A pill for couch potatoes

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 12, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a couch potato's dream: Instead of sweating and straining, people someday may simply pop a pill to get in shape, say researchers who have identified how muscle cells get stronger from regular exercise.

Researchers at Duke University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have found the chemical pathway that muscle cells use to build up their strength and endurance. With this basic knowledge in hand, it may now be possible to develop a pill that pumps up muscle cells without all that exercise, said Dr. R. Sanders Williams, dean of the Duke University of School of Medicine. "That may be one of the possibilities," said Williams.

But, as a physician, Williams said he the main target of the research is to help people with heart disease or other conditions that keep them from doing enough exercise to remain healthy. "This could lead to drugs that will let people get the health benefits of regular exercise, even if they cannot exercise," said Williams. This could improve the health of patients with heart or lung disease, or lower the risk of diabetes II, for instance.

"It is possible it could become a drug of abuse because it would enhance the performance of athletes," he said.

In pursuit of fake clothes

FORT WORTH (NYT) -- Almost every day for the past five years, Monty Drake and Associates has been taking a crack at a multimillion- dollar illicit business -- counterfeit clothing, shoes and accessories. One of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, counterfeiting leaves legitimate apparel companies with losses as high as $81 million annually, according to the U.S. Customs Service and Oakley, a manufacturer of sunglasses. Losses in sales because of counterfeiting could easily be in the billions, apparel officials said, although comprehensive statistics are unavailable.

Drake's agency is one of the few in Texas hired by corporations such as Oakley and Abercrombie & Fitch to pursue counterfeiters who sell fake designer-name merchandise. On a recent morning at his office, Drake sorted 2,000 pairs of fake Oakley sunglasses seized at a Dallas warehouse. Nearby, Joel Voyles had just gotten off the telephone with police about an undercover buy of imitation Oakley sunglasses at a Haltom City convenience store. Other employees were scattered throughout Texas on this recent morning, on the trail of counterfeit dealers at convenience stores, at the side of the road and at shopping centers.

In a few hours, Drake and his workers would field more than a dozen calls from lawyers representing Nike, Oakley, Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger. Then, the team would speed off throughout Texas, tracking down counterfeit goods.

"I don't like to be called bounty hunters," Drake said. But they are known as the Oakley PIs or the Oakley investigators because they have seized thousands of pairs of fake Oakley sunglasses in recent years.

Police departments don't have enough officers to investigate all counterfeiting cases, so Drake has been busy since he started the company five years ago. Today, the 36-year-old Fort Worth native has 10 associates and a handful of informants in Texas, Oklahoma and Florida. The goods they seize include sunglasses, clothes, shoes, watches and baseball caps.

Last year, 1.5 million fake Oakley products, primarily sunglasses, valued at $24 million were seized by local, national and international law enforcement agencies, Oakley officials said. In 2000, authorities confiscated 737,000 counterfeit Oakley products valued at $11 million.

Those were the days

NEW YORK (AP) -- Today is the 102nd day of 2002. There are 263 days left in the year. Here are some business and legal highlights from this date in history:

In 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

In 1862, Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Ga., but were later caught. (This episode inspired the Buster Keaton comedy The General.)

In 1934, Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published.

In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight.

In 1985, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off.

Ten years ago: After five years in the making, Euro Disneyland, a theme park costing $4 billion, opened in Marne-La-Vallee, France, amid controversy as French intellectuals bemoaned the invasion of American pop culture.

A new way to confuse, entertain

NEW YORK (NYT) -- It looks like a folding wireless phone, acts like the multimedia player on a high-end hand-held organizer and will probably make waiting around much more entertaining. Flipster, by PoGo Products, is a pocket-size entertainment center that can play and display many kinds of standard media formats, including MP3 audio files, MPEG-4 video clips and JPEG digital picture files.