Wednesday, February 20, 2013
21st Century Buildings That Look Like Alien Spaceships
Monday, February 11, 2013
36 dead in stampede at Hindu festival in India
An injured Indian woman who survived a stampede on a railway platform is carried away at the main railway station in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. At least ten Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela were killed and more then thirty were injured in a stampede on an overcrowded staircase, according to Railway Ministry sources. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
An injured Indian woman who survived a stampede on a railway platform is carried away at the main railway station in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. At least ten Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela were killed and more then thirty were injured in a stampede on an overcrowded staircase, according to Railway Ministry sources. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
An Indian woman weeps as she watches from a staircase as rescue workers tend to the bodies of those killed in a stampede on a railway platform at the main railway station in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. At least ten Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela were killed and more then thirty were injured in a stampede on an overcrowded staircase, according to Railway Ministry sources. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Indian pilgrims sleep on a railway platform in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. At least ten Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela were killed and more then thirty were injured in a stampede on an overcrowded staircase, according to Railway Ministry sources. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Women grieve the death of their family members after a stampede at a railway station claimed the lives of at least ten Hindu devotees returning after taking holy dip at 'Sangam', the confluence of Hindu holy rivers of Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati at the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. At least ten Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela were killed and more then thirty were injured in a stampede on an overcrowded staircase of the Allahabad railway station, according to Railway Ministry sources. (AP Photo/ Saurabh Das)
Hindu devotees take a holy dip at 'Sangam', the confluence of Hindu holy rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, during the Maha Kumbh festival at Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Led by heads of monasteries arriving on chariots and ash-smeared naked ascetics, millions of devout Hindus plunged into the frigid waters of the holy Ganges River in India on Sunday in a ritual that they believe will wash away their sins. Sunday was the third of six auspicious bathing days during the Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival, which lasts 55 days and is one of the world's largest religious gatherings. (AP Photo /Rajesh Kumar Singh)
ALLAHABAD, India (AP) ? Anxious relatives were searching for missing family members Monday in a northern India city that is home to one of the world's largest religious gatherings, unsure if their loved ones were caught in a stampede that killed 36 people or had simply gotten lost among the tens of millions of pilgrims.
People thronged to the main hospital in Allahabad to see if their relatives were among 36 dead and 30 people injured in Sunday evening's stampede at the city's train station. Tens of thousands of people were in the station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform, triggering the chaos.
An estimated 30 million Hindus took a dip Sunday at the Sangam ? the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati rivers ? as part of the 55-day Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival. Sunday was one of the holiest days to bathe.
People missing at the Kumbh Mela is the stuff of legend in India and at least a dozen films have been made on the theme. On Sunday, like most other days, volunteers and officials used loudspeakers to give details of children and elderly who were "found" on the river banks, having lost their families in the crowd.
It was unclear how many people were actually missing because of the stampede.
Witnesses blamed police action for the stampede.
"We heard an announcement that our train is coming on platform number 4 and when we started moving toward that platform through a footbridge, we were stopped. Then suddenly the police charged us with batons and the stampede started," passenger Shushanto Kumar Sen said.
"People started tumbling over one another and within no time I saw people, particularly women and children, being trampled over by others," Sen said.
Police denied they had used batons to control the crowd.
"It was simply a case of overcrowding. People were in a hurry to go back and there were not enough arrangements by the railway authorities," said Arun Kumar, a senior police officer.
Medical superintendent Dr. P. Padmakar of the main state-run hospital said 23 of the 36 people killed were women.
India's railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said an inquiry has been ordered into what led to the stampede.
Indian television stations showed large crowds pushing and jostling at the train station as policemen struggled to restore order.
"There was complete chaos. There was no doctor or ambulance for at least two hours after the accident," an eyewitness told NDTV news channel.
The auspicious bathing days of the Kumbh Mela are decided by the alignment of stars, and the most dramatic feature of the festival is the Naga sadhus ? ascetics with ash rubbed all over their bodies, wearing only marigold garlands ? leaping joyfully into the holy waters.
According to Hindu mythology, the Kumbh Mela celebrates the victory of gods over demons in a furious battle over nectar that would give them immortality. As one of the gods fled with a pitcher of the nectar across the skies, it spilled on four Indian towns: Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar.
The Kumbh Mela is held four times every 12 years in those towns. Hindus believe that sins accumulated in past and current lives require them to continue the cycle of death and rebirth until they are cleansed. If they bathe at the Ganges on the most auspicious day of the festival, believers say they can rid themselves of their sins.
____
Associated Press writer Biswajeet Banerjee contributed to this report.
Associated PressThursday, February 7, 2013
'Breaking Bad' actor runs for NM school board seat
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? An actor from the TV show "Breaking Bad" is seeking to win a seat on Albuquerque's school board.
Steven Michael Quezada, who plays federal drug agent Steven Gomez on the Albuquerque-based show, is running unopposed Tuesday for a seat on the city's West Side.
There's no incumbent in that district, and Quezada was the only candidate to file for the position.
Three of Quezada's four children attend the Public Academy for the Performing Arts, a charter school where the actor has been active on the governing board.
The AMC hit television series is finishing filming its fifth and final season.
"Breaking Bad" follows former high school teacher Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/breaking-bad-actor-runs-nm-school-board-seat-001023494.html
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
Muhammad H. Zaman: Talk Is Cheap: Solving Global Mental Health ...
Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.
Despite growing up in Pakistan, I knew who Marty McFly was. He was my nerdy hero in Back to the Future. For me, Michael J. Fox represented all that was cool and exciting about science and invention. Years later, when I discovered Michael's battles with Parkinson's, I was devastated. I did not know much about Parkinson's except that it had also affected the hero of my parents and my elder siblings, Muhammad Ali. As I read more I realized that it is something that we do not fully understand, something elusive, unclear and messy. I had always wished that someone would come up with a solution that is befitting of Marty's character, something cool, simple and brilliantly imaginative. Max Little's solution, as he discusses in the TEDTalk, will hopefully take us back to the future without the burden of Parkinson's.
Parkinson's disease just does not affect Michael, Muhammad Ali and our favorite celebrities and heroes. It affects people all around us, all over the world. Over 6.5 million men and women worldwide are affected in countries rich and poor. In poor countries, the burden of mental health diseases is particularly profound and painful. The problems of diagnosis and management are already much worse than the developed world, but fatalism, stigma and taboo around mental disorders make these diseases even more difficult for the patients, families and caregivers. There is a dire and an urgent need for simple, robust and easy to manage solutions to diagnose, manage and cure Parkinson's. We desperately need a solution that is cheap and uses the resource available to all, not just to those who are privileged and live in rich countries.
What Max is trying to accomplish for Parkinson's is exciting for me on so many levels. First, he is working on a problem that is truly global and not just a problem of a select few. Second, he is addressing a messy and complex problem, that comes with not only biological complexity but also social stigma and societal challenges for the patient and the caregivers. But for me, the best part is that he is using a solution that is simple, easily accessible and cheap. There is no question that mobile phones have transformed the way we live, but it is the ability to use the same phone call for the global good, that is the most inspirational part. Using a simple phone call to help not just yourself but others with similar difficulties in countries you have never heard of is not only a highly creative solution, it is also the right way to think about global mental health. It is a powerful reminder that we are all in it together. The approach is also inspirational for all those who see difficult health problems in their homes and villages, want to do something about them, but get discouraged by the lack of material resources. For me, Max provides them an inspiration to think big, to combine the most common of tools with the most precious of resources, creativity and imagination. I hope that this mobile phone based approach will not only aid in the discovery of Parkinson's biomarkers but some day, a Max Little in Boston or a nurse in Bhutan, an engineer in Bolivia or an ordinary citizen in Botswana will use ingenuity, creativity and imagination to come up with a comprehensive cure of this and many other diseases.
Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TEDWeekends will highlight some of today's most intriguing ideas and allow them to develop in real time through your voice! Tweet #TEDWeekends to share your perspective or email tedweekends@huf?ngtonpost.com to learn about future weekend's ideas to contribute as a writer.
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More in Simple Solutions Can Heal the MassesSource: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhammad-h-zaman/mobile-phones-health-care_b_2533569.html
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