October 31, 2007
Commuters Inhale Heavy Dose of Pollution - Yahoo! News
Driving is more hazardous than anyone knew: A heavy commuter inhales more pollution while driving than in the entire rest of the day, a new study finds.
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The research was done in Los Angeles, where the average driver spends 1.5 hours behind the wheel. That time in traffic accounts for 33 to 45 percent of total exposure to diesel and ultrafine particles (UFP), the study showed.
On freeways, diesel-fueled trucks are the source of the highest concentrations of harmful pollutants.
"If you have otherwise healthy habits and don't smoke, driving to work is probably the most unhealthy part of your day," said Scott Fruin, assistant professor of environmental health at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. "Urban dwellers with long commutes are probably getting most of their UFP exposure while driving."
Ultrafine particles are of particular concern because, unlike larger particles, they can penetrate cell walls and disperse throughout the body, Fruin said. Particulate matter has been linked to cardiovascular disease, but the ultrafine fraction on roadways appears to be more toxic than larger sizes.
Previous research found children on school buses breathe more pollution. And a study in London found people in taxis, buses, and cars all inhale substantially more pollution than cyclists and pedestrians.
Fantastic
Posted by TY at 12:32 AM
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October 28, 2007
Hottest Chile Pepper Shatters Record - Yahoo! News
It's hot. Scorching hot. Guinness World Records hot.
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Researchers at New Mexico State University have discovered the world’s hottest chili pepper. It's called the Bhut Jolokia, a variety originating in Assam, India.
In tests that yield Scoville heat units (SHUs), the Bhut Jolokia reached 1 million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of former hotshot Red Savina (a type of habanero pepper), which measured a mere 577,000. The result was announced today by the American Society for Horticultural Science.
Chili is spelled "chile" by some, including Paul Bosland, director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Bosland collected seeds of Bhut Jolokia while visiting India in 2001. He grew the plants for three years to produce enough seeds to complete the field tests.
"The name Bhut Jolokia translates as 'ghost chile,'" Bosland explained. "I think it’s because the chile is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it!"
The intense heat concentration of Bhut Jolokia could have a significant impact on the food industry as an economical seasoning in packaged foods, he said.
whoa
Posted by TY at 11:33 AM
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Lack of Ga. drought plan riles critics - Yahoo! News
Despite plenty of warnings, critics say, Georgia never got around to developing a water management plan to handle a severe drought. Now that reservoirs already are shrinking and water supplies are threatened, lawmakers are scrambling to cope.
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After years of lax zoning laws and pro-growth policies that led to urban sprawl throughout much of north Georgia, politicians are preparing a statewide water plan that would guide Georgia's growth and provide emergency drought plans.
doh
Posted by TY at 11:32 AM
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October 25, 2007
Army medics train at Miami trauma center - Yahoo! News
The trauma center's radio crackles an alert: A 34-year-old woman injured in an auto wreck is being brought in by helicopter. Parts of her scalp have been torn back, exposing her skull. Broken bones may be sticking out through the skin of her left leg. Her injuries may help save the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
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For two weeks, 28 Army medics, nurses, doctors and nurse anesthetists have been learning trauma medicine and teamwork under pressure at the Ryder Trauma Center at downtown Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, a place that sees such carnage it often resembles a war zone.
Ryder is one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation, seeing an average of 11 trauma patients a day — about as many as the biggest military hospital in Iraq.
Jackson Memorial serves some of the city's most crime-ridden sections, and patients arriving at the trauma center have been stabbed, injured in grisly auto accidents, wounded in shootouts with high-powered assault weapons, or hurt in falls and fights.
The Army sends 10 forward surgical teams a year through Ryder, which was selected six years ago because of the volume of bloodshed. It is the Army's only trauma training center. The Air Force has similar programs in Baltimore, St. Louis and Cincinnati; the Navy's trauma program is in Los Angeles.
interesting
Posted by TY at 9:56 PM
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October 23, 2007
W.Va. leads nation in pregnant smokers - Yahoo! News
More than a fourth of pregnant women in West Virginia smoked last year, putting themselves and their babies at risk.
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The state's 27.3 percent maternal smoking rate was the highest rate in the country and nearly triple the national average, according to a recent report from the state Department of Health and Human Resource's Health Statistics Center. The state's rate was up slightly over the previous year and has hovered around 25 percent the past 10 years.
McDowell County had the highest rate of pregnant smokers, at more than 42 percent, the report said. The lowest rate, 15.8 percent, was in Monongalia County.
All total, smoking mothers across the state gave birth to about 5,500 babies last year.
doh
Posted by TY at 11:04 PM
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Emotions Run Amok in Sleep-Deprived Brains - Yahoo! News
Anyone who has ever gone without a good night's sleep is aware that doing so can make a person emotionally irrational. While past studies have revealed that sleep loss can impair the immune system and brain processes such as learning and memory, there has been surprisingly little research into why sleep deprivation affects emotions, Walker said.
Walker and his colleagues had 26 healthy volunteers either get normal sleep or get sleep deprived, making them stay awake for roughly 35 hours. On the following day, the researchers scanned brain activity in volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they viewed 100 images. These started off as emotionally neutral, such as photos of spoons or baskets, but they became increasingly negative in tone over time—for instance, pictures of attacking sharks or vipers.
"While we predicted that the emotional centers of the brain would overreact after sleep deprivation, we didn't predict they'd overreact as much as they did," Walker said. "They became more than 60 percent more reactive to negative emotional stimuli. That's a whopping increase—the emotional parts of the brain just seem to run amok."
The researchers pinpointed this hyperactive response to a shutdown of the prefrontal lobe, a brain region that normally keeps emotions under control. This structure is relatively new in human evolution, "and so it may not yet have adapted ways to cope with certain biological extremes," Walker speculated. "Human beings are one of the few species that really deprive themselves of sleep. It's a real oddity in nature."
In modern life, people often deprive themselves of sleep "almost on a daily basis," Walker said. "Alarm bells should be ringing about that behavior—no pun intended."
not surprising
Posted by TY at 12:50 PM
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October 22, 2007
The Middle Seat - WSJ.com
There are 62 shopping days until Christmas, but most of the airfare bargains are already sold out.
Ticket sellers say smart consumers bought early for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday trips this year. Now, prices are up, and the number of open seats is down. Spurred by higher fuel prices, many airlines have boosted fares in recent weeks. And with some big airlines still cutting domestic capacity and demand for tickets running high, especially to beach destinations, the availability of cheap holiday seats has dwindled, experts says. But savvy travelers can still sleuth out holiday deals -- if they are willing to be flexible with their travel dates.
no kidding. It's been brutal.
Posted by TY at 10:49 PM
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October 19, 2007
Living paycheck to paycheck gets harder - Yahoo! News
The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.
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Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It's starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc.
Food pantries, which distribute foodstuffs to the needy, are reporting severe shortages and reduced government funding at the very time that they are seeing a surge of new people seeking their help.
While economists debate whether the country is headed for a recession, some say the financial stress is already the worst since the last downturn at the start of this decade.
From Family Dollar to Wal-Mart, merchants have adjusted their product mix and pricing accordingly. Sales data show a marked and more prolonged drop in spending in the days before shoppers get their paychecks, when they buy only the barest essentials before splurging around payday.
"It's pretty pronounced," said Kiley Rawlins, a spokeswoman at Family Dollar. "It seems like to us, customers are running out of food products, paper towels sooner in the month."
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said the imbalance in spending before and after payday in July was the biggest it has ever seen, though the drop-off wasn't as steep in August.
interesting
Posted by TY at 6:49 PM
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70 punished in accidental B-52 flight - Yahoo! News
The Air Force said Friday it would punish 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions.
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"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.
Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day.
oops
Posted by TY at 6:45 PM
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Study Reveals Why Flu Thrives in Winter - Yahoo! News
For the first time, scientist have solid evidence suggesting exactly why the flu is so common in winter.
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A new animal study suggests that the influenza virus' success hinges on low relative humidity and cold temperatures. Such conditions keep the virus more stable and in the air longer than warm, humid conditions, scientists said. And apparently, the frosty weather's role is more important than that of the human body in helping the virus thrive.
"We've always thought the immune system wasn't as active during the winter, but that doesn't really seem to be the case," said study coauthor Peter Palese, a virologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
When we cough or sneeze, tiny droplets of water enter the air and hang around until they drop to the ground—or an unsuspecting passerby breathes them in. Once inside our airways, any flu viruses that have hitched a ride on the droplets can launch an attack.
"We found that the flu's transmission period is much, much longer when temperatures and humidity levels are low," Palese told LiveScience.
interesting
Posted by TY at 10:42 AM
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October 16, 2007
The Informed Patient - WSJ.com
While patients on ventilators have traditionally been kept heavily sedated at all times to keep them comfortable, experts say it is now clear that heavy sedation can also trigger or exacerbate delirium, so they must strike a balance between easing the suffering of critically ill patients and preventing further harm. One of the most important prevention strategies is the "wake up and breathe" protocol, which calls for turning off sedation temporarily and allowing patients to wake up so their state of mind and comfort can be determined, and then unhooking them from the ventilator to test their ability to breathe on their own.
Patients and families should be aware of the potential for delirium, and ask hospital staffers what protocols are in place to recognize, prevent and treat it, says Wes Ely, a pulmonary and critical-care specialist and founder of Vanderbilt's ICU Delirium and Cognitive Impairment Study Group. "When someone is in the hospital, it is common to get confused and delirious, but the tradition in medicine has been to say, 'Don't worry if Grandma or Grandpa is confused, it's no big deal,' "Dr. Ely says. "But it is a major public-health problem that has to be addressed."
scary
Posted by TY at 10:49 PM
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October 15, 2007
Loutish Fans Disgrace the NFL - WSJ.com
Teams have also found that making season-ticket holders accountable for any bad behavior that occurs in their seats -- even if it happens when someone else is sitting in them -- works. "If we get a bad report, we call the ticket holder and tell them that if there's another problem, regardless of who's sitting in the seats, their tickets will be revoked," said Houston Texans President Jamey Rootes. The team has never had to make a second call. The Bills have started to do the same thing.
The NFL's stadium-building boom over the past decade has helped, too. Personal seat licenses and premium seating tend to price out some of the thugs. Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium was long considered the worst in the league for fan behavior. Cops used to walk through the stands in visiting team jerseys to bait thugs who preyed on visiting fans. Things were so bad that there was a courtroom right in the stadium to arraign the worst offenders. Things have gotten better since the Eagles moved in 2003 to Lincoln Financial Field, which has new luxury suites and nearly 11,000 Club seats that cost $800 or more a game. "The more expensive the experience, the less inclined fans are to ruin it," said Houston's Mr. Rootes.
[snip]
In Buffalo, the unruly behavior often spills over into the luxury suites, prompting Mr. Clark to post guards outside each one. "Fans would just walk in and use the bathroom," said Bills suite-holder Ed Shill. "In the warm weather, when the windows were open, they'd dive in and grab food and beer. In the winter, when it's 20-below outside and we're in our shirtsleeves drinking hot chocolate, they'd throw things at the windows and give us the finger."
Night games are the worst. "They drink like it's a one o'clock start," Mr. Shill said.
That was very much in evidence during the Monday Night game. It was, without a doubt, the drunkest crowd I've ever seen at any sporting event. Many fans stumbling to their seats just before kickoff were absolutely plastered.
Walking through the parking lot before the game, I witnessed a scene all too common at NFL tailgates: home fans taunting the visitors with four-letter expletives. What made the scene here particularly appalling was the target -- a family of Cowboys fans with two small children. And the taunt, repeated throughout the stadium by Bills fans, questioned Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's sexual orientation (think of what rhymes with "Romo"). I wonder how the parents explained that one.
interesting
Posted by TY at 11:25 PM
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October 12, 2007
Air traffic control failure is examined - Yahoo! News
Ron Carpenter and his fellow air traffic controllers were busy keeping more than 200 airplanes on course over seven states when their communication system crashed. Suddenly they couldn't talk to pilots or call for help.
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"Somebody just pulled out a cell phone," Carpenter said. "Then everybody else says, `Hey, that's not a bad idea.'"
So at a major Federal Aviation Administration center, controllers were reduced to using their personal cell phones to ask other centers to help keep planes on course and avert disaster.
They succeeded, but now members of Congress want to know if the Memphis failure last month was an isolated breakdown or evidence of a design flaw in a $2.4 billion project to upgrade telecommunications at air-control centers and other FAA installations across the country.
interesting
Posted by TY at 8:57 AM
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IRS says rich getting richer: report - Yahoo! News
The richest one percent of Americans earned a postwar record of 21.2 percent of all income in 2005, up from 19 percent a year earlier, reflecting a widening income disparity among different classes in the nation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing new Internal Revenue Service data.
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The data showed that the fortunes of the bottom 50 percent of Americans are worsening, with that group earning 12.8 percent of all income in 2005, down from 13.4 percent the year before, the paper said.
not surprising
Posted by TY at 8:53 AM
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October 11, 2007
NBC to bid bye-bye to Burbank - Los Angeles Times
NBC Universal also confirmed Wednesday that "The Tonight Show" would remain in Los Angeles when Conan O'Brien, who now shoots his "Late Night" show in New York, takes over from Leno in 2009. With the Burbank facility on the block, the network is expanding and upgrading Studio One, a soundstage on the Universal Studios lot that was built in 1961 for "The Jack Benny Program." The new home for the late-night program has had other memorable productions, including "Jurassic Park III" and "The Incredible Hulk," as well as the 1980s television show "Knight Rider."
interesting
Posted by TY at 12:56 PM
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October 10, 2007
Starbucks recalls 250,000 kids' plastic cups - Yahoo! News
Starbucks Corp, the world's biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children's plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard.
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said Starbucks received seven reports of the cups breaking, including two reports in which a child began to choke on a piece of the cup.
No injuries were reported, the CPSC said in a statement.
The recall covers four styles of plastic 10-ounce cups with lids shaped like a red ladybug, green turtle, pink bunny and yellow chick, the CPSC said. The children's cups were sold for about $6 each at Starbucks stores from May 2006 to August 2007.
doh
Posted by TY at 10:59 PM
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Lead found in toys, backpacks in U.S. stores - Yahoo! News
A Curious George doll bought at Toys "R" Us was found to be tainted with 10 times the legally-allowed lead level, and vinyl lunch boxes and backpacks also had high amounts of lead, the nonprofit group Center for Environmental Health said on Wednesday.
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The Curious George doll found with high amounts of lead was made by Marvel Entertainment Group Inc, the Oakland, California-based group said in a statement. A Marvel spokesman said he was unaware of the advocacy group's finding and had no immediate comment.
Millions of toys made in China have been recalled over the last three months due to unsafe levels of lead paint, which is toxic and can pose serious health risks, including brain damage, in children.
The Center for Environmental Health also said it found high lead levels in vinyl lunch boxes and backpacks made by Sassafras Enterprises of Chicago.
doh
Posted by TY at 10:59 PM
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October 9, 2007
Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets - washingtonpost.com
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.
The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.
doh
Posted by TY at 11:46 AM
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October 2, 2007
Euro-Trashed? Why You May Want to Buy That BMW Now - WSJ.com
Drivers who have been thinking about buying a European luxury car may not want to wait too long.
As the dollar continues its long slide against the euro, prices of vehicles made by such auto companies as BMW AG, Porsche AG and Volkswagen AG's Audi unit have steadily crept upward ahead of U.S. and Japanese vehicles over the past few years. But while car makers have largely avoided substantial price increases so far, some analysts are warning that could change as soon as next year.
They "can't make money at the current exchange rates, so they either have to raise prices or start building them here," says David Healy, an analyst at financial-services firm Burnham Securities.
The dollar's weakness against the euro makes European products more expensive for consumers using dollars. If the trend continues -- and many analysts expect it will -- European car makers ultimately may have to raise prices on vehicles they build in Europe and sell in the U.S., shift production to the U.S. or other countries with lower costs, or simply live with lower profit margins.
Oh great
Posted by TY at 1:21 AM
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October 1, 2007
Metropolitan Diary - New York Times
Dear Diary:
On my way to the theater in Times Square, I stopped at a hot dog vendor’s cart. How much for a pretzel? I asked the vendor.
“Two dollars,” he replied.
“Two dollars! Do I look like a tourist?” I joked.
“Two dollars,” he repeated.
Somewhat reluctantly, I counted out two singles and handed them to him.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“The Upper East Side,” I said.
The vendor gave me a pretzel and a conspiratorial smile, and pressed two quarters into my hand. Marlene Shyer
Classic
Posted by TY at 10:48 AM
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The Everyman Who Exposed Tainted Toothpaste - New York Times
Eduardo Arias hardly fits the profile of someone capable of humbling one of the world’s most formidable economic powers.
A 51-year-old Kuna Indian, Mr. Arias grew up on a reservation paddling dugout canoes near his home on one of the San Blas islands off Panama’s Caribbean coast. He now lives in a small apartment above a food stand in Panama, the nation’s capital, also known as Panama City.
But one Saturday morning in May, Eduardo Arias did something that would reverberate across six continents. He read the label on a 59-cent tube of toothpaste. On it were two words that had been overlooked by government inspectors and health authorities in dozens of countries: diethylene glycol, the same sweet-tasting, poisonous ingredient in antifreeze that had been mixed into cold syrup here, killing or disabling at least 138 Panamanians last year.
wow
Posted by TY at 10:32 AM
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