The cautions have had scant effect: Use of the drugs has risen among older people, even though they are particularly vulnerable to the drugs' ill effects.
The allied airstrikes, coupled with the highly publicized troop deployments, appear to have had scant effect so far on President Saddam Hussein's decisions on Iraqi troop movements.
In response, the antigay-marriage National Organization for Marriage called in March for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks that so far seems to have had scant effect.
Wall Street welcomed the news of the tentative settlement, which investors appeared to read as having scant effect on Microsoft and as removing a lingering cloud over its future.
New employment data, which had scant effect on the stock market, was also largely set aside by the bond market, which tends to rise on poor economic news that portends lower interest rates.
Heather Barr, an Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that there was a cultural tolerance for violence against women and impunity for men who committed it, and that recent efforts to protect women had had scant effect.
But that has had scant effect on her energy level in pursuit of her current cause: persuading Metro-North Railroad to build elevators on each side of the Hartsdale station, so people in wheelchairs can cross the tracks via an enclosed pedestrian overpass -- and, she says, get home safely.
Federal research zeroing in on particular programs has also shown lukewarm results, however: Although an Oklahoma program showed promise, other classes had scant effect on whether unmarried couples had better relationships or stayed together.
