The conclusion to my three part story. There is a parallel story called "The Ballad of Mitzy the Puppy"
===
* Phoenix rises, but will there be tears?
* Push to double first home owner grant questioned.
* Patient dies waiting at hospital
* Madeleine sighting?
5 comments:
NASA launches new Mars probe
By Jean-Louis Santini in Washington
A US space probe has embarked on a 10-month journey to Mars, where it will dig through Martian soil in a search for signs of life in a frigid region of the Red Planet.
The Phoenix Mars Lander separated from a Delta II rocket after blasting off into the dark sky at 5.36am today (1936 AEST) from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Phoenix, whose launch was delayed by a day of bad weather, is scheduled to land on Mars on May 25 after travelling 680,000,000km through space.
NASA hopes to land the probe, which is powered by solar panels, on flat ground with few or no rocks at a Martian latitude equivalent to northern Alaska on earth.
During its three-month mission, the lander will pierce through soil in the planet's arctic region amid freezing temperatures ranging from -73C to -33C.
The craft is equipped with a 2.35m robotic arm that will enter vertically into the soil to break the icy crust believed to lie within a few inches of the surface.
The robotic arm will lift samples onto the lander's deck and use instruments to check for water and carbon-based chemicals, considered essential building blocks for life, and analyse the soil chemistry to look for clues of past or present life.
With its two solar panels deployed, the lander, built by US aerospace firm Lockheed Martin, measures 5.5 x 1.5m, weighs 350kg and carries 55kg of scientific equipment.
"Our instruments are specially designed to find evidence for periodic melting of the ice and to assess whether this large region represents a habitable environment for Martian microbes," said Phoenix investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.
Phoenix also has a weather station that will measure water and dust content in the planet's atmosphere.
Many scientists see signs of ancient rivers and oceans on the arid and sterile surface of Mars, and believe the planet may once have harboured some forms of life.
In 2002, the NASA probe Mars Odyssey detected huge quantities of hydrogen on the Martian surface, a sign there could be ice at a depth of less than one metre.
NASA's roving robots Spirit and Opportunity have also found signs of past water flows while rolling across the Martian landscape since 2004.
Unlike the rovers, the $US420-million ($A490 million) Phoenix lander will stay put in one location during its mission. It will also have a softer arrival on Mars than the rovers, which made a bouncy landing inside huge air bags.
As with previous missions, Phoenix will deploy a heat shield to slow its high-speed entry into the Martian atmosphere. It will then open a supersonic parachute that will cut its speed to about 217km/h
The lander will then separate from the parachute and fire pulsed descent rockets to slow the craft to about 9km/h before landing on its three legs.
Fifteen minutes after landing, the probe's solar panels will deploy and power up its instruments.
Landing on Mars has been a fifty-fifty proposition for past missions to the Red Planet. Half of the 14 missions sent by Russian, Japanese, American and European space agencies since 1988 have failed.
Doubling home grant 'will increase prices'
from news.com.au
DOUBLING the Federal Government's first home buyers grant would increase house prices unless state governments release more land for housing, Finance Minister Nick Minchin said today.
The Real Estate Institute of Australia wants the grant to be doubled to $14,000 to give first home buyers a better chance of entering the market.
Senator Minchin said the move would drive up housing prices unless state governments released more land for housing.
"I do caution against those advocating doubling it (first home owners grant) because that will end up just feeding into prices and no one will be better off," Senator Minchin told the Ten Network.
"The trouble with that (doubling the grant) is that it adds to demand.
"You would not want to double the first home owners grant unless you were sure there was going to be a supply response at the state level."
Senator Minchin said state Labor governments are not responding to current housing demand.
"What you need is more houses built and more apartments built and the state Labor governments have the capacity to provide more land to allow that to occur and take the pressure off price," he said.
"We do continue to call for the state governments to respond to that need for greater supply of housing."
Aussie Home Loans CEO John Symond said doubling the first home buyers' grant was a bandaid solution that would not ease housing affordability.
"The doubling of the grant, I don't believe is a solution whatsoever," Mr Symond told the Ten Network.
"These are just bandaid jobs, the (housing affordability) summit on the Labor side, other suggestions – bandaid, bandaid, bandaid – they're not addressing the problem.
"The problem is that affordability in the housing industry is broken."
Mr Symond said both federal and state governments were responsible for the affordability crisis.
"The inaction of governments of all persuasions has really contributed to the affordability problem," he said.
"State levels – grabbing billions in taxes, stamp duties, being overly bureaucratic in trying to release land," he said.
"And federally – taking billions of dollars of windfall from the real estate appreciation and taxes.
"What have they (governments) done? They have really done very little."
Patient dies in hospital hallway
By Darrell Giles
A 43-YEAR-OLD woman has died on a stretcher at Brisbane's Logan Hospital because no beds were available.
The Woodridge woman was brought in by paramedics suffering shortness of breath.
She waited more than four hours but died before being admitted
Queensland Ambulance sources said the woman's life could have been saved but a shortage of beds at the hospital, in Brisbane's south, meant she had to wait in a hallway for treatment that never came in time.
"Logan Hospital is always at capacity - we take patients there and wait and wait, sometimes four, five, six or seven hours," one paramedic told The Sunday Mail yesterday.
"This woman was taken in and she died on the stretcher waiting for help. It's wrong."
Queensland Health refused to comment.
The Queensland Ambulance Service yesterday issued an unprecedented public statement yesterday about the death, saying it had referred the case to the Coroner for investigation.
Ambulance Commissioner Jim Higgins said the woman was taken to Logan Hospital on July 18.
While waiting at the hospital, she became unresponsive and resuscitation attempts failed.
"This is a sad incident and I extend my condolences to the family of the patient," said Mr Higgins.
"Such cases are always fully investigated.
"The cause of the death is unknown and that's why this matter has been referred to the Coroner.
"Until the Coroner makes a determination in this matter it would be inappropriate to comment further.
"However, I can say that the patient was under the care of paramedics at all times."
Death referred to watchdog
Mr Higgins said he had also referred the death to the independent watchdog, the Health Quality and Complaints Commission.
The ambulance source said Logan Hospital had been at capacity almost every night for the past fortnight.
Gold Coast and Tweed Heads hospitals were on bypass - which meant no beds were available and ambulances were directed to take patients to the already over-stretched Logan Hospital.
The woman's death was similar to that of father-of-four Greg Hayes, 47, who died in June after being turned away from Tweed Heads Hospital and paramedics were forced to transport him another 22km to the Gold Coast Hospital.
Health and ambulance officials tried to absolve themselves of blame over the death of the heart attack victim, saying a radio fault caused the tragedy.
The Queensland Ambulance Service made the first move on this latest tragedy, saying it was not responsible for the woman's death.
Paramedics 'not implicated'
A spokesman said there was no suggestion that paramedics were in any way implicated in the woman's death.
He said questions should be asked of Queensland Health.
Opposition health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek said the woman's death "put a very human face on Labor's disgraceful handling of health in Queensland".
Paramedics, politicians and medical groups had been expressing their concern for years about bed access at Queensland hospitals.
Ambulances were often forced to queue in emergency departments driveways with patients on board because no beds were available.
A report by consultant Peter Forster in 2005 said Queensland Health would require an additional 170 beds each year for the next 20 years just to meet future demand.
Police search Madeleine suspect's home again
From correspondents in Lisbon
PORTUGUESE police were again searching the house of the only official suspect in the case of missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann, a police spokesman said.
Madeleine went missing from the Praia da Luz resort in the Algarve tourist region on May 3, just yards away from the home of Briton 33-year-old Robert Murat.
His property was initially searched after Madeleine went missing.
“Searches are being carried out,” a spokesman for the Portuguese police said.
The spokesman declined to comment on whether police were closer to finding Madeleine, who disappeared from her bed in the holiday resort while her parents dined nearby.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann have campaigned relentlessly to draw attention to her disappearance.
British business tycoons and celebrities ranging from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to soccer stars have contributed to a reward for her return.
DNA tested after claim Maddie seen in cafe
By Paul Kent in London
HOPES for the safe return of abducted British girl Madeleine McCann received a dramatic boost on Thursday night after a girl matching her description was seen in Belgium, moments before the couple she was with snatched her up and fled before they could be challenged.
The couple, described as "suspicious-looking", were celebrating a birthday party at the De Pauze restaurant in the Belgian border town of Tongeren.
Police are treating the report seriously, releasing a computer image of the man who is believed to be Belgium, aged about 40, and spoke Flemish with a Dutch accent.
His female companion was British.
DNA tests are being carried out on the cup the young girl used at the restaurant.
A nationwide alert was issued for the car the couple fled in, a black Volvo with Belgian number plates beginning with VUV.
The car was reportedly seen later in Holland.
Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, are being kept informed of the latest developments.
The witness is a child therapist who told police she was convinced the young girl was Madeleine.
She described the young girl as nervous-looking and said the couple were behaving oddly on the terrace of the restaurant.
She left to call police but by the time she had returned they had fled.
It was the second time Madeleine was reported to have been seen in Belgium, a country with an appalling record for child abuse.
A Belgian couple claim they saw her outside a cathedral in Liege on June 1.
Police are also treating this sighting as serious.
Significantly, the woman at the cathedral told police the little girl turned around when she called "Madeleine".
The possible sighting came as tributes to the McCanns' daughter were sadly taken down in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, with many locals saying they were relieved the yellow ribbons were being removed.
The village had become a site for "grief tourists", with as many as 4000 flocking on one weekend.
Post a Comment