E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

“I ask myself every day, ‘Why me?’ and ‘Why from a hamburger?’ ”Ms. Smith said. In the simplest terms, she ran out of luck in a food-safety game of chance whose rules and risks are not widely known.

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states.

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New York Times. Oct 3, 2009.

Men Sleep on Mars, Women on Venus

Elderly women may complain about insomnia, but they really get more sleep than men their age.

That is the surprising finding of a Dutch study that used monitors and sleep diaries to assess the sleep patterns of almost 1,000 men and women ages 59 to 97 for 6 days, and found that the women slept a quarter of an hour longer, on average, than the men.

Yet when men and women were asked about the quality of their sleep, women were more likely to report it as poor.

“What we found is that men completely overreport their sleep — they have a strong tendency to make it sound better than it was,” said Dr. Henning Tiemeier, associate professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and principal investigator for the study, published in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

In fact, men did not sleep as well as women, the study found. They reported sleeping seven hours a night, but objective measures, including a monitor on the wrist that measured sleep time, indicated they slept less than six and a half hours. Their sleep was also more fragmented, possibly because they drank more alcohol than the women.

Though women reported more problems with their sleep, their reports were more accurate, Dr. Tiemeier said.

Are men just oblivious?

“One could say men have this gift of being more optimistic, that it’s a natural tendency,” Dr. Tiemeier said.

New York Times. Oct 5, 2009.

'Toy' Stories in 3-D - Buzz Lightyear finds a dimension

IMAGINE taking a Nintendo 64 game and getting it to play on a Wii. That technological task gives an idea of what the staff at Pixar Animation Studios faced in converting 1995’s “Toy Story,” Disney’s first entirely computer-animated feature, and its 1999 sequel into 3-D.

The double feature of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2,” which was released on Friday, not only offers another generation of children the chance to see both films in theaters. It also, conveniently, helps prime the promotional pump for next summer’s “Toy Story 3.” For Pixar and its owner, the Walt Disney Company (another new development since the originals appeared), 3-D innovation means the films can be seen as they should have been all along.

“I’ve always been thinking in three dimensions, ever since I started working with computer animation in the early ’80s,” said John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and the director of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2.” “Within the computer, we’ve created truly three-dimensional environments. We’ve only looked at them with one camera. Therefore it’s a two-dimensional view of that three-dimensional world.”

The production process for a 3-D movie requires the use of two cameras, positioned next to each other, shooting action at the same time to mimic each of the viewer’s eyes. A live-action film not originally shot with two cameras cannot be made into a 3-D film, but in the more malleable world of computer animation, the second camera view can be added. The process involves a bit of virtual time travel.

“We have every scene in ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Toy Story 2’ saved, and so we have this bit of action that is frozen in time, “ Mr. Lasseter said. “If we bring that up in our system, we’re going back in time into that moment.”

Without changing any of the film’s action, Pixar’s 3-D specialists, or stereographers, returned to each frame of the film and virtually placed a second camera next to the original, creating left-eye and right-eye views of the scene. Then all of the scenes were re-rendered in the computer with this additional perspective.

The process of taking the original files from the first two movies and getting them to a place where they could be enhanced was one that Mr. Lasseter called “digital archaeology.” “We had to have some very, very smart people at Pixar go back in and write some software and figure out a way to make it so that those files would render on our current computers,” he said.

It took four months to resurrect the old data and get it in working order. Then, adding 3-D to each of the films took six months per film. (Pixar and Disney declined to talk about the project’s cost.)

One person charged with that task was Bob Whitehill, the lead stereographer. And his role was not just technical; emotional impact also informed some of the changes. “When I would look at the films as a whole, I would search for story reasons to use 3-D in different ways,” he said. “In ‘Toy Story,’ for instance, when the toys were alone in their world, I wanted it to feel consistent to a safer world. And when they went out to the human world, that’s when I really blew out the 3-D to make it feel dangerous and deep and overwhelming.”

The distance Mr. Whitehill would position the second camera from the first would determine the degree of 3-D and which of three types: “in front of screen” (when an object seems to be in the theater with the audience), “at screen” (when the image looks 2-D) and “behind screen” (when the screen seems to be a window with objects in the distance).

But in creating various levels of 3-D, both Mr. Lasseter and Mr. Whitehill were concerned about not overdoing the effects. “We work very hard in all of the Pixar films to not make anything in the imagery that causes people to think of something other than the story,” Mr. Lasseter said.

New York Times. Oct 1, 2009.

Jackson autopsy details revealed

Pop star Michael Jackson had a strong heart and was a "fairly healthy" 50-year-old, according to an autopsy report obtained in the US.

His weight was in the acceptable range for a man of his height, according to the Associated Press.

But the singer, who died of a heart attack in June, had punctured arms, tattooed lips and eyebrows and suffered from lung damage and some arthritis.

Jackson's death was ruled as homicide caused by a powerful anaesthetic.

Cosmetic surgery

The Los Angeles coroner disclosed in August that Propofol and the sedative Lorazepam were the "primary drugs responsible for Mr Jackson's death".

The drugs were administered by Jackson's physician Dr Conrad Murray, and the verdict has been considered likely to increase the chances of criminal charges being brought against his doctors.

According to the document, Jackson's most serious health problem was his chronically inflamed lungs, but this was not serious enough to be a contributing factor to his death.

The post mortem did not uncover any physical problems that may have limited Jackson's ability to perform.

"His overall health was fine," said Dr Zeev Kain of the University of California, who reviewed the report for AP but was not involved in the post-mortem examination.

"The results are in normal limits," he added.

The report also revealed that Jackson had a number of scars on his body, including behind his ears and beside each of his nostrils.

Dr Kain concluded they were likely to have been caused by cosmetic surgery, while others, including on the knee, were likely to have been created by medical procedures.

The document also states that the singer was bald at the front of his head and had what appeared to be a dark tattoo stretching across his head.

His remaining hair was described as short and tightly-curled, it added.

The coroner reported that Jackson had depigmentation of the skin around his face, chest, abdomen and arms.

The full autopsy report has yet to be officially released to the public, but the conclusion that Jackson's death was homicide has been disclosed.

BBC News. Oct 1, 2009.

In a shower of sparks, fire dragon rises again to protect Tai Hang from the plague

The fire dragon of Tai Hang rose refreshed again on the eve of the moon festival yesterday, brightening up the tranquil Causeway Bay neighbourhood and wrapping it in a cheerful carnival mood.

Waves of revellers and fun seekers streamed into Tai Hang in the evening to watch the annual ritual of the fire dragon dance, which saw a 67-metre-long fire dragon emblazoned with thousands of burning sticks of incense take to the streets.

The air over Tai Hang was thick with the billowing white incense smoke, as more than 100 young bearers took turns carrying the fire dragon, threading through the narrow streets to bring good luck to residents. Bursts of light from camera flashguns and cheers from revellers pierced the smoke as the fire dragon twisted back and forth along the narrow streets.

Among the crowd was keen photographer Tommy Kwok, 24, who had arrived an hour early to jostle for a better position to take pictures of the fire dragon. "It is my first time to watch the fire dragon dance. I think it is really cool and is going to be a memorable event," said a delighted Kwok.

The legend of the fire dragon can be traced back almost 130 years to when Tai Hang was a village whose inhabitants lived on farming and fishing. A plague hit the villagers, and the only way to get rid of it was to keep a fire dragon dancing for three days and nights during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Villagers did so and the plague disappeared.

Earlier this week, the government declared the dance was among four local traditions it would recommend to the Ministry of Culture for the status of national intangible cultural heritage. The fire dragon dance is one of the many highlights of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar. This year, it falls today. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a major event for Chinese, celebrated by compatriots all over the world. The Chinese traditionally observe the festival with their families, serving mooncakes and lighting lanterns.

The Observatory says the moon will be at its fullest at 11.38pm tonight. Today's forecast is for dry and fine weather with one or two light rain patches, then clearing skies at night.

"Early birds" who went to Victoria Park last night to see the moon were not let down.

Chan Kwong-chiu, 50, who went with his wife, said: "We come to the park to watch the moon every year. We like the beautifully decorated lanterns on display here."

A Mid-Autumn lantern carnival will be held in Victoria Park tonight. The three-hour show features Chinese traditional stage arts, puppetry, a lantern quiz and fortune-telling. Performing troupes from Yunnan and Hebei will perform songs, dances and acrobatics.

There are also lantern exhibitions to promote the East Asian Games at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre piazza from now until November 1. Another lantern exhibition is planned for the West Kowloon waterfront promenade today and tomorrow.

SCMP.  Oct. 3, 2009.

Bill Gates lost $7 Billion last year, and is still the richest

The collective net worth of the super rich on Forbes's annual list of the 400 wealthiest Americans fell by US$300 billion over the past 12 months, and the tech sector spilled its share of the red ink.

Microsoft's Bill Gates lost the most — at least on paper. His net worth dropped from US$57 to US$50 billion, not enough, however, to keep him from topping the list for the 16th year in a row. Two current and former Microsofties were close behind: Paul Allen (No. 17) lost US$4.5 billion and Steve Ballmer (No. 14) gave up US$1.7 billion.

Other notable losers were Michael Dell (No. 13), down US$2.8 billion, and SAS's James Goodnight (No. 33), off US$1.9 billion.

In this company, the US$600 million that Apple CEO Steve Jobs lost on paper doesn't seem so bad. In fact, on the strength of the US$5.1 billion he still has, he moved 18 spots up the Forbes 400 list, from No. 61 to No. 43.

Below: The 12 richest tech moguls and their change in net worth. One actually got richer. Can you guess who?


No. 1. Bill Gates, Microsoft: US$50 billion, down US$7 billion
No. 3 Larry Ellison, Oracle: US$27 billion, no change
No. 11 Sergey Brin, Google: US$15.3 billion, down US$600 million
No. 11 Larry Page, Google: US$15.3 billion, down US$500 million
No. 13 Michael Dell, Dell: US$14.5 billion, down US$2.8 billion
No. 14 Steve Ballmer, Microsoft: US$13.3 billion, down US$1.7 billion
No. 17 Paul Allen, Microsoft: US$11.5 billion, down US$4.5 billion
No. 28 Jeff Bezos, Amazon: US$8.8 billion, up US$100 million
No. 33 James Goodnight, SAS Institute: US$6.8 billion, down US$1.9 billion
No. 40 Pierre Omidyar, eBay: US$5.5 billion, down US$800 million
No. 40 Eric Schmidt, Google: US$5.5 billion, down US$400 million
No. 43 Steve Jobs, Apple, Pixar: US$5.1 billion, down US$600 million


CNN Fortune Brainstorm Tech. Oct. 1, 2009.

European Airline Brings Back the Smoking Section

It’s been a long time since passengers have been allowed to smoke on an airliner in the United States. It’s the same story in Europe. But now the smoking crowd across the Atlantic have an option when the nicotine comes calling.

Ireland-based Ryanair is selling smokeless cigarettes on all the company’s flights. Ryanair says a survey showed more than 24,000 passengers would like the option to smoke during flights and that was enough of an incentive in these lean times to try and gain some market share as well as some extra income. So as long as you’re at least 18 years old, the company will sell you a pack of smokeless smokes for 6 euro (about HK$68).

Ryanair is a discount airlines that flies throughout Europe and North Africa and is no stranger to using a gimmick to bring in  some business. The company says the cigarettes can’t be lit and deliver the nicotine through inhalation.

For those who fear the old days when the difference between the smoking section on an airplane and the non-smoking section was simply whichever way the air was flowing inside the cabin, the smokeless cigarettes do not emit any toxins or chemicals to nearby passengers. Company spokesman Stephen McNamara believes when smokers can get their nicotine, everybody wins, “as these cigarettes are smokeless, they cause no discomfort to other passengers and can ensure a more enjoyable and stress-free flight for all passengers as non-smokers will no longer have to cope with moody smokers in need of nicotine.”

Wired. Sep 28, 2009.