You are here

Other

What Happens If a Nuclear Bomb Goes Off in Manhattan?

Manhatten skyline. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Image: Manhatten skyline. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

theatlantic.com - March 15th 2017 - Kaveh Waddell

On a quiet afternoon, two medium-sized nuclear blasts level portions of Manhattan.

If this were a movie, hordes of panicked New Yorkers would pour out into the streets, running around and calling out for their loved ones. But reality doesn’t usually line up with Hollywood’s vision of a disaster scene, says William Kennedy, a professor in the Center for Social Complexity at George Mason University. 

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

What Did the U.S. Learn from Ebola? How to Prepare for Bioterrorist Attacks

FOREIGN POLICY  by Siobhán O'Grady                        April 13, 2015
When the Ebola virus spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone and Liberia last spring, the initial international response was labeled a failure. By the time President Barack Obama ordered troops to the affected countries in September, more than 2,400 people were dead.

But in the United States, where major hospitals prepared for an outbreak, there were only four in-country diagnoses, one of which resulted in a death. And some see the urgency of that response as a lesson in how the government can prepare for another public health hazard: a bioterrorist attack.

Arizona Rep. Martha McSally chairs a House subcommittee that will examine over the next few months the threat of bioterrorist attacks and U.S. preparedness to respond to them. She told Foreign Policy that even if a disease outbreak and the use of a biological agent in a coordinated attack are not completely analogous, the response strains similar systems.

“We can learn lessons from other outbreaks that are naturally occurring,” she said. “We can identify weaknesses in our response and even if it wasn’t terrorism, it presses the system at the same level....”

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Ebola Doctor: Media, politicians fueled the public's fears

ASSOCIATED PRESS   by Tom McElroy                                                             Feb. 25, 2015

NEW YORK — A doctor who contracted the deadly Ebola virus and rode the subway system and dined out before he developed symptoms said the media and politicians could have done a better job by educating people on the science of it instead of focusing on their fears.

 "When we look back on this epidemic, I hope we'll recognize that fear caused our initial hesitance to respond — and caused us to respond poorly when we finally did," Dr. Craig Spencer wrote in an article published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. (See link below.)

Spencer, an emergency room physician, was diagnosed with Ebola on Oct. 23, days after returning from treating patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders. His was the first Ebola case in the nation's largest city, spurring an effort to contain anxieties along with the virus. He was treated at a hospital, recovered and was released on Nov. 11.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Assessing the Science of Ebola Transmission

THREE ARTICLES DESCRIBING DETAILS OF THE EBOLA VIRUS AND OTHER VIRUSES.
(Scroll Down)

Advances in microscopy have allowed scientists like Sriram Subramaniam and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute to look at the workings of tiny viruses. In this case, microscopy was used to illustrate the complex process in which human cells infected with HIV-1, green and blue, are linked to uninfected cells. Credit Illustration by Donald Bliss/N.I.H, from The Journal of Virology/American Society for Microbiology

The research on how the virus spreads is not as ambiguous as some have made it seem

THE ATLANTIC                                                                                                          Oct. 28, 2014

General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

NYCDEP - Green Infrastructure Grant Program

nyc.gov

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection offers a grant program for private property owners in combined sewer areas of New York City. The minimum requirement is to manage 1” of stormwater runoff from the contributing impervious area. If selected, DEP will provide funds for the design and construction of the green infrastructure system. Eligible projects include blue roofs, rain gardens, green roofs, porous pavement and rainwater harvesting on private property in combined sewer areas.

Private property owners in the combined sewer areas of all five boroughs of New York City are eligible to apply.   This year, for the first time, DEP will accept applications in both the spring and the fall, and applicants will have the opportunity to review conceptual ideas with DEP engineers prior to submitting their application.  More information on the program and the online application can be found on DEP’s website.   The fall due date is October 21, 2014.

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Tree Giveaways in All Five Boroughs - April 26-27

 submitted by Samuel Jimenez

      

nyrp.org

Happy Earth Day! In honor of the greenest week of the year, pick up a free tree this Arbor Day weekend.

Make sure to register for your free tree and arrive on time. Some trees will be available for walk-up on a first-come, first-served basis. 

If registration is full, check our calendar for more tree gvieaways, happening through May 18.

 

QUEENS 

Saturday, April 26, 2014, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM 

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

New York - Hurricane Sandy - Grants and Resources

submitted by Seth Golbey

April 9, 2014

New York - Hurricane Sandy - Disaster Recovery Resources

New York - Hurricane Sandy - Grants Information: Funders, Resources, and Grant Writing Tool

(CLICK ON THE ATTACHMENTS BELOW)

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Wetland Program Development Grant: 2014-2015 WPDG Request for Proposal

submitted by Goldie Rosenberg

water.epa.gov

Federal Agency Name: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds

Funding Opportunity Title: FY 2014 and FY 2015 National Wetland Program Development Grants

Announcement Type: Request for Proposals

Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-OW-OWOW-14-02

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 66.462

Dates: Hard copy proposals must be received by EPA (See Sections IV and VII of this RFP) by 5:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) April 17, 2014. Proposals submitted electronically via Grants.gov must be received by11:59 P.M. EDT April 17, 2014. Late proposals will not be considered for funding. Questions must be submitted in writing via e-mail and must be received by the Agency Contact identified in Section VII before April 11, 2014.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS (22 page .PDF file)

http://water.epa.gov/grants_funding/wetlands/grantguidelines/

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Ground Water Source (Open Loop) Heat Pump Systems

bge.apogee.net

An open-loop, ground-water heat pump, uses a surface or underground water source (such as a lake, river, or well) as the heat source and sink. Well water designs are the most common and seem to be the most cost effective. The well supplies both domestic water and water for the heat pump. Approximately three gallons per minute of well water are needed per ton of cooling capacity.

Ground water source open-loop heat pumps use the same concept as the ground coupled units - for example, in the Midwest the temperature of the earth near the surface and the water in it (aquifer) is typically around 55°F. Water is taken from the ground or surface water (pond, lake, etc.), circulated to the individual heat pumps and the returned to the ground via a disposal well, returned to the lake or pond, or where permitted discharged into a stream or river.

When more units are heating than cooling the circulating water temperature drops prior to disposal. Conversely, when more units are cooling than heating, the circulating water is warmed prior to disposal.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Be Our Guest: The Incoming City Administration Should Expand Participatory Budgeting

submitted by Debbie Tiamfook

      

The Peninsula Library branch in Far Rockaway is one of the facilities that received funding in 2012 through the city's participatory budgeting process

nydailynews.com - by Ritchie Torres and Alexa Kasdan - December 8, 2013

Last month, New York City voters selected a new mayor and 21 new members of the City Council and, in January, a new City Council speaker will be selected, ushering in a progressive makeover to City Hall.

As part of this shift, 21 New York City Council members have committed to partake in Participatory Budgeting (PB) in 2014, allowing their constituents to directly decide how to spend millions of public dollars. This will more than double the size of the current PB process, which is now in its third year with nine council members allocating a collective $10 million.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Participatory Budgeting in NYC

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Pages

Subscribe to Other
howdy folks
Page loaded in 0.639 seconds.