Poynter Online

Olympians Don High-Tech Fashion Gear to Enhance Performance

By Al Tompkins

Athletic apparel companies count on the Olympics as a platform to launch new high-tech products. The SciFi Scanner put together a list of some of the newest products:

• "To help skiers go really fast (like Dash), Spyder has created a new 'slippery' race suit, made of three-layer bonded polyester, that reduces the coefficient of friction against the wind. ...

• "To help Canada's speed skaters glide across the ice as smoothly as Frozone did while escaping the Omnidroid, there's a new bodysuit from Japanese apparel company Descente. More aerodynamic than human skin, it's made from Thin Fit fabric that's only 0.3 millimeters thick.

• "The Zeal Transcend goggle, used by Canadian Olympic snowboarders, does a lot more than provide cover. Like Iron Man's heads-up display, the goggles contain a full-color LCD -- invisible while the wearer is gazing ahead -- that offers information about his or her speed, altitude, rate of descent, and jump length." 

The New York Times said that "the bodysuits could be the most significant development in the sport since clap skates":

"They bring to mind the Speedo LZR Racer that roiled the waters at the 2008 Beijing Games, where swimmers not clad in the cutting-edge suit complained of being at a competitive disadvantage.

"There has been no such outcry over the Descente suits. But unlike in 2008, when swimmers like the American Michael Phelps wore the LZR Racer in competitions leading up to the Olympics, the Canadian skaters have yet to race in their new suits. They have been wearing them in practices this month, but will not unveil them to the world until the Olympic speedskating competition begins Saturday."

Some Scientists Say Athletic Performance Has Peaked

Have athletes gotten as fast as they are going to get without cheating? Figuring out the answer to this question could lead to a good weekend story. 

Despite high-tech equipment, nutrition and multi-million dollar training centers, researchers say we have bottomed out and that we are not setting as many records in track and field and other events these days. There may even be evidence that without doping, you won't see many new records in this year's Olympics. I wonder what athletes in your town think of this. Have we peaked?

 The Los Angeles Times reported:

"A French researcher who analyzed a century's worth of world records concluded in a recent paper that the peak of athletic achievement was reached in 1988. Eleven world records were broken that year in track and field. Seven of them still stand.

"That paper and others published in the last two years suggest that the Olympic motto -- Citius, Altius, Fortius(Faster, Higher, Stronger) -- is becoming an anachronism.

" 'We saw a strong evolution of performance during the past century,' says study author Geoffroy Berthelot, a researcher at INSEP, an internationally respected school and research institute for athletes in Paris. 'Then in the 1990s we started to see a decrease in performance. Now, there are a lot of events that don't show any progression at all.'

"In track and field, Berthelot found, peak times have not improved in 64% of events since 1993. In swimming, performances stagnated in 47% of events after 1990, rising again around 2000 when new high-tech swimsuits proven to improve performance were introduced.

"Achievement appears to have plateaued throughout the sports world. Records in winter sports -- which are, in general, younger than many summer sports -- are still on the rise, but in ever-smaller increments, says Carl Foster, director of the human performance laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine.

" 'World records are indeed flattening,' he says. 'The likelihood that a world record occurs is becoming less and less.' "

The story mentioned a study that says athletic performances have become stagnate since peaking in 1988.

Resources for Covering Obama's Plan to Revive Nuclear Power

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is offering $8 billion in loan guarantees to America's first new nuclear plant in 30 years. The reactors would be built at a Georgia power plant.

In making the announcement, Obama said:

"Japan and France have long invested heavily in this industry. Meanwhile, there are 56 nuclear reactors under construction around the world: 21 in China alone; six in South Korea; five in India. And the commitment of these countries is not just generating the jobs in those plants; it's generating demand for expertise and new technologies.

"So make no mistake: Whether it's nuclear energy, or solar or wind energy, if we fail to invest in the technologies of tomorrow, then we're going to be importing those technologies instead of exporting them. We will fall behind. Jobs will be produced overseas, instead of here in the United States of America. And that's not a future that I accept."

Here are some more details from the Nuclear Energy Institute:

"As of January 2010, 29 countries worldwide were operating 437 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 56 new nuclear plants were under construction in 14 countries."

"...Countries generating the largest percentage of their electricity in 2008 from nuclear energy were:

Country	Percent
France	76.2
Lithuania	72.9
Slovakia	56.4
Belgium	53.8
Ukraine	47.4
Sweden	42.0
Slovenia	41.7
Armenia	39.4
Switzerland	39.2
Hungary	37.2
S. Korea	35.6
Bulgaria	32.9

What happens to the nuclear waste from power plants? This question is among the most difficult for nuclear advocates to answer. Many plants are currently storing waste on site. The country doesn't have a national waste dump, but the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is looking to build one in Yucca Mountain, Nev. Nuclear waste is generally either stored in pools of water or in dry storage casks.

The NRC put together a primer on nuclear waste and explained:

"The spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants must be handled and stored with the same care as separated high-level waste, since they contain the highly-radioactive fission products plus uranium and plutonium. Spent fuel is currently being stored in large water-cooled pools and dry storage casks at nuclear power plants. Some is also stored at facilities at West Valley, New York, Morris, Illinois, and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

"Existing high-level wastes from reprocessing are presently stored at West Valley, New York; Hanford, Washington; Idaho Falls, Idaho; and Savannah River, South Carolina. Liquid high-level wastes are stored in large underground tanks of either stainless steel or carbon steel, depending on whether they are acid or alkaline. Some of the liquid waste has been solidified into glass, ceramic slag, salt cake and sludge." 

It is remarkable how, in the last 30 years, nuclear power has gone from being viewed as an environmental threat to "clean energy." 

The Nuclear Energy Institute said that "in 2008, nuclear energy accounted for about 72 percent of U.S. emission-free generation." The NEI also said that nuclear plants have much lower production costs than coal, oil or gas burning plants. (That does not mean it is less expensive to build a new nuclear plant, just less per kilowatt hour produced to run one.)

Groups such as Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, now stake their major arguments against nuclear power not just on environmental concerns but on economic and security issues. Public Citizen has saidnuclear power gets huge federal subsidies.

At nearly the same hour Obama spoke about the loan guarantees on Tuesday, Canada's Globe and Mail reported:

"The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says that as many as 217 workers may have been exposed to radioactivity at the Bruce nuclear power station on the shores of Lake Huron while refurbishing a reactor in late November.

"It is believed to be one of the largest mass exposures to radiation at a Canadian nuclear site. The company operating the station, Bruce Power, says that according to its estimates none of the workers received doses exceeding regulatory limits, although there are concerns that the amounts may have come close to the maximum safe exposures."

Additional resources

• See a map of operating nuclear reactors in the United States.

• See a list of the plants currently operating.

• See a list of plants that are shut down or decommissioned.

• What regulations are nuclear plants under? Who oversees the NRC?

• Who owns America's nuclear power plants?

• What do supporters say about the state of nuclear plant safety?

Environmental Advocates Want Manufacturers to Disclose Household-Cleaner Ingredients

Environmental groups and the American Lung Association want a New York court to force the manufacturers of common household cleaners to list the ingredients of their products. If the groups win in New York, they plan to take their demands nationwide.

The Associated Press reported:

"The case comes amid growing concerns about potential toxins lurking in consumer goods, including the heavy metal cadmium in jewelry and the chemical bisphenol A in baby bottles. While lawyers argued the cleaning-products case in New York, a Senate subcommittee in Washington held a hearing to examine current science on the public's exposure to toxic chemicals.

"Some studies have linked cleaning product components to asthma, antibiotic resistance, hormone changes and other health problems. The industry's major trade group, the Soap and Detergent Assn., assails the research as flawed. It says the products are safe if used correctly and notes that cleaning can itself help stop the spread of disease.

"Federal environmental laws don't require most household cleaning products to list their ingredients, though there are congressional proposals to change that. The Consumer Product Safety Commission requires hazard warning labels on some cleansers, and the National Institutes of Health offer some health and safety information for hundreds of cleaning products, drawn from data gathered for industrial use.

"Cleanser industry groups unveiled their own ingredient-listing initiative last month, offering information on participating manufacturers' websites. New York-based Colgate-Palmolive, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble and several other industry heavyweights are participating."

Many large companies now list the ingredients on their Web sites. For example, Clorox lists all of the company's productsso you can see what they are made of.

The Soap and Detergent Association Web site said:

"The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA), and the Canadian Consumer Specialty Products Association (CCSPA) have developed a Consumer Product Ingredient Communication Initiative [PDF] as a way to provide consumers with information about the ingredients in products in four major categories: air care, automotive care, cleaning, and polishes and floor maintenance products.

"Lists of ingredients for most of the cleaning products consumers use every day are now available."

[Here] "you will find details on where and how companies will feature their specific ingredient communications."

Schools Can't Meet Demand for Veterinarians

There is a growing need for veterinarians, and schools cannot keep up with the demand. 

The Rural Blog is following this story, as the problem is especially bad in rural areas:

"A shortage of veterinarians, especially those who treat large animals, is spreading across the country but particularly in rural areas. 'As a result, more people are depending on their rudimentary knowledge of veterinary procedures to get the jobs done,' Michelle Rupe Eubanks of the Times Daily in Florence, Ala., reports. Large amounts of debt also push recent vet-school graduates to metropolitan areas, where pay is better.

"Dr. Donna Anagarano, associate dean for academic affairs at the Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine, told Eubanks the shortages in rural areas will worsen. An area of specialization is up to each graduate, but most of Auburn's 97 graduates last year plan to focus on small animals. 'That's the largest [number of graduates] we've had, but there is still a shortage, and we do plan to grow the numbers,' Anagarano told Eubanks. Nationally, 80 to 85 percent of vet-school applicants are women, who are less likely to want to work with large animals."

Quoting Anagarano, the Times Daily story said this is not the first shortage:

" 'We dealt with a similar emergency in the 1970s,' she said. 'We opened several vet schools then, going from 19 nationwide to 28. What we're seeing now is that many in that initial group are reaching retirement age. And a lot of boomers just aren't interested in working until they're in their 70s or 80s.' "

The Associated Press wrote about the issue back in 2004:

"A few veterinary colleges have added handfuls of students in recent years. Some say more schools are needed but it's cost prohibitive for many institutions, especially budget-strapped state universities, to build more labs and hire faculty.

'"It's just not possible for the colleges to admit more, but some of them are working to expand their infrastructure,' said Dr. Lawrence E. Heider, executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. They need more faculty, labs and classrooms and teaching hospital space, he said."

The story continued:

"The shortage is largely due to the numbers of vet graduates not increasing as fast as the nation's population growth, Heider said. His association estimates that there are 9 vet students per million Americans. If the enrollment numbers don't increase, the number of vets per million Americans will drop to 6.7 students by 2050. An estimated 965 more students per year are needed to maintain the current ratio.

"Although many people may only see vets as small-animal doctors, the profession also needs specialists such as diagnostic pathologists -- especially with growing concerns about agroterrorism and foreign animal diseases.

"Other underserved areas are veterinarians in the armed forces, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

" 'The profession is not meeting some of the needs of society as it relates to public health, as it relates to food safety, biomedical research ... and an increasing demand for specialists in private practice,' said Ralph Richardson, dean of the Kansas State College of Veterinary Medicine.

" 'We're facing a manpower crisis.' "

A couple of years ago, USA Today reported that the vet shortage was taking a toll on the U.S.'s food inspection program:

"About 500 counties have large populations of food animals but no veterinarian who lives there to treat them, the American Veterinary Medical Association says. 'We're in a crisis situation,' says Gregory Hammer, president of the association and a vet in Dover, Del. 'We don't have enough rural veterinarians to be a first line of defense against animal diseases.'

"The federal government, in particular, needs more vets working on food safety. 'There are so many vacancies that you've got one veterinarian doing the job of three,' says Michael Gilsdorf, head of the National Association of Federal Veterinarians."

Applying for Food Stamps Now 'Easier Than Ever'

It's a lot more widely accepted to use food stamps these days. They've become so widely used that retailers now stock up for the first day of the month when the food stamp debit cards are "charged up." Reuters reported: 

"At 11 p.m. on the last day of the month, shoppers flock to the nearest Walmart. They load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. That's when food stamp credits are loaded on their electronic benefits transfer cards.

'"Once the clock strikes midnight and EBT cards are charged, you can see our results start to tick up," says Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart Stores Inc's chief financial officer.

"As food stamps become an increasingly common currency in a struggling U.S. economy, they are dictating changes in how even the biggest retailers do business.

"From Costco to Wal-Mart, store chains are rethinking years of strategy as they watch prized customers lose jobs and turn to this benefit, the stigma of which is disappearing not just in society, but in corporate America.

"Besides staffing up for the spike in shoppers on the first day of the month, retailers are adjusting when and what they stock, updating point-of-sale systems to accept food stamps and shifting expansion plans to focus on lower-income shoppers."

The New York Times reported on how much easier it is to get food stamps now than it was a decade ago. An estimated 35 million people receive them:

"After a U-turn in the politics of poverty, food stamps, a program once scorned as 'welfare,' enjoys broad new support. Following deep cuts in the 1990s, Congress reversed course to expand eligibility, cut red tape and burnish the program's image, with a special effort to enroll the working poor. These changes, combined with soaring unemployment, have pushed enrollment to record highs, with one in eight Americans now getting aid.

" 'I've seen a remarkable shift,' said Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican and prominent food stamp supporter. ' People now see that it's necessary to have a strong food stamp program.'

"The revival began a decade ago, after tough welfare laws chased millions of people from the cash rolls, many into low-wage jobs as fast-food workers, maids, and nursing aides. Newly sympathetic officials saw food stamps as a way to help them. For states, the program had another appeal: the benefits are federally paid.

"But support also turned on chance developments, including natural disasters (which showed the program's value in emergencies) and the rise of plastic benefit cards (which eased stigma and fraud). The program has commercial allies, in farmers and grocery stores."

The "Changing Demographic" graphs that are linked to on the left-hand side of the Times article are worth looking at. One of them shows that nearly 25 percent of the nation's food stamp recipients have some college education. 

Read this new "Hunger in America" report, which lists the following findings:

• "Feeding America is annually providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. This is an increase of 46 percent over 2006, when we were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.
• "That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for food and groceries.
• "Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.
• "Thirty-six percent of the households we serve have at least one person working.
• "More than one-third of client households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.
• "The number of children the Feeding America network serves has increased by 50 percent since 2006."

Additional resources

• Drill down into the data from this Feeding America hunger study.
• See the USDA's food stamp page for information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
• Find out about inmates who were illegally getting food-stamp benefits in Iowa. 
• Read about the increasing number of people seeking help from food banks in New Orleans and elsewhere.
  

Who Will Light the Olympic Flame Tonight?

I am working in Ottawa today, where Canada is abuzz over tonight's Olympics opening ceremony. The big question being kicked around is, who will light the flame?

Of course, the name most often mentioned is hockey star Wayne Gretzky. There is even a Facebook site dedicated to getting him named to do the honors.

No doubt, he is known the world over and brought glory back to Canadian hockey in 2002 when he was the executive director of the team that won the gold.

But the name Terry Fox is also being mentioned as a favorite to be honored. Fox became a national hero when he lost his leg to cancer, then tried to run coast-to-coast to raise $1 from every Canadian to fight the disease. There is a notion that his mother, Betty Fox, might light the flame. The reason it may not be Betty Fox is because Terry's father ran with the torch early in the day on Friday. 

Some are also suggesting that someone with ties to the Four Host First Nations Society might be recognized. First Nation's leaders are being treated as heads of state in these Olympic Games, which is a huge recognition.

Pittsburgh Penguins hockey player Sidney Crosby has some support, and so does former Olympian Nancy Greene Raine.

Chicago Public Radio Investigates Juvenile Justice System

You just have to admire the journalists at WBEZ-FM, Chicago Public Radio. They would not take "no" for an answer.

They fought with the governor's office, they rallied public support and, in the end, they got access to the state's juvenile justice system, one that sucks up $100 million in Illinois alone and houses children who too often get caught on a crime carousel. I like that the station does not just report statistics like that without asking what they really mean. 

In Chicago alone, cops made 18,000 juvenile arrests last year. The station reported not just on how many people are being arrested, but why. It learned that thousands of those arrests are for simple assault and disorderly conduct -- the kind of thing that once would have been brushed off as kids being loudmouths. The station asked, "Should we really be arresting them and sending them to juvenile detention, or are cops just responding to pressure from school officials?"

Journalism Center on Children & Families profiled the station's efforts to report this hard-to-tell story. The station did not just focus on what happens in juvenile jail, but on the kids' fortunes once they leave. But first, the reporters and photographers had to get past the governor's office:

"Community members also promised to call the Governor’s Office, pledging their support for the reporting. 'People don’t like locked doors and mystery,' says Senior Editor Cate Cahan. 'It heartened us to see their support.'

"The governor reversed his decision and granted the reporters access to multiple juvenile facilities. The result is "Inside and Out," a six-month series which launched Jan. 25, 2010 with a week of stories profiling young people whose lives have tangled with the Illinois juvenile justice system.

"They include: Marcus, a 14-year-old struggling to resist the lure of street life and complete grade school; Angelica, a 19-year-old who has cycled in and out of youth prison twice; and Mario, a 20-year-old college student whose childhood was pockmarked with violence and trauma. The unflinching, unwavering accounts of their troubles with the law raise the question: Can the juvenile justice system rehabilitate young offenders, rather than just detain them?

"Cahan hopes the project will foster discussions about the restructuring of the juvenile justice system.

" 'The heart of this project is assessing whether or not these youth facilities are successful in accomplishing their goals,' she says. 'It’s a good time to shine a light on this institution and foster a discussion about what is being done for these kids.' '''

Take a look at this station's work. It might just encourage you to tackle one of the most difficult and important stories you've ever told.

EMTs Need New Gear to Move Supersized Patients

Emergency medical technicians are having to move patients who weigh 350 pounds or more and are buying supersized gurneys to do the job. The calls involving these patients represent a sliver of the total workload, but require significant resources. 

The EMTs say they want to be ready so that large patients won't hesitate to call for help.

The Washington Post reported on the issue, saying:

"Nationwide a few communities, including some near Topeka, Kan., charge nearly double to transport patients over 350 pounds. There is no discussion [in the Washington area] on that front, said officials with the major agencies. But area departments are part of a buying trend expected to double sales of specialty equipment by 2012.

"Sales of stretchers designed specifically for very large patients were expected to reach $50 million in 2012, up from $29.6 million in 2004, while sales of specialized lift systems were projected to rise from $75 million to $193 million. The projections were included in a 2007 article for EMS providers written by Raphael M. Barishansky, now chief of public health emergency preparedness for the Prince George's County Health Department.

"Reinforced brackets, hydraulic lifts, extensions for belts, harnesses and blood pressure cuffs, and equipment designed so as many as a dozen people at one time can lift a patient are in use in the District and Prince George's, Montgomery and Fairfax counties, as well as many smaller departments. So, too, are cots widened to about 30 inches, which provide increased surface area while still being able to pass through most internal doors."

A July story from McClatchy Newspapers said:

"Ambulance workers have enlisted brawny firefighters, makeshift pulleys, tarps, plywood and even a hydraulic-lift truck to get patients up or down stairs, through narrow hallways, out of houses and on the road. ...

"Although specialty equipment is making the process easier for ambulance workers and more dignified for patients, the devices are expensive and still not widely used.

"American Medical Response (AMR) in Independence, Mo., is one of a relatively small number of ambulance providers nationwide to have a bariatric ambulance.

"The vehicle features a reinforced floor and shocks, a ramp and a motorized winch to pull a loaded gurney into the back. While AMR's standard cots hold 450 pounds, the bariatric cot can support 850 pounds in the extended position or 1,600 pounds when lowered."

Coming Weeks Mark High Season for Rare Seed Exchanges

For those of you who have not seen the ground in a while because of the piles of snow that have blanketed your cities, just know, spring is on the way. 

True gardeners never lose sight of that.

This is high season for gardeners, many of whom are growing strains of unusual or rare seeds, harvesting them and then trading them with others. 

The Wall Street Journal explained the rare seed exchanges, saying:

"The coming weeks are high season for seed exchanges as many gardeners are preparing to start seedlings indoors to be planted outside once spring breaks. Part of the fun of surfing the seed exchanges is in recognizing names and gardens where donations come from -- and the chance to plant seeds from famous gardens. The North American Rock Garden Society exchange lists more than 100 seeds donated by the New York Botanical Garden from its expeditions to the countries of Georgia and China in 2005 and 2007."

Some "seed-saver" exchanges have been running for decades, such as the Seed Saver Exchange in Iowa.The nonprofit organization, aimed at saving and sharing heirloom seeds, said:

"Our loyal SSE members have distributed an estimated 1 million samples of rare garden seeds since our founding nearly 35 years ago. Those seeds now are widely used by seed companies, small farmers supplying local and regional markets, chefs and home gardeners and cooks, alike."  

... "We permanently maintain more than 25,000 endangered vegetable varieties, most having been brought to North America by members' ancestors who immigrated from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the world."

Here is a Canadian "heritage" seed exchange.

Some exchanges focus on specific flowers, such as rare iris, or on crops such as tomatoes. The Wall Street Journal explained:

"To take part in a typical exchange, gardeners harvest most flower seeds by allowing blooms to fade and then collect ripened seed. They mail in their seed donations, and the organization publishes a catalog sometime in the winter listing contributions. Members then make their pick. Depending on availability, a packet containing anywhere from a handful to hundreds of seeds might cost as little as 50 cents or less—a fraction of what commercially sold seed packets can cost. Some organizations will set a limit on the number of seeds members can order. Others offer bonus seeds for big contributors. To become a member to take part in exchanges, annual dues can run from as little as $5 to $40. Some gardening Web sites such as blossomswap.com also host seed-trading forums, which don't require membership fees."

You can read more here about how the exchanges got started. 

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, also called the "Doomsday Vault," contains duplicate samples of seeds we would need to be able to start growing things again in the event of a catastrophic crop loss.