News that Affects You: May 2010 in Review

[Mel]

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 12 (June 2010).

News that Affects You: May 2010 in Review
by Emily (bringontherain), Jessie (Asylum), Stephanie (Konstantine)

If you’re digging the warming weather (and we know you are) you may have gotten behind on breaking news from this past May. If you missed the headlines, this is what people were talking about in May 2010!

Health

Five a Day! A new study in the Journal of Pediatrics found that children with higher levels of pesticides in their body are at a greater risk for developing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). About 20-30% of our fruits and vegetables from super-markets are contaminated by pesticides, so it’s best to buy organic (which means the produce is grown naturally, without synthetic chemicals like pesticides) or to wash your produce!

Power nap = power brain. New research suggests what we’ve long known—sleep helps us to better perform, from day-to-day tasks to activities involving memory and recall. A so-called “power nap”, a nap lasting about an hour and a half, has been found to increase a person’s memory. So what’s the catch? You have to dream! Dreaming helps you to process and file information, so you can remember the important stuff and eliminate the rest.

Politics and Economy

Conservative Dems? The UK general elections were held on May 6th 2010 and resulted in a coalition government. The Conservative Party gained the most seats in the election, with the Labour Party coming in second. After discussions, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats moved to back the Conservative Party, resulting in a coalition government with David Cameron as the new Prime Minister of the UK.

[b]Financial Fallout[./B] On May 5th 2010, starting at midnight local time, plane, train, and ferry traffic in and out of the country of Greece stopped. Schools, as well as some hospitals and private businesses, closed as a nationwide strike protesting proposed spending cuts and tax increases took place. The protests, inspired by Greece’s massive national debt, quickly turned violent as demonstrators threw rocks and glass at police and set fire to public buildings. The violence resulted in deaths of three bank workers and dozens of injuries, as well as the arrest of more than 100 people.

Environment and Natural Disaster

Massive Spill. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, an enormous, ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, continues to threaten over 400 species in the Gulf, particularly along Louisiana marshlands and the coast. Estimates are widely inconsistent, ranging between 5,000 barrels (210,000 US gallons or 790,000 litres) and 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 US gallons or 16,000,000 liters) of petroleum released per day. British Petroleum chief executive Tony Hayward suggested that the impact of this massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be "very, very modest".

Ashy Airspace. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano is still disrupting air travel and trade this month. Although seismic activity seems to have slowed, and maybe even stopped, the newest ash cloud from this volcano has yet to dissipate.

For more news check out the Current Events and Debates forum, or reputable online sources like www.bbc.co.uk or www.cnn.com!