Year: 2006

Ah, those wacky Canadians!

TORONTO (Reuters) – Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day — a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. — in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

They didn’t get in trouble because they couldn’t steady themselves long enough to take two steps!

“Once we give a ‘small amount’ of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before,” said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

“The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases… It’s about improving the quality of life.”

Baiting with alcohol to employ medical experimentation. Priceless.

Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said.

Oh, well, then, that’s OK I guess.

The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved.

Three hots and a cot – I’d expect them to be clean as a whistle (internally and externally).

The per capita cost of around C$771 ($660) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person.

Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants.

“We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route,” he said. “But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care.”

Uh, yeah – that’s some kind of provided care. Beam me up Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here.

As an international team continues reviewing hundreds of complaints registered over Iraq’s parliamentary elections, the publication of voting results are now predicted to be more than two weeks out.

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has completed its investigation of almost 2,000 election complaints and will announce the findings Wednesday, commission member Hussein Hindawi told The Associated Press.

But the commission won’t announce final election results until an international team finishes its work, meaning they might not be ready for two weeks, said commission member Safwat Rashid. Officials previously said final results of the Dec. 15 vote would be announced in early January.

This is a far cry from the days when Saddam was elected with a 100% ‘Yes’ vote.

It’s easy to be upset about the delay, but the fact is, the results of this election must be legitimate. It’s important that officials take as long as necessary to be sure that any reported irregularities are investigated thoroughly. Future elections will be held to the same standard, so this process must be executed correctly.

Former DC Mayor Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint Monday night by grocery carrying youths.

Barry, who wasn’t injured in the Monday night robbery, said he gave the youths a couple of dollars for helping unload groceries from his car and they left. They returned, however, and after Barry let them into his Southeast apartment, they pointed a gun at his head and took his wallet, which contained cash and credit cards, Barry told WRC-TV.

“Obviously, I’m traumatized. To have a pistol cocked in your face is not something you cannot feel emotional about,” Barry said.

Riiiight Barry. Just an innocent old man asking a few well meaning kids to help him with his groceries. Does anyone else really believe this? I can’t wait to hear the “rest of the story”, like who had the crack, who offered to sell it and who was buying. Stuff like that. 

If he runs again, 2008 will be a beautiful year for the Republicans.

As of 7:22 PM tonight, 13 coal miners remain trapped 260 feet below ground. It’s been 12 hours since an explosion blocked the exit, keeping the miners from escaping, and preventing rescuers from reaching them.

There’s no word on their condition. I can’t even imagine what the families must be going through right now.

The condition of the miners was not immediately known. Four co-workers tried to reach them but were stopped by a wall of debris, and the blast knocked out the mine’s communication equipment, preventing authorities from contacting the miners.

It was not known how much air they had or how big a space they were in. The miners had air-purifying equipment but no oxygen tanks, a co-worker said.

“You just have to hope that the explosions weren’t of the magnitude that was horrific from the beginning,” Joe Manchin, governor of the nation’s No. 2 coal-producing state, told CNN. He added: “There’s always that hope and chance that they were able to go to part of the mine that still had safe air.”

I have a feeling we won’t be celebrating a miraculous rescue this time.

UPDATE: It doesn’t look good.

A mining company executive said officials are “very discouraged” by air quality tests in the mine where 13 workers are trapped, and planned to drill a third hole to take additional air samples.

Ben Hatfield, chief executive officer of mine owner International Coal Group Inc. said tests found that carbon monoxide levels far exceed federal regulatory limits in the Sago Mine 24 hours after an explosion.

Hatfield made the comments after rescuers trying to reach the trapped miners successfully punched a hole into the mine early Tuesday. A camera was inserted into the 6 1/4 inch hole to look for signs of life.

Drilling crews pounded on steel pipe and listened for a response in the section of the mine where the trapped miners were believed to be located, Hatfield said.

Earlier tests showed carbon monoxide levels measured 1,300 parts per million, exceeding the 400 parts per million maximum safe level.

More from the WaPo.

Still More – Efforts to Find Miners Become Desperate

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

It was both sad and fantastic at the same time. Last night, Dick Clark was back. Back in front of the camera, back in Time Square counting down to the new year. Yet, viewers didn’t see or hear the same Dick Clark that they’ve known for decades on television. This Dick Clark was clearly different. This Dick Clark was a superhero. An inspiration. A professional in every sense of the word. 

Clark, sitting behind a desk with the street scene in the background, sounded hoarse and occasionally was hard to understand, but he said, “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

“Last year I had a stroke,” he explained. “It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It’s been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I’m getting there.”

After his Dec. 6, 2004, stroke, Clark had to sit out “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” last year for the first time since starting it in 1972. Regis Philbin was his emergency sub.

Clark, 76, declined interviews and television appearances as he rehabilitated, and his spokesman said the former “American Bandstand” host viewed New Year’s as his personal coming-out party. Tabloid pictures of Clark using a cane or wheelchair led to questions about whether he was up to it.

He remained seated during “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” his right hand resting on the desk and his left arm by his side. Clark counted down the seconds until the ball dropped. He stayed at his desk past 1 a.m. as the crowds thinned out.

“I’ve had a wonderful time tonight,” he said. “There’s nothing like being in Times Square on New Year’s Eve and believe me, this is one night I will never, ever forget.

Incredible bravery. While many celebrities wouldn’t have had the guts to show themselves on TV, Dick Clark did. There are few like him, and he deserves every accolade offered up. Bravo Dick.

How easy it is to forget, but those high tech robot trucks are still up there, scooting around, picking up rocks and sand, years after they were expected to die.

The warranty expired long ago on NASA’s twin robots motoring around Mars. These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last three months. In two years, they have traveled a total of seven miles. Not impressed? Try keeping your car running in a climate where the average temperature is 67 below zero and where dust devils can reach 100 mph.

“These rovers are living on borrowed time. We’re so past warranty on them,” says Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars mission’s principal researcher. “You try to push them hard every day because we’re living day-to-day.”

The rover Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity followed on Jan. 24. Since then, they’ve set all sorts of records and succeeded in the mission’s main assignment: finding geologic evidence that water once flowed on Mars.

The data alone is worth millions. I’d say NASA is getting recouping their investment on these, wouldn’t you?

Bush says domestic spying is necessary. He’s right.

President Bush strongly defended his domestic spying program on Sunday, calling it legal as well as vital to thwarting terrorist attacks, and contended the leak making it public had caused “great harm to the nation.”

“This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America and, I repeat, limited,” Bush told reporters after visiting wounded troops at Brooke Army Medical Center. “I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy’s thinking.”

This really is a trust issue. If you believe Bush and his administration, then you’ll agree that this type of surveillance is not only right, it’s completely necessary in order to preempt the next terrorist attack. If you don’t trust Bush, you believe he’ll be irresponsible with the data, or worse, he’ll go after political enemies, ala Nixon. Guess where the media is on this story? You guessed it – they think they’re witnessing Nixon II, and with their Woodward envy, they are clinging onto this story in the hopes that one of them will be able to pick the next Robert Redford to play their character on the big screen. Pathetic isn’t it?

My hope is that Bush won’t waiver on this. His powers and the presidential powers of future leaders lie in the balance.

Speculation runs wild as to whether the US is planning to attack Iran.

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

According to the report, CIA Director Porter Goss, in his last visit to Turkey on December 12, requested Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide military bases to the United States in 2006 from where they would be able to launch an assault.

The German news agency DDP also noted that countries neighboring Iran, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, and Pakistan were also updated regarding the supposed plan. American sources sent to those countries apparently mentioned an aerial attack as a possibility, but did not provide a time frame for the operation.

Although Der Spiegel could not say that these plans were concrete, they did note that according to a January 2005 New Yorker report American forces had entered Iran in 2005 in order to mark possible targets for an aerial assault.

Contingent planning is nothing new, yet ever since the war in Iraq, the media acts as if the very thought of an attack is as good as a first assault. Planning for a possible confrontation is the responsible thing to do, especially given the way Iran has been acting lately. 9/11 changed everything, and the US along with the affected neighboring countries must start the conversation regarding what to do, just in case.