News & Current Events

[brokebacktom]

Some good news I hope. A cure for AIDS. Sounds promising.

The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn't an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient's bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html

[KittyHawk]

From the Chicago SunTimes:

Obama and Bush Observe World AIDS Day

What would you recommend that Obama do?
He says he's going to continue the initiative that Bush started in Africa,
but don't you think he needs to do more here in the US, especially in the cities?

[brokebacktom]

From the Chicago SunTimes:

Obama and Bush Observe World AIDS Day

What would you recommend that Obama do?
He says he's going to continue the initiative that Bush started in Africa,
but don't you think he needs to do more here in the US, especially in the cities?

I agree with you.

[CellarDweller115]

Skull of a Young Child Found Near Home of Caylee Anthony's Grandparents

By LEE FERRAN
Dec. 11, 2008


Orange County police today declared the Orlando home of Casey Anthony an "active crime scene" after the skull of a young child was discovered this morning in a wooded area close by. Police speculate that the remains could be those of missing toddler Caylee Anthony, Casey Anthony's daughter.

Sheriff's deputies say the skeletal remains of a small child have been found less than half-mile from the Orlando home of a missing toddler. Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Solomons says a utility worker found the body at 9:32 a.m. today. There is nothing immediately indicating that the bones belong to Caylee Anthony, whose mother Casey Anthony has been charged with her murder.

"It is within close proximity, so there's always that assumption," Carlos Padilla of the Orange County Sheriff's Office told ABC News. "But right now it's just an assumption.

"If we feel the need to go into [the house], we will get a search warrant," he said.

Sheriff Kevin Berry said in a news conference today that he did not know of any other missing children in the area it could be but it is "always a possibility."

Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Solomons said, "Everyone's going to be real quick to connect the dots back to the Anthony case but we're not prepared to do that at this time."

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6441931&page=1

[dejavu]

^^^^^^^

What a shame.

* shakes head *

[michaelflanagansf]

Skull of a Young Child Found Near Home of Caylee Anthony's Grandparents

Once again I'm overwhelmed at the amount of press that this case has generated.  Nancy Grace has been running with this for months.  This is not in any way to diminish the sadness of this little girl's life - or possible death - but in the time that this has been on television we have elected a new president, defeated gay marriage in California, witnessed the death of people in Mumbai (as well as the unreported deaths of those in Afghanistan and Iraq because we've gotten used to that), had the Canadian government come close to falling and continued to witness the destruction of the American economy.  There is a name for this phenomenon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

What is strange about this is that other children go missing and you just don't hear about it - for example have you heard of Giovanni Gonzalez?

http://www.bloggernews.net/117440

http://www.parentsbehavingbadly.com/tag/giovanni-gonzalez/

Or what happened to Tangena Hussain?

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/10/05/missing-in-michigan-tangena-hussain/

And what about Chioma Gray?

http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/11/25/chioma-gray-missing/

Or how about Marissa Lopez?

http://findmarissalopez.facesofthemissing.org/blog/

[CellarDweller115]

LMAO @ Missing White Woman Syndrome.

Michael, have you ever watched "Family Guy"?  There was a episode where they did a small blurb about that.  There was a news reporter talking about a small white girl who was killed in an accident, and all the reporters got wide eyed and held their mics up, and said "aawwwwwwwww", and the person giving the report said he was mistake, and gave out an ethnic name for the child, and the reporters put thier mics down, and started to walk away, saying "well that's not newsworthy".

(the quotes may be off, I don't remember the exact wording used)

What is strange about this is that other children go missing and you just don't hear about it

I think the same can be said for most crimes, however.  I mean, for the gay bashing that gets covered, there are others that don't get mentiond at all.

I think that there are other aspects of a story that will stick out, and bring attention to stories, which cause others to be ignored.

In regards to Caylee, it's not the fact that she disappeared.  It's the fact that her mother waited a month to report her missing, and pics  of her out partying at clubs when she claimed she was looking for Caylee is what put a spotlight on this story, at the expense of the others.

[michaelflanagansf]

I think the same can be said for most crimes, however.  I mean, for the gay bashing that gets covered, there are others that don't get mentiond at all.

Well, for the most part gay bashing and murders of gay people don't get covered in network news sources - unless a designer in Florida dies.

I think that there are other aspects of a story that will stick out, and bring attention to stories, which cause others to be ignored.

In regards to Caylee, it's not the fact that she disappeared.  It's the fact that her mother waited a month to report her missing, and pics  of her out partying at clubs when she claimed she was looking for Caylee is what put a spotlight on this story, at the expense of the others.

Admittedly her mother is a piece of work.  And yes, that may influence the amount of news coverage.  This has been going on now for half a year now, however, and it seems to have lost all perspective (at least that's what I think when I flip by it on the evening news).  Admittedly, it's probably easier to get Americans interested in that than say this:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98135986&ft=1&f=1004

And here's an article that puts that in perspective:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-danelo10-2008dec10,0,3196285.story

What is a shame is that besides Casey Anthony being a hideous mother, what seems to be driving the media coverage of this (particularly on places like Nancy Grace's show) is that she is a photogenic child.  It's much easier to get people to care about something like that than the fact that on our southern border more people are dying in a day in the drug war than die in Iraq or that more die there in a week than died in Mumbai.

It certainly gets a lot more coverage than, for example, the Canadian child soldier that the United States is holding in Guantanamo, Omar Khadr:

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=6fd0c2a9-f1c9-4e99-9484-4a59bd9fb9a9

What I always tend to think in these cases is that a case like Casey and Caylee Anthony (or Scott and Laci Peterson) is something that a lot of people can identify with - 'they look like someone I know, or would see at the supermarket.'

[graylockV]

Under the heading, "I thought he was dead." - Well now he really is.

Actor Van Johnson, '40s heartthrob, dies at 92

NEW YORK – Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92.

Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend.

With his tall, athletic build, handsome, freckled face and sunny personality, the red-haired Johnson starred opposite Esther Williams, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and others during his two decades under contract to MGM.

A heartthrob with bobbysoxers — he was called "the non-singing Sinatra" — Johnson married only once. In 1947 at the height of his career, he eloped to Juarez, Mexico, to marry Eve Wynn, who had divorced Johnson's good friend Keenan Wynn four hours before.

The marriage produced a daughter, Schuyler, and ended bitterly 13 years later. "She wiped me out in the ugliest divorce in Hollywood history," Johnson told reporters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_en_ot/obit_van_johnson

[BayCityJohn]

Actor Van Johnson, '40s heartthrob, dies at 92

NEW YORK – Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92.

Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend.

In his last movie role in 1992, he played Mr. Ranthow in "Clowning Around", a film that featured Heath Ledger as an 'orphan clown'.

[michaelflanagansf]

And Bettie Page died too! 

1950s pinup model Bettie Page dead at 85

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN)  -- Legendary pinup queen Bettie Page died of pneumonia at the age of 85 in a Los Angeles, California, hospital Thursday, a week after suffering a heart attack, according to her agent.

 "She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said agent Mark Roesler in a written statement. "She is the embodiment of beauty."

Page, said to be one of the most photographed people of the past century, became a recluse in recent decades. Yet, her images continued to be used around the world to market Bettie Page action figures, clothing lines and other merchandise.

"Her popularity as an underground, guilty pleasures phenomenon has continued to soar despite the fact that the reclusive Page disappeared almost a half century ago, leading many to believe that one of the most photographed individuals of the 20th century was already dead." Roesler said.

The Web site, BettiePage.com, logs about 20 million hits a month, Roesler said. A TVGuide.com poll recently placed Bettie Page as the "ultimate sex goddess," outscoring others such as Marilyn Monroe.

continues:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/12/bettie.page.obit/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[BayCityJohn]

Obama's true colors: Black, white ... or neither?

A perplexing new chapter is unfolding in Barack Obama's racial saga: Many people insist that "the first black president" is actually not black.

Debate over whether to call this son of a white Kansan and a black Kenyan biracial, African-American, mixed-race, half-and-half, multiracial — or, in Obama's own words, a "mutt" — has reached a crescendo since Obama's election shattered assumptions about race.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_on_re_us/obama_s_not_black

Why can't everyone simply call him "Mr. President"?

[Rosewood]

Van Johnson.
Another one bites the dust.
Pretty soon there'll be NO ONE left from my childhood.
I really did think that when Fred Astaire died, the end would come sooner
rather than later. I just couldn't imagine a world without him in it.
Silly me.
Paul Newman, now Van Johnson.
Fewer and fewer of my ancient icons are left.
Oh well, at least I still have their movies.

[jack]

when oh when will they initiate a 24 hour busby berkley channel?

[Rosewood]

when oh when will they initiate a 24 hour busby berkley channel?

From your lips to God's ears, Jack.
My favorite besides 42nd STREET is the one with Warren Williams.
GOLDIGGERS OF something or other with Ginger Rogers singing 'We're in the
money..." at the height of the depression and a line of chorus girls holding onto 
huge coins if I remember correctly. I dislike Guy Kibbee intensely, but I bear
him in this film for WW who shows me a vulnerability he never would again.

And by the way, wasn't Dick Powell just the most awful of awful leading men?
He always made me cringe.
Still does.
Even as Philip Marlowe later on when they tried to make a man of him.