Every year millions of people get a flu shot. The next year they get another flu shot, and then another one and so on. People have to get flu shots every year because the flu vaccine targets proteins on the outer shell of the flu virus, and since the genetic code for these proteins mutates frequently, the proteins change frequently. It’s a shell game, so to speak (ahem).

What if we develop a new flu vaccine that targets something that doesn’t change so much from year to year? In that case, all we need is get the flu shot once. It would last pretty much forever!

Researchers at Oxford University are beginning human trials of this very thing. The experimental flu vaccine targets viral proteins that are expressed after the flu virus invades human cells. These proteins rarely change, and interestingly (if you’re an immunologist) they trigger a cell-mediated immune response rather than an antibody-mediated response.

Exciting stuff, but this is not happening any time soon. Since human safety trials are just beginning, we’re talking a minimum 4-8 years before any universal flu vaccine could make it to market.

Ukraine won 27 medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, good for 10th place overall. It’s the same size as France and has a population of 46 million. It shares a long border with Russia. Pipelines coursing through the country ferry natural gas from Russia to Western Europe.

Like the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and like the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine features a pro-Western government.

As I mentioned here, here and here, it’s not good to be like the Republic of Georgia these days.

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It’s been 56 years since a party holding the White House nominated a person that is not currently the President or Vice President. Why is this happening now?

McCain told us in an ad he ran last month, “We’re worse off now than we were four years ago.” He then attempts to anoint himself as an agent of change, but that’s tough to do because he voted with Bush 90% of the time over the last four years.

We admire John McCain, but we care about the future not the past. And for that, there’s no there there with this man: Cut spending, he declares (crowd applauds)! Cut taxes (crowd cheers)! And his big idea? Cut earmarks (crowd becomes hysterical)!

Do the math Mr. McCain. Making the Bush tax cuts permanent would reduce federal tax revenues by a trillion dollars in the next 4 years. If we eliminate every single earmark (including the one Sarah Palin wants to build that gas pipeline in Alaska), we save $75 billion. Where’s the rest of the money coming from?