Accidents and Natural Disasters

The week wasn't particularly pleasant with misfortune playing a large role in many tragedies.

Accidents

We begin the week with the world looking on as it was feared nearly 700 people had drowned off the coast of Libya after a human smuggling vessel sunk with the only progress being the captain and his crew being arrested. The EU held an emergency meeting regarding the tragedy however the outcome has been criticized as been inadequate. Elsewhere in the world 7 people were reported dead and 17 trapped in a flooded coal mine in China.

Older tragedies made news with robot's at the Fukushima nuclear power plant capturing images of a strange green glow and even further back to one of histories most notorious accidents one of the remnants, a deckchair from the Titanic, was sold for $190,000.

Natural Disasters

Mother nature proved a destructive force earlier in the week with Tsunami warnings raised for Japan's southern Okinawa island after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the Easter Taiwan. Another earthquake, 6.3 magnitude, was recorded between Nelson and Kaikoura in New Zealand's south island. However nature wasn't done with the Calbuco volcano erupting and sending plumes of smoke and ash into the atmosphere in southern Chile forcing evacuations of surrounding areas.

On the biological front new warnings were raised after it was discovered that Ebola, now thought to be under control, could still be spread by sex with the CDC asking previous victims to abstain from sex. Good news also followed on the Ebola front when a monkey was cured with a new experimental drug along with more good news of a clinical trial coming to an end offering a malaria vaccine. Meanwhile in Iowa 5 million hens are to be euthanized after a bird flu outbreak. We end the week with man doing as much damage to nature with the deteriorating quality of air in China under more scrutiny over the last few months as the second largest economy continues to plow ahead but it's not alone with growing economy Delhi claiming the most polluted air.

Need to Know - #Ebola

The largest outbreak of Ebola has been gaining speed spreading beyond it's usual West African confines with over 1300 cases of Ebola to date.

Outbreak Reach

Original reports of the outbreak came from Guinea spreading to neighbouring countries Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Since the outbreak infected foreign nationals have been pulled out of the infected areas for treatment in their respective countries with an infected Spanish priest flown to Madrid for treatment along with 2 infected American doctors flown back to the US for treatment.

There were a few scares when Mount Sinai Hospital in New York isolated a patient displaying similar symptoms but has since been declared non Ebola related. Another scare came from Gatwick airport in the UK where a women collapsed and died after a flight from West Africa but this too has been cleared as non Ebola related.

Symptoms

Ebola is one of those nightmare inducing viruses with the infected often bleed from various orifices and normally has a 90% fatality rate, however, it is not airborne and requires contact with bodily fluids of the infected. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function along with internal and external bleeding. It can take anywhere from 2 to 21 days for the infected to show symptoms.

International Response

There are rumours of a new serum been used on 1 of the 2 American doctors infected to fight the virus, however, they are the first human's to try the cure as it was previously only tested on monkeys. The FDA has also given the green light to test an Ebola vaccine while the US has sent more health experts to help combat the outbreak.

Besides the quarantine of the infected various organizations have got involved with the World Bank launching an Ebola fund for emergency assistance. As the outbreak continues to spread non affected countries have tried to limit the possibilities of further spread with the US ordering Diplomats and their families to leave Liberia after Liberian President declared Ebola an emergency. 

Tech Keeping Tabs

It was revealed this week that all your private information is there for Facebook's amusement and Government perusal.

Internet

It was revealed this week that Facebook had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million users in an experiment on "emotional contagion" for 1 week in January 2012. Naturally the backlash was swift but Facebook addressed the issue stating that they "care about the emotional impact of Facebook" however this hasn't quelled the masses with the UK data regulator probing the experiment.

In Google news, Google chair Eric Schmidt reportedly visited Cuba. It was announced that Google would shut down it's other social network Orkut, no word on Google+. Google will face claims of spying on WiFi networks after the supreme court refused to hear it's street view appeal.

After one year the UK's porn filter now blocks 1 in 5 sites most of which aren't related to pornography. Speaking of a bit of naughty, a music industry site was hacked and redirected to the file haring site The Pirate Bay.

Bitcoin had a busy week when the entire haul confiscated from Silk Road was auctioned off to one bidder but California was left embarrassed and had to update it's laws after it was revealed that Bitcoin was illegal in the state.

Space

NASA successfully tested a new "flying saucer" vehicle which could be used in future missions to Mars. In closer to earth news 2 Astronauts had their heads shaved on board the ISS after losing a soccer bet and finally pictures have also been released from the ISS of Hurricane Arthur growing along the US Eastern seaboard.

Security

While there are serious threats in the world with the energy sector facing attacks from Russian hackers it was Government overreach that raised the most concern's with the FBI and CIA having joined the NSA in so called "backdoor" searches of Americans while the new NSA chief downplayed fears claiming Edward Snowden's leaks are "manageable". New reports on the NSA spying scandal have revealed that the NSA was allowed to spy on all but 4 countries but never fear because an "independent privacy board" says it's alright for the NSA to do what it does.

Science

And if all that security news doesn't make you paranoid, the World Health Organization called for more drastic measures to stop the recent deadly outbreak of Ebola. But that's not all because the CDC are trying to retrace events to see how several scientists came into contact with Anthrax. Never fear if it all comes to an end we can always rebuild you after it was announced that scientists have figured out how to grow blood vessels in 3D printed organs, as long as we don't run out of ink.