Any non-celebrity news

Real news headlines for today:

Smoking And Caffeine May Protect Against Parkinson's Disease


Cocoa, But Not Tea, May Lower Blood Pressure

Smoking and caffeine may protect against Parkinson's? Who funds these types of studies? Must be someone who smokes a lot and drinks coffee all day. That's just nuts!

Now the one about chocolate....I'll go for that! Since I like chocolate, it must be true.

Four years ago we lost my FIL do to complications from Parkinsons. A truly awful disease. We had been reading about coffee's effects and we all drink at least one cup a day. I had not heard about smoking helping, but agree that that is crazy. Just trading one health risk for several more. I would never put out a study that encourages smoking.

"All great literature is about what a bummer it is to be a human being."

I will make a category tomorrow for dead people...but for now, I will post a link to a long and interesting article/obituary for my beloved Kurt Vonnegut, who died at age 84 having written most of the novels that really shaped my brain in the late 60s and the 70s.

So it goes.

Kurt Vonnegut obit, LA Times




From that article, some Vonnegut quotes:

"Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well-connected."

— "Slaughterhouse-Five," 1969

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"The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings, not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems."

— "Player Piano," 1952

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"Poverty is a relatively mild disease … but uselessness will kill strong and weak souls alike."

— "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater," 1965.

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"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

— "Mother Night," 1962

And another obit from the New York Times

From the NY Times:

Quote:

In “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Mr. Vonnegut introduced the recurring character of Kilgore Trout, his fictional alter ego. The novel also featured a signature Vonnegut phrase. “Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote at the end of the book, “was shot two nights ago. He died last night. So it goes. “Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too. So it goes. And every day my Government gives me a count of corpses created by military science in Vietnam. So it goes.” One of many Zenlike words and phrases that run through Mr. Vonnegut’s books, “so it goes” became a catchphrase for opponents of the Vietnam war.

OMG. This is the first I'm hearing about this. I spent half of 11th-grade honors English writing a report/presentation on Kurt Vonnegut.

I used to read "Welcome to the Monkey House", (a short-story collection), over and over and over and over.

RIP Roscoe Lee Browne. I thought he was just an amazing actor with one of the most wonderful speaking voices ever.

RIP Mr. Vonnegut. Prayers for them and their loved ones, and of course all their fans who will miss them.

The prospect of all-female conception
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 13 April 2007

Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

The rest of the article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2444462.ece

Holy crap! I wonder how men would feel about this. They're already feeling superfluous. Maybe evolution will make us ALL women in a few years.

Here's #3 (since celebs always go in 3's) This is sad for me. I always like this actor a lot.

Quote:

First James Bond actor dead 10:26PM / 13.04.2007 Actor Barry Nelson dies at 89 LOS ANGELES - Barry Nelson, an MGM contract player during the 1940s who later had a prolific theater career and was the first actor to play James Bond on screen, has died. He was 89. Nelson died on April 7 while traveling in Bucks County, Pa., his wife, Nansi Nelson, said Friday. The cause of death was not immediately known, she said. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1941, Nelson was signed to MGM after being spotted by a talent scout. He appeared in a number of films for the studio in 1942, including "Shadow of the Thin Man," "Johnny Eager" and "Dr. Kildare's Victory." He also landed the leading role in "A Yank on the Burma Road," playing a cab driver who decides to lead a convoy of trucks for the Chinese government. Nelson entered the Army during World War II and went on the road with other actors performing the wartime play "Winged Victory," which was later made into a movie starring Red Buttons, George Reeves and Nelson. After the war, Nelson starred in a string of movies, including "Undercover Maisie," "Time to Kill" and "Tenth Avenue Angel." He is the answer to the trivia question: Who was the first actor to play James Bond? Before Sean Connery was tapped to play the British agent on the big screen in 1962's "Dr. No," Nelson played Bond in a one-hour TV adaptation of "Casino Royale" in 1954. Nelson switched to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on Broadway in "Seascape" "Mary, Mary" and "Cactus Flower." He earned a Tony nomination in 1978 for his role in "The Act," which also starred Liza Minnelli. "He was a very naturalistic, believable actor," said his agent, Francis Delduca. "He was good at both comedy and the serious stuff." Among his other film credits were "Airport" and "The Shining," and he also appeared on such TV shows as "Murder, She Wrote," "Dallas" and "Magnum P.I." More recently, Nelson and his second wife (they married in 1992) spent a lot of time traveling. He planned to write a couple of books about his time on stage and in Hollywood. Nelson is survived by his wife. He did not have any children from either marriage. Funeral arrangements were pending.

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Peace and love