First, they came for the spinach. I remember the day last September. The supermarket had a new kind of salad dressing, one that looked like it would taste good with spinach. I went to the produce section to buy a bag. But they all had been recalled. Three people had died from E. coli contamination from eating spinach. I decided I could live without the spinach. Next they came for the peanut butter, and I didn’t pay much attention. I don’t much like peanut butter. Then they came for the tomatoes. Then the Taco Bell lettuce. Then the mushrooms, then ham steaks, then summer sausage. I started worrying. Then, they came for the pet food. I remember the sinking feeling, hearing that dogs and cats had died eating contaminated food. Then the flash of guilt-had we poisoned our dogs? I remember hearing the name of the manufacturer, my wife searching the web frantically for a catalogue of its products, the stab of fear when we found the name of the food our own dogs eat. Then the wave of relief-it was only canned food; our dogs eat dry. I began investigating more. One of […]
MANILA, Philippines — While the rest of the world rejected the idea that the U.S. should continue to play a preeminent role as a world leader, the Philippines came out as its strongest supporter, based on a multi-nation poll released Wednesday. The worldwide poll, conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and WorldPublicOpinion.org, also showed that majority of the world’s population, except in the Philippines, believes that the U.S. plays the role of world policeman more than it should and cannot be trusted to act responsibly. The survey also finds that majorities in most countries want the U.S. to do its share in multilateral efforts to address world problems and do not want it to withdraw from world affairs. Views are divided on whether the U.S. should reduce the number of military bases it has overseas and in some countries, respondents perceive an improvement in their bilateral relations with the U.S. The study is the fourth in a series of reports based on a worldwide poll conducted in cooperation with polling organizations around the world. The larger study includes polls in China, India, the U.S., Indonesia, Russia, France, Thailand, Ukraine, Poland, Iran, Mexico, South Korea, […]
WASHINGTON — The first bird flu vaccine for people won U.S. approval on Tuesday as an interim measure in case an influenza pandemic strikes before a better immunization comes along. The vaccine made by French company Sanofi-Aventis will not be sold commercially. It is being stockpiled by the government for use if the H5N1 bird flu virus mutates to a form that can spread easily from person to person. The Food and Drug Administration said two injections given 28 days apart may provide ‘limited’ protection if a pandemic occurs. About 45 percent of people who got the vaccine in a study developed an immune response to the virus. The vaccine is ‘sort of an interim measure’ until better ones are developed, said Norman Baylor, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review. Several companies are working on other versions. ‘Ideally, yes, you would like a vaccine that would have a higher efficacy,’ Baylor told reporters. A single shot and a lower dose also would be preferred, Baylor said. The dose needed for the new Sanofi vaccine is higher than used in the seasonal flu vaccine. Still, ‘we feel as part of pandemic […]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For decades, undergraduate women have been moving in ever greater numbers into science and engineering departments at American universities. Yet even as they approach or exceed enrollment parity in mathematics, biology and other fields, there is one area in which their presence relative to men is static or even shrinking: computer science. Women received about 38 percent of the computer science bachelor’s degrees awarded in the United States in 1985, the peak year, but in 2003, the figure was only about 28 percent, according to the National Science Foundation. At universities that also offer graduate degrees in computer science, only 17 percent of the field’s bachelor’s degrees in the 2003-4 academic year went to women, according to the Taulbee Survey, conducted annually by an organization for computer science research. Since then, many in the field say, the situation has worsened. They say computing is the only realm of science or technology in which women are consistently giving ground. They also worry that the number of women is dropping in graduate programs and in industry. They are concerned about this trend, they say, not just because they want to see young women share the […]
Frequent climate fluctuations on the world’s southernmost continent have been so extreme over the past 5 million years that Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, a floating slab of ice the size of France, oscillated in size dramatically, and perhaps even disappeared for periods of time when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have been smaller, according to scientists engaged in an unprecedented international geologic drilling project. Researchers with the Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program, which concluded its first field season in January, say long cores of sedimentary rocks that they recovered from below the bed of the Ross Sea beneath the ice shelf allow them to peer deeply into the past to a time when Antarctica was a warmer, more inviting place. They were surprised, for example, to find such large volumes of fossil diatoms-microscopic single-celled algae that live in surface or shallow waters-in the cores. The presence of the fossilized one-cell creatures, some of them previously unknown to science, confirms that large areas of the Ross Ice Shelf have previously melted and were replaced with highly productive open waters. Studies of the cores may provide scientists with glimpses into the planet’s future if predictions of global temperature […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
