| O2 BARS SET FRENCH OFFICIALS SNIFFING
PARIS, Feb 13, 2008 (AFP) - As oxygen bars begin to pop up across France, health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of sniffing O2.
Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the late 1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs.
But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week.
Flagged as "a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression concept", the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political "kingmaker" Jacques Seguela.
Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table, a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.
Folks, steroids in sports really is news
Turn back the calendar three decades. East Germany was setting the world on its ear, turning out top athletes at an astonishing rate. At first we marveled at the rigorous training that began at early childhood and the vast sports centers that provided would-be Olympians with the finest equipment, facilities, coaching and doctors. But there were signs that training and equipment alone couldn't account for the extraordinary muscle development and amazing performances. By the mid-1970s, when East German swimmers came to compete with Americans in Concord, experts were wondering publicly whether steroids were at play. The doubts grew louder, the headlines grew bigger. By the time the Berlin Wall fell, it was evident that East Germany had conducted a national program of doping athletes, a way to succeed in sport and demonstrate the superiority of the socialist system.
Law firms: Even generalists get very specific
Few local firms specialized in patent law when C. Earl Hovey and Roy Hamilton opened their practice downtown in 1929, only four weeks before the stock market crash.</p><p>More than 75 years later, <strong>Hovey Williams </strong>is still handling patents, copyrights and other cases in the expanding field of intellectual property law.</p><p>Many of the area's largest firms engage in general law practice, with staff attorneys who develop expertise in corporate finance, health care, employment and other specialties.</p><p>Kansas City-based <strong>Stinson Morrison Hecker </strong>recently created a climate change practice group to address increasing interest at the state and federal levels on climate change legislation.</p><p>Other practices focus on specific industries, such as banking or construction, and provide services for both corporations and individuals.</p><p>But only a handful of greater Kansas City's larger firms concentrate in only one area of legal practice.</p><p><strong>Gilmore & Bell </strong>in Kansas City focuses exclusively on public finance, serving as counsel for municipal transactions and economic development projects.</p><p><strong>Franke Schultz & Mullen </strong>in Kansas City limits its practice to civil litigation, primarily defending cases for large insurers, including <strong>AIG</strong>, <strong>Mutual Doctors Mutual </strong>and <strong>Lloyd's of London</strong>.</p><p>The field is virtually recession-proof, because when people are injured they're going to file claims and lawsuits for money regardless of the economy, said John Schultz, a founder and partner.</p><p>An increasing number of law firms are adding intellectual property as a specialty.</p><p>The field continues to grow because companies are seeking more patents for new inventions, especially in the high-tech areas of electronics, chemistry and biology.</p><p>Hovey attorneys have to understand a variety of technical subspecialties to converse effectively with their inventor clients, which include <strong>Garmin</strong><strong>International </strong>and <strong>Bushnell Outdoor Products</strong>, said Tom Luebbering, a partner at Hovey.</p><p>“We're able to focus on this work only and offer some expertise that a client may not find elsewhere,” he said.
The Edwards Lifesciences Fund Awards More Than $2.5 Million in ...
IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW) , a world leader in products and technologies to treat advanced cardiovascular disease, announced today the 2007 grant recipients from The Edwards Lifesciences Fund, a philanthropic, donor-advised fund the company established in 2005. As part of the Fund's third annual grant cycle, more than 60 charitable organizations received grants between $5,000 and $100,000, bringing the yearly total to more than $2.5 million. "We are proud that this year we are more than doubling the amount of money granted in 2006, and are also increasing the number of organizations supported by our Fund by nearly 40 percent," said Michael A. Mussallem, Edwards' chairman and CEO. "The Edwards Lifesciences Fund is supporting a growing number of organizations that strengthen our communities and help us in the fight against cardiovascular disease, further extending Edwards' reach and impact around the world." Gifts from The Edwards Lifesciences Fund are categorized as either strategic or community grants.
UT Southwestern ricin researchers chafe at security crackdown
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have spent years and millions of dollars building vaccines and cancer treatments with ricin, a toxin so lethal that an amount the size of a grain of salt can kill a person. But as federal oversight of deadly agents has increased dramatically since the 9/11 attacks, so have concerns about the university's research program. For nearly five years, and as recently as August, some safety inspectors and law enforcement officials have worried that the ricin stockpile isn't secure enough. And internal e-mails and safety records depict a research program caught in the struggle between science and security – where some of the nation's most prominent scientists have chafed at new safety demands and the inspectors who reviewed their labs.
Center For Tobacco Control Studies To Be Based In Nottingham, UK
The University of Nottingham will spearhead UK research into tobacco control at a new 5 million pound Centre of Excellence, it was revealed today (Jan 23).
The UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies will bring together seven leading research groups in a unique partnership, establishing one of the world's largest research groups dedicated to the prevention of harm from smoking.
Led by Professor John Britton and Professor Ann McNeill at The University of Nottingham, the Centre will be a major international driver of new research, policy and practice to reduce the prevalence of smoking and the harm it causes through prevention of uptake of smoking, promotion of smoking cessation, and development of more effective harm reduction strategies for those currently unable to stop smoking.
Doomsday plan would close 2 Cook hospitals
(Crain's) — Cook County would close two of its three hospitals and a center that treats one-third of the area's HIV patients under a doomsday budget scenario officials put forth Friday. Provident and Oak Forest hospitals and all 12 of the county's neighborhood clinics would close if the Cook County Bureau of Health Services is forced to cut $108 million, or 13% of its fiscal 2008 budget, to help fill the county's overall $238-million budget shortfall. Under that scenario, “There's no way you could take care of all the people . . . who have no insurance and no other means," interim health chief Robert Simon told commissioners at a Finance Committee hearing Friday. “That's the price." County Finance Chairman John Daley had asked each county department to outline plans to cut 13% of its budget in case County Board President Todd Stroger and commissioners can't agree on how to erase the deficit.
Honours: Order of the British Empire, Civil - OBE Adams to Lennon
Adams, Mrs Pauline Ann, Chair, Crossroads Wales. For serv Carers. Adkin, Nicholas John, Tobacco Programme mgr, Dept of Health. Ahmad, Mushtaq, Lately Provost, South Lanarkshire Ccl. For serv Local Govt. Akomfrah, John, Dir. For serv the Film ind. Alagiah, George Maxwell, Broadcaster and Author. For serv Journalism. Ashmore, Graham, Head of European and Cluster Policy, UK Trade and Investment, West Midlands Region. For serv Internat Trade. Atkinson, Christopher John, JP, DL, For serv the Administration of Justice in Sheffield. Atkinson, Dr Michael Richard, For serv the commty in Balsall Heath, Birmingham. Azah, John, Vice-Chair, Independent Advisory Group, Met Pol Service. For serv commty Relations in London. Barnardo, Dr David Eric, Vice-pres and ltly Chair, Barnardo's. For serv Social Care for Children.
At the end of the day, UM trumps UF, FSU
Florida State did well, but faltered at the end. Florida did better, but still lost two expected stars. But as national signing day drew to a close Wednesday, it was the University of Miami that became the biggest talk of the state -- and one of the most compelling stories nationally. Despite a 5-7 season, and, perhaps, in large part because of it, Hurricanes coach Randy Shannon pulled off a major coup with what is regarded as one of UM's finest recruiting classes in history. The Hurricanes sprinted down the ''home'' stretch in a fury Wednesday, more than compensating for their lack of wide receivers and linebackers and signing eight of Miami Northwestern's nationally heralded football players. UM didn't have to go far for much of its bounty, signing 18 of 33 players from South Florida -- 13 from Miami-Dade, two from Broward and three from Palm Beach -- who want to resurrect the Canes.
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