Word: normalization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...first three months of 2009, there were 52,000 single-family homes started. Over the same period of time, 87,000 were sold. At the current rate of sale, all the new homes on the market would be gone in 8.8 months. That's still above a more normal four- to six-month supply - but taking into account how long it takes to ramp up new construction, it's not necessarily an illogical time to start building. Consider how quickly that excess inventory has been burned off: as recently as this past January, there was a 12.4-month supply...
...playbook. Working in a grim, 1930s building in London's northern suburbs (its exterior was used to portray an insane asylum in the blockbuster Batman Begins), scientists at the World Influenza Centre receive virus samples from around the world and use sophisticated machinery to map their genetic structures. During normal years, the scientists concoct the recipe that the World Health Organization (WHO) uses for seasonal-flu vaccines. But in a pandemic year, they become sentinels looking for any changes in the virus that could alter the course of the pandemic. (Read: "Five No-Nos for the Swine Flu Frenzy...
...fact that settlers live in compounds protected by machine-gun-toting guards pinpoints another tragedy. Israel needs peace and security. It will get neither while it confiscates land, restricts travel and otherwise degrades Palestinians. John Bertsche, NORMAL...
...influenza virus has only eight genes--far fewer than the estimated 25,000 that human beings possess--but its simplicity hasn't stopped it from wreaking havoc on humanity for centuries. Even today, with vaccines and antivirals, normal seasonal influenza kills some 36,000 Americans each year. And every once in a while, it gets much worse. When new flu viruses arise and begin spreading easily, they can trigger global pandemics. Sometimes they're relatively mild, like the pandemics of 1957 and '68. But sometimes they can be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed as many...
...Affairs. The study's authors compared medical data from 1998 and 2006 and found that obese Americans--who now make up a quarter of the U.S. population--are responsible for a $40 billion jump in annual medical spending. Obese people spend $1,400 more a year than people of normal weight on medical services, according to research data. Medicare doles out $600 more for obese beneficiaries; Medicaid pays $230 more for their prescription drugs. Annual costs associated with obesity are now estimated at $147 billion and are growing nearly 9% per year. The report attributes the spike to treatment...