Oil Reporter App Makes Sure No Toxic Sludge Goes Unnoticed

Oil Reporter isn't a public shaming campaign for BP—no, that'll take care of itself just fine, thanks. This iPhone app, which lets Gulf Coast residents record every oily bird and patch of ruined swampland, is about fixing things.

Oil Reporter isn't that different from any other crowd-sourced reporting app, technically speaking. I mean, in terms of raw functionality, it's not that different from, say, the app AT&T has its customers use to report dropped calls: Each report contains relevant information about the location, time and circumstances of the incident, which presumably help the recipient fix the problem.

Oil Reporter sends its decidedly more urgent reports to an organization called CrisisCommons, which is dedicated to aggregating massive amounts of crowd-sourced data to help NGOs, relief organizations and corporations and government agencies involved understand the scope and severity of a given problem. (And honestly, most stories about the Gulf oil spill are actually about changes in the known scope and severity of the disaster, right?)

Oil Reporter is free, obviously, and if you live on the Gulf Coast, or in any of the areas where the spill is projected to contaminate, you should be put off by its minimal set of launch features—CrisisCommons developed Oil Reporter first and foremost as a framework for other disaster relief apps, so features like native geotagging are on their way, hopefully (scratch that: probably) before the earth stops vomiting its blood into some of the most fragile ecosystems in the country. [iTunes via 148Apps]

This is the end of the world!

Creature comfort: the British 'safari jet' that transforms into a plush viewing platform

There are some people who want the comforts of home with them - even when 'roughing it' on safari in Africa. For these five-star campers, BAE Systems and Design Q have come up with the ultimate in travel luxury. The four-engined Avro Business Jet Explorer Four has been designed to land on short runways and uneven landing strips, delivering its wealthy passengers directly into wildlife areas. Then, with the flick of a switch, a door on the side of the jet opens and a viewing platform extends from the fuselage - offering spectacular open-air views!

For a cool £16 million, A-list animal lovers will get the chance to by the 'safari jet', which has room for two pilots and eight passengers and crew. Inside the aircraft, a galley kitchen can deliver gourmet meals to an eight-seat dining area, and large sofas fold out to provide on-board beds. To top it all off, once passengers have had their fill of the good life and wildlife in any given area, they simply transform the aircraft back into its 'flying mode' and jet off to the next destination.

The 100ft aircraft is being built to order in the UK, and a spokesman for BAE/Design Q says the aircraft will 'offer a new level of sophistication for the discerning customer'. With marble floors and quality finishes throughout, the interiors can be modified and designed to suit the individual needs of the owner. For more remote locations and rougher landing grounds, the jet can be fitted with stronger and bigger tyres, and the fuselage can be strengthened to cope with the extra strain. The finished product, will look like these images, based on BAE designs.

IVF, Fertility Drugs Might Boost Autism Risk

Children whose mothers took fertility drugs were almost twice as likely to have autism as other children, new research finds. Being conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) or born prematurely also seemed to up the risk of autism, according to another study.

In the first study, researchers asked 111 women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study II who had a child with an autism spectrum disorder about their history of fertility problems and use of ovulation-inducing drugs, such as Clomid or gonadotropins.

About 34 percent of moms with an autistic child had used fertility drugs compared to about 24 percent of some 3,900 mothers without an autistic child, the researchers found.

Clomid and gonadotropins are often used as a first-line treatment for infertility, defined as trying for a year or longer to get pregnant without success, said lead study author Kristen Lyall, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Nearly 47 percent of moms of autistic kids reported infertility, compared to about 33 percent of the other mothers, her team found.

One caveat to those statistics is that older women are both more likely to have fertility problems and to take ovulation-inducing drugs, and prior research has shown older moms are also more likely to have autistic children.

In the study, the median maternal age at the time the first child was born was 35, compared to about 25 for the general U.S. population, Lyall noted.

Even so, when the age of the mother and pregnancy complications were taken into account -- which can also heighten the risk of autism -- women with infertility and who used ovulation drugs still had a twofold greater chance of having a child with an autism spectrum disorder.

The absolute risk for any one mother to have a child with autism remained relatively low, the authors noted. In the study, about 4 percent of mothers who took fertility drugs had a child with an autism spectrum disorder, compared to about 2 percent of moms who didn't take fertility drugs.

Still, "we found that a history of infertility and use of ovulation-inducing drugs was significantly associated with an increased risk of having a children with an autism spectrum disorder," said Lyall, who noted that the findings are preliminary, involved a relatively small sample of women and needed to be confirmed by future research.

The autism risk was less pronounced among younger mothers who took fertility drugs, Lyall added. Among women aged 25 to 34, about 3.1 percent who had infertility and took fertility drugs had an autistic child, compared to 2.6 percent of women in that age group who didn't.

The study was to be presented last week at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia.

Another study to be presented at the meeting, this time by Israeli researchers, found that in vitro fertilization and pre-term birth were both associated with an increased risk of autism in offspring.

About 10.2 percent of 461 children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder were conceived using IVF, while about 3.5 percent of children in the general Israeli population are conceived that way, according to the study.

Moms who had IVF tended to be older, with a median age of 32.6 years compared to just under 31 years of age for mothers who didn't get IVF, the study authors noted.

Nearly 4 percent of the kids with autism were born prematurely, while nearly 5 percent had a low birth weight, compared to about 1 percent in the general population.

"Prematurity and low birth weight also adversely affect the child's functioning in adaptive skills," noted study lead author Dr. Ditza Zachor, who is director of the Autism Center at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center at Tel Aviv University. "This means that these two risk factors act as 'second hits' that affect the child more than just having autism."

Zachor stressed that the findings are preliminary and more widespread research is needed. "This will give us the answer if these procedures carry any risk for the baby."

So what does all this mean for couples struggling to conceive? Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, director of medical research at Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders in Baltimore, said that women taking fertility drugs or undergoing IVF should not be unnecessarily alarmed.

The vast majority of children conceived in this way will not end up with autism, and most children who have autism were not conceived using IVF or with the help of fertility drugs, he said.

However, many physicians who work with kids with autism have remarked that lots of their patients seem to have been conceived via IVF. Prior to these studies, the observation was largely anecdotal, he said.

"I don't think we are at a point yet where we can make recommendations, but we are getting to a point where we are beginning to understand there probably is a relationship," Zimmerman said.

The reasons for the connection are not known, but it may be something about the process of in vitro fertilization, in which a sperm and egg are joined outside the womb, an embryo is created and implanted, or sometimes frozen and stored, then thawed for later use. Taking fertility drugs in early pregnancy could also contribute, Zimmerman said.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that's characterized by problems with social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and restricted interests and behaviors.

No more sex for procreation?

A bold study estimates that the traditional method of making babies will be a dying art, replaced by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) technology.

According to a new report, advances in IVF technology mean it will be possible to produce embryos with a success rate of virtually 100 per cent and cultivate them in computer-controlled storage facilities, reported Times of London.

The advancement will ease the pressure on couples who have delayed having children until their late 30s or 40s.

They may routinely opt for IVF rather than sex to reproduce, giving themselves a greater chance of conceiving through IVF than young adults in peak condition, who have only a one-in-four chance a month of conceiving naturally.

"Natural human reproduction is at best a fairly inefficient process." says Mr John Yovich, co-author of report.

Present fertility techniques meant that the healthiest of couples have a 50 per cent chance of success using IVF, said the report.

However, authors of the study, published in the Journal Reproductive Bio Medicine Online, said that rapid advances in artificial reproduction for farm animals - which have led to a near-100 per cent success rate in the production of cattle embryos - claim the technology could easily be adapted for humans.

Mr John Yovich, a co-author of the report, told The Times: "We are not quite at that stage yet, but it's where we're heading. Natural human reproduction is at best a fairly inefficient process. Within the next five to 10 years, couples approaching 40 will access the IVF industry first when they want to have a baby."

Gedis Grudzinskas, a Harley Street infertility specialist and editor of Reproductive Bio Medicine Online, said: "It wouldn't surprise me if IVF does become significantly more efficient than natural reproduction, but I doubt whether you could ever completely guarantee it would work."

The Tata Gesture

Ratan Tata is the chairman of Indian Hotels who own the Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai, which was the target of the terrorists. Hotel President a 5 star property also belongs to Indian Hotels.

The following is really touching.

What Ratan Tata did for the Mumbai victims....

A. The Gesture
-All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed.
-Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed
-The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav-Bhaji” vendor and the pan shop owners.
-During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money order.
-A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help.The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided.
-Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility.
-Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required.
-Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.
-The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks.
-Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.
-In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.
-What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.
-A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her.
-New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts.
-Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror.
-This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible.
-The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs [One lakh rupees tranlates to approx 2200 US $ ]
-In addition to the following benefits:
a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents;
b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world.
c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life.
d. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount.
e. Counselor for life for each person

B. Epilogue
How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?
The organization is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behavior. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs!
It has to do with the DNA of the organization, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organization has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority
The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.
He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.
When the HR function hesitatingly made a very financially high proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?
The whole approach was that the organization would spend several hundred crores in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

Errors at UK IVF clinics double in 12 months

The number of mistakes at IVF centres in England and Wales rose from 182 in 2007/8 to 334 in 2008/9.

Blunders included embryos being lost or implanted in the wrong woman, and eggs being fertilised with another man's sperm.

The figures from Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFEA), the IVF regulatory body, were obtained by BBC Radio Five Live's Donal MacIntyre show.

The HFEA said the errors represented less than 1 per cent of more than 50,000 IVF cycles carried out.

One couple were told by the University Hospital of Wales's IVF clinic that their last remaining embryos had been lost during treatment.

The pair, identified only as Clare and Gareth, had been trying for a baby for eight years.

Clare told the BBC: ''I was sat there, gowned up, waiting to go in and have a transfer. They said you've got one embryo remaining, the other two embryos have gone missing.

''They said in the next sentence I can assure you they haven't gone into anyone else. Those were two potential babies.''

The centre in Cardiff was responsible for another serious mix-up three years ago when a couple's last viable embryo was placed in the wrong woman. An investigation found serious failings at the clinic.

The clinic said its success rate in recovering embryos is among the highest in the world and all incidents are reported to the HFEA.

Clare and Gareth's solicitor, Guy Forster, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said he has dealt with a dozen couples involved in similar incidents at different clinics around the country in the past 12 months.

He said: ''It may be perhaps that the embryos have been lost, or in the worst case scenario an embryo has been transferred into the wrong patient. It's deeply disturbing.''

Dr Sammy Lee, a fertility expert at University College Hospital, said: ''The key failure of the HFEA is that when they ask clinics to put in special procedures, they're not enforcing them.

''There's no point simply putting a request in writing and then expecting everything to be all right. You need to make sure that when you require something, that you have a way of enforcing it.''