This date in History

Walpurgisnacht, a holiday of pagan origins is celebrated in many parts of Europe. In Germany, witches hold special ceremonies during the night celebrating the arrival of Spring. On this day in 1006 AD, a new star, possibly the brightest supernova in recorded human history, appeared in the sky. source>>>

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2010 Fusion Hybrid goes 1,445 miles on single tank

Team members (left to right) Steve Burke, Wayne Gerdes, and Tom Rolewicz breaking the seal on the gas tank after driving an amazing 1,445.7 miles on a single tank of gas in Alexandria, Va., ending at 5:37 a.m. Tuesday, April 28, 2009. The car had been running for 69 hours continuously.
(Credit: Ford)

Setting a world record a gasoline fueled midsized sedan, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid traveled 1,445.7 miles on a single tank of gas on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

Traveling between 20 and 45 mph depending on traffic to take advantage of the car's capability to operate in electric-only mode up to 47 mph and foregoing cruise control to maximize fuel economy, a team of seven eco-drivers set out from Mount Vernon, Va. on Saturday at 8:15 a.m. ET with a goal of reaching 1,000 miles on their 17-gallon tank.

The team included Nascar driver Carl Edwards, high mileage trailblazer Wayne Gerdes and several Ford Motor Company engineers who took turns at the wheel, twittering their progress along the way.

The 1,000 mile target was easily reached at 9:07 a.m. EDT on April 27. Edwards reportedly took them past this milestone with an average fuel economy of 76.3 mpg, according to a post on Twitter.

With fuel still in the tank, the team continued driving into the night to see just how far the Fusion Hybrid could go.

At 5:43 a.m. EDT, the group announced their results on Twitter, "Its all over!!! The Fusion Hybrid did 1,445.7 miles on ONE tank of gas! Average f/e of 81.5mpg! What a team - what a car!! #Hybrid1000 ^JW"

Not too shabby for a midsize car rated at 41 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway by the EPA.

The Fusion Hybrid is equipped with Ford's SmartGauge with EcoGuide, an instrument display that visually demonstrates how fuel efficient you are driving. However, the team employed other fuel economy maximizing techniques, such as:

* Slowing down and maintaining even throttle pressure
* Gradually accelerating and smoothly braking
* Maintaining a safe distance between vehicles and anticipating traffic conditions
* Coasting up to red lights and stop signs to avoid fuel waste and brake wear
* Minimize use of heater and air conditioning to reduce the load on the engine
* Close windows at high speeds to reduce aerodynamic drag
* Applying the "Pulse and Glide" technique while maintaining the flow of traffic
* Minimize excessive engine workload by using the vehicle's kinetic forward motion to climb hills, and use downhill momentum to build speed
* Avoiding bumps and potholes that can reduce momentum

The car used in this test was a standard 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid without any special modifications. The car was driven continuously for 69 hours, and this Ford video clip on You Tube shows the final moments of the car as it runs out of gas on the George Washington Parkway in Washington, D.C.

source>>>

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Scary swine flu? Kids can be fearful of 'invisible' illness

Children's fears are likely to rise along with the confirmed cases of swine flu, but parents can help kids feel safe despite the scary news, mental health experts say.

"A fire or hurricane happens, and it's over. But a biological event like this is hard for kids to understand. It's invisible and can be very frightening," says Harold Koplewicz, a child psychiatrist and director of the New York University Child Study Center.

WHO: Alert raised nearer pandemic level; Obama vows 'whatever it takes'
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Hand-washing, protective hygiene 101

Parents have to get their own facts straight and calm fears before they approach children, he adds. There are plenty of poorly informed, worried parents. Pediatricians all over the USA have been swamped with calls, "and parents are calling frantically, wanting to know what to do, in states where there have been cases," says Henry Bernstein, a Dartmouth Medical School professor and spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

ON THE WEB: American Academy of Pediatrics advice on swine flu
Q&A: Answering common, reader questions on symptoms, source, treatment
FULL COVERAGE: Latest news, resources on the swine flu outbreak

Parents in the New York City area are asking whether children can be tested for the flu, says Andrew Racine, director of the general pediatrics division at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Montefiore. Some also wonder whether children should wear masks or take medicine preventively or at the first sign of symptoms.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | California | Barack Obama | New York | Mexico | Children | Santa Monica | Dartmouth | Swine flu | Albert Einstein | Racine | Henry VIII of England

Because only a couple of U.S. labs can conclusively identify the swine flu virus and its symptoms mimic those of regular flu, routine testing isn't advised, Racine says. Medication is not recommended for mild flu, he says.

Parents are asking about swine flu symptoms and whether it's safe to travel with children, says Lynn Miyamoto, a nurse at the Tenth Street Pediatric Group in Santa Monica, Calif. Several hundred parents have called with swine flu questions this week, she says.

Parents should initiate a conversation about the flu with their children, Koplewicz suggests. Many times, children may be too afraid to say something, "and left to their own devices, they can put a story together that's far more frightening than reality," he says.

First, ask what they know and what they're concerned about. For preschoolers and elementary school children, keep explanations very simple. "You might say 'Some people have gotten sick with a flu you get from contact with someone who has it. Mom and Dad are going to make sure you're safe. We'll take care of you.' " Koplewicz says.

Teenagers often display false bravado, he says, but parents should address basic facts and concerns with them, too.

School staffers have called New York pediatricians to ask what they should tell parents, Racine says. The National Association of School Psychologists sent a mass e-mailing to members Tuesday, giving CDC websites with facts on swine flu and handling outbreaks at school, says Susan Gorin, the group's executive director. source>>>

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Swine flu fears keep 130,000 Texas kids home

-- Two more school systems on Wednesday shuttered all of their campuses after reports of probable cases of swine flu, causing more than 130,000 students statewide to miss class because of concerns about the virus.

Fort Worth School District Superintendent Melody Johnson announced Wednesday night that the district -- which has about 80,000 students -- would close its 140 schools through at least May 8. Only essential personnel at central headquartes will work during that time, she said.

There are 11 probable swine flu cases in the county that includes Fort Worth, according to Tarrant County Public Health officials. One case is confirmed at a Fort Worth middle school, Dr. Sandra Parker, the agency's medical director, said at a news conference.

Earlier Wednesday, Cleburne school district officials canceled classes the rest of the week for the nearly 7,000 students after four probable cases were reported, Superintendent Ronny Beard said. Workers have started disinfecting all buildings, buses, playground equipment and everything else that students touch, he said.

The four students ages 15 to 17 attend Cleburne's lone high school, Beard said. But officials decided to close all 11 schools because so many parents kept their elementary-age children home or rushed to pick them up early Wednesday after hearing news of the probable flu cases, Beard said.

He said the closures may last longer and that he followed the recommendations of health officials, who advised closing the schools for seven to 10 days in the 30,000-resident city about 50 miles southwest of Dallas.

"It's a novel virus. We don't know much about it," Dr. James Zoretic, a regional director of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said at a news conference Wednesday in Cleburne. "We need to slow it down. If we don't congregate, we don't spread it."

Beard said the district is still waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the cases, which could take several days. The CDC has confirmed 16 cases in Texas.

Tracy Allen, after picking up two of her three children at a middle school in Cleburne on Wednesday, said she planned to spend the rest of the day watching movies and munching on snacks at home with her youngsters.

"I am not that concerned. I think they are taking all the precautions necessary to make sure our schools are clean and well disinfected," Allen said. "I think it is still pretty isolated at this point."

Before Fort Worth announced its schools' closings, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott said earlier Wednesday that 53,000 of the state's 4.7 million public school students were affected by the closures.

At least four other Texas school districts also were closed, and all high school sports competitions in the state were suspended until May 11 because of fears about the illness, state officials said.

The Schertz-Cibolo ISD near San Antonio closed all 14 schools, including a high school where three of the state's confirmed cases of swine flu were found. The entire Rio Grande City Consolidated Independent School District also closed for the week after two suspected cases were discovered at a middle school. The Comal and New Braunfels school districts were closed through May 8 because of suspected cases.

Individual schools in some districts -- including Dallas, McAllen, Lewisville and Austin -- were closed because of confirmed or suspected cases.

Because of the closures and parents keeping children home on their own, students were missing school on an important day for standardized state tests. But Scott said no district that closes because of swine flu concerns will be penalized in a financial or academic way.

"Quite frankly that's really the last thing a lot of those districts need to be worried about right now. We will accommodate them. We will test the students when they come back," he said.

Scott said the state will offer "waiver days" to make sure schools don't have to make up those days in the summer. If students are unable to be tested, the state will work with those districts to adjust their accountability ratings accordingly.

Scott said his message to families is this: "If you're sick, now is not the time to be worried about the perfect attendance award. Stay home, get better and let this thing run its course."

He added that the vast majority of Texas schools are operating normally and that many TAKS tests are being administered this week.

The decision to postpone all high school sports across the state was made at the urging of public health officials, University Interscholastic League Executive Director Charles Breithaupt said.

The move suspends the baseball season and eliminates the regional track championships, he said.

The state golf and tennis championships are scheduled to begin May 11. The state track meet, one of the largest high school track and field competitions in the country, remains scheduled for May 13-14.

All UIL academic competitions were postponed as well. source>>>

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On this date in history

Controversial speaker and author David Icke was born on this day in 1952. A year later on this date, the first experimental 3D-TV broadcast took place in the US with a showing of an episode of Space Patrol. source>>>

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Why The West Bank Settlers Are Not A Barrier To Middle East Peace

Jewish settlements continue to be built on the West Bank, and those who hope for a two-state solution in the Middle East can often be seen wringing their hands in despair over the question. The thought of trying to tear down the settlements and return all the settlers to Israel seems politically impossible, as well as a logistical nightmare.

What's the problem here? The settlers elected--in violation of international agreements and Israeli promises--to live in what will become a Palestinian state. So let them. If they don't like it and want to return to Israel they can. Or they can stay where they are--after all, millions of Arabs live in Israel.

The settlers may object that the Israeli government has at times colluded in their invasion of the West Bank, but they need to be reminded that state collusion in a criminal act is no protection under international law.

I think Israelis should be encouraged to live wherever they want--with the clear understanding, however, that when the peace agreement is made, the West Bank is part of the Palestinian State. All of it. The settlers are, after all, outlaws and invaders. The West Bank is to Israel what the Sudetenland was to the Nazis.

The settlers acted in the belief that Israel was an outlaw state that would support their covert aggression, and redraw the boundaries of Israel to include them.

But why should law-abiding Israelis agree to such a corruption of their nation's ideals? Let the settlers go. They asked to live outside Israel. Let them have their wish. source>>>

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Poll: Israelis positive, optimistic

Despite the financial crisis and the looming threat from Iran, the War and Peace Index, published on Israel's 61st Independence Day, found that the majority of the Israeli public is positive, optimistic and satisfied with the state of the nation.

The War and Peace Index is conducted by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research. Published monthly since 1994, it is run by Prof. Ephraim Yaar and Prof. Tamar Hermann and is compiled of a monthly telephone survey of 600 Israeli citizens representing the various sectors in Israeli society.

Festivities
Israel celebrates 61st Independence Day / Ynet
(Video) Nation begins anniversary celebrations with traditional lighting of 12 flares 'for the glory of Israel' and in honor of various sectors' achievements. Ceremony focuses on Tel Aviv centennial
Full story

The survey found that 80% of the Jews polled defined their personal status as "very good" or "good," 90% said they think Israel is doing "very well" as a nation; and 81% said they were "very optimistic" or "optimistic" as to the nation's future.

 

Some 81% also said that given their choice of countries to live in, they would prefer to stay in Israel.

 

Among the Israeli Arabs polled, 51% said their personal status was "very good," as opposed to 36% that described it as "bad" or "very bad." Two-thirds said that the nation's achievements are "good" or "fairly good," and a similar percentage expressed optimism as to the nation's future. An overwhelming majority - 94% - said they want to keep living in Israel.

Optimistic, yet realistic

Eighty-one percent of the Israelis surveyed said the State faired best in the fields of military and security, defining its accomplishments in those avenues as "very good."

 

The War and Peace Index also found that 71% of Israelis think that people are not as patriotic as they use to be in the past. Other figures indicated that 59% think that Israel has been able to create a stable, modern economy and 53% think it has become a successful democracy.

 

Still, only 46% of those polled said they thought the State has been able to infuse a sense of national unity in the public, only 38% said that Israel has made significant achievements in the fields of science and technology; as little as 28% said the country has been successful in giving equal rights to its Arab citizens and just 27% said they thought Israel has been able make actual progress for peace.

The most disconcerting data revealed that the Israeli public's faith in state systems is dwindling: While 91% said they had every faith in the Israeli Defense Forces, only 57% said they trusted the Supreme Court, only 43% lent credibility to the media, 39% said they trusted the police, only a third of the public has faith in the government and the Knesset (34% and 30% respectively), and only 21% believe in the political parties.

 

Among Israeli Arabs, 67% believe in the Supreme Court, 55% have faith in the media, 40% trust the Knesset, 33% trust the police, and 31% believe in the government and the political parties; however, only 22% trust the IDF. source>>>

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The global politics of swine flu

We may be at the incipient stage of swine flu's deadly spread across the globe, but already signs of new trans-Atlantic fissures over the European Union's (EU) travel advisory to the United States and Mexico as well as airport screening of US travelers can be found aplenty. This puts a premium on what United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has called for in response to this virus, namely, international solidarity.

Mexican health officials suspect that the swine flu outbreak has caused more than 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses in the country where the it first emerged.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 105 cases have been confirmed worldwide, including 64 in the United States; six in Canada; three in New Zealand; and two each in Spain, the

 

United Kingdom and Israel. On Monday the WHO raised its alert level from three to four on a six-level scale. This means the virus is thought to be capable of significant human-to-human transmission - a step toward a pandemic.

Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease
that usually affects pigs. It is caused by a type-A influenza virus. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions.

"Hysterical", "unwarranted", "overreaction" and "ineffective", were the top choices of words used by US officials in reaction to the EU health officials' alarm bells discouraging "all non-essential travel" to the US.

History often repeats itself, albeit in unexpected fashion, and the stern US responses to the Europeans' health disaster response reminds one of China's similar response when, in April 2003, the US Center on Disease Control (CDC), put this statement on its website in response to the early reports of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Asia: "Don't go to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi unless you really have to."

In historical retrospective, given the eventual semi-global spread of SARS and its limited impact on the US, the CDC travel advisory in 2003 appears entirely timely and appropriate, irrespective of negative reactions by the Chinese government, which was accused by Western governments and world health officials of "deception" about the extent of the deadly disease.

Still, US experts such as Michael T Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, have described some countries' travel warnings and bans on some imported foods from the United States and Mexico as "hysterical".

But with the medical community still in a frantic search to understand this new strain of influenza virus and its potential for "new sub-systems" via mutations and "reassortments", the US government may have under-reacted, given President Barack Obama's assurance on Monday that the swine flu was a cause for concern but "not alarm".

As a result, unlike president George W Bush, who in April 2003 signed Executive Order 12452 adding SARS to the list of communicable diseases, for which the US government can quarantine individuals, forcibly if necessary, Obama has refrained from taking a similar initiative. As a result of which, voluntary self-isolation and "social distancing" on the part of flu victims has for now replaced a robust and systemic prevention through mandatory quarantine systems, epidemical check-points and surveillance mechanisms.

In the event the flu's growth in the US in the coming days and weeks leaps in the less than sanguine direction of a full epidemic, instead of a small-scale one as is the case at the moment, then inevitably questions may arise as to what the Obama administration could have done to stem the tide - other than by simply issuing a travel advisory for Mexico.

Hundreds of US flights to and from Mexico have continued unabated since the swine flu outbreak, and there has not been any attempt by the US government to either close some borders with Mexico or even reduce the substantial human traffic crossing those borders, fearing the adverse economic impacts in today's climate of global economic recession.

This may turn out to be short-sighted if, indeed, the ominous forecasts of potential trans-border transmission of the disease are realized, as any belated US effort would be a remedy too late.

The trick is undoubtedly not to make policies based on worst-case scenarios, but then again there is also the grave risk of avoiding a painful "great reshuffling" of policies called for by a potential pandemic, to paraphrase Andrew Nikforuk in his book, Pandemonium.

"A severe pandemic might encourage us to rethink the deadly pace of globalization and biological trade in all living things," wrote Nikforuk, wise thoughts that sound fresh several years later as the world grapples with the looming specter of a new natural disaster that has already wrought havoc on the failing state of Mexico.

The country has been mired in an uncontrolled war on drug cartels, and the latest setback promises to make Mexico even a more unstable country as the country loses some of its precious resources in fighting a disease. Clearly, Third World Mexico's lack of an integrated strategy to combat the infectious disease with adequate resources has a lot to do with the flu's high mortality rate compared to its impact in US and Canada.

As usual, the North-South gaps reveal themselves with glaring and oppressive clarity in such outbreaks of public illness.

At the same time, by posing the US as a "risk society", a whole new fertile field of discourse on America's (health) identity has been opened by the threat of swine flu, given the stigma of Europe's travel advisory and some European nations' bans on the import of US pork.

An imagined pandemic may sting the US nearly as much as a real pandemic and the sheer indeterminacy of the flu's potency and future growth simply adds to its dispensation of a new unhealthy image for the US. Swine flu points at the growing linkage between foreign policy and health policy, as well as the nexus between health and security, seeing how prominent a role the US Homeland Security plays nowadays in the government's reaction to the unexpected flu epidemic, reflecting a further medicalization of US security.

At the epistemological and policy levels then, in addition to providing a new venue for global health partnership and multilateralism, the obverse side of cooperative behavior is, as stated above, a new rise of national protectionism that is also at the nodal points of North-South divide. This is as we witness the huge disparities and fluctuations in access to preventive medicine in less developed countries, which are keenly concerned about a lack of adequate health financing.

The disease's proliferation in Africa would be especially devastating as the continent is still struggling with the exorbitant ramifications of other infectious diseases. Irrespective of such a scenario, the mere threat of this new disease will escalate the demands of developing and least-developed nations for greater access to vaccine-manufacturing plants, affordable medicine, etc.

Much depends on the scope of the swine flu's global spread and its lethal punch and. Should it turn out that we are merely witnessing its first phase of attack, which is pregnant with multiple subsequent waves causing greater and greater disruptions in world trade, transport and trans-border human movement, something impossible to pre-calculate at this stage, then a whole new logic of de-globalization may be inevitable.

On the other hand, this flu has the potential to be labeled as a "metropolis disease" that does not contaminate much of the the Third World, in which case it will lead to new theorizing about what is referred to these days as the "global network society".

On the whole, swine flu can take one of two directions, it can either act as a circuit-breaker for a renewed globalization in terms of collective response, or a potent source of "international solidarity" as envisioned by UN chief Ban. Or, finally, it may have the contradictory effect of pushing both chariots simultaneously, at least in the short run. source>>>

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Egypt to slaughter all pigs to prevent swine flu

The Egyptian government decided on Wednesday to kill all pigs immediately in the country to prevent the outbreak of the fatal swine flu that has stalked Mexico and the United States, local Nile TV reported.

"Is has been decided to slaughter all pigs in the country immediately," the report quoted Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali assaying in a cabinet meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The pigs will be slaughtered after check-up, and the pork can be still sold or exported if it gets the go-ahead from the veterinary authority.

It is estimated that Egypt, 90 percent of whose population are Muslim, has some 350,000 pigs. They were raised by the Christian minority who eat pork in Cairo, Giza, Qalubia and October 6 governorates.

Meanwhile, the government also decided to establish an ad hoc committee to follow up the disease.

The committee will supervise the production of face masks and carry out training in stockbreeding, tourism and transportation sector to intercept the virus.

Earlier, the government has made a plan to relocate all the pig farms to May 15 City on the southern desert of Cairo, but the plan was criticized by lawmakers in the parliament, who on Tuesday urged the authority to cull all the pigs immediately.

In Mexico, more than 150 people are thought to have died from the new virus and thousands sickened. Around 100 cases have been confirmed worldwide and the number is inching higher.

Israel, the sole Mideast country hit by the virus, has confirmed two cases and reported two suspected cases. source>>>>

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Ticketmaster, TicketsNow could face fines if Queen's Park proposal becomes law

The Ontario government was set to introduce new legislation Wednesday prohibiting the resale of popular music and sporting event tickets at inflated prices through ticket auction websites.

If passed, the bill, titled Ontario's Ticket Speculation Act, would disallow companies such as Ticketmaster from reselling tickets to concerts, theatre shows and sporting events for higher than face value.

Ticketmaster has been under fire recently for its ownership of the ticket auction website, TicketsNow, and the legislation was tabled in response to public outrage that tickets were being resold there at jacked-up prices.

"Ontarians have spoken out clearly, resoundingly and unequivocally against companies benefiting from the primary and secondary markets. This is about fairness," said Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley in a news release. "We are determined to ensure that Ontarians have fair access to entertainment tickets for events taking place in the province."

Fans say they were notified that tickets to popular concerts like Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, were unavailable through Ticketmaster but were then redirected to the company's subsidiary, TicketsNow, for tickets at inflated prices.

The legislation carries with it an individual fine of up to $5,000 while a corporation can be hit with a $50,000 fine. source>>>

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Today in Strangeness

"Good evening HBO from Captain Midnight," began the bizarre text message which hijacked the HBO airwaves,for almost five minutes on this date in 1986. The message went on to protest HBO's pricing change for satellite subscribers. " Captain Midnight" turned out to be John R. MacDougall, who ended up getting caught by the FCC, charged a $10,000 fine and put on one year of probation. source>>>>

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Swine Flu: What You Need to Know, Good Hygiene Is Important in Combating the Virus

As U.S. officials warn of the spread in swine flu cases across the country, there are a number of steps Americans can take to protect themselves and their children from this unique virus.
PHOTO As U.S. officials warn that the number of swine flu cases in the country are likely to increase, there are a number of steps Americans can do to protect themselves and their children from this unique virus.
As U.S. officials warn that the number of swine flu cases in the country are likely to increase, there are a number of steps Americans can do to protect themselves and their children from this virus.
(Getty Images)

The rapidly spreading swine flu is a new virus that includes combination of swine, bird and human strains. It has taken the lives of 81 people in Mexico, and sickened more than a thousand south of the border.

In the United States, 20 cases have been confirmed thus far -- seven in California, two in Kansas, eight in New York City, one in Ohio and two in Texas.

Simple preventive measures, such as washing hands frequently and avoiding people who are coughing or sneezing, can go a long way toward keeping Americans safe from the virus, which health officials expect is likely to afflict more people.

"There is a role for everyone to play when an outbreak is going on to try and reduce the impact," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "At an individual level, it's important people understand how they can prevent respiratory infection. Frequent handwashing [is an] effective way to reduce transmission of diseases."

The World Health Organization declared the unusual virus a "public health emergency of international concern," but fell short of calling it a pandemic.

What is a Pandemic?

A flu virus can reach pandemic status if three conditions are met, according to the World Health Organization.
Related
Swine Flu: Questions and Answers
Swine Flu: Facts and Resources
Obama Releases Antiflu Drug Stockpile

First, it must be an infection that has newly emerged. Secondly, it has to be able to cause serious illness in humans. And thirdly, it must be able to spread easily from person to person. Infections in this category can often spread beyond their continents of origin -- and potentially around the world.

When a flu virus mutates in such a way that it forms a novel version, it means people typically have little to no protection, because their immune systems have no experience fighting that form of the virus. Flu viruses can spread quickly and potentially cause more severe illness when the population lacks immunity.

Scientists around the globe are working hard to determine the threat level of the current swine virus. Right now, the virus is said to have "pandemic potential" because it is a new virus that can spread from person-to-person.

But if it turns out the virus does not spread easily among people, the threat level will go down. Similarly, if it turns out the virus can spread easily among people, the threat becomes more serious and the virus is more likely to trigger a pandemic.

"The distinction about a pandemic is that you need a distinct virus that human population hasn't seen before. Once it starts to spread, it moves rapidly from country to country and from continent to continent and we don't have that yet," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

He added that it is still too early to use the "P" word just yet.

"I'm still observing this as a variant of seasonal influenza. I don't know if we've seen that kind of [global] spread yet so I'm a little bit cautious. However it's in everyone's mind," he said.

But all pandemics are not equally deadly. Some kill millions more people than normal flu outbreaks, while others are roughly on par with seasonal flu in terms of deaths.

It is not possible to predict a pandemic in advance, so health officials keep a close watch on viruses that have "pandemic potential" -- new viruses that have shown at least some ability to transmit to humans.

The current H5N1 bird flu circulating in Asia is an example of a virus that has pandemic potential, but has not yet caused a pandemic.

Pandemics can vary quite a bit in severity. The 1918 pandemic killed many more Americans than an ordinary flu, while the 1968 version killed about 34,000 people -- about the same number killed each year by seasonal flu, according to CDC statistics. continue>>>>

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Today in Strangeness

On this date in 1985, the Coca Cola company unveiled their New Coke formula for their signature beverage. The result was outrage from Coke drinkers across the country, who bombarded the company with demands to return to the original formula. Less than three months later, "old Coke" was re-introduced and New Coke became known as the modern-day equivalent to the Edsel. source>>>

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Dropout rate declines in some cities

The high school dropout problem is getting better in some big cities where it's most severe, a national study found, but the overall situation remains dismal, as more than one in four kids drops out of high school nationwide.

Still, Philadelphia, Tucson, Ariz., and Kansas City, Mo., made huge gains over the past decade, boosting graduation rates by 20 percentage points or more, the study found.

In all, 13 cities saw double-digit improvement in their graduation rates, according to the study released Wednesday by America's Promise Alliance.

"I was surprised at the size of the gains in some of these cities," said Christopher Swanson, director of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which prepared the report.

"The majority of these large cities are making improvements, and that's something you wouldn't necessarily get if you've been listening to this debate recently," Swanson said.

Chicago, which saw its graduation rate rise more than 9 percentage points, tried an array of ideas, including new smaller schools and ninth-grade academies.

Until January, Chicago public schools had been run for the past seven years by Arne Duncan, who is now President Barack Obama's education secretary. Obama has said he wants to fix the problem of high school dropouts.

Duncan said Wednesday there is little doubt about how to fix the problem.

"I think we know many of the answers, yes, we do," Duncan told The Associated Press following a speech in Washington.

"There are places around the country where those numbers are going down, and not just going down one year, they're going down year after year after year," he said.

"In places that are struggling, there has to be a willingness to face those brutal truths and not be scared of them and acknowledge this huge sense of crisis, the devastating impact this has on children's lives and on the entire community," Duncan said.

Urban schools still have a long way to go. On average, only half the kids graduate in the 50 biggest cities, the report said. Those cities are home to half the country's population and are driving a national graduation rate that is estimated at 70 percent.

And while most big cities are making gains, 19 have lost ground. Las Vegas saw its graduation rates plummet 23 percentage points to 44.5 percent. The graduation rate in Wichita, Kan., dropped 18 percentage points to 54.5 percent, and in Omaha, Neb., it dropped 15 percentage points to 50 percent.

The report measures progress from 1995 to 2005, the most recent year for which comprehensive data was available from the Education Department.

For kids who don't finish high school, the future is bleak. High school dropouts are the only segment of the work force for whom income levels shrank over the past 30 years, the report said.

Only in recent years have people begun to realize how widespread and severe the dropout crisis is, said Bob Balfanz, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Balfanz has worked with America's Promise Alliance, a children's advocacy group started by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, but did not work on this report.

"Paying attention matters," Balfanz said. "If there's a problem, and we react to it, at least in some cases, we'll make it better."

Since then, Philadelphia and other cities have worked on finding ways to intervene, especially when kids are most vulnerable, in ninth grade when they start high school.

Some districts have created ninth-grade academies that offer smaller classes and help catching up in math or other subjects to ease the transition into high school.

Districts also have developed smaller schools and focused on helping kids with other problems -- homelessness, a sick relative they take care of -- to keep kids from dropping out. source>>>

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On this date in history

On this date in 1864, Congress passed a bill which added the phrase " In God We Trust" to all one cent coins minted in the US. The controversial phrase would go on to become the official motto of the United States, despite numerous legal battles, one of which reached as high as the Supreme Court. source>>>

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Is the TARP Oversight Panel Less Political?

Timothy Geithner made his first appearance before the panel Congress set up to oversee the financial bailout plan. He was on the defense from the get-go. The special inspector general released a report critical of the 700 billion dollar plan, saying it has become a three trillion dollar effort of "unprecedented scope, scale and complexity."

Panel member Rep. Jeb Hensarling tried to nail down regular appearances by the Treasury Secretary before the panel, a move Geithner was reluctant to make until his team can be confirmed and put in place.

While oversight of the program is critical, it's unclear to me the role of this panel and how it differs from the role of Congressional overseers. Less political? I'm not sure how a current Republican congressman, a former Republican senator, a state bank regulator, an academic and a labor union activist are divorced of politics. Independent? Maybe, but our elected leaders should be informed, independent thinkers. source>>>

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Tea Parties Will Have Significant Impact According to Readers

The "tea parties" held on April 15th around the country have captured a lot of attention among politicians and political pundits wondering if the event was a relatively insignificant, one-time event or reflects the beginning of a political event that will have an impact on the country in our immediate future.

The cultural and political rift between opposing views was reflected in the reporting of the event. Fox News had reporters at several major locations with large demonstrations and gave major coverage to the events. Other news organizations, such as CNN, largely ignored the tea parties.

The demonstrations captured the attention of the administration. David Axelrod, a White House strategist, referred to the tea parties as "unhealthy." President Obama made an oblique reference to "disturbing disunity."

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that the tea parties were a defense of "fairness and freedom" and commented that "subjects" of a government do not complain but that "citizens" demand the "right to pursue happiness" as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

With a wide variety of opinions, and the potential for the tea parties to have an impact on American politics and government still an unknown factor, we asked readers for their opinion. Did they attend a tea party and do they think the events may have a potentially significant impact? source>>>

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Hillary Clinton questions the credibility of Dick on Interrogation Issue

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has questioned the credibility of former Vice President Dick Cheney who has defended the use of harsh interrogation methods on suspected terrorists. The controversial interrogation issue came up as Secretary Clinton testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Secretary Clinton was pressed by committee Republicans about President Obama's decision to leave the door open to possible prosecution of former Bush administration officials involved in formulating legal justifications for harsh interrogation techniques.

President Obama has said he would not favor prosecution of CIA agents and others who conducted the interrogations, but he said he would support a non-politicized bipartisan congressional review of the matter and would not rule out possible Justice Department action.

The Justice Department would decide whether to bring charges against former high officials who devised legal justifications for interrogation methods such as "waterboarding".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, 22 Apr 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, 22 Apr 2009
Secretary Clinton had this exchange with California Republican Dana Rohrabacher about Vice President Cheney's effort to force the release of classified documents he says prove that harsh interrogation methods yielded valuable intelligence:

ROHRABACHER: "Are you in favor of releasing the documents that Dick Cheney has been requesting be released?"

CLINTON: "Well, it will not surprise you that I do not consider him a particularly reliable source of information."

ROHRABACHER: "Madame Secretary, I asked you a specific question. Dick Cheney has asked for specific documents to be unclassified, we are not asking your opinion about Dick Cheney. About those documents, [if] you want to maintain your credibility with us, what is your position on the release of those documents?"

CLINTON: "Well, Congressman I believe that we ought to get to the bottom of this entire matter. I think it is in the best interests of our country and that is what the president believes and that is why he has taken the actions he did."

Secretary Clinton said she had "no information" on details about interrogation tactics that intelligence agencies shared with the leadership of congressional committees.

Republican Dan Burton joined in criticizing President Obama on the question of possible prosecutions of former Bush officials.

"We need both hands untied with our intelligence agencies to really stop terrorism in the United States," said Dan Burton. "And I hope that the President of the United States, and you Madame Secretary, will re-evaluate the situation and not be prosecuting people at the CIA or the Justice Department who are just doing their job to try to protect this country."

Vice President Cheney has formally asked the U.S. National Archives to declassify CIA documents he says support assertions he and other critics of the Obama administration have made about the value of the harsh interrogation techniques used on some high value terror suspects.

The Obama administration earlier released classified Bush-era legal memos detailing the harsh methods used during the interrogation of some terrorist suspects. Vice President Cheney says that by only releasing the documents describing the methods, it is not possible to see the successes from the interrogations. source>>>

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Today in Strangeness

On this date 75 years ago, a British surgeon's alleged picture of the Loch Ness Monster was first published in London's Daily Mail. While the veracity of the image continues to be debated to this day, the "Surgeon's photo," as it would come to be known, gained iconic status and remains the signature picture of the elusive sea serpent. source>>>

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Tulsa Named Best Place to Live in U.S.

Relocate America has named Tulsa as the number one place to live in the United States.

Relocate America's Top 100 Places to live uses data such as local economy, housing, education, employment, crime, parks and recreation, and other statistics used to make home-buying decisions.

Information is submitted about neighborhoods, the quality of schools, recreational activities and economic growth.

Communities across the nation are nominated by residents.

Tulsa has also been identified as the 5th best city in the nation to ride out the recession by Forbes.com.

To see a list of the top 100 places to live go to http://top100.relocate-america.com/ source>>>

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Janeane Garofalo ruining '24'

Janeane Garofalo made an appearance on Countdown with Keith Olbermann recently in which she claimed that the only reason hundreds of thousands of people attended Tea Parties was racism. Yup, you attended a protest because you can't stand the fact that there is a black man in office. 'They don't know history' she said of Tea Party goers, adding 'it's straight up racism.' Janeane had a different take on protests in 2003 on "Countdown," specifically complaining about how protestors were attacked with 'unfair' and 'anti-intellectual' comments. Hmmm, you mean like saying all Tea Party protestors are racist? Thanks for doing your best to ruin 24, Janeane. continue>>>

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Today in Strangeness

According to the Daily Bleed, in Scotland on this date in the year 618 AD, 53 monks were burned alive by a gang of armed women seeking revenge for being cheated out of their pasture rights. On this day in 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 safely returned to Earth, in spite of a severe malfunction that occurred in their spacecraft on their way to the moon. source>>>

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Words are as subject to fashion as morals and lapels, politics and popular music.

Today's merely tiresome coinage is tomorrow's infuriatingly ubiquitous cliche. Executives with important titles speak a pidgin of pseudo-scientific empowerment learned from corporate directives and management apocrypha, written in a patois that has seeped into general use: pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box, tree stretching, helicopter views, vertical sausaging matrixes.

Journalese, too, thrives on cliche. It is the jargon of the linguistically insentient whose job is to smother page upon page with words. And there are more pages than ever, and more screens, and thus more marginally literate word-operatives struggling to smother them.

Where would they be without the following, the props of their desperate trade? Genius, guru, hub, legend, driver (meaning cause), challenging, controversial, cool, edgy, default, diverse, holistic, multicultural, postmodern and the newly transitive verbs to impact, to source. Where, above all, would they be without iconic?

Here are some nouns and compound nouns that have been prefixed by this most dismal of vogue words. These are all found constructions of recent provenance: none is my invention.

Iconic albino, iconic assassin, iconic baby lotion, iconic brand, iconic bridge, iconic bucket, iconic building, iconic button fly, iconic campervan, iconic car, iconic cassoulet, iconic CCTV camera, iconic celebration, iconic chainsaw, iconic chair, iconic chef, iconic chimpanzee, iconic children's entertainer, iconic clock, iconic cocktail, iconic comb, iconic combover, iconic comedy, iconic cooling tower, iconic cricket bat, iconic crisps, iconic doll, iconic dreadlocks, iconic drinker, iconic earthmover, iconic escalator, iconic enema, iconic field armour, iconic film star, iconic fishing reel, iconic flat cap, iconic garden, iconic goggles, iconic gorilla, iconic grocery, iconic guitarist, iconic hairstyle, iconic halo, iconic handshake, iconic hanging laundry, iconic hazard, iconic high heels, iconic hitman, iconic house, iconic ice cream, iconic icon, iconic injury, iconic itinerary, iconic jihad target, iconic jigsaw, iconic jingle, iconic jockey, iconic joke, iconic kitchen utensil, iconic knife, iconic knowledge, iconic lawnmower, iconic leprechaun, iconic light fitting, iconic lion, iconic lip balm, iconic mascara, iconic milkshake, iconic mittens, iconic moment, iconic moustache, iconic mouthwash, iconic movie, iconic murder, iconic noose, iconic ointment, iconic orangutan, iconic palace, iconic panda, iconic penis, iconic perfume, iconic philosophy, iconic photograph, iconic pig, iconic pimp, iconic playwright, iconic plumber, iconic pub, iconic radiator, iconic relationship, iconic restaurant, iconic retail mall, iconic robot, iconic rodent, iconic saddle, iconic sandwich, iconic sausage, iconic shoehorn, iconic shop, iconic silhouette, iconic snack food, iconic soft drink, iconic submachinegun, iconic sunglasses, iconic surgeon, iconic taxi, iconic terrorist, iconic toaster, iconic toilet seat, iconic tracksuit, iconic tractor, iconic treehouse, iconic trenchcoat, iconic typeface, iconic vending machine, iconic vindaloo, iconic wedding dress, iconic welder, iconic wheelchair, iconic wine, iconic yak, iconic yogurt, iconic zip hoodie.

The scope here suggests there is nothing that cannot be deemed iconic. Iconic, that is, in the sense acquired through recent abuse. Though quite what that sense is is not readily determined. The Oxford English Dictionary takes its earliest citation for iconic as "designating a person or thing regarded as representative of a culture or movement; important or influential in a particular (cultural) context" from Newsweek in 1976.

One may hazard a guess that it was current some years before that in the jargon-dense groves of academe where truisms are pompously dressed to lend them importance. According to Jesse Sheidlower, American editor of the OED, The New York Times's usage of iconic has increased from 11 instances in 1988 to 141 in 1998 to 442 in 2008. He warns that this is an extremely crude gauge of a word's currency.

But if a normally scrupulous newspaper such as The New York Times employs iconic more than once a day, it is all too easy to figure the word's incidence in the less linguistically prescriptive newspapers.

It is evident that the OED definition is no longer adequate, for this is a word whose meanings have forked and forked again in a delta formation. What the word now signifies is fuzzily approximate. Yet, despite its promiscuous ascription to some improbable bedfellows (bucket and lion), it is far from meaningless. It seems to have a multitude of meanings: notable, celebrated, zealously promoted, revered, long established, covert, authentic, enviable, easily recognised, memorable, important, estimable, stereotypical and atypical, representative and unusual, cliquey and popular, recherche and accessible, and -- like the word itself -- unavoidable.

Perhaps I should withdraw that "far from meaningless"; if a word can signify anything it will eventually signify nothing. It may have already achieved that literally insignificant state. Nonetheless, its very ubiquity is telling. It reveals a collective longing, a wishfulness. Like "cult" (used adjectivally), it carries a chummily sacred, cosily religiose, softly spiritual connotation.

We live in an era of incontinent celebration and exponential hyperbole. Everything is world-class. An innings that once may have been described as good is today awesome. Any rock band that survives narcotic depredation and managerial peculation to re-form in wizened middle age is legendary. Artisans going quietly about their business in the back of beyond, baking loaves or gutting herrings, find themselves declared food heroes.

Every area of enterprise aspires to a grandiose awards ceremony: the Organic Semi-conductor Industry Awards, the Demolition Oscars, the Contract Cleaning Baftas, and, of course, the Awards Industry Awards. All of them strive to emulate the Academy Awards, all of them make fleeting heroes of hod carriers or logistics resource analysts, all of them add to the sum of bathos. The lad mag GQ lamentably names an Icon of the Year. The day cannot be far off when al-Jazeera hosts the Martyrdom DVD Awards, though the winner may be unable to be with ustonight.

Given the collective appetite for idolatry, it is apt that iconic should be the adjective of the age. For although icon derives from a Greek word signifying no more than a likeness, a portrait or an image, it has for centuries been indissolubly linked to Christian images of Jesus, Mary, the agony, the deposition and so on. Such images were the targets of the original iconoclasts, aghast at the temerity of those who dared give visual form to the Trinity. Even before it was first adopted by the Eastern church, the word icon was tainted by association with the superstitions that humans fortify themselves with. The Anatolian city of Konya was formerly known as Iconium. It supposedly got that name from the shrine erected there either to its alleged protector Ares, the merciless god of war whose Roman incarnation was Mars, or to Perseus who decapitated the gorgon Medusa -- her dead serpentine head was transformed into a sort of amulet whose representation is called a gorgoneion, that is, gorgon icon.

Implicit in the modern use of iconic is the perhaps deliberate, perhaps unwitting aspiration to invest things and people with properties that render them miraculous and superhuman, magical and godlike. It is today's expression of humankind's perennial bent towards aggrandisement and worship of other humans, of human inventions, of things: rocks, clouds, forests, tides, charms, relics. And if those, why not E-types or Zippos?

Why not rock stars (whose debauches are puny beside those of Greek or Hindu gods)? But no matter how puny, how could the insipid, anodyne, milk-and-one-sugar-please God of the Anglicans have competed with such antic Pans as Mick Jagger, such Dionysiac groins as Robert Plant's? Farrokh Bulsara's decision to call himself Freddie Mercury was prescient, he became a mythic prophecy he had to fulfil. If churches can't provide appropriate gods, we must make our own. Or allow ourselves to be seduced into worship of self-appointed gods and antinomian furies.

One of the dafter ideas propagated by the credulous is that the tyrannies of the 20thcentury owe their enormities to their atheism. The Third Reich, Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China were theocracies whose dependence on the iconic was as great as their dependence on terror, on neighbours grassing each other up, on lies as gross as those of any established faith. Dictators routinely attempt to kill God so that they may usurp him, then act like malevolent forces of nature, wreak divine vengeance, massacre innocents. They sack churches, raze temples, burn texts. The next steps on the roadto genocide are all art direction and liturgical choreography.

Until his triumph in the Great Patriotic War, after which he was depicted as a genial orphaned absolutist, Stalin often would be shown in paintings as a peripherally positioned member of a group of equals or as Lenin's acolyte, as though Lenin was the father in heaven and he the mere son doing his father's will on Soviet earth. The implication was exculpatory: the living son's errors might actually be the dead father's. The largely illiterate population of his empire knew Stalin only pictorially, through accessible icons. The iconic figure and the man were indivisible.

Hitler was more audacious. His appearance was as measured as his rehearsed ranting. He reduced himself to a few pictorial marks and gestures: the salute, the moustache, the bang of hair. So no matter how protean he might be, no matter whether he was represented as a Teutonic knight, a little guy fighting for hispeople's entitlement, a reliable provincial station master, a mountain visionary or a revolutionary vanguard, he was instantly recognisable. The modern world's Apollyon turned himself into something literally picturesque, something iconic.

The swastika was a logo. But it was neither an abstraction nor a theft from Jainism. It was a calculatedly didactic icon, pregnant with meaning. In German it is the hakenkreutz, the hooked cross: a graphic twisting of Christianity's paramount symbol. The Nuremberg rallies were rites that underlined the link between the martial and the sacred. As terrifying as an Aztec ceremony and as hokey as amateur operetta, they remain indelibly fixed on the retina that witnesses them.

Their decor lives on in the stadium-rock stage sets designed for the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and others by Mark Fisher, who is among Albert Speer's understandably few apostles. These shows are mock-heroic while aspiring to be heroic tout court. And they're pompous: altars for flashy pasteboard messiahs. Yet the tawdry grandeur is potent, just as cheap music is meant to be; the spectacle can rouse us, despite ourselves. Here is the very quality that is Condition A of the truly iconic. It affects us whether we like it or not.

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Federal court blocks webcast of music piracy suit

A federal appeals court panel today blocked a trial judge in Boston from allowing live Internet coverage of an upcoming hearing in a closely watched lawsuit against a Boston University student accused of downloading music illegally.

In a strongly worded opinion, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said US District Judge Nancy Gertner had made an "unprecedented" and "palpably incorrect" interpretation of a rule adopted by trial judges in Massachusetts when she agreed to a gavel-to-gavel webcast of an upcoming hearing in the suit.

"We are reluctant to interfere with a district judge's interpretation of a rule of her court, especially one that involves courtroom management," said the opinion written by Judge Bruce M. Selya.

However, the three-member appeals court panel said the 1990 rule, the policy of the US Judicial Conference, and a resolution of the First Circuit Judicial Council all prohibit the planned webcast, which would have been the first in a federal court in Massachusetts.

The appeals court said it recognizes that technology is changing rapidly. But the judges said "this is not a case about free speech writ large" but about "the rule of law."

Gertner had ruled in January that she would allow a key hearing to be webcast in the lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America against Joel Tenenbaum, a 25-year-old student seeking a doctorate in physics.

Tenenbaum, who is being defended by a well-known Harvard law professor, Charles R. Nesson, and a team of law students, had wanted the hearing presented on the Internet to show the world how the recording industry treats people it is suing. The hearing is tentatively scheduled for April 30, said the appeals court.

But Daniel J. Cloherty, who represents the recording industry, contended in recent oral arguments that Gertner flouted the rule adopted by federal trial judges in Massachusetts. The rule does not mention the Internet but bans cameras and recording equipment in the trial courts, except for such special events as naturalization ceremonies, he said.

He contended that Nesson and Tenenbaum's supporters might distort the facts of the case in a webcast of the hearing. They say, for example, that Nesson last week misstated the number of songs Tenenbaum downloaded and that hundreds of songs are at issue in the case.

Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the association was ``pleased with the First Circuit's decision in his matter and [we] now look forward to focusing on the underlying copyright infringement claims in this case.''

Nesson said he will go forward with the hearing, which will deal with several key motions, including the record labels' attempt to dismiss Tenenbaum's counterclaims against them. But Nesson said he will try to appeal today's ruling to the US Supreme Court because the issue goes beyond the suit.

"The idea that a United States federal district court judge doesn't have the discretion to open her courtroom to the public is a tribute to the fear that the O.J. Simpson case set loose amongst the federal judiciary," he said. "It seems very short-sighted."

Most state trial courts across the country, including those in Massachusetts, allow television cameras and recording equipment. But most federal judges have forbidden the practice in trial courts, particularly in the wake of the televised spectacle of the Simpson trial in a California state court in 1995. source>>>

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Today in Strangeness

On this date in 1866, a leaking crate of nitroglycerin in San Francisco exploded, leveling a Wells Fargo office and all surrounding buildings. And on this day in 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD. source>>>

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Wall Street’s Worries Hinder Sales of U.S. Open Golf Tickets

The U.S. Golf Association is struggling to sell corporate hospitality packages and tickets for this year's U.S. Open at Bethpage outside New York as companies downsize or opt out of sports entertainment.

On April 14, more than 1,000 weekly and daily ticket packages were made available for public purchase through local and New York state golf associations, Rand Jerris, a spokesman for the Far Hills, New Jersey-based USGA said in a telephone interview. More tickets are likely to be put up for sale as the June 18-21 tournament at Bethpage State Park approaches.

"Given the current economic climate, I think it's understandable that our sales of corporate hospitality tents and tickets are down," Jerris said. "There have been corporations that originally committed that have pulled back. They're downsizing their commitment."

Jerris declined to name specific companies. He said the demise of many Wall Street financial institutions has had a direct impact on ticket sales.

Several companies who had planned to buy 100-person tents have downsized to one table or several tables in a larger tent, Jerris said.

Many companies that received federal bailout funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program are shying away from sports entertainment after receiving criticism by members of Congress.

Northern Trust Corp. was targeted in February for entertaining employees and clients at a company sponsored U.S. PGA Tour event. The company said it will repay $1.6 billion in bailout funds "as quickly as prudently possible."

No Entertaining

Wells Fargo & Co., which sponsors a PGA Tour event in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Morgan Stanley, a sponsor of the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, recently said they won't entertain executives or clients at the tournaments.

At Bethpage, hospitality packages on the course range from $32,500 for a table that seats 12 inside a pavilion, to $230,000 for a 40 foot-by-40 foot chalet, which includes furnishings, air conditioning and seating for 80 guests. The more expensive package comes with 100 weekly tickets and the option to purchase 75 more weekly packages.

"It's from the pool that are typically purchased by the corporations, that we haven't sold," Jerris said. "We haven't hit, and don't anticipate to hit, those numbers. Feeling that we're down already, we're going ahead and releasing those tickets to the public."

He declined to discuss how much may be lost from the unsold tents, citing the association's practice of not breaking out financial figures from specific tournaments.

Corporate Sales

Typically, the USGA withholds between 8,000 and 10,000 weekly tickets for purchase by corporations, Jerris said. As the current allotment of 1,000 tickets is bought by the public, the USGA will likely release more tickets if corporations don't buy them.

"We're reserving tickets in anticipation of more corporate sales," Jerris said. "It's an ongoing sales effort. We expect by the week of the Open, we'll be sold out."

When the U.S. Open was last held at Bethpage in 2002, the golf organization sold 77 hospitality tents, helping it generate $92.6 million in revenue for its championships that year. While the USGA doesn't break down its revenue totals for the U.S. Open alone, the 2002 tournament was its most financially successful at the time, Jerris said.

The group had anticipated selling the same number of hospitality packages this year to the event in Farmingdale, New York, Jerris said. So far, they have sold enough for about 50 tents, about the same number they had for the 2007 Open at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Jerris said. That year, USGA revenue was $100.9 million.

After the 2008 event, where 70 hospitality tents lined the fairways of San Diego's Torrey Pines Golf Course, the USGA pulled in $114.4 million in annual revenue.

"There was certainly a hope and an expectation that we would be somewhere around the '02 numbers, but we're obviously in a different world right now," Jerris said. source>>>

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SEC looking at Carlyle Group

Carlyle Group, a major private-equity firm, is being investigated by New York prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether it illegally paid intermediaries to secure $1.3 billion in investments from the state's pension fund, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

"Carlyle has fully cooperated with the New York attorney general's investigation," Christopher Ullman, a spokesman for Carlyle, said Tuesday. "We understand this is an industrywide investigation." source>>>

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Bankers invest in teaching children to save

April is National Financial Literacy month.
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So we're hearing about more efforts to teach children -- and adults -- how to be better savers.

In Michigan, the sixth annual Money Smart Week kicks off on Saturday. More than 300 free educational classes and seminars will take place around the state.

Bankers nationwide, for example, are joining hands with the American Bankers Association Education Foundation to use a new "Teach Children to Save" program to encourage at least 1 million young people to save. See www.aba.com.

"Adults aren't alone in feeling the pressure of the economy; our children are, too," said Laura Fisher, director of the ABA Education Foundation, in a statement. source>>>

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: Most illegal immigrants' kids are U.S. citizens

Nearly three-quarters of illegal immigrants' children were born in the USA and are citizens, according to a report released Tuesday.

Those 4 million children muddy the immigration debate, raising questions about enforcement and public services for illegal immigrant families whose members include legal residents, experts say.

"Undocumented immigrants live in neighborhoods; they have kids in school," says Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew Hispanic Center and co-author of the report. "That complicates greatly the difficulty of the task of coming up with policies to deal with this population."

About one-third of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the USA are women, and most illegal immigrants are married or living with someone, the non-partisan research center's analysis of 2008 Census data shows.

Of the 5.5 million children of illegal immigrants, 73% were born here. In 2003, 63% of illegal immigrants' children were citizens.

Because more families are made up of both legal and illegal residents, immigration enforcement becomes trickier, says Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies. The center advocates reduced immigration. "Once kids are involved, it gets tougher to enforce the law," Camarota says. "It complicates it as a political and emotional matter."

Although Camarota says there should be room for exceptions, "the presence of a U.S.-born child should not be used as an excuse not to enforce the law."

Douglas Massey, a sociology professor at Princeton University, favors changes in immigration law that would allow illegal immigrants to stay legally.

That way, Massey says, the taxes paid by newly legalized residents could be used to fund public services they use, such as education and health care.

According to the report, children of illegal immigrants make up 6.8% of children enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade.

"We don't really have an option other than somehow bringing these people above board," Massey says.

The report also shows that illegal immigrants are more likely to live as family units with their children than legal immigrants or U.S.-born Americans.

Nearly half of illegal-immigrant households are couples living with children, compared with 35% of legal-immigrant households and 21% of U.S.-born households.

Passel attributes that disparity to the relative youthfulness of illegal immigrants.

"It's a very young population, with a large concentration under 40," he says. source>>>

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Epilepsy Drug Linked to Babies' Lower IQ

Women with epilepsy who took the drug valproate ( Depakote) during pregnancy gave birth to children whose IQ at age 3 averaged up to 9 points lower than the scores of children exposed to other epilepsy drugs, according to a new study.

"Valproate exposure to the unborn child is associated with a lower IQ, which is not explained by any of the other factors [influencing IQ], such as mother's IQ, mother's age, or epilepsy type," says Kimford J. Meador, MD, the study's lead author and professor of neurology at Emory University in Atlanta.

The average IQ of children born to women who took valproate was 92 -- 8 below the 100 that is considered average -- and the scores of those exposed to other epilepsy drugs ranged from 98 to 101, he tells WebMD.

The implications go beyond the use of the drugs in women of childbearing age who have epilepsy, Meador tells WebMD, because the drug is also commonly prescribed for migraine headaches and bipolar disorder.

In response to the study, published in Wednesday's New England Journal of Medicine, a spokesperson for Abbott, which makes valproate, said the drug may be the only effective medication for some women.
Epilepsy Drugs in Pregnancy and IQ: Study Details

Meador and his colleagues enrolled pregnant women with epilepsy who received care at 25 epilepsy centers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom from late 1999 to early 2004.

About 3 million people in the U.S. have some form of epilepsy, according to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, and experience seizures, which are brief disturbances of electrical activity in the brain. About 25,000 babies are born annually in the U.S. to mothers who have epilepsy.

The researchers gathered information about the type of epilepsy drug taken, the dose, compliance with the medication, the mother's IQ, her age at delivery, race or ethnicity, type of epilepsy, and lifestyle habits such as the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs during pregnancy.

The women in the study took one of four drugs: valproate (Depakote), lamotrigine ( Lamictal), carbamazepine ( Tegretol), or phenytoin (Dilantin).

Although the association between epilepsy drugs and birth defects has long been known -- with valproate found to have risks of birth defects two to four times as high as other epilepsy drugs -- the potential link between the drugs and cognitive functioning in the children has been studied much less, Meador says.

His team followed the children for six years to assess intelligence, with the current report focusing on the interim test results on the 309 children at age 3.
Epilepsy Drugs & IQ: Study Results

Children born to mothers who took valproate had the lowest average IQ, Meador's team found, even after adjusting for other factors that might influence IQ, such as a mother's IQ, her age at delivery, or the type of epilepsy. The average IQs were:

* 101 for children whose mothers took lamotrigine
* 99 for children whose mothers took phenytoin
* 98 for children whose mothers took carbamazepine
* 92 for children whose mothers took valproate

"An average IQ is 100," Meador says, "and below 70 is mentally retarded."

Exactly how valproate lowers IQ is not known, Meador says. "We think the effect may be similar to babies exposed to alcohol in utero," he says, with both substances causing damage of brain cells.

When they looked more closely at the doses of valproate, the researchers found that children born to women who took less than 1,000 milligrams a day of valproate had higher IQs than those who took more than 1,000 milligrams. Those exposed to high doses had an average IQ of 87, and those exposed to lower doses had an average IQ of 97, they found.

Although the researchers found the lower doses of valproate associated with less risk, Meador says he can't pinpoint a "safe" dose.

Even so, the study finding "supports a recommendation that valproate not be used as a first-choice drug in women of childbearing potential," the authors conclude in the report. They reached that conclusion, Meador says, despite the fact that some women with epilepsy respond better to valproate than to other drugs.

Women should not stop any epilepsy drug without consulting their physician, Meador warns.
Epilepsy Drugs in Pregnancy: Industry Response

After reviewing the study, Abbott, the Chicago-based pharmaceutical company that makes Depakote, issued this statement: "For many women, Depakote may be the only effective medicine to control their seizures, but it is important that physicians and patients have a candid conversation about the risks of treatment versus the benefits of treatment."

The label on Depakote alerts users and physicians to the risks of the drug during pregnancy, says Raquel Powers, an Abbott spokeswoman.
Epilepsy Drugs in Pregnancy: Second Opinions

Even before the study linking valproate with lower IQs in children of mothers with epilepsy, it was not a "first-choice" drug for women of childbearing age because of the risk of birth defects, writes Torbjorn Tomson, MD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, who authored an editorial to accompany the study.

His advice: "Discussion of the risks of valproate should be balanced with consideration of the risks of uncontrolled seizures."

"This study gives us information to make an informed decision to avoid valproate in women of childbearing age," says Page Pennell, MD, an associate professor of neurology at Emory University and chair of the national professional advisory board for the Epilepsy Foundation of America, based in Landover, MD. Pennell is also a co-author on the paper.

Speaking to WebMD on behalf of the Epilepsy Foundation, Pennell says that the foundation advises women to talk to their doctor about the risk of various medicines vs. the risk of seizures. "Get on the safest medication for pregnancy," she says.

Currently, guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology and other organizations don't differentiate among epilepsy drugs in terms of risks of birth defects, the authors note in the report..

But new, more specific guidelines are expected to be issued source>>>

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