The woman who tweeted about her relief at having miscarriage at work fires back at critics.
Are the critics really upset that she is relieved that she had a miscarriage instead of having to abort an unplanned pregnancy, or are they upset that she is talking openly about the topic? If we can't speak openly about issues that are fundamental to our lives and values what is the point of having free speech?
Women have too long been under the geis of propriety to not speak of their personal health issues.
Almost half of America's workers can't take paid sick leave. With swine flu cases on the rise, that problem could hasten the pandemic's spread.
As the H1N1 swine flu virus starts its second major sweep through the U.S., business owners are bracing for the impact of a worse-than-usual flu season on their workforces. That's reviving debate on a contentious issue: What kind of sick leave should companies offer employees -- and should it be mandated by law?
"On the one hand, you have all of our top officials saying, 'Do the responsible thing. If you're sick, stay home,'" says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that is pushing for paid sick leave laws. "You have advice from the Centers for Disease Control on exactly how many days you should stay home, and how many days we need to keep kids at home. And at the same time, we have a country where almost half the workforce doesn't have a single paid sick day."
Currently, 48% of the U.S. private-sector workforce can't take paid leave without advance notice, according to the National Partnership. In response, unions and worker advocates have intensified their campaign for local laws requiring businesses to offer paid sick leave. San Francisco voters passed a law requiring paid sick leave for all workers, full- or part-time, by referendum in 2006, and Washington, D.C., followed with its own law last year, though it exempted new hires and restaurant staff who earn part of their pay in tips.
Now 15 states and cities have paid sick leave bills in the works. Earlier this year, Connecticut narrowly missed becoming the first state to mandate paid sick time, when the state legislature fell one vote short of passing a bill that would have required businesses with 50 employees or more to provide up to six and a half paid sick days per year.
With swine flu panic beginning to build -- reports of flu-like illness are already up sharply three months before the traditional start of flu season -- some elected officials are taking the opportunity to press for new legislation.
"This is definitely pressing because of all the projections of how the swine flu and the regular flu season will be affecting people," says Shula Warren, chief of staff for New York City council member Gale Brewer.
Mandated leave In May, Brewer introduced a sick-leave law modeled on San Francisco's: nine days a year of paid time off for workers at businesses with 10 or more employees, five days for those at smaller businesses. The legislation, which already has 38 of the city's 51 council members as sponsors, would also allow workers to use sick time to care not only for ill children, but also for kids whose schools are closed because of swine flu fears.
"A child can't stay home without a parent staying with them," Warren says. "So if the parent doesn't have paid sick time, the child mostly likely goes to school, and the parent goes to work."
Scientists say movie androids not as far-fetched as they seem
Why leave home when you can send out a sexy, stylish robot version of yourself to do anything you tell it?
That's the world of "Surrogates," a film starring Bruce Willis that opens Friday.
Willis plays an FBI agent who investigates the first murder to occur in years in a world where no one worries about crime or pain, because their robots self-heal with a quick reboot.
Far-fetched science fiction? Sure.
But scientists and the movie's makers say the technology might not be as far away as most people think.
Armies use remote-controlled robots to attack enemies and destroy land mines. Emerging technology for the disabled allows users to operate robotic limbs and control computer cursors without touching a keyboard.
And emerging "telepresence" technology is letting people see, hear and, increasingly, walk, talk and gesture using human-sized robots a world away.
"There are a lot of real-world components to this," said robotics expert and author Daniel H. Wilson, whose books like "Where's My Jet Pack?" and "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" explore the intersections between science fiction and real science.
"Clearly, there are not fully functional humanoid robots ... but there are a lot of components to telepresence that already exist."
"Surrogates" director Jonathan Mostow, whose film credits include 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," said he was drawn to the concept of surrogate robots as an extension of current technology. And, he said, as he met with scientists, he became convinced that something approaching the concept could one day be a reality.
"To me, it's not even a question of the technology. Technology always catches up," he said. "The question is, is some universal human urge being met by this invention? It seems to me we have a fundamental human desire to be lazy, to sort of not have to do things in person and to do it remotely.
"That began with the telegraph and the telephone and has morphed into the Internet."
The first steps down the road are being taken at Anybots, a Mountain View, California, company founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.
The company offers, for about $30,000, a 5-foot-tall, 35-pound robot that allows the user to remotely travel, see, hear and talk. It hopes to release its latest version of the robot at a more affordable price.
The robot's vaguely humanoid curves, roughly adult height and ability to move around using technology similar to that of the Segway are important steps up from current teleconferencing technology, Blackwell said.
Anybots in the development phase are being designed to run, jump and climb stairs, and they come equipped with fully articulated hands designed to perform increasingly human-like tasks.
Blackwell said he's not sure the technology will ever advance to the level imagined in "Surrogates" -- but that may have as much to do with desire as ability.
"I don't know if we'll ever get quite to that level, of being that realistic," he said. "Most of the time, you're not trying to fool people; you're just trying to make something human enough so people can relate to it."
Wilson, who said he appreciates "Surrogates" because it avoids sci-fi's traditional "man vs. machine" dynamic, also imagines social reasons for not pursuing such technology.
When Tyra Smith's boyfriend, Chris Lewis, first suggested they be guinea pigs in a H1N1 vaccination study in August, she wasn't so crazy about the idea. But then she warmed to it: While she doesn't like needles, she thought she'd help out because she knew H1N1 was a serious virus.
"I heard people might die from it," Smith said. "So I think it's a good idea to help people, by being involved."
Lewis and Smith, both from Baltimore, Maryland, were among the first Americans to receive H1N1 flu shots.
As part of a trial of 2,400 people, they gave blood samples and kept diaries of their symptoms, all in an effort to get an H1N1 vaccine ready for the fall.
Now that the results from this and other trials are in, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the FDA has approved applications from four manufacturers to make H1N1 flu vaccine, which should be ready for high-risk patients by October 15. She said there will be enough vaccine available for everyone eventually.
And that's just in time. With fall in the air and old man winter right around the corner, seasonal flu and the common cold are sure to follow -- and H1N1 is here; in its most recent H1N1 update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 21 states are reporting widespread flu activity.
This cold and flu season could star a cornucopia of viruses. Doctors say they worry the two flu strains (H1N1 and seasonal) could combine, further complicating the situation. Mix in colds, which are prevalent this time of year, and the immune system of Americans could be dealt a one-two punch.
So, how can someone tell if those sniffles they're having is something to be concerned about?
Infectious disease experts say people need to be aware of the symptoms. Dr. Shmuel Shoham, an infectious-disease specialist at Washington Hospital Center, says the common cold, seasonal flu and H1N1 are all respiratory illnesses, but they're caused by different viruses.
Symptoms of the cold are more common, and can make the patient miserable for three to five days. A patient usually has a stuffy nose, congestion, some body aches and a growing cough.
According to the CDC seasonal flu and H1N1 symptoms consist of fever, more painful body aches, dry cough, diarrhea and severe fatigue. It's hard, without testing, to tell apart the seasonal strain of flu from the H1N1 variety.
"People need to take notice when they begin to feel bad. If they start to have respiratory problems, or are dehydrated because of a bug, they should go to the doctor. It could be H1N1 or seasonal influenza," says Shoham. "Some people with influenza can get very sick and could end up in the hospital if it's not taken care of."
A jury Thursday acquitted a former Louisville, Kentucky, high school football coach of all charges connected to the heat-related death of a player last year.
The jury found former Pleasure Ridge Park football coach David Jason Stinson not guilty of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the death of 15-year-old Max Gilpin, who collapsed during a practice on August 20, 2008. The teenager died three days later.
Gilpin's body temperature reached 107 degrees, officials say.
Stinson also was acquitted on a charge of wanton endangerment.
Prosecutors said Stinson ran a tough practice on a hot day that made several of his players sick.
"The defendant said to his kids, 'We're going to run until someone quits,' " prosecutor Jon Heck alleged in his closing argument.
"A young man given that ultimatum, he ran until he collapsed. He turned white, his eyes rolled back. He could no longer support himself. ... He lost his consciousness, was ultimately taken to the hospital where his body temperature exceeded 107 degrees," Heck said of Gilpin.
The defense argued that nothing was wrong with the practice and that other factors may have contributed to Gilpin's heat stroke.
"We're the first place in this country to indict a coach for a homicide or a felony involving a practice that nobody says they would have stopped," defense attorney Alex Dathorne said in his closing argument.
"There's nothing wrong with the practice; there's nothing wrong with it."
The defense presented witnesses who said Gilpin had complained that he wasn't feeling well the day he collapsed.
Gilpin's parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against six coaches at the school. The suit claims they were negligent in their actions and that more than 20 minutes passed between the time Gilpin collapsed and the time one of the coaches called paramedics, according to CNN affilliate WHAS.
Stinson is the only person who has been charged with a crime.
Days after he was charged, Stinson told supporters that his "heart is broken." "Part of my life has been taken away," he said, according to WHAS. "I no longer teach, and I no longer coach at the school that I love. ...
"The one thing people keep forgetting in this is that I lost one of my boys that day," he said. "It was a boy that I loved and a boy that I cared for and a boy that meant the world to me. That's the thing that people forget. And that's a burden I will carry with me for the rest of my life."
The occaissional injury or death during sports, especially during hot summer weather, was never much cause for concern in the past. Some people are physically weaker than others and playing sports of any kind is taking a certain level of risk. Sports generally provide more than they take from life. Comraderie, team spirit, self confidence, these things are worth some risk.
In the southern US the weather during summer is often hot and humid and heat stroke is always a concern for anyone doing any sort of physical activity.
The issue here is unlikely to be with the coaches of any organization, coaches do not desire to hurt their players, they want a strong and healthy team. People need to know their limits. Parents should talk with their child athletes frequently about safety, knowing their limits, and resting when rest is needed, if this is done rather than constantly pushing your child athlete to be the best at all costs, then you should have no need for concern about the safety of your childs athletic programs. If the player had said to the coach that he was feeling faint and needed to sit in the shade I have little doubt that would have been allowed for him. Would it have caused him to be second string instead of first? Probably not if it was a single or rare occaission.
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