This week we’ll learn about pregnant women who binge drink in Alaska, that watching too much World Cup soccer can get you killed, how Italians won’t go anywhere without missing their daily espresso, what to do to get away with murder in the U.S., and why writing Sherlock Holmes novels no longer require licensing fees.
WEEKLY REVIEW
Pregnant women in Alaska are 20 percent more likely to binge drink
That’s compared to national average, which is why free pregnancy tests will be made available in bars and restaurants across the state starting from December 2014.
“This is not a strategy for the chronic alcoholic who is drinking regardless of whatever message they see,” said Jody Allen Crowe, who founded a Minnesota organization that leads a similar program and is helping with the project. “This is really focused on the 50 percent of unexpected pregnancies to find out they are pregnant as early as possible.”
Alaska has the highest rate of fetal alcohol syndrome in the U.S. and the current program to combat this occurrence is slated to run for two years on a $400,000 budget.
A 25-year-old man in China was found dead in his home after staying up for days to watch live World Cup football matches.
Doctors at the Hospital of Xiangcheng ruled that the death was related to sleep deprivation.
Chinese doctors have warned in the past about the dangers of sleep deprivation and the recent death of the 25-year-old in the city of Suzhou is not the first case of people dying in the country because of watching sports.
Hospitals saw a surge of patients during the 2006 and 2010 World Cups held in Germany and South Africa respectively. In 2012 during the Euro Cup, one fan subjected himself to 11 days in a row without sleep. He also died from physical exhaustion.
Coffee in Space!
When Italian astronaut Luca Pometano returned to Earth after his mission to the International Space Station (ISS) he was quick to point out that one of the things he missed the most was his daily espresso. Well, his suffering will soon be but a memory as Lavazza, an Italian coffee making company, heard about the spaceman’s plight.
The company has now created the first ever zero-gravity coffee machine they aptly call the ISSpresso maker. This autumn, Italian Air Force Captain Samantha Cristoforetti will bring the 20 kilo thirst clincher with her to the ISS on her mission.
According to the company, designing a zero-gravity coffee machine presented itself with some rather peculiar challenges and several parts had to made in reinforced materials to prevent the gadget from exploding in space.
A harsh defense
Several states in the U.S. have adopted the so-called “castle doctrine,” a self-defense law which makes it much tougher for prosecutors to argue premeditated murder in many cases as homeowners are allowed to use deadly force when they feel threatened.
The latest tragedy involves a drunken argument between friends in Colorado that ended with the fatal shooting of one of the men. Prosecutor Pete Hautzinger said he’s frustrated that the state’s “Make My Day” law stops him from charging the shooter because it took place in the shooter’s home.
“These grown men, otherwise basically upstanding, law-abiding citizens, are acting like drunken children, and as a result, a good man got killed, and I can’t hold anyone accountable for it in the criminal justice system,” Hautzinger said.
Elementary Watson!
An overruled appeal by the 7th Circuit Court in Chicago opens up the field for anyone to dust off their screenplays, movie scripts, short stories, or novels featuring the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty companion Dr Watson, created by Arthur Conan Doyle.
All 46 stories and four novels written by Doyle before 1923, and all their characters, are now in the public domain. Leslie Klinger took the Conan Doyle Estate to court when he was asked to pay licensing fees. He won the battle in 2013 and now the appeals court has upheld that ruling.
Klinger said he was very, very pleased with the decision and he hopes his own anthology could be published in November 2014. There are still 10 stories written by Doyle after 1923 still protected by copyright until 2022. Then anyone can write whatever they want about Holmes and Watson.
