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Tag: alberta

  • Lindsey Vonn Returns To The Slopes, Wins World Cup Race

    Lindsey Vonn, one of America’s best skiers, has been out of commission for a while thanks to an injured knee. It even made sure she missed out on this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. After recovering, she’s back and better than ever.

    ESPN reports that Vonn won her first race in nearly two years at a World Cup event in Alberta on Saturday. It’s also her second race since recovering from surgery. It seems that the injury didn’t slow her down as she made her winning run in 1 minute, 50 seconds.

    While Vonn won Saturday’s race, her first race since the injury didn’t go as well. On Friday, she was holding back during her first race. According to Vonn, she just wasn’t being as aggressive. On Saturday, she went back to how she usually races:

    “I tried to stay deeper in my tuck, tried to be more aggressive in some turns,” Vonn said. “I think it paid off.”

    As you might expect, Vonn’s teammates are also happy to have her back:

    “I’m so excited for Lindsey. A cool day,” Stacey Cook said. “It really helps having Lindsey back, and her competitiveness and enthusiasm for the sport. It pushes us. That’s when we thrive is when we push each other.”

    Cook took second place with Vonn’s other teammate – Julia Mancuso – taking third. In other words, Saturday’s race ended up with Americans taking all three places on the podium – a rare event.

  • Whooping Cough Outbreak In Lethbridge, Alberta

    34 cases of whooping cough have been confirmed in the last three months in Lethbridge, Alberta, and surrounding areas, according to Global News. Health officials are urging residents to get immunized from the infectious illness if they haven’t already.

    Whooping cough, which is medically known as pertussis, is a “very contagious disease caused by a type of bacteria called Bordetella pertussis,” according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). It is spread usually by being in contact with the infected who then cough or sneeze.

    The best way to prevent the infectious disease is through vaccination.

    “It’s very contagious,” Dr. Vivien Suttorp, chief medical officer for Alberta Health Services south zone, told Global News. “So individuals who haven’t been immunized within a household for example, 90 per cent of individuals in that household will get the disease. Even with schools, 50 to 80 per cent of kids within that school will get the disease as well.”

    In the U.S., the commonly acquired vaccination is actually a three-fold vaccination called DTaP or Tdap, depending on whether the individual receiving the vaccination is an infant or child or a preteen, teen, or adult. The vaccination protects from diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, and can be substituted for your regular tetanus shot.

    The last outbreak for whooping cough in Lethbridge occurred in June 2012 and led to the death of one infant.

    According to the CDC, the disease can start with a slight fever and flu-like symptoms. Progression to the severe cough so associated with the disease takes usually one to two weeks. The severe cough can be rapid and violent and last until there is no air left in the lungs and the person is forced to inhale a breath that sounds like a “whoop.” The extreme cough can leave a person very tired and even make him or her throw up.

    Suttorp said that due to the area’s low vaccination record, outbreaks are not uncommon every three to five years. The disease can be dangerous for adults but is especially dangerous for infants.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Dinosaur Tail Fossil Found In Alberta

    The fossil of a dinosaur tail was recently unearthed in Alberta, Canada. This news should excite paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts everywhere, since news like this has not been made aware to the public for quite some time. It is always exciting when humans are able to find things that they did not know existed before and whether it is a new species or more evidence of dinosaurs, it is certainly a big deal. There are several types of dinosaurs that have already been discovered, but there is also the possibility of a new species of dinosaurs being found.

    The fossil was discovered by a backhoe operator for the Tourmaline Oil Corporation. There was a construction crew working on an oil pipeline in Alberta, when all of a sudden in the middle of their work day, the team made a very rare find when discovering a dinosaur fossil during their digging. What they found was a whole part of a tail and it is possible that more of the dinosaur is buried under the rock. After it was discovered, paleontologist Matthew Vavrek was alerted and came to the scene to inspect. Upon seeing the fossil, he said “As we walked around it, we saw this whole part of a tail of a dinosaur. To see something like that is pretty incredible.” This is pretty extraordinary because paleontologists usually find fossils jumbled up, broken apart, crushed and spread out over a large area, but it is very rare to find a fossil in one piece like this one, according to CNN.

    The guy running that backhoe at the time must feel awfully proud of himself, although the happenstance discovery is ironic since other experts spend their lives trying to do what this man did on accident. After thinking he had just chipped off a section of rock, he laid the piece down and continued his excavation work. Vavrek says that if they are able to pull a whole dinosaur out of the ground, it is likely to be about mid-size-as far as dinosaurs go, although it could be larger. The Huffington Post mentions that it could take years to identify what type of dinosaur the tail belonged to, according to what early experts like Vavrek have determined.

    The plan is for technicians to use tiny jackhammer-like instruments to buzz away the dirt and reveal the stony skeleton. Even after they uncover it, it could take many years to determine what kind it is, and even longer if it is something new that has never been discovered before. This is a big discovery for the world of science, and hopefully scientists will be able to learn a lot from the finding.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgMOumzxs0s

    Image via Youtube