4 DAY WORKWEEK PROPOSED IN UTAH
I was hearing the news and I wasn’t paying much attention but I heard something to the effect that the State of Utah is about to institute the four day workweek.
It took me a while, and by then they were broadcasting some other junk about Dancing with the Stars. But I thought: “How ironic, just a few years ago some legislator proposed it and they all laughed at him. The amount of criticism coming from the Republican right was incredible. There were parallels drawn with France and how Americans despise their socialist system. “We are becoming more French” they were saying.
Now, the most conservative State in the Union, Utah, is proposing such a thing.
In France for example, when the 35 hour work week went into effect, instead of unemployment and a reduction of productivity, the results were just the opposite as more people were needed to cover the other days and since the workers had a shorter work week, they were not only more productive but also had more time to spare and spent more money on leisure activities.
But make no mistake about it, the four day work week is being considered not because they want to give working Americans an easier life or for any consideration to them, but because it is going to save the State and other employers a lot of money. Now isn’t that typical of Republicans? Money talks..
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A promising prospect for a vaccine to prevent HIV
US researchers have discovered two powerful new antibodies which could hold the key to achieving a viable AIDS vaccine, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
The antibodies are produced naturally by a minority of people infected with HIV and are able to neutralize a high percentage of the many types of the virus currently in circulation worldwide.
Researchers in California believe they can create an effective vaccine if they are able to stimulate the body to produce such "broadly neutralizing" antibodies before exposure to HIV.
They report a very serious shortage of clinical research personnel. Not surprising since the Bush years brought such contempt and neglect to the sciences that we were set behind by at least 15 years in comparison to other countries.
The revolution in molecular biology portends a new era in the treatment and prevention of human diseases. New laboratory findings promise new ways to diagnose, treat, and ultimately cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and innumerable other diseases. To translate these discoveries into new treatments, clinical investigators have become more important than ever before. Yet in the United States their ranks are shrinking, creating a serious bottleneck in the pathway to new types of treatment. To encourage the best and brightest physicians to choose careers in clinical research, the U.S. scientific enterprise must address a fundamental problem: the high cost of medical education.
Clinical research is most often carried out by multidisciplinary teams of investigators led by physician-scientists who can bridge the gap between basic research and the health of the patient or the public. These physician-scientists are trained to move between two cultures: the laboratory and the bedside. Over the past 15 years, while the number of other biomedical researchers has been expanding, the number of physicians reporting research as their primary career has dropped. According to the American Medical Association, the percentage of U.S. physicians in this category declined from 4.2 to 1.8% between 1984 and 1999, reflecting a decrease from 23,214 to 14,357 in the number of physician-scientists, with only a subset conducting patient-oriented research.
A number of factors have contributed to this decline, including the length of time it takes to prepare for a clinical research career, the complexity of mastering both basic and clinical sciences, intense competition for research grants, and, in the United States, the high cost of medical education. Managed health care and steep reductions in medical reimbursements by the government (Medicare) have also limited the time and resources available for clinical research.
SOURCE: http://www.sciencemag.org PHOTO SOURCE: Scott Van Blarcom
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