Who knew that Stevie Wonder and Martha and the Vendellas had the same beat than Daft Punk’s Lose yourself to dance. Those costumes…. my eyes!
Month: July 2014
Mighty hunters
We’re not exactly sure how, but Pavel, an apartment cat on the 3rd floor of a block of flats, managed to catch a bird. We wrangler it off of him, and now it’s in a newspaper-filled cardboard box on the patio, with some seeds and water. Bean also gave it two sweeties, to apologise for it almost being eaten by our cats.
Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes
This is a first glimpse of an ageing Sherlock Holmes, as played by Sir Ian McKellen in upcoming film Mr Holmes. McKellen tweeted: “Over 70 actors have previously played Sherlock Holmes. Now he’s 93 years old and it’s my turn. #MrHolmes,”.
McKellen, actually a sprightly 75, is playing almost 20 years older in the adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, which sees a retired, elderly Holmes eeking out his remaining years in a remote Sussex farmhouse, keeping bees and grappling with his waning mental powers, until a 50-year-old unsolved case returns to haunt him.
I’m all official :)
I recently celebrated my 1st year anniversary at the NIHS, and now I have shiny new business cards :)
A box of forgotten smallpox vials was just found in a closet. Sleep well, citizen.
The last remaining strains of smallpox are kept in highly protected government laboratories in Russia and at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. And, apparently, in a dusty cardboard box in an old storage room in Maryland. The CDC said today that government workers had found six freeze-dried vials of the Variola virus, which causes smallpox, in a storage room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland last week. Each test tube had a label on it that said “variola,” which was a tip-off, but the agency did genetic testing to confirm that the viruses were, in fact, smallpox.
According to the agency, the virus was freeze dried and sealed in melted glass and the samples have been in storage since the 1950s. Smallpox can be deadly even after it is freeze-dried, but the virus usually has to be kept cold to remain alive and dangerous. The Food and Drug Administration had been using the building where the samples were found since 1972, six years before smallpox killed its last person.
“The vials appear to date from the 1950s. Upon discovery, the vials were immediately secured in a CDC registered select agent containment laboratory in Bethesda,” Benjamin Haynes, a CDC spokesperson, said. “There is no evidence that any of the vials labeled Variola have been breached, and onsite biosafety personnel have not identified any infectious exposure risk to lab workers or the general public.”
Haynes said that the CDC did emergency genetic testing of the strains to confirm that they were smallpox. It’s currently doing further tests to determine whether the strains are still virulent, which could take up to two weeks. “After completion of this testing, the samples will be destroyed,” he said. He said the FBI is currently helping the CDC investigate how the original samples were prepared and why they were stored in the building.
“The laboratory was among those transferred from NIH to the FDA in 1972, along with the responsibility for regulating biologic products,” Haynes said. “The FDA has operated laboratories located on the NIH campus since that time. Scientists discovered the vials while preparing for the laboratory’s move to the FDA’s main campus.”
If you’re not sure why this is such a big deal, it’s because smallpox killed some 300 million people in the 20th century alone, and is the only human infectious disease that has ever been eradicated—a process that took the greater part of the 19th and 20th centuries. WHO declared smallpox eradicated back in 1979, but two strains of the virus are kept for further testing in extremely secure labs in Atlanta and in Russia.
Those strains were supposed to be destroyed multiple times—first in 1993 and then in 1999. But researchers in both Russia and the United States wanted to hold onto the virus to continue researching it. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, said that keeping the virus was important because there could be unknown stocks of the virus out there somewhere. Little did she know, some of those stocks happened to be in a government building:
“Although keeping the samples may carry a minuscule risk, both the United States and Russia believe the dangers of destroying them now are far greater,” she wrote in a New York Times op-ed in 2011. “It is quite possible that undisclosed or forgotten stocks exist.
It was the second recent incident in which a government health agency appeared to have mishandled a highly dangerous germ. Last month, a laboratory safety lapse at the CDC in Atlanta led the agency to give scores of employees antibiotics as a precaution against anthrax.
In at least one other such episode, vials of smallpox were found at the bottom of a freezer in an Eastern European country in the 1990s, according to Dr. David Heymann, a former World Health Organization official who is now a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Heymann said it is difficult to say whether there might be other forgotten vials of smallpox out there. He said that when smallpox samples were consolidated for destruction, requests were made to ministers of health to collect all vials. “As far as I know, there was never a confirmation they had checked in with all groups who could have had the virus,” he said.
Cats, or Happy Birthday Katy!
Andrew Lloyd Webber is preparing to bring his 1980s hit musical “Cats” back to London’s West End for a limited run. Webber announced plans this week to revive “Cats”, his 1981 show based on poet T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”, for a 12-week run beginning on Dec. 6. The musical was the fourth longest-running in London when it closed in 2002 on its 21st birthday. “I think it’s just a great opportunity for us to get a second edition … with this show I think it would be great just to have a go at it again and give it a bit of a rethink,” he said at a launch event held in a London theatre on Monday. Over the years, the show has attracted many stars to its cast, including Elaine Paige, Wayne Sleep, Bonnie Langford and Brian Blessed. The original show’s director Sir Trevor Nunn said: “There’s a whole new generation of kids who haven’t seen it or discovered it.”
And I bought two tickets for Katy and I to see it over the holidays :)
Pink Floyd to release a new album in 2014
David Gilmour’s wife has revealed that Pink Floyd will release a new album this October. The Endless River is the group’s first album since 1994’s The Division Bell, and was reportedly inspired by the same recording sessions. Polly Samson, who married Gilmour in 1994, unveiled Pink Floyd’s secret plans on her Twitter account. In addition to announcing the album’s title and release date, she referred to the record as “Rick Wright’s swansong”. Wright, who co-founded Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, died in 2008.
Vocalist Durga McBroom-Hudson, who has toured with Gilmour and Pink Floyd, subsequently shared some further details. “The recording did start during The Division Bell sessions (and yes, it was the side project originally titled The Big Spliff that Nick Mason spoke about),” she wrote on Facebook. “David and Nick have gone in and done a lot more since then.” That “Big Spliff” session was described in Mason’s memoir Inside Out, where he called it “ambient mood music” akin to “bands like the Orb”.
According to McBroom-Hudson, The Endless River “was originally to be a completely instrumental recording”. But Gilmour gradually changed his mind, inviting McBroom-Hudson to record backup vocals last December and adding more singing since then. Gilmour has “done a lead on at least one [track],” she said, and Samson, who co-wrote seven of The Division Bell’s tracks, described herself on Twitter as one of The Endless River’s lyricists.
Land of the free and home of the brave… my ass.
Ok. So, lets get this straight. The long arm of US paranoia means that my airport experience will get even more fun. Fuck you, Uncle Sam.
US enhanced airport security checks target electronics
American officials have ordered some overseas airports with direct flights to the US to intensify screening of electronic devices. Transport officials said in a statement passengers could be asked to switch on devices, and equipment that does not power up would not be allowed on board. An official told the BBC that London’s Heathrow was among the airports.
The US announced new security measures last week, apparently in response to a terror threat, but gave no details. Analysts say the changes appear to be in response to intelligence that Islamic militants in Syria and Yemen are developing bombs that could evade airport security. American officials said earlier that there was a “credible” threat, but did not link the security changes to any specific intelligence.
The US does not directly control security at overseas airports. But airlines and airports are obliged to meet security standards set by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in order to carry on operating non-stop flights. The TSA’s statement for the first time gave details of enhanced screening of electronic equipment. “During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones,” it said. “Powerless devices will not be permitted on board the aircraft. The traveller may also undergo additional screening.” Reuters news agency reported that officials had singled out mobile phones made by Apple and Samsung for extra checks.
The UK, France and Germany have all said they would comply with the American demands. But it is still not clear how many airports will be affected, or if passengers will be delayed.
I think I had that poster for a while…
Athena Tennis Girl poster dress sells for £15k
The white summer dress and other items related to the iconic 1970s Tennis Girl poster have sold for £15,500. Fieldings Auctioneers said dozens were interested in the lot, which had a guide price of £1,000 to £2,000. The image of Fiona Butler, 18, at the University of Birmingham’s courts in 1976 was printed by Athena and sold more than two million copies. The image was taken by the late Martin Elliott, who was the boyfriend of Ms Butler at the time.
The dress was on show at Wimbledon before it was auctioned. The tennis racquet from the photo, the dress, a 1979 poster and a 1980s limited edition canvas print were auctioned on the day of the ladies’ singles final. Fieldings Auctioneers said an anonymous buyer on the phone claimed them following interest from “registered bidders from all over the world”, with the furthest away being in New Zealand.
Human! Continue!
Reenpig was most displeased when Katy stopped with the head stroking and made her feelings known with a disgruntled meow and a withering look of disdain.