Archive - 2016 - blog

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NBC News 24 Jun 2016 While the prospect of a Brexit triggering other countries in Europe to follow suit and decide to leave is not an immediate one it would "certainly sow seeds of doubt," according to Paolo Dardanelli, senior lecturer in comparative politics and acting director of the Center for Federal Studies at the University of Kent.

"Denmark and Sweden would be the ones to watch in particular, as their position would be significantly weakened," Dardanelli added via email. "You could argue that the conversation about this could be different in a place like Denmark, or Sweden or the Netherlands, where you're looking at countries with well-functioning political institutions, and economies that are doing fairly well," Nickel said.

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Image courtesy VoxEurop and NBC News

Photo courtesy @BreatheSport

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2016/06/06 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts were allegedly hacked Sunday by a group believed to be from Saudi Arabia as a demonstration of the vulnerability of social media accounts, even for top tech leaders. Embarrassing security lapses are nothing new for Zuckerberg. He was hacked in 2013 by an unemployed Palestinian, Khalil Shreateh. The group claims that it hacked two of Zuckerberg’s social media accounts, supposedly to alert the Facebook founder to a security weakness by tweeting to Zuckerberg:
"@finkd, we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm [directly message] us. "

Zuckerberg responded less than an hour later, telling the “skids” to leave him alone. But six minutes later, a tweet on Zuckerberg’s account revealed a password that OurMine claims to have acquired in last month’s database leak at LinkedIn.  read more »

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heavy rain in Europe In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe, mostly Germany and France, but also Austria, Belgium, Romania, Moldova, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Among others, the German states of Bavaria, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected. There was also severe flooding in France. Beginning at the river Neckar, also the Danube, Rhine, Seine and their tributaries were affected by high water and flooding along their banks.

Germany - The Baden-Württemberg village of Braunsbach was most heavily affected by the floods. After flash floods on 29 May 2016, small tributaries of the river Kocher flooded the streets of the village within minutes, and the roadways were buried under rocks, trees and car wrecks.

France - the river Seine burst its banks and one town was evacuated. Four people died in the floods. (Compare Flood level of the Seine in Paris 2016 against the flood height of 1910). Flooding in Paris was expected to peak at around 6.30 m above normal, higher than 6.18 m high seen in 1982, but below the 1955 flood level of 7.12 m, and the 1910 Paris flood which saw levels at 8.62 m above normal.

June 2, 2016 Louvre and Musée d’Orsay have shut their doors amid Paris floods  read more »

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The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km), three-mile-long (4.8 km) channel between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It opened in 1937 and was, until 1964, the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,300 m). It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project was finished and opened May 27, 1937. The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937 and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed either on foot or on roller skates.

CNN May 27, 2016 Nearly 60,000 bridges across the country are in desperate need of repair. One example is just down the street from the White House and Capitol Hill. In the nation's capital, 68,000 vehicles cross the Arlington Memorial Bridge between Washington and Virginia every day. CNN was granted rare access to go inside the crumbling bridge. "It's just eroding and concrete is falling off," said National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles as she showed how the original support beams from 1932 are corroding. The beams have never been replaced, and the bridge could be closed to vehicle traffic within five years if it isn't fixed. It'll cost $250 million.  read more »

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bmj.com 03 May 2016 Medical error - the 3rd leading cause of death in the US

Washington Post “medical errors” incredibly common
Nightmare stories of nurses giving potent drugs meant for one patient to another and surgeons removing the wrong body parts have dominated recent headlines about medical care. Lest you assume those cases are the exceptions, a new study by patient-safety researchers provides some context. Their analysis, published in the BMJ on Tuesday, shows that “medical errors” in hospitals and other health-care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third-leading cause of death in the United States — claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer’s.  read more »