HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-12-17, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009. PAGE 5.
Bonnie
Gropp
TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt
Creative visualization time, kiddos.
I want you to imagine a rock. I’m
not talking gravel here, or even
boulders.
The rock we’re conjuring up is as wide as
three football fields. It’s black, it’s gnarly and
it’s hurtling through space just as fast as a big
space rock can hurtle.
Let’s give it a name. Let’s call it – oh, I don’t
know – Apophis! Yeah, Apophis.
Oh, look – Apophis is getting bigger! It’s
getting bigger all the time!
Actually, that’s an optical illusion. Apophis
isn’t really swelling, it just seems like that
because, because…
It’s heading right toward us.
This is not a fantasy exercise. There really is
an asteroid named Apophis and it really is
headed our way.
Should arrive in about 27 years, give or take
a week.
The good news is, it won’t hit us.
Probably.
A few years back, scientists weren’t so sure.
Back in 2004, astronomers were getting
just the teensiest bit agitated about the
space asteroid they’d identified and
dubbed Apophis after an ancient Egyptian
serpent god.
Believe it or not, the name was an
improvement. Earlier they’d dubbed the
asteroid 2004MN4.
They calculated its trajectory and decided
there was a chance that the asteroid could be
entering earth’s atmosphere about 2029. Later
they decided that 2036 was the more likely
date.
Such an occurrence is far from rare. Fact
is, the earth is constantly bombarded
by a veritable blitzkrieg of space rocks –
about 200,000 a day.
Most of them, however, are either
microscopic or at least have the decency to
incinerate themselves when they hit the
oxygen of our atmospheric envelope.
About 150 morsels of space detritus actually
survive long enough to hit our planet’s surface
but they’re mostly tiny and hardly ever even
noticed.
How much damage would an asteroid as
wide as three football fields cause, ploughing
into the earth?
Depends on where the ploughing gets done.
If Apophis came down in the middle of the
boreal forest or far out in the Pacific or the
Atlantic the result would be merely an
ecological catastrophe.
If it barrelled into us at, say, the intersection
of Yonge and Bloor it would constitute one of
the worst disasters in recorded history (and
give the Leafs their best excuse yet for a
dismal season).
Mind you, it wouldn’t be as cataclysmic as
the meteorite that hammered northern Quebec
a few millennia ago. Scientists don’t know
exactly how big that one was, but it was a
monster.
And it left a seven and a half mile wide divot
now famously known as the Chubb Crater.
And then there’s the one that many
scientists believe caused the extinction of the
dinosaurs. The theory is that a massive
prehistoric meteor strike around the Yucatan
peninsula area ushered in a ‘nuclear winter’
which destroyed much of the life on our
planet.
But strikes of that magnitude are blessedly
rare. In fact scientists have calculated that a
meteor strike causing 1,000 human deaths or
more ‘is unlikely’ to occur once in a million
years.
Which is somewhat comforting – until you
realize there’s no reason that one couldn’t
cream us next Thursday.
As for Apophis, you can come up out
of the root cellar. Scientists are now saying
that particular galactic cannonball probably
won’t come within 18,000 miles of planet
Earth.
But…
Apophis still has them worried. Problem is,
18,000 miles still amounts to a close brush in
space terms and nobody knows just
how that close encounter with earth’s
gravitational field will affect the orbit of
Apophis.
Steve Chesley, an astronomer who works
with the Near-Earth Object lab in Flintridge,
California, says “The deflection caused by the
2029 encounter will be significant.
We’re worried about its future trajectory.
The next time Apophis is expected to
be in our neighbourhood is in the
year 2068.”
Chesley reckons there’s a one-in-300,000
chance of Apophis hitting the earth on that
date.
I’m cool with that. In 2068 I’ll be turning
125. Even if by some miracle I’m still alive
I’ll be too far gone to know my asteroids from
a hole in the ground.
Arthur
Black
Other Views The sky is falling! maybe
An unprecedented propaganda war is
about to break out between major
professions providing healthcare.
They are anxious to show they deserve public
money at a time when it is tighter than a
tourniquet.
Pharmacists have fired the first shots, in
which they claim many virtues, but ignore a
huge concern about the way they operate.
Doctors are poised to follow with a similarly
huge advertising campaign in which they will
argue they have a special relationship to those
needing care and provide treatment others
cannot provide.
The rival campaigns come at a time when
the costs of healthcare, already by far the
biggest item in Ontario’s budget, are
increasing at a rate that is becoming
impossible for government to fund and it has
said it will have to restrain them.
Ontario’s Community Pharmacies, a group
that represents chains and independents, has
paid for full-page newspaper advertisements
pointing out members provide a huge range of
services that are little recognized in addition to
selling prescription and over-the-counter
drugs.
These include, the pharmacists say, health
advice after hours, when other health
professionals are unavailable. They say they
answer questions quickly, compared to a wait
of up to four hours for Telehealth Ontario.
The pharmacists mention they instruct
patients in the use of many types of medical
devices, show parents how to give medication
to children and advise patients planning to
travel which medications and documents they
should take.
They say they also educate patients on the
intricacies of their drug plan, advise which
over-the-counter medications they should take
and prevent drug abuse.
This list of services takes up a full page and
pharmacists appear to offer virtually
everything except tucking patients in their
beds.
The pharmacists also point to a new poll that
claims the vast majority of residents feel
pharmacies are a vital part of the healthcare
system and would oppose government
reducing any funding that affects them.
Most residents will accept the pharmacists’
claim they provide the vast range of services
without having personally used all of them.
This writer has obtained doctors’
prescriptions from a chain drugstore often
enough to know it provides meticulous records
that facilitate treatment.
Polls can be obtained to substantiate almost
anything, but most residents probably view
pharmacists as reliable and helpful.
But the pharmacists’ claim they counsel
customers on drug abuse and which non-
prescription drugs to buy will raise some
eyebrows. Abuse, which includes over-use, of
drugs obtained through pharmacies is one of
the greatest concerns in healthcare, because
many Canadians take more than they need and
sometimes they do not help and even harm
them.
Cost also is a concern, because drugs are the
fastest-rising component of healthcare costs.
The vast majority of these drugs are
provided through prescriptions written by
doctors, some of whom prescribe drugs
unnecessarily as an easy solution.
Some doctors even have been coaxed to
prescribe by being wined and dined and given
paid vacations by drug manufacturers, which
their governing bodies have vowed to stamp
out.
Pharmacists merely fill the prescriptions, but
this writer receives many news releases a year
from pharmacists and cannot recall their
focusing on warning they are required to fill
many unnecessary prescriptions and the public
is suffering.
Pharmacists also sell hundreds of over-the-
counter drugs and some eventually are
exposed through more stringent, independent
testing to provide little or no benefit to those
taking them.
As examples, a medicine promoted as
reducing pain from arthritis was found by
university research to provide no more relief
than a placebo.
Some cold medicines sold for all ages were
revealed as providing no relief and even being
potentially harmful to small children. Their
manufacturers were ordered to add warning
labels.
Pharmacists unquestionably provide a
valuable service, but they would be more
public-spirited if they expressed some concern
they fill many prescriptions that are
unnecessary and sell some drugs that don’t do
their jobs.
Eric
Dowd
FFrroomm
QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk
Being grateful, according to a
Californian university professor, is not
just nice, it’s good for you. His study on
gratitude indicates that by showing our thanks
for something, we feel a sense of being blessed
which results in a general overall feeling of
well-being.
And so let’s say thank you — to the waiter
who serves us, the person who welcomes us,
the friend who supports us, the neighbour who
helps us.
But what will we hear in return?
Striving to fill the Christmas list recently, I
found myself walking back and forth among
rows of items looking where I certainly
thought it should be, but to no avail. Whether it
was the defeated slump of my shoulders, the
weary dragging of my feet, or the befuddled
expression below my furrowed brow, I do not
know. But suddenly a smiling (I suspect with
no small amount of bemusement) clerk made
her way towards me and asked if she could be
of assistance.
Like the infantry after the cavalry arrives
hope was restored as with renewed vigour I
trotted in her wake in search of the elusive
item. It took some doing, some investigation,
but the thing was found, placed into my arms
and I, with beaming countenance replacing
resignation, said “Thank you.”
“No problem,” she answered.
Got that right. As helping bleary-eyed
consumers such as myself must be part of the
job description, I thought, it seemed strange to
respond in a way that could be taken as an
indication that doing so might have
inconvenienced them. This was just one of
those random thoughts, however, and I moved
on.
Next stop was lunch with a friend. A little
wait in the lobby, then our host graciously
escorted us to the table. Flopping down onto
our chairs, we sighed our thank yous.
And the answer? Well, “No problem,” of
course. And I, with some amusement,
wondered if my friend and I should have
thought it was.
Ironically, it was only a few days after this,
that I heard a report on the radio claiming the
etiquette police are a little up in arms over this
pillaging of common courtesy. There are even
numerous blogs and websites dedicated to the
cause. The issue, you see, is that while “You’re
welcome” is about the other person, “No
problem” they say, which seems to be
becoming a common replacement, is about the
person responding. Rather than it was my
pleasure to do something for you, I will let you
know that you didn’t inconvenience me that
much.
Yes, I could see that, I thought smugly. After
all the idea had flitted ‘cross my mind too,
albeit with considerably less outrage than
others were feeling. But there was a view the
remark wasn’t as appropriate as the person
may think.
I was quick to share this little manner lesson
with some friends. Imagine my surprise when
not long after, one of them thanked me for
something and I responded, “No problem!?
They’ve had some fun testing me since. And
much to my growing dismay it’s a response
that falls from my mouth as spontaneously as a
Merry Christmas in December.
So, I shall be thankful and feel blessed no
matter the response. Because I’ve noticed
when I say “No problem”, it doesn’t sound
flippant to me, or as if I’m giving short shrift to
the person showing gratitude.
Of course they are welcome, but also it was
no problem. It was sincerely my pleasure.
Pharmacists prepare to go to war
No problem
You can discover what your enemy fears
most by observing the means he uses to
frighten you.
– Eric Hoffer
Final Thought