Wall Street Journal - July 25, 2003
Mark Ingebretsen

"Both the U.S. House and Senate versions of bills to add prescription drug coverage to the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled would cost more than the $400 billion limit imposed by Congress earlier this year," Reuters reported.

As evidence, the newswire cited a "long-awaited detailed analysis" of both the House and Senate versions from the Congressional Budget Office.

Meanwhile, "Bush administration officials acknowledged" earlier this week that the House and Senate were taking longer than expected to reach a compromise, the New York Times said.

Additional delays could result from the cost overruns found in the CBO report.

"House and Senate negotiators have barely begun to reconcile their differences over the complex legislation. Now they must consider how to scale back the costs of both bills," according to an article by Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Lueck.

Indeed, "The [CBO] report comes as the drive to redesign Medicare ... has reached a delicate phase," the Washington Post noted, adding that many of the sticking points negotiators must address "revolve around how far the government should go to tilt the 1960s-era system from a federal entitlement to a program built on market competition."

However, the CBO report revealed that under both the House and Senate bills, fewer seniors would likely opt for private care than the 13% currently enrolled in HMOs and other Medicare alternatives, the Post reported.

AIDS: the End Game

"By 2080, full-time child labor will be ubiquitous, with an inescapable descent into economic 'backwardness' a generation later," said a BBC article that focused on a report co-written by the World Bank.

The report examined the long-term economic impact of AIDS in Africa, especially in South Africa. And ironically, with the demise of apartheid, South Africa was once seen as the economic engine that might fuel growth throughout the continent.

But the World Bank report suggested a grim alternative: "If nothing is done to combat the epidemic" in South Africa, the report suggested, "a complete economic collapse will occur within three generations."

As one African AIDS expert said in the BBC article: "This is a Darwinian event."

Shaping Verse

While science has made great strides unraveling the mysteries of how the brain works, we still have comparatively little understanding of what makes us creative, according to Canada's National Post.

One way to study creativity is to look at how the hearing-impaired use sign language. And here, PET and MRI scanning devices show that signing uses the same area of the brain that is used to process speech by those who can hear, the article said.

And just as the spoken word can be creatively rendered in poetic form, so can sign language -- though there's a difference. "Deaf poetry, like oral poetry, often rhymes. But ASL [American Sign Language] rhymes do not sound the same, like spoken verse. Instead, rhyming words are ones that look the same," the article stated.

Moving Thoughts

In a development that could allow greater independence for those who suffer from paralysis, Reuters wrote that European scientists are working on a mind-controlled wheelchair.

"The system will use electrodes embedded in a skullcap worn by the patient to transmit messages from the brain to a computer which passes them on to the chair through a wireless link," according to the article.

Cellphone Sneaks

Some health clubs are prohibiting cellphones from locker rooms and other parts of their facilities, according to the LA Times. The reason, the newspaper reported, was that some newer models come with built-in cameras.

"The phones, which typically have a tiny lens on the back and a viewing screen in the front, could be used to take clandestine shots that could find their way to the Internet or elsewhere," the LA Times said.

INDUSTRY VITALS

* As an MSNBC article observed, "It's difficult enough for most parents to talk to their kids about the birds and the bees. But that often dreaded discussion brings a whole new set of challenges for couples who have conceived with the help of 'test-tube' technology."

* Elevated levels of fungus "in the home can cause breathing problems, even pneumonia, for infants," according to new research reported on by Reuters.

* "The Internet will soon become the most common form of infidelity, if it isn't already," a researcher said in a BBC article.

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