Heat wave threatens elderly in remote towns

Heat wave threatens elderly in remote towns
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The air is cool inside Ray Knight's makeshift coffee shop on the main strip in this tiny northern Oklahoma farming community, but there aren't many customers.
With temperatures topping 100 degrees, the elderly farmers and retirees who Knight says like to gather and "swap lies" are nowhere to be seen. They're also probably not at their doctor's appointments, shopping at the store or at their club meetings. Many are afraid to go outside.
The heat wave scorching the Great Plains has turned many rural communities into virtual ghost towns for the last month, and also heightened a sense of isolation among the elderly residents who make up much of their population these days. The relentless stretch of 100-degree days, which began unusually early this year and could run for weeks longer, is making their way of life difficult and even dangerous, thwarting their routines for getting the supplies and health care they need.Christian Louboutin Slingbacks
"I can't hardly do nothing when it's this hot," said Bryce Butler, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who stays in his house every day in this town of 200 people. He usually drives to the county seat in Guthrie, about 15 miles away, for errands but now can't go out after noon.
"I'm afraid if I had car trouble, I'd have a heat stroke," said Mary Hasley, 79, who lives in nearby Cashion. She has cancelled her doctor's appointments. "It's just too dangerous."
It's been over 100 for more than 30 days in a row in many parts of Oklahoma. In the town of Altus, the average high in June — when the weather is normally mild — was 105. In the many dozens of rural communities like Mulhall, where there are no longer any stores or other services, the elderly must drive other places for almost everything, and that has become daunting this summer.
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"We go into plenty of areas where there's not even a service station, no drug store, no grocery stores," said Marlene Snow, who delivers meals to elderly residents as the project director of the Logan County Areawide Aging Agency. "Most of them don't want to go out. They don't have the energy."
In remote towns, the elderly residents try to look out for each other. But it isn't easy when those who live out in the country are afraid to drive to town. Many live alone.
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James Tucker, pastor of Mulhall's First Baptist Church, says he's trying to keep track of who's coming to services and who's not. "Being a small community, you know who needs what and everybody tries to check on each other," he said.
But Jo Swinney, an outreach specialist for the Logan County group, worries some elderly folks could easily slip through the cracks. "I'm sure there are," Swinney said. "It's hard to make contact with people in these rural areas if they don't seek help from someone."
The oppressive heat already has been blamed on nine deaths in Oklahoma, including a man in Oklahoma City who was discovered inside his home with no electricity or running water; it's suspected as the cause of seven others, said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner's office.shoes christian louboutin
Mulhall, like many small towns in farm country, has steadily lost population, mostly younger people who moved to the city for work. The town had 400 residents as recently as 1985. The percentage of elderly is clearly higher than it was only a decade ago. "People just don't want to farm no more, and that's a shame," said Phil Robinson, who sat alone inside his empty honkytonk. Some rural counties lost more than 10 percent of their population in the last decade alone.

China sacks senior officials after train crash

China sacks senior officials after train crash

China sacked three senior railway officials on Sunday after a deadly collision between two high-speed trains in the east of the country killed at least 34 and seriously injured 12, in the country's deadliest train disaster since 2008. The crash happened late on Saturday after one train lost power due to a lightning strike, and the bullet train behind crashed into it, state media said, raising new questions about the safety of the fast-growing rail network. Authorities moved quickly to try and assuage public anger by sacking the head of the Shanghai railway bureau, his deputy and the bureau's Communist Party chief, the Railways Ministry said in a statement on its website (www.china-mor.gov.cn). The three will "also be subject to investigation," the brief statement added, without elaborating. The Shanghai bureau is responsible for the province in which the accident happened. The disaster killed at least 34 people, while almost 200 people remain in hospital, 12 of whom are in critical condition, state television said. Two foreigners also died in the accident, which took place on a bridge near the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, some 860 miles south of Beijing, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday. China News Service, a semi-official news agency, said one of them was a woman in her 20s. Dozens of rescue workers and firefighters used excavators to move the wreckage of the two trains as they believed more bodies were in one of the carriages that was dangling beside the bridge. It was unclear how many people were on the trains at the time of the accident. In a small piece of good news, state television said rescuers had pulled a 4-year-old boy and another male toddler alive from the wreckage. "The task for us now is to clear the debris and also to check for survivors in those areas that we have not gone to," said 35-year-old rescue worker Wang Jun. "Also, we are trying to get the railway line to be operational again." Rail remains the most popular method of long-distance transport in China and trains are usually extremely crowded, with long-distance trains carrying as many as 1,000 passengers.

Hong Kong physicists put an end to time travel talk

Hong Kong physicists put an end to time travel talk
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HONG Kong physicists say they have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein's theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, demonstrating that outside science fiction, time travel is impossible.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology research team led by Du Shengwang said they had proved that a single photon, or unit of light, "obeys the traffic law of the universe".Probowl jerseys wholesale
"Einstein claimed that the speed of light was the traffic law of the universe or in simple language, nothing can travel faster than light," the university said on its website.
"Professor Du's study demonstrates that a single photon, the fundamental quanta of light, also obeys the traffic law of the universe just like classical EM (electromagnetic) waves."
The possibility of time travel was raised 10 years ago when scientists discovered superluminal — or faster-than-light — propagation of optical pulses in some specific medium, the team said.SuperBowl jerseys wholesale
It was later found to be a visual effect, but researchers thought it might still be possible for a single photon to exceed light speed.
Prof Du, however, believed Einstein was right and determined to end the debate by measuring the ultimate speed of a single photon, which had not been done before.
"The study, which showed that single photons also obey the speed limit c, confirms Einstein's causality — that is, an effect cannot occur before its cause," the university said.
"By showing that single photons cannot travel faster than the speed of light, our results bring a closure to the debate on the true speed of information carried by a single photon," said Prof Du.Dallas Cowboys jerseys wholesale
"Our findings will also likely have potential applications by giving scientists a better picture on the transmission of quantum information."Cheap Women jerseys for sale