Saturday, October 25, 2014


News Clips For The Day


EBOLA – TWO STORIES

NY officials urge calm after doctor's Ebola diagnosis
CBS/AP October 24, 2014, 6:56 AM
By Bill De Blassio

NEW YORK -- Officials tried to tamp down New Yorkers' fears Friday after a doctor was diagnosed with Ebola in a city where millions of people squeeze into crowded subways, buses and elevators every day.

"I want to repeat what I said last night: There is no cause for alarm," by the doctor's diagnosis Thursday, said Mayor Bill de Blasio, even as officials describedDr. Craig Spencer riding the subway, taking a cab and bowling since returning to New York from Guinea a week ago. "New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person's bodily fluids are simply not at risk."

De Blasio on Friday tweeted a photo of himself riding the subway to reassure New Yorkers:

Health officials have repeatedly given assurances that the disease is spread only by direct contact with bodily fluids such as saliva, blood, vomit and feces, and that the virus survives on dry surfaces for only a matter of hours.

"You do have to have direct contact with body fluids and if it were spread through the air, there would be tens of millions who would have it," CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook told "CBS This Morning,"

But some in the nation's most populous city, with more than 8 million people, were not taking any chances.

Friday morning, a group of teenage girls in Catholic school uniforms riding the L subway train passed around a bottle of hand sanitizer. They said they were taking extra precautions because of the Ebola case. It was one of the subway lines the doctor rode after returning home.

The governor and health officials said Spencer, a member of Doctors Without Borders, sought treatment with diarrhea and a 100.3-degree fever - not 103 as officials initially reported Thursday night. The health department blamed a transcription error for the incorrect information. He was being treated in an isolation ward at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola center.

Spencer is in stable condition, the city's health commissioner said on Friday.

De Blasio said New Yorkers should call 911 or go to an emergency room if they have possible Ebola symptoms and were in affected countries in the last 21 days. He said people in that situation should not go to a doctor's office.

De Blasio said people should not worry about their documentation status if they think they might have the disease. The mayor noted that flu and Ebola might have similar symptoms. He said it's important to get a flu shot.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier Friday that the doctor "obviously felt he wasn't symptomatic" when he went out "in a limited way."

Cuomo told "CBS This Morning" that the city is prepared to handle the Ebola patient because it has been preparing for the scenario for "weeks and weeks."

"We did a training session the other day with 5,000 healthcare workers, so our healthcare workers feel trained, they feel prepared, they have the equipment, we did the drills," Cuomo said. "Everything that happened here was a textbook case of how the situation should be handled."

But one commuter called riding the subway "a scary thing."

There are "a lot of germs in New York," said Chris Thompson who was riding the L train.

Another subway rider, 41-year-old construction worker T.J. DeMaso expressed concern.

"If the outbreaks get any more common, I'll be moving out of the city," he said. "You could catch it and not even know it. You could bring it home to your kids. That's not a chance I want to take."

Subway rider Alicia Clavell said she hoped it's "an isolated incident."

Veronica Lopez, who lives in the building next to the doctor, said "people were joking about it" but when the doctor's diagnosis was announced they "went crazy." She said she heard the city was notifying residents via fliers "and my roommate was freaking out because we didn't get a flier."

But Tanya Thomas, 47, who lives in Spencer's building, was matter-a-fact about the whole thing.

"He's the one with Ebola," she said. "If I get it, I get it."

Health officials say the chances of the average New Yorker contracting Ebola are slim. Someone can't be infected just by being near someone who is sick with Ebola. Someone isn't contagious unless he is sick.

The city's health commissioner, Mary Bassett, said the probability was "close to nil" that Spencer's subway rides would pose a risk. Still, the bowling alley was closed as a precaution, and Spencer's Harlem apartment was cordoned off. The Department of Health was on site across the street from the apartment building Thursday night, giving out information to area residents.

Evageline Love also was unconcerned. "I saw the mayor and the governor. What they're saying, I believe, is true. There's no need for hysteria," she said as he rode the L train to work.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will do a further test to confirm the initial results, has dispatched an Ebola response team to New York. President Barack Obama spoke to Cuomo and de Blasio on Thursday night and offered the federal government's support. He asked them to stay in close touch with Ron Klain, his "Ebola czar," and public health officials in Washington.

Health officials have been tracing Spencer's contacts to identify anyone who may be at risk. Bassett said Spencer's fiancee and two friends had been quarantined but showed no symptoms.

CBS New York reports that authorities on Spencer's Hamilton Heights block were trying to reassure the public, handing out cards to neighbors telling them what to do if they think they might have been in contact with Spencer.

The fact that Spencer tested positive for Ebola raised concerns about why he wasn't quarantined sooner.

"Here's a doctor who's gone to West Africa -- who's done incredible work to help people -- and he's come back into the country and nothing has been done to say, 'Let's put you aside for 21 days to make sure you don't have the virus,'" neighbor Joshua Renick told CBS 2's Tracee Carrasco.

The epidemic in West Africa has killed about 4,800 people. In the United States, the first person diagnosed with the disease was a Liberian man, who fell ill days after arriving in Dallas and later died, becoming the only fatality. None of his relatives who had contact with him got sick. Two nurses who treated him were infected and are hospitalized. The family of one nurse said doctors no longer could detect Ebola in her as of Tuesday evening.

According to a rough timeline provided by city officials, in the days before Spencer fell ill, he went on a 3-mile jog, went to the High Line park, rode the subway and, on Wednesday night, got a taxi to a Brooklyn bowling alley. He felt tired starting Tuesday, and felt worse on Thursday when he and his fiancee made a joint call to authorities to detail his symptoms and his travels. EMTs in full Ebola gear arrived and took him to Bellevue in an ambulance surrounded by police squad cars.

Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organization, said per the guidelines it provides its staff members on their return from Ebola assignments, "the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately." Travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone must report in with health officials daily and take their temperature twice a day, as Spencer did. He also limited his direct contact with people, health officials said.

Spencer, 33, works at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. He had not seen any patients or been to the hospital since his return, the hospital said in a statement, calling him a "dedicated humanitarian" who "went to an area of medical crisis to help a desperately underserved population."

Four American aid workers, including three doctors, were infected with Ebola while working in Africa and were transferred to the U.S. for treatment in recent months. All recovered. Health care workers are vulnerable because of close contact with patients when they are their sickest and most contagious.

In West Africa this year, more than 440 health workers have contracted Ebola and about half have died. But the Ebola virus is not very hardy. The CDC says bleach and other hospital disinfectants kill it.

Spencer is from Michigan and attended Wayne State University School of Medicine and Columbia's University Mailman School of Public Health.

According to his Facebook page, he left for West Africa via Brussels last month. A photo shows him in full protective gear. He returned to Brussels Oct. 16.

"Off to Guinea with Doctors Without Borders," he wrote. "Please support organizations that are sending support or personnel to West Africa, and help combat one of the worst public health and humanitarian disasters in recent history."




“He felt tired starting Tuesday, and felt worse on Thursday when he and his fiancee made a joint call to authorities to detail his symptoms and his travels. EMTs in full Ebola gear arrived and took him to Bellevue in an ambulance surrounded by police squad cars.... Travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone must report in with health officials daily and take their temperature twice a day, as Spencer did. He also limited his direct contact with people, health officials said.... In West Africa this year, more than 440 health workers have contracted Ebola and about half have died. But the Ebola virus is not very hardy. The CDC says bleach and other hospital disinfectants kill it.... The fact that Spencer tested positive for Ebola raised concerns about why he wasn't quarantined sooner. 'Here's a doctor who's gone to West Africa -- who's done incredible work to help people -- and he's come back into the country and nothing has been done to say, 'Let's put you aside for 21 days to make sure you don't have the virus,' neighbor Joshua Renick told CBS 2's Tracee Carrasco.”

One thing about this article strikes me. The CDC is saying people can go out and about until they have an elevated temperature, but this doctor didn't "feel well" for about two days before he found that he had a fever. As soon as he got the fever he called for an ambulance. It was good that the ambulance was equipped with Hazmat gear, though. In the last Dallas case the ambulance drivers were unprotected. I think the CDC should correct their instructions to read, go to an Ebola center immediately after returning from Africa if you have any Ebola symptoms at all. His walking around from a bowling alley and to several other places while "not feeling well" makes me nervous, and it certainly increased the number of contacts that he made while having nausea and other stomach upset. Still, the hospital in NYC did much better than the Dallas, TX hospital. I think having designated Ebola centers is a very good idea.

According to a CBS October 23 companion article, “as many as ten people in the Seattle area and Connecticut” are being watched for symptoms. Under Wednesday's CDC policy statement all travelers from the three nations in Africa are now to be monitored for 21 days. The West Haven PD is enforcing the 21 day quarantine on a family of six. Three Yale students are also under quarantine, though the article says it is voluntary, and that none of them had objected to it. This disease is the kind of thing that really gets people's attention, so I wouldn't expect many people to balk at the restrictions.

Finally, an NPR article dated October 24 reports the occurrence of Ebola in Mali. “Mali has become the sixth country in West Africa to confirm a case of Ebola, after a 2-year-old girl who arrived from neighboring Guinea tested positive for the hemorrhagic virus.” The WHO is sending Ebola experts into Mali in response to the situation. another report today states that the two year old in Mali has died. “According to Reuters, Chaib said Malian authorities are monitoring 43 people who were in contact with the girl, including 10 health workers.”

There is a piece of very good news about the treatment of Ebola, however. A simple remedy is helping patients survive the disease without a vaccine or innoculation. Read the following article of October 23 from NPR.



I'll (Gag) Drink To That: Oral Rehydration Key For Ebola Patients – NPR
by OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON
October 23, 2014

At the onset of symptoms, Dr. Adaora Ingonoh (center) and her colleagues began drinking oral rehydration solution. It doesn't taste great but they say it helped them survive Ebola. They each downed over a gallon a day for nearly a week.

Have you ever swallowed unflavored rehydration solution, or ORS? That's what they call the mixture of salt, sugar and water given to Ebola patients.

I've taken more than a mouthful, and urgh! It tastes dreadful.

But doctors who were among Nigeria's Ebola survivors all agree that they may not have recovered from the virus without having forced down the foul-tasting, but apparently life-saving fluid.

Gallons of it. The WHO recipe for the rehydration drink is six tsp sugar, ½ tsp salt and a quart of water.

The solution often comes in packages as powder made of salt and sugar along with unsavory ingredients like potassium chloride and citrate. A dose of powder is dissolved in roughly a quart of water. Every day after they began feeling unwell, the doctors would drink the ghastly mixture.

Dr. Adaora Igonoh swallowed at least 1.3 gallons every day for almost a week. She says when you're already frightened and depressed in an Ebola ward, feeling weak and battling mouth ulcers and a sore throat, getting ORS down your throat is no fun.

But she and other doctors in Nigeria agree that the rehydration solution was key to their survival. Unlike Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the virus has killed up to 70 percent of those infected, Nigeria was declared Ebola-free after eight deaths among 20 cases.

"These patients drank between four and five liters [a little more than a gallon] every day, and this made a huge difference," says Dr. Simon Mardel, a world-renowned viral hemorrhagic fever expert at the University of South Manchester in the U.K. NPR reached him when he was in Nigeria, where he was dispatched to help fight the Ebola outbreak.

ORS is a low-tech and inexpensive approach that is potentially lifesaving, he says. Ebola victims throughout West Africa often die of severe dehydration that results from diarrhea and vomiting – two common symptoms.

"We cannot have people with a fluid deficit just mounting up day after day," he says. "This disease does not allow you to tolerate the normal degree of dehydration. Dehydration and hypovolemia [when there is not enough blood volume in the body] is the final straw."

Mardel reckons that the number of Ebola deaths could be halved if health workers taught patients how to rehydrate properly with the packaged ORS mixture — and also told them to avoid taking aspirin, which can worsen bleeding.

The rehydration solution should be mixed with the prescribed amount of water and given to patients at the onset of symptoms. And it should be a daily practice.

And if you don't start right away? "You'll soon become, in a few days, too weak to drink it," he says. And if you become dehydrated, your gut won't be able to absorb the nutrients.

"They'll just come back up," he says.

Mardel acknowledges that it's not the best tasting medicine. So he recommends packets of fruit-flavored ORS.

When Dr. Adaora Igonoh began running a fever at home, she drank an orange-flavored solution, which was bearable. The unflavored version she was given in the isolation ward was not.

But she was knew that, because of her vomiting, she wouldn't survive if she didn't keep chugging.






EU Leaders Agree To Cut Emissions By At Least 40 Percent – NPR
by EYDER PERALTA
October 23, 2014

European Union leaders announced on Thursday that they had agreed to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council,made the announcement on Twitter, saying the agreement marked the "world's most ambitious, cost effective, fair climate energy policy."

The AP reports:

"The deal is aimed at countering climate change and setting an example for the rest of the world ahead of key international climate negotiations next year.

"A package agreed by leaders at an EU summit in the early hours of Friday after lengthy negotiations also requires climate-friendly, renewable energy to provide at least 27 percent of the bloc's needs and demands that energy efficiency increase by at least 27 percent in the next 16 years."

Reuters adds:

"... environmentalists had already complained that it could still leave the EU struggling to make the at least 80-percent cut by 2050 that its own experts say is needed to limit the rise in global average temperatures to two degrees Celsius.

"And they were further disappointed by a softening in the final agreement of goals for increasing the use of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and for improving efficiency through insulation, cleaner engines and the like."




“European Union leaders announced on Thursday that they had agreed to cut emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council,made the announcement on Twitter, saying the agreement marked the 'world's most ambitious, cost effective, fair climate energy policy.'... 'A package agreed by leaders at an EU summit in the early hours of Friday after lengthy negotiations also requires climate-friendly, renewable energy to provide at least 27 percent of the bloc's needs and demands that energy efficiency increase by at least 27 percent in the next 16 years.'... '... environmentalists had already complained that it could still leave the EU struggling to make the at least 80-percent cut by 2050 that its own experts say is needed to limit the rise in global average temperatures to two degrees Celsius.... a softening in the final agreement of goals for increasing the use of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and for improving efficiency through insulation, cleaner engines and the like.'”

Renewable energy sources have been in the news several times in the US this year, especially solar, as making a really noticeable difference in electricity output on private homes and businesses. Everyone who installs solar, especially in high sunshine areas like Florida, Arizona and California, will help in the solution to the overall problem, as will insulation, etc. and save money, too. The problem is so large that each citizen's effort is needed to reduce the use of coal and other CO2 emitters. The website www.ussolarinstitute.com/educationtraining‎ states that “Depending on the location and design of your system, the typical home installation ranges from 3 to 7 kilowatts and costs between $18,000 to $40,000 to purchase. Solar panels: About a third of the cost of a residential photovoltaic system comes from the cost of solar panels, which can cost around $4,500-$12,000.” This isn't something many Lower Middle Class citizens can afford, but the panels do begin to “pay for themselves” in radically reduced electricity bills. Besides, it's a good Progressive thing to do. (Nobody wants to admit to be a “liberal” anymore.)





Park Service Construction Damaged Native American Burial Sites – NPR
by CLAY MASTERS
October 23, 2014

Under the watch of the National Park Service, $3 million worth of illegal construction projects went on for nearly a decade at Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa.

Imagine being able to drive an all-terrain vehicle right up next to a sacred earthen Native American burial mound.

At Effigy Mounds National Monument, you can. Three million dollars' worth of illegal construction projects went on for a decade at one of the nation's most sacred Native American burial grounds in northeast Iowa. And it happened under the watch of the National Park Service.

The park didn't do the proper archaeological studies before installing an intricate boardwalk system that now encircles ancient burial mounds that are shaped like bears and birds.

"I will not rest the rest of my days until all this junk is removed," says Tim Mason, who used to work among these ancient Native American mounds.

Ask Mason his title and this is what you get: "Tree-hugging, dirt-worshipping, hell-raiser."

Mason grew up here. He's now retired, but for 19 years he held a lot of different jobs at the monument, from laborer to park ranger. During visits to the park after retiring, he'd see these boardwalks and other structures going in. Mason filed a complaint that sparked a criminal investigation by a Park Service special agent.

"They had collaborators at every level in the regional office and the national office, and they were securing funds, they weren't doing the checks," he says. "They were violating federal and state law to build all this junk."

Nobody that was responsible for the damage is still employed at the monument. A National Park Service spokesman says it is creating a corrective plan that will make sure something like this never happens again.

Some of the boardwalks were intended to make the monument handicapped-accessible. Jim Nepstad, the monument's new superintendent, says it's important for him not to make the same mistake when trying to fix the problem.

"Let's involve the public, let's involve the state historic preservation office, let's involve our tribal partners," he says. "And make sure everyone has a voice before we go in and wholesale rip everything out."

Nepstad says it's going to take time to figure out just what to do.

And while it's not his ancestors buried in these mounds, what's happening here speaks to a more fundamental issue traced back to when Europeans first came to America, says Johnathan Buffalo, the historic preservation director at the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi.

"The feeling of ownership of our very human remains, the ownership of our artifacts, the ownership of basic knowledge of who we are, what we are, where we come from," is what this is about, he says.

Buffalo says while he thinks the right thing will ultimately be done, he isn't sure what that will be. One thing's for certain, though — everyone will be watching how a federal agency with a mission of preserving artifacts undoes its own construction that many view as desecration.




“Under the watch of the National Park Service, $3 million worth of illegal construction projects went on for nearly a decade at Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa. Imagine being able to drive an all-terrain vehicle right up next to a sacred earthen Native American burial mound.... The park didn't do the proper archaeological studies before installing an intricate boardwalk system that now encircles ancient burial mounds that are shaped like bears and birds. 'I will not rest the rest of my days until all this junk is removed,' says Tim Mason, who used to work among these ancient Native American mounds. Ask Mason his title and this is what you get: 'Tree-hugging, dirt-worshipping, hell-raiser.'... 'They had collaborators at every level in the regional office and the national office, and they were securing funds, they weren't doing the checks,' he says. 'They were violating federal and state law to build all this junk.'... A National Park Service spokesman says it is creating a corrective plan that will make sure something like this never happens again. Some of the boardwalks were intended to make the monument handicapped-accessible. Jim Nepstad, the monument's new superintendent, says it's important for him not to make the same mistake when trying to fix the problem.... And while it's not his ancestors buried in these mounds, what's happening here speaks to a more fundamental issue traced back to when Europeans first came to America, says Johnathan Buffalo, the historic preservation director at the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi. 'The feeling of ownership of our very human remains, the ownership of our artifacts, the ownership of basic knowledge of who we are, what we are, where we come from,' is what this is about, he says.”

I had heard of the Mound Builders in Mississippi, who are thought to have had an advanced culture with ties to the Great Lakes region. See the following from Wikipedia under the term “Mound Builders.” The mounds built to resemble animals are especially interesting to me. I wish I could see them. The mounds which are in Illinois are associated with cities of some size – from 20,000 to 30,000 according to this article, c. 1150 CE.

FROM WIKIPEDIA -- “The varying cultures collectively called Mound Builders were inhabitants of North America who, during a 5,000-year period, constructed various styles of earthenmounds for religious and ceremonial, burial, and elite residential purposes. These included the Pre-Columbian cultures of the Archaic period; Woodland period(Adena and Hopewell cultures); and Mississippian period; dating from roughly 3400 BCE to the 16th century CE, and living in regions of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River valley, and the Mississippi River valley and its tributary waters.[1] Beginning with the construction of Watson Brake about 3400 BCE in present-day Louisiana, nomadic indigenous peoples started building earthwork mounds in North America nearly 1,000 years before the pyramids were constructed in Egypt.

Since the 19th century, the prevailing scholarly consensus has been that the mounds were constructed by indigenous peoples of the Americas. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers made contact with natives living in a number of later Mississippian cities, described their cultures, and left artifacts.[2] By the time of United States westward expansion two hundred years later, Native Americans were generally not knowledgeable about the civilizations that produced the mounds. Research and study of these cultures and peoples has been based mostly onarchaeology and anthropology.

The namesake cultural trait of the Mound Builders was the building of mounds and other earthworks. These burial and ceremonial structures were typically flat-topped pyramids or platform mounds, flat-topped or rounded cones, elongated ridges, and sometimes a variety of other forms. They were generally built as part of complex villages that arose from more dense populations, with a specialization of skills and knowledge. The early earthworks built in Louisiana c. 3400 BCE are the only ones known to be built by a hunter-gatherer culture.

The best-known flat-topped pyramidal structure, which at over 100 feet (30 m) tall is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork north of Mexico, is Monks Mound at Cahokia Indian Mounds in present-day Collinsville, Illinois. At its peak about 1150 CE, Cahokia was an urban settlement with 20,000-30,000 people; this population was not exceeded by North American European settlements until after 1800.

Some effigy mounds were constructed in the shapes or outlines of culturally significant animals. The most famous effigy mound, Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, is 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, 20 feet (6 m) wide, over 1,330 feet (405 m) long, and shaped as an undulating serpent.

Many different tribal groups and chiefdoms, involving an array of beliefs and unique cultures over thousands of years, built mounds as expressions of their cultures. The general term, "mound builder," covered their shared architectural practice of earthwork mound construction. This practice, believed to be associated with a cosmology that had a cross-cultural appeal, may indicate common cultural antecedents. The first mound building was an early marker of political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. Watson Brake in Louisiana, constructed about 3500 BCE during the Middle Archaic period, is the oldest dated mound complex in North America. It is one of eleven mound complexes from this period found in the Lower Mississippi Valley.[3]






European Scientists Conclude That Distant Comet Smells Terrible – NPR
by GEOFF BRUMFIEL
October 24, 2014

A European spacecraft orbiting a distant comet has finally answered a question we've all been wondering: What does a comet smell like?

"It stinks," says Kathrin Altwegg, a researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland who runs an instrument called ROSINA that picked up the odor.

The European Space Agency has posted a full rundown of the comet's BO on its website. The mix includes ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), formaldehyde (CH2O) and methanol (CH3OH).

Of course, anyone visiting the comet would be wearing a spacesuit (on top of that, the sense of smell is notoriously numb in space). Nevertheless, taking a whiff of this comet would be like sharing a horse barn with a drunk and a dozen rotten eggs.

"It's quite a smelly mixture," she says.

Why didn't we know comets smelled so bad before?

"That's mostly because we've never been that close to a comet," says Altwegg. The Rosetta mission is now just 5 miles from the comet's surface.

It's just like a person: You can't really get a good sense of a person's body odor until you're right up next to him.

These chemicals are also clues to how the comet — and maybe how our solar system — formed. And for that reason, Altwegg doesn't really mind the stench.

"It's a little smelly, but at the moment it's a lot of fun to go to work every morning," she says.

Fun for now. But that could change. The comet is currently getting closer and closer to the sun. And like anything you leave out in the sun too long, it will soon start to smell even worse.




“'It stinks,' says Kathrin Altwegg, a researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland who runs an instrument called ROSINA that picked up the odor. The European Space Agency has posted a full rundown of the comet's BO on its website. The mix includes ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), formaldehyde (CH2O) and methanol (CH3OH).... Why didn't we know comets smelled so bad before? 'That's mostly because we've never been that close to a comet,' says Altwegg. The Rosetta mission is now just 5 miles from the comet's surface.”

Not only are these chemicals stinky, and there is a machine that can “smell” them, they are organic, and may therefore have to do with the evolution of life somewhere else in the universe besides our Earth. European Space Agency, according to Wikipedia, is a 20 nation organization established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris. See the article below on another source for the chemical nature of comet dust which has also been determined to contain organic chemicals. That information comes from a radio telescope in West Virginia. Their article corresponds with the European satellite finding.



https://public.nrao.edu/news/pressreleases/comets-alma

National Radio Astronomy Observatory
ALMA Confirms Comets Forge Organic Molecules in Their Dusty Atmospheres
August 11, 2014

An international team of scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has made incredible 3D images of the ghostly atmospheres surrounding comets ISON and Lemmon. These new observations provided important insights into how and where comets forge new chemicals, including intriguing organic compounds. 

Comets contain some of the oldest and most pristine materials in our Solar System. Understanding their unique chemistry could reveal much about the birth of our planet and the origin of organic compounds that are the building blocks of life. ALMA's high-resolution observations provided a tantalizing 3D perspective of the distribution of the molecules within these two cometary atmospheres, or comas. 

“We achieved truly first-of-a-kind mapping of important molecules that help us understand the nature of comets,” said team leader Martin Cordiner, a Catholic University of America astrochemist working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

The critical 3D component of the ALMA observations was made by combining high-resolution, two-dimensional images of the comets with high-resolution spectra obtained from three important organic molecules – hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen isocyanide (HNC), and formaldehyde (H2CO). These spectra were taken at every point in each image. They identified not only the molecules present but also their velocities, which provided the third dimension, indicating the depths of the cometary atmospheres.

The new results revealed that HCN gas flows outward from the nucleus quite evenly in all directions, whereas HNC is concentrated in clumps and jets. ALMA’s exquisite resolution could clearly resolve these clumps moving into different regions of the cometary comas on a day-to-day and even hour-to-hour basis. These distinctive patterns confirm that the HNC and H2CO molecules actually form within the coma and provide new evidence that HNC may be produced by the breakdown of large molecules or organic dust.

"Understanding organic dust is important, because such materials are more resistant to destruction during atmospheric entry, and some could have been delivered intact to the early Earth, thereby fueling the emergence of life,” said Michael Mumma, director of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology and a co-author on the study. "These observations open a new window on this poorly known component of cometary organics."

“So, not only does ALMA let us identify individual molecules in the coma, it also gives us the ability to map their locations with great sensitivity,” said Anthony Remijan, an astronomer with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a study co-author.

The observations, published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, were also significant because modest comets like Lemmon and ISON contain relatively low concentrations of these crucial molecules, making them difficult to probe in depth with Earth-based telescopes. The few comprehensive studies of this kind so far have been conducted on extremely bright comets, such as Hale-Bopp. The present results extend them to comets of only moderate brightness.





Canada attack raises "lone wolf" worries in U.S.
CBS NEWSn October 24, 2014, 7:10 AM

Following the attack in Canada, American law enforcement officials are most worried about potential copycats in the U.S., reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

A homegrown violent extremist, a so-called "lone wolf," may decide to strike out in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or another terror group.

The threat from self-radicalized Americans is not new, but in recent weeks ISIS has cranked up a propaganda campaign urging attacks on U.S. and Western targets wherever and whenever possible.

ISIS praised the Ottawa shooting as an example of what followers can and should do.

Sources said the FBI is watching a number of Americans right now, perhaps a few dozen, who have tried to go to Syria or have already come back from there.

Those who have shown a desire to join the jihad are under varying degrees of surveillance and investigation.

Meanwhile intelligence officials continue to scour the background of the Canadian gunman.

Records show he traveled to the U.S. at least four times between 2010 and 2013, but officials attach no significance to those trips.

Sources said there is nothing in his background connecting him to any threat against the U.S. and nothing to indicate he had any strong connections to any global terror group or cell.




“The threat from self-radicalized Americans is not new, but in recent weeks ISIS has cranked up a propaganda campaign urging attacks on U.S. and Western targets wherever and whenever possible. ISIS praised the Ottawa shooting as an example of what followers can and should do. Sources said the FBI is watching a number of Americans right now, perhaps a few dozen, who have tried to go to Syria or have already come back from there. Those who have shown a desire to join the jihad are under varying degrees of surveillance and investigation.”

This Canadian attacker hasn't been tied to a jihadist movement or cell, and I personally feel that we need to be watching our own homegrown radicals who simply hate the government. That has become a political movement of its own over the last 20 years or so in the US. Many of the right wing groups are rabidly anti-government. They don't want any restraints on individual freedom to do anything at all that they might decide to do. It just isn't possible to run a civilized culture without a government that is strong enough to enforce some rules on both citizens and businesses. I'm sure the US government is watching those “militias” as well as Eastern jihadists, though. It took less than a day to catch McVeigh (a lucky chance when a sheriff pulled his car over) and then Terry Nichols and link them by forensics to the Oklahoma City bombing. The FBI can really do its job when it has to. I'm not overly worried about jihadists in this country, as the NSA monitors their every telephone call. I wonder if there is an Internet link of some kind between the recent four fence jumpers at the White House, though, because that's a pretty large number of similar incidents for sheer coincidence. If there is a website urging them on, I hope it is found and shut down.





American ISIS hostage's family get unlikely ally
CBS NEWS October 24, 2014, 7:00 AM

An urgent plea to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is getting some unusual support. The mother of hostage Peter Kassig sent a tweet to the terror group, asking how to save her son after a top al Qaeda official backed her cause, reports CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan.

Three weeks after ISIS threatened to execute Abdul Rahman Kassig, a senior fighter from the Nusra Front, Abu Omar Aqidi, allegedly took to Twitter to express his opinion on the matter.

The Nusra Front, a Syrian jihadi group aligned with al Qaeda, has been at odds with ISIS, which al Qaeda leaders have said is too brutal.

In Aqidi's tweets, he claims Kassig gave him medical help last year in the same part of Eastern Syria where Kassig was providing emergency aid before he was taken hostage.

That post got the attention of Kassig's parents and reinvigorated their online campaign featuring testimonies from aid workers.

Kassig's colleague named Marwan shared a story of how he witnessed Kassig provide aid to Syrian refugees at a medical center in Tripoli, Lebanon. He called on ISIS to release him.

But it's Aqidi's tweet that got the jihadi community's attention, creating debate about whether it's moral to execute someone who had helped them.

Whether this is about saving a life or simply competition between jihadis is unclear.

"I don't know how much pull that really has, but I'm quite sure this is a 3D game of chess and Nusra understands how to play the game, as does ISIS," said terror analyst Phillip Smyth.

But Kassig's mother Paula wants the world to know that her son is more than just a hostage.

"He's compassionate, he is smart, he has love for all who need help," she said.




“Three weeks after ISIS threatened to execute Abdul Rahman Kassig, a senior fighter from the Nusra Front, Abu Omar Aqidi, allegedly took to Twitter to express his opinion on the matter.... But it's Aqidi's tweet that got the jihadi community's attention, creating debate about whether it's moral to execute someone who had helped them. Whether this is about saving a life or simply competition between jihadis is unclear. ' don't know how much pull that really has, but I'm quite sure this is a 3D game of chess and Nusra understands how to play the game, as does ISIS,' said terror analyst Phillip Smyth.”

This is one of those stories that illustrate the very complex nature of the whole situation in Syria and Iraq. It is true that ISIS makes al-Qaeda seem rational and benign, even appearing as potential allies. I still say we should be backing the Kurds, even though they have a strong nationalistic tendency which Turkey and some other Middle Eastern nations hate. Their position in regard to ISIS is very clear-cut, however, and I believe they have earned the right to a defined territory of their own, especially if they take the battlefield and defeat ISIS so all the rest of the Middle Eastern countries don't have to do it. That's not unlike defeating Napoleon or Hitler. They definitely deserve respect.