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Saturday, March 13, 2010

According to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), the city’s taxi cab drivers overcharged their riders by more than US$8.3 million over the past two years, by setting their meters to illegally high settings.

The agency reported that some taxi drivers set their meters so they would charge at the suburban fare, which is twice as high as the urban fare — within city limits, fare is 40 cents per 1/5 mile, outside city limits, 80 cents. 48,300 licensed cab drivers work in the city; according to data, 35,558 of them charged a rider inappropriately at least once, the city noted. The statistics also say that 3,000 of drivers had doubled the rates 100 times or more.

Riders who overpaid spent about $4.45 more per trip than they were supposed to, the commission said. 0.5% of all 361 million taxi trips taken in the past 26 were affected by inappropriate charging, the TLC reported.

New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, commented about the findings in his radio show, saying: “Some of these people could face serious charges. Now, how we would ever recoup the money and get it back to the individual payers, no, but we can stop the practice and we can make sure there’s penalties.”

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a taxi driver advocacy group, however, commented that the overcharging could have been due to technology problems, and not because drivers were intentionally raising fare. Bhairavi Desai, who is with the group, noted that “[t]here should be a thorough investigation before judgment is cast on an entire work force.”

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

A 17-year-old Minnesota student is believed to have shot his grandfather and grandmother, drove his grandfather’s squad car to the high school, and shot a security guard, a teacher and five other classmates, later committing suicide. This happened at 3pm local time on Monday (2100 UTC), and as many as 14 others were injured before the rampage subsided.

One witness said of the gunman, he was “grinning and waving”.

“I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that’s when I hid,” Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji. “You could hear a girl saying, ‘No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?”

Today’s incident marks the highest death toll yet in US school shootings since the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999. There were 15 people shot in Jefferson County, near Littleton, Colorado, in the Columbine shooting.

Police are still investigating any possible motive.

“It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together,” said FBI spokesman Paul McCabe in a briefing to the press. “We do have evidence that we believe that the shooter is dead,” he continued, “we believe he was acting alone.”

Reporters were asked to leave the area, located on The Red Lake reservation, by tribal authorities.

“The events that took place today involving the shootings at the Red Lake High School make this one of the darkest and most painful occurrences in the history of our tribe,” said Floyd Jourdain Jr., Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. The Indian band is made up of about 5,100 people, living on 825,000 acres of land in the northern part of the state.

Minnesota’s last school shooting was in September 2003, when two students were fatally shot at Rocori High School. That incident had statewide implications, causing a hearing on expansion of tribal gaming in Minnesota to be canceled for the day.

“We ask Minnesotans to help comfort the families and friends of the victims who are suffering unimaginable pain by extending prayers and expressions of support,” said a statement from Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Australian researchers say they have scientifically proven that stress causes sickness. The Garvan Institute in Sydney has discovered that a hormone, known as neuropeptide Y, (NPY) is released into the body during times of stress. Their findings show the hormone can stop the immune system from functioning properly.

“Neuropeptide Y is one of those hormones that gets unregulated or released from neurones when stressful situations occur…it’s known for example that it regulates blood pressure and heart rates so your heart rate goes up but it hasn’t been known that it actually can affect immune cells as well,” said Professor Herbert Herzog, one of the researchers.

Herzog feels it is good to finally have proof of something people have suspected for so long.

“Now we have proven without doubt that there is a direct link and that stress can weaken the immune system and that makes you more vulnerable when you for example have a cold or flu and even in the more serious situations such as cancer can be enhanced in these situations,” said Herzog.

The Garvan Institute study centres on two key events that enable the human body to recognise foreign substances and control invaders. When our body encounters a pathogen (bacteria and viruses), the immune cells retain and interrogate suspects. Their activation is made possible by NPY. These cells then return to the lymph nodes, which are found all over the body, with information about the foreign invaders. The lymph nodes are where decisions about defence are made.

“Most of us expect to come down with a cold or other illness when we are under pressure, but until now we have mostly had circumstantial evidence for a link between the brain and the immune system,” said lead Garvan researcher, associate Professor Fabienne Mackay. “During periods of stress, nerves release a lot of NPY and it gets into the bloodstream, where it directly impacts on the cells in the immune system that look out for and destroy pathogens (bacteria and viruses) in the body.”

In the case of bacteria and viruses, TH1 cells are part of the attack team that is sent out on the ‘search and destroy’ mission. But when their job is done they need to be turned ‘off’ and the immune system reset. The same hormone, NPY, that activates the sentry cells now prompts the TH1 cells to slow down and die.

“Under normal conditions, circulating immune cells produce small amounts of NPY, which enables the immune cells on sentry duty and the TH1 immune cells to operate – it’s a yin and yang kind of situation. But too much NPY means that the TH1 attack is prevented despite the foreign invaders being identified – and this is what happens during stress,” added McKay.

The impact of stress on the body has been observed in athletes. Ph. D researcher at the University of Queensland, Luke Spence, together with the Australian Institute of Sport, studied elite and recreational athletes over five months.

They found elite athletes were more susceptible to respiratory diseases under stress.

“A lot of elite athletes put themselves through vast amounts of physical stress in their training, but also their emotional, psychological stress of feeling the pressure of Australia on their shoulders, wanting to compete and wanting to do their best,” said Spence.

It’s not just athletes who are prone to stress. Pressures at work and at home may cause emotional and mental stress that can be equally damaging. Almost a third of all work absenteeism in Australia is due to illness, costing employers over $10 billion a year.

“I think it has a huge impact for the work force and also for employers – if their employees are constantly stressed, constantly under pressure, they are more likely to get sick,” Spence said.

Further research could lead to the development of new drugs which may inhibit the action of the neuropeptide Y hormone.

Herzog warns people to minimise stress before it becomes a problem.

“Relaxation methods like yoga will help you to prevent that but there will still be people out there that are not responding to that and treatment by interfering with the system will be important,” he said. “There’s obviously some time until such a treatment will be available but this is something we will definitely work towards.”

The Garvan research will be published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 202, No. 11.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A Russian trapeze artist, Vitaly Kharapavitski, 26, performing at a circus in Scariff, Ireland has died after a cage attached to a hot air balloon crushed the performer. His wife, Sasha, 24, who was also performing at the time, was injured, breaking her arm. Both were dressed in clown suits.

At least 100 people were attending the circus and watched the acrobat fall. Most of the attendees were children.

According to witnesses, the balloon caught fire and the cage fell on top of the acrobat, crushing his head.

Spectators of the circus were asked to leave the area while the incident was being investigated. Tony Kenneally, a Garda Superintendent said that the incident is being treated as an accident.

“We had to discharge the audience because we knew it was quite serious,” said spokespeople for the Royal Russian Circus.

Some of the attendees thought the fall was part of the performance.

Monday, June 30, 2014

State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB), two of the largest public sector banks of India, proposed on Saturday their gold deposits should be allowed to count toward their state-mandated cash reserve ratio (CRR) or statutory liquidity ratio (SLR).

Arundhati Bhattacharya, the chairperson of SBI, made the proposal at a Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council event held in Mumbai on Saturday. She said the need for gold deposits to become more liquid has increased because gold import is putting a strain on the country’s current account deficit. S. S. Mundra, Chairperson and managing director of BoB, agreed and said it would help bringing gold into the more productive sectors of the economy.

Bhattacharya added SBI has no longer any incentive to run its gold deposit scheme as it cannot fully deploy the assets, noting SBI is the party most involved with gold deposits in India. G. S. Sandhu, Union financial services secretary, also at the event, responded that the government is looking for ways to monetize the gold held by the public, as import of gold can strain the current account deficit and foreign exchange reserves.

Currently, the Reserve Bank of India has set the CRR at 4% and the SLR at 22.5%. SLR is the portion of deposits that must be invested in recognized safe securities and assets.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper caused controversy this week after telling Toronto business leaders that he prefers to watch American news programmes instead of Canadian.

On Wednesday, he told the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Convention that he watched “mainly American news” and suggested it was his hobby “to watch politics elsewhere”. The Toronto Star says his “words ring true” in light of the interviews he’s given to American broadcasters like Fox News and CNN.

Three of Harper’s cabinet members, Jim Flaherty, Peter Kent and Tony Clement, questioned the veracity of his statement, stating they “assume” he must digest some Canadian news issues. But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said “I think the prime minister is too busy to sit there being vainglorious and watching himself on TV.”

Political opponents were quick to draw attention to the admission by the Prime Minister, whom they claim has always had American interests at heart during his career.

The Star quoted NDP leader Jack Layton, stating “Perhaps if he watched Canadian news more often, he would understand the negative impact of his policies on Canadian families. And if he actually likes Fox News better than Canadian news, then Canadians ought to be concerned”.

Liberal Bob Rae likewise pointed out that politicians “all have an obligation to know what’s going on”, and noted he found the admission “quite shocking”.

A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office clarified that Harper watched hockey on national networks, but took his news from American networks.