BAHRAIN — Global disaster risk is increasing worldwide due to unsafe cities and the combined impact of environmental destruction and climate change which jeopardize the lives of hundreds of millions of people says a landmark UN report published today. Across low- and middle-income countries, recurrent disasters are destroying livelihoods, driven by a lack of government attention, unplanned urbanization and deplorable economic conditions. The Report notes that damage to housing from such persistent, low intensity events has quintupled since 1980. ‘Disaster risk is rising in an alarming way, threatening development gains, economic stability and global security while creating disproportionate impacts on developing countries and poor rural and urban areas,’ says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, launching the first Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction today (17 May 2009) in the Kingdom of Bahrain. ‘While we cannot prevent natural phenomena such as earthquakes and cyclones, we can limit their consequences. Pre-emptive risk reduction is the key. Sound response mechanisms after the event, however effective, are never enough.’ The document peels back the layers of disaster to reveal previously unidentified trends and data analysis, which will help refocus risk reduction priorities worldwide and push climate change adaptation even further up […]
In the largest study of its kind to date, researchers found that a smidgen of purified ginger given in supplement form –equivalent to one-quarter teaspoon to one-half teaspoon of the spice each day — could reduce chemotherapy-related nausea by 40 percent on the first day of treatment when used in combination with traditional anti-nausea medications. The findings were released Thursday and will be presented later this month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. ‘If we can reduce nausea on day one, then patients tend to have reduced nausea throughout treatment,’ says lead study author Julie L. Ryan, of the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. About 70 percent of cancer patients experience nausea during chemotherapy, although anti-emetic drugs often help prevent actual vomiting. In the new study, 644 people — mostly breast-cancer patients — were given supplements twice a day for six days, including the three days before and after they started chemotherapy. The patients took 0.5, 1, or 1.5 grams of ginger daily, which was divided into two doses, or they took identical placebo supplements that contained no ginger. Ginger-taking patients — regardless of daily dose — reported a greater […]
WASHINGTON — The struggle over what to do about school food emerged anew Thursday when health experts told a House panel that Congress should raise nutrition standards, but a school-board lobbyist warned against new federal mandates or measures that would kill school food sales. Even New York first lady Michelle Paterson, who said she promotes healthy eating, told lawmakers, ‘As you advocate for improving standards for school foods, I ask you also to examine the costs to states to supply healthier foods.’ That tension between health and economics in the hearing, chaired by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), echoed findings of a Newsday series on school lunches last year. McCarthy, a former nurse, called the hearing by the Healthy Families and Communities subcommittee to address the growing problem of child obesity and attendant ailments. She said reducing obesity comes down to healthy eating and physical activity. ‘One of the best tools we have to combat these illnesses is our ability to provide wholesome and healthy nutrition to children in school,’ she said. Congress is weighing measures that could have a big impact on the kind of foods available in school lunchrooms and vending machines. The […]
A David has just arisen to take on the Goliath that is Google: Wolfram|Alpha, a search engine which serves up formatted answers to questions rather than provide just a list of links. As of this writing, it was scheduled to go live this Monday. What is it? This ‘computational knowledge engine’ (as it calls itself) is the brainchild of Stephen Wolfram, the founder of Wolfram Research, whose most well-known product to date is Mathematica, a computational application that is used by mathematicians, scientists and other technicians. Wolfram|Alpha’s mission is to go beyond simply finding and listing links to Web sites, and instead to pull the needed data from those sites and provide users with the answers to their questions. In other words, it will travel through Web sites so you don’t have to. What does it do? Wolfram|Alpha gathers data based on your search terms and presents you with the answers in a well-formatted structure, using charts, graphs and other visual aids. For example, if you want to compare statistics about several different cities, you type in their names and find out that, say, Tokyo has several thousand more people than New York. What’s cool about […]
Promoting the health of young children, before five years of age, could save society up to $65 billion in future health care costs, according to an examination of childhood health conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The results are published in the May 15, 2009, issue of Academic Pediatrics. ‘Our review found convincing evidence that the four health problems we studied-early life tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity and mental health-constitute significant burdens on the health of preschool-age children and are antecedents of health problems across the life span, said Bernard Guyer, MD, lead author of the study and the Zanvyl Kreiger Professor of Children’s Health with the Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. ‘These health problems affect approximately one-third to one-half of children born in the U.S., and we estimated that total lifetime societal cost could be about $50,000 per child-which translates to $65-100 billion for the entire birth cohort of children. The currently available research justifies targeted investments in early childhood health promotion as a means to averting future health costs and improving overall health during their life span. Researchers conducted a systematic review of early childhood interventions […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
