Mark's Notebook


	Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. - Isaiah 1:18

News of subtle significance

New York Times Op-Ed

Friday 30 December 2005, 4:27 pm
Keywords: News Articles , Health Topics

by William Falk

Developments that may have slipped your notice in 2005:

Scientists took ice cores from ancient glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. Bubbles of air trapped in the ice provided a sampling of the atmosphere going back 650,000 years. A study, published last month in the journal Science, found that the level of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases that can warm the planet, is now 27 percent higher than at any previous time. The level is even far higher now than it was in periods when the climate was much warmer and North America was largely tropical. Climatologists said the ice cores left no doubt that the atmosphere is being altered in a substantial and unprecedented way.

The rapid melting of the Arctic and Greenland ice caps, a new study finds, is causing freshwater to flood into the North Atlantic. That infusion of icy water appears to be deflecting the northward flow of the warming Gulf Stream, which moderates winter temperatures for Europe and the northeastern United States. The flow of the Gulf Stream has been reduced by 30 percent since 1957, the National Oceanography Center in Britain found.

This year, scientists developed a vaccine against human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease that is the primary cause of cervical cancer. The vaccine produced 100 percent immunity in the 6,000 women who received it as part of a multinational trial. As soon as the vaccine is licensed, some health officials say, it should be administered to all girls at age 12. But the Family Research Council and other social conservative groups vowed to fight that plan, even though it could virtually eliminate cervical cancer. Vaccinating girls against a sexually transmitted disease, they say, would reduce their incentive to abstain from premarital sex.

American Web giants Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have all grabbed a piece of the lucrative Chinese market - but only after agreeing to help the government censor speech on the Web.

Statements by new C.I.A. Director Porter Goss seem to confirm the widespread suspicion that Osama bin Laden is hiding in the mountains of northern Pakistan but that President Pervez Musharraf, fearing the reaction of Islamic militants, is not eager for him to be captured within Pakistan.

A new study found that dormant infections can be activated when certain parts of the body, particularly the feet and the nose, get wet and cold. This confirms mom's notion that getting a chill can lead to a cold.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/opinion/30falk.html?th&emc=th