By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Dec. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Teens who take virginity pledges are just as likely to have sex as teens who don't make such promises -- and they're less likely to practice safe sex to prevent disease or pregnancy, a new study finds.
"Previous studies found that pledgers were more likely to delay having sex than non-pledgers," said study author Janet E. Rosenbaum, a post doctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "I used the same data as previous studies but a different statistical method."
This method allowed Rosenbaum to compare those who had taken a virginity pledge with similar teens who hadn't taken a pledge but were likely to delay having sex, she said. She added that she didn't include teens who were unlikely to take a pledge.
"Virginity pledgers and similar non-pledgers don't differ in the rates of vaginal, oral or anal sex or any other sexual behavior," Rosenbaum said. "Strikingly, pledgers are less likely than similar non-pledgers to use condoms and also less likely to use any form of birth control."
The findings were published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics.
For the study, Rosenbaum collected data on 934 high school students who had never had sex or had taken a virginity pledge. The data came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Rosenbaum matched students who had taken a virginity pledge with those who hadn't. After five years of follow-up, those who had taken a pledge did not differ from teens who hadn't taken a pledge in rates of premarital sex, oral or anal sex, or sexually transmitted diseases.
Teens who had taken a pledge had 0.1 fewer sex partners during the past year, but the same number of partners overall as those who had not pledged. And pledgers started having sex at the same age as non-pledgers, Rosenbaum found.
The study also found that teens who took a virginity pledge were 10 percent less likely to use a condom and less likely to use any other form of birth control than their non-pledging counterparts.
"Sex education programs for teens who take pledges tend to be very negative and inaccurate about condom and birth control information," Rosenbaum said.
The study also found that, five years after taking a virginity pledge, more than 80 percent of pledgers denied ever making such a promise. "This high rate of disaffiliation may imply that nearly all virginity pledgers view pledges as nonbinding," Rosenbaum said.
She said teens who are religious tend to delay having sex, but that has nothing to do with virginity pledges or abstinence-only sex education programs.
Bill Albert, chief program officer for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, said teens need to be encouraged to delay having sex, but they also need to be given the facts about safe sex.
"When pledgers fell off the wagon, they fell off hard," he said. "What have we gained if we encourage young people only to delay sex until they are older, but when they do become sexually active, they don't protect themselves or their partners?"
"The notion that it has to be either a virginity pledge or encouraging teens to have sex is a false dichotomy," Albert added. "There is a public consensus in this country to encourage teens to delay sex, but also provide them with information about contraception."
More information
For more on teens and sexuality, visit The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Many Teens Don't Keep Virginity Pledges
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Blood sugar loss may trigger Alzheimer's
Wed Dec 24, 1:04 pm ET. Reuters News
LONDON (Reuters) – A slow, chronic reduction of blood sugar to the brain could trigger some forms of Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The study of human and mice brains suggests a reduction of blood flow deprives energy to the brain, setting off a process that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein researchers believe is a cause of the disease, they said.
The finding could lead to strategies such as exercise, reducing cholesterol and managing blood pressure to keep Alzheimer's at bay, Robert Vassar and colleagues at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago reported.
"This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer's," Vassar, who led the study, said in a statement.
"If people start early enough, maybe they can dodge the bullet."
Alzheimer's disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.
While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers also are looking at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.
Vassar and colleagues analyzed human and mice brains to discover that a protein called elF2alpha is altered when the brain does not get enough energy. This boosts production of an enzyme that in turn flips a switch to produce the sticky protein clumps.
The finding published in the journal Neuron could lead to drugs designed to block the elF2alpha production that begins the formation of the protein clumps, also known as amyloid plaques, Vassar added.
"What we are talking about is a slow, insidious process over many years," he said. "It's so mild (people) don't even notice it, but it has an effect over time because it's producing a chronic reduction in the blood flow."
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Arkansas family welcomes 18th child
Thu Dec 18, 8:46 pm ET
ROGERS, Ark. – An Arkansas woman has given birth to her 18th child. Michelle Duggar delivered the baby girl by Caesarean section Thursday at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. The baby, named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.
"The ultimate Christmas gift from God," said Jim Bob Duggar, the father of the 18 children. "She's just absolutely beautiful, like her mom and her sisters."
The Duggars now have 10 sons and eight daughters.
Jim Bob Duggar said Michelle started having contractions Wednesday night. She needed the C-section, her third, because the baby was lying sideways. Jim Bob said both baby and mother were doing well Thursday night.
"We both would love to have more," he said.
The cable network TLC broadcasts a weekly show about the Duggars, called "17 Kids and Counting." Chris Finnegan of TLC — which handles public relations for the Duggar family — said the show's name would be updated to account for the latest addition to the family. He said TLC also will air a show Monday on the baby's delivery.
Jim Bob Duggar is 43, a year older than his wife. Their oldest child, Joshua, is 20.
The other Duggar children, in between Joshua and Jordyn-Grace, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 17; Jessa, 16; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 12; Joy-Anna, 11; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 8; James, 7; Justin, 6; Jackson, 4; Johannah, 3; and Jennifer, 1.
"Our whole family is excited about Jordyn's addition to our family," Jim Bob Duggar said. "She's just perfect in every way."
(This version CORRECTS the name of the Duggars' TLC show to '17 Kids and Counting,' not 'Seventeen and Counting.'))
AP Associated Press
Healthy breakfast may mean healthier diet overall
Thu Dec 18, 11:10 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Breakfast may indeed be the most important meal of the day -- as long as that meal is not a doughnut -- a study suggests.
Using data from a national health survey of U.S. adults, researchers found that people who ate lower-calorie foods for breakfast tended to have a higher-quality diet overall.
Furthermore, men who ate a healthy breakfast generally weighed less. Among women, breakfast eaters -- regardless of the food involved -- tended to weigh less than those who skipped the morning meal.
The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, give some support to past studies finding that breakfast eaters are less likely to be overweight -- and that eating a high-quality breakfast, rather than grabbing a pastry, is the key.
Research has shown, for example, that people who eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast have a lower average weight than either those who skip breakfast or those who sit down to a plate of steak and eggs.
What's "unique" about the current study is that it suggests that breakfast foods low in "energy density" -- low in calories for a given amount of food -- "appear to predict better food choices for the rest of the day and may help with better management of body weight," Dr. James Rippe, one of the researchers on the work, said in a written statement.
Fruits, vegetables and high-fiber whole grains, for example, are low in energy density, while confections like Danish pastries and doughnuts have a high energy density.
The current findings underscore the importance of choosing low-energy- density options for breakfast, according to Rippe, a cardiologist with the Rippe Lifestyle Institute in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
The Rippe organization manages the Breakfast Research Institute, an industry-sponsored group that funds health and nutrition research. The BRI financed the current study.
The findings are based on responses from more than 12,000 U.S. adults who took part in three federal health surveys between 1999 and 2004.
Overall, people who reported eating a low-energy-density breakfast in the past day were more likely than their counterparts to choose lower-calorie foods for the rest of the day as well. As a group, they also had a higher-quality diet -- eating a wider variety of foods and more vitamins and minerals.
Among men, those who ate a breakfast low in energy density tended to weigh less, even with factors like exercise and income considered. For women, any type of breakfast was related to a lower likelihood of obesity -- though the calorie density of other meals did seem to be important.
More research is needed to confirm those particular findings, Rippe's team notes. For now, they suggest that men should be encouraged to eat a breakfast low in energy density, whereas women should eat breakfast but also focus on choosing low-energy-density foods throughout the day.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2008.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Major flaw revealed in Internet Explorer; users urged to switch
Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:49AM EST Virtually all security experts (as well as myself) are counseling users to switch to any other web browser -- none of the others are affected, including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera -- at least for the time being, though Microsoft has stubbornly said it "cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw." Microsoft adds that it is working on a fix but has offered no ETA on when that might happen. Meanwhile it offers some suggestions for a temporary patch, including setting your Internet security zone settings to "high" and offering some complicated workarounds. (Some reports state, however, that the fixes do not actually work.) Expedient patching or switching are essential. Security pros fear that the attack will soon spread beyond the theft of gaming passwords and into more criminal arenas, as the malicious code can be placed on any website and can be adapted to steal any password stored or entered using the browser. It's now down to the issue of time: Will Microsoft repair the problem and distribute a patch quickly enough to head off the tsunami of fraud that's about to hit or will it come too late to do any good? Meanwhile, I'll reiterate my recommendation: Switch from Internet Explorer as soon as you can. You can always switch back once the threat is eliminated. Links for other browsers to try: Firefox Chrome Safari Opera
The major press outlets are abuzz this morning with news of a major new security flaw that affects all versions of Internet Explorer from IE5 to the latest beta of IE8. The attack has serious and far-reaching ramifications -- and they're not just theoretical attacks. In fact, the flaw is already in wide use as a tool to steal online game passwords, with some 10,000 websites infected with the code needed to take advantage of the hole in IE.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Places to See Before They Disappear
Those of us who are concerned about earth's survival already hear the warning alarms around us on a daily basis. But this is a travel site, not an eco-sermon, so these eleven picks make up a carefully chosen list of destinations for eco-conscious travelers to enjoy. That verb "enjoy" is crucial -- for in the process of cherishing these natural and cultural wonders we renew our commitment to preserving them. Babylon Fenway Park Gu Gong (The Forbidden City) Kootenai River Little Green Street Lord Howe Island Michoacan Monarch Biosphere Reserve Taj Mahal The Galapagos Islands The Pyramids of Giza Versailles
Babylon, a city of both history and legend, has been seriously damaged by war and development, and those remain the two major threats to the ancient city. The U.S. war in Iraq continues to endanger Babylon and other ancient sites in Iraq, and Iraqi officials' own plans for post-war Babylon could be just as destructive. >>more
Having won the World Series, in both 2004 and 2007, the Boston Red Sox are lovable underdogs no longer-now they are certified winners. And as a result, management has, at least temporarily, stopped making noises about replacing Fenway Park. >>more
This vast complex is half a millennium old -- the emperors lived here from 1420 to 1923, beginning long before Columbus sailed to the Americas and ending right before Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic -- and the heavy traffic is taking its toll. >>more
Kootenai wetlands in Idaho were almost decimated by agricultural development; part of the wetlands is now being restored by environmental groups. In Montana, the endangered and aging white sturgeon population has stopped spawning due to loss of habitat caused by the Libby Dam; unless young fish live to spawning age the species is expected to be extinct in as few as 20 years. >>more
Little Green Street isn't in the center of London, but maybe that's why it survived so long-it's one of only a few intact Georgian streets left in the whole metropolis. These two-story brick houses may have survived the Blitz in World War II, but the inexorable march of gentrification is another thing altogether. >>more
More than half of the original recorded species of birds on this island are extinct due to hunting; non-native predators such as black rats, cats, and owls; and overgrazing by farm animals. Now that the island is protected and managed, the most serious threats are oil and chemical water pollution, and groundwater pollution from sewage management. >>more
Monarch butterflies face a variety of risks all along their 2,000-mile (3,220-km) migration route between Canada and Mexico. Pesticides are a constant threat, and the monarchs' low tolerance for cold and wet conditions leave them vulnerable to winter storms, increased rainfall, and other climate changes. Meanwhile, deforestation of their winter habitat could be the fatal blow for the butterflies. >>more
If the plan to close the Taj Mahal goes into effect, it would reduce this over-the-top mausoleum-built by Shah Jahan (fifth emperor of the Mughal dynasty) to mourn his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal-to a mere postcard silhouette instead of the spiritual experience it can be. >>more
Legions of tourists who visit the Galápagos each year have helped and hurt the islands' delicate ecosystem. But despite laws to protect the Galápagos, increased land and sea tourism, population growth (which brings pollution and habitat destruction), and invasive species continue to threaten the wildlife here. Fishing and poaching also threaten the survival of native marine life. >>more
Unrestricted development and urban sprawl from nearby Cairo threaten the ancient pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Air pollution eats away at the magnificent structures, and sewage from adjacent slums weakens the plateau upon which they stand. Ongoing efforts to complete a multilane beltway around Cairo pose additional risks to these irreplaceable wonders. >>more
The fierce winter storms that pummeled Europe in December 1999 were bound to take down some property -- but did it have to be Louis XIV's showplace? >>more
Provided by: frommer's
Saturday, December 13, 2008
မြန်မာပြည်မှာ ဆင်မှောင်ခိုတွေ ခေတ်စားနေ
ဆလိုင်းပီပီ
စနေနေ့၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ 13 2008 15:16 - မြန်မာစံတော်ချိန်
နယူးဒေလီ (မဇ္စျိမ)။ ။ ဆယ်စုနှစ်တခုအတွင်းမှာပင် ဆင်အကောင်ရေ ၂၅၀ အထက်နှင့် ဆင်စွယ်များ မြန်မာပြည်တွင်းမှ ခိုးထုတ်ခံသွားရကာ ဆင်ဦးရေ သိသိသာသာ လျော့နည်းကျဆင်းသွားပြီဖြစ်ကြောင်း အစီရင်ခံသစ်တခုက ဖော်ပြထားသည်။
သဘာဝ တောရိုင်း တိရစ္ဆာန်များကို ကူးသန်းရောင်းဝယ်မှု စောင့်ကြည့်လေ့လာရေး ကွန်ယက်အဖွဲ့ တခုဖြစ်သော TRAFFIC ၏ အစီရင်ခံစာအရ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် ဆင်နှင့် ဆင်စွယ်များ တရားမဝင် ရောင်းဝယ်ဖောက်ကားရာ ဗဟိုချက်မတခုဖြစ်နေသောကြောင့် အမဲလိုက်မုဆိုးများနှင့် မသမာရောင်းဝယ်သူတို့၏လက်ချက်ဖြင့် အဖိုးတန် တိရစ္ဆာန် ကြီးများ ဆုံးရှုံးနေရသည်ဟုဆိုသည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ ဆင်များကို အိမ်နီးပတ်ဝန်းကျင်နိုင်ငံများသို့ အဓိက ခိုးထုတ်ရောင်းချနေသည်ဟု ဆိုသည်။
TRAFFIC အဖွဲ့မှ အရှေ့တောင်အာရှဆိုင်ရာ အကြီးတန်းအရာရှိဖြစ်သူ ခရစ် အာ ရှက်ဖ်ဖတ်က ပြောကြားရာတွင် " အမဲလိုက်တာရယ်၊ နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ပြီး ခိုးရောင်းတာတွေရယ်ကြောင့် မြန်မာပြည်က ဆင်ဦးရေ ကျသွားပြီ"
မှောင်ခိုခိုးထုတ်သော ဆင်အများစုမှာ ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံသို့ ရောက်ရှိကုန်ပြီး ခရီးသွားလုပ်ငန်းများက ဖျော်ဖြေရေးလုပ်ငန်းများနှင့် တောလမ်းသွားခရီးစဉ်များတွင် အသုံးပြုလျှက်ရှိသည်ဟု ရှက်ဖ်ဖတ် က ပြောသည်။
"ထိုင်းခရီးသွားလုပ်ငန်းယန္တရားကြီး၏ လိုအပ်ချက်ကို ပြည့်မှီစေရန် ဆင်မများနှင့် သန်မာကြံ့ခိုင်သော ဆင်များကို အဓိက ပစ်မှတ်ထားနေခဲ့ကြသည်။ ထိုဆင်များကို တောလမ်းကြမ်းခရီးသွား စင်တာများ တွင် အသုံးပြုကြသည်" ဟု အစီရင်ခံစာက ရေးသားထားသည်။
အစီရင်ခံစာအဆိုအရ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ စျေး ၁၄ ခုကို စစ်တမ်းကောက်ယူရာတွင် ထိုင်း၊ တရုတ်နိုင်ငံများနှင့် နီးကပ်သော နယ်စပ်ရှိ စျေးသုံးခုတွင် ဆင်စွယ်အပိုင်းအစပေါင်း အနည်းဆုံး ၉၀၀၀ နှင့် အစွယ်ချောင်းလိုက် ၁၆ ခု ရောင်းဖို့ ပြသထားသည်ဟု ဆိုသည်။
နယ်စပ်လမ်းကြောင်းကွဲများအနက် ထိုင်း-မြန်မာနယ်စပ် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတောင်ပိုင်းရှိ ဘုရားသုံးဆူတောင်ကြားလမ်းသည် ဆင်နှင့် ဆင်စွယ်များ ခိုးထုတ်ရာ အဓိက လမ်းကြောင်းတခု ဖြစ်သည်ဟု ခရစ်က ပြောသည်။
နည်းလမ်းပေါင်းစုံဖြင့် ဆင်များကို သယ်ဆောင်နေကြပြီး အချို့ကတော့ ဗြောင်ဗြောင်တင်းတင်းပင် အမိုးဖွင့် ကုန်တင်ကားကြီးများဖြင့် နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော်သယ်ယူကြသည်ဟု ခရစ်က ထပ်ပြောသည်။ ကုန်သည်များအပြင် အစိုးရဝန်ထမ်းများလည်း ကုန်သည်များထံမှ လာဘ်ငွေရယူကာ အားပေးအားမြှောက်ပြုနေကြသည်ဟု ခရစ်စ်က ဖြည့်စွက်ပြောကြားသွားသည်။
"ကျနော်တို့ သုတေသနလုပ်တော့ ဘာအထောက်အထားကို သွားတွေ့လဲဆိုတော့ အကျင့်ပျက်ခြစားမှုက ဆင်နဲ့ ဆင်စွယ်တွေ ခိုးထုတ်တာကို ခွင့်ပြုနေတယ်ဆိုတာပဲ"
နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော် တရားမဝင်ရောင်းဝယ်မှု ရပ်ဆိုင်းသွားအောင် နယ်စပ်စောင့်လုံခြုံရေးများ ပိုမိုလိုအပ်သည်ဟု ခရစ်က ပြောသည်။
မြန်မာအာဏာပိုင်များအနေဖြင့် ထိုင်းနှင့် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံများမှ အရာထမ်းများနှင့် ပိုမိုပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ကာ တားမြစ်ရေး လုပ်သင့်သည်ဟု အစီရင်ခံစာက တိုက်တွန်းထားသည်။
"အာရှဆင်တွေ အများဆုံးရှိတဲ့နေရာဖြစ်ဖို့ မြန်မာပြည်မှာ အလားအလာ ရှိနေတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့်လည်း တရားမဝင် ဖမ်းဆီး သတ်ဖြတ်လို့ ဆင်တွေ မျိုးတုံးအောင် လုပ်နေတာတွေကို တွေ့ရတာ စိတ်မကောင်းစရာပါပဲ" ဟု သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ထိန်းသိမ်းစောင့်ရှောက်ရေး နိုင်ငံတကာ သမဂ္ဂ တွဲဖက်ဥက္ကဌ အာဂျေး ဒီဆိုင်းက ကြာသာပတေးနေ့က ဖြန့်ဝေသော သတင်းလွှာတွင် ဖော်ပြထားသည်။
"အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံတွေအနေနဲ့ ဖမ်းလို့ရလာတဲ့ ဆင်တွေကို အသုံးပြုတဲ့ သူတို့ရဲ့ ပေါ်လစီကို လေးလေးနက်နက် ပြန်သုံးသပ်ဖို့ လိုနေပါတယ်။ ပြီးတော့ သဘာဝတောရိုင်းထွက် ပစ္စည်းတွေ ရောင်းဝယ်ဖောက်ကားတာ ရပ်ဖို့ ဥပဒေနဲ့ ကြပ်မတ်ဆောင်ရွက်သွားဖို့ လိုတယ်" ဟု ဒီဆိုင်းက ပြောသည်။
မဇ်ဈိမနှင့် ပြုလုပ်သော အင်တာဗျူးတခုတွင် ခရစ်က ဒေသဆိုင်ရာ အစိုးရများကို သတိပေးပြောကြားရာတွင် တောရိုင်း တိရစ္ဆာန်များကို ဥပဒေပြင်ပမှ ရောင်းဝယ်ဖောက်ကားမှု တားဆီးရေးအတွက် နည်းလမ်းတကျ ထိန်းချုပ်မှုမလုပ်လျှင် အကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှု ဆိုးဝါးနိုင်သည်ဟု ပါရှိသည်။
"အာရှက ဆင်တွေဆောင်ရှောက်ရေးမှာ အနှုတ်သဘော အကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှုတွေ ဖြစ်လာလိမ့်မယ်။ အာရှဆင်တွေမှာ အန္တရာယ် ကြုံတွေ့နေရပြီးသားဖြစ်တယ်" ဟု ခရစ်က ပြောသည်။
၂၀၀၆ ခုနှစ်တွင် ပြုလုပ်သော သုတေသနတခုအရ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် တောဆင်ကောင်ရေ ၄၀၀၀ မှ ၅၀၀၀ အထိ တွေ့ရှိနိုင်ပြီး အများစုမှာ ဗဟိုလွင်ပြင်ဒေသတွင် နေထိုင်ကျက်စားကြသည်ဟု အစီရင်ခံစာတွင် ပါရှိသည်။
မဇ္စျိမသတင်း
Friday, December 12, 2008
Nut Bans in Schools May Be Spurring Hysteria
By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Dec. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Peanut and other food allergies are on the rise, with more and more children being diagnosed with potentially life-threatening allergies, and schools are responding by providing nut-free areas.
But, at least one expert wonders if schools are going too far, even creating hysteria over potential nut exposures. What's worse, schools may be perpetuating the problem by limiting exposure to nuts in non-allergic children.
"There's a disproportionate response that may be making things worse. First, by feeding the concern -- if a whole school is declared nut-free, how can you say to children that nuts aren't dangerous? And, second by contributing to sensitization," said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, the author of an editorial in the Dec. 12 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Christakis, an attending physician at Mt. Auburn Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, pointed to a recent Israeli study. It found that children exposed to peanuts at a young age appeared to have fewer peanut allergies than those who had a later exposure.
Christakis stressed that he's not saying schools shouldn't make allowances for children with severe allergies. "No one is arguing against reasonable accommodations," he said.
But, some schools take those accommodations too far, Christakis believes. For example, he cited the school district where his children attend school. Recently, that district evacuated a bus full of 10-year-olds because a peanut was found on the floor of the bus.
Such a reaction, he said, makes it appear as if the threat from a peanut is much greater than it actually is. Among the 3.3 million Americans who are allergic to nuts, the overall likelihood of a serious reaction is low. Serious allergic reactions to food cause about 2,000 hospitalizations a year, and 150 deaths.
In comparison, noted Christakis, 50 people die from bee stings, 100 from lightning strikes and a whopping 45,000 from motor vehicle accidents. Another 10,000 people suffer traumatic brain injuries due to sports participation and 2,000 people drown every year, said Christakis. Yet, he said, no one has called for an end to athletics.
Other experts weighed in on the issue.
"This editorial really shows how emotional the issue really is, and it always goes back to education and getting people to understand perspective," said Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. "Until there's a cure, we need to do everything we can to keep these kids safe."
Dr. Jennifer Appleyard, chief of allergy and immunology at St. John Hospital in Detroit, said she'd like to see schools focus more on emergency planning for kids with severe allergies, because it's impossible to make anyone's environment completely nut-free. "Having a nut-free table, or even a nut-free school, gives you a false sense of security. It's like living in a very safe neighborhood -- robberies happen even in the safest neighborhoods," Appleyard said.
"Schools need to have policies in place for treatment. Teachers, aides, etc. should be trained in using an Epi-Pen [against anaphylactic reactions], and school officials need to make sure everyone knows what to do in an emergency," she said, adding, "that any emergency plan in place should be practiced, like fire drills are."
More information
Learn more about nut and peanut allergies from the Nemours Foundation's KidsHealth.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Doctor's Advice: Leave the Toilet Seat Up
LiveScience Staff
LiveScience.com
Thu Dec 11, 3:42 pm ET
One of the longest-running spousal debates may now be settled in favor of men and for the sake of little boys.
Leave the toilet seat up, some British doctors now say. The reason: a rising trend for heavy wooden and ornamental toilet seats to fall down onto the penises of unsuspecting (and just potty-trained) toddlers.
Dr. Joe Philip and his colleagues of Leighton Hospital, Crewe, in England detail such penis-crush injuries in the December issue of the journal BJU International. The team reports on four boys between the ages of 2 and 4 who were admitted to hospitals with injuries serious enough to require an overnight stay.
The doctors say the injuries have implications for holiday travel and at-home toilet safety for parents with male toddlers.
"As Christmas approaches many families will be visiting relatives and friends and their recently toilet-trained toddlers will be keen to show how grown-up they are by going to the toilet on their own," Philip said. "It is important that parents check out the toilet seats in advance, not to mention the ones they have in their own homes, and accompany their children if necessary."
The team found that all four toddlers had been potty trained and were using the toilet on their own when the incidents occurred. Each had lifted the toilet seat, which fell back down and crushed his penis. Three of the toddlers showed a build-up of fluid in the foreskin, but they were still able to urinate. The fourth had so-called glandular tenderness.
Luckily, the doctors say, the toddlers showed no injuries to the urethra (the tube in the penis that carries urine out) and no bleeding. All four toddlers were able to leave the hospital the next day.
To keep toddlers safe during their journey in the bathroom, the doctors suggest the following tips:
* Parents should consider using toilet seats that fall slowly and with reduced momentum, which would reduce the risk and degree of injury.
* Heavier toilet seats could be banned in houses with male infants.
* Households with male infants should consider leaving the toilet seat up after use, even though it contradicts the social norm of putting it down.
* Parents could educate their toddlers to hold the toilet seat up with one hand while urinating. During such a feat, parents should keep an eye on toddlers until the toddler can do this by himself.
"As any parent knows, toilet training can be a difficult time with any toddler," Philip said. "We are concerned that the growing trend of heavy toilet seats poses a risk not only to their health, but to their confidence."
- Penis Myths Debunked
- How to Solve Toddler Tantrums: Think Like a Neanderthal
- Video - A Mother's Touch
- Original Story: Doctor's Advice: Leave the Toilet Seat Up
Elephants live longer in wild than zoos
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON – Zoo elephants don't live as long as those in the wild, according to a study sure to stir debate about keeping the giant animals on display. Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Myanmar. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life spans twice that or more of their relatives in zoos.
Animal care activists have campaigned in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space and small numbers of animals that can be kept in a group. Debates have been especially vocal in Dallas and Los Angeles.
The researchers found that the median life span for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya's Amboseli park. Adding in those elephants killed by people in Africa lowered the median life span there to 35.9 years. Median means half died younger than that age and half lived longer.
For the more endangered Asian elephants, the median life span in European zoos was 18.9 years, compared with 41.7 years for those working in the Myanmar Timber Enterprise. Myanmar is the country formerly known as Burma.
There is some good news, though. The life spans of zoo elephants have improved in recent years, suggesting an improvement in their care and raising, said one of the report's authors, Georgia J. Mason of the animal sciences department at the University of Guelph, Canada.
But, she added, "protecting elephants in Africa and Asia is far more successful than protecting them in Western zoos."
There are about 1,200 elephants in zoos, half in Europe, Mason said in an interview via e-mail. She said researchers concentrated on female elephants, which make up 80 percent of the zoo population.
"One of our more amazing results" was that Asian elephants born in zoos have shorter life spans than do Asian elephants brought to the zoos from the wild, she added in a broadcast interview provided by the journal Science, which published the results in its Friday edition.
She noted that zoos usually lack have large grazing areas that elephants are used to in the wild, and that zoo animals often are alone or with one or two other unrelated animals, while in the wild they tend to live in related groups of eight to 12 animals.
In Asian elephants, infant mortality rates are two times to three times higher in zoos than in the Burmese logging camps, Mason said via e-mail. And then, in adulthood, zoo-born animals die prematurely.
"We're not sure why," she said.
The study confirms many of the findings of a similar 2002 analysis prepared by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. One of the authors of the new study, Ros Clubb, works for the society.
Steven Feldman, a spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, contended the report did not reflect conditions in North America. In addition, he said, it is hard to compare conditions in zoos and in the wild. "Every event in a zoo is observed," he said, while scientists can study only a small number of events in nature.
The project, or individual researchers, received financial support from Canada's National Science and Engineering Research Council, Prospect Burma Foundation, Charles Wallace Burma Trust, Three Oaks Foundation, Whitney-Laing Foundation, Toyota Foundation, Fantham Memorial Research Scholarship and University College, London.
Among the researchers, Mason has served as a paid consultant to Disney's Animal Kingdom USA and one of authors, Khyne U. Mar, has been a paid consultant for Woburn Safari Park, about an hour north of London.
AP Associated Press
မြန်မာဆင်များ မျိုးပြုန်းမည့်အန္တရာယ်ရင်ဆိုင်နေ
ကိုဝင်း၊ ၂၀၀၈ခုနှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ၊ ၁၁ရက်
ပြီးခဲ့သည့် ဆယ်စုနှစ်အတွင်း အာရှတိုက်ရှိဆင် အကောင်ရေ (၂၅၀) ခန့်ကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ ပြည်ပသို့ တရားမဝင်ရောင်းချခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ အများစုကို နိုင်ငံခြားသား တောင်တက်ခရီးသွားလုပ်ငန်းအတွက် အိမ်နီးချင်း ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံသို့ဖြစ်ကြောင်း တောရိုင်း တိရစ္ဆာန်ရောင်းဝယ်မှုစောင့်ကြည့်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (TRAFFIC) ၏ ယမန်နေ့ထုတ် အစီရင်ခံစာတွင် ဖော်ပြသည်။
ထို့အပြင် TRAFFIC အဖွဲ့က မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်း၌ ရန်ကုန်၊ မန္တလေး၊ ကျိုက်ထို၊ တောင်ကြီး၊ ပဲခူး၊ မင်းတုန်း၊ မြစ်ကြီးနား၊ မုန်းလား၊ ဘုရားသုံးဆူ၊ တာချီလိတ်အပါအဝင် စျေးကွက် (၁၄) ခုနှင့် ထိုင်းနှင့် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံအတွင်း နယ်စပ်စျေးကွက် (၃) ခုတို့ကို လေ့လာခဲ့ရာ ဆင်စွယ် အစိတ်အပိုင်းနှင့်ပြုလုပ်ထားသော ပစ္စည်း (၉,၀၀၀) ကျော်နှင့် ဆင်စွယ်အရိုင်း (၁၆) ချောင်းကို တွေ့ရှိရသောကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၌ ဆင်စွယ်တရားမဝင် ရောင်းဝယ် ရေးလုပ်ငန်းသည်လည်း ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေကြောင်း အစီရင်ခံစာက ထောက်ပြသည်။ ရောင်းချသူများက ပုံမှန်အားဖြင့် ဆင်စွယ်နှင့် ဆင်ခန္ဓာအစိတ်အပိုင်းကို ဝယ်လိုသူများ မြင်တွေ့နိုင်ရန် ပေါ်ပေါ်ထင်ထင်ပြသထားကြလေ့ရှိသည်။
သက်ရှိဆင်၊ ဆင်စွယ်နှင့် ဆင်ခန္ဓာအစိတ်အပိုင်းများကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ အိမ်နီးချင်း ထိုင်းနှင့် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံများသို့ တရားမဝင် ရောင်းချနေခြင်းသည် သက်ဆိုင်ရာ ပြည်တွင်းဥပဒေနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာတောရိုင်းတိရစ္ဆာန် ကာကွယ်ရေးသဘောတူညီမှု (CITES) ကို ချိုးဖောက်သည်မှာ ထင်ရှားကြောင်း TRAFFIC ၏ အစီရင်ခံစာတွင် ဖော်ပြထားသည်။
TRAFFIC အဖွဲ့ လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်ချမှတ်ရေး အကြီးတန်းအရာရှိ Chris Shepherd က ယခု အစီရင်ခံစာသည် မြန်မာနှင့် ၎င်း၏ အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများတွင် ဥပဒေစိုးမိုးရေး အရေးတကြီးလိုအပ်နေပြီး၊ နိုင်ငံတကာ သဘောတူညီချက်အပါအဝင် ၎င်းတို့၏ ကိုယ်ပိုင်ဥပဒေများကိုလည်း လေးစားမှုမရှိသည်ကို ပြသနေကြောင်း ပြောသည်။
“ဆင်အမနှင့် အရွယ်မရောက်သေးတဲ့ ဆင်ပေါက်ကလေးတွေကို အဓိကထားပြီး ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံမှာရှိတဲ့ နိုင်ငံခြားသားခရီးသွား လုပ်ငန်းတွေ တောင်တက်ခရီးစဉ်လုပ်ငန်းတွေမှာ အသုံးပြုဖို့ ဝယ်ချင်နေတာပါ၊ ပြီးတော့ ကျနော်တို့ သုတေသနလုပ်ငန်းတွေ လုပ်တဲ့အခါမှာ အဲဒီ ဆင်စွယ်နဲ့ ဆင်တွေကို တရား မဝင်ရောင်းဝယ်နေကြတဲ့နေရာမှာ အဂတိလိုက်စားမှုတွေ ပါဝင်ပတ်သက်နေတာကိုလည်း” ဟု Chris Shepherd ကပြောသည်။
မြန်မာနှင့် ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံမှ သက်ဆိုင်ရာအာဏာပိုင်များထံမှ နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော် ဆင်အရောင်းအဝယ်လုပ်ငန်းနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ CITES (နိုင်ငံတကာတောရိုင်းတိရစ္ဆာန်ကာကွယ်ရေးသဘောတူညီမှု) ကို သေချာစေရေးဆောင်ရွက်နေသူများသို့ အစီရင်ခံ တင်ပြခြင်းများမရှိသော်လည်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အချို့ဒေသများမှ ဆင်များပျောက်ဆုံးမှုများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ ကုန်သည်များကို မေးမြန်းစစ်ဆေးမှုများရှိခဲ့သည်။
“ဆင်တွေပျောက်ဆုံးတယ်ဆိုတဲ့ သတင်းတွေထွက်ပေါ်နေတာရယ်၊ ဆင်စွယ်နဲ့ ဆင်ခန္ဓာအစိတ်အပိုင်းတွေကို စျေးကွက်ထဲမှာ နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ ရောင်းချလာတာကို ကြည့်ခြင်းအားဖြင့် ဒီတရားမဝင်ရောင်းဝယ်မှုဟာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံက အာရှဆင်တွေအတွက် အန္တရာယ်ကျရောက်နေပြီဆိုတာ သိသာထင်ရှားနေပါတယ်” ဟု အစီရင်ခံစာကို ပူးတွဲရေးသားသူ Vincent Nijman ကပြောသည်။ အရှေ့တောင်အာရှနိုင်ငံများအတွင်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် ဆင်ကောင်ရေအများဆုံးပိုင်ဆိုင်ထားပြီး ပျမ်းမျှကောင်ရေ (၄) ထောင်နှင့် (၅) ထောင်အကြားရှိသည်ဟု အဆိုပါ အစီရင်ခံစာကဖော်ပြသည်။
ယခုအစီရင်ခံစာထွက်ပေါ်လာပြီးနောက် ဆင်နှင့် ဆင်စွယ်တရားမဝင်ရောင်းဝယ်မှုလုပ်ငန်းများကို နှိမ်နင်းနိုင်ရန် မြန်မာအာဏာပိုင်များအနေဖြင့် အိမ်နီးချင်း ထိုင်းနှင့် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံမှ ဥပဒေစိုးမိုးရေးလုပ်ငန်းတာဝန်ရှိသူများနှင့် နီးကပ်စွာ အတူတကွ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် တိရစ္ဆာန်ရောင်းဝယ်မှုစောင့်ကြည့်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (TRAFFIC) နှင့် အခြားသဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးအဖွဲ့ ကြီးဖြစ်သည့် (WWF) တို့က တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။
အာရှဆင်ဆိုင်ရာကျွမ်းကျင်သူများအုပ်စု (IUCN) ၏ တွဲဖက်ဥက္ကဌ Ajay Desai ကလည်း “မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဟာ အာရှ ဆင်အများ ဆုံးရှိပြီး အရေးကြီးတဲ့အနေအထားမှာ ရှိနေပါပြီ။ အဲဒီဆင်တွေကို အခုလို တရားမဝင်ဖမ်းဆီး၊ သတ်ဖြတ်နေတဲ့အတွက် အဲဒီမှာ ရှိတဲ့ဆင်တွေ မျိုးပြုန်းတော့မယ့် အန္တရာယ်ကျရောက်လာနိုင်ပါတယ်။ မြန်မာ့ အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံတွေအနေနဲ့ကလည်း ဆင်တွေရဲ့ လုပ်အားကို အသုံးချနေတဲ့ မှုဝါဒတွေကို အရေးတကြီး ပြန်သုံးသပ်ဖို့ လိုအပ်နေပါတယ်။ ပြီးတော့ တောရိုင်းတိရစ္ဆာန်ထွက် ပစ္စည်းတွေ ရောင်းဝယ်နေတာကိုလည်း ဥပဒေပြဌာန်းပြီး ရပ်သွားအောင် လုပ်ဖို့လိုနေပါတယ်” ဟုပြောသည်။
မြန်မာနှင့် ထိုင်းအပါအ၀င် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများသည် ဒေသအတွင်း တောရိုင်းတိရစ္ဆာန်တရားမဝင်ရောင်းဝယ်မှုကို ကာကွယ် တားဆီးရန် ရည်ရွယ်၍ ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) ကို ၂၀၀၅ ခုတွင် တည်ထောင်ခဲ့ကြသည်။
ခေတ်ပြိုင် သတင်းဂျာနယ်
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
2008 Will Be Just a Second Longer
Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com
Mon Dec 8, 3:24 pm ET
On Dec. 31 this year, your day will be just a second longer.
Like the more well-known time adjustment, the leap year, a "leap second" is tacked on to clocks every so often to keep them correct.
Earth's trip around the sun - our year with all its seasons - is about 365.2422 days long, which we round to 365 to keep things simpler. But every four years, we add 0.2422 x 4 days (that's about one day) at the end of the month of February (extending it from 28 to 29 days) to fix the calendar.
Likewise, a "leap second" is added on to our clocks every so often to keep them in synch with the somewhat unpredictable nature of our planet's rotation, the roughly 24-hour whirl that brings the sun into the sky each morning.Historically, time was based on the mean rotation of the Earth relative to celestial bodies and the second was defined from this frame of reference. But the invention of atomic clocks brought about a definition of a second that is independent of the Earth's rotation and based on a regular signal emitted by electrons changing energy state within an atom.
In 1970, an international agreement established two timescales: one based on the rotation of the Earth and one based on atomic time.
The problem is that the Earth is very gradually slowing down, continually throwing the two timescales out of synch, so every so often, a "leap second" has to be tacked on to the atomic clock.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is the organization that monitors the difference in the two timescales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted or removed when necessary. Since 1972, leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years - the most recent was inserted on Dec. 31, 2005.
In the United States, the U.S. Naval Observatory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology keep time for the country. The Naval Observatory keeps the Department of Defense's Master Clock, an atomic clock located in Washington, D.C.
The new extra second will be added on the last day of this year at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time - 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time.
Mechanisms such as the Internet-based Network Time Protocol and the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) depend on the accurate time kept by atomic clocks.
- Original Story: 2008 Will Be Just a Second Longer
Scientists find nutty risk reducer: Eat more nuts
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Mon Dec 8, 8:59 pm ET
CHICAGO – Here's a health tip in a nutshell: Eating a handful of nuts a day for a year — along with a Mediterranean diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish — may help undo a collection of risk factors for heart disease.
Spanish researchers found that adding nuts worked better than boosting the olive oil in a typical Mediterranean diet. Both regimens cut the heart risks known as metabolic syndrome in more people than a low-fat diet did.
"What's most surprising is they found substantial metabolic benefits in the absence of calorie reduction or weight loss," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
In the study, appearing Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the people who improved most were told to eat about three whole walnuts, seven or eight whole hazelnuts and seven or eight whole almonds. They didn't lose weight, on average, but more of them succeeded in reducing belly fat and improving their cholesterol and blood pressure.
Manson, who wasn't involved in the study, cautioned that adding nuts to a Western diet — one packed with too many calories and junk food — could lead to weight gain and more health risks. "But using nuts to replace a snack of chips or crackers is a very favorable change to make in your diet," Manson said.
The American Heart Association says 50 million Americans have metabolic syndrome, a combination of health risks, such as high blood pressure and abdominal obesity. Finding a way to reverse it with a diet people find easy and satisfying would mean huge health improvements for many Americans, Manson said.
Nuts help people feel full while also increasing the body's ability to burn fat, said lead author Dr. Jordi Salas-Salvado of the University of Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain.
"Nuts could have an effect on metabolic syndrome by multiple mechanisms," Salas-Salvado said in an e-mail. Nuts are rich in anti-inflammatory substances, such as fiber, and antioxidants, such as vitamin E. They are high in unsaturated fat, a healthier fat known to lower blood triglycerides and increase good cholesterol.
More than 1,200 Spaniards, ranging in age from 55 to 80, were randomly assigned to follow one of three diets. They were followed for a year. The participants had no prior history of heart disease, but some had risk factors including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and abdominal obesity.
At the start, 751 people had metabolic syndrome, about 61 percent, distributed evenly among the three groups.
Metabolic syndrome was defined as having three or more of the following conditions: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low levels of good cholesterol (HDL), high blood sugar and high blood pressure.
The low-fat group was given basic advice about reducing all fat in their diets. Another group ate a Mediterranean diet with extra nuts. The third group ate a Mediterranean diet and was told to make sure they ate more than four tablespoons of olive oil a day.
Dietitians advised the two groups on the Mediterranean diet to use olive oil for cooking; increase fruit, vegetable and fish consumption; eat white meat instead of beef or processed meat; and prepare homemade tomato sauce with garlic, onions and herbs. Drinkers were told to stick with red wine.
After one year, all three groups had fewer people with metabolic syndrome, but the group eating nuts led the improvement, now with 52 percent having those heart risk factors. In the olive oil group, 57 percent had the syndrome. In the low-fat group, there was very little difference after a year in the percentage of people with the syndrome.
The nut-rich diet didn't do much to improve high blood sugar, but the large number of people with Type 2 diabetes — about 46 percent of participants — could be the reason, Salas-Salvado said. It's difficult to get diabetics' blood sugar down with lifestyle changes alone, he said.
To verify that study volunteers ate their nuts, researchers gave some of them a blood test for alpha-linolenic acid found in walnuts.
The study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Health and the government of Valencia, Spain.
Salas-Salvado and another co-author disclosed in the publication that they are unpaid advisers to nut industry groups. Salas-Salvado said all of their research "has been conducted under standard ethical and scientific rules" and that peer-review journal editors determined the study results were not influenced by food industry ties.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Firefox Users Targeted by Rare Piece of Malware (PC World)
Posted on Fri Dec 5, 2008 7:11AM EST
Researchers at BitDefender have discovered a new type of malicious software that collects passwords for banking sites but targets only Firefox users.
The malware, which BitDefender dubbed "Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A" sits in Firefox's add-ons folder, said Viorel Canja, the head of BitDefender's lab. The malware runs when Firefox is started.
The malware uses JavaScript to identify more than 100 financial and money transfer Web sites, including Barclays, Wachovia, Bank of America, and PayPal along with two dozen or so Italian and Spanish banks. When it recognizes a Web site, it will collect logins and passwords, forwarding that information to a server in Russia.
Firefox has been continually gaining market share against main competitor Internet Explorer since its debut four years ago, which may be one reason why malware authors are looking for new avenues to infect computers, Canja said.
Users could be infected with the Trojan either from a drive-by download, which can infect a PC by exploiting a vulnerability in a browser, or by being duped into downloading it, Canja said.
When it runs on a PC, it registers itself in Firefox's system files as "Greasemonkey," a well-known collection of scripts that add extra functionality to Web pages rendered by Firefox.
BitDefender has updated its products to detect it, and other vendors will likely follow suit quickly, Canja said. Users could avoid it by only downloading signed, verified software, but that's a measure that restricts the usability of a PC, he said.
The malware is not present in Mozilla's repository of add-ons, Canja said. Mozilla had taken steps to ensure that its official site hosting add-ons -- also called extensions -- are free from malware.
In May, Mozilla acknowledged that the Vietnamese language pack for Firefox contained a bit of unwanted code. Although widely reported as a virus, the language actually contained a line of HTML code that would cause users to view unwanted advertisements.
Mozilla now scans new add-ons for malware. However, those scans will only detect known threats, and there was no signature in the security software Mozilla was using at the time that could detect the code.
Mozilla said the code probably ended up in the language pack after the PC of its developer became infected. More than 16,000 people downloaded the language pack, but only about 1,000 people regularly use it.
After the incident, Mozilla said it would scan add-ons in its repository when antivirus signatures were updated.
PC World
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Deer gets revenge after hunter shoots him
Mon Dec 1, 8:13 pm ET
AP – A male whitetail deer in Knox, Pa., stands behind a doe in this Nov. 30, 1999 file photo. (AP Photo)
SEDALIA, Mo. – A hunter bagged a big buck on the second day of firearms season, but the kill caused him a lot of pain. Randy Goodman, 49, said he thought two well-placed shots with his .270-caliber rifle had killed the buck on Nov. 19. Goodman said the deer looked dead to him, but seconds later the nine-point, 240-pound animal came to life.
The buck rose up, knocked Goodman down and attacked him with his antlers in what the veteran hunter called "15 seconds of hell." The deer ran a short distance and went down, and died after Goodman fired two more shots.
Soon Goodman started feeling dizzy and noticed his vest was soaked in blood.
So he reached his truck and drove to a hospital, where he received seven staples in his scalp and was treated for a slight concussion and bruises.
AP Associated Press
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
11 girls die of poisoning at school in north China
Tue Dec 2, 5:23 am ET
BEIJING – Eleven girls died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a school in northern China's Shaanxi province, an education official said Tuesday evening. A news report said the girls had lit a fire to keep warm.
A dozen girls were found poisoned Tuesday morning at the Duiziliang Middle School in Yulin city, said an official with the Yulin Education Bureau, who gave her family name as Fan.
She said 11 girls were confirmed dead, with another being treated at a hospital.
Fan, reached by phone, said she had no further details. Telephone calls to Yulin's Public Security Bureau rang unanswered Tuesday evening.
The Xinhua News Agency said the girls died Monday after lighting the fire to keep warm. The report said the 12th girl was in serious condition.
Xinhua did not say if the room was a classroom or a dormitory.
Carbon monoxide detectors are not required in schools in China, though the Education Ministry last year asked schools that can afford them to install detectors if they burn coal for heating.
The Xinhua report also did not give the ages of the girls or other details. It said the provincial vice governor had arrived to help investigate the case.
AP Associated Press
Acupuncture beats aspirin for chronic headache
Mon Dec 1, 10:27 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Acupuncture works better than drugs like aspirin to reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
A review of studies involving nearly 4,000 patients with migraine, tension headache and other forms of chronic headache showed that that 62 percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to 45 percent of people taking medications, the team at Duke University found.
"Acupuncture is becoming a favorable option for a variety of purposes, ranging from enhancing fertility to decreasing post-operative pain, because people experience significantly fewer side effects and it can be less expensive than other options," Dr. Tong Joo Gan, who led the study, said in a statement.
"This analysis reinforces that acupuncture also is a successful source of relief from chronic headaches."
Writing in Anesthesia and Analgesia, they said 53 percent of patients given true acupuncture were helped, compared to 45 percent receiving sham therapy involving needles inserted in non-medical positions.
"One of the barriers to treatment with acupuncture is getting people to understand that while needles are used, it is not a painful experience," Gan said. "It is a method for releasing your body's own natural painkillers."
They found it took on average five to six visits for patients to report headache relief.
Other studies have shown that acupuncture helped alleviate pain in patients who had surgery for head and neck cancer, can relieve hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms and can reduce chemotherapy-induced nausea.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen)
Monday, December 1, 2008
Planets surround moon in unusual night sky
Star gazers look at the crescent moon below Jupiter (top) and Venus in Kathmandu December 1, 2008.
REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar (NEPAL)
A crescent moon (R) is seen with the planet Jupiter in the sky over Amman December 1, 2008. Astronomers and skygazers across the world are keeping watch on Monday night for a rare astronomical phenomenon as two of the brightest naked-eye planets, Venus and Jupiter, join a thin crescent moon to create a brief "unhappy face" in the sky. On Sunday night, Venus and Jupiter appeared closest together in an event known as "Planetary Conjunction".
REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (JORDAN)
Spectacular Sky Scene Monday Evening
Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don't bother looking up. It's likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.
A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.
People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two "large silvery stars" happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about "the UFOs" that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.
Very bright objects
Venus has adorned the southwestern twilight sky since late August. No other star or planet can come close to matching Venus in brilliance. During World War II, aircraft spotters sometimes mistook Venus for an enemy airplane. There were even cases in which Venus drew antiaircraft fire.
This winter, Venus is the unrivaled evening star that will soar from excellent to magnificent prominence in the southwest at nightfall. The interval by which it follows the Sun will increase from nearly three hours on Dec. 1 to almost four hours by Jan. 1. It's probably the first "star" you'll see coming out after sunset. In fact, if the air is very clear and the sky a good, deep blue, try looking for Venus shortly before sunset.
Jupiter starts December just above Venus and is moving in the opposite direction, dropping progressively lower each evening. By month's end Jupiter meets up with another planet – Mercury – but by then Jupiter is also descending deep into the glow of sunset. In January, Jupiter will be too close to the Sun to see; it's in conjunction with the Sun on Jan. 24.
Earthlit ball
A very close conjunction of the crescent moon and a bright star or planet can be an awe-inspiring naked-eye spectacle. The English poet, critic and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) used just such a celestial sight as an ominous portent in his epic, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In addition, there are juxtaposed crescent moon and star symbols that have appeared on the flags of many nations, including Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Tunisia.
Also on Monday evening, you may be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called "the old moon in the young moon's arms." Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as what we now call "earthshine."
As seen from the moon, the Earth would loom in the sky some 3.7 times larger than the moon does for us. In addition, the land masses, the oceans and clouds make the Earth a far better reflector of sunlight as compared to the moon. In fact, the Earth's reflectivity varies as clouds, which appear far more brilliant than the land and seas, cover greater or lesser parts of the visible hemisphere. The result is that the Earth shines between 45 and 100 times more brightly than the moon.
The Earth also goes through phases, just as the moon does for us, although they are opposite from what we see from Earth. The term for this is called "complementary phases." On Nov. 27, for example, there was a new moon for us, but as seen from the surface of the moon that day, there appeared in the lunar sky a brilliant full Earth. A few nights later, as the sliver of a crescent moon begins to appear in our western twilight sky, its entire globe may be glimpsed.
Sunlight is responsible for the slender crescent, yet the remainder of the moon appears to shine with a dim blush-gray tone. That part is not receiving sunlight, but shines by virtue of reflected earthlight: the nearly full Earth illuminating the otherwise dark lunar landscape. So earthshine is really sunlight which is reflected off Earth to the moon and then reflected back to Earth.
Keeping it all in perspective
Keep in mind that this head-turning display of three celestial objects crowded together will be merely an illusion of perspective: the moon will be only about 251,400 miles (403,900 km) from Earth, while Venus is nearly 371 times farther away, at 93.2 million miles (149.67 million km). Meanwhile, Jupiter is almost 2,150 times farther away than our natural satellite at 540.3 million miles (869.0 million km).
Those using binoculars or a small telescope will certainly enjoy the almost three-dimensional aspect of the moon, but Venus will be rather disappointing appearing only as a brilliant blob of light, for right now, it's a small, featureless gibbous disk. That will change in the coming weeks, however, as Venus approaches Earth and the angle it makes between us and the Sun allows it to evolve into a "half-moon" phase in mid January, and a lovely crescent phase of its own during the latter part of February and March.
Jupiter on the other hand is a far more pleasing sight with its relatively large disk, cloud bands and its retinue of bright Galilean satellites. All four will be in view on Monday evening, with Callisto sitting alone on one side of Jupiter, Ganymede, Io and Europa will be on the other side. Io and Europa will in fact, appear very close to each other, separated by only about one-sixth the apparent width of Jupiter.
Venus 'eclipse' for Europe
As beautiful as the view of Venus, Jupiter and the moon will be from North America, an even more spectacular sight awaits those living in parts of Western Europe where the moon will pass in front of Venus.
Astronomers refer to this phenomenon as an "occultation," taken from the Latin word occultāre, which means "to conceal." This eye-catching sight will be visible in complete darkness across much of Eastern Europe. Farther west, Venus will disappear behind the dark part of the moon either during evening twilight or just before the Sun sets. When Venus emerges, it will look like a brightening jewel on the slender lunar crescent. For virtually all of Europe, the Sun will have set by then, the exception being southern Portugal (including Lisbon).
Such favorable circumstances are quite rare for any given location. For example, the last time London was treated to such a favorably placed Venus occultation such was back on October 7, 1961. And after 2008, there will not be another similarly favorable Venus occultation for the United Kingdom until January 10, 2032. So be sure to make the most of this upcoming opportunity. More detailed information, including maps of the occultation zone, as well as times for dozens of European cities, are here.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
- Original Story: Spectacular Sky Scene Monday Evening
Unlike is seen in Asia, the position of planets the crescent moon of the earth (top) and Venus (lower left) and Jupiter (lower right) provides a nearly upside down 'frown' in California Sunday night December 1, 2008. (Tharaphi)
A rare positioning of planets Venus (top left) and Jupiter (top right) and the crescent moon of the Earth provides a 'smiley' effect that captivated Asia Monday night Dec. 2, 2008.
(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
