MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina — People in the United States are living in a world of pain and they are popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it. The amount of five major prescription painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 88 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 200,000 pounds (90,720 kilograms) of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent year represented in the data. That total is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country. Oxycodone, the chemical used in OxyContin, is responsible for most of the increase. Oxycodone use jumped nearly six-fold between 1997 and 2005. The drug gained notoriety as ‘hillbilly heroin,’ often bought and sold illegally in Appalachia. But its highest rates of sale now occur in places such as suburban St. Louis; Columbus, Ohio; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The world of pain extends beyond big cities and involves more than oxycodone. In Appalachia, retail sales of hydrocodone - sold mostly as Vicodin - are the highest in the nation. Nine […]
NEW YORK — So you’re between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? A worried, weary parent might imagine the answer to sound something like this: Sex, drugs, a little rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe some cash, or at least the car keys. Turns out the real answer is quite different. Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey – more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people ages 13-24 – conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America’s young people. Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other. And even better for parents: Nearly three-quarters of young people say their relationship with their parents makes them happy. ‘They’re my foundation,’ says Kristiana St. John, 17, a high-school student from Queens in New York. ‘My mom tells me that even if I do something stupid, she’s still going to love me no matter what. Just knowing that makes me feel very happy and blessed.’ Other results are more disconcerting. While most young people are happy overall with the way their lives are going, there […]
WASHINGTON — In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars. Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients. Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain ‘conditions that could reasonably have been prevented.’ Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder. In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of ‘serious preventable events’ like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products. ‘If a patient goes into the hospital with pneumonia, we don’t want them to leave with a broken arm,’ said Herb B. Kuhn, acting deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The new policy – one of […]
A miracle material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars. Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C. Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars. It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: ‘It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.’ Aerogel is nicknamed ‘frozen smoke’ and is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide. The result is a substance […]
WASHINGTON — Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected, chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around the government to the Old Executive Office Building. The subject of the Oct. 1, 2003, meeting was ‘asset deployment,’ and the message was clear: The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush’s reelection agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort. ‘The White House determines which members need visits,’ said an internal e-mail about the previously undisclosed Rove ‘deployment’ team, ‘and where we need to be strategically placing our assets.’ Many administrations have sought to maximize their control of the machinery of government for political gain, dispatching Cabinet secretaries bearing government largess to battleground states in the days before elections. The Clinton White House routinely rewarded big donors with stays in the Lincoln Bedroom and private coffees with senior federal officials, and held some political briefings for top Cabinet officials during the 1996 election. But Rove, who announced last week that he is […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
