Monday, May 9, 2005

Workers at Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana have completed a successful test-run of a chemical reactor designed to dispose of Cold War stockpiles of VX nerve agent.

After encountering initial difficulties when the temperature in the reactor grew too high, workers were able to adjust the speed of the device. 180 gallons of VX and water were turned into a caustic but far less lethal compound, that can be further reprocessed into an inert substance.

A residue of 14 parts VX per billion remained; the Army’s eventual goal is less than 20 parts. One drop of VX can kill a grown man.

The conversion of the VX stockpiled at the facility is projected to take two years. Then the drain cleaner-like waste product with its small residue of VX will need to be sent to another facility for reprocessing into a safer, biodegradable compound.

A controversial plan has Dupont doing the reprocessing at their facility in New Jersey, and dumping the compound into the nearby Delaware River.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Americans pay twice as much for heart-bypass surgery as the socialized Canadian system, with no difference in outcome, according to today’s issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine in a study funded by American drug company, Pfizer Inc.. The research found that heart bypass surgery costs an average of $10,373 in Canada, compared with $20,673 in the United States. Even though the costs were double in the United States, the rate of complications and death following bypass surgery was similar.

High administrative costs and overtreatment are usually blamed for the higher cost in the profit-driven U.S. system. Americans spent $5,635 per capita on health care in 2003, while only $3,003 was spent by Canadians. Health spending accounts for almost 15 per cent of gross domestic product in the U.S. and just under 10 per cent in Canada; while at the same time, all Canadian residents are full covered. In addition, the average Canadian lives 2 years longer than the average American.

This is one of the first studies directly comparing the costs of surgery in Canada and the United States and it reinforces the view of Dr. Mark Eisenberg, head of cardiovascular epidemiology at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal; “The conventional wisdom is that health care is much more expensive in the U.S. and the conventional wisdom is right.” by finding that Canada’s socialized system is far more cost efficient than the U.S. model.

The cost of medications used to treat bypass patients were as much as 68 percent greater in the U.S. than in Canada and the cost of a surgical bed was 36 percent greater in the U.S.. In Canada, nursing accounted for 44 percent of the treatment costs, compared with 21 percent in the U.S. and patients stayed longer in hospital following surgery in Canada.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Russian Wikinews captured exclusive media of a September 14 talk delivered by Russian traveller and author Viktor Pinchuk on his manual Hobo Tourism, created on Wikibooks.

Pinchuk spoke at the 2022 Literary Festival hosted by the Crimean Republican Universal Scientific Library in Simferopol, which was named after I. Y. Franko. The hour-long lecture addressed the advice and information given in the manual in English and Russian, whichincluding overnight accommodation, self-sufficiency and Pinchuk’s own experience travelling.

The lecture included a question and answer session and exclusive anecdotes, such as his deportation from Fiji.

‘Hobo tourism’ is similar to Western-style backpacking whereby one “[forgets] about comfort and [is] prepared for a few months of [the] difficult, sometimes exhausting life of a vagrant”. Pinchuk’s own experiences chronicled in the book include an overnight imprisonment by Afghan authorities and contracting dengue fever whilst in Malaysia.

• Flyer advertising the talk.

• Attendees seated.

• Pinuchuk answering a question.

• Certification of attendance.

• Pinuchuk speaking.

• Pinuchuk speaking.

[edit]

Thursday, February 3, 2005Despite assurances from the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Charles McCreevy that the Council would adopt its controversial Common Position text covering Software Patents, members voted to restart the entire process with a new directive.

MEP Michel Rocard noted several “inelegancies” by the Commission in his speech against the directive, such as not taking into account any of the Parliament’s substantive amendments in its recommendation to the Council. He also took the Dutch and German governments to task for ignoring their respective parliaments. The Irish Presidency’s sponsorship by Microsoft was also criticised, as were the attempted ratifications at fishery Council meetings.

There was also confusion over the actual effects of the proposed directive with industry players confirming that the Council text allowed pure software patents, while the Commission claimed it would not.

“In the debate, broad agreement prevailed over the fact that the current proposal was counter-productive and far from a good basis for a decision,” said Italian MEP Monica Frassoni.

The computer-implemented inventions directive was voted down by members of European Parliament (MEP) in the legal affairs committee. 19 MEPs voted in favour of re-starting negotiations, 2 against with one abstention.