Browsing: Halloween

The trickle of Bush administration officials headed for the door is likely to become a flood now that the election’s over. Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Julie Myers today became the first major appointee to resign after Barack Obama’s victory. Her last day will be Nov. 15. Myers’ nearly three-year tenure at ICE has been dogged by controversy, though she eventually won over some skeptics.

It’s Halloween on Friday and as if on cue the Defense Department has released a new acquisition regulation about the use of humans in research contracts. Maybe it’s just me, but government and human testing sounds like the makings of a horror flick or thriller. OK, so the rule is probably not that scary. In fact, the rule is aimed at enhancing protections for human guinea pigs by ensuring contracts contain a clause mandating researchers to follow a stringent set of human research rules, such as obtaining informed consent from participants and receiving approval from a review board. For the curious…

Here’s a little something light for your Friday afternoon: The crack statisticians at the Census Bureau have pulled together some figures estimating what Halloween might bring next Friday night, such as: •36 million potential trick-or-treaters. That’s how many kids between the ages of 5 and 13 are estimated to be in this country, but it doesn’t take into account immature adults — like this reporter — who might try to score some candy anyway. And those trick-or-treaters will visit… •110 million occupied households in the United States.  All of which had better be stocked with something good, unless they like cleaning up…