It is now painfully obvious that the team of “expert engineers” working on ad hoc solutions to seal the oil-spewing pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is incompetent. Saturday Night Live lampooned them on May 15th. British Petroleum (BP) needs to look outside the box and learn from surgeons and the medical device industry how to seal a tube leaking fluid; whether it be high pressure arterial blood or oil at the bottom of the sea.
Every trauma surgeon and vascular interventional doctor knows that the first thing to do to stop a gusher is to apply pressure to the leaking pipe. Doctors do not try to suck up the blood, store it in a vessel, then rapidly reinfuse it back into the patient (although this can be done in surgery, but not as the first step). The latest solution by BP is to insert a pipe into the leaking broken pipe, bring the oil to the surface, then store it in a tanker. This is an idiotic idea. BP should be focusing on ways to seal the pipe.
The medical device industry has invented catheter balloons that can apply massive amounts of pounds-per-square-inch pressure to surrounding walls: enough pressure to expand bone during kyphoplasty spine procedures. Within 24 hours, if a team of engineers from Medtronic were dispatched to the Gulf to advise the BP team, a crude rubber balloon bladder surrounding a “catheter” could be devised, inserted into the leaking oil pipes, inflated, and seal the oil leaks. BP, the White House, and the medical device industry need to make this happen ASAP.
Construction on Route 9A, also known as The West Side Highway, and closure of the pedestrian bridge south of Albany Street have created a very dangerous situation. The ground-level crossing of The West Side Highway at Albany Street can be a death trap.
In February of 2009, Battery Park City resident Marilyn Feng was killed and her boyfriend seriously injured when a drunk driver struck the couple. Ms. Feng was an intern in Manhattan Borough president Scott Stringer’s office. In late September of 2009, another pedestrian was struck by a motorist, but he survived.
Funding for the permanent pedestrian overpass has been cancelled. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer discusses the problem.
The new healthcare reform law will impact local hospitals and state budgets as the number of Medicaid patients increase. The plan to close St. Vincent’s is related to Medicaid issues. Healthcare systems in states across the country are struggling and concerned about the changes in store. As a result, numerous Attorneys Generals have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new healthcare reform law.
Georgetown Law Center Legal Theory Professor Randy Barnett discusses the core arguments being made by numerous State Attorneys Generals that the newly passed healthcare reform law is unconstitutional. In Part 1, the “commerce clause”, whether that empowers the federal government to mandate health insurance, and the tax penalty for those not purchasing insurance, are evaluated on the merits.
In Part 2, Professor Barnett discusses whether the new law infringes on the sovereignty of the states, and privacy rights of individuals. He then estimates the chances of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Attorney General’s lawsuits.
Dr. Jennifer Walden, one of the leading plastic and reconstructive surgeons in New York, discusses her opposition to the “Botax” tax on cosmetic plastic surgery proposed in the Senate healthcare reform bill. She also addresses the controversial recent AHRQ guidelines that recommended against routine mammography for women under the age of 50.
We met Dr. Walden at The White House. The interview may be viewed below.
Matt Fenton has an interesting article in the Broadsheet about how State and City employees are parking their cars in no-parking zones on West Thames. The cars post government affiliations on their dashboard to avoid getting ticketed. Some use handicap passes.
The controversy is whether these car operators are really on government jobs and really handicapped or are just abusing the system while regular Joe’s like us get expensive tickets on the other side of the street.
As an update, we did notice this handicapped car was ticketed.
- Federal government, In the News, Op-Ed | admin | 
May 16, 2010 3:39 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe