Despite the FAA firing the head person making sure Traffic Controllers are doing what they’re supposed to do , these cats still seem to think taking a nap on the job is cool. On Saturday, a seventh Air Traffic Controller was suspended for falling asleep during the midnight shift at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center. That made it clear to the geniuses at the FAA that they might have a widespread issue. So they’ve finally come up with a solution. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Sunday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Traffic Controllers Union have reached an agreement to make changes in the aftermath of recent incidents involving sleeping air traffic controllers. The changes will be effective immediately. Controllers will now have a minimum of nine hours off between shifts. Currently they were getting as few as eight. Controllers will no longer be able to swap shifts unless they have a minimum of nine hours off between the last shift they worked and the one they want to begin. They will no longer be able to switch to an unscheduled midnight shift following a day off. FAA managers will schedule their own shifts in a way to ensure greater coverage in the early morning and late night hours. It’s about time. Source
We see the word “nerd” as a term of endearment. In fact, if loving nerds is wrong we don’t want to be right. A nerd is someone who stayed on his/her intellectual grind, regardless of negative peer pressure. Nerds burned the midnight oil in the library while everyone else was at the party. They toiled to earn multiple degrees and academic accolades. As a result, they are leaders, innovators and thinkers who are taking us all to the next level in science, medicine, and civil rights. Their smarts make them sexy, interesting and admirable. Here are 4 nerds that we just love to pieces. ( Continue… )
This is definitely a sad story, but it kinda makes you angry at the same time. LAWRENCE, Mass. — A woman who withheld potentially life-saving medications from her autistic, cancer-stricken son was sentenced Friday to eight to 10 years in prison by a judge who said her actions “really do chill one’s soul.” Kristen LaBrie was convicted of attempted murder Tuesday for withholding at least five months of at-home chemotherapy treatments for her son, Jeremy Fraser. The boy died at age 9 in 2009. LaBrie, 38, wept and apologized before Judge Richard Welch handed down her punishment in Lawrence Superior Court. “I am remorseful for my actions and I wish I could have done things differently,” LaBrie told the judge in a courtroom packed with sobbing family members and friends of both LaBrie and the boy’s father, Eric Fraser. “If I could do it differently, I would, because I certainly miss my son, and I think about him every day and I wish he could be with me and my family,” she said. Jeremy Fraser was severely autistic, nonverbal and developmentally delayed. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma shortly after he turned 7 in 2006. His oncologist testified that she told LaBrie that her son’s cancer had a cure rate of about 85 percent to 90 percent under an intensive, two-year treatment plan that included doses of chemotherapy to be given during hospital stays and clinic visits as well as at-home medications LaBrie was supposed to administer at home. LaBrie testified that she largely followed doctor’s orders during the first four phases of his treatment. But she acknowledged that she stopped giving him the at-home medications during the final phase of treatment because she could not bear to see how much pain and suffering the side effects of the medication caused him. Many of LaBrie’s family attempted to plead with the judge to be lenient on her: LaBrie’s older son, Matthew, 18, wrote a letter to the judge asking for leniency. “My mother was nothing but unbelievably kind, caring and completely devoted to Jeremy in every aspect of her life,” he wrote. He described his mother sitting by Jeremy’s bedside while he was treated for cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Something like that takes a toll on a person and after all that, could anybody so easily sit by and watch while a cure is making a child feel worse?” Jeremy’s uncle, Andrew Fraser, spoke to the judge before sentencing, saying he wanted to represent Jeremy and Jeremy’s father, Eric, who was killed in a motorcycle accident seven months after Jeremy died. Andrew Fraser said his brother would have asked for a “fair and just” punishment for LaBrie, despite the contentious relationship they had. Do you think that the sentence the judge handed down was fair, too harsh, or not harsh enough??? Source
Man! He responded to that one QUICK , didn’t he? According to Sean Paul’s publicist, there is no Sean Paul tell all and there was no Sean and Beyonce jam down. “These reports are completely false,” a rep for the hit-making reggae singer told RadarOnline.com exclusively. The Grammy winners worked together on Beyonce’s hit Baby Boy. However, Paul’s rep also hit back at those claims, suggesting the two had nothing more than a professional relationship. “Sean is not working on a book and has never had anything more than a working relationship with Beyonce,” the rep added. Illuminati got Paul shook, eh? Source
