Asbestos discovery triggers evacuation and closure of New Jersey middle school

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The discovery of the presence of airborne asbestos in a middle school in Montclair, New Jersey Friday prompted the evacuation of over 200 students from the school and the school’s closure. Renaissance Middle School, part of the Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey, was closed Monday and remains closed Tuesday while undergoing asbestos testing and cleaning.

According to a letter sent home to parents by the Superintendent’s Office of Montclair Public Schools on Friday, “plaster may have been disturbed” during construction on new fire doors at the Renaissance School building on Thursday.

An inspection arranged by the school district indicated asbestos was present in the plaster, and a subsequent inspection performed by asbestos consultant Detail Associates revealed “a level of airborne asbestos fibers that exceeded the acceptable range” in the third floor hallway of the school. Montclair Public Schools business administrator Dana Sullivan told The Star-Ledger that testing conducted on March 31 revealed the presence of asbestos in a brown undercoating of plaster at the Renaissance School building.

The safety of our students and staff is always our first concern.

The affected area was sealed off, and some students were moved to other areas of the building while others were moved to off-site locations. District Public Information Officer Laura Federico told The Montclair Times that sixth and seventh graders were transported to Hillside Elementary School, and eighth graders were bussed to Montclair High School. “The safety of our students and staff is always our first concern,” said Federico.

According to The Montclair Times, Detail Associates conducted a cleaning protocol at the school on Saturday and tested the building to make sure it did not contain unacceptable levels of asbestos fibers. The letter sent to parents Friday by the Superintendent’s Office said that Detail Associates had told the district that the building would be “cleaned, tested and cleared for occupancy by Monday morning”. The school remained closed Monday, and a meeting was held between parents and school district officials. A Parent-Teacher Association meeting is planned for Wednesday night.

The Star-Ledger reported that the ongoing asbestos cleanup of the school is being supervised by the state Department of Environmental Protection. At the meeting Monday morning between parents and school district officials, parents demanded that the inside of lockers be included as part of the asbestos cleanup. This additional step in the asbestos inspection process prompted the school’s closure Tuesday. A Monday statement by the Business Office of Montclair Public Schools said that the Renaissance School would remain closed Tuesday for sixth and seventh grade students “so that an extensive cleanup and additional asbestos testing can be completed”. Eighth grade students did not have classes scheduled as a trip to Washington, D.C. had previously been planned; the school trip is unaffected by the recent asbestos incident.

The kids will be able to go back to school soon, and that’s the important part.

Steve Jaraczewski of Detail Associates was present at the district meeting Monday, and said that one of four test samples taken at the school was positive for the presence of airborne asbestos at over six times acceptable levels. Jaraczewski was critical of the asbestos management plan provided by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, which owns the school’s building and leases it to Montclair Public Schools.

Jaraczewski said that the state Department of Environmental Protection has required asbestos management plans since 1988, but that the company that drafted the asbestos plan for the Archdiocese of Newark is out of business. Representative for the archdiocese Jim Goodness emphasized that the building would be back open for classes soon. “The kids will be able to go back to school soon, and that’s the important part,” said Goodness.

Exposure to airborne asbestos can lead to mesothelioma, a cancer which develops in the sac surrounding the lungs and chest cavity, abdominal cavity, or the sac surrounding the heart. Exposure to disturbed asbestos fibers can also lead to lung scarring, a condition called asbestosis, and lung cancer. Patients with malignant mesothelioma generally do not have positive outcomes, and once diagnosed have six months to a year to live.

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Leaked cables cause Australian concern

Friday, December 10, 2010

Leaked diplomatic cables between Australia and the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, have raised controversy in the Australian community. The documents were released by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The cables between the then prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, and the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, revealed that China may need to be forced to integrate into the international community. The secret documents also contained information of a conversation between Clinton and Rudd in Washington. In the interview, Rudd stated that China was “paranoid” about Taiwan and Tibet.

The sensitive documents may place a strain on diplomatic relations between Australia and China. Despite this, Kevin Rudd reassured the public that the “robust” relationship between Australia and China wouldn’t sustain any substantial damage to the relations between the two countries. At this stage, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has provided no further comment on the matter, other than to ensure that the relationship between China and Australia would allow opinions to be expressed without any threat to either side.

At the heart of the leaks is Australian founder, Julian Assange. Wikileaks have now released 821 of their promised 251,287 US diplomatic cables. The cables are being released on a stage-by-stage basis. Earlier this week, Assange was arrested on suspicion of rape in London under a Swedish arrest warrant placed on him from a court in Stockholm on November 18.

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Wikinews 2020: An ‘Original reporting’ year in review

Friday, January 1, 2021

After an active year of original content published on the English-language Wikinews, we take a look back at some of the two dozen-plus original reports from our contributors during 2020.

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New Drilling Technology Could Finally Make Cbm Very Economic

Submitted by: James Finch

In a previous interview about coalbed methane (CBM), Sprott Asset Management CBM analyst Eric Nuttall told us he would remain, quite excited about the prospects for companies with coal bed methane assets so long as natural gas prices remain above $6 per Mcf (thousand cubic feet). The economics would be very skinny under $6. That s because CBM exploration and development can get pricey. What if there was a drilling firm regularly bringing gas out of the ground for under $1.50/mcf? There is and they ve proven it with more than 250 wells in Australia. They ve moved into India, where they drilled another 30 to 50 wells and another 70 wells to come. Mitchell has taken acreage in southern Kansas, where the company just finished its first CBM well. And the company formed a joint venture with Pacific Asia China Energy (TSX: PCE) to bring its Dymaxion technology to China later this year.

You don t get to be Australia s largest privately owned drilling company without timing your markets right. The Mitchell family s great timing ability began in 1969, when company founder Peter Mitchell bought his first drilling rig at a repossession sale for $11,500. Parts of Queensland, Australia were in the grips of a drought. Mitchell put his rig to good use as he began drilling water wells for farmers in the surrounding rural counties. Just as the drought had ended, Mitchell caught the boom in coal. His growing company began drilling in the oil shale and coal fields around Moranbah, then a remote part of Queensland. They then caught the drilling boom in mineral resources through the 1980s. By then, the company was drilling oil, gas, uranium and coal reserves throughout Australia. In the 1990s, Mitchell Drilling got the first whiff of Coalbed Methane (CBM) exploration entering Australia. That is when the major U.S. oil companies, such as Amoco, Conoco and others, came to the country searching for new CBM fields.

But, the major U.S. oil companies abandoned CBM in Australia because they soon discovered Australia s shallow coal fields were too expensive for their big oil rigs. The economics just didn t work, Nathan Mitchell told StockInterview. They needed high gas flow, but the fracing technique just didn t give them what they needed. Still they persisted and asked Mitchell Drilling to run his smaller water well rigs. That was the start of it, Mitchell recalled. We made CBM work with the water well rigs from an economics point of view, but they still weren t making enough gas. Still, the economics of the smaller rig made it work to a degree.

Enter the politicians. The Queensland government made a law that said five percent of all coal-fired power stations had to be run by gas, explained Mitchell. That spawned the industry and CBM really took off. Mitchell continued with the vertical rigs, but it was the economics of the smaller rig that made CBM work.

GETTING BLOOD OUT OF A STONE

It was during the CBM boom when Mitchell developed the better mousetrap. Coal miners didn t see the gas resource beneath their feet. They just saw them as coal fields, said Mitchell who knew there was nuisance gas there. There was never even a thought there was enough gas there to make it viable. With natural gas selling for $2/mcf in Australia, the economics didn t make sense. Australian coal seams are found at shallower levels where greater pressures have to be created to liberate gas from the extended horizontal seams. The Australian one-two punch of shallow coal seams and low gas prices drove Mitchell to become innovative.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ANS4awOxrI[/youtube]

We d seen in the coal business the underground in-seam drilling of horizontal holes and degasification, Mitchell explained. But, there was usually a lot of water involved and no way to get the water out. Because of the company s decades of experience in drilling water wells, Mitchell combined the vertical well with the horizontal well. Mitchell described the process, The vertical well became the conduit for the coal mine, the gas and the water, and gave us a huge surface area. Suddenly, in areas where there wasn t a resource, we could produce something like a million or up to 2 million a day from these Dymaxion wells.

The technology was put to the test in central Queensland, Australia. An Australian newspaper reported in June 2004, In an industry where tradition plays a strong role, innovative drillers Mitchell Drilling have chalked up the 100th example of their revolutionary Dymaxion surface to in-seam (SIS) methane gas drainage hole for gas producer CH4 Limited at their Moranbah gas project. CH4 s website spoke highly of this gas project, The Moranbah Gas Project will utilise innovative drilling and gas extraction techniques, allowing increased potential gas yields while leaving the coal resource undamaged.

How does this impact the industry? We see this as revolutionary, Mitchell cheerily remarked. It has changed the face of CBM. It works in areas where people didn t think it would work. For example, the Dymaxion drilling works in high permeability with low gas. We can get such high gas from low gas content reservoirs, where people didn t previously think there were reservoirs.

It has worked in Australia, where every penny counts. Our price may cost around $1.25 or $1.10 (US$) per mcf so they are still making reasonable profits at around 50 percent. How will it play outside of Australia? Mitchell shot back, If you can imagine costs at $1.25 and you re selling it for $6/mcf, that s some pretty good bloody profits. Drilling at reasonable profits for $2 gas, Mitchell said, We are keen to take this technology around the world. Even if we were to double our costs, our clients would still be extremely happy.

USING BOTH VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL WELLS

When discussing the Dymaxion technology with an oil and gas man, his puzzled response was, Did I hear you right? You are using both a vertical and horizontal wells to get the gas? There are the skeptics. Contractors from the larger oil and gas companies came over to have a look, Mitchell said. Some people thought we were sliding by or sort of skimming costs. He explained the procedure, We have to intercept (the vertical) because we actually line up every one of our lateral wells with a slotted liner, a perforated liner. It is stacked into the vertical well, by the arrangement we ve developed, so we know we ve intercepted it.

Mitchell said the key is the ability to flush and know that the finds are coming out. We can have a number of wells lined, going from one point to another, he explained, and we ve got continuity of connection and flow between one well which is 1000 to 2000 meters away and the vertical well. We can flush between both. He gave an example, We can have three horizontals going into one vertical and two of the horizontals can be closed. Number one can be opened and flushed; then number two can be open, flushed and closed. So you have this over the 10 to 20 year life of the well.

How does the SIS hole de-gas a greater area than a regular horizontal? When we put two wells into a chevron pattern, you start to get absorption between the V at the start of the well, Mitchell said, describing the Dymaxion process. Once you get the wells done, in a V with each other, you start to get better flows, a bit more gas and greater increasing gas in a slow decline.

Mitchell s website does admit the old technologies may be suitable for deeper drilling, In the case of very deep deposits, up to 3000 meters underground, a vertical well may be adequate to create sufficient water table pressure to liberate and bring to the surface large quantities of methane gas. Because of the greater surface area draining the underground gas in the coal seams, the same website is quick to point out, SIS drilling also provides valuable exploration data on seam rolls and faults, allowing greater certainty in mine planning and development.

The SIS process begins by using modified, multipurpose mineral drill rigs with specially designed bottom hole assemblies. In the SIS technique, a hole is drilled at 60 to 90 degrees from the surface. It is then steered through a medium radius bend to horizontally enter the target coal seam. The 96 millimeter hole is steered in the seam toward a previously drilled vertical production well. A homing device is lowered down the vertical well to the target seam, which helps the horizontal hole intersect the production well. The vertical well dewaters the seam. Once the hydrostatic head has sufficiently been lowered, gas flows to the surface.

MITCHELL S WORLDWIDE EXPANSION

Developing the Dymaxion technology in the late 1990s, the first test took place in Australia in the year 2000. Now, going on nearly seven years later, the company has drilled more than 250 wells in Australia, another 30 to 50 wells in India with another 70 more to drill, and has moved on to both Kansas and China. Mitchell talked about Kansas, We finished our first well, but we don t really want to be a contractor in the United States. We don t see a lot of benefit to handing over our technology, but we would be interested in doing some sort of equity deal or partnership with clients. He believes that in the right areas, what Mitchell has got is exceptionally good.

So where did Mitchell first make an equity deal? The two big powerhouses of the world for the future are going to be China and India, he noted. Both of them will have energy problems in the future. Mitchell s first equity deal came about with Pacific Asia China Energy. We just astounded them with what was happening in Australia, Mitchell laughed, to see this small compact rig drilling 2000 meter holes of a well and making it work at $2 gas. He explained that although rigs were cheaper in China, the logistics, the costs of roads and access for trucks and pumps, gear and equipment, costs start to go up. It like a U.S. aircraft carrier, Mitchell compared with a drilling operation, you have 40 planes on deck but it takes 70 people to run it. Even in China, costs can go up when running these logistics. The deal with Pacific Asia China Energy involves reduced drilling costs and a 50/50 arrangement for income produced through the use of the Dymaxion technology in China. The joint venture company has exclusive use to this technology in the world s largest coal producing country, China.

How does Mitchell see business growing in China? Exponentially, he quickly replied. In China, there is a push to degasify their mines. There are some several thousand large mines, many with over one hundred million tons in reserves, and a lot of mines are being shut down because of degasification problems. In an earlier interview with the Tunaye Sai, president of Pacific Asia China Energy, he reported that every single coal company at a recent symposium approached both Mitchell and himself about the Dymaxion technology for China. Was that true? Very much so, Mitchell confirmed. Mine safety is now at the forefront of China and international observation. They re looking forward to international help and technology to come to China and fix these problems. They re looking at it from they want to sell coal, but they also want to sell gas. It worked well in Queensland and will apply to in China. That s why we see such a growth for Mitchell.

About the Author: James Finch contributes to

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StockInterview’s new book, A Practical Investor’s Guide to Uranium Stocks, will be available free of charge to subscribers.

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Category:Tempodivalse (WWC2010)

Wikinews Writing Competition 2010 — User submission details — Keep writing people!
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Wikinews discusses H1N1 with the WHO

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a program of the United Nations and a global authority on human health. In an interview with Wikinews, the WHO tells about the current H1N1 pandemic.

The organization’s 93rd update as of March 26, 2010 states 213 countries, territories, and other communities have laboratory-confirmed cases and there have been at least 16,931 confirmed deaths, including 4,653 deaths in Europe and 7,673 in the Americas.

Wikinews reporter Mike Morales talks with Karen Mah, a media relations representative for the WHO, and asks her several questions.

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Best Plastic Surgeon}

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Best plastic surgeon

by

Best plastic surgeon

Medical science has got a distinctive place in everyones life. From minor operations to critical plastic surgeries is done in no time with the new cutting-edge techniques and technologies. Today, in this glamorous world everyone especially celebrities and business tycoons want to look attention-grabbing physically to impress others and thats why they opt for surgery. But sometimes circumstances also lead people to opt for it. There are lots of best plastic surgeons in USA who offer various services which are mentioned below:

Tummy Tuck-Abdominoplasty

Eye Lift-Blepharoplasty

Face Lift-Rhytidectomy

Nose Job-Rhinoplasty

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2w9YTdkM_A[/youtube]

Breast Reduction-Mammaplasty

Breast Lift-Mastopexy

Breast Augmentation

Brow Lift

Dermatology

But its always a tedious job to select a best plastic surgeon due to the risk involve in the process. A best surgeon is one who enhances your look and gives your body a well shape with natural results. Now the question rises here is how can we reach to a best surgeon and what are the various things one should keep in mind while choosing a best plastic surgeon ? The guidelines are as follows:

Online surgeons directories are in trends in USA and considered as the prominent source to reach the best surgeons.

Verify his credentials by calling him on his board line number as mentioned on the website.

He/she should be certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Consult your family doctor while going for any critical surgery.

Use your referrals like friends, relatives and acquaintances.

Go through the testimonials of expert surgeon available on internet.

While opting for any surgery, follow these guidelines and this will help you out in finding a best plastic surgeon.

Featuring the list of best plastic surgeons in USA categorized by states and latest updates on different plastic surgery procedures. http://www.bestplasticsurgeon.biz

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Best plastic surgeon}

Pennsylvania man admits to June 25 beating of elderly woman

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Joshua J. Goyette allegedly confessed to breaking into a Saxonburg, Pennsylvania retirement home and beating 86-year-old Gertrude “Trudy” Johanson in the early morning of June 25, 2005. The crime, which shocked the small community north of Pittsburgh, was not the only one which occurred recently at area retirement homes. Goyette is also suspected in a May incident where another apartment at the Commons of Saxonburg was broken into through a first floor window and the 90-year-old woman inside was groped while she slept.

Goyette, 25, has addresses listed in court documents in New Bedford, Massachusetts; and in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, his mother’s home.

The alleged confession was given last Thursday, June 30, 2005, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Pennsylvania state police investigators. Goyette is currently being held in the Butler County prison in lieu of $300,000 cash bond. He faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal mischief.

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Healthy cloned monkeys born in Shanghai

Thursday, January 25, 2018

In findings published Wednesday in the scientific journal Cell, a team of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, China have announced the first-ever cloning of a primate from post-embryonic cells, namely two macaque monkeys. They used somatic cell nuclear transfer, the same method that was used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996.

In somatic cell nuclear transfer, scientists remove the nucleus, which is the organelle that contains the chromosomes, from an unfertilized ovum, or egg cell, and implant the nucleus from a somatic cell, or non-reproductive cell, into that ovum. The ovum is then stimulated and develops in the normal way, growing into a whole organism that has the same nuclear DNA as the donor organism, though it will have all of the ovum’s mitochondria and other cellular machinery. Clones like these have been described as identical twins to their donors, but younger.

The scientists implanted 21 ova into surrogate mother monkeys, resulting in six pregnancies, two of which produced living animals. The young clones were named “Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua,” both derived from Zh?nghuá, the Chinese-language word for the Chinese people. They are both cynomolgus monkeys, or crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis). The scientists also attempted to clone macaques using nuclei from adult donors. They implanted 42 surrogates, resulting in 22 pregnancies, but there were still only two infant macaques, and they died soon after birth. The Scotland-based team that created Dolly the sheep in 1996 required 277 attempts and produced only one lamb.

Generally, the older the donor organism, the more difficult it is to get the DNA from the harvested nucleus to reactivate the genes that allow the clone organism to grow. Previous efforts to clone rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) using embryonic donor cells have been successful, but the current attempt used significantly older donors: fetal fibroblast cells, which are key cells in connective tissue, and adult monkey cumulus cells.

“We’re excited — extremely excited,” said study co-author Muming Poo. “This is really, I think, a breakthrough for biomedicine.” He went on to say that the cloned monkeys could be used as test subjects for the study of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. Primates are already a popular model organism for neurological studies. In the United States, for example, non-human primates are used in less than 0.3% of all animal experiments, most of them involving neuroscience, and macaques in particular are a well-established animal model of atherosclerosis, which causes heart disease.

“I think it’s a very exciting landmark. It’s a major advance,” agreed reproductive biologist Dieter Egli of Columbia University. “It should be possible to make models of human disease in those monkeys and study those and then attempt to cure it.”

About 90% of the laboratory animals used in the United States are rodents. Although the first cloned mouse was born in 1998, cloned mice are not currently common in laboratory settings. This may be because producing inbred mouse lines is still relatively effective.

Although the announcement raised enthusiasm from researchers, it also drew caution from bioethicists. “Cloning one individual in the image of another really sort of demeans the significance of us as individuals,” says Harvard Medical School’s Dr. George Daley, speaking specifically of cloning humans. “There’s a certain sort of gut sense that it violates sort of natural norms.” While Muming Poo concedes it is now theoretically possible to clone a human, he says his lab has no plans to do so.

Although somatic cell nuclear transfer was used successfully in amphibians as early as 1952, getting it to work in mammals took much longer. Dolly, the first cloned mammal, was born in 1996. Teams have been trying to clone monkeys for decades, but primate DNA is notoriously difficult to work with. “The trick is we choose the right chemicals to turn on these genes we transfer into the egg,” Mu-ming Poo told the press. “So that’s what we did different. I think that’s the key.” One of the agents used to treat the ova was messenger RNA from the human Kdm4d gene.

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