[["Johann Baptist Cramer. Johann Baptist Cramer was born in Mannheim on 24 Feb 1771 and died in London on 16 April 1858. He was a composer, pianist and publisher, the eldest son of Wilhelm Cramer. He was the most outstanding member of the family. As one of the most renowned piano performers of his day, he contributed directly to the formulation of an idiomatic piano style through his playing and his compositions. When he was about three years old he was taken to London by his mother to join his father, who had decided to establish himself in England. Wilhelm taught his son the violin from a very early age, but the child showed distinct precocity at the piano and at the age of seven was placed under the direction of J.D. Benser. He continued his studies with J.S. Schroeter from 1780 to 1783, when he was entrusted to Muzio Clementi. Although he studied with Clementi for only one year, the lessons were decisive in forming his artistic character. His formal training was completed with lessons in theory (from 1785) under C.F. Abel, through whom Cramer first came to know the writings of Kirnberger and Marpurg. His early training acquainted him with the works of the greatest keyboard composers of the century, and by the mid-1780s he had studied works of Clementi, Schr\u00f6ter, J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, M\u00fcthel, Paradies, Haydn and Mozart. He may have been introduced to Das wohltemperirte Clavier as early as 1787, and he developed a lifelong fascination for Bach. By the time Clementi left England for the Continent and Cramer's formal piano lessons were abruptly ended, he had already attracted attention as a performer in London. He made his formal d\u00e9but on 6 April 1781, appearing in his father's annual benefit concert. He performed occasionally during the next few years, at one concert (in 1784) playing a duet for two pianos with Clementi.  In 1788 Cramer undertook his first foreign tour and visited the major cities of France and Germany, including Paris and Berlin. While in France he was given a number of J.S. Bach's manuscripts. His earliest compositions were also published during his stay in France. On his return to England in 1791 he immediately began an active performing career, and during the next nine seasons established himself as England's most remarkable young pianist, capable of providing stiff competition for the older virtuosos. He participated as a soloist in both major series, the Professional Concert and the Salomon Concerts, as well as appearing in numerous benefit concerts. He made the acquaintance of all the eminent artists who appeared in London during that decade, including Haydn, and he began to gain recognition as a composer and teacher.  Cramer left London in 1799 for a second journey that included the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. He met Beethoven in Vienna, initiating a warm and mutually rewarding relationship, and he renewed his friendly association with Haydn. On his return to England in 1800 he married almost immediately. The activities of his first 30 years had brought him into contact with nearly all the most prominent musicians of Europe, including Hummel, Dussek, Weber, Kalkbrenner, Cherubini and W\u00f6lfl, in addition to those already mentioned. In later years he came to know Ries, Czerny, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Berlioz. He championed with characteristic vigour the works of composers whom he admired; his performances of Bach and Mozart, in particular, created great excitement, and he helped to introduce Beethoven's sonatas to English audiences. His impact as a popularizer of music by other composers seems to have been felt as much by his playing at private gatherings as by his concert appearances, for he preferred private music-making, even when travelling abroad.  After 1800 Cramer's public career was centred almost entirely on England. He taught privately at least into the 1820s, commanding the top fee of one guinea per lesson. But he travelled again from 1816 to 1818, visiting Amsterdam and Mannheim. While abroad he continued to renew and expand his associations, but his public performances were apparently rare. His mature years in London were marked by many signs of high regard. To admiring English audiences he was their \"Glorious John\", and his appearances continued to stir excitement until his formal retirement. He was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society in 1813, and he was appointed to the board of the RAM on its foundation in 1822.  Following the very successful example of Clementi, Cramer entered the music publishing business. His earliest ventures included a partnership known as Cramer & Keys in 1805, and another partnership with Samuel Chappell (later of Chappell) from 1810 to 1819. A more lasting firm was established in 1824 (when Cramer joined Robert Addison and T.F. Beale), at a later date known as j.b. Cramer & co. ltd, which flourished from its first days and still exists.  Cramer married for the second time in 1829, and he retired officially from public life after a gala farewell concert in 1835. His next decade included visits to Munich and Vienna and a long residence in Paris, but he returned again to England in 1845 and remained there for the rest of his life. He died at his house in Kensington and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery.  The large volume of Cramer's compositions is only part of his musical achievement. His playing left a permanent impression on several generations of early 19th-century pianists. He received almost universal admiration for his playing; even Beethoven considered him the finest pianist of the day, according to Ries. His expressive legato touch, which later became a stylistic norm among pianists, was especially admired: in Moscheles's words, his legato \"almost transforms a Mozart Andante into a vocal piece\". His refinement in improvisation and the remarkable independence of his fingers were equally renowned; they are also evidence of his Classical ideals and distinguish him from more dramatically inclined later generations. By the end of his long career his playing may have become somewhat outmoded. Certainly Wilhelm von Lenz found his playing in the 1840s dry and harsh, though at the same time August Gathy contradicted Lenz's judgment. Cramer himself noted the changing fashions when he described earlier playing as \"fort bien\" (\"very good\") and the newer style as \"bien fort\" (\"very strong\").  Many aspects of Cramer's compositional style are strikingly conservative. He apparently liked to view himself as a latter-day Mozartian, preserving Mozart's grace, elegance and clarity. His music is generally less dramatic than Clementi's, less rich than Dussek's, less sentimental than Field's. The originality of his genius appears principally in his combination of a conservative bias with the most advanced, idiomatically pianistic passage-work. Although there is an inconsistency in the quality of his works that was observed even by critics of his day, his music is nearly always skilful, pleasant and sophisticated, and his ingenuity in passage-work expanded the vocabulary of colourful and evocative sonorities available to the piano.  Cramer's affinity for certain Classical ideas did not prevent him from assimilating the newer musical forms that became popular in the early 19th century, and his own work accurately reflects the changing tastes of the period.  Nearly all his 117 sonatas, for example, were written before 1820, and his production of didactic works, capriccios, fantasias and small pieces based on popular tunes increased markedly after 1810. He supplied so much music for the dilettante that by the end of the century his name was used in France as a pseudonym for musical trifles.  Of all Cramer's works, the one that has had the greatest enduring value is his celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano, published in two sets of 42 each in 1804 and 1810 as \"Studio per il pianoforte\". This collection has long been considered a cornerstone of pianistic technique and is the only work of Cramer's that is generally known today. Clementi claimed for himself the idea of such a comprehensive technical volume, accusing Cramer of having stolen the idea and title for the \"Studio\". Cramer's work inspired many similar efforts, some being mere imitations. Soon after its appearance, Steibelt and W\u00f6lfl produced sets of studies, and Clementi eventually published his Gradus ad Parnassum.  Nevertheless, Cramer's \"Studio\" was the most widely used and admired collection in the early 19th century. Beethoven annotated 21 of the studies for his nephew's use (published in an edition by J.S. Shedlock in 1893) and considered them \"the best preparation for his own works\". Schumann described the \"Studio\" as the finest training \"for head and hand\". The studies are structurally simple; each is based on a characteristic pattern or mechanical problem, and although the shadows of Bach and Domenico Scarlatti are often apparent, the harmonic colouring and figurational variety in the \"Studio\" are eminently modern and entirely suited to the piano. The success of the studies led Cramer to produce many more methods, including the \"Anweisung das Pianoforte zu spielen\", which includes rules for fingering and the use of the pedals. Some of the later studies were given individual descriptive titles, in keeping with the fashion, but none of them matched the \"Studio\" in usefulness and artistic merit.  The scope and seriousness of Cramer's compositions often varies widely within a single category; even among the sonatas and concertos the range is considerable.  The best of the shorter pieces anticipate the general features of the character piece in form and expressiveness, while many works were plainly directed to the unsophisticated amateur. The sonatas, in spite of their diminishing numbers in Cramer's later years, contain some of his most impressive achievements. There is some evidence that Beethoven occasionally borrowed from Cramer's sonatas, and Schumann considered Cramer and Moscheles the only outstanding sonata composers of their generation.  The accompanied sonatas, which comprise less than half the total number, are generally lighter and more popular in character than the solo sonatas. After 1800 Cramer showed a clear preference for solo works, although some of the later solo sonatas still have some popular features, such as the inclusion of \"favourite airs\". The sonatas written after 1810 are more consistently serious and contain more prominent Romantic characteristics. Several have descriptive titles (\"Il mezzo\", \"Le retour \u00e0 Londres\") and a highly flexible, dramatic approach to the use of compass and texture. In harmonic daring they show the impact of Beethoven, and they abound in sweeping, colouristic accompanimental patterns.  Cramer's late sonatas were occasionally reprinted in the 19th century, but they have passed into obscurity in more recent times.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: On what date did Cramer make his debut as a conductor?\nAnswer:", " 1799"], ["Johann Baptist Cramer. Johann Baptist Cramer was born in Mannheim on 24 Feb 1771 and died in London on 16 April 1858. He was a composer, pianist and publisher, the eldest son of Wilhelm Cramer. He was the most outstanding member of the family. As one of the most renowned piano performers of his day, he contributed directly to the formulation of an idiomatic piano style through his playing and his compositions. When he was about three years old he was taken to London by his mother to join his father, who had decided to establish himself in England. Wilhelm taught his son the violin from a very early age, but the child showed distinct precocity at the piano and at the age of seven was placed under the direction of J.D. Benser. He continued his studies with J.S. Schroeter from 1780 to 1783, when he was entrusted to Muzio Clementi. Although he studied with Clementi for only one year, the lessons were decisive in forming his artistic character. His formal training was completed with lessons in theory (from 1785) under C.F. Abel, through whom Cramer first came to know the writings of Kirnberger and Marpurg. His early training acquainted him with the works of the greatest keyboard composers of the century, and by the mid-1780s he had studied works of Clementi, Schr\u00f6ter, J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, M\u00fcthel, Paradies, Haydn and Mozart. He may have been introduced to Das wohltemperirte Clavier as early as 1787, and he developed a lifelong fascination for Bach. By the time Clementi left England for the Continent and Cramer's formal piano lessons were abruptly ended, he had already attracted attention as a performer in London. He made his formal d\u00e9but on 6 April 1781, appearing in his father's annual benefit concert. He performed occasionally during the next few years, at one concert (in 1784) playing a duet for two pianos with Clementi.  In 1788 Cramer undertook his first foreign tour and visited the major cities of France and Germany, including Paris and Berlin. While in France he was given a number of J.S. Bach's manuscripts. His earliest compositions were also published during his stay in France. On his return to England in 1791 he immediately began an active performing career, and during the next nine seasons established himself as England's most remarkable young pianist, capable of providing stiff competition for the older virtuosos. He participated as a soloist in both major series, the Professional Concert and the Salomon Concerts, as well as appearing in numerous benefit concerts. He made the acquaintance of all the eminent artists who appeared in London during that decade, including Haydn, and he began to gain recognition as a composer and teacher.  Cramer left London in 1799 for a second journey that included the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. He met Beethoven in Vienna, initiating a warm and mutually rewarding relationship, and he renewed his friendly association with Haydn. On his return to England in 1800 he married almost immediately. The activities of his first 30 years had brought him into contact with nearly all the most prominent musicians of Europe, including Hummel, Dussek, Weber, Kalkbrenner, Cherubini and W\u00f6lfl, in addition to those already mentioned. In later years he came to know Ries, Czerny, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Berlioz. He championed with characteristic vigour the works of composers whom he admired; his performances of Bach and Mozart, in particular, created great excitement, and he helped to introduce Beethoven's sonatas to English audiences. His impact as a popularizer of music by other composers seems to have been felt as much by his playing at private gatherings as by his concert appearances, for he preferred private music-making, even when travelling abroad.  After 1800 Cramer's public career was centred almost entirely on England. He taught privately at least into the 1820s, commanding the top fee of one guinea per lesson. But he travelled again from 1816 to 1818, visiting Amsterdam and Mannheim. While abroad he continued to renew and expand his associations, but his public performances were apparently rare. His mature years in London were marked by many signs of high regard. To admiring English audiences he was their \"Glorious John\", and his appearances continued to stir excitement until his formal retirement. He was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society in 1813, and he was appointed to the board of the RAM on its foundation in 1822.  Following the very successful example of Clementi, Cramer entered the music publishing business. His earliest ventures included a partnership known as Cramer & Keys in 1805, and another partnership with Samuel Chappell (later of Chappell) from 1810 to 1819. A more lasting firm was established in 1824 (when Cramer joined Robert Addison and T.F. Beale), at a later date known as j.b. Cramer & co. ltd, which flourished from its first days and still exists.  Cramer married for the second time in 1829, and he retired officially from public life after a gala farewell concert in 1835. His next decade included visits to Munich and Vienna and a long residence in Paris, but he returned again to England in 1845 and remained there for the rest of his life. He died at his house in Kensington and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery.  The large volume of Cramer's compositions is only part of his musical achievement. His playing left a permanent impression on several generations of early 19th-century pianists. He received almost universal admiration for his playing; even Beethoven considered him the finest pianist of the day, according to Ries. His expressive legato touch, which later became a stylistic norm among pianists, was especially admired: in Moscheles's words, his legato \"almost transforms a Mozart Andante into a vocal piece\". His refinement in improvisation and the remarkable independence of his fingers were equally renowned; they are also evidence of his Classical ideals and distinguish him from more dramatically inclined later generations. By the end of his long career his playing may have become somewhat outmoded. Certainly Wilhelm von Lenz found his playing in the 1840s dry and harsh, though at the same time August Gathy contradicted Lenz's judgment. Cramer himself noted the changing fashions when he described earlier playing as \"fort bien\" (\"very good\") and the newer style as \"bien fort\" (\"very strong\").  Many aspects of Cramer's compositional style are strikingly conservative. He apparently liked to view himself as a latter-day Mozartian, preserving Mozart's grace, elegance and clarity. His music is generally less dramatic than Clementi's, less rich than Dussek's, less sentimental than Field's. The originality of his genius appears principally in his combination of a conservative bias with the most advanced, idiomatically pianistic passage-work. Although there is an inconsistency in the quality of his works that was observed even by critics of his day, his music is nearly always skilful, pleasant and sophisticated, and his ingenuity in passage-work expanded the vocabulary of colourful and evocative sonorities available to the piano.  Cramer's affinity for certain Classical ideas did not prevent him from assimilating the newer musical forms that became popular in the early 19th century, and his own work accurately reflects the changing tastes of the period.  Nearly all his 117 sonatas, for example, were written before 1820, and his production of didactic works, capriccios, fantasias and small pieces based on popular tunes increased markedly after 1810. He supplied so much music for the dilettante that by the end of the century his name was used in France as a pseudonym for musical trifles.  Of all Cramer's works, the one that has had the greatest enduring value is his celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano, published in two sets of 42 each in 1804 and 1810 as \"Studio per il pianoforte\". This collection has long been considered a cornerstone of pianistic technique and is the only work of Cramer's that is generally known today. Clementi claimed for himself the idea of such a comprehensive technical volume, accusing Cramer of having stolen the idea and title for the \"Studio\". Cramer's work inspired many similar efforts, some being mere imitations. Soon after its appearance, Steibelt and W\u00f6lfl produced sets of studies, and Clementi eventually published his Gradus ad Parnassum.  Nevertheless, Cramer's \"Studio\" was the most widely used and admired collection in the early 19th century. Beethoven annotated 21 of the studies for his nephew's use (published in an edition by J.S. Shedlock in 1893) and considered them \"the best preparation for his own works\". Schumann described the \"Studio\" as the finest training \"for head and hand\". The studies are structurally simple; each is based on a characteristic pattern or mechanical problem, and although the shadows of Bach and Domenico Scarlatti are often apparent, the harmonic colouring and figurational variety in the \"Studio\" are eminently modern and entirely suited to the piano. The success of the studies led Cramer to produce many more methods, including the \"Anweisung das Pianoforte zu spielen\", which includes rules for fingering and the use of the pedals. Some of the later studies were given individual descriptive titles, in keeping with the fashion, but none of them matched the \"Studio\" in usefulness and artistic merit.  The scope and seriousness of Cramer's compositions often varies widely within a single category; even among the sonatas and concertos the range is considerable.  The best of the shorter pieces anticipate the general features of the character piece in form and expressiveness, while many works were plainly directed to the unsophisticated amateur. The sonatas, in spite of their diminishing numbers in Cramer's later years, contain some of his most impressive achievements. There is some evidence that Beethoven occasionally borrowed from Cramer's sonatas, and Schumann considered Cramer and Moscheles the only outstanding sonata composers of their generation.  The accompanied sonatas, which comprise less than half the total number, are generally lighter and more popular in character than the solo sonatas. After 1800 Cramer showed a clear preference for solo works, although some of the later solo sonatas still have some popular features, such as the inclusion of \"favourite airs\". The sonatas written after 1810 are more consistently serious and contain more prominent Romantic characteristics. Several have descriptive titles (\"Il mezzo\", \"Le retour \u00e0 Londres\") and a highly flexible, dramatic approach to the use of compass and texture. In harmonic daring they show the impact of Beethoven, and they abound in sweeping, colouristic accompanimental patterns.  Cramer's late sonatas were occasionally reprinted in the 19th century, but they have passed into obscurity in more recent times.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: On what date did Cramer make his debut as a conductor?\nAnswer:", " 1810"], ["Johann Baptist Cramer. Johann Baptist Cramer was born in Mannheim on 24 Feb 1771 and died in London on 16 April 1858. He was a composer, pianist and publisher, the eldest son of Wilhelm Cramer. He was the most outstanding member of the family. As one of the most renowned piano performers of his day, he contributed directly to the formulation of an idiomatic piano style through his playing and his compositions. When he was about three years old he was taken to London by his mother to join his father, who had decided to establish himself in England. Wilhelm taught his son the violin from a very early age, but the child showed distinct precocity at the piano and at the age of seven was placed under the direction of J.D. Benser. He continued his studies with J.S. Schroeter from 1780 to 1783, when he was entrusted to Muzio Clementi. Although he studied with Clementi for only one year, the lessons were decisive in forming his artistic character. His formal training was completed with lessons in theory (from 1785) under C.F. Abel, through whom Cramer first came to know the writings of Kirnberger and Marpurg. His early training acquainted him with the works of the greatest keyboard composers of the century, and by the mid-1780s he had studied works of Clementi, Schr\u00f6ter, J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, M\u00fcthel, Paradies, Haydn and Mozart. He may have been introduced to Das wohltemperirte Clavier as early as 1787, and he developed a lifelong fascination for Bach. By the time Clementi left England for the Continent and Cramer's formal piano lessons were abruptly ended, he had already attracted attention as a performer in London. He made his formal d\u00e9but on 6 April 1781, appearing in his father's annual benefit concert. He performed occasionally during the next few years, at one concert (in 1784) playing a duet for two pianos with Clementi.  In 1788 Cramer undertook his first foreign tour and visited the major cities of France and Germany, including Paris and Berlin. While in France he was given a number of J.S. Bach's manuscripts. His earliest compositions were also published during his stay in France. On his return to England in 1791 he immediately began an active performing career, and during the next nine seasons established himself as England's most remarkable young pianist, capable of providing stiff competition for the older virtuosos. He participated as a soloist in both major series, the Professional Concert and the Salomon Concerts, as well as appearing in numerous benefit concerts. He made the acquaintance of all the eminent artists who appeared in London during that decade, including Haydn, and he began to gain recognition as a composer and teacher.  Cramer left London in 1799 for a second journey that included the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. He met Beethoven in Vienna, initiating a warm and mutually rewarding relationship, and he renewed his friendly association with Haydn. On his return to England in 1800 he married almost immediately. The activities of his first 30 years had brought him into contact with nearly all the most prominent musicians of Europe, including Hummel, Dussek, Weber, Kalkbrenner, Cherubini and W\u00f6lfl, in addition to those already mentioned. In later years he came to know Ries, Czerny, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Berlioz. He championed with characteristic vigour the works of composers whom he admired; his performances of Bach and Mozart, in particular, created great excitement, and he helped to introduce Beethoven's sonatas to English audiences. His impact as a popularizer of music by other composers seems to have been felt as much by his playing at private gatherings as by his concert appearances, for he preferred private music-making, even when travelling abroad.  After 1800 Cramer's public career was centred almost entirely on England. He taught privately at least into the 1820s, commanding the top fee of one guinea per lesson. But he travelled again from 1816 to 1818, visiting Amsterdam and Mannheim. While abroad he continued to renew and expand his associations, but his public performances were apparently rare. His mature years in London were marked by many signs of high regard. To admiring English audiences he was their \"Glorious John\", and his appearances continued to stir excitement until his formal retirement. He was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society in 1813, and he was appointed to the board of the RAM on its foundation in 1822.  Following the very successful example of Clementi, Cramer entered the music publishing business. His earliest ventures included a partnership known as Cramer & Keys in 1805, and another partnership with Samuel Chappell (later of Chappell) from 1810 to 1819. A more lasting firm was established in 1824 (when Cramer joined Robert Addison and T.F. Beale), at a later date known as j.b. Cramer & co. ltd, which flourished from its first days and still exists.  Cramer married for the second time in 1829, and he retired officially from public life after a gala farewell concert in 1835. His next decade included visits to Munich and Vienna and a long residence in Paris, but he returned again to England in 1845 and remained there for the rest of his life. He died at his house in Kensington and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery.  The large volume of Cramer's compositions is only part of his musical achievement. His playing left a permanent impression on several generations of early 19th-century pianists. He received almost universal admiration for his playing; even Beethoven considered him the finest pianist of the day, according to Ries. His expressive legato touch, which later became a stylistic norm among pianists, was especially admired: in Moscheles's words, his legato \"almost transforms a Mozart Andante into a vocal piece\". His refinement in improvisation and the remarkable independence of his fingers were equally renowned; they are also evidence of his Classical ideals and distinguish him from more dramatically inclined later generations. By the end of his long career his playing may have become somewhat outmoded. Certainly Wilhelm von Lenz found his playing in the 1840s dry and harsh, though at the same time August Gathy contradicted Lenz's judgment. Cramer himself noted the changing fashions when he described earlier playing as \"fort bien\" (\"very good\") and the newer style as \"bien fort\" (\"very strong\").  Many aspects of Cramer's compositional style are strikingly conservative. He apparently liked to view himself as a latter-day Mozartian, preserving Mozart's grace, elegance and clarity. His music is generally less dramatic than Clementi's, less rich than Dussek's, less sentimental than Field's. The originality of his genius appears principally in his combination of a conservative bias with the most advanced, idiomatically pianistic passage-work. Although there is an inconsistency in the quality of his works that was observed even by critics of his day, his music is nearly always skilful, pleasant and sophisticated, and his ingenuity in passage-work expanded the vocabulary of colourful and evocative sonorities available to the piano.  Cramer's affinity for certain Classical ideas did not prevent him from assimilating the newer musical forms that became popular in the early 19th century, and his own work accurately reflects the changing tastes of the period.  Nearly all his 117 sonatas, for example, were written before 1820, and his production of didactic works, capriccios, fantasias and small pieces based on popular tunes increased markedly after 1810. He supplied so much music for the dilettante that by the end of the century his name was used in France as a pseudonym for musical trifles.  Of all Cramer's works, the one that has had the greatest enduring value is his celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano, published in two sets of 42 each in 1804 and 1810 as \"Studio per il pianoforte\". This collection has long been considered a cornerstone of pianistic technique and is the only work of Cramer's that is generally known today. Clementi claimed for himself the idea of such a comprehensive technical volume, accusing Cramer of having stolen the idea and title for the \"Studio\". Cramer's work inspired many similar efforts, some being mere imitations. Soon after its appearance, Steibelt and W\u00f6lfl produced sets of studies, and Clementi eventually published his Gradus ad Parnassum.  Nevertheless, Cramer's \"Studio\" was the most widely used and admired collection in the early 19th century. Beethoven annotated 21 of the studies for his nephew's use (published in an edition by J.S. Shedlock in 1893) and considered them \"the best preparation for his own works\". Schumann described the \"Studio\" as the finest training \"for head and hand\". The studies are structurally simple; each is based on a characteristic pattern or mechanical problem, and although the shadows of Bach and Domenico Scarlatti are often apparent, the harmonic colouring and figurational variety in the \"Studio\" are eminently modern and entirely suited to the piano. The success of the studies led Cramer to produce many more methods, including the \"Anweisung das Pianoforte zu spielen\", which includes rules for fingering and the use of the pedals. Some of the later studies were given individual descriptive titles, in keeping with the fashion, but none of them matched the \"Studio\" in usefulness and artistic merit.  The scope and seriousness of Cramer's compositions often varies widely within a single category; even among the sonatas and concertos the range is considerable.  The best of the shorter pieces anticipate the general features of the character piece in form and expressiveness, while many works were plainly directed to the unsophisticated amateur. The sonatas, in spite of their diminishing numbers in Cramer's later years, contain some of his most impressive achievements. There is some evidence that Beethoven occasionally borrowed from Cramer's sonatas, and Schumann considered Cramer and Moscheles the only outstanding sonata composers of their generation.  The accompanied sonatas, which comprise less than half the total number, are generally lighter and more popular in character than the solo sonatas. After 1800 Cramer showed a clear preference for solo works, although some of the later solo sonatas still have some popular features, such as the inclusion of \"favourite airs\". The sonatas written after 1810 are more consistently serious and contain more prominent Romantic characteristics. Several have descriptive titles (\"Il mezzo\", \"Le retour \u00e0 Londres\") and a highly flexible, dramatic approach to the use of compass and texture. In harmonic daring they show the impact of Beethoven, and they abound in sweeping, colouristic accompanimental patterns.  Cramer's late sonatas were occasionally reprinted in the 19th century, but they have passed into obscurity in more recent times.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: On what date did Cramer make his debut as a conductor?\nAnswer:", " 1820"], ["Johann Baptist Cramer. Johann Baptist Cramer was born in Mannheim on 24 Feb 1771 and died in London on 16 April 1858. He was a composer, pianist and publisher, the eldest son of Wilhelm Cramer. He was the most outstanding member of the family. As one of the most renowned piano performers of his day, he contributed directly to the formulation of an idiomatic piano style through his playing and his compositions. When he was about three years old he was taken to London by his mother to join his father, who had decided to establish himself in England. Wilhelm taught his son the violin from a very early age, but the child showed distinct precocity at the piano and at the age of seven was placed under the direction of J.D. Benser. He continued his studies with J.S. Schroeter from 1780 to 1783, when he was entrusted to Muzio Clementi. Although he studied with Clementi for only one year, the lessons were decisive in forming his artistic character. His formal training was completed with lessons in theory (from 1785) under C.F. Abel, through whom Cramer first came to know the writings of Kirnberger and Marpurg. His early training acquainted him with the works of the greatest keyboard composers of the century, and by the mid-1780s he had studied works of Clementi, Schr\u00f6ter, J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, M\u00fcthel, Paradies, Haydn and Mozart. He may have been introduced to Das wohltemperirte Clavier as early as 1787, and he developed a lifelong fascination for Bach. By the time Clementi left England for the Continent and Cramer's formal piano lessons were abruptly ended, he had already attracted attention as a performer in London. He made his formal d\u00e9but on 6 April 1781, appearing in his father's annual benefit concert. He performed occasionally during the next few years, at one concert (in 1784) playing a duet for two pianos with Clementi.  In 1788 Cramer undertook his first foreign tour and visited the major cities of France and Germany, including Paris and Berlin. While in France he was given a number of J.S. Bach's manuscripts. His earliest compositions were also published during his stay in France. On his return to England in 1791 he immediately began an active performing career, and during the next nine seasons established himself as England's most remarkable young pianist, capable of providing stiff competition for the older virtuosos. He participated as a soloist in both major series, the Professional Concert and the Salomon Concerts, as well as appearing in numerous benefit concerts. He made the acquaintance of all the eminent artists who appeared in London during that decade, including Haydn, and he began to gain recognition as a composer and teacher.  Cramer left London in 1799 for a second journey that included the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. He met Beethoven in Vienna, initiating a warm and mutually rewarding relationship, and he renewed his friendly association with Haydn. On his return to England in 1800 he married almost immediately. The activities of his first 30 years had brought him into contact with nearly all the most prominent musicians of Europe, including Hummel, Dussek, Weber, Kalkbrenner, Cherubini and W\u00f6lfl, in addition to those already mentioned. In later years he came to know Ries, Czerny, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Berlioz. He championed with characteristic vigour the works of composers whom he admired; his performances of Bach and Mozart, in particular, created great excitement, and he helped to introduce Beethoven's sonatas to English audiences. His impact as a popularizer of music by other composers seems to have been felt as much by his playing at private gatherings as by his concert appearances, for he preferred private music-making, even when travelling abroad.  After 1800 Cramer's public career was centred almost entirely on England. He taught privately at least into the 1820s, commanding the top fee of one guinea per lesson. But he travelled again from 1816 to 1818, visiting Amsterdam and Mannheim. While abroad he continued to renew and expand his associations, but his public performances were apparently rare. His mature years in London were marked by many signs of high regard. To admiring English audiences he was their \"Glorious John\", and his appearances continued to stir excitement until his formal retirement. He was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society in 1813, and he was appointed to the board of the RAM on its foundation in 1822.  Following the very successful example of Clementi, Cramer entered the music publishing business. His earliest ventures included a partnership known as Cramer & Keys in 1805, and another partnership with Samuel Chappell (later of Chappell) from 1810 to 1819. A more lasting firm was established in 1824 (when Cramer joined Robert Addison and T.F. Beale), at a later date known as j.b. Cramer & co. ltd, which flourished from its first days and still exists.  Cramer married for the second time in 1829, and he retired officially from public life after a gala farewell concert in 1835. His next decade included visits to Munich and Vienna and a long residence in Paris, but he returned again to England in 1845 and remained there for the rest of his life. He died at his house in Kensington and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery.  The large volume of Cramer's compositions is only part of his musical achievement. His playing left a permanent impression on several generations of early 19th-century pianists. He received almost universal admiration for his playing; even Beethoven considered him the finest pianist of the day, according to Ries. His expressive legato touch, which later became a stylistic norm among pianists, was especially admired: in Moscheles's words, his legato \"almost transforms a Mozart Andante into a vocal piece\". His refinement in improvisation and the remarkable independence of his fingers were equally renowned; they are also evidence of his Classical ideals and distinguish him from more dramatically inclined later generations. By the end of his long career his playing may have become somewhat outmoded. Certainly Wilhelm von Lenz found his playing in the 1840s dry and harsh, though at the same time August Gathy contradicted Lenz's judgment. Cramer himself noted the changing fashions when he described earlier playing as \"fort bien\" (\"very good\") and the newer style as \"bien fort\" (\"very strong\").  Many aspects of Cramer's compositional style are strikingly conservative. He apparently liked to view himself as a latter-day Mozartian, preserving Mozart's grace, elegance and clarity. His music is generally less dramatic than Clementi's, less rich than Dussek's, less sentimental than Field's. The originality of his genius appears principally in his combination of a conservative bias with the most advanced, idiomatically pianistic passage-work. Although there is an inconsistency in the quality of his works that was observed even by critics of his day, his music is nearly always skilful, pleasant and sophisticated, and his ingenuity in passage-work expanded the vocabulary of colourful and evocative sonorities available to the piano.  Cramer's affinity for certain Classical ideas did not prevent him from assimilating the newer musical forms that became popular in the early 19th century, and his own work accurately reflects the changing tastes of the period.  Nearly all his 117 sonatas, for example, were written before 1820, and his production of didactic works, capriccios, fantasias and small pieces based on popular tunes increased markedly after 1810. He supplied so much music for the dilettante that by the end of the century his name was used in France as a pseudonym for musical trifles.  Of all Cramer's works, the one that has had the greatest enduring value is his celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano, published in two sets of 42 each in 1804 and 1810 as \"Studio per il pianoforte\". This collection has long been considered a cornerstone of pianistic technique and is the only work of Cramer's that is generally known today. Clementi claimed for himself the idea of such a comprehensive technical volume, accusing Cramer of having stolen the idea and title for the \"Studio\". Cramer's work inspired many similar efforts, some being mere imitations. Soon after its appearance, Steibelt and W\u00f6lfl produced sets of studies, and Clementi eventually published his Gradus ad Parnassum.  Nevertheless, Cramer's \"Studio\" was the most widely used and admired collection in the early 19th century. Beethoven annotated 21 of the studies for his nephew's use (published in an edition by J.S. Shedlock in 1893) and considered them \"the best preparation for his own works\". Schumann described the \"Studio\" as the finest training \"for head and hand\". The studies are structurally simple; each is based on a characteristic pattern or mechanical problem, and although the shadows of Bach and Domenico Scarlatti are often apparent, the harmonic colouring and figurational variety in the \"Studio\" are eminently modern and entirely suited to the piano. The success of the studies led Cramer to produce many more methods, including the \"Anweisung das Pianoforte zu spielen\", which includes rules for fingering and the use of the pedals. Some of the later studies were given individual descriptive titles, in keeping with the fashion, but none of them matched the \"Studio\" in usefulness and artistic merit.  The scope and seriousness of Cramer's compositions often varies widely within a single category; even among the sonatas and concertos the range is considerable.  The best of the shorter pieces anticipate the general features of the character piece in form and expressiveness, while many works were plainly directed to the unsophisticated amateur. The sonatas, in spite of their diminishing numbers in Cramer's later years, contain some of his most impressive achievements. There is some evidence that Beethoven occasionally borrowed from Cramer's sonatas, and Schumann considered Cramer and Moscheles the only outstanding sonata composers of their generation.  The accompanied sonatas, which comprise less than half the total number, are generally lighter and more popular in character than the solo sonatas. After 1800 Cramer showed a clear preference for solo works, although some of the later solo sonatas still have some popular features, such as the inclusion of \"favourite airs\". The sonatas written after 1810 are more consistently serious and contain more prominent Romantic characteristics. Several have descriptive titles (\"Il mezzo\", \"Le retour \u00e0 Londres\") and a highly flexible, dramatic approach to the use of compass and texture. In harmonic daring they show the impact of Beethoven, and they abound in sweeping, colouristic accompanimental patterns.  Cramer's late sonatas were occasionally reprinted in the 19th century, but they have passed into obscurity in more recent times.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: On what date did Cramer make his debut as a conductor?\nAnswer:", " 1840"], ["Johann Baptist Cramer. Johann Baptist Cramer was born in Mannheim on 24 Feb 1771 and died in London on 16 April 1858. He was a composer, pianist and publisher, the eldest son of Wilhelm Cramer. He was the most outstanding member of the family. As one of the most renowned piano performers of his day, he contributed directly to the formulation of an idiomatic piano style through his playing and his compositions. When he was about three years old he was taken to London by his mother to join his father, who had decided to establish himself in England. Wilhelm taught his son the violin from a very early age, but the child showed distinct precocity at the piano and at the age of seven was placed under the direction of J.D. Benser. He continued his studies with J.S. Schroeter from 1780 to 1783, when he was entrusted to Muzio Clementi. Although he studied with Clementi for only one year, the lessons were decisive in forming his artistic character. His formal training was completed with lessons in theory (from 1785) under C.F. Abel, through whom Cramer first came to know the writings of Kirnberger and Marpurg. His early training acquainted him with the works of the greatest keyboard composers of the century, and by the mid-1780s he had studied works of Clementi, Schr\u00f6ter, J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, M\u00fcthel, Paradies, Haydn and Mozart. He may have been introduced to Das wohltemperirte Clavier as early as 1787, and he developed a lifelong fascination for Bach. By the time Clementi left England for the Continent and Cramer's formal piano lessons were abruptly ended, he had already attracted attention as a performer in London. He made his formal d\u00e9but on 6 April 1781, appearing in his father's annual benefit concert. He performed occasionally during the next few years, at one concert (in 1784) playing a duet for two pianos with Clementi.  In 1788 Cramer undertook his first foreign tour and visited the major cities of France and Germany, including Paris and Berlin. While in France he was given a number of J.S. Bach's manuscripts. His earliest compositions were also published during his stay in France. On his return to England in 1791 he immediately began an active performing career, and during the next nine seasons established himself as England's most remarkable young pianist, capable of providing stiff competition for the older virtuosos. He participated as a soloist in both major series, the Professional Concert and the Salomon Concerts, as well as appearing in numerous benefit concerts. He made the acquaintance of all the eminent artists who appeared in London during that decade, including Haydn, and he began to gain recognition as a composer and teacher.  Cramer left London in 1799 for a second journey that included the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. He met Beethoven in Vienna, initiating a warm and mutually rewarding relationship, and he renewed his friendly association with Haydn. On his return to England in 1800 he married almost immediately. The activities of his first 30 years had brought him into contact with nearly all the most prominent musicians of Europe, including Hummel, Dussek, Weber, Kalkbrenner, Cherubini and W\u00f6lfl, in addition to those already mentioned. In later years he came to know Ries, Czerny, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Berlioz. He championed with characteristic vigour the works of composers whom he admired; his performances of Bach and Mozart, in particular, created great excitement, and he helped to introduce Beethoven's sonatas to English audiences. His impact as a popularizer of music by other composers seems to have been felt as much by his playing at private gatherings as by his concert appearances, for he preferred private music-making, even when travelling abroad.  After 1800 Cramer's public career was centred almost entirely on England. He taught privately at least into the 1820s, commanding the top fee of one guinea per lesson. But he travelled again from 1816 to 1818, visiting Amsterdam and Mannheim. While abroad he continued to renew and expand his associations, but his public performances were apparently rare. His mature years in London were marked by many signs of high regard. To admiring English audiences he was their \"Glorious John\", and his appearances continued to stir excitement until his formal retirement. He was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society in 1813, and he was appointed to the board of the RAM on its foundation in 1822.  Following the very successful example of Clementi, Cramer entered the music publishing business. His earliest ventures included a partnership known as Cramer & Keys in 1805, and another partnership with Samuel Chappell (later of Chappell) from 1810 to 1819. A more lasting firm was established in 1824 (when Cramer joined Robert Addison and T.F. Beale), at a later date known as j.b. Cramer & co. ltd, which flourished from its first days and still exists.  Cramer married for the second time in 1829, and he retired officially from public life after a gala farewell concert in 1835. His next decade included visits to Munich and Vienna and a long residence in Paris, but he returned again to England in 1845 and remained there for the rest of his life. He died at his house in Kensington and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery.  The large volume of Cramer's compositions is only part of his musical achievement. His playing left a permanent impression on several generations of early 19th-century pianists. He received almost universal admiration for his playing; even Beethoven considered him the finest pianist of the day, according to Ries. His expressive legato touch, which later became a stylistic norm among pianists, was especially admired: in Moscheles's words, his legato \"almost transforms a Mozart Andante into a vocal piece\". His refinement in improvisation and the remarkable independence of his fingers were equally renowned; they are also evidence of his Classical ideals and distinguish him from more dramatically inclined later generations. By the end of his long career his playing may have become somewhat outmoded. Certainly Wilhelm von Lenz found his playing in the 1840s dry and harsh, though at the same time August Gathy contradicted Lenz's judgment. Cramer himself noted the changing fashions when he described earlier playing as \"fort bien\" (\"very good\") and the newer style as \"bien fort\" (\"very strong\").  Many aspects of Cramer's compositional style are strikingly conservative. He apparently liked to view himself as a latter-day Mozartian, preserving Mozart's grace, elegance and clarity. His music is generally less dramatic than Clementi's, less rich than Dussek's, less sentimental than Field's. The originality of his genius appears principally in his combination of a conservative bias with the most advanced, idiomatically pianistic passage-work. Although there is an inconsistency in the quality of his works that was observed even by critics of his day, his music is nearly always skilful, pleasant and sophisticated, and his ingenuity in passage-work expanded the vocabulary of colourful and evocative sonorities available to the piano.  Cramer's affinity for certain Classical ideas did not prevent him from assimilating the newer musical forms that became popular in the early 19th century, and his own work accurately reflects the changing tastes of the period.  Nearly all his 117 sonatas, for example, were written before 1820, and his production of didactic works, capriccios, fantasias and small pieces based on popular tunes increased markedly after 1810. He supplied so much music for the dilettante that by the end of the century his name was used in France as a pseudonym for musical trifles.  Of all Cramer's works, the one that has had the greatest enduring value is his celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano, published in two sets of 42 each in 1804 and 1810 as \"Studio per il pianoforte\". This collection has long been considered a cornerstone of pianistic technique and is the only work of Cramer's that is generally known today. Clementi claimed for himself the idea of such a comprehensive technical volume, accusing Cramer of having stolen the idea and title for the \"Studio\". Cramer's work inspired many similar efforts, some being mere imitations. Soon after its appearance, Steibelt and W\u00f6lfl produced sets of studies, and Clementi eventually published his Gradus ad Parnassum.  Nevertheless, Cramer's \"Studio\" was the most widely used and admired collection in the early 19th century. Beethoven annotated 21 of the studies for his nephew's use (published in an edition by J.S. Shedlock in 1893) and considered them \"the best preparation for his own works\". Schumann described the \"Studio\" as the finest training \"for head and hand\". The studies are structurally simple; each is based on a characteristic pattern or mechanical problem, and although the shadows of Bach and Domenico Scarlatti are often apparent, the harmonic colouring and figurational variety in the \"Studio\" are eminently modern and entirely suited to the piano. The success of the studies led Cramer to produce many more methods, including the \"Anweisung das Pianoforte zu spielen\", which includes rules for fingering and the use of the pedals. Some of the later studies were given individual descriptive titles, in keeping with the fashion, but none of them matched the \"Studio\" in usefulness and artistic merit.  The scope and seriousness of Cramer's compositions often varies widely within a single category; even among the sonatas and concertos the range is considerable.  The best of the shorter pieces anticipate the general features of the character piece in form and expressiveness, while many works were plainly directed to the unsophisticated amateur. The sonatas, in spite of their diminishing numbers in Cramer's later years, contain some of his most impressive achievements. There is some evidence that Beethoven occasionally borrowed from Cramer's sonatas, and Schumann considered Cramer and Moscheles the only outstanding sonata composers of their generation.  The accompanied sonatas, which comprise less than half the total number, are generally lighter and more popular in character than the solo sonatas. After 1800 Cramer showed a clear preference for solo works, although some of the later solo sonatas still have some popular features, such as the inclusion of \"favourite airs\". The sonatas written after 1810 are more consistently serious and contain more prominent Romantic characteristics. Several have descriptive titles (\"Il mezzo\", \"Le retour \u00e0 Londres\") and a highly flexible, dramatic approach to the use of compass and texture. In harmonic daring they show the impact of Beethoven, and they abound in sweeping, colouristic accompanimental patterns.  Cramer's late sonatas were occasionally reprinted in the 19th century, but they have passed into obscurity in more recent times.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: On what date did Cramer make his debut as a conductor?\nAnswer:", " none of the above"], ["Musicology, \u00a7II: Disciplines of musicology. II. Disciplines of musicology 2. Theoretical and analytical method. (iii) Analytic traditions.  It is useful to distinguish music analysis as a subdiscipline in music theory from the regulative traditions just described, even though the two are interdependent. While a fuller history and taxonomy of music analysis is recounted elsewhere (see Analysis), it will be appropriate here to say something about the methods and claims of music analysis and its relation to be broader epistemology of music theory.  In music analysis one is primarily concerned with the structure and individuating features of a particular piece of music. Typically, this involves two tasks: (1) to inventory the components of a particular composition deemed significant by the analyst; and (2) to explain the particular disposition and relationship of those components. Of course, any kind of analysis presupposes a theoretical stance: that is to say, it is not possible to undertake an analysis without theoretical presumptions, however informally conceived, that help determine the questions to pose and the kinds of language and method by which these questions may be answered. But unlike the systematic traditions of regulative theory described earlier, the goal of music analysis is normally an understanding and aesthetic appreciation of the musical piece itself as an ontologically unique artwork, not the exemplification of some broader norm of structure or syntax.  A good example of such particularist analysis is seen in E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, published in 1810. Unlike many earlier examples of music \"analysis\" that offered generalized taxonomies of particular pieces (often using rhetorical terminology) in order to illustrate classical norms of structure and process, Hoffman undertook his analysis to reveal what was distinguishing and unique in Beethoven's composition. For Hoffmann, much of this uniqueness stemmed from the music's particular motivic material and its ingenious development. Not surprisingly, such close analytic readings were indebted to Romantic ideologies of historicism and the cult of artistic genius; far from being models for compositional emulation, the musical objects of analysis tended to be drawn from a canon of irreproduceable \"masterworks\". Analysis revealed at once the singular features that made up a particular composition (these typically being unusual thematic and harmonic material or special deviations from formal conventions) as well as the means by which these features cohered as an organic whole, to cite a favourite metaphor of the 19th century. Of course, a more pragmatic tradition of analysis continued with the 19th-century pedagogical \"Kompositionslehre\". That is, musical pieces might be analysed for the purpose of learning and testing norms of chordal succession or form. But by the 20th century, with the loss of a common grammar of tonality and received forms of organizational structure, music analysis was increasingly becoming piece-orientated.  Heinrich Schenker occupies a particularly important place in 20th-century music analysis, not simply because his ideas have enjoyed such unparalleled influence - especially in Anglo-American academic circles - but because his work so clearly reflects the dialectic relation of music analysis and theoretical systematization. Originating through an intensive study of a select canon of tonal masterworks (especially Beethoven), Schenker's mature theory of the \"Ursatz\" and its \"prolongation\" through structural levels emerged only after many years of struggle and thought. Although presented as an \"a priori\" systems of tonal logic, Schenker's theory also receives empirical validation - and indeed, can only be known - through practice, albeit a practice that is highly selective and arguably self-confirming.  Schenker's theory presents itself as both a universal theory of tonality and a sophisticated tool of analysis by which an individual piece of tonal music may be opened up for inspection and its individuating features of harmony, form and thematic content delineated with unprecedented precision (see Schenker, heinrich).  At the close of the 20th century, music theory and analysis seemed finally to have matured as intellectual disciplines. Particularly in North America, although increasingly elsewhere, many academic programmes of music theory were established in universities and music conservatories alongside more traditional programmes of historical musicology. At the same time, numerous academic journals and professional societies devoted to music theory and analysis were founded, including the \"Journal of Music Theory\" (1957), \"Musical Analysis\" (1981) and \"Musiktheorie\" (1986), and the publications of the Society for Music Theory (from 1977).  It is ironic that just as music theory seems to have become institutionally accepted, strong criticisms have been voiced within those institutions concerning its conservative domain and scientistic aspirations (Kerman, 1985). Most compellingly, perhaps, many music theorists and analysts have been criticized for their penchant for considering musical pieces and styles largely from a formalistic, autonomous point of view rather than within broader historical and cultural contexts. At the same time, theorists have been faulted for too often disregarding questions of affect, expression or meaning in musical pieces at the expense of structural description.  It is true that in the course of the 20th century, much scholarship in music theory could be characterized as highly formalistic. Logical positivism, in particular, was an obvious influence on the work of many theorists such as Babbitt, who famously demanded that all analytic statements about music should adhere to strictly scientific criteria of formulation and verification (Babbitt, 1961, p.3). Other potent influences on music analysis (particularly in the 1960s) were developments in literary theory and specifically the movements of \"New Criticism\" and structuralism, by which texts were analysed as discrete and autonomous objects standing apart from questions of historical origin or authorial intention. Certainly, a number of music theorists in their analytic work have tested a formidable array of tools and models borrowed from neighbouring disciplines that on the surface suggest positivist and structuralist pedigree, including mathematical group theory (David Lewin), cognitive psychology (Leonard Meyer, Eugene Narmour), information theory (Kraehenbuhl and Coons), generative linguistics (Lehrdahl and Jackendoff), and semiotics (Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Kofi Agawu and Robert Hatten). Probably little of this research would stand the test of Babbitt's strict rules for theoretical formulation and verification. As in many other scholarly disciplines, the explicitly positivistic and structuralist aspirations of music theory in the 1960s and 70s have considerably receded.  If in reality music theory and analysis were ever as uniformally conservative and narrow in scope as their critics have implied, it was certainly not true at the close of the 20th century. The repertories of music considered by analysts expanded dramatically to include virtually all historical periods, as well as much non-Western music and popular or vernacular musics. At the same time, many theorists showed increased sensitivity to problems of historical and social context, affective content and reception in their analyses. In particular, interpretative and critical modes of analysis (whose origins may be traced back to late 19th-century traditions of \"hermeneutic\" analysis) are strongly evident in much recent musicological scholarship (Scott Burnham, Rose Subotnik, Brian Hyer), as are radically subjective \"phenomenological\" modes of analysis (Thomas Clifton, Benjamin Boretz, Marion Guck) and post-Freudian theories of compositional influence and repression (Joseph Straus, Kevin Korsyn). Even issues regarding gender and sexuality so dominant in much \"postmodern\" cultural criticism have been provocatively addressed by some recent musicologists (Susan McClary, Lawrence Kramer; see \u00a7II, below). Yet if music theory and analysis are to continue to retain identities as authentic intellectual traditions, it is perhaps desirable to maintain some degree of epistemological formalism and empirical rigour. Far from suggesting a weakness in the programme of music theory, a certain autonomy - and tension - in relation to historical musicology and cultural criticism may indeed be a healthy sign of its vitality and integrity.  Thomas Christensen   Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: What was found to be unique about Beethoven's composition?\nAnswer:", " the time signature and the key"], ["Musicology, \u00a7II: Disciplines of musicology. II. Disciplines of musicology 2. Theoretical and analytical method. (iii) Analytic traditions.  It is useful to distinguish music analysis as a subdiscipline in music theory from the regulative traditions just described, even though the two are interdependent. While a fuller history and taxonomy of music analysis is recounted elsewhere (see Analysis), it will be appropriate here to say something about the methods and claims of music analysis and its relation to be broader epistemology of music theory.  In music analysis one is primarily concerned with the structure and individuating features of a particular piece of music. Typically, this involves two tasks: (1) to inventory the components of a particular composition deemed significant by the analyst; and (2) to explain the particular disposition and relationship of those components. Of course, any kind of analysis presupposes a theoretical stance: that is to say, it is not possible to undertake an analysis without theoretical presumptions, however informally conceived, that help determine the questions to pose and the kinds of language and method by which these questions may be answered. But unlike the systematic traditions of regulative theory described earlier, the goal of music analysis is normally an understanding and aesthetic appreciation of the musical piece itself as an ontologically unique artwork, not the exemplification of some broader norm of structure or syntax.  A good example of such particularist analysis is seen in E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, published in 1810. Unlike many earlier examples of music \"analysis\" that offered generalized taxonomies of particular pieces (often using rhetorical terminology) in order to illustrate classical norms of structure and process, Hoffman undertook his analysis to reveal what was distinguishing and unique in Beethoven's composition. For Hoffmann, much of this uniqueness stemmed from the music's particular motivic material and its ingenious development. Not surprisingly, such close analytic readings were indebted to Romantic ideologies of historicism and the cult of artistic genius; far from being models for compositional emulation, the musical objects of analysis tended to be drawn from a canon of irreproduceable \"masterworks\". Analysis revealed at once the singular features that made up a particular composition (these typically being unusual thematic and harmonic material or special deviations from formal conventions) as well as the means by which these features cohered as an organic whole, to cite a favourite metaphor of the 19th century. Of course, a more pragmatic tradition of analysis continued with the 19th-century pedagogical \"Kompositionslehre\". That is, musical pieces might be analysed for the purpose of learning and testing norms of chordal succession or form. But by the 20th century, with the loss of a common grammar of tonality and received forms of organizational structure, music analysis was increasingly becoming piece-orientated.  Heinrich Schenker occupies a particularly important place in 20th-century music analysis, not simply because his ideas have enjoyed such unparalleled influence - especially in Anglo-American academic circles - but because his work so clearly reflects the dialectic relation of music analysis and theoretical systematization. Originating through an intensive study of a select canon of tonal masterworks (especially Beethoven), Schenker's mature theory of the \"Ursatz\" and its \"prolongation\" through structural levels emerged only after many years of struggle and thought. Although presented as an \"a priori\" systems of tonal logic, Schenker's theory also receives empirical validation - and indeed, can only be known - through practice, albeit a practice that is highly selective and arguably self-confirming.  Schenker's theory presents itself as both a universal theory of tonality and a sophisticated tool of analysis by which an individual piece of tonal music may be opened up for inspection and its individuating features of harmony, form and thematic content delineated with unprecedented precision (see Schenker, heinrich).  At the close of the 20th century, music theory and analysis seemed finally to have matured as intellectual disciplines. Particularly in North America, although increasingly elsewhere, many academic programmes of music theory were established in universities and music conservatories alongside more traditional programmes of historical musicology. At the same time, numerous academic journals and professional societies devoted to music theory and analysis were founded, including the \"Journal of Music Theory\" (1957), \"Musical Analysis\" (1981) and \"Musiktheorie\" (1986), and the publications of the Society for Music Theory (from 1977).  It is ironic that just as music theory seems to have become institutionally accepted, strong criticisms have been voiced within those institutions concerning its conservative domain and scientistic aspirations (Kerman, 1985). Most compellingly, perhaps, many music theorists and analysts have been criticized for their penchant for considering musical pieces and styles largely from a formalistic, autonomous point of view rather than within broader historical and cultural contexts. At the same time, theorists have been faulted for too often disregarding questions of affect, expression or meaning in musical pieces at the expense of structural description.  It is true that in the course of the 20th century, much scholarship in music theory could be characterized as highly formalistic. Logical positivism, in particular, was an obvious influence on the work of many theorists such as Babbitt, who famously demanded that all analytic statements about music should adhere to strictly scientific criteria of formulation and verification (Babbitt, 1961, p.3). Other potent influences on music analysis (particularly in the 1960s) were developments in literary theory and specifically the movements of \"New Criticism\" and structuralism, by which texts were analysed as discrete and autonomous objects standing apart from questions of historical origin or authorial intention. Certainly, a number of music theorists in their analytic work have tested a formidable array of tools and models borrowed from neighbouring disciplines that on the surface suggest positivist and structuralist pedigree, including mathematical group theory (David Lewin), cognitive psychology (Leonard Meyer, Eugene Narmour), information theory (Kraehenbuhl and Coons), generative linguistics (Lehrdahl and Jackendoff), and semiotics (Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Kofi Agawu and Robert Hatten). Probably little of this research would stand the test of Babbitt's strict rules for theoretical formulation and verification. As in many other scholarly disciplines, the explicitly positivistic and structuralist aspirations of music theory in the 1960s and 70s have considerably receded.  If in reality music theory and analysis were ever as uniformally conservative and narrow in scope as their critics have implied, it was certainly not true at the close of the 20th century. The repertories of music considered by analysts expanded dramatically to include virtually all historical periods, as well as much non-Western music and popular or vernacular musics. At the same time, many theorists showed increased sensitivity to problems of historical and social context, affective content and reception in their analyses. In particular, interpretative and critical modes of analysis (whose origins may be traced back to late 19th-century traditions of \"hermeneutic\" analysis) are strongly evident in much recent musicological scholarship (Scott Burnham, Rose Subotnik, Brian Hyer), as are radically subjective \"phenomenological\" modes of analysis (Thomas Clifton, Benjamin Boretz, Marion Guck) and post-Freudian theories of compositional influence and repression (Joseph Straus, Kevin Korsyn). Even issues regarding gender and sexuality so dominant in much \"postmodern\" cultural criticism have been provocatively addressed by some recent musicologists (Susan McClary, Lawrence Kramer; see \u00a7II, below). Yet if music theory and analysis are to continue to retain identities as authentic intellectual traditions, it is perhaps desirable to maintain some degree of epistemological formalism and empirical rigour. Far from suggesting a weakness in the programme of music theory, a certain autonomy - and tension - in relation to historical musicology and cultural criticism may indeed be a healthy sign of its vitality and integrity.  Thomas Christensen   Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: What was found to be unique about Beethoven's composition?\nAnswer:", " the music's particular motivic material and its ingenious development"], ["Musicology, \u00a7II: Disciplines of musicology. II. Disciplines of musicology 2. Theoretical and analytical method. (iii) Analytic traditions.  It is useful to distinguish music analysis as a subdiscipline in music theory from the regulative traditions just described, even though the two are interdependent. While a fuller history and taxonomy of music analysis is recounted elsewhere (see Analysis), it will be appropriate here to say something about the methods and claims of music analysis and its relation to be broader epistemology of music theory.  In music analysis one is primarily concerned with the structure and individuating features of a particular piece of music. Typically, this involves two tasks: (1) to inventory the components of a particular composition deemed significant by the analyst; and (2) to explain the particular disposition and relationship of those components. Of course, any kind of analysis presupposes a theoretical stance: that is to say, it is not possible to undertake an analysis without theoretical presumptions, however informally conceived, that help determine the questions to pose and the kinds of language and method by which these questions may be answered. But unlike the systematic traditions of regulative theory described earlier, the goal of music analysis is normally an understanding and aesthetic appreciation of the musical piece itself as an ontologically unique artwork, not the exemplification of some broader norm of structure or syntax.  A good example of such particularist analysis is seen in E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, published in 1810. Unlike many earlier examples of music \"analysis\" that offered generalized taxonomies of particular pieces (often using rhetorical terminology) in order to illustrate classical norms of structure and process, Hoffman undertook his analysis to reveal what was distinguishing and unique in Beethoven's composition. For Hoffmann, much of this uniqueness stemmed from the music's particular motivic material and its ingenious development. Not surprisingly, such close analytic readings were indebted to Romantic ideologies of historicism and the cult of artistic genius; far from being models for compositional emulation, the musical objects of analysis tended to be drawn from a canon of irreproduceable \"masterworks\". Analysis revealed at once the singular features that made up a particular composition (these typically being unusual thematic and harmonic material or special deviations from formal conventions) as well as the means by which these features cohered as an organic whole, to cite a favourite metaphor of the 19th century. Of course, a more pragmatic tradition of analysis continued with the 19th-century pedagogical \"Kompositionslehre\". That is, musical pieces might be analysed for the purpose of learning and testing norms of chordal succession or form. But by the 20th century, with the loss of a common grammar of tonality and received forms of organizational structure, music analysis was increasingly becoming piece-orientated.  Heinrich Schenker occupies a particularly important place in 20th-century music analysis, not simply because his ideas have enjoyed such unparalleled influence - especially in Anglo-American academic circles - but because his work so clearly reflects the dialectic relation of music analysis and theoretical systematization. Originating through an intensive study of a select canon of tonal masterworks (especially Beethoven), Schenker's mature theory of the \"Ursatz\" and its \"prolongation\" through structural levels emerged only after many years of struggle and thought. Although presented as an \"a priori\" systems of tonal logic, Schenker's theory also receives empirical validation - and indeed, can only be known - through practice, albeit a practice that is highly selective and arguably self-confirming.  Schenker's theory presents itself as both a universal theory of tonality and a sophisticated tool of analysis by which an individual piece of tonal music may be opened up for inspection and its individuating features of harmony, form and thematic content delineated with unprecedented precision (see Schenker, heinrich).  At the close of the 20th century, music theory and analysis seemed finally to have matured as intellectual disciplines. Particularly in North America, although increasingly elsewhere, many academic programmes of music theory were established in universities and music conservatories alongside more traditional programmes of historical musicology. At the same time, numerous academic journals and professional societies devoted to music theory and analysis were founded, including the \"Journal of Music Theory\" (1957), \"Musical Analysis\" (1981) and \"Musiktheorie\" (1986), and the publications of the Society for Music Theory (from 1977).  It is ironic that just as music theory seems to have become institutionally accepted, strong criticisms have been voiced within those institutions concerning its conservative domain and scientistic aspirations (Kerman, 1985). Most compellingly, perhaps, many music theorists and analysts have been criticized for their penchant for considering musical pieces and styles largely from a formalistic, autonomous point of view rather than within broader historical and cultural contexts. At the same time, theorists have been faulted for too often disregarding questions of affect, expression or meaning in musical pieces at the expense of structural description.  It is true that in the course of the 20th century, much scholarship in music theory could be characterized as highly formalistic. Logical positivism, in particular, was an obvious influence on the work of many theorists such as Babbitt, who famously demanded that all analytic statements about music should adhere to strictly scientific criteria of formulation and verification (Babbitt, 1961, p.3). Other potent influences on music analysis (particularly in the 1960s) were developments in literary theory and specifically the movements of \"New Criticism\" and structuralism, by which texts were analysed as discrete and autonomous objects standing apart from questions of historical origin or authorial intention. Certainly, a number of music theorists in their analytic work have tested a formidable array of tools and models borrowed from neighbouring disciplines that on the surface suggest positivist and structuralist pedigree, including mathematical group theory (David Lewin), cognitive psychology (Leonard Meyer, Eugene Narmour), information theory (Kraehenbuhl and Coons), generative linguistics (Lehrdahl and Jackendoff), and semiotics (Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Kofi Agawu and Robert Hatten). Probably little of this research would stand the test of Babbitt's strict rules for theoretical formulation and verification. As in many other scholarly disciplines, the explicitly positivistic and structuralist aspirations of music theory in the 1960s and 70s have considerably receded.  If in reality music theory and analysis were ever as uniformally conservative and narrow in scope as their critics have implied, it was certainly not true at the close of the 20th century. The repertories of music considered by analysts expanded dramatically to include virtually all historical periods, as well as much non-Western music and popular or vernacular musics. At the same time, many theorists showed increased sensitivity to problems of historical and social context, affective content and reception in their analyses. In particular, interpretative and critical modes of analysis (whose origins may be traced back to late 19th-century traditions of \"hermeneutic\" analysis) are strongly evident in much recent musicological scholarship (Scott Burnham, Rose Subotnik, Brian Hyer), as are radically subjective \"phenomenological\" modes of analysis (Thomas Clifton, Benjamin Boretz, Marion Guck) and post-Freudian theories of compositional influence and repression (Joseph Straus, Kevin Korsyn). Even issues regarding gender and sexuality so dominant in much \"postmodern\" cultural criticism have been provocatively addressed by some recent musicologists (Susan McClary, Lawrence Kramer; see \u00a7II, below). Yet if music theory and analysis are to continue to retain identities as authentic intellectual traditions, it is perhaps desirable to maintain some degree of epistemological formalism and empirical rigour. Far from suggesting a weakness in the programme of music theory, a certain autonomy - and tension - in relation to historical musicology and cultural criticism may indeed be a healthy sign of its vitality and integrity.  Thomas Christensen   Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: What was found to be unique about Beethoven's composition?\nAnswer:", " Romantic ideologies"], ["Musicology, \u00a7II: Disciplines of musicology. II. Disciplines of musicology 2. Theoretical and analytical method. (iii) Analytic traditions.  It is useful to distinguish music analysis as a subdiscipline in music theory from the regulative traditions just described, even though the two are interdependent. While a fuller history and taxonomy of music analysis is recounted elsewhere (see Analysis), it will be appropriate here to say something about the methods and claims of music analysis and its relation to be broader epistemology of music theory.  In music analysis one is primarily concerned with the structure and individuating features of a particular piece of music. Typically, this involves two tasks: (1) to inventory the components of a particular composition deemed significant by the analyst; and (2) to explain the particular disposition and relationship of those components. Of course, any kind of analysis presupposes a theoretical stance: that is to say, it is not possible to undertake an analysis without theoretical presumptions, however informally conceived, that help determine the questions to pose and the kinds of language and method by which these questions may be answered. But unlike the systematic traditions of regulative theory described earlier, the goal of music analysis is normally an understanding and aesthetic appreciation of the musical piece itself as an ontologically unique artwork, not the exemplification of some broader norm of structure or syntax.  A good example of such particularist analysis is seen in E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, published in 1810. Unlike many earlier examples of music \"analysis\" that offered generalized taxonomies of particular pieces (often using rhetorical terminology) in order to illustrate classical norms of structure and process, Hoffman undertook his analysis to reveal what was distinguishing and unique in Beethoven's composition. For Hoffmann, much of this uniqueness stemmed from the music's particular motivic material and its ingenious development. Not surprisingly, such close analytic readings were indebted to Romantic ideologies of historicism and the cult of artistic genius; far from being models for compositional emulation, the musical objects of analysis tended to be drawn from a canon of irreproduceable \"masterworks\". Analysis revealed at once the singular features that made up a particular composition (these typically being unusual thematic and harmonic material or special deviations from formal conventions) as well as the means by which these features cohered as an organic whole, to cite a favourite metaphor of the 19th century. Of course, a more pragmatic tradition of analysis continued with the 19th-century pedagogical \"Kompositionslehre\". That is, musical pieces might be analysed for the purpose of learning and testing norms of chordal succession or form. But by the 20th century, with the loss of a common grammar of tonality and received forms of organizational structure, music analysis was increasingly becoming piece-orientated.  Heinrich Schenker occupies a particularly important place in 20th-century music analysis, not simply because his ideas have enjoyed such unparalleled influence - especially in Anglo-American academic circles - but because his work so clearly reflects the dialectic relation of music analysis and theoretical systematization. Originating through an intensive study of a select canon of tonal masterworks (especially Beethoven), Schenker's mature theory of the \"Ursatz\" and its \"prolongation\" through structural levels emerged only after many years of struggle and thought. Although presented as an \"a priori\" systems of tonal logic, Schenker's theory also receives empirical validation - and indeed, can only be known - through practice, albeit a practice that is highly selective and arguably self-confirming.  Schenker's theory presents itself as both a universal theory of tonality and a sophisticated tool of analysis by which an individual piece of tonal music may be opened up for inspection and its individuating features of harmony, form and thematic content delineated with unprecedented precision (see Schenker, heinrich).  At the close of the 20th century, music theory and analysis seemed finally to have matured as intellectual disciplines. Particularly in North America, although increasingly elsewhere, many academic programmes of music theory were established in universities and music conservatories alongside more traditional programmes of historical musicology. At the same time, numerous academic journals and professional societies devoted to music theory and analysis were founded, including the \"Journal of Music Theory\" (1957), \"Musical Analysis\" (1981) and \"Musiktheorie\" (1986), and the publications of the Society for Music Theory (from 1977).  It is ironic that just as music theory seems to have become institutionally accepted, strong criticisms have been voiced within those institutions concerning its conservative domain and scientistic aspirations (Kerman, 1985). Most compellingly, perhaps, many music theorists and analysts have been criticized for their penchant for considering musical pieces and styles largely from a formalistic, autonomous point of view rather than within broader historical and cultural contexts. At the same time, theorists have been faulted for too often disregarding questions of affect, expression or meaning in musical pieces at the expense of structural description.  It is true that in the course of the 20th century, much scholarship in music theory could be characterized as highly formalistic. Logical positivism, in particular, was an obvious influence on the work of many theorists such as Babbitt, who famously demanded that all analytic statements about music should adhere to strictly scientific criteria of formulation and verification (Babbitt, 1961, p.3). Other potent influences on music analysis (particularly in the 1960s) were developments in literary theory and specifically the movements of \"New Criticism\" and structuralism, by which texts were analysed as discrete and autonomous objects standing apart from questions of historical origin or authorial intention. Certainly, a number of music theorists in their analytic work have tested a formidable array of tools and models borrowed from neighbouring disciplines that on the surface suggest positivist and structuralist pedigree, including mathematical group theory (David Lewin), cognitive psychology (Leonard Meyer, Eugene Narmour), information theory (Kraehenbuhl and Coons), generative linguistics (Lehrdahl and Jackendoff), and semiotics (Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Kofi Agawu and Robert Hatten). Probably little of this research would stand the test of Babbitt's strict rules for theoretical formulation and verification. As in many other scholarly disciplines, the explicitly positivistic and structuralist aspirations of music theory in the 1960s and 70s have considerably receded.  If in reality music theory and analysis were ever as uniformally conservative and narrow in scope as their critics have implied, it was certainly not true at the close of the 20th century. The repertories of music considered by analysts expanded dramatically to include virtually all historical periods, as well as much non-Western music and popular or vernacular musics. At the same time, many theorists showed increased sensitivity to problems of historical and social context, affective content and reception in their analyses. In particular, interpretative and critical modes of analysis (whose origins may be traced back to late 19th-century traditions of \"hermeneutic\" analysis) are strongly evident in much recent musicological scholarship (Scott Burnham, Rose Subotnik, Brian Hyer), as are radically subjective \"phenomenological\" modes of analysis (Thomas Clifton, Benjamin Boretz, Marion Guck) and post-Freudian theories of compositional influence and repression (Joseph Straus, Kevin Korsyn). Even issues regarding gender and sexuality so dominant in much \"postmodern\" cultural criticism have been provocatively addressed by some recent musicologists (Susan McClary, Lawrence Kramer; see \u00a7II, below). Yet if music theory and analysis are to continue to retain identities as authentic intellectual traditions, it is perhaps desirable to maintain some degree of epistemological formalism and empirical rigour. Far from suggesting a weakness in the programme of music theory, a certain autonomy - and tension - in relation to historical musicology and cultural criticism may indeed be a healthy sign of its vitality and integrity.  Thomas Christensen   Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: What was found to be unique about Beethoven's composition?\nAnswer:", " the cult of artistic genius"], ["Musicology, \u00a7II: Disciplines of musicology. II. Disciplines of musicology 2. Theoretical and analytical method. (iii) Analytic traditions.  It is useful to distinguish music analysis as a subdiscipline in music theory from the regulative traditions just described, even though the two are interdependent. While a fuller history and taxonomy of music analysis is recounted elsewhere (see Analysis), it will be appropriate here to say something about the methods and claims of music analysis and its relation to be broader epistemology of music theory.  In music analysis one is primarily concerned with the structure and individuating features of a particular piece of music. Typically, this involves two tasks: (1) to inventory the components of a particular composition deemed significant by the analyst; and (2) to explain the particular disposition and relationship of those components. Of course, any kind of analysis presupposes a theoretical stance: that is to say, it is not possible to undertake an analysis without theoretical presumptions, however informally conceived, that help determine the questions to pose and the kinds of language and method by which these questions may be answered. But unlike the systematic traditions of regulative theory described earlier, the goal of music analysis is normally an understanding and aesthetic appreciation of the musical piece itself as an ontologically unique artwork, not the exemplification of some broader norm of structure or syntax.  A good example of such particularist analysis is seen in E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, published in 1810. Unlike many earlier examples of music \"analysis\" that offered generalized taxonomies of particular pieces (often using rhetorical terminology) in order to illustrate classical norms of structure and process, Hoffman undertook his analysis to reveal what was distinguishing and unique in Beethoven's composition. For Hoffmann, much of this uniqueness stemmed from the music's particular motivic material and its ingenious development. Not surprisingly, such close analytic readings were indebted to Romantic ideologies of historicism and the cult of artistic genius; far from being models for compositional emulation, the musical objects of analysis tended to be drawn from a canon of irreproduceable \"masterworks\". Analysis revealed at once the singular features that made up a particular composition (these typically being unusual thematic and harmonic material or special deviations from formal conventions) as well as the means by which these features cohered as an organic whole, to cite a favourite metaphor of the 19th century. Of course, a more pragmatic tradition of analysis continued with the 19th-century pedagogical \"Kompositionslehre\". That is, musical pieces might be analysed for the purpose of learning and testing norms of chordal succession or form. But by the 20th century, with the loss of a common grammar of tonality and received forms of organizational structure, music analysis was increasingly becoming piece-orientated.  Heinrich Schenker occupies a particularly important place in 20th-century music analysis, not simply because his ideas have enjoyed such unparalleled influence - especially in Anglo-American academic circles - but because his work so clearly reflects the dialectic relation of music analysis and theoretical systematization. Originating through an intensive study of a select canon of tonal masterworks (especially Beethoven), Schenker's mature theory of the \"Ursatz\" and its \"prolongation\" through structural levels emerged only after many years of struggle and thought. Although presented as an \"a priori\" systems of tonal logic, Schenker's theory also receives empirical validation - and indeed, can only be known - through practice, albeit a practice that is highly selective and arguably self-confirming.  Schenker's theory presents itself as both a universal theory of tonality and a sophisticated tool of analysis by which an individual piece of tonal music may be opened up for inspection and its individuating features of harmony, form and thematic content delineated with unprecedented precision (see Schenker, heinrich).  At the close of the 20th century, music theory and analysis seemed finally to have matured as intellectual disciplines. Particularly in North America, although increasingly elsewhere, many academic programmes of music theory were established in universities and music conservatories alongside more traditional programmes of historical musicology. At the same time, numerous academic journals and professional societies devoted to music theory and analysis were founded, including the \"Journal of Music Theory\" (1957), \"Musical Analysis\" (1981) and \"Musiktheorie\" (1986), and the publications of the Society for Music Theory (from 1977).  It is ironic that just as music theory seems to have become institutionally accepted, strong criticisms have been voiced within those institutions concerning its conservative domain and scientistic aspirations (Kerman, 1985). Most compellingly, perhaps, many music theorists and analysts have been criticized for their penchant for considering musical pieces and styles largely from a formalistic, autonomous point of view rather than within broader historical and cultural contexts. At the same time, theorists have been faulted for too often disregarding questions of affect, expression or meaning in musical pieces at the expense of structural description.  It is true that in the course of the 20th century, much scholarship in music theory could be characterized as highly formalistic. Logical positivism, in particular, was an obvious influence on the work of many theorists such as Babbitt, who famously demanded that all analytic statements about music should adhere to strictly scientific criteria of formulation and verification (Babbitt, 1961, p.3). Other potent influences on music analysis (particularly in the 1960s) were developments in literary theory and specifically the movements of \"New Criticism\" and structuralism, by which texts were analysed as discrete and autonomous objects standing apart from questions of historical origin or authorial intention. Certainly, a number of music theorists in their analytic work have tested a formidable array of tools and models borrowed from neighbouring disciplines that on the surface suggest positivist and structuralist pedigree, including mathematical group theory (David Lewin), cognitive psychology (Leonard Meyer, Eugene Narmour), information theory (Kraehenbuhl and Coons), generative linguistics (Lehrdahl and Jackendoff), and semiotics (Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Kofi Agawu and Robert Hatten). Probably little of this research would stand the test of Babbitt's strict rules for theoretical formulation and verification. As in many other scholarly disciplines, the explicitly positivistic and structuralist aspirations of music theory in the 1960s and 70s have considerably receded.  If in reality music theory and analysis were ever as uniformally conservative and narrow in scope as their critics have implied, it was certainly not true at the close of the 20th century. The repertories of music considered by analysts expanded dramatically to include virtually all historical periods, as well as much non-Western music and popular or vernacular musics. At the same time, many theorists showed increased sensitivity to problems of historical and social context, affective content and reception in their analyses. In particular, interpretative and critical modes of analysis (whose origins may be traced back to late 19th-century traditions of \"hermeneutic\" analysis) are strongly evident in much recent musicological scholarship (Scott Burnham, Rose Subotnik, Brian Hyer), as are radically subjective \"phenomenological\" modes of analysis (Thomas Clifton, Benjamin Boretz, Marion Guck) and post-Freudian theories of compositional influence and repression (Joseph Straus, Kevin Korsyn). Even issues regarding gender and sexuality so dominant in much \"postmodern\" cultural criticism have been provocatively addressed by some recent musicologists (Susan McClary, Lawrence Kramer; see \u00a7II, below). Yet if music theory and analysis are to continue to retain identities as authentic intellectual traditions, it is perhaps desirable to maintain some degree of epistemological formalism and empirical rigour. Far from suggesting a weakness in the programme of music theory, a certain autonomy - and tension - in relation to historical musicology and cultural criticism may indeed be a healthy sign of its vitality and integrity.  Thomas Christensen   Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: What was found to be unique about Beethoven's composition?\nAnswer:", " none of the above"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is a strong characteristic of Randall Tobias?\nAnswer:", " his experience with AIDS"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is a strong characteristic of Randall Tobias?\nAnswer:", " his background in public health"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is a strong characteristic of Randall Tobias?\nAnswer:", " his experience with working in poor countries"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is a strong characteristic of Randall Tobias?\nAnswer:", " his contacts with the World Trade Organization (WTO)"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is a strong characteristic of Randall Tobias?\nAnswer:", " none of the above"], ["Electronic music. Electronic music intended primarily for dancing at nightclubs and raves. Electronic dance music (EDM), or simply \"dance music\", is characterized by rapid evolution - hundreds of subgenres and hybrid genres have been created since its inception in the 1980s. Whereas EDM has achieved widespread popularity in Europe and the UK, it remains a comparatively underground phenomenon in the United States. The production and distribution of EDM has not been particularly adaptable to the American music industry, whose practices have been largely shaped by rock and pop. In addition, because EDM does not follow a standard song structure and often features very lengthy tracks, it does not easily lend itself to commercial radio. Ironically, while EDM culture operates below the radar in the United States, it can be heard frequently in American television programs, films, advertisements, and video games.  EDM is produced \"from the beats up\", in that melodies, vocals and sound effects are layered over a steady beat. A notable feature of many EDM tracks is the utilization of Sampling and sequencing, hip hop, a practice in which a discrete portion of sound is recorded and then inserted into a new piece of music. Ethical and legal issues notwithstanding, EDM producers and DJs capitalize on the creative impulse to reuse, recycle, or rework previously created material.  1. Roots  Some of the earliest structures and concepts that inform EDM production include Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's \"noise music\" (1913). Russolo created instruments that reproduced the sounds of industry and machines (intonarumori), and composed pieces incorporating these sounds. The concept of music as the sound of everyday life reappeared in 1948, as experimentalist composers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer pioneered a technique of musical composition called musique concr\u00e8te. Various sounds were recorded onto reel-to-reel tape, which was cut and spliced together to construct a piece of music. The advent of digital sampling in the 1980s made this process easier and more deliberate.  In the 1970s Jamaican-born Kool herc, a pioneering hip-hop DJ, invented a practice similar to sampling. Calling his technique \"the merry-go-round\", Herc would place two copies of the same record on two separate turntables, so that he could play the drum break on one copy and replay it on the other copy, creating the effect of a continuous loop. DJs such as Grandmaster Flash continued Herc's practice of looping drum breaks on two turntables, making it quicker and more precise. This technique has proven highly influential to EDM producers, many of whom began using looped drum breaks as the basis of their tracks. (See also Turntablism.)  In the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaican dub reggae producers like Osbourne \"King Tubby\" Ruddock, and Lee \"Scratch\" Perry produced remixes (or \"versions\") of reggae singles - a practice that would later be adopted by EDM producers and DJs. King Tubby also experimented with various studio techniques that emphasized bass frequencies, so that his tracks would make a greater impact when played on sound systems at dance parties. The emphasis placed on bass in a dance party environment has carried over into EDM and rave culture.  The early sound of EDM, especially electro and techno, owes a great debt to the German group Kraftwerk. In addition to making extensive use of electronic instruments - synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders - the group perpetuated a mythos about technology and the future in songs such as \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Autobahn\". The disco producer Giorgio Moroder's work in the late 1970s was also influential. Moroder eschewed the symphonic flourishes of early disco in favor of an overtly electronic, \"futuristic\" sound, which relied heavily on sequencers. The 1977 smash hit \"I Feel Love\" was entirely synthesized, with the exception of Donna Summer's vocals. The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and British synth-pop groups such as the Human League and Depeche Mode also influenced many early producers of EDM.  2. Technologies.  EDM was initially created with drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. The proliferation of cheap, portable synthesizers in the early 1980s - most famously the Roland TB-303 \"bass synthesizer\" and the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines - allowed synthesizer-based music to move from research labs, recording studios, and concert halls to more casual, egalitarian confines. (See Synthesizer.) The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, the first drum machine to use digital samples, was introduced in 1980 at a retail price of around $5000; its successor, the Linn Drum, released in 1982, was somewhat more affordable. While the Linn Drum gained favor with popular mainstream artists such as Prince and the Human League, its price was still out of reach for the average producer. The Roland TR-808, which would become a bedrock of techno, hip-hop and house music, retailed at one-fifth the price of the LM-1, around $1,000 upon its initial release in 1980. It was an analog drum machine, which produced tinny, less realistic drum sounds than the Linn LM-1, which sampled acoustic instruments.  But its price, ease of use (its colored buttons made it look like a toy) and distinctive presets, such as the cowbell sound, made it extremely popular. EDM's growth was also spurred by the introduction of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol in 1983. MIDI allowed subsequent drum machines such as the Roland TR-909 to synchronize easily with other electronic devices. (See Electronic percussion.)  Since the early 1990s, computer software has greatly facilitated EDM production.  Programs like Reason, Cubase, and Ableton Live provide producers with a virtual sequencer, sampler, drum machine, and soundbank of a wide range of musical instruments. Such equipment enables producers easily to incorporate various effects such as reverb, delay, compression and equalization.  3. EDM in performance.  Electronic dance music's performance in nightclubs has traditionally relied on DJs mixing 12-inch vinyl records on two turntables. This common setup was used by pioneering disco and hip-hop DJs in the 1970s to construct continuous mixes for dancers. Disco DJs such as Francis Grasso and Larry Levan advanced new turntable techniques designed to meet the demands of the dance floor. Grasso pioneered \"slip-cueing\" - holding the vinyl record still with his hand while the platter continued to turn underneath, allowing the record to be cued at a specific time. Grasso also helped develop the technique of \"beatmatching\" - matching the tempo of two records with each other, on two turntables, allowing for seamless mixing. Levan constructed continuous DJ mixes stretching over several hours at the legendary Paradise Garage club in downtown Manhattan in the mid-1970s, augmented with live effects and creative use of crossfaders and equalizers. (See also DJ (ii).)  The main purpose of an EDM DJ, in a club or at a rave, is to take listeners/dancers on a type of musical journey. Because EDM is most often played for long stretches of time, DJs have to pace their sets by playing a combination of uptempo and downtempo music. Typically, a DJ begins with slower, mellow tracks, then gradually builds energy on the dancefloor with louder, faster and more well-known tracks. Experienced DJs have perfected the art of reading a crowd, choosing tracks whose style and character serve to maintain activity on the dancefloor through musical peaks and valleys. Yearly large-scale EDM festivals such as Winter Music Conference, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, Moogfest and Electric Zoo Festival feature both EDM pioneers and upcoming DJs and producers.  4. EDM genres.  Electro, short for \"electro-funk\", was the first electronic dance music genre of the 1980s to gain wide appeal. The sound of electro was brittle, spacey and completely electronic, often lyrically infused with sci-fi or futuristic themes.  The Roland TR-808 was the drum machine of choice in most early electro tracks, and vocals were often fed through a vocoder to generate an eerie, robotic effect. Electro exhibited a good deal of crossover with early hip-hop, emblematized by \"Planet Rock\" (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Produced by Arthur Baker, the song paid literal tribute to Kraftwerk by incorporating elements of two of their songs, \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Numbers\". The seminal Detroit electro group Cybotron, formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard \"3070\" Davis, helped pave the way for the subsequent growth of Detroit techno.  Techno and house music were birthed in the Midwest; techno was invented in Detroit in the early 1980s, and house was a product of Chicago in the mid-1980s.  Named for their neighborhood west of Detroit, the \"Belleville Three\" - Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May - were associated most strongly with techno's roots. Though producers such as May were associated with a more lyrical, soulful version of techno music, techno, for the most part, implied a harder sound, underpinned with a steady 4/4 beat hovering between 120-140 beats per minute. In contrast, house music, which owed more to the legacy of disco, was slightly slower in tempo and more likely to incorporate vocals, strings, and other flourishes.  The term \"house\" is said to have come from the Warehouse club in Chicago, where house pioneer Frankie Knuckles was the resident DJ. In Chicago venues such as the Warehouse and the Music Box, this emerging sound flourished, fostered by ace DJs like Frankie Knuckles and the late Ron Hardy, and furthered by labels such as Trax and DJ International. House wasn't one sound, but a wide panorama of sounds, encompassing everything from the tender, moving melodies of Larry Heard to the twitchy, futuristic \"acid house\" of Phuture. House music, in its early days, often sported this signature \"acid\" sound - the rubbery, \"squelchy\" timbres of the Roland TB-303. Acid house would gain major commercial success in the UK a few years later, dovetailing with the rave movement that exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Street drugs like LSD, mushrooms, and most notably MDMA (ecstasy), became increasingly popular with EDM audiences. MDMA had a particular synergy with electronic dance music for a number of reasons. First, as a psychedelic amphetamine, it offered a powerful stimulant for late-night DJ sets in clubs that fueled dancers well into the morning. Second, its mechanism of action - which causes the release of large amounts of the feel-good chemical serotonin, along with the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine - led to feelings of profound euphoria, empathy, and intimacy. The drug's array of physiological and psychological effects worked in tandem with acid house DJ sets, sending dancers on a musical and emotional journey. In London, clubs such as the exceedingly popular Shoom, were the gateway to rave culture, which soon became a global movement.  Rave culture grew as well in response to the UK's high population density and its network of pirate radio stations that promoted EDM. By 1991, there were reports of up to 50,000 people attending large open-air raves in the UK. In the United States, rave culture spread more sporadically, in part because of strong competition with West Coast hip hop, alternative rock, and grunge. The closest that EDM came to being a mainstream phenomenon in the United States was in the 1990s, when music videos by acts such as the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy became mainstays on MTV rotation. As the 1990s progressed, acid house, techno, and breakbeat hardcore (a genre based on drum breaks from funk and soul records) morphed and merged, creating ghettotech and ghetto house, Miami bass, Baltimore club, trance (or psytrance) and drum 'n' bass (or jungle). EDM continued to grow and splinter, producing new subgenres such as techstep, 2-step, so-called \"intelligent dance music\" or IDM, glitch, and so on. In the 21st century, genres such as grime and dubstep have attracted audiences in the UK as well as the United States and abroad.  With the advent of the digital work station, cheap mixing/recording software, Internet exchange boards and self-distribution, the start-up costs for a prospective EDM producer are much lower than ever before. So it is not a surprise today to find new forms of EDM being produced all over the world, from India to South Africa, Israel to Japan and beyond. Incorporating traditional and popular musics close to home, artists such as Talvin Singh, Badmarsh and Shri, Cheb i Sabbah, Transglobal Underground, Banco de Gaia, and Fun-Da-Mental, have created versions of EDM that reflect their local experiences and identity. In this way, EDM has truly become a global phenomenon.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: Which song used parts of two Kraftwerk compositions?\nAnswer:", " Trans-Europe Express"], ["Electronic music. Electronic music intended primarily for dancing at nightclubs and raves. Electronic dance music (EDM), or simply \"dance music\", is characterized by rapid evolution - hundreds of subgenres and hybrid genres have been created since its inception in the 1980s. Whereas EDM has achieved widespread popularity in Europe and the UK, it remains a comparatively underground phenomenon in the United States. The production and distribution of EDM has not been particularly adaptable to the American music industry, whose practices have been largely shaped by rock and pop. In addition, because EDM does not follow a standard song structure and often features very lengthy tracks, it does not easily lend itself to commercial radio. Ironically, while EDM culture operates below the radar in the United States, it can be heard frequently in American television programs, films, advertisements, and video games.  EDM is produced \"from the beats up\", in that melodies, vocals and sound effects are layered over a steady beat. A notable feature of many EDM tracks is the utilization of Sampling and sequencing, hip hop, a practice in which a discrete portion of sound is recorded and then inserted into a new piece of music. Ethical and legal issues notwithstanding, EDM producers and DJs capitalize on the creative impulse to reuse, recycle, or rework previously created material.  1. Roots  Some of the earliest structures and concepts that inform EDM production include Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's \"noise music\" (1913). Russolo created instruments that reproduced the sounds of industry and machines (intonarumori), and composed pieces incorporating these sounds. The concept of music as the sound of everyday life reappeared in 1948, as experimentalist composers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer pioneered a technique of musical composition called musique concr\u00e8te. Various sounds were recorded onto reel-to-reel tape, which was cut and spliced together to construct a piece of music. The advent of digital sampling in the 1980s made this process easier and more deliberate.  In the 1970s Jamaican-born Kool herc, a pioneering hip-hop DJ, invented a practice similar to sampling. Calling his technique \"the merry-go-round\", Herc would place two copies of the same record on two separate turntables, so that he could play the drum break on one copy and replay it on the other copy, creating the effect of a continuous loop. DJs such as Grandmaster Flash continued Herc's practice of looping drum breaks on two turntables, making it quicker and more precise. This technique has proven highly influential to EDM producers, many of whom began using looped drum breaks as the basis of their tracks. (See also Turntablism.)  In the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaican dub reggae producers like Osbourne \"King Tubby\" Ruddock, and Lee \"Scratch\" Perry produced remixes (or \"versions\") of reggae singles - a practice that would later be adopted by EDM producers and DJs. King Tubby also experimented with various studio techniques that emphasized bass frequencies, so that his tracks would make a greater impact when played on sound systems at dance parties. The emphasis placed on bass in a dance party environment has carried over into EDM and rave culture.  The early sound of EDM, especially electro and techno, owes a great debt to the German group Kraftwerk. In addition to making extensive use of electronic instruments - synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders - the group perpetuated a mythos about technology and the future in songs such as \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Autobahn\". The disco producer Giorgio Moroder's work in the late 1970s was also influential. Moroder eschewed the symphonic flourishes of early disco in favor of an overtly electronic, \"futuristic\" sound, which relied heavily on sequencers. The 1977 smash hit \"I Feel Love\" was entirely synthesized, with the exception of Donna Summer's vocals. The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and British synth-pop groups such as the Human League and Depeche Mode also influenced many early producers of EDM.  2. Technologies.  EDM was initially created with drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. The proliferation of cheap, portable synthesizers in the early 1980s - most famously the Roland TB-303 \"bass synthesizer\" and the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines - allowed synthesizer-based music to move from research labs, recording studios, and concert halls to more casual, egalitarian confines. (See Synthesizer.) The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, the first drum machine to use digital samples, was introduced in 1980 at a retail price of around $5000; its successor, the Linn Drum, released in 1982, was somewhat more affordable. While the Linn Drum gained favor with popular mainstream artists such as Prince and the Human League, its price was still out of reach for the average producer. The Roland TR-808, which would become a bedrock of techno, hip-hop and house music, retailed at one-fifth the price of the LM-1, around $1,000 upon its initial release in 1980. It was an analog drum machine, which produced tinny, less realistic drum sounds than the Linn LM-1, which sampled acoustic instruments.  But its price, ease of use (its colored buttons made it look like a toy) and distinctive presets, such as the cowbell sound, made it extremely popular. EDM's growth was also spurred by the introduction of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol in 1983. MIDI allowed subsequent drum machines such as the Roland TR-909 to synchronize easily with other electronic devices. (See Electronic percussion.)  Since the early 1990s, computer software has greatly facilitated EDM production.  Programs like Reason, Cubase, and Ableton Live provide producers with a virtual sequencer, sampler, drum machine, and soundbank of a wide range of musical instruments. Such equipment enables producers easily to incorporate various effects such as reverb, delay, compression and equalization.  3. EDM in performance.  Electronic dance music's performance in nightclubs has traditionally relied on DJs mixing 12-inch vinyl records on two turntables. This common setup was used by pioneering disco and hip-hop DJs in the 1970s to construct continuous mixes for dancers. Disco DJs such as Francis Grasso and Larry Levan advanced new turntable techniques designed to meet the demands of the dance floor. Grasso pioneered \"slip-cueing\" - holding the vinyl record still with his hand while the platter continued to turn underneath, allowing the record to be cued at a specific time. Grasso also helped develop the technique of \"beatmatching\" - matching the tempo of two records with each other, on two turntables, allowing for seamless mixing. Levan constructed continuous DJ mixes stretching over several hours at the legendary Paradise Garage club in downtown Manhattan in the mid-1970s, augmented with live effects and creative use of crossfaders and equalizers. (See also DJ (ii).)  The main purpose of an EDM DJ, in a club or at a rave, is to take listeners/dancers on a type of musical journey. Because EDM is most often played for long stretches of time, DJs have to pace their sets by playing a combination of uptempo and downtempo music. Typically, a DJ begins with slower, mellow tracks, then gradually builds energy on the dancefloor with louder, faster and more well-known tracks. Experienced DJs have perfected the art of reading a crowd, choosing tracks whose style and character serve to maintain activity on the dancefloor through musical peaks and valleys. Yearly large-scale EDM festivals such as Winter Music Conference, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, Moogfest and Electric Zoo Festival feature both EDM pioneers and upcoming DJs and producers.  4. EDM genres.  Electro, short for \"electro-funk\", was the first electronic dance music genre of the 1980s to gain wide appeal. The sound of electro was brittle, spacey and completely electronic, often lyrically infused with sci-fi or futuristic themes.  The Roland TR-808 was the drum machine of choice in most early electro tracks, and vocals were often fed through a vocoder to generate an eerie, robotic effect. Electro exhibited a good deal of crossover with early hip-hop, emblematized by \"Planet Rock\" (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Produced by Arthur Baker, the song paid literal tribute to Kraftwerk by incorporating elements of two of their songs, \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Numbers\". The seminal Detroit electro group Cybotron, formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard \"3070\" Davis, helped pave the way for the subsequent growth of Detroit techno.  Techno and house music were birthed in the Midwest; techno was invented in Detroit in the early 1980s, and house was a product of Chicago in the mid-1980s.  Named for their neighborhood west of Detroit, the \"Belleville Three\" - Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May - were associated most strongly with techno's roots. Though producers such as May were associated with a more lyrical, soulful version of techno music, techno, for the most part, implied a harder sound, underpinned with a steady 4/4 beat hovering between 120-140 beats per minute. In contrast, house music, which owed more to the legacy of disco, was slightly slower in tempo and more likely to incorporate vocals, strings, and other flourishes.  The term \"house\" is said to have come from the Warehouse club in Chicago, where house pioneer Frankie Knuckles was the resident DJ. In Chicago venues such as the Warehouse and the Music Box, this emerging sound flourished, fostered by ace DJs like Frankie Knuckles and the late Ron Hardy, and furthered by labels such as Trax and DJ International. House wasn't one sound, but a wide panorama of sounds, encompassing everything from the tender, moving melodies of Larry Heard to the twitchy, futuristic \"acid house\" of Phuture. House music, in its early days, often sported this signature \"acid\" sound - the rubbery, \"squelchy\" timbres of the Roland TB-303. Acid house would gain major commercial success in the UK a few years later, dovetailing with the rave movement that exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Street drugs like LSD, mushrooms, and most notably MDMA (ecstasy), became increasingly popular with EDM audiences. MDMA had a particular synergy with electronic dance music for a number of reasons. First, as a psychedelic amphetamine, it offered a powerful stimulant for late-night DJ sets in clubs that fueled dancers well into the morning. Second, its mechanism of action - which causes the release of large amounts of the feel-good chemical serotonin, along with the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine - led to feelings of profound euphoria, empathy, and intimacy. The drug's array of physiological and psychological effects worked in tandem with acid house DJ sets, sending dancers on a musical and emotional journey. In London, clubs such as the exceedingly popular Shoom, were the gateway to rave culture, which soon became a global movement.  Rave culture grew as well in response to the UK's high population density and its network of pirate radio stations that promoted EDM. By 1991, there were reports of up to 50,000 people attending large open-air raves in the UK. In the United States, rave culture spread more sporadically, in part because of strong competition with West Coast hip hop, alternative rock, and grunge. The closest that EDM came to being a mainstream phenomenon in the United States was in the 1990s, when music videos by acts such as the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy became mainstays on MTV rotation. As the 1990s progressed, acid house, techno, and breakbeat hardcore (a genre based on drum breaks from funk and soul records) morphed and merged, creating ghettotech and ghetto house, Miami bass, Baltimore club, trance (or psytrance) and drum 'n' bass (or jungle). EDM continued to grow and splinter, producing new subgenres such as techstep, 2-step, so-called \"intelligent dance music\" or IDM, glitch, and so on. In the 21st century, genres such as grime and dubstep have attracted audiences in the UK as well as the United States and abroad.  With the advent of the digital work station, cheap mixing/recording software, Internet exchange boards and self-distribution, the start-up costs for a prospective EDM producer are much lower than ever before. So it is not a surprise today to find new forms of EDM being produced all over the world, from India to South Africa, Israel to Japan and beyond. Incorporating traditional and popular musics close to home, artists such as Talvin Singh, Badmarsh and Shri, Cheb i Sabbah, Transglobal Underground, Banco de Gaia, and Fun-Da-Mental, have created versions of EDM that reflect their local experiences and identity. In this way, EDM has truly become a global phenomenon.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: Which song used parts of two Kraftwerk compositions?\nAnswer:", " Numbers"], ["Electronic music. Electronic music intended primarily for dancing at nightclubs and raves. Electronic dance music (EDM), or simply \"dance music\", is characterized by rapid evolution - hundreds of subgenres and hybrid genres have been created since its inception in the 1980s. Whereas EDM has achieved widespread popularity in Europe and the UK, it remains a comparatively underground phenomenon in the United States. The production and distribution of EDM has not been particularly adaptable to the American music industry, whose practices have been largely shaped by rock and pop. In addition, because EDM does not follow a standard song structure and often features very lengthy tracks, it does not easily lend itself to commercial radio. Ironically, while EDM culture operates below the radar in the United States, it can be heard frequently in American television programs, films, advertisements, and video games.  EDM is produced \"from the beats up\", in that melodies, vocals and sound effects are layered over a steady beat. A notable feature of many EDM tracks is the utilization of Sampling and sequencing, hip hop, a practice in which a discrete portion of sound is recorded and then inserted into a new piece of music. Ethical and legal issues notwithstanding, EDM producers and DJs capitalize on the creative impulse to reuse, recycle, or rework previously created material.  1. Roots  Some of the earliest structures and concepts that inform EDM production include Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's \"noise music\" (1913). Russolo created instruments that reproduced the sounds of industry and machines (intonarumori), and composed pieces incorporating these sounds. The concept of music as the sound of everyday life reappeared in 1948, as experimentalist composers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer pioneered a technique of musical composition called musique concr\u00e8te. Various sounds were recorded onto reel-to-reel tape, which was cut and spliced together to construct a piece of music. The advent of digital sampling in the 1980s made this process easier and more deliberate.  In the 1970s Jamaican-born Kool herc, a pioneering hip-hop DJ, invented a practice similar to sampling. Calling his technique \"the merry-go-round\", Herc would place two copies of the same record on two separate turntables, so that he could play the drum break on one copy and replay it on the other copy, creating the effect of a continuous loop. DJs such as Grandmaster Flash continued Herc's practice of looping drum breaks on two turntables, making it quicker and more precise. This technique has proven highly influential to EDM producers, many of whom began using looped drum breaks as the basis of their tracks. (See also Turntablism.)  In the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaican dub reggae producers like Osbourne \"King Tubby\" Ruddock, and Lee \"Scratch\" Perry produced remixes (or \"versions\") of reggae singles - a practice that would later be adopted by EDM producers and DJs. King Tubby also experimented with various studio techniques that emphasized bass frequencies, so that his tracks would make a greater impact when played on sound systems at dance parties. The emphasis placed on bass in a dance party environment has carried over into EDM and rave culture.  The early sound of EDM, especially electro and techno, owes a great debt to the German group Kraftwerk. In addition to making extensive use of electronic instruments - synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders - the group perpetuated a mythos about technology and the future in songs such as \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Autobahn\". The disco producer Giorgio Moroder's work in the late 1970s was also influential. Moroder eschewed the symphonic flourishes of early disco in favor of an overtly electronic, \"futuristic\" sound, which relied heavily on sequencers. The 1977 smash hit \"I Feel Love\" was entirely synthesized, with the exception of Donna Summer's vocals. The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and British synth-pop groups such as the Human League and Depeche Mode also influenced many early producers of EDM.  2. Technologies.  EDM was initially created with drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. The proliferation of cheap, portable synthesizers in the early 1980s - most famously the Roland TB-303 \"bass synthesizer\" and the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines - allowed synthesizer-based music to move from research labs, recording studios, and concert halls to more casual, egalitarian confines. (See Synthesizer.) The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, the first drum machine to use digital samples, was introduced in 1980 at a retail price of around $5000; its successor, the Linn Drum, released in 1982, was somewhat more affordable. While the Linn Drum gained favor with popular mainstream artists such as Prince and the Human League, its price was still out of reach for the average producer. The Roland TR-808, which would become a bedrock of techno, hip-hop and house music, retailed at one-fifth the price of the LM-1, around $1,000 upon its initial release in 1980. It was an analog drum machine, which produced tinny, less realistic drum sounds than the Linn LM-1, which sampled acoustic instruments.  But its price, ease of use (its colored buttons made it look like a toy) and distinctive presets, such as the cowbell sound, made it extremely popular. EDM's growth was also spurred by the introduction of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol in 1983. MIDI allowed subsequent drum machines such as the Roland TR-909 to synchronize easily with other electronic devices. (See Electronic percussion.)  Since the early 1990s, computer software has greatly facilitated EDM production.  Programs like Reason, Cubase, and Ableton Live provide producers with a virtual sequencer, sampler, drum machine, and soundbank of a wide range of musical instruments. Such equipment enables producers easily to incorporate various effects such as reverb, delay, compression and equalization.  3. EDM in performance.  Electronic dance music's performance in nightclubs has traditionally relied on DJs mixing 12-inch vinyl records on two turntables. This common setup was used by pioneering disco and hip-hop DJs in the 1970s to construct continuous mixes for dancers. Disco DJs such as Francis Grasso and Larry Levan advanced new turntable techniques designed to meet the demands of the dance floor. Grasso pioneered \"slip-cueing\" - holding the vinyl record still with his hand while the platter continued to turn underneath, allowing the record to be cued at a specific time. Grasso also helped develop the technique of \"beatmatching\" - matching the tempo of two records with each other, on two turntables, allowing for seamless mixing. Levan constructed continuous DJ mixes stretching over several hours at the legendary Paradise Garage club in downtown Manhattan in the mid-1970s, augmented with live effects and creative use of crossfaders and equalizers. (See also DJ (ii).)  The main purpose of an EDM DJ, in a club or at a rave, is to take listeners/dancers on a type of musical journey. Because EDM is most often played for long stretches of time, DJs have to pace their sets by playing a combination of uptempo and downtempo music. Typically, a DJ begins with slower, mellow tracks, then gradually builds energy on the dancefloor with louder, faster and more well-known tracks. Experienced DJs have perfected the art of reading a crowd, choosing tracks whose style and character serve to maintain activity on the dancefloor through musical peaks and valleys. Yearly large-scale EDM festivals such as Winter Music Conference, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, Moogfest and Electric Zoo Festival feature both EDM pioneers and upcoming DJs and producers.  4. EDM genres.  Electro, short for \"electro-funk\", was the first electronic dance music genre of the 1980s to gain wide appeal. The sound of electro was brittle, spacey and completely electronic, often lyrically infused with sci-fi or futuristic themes.  The Roland TR-808 was the drum machine of choice in most early electro tracks, and vocals were often fed through a vocoder to generate an eerie, robotic effect. Electro exhibited a good deal of crossover with early hip-hop, emblematized by \"Planet Rock\" (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Produced by Arthur Baker, the song paid literal tribute to Kraftwerk by incorporating elements of two of their songs, \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Numbers\". The seminal Detroit electro group Cybotron, formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard \"3070\" Davis, helped pave the way for the subsequent growth of Detroit techno.  Techno and house music were birthed in the Midwest; techno was invented in Detroit in the early 1980s, and house was a product of Chicago in the mid-1980s.  Named for their neighborhood west of Detroit, the \"Belleville Three\" - Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May - were associated most strongly with techno's roots. Though producers such as May were associated with a more lyrical, soulful version of techno music, techno, for the most part, implied a harder sound, underpinned with a steady 4/4 beat hovering between 120-140 beats per minute. In contrast, house music, which owed more to the legacy of disco, was slightly slower in tempo and more likely to incorporate vocals, strings, and other flourishes.  The term \"house\" is said to have come from the Warehouse club in Chicago, where house pioneer Frankie Knuckles was the resident DJ. In Chicago venues such as the Warehouse and the Music Box, this emerging sound flourished, fostered by ace DJs like Frankie Knuckles and the late Ron Hardy, and furthered by labels such as Trax and DJ International. House wasn't one sound, but a wide panorama of sounds, encompassing everything from the tender, moving melodies of Larry Heard to the twitchy, futuristic \"acid house\" of Phuture. House music, in its early days, often sported this signature \"acid\" sound - the rubbery, \"squelchy\" timbres of the Roland TB-303. Acid house would gain major commercial success in the UK a few years later, dovetailing with the rave movement that exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Street drugs like LSD, mushrooms, and most notably MDMA (ecstasy), became increasingly popular with EDM audiences. MDMA had a particular synergy with electronic dance music for a number of reasons. First, as a psychedelic amphetamine, it offered a powerful stimulant for late-night DJ sets in clubs that fueled dancers well into the morning. Second, its mechanism of action - which causes the release of large amounts of the feel-good chemical serotonin, along with the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine - led to feelings of profound euphoria, empathy, and intimacy. The drug's array of physiological and psychological effects worked in tandem with acid house DJ sets, sending dancers on a musical and emotional journey. In London, clubs such as the exceedingly popular Shoom, were the gateway to rave culture, which soon became a global movement.  Rave culture grew as well in response to the UK's high population density and its network of pirate radio stations that promoted EDM. By 1991, there were reports of up to 50,000 people attending large open-air raves in the UK. In the United States, rave culture spread more sporadically, in part because of strong competition with West Coast hip hop, alternative rock, and grunge. The closest that EDM came to being a mainstream phenomenon in the United States was in the 1990s, when music videos by acts such as the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy became mainstays on MTV rotation. As the 1990s progressed, acid house, techno, and breakbeat hardcore (a genre based on drum breaks from funk and soul records) morphed and merged, creating ghettotech and ghetto house, Miami bass, Baltimore club, trance (or psytrance) and drum 'n' bass (or jungle). EDM continued to grow and splinter, producing new subgenres such as techstep, 2-step, so-called \"intelligent dance music\" or IDM, glitch, and so on. In the 21st century, genres such as grime and dubstep have attracted audiences in the UK as well as the United States and abroad.  With the advent of the digital work station, cheap mixing/recording software, Internet exchange boards and self-distribution, the start-up costs for a prospective EDM producer are much lower than ever before. So it is not a surprise today to find new forms of EDM being produced all over the world, from India to South Africa, Israel to Japan and beyond. Incorporating traditional and popular musics close to home, artists such as Talvin Singh, Badmarsh and Shri, Cheb i Sabbah, Transglobal Underground, Banco de Gaia, and Fun-Da-Mental, have created versions of EDM that reflect their local experiences and identity. In this way, EDM has truly become a global phenomenon.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: Which song used parts of two Kraftwerk compositions?\nAnswer:", " 3070"], ["Electronic music. Electronic music intended primarily for dancing at nightclubs and raves. Electronic dance music (EDM), or simply \"dance music\", is characterized by rapid evolution - hundreds of subgenres and hybrid genres have been created since its inception in the 1980s. Whereas EDM has achieved widespread popularity in Europe and the UK, it remains a comparatively underground phenomenon in the United States. The production and distribution of EDM has not been particularly adaptable to the American music industry, whose practices have been largely shaped by rock and pop. In addition, because EDM does not follow a standard song structure and often features very lengthy tracks, it does not easily lend itself to commercial radio. Ironically, while EDM culture operates below the radar in the United States, it can be heard frequently in American television programs, films, advertisements, and video games.  EDM is produced \"from the beats up\", in that melodies, vocals and sound effects are layered over a steady beat. A notable feature of many EDM tracks is the utilization of Sampling and sequencing, hip hop, a practice in which a discrete portion of sound is recorded and then inserted into a new piece of music. Ethical and legal issues notwithstanding, EDM producers and DJs capitalize on the creative impulse to reuse, recycle, or rework previously created material.  1. Roots  Some of the earliest structures and concepts that inform EDM production include Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's \"noise music\" (1913). Russolo created instruments that reproduced the sounds of industry and machines (intonarumori), and composed pieces incorporating these sounds. The concept of music as the sound of everyday life reappeared in 1948, as experimentalist composers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer pioneered a technique of musical composition called musique concr\u00e8te. Various sounds were recorded onto reel-to-reel tape, which was cut and spliced together to construct a piece of music. The advent of digital sampling in the 1980s made this process easier and more deliberate.  In the 1970s Jamaican-born Kool herc, a pioneering hip-hop DJ, invented a practice similar to sampling. Calling his technique \"the merry-go-round\", Herc would place two copies of the same record on two separate turntables, so that he could play the drum break on one copy and replay it on the other copy, creating the effect of a continuous loop. DJs such as Grandmaster Flash continued Herc's practice of looping drum breaks on two turntables, making it quicker and more precise. This technique has proven highly influential to EDM producers, many of whom began using looped drum breaks as the basis of their tracks. (See also Turntablism.)  In the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaican dub reggae producers like Osbourne \"King Tubby\" Ruddock, and Lee \"Scratch\" Perry produced remixes (or \"versions\") of reggae singles - a practice that would later be adopted by EDM producers and DJs. King Tubby also experimented with various studio techniques that emphasized bass frequencies, so that his tracks would make a greater impact when played on sound systems at dance parties. The emphasis placed on bass in a dance party environment has carried over into EDM and rave culture.  The early sound of EDM, especially electro and techno, owes a great debt to the German group Kraftwerk. In addition to making extensive use of electronic instruments - synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders - the group perpetuated a mythos about technology and the future in songs such as \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Autobahn\". The disco producer Giorgio Moroder's work in the late 1970s was also influential. Moroder eschewed the symphonic flourishes of early disco in favor of an overtly electronic, \"futuristic\" sound, which relied heavily on sequencers. The 1977 smash hit \"I Feel Love\" was entirely synthesized, with the exception of Donna Summer's vocals. The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and British synth-pop groups such as the Human League and Depeche Mode also influenced many early producers of EDM.  2. Technologies.  EDM was initially created with drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. The proliferation of cheap, portable synthesizers in the early 1980s - most famously the Roland TB-303 \"bass synthesizer\" and the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines - allowed synthesizer-based music to move from research labs, recording studios, and concert halls to more casual, egalitarian confines. (See Synthesizer.) The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, the first drum machine to use digital samples, was introduced in 1980 at a retail price of around $5000; its successor, the Linn Drum, released in 1982, was somewhat more affordable. While the Linn Drum gained favor with popular mainstream artists such as Prince and the Human League, its price was still out of reach for the average producer. The Roland TR-808, which would become a bedrock of techno, hip-hop and house music, retailed at one-fifth the price of the LM-1, around $1,000 upon its initial release in 1980. It was an analog drum machine, which produced tinny, less realistic drum sounds than the Linn LM-1, which sampled acoustic instruments.  But its price, ease of use (its colored buttons made it look like a toy) and distinctive presets, such as the cowbell sound, made it extremely popular. EDM's growth was also spurred by the introduction of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol in 1983. MIDI allowed subsequent drum machines such as the Roland TR-909 to synchronize easily with other electronic devices. (See Electronic percussion.)  Since the early 1990s, computer software has greatly facilitated EDM production.  Programs like Reason, Cubase, and Ableton Live provide producers with a virtual sequencer, sampler, drum machine, and soundbank of a wide range of musical instruments. Such equipment enables producers easily to incorporate various effects such as reverb, delay, compression and equalization.  3. EDM in performance.  Electronic dance music's performance in nightclubs has traditionally relied on DJs mixing 12-inch vinyl records on two turntables. This common setup was used by pioneering disco and hip-hop DJs in the 1970s to construct continuous mixes for dancers. Disco DJs such as Francis Grasso and Larry Levan advanced new turntable techniques designed to meet the demands of the dance floor. Grasso pioneered \"slip-cueing\" - holding the vinyl record still with his hand while the platter continued to turn underneath, allowing the record to be cued at a specific time. Grasso also helped develop the technique of \"beatmatching\" - matching the tempo of two records with each other, on two turntables, allowing for seamless mixing. Levan constructed continuous DJ mixes stretching over several hours at the legendary Paradise Garage club in downtown Manhattan in the mid-1970s, augmented with live effects and creative use of crossfaders and equalizers. (See also DJ (ii).)  The main purpose of an EDM DJ, in a club or at a rave, is to take listeners/dancers on a type of musical journey. Because EDM is most often played for long stretches of time, DJs have to pace their sets by playing a combination of uptempo and downtempo music. Typically, a DJ begins with slower, mellow tracks, then gradually builds energy on the dancefloor with louder, faster and more well-known tracks. Experienced DJs have perfected the art of reading a crowd, choosing tracks whose style and character serve to maintain activity on the dancefloor through musical peaks and valleys. Yearly large-scale EDM festivals such as Winter Music Conference, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, Moogfest and Electric Zoo Festival feature both EDM pioneers and upcoming DJs and producers.  4. EDM genres.  Electro, short for \"electro-funk\", was the first electronic dance music genre of the 1980s to gain wide appeal. The sound of electro was brittle, spacey and completely electronic, often lyrically infused with sci-fi or futuristic themes.  The Roland TR-808 was the drum machine of choice in most early electro tracks, and vocals were often fed through a vocoder to generate an eerie, robotic effect. Electro exhibited a good deal of crossover with early hip-hop, emblematized by \"Planet Rock\" (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Produced by Arthur Baker, the song paid literal tribute to Kraftwerk by incorporating elements of two of their songs, \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Numbers\". The seminal Detroit electro group Cybotron, formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard \"3070\" Davis, helped pave the way for the subsequent growth of Detroit techno.  Techno and house music were birthed in the Midwest; techno was invented in Detroit in the early 1980s, and house was a product of Chicago in the mid-1980s.  Named for their neighborhood west of Detroit, the \"Belleville Three\" - Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May - were associated most strongly with techno's roots. Though producers such as May were associated with a more lyrical, soulful version of techno music, techno, for the most part, implied a harder sound, underpinned with a steady 4/4 beat hovering between 120-140 beats per minute. In contrast, house music, which owed more to the legacy of disco, was slightly slower in tempo and more likely to incorporate vocals, strings, and other flourishes.  The term \"house\" is said to have come from the Warehouse club in Chicago, where house pioneer Frankie Knuckles was the resident DJ. In Chicago venues such as the Warehouse and the Music Box, this emerging sound flourished, fostered by ace DJs like Frankie Knuckles and the late Ron Hardy, and furthered by labels such as Trax and DJ International. House wasn't one sound, but a wide panorama of sounds, encompassing everything from the tender, moving melodies of Larry Heard to the twitchy, futuristic \"acid house\" of Phuture. House music, in its early days, often sported this signature \"acid\" sound - the rubbery, \"squelchy\" timbres of the Roland TB-303. Acid house would gain major commercial success in the UK a few years later, dovetailing with the rave movement that exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Street drugs like LSD, mushrooms, and most notably MDMA (ecstasy), became increasingly popular with EDM audiences. MDMA had a particular synergy with electronic dance music for a number of reasons. First, as a psychedelic amphetamine, it offered a powerful stimulant for late-night DJ sets in clubs that fueled dancers well into the morning. Second, its mechanism of action - which causes the release of large amounts of the feel-good chemical serotonin, along with the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine - led to feelings of profound euphoria, empathy, and intimacy. The drug's array of physiological and psychological effects worked in tandem with acid house DJ sets, sending dancers on a musical and emotional journey. In London, clubs such as the exceedingly popular Shoom, were the gateway to rave culture, which soon became a global movement.  Rave culture grew as well in response to the UK's high population density and its network of pirate radio stations that promoted EDM. By 1991, there were reports of up to 50,000 people attending large open-air raves in the UK. In the United States, rave culture spread more sporadically, in part because of strong competition with West Coast hip hop, alternative rock, and grunge. The closest that EDM came to being a mainstream phenomenon in the United States was in the 1990s, when music videos by acts such as the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy became mainstays on MTV rotation. As the 1990s progressed, acid house, techno, and breakbeat hardcore (a genre based on drum breaks from funk and soul records) morphed and merged, creating ghettotech and ghetto house, Miami bass, Baltimore club, trance (or psytrance) and drum 'n' bass (or jungle). EDM continued to grow and splinter, producing new subgenres such as techstep, 2-step, so-called \"intelligent dance music\" or IDM, glitch, and so on. In the 21st century, genres such as grime and dubstep have attracted audiences in the UK as well as the United States and abroad.  With the advent of the digital work station, cheap mixing/recording software, Internet exchange boards and self-distribution, the start-up costs for a prospective EDM producer are much lower than ever before. So it is not a surprise today to find new forms of EDM being produced all over the world, from India to South Africa, Israel to Japan and beyond. Incorporating traditional and popular musics close to home, artists such as Talvin Singh, Badmarsh and Shri, Cheb i Sabbah, Transglobal Underground, Banco de Gaia, and Fun-Da-Mental, have created versions of EDM that reflect their local experiences and identity. In this way, EDM has truly become a global phenomenon.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: Which song used parts of two Kraftwerk compositions?\nAnswer:", " Planet Rock"], ["Electronic music. Electronic music intended primarily for dancing at nightclubs and raves. Electronic dance music (EDM), or simply \"dance music\", is characterized by rapid evolution - hundreds of subgenres and hybrid genres have been created since its inception in the 1980s. Whereas EDM has achieved widespread popularity in Europe and the UK, it remains a comparatively underground phenomenon in the United States. The production and distribution of EDM has not been particularly adaptable to the American music industry, whose practices have been largely shaped by rock and pop. In addition, because EDM does not follow a standard song structure and often features very lengthy tracks, it does not easily lend itself to commercial radio. Ironically, while EDM culture operates below the radar in the United States, it can be heard frequently in American television programs, films, advertisements, and video games.  EDM is produced \"from the beats up\", in that melodies, vocals and sound effects are layered over a steady beat. A notable feature of many EDM tracks is the utilization of Sampling and sequencing, hip hop, a practice in which a discrete portion of sound is recorded and then inserted into a new piece of music. Ethical and legal issues notwithstanding, EDM producers and DJs capitalize on the creative impulse to reuse, recycle, or rework previously created material.  1. Roots  Some of the earliest structures and concepts that inform EDM production include Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's \"noise music\" (1913). Russolo created instruments that reproduced the sounds of industry and machines (intonarumori), and composed pieces incorporating these sounds. The concept of music as the sound of everyday life reappeared in 1948, as experimentalist composers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer pioneered a technique of musical composition called musique concr\u00e8te. Various sounds were recorded onto reel-to-reel tape, which was cut and spliced together to construct a piece of music. The advent of digital sampling in the 1980s made this process easier and more deliberate.  In the 1970s Jamaican-born Kool herc, a pioneering hip-hop DJ, invented a practice similar to sampling. Calling his technique \"the merry-go-round\", Herc would place two copies of the same record on two separate turntables, so that he could play the drum break on one copy and replay it on the other copy, creating the effect of a continuous loop. DJs such as Grandmaster Flash continued Herc's practice of looping drum breaks on two turntables, making it quicker and more precise. This technique has proven highly influential to EDM producers, many of whom began using looped drum breaks as the basis of their tracks. (See also Turntablism.)  In the 1960s and 1970s, Jamaican dub reggae producers like Osbourne \"King Tubby\" Ruddock, and Lee \"Scratch\" Perry produced remixes (or \"versions\") of reggae singles - a practice that would later be adopted by EDM producers and DJs. King Tubby also experimented with various studio techniques that emphasized bass frequencies, so that his tracks would make a greater impact when played on sound systems at dance parties. The emphasis placed on bass in a dance party environment has carried over into EDM and rave culture.  The early sound of EDM, especially electro and techno, owes a great debt to the German group Kraftwerk. In addition to making extensive use of electronic instruments - synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders - the group perpetuated a mythos about technology and the future in songs such as \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Autobahn\". The disco producer Giorgio Moroder's work in the late 1970s was also influential. Moroder eschewed the symphonic flourishes of early disco in favor of an overtly electronic, \"futuristic\" sound, which relied heavily on sequencers. The 1977 smash hit \"I Feel Love\" was entirely synthesized, with the exception of Donna Summer's vocals. The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and British synth-pop groups such as the Human League and Depeche Mode also influenced many early producers of EDM.  2. Technologies.  EDM was initially created with drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. The proliferation of cheap, portable synthesizers in the early 1980s - most famously the Roland TB-303 \"bass synthesizer\" and the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines - allowed synthesizer-based music to move from research labs, recording studios, and concert halls to more casual, egalitarian confines. (See Synthesizer.) The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, the first drum machine to use digital samples, was introduced in 1980 at a retail price of around $5000; its successor, the Linn Drum, released in 1982, was somewhat more affordable. While the Linn Drum gained favor with popular mainstream artists such as Prince and the Human League, its price was still out of reach for the average producer. The Roland TR-808, which would become a bedrock of techno, hip-hop and house music, retailed at one-fifth the price of the LM-1, around $1,000 upon its initial release in 1980. It was an analog drum machine, which produced tinny, less realistic drum sounds than the Linn LM-1, which sampled acoustic instruments.  But its price, ease of use (its colored buttons made it look like a toy) and distinctive presets, such as the cowbell sound, made it extremely popular. EDM's growth was also spurred by the introduction of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol in 1983. MIDI allowed subsequent drum machines such as the Roland TR-909 to synchronize easily with other electronic devices. (See Electronic percussion.)  Since the early 1990s, computer software has greatly facilitated EDM production.  Programs like Reason, Cubase, and Ableton Live provide producers with a virtual sequencer, sampler, drum machine, and soundbank of a wide range of musical instruments. Such equipment enables producers easily to incorporate various effects such as reverb, delay, compression and equalization.  3. EDM in performance.  Electronic dance music's performance in nightclubs has traditionally relied on DJs mixing 12-inch vinyl records on two turntables. This common setup was used by pioneering disco and hip-hop DJs in the 1970s to construct continuous mixes for dancers. Disco DJs such as Francis Grasso and Larry Levan advanced new turntable techniques designed to meet the demands of the dance floor. Grasso pioneered \"slip-cueing\" - holding the vinyl record still with his hand while the platter continued to turn underneath, allowing the record to be cued at a specific time. Grasso also helped develop the technique of \"beatmatching\" - matching the tempo of two records with each other, on two turntables, allowing for seamless mixing. Levan constructed continuous DJ mixes stretching over several hours at the legendary Paradise Garage club in downtown Manhattan in the mid-1970s, augmented with live effects and creative use of crossfaders and equalizers. (See also DJ (ii).)  The main purpose of an EDM DJ, in a club or at a rave, is to take listeners/dancers on a type of musical journey. Because EDM is most often played for long stretches of time, DJs have to pace their sets by playing a combination of uptempo and downtempo music. Typically, a DJ begins with slower, mellow tracks, then gradually builds energy on the dancefloor with louder, faster and more well-known tracks. Experienced DJs have perfected the art of reading a crowd, choosing tracks whose style and character serve to maintain activity on the dancefloor through musical peaks and valleys. Yearly large-scale EDM festivals such as Winter Music Conference, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, Moogfest and Electric Zoo Festival feature both EDM pioneers and upcoming DJs and producers.  4. EDM genres.  Electro, short for \"electro-funk\", was the first electronic dance music genre of the 1980s to gain wide appeal. The sound of electro was brittle, spacey and completely electronic, often lyrically infused with sci-fi or futuristic themes.  The Roland TR-808 was the drum machine of choice in most early electro tracks, and vocals were often fed through a vocoder to generate an eerie, robotic effect. Electro exhibited a good deal of crossover with early hip-hop, emblematized by \"Planet Rock\" (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Produced by Arthur Baker, the song paid literal tribute to Kraftwerk by incorporating elements of two of their songs, \"Trans-Europe Express\" and \"Numbers\". The seminal Detroit electro group Cybotron, formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard \"3070\" Davis, helped pave the way for the subsequent growth of Detroit techno.  Techno and house music were birthed in the Midwest; techno was invented in Detroit in the early 1980s, and house was a product of Chicago in the mid-1980s.  Named for their neighborhood west of Detroit, the \"Belleville Three\" - Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May - were associated most strongly with techno's roots. Though producers such as May were associated with a more lyrical, soulful version of techno music, techno, for the most part, implied a harder sound, underpinned with a steady 4/4 beat hovering between 120-140 beats per minute. In contrast, house music, which owed more to the legacy of disco, was slightly slower in tempo and more likely to incorporate vocals, strings, and other flourishes.  The term \"house\" is said to have come from the Warehouse club in Chicago, where house pioneer Frankie Knuckles was the resident DJ. In Chicago venues such as the Warehouse and the Music Box, this emerging sound flourished, fostered by ace DJs like Frankie Knuckles and the late Ron Hardy, and furthered by labels such as Trax and DJ International. House wasn't one sound, but a wide panorama of sounds, encompassing everything from the tender, moving melodies of Larry Heard to the twitchy, futuristic \"acid house\" of Phuture. House music, in its early days, often sported this signature \"acid\" sound - the rubbery, \"squelchy\" timbres of the Roland TB-303. Acid house would gain major commercial success in the UK a few years later, dovetailing with the rave movement that exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Street drugs like LSD, mushrooms, and most notably MDMA (ecstasy), became increasingly popular with EDM audiences. MDMA had a particular synergy with electronic dance music for a number of reasons. First, as a psychedelic amphetamine, it offered a powerful stimulant for late-night DJ sets in clubs that fueled dancers well into the morning. Second, its mechanism of action - which causes the release of large amounts of the feel-good chemical serotonin, along with the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine - led to feelings of profound euphoria, empathy, and intimacy. The drug's array of physiological and psychological effects worked in tandem with acid house DJ sets, sending dancers on a musical and emotional journey. In London, clubs such as the exceedingly popular Shoom, were the gateway to rave culture, which soon became a global movement.  Rave culture grew as well in response to the UK's high population density and its network of pirate radio stations that promoted EDM. By 1991, there were reports of up to 50,000 people attending large open-air raves in the UK. In the United States, rave culture spread more sporadically, in part because of strong competition with West Coast hip hop, alternative rock, and grunge. The closest that EDM came to being a mainstream phenomenon in the United States was in the 1990s, when music videos by acts such as the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy became mainstays on MTV rotation. As the 1990s progressed, acid house, techno, and breakbeat hardcore (a genre based on drum breaks from funk and soul records) morphed and merged, creating ghettotech and ghetto house, Miami bass, Baltimore club, trance (or psytrance) and drum 'n' bass (or jungle). EDM continued to grow and splinter, producing new subgenres such as techstep, 2-step, so-called \"intelligent dance music\" or IDM, glitch, and so on. In the 21st century, genres such as grime and dubstep have attracted audiences in the UK as well as the United States and abroad.  With the advent of the digital work station, cheap mixing/recording software, Internet exchange boards and self-distribution, the start-up costs for a prospective EDM producer are much lower than ever before. So it is not a surprise today to find new forms of EDM being produced all over the world, from India to South Africa, Israel to Japan and beyond. Incorporating traditional and popular musics close to home, artists such as Talvin Singh, Badmarsh and Shri, Cheb i Sabbah, Transglobal Underground, Banco de Gaia, and Fun-Da-Mental, have created versions of EDM that reflect their local experiences and identity. In this way, EDM has truly become a global phenomenon.  Copyright (C) Oxford University Press 2007-2013.\nQuestion: Which song used parts of two Kraftwerk compositions?\nAnswer:", " none of the above"], ["AIDS in Africa and Black America. By Kwei Quartey, October 11, 2012  Thirty years ago, the CDC reported the first cases of HIV/AIDS in New York and Los Angeles. Initially thought to be a disease of gay white men, AIDS is now a global epidemic. Thirty-three million people worldwide were living with AIDS in 2010, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt.   Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 600,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States, and 1.2 million people are currently living with HIV. About a fifth of them are unaware of their infection and pose a risk of onward transmission. Estimates indicate an infection rate of approximately 56,000 a year in the United States.  AIDS in Africa  It is thought that a strain of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in a number of chimpanzee colonies in Cameroon was the viral ancestor of HIV-1, which causes AIDS in humans. The assertion that HIV originated in Africa is politically sensitive, with some believing that the western scientists have falsely blamed Africa for a disease that really began in the United States.  Whatever its origins, HIV/AIDS became a severe epidemic in East Africa in the 1980s. In Nairobi, Kenya, HIV prevalence among sex workers rose 15-fold between 1981 and 1985. African doctors were facing a disease with signs and symptoms similar to those observed in gay white American men, but 80 percent of cases in Africa were due to heterosexual activity, with a higher prevalence in women.   The initial response by African governments to the AIDS crisis was inadequate, and in some cases absent. In South Africa, where the epidemic has become the largest in the world with over 5 million HIV-infected people, white leaders refused to implement an AIDS education program. They did not begin to consider the danger of a large-scale heterosexual HIV/AIDS epidemic until the end of the 1980s.   The World Health Organization initially regarded HIV/AIDS in Africa as relatively unimportant compared with malaria, but by 1993\u00f3when an estimated 9 million sub-Saharan African people were HIV-positive\u00f3it was clear that this was a massive crisis. By the late 1990s, triple combination therapy with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) was clearly making a difference in western countries, but the cost to an African would be an impossible $10,000-15,000 per person annually. South Africa began to lobby intransigent multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies to allow the drugs to be produced locally. In December 1999, President Bill Clinton announced to the embattled World Trade Organization conference in Seattle that the United States would seek flexibility in the patent laws that were keeping drug prices high.  In the 2000s, the cost of ARVs decreased. However, doubts were expressed that Africans would be able to adhere to multi-dose ARV regimens. In a statement that would be widely criticized, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that ''Africans don't know what Western time is. \u00d6 Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives.\u00ee  In 2003, President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the goal of which was to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. With PEPFAR and greater availability of ARVs, AIDS-related mortality began to decline in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. In the past 10 years, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by more than 25 percent in 22 countries in the region, including some with the largest number of cases.  AIDS in Black America  While the number of new HIV infections has substantially dropped in sub-Saharan Africa, it has changed very little in the United States, especially in African-American communities. Indeed, although black Americans represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost 50 percent of Americans living with HIV/AIDS and 40 percent of total deaths to date. The estimated lifetime risk of becoming HIV-infected is 1 in 16 for black males, 1 in 30 for black females, 1 in 104 for white males, and 1 in 588 for white females.  Phill Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, points out that if black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world for HIV infection. In Washington, D.C., where three-quarters of those infected are black and the infection rate doubled for black women between 2008 and 2010, HIV prevalence stands at almost 3 percent\u00f3a higher rate than the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and several other sub-Saharan countries.   In the PBS program \u00ecEndgame: AIDS in Black America,\u00ee Gregorio Millett, a senior policy adviser to the Office of National AIDS Policy, says, \u00ecWe\u00edve been running in place in many ways\u00d6we have spent 30 years with a completely uncoordinated response for HIV. Even though we were requiring other countries that we were funding to have a national HIV/AIDS strategy, the U.S. never had a national HIV/AIDS strategy ourselves.\u00ee  PEPFAR\u00eds goal was to share with the world the best practices established in the United States during the first 20 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, as PEPFAR approaches the end of its first decade, the program can now do the reverse: apply best practices from abroad to the United States, particularly in poor, black populations.  Concrete examples bear this out. Notwithstanding Natsios\u00ed declaration, studies in sub-Saharan Africa have shown ARV adherence rates of greater than 90 percent, while adherence to HIV medications stands at only 60-70 percent in the United States. The African success appears to be due to several factors, among them the use of effective peer-to-peer counseling and systems that are community-based rather than individually focused. The PEPFAR approach, although not perfect, strongly suggests that such approaches would be beneficial in poverty-stricken areas of cities such as Washington, D.C.  PEPFAR advocates shifting responsibility for HIV testing and counseling away from overwhelmed healthcare providers to community and lay health workers. In PEPFAR programs, the wide availability of patient counseling through community health networks and strong family-based support are integral to achieving medication adherence.Counseling is provided in the community at several levels of the health network, including nurses, pharmacists, and other providers, and individuals are connected to peer support networks of other people living with HIV/AIDS.  In the United States, HIV infection is often seen only through a medical prism, but PEPFAR has shown that social support is a vital part of rendering care to people living with the disease. For example, low-income populations in urban areas must wrestle with issues such as homelessness and drug use, which complicate adherence to treatment.  Distant Africa may seem to have little relevance to the United States, but now the \u00ecDark Continent\u00ee is shining a light on a way out of the worst epidemic in history.\nQuestion: How many Americans live with HIV-AIDS?\nAnswer:", " 50"], ["AIDS in Africa and Black America. By Kwei Quartey, October 11, 2012  Thirty years ago, the CDC reported the first cases of HIV/AIDS in New York and Los Angeles. Initially thought to be a disease of gay white men, AIDS is now a global epidemic. Thirty-three million people worldwide were living with AIDS in 2010, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt.   Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 600,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States, and 1.2 million people are currently living with HIV. About a fifth of them are unaware of their infection and pose a risk of onward transmission. Estimates indicate an infection rate of approximately 56,000 a year in the United States.  AIDS in Africa  It is thought that a strain of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in a number of chimpanzee colonies in Cameroon was the viral ancestor of HIV-1, which causes AIDS in humans. The assertion that HIV originated in Africa is politically sensitive, with some believing that the western scientists have falsely blamed Africa for a disease that really began in the United States.  Whatever its origins, HIV/AIDS became a severe epidemic in East Africa in the 1980s. In Nairobi, Kenya, HIV prevalence among sex workers rose 15-fold between 1981 and 1985. African doctors were facing a disease with signs and symptoms similar to those observed in gay white American men, but 80 percent of cases in Africa were due to heterosexual activity, with a higher prevalence in women.   The initial response by African governments to the AIDS crisis was inadequate, and in some cases absent. In South Africa, where the epidemic has become the largest in the world with over 5 million HIV-infected people, white leaders refused to implement an AIDS education program. They did not begin to consider the danger of a large-scale heterosexual HIV/AIDS epidemic until the end of the 1980s.   The World Health Organization initially regarded HIV/AIDS in Africa as relatively unimportant compared with malaria, but by 1993\u00f3when an estimated 9 million sub-Saharan African people were HIV-positive\u00f3it was clear that this was a massive crisis. By the late 1990s, triple combination therapy with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) was clearly making a difference in western countries, but the cost to an African would be an impossible $10,000-15,000 per person annually. South Africa began to lobby intransigent multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies to allow the drugs to be produced locally. In December 1999, President Bill Clinton announced to the embattled World Trade Organization conference in Seattle that the United States would seek flexibility in the patent laws that were keeping drug prices high.  In the 2000s, the cost of ARVs decreased. However, doubts were expressed that Africans would be able to adhere to multi-dose ARV regimens. In a statement that would be widely criticized, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that ''Africans don't know what Western time is. \u00d6 Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives.\u00ee  In 2003, President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the goal of which was to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. With PEPFAR and greater availability of ARVs, AIDS-related mortality began to decline in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. In the past 10 years, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by more than 25 percent in 22 countries in the region, including some with the largest number of cases.  AIDS in Black America  While the number of new HIV infections has substantially dropped in sub-Saharan Africa, it has changed very little in the United States, especially in African-American communities. Indeed, although black Americans represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost 50 percent of Americans living with HIV/AIDS and 40 percent of total deaths to date. The estimated lifetime risk of becoming HIV-infected is 1 in 16 for black males, 1 in 30 for black females, 1 in 104 for white males, and 1 in 588 for white females.  Phill Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, points out that if black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world for HIV infection. In Washington, D.C., where three-quarters of those infected are black and the infection rate doubled for black women between 2008 and 2010, HIV prevalence stands at almost 3 percent\u00f3a higher rate than the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and several other sub-Saharan countries.   In the PBS program \u00ecEndgame: AIDS in Black America,\u00ee Gregorio Millett, a senior policy adviser to the Office of National AIDS Policy, says, \u00ecWe\u00edve been running in place in many ways\u00d6we have spent 30 years with a completely uncoordinated response for HIV. Even though we were requiring other countries that we were funding to have a national HIV/AIDS strategy, the U.S. never had a national HIV/AIDS strategy ourselves.\u00ee  PEPFAR\u00eds goal was to share with the world the best practices established in the United States during the first 20 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, as PEPFAR approaches the end of its first decade, the program can now do the reverse: apply best practices from abroad to the United States, particularly in poor, black populations.  Concrete examples bear this out. Notwithstanding Natsios\u00ed declaration, studies in sub-Saharan Africa have shown ARV adherence rates of greater than 90 percent, while adherence to HIV medications stands at only 60-70 percent in the United States. The African success appears to be due to several factors, among them the use of effective peer-to-peer counseling and systems that are community-based rather than individually focused. The PEPFAR approach, although not perfect, strongly suggests that such approaches would be beneficial in poverty-stricken areas of cities such as Washington, D.C.  PEPFAR advocates shifting responsibility for HIV testing and counseling away from overwhelmed healthcare providers to community and lay health workers. In PEPFAR programs, the wide availability of patient counseling through community health networks and strong family-based support are integral to achieving medication adherence.Counseling is provided in the community at several levels of the health network, including nurses, pharmacists, and other providers, and individuals are connected to peer support networks of other people living with HIV/AIDS.  In the United States, HIV infection is often seen only through a medical prism, but PEPFAR has shown that social support is a vital part of rendering care to people living with the disease. For example, low-income populations in urban areas must wrestle with issues such as homelessness and drug use, which complicate adherence to treatment.  Distant Africa may seem to have little relevance to the United States, but now the \u00ecDark Continent\u00ee is shining a light on a way out of the worst epidemic in history.\nQuestion: How many Americans live with HIV-AIDS?\nAnswer:", " 30"], ["AIDS in Africa and Black America. By Kwei Quartey, October 11, 2012  Thirty years ago, the CDC reported the first cases of HIV/AIDS in New York and Los Angeles. Initially thought to be a disease of gay white men, AIDS is now a global epidemic. Thirty-three million people worldwide were living with AIDS in 2010, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt.   Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 600,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States, and 1.2 million people are currently living with HIV. About a fifth of them are unaware of their infection and pose a risk of onward transmission. Estimates indicate an infection rate of approximately 56,000 a year in the United States.  AIDS in Africa  It is thought that a strain of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in a number of chimpanzee colonies in Cameroon was the viral ancestor of HIV-1, which causes AIDS in humans. The assertion that HIV originated in Africa is politically sensitive, with some believing that the western scientists have falsely blamed Africa for a disease that really began in the United States.  Whatever its origins, HIV/AIDS became a severe epidemic in East Africa in the 1980s. In Nairobi, Kenya, HIV prevalence among sex workers rose 15-fold between 1981 and 1985. African doctors were facing a disease with signs and symptoms similar to those observed in gay white American men, but 80 percent of cases in Africa were due to heterosexual activity, with a higher prevalence in women.   The initial response by African governments to the AIDS crisis was inadequate, and in some cases absent. In South Africa, where the epidemic has become the largest in the world with over 5 million HIV-infected people, white leaders refused to implement an AIDS education program. They did not begin to consider the danger of a large-scale heterosexual HIV/AIDS epidemic until the end of the 1980s.   The World Health Organization initially regarded HIV/AIDS in Africa as relatively unimportant compared with malaria, but by 1993\u00f3when an estimated 9 million sub-Saharan African people were HIV-positive\u00f3it was clear that this was a massive crisis. By the late 1990s, triple combination therapy with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) was clearly making a difference in western countries, but the cost to an African would be an impossible $10,000-15,000 per person annually. South Africa began to lobby intransigent multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies to allow the drugs to be produced locally. In December 1999, President Bill Clinton announced to the embattled World Trade Organization conference in Seattle that the United States would seek flexibility in the patent laws that were keeping drug prices high.  In the 2000s, the cost of ARVs decreased. However, doubts were expressed that Africans would be able to adhere to multi-dose ARV regimens. In a statement that would be widely criticized, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that ''Africans don't know what Western time is. \u00d6 Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives.\u00ee  In 2003, President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the goal of which was to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. With PEPFAR and greater availability of ARVs, AIDS-related mortality began to decline in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. In the past 10 years, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by more than 25 percent in 22 countries in the region, including some with the largest number of cases.  AIDS in Black America  While the number of new HIV infections has substantially dropped in sub-Saharan Africa, it has changed very little in the United States, especially in African-American communities. Indeed, although black Americans represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost 50 percent of Americans living with HIV/AIDS and 40 percent of total deaths to date. The estimated lifetime risk of becoming HIV-infected is 1 in 16 for black males, 1 in 30 for black females, 1 in 104 for white males, and 1 in 588 for white females.  Phill Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, points out that if black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world for HIV infection. In Washington, D.C., where three-quarters of those infected are black and the infection rate doubled for black women between 2008 and 2010, HIV prevalence stands at almost 3 percent\u00f3a higher rate than the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and several other sub-Saharan countries.   In the PBS program \u00ecEndgame: AIDS in Black America,\u00ee Gregorio Millett, a senior policy adviser to the Office of National AIDS Policy, says, \u00ecWe\u00edve been running in place in many ways\u00d6we have spent 30 years with a completely uncoordinated response for HIV. Even though we were requiring other countries that we were funding to have a national HIV/AIDS strategy, the U.S. never had a national HIV/AIDS strategy ourselves.\u00ee  PEPFAR\u00eds goal was to share with the world the best practices established in the United States during the first 20 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, as PEPFAR approaches the end of its first decade, the program can now do the reverse: apply best practices from abroad to the United States, particularly in poor, black populations.  Concrete examples bear this out. Notwithstanding Natsios\u00ed declaration, studies in sub-Saharan Africa have shown ARV adherence rates of greater than 90 percent, while adherence to HIV medications stands at only 60-70 percent in the United States. The African success appears to be due to several factors, among them the use of effective peer-to-peer counseling and systems that are community-based rather than individually focused. The PEPFAR approach, although not perfect, strongly suggests that such approaches would be beneficial in poverty-stricken areas of cities such as Washington, D.C.  PEPFAR advocates shifting responsibility for HIV testing and counseling away from overwhelmed healthcare providers to community and lay health workers. In PEPFAR programs, the wide availability of patient counseling through community health networks and strong family-based support are integral to achieving medication adherence.Counseling is provided in the community at several levels of the health network, including nurses, pharmacists, and other providers, and individuals are connected to peer support networks of other people living with HIV/AIDS.  In the United States, HIV infection is often seen only through a medical prism, but PEPFAR has shown that social support is a vital part of rendering care to people living with the disease. For example, low-income populations in urban areas must wrestle with issues such as homelessness and drug use, which complicate adherence to treatment.  Distant Africa may seem to have little relevance to the United States, but now the \u00ecDark Continent\u00ee is shining a light on a way out of the worst epidemic in history.\nQuestion: How many Americans live with HIV-AIDS?\nAnswer:", " 40"], ["AIDS in Africa and Black America. By Kwei Quartey, October 11, 2012  Thirty years ago, the CDC reported the first cases of HIV/AIDS in New York and Los Angeles. Initially thought to be a disease of gay white men, AIDS is now a global epidemic. Thirty-three million people worldwide were living with AIDS in 2010, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt.   Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 600,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States, and 1.2 million people are currently living with HIV. About a fifth of them are unaware of their infection and pose a risk of onward transmission. Estimates indicate an infection rate of approximately 56,000 a year in the United States.  AIDS in Africa  It is thought that a strain of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in a number of chimpanzee colonies in Cameroon was the viral ancestor of HIV-1, which causes AIDS in humans. The assertion that HIV originated in Africa is politically sensitive, with some believing that the western scientists have falsely blamed Africa for a disease that really began in the United States.  Whatever its origins, HIV/AIDS became a severe epidemic in East Africa in the 1980s. In Nairobi, Kenya, HIV prevalence among sex workers rose 15-fold between 1981 and 1985. African doctors were facing a disease with signs and symptoms similar to those observed in gay white American men, but 80 percent of cases in Africa were due to heterosexual activity, with a higher prevalence in women.   The initial response by African governments to the AIDS crisis was inadequate, and in some cases absent. In South Africa, where the epidemic has become the largest in the world with over 5 million HIV-infected people, white leaders refused to implement an AIDS education program. They did not begin to consider the danger of a large-scale heterosexual HIV/AIDS epidemic until the end of the 1980s.   The World Health Organization initially regarded HIV/AIDS in Africa as relatively unimportant compared with malaria, but by 1993\u00f3when an estimated 9 million sub-Saharan African people were HIV-positive\u00f3it was clear that this was a massive crisis. By the late 1990s, triple combination therapy with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) was clearly making a difference in western countries, but the cost to an African would be an impossible $10,000-15,000 per person annually. South Africa began to lobby intransigent multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies to allow the drugs to be produced locally. In December 1999, President Bill Clinton announced to the embattled World Trade Organization conference in Seattle that the United States would seek flexibility in the patent laws that were keeping drug prices high.  In the 2000s, the cost of ARVs decreased. However, doubts were expressed that Africans would be able to adhere to multi-dose ARV regimens. In a statement that would be widely criticized, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that ''Africans don't know what Western time is. \u00d6 Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives.\u00ee  In 2003, President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the goal of which was to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. With PEPFAR and greater availability of ARVs, AIDS-related mortality began to decline in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. In the past 10 years, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by more than 25 percent in 22 countries in the region, including some with the largest number of cases.  AIDS in Black America  While the number of new HIV infections has substantially dropped in sub-Saharan Africa, it has changed very little in the United States, especially in African-American communities. Indeed, although black Americans represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost 50 percent of Americans living with HIV/AIDS and 40 percent of total deaths to date. The estimated lifetime risk of becoming HIV-infected is 1 in 16 for black males, 1 in 30 for black females, 1 in 104 for white males, and 1 in 588 for white females.  Phill Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, points out that if black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world for HIV infection. In Washington, D.C., where three-quarters of those infected are black and the infection rate doubled for black women between 2008 and 2010, HIV prevalence stands at almost 3 percent\u00f3a higher rate than the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and several other sub-Saharan countries.   In the PBS program \u00ecEndgame: AIDS in Black America,\u00ee Gregorio Millett, a senior policy adviser to the Office of National AIDS Policy, says, \u00ecWe\u00edve been running in place in many ways\u00d6we have spent 30 years with a completely uncoordinated response for HIV. Even though we were requiring other countries that we were funding to have a national HIV/AIDS strategy, the U.S. never had a national HIV/AIDS strategy ourselves.\u00ee  PEPFAR\u00eds goal was to share with the world the best practices established in the United States during the first 20 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, as PEPFAR approaches the end of its first decade, the program can now do the reverse: apply best practices from abroad to the United States, particularly in poor, black populations.  Concrete examples bear this out. Notwithstanding Natsios\u00ed declaration, studies in sub-Saharan Africa have shown ARV adherence rates of greater than 90 percent, while adherence to HIV medications stands at only 60-70 percent in the United States. The African success appears to be due to several factors, among them the use of effective peer-to-peer counseling and systems that are community-based rather than individually focused. The PEPFAR approach, although not perfect, strongly suggests that such approaches would be beneficial in poverty-stricken areas of cities such as Washington, D.C.  PEPFAR advocates shifting responsibility for HIV testing and counseling away from overwhelmed healthcare providers to community and lay health workers. In PEPFAR programs, the wide availability of patient counseling through community health networks and strong family-based support are integral to achieving medication adherence.Counseling is provided in the community at several levels of the health network, including nurses, pharmacists, and other providers, and individuals are connected to peer support networks of other people living with HIV/AIDS.  In the United States, HIV infection is often seen only through a medical prism, but PEPFAR has shown that social support is a vital part of rendering care to people living with the disease. For example, low-income populations in urban areas must wrestle with issues such as homelessness and drug use, which complicate adherence to treatment.  Distant Africa may seem to have little relevance to the United States, but now the \u00ecDark Continent\u00ee is shining a light on a way out of the worst epidemic in history.\nQuestion: How many Americans live with HIV-AIDS?\nAnswer:", " 104"], ["AIDS in Africa and Black America. By Kwei Quartey, October 11, 2012  Thirty years ago, the CDC reported the first cases of HIV/AIDS in New York and Los Angeles. Initially thought to be a disease of gay white men, AIDS is now a global epidemic. Thirty-three million people worldwide were living with AIDS in 2010, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt.   Since the beginning of the epidemic, over 600,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States, and 1.2 million people are currently living with HIV. About a fifth of them are unaware of their infection and pose a risk of onward transmission. Estimates indicate an infection rate of approximately 56,000 a year in the United States.  AIDS in Africa  It is thought that a strain of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in a number of chimpanzee colonies in Cameroon was the viral ancestor of HIV-1, which causes AIDS in humans. The assertion that HIV originated in Africa is politically sensitive, with some believing that the western scientists have falsely blamed Africa for a disease that really began in the United States.  Whatever its origins, HIV/AIDS became a severe epidemic in East Africa in the 1980s. In Nairobi, Kenya, HIV prevalence among sex workers rose 15-fold between 1981 and 1985. African doctors were facing a disease with signs and symptoms similar to those observed in gay white American men, but 80 percent of cases in Africa were due to heterosexual activity, with a higher prevalence in women.   The initial response by African governments to the AIDS crisis was inadequate, and in some cases absent. In South Africa, where the epidemic has become the largest in the world with over 5 million HIV-infected people, white leaders refused to implement an AIDS education program. They did not begin to consider the danger of a large-scale heterosexual HIV/AIDS epidemic until the end of the 1980s.   The World Health Organization initially regarded HIV/AIDS in Africa as relatively unimportant compared with malaria, but by 1993\u00f3when an estimated 9 million sub-Saharan African people were HIV-positive\u00f3it was clear that this was a massive crisis. By the late 1990s, triple combination therapy with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) was clearly making a difference in western countries, but the cost to an African would be an impossible $10,000-15,000 per person annually. South Africa began to lobby intransigent multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies to allow the drugs to be produced locally. In December 1999, President Bill Clinton announced to the embattled World Trade Organization conference in Seattle that the United States would seek flexibility in the patent laws that were keeping drug prices high.  In the 2000s, the cost of ARVs decreased. However, doubts were expressed that Africans would be able to adhere to multi-dose ARV regimens. In a statement that would be widely criticized, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios stated in an interview with the Boston Globe that ''Africans don't know what Western time is. \u00d6 Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives.\u00ee  In 2003, President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the goal of which was to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. With PEPFAR and greater availability of ARVs, AIDS-related mortality began to decline in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. In the past 10 years, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by more than 25 percent in 22 countries in the region, including some with the largest number of cases.  AIDS in Black America  While the number of new HIV infections has substantially dropped in sub-Saharan Africa, it has changed very little in the United States, especially in African-American communities. Indeed, although black Americans represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost 50 percent of Americans living with HIV/AIDS and 40 percent of total deaths to date. The estimated lifetime risk of becoming HIV-infected is 1 in 16 for black males, 1 in 30 for black females, 1 in 104 for white males, and 1 in 588 for white females.  Phill Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, points out that if black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world for HIV infection. In Washington, D.C., where three-quarters of those infected are black and the infection rate doubled for black women between 2008 and 2010, HIV prevalence stands at almost 3 percent\u00f3a higher rate than the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and several other sub-Saharan countries.   In the PBS program \u00ecEndgame: AIDS in Black America,\u00ee Gregorio Millett, a senior policy adviser to the Office of National AIDS Policy, says, \u00ecWe\u00edve been running in place in many ways\u00d6we have spent 30 years with a completely uncoordinated response for HIV. Even though we were requiring other countries that we were funding to have a national HIV/AIDS strategy, the U.S. never had a national HIV/AIDS strategy ourselves.\u00ee  PEPFAR\u00eds goal was to share with the world the best practices established in the United States during the first 20 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, as PEPFAR approaches the end of its first decade, the program can now do the reverse: apply best practices from abroad to the United States, particularly in poor, black populations.  Concrete examples bear this out. Notwithstanding Natsios\u00ed declaration, studies in sub-Saharan Africa have shown ARV adherence rates of greater than 90 percent, while adherence to HIV medications stands at only 60-70 percent in the United States. The African success appears to be due to several factors, among them the use of effective peer-to-peer counseling and systems that are community-based rather than individually focused. The PEPFAR approach, although not perfect, strongly suggests that such approaches would be beneficial in poverty-stricken areas of cities such as Washington, D.C.  PEPFAR advocates shifting responsibility for HIV testing and counseling away from overwhelmed healthcare providers to community and lay health workers. In PEPFAR programs, the wide availability of patient counseling through community health networks and strong family-based support are integral to achieving medication adherence.Counseling is provided in the community at several levels of the health network, including nurses, pharmacists, and other providers, and individuals are connected to peer support networks of other people living with HIV/AIDS.  In the United States, HIV infection is often seen only through a medical prism, but PEPFAR has shown that social support is a vital part of rendering care to people living with the disease. For example, low-income populations in urban areas must wrestle with issues such as homelessness and drug use, which complicate adherence to treatment.  Distant Africa may seem to have little relevance to the United States, but now the \u00ecDark Continent\u00ee is shining a light on a way out of the worst epidemic in history.\nQuestion: How many Americans live with HIV-AIDS?\nAnswer:", " None of the above"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: How long after taking bexarotene is it possible to halve the aggregated protein?\nAnswer:", " several weeks"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: How long after taking bexarotene is it possible to halve the aggregated protein?\nAnswer:", " three days"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: How long after taking bexarotene is it possible to halve the aggregated protein?\nAnswer:", " several years"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: How long after taking bexarotene is it possible to halve the aggregated protein?\nAnswer:", " three months"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: How long after taking bexarotene is it possible to halve the aggregated protein?\nAnswer:", " None of the above"], ["Preventing a Blowout in the Arctic  By Julia Heath, February 15, 2012  arctic-drilling-russiaIn September 2011, Vladimir Putin announced a program to begin offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Russian Arctic. Putin is also interested in creating new sea terminals, which he said would rival the Suez and Panama Canals. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that 13 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered gas lay beneath the Arctic Seas. The United States, Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia, which make up the Arctic 5, are each interested in tapping these Arctic energy reserves.  Russia, the largest oil producer of the five, gets nearly half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from oil exports, a level comparable to Saudi Arabia. As a result, Putin perceives fossil fuels as vital to Russia\u2019s economy and political stability. However, the extreme Arctic climate, characterized by unpredictable weather patterns, heaving sea ice, sub-zero temperatures, dense fog, and darkness half the year, requires specialized equipment. Russia holds a technological advantage over the other Arctic countries because it has already invested in 20 icebreakers, while Canada has 12 and the United States only one. Russia signed a deal with British Petroleum last month to explore the Arctic. Therefore, Russia is currently leading the extractive assault.  \u201dThe Gulf of Mexico is perhaps the most well-equipped region on the planet to deal with a massive oil spill,\u201d says Lisa Speer of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), \u201cand we had a really hard time dealing with that.\u201d British Petroleum (BP) is one of the companies interested in drilling in Russia, along with Exxon Mobile and the Norwegian-owned Statoil. In 2010, BP proved woefully unprepared to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Unlike the Gulf, the Arctic region lacks basic infrastructure needed for spill response. For example, much of northern Russia, Canada, and Greenland lacks roads or airports, and there are only limited communications facilities. In Alaska, the nearest Coast Guard station is nearly 1,000 miles away. The lack of safety infrastructure combined with the extreme weather conditions is a red flag that BP\u2014or any other oil company\u2014is not prepared for Arctic oil extraction at this time. Arctic drilling is perilous for both employees and the environment.  Impact of Global Warming  Summer polar ice is projected to thaw completely by 2030. Entrepreneurs see this as an asset to be developed for trade and tourism. In 2011, America\u2019s National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that ice covered 1.67 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, with about half typically melting in the summer. However, in the past five years, the Arctic has lost up to two-thirds of its sea ice every summer. The more ice that melts, the greater the Arctic Ocean warms because the light-colored icecaps reflect warmth from the sun while the dark-colored ocean absorbs it. According to the UN Environment Program, soot from incomplete combustion, crop burning, forest fires, wood stoves, and diesel engines -\u2014 \u201cblack carbon\u201d \u2014 also absorbs heat and is often washed into icecaps through rain or snow. An oil spill would darken sea ice and increase its capacity to absorb heat and hasten melting, as would increased pollution from the CO2-intensive development of Arctic infrastructure such as roads, platforms, tankers, ports, and pipelines. Additionally, as the tundra thaws and shrubbery and other darkly colored plants gradually migrate northward, they will also increase heat absorption in the Arctic. The thawing tundra makes developing roads, airports, bridges, pipelines, and other necessary infrastructure extremely unstable, adversely affecting poorly maintained pipelines as well as new infrastructure.  An unprecedented number of polar bears have drowned because of dwindling summer sea ice. Narwhal, walrus, and both bowhead and beluga whales, in addition to many kinds of seals and birds, will also continue to suffer from both Arctic warming and pollution. As climate change transforms the Arctic, species from warmer waters will move northward and further change the ecosystem. The killer whale, which feeds on narwhal, walrus, seal, and beluga and bowhead whales, has been increasing the duration of its Arctic visits. Other animals from warmer waters are endangering the habitat and food supply of native species. Arctic drilling would exacerbate this already serious problem.  Moreover, drilling produces toxic waste that requires proper disposal. Arctic species that already suffer from global concentrations of pollutants are sensitive to changes in climate and are relatively slow to adapt. Arctic development, increased pollution, and the possibility of toxic waste and oil spills \u2014 in addition to a current lack of adequate response mechanisms \u2014 put Arctic wildlife and those who depend on it at risk.  Indigenous peoples who have traditionally relied on the provisions of the Arctic include the Inuit in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, the Sami in Norway, and the Nenets in Russia. The Siberian Nenets have traditionally practiced reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing. Over half of Russia\u2019s oil comes from West Siberia. The Nenets have criticized roadwork and bridge building in the area for blocking rivers that then flood and destroy pastureland and hinder reindeer and fish migration. Reindeer can hurt their hooves on glass or sharp metal left from industrial development, causing fatal infections. The Sami reindeer herders of Norway have corroborated that melting and development result in reduced reindeer populations. Development will continue to increase pressure on the traditional livelihoods of the Nenets and other native peoples as the quest for black gold ravages the Arctic Circle.  The Russian Record  Russia has had a terrible environmental record and a history of oil spills. The area around Usinsk, just south of the Arctic Circle, is home to what the Huffington Post calls \u201cthe world\u2019s worst ecological oil catastrophe,\u201d where leaks in a decommissioned oil well wreaked havoc in 2011.  It wasn't the first such incident. In 1994, the town suffered the third largest oil spill in history. A pipeline in Usinsk had been leaking for eight months when the dike containing the leakage collapsed, spreading 102,000 tons of oil across the tundra, into the Kolva and Rechora rivers, and eventually into the Barents Sea. The leak, eight times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill, was the result of old, corroded, poorly maintained, and over-pumped pipelines. The company responsible, Komineft, had five major accidents in the area between 1986 and 1994. In 1994, Russia was losing an estimated 20 percent of the oil it extracted, but refused to revamp inefficient and environmentally detrimental Soviet pipelines for fear that the break in production would lessen the Russian hold on former Soviet republics and interfere with loan repayment. More recently, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Institute of the Environment and Genetics of Microorganisms have estimated that Russia continues to spill 5 million tons of oil every year, or as the Huffington Post put it, \u201cone Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months.\u201d   Vladimir Chuprov, head of the Arctic campaign for Greenpeace Russia, said that Greenpeace International is absolutely against all offshore drilling in the Arctic. Even the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates a one in five chance of a major spill occurring over the life of just one lease block on Alaska\u2019s outer continental shelf (OCS). Greenpeace International wants to accord the Arctic a world park status similar to Antarctica. At the very least, they demand that the international community provide strict standards to eradicate the risk of oil spills and require mandatory guarantees that any spills will be mitigated at a cost no less than what was spent on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Like Greenpeace International, the NRDC also advocates mandatory international standards on how to develop the Arctic. According to Lisa Speer of the NRDC, the United States doesn\u2019t  \u201chave enough information to be able to determine whether or not oil and gas activities can be conducted safely (in the Arctic). And we don\u2019t have the ability to contain and clean up oil in ice, and therefore we think we should wait for drilling in the Arctic until we do have the ability to deal with that.\u201d  At a forum on Arctic drilling in January 2012, Andrew Hartsig of the Ocean Conservancy recommended that the United States wait until it has a better hold on the technological requirements of Arctic drilling. However, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOEM) representative Shoshana Lew replied that the federal five-year leasing plan for blocks on Alaska\u2019s OCS would not be deferred until exploration was complete.  Putin abolished the Russian Environmental Agency in order to more easily access Arctic extraction that would otherwise require environmental assessments. This is particularly disconcerting because the Arctic region, according to the UN Environment Programme, \u201cis characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet,\u201d and therefore environmentally detrimental projects in the region should require careful consideration and planning.  The United States has been slow to invest in developing its own Arctic energy reserves for fear of ecological devastation. However, it has not done enough to slow development in nearby Russia. Russian offshore drilling is a crucial issue for Americans because polar currents could make an Arctic oil spill into a transnational event. A Russian Arctic oil spill would rapidly become a cultural, ecological, and economic disaster for the United States as well.  Avoiding a Spill  In 2009, the Arctic Council \u2014 which consists of eight Arctic states and six international organizations representing indigenous people in the region \u2014 recommended that the Arctic states cooperate and pool resources regarding environmental and search-and-rescue response resources and technology, infrastructure creation for navigation in addition to charts and communications, shipbuilding standards, and guidelines on oil and gas exploration. However, Lisa Speer criticizes the Arctic Council for focusing more on containment and response than on prevention. Speer thinks the Council must identify the most sensitive species and ecosystems to determine areas where drilling will have the least ecological impact.  Russia must focus on pipeline efficiency before investing in the Arctic. Greenpeace\u2019s Chuprov says that offshore oil stocks in Russia are a myth. For example, Russia produced approximately 500 million tons of oil in 2010. By 2020, the Russian OCS is only expected to contribute 10 million tons of oil, only twice the amount that Russia loses each year in degraded pipeline spills. The Gazprom manager even claimed, \u201cinvestment in the development of new fields and energy efficiency are competing with each other.\u201d  The Russian Federation must focus regulations and state investments in efficiency before it invests more heavily in extremely risky Arctic offshore drilling and the technologies that it requires. The United States should make a greater effort to play a lead role in creating an international framework on Arctic development with a focus on spill prevention as well as spill response, cleanup, and restoration. Furthermore, it should continue to strictly regulate offshore drilling in the Alaskan OCS and increase domestic safety and environmental regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon event. The prospect of a massive spill in the Arctic demands immediate action.\nQuestion: What was the reason for the third world\u2019s worst oil spill?\nAnswer:", " damage to a pipeline"], ["Preventing a Blowout in the Arctic  By Julia Heath, February 15, 2012  arctic-drilling-russiaIn September 2011, Vladimir Putin announced a program to begin offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Russian Arctic. Putin is also interested in creating new sea terminals, which he said would rival the Suez and Panama Canals. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that 13 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered gas lay beneath the Arctic Seas. The United States, Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia, which make up the Arctic 5, are each interested in tapping these Arctic energy reserves.  Russia, the largest oil producer of the five, gets nearly half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from oil exports, a level comparable to Saudi Arabia. As a result, Putin perceives fossil fuels as vital to Russia\u2019s economy and political stability. However, the extreme Arctic climate, characterized by unpredictable weather patterns, heaving sea ice, sub-zero temperatures, dense fog, and darkness half the year, requires specialized equipment. Russia holds a technological advantage over the other Arctic countries because it has already invested in 20 icebreakers, while Canada has 12 and the United States only one. Russia signed a deal with British Petroleum last month to explore the Arctic. Therefore, Russia is currently leading the extractive assault.  \u201dThe Gulf of Mexico is perhaps the most well-equipped region on the planet to deal with a massive oil spill,\u201d says Lisa Speer of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), \u201cand we had a really hard time dealing with that.\u201d British Petroleum (BP) is one of the companies interested in drilling in Russia, along with Exxon Mobile and the Norwegian-owned Statoil. In 2010, BP proved woefully unprepared to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Unlike the Gulf, the Arctic region lacks basic infrastructure needed for spill response. For example, much of northern Russia, Canada, and Greenland lacks roads or airports, and there are only limited communications facilities. In Alaska, the nearest Coast Guard station is nearly 1,000 miles away. The lack of safety infrastructure combined with the extreme weather conditions is a red flag that BP\u2014or any other oil company\u2014is not prepared for Arctic oil extraction at this time. Arctic drilling is perilous for both employees and the environment.  Impact of Global Warming  Summer polar ice is projected to thaw completely by 2030. Entrepreneurs see this as an asset to be developed for trade and tourism. In 2011, America\u2019s National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that ice covered 1.67 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, with about half typically melting in the summer. However, in the past five years, the Arctic has lost up to two-thirds of its sea ice every summer. The more ice that melts, the greater the Arctic Ocean warms because the light-colored icecaps reflect warmth from the sun while the dark-colored ocean absorbs it. According to the UN Environment Program, soot from incomplete combustion, crop burning, forest fires, wood stoves, and diesel engines -\u2014 \u201cblack carbon\u201d \u2014 also absorbs heat and is often washed into icecaps through rain or snow. An oil spill would darken sea ice and increase its capacity to absorb heat and hasten melting, as would increased pollution from the CO2-intensive development of Arctic infrastructure such as roads, platforms, tankers, ports, and pipelines. Additionally, as the tundra thaws and shrubbery and other darkly colored plants gradually migrate northward, they will also increase heat absorption in the Arctic. The thawing tundra makes developing roads, airports, bridges, pipelines, and other necessary infrastructure extremely unstable, adversely affecting poorly maintained pipelines as well as new infrastructure.  An unprecedented number of polar bears have drowned because of dwindling summer sea ice. Narwhal, walrus, and both bowhead and beluga whales, in addition to many kinds of seals and birds, will also continue to suffer from both Arctic warming and pollution. As climate change transforms the Arctic, species from warmer waters will move northward and further change the ecosystem. The killer whale, which feeds on narwhal, walrus, seal, and beluga and bowhead whales, has been increasing the duration of its Arctic visits. Other animals from warmer waters are endangering the habitat and food supply of native species. Arctic drilling would exacerbate this already serious problem.  Moreover, drilling produces toxic waste that requires proper disposal. Arctic species that already suffer from global concentrations of pollutants are sensitive to changes in climate and are relatively slow to adapt. Arctic development, increased pollution, and the possibility of toxic waste and oil spills \u2014 in addition to a current lack of adequate response mechanisms \u2014 put Arctic wildlife and those who depend on it at risk.  Indigenous peoples who have traditionally relied on the provisions of the Arctic include the Inuit in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, the Sami in Norway, and the Nenets in Russia. The Siberian Nenets have traditionally practiced reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing. Over half of Russia\u2019s oil comes from West Siberia. The Nenets have criticized roadwork and bridge building in the area for blocking rivers that then flood and destroy pastureland and hinder reindeer and fish migration. Reindeer can hurt their hooves on glass or sharp metal left from industrial development, causing fatal infections. The Sami reindeer herders of Norway have corroborated that melting and development result in reduced reindeer populations. Development will continue to increase pressure on the traditional livelihoods of the Nenets and other native peoples as the quest for black gold ravages the Arctic Circle.  The Russian Record  Russia has had a terrible environmental record and a history of oil spills. The area around Usinsk, just south of the Arctic Circle, is home to what the Huffington Post calls \u201cthe world\u2019s worst ecological oil catastrophe,\u201d where leaks in a decommissioned oil well wreaked havoc in 2011.  It wasn't the first such incident. In 1994, the town suffered the third largest oil spill in history. A pipeline in Usinsk had been leaking for eight months when the dike containing the leakage collapsed, spreading 102,000 tons of oil across the tundra, into the Kolva and Rechora rivers, and eventually into the Barents Sea. The leak, eight times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill, was the result of old, corroded, poorly maintained, and over-pumped pipelines. The company responsible, Komineft, had five major accidents in the area between 1986 and 1994. In 1994, Russia was losing an estimated 20 percent of the oil it extracted, but refused to revamp inefficient and environmentally detrimental Soviet pipelines for fear that the break in production would lessen the Russian hold on former Soviet republics and interfere with loan repayment. More recently, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Institute of the Environment and Genetics of Microorganisms have estimated that Russia continues to spill 5 million tons of oil every year, or as the Huffington Post put it, \u201cone Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months.\u201d   Vladimir Chuprov, head of the Arctic campaign for Greenpeace Russia, said that Greenpeace International is absolutely against all offshore drilling in the Arctic. Even the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates a one in five chance of a major spill occurring over the life of just one lease block on Alaska\u2019s outer continental shelf (OCS). Greenpeace International wants to accord the Arctic a world park status similar to Antarctica. At the very least, they demand that the international community provide strict standards to eradicate the risk of oil spills and require mandatory guarantees that any spills will be mitigated at a cost no less than what was spent on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Like Greenpeace International, the NRDC also advocates mandatory international standards on how to develop the Arctic. According to Lisa Speer of the NRDC, the United States doesn\u2019t  \u201chave enough information to be able to determine whether or not oil and gas activities can be conducted safely (in the Arctic). And we don\u2019t have the ability to contain and clean up oil in ice, and therefore we think we should wait for drilling in the Arctic until we do have the ability to deal with that.\u201d  At a forum on Arctic drilling in January 2012, Andrew Hartsig of the Ocean Conservancy recommended that the United States wait until it has a better hold on the technological requirements of Arctic drilling. However, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOEM) representative Shoshana Lew replied that the federal five-year leasing plan for blocks on Alaska\u2019s OCS would not be deferred until exploration was complete.  Putin abolished the Russian Environmental Agency in order to more easily access Arctic extraction that would otherwise require environmental assessments. This is particularly disconcerting because the Arctic region, according to the UN Environment Programme, \u201cis characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet,\u201d and therefore environmentally detrimental projects in the region should require careful consideration and planning.  The United States has been slow to invest in developing its own Arctic energy reserves for fear of ecological devastation. However, it has not done enough to slow development in nearby Russia. Russian offshore drilling is a crucial issue for Americans because polar currents could make an Arctic oil spill into a transnational event. A Russian Arctic oil spill would rapidly become a cultural, ecological, and economic disaster for the United States as well.  Avoiding a Spill  In 2009, the Arctic Council \u2014 which consists of eight Arctic states and six international organizations representing indigenous people in the region \u2014 recommended that the Arctic states cooperate and pool resources regarding environmental and search-and-rescue response resources and technology, infrastructure creation for navigation in addition to charts and communications, shipbuilding standards, and guidelines on oil and gas exploration. However, Lisa Speer criticizes the Arctic Council for focusing more on containment and response than on prevention. Speer thinks the Council must identify the most sensitive species and ecosystems to determine areas where drilling will have the least ecological impact.  Russia must focus on pipeline efficiency before investing in the Arctic. Greenpeace\u2019s Chuprov says that offshore oil stocks in Russia are a myth. For example, Russia produced approximately 500 million tons of oil in 2010. By 2020, the Russian OCS is only expected to contribute 10 million tons of oil, only twice the amount that Russia loses each year in degraded pipeline spills. The Gazprom manager even claimed, \u201cinvestment in the development of new fields and energy efficiency are competing with each other.\u201d  The Russian Federation must focus regulations and state investments in efficiency before it invests more heavily in extremely risky Arctic offshore drilling and the technologies that it requires. The United States should make a greater effort to play a lead role in creating an international framework on Arctic development with a focus on spill prevention as well as spill response, cleanup, and restoration. Furthermore, it should continue to strictly regulate offshore drilling in the Alaskan OCS and increase domestic safety and environmental regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon event. The prospect of a massive spill in the Arctic demands immediate action.\nQuestion: What was the reason for the third world\u2019s worst oil spill?\nAnswer:", " leaks in a decommissioned oil well"], ["Preventing a Blowout in the Arctic  By Julia Heath, February 15, 2012  arctic-drilling-russiaIn September 2011, Vladimir Putin announced a program to begin offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Russian Arctic. Putin is also interested in creating new sea terminals, which he said would rival the Suez and Panama Canals. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that 13 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered gas lay beneath the Arctic Seas. The United States, Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia, which make up the Arctic 5, are each interested in tapping these Arctic energy reserves.  Russia, the largest oil producer of the five, gets nearly half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from oil exports, a level comparable to Saudi Arabia. As a result, Putin perceives fossil fuels as vital to Russia\u2019s economy and political stability. However, the extreme Arctic climate, characterized by unpredictable weather patterns, heaving sea ice, sub-zero temperatures, dense fog, and darkness half the year, requires specialized equipment. Russia holds a technological advantage over the other Arctic countries because it has already invested in 20 icebreakers, while Canada has 12 and the United States only one. Russia signed a deal with British Petroleum last month to explore the Arctic. Therefore, Russia is currently leading the extractive assault.  \u201dThe Gulf of Mexico is perhaps the most well-equipped region on the planet to deal with a massive oil spill,\u201d says Lisa Speer of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), \u201cand we had a really hard time dealing with that.\u201d British Petroleum (BP) is one of the companies interested in drilling in Russia, along with Exxon Mobile and the Norwegian-owned Statoil. In 2010, BP proved woefully unprepared to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Unlike the Gulf, the Arctic region lacks basic infrastructure needed for spill response. For example, much of northern Russia, Canada, and Greenland lacks roads or airports, and there are only limited communications facilities. In Alaska, the nearest Coast Guard station is nearly 1,000 miles away. The lack of safety infrastructure combined with the extreme weather conditions is a red flag that BP\u2014or any other oil company\u2014is not prepared for Arctic oil extraction at this time. Arctic drilling is perilous for both employees and the environment.  Impact of Global Warming  Summer polar ice is projected to thaw completely by 2030. Entrepreneurs see this as an asset to be developed for trade and tourism. In 2011, America\u2019s National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that ice covered 1.67 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, with about half typically melting in the summer. However, in the past five years, the Arctic has lost up to two-thirds of its sea ice every summer. The more ice that melts, the greater the Arctic Ocean warms because the light-colored icecaps reflect warmth from the sun while the dark-colored ocean absorbs it. According to the UN Environment Program, soot from incomplete combustion, crop burning, forest fires, wood stoves, and diesel engines -\u2014 \u201cblack carbon\u201d \u2014 also absorbs heat and is often washed into icecaps through rain or snow. An oil spill would darken sea ice and increase its capacity to absorb heat and hasten melting, as would increased pollution from the CO2-intensive development of Arctic infrastructure such as roads, platforms, tankers, ports, and pipelines. Additionally, as the tundra thaws and shrubbery and other darkly colored plants gradually migrate northward, they will also increase heat absorption in the Arctic. The thawing tundra makes developing roads, airports, bridges, pipelines, and other necessary infrastructure extremely unstable, adversely affecting poorly maintained pipelines as well as new infrastructure.  An unprecedented number of polar bears have drowned because of dwindling summer sea ice. Narwhal, walrus, and both bowhead and beluga whales, in addition to many kinds of seals and birds, will also continue to suffer from both Arctic warming and pollution. As climate change transforms the Arctic, species from warmer waters will move northward and further change the ecosystem. The killer whale, which feeds on narwhal, walrus, seal, and beluga and bowhead whales, has been increasing the duration of its Arctic visits. Other animals from warmer waters are endangering the habitat and food supply of native species. Arctic drilling would exacerbate this already serious problem.  Moreover, drilling produces toxic waste that requires proper disposal. Arctic species that already suffer from global concentrations of pollutants are sensitive to changes in climate and are relatively slow to adapt. Arctic development, increased pollution, and the possibility of toxic waste and oil spills \u2014 in addition to a current lack of adequate response mechanisms \u2014 put Arctic wildlife and those who depend on it at risk.  Indigenous peoples who have traditionally relied on the provisions of the Arctic include the Inuit in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, the Sami in Norway, and the Nenets in Russia. The Siberian Nenets have traditionally practiced reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing. Over half of Russia\u2019s oil comes from West Siberia. The Nenets have criticized roadwork and bridge building in the area for blocking rivers that then flood and destroy pastureland and hinder reindeer and fish migration. Reindeer can hurt their hooves on glass or sharp metal left from industrial development, causing fatal infections. The Sami reindeer herders of Norway have corroborated that melting and development result in reduced reindeer populations. Development will continue to increase pressure on the traditional livelihoods of the Nenets and other native peoples as the quest for black gold ravages the Arctic Circle.  The Russian Record  Russia has had a terrible environmental record and a history of oil spills. The area around Usinsk, just south of the Arctic Circle, is home to what the Huffington Post calls \u201cthe world\u2019s worst ecological oil catastrophe,\u201d where leaks in a decommissioned oil well wreaked havoc in 2011.  It wasn't the first such incident. In 1994, the town suffered the third largest oil spill in history. A pipeline in Usinsk had been leaking for eight months when the dike containing the leakage collapsed, spreading 102,000 tons of oil across the tundra, into the Kolva and Rechora rivers, and eventually into the Barents Sea. The leak, eight times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill, was the result of old, corroded, poorly maintained, and over-pumped pipelines. The company responsible, Komineft, had five major accidents in the area between 1986 and 1994. In 1994, Russia was losing an estimated 20 percent of the oil it extracted, but refused to revamp inefficient and environmentally detrimental Soviet pipelines for fear that the break in production would lessen the Russian hold on former Soviet republics and interfere with loan repayment. More recently, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Institute of the Environment and Genetics of Microorganisms have estimated that Russia continues to spill 5 million tons of oil every year, or as the Huffington Post put it, \u201cone Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months.\u201d   Vladimir Chuprov, head of the Arctic campaign for Greenpeace Russia, said that Greenpeace International is absolutely against all offshore drilling in the Arctic. Even the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates a one in five chance of a major spill occurring over the life of just one lease block on Alaska\u2019s outer continental shelf (OCS). Greenpeace International wants to accord the Arctic a world park status similar to Antarctica. At the very least, they demand that the international community provide strict standards to eradicate the risk of oil spills and require mandatory guarantees that any spills will be mitigated at a cost no less than what was spent on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Like Greenpeace International, the NRDC also advocates mandatory international standards on how to develop the Arctic. According to Lisa Speer of the NRDC, the United States doesn\u2019t  \u201chave enough information to be able to determine whether or not oil and gas activities can be conducted safely (in the Arctic). And we don\u2019t have the ability to contain and clean up oil in ice, and therefore we think we should wait for drilling in the Arctic until we do have the ability to deal with that.\u201d  At a forum on Arctic drilling in January 2012, Andrew Hartsig of the Ocean Conservancy recommended that the United States wait until it has a better hold on the technological requirements of Arctic drilling. However, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOEM) representative Shoshana Lew replied that the federal five-year leasing plan for blocks on Alaska\u2019s OCS would not be deferred until exploration was complete.  Putin abolished the Russian Environmental Agency in order to more easily access Arctic extraction that would otherwise require environmental assessments. This is particularly disconcerting because the Arctic region, according to the UN Environment Programme, \u201cis characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet,\u201d and therefore environmentally detrimental projects in the region should require careful consideration and planning.  The United States has been slow to invest in developing its own Arctic energy reserves for fear of ecological devastation. However, it has not done enough to slow development in nearby Russia. Russian offshore drilling is a crucial issue for Americans because polar currents could make an Arctic oil spill into a transnational event. A Russian Arctic oil spill would rapidly become a cultural, ecological, and economic disaster for the United States as well.  Avoiding a Spill  In 2009, the Arctic Council \u2014 which consists of eight Arctic states and six international organizations representing indigenous people in the region \u2014 recommended that the Arctic states cooperate and pool resources regarding environmental and search-and-rescue response resources and technology, infrastructure creation for navigation in addition to charts and communications, shipbuilding standards, and guidelines on oil and gas exploration. However, Lisa Speer criticizes the Arctic Council for focusing more on containment and response than on prevention. Speer thinks the Council must identify the most sensitive species and ecosystems to determine areas where drilling will have the least ecological impact.  Russia must focus on pipeline efficiency before investing in the Arctic. Greenpeace\u2019s Chuprov says that offshore oil stocks in Russia are a myth. For example, Russia produced approximately 500 million tons of oil in 2010. By 2020, the Russian OCS is only expected to contribute 10 million tons of oil, only twice the amount that Russia loses each year in degraded pipeline spills. The Gazprom manager even claimed, \u201cinvestment in the development of new fields and energy efficiency are competing with each other.\u201d  The Russian Federation must focus regulations and state investments in efficiency before it invests more heavily in extremely risky Arctic offshore drilling and the technologies that it requires. The United States should make a greater effort to play a lead role in creating an international framework on Arctic development with a focus on spill prevention as well as spill response, cleanup, and restoration. Furthermore, it should continue to strictly regulate offshore drilling in the Alaskan OCS and increase domestic safety and environmental regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon event. The prospect of a massive spill in the Arctic demands immediate action.\nQuestion: What was the reason for the third world\u2019s worst oil spill?\nAnswer:", " roadworks"], ["Preventing a Blowout in the Arctic  By Julia Heath, February 15, 2012  arctic-drilling-russiaIn September 2011, Vladimir Putin announced a program to begin offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Russian Arctic. Putin is also interested in creating new sea terminals, which he said would rival the Suez and Panama Canals. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that 13 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered gas lay beneath the Arctic Seas. The United States, Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia, which make up the Arctic 5, are each interested in tapping these Arctic energy reserves.  Russia, the largest oil producer of the five, gets nearly half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from oil exports, a level comparable to Saudi Arabia. As a result, Putin perceives fossil fuels as vital to Russia\u2019s economy and political stability. However, the extreme Arctic climate, characterized by unpredictable weather patterns, heaving sea ice, sub-zero temperatures, dense fog, and darkness half the year, requires specialized equipment. Russia holds a technological advantage over the other Arctic countries because it has already invested in 20 icebreakers, while Canada has 12 and the United States only one. Russia signed a deal with British Petroleum last month to explore the Arctic. Therefore, Russia is currently leading the extractive assault.  \u201dThe Gulf of Mexico is perhaps the most well-equipped region on the planet to deal with a massive oil spill,\u201d says Lisa Speer of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), \u201cand we had a really hard time dealing with that.\u201d British Petroleum (BP) is one of the companies interested in drilling in Russia, along with Exxon Mobile and the Norwegian-owned Statoil. In 2010, BP proved woefully unprepared to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Unlike the Gulf, the Arctic region lacks basic infrastructure needed for spill response. For example, much of northern Russia, Canada, and Greenland lacks roads or airports, and there are only limited communications facilities. In Alaska, the nearest Coast Guard station is nearly 1,000 miles away. The lack of safety infrastructure combined with the extreme weather conditions is a red flag that BP\u2014or any other oil company\u2014is not prepared for Arctic oil extraction at this time. Arctic drilling is perilous for both employees and the environment.  Impact of Global Warming  Summer polar ice is projected to thaw completely by 2030. Entrepreneurs see this as an asset to be developed for trade and tourism. In 2011, America\u2019s National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that ice covered 1.67 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, with about half typically melting in the summer. However, in the past five years, the Arctic has lost up to two-thirds of its sea ice every summer. The more ice that melts, the greater the Arctic Ocean warms because the light-colored icecaps reflect warmth from the sun while the dark-colored ocean absorbs it. According to the UN Environment Program, soot from incomplete combustion, crop burning, forest fires, wood stoves, and diesel engines -\u2014 \u201cblack carbon\u201d \u2014 also absorbs heat and is often washed into icecaps through rain or snow. An oil spill would darken sea ice and increase its capacity to absorb heat and hasten melting, as would increased pollution from the CO2-intensive development of Arctic infrastructure such as roads, platforms, tankers, ports, and pipelines. Additionally, as the tundra thaws and shrubbery and other darkly colored plants gradually migrate northward, they will also increase heat absorption in the Arctic. The thawing tundra makes developing roads, airports, bridges, pipelines, and other necessary infrastructure extremely unstable, adversely affecting poorly maintained pipelines as well as new infrastructure.  An unprecedented number of polar bears have drowned because of dwindling summer sea ice. Narwhal, walrus, and both bowhead and beluga whales, in addition to many kinds of seals and birds, will also continue to suffer from both Arctic warming and pollution. As climate change transforms the Arctic, species from warmer waters will move northward and further change the ecosystem. The killer whale, which feeds on narwhal, walrus, seal, and beluga and bowhead whales, has been increasing the duration of its Arctic visits. Other animals from warmer waters are endangering the habitat and food supply of native species. Arctic drilling would exacerbate this already serious problem.  Moreover, drilling produces toxic waste that requires proper disposal. Arctic species that already suffer from global concentrations of pollutants are sensitive to changes in climate and are relatively slow to adapt. Arctic development, increased pollution, and the possibility of toxic waste and oil spills \u2014 in addition to a current lack of adequate response mechanisms \u2014 put Arctic wildlife and those who depend on it at risk.  Indigenous peoples who have traditionally relied on the provisions of the Arctic include the Inuit in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, the Sami in Norway, and the Nenets in Russia. The Siberian Nenets have traditionally practiced reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing. Over half of Russia\u2019s oil comes from West Siberia. The Nenets have criticized roadwork and bridge building in the area for blocking rivers that then flood and destroy pastureland and hinder reindeer and fish migration. Reindeer can hurt their hooves on glass or sharp metal left from industrial development, causing fatal infections. The Sami reindeer herders of Norway have corroborated that melting and development result in reduced reindeer populations. Development will continue to increase pressure on the traditional livelihoods of the Nenets and other native peoples as the quest for black gold ravages the Arctic Circle.  The Russian Record  Russia has had a terrible environmental record and a history of oil spills. The area around Usinsk, just south of the Arctic Circle, is home to what the Huffington Post calls \u201cthe world\u2019s worst ecological oil catastrophe,\u201d where leaks in a decommissioned oil well wreaked havoc in 2011.  It wasn't the first such incident. In 1994, the town suffered the third largest oil spill in history. A pipeline in Usinsk had been leaking for eight months when the dike containing the leakage collapsed, spreading 102,000 tons of oil across the tundra, into the Kolva and Rechora rivers, and eventually into the Barents Sea. The leak, eight times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill, was the result of old, corroded, poorly maintained, and over-pumped pipelines. The company responsible, Komineft, had five major accidents in the area between 1986 and 1994. In 1994, Russia was losing an estimated 20 percent of the oil it extracted, but refused to revamp inefficient and environmentally detrimental Soviet pipelines for fear that the break in production would lessen the Russian hold on former Soviet republics and interfere with loan repayment. More recently, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Institute of the Environment and Genetics of Microorganisms have estimated that Russia continues to spill 5 million tons of oil every year, or as the Huffington Post put it, \u201cone Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months.\u201d   Vladimir Chuprov, head of the Arctic campaign for Greenpeace Russia, said that Greenpeace International is absolutely against all offshore drilling in the Arctic. Even the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates a one in five chance of a major spill occurring over the life of just one lease block on Alaska\u2019s outer continental shelf (OCS). Greenpeace International wants to accord the Arctic a world park status similar to Antarctica. At the very least, they demand that the international community provide strict standards to eradicate the risk of oil spills and require mandatory guarantees that any spills will be mitigated at a cost no less than what was spent on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Like Greenpeace International, the NRDC also advocates mandatory international standards on how to develop the Arctic. According to Lisa Speer of the NRDC, the United States doesn\u2019t  \u201chave enough information to be able to determine whether or not oil and gas activities can be conducted safely (in the Arctic). And we don\u2019t have the ability to contain and clean up oil in ice, and therefore we think we should wait for drilling in the Arctic until we do have the ability to deal with that.\u201d  At a forum on Arctic drilling in January 2012, Andrew Hartsig of the Ocean Conservancy recommended that the United States wait until it has a better hold on the technological requirements of Arctic drilling. However, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOEM) representative Shoshana Lew replied that the federal five-year leasing plan for blocks on Alaska\u2019s OCS would not be deferred until exploration was complete.  Putin abolished the Russian Environmental Agency in order to more easily access Arctic extraction that would otherwise require environmental assessments. This is particularly disconcerting because the Arctic region, according to the UN Environment Programme, \u201cis characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet,\u201d and therefore environmentally detrimental projects in the region should require careful consideration and planning.  The United States has been slow to invest in developing its own Arctic energy reserves for fear of ecological devastation. However, it has not done enough to slow development in nearby Russia. Russian offshore drilling is a crucial issue for Americans because polar currents could make an Arctic oil spill into a transnational event. A Russian Arctic oil spill would rapidly become a cultural, ecological, and economic disaster for the United States as well.  Avoiding a Spill  In 2009, the Arctic Council \u2014 which consists of eight Arctic states and six international organizations representing indigenous people in the region \u2014 recommended that the Arctic states cooperate and pool resources regarding environmental and search-and-rescue response resources and technology, infrastructure creation for navigation in addition to charts and communications, shipbuilding standards, and guidelines on oil and gas exploration. However, Lisa Speer criticizes the Arctic Council for focusing more on containment and response than on prevention. Speer thinks the Council must identify the most sensitive species and ecosystems to determine areas where drilling will have the least ecological impact.  Russia must focus on pipeline efficiency before investing in the Arctic. Greenpeace\u2019s Chuprov says that offshore oil stocks in Russia are a myth. For example, Russia produced approximately 500 million tons of oil in 2010. By 2020, the Russian OCS is only expected to contribute 10 million tons of oil, only twice the amount that Russia loses each year in degraded pipeline spills. The Gazprom manager even claimed, \u201cinvestment in the development of new fields and energy efficiency are competing with each other.\u201d  The Russian Federation must focus regulations and state investments in efficiency before it invests more heavily in extremely risky Arctic offshore drilling and the technologies that it requires. The United States should make a greater effort to play a lead role in creating an international framework on Arctic development with a focus on spill prevention as well as spill response, cleanup, and restoration. Furthermore, it should continue to strictly regulate offshore drilling in the Alaskan OCS and increase domestic safety and environmental regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon event. The prospect of a massive spill in the Arctic demands immediate action.\nQuestion: What was the reason for the third world\u2019s worst oil spill?\nAnswer:", " bridge building"], ["Preventing a Blowout in the Arctic  By Julia Heath, February 15, 2012  arctic-drilling-russiaIn September 2011, Vladimir Putin announced a program to begin offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Russian Arctic. Putin is also interested in creating new sea terminals, which he said would rival the Suez and Panama Canals. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that 13 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the world\u2019s undiscovered gas lay beneath the Arctic Seas. The United States, Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia, which make up the Arctic 5, are each interested in tapping these Arctic energy reserves.  Russia, the largest oil producer of the five, gets nearly half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from oil exports, a level comparable to Saudi Arabia. As a result, Putin perceives fossil fuels as vital to Russia\u2019s economy and political stability. However, the extreme Arctic climate, characterized by unpredictable weather patterns, heaving sea ice, sub-zero temperatures, dense fog, and darkness half the year, requires specialized equipment. Russia holds a technological advantage over the other Arctic countries because it has already invested in 20 icebreakers, while Canada has 12 and the United States only one. Russia signed a deal with British Petroleum last month to explore the Arctic. Therefore, Russia is currently leading the extractive assault.  \u201dThe Gulf of Mexico is perhaps the most well-equipped region on the planet to deal with a massive oil spill,\u201d says Lisa Speer of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), \u201cand we had a really hard time dealing with that.\u201d British Petroleum (BP) is one of the companies interested in drilling in Russia, along with Exxon Mobile and the Norwegian-owned Statoil. In 2010, BP proved woefully unprepared to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Unlike the Gulf, the Arctic region lacks basic infrastructure needed for spill response. For example, much of northern Russia, Canada, and Greenland lacks roads or airports, and there are only limited communications facilities. In Alaska, the nearest Coast Guard station is nearly 1,000 miles away. The lack of safety infrastructure combined with the extreme weather conditions is a red flag that BP\u2014or any other oil company\u2014is not prepared for Arctic oil extraction at this time. Arctic drilling is perilous for both employees and the environment.  Impact of Global Warming  Summer polar ice is projected to thaw completely by 2030. Entrepreneurs see this as an asset to be developed for trade and tourism. In 2011, America\u2019s National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that ice covered 1.67 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, with about half typically melting in the summer. However, in the past five years, the Arctic has lost up to two-thirds of its sea ice every summer. The more ice that melts, the greater the Arctic Ocean warms because the light-colored icecaps reflect warmth from the sun while the dark-colored ocean absorbs it. According to the UN Environment Program, soot from incomplete combustion, crop burning, forest fires, wood stoves, and diesel engines -\u2014 \u201cblack carbon\u201d \u2014 also absorbs heat and is often washed into icecaps through rain or snow. An oil spill would darken sea ice and increase its capacity to absorb heat and hasten melting, as would increased pollution from the CO2-intensive development of Arctic infrastructure such as roads, platforms, tankers, ports, and pipelines. Additionally, as the tundra thaws and shrubbery and other darkly colored plants gradually migrate northward, they will also increase heat absorption in the Arctic. The thawing tundra makes developing roads, airports, bridges, pipelines, and other necessary infrastructure extremely unstable, adversely affecting poorly maintained pipelines as well as new infrastructure.  An unprecedented number of polar bears have drowned because of dwindling summer sea ice. Narwhal, walrus, and both bowhead and beluga whales, in addition to many kinds of seals and birds, will also continue to suffer from both Arctic warming and pollution. As climate change transforms the Arctic, species from warmer waters will move northward and further change the ecosystem. The killer whale, which feeds on narwhal, walrus, seal, and beluga and bowhead whales, has been increasing the duration of its Arctic visits. Other animals from warmer waters are endangering the habitat and food supply of native species. Arctic drilling would exacerbate this already serious problem.  Moreover, drilling produces toxic waste that requires proper disposal. Arctic species that already suffer from global concentrations of pollutants are sensitive to changes in climate and are relatively slow to adapt. Arctic development, increased pollution, and the possibility of toxic waste and oil spills \u2014 in addition to a current lack of adequate response mechanisms \u2014 put Arctic wildlife and those who depend on it at risk.  Indigenous peoples who have traditionally relied on the provisions of the Arctic include the Inuit in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, the Sami in Norway, and the Nenets in Russia. The Siberian Nenets have traditionally practiced reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing. Over half of Russia\u2019s oil comes from West Siberia. The Nenets have criticized roadwork and bridge building in the area for blocking rivers that then flood and destroy pastureland and hinder reindeer and fish migration. Reindeer can hurt their hooves on glass or sharp metal left from industrial development, causing fatal infections. The Sami reindeer herders of Norway have corroborated that melting and development result in reduced reindeer populations. Development will continue to increase pressure on the traditional livelihoods of the Nenets and other native peoples as the quest for black gold ravages the Arctic Circle.  The Russian Record  Russia has had a terrible environmental record and a history of oil spills. The area around Usinsk, just south of the Arctic Circle, is home to what the Huffington Post calls \u201cthe world\u2019s worst ecological oil catastrophe,\u201d where leaks in a decommissioned oil well wreaked havoc in 2011.  It wasn't the first such incident. In 1994, the town suffered the third largest oil spill in history. A pipeline in Usinsk had been leaking for eight months when the dike containing the leakage collapsed, spreading 102,000 tons of oil across the tundra, into the Kolva and Rechora rivers, and eventually into the Barents Sea. The leak, eight times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill, was the result of old, corroded, poorly maintained, and over-pumped pipelines. The company responsible, Komineft, had five major accidents in the area between 1986 and 1994. In 1994, Russia was losing an estimated 20 percent of the oil it extracted, but refused to revamp inefficient and environmentally detrimental Soviet pipelines for fear that the break in production would lessen the Russian hold on former Soviet republics and interfere with loan repayment. More recently, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Institute of the Environment and Genetics of Microorganisms have estimated that Russia continues to spill 5 million tons of oil every year, or as the Huffington Post put it, \u201cone Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months.\u201d   Vladimir Chuprov, head of the Arctic campaign for Greenpeace Russia, said that Greenpeace International is absolutely against all offshore drilling in the Arctic. Even the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates a one in five chance of a major spill occurring over the life of just one lease block on Alaska\u2019s outer continental shelf (OCS). Greenpeace International wants to accord the Arctic a world park status similar to Antarctica. At the very least, they demand that the international community provide strict standards to eradicate the risk of oil spills and require mandatory guarantees that any spills will be mitigated at a cost no less than what was spent on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Like Greenpeace International, the NRDC also advocates mandatory international standards on how to develop the Arctic. According to Lisa Speer of the NRDC, the United States doesn\u2019t  \u201chave enough information to be able to determine whether or not oil and gas activities can be conducted safely (in the Arctic). And we don\u2019t have the ability to contain and clean up oil in ice, and therefore we think we should wait for drilling in the Arctic until we do have the ability to deal with that.\u201d  At a forum on Arctic drilling in January 2012, Andrew Hartsig of the Ocean Conservancy recommended that the United States wait until it has a better hold on the technological requirements of Arctic drilling. However, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOEM) representative Shoshana Lew replied that the federal five-year leasing plan for blocks on Alaska\u2019s OCS would not be deferred until exploration was complete.  Putin abolished the Russian Environmental Agency in order to more easily access Arctic extraction that would otherwise require environmental assessments. This is particularly disconcerting because the Arctic region, according to the UN Environment Programme, \u201cis characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet,\u201d and therefore environmentally detrimental projects in the region should require careful consideration and planning.  The United States has been slow to invest in developing its own Arctic energy reserves for fear of ecological devastation. However, it has not done enough to slow development in nearby Russia. Russian offshore drilling is a crucial issue for Americans because polar currents could make an Arctic oil spill into a transnational event. A Russian Arctic oil spill would rapidly become a cultural, ecological, and economic disaster for the United States as well.  Avoiding a Spill  In 2009, the Arctic Council \u2014 which consists of eight Arctic states and six international organizations representing indigenous people in the region \u2014 recommended that the Arctic states cooperate and pool resources regarding environmental and search-and-rescue response resources and technology, infrastructure creation for navigation in addition to charts and communications, shipbuilding standards, and guidelines on oil and gas exploration. However, Lisa Speer criticizes the Arctic Council for focusing more on containment and response than on prevention. Speer thinks the Council must identify the most sensitive species and ecosystems to determine areas where drilling will have the least ecological impact.  Russia must focus on pipeline efficiency before investing in the Arctic. Greenpeace\u2019s Chuprov says that offshore oil stocks in Russia are a myth. For example, Russia produced approximately 500 million tons of oil in 2010. By 2020, the Russian OCS is only expected to contribute 10 million tons of oil, only twice the amount that Russia loses each year in degraded pipeline spills. The Gazprom manager even claimed, \u201cinvestment in the development of new fields and energy efficiency are competing with each other.\u201d  The Russian Federation must focus regulations and state investments in efficiency before it invests more heavily in extremely risky Arctic offshore drilling and the technologies that it requires. The United States should make a greater effort to play a lead role in creating an international framework on Arctic development with a focus on spill prevention as well as spill response, cleanup, and restoration. Furthermore, it should continue to strictly regulate offshore drilling in the Alaskan OCS and increase domestic safety and environmental regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon event. The prospect of a massive spill in the Arctic demands immediate action.\nQuestion: What was the reason for the third world\u2019s worst oil spill?\nAnswer:", " None of the above"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: Can proteins and amyloids explain the sense of smell functioning?\nAnswer:", " often"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: Can proteins and amyloids explain the sense of smell functioning?\nAnswer:", " every day"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: Can proteins and amyloids explain the sense of smell functioning?\nAnswer:", " of course"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: Can proteins and amyloids explain the sense of smell functioning?\nAnswer:", " most probably no"], ["Of mice and men: an Alzheimer\u2019s cure for our murine brethren. Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people by the year 2050. And unlike stroke, prostate cancer, heart disease, and HIV, diseases in which we have made progress in treating, Alzheimer's disease has been increasing in prevalence as a cause of death. While this is probably partly due to the fact that we have been living longer and Alzheimer's is typically (but not always) a disease of the elderly, there is no denying that Alzheimer's is a disease in need of attention.  There are a few existing Alzheimer's treatments that can provide mild relief of symptoms, but none halt or even slow disease progression. Why have we not been able to come up with an effective treatment for this increasingly common disease? Here's one reason - we're not even sure what causes the disease!  A prime suspect in the disease are amyloid-beta proteins. These proteins may have accomplices that also cause Alzheimer's, but amyloid-beta proteins play a definite, if not starring role. Amyloid-beta proteins are misfolded chunks of another protein, creatively named APP for amyloid precursor protein. I use the word \"chunks\" because the bits of the protein that misfold and form aggregates are made up of pieces of a larger protein that gets cut up by enzymes, as shown below. What does the full-lenth amyloid precursor do as it's chilling outside the cell, all floppy and blue? (Note: proteins are not actually blue and cartoony as shown in the above figure. They are very tiny.) We don't even know that! We do know that when amyloid-beta begins to misfold, it aggregates with other proteins and that these aggregates probably cause neuron damage. Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Parkinson's are also linked to these aggregates of misfolded proteins, generally called amyloids.  Get out your tarp, because this might blow your mind: what we call protein \"misfolding\" in Alzheimer's and other diseases may actually be related to the normal activity of these proteins! What else besides protein misfolding and neurodegneration ties together Alzheimer's, CJD, and Parkinson's? We don't know what any of the precursor proteins in those diseases as their normal functions. It COULD (big emphasis on the could) be possible that some of these proteins are meant to be sometimes be folded in the amyloid state, and that these neurodegenerative diseases are caused by an upset in the natural equilibrium of \"normally folded\" and \"misfolded\" amyloid states. I plan to blog more on protein folding and amyloids but here's a teaser for another paper I will cover - amyloid proteins may help explain how memory works.  Now that I have not-definitively-at-all covered the background of Alzheimer's, let's get to the paper I want to talk about today. This paper, \"ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear \u0392-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models,\" was published in March as a ScienceExpress article. This means that the editors of the journal Science thought it was important enough to rush out and publish online. Added bonus for overworked grad students like myself - ScienceExpress papers are short! Punchline The authors of this paper do something kind of amazing - they find a drug, bexarotene, that they can give to mice with Alzheimer's and almost immediately clear out the deposits of aggregated amyloid-beta protein that build up in the brains of people and mice with Alzheimer's. Even better - this drug is already FDA approved for the treatment of cancer. And as chemotherapy drugs go, its side-effects aren't that bad, so we know we can give it to humans relatively safely.  How amazing is this drug? The authors take images of brain slices from mice pre and post treatment. Aggregates of amyloid-beta can be visualized and counted by adding a florescent antibody. After only three days, the amount of aggregated protein in both the cortex and hippocampus of affected mice has decreased by nearly half, and the decrease continues for several weeks. This is great!  The authors also show that not only do the plaques that may cause the disease dissipate, the mice also experience restored memory and cognition, which would be an amazing result if it holds in humans. In mice, building nests is a social behavior that healthy mice can perform but that Alzheimer's-affected mice cannot. After treatment with bexarotene, nest-making ability in diseased mice was restored. Bexarotene treatment also restores the sense of smell in Alzheimer's mice, another great sign because humans with Alzheimer's also experience loss of smell.  How does the drug work? There is a protein called apoE naturally expressed in your neurons. This protein gets secreted out, attaches itself to amyloid-beta aggregates, and helps break down these aggregates. apoE encourages microglia, helper cells in your brain, to eat up through phagocytosis amyloid-beta aggregates and then to break down the aggregates. Everyone's brain, even in people with Alzheimer's, already makes apoE and breaks down amyloid-beta aggregates. Alzheimer's could be caused by an inability to break down amyloid-beta fast enough (like healthy people do), so making more apoE could reverse the disease. So we have a cure for Alzheimer's right? Right! ... for mice. Anyone who's ever read about an amazing cure for a disease found in mice already knows that this cure is not likely to work in humans. Although mice have versions of 99% of the proteins we have, we also share a majority of our genome with plants. And as much as I try, laying in the sun does not make me full, just sleepy and full of vitamin D, so simply sharing similar genes does not make me the same as a mouse or plant. It's particularly tricky to translate a therapy for a neurodegenerative disease from mice to humans, since we think so differently than they do, at least based on my conversations with mice.  A further complication are the mice we perform Alzheimer's research on. In order to do this research, scientists had to create mice that could serve as models for the human disease. This was done by inserting in human genes that cause Alzheimer's, creating an imperfect model. Mice models of disease do not show all of the symptoms that humans with Alzheimer's do and may in fact be better models for early stages of disease progression than late. If so, bexarotene may be able to be used as a preventative therapy, but not as a cure.  Even with these grains of salt in mind, I still found this paper very exciting. I look forward to seeing what the results of ongoing clinical trials of bexarotene as an Alzheimer's therapy in humans will be. With a little luck, this drug can succeed where so many other promising drugs in mice have failed and become a useful therapy in humans.  If a loved one of mine had Alzheimer's, I would be watching the clinical trial results very closely.\nQuestion: Can proteins and amyloids explain the sense of smell functioning?\nAnswer:", " None of the above"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is Randall Tobias reputation?\nAnswer:", " he is a down-to-earth businessperson"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is Randall Tobias reputation?\nAnswer:", " he is incomprehensible"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is Randall Tobias reputation?\nAnswer:", " he is an impoverished man"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is Randall Tobias reputation?\nAnswer:", " he is a man of philosophy"], ["AIDS Appointee Shows that Business Still Rules the Roost. By Jim Lobe, July 3, 2003  The appointment of a former top executive of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as President George W. Bush's global AIDS co-ordinator has stunned and outraged AIDS experts and activists. Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co. boss Randall Tobias was announced at the White House on July 1, just a few days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination.  Tobias, who retired from Lilly in 1998 and more recently has served as vice chairman of AT&T, where he also worked before going to Lilly in the early 1990s, is supposed to receive the rank of ambassador and report to Secretary of State Colin Powell, a major force behind a five-year, 15-billion-dollar anti-AIDS initiative--called the \"Emergency Program\"--first proposed by Bush last January and approved by Congress in a somewhat amended form in May.  Implementation of that initiative, which is targeted at 12 sub-Saharan African and two Caribbean countries, will be Tobias' first responsibility, according to Bush. \"Randy Tobias has a mandate directly from me to get our AIDS initiative up and running as soon as possible,\" he said.     Surreal Appointment  Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment \"surreal\" and continued that \"This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda.\"  Advocacy groups called for senators to closely scrutinize Tobias' credentials and philosophy and determine whether, given his past ties to the industry, he will be able to fight on behalf of the millions of poor HIV/AIDS victims in desperate need of cheap anti-retroviral drugs in the face of opposition from the major western pharmaceutical companies, often referred to as Big Pharma. \"This decision is another deeply disturbing sign that the President may not be prepared to fulfill his pledge to take emergency action on AIDS,\" noted Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. \"It raises serious questions of conflict of interest and the priorities of the White House.\"  \"Both the people of Africa and the people of the United States will lose if the president's AIDS initiative fails to use the lowest-cost, generic medications,\" Zeitz said, noting that the pharmaceutical companies have successfully pressed the Bush administration to go back on an earlier pledge to carve out an exception in international patent laws that would enable needy countries to import generic anti-AIDS drugs.  Others were openly scornful about the appointment. \"We know he has little experience with AIDS, but lots as a major Republican donor,\" said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, a Washington-based fusion of several long-standing anti-apartheid groups. \"This is where U.S. policy on AIDS is; it's with Big Pharma.\"  A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience with working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa--where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease--as \"really nearly incomprehensible.\"  At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's $15-billion program.  \"This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen,\" said Sandra Thurman, who served as former President Clinton's global AIDS director and now heads the International AIDS Trust.     Three Questions  The key test for many activists, however, will lie in how Tobias responds to three major questions regarding the Bush administration's global AIDS policies, of which Emergency Program is the central feature.  The first concern involves the availability of generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs to poor countries under the Program. While major pharmaceutical companies have sharply cut prices on their brand-name anti-viral medicines for AIDS victims in poor African countries, similar generic drugs produced in India, Thailand, and Brazil, for example, still cost significantly less--as little as under $300 per person per year for triple combinations of anti-retroviral drugs.  While the administration has suggested it will use generics in the Emergency Program, it has not been made a formal decision. \"Tobias will have tough questions to answer about whether the Bush AIDS Plan will make efficient use of funds by maximizing purchases of affordable generic medicines,\" noted Eustacia Smith of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).  A related question is whether Tobias will push the administration to follow through on its promise at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha in November 2001 to permit poor countries that face public-health emergencies to import generic anti-AIDS and other life-saving drugs.  Under pressure from Big Pharma, the administration has since reversed its position by pressing its bilateral trade partners in Africa to sign agreements committing them to respect international patent laws that, from a practical viewpoint, would make importing generics much more problematic.  \"It's very difficult to believe that a man coming from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry would be willing to respond to the calls from impoverished countries to expedite access to life-saving mechanisms,\" said Zeitz. \"Purchase of lowest-cost medicines, including generics, is a must,\" according to Asia Russell of Health GAP. \"The pharmaceutical industry calls that piracy. Which side will Tobias be on?\"  Finally, activists are particularly worried about the fate of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a two-year-old multilateral mechanism to expedite the funding of anti-AIDS work around the world. Although Congress has authorized an annual contribution of up to $1 billion for the Fund--which is already fast running out of money--the administration has said it intends to provide only $200 million a year.  Big Pharma has been cited as a major culprit behind the administration's niggardliness towards the Fund because of its support for making generic anti-AIDS drugs accessible to all needy countries.  \"Whether Tobias will push within the administration for the funding the Global Fund really needs to even begin to catch up with the need will be critical test of whether he's independent,\" said Booker.\nQuestion: What is Randall Tobias reputation?\nAnswer:", " None of the above"], ["Financial challenges faced by person with dementia. The idea: A person with dementia and the family face many financial challenges. We need to emphasize economies of the cost of care. My name is Mike Donohue. I am just short of 75 years old, having been diagnosed five years ago. I have atypical AD. It is A-Typical because it is somewhat different than the norm. My memory is more intact than many, my cognition remains good as does my ability to read and write. Other limitations of the Alzheimer\u2019s kind I do have. These keep me from driving, biking, handling money and doing more than one thing at a time. Alz.Org and other professional, social and charitable organizations, need to concentrate on formulating and developing programs of care that offer greater economy than those as now exist.  When a family is faced with its diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease it faces a variety of issues that need immediate resolution. One of these is the handling of their estate (their saved living and retirement funds) which may be irretrievably altered by reason of the current prognosis for care of the Alzheimer\u2019s afflicted.   Financial Issues of First Facing This Disease.  Of the many things that need to be dealt with will be the following:     What will happen if the care needed has cost which the family is not able to pay?      Is there long term health coverage to pay this?     Does Normal Health Care coverage or Medicare provide any help?     Is the Alzheimer Afflicted able to continue working, earning the same salary? Is the spouse working earning income, is that enough to currently support the family?     If income of one subsides or of all of them reduce will the family be able to make it?     Where does the family go to fill the gap?  The Answers To These Questions Are Not Pretty!     The family\u2019s private funds are normally the first source for payment of any cost of care not immediately covered by the insurance of the family.     Long Term Health Care coverage, if sufficient, if it specifically makes provisions, and is designed to run a sufficiently long time, will pay cost of care in the home and out of home care provided by agencies qualifying for reimbursement. This applies to most institutional Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facilities. It may apply to some day care and group home settings.     Health Care coverage and Medicare do not pay anything but immediate hospital and medically-related expenses provided as part of treatment. This most often does not include Nursing Home, Assisted Living facilities or equivalent styles of In House or Away from Home kinds of help.      In the event of diminution in earnings in the household because of the disease the private funds of the families are the first if not only source to make up the difference. Charitable or public assistance is predicated on the inability to pay and in many cases is difficult to get unless there is no other way.     If the family cannot make it, Public Assistance is available as well as assistance from many giving groups.     The problem is for those in-between.  Available Options. Long term health care seems worth every penny paid for it, if you have it. If you do not, with an Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis it is unlikely you can get it. But, remember, you get what you pay for, no more, no less. If you were smart enough and have it be sure it pays enough. Be sure it runs long enough. Be sure it covers Home, Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care.      Living Care: Some reimbursement of institutional Home care is pretty basic to all of the long term policies. Be sure in addition they cover cost of home care and cost of out of the home care not the normal institutional Nursing or Assisted Living care. Look at the type and kind of services it pays for. Does it pay for the normal group home, called foster home in some states? What are the qualifications, if any, for the home should payment for it be sought? The same applies to Home Care. Is the person who comes in to provide care qualified, certified, or, can just anyone provide the service required by simpler needs such as attendance, cooking, cleaning etc.?      Financial Planning:     Some financial planning with an expert is recommended. This is most important when it comes to evaluating the availability of Public Assistance. A need for care does not automatically produce Public Assistance. The law is very specific in determining where and how you qualify for it before you can get it.      In most cases the funds of the husband and wife seeking assistance (their entire estate) cannot exceed a little more than $100,000 between them. This may seem to be enough. It is not when you stop to consider this:  When the need for Assistance kicks in the current needs of the family don\u2019t disappear, they continue. As an example: The husband, no longer earning income, needs daily attendant care. If the wife is home, able to give it that is not a new cost. In this situation the couple's living conditions do not change, they continue as they were.   The cost incident to the disease only goes up and too often is your obligation alone. What this means is: your current cost of living does not go down, if anything it goes up. Current cost of living mean the expenses other than the care expenses, such as home mortgage, monthly budget, the cost of the spouse not needing Care. These costs continue during the lifetime of both the husband and the wife. Circumstances change what those costs might be. They can go up, they can go down. We of course know their usual direction.  They will go down if the husband needs to go into assisted living or nursing home or some other out of home care facility. Without regard to who pays the cost of this the expenses do go down for the wife to the extent she no longer has to pay the eating and living expenses of the husband. She need no longer pay those costs incidental to his living at home. These are the only costs that stop.  When the husband dies the wife\u2019s financial needs do not change appreciably with respect to herself. They continue. They continue her life time.  Now we come to totaling all of this to see how long that $100,000 lasts. Pull out your budget. What do you pay a month, a year? What of it will change if at all when one of you enters institutional care? Of the fixed amounts multiply them by the number of years of life expectancy the survivor is likely to live. Will it last?    Who Pays The Cost?  As these extra expenses escalate, who pays for them? You do. When can you ask for help? Anytime, anywhere, anyone can be asked. When are you entitled to help? Only when you have reached what the law calls the \u201cPoverty Threshold.\u201d  This threshold is when you own no more than around $103,000 total value of everything the husband and wife have. It was this amount when I checked with the experts in 2007. I believe it remains the same four years later.  Everything you have is just that! This includes bank accounts, retirement accounts face value of insurance policies, pension plans of which you are the owner not employer provided.   There are exclusions, not many, nonetheless there are. Your homestead up to $500,000 in some cases others up to 1,000,000 in value are excluded so long as the other spouse remains living in it. Certain annuities if they fit within a rigid definition of \u201cpurchase of income flow only annuities\u201d with no right or restricted right of beneficiary appointment, these are excluded from the calculation of your estate.  If you have given it away more than five years before application for assistance is made it might qualify. By giving it away they mean just that. You must relinquish all incidents of ownership and control. This is available for irrevocable trusts only. It does not include revocable trusts. The law examines an irrevocable trust to see whether or the owner(s) have given up all control and no longer own the assets in an irrevocable trust. The essence in a revocable trust is that it can be revoked by the owner(s) and the assets returned to them.   Change.  What is needed is change.      Change in the style and cost of care.      Change finding more economical care.     Change of the existing infrastructure responding to the present needs produced by Alzheimer\u2019s, not continuing to do something they do because that is the way they always did it.     Change of Public Assistance in the current compensation formulas.  These changes can run anywhere from qualification to supplemental provisions taking the form of more tax deduction and credit allowances, credits or incentives for public, private and non-profit ventures all directed to reducing the cost and increasing the availability of help for families faced with the overwhelming task of accommodating the alteration in their lives caused by Alzheimer\u2019s.  It Is in the Public\u2019s Interest.  It is in the public\u2019s interests this be done. Alzheimer\u2019s disease presents our short term future with a financial crisis that will devastate our already exhausted private and public capacity to pay its cost.  Proposals for Change.  What are sorely needed are lower-level care facilities and assistance programs. In whatever form, we need to consider and seek out greater economy of care in a variety of methods. We need to find alternatives to the high cost of institutional nursing home and assisted living of the facilities now provided.   Kinds of Care.  These can be but not limited to boarding and care homes, co-ops, foster homes, mutual help programs of people buying or renting a group home or grouping in same location apartments to hire and manage their own needs. Programs to support this are needed to help organize, facilitate and maintain these kinds of alternative care approaches. These could be supplied by private enterprise, charitable institutions or some lower level function than the Federal Government. This is being done in some areas; so much more is needed.   Tax Treatment.  Tax breaks and other public incentives are needed.  By history there has been a concentration of effort to remove any opportunity of anyone avoiding their personal obligation to pay for institutional care by forcing the government to do so. The history arose when the folks gave the farm to the kids, moved into the Nursing Home and applied for Old Age Assistance. They transferred the farm before they went in to avoid the county putting an Old Age Assistance Lien on it.  This may be as it ought to be. Nonetheless if private estates must first be drained of the funds needed by those depending on the person needing care, those dependents will continue to have the same economic need during and after the care is given the one in need of it.   The epidemic proportions of the issues associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease need attention. Tax deduction is needed for in home care, day care, respite care, any care in other forms. Deduction allowance is needed for the cost of care facilities. There needs to be a scheme to reward economy of costs in providing services. Other tax benefits are needed for programs to supplant the need of public funding for care. These need to be explored and the best of them provided.   Current Tax Treatment.  Although some deduction of cost of care facilities exists it is not clear, and too often is increased by the qualification processes that are needed so the deduction can be taken. This raises the cost of the service prohibitively.  Once qualified it is a question whether or not the person needing such care can deduct it if someone else made the payment for the service? Is the patient needing the care qualified to deduct it or is it the deduction of the caregiver requiring the additional help or making the payment? Can anyone deduct if they pay it? Who determines the qualification of the person in need before any deduction can be taken?  The tax breaks depend on the taxpayer entitled to the break having the income from which to take the break or income tax liability from which to take a credit. Many on fixed income fall between the cracks. They have too little income from too much estate to qualify for public assistance. This is but one of those open cracks. Some scheme of credits, rebates or something more direct needs to be considered for those who do not benefit from the deduction credit allowed against taxable income or tax liability.  Change Will Save The System.  We need to find a more economical way of providing care and respite for the Afflicted and the Affected before the Cost of Care bankrupts the system and puts everyone out in the street. The problems today with cost of living, health care and insurance costs, medical and hospital costs, the inability of our politicians to get it together in any meaningful way demonstrate what will come. Gridlock!  The prospect of what we all will face is magnified by the inability of our culture, institutions and governmental processes to provide care. The current insurmountable costs we have caring for ourselves without Dementia, namely living day to day, is already insurmountable. Keeping a job, paying the bills as middle class is squeezed into poverty class complicates it. This with all of the other difficulties creates an impossible situation. How then are we to meet this coming crises bearing down on us at breakneck speed?   If we are unable to find a cure for this disease quickly there will be no funds left with which to seek Economy of Care. The coming increase of people needing care because of this disease is frightening.\nQuestion: Can the income of an Alzheimer's family exceed the \"poverty threshold\"?\nAnswer:", " yes, if they don't want to apply for social assistance"], ["Financial challenges faced by person with dementia. The idea: A person with dementia and the family face many financial challenges. We need to emphasize economies of the cost of care. My name is Mike Donohue. I am just short of 75 years old, having been diagnosed five years ago. I have atypical AD. It is A-Typical because it is somewhat different than the norm. My memory is more intact than many, my cognition remains good as does my ability to read and write. Other limitations of the Alzheimer\u2019s kind I do have. These keep me from driving, biking, handling money and doing more than one thing at a time. Alz.Org and other professional, social and charitable organizations, need to concentrate on formulating and developing programs of care that offer greater economy than those as now exist.  When a family is faced with its diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease it faces a variety of issues that need immediate resolution. One of these is the handling of their estate (their saved living and retirement funds) which may be irretrievably altered by reason of the current prognosis for care of the Alzheimer\u2019s afflicted.   Financial Issues of First Facing This Disease.  Of the many things that need to be dealt with will be the following:     What will happen if the care needed has cost which the family is not able to pay?      Is there long term health coverage to pay this?     Does Normal Health Care coverage or Medicare provide any help?     Is the Alzheimer Afflicted able to continue working, earning the same salary? Is the spouse working earning income, is that enough to currently support the family?     If income of one subsides or of all of them reduce will the family be able to make it?     Where does the family go to fill the gap?  The Answers To These Questions Are Not Pretty!     The family\u2019s private funds are normally the first source for payment of any cost of care not immediately covered by the insurance of the family.     Long Term Health Care coverage, if sufficient, if it specifically makes provisions, and is designed to run a sufficiently long time, will pay cost of care in the home and out of home care provided by agencies qualifying for reimbursement. This applies to most institutional Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facilities. It may apply to some day care and group home settings.     Health Care coverage and Medicare do not pay anything but immediate hospital and medically-related expenses provided as part of treatment. This most often does not include Nursing Home, Assisted Living facilities or equivalent styles of In House or Away from Home kinds of help.      In the event of diminution in earnings in the household because of the disease the private funds of the families are the first if not only source to make up the difference. Charitable or public assistance is predicated on the inability to pay and in many cases is difficult to get unless there is no other way.     If the family cannot make it, Public Assistance is available as well as assistance from many giving groups.     The problem is for those in-between.  Available Options. Long term health care seems worth every penny paid for it, if you have it. If you do not, with an Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis it is unlikely you can get it. But, remember, you get what you pay for, no more, no less. If you were smart enough and have it be sure it pays enough. Be sure it runs long enough. Be sure it covers Home, Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care.      Living Care: Some reimbursement of institutional Home care is pretty basic to all of the long term policies. Be sure in addition they cover cost of home care and cost of out of the home care not the normal institutional Nursing or Assisted Living care. Look at the type and kind of services it pays for. Does it pay for the normal group home, called foster home in some states? What are the qualifications, if any, for the home should payment for it be sought? The same applies to Home Care. Is the person who comes in to provide care qualified, certified, or, can just anyone provide the service required by simpler needs such as attendance, cooking, cleaning etc.?      Financial Planning:     Some financial planning with an expert is recommended. This is most important when it comes to evaluating the availability of Public Assistance. A need for care does not automatically produce Public Assistance. The law is very specific in determining where and how you qualify for it before you can get it.      In most cases the funds of the husband and wife seeking assistance (their entire estate) cannot exceed a little more than $100,000 between them. This may seem to be enough. It is not when you stop to consider this:  When the need for Assistance kicks in the current needs of the family don\u2019t disappear, they continue. As an example: The husband, no longer earning income, needs daily attendant care. If the wife is home, able to give it that is not a new cost. In this situation the couple's living conditions do not change, they continue as they were.   The cost incident to the disease only goes up and too often is your obligation alone. What this means is: your current cost of living does not go down, if anything it goes up. Current cost of living mean the expenses other than the care expenses, such as home mortgage, monthly budget, the cost of the spouse not needing Care. These costs continue during the lifetime of both the husband and the wife. Circumstances change what those costs might be. They can go up, they can go down. We of course know their usual direction.  They will go down if the husband needs to go into assisted living or nursing home or some other out of home care facility. Without regard to who pays the cost of this the expenses do go down for the wife to the extent she no longer has to pay the eating and living expenses of the husband. She need no longer pay those costs incidental to his living at home. These are the only costs that stop.  When the husband dies the wife\u2019s financial needs do not change appreciably with respect to herself. They continue. They continue her life time.  Now we come to totaling all of this to see how long that $100,000 lasts. Pull out your budget. What do you pay a month, a year? What of it will change if at all when one of you enters institutional care? Of the fixed amounts multiply them by the number of years of life expectancy the survivor is likely to live. Will it last?    Who Pays The Cost?  As these extra expenses escalate, who pays for them? You do. When can you ask for help? Anytime, anywhere, anyone can be asked. When are you entitled to help? Only when you have reached what the law calls the \u201cPoverty Threshold.\u201d  This threshold is when you own no more than around $103,000 total value of everything the husband and wife have. It was this amount when I checked with the experts in 2007. I believe it remains the same four years later.  Everything you have is just that! This includes bank accounts, retirement accounts face value of insurance policies, pension plans of which you are the owner not employer provided.   There are exclusions, not many, nonetheless there are. Your homestead up to $500,000 in some cases others up to 1,000,000 in value are excluded so long as the other spouse remains living in it. Certain annuities if they fit within a rigid definition of \u201cpurchase of income flow only annuities\u201d with no right or restricted right of beneficiary appointment, these are excluded from the calculation of your estate.  If you have given it away more than five years before application for assistance is made it might qualify. By giving it away they mean just that. You must relinquish all incidents of ownership and control. This is available for irrevocable trusts only. It does not include revocable trusts. The law examines an irrevocable trust to see whether or the owner(s) have given up all control and no longer own the assets in an irrevocable trust. The essence in a revocable trust is that it can be revoked by the owner(s) and the assets returned to them.   Change.  What is needed is change.      Change in the style and cost of care.      Change finding more economical care.     Change of the existing infrastructure responding to the present needs produced by Alzheimer\u2019s, not continuing to do something they do because that is the way they always did it.     Change of Public Assistance in the current compensation formulas.  These changes can run anywhere from qualification to supplemental provisions taking the form of more tax deduction and credit allowances, credits or incentives for public, private and non-profit ventures all directed to reducing the cost and increasing the availability of help for families faced with the overwhelming task of accommodating the alteration in their lives caused by Alzheimer\u2019s.  It Is in the Public\u2019s Interest.  It is in the public\u2019s interests this be done. Alzheimer\u2019s disease presents our short term future with a financial crisis that will devastate our already exhausted private and public capacity to pay its cost.  Proposals for Change.  What are sorely needed are lower-level care facilities and assistance programs. In whatever form, we need to consider and seek out greater economy of care in a variety of methods. We need to find alternatives to the high cost of institutional nursing home and assisted living of the facilities now provided.   Kinds of Care.  These can be but not limited to boarding and care homes, co-ops, foster homes, mutual help programs of people buying or renting a group home or grouping in same location apartments to hire and manage their own needs. Programs to support this are needed to help organize, facilitate and maintain these kinds of alternative care approaches. These could be supplied by private enterprise, charitable institutions or some lower level function than the Federal Government. This is being done in some areas; so much more is needed.   Tax Treatment.  Tax breaks and other public incentives are needed.  By history there has been a concentration of effort to remove any opportunity of anyone avoiding their personal obligation to pay for institutional care by forcing the government to do so. The history arose when the folks gave the farm to the kids, moved into the Nursing Home and applied for Old Age Assistance. They transferred the farm before they went in to avoid the county putting an Old Age Assistance Lien on it.  This may be as it ought to be. Nonetheless if private estates must first be drained of the funds needed by those depending on the person needing care, those dependents will continue to have the same economic need during and after the care is given the one in need of it.   The epidemic proportions of the issues associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease need attention. Tax deduction is needed for in home care, day care, respite care, any care in other forms. Deduction allowance is needed for the cost of care facilities. There needs to be a scheme to reward economy of costs in providing services. Other tax benefits are needed for programs to supplant the need of public funding for care. These need to be explored and the best of them provided.   Current Tax Treatment.  Although some deduction of cost of care facilities exists it is not clear, and too often is increased by the qualification processes that are needed so the deduction can be taken. This raises the cost of the service prohibitively.  Once qualified it is a question whether or not the person needing such care can deduct it if someone else made the payment for the service? Is the patient needing the care qualified to deduct it or is it the deduction of the caregiver requiring the additional help or making the payment? Can anyone deduct if they pay it? Who determines the qualification of the person in need before any deduction can be taken?  The tax breaks depend on the taxpayer entitled to the break having the income from which to take the break or income tax liability from which to take a credit. Many on fixed income fall between the cracks. They have too little income from too much estate to qualify for public assistance. This is but one of those open cracks. Some scheme of credits, rebates or something more direct needs to be considered for those who do not benefit from the deduction credit allowed against taxable income or tax liability.  Change Will Save The System.  We need to find a more economical way of providing care and respite for the Afflicted and the Affected before the Cost of Care bankrupts the system and puts everyone out in the street. The problems today with cost of living, health care and insurance costs, medical and hospital costs, the inability of our politicians to get it together in any meaningful way demonstrate what will come. Gridlock!  The prospect of what we all will face is magnified by the inability of our culture, institutions and governmental processes to provide care. The current insurmountable costs we have caring for ourselves without Dementia, namely living day to day, is already insurmountable. Keeping a job, paying the bills as middle class is squeezed into poverty class complicates it. This with all of the other difficulties creates an impossible situation. How then are we to meet this coming crises bearing down on us at breakneck speed?   If we are unable to find a cure for this disease quickly there will be no funds left with which to seek Economy of Care. The coming increase of people needing care because of this disease is frightening.\nQuestion: Can the income of an Alzheimer's family exceed the \"poverty threshold\"?\nAnswer:", " no, if they want a different type of healthcare"], ["Financial challenges faced by person with dementia. The idea: A person with dementia and the family face many financial challenges. We need to emphasize economies of the cost of care. My name is Mike Donohue. I am just short of 75 years old, having been diagnosed five years ago. I have atypical AD. It is A-Typical because it is somewhat different than the norm. My memory is more intact than many, my cognition remains good as does my ability to read and write. Other limitations of the Alzheimer\u2019s kind I do have. These keep me from driving, biking, handling money and doing more than one thing at a time. Alz.Org and other professional, social and charitable organizations, need to concentrate on formulating and developing programs of care that offer greater economy than those as now exist.  When a family is faced with its diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease it faces a variety of issues that need immediate resolution. One of these is the handling of their estate (their saved living and retirement funds) which may be irretrievably altered by reason of the current prognosis for care of the Alzheimer\u2019s afflicted.   Financial Issues of First Facing This Disease.  Of the many things that need to be dealt with will be the following:     What will happen if the care needed has cost which the family is not able to pay?      Is there long term health coverage to pay this?     Does Normal Health Care coverage or Medicare provide any help?     Is the Alzheimer Afflicted able to continue working, earning the same salary? Is the spouse working earning income, is that enough to currently support the family?     If income of one subsides or of all of them reduce will the family be able to make it?     Where does the family go to fill the gap?  The Answers To These Questions Are Not Pretty!     The family\u2019s private funds are normally the first source for payment of any cost of care not immediately covered by the insurance of the family.     Long Term Health Care coverage, if sufficient, if it specifically makes provisions, and is designed to run a sufficiently long time, will pay cost of care in the home and out of home care provided by agencies qualifying for reimbursement. This applies to most institutional Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facilities. It may apply to some day care and group home settings.     Health Care coverage and Medicare do not pay anything but immediate hospital and medically-related expenses provided as part of treatment. This most often does not include Nursing Home, Assisted Living facilities or equivalent styles of In House or Away from Home kinds of help.      In the event of diminution in earnings in the household because of the disease the private funds of the families are the first if not only source to make up the difference. Charitable or public assistance is predicated on the inability to pay and in many cases is difficult to get unless there is no other way.     If the family cannot make it, Public Assistance is available as well as assistance from many giving groups.     The problem is for those in-between.  Available Options. Long term health care seems worth every penny paid for it, if you have it. If you do not, with an Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis it is unlikely you can get it. But, remember, you get what you pay for, no more, no less. If you were smart enough and have it be sure it pays enough. Be sure it runs long enough. Be sure it covers Home, Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care.      Living Care: Some reimbursement of institutional Home care is pretty basic to all of the long term policies. Be sure in addition they cover cost of home care and cost of out of the home care not the normal institutional Nursing or Assisted Living care. Look at the type and kind of services it pays for. Does it pay for the normal group home, called foster home in some states? What are the qualifications, if any, for the home should payment for it be sought? The same applies to Home Care. Is the person who comes in to provide care qualified, certified, or, can just anyone provide the service required by simpler needs such as attendance, cooking, cleaning etc.?      Financial Planning:     Some financial planning with an expert is recommended. This is most important when it comes to evaluating the availability of Public Assistance. A need for care does not automatically produce Public Assistance. The law is very specific in determining where and how you qualify for it before you can get it.      In most cases the funds of the husband and wife seeking assistance (their entire estate) cannot exceed a little more than $100,000 between them. This may seem to be enough. It is not when you stop to consider this:  When the need for Assistance kicks in the current needs of the family don\u2019t disappear, they continue. As an example: The husband, no longer earning income, needs daily attendant care. If the wife is home, able to give it that is not a new cost. In this situation the couple's living conditions do not change, they continue as they were.   The cost incident to the disease only goes up and too often is your obligation alone. What this means is: your current cost of living does not go down, if anything it goes up. Current cost of living mean the expenses other than the care expenses, such as home mortgage, monthly budget, the cost of the spouse not needing Care. These costs continue during the lifetime of both the husband and the wife. Circumstances change what those costs might be. They can go up, they can go down. We of course know their usual direction.  They will go down if the husband needs to go into assisted living or nursing home or some other out of home care facility. Without regard to who pays the cost of this the expenses do go down for the wife to the extent she no longer has to pay the eating and living expenses of the husband. She need no longer pay those costs incidental to his living at home. These are the only costs that stop.  When the husband dies the wife\u2019s financial needs do not change appreciably with respect to herself. They continue. They continue her life time.  Now we come to totaling all of this to see how long that $100,000 lasts. Pull out your budget. What do you pay a month, a year? What of it will change if at all when one of you enters institutional care? Of the fixed amounts multiply them by the number of years of life expectancy the survivor is likely to live. Will it last?    Who Pays The Cost?  As these extra expenses escalate, who pays for them? You do. When can you ask for help? Anytime, anywhere, anyone can be asked. When are you entitled to help? Only when you have reached what the law calls the \u201cPoverty Threshold.\u201d  This threshold is when you own no more than around $103,000 total value of everything the husband and wife have. It was this amount when I checked with the experts in 2007. I believe it remains the same four years later.  Everything you have is just that! This includes bank accounts, retirement accounts face value of insurance policies, pension plans of which you are the owner not employer provided.   There are exclusions, not many, nonetheless there are. Your homestead up to $500,000 in some cases others up to 1,000,000 in value are excluded so long as the other spouse remains living in it. Certain annuities if they fit within a rigid definition of \u201cpurchase of income flow only annuities\u201d with no right or restricted right of beneficiary appointment, these are excluded from the calculation of your estate.  If you have given it away more than five years before application for assistance is made it might qualify. By giving it away they mean just that. You must relinquish all incidents of ownership and control. This is available for irrevocable trusts only. It does not include revocable trusts. The law examines an irrevocable trust to see whether or the owner(s) have given up all control and no longer own the assets in an irrevocable trust. The essence in a revocable trust is that it can be revoked by the owner(s) and the assets returned to them.   Change.  What is needed is change.      Change in the style and cost of care.      Change finding more economical care.     Change of the existing infrastructure responding to the present needs produced by Alzheimer\u2019s, not continuing to do something they do because that is the way they always did it.     Change of Public Assistance in the current compensation formulas.  These changes can run anywhere from qualification to supplemental provisions taking the form of more tax deduction and credit allowances, credits or incentives for public, private and non-profit ventures all directed to reducing the cost and increasing the availability of help for families faced with the overwhelming task of accommodating the alteration in their lives caused by Alzheimer\u2019s.  It Is in the Public\u2019s Interest.  It is in the public\u2019s interests this be done. Alzheimer\u2019s disease presents our short term future with a financial crisis that will devastate our already exhausted private and public capacity to pay its cost.  Proposals for Change.  What are sorely needed are lower-level care facilities and assistance programs. In whatever form, we need to consider and seek out greater economy of care in a variety of methods. We need to find alternatives to the high cost of institutional nursing home and assisted living of the facilities now provided.   Kinds of Care.  These can be but not limited to boarding and care homes, co-ops, foster homes, mutual help programs of people buying or renting a group home or grouping in same location apartments to hire and manage their own needs. Programs to support this are needed to help organize, facilitate and maintain these kinds of alternative care approaches. These could be supplied by private enterprise, charitable institutions or some lower level function than the Federal Government. This is being done in some areas; so much more is needed.   Tax Treatment.  Tax breaks and other public incentives are needed.  By history there has been a concentration of effort to remove any opportunity of anyone avoiding their personal obligation to pay for institutional care by forcing the government to do so. The history arose when the folks gave the farm to the kids, moved into the Nursing Home and applied for Old Age Assistance. They transferred the farm before they went in to avoid the county putting an Old Age Assistance Lien on it.  This may be as it ought to be. Nonetheless if private estates must first be drained of the funds needed by those depending on the person needing care, those dependents will continue to have the same economic need during and after the care is given the one in need of it.   The epidemic proportions of the issues associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease need attention. Tax deduction is needed for in home care, day care, respite care, any care in other forms. Deduction allowance is needed for the cost of care facilities. There needs to be a scheme to reward economy of costs in providing services. Other tax benefits are needed for programs to supplant the need of public funding for care. These need to be explored and the best of them provided.   Current Tax Treatment.  Although some deduction of cost of care facilities exists it is not clear, and too often is increased by the qualification processes that are needed so the deduction can be taken. This raises the cost of the service prohibitively.  Once qualified it is a question whether or not the person needing such care can deduct it if someone else made the payment for the service? Is the patient needing the care qualified to deduct it or is it the deduction of the caregiver requiring the additional help or making the payment? Can anyone deduct if they pay it? Who determines the qualification of the person in need before any deduction can be taken?  The tax breaks depend on the taxpayer entitled to the break having the income from which to take the break or income tax liability from which to take a credit. Many on fixed income fall between the cracks. They have too little income from too much estate to qualify for public assistance. This is but one of those open cracks. Some scheme of credits, rebates or something more direct needs to be considered for those who do not benefit from the deduction credit allowed against taxable income or tax liability.  Change Will Save The System.  We need to find a more economical way of providing care and respite for the Afflicted and the Affected before the Cost of Care bankrupts the system and puts everyone out in the street. The problems today with cost of living, health care and insurance costs, medical and hospital costs, the inability of our politicians to get it together in any meaningful way demonstrate what will come. Gridlock!  The prospect of what we all will face is magnified by the inability of our culture, institutions and governmental processes to provide care. The current insurmountable costs we have caring for ourselves without Dementia, namely living day to day, is already insurmountable. Keeping a job, paying the bills as middle class is squeezed into poverty class complicates it. This with all of the other difficulties creates an impossible situation. How then are we to meet this coming crises bearing down on us at breakneck speed?   If we are unable to find a cure for this disease quickly there will be no funds left with which to seek Economy of Care. The coming increase of people needing care because of this disease is frightening.\nQuestion: Can the income of an Alzheimer's family exceed the \"poverty threshold\"?\nAnswer:", " sometimes yes"], ["Financial challenges faced by person with dementia. The idea: A person with dementia and the family face many financial challenges. We need to emphasize economies of the cost of care. My name is Mike Donohue. I am just short of 75 years old, having been diagnosed five years ago. I have atypical AD. It is A-Typical because it is somewhat different than the norm. My memory is more intact than many, my cognition remains good as does my ability to read and write. Other limitations of the Alzheimer\u2019s kind I do have. These keep me from driving, biking, handling money and doing more than one thing at a time. Alz.Org and other professional, social and charitable organizations, need to concentrate on formulating and developing programs of care that offer greater economy than those as now exist.  When a family is faced with its diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease it faces a variety of issues that need immediate resolution. One of these is the handling of their estate (their saved living and retirement funds) which may be irretrievably altered by reason of the current prognosis for care of the Alzheimer\u2019s afflicted.   Financial Issues of First Facing This Disease.  Of the many things that need to be dealt with will be the following:     What will happen if the care needed has cost which the family is not able to pay?      Is there long term health coverage to pay this?     Does Normal Health Care coverage or Medicare provide any help?     Is the Alzheimer Afflicted able to continue working, earning the same salary? Is the spouse working earning income, is that enough to currently support the family?     If income of one subsides or of all of them reduce will the family be able to make it?     Where does the family go to fill the gap?  The Answers To These Questions Are Not Pretty!     The family\u2019s private funds are normally the first source for payment of any cost of care not immediately covered by the insurance of the family.     Long Term Health Care coverage, if sufficient, if it specifically makes provisions, and is designed to run a sufficiently long time, will pay cost of care in the home and out of home care provided by agencies qualifying for reimbursement. This applies to most institutional Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facilities. It may apply to some day care and group home settings.     Health Care coverage and Medicare do not pay anything but immediate hospital and medically-related expenses provided as part of treatment. This most often does not include Nursing Home, Assisted Living facilities or equivalent styles of In House or Away from Home kinds of help.      In the event of diminution in earnings in the household because of the disease the private funds of the families are the first if not only source to make up the difference. Charitable or public assistance is predicated on the inability to pay and in many cases is difficult to get unless there is no other way.     If the family cannot make it, Public Assistance is available as well as assistance from many giving groups.     The problem is for those in-between.  Available Options. Long term health care seems worth every penny paid for it, if you have it. If you do not, with an Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis it is unlikely you can get it. But, remember, you get what you pay for, no more, no less. If you were smart enough and have it be sure it pays enough. Be sure it runs long enough. Be sure it covers Home, Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care.      Living Care: Some reimbursement of institutional Home care is pretty basic to all of the long term policies. Be sure in addition they cover cost of home care and cost of out of the home care not the normal institutional Nursing or Assisted Living care. Look at the type and kind of services it pays for. Does it pay for the normal group home, called foster home in some states? What are the qualifications, if any, for the home should payment for it be sought? The same applies to Home Care. Is the person who comes in to provide care qualified, certified, or, can just anyone provide the service required by simpler needs such as attendance, cooking, cleaning etc.?      Financial Planning:     Some financial planning with an expert is recommended. This is most important when it comes to evaluating the availability of Public Assistance. A need for care does not automatically produce Public Assistance. The law is very specific in determining where and how you qualify for it before you can get it.      In most cases the funds of the husband and wife seeking assistance (their entire estate) cannot exceed a little more than $100,000 between them. This may seem to be enough. It is not when you stop to consider this:  When the need for Assistance kicks in the current needs of the family don\u2019t disappear, they continue. As an example: The husband, no longer earning income, needs daily attendant care. If the wife is home, able to give it that is not a new cost. In this situation the couple's living conditions do not change, they continue as they were.   The cost incident to the disease only goes up and too often is your obligation alone. What this means is: your current cost of living does not go down, if anything it goes up. Current cost of living mean the expenses other than the care expenses, such as home mortgage, monthly budget, the cost of the spouse not needing Care. These costs continue during the lifetime of both the husband and the wife. Circumstances change what those costs might be. They can go up, they can go down. We of course know their usual direction.  They will go down if the husband needs to go into assisted living or nursing home or some other out of home care facility. Without regard to who pays the cost of this the expenses do go down for the wife to the extent she no longer has to pay the eating and living expenses of the husband. She need no longer pay those costs incidental to his living at home. These are the only costs that stop.  When the husband dies the wife\u2019s financial needs do not change appreciably with respect to herself. They continue. They continue her life time.  Now we come to totaling all of this to see how long that $100,000 lasts. Pull out your budget. What do you pay a month, a year? What of it will change if at all when one of you enters institutional care? Of the fixed amounts multiply them by the number of years of life expectancy the survivor is likely to live. Will it last?    Who Pays The Cost?  As these extra expenses escalate, who pays for them? You do. When can you ask for help? Anytime, anywhere, anyone can be asked. When are you entitled to help? Only when you have reached what the law calls the \u201cPoverty Threshold.\u201d  This threshold is when you own no more than around $103,000 total value of everything the husband and wife have. It was this amount when I checked with the experts in 2007. I believe it remains the same four years later.  Everything you have is just that! This includes bank accounts, retirement accounts face value of insurance policies, pension plans of which you are the owner not employer provided.   There are exclusions, not many, nonetheless there are. Your homestead up to $500,000 in some cases others up to 1,000,000 in value are excluded so long as the other spouse remains living in it. Certain annuities if they fit within a rigid definition of \u201cpurchase of income flow only annuities\u201d with no right or restricted right of beneficiary appointment, these are excluded from the calculation of your estate.  If you have given it away more than five years before application for assistance is made it might qualify. By giving it away they mean just that. You must relinquish all incidents of ownership and control. This is available for irrevocable trusts only. It does not include revocable trusts. The law examines an irrevocable trust to see whether or the owner(s) have given up all control and no longer own the assets in an irrevocable trust. The essence in a revocable trust is that it can be revoked by the owner(s) and the assets returned to them.   Change.  What is needed is change.      Change in the style and cost of care.      Change finding more economical care.     Change of the existing infrastructure responding to the present needs produced by Alzheimer\u2019s, not continuing to do something they do because that is the way they always did it.     Change of Public Assistance in the current compensation formulas.  These changes can run anywhere from qualification to supplemental provisions taking the form of more tax deduction and credit allowances, credits or incentives for public, private and non-profit ventures all directed to reducing the cost and increasing the availability of help for families faced with the overwhelming task of accommodating the alteration in their lives caused by Alzheimer\u2019s.  It Is in the Public\u2019s Interest.  It is in the public\u2019s interests this be done. Alzheimer\u2019s disease presents our short term future with a financial crisis that will devastate our already exhausted private and public capacity to pay its cost.  Proposals for Change.  What are sorely needed are lower-level care facilities and assistance programs. In whatever form, we need to consider and seek out greater economy of care in a variety of methods. We need to find alternatives to the high cost of institutional nursing home and assisted living of the facilities now provided.   Kinds of Care.  These can be but not limited to boarding and care homes, co-ops, foster homes, mutual help programs of people buying or renting a group home or grouping in same location apartments to hire and manage their own needs. Programs to support this are needed to help organize, facilitate and maintain these kinds of alternative care approaches. These could be supplied by private enterprise, charitable institutions or some lower level function than the Federal Government. This is being done in some areas; so much more is needed.   Tax Treatment.  Tax breaks and other public incentives are needed.  By history there has been a concentration of effort to remove any opportunity of anyone avoiding their personal obligation to pay for institutional care by forcing the government to do so. The history arose when the folks gave the farm to the kids, moved into the Nursing Home and applied for Old Age Assistance. They transferred the farm before they went in to avoid the county putting an Old Age Assistance Lien on it.  This may be as it ought to be. Nonetheless if private estates must first be drained of the funds needed by those depending on the person needing care, those dependents will continue to have the same economic need during and after the care is given the one in need of it.   The epidemic proportions of the issues associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease need attention. Tax deduction is needed for in home care, day care, respite care, any care in other forms. Deduction allowance is needed for the cost of care facilities. There needs to be a scheme to reward economy of costs in providing services. Other tax benefits are needed for programs to supplant the need of public funding for care. These need to be explored and the best of them provided.   Current Tax Treatment.  Although some deduction of cost of care facilities exists it is not clear, and too often is increased by the qualification processes that are needed so the deduction can be taken. This raises the cost of the service prohibitively.  Once qualified it is a question whether or not the person needing such care can deduct it if someone else made the payment for the service? Is the patient needing the care qualified to deduct it or is it the deduction of the caregiver requiring the additional help or making the payment? Can anyone deduct if they pay it? Who determines the qualification of the person in need before any deduction can be taken?  The tax breaks depend on the taxpayer entitled to the break having the income from which to take the break or income tax liability from which to take a credit. Many on fixed income fall between the cracks. They have too little income from too much estate to qualify for public assistance. This is but one of those open cracks. Some scheme of credits, rebates or something more direct needs to be considered for those who do not benefit from the deduction credit allowed against taxable income or tax liability.  Change Will Save The System.  We need to find a more economical way of providing care and respite for the Afflicted and the Affected before the Cost of Care bankrupts the system and puts everyone out in the street. The problems today with cost of living, health care and insurance costs, medical and hospital costs, the inability of our politicians to get it together in any meaningful way demonstrate what will come. Gridlock!  The prospect of what we all will face is magnified by the inability of our culture, institutions and governmental processes to provide care. The current insurmountable costs we have caring for ourselves without Dementia, namely living day to day, is already insurmountable. Keeping a job, paying the bills as middle class is squeezed into poverty class complicates it. This with all of the other difficulties creates an impossible situation. How then are we to meet this coming crises bearing down on us at breakneck speed?   If we are unable to find a cure for this disease quickly there will be no funds left with which to seek Economy of Care. The coming increase of people needing care because of this disease is frightening.\nQuestion: Can the income of an Alzheimer's family exceed the \"poverty threshold\"?\nAnswer:", " never"], ["Financial challenges faced by person with dementia. The idea: A person with dementia and the family face many financial challenges. We need to emphasize economies of the cost of care. My name is Mike Donohue. I am just short of 75 years old, having been diagnosed five years ago. I have atypical AD. It is A-Typical because it is somewhat different than the norm. My memory is more intact than many, my cognition remains good as does my ability to read and write. Other limitations of the Alzheimer\u2019s kind I do have. These keep me from driving, biking, handling money and doing more than one thing at a time. Alz.Org and other professional, social and charitable organizations, need to concentrate on formulating and developing programs of care that offer greater economy than those as now exist.  When a family is faced with its diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease it faces a variety of issues that need immediate resolution. One of these is the handling of their estate (their saved living and retirement funds) which may be irretrievably altered by reason of the current prognosis for care of the Alzheimer\u2019s afflicted.   Financial Issues of First Facing This Disease.  Of the many things that need to be dealt with will be the following:     What will happen if the care needed has cost which the family is not able to pay?      Is there long term health coverage to pay this?     Does Normal Health Care coverage or Medicare provide any help?     Is the Alzheimer Afflicted able to continue working, earning the same salary? Is the spouse working earning income, is that enough to currently support the family?     If income of one subsides or of all of them reduce will the family be able to make it?     Where does the family go to fill the gap?  The Answers To These Questions Are Not Pretty!     The family\u2019s private funds are normally the first source for payment of any cost of care not immediately covered by the insurance of the family.     Long Term Health Care coverage, if sufficient, if it specifically makes provisions, and is designed to run a sufficiently long time, will pay cost of care in the home and out of home care provided by agencies qualifying for reimbursement. This applies to most institutional Nursing Home and Assisted Living Facilities. It may apply to some day care and group home settings.     Health Care coverage and Medicare do not pay anything but immediate hospital and medically-related expenses provided as part of treatment. This most often does not include Nursing Home, Assisted Living facilities or equivalent styles of In House or Away from Home kinds of help.      In the event of diminution in earnings in the household because of the disease the private funds of the families are the first if not only source to make up the difference. Charitable or public assistance is predicated on the inability to pay and in many cases is difficult to get unless there is no other way.     If the family cannot make it, Public Assistance is available as well as assistance from many giving groups.     The problem is for those in-between.  Available Options. Long term health care seems worth every penny paid for it, if you have it. If you do not, with an Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis it is unlikely you can get it. But, remember, you get what you pay for, no more, no less. If you were smart enough and have it be sure it pays enough. Be sure it runs long enough. Be sure it covers Home, Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care.      Living Care: Some reimbursement of institutional Home care is pretty basic to all of the long term policies. Be sure in addition they cover cost of home care and cost of out of the home care not the normal institutional Nursing or Assisted Living care. Look at the type and kind of services it pays for. Does it pay for the normal group home, called foster home in some states? What are the qualifications, if any, for the home should payment for it be sought? The same applies to Home Care. Is the person who comes in to provide care qualified, certified, or, can just anyone provide the service required by simpler needs such as attendance, cooking, cleaning etc.?      Financial Planning:     Some financial planning with an expert is recommended. This is most important when it comes to evaluating the availability of Public Assistance. A need for care does not automatically produce Public Assistance. The law is very specific in determining where and how you qualify for it before you can get it.      In most cases the funds of the husband and wife seeking assistance (their entire estate) cannot exceed a little more than $100,000 between them. This may seem to be enough. It is not when you stop to consider this:  When the need for Assistance kicks in the current needs of the family don\u2019t disappear, they continue. As an example: The husband, no longer earning income, needs daily attendant care. If the wife is home, able to give it that is not a new cost. In this situation the couple's living conditions do not change, they continue as they were.   The cost incident to the disease only goes up and too often is your obligation alone. What this means is: your current cost of living does not go down, if anything it goes up. Current cost of living mean the expenses other than the care expenses, such as home mortgage, monthly budget, the cost of the spouse not needing Care. These costs continue during the lifetime of both the husband and the wife. Circumstances change what those costs might be. They can go up, they can go down. We of course know their usual direction.  They will go down if the husband needs to go into assisted living or nursing home or some other out of home care facility. Without regard to who pays the cost of this the expenses do go down for the wife to the extent she no longer has to pay the eating and living expenses of the husband. She need no longer pay those costs incidental to his living at home. These are the only costs that stop.  When the husband dies the wife\u2019s financial needs do not change appreciably with respect to herself. They continue. They continue her life time.  Now we come to totaling all of this to see how long that $100,000 lasts. Pull out your budget. What do you pay a month, a year? What of it will change if at all when one of you enters institutional care? Of the fixed amounts multiply them by the number of years of life expectancy the survivor is likely to live. Will it last?    Who Pays The Cost?  As these extra expenses escalate, who pays for them? You do. When can you ask for help? Anytime, anywhere, anyone can be asked. When are you entitled to help? Only when you have reached what the law calls the \u201cPoverty Threshold.\u201d  This threshold is when you own no more than around $103,000 total value of everything the husband and wife have. It was this amount when I checked with the experts in 2007. I believe it remains the same four years later.  Everything you have is just that! This includes bank accounts, retirement accounts face value of insurance policies, pension plans of which you are the owner not employer provided.   There are exclusions, not many, nonetheless there are. Your homestead up to $500,000 in some cases others up to 1,000,000 in value are excluded so long as the other spouse remains living in it. Certain annuities if they fit within a rigid definition of \u201cpurchase of income flow only annuities\u201d with no right or restricted right of beneficiary appointment, these are excluded from the calculation of your estate.  If you have given it away more than five years before application for assistance is made it might qualify. By giving it away they mean just that. You must relinquish all incidents of ownership and control. This is available for irrevocable trusts only. It does not include revocable trusts. The law examines an irrevocable trust to see whether or the owner(s) have given up all control and no longer own the assets in an irrevocable trust. The essence in a revocable trust is that it can be revoked by the owner(s) and the assets returned to them.   Change.  What is needed is change.      Change in the style and cost of care.      Change finding more economical care.     Change of the existing infrastructure responding to the present needs produced by Alzheimer\u2019s, not continuing to do something they do because that is the way they always did it.     Change of Public Assistance in the current compensation formulas.  These changes can run anywhere from qualification to supplemental provisions taking the form of more tax deduction and credit allowances, credits or incentives for public, private and non-profit ventures all directed to reducing the cost and increasing the availability of help for families faced with the overwhelming task of accommodating the alteration in their lives caused by Alzheimer\u2019s.  It Is in the Public\u2019s Interest.  It is in the public\u2019s interests this be done. Alzheimer\u2019s disease presents our short term future with a financial crisis that will devastate our already exhausted private and public capacity to pay its cost.  Proposals for Change.  What are sorely needed are lower-level care facilities and assistance programs. In whatever form, we need to consider and seek out greater economy of care in a variety of methods. We need to find alternatives to the high cost of institutional nursing home and assisted living of the facilities now provided.   Kinds of Care.  These can be but not limited to boarding and care homes, co-ops, foster homes, mutual help programs of people buying or renting a group home or grouping in same location apartments to hire and manage their own needs. Programs to support this are needed to help organize, facilitate and maintain these kinds of alternative care approaches. These could be supplied by private enterprise, charitable institutions or some lower level function than the Federal Government. This is being done in some areas; so much more is needed.   Tax Treatment.  Tax breaks and other public incentives are needed.  By history there has been a concentration of effort to remove any opportunity of anyone avoiding their personal obligation to pay for institutional care by forcing the government to do so. The history arose when the folks gave the farm to the kids, moved into the Nursing Home and applied for Old Age Assistance. They transferred the farm before they went in to avoid the county putting an Old Age Assistance Lien on it.  This may be as it ought to be. Nonetheless if private estates must first be drained of the funds needed by those depending on the person needing care, those dependents will continue to have the same economic need during and after the care is given the one in need of it.   The epidemic proportions of the issues associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease need attention. Tax deduction is needed for in home care, day care, respite care, any care in other forms. Deduction allowance is needed for the cost of care facilities. There needs to be a scheme to reward economy of costs in providing services. Other tax benefits are needed for programs to supplant the need of public funding for care. These need to be explored and the best of them provided.   Current Tax Treatment.  Although some deduction of cost of care facilities exists it is not clear, and too often is increased by the qualification processes that are needed so the deduction can be taken. This raises the cost of the service prohibitively.  Once qualified it is a question whether or not the person needing such care can deduct it if someone else made the payment for the service? Is the patient needing the care qualified to deduct it or is it the deduction of the caregiver requiring the additional help or making the payment? Can anyone deduct if they pay it? Who determines the qualification of the person in need before any deduction can be taken?  The tax breaks depend on the taxpayer entitled to the break having the income from which to take the break or income tax liability from which to take a credit. Many on fixed income fall between the cracks. They have too little income from too much estate to qualify for public assistance. This is but one of those open cracks. Some scheme of credits, rebates or something more direct needs to be considered for those who do not benefit from the deduction credit allowed against taxable income or tax liability.  Change Will Save The System.  We need to find a more economical way of providing care and respite for the Afflicted and the Affected before the Cost of Care bankrupts the system and puts everyone out in the street. The problems today with cost of living, health care and insurance costs, medical and hospital costs, the inability of our politicians to get it together in any meaningful way demonstrate what will come. Gridlock!  The prospect of what we all will face is magnified by the inability of our culture, institutions and governmental processes to provide care. The current insurmountable costs we have caring for ourselves without Dementia, namely living day to day, is already insurmountable. Keeping a job, paying the bills as middle class is squeezed into poverty class complicates it. This with all of the other difficulties creates an impossible situation. How then are we to meet this coming crises bearing down on us at breakneck speed?   If we are unable to find a cure for this disease quickly there will be no funds left with which to seek Economy of Care. The coming increase of people needing care because of this disease is frightening.\nQuestion: Can the income of an Alzheimer's family exceed the \"poverty threshold\"?\nAnswer:", " None of the above"]]