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Medicine usually progresses in incremental steps. One antidepressant or cholesterol-lowering drug follows another with only marginally improved therapeutic benefit. Vaccines are different. Disease prevention through immunization, whether for polio or mumps, has the potential to transform medical practice, sometimes eliminating illness altogether. Smallpox is now (we hope) confined to heavily protected freezers in Russia and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Vaccine developers appear to be on the verge of another remarkable achievement. Two vaccines that are nearing approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S.--one from Merck, the other from Glaxo­SmithKline--have demonstrated in...

Executive Summary The temporary visa program known as H-1B enables U.S. employers to hire professional-level foreign workers for a period of up to six years. According to the law (8 U.S.C. § 1182(n)), employers must pay H-1B workers either the same rate as other employees with similar skills and qualifications or the "prevailing wage" for that occupation and location, whichever is higher. This is to prevent the hiring of foreign workers from depressing U.S. wages and to protect foreign workers from exploitation. This report examines the wage data in Labor Department records for Fiscal Year 2004. It compares wages in...

LONDON - Chris Taylor, a 30-year-old British computer programmer, grew suspicious of his live-in girlfriend when his pet parrot began to imitate her saying, “I love you, Gary.” Ziggy, an 8-year-old African gray parrot, would also make kissing noises whenever the name Gary was mentioned on TV and would mimic Suzy Collins saying, “Hiya, Gary,” every time she answered her mobile phone.

Going to the dogs may not be such a bad thing after all, a U.S. researcher has found. In a study released Wednesday, Saint Louis University professor Dr. William Banks found that lonely seniors responded better when they received visits from dogs alone than when the animals were accompanied by a human. “It was a strange finding,” said Dr. Banks, a professor of geriatrics in the school's department of internal medicine. “We had thought that the dog acts as a social lubricant and increases the interaction between residents. The residents found a little quiet time with the pooch is a...

YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA — Gennady Varlamov, 67, never wondered much about his childhood during the Second World War. He assumed he grew up in a happy family, living with his mother in a three-room wooden house in a village near the Ural Mountains. It was a modest place, with no electricity or running water, but Mr. Varlamov remembers it as a pleasant home with a garden and farm animals. His questions started in October of 1993, when he suffered a bad headache. In retrospect, he says, it was probably just a flu symptom. But he went to the doctor anyway, and...

Mixed chicks sing song of a different species Bird brains hardwired to learn own songs By ANNE MCILROY McGill University researcher Evan Balaban performs brain transplants on chickens to make them sing like quails. He takes bits of brain from quail embryos and attaches them to the brains of embryonic chickens still snug in their eggs. When they hatch, the chickens look normal, except for the dark, quail-coloured feathers sprouting out of their heads. But they do not sound normal. Instead of crowing the classic cock-a-doodle-doo, they sing the two introductory notes and the long trill of a quail song....

They'd take Halifax (then we'd kill Kenny) By SHAWN MCCARTHY Saturday, December 31, 2005 Posted at 10:00 AM EST From Saturday's Globe and Mail NEW YORK — We called their President a moron, and they called us the "retarded cousin." Their ambassador warned about the repercussions of aggressive rhetoric, and our Prime Minister aggressively asserted we will not be "dictated to." In another age -- or in a Marx Brothers movie -- the escalation of insults and diplomatic contretemps could lead to only one thing: "Of course you know," Groucho famously intoned, "this means war." It was one of a...

Toronto — Researchers in Vietnam have reported two additional cases of H5N1 avian flu infection in which the virus developed resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. While the findings will likely lead to concern over the future efficacy of the drug — the main weapon in the limited arsenal against pandemic flu — influenza experts were quick to caution against over-interpreting the results. But they said the findings raise serious concerns about whether the current dosing regime — which is based on experience with regular human flu strains — is adequate to combat the infection caused by this virulent avian...

Work on the world's first human-made species is well under way at a research complex in Rockville, Md., and scientists in Canada have been quietly conducting experiments to help bring such a creature to life. Robert Holt, head of sequencing for the Genome Science Centre at the University of British Columbia, is leading efforts at his Vancouver lab to play a key role in the production of the first synthetic life form -- a microbe made from scratch. The project is being spearheaded by U.S. scientist Craig Venter, who gained fame in his former job as head of Celera Genomics,...

Atlanta — Nearly seven months after schools in a suburban Atlanta county were forced to peel off textbook stickers that called evolution a theory rather than fact, a federal appeals court is set to consider whether the disclaimers were unconstitutional. In January, a federal judge ordered Cobb County school officials to remove the stickers immediately, saying they were an endorsement of religion. The ruling was appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear arguments on Thursday. Advocates on both sides say the appeals court's decision will go a long way toward shaping a debate between science...

New Democrats' support level drops to single digits as Grits reach their highest mark since May, poll says By MICHAEL DEN TANDT AND GLORIA GALLOWAY Monday, December 12, 2005 Posted at 12:45 AM EST From Monday's Globe and Mail Ottawa and Beamsville, Ont. — Prime Minister Paul Martin made a targeted campaign swing through Ontario's southern heartland yesterday as a new poll showed Liberal support in the province surging to its highest point in weeks, mainly at the expense of the New Democrats. A poll taken for The Globe and Mail and CTV on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday showed nationwide...

Lansing, Mich. — State legislators on Thursday took another step toward barring Canadian trash from Michigan landfills, but the ban will not take effect unless Congress also takes action. The state Senate voted 34-1 to approve a bill that would prohibit Canadian and other foreign waste from being dumped in Michigan, if Congress authorizes it. The legislation now heads back to the state House. While the legislation received overwhelming approval, some Democrats criticized it. "Since Congress is very unlikely to pass this law, the bill itself is very much symbolic," said Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor. "It's window dressing. ......

Vancouver — The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled yesterday that a Roman Catholic men's group, the Knights of Columbus, was entitled to turn away a lesbian couple who wanted to hold a wedding reception in their facility. But in a decision that upset both sides in the dispute, the three-member tribunal also decided that the Catholic group had affronted the same-sex couple's dignity, feelings and self-respect, and that it should pay $2,000 to the two women to compensate for their injuries. The tribunal upheld the religious freedom of the Knights of Columbus while reinforcing protections against discrimination on the basis...

The Hidden Dangers of McKennedy: Why the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty Bill Will Destroy America by Michael Hethmon The Capitol Hill Club, literally steps from the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., is a popular venue for members of Congress to address special interests concerning their legislative views. On June 20, 2005, Senator John McCain spoke at the Club to a meeting of the American League of Lobbyists, promoting the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, S. 1033, better known as the Kennedy-McCain bill after its two principal sponsors. During question time, FAIR staff attorney Mike Hethmon challenged the Senator to name any...

I have a question for the many, knowledgeable freepers out there regarding employer health insurance. Open enrollment is upon us and this year, and the company I work for has sprung a new twist that shockeked myself and my coworkers.As in past years, we are expected to shoulder more of the burden of our health insurance premiums and this year is no different with an $80 to $120 increase in our protion of the monthly premiums. Nobody likes it, but it's a fact, but that's not what concerns me.We are offered employee+spouse and family plans, each with its own, higher,...

France Public Announcement November 07, 2005 This Public Announcement is issued to alert Americans to ongoing security concerns in France. Significant unrest that began in the northern suburbs of Paris October 27 has now spread to several locations within the city limits of Paris, and to many other cities throughout France. Angry youth have set fire to many buildings and thousands of vehicles. While damage to property has been extensive, there seems to be no pattern of arsonists directing their anger at ordinary citizens or tourists. This Public Announcement will expire on December 7, 2005. Travelers should be alert to...

Paris — French President Jacques Chirac, intervening after six nights of rioting in suburban Paris, called Wednesday for calm and said authorities will use a firm hand to curtail what may become a “dangerous situation.” The violence, sparked initially by the deaths of two teenagers, has exposed the despair, anger and deep-rooted criminality in the poor suburbs, where police hesitate to venture and which have proved fertile terrain for Islamic extremists. “The law must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and respect,” Mr. Chirac said at a cabinet meeting. “The absence of dialogue and an escalation of...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Pakistan sent geologists to investigate reports of new volcanic activity that could force 150,000 people to flee the earthquake devastated Himalayan foothills. Scientists hoped Alai valley villagers are wrong and speculated aftershocks and landslides from the Oct. 8 earthquake could be responsible for the reports of a volcano, The Independent reported. While no volcanic activity was found in an aerial survey Monday, an army official said 150,000 people in the area would have to leave if that is the case. Geologists began combing the area Tuesday. This month's powerful 7.6 earthquake earlier killed an...

A new NASA-funded study finds that predicted increases in precipitation due to warmer air temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions may actually increase sea ice volume in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean. This adds new evidence of potential asymmetry between the two poles, and may be an indication that climate change processes may have different impact on different areas of the globe. The researchers used satellite observations for the first time, specifically from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager, to assess snow depth on sea ice, and included the satellite observations in their model. As a result, they improved prediction of precipitation rates. By...

The Liberal government survived a crucial budget vote Thursday night by a sliver, effectively ending the possibility of a snap election and giving the governing minority a bit of breathing room to finish this session of Parliament before the summer break. By the closest of margins, the Grits, along with the support of the NDP and independent MPs Chuck Cadman and Carolyn Parrish, pushed the budget with NDP amendments through, thus surviving a non-confidence motion on Bill C-48 which contained $4.6-billion in concessions for the Democrats. The final result was 152 to 152, with the Speaker breaking the tie to...