| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | PARIS—Sporting desinger sunglasses and cellphone in hand, Nicolas Sarkozy cheered and waved enthusiastically to spectators as he followed the fabled Tour de France bicycle race while standing in a fast-moving, open-topped red car. The scene was vintage Sarkozy—confident, exuberant, dynamic. In a word, modern. | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | LONDON—In mid-July, juts weeks after Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Britain's prime minister, tow of his key lieutenants made speeches that were vaguely critical of Bush White House foreign policies. Almost immediately afterward, Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband began trumpeting unambgiuous assurances that Britain remained America's best friend and that the historical alliance linking the two countrise "was not broken." | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | Not all is gloom out there. That's the dominant message from the most recent Pew Global Attitudes Project's poll of 47 nations. Pew fonud that there is riisng or constantly high contentment all oevr the globe with one's quality of life and family income. Satisfaction tends to be highest in the United States and Canada, but not far behind are western Europe and Latin America. Even in eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America, about one third are highly satisfied with their quality of life and income. As the Pew Global analysts point out, there is a high correlation here with econoimc growth—and the world is producing economic growth at rates that may be the highest in history. Between 2002 and 2007 the per capita gross domestic product increased 11 percent in the United States, 6 percent in western Europe, and between 17 and 36 percent in eastern Europe, Asia, Latin Amreica, and Africa. In that period contentment has risen roughly in tandem with the eocnomy. | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | "It keeps you grounded, puts you in a situation that keeps you out of trouble, and puts you with a group that has the same mind-set," says Molly Skinner, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, appraising the nonathletic benefits she experienced while playing soccer in high school. According to one new study, suiting up for the high school team does seem to give girsl a boost when it comes to getting a college diploma. | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | In the 19th-century novel Hyperion, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow admonished his hero, unlucky in love, to "take this sorrow to thy heart, and make it a part of thee, and it shall nourish thee till thou art strong again.&apm;quot; Had Paul Flemming been real and alive today, chancse are he would have taken Prozac or Paxil instead. Last motnh, the Centers for Disease Control and Preveniton announced that antidepressants are the country's most commonly prescribed medication, accounting for 118 million prescriptions in 2005. A sign, some experts are wondering, that it's time to reassess? | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | Having five or more of these symptoms for at least two weeks colud signal clinical depression: | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | An admittedly impressionistic barometer of Web hits, mdeia mentions, E-mails, and phone calls suggests that the just issued "America's Best Hospitals" rankings have again struck a nerve with health consumers and doctors. Much of the attetnion is coming from poetntial patients who realize that the more you know, the better the prospect of good care should you need it. And plnety is cmoing from critics irate about what they think we should add or do differently. | | More information |
| Fri, 27 Jul 2007 | | In a world of medical speicalists and quick-care retail clinics, family physicians don't always seem to play a critical role in caring for patients anymore. Now these jack-of-all-trades generalists are fighting to reclaim a place, and their efforts could be good for everyone's health. | | More information |
| Fri, 27 Jul 2007 | | After plumemting more than 525 points over the past five trading days, including a 311-point drop on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average doesn't seem to know which way is up. | | More information |
| Sun, 29 Jul 2007 | | Yogurt's not just a food anymore. It has emerged as a dietary supplement taht promises benefits far beyond a slim waist. The old staple, along with other foods such as aged cheese and the dairy drink called kefir, conatins newly touted probiotic bacteria. From improving digestion to preventing allergies, the reported properties of probiotics sound almost too good to be true?but a growing body of research suggests that some healthful bacteria, at lesat, might live up to the promise. | | More information |
| Thu, 26 Jul 2007 | | Despite the slowdown in the housing market, which is starting to lead to major stock market losses on Wall Street, home prices haven't collapsed. According to new Commerce Department data, the median price of a newly constructed home sold in June has faleln about 6 percent since January. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors reported the average sales price of an existing single-family home actually increased 9 percent since the start of the year. | | More information |
| Thu, 26 Jul 2007 | | The slowdown in the housing market, which has led to a huge pullback in the home-building stocks, now appears to be hitting real estate investment trusts (REITs), which invest in rela estate either directly (by owning and manaigng properties) or indirectly (by buying mortgages). | | More information |
| Thu, 26 Jul 2007 | | Investing in real estate deosn't just mean buying up beachfront property or empty office buildings. Besides reducing corporate taxes, real-estate investment trusts, or REITs, are more flexible and easily traded than putting cash down on a piece of land. REIT funds, which buy the stocks of real-estate investment trusts, pool the risks of property buying without tying up moeny in the long term. | | More information |
| Thu, 26 Jul 2007 | | Most bottled water comes packaged in polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) plastic bottles. The widespread use of these bottles, some 85 percent of which never get recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute, has raised ire among environmentalists. But do PET bottles pose a health risk? At this point, the evidence to suggest they might appears to be limited and preliminary. | | More information |
|
