Showing posts tagged europe

charliemielczarek:

Girls Going Wild in the Red Light District: You could be a dancer!

(Reblogged from charliemielczarek)
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Copenhagen police have managed to stop a desperate man from setting himself alight at the offices of the Refugee Appeals Board.

According to police, the man entered the office shortly after noon and complained that his application had been denied.

He then poured petrol over himself and threatened to light himself with a lighter he was carrying.

Man doused himself with petrol - Politiken.dk

In The Netherlands, not long ago (in April this year), Kambiz Roustayi, an Iranian asylum seeker set himself on fire in front of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. As a result of his wounds, he died a day later. He had already been talking about committing suicide while he was in detention at the asylum seekers center, but there was no mental health care available to him. He had grown despondent about his rejected application and saw no way out except from self immolation.

This, sadly, is all too common a reality for many refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants trying to acquire a documented status in Europe.

(via redlightpolitics)

(Reblogged from jonathan-cunningham)
(Reblogged from the-sprawl)
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The age at which Europeans and Americans first have sex is the same — 17, on average, on both sides of the Atlantic. The percentage who use birth control from the start? In Holland it’s 64 percent and in the United States it’s 26 percent. The percentage who have regrets about their first time, wishing they had waited: 63 percent of boys and 69 percent of girls in the United States, and only 5 percent of boys and 12 percent of girls in the Netherlands. Teen pregnancy rates: three to six times higher here than in Western Europe. S.T.D. rates: 20 to 30 times higher here than Holland. H.I.V. rate? Theirs is six times lower.

Those are some of the contrasts presented in a slideshow on Slate.com, which looks at the different ways Europeans and Americans talk, in public and private, about sex. Rachel Phelps (who works at Planned Parenthood in the United States) concludes that while American parents, advertisers and public-service announcements aim to scare teens, those in Europe are matter of fact and humorous.

“A Different Kind of Sex Talk With Teens” (via bubonickitten)

True facts. And as for being matter of fact and humorous, just compare ads on YouTube. I much prefer the European ads. Some of them are totally weird, but they’re still funny and more engaging than what you typically see in the United States.

Also humorous? Free condoms from school that I forgot to take out of my messenger bag, and that just spilled on the floor by my desk at work as I searched for a pen. (Nobody noticed, though! Lucked out there…)

(Reblogged from lostgrrrls)

WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops

The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released WikiLeaks cables show.

In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president George Bush, asked Washington topenalise the EU and particularly countries which did not support the use of GM crops.

“Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits.

“The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices,” said Stapleton, who with Bush co-owned the St Louis-based Texas Rangers baseball team in the 1990s.

In other newly released cables, US diplomats around the world are found to have pushed GM crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative.

Read more.

adriennemae: “Licia Ronzulli, an Italian member of the European Parliament, embraces motherhood while voting on proposals to improve women’s employment rights.” View high resolution

adriennemae:

“Licia Ronzulli, an Italian member of the European Parliament, embraces motherhood while voting on proposals to improve women’s employment rights.”

(Reblogged from adrienneisilluminated)

npr:

Carbon gone wild!

This video was created to advertise a European community research & funding organization called Marie Curie Actions. It’s aimed at young chemistry students — and for good reason. Generations of budding scientists, including some of the greatest ones, learned chemistry by imagining the periodic table as a playground of sluts, bullies, snobs and wallflowers.

Chemistry, after all, is about making and breaking bonds. It’s about attraction and repulsion. You can think of bonds as covalent, ionic or metallic, but it is just as easy to think of atoms cuddling or being ripped apart by a hydrogen with a ponytail or smashing a repulsive atom  into a plate of jello.

Learn more about the video, courtesy of NPR’s Robert Krulwich.

This is my favorite thing of the day. Science!

(Reblogged from npr)

EUROPE! HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE

doctorswithoutborders:

Reblog this link to support our global campaign to stop Europe’s multiple attempts to restrict access to medicines for patients across the developing world.

Help us send a message to the European Commission to keep their HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE!

Thanks for your support!

(Reblogged from doctorswithoutborders)
doctorswithoutborders: EUROPE! HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines to stay alive. More than 80% of the medicines used by MSF to treat AIDS across the developing world are produced in India. But the European Commission is now shutting off the tap of affordable medicines by attacking the production, registration, transportation and exportation of generic medicines. People who need these will be left without a lifeline. How you can help: Send an email to the European Commission to keep their HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE! A message has already been written for you by the the folks here at the MSF Access Campaign, so take a second and support the campaign!

doctorswithoutborders:

EUROPE! HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE

Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines to stay alive. More than 80% of the medicines used by MSF to treat AIDS across the developing world are produced in India. But the European Commission is now shutting off the tap of affordable medicines by attacking the production, registration, transportation and exportation of generic medicines. People who need these will be left without a lifeline.

How you can help:

Send an email to the European Commission to keep their HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE!

A message has already been written for you by the the folks here at the MSF Access Campaign, so take a second and support the campaign!

(Reblogged from doctorswithoutborders)