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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Several new developments have occurred surrounding the loss of Philippine ferry MV Princess of the Stars, which capsized and sank on June 21 during a severe storm. The loss near Sibuyan island during Typhoon Fengshen, known locally as Frank, killed more than 800 of those on board.

Ship owner Sulpicio Lines has sued Del Monte Philippines for failing to declare a cargo of the dangerous pesticide endosulfan that was on board. Sulpicio yesterday sued the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMO) for allegedly making comments contributing to negative publicity surrounding the line and asked a court to stop the body continuing its investigation, saying it no longer had any authority. Today, that request was denied.

Another outcome of today’s proceedings is a deadline for Sulpicio to recover the ship. The company has ninety days to ensure the recovery operation is complete.

Yesterday, an eight-page complaint was filed against Del Monte at Manila City’s regional trial court. It alleges that Del Monte violated the line’s terms by failing to inform Sulpicio that the shipment included edosulfan. The line notes that any toxic cargo should have been declared. Suplicio is seeking PHP5.5 million from the company for alleged negligence.

“Due to Del Monte’s deceit and non-disclosure, plaintiff was led to believe that the subject shipment of Endosulfan was a regular cargo. Had defendant Del Monte disclosed the toxic nature of the cargo, plaintiff would not have loaded the same on board a passenger-cargo vessel, be it MV Princess of the Paradise or MV Princess of the Stars,” said a statement by Suplicio.

The exact total sought as damages is P549,661.11, which accounts for the correct rate for shipping if the toxic cargo had been declared, plus double rates as punitive measures. On top of those damages sought is P3 million to cover specialist recovery required for the chemical, P1 million in moral damges for lost corporate goodwill and damage to Sulpicio’s reputation, P500,000 in moral damages for Sulpicio marketing vice president and shareholder Jordan L. Go, P200,000 in exemplary damages and P300,000 in legal costs.

The discovery that the ship was carrying the endosulfan shipment, which totaled 10 metric tons, led to a ban on fishing in the nearby town of San Fernando and an emergency cessation of search and rescue activities, which were mostly being conducted by divers. The pesticide is banned in many countries and is subject to various regulations in the Philippines. Water samples from the wreck site show that thus far the pesticide has not leaked.

A specialist joint team is set to arrive soon from the European Union and the United Nations Environmental Programme to assist with opearations relating to the pesticide, which is a neurotoxin.

The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday awarded some 42 staff divers and six civilian volunteer divers for their work at the Princess of the Stars. They were particularly praised for being keen to return to work. They are awaiting the results of tests for exposure to endosulfan.

Endosulfan is one of the items set for retrieval in a new deadline set by the government task force overseeing the disaster. Sulpicio must also recover the remaining bodies and the unused fuel on board within 90 days.

Sulpicio had initially offered to have the job done in 164 days, but Transportation Undersecretary Elena Bautista rejected this proposal, saying “Out of humanitarian reasons, I told them not to prolong the agony of the victims’ relatives all the way to Christmas.” Sulpicio was given until Wednesday to name the salvage contractor who would be responsible for recovering the ship, after which they were to submit their retrieval plans to the International Maritime Organisation.

Sulpicio was also given the option of simply towing the ship closer to shore to do the recovery instead of refloating it, which they have opted for. In Bautista’s words: “Based on the Sulpicio report this morning, their plan now is to just tow the vessel to the shore, get the hazardous materials out, get the fuel out, and get the people out and I think that would be more cost-effective and most practical because that can be done, maybe within a month, as compared to refloating, which would probably take three months.”

Sulpicio is currently considering three different potential salvors, which remain unnamed. They have been told that the company needs to have expertise suitable enough to ensure marine life is not harmed and hazardous materials are not spilled. There is a possibility that the planned towing will damage nearby coral. It is already confirmed by the coastguard that oil onboard cannot leak. Most of the 250,000 litres of bunker fuel are in the service tank, which is considered safe. Only the small amount of oil in the base tank may leak but oil spill containment booms are already in place should this occur.

The government has said that, had Sulpicio not made provisions to get the salvage done, then they would have performed the operation themselves. Had this occurred, Sulpicio would have been charged for it, with the bill estimated at P100 million.

One aspect of another legal case was resolved today. Sulpicio had questioned the authority of the BMI to conduct investigations, instead saying only the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) had the right to do so, and pointing to a separate inquiry started by MARINA. However, a hearing today found that the BMI and MARINA serve different roles. The BMI’s role is solely to determine the cause of marine accidents. MARINA’s purpose is more concerned with regulations, and is mainly investigating the role of Sulpicio themselves. “We are looking at why we should not cancel the company’s franchise,” explained MARINA Administrator Vicente Suazo Jr.

Both investigations are ongoing.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Gunmen today opened fire in a Mexico City restaurant, killing a top police official in charge of monitoring the country’s illegal drug trade, as well as one of his bodyguards, Mexican officials said. The attack is the latest waged against authorities attempting to fight Mexico’s powerful drug cartels.

Security officials in Mexico City say the attack occurred as Igor Labastida Calderón, commander of the federal police‘s Traffic and Contraband division, was eating lunch with one of his bodyguards, Jose Maria Ochoa. According to Minerva Amado, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, two unknown subjects got out of a black vehicle, entered the restaurant, and opened fire on Labastida Calderón.

Reports differ on who else was injured in the attack. Amado said two other bodyguards were injured and hospitalized, while Mexico City newspaper El Universal reports that three civilians were injured.

The motive for the attack remains unclear. No arrests have been made so far, as police continue to search for the assailants. Federal police have refused to comment.

President Felipe Calderón has sent over 20,000 troops throughout Mexico in an attempt to take back areas controlled by the country’s drug cartels. Since Calderón took office in December 2006, more than 4,000 people have been killed by these drug cartels, allegedly including federal police chief Édgar Millán Gómez, whose May death was attributed to the Sinaloa Cartel.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The German noble family of Waldburg-Wolfegg has sold the manuscript known as the The Housebook to an unknown buyer. There is speculation in the German press that it was purchased by Baron August von Finck who currently resides in Switzerland, and that the price paid was €20 million.

It is unclear whether the purchase is in fact legally valid because the manuscript was sold without the permission of the government of Tübingen required by the law of fideikommiss dissolution (similar to the common law institution Fee tail). German law forbids the export of such a precious manuscript, which is registered in the list of national cultural property.

The Housebook of Wolfegg is an illustrated manuscript that was created after 1480 by an unidentified artist known as the “Master of the Housebook” (or Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet) and possibly other artists. It was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in the United States in 1998.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Another blast shook the Ukrainian coal mine Zasyadko in Donetsk, where over 100 miners died in a methane blast in November. According to the United Press International news agency, 52 miners were injured. The ITAR TASS news agency reports also that most of them suffered carbon monoxide poisoning and were taken to an occupational diseases treatment clinic, while seven were hospitalised at the central hospital of the Donetsk region.

Marina Nikitina, a local officer of the Ukrainian’s industrial safety agency Gosgorpromnadzor, informed the press that all of the 385 miners who were underground when the explosion occurred, have been already evacuated. According to her, the blast took place at 5.55 a.m. EET (UTC+2) in an isolated part of the collery at the deep of 1078 metres, where 63 people were working. A Ukrainian TV channel Kanal 5 reports the disaster has been caused by a methane blast. It informs also that Vitalij Shevchenko, the mine’s general engineer, has been ousted from his post by the Ukrainian mining supervision.

It is the second explosion in two weeks that happened in the pit. The November 18 blast is regarded among the Ukrainian media as the worst coal-mining disaster in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.

Today’s blast is a part of deadly series of accidents in the Ukrainian coal mining industry; in the Donetsk region alone about 200 people have died this year.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

In big cities, finding land for new parks is less of an expedition than an all-out land-rights battle with property owners. But some cities across the U.S. have found a slightly easier way to add to their greenspace. By utilizing the state’s air rights to the space above freeways that run below at ground level, cities can acquire 5 or 10 acres of parkspace essentially for free, such Freeway Park which occupies 5.5 acres above a freeway in downtown Seattle.

Of course, this free “land” is actually nothing more than open air above a freeway, requiring cities to pay the high construction costs of capping the roadway with land.

Such projects are currently being planned in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Dallas and San Diego. A recent article in Governing Magazine looks at more than two dozen highway deck parks that have been built or are under construction in the U.S. The article finds that even though the price of constructing parks on top of freeways can rise upwards of $500 per square foot, property values and local development boom once they are completed.

Friday, August 25, 2006

An 8th case of mad cow disease was found in a cow in the province of Alberta. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did a test and found BSE. The agency found no part of the beef cow’s carcass entered either the human or animal feed chains. The CFIA said that, “the cow could have likely lived another 6 months or so, but died of complications of mastitis”.

“The animal’s age is between eight and 10 years”, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The CFIA also traced 172 animals would likely ate feed out of that load.

“The cow’s exposure to BSE likely occurred before or during the introduction of new feed regulations in 1997 prohibiting use of cattle parts susceptible to the disease in certain animal feeds”, A release said yesterday.

An investigation is already underway to find the animal’s birth farm and potential sources of contaminated feed.

The United States has delayed lifting a ban on older cattle imports from Canada, pending investigation.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

In findings announced yesterday, scientists from Johns Hopkins University took ordinary commercial drones, swapped out their cameras for coolers and packed them with human plasma, platelets and blood cells. The drones were found to deliver their cargo in usable condition after flights lasting almost half an hour, at distances of up to 12 miles.

“For rural areas that lack access to nearby clinics, or that may lack the infrastructure for collecting blood products or transporting them on their own, drones can provide that access,” says pathologist and lead author of the paper Dr. Timothy Amukele.

Although earlier studies have confirmed that drone flights do not affect the useful properties or microbe populations of human blood products, those experiments were performed on small, vial-sized samples. Here, the drones carried much larger quantities of blood, in the proportions and packaging that doctors and medical technicians would actually use on patients, with units purchased directly from the American Red Cross. Unlike Rwanda’s medical delivery drones, which were custom-made for blood product delivery by Zipline, these experiments were completed with regular, commercially available S900-model machines with minimal modification.

Post-flight, the samples were tested for cell rupture, changes in pH, air bubbles and other damage that might indicate that the packages had thawed out or otherwise become unsuitable for use in transfusions. The samples were found to have arrived intact.

Although the test was performed in an unpopulated area, it is speculated that drones might be useful not only for delivery of blood products to rural medical facilities but also for distributing blood resources through urban areas. John’s Hopkins pathologist and research team leader Dr. Timothy Armukele speculates that emergency medical teams may one day be able to transfuse patients on the spot by calling for a drone to bring blood of the appropriate type.

The details of the experiment have been published in the latest issue of Transfusion.

Tuesday, April 5, 2005Terry Vo, the 10-year old Australian boy who had two hands and a foot reattached by surgeons after losing them in an accident, has had to have the foot re-amputated. He will be given a prosthetic foot in its place.

The operation to re-attach three limbs was thought to have been a first – but was ultimately unsuccessful, with the foot having died inside, and receiving insufficient blood supply following the surgery to reattach it.

“That would lead to the small muscles in the foot actually constricting, the toes bending over and a deformed …. foot that is sort of clawed over and doesn’t have good sensation,” said plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love today, on Australia’s ABC Radio.

“Even if you can get all of that to survive, he [would be] worse off than having had an amputation.”

“What is very disappointing is that for the first two days after [the operation] the foot looked absolutely magnificent,” he said.

Terry’s hands were healing well, said the surgeon. The prosthetic foot would allow him to walk normally, since his knee was intact.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

According to Democratic Senator Mark Begich from Alaska, the U.S. Department of the Interior has decided to halt all new Arctic exploratory oil drilling applications until 2011. The response is believed to be caused in part by the two current oil spill disasters (that of the Deepwater Horizon Incident and more recently the Alaska oil pipeline malfunction). However, Begich is not happy about the actions taken by the White House.

“I am frustrated that this decision by the Obama administration to halt offshore development for a year will cause more delays and higher costs for domestic oil and gas production to meet the nation’s energy needs,” Begich claims.

Last September, the state of Alaska made a public notice about Shell’s desire to drill off the coast of the Beaufort Sea, placing experimental drilling rigs at two drill site location: “Torpedo” and “Sivulliq”.

“Shell is committed to undertaking a safe and environmentally responsible exploration program in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in 2010,” said Shell Oil Company President Marvin E. Odum to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Mineral Management Service (MMS).

Odum follows with, “I am confident that we are ready to conduct the 2010 Arctic exploratory program safely and, I want to be clear, the accountability for this program rests with Shell.”

Chuck Clausen, director of the Alaska project at the National Resources Defense Council is not so optimistic: “Hazards present in the Arctic can include frigid temperatures, presence of sea ice, gale-force winds, intense storms and heavy fog … The potential for loss in the Arctic is great.”

Odum believes that the climate in the arctic will make any spill easier to clean up because, “Arctic conditions create differences in responding to oil in cold and ice conditions. Differences in evaporation rates, viscosity and weathering provide greater opportunities to recover oil. In Arctic conditions, ice can aid oil spill response by slowing oil weathering, dampening waves, preventing oil from spreading over large distances, and allowing more time to respond.”

However, Clausen believes that there are no current systems to remove oil from icy ocean waters.

This is not the first time that President Obama’s administration has taken the environmentally cautious path in Alaska. The President put Bristol Bay off limits to oil and gas exploration until 2017. Bristol Bay currently is one of the top salmon fishing grounds in the state.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to give a speech at Thursday’s White House address, regarding the suspension of Arctic oil drilling projects.

Monday, December 3, 2007

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader’s work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. “He’s an opportunist.” “He only stirs things up.” “Why do I always see his face when there’s a problem?”

Shankbone went to the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation. Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53). “People would say to me, ‘Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'” said Sharpton. “I would say, ‘Let me ask you a question: what was “bad as you thought”?’ And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad.”