For a man who’s been dead nearly 180 years, Gen. John Coffee has been in the news quite a bit lately.
What’s made him newsworthy again is where he’s buried and the proximity of a proposed Walmart. If the city grants final approval to build, the Walmart parking lot will be within 50 feet of the general’s family cemetery, and an access road to the store will be even closer.
That has some people upset, including his descendants.
“As the country approaches the bicentennial of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, a victory obtained in large part through the efforts of the Tennessee volunteers Coffee led, the city of Florence should consider creative ways to honor this man instead of diminishing his importance by rezoning land next to his final resting spot,” said John Coffee O’Neal, of Clinton, N.Y., the general’s great-great-great-great-grandson.
“That Coffee chose to live and remain in Florence attests to his close attachment to the area, one that the city should recognize and pay tribute to in some fitting way.”
The City Council last week granted a zoning change that would allow the store to be built.
The developer will be required to conduct further testing for burials immediately north of the walled cemetery where the parking lot will be located, and get final subdivision approval from the Planning Commission.
A citizens’ group opposed to the Walmart development has cited the historical significance of Coffee and the members of his family buried there.
John Coffee was born in Virginia in 1772, and after his father died, he inherited five slaves whom he sold to buy land in Tennessee in 1798. He befriended future president, Andrew Jackson, and they started several businesses together in 1804. He married a niece of Jackson’s wife, Rachel, and fought a pistol duel with a man to defend Jackson’s honor, suffering a wound.
When the War of 1812 broke out, Coffee organized the 2nd Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen, which included a company from Madison County, Ala., according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. His regiment joined Gen. Jackson’s army in Natchez, Miss., expecting to move on to New Orleans. But Jackson refused to turn over his command to another general and they returned to Tennessee.
In August 1813, news of the massacre at Fort Mims in south Alabama reached Nashville, and Jackson and Coffee reorganized their troops and set out to fight the Creek Indians. Coffee was given command of 1,300 cavalry, and was promoted from colonel to brigadier general.
Coffee was Jackson’s most trusted subordinate officer during the Creek War of 1813-14, most of which was fought in Alabama, culminating in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Among the soldiers he commanded during the war was Davy Crockett.
After the Creek War concluded, Coffee returned to Nashville to recruit and then rejoined Jackson in Mobile to prepare for an expected invasion by the British, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. Coffee’s troops conducted a raid on the British in Pensacola, Fla., then marched to Louisiana and attacked British forces at Villere’s Plantation on Dec. 23, 1814. Coffee’s attack stopped the British advance long enough to give Jackson time to prepare breastworks defending New Orleans. Coffee’s cavalry and mounted riflemen then moved back and covered Jackson’s left flank during the Jan. 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans. It was a decisive victory for the United States in a war that saw few successes on land, although the war was officially over when the battle was fought.
After the war, Coffee was appointed by President James Madison to survey boundaries created by treaties with Native Americans in 1815. He settled in north Alabama in 1817 and received an appointment from President James Monroe as surveyor general of public lands.
Lee Freeman, of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library’s history department, said Coffee moved to what is now Florence in 1818 to form the Cypress Land Co. with Andrew Jackson and others. It was that year that he bought land north of town and started Hickory Hill plantation.
Florence was chartered in 1818, and incorporated in 1826. Coffee drew the original map depicting the city’s layout, and did the same for Tuscumbia on the south side of the Tennessee River.
“He was trying to attract other planters and business people, so it made sense that he live here,” Freeman said.
Coffee wasn’t just a farmer. His plantation was what University of North Alabama history professor George Makowski described as an agricultural-industrial enterprise.
“It was a very different plantation from what we see in ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ” he said. “They were wealthy before they set up the plantation, but it was set up as a real money-making enterprise that was unique for this area.”
Makowski said Hickory Hill had a saw mill powered by a nearby creek, and a grist mill that was used by the community. Coffee also grew nursery stock — fruit and nut trees and shrubs — that was truly unique at that time for a frontier area.
“His plantation was the road less taken in this part of the South at that time,” he said. “It was industrial, value-added production instead of straight commodities.”
Coffee was employed by the federal government to negotiate treaties with the Native Americans that yielded vast new tracts of land for the expanding nation, Freeman said.
Coffee died in 1833 at the age of 61. He is buried in the cemetery that was next to his home off present-day Cloverdale Road.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Castle on the river
With equal parts of inspiration, envy and generosity, people flock to see the May Court's Homes of Distinction each year.
The six houses on the 2012 tour offer plenty to kick-start your imagination or turn you green with envy, at the same time you help feed hungry students.
"People get a lot of ideas on the tour," said Margaret Vetter, publicity chair for May Court. "Every house is different. Every house is unique. We just want them to come out and enjoy the tour."
The homes were suggested by Marcus Plowright of Anden Construction and Sue-Ann Richardson-Siarto, publisher of Our Homes magazine.
"I like them all for different reasons," said Cathy Egerton, co-chair of the tour. "The Waterloo Street house is a commercial property renovation. There are two complete makeovers, a heritage home and a custom-built. Each has its own character. People will like them for different reasons."
The custom-built house at 2955 Catherine St., west of Dorchester, is certainly a showcase. Picture a French fairy-tale castle, set on the river. Exposed stonework, an archway reminiscent of ruins, muntin windows with arched lintels and a turret create the look of a castle. The 2.4-hectare property was professionally landscaped. Gardens, tennis court, golf course, pool, patio and terraces are edged by a ravine and conservation area.
You enter a half-round walnut door in the turret. The second floor of the turret houses a baby grand piano. A bas relief carving of a prince and princess was built into the stone hood over the range in the kitchen by a Serbian plaster artist who lives in Stratford. Rich wood cabinets echo the arched windows in glass-fronted doors.
The open stairway divides the entry and living room as it frames the view to the river. The decor is inviting, and carries through the living room, den and kitchen. An arched doorway separates the formal dining room from the hall. A glass-topped table reflects light from the French doors leading to a walled terrace.
The house was designed as a gathering place for family and friends. The concept started with the squash court and grew. The lower level is a walk-out to the pool and patio. As well as a guest suite, it houses a spectacular bar with mosaic tile backsplash, a large table for games or dining and a cozy television room. A shower, sauna, locker room and two-story squash court complete the sports offerings.
Upstairs, the master suite is a luxurious escape overlooking the pool and golf green.
The limestone-lined ensuite is better than a spa retreat, and the walk-in closet has a place for everything, even the washer and dryer.
The fairy tale continues in the daughter's room with its hand-painted mural walls and chandelier. A large playroom offers a great place for a child's imagination to soar. Another guest room and bathroom are beautifully appointed with soft, earthy colours and rich textures.
Throughout the second storey, the angled ceiling lines create drama and interest. They follow the rooflines of that side of the house that is stick, hand-framed construction. The house took a year to build.
The homeowners had lived in London's Old North and wanted to incorporate the trim, the warmth of wood and a wood-burning fireplace they'd enjoyed in those houses. Personality is reflected in objects collected on travels and from the work of local artists. Craftsmanship is a theme throughout.
The idea for the exposed stone, done by an Italian mason, on the exterior came during a walk by St. Peter's Seminary.
Another house on this year's tour is across the road from the seminary. It is a classic, symmetrical Georgian Revival, built for Harry Sifton. The style was named after three English kings, during whose reign the architecture evolved as a variation of Palladian, with a balanced facade, simple ornamentation and few details. This sturdy Georgian also contains a dollhouse, a miniature version of itself. The original garage has been converted into a den.
Still in the Old North neighbourhood, a Craftsman cottage on Victoria St. has been remodelled to reflect today's tastes. Many of the houses on the street were built in the 1920s and influenced by styles popular in California.
A side-hall cottage on Sydenham St. also features renovation ideas. This cottage plan was popular in the late 19th century, but remodelling shows how it can function well more than 100 years later.
One of London's prominent architectural firms of the turn of the 20th century, Moore, Henry and Munro, designed the house on Waterloo St. for a wealthy cigar manufacturer.
It's an example of Queen Anne style at its finest: tower, dormer, fluted columns and Palladian window. A law firm owns the house and has retained many of the impressive details, including a vault in the basement, stained glass (reputedly Tiffany) and mahogany wainscotting.
The new house on the tour echoes the Georgian style of the Huron St. home. Located in Old South, it features a custom approach to blending old and new. Even the garage features a traditional exterior with new technology inside.
Passport holders are served tea at the Carolinian Winery & Eatery during the tour. It is newly renovated and reopened.
The tour is the main fundraiser for the group's school nutrition program. This year 96 schools received $45,000 in food certificates. More than 200 volunteers provide thousands of hours for the May Court's program to supply snacks, breakfasts and lunches.
"We give the schools certificates and the teachers manage the flow of food," Egerton said. "They know best who needs something - from the kid who forgot lunch one day to those who need it regularly."
The six houses on the 2012 tour offer plenty to kick-start your imagination or turn you green with envy, at the same time you help feed hungry students.
"People get a lot of ideas on the tour," said Margaret Vetter, publicity chair for May Court. "Every house is different. Every house is unique. We just want them to come out and enjoy the tour."
The homes were suggested by Marcus Plowright of Anden Construction and Sue-Ann Richardson-Siarto, publisher of Our Homes magazine.
"I like them all for different reasons," said Cathy Egerton, co-chair of the tour. "The Waterloo Street house is a commercial property renovation. There are two complete makeovers, a heritage home and a custom-built. Each has its own character. People will like them for different reasons."
The custom-built house at 2955 Catherine St., west of Dorchester, is certainly a showcase. Picture a French fairy-tale castle, set on the river. Exposed stonework, an archway reminiscent of ruins, muntin windows with arched lintels and a turret create the look of a castle. The 2.4-hectare property was professionally landscaped. Gardens, tennis court, golf course, pool, patio and terraces are edged by a ravine and conservation area.
You enter a half-round walnut door in the turret. The second floor of the turret houses a baby grand piano. A bas relief carving of a prince and princess was built into the stone hood over the range in the kitchen by a Serbian plaster artist who lives in Stratford. Rich wood cabinets echo the arched windows in glass-fronted doors.
The open stairway divides the entry and living room as it frames the view to the river. The decor is inviting, and carries through the living room, den and kitchen. An arched doorway separates the formal dining room from the hall. A glass-topped table reflects light from the French doors leading to a walled terrace.
The house was designed as a gathering place for family and friends. The concept started with the squash court and grew. The lower level is a walk-out to the pool and patio. As well as a guest suite, it houses a spectacular bar with mosaic tile backsplash, a large table for games or dining and a cozy television room. A shower, sauna, locker room and two-story squash court complete the sports offerings.
Upstairs, the master suite is a luxurious escape overlooking the pool and golf green.
The limestone-lined ensuite is better than a spa retreat, and the walk-in closet has a place for everything, even the washer and dryer.
The fairy tale continues in the daughter's room with its hand-painted mural walls and chandelier. A large playroom offers a great place for a child's imagination to soar. Another guest room and bathroom are beautifully appointed with soft, earthy colours and rich textures.
Throughout the second storey, the angled ceiling lines create drama and interest. They follow the rooflines of that side of the house that is stick, hand-framed construction. The house took a year to build.
The homeowners had lived in London's Old North and wanted to incorporate the trim, the warmth of wood and a wood-burning fireplace they'd enjoyed in those houses. Personality is reflected in objects collected on travels and from the work of local artists. Craftsmanship is a theme throughout.
The idea for the exposed stone, done by an Italian mason, on the exterior came during a walk by St. Peter's Seminary.
Another house on this year's tour is across the road from the seminary. It is a classic, symmetrical Georgian Revival, built for Harry Sifton. The style was named after three English kings, during whose reign the architecture evolved as a variation of Palladian, with a balanced facade, simple ornamentation and few details. This sturdy Georgian also contains a dollhouse, a miniature version of itself. The original garage has been converted into a den.
Still in the Old North neighbourhood, a Craftsman cottage on Victoria St. has been remodelled to reflect today's tastes. Many of the houses on the street were built in the 1920s and influenced by styles popular in California.
A side-hall cottage on Sydenham St. also features renovation ideas. This cottage plan was popular in the late 19th century, but remodelling shows how it can function well more than 100 years later.
One of London's prominent architectural firms of the turn of the 20th century, Moore, Henry and Munro, designed the house on Waterloo St. for a wealthy cigar manufacturer.
It's an example of Queen Anne style at its finest: tower, dormer, fluted columns and Palladian window. A law firm owns the house and has retained many of the impressive details, including a vault in the basement, stained glass (reputedly Tiffany) and mahogany wainscotting.
The new house on the tour echoes the Georgian style of the Huron St. home. Located in Old South, it features a custom approach to blending old and new. Even the garage features a traditional exterior with new technology inside.
Passport holders are served tea at the Carolinian Winery & Eatery during the tour. It is newly renovated and reopened.
The tour is the main fundraiser for the group's school nutrition program. This year 96 schools received $45,000 in food certificates. More than 200 volunteers provide thousands of hours for the May Court's program to supply snacks, breakfasts and lunches.
"We give the schools certificates and the teachers manage the flow of food," Egerton said. "They know best who needs something - from the kid who forgot lunch one day to those who need it regularly."
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Barnes Foundation opening in new Philly location
After years of bitter court fights, The Barnes Foundation opened its doors Wednesday for a sneak peek at its new location on the museum-studded Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The $150 million modernist art palace, now home to the multibillion-dollar art collection of the late pharmaceutical magnate Dr. Albert Barnes, opens Saturday. Admission is free for the first 10 days, though all tickets are sold out. The $18 admission fee ($15 for seniors, $10 for students and children) kicks in starting May 26.
Stephen Harmelin, a Barnes trustee and its treasurer, described efforts that began a decade earlier to secure what was "an embattled institution."
"There were financial challenges to be faced ... questions about how the foundation as it existed could go on with its mission, worries about the safety and integrity of the collection in the long run," he said. "We were convinced that the only change that could save the Barnes was to redouble our commitment to its mission, to reach out more widely than ever before, to build, to expand and to move the collection to a more accessible location."
It was a difficult decision "but it brought us to where we are today," Harmelin told several hundred media and donors attending the reception.
Barnes, a pharmaceutical magnate who died in 1951, stipulated in a trust that his legendary trove of 800 impressionist and post-impressionist paintings forever "remain in exactly the places they are."
Foundation officials asked a judge's permission in 2002 to break Barnes' trust, allowing the collection to relocate near Philadelphia's museums and cultural attractions. The foundation said its endowment was exhausted and it would go bankrupt if required to keep the 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos and thousands of other objects in their suburban Merion home, which was subject to township zoning regulations restricting the number of visitors.
Three charitable organizations promised to help the Barnes raise $150 million for a new gallery and an endowment when the relocation was approved in 2004. Opponents called the move a power play by Philadelphia's elites to bring the renowned collection to the city against its late owner's wishes.
The Barnes is officially not a museum but an educational institution keeping with its mission when Albert Barnes established it in 1922 to teach populist methods of appreciating and evaluating art. Its new home does have museum-like amenities like a cafeteria and gift shop, however, as well as discreet classroom and lecture space.
The art galleries replicate Barnes' own eccentric arrangement in Merion, with paintings grouped closely together and accompanied by furniture and ironwork, but hidden state-of-the-art lighting reveals "the true colors and vibrancy" of many paintings for the first time, Barnes president and executive director Derek Gillman said.
Ellsworth Kelly, who created a sculpture for the Barnes grounds, mistakenly thought one painting had been cleaned because it looked remarkably more vivid, Gillman said.
A handful of members from Friends of the Barnes Foundation, a citizens organization that unsuccessfully waged a legal fight for years to halt the move, protested near the entrance as visitors made their way inside.
"We had the real thing — it was successful, it was financially sustainable," said Evelyn Yaari, a group member who lives near the Barnes building in Merion. "This is a fake. The public is not getting the real thing."
The $150 million modernist art palace, now home to the multibillion-dollar art collection of the late pharmaceutical magnate Dr. Albert Barnes, opens Saturday. Admission is free for the first 10 days, though all tickets are sold out. The $18 admission fee ($15 for seniors, $10 for students and children) kicks in starting May 26.
Stephen Harmelin, a Barnes trustee and its treasurer, described efforts that began a decade earlier to secure what was "an embattled institution."
"There were financial challenges to be faced ... questions about how the foundation as it existed could go on with its mission, worries about the safety and integrity of the collection in the long run," he said. "We were convinced that the only change that could save the Barnes was to redouble our commitment to its mission, to reach out more widely than ever before, to build, to expand and to move the collection to a more accessible location."
It was a difficult decision "but it brought us to where we are today," Harmelin told several hundred media and donors attending the reception.
Barnes, a pharmaceutical magnate who died in 1951, stipulated in a trust that his legendary trove of 800 impressionist and post-impressionist paintings forever "remain in exactly the places they are."
Foundation officials asked a judge's permission in 2002 to break Barnes' trust, allowing the collection to relocate near Philadelphia's museums and cultural attractions. The foundation said its endowment was exhausted and it would go bankrupt if required to keep the 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos and thousands of other objects in their suburban Merion home, which was subject to township zoning regulations restricting the number of visitors.
Three charitable organizations promised to help the Barnes raise $150 million for a new gallery and an endowment when the relocation was approved in 2004. Opponents called the move a power play by Philadelphia's elites to bring the renowned collection to the city against its late owner's wishes.
The Barnes is officially not a museum but an educational institution keeping with its mission when Albert Barnes established it in 1922 to teach populist methods of appreciating and evaluating art. Its new home does have museum-like amenities like a cafeteria and gift shop, however, as well as discreet classroom and lecture space.
The art galleries replicate Barnes' own eccentric arrangement in Merion, with paintings grouped closely together and accompanied by furniture and ironwork, but hidden state-of-the-art lighting reveals "the true colors and vibrancy" of many paintings for the first time, Barnes president and executive director Derek Gillman said.
Ellsworth Kelly, who created a sculpture for the Barnes grounds, mistakenly thought one painting had been cleaned because it looked remarkably more vivid, Gillman said.
A handful of members from Friends of the Barnes Foundation, a citizens organization that unsuccessfully waged a legal fight for years to halt the move, protested near the entrance as visitors made their way inside.
"We had the real thing — it was successful, it was financially sustainable," said Evelyn Yaari, a group member who lives near the Barnes building in Merion. "This is a fake. The public is not getting the real thing."
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Real, common and kills
World Health Organisation’s new report indicated that around the world, 15 million babies are born prematurely each year, and one million of them die. Experts, warning that the numbers of preterm births had increased globally in the last 20 years stated that many of the deaths could have been prevented, reports Sade Oguntola.
The birth of a child, which ordinarily should be a joyous experience, too often ends in death if such a child is born prematurely. Premature birth is the second greatest killer of babies worldwide — after pneumonia. A new report about premature delivery called “Born Too Soon” shows that globally, one in 10 babies is born prematurely.
Unfortunately, 1.1 million of such babies born prematurely die every year, the majority occuring shortly after their birth. Others survive, but suffer disabilities for the rest of their lives, affecting their health, nervous system or ability to access education.
The report stating that the cost of babies being born too soon to families and society was huge, said that still yet many of the preterm babies who die could survive if they had access to existing, relatively inexpensive treatments.
More than 100 experts from 40 United Nations agencies, universities and other organisations contributed to the report, which was published by the March of Dimes. These are World Health Organisation, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Save the Children. It stated what exactly is known about preterm birth, its causes, and the kinds of care that are needed.
According to the report, all but two of the 11 countries with the highest levels of premature birth of over 15 per cent are in sub-Saharan Africa. While 12 per cent of babies in low-income countries are born too soon, only nine per cent are in richer countries. But the United States and Brazil have similar levels of premature birth to many poorer countries.
More than one in nine of births in the United States are preterm, a rate of around 12 per cent. And that is even after preterm birth rates in the U.S. have declined for four consecutive years.
India has the highest number of premature births, at more than 3.5 million, while China recorded nearly 1.2 million, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia, with figures around 700,000. But calculating the rate of preterm births per 100 births instead of per country, the list was dominated by sub-Saharan African countries. It was topped by Malawi, Comoros and Congo and Zimbabwe. Malawi recorded 18.1 premature births per 100 live births. Kenya had 12 preterm births out of every 100 births, whereas Uganda recorded a rate of 13 preterm births out of every 100 births.
For the purpose of the report, preterm birth was considered as occurring before 37 weeks. But research continues to show that a healthy baby requires 39 weeks of gestation to ensure that the brain, liver and lungs are fully developed.
Although European countries featured on the list of countries with the lowest rates of preterm births, with some of the lowest rates recorded in Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania and Estonia, experts alerted that in all but three countries, preterm birth rates increased in the last 20 years, an indication that the numbers of preterm births are increasing globally.
The report, which highlighted the dramatic survival gap between low-income and high-income countries for babies born before 28 weeks, indicated that in low-income countries, more than 90 per cent of extremely preterm babies die within the first few days of life, while less than 10 per cent die in high-income countries.
But preterm births in lower income countries are linked to health problems like malaria, HIV and high adolescent pregnancy rates. Those in richer countries are linked to higher number of older mothers, and the use of fertility treatments.
The United States, for example, had a unique combination of teenage pregnancies and women over 35 giving birth to twins, triplets or more after in-vitro fertilisation, with these babies deliberately delivered early by caesarean section according to the study. Added to the number are premature births due to complications from obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking and lack of early prenatal care.
Unfortunately, prematurity is not accorded much importance as other diseases such as breast cancer and AIDS. Yet more than 40 per cent of deaths of children less than five years of age are associated with preterm birth and why it happens remains a mystery in many cases.
Conversely, research has it that being born prematurely may carry some risk on cognitive abilities such as memory and attention. Researchers found that when tested in early adulthood, people who were born extremely premature — with a birth weight of less than 3.3 lbs. — generally scored lower on tests of executive function than babies born full-term. On IQ tests, adults who were born premature scored 8.4 points lower on average than those who were born full-term.
No doubt, preterm infants have a higher risk of dying in the first few years of life. But their risk of dying does not wane over time. A research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which looked at 674,000 Swedish babies born between 1973 and 1979 and tracked them until they were between 29 and 36 years old, indicated that preterm infants had a 59 per cent increased risk of death in early childhood (between ages one and five), compared with babies born later. They succumbed to congenital anomalies, mostly heart defects as well as respiratory and endocrine problems.
Nonetheless, medical experts suggested that women can reduce their risk of complications associated with pregnancy, including premature delivery by starting her prenatal care early and attend all of her prenatal care visits. This allows close monitoring of the progress of her pregnancy, and any problem that may arise can be addressed timely.
The birth of a child, which ordinarily should be a joyous experience, too often ends in death if such a child is born prematurely. Premature birth is the second greatest killer of babies worldwide — after pneumonia. A new report about premature delivery called “Born Too Soon” shows that globally, one in 10 babies is born prematurely.
Unfortunately, 1.1 million of such babies born prematurely die every year, the majority occuring shortly after their birth. Others survive, but suffer disabilities for the rest of their lives, affecting their health, nervous system or ability to access education.
The report stating that the cost of babies being born too soon to families and society was huge, said that still yet many of the preterm babies who die could survive if they had access to existing, relatively inexpensive treatments.
More than 100 experts from 40 United Nations agencies, universities and other organisations contributed to the report, which was published by the March of Dimes. These are World Health Organisation, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Save the Children. It stated what exactly is known about preterm birth, its causes, and the kinds of care that are needed.
According to the report, all but two of the 11 countries with the highest levels of premature birth of over 15 per cent are in sub-Saharan Africa. While 12 per cent of babies in low-income countries are born too soon, only nine per cent are in richer countries. But the United States and Brazil have similar levels of premature birth to many poorer countries.
More than one in nine of births in the United States are preterm, a rate of around 12 per cent. And that is even after preterm birth rates in the U.S. have declined for four consecutive years.
India has the highest number of premature births, at more than 3.5 million, while China recorded nearly 1.2 million, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia, with figures around 700,000. But calculating the rate of preterm births per 100 births instead of per country, the list was dominated by sub-Saharan African countries. It was topped by Malawi, Comoros and Congo and Zimbabwe. Malawi recorded 18.1 premature births per 100 live births. Kenya had 12 preterm births out of every 100 births, whereas Uganda recorded a rate of 13 preterm births out of every 100 births.
For the purpose of the report, preterm birth was considered as occurring before 37 weeks. But research continues to show that a healthy baby requires 39 weeks of gestation to ensure that the brain, liver and lungs are fully developed.
Although European countries featured on the list of countries with the lowest rates of preterm births, with some of the lowest rates recorded in Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania and Estonia, experts alerted that in all but three countries, preterm birth rates increased in the last 20 years, an indication that the numbers of preterm births are increasing globally.
The report, which highlighted the dramatic survival gap between low-income and high-income countries for babies born before 28 weeks, indicated that in low-income countries, more than 90 per cent of extremely preterm babies die within the first few days of life, while less than 10 per cent die in high-income countries.
But preterm births in lower income countries are linked to health problems like malaria, HIV and high adolescent pregnancy rates. Those in richer countries are linked to higher number of older mothers, and the use of fertility treatments.
The United States, for example, had a unique combination of teenage pregnancies and women over 35 giving birth to twins, triplets or more after in-vitro fertilisation, with these babies deliberately delivered early by caesarean section according to the study. Added to the number are premature births due to complications from obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking and lack of early prenatal care.
Unfortunately, prematurity is not accorded much importance as other diseases such as breast cancer and AIDS. Yet more than 40 per cent of deaths of children less than five years of age are associated with preterm birth and why it happens remains a mystery in many cases.
Conversely, research has it that being born prematurely may carry some risk on cognitive abilities such as memory and attention. Researchers found that when tested in early adulthood, people who were born extremely premature — with a birth weight of less than 3.3 lbs. — generally scored lower on tests of executive function than babies born full-term. On IQ tests, adults who were born premature scored 8.4 points lower on average than those who were born full-term.
No doubt, preterm infants have a higher risk of dying in the first few years of life. But their risk of dying does not wane over time. A research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which looked at 674,000 Swedish babies born between 1973 and 1979 and tracked them until they were between 29 and 36 years old, indicated that preterm infants had a 59 per cent increased risk of death in early childhood (between ages one and five), compared with babies born later. They succumbed to congenital anomalies, mostly heart defects as well as respiratory and endocrine problems.
Nonetheless, medical experts suggested that women can reduce their risk of complications associated with pregnancy, including premature delivery by starting her prenatal care early and attend all of her prenatal care visits. This allows close monitoring of the progress of her pregnancy, and any problem that may arise can be addressed timely.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Google Search retains lead with 97% share
With a whopping 97 per cent market share in India according to StatCounter data, Google Search looms ahead of others like Yahoo Search (one per cent share) and Microsoft’s Bing (less than one per cent share) by a huge margin. So, how Google’s search engine manages to stay at the top of its game? Last year, Google introduced 500 changes to its search engine technology and tested over 50,000 changes in real time while billions of users were searching for their queries. Ben Gomes, engineer at Google who leads the company's engineering efforts on search features says, “It’s always a work in progress.”
Gomes has been with Google for more than 11 years and has worked in the development of nearly all aspects of the Google search service ranging from crawling and indexing to ranking and and new feature design, including features such as Google Instant and Instant Previews. “When I was a new employee at Google (a decade back), we took about a month to index about 50 million pages. Today, the same amount happens in less than a minute. That’s how evolved the systems are and it continues to get better each day,” says Gomes.
Google estimates there have been 450 billion unique queries searched on Google since 2003. While Google betters its online search engine, Gomes has his focus on the mobile platform, which he believes is critical to the company’s success in markets like India where users are logging on to the internet for the first time on their mobile devices.
“I believe both voice search and image search along with other search innovations rooted in the mobile experience, will emerge steadily in 2012. We are making sure that mobile search experience is as relevant as Google desktop search is,” he points.
With mobile handsets, Google Search gets a legs up because it can serve most relevant results using user’s location information.
“Location is an important signal we use to surface content from the web. Most common searches from mobile today are for tickets, places to eat etc. When we have the location, we can serve user not only the data he searched but relevant stuff like directions to the place or reviews of the restaurant etc,” explains Gomes. Also bullish about mobile voice search, where users speak their query instead of typing, Google is making sure that its search engine can understand Indian dictions.
“It’s not an easy task to break down the accents and pronunciations symantically into searchable queries but we are slowly working towards getting this feature right as we believe mobile users will begin to demand this feature on their smartphones,” underlines Gomes. Voice Search is already a feature of Google Search app for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Nokia S60 V3 phones.
Where other search engines have failed, social networks like Facebook and Twitter have emerged to pose a threat to Google because they don’t allow Google’s search engine to log most of the photos, links and observations cascading through their pages. Although Twitter did give Google access to the tweets as part of a 2009 licensing agreement, but that deal has long expired.
That preempted Google to launch, ‘Search, plus your World’ which in its search results includes information culled from the user’s Google Plus network.
For instance, a query about the Indian premier League matches might include links and comments made about teams by other people in one of the social circles on the user’s Plus account. And although Google Plus has grown to nearly 100 million users, analysts are still trying to determine how active and engaged they actually are. Google’s social search, believes Gomes, continues to evolve.
“Today our search technology is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. When you search about a movie or a restaurant, social search will highlight names of places, images, reviews of restaurants visited, which is relevant to user.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Bing search engine has recently been updated to include the user comments, likes and activities posted on popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Bing's new interface, which is expected to move from a private to a public beta test period soon, offers users a sidebar that focuses on people in the user's social networks and their opinions and search queries.
Gomes has been with Google for more than 11 years and has worked in the development of nearly all aspects of the Google search service ranging from crawling and indexing to ranking and and new feature design, including features such as Google Instant and Instant Previews. “When I was a new employee at Google (a decade back), we took about a month to index about 50 million pages. Today, the same amount happens in less than a minute. That’s how evolved the systems are and it continues to get better each day,” says Gomes.
Google estimates there have been 450 billion unique queries searched on Google since 2003. While Google betters its online search engine, Gomes has his focus on the mobile platform, which he believes is critical to the company’s success in markets like India where users are logging on to the internet for the first time on their mobile devices.
“I believe both voice search and image search along with other search innovations rooted in the mobile experience, will emerge steadily in 2012. We are making sure that mobile search experience is as relevant as Google desktop search is,” he points.
With mobile handsets, Google Search gets a legs up because it can serve most relevant results using user’s location information.
“Location is an important signal we use to surface content from the web. Most common searches from mobile today are for tickets, places to eat etc. When we have the location, we can serve user not only the data he searched but relevant stuff like directions to the place or reviews of the restaurant etc,” explains Gomes. Also bullish about mobile voice search, where users speak their query instead of typing, Google is making sure that its search engine can understand Indian dictions.
“It’s not an easy task to break down the accents and pronunciations symantically into searchable queries but we are slowly working towards getting this feature right as we believe mobile users will begin to demand this feature on their smartphones,” underlines Gomes. Voice Search is already a feature of Google Search app for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Nokia S60 V3 phones.
Where other search engines have failed, social networks like Facebook and Twitter have emerged to pose a threat to Google because they don’t allow Google’s search engine to log most of the photos, links and observations cascading through their pages. Although Twitter did give Google access to the tweets as part of a 2009 licensing agreement, but that deal has long expired.
That preempted Google to launch, ‘Search, plus your World’ which in its search results includes information culled from the user’s Google Plus network.
For instance, a query about the Indian premier League matches might include links and comments made about teams by other people in one of the social circles on the user’s Plus account. And although Google Plus has grown to nearly 100 million users, analysts are still trying to determine how active and engaged they actually are. Google’s social search, believes Gomes, continues to evolve.
“Today our search technology is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. When you search about a movie or a restaurant, social search will highlight names of places, images, reviews of restaurants visited, which is relevant to user.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Bing search engine has recently been updated to include the user comments, likes and activities posted on popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Bing's new interface, which is expected to move from a private to a public beta test period soon, offers users a sidebar that focuses on people in the user's social networks and their opinions and search queries.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Drone rules scheduled to be released Monday; Regs to determine how police can use them
On Monday the Federal Aviation Administration is supposed to release new guidelines on how law enforcement and emergency management agencies can use lightweight drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems.
It's expected that the proposed rules will clear up how high and far police and first-responders such as fire departments can fly drones, and what kind of training pilots controlling the drones must receive. The rules will apply to drones weighing less than 4.4 pounds and flown at altitudes below 400 feet. President Barack Obama signed a FAA reauthorization bill in February that fast-tracked the process for first-responders to get permission to use drones, but the the FAA has delayed releasing the guidelines in the past.
Right now only hobbyists who fly drones at low altitudes and within eyesight are allowed to use them. But in January, the LAPD warned real estate agencies not to use them after one agency was caught flying drones to take pictures and video of homes for sale.
Some agencies got special clearance from the FAA for testing or research purposes fly drones now. Cal FIRE was given temporary permission to test scanner technology with NASA to provide real-time wildfire imaging data.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has been testing some drones in the field in concert with California drone manufacturers. Commander Bob Osborne with the Sheriff’s Office Homeland Security Division said they have not purchased any drones or equipment for one, but are awaiting the new rules. He said small drones could be helpful in barricaded suspect stand-offs or mountainous rescue missions.
“It would be really nice to fly a small unmanned air system down to take some pictures for us, to send some video back to up so that we would know what we are getting into before we rappel a thousand feet down a cliff,” Osborne said.
The Sheriff’s department already uses ground robotics in its special weapons and arson explosives teams to investigate bomb threats.
California drone developer AeroVironment first built small drones in the late 1980s for military reconnaissance teams. But the company has developed smaller drones, such as the Qube, a three-foot wide, approximately five pound remotely controlled unmanned aircraft system that carries a video camera, for law enforcement and rescue teams. AeroVironment has demonstrated its models for several local California public safety agencies said Steve Gitlin, vice president of Investor Relations.
Gitlin said small drones won’t replace helicopters but could be an extra tool for smaller police departments that don’t have the money to buy a helicopter and pay a team to run it.
“They’re going to put in the truck of a squad car the ability to get eyes over a situation right then and right there,” Giltin said. “It’s the immediacy of the information that these systems produce compared to having to call in and trying to get a helicopter to come in from a distant location.”
Gitlin said drones could also be used in agriculture for crop dusting, by news organizations and for real-time traffic information.
It's expected that the proposed rules will clear up how high and far police and first-responders such as fire departments can fly drones, and what kind of training pilots controlling the drones must receive. The rules will apply to drones weighing less than 4.4 pounds and flown at altitudes below 400 feet. President Barack Obama signed a FAA reauthorization bill in February that fast-tracked the process for first-responders to get permission to use drones, but the the FAA has delayed releasing the guidelines in the past.
Right now only hobbyists who fly drones at low altitudes and within eyesight are allowed to use them. But in January, the LAPD warned real estate agencies not to use them after one agency was caught flying drones to take pictures and video of homes for sale.
Some agencies got special clearance from the FAA for testing or research purposes fly drones now. Cal FIRE was given temporary permission to test scanner technology with NASA to provide real-time wildfire imaging data.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has been testing some drones in the field in concert with California drone manufacturers. Commander Bob Osborne with the Sheriff’s Office Homeland Security Division said they have not purchased any drones or equipment for one, but are awaiting the new rules. He said small drones could be helpful in barricaded suspect stand-offs or mountainous rescue missions.
“It would be really nice to fly a small unmanned air system down to take some pictures for us, to send some video back to up so that we would know what we are getting into before we rappel a thousand feet down a cliff,” Osborne said.
The Sheriff’s department already uses ground robotics in its special weapons and arson explosives teams to investigate bomb threats.
California drone developer AeroVironment first built small drones in the late 1980s for military reconnaissance teams. But the company has developed smaller drones, such as the Qube, a three-foot wide, approximately five pound remotely controlled unmanned aircraft system that carries a video camera, for law enforcement and rescue teams. AeroVironment has demonstrated its models for several local California public safety agencies said Steve Gitlin, vice president of Investor Relations.
Gitlin said small drones won’t replace helicopters but could be an extra tool for smaller police departments that don’t have the money to buy a helicopter and pay a team to run it.
“They’re going to put in the truck of a squad car the ability to get eyes over a situation right then and right there,” Giltin said. “It’s the immediacy of the information that these systems produce compared to having to call in and trying to get a helicopter to come in from a distant location.”
Gitlin said drones could also be used in agriculture for crop dusting, by news organizations and for real-time traffic information.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Control what makes it onto your network
The Web-based service, available at openDNS.com, offers users a free way to protect against certain types of network attacks by filtering out malicious content before it ever gets to the computer. The company also says the service can make browsing faster and more reliable.
The Domain Name System, or DNS, allows networks to interpret easy-to-remember Web addresses like newsobserver.com into their corresponding Internet Protocol addresses – the numerical location of the server containing the content you’re looking to browse. DNS services, which actually do the translating, are in most cases handled by your Internet service provider. But by handing the job over to OpenDNS, users can get more control over what their networks access from a service that specializes in the task.
“Because they only do DNS, they have one whale of a network,” Rosenberg said. “They’re just better at it.”
After signing up for a free account, OpenDNS provides step-by-step instructions for switching to the service using your router or your computer (from start to finish, it took me about five minutes to set up on my own system). You can then add your network, track statistics and choose security options – all without having to download any extra applications or run anything in the background.
“All the security, all the content filtering happens on the OpenDNS side before it gets to you,” Rosenberg said. “There’s zero impact on the network or computers.”
In addition to faster domain name resolution (which cuts down on page load times), OpenDNS allows users to filter the content coming into the network by choosing a filter level. Setting it to high, for example, blocks adult content as well as pages like social networking sites and “general time-wasters.” Custom options also allow filtering based on a number of broad categories like adult themes and academic fraud.
These options are what initially led Rosenberg to OpenDNS after clients asked him repeatedly for a quality content filtering service.
“The answer was always, ‘I’m not entirely sure.’ A lot of the products you see out there are geared not just to content filtering, but to content logging, keystroke logging and monitoring. A lot of my customers – and myself included – don’t want to know everything their kid types on the computer,” Rosenberg said. “I just want to know that he’s not going to be able to view pornography. That’s really what it boils down to.”
Because security is tied into the domain name resolution, OpenDNS can also help guard against phishing sites, which are designed to trick users into providing personal information by mimicking the look and feel of legitimate Web pages. By tapping into its database of known phishing sites, it blocks access to these pages altogether, and can redirect users to a custom page. OpenDNS even provides protection from malware that can exploit vulnerabilities in Web browsers.
The Domain Name System, or DNS, allows networks to interpret easy-to-remember Web addresses like newsobserver.com into their corresponding Internet Protocol addresses – the numerical location of the server containing the content you’re looking to browse. DNS services, which actually do the translating, are in most cases handled by your Internet service provider. But by handing the job over to OpenDNS, users can get more control over what their networks access from a service that specializes in the task.
“Because they only do DNS, they have one whale of a network,” Rosenberg said. “They’re just better at it.”
After signing up for a free account, OpenDNS provides step-by-step instructions for switching to the service using your router or your computer (from start to finish, it took me about five minutes to set up on my own system). You can then add your network, track statistics and choose security options – all without having to download any extra applications or run anything in the background.
“All the security, all the content filtering happens on the OpenDNS side before it gets to you,” Rosenberg said. “There’s zero impact on the network or computers.”
In addition to faster domain name resolution (which cuts down on page load times), OpenDNS allows users to filter the content coming into the network by choosing a filter level. Setting it to high, for example, blocks adult content as well as pages like social networking sites and “general time-wasters.” Custom options also allow filtering based on a number of broad categories like adult themes and academic fraud.
These options are what initially led Rosenberg to OpenDNS after clients asked him repeatedly for a quality content filtering service.
“The answer was always, ‘I’m not entirely sure.’ A lot of the products you see out there are geared not just to content filtering, but to content logging, keystroke logging and monitoring. A lot of my customers – and myself included – don’t want to know everything their kid types on the computer,” Rosenberg said. “I just want to know that he’s not going to be able to view pornography. That’s really what it boils down to.”
Because security is tied into the domain name resolution, OpenDNS can also help guard against phishing sites, which are designed to trick users into providing personal information by mimicking the look and feel of legitimate Web pages. By tapping into its database of known phishing sites, it blocks access to these pages altogether, and can redirect users to a custom page. OpenDNS even provides protection from malware that can exploit vulnerabilities in Web browsers.
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