Free Republic

LOS ANGELES Ray Watson figured the ban on carrying liquids onto flights that forced thousands of travelers to discard cosmetics and other items would prove a boon for one industry: makers of toiletries. "I can't imagine all the millions of dollars that the Colgate-Palmolives are going to reap from this," said Watson, 40, of Denver, as he waited to pick up his luggage at Los Angeles International Airport. "The Dumpsters in Phoenix were filled with shampoo and toothpaste." U.S. authorities banned the carrying of nearly all liquids onto flights Thursday after British authorities arrested 24 people in an alleged plot...

Week of July 15, 2006; Vol. 170, No. 3 , p. 45 Mad cow disease might linger longer Nathan Seppa A rare but deadly human illness spread by cannibalism has an incubation period in some individuals of about 4 decades, researchers in New Guinea have discovered. The finding implies that a related human illness caused by eating beef from cattle with mad cow disease could also lie dormant for many years. HEADS UP. The box shows the area in New Guinea where until the 1950s, people practiced cannibalism, a ritual that spread the prion disease kuru. S. Norcross Scientists have...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A severe drought on the U.S. East Coast and in the West will worsen during the coming months because light winter snowfall and early spring rains will not be enough to replenish water supplies, U.S. government weather forecasters said on Thursday... The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said spring rain will be close to normal in the East and portions of the West. But much more is needed to alleviate a drought that has lasted as long as four years in some areas, hitting crop production and increasing the possibility of damaging wildfires and some higher electricity...