"Picture this, that you lived in a community in which your friends slowly started to die all around you and you couldn't get anyone in any position of authority...to pay attention, " said Larry Kramer, a playwright who became one of the foremost anti-AIDS activists.

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Second, see if your plan has a contribution rate escalator, which allows you to have your contributions slowly raised periodically until you reach your target contribution rate. (Of course, it only takes a few minutes each year to do the same thing manually on your own.) Going from 6% to 15% (which many retirement experts recommend as a target saving rate) may sound impossible, but how about a 1% increase?

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Most bizarre was the smart spoon, which is designed to encourage you to eat more slowly - if you spoon food into your mouth rapidly the spoon handle throbs with a warning signal.

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Second, prostate cancer tends to grow very slowly, which means it might not kill you--or if it does, it will happen much later in life.

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Depending on which version of an enzyme gene you have, you might metabolize a drug quickly or slowly.

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