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Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 31 March, 2010 | 21:29 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The military has drew another controversy in its relation with civilians this week after reports emerged that police is investigating complaints of abuse by four military personnels on four children in Depok, West Java which have prompted reaction from The National Commission for Child Protection

Secretary General of the commission, Aris Merdeka Sirait said on Wednesday (31/3) said the beating “is a human rights violation,” which came amid the government's bid to restore military ties with the United States severed by the human rights abuse cases around the downfall of Soeharto and the East Timor Separation in late 1998.

The incident took place at the capital outskirt of Depok, West Java inside the the army's Strategic Reserve Command complex of Tibeng in Cilodong on Sunday last week.

Four kids aged 10 – 15 was beaten by at least four army personnels, some were in their uniforms.

Relatives of one of the victims said, two among he four victims were captured inside the military housing complex for allegedly stealing bike on Saturday (27/3) night.

Army personnel then said to have forced the two kids to name their other friends which were then picked from their homes and were then beaten then with iron clubs and wooden sticks and kicked them.

On Wednesday (31/3) the Military Police conduct examination on the four male kids after undergoing medical check accompanied by the Child Protection Commission.

The Strategic Reserve Command reportedly have questioned three personnel suspectedly involved in the beatings.

TIA HAPSARI

Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post | Wed, 03/31/2010 9:11 PM

Curbing gender disparity and increasing awareness among Indonesian women of their reproductive rights could help save them from HIV and AIDS, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar said Wednesday.

"We are aware that the number of women with HIV is increasing. Women in committed relationships are vulnerable to contracting HIV if their partners also have it," Linda said in Jakarta during the launching of the Report of HIV Transmission of Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia.

The report, published by UNAIDS, revealed that in 2006 there was a substantial increase in the number of women over 15 years old living with HIV in Indonesia as compared to the figure in 2002.

Indonesian women are among 50 million people in Asia at risk of being infected with HIV from long-term sexual partners.

"Currently it is necessary to increase programs targeting at strengthening women's reproductive rights and the bargaining power so that they can refuse high-risk sex," Linda said.

Irwanto, a professor from the Atmajaya University, said that it was only recently that the threat of long-term intimate relationships as possible HIV infection sources was realized.

He said a few years ago the focus had been on IDU (injection drug users). It was only recently realized that drug users were recognized to have girlfriends, wives and families, who are at high risk of contracting the disease.

Nafsiah Mboi,secretary for the National AIDS Commission, said that despite the successful campaigns on IDUs and drug use in relations the HIV, the efforts to prevent sexual transmission of HIV in the country had been much less successful.

Some people may find the concept of a vagina spa strange. But just like going to a regular spa where one can get massages and skin treatments for relaxation, going to a vagina spa is meant to freshen and improve the health of a woman’s most intimate organ.

One of the few places that is said to offer the full treatment is VG Spa, part of Klinik Pasutri, a health clinic founded by celebrated sexologist Dr. Boyke Dian Nugraha.

At VG Spa, a patient can choose from vagina-only treatment packages or whole-body treatments that include facials. These normally last anywhere from one-and-a-half to three hours.

Peni, a therapist at the clinic, said that their clientele includes high school students and married women. “Many come here because they have a common vaginal health problem, such as a yeast infection,” she said.

“If there is no itchiness or smell, we recommend that treatment be done once a month. If it does, then once every two weeks should help.”

The vagina spa session begins with a procedure that incorporates a small device called the electro-stimulation machine. Flat strips connected to three cords are attached to the patient’s lower back and the soles of the feet. For about 15 minutes, these body parts are stimulated with vibrations from the machine, which causes a sensation. Peni said that the objective of the whole procedure is to strengthen the muscles in the vaginal area.

The next step is called cawikan , or bathing, using a mixture of herbs such as betel leaf, locally known as daun sirih, kayu rapat (Parmeria barbata) and some more fragrant plants. In Indonesia, daun sirih is very popular as it is believed to have a lot of health benefits for women, one of which is removing vaginal smell.

Kayu rapat is said to tighten the vagina. The herb is aptly named — the word kayu means wood and rapat means tight in Indonesian.

The mixture is dissolved in hot water, which gives out a fragrant aroma. When the water gets warm, the patient is seated on a wooden bucket filled with the mixture to submerge the vagina for about five minutes. By doing this, the patient is “cleaning” the area with the water.

Totok — massaging the area — is then done for five minutes. Peni said that this is “to relax [the muscles] and help the blood flow better.”

The vagina is then subjected to ratus or fogging, which is said to have a number of benefits, such as reducing itchiness caused by a yeast infection and improve smell in the vaginal area.

“Most beauty salons [only] offer this treatment, but that is not how a vagina spa is done. Vagina spas should include the early steps that we perform here, not only the ratus session,” Peni said.

For the fogging procedure, patients are made to sit on a chair with a big hole. Underneath the chair is a clay pot with heated charcoals sprinkled with the ratus powder, which is made of various herbs. The patient is asked to wear a special robe that covers the whole chair while she is seated.

“This is so that the fragrant smoke can go straight to the vagina and therefore the fragrance is well spread down there,” Peni said.

The very last stage of the spa treatment is linggihan. A mixture of mint leaves and other mysterious plants that the spa declined to disclose were flatly wrapped in a thin piece of paper slightly thicker than a tissue. This is then attached inside the patient’s underwear.

“This is mainly to freshen up the vaginal area, thanks to the mint leaves in the mixture,” Peni said. “Wear it for five to ten minutes and then you can dispose of the wrap.”

After all these steps are done, the patient is guaranteed to feel relief down under.

Job stress can increase your risk for heart disease. It can also make you fat. My job drives me crazy. But I'll leave it at that.

I managed to workout last night for about 20 minutes. It's better than nothing. I've also been eating much better while I'm at home. Now if I could just stay away from the candy dish at work.

I've had a lot on mind lately. That's why I haven't posted much. It just gets to a point where you don't want to keep saying the same things over and over. I get bored with it as I'm sure you do, too.

Here are a couple of quick thoughts:
1. I think people invented the expression, "There's no proof that chemical is harmful to the environment or human health," so they can continue to pollute whatever they want. Yeah, there's a community where 50 percent of the population has cancer—and it happened after you started dumping crap in the river. But there's no proof that the crap and the cancer are linked. Really?

2. The same is true for statements like: "There's no evidence that children who are bullied grow up to be neurotic adults or that they might commit suicide—even while they are still school." Do we really need a study?

3. I'm a 10-pound sack of potatoes trying to fit into a five-pound sack world.

OK. Those are my thoughts for the day. While not necessarily about losing weight, they do make you think in difference terms.

Research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the animal's ability to respond to different types of food later in the day. When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and seemed to stay on even when the animal was eating different kinds of food later in the day. 'The first meal you have appears to program your metabolism for the rest of the day,' said study senior author Dr Martin Young. Dr Bray and Dr Young said the implications of this research are important for human dietary recommendations. 'Humans eat a mixed diet, and our study, which we have repeated four times in animals, seems to show that if you really want to be able to efficiently respond to mixed meals across a day then a meal in higher fat content in the morning is a good thing,' Dr Bray said. The authors said further tests were needed to check that the positive changes in rodents also work for humans.

Source: DailyMail

Jakarta Globe, Made Arya Kencana, March 31, 2010

Rescue teams on Wednesday were racing to the scene of an accident after a Swedish tourist reportedly fell into the active crater of Mount Batur in Bangli district.

Daniel Petersen, 25, remains missing after he climbed the 1717-meter-high Mount Batur with two friends at 4 a.m. on Wednesday.

Bali's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said they received report at 7:25 a.m from a guide identified as Komang that Petersen had fallen into the mountain's crater.

“We are still climbing to the crater,” Basarnas official Ketut Parwa said.

Basarnas was being assisted by police, paramedics and local volunteers.

Parwa said Petersen's friends survived and were waiting for the rescue team though evacuation efforts were being hampered by bad weather.

Mount Batur is about 90 minutes drive from the provincial capital, Denpasar. According to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, it has erupted 26 times since 1840

by Noah Fiedel, Blogger Tech Lead

Five weeks ago we rolled out Auto Pagination, a major milestone in our efforts to make Blogger faster for you and your readers. We are very happy to report a ten percent overall decrease in page loading latency across all Blogger blogs and a twenty-seven percent decrease on archive pages.

Just how significant is a ten percent latency reduction? It's not often that software engineers get to save lives, yet in just the past five weeks we’ve saved eight human lifetimes spent waiting for pages to load! Every week saves an additional:

• 1 Million Hours
• 114 Years
• 1.6 Human Lifetimes

Some of you have expressed concern over the change in how Blogger displays your blogs. Without addressing each individual case, the vast majority of blogs negatively impacted were not actually blogs, but were using Blogger as a kind of free web host. As today’s post makes clear, Auto Pagination has had an extraordinarily positive impact on how blogs are consumed — blog readers are spending less time waiting for pages to load and more time reading the posts you work so hard to write. (By the way: if your pages show fewer posts than you would like, we recommend using After the Jump to ensure that your readers can see more posts per page.)

If a ten percent improvement has such a major impact, what else can be done to speed up your blog? One area we’re looking at is third-party JavaScript. We remain one of the few blogging services to allow users unlimited ability to add JavaScript to their pages — but that flexibility comes at a cost. These JavaScript widgets often add several seconds to page loads — even on fast Internet connections. We’ll talk more about this in a future post; in the mean time, you can try out Google’s Page Speed to identify what might be causing a page to load slowly.

As always, thanks for using Blogger!

Denpasar. Prosecutors are seeking a 15-year jail term for an Australian accused of smuggling drugs into the country.

Robert Paul McJannett, 48, was arrested in Ngurah Rai International Airport after his Virgin Blue flight from Perth landed on Dec. 28. When his luggage passed through an X-ray machine, a customs officer detected a suspicious box inside his suitcase.

According to customs, the officer discovered 1.7 grams of marijuana hidden in a folded sheet of metal tucked into black socks in the trade unionist’s luggage.

“We ask the judges to convict him to 15 years in prison,” said Nyoman Sucitrawan at McJannett’s indictment on Tuesday.

Prosecutors charged McJannett with violating at least three articles of the country’s Narcotics Law.

Bali Police said that when questioned, McJannett admitted to using the drug on the day he flew to Bali.

“[McJannett said] his purpose for smoking marijuana is just to make him sleep,” Sucitrawan said. Drug tests indicated the presence of drugs in McJannett’s urine and blood.

In response to the indictment, the accused’s attorney, Nyoman Gede Sudiantara, said he would not file an exception or defense memorandum.

“We asked judges to continue the trial with witness examination,” Sudiantara said.

In January, McJannett claimed he had been set up, saying he believed the marijuana allegedly found in his luggage had been wrapped in metal deliberately to set off X-ray machines.

The defendant told The Australian newspaper that he suffered from Meniere’s disease, diverticulitis, hepatitis C and a lung infection. He said his medications had been taken from him when he was charged.

“There’s smokers everywhere and every time I’m exposed to that it aggravates my childhood asthma,” he said.

McJannett ran in the last two elections for assistant secretary of Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, losing both times to incumbent Joe McDonald.

In a Jan. 1 interview with The Australian newspaper, McJannett claimed that the leaders of the powerful trade union “hate my guts” and accused them of setting him up with the narcotics.

Jakarta Globe, Ulma Haryanto, March 30, 2010

The government has surrendered all hope of attaining three of the most crucial Millennium Development Goals on schedule, offering the usual excuses of budget constraints and a lack of public participation.

Nina Sardjunani, deputy head of human resources and cultural affairs at the National Development Board (Bappenas), told delegates to a national conference on Tuesday that reducing the maternal mortality ratio, combating HIV/AIDS and reducing the proportion of the population without access to clean drinking water would be impossible to achieve by 2015.

The MDGs set out eight universal goals for 2015. They were drawn from the targets outlined in the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

Nina said Indonesia had been “left behind” in three key areas, with continued HIV/AIDS prevalence among the younger generation, a low rate of condom use and only a small proportion of the population possessing a comprehensive knowledge of the disease. She was speaking during the national coordination meeting on health, population and family planning organized by the Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare at Grand Sahid Jaya hotel in Jakarta.

One goal — combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases — stated that the objective was to have halted and reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly among those aged 15-24 years, by 2015.

Nina said that encouragingly, Indonesia was on track to curb malaria and had already succeeded in curbing the spread of tuberculosis, thanks to improved access to basic sanitation facilities.

Sugiri Syarief, head of the renamed National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), said family planning programs, though not specifically mentioned in the MDGs, could boost the success of the programs, including condom use.

“Effective family planning programs can help cut poverty and improve the quality of human resources, economic development and health,” he said.

He said it was concerning that in the 10 years since the downfall of the New Order regime, family planning programs had been neglected by the central government, which had failed to provide the necessary funding amid reluctance or ignorance of local governments and organizations.

“There is also a misleading stigma in the public,” he explained. “Every time we promote condom use, for example, some groups think that we are promoting promiscuity.”

Sugiri said that several years ago, for example, the BKKBN provided a number of condom vending machines at targeted locations throughout the country, but the move was strongly condemned by some groups and all the of machines were destroyed.

“There are also other stigmas, such as that wearing a condom reduces the satisfaction level, and that men carrying condoms means that he’s adulterous, among many other things,” he said.

According to the results of the five-yearly Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey last undertaken in 2007, the incidence of condom use compared to 2002 had increased from 60.3 percent to 61.4 percent. Nina maternal health targets were also destined for failure. According to the survey, the number of women dying during childbirth per year stood at 228 per 100,000, while the target was 102, though this was an improvement over the 307 deaths per 100,000 births recorded in 2002.

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali | Tue, 03/30/2010 8:34 PM

The Bali Health Agency is anticipating a sharp increase in dengue fever cases over the next two months.

Agency head Nyoman Sutedja said Tuesday the number of dengue cases on the holiday island was fluctuating, but warned of an explosion of cases in coming months.

“We predict the dengue epidemic will reach its peak between April and May because of changing weather. Therefore, we call on residents to remain alert by maintaining their health and the environment,” Sutedja said.

According to agency data, Bali saw approximately 1,600 cases of dengue in the first three months of this year.

On Tuesday, 148 patients with dengue were being treated at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.

Claire will be here in a few hours! Her mom and dad are ripping out old carpet today and new carpet will be laid tomorrow, and since tacking and 2 1/2-year-old feet are not compatible, Claire will spend a few days with Grammy Lynn.

I thought since I will be disposed for a few days, I’d post an essay I wrote in December 2006. Saturday would be my 28th wedding anniversary, and thankfully April 3 will end another year of anniversaries. All the more reason to love spring.

“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”

I forget his face sometimes. I try really hard and shut my eyes tight and I can sense his body, but I can’t see his face. I guess it’s because I never thought to remember those everyday moments of seeing someone I thought would be there forever.

I know I looked in Bruce’s eyes at our wedding when we said our vows. I know I was holding his hands. I know I kissed him at the reception every time someone clinked their glasses. But I don’t remember looking into his eyes.

I remember stopping at the bowling alley on our way to the Holiday Inn in Sioux Falls and eating hamburgers while still dressed in our wedding clothes. I remember taking the dozens of hair pins out of my hair that night and him laughing at the sticking up curly mess they left. I know we made love, but I can’t see his face.

I know Bruce’s eyes when I see them in photographs. They were soft and brown like a puppy’s, but because I can’t see them in my mind’s eye, I fear we never were. Did Bruce really exist or did his death take our history? Our daughter is real and her eyes look like his, but when I look at her I see Carlene, not Bruce.

Then, on a dark, gray, rainy morning more than 23 years later, listening to Roberta Flack sing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” a small detail emerged. It unfolded in my mind like a delicate piece of paper. The detail was so small, and yet I burst into tears in the parking lot of the gym – happy it was there and so sad that he wasn’t.

I remembered the softness of the hair on his chest.

What happened next was a cascade of remembering. One thought created a flood of memories I never wanted to forget again, and so I wrote them down on deposit slips from my checkbook because I had no paper with me.

I remembered how we’d lay on our bed and talk for hours listening to music with just the light from the stereo shining on us. I loved to touch his hair lightly and run my fingers across his muscles while my head rested just below his shoulder.

I remembered the feeling of missing him when he was away at work, the thrill of hearing his truck pull into the drive, holding his hand while we drove, watching him drum the steering wheel to “Juke Box Hero” while driving our red Citation.

I remembered watching him feed cows and vaccinate pigs and sitting with him in the tractor in the pitch dark waiting for his brother to return from combining beans. We sang “Endless Love” at the top of our lungs – he singing Diana Ross’s part and me Lionel Ritchie’s.

I remembered taking off my shirt one Sunday afternoon in spring as we walked through the pasture and the freedom of making love to him in the sunshine.

I remembered the night a few days before Carlene was born when I was watching TV alone and suddenly went cold inside. I had a feeling Bruce was dead. He was bowling (it was league night) and I called the bowling alley. They got him on the phone and I said, “I know this sounds stupid, but would you come home?” Five minutes later I heard a train whistle. I started crying, convinced he’d not heard it. A few minutes later, his headlights shined on our garage. I greeted him at the door, bawling, and he laughed lightly and reassured me he was fine. We blamed it on hormones and sat on the couch and watched the last episode of MASH. Two weeks later, he was killed by a train.

Sometimes I think I’ve clogged my life with so much busyness that I don’t know which moments are truly important enough to remember. Thank god Roberta Flack and her bittersweet song helped me remember that long ago there was a boy who made me feel unlike anyone ever has, and that he had soft hair on his chest.

Jakarta Globe, March 30, 2010

An Indonesian maid has been sentenced to eight weeks in prison in Singapore after admitting to filing a false abuse report against her employer.

Ida Farida, 25, said she made spurious statements to police last September alleging that her employer’s wife had hit her on the back with a broom and used a fork to scratch her on the back and arm.

Ida said she was looking for a way out of the job because her employer’s wife was mean and her agent had refused to take her back.

‘Being made to go down to Bedok Police Divisional Headquarters to face an allegation of maid abuse inflicted public humiliation on the wife and family of the accused’s employer,’’ said Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Woon Kwong as quoted by the Straits Times news Web site.

JG

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 03/30/2010 9:08 AM

The city will extend the smoking ban in public places and buildings after finding that smoking rooms in buildings do not stop smoke infiltrating non-smoking areas.

The Jakarta Environment Management Board (BPLHD) head of law enforcement Ridwan Panjaitan said his office would revise the 2005 gubernatorial decree to do this.

“People working in the buildings can still smoke, but they will have to smoke outside the buildings,” he said Monday.

He said the smoking free regulation would be imposed on all spaces in buildings because a laboratory test found that the non-smoking areas were contaminated by smoking rooms when they were available.

The 2005 bylaw on air pollution control states that people are not allowed to smoke at all in five types of facilities, namely public transportation, healthcare buildings, schools, children’s areas and places of worship. In offices and public spaces, including malls, restaurants, terminals airports and train stations.

Ridwan said he realized the new regulation could spark opposition in night clubs, bars and restaurants, but he was confident the entertainment and food industry would comply once they knew the rules.

He said according to a survey by BPLHD and the Swisscontact Indonesia Foundation with the University of Indonesia Demography Institute, that 96 percent of respondents supported the plan for 100 percent free smoking areas.

The survey said 93 percent of the respondents were aware of the regulations and 60 percent of them stated that the non-smoking areas regulation should prohibit people to smoke in public closed areas.

“The survey revealed that 62 percent of the respondents would still visit restaurants although they would not be allowed to smoke after the ban is imposed,” Ridwan said.

The survey, held from October to November in 2009, involved 747 respondents living in five municipalities in the city. The survey comprised 65 percent females and 34 percent males aged 20-49 years old with education background of Senior High School and above.

The BPLHD, he said, would make an assessment to measure “the level of compliance” of building owners to encourage implementation.

A building will then be given one of four ratings: poor, satisfactory, good and very good.

“We will also publish data on buildings that breach the regulation in the mass media. We hope prestige and shame will be more effective than law enforcement,” he said.

Tulus Abadi from the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) said the city should impose stern sanctions to make this work.

“Publishing information on buildings violating the regulations in the media will only affect them for a while. The city should impose sanctions with a financial impact, like revoking permits,” he told The Jakarta Post.

YLKI found there were violations of the smoking ban in 89 percent of 549 public buses and minivans surveyed in July 2009. In 2008, the foundation found violations of the ban in half of 60 city malls.

Tempo Interactive, Monday, 29 March, 2010 | 22:06 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: East Java Police arrested 47 Iranian immigrants in a regency about 210 kilometers southwest of Surabaya early on Monday (29/3), which were trying travel to Christmas island by boat.

Thirty eight male, seven female and four children were being detained by maritime police in Pacitan Regency in the southern coast of Java since their capture earlier today.

Head of the regency Marine Police Unit Adjutant Second Inspector Yahudi said the immigrants were in good condition. He said local fishermen spotted the immigrants on a life boat-like vessel about three miles of the coast of Pacitan and reported them to the police.

A translator helping police to communicate with the immigrants said the Iranians were trying to head to Christmas Island.

Police suspected the immigrants entered Indonesia legally and spent several times in a temporary shelter in Bogor, West Java before continue with their trip. No report on the persons who guided the immigrants with their movements in Indonesia.

ISHOMUDDIN

Antara News, Monday, March 29, 2010 21:51 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Batam customs authorities on Monday foiled an attempt of smuggling in 4.5 kg of shabu-shabu (methyl amphetamine) worth Rp8 billion.

"The suspect is an Indonesian citizen identified as Marlina," spokesperson for the Directorate General of Customs and Excise Evi Suhartantyo said in a statement.

Marlina arrived in Batam at 09.45 a.m. on Monday by MV Pintas Samudera 9 from Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Evi said.

Evi said Marlina was being detained at the Batam police resort for questioning.On March 26, customs authorities in the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan also arrested a Lion Air passenger on charges of smuggling in 411 grams of shabu-shabu.

The suspect identified as Saiful Amri came from the Malaysian state of Penang.

Ruby's therapist suggested that she change five things in her life if she was really serious about losing the weight. I thought that seemed like a good idea. So I'm trying to think of five things I can change.

I already park farther from where I'm going to get the extra walking. Stairs are a bit tough with my knees as painful as they are. I guess one thing I could do is not going straight home and watching TV as soon as I get there. I could do some household chores. Another is to drink water instead of diet coke. So I have two. I need three more.

I think I could probably change five things in other areas of my life, too. You know, like what are five things I could change so I could save money? Not eating out—or picking much cheaper places could be one change. Anyway. . . .

Other things on Ruby that hit home with me are her depression and sleep issues. My childhood was pretty tough. Sometimes I think I may be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. But I won't go into detail here.

Exercise this week is not going to be easy. No gym in the morning. I know I need to find a gym that really fits me. But I've been hesitating. I'm afraid I won't be able to afford it. I've been unsuccessfully trying to figure out how to make more money. I wish I had some magic.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a magic wand? Wave it and your troubles disappear. If I had a magic wand, I would change a lot of things—number one my weight problems. Number two—my money problems. I think those are my top two. They're probably the top two for a lot of people. You think?

I don't usually just link to other things on the web as there are plenty of other places that do. But I currently have five scripts to write which is (a) good, and (b) good, but might give me some kind of nervous breakdown. Just while I'm typing this sentence five deadlines are ticking away. And this sentence. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Why aren't I working on one of them right now? Right this second? Instead of typing this sentence? I am an idiot. A real idiot.

So whilst there is this blogging hiatus, I ask how do you make the greatest piece of music in the world even better? Like this:



Doesn't that just work brilliantly?

Check out the YouTube info and comments for the sad story of how Shawn Phillips came up with this seminal piece of music (I have flashbacks to power cuts and the IRA every time I hear it) in a jam session, then due to not being a member of the Musicians' Union ended up signing away everything.

(Original instrumental version here.)

Seaweed is full of salt. If you need to limit your sodium intake, due to high blood pressure, for example. Then soak the leaves first.

Benefits of vitamin P Unusual remedies Healing cancer naturally

Jakarta Globe, March 29, 2010

A 19-year-old man in Cilacap, Central Java cut off his own penis and tossed it down a well after his girlfriend broke up with him, a hospital official said.

The man, a resident of Bantarsari village , was rushed to Cilacap Municipal Hospital after slicing off the organ with a knife on Monday. Hospital director Sugeng Budi Susanto said he was in stable condition.

“His wound could have been fatal but he will survive and we are trying our best to heal it,” Sugeng told Metro TV.

The patient's family tried to retrieve the severed penis from the well but were unable to find it. He is being treated in the intensive care unit as well as receiving mental health counseling.

“He's still too shocked and embarrassed to talk or meet anyone,” said Sugeng.

JG

Related Article:

Jilted Java Teenager Cuts off Penis and Throws it Down Well

The Jakarta Post, Mon, 03/29/2010 12:05 PM | Jakarta

Residents along the banks of the Kalimalang River in East Jakarta were shocked Monday at the discovery of a mutilated headless body wrapped in a plastic bag.

“We are still searching for the missing body parts,” East Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Hasanuddin said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com news portal.

Hasanuddin said the body, which was taken to the National Police’s Dr. Sukanto Hospital, was possibly that of a teenage girl.

I recently asked the folks on Lynn’s Weigh on Facebook (BTW, are you a “fan” yet? Click here to check it out!) what they do with clothes that no longer fit as they lose weight. Most folks said they give them away (Debra suggested the organization Dress For Success), which is what I eventually did, but it took awhile for me to trust myself not to need them again.

Getting rid of old clothes is empowering, but I strongly urge you to keep one item of clothing to remind you where you’ve been and how far you’ve come, especially on those days when you struggle and think, Why am I doing this?

I kept one lone item of clothing from my 300-pound days: my size 28 black stretch pants. I wore them every day. They were my constant companion. They even went with me to the Adirondacks where I allowed my husband to take the only full-body photo of me at my highest weight (see “I *Heart* Burlington, Vermont” for the full story).

My size 28 black stretch pants were literally stretched to their limit. As I grew larger, holes began to form. Stains no longer washed out. I didn’t know it at the time, but those holes and stains reflected how I felt about myself, namely that I wasn’t worth taking care of.

Eventually I invested in Weight Watchers rather than another new wardrobe, but my confidence level was still pretty low. Fifty pounds into my weight loss, I was still wearing my old size 28 wardrobe. I posted on the WW discussion board (the 100+ To Lose board was my salvation) that my clothes bagged significantly, but that I wasn’t sure if I should buy new clothes or wait. I felt guilty about spending the money since I wasn’t convinced I wouldn’t gain it all back, and sadly I’d given away all my smaller clothes as I marched up the scale, convinced I’d be morbidly obese the rest of my life. (*See my side story at the end of this blog.)

A WW board member named CrispyRice encouraged me to invest in a few things in a smaller size. She said wearing clothes that fit would help me see the results of my weight loss, which in turn would encourage me to keep going. She also told me to not buy all black – my typical “hiding” color – and to shop at Goodwill and other second-hand shops.

Her advice was spot on. Not only did I feel good about buying a smaller size – a pair of size 24 khaki shorts and a white XL shirt (down from 3X) – I felt smaller in lighter colors and wearing fabric close to my skin as opposed to it hanging limp and devoid of form.

More importantly, I felt confident in my new, smaller clothes. Confident that I’d no longer need my larger sized wardrobe. Confident that I wasn’t gaining my weight back, not if I had anything to say about it. I bagged up the 28s and the 30/32 pant suit and gave them to Goodwill, all except for the size 28 black stretch pants – which, lest you think me tacky, I wouldn’t have actually given away given their condition. But I didn’t throw them away, either, because we have a history. They elicit the same feelings I have about photographs or special gifts.

My size 28 black stretch pants are my friend. I was wearing them the moment I joined WW online. They were on camera with me when I was on Today (both times) and Entertainment Tonight (crazy, I know) when I was promoting the People magazine's “Half Their Size” issue in 2008. And as my friend, my pants help me through those days when I wonder: Why am I doing this? Why do I journal my food? Why do I eat the way I do? Why do I (usually) say no to chocolate cake, mac n’ cheese, and half in half in my coffee? I love those things!

“Ah,” say the size 28 black stretch pants, “but you love yourself even more.”

See why we’re BFF?

(*Side story: The only exception to giving all my smaller clothes away as I was gaining weight the last time, was a size 16 lined suit that I’d only worn once. I called it my “dream suit.” When I was 300 pounds, I dreamed that it would one day fit again, but dreaming was all I did about my weight for several years. When I started to lose weight, that suit became my “goal suit.” I tried it on every other week when I got down to 200 pounds. I used the zipper as a gage for how many inches I was losing. When I was 180, Larry and I moved and I got so busy unpacking that I forgot about my goal suit. By the time I dug it out, I weighed around 155 and it was too big. Sigh. I’d missed my window of opportunity. But I still honor it for the icon it was, even though it’s probably hanging in someone else’s closet.)

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Thank you to all of you for your comments and email on my last post regarding sexuality and weight. NOT an easy subject to think about, let alone talk about, but a few brave souls did.

Congrats to Alexandra for winning the “Cardio Striptease” DVD! Alexandra blogs at “Adventures of a Done Girl Named Alex” if you want to give it a look see.

“During the campaign season, they all work. But when the campaign season is over and done with, they disappear, one by one,” said Kalla, chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).

Speaking from the resort island of Bali, Kalla said that Red Cross staff members and volunteers had to be in a state of constant readiness to allow them to respond quickly to disasters.

“Don’t just wait in your offices. It would be far better if you went out and set up blood donation posts in malls or office buildings,” Kalla said.

The former Golkar Party chairman was speaking after the PMI announced on Wednesday that it planned to open between 125 and 150 blood donation centers in shopping malls and on university campuses by June this year.

“ This year, the PMI plans to collect three million bags of blood and four million next year,” Kalla said on Wednesday.

He also said the PMI would provide a blood delivery service to hospitals, and added that the organization would build a plant to manufacture blood bags domestically rather than importing them.

On Saturday, Kalla asked the public to support the PMI to help it meet its blood donation targets.

“Our organization’s work is linked to the public,” Kalla said. “When a disaster occurs, the public helps through blood donations. The need for blood during a disaster is also a public need.”

He praised the PMI office in Bali for its well-equipped emergency facilities and the expertise of its employees and volunteers. Kalla reminded PMI workers on the island always to be on the alert because Bali’s reputation as one of the world’s top travel destinations put it in the global spotlight.

“No matter how small the disaster, if it occurs in Bali, news will reach all corners of the globe,” Kalla said.

I Gusti Lanang Made Rudiartha, the director of Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, said PMI’s Bali office had trouble funding its operations because of its reliance on the provincial budget. He said foreign donations poured in after the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, but most of this money had since dried up.

Kalla asked businesspeople across the country to provide financial assistance to the PMI so the organization could continue to carry out its work.

“In times of disaster, lots of businesspeople provide help, but this is not the case during normal periods,” he said.

Related Article:

Kalla urges Bali Red Cross to be more self-sufficient

The Jakarta Post, Sun, 03/28/2010 6:35 PM

Siti Harniati, 42, a female domestic worker from Madiun regency, East Java, reportedly died in the United Arab Emirates where she had worked as domestic helper since August 2009.

“According to PT Sapta Saguna, the migrant worker recruitment company [PJTKI] that sent her, Siti died on Mar. 7.

“However, I only received the news on Friday of last week,” Siti’s husband, Sukrianto, 48, told tempointeraktif.com on Sunday.

Sukrianto said he would wait for the company to return the remains of his wife to Indonesia, which could up to a month to process.

Indra Harsaputra and Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya/Jakarta | Sat, 03/27/2010 10:54 AM

Members of hard-line Islamic groups forced their way into a Surabaya hotel Friday, demanding participants of a planned congress on sexual orientation in the East Java city to leave the country by Sunday.

The police took no action against the move, condemned by politicians and activists as “unconstitutional” and violating human rights, who said the conference should be seen as “a celebration of democracy and human rights”.

Dozens of foreign participants from Mexico, Canada, the US and 13 Asian countries were scheduled to take part in the 4th regional Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Intersex Association (ILGA) conference scheduled to run from Friday to Sunday.

But the organizer decided Thursday to officially cancel the event, citing “security reasons”, after the police refused to grant them a permit fearing protests from religious groups.

Secretary-general of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) in East Java, Mohammad Chaeruddin, said the foreigners were told to leave because Surabaya Muslims believed the conference was against religious values and teachings.

“We forced them to return home by Sunday. We also told them not to make a media statement,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The group also entered several hotels in Surabaya and nearby Malang, including Mercure Surabaya where the conference was scheduled to be held on Thursday. They also urged hotels to make a written statement refusing to host the conference.

On Friday at 3 p.m., FPI members, the Islamic Community Forum and the Indonesian Ulemas Council arrived at Oval Hotel. Hundreds more from the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, which held a rally protesting gay, lesbian and transexual communities outside Grahadi Surabaya, arrived later.

South Surabaya Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Bahagia Dachi, said the police would ensure the safety of conference participants, including foreigners.

“We’ll provide security escorts for foreigners to Juanda Airport Surabaya,” he said.

Surabaya’s Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence coordinator, Andy Irfan Junaidi, criticized the police for allowing religious groups to undermine and violate the rights of minority groups.

“Religious groups have prevented the groups to gather, against the guarantee of the Constitution,” he said.

Separately in Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party politicians have called the police banning of a planned gay and lesbian congress in East Java as “unconstitutional”.

“[Holding a congress] is a basic human right,” Benny Kabur Harman, House of Representatives’ justice and human rights commission chairman, said Friday.

“Gays and lesbians are citizens whose political and legal rights are guaranteed and protected by the Constitution, which allows freedom of opinion.

“The state should in no way forbid the congress from being held.”

Benny’s colleague, Pieter Zulkifli, said the congress should be seen as “a celebration of democracy and human rights”.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) said the congress must be relocated overseas “for the sake of the country’s moral values”.

Related Articles:

Hostility, Not Homosexuality, Flies in The Face of True Koranic Teachings

Indonesian Radicals ‘Raid’ Gay Conference

The Jakarta Post, Antara, Pontianak| Sat, 03/27/2010 6:14 PM

Disadvantaged Regions Development Minister Helmy Faisal Zani said his office has allocated Rp 800 billion (US$88 million) in funds for infrastructure development in 147 regions.

"The disadvantaged regions need such an affirmative policy," said Helmy in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Saturday.

The minister said his office had initiated several programs for development in disadvantaged regions. They covered electricity provision and road construction.

During the visit, Helmy and Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a cooperation to enhance health services in remote and border areas and islands.

He said 26 out of a total of 37 regencies or cities in Indonesian border areas were categorized as disadvantaged regions. Such a condition is quite ironic as border areas function as Indonesia's front gate, he said.

"Development in remote areas is needed to accelerate the eradication of poverty there," he said.

Vaughan Town - Valdelavilla - Program 204