SEBASTIAN ABBOT
Associated Press
December 3, 2008 at 11:57 AM EST
MUSCAT — Passengers on a luxury cruise liner attacked by pirates in the dangerous waters between Yemen and Somalia said Wednesday they were surprised by the assailants' boldness and described hearing the “Pop! Pop! Pop!” of the pirates' rifles firing at the ship.
Sunday's attack on the nearly 600-foot long American-operated M/S Nautica in the Gulf of Aden was the latest evidence that pirates have grown more aggressive, viewing almost any ship on the water as a potential target. But the attack lasted only five minutes and the ship with about 650 passengers and 400 crew members on board sped away quickly and was not seized.
“We didn't think they would be cheeky enough to attack a cruise ship,” Wendy Armitage, of Wellington, New Zealand, told The Associated Press shortly after disembarking the ship for a daylong port stop in the Omani capital of Muscat.
“It was very minor really,” she said of the attack. “But it was a surprise that they attacked us, and they did fire shots.”
No one on the ship was injured, and the vessel was able to speed away from the pirates. The attack happened on Sunday.
In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked. Thirteen ships remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 250 crew members including a Saudi supertanker filled with $100 million worth of crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 battle tanks.
International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a U.S.-led initiative, but attacks on shipping have not abated.
The cruise liner was travelling from Rome to Singapore, a route that most directly must pass through the dangerous strait between Somalia and Yemen.
During the assault, pirates fired eight rifle shots at the ship, according to its operator, Oceania Cruises, Inc. But the captain ordered passengers inside and accelerated quickly, leaving the pirates far behind in their 20- to 30-foot speedboats.
“I couldn't see them shooting, but I heard them hitting the ship, ‘Pop! Pop! Pop!”' said Clyde Thornberg, on vacation from his home in Bend, Ore. “It wasn't really scary because the captain announced for the safety of everybody to get inside and get down, and by that time he was pouring on the coals to the ship and was outrunning them.”
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Injured boy doesn't know attacks in India killed relatives
- Story Highlights
- Boy's parents, uncle, three cousins killed at attack on train station in Mumbai, India
- Boy, 13, is recovering from shrapnel wounds
- Brother has not told him about the deaths, is worried how it would impact recovery
- Brother says he will explain to boy, show him burial place when he leaves hospital
MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- As the boy, 13, looks up from his Mumbai hospital bed, his adult brother rests his hand on the boy's forehead, almost shielding him from the pain he does not yet know -- much of his family was killed in Wednesday's terrorist attacks.
Gunmen entered the Victoria Terminus train station Wednesday and opened fire.
Wednesday's well-planned but indiscriminate attacks targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and the Victoria Terminus train station, where the boy's parents, uncle and three cousins waited to board.
The terrorists burst in, firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades, leaving the boy's six family members among the 179 killed across the city.
The names of the boy and his brother are being withheld to protect their identities. 
The 13-year-old is not alone in tragedy. A 2-year-old boy became an orphan on his birthday Saturday, after his mother and father, who was a rabbi at the Jewish center, were gunned down.
The 2-year-old was taken to Israel on Monday and will live with the nanny who carried him to safety at the Taj Hotel last week. And he is probably too young to remember the horror of November 26, 2008.
But at the JJ Hospital in Mumbai, the 13-year-old has questions for his brother and his doctors -- where is the rest of his family? Why haven't his parents visited?
His brother won't tell him yet.
"I feel that if we tell him, he is so young he will be terribly affected by it. He is badly injured now and there might be problems," the brother told CNN. "That's why we thought it's best not to tell him. He's just a kid."
Dr. BM Subnis, dean of the hospital, said the boy will have to learn the truth soon.
"We have told him that we are locating your parents and they shall soon come back and meet you," Subnis said. "But the way I see him over the days now, the child is very smart and intelligent and has understood that his parents are no more. Everybody is hiding from him that they are no more."
Subnis said they feared telling the boy would send him into shock and impact his recovery from shrapnel wounds.
"That's what we earlier thought," Subnis said. "But now, this hiding is affecting his recovery."
So when the time is right, the brother will share the devastating news.
"Once he's out of the hospital, I'll take him to the place where our parents are buried and tell him this is your mother and this is your father and this is the rest of your family and whatever has happened has happened," the brother said.Sunday, November 30, 2008
Explosions Wound Dozens As Political Deadlock Continues In Thailand
Attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites Sunday, wounding 51 peopl and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Explosions Wound Dozens As Political Deadlock Continues In Thailand
Attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites Sunday, wounding 51 peopl and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Thousands of government supporters gathered, meanwhile, in the heart of Bangkok for a rally denouncing the protesters, further inflaming tensions.
The rally was designed to show support for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who has appeared helpless in ending the crisis that has stranded up to 100,000 travellers, including dozens of Canadians, brought the key tourism industry to a virtual standstill and affected plane schedules worldwide.
Somchai has been forced to run the government out of the northern city of Chiang Mai because of fears he could be arrested by the military, whose allegiances are unclear.
Sunday's explosions hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to Bangkok's domestic airport, which the protesters are also occupying. At least 51 people were hurt, including four seriously, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway, last Tuesday. They seized the domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government.
The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined Sunday's rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers.
"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," said government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua, who was to address the crowd.
"They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup," he told The Associated Press.
Somchai has appeared at a loss over how to end the crisis and has done little except to issue appeals and make offers of negotiations that have been rebuffed by the protesters.
Police have had their hands tied because of Somchai's reluctance to use force, and the military has refused to get involved, creating the worst political deadlock in the country's recent history.
In the wake of the Sunday explosions, senior protest leader Chamlong Srimuang met with Bangkok police chief Lt.-Gen. Suchart Maunkaew. The two agreed to have police and protesters jointly patrol protest sites at the prime minister's office and Don Muang domestic airport. So far, six people have been killed in bomb attacks, clashes with police and street battles between government opponents and supports.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Serirat Prasutanont said his officials are also trying to negotiate with protesters to let various airlines retrieve 88 planes that have remained parked since Tuesday.
"We are begging them to let the empty planes take off" but without success, he said.
Some airlines were using an airport at the U-Tapao naval base, about 140 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. But authorities there were overwhelmed with hundreds of screaming passengers cramming into the small facility, trying to get their bags scanned through a single X-ray machine.
"It was terrible! There was pushing and shouting and we couldn't get in the front door," said Veena Banerjee from India, trying for the second day to get on a plane.
Muslim pilgrims, who became stranded at the besieged international airport while on their way to the hajj, were bused Sunday to U-Tapao. An Iran Air flight will take them to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We are going to Mecca. There is only Allah," said Mohammad Rosi, one of the 459 pilgrims who arrived Tuesday in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces.
Many Muslims save up for years to go on the pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most.
The Federation of Thai Industries has estimated the takeover of the airports is costing the country $57 million to $85 million US a day. Some of its members have suggested they might not pay taxes to protest the standoff.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Why save Endangered Species
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Why Save Endangered Species?
Plants and animals hold medicinal, agricultural, ecological, commercial and aesthetic/recreational value. Endangered species must be protected and saved so that future generations can experience their presence and value.
Medicinal
Plants and animals are responsible for a variety of useful medications. In fact, about forty percent of all prescriptions written today are composed from the natural compounds of different species. These species not only save lives, but they contribute to a prospering pharmaceutical industry worth over $40 billion annually. Unfortunately, only 5% of known plant species have been screened for their medicinal values, although we continue to lose up to 100 species daily.
The Pacific yew, a slow-growing tree found in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, was historically considered a "trash" tree (it was burned after clearcutting). However, a substance in its bark taxol was recently identified as one of the most promising treatments for ovarian and breast cancer.
Additionally, more than 3 million American heart disease sufferers would perish within 72 hours of a heart attack without digitalis, a drug derived from the purple foxglove.
Agricultural
There are an estimated 80,000 edible plants in the world. Humans depend upon only 20 species of these plants, such as wheat and corn, to provide 90% of the world's food. Wild relatives of these common crops contain essential disease-resistant material. They also provide humans with the means to develop new crops that can grow in inadequate lands such as in poor soils or drought-stricken areas to help solve the world hunger problem. In the 1970s, genetic material from a wild corn species in Mexico was used to stop a leaf fungus that had previously wiped out 15% of the U.S. corn crop.
Ecological
Plant and animal species are the foundation of healthy ecosystems. Humans depend on ecosystems such as coastal estuaries, prairie grasslands, and ancient forests to purify their air, clean their water, and supply them with food. When species become endangered, it is an indicator that the health of these vital ecosystems is beginning to unravel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that losing one plant species can trigger the loss of up to 30 other insect, plant and higher animal species.
The northern spotted owl, listed as threatened in 1990, is an indicator of the declining health of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. These forests are the home to over 100 other old-growth dependent species, which are at risk due to decades of unsustainable forest management practices.
Pollution off the coast of Florida is killing the coral reefs along the Florida Keys, which serve as habitat for hundreds of species of fish. Commercial fish species have begun to decline, causing a threat to the multi-million dollar tourism industry, which depends on the quality of the environment.
Commercial
Various wild species are commercially raised, directly contributing to local and regional economies. Commercial and recreational salmon fishing in the Pacific Northwest provides 60,000 jobs and $1 billion annually in personal income, and is the center of Pacific Northwest Native American culture. This industry and way of life, however, is in trouble as salmon decline due to habitat degradation from dams, clearcutting, and overgrazing along streams.
Freshwater mussels which are harvested, cut into beads, and used to stimulate pearl construction in oysters form the basis of a thriving industry which supports approximately 10,000 U.S. jobs and contributes over $700 million to the U.S. economy annually. Unfortunately, 43% of the freshwater mussel species in North America are currently endangered or extinct.
Aesthetic/Recreational
Plant and animal species and their ecosystems form the basis of America’s multi-billion dollar, job-intensive tourism industry. They also supply recreational, spiritual, and quality-of-life values as well.
Each year over 108 million people in the United States participate in wildlife-related recreation including observing, feeding, and photographing wildlife. Americans spend over $59 billion annually on travel, lodging, equipment, and food to engage in non-consumptive wildlife recreation. Our national
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How clean are your hands?
In the toilets of a service station, at an undisclosed location along a motorway in middle England, Dr Val Curtis is waging a one-woman war on Britain's filthy hands.
As weary travellers flush, zip and button, an electronic message board on the wall flashes: “Washing hands with soap avoids disease... Is the person next to you washing with soap?”
The amount of soap used in any given period is measured by sensors on the dispensers and, when compared with the number of people that enter the washrooms in the same time, gives a depres- singly accurate picture of modern Britain's slovenliness.
Curtis, the director of the Hygiene Centre at the University of London, a co-founder of the Global Partnership for Handwashing with Soap, and all-round hand-washing aficionado, has not collated the final results yet. But even the most disgusting electronic message she could think of, “Soap it off or eat it later”, has failed to elicit a scrum for the soap. “I think what we need to do next is put up a poster with a big photo of poo on it,” she sighs.
Two years ago, the United Nations declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation. Britain, a nation that has produced sanitation visionaries such as John Snow, who proved that cholera was spread by water, and Edwin Chadwick, who conceived of sewage disposal and piping water into homes, should have been leading the way. Instead, our hands have remained decidedly dirty.
Last month, on Global Handwashing day no less, Dr Curtis caused a stir when she did a swab test of commuters' hands in London, Cardiff, Birmingham Liverpool and Newcastle. The results appeared to show that northerners' hands were dirtier than those of southerners. But beyond the geographic hyperbole, the survey had much more worrying implications than a few angry Geordies. Averaged out, the figures showed that more than one in four Britons had faecal matter on their hands - no matter where they came from. And while the number of men with dirty hands varied between the North and the South, the number of women, often the family food preparers and child carers, remained constant at a startling 30 per cent.
An earlier study carried out by Curtis in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, found that just 43 per cent of mothers washed their hands after changing their baby's nappy. “We all wash our hands in principle, but in practice, we've all got an excuse,” says Curtis.
According to John Oxford, a professor of virology and the chairman of the UK Hygiene Council, just half the UK population has an understanding of the importance of hand hygiene and too many do not put their knowledge into action. “Hygiene has not been high on the agenda,” Oxford says. “You say you're a professor of hygiene and people tend to think that you're the man who cleans the toilets.”
In an international study of seven countries conducted by the Hygiene Council in May, the UK was found to be the third worst nation for germs after India and Malaysia. The study, which also included Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Germany and the US, found 33 per cent of surfaces in British homes covered in E. coli, faecal matter and other dangerous pathogens spread by dirty hands.
“Most people we interviewed in the UK did not appreciate that we can catch diseases from our hands,” says Oxford. “They didn't realise that hands had anything to do with it.”
But hands have everything to do with it. Research carried out this month in America found that an average hand is home to 150 species of bacteria - comparable to, or even more than are found in the mouth, oesophagus and lower intestine. And womens' hands were found to have 50 per cent more varieties than men due to skin acidity, hormones and hand cream.
The majority of these organisms are harmless; others are not. Britain's 12 million annual cases of norovirus and gastroenteritis, causing projectile vomiting and diarrhoea, the MRSA epidemic in hospitals last winter, and an outbreak of E. coli in Scotland the year before are all down to pathogens on dirty hands.
It is estimated that most of the 120 million common colds contracted each year in the UK are also caused by viruses spread by hands (See Dr Thomas Stuttaford, page 15).
The average child misses one week of school a year due to communicable ill- nesses such as these. In the UK, this equates to an annual 36 million days lost to absenteeism. But the Hygiene Council has found that good hand-washing practices and ready access to the hand sanitiser in school can reduce this figure by almost 50 per cent. Absentee numbers have plummeted at one school, George Watson's College, in Edinburgh after it introduced mandatory hospital-style handwashing for all its pupils in January.
“The bugs that make us sick come from the toilet,” says Curtis. “And the point after going to the toilet when you don't wash your hands is the superhighway moment.”
The germs spread to hotspots such as door handles, light switches, remote controls, basin taps and telephones where other people pick them up. Or a person will infect themselves by putting their fingers in their mouth or rubbing their eyes or nose. Once a bug is inside a person, it will “multiply like crazy and then pump out by the billion at the other end”, says Curtis. A stool from an infected person contains ten billion pathogenic microbes, many of which rise into the air to continue the cycle.
The solution should be simple. Hygiene is cheap soap and water, the experts say, still the most effective method of hand washing. “Hygiene is self-empowering,” says Oxford. “People don't need an expert like me next to them. They can do something about hygiene themselves.”
Guidance issued by the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta in the US says that a person should sing Happy Birthday twice as they wash their hands. Coughs and sneezes should be directed into elbows rather than hands.
But Curtis believes that the problem of Britain's dirty hands is more complex. “Disgust is a ‘gene' that evolved in our animal ancestors to help us survive and avoid infection,” she says. And out of disgust came hygiene: there is evidence that neanderthals used seashell tweezers to pluck hairs and remove skin parasites, and that woman used the residue of animal fat and ash from roast meat to remove stains.
“A caveman would go to the loo in a field, see and smell what they had done and be disgusted by it, so they would be sure to wipe their hands after,” says Curtis. “Now we live in this beautiful, pristine environment with white tiles on the wall and we do everything to make our poo invisible and unsmellable. We're not feeling the same sense of contamination.”
Our hands are dirty, Curtis concludes, because our toilets are simply too clean.
Germ warfare: the facts
100,000: Average number of bacteria found on one square inch of healthy skin
1,000,000: Number of lives that could be saved in the world each year if everyone washed their hands with soap
One in four: The proportion of British kitchen cloths that harbour the E. coli virus, an indicator of faecal contamination
Two hours: Length of time that some bacteria can remain alive on surfaces after being deposited by hands
20 seconds: The length of time hands should be washed with soap and warm water
30: Number of years added to our average life expectancy in the past century through advances in hygiene
As weary travellers flush, zip and button, an electronic message board on the wall flashes: “Washing hands with soap avoids disease... Is the person next to you washing with soap?”
The amount of soap used in any given period is measured by sensors on the dispensers and, when compared with the number of people that enter the washrooms in the same time, gives a depres- singly accurate picture of modern Britain's slovenliness.
Curtis, the director of the Hygiene Centre at the University of London, a co-founder of the Global Partnership for Handwashing with Soap, and all-round hand-washing aficionado, has not collated the final results yet. But even the most disgusting electronic message she could think of, “Soap it off or eat it later”, has failed to elicit a scrum for the soap. “I think what we need to do next is put up a poster with a big photo of poo on it,” she sighs.
Two years ago, the United Nations declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation. Britain, a nation that has produced sanitation visionaries such as John Snow, who proved that cholera was spread by water, and Edwin Chadwick, who conceived of sewage disposal and piping water into homes, should have been leading the way. Instead, our hands have remained decidedly dirty.
Last month, on Global Handwashing day no less, Dr Curtis caused a stir when she did a swab test of commuters' hands in London, Cardiff, Birmingham Liverpool and Newcastle. The results appeared to show that northerners' hands were dirtier than those of southerners. But beyond the geographic hyperbole, the survey had much more worrying implications than a few angry Geordies. Averaged out, the figures showed that more than one in four Britons had faecal matter on their hands - no matter where they came from. And while the number of men with dirty hands varied between the North and the South, the number of women, often the family food preparers and child carers, remained constant at a startling 30 per cent.
An earlier study carried out by Curtis in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, found that just 43 per cent of mothers washed their hands after changing their baby's nappy. “We all wash our hands in principle, but in practice, we've all got an excuse,” says Curtis.
According to John Oxford, a professor of virology and the chairman of the UK Hygiene Council, just half the UK population has an understanding of the importance of hand hygiene and too many do not put their knowledge into action. “Hygiene has not been high on the agenda,” Oxford says. “You say you're a professor of hygiene and people tend to think that you're the man who cleans the toilets.”
In an international study of seven countries conducted by the Hygiene Council in May, the UK was found to be the third worst nation for germs after India and Malaysia. The study, which also included Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Germany and the US, found 33 per cent of surfaces in British homes covered in E. coli, faecal matter and other dangerous pathogens spread by dirty hands.
“Most people we interviewed in the UK did not appreciate that we can catch diseases from our hands,” says Oxford. “They didn't realise that hands had anything to do with it.”
But hands have everything to do with it. Research carried out this month in America found that an average hand is home to 150 species of bacteria - comparable to, or even more than are found in the mouth, oesophagus and lower intestine. And womens' hands were found to have 50 per cent more varieties than men due to skin acidity, hormones and hand cream.
The majority of these organisms are harmless; others are not. Britain's 12 million annual cases of norovirus and gastroenteritis, causing projectile vomiting and diarrhoea, the MRSA epidemic in hospitals last winter, and an outbreak of E. coli in Scotland the year before are all down to pathogens on dirty hands.
It is estimated that most of the 120 million common colds contracted each year in the UK are also caused by viruses spread by hands (See Dr Thomas Stuttaford, page 15).
The average child misses one week of school a year due to communicable ill- nesses such as these. In the UK, this equates to an annual 36 million days lost to absenteeism. But the Hygiene Council has found that good hand-washing practices and ready access to the hand sanitiser in school can reduce this figure by almost 50 per cent. Absentee numbers have plummeted at one school, George Watson's College, in Edinburgh after it introduced mandatory hospital-style handwashing for all its pupils in January.
“The bugs that make us sick come from the toilet,” says Curtis. “And the point after going to the toilet when you don't wash your hands is the superhighway moment.”
The germs spread to hotspots such as door handles, light switches, remote controls, basin taps and telephones where other people pick them up. Or a person will infect themselves by putting their fingers in their mouth or rubbing their eyes or nose. Once a bug is inside a person, it will “multiply like crazy and then pump out by the billion at the other end”, says Curtis. A stool from an infected person contains ten billion pathogenic microbes, many of which rise into the air to continue the cycle.
The solution should be simple. Hygiene is cheap soap and water, the experts say, still the most effective method of hand washing. “Hygiene is self-empowering,” says Oxford. “People don't need an expert like me next to them. They can do something about hygiene themselves.”
Guidance issued by the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta in the US says that a person should sing Happy Birthday twice as they wash their hands. Coughs and sneezes should be directed into elbows rather than hands.
But Curtis believes that the problem of Britain's dirty hands is more complex. “Disgust is a ‘gene' that evolved in our animal ancestors to help us survive and avoid infection,” she says. And out of disgust came hygiene: there is evidence that neanderthals used seashell tweezers to pluck hairs and remove skin parasites, and that woman used the residue of animal fat and ash from roast meat to remove stains.
“A caveman would go to the loo in a field, see and smell what they had done and be disgusted by it, so they would be sure to wipe their hands after,” says Curtis. “Now we live in this beautiful, pristine environment with white tiles on the wall and we do everything to make our poo invisible and unsmellable. We're not feeling the same sense of contamination.”
Our hands are dirty, Curtis concludes, because our toilets are simply too clean.
Germ warfare: the facts
100,000: Average number of bacteria found on one square inch of healthy skin
1,000,000: Number of lives that could be saved in the world each year if everyone washed their hands with soap
One in four: The proportion of British kitchen cloths that harbour the E. coli virus, an indicator of faecal contamination
Two hours: Length of time that some bacteria can remain alive on surfaces after being deposited by hands
20 seconds: The length of time hands should be washed with soap and warm water
30: Number of years added to our average life expectancy in the past century through advances in hygiene
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Pedestrian dies in hit-and-run
PAWEL DWULIT/TORONTO STAR
A piece from a side-view mirror was found after police marked the scene of a fatal Brampton hit-and-run Nov. 15, 2008.
Police say mirror from vehicle that struck Brampton man will help track down driver
Nov 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Adrian Morrow Staff Reporter
A 40-year-old pedestrian is dead after a hit-and-run in Brampton early yesterday morning.
Motorists called police to Bovaird Dr. E. near Conestoga Dr. around 5:50 a.m. The man was lying on the road in the westbound lanes, roughly 200 metres from the intersection.
He was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries. He was identified as Mandeep Bhagtana, a Brampton resident and married father of two children.
A portion of the driver's side-view mirror from the vehicle that hit him was left behind.
Police said they did not have a description of the vehicle or any suspects, but said they can trace the vehicle based on the piece of the mirror.
Police were appealing for witnesses and the driver to contact them.
"We're hoping the driver will come forward, it's in their best interest," said Const. Wayne Patterson of Peel Regional Police. "We understand it was dark out, the weather was inclement, it was pouring rain."
Anyone with information can call Peel Region police at 905-453-2121 ext. 3710. Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous tips at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
A piece from a side-view mirror was found after police marked the scene of a fatal Brampton hit-and-run Nov. 15, 2008.
Police say mirror from vehicle that struck Brampton man will help track down driver
Nov 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Adrian Morrow Staff Reporter
A 40-year-old pedestrian is dead after a hit-and-run in Brampton early yesterday morning.
Motorists called police to Bovaird Dr. E. near Conestoga Dr. around 5:50 a.m. The man was lying on the road in the westbound lanes, roughly 200 metres from the intersection.
He was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries. He was identified as Mandeep Bhagtana, a Brampton resident and married father of two children.
A portion of the driver's side-view mirror from the vehicle that hit him was left behind.
Police said they did not have a description of the vehicle or any suspects, but said they can trace the vehicle based on the piece of the mirror.
Police were appealing for witnesses and the driver to contact them.
"We're hoping the driver will come forward, it's in their best interest," said Const. Wayne Patterson of Peel Regional Police. "We understand it was dark out, the weather was inclement, it was pouring rain."
Anyone with information can call Peel Region police at 905-453-2121 ext. 3710. Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous tips at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Too many patients, too few doctors
Geriatricians are a dying breed.
They're the specialists who know how to assess and treat the chronic conditions of aging, but they've been neglected and underpaid for so long that medical students are shying away from a specialty that should, by rights, be booming.
Seniors are the health-care system's biggest customer and a disproportionate drain on services. More doctors and nurses trained in geriatric care could save the system untold millions by appropriately treating an aging population – and improve their care.
"An old person can't walk? The standard reaction is: Give them a walker. A geriatrician asks: `Why can't they walk?'" explains Dr. William Dalziel, the renowned head of the Regional Geriatric Program of Eastern Ontario.
"Old people are told they're `frail.' Geriatricians try to `unfrail' them."
Dalziel is a geriatrician (a gerontologist studies aging). There are only 216 in Canada, one-fifth of those needed, and few of them are working with patients full-time. Many focus on research and 43 are close to retirement. There are only six geriatricians in the country under the age of 35.
"We've rarely got more than 10 doctors doing final exams in geriatrics in Canada in one year, and usually much less," says Dr. Barry Goldlist, director of geriatric medicine, University of Toronto, and medical director of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
The shrinking pool of expertise comes at a time when 40 per cent of health-care dollars is spent on seniors, who represent just 13 per cent of the overall population. Studies show that when geriatric services are introduced in a hospital, bed blocking (elders stuck in hospital past their discharge date) goes down by 50 per cent.
When specialists are asked to rank their satisfaction level, geriatricians come out on top. As Dalziel puts it: "Geriatrics appeals to doctors who can embrace complexity – you're dealing with multiple conditions and social factors – and help older people regain their essence. ... My goal is to optimize the person, help them improve so they can feed themselves, instead of being fed." If a geriatrician sees a wobbly older person at risk of falling – which can precipitate a life-ending crisis – he has the expertise to check for common problems such as overmedication and drug side effects. "Keeping seniors from premature institutionalization by proper geriatric assessment and treatment, can save the system millions every year," Dalziel says.
"Most doctors don't know what to do with old people who have multiple conditions. Medical students get, out of 8,000 hours of training, 60 hours in geriatrics. That has to change." In Europe, geriatrics is the second most popular specialty, after cardiology. In the U.K., there are more geriatricians than cardiologists; they're paid the same. The presence of geriatric specialists in U.K. emergency rooms has resulted in significant reorganization and dramatic reductions in wait times.
In Canada, you don't have to be a brain surgeon – or a geriatrician – to alight on obvious fixes: Increase compensation and incentives for geriatric training, which could include a reduction in tuition fees.
Medical school graduates now carry enormous debt burdens and geriatrics in Canada is a low-paying specialty, traditionally earning approximately $200,000. Cardiologists and neurosurgeons earn in the $500,000-plus range. A full-time family physician with a roster of 800 patients earns up to $350,000.
In recent years, most specialties except geriatrics received a pay hike from the provincial government, some by as much as $100,000. This fall, the Ontario government made up for the oversight and raised compensation for geriatricians to $330,000. But it will take time to renew the shrinking pool of expertise. At the University of Toronto, which wants to produce more geriatricians, Goldlist worries there are too few specialists to do the training.
Another fix: accelerate the incorporation of foreign-trained doctors by providing geriatrics training.
Dr. Andrew Padmos, CEO of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, is worried about the deficiencies in health-related human resources planning.
Across the board, we're not producing enough doctors or specialists, and we're too slow in enabling immigrant doctors to work here, he says. "There are 5,000 internationally trained doctors in Ontario who are not working as doctors."
And those who are working are burning out. "I've been a geriatrician for 25 years and I feel like Sisyphus, constantly pushing the rock up a hill," Dalziel says. "We're exhausted. We're so far behind the Europeans." His only hope is that "the baby boomers will wake up. They're assertive. They see what's happening to their parents, and they're realistic enough to realize they don't want to go there."
Dalziel is 57. In a few years, he plans to move to the West Coast and reduce his work load.
And then we'll be down to 215.
They're the specialists who know how to assess and treat the chronic conditions of aging, but they've been neglected and underpaid for so long that medical students are shying away from a specialty that should, by rights, be booming.
Seniors are the health-care system's biggest customer and a disproportionate drain on services. More doctors and nurses trained in geriatric care could save the system untold millions by appropriately treating an aging population – and improve their care.
"An old person can't walk? The standard reaction is: Give them a walker. A geriatrician asks: `Why can't they walk?'" explains Dr. William Dalziel, the renowned head of the Regional Geriatric Program of Eastern Ontario.
"Old people are told they're `frail.' Geriatricians try to `unfrail' them."
Dalziel is a geriatrician (a gerontologist studies aging). There are only 216 in Canada, one-fifth of those needed, and few of them are working with patients full-time. Many focus on research and 43 are close to retirement. There are only six geriatricians in the country under the age of 35.
"We've rarely got more than 10 doctors doing final exams in geriatrics in Canada in one year, and usually much less," says Dr. Barry Goldlist, director of geriatric medicine, University of Toronto, and medical director of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
The shrinking pool of expertise comes at a time when 40 per cent of health-care dollars is spent on seniors, who represent just 13 per cent of the overall population. Studies show that when geriatric services are introduced in a hospital, bed blocking (elders stuck in hospital past their discharge date) goes down by 50 per cent.
When specialists are asked to rank their satisfaction level, geriatricians come out on top. As Dalziel puts it: "Geriatrics appeals to doctors who can embrace complexity – you're dealing with multiple conditions and social factors – and help older people regain their essence. ... My goal is to optimize the person, help them improve so they can feed themselves, instead of being fed." If a geriatrician sees a wobbly older person at risk of falling – which can precipitate a life-ending crisis – he has the expertise to check for common problems such as overmedication and drug side effects. "Keeping seniors from premature institutionalization by proper geriatric assessment and treatment, can save the system millions every year," Dalziel says.
"Most doctors don't know what to do with old people who have multiple conditions. Medical students get, out of 8,000 hours of training, 60 hours in geriatrics. That has to change." In Europe, geriatrics is the second most popular specialty, after cardiology. In the U.K., there are more geriatricians than cardiologists; they're paid the same. The presence of geriatric specialists in U.K. emergency rooms has resulted in significant reorganization and dramatic reductions in wait times.
In Canada, you don't have to be a brain surgeon – or a geriatrician – to alight on obvious fixes: Increase compensation and incentives for geriatric training, which could include a reduction in tuition fees.
Medical school graduates now carry enormous debt burdens and geriatrics in Canada is a low-paying specialty, traditionally earning approximately $200,000. Cardiologists and neurosurgeons earn in the $500,000-plus range. A full-time family physician with a roster of 800 patients earns up to $350,000.
In recent years, most specialties except geriatrics received a pay hike from the provincial government, some by as much as $100,000. This fall, the Ontario government made up for the oversight and raised compensation for geriatricians to $330,000. But it will take time to renew the shrinking pool of expertise. At the University of Toronto, which wants to produce more geriatricians, Goldlist worries there are too few specialists to do the training.
Another fix: accelerate the incorporation of foreign-trained doctors by providing geriatrics training.
Dr. Andrew Padmos, CEO of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, is worried about the deficiencies in health-related human resources planning.
Across the board, we're not producing enough doctors or specialists, and we're too slow in enabling immigrant doctors to work here, he says. "There are 5,000 internationally trained doctors in Ontario who are not working as doctors."
And those who are working are burning out. "I've been a geriatrician for 25 years and I feel like Sisyphus, constantly pushing the rock up a hill," Dalziel says. "We're exhausted. We're so far behind the Europeans." His only hope is that "the baby boomers will wake up. They're assertive. They see what's happening to their parents, and they're realistic enough to realize they don't want to go there."
Dalziel is 57. In a few years, he plans to move to the West Coast and reduce his work load.
And then we'll be down to 215.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Headphones can shut off heart devices
If you're of a certain age, you might like listening to Gerry and the Pacemakers on your MP3 player. But don't let your own pacemaker listen in.
In research presented today at a major heart conference in New Orleans, Harvard University scientists said headphones, most commonly used for digital players, can interfere with implanted pacemakers and defibrillators if placed in close proximity.
"It's a pretty common interaction," says Dr. William Maisel, senior author of the study and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Boston's Beth Israel Medical Center.
"Basically, 23 per cent of the (60) patients had an interaction with at least one of the (eight) headphones we tested."
Pacemakers would fire even if the heart is beating in its proper rhythm, Maisel says.
"It can cause the heart to beat erratically, it can cause palpitations, or things like that."
A defibrillator could be shut off, even if the heart required it to slow accelerated beating.
"We took the headphones ... and we placed them on the chests of patients with the pacemakers and defibrillators while we monitored them," Maisel says.
"Certainly if you picked up a headphone and put it over someone's (pacemaker) there's a really good chance that it would interact."
But outside of a three-centimetre radius there were no effects on the devices, he says.
And in almost all cases the heart device returned to normal function as soon as the headphones were removed from close proximity.
Maisel is scheduled to present the research at a meeting of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008.
He began the research after a study last year showed that digital devices such as iPods do not interact with heart devices.
"But we became interested because we knew headphones contained magnates, which are used to move the speaker back and forth to create vibrations," he says.
Maisel's team found the magnetic field strength of the average headphones – measured in a unit known as `gauss' – is 20 times what is needed to disrupt a pacemaking device.
"You need 10 gauss at the site of the pacemaker or defibrillator ... (to) interact with the device," Maisel says.
The field strength of most of the headphones used in the study was over 200 gauss.
He says the effect of the magnetic field created by headphones falls off drastically as they are moved away from a heart device.
"If you go from one inch to two inches ... the field strength actually goes down by a factor of eight.
"And so when the headphone is on the chest, although it's a small distance from the device it's not certain to interact."
When in or on the ears, Maisel says the headphones would have no effect on a pacemaker.
"The message is: headphones have powerful magnets in them, those magnets can interfere with pacemakers and defibrillators (and) patients should keep the headphones at least three centimetres from their device," Maisel says.
He would not advise patients with the heart devices to stop using headphones, but they should keep them in their ears.
"What people shouldn't do is take the headphones off and put it in the front pocket of their shirt," he says.
"They shouldn't take them out of their ears and drape them over their chest ... and they shouldn't have a loved one or a friend rest their head on their chests when they have headphones on."
Toronto Star
In research presented today at a major heart conference in New Orleans, Harvard University scientists said headphones, most commonly used for digital players, can interfere with implanted pacemakers and defibrillators if placed in close proximity.
"It's a pretty common interaction," says Dr. William Maisel, senior author of the study and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Boston's Beth Israel Medical Center.
"Basically, 23 per cent of the (60) patients had an interaction with at least one of the (eight) headphones we tested."
Pacemakers would fire even if the heart is beating in its proper rhythm, Maisel says.
"It can cause the heart to beat erratically, it can cause palpitations, or things like that."
A defibrillator could be shut off, even if the heart required it to slow accelerated beating.
"We took the headphones ... and we placed them on the chests of patients with the pacemakers and defibrillators while we monitored them," Maisel says.
"Certainly if you picked up a headphone and put it over someone's (pacemaker) there's a really good chance that it would interact."
But outside of a three-centimetre radius there were no effects on the devices, he says.
And in almost all cases the heart device returned to normal function as soon as the headphones were removed from close proximity.
Maisel is scheduled to present the research at a meeting of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008.
He began the research after a study last year showed that digital devices such as iPods do not interact with heart devices.
"But we became interested because we knew headphones contained magnates, which are used to move the speaker back and forth to create vibrations," he says.
Maisel's team found the magnetic field strength of the average headphones – measured in a unit known as `gauss' – is 20 times what is needed to disrupt a pacemaking device.
"You need 10 gauss at the site of the pacemaker or defibrillator ... (to) interact with the device," Maisel says.
The field strength of most of the headphones used in the study was over 200 gauss.
He says the effect of the magnetic field created by headphones falls off drastically as they are moved away from a heart device.
"If you go from one inch to two inches ... the field strength actually goes down by a factor of eight.
"And so when the headphone is on the chest, although it's a small distance from the device it's not certain to interact."
When in or on the ears, Maisel says the headphones would have no effect on a pacemaker.
"The message is: headphones have powerful magnets in them, those magnets can interfere with pacemakers and defibrillators (and) patients should keep the headphones at least three centimetres from their device," Maisel says.
He would not advise patients with the heart devices to stop using headphones, but they should keep them in their ears.
"What people shouldn't do is take the headphones off and put it in the front pocket of their shirt," he says.
"They shouldn't take them out of their ears and drape them over their chest ... and they shouldn't have a loved one or a friend rest their head on their chests when they have headphones on."
Toronto Star
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
R. Lozada Current Events Blog
Without Hot Rock Much Of North America Would Be Underwater
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 12:01:04 am
A University of Utah study shows how various regions of North America are kept afloat by heat within Earth's rocky crust, and how much of the continent would sink beneath sea level if not for heat that makes rock buoyant.
Of coastal cities, New York City would sit 1,427 feet under the Atlantic, Boston would be 1,823 feet deep, Miami would reside 2,410 feet undersea, New Orleans would be 2,416 underwater and Los Angeles would rest 3,756 feet beneath the Pacific.
Mile-high Denver's elevation would be 727 feet below sea level and Salt Lake City, now about 4,220 feet, would sit beneath 1,293 feet of water. But high-elevation areas of the Rocky Mountains between Salt Lake and Denver would remain dry land
"If you subtracted the heat that keeps North American elevations high, most of the continent would be below sea level, except the high Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascade Range," says study co-author Derrick Hasterok, a University of Utah doctoral student in geology and geophysics.
"We have shown for the first time that temperature differences within the Earth's crust and upper mantle explain about half of the elevation of any given place in North America," with most of the rest due to differences in what the rocks are made of, says the other co-author, David Chapman, a professor of geology and geophysics, and dean of the University of Utah Graduate School.
People usually think of elevations being determined by movements of "tectonic plates" of Earth's crust, resulting in volcanism, mountain-building collisions of crustal plates, stretching apart and sinking of inland basins, and sinking or "subduction" of old seafloor. But Hasterok and Chapman say those tectonic forces act through the composition and temperature of rock they move. So as crustal plates collide to form mountains like the Himalayas, the mountains rise because the collision makes less dense crustal rock get thicker and warmer, thus more buoyant.
The study -- published online in the June issue of Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth -- is more than just an entertaining illustration of how continents and mountains like the Rockies are kept afloat partly by heat from Earth's deep interior and heat from radioactive decay of uranium, thorium and potassium in Earth's crust.
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 12:01:04 am
A University of Utah study shows how various regions of North America are kept afloat by heat within Earth's rocky crust, and how much of the continent would sink beneath sea level if not for heat that makes rock buoyant.
Of coastal cities, New York City would sit 1,427 feet under the Atlantic, Boston would be 1,823 feet deep, Miami would reside 2,410 feet undersea, New Orleans would be 2,416 underwater and Los Angeles would rest 3,756 feet beneath the Pacific.
Mile-high Denver's elevation would be 727 feet below sea level and Salt Lake City, now about 4,220 feet, would sit beneath 1,293 feet of water. But high-elevation areas of the Rocky Mountains between Salt Lake and Denver would remain dry land
"If you subtracted the heat that keeps North American elevations high, most of the continent would be below sea level, except the high Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascade Range," says study co-author Derrick Hasterok, a University of Utah doctoral student in geology and geophysics.
"We have shown for the first time that temperature differences within the Earth's crust and upper mantle explain about half of the elevation of any given place in North America," with most of the rest due to differences in what the rocks are made of, says the other co-author, David Chapman, a professor of geology and geophysics, and dean of the University of Utah Graduate School.
People usually think of elevations being determined by movements of "tectonic plates" of Earth's crust, resulting in volcanism, mountain-building collisions of crustal plates, stretching apart and sinking of inland basins, and sinking or "subduction" of old seafloor. But Hasterok and Chapman say those tectonic forces act through the composition and temperature of rock they move. So as crustal plates collide to form mountains like the Himalayas, the mountains rise because the collision makes less dense crustal rock get thicker and warmer, thus more buoyant.
The study -- published online in the June issue of Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth -- is more than just an entertaining illustration of how continents and mountains like the Rockies are kept afloat partly by heat from Earth's deep interior and heat from radioactive decay of uranium, thorium and potassium in Earth's crust.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Quebec motorists will be required to swap their summer tires for winter ones starting next winter, under a provincial law passed Wednesday.
As of Nov. 15, 2008, drivers will have to equip their vehicles with snow tires from that day each year through to April 15. The province estimates that 90 per cent of vehicles already use snow tires though an estimated 500,000 people rely on all-season tires.
The law makes Quebec the first province to require winter tires.
Jean-Marie de Koninck, who served as the head of a provincial task force on road safety, said the change is expected to help curb winter accidents.
"There's about 10 per cent of the people right now that don't have winter tires on and they're involved in 38 per cent of the accidents on the road in the winter," he said.
Drivers found without the tires will be fined between $200 and $300, though de Koninck acknowledged spotting drivers without winter tires may be difficult for police officers.
As of Nov. 15, 2008, drivers will have to equip their vehicles with snow tires from that day each year through to April 15. The province estimates that 90 per cent of vehicles already use snow tires though an estimated 500,000 people rely on all-season tires.
The law makes Quebec the first province to require winter tires.
Jean-Marie de Koninck, who served as the head of a provincial task force on road safety, said the change is expected to help curb winter accidents.
"There's about 10 per cent of the people right now that don't have winter tires on and they're involved in 38 per cent of the accidents on the road in the winter," he said.
Drivers found without the tires will be fined between $200 and $300, though de Koninck acknowledged spotting drivers without winter tires may be difficult for police officers.
Christian's blog
Couple say son's disappearance has to do with video game
Article
Comments ( 2)
JOSH WINGROVE
With a report from The Canadian Press
October 21, 2008 at 3:55 PM EDT
A Barrie couple believe someone is holding their missing teenaged son against his will, and that his disappearance is linked to a video game.
On Oct. 13, the parents of 15-year-old Brandon Crisp revoked his privileges to play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a popular video game to which they say he was addicted. The couple fought with their son that afternoon, though it was far from the first time they'd imposed such a punishment.
"He is obsessed with Call of Duty - it has been a constant battle for the last two years," Angelika Crisp said yesterday. "That's his life right now."
But in an uncharacteristic move, young Brandon got on his bike that Monday, and left home. He hasn't been seen or heard from since, and has now become the subject of a broad police search.
Ms. Crisp and her husband, Steve, believe the game is both the reason their son left, and why he hasn't returned.
"We feel he's been recruited by someone [to play Call of Duty] andlured in by the promise of money. We just pray that it's not a pedophile or someone using it to lure kids in," Mr. Crisp told The Globe and Mail yesterday. "We have no idea, but it's the only conclusion that makes any sense - that this is where he's at. That he's in this game somewhere."
Call of Duty is played on several gaming systems (the young Mr. Crisp owned an Xbox) and can be played online against other players worldwide. Ms. Crisp said she would wake up in the middle of the night and hear her son speaking to other players using his in-game microphone.
Investigators have searched Brandon's Xbox for possible leads, but came up empty, Barrie police Sergeant Dave Goodbrand said. There has been no recent activity on the teen's online Xbox account, which would track if he'd been logged into the game since last week.
There are a handful of professional video gaming circuits in North America that pay thousands of dollars to quick-thumbed gamers. Mr. Crisp said a fraudulent promise of such an opportunity could easily lead his son to run away.
"That would definitely lure my son in," Mr. Crisp said.
Police said yesterday the mountain bike Brandon left home with was found abandoned in a ditch near Shanty Bay, about four kilometres from the Crisp family home. Police searched that area yesterday for clues, but found none.
The missing teen had also earlier asked his mother for directions to nearby Oro-Medonte Township because he knows people who live in the area. So far, there have been few leads, and police acknowledge time isn't on their side.
"Every day another door closes that was available," Sgt. Goodbrand said. "He's had no contact with his friends and the weather is changing. Every day, this becomes more and more of a concern, so you have to ramp [the search] up."
"Most 15-year-olds who run away return within 24 hours," he added.
The panicked parents have had little sleep since their son left, with the phone and doorbell "ringing every five minutes," Mr. Crisp said. They'll be back at Shanty Bay today, and hope one phone call will soon bring good news of their son's whereabouts.
Summary: This kid was not just playing Call Of Duty 4 he was addicted.
His parents told him to stop playing but the chid got angry.
The next morning he got on his bike and left and they never saw him since.
Usually the kids comeback in twenty four hours but he did not.
Questions
1. would you run away
2.are you addicted to games
3.dou you play Call Of Duty 4
link to course
back then people did not have technology to create addictive games
Article
Comments ( 2)
JOSH WINGROVE
With a report from The Canadian Press
October 21, 2008 at 3:55 PM EDT
A Barrie couple believe someone is holding their missing teenaged son against his will, and that his disappearance is linked to a video game.
On Oct. 13, the parents of 15-year-old Brandon Crisp revoked his privileges to play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a popular video game to which they say he was addicted. The couple fought with their son that afternoon, though it was far from the first time they'd imposed such a punishment.
"He is obsessed with Call of Duty - it has been a constant battle for the last two years," Angelika Crisp said yesterday. "That's his life right now."
But in an uncharacteristic move, young Brandon got on his bike that Monday, and left home. He hasn't been seen or heard from since, and has now become the subject of a broad police search.
Ms. Crisp and her husband, Steve, believe the game is both the reason their son left, and why he hasn't returned.
"We feel he's been recruited by someone [to play Call of Duty] andlured in by the promise of money. We just pray that it's not a pedophile or someone using it to lure kids in," Mr. Crisp told The Globe and Mail yesterday. "We have no idea, but it's the only conclusion that makes any sense - that this is where he's at. That he's in this game somewhere."
Call of Duty is played on several gaming systems (the young Mr. Crisp owned an Xbox) and can be played online against other players worldwide. Ms. Crisp said she would wake up in the middle of the night and hear her son speaking to other players using his in-game microphone.
Investigators have searched Brandon's Xbox for possible leads, but came up empty, Barrie police Sergeant Dave Goodbrand said. There has been no recent activity on the teen's online Xbox account, which would track if he'd been logged into the game since last week.
There are a handful of professional video gaming circuits in North America that pay thousands of dollars to quick-thumbed gamers. Mr. Crisp said a fraudulent promise of such an opportunity could easily lead his son to run away.
"That would definitely lure my son in," Mr. Crisp said.
Police said yesterday the mountain bike Brandon left home with was found abandoned in a ditch near Shanty Bay, about four kilometres from the Crisp family home. Police searched that area yesterday for clues, but found none.
The missing teen had also earlier asked his mother for directions to nearby Oro-Medonte Township because he knows people who live in the area. So far, there have been few leads, and police acknowledge time isn't on their side.
"Every day another door closes that was available," Sgt. Goodbrand said. "He's had no contact with his friends and the weather is changing. Every day, this becomes more and more of a concern, so you have to ramp [the search] up."
"Most 15-year-olds who run away return within 24 hours," he added.
The panicked parents have had little sleep since their son left, with the phone and doorbell "ringing every five minutes," Mr. Crisp said. They'll be back at Shanty Bay today, and hope one phone call will soon bring good news of their son's whereabouts.
Summary: This kid was not just playing Call Of Duty 4 he was addicted.
His parents told him to stop playing but the chid got angry.
The next morning he got on his bike and left and they never saw him since.
Usually the kids comeback in twenty four hours but he did not.
Questions
1. would you run away
2.are you addicted to games
3.dou you play Call Of Duty 4
link to course
back then people did not have technology to create addictive games
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Tabloid slams Starbucks for wasting water
Starbucks has built its name around being environmentally sound and culturally sensitive.
But a British tabloid newspaper has labelled the coffee empire "the great drain robber'' for wasting one of the earth's most precious resources - water.
The Sun claims that world-wide, the coffee giant is wasting 23 million litres of clean water a day.
That's enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool every 83 minutes.
Such wasteful ways have created an Internet backlash all over the globe.
That's because every time a Starbucks barista makes a latte, a dirty spoon is put into a dipping well, which is attached to a tap that runs constantly.
"It's just nobody's thinking about it,'' said a Vancouver woman, who spoke to CTV. "You are just waiting for your drink, you're watching the water going down."
CTV News went to a local Starbucks outlet on Vancouver's Robson Street and found that the tap is always on, except overnight.
In a written statement, the company admitted it's an issue that needs immediate attention.
Starbucks says it keeps the water running for health reasons because it's the best way of keeping spoons clean.
But environmentalists like Eric Lorenz of the Sierra Club say that's ridiculous.
"Is this an essential service? is it a hospital?" Lorenz said. " And hey, have [they] no other method for cleaning their utensils? And I have to say I don't think it is,'' he said. "It's for your four dollar latte.''
Starbucks is trying to find an alternative. While it does so, it need only look across the street where CTV found a local mom and pop shop where Nick Allan makes lattes by pouring steamed milk right from the jug. He doesn't use a spoon.
Meanwhile environmentalists want the big kid on the block -- in this case Starbucks -- to lead by example and make headlines about how it conserves water.
But a British tabloid newspaper has labelled the coffee empire "the great drain robber'' for wasting one of the earth's most precious resources - water.
The Sun claims that world-wide, the coffee giant is wasting 23 million litres of clean water a day.
That's enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool every 83 minutes.
Such wasteful ways have created an Internet backlash all over the globe.
That's because every time a Starbucks barista makes a latte, a dirty spoon is put into a dipping well, which is attached to a tap that runs constantly.
"It's just nobody's thinking about it,'' said a Vancouver woman, who spoke to CTV. "You are just waiting for your drink, you're watching the water going down."
CTV News went to a local Starbucks outlet on Vancouver's Robson Street and found that the tap is always on, except overnight.
In a written statement, the company admitted it's an issue that needs immediate attention.
Starbucks says it keeps the water running for health reasons because it's the best way of keeping spoons clean.
But environmentalists like Eric Lorenz of the Sierra Club say that's ridiculous.
"Is this an essential service? is it a hospital?" Lorenz said. " And hey, have [they] no other method for cleaning their utensils? And I have to say I don't think it is,'' he said. "It's for your four dollar latte.''
Starbucks is trying to find an alternative. While it does so, it need only look across the street where CTV found a local mom and pop shop where Nick Allan makes lattes by pouring steamed milk right from the jug. He doesn't use a spoon.
Meanwhile environmentalists want the big kid on the block -- in this case Starbucks -- to lead by example and make headlines about how it conserves water.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Food bank struggles to stock shelves
RICHARD LAUTENS/TORONTO STAR
Lilly, a volunteer, arranges food at the Daily Bread Food Bank, Oct. 7, 2008. The food bank is in the middle of its fall food drive, but its shelves are still quite sparse.
document.
Daily Bread hopes donations increase in fall drive's final week
Oct 08, 2008 04:30 AM
Debra Black Staff Reporter
Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank is short hundreds of thousands of pounds and dollars in its annual fall drive to fill the shelves of food banks across the GTA.
"It's extremely slow right now," said Gail Nyberg, the food bank's executive director. "We just did a count last night. We're at 110,000 pounds of food – or about 50,000 kilograms – and $98,000 in donations."
That's about 15 per cent down from the same time last year, Nyberg said. The shelves at the Daily Bread Food Bank are looking a little sparse, but Nyberg hopes the next seven days will turn things around. "This is our big week. Between today and next Monday are the biggest times of the year for us in terms of bringing in food and money. But we have a long way to go."
The food bank wants to raise 500,000 pounds of food and $500,000 in cash donations this fall. Many of its clients are what Nyberg describes as the working poor. Twenty-eight per cent of food bank users are in families where at least one person is working.
With the uncertain economic times, Nyberg is forecasting that this winter the number of working poor using the food bank will increase dramatically given the increased cost of daily expenses such as food, gas and home heating.
The shrinking job market will also play a critical role, she said. Many residents of the GTA who made $25 an hour in manufacturing jobs are now out of work and have turned to the service sector for employment. But jobs in that sector pay substantially lower at about $10 to $12 an hour. Those are the people whom Nyberg believes will increasingly turn to food banks this winter.
According to the Daily Bread's research, across the GTA there were 952,000 visits to food banks for food last year.
The fall food drive kicked off on Sept. 27 and runs until Oct. 17. Financial donations can be made online at dailybread.ca or by calling 416-203-0050. Food donations can be dropped off at any fire hall, Loblaws or Real Canadian Superstore.
RICHARD LAUTENS/TORONTO STAR
Lilly, a volunteer, arranges food at the Daily Bread Food Bank, Oct. 7, 2008. The food bank is in the middle of its fall food drive, but its shelves are still quite sparse.
document.
Daily Bread hopes donations increase in fall drive's final week
Oct 08, 2008 04:30 AM
Debra Black Staff Reporter
Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank is short hundreds of thousands of pounds and dollars in its annual fall drive to fill the shelves of food banks across the GTA.
"It's extremely slow right now," said Gail Nyberg, the food bank's executive director. "We just did a count last night. We're at 110,000 pounds of food – or about 50,000 kilograms – and $98,000 in donations."
That's about 15 per cent down from the same time last year, Nyberg said. The shelves at the Daily Bread Food Bank are looking a little sparse, but Nyberg hopes the next seven days will turn things around. "This is our big week. Between today and next Monday are the biggest times of the year for us in terms of bringing in food and money. But we have a long way to go."
The food bank wants to raise 500,000 pounds of food and $500,000 in cash donations this fall. Many of its clients are what Nyberg describes as the working poor. Twenty-eight per cent of food bank users are in families where at least one person is working.
With the uncertain economic times, Nyberg is forecasting that this winter the number of working poor using the food bank will increase dramatically given the increased cost of daily expenses such as food, gas and home heating.
The shrinking job market will also play a critical role, she said. Many residents of the GTA who made $25 an hour in manufacturing jobs are now out of work and have turned to the service sector for employment. But jobs in that sector pay substantially lower at about $10 to $12 an hour. Those are the people whom Nyberg believes will increasingly turn to food banks this winter.
According to the Daily Bread's research, across the GTA there were 952,000 visits to food banks for food last year.
The fall food drive kicked off on Sept. 27 and runs until Oct. 17. Financial donations can be made online at dailybread.ca or by calling 416-203-0050. Food donations can be dropped off at any fire hall, Loblaws or Real Canadian Superstore.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Old Growth Forests
Old Growth Forests
Protecting Old Growth Forests
What impact will this story have on Canada's future?
What conflicting interests are presented?
Value found in old-growth forestsSEAN PATRICK SULLIVANThe Canadian PressSeptember 4, 2008 at 1:51 PM EDTVANCOUVER — Leaving British Columbia's old-growth forests standing may make more economic sense than cutting them down for timber, especially as the province looks to strategies to cut global warming, a new B.C. study suggests.The report from Simon Fraser University challenges the status quo and uses Ministry of Forest data to show that conservation wins out over logging when forests are valued for their role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere, protecting endangered species and providing opportunities for recreation.The study backed by three environmental groups – Wilderness Committee, David Suzuki Foundation, and Ecojustice – used computer modelling to look at a variety of conservation and logging scenarios in a large tract of forest near Vancouver.In almost every scenario, the researchers said, they found that the value of the carbon captured and stored by the trees far outweighed the value of the lumber harvested from the logs.Internet LinksB.C. forest information map Faisal Moola, science director for the David Suzuki Foundation, called the results a clear indicator that B.C. should be protecting its old-growth forest as it works with other western provinces to reduce global warming.“The old-growth forests that we have are not only going to be a benefit in the fight against climate change, but there's also a significant economic windfall that could be celebrated by British Columbians,” he said.
Protecting Old Growth Forests
What impact will this story have on Canada's future?
What conflicting interests are presented?
Value found in old-growth forestsSEAN PATRICK SULLIVANThe Canadian PressSeptember 4, 2008 at 1:51 PM EDTVANCOUVER — Leaving British Columbia's old-growth forests standing may make more economic sense than cutting them down for timber, especially as the province looks to strategies to cut global warming, a new B.C. study suggests.The report from Simon Fraser University challenges the status quo and uses Ministry of Forest data to show that conservation wins out over logging when forests are valued for their role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere, protecting endangered species and providing opportunities for recreation.The study backed by three environmental groups – Wilderness Committee, David Suzuki Foundation, and Ecojustice – used computer modelling to look at a variety of conservation and logging scenarios in a large tract of forest near Vancouver.In almost every scenario, the researchers said, they found that the value of the carbon captured and stored by the trees far outweighed the value of the lumber harvested from the logs.Internet LinksB.C. forest information map Faisal Moola, science director for the David Suzuki Foundation, called the results a clear indicator that B.C. should be protecting its old-growth forest as it works with other western provinces to reduce global warming.“The old-growth forests that we have are not only going to be a benefit in the fight against climate change, but there's also a significant economic windfall that could be celebrated by British Columbians,” he said.
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