Saturday 30 July 2011

Death and Exhaustion from Video Games


Xbox addict 'dies from blood clot'


The family of a budding computer programmer have on Saturday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox.
A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth -- who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University -- was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.
Xbox 360 controller
Deep vein thrombosis normally affects passengers on long-haul flights, but medical experts fear youngsters who spend hours glued to their consoles might also be at risk and have urged them to take regular breaks.
Professor Brian Colvin -- an expert on blood-related conditions -- said it was "unhealthy" for youngsters to spend long periods in front of their consoles.
"There's anxiety about obesity and children not doing anything other than looking at computer screens," he told The Sun.
David Staniforth has now launched a campaign to warn other parents of the dangers.
"Games are fun and once you've started playing it's hard to stop.
"Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods - they don't realise it could kill them," he told The Sun.
A coroner's court in Sheffield was told how the youngster -- who had no underlying medical conditions -- was complaining of a low heart rate before collapsing outside a Jobcentre.
Staniforth's distraught father said his son would spend up to 12 hours playing on his Xbox.
"He got sucked in playing Halo online against people from all over the world."
Online computer games are extremely popular as thousands interact in shared science fiction worlds.
Reports of gamers collapsing after spending 15 hours in front of video games are fairly common throughout Asia.
In 2005, a South Korean gamer died after playing online games for three days without taking a break.
Microsoft -- which manufactures the Xbox -- said it "recommend gamers take breaks to exercise as well as make time for other pursuits."

Friday 29 July 2011

RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN

Retrain your brain

BOSTON
Thursday, July 21, 2011

EVERY leader faces a share of irritating screw-ups and minor setbacks. In response to those annoyances, some leaders get irritable and stressed out. Others keep on moving.

To be in that enviable latter category, you need resilience: train your brain to bounce back from hassles rather than get snagged by them. Find a quiet place where you won't be interrupted. Sit comfortably and focus on your breath. Notice yourself inhale and exhale.

Don't try to change your breathing, just be attentive to it. As thoughts, sounds, or other distractions come up, let them go and return your attention to your breath.

By doing this 30 minutes a day you will teach your brain to go to a quiet calm place when it is stressed, rather than triggering your fight or flight response.

Today's management tip was adapted from "Resilience for the Rest of Us" by Daniel Goleman. Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters. Reuters

ORPHAN TOURISM IN CAMBODIA



Cambodia's orphan tourism puts some children at risk: experts



SIEM REAP
Thursday, July 28, 2011

PICTURES of hundreds of former volunteers line the walls of a muddy courtyard in Cambodia's tourist hub of Siem Reap, their faces once familiar to the orphans playing there but now long gone.

The colourful gallery at the Acodo orphanage illustrates a growing trend of holidaymakers donating their time and skills to children in the impoverished country — but experts fear they could be doing more harm than good.

Marissa Soroudi, a student in her 20s from New York, is one of the many volunteers teaching English at Acodo, near the famed temples of Angkor and home to more than 60 orphans between the ages of three and 18.

The young American, who pays US$50 a week to work at the orphanage, plans to stay for a few days before travelling on but she knows it is tough on the children to watch volunteers like her come and go.

"There are so many people volunteering that it's kind of like, one leaves and another swoops in," she said.

"They say better not to talk about it with them. Don't say 'I'm leaving in a week', don't do any of that because then they get upset. Better to just not come."

Short-term volunteers may have good intentions, but childcare experts say they are putting some of the most vulnerable children at risk.

"Constant change of caregivers gives emotional loss to children, constant emotional loss to already traumatised children," Jolanda van Westering, a child protection specialist at the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) told AFP.

"And the constant exposure to strangers poses risks of harm, of violence and abuse, because we know that oftentimes volunteers come to an orphange without having their backgrounds checked."

As the gateway to the ancient temples of Angkor — which attract more than a million visitors a year — a steady stream of tourists passes through the sleepy riverside town.

And many want to do more than just sightsee in one of the region's poorest nations.

On noticeboards in hotels, cafes and souvenir shops, wide-eyed children stare from posters for schools and orphanages, encouraging travellers to donate time and money for their particular cause.

"Visitors see some poverty and they feel bad about it," said Ashlee Chapman, a project manager with Globalteer, an organisation that matches volunteers with local organisations.

"They want to do something," she adds, saying they might visit a children's project for a few hours, donate money and toys, "take a holiday snap and feel that they've contributed."

As the so-called volunteer tourism sector flourishes, so too does the number of institutions housing children.

In the past six years, the number of orphanages in Cambodia has almost doubled to 269, housing some 12,000 children, according to Unicef.

Friends International, a local organisation that works with marginalised urban children and youths, says tourism has contributed to the increase.

Visiting orphanages has become a tourist "attraction" in big cities like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, said Marie Courcel, alternative care project manager at Friends International.

That in turn encourages the institutionalisation of youngsters, many of whom are very poor but actually have at least one living parent, she said.

Only one in 10 of the orphanages are funded by the state, the rest rely on charitable contributions to survive.

At Siem Reap's Acodo, huddled with the children in the shade of the only tree, Soroudi organises the afternoon activity.

Following her lead, the orphans make headpieces out of grass and add licks of paint to green and yellow conical hats, costumes they will wear in that evening's traditional Khmer dance show.

The daily half-hour event attracts a tourist crowd who thank the young performers with donations of money.

Van Westering said she worried about the dangers for children who are expected to raise funds for their care by begging or putting on shows for tourists.

"They have to do their best and they hear that also if they don't there isn't enough money for their care," said Van Westering. "You can just imagine what that does to children to live in that kind of insecure environment."

Her advice to tourists pondering a brief working stint at an orphanage is simple: "Don't go. Give blood, support a community-based organisation that provides day activities for a child but where the children go home at night."

Betsy Brittenham, an interior designer in her 50s from Arizona, and her 15-year-old daughter Alex are spending three weeks as volunteer teachers at one such place, the Grace House Community Centre, where the children return to their families each evening.

Like the volunteers at Acodo, Betsy pays for the privilege of working on her holiday but she sees no downsides to the experience. "When you volunteer like this you're bringing your money and you're making tremendous strides and teaching their children. It's something you can't put a price on."AFP

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Closing Casinos can have an Effect on Indian's Health

Downturn widens racial wealth gap

The wealth gap is said to be the widest in nearly three decades
The wealth gap between American whites and minorities has grown wider during the recession, according to an analysis of US Census data.

It found the median wealth of white US households in 2009 was $113,149 (£69,000), compared with $6,325 for Hispanics and $5,677 for blacks.

This left whites with about 20 times the net worth of blacks and 18 times that of Hispanics.

Those ratios compared with 7:1 for both groups back in 1995.

Asians also lost their top ranking to whites in median household wealth, more than halving from $168,103 in 2005 to $78,066 in 2009.

The report suggests Asian households were clustered in places such as California that were hit hard by the property market meltdown.

The study, compiled by the Pew Research Center from 2009 data, found the wealth gap was the widest it has been since the government began publishing such statistics by ethnicity in 1984, when the white-black ratio was roughly 12:1.

'Big declines'
The data analysis demonstrates that the economic recession, which plunged housing values and caused widespread unemployment, widened an existing racial wealth gap significantly.

In other findings:

About 35% of black households and 31% of Hispanic households had zero or negative net worth in 2009, compared with 15% of white households
The share of wealth held by the top 10% of American households increased from 49% in 2005 to 56% in 2009
About 24% of all Hispanic and black households in 2009 had no assets other than a vehicle, compared with 6% of white households, a situation little changed since 2005
"What's pushing the wealth of whites is the rebound in the stock market and corporate savings, while younger Hispanics and African-Americans who bought homes in the last decade... are seeing big declines," Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specialises in income inequality, told the Associated Press news agency.

Between 2005 and 2009, the median net worth of Hispanic households dropped by 66% and that of black households by 53%, according to the report.

That contrasted with the median net worth of white households, which dropped by just 16%.

Before the recession, housing equity accounted for about 66% of the net worth of Hispanics and some 59% of black families. About 44% of the wealth of white families consisted of housing equity.

A geographic analysis of the study suggests a disproportionate share of Hispanics live in California, Nevada and Arizona, states which have experienced some of the steepest declines in US housing values.

Hispanics and blacks are the two largest minority groups in the US, making up 16% and 12% of the population respectively.

The figures reported in the Pew study are based on the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation, which surveyed 36,000 households on wealth from September to December 2009.

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Oh La La La Agneau et Fromage? Emission Carbon!

L'agneau à la première place du podium des aliments les plus polluants


Imprimer

jessica rat, Le mardi 19 juillet 2011, à 18h 07
On l’a évoqué à plusieurs reprises, la viande est néfaste pour l'environnement, contribuant entre autres activement à la déforestation. Les ruminants rejettent par ailleurs d’importantes quantités de gaz à effet de serre (GES) dans l’atmosphère durant la digestion. Des faits éprouvés qui n’ont cependant pas empêché la consommation mondiale de viande d’exploser au cours des quatre dernières décennies...

La production a ainsi triplé entre 1971 et 2010 et les experts estiment qu'elle devrait encore doubler d'ici 2050 pour atteindre plus de 544 milliards de kilos par an (!)

L’Environmental Working Group (EWG) a quant à lui calculé l'impact de la consommation de viande et d'autres aliments faisant partie intégrante de notre quotidien sur les émissions mondiales de CO2. Il a pour ce faire jaugé la quantité de CO2 émise lors de chaque étape de leur "vie", de la production jusqu'à la fin de parcours dans la poubelle.

D’après ses calculs, l’agneau devancerait le bœuf. Alors que ces deux animaux présentent les mêmes caractéristiques – il s’agit de deux ruminants qui se nourrissent de quantités de nourriture sensiblement identiques –, l'agneau émet 50% de plus d'équivalent CO2 pour chaque kilogramme mangé uniquement parce qu'il produit moins de viande comestible que le bœuf.

Produire, manger et jeter moins de viande permettrait une baisse notable des rejets carbone

Le fromage produit à partir de lait de vache, qui génère autant de rejets carbone durant sa production que la viande de bœuf, complète le podium. Les auteurs soulignent toutefois que la consommation de fromages moins denses est déjà

... Lire la suite sur zegreenweb.com