Furbies are for real!!
November 21st, 2008 by renee.manning
Doesn’t this wide-eyed primate look just like a Furbie??? It’s a clawed fur ball that’ll fit snugly in one hand – and it’s thought to have been extinct for the past 80 years!! Until now. Scientists recently trapped three of them on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi…
The pygmy tarsier, or Tarsius pumilus, weighs about 50 grams (1.7 ounces), and has dense fur, large, protruding eyes. Along with looking like a living, breathing Furbie, this little guy could have also appeared in “Gremlins.”
They’re nocturnal — and they bite!!
Local film lovers save Mayfair
November 19th, 2008 by renee.manning
- written by Denis Armstrong (Sun Media) and posted in today’s Ottawa Sun:
The Mayfair Theatre is getting a sequel.
Ottawa independent filmmaker Lee Demarbre and a team of self-professed “local film-loving investors” including screenwriter Ian Driscoll, Mayfair projectionist Paul Gordon and entrepreneur John Yemen, have leased the 76-year-old movie house for 10 years and promise to return it to its former glory.
Demarbre plans to screen first-run art-house films, foreign and independent features, vintage classics, local independents and a late-night series of B-grade and genre curiosities when the Mayfair reopens on Jan. 2, 2009.
Not only will the Mayfair screen movies you can’t see at the suburban cineplex, he also plans to make the theatre a more comfortable place to experience the latest technology with new video projection equipment and Dolby sound system, plush new seating, beer and wine service, ushers and audience participation events.
“We want to make going to the movies an event again,” Demarbre said yesterday.
You can expect to see all of Demarbre’s own films such as Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace,
*Jesus Christ - Vampire Hunter (*renee’s note: I’m an extra in this one!!!), his documentary Vampiro, which was released in October, and his latest, Smash Cut, which will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
The Mayfair was scheduled to close on Nov. 30 to make way for a proposed condominium. It will be closed all of December for renovations and will reopen on Jan. 2 with a party and open house.
Details on the theatre’s revival will be posted on www.mayfairtheatre.ca next week.
Built in 1932, the Mayfair features a painted ceiling, ornamental plaster facades and faux balconies. The building was declared a heritage site by city council on Oct. 8.
No “hoppily ever after”…
November 13th, 2008 by renee.manning
According to ONE report posted Thurs Nov11, 2008:
A sad end to the search for Wendell the Wallaby.
He’s been found dead in a field about 15 kilometres from Saunders Country Critters in Kemptville, where he escaped from a few weeks ago during a storm.
A volunteer searcher found his body Thursday morning, and it’s now been taken to a vet for an autopsy.
Our thoughts are with his owners, Carla and Gary Saunders
Lessons learned…
November 12th, 2008 by renee.manning
“Did a Bone Marrow Transplant Cure a Cancer Patient of AIDS?”
November 12th, 2008 by renee.manning
~ posted Nov7, 2008 at 8:35am in the Wall Street Journal by Jacob Goldstein:
A 42-year-old man who had both leukemia and AIDS received a bone marrow transplant — a common, late-stage treatment for that type of cancer. His doctor selected a bone marrow donor who had a rare genetic mutation that renders people virtually immune to HIV. The transplant appeared to cure the patient of AIDS.
We’re as wary as the next guy of inferring too much from a single case study. Maybe it was a fluke; maybe there were unknown factors at work. But this one is pretty intriguing.
The case was presented at a conference earlier this year, and written up Nov7 in WSJ.
As is common for bone marrow transplant recipients, the patient first had radiation and chemotherapy, which tends to kill off many of the immune cells that harbor HIV. After the transplant, the patient’s immune system was repopulated by cells created by the donor marrow.
The donor had a mutation, present in about 1% of Europeans, that creates immune system cells that lack a receptor molecule called CCR5. That receptor plays an important role in HIV’s ability to enter the cell. (Pfizer’s HIV drug Selzentry works by blocking CCR5.)
So the patient’s immune system was repopulated with immune cells that carried the mutation. And, nearly two years after undergoing the transplant, he shows no signs of having any HIV left in his body — despite the fact that he hasn’t taken any AIDS drugs since before the transplant.
Perhaps the most important caveat is just how risky bone marrow transplantation is: It’s given to cancer patients after other treatments fail, and it kills up to 30% of patients.
But researchers hope to apply the apparent lessons of this case to strategies using gene therapy (which carries its own risks) to try to induce the protective mutation in patients with HIV.
David Baltimore, who won a Nobel Prize for research on tumor viruses, has started a company to use gene therapy to target HIV. He calls this case “a very good sign” and a virtual “proof of principle” for gene-therapy approaches.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/11/07/did-a-bone-marrow-transplant-cure-a-cancer-patient-of-aids/
Madonna announces the “big news” in concert…
November 5th, 2008 by renee.manning
In San Diego last night in front of 40,000 people…
In case you missed it… John McCain
November 5th, 2008 by renee.manning
You’ve got to applaud John McCain for his incredibly gracious speech conceding the presidency… I grew a whole new respect for him!
MADD Canada’s Contract for Life
November 2nd, 2008 by renee.manning
At a Halloween party this weekend, one dad told me the story of how he and his son both signed a copy of the Contract for Life through MADD Canada.
Late one night, he got a call from his son saying, “Dad… I’m in Toronto. I’m drunk, and I don’t remember where I parked the car. Can you come and get me?”
Without question, and without any cussing or speeches, the father made the four hour drive there to save his son that night.
They made a promise to be there for each other, and they both lived up to that promise that night — and still do!
I was so moved by the story, I thought I’d share it with you, and maybe you can sign the Contract with someone too.
As MADD Canada describes it…
The Contract for Life is a reality check between friends and family members.
Help your friends and family stay alive by encouraging them to sign the Contract for Life and don’t let them drink and drive!
For your copy of the Contract for Life, click here:
I could survive for 1 minute, 6 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor
October 31st, 2008 by renee.manning
Don’t Vote!
October 30th, 2008 by renee.manning
On Oct14, only an estimated 59.1% of eligible voters cast a ballot in our federal election – the LOWEST voter turnout in Canadian history!!
Maybe we needed a PSA like this to get us off our sofas.
Look who’s telling eligible voters in the US to get out and vote this Tuesday…