Court Rules Employee Worked to Death

Court rules employee worked to death

Fri Nov 30, 2007

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Toyota Motor Corp employee died of overwork after logging more than 106 hours of overtime in a month, a judge ruled Friday, reversing a ministry's earlier decision not to pay compensation to his widow.

The Toyota Labor Standards Inspection office refused to pay the widow the usual compensation for a spouse's work-related death, saying the man had only logged 45 hours of overtime in the month before he died, Japanese media reported.

But the court ruled that the employee had worked far more than that. The Nagoya District Court in central Japan said the ruling overturned the labor ministry's decision.

In fiscal year 2005-2006, the labor ministry received 315 requests for compensation from the bereaved families of workers who died of strokes and other illnesses seen as work-related.

For the Rest of the Story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071130/od_nm/overwork_dc;_ylt=Ajo940bodWHSTg5NmTBqH.4SH9EA

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COMMENT: Stem Cell Miracle Kislev 25, 5768 * December 5, 2007

B"H

Kislev 25, 5768 * December 5, 2007

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C O M M E N T
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Stem Cell Miracle
By Feygl Cylich
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A great miracle happened there. Last week, two teams of scientists successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to function as if they were embryonic stem cells. Many in the scientific community believe that this breakthrough will eventually enable stem cell research to bypass the need for the creation and destruction of embryos, and thus to sidestep the ethical and political dilemmas which have been plaguing the field for the past decade. The implications of this ground-breaking discovery impacts on medical research of all kinds, and sparks renewed hope to dramatically accelerate the race to cure diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's.

Of course, the discovery has not been dubbed a miracle by the scientific community, but it is miraculous nonetheless. It is miraculous not in the sea-splitting sort of open miracle which overturns the laws of nature. It is a quiet miracle, a miracle working within the parameters of human capacity and nature, easily overlooked, but nonetheless miraculous --- and perhaps even more so. It is a miracle which comes to light in the Jewish month of Kislev, the month of Chanukah, a month of miracles and illumination, a time, as alluded to in the Torah readings of this month, when G‑d puts an end to darkness.

The debate over stem cell research raised serious and fundamental ethical, moral and theological dilemmas. Many saw this as an issue over which science was pitted against religion, and proponents from both sides rallied to battle for the soul of medical research in the courtroom and at governmental appropriation committee debates. It was a battle which cut across the social conscience and tore at the very heart of mankind's longing to heal.

But it appears that a solution is on the horizon that would reconcile these two forces. Driven by sheer pragmatism to restrict investigations to ethical parameters acceptable to all, scientific researchers ultimately pursued a scientific answer to science's problem. The solution was mind-boggling in its simplicity: All they had to do was to add four genes. Those four genes reprogrammed the chromosomes of the skin cells, making the cells into blank slates that should be able to be turned into any of the cell types of the human body, be it heart, brain, blood or bone.

Dr. Yamanaka, one of the researchers credited with the discovery, had expected it would take a few years to find the right genes and the right conditions to make the experiments work. Miraculously, it only took a few months.

But the solution did not come to light until fundamental theological questions --- When does life begin? Who has a right to define it? Does G‑d aka "intelligent design" exist? Did Creation happen? --- had been discussed in every lounge room, in every classroom, in every medical board room, on every university campus, in every state and national legislature, at the very highest levels of government, recorded in every scientific journal and broadcast in every newspaper, across the entire globe.

Then and only then, when humanity seemed on the brink of venturing down a slippery slope of ethical self-destruction, one miraculous discovery, seemingly in the bat of an eye, has pointed a way to proceed with stem cell research without compromising the ultimate sanctity of life.


Perhaps the greatest miracle of all is when we turn obstacles into opportunities --- when we reconcile what we thought was irreconcilable, when we illuminate darkness with light.

Eight tiny candles remind us that we can make miracles happen.

Happy Chanukah.


- Feygl Cylich is a Chassidic Jew, teacher, writer, mother and proud grandmother living in Melbourne, Australia. During her student days at the University of Chicago, she studied with Dr Leon Kass, who recently served as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Bioethics.

- To view this article on the Web, or to post a comment, please click here: http://www.chabad.org/603579 .

Merry Meet! I wish that

work would put out more! I haven't seen any in a week & it was after 3 - 4 days w/o work. Turns out this one place I applied to for an inbound phone position didn't pan out. They couldn't hire in my state (FL). Crap!

Here lately tho work has been pretty steady for doing my data entry. I just wish there wouldn't be times where it'd go a week to a week and a half w/o any especially right now w/the holidays and all. It's not that I celebrate xmas. I celebrate Yule and would love to buy a few things to make it a better one, kwim?

I'm hoping that some of the side stuff I have pans out tho. At least I got a survey or two from Pinecone Research and got $$ for it. I'm hoping they do the same as they did over Thxgiving .... unloaded a ton of work and I mean a ton. LOL The two weeks prior to that and up to the Friday after, there was a plethora of work & wish it would stay like that.

However, I'm not going to complain too, too much. I got a decent paycheck on the 30th of Nov. and am expecting another one, but bigger, come the 15th. At least my bf (boyfriend) is working steady! LOL Thx the God & Godess and the Godess Danu as well (from whom my nic comes from).

I just wish to heck that Pay Per Post would hurry up and re-look @ my blog. I've got well over 20 posts now in the last 30 days and will be keeping it that way.

Oh! BTW! Please do check out my forum, k? You'll find it at http://forums.delphiforums.com/AnamCara1/start A big ol' thx for doing that! Much appreciated!

Well, I'm going to go back out to my exercise area (it's my living room LOL) and finish up on that. Also have a bag of popcorn in the microwave waiting for me. It just finished popping. I'll be back in about a half an hour to check mail and start looking at news to see what all is going on in the markets, etc. Also doing some reading on some books I have and school studying.

Until then, Blessed Be!