NORTH POLE OF THE AXIS OF EVIL :

French dump elderly at hospitals over holidays (Samantha King, 14/07/2002, Daily Telegraph)

French families have been dumping elderly relatives at their nearest hospital to avoid the expense of putting them into care homes as they head off for the summer holidays.

The situation is so acute that the French Hospital Federation (FHF) has appealed for an end to the practice, saying that overstretched medical staff can no longer cope with the large influx of abandoned pensioners.

"Rather than taking them on holiday or placing them in an appropriate home, they are simply dumping them at hospitals and picking them up again when they get back," an FHF statement said. "We have to ask for people not to abandon their relatives in emergency wards, we just don't have the room anymore."

Can someone with a scientific background please answer a question for me? Would the impact of an asteroid large enough to destroy all of France also knock the rest of the Earth out of its orbit or would we be okay? Just curious.... Posted by Orrin Judd at July 14, 2002 11:25 PM