ALBANY, N.Y. — Researchers report that in the typical high school gym class - where there are a few jumping jacks before a halfhearted game of softball - students are active for an average of just 16 minutes. The report by Cornell University researchers also found that adding 200 minutes more of physical education time per week had little effect. ‘What’s actually going on in gym classes? Is it a joke?’ asked John Cawley, lead author of the study and a professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell. The study was based on annual surveys of 37,000 high schoolers by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data come from the annual youth behavior surveys from 1999, 2001 and 2003, which include questions about students’ exercise habits. As obesity rates climb among children, the role of schools in shaping students’ eating and exercise habits has come under intense scrutiny. In recent years, nearly all states have introduced bills to increase or reform physical education. Healthy People 2010, a federal initiative to improve physical fitness, has made it a goal to improve curriculum and diminish the amount of time students waste being sedentary in gym […]
CPR procedure for adults: 1) Check for consciousness. If the victim doesn’t respond, call 911. (If an automatic defibrillator is at the scene, use it immediately. Public AEDs have simple instructions.) 2) Rescue breathing - Open the airway and check breathing. Lay the patient on his back on a flat surface. Tilt the head back, lift the chin and quickly look, listen and feel for breathing. If there are no signs of breathing, give 2 quick rescue breaths: - Pinch patient’s nose. - Cover patient’s mouth with yours and blow until the chest rises. - Give each breath for over a second. - Do not stop to check for pulse. (If you are unwilling to give rescue breaths, begin chest compressions.) 3) Push hard and fast on chest: - Kneel at patient’s side. - Place the heel of one of your hands on lower part of the breast bone, between the nipples. - Place your other hand on top of that hand. - Begin chest compressions, pushing down about 2 inches deep. - Do 30 rapid compressions - faster than one per second. 4. Repeat cycle - Two breaths and 30 compressions, until […]
WASHINGTON — Teach yourself CPR? The American Heart Association says you can, with the help of an inflatable mannequin named Mini Anne and some simplified instructions. It’s part of a new push to nearly double the number of people who learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The urgency: Those heart-zapping defibrillators that are everywhere from shopping malls to people’s homes often aren’t enough to save lives - unless someone also performs CPR. The machines keep EKG-like recordings of heart rhythms that tell the tale of the almost-saved. It’s a message that’s been somewhat overshadowed by the gee-whiz technology of ‘automated external defibrillators,’ or AEDs. ‘People are doing the right thing in establishing lay-rescuer AED programs. Now we need to come back and make sure there’s sufficient emphasis on the CPR and not just on the technology,’ says Mary Fran Hazinski, a clinical nurse specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who helped the heart association develop its newest CPR guidelines. More than 300,000 Americans each year die of cardiac arrest. The heart’s electrical system abruptly goes haywire so that the heart quivers instead of beats, and the victim collapses. Without help, death occurs within 10 minutes, before an ambulance […]
The Vatican launched a diplomatic offensive in Muslim countries to clarify Pope Benedict XVI’s position on Islam following outrage over his remarks linking the religion with violence. As the Holy See’s move to appease Muslim anger got underway, the pope consulted his top diplomatic adviser, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in an audience at his summer palace outside Rome. The 79-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church also held talks with bishops from predominantly Muslim Chad, his first meeting with clergy from a largely Muslim country since a row erupted last week over his remarks linking Islam with violence. The Vatican said the long-scheduled meeting with the six African bishops was part of their customary five-yearly visit to Rome. Bertone earlier told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview that envoys from the Holy See had been asked to explain the full meaning of Benedict’s speech to political and religious authorities in Muslim countries. He said Vatican ambassadors, or papal nuncios, would highlight passages of the lengthy speech which would help to clarify its true meaning but which had been ignored in the furore. In another move aimed at calming tensions, […]
CARACAS — Hugo Chávez’s efforts to build an anti-US coalition received a boost on Monday following a visit by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, to Venezuela and the signing of trade agreements between the two countries. The two presidents are due to arrive in New York on Tuesday, where both are expected to address the UN General Assembly. Mr Chávez has been lobbying intensively to win a two-year term on the Security Council. Next month’s vote on the seat, which will pit Venezuela against US-backed Guatemala, will be a ‘thermometer reading of how anti-US the member nations of the UN are’, according to Alberto Garrido, a political analyst. Mr Chávez, who supports Iran’s nuclear programme, reiterated with Mr Ahmadi-Nejad their opposition to ‘US imperialism’ and their support for a ‘multipolar’ world order, free of the hegemony of what Mr Ahmadi-Nejad called ‘the tyrants of the world – above all, the Americans’. The two leaders signed 29 bilateral agreements in areas as diverse as petrochemicals, health, mining and agriculture. In a series of international tours this year, the Venezuelan leader has secured support for his Security Council seat candidacy from much of Latin America and Africa, along […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
