By the TSC Staff
June 10, 2009

How safe is your home town?

Cities in the US grew safer last year while small towns became more dangerous, according to new FBI crime statistics.  Violent crime nationwide dropped by 2.5 percent in 2008.  Property crimes also fell by 1.6 percent.  Cities with more than 1 million people saw murders fall by 4.3 percent; cities with 500,000 to 1 million people saw murders fall by nearly 8 percent.  Yet in towns with fewer than 10,000 residents, murders rose 5.5 percent, rape increased 1.4 percent, and robbery 3.9 percent.

Nationwide, murder and manslaughter dropped 4.4 percent in 2008, the AP reports.  Aggravated assault declined 3.2 percent, forcible rape decreased 2.2 percent, and robbery dropped 1.1 percent. The country also saw a huge drop in car thefts — more than 13 percent.

The western region of the country saw the biggest declines, with a 4.2 percent drop in property crime and a 3.4 percent drop in violent crime. The Northeast saw a slight increase in property crime, which rose by 1.6 percent.

Where does your city rank?  And how can you protect yourself and your family?

 

By TSC Staff
Updated Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The wreckage of Air France Flight #447 has been found in the equatorial Atlantic.  Search planes spotted two debris fields, including one that stretched  across three miles of ocean.  The Air Bus A330 with 228 people on board crashed en route from  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris.  There are no survivors.

What happened?  The plane went down three hours into an 11-hour flight with no mayday call from the crew.  Despite many theories, the causes of the crash will likely remain a mystery.  Around 4:15 a.m. Paris time, Air France 447 began to send automatic messages to the company's maintenance computers indicating serious electrical problems.  Brazilian authorities say the plane also experienced rapid decompression, meaning it somehow lost pressure in the cabin at 35,000 feet.

The two-engine Airbus A330 has a nearly flawless safety record, according to experts.  The Air France #447 crew was made up of three experienced pilots including a captain with 11,000 hours in flight.

Among the key questions:

> Was it terrorism or foul play?  Probably not, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reports that "the investigation was assigned to officials in suburban Bobigny near the (Charles De Gaulle) airport, working with investigators of the paramilitary gendarmerie detailed to the transport secretariat. If foul play were suspected, the case would be handled by prosecutors in Paris and anti-terrorism police."

> Was it lightning?  Lightning is a leading suspect and may have triggered some kind of electrical chain reaction, frying the plane's crucial computer systems, but it's unlikely that lightning alone brought down AF 447, according to the French news service AFP.  Commercial airplanes are struck by lightning on average twice a year - or every 1,000 hours - and experts discount the possibility that lightning is the reason for this disaster.

> Was it some kind of catastrophic failure never seen before?  Most likely, according to the Associated Press.

> Will we ever know for sure?  Maybe not.  Locating the plane (or wreckage) will be extremely difficult in a vast area of ocean with depths of 15,000 feet.

> With 600 of these Airbus A330s in service with 82 airlines around the world, how safe is flying?  Flying remains extraordinarily safe.  Your risk of death on your next domestic jet flight in the United States is one in 60 million, according to MIT Professor Arnold Barnett, a leading authority on aviation safety statistics.  That means you could fly every day for the next 160,000 years - on average - until you got into trouble.  Your risk of death on your next international jet flight in the industrial world is marginally worse, according to Barnett, but air travel is still remarkably safe.

What follows are some of the myths of air travel and some lessons for your next flight.

By TSC Staff
Friday, June 6, 2005

Hurricane season begins this week.  Are you ready?  Alas, probably not...

A new poll from Mason Dixon finds that Americans are "grossly unprepared" for the rough weather ahead.

Fully 83 percent of residents in coastal states have not taken any steps in the past year to make their homes stronger, even after last year's active season.

Sixty-six percent have no hurricane survival kit, and 62 percent do not feel vulnerable to a hurricane or related tornado or flooding. Fifty-five percent do not have a family disaster plan.

 

By TSC Staff

The typical adult body has 17 square feet of skin.  And guess what?  It's crawling with critters.

New research in the journal Science finds that healthy skin is covered with far more bugs and bacteria than previously known.

As the Los Angeles Times explains: "People's bodies are ecosystems, believed home to trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that naturally coexist in the skin, the digestive tract and other spots. But scientists don't have a good grasp of which microbes live where, much less which are helpful, even indispensable, in maintaining health."

NowThe NIH's "Human Microbiome Project" aims to change that, recruiting healthy volunteers to learn what microbes they harbor so scientists can compare the healthy with diseases of microbes gone awry — from acute infections to mysterious conditions like psoriasis or irritable bowel syndrome.

By TSC Staff

The Survivors Club grows every second of the day because of the impact of climate change, according to a report from a London-based think-tank led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.  Indeed, climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, the report says.

An estimated 325 million people are seriously challenged by climate change, according to the Global Humanitarian Forum — a number that will double by 2030 as climate-change-related natural disasters and environmental degradation strike more people.

"Climate change is a silent human crisis," Annan said in a statement. "Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time."

The report, titled "Human Impact Report: Climate Change -- The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis" comes just six months before the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen to forge a post-Kyoto climate agreement for 2012 and beyond.

According to the Associated Press, the report suggests that rising sea levels, desertification and changing rainfall patterns are reducing many people's access to safe drinking water and food. This in turn increases diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition.

The report said 99 percent of all people who die due to climate-change related causes live in developing countries, even though those countries generate less than 1 percent of total emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

The report used existing data on weather-related disasters, population trends and economic forecasts to draw its conclusions. It was released ahead of climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, next week, that are to lead to a possible new global treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen in December.

By TSC Staff

The average American guzzles 56 gallons of cola drinks every year or 1.6 cans per day.  In fact, Americans drink more water in carbonated soda than they drink from the plain old tap!

Now comes new research warnng that consuming a lot of cola every day can cause muscle weakness, an irregular heartbeat and even paralysis, according to The Daily Telegraph of London.

Chronic consumption of cola can trigger a condition called hypokalemia, a condition characterized by low concentrations of potassium in the blood. 

By TSC Staff

It's a tragedy that boggles the mind.  This week, Boxer Mike Tyson's four-year-old daughter Exodus was found hanging from a cord connected to a treadmill.  She had been playing near the exercise equipment while her mother was cleaning in a separate room.  Her seven-year-old-brother found her body entangled in the cord.

Exodus's death is another reminder that there really are no true baby-proof cords connected to the things we use every day.  Indeed, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says there were about 200 strangulations involving window coverings between 1991 and 2004.  Almost all of these deaths involved children in cribs or playpens placed next to windows.  The industry has since redesigned window coverings to protect against deadly looping, but older coverings still pose a danger.

Tyson's death is also a reminder that machinery we take for granted can pose a real danger to children. An estimated 25,000 children are hurt on exercise equipment every year and some 2,600 kids are treated for treadmill-related injures, according to ABC News.  Most of the injuries involve friction burns.

So, what can you do to protect your kids?

By TSC Staff

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was diagnosed at age 8 with Type 1 diabetes, an incurable disease in which the body fails to produce or properly use insulin, the hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy. Some 23.6 million children and adults in the US -- 7.8 percent of the population - have diabetes.  Of that total, between 5 to 10 percent have Type 1 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Already, the Internet is buzzing with debate over whether the 54-year-old judge's chronic disease should be considered in the Senate confirmation process.  It's true that Judge Sotomayor's s condition puts her at greater risk of serious medical complications including heart disease, blindness, nerve damage, and kidney damage.  Indeed, studies show that adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to die of heart disease, according to Time.com. "The latest data suggest that patients can successfully manage the disease for four or five decades with no serious health complications," says Time.

"In the days leading up to this nomination, there were several media reports suggesting that Judge Sotomayor should not be considered for this position simply because she has Type 1 diabetes," said Dr. R. Paul Robertson, president of the American Diabetes Association.  "The advancements in the management of Type 1 diabetes have been just amazing over the last two decades and the ability of people to manage their diabetes successfully has been proven. People with diabetes can function and live a long and healthy life."

A high-speed boating trip on the Mississippi almost turned into disaster on Sunday.  Thirteen passengers, most not wearing life jackets, were ejected into the river.  All survived.  "We had angels watching over us, we did. That's a miracle out there, we should not be alive," survivor Kristin Pruitt told KARE11 TV news.

Goodhue County Sheriff Deputies say all 13 people on board were thrown into the river; some were thrown through the windshield after the driver tried to either stop or turn the boat at a high rate of speed. Authorities say alcohol was not a factor in the incident and luckily, no one was seriously injured.

"To be honest with you it happened so fast, I don't... I remember being in the air for a few seconds and after that it was just coming up from the water," Stacy Hallas recalls.

By TSC Staff

On this Memorial Day weekend, let's remember and pay tribute to all the American heroes who have given their lives for this country.  According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, some 41.8 million men and women have served in uniform in all of America's wars.  Of that number, some 651,000 died in battle and another 538,000 lost their lives in theater and non-theater.

On this weekend, let's also remember that 2.2 million Americans have volunteered to serve our nation in uniform.  More than 1.65 million U.S. service members have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since September 11, 2001.  More than 35,000 service members have been physically wounded.  It is estimated that more than 320,000 have sustained traumatic brain injuries.  More than 300,000 have psychological wounds.

What can we do about it?

The Bob Woodruff Foundation works to support all injured service members with a special emphasis on the Hidden Injuries of War - Traumatic Brain Injury and Combat Stress. While the wounds of these injuries may not always be visible, their impact is felt long after a service member returns and their treatment is often the most costly and difficult to attain.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation has raised over $6 million for injured service members.  In 2008, BWF funded $3.4 million in program spending which is estimated to impact approximately 516,000 service members, veterans, family members, and support personnel.  Through 52 grants to charitable organizations around the country, the Bob Woodruff Foundation has funded programs to reintegrate injured service members and assist their families with the transition.