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The sun, the moon and … the planets
During the coming evenings, everybody under clear skies
will be able to enjoy a beautiful view in the twilight.
Right after sunset, planet Venus is visible as a
brilliant point of light above the western horizon
- and two other planets, Mars and Saturn, are seen
to the left of Venus as somewhat less bright objects.
More to the south and higher in the sky, planet Jupiter
is also prominent.
In the evenings of April 22 and 23, the thin crescent of
the Moon will be located near Venus and Mars, further adding
to the splendor of this sight (the drawing shows the configuration
in the evening of Friday, April 23).
One month later, around May 21, there will be another chance
to witness this interesting celestial sight. And even
more: on that particular Friday, for observers in Europe,
the Moon
will pass in front of Venus. Known as an "occultation",
this event will happen around 12 hrs Universal Time
(UT), i.e. in full daylight during early afternoon
in central Europe.
These are fine preludes to the rare astronomical event on
Tuesday, June 8th, 2004, when Venus will pass in front of
the solar disc, as seen from the Earth. This "Venus Transit" happened
last time in the year 1882 and now provides a vast public
in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia the opportunity for
a unique experience.
The Research Council of Norway puts a new spin on hand washing
Hospital infections cost the world thousands of
lives. An important cause is unclean hands. A
new device will clean hands completely in a fraction
of the time used for a typical hand washing.
The newly developed hand-wash device contains two main components:
disinfecting fluid and the application apparatus. The hands
are inserted into an opening in a box and disinfecting fluid
is applied – without making physical contact with the
actual device. Simple and quick compared to normal hand wash
with soap and water.
Time is an important factor in this picture. A study in the
EU showed that health care professionals are in contact with
an average of 35 patients daily. If you calculate that the
washing hands takes 2 minutes, including the time to find
a basin, more than one hour of the work day is used for washing.
“Our concept would reduce the time it takes to disinfect
hands by up to 75 per cent,” says Petter Mehren. He
is manager of the company MainSani AS, who is behind the development
of the device.
When Norwegian and British health care personnel were
asked why they did not practice better hygiene routines, they
often said that they either forget or that the basin was not
readily available. They also related that during busy days
the normal hand wash takes too long – not to mention
that frequent washing leads to dry and irritated skin.
“There must be an easier way to disinfect hands, I
thought. So I started to conceive a plan that today has become
the research project MainSani,” says Mehren. He adds
that an important point is that MainSani’s liquid does
not contain chlorine, iodine or alcohol. It should feel comfortable
and not irritate the skin, and therefore invite more frequent
disinfecting.
The potential is huge. In Norway, hospital infections cost
the country somewhere between half and one billion kroner
per year (60-120 mill EURO). Add to that the suffering of
about 45 thousand patients that are affected. Hospital personnel
do not wash their hands in half of the situations in which
they should do so, and doctors are worse than nurses, shows
international and Nordic surveys.
Airlines set to fight EU on passenger payouts
AFP GENEVA, April 21 - World airlines on Wednesday
launched a legal challenge against new European
Union rules that would allow boosted compensation
for passengers who face delays or cancelled flights.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA)
said in a statement that it had applied to Britain's
High Court for a judicial review of the EU's measures,
which are due to come in effect in February 2005.
"It is high time that EU regulators took
the trouble to learn about the industry they are
misregulating," IATA Director-General Giovanni
Bisignani said.
The industry body slammed the decision in January
to nearly double payouts to disappointed passengers
as "misguided", "irresponsible", "impractical" and "inconsistent".
While airlines accepted the need to compensate
passengers who were bumped off overbooked flights,
IATA -- which groups 270 companies -- said they
could not accept to pay for problems caused by
bad weather, saturated air traffic, strikes or
security demands.
"With this regulation, the EU regulators
have endangered the consumer interest they seek
to protect," Bisignani said, warning that
the new rules would increase costs on short haul
routes.
Bisignani said a last ditch effort to avoid litigation
failed because EU Transport Commissioner Loyola
de Palacio did not reply to a letter asking to
discuss the issue on February 25.
"Turning to the courts was our last resort
but we are confident that a positive outcome will
be reached," he added.
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