Can eating too much sushi reduce your brain power?

Americans love a hero. Everybody does.

Spanish-language journalists can now learn that the correct word for channel-surfing is "zapeo," sexting is best written in their language as "sextear," ''submarino" is an accepted term for waterboarding and Thanksgiving day is accurately translated as "Dia de Accion de Gracias."

Those and thousands of other terms are included in the first-ever Spanish Stylebook published by The Associated Press, designed as the go-to reference guide for journalists, writers, editors and scholars of the language spoken by an estimated 450 million people globally.

The online stylebook was presented at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, with a panel of editors from the news cooperative and other media organizations discussing the intricacies of writing in Spanish.

"I think the media has a moral responsibility to use the correct Spanish, because it is the only thing we can bequeath to future generations," Isaac Lee, news editor for the Spanish-language television station Univision, said at the Monday presentation.
AP Launches Its First Spanish-language Stylebook
The Spanish Stylebook currently has more than 3,500 entries on topics including finance, sports, entertainment and fashion.

The original AP Stylebook in English, which first came out in 1953, has long been the gold standard of style reference books in the journalism industry, with paperback copies still commonly scattered around the newsrooms of media outlets in the United States and the world. Now also online, the English Stylebook is more than just a collection of rules and has been described as part dictionary, part encyclopedia and part textbook for writers and editors.

With 486 pages containing 4,825 entries, the English-language version of the AP Stylebook is recognized worldwide as an essential reference for good writing. With the Spanish-language version, the original concept remains: to provide a uniform presentation of the printed word, to make a story written anywhere understandable everywhere.

AP editors said the Spanish Stylebook aims to unify standards for that language in order to improve communication among speakers of the language worldwide.

"Our objective with this stylebook is to apply a universal Spanish and counter the use of regionalisms that in many occasions cause confusion," said Jorge Covarrubias, a veteran editor with the AP's Spanish news service and among the authors of the Stylebook.

Marjorie Miller, AP's Editor for Latin America and the Caribbean, called the reference book "an essential tool" for Spanish language media, some of which she said had tried to translate the English Stylebook themselves.

"We were hearing from a lot of clients that there was a need for this," she said.

Miller noted that because it is online the Stylebook can be continually updated to incorporate new terms and usage with input from users.

Spanish words can differ dramatically from country to country, and users of AP's Spanish Stylebook will be able to discover the different meanings of words such as "guagua," which means "bus" in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, but "baby" in the Southern Cone. The Stylebook notes that in Spanish, a swimming pool is called "alberca" in some countries, and "pileta" or "piscina" in others.

The guide also includes newly minted terms from the world of online social media, such as "tuit" for Tweet, or "emoticono" for emoticon.

AP's standards editor, Thomas Kent, stressed the need to use Spanish with precision, including in reference to immigration issues.

While AP's Spanish Stylebook allows the use of "illegal immigrant," the term must be used with care, Kent said. The term does not fit, he said, in the case of a child brought to the United States by parents who entered the country illegally. He noted that the Stylebook allows many different terms to describe an individual's precise legal status.

Edward Schumacher-Matos, NPR's ombudsman and founder of the Spanish media company Rumbo Newspapers/Meximerica Media, said different terms are necessary to describe a wide range of immigrant experiences.

"I understand that there are people who would rather not use the term 'illegal immigrant,' but there are others who understand it that way and prefer to see it described that way," said Schumacher-Matos.

Still being studied is the difference in how accent marks are handled by the AP's two Stylebooks.

AP's Spanish service uses accent marks common to the written language. But AP's English-language stories do not use accents for Hispanic names or other Spanish words for technological reasons. Accents don't transmit through all computer systems of members in the AP cooperative or other English-language subscribers, and can sometimes show up as garble in newspapers and websites.

The Spanish-language online guide, which includes a chapter on the AP's journalistic principles, is now being offered only to clients of the AP's Spanish news service, but will be available for others early next year. The cost is $26 a year for an individual subscription and $210 a year for a license of up to 10 people, an introductory rate which is one third of the regular price.

Three new ambulances were qualified this weekend, two for use by firefighters and one more for the Municipal Civil Protection Unit, after they got the necessary documents as they are vehicles of American origin recently donated by Rotary clubs that country.

Ambulances are already serving in ways to address emergencies in the city, after it emerged that they were detained for a matter of paperwork, was the Deputy Municipal Transit, Jesus Rodriguez Campoy designated to handle the basic permissions for these vehicles were assigned and were already in service, according to the instructions of the mayor, Ramón Guerrero Martínez.

The controversy over the lack of ambulances for corporations to aid the population intensified last week after a woman was assaulted to death in the city without being given appropriate attention. As reported at the time, it was several minutes before a reporter (with paramedic preparation) will provide first aid and was taken to hospital in a patrol, in the absence of ambulances by corporations engaged in the care emergency.

In response, the mayor requested a report on this type of vehicle and ordered to do everything necessary to avoid any vehicle stopped emergency services, particularly ambulances. Then the documents were processed at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Road and Transportation of the state, so as to cover the requirements for the three new ambulances are in order and can attend services.

The new ambulances are equipped to handle emergencies, first aid and basic care to stabilize an injured person until arrival at a hospital where he can receive more care to preserve its life. The equipment is basic but complete and thereafter an addition to the basic equipment to save lives through the acquisition of cutting-edge equipment for this purpose, once you are under the safeguard of Civil Protection and Fire respectively.

It should be mentioned that due to the efforts of the mayor in the city of Guadalajara, the state government recently donated 10 vehicles on loan to the municipal government, of which 5 are patrols and other vehicles for the use of different units, which increases the vehicles in the basics of safety and emergency response.

There is the intention to invest in more patrols on receipt federal and state resources, as there is a commitment to improve public safety and emergency response, factors that were in a serious crisis supports because of the municipal financial

President John F. Kennedy was supposed to just stop by and wave hello. Instead a group of eager Latinos persuaded him to come inside and speak to a packed room of Mexican-American civil rights activists. And then he persuaded his wife, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, to address the crowd in Spanish.

It was Nov. 21, 1963. Hours later, the president was dead, his assassination overshadowing the significance of a speech that can be seen as the birth of the Latino vote, so instrumental in 2012 in helping re-elect the first black president, Barack Obama.

To historians, Kennedy’s appearance at the Rice Ballroom in Houston was likely the first time that a president officially acknowledged Latinos as an important voting bloc.

Though there are no plaques marking the historic occasion, the event is a touchstone for activists even if the spot where Kennedy sat and heard a band play Mexican ballads and where the crowd yelled “Viva Kennedy!” is now a refurbished ballroom in a loft apartment complex that often plays host to weddings.

“That evening … that’s where it began,” said Ignacio Garcia, author of “Viva Kennedy: Mexican Americans in Search of Camelot” and a history professor at Brigham Young University. “But because very people know about the meeting, it’s like it never happen.”

The surprise visit came after Mexican-Americans in Texas, New Mexico, California, Arizona, Illinois and Indiana helped Kennedy win critical swing states in 1960, thanks to an unprecedented voter registration drive in Latino communities. Independent “Viva Kennedy!” clubs sprang up. Sen. Dennis Chavez, D-N.M., and Texas legislator Henry B. Gonzalez of San Antonio, a future congressman, began speaking in Hispanic neighborhoods across the country and positioned themselves as the first recognizable national Latino political figures.

Just as in 2012, Republicans in 1960 did little to woo Latinos to support their presidential candidate, Richard Nixon. Latinos also identified with Kennedy, who was Catholic and Irish-American, a member of an ethnic group that had battled discrimination similar to what Latinos faced in the segregated Southwest.

On Election Day in 1960, Kennedy won 85 percent of the Mexican-American vote.

Mexico is prepared with a bank of 70 million doses of avian influenza vaccine for any emergency, and a Plan of Action to declare the country free of this evil that affected dozens of farms this year, Animal Health CEO, Hugo Fragoso Sanchez reported Saturday.

Surveillance is currently maintained on farms that were affected by this disease, where new born and breeding birds are monitored under the vaccination program that will run until next March or April, reported Fregoso.

Menübereich almost 100 days without presenting new cases of highly dangerous avian influenza (AH7N3) or viral isolates in the poultry population in the highlands of Jalisco, in western Mexico region most affected by an outbreak this year , or elsewhere in the country, according to authorities.

Given the situation of the past months, Enrique Sanchez Cruz, head of the National Service of Health, Food Safety and Quality (Senasica), gave 250 awards to public servants involved in the control of the disease.

Cruz Sanchez said that technicians Senasica developed in Mexico in a timely manner the AH7N3 virus vaccine in collaboration with the National Veterinary Biologics Production, and three private laboratories, enabling control the outbreak in four months.

He explained that the joint work also allowed to deliver the vaccine producers, only 39 days of notification of the outbreak.

Mexico, he said, is internationally recognized by health authorities producer organizations of various countries and international organizations for efficient response to the outbreak was contained, especially lethal characteristics of the virus that attacked the hens in highland Jalisco.

He recalled that the health status of Mexico has allowed the country to locate as a  number 14  an exporter of food products among 178 nations entered in the World Animal Health Organization.

While many addictions require professional intervention to aid in the relief of withdrawal symptoms and psychological stress, there is one method which has helped some individuals conquer the hurdles of overcoming a negative addiction: replacement.

Take, for example, the story of Mishka Shubaly, who overcame an alcohol addiction by replacing it with running. In his memoir, “The Long Run,” he details how he achieved sobriety by running 5 miles at a time until he was up to 50 miles.

While Shubaly was surprised by the success of his memoir, reports CNN, experts say he is one of many who have used exercise and activity to help beat an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

“It’s a great way to introduce people into something that then later becomes … sort of their coping mechanism, as opposed to picking up a drink or a drug,” Scott Strode, who operates nonprofit Pheonix Mulitsport, an organization offering free athletic activities and a sober community of support to residents in Colorado, told CN

The key to the replacement technique, explains The National Institutes of Health (NIH), is understanding how habits play an important role in overall health. Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, stated in the NIH newsletter, “When behaviors become automatic, it gives us an advantage, because the brain does not have to use conscious thought to perform the activity.”

He also cautions that, while replacing a bad addiction with exercise works for many people, it does not work for everyone.

“…Certain groups of patients who have a history of serious addictions can engage in certain behaviors that are ritualistic and in a way compulsive—such as marathon running—and it helps them stay away from drugs,” he stated. “These alternative behaviors can counteract the urges to repeat a behavior to take a drug.”

Even with the replacement method, certain addictions—those based on a pleasure response—can be very difficult to overcome. NIH explains pleasure-based addictions are more problematic because they trigger the release of dopamine into the brain.

“If you do something over and over, and dopamine is there when you’re doing it, that strengthens the habit even more. When you’re not doing those things, dopamine creates the craving to do it again,” Dr. Russell Poldrack, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, stated in the newsletter. “This explains why some people crave drugs, even if the drug no longer makes them feel particularly good once they take it.”

For individuals looking to try the replacement method to cope with addiction, experts recommend gradually switching behaviors. For example, if a person is looking to overcome smoking, initially one cigarette a day could be replaced with 5 minutes of exercise. As time goes on, more cigarettes can be replaced and the duration of exercise combined into longer sessions. However, guidance from a professional is always recommended.

The subtleties of the usage of tú, vos, usted, baffle the learner of Spanish who has not yet mastered the social intricacies and the historical and grammatical involutions among Spanish speakers.

More often than not, older people bemoan times past, when everything was so much easier and simpler: traffic was slow, nobody rushed hither and thither, the telephone alerted us of an incoming call once in a long while, rules of manners and etiquette ordered social life and placed people in their respective and proper places. But that was long ago. Now all seems to be topsy-turvy which leaves us skeptical as to what to do and how to do it.

Take for instance tú and usted. Years ago we all used ustedear (not in the dictionary, but thank you Ivonne Malaver) with everybody, as a matter of course. Students employed usted with the teacher and the teacher did the same to his students, even if they were seven-years-old. Longstanding friends exclaimed when meeting: ¿Cómo está usted? And perhaps after years of friendship they might change to the informal and friendly tú, ¿Cómo estás? Tutear (the use of tú or vos, also vosear) was reserved to the chosen few, as even today the King of Spain uses this form of address with everyone, as a regal privilege of long standing. Remember he said to President Hugo Chávez: ¿Te callas? And Chavez answered with an usted, and yet he uses tú when chatting with Fidel Castro. Complicated?

Consider this scene: An American College classroom. The teacher enters the class and addresses a student: “Peter, will you please erase the chalkboard?” Peter stands saying “Yes, Mark, I’ll do it for you.” The Spanish version would be “Pedro ¿Quieres borrar la pizarra, por favor?” “Sí, Mark, lo haré por ti.”

Same scene, same place. Teacher says: “Mr. Jones, will you please erase the chalkboard?” “Yes, Dr. Fergusson, I’ll do it for you.” The Spanish version would be: “Sr. Jones, ¿Quiere usted borrar la pizarra, por favor” “Sí, Dr. Fergusson, lo haré por usted.”

Usage of the last name, surname, in English implies usted in Spanish. First name—to be on a first-name basis- implies tutear, vosear, in Spanish, a certain degree of intimacy and friendliness. But things may have changed. Not too long ago, I asked Dr. John Simpson, professor at Oxford and Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford English Dictionary to prologue one of my bilingual dictionaries, which he did, and answered me with a surprising “Dear Delfin”. This is fine, of course, but a sign of the times.

Social interaction has become so relaxed, so informal, so “practical”, that it becomes almost unachievable to give clear and precise guidelines as to how to use tú, vos, usted in the Spanish-speaking world.

General guidelines for the use of tú, vos, usted in Spanish

Usted is always a title of respect and the preferred one in case of doubt. You can never go wrong being respectful to a stranger. If you are told ¡tutéame!, then do so by all means. It is always used when we want to avoid unwanted familiarities and keep the interlocutor at a safe social distance. The plural is ustedes. It is a contraction of vuesa merced = vusted = usted. Usted, by the way, is not used in Cervante’s Quixote.

Tú is generally used among the young, with people of a similar age, in the workplace with office mates, students and teachers. It is so widespread that at hospitals in Spain, for example, nurses and doctors address patients, whatever the age, as tú. I used to object, but I have finally given up, but I reply with an usted that confounds them. The plural in most parts of Spain, and some parts of South America, is vosotros (vos+otros).

For historical reasons and in certain degrees vos is the tú employed, in Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. The verb is vosear. The plural is ustedes. Vos is used in Cervante’s Quixote. It disappeared in Spain but is healthy and alive in America.

It is complicated, I own it, but to be on the safe side follow this rule: If you would address a person as Mr. Smith, then address him as usted in Spanish. If you would call the same person Mark, Susan or Ellen, then use tú or vos. The safest, always, is usted. We can never go wrong if we treat people with respect and usted.

When it comes to self-esteem, we are most often our worst enemies. While our self-esteem is shaped by experience, particularly in our childhood, ultimately it is up to us to either build ourselves up, or tear ourselves down.

You can be mean to yourself in many ways. You can hate your looks, doubt your skills, belittle your professional and personal achievements and say that your love life is in the toilet. There’s always something in your life not going as well as you would like it to—that’s normal. But we don’t need everything to be perfect in order to have healthy self-esteem; we just need to find a balance.

Self-esteem is a fragile and volatile quotient that rises when we act accordingly to our true nature (by loving ourselves) and diminishes when acting against it, by hating ourselves.

Low self-esteem can lead you to making poor decisions at work and in your personal life. Even if you are intellectually prepared to take on anything, the internal image of yourself—as worthless, undeserving, unlovable—can lead you to disastrous decisions and keep you from moving forward with your life.

So how do you take care of yourself, love yourself and build and maintain your self-esteem? According to Cecilia Lotero from the Instituto de Psicología Argentino (Argentine Psychology Institute—INEPA), you have to know the seven capital sins against your self-esteem to be able to fight them one by one.
Seven capital sins against your self-esteem

1 – Inadequate beliefs. Often our beliefs of what is good or bad become barriers to healthy self-esteem. For example, if you’ve grown up in a very traditional home, you might think you’re a bad person because you have sex outside of marriage. If you’ve grown up in a machista culture, you may think that as a woman, you’re not qualified for certain jobs, despite your experience and training.

2 – Standards too high. If you set the bar too high you will never reach your goals. People with low self-esteem tend to set such a high standard for themselves—whether it’s for their appearance, salary, grades in school, etc.—that they never feel they’re good enough.

3 – Disqualifications. Those same personal standards based on unrealistic requirements leads you to disqualify your own achievements. With time, you will convince yourself that you will never reach your objectives and therefore stop trying to. Open your eyes! This premise is false because the objective already was unrealistic.
sad1 Seven capital sins against your self esteem

4 – Negative internal voices. Our internal voice too often says to us “you can’t do it,” or “you are never going to get it.” This increases and maintains your negative beliefs in yourself. Try to shut it up!

5 –Lack of positive stimuli. Receiving neither positive internal nor external stimuli causes self-esteem to drop even further. And even when you receive praise and recognition from other people, your self-esteem may be so low that you will probably think they are not sincere congratulations but the result of others feeling sorry for you.

6 – Negative emotions. The previous five points cause negative emotions such as sadness and rage, and limit you more and more. This leads to the last of the “sins” that ends, unites and sum up all the previous ones:

7 – Victimization. When you victimize yourself, you assume that you are the victim of other people’s jokes and complaints. You also feel victimized when you are in conflicts with your partner, co-workers and friends. You may even become a real victim, as people with low self-esteem are often drawn to and stay in abusive relationships. Victimization is the final result of a very low and damaged esteem, like the solidification and realization of all your fears.

Still, you can fight these seven capital sins. It is important for you to know that the key to change is in learning to communicate positively with yourself, and to carry on with a realistic, positive and affirming vision of who you are.

Turns out it was a kid who, some years back, exposed the dirty truth behind drinking water fountains.

When we think about holidays some of our first thoughts are about food. There is one holiday that stands out above the rest when it comes to tasty meals, Thanksgiving. In the United States 52 billion pounds of food gets thrown away a year. That is 170 pounds per person, and it’s no surprise that most of this food waste takes place during the holidays. I personally don’t like eating the same thing for days after Thanksgiving, but it kills me to throw away good food. Last year I put my foot down and decided to have leftover makeovers and here I came  up with Thanksgiving leftovers recipes.

Turkey Lentil Soup  

Ingredients
Turkey Lentil Soup theheritagecook. Thanksgiving leftovers recipes: Soup, muffins, meatloaf

Chopped leftover turkey (or chicken)

Chopped leftover ham
16 oz. of lentils
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 1/2 quarts of water
1 ½ chicken bouillon cubes
2 tbsp. of Italian seasoning

Directions

In a large saucepan stir in the carrots, celery, onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables start to soften. Add water, bouillon cube, Italian seasoning and lentils. Let simmer for about 30 minutes (or until lentils are soft) then add the turkey and ham or whatever holiday leftovers you like best. Goes great over rice.
Stuffing meatloaf

Ingredients
stuffing meatloaf edesiasnotebook Thanksgiving leftovers recipes: Soup, muffins, meatloaf

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 egg
1 onion chopped
1 cup of leftover stuffing
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, milk and stuffing. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place in a lightly greased 5 x 9 inch loaf pan or in into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and bake for 1 hour. A good side dish with this could be leftover mashed potatoes.

Hot Brown Turkey Sandwiches
Ingredients
5 slices bacon
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/4 cups grated muenster or monterey jack cheese
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 thick slices white bread, toasted
Dijon mustard, for spreadin
1 tomato, sliced
3 cups shredded or sliced roast turkey or rotisserie chicken
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Preheat the broiler. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Pour out all but about 1 tablespoon fat from the skillet.

Make the gravy: Add the onion to the skillet and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, 1 more minute. Increase the heat to medium high, add the milk and chicken broth and bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange the bread on a baking sheet. Spread each slice with mustard, then drizzle with some of the gravy and top with the sliced tomato. Toss the turkey with the remaining gravy in the skillet. Divide the turkey evenly among the bread slices, then sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Broil until golden, about 2 minutes.

Crumble the bacon over the sandwiches; sprinkle with the parsley.

A new study presented to the UN sustains that the Mexican government is an accomplice in violence against women in Mexico
abuse

Violence against women has worsened instead of improving since 2005, due in part to the gap in job opportunities, the salary discrimination and social conflict resulting from the war on drugs, which in turn increases the gender gap and limits the opportunity for women to be independent.

During 2010 and 2011, more than 1,300 women were killed in Mexico and more than 3,000 went missing, according to statistics by the Observatorio Nacional del Feminicidio (National Observatory of Women’s Murders).

Only in Mexico City, there are more than 10,000 cases of domestic violence a year, taken care of in local hospitals and other healthcare  facilities, in which a woman or a girl is the victim.

A new independent study conducted by seven non-profit organizations and presented at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), blames the Mexican government for not complying with the organization’s guidelines and requirements.

At CEDAW, a panel of 23 independent experts addresses the issue of violence against women through reports received by participant nations, and assists them in implementing their treaty obligations to protect and promote women’s rights. The committee has been active since 1982.

But the panel is also open to analyzing and considering independent studies that address the issue, in contrast with the reports presented by government officials. This particular new independent study researched the impact that the war on drugs conducted by the Mexican government through its military forces has had on women, and the resulting illegal women and girls’ trafficking that surrounds the world of drug cartels.

According to the organizations signing the report, the Mexican government has not guaranteed easy access to justice for women who must overcome complex legal and procedural obstacles after they have been victims of discrimination and domestic violence.
domestic violence 410x275 Violence against women getting worse in Mexico

The organizations sustain that violence against women has worsened instead of improving since 2005, due in part to the gap in job opportunities, the salary discrimination and social conflict resulting from the war on drugs, which in turn increases the gender gap and limits the opportunity for women to be independent.

The monitoring organization sustains that impunity and leniency in the way the justice system conducts these cases has increased the crime rate against women and girls in several states in Mexico, such as Chiapas (1485 women murdered between 200 and 2004) and Veracruz (1494 in the same period).

In Chiapas, for instance, which is ranked the seventh most violent state in Mexico, 48.2 percent of women 15 years and older have suffered some sort of violence in their family, from her spouse or boyfriend, from the community, the school, or through work, and 24.1 percent have suffered sexual abuse, sexual harassment or rape.

Especially in cases of rape, the report sustains, women’s testimony is not taken into consideration, and there are procedural flaws in the way the police investigation is conducted or in the way the victim is protected.

The “shadow report”, as called for being opposed to the government’s official statement, also identifies the lack of vigilance and monitoring mechanisms that comply with the 2007 Women’s General Access to a Violence-free Life Act.

Although programs and initiatives exist, the report says, many lack an effective system of evaluation and measurement, which would entail  monitoring and follow up of results and the impact on the Mexican female population.

The report’s main goal is to obtain more drastic recommendations from the CEDAW that would force the Mexican government to take action.