Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/161394071?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 14, 2011
Dover mortuary whistle-blowers shocked by problems (AP)
WYOMING, Del. ? The body of the Marine lay on a gurney at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary, an arm bone jutting out from the torso.
Embalming technician James Parsons wondered how he would be able to get the stiffened arm back into position so that a uniform could be put on the corpse for a viewing. Parsons and a co-worker asked their supervisor, Quinton "Randy" Keel, what to do, and he told them to take the arm off, then left, according to Parsons.
"I'm thinking, `This is just wrong. We shouldn't be doing this,'" Parsons recalled, contending that consent should have been obtained from the Marine's family first.
Parsons refused to cut off the arm and instead stood and watched as his co-worker ? a new employee still on probation ? grabbed the saw and removed the limb, which was then placed alongside the Marine's leg inside an undergarment that would be covered by his uniform.
A phone message left at a listing for Keel in Felton, Del., was not immediately returned Friday night.
After stewing for months about what happened, Parsons bypassed the military chain of command and reported the episode. He was one of three co-workers to complain about what they saw as callous or sloppy handling of remains at the main military mortuary for America's war dead.
This week, the Air Force said it had punished three top officials at the Dover mortuary for "gross mismanagement," including two instances in which body fragments from remains shipped home from Afghanistan were lost.
One of the cases involved fragments of ankle bone embedded in human tissue associated with two crew members recovered from an F-15 fighter that crashed in Afghanistan. The other involved a piece of human tissue an inch or two long.
The investigators concluded that the removal of the Marine's arm had not violated any rule or regulation. But the Air Force has changed procedures to ensure that a representative of the deceased's service, in this case the Marine Corps, has a say in whether the family should be contacted before a body is altered so significantly.
All three whistle-blowers ? Parsons, Mary Ellen Spera and William Zwicharowski ? said in an interview Friday that the problems at the mortuary have since been fixed and that the families of fallen troops can be assured that the remains of their loved ones are being treated with respect.
"Please trust us when we tell you that your loved ones are taken care of at Dover," Zwicharowski said. "Your loved ones can't speak for themselves when they come through here, but we are going to speak for them, and we're going to represent them."
Col. Robert H. Edmondson, commander of Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations at Dover at the time, received a letter of reprimand. Trevor Dean, Edmondson's top civilian deputy, and Keel, director of the mortuary, were reassigned to jobs dealing with families of the fallen and are no longer involved in mortuary operations.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has since ordered the Air Force to consider imposing even stronger punishments.
The three whistle-blowers said they went outside the chain of command after their supervisors failed to address problems there.
"In house, it was falling on deaf ears," Zwicharowski said.
All three said the Air Force retaliated against them. Parsons said he was fired in 2010 but reinstated almost immediately, while Spera and Zwicharowski said they received letters of reprimand. Zwicharowski also said he was put on administrative leave for eight months and at one point was labeled "mentally unstable."
The Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency within the federal government, is investigating the claims of retaliation.
Air Force spokesman Todd Spitler declined to respond directly to the claims of retaliation but said the actions of the whistleblowers have resulted in changes at the Mortuary Affairs Operations center.
"For the record, the employees who brought forth their concerns gave the Air Force an opportunity to make the operation at AFMAO better and stronger," Spitler said in an email. "Their initiative allowed the Air Force to bring corrective actions and long-term improvements to management of AFMAO."
The three mortuary workers said they have no regrets about what they did.
"You've got to do the right thing," Parsons said.
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Sunday, November 13, 2011
NBA lockout: Players ponder new offer
NBA lockout drags on despite players agreeing to 50-50 revenue split. League's new offer to end NBA lockout gets initial negative reaction from players.?
David Stern repeated the phrase almost a half-dozen times in his Thursday night news conference.
Skip to next paragraph"We await the response from the union," the?NBA?commissioner said, throwing the lockout ball onto the players' court while teasing them with the premise of a possible 72-game season.
The owners have made their best offer, Stern implied, and it's up to the players whether there's going to be basketball this season.
But Stern might not like the union's response. The early returns show mostly scorn.
"We are trying to grow the game of basketball, and under the terms that have been presented to us, the game of basketball for us from a players' perspective financially will not be growing," Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry said Friday during an ESPN radio interview.
"We will actually be getting rid of a class. In life and society there are three classes ? there's the upper class, the middle class and lower class. And what the owners are trying to do right now, what their proposal is, get rid of the middle class so you have one or two guys on each team making 'X' and the rest of the guys crunched down at a smaller number and then no middle ground."
Terry was referring to the mid-level exception, a rapidly shrinking free-agent tool. Teams that were over the salary cap last season could sign a middle-of-the-road free agent for up to five years and $29 million, though that option fell to three years and about $9 million in the owners' latest proposal.
Lakers forward Metta World Peace, formerly Ron Artest, seemed to agree with Terry, in his own way.
"It's bigger than just a lockout. It's an educational experience," World Peace said at a promotional appearance for Sungevity, a solar rooftop specialist. "I went through it twice. I got suspended for how I reacted in Detroit (in the 2004 "Palace Brawl") and saw they were able to take my paycheck. Now I'm locked out again. I can't receive a check. It's more educational for me than anything."
World Peace wasn't alone in his apparent displeasure.
"We (gave) them 350 (million) per yr plus were taking paycuts," Phoenix forward Jared Dudley wrote on Twitter about?NBA?owners. "Obviously it's not enough."
The players agreed to a 50-50 split of basketball revenue after earning 57 percent last season, but they want more concessions from owners on numerous peripheral items such as the mid-level exception and lighter luxury taxes for free-spending teams.
Player representatives from all 30 teams will meet Monday or Tuesday in New York to analyze the latest offer.
If they reject it, the next step might be to dissolve the union or invoke the more expedited "disclaimer of interest," both of which would allow players to file antitrust lawsuits against the league.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/-fAro__eJhM/NBA-lockout-Players-ponder-new-offer
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Saturday, November 12, 2011
New hope for head injury patients
9 November 2011
Last updated at 20:48 ET
Neuroscientist Adrian Owen explains how the system works
A method of communicating with brain damaged patients who appear to be in a vegetative state has been discovered by scientists in the UK and Belgium.
Writing in The Lancet medical journal they describe how they measured electrical activity in the brain to detect consciousness.
The technique, known as EEG, is painless and involves attaching electrodes to the head.
Doctors hope it can be used as a diagnostic tool in homes and hospitals.
The trial involved 16 patients at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and the University Hospital of Liege in Belgium.
All had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state - a condition where a person is awake, but has no sense of awareness of themselves or their surroundings.
The patients were asked to imagine wiggling their toes or squeezing their right hand. The brain activity of three of the 16 patients showed they were repeatedly able to follow commands.
Roy Hayim was not brain injured but describes what it was like being paralysed and unable to communicate
The report author, Professor Adrian Owen, from the Centre for Brain and Mind, University of Western Ontario, Canada said: "Many areas of the brain that activate when you perform a movement also activate when you imagine doing it.
"We know these three patients were conscious as they were able to respond repeatedly to the instructions we had given them. One of the patients was able to do it more than 100 times."
'Wrong' diagnosisProfessor Owen's team at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge previously showed that it was possible to communicate with some vegetative patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
But many brain injured patients cannot be assessed in these scanners because they have metal plates or pins, or they are unable to remain still.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Prof Paul Matthews Department of Medicine, Imperial College, LondonThis innovative work has taken fundamental brain science right to the bedside?
The EEG device is comparatively cheap and portable. Professor Owen said: "This is exciting because it means we can get out into the community, take it to patients in nursing and care homes, and assess many more patients at the bedside to see if we can detect covert awareness."
Helen Gill-Thwaites, a consultant in the diagnosis of low awareness states at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (RHN) in Putney said: "For a small proportion of patients EEG could be a very useful tool in the diagnostic process.
"It would however be a useful addition and not a replacement, to current methods of assessing severely brain-injured patients.
"Sadly, in my work outside of the RHN I meet many patients who have never had a proper assessment and have been wrongly diagnosed as being in a vegetative state."
Paul Matthews, Professor of Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London said: "The approach suggests a simple, practical way in which some of these patients might be helped to communicate.
"This innovative work has taken fundamental brain science right to the bedside. Efforts to further evaluate this and related approach in the clinic should be prioritised."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/health-15661977
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Friday, November 11, 2011
Today on New Scientist: 9th November 2011
How the cold, dead moon stayed magnetic
Apollo moon rocks show the moon had a magnetic field millions of years after its core was thought to have stopped churning - two new studies suggest what kept the core stirred up
Single-molecule nanocar takes its first spin
The vehicle, which has four wheels that all rotate in the same direction when zapped with a beam of electrons, may help reveal why nature's tiny motors are so efficient
Lab-grown hormone factory put to work
A fully-functioning pituitary gland has been grown out of embryonic stem cells and successfully transplanted into mice
Warm water lured landlubber animals back to sea
Vertebrates moved out of the sea and onto land once, 365 million years ago, but many animals later went back - only when the water was warm, though
Cotton transistors weave comfort into electronics
The next generation of wearable electronics could be a lot more comfy, thanks to transistors made from cotton fibres
The origin of sex was interaction, not reproduction
Sex is a pretty primitive business, but it has so many downsides that its success is still a big evolutionary puzzle. Time for a rethink, says Thierry Lod?
Contact offers hope for stalled Mars moon probe
Scientist behind previous failed Mars probe says there's still hope for the Russian craft targeting the Martian moon Phobos
Mars 500 crew share thoughts on their mission
An all-male international crew of six has emerged from 520 days' confinement on a mock mission to Mars. The crew tell New Scientist about life inside
The underhand ape: Why corruption is normal
If you think you're incorruptible, think again. Understanding why so many right-thinking people behave deviously could help clean up business and politics
Oil-sucking inflatable scoops up X Prize
Watch an award-winning device clean up a large-scale oil spill
Superconductor flying saucer stunts
Watch a levitating disc jump obstacles and coast over a partner along a magnetised track
Fizzy drink ban has little effect on students
Banning sugary drinks in US schools has not stopped students from getting their fizzy fix
A tour through our self-delusions
In You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney lays out in entertaining detail four dozen of the ways we trick ourselves every day
'Nudge' policies are another name for coercion
From organ donation to buying a pension, indirect attempts to sway behaviour undermine the core of democracy, say Henry Farrell and Cosma Shalizi
Zoologger: The only cross-dressing bird of prey
Some male marsh harriers spend their adult lives mimicking females, apparently to avoid being attacked by other males
Mind control key to improving Parkinson's symptoms
Neurofeedback allows people with Parkinson's to train their brain to improve movement problems associated with the condition
Skyscraper-sized asteroid set to buzz Earth
A space rock about the size of the Empire State Building is set to come closer to Earth than any other asteroid of its size in 35 years
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Pitbull Barks Back at Lindsay Lohan Lawsuit
Pitbull has come out barking in his legal dispute with Lindsay Lohan, responding to the lawsuit she recently filed against him by calling LiLo a liar and a criminal.
Lohan claims the hip hop star owes her money for disparaging and using her name in the song "Give Me Everything," in which he name-checks the train wreck.
Hilariously, the track includes the memorable lyric, "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan." More hilariously, Lohan says a PITBULL SONG damages her reputation.
Pitbull says that's ridiculous, but Lohan refused to back down ... so his lawyers are taking it to her, asking that, first of all, the suit be moved out of N.Y. State.
Lindsay claims in court documents that she's a resident of Nassau County, however, Pit claims she's been living California since 2004 ... and he can prove it.
"Given her frequent legal troubles, Ms. Lohan possesses irrevocable ties to California that are likely to keep her there for the foreseeable future," he states.
Then, Pit rattles off every single one of her legal problems in California - many jail stints, house arrest, community service, you name it - to make his point.
Thus, in light of Ms. Lohan's continuing obligations to the State of California, as well as the foregoing facts, Ms. Lohan is not a citizen New York," he adds.
The rapper wants the case moved to federal court, where he thinks he'll have a better shot of taking Lohan down. Your move, Marilyn Monroe wannabe.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/pitbull-barks-back-at-lindsay-lohan-lawsuit/
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IDC expects Thai floods to hurt PCs in new year (AP)
NEW YORK ? Heavy flooding in Thailand won't hurt PC sales significantly this holiday season, research group IDC says.
The disaster's real effect isn't expected to hit makers of personal computers until early next year. In a worst-case scenario, PC shipments could drop more than 20 percent from previous forecasts in the first quarter of 2012.
Many of the personal computers that will be sold during the holiday season have already been produced or can be made with existing supplies of hard drives, limiting disruptions from the flooding, IDC said Thursday. IDC expects PC shipments in the October-December quarter to be less than 10 percent below earlier forecasts because of constraints in the supply of hard drives.
Computer manufacturers, the companies that supply hard drives and the makers of components for those drives have been bracing for troubles. Many factories that produce hard drives in Thailand have temporarily closed as flooding has gradually spread since August. Prices for hard drives have spiked, and computer makers such as Dell Inc. and Apple Inc. have been monitoring supplies.
John Rydning, IDC's research vice president for hard drives and semiconductors, said larger manufacturers will likely get first access to the hard drive supplies that are available. But another IDC analyst, Loren Loverde, said that even the largest vendors will face shortages.
IDC said Thailand accounted for up to 45 percent of worldwide hard drive production in the first half of the year. It said nearly half of that capacity was affected by the flooding as of early November.
On Wednesday, Cisco Systems Inc. said it was watching for the effect on disk drives for its set-top boxes and on its optical-networking products. It said it has contingency plans in place to minimize any impact and has factored that into forecasts, but it expects things won't return to normal for several quarters.
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