Wednesday June 5, 2002
Weird Sunset
Do not miss the sunset next Monday. If you live in North America, as twilight approaches the setting sun will be a crescent.
It’s a solar eclipse. On June 10, as many Americans are sitting down for dinner, the moon will pass almost directly in front of the sun. Unlike a total solar eclipse, this eclipse will be partial. Only a fraction of the Sun’s bright surface will hide behind the Moon — between 20% and 80% depending on where you live. The partial eclipse will last about two hours.
Unfortunately, sky watchers along the eastern edge of North America won’t see any of it. In Miami, Washington, D.C., and New York City, for example, the eclipse begins and ends after nightfall. However, almost everyone in the United States west of Atlanta can see some of the event (weather permitting). Observers in the south and central United States are best-placed to see a deep eclipse at sunset.
See a picture of what NASA says it will look like.
Piracy On the High Seas Rising
Morning Meeting reader Bonnie Kroll at business2.com says pirates are raiding big ships on the high seas. This is a great story for any journalist who is near an international port. Captains and crews have to be alert to this threat.
“Piracy on the high seas is on the rise, made especially worrisome by the threat of terrorism,” she writes.
Here is a site that tracks piracy.
A couple of years ago, The New York Times Magazine reported, “Piracy on the high seas resurfaced in the mid-1980’s and in recent years has ratcheted up to a true crisis both for shippers and recreational yachtsmen. In 1989, there were 48 acts of piracy reported around the world; in 1999, there were 285. So far this year (2000), it’s up by 40 percent.”
With new technology, boat crews are smaller and don’t have a chance to fight off attackers.
As you might imagine, a tanker full of oil or other provisions is worth millions of dollars. The bandits are after jet fuel, oil, and metals like aluminum which are quickly liquidated into black market cash.
The NYT Magazine story said, “Often the pirates will contract with black marketeers to hawk the cargo. And they also want the ship. This may mean repainting it at sea, obtaining fake registration papers and then selling it or just using it themselves to become seemingly legitimate shippers. This process, known as phantom shipping, is costly and dangerous, requiring serious planning and organization.”
Murder Top Killer of New Mothers
I spotted this story on the Casey Journalism Center listserv:
Boston Globe reporter Stephen Smith reports that an analysis of maternal deaths in the 1990s found that while medical problems caused the deaths of two-thirds of the 232 women in Massachusetts who died within a year of giving birth, the leading single cause of death was homicide. Shootings and stabbings accounted for most of the 30 murders cited in the study. Cancer was the second leading cause, with 28 deaths. The study covered the 21-month period from the day the women become pregnant until their babies reach their first birthday.
The danger appears to be greatest from six weeks after the baby’s birth until the end of the first year, a time when women tend to drift away from medical professionals who might be able to spot a brewing crisis as families adapt to having an infant at home. In fact, 89 percent of the murders happened in that period.
”These deaths are teaching us lessons about prevention, about creating safer motherhood, and serve as a call to action for those of us in public health,” said Dr. Howard K. Koh, Massachusetts public health commissioner.
Easy to Use Census Material
Try this site: http://www.censusscope.org/