Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Builders find Auschwitz message

Builders working near the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp have found a message in a bottle written by prisoners, museum officials say.

The message, written in pencil and dated 9 September 1944, bears names, camp numbers and home towns of seven young inmates from Poland and France.

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Survey: Americans switch faiths often

The United States is a nation of religious drifters, with about half of adults switching faith affiliation at least once during their lives, according to a new survey.

The reasons behind the swap depend greatly on whether one grows up kneeling at Roman Catholic Mass, praying in a Protestant pew or occupied with nonreligious pursuits, according to a report issued Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

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Moth

Moth

By Flickr Member Iris Dragon

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Moorpark High School wins National Academic Decathlon for fourth time

"Amid cheers and leaps of excitement, Moorpark High School had won the National Academic Decathlon, the fourth time the team has won the highest prize.

'There is joy, there is happiness and there is the academic decathalon,' said 17-year-old Zyed Ismailjee, who started sobbing when the results were announced during an awards luncheon in Memphis, Tenn., this afternoon."


Click here for more on these impressive young people.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Electronic medical records have people abuzz. What's the reality?

"Primary care physician Matt Handley believes that information technology enables him to provide better patient care. So much so that he recently spent an afternoon hooking up a computer and DSL line at the home of a patient so she can contact him more frequently.

Handley is the associate medical director for quality and informatics at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, a nonprofit health system armed with technology systems that have replaced paper records and enable patients to take part in their healthcare online."

Click here for more on the information revolution.

Good News April 24, 2009

Woman gives birth to twins on Fifth Ave.

After nearly 40 years as a nurse, Lucille Nassery had no problem identifying the sounds coming in the window from Fifth Avenue. Those were definitely the sounds of childbirth.

“There’s a certain kind of sound that comes from women who are about to deliver. It’s not just a typical scream. It’s a whole-body scream,” she said Friday, hours after she ran to peer down at an SUV parked hastily in front of Mount Sinai Medical Center. A distraught man circled the vehicle, looking for help, and a very pregnant woman lay across the front seat, howling.

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Houston scientists milk cow genome for its secrets

"Houston scientists have sequenced the genome of a single Hereford cow, opening the barnyard door to a future where insight rather than chance guides domestic breeding.

Understanding the genetics of bovines should allow breeders to build a better cow by selecting genes for everything from disease resistance to improved milk production and meat marbling, scientists say."

To moo-ove into the rest of this story, click here.