JERUSALEM — Israeli researchers who grew a sapling from a date seed found at the ancient fortress Masada said on Thursday the seed was about 2,000 years old and may help restore a species of biblical trees. Carbon dating confirmed that the seed — named Methuselah after the oldest person in the bible — was the oldest ever brought back to life, Sarah Sallon, a researcher at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, reported in the journal Science. The seed came from the Judean date palm, a species that once flourished in the Jordan River Valley and has been extinct for centuries, Sallon said. It was one of a group discovered at Masada, a winter palace overlooking the Dead Sea built by King Herod in the 1st century BC. The fortress was used by hundreds of Jewish insurgents in a revolt against Roman rule that erupted in 67 AD. ‘It has survived and flourished,’ Sallon said. Previous attempts to grow plants from ancient seeds failed after a few days. Since the seed was first germinated a few years ago, Sallon said there had been some doubt whether it was really 2,000 years old, like the […]
I talk to a lot of people about their experiences using our healthcare system, and many of the complaints I hear are from people who have health insurance but are still scrambling to cover their healthcare bills. Their share of the premiums alone costs more than a family vacation, and then they’re faced with rising deductibles, copayments, and, increasingly, limits on coverage for various services on top of that. What good is having insurance, they wonder, if they’re saddled with serious bills when they get sick? A new study reports that the number of people who are ‘underinsured’ has grown 60 percent in the past four years, to 25 million. Middle- and upper-income families make up the fastest-growing share of this group; rates for those with incomes of $40,000 or more nearly tripled, to 11 percent. Families with incomes under the poverty level (about $20,000), however, had the highest rate of underinsurance, 31 percent. ‘Underinsured’ can be defined in many ways, of course. For this study, published this week in the online version of the journal Health Affairs, researchers at the Commonwealth Fund included people who spent 10 percent or more of their income on medical expenses (or […]
Ask doctors if their male patients ignore big and obvious health symptoms, and they’ll respond with laughter — huge peals and guffaws. Once they regain the ability to speak, these doctors will say things such as ‘I don’t even know where to start,’ and ‘You don’t have enough room in your story for all the symptoms men blow off.’ Conventional wisdom, they say, is true. Women listen to their bodies and go to the doctor when something isn’t right. Men tend to seek medical attention when they’re at death’s door — or when their wives prod them into going. ‘I think it’s a macho thing,’ says Dr. Barron Lerner, professor of medicine and public health at Columbia University. ‘Or maybe it’s denial. Maybe they think if they deny a problem, it doesn’t exist.’ ‘I call it the ostrich phenomenon,’ says Dr. Harvey Simon, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and editor of the Harvard Men’s Health Watch newsletter. ‘Guys are very prone to sticking their head in the sand and hoping when they emerge everything will be back to normal. It’s a very, very bad idea.’ While the list, according to these physicians, […]
NEW YORK — As the Iraq war continues with no clear end in sight, the cost to taxpayers may balloon to $2.7 trillion by the time the conflict comes to an end, according to Congressional testimony. In a hearing held by the Joint Economic Committee Thursday, members of Congress heard testimony about the current costs of the war and the future economic fallout from returning soldiers. At the beginning of the conflict in 2003, the Bush administration gave Congress a cost estimate of $60 billion to $100 billion for the entirety of the war. But the battle has been dragging on much longer than most in the government expected, and costs have ballooned to nearly ten times the original estimate. William Beach, director of the Center for Data Analysis, told members of Congress that the Iraq war has already cost taxpayers $646 billion. That’s only accounting for five years, and, with the conflict expected to drag on for another five years, the figure is expected to more than quadruple. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told members of Congress that the war costs taxpayers about $430 million per day, and called out the Bush Administration. ‘It is […]
WASHINGTON — Foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba have constitutional rights to challenge their detention there in United States courts, the Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Thursday in a historic decision on the balance between personal liberties and national security. ‘The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times,’ Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. The ruling came in the latest battle between the executive branch, Congress and the courts over how to cope with dangers to the country in the post-9/11 world. Although there have been enough rulings addressing that issue to confuse all but the most diligent scholars, this latest decision, in Boumediene v. Bush, No. 06-1195, may be studied for years to come. In a harsh rebuke of the Bush administration, the justices rejected the administration’s argument that the individual protections provided by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 were more than adequate. ‘The costs of delay can no longer be borne by those who are held in custody,’ Justice Kennedy wrote, assuming the pivotal role that some court-watchers had […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
