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YES! I had been diagnosed with cancer – Ewing’s Sarcoma to be specific, it is a type of childhood cancer but I was 25 when I was diagnosed.
Being the big bollywood fan that I am, my mind was transported to that scene from the movie “Anand”. Cancer equals Death! I thought what most of us would have thought in that situation.
I realized that I would have to be really strong to stand in those serpentine queues to meet the doctors and run from one doctor to the other carrying my case file. There was no time to feel sorry about myself. THE WAR HAD BEGUN!
“Oh yes!” I was thankful to God that my treatment was showing good results; I wasn’t under a risk of amputation of one of my limbs like many other unlucky souls around me; and YES, I wasn’t dying! But many a times, I found myself alone on the see-saw with no pal to push me up when I was feeling so down. Most of my friends were busy in their normal lives and no one could empathize with me. But then I discovered a new planet inhabited by people just like me – Planet Cancer.
Having cancer does not mean you lose your sense of humor. Finding humor even in such a difficult situation helped me relax! My parents, brother, cousins and my entire extended family became my support system during this journey. I became much closer to my parents after seeing their selfless love, care and support.
I came out victorious in the fight. But the journey had made a big impact on me. I also realized how we humans live in our own little bubble, fretting over small things oblivious to such realities until a tragedy hits us or someone close to us. I have started loving and respecting my life much more after coming close to losing it.
Gauri was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in October 2009. She graduated from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad in 2013. She is currently working for a pharmaceutical company in Hyderabad. She also volunteers for Yoddhas – The Warriors Indians Fighting Against Cancer, India’s first online Cancer Support Community. She inspires patients with her story and helps them cope up with the mental trauma and social stigma associated with this disease. She also works to spread awareness about cancer in her social circle.
Truly inspiring. Your struggle gives others hope that cancer is not the end.
Thank you so much NDTV for running this campaign. And also featuring my article. I hope it brings about the awareness that is much needed and takes away the taboo related to the term cancer.
You are a true winner Gauri…keep inspiring.. Keep helping others!!
Facebook has started rolling out its new Timeline profile to everyone: over the next few weeks if you haven't yet switched to Timeline, the company will make the change for you.
Facebook has started to roll out its new Timeline profile, which was unveiled four months ago at the company's 2011 f8 developer conference, to all of its 800 million monthly active users. It's still a gradual launch, but in "the next few weeks," all Facebook users will have the Timeline profile and will see it on their friends' accounts too.
If you don't choose to get Timeline now (go to facebook.com/about/timeline and click the green "Get Timeline" button), you're just delaying the inevitable: Facebook will switch you to it in the next few weeks. Either way, you'll get seven days to review everything that appears on your Timeline before anyone else can see it. Check out my getting started guide for Timeline and/or my gallery of screenshots to smooth out the review process.
The seven-day delay is important since Timeline is your new profile: it has all the content of your old profile, plus a lot more, in a completely different layout. You can choose to publish your Timeline at any time during the review period. If you don't do so, your Timeline will go live automatically after seven days.
Last month, Facebook started by pushing out Timeline in New Zealand, with the goals of gathering further feedback and to measure the new feature's speed and other types of performance. The test apparently went well, as the social networking giant deemed it ready for the rest of the world to optionally switch to, both on desktop and mobile. Now the company is pushing it on to everyone, whether you want it or not, although either way you'll still have seven days before the change is permanent.
Last week, Facebook announced a new set of Open Graph apps, which are designed to help you discover what your friends are currently doing, beyond the fact that they just Like something. I expected Facebook to push Timeline out to everyone at this event, but it turns out the social networking giant wanted to wait a little bit longer. Now we're finally here. I'll keep you updated as the Timeline rollout continues.
The news that people see is not really the full news but a biased portrayal of current stories aimed at conditioning the wider public to accept gross inequities without question. Regular readers of News Junkie Post will be aware that it breaks stories that cannot be found in the mainstream. This is because the mainstream media are owned by people with a particular agenda: people who do not want the general public to become aware of any proper news that is contrary to the agenda. To push forward this agenda, the mainstream media also manufacture stories. A recent example may be found in the proposed construction of a new nuclear power station on the Somerset coast at Hinckley Point.
The BBC’s announcement of the construction of a new nuclear power station is part of the mainstream media’s agenda. The French company to whom the contract has been granted, Electricité de France (EDF), cannot just start construction without local people asking questions. What is more likely to be manufactured news came shortly afterwards: two days after the BBC story came a further announcement that Sellafield nuclear power station in Cumbria was being shut down on safety grounds due to weather conditions. Two nuclear power-station stories in a week is a bit suspicious even for those who accept the news as presented. Although there had been an unseasonal fall of snow for March, it had been no different, in fact less severe, than many other wintry snowfalls when the power station was not closed. The timing of this Sellafield story seemed incredible, coming directly after the announcement of a new nuclear power station; the story reeked of being a bit too much of a coincidence. To anybody used to reading between the lines, it is unlikely that the closure was simply due to snow. So what was the story’s purpose?
And children suffocate in God’s fresh air.
At the time of that leakage, Sellafield did not exist. The plant on the site was known as Windscale, as is Nicholson’s poem. The new facility at Sellafield got a new name to ensure that a gullible public, and those born after 1960, would not associate the Windscale disaster with the Sellafield nuclear power station. Nobody names a ship Titanic any more. Today Windscale is hardly ever mentioned, and new generations are oblivious to the accident, except for those who have learned of it from family members or read about it elsewhere. The incidence of childhood leukemia in the area is still up and the highest in the country. Despite a German study’s link of leukemia to nuclear power plants, a study commissioned by a government advisory committee found no such link.
More recent disasters, like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima, are rarely mentioned when new nuclear power stations are proposed; so presenting a safety facade is essential. What is mentioned is how efficient nuclear energy is. Safety must be a key factor in selling nuclear power to consumers who are increasingly aware of its dangers after those major-scale disasters. Nuclear plants are also needed to produce the latest range of nuclear weapons, which is never mentioned. The irony is that these weapons can penetrate nuclear plants. Think about it: no shut down of Sellafield due to the weather for decades, then one in the same week that a new facility is announced. This must be manufactured news, funded by those most likely to gain financially from the construction of yet another potentially-lethal power plant. Sellafield is being decommissioned. There was an accident: a more recent leak than the Windscale disaster at the Thorp facility in 2005 closed the plant for nearly two years.
The manufactured news did not end with the Sellafield shut down. Within three or four days, a second major ‘manufactured’-energy story hit the headlines. This time it concerned a supposed depletion in the UK’s gas reserves. The purpose of this was to show how we cannot rely on gas. Energy users, who have faced year on year increases in bills, are being asked to believe that the country could be running out of gas – which of course ultimately it is – but the article meant imminently. The prediction on Sunday March 24 was that only 1.4 to 3 days of gas reserves were left, and the United Kingdom had the lowest reserves in all of Europe. All stories mentioned how expensive gas is and how rationing might have to be introduced. At the same time, the general public was asked to accept that there will be increased energy bills again next winter.
In reality, the main problem is that all our energy suppliers are privately-owned conglomerates for whom profit — no let that be greed — is the main motivating factor. Increased profit equals increased bills. There are supposed to be ombudsmen to make sure that consumers get a fair deal. Where and when have customers experienced a reduction in bills? Private energy companies have a responsibility to shareholders that supersedes any responsibility to customers, despite the customers being the ones who pay the extortionate bills. There used to be an economic saying that “the customer is king,” meaning that customers could take their business elsewhere for a better deal. Price fixing and energy cartels have eliminated customer choice.
There was a time in the UK when energy bills rose in proportion to increases in wages and salaries, when families could afford to pay for essential services without undue strain on the rest of the family budget. That was back in the happier days when utilities were publicly owned. Back then, when work needed doing, it was done because the driving force was not profit but safety and the delivery of a responsible service. In our stringent days of private ownership, the average family is crippled by energy bills. Water leakages are ignored for decades. When in dry spells the country sees its water reservoirs fall to their lowest ever levels, this is blamed on increased consumption. Privately-owned industries have no motivation to locate and repair the leaks. Instead hosepipe bans are imposed on householders because this is a much cheaper option than fixing the leaks and does not impinge on profit.
As with water, gas, and other essential industries, the new proposed nuclear power station will also be in private hands. This does not augur well for public safety or the family purse. Shareholders of private companies are not concerned about safety so much as profit, knowing as they do, that while the cash keeps coming in, their lives could not be sweeter. If later something goes badly wrong, like the Fukushima disaster, they can move their money and profits elsewhere, with the added consolation that the taxpayer, as usual, will pick up the bill. That is what happened with banking. There is no possibility with a Conservative, Labor or Liberal government that service industries will return to public ownership. They no longer believe in public ownership. Greed cracks the government whip.
Nicholson, Norman, A Local Habitation, Faber & Faber, London, 1972, p. 31.
Editor’s Note: All photographs by Trey Ratcliff.
QUOTE “NUCLEAR POWER In Spain.
The Spanish government plans to reform the energy sector look set to clash with its commitment to extend the life of the Garoña nuclear plant, located close to the city of Burgos. The operation of the power station until 2019 would require an investment of around 100 million euros, according to the Nuclear Security Council (CSN).
an investment of around 100 million euros, according to the Nuclear Security Council (CSN).
The previous ruling that Garoña could operate only until July 2013 came in contrast to the CSN’s opinion at the time, which specified clearly that the plant was suitable to operate for at least 10 years after 2009, given certain engineering improvements. The selection of a short license was made in 2009 by the previous government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which until February 2011 adhered to the concept of 40 years as a reference lifespan for a nuclear reactor.
Having generated its first power in 1966, Garoña is the oldest of Spain’s nuclear power plants. It is a 466 MWe boiling-water reactor, which has produced over 131 billion kWh to date.
1966, Garoña is the oldest of Spain’s nuclear power………..
The plant is owned in equal parts by power companies Iberdrola and Endesa via their joint venture Nuclenor.
Environmental group Greenpeace has pressed for its closure, portraying it as a “twin sister” of the Fukushima plant in Japan, which was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, causing reactor meltdowns.
Foro Nuclear president María Teresa Domínguez said the decision was the right one, because it was based on rational arguments and was consistent with the government’s overall energy policy.
Spain is home to six nuclear power stations, which include eight reactors. Lawmakers agreed in February to extend the pre-established lifespan of 40 years for the facilities.
Reform of the energy sector will be delayed until September as more cuts to premiums on renewables are being studied as a partial alternative to disputed tax proposals on power firms, government sources say.
The Industry Ministry says that it wants the production of nuclear, hydroelectric and thermoelectric energy to be charged at 4 percent, or 2 euros per megawatt billed to consumers.
Some other forms of energy would be charged at higher rates, including wind energy at 11 percent to raise 440 million euros and photovoltaic energy at 19 percent to generate 550 million euros.
On top of this first tax, nuclear and hydroelectric plants would pay an additional tax of 10 euros per megawatt and 15 euros per megawatt respectively, while hydrocarbons would face an additional surcharge of 4 cents a cubic meter, which is expected to raise 1.2 billion euros.
Other cuts to the sector include slashing 50 million euros for energy transportation and 100 million euros for services outside the mainland.
The reforms come at a critical moment as Spain battles to raise tax revenues and avoid a full sovereign bailout. Madrid has said that about 8.6 billion euros of a 65-billion-euro austerity program will come from new energy and environmental taxes in the next two-and-a-half years.
The government has increased electricity prices twice this year and is now looking to spread its austerity program to cover more industries.
For years Spanish utilities have charged customers less than the cost of producing energy, creating a 24-billion-euro tariff deficit the government has absorbed, and which it now hopes to slash through taxes on the industry.
Soria has been promising reform since taking office. But the draft bill has been caught up in government wrangling over both the legality and the use of taxes on power generation. A failure to implement the reform would force the government to revise once again its budget plans in order to find alternative sources of revenues.
“Nuclear power? No thank you!
Spain’s first nuclear power station was the Zorita (or ‘José Cabrera’) station in 1968, followed later by Garoña in the Valle de Tobalina (Burgos) in 1971. The remaining projects came in the 1980s, such as the Almaraz I, Ascó I and Almaraz II power stations. Today, there are a total of 8 nuclear power stations currently in operation in our country.
The social response via the anti-nuclear movement was gradually developing and its protests growing against this type of energy generation. The climax arrived in 1990 when a Popular Anti-nuclear Legislation Iniciative was set in motion, but unfortunately it didn’t achieve its aims.
Nuclear energy has always been associated with accidents and breakdowns, although the worst of the problems is the management of radioactive waste that emits radioactivity for thousands of years.
Most recently was the Fukushima accident (in March last year and as a result of an earthquake tsunami). It emitted radioactive particles to its surroundings, with incalculable consequences for biodiversity and human health.
This accident was level 7, the maximum, on the International Accident Scale, making it equal to that of Chernobyl.
Currently in Japan, only 2 of its 54 nuclear reactors are in operation and there is no energy crisis nor blackouts. The only existing crisis is that of radioactive pollution.
There are many other accidents in our collective memory, with some examples being Otawa in 1952, Three Mile Island (Harrisburg) in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, Vandellós I in 1989 and so on.
Is a nuclear-free future possible?
In Spain, nuclear energy represents almost 20.6 per cent of overall production, whilst renewables (including wind, hydro and solar power) represent almost 32.4 per cent, varying from one year to the next.
It’s possible to get the most out of renewable energies and to forget about nuclear energy, but we must also reduce our dependence on power generation using fossil fuels, such as natural gas combined-cycle plants or coal power stations. Both sources generate CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
It’s a question of common sense and only a matter of time until renewable energies form the basis of power production in our country. One of its advantages is that it will reduce dependence on nuclear energy, gas, coal and oil, which are often found in regions with significant social problems.
The development of renewable energies must be a priority for both central and regional government, as well as for councils. In addition, this development would have the added benefit of job creation throughout the country, something that’s as necessary as it is undeniable, as well as being skilled work.
We must put everything behind green energy, without forgetting that a policy must exist for rationalising energy consumption, using the energy that’s really essential.
Our future must be based on renewable energies; there’s no other way to guarantee a healthy planet for future generations. Fukushima is not part of the part and nuclear power stations are not a ‘necessary evil’.
Join the vigil in memory of the Fukushima accident.
small correction, John. Before the denizens of Worthing or Eastbourne start protesting, Hinckley Point is on the Severn Estuary near Berkeley, Glos.
Thanks Felix. Slip of the pen.
One problem with your article: Sellafield is no longer a nuclear power station. Its reactors shut down years ago.
Yes, Billy thanks. I did mention it was being decommissioned. In 2009 the Observer called Sellafield ‘the most hazardous place in Europe’.
The number of people convicted for drink-driving has nearly halved in the last seven years.
More than 30,000 New Zealanders were convicted of drink-driving offences in 2009 - last year it was less than 16,000.
Justice Minister Amy Adams said the reduction in charges and convictions reflected a better understanding among the public of the dangers.
"It is particularly encouraging to see fewer young people being charged with and convicted of drink-driving.
Since 2009, the number of convictions among people under 25 has dropped 60 percent to 5236 in 2016," Ms Adams said.
However, Ms Adams said alcohol was still a major factor in many fatal accidents.
"Research shows that at 250 micrograms per litre of breath, the current legal limit for drivers aged 20 and older, you're still twice as likely to have a crash as a driver with zero blood alcohol."
Police have charged one person with excess breath alcohol and further charges may follow after a five-car crash in south Auckland last night.
Mike Bush says he deeply regrets his 1983 drink drive offence as a 23-year-old detective constable.
Former All Black Dan Carter has apologised after French media reported he was caught drink driving in Paris.
It's our silent killer, now the Automobile Association says there needs to be random roadside testing for drugs, similar to alcohol.
Just one driver out of 2134 was found to be over the legal drink-drive limit at a series of checkpoints in central Wellington last night.
Former NRL star Matt Seers says he's okay and keeping a positive mindset despite facing several drug-dealing charges.
Seers, 40, was arrested by police in Kingscliff in northern NSW earlier this week and charged with 15 counts of supplying a dangerous drug and one count of trafficking a dangerous drug, reportedly cocaine.
The ex-North Sydney and Wests Tigers player has been granted bail and will appear in Southport Magistrates Court on February 10.
Seers used his Facebook page on Thursday to send a message to friends and family.
"To all my dear friends out there wondering what's going on? I'm ok and in a really positive frame of mind," Seers wrote.
"Don't believe everything you hear or read. The truth will come out I'm all good thanks for your support!"
Seers was a regular in the Bears and Tigers line-ups at fullback throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, playing over 150 NRL games.
He also represented NSW four times in State of Origin and spent 2003 playing for English Super League team Wakefield.
Seers' arrest, the result of a joint investigation between Queensland police and the Crime and Corruption Commission, comes a week after former Queensland and Australia representative Jason Smith was also charged for allegedly trafficking cocaine.
Smith, 42, is alleged to have trafficked 280 grams of cocaine between June and December last year along with Toowoomba restaurateur Jason Wood.
The former Queensland Origin utility is set to face Toowoomba Magistrates Court on February 11.
Why would the price hike for the Wi-Fi models be more than that of the Wi-Fi + 3G models?
With the expected unveiling of the iPad 3 only days away, the rumor mill continues to bubble away.
Today a new rumor, bought to us by Chinese website Weibo (via MacRumors), claims that the iPad 3 will cost some $80 more than the existing models.
The first column shows the price for the iPad 2 in dollars, the second for the iPad 3, again in dollars, and the final column is in Chinese Yuan (calculated from the US dollar price). As you can see, the iPad 3 Wi-Fi models cost $80 more than the existing iPad 2 models, and the iPad 3 Wi-Fi + 3G models costing $70 more.
Why is the Chinese Yuan price an exchange rate conversion of the US dollar value? That seems an odd touch.
Why would the price hike for the Wi-Fi models be more than that of the Wi-Fi + 3G models? A $10 price difference here seems unusual.
I'm calling this 'rumor' bogus.
A student protester is subdued by police in Colombia, hostesses serve tea to delegates in China, the Northern Lights put on a dazzling display over Iceland and more.
There were a lot of difficult pictures in this week’s edit. Images of conflict in Syria, the West Bank, Baghdad and Afghanistan made it into the final edit, and several of those made it into the published slideshow.
It is difficult to evaluate the visual value of conflict pictures against funny or beautiful images. It’s something we wrestle with almost every week. We often have to keep telling ourselves that the goal is to feature great news pictures. We’re not trying to retell the top stories of the past seven days.
The formal side of our training and picture editing experience is attracted to meaningful moments, great composition and interesting light. Our humanity responds to tears of loss, the love of a precious child or sometimes even an interesting bug. Somewhere in the middle of all that is rational news judgment and a cold desire to be objective, but that is hard because pictures make you care.