First the New York Post came under fire for publishing the photo of a man seconds before he was killed by a subway train, with the grisly caption, "This man is about to die." Now the man behind the camera is at the heart of an "ethical controversy" for not reacting to save the victim who was pushed to his death.
According to an article in the CBC, the photo of 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han clinging for dear life to the platform was taken by a fellow commuter R. Umar Abbasi.
"It took me a second to figure out what was happening ... I saw the lights in the distance," Abbasi told NBC's Today show. "My mind was to alert the train." He claimed that he was trying to alert the driver by flashing his camera, then he insisted he was too far away to help.
"The people who were standing close to him ... they could have moved and grabbed him and pulled him up. No one made an effort," he added, but sounds to me like a lot of passing the buck.
New York City police have since charged 30-year-old Naeem Davis for Han's murder.
CBC has refused to reprint the image, out of consideration for his family.
Where should the line be drawn between documenting news and ethical misconduct? Are you disturbed by the fact that Abbasi accepted payment for those haunting images?
Much has been made of the benefits of breastfeeding and the worrying increase in child obesity. But do you know how one relates to the other? Mount Sinai’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research has new data to suggest that breastfeeding can reduce a child's risk for obesity. A pretty significant find, considering that according to Stats Can, almost a third of kids between five and 17 are overweight or obese.
Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the study of children in Western Australia from birth to 14 years of age found a correlation between the length of time a baby is breastfed and that baby's fat mass and obesity gene (FTO) as a young adult.
While body mass index (BMI) has long been held as the measure for weight concerns in children and adults, researchers have discovered a connection between the so-called FTO gene and later obesity. Not only does breastfeeding stave off the risk of later obesity, if a child is exclusively breastfed for at least three months, the effects of the FTO gene variant can be reversed.
“The benefits of breast milk are well known. However, what is new, is to find that breastfeeding can have a significant impact on children who have a genetic predisposition to obesity,” said Dr. Briollais, Senior Investigator with the Lunenfeld and also Assistant Professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
With approximately 70 per cent of Canadian children thought to possess "at least one copy of the specific variant of the FTO gene responsible for increased BMI and obesity," the study is big news. As Dr. Stephen Lye, Associate Director of the Lunenfeld and also the Executive Director of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Health Development at the University of Toronto, says: “Rather than trying to treat the symptoms later, we’re better off trying to prevent them in the first place.”
More proof that breast truly is best—in case you needed it. And more incentive to seek out milk banks for moms who struggle to nurse.
It might have been just about forgivable on Tom Selleck, but if you are one of the many women who had to put a brave face on while her man sported a moustache for the entire month of November, you can finally get your own back. Now you too can do your part for cancer by boycotting use of a razor—down there—for the month of December.
And why not? Equal rights and what-have-you... Women are marginalized and objectified enough without having to groom ourselves, suffering in silence from a multitude of nicks and scrapes and rashes and burns.
This Slate writer seems dubious that 'Decembeaver' will really take off (no pun), because while "mustaches [sic] are quirky and fun—women’s pubic hair is just gross." Hm...
Consider the video below by Laughing Squid. Would you go on a grooming strike for the month?
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