PHOENIX (AP) — When things go from bad to really bad for wildland firefighters, their last best hope rests with a folded emergency fire shelter they all carry wherever they go.

But the shelters are not a surefire way to live through a raging wildfire, as the deaths of 19 Arizona firefighters on Sunday shows. They work only under the best of circumstances, despite redesigns intended to make them more effective.

"It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst conditions," said Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo. "Under certain conditions there's usually only sometimes a 50 percent chance that they survive."

Nineteen members of a 20-pershot Hotshot crew from Prescott's fire department died despite using their shelters, a tent-like contraption made of fire-resistant material. It is designed to reflect heat and trap cool breathable air inside for a few minutes while a wildfire burns over a person.

But its success depends on the firefighters being in a cleared area away from fuels and not in the direct path of a raging inferno of heat and hot gasses. That apparently wasn't the case Sunday in the hills about the community of Yarnell, about 95 miles northwest of Phoenix.

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In this April 12, 2012 photo provided by the Cronkite News, Granite Mountain Hotshots crew members t …

"If you're in an area with a lot of flame contact, high temperatures for a long duration, that's when it's most challenged," said Tony Petrilli, a Forest Service project leader in charge of shelters and protective equipment based in Montana.

Fire shelters have been used in the U.S. since the 1960s. The latest version of the shelter American wildland firefighters use was designed in the early 2000s and all state and federal crews were using it by 2010. Shelters often look like a small pup tent made of aluminum foil.

It's actually much more complex than that. The outer layer is made up of silica cloth that can withstand high temperature covered by aluminum foil. The inside layer is lightweight fiberglass also laminated to aluminum foil.

The shelter reflects heat but doesn't stand up well to direct flames, Petrilli said. Firefighters who are trapped and can't escape to a safe area are trained to identify spots where it can be best used in a pinch.

But they need to find a clear area away from a slope the flames are racing up, such as a cleared fire road or a rock slide area. And they've got to pick the spot quickly.

"Every situation is different," Petrilli said. "The best instruction we can give to firefighters is it's up to you to find your best deployment sites."

Investigators are just starting to review Sunday's deaths, and it could take months to determine whether the flames were just un-survivable. The glue holding the layers of the shelter together begins to come apart at about 500 degrees, well above the 300 degrees that would almost immediately kill a person.

Firefighters must be recertified in using their shelters once a year. A video profile of the Granite Mountain Hotshots produced by Arizona State University students for the Cronkite News Service last year shows the crew doing that training, unfurling and climbing into the shelters and wiggling to point their feet in the right direction — toward the oncoming flames.

For training, crew members used green tarps shaped and packaged like fire shelters. Once the hotshots got inside, other crew members yanked on the tarps to simulate the high winds they could face.

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BEIJING (AP) — Mothers and fathers aren't the only ones urging adult children to visit their parents. China's lawbooks are now issuing the same imperative.

New wording in the law requiring people to visit or keep in touch with their elderly parents or risk being sued and facing penalties came into force Monday, as China faces increasing difficulty in caring for its aging population.

It remains to be seen how much the amended law changes the status quo, however. Elderly parents in China already have been suing their adult children for emotional support, and the new wording does not specify how often people must visit or clarify penalties for those who do not.

In the first ruling since the new wording, a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi ordered a couple to visit the woman's mother or face possible fines — and even detention.

One of the drafters, Xiao Jinming, a law professor at Shandong University, said the new law was primarily aimed at raising awareness.

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"It is mainly to stress the right of elderly people to ask for emotional support. ... We want to emphasize there is such a need," he said.

Cleaning lady Wang Yi, 57, who lives alone in Shanghai, said the new law is "better than nothing." Her two sons work several hundred kilometers (miles) away in southern Guangdong province and she sees them only at an annual family reunion.

"It is too little, for sure. I think twice a year would be good," she said. "We Chinese people raise children to take care of us when we are old."

Later Monday, the court in Wuxi ruled that a woman and her husband must visit her 77-year-old mother — who lives 40 kilometers (25 miles) away — at least once every two months in addition to mandatory holiday visits, or face possible fines and detention, according to the state-run People's Court Daily.

China's legislature amended the law in December following frequent reports of elderly parents neglected by their children. It says offspring of parents older than 60 should see that their daily, financial and spiritual needs are met.

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In this Thursday, May 23, 2013 photo, an elderly man helps his wife on a wheelchair at a park in Bei …

Although respect for the elderly is deeply engrained in Chinese society, three decades of market reforms have accelerated the breakup of China's traditional extended family, and there are few affordable alternatives, such as retirement homes.

Xiao said even before the Law of Protection of Rights and Interests of the Aged was amended, there were several cases of elderly parents suing their children for emotional support. Court officials generally settle such cases by working out an arrangement for sons or daughters to agree to visit more frequently. Typically, no money is involved.

The number of people aged 60 and above in China is expected to jump from the current 185 million to 487 million, or 35 percent of the population, by 2053, according to figures from the China National Committee On Aging. The expanding ratio is due both an increase in life expectancy — from 41 to 73 over five decades — and by family planning policies that limit most urban families to a single child.

Rapid aging poses serious threats to the country's social and economic stability, as the burden of supporting the growing number of elderly passes to a proportionately shrinking working population and the social safety net remains weak.

Zhang Ye, a 36-year-old university lecturer from eastern Jiangsu Province, said the amended law was "unreasonable" and put too much pressure on people who migrate away from home in search of work or independence.

"For young people who are abroad or work really far away from their parents, it is just too hard and too expensive to visit their parents," she said. "I often go to visit my parents and call them ... (but) if a young person doesn't want to, I doubt such a law will work."

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AP researchers Flora Ji in Beijing and Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.

• by Abigail Geer
• June 26, 2013

Eating beef isn’t as manly or as patriotic as you think it is, and it definitely isn’t doing your health or the health of the planet any good.

Here are 10 reasons why you should skip the Big Mac and leave cows to get on with their own business:

1. Someone had to die for that steak (obviously). Beef is the flesh of a cow, and that cow was once a living, breathing, feeling individual that had a right to live free from pain and suffering. Cows are branded, have their horns cut off and males are castrated, all without anesthesia. At theslaughterhouse, they are shot with a bolt gun to the brain, hung upside down and their throats are slit. Many cows are still conscious throughout the process.

2. Dioxin. Beef contains worrying quantities of the toxic organic chemical dioxin which has been linked to cancer, ADD, immune deficiency, chronic fatigue syndrome, endometriosis, birth defects and nerve and blood disorders. A single hamburger contains 300 times as much dioxin as the EPA states as an acceptable dose for an adult!

3. Beef is an inefficient use of grain. One third of the world’s grain harvest is used to feed cattle. It’s not logical to grow grain to feed animals when there are an estimated one in every six people going hungry each day, and only a fraction of what we feed cows is actually turned into flesh that humans can eat. It’s much more efficient for grain to be consumed directly by humans.

4. Beef is a waste of water. Water is a precious resource and it’s wasteful and irresponsible to squander this for something we don’t need. It takes an average of 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef. There is no alternative to water so we cannot underestimate usage. If we run out, we cannot grow food or maintain vital life functions.

5. Beef is a pollutant. Factory farms and feedlots produce a massive amount of toxic waste that pollutes both the air and water. The feces, which is stored in huge lagoons, seeps into nearby waterways killing fish and destroying water quality. It also emits harmful chemicals into the air. Studies show that people living near factory farms have higher rates of miscarriage, neurological diseases and respiratory problems.

6. Beef is destroying the world’s rainforests. The high demand and price of beef encourages ranchers to burn forests to create new rangelands. This never ending cycle of destruction has driven thousands of plant and animal species to extinction, and is causing a strain on the earth’s ability to covert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

7. Beef is causing desertification. Beef production is one of the major causes of desertification around the world. Delicate root systems are destroyed by overgrazing, unsettling the topsoil which is then eroded by winds leaving only the clay/sand subsoil behind.

8. Happy Meals are making our children obese. Fast food industry giants target children in their marketing, causing them to associate eating at these restaurants as a positive and fun experience, and as a result our children are fatter and unhealthier than ever before.

9. Cows are amazing animals. Like humans, cows have best friends and form close friendships with their herd mates. They choose to spend their time with 2-4 preferred individuals, and can hold grudges for years if they take a disliking to someone. They get excited when they solve problems, they like sleeping close to their families, can detect odors up to five miles away, have a 360 degree panoramic vision, are devotional mothers and are generally extremely inquisitive animals.

10. It’s probably not beef. Chances are that lasagna you’re tucking into is not even beef after all. It could be horse, donkey, pig or who knows, it may even be stray dogs or cats that have been rounded up from the streets, especially if it’s an imported product!

Read more: animal rights, beef, cow, factory farming

Photo Credit: tricky (rick harrison)