The Tragedy Of The U.S.S. Indianapolis

There are many great and famous stories about battles and courage that went on during World War Two. One of the lesser known tragedies occured on July 30th, 1945 in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The USS Indianapolis was a nearly 10,000 ton heavy battle cruiser that just weeks prior to her sinking had just come out of a naval shipyard having been re-fitted and repaired after suffering damage doing battle with the Japanese. She has just delivered the Atomic Bomb to a B-25 bomber base in the Pacific (The actual bomb in fact the The Enola Gay would drop on Hiroshima on August 6th) and had turned around and started steaming for the Phillippines. On the night of July 30th at just a little bit past midnight a Japanese submarine launched two torpedoes straight for the middle of her hull. Once they exploded they set off a chain reaction with some of the munitions that were on board and the ensuing secondary explosions and fire nearly severed the ship in half. She had a crew of 1200 and within the first minutes of the attack the fire and explosions had killed about 300 on board. The captain ordered the ship to be abandoned at this point and nearly 900 men all jumped overboard and began swimming away from the burning wreck. The ship had completely sunk undernearth the waves in a little over ten minutes leaving all the crew bobbing on the waves in the middle of the night in total darkness. The distress flares that the crew had sent out just after the beginning of the attack were ignored by the U.S. Navy. They were thinking that it was perhaps some kind of Japanese trick to lure them in for an ambush as sea. As daylight rose the next morning an even more tragic turn for the worse takes place. The waters they were sunk in were shark infested and the first of the swarm of sharks that would soon appear was spotted by some of the crew for the first time. Because of the ignored distress flares nobody was coming to rescue them yet so they were stuck in the water for days. Finally on August 2nd, 1945 an overhead recon flight spotted the men in the ocean and a massive rescue operation was launched. In the four days between the sinking of the ship and the rescue launch out of the 900 men that jumped into the water after the Indianapolis was sunk less than 300 made it out of the water alive after the sharks were done with them.

More College Kids On Meds Than Ever Before

According to a recent study conducted by the American Psychological Association there are now more college kids in the U.S. on Psychological medications than ever before in history. That might explain some of the weird behavior in college kids these days. There is a marked increase in depression and anxiety among the college crowd and they are taking more psychological medications to cope than ever. According to the study depression has increased by 40% over the last ten years. The study involved more than 3200 college kids who were followed between 1997 and 2009 and it discovered that 24% of them were on some kind of prescribed drug for Anxiety. Usually the students who were suffering the most were those who were labled in the study as "Socially Isolated."

Huge Piece Of Iceburg In Greenland Breaks Away

If you are thinking that perhaps this summer has been a little bit hotter than the usual summer there is certainly tons of meteorological evidence to prove that you are right. This past July was the hottest ever recorded in New York City. Some people are pointing to global warming. Another rather large piece of evidence that this may be the case came out of Greenland this week. Researchers at the Canadian Ice Service were surprised to discover that a huge piece of ice over 4 times the size of Manhattan had broken off of The Petermann Glacier, which is one of the largest in Greenland. It is so big in fact that they are referring to it as an "Ice Island." There are two big concerns about the future of this seriously big piece of ice. The first is that if it drifts into the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic it may have a negative effect on commerce and may cause something of a further downturn in the economy. The second big concern has to do with what will happen if this "Ice Island" begins to melt and how much of an effect will that have on raising sea levels in the area and what kind of an effect will that have on residents who live near the shorelines in that region.

Poverty And Wealth On The Good Earth

The gap between the rich and the poor in the world has always been a wide one. There has always been a universe of difference between the way the wealthy experience life and the way the poor do. Perhaps the gap between the two has never been wider in history than it is now. Consider some modern facts about the rich and the poor:

• Over 1 billion people in the world do not have enough food currently to eat. That is larger than the population of the U.S. and Europe combined.


• 65% of the world's hungry live in only seven countries. India, China, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia.


• The world's billionaires have assets that exceed the combined incomes of 45% of the world's population while over a billion poor people are forced to survive on less than one dollar a day.


• Every year 15 million children around the world die from malnutrition.


• For the price of one missile a school full of children could be provided with enough food to eat for 5 years.

Top Ten Newspapers In The U.S.A.

It does not come as a surprise to anyone to note that newspapers in the U.S. are going through a trying time. All kinds of competition from alternative forms of media have conspired to reduce the audiences of almost all of the nations printed media publications. They may be going down but they are not dead yet. In some cases they still command a significant audience in terms of size. Here now is a list of the top ten newspapers in the U.S. based on total daily circulation for the first six months of the year 2010. Circulation figures have been rounded up:

1. Wall Street Journal --2,092,000


2. USA Today ----------- 1,826,000


3. N.Y. Times ------------- 951,000


4. L.A. Times ------------- 616,000


5. Washington Post -------579,000


6. Daily News --------------535,000


7. N.Y. Post --------------- 525,000


8. Oakland Tribune ------- 517,000


9. Chicago Tribune ------- 516,000


10. Houston Chronicle ----- 494,000

The Chemical Risk When You Shop

Few Americans are aware of the risk they take every time they go out and buy some bottled water. A chemical called Bisphenol is used to make the plastic that the bottles are made of. It can seep into the water contained inside and cause health issues for some. Bisphenol has been linked to certain cancers. The chemical as it turns out is also present in your grocery store receipts when you shop as well. According to a recent study it was discovered that over 40% of grocery store receipts contained significant amounts of Bisphenol. when you handle your receipts the chemical can rub off on your hands and can be absorbed by the body. Experts are not certain how much of the chemical rubs off and is absorbed through the skin when you come into contact with it and they are therefore not certain about how much of a risk is being run by the general population. Biphenol was found in receipts that were taken from Gas stations, Fast food restaurants, and other retailers in addition to just grocery stores.

New Anti - HIV Gel Ready For Africa

A new Anti -HIV gel Is holding out the promise of being able to significantly reduce the spread of HIV on the African continent. It is an antiretroviral gel which contains Tenofovir, which has been proven to destroy HIV cells in the body. The biggest and most promising feature of the gel is that it's use can be completely controlled by women. It does not depend on the cooperation of males in any way in order to implement and achieve an effective result. Up until this point the hope of slowing down the spread of HIV in Africa has depended on mainly the use of condoms or abstinence. These are two options that all too often African men have been unwilling to practice. The new gel will be completely controlled and implemented by women and therefore will not require the cooperation of a male partner thereby taking men and their lack of cooperation totally out of the equation. In a recent study which was undertaken in South Africa the new HIV gel reduced the spread of the disease by almost 40% over almost a 3 year period in a study that involved nearly 1000 women. In another study where the gel was used both before and after intercourse the spread of HIV was reduced by almost 55%. It was also helpful in reducing the spread of Genital Herpes as well. While it is neither a cure nor a vaccine it is holding out the hope that the wild spread of the HIV virus in Africa can finally be put under some kind of control.