What’s possible
Students and faculty interested in the online archive of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks, ways to digitally engage with Harvard Art Museums’ artworks, or video links to professors in different time zones only had to visit Harvard’s Barker Center on Nov. 29.There, from 3:30 to 6 p.m., a feast of digital technology was on display at the annual Arts & Humanities and Social Science Digital Technology Fair.The fair, in its third year, is an effort to highlight the wide range of digital resources available to scholars and students for teaching and research.Representatives from Harvard Libraries, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) IT Academic Technology Group, FAS IT Services and Support Group, and the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning were among the 23 Harvard organizations on hand to explain their digital projects and services.Alexander F. Parker, director of research computing in the humanities, has helped develop and run the fair since 2007, when Harvard Dean of Arts and Humanities Diana Sorensen charged him with developing an event that would showcase the range of services in the “digital domain” for students and faculty in FAS.“The challenge is to make people aware of what’s available,” said Parker, who worked in tandem on this year’s fair with Jennifer Shephard, special initiatives program manager in Harvard’s social science division. “We are getting better at letting faculty know where to go for what need they might have. That has been a driver behind our events.”Amy Thompson and her group help professors and students connect directly with technology in the classroom. Thompson directs the Media & Technology Services part of Instructional Media Services at FAS and assists with everything from projectors in classrooms to video conferencing.Thompson displayed some of her department’s audio and visual efforts, and explained how a volcano featured prominently in recent work.When ash from the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April closed European airspace for several days and stranded a number of Harvard professors overseas, Thompson and her team connected professors with their classes through the magic of video feeds.“We helped the students stay right up with the syllabus by connecting them to their professors remotely.”Elaheh Kheirandish, a fellow at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, hopes her work will help inspire faculty and students by offering them a more nuanced look at the development of science in Islamic lands through interactive maps that chart the course of exploration and conquest in the Middle East. One of the 23 exhibitors at this year’s fair, she displayed on a computer screen a series of color-coded maps of the Middle East from 700 to 1750, part of her Micromapping Early Science project.“I am interested in the ways technology can drive the research,” said Kheirandish, a science historian and mathematician.“Ideally, my hope is that this work generates research questions we would not have thought of without this technology.”Professor Thomas Kelly, Harvard’s Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music, made a swing through the exhibits on Monday. One of the early adopters of a course website at Harvard and familiar with trying to make audio digitally available to his students, Kelly was inspired to see so many people interacting with the technology and one another.“I think this is wonderful. It’s always good to find out what’s possible, what someone else has thought of that you haven’t.”
Starr Hill has been brewing some of Virginia’s most consistent (and award winning) beers since 1999, well before the craft beer boom took hold in the South and Mid- Atlantic.Back in the day, as the kids say, Starr Hill had a ridiculously popular brewpub that served as the hub for the fledgling craft beer crowd in Charlottesville. The brewery is trying to recapture the magic of yesteryear with the expansion of the Tasting Room at their Crozet brewing facility. Starr Hill has doubled the size of the tasting room, added custom concrete and wood bars, new roll-up windows with a view of the bottling line, and built a massive outdoor space with room for food trucks.In a word, the new tasting room is going to be “awesome.” And it opens next week, with a grand opening set for April 18. Serendipitously, Starr Hill is also releasing a new summer seasonal, Soul Shine Belgian-Style Pale Ale. I haven’t gotten to try it yet, but I’m a sucker for beers named after Allman Brother songs, so it’s bound to be good.And speaking of tasting rooms, Wicked Weed announced it will open a new sour-beer tap room and barrel house in Asheville’s trendy South Slope neighborhood. The tap room will open late this summer, and will join four other breweries in the South Slope hood (which covers the hill falling away from the south side of downtown Asheville).
Among the injured animals that zoo workers have treated is a spotted jaguar ( Panthera onca) named Cunhã, who was delivered by a resident after Cunhã’s mother was fatally shot. Educating the public about animal conservation Some of the animals at the refuge, such as the pied tamarin ( Saguinus bicolor), are extremely endangered. This small primate, which symbolizes Manaus, is listed in the most serious category – critically endangered – by the Red Book on Threatened Brazilian Fauna, a publication by the Brazilian government based on a survey by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The animals are brought to the zoo by environmental groups who have rescued them from hunters and animal traffickers, who cage them before they are sold for profit. At the zoo – the only place these animals can be housed – workers tend to the animals’ wounds and help them recuperate before the vast majority are released. However, those that are seriously injured and would not survive in the wild remain at the zoo. “The CIGS Zoo has done important work in environmental education about the species of the Amazon,” said Natália Lima, coordinator at the Amazonas Wild Animals Screening Center (CETAS-AM), an agency of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) that’s responsible for rescuing animals that are stolen from the rainforest. The zoo is on 36,000 square meters of forest inside the Jungle Warfare Instructional Center (CIGS), where service members specializing in combat in a jungle environment are based. Colonel Jorge Teixeira created the zoo in 1967 as part of the Jungle Operations Course (COS), which also teaches students jungle survival skills, the behavior of animals that live in the rain forest, and how to protect them. “Cunhã fed exclusively on cat food until she was 2 years old to correct a deficiency in taurine, an amino acid that is critical for vision, according to the literature on the subject. Currently, she is living well, and is one of our mascots,” said 1st Lt. Torres Clímaco, a veterinarian who has worked at the zoo since 2012 and who holds a master’s degree in Genetics, Conservation and Evolutionary Biology from the National Institute of Amazonian Research. “The goal is for students to be able to spread the idea of Amazon conservation as they grow up so that future generations will have the same privilege to contemplate the beauty of the rainforest,” according to the Army Social Communications Center. About a year ago, Cunhã lost her sight, likely as a result of the injury she suffered as a cub. The zoo is not authorized to receive animals straight from the rainforest. But officials made an exception with Cunhã so she could undergo an operation to bridge the femoral fracture with an intramedullary pin implant. A month later, she was ready for physical therapy. “When she arrived at our facility, we took X-rays which showed she suffered from a completely fractured femur and a fractured pelvis (ischium). In addition, we realized that her eyes bulged out from her face.” The CIGS Zoo is home to 186 animals from 18 mammal species, 12 bird species, and 11 reptile species, in addition to the 263 fish from 23 species in the aquarium, and are all native to the Amazon. The zoo’s enclosures were built in accordance with IBAMA standards to ensure the animals’ well-being and provide for the needs of each species. For example, the jaguar enclosure has enough space for them to run on and a lake where they can cool off as visitors see them from a catwalk above, or when they walk past the big cats exhibit. By Dialogo December 24, 2015 I love what the Brazilian Army does with our animals of the Amazon. I finished a degree in Natural History through UNISINUS in São Leopoldo due to my love of Nature! At the time, it was one of the most structured courses in Brazil. I had great professors – all with their doctorates from abroad (Germany, Austria, USA, Prague, etc.). My professors were Jesuits. That zoo is impressive. Good refuge for those animals 
“Occasionally, we receive injured animals, and while they are here, they are fed according to their state of health.” Every month 6,000 people visit the zoo, which is open from Tuesday through Sunday. In October – the month when Brazilians celebrate their children on the 12th – the number of visitors rises to 30,000. Meanwhile, each monkey species is kept on a separate island to prevent cross-breeding. Each island has ropes and swings to reduce the animals’ stress and give them an outlet to exercise, all as part of the zoo’s environmental enrichment program designed to give the animals a better quality of life while in captivity. The Military opened the zoo to the public in 1969 to spread the idea of animal preservation and conservation. In December 2014, Military authorities opened the Environmental Learning Center (OCA), which holds educational activities on the environment and is open to public schools, especially those in Manaus, along with the zoo and the aquarium. The Military zoo serves as safe haven for jaguars, monkeys, tapirs, sloths, and numerous kinds of birds and Amazonian fish that have been removed illegally from their natural habitats or forced from those regions because of development. “The Army is our partner to receive the animals that are confiscated during searches or are voluntarily surrendered by unregulated breeders,” said environmental analyst Marcelo Garcia, the wildlife manager for the Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute (IPAAM, for its Portuguese acronym), which rescued 541 animals from January to October of this year. Last year, CETAS-AM rescued 567 wild animals – 173 birds, 297 reptiles, and 97 mammals. Zoo provides refuge for nearly 200 animals In addition to shielding the country from outside threats, the Brazilian Army is protecting endangered species by maintaining a zoo in Manaus, the state capital of Amazonas. The animals consume 15 tons of food monthly, and workers make sure their nutritional needs are met by giving them fruit, vegetables, legumes, oils, seeds, and meat, according to First Lieutenant Gisele Torres Clímaco, the CIGS Zoo’s deputy chief responsible for the Amazon Aquarium section. “Cunhã would not have had a chance to survive after her mother was killed, and she could not be raised in a home environment since it is an environmental crime to raise a wild animal in captivity (Law 9,605 dated February 12, 1998). In cases like this, IBAMA analysts understand the animal must live in a zoo, so it can live a dignified life with veterinary care whenever needed.”
By Diálogo December 07, 2020 In early October, Venezuela’s illegitimate National Constituent Assembly (ANC, in Spanish) handed dictator Nicolás Maduro a law that enables him to omit or “disregard” compliance with other laws for the purpose of circumventing sanctions imposed by the international community and bolstering foreign investment.The so-called Anti-blockade Law for National Development and the Guarantee of Human Rights has the explicit purpose of “countering, mitigating, and reducing” the “harmful effects generated by the imposition” of sanctions from the United States and other countries, according to Article 1.Article 19 enables the Maduro-led executive branch to “disregard” legal regulations, in order to “overcome obstacles or compensate for damages” attributed to sanctions, or to “mitigate” international measures “that affect the inflow of foreign exchange.” In Article 26, the Anti-blockade Law contemplates privatizing PDVSA subsidiaries including PDVSA subsidiaries abroad.Maduro has been promoting this law in meetings he held in early November with members of the Chinese state-run investment company CITIC Group, and later with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.“The Anti-blockade Law is a great bet for novel, highly creative partnerships to develop the real, true economy and the wealth that Venezuela can generate and needs,” Maduro said during his meeting with Asian businessmen, state-run TV station Venezolana de Televisión reported.However, the National Assembly, led by lawmaker Juan Guaidó (recognized as Venezuela’s interim president by 60 countries), approved an agreement in mid-October that calls the Anti-blockade Law “non-existent and ineffective” and urges an investigation into those who passed this legislation.“Any person, natural or legal, who makes agreements or negotiations under this paralegal instrument of factual application could be involved in crimes against the nation,” the Parliament warns.Conindustria, a trade association for Venezuelan industries, also rejected the law. The association issued a statement on October 19, warning that now the executive has “unlimited power, bypassing all the regular resources and channels that impose limits and controls, placing itself above the current legal system, which may even be discretionally disregarded.”Against the constitutionVenezuelan lawyer Carlos Figueredo Planchart, a specialist in comparative international law and former legal advisor to several national and international banks, described the Anti-blockade Law as “unconstitutional.” He warned that the regime imposed it to facilitate their actions once they gain control of the legislative branch, after the December 6 elections.“Many contracts require the National Assembly’s legitimate consent, and with this law they want their international partners, such as China, Russia, Iran, and Turkey, to believe that they will get it,” he said.He explained that the purpose of the regulation is to “build trust” among governments that are close to Maduro and businessmen who amassed wealth during the Chavist era, so that they invest in the collapsed national economy.“This law will be a source of money laundering. That is one of the most serious things […]. And they believe this will generate new ways of hiding money,” he warned.Carlos Tablante, former president of the National Commission against Illicit Drug Use (CONACUID, in Spanish) said that, prior to the parliamentary elections, the Anti-blockade Law intends to “expand the base of political support” for the regime among business sectors that, so far, were able to remain neutral or close to the opposition.He said that the regime wants to “legalize gold and diamond extraction in the Mining Arc in order to carry out, with that legal varnish, transactions that have been restricted by the sanctions.”They will attempt to do all this without transparency, something the expert says they are trying to ensure with the ANC-approved regulation.“They want to make the entire administration opaque and turn disclosing commercial operations related to the objectives of this law into political crimes and treason,” he said.
Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York Ali JonesA gunman repeatedly shot and seriously wounded a 23-year-old man who was walking down a street in broad daylight in the victim’s hometown of Freeport four weeks ago, Nassau County police said Thursday.First Squad detectives are asking for the public’s help in finding 20-year-old Ali Jones, also of Freeport, who they alleged fired a handgun at the victim, striking him several times with gunfire on Randall Avenue at 1:10 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4.Jones, who is wanted for attempted murder, fled the scene in a silver Mercedes Benz ML350, police said.Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case.Investigators ask anyone who has any information about the whereabouts of Jones, or anyone with any information about this case to contact Crime Stoppers’ toll free hotline: 1-800-244 TIPS (8477). All callers will remain confidential.
Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York Six days after Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci returned home from military deployment, he apologized for the toxic dumping scandal that erupted in his absence and blasted subordinates for letting it happen.Croci, who said he visited Roberto Clemente Park in Brentwood—where carcinogen-tainted soil was first found in March—after his return from serving overseas on Wednesday, also rattled off a list of directives in his plan to mitigate the growing crisis and regain public trust.“I apologize on behalf of the Town of Islip for what has transpired in Roberto Clemente Park and in town hall during my deployment,” Croci told reporters Tuesday during a news conference. “The situation is abhorrent. And I share the anger, the embarrassment and the frustration…at the failure of leadership and oversight by some in our town while I was overseas.”Croci, a U.S. Navy reservist who was serving as a commander in Afghanistan for the past year, said he had learned of the criminal investigation into illegal dumping in the town from news reports while he was deployed. The Republican had left a non-voting appointee and the GOP-majority town board in charge while he was away.Before the supervisor returned, the town council had fired the parks commissioner, hired a private environmental consulting firm to test the park, bonded $6 million to pay for the clean up and scrambled to find alternate locations for summer recreation programs.Among his first moves upon returning, Croci ended the informal practice of having individual town board members serve as liaisons to specific departments. All board members will be responsible for all departments, he said. Councilman Anthony Senft, a Conservative who is running for state Senate, had been the parks liaison.Croci also ordered the town parks and planning departments to devise a plan to clean up the park. He additionally directed his staff to coordinate with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on their response, requested a review of the town ethics policy and signed an order that extends the emergency declaration allowing him to expedite remediation.The ethics policy review, Croci said, will “include enhancing financial disclosure filings and increased penalties for any employees engaging in political activities on town time or town property.” In addition, he said sales of properties by the town will be conducted by a joint team consisting of town attorney’s office, planning department and comptroller’s office with oversight by town supervisor’s staff.“No elected official shall have any day-to-day involvement in the negotiations for the sale of town property,” he said.He also told reporters that while he was away, his campaign manager donated to charity funds given to the supervisor’s re-election campaign by the owners of a company reportedly linked to the dumping.Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota has said that his office expects the number of dump sites to grow as the probe continues and that he believes the environmental crimes were committed by the same culprit—but he has yet to name a suspect. Charges have yet to be filed.Prosecutors and the DEC have been jointly investigating the illegal dumping of soil containing asbestos, banned pesticides such as DDT and other toxins in the Brentwood Park, two sites in Central Islip—including a veteran’s housing complex—and wetlands in Deer Park.County officials have also declared a state of emergency for the park and have been offering alternate recreation program locations. The state attorney general’s office has additionally been monitoring the situation while others call for federal investigators to get involved.“What I need to do right now is make sure that the government is stabilized and in a position to very swiftly deal with this recovery effort,” Croci said. “The Town of Islip is committed to fixing this.”
Post by US National Weather Service New York NY. Due to Flooding the following #longisland #nysparks are currently closed: Belmont Lake, Bethpage, Hither Hills and Brentwood State Parks.— NY State Parks (@NYstateparks) August 13, 2014In Islip, one of the hardest-hit areas, Supervisor Tom Croci urged residents to stay off all roadways as the town continues the recovery process. “Town personnel and equipment have been dispatched and will work round-the clock to ensure the health, safety and welfare of our residents,” said Croci, who declared a state of emergency in the town. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine warned residents that although rainwater has receded throughout the day, the ground in many areas was saturated and could potentially cause sinkholes, like this one in Bay Shore, collapse cesspools and uproot trees. “In the wake of the historic rainfall we experienced this morning, I have declared a State of Emergency in the Town of Brookhaven,” Romaine said. “This unprecedented weather event has caused significant damage to a number of homes and buildings in our Town.” State police also announced Wednesday afternoon that all Long Island parkways previously closed due to the storm are now open. Cuomo’s office said a Department of Financial Services’ mobile command center would be set up Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Islip Town Hall parking lot located at 401 Main Street to provide insurance assistance to homeowners, renters, and businesses affected by the flooding. -With Timothy Bolger 1030am: NO more flash flood warnings in effect. Flooding issues will continue until the water can recede. STAY SAFE! Only light rain left.— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) August 13, 2014The North Babylon Fire Department deployed brush trucks, which were originally designed to battle brush fires, to access idle vehicles swallowed up by the record rainfall, said Bellone, adding that on the Southern State Parkway some cars were “actually floating down the highway.” In some areas, first responders also utilized rafts to reach drivers stuck on local roadways. Lt. Tim Harrington of the North Babylon Fire Department described a harrowing scene at the Belmont Lake State Park exit along the Southern State Parkway. When he arrived, he spotted some cars that were completely submerged or on the side of the road. Firefighters waded through a quarter-mile stretch of the highway and pulled people out of their vehicles, he said. Some were panicking. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Harrington said, adding that upwards of 50 people were rescued. “They did amazing job,” added Bellone. Officials and forecasters said they were caught off-guard by the ferocious storm. Bellone defended the county’s response. “I wouldn’t say anything went wrong,” he said at the press conference in response to a reporter’s question. “This was an unprecedented and unpredicted event,” he reiterated, touting first responders’ “incredible response.” The one fatality came on the Long Island Expressway at 5 a.m. when the driver of a Jeep Liberty crashed into a tractor trailer and was engulfed in flames, officials said. The driver has yet to be identified. The deluge came as a shock to first responders and local officials across Long Island.Bellone called it “unprecedented and unpredicted,” several times, adding that “hundreds of vehicles [are] stranded on roadways across the county.” “Hundred-year storms happen with regularity,” he said, referring to tropical storms and hurricanes, “this was a 500-year storm.” Bellone was joined by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s secretary Larry Schwartz, who is also a former chief deputy of Suffolk County. Cuomo is currently touring Israel, but Bellone still thanked the governor, who dispatched Schwartz to help with the recovery efforts.“Gov. Cuomo is very aware of what’s going on,” Schwartz said. “We are bringing all state assets to bear.” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (center), flanked by Babylon Town Supervisor Rick Shaffer (left) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo Secretary Larry Schwartz (right), updates the press on the record-breaking storm that hit Long Island early Wednesday. (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)The state has 400 maintenance staff working in affected areas, pumping water from roadways and clearing debris carried by floodwaters from drainage gates and recharge basins. Crews are also assessing road damage, the governor’s office said. The State Department of Environmental Conservation has also closed shellfish harvesting areas in most towns in Nassau and Suffolk counties as a precaution. Bellone and Schwartz also thanked first responders for risking injury to rescue stranded motorists. Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York Hundreds of abandoned cars were littered across local roadways and dozens of panicked motorists had to be rescued from submerged vehicles during an “unprecedented and unpredicted” storm that dumped a record-breaking amount of rainfall on Long Island, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said. Standing in front of the North Babylon Fire Department Wednesday afternoon, Bellone told reporters that the storm contributed to one death on the Long Island Expressway and left countless homes and streets flooded across the county. “Unfortunately we’ve had another historic, extreme weather event,” he said, joined by firefighters who hours earlier waded through waist-high water on the Southern State Parkway to rescue drivers—some of whom were panicked—trapped in a sea of rainwater. Bellone also announced that he declared a state of emergency at 8 a.m. The epic storm swept across Long Island early Wednesday and dumped more than 13 inches of rain on Islip, and more than 10 inches in West Islip, Bay Shore and Holbrook. RELATED: Dramatic Photos of Record-Breaking Rainfall on Long IslandParts of Nassau County—Massapequa, Wantagh, Merrick—measured more than 6 inches of rain, but Suffolk appeared to have taken the brunt of the storm. “When the big trucks went through, I followed,” said Marcos Mercado, a mechanic whose Mustang was stuck driving in floodwater on Union Boulevard in Islip for seven hours before he pushed it out and got it started. “I’m safe, that’s all that matters.”The storm eclipsed a record for rainfall in one 24-hour period that was set in August 2011 during Tropical Storm Irene. That storm dropped 11.6 inches in upstate Tannersville. Islip measured 11.26 inches as of 9:30 a.m., the National Weather Service said. 
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WBNG) — The Elmira Police Department says a traffic stop led to the arrest of a Pennsylvania man on Saturday evening. Police say two other Elmira officers arrived at the scene to assist. Officers on the scene say as Seeley was being questioned, he punched the investigating officer in the face. Officials say he then began to “struggle” with the assisting officers. The 39-year-old was taken to the ground but he put one of the officers into a choke-hold. Attempted assault in the 2nd degreeResisting arrestCriminal possession of a controlled substance in the 7th degreeAggravated unlicensed operation in the 2nd degree Patrick Seeley is faced with the following charges: Elmira police say an officer used pepper spray to prevent Seeley from suffocating the other officer. He was immediately taken into custody. The Elmira Police tell us that the officer who initially responded was taken to Arnot Ogden Hospital for medical treatment. An Elmira officer stopped 39-year-old Patrick Seeley of Millerton, Pa. in the area of the 400 block of Mt. Zoar St. Police say while further investigating, the officer found that Seeley’s license had been suspended multiple times in New York State. Officials say the officer then asked him to exit the vehicle for further investigation. Seeley was arraigned in the Elmira City Court and released with a future court date.
– Advertisement – That’s all for this week’s episode of Orbital, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. 
Pranay Parab Pranay is in charge of podcasts and videos at Gadgets 360. Over the years, he has written over 500 tutorials on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac. He has also written in-depth reported features on the intersection of technology and culture, reviewed fitness wearables, been the social media manager, started two podcasts, and produced several tech videos. He loves travelling, particularly to places not frequented by tourists. He keeps running half-marathons across the country and hopes to complete …More Related Stories- Advertisement – Having reviewed the Mi TV 4A Horizon Edition, we decided to speak about budget TVs and which one you should buy. Audio and TV expert Ali Pardiwala joins host Pranay Parab to discuss all things budget TVs. We begin this episode by talking about what to expect from the Mi TV 4A Horizon Edition and whether you should buy this TV. We start off by talking about picture quality and what you can reasonably expect from this TV and then we mention whether this is the ideal smart TV for most people. Next, we talk about the TV’s remote and which features are missing even now. This is when we bring up the TV’s performance and how the company can improve it. Ever wondered why budget phones have 8GB RAM but similarly priced TVs have just 1GB RAM? We answer that question on this episode.Next we talk about Realme and OnePlus’ TVs in this price segment. This is where we tell you what features to consider before making a choice between these budget TVs, in order to help you narrow down models and pick the one that’s absolutely perfect for you. We talk about sound quality towards the end of this podcast and discuss whether you should go for a TV with front firing speakers. Finally we mention which TVs we’d buy in this price range and why that decision depends a lot on the content we’re watching.- Advertisement –
Jul 17, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials are proposing to list the virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) as a select agent, which means that dozens of laboratories possessing it will have to register with the government and adopt various security measures.Agents are added to the federal list of “select agents and toxins” if the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regards them as potentially posing a severe threat to public health and safety.The proposal regarding the SARS-associated coronavirus was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a Jul 13 Federal Register notice. The agency said the designation is needed because the virus is potentially fatal and easily spread, there is no vaccine or effective treatment for it, and it can persist in the environment.The World Health Organization counted 8,098 cases and 774 deaths in the SARS epidemic of 2003. The virus spreads mainly by respiratory droplets, but people also can become infected by touching contaminated surfaces, the CDC notice says.CDC records show that 138 entities, most of them commercial, currently possess the SARS virus, and 73 of them are already registered with the Select Agent Program of either HHS or the US Department of Agriculture, the notice says. That means 65 labs or facilities will need to register if the virus is listed as a select agent.Besides registering with the program, those groups will have to provide adequate biosafety and physical security measures, screen personnel with access to the virus, and meet record-keeping requirements, the CDC says.The average cost for a facility to register with the CDC and comply with the regulations is estimated to range from $15,300 to $170,000, the notice says. Under the proposal, facilities would have 180 days to comply with the regulations, once the final rule is published.The CDC is inviting the public to comment on the proposal by Sep 11, but it says comments received after that may still be considered. Comments on the proposal should be marked “SARS-CoV” and e-mailed to SAPcomments@cdc.gov (link sends e-mail), the agency said.