Facebook is 'dead and buried' to older teenagers, an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
Researching the Facebook use of 16-18 year olds in eight EU countries, the Global Social Media Impact Study found that as parents and older users saturate Facebook, its younger users are shifting to alternative platforms.
By Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, Washington Post, Dec. 26, 2013
Hospice patients are expected to die: The treatment focuses on providing comfort to the terminally ill, not finding a cure. To enroll a patient, two doctors certify a life expectancy of six months or less.
By Harold Pollock, Wonkblog @ washingtonpost.com, Dec. 26, 2013
The ACA does not address this huge problem that undoubtedly ends up in a lot of unpaid hospital emergency room treatment as well as lots of other problems for society. The article, an interview with a doctor that works a community health-care van and needle exchange program, explains why, and what he suggests needs to be done.
My comment: Must give kudos where due: to the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE's Priority Mail. They got all my packaged presents across the U.S. on time even though I sent them all at the last minute. (And I packed those flat rate boxes with some heavy weight stuff.)
Extra bonus gold star: I got a Christmas card through my front door slot in NYC on Tuesday afternoon that was placed in a collection box in Los Angeles on Saturday evening with a first class stamp on it.
Just after 1 a.m. on Dec. 24, a massive explosion struck the Daqahliya security directorate in Mansoura, Nile Delta. Video and photos from Mansoura showed an explosion far larger than what was seen in Ismailia on Dec. 12. The exact cause of the explosion in Mansoura has yet to be determined, though early reports have suggested a car bomb.
BAGHDAD — Journalists have not escaped the recent surge of violence in Iraq, and several have been shot dead at close range. On Monday, militants took a more fearsome approach: a sustained assault involving five suicide bombers on the headquarters of a local TV news station in Tikrit.
The attackers seized hostages and battled security forces for hours as fire engulfed the upper floors of the building where a state television channel also had a bureau.
This chart breaks down the House Republican caucus according to the frequency with which each member has cast votes for or against five key pieces of bipartisan legislation in 2013.
By Michael Luo & Mike McIntire, New York Times, Dec. 21/22, 2013
Last April, workers at Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut called the police to report that a psychiatric patient named Mark Russo had threatened to shoot his mother if officers tried to take the 18 rifles and shotguns he kept at her house. Mr. Russo, who was off his medication for paranoid schizophrenia, also talked about the recent elementary school massacre in Newtown and told a nurse that he “could take a chair and kill you or bash your head in between the eyes,” court records show.
By Katie Thomas, Reed Abelson and Jo Craven McGinty, New York Times, Dec. 20/21, 2013
[....] people like the Chapmans are caught in the uncomfortable middle: not poor enough for help, but not rich enough to be indifferent to cost [....] That’s an insane amount of money,” she said of their new premium. “How are you supposed to pay that?”
By Jonathan Freedland, Comment is free @ theguardian.com,
You don't have to be a Christian to see the appeal of this season. Jews, Muslims and Hindus are getting in on the act
I think it's great that the true secular nature of the holiday, especially the ancient history of it in the climes of northern Europe and its later co-option by the Roman Catholic church, is finally being recognized. Christmas trees, after all, are not very Christian.
US aircraft came under fire on Saturday on a mission to evacuate Americans from spiralling conflict in South Sudan and four US military service members were wounded.
By Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem, theguardian.com, 20 Dec. 2013
Nelson Mandela apparently underwent weapons training by Mossad agents in Ethiopia in 1962 without the Israeli secret service knowing his true identity, according to an intriguing secret letter lodged in the Israeli state archives.
By William Powell, Comment is free @ theguardian.com, 19 Dec., 2013
[....] Over the years, I have come to understand that the basic premise behind the Cookbook is profoundly flawed. The anger that motivated the writing of the Cookbook blinded me to the illogical notion that violence can be used to prevent violence. I had fallen for the same irrational pattern of thought that led to US military involvement in both Vietnam and Iraq. The irony is not lost on me.
[....] Now the second-largest foreign-born group in the city, Chinese are on the verge of overtaking immigrants from the Dominican Republic for the top spot.
