Hasta La Gadget!

Following in the footsteps of Skype of Microsoft, Sprint, one of the major mobile service providers here in the US have announced that they will be waiving and crediting calls and text messages made by Sprint customers to Nepal – in a retroactive move, starting from April 25 onward, and this particularly benevolent move is set to continue all the way through to May 16, 2015. In other words, if you were to make calls or write out texts to Nepal, there will be no charges involved to all postpaid and prepaid customers of Sprint, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA.

This particular move should be lauded, since it has been shown and proven before that in the event of an emergency, the possibility of text messages going through would be a whole lot higher as opposed to that of a phone call, and this will in turn do its bit to free up networks for critical communication between first responders, apart from other emergency personnel and aid workers.

Not only that, Sprint is also set to waive standard text-messaging fees when it comes to the different Nepal disaster-relief short codes and mobile-donation campaigns, beginning from today and ending also on the same date as mentioned earlier, which would be May 16. [Press Release]

Sprint Offers Free Calls And Text Messages To Nepal , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

No website or online account is immune to being compromised the moment it is online, although there are definitely ways to make it very difficult to do so, of course. Having said that, Tesla more or less received a double blow over the weekend, as their website as well as Twitter account were hacked over the weekend, and the entire scenario does look as though it happens to be a prank – one that is being “fought out” between rival hackers.

Elon Musk’s personal Twitter account happened to have been hijacked on Saturday night (US time), and the humans behind it did mention that they were from the infamous hacking crew known as Lizard Squad (who did make the headlines a fair number of times before, such as promising to stop hacking Xbox Live and PSN accounts, or even doing a number on Google Vietnam).

When the hacks happened, temporarily control of Tesla’s website was seized, where its DNS was hacked, alongside having its MX (mail) and other records changed. Twitter passwords were also reset along the way. Losing control of your social network account might not do too much damage internally, but one’s email account being compromised is a serious affair, that is for sure!

Tesla Website And Twitter Account Hacked , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

As someone with a stress-triggered autoimmune disease, it’s safe to say that stress is a dangerous thing for me, but a lot of people don’t understand that. I understand that because my disability is invisible, it can be hard for people to come to terms with the fact that my body can be so limiting. Naturally, because it is difficult to reconcile the perceived image of health with the story of someone who has dangerous health problems, people with chronic illness are often regarded with suspicion by others when they say they need accommodations and flexibility.

It’s a persistent fear that asking for flexibility and accommodations at work due to stress-triggered symptoms will come across as entitlement or laziness. Even people who understand that a disability accommodation is necessary might question them. Stress affects everyone negatively. Why should you get special treatment? However, we aren’t asking for a handout, but instead, a level playing field that allows us to be as productive as others.

It would help if others understood how stress affects a person with a chronic illness. I can’t speak for everyone, because symptoms vary across diseases and individuals, but I can share my story. The most important thing to understand is this: While my mind is (for the most part) composed and able to handle a significant amount of stress, my body does not move at the same pace. I can’t control the mechanisms within my body that decide that stressful days and situations should cause bodily inflammation, just as I can’t control the fact that this unnecessary inflammation is happening in the first place.

I am not privy to the spontaneity that is associated with being a young person. I divide my life into two categories: my medical life and the rest of my life. My medical life is full of as much spontaneity as I can take: a spontaneous stay in the hospital because an apple gave me an intestinal blockage, a surprise infection that showed up one morning, a bad day of hip pain. To keep my body stable, I try to keep my life stable by scheduling and planning as much as possible. A trip will be planned so it doesn’t interfere with an infusion. I try to have short commutes because I’m drained of energy more easily, even in remission. For two months last year, I couldn’t even leave town because of home nurse visits for PICC line maintenance. By managing the rest of my life, my medical life can remain more stable and stress can be minimized. An increase in stress inevitably increases the interference of medical problems in the rest of my life.

When something throws a wrench into the plans in the rest of my life, my medical life is affected. At work, I was brought on board the very first day and blindsided by the news that my position would be changing, but I wasn’t sure to what, or to where. It wasn’t the company’s fault, and it was an unavoidable but rare consequence of the business they ran. One of the main options put forth to amend this predicament was to offer me a different, unfamiliar role with a location that would double my commute. Due to concerns about disclosing disability, I was hesitant to explain to them how this could affect me. Meanwhile, my brain was understanding of the situation and cooperative. My body, however, wasn’t. A week of a Crohn’s flare, including nightly pain and runs to the bathroom, difficulty eating, nausea, and shivering ensued. My mind was telling me to manage the stress and deal with the ambiguity of my situation and possible life changes, but my body wasn’t listening.

An “able” person might see what I go through as a reason not to hire me. Am I not a liability to a business? I can’t manage stress as easily and respond as effectively to curveball situations.

This isn’t true.

Sure, my body can’t properly handle being shocked, and I need more time to schedule things out so that I can take care of myself. However, the ability to manage my tumultuous medical life while still enjoying and thriving in the rest of my life is a skill that I have developed over years, and it has given me resilience and adaptability. I don’t shut down when my medical life throws something new at me, I work around it. Maybe I have to schedule around more doctors’ appointments than other people. Maybe I have a flare and have to work from home or make up hours the next day. And while my body isn’t the best at handling this, my mind is. I’m good at working through challenges, and not all challenges and stress are negative. I don’t like Crohn’s symptoms and doctor’s appointments, but I love challenges at work. New and interesting situations that make me think are invigorating, and I can use the adaptability I have learned over years to effectively address those scenarios.

Why are flexibility and accommodation justified for people with chronic illness? Because we are just as able to contribute as everybody else, but we do it in a unique way. Work should be measured not by the number of hours you sit at a desk, but by the way you use those hours. A worker’s loyalty shouldn’t be a one-way street of performing overtime and enduring workplace changes, because the employer needs to empathize with a situation and accommodate legitimate needs without resentment. Work can be accomplished just as thoroughly from home, the infusion center, and the hospital when necessary.

But most importantly, others should not resent the fact that people with chronic illness are affected by stress differently. Chronic illness isn’t a choice, and you can’t just cut the afflicted people off from society. Understand that we need to approach stress differently by scheduling out our lives so that we can manage the day-to-day fluctuations in our health. In return, we will contribute not only our individual talents and skills, but also the benefits of heightened resilience and determination that we have developed from managing our conditions.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The government is lowering the recommended amount of fluoride added to drinking water for the first time in more than 50 years.

Some people are getting too much fluoride because it is also now put in toothpaste, mouthwash and other products, health officials said Monday in announcing the change.

Too much fluoride has become a common cause of white splotches on teeth in children. One study found about 2 out of 5 adolescents had tooth streaking or spottiness.

Fluoride is a mineral in water and soil. About 70 years ago, scientists discovered that people whose drinking water naturally had more fluoride also had fewer cavities.

Since 1962, the government has been advising water systems to add fluoride to a level of 0.7 parts per million for warmer climates, where people drink more water, to 1.2 parts per million in cooler areas. The new standard is 0.7 everywhere.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the world’s first city to add fluoride to its drinking water in 1945. Six years later, a study found a dramatic decline in tooth decay among children there, and the U.S. surgeon general endorsed water fluoridation.

But adding fluoride was — and has remained — controversial. Some people have vehemently fought adding fluoride to local water supplies.

Today, about 75 percent of Americans get fluoridated water.

The change announced Monday finalizes a proposal first made four years ago. The government spent years sorting through and responding to 19,000 public comments.

___

Online:

CDC on fluoridation: http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Can you guess the historic milestones that these women have in common: Margaret Chase Smith of Maine; Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming; Isabel de Peron of Argentina; Catherine the First of Russia; and Wu Zetian of China?

Each of them managed to break through history’s infamous glass ceiling.

Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress with a career that began in 1940. Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor when she was elected in 1924. Peron was the first female president of Argentina in 1974. Catherine the First and Wu Zetian were the first women to rule as empresses of Russia and of China, respectively.

These women’s service were separated by great oceans and centuries of time. But they all have another thing in common: they achieved their firsts by filling the seats, offices or thrones of their dead or dying husbands.

That common scenario has been a recurring theme throughout United States and world history. Thirty-eight widows have won their husband’s seats in the United States House of Representatives. Eight did the same in the Senate.

“Widow succession” is by no means a unique phenomenon to the United States. Before becoming Guyana’s first woman president, Janet Jagan had a long and noteworthy career in shaping Guyana’s politics. She served as first lady and as Guyana’s first woman prime minister, courageously championing non-white liberation in a society deeply rooted in white supremacy. But it was only after her husband — Guyana’s president — died in 1997 that she was elected to that country’s highest office. In 1998, Jagan was awarded UNESCO’s prestigious Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for Women’s Rights.

Sri Lanka’s Shirimavo Bandaranaike filled her husband’s position as prime minister when he was assassinated in 1959. Ridiculed by political opponents as the “weeping widow” for showing emotion when she spoke about her husband’s death, no one could deny she too was tough on the big banks or that she had long-lasting impact on Sri Lanka’s politics and government. Even Empress Catherine stayed true to her humble origins by cutting taxes on the peasants, an enlightened act in imperial Russia of the early 18th century.

These women were not alone in proving widows can be far more than placeholders for their deceased husbands. Today, my own Congresswoman Doris Matsui succeeded her late husband to represent Sacramento and is distinguishing herself as a champion of progressive tax reform, of Medicare and Medicaid, and of protecting all Americans from discrimination.

What’s the lesson of “widow succession” leadership? It’s not that widows can’t make good leaders. To the contrary, many of these women were accomplished and beloved by their constituents and country people.

The lesson is that women can make good and great leaders, whether or not they are widowed, whether they are married to presidents or not married at all.

Fortunately, there are a growing number of such women who are winning more and more in their own right and disproving the “widow succession” rule. They are mayors, senators, governors, and secretaries of state. Abroad there is a growing list of women heads of state whose spouses we have never heard of. Angela Merkel’s husband’s name, anyone?

I hope America too has matured to the point where women can ascend to our highest office on their own merits, and certainly without having to do so in the wake of tragic loss. The names Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Elizabeth Warren and Carly Fiorina are names that we hear over and over.

I hope we are capable of evaluating a highly qualified woman candidate for president in her own right, and in the case of Hillary Clinton, independent of the good health and longevity we all wish for her husband and our former president.

Zingale was the first male to serve on the California Commission on the Status of Women.

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