Alcohol - Is it Killing YOU?

Pertinent after the usual alcohol indulgence of Christmas.............

Alcohol poisoning kills six people a day in the USA - about 2200 a year.

By that data, Australia with a population of about 24 million compared to the 317 million in the USA, our toll is around 3 per week or 140 per year.  But I suspect it might be more as we Australians probably drink more than many in the USA.

Some recent stats are quite alarming, and strongly support much higher alcohol poisoning events in Australia.

Alcohol consumption accounted for 3.3 per cent of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2003; 4.9 per cent in males and 1.6 per cent in females.

In Australia:

• Alcohol is second only to tobacco as a preventable cause of drug-related death and hospitalisation
  • between 1992 and 2001, more than 31,000 deaths were attributed to risky or high-risk alcohol consumption [ say 3100 per year]
  • in the eight years between 1993–94 and 2000–01, over half a million completed hospital episodes were associated with alcohol
• While the number of emergency department presentations caused by alcohol is unknown, it is likely to account for a large proportion of all presentations
• Alcohol accounts for 13 per cent of all deaths among 14–17-year-old Australians — it has been estimated that one Australian teenager dies and more than 60 are hospitalised each week from alcohol-related causes
• Alcohol is also a significant contributor to premature death and hospitalisation among older Australians — among 65-74-year-olds, almost 600 die every year from injury and disease caused by drinking above the NHMRC 2001 guideline levels, and a further 6,500 are hospitalised.
• Although most surveys show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are less likely than the general population to drink, alcohol attributable injury and disease are particularly high among this group.
• The rate of alcohol-attributable death among Indigenous Australians is about twice that for the non-Indigenous population, with a particularly strong association apparent between alcohol use and suicide among some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Enough to put the frighteners on???

Also remember the campaign to have a dry or alcohol free January!

More here -http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-topics/alcohol-guidelines/alcohol-and-health-australia 

Amazing Inventions that could Save Your ife

This appeared online on 28 April.  Some of these are truly amazing, some a bit less so.  My pick is 3D printing, with this idea now rapidly developing into some very new and different directions.

The ideas are worth sharing widely.............and they are Australian focused.

        

Every year medical researchers are discovering new technologies to save lives and increase life expectancies. Here’s 10 of the most exciting medical marvels.

New medical breakthroughs are improving the quality of life. Photo: Shutterstock

Seventy-five years after Australian pharmacologist Howard Florey began his pioneering work with penicillin, Australians have continued to live longer and healthier lives thanks to medical breakthroughs.
Professor Bob Williamson, from the Australian Academy of Science, says the steady discovery of new drugs and devices has drastically improved our way of life.
“Many of us who are now reaching retirement age remember when we were children the single most dreaded disease of all was polio,” he says.
“Polio now no longer exists, even measles which was a very serious disease just 25 to 30 years ago, has been virtually eliminated by immunisation.
“Nowadays life expectancy keeps going up.”
The average Australian male life expectancy is 79 and 84 for women, according to 2013 Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Experts predict life expectancy figures will continue to grow and death rates fall, thanks in large part to groundbreaking medical advances.
Here, The New Daily highlights 10 medical marvels improving the quality of life.

1. 3D printing

Currently used to print customised medical devices such as splints. Successfully used to save six-month-old Kaiba Gionfriddo’s life in May last year after doctors found he had tracheobronchomalacia, a condition that caused his airways to close and his face to turn blue.

Doctors hope 3D printing will be used to print new body parts.

Long-term, doctors hope this technology will be used to print new body parts such as human muscle, bones, nerves and cartilage. ‘Bioprinting’, as it is known, will use donor stem cells to print human tissue and has the potential to spare patients from long waits for organ donation.

2. The bionic eye

Australian researchers are at the forefront of bionic vision innovation. The bionic eye has the potential to return sight to blind and visually impaired people. The technology works by stimulating the perception of light, but has to be tailored to suit each patient.
Three patients have already been implanted with the bionic eye and have reported seeing objects on a screen after the device’s camera was connected to a stimulator.

3. Ex-vivo heart resuscitation

Research by experts at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute shows seemingly dead human hearts can be brought back to life. Using donor blood and a specialised machine, donor hearts can start beating again up to 30 minutes after death.
Doctors had previously ruled out heart donations from patients who had suffered cardiac death. But this new development could dramatically increase the number of hearts available for transplant.

4. Cheaper genome sequencing

Australians will soon be able to use machines that sequence a whole human genome for as little as $1000. The same process cost more than $1 billion a decade ago.
 

Mapping a whole human genome may cost as little as $1000.

New machines are capable of sequencing about six billion base pairs in a person’s DNA – the key to unlocking mystery genetic illnesses. This will also help doctors tailor more targeted treatments to a patient’s genetic data.

5. Wearable kidneys

Battery-powered artificial kidneys could mean a whole new way of life for people on dialysis. Wearable kidneys are similar to mini-dialysis machines that can be worn like a belt. Human trials have started in the US and kidney experts are hopeful it will be commercialised in five years.

6. Electronic skin

Israeli researchers are developing flexible nanotechnology sensors to integrate into synthetic skin to return the sensations of touch, humidity and temperature to amputees. The electronic skin, or e-skin, would attach to prosthetic limbs and detect multiple sets of data that allow patients to experience simultaneous sensations.

7. Epilepsy implant

Brain implants that detect oncoming seizures could save the lives of thousands of epilepsy patients. The neurostimulator, which has recently been approved for use in the US, reduces life-threatening seizures. Sensors in the implant detect approaching seizures by reading brain activity and sending electrical pulses to switch off faulty signals.

8. HIV and Hepatitis C drug

Australian company Biotron is finding exciting results from clinical trials into an anti-viral drug for patients infected with HIV and Hepatitis C. Latest results released last month show patients were virus-free after six months of treatment with the drug, BIT225. Depending on further trial results, this drug could be a game-changer for more than 24,000 Australians battling HIV and almost 227,000 diagnosed with chronic Hepatitis C.

9. Low radiation CT scanners

These new scanners delivers high definition images without the high levels of radiation found in current CT scanners.

New scanners deliver high definition images without high radiation.

This means radiation is reduced by up to 50 per cent throughout the patient’s body.

10. GPS-based devices

To accurately navigate the site of surgery, doctors are using GPS-based guidance equipment. The robotic systems define the exact location of entry points for patients undergoing spinal and orthopaedic surgery, eliminating the need for multiple X-rays used in traditional surgery techniques.

Floods in Australia

Rarely has it been that the words of the poem by Dorothea MacKellar could be so apt as now, with much of SE Australia flooded, following on from similar floods last year and coming after many years of drought. These are very serious floods....... and there is plenty of coverage on the media eg
www.abc.net.au

Spare a thought and a prayer for them. A long way from us, but we have had our share this wet season too.

My Country by Dorothea Mackellar

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies --
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror --The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountain,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die --
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back three-fold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze . . .

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land --
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand --
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Yuendumu Doors - Great Historical Aboriginal Art

Yuendumu Doors - now in the SA Museum Adelaide in the aboriginal cultural display. These were created to encourage kids to go to school [ still an issue] by some of the traditional artists at Yuendumu, directly onto the doors themselves. Some were wood, many were metal covered wood.

From about 1983, some of the original large scale "permanent" art. Yes, they actually were the school classroom doors, at Yuendumu school. A bit battered and used.......but they are still some first class aboriginal art. Total approx 30, about 10 on permanent display. Considered to be among the original art from Yuendumu.

The doors were acquired by the SA Museum many years ago and some restoration work has been done, however, they do have the origianl art work. To celebrate the new aboriginal cultural gallery many of the doors are displayed until the end of 2011, in a large display upstairs with several downstairs in the entrance area.

They are full size doors - approx 2m x 800mm, complete with door hardware in some cases!

There is also a series of limited edition art prints [ quite small in contrast to the doors] .........worth having at least one, but the whole series is expensive!

More information here - http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/regions/yuendumu-doors.php

Carbon Pricing or Carbon Fibres?

Mayhem on all fronts.


Australia gets a carbon price and the Tour de France has more nasty crashes.


Opposite poles one might think.







However, the editorial comment by Paul Kelly is a useful commentary, and the cartoon excellent.


I have no doubt that carbon pricing and not carbon fibre frames will be the lead news item this week in Australia.


Read more here -http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-plan/alp-green-values-triumph-in-julias-finest-political-fix/story-fn99tjf2-1226091907108

The Future of Australian Politics - I Wish!!

This is a great op ed piece on the ABC web site.

Probably need to have connections to Australia to follow the story........but it reads well. Not only that, there seems to be a lot of support judging from the comments.

DEFINITELY worth a read!

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2738702.html

A Bike Story Worth Reading

Australia is a land of very high quality bicycle racers, with track riders especially good at high level events such as Olympic games and World Championships.


To succeed at this level all factors must be aligned...........and the very best equipment used. Small errors cannot be tolerated- with Shane Kelly's pedal clip error in the final of the kilometre time trial event in the 1996 Olympics being a classic example.


This story concerns the development of the bike used by track riders in Australia at major events since about 1999, and including the 2000, 2004, 2008 Olympics.


http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3109543.htm


This link leads to a story about this bike, the Bike Technologies or BT bike, with a characteristic curved top tube. The bike is fantastic - riders just rave about it. But there is a dark side - intrigue, possible illegal activities by the Dutch cycling authorities and some funny things occurring.


Definitiely worth reading if interested in cycling.

Its OVER........

Australia has a new government................but for how long?


Plenty of pundits [ on both sides of politics] are saying the new Labor government will be lucky to last 18 months.


It will be an absolute roller coaster of a ride so watch out.................


There are plenty of media stories around on all major channels.

The cartoon seems to sum up well the predicament of the new Prime Minister.























[cartoon "borrowed" from Punch magazine]

Election 2010 - Ongoing Saga

One week after the election, and we still do not have an outcome at national level.

Remember the Chinese saying.........'may you live in interesting times".............seems it is, and might be for a while yet.

Lots of column inches in the newspapers, and almost any other media. Still.

Most recent comment seen late this evening was that one of the key 'non-aligned" players thought there might be certainity by the end of this coming week.

A friend commented to me today............"do we need them?? Country is still functioning, thanks to the bureaucrats!"

The End of the Drought?

As ex tropical cyclone Laurence moves east across temperate Australia, it is delivering flood rains to much of western and south western NSW, after already dumping heavy rains across the inland areas. Rainfalls of over 100mm, and up to 200mm, are being predicted for many areas of NSW and South west Queensland over today, Christmas Day and through to tomorrow. This is the best one day and two day falls in over ten years!

Many rivers and low areas are expected to flood. Some have already. BUT, hey......this might be drought breaking rain.

The national met bureau says it all.........monster rain clouds across eastern Australia.

England to Darwin - by AIR

Today is the 90th anniversary of the arrival in Darwin of the first plane to travel from England to Australia BY AIR.

The Vickers Vimy plane piloted by the Smith brothers [Ross and Keith] arrived here about 1530hrs on December 1o 1919, effectively creating the air route between Europe and Australia.

The outcome of this feat was the creation of the Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services, or more commonly known as QANTAS.

There will be a modest remembrance this afternoon, near the cairn at Fannie Bay, where they crossed the coast to then land on the airstrip, which is now Ross Smith Avenue, in Fannie Bay.

A previous post also discusses the road travels by the pioneers who had to build airstrips further south in the NT and Queensland for the participants in the air race. Yes, it was a race, with a prize equal in value to about A$2.5 million today, offered by the Australian government.

It was a very major achievement, and rarely thought about today, especially outside Darwin. Darwin has been, and still is a major entry point for the welcome and unwelcome visitors to Australia - right to the present with many refugee boats arriving here, or heading to here [ often intercepted before getting this far], vigorous and frequent Japanese bombings in WW2, Vietnamese refugee boats, the original England - Australia telegraph cable and others.

More detail - click on the link:http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Vickers%20Vimy%20G-EAOU%20crew.htm

Some photos to come later.

It Is NOT Frog Weather Now

Having a short sojourn in the city of churches.......of Australia [ every country has one don't they?], Adelaide.

It is stinking HOT..............a week of temperatures around 38 - 39C, with the big 40 predicted for tomorrow, with more to come next week.

And super low humidity. Definitely hiding time for sensible monsoon frogs. Should have stayed home, it has been ideal humid and stormy weather in Darwin this week. However, I am engaged in serious humanitarian deeds for a week or two in the city of Adelaide.

Here people hide during the day, as the temperature builds up, slowly to emerge after the sun descends into oblivion. Or, alternatively, hide in the air conditioned buildings during the day. The high temperatures are not so bad, being used to that, but everything you touch is RED HOT, as the sun is very fierce.

There is a major equestrian event here this weekend, and the horses will be under a bit of stress as they compete. I thought it was only mad dogs and Englishmen who went out into the midday sun, but it seems the horsey set do too.

Future Directions of Media and the ABC

New media, old media, newspapers, media moguls, barons....................the comments abound about newspapers, news radio and TV and new media outlets, especially today.

Australia, like a few other countries, has a publicly supported [ie taxpayers monies] national broadcaster, the ABC. It is 77 years old and seems to be slowly reviving, not atrophying from old age..........it is about renewal. That is the buzz word.

But as for most organisations ,without internal renewal, or even a bit of external re- modelling, they do wither.

The article penned by Mark Scott, the Managing Director of the ABC in October 2009 is a very interesting take on the national broadcaster, and the media landscape of the future and along the way, taking a deft dig at those media organisations who want to charge for content. Read Murdoch!

If you are interested in media futures read it here:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2714143.htm

I think it is, at worst, interesting. At best..........an exciting media future.

Higher Internet Speeds Coming-------maybe soon

Australia’s $31 billion National Broadband Network (NBN), a project announced by the Federal Government earlier this year, will catapult the country from 21st to 8th place on the world’s most fibre broadband-enabled countries worldwide by 2013, according to analyst Strategy Analytics. The government-backed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based solution aims to deliver 100 Mbps service to 90 percent of Australian households, schools and businesses over the next eight years.

“The future of broadband is clearly in fibre,” says analyst Ben Piper, a director at the company.

“The existing Telco xDSL infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life. Soon it will no longer be able to support increasingly bandwidth-heavy consumer applications.”

Rankings just released by Strategy Analytics show that eight of the world’s top ten most fibre broadband-enabled countries are Asian and Eastern European. At the end of 2009, 51 percent of South Korean households will have a fibre connection, making it the most fibre-connected country worldwide. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Lithuania round out the current top five in the firm’s rankings.

Singapore will overtake South Korea for the number one position by 2013, says the company.
Part of the Singaporean Government’s “iN2015” initiative is the construction of a 1 Gbps FTTP.

Not only will there be high speed fibre internet to the premises, there will be free wireless coverage across most of Singapore. Many areas are covered by wireless already - major shopping centres and many public areas such as public buildings, even some commonly used open space areas such as parks. The high speed internet roll out started a few weeks ago, with finalisation slated for the end of 2012.

Australia is clearly not among the top 5 players, but will be doing ok if the NBN ever gets up momentum and coverage improves.

Singapore is making a major effort to be both wired and unwired. And a new breed of cafe sitters, along with their computers and PDA phones haunt major coffeee shops around the island. Not a bad option when it is 32C outside - and an iced latte is at hand too.

Australia needs to hurry this process of higher connectivity and internet speed or we will be left behind - again. Without this access Australia will not be considered appropriate for a regional finance centre or other businesses that inreasingly rely on electronic communications.

[partially sourced from Electronics News Australia]

Victorian Fires - Just Pray

We are a long way from the bushfires in Victoria, with weather totally different. Parts of Victoria had maximum temperatures around 47C [117F] over the past few days, the highest EVER recorded. We are actually likely to be having local floods today across many parts of the Northern Territory, as well as in north Queensland and the NW of Western Australia.

The bushfires in Victoria are just awful, even by Australian standards where summer bushfires are a regular issue in much of the southern states, each summer. I cannot even hope to emulate the material on so many of the commercial media web pages, with images often contributed by those most affected, or at least by those who got out.

See - http://www.abc.net.au/ or http://www.news.com.au/ as two major media outlets with vivid stories and photos; if not obvious, search on Victorian bushfires.

As of Monday morning there have been over 100 deaths, about 800 houses totally destroyed and countless other lives and houses devastated. It seems obvious that these figures will rise significantly as authorities reach areas previously cut off. Think of the army of volunteers as fire authority staff, Red Cross assistants and so on who are there helping, and the countless stories of those who were lucky to survive. They do have a bit of deprecating humour, typically Australian............but they will suffer, when the tragedy hits the brain. It might be hours, days or weeks, but realisation will come. I speak as a cyclone victim and survivor and can feel for them.

They need some help............think of them and offer a silent prayer.

And wonder about the idiots or the deranged who may have actually lit the fires in some cases - it seems the authorities are serious about high level prosecutions - manslaughter or similar in a number of situations.

It's Australia Day

Happy Australia Day to all Australians.

And, Happy Republic Day - for all Indians too.

And to complete the trifecta - Gong Xie Fatt Choy [ Happy New Year - it is also Chinese New Year!]