

It's my hope that trans-people will learn to identify what a healthy relationship looks like and what true love feel like. It is not a fist to the eye or a glass being hurled in your direction form the other side of the room. Love is internal. It lives inward and emanates outward.

Source: http://cerebraldiva.blogspot.com/2013/01/bullying-transgender-women-domestic.html

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The Frantz Fanon Blog: Philosophical Anthropology, Race, and the ...

By Lewis Gordon, 2005

It has been the practice in recent, mainstream American political theory to appeal to notions of facts from which to draw on the values of American society and to formulate, from such facts, Americans' unique notions of justice and freedom. This approach rests upon an obvious suspension of notions of value that transcend sociological and psychological factors, the culmination of which is the almost slogan-like formulation by its most eminent proponent, John?Rawls, of his theory of justice being "political, not metaphysical." Yet such theorists are neither anthropologists nor sociologists, nor for that matter, are they critical theorists, so the assessments they make of "our values" are ultimately either pseudo-social scientific or ultimately a priori notions of what, given our considered judgments, we may believe in spite of facts.

Click here to read this essay in pdf.

Source: http://thinkingafricarhodesuniversity.blogspot.com/2013/01/philosophical-anthropology-race-and.html

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Obama: Gun-control advocates have to listen more

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, talks about proposals to reduce gun violence at the White House in Washington. Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies in the wake of the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, talks about proposals to reduce gun violence at the White House in Washington. Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies in the wake of the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says gun-control advocates have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes in the debate over firearms in America.

In an interview with The New Republic, Obama says he has "a profound respect" for the tradition of hunting that dates back for generations.

"And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake. Part of being able to move this forward is understanding the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas," he says.

Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies following the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

The president says it's understandable that people are protective of their family traditions when it comes to hunting.

"So it's trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months. And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes," he says.

Has Obama himself ever fired a gun?

"Yes," the president says, "in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time."

His daughters don't shoot skeet at the presidential retreat in Maryland, he adds, "but oftentimes guests of mine go up there."

The interview appears in the Feb. 11 issue of The New Republic.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-27-Obama-Guns/id-9012561d47eb4fea8474211dbacebedc

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Cool socks, Chicago pride and Pop Rocks at the UFC on Fox 6 weigh-ins

CHICAGO -- The UFC on Fox 6 weigh-ins featured a large, raucous, possibly liquored up crowd of Chicago fight fans, plenty of cool socks, and every fighter making weight. The only fighter who came close to not making weight was Clay Guida. He walked to the scale wearing a custom shirt with the Chicago flag on it and a Chicago flag wristband. He jumped on the scale and was 147, too heavy for featherweight in his first fight at that weight class. He then took off his Chicago Bulls socks and jewelry, and made weight. The only other bit of drama was some jawing between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Glover Teixiera.

Read on for a complete list of weights and more pictures from the weigh-in.

MAIN CARD (FOX, 8 p.m. ET)
? Champ Demetrious Johnson (125) vs. John Dodson (124)
? Quinton Jackson (204) vs. Glover Teixeira (206)
? Donald Cerrone (155) vs. Anthony Pettis (155)
? Erik Koch (145) vs. Ricardo Lamas (145)
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 5 p.m. ET)
? T.J. Grant (155) vs. Matt Wiman (156)
? Clay Guida (146) vs. Hatsu Hioki (146)
? Pascal Krauss (171) vs. Mike Stumpf (170)
? Ryan Bader (205) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (205)
? Shawn Jordan (251) vs. Mike Russow (256)
? Rafael Natal (185) vs. Sean Spencer (186)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 4:30 p.m. ET)
? David Mitchell (171) vs. Simeon Thoresen (171)

At left, Clay Guida and his Chicago Bulls socks. Donald Cerrone's cowboy boots and Superman socks are at right.

Guida's family had their guy's head on a stick and Guida buttons at weigh-ins. They were loud and supportive of Guida on Thursday, so you can bet they'll be out in numbers at the fights Saturday.

Dodson had Pop Rocks as his post weigh-in snack.

Thanks to Combat Lifestyle for the pictures.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/cool-socks-chicago-pride-pop-rocks-ufc-fox-013831605--mma.html

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Researchers discover new mutations driving malignant melanoma

Friday, January 25, 2013

Two new mutations that collectively occur in 71 percent of malignant melanoma tumors have been discovered in what scientists call the "dark matter" of the cancer genome, where cancer-related mutations haven't been previously found.

Reporting their findings in the Jan. 24 issue of Science Express, the researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute said the highly "recurrent" mutations ? occurring in the tumors of many people ? may be the most common mutations in melanoma cells found to date.

The researchers said these cancer-associated mutations are the first to be discovered in the vast regions of DNA in cancer cells that do not contain genetic instructions for making proteins. The mutations are located in non-protein-coding DNA that regulates the activity of genes.

This non-coding DNA, much of which was previously dismissed as "junk," accounts for 99 percent of a cell's genome. A large number of oncogenic mutations in cancer have been identified in the past several decades, but all have been found within the actual genetic blueprints for proteins.

"This new finding represents an initial foray into the 'dark matter' of the cancer genome," said Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber and the Broad and the article's senior author.

"In addition, this represents the discovery of two of the most prevalent melanoma gene mutations. Considered as a whole, these two TERT promoter mutations are even more common than BRAF mutations in melanoma. Altogether, this discovery could cause us to think more creatively about the possible benefits of targeting TERT in cancer treatment or prevention."

The mutations affect a promoter region ? a stretch of DNA code that regulates the expression of a gene ? adjacent to the TERT gene. TERT contains the recipe for making telomerase reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that can make cells virtually immortal, and is often found overexpressed in cancer cells. A promoter region of DNA controls the rate of a gene's transcription ? the copying of its DNA recipe into a message used by the cell to manufacture a protein.

"We think these mutations in the promoter region are potentially one way the TERT gene can be activated," said Franklin Huang, MD, PhD, co-first author of the report along with Harvard MD-PhD student Eran Hodis, of Dana-Farber and the Broad Institute.

To investigate the mutation's effect, the researchers hooked the mutant TERT promoter to a gene that makes luciferase ? a light-emitting protein. They observed that the mutant promoter increased the production of luciferase in laboratory cell lines. In the same way, the scientists presume, the mutant promoter in human pigmented skin cells can send the TERT gene into overdrive, potentially contributing to the development of melanoma.

The mutations were discovered when the scientists sifted through data from whole-genome sequencing of malignant melanoma tumors. Unlike "whole-exome" searches that examine only the protein-coding DNA of a cell's genome, whole-genome searches scan all of the DNA, including the non-coding regions.

In analyzing whole-genome data, the investigators discovered the two somatic, or not-inherited, mutations in 17 of 19 (89 percent) of the tumors. Next, they sequenced a larger number of melanoma tumors and found that the two mutations were present in 71 percent of tumors in total.

The researchers said the same mutations are present in cell lines from some other malignancies, and that preliminary evidence showed they might be unusually common in bladder and liver cancers. They also noted that the discovery of these important mutations in DNA previously not linked to cancer-causing alterations highlights the value of whole-genome searches of tumor DNA.

###

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: http://www.dfci.harvard.edu

Thanks to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 39 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126468/Researchers_discover_new_mutations_driving_malignant_melanoma_

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Lawyer: No proof to charge Romanians for art theft

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) ? A lawyer for three Romanians accused of stealing valuable paintings from a museum in the Netherlands insisted Friday there was insufficient evidence to charge them.

At a court hearing in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, defense lawyer Doina Lupu urged that the three men not be extradited to the Netherlands for allegedly stealing seven works by Picasso, Monet and Matisse, among others.

"There is no evidence that this was an organized criminal group," she said. "The arrests were based on assumptions and on simple declarations and these are not enough. "

All three men deny any links to the Oct. 16 theft at Rotterdam's Kunsthal gallery.

A prosecutor told the court Friday that suspect Radu Dogaru took two paintings ? one each by Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin ? to be evaluated by Maria Dragu, the curator for foreign paintings at the Romanian National Art Museum.

Dogaru denied this and Dragu is on leave, the Romanian museum said Friday.

The other two suspects, Alexandru Bitu and Eugen Darie, also denied being involved in the theft. Darie did tell the court he had visited the Kunsthal gallery twice to look at its bronze sculptures.

The Bucharest Court ruled Friday that the men should be kept in custody pending an investigation.

The thieves broke in Oct. 16 through a rear emergency exit at the gallery, grabbed the paintings off the wall and fled, all within two minutes.

The stolen paintings came from the private Triton Foundation, a collection of avant-garde art put together by multimillionaire Willem Cordia, an investor and businessman, and his wife, Marijke Cordia-Van der Laan. Willem Cordia died in 2011.

The stolen paintings were: Pablo Picasso's 1971 "Harlequin Head;" Claude Monet's 1901 "Waterloo Bridge, London" and "Charing Cross Bridge, London;" Matisse's 1919 "Reading Girl in White and Yellow;" Gauguin's 1898 "Girl in Front of Open Window;" Meyer de Haan's "Self-Portrait," around 1890; and Lucian Freud's 2002 work "Woman with Eyes Closed."

The gallery said it had a "state-of-the-art" automated alarm system.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-no-proof-charge-romanians-art-theft-124141340.html

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Canadian police allege ex-SNC executive paid bribes to Gaddafi son

(Reuters) - A son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi allegedly received 120 million euros ($162 million) in bribes for giving major contracts in Libya to SNC-Lavalin Inc, Canada's biggest engineering and construction company, a police document said on Friday.

According to an affidavit the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used to obtain a search warrant at SNC's head office last April, the bribes were paid, in a roundabout way, to Saadi Gaddafi by Riadh Ben Aissa, a vice-president at Montreal-based SNC at the time.

"It is alleged that this money (120 million euros) were paid him as a reward for influencing the awarding of major contracts to SNC-Lavalin Intl," RCMP officer Brenda Makad said in the affidavit. The document did not make clear when the alleged bribes occurred.

The 59-page RCMP statement, redacted in part, was released by the courts at the request of three Canadian newspapers, the Globe and Mail, the National Post and La Presse.

In an allegation based on information from Swiss anti-corruption investigators, Makad said SNC-Lavalin paid the money to offshore companies belonging to Ben Aissa, and the money was then transferred to offshore companies controlled by Saadi Gaddafi. Some money was used to buy yachts for the son of the slain dictator, the RCMP statement alleged.

SNC, which has said that any wrongdoing was the work of a small number of former employees, said it was seeing the affidavit for the first time and had not been aware of some of the information it contained.

"We cannot determine the veracity of certain allegations in the affidavit," SNC said in a statement. It said it was eager for the situation to be resolved and would do everything it could to help the authorities rapidly get to the bottom of those issues.

In the affidavit, Makad said an RCMP investigation had shown there was a genuine friendship between Saadi Gaddafi and Ben Aissa "and that over several years SNC-Lavalin, through Ben Aissa, offered bribes to the son of the dictator to secure the awarding of engineering/construction contracts in Libya."

Ben Aissa left SNC in February last year and is now in jail in Switzerland after being arrested on suspicion of money laundering. The Globe said he had not been charged with a crime but was in precautionary detention.

'SCAPEGOAT'

The National Post and the Globe and Mail have reported that Ben Aissa had denied any wrongdoing, while a brother, Rafik Benaissa, said in a statement in November that his brother Riadh had been made a "scapegoat."

The RCMP statement also said former SNC controller Stephane Roy paid money from his personal bank account for condo fees for an apartment belonging to Saadi Gaddafi, and was then reimbursed by his boss, Ben Aissa.

Makad said Roy also helped arrange for an outside consultant - who has denied wrongdoing - to make a fact-finding trip to Libya as the Libyan dictatorship was falling in 2011. She said she had reason to believe the real goal was to help get Saadi Gaddafi and his family out of Libya.

Initial attempts to reach Roy for comment were unsuccessful. The National Post reported in June that lawyers had been unable to locate him and that a judge ruled he might be not cooperating. Saadi Gaddafi is reported to have been granted asylum by Niger. None of the allegations in Makad's affidavit has been proven in court.

SNC, a C$7 billion-a-year company with operations in more than 100 countries, has been at the center of an ethics and corruption scandal for more than a year after it revealed it had uncovered tens of millions of dollars in mysterious payments it had made.

The company's previous chief executive resigned in March, and he was arrested later in the year on fraud charges. The charges have not been proven in court.

The 101-year-old company has installed a new CEO and several new executives and tightened its ethics policies.

The company's stock, which is down 15 percent in the past year, closed 25 Canadian cents lower at C$44.88 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.

($1=$1.01 Canadian)

(Reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa and Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canadian-police-allege-ex-snc-executive-paid-bribes-041457480--sector.html

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