WTF.

So, a New Zealand biotech company, Living Cell Technologies, began a trial today (Thursday). This is an experimental treatment for Type 1 diabetes, in which 8 VOLUNTEERS will be implanted with cells from newborn pigs. Personally, I can't believe people actually volunteered for this. But they did. And others have volunteered for the same thing in the past. One trial with only 6 patients, and another with 10.

Anyway, the hope is that the cells will be able to delay the effects of the Type 1 diabetes, which include premature coronary illness, limb amputation as a result of poor circulation, and blindness. Agreed, that would be great if those things could all be way delayed. But there's something about implanting pieces of pigs into people that really freaks me the fuck out.

As for the risk of contracting a pig retrovirus infection, Professor Bob Elliott, medical director of Living Cell Technologies, said "there is no evidence of a risk." Hm. Don't care that there's no risk. Still creepy.

So, what happened to the people in the first 2 trials? Elliott said he saw increased insulin production in some subjects. Others, however, reject the pig cells, or the pig cells stopped producing insulin after a year. But, that's only 16 people, so it hardly counts.

Would you volunteer to be implanted with pieces of baby pig?

I have to tell you, when I read this article this morning, I was a bit baffled. I just don't get it.

David Arquette is going to live in a box in New York City. For 2 days he will stay in a Plexiglas box above the Madison Square Garden marquee. This will be Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, I believe. Anyway, he is doing this to raise $250,000 for Feeding America. Donations can be made via text messages or a Facebook page that Mars Inc. (candy people) set up.

So that's all fantastic and everything, but here are the 2 things I don't understand. 1 - he's not really going to be in the box for 2 whole days. He will be in the box for 8 hours a day for 2 days. So that's not really being in a box for 2 days, is it? 2 - a spokesman for Mars said that David Arquette WILL eat during his non-consecutive 16 hours in the box. Um. I may be wrong here, but don't most people who are doing short things like this to raise money for hunger do a fast of some sort? It's only 2 days. Anyone can fast for 2 days.

Anyway, it's a great thing he's doing and it's great that he and Mars are raising money for such a wonderful organization. I just think it's odd. 

Yeah. Really. The Minnesota Twins are selling seats for 10 Tuesday games that are all-you-can-eat seats. Two sections, 232 and 233 are the ones where you can stuff your face for the entire game. Nice.

This is an effort to sell more tickets, obviously, as everyone is getting hit by this recession. But still... are we really that in need of food that we could sit and eat nonstop for an entire baseball game? A hotdog or two, fine. But just pigging out and eating as much as possible? 

On a related topic... CHECK THIS OUT to see 2 maps... one of how fat America was in 1991 and the other of how fat America was in the 2006-2008 timeframe. It's pretty nasty, with places like Alabama and Mississippi leading the way to huge numbers of obese adults! Great. 

Here are the 10 fattest states:

A new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America's health shows adult obesity continues to climb. Michigan is 1.1% more obese since last year's report, moving from 10th to ninth place.

1. ...Mississippi 32.5%

2. ...Alabama 31.2%

3. ...W. Virginia 31.1%

4. ...Tennessee 30.2%

5. ...S. Carolina 29.7%

6. ...Oklahoma 29.5% 

7. ...Kentucky 29.0%

8. ...Louisiana 28.9%

9. ...Michigan 28.8%

10. (TIE) ...Arkansas, Ohio 28.6%

 

College Bound Sisters, a program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro thinks so!

This program is for girls who are ages 12 to 18 who have a desire to go to college and who also have an older sister who got pregnant before she was 18. There is a 90 minute meeting every week where the girls discuss abstinance and how to have safe sex (if they were to choose to have sex). At each meeting, each girl who has made it another week without getting pregnant receives $7 in a fund they can use once they get to college.

Bill Albert, chief program officer at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said "It makes me a bit uneasy. I  do have mixed feelings. It's hard to pay people to do something that we think they should be doing regardless. It would be like if you didn't want young people to experiment with marijuana, you'd pay them not to do it."

Albert also mentioned that currently 3 in every 10 girls in the US get pregnant before the age of 20 and that the associated costs of these pregnancies exceed $9 BILLION annually.

Wow. I had no idea! Anyway, what do you think of this program? Good idea? Bad idea? Indifferent?

JBS Swift has issued a voluntary recall of 41,000 pounds of beef - dang, that's a lot of meat! The recall comes after the possiblity of E.Coli contamination came to light. Though nobody has gotten sick from any of the meat yet, it is a safety precaution. So nice to see VOLUNTARY recalls insted of the forced "oh crap,tons of people are already sick" ones.

The following is all the recall information that has been released:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the products were produced on April 21-22 and were shipped to distributors and retailers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.

All the recalled beef is in boxes bearing "EST. 969" and packaging date codes of 042109 or 042209. They have case codes of 21852, 21853, 31852, 31853, 33852, 33853, 41853, 41853, 79852, 79853 or 90853.

Jane Fonda went in for surgery on her knee on June 16th... she blogged all about it on her website... hope the surgery went well.

From her blog entry titled SO LONG OLD KNEE:

It’s 1:30am. I’m still on Paris time and a little wired about today’s surgery. I go in at 8am??

I’ve been studying my knee–the left one. It’s never been my favorite part of me, partial as I am to the boney variety– elongated, skin close to the bone. Like my dad’s. Picture Christ’s knees in El Greco’s painting of the crucifixion. It’s at the Frick Museum in New York, I think. At least that’s where I first saw it.??

Still, I am growing fond of this left knee now that I have to say goodbye. It’s been a strong, faithful knee. It’s gotten me up a lot of steep mountains and across rugged terrain. For years I ran on it and skied. I am remembering the girlhood scabs from falls off my bike. The splinters and bruises. The kisses too. Vadim liked to kiss my knees. (He was French).??

Hip replacement scars are off to the side and you don’t notice. Knee replacement scars are right there in front–a long dark line straight down the middle that inevitably leaves the knee somewhat misshapen. Liza Minnelli showed me hers back stage at the Tonys when she was demonstrating for me how to walk so the pain wouldn’t show. Bless her heart.

No more short skirts–but then I never wore them much anyway.??

I saw the doc yesterday–straight from the airport. He took X-rays. Yup, need a new one for sure. I’m no hypochondriac.??

Jane Fonda also Twittered about the surgery, saying "Drugs starting to hit. Wheeee. So long left knee. You're toast!"

No joke!

The FDA says Zicam nasal spray could cause consumers to lose their sense of smell! Apparently, about 130 consumers have reported losing their sense of smell after using Zicam products since 1999.

Dr. Charles Lee said "Loss of the sense of smell is potentially life threatening and may be permanent. People without the sense of smell may not be able to detect life dangerous situations, such as gas leaks or something burning in the house."

The FDA said Zicam was never formally approved by them because it's part of a little group of remedies that don't require such approval before launching. Though the FDA has issued a warning letter to Matrixx Initiatives, the manufacturer, asking them to stop marketing zinc-based products. 

Deborah Autor, FDA's druge compliance division director stated "The next step, if they wish to continue marketing Zicam intransal zinc products, is for them to come in and seek FDA approval."

Matrixx Initiatives is facing several lawsuits in regards to the product, but on their website, Matrixx says "No plaintiff has ever won a court case because there is no known causal link between the use of Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and impairment of smell."

Hmm... sounds a bit fishy to me. They know it's an issue... hmmm... really, I think they should be forced to recall until FDA approval has been granted. For reals! I'd be SUPER PISSED if I lost my sense of smell!

THIS article is the one with the great headline!

The article discussing what the New York Times has to say about texting and how horrible it is. According to The New York Times:

The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation. 

Really? I don't know that I get all that anxious when I'm texting. And I definitely leave my phone downstairs when I go to bed, so sleep deprivation isn't an issue. Hmmm... and how is it a distraction in school? I thought most (if not all) schools make students turn their phones off during class. Unless we're talking college here, in which case, I seriously doubt texting is the reason for falling grades... it's more likely that drinking would be the cause of falling grades there.

So, not sure I think this is really a big deal, but the headline is pure hilarity.

2007 was a HUGE year for babies! More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than ever before in this country. Beating out the baby boom of the 1950's.

However, there is a bit of bummer in this news... teen birth rate was up. No... really?! Ugh. Duh. 

Anyway, if you're interested, here's more about the boom.

According to THIS, people's mental abilities begin to dwindle at the ripe old age of freaking 27! WTF?! I am NOT starting to lose it already. Seriously.

Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia did a 7 year study on all this. He used a variety of tests throughout the study and found that in 9 out of 12 tests, top performance was acheived at the age of 22. 

Omg, I can feel myself getting more forgetful by the minute. Crap. 

Salthouse said his findings suggest "some aspects of age-related cognitive decline begin in healthy, educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s."

Age at which there was any marked decline was 27. This is in terms of brain speed, reasoning, and visual puzzle-solving ability.

This is kind of a bummer. Really. Not sure how I feel about this, knowing that my brain is already starting to suck at doing stuff. Any thoughts?