WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2005
Thursday Edition: Longer Needles Needed for Larger Rear Ends
It
makes sense. As we pack the pounds on our posteriors, doctors (and
nurses) need to be using longer needles to hit their mark.
Reuters says:
Fatter
rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark,
requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said on
Monday.
Standard-sized
needles failed to reach the buttock muscle in 23 out of 25 women whose
rears were examined after what was supposed to be an intramuscular
injection of a drug.
Two-thirds
of the 50 patients in the study did not receive the full dosage of the
drug, which instead lodged in the fat tissue of their buttocks,
researchers from The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin said in a presentation to the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
Day-After DUI
Travis Mayfield, from KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash., dropped me a note about a story his station aired.
We did a story for November about the dangers of drinking and driving. The
catch -- doing everything right the night of a holiday party (taking a
cab home, trying to sleep it off, etc.) but then getting up the next
morning to drive to work and getting pulled over for DUI.
In our experiment, we
went along with a group of revelers as they went out partying. We
made them stop drinking and go to bed when the bars closed (in Washington, that's 2 a.m.) then we woke them up at 7 a.m.
the next morning and had a sheriff's deputy [test their blood-alcohol
level]. Three of our participants were still legally drunk.
One was even twice the legal limit. If they had tried to drive to
work, they would have been at risk for DUI.
After
our story aired, we were contacted by a local DUI attorney who shared
with us that he's seen a dramatic increase in morning-after DUIs. We also heard from a county DUI trainer who did the math with us and showed us just how long it would have taken for our participants to sober up entirely.
We did it post-Thanksgiving, with the hopes of educating folks heading to holiday
parties this season. Below are the links to the video for our two
stories.
Drunk the Next Day: Part One
Drunk the Next Day: Part Two
War on Geese
The Philadelphia Inquirer
says the federal government has launched what amounts to an all-out war
on the rising number of resident (as opposed to migratory) Canada
geese in this country. These are the birds who have taken up residence
in parks and farms and leave a mess -- and lots of other little geese --
behind.
The Inquirer explains:
With nationwide numbers of so-called resident Canada
geese soaring and the headaches they create for landowners, farmers and
officials mounting, the federal government is declaring all-out war.
And you, dear reader, could become one of its trusty foot soldiers.
Under rules expected
to take effect before year's end, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials
would give more power to states and their residents to help get rid of
the notoriously pesky fowl.
Unlike their
migratory cousins, the birds have settled year-round in places across
the country. And wherever there's a gaggle, there are typically a
gaggle of complaints: maimed lawns and chewed-up crops, poop-infested
waterways and obstructed flight paths. [...]
Crafted over several
years, the new rules would allow states to forgo obtaining federal
permits -- an often time-consuming and cumbersome process -- before
acting to rein in the federally regulated birds.
The goal is to reduce the resident birds' numbers nationwide from 3.2 million to about 2 million by 2015. In New Jersey, federal officials want to cut the population from roughly 95,000 to 41,000. In Pennsylvania, they hope to see a drop from 236,000 to about 100,000.
Under the rules,
local officials would have more leeway to kill birds deemed a public
health threat to waterways and parks. States also could allow private
landowners to take matters into their own hands by destroying goose
nests and eggs to prevent the birds from multiplying. And farmers and
airport owners could be granted powers to rid fields and runways of the
large, oftentimes unruly, waterfowl.
States, if they
choose, could extend hours during the current goose hunt in September,
and add another hunt in August. The new rules also would give hunters
more leeway in the way they operate, including allowing them to use
electronic bird calls to lure their prey.
Exempt from the
hunting rules would be states within the Pacific Flyway on the West
Coast, where there are fewer geese -- and goose-related problems.
I have mentioned before that there are other effective ways of controlling the resident populations without killing birds. GeesePeace has worked in 10 states and the United Kingdom. The project is similar to a spay/neuter program. It involves, in some cases,
treating geese eggs to keep them from hatching.
Bedbugs are Back
A long time ago, I mentioned that bedbugs are making a comeback. (See a picture of a bedbug.) In New York City,
just for example, it appears to be getting much worse. A quick check
with your local exterminators and your state health and agriculture
department should help nail down whether this is a local story worth
reporting. The New York Times said:
And
bedbugs, stealthy and fast-moving nocturnal creatures that were all but
eradicated by DDT after World War II, have recently been found in
hospital maternity wards, private schools and even a plastic surgeon's
waiting room.
Bedbugs are back and spreading through New York City like a swarm of locusts on a lush field of wheat.
Infestations have been reported sporadically across the United States over the past few years. But in New York, bedbugs have gained a foothold all across the city.
"It's
becoming an epidemic," said Jeffrey Eisenberg, the owner of Pest Away
Exterminating, an Upper West Side business that receives about 125
bedbug calls a week, compared with just a handful five years ago.
"People are being tortured, and so am I. I spend half my day talking to
hysterical people about bedbugs."
Last
year the city logged 377 bedbug violations, up from just 2 in 2002 and
16 in 2003. Since July, there have been 449. "It's definitely a
fast-emerging problem," said Carol Abrams, spokeswoman for the city
housing agency.
<>In the
bedbug resurgence, entomologists and exterminators blame increased
immigration from the developing world, the advent of cheap
international travel and the recent banning of powerful pesticides.
Other culprits include the recycled mattress industry and those thrifty
New Yorkers who revel in the discovery of a free sofa on the sidewalk.
And
that new mattress delivered from a reputable department store, which
kindly hauled away your old one? It may have spent all day in a truck
wedged against an old mattress collected from a customer with a bedbug
problem.
Here are some other resources:
Comparing G-Forces
Florida Today and WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla., did something innovative and fun. They compared G-forces of local amusement park rides to get to the
answers about whether they are safe (they are, as long as riders are healthy) and
which rides provide the most radical experiences. Reporters rode all of the
area's biggest attractions armed with a three-axis accelerometer, a device
used to measure G-forces from all the angles that a twisting, turning roller coaster can throw at a rider.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible.
Posted at 4:31:32 PM
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