Stuff YOU Should Know
Super Typhoon Thrashes the Philippines
Credit: ©Stocktrek/age fotostock; a terrible typhoon in the Philippines has thrown the country into turmoil.
The strongest recorded storm ever to reach land hit the Philippines on November 8. There are at least 10,000 reported deaths so far, and more than 11 million people said to be affected, around 673,000 of them completely displaced. The Philippines is a country made up of a cluster (or archipelago) of 7,107 islands. The country’s provinces Leyte and Samar are said to be the hardest hit by the typhoon. Philippine President Benigno Aquino officially declared a state of national calamity. Australia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, England and the United States have all pledged to help. The main airport, located in the capital city of Tacloban, however, has suffered severe damage, making it difficult for planes carrying aid to land.
Tropical storms form over large bodies of water and have different names depending on the strength and where they are located. In the United States, we are accustomed to hearing about hurricanes because they come from the Atlantic Ocean. Haiyan was labeled a typhoon because it formed over the Pacific Ocean and had winds in excess of 74 miles an hour. Weather forecasters predict that follow-up heavy rains will further complicate relief efforts
Dig Deeper Follow this story in the new. What are the specific challenges facing the government, the United Nations and organizations that offer aid? How does this compare to the tsunami that hit Japan in 2004?
Teens Less Interested in Facebook
According to a new study, teens are using Facebook less and less. The Pew Research Center, a prominent “think tank” organization in Washington, D.C., created an initiative called the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 1999. Its goal is to provide data and insights on the cultural impact of the Internet. It recently released a one-hundred-word report called, “Teens, Social Media and Privacy.”
RELATED: An infographic of teens, social media, and privacy (via Pew Research Center, May 2013, www.pewresearch.org)
To see the full infographic, visit http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2013/Teens-Social-Media-And-Privacy.aspx
The Pew group conducted focus groups made up of teens and found that they feel increasingly “drained” by the drama and gossip, as well as the stress of managing their reputation online. Their parents and grandparents are joining with greater regularity. According to the study, young people still have Facebook accounts, but they are starting to use other social media just as much or more. Those surveyed said they felt they could better express themselves on other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr. Facebook has noticed, addressing its decline in numbers to shareholders in its annual report. Even though the company now owns Instagram, it has yet to earn any revenue from the site (unlike Facebook which has ads.)
What Do You Think? How many different social media accounts do you have? How many, if any, do you use regularly? Do you favor one over the others? Why? Do you think teens are likely to keep leaving Facebook? Why or why not?
Polio Outbreak Threatens Europe
Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system. It caused paralysis or death in thousands of adults and children in the early part of the 20th century. There were epidemics (or widespread occurrences) that made it a feared childhood disease. In the 1950s, a medical researcher named Jonas Salk developed the first successful vaccine (a substance typically given in the form of a shot that provides protection against a certain disease.) While this was not a cure, it was reduced to a treatable disease. This was considered a huge advancement in medicine. North and South America have been considered “polio-free” since 1994. Until recently, there were only three countries in the world–Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria–that experienced epidemic levels of the disease.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified 10 new cases of polio in Syria the first outbreak in that country in fourteen years. Since civil war broke out in that country, immunization (as well as the general health services) has been minimal. Thousands of Syrian refuges have fled and found refuge in neighboring countries across Europe. The countries said to be at higher risk for polio are Austria, Bosnia, Herzegovina and the Ukraine. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have announced that simply vaccinating the Syrian refugees is not sufficient.
Dig Deeper Do you think that a new epidemic of polio is likely to spread across Europe? Why or why not? Find out what measures are being taken.
Cost of the Government Shutdown Tallied
Last month, btw reported on the sixteen-day U.S. government shutdown. Many economists predicted that the temporary halt of many government services would have big financial consequences. On November 7, the Obama administration released Impacts and Costs of the October 2013 Federal Government Shutdown. This report details the economic disruption, impacts on programs and services, direct budgetary costs and the impacts on the federal workforce. Among the most direct costs were $2 billion in back pay for the 40% of federal workers who were “furloughed” (off without pay). Other costs came from loss of interest on loans and late fee payments, tax enforcement and uncollected fees lost from admittance to national parks and museums.
The agreement made to reopen the government last month was only temporary. The Treasury is not authorized to raise the debt limit past February. A negotiating committee made up of Democrats and Republicans from both the House and Senate are currently working on a budget agreement. But many are concerned that the fundamental differences between the two parties are too great to find common ground.