BREVITAS

MID EAST

Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad In fact, we don't just seek peace; we seek a meaningful and lasting peace with Israel. We seek strong ties with Israel. We seek strong economic ties between the independent states of Israel and Palestine. We seek warm relations with Israelis. We do not want to simply get to a point where we just accept each other - we want to have warm relations where we both recognize the mutual economic, intellectual, spiritual, and of course security benefits of living and working together. We do not want to erect walls; we want to build bridges. We do not want to close Israelis out of our lives; we want to live with Israelis as our neighbors." - October 12, 2008

ABC News - African-American voters waited more than twice as long as others to vote in last month's presidential election, and Hispanics were asked to show identification more often. Although Election Day ran smoothly for most voters, the survey of 10,000 people by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found at least one in four voters lack confidence that their votes were counted correctly. . . More than eight in 10 voters said their polling places were very well run; seven in 10 said poll workers performed excellently; and less than 1% rated their service as "poor." Black voters, however, reported waiting in lines for an average of 29 minutes to vote on Election Day and 43 minutes to cast ballots before Nov. 4, as 34 states allow. That was more than twice the average wait for others: 13 minutes on Election Day and 20 minutes when voting early.

GREAT MOMENTS IN RESEARCH

"Digital Artery Occlusion Secondary to Plastic Shopping Bag Trauma," R. Joy, J.L. Isaacs and R.J. McCarthy, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, vol. 89, no. 6, 2007, pp. W11-3

"Upper limb digital arterial occlusion is uncommon. We present the case of a 47-year-old man with an ischaemic right middle finger (dominant hand) due to trauma from carrying a heavy plastic shopping bag. Duplex scanning revealed no proximal source of emboli. An angiogram demonstrated occlusions in the medial and lateral digital arteries of the middle digit at the level of the proximal phalanx. Treatment with heparin and warfarin resulted in complete resolution of symptoms."

FURTHERMORE . . .

Wired - Nearly seventy years ago, German U-boat submarines sank millions of tons of Allied shipping, killing tens of thousands of sailors and threatening Great Britain with ruin. The key to defeating U-boats was cooperation: cargo ships and warships would clump together for mutual protection. The resulting convoys turned the tide against the German underwater menace and helped win the war for the Allies. Today convoys are making a comeback, as a tactic for deterring pirates operating along the Somali coast. Several times a month, chartered cargo vessels link up with warships for the dangerous dash into the Somali ports of Mogadishu and Merka. During World War II, convoys sailing from the U.S. to Great Britain carried everything from weapons to food to fuel. But today's convoys are hauling just one thing: donated food, enough to feed half a nation.

BBC - The Argentine Football Association is to introduce an aerosol spray to stop defenders creeping closer to the ball during a free-kick. From next year, referees will use the spray in first division matches. Referees will mark a temporary white 10 yards from the ball, which defenders cannot cross. The spray will disappear 30 seconds later. Pablo Silva, who invented the spray, got the idea when he failed to score with a free-kick at an amateur match.

Canadian Press - Ontario's Liquor Control Board is recalling an Italian wine, but not for the usual reasons. Some of the 1,500 ml bottles of 2007 D'Aquino Pinot Grigio delle Venezie are nothing but water. George Soleas, the board's vice-president of quality assurance, said yesterday there is no risk to the public. . . "It was a human error basically, it wasn't a tampering issue at all," he added. The problem was at the bottling plant where the bottles are flushed out with water.

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