Is social media spreading twitching hysteria?
Doctors treating the strange case of nearly 20 teenagers with a twitching disorder in upstate New York say the symptoms may be spreading faster through the girls' own use of Facebook and other forms of social media.
Experts have diagnosed the problem as a form of mass hysteria in which an individual, usually a young woman, becomes ill during a period of stress, and others in the same community, school or workplace begin to show the same physical symptoms.
Last fall, several girls in the small town of LeRoy, N.Y., began complaining of involuntary facial and body twitching that resembled Tourette's syndrome. Since then, a dozen girls from 13 years to 18 years old have been affected, as well as one boy. Read more...
The top 10 H-1B visa users in the U.S.
Offshore outsourcing companies continued to make up the majority of the top 10 H-1B visa users in 2011, according to new government data. These offshore firms have been adding employees by the thousands as their revenues increase.
Cognizant, a New Jersey-based IT services provider with major operations overseas, led the list. The company had 4,222 initial or new visas approved and 1,493 renewal petitions.
Google was last on the list, with 383 new H-1B visas and 232 renewals.
Offshoring is showing signs of being a major political issue this year, but opinions remain divided.
President Barack Obama highlighted it in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. But he hasn't coupled offshore outsourcing with visa usage. One of the leading Republican candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has called for eliminating the H-1B cap and says the cap policy is wrong.
The data for this story comes from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. One list shows new applications for H-1B visas; the second list shows the combined totals for new visas and renewals. A H-1B visa must be renewed every three years. Read more...