HIV is evolving rapidly to escape the human immune system, an international study led by Oxford University has shown. The findings, published in Nature, demonstrate the challenge involved in developing a vaccine for HIV that keeps pace with the changing nature of the virus. ‘The extent of the global HIV epidemic gives us a unique opportunity to examine in detail the evolutionary struggle being played out in front of us between an important virus and humans,’ says lead researcher Professor Philip Goulder of the Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research at Oxford University. ‘Even in the short time that HIV has been in the human population, it is doing an effective job of evading our best efforts at natural immune control of the virus. This is high-speed evolution that we’re seeing in the space of just a couple of decades.’ The study better describes HIV’s ability to adapt by spelling out at least 14 different ‘escape mutations’ that help keep the virus alive after it interacts genetically with immunity molecules that normally attack HIV. ‘Key genetic regions of HIV introduced into individuals of different ancestry in different places have been evolving to a greater or lesser […]
Most people with health insurance say they like what they have. They trust their doctors, and they are fearful of any change in their policy. Many of the 47 million uninsured people in this country don’t go to the doctor even if they need to because they figure they can’t afford it. They skimp on medications or skip them entirely. President Obama has said that he and Congress will make both groups happy by cutting costs for those who have coverage and by bringing quality care to those who currently have no insurance. It’s a tremendous challenge. And the goal, if accomplished, will affect every American. On Thursday, Obama’s push to expand healthcare coverage began in earnest, with the announcement of his plan to create a $634-billion fund to do just that. The amount was described as a down payment over 10 years; the final price tag would be even larger, perhaps $2 trillion or more. The president’s strategy is starkly different from the approach by the Clinton administration in 1993, when it corralled hundreds of experts and staff people to produce a detailed plan more than 1,000 pages long. The Clinton effort failed, despite […]
Today’s Republicans are thumbing through Newt Gingrich’s worn playbook of 1993 looking for tips on how to blunt President Barack Obama’s political momentum and flip it to their advantage. In doing so, they also appear to have dug in to what might be called the secret appendix. The official history of what happened during Bill Clinton’s difficult first two years – which ended in a sweeping Republican congressional victory in 1994 – focuses on the GOP’s united resistance to his economic plan and Hillary Clinton’s failed health care reform. But there was a darker side to the political damage inflicted on the early Clinton administration. Republicans and their right-wing allies disseminated what – in a covert operation – would be called ‘black propaganda.’ Some exaggerated minor scandals, like the Travel Office firings and Clinton’s Whitewater real-estate deal, while other key figures on the Right, such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell, spread ugly conspiracy rumors linking Clinton to ‘mysterious deaths’ and cocaine smuggling. Sometimes, these multiplying ‘Clinton scandals’ built on themselves with the help of their constant repetition in both the right-wing and mainstream news media. For instance, overheated accusations about some personnel changes at the White House […]
LUBBOCK - Central Texas cattle raiser Gerry Shudde remembers Texas’ drought of record in the 1950s when his family’s ranch sometimes got a couple of 4-inch rainfalls a year. But the drought ongoing now is far different. ‘This is just cut off completely,’ the 74-year-old rancher said. ‘In a lot of ways, it’s worse.’ Across the nation’s No. 2 agricultural state, drought conditions are evaporating stock tanks, keeping many crop farmers from planting into long-parched soil, forcing cattle producers to cull their herds, and dropping water levels in state lakes. Despite hurricanes Dolly, Gustav and Ike soaking Texas in 2008, almost every part of the state - nearly 97 percent - is experiencing some drought, according to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map, released Feb. 26. Parts of Central Texas and the Hill Country - more that 8 percent of the state - are not only in exceptional drought - the most severe stage of dryness - but they are now the driest region in the country and the driest they have been since 1918. It is the only place in the U.S. experiencing exceptional drought. San Antonio, two counties east of Shudde’s […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday because of three years of below-average rain and snowfall in California, a step that urges urban water agencies to reduce water use by 20 percent. ‘This drought is having a devastating impact on our people, our communities, our economy and our environment, making today’s action absolutely necessary,’ the Republican governor said in his statement. Mandatory rationing is an option if the declaration and other measures are insufficient. The drought has forced farmers to fallow their fields, put thousands of agricultural workers out of work and led to conservation measures in cities throughout the state, which is the nation’s top agricultural producer. Agriculture losses could reach $2.8 billion this year and cost 95,000 jobs, said Lester Snow, the state water director. State agencies must now provide assistance for affected communities and businesses and the Department of Water Resources must protect supplies, all accompanied by a statewide conservation campaign. Three dry winters have left California’s state- and federally operated reservoirs at their lowest levels since 1992. Federal water managers plan to temporarily cut off water this March to thousands of California farms. The […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
