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Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday announced that the Government would start deploying its first batch of swine-flu vaccine in coming weeks, with an aim to vaccinate as many people as possible to prevent further spread of the virus.

But in a letter sent to Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Jim Bishop, the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases expresses deep concern about CSL’s use of multi-dose vials for the vaccine and urged the Government to abandon its plan until it had single-dose vials.

The letter, written by the Society’s president, Associate Professor Tom Gottlieb, says multi-dose vials – bottles containing many doses of the vaccine – had been shown on many occasions to transmit infectious diseases, ”resulting in considerable morbidity and mortality”.

To prevent contamination, clinicians must follow stringent infection-control guidelines and use new syringes and needles for every vaccination.

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A potential problem was observed in studies of LAIV as it encounters restrictive temperature in the lung. The viral polymerase function is reduced and virus replication, assembly, and release become impaired [12]. The morphology of the temperature restricted virus was affected and the virus particles contained high levels of heat shock protein. Impairment of the viral replicase is a matter of concern because replicase may create new pandemic strains. Restrictive replication of LAIV at the restrictive temperature occurs in multiple steps in the virus replication cycle [13]. Shedding of LAIV is observed in individuals between 5 to 49 years of age up to 11 days after vaccination, and vaccinated individuals were advised to avoid contact with severely inmunosuppressed individuals for a week after vaccination [14].

Russia has arrested eight people on suspicion of hijacking the Arctic Sea off the Swedish coast and sailing it to the Atlantic Ocean, ending weeks of silence about the fate of a ship which has intrigued European maritime authorities.

Limited information from Russian officials has failed to satisfy sceptics who voiced doubts about whether the piracy actually took place or was a convenient cover story to conceal a possible secret cargo of arms or nuclear material.

“The crew members have already confirmed that the captors demanded a ransom and threatened to blow up the vessel if their orders were not obeyed,” Interfax quoted a Russian defence ministry spokesman as saying.

“The crew members also claim that the people who seized the Arctic Sea were armed and got rid of their weapons when the [Russian navy ship] Ladny ordered the dry cargo carrier’s crew to stop the vessel,” he said.

Climbing gear, flares and a high-speed inflatable boat supposedly used in the hijack were found aboard the Arctic Sea, the spokesman said.

The agencies did not say what ransom was demanded.

The Maltese-registered, Russian-crewed vessel and its $1.3 million cargo of timber disappeared from radar screens three weeks ago, prompting speculation ranging from an attack by an organised crime gang to a top-secret spy mission.

The Malta Maritime Authority said on Tuesday, without elaborating, that the Arctic Sea had “never really disappeared”, a comment which increased speculation that security services might have been involved in the affair.

Russia has said the eight detainees were citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Russia who on July 24 boarded the ship, forced the crew to change route and turned off its navigation equipment.

After heading through the English Channel in late July, radio contact was lost and the 4,000-tonne ship did not deliver its cargo to the Algerian port of Bejaia on August 4.

The Russian navy found the missing ship on Monday in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Verde.

The official version of events was questioned by Yulia Latynina, a leading Russian opposition journalist and commentator.

But instead of students handing over cash, some placed their index fingers on small scanners and walked away with their lunches.

“I’m just really glad I don’t have to remember a number every day or have a card or something,” said 14-year-old Korey Gallaher. “All you have to do is put your finger down and go.”

With the start of the new school year well under way at the high school, a new lunch system is being piloted that will use student fingerprints instead of cards or personal identification numbers to access lunch accounts.

“As long as there is money in my account, I won’t have to worry about anything,” said 14-year-old Stephanie Nieves. “It’s going to make lunch that much easier.”

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“When it’s really up and running it will make things go a lot smoother and faster,” said Bill Jett, general manager of Sodexo, the district’s food service provider.

At a cost of roughly $91,000, Sodexo will pick up the tab to implement the program districtwide with the hope of recouping expenses over the next five years as more parents sign their children up for free or reduced lunches. The added advantage of the biometrics system is no one knows who receives free or reduced lunch or who has to pay for their meals.

There are still a few kinks to work out with the system as the small scanners located near all cash registers failed to recognize some fingerprints, prompting students to revert back to the old system of keying in personal identification codes.

Still, for those who used the new system, it was pretty cool.

“The technology is already out there for us to use biometrics in a number of ways,” said Principal Darren Conley. “In the future, we are looking at adding it to the media center for signing materials out or in the classrooms for attendance.”

The marketing experiment – which is being conducted by CBS, the US broadcaster, and Pepsi, the soft drinks maker – recalls the fantasy newspapers of the Harry Potter films and works much like a singing greetings card, with the video starting once a reader turns the appropriate page.

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Officials in Paterson are considering one for people of all ages in a bid to curb violence after a spate of deadly shootings.

Several experts say they believe it would be the nation’s first curfew of its type to include adults. The state ACLU says it would open Paterson to legal action.

The curfew would last for two months and would bar people from loitering outside from midnight to 7 a.m. Violators would face up to a $2,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

Officials are still working to make sure the plan can withstand legal challenges.

Gay-Ellen Stulp and Stephany Miskunas are lobbying the Lafayette City Council to allow them to keep pet chickens at their homes in the historic Highland Park neighborhood.
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Stulp said she wanted city council members to amend the ordinance that forbids having chickens in the city. The city council’s Public Health Welfare and Safety Committee plans to consider the matter.

“It’s been a blast,” Stulp said of her quest. “I can’t believe the discussions I’ve gotten as I go around with my petition.

“It’s a little hobby. They are pets. I guess I’m now part of the chicken underground.”

Melanie Lucroy, president of Highland Park Neighborhood Association, said the group hasn’t taken an official stance on the issue.

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Many cities allow urban chicken farming, including Indianapolis, St. Louis, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Madison, Wis.

Restrictions are placed on the chicken lovers in most of those cases, though. For example, in most cases, hens are allowed but not roosters, only three or four chickens are permitted at each household, and chickens must be kept from leaving the property.

The urban chicken movement has businesses that sell equipment and offer tips for raising the birds.

“There are even ‘stealth’ chicken coops that look like trash cans,” Stulp said.

She said that the city’s animal control department last May ordered her to part ways with her four hens. Miskunas had chickens in her backyard for a year and she said most neighbors knew it. But this summer, a young hen escaped into a neighborhood yard and authorities were called.

Several Highland Park neighbors declined to comment about the situation or about legalizing chickens in the city.

diri 2One clue lies in the title at the beginning of Dirigible: “Dedicated to the United States Navy without whose cooperation the production of this picture would not have been possible.” Clearly the film’s second sequence (from which both frames here were taken) was shot at an actual air field with real planes and dirigibles. Many shots in the scene were taken during what seems to have been a public air show.

I recalled that when I was growing up, every now and then a movie I saw had a similar acknowledgement. Jimmy Stewart and other stalwart stars played government employees of various sorts, with pictures of impressive buildings in Washington and superimposed titles thanking this agency or that for its aid.

It also reminded me of The Lord of the Rings. One sequence in The Return of the King, the battle before the Black Gates, was shot in an old military practice range of the New Zealand army (right and below). The country, with its lush forests and stunning mountains, is short on desolate plains. The practice range was the only suitably Mordor-like landscape that could be found.

LOTR 2Not only did the army clear the field of unexploded ordinance, but it supplied soldiers to serve as extras by playing the Gondorian troops. The supplement on the extended-version DVD, “Cameras in Middle-earth,” shows these troops, as well as the officers who gave them orders. Apparently the soldiers were far more capable than regular extras of marching in straight lines and less willing to merely mime fighting during the battle.

The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the United States target civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, use antipersonnel weapons including cluster bombs in densely settled urban areas, use white phosphorous as a weapon, use depleted uranium weapons, employ a new version of napalm found in Mark 77 firebombs, engage in collective punishment of Iraqi civilian populations — including by blocking roads, cutting electricity and water, destroying fuel stations, planting bombs in farm fields, demolishing houses, and plowing down orchards — detain people without charge or legal process without the rights of prisoners of war, imprison children, torture, and murder.