In the 1950’s and 60’s women in many countries were prescribed thalidomide as a sedative and to help them deal with morning sickness. The drug causes terrible birth defects and the children of pregnant women taking the drug were often born with horrible malformations including shortened arms, hands extending directly from the shoulder, and the absence of the thumb and the adjoining bone in the lower arm. 15,000 children worldwide were born with these serious deffects before the drugs were pulled off the market.
Fast forward a few decades and absence of the thalidomide is rearing its ugly head again. The drug has been approved in the US to treat a rare type of leprosy, and is used in Africa also to treat AIDS. And with its use, come more tragedies.
This little boy, Freddie, was born in Kenya. His parents tried to get him a visa to the UK for treatment, and after a media campaign they eventually succeeded. He died of a fungus infection a few days ago.
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The Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego has instituted a new policy forcing housekeepers to clean 30 rooms in an 8 hour period – almost twice as many as they had to clean before. The workers are protesting, it’s just not possible to clean so many rooms without compromising their health. So far Hyatt remains unmoved.
It’s not surprising that Hyatt will have such disregard for its workers – but you wonder why it decides to have such disregard for its guests. A housekeeper who has ten minutes to clean a room (she will have to spen precious minutes moving her cart from room to room and fetching towells and other things) will just not be able to do a good job of it. Indeed, recent reviews at Tripadvisor show that this has indeed, been the case.
One recent guest complained about toenails from a previous guest left on the edge of the bathtub (gross!), and toilet paper, kleenex and coffee packets not being refilled. Other guests have complained about dirty sheets that are never changed and filthy bedspreads.
For more information on the protest see:
Hyatt Housekeepers United – Home
The BBC (really!) reports that a Sudanese man has been forced to marry a goat after being caught having sex with it. He was also ordered to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to the goat’s owner, Mr. Alifi.
“We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together,” Mr Alifi said.
BugMeNot – Bypass Compulsory Registration – is a website that allows you to find pre-registered userids and passwords to popular registration-only websites, including top newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post.
You can go to their website to obtain the userids, put a bookmaklet in your tool bar or even get a plug-in for Firefox.
Note that they only provide userids for free accounts.
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