It's the question that's baffled every four-year-old in America. Where does the water go when you flush the toilet? Now, thanks to this map from the environmental health organization Habitat Map, you can find out the answer. The map breaks down the city into color-coded "sewagesheds," allowing New Yorkers can figure out if their toilets contribute to the stench that has long plagued sections of Brooklyn near the Owls Head Wastewater Treatment Plant, or if heavy rains cause their flushes to become a part of the 586 million gallons of raw sewage poured into Newtown Creek annually, or the 1.43 billion gallons dumped into the waters off of Astoria every year. It's also the perfect complement to this map of New York City public toilets. more ›

Yesterday, the city's program to give NYC school students swine flu vaccines began at 125 elementary schools. A 9-year-old at PS 157 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn who received an injection told the Daily News, "My mom told me that the flu would hurt more than the shot...It felt a little bit sharp, and it kind of hurted." Aww. more ›

The NYC Health department is starting its swine flu vaccine program at 128 elementary schools today. According to WCBS 2, 40,000 doses were set aside for the students: "School nurses at those sites will administer the nasal spray vaccine starting Wednesday to students whose parents have signed consent forms. Nurses expect to vaccinate 15 to 25 kids per day, per school." more ›

The Department of Education sent public school children home with letters asking parents for consent to give the students the H1N1 vaccine. While the CDC confirmed that 11 children died of swine flu last week, it remains to be seen whether parents will opt for the vaccine. One told WCBS 2, "I've decided not to give my kids the vaccine because it's just too new I just feel it's not a lot of research, so I don't know what the side effects are." more ›

The NY Times spent the day with Nasim Akhtar, the school nurse at PS 70 in Long Island City. Not only is she dealing with fallout from schoolyard fights, monitoring health issues (obesity, swine flu), she also needs to work with different cultures, "With Christians, I am Christian. With Jews, I am Jewish. With Muslims, I am Muslim. With Arabic, I am Arabic. I have to serve all." more ›

Yesterday we mentioned that a cache of weapons - including a number of pipe bombs - were found in a Remsen Street apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Now it turns out the apartment was shared by an ex-con and a professor at Columbia University! more ›

For better or worse, talk of NYPD detective James Zadroga's death continues to linger. For the past two weeks, the family of Zadroga, who worked hours of rescue and recovery at the pit after the September 11 attacks, and the city's medical examiner's office have been disagreeing about Zadroga's cause of death. Now Mayor Bloomberg has stepped into the fray, discrediting Zadroga's hero status. more ›

After receiving a dispensation from city officials last month to remain open until the end of their traditional season, the Red Hook Ball Field vendors are serving up their South and Central American and Mexican fare today and tomorrow for the last time this year. Whether they will return next spring is an open question. This summer the Parks Dept. proposed opening bidding for vending concessions at the fields, which would push most of the present vendors from the scene. Offering indigenous Latin American fare at low prices, there is little chance any of the vendors would be able to outbid a better capitalized organization. more ›

Earlier this week, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health released a study that shows New Yorkers who "reside in densely populated, pedestrian-friendly areas have significantly lower body mass index levels compared to other New Yorkers." In other words, those people who rely on their feet, rather than other New Yorkers who live in the more spacious parts of the outer boroughs, tend to be thinner. more ›

Columbia University released some more results from its World Trade Center Evacuation Study, and the Daily News translates the findings' recommendation as "Don't wait, don't ask, just go." We found this slide from a presentation (here's the PDF) Mailman School of Public Health Principal Researcher Robyn Gershon gave that has stats on what 2000 people did before leaving the World Trade Center - and many of them waited a few minutes before actually leaving by doing things like changing shoes and shutting down a computer. Gershon told the News that some of those survivors "literally got out as the buildings were collapsing and climbed out of the buildings." more ›

Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health says that your daily subway commute can be hazardous to your hearing. Dr. Robyn Gershon announced the findings of a study which found that noise from the platform and inside cars exceeds safe limits. We suppose that listening to intense jackhammering and construction while waiting for weekend subway service also puts us at risk. Here's some interesting news from the study:

Average and maximum noise measurements were made using a precision sound level meter on subway platforms located in the four New York boroughs with underground subways (Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens). The average maximum noise level on subway platforms measured was 94 decibels (dBA). The average maximum inside of subway cars was 95 dBA, and at bus stops, the average maximum was 84 dBA. For comparison, approximate levels of familiar sounds are: 45-60 dBA for normal conversation, 100 dBA for a chainsaw and 140 dBA for a gunblast. The logarithmic nature of decibels means that every 10 dBA equals a 10 fold increase in intensity. Thus a 90 dBA sound is 10 times as intense as an 80 dBA sound. more ›

- Why someone hates the Ten Commandments on YouTube more ›

Numbing the Pain more ›

Koren Zailckas, Author of Smashed more ›

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Areas with the least suburban sprawl: New York City; San Francisco; Boston; Portland, Ore.; Miami; Denver; Chicago; and Milwaukee. more ›

A study in Denmark says that if you have more 14 or more drinks a week, you raise your risk of rectal cancer. "But what a person drinks does have some influence on risk, the authors note, for people who included wine in their menu of alcoholic beverages had a lesser increase in risk than those who stuck mainly with beer and spirits." They also reason that heavy drinkers ought to lower their intake anyway. Gothamist is duly freaked out, as we don't consider ourselves heavy drinkers, but maybe we really are. more ›

The Transit Transport Workers Union is telling its subway conductors and workers to "cut and run" in the event of a terrorist event (chemical, biological, etc.) according to the Daily News: more ›