What Caught My Eye Today

Doctor Death - Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist dubbed "Dr. Death" for claims that he participated in at least 130 assisted suicides, left prison after eight years still believing people have the right to die. He was accused and then convicted of murder after injecting lethal drugs into a man suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. The conviction earned Kevorkian a 10- to 25-year sentence for second degree murder, but he earned time off his sentence for good behavior. Kevorkian will be on parole for two years, and one of the conditions he must meet is that he can't help anyone else die. He is also prohibited from providing care for anyone who is older than 62 or is disabled. I'm of the opinion that the real reason they released him was that they didn't want him to die on their watch--too much paperwork.

Tuberculosis - The Atlanta attorney quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis apologized to his fellow plane passengers and insisted he was told he wasn't contagious or a threat to anyone. Andrew Speaker said he, his doctors and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all knew he had TB that was resistant to front-line drugs before he flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon last month. But he said he was advised then that he wasn't contagious or a danger to anyone. Officials told him they would prefer he didn't fly, but no one ordered him not to, he said. Speaker, his new wife and her 8-year-old daughter were already in Europe when the CDC contacted him and told him to turn himself in immediately at a clinic there and not take another commercial flight. Even though U.S. officials had put Speaker on a warning list, he caught a flight to Montreal and then drove across the U.S. border on May 24 at Champlain, N.Y. A border inspector who checked him disregarded a computer warning to stop Speaker. The unidentified inspector later said the infected man seemed perfectly healthy and that he thought the warning was merely "discretionary". I have to say this was a 'dick move' by this dude. I'm sympathetic to his situation, but he should have had a bit more respect for his fellow travellers. And how about those Border Patrol agents? I know I feel a lost safer with those guys protecting our borders.

Global Warming - According to a NASA researcher, dramatic action is needed to save the Arctic and Antarctic ice shelves from global warming. The NASA study concluded that global warming has driven the Earth's climate near to "critical tipping points," which occur when a small temperature increase triggers an effect that gets worse as it feeds on itself. The study found global warming of 0.6 degrees in the past 30 years was mainly caused by greenhouse gases made by humans, and a "moderate" additional rise "is likely to set in motion disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet and Arctic sea ice." Higher temperatures melt ice, exposing darker surfaces that absorb more heat and speed the ice sheet breakup. As oceans warm, the ice shelves that otherwise slow ice flows melt more quickly, so the whole process speeds up. I think this needs a bit more study before we do anything rash. No need to mess things without a good reason, right? It's not like we're talking about the end of civilization as we know...Oh crap, that is what we're talking about, isn't it?

India - Okay, this is totally wrong on a multitude of levels. An Indian court has ruled against a group of female flight attendants who were grounded from the national airline for being overweight. The court said that state-owned Indian Airlines had the right to take the step in the interest of flight safety and in the face of growing competition. A year ago, Indian Airlines introduced strict weight guidelines for its flight crew, saying they were doing it in the interest of safety and growing competition. The Indian airline industry has grown rapidly over the past decade and new private airlines have introduced an element of glamour, hiring young slim air hostesses, often dressed in short skirts and high heels.

Wait, it gets better...

The female judge also dismissed the flight attendants' contention that the airline policy towards their weight was an insult to their womanhood. "I do not understand how it is any way unfair, unreasonable and insulting to their womanhood if they are asked to control their growth," the judge said.