God and Mental Health

With two seders behind us, Good Friday upon us and Easter two days away, let us sing the praises of religion for its power to improve mental health (pace, Hitchens and Dawkins). Yes, “religion features in a lot of psychotic delusions,” as British medical writer Tom Rees notes in his blog Epiphenom. But as two new studies show, religion can also improve mental health--but only if you believe in the right god.

In a paper in the online edition of the Journal of Religion and Health, psychologist Kevin Flannelly of the Spears Research Institute, HealthCare Chaplaincy and colleagues analyzed the link between particular beliefs about god and psychiatric symptoms in 1,306 adults in the U.S. They used data from a 2004 survey asking people what they thought about god as well as asking about their mental health. For the first part, the survey asked whether the god they believed in was close and loving, approving and forgiving, or creating and judging. Eliminating people who professed no religion (3 percent), Flannelly and his team then compared the incidence of general anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsion disorder, paranoid ideation and social anxiety in the three groups.

If your goal is mental health, they found, it’s a whole lot better to believe in a close and loving god. People with that belief had significantly lower rates of anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsion and paranoid ideation than people who believed in an approving and forgiving god. Belief in that sort of god reduced incidence of those disorders slightly. Belief in a creating and judging god raised the risk of all those mental disorders, especially of paranoid ideation. Well, sure: if you think an omnipotent and omniscient god is watching your every move and will smite you for any infraction, that can indeed make for a bit of paranoia.

Before we jump to causal conclusions here, however, it’s important to keep in mind that pre-existing mental states, including a tendency toward forms of mental illness, might predispose people to believe in one kind of god rather than another. (Yes, the family and culture you’re raised in has a strong effect on your religious beliefs, but as people reach adulthood they tend to customize their faith.) To be blunt, it’s possible that psychotic people gravitate toward a stern, judgmental god of the Old Testament stereotype (Sodom, Gomorrah et al.) while people without psychiatric problems gravitate toward a kinder, loving god, and not that particular religious beliefs make you more or less psychotic.

But in a paper in the same journal, Flannelly and colleagues argue that the arrow of causation might indeed run from belief system to mental health. They hypothesize that the human brain contains what they call an Evolutionary Threat Assessment System that alerts you to threats in the environment. If this system malfunctions, identifying dangers that are not there, it may produce symptoms of paranoia, depression and OCD. In contrast, a mellower alert system should decrease these symptoms. Belief in a close and loving god who’s looking out for you is one way to decrease activation of the threat-assessment system, they argue. Result: less chance of becoming paranoid, depressed, anxious and the rest.

Well, who are we here at Lab Notes to judge? Whatever gets you through the night. And up the next morning.

Drugs Hell, Secret Love of Michael Jackson

Celebrity shenanigans make headlines. But do we need a blog devoted to their mental health issues?

One of my favorite mental health Web sites, PsychCentral, thinks we do. The site has launched a new blog devoted to mental health issues surrounding celebrities called Celebrity Psychings. Writes PsychCentral founder John M. Grohol:

Celebrities have the ability to reach an audience who ordinarily might not even think about (or recognize the legitimacy of) mental health concerns. While we’re not into celebrity worship here, we believe that people can use their popularity for good when they talk about mental health issues out loud and in public. The more people get talking about mental health, the more it reduces the stigmatization and misinformation about these issues.

One of the latest posts focuses on the actress Carrie Fisher, who has bipolar disorder and is promoting a new memoir, “Wishful Drinking” (Simon & Schuster). Other items look at how mental health issues are being portrayed in the media, including shows like “Boston Legal,” where William Shatner’s character, Denny Crane, has been coping with the onset of Alzheimer’s.

The blog is written by Alicia Sparks, formerly of the Mental Health Notes blog. While the posts often contain more chatter than I would like, I agree with Dr. Grohol that celebrities have the power to bring needed attention to important issues.

I looked for examples of celebrity news on the Well blog. Stories have included:

• Do the Rules Apply to Dr. Phil? Patient privacy and Britney Spears.
• An Actor’s Diagnosis Brings Attention to Pancreatic Cancer: Actor Patrick Swayze’s cancer diagnosis.
• Parents’ New Miley Problem: Celebrity misdeeds and how they affect our kids.
• Food Allergies Hit the Music Charts: Singer Trace Adkins brings attention to food allergy.
• Michael Phelps and the Potential of A.D.H.D.: The Olympic swimmer’s childhood diagnosis of attention deficit problems.
• A Hollywood Family Takes on Medical Mistakes: The story of a medical error that almost killed the twin babies of actor Dennis Quaid.
• More Celebrity Snooping by Hospital Workers: Privacy violations affecting actress Farah Fawcett.
• Hot Maybe, But Not Smoking: Model Tyra Banks bans smoking on a reality show.
• Reality Dance Show Puts Rett Syndrome in the Spotlight: A celebrity choreographer raises awareness about a little-known illness.

What do you think? Should the media pay attention to celebrity health issues?

Celebrities and Mental Health (or lack threreof)

Celebrity shenanigans make headlines. But do we need a blog devoted to their mental health issues?

One of my favorite mental health Web sites, PsychCentral, thinks we do. The site has launched a new blog devoted to mental health issues surrounding celebrities called Celebrity Psychings. Writes PsychCentral founder John M. Grohol:

Celebrities have the ability to reach an audience who ordinarily might not even think about (or recognize the legitimacy of) mental health concerns. While we’re not into celebrity worship here, we believe that people can use their popularity for good when they talk about mental health issues out loud and in public. The more people get talking about mental health, the more it reduces the stigmatization and misinformation about these issues.

One of the latest posts focuses on the actress Carrie Fisher, who has bipolar disorder and is promoting a new memoir, “Wishful Drinking” (Simon & Schuster). Other items look at how mental health issues are being portrayed in the media, including shows like “Boston Legal,” where William Shatner’s character, Denny Crane, has been coping with the onset of Alzheimer’s.

The blog is written by Alicia Sparks, formerly of the Mental Health Notes blog. While the posts often contain more chatter than I would like, I agree with Dr. Grohol that celebrities have the power to bring needed attention to important issues.

I looked for examples of celebrity news on the Well blog. Stories have included:

* Do the Rules Apply to Dr. Phil? Patient privacy and Britney Spears.
* An Actor’s Diagnosis Brings Attention to Pancreatic Cancer: Actor Patrick Swayze’s cancer diagnosis.
* Parents’ New Miley Problem: Celebrity misdeeds and how they affect our kids.
* Food Allergies Hit the Music Charts: Singer Trace Adkins brings attention to food allergy.
* Michael Phelps and the Potential of A.D.H.D.: The Olympic swimmer’s childhood diagnosis of attention deficit problems.
* A Hollywood Family Takes on Medical Mistakes: The story of a medical error that almost killed the twin babies of actor Dennis Quaid.
* More Celebrity Snooping by Hospital Workers: Privacy violations affecting actress Farah Fawcett.
* Hot Maybe, But Not Smoking: Model Tyra Banks bans smoking on a reality show.
* Reality Dance Show Puts Rett Syndrome in the Spotlight: A celebrity choreographer raises awareness about a little-known illness.

What do you think? Should the media pay attention to celebrity health issues?

000 from VoIP services: rules will be tightened

VoIP providers whose service closely emulated the standard telephone service (in that they support incoming and outgoing calls via a standard phone number) are already required to support 000 calling, but at present it is sufficient for operators that support only outgoing calls (Type 2 VoIP in ACMA jargon) to simply state that calls to 000 are not supported.

However under the proposed rules such VoIP operators that do not want to support calls to 000 will have to display this information much more prominently, in a prescribed manner, and would be required to obtain and retain acknowledgement from customers that they understood they cannot make 000 calls.

Specifically the VoIP provider would have to provide information on alternative means of making 000 calls, would have to display on each primary web page of any site used to advertise the service that it could not be used for making 000 calls with this information to be in plain text and at least 10 points in size. Each page would also have to include a "No emergency call access" emblem presently being developed by ACMA.

The new rules are contained in a draft determination - Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2009, produced following a review of the preceding 2002 determination initiated in 2008.

According to the ACMA, responses to the review garnered a wide range of opinions and suggestions about the operation of the existing legislation, and more generally about Australia's emergency call service. The ACMA has issued a consultation paper to accompany the draft determination and is seeking input by 21 August.

The draft determination also flags new rules requiring mobile operators to reduce the number of non-genuine calls to 000, and 112 the mobile emergency number, for mobile phones. The ACMA says that around half of all calls to emergency services from mobiles are not genuine.

ICT jobs shrink as governments tighten purse strings

The Clarius Skills Index, published by Candle ICT parent Clarius, fell for ICT professionals by 2.2% in the March quarter 2009, from a high reading of 103.3 back in December to 101.1. In real terms that’s an overall industry sector shortfall of around 1,000 people, according to the Index. Tightening government budgets have played a role the fall in this quarter’s figures, according to Clarius.

This compares with the third quarter of 2008 when Australia needed 9,000 more skilled ICT people and 8,000 in the last quarter of 08. The Clarius Skills Index analyses labour demand against supply, using labour force data supplied by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The results are reflected in a skills barometer which applies a ranking to specific occupation categories.

But it’s not all bad news with supply and demand variations in the ICT industry across all States.

The Index reports that the global financial crisis has hit the business sector in Australia and most firms have put plans for additional recruitment on hold.

WHO warns swine flu 'unstoppable'

The UN's top health official has opened a forum in Mexico on combating swine flu by saying that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable. World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit. The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering unaided.

As the summit opened, the UK alone was projecting more than 100,000 new cases of H1N1 a day by the end of the summer. As the peak of the flu season approaches in South America, some areas have declared a public health emergency. El Salvador reported its first death from swine flu, a day after Paraguay reported its first fatality.

Self-help 'makes you feel worse'

Bridget Jones is not alone in turning to self-help mantras to boost her spirits, but a study warns they may have the opposite effect. Canadian researchers found those with low self-esteem actually felt worse after repeating positive statements about themselves. They said phrases such as "I am a lovable person" only helped people with high self-esteem.

The study appears in the journal Psychological Science.

A UK psychologist said people based their feelings about themselves on real evidence from their lives. The suggestion people should "help themselves" to feel better was first mooted by Victorian Samuel Smiles 150 years ago. His book, called simply "Self Help", sold a quarter of a million copies and included guidance such as: "Heaven helps those who help themselves".

Self-help is now a multi-billion pound global industry.

Well we could make better black boxes

Airbus has launched a study for reinforcing flight data recovery, including, but not limited to, extended data transmission for commercial airliners, so that in the event of accidents, critical flight information can still be recovered and released to the investigating authorities.

Tom Enders, President and CEO of Airbus commented: "Gathering information from accidents is vitally important to further improve the safety of flying. Various technical means for reinforcing flight data recovery and data transmission to ground centres are principally available. We will now study different options for viable commercial solutions, including those where our experience with real-time data transmission from our own test aircraft could support the further development of such solutions."

The study will be conducted by Patrick Gavin, Head of Airbus Engineering, and Charles Champion, Head of Customer Services, and will need to address technological issues as well as data protection and privacy concerns. Airbus will include industrial partners, research institutions, and international airworthiness and investigation authorities in this study.

Le Airbus built in China

Airbus today delivered the first A320 aircraft assembled at its Final Assembly Line China (FALC) in Tianjin. At a grand ceremony, the aircraft was handed over by Airbus President and CEO, Tom Enders, to the Chairman of Dragon Aviation Leasing, Li Hai. The aircraft will be leased to and operated by Sichuan Airlines.

Tianjin Party Secretary Zhang Gaoli, Mayor of Tianjin, Huang Xingguo, as well as German State Secretary (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology) Hartmut Schauerte and the President of Sichuan Airlines, Lan Xinguo were present at the ceremony attended by more than 1000 guests.

"The highly reliable and efficient Airbus aircraft are very valuable assets of aircraft leasing companies. As a China-based company, Dragon Aviation Leasing is proud to take delivery of the first Airbus aircraft assembled in China," said Li Hai, Chairman of Dragon Aviation Leasing.

Windows 7 nears general availability

The year's most highly anticipated software release, Windows 7, is just around the corner. Microsoft recently announced that the new OS would see general availability (consumer sales) on October 22. In preparation for that, it recently began its termination of the beta program, encouraging users to install the Release Candidate build which will be available until August.

A bevy of Windows blogs including Neowin.net, GeekSmack.net, and Wzor report that the final "gold" build of Windows 7 will occur on July 10 and the OS will see a release-to-manufacturing on July 13. Release to manufacturing builds are typically identical to general availability builds for major software releases. However, if a major bug is encountered, its possible the consumer release could feature something new.

The main purpose of the RTM build will be to give hardware manufacturers more time to tweak their drivers with a working "final" version of Windows 7. The release of the build will coincide with the kickoff of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC) set to kick off in New Orleans.

Clean desk policy

Chefs are always taught to `clean as you go' so that all food scraps, utensils and spills don't lingering like unwanted guests long after a hard night in a frantic kitchen. Artists thoroughly clean their paint brushes and seal their paints so they be used again the next day. For those of us who work at a desk and not a chopping board or easel, the same principles should apply.

Psychology Professor Sam Gosling from the University of Texas ran a study in 2006 that found that workers who had messy desks ran the risk of colleagues and managers assuming that they were incompetent and disorganised. Piles of clutter can indicate that you are struggling with the workload and you're not conscientious enough to change things.

Working at a messy desk can make life so much harder because a lot of important work can get lost under the newer files, newsletters and reports and create an unpleasant visual stressor that will only emphasise the impression that you're not coping. You can also waste a lot of time working on the stuff resting on top of the pile that is urgent rather than having the time
to figure out which stuff is important. Adam Le Good of Fundamental Training and Development agrees: ``The time people waste looking for things far outweighs the time spent keeping a workspace tidy and organised.'' He recommends diarising a tidy-up session at the end of the week.

Consider what kind of judgments you'd make if you decided to visit an accountant to do your all-important tax return this year. If the office had piles of over-balancing files on the desk, a leaning bookcase and the odour of old banana peel would you feel confident in letting them handle your money? Le Good has more concerns: ``How can you be sure that your
paperwork will remain confidential if they can't control what's lying on their desk?''

Naysayers will argue that a `messy desk equals a busy mind' and can even reach deep within the piles and pull out that important document you were asking for without missing a beat, but they're a tiny minority.

Others think that filing documents means they're `out of sight out of mind' or that having folders of completed work on their desk projects the image of importance. What instead happens is the reverse as they're considered as unwilling to take on new tasks and too disorganised to archive their completed work.

Towards a mess-less desk

Schedule time in your diary for a really good clean up. Allow a couple of hours to get it properly sorted the first time. After that it should only take a few minutes once a week. Denis Healy, Executive Director of PEP worldwide says it is ``Not about neatness for neatness sake. It is about making it easy to store and retrieve information quickly and easily.''

Be ruthless: At least half of what's on your desk isn't current work, so categorise it _ Do It, File It or Throw It.

Start with the oldest pile first and touch each item only once. Decide if it's a `do', `file' or `throw' and do exactly that. Don't put it back on your desk to decide later. Be ruthless, remember?

American pop-culture pride

There are two things I’ve always said made me feel strangely proud to be an American: Playboy magazine and “Weird Al” Yankovic. Playboy, however, is going out with a whimper, whereas Al is still creating and still enjoying commercial success, so I’ll give him the gold medal.

To me, the nerd is an American creature: I think that up until the last few decades or so, a nerd in any other country was just an outcast, weirdo, or loser.

In Al’s case, however, with his family’s encouragement, he was able to fuse his unusual musical abilities, intelligence, and obsession with offbeat comedy and create a successful, seemingly fulfilling career. How cool is that? Something about Al’s brain, the sheer silliness of his work, and the fact that he apparently is a nice, decent guy just fills me with glee and makes me happy that we can claim him as one of our own.

Jackson's death becomes celebrity thriller

THERE are still questions to be answered about the untimely death of pop singer Michael Jackson and I suspect these questions will continue to be asked long after he has been laid to rest.

The reason is that all the ingredients are gelling for a grand conspiracy theory.

To bake a delicious conspiracy theory, here's what you need: Take a celebrity with global fan appeal but make sure your candidate is aged between 33 and 50 (any younger and they haven't amassed the fan base necessary to incite hysteria after death; any older there's a diminution of the feeling of being robbed by their death). There's no "injustice" in an 80-year-old dropping dead.

Then have the celebrity die in unusual circumstances. An apparent overdose is always good to kick things off because you can always fall back on the logic of "did someone slip them a mickey?"

Did you know the FBI switched Marilyn Monroe's prescription pills because she was having an affair with JFK and Robert Kennedy, and Jackie knew and she was going to leave the president, and the White House couldn't handle the scandal?

A car crash is also good: apparently the British royal family cut the brake cables in Princess Diana's car. Hmmm. Prince Philip has had that "guilty look" ever since. But you'll be pleased to know that the Queen didn't know anything about it. The palace wanted HRH to retain credible denial.

If you want to add a dash of mystery then have the celebrity disappear. This worked well for Australian prime minister Harold Holt. You see, Holt, weighed down by the guilt of the Vietnam War in late 1967, decided to defect to the communists so he improbably walked into the surf at Cheviot Beach and was whisked away by frogmen to a waiting Chinese submarine.

To this day Holt lives the high life somewhere in the back blocks of China. It's OK, Harold, you can come out now. We're friends with the Chinese. They make stuff for us.

But if you really want to create the perfect conspiracy theory, then have a celebrity power figure, say a 46-year-old US president, assassinated in public. And then have the whole thing captured on a single movie camera operated by a middle-aged man with an exotic name such as, oh I don't know, say Abraham Zapruder.

DHS pandemic flop response to Swine Flu

ONLY swine flu's mild nature had saved the health system from complete paralysis in the face of the epidemic, a respected Victorian GP says in a damning assessment of government response to the outbreak. Dr Peter Eizenberg, chairman of a division of general practice in Melbourne's north-east, where the virus hit hardest, has written an opinion piece for the Medical Journal of Australia describing "endemic failure" by health authorities.

He said the Federal Government had failed to follow advice in its own flu pandemic plan, and he warned that in future epidemics GPs may refuse to treat flu patients.

His article, published online yesterday morning, reports that:

■Victoria's Health Department defined swine flu cases in a way that would not pick up the spread of the disease in the community, then changed the definition to one that was too wide.

■GPs had to wait up to 30 minutes on the phone per patient just to get approval for a flu lab test and antiviral supply.

■Despite assurances by the federal Health Minister, it took a month to distribute protective gowns and masks from the national stockpile.

■Flu sample tests were delayed by weeks.

■GPs were not informed quickly enough about changes in government policy on how to tackle the virus.

■ Only 5 per cent of patients treated with antiviral drugs for flu-like symptoms actually had swine flu.

■Up to 15,000 Victorians who received antivirals for flu-like symptoms did not have influenza.

"The rhetoric contained in the (Government's flu pandemic plan) did not match the reality on the ground," Dr Eizenberg wrote.

"It is only due to the low virulence of the virus that this pandemic has merely stressed our local service delivery and not completely paralysed both our and the statewide response.

Terrorism or design failure?

French crash investigators have revealed that the Air France flight which killed 228 people en route between Brazil and Paris on July 10 did not break up mid-air but fell vertically into the Atlantic.

At a press conference in Le Bourget to make public their initial findings, investigators said Flight 447 dropped out of the sky in a remote area outside radar coverage but without the black boxes, the cause may remain a mystery.

Alain Bouillard, from the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA accident investigation body said: "The plane was not destroyed while in flight. The plane appears to have hit the surface of the water in flying position with a strong vertical acceleration."

According to the initial report, life vests found with the wreckage around 930 miles from the Brazilian mainland were not inflated, suggesting there was no time to implement emergency measures for a sea ditch.

They stated that a flurry of automatic messages sent out by the aircraft’s computers before it fell provided little detail on position and that now, as the black box signals will start to fade, a full diagnosis may not be possible.

There has been widespread speculation that the automatic messages emitted by the Air France plane indicated it was receiving incorrect speed information from its external monitoring instruments, which could destabilise control systems.

Some experts raised the possibility – and examples of past incidents – in which these external monitors, known as pitot tubes, may have iced over.

Spell crisis in Oz

Sydneysiders and Melburnians have been left red-faced after a survey showed more than two-thirds of them have trouble spelling the word embarrass. The Galaxy survey asked 400 people aged over 16 years to spell eight commonly misspelled words. About 70 per cent could not spell ''accommodation'', one in two people spelled ''accessory'' wrong and a quarter had trouble with ''February''.

Other tricky words included ''guarantee,'' ''opportunity,'' ''eighth'' and ''receipt''. The survey found women were better spellers than men. Only seven per cent of participants in Sydney and Melbourne received 100 per cent. The survey found people aged 25 to 34 have some homework to do, ranking among the worst spellers. Children's author Deborah Abela said spell check and text message abbreviations were harming people's spelling skills. "It can impact on how people perceive general intelligence and can even affect one's ability to get and keep a job,'' she said.

Westpac commissioned the survey and sponsors the NSW Premier's Spelling Bee for primary school pupils which begins in July." [I must admit that I find it hard to remember that there are two "m"s in "accommodation". I did however rather admire a restaurant that used to list "omlets" on its menu board. Perfectly logical. I spoilt the fun however when I eventually told them that it was "omelette".

Your CV makes you naked

A MARKETING firm in England has come up with a novel way of putting their goods on display ... by putting their goods on display.

Ailing design and marketing company onebestway, in Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England, were convinced by a business psychologist to get their gear off for Naked Friday in an effort to boost team spirit.

Psychologist David Taylor told The Sun that going naked would allow the team to lose their inhibitions and talk more openly and honestly with each other.

"Inviting an organisation to go naked is the most extreme technique I've used," he said.

"It may seem weird but it works. It's the ultimate expression of trust in yourself and each other."

The firm decided to go with the idea after it was forced into six redundancies at the start of the credit crunch. The move proved a successful one and since Naked Friday the firm is thriving, taking on two news designers.

Airbus: Made in China

Construction of an Airbus plant to manufacture major components for the A350 XWB aircraft and other jets has begun in Harbin, northern China, the European plane maker said Tuesday. The plant is scheduled to start operations by the end of 2010 and is being built by a company formed by Airbus and its Chinese partners, Airbus said in a statement. Airbus aims to manufacture 5% of the A350 XWB airframe in China, it said.

Hafei Aviation Industry Co. (600038.SH), one of the Chinese partners, said in March the joint venture will have a total investment of $350 million. Airbus China will own 20% stake of the plant, while Harbin Aircraft Industry Group Co. will hold a 50% stake. Hafei Aviation Industry Co., Avichina Industry & Technology Co. and Harbin Development Zone Heli Infrastructure Development Co. will hold 10% each.

Royal Decree can't fix Healthcare

MedPAC to hospitals: Suck it up - Although hospitals nationwide have seen their average margins go negative, Medicare is still paying them enough, says Glenn Hackbarth, chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Hackbarth did not dispute a projection that the average hospital will lose 6.9 percent this year (an AHA survey showed that hospitals lost 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008). But he said that, according to MedPAC research, efficient hospitals can more than cover their costs with Medicare payments. (Source: Modern Healthcare)

Will e-prescribing cut costs? – A study commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Care Association emphatically says Yes! In fact, consulting firm Visante, which did the study, estimates that e-prescribing savings will reduce drug and medical costs by $22 billion in the next 10 years. If this turns out to be true, the savings would more than offset the $19 billion in appropriations for health IT that Congress included in the stimulus legislation. However, another study has found that clinicians bypass more than 90 percent of the drug interaction alerts and 77 percent of the drug allergy alerts that pop up in their e-prescribing systems. So, unless the systems are improved, much of the potential savings will never be achieved, even if most doctors adopt e-prescribing. (Sources: Government Health IT, Healthcare IT News)

Rudd to reveal 'takeover' report by August

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says a study recommending whether the Federal Government should take over state health systems will be made public before Federal Parliament returns in August.

Speaking on 4BC today, Mr Rudd said he would not be rushed into releasing the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission study until it had been examined by MPs.

"I think what well do with this report, the one that we got yesterday - and they've been at work for more than a year - these are health experts from across the country, is we will release it by the time parliament goes back, " Mr Rudd said.

Mr Rudd also defended the actions of state and federal health agencies after brisbanetimes.com.au reported yesterday that an extra 20,000 people in 2009 were trying to find a specialist appointment in Queensland.

Queensland Health's quarterly public hospitals report (March 2009) - which made those findings - also reported that 62 per cent of "urgent" patients at a Queensland public hospital were seen within 30 minutes. National health standards say 75 per cent of patients should be seen in the first 30 minutes.

Mr Rudd said he had not seen the figures, but said he would not dispute them.

Bamboo laminate bike

On the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, next year's crop of bicycles is being watered by Benjamin Banda.

"We planted this bamboo last year," he says, "and now the stems are taller than me. When it's ready we'll cut it, cure it and then turn it into frames."

Mr Banda, is the caretaker for Zambikes, a company set up by two Californians and two Zambians which aimed to build bikes tough enough to handle the local terrain.

Co-founder Vaughn Spethmann, 24, recalls how it all started with a game of football.

Racks of bamboo
Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world

"We were here on a university field trip and we organized a match against some locals. Afterwards we asked them what they did, and they said: 'Nothing'. They didn't have jobs.

"So we decided to come up with a business which would be a source of employment and provide a useful product."

That product was the rugged, bright yellow Zambike, assembled at the firm's smart red-brick workshop set in sun-browned farmland.

Other projects followed as the mechanics' skills improved: a sturdy cargo bike, a bike trailer and a bike-drawn "zambulance", now in use at 10 clinics around Lusaka.

Pilots warned on Airbus safety

French aircraft pilots have been advised to stop flying certain types of Airbus after faulty aircraft equipment was blamed for last week's Air France crash that left 228 people dead.

The Alter union, which represents about 12 per cent of pilots at France's national carrier, advised its members on Tuesday to stop flying Airbus A330/A340 aircraft until Air France replaces speed sensors on the aircraft.

Bruno Finatti, the head of Alter, said: "The sensors are probably responsible so we are saying that Air France should err on the side of caution.

"What we've asked for is for the pilots who are flying those planes to make sure that the sensors have been changed."

Airbus could be asked to ground all long-range airliners

Airbus is expected to face calls to ground its worldwide fleet of long-range airliners tomorrow when French accident investigators issue their first account of what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash off Brazil on June 1. It is believed that the accident bureau will report that stormy weather was a factor but faulty speed data and electronics were the main problem in the disaster that killed 228 people.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is likely to be asked why it had never taken action to remedy trouble that was well known with the Airbus 330 and 340 series. Nearly 1,000 of the aircraft are flying and until AF447, no passenger had been killed in one. “EASA has a legal and moral obligation to get to the bottom of this problem now. If there is a defective system and the aircraft is unsafe then it should be grounded,” said James Healy-Pratt of Stewarts Law in London. The firm, which specialises in aviation, is representing the families of 20 of the victims of flight 447.

French Sailors looking for Bodies: Airline hding from blame

The French navy joined the search for wreckage and bodies in the Indian Ocean today after a Yemeni Airbus with 153 people on board crashed off the Comoros Islands.

A teenage girl pulled from the water yesterday is the only known survivor, the Yemeni Civil Aviation Authority said, adding five bodies and debris from the downed A310 have been located.

Sixty-six French nationals were on the flight and President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will attend a ceremony tomorrow at a Paris mosque to honor the victims, dispatched airplanes and ships to help with the search. One of the black box flight recorders from the jet has been found and efforts to recover it will start today, Agence France-Presse said, citing a French official.

French safety inspectors found faults with the aircraft that crashed yesterday in 2007 and it “had been excluded” from flying in France, French Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau said. The carrier, Yemenia, now faces a safety assessment by the European Union. The cause of the accident hasn’t been determined.

Yemenia Chairman Abdulkalek Saleh Al-Kadi said stormy weather was to blame for the crash. He denied the plane, last serviced on May 2, was banned from flying in France. The pilot was “well experienced, middle aged and has thousands of hours of flights,” the chairman said. Yemenia’s Deputy Managing Director Ali Sumairi said the aircraft was “technically sound.” French findings in 2007 were “minor” and had been corrected, he told France 24 television.

New Planes Will Have Air Bags and Seats Less Apt to Rip Loose

At one time, airline safety generally meant one thing: avoiding a crash. But safety regulators are increasingly focusing on surviving one.

Starting this fall, all new airplanes will be required to have seats that will stay in place when subjected to stresses up to 16 times the force of gravity. The old seats had to meet stresses of only nine times the force of gravity. And, in a safety measure borrowed from automobiles, some seats will be equipped with air bags.

The combination of sturdy seats and air bags means that if a plane touches down short of the runway or rolls off the end of the runway and hits an obstruction, “You’re going to be conscious. You’re going to have the opportunity to survive,” said Bill Hagan, president of AmSafe, which makes the air bags.

Records Show Plane Crashes Claim Five Times As Many Lives, Compared To Last Year

In the wake of several major plane crashes, many people taking to the air this busy Fourth of July weekend are concerned about plane safety. With a 16 percent drop in airfares compared to July 4th week a year ago, AAA is predicting a 5 percent increase in air travel. There were twice as many major plane crashes in the first six months of last year, but this year crashes have claimed five times as many lives -- nearly 400, according to records from planecrashinfo.com.

In January, 155 people survived when the pilot landed the jet on New York's Hudson River after it was damaged by a flock of birds. In February, 49 people died on a Continental plane crash in Buffalo. This was the first air fatality aboard a U.S. Commercial carrier since 2007. Just a few weeks later, nine more people died when a Turkish Air Jet crashed in Amsterdam.

On June 1, an Air France jetliner crashed near Brazil killing all 228 people on aboard. Most recently, a Yemeni plane with 153 on board crashed Tuesday into the Indian Ocean nearly 20 miles shy of the airport on the island nation of Comoros.... “Yeah I prefer not to get on an Airbus,” said Jaqueline Gerety.

Airbus has no monoploy on crashes

After the crash of a Yemenia Airbus A310 on Tuesday in the Indian Ocean off the Comoros, with 153 passengers and crew on board, here is a run-down of some of the deadliest aviation disasters since 2003:

-- 2003 --
- Feb 19: IRAN - An Iranian Ilyushin-76 military plane crashes near Kerman in the south east of the country killing 302.
- May 8: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - Some 200 people fall to their deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the door of their plane opens in mid-air.

-- 2004 --
- Jan 3: EGYPT - A Boeing 737 belonging to Egyptian company Flash Airlines breaks up over the sea off the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh killing 148.

-- 2005 --
- Aug 16: VENEZUELA - 160 are killed in the crash of a McDonnell Douglas plane belonging to the Colombian company West Caribbean Airways at Maracaibo in the north of the country.
- Sept 5: INDONESIA - 150 are killed as a Boeing 737-200 belonging to Mandala airlines crashes on the island of Sumatra.

-- 2006 --
- July 9: RUSSIA - 124 are killed when an Airbus A310 aircraft belonging to Russian company Sibir crashes on landing at Irkutsk in Siberia.
- Aug 22: UKRAINE - 170 die when a Russian Tupolev plane crashes in eastern Ukraine.
- Sept 29: BRAZIL - a Boeing 737 belonging to airline GOL crashes in the Amazonian forest with 155 people on board. No survivors.

--2007--
- July 17: BRAZIL - An Airbus A320 belonging to TAM airline crashes into a freight warehouse occupied by several workers on landing at San Paulo airport with 187 people aboard. 199 die.

--2008--
- Aug 20: SPAIN - A Spanair McDonnell Douglas-82, on a flight to the Canary Islands, crashes in Madrid airport minutes after take-off killing 154 people.

--2009--
- June 1: BRAZIL - An Airbus A330 belonging to Air France crashes into the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris killing 228 people.
- June 30: COMOROS - A Yemeni Airbus A310 jet, carrying 153 people, crashes into stormy seas as it comes into land in the Comoros islands.

The most deadly plane accidents in history remain the collision on March 27, 1977, between two Boeing 747s at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, in which 583 are killed, and the crash on August 12, 1985 of a Boeing 747 belonging to Japan Airlines flying between Tokyo and Osaka when 520 were killed.

Young men in Sydney more likely to stay living at home

AUSTRALIA is breeding a generation of mummies' boys - and young men in Sydney are among the hardest in the country to get out of the family home.

The latest snapshot of our nation shows 27 per cent of men 20 to 34 in Sydney are still enjoying home-cooked meals and having their washing and cleaning done for them, often long after their sisters have flown the coop.

Echoing TV series Packed To The Rafters, the Australian Bureau of Statistics report shows the proportion of young men living at home rose from 24 per cent two decades ago, The Daily Telegraph reports.

While they still have a way to go before they catch up, the number of young women staying at home is also increasing rapidly - from 13 per cent to 18 per cent over the same period.

Even when KIPPERS (Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings) do move out, many come back - with the probability that someone would return home at least once before turning 35 being almost one in two.

Wheelchair 'steered by thought' unveiled

Japan's Toyota Motor said on Monday it had invented a way to allow a person to steer an electric wheelchair through simple thought, using a helmet-like device that measures their brain waves.

The cutting-edge Brain Machine Interface (BMI) technology uses electrodes attached to the scalp to measure localised brain activity when a user concentrates on certain physical movements.

The signals are displayed on a panel in almost real time and translated into instructions to steer the motorised wheelchair, the researchers said.

"Such systems allow elderly and handicapped people to interact with the world through signals from their brains without having to give voice commands," Toyota said in a statement.

"This technology is expected to be useful in the field of rehabilitation, and for physical and psychological support of wheelchair drivers," it added.

The company said the system is 95 per cent accurate and able to adjust itself to the characteristics of individual users.

"Thus the driver is able to get the system to learn his/her commands (forward/right/left) quickly and efficiently," said the statement.

Attack of the SPASMS

Scammers are using SMS text messages to con money out of Australians.

Scores of Australians have reported receiving SMS messages saying they have won $123,000 but must reply to the message with their email address for instructions on how to claim the money.

Security researchers have already coined several catchy terms to describe this new type of attack, including "Smishing" - SMS phishing - and SPASMS - spam using SMS.

The reports come as Commonwealth Bank customers are being inundated with scam attempts by fraudsters posing as the bank.

The sustained scam campaign is one of the first in Australia to use SMS, fraudulent call centres and emails in a three-pronged attack.

In the most recent $123,000 SMS reward scam, some people who replied to the SMS have reported receiving an email soon after from "the iKobo money transfer office" in Thailand.

Terrorism or Design Fault (2)?

The passengers began their flight at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport on Monday, when an Airbus A330-200 took them to the southern French city of Marseille, home to a Comoran community of more than 80,000. It then flew on to the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, where passengers changed to the Airbus 310 that was scheduled to land in Moroni via Djibouti.

Airbus, still dealing with the loss of the Air France flight from Brazil, is reported to have established a crisis response team but the company made no comment yesterday. Investigators are still searching for the cause of the Air France crash in the Atlantic Ocean.

The plane's flight recorders have yet to be found and signals from them are scheduled to stop tomorrow.

Microsoft unveils Windows 7 prices

Microsoft on Thursday announced prices for Windows 7 and offered free upgrades to buyers of personal computers before the new operating system hits the stores in October.

Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows consumer marketing, said Microsoft will offer free upgrades to Window 7 to people who buy Vista-equipped PCs between Friday and the October 22 release date of Windows 7.

Vista is Microsoft's much-criticised previous operating system and the Redmond, Washington-based software giant is hoping that Windows 7 will help erase bad memories of Vista in the minds of consumers.

Brooks said in a video released by Microsoft that the free upgrades would apply to people who purchase PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate.

The upgrade program will be available until January 31, 2010.

The offer of free upgrades is seen as an attempt to prevent people from putting off a decision to purchase a PC until October. An estimated 90 per cent of the world's PCs run on Windows.

Microsoft said Windows 7 will be available in 14 languages on October 22: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

It will be available on October 31 in 21 other languages: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.

Because of a European Commission anti-trust inquiry, the Windows 7 version going on sale in Europe will not include Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser. Microsoft announced earlier this month that it had decided to remove the Web browser because of the regulatory wrangling.

Microsoft said a Home Premium Upgrade of an existing PC to Windows 7 would cost $A199 in Australia while the Professional Upgrade would cost $A399 and the Ultimate Upgrade $A429.

It said the Home Premium version of Windows 7 would retail for $A299 in Australia. The Professional version will sell for $A449 and the Ultimate version for $A469.

Amid slumping PC sales worldwide, Microsoft has been aggressively pushing laptop computers recently in a series of new advertisements in the United States as a low-cost alternative to the more expensive machines of rival Apple.

Retooling the Sales Pitch

Making a sales presentation can be nerve-wracking. Throw in a recession and increased pressure to close the sale, and the scenario gets even more stressful. Generic speeches and snazzy PowerPoint slides just don’t cut it anymore — especially with corporate customers who have reduced spending to boost their bottom lines. That’s why firms like IBM have retooled their sales pitches to better address the needs of their customers. Before setting up your next meeting with a potential client, try these techniques to create a more effective sales presentation that can produce real results....(CLICK HEADER LINK FOR MORE DETAILS)

Quick! Start a malware campaign to get prices down

Australian buyers of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 operating system will pay between AU$50 and AU$150 more in real terms than US residents for the software, the company revealed this morning.

The most popular version of Windows 7 is likely to be the full Home Premium version, which has an estimated retail price of US$199.99, or AU$248. But Australians will pay AU$299 for the software. Microsoft has cut that amount down by AU$50 compared to the same version of Windows Vista.

Australians will pay AU$199 to upgrade from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium, whereas Americans will only pay US$119.99, or approximately AU$149.

The Professional version of Windows 7 will come with an even higher cost.

Australian users will pay AU$449 for the full retail version of Windows 7 Professional, whereas Americans will pay US$299.99, or AU$372. And Australians will pay AU$399.99 to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, whereas Americans will pay US$199.99 or AU$248.

The ultimate version of Windows 7 will go for AU$469 in Australia, or AU$429 for an upgrade, compared to the respective US prices of US$319.99 (AU$397.03) and US$219.99 (AU$273.38). Microsoft has hiked the prices of Windows 7 Ultimate slightly compared to Vista Ultimate.

Broadly speaking, Australian prices for Windows 7 remain on par with their Vista equivalents, albeit with some small changes around the Home Premium and Ultimate versions.

You mean people actually LIE to get MONEY?

A publishing giant got into hot water after offering gift vouchers to anyone who would give their textbook a five-star review. It raises one of the key questions in online purchasing, how much can you trust the customer reviews you read? In the US, it is called "shill reviewing".

You are the owner of a company whose product - Brand X Widget is struggling. On a major online retailer, Brand X Widget has been given a slew of one-star reviews by customers.

How tempting it is to tell all your employees to log on, without revealing their allegiance to the company, and dole out some five-star reviews. Slowly but surely Brand X Widget's star rating rises.

OTHER TERMINOLOGY
Amazon bombing: Concerted effort to change Amazon sales rankings by simultaneously buying product

Sock puppetry: The act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one's self, allies or company (New York Times)
Astroturfing: Formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behaviour (Wikipedia)
Seeding: Process of placing viral marketing such as videos in forums etc

Of course, the customer is the loser.

Read around the issue of these shill reviews and you will see discussion forum melees about books whose Amazon star-rating has mysteriously risen. Everyone knows reviews influence sales.

"If you look at internet retailers one of the drawbacks they have is that they don't have the advice a physical bookshop can give," says Graeme Neill of industry magazine The Bookseller. "[Customer reviews] are almost like a member of staff that you would grab in a bookshop and ask 'what do you think of this book'. It is a good sounding post."

Amazon and other retailers have long recognised the importance of customer reviews. Dedicated reviewers earn status by appearing in the "top reviewers" list, and can even be sent products to review in advance.

It's no surprise that the recent actions of science publisher Elsevier caused a storm. The firm offered a $25 (£15) Amazon voucher to academics who contributed to the textbook Clinical Psychology if they would go on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (a large US books retailer) and give it five stars.

Elsevier was quick to disown the actions of its marketing employee and emphasise that it had all been a mistake. "The company doesn't pay for positive reviews," says Tom Reller, director of corporate relations. "This was a recent employee error. We haven't given out any gift cards under the programme."