Reading Rainbow hits $3M in Kickstarter

~ susie

You guys know I love to read, right? And how concerned I am about illiteracy in the cities. So I am absolutely thrilled to announce that LaVar Burton’s Reading Rainbow Kickstarter raised one million dollars in the first day. Now they’re going for five.

What I didn’t know when I first wrote about it is, they’re developing a classroom version that will be given free to schools in need. Worth a $10 donation, right?

Here’s a tearful LeVar Burton as he reaches the $1 million goal:

http://youtu.be/3-XHuNcSMLc

H/t Karin Riley Porter.

China Hires NYPD to Advise on Repressing Protests…

~ Boohunney ~ 5 Comments

occupy

The Daily Currant...

The New York Police Department has signed a lucrative contract with the Chinese government to provide training and expertise on successfully cracking down on peaceful protests by brutalizing protesters.

According to the $10-million contract, NYPD officers will travel to Beijing and train Chinese police on the best methods for quickly repressing political, social and economic protests against the government and rounding up protesters for arrest with minimal media attention.

NYPD advisers will place particular emphasis on how the Chinese police can handle any potential gatherings marking the upcoming 25th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, in which the military brutally suppressed pro-democracy activists.

Authorities in China — where freedoms of speech and assembly are restricted — said they were impressed with the NYPD’s reputation for serving the wealthy and privileged while using excessive force to break up peaceful protests, most notably Occupy Wall Street, and convicting the protesters in kangaroo courts.

 

Stop right this minute

~ susie

temple

If you’re a smoker. I mean it.

I just came from the Temple University Hospital Lung Center. I had to see a pulmonary specialist to screen me for my sleep study, and let me tell you, I am really, really glad I never smoked. So many of these people in the waiting area sounded like they were drowning.

When I was leaving, a young woman in the elevator who was on a portable oxygen generator asked for my help to put her phone in her pocket. She was struggling for breath and didn’t have the strength. Imagine, not being able to lift a cell phone.

Please don’t take your lungs for granted. It will suck in a major way for you if they stop working, and I can’t think of anything scarier than feeling like you are drowning and you’re not even in the water.