November, 2009

New York, Shanghai and London will have to spend millions to build new flood protections, and the tiny island nations of the Pacific and Indian oceans will be devastated by rising sea levels according to a new international study released Monday, the Times of London reports. And the report concludes that much of the damage has probably already been done: More

The H1N1 pandemic appears to have peaked, as new infections have continued to drop for 4 straight weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times. However there is still cause for concern, according to health officials: 

Despite the decrease, the outbreak is continuing to take a heavy toll of hospitalizations and deaths, especially among children.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times website. 

LA's Best provides safe and supervised after school education to over 28,000 students at 180 elementary schools in Los Angeles, and this amazing organization needs your help to continue offering enrichment and recreational programs to the cities at-risk youth.

Budget cuts and a limping economy threaten to squash after school programs across the country, but the continued success of LA's Best stands as evidence that these programs make a critical difference in students lives. In addition to establishing a structured learning environment for students to do their homework, LA's Best also offers activities that develop life skills and inspire imaginations, in areas such as literacy, science, math, arts and sports, as well as special field trips.

Check out their inspirational new video below and use the action link to find out how you can get involved with LA's Best: More

The theme of World AIDS Day this year is "universal access and human rights." But Human Rights Watch reports that several nations around the world have drafted and implemented punitive laws designed to stigmatize those living with HIV and AIDS, rather than treat them. And these laws could actually be hampering progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, even as scientific advances are extending the lives of those who are infected: More

The Obama Administration is preparing to a new wave of global HIV/AIDS assistance that shifts the focus from emergency intervention to long-term treatment of the disease, Reuters is reporting Monday. The White House announcement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius comes on the eve of World AIDS Day, and as the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates that 33 million people worldwide live with HIV, and there were 2.7 million new infections in 2008. More

Editor’s Note: This post is by Jeremy Millington who attended The People Speak College Tour event at UPenn last week.

Geographically, there is something peculiar about an event at the University of Pennsylvania—in University City, in West Philadelphia, on the other side of town—centered on vocalizing oppressed voices. This is a university with a history of manufacturing authority, of homogenized isolation, of demographic narrowness (...and academic excellence). More

The massive International AIDS Conference which takes place every other year is returning to the United States in July 2012, the White House announced Tuesday. The conference has been absent from U.S. soil for more than two decades in the face of a travel ban that restricted the entry of HIV-positive individuals to the United States. Congress repealed the travel restrictions earlier this year, and the new rules take effect January 4, 2010: More

It was a climate change skeptic's dream come true: across the blogosphere, 62 mb worth of emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU), part of Britain’s University of East Anglia, had become public information, and seemed to point--in the most extreme skeptics' opinions--to a climate change conspiracy. But scientists are standing by their research. More