The comments people made about this story are appalling. Sometimes grandparents move to Canada with their grown children and they're unable to learn the new language. I agree that if you are moving to Canada, you should have functional English skills, which do not often include medicalese. What if you've just moved to Canada? What if in your culture, it's impolite to ask too many questions? What if you're not educated enough to know to ask these questions? Quite often, even if you speak English fluently, in times of emergency you get flustered and confused, and may have trouble understanding basic ideas.

There should be some sort of solution to this, a phone-in interpreting service. Perhaps even a database of commonly used expressions translated to various languages just to help out with things. Doctors with multiple languages is not the solution.

 

From: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/12/24/health-language.html#socialcomments

 

Language barriers lead to health barriers: study

Last Updated: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 | 9:30 AM ET Comments13Recommend4

CBC News

A new study on health care and language indicates that immigrants in Canada's largest city may not be getting the care they need.

According to the study, published in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health, language is an enormous barrier for many newcomers, especially when it comes to communication between health-care providers and patients.

The report says that in some instances, the language barrier is preventing patients from understanding their treatment options.

At the Immigrant Women's Health Centre on College Street in downtown Toronto, Karen Chow checks on her client. Chow is able to talk to the patient in Cantonese, a service that is unavailable in most clinics in the city.

Chow said that at other clinics and at hospitals, this Cantonese woman is mostly oblivious to what is going on around her. The problem, said Chow, is language.

"She may have a problem so she may need to bring somebody to interpret [at a clinic or hospital]. Here she doesn't need to bring anybody."

The study says language is not just a barrier to communication and understanding. It may also prevent many immigrants from seeking the health care they need.

Kevin Pottie, the study's lead researcher, says his team looked at data collected from a Statistics Canada questionnaire.

He said the study shows many immigrants don't have health literacy. In most cases, they can't navigate the health-care system, understand health information or apply that information to their lives.

"We're concerned this could have implications on the access to health care or maybe directly on their health," he said.

Pottie is hopeful the study will lead to the implementation of translation programs to help newcomers.

Fwd: hipsters

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Omer
Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 10:09 PM
Subject: (no subject)
To: Hana


"The dance floor at a hipster party looks like it should be surrounded by quotation marks"
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html

The Problem with Open-Source

The error was corrected within 2 minutes of reporting.  It took 15 minutes to figure out how to report.

Feel Shame No Longer!

From: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/08/11/tech-invisible.html

Scientists closer to developing invisibility cloak

Last Updated: Monday, August 11, 2008 | 9:21 AM ET

The Associated Press

Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.

U.S. researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only had been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.

Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fibre composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows.

It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track.

The Berkeley research was funded in part by the U.S. army's research office and the U.S. National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.

Ohio inmate says he's too fat for execution

Ohio inmate says he's too fat for execution

Lawyer claims his client's weight could make lethal injection 'excruciating'

The Associated Press

updated 7:58 p.m. ET, Mon., Aug. 4, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A death row inmate scheduled for execution says he's too fat to be put to death, claiming executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs.

Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey — 5-feet-7 and 267 pounds — had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and the problem has been worsened by weight gain.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, also says prison officials have had difficulty drawing blood from Cooey for medical procedures.

Cooey, 41, is sentenced to die for raping and murdering two young women in 1986. His execution is scheduled for Oct. 14.

His attorneys say a drug he is taking for migraine headaches could affect the execution process. The drug Topamax, a type of seizure medication, may have created a resistance to thiopental, the drug used to put inmates to sleep before two other lethal drugs are administered, Dr. Mark Heath, a physician hired by the Ohio Public Defender's Office, said in documents filed with the court.

Heath says Cooey's weight, combined with the potential drug resistance, increases the risk he would not be properly anesthetized.

"All of the experts agree if the first drug doesn't work, the execution is going to be excruciating," Cooey's public defender, Kelly Culshaw Schneider, said Monday.

Prison system spokeswoman Andrea Carson and Jim Gravelle, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office, both said Monday they hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment.

Last year, Carson cited the obesity of condemned inmate Christopher Newton as one of the reasons prison officials had difficulty accessing his veins before his execution. Newton was 6 feet tall and weighed 265 pounds.

Two years ago, convicted killer Jeffrey Lundgren was put to death after a federal appeals court rejected his claim that he was at greater risk of experiencing pain and suffering because he was overweight and diabetic.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26014962/

Turns out Smoking is Bad

http://www.smoke-free.ca/warnings/Brazil%20-%20warnings.htm

I want to quit seeing stop smoking ads.

Family Hero

I'm surprised news like this wasn't close to home sooner. At least it was preventative.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/world/middleeast/23israel.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tractor%20+%20israel&st=cse&oref=slogin

Yaki is a relative.  All I can say is: wow.

Six Feet Under

I'm writing a paper and watching Six Feet Under and am wondering to myself if this is what actually goes on next door.

It smells like dishwasher.

Big in Japan.

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1341/

Fwd: (no subject)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Omer
Date: Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Subject: (no subject)



http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/06/02/top-x-gadgets-that-g.html

Scroll down to the first video, 'facial flex' ....

http://en.eidfaxi.is/Stallions/

Am I the only one who finds this really, really funny?

Some good puns...

...as though there's such a thing as a bad pun!

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/06/06/the-50-best-pun-stores/

Check out this picture I found

Hana found this picture on the web and thought you would enjoy it.

Visit this address at Worth1000.com to see it:

http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=398311

Be sure to check out the image galleries while you're there....funny
stuff!

Also, are you a cool news junkie? Check out Plime.com!

http://www.plime.com

This email was sent by a visitor to the Worth1000 website from this IP
address: 99.226.195.164

Your email address was not recorded by Worth1000.com or added/resold to
any lists.

Person collapses in Iceland

 

A PERSON collapsed in the frozen food section of Iceland in Broadfield.

Fire and ambulance crews were called to the scene at around midday today (May 27) and fire crews performed first aid before medical assistance was on hand.

A fire spokesman said: "We were called to a person who collapsed in Iceland's frozen food section and we rendered first aid while we waited for the ambulance.

"The ambulance took them away."

The person has not yet been identified and it is not yet known why they collapsed.

http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/crawleynews/Person-collapses-in-Iceland-.4124192.jp

Fwd: history

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Inna

Date: Tue, May 20, 2008 at 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: history
To: Hana

herd of humans makes for a nice little rhythm
it's a shame
i think a syntax revolution is needed

 

Fwd: Baked Goods

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Omer
Date: Fri, May 16, 2008 at 5:29 PM




http://shapeandcolour.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/kittiwat-unarrom-body-bakery/

Office Eavesdrop

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jenna

Date: Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Subject:
To: Hana

BEST phone convo EVER this is what I just heard:

"so you need a strap?"
"what size nuts are you using it with?"
"seriously, you're going to use a strap on nuts that small???"
"ok, I'll order you your strap but I worry that your nuts might break"

Absolutely incredible.

I was reading the New York Times and I accidentally figured out something awesome.  If you double click on any word, a new window pops up with the definition. I mean any word, I first hit "of" and then "rural." So that was just an fyi, I guess.

Cutest Comment Ever

This is what happens when your significant other edits your papers and begins to lose their mind by the second page: