Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Security

Submission + - G4S IT failure 'root cause' of London 2012 Olympics security debacle (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by
DerekduPreez
DerekduPreez writes: "A failure in G4S’ internal computer systems was the primary reason it is not able to provide a sufficient number of security staff to support the London 2012 Olympic Games this summer.

According to the Independent, the company’s IT systems failed to correctly calculate staff rostering, which has now been identified as the “root cause of the problem”.

G4S won the security contract with LOCOG, the organisers of the Olympic Games, after it submitted a tender at least 25 percent lower than any of its competitors. However, it was revealed last week that it was not going to be able to fulfil its contractual commitments and the Home Office is being forced to deploy some 3,500 soldiers to cover the shortfall.

Home secretary Theresa May is now under pressure to explain why the government has had to make the decision to deploy troops at this late stage, considering that the Games start in the capital next week."
Earth

Submission + - The Ecology of Disease

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jim Robbins writes that disease, it turns out, is largely an environmental issue and most epidemics — AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, Lyme disease and hundreds more that have occurred over the last several decades — don’t just happen but are a result of things people do to nature. A study released earlier this month by the International Livestock Research Institute found that more than two million people a year are killed by diseases that spread to humans from wild and domestic animals. The Nipah virus in South Asia, and the closely related Hendra virus in Australia, both in the genus of henipah viruses, are the most urgent examples of how disrupting an ecosystem can cause disease. In Australia, where four people and dozens of horses have died of Hendra, suburbanization lured infected bats that were once forest-dwellers into backyards and pastures. If a henipah virus evolves to be transmitted readily through casual contact, the concern is that it could leave the jungle and spread throughout Asia or the world. “Nipah is spilling over, and we are observing these small clusters of cases — and it’s a matter of time that the right strain will come along and efficiently spread among people,” says Jonathan Epstein, a veterinarian with EcoHealth Alliance. A new project called Predict is trying to figure out, based on how people alter the landscape — with a new farm or road, for example — where the next diseases are likely to spill over into humans and how to spot them when they do emerge, before they can spread. They are gathering blood, saliva and other samples from high-risk wildlife species to create a library of viruses so that if one does infect humans, it can be more quickly identified and they are studying ways of managing forests, wildlife and livestock to prevent diseases from leaving the woods and becoming the next pandemic. “It’s not about keeping pristine forest pristine and free of people,” says Simon Anthony, a molecular virologist at EcoHealth. “It’s learning how to do things sustainably. If you can get a handle on what it is that drives the emergence of a disease, then you can learn to modify environments sustainably.”"

Comment Re:Good Timing! (Score 2) 816

If you want to see this in action, look at suburban deer populations where hunting is illegal. If there's no predator to cull the population, they're instead constrained by resources and disease.

Deer population info, with link to deer population graph: http://deerdamagecontrolfence.com/deer_population.htm

Comment Latest news from the local paper (Score 1) 1054

by superflippy (#39436665) Attached to: Teacher Suspended For Reading <em>Ender's Game</em> To Students

Wonderful. So this is how the small town I live in makes the national news.
Anyway, the upshot as of today is that nobody is going to press charges against anybody. And it wasn't just Ender's Game that was a concern. There were two other books as well: The Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan and Curtain by Agatha Christie
Here's the latest: Schofield Teacher Won't Face Criminal Charges

Comment Re:OMG save the children (Score 4, Interesting) 541

by superflippy (#34849520) Attached to: Autism-Vax Doc Scandal Was Pharma Business Scam

My husband's cousin had a bad reaction to the polio vaccine and is in a wheelchair because of it. But I still vaccinated my children.

If you actually read the info sheet the nurse gives you with each vaccine, you'll see there are risks. Some small percentage of the population has a bad reaction to some vaccines, and the info sheets describe what they are and what symptoms to watch for. I weighed the risks and decided in favor of vaccination.

Slashdot Top Deals

To thine own self be true. (If not that, at least make some money.)

Close