Fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer's patients from wandering off

German nursing homes are using a novel strategy to stop Alzheimer's patients from wandering off: phantom bus stops.

The idea was first tried at Benrath Senior Centre in Düsseldorf, which pitched an exact replica of a standard stop outside, with one small difference: buses do not use it.

The centre had been forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their often non-existent homes and families.

Then Benrath teamed up with a local care association called the "Old Lions". They went to the Rheinbahn transport network which supplied the bus stop.

"It sounds funny but it helps," said Franz-Josef Goebel, the chairman of the "Old Lions" association.

"Our members are 84 years old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works, but the long-term memory is still active.

"They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home."

The result is that errant patients now wait for their trip home at the bus stop, before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.

"We will approach them and say that the bus is coming later and invite them in for a coffee," said Richard Neureither, Benrath's director. "Five minutes later they have completely forgotten they wanted to leave."

The idea has proved so successful that it has now been adopted by several other homes across Germany.

Burger King Tray liners feature vegetable porn?

Bill Dunphy says:

I came across this post "Burger King has a bad taste ...." on Digital Frog, a dutch photographer's blog. It's a photo he says of a tray liner his son got in an Amersterdam Burger King.

The trayliner depicts the airport-style high security Burger King uses to ensure that only the top ingredients are used. Images include a scared Onion with his trousers down around his ankles while a fierce-looking Pickle guard with a latex glove, prepares to digitally examine him! Scattered about him from his open luggage are veggie porn mags!

I left a comment for the blogger asking for more details and suggesting it was a spoof or a prank and he linked to an advertising site which appears to validate his claim that the tray liner is real:

Hi Bill !

Sadly, this was not a joke. Burger King really served my son with that paper on his tray. This was early may 2008 near Amsterdam (NL).

I found another reference of this here.

Adventures in Press Releases: The Anti-Energy Drink

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 10:49 AM, June 4, 2008

There are plenty of strange products out there, and they all need a publicist. This morning, I got in to the office and was greeted by a message from a sleepy- sounding woman calling about Drank "the anti-energy drink we're calling the extreme relaxation beverage."

Isn't that already covered by a little thing called wine? No? This was too good to pass up, so I gave a call back.

Turns out, this is a carbonated, grape-flavored beverage spiked with melatonin, valerian root and rose hips. Apparently it is "very, very popular in Houston," and it's sold throughout the south in liquor and convenience stores.

So, does it make you sleepy? I asked the publicist. Yes, and she hears it's good with vodka. Oh, something that makes it more likely I'll fall asleep while drinking? Excellent.

What, you might wonder, was the creator thinking? I'm glad you asked. He was thinking of the hip hop community. Direct from the press release:

From design to production, every aspect of this calming drink was inspired by today’s popular hip hop artists who embrace the much sought-after hip hop lifestyle that encourages people to capture a stress-free state of mind.

The drink's tagline is "slow your roll." So if that's something you need to do, keep your eye out. Drank will be hitting stores in New York soon.

Want to go through the Panaman Canel in Two Minutes?

A time-lapse journey through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean onboard a cruise ship. Video courtesy of CruiseJournals.com.

As a child my father used to Control Albrook Air Force Base, where this is Located.

Turkish tuna fishermen ram Greenpeace ship

Turkish tuna fishermen ram Greenpeace ship

Turkish tuna fishermen ram Greenpeace ship
Activists vessel campaigning against overfishing in the Mediterranean



Gavin Parsons / Greenpeace via AFP-Getty Image

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish tuna fishermen rammed their boat into a Greenpeace ship Friday and pelted it with lead fishing weights, the environmental group said. No one was injured.

The fishing vessel was among several that swarmed the Arctic Sunrise, which was carrying activists campaigning against overfishing in the Mediterranean. The boat rammed the Greenpeace ship at high speed, said Yesim Aslan, a spokeswoman for the group.

The barrage of lead weights damaged a helicopter that the activists had used earlier in the day to document the vessels' activities, Aslan said.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

Activists on the ship also heard shots being fired and the Coast Guard in the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun was called to intervene, she said.

No one answered telephone calls at a company in the Black Sea town of Giresun whose vessel Greenpeace said was involved in the attack.

The head of a main bluefin tuna fishing company in the Mediterranean, Ak Tuna Balikcilik, was at sea and could not be reached for comment, a company secretary said. It was not clear if any of that company's vessels were involved in the incident.

'Fishing itself to death'
The Arctic Sunrise was sailing between Turkey and Cyprus to draw attention to overfishing at a channel that Greenpeace says is a main breeding area for bluefin tuna.

Greenpeace wants Turkey to immediately stop issuing bluefin tuna fishing permits in the channel and to declare the area a marine reserve.

"We understand that these guys are angry and we're angry too," Greenpeace representative Karli Thomas said. "But the real problem here is being caused by the refusal of governments to take action to regulate a fishery that's fishing itself to death."

"The population of tuna is close to extinction," Thomas said. "If we don't protect the breeding and spawning grounds now, there will be no fish for the future."

Attack on tuna fishing
Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are under serious threat from overfishing. The European Union last year called for stronger protection of the bluefin tuna by extending the fishing offseason, reducing black market fishing and imposing new worldwide cuts in catch quotas.

The vast majority of Atlantic bluefin tuna is caught in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, with a smaller percentage fished in the western Atlantic.

The Turkish vessels fish in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara in the winter and move to the Mediterranean to hunt bluefin tuna there in the summer.

Spiderman Sighting in China

Spiderman Sighting in China

It is not everyday you have the chance to see a real life superhero.

Lucky guests staying at the Shanghai Hilton Hotel in China on March 19th got a rare glimpse of Spiderman hanging outside their window.

Not quite the role we had in mind for one of our favorite hero’s but… food must be put on the table.

The Shanghai Hilton Hotel, knowing they had a week long cleaning project that their guest would be forced to see, decided to dress the workers up like Spiderman to make it more interesting.

The strange decline of the paperboy

By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine

People in many areas of the country struggle to get a newspaper delivered. It's the burning issue in the world of the newsagent - where did all the newspaper boys and girls go?

Becoming a paper boy or girl is a rite of passage for many children.

Perhaps more than any other part-time job, it educates the young future worker about the importance of getting up in the morning, of punctuality, of steadfastness.

POSSIBLE FACTORS IN DECLINE Rising pocket money Other job opportunities Concerns over safety Linked to tiredness in school New regulations

While the rest of childkind slumbers, lost in a dreamscape of gaudy electronics and instant gratification, the hardy paperboy ventures out into the gloaming so householders can have their news in time for breakfast.

But all is not well in the world of home news delivery.

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents represents thousands of shops across the country. At its conference this week, one of the topics of conversation that is preoccupying members is a sad decline.

Newsagents' pain

Stefan Wojciechowski, head of news and magazines at the NFRN, says while no exact figures are available, it is estimated anything up to a third of all independent newsagents have given up home delivery in the past five to seven years.

There's competition from supermarkets and convenience stores, people are commuting such distances that they leave the house before delivery is possible, and newspaper sales themselves are in long term decline.

It was horrible - the papers were heavy, it rained every day, it was cold and I wanted to sleep but couldn't because I had to get up at 6.15 Sarah Pine Ex-papergirl

But most of all an absence of paperboys is causing newsagents pain.

"Kids don't want to do paper rounds because of increasing pocket money and other ways of earning money," Mr Wojciechowski says.

Joe Kelly of Direct News, in Garston, south Liverpool, realised 18 months ago that morning newspaper deliveries would have to stop.

"We just couldn't get the paperboys. We used to have a book full of names. We used to do 10 paperboys but it was gradually dropping off. Basically, they seem to have got too much cash. The majority seem to have unlimited funds from mum and dad."

Deliverers of news were typically 14 or 15 and could earn £10 a week for 20-25 minutes work per day. But no more.

And like the decline of the village post office, there are consequences wider than just people not being able to do the crossword while eating their egg and soldiers.

Young people have been delivering the news since time immemorial

Kelly has lost 50 copies a day in sales, but he worries about the loss of community glue that the decline of the paperboy represents.

"Some of the elderly people we deliver to, they form a relationship with the paperboy. On a couple of occasions the paperboy has come back and said there's a problem at this house. It is a lifeline for some."

Brass in pocket

But is it rising pocket money that is causing the paperboy to stay a-bed?

The paperboy is an institution in other countries

A Halifax survey of pocket money certainly seems to indicate that it has risen much faster than inflation. Between 1998 and 2004, pocket money rose more than fourfold, from £1.76 to a whopping £7.82 a week, although it has now stabilised at about the £8 mark.

According to the same survey, in 2007 19% of working seven- to 16-year-olds had paper rounds, compared with 35% in 2004.

It's clear that there could be other factors at play - others sources of part-time work and parental concern about early starts and safety.

But those who do get up so early in the morning get to see a unique world. Their comrades are milkmen - suffering their own decline - early bird shop owners, sundry binmen and recycling crews.

There are downsides. It can be decidedly chilly at six in the morning even in high summer. Paperboys learn to hate the one far-flung address on the route, the house with the mad Jack Russell, and the infuriating owners of original Victorian doors with original tiny Victorian letterboxes, through which a meaty Sunday newspaper will not pass.

Bridging gap

And paperboys gain an entry into the world of work. Walking or cycling provides exercise, but the process of fine-tuning the round is even more valuable. The paperboy learns to maximise his efficiency and map out the most ergonomic route because the incentive of getting back indoors is so strong.

WORLD'S GREATEST PAPERBOY? Warren Buffett had several rounds By 14 had raised enough to buy farmland in Nebraska Now thought world's richest man

"It is a very good way of bridging the gap between school and work," says Mr Wojciechowski.

The big newspaper groups have already seen the danger of the decline of the paperboy. The Times offers to organise delivery for customers, passing their order on to a newsagent. It's also experimenting in London - where the ratio of delivering newsagents to people is the lowest in the country - with doing the delivery itself.

"People who get copies home delivered read the paper more and stay with us longer," says David Walker, head of fulfilment at the Times. "We realise there is still a massive demand from readers. It's up to us to make it as easy as possible."

Of the 14,000 delivering newsagents in Scotland, England and Wales, only 7,000 are actively seeking new business. The other 7,000 are contemplating getting out of the home delivery business. There are already areas of cities where it is a struggle to get a paper delivered and this will worsen.

The future might be "roundsmen", Mr Wojciechowski says. "Successful, sustainable home news delivery will probably be using vans and adults covering a much wider area."

Rain, cold

Sarah Pine, 15, is one of those who has tried paper delivery and decided it's not the ideal job for her. At the beginning of last summer she started a round in Orpington on the outskirts of London.

"I was really lucky because I had a short round and because my house was in the middle of the round," she says. "My sister had another round. Her round went very far away."

But after six months, Sarah realised that the £15 a week wages were no compensation for the negative aspect of delivering the news.

"It was horrible. The papers were heavy, it rained every day, it was cold and I wanted to sleep but couldn't because I had to get up at 6.15. My hands were really cold. If it was raining you couldn't have an umbrella - you needed your hands to do the papers."

Now early starts are solely due to GCSE revision and Sarah - who receives £17.50 pocket money a week - is no longer tired in school, but the paper round did offer one social advantage.

"I liked the fact I could say I worked for my money rather than being seen as spoilt.