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Ban smoking in all vehicles, doctors demand - protect the young.

• Smoking should be banned in all cars as well as in public places where young people congregate, doctors are urging.
• The Royal College of Physicians wants England's imminent review of anti-smoking laws to consider such measures to protect the young.
  It says passive smoking results in 300,000 extra child visits to GPs in the UK every year for problems such as asthma and bacterial meningitis.
• But driving and smoking lobby groups say cars are a "private space". = idiots / these people should be considered as pedo... right!
• Wheezing
  A number of medical bodies have supported a ban on smoking in cars transporting children, but the RCP goes a significant step further, urging a blanket ban on anyone lighting up in a vehicle - regardless of whether children or indeed any other passengers are inside. = very good.
• It is calling for a two-pronged approach which would see children protected from second-hand smoke and shielded from the sight of adults smoking - whether in the playground or on the TV.
• The RCP's report - Passive Smoking and Children - is being released ahead of the three-year review of the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces in England. Similar bans have been introduced across the UK, with Scotland having led the way.
• Drawing on a series of studies, the report suggests that in the UK, tens of thousands of youngsters are falling ill as a result of exposure to cigarette smoke.
• Exclusion zones
  These calculations include 20,000 chest infections, some 22,000 new cases of asthma and wheezing, as well as 200 cases of bacterial meningitis and 40 cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - or cot death.
• When will they learn... idiots it took them this long to reqest for the law to be passed, and how long will it take to get this passed... idiots
• Ban smoking in public places, if someone want to smoke in public, let them do it just like when some people want to have sex, they do it when no one around. get it, still they get arrested if they cought, I would let the smokers off, long as they do not do it front of others.

Toyota staff memo on 'safety sacrifices' handed to US investigators

Tadao Wakatsuki in Toyota City, Japan. He sent a memo to Toyota's president in 2006 condemning "safety sacrifices"

"The Toyota Ways is famous. In reality it is to ignore warnings from within the firm"

• Toyota was forced yesterday to hand over to US congressional investigators a "smoking gun" memo produced by its own factory workers that warned management as far back as 2006 of systemic threats to car safety.
• The two-page memo, drafted by a group of long-term Toyota employees and sent directly to Toyota’s thenpresident Katsuaki Watanabe in 2006, condemns "safety sacrifices" made by the company in pursuit of profit.
• It highlights the inadequate development times for new vehicles and the general decline of craftsmanship at Japan’s most famous manufacturing company, concluding that vital processes were in the hands of "amateurs".
• The document also offered a chilling foretaste of the calamity that was to come, warning that Toyota’s management policies would ultimately threaten the company’s survival.
• Tadao Wakatsuki, the principal author of the memo, was interviewed by The Times two years ago, when he warned that Toyota’s expansionism was creating new victims: its employees were buckling under the burdens of cost-cutting and the customer was about to pay an unhappy price.
• Mr Wakatsuki has worked on the floor of one of Toyota’s largest Japanese factories for 45 years. Along with several other employees both of Toyota and its subsidiaries, he set up a breakaway union in an attempt to improve working conditions throughout the group. His decision to form the All Toyota Labour Union, he said, was based on what he saw as the acquiescence of the official union – a body that rarely challenged management.
• The Toyota Way is famous all over the world. In reality, the Toyota Way is to ignore warnings from within the firm, he said.
• People work themselves to sickness because they are scared to do differently. Do you think that situation is good for the cars or the way they are built?
• We used to do safety and quality checks on every single vehicle that leaves the plant. Not any more. Not even two thirds get the full treatment.
• Mr Wakatsuki, who works in the in the machine press stamping section of the factory, said that cost-cutting and speed had become the dominant ethos at the expense of experience and thoroughness. "Top to toe" safety checks were no longer conducted on 100 per cent of cars, he alleged.
• Even before reports had begun to surface about faulty accelerator pedals, Mr Wakatsuki believed that problems would eventually emerge to haunt Toyota. The company, he said, had allowed itself to grow too fast and in the process forgotten what it was that made its brand so strong. Those exact words were echoed last month by Akio Toyoda, the current Toyota president, when he apologised for mass recalls and attempted to explain how a company of Toyota’s calibre had got into such a mess.
• The memo, by Mr Wakatsuki and five fellow members of the union, was written when Toyota was emerging from a criminal investigation into professional negligence over a car accident where five family members were injured. Toyota was cleared of all charges but Mr Wakatsuki and his collaborators demanded management provide a fuller explanation of what had happened.
• As well as dwelling on numerous alleged shortcomings of Toyota’s management practices, the memo made seven requests. One of them demanded a review of cost reduction measures "so that the company can guarantee the manufacturing of safe cars".
• Toyota acknowledged yesterday that senior management had seen the original memo, but deemed it appropriate to respond to only one of its requests – a polite suggestion that management look into ways of reducing the total number of hours worked by employees each year.
• The carmaker remains in crisis after a global recall of nearly nine million vehicles, a growing barrage of litigation and allegations that accelerator faults caused the death of dozens of people on American roads.

Powerful Chile Quake 'Shifted Earth's Axis' - made days slightly shorter

Shifted the Earth's axis and made days slightly shorter

• The powerful earthquake that killed hundreds of people in Chile on Saturday probably shifted the Earth's axis and made days slightly shorter, a Nasa scientist has said.
• Richard Gross, a research scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, calculated how much the axis may have changed in position following the the disaster.
• More than 700 people died and two million are estimated to have been affected by the 8.8-magnitude tremor and subsequent tsunamis.
• The quake, the most powerful to hit the nation in 50 years, sent shockwaves out from the epicentre 70 miles from Chile's second city, Concepcion.
• Buildings and roads collapsed and 500,000 homes have been left severely damaged.
• Six aid workers died when a plane carrying them to Concepcion crashed.
• The team was on its way to help organise accommodation for those left homeless by the disaster
• Soldiers were sent to patrol Concepcion's streets after mobs set fire to shops and started looting them, hindering attempts to rescue survivors.
• If the planet's axis did shift by 8cm during the quake, days would have shortened by 1.26 microseconds, Mr Gross calculated.
• A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.
• Earth days are 24 hours long because that is the amount of time it takes the planet to make one full rotation on its axis, so shifting the axis would affect rotation.
• The quake shifted the Earth's axis by even more than the 9.1-magnitude tremor off Indonesia that started the deadly tsunami in Asia in 2004, according to Mr Gross.
• This was partly because the fault line responsible for the quake in Chile "dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake", he said.
• The different angle made Saturday's tremor more effective at moving Earth's mass vertically and shifting the planet's axis, Mr Gross continued.
• The 2004 quake in Asia, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused the Earth to move by around 7cm.
• It chopped an estimated 6.8 microseconds off the length of a day, Nasa said.

Joe Jackson wants justice for 'murdered' Michael

• Michael Jackson's father has revealed he is convinced his son's doctor was part of a group out to kill the singer.
• Joe Jackson went public with his conspiracy theory on US news show Larry King Live.
• The King of Pop's doctor, Conrad Murray pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Monday.
• Speaking outside the television studio Jackson, 80, said: "He was murdered, my son was murdered, all I'm looking for is justice."
• The Jackson family patriarch was in court in Los Angeles to see Murray face charges with the rest of his family including wife Katherine, sons Tito and Jermaine and daughter La Toya.
• Michael Jackson died on June 25. His death was ruled a homicide by drug overdose.
• I kind a agree with his father... there is a possibility!
  

Michael Jackson's doctor charged in singer's death

• Los Angeles prosecutors on Monday charged Michael Jackson's personal doctor with involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death last year.
• Dr. Conrad Murray has been a focus of investigations for months, since the coroner's office ruled that Jackson's death in Los Angeles on June 25 was a homicide by drug overdose, principally the anesthetic propofol and sedative lorazepam.

Michael Jackson doctor expected to be charged on Monday

• Los Angeles prosecutors on Monday plan to file a criminal case in the death of Michael Jackson that is expected to include a charge of involuntary manslaughter against the singer's doctor.
• The Los Angeles District Attorney's office said on Friday details of its case would be released on Monday, and gave no further details.
• But sources close to the case said Dr. Conrad Murray, who has been under investigation for months, would be charged with the crime of unlawfully killing another person without malice or intent. If convicted, he faces up to four years in jail.
• A criminal case against Murray was widely expected to be filed this week because he has been in Los Angeles meeting with his legal team, and his attorney Ed Chernoff said the Houston cardiologist would surrender himself voluntarily if charged.
• As recently as Thursday, Chernoff issued a statement saying he and the Los Angeles district attorney were discussing booking and arraignment procedures.
• But by Friday, media outlets reported that charges were delayed because of squabbling between police and prosecutors over how to handle Murray's arrest. Other reports said Chernoff balked when the district attorney demanded Murray be handcuffed and walked into a courthouse in front of TV cameras.
• Chernoff's spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik told Reuters, "he (Chernoff) felt an arrest of Dr. Murray would be a waste of money, time and resources ... what the district attorney wanted I don't know. Our only request was to surrender Dr. Murray."
• Los Angeles district attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said there was "no truth" to reports of feuding among police and the D.A. or over arrangements to take Murray into custody.
• "We did not file a case today because the necessary paperwork has to be prepared," Gibbons said.

JACKSON FAMILY FURY

• Jermaine Jackson, who with Michael was one of the members of Motown singing sensations The Jackson 5, told celebrity news television show "Entertainment Tonight" that his family was furious at the way the case was being handled.
• I think he (Murray) should be cuffed, he should be fingerprinted, he should have his mugshot just like they did my brother," Jermaine said, referring to when Michael Jackson was arrested.
• Murray was with "Thriller" singer Jackson when he died on June 25 and has admitted giving the 50-year-old pop star a dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol to help him sleep.
• The Los Angeles coroner's office ruled that Jackson's death was a homicide, caused principally by propofol and the sedative lorazepam. A cocktail of other painkillers, sedatives and a stimulant were also found in his body.
• Murray was hired in May 2009 to care for Jackson while the entertainer prepared for a series of comeback concerts in London, UK.
• Jackson's sudden death prompted a worldwide outpouring of grief for the singer, who started his career as a child and whose 1982 album "Thriller" remains the world's best-selling album.