May 21

3rd Deadly Fall this Year In Hocking Hills State Park

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20130520-230120.jpgThis year has already seen its share of falls at Hocking Hills. Today a person is dead after a fall that occurred at Cedar Falls. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, a person fell from the top of Cedar Falls around 3:30 p.m. Monday in the Hocking Hills region.

A Dayton-area man died last Saturday afternoon when he fell about 130 feet from the top of a cliff while rappelling in Hocking Hills State Forest. A report released Monday identified him as 52-year-old Peter Livingston of Centerville. Read more here.

Late last month, two separate falls at the state park left a young man dead and a young woman seriously injured. A 19-year-old Columbus man left a marked hiking trail to climb a rock face and fell about 60 feet from a cliff on April 27. In a different part of the park that day, a 23-year-old Chillicothe-area woman left a trail, slipped on the edge of a cliff and fell about 100 feet. Read more here.

Cedar Falls is among the most magnificent waterfalls in Ohio and certainly one of the most popular in the Hocking Hills. Link to the Cedar Falls trail map.

The Hocking Hills region is a less than two-hour drive from Columbus & Marietta. The region is comprised of about 15,000 acres, including about 1,500 acres of Hocking Hills State Park, about 10,000 acres of Hocking State Forest and about 1,000 acres of natural areas. There are 31 miles of trail within the six different areas in the state park. The six different areas include Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, Conkle’s Hollow, Rock House and Cantwell Cliffs, as well as Old Man’s Cave.

 

Related: Ohio Boy falls to his death at Hocking Hills. Teen Falls From Hocking Hills State Park Cliff, Dies, Check out another article from the Dispatch here.

May 15

Florida Shortens Yellow Lights, Red-Light Camera Tickets Surge

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Florida Shortens Yellow Lights, Red-Light Camera Tickets Surge

TAMPA BAY, Florida — A subtle, but significant tweak to Florida’s rules regarding traffic signals has allowed local cities and counties to shorten yellow light intervals, resulting in millions of dollars in additional red light camera fines.

The 10 News Investigators discovered the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) quietly changed the state’s policy on yellow intervals in 2011, reducing the minimum below federal recommendations. The rule change was followed by engineers, both from FDOT and local municipalities, collaborating to shorten the length of yellow lights at key intersections, specifically those with red light cameras (RLCs). Read more.

Click here to watch the news video.

Florida Shortens Yellow Lights, Red-Light Camera Tickets Surge

 

May 15

Wind farms get a pass on eagle deaths, but not oil companies

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The Obama administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind farm for killing eagles and other protected bird species, shielding the industry from liability and helping keep the scope of the deaths secret, an Associated Press investigation has found.

More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country’s wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Each death is federal crime, a charge that the Obama administration has used to prosecute oil companies when birds drown in their waste pits, and power companies when birds are electrocuted by their power lines. No wind energy company has been prosecuted, even those that repeatedly flout the law.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/14/obama-administration-gives-wind-farms-pass-on-eagle-deaths-prosecutes-oil/#ixzz2TKW0Aata

May 15

Buford Complex of the Shoulder & SLAP lesions

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I had never heard of a ‘Buford complex’ until I read the surgery report that stated I have one in my left shoulder. Present in only 1.5% of the population, A Buford complex is a congenital labral variant where the superior labrum is absent and the middle glenohumeral ligament is thickened. A Buford complex can be mistaken for a superior labral tear.

The Buford complex has previously been thought to be a normal anatomic variant with minimal clinical significance. The purpose of this study was to determine a potential correlation of an arthroscopic finding of a Buford complex and superior labrum anterior-posterior (SLAP) lesions in patients. Two hundred fifty consecutive shoulder arthroscopies performed at one institution were reviewed retrospectively. Operative reports and arthroscopic pictures were carefully inspected, with particular attention paid to descriptions of labral variations and pathology. Two hundred thirty-five reports met criteria for study inclusion. Of the 235 cases, 6 had a Buford complex (2.5%), displaying a cordlike middle glenohumeral ligament and absent anterior-superior labral tissue. Of these 6 patients, 5 had a corresponding SLAP lesion (83.3%). Of the remaining 229 patients 40 had SLAP lesions (17.5%). The significant difference between these groups (P < .003) indicates that there is a correlation of patients with Buford complexes and SLAP lesions.

Read more here.