Colombian Military Captives Freed After 14 Years in Jungle (culture shock?)

Colombia’s biggest guerrilla group released its last police and military hostages yesterday, some of them held captive in the country’s jungles for 14 years.

The 10 men arrived in Bogota after their helicopter earlier landed in the eastern city of Villavicencio following their release by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. They were met by their families, including grown children who were infants when their parent was kidnapped, in images aired on Caracol Television.

Military bombardments under President Juan Manuel Santos and a crackdown on drug trafficking in the past decade have weakened the guerrillas, who lost leader Alfonso Cano in an attack in November. The hostages are being released into a “completely different” Colombia than existed in the late 1990s, when rebels strengthened by revenue from cocaine sales overran towns in a wave of violence that dissuaded international investment in the South America nation, said Juan Pablo Vieira, an analyst at Interbolsa SA, Colombia’s largest brokerage.

“It was an everyday occurrence that the FARC would take over towns and kidnap and kill police and military as a pressure tactic,” Vieira said by phone from Medellin, Colombia. “Now the hostages aren’t a negotiating chip and may even be a burden for the FARC.”

On landing in Villavicencio, the six policemen and four soldiers were met by medical personnel. They wore knee-high black rubber boots often worn by guerrillas and new green military shirts provided en route by the International Committee of the Red Cross, television images showed.

Prisoners of War

The FARC, Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group, had released images of the men, who it called “prisoners of war,” during their captivity. Photos on the Colombian Army’s website show them seated on a small hammock strung between two bamboo poles with locked chains strung around their necks against the backdrop of camouflage. The FARC still holds civilian hostages.

The men released include Luis Arturo Arcia and Luis Alfonso Beltran, both taken hostage in southern Colombia in March 1998, and Robinson Salcedo and Luis Alfredo Moreno, both captive since August 1998.

They were the last military and police hostages held by FARC, according to Maria Cristina Rivera, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. The FARC, a Marxist group founded in the Colombian countryside in 1964, promised to stop kidnappings for ransom in February.

The guerrilla group kidnapped 2,678 people between 2002 and 2011, and more than 400 haven’t been returned, according to Fundacion Pais Libre, a Bogota-based group that tracks the conflict. Some victims are presumed dead, the foundation said.

“There are hundreds of families that don’t know, have no idea about the whereabouts of their loved ones that were kidnapped,” President Santos said. “So it’s not enough to stop kidnapping -- the civilian kidnapped have to be freed.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Walsh in Santiago at hlwalsh@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net.

Wow! Imagine the family and friends who probably were praying for them to be released for up to 14 years...

some resources for getting and learning Adobe Lightroom 4

We've been teaching Adobe LIghtroom here in the School of Photography I and  II at the University of the Nations-Kona since July, 2006 while it was still in its 2nd of 4 beta versions before it was released for sale. This is because we're blessed to have Gary Chapman, a long-time guest teacher in the SOP I and II, helping to keep us cutting-edge.

 

The latest version of Lightroom is v4

 

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

 

There's a free 30 day demo from Adobe.

 

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom

 

If you're a member (as I am) of NAPP, you get 15% off Adobe software. :-) 

See http://www.photoshopuser.com  for more info

 

You can order via Amazon at:

Full version, to download, if you had no previous version of Lightroom:

http://amzn.to/HIs12p

Upgrade:

http://amzn.to/HIsq59

(Disclosure: If you buy via those links, because I'm an Amazon Affiliate, I can get a small slice of Amazon's profit on your purchase. :-) You pay no more.

Adobe offers some free video tutorials on Lightroom 4 at:

 

http://tv.adobe.com/product/lightroom/

 

****

 

Scott Kelby is the top tech writer in the world, having written more than 40 

books on Lightroom, Photoshop, and digital photography. His books on Lightroom 

are excellent. His book on Lightroom 4 is due out in May for $27.26, but you can 

pre-order it from Amazon, as I've done:

 

http://amzn.to/HHXuSn

 

(Disclosure: If you buy via that link, because I'm an Amazon Affiliate, I can get a 

small slice of Amazon's profit on your purchase. :-) You pay no more.

 

If you learn well from video tutorials, Scott's colleague, Matt Kloskowski, 

have an excellent series available at:

 

http://kelbytraining.com/

 

I paid $19.95 (as a NAPP member) for one month of access to not just this 

series, but any tutorial videos on the site. If you’re not a NAPP member, 

it’s $5 more than that (but still worth it).

 

*****

 

Another source of great video tutorials on Lightroom 4 is Laura Shoe. I 

bought her series here (with a discount because I'd earlier bought her 

Lightroom 3 series). You can buy as downloads (as I did) or on DVD:

 

http://laurashoe.com/lightroom-video-tutorial-training-dvd/

 

She did a terrific 3 day in-depth series this past week (which I've bought 

and watched, buying at a discounted price of $79 before it ended its live 

sessions online) on creativelive.com:

 

http://www.creativelive.com/courses/lightroom-4-fundamentals-laura-shoe

 

This is about the best, most detailed teaching on Lightroom 4 I've seen yet, 

selling for $100 as downloads.

 

*****

 

Gary Chapman, who teaches in the SOP I and II, recommends teaching at:

 

http://www.lynda.com

 

You can get a week free.

 

http://www.lynda.com/deke

 

You can also get 1 month of unlimited video tutorials from them for just 

$25.

 

Their teacher on Lightroom is Chris Orwig, an instructor from Brooks 

Institute, a highly respected place teaching photography.

 

His teaching on lynda.com on Lightroom 4 is at:

 

http://www.lynda.com/search?q=lightroom+4&x=0&y=0

 

Lightroom could save you a lot of time and work if you're not using it yet.

 

U.S. Financers and Sex Trafficking (quite an article by Nicholas Kristof, NY Times)

This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media. Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are.

That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.

Goldman Sachs was mortified when I began inquiring last week about its stake in America’s leading Web site for prostitution ads. It began working frantically to unload its shares, and on Friday afternoon it called to say that it had just signed an agreement to sell its stake to management.

“We had no influence over operations,” Andrea Raphael, a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman, told me.

Let’s back up for a moment. There’s no doubt that many escort ads on Backpage are placed by consenting adults. But it’s equally clear that Backpage plays a major role in the trafficking of minors or women who are coerced. In one recent case in New York City, prosecutors say that a 15-year-old girl was drugged, tied up, raped and sold to johns through Backpage and other sites.

Backpage has 70 percent of the market for prostitution ads, according to AIM Group, a trade organization.

Village Voice Media makes some effort to screen out ads placed by traffickers and to alert authorities to abuses, but neither law enforcement officials nor antitrafficking organizations are much impressed. As a result, pressure is growing on the company to drop escort ads.

After my last column on this issue, 19 U.S. senators wrote the company, asking it to stop abetting traffickers. On Thursday, antitrafficking campaigners protested outside the Village Voice newspaper (which is owned by Village Voice Media). A petition on Change.org criticizing the company has gathered 220,000 signatures.

In Washington State, the governor signed a bill into law on Thursday that could expose Backpage to criminal sanctions if it advertises under-age girls for sex without verifying their ages. (There’s some uncertainty about the constitutionality of the law.)

Village Voice Media has been able to resist pressure partly because, as a private company, it doesn’t disclose its owners. But I’ve obtained documents that, with some digging, shed light on who’s behind it.

The two biggest owners are Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, the managers of the company, and they seem to own about half of the shares. The best known of the other owners is Goldman Sachs, which invested in the company in 2000 (before Backpage became a part of Village Voice Media in a 2006 merger).

A Goldman managing director, Scott L. Lebovitz, sat on the Village Voice Media board for many years. Goldman says he stepped down in early 2010.

Let’s be clear: this is a tiny investment by a huge company, and I have no reason to think that Goldman’s top executives knew of its connection to sex trafficking. Goldman prides itself on its work on gender: its 10,000 Women initiative does splendid work supporting women in business around the globe. Full disclosure: Goldman’s foundation was one of about 15 funders of a public television documentary version of a book that my wife and I wrote about the world’s women.

That said, for more than six years Goldman has held a significant stake in a company notorious for ties to sex trafficking, and it sat on the company’s board for four of those years. There’s no indication that Goldman or anyone else ever used its ownership to urge Village Voice Media to drop escort ads or verify ages. Elizabeth L. McDougall, chief counsel for Village Voice Media, told me Friday that she was “unaware of any dissent” from owners.

Several lesser-known financial companies also hold significant stakes in Village Voice Media, and one person close to the company says that there are about a dozen owners in all. One is Trimaran, an investment company in New York. It wouldn’t disclose the size of its stake but told me that it had “no influence whatsoever” on management and is now trying to sell its shares.

Two other companies, Alta Communications and Brynwood Partners, did not respond to my repeated inquiries about ties to Village Voice Media (Brynwood may be an asset manager rather than an owner). One thought: If the minority shareholders, Goldman included, worked together instead of rushing for the exits, they might be able to pressure Village Voice Media to get out of escort ads.

There are no easy solutions to sex trafficking. I think the most important single step is for prosecutors to focus more on pimps and johns. Closing down the leading Web site used by traffickers would complicate their lives, and after so many years of girls being trafficked on this site, it’s time to hold owners accountable.

I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook and Google+, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.

Melanoma cases rising; young women at greatest risk (wow :-(

Planning to head to a tanning salon to beef up your bronze looks for prom and graduation or to get a head start on beach season? Young people might want to reconsider.

A dramatic rise in skin cancer rates among young adults is leading health officials to shed light on the risk factors, specifically tanning salons, which women are more likely to use.

Women under 40 are hit hardest by the escalating incidence of melanoma, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, out today.

Researchers examined records from a decades-long database of all patient care in Olmsted County, Minn., and looked for first-time diagnoses of melanoma in patients 18-39 from 1970 to 2009. Melanoma cases increased eightfold among women in that time and fourfold for men, the authors say.

"We need to get away from the idea that skin cancer is an older person's disease,'' says report co-author Jerry Brewer, a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The findings might be explained by gender-specific behaviors addressed in other studies, the authors wrote. "Young women are more likely than young men to participate in activities that increase risk for melanoma, including voluntary exposure to artificial sunlamps."

The study is the latest evidence of a steady rise in skin cancer. A major government study published Wednesday reported that while new cases of many of the most common cancers are declining, melanoma cases are increasing.

"We're very concerned about the melanoma rates and the damage done by early exposure to sun, but also the increasing use of tanning beds," says physician Marcus Plescia, director of the division of cancer prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tanning industry disagrees

The Indoor Tanning Association defends tanning lamps. "There is no consensus among researchers regarding the relationship between melanoma skin cancer and UV exposure either from the sun or a sunbed," says executive director John Overstreet. "I expect more from the Mayo Clinic. There is no direct link from their report to tanning beds."

Yet, according to the National Institutes of Health, excess exposure to ultraviolet light increases risk for all skin cancers. UV light is invisible radiation that can damage DNA in the skin and can be generated by the sun, sunlamps and tanning beds.

Skin cancer most often occurs in people 50 and older. Melanoma is the most serious type and is potentially deadly. Symptoms include changes in an existing mole or development of an unusual growth on your skin, according to the Mayo Clinic. People with fair skin are at higher risk. The authors noted that the population of Olmsted County is mostly white.

The 'Jersey Shore' effect

Fair skin has less pigment to protect the body from UV radiation. Other risk factors: one or more severe sunburns as a child, an unusual number of moles, a family history of melanoma — and exposure to UV light.

The possibility of skin cancer might seem remote to young people. "I think (TV) shows like Jersey Shore portray healthy people as someone who has a great tan,'' says Laura Hopwood, 22, who was diagnosed with melanoma a year ago. "Somehow you're not attractive unless you're deeply tanned. Before I developed melanoma, a friend scolded me about not using sunscreen."

Hopwood, who works at Barnard College in New York, says she did not do enough to protect herself from sun damage but has never used a tanning bed. Her parents have not had melanoma. A surgeon made an incision from below her left eye to nearly her chin to remove damaged skin. Now she gets routine skin checkups every six months.

"The people most affected are not just Baby Boomers but actually young adults," says Hopwood's dermatologist, Kavita Mariwalla, director of dermatological surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "Tanning before prom or big events has become a 'norm' for many teenagers. What they don't know is that each time they visit a tanning booth, their risk of skin cancer rises."

 

 

Survey Reveals American’s Love Their Apples – Apple Products Now in Half of US Homes

 

By Bill Klump | @TheKlumper | March 31st, 2012

A study earlier in the week as part of CNBC’s All-America Economic survey revealed that half of all U.S. households now own at least one Apple product.

That’s more than 55 million homes with at least one iPhone, iPad, iPod or Mac computer.  And one-in-10 homes that aren’t currently in that group plan to join it in the next year.

CNBC went on to say that Apple doesn’t have to worry about brand saturation any time soon.  Americans don’t stop with just one device. Homes that own least one Apple, own an average of three. Overall, the average household has 1.6 Apple devices, with almost one-quarter planning to buy at least one more in the next year.

“It’s a fantastic business model — the more of our products you own, the more likely you are to buy more,” says Jay Campbell, a vice president of Hart Research Associates, which conducts the CNBC survey along with Bill McInturff. “Planned obsolescence has always been a part of the technology industries sales model, but Apple has taken it to a whole new level.”

Our survey shows Apple buyers tend to be male, college-educated, and younger. They’re just as likely to own a home as not. Not surprisingly, the more money you earn, the more Apple products you’re likely to own.

Just 28 percent of those making less than $30,000 a year own at least one, compared with 77 percent of those making more than $75,000. Those on the higher end of the income scale own an average of about three Apple devices, compared with 0.6 for lower-income homes.

While growing up in the tech age makes a difference, the age gap isn’t as wide as you might think. In fact just as many Americans between ages 18 and 34 count themselves among Apple users, as those ages 35-to-49 (63 percent). The number drops to 50 percent when you get into the 50-to-64 age group, and down to just 26 percent among those 65 and older.

It seems parents either want their kids to keep up with technology, or they’re trying to keep them busy. Sixty-one percent of households with children own Apple devices, compared with 48 percent of homes without kids.

The gadgets have found their way into 57 percent of homes in the West, home of Silicon Valley, compared with 47 percent-51 percent in the rest of the country. Two Apple products are in the average home in the American West, compared with just 1.2 in the South, where people own the fewest devices.

Our survey also revealed the desirability of owning an Apple product appears to be something Republicans and Democrats can actually agree on. About 56 percent of the members of each party have at least one, although a gap could soon open. Twenty-six percent of Democrats plan to buy an Apple product in the next 12 months, versus 19 percent of Republicans.

The poll of 836 Americans was conducted by land line and cellphone from March 19 to 22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.

Wow!