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Eyetech Pharmaceuticals' drug to treat the leading cause of blindness in the elderly appeared to move closer to a broad government approval yesterday after an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration spoke favorably about it. The advisory panel was not asked to vote on whether the drug, Macugen, should be approved as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration. But committee members ruled unanimously that Eyetech had provided the F.D.A. with enough information to evaluate the drug. The panel members also did not seem to raise any serious new issues that would block approval. "It appears to me very...

Conviction. Resolve. Vision.All words that local supporters of George W. Bush have been using to describe the President since I returned from the Democratic convention.Those descriptions aren't surprising. People have said these things about Bush at least since Sept. 11, 2001. But what struck me was that the words could apply to the supporters themselves. They are as fervent in their support of the President as his detractors are in their fear and loathing of the man. It's not a blind faith. They are quick to point out flaws in policy and disagree on issues.And they will acknowledge that this...

It's long been an irony that the same American who gushes over a delightful corner patisserie in the 16th arrondissement buys into a subdivision that is the antithesis of Parisian street life. There are no corner bakeries in the gently curving streets of suburbia, for an Old World clutter of transit, shops and residences is precisely what's been designed out of the suburban landscape. Does the irony lie in our rote desire for a suburban home, or in the fact we've had so few choices? Many of us would love to live in an urban neighborhood rich with transit and...

Southwest Missouri State University Hammons Field Springfield, MissouriTHE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all.THE AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thank you, please be seated. Thanks for coming. (Applause.) It's great to be in the heartland of our country. (Applause.) And I want to thank you all for being here this morning to help kick off our Heart and Soul of America Tour. (Applause.)There will be big differences in this campaign. They're going to raise your taxes, we're not. (Applause.) I have a clear vision on how to win the war on...

Los Angeles Daily News Daily News exclusive - President Bush in his own words By Trude B. Feldman In an exclusive interview in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush was both philosophical and confident as he spoke about the powder keg that is today's Mideast. With the transfer of Iraq's sovereignty completed, and with the satisfaction that Saddam Hussein will be brought to justice for his war crimes, Bush expressed the belief that events were moving in the direction he had originally charted: "My vision is for a free and democratic Iraq, and a free and peaceful and democratic...

After almost 40 years of wearing glasses and contact lenses, vision correction was no longer a matter of mere vanity for Phyllis Ward. "I just wanted to see better. I first got contacts in elementary school, but I never felt as though I could really see," said Ward, 50, who lives in Houston with her husband and three children. In May 2001, Ward underwent Lasik surgery on both eyes. Lasik is short for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis, a treatment for nearsightedness that uses pulses of ultraviolet laser light to sculpt the cornea, the transparent frontal portion of the eyeball. More...

George Washington's vision is recorded at the Library of Congress Valley Forge, the winter of 1777, American forces were fighting against the British, the most powerful nation in the world. Many believe that only 3% of the American people took part in the struggle for independence, while "Tories" gave aid and comfort to the British cause. "This afternoon, as I was sitting at this table engaged in preparing a dispatch, something seemed to disturb me. Looking up, I beheld standing opposite me a singularly beautiful female. So astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed,...

Somewhere amidst the media's ecstasy over the release of former President Clinton's new book and the incessant coverage devoted to the ranting of a certain rotund independent film maker has fallen the story of a landmark aviation event...the first manned voyage into space funded by the private sector. At around a quarter till eight yesterday morning a rocket plane piloted by Michael Melvill detached from a parent aircraft 46,000 feet over the western United States and ignited its motor. SpaceShipOne, as the test space place is called, shot upward to an altitude of just over 62 miles before starting its...

Like Reagan, Bush Must Seize Moment Chicago Sun-Times, by Mark Steyn I feel a bit like a guy who's been dating a pleasant lady in the office for a couple of years and suddenly bumps into the gal he always adored in high school. As readers will know, I'm very supportive of George W. Bush, especially on the foreign policy front. But it was unfortunate that a week of 24/7 Ronald Reagan greatest hits on the cable networks should have had to stop once or twice a day to cross to a blinking, groggy Dubya at some G-8 press conference...

Some 15 years have gone by since President Ronald Reagan concluded his triumphant second term on a wave of unprecedented job creation and economic abundance, with inflation conquered and growth restored after the horrendous stagflation of the 1970s. But there still seems to be a curious lack of appreciation and total absence of understanding -- especially in the elite media -- of one of the Gipper's most enduring legacies: the restoration of confidence, prosperity, and direction to a sick and floundering U.S. economy that had lost its way before Reagan rode to the rescue. Amid the resounding tributes now being...

ON June 6, 1984, almost 20 years to the day before his death at 93, president Ronald Reagan stood on the beach at Normandy, just as another US president did yesterday. Addressing Allied veterans on the anniversary of D-Day, Mr Reagan said their deeds 40 years earlier had been motivated by the knowledge that "there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest" and by the conviction that "democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honourable form of government ever devised by man". Mr Reagan's revolutionary...

We're living in the age of the great dispersal. Americans continue to move from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West. But the truly historic migration is from the inner suburbs to the outer suburbs, to the suburbs of suburbia. From New Hampshire down to Georgia, across Texas to Arizona and up through California, you now have the booming exurban sprawls that have broken free of the gravitational pull of the cities and now float in a new space far beyond them. For example, the population of metropolitan Pittsburgh has declined by 8 percent since 1980, but as...

The Importance of a God Given Vision "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:1,5). I'm not so sure that it would be a settling experience to have a vision of God. The scripture records a variety of divine...

<p>It happened on the 21/2-year anniversary of the attacks on Manhattan and Washington - 30 months to the day. The symbolism was intentional.</p> <p>The facts are still coming in. The Spanish government initially blamed the ETA, a Basque separatist organization with minimal popular support and a maximum will to violence. But evidence of al Qaeda links - including a letter claiming responsibility - soon surfaced.</p>

Another Scriptwriter for Mel Gibson's 'Passion'? The movie draws from the mystical writings of a 19th-century nun who saw detailed visions of a bloody Passion. ____________________ By Laura Sheahen How is Sister Anne Emmerich connected to Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ"? Gibson has said he was influenced by Sister Emmerich's visions as recorded in The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which was transcribed by Emmerich's secretary, Clemens Brentano. Many non-biblical events in the movie can be traced to this book. Who was Sister Anne Emmerich? Anne Catherine Emmerich was an Augustian nun who lived in...

STATUS REPORT Date Released: Thursday, January 22, 2004 Source: NASA HQ Guiding Principles for Exploration Pursue Compelling Questions Exploration of the solar system will be guided by compelling questions of scientific and societal importance. Consistent with the NASA Vision and Mission, NASA exploration programs will seek profound answers to questions of our origins, whether life exists beyond Earth, and how we could live on other worlds. Across Multiple Worlds NASA will make progress across a broad front of destinations. Consistent with recent discoveries, NASA will focus on likely habitable environments at the planet Mars, the moons of Jupiter, and in...

<p>HONOLULU — Up until about three months ago, Army 2nd Lt. James Harris had 20/400 vision — bad enough that without glasses or contacts, it was difficult to recognize someone across the room. And that was a concern as he prepared for a yearlong deployment to Iraq.</p>

It's not just another game. It didn't take new Bears coach Lovie Smith long to do what his predecessors, Dick Jauron and Dave Wannstedt, never could -- admit beating the Green Bay Packers comes first. Smith was introduced as the 13th coach in franchise history Thursday at Halas Hall, and the auditorium packed with owners and team officials went up in a roar when Smith made clear the path to success starts with breaking out of a prolonged slump against the Bears' fiercest rival. ''The No. 1 goal is to beat Green Bay,'' Smith said. ''One of the first things...

WASHINGTON - In the modern era, an incumbent president's approach to a second-term run is typically, "Let's finish the job we've started." The pitch is not usually a head-turning new plan of action. But President Bush may be ready to break that pattern. If one of his father's failings in his own reelection bid was the famously elusive "vision thing," Bush the Second seems poised to aim high. As the Democratic candidates claw for the president's post, Mr. Bush and his top advisers are contemplating possible grand ideas to put forth in the Jan. 20 State of the Union message...

GREEN RIVER -- A young man from the Green River community diagnosed with an eye disease that results in blindness is participating in experimental research that has improved his vision. The experimental treatment conducted by an ophthalmologist in Connecticut could bring hope to thousands of people suffering from macular degeneration. Aaron Maybin, 23, was told in July by three area ophthalmologists that he had Stargardt's disease and would be completely blind in five to 10 years. Stargardt's disease is the most common form of juvenile macular degeneration. It is an inherited disease. Unaffected parents, who are carriers, have one gene...