“A sea of boats”

This chapter describes how, after both towers of the World Trade Center fell, Lower Manhattan had become an achromatic world churning with dust and paper. Desperate, ashy people pressed up against the railings along the water's edge. Though “a sea of boats” had already rallied — tugs, tenders, ferries, and more, pushing into slips and against the seawall to rescue as many as they could — more boats were needed. Now, just before 10:45 a.m., the Coast Guard formalized the rescue work already under way by officially calling for a full-scale evacuation of Lower Manhattan. At 11:02 a.m., the Coast Guard's evacuation calls were echoed by New York City's then mayor, Rudolph Giuliani. At this point, the mission grew exponentially. Now it was not only those caught in the immediate aftermath that needed transportation, but “everyone south of Canal Street.” In fact, workers were streaming out of buildings much farther north than Canal, all looking for a way home. While these people might not have been in immediate danger — though even that was unclear, given that the extent of the attacks was still unknown — they were still stranded, disoriented, and reeling.

Creole Sketches

New Orleans in 1878 was the most exotic and cosmopolitan city in North America. An international port, with more than 200,000 inhabitants, it was open to French, Spanish, Mexican, South American, and West Indian cultural influences, and home to a thriving population descended from free African Americans. It was also a battleground in the fight against yellow fever (malaria) and in the political upheavals that followed the end of Reconstruction. The continued influx of Anglo-Americans and the renewed ascendancy of white supremacists threatened to overwhelm the local blend of languages, races, and cultures that enlivened the unique Creole character of the city. Writing for an English-language newspaper, Lafcadio Hearn presented the speech, charm, and humor of the Creolized natives on the other side of Canal Street, and illustrated his sketches with woodcut cartoons — the first of their kind in any Southern paper. These vignettes, published in the New Orleans Daily Item during 1878-1880, capture a traditionalist urban world and its colorful characters with a delicate and sympathetic understanding.

Radon and thoron concentrations and resulting dose in air of southeast Baghdad regions

The levels of radon, thoron and their progeny concentrations in Al-Nayriya, Al-Musbah Street, Nawab Al-dhubat and Al-mashtel, as well as Canal Street in southeast Baghdad were studied by using The Twin Cup Dosimeter. A total of 15 samples selected from 5 regions (3 samples from each region) in Baghdad city have been placed in the dosimeters for 100 day. The average radon and thoron concentrations were found to be 45.47 and 43.15 Bq/m3 respectively. Their average progeny concentrations were found to be 4.91 and 1.16 mWL.The dose received by persons living in the studied areas is less than the internationally permissible limits, which were determined by the ICRP of 3-10 mSv /y.