Latin Kings (gang)

he Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN, ALKN, LKN) is said to be the largest and most organized Hispanic street gang in the United States of America,which has its roots dating back to the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois.

Culture

Due to the organization's mixed history, it is often debated about whether they are strictly a criminal organization or a positive force in the community (as they have taken on both roles at different points in time, as well as simultaneously). For example, in 2000 there were approximately 1600 self-admitted Latin Kings in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and these accounted for over half of all the recorded violent acts on prison personnel and other inmates, making the Latin Kings the most violent prison gang in Illinois (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fiscal Report, 2000).^[15] Nevertheless, just a couple years prior to that, Antonio Fernandez (King Tone) was in New York preaching social and economic justice, gender equality, parental responsibility, Latino pride, and Roman Catholicism. He also advocated for an end to street violence and police brutality.

Nevertheless, this apparent contradiction is also recognized, and even encouraged, by the teachings of the Latin Kings. According to the "Latin King Manifesto", there are three stages or cycles of Nation life that constitute Kingism.^[16] They are:

1. The Primitive Stage: wherein the neophyte member is expected to be immature and to be involved in such activities as gang-banging and being a street warrior without the full consciousness of Kingism.
2. The Conservative or Mummy Stage: which is where a member tires of the street gang life but is still accepting of life as it has been taught to him by the existing system that exploits all people of color, dehumanizes them, and maintains them under the conditions and social yoke of slavery.
3. The New King Stage: where the member "learns that his ills lie at the roots of a system completely alien to his train of thought and his natural development, due to the components of dehumanization that exist therein".

According to the Manifesto, "The New King is the end product of complete awareness, perceiving three-hundred and sixty degrees of enlightenment; his observations are free and independent; his thoughts are not clouded by any form of prejudice...For him there are no horizons between races, sexes and senseless labels", including gang labels for recognition. The New King no longer views the rival warrior as the cause of his ills; instead, he fights against the Anti-King System (social injustices and inequality), a system which seeks to deny and oppress his people: the Oppressed Third World Peoples.^[16]

Why an apple a day can't keep the dentist away !! :)

An apple a day, so the saying goes, keeps the doctor away.

But the dentist might disagree - after it was revealed that apples can be as bad for your teeth as sweets and fizzy drinks.

Dental experts are warning that the fruit should no longer be treated as snacks between meals because of its high level of sugar and acidity which erode teeth.

The British Dental Association is advising that the safest approach is to eat apples only at mealtimes --and then rinse out the mouth with water to minimise tooth damage.

The fruit's sugar content has risen by up to 50 per cent over the last decade, with new breeds of apple arriving on the shelves of British supermarkets which have been cross-bred to give a sweeter taste.

Now sweeter varieties such as Pink Lady, Braeburn and Fuji are increasingly popular among British consumers.

Figures from the Government's Food Standards Agency show that ten years ago apples such as Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Cox's Orange Pippin contained 10-11 per cent sugar by weight.

New research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the typical modern apple now has a sugar content of up to 15 per cent, which means it contains the equivalent of four teaspoons of sugar.

While it is widely recognised that sugar can cause decay, the threat posed by acids, which strip away tooth enamel, is less well-known.

A BDA spokesman said: 'Apples have a high acidity content and one of the things we are concerned about is erosion. Tooth decay is on the decline because of the introduction of fluoride in water and improved oral health. But erosion is becoming a real problem and something we are trying to raise awareness of. 'Once the enamel is worn away it doesn't regenerate.

'Research shows that dental erosion in adults due to diet is usually a result of excessive consumption of fruits and fruit juices.'

Parents should only give fruit juice to their children if it was heavily diluted, said the spokesman.

The BDA suggests that those seeking a snack between meals should eat cheese, despite its high fat content, because it neutralises the acidity that can attack tooth enamel.

Tom Sanders, a professor in nutrition and dietetics at King's College, London, studied tooth decay in youngsters and found that those from vegan or 'fruitarian' families, who eat only fruit, often had the worst teeth.

Professor Sanders said: 'You expect such children to have a low sugar diet but in fact they were getting so much sugar from fruit and juices that it was unhealthy.

'The research shows that snacking on fruit between meals is now bad advice.'

The news is likely to come as a shock to all those raised on the idea that eating an apple a day was as good as brushing your teeth.

Experts say that brushing your teeth immediately after eating an apple does more harm than good, because enamel softened by the acid attack is scrubbed away by the toothbrush. They recommend that at least half an hour is left before brushing.

Even the traditional advice that apples were good for you because they contained high levels of vitamin C is now questionable.

Research shows that the vitamin C content slowly declines over time, and many apples are stored for weeks or even months before consumption.

This is the latest blow for fruit fans - in November last year, researchers found fruit teas can damage tooth enamel. Brands containing fruits such as lemon, raspberry and blackcurrant can dissolve enamel.

Researchers at the University Dental Hospital of Manchester placed extracted teeth in three different liquids, a blackcurrant, ginseng and vanilla herbal tea, traditional tea and water.

After 14 days - the equivalent of drinking three cups a day for 18 years - the herbal tea had dissolved a layer of enamel from the tooth several thousandths of a millimetre thick, researchers reported.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-99733/Why-apple-day-wont-dentist-away.html#ixzz13x2sraYz

he Last Supper (Italian: Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena) is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d'Este. It represents the scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus as narrated in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him.

The painting

The Last Supper measures 450 × 870 centimeters (15 feet × 29 ft) and covers the back wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it. The main church building had only recently been completed (in 1498), but was remodeled by Bramante, hired by Ludovico Sforza to build a Sforza family mausoleum.^[1] The painting was commissioned by Sforza to be the centerpiece of the mausoleum.^[2] The lunettes above the main painting, formed by the triple arched ceiling of the refectory, are painted with Sforza coats-of-arms. The opposite wall of the refectory is covered by the Crucifixion fresco by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, to which Leonardo added figures of the Sforza family in tempera. (These figures have deteriorated in much the same way as has The Last Supper.) Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498—he did not work on the painting continuously. This beginning date is not certain, as "the archives of the convent have been destroyed and our meagre documents date from 1497 when the painting was nearly finished."^[3]

The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. The apostles are identified from a manuscript (The Notebooks Leonardo Da Vinci p. 232) with their names found in the 19th century. (Before this, only Judas, Peter, John and Jesus were positively identified.) From left to right:

• Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus and Andrew form a group of three, all are surprised.
• Judas Iscariot, Peter and John form another group of three. Judas is wearing green and blue and is in shadow, looking rather withdrawn and taken aback by the sudden revelation of his plan. He is clutching a small bag, perhaps signifying the silver given to him as payment to betray Jesus, or perhaps a reference to his role within the 12 disciples as treasurer.^[4] He is the only person to have his elbow on the table. Peter looks angry and is holding a knife pointed away from Christ, perhaps foreshadowing his violent reaction in Gethsemane during Jesus' arrest. The youngest apostle, John, appears to swoon.
• Jesus
• Apostle Thomas, James the Greater and Philip are the next group of three. Thomas is clearly upset; James the Greater