No.
228 January 2002
BIORTERRORISM/BIOCRIMES
– ONGOING RESEARCH The destruction of the World Trade Towers and the anthrax
spores sent through the mail in 2001 gave the American public close encounters
with terrorism and bioterrorism. Terrorists and terrorism is not new nor is
bioterrorism. W. Seth Carus
has built an ongoing database of information for over 270 alleged cases
involving biological agents. As of the February 2001, Carus completed the eighth
revision of his book, reviewing the sources which reported cases of biological
terrorism since 1900. In Bioterrorism and Biocrimes – The Illicit Use of
Biological Agents Since 1900 (February 2001 Revision), he defines
bioterrorism and explains how biological agents are acquired and used by
criminals and terrorists. His terrorist descriptions, and terrorist group
characteristics and operations, and trends information are based on his analysis
of the cases presented in the second half of his volume. He reviewed over 270
cases that occurred since 1900 and differentiates between real and false cases
and hoaxes, identifies the confirmed cases, and also the probable or possible
possession cases. Carus’ research and analysis shows there are terrorists who
want to use biological agents to kill people, but thus far have not been capable
of achieving their goals. Carus’ research and analysis, at this point, does
not enable the prediction of a terrorist’s choice of agent, but presents a
solid database for policymakers concerned with terrorism to make informed
decisions. “Though the list of cases may not be complete, it provides the most
comprehensive existing unclassified coverage of instances of illicit use of
biological agents." Each case is identified in his 20-page list of cases on
pages 179-198. Carus' research goal is the continued collection, updating,
revision, and analysis of cases and case information in this database. The full
210 page February 2001 version of this working paper is found at http://www.ndu.edu/centercounter/Full_Doc.pdf
WHAT’S
IT LIKE TO BE AN OLD DRIVER? Two questions: First, are you old, or can you be
considered old? Most people less
than 60 years of age, may not be considered old. If you are 65 or older with
changes in your cognitive, perceptual, or psychomotor performances that can
affect your driving ability, then you are in the “old” driver category. Yet,
for others, age may not hinder their driving. Second question, regardless of
(your) age, if you have trouble navigating the current highways and could change
their design to make it easier for you to drive, what would you suggest?
Now, that the questions are posed, and the “theory” is over, consider
the practical driving situations. For example, consider your judgment about
stopping distance, the length of passing zones, physical ability to control the
car, and reaction time. What about
your perception of the risks and hazards in construction areas or work-related
highway traffic restrictions? What’s your reaction(s) to driving over,
through, or under an unfamiliar multilevel expressway interchange at a 65 mph?
Passing zones, construction/work zones, roadway curvature, passing zones,
intersections (at-grade), and interchanges (grade separation) are the elements
of concern to highway designers who did the research for the Federal Highway
Administration. The May 2001 Final
Report Guidelines and Recommendations to Accommodate Older Drivers and
Pedestrians presents the September 1997 –May 2001, research, technological
developments, and updating revision of a 1998 edition of these guidelines.
This 86-page report of highway design changes is intended to accommodate
the needs and functional limitations of an aging population of road users. Some
old drivers have problems with current highway design and conditions because
they are “old.” Other drivers have similar problems with because of bad
driving. Where do you fit in? The Guidelines…can be found at http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/01-051.pdf
OCCUPATIONAL
FATALITIES Librarians/libraries did
not get included in this annual Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) compilation
released on August 21, 2001. The 9th annual census of workplace
deaths, National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2000 (CFOI) (L
1.120/2:01-261) is a 13 paged press release of text statistics, 3 charts, and 6
tables showing total employment and fatal work injuries as reported by State
agencies. The online version of COFI 2000 is at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm.
The CFOI, (1rst in 1992) annually since 1993 is found on the CFOI homepage at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshfat1.htm
which has links to definitions, reports and research articles, news releases,
data tables, and contacts. About
one year later an expanded version of the COY data is published in Fatal
Workplace Injuries in (Yr.): A Collection of Data and Analysis which is
within the BLS Report Series (L 2.71: (No.)).
The Reports for the 1992 -1997 compilations were discussed in the
April 1998 issue of this Newsletter at http://www.nku.edu/~yannarella/news9804.html.
Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1989-99: A Collection of Data and Analysis,
August 2001 (L 2.71:954) is the latest Report found in some depository libraries
(L2.71: 954) and on the BLS web site at http://www.bls.gov/iif/home.htm.
This 1989-99 Report includes reprinted articles about work related
homicides, animal occupational injuries/fatalities, workplace falls, and trucker
fatalities. This latter web page is the source of current and historical data, a
variety of compilations, and databases to create customized tables of fatality
data.
FARM INJURIES/FATALITIES Farm work operating or being around many types of machinery, and provides numerous ways of getting seriously injured and/or killed. Farm fatalities are included in the expand version of the Census of Fatalities (L 2.71: (No.)), but the Farm statistics available from NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) also include injuries. NIOSH data covers the nature and severity (temporary, permanent, and fatal) of injuries on the farm for 19-21 states and a three-year (1993-1995) period. The data reported for each state are found in three basic reports. In April 1997, NIOSH released Injuries Among Farm Workers in the United States, 1993, (NIOSH Publication No. 97-115,345 pages) which can be found in some depository libraries (HE 20.7102:IN 5/2). Injuries Among Farm Workers in the United States - 1994, issued in 1998, (NIOSH 98-153) and Injuries Among Farm Workers in the United States, 1995 issued May 2001 (20 pages) http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/childag/pdfs/2001153.pdf are three of the many new NIOSH titles on the NIOSH website with farm injury data/ information on the NIOSH publications web page http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/publistd.html .
PERFECT
TREE The American poet (Alfred)
Joyce Kilmer, 1886-1918, wrote, "I think that I shall never see a poem as
lovely as a tree." Well, how
lovely is a tree? Most have defects. Does the perfect tree exist? What are defects?
Most people know about the "defects" in people but not about
defects in trees. What are the trees defects, which are lacking in the perfect
tree? Actually, trees are not
usually covered except for their root system, so it is easier to spot a tree's
defects than a person's defects and the perfect tree will be known immediately.
To assist those looking for a tree without defects, Arthur D. Partridge and
Catherine L. Bertagnolli have compiled Tree Defect Guide, A Handbook of
“Defect Estimators for Standing Timber” to help identify the perfect
tree. Issued in 1994 by the U.S. Forest Service, this 137-paged “guide has
descriptions and illustrations to help you identify problems and estimate useful
wood volume in trees with one or more defects.” This guide was sent to some
federal depository libraries under A 13.36/2:T71/2 in a microfiche format.
Another more extensive, 167-page guide is Tree Defects, A Photo Guide,
issued in 1983 by the Forest Service. This publication was also sent to
depository libraries in microfiche under A 13.88:NE-82.
As the title implies, this guide is also intended for the lumber yield
estimating by the logging industry. The
trees with no defects, when harvested, yield the most lumber.
STOCK
MARKET CRASH OF 1929 REVISITED On October 29, 1929 when the New York Stock
Market fell by 30 percent, it crashed. Mr.
Irving Fisher thought the market crashed because the stock market was
undervalued. Until now, most other market crash analysts viewed the stocks and
stock market as overvalued and in need of correction. Who is Irving Fisher? and
was his opinion correct? The answer
appears 72 years later. It is the view of Ellen R. McGrattan and Edward C.
Prescott of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, in The Stock Market
Crash of 1929: Irving Fisher Was Right! (Research Department Staff Report
294, Revised December 2001) that the fundamental values of all U.S. Corporations
were sound and the evidence suggests that the stocks were undervalued even at
their peak in 1929 and Irving Fisher was right.
Also, Grattan and Prescott state, “the historical evidence suggests
that the stock market crashed because the Federal Reserve severely tightened
credit to stock holders, not because stocks were overvalued.”
This article fascinating to read, but it requires that the reader knows
something about stocks, economics, or finance, etc. The full 38 page Report is a
pdf file found at http://minneapolisfed.org/research/sr/sr294.html.
2003 THE YEAR OF THE CORE BASED STATISTICAL AREAS (CBSAs) Some history. With the 1950 Census of Population and Housing, the “Standard Metropolitan Areas” appeared. Metropolitan areas became the geographic concept with which the Census Data was presented from 1950 through 1990. As of December 27, the Notice appeared in the Federal Register, “announces the OMB’s (Office of Management and Budget’s) adoption of Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas. These new standards replace and supersede the 1990 standards for defining metropolitan areas. … This Notice is effective immediately. OMB plans to announce definitions of areas based on the new standards and the Census 2000 data in 2003. Federal agencies should begin to use the new area definitions to tabulate and publish statistics when the definitions are announced.” As of 2003, the existing metropolitan areas will get new terminology. "Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), the new geographical concept and collective term, will replace the term "Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)" for “Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas”. The OMB’s 2003 terminology changeover from MSA to CBSA is less than a year away. The place to find this Notice with all its information, explanation, details, and definition of the new CBSA related terminology is “Office of Management and Budget, Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, Notice of Decision,” Federal Register, V. 65, No. 249, December 27, 2000, pages 8227-82238 (AE 2.106:65/249). Go to the Census Bureau web site athttp://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/masrp.html and the OMB web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/2000.html to get the pdf file version of this CBSA information. Bottom line: will you be ready for the new CBSA terminology?
THE
EASY LIFE: FOODS AND SUCH
"Once upon a time” life did not include many of the new foods and
“conveniences” we now know and have. Everyday life lacked many
“features” which appeared sometime between 1940 and 1990 due to USDA
Agricultural Research Scientists trying to solve some current problems or needs.
Once upon a time, you had to squeeze oranges, and apple juice did not exist.
There were no artificial sweeteners for people on diets or diabetics.
Synthetic rubber was developed because of World War II and later
technology developed plastic products and plastic bags. America's military and
civilian needs brought the development of many kinds of sugar beets, wheat, and
other sugars and a new type and methods of producing penicillin.
Men’s trousers had to have the crease created by the dry cleaners’
hot presses and all cotton products had wrinkles and needed ironing. This
wrinkle and ironing era was phased out when the "permanent crease"
technique and "permanent press" fabrics were discovered.
Aroma identification and control complemented the developments of new and
better techniques of food processing, preservation, and marketing.
Milk bottled only in glass, came with the cream at the top and the
“liquid” at the bottom. This milk product gave way to homogenized milk and
many new milk byproducts. Other soybean developments have provided healthful soy
food products. Did you know maple syrup became a more marketable item when
"inexpensive" syrup was mixed with "expensive" syrup?
Always Something New, A Cavalcade of Scientific Discovery (A
1.38:1507) issued in 1993 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is 150 pages of
interesting historical information about the creation and development of new
food products and processes.
WOOD
HANDBOOK ONLINE First published in
1935 as the USDA Agricultural Handbook No. 72, the Wood Handbook went has gone
through four editions (i.e. 1939, 1955, 1954, and 1987).
The latest edition is the 1999 Wood Handbook--Wood as an engineering
material, Gen. Tech. Rep. FPL-GTR-113, issued by the USDA Forest Products
Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. This
Handbook issued to depository libraries in microfiche (A 13.88:FPL-GTR-113) is
463 pages of information on the physical and mechanical properties of wood and
wood-based products of concern to the architect and engineer.
This latest edition, is for the first time, is available free on the USDA
web site. The Wood Handbook web page at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/FPLGTR/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm
consists of links to Front Matter (introductory material), a Glossary, 19
chapters, and an extensive subject index accessible as 22 pdf files.
Topics include characteristics and availability, structure, physical
properties and moisture relations, mechanical properties, stress grades and
design properties, fastenings, structural analysis equations, biodeterioration,
preservation, finishing, wood in buildings and bridges, specialty treatments,
round timbers and ties, and fire safety, wood-based composites and panel
products, and more. This volume would fill the information needs of the
carpenter as well as the architect/engineer.
This 1999 USDA Forest Laboratory handbook reports the findings and
applications of the FPL research since 1987 and extensively revises and updates
the earlier edition.
February
28, 2002
http://www.nku.edu/~yannarella/news0201.html