14
Monday, September 17, 2012
Science
International
Bali News
International
NYC bans big, sugary drinks at restaurants
AP Photo/Fish Eye Films, John Weller
In this Dec. 1, 2006 photo released by Fish Eye Films, a small group of emperor penguin stand on the edge of an ice drift in the Ross Sea in the Antarctic.
Plans for giant Antarctic marine sanctuary falter Associated Press Writer
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Antarctica’s Ross Sea is often described as the most isolated and pristine ocean on Earth, a place where seals and penguins still rule the waves and humans are about as far away as they could be. But even there it has proven difficult, and maybe impossible, for nations to agree on how strongly to protect the environment. The United States and New Zealand have spent two years trying to agree on an Alaska-sized marine sanctuary where fishing would be banned and scientists could study climate change. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took a strong interest in the outcome, regularly prodding diplomats, and New Zealand recently sent a delegation to Washington to reach a tentative deal. That compromise, over a region that accounts for less than 2 percent of New Zealand’s fishing industry, flopped this month when senior New
Zealand politicians rejected it behind closed doors. The U.S. and New Zealand have now sent competing plans to the 25 countries that meet annually each October to decide the fate of Antarctica’s waters. Their inability to agree greatly increases the chances that nothing will get done. Evan Bloom, director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, said the U.S. put a great deal of effort into its reserve proposal because it believes the Ross Sea is the best place on Earth for sci-
entists to carry out studies away from the influence of mankind. “If you can’t do it in Antarctica, where can you do it?” said Bloom. Both countries advocated for marine sanctuaries. The differences between the two plans seem small on a map, but they center on the areas of the sea where marine life is most abundant. The U.S. does not have fishing interests in the Ross Sea, though fish caught there often end up in high-end American restaurants, marketed as Chilean sea bass.
‘UFO Mothership’ Near Space Station a Trick of the Light
Has the International Space Station inadvertently caught sight of an “Interstellar” Space Station hovering nearby? Or is a blurry streak that UFO hunters have found in new NASA footage filmed out the window of the space station merely a window reflection? Let the most likely explanation win. On Sept. 11, YouTube user danielofdoriaa posted footage from the ISS’s live camera feed, which streams over the Web. In his annotated footage, he points out a faint, elongated white shape with a neat row of faint white dots next to it set against the blackness of space just below the curve of the Earth. It is an “amazing UFO mothership letting out an orb fleet on ISS live feed,” the YouTuber explains in the video title. That would be amazing indeed. However, ufologist Marc D’Antonio, chief photo and video analyst for an international organization called the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), has analyzed thousands of ISS photos and videos alleged to contain UFOs, and he says the faint white marks in this one are a common sight: They’re reflections off of the window of the ISS. “Basically when you’re looking at any object, if there’s a window between you and the object, the window is always suspect. Your first move in trying to identify the object is to try to eliminate that it’s a reflection,” D’Antonio told Life’s Little Mysteries. [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs] By his reckoning, this video doesn’t make it past that first elimination round. For one thing, the object in question is in a different plane of focus from Earth, he said. A camera set to focus on maximum distance would capture both the Earth and any other faraway object in the same focal plane. This implies the white blur is actually not far away, but instead nearby: a reflection hitting the camera from the window inches in front of it. Second, the fact that this object raised no alarm bells with the ISS crew or ground control suggests they’ve seen it all before. “It was simply assumed by the ground control folks that this was a reflection in the window, because most of them are,” D’Antonio said.
3
Ayurvedic Medicine
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK — Over a decade, New York City has outlawed smoking in bars and offices, banned trans fats, and forced fast-food restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus. Now, the Big Apple has set its sights on sugary beverages with a first-in-the-nation rule barring restaurants, cafeterias and concessions stands from selling soda and other calorie-rich drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces. Will it make a difference, or be just another health lifestyle initiative that people ignore? Public health experts around the nation — and the restaurant and soft-drink industry — will be watching closely to see whether the new restrictions on supersized colas, adopted Thursday by the city’s Board of Health, lead to changes in the way New Yorkers eat and drink. No other U.S. city has tried to fight the obesity epidemic by restricting portion sizes at restaurants, but city officials said they were willing to take dramatic action as a way of getting a skeptical public to embrace the idea that empty-calorie foods are a menace. Mayor Michael Bloomberg didn’t mince words Thursday in describing the role that sugary beverages have played in the obesity epidemic: He likened the restrictions on caloric soft drinks to banning lead paint, and cited the surge in young children being diagnosed with a type of diabetes more commonly found in overweight adults. “We are dealing with a crisis ... we need to act on this,” said Board of Health member Deepthiman Gowda, a professor of medicine at Columbia University. So will New Yorkers listen, or simply get their next 20-ounce soda at the many thousands of convenience stores and supermarkets not covered by the rule? By nature, many are likely to see the restrictions as an infringement on personal liberty. A New York Times poll last month showed that six in 10 New Yorkers opposed the rule. “It’s a slippery slope. When does it stop? What comes next?” said Sebastian Lopez, a college student from Queens, adding that even though he isn’t much of a soda drinker, “This is my life. I should be able to do what I want.”
Monday, September 17, 2012
IBP/Eka Adhiyasa
Workers finished the hotel project in Badung regency, Bali Island. Implementation of hotel moratorium in three regions in Bali such as Gianyar, Denpasar and Badung should be supported by policy of regional government in the regency and municipality.
Moratorium hotel
Regional government should not only pursue revenues Bali Post
MANGUPURA - Implementation of hotel moratorium in three regions in Bali such as Gianyar, Denpasar and Badung should be supported by policy of regional government in the regency and municipality. It is required the sincere acceptability of the government having the interests in it, so they will not only pursue the regionally generated revenue (PAD). A consultant of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Myra P. Gunawan, said the regency/municipal government should give way to the interest of Bali. Although, each region wished to continuously grow the region. “Every regional leader indeed wants to develop its region. Therefore, it will not be willing to sincerely pass the investment that can potentially increase their revenue. I see it happening in some tourism regions in Indonesia, including in Bali,” said Myra recently. She said it needed the togetherness of regencies and municipality for the sake of sustainable tourism development. Each investor would choose to invest in the regions having a clear market. “It is required the sincerity of regional leaders to drive investment to other regencies that are still vacant. In other words, they should think of neighbors as well, so that equity can be realized,” she said. She said the benchmark of tourism success should be changed. It should no longer refer to the quantity of tourist visit, but be more focused on resulting impacts, whether the tourism growth could improve the welfare of community or only ben-
efit the other countries only. “Tourism development is not the objective of tourism, but it is a means used to reach the welfare of society,” she said. She said that tourism should be positioned as a way to enhance and promote the economic and social welfare. However, many people assumed that benchmark for the success of tourism development was the quantity of tourist visit or the increase in the number of visits. “A large number of tourist visit will be no use if afflicting many people. Remember, tourism is for Bali, not vice versa that Bali for tourism, it has been going so far,” she said. Myra assessed that mindset of the government considering the foreign investment as a measure of development was still wrong. The coming of foreign investment should consider many aspects. The government should think of a good investment for people, benchmark and benefit for the community. “Indeed, foreign investment brings in benefits, but it has not been optimal. Similarly, we must also realize if it was not entirely their faults,” she said. The Dean of the Faculty of Tourism, Udayana University, I Putu
Anom, previously confirmed the number of hotel accommodation in Bali had been over capacity since the period of 2000-2010. “Based on the results of our study, the excessive number of hotel rooms led to a price war as having been going on since 2010. We just recommend the establishment of homestays at tourism village. But, it has been violated,” he said. According to him, so far the addition of hotel rooms by the regency/ municipal government was always based on the number of tourist visit to Bali so the quality of tourists making a visit tended to decrease. Actually, calculating the carrying capacity was not based on the quantity of tourists coming to Bali. “Today, many parties see that arrival of tourists exceeded the total amount of rooms so they consider it is time to add more room,” he said. He mentioned the concept of calculating the carrying capacity of Bali tourism should prioritize the local needs such as the need for water and land. Later on, it was time to take advantage of it for tourism. After that, it would be known about the amount of land and water that could be used for the needs of tourists. (kmb27)
HINDU possesses a medical science that has been very renowned from time immemorial, namely Ayurvedic medicine. Ayurvedic medicine refers to the contents of the scripture Ayurveda born thousands of years ago. Ayurvedic scripture denotes a part of Upaweda in the group of Smriti Vedas. However, the Ayurvedic scripture is often confused with Yajur Veda, the scripture containing sacrificial formula that also belongs to Smriti Veda. Yajur Veda itself is a scripture discussing about Yajña or ceremony. Author of the book Usada Bali (Balinese Traditional Healing), the late Prof. IGN Nala, once said that to help the healing, the Ayurvedic healers usually provided natural herbal medicine having few side effects. Almost all plants existing around us could be eaten, they were medicine. On that account, all plants having efficacy for healing were necessary to be inventoried and developed. In the meantime, the Dean of Faculty of Health Science, Hindu University of Indonesia (Unhi), I Nyoman Prastika, said that based Taru Premana palm-manuscript there were a number of beneficial herbs having the efficacy to cure diseases. Parts of those plants taken advantage consisted of its leaf, flower, fruit, bark or roots. Each herb had different quality such as cool, warm and mild. To know whether a particular plant had a cold, warm or mild quality, it could be observed from the color of its flower and flavor. For instance, white, yellow and green flower had warm quality. If their flowers were red and blue, these plants had cool efficacy. Meanwhile, if the flower was multi-colors, they could be ensured to have mild efficacy. Likewise, if they tasted sweet and sour, its quality might be warm. However, if they tasted bitter and hot, they had cool efficacy. Then, if they were tasteless, they belonged to mild plant. In herbal medicine system, added Prastika, people would be healthy if they consumed (ahara) nutritious healthy foods regularly, had adequate rest or sleep (nidra), and behaved (vihara) healthy. If the three aspects had been committed well, but it was still found health disturbances, then a herbal treatment (ausadhi) was required. Preparation method of herbal medicine could be divided into three kinds, namely grinding, spraying and boiled. Its healing method could be performed by drinking and dropping for internal healing, while the spraying or applying the paste for external use. Then, what kinds of plant could be used to cure diseases? Prastika said that virtually all edible plants by animals could be eaten by humans. Whether the herbs had medicinal quality, they could be observed from the color of their flowers and flavor as mentioned above. Similarly, the plants frequently used for spices in the cooking contained drug efficacy. Red ginger for example, was good to increase warmth of the body as well as to stimulate or maintain immunity. If red ginger added with the flowers of carambola, bark of tamarind and kalmegh leaves, they could be used to accelerate breathing and relieve cough. Meanwhile, to break up kidney stones and cure colic, people could also use herbal medicine. Its ingredients consisted of roots of reed, roots of palm tree, root of areca nut tree and added with palm sugar. All materials were thoroughly boiled. Afterward, its decoction water was drunk in the morning and afternoon. Herbal remedies could also cope with cardiac palpitations. Its ingredients comprised the soy beans, green beans, ginger, cumin, fennel, bidara upas (Merremia mammosa) leaf, coriander and pulasari (Alyxia Stellata). All ingredients should be boiled and then water of its decoction was drunk regularly. Meanwhile, Balinese traditional healing used several palmleaf manuscripts as reference. One of them was Lontar Usada Tiwang. This manuscript described about various types of diseases along with their treatments. Tiwang conveyed numerous symptoms in the form of disorder on the function of organ. There were several types of tiwang presented in the manuscripts such as tiwang utara, tiwang tojos, tiwang wedul, tiwang pemali pepasangan, tiwang wong, and tiwang rajasa. Prastika added that tiwang pemali pepasangan had symptoms like prickling pain in the chest and on the back. Being no resistant to the pain, the sufferers often groaned. The disease itself could be treated by means of bark of rauvolfia, temu tis (Curcuma purpurascens), grilled coconut, hazelnut and fennel. It was applied by spraying its paste. (BTN/kmb)