七 天 天 氣 預 報@香 港 天 文 台 於 2014 年 03 月 09 日 06 時 35 分 發 出 之 天 氣 報 告 by HKO

七 天 天 氣 預 報

天 氣 概 況 ：
東 北 季 候 風 會 在 未 來 一 兩 日 影 響 華 南 沿 岸 ， 該 區 天 
氣 持 續 清 涼 ， 風 勢 頗 大 。 該 季 候 風 將 於 本 週 中 期 稍 
為 緩 和 ， 預 料 廣 東 沿 岸 天 氣 較 為 和 暖 及 有 霧 。 而 另 
一 股 季 候 風 的 補 充 會 在 本 週 後 期 抵 達 華 南 。 

三 月 九 日 ( 星 期 日 )
風 　 ： 北 至 東 北 風 3 至 4 級 ， 稍   後   轉   吹 東 風 5 級 。 
天 氣 ： 天   氣   相   當   清   涼   。   密   雲   ，   有   幾   陣   雨   及   部   分   地   區   能   見   度   較   低   。 
氣 溫 ： 13 至 15 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 80 至 95 。

三 月 十 日 ( 星 期 一 )
風 　 ： 東 風 5 級 ， 間 中 6 級 。 
天 氣 ： 天 氣 相 當 清 涼 。 多 雲 ， 有 幾 陣 雨 ， 能 見 度 較 低 。 
氣 溫 ： 13 至 15 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 80 至 95 。

三 月 十 一 日 ( 星 期 二 )
風 　 ： 東 風 4 至 5 級 ， 初 時 離 岸 6 級 。 
天 氣 ： 大 致 多 雲 ， 有 幾 陣 雨 ， 能 見 度 較 低 。 早 上 相 當 清 涼 。 
氣 溫 ： 14 至 17 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 75 至 90 。

三 月 十 二 日 ( 星 期 三 )
風 　 ： 東 風 3 至 4 級 。 
天 氣 ： 部 分 時 間 天 色 明 朗 。 早 晚 有 幾 陣 薄 霧 。 
氣 溫 ： 16 至 20 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 70 至 95 。

三 月 十 三 日 ( 星 期 四 )
風 　 ： 東 至 東 南 風 2 至 3 級 。 
天 氣 ： 短 暫 時 間 有 陽 光 。 早 晚 沿 岸 有 霧 。 
氣 溫 ： 17 至 21 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 70 至 95 。

三 月 十 四 日 ( 星 期 五 )
風 　 ： 東 北 風 3 至 4 級 。 
天 氣 ： 大 致 多 雲 。 初 時 有 幾 陣 雨 及 能 見 度 較 低 。 
氣 溫 ： 16 至 19 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 70 至 95 。

三 月 十 五 日 ( 星 期 六 )
風 　 ： 東 至 東 北 風 4 至 5 級 。 
天 氣 ： 短 暫 時 間 有 陽 光 。 
氣 溫 ： 15 至 19 度 。
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 65 至 85 。

3 月 8 日 下 午 二 時 北 角  錄 得 之 海 水 溫 度 為 17 度 。
3 月 8 日 上 午 七 時 天 文 台  錄 得 之 土 壤 溫 度 為 ：
0.5 米 19.2 度 ；
1.0 米 20.5 度 。

七 天 天 氣 預 報 插 圖
第 一 天 插 圖 編 號 62 - 微 雨 
第 二 天 插 圖 編 號 62 - 微 雨 
第 三 天 插 圖 編 號 62 - 微 雨 
第 四 天 插 圖 編 號 60 - 多 雲 
第 五 天 插 圖 編 號 52 - 短 暫 陽 光 
第 六 天 插 圖 編 號 62 - 微 雨 
第 七 天 插 圖 編 號 52 - 短 暫 陽 光 

天氣報告@香 港 天 文 台 於 2014 年 03 月 09 日 7 時 02 分 發 出 之 天 氣 報 告 by HKO

上 午 7 時 天 文 台 錄 得：
氣 溫 ： 14 度
相 對 濕 度 ： 百 分 之 88 
天 氣 插 圖： 編 號 62 - 微 雨 

  
本 港 其 他 地 區 的 氣 溫 ：

京 士 柏              14 度 ，
黃 竹 坑              15 度 ，
打 鼓 嶺              13 度 ，
流 浮 山              13 度 ，
大 埔                 13 度 ，
沙 田                 13 度 ，
屯 門                 14 度 ，
將 軍 澳              13 度 ，
西 貢                 13 度 ，
長 洲                 13 度 ，
赤 鱲 角              15 度 ，
青 衣                 15 度 ，
石 崗                 13 度 ，
荃 灣 可 觀           13 度 ，
荃 灣 城 門 谷        14 度 ，
香 港 公 園           14 度 ，
筲 箕 灣              14 度 ，
九 龍 城              13 度 ，
跑 馬 地              15 度 ，
黃 大 仙              14 度 ，
赤 柱                 14 度 ，
觀 塘                 14 度 ，
深 水 埗              14 度 。

When Health Costs Harm Your Credit - NYTimes.com by Elizabeth Rosenthal

LIKE most people, I am generally vigilant about paying my bills — credit cards, mortgage, cellphone and so on. But medical bills have a different trajectory. I (usually) open the envelopes and peruse the amalgam of codes and charges. I sigh or swear. And set them aside for when I have time to clarify the confusion: An out-of-network charge from a doctor I know is in-network? An un-itemized laboratory bill from a doctor I’ve never heard of? A bill for a huge charge before my insurer has paid its yet unknown portion of a hospital’s unknowable fee?

I would never countenance the phrase “60 days past due” on my Visa card statement. But medical bills? Well... with the complex negotiations that determine my ultimate payment, it often takes months to understand what I actually owe.

Unfortunately, I may be playing a dangerous game. Mounting evidence shows that chaos in medical billing is not just affecting our health care but dinging the financial reputation of many Americans: While the bills themselves frequently take months to sort out, medical debts can be reported rapidly to credit agencies, and often without notification. And even small unpaid bills can severely damage credit ratings.

A mortgage initiator in Texas, Rodney Anderson of Supreme Lending, recently looked at the credit records of 5,000 applicants and found that 40 percent had medical debt in collection, with the average around $400; even worse, most applicants were unaware of their debt. Richard Cordray, director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has noted that half of all accounts reported by collection agencies now come from medical bills, and the credit record of one in five Americans is affected.

A single medical bill reported to a credit agency can easily become a “millstone around your neck” said Mark Rukavina, principal at Community Health Advisors, a health care advisory service. He added: “It will take a long time to make that right, even once the bill is paid. I’ve had mortgage brokers call me and say ‘I have these people with great credit. They’ve refinanced before, but now they’ve got this medical bill and even though they’ve paid it off, I can’t get them a good rate.’ ”

Part of the problem is that there are few standards governing medical debts: One billing office might give you — or your insurer — 60 days to pay before pursuing collection. Another might allow you to pay off a bill slowly over a year. Many will sell the debt to collection companies, which typically take a cut of the proceeds and decide when or whether to report unpaid debt to credit agencies.

The problem is accelerating for several reasons. Charges are rising. Insurance policies are requiring more patient outlays in the form of higher deductibles and co-payments. More important, perhaps, is that while doctors’ practices traditionally worked out deals for patients who had trouble paying, today many doctors work for large professionally managed groups and hospital systems whose bills are generated far away, by computer.

Both Congress and the protection bureau have been trying to better insulate patient credit scores from the inefficiencies of our market-based medical system. Various proposals have been considered to differentiate medical debt from other forms; it could be erased once it has been paid off or not reported to credit agencies at all, for example. So far, the credit industry has fought successfully against such efforts, noting that they could allow some genuine scofflaws to evade legitimate charges. But it’s also good business, since health care bills are now the largest source of business for collection companies, according to consumer protection agency officials.

Having spent the last year reporting a series on American health costs, I’ve heard plenty about credit casualties.

Gene Cavallo, 61, a New Mexico businessman who put his children through college, had always paid his bills promptly and had an excellent credit rating, until he required surgical excision of a melanoma on his shin two years ago. The more than 60 bills generated for the surgery and six months of follow-up visits — arriving sporadically and ranging from 18 cents to $17,000 — came to $110,000; his insurance covered about $70,000.

When various providers asked him to pay the remaining $40,000, he requested itemized bills and balked at some of the “ridiculously inflated prices,” such as $85 for tweezers and $20 for a box of tissues. He argued the bills point by point, and ultimately agreed to pay $25,000.

But during the negotiations some of the debt was sent to collection. Two years later, he no longer answers the daily robocalls from collection agencies and has had a couple of credit cards canceled because his score has fallen. “It was a scary thing to do because I own a business and dabble in real estate, so the ability to borrow has always been important to me. And now I have no ability, I assume, to borrow for any reason.”

Michael S., who declined to give his full name so as to protect his reputation with business clients, had to declare bankruptcy in Wisconsin more than five years ago after a fraught year in which his toddler was evaluated for what proved to be a benign neurological condition that required no treatment: “You’d get bills for several different doctors’ groups and for tests and M.R.I.s and you don’t know what they are. I was having trouble figuring out who we owed what. And then, if it goes to collection, then suddenly they’re saying we need this paid now.”

With medical expenses, unlike most other purchases, you generally don’t know the price the hospital will charge in advance. And the subsequent bills and insurance statements — so-called explanations of benefits — are often layered in obfuscation and pressure tactics.

Consider Chris Sullivan of Pennsylvania, whose $2,770 bill for an echocardiogram offered a “prompt payment” discount of 20 percent if he wrote a check within 21 days — meaning a discount for not asking questions on a bill for a test he was told would be under $300.

Another “explanation of benefits” statement notified Joe Cotugno of New York City that his two-day hospital stay for a hip replacement was billed at $99,469.70 (doctors’ fees not included). Cigna paid $68,420.53 after knocking off some $28,000 and requiring Mr. Cotugno to pay $3,018.41. So, it informed him, “You saved 96 percent.” Huh?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been studying the impact of medical billing on credit scores since 2012, acknowledging that unpaid medical bills in collection “frequently end up on consumer credit reports,” as an outgrowth of “very complex and confusing systems of figuring out who owes what after a medical procedure.” Mr. Cordray, the bureau’s director, said it would take appropriate action if harmful practices were identified.

Bills in Congress that would regulate the practices have been stalled for years. The Medical Debt Relief Act was passed by the House in 2010, but never made it to a Senate vote. After a modified version of the bill failed to pass again last year, another act was recently introduced in the Senate and House.

Meanwhile, patients are right to worry. When Matt Meyer, who owns a saddle-fitting company in New Hampshire, set up a monthly payment plan after some surgery, he was distressed to notice that the invoices came from a debt collector. “I had no idea this was considered debt,” he said, and wondered: “Are they reporting that” to a credit agency?

Good question.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/sunday-review/when-health-costs-harm-your-credit.html?ref=elisabethrosenthal&pagewanted=print

Passport Theft Adds to Mystery of Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet - NYTimes.com by Keith Bradsher

HONG KONG — Investigators trying to find out what happened to a Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared somewhere over the Gulf of Thailand on Saturday morning were examining the usual causes of plane crashes: mechanical failure, pilot error, bad weather. But the discovery that two of the passengers were carrying stolen passports also raised the unsettling possibility of foul play.

As of Saturday night, there was little to go on: no wreckage of the jet, a Boeing 777-200 with 239 people aboard, and other than a 12-mile oil slick on the surface of the gulf, no clue that a crash had even taken place. The airline said the plane had recently passed inspection, and Malaysia’s deputy minister of transport, Aziz bin Kaprawi, said the authorities had not received any distress signals from the aircraft. The plane was flying at 35,000 feet in an area of the world where it would not have been expected to encounter threatening weather.

After officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed that the names of an Italian and an Austrian listed on the manifest of the missing flight matched the names on two passports reported stolen in Thailand, officials emphasized that the investigation was in its earliest stages and that they were considering all possibilities.

“We are not ruling out anything,” the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, told reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Saturday night. “As far as we are concerned right now, it’s just a report.”

A senior American intelligence official said law enforcement and intelligence agencies were investigating the matter. But so far, they had no leads.

“At this time, we have not identified this as an act of terrorism,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing inquiry. “While the stolen passports are interesting, they don’t necessarily say to us that this was a terrorism act.”

Operating as Flight MH370, the plane left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, just after midnight on Saturday, headed for Beijing. Air traffic control in Subang, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, lost contact with the plane almost two hours later, at 2:40 a.m., the airline said.

That timeline seemed to suggest that the plane stayed in the air for two hours — long enough to fly not only across the Gulf of Thailand but also far north across Vietnam. But Fredrik Lindahl, the chief executive of Flightradar24, an online aircraft tracking service, said that the last radar contact had been at 1:19 a.m., less than 40 minutes after the flight began.

A Malaysia Airlines spokesman said on Saturday evening that the last conversation between the flight crew and air traffic control in Malaysia had been around 1:30 a.m., but he reiterated that the plane had not disappeared from air traffic control systems in Subang until 2:40 a.m. China Central Television said that according to Chinese air traffic control officials, the aircraft never entered Chinese airspace.

A European counterterrorism official said the Italian man, Luigi Maraldi, 37, called his parents from Thailand, where he is vacationing, after discovering that someone by the same name was listed on the passenger manifest. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Maraldi’s passport was stolen last August, and he reported the theft to the Italian police. The counterterrorism official said the passport of the Austrian man, Christian Kozel, 30, was stolen about two years ago.

The European official said he was surprised that it had been possible to check in with stolen passports at the Kuala Lumpur airport and that an alert should have popped up on the airline agent’s computer.

At a late-night news conference in Beijing after the arrival of a team of employees to assist families of the passengers in China, a spokesman said the missing plane had no history of malfunctions. “It was last inspected 10 days ago, well before scheduled service,” said the spokesman, Ignatius Ong. “It was all in top condition.”

When pressed about possible security lapses, the spokesman repeated several times that the airline had no confirmation from the Malaysian authorities that passengers had boarded with stolen passports.

Malaysia, the United States and Vietnam dispatched ships and aircraft to the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand on Saturday to join an intensive search, and China said it had sent a Coast Guard ship that was due to arrive Sunday afternoon. The Chinese Ministry of Transport said a team of scuba divers who specialize in emergency rescues and recovery had been assembled on Hainan, the southern island-province, to prepare to go on Sunday to the area where the airliner may have gone down.

Boeing said in a statement that it was assembling a team of technical experts to advise the national authorities investigating the disappearance of the aircraft.

Lai Xuan Thanh, the director of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, said a Vietnamese Navy AN26 aircraft had discovered the oil slick toward the Vietnam side of the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand. The oil slick is suspected to have come from the missing plane, he added.

Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, reported that the Chinese prime minister, Li Keqiang, called his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, telling him, “The urgent task now is to quickly clarify the situation and use a range of means to enhance the intensity of search and rescue.”

Malaysia Airlines said the plane had 227 passengers aboard, including two infants, and an all-Malaysian crew of 12. The passengers included 154 citizens from China or Taiwan, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans, as well as two citizens each from Canada, New Zealand and Ukraine and one each from Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia.

The family of one of the Americans aboard the flight, Philip Wood, an IBM employee in Kuala Lumpur, said they had little information beyond what had been reported in the news media.

“We’re relying on our Lord,” Mr. Wood’s father, Aubrey, said from his home in Keller, Tex. “He’s the one who carries the load.”

The tickets to the holders of the stolen Austrian and Italian passports were sold by China Southern Airlines, which has a code share agreement with Malaysia Airlines, according to China Southern’s account on Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblog platform. China Southern said it sold five other tickets to the flight, to the Dutch passenger, the Ukrainians, and one Malaysian and one Chinese passenger.

Arnold Barnett, a longtime Massachusetts Institute of Technology specialist in aviation safety statistics, said that before the disappearance of the plane, Malaysia Airlines had suffered two fatal crashes, in 1977 and 1995. Based on his estimate that Malaysia Airlines operates roughly 120,000 flights a year, he calculated that the airline’s safety record was consistent with that of airlines in other fairly prosperous, middle-income countries but had not yet reached the better safety record of airlines based in the world’s richest countries.

Malaysia has not been targeted in terrorist attacks in recent decades, although the 1977 crash was attributed to a hijacking. But some of the planning for the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States was done in Malaysia, which has a relatively lax visa policy. The country is a major trading nation and a natural meeting place for a variety of groups involved in illicit activities. In addition, the main planner of the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002, Riduan Isamuddin, is Malaysian and is currently being held at Guantánamo prison.

Mr. Ahmad of Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that there had been early speculation the plane had landed safely somewhere along the route to Beijing. But in a telephone interview before reporting the sighting of the oil slick, Mr. Lai expressed concern about the aircraft’s fate.

“The possibility of an accident is high,” he said.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/B/Bradsher,%20Keith?ref=keithbradsher&pagewanted=print

到底孩子有沒有病？ by 嚴浩

（續昨）醫生對這位小朋友的診斷模稜兩可：「專注力不足，但非過動症，是亞氏保加症邊緣……」到底孩子有沒有病？這是個分界線，但以上的話根本就不是斷症，醫生似乎自己也未能說服自己，孩子的症狀可能根本還沒有形成病，可是馬上就把精神科的藥開下來了，有必要嗎？這是否一個負責任的行為？連我這種人都會及時上網瞭解一下最新的健康資訊，很容易就看到荷蘭「注意力缺陷多動症（ADHD）研究中心」的發現：「食物是引起ADHD的主要原因，研究發現，百分之六十四有ADHD症狀的孩子是食物引起的。」


醫生在開藥之前是否可以多一份謹慎？ 在未能確診是病之前有一個灰色地帶，屬於"benefit of the doubt"，即「從不肯定中帶來的利益」，大部分還沒有成為病之前的「病」都可以通過改變飲食和生活方式得到改善，這就叫「從不肯定中帶來的利益」。


孩子媽媽：「……我才明白甚麼專業人士、醫生、職業冶療員、老師，都不能保護我兒，最後把關的是我自己。從那時起每天讓孩子吃些魚油丸，不間斷吃了兩年，我不再給兒子標籤，每人成長有快有慢，但都應該是正常。」


孩子媽媽決定自己把關是完全可以理解的，但她是否知道這個關應該設在甚麼地方？社會上主流醫學從來把藥作為恢復健康的唯一手段，從來不教育大眾在病成為「病」之前通過改變飲食和生活方式改善健康，結果社會和個人都要承擔越來越重的醫療費用，健康卻未必得到改善。（待續）

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Source: http://hkm.appledaily.com/detail.php?guid=18649827&category_guid=vice&sup_id=12187389&category=daily&issue=20140309

多餘的親暱 by 李碧華

什麼叫「多餘動作」？


台中發生一宗光天化日下搶劫案。49歲單身富婆在新光三越停車場取車時，兩名埋伏多時的男匪徒聲稱有手槍，指嚇下推上車，搶去一萬八千元（新台幣）現金，意猶未盡，又恐嚇會拍下裸照，除非配合之後的行動。二男開着她的平治房車到人流密集的逢甲商圈，威逼胡假裝情侶，走入金舖刷卡，知她信用卡額度是廿萬，便買下三條總值十九萬元的金項鏈。


期間，胡多番向店員暗示，更在客戶資料卡上寫「請報警」字樣──可是店員一點也沒在意。匪徒得手，胡「借尿遁」跑回金舖求救，已腳軟蹲地。匪徒乘的士逃去。警方翻看閉路電視畫面追捕。一匪後自首，這是後話。


──我們也看電視畫面，只見富婆是挽着匪徒臂彎進店的，靠得近又有商有量，沒慌張神色，遞飲料時富婆還自動幫他插吸管……扮，有必要那麼「好戲」嗎？受驚失常了？抑或無端投入？過份親暱體貼動作，就是把自己往絕境裏推，誰會聯想到「被挾持」？


所以，人有時敗給「多餘」，或斯德哥爾摩症候群。

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Source: http://hkm.appledaily.com/detail.php?guid=18649822&category_guid=vice&sup_id=12187389&category=daily&issue=20140309

鍾芳婷 by 陶傑

今年奧斯卡，向過去一年逝世的影人致敬，除了因吸毒早死的荷夫曼，還有女明星鍾芳婷。


鍾芳婷是令人嚮往的女子名──顯然是民國時代手筆，對美好的事物，那時的中國人會像裁縫量衣一樣，在中文的詞彙裏也尋找相對最好的布料。「鍾芳婷」像一幅絲綢的衣料，匹配一個叫Joan Fontaine的氣質型英國女星。


那時的譯名多是這樣：梅蕙絲（Mae West）、鍾活華（Joan Woodward）、費雯麗（Vivien Leigh）、夏蕙蘭（Olivia de Havilland），還有一個男明星也因而受惠，名叫雷米蘭（Ray Milland）。


鍾芳婷最令人難忘的戲，公認是希治閣的「蝴蝶夢」，跟羅蘭士奧利花做對手，Rabecca這個女人，是貴族羅蘭士奧利花的前妻，她在戲中完全沒有出過場。鍾芳婷飾演他的新妻子。他不斷回憶亡妻，鍾芳婷卻受到大宅女管家的威嚇與滋擾，開始覺得前妻之死很離奇。「蝴蝶夢」裏的羅華奧利花夢遊般的獨白，謎樣的眼神，鍾芳婷的少女戲蒙在一片陰影裏。


「蝴蝶夢」上映時是一九四一年，看這齣戲，不能不令人想起戲院外的亂世，這一年，希特拉已經席捲歐洲，日本侵略了半壁中國，幾個月之後，珍珠港也爆炸了。然而「蝴蝶夢」裏鍾芳婷的世界都在平和與純真之間，暗藏着顛覆和殺機。


鍾芳婷還有一個當明星的姊姊夏蕙蘭，兩姐妹下半生交惡。夏蕙蘭比妹妹紅得早，但在這一年，兩姐妹都得到奧斯卡提名。然後，兩姐妹有各自的說法：鍾芳婷說，七年之後妹妹終於得獎了，我在頒獎禮上想跟她握手，但她不理我。夏蕙蘭說：那幾年，她在外面說我老公的壞話，而頒獎禮人山人海，個個都想握手，我沒看見她。


鍾芳婷和夏蕙蘭交惡，持續半世紀，是荷李活史上的一宗「史詩之仇」（An Epic Feud）。這半世紀裏，歐洲的一半陷落了，日本遭到原子彈浩劫，遠東餓死了四千萬人。這對美麗的明星姐妹，卻繼續仇怨對方，而且她們的仇恨成為娛樂版不朽的追逐。美麗的女人有特權，而且活在美國同一時代，你看上官雲珠和周璇。你說，人世間怎無因果的奇緣。

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Source: http://hkm.appledaily.com/detail.php?guid=18649818&category_guid=vice&sup_id=12187389&category=daily&issue=20140309