Former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft agreed last night to appear at a House hearing to discuss his lucrative arrangement overseeing a medical equipment company, averting a showdown with committee members who had planned to meet today to authorize a subpoena. The move marks an about-face for Ashcroft, who told lawmakers earlier this month that ‘discussing the details of my legal responsibilities, as requested, in this pending criminal case and related ongoing criminal investigation would violate my ethical obligations.’ Ashcroft, who left public service three years ago to start a private consulting firm, won the contract under a settlement the company reached with federal prosecutors in New Jersey. Under a recent government policy, companies facing criminal investigation can accept such outside supervision to avoid indictment. Ashcroft’s consulting firm stands to collect between $28 million and $52 million over 18 months for reviewing the operations of Zimmer Holdings, an Indiana company that makes replacement hips and knees. Zimmer last year settled government charges over kickbacks it allegedly provided doctors in exchange for using its products. The deal touched off criticism in New Jersey political circles and on Capitol Hill, where leaders of the House and Senate judiciary […]
Nowadays, if you need something, you go to the closest mall, shell out a few bucks and head home. Thousands of years ago, the process wasn’t nearly as simple. If you or someone in your town didn’t grow it, herd it or make it, you needed to abandon that desire or else travel for it, sometimes over great distances. For many towns, the effort of trade was too much. Those ancient towns make only rare appearances in our history books. When the first civilizations did begin trading with each other about five thousand years ago, however, many of them got rich…and fast. Trade was also a boon for human interaction, bringing cross-cultural contact to a whole new level. Luxury goods When people first settled down into larger towns in Mesopotamia and Egypt, self-sufficiency – the idea that you had to produce absolutely everything that you wanted or needed – started to fade. A farmer could now trade grain for meat, or milk for a pot, at the local market, which was seldom too far away. Cities started to work the same way, realizing that they could acquire goods they didn’t have at hand from other […]
The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds. art.church.gi.jpg The survey found the Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition. The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for it sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population. While much of the study confirms earlier findings — mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing — it also provides a deeper look behind those trends, and of smaller religious groups. ‘The American religious economy is like a marketplace — very dynamic, very competitive,’ said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. ‘Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still. Those groups that are losing significant numbers have to recoup them to stay vibrant.’ The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about […]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass — The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Monday he is ‘ready, willing and able’ to stop broadband providers that unreasonably interfere with subscribers’ access to Internet content. The comment by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin came at the start of a day-long FCC hearing centering on allegations that some broadband providers such as telecommunications and cable companies have been improperly blocking or hindering some content. ‘I think it’s important to understand that the commission is ready, willing and able to step in if necessary to correct any (unreasonable) practices that are ongoing today,’ Martin said. The dispute over so-called ‘network neutrality’ pits open-Internet advocates against some service providers such as Comcast Corp, who say they need to take reasonable steps to manage traffic on their networks. Martin acknowledged that broadband network operators have a legitimate need to manage the data flowing over their networks. But he said that ‘does not mean that they can arbitrarily block access to particular applications or services.’ The hearing, which included testimony from officials with Comcast and Verizon, is aimed at determining what network management techniques are reasonable. Martin called for ‘transparency’ in the […]
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- Magnets have been touted for their healing properties since ancient Greece. Magnetic therapy is still widely used today as an alternative method for treating a number of conditions, from arthritis to depression, but there hasn’t been scientific proof that magnets can heal. Lack of regulation and widespread public acceptance have turned magnetic therapy into a $5 billion world market. Hopeful consumers buy bracelets, knee braces, shoe inserts, mattresses, and other products that are embedded with magnets based on anecdotal evidence, hoping for a non-invasive and drug-free cure to what ails them. ‘The FDA regulates specific claims of medical efficacy, but in general static magnetic fields are viewed as safe,’ notes Thomas Skalak, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at U.Va. Skalak has been carefully studying magnets for a number of years in order to develop real scientific evidence about the effectiveness of magnetic therapy. Skalak’s lab leads the field in the area of microcirculation research-the study of blood flow through the body’s tiniest blood vessels. With a five-year, $875,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Skalak and Cassandra Morris, former Ph.D. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
