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Thursday, June 28, 2012
Incipio [performance] Sport Armband for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 only $16.95 [Daily deal]
For today only, the iMore iPhone case store is offering the Incipio [performance] Sport Armband for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 for only $17.95 -- that's a steep 40% off! Get yours before it's gone!
Boost Mobile to Unveil New Unlimited BlackBerry Messenger (BBM ...
BlackBerry Curve 9310
Boost Mobile, a leader in the no-contract wireless industry with award-winning service plans, will introduce another industry first, BBM Unlimited, which features worldwide unlimited access to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and talk and text with payments that shrink to as low as $30 a month.? Continuing the Boost Mobile trend of offering more choice, flexibility and value, this offer is available beginning on July 10 exclusively with the BlackBerry Curve 9310 smartphone, which is launching the same day for $99.99 (excluding taxes).?
BBM, available for all BlackBerry users worldwide, is one of the largest mobile social networks with more than 56 million active customers globally. Customers can experience real-time communications and easily chat with friends at the speed of now, with instant responses and ?read? confirmations. Plus, BBM goes beyond chat with more than 1,000 BBM-connected apps available for download on BlackBerry App World. BBM-connected applications offer a social, interactive experience that?s not available on any other smartphone platform.
Similar to other monthly unlimited plans offered by Boost Mobile, the $45 BBM Unlimited plan provides customers the opportunity to be rewarded for simply making on-time payments. For every six on-time payments, customers will see their monthly payment shrink by $5, eventually getting down to as low as $30 a month for unlimited nationwide talk and text and worldwide BBM access. Payments do not need to be consecutive to qualify for these saving milestones.
BlackBerry Curve 9310 gives consumers the full power of the BlackBerry messaging and social-centric applications in the familiar BlackBerry Curve form factor. The smartphone will be available at Boost Mobile exclusive retail stores, select independent wireless dealer locations nationwide and at www.boostmobile.com with free shipping. It will also be available at select Best Buy locations next month.
Messaging on BlackBerry Curve 9310 is made easy with a full QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad.? In addition to real-time chat with BBM, customers can share large multimedia files (up to 6MB), including pictures, voice notes, calendar entries and locations. The smartphone is also Wi-Fi enabled, giving users the opportunity to enjoy unlimited data. Key smartphone features include:
- Dedicated BlackBerry Messenger key
- Text and email (supports Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail)
- 3.2MP camera with flash
- Speedy Web browsing
- BlackBerry 7.1 OS
- Access to thousands of apps and games on BlackBerry App World
- Easy Access to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and more
- Stereo Bluetooth support
- Wi-Fi and GPS1 enabled
- Built-in FM radio
Great battery life (up to eight hours talk time or 18 days standby; up to 70 hours of music playback with headphones)
Filed Under: BlackBerry ? Sprint
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Tests find only marijuana in face-chewer's system
MIAMI (AP) ? Only marijuana was found in the system of a Florida man shot while chewing another man's face, according to a medical examiner's report released Tuesday.
The active components of marijuana were identified in the system of Rudy Eugene, according to toxicology results released by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner. The laboratory tested for but did not detect any other street drugs, alcohol or prescription drugs, or any adulterants found in street drugs in Eugene, the 31-year-old who friends said was religious and read both the Bible and Quran.
The department ruled out the most common components found in the street drugs known as bath salts. An outside forensic toxicology lab, which took a second look at the results, also confirmed the absence of bath salts, synthetic marijuana and LSD.
The results were released weeks after a Miami police union official had speculated that because Eugene's behavior had been so bizarre he was probably under the influence of bath salts.
Messages left with the medical examiner's office for comment were not immediately returned.
It's not clear what led to the May 26 attack on Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man who remains hospitalized. Poppo's family has said it had no contact with him for more than 30 years and thought he was dead.
Police have released few details about what may have led to the attack.
Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene stripping Poppo and pummeling him before appearing to hunch over and lie on top of him. The police officer who shot Eugene to death said he growled at the officer when he told him to stop.
Shortly before the attack, a person driving on the MacArthur Causeway told a 911 dispatcher a "completely naked man" was on top of one of the light poles on the causeway and "acting like Tarzan."
Poppo has undergone several surgeries and remains hospitalized. A message left with the hospital was not immediately returned.
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Stick to These Michael Kors Policies For Self-help Success
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The Brave New World
"Humans were in control. And have been for quite some time. Long story short, you could easily say the humans are... Well, their lease is up."{Work in progress}
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?A Long Short Story?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.I find this rather interesting, I can't wait until it's finished. I was wondering however if you were meaning "Angels?" PM me when you start accepting characters? I'm thinking Human Demon Hunter :) or Psychic Vampire...not sure yet
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Military veterans to get priority for police jobs under COPS grants
Federal grant program to put more cops on the street emphasizes jobs for military veterans who served after 9/11. Unemployment among recent veterans stood at 12.7 percent in May.?
Recent military veterans will have top priority for jobs under a federal program to put more police officers on patrol on America's streets.
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Under the Justice Department's COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program, 629 of the 800 police jobs funded for the next three years ? all the newly hired officers ? must go to veterans who served at least 180 days' active duty since 9/11. This is the first time the 18-year-old COPS program has required cities and counties seeking grants to hire veterans exclusively.
Recent vets face high unemployment rates, and Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that this initiative is part of the Obama administration's effort to try to help them transition to civilian life.?
"We don?t think if they fought like hell over there they should have to fight as hard [to find a job] when they get back home,? Mr. Biden said on a press conference call, shortly before?Attorney General Eric Holder announced the new COPS requirement in Philadelphia.
In his State of the Union message in January, President Obama declared that employment for military veterans would be a priority for his administration. But joblessness remains a stubborn problem. ??
Unemployment among recent veterans jumped to 12.7 percent in May, up from 9.2 percent the previous month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Veterans Affairs blog notes that this number jumps up and down but is trending downward overall.
Police departments have had their own struggles with funding and personnel. At least 85 percent of departments have reported budget cuts, and thousands of police positions around the country have remained unfilled due to lack of funding, noted?Associate Attorney General Tony West during the conference call.
The grants announced Monday total more than $111 million, which will help bolster departments in 221 cities and counties ? and the money is already appropriated, so will not provoke a budget fight in Congress.
COPS funding approached 1990s levels at the height of the recession in 2009, though it has fallen off significantly since the end of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
President Bill Clinton signed off on the program as part of a package of anticrime legislation in 1994. It did not get as much funding under President George W. Bush, but the current vice president doesn?t see it going away anytime soon.
?It?s popular with the public, needed by veterans, and will benefit the community all around,? said Biden.
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Monday, June 25, 2012
ScienceDaily: Biochemistry News
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ComedyFeeds: The Onion: Evolutionary Biologist Discovers Common Human Ancestor At Cousin's Wedding http://t.co/TH0oTHAr
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
Turkey: Syria shot down our warplane
By NBC News and news services
Updated at 5:30 p.m. Friday ET: The office of Turkey's prime minister said early Saturday that?Syria?downed a Turkish F-4 air force jet?over the Mediterranean. The Syrian military, in a statement circulated on state media, said the plane was flying over its waters.
Turkey will take all necessary measures ?decisively? once all the details of the incident emerge, said the office of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after a two-hour security meeting. It did not specify what the steps would be.
Search and rescue operations forthe warplane's missing airmen were continuing, Erdogan's office said.
Syria's military said, "Our air defenses confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out to be a Turkish military plane."
Of Friday,?Erdogan told?reporters at a news conference covered by NBC?News he could not say whether the plane had crashed or been shot down.
"The chief of general staff has made the necessary statement about the missing plane. I am not saying it was brought down at the point it fell. It is not possible to say this without knowing the exact facts," Erdogan said.
He said he wasn't aware of any Syrian claims of responsibility for bringing down the plane or of earlier reports that?Syrian authorities had apologized.?
Earlier, Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television station said?that Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish military aircraft, quoting Syrian security sources.?
"Syrian security sources confirmed to a Manar correspondent in Damascus that Syrian defense forces shot down the Turkish fighter jet," a news flash on the Beirut-based station said.??
Pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen television station, which is based in Lebanon, also quoted what it said were Turkish sources as saying a jet had been shot down by Syrian air defenses.
Turkey -- a member of NATO --?said it had lost contact with a plane while it was over the sea off the southeastern coast, and a television station said it had crashed in Syrian territorial waters.?
In a statement, Turkey's military said it lost radar and radio contact with the plane after it took off from Erhac Airport in the eastern province of Malatya.?
Two crew were aboard the F-4 at the time of the crash, the Turkish state news agency Anatolia said on its website, citing Malatya governor Ulvi Saran.?
Turkish warplanes regularly patrol along and off Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast.
Turkey has joined nations such as the U.S. in saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country. Turkey also has set up refugee camps on its border for more than 32,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting.
This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.
Reports are surfacing that Syria may have shot down a Turkish fighter jet over Syrian waters in the Mediterranean Sea. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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President Obama Comments On College Affordability [FULL TEXT]
President Obama has commented publicly on college affordability, noting that college attendance has never been more important for US citizens, as those with a college degree earn twice as much on average as those without a high school diploma and have half the unemployment rate. The President clarified that he was talking about college in its broader sense, including community college and technical programs, and that the important thing was that people have access to something beyond high school.
The rub is that college affordability is at an all-time low point just as people need it most. Obama cited the statistic than an average student graduates with $26,000 debt from their student loans and that Americans as a group now owe more in student loans than they carry on their credit cards.
Obama also mentioned the Stafford loan debate currently ravaging Congress as they seek a way to fund an extension of the subsidized rate instead of allowing interest to double.
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY
East Room
1:36 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. (Applause.) Well, it is good to see all of you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you guys back. (Laughter.) I have to say, the ? I don?t know about the choice of music coming in here, though. (Laughter.) I love my Marine Band, but this is kind of a young demographic for the piano cocktail hour. (Laughter.)
So some of the most fun I?ve had as President is when I get a chance to talk with you, college students, about the importance of earning a higher education in today?s economy. And I?ll admit that the East Room isn?t as rowdy as Carmichael Arena at UNC, or ? we got any UNC folks here in the house? There we go. Coors Center at CU Boulder ? any ? no? Okay. (Laughter.) I have to say that most of you are much more dressed up than usually when I see you in your own natural habitats. (Laughter.)
But our message today is serious. Right now, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. They earn twice as much as those who don?t have a high school diploma. So whether it?s at a four-year college, or a community college, or a technical program, some form of higher education, something beyond high school has never been more important. It?s the surest path to finding a good job, earning a good salary, making it into the middle class.
And at the same time, over the last two decades, the cost of college has doubled ? it?s actually more than doubled. And that means ? and I don?t have to tell you, because you?re probably tallying it up right now ? the cost for you to take out loans has increased, and you are more likely to rack up more debt. The average student who borrows to pay for college now graduates with about $26,000 of debt from their student loans. Americans as a whole now owe more on student loans than they do on their credit cards. And that is wrong, because we cannot afford to price the middle class and folks who aspire to go into the middle class, we can?t price them out of the college education market. We can?t stand by when millions of young people are already saddled with debt just as you?re starting off.
Your parents, your grandparents, oftentimes they were in a position where when they got that first job, the first thing they?re thinking about is, how do I save to buy a home and start a family. And if you?re already dealing with a big bunch of debt before you even get started, that?s a problem. And it?s mind-boggling that we?ve had this stalemate in Washington that threatens to make the situation even worse.
So the reason you?re all here, the reason all these fine-looking young people behind me are here is that in just over a week the interest rates on federal student loans are scheduled to double. I?ve been talking about this now for what ? a month and a half, two months, three months, five months ? I?ve lost track. (Laughter.) We?ve been talking about it for a long time. If Congress does not get this done in a week, the average student with federal student loans will rack up an additional $1,000 in debt over the coming year. If Congress fails to act, more than 7 million students will suddenly be hit with the equivalent of a $1,000 tax hike. And that?s not something that you can afford right now.
Now, as I said, if this warning sounds familiar, we?ve been talking about this for months. Congress has had the time to fix this for months. It?s part of the reason why everybody here looks impatient. (Laughter.) This issue didn?t come out of nowhere; it?s been looming for months. But we?ve been stuck watching Congress play chicken with another deadline. So we?re nine days away from thousands of American workers having to walk off their job because Congress hasn?t passed a transportation bill. We?re 10 days away from nearly 7.5 million students seeing their loan rates double because Congress hasn?t acted. This should be a no-brainer. It should not be difficult. It should?ve gotten done weeks ago.
Now, the good news is there are folks in Congress trying to do the right thing. Last month, Democrats in the Senate put forward a plan that would have kept these rates in place without adding a dime to the deficit. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans got together and blocked it. Over in the House, the Republicans said they?d keep these rates down only if we agreed to cut things like preventive health care for women, which obviously wouldn?t fix the problem, but would create a new problem.
This is ? even as they were voting in lockstep for an economic plan that would cut financial aid for nine million college students by an average of $1,000 and give a $150,000 tax cut to wealthy Americans. So I recognize that there?s been some effort to change the subject from this rate hike.
One Congressman warned that this is all about giving college students ?free college education? ? which doesn?t make much sense, because the definition of a loan is it?s not free ? (laughter) ? you have to pay it back. Others have said we?re just talking about student loans to distract from the economy. That doesn?t make much sense because this is the economy.
This is all about the economy. This is all about whether or not we are going to have the best-trained, best-educated workforce in the world. That improves our economy. And higher education cannot be a luxury reserved just for a privileged few. It?s an economic necessity for every family, and every family should be able to afford it.
So you guys, during this period when you?ve been in college have been some of the toughest economic times since the 1930s, and there are still a lot of challenges ahead globally. And we can?t control every economic headwind that we face, but this is something we can control. This is something we can do something about. Stopping student rates from doubling at the end of the month is something we can do right now to make a difference in the lives of all the American people.
There?s still 10 days for Congress to do the right thing. I understand that members of both parties say they want to get this done, and there are conversations taking place, but they haven?t done it yet. And we?ve got to keep the pressure on.
That?s where all of you come in. Over the past few months, there are so many students and parents who have been working hard to shine a light on this issue. You?ve rallied on campuses, in your communities. You?ve called, you?ve emailed, you?ve tweeted your representatives in Washington. So you?ve played your part in making sure your voice is heard and your democracy is responsive.
My main message is, as you guys embark on this day of action, I want to make sure you keep this going. Don?t stop until it?s actually done. There is nothing more powerful than millions of voices that are calling for change, and all of your voices can make a difference. So keep telling Congress to do what?s right, to get this done. Tell them now is not the time to double interest rates on your student loans. Tell them to double down on an investment in a strong and secure middle class ? and that means your education. Tell them now is the time to double down on an America where everybody who works hard has a fair shot at success.
And for those who are not here and are watching, if you tweet, use the hashtag #dontdoublemyrate ? (laughter) ? #dontdoublemyrate. But I tell you, when I look out at this group right here, you give me confidence in America. You make me optimistic, not only because you?re getting a great education, but also because all of you are participating and making sure that this democracy works the way it?s supposed to. We need outstanding engineers, and we need outstanding nonprofit leaders, and we need outstanding entrepreneurs, but we also need outstanding citizens. And that?s what you guys are displaying by your presence and your activities.
So, keep it up. Let?s get this done. Thanks, everybody. (Applause.)
END 1:47 P.M. EDT
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Saturday, June 23, 2012
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Journal Publishes Details On Contagious Bird Flu Created In Lab
Hoang Dinh Ham/AFP/Getty Images Vietnam has contained the fatal bird flu cases that raged in the late 2000s, but it is still struggling with new cases of the virulent disease. Here, a poultry trader loads live chickens onto his motorbike on March 16 at a market outside Hanoi.
Anyone and everyone can now look in the journal Science and read about how to make lab-altered bird flu viruses that have been at the center of a controversy that's raged for months.
But in the eyes of some critics, the details of these experiments are effectively the recipe for a dangerous flu pandemic.
The H5N1 bird flu virus isn't normally contagious between people, but these mutants most likely are. They were created with the best of intentions by a lab that's trying to understand how flu viruses might change in the wild and start spreading in humans.
But as word of the experiments got out, scary headlines warned of a "doomsday" virus and a "super-flu." Scientists, public health officials and security experts debated what to do in closed-door meetings, as others made their arguments in op-eds and at public meetings.
The publication of this research paper doesn't mean that debate is over. Earlier this year, top flu scientists around the world put a voluntary moratorium on some of their work that's still in effect. And the U.S. government has issued a new policy to try to prevent future crises like this one, though it's still unclear exactly how that policy will work.
?The man at the center of this controversy is a Dutch virologist named Ron Fouchier. His lab at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands made the mutant viruses. He's struggled for months to get a manuscript describing them published. And now it is finally appearing in Science.
This is really a scientific breakthrough ? a fundamental scientific breakthrough. And it really opens enormous new opportunities in science. So that's exciting.
"I've been asked whether this felt like a real victory. And it still doesn't," says Fouchier. "Because I am still afraid that some governments might be installing more of a regulatory system than I think is needed. And if that comes from this work, then I am not particularly happy. But, of course, we are very happy about the publication itself."
In order to submit that manuscript for publication, Fouchier had to comply with the Dutch government's demand that he first get a special permit that's normally used for the export of technology that could be used for weapons. He did so?under protest.
Fouchier says there were two moments when he realized that his bird flu research was going to be a really big deal. The first was last July. That's when he learned that an experiment in his lab had worked. His team had managed to genetically alter the bird flu virus H5N1 so that the viruses were able to spread from ferret to ferret through coughs and sneezes. Ferrets are the lab stand-in for people.
"This is really a scientific breakthrough ? a fundamental scientific breakthrough. And it really opens enormous new opportunities in science. So that's exciting," says Fouchier.
Concerns About Publishing
The study shows that just a handful of mutations could transform this virus into a pandemic threat. And that's important to know, because it could happen out in nature.
For years, H5N1 has been circulating in poultry overseas, in parts of Asia and the Middle East. Only about 600 hundred people are known to have gotten sick, but over half died. They were not contagious. Fouchier says understanding the mutations that could let this virus start spreading is essential to prepare for a possible pandemic.
"We are not playing with viruses just for the heck of it," says Fouchier. "We are doing fundamental research, to prevent public health threats."
Fouchier's second moment of realizing how big this was going to be came last November. His work was funded by the U. S. government, and officials here asked an advisory committee to review his unpublished manuscript on his work and weigh in on whether publishing it could be dangerous.
"At that stage we were confident that they would agree with us that the benefits of this work by far outweighed the risks," says Fouchier. "And when they came with their advice, we were simply shocked."
The advice was to keep the details under wraps ? that publishing them would be like handing out the recipe for a super-flu. This recommendation was unprecedented in basic biological research, which has a tradition of openness.
The committee wanted the full information shared only with public health officials and scientists around the world who had a real need to know. And officials tried to set up such a system. But legal issues including export controls made that impossible, at least in the short therm. That's one reason why, when the advisory committee was asked to reconsider the issue, a majority reconsidered and said to go ahead and publish.
One committee member who didn't change his mind is David Relman, a microbiologist at Stanford University. He still thinks it's a bad idea to publicly reveal the mutations that can make this virus go airborne.
"What they have done is taken a very worrisome virus and made it even more worrisome, to a degree that is not easily matched in nature or even in our imaginations," says Relman.
Relman doesn't think he's exaggerating the potential danger. He acknowledges that, in theory, this work has benefits. He just thinks they're unlikely to come in the near term and that they're outweighed by the risks ? not just the threat of bioterrorism, but also simple lab accidents that could let a mutant flu escape.
"The bottom line is, that with the information in this paper, it becomes much easier for someone to make this virus, and therefore pose risks to others," says Relman.
The Dual-Use Dilemma: When Research Is Misused For Harm
Government officials are now grappling with how to manage future experiments that might raise similar concerns. The goal is to prevent a repeat of this controversy, while also making sure that beneficial research isn't stifled.
The bottom line is, that with the information in this paper, it becomes much easier for someone to make this virus, and therefore pose risks to others.
The problem isn't new. It's called the dual-use dilemma, and it's been discussed for decades, even before the anthrax attacks of 2001 heightened concerns about bioterrorism.
"Dual-use research in the life sciences really refers to biological research which is intended for good and beneficial use, but which could potentially be misused for harm," says Carrie Wolinetz of the Association of American Universities.
She thinks the government's new dual-use research policy, released at the end of March, was put together in haste to respond to the public outcry over the bird flu work. "It does represent a knee-jerk policy response to a situation that was playing out in a very high profile way," she says.
The policy covers only government-funded research with 15 high-risk germs and toxins. Before certain kinds of experiments can be done, the risks and benefits need to be analyzed and steps have to be taken to minimize risks.
But Wolinetz says the four-page policy is vague. Plus, its limited list of germs means it wouldn't have caught some past experiments that raised concerns, like one that made polio virus from scratch and a mousepox study that showed how to potentially make smallpox even more dangerous.
"If you look at those famous case studies of dual-use research, none of them would actually be captured by this current policy," says Wolinetz, "which to me raises the question of whether or not this policy really addresses the problem that we're trying to solve."
Plus, the policy says some work might get classified or just halted. Wolinetz says that could stifle important beneficial research.
Government agencies are still hammering out how to implement the policy. "The government policy on dual-use research of concern, which will become the official policy, is still somewhat of a work in progress, though much progress has been made over the past few months," says Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded the controversial bird flu research.
Meanwhile, flu researchers like Fouchier don't know how to move forward and are unclear on what the policy will mean in practice. For example, he says one thing the new policy requires is "a risk mitigation plan."
"How far do we have to reduce hypothetical or real risks?" asks Fouchier. "Do we have to reduce that to zero? Because zero is impossible, then you might as well just kill all this research altogether."
He says he thinks the government is struggling to find the right balance. "Whatever concerns there are in the U. S., they are for real and we need to handle that appropriately," says Fouchier, "but we are not having enough guidance as to what 'appropriate' means here."
Since January, he and other top virologists around the world have voluntarily halted their work with mutant H5N1 bird flu that could be transmitted though the air ? in part because they've been waiting for that guidance. Fouchier hopes more details will emerge at a meeting of influenza researchers in New York next month.
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