Playground Injuries that Cost New York City $20M

Playgrounds are great places for kids and parents to enjoy fun and quality time together. Any kid’s childhood would not be complete without them.

Residents of cities with playgrounds in place are fortunate. They can spend leisure time there without having to spend money.

New York is one city blessed with several playgrounds where families gather on weekends or whenever they have free time. Unfortunately, these play areas have also cost the city millions of dollars due to injuries.

A comptroller report known as ClaimStat revealed that in the last 10 years alone, the city of New York spent $20 million paying for some 577 claims filed against the Parks Department by parents of kids injured at the city’s playgrounds. For the period 2005 to 2014, the personal injury claims went up by 53 percent. The ClaimStat report noted that the most common injuries at playgrounds include bruises and scrapes affecting the knees and elbows. Read More

Strong Earthquake Strikes Japan

A magnitude 6.9 quake struck Japan today. Specifically, the quake occurred off the coast of north eastern Japan near Fukushima.

Immediately after the quake, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning to alert residents living near the area. But the same warning was lifted hours after.

Official reports noted that quake had a depth of about 10 kilometers and struck past eight in the morning. The epicenter was identified at 210 kilometers east of the Miyako town. No injuries or casualties were reported.

Earlier, an evacuation advisory was issued by the city of Ofunato in Iwate. More than 1,350 households were advised to evacuate and stay away from the sear right away due to the strong quake which lasted for quite some time. Read More

The Risks and Benefits of Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The past few decades have seen complementary and alternative medicine move from the fringes to the mainstream. The latest data from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH,) the research center of the US National Institutes of Health, show that in 2012, 33.2% of adults and 11.6% of children had used CAM treatment in the past 12 months. Another study found that women were five times more likely to use mind-body approaches and food supplements than men. Read More

The Plight of the Kopino

The term Kopino is derived from Korean-Filipino; its connotation, however, is a negative one- it refers to the children of Filipina Korean comfort women with Koreans who have visited the country as tourists or on short business trips.

Often forced into prostitution, the women are not much more than girls- and that’s why the topic is so disturbing- and, perhaps, why there hasn’t been enough news coverage on it. Read More

Halloween Fever In Japan

Two decades ago the idea of getting dressed up in ghoulish costumes, decorating your home with jack-o-lanterns and going door-to-door asking for candy was thought of as a bizzare western custom in Japan. Not anymore.

This weekend, the streets of Tokyo were packed with people in costume and shopfronts were adorned with witches and pumpkins – Halloween fever has hit Japan. Read More