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For sperm whales, death by collision is by far the most painful, he claims, with propellers often leaving the animals torn and gashed.
Conservationists contend that if shipping lanes were routed farther offshore, the risk of ship strikes would drop dramatically.
“Sperm whales like waters off steep underwater gradients but unfortunately the Hellenic trench off the Peloponnese is also the direct route for ships moving parallel to the coast,” the British marine mammal scientist Russell Leaper told the Observer.
“The solution would be to move ships a little bit offshore into deeper waters less favoured by whales,” he said from the Scottish island of Coll, where he was observing minke whales and dolphins last week. A marine mammal expert with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Leaper has spent more than 20 years studying ship strikes and says that in Greek seas they account for more than 60% of whale deaths although most, he adds, go unreported and unrecorded.
Greece is not alone. The southern tip of Sri Lanka – one of the world’s busiest shipping routes – poses a similar danger for the blue whale population.
Environmentalists have won unexpected support from the shipping industry. The International Maritime Organization, acknowledging the problem, has drawn up guidelines.
Earlier this month, the International Whaling Commission urged the Greek government to take action, saying scientific evidence showed that ship strikes needed to be tackled.
Prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist-led coalition is expected to submit proposals to the IMO to reroute shipping lanes this summer. Frantzis and his team have helped identify waters that are prone to ship strikes because of the overlap of high densities of whales. Much of the research has been based on mathematical analysis conducted by Leaper, who believes shifting traffic five miles farther offshore would suffice. He also cites the example of approaches being altered to the Panama canal and off the coast of California.
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) A south Georgia woman accused of killing her daughter-in-law at a home in Atlanta”s suburbs has been indicted on charges of felony murder and malice murder.
News outlets report that a Cobb County grand jury indicted 63-year-old Elizabeth B. Wall of McRae on Thursday in connection with the June 23 slaying of 35-year-old Jenna Wall in Powder Springs.
Authorities believe Elizabeth Wall had researched shootings and bought a gun months prior to shooting her daughter-in-law four times in her home. Police Say Jenna Wall”s two young sons were home at the time of the shooting.
The victim taught kindergarten at Kemp Elementary School in Cobb County and had been going through a divorce with the suspect”s son.
Elizabeth Wall was also indicted on gun charges and child cruelty charges.
The Republicans' reliance on corporate underwriting belies their recent commitment to populist democratic action.
Editor’s Note: Each week we repost an excerpt of Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column on WashingtonPost.com.
"Apres nous, le deluge." Surely the reactionary gang of five on the Supreme Court should have cited Louis XV in their Citizens United decision overturning precedent to open the floodgates to corporate campaign spending. For all the fixation on Tea Partyers, what is most notable about this election is the rising tide of money that is lifting many Republican candidates—and how it ultimately contradicts the message that GOP contenders are delivering to voters.
Only two months ago, Democratic Party operatives were boasting that the war chests of Democratic incumbents would repel Republican challengers. That was then. In the last quarter, Republican challengers surpassed Democratic incumbents in fundraising.
More important, the campaigns have been aided by an unprecedented wave of independent expenditures—over $150 million and rising, the vast bulk spent on attack ads against besieged Democrats. Many of these contributions are anonymous, made to nonprofit institutions that don’t have to reveal their donors. Karl Rove, infamous as George Bush’s political "brain," has essentially displaced the Republican National Committee with his American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS organizations, claiming that they will dispense over $50 million into the elections.
This flood of conservative money isn’t an accident. As a clarifying article by Eric Lichtblau in the New York Times detailed, conservatives—led by Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, the "Darth Vader of campaign finance"—have systematically sought to dismantle the post-Watergate efforts to limit the impact of money in politics, and to curb secret donations.
They’ve linked legislative obstruction with litigation, placed conservative zealots on regulatory agencies to block enforcement of the laws and propagated the ideological distortion that money is speech. Aided by the reactionary majority on the Supreme Court, the conservative drive has effectively shredded much of the financial arms control of the post-Watergate period. As Lichtblau reported, conservatives acknowledge their purpose: the more money in politics, the better the party of the monied class—the Republicans—is likely to fare.
Read Katrina’s full column at WashingtonPost.com.
Following the recent City Harvest Church (CHC) verdict ("Six accused in City Harvest trial guilty of all charges"; Oct 22), I support the Commissioner of Charities' (COC) decision to resume proceedings to ban Kong Hee from being a governing board member, key officer, trustee, agent or employee of CHC ("COC to resume action to bar leaders from key posts"; Oct 23).
However, as a churchgoer (albeit not at CHC), I think it is unrealistic to suggest that Kong can continue with his religious duties as a pastor, and not hold a management position in the church or be an employee of CHC.
The very nature of the job of a pastor is to manage the congregation of worshippers who have voluntarily come under his leadership, and from whom he receives his monetary support in return.
A pastor also wields no uncertain amount of influence in a church. Although it may be technically possible to prevent a pastor's name from appearing as an official governing board member or key officer, there is no avoiding the fact that the duly appointed officers might be swayed by their pastor's persuasions and person.
Several months ago, Lola’s Barracks Bar and Grill replaced Tapatini’s, and so far there are virtually no complaints.
Located on Capitol Hill, Lola’s has already made a name for itself by serving generous portions in a casual atmosphere. Prices are definitely reasonable for the area.
You can find an assortment of wraps and sandwiches on the menu. The Badass Baja Fish Tacos, which come are two homemade grilled tortillas filled with flash fried or grilled Mahi Mahi and cilantro slaw, have been welcomed with rave reviews. Standard bar fare is also available with options like chicken tenders and calamari.
Considering its small size, the upscale bar offers a substantial number of beers on tap. Wines by the glass are also available ranging from $7 to $10.
It was the story that refused to die.
Sunday's last-gasp passage of President Obama's health-care bill will finally liberate the journalists who have been chained to this complicated, arcane, often tedious story for 14 long months.
It's not that media types were rooting for the House to drag the measure across the finish line. It's that many were frustrated by a tangled tale that never seemed to end, and knew that plenty of readers and viewers were sick of the subject as well.
The conventional wisdom is that the press failed to educate the public about the bill's sweeping changes, leaving much of America confused about just what it contained. That is largely a bum rap, for the media churned out endless reams of data and analysis that were available to anyone who bothered to look.
History is written by the winners, and sometimes by the leakers. Thus, the New York Times and Politico began lengthy Sunday tick-tocks on the battle with Nancy Pelosi privately confronting Obama and Rahm Emanuel over a scaled-down version of the bill that, according to both accounts, she dismissed as "kiddie care." The odds that her staff provided such colorful details are high.
Trudy Lieberman, a longtime specialist in health reporting, offers a harsh verdict in the current issue of Columbia Journalism Review. She says the press coverage "has been largely incoherent to the man on the street . . . failed to illuminate the crucial issues, [and] quoted special interest groups and politicians without giving consumers enough information to judge if their claims were fact or fiction."
And there was no lack of journalistic shortcomings. When anger erupted at those town hall meetings last summer, much of the media wrote them off as a spectacle. Reporters were slow to recognize the growing public anger at Obamacare and what tea party enthusiasts viewed as out-of-control federal spending.
Journalists struggled to say exactly what was in health-care reform because as Obama allowed congressional leaders to take the lead, there were multiple versions floating around the Hill at any one time. Remember the months and column inches we wasted on Max Baucus and the Gang of Six, the Senate group that was going to hammer out a bipartisan compromise? That collapsed after many forests were sacrificed on its behalf.
When the polls turned against the president's push, journalists did what they usually do in campaigns: beat up on those whose numbers are sagging. Stories shifted from preexisting conditions and individual mandates to whether Obama had staked his presidency on an overly ambitious scheme that Congress was unlikely to accept (and, inevitably, how much was Emanuel's fault). From there it was a short jog to the rise of political polarization, the death of bipartisanship and the erosion of Obama's influence -- legitimate undertakings that again shoved the health-care arguments to the back of the bus.
One stellar moment for the press was the refusal to perpetuate the myth of "death panels." After Sarah Palin floated the idea that government commissions would decide which ailing patients deserved to be saved, journalists at The Washington Post, New York Times, CNN and ABC News, among others, said flatly that this was untrue.
But such black-and-white judgments were difficult with many of the provisions. How many people would defy the mandate to buy insurance? How much would a tax on "Cadillac" health plans raise? Would Congress have the stomach to deeply cut Medicare? How many people would be eligible for the much-ballyhooed public option? For that matter, what exactly is the difference between a public option and state-run insurance exchanges?
Bangert: Can Beck beat Baird in a deep-red, no-drama Indiana 4th?
Bangert: Can Democrat Tobi Beck beat GOP's Jim Baird in a deep-red, no-drama Indiana 4th?
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — As noisy as the May primary was in Indiana’s 4th District – when Republican Jim Baird and Democrat Tobi Beck emerged with nominations from races with a combined 13 candidates – the contest to replace Rep. Todd Rokita in Congress has been conspicuously low key.
“I hadn’t really thought about it being quiet until you asked about it,” said Shamira Gelbman, an associate professor of political science at Wabash College, a liberal arts school in Crawfordsville, part of a 17-county district in west central Indiana.
“But I guess that tells you something,” Gelbman said.
They also haven’t raised many sparks on what both call county fair, door-knocking efforts, introducing themselves to a sprawling district after Rokita, a Brownsburg Republican, didn’t run for re-election after making an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.
One reason for the lack of drama: Baird and Beck agree it has to be partially because they’ve refrained from going after one another, either in television ads, in the press or out in public. Beck hasn’t been shy about telling about the debate opportunities in Lafayette and in Greencastle passed up by Baird, who is running in what has been a reliably right-leaning district.
“The fact that Baird and Beck haven't engaged in any debates makes this race a lot less lively compared to others,” said Jay McCann, a political science professor at Purdue University, which also is part of the 4th District.
Gelbman agreed, even as she said she’s noticed a vocal contingent working hard for Beck in Crawfordsville.
Here’s Baird and Beck see it playing out.
Is the 4th District – which gave Rokita no less than 62 percent of the vote in his four campaigns and a district that went for Trump by more than 30 percentage points – a foregone conclusion?
Why you for Congress? And why now?
After such noisy primaries, how are they campaign and what are they hearing?
What’s their take on President Donald Trump and his job performance in his first two years?
Two years from now, if they’re running for re-election, what would they consider a successful first term?
What are two things they say separate themselves from their opponent?
Election Day is Nov. 6. Here are some things to know.
Where to vote early in Tippecanoe County: Early voting is available from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays at the county’s election office in the Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. Eight days of early voting at Greater Lafayette's four Pay Less Super Markets begin Saturday, Oct. 27, with hours of noon to 7 p.m. For a complete list of early voting sites, go to www.tippecanoe.in.gov/449/Early-Voting-Schedule.
Big Names Appearing On Legends With JBL, WWE Survivor Series Theme, Triple H With Soccer Stars - Wrestling Inc.
- We will have full details on WWE Network's "The Undertaker Week" that begins next Monday but one part will see a new episode of "Legends with JBL" featuring Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Steve Austin.
- The official theme song for WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view is "Warriors" by Imagine Dragons.
- Triple H posted this photo with UK soccer stars Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, and Darren Fletcher at tonight's WWE RAW in Manchester.
Illinois' public universities are being forced once again to plan to operate without state funding after going nearly the entire 2015-2016 school year without receiving any support amid the budget standoff between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Legislature's Democratic leaders.
The Herald & Review reports a six-month spending plan that has kept schools afloat runs out Dec. 31. There's no indication Rauner and top Democrats are close to reaching a deal on a budget for the rest of the school year.
The four top legislative leaders and the governor had been meeting behind closed doors during and after the Legislature's fall veto session, but Rauner canceled a Thursday meeting after House Democrats indicated they wouldn't present a budget proposal.
Democrats say the governor is constitutionally obligated to present a budget plan.
What Happens If a Budget Deal Isn’t Reached By Year's End?
The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator will take its first big step on the road to Mars tomorrow. The spacecraft will undergo a "spin table test" at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii. The event will stream from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. EST on NASA JPL's live stream.
The 15-foot-diameter craft is shaped like a flying saucer, and inflates to its size through a series of balloons that increase the surface area of the craft. It uses drag to decelerate from Mach 3 to Mach 2, preparing its payload for a softer landing on the Martian surface. This table test is a demonstration of how the craft will spin as it decelerates NASA's cargo during the descent.
Because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, simple solutions like a parachute are typically not enough on their own to slow down a spacecraft to a safe speed. That's why NASA has to use creative solutions like the sky crane that lowered Curiosity to the Martian surface.
The LDSD is also meant to save on rocket fuel during landings, which would allow NASA to use the rockets for "final maneuvers and landing procedures." In addition, LDSD potentially could haul heavier cargo and land it at higher altitudes, enabling NASA to explore more varied terrain, like mountains and plateaus. The system has been through one successful flight test in June 2014 to determine its flight readiness, though that was not a full-scale launch.
Eventually, NASA will conduct full flight tests with its flying saucer in Earth's atmosphere. If it works, then perhaps one day this will be the system that allows manned missions to safely descend to the martian surface.
What you need to know about Kandi's stock volatility today.
Investors following electric-vehicle maker Kandi Technologies (NASDAQ:KNDI) have likely become accustomed to volatility. In the last month alone shares have jumped between $16 and $20. But the stock's 5% spike today was bigger than usual. Here's the story.
Kandi electric vehicle. Image source: Kandi Technologies.
When the stock began trading today, shares were up roughly 10% on a Bloomberg report that China would soon announce as much as $16 billion in government funding for electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and to promote demand for EVs. Bloomberg cited "two people familiar with the matter."
The policy will be announced soon, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The people declined to provide further details of the plan such as how long the program would last or whether the chargers would be compatible with cars made by Tesla Motors Inc.
China has big goals for transitioning to electric vehicles. By 2016, the nation wants 30% of government vehicle purchases to be electric cars. By 2020, China wants 5 million hybrids and EVs on the road. The government is already taking action, providing incentives to push EV sales, and these policies are already making a difference.
According to Bloomberg: "While sales of electric vehicles in China have lagged behind government targets, BYD, the electric automaker partially owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, earlier this month cited favorable government policies for helping the company's new-energy vehicle sales to jump sixfold during the first half."
New incentives in China for charging infrastructure could help drive sales for Chinese EV manufacturers Kandi and BYD, as well as for Tesla, BMW, and Nissan -- all companies that are betting on electric vehicles as an instrumental area for growth.
Kandi is smaller than its peers, with just 141 million in revenue in the trailing 12 months and a market capitalization below $1 billion. So $16 billion aimed at promoting the EV market in China could move the needle meaningfully for the company.
China is the world's largest vehicle market, and EV manufacturers are looking to the market for growth opportunities. BMW and Tesla recently expressed great interest in the China electric vehicle market. In May, BMW predicted the nation would become the world's largest market for EVs in five years at the latest. Earlier this year, Tesla said China could eventually be its biggest market.
A Tesla Model S in China. Tesla began delivering vehicles to China in April and is ramping up deliveries significantly in the second half of the year. Image source: Tesla Motors.
The early substantial support from China signals the government in this lucrative market is still bullish on electric vehicles. Given the size of the Chinese vehicle market, greater investment in EVs there would be good news for the overall segment. Greater adoption of EVs in China would support further demand for EV infrastructure and innovation. And given the scale of the vehicle market in China, early adoption of EVs could help the nascent industry achieve scale and drive down costs for other markets.
But despite China's interest in boosting its investment in EVs and the nature of the nascent industry, Kandi shouldn't automatically be dubbed a great investment for the long haul. With a small market capitalization and a short history of any meaningful sales, investors are likely better off looking into companies in the industry with a better track record of success.
For the past decade, the health care industry has been viewed as a steady industry with relatively high wages. The industry has been able to weather the economic storm when other sectors falter.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in 2010, the health care services industry accounted for approximately $1.75 trillion in revenues and employed more than 14 million people, or 9 percent of the U.S. workforce. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that growth in the industry will yield 3.2 million new jobs between 2008 and 2018. Jobs in home health care services and diagnostic laboratories are expected to grow at the fastest pace – up to 40 percent over the next 10 years.
Think of the way the character Bones from "Star Trek" waved a wand over an injured patient to assess injuries. Or consider that a chip inside a replacement hip or joint could transmit data about the condition or use of the prosthetic, similar to the way a car tells you the tire pressure is low before you have a flat.
Advancements in technology are leading to a plethora of ways to determine a health issue before it happens. Wristbands are on the market that measure the body's diagnostics and could alert a user to an issue, including a heart attack, before it ever happens.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, "Investment in medical device research and development more than doubled during the 1990s, and research and development investment in the domestic sector remains more than twice the average for all U.S. manufacturers overall."
Because health emergencies are more likely to be discovered before occurring with these technologies, this should lead to a better quality of life, less invasive procedures and a better general understanding of one's health and wellbeing.
And what's the point of even visiting a doctor? In remote areas of the world, doctors are visiting patients without ever stepping foot in the country. Especially in the field of dermatology, doctors use teleconferencing tools to virtually visit the patient, give a diagnosis and determine a care plan.
A speaker at a recent Medical Mainstreet conference in Oakland County envisioned the future hospital setting to be that of a drive-thru. Patients will visit mainly for the purposes of procedures and be sent home quickly, while diagnosis and observation will be conducted virtually, but in a home setting.
This should lead to less need for highly skilled healthcare providers. They will be able to visit more patients, more quickly leading to an increased need for home health care workers, one of the lowest skilled and lowest paid occupations in health care.
WIN has convened several health care groups in Southeast Michigan over the past year and a half. We always like to ask: Do you have the workers you need? Is there sufficient talent in the region to meet your demand? This is a particularly applicable question when discussing registered nurses.
Of the approximately 40,500 health care job postings over the past 365 days, registered nurse was the third highest occupation in demand in the Southeast Michigan region. RN job postings account for the largest share of job demand in health care at approximately 11,500 job postings, almost one-third of the demand in the industry (28.5 percent). Nursing assistants came in second with a little more than 2,500 postings (6.2 percent).
So why is there such a shortage? In part, this phenomena is due to the health care providers' preference for RNs with several years of experience. This has been an increasing trend among all types of health care providers. Why? Liability. A number of health care organizations have indicated that a freshly graduated registered nurse is more likely to make errors than those who have had boots on the ground for a few years. Those mistakes lead to medical malpractice lawsuits, a situation that has caused health care costs to soar already. Many of the health systems recommended internships as a way of filling this gap and many of the current available internships occur within the health systems.
In October, all health care providers will be required to switch their billing and coding language from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 to ICD-10. Imagine the U.S. government declaring that in two years, everyone will be required to speak a different language. That is basically what is happening in the medical coding world. The new medical codes will allow much more detail than previous codes. According to the American Association of Professional Coders, "Even if the coder, biller, and physician obtain the recommended training, it is expected that a short term 25 percent decline in productivity when coding with ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS will be noted." Other studies have indicated a possible productivity loss over 50 percent. Medical billers and coders will be in high demand, especially around the changeover in October 2014. It is difficult to determine how much of this productivity will be regained once the billers and coders are "fluent."
Let us set aside the problems with the healthcare.gov website and whatever political beliefs one might hold about the new law: The Affordable Care Act means more people will be accessing care, which means more care will be given and more people hired to give it. In an industry in which there already is a shortage of workers in several key areas, including registered nurses, that means the industry is going to need to ramp up it hiring even more. Even if successful, longer wait times should still be expected. Hopefully that mobile technology will kick in just in time to save the day … literally.
In anticipation of the Affordable Care Act, the way Medicare and Medicaid pay a medical provider for services rendered is changing. Hospitals and doctor offices are receiving less money from these programs. While this should be balanced by an increased number of patients because more people are able to access health care, this has yet to happen, leaving health providers dealing with a fiscal crunch.

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