In honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I’m highlighting a couple stories about the subject from around the world.

• Earlier this year UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched UNite to End Violence Against Women, a campaign that wished to create awareness and raise political will to address both the effects and causes  of violence against women.
• This year culminates the first phase of UNFEM’s Say NO to Violence campaign. This campaign is based on the same principles as the one above with the added emphasis of wanting to demonstrate that there is a large world wide constituency that demands better treatment for women.

Here are some soberring facts (visit site for full list), coutesy of Feminist.com;

• 17.6% of women in the Unites States have survived a complete of attempted rape.
• 64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend or date.
• Only about half of domestic violence incidents are reported to police.
• Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.  Every 15 seconds a woman is battered, usually by her intimate partner.
• Females ages 12 to 24 are at the greatest risk of experiencing a rape or sexual assault.
• World wide 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually.
• More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation.

On this day I can’t help but notice the many campaigns out there calling for an end to violence against women, every I’m surprised (and maybe I shouldn’t be) to see that things haven’t really changed all that much from the previous year. But I think what gets me the most is thinking that we are being victimized by the very people in our lives. They say that the vast majority of women who have had to suffer through any kind of gendered attack knew her assailant. Also, since I currently live in the USA, I always shudder to think of the sky high levels of violence towards women that take place every day here when this country is supposedly at “peace”…

Sigh, maybe next year will be better…

“All of us – men and women, soldiers and peacekeepers, citizens and leaders – have a responsibility to help end violence against women. States must honor their commitments to prevent violence, bring perpetrators to justice and provide redress to victims. And each of us must speak out in out families, workplaces and communities, so that acts of violence against cease.” – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

If you want to learn more about the history of this day, check out my entry from last year.

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Google Earth has just created a new project which recreated Ancient Rome in all it’s glory. You can fly into the city, look into buildings and in general explore an entire city as it appeared in 320 A.D. The site offers about 250 sites which can be explored in a detail in a variety of languages.

Google Earth acaba de salir con un nuevo proyecto que reproduce la Roma Antigua en toda su gloria. Usted podrá volar por la ciudad, mirar dentro de edificios, y en general explorar la ciudad tan cual como era en el año 320 A.D. El sitio ofrece alrededor de 250 sitios para explorar en detalle, en una variedad de idiomas.

This detailed 3D model was based from a physical model housed in Rome’s Museum of Roman Civilization called Pastico di Roma Antica which was created between 1933 and 1974 by a number of archeologist and model-makers.

Este detallado modelo en 3D fue basado en un modelo en el Museo de Civilización Romana en Roma llamado Pastico di Roma Antica, el cual fue creado entre 1933 y 1974 por una cantidad de arqueólogos y fabricantes de modelos.

Just looking further in Google Earth I’ve found that there are a number of other creative projects like this one, some a product of Google’s work, while others have been created by others. Some of these include The Malaria Atlas Projectwhich was created by researchers in Kenya and the UK, and which maps out cases of mosquito borne parasite which cause the disease. There is also the Charlie Chaplin project which was put together by the British Film Institute and which maps out places significant to the actor.

Dándole una mirada mas profunda a Google Earth me doy cuenta de que hay una cantidad de proyectos creativos, algunos son producto de Google, los demás han sido creados por otros. Algunos de estos proyectos incluyen el Malaria Atlas Project creado por investigadores en Kenya y el Reino Unido. Este proyecto traza mapas de casos de parásitos llevadas por zancudos que causan la enfermedad. También esta el proyecto de Charlie Chaplin que fue creado por el British Film Institute, y donde se traza las lugares importantes en la vida del actor.

You can read more about the Ancient Rome project from an article in today’s BBC. Here is a second article from today’s Guardian. You can download Google Earth here.

Puede leer más sobre el proyecto de la antigua roma en un artículo de la BBC. Puede descargar Google Earth aquí.

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WorldLinQ is a site created at Queens Public Library which gathers a wide range of useful websites in a variety of different languages. The site offered link to public websites offering information on news, education, recreation, health, science, and a variety of other topics. The site connection you to relevant links in a multitude of languages, each entry annotated both in the original language and in English. Do note that because each language entry links to relevant resources in the corresponding language, entries vary in content.

The site was created about 10 years ago with initial funding from At&T, and was devised as an non-traditional way of reaching out to the very diverse library community of Queens borough. Currently it functions in 15 different languages, including Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and French, just to name a few. But this ambitious project hopes to one day function on all 150+ languages in use in the Queens Public Library community. If you are fluent in a language not yet on the site, you may consider offering your help with gathering useful links and providing the basica annotations needed.

Access to WorldLinQ and Queens Public Library.

WorldLinQ es un sitio web creado por la Biblioteca Pública de Queen (NY) que reúne una gran variedad de recursos útiles en una cantidad de idiomas. La página ofrece enlaces a sitios que ofrecen información sobre las noticias actuales, educación, recreación, salud, las ciencias, y otra cantidad de temas. El sitio lo conectara a una cantidad de recursos útiles en una multitud de idiomas, todos anotados tanto en su idioma original como en ingles. Por favor note que debajo de cada página de un idioma encontrara recursos apropiados a ese idioma, por lo tanto varían entre un idioma y otro.

El sitio fue creado hace ya 10 años con fundación inicial de AT&T, y con la idea de crear una forma poco tradicional de conectarse con la comunidad de Queens. Actualmente WorldLinQ funciona en 15 idiomas, incluyendo español, italiano, rumano, y francés, entre muchos otros. Lo increíble es que este ambicioso proyecto espera algún día funcionar en todos los 150+ idiomas que se usan a diario en la Biblioteca Pública de Queens! Si de casualidad usted sabe algún idioma que todavía no tenga pagina, de pronto le interese ofrecer su ayuda encontrando enlaces relevantes, y proporcionando las anotaciones necesarias.

Acceso a WorldLinQ y a la Biblioteca Pública de Queens.

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