By JONATHAN WEISMAN and ASHLEY PARKER
Senators emerged from a closed-door meeting saying they were confident an agreement could be reached Tuesday to end the standoff over a change to filibuster rules, though no deal had been struck.
On June 19, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
Reid Promises To Take on the Filibuster
After months of GOP obstructionism, the Senate majority leader has vowed to hold hearings about dismantling the filibuster, although reform will probably to be delayed until "next Congress."
However, DFL boss Christian Seifert cautioned that no early-warning system could be fool-proof.
"While the early-warning system is in place, no federation in the world is 100 percent safe against organised crime gangs who want to manipulate matches," Seifert said.
Obama Tactic Shields Health Care Bill From a Filibuster
By CARL HULSE
The president’s new stance suggests he may be much less willing to compromise on health care, his top legislative priority, even if it means a partisan fight.
German Inspectors Try to Child-Proof Toy Fair
Lethal Legos. Death-inducing dolls. Nasty Nintendos. Gruesome games and
action figures made to kill and maim -- not necessarily in that order.
Good thing there are officials to keep the Nuremberg Toy Fair safe.
The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/
Is Your Kid's School Lunch Safe?
An investigation into why the government failed to include ground beef destined for schools in a wide recall last summer raises questions about whether enough is being done to ensure the food children eat is free of pathogens.
Sprint Slows Defections, but Loses $478 Million
By JENNA WORTHAM
Sprint’s cellphone service lost 801,000 of its most profitable customers in the third quarter, compared with 991,000 in the second quarter.
Bank of America plans to offer bonuses to Merrill Lynch brokers that could amount to as much as 100 percent of the annual revenue they generate, in an effort to keep them from defecting after it completes its takeover of the investment firm, Bloomberg News reported.
Senator Arlen Specter's surprise defection from the Republican Party to join the Democrats was the lead story in all the papers. Assuming that Al Franken is eventually seated as senator from Minnesota, that gives the Democrats a 60-person, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and will ease passage of key Obama administration priorities like health care reform and capping carbon emissions. Political considerations motivated Specter's switch; he said internal polling showed that his chances of surviving a Republican primary challenge in 2010 were "bleak."
"We estimate that one in every five women in the UK have polycystic ovaries and therefore research such as this is critical to help us to better tackle the disease."
"我們估計在英國每五個婦女中的一個人有多囊卵巢，因此研究這是説明我們更好地應對這種疾病的關鍵。
verb [I]
to leave a country, political party, etc., especially in order to join an opposing one:
When the national hockey team visited America, half the players defected.
The British spy, Kim Philby, defected to the Soviet Union/defected from Britain in 1963.
defection
⇒defect
defection Show phonetics
noun [C or U]
Over the years there were hundreds of defections to the West/defections from the East.
Recent changes in policy have resulted in large-scale defection from the party.
defector Show phonetics
noun [C]
She was one of many Communist Party defectors.
noun [C]
1 a fault, problem or lack in something or someone that spoils them or causes them not to work correctly:
All R45 aircraft have been grounded, after a defect in the engine cooling system was discovered.
There are so many defects in our education system.
It's a character defect in her that she can't ever accept that she's in the wrong.
2 a physical condition in which something is wrong with a part of someone's body:
She suffers from a heart/sight/speech defect.
The drug has been shown to cause birth defects.
Cystic fibrosis is caused by a genetic defect.
- cystic fibrosis,《病理(学)》嚢胞(のうほう)性線維症.
defective Show phonetics
adjective
describes something that has a fault in it and does not work correctly:
defective brakes
defective hearing/eyesight
a defective gene
I think that argument/theory is defective.
path・o・gen
path・o・gen・ic ━━ a. 発病させる, 病原となる.
pa・thog・e・ny ━━ n. 発病, 病因.
Institute admits lax handling of pathogens
10/18/2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUNA state laboratory handled hundreds of hazardous pathogens beyond its capabilities, ordered workers to keep the dangers secret, and did not tell part-timers about the potentially lethal risks, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
 Shingo
Ichimura, right, a vice president at the National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology, apologizes with other officials
Wednesday for lax management of pathogens. (THE ASAHI SHIMBUN) |
As of 2001, IPOD kept about 300 types of pathogens that could damage human health, including some considered as potentially lethal as the anthrax bacteria, according to internal documents obtained by the newspaper and other sources.
Part-time workers at the facility were assigned to test and cultivate the pathogens in facilities not well equipped for infection prevention.
A senior IPOD official who pointed out the risks to management was repeatedly told not to tell others. And the government's supervisory entities took no steps even after learning of the fact as early as 2001.
Officials of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), to which IPOD belongs, apologized at a news conference Wednesday.
"There were defects in our management, and we are in deep remorse," one executive said.
AIST Vice President Shingo Ichimura said the organization would apologize to former workers even though "it has turned out that there were no health problems."
AIST falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
IPOD is commissioned to receive and preserve cells and microorganisms relevant to patent applications.
Until 2004, IPOD's internal rules said the lab could accept only pathogens classified on the lowest biohazard level of the World Health Organization's standards.
IPOD facilities were not sufficiently equipped for infection prevention required under WHO standards for pathogens of hazard level 2 or higher.
But according to the documents obtained by The Asahi Shimbun, IPOD kept 296 strains of pathogens banned by the inhouse rules as of 2001.
Three strains--two Brucella strains and one glanders (Burkholderia mallei) strain--that the lab received after 1984 belonged to the potentially lethal level 3.
Up until 1999, eight workers, including female part-timers, were assigned to test or cultivate those level-3 pathogens in ordinary labs.
They were not informed of the strains' potentially lethal risks, according to sources.
In addition, anyone could enter the IPOD facilities.
AIST executives said the inhouse rules were not well known among IPOD workers in those days. The executives also ruled out any infection from the three level-3 strains.
A senior IPOD official learned of the problems in 2001 and asked AIST, the industry ministry and the Patent Office to take measures.
Around that time, fears of bioterrorism using anthrax bacteria, a level-3 pathogen, were raging in the United States. The official also called for steps to confirm the health of former workers.
But Ichimura, then at the AIST's planning headquarters, repeatedly told the official not to act without further instructions from him nor to discuss the matter with others, the sources said.
Ichimura gave similar instructions to other IPOD officials in an e-mail message. The Asahi Shimbun obtained a copy of a message apparently sent by Ichimura.
Ichimura admitted to the newspaper that IPOD did accept pathogens in violation of its rules and had (part-time) workers test them.
"But we concluded that telling the truth would have given psychological damage to those who tested them without knowing anything," he said. "So we didn't tell them."
In 2004, IPOD isolated the level-3 strains in a fire-resistant, sealed cool box. It also improved its equipment so that it could deal with level-2 pathogens.
In June this year, the revised infectious diseases prevention law took effect, making the three level-3 strains at IPOD subject to anti-terrorism regulations.
The regulations only allow facilities with sufficient infection prevention systems to keep level-3 strains.
IPOD disposed of its strains on May 31, one day before the revised law went into force.
Meanwhile, the whistle-blower, who has since retired, repeatedly called the Patent Office and others for steps to rectify the situation, apparently using lists of pathogens in IPOD's care.
The official was then criticized for taking out "(confidential) information" and was urged to sign a written pledge to never again violate the law on public servants, the sources said.
At Wednesday's news conference, Ichimura said AIST will try to locate former workers and apologize for "not telling the truth."
AIST would also apologize to Tsukuba city, officials said.(IHT/Asahi: October 18,2007)
這foolproof 是1902年在美國針對汽車開始使用的: The car...is comparatively "fool-proof".
foolproof
adjective
(of a plan or machine) so simple and easy to understand that it is unable to go wrong or be used wrongly:
I don't believe there's any such thing as a foolproof scheme for making money.
This new video-recorder is supposed to be foolproof.
"...However, the group raised fears that the new service could invite bogus comments from people posing as others. While it promised to "work with each author to confirm their identity individually" - by the traditional methods of contacting the organisation affiliated with the author, contacting local officials, or collaborating with journalists - it did admit "no method is foolproof". In which case, anyone wrongly attributed should contact news-comments@google.com..."
Misquoted? Hit back with Google
THE Democratic Party may yet scrape a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. A run-off race takes place in Georgia on Tuesday December 2nd where Saxby Chambliss, the sitting Republican, failed to win the 50% of the vote required to retain his seat under state rules. A prolonged recount is expected to end in Minnesota where Norm Coleman, the sitting Republican senator, may possibly be unseated by Al Franken, a comedian. The race may yet be decided in the courts. Another prolonged recount in Alaska recently handed a victory to the Democratic candidate, Mark Begich, over Ted Stevens, the long serving Republican who was convicted on corruption charges shortly before the election.
fil・i・bus・ter
━━ n. （外国に侵入する）略奪兵; 海賊; 議事妨害（者）.
━━ v. 略奪［侵攻］する; 海賊行為をする; 議事を妨害する.
fil・i・bus・ter・er ━━ n.
━━ v. 略奪［侵攻］する; 海賊行為をする; 議事を妨害する.
fil・i・bus・ter・er ━━ n.suffix
protecting against, or not damaged by, a particular thing:
a bullet-proof vest
a waterproof/wind-proof jacket
proof
adjective FORMAL
No household security devices are proof against (= protect completely against) the determined burglar.
Her virtue would be proof against his charms.
proof
verb [T]
to treat a surface with a substance which will protect it against something, especially water
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