"Two Thumbs Up!!" : Annie Proulx

Here is a review written by Annie Proulx. 'nuf said.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Virus

I've been closely following the case of Andrew Stimpton, the British man who claims to have been cleared of the HIV virus.

While the claims have yet to be backed up with irrefutable scientific proof, if it indeed is true, it would be an unprecedented event. Till date, there has been no proven case of spontaneous clearance of the virus. As of right now, there just isn't enough evidence either way.

Last week the NHS went on record to say that Andrew probably never had HIV in the first place, and he was the unfortunate victim of a testing error.

Scientists have reason to be sceptical about Andrew, and I'll outline why this is the case.

In August 2002, Andrew complained of flu like symptoms and general malaise, and his doctor recommended a HIV test. At that point, Andrew had been engaging in protected sex with his HIV+ve partner. The test came back ambiguous, and the doc recommended another test after a few months. This test came back positive.

Andrew gave up using protection during sex with his partner, and received no treatment. After 14 months, another, more sensitive HIV test, came back negative. Three subsequent tests came back negative as well. Andrew decided to sue the hospital for their earlier false positive test, but DNA testing of his prior samples identified them as his.

This is the extent of what has been covered by the media. As you can see, there is a definite lack of scientific information available, and there has been unnecessary sensationalism. What is needed is a clear explanation of the facts.

The typical, routinely performed HIV test is the ELISA. This detects the useless antibodies produced against the virus. The caveat here is that the antibodies take several weeks to develop after infection, and it's very possible for someone to be HIV+ve and have an initial negative result. This is what was assumed to be the case with Andrew in August 2002.

The normal course of events should be thus: if an ELISA test comes out positive, it is repeated. Only multiple positive ELISA tests are considered conclusive. If a subsequent ELISA comes out negative, however, a more sensitive test called a PCR is performed. The PCR is the gold standard, and is considered irrefutable.

So what happened in Andrew's case? We don't know. That sort of information is just not available right now.

It is known that some people are just immune to HIV. They have certain mutations that don't allow HIV to infect their cells. This has been known for 10 years now. Other people have certain genes that greatly retard HIV growth, and while they do become positive, they proceed very slowly. This has also been known for a long time now. But for someone to become positive, and then negative? This is new.

Could this be it?

A British man may have overcome the HIV virus.

25 year old Andrew Stimpson was diagnosed as HIV positive in august 2002. 14 months later, his HIV tests have come negative.

Andrew, on learning of the negative results, tried to sue the hospital for bungling his initial results. However, DNA analysis of the old samples have confirmed them to be his. This spontaneous clearance of the virus is all the more mysterious in light of the fact that he gave up safe sex with his HIV positive boyfriend after his own diagnosis.

Talk about crappy cakes!

"A Dallas cab driver is in big trouble for getting caught on tape sprinkling dried feces on pastries. Forty-nine-year-old Behrouz Nahidmobarekeh is on trial for allegedly throwing fecal matter on pastries at a Fiesta grocery store. Police said they found a pile of human feces by his bed. He would dry it [and] grate it up with a cheese grater and then sprinkle it at the store, officials said."

It's the bit about the cheese grater that lifts this story out of the horror camp and plops it down in the mind-numbingly-horrifying-puking-nightmare camp. Will any one us ever be able to shake the mental image of Behrouz sitting in his apartment contentedly grating his dried crap? And, more importantly, will any one of us ever eat anything with a chocolate dusting?

I had a nice picture of a piece of cake to go with this, but thankfully I changed my mind.

Tale of Two Cities: Part Two

I recently went to Coimbatore for a Bioinformatics Conference. While the conference was fairly blah, the place was interesting.

I was immediately struck by how different Coimbatore is from Madurai. Life in Madurai feels like swimming in a viscous soup of molasses. There are times you feel like an insect who knows he's doomed to an amber sarcophagus, but struggles anyway. Everything seems constrained and decrepit, including the people.

Coimbatore seems so different. For one, it's much more modern, and that goes for the people as well. Thankfully the tragic fashion sense of Madurans doesn't extend it's hideous arms as far north as I might have imagined. Hence my amazement at the natives. The people are friendly and helpful (!!) and the weather's better too. It's claimed the Siruvani is the second sweetest water in the world. Madurai, by comparison, has very hard water. That is, when it has water.

Tale of Two Cities: Part One

It's been a while.

Since my last post, I've been to Bangalore and Coimbatore.

My, Bangalore has changed. It's a lot more crowded, and the traffic is out of control. Also, all the pretty people can be quite distracting. Luckily no such problem in Madurai. I was also struck by the fact that in the three days I was there, I heard more Tamil than Kannada.

Bangalore is quite a curious place, in an uneasy sort of balancing act between the traditional and the modern. It's everywhere you look. Bangalore has probably the most heterogeneous population in South India, yet this is something that people regard with both pride and resentment. The powers-that-be always seem unsure about what to do with the funny business that is Bangalore.

Case in point. The Bangalore Traffic Police erected a billboard warning about the dangers of jaywalking, and it depicted a guy in funky clothes running across the road, and what appears to be a red Ferrari zooming down towards him. Perhaps they were trying to point out the lack of civil mindedness among Bangalore's newest residents. But why have such a billboard only in Kannada? The target audience is clueless about Kannada, and even I can read more Kannada than the only Kannadiga I know. It's an obvious answer, and we all know it. The language of the billboard serves a greater political purpose, while masquerading as a social message. An average visitor to Bangalore may never even encounter spoken Kannada, and billboards such as these serve as visual anchors. Language identity in India is enormously important, and it's funny how us young urbane people never seem to notice it.

However, the biggest question in my mind was: why on earth is the guy wearing a blue shirt with red pants?! That ensemble is so last season. Haven't they heard? Crimson is the new red.

The Pariah Pietà

Father Mychal Judge died on Sept 11, 2001; victim no. 00001 of the World Trade Center.

A body.

Everyone stopped. One of the firefighters aimed his flashlight low across the ground. A halo of light framed a man’s face. Everyone saw it. “Oh, my God,” they began to shout. “It’s Father Mike.”

He wasn’t buried under much rubble; his body, even his face, was still perfectly intact. They took his pulse. Nothing. “I took an arm,” says Cosgrove. “Someone else took an arm. Two other guys took his ankles.” Waugh grabbed him by the waist, and together the men carried him out of the building. They found a bunch of broken chairs on an outdoor plaza and nestled Judge in one of them, so that they could carry him down a staircase to the street.

That was the moment a Reuters photographer, Shannon Stapleton, snapped the picture that Christopher Keenan, one of Judge’s closest friends at the friary, now calls “a modern Pietà.”

The Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the Fire Department chaplain who died in the rubble of 9/11, was, and still is, one of the most widely loved Roman Catholic priests in New York City's recent history.

For 40 years, Father Judge tirelessly ministered to firefighters, their grieving widows, AIDS patients, homeless people, Flight 800 victims' families and countless others. At his funeral, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called him a saint, a sentiment that admirers have followed up by campaigning for his canonization. A simple prayer that Father Judge wrote has been circulated around the world and attached to thousands of donations to the needy. Pope John Paul II accepted the gift of his helmet.

Father Mychal Judge was gay. Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church believe that Father Mychal Judge was unfit to be a Roman Catholic priest.

Here's an article by the New York Times.

Hail Mary

The Pope wants to ban fairies in the Church.

It'd be outrageous, if it wasn't so friggin' ludicrous.

I pity the poor guy.

Imagine his plight. There he is, sitting in the Sistine Chapel, just north of St. Peter's (obviously named by a fairy), and looks up at the ceiling.... painted by a poofter. He nervously adjusts his hat and robe (which you KNOW was designed by a fairy!) and calls his assistant. Considering there are so many fags in the Church, there a good statistical probability that's he's a fairy too. Benedict breaks into a sweat, looking at the young priest's plucked eyebrows.

Hail Mary. The Lord is with thee... so no fear. Panzer Pope or no Pope.

Benedict, I'd watch my back if i were you. Pun intended.

The Federline-Spears Family Portrait

Aah, my favourite Pop Tart, with her little tartlet bundle of joy. Oh, and the baby too.

Do hurry back, Britney. We miss ya.

BBM Dolls

Found these utterly cute dolls on the net while looking for BBM reviews... a deranged fan *sheepish grin* made them with Candybar Doll Maker. The one on the left is Jack Twist, and the one on the right is Ennis Del Mar.

Admittedly, the Jack Twist doll doesn't have quite the 'come hither' look that Jake G has in the trailer, but damnit, they're soooo cute!!

Somebody suggested that the dolls could be animated so that they're dancing in Babylon...

Still cracks me up.

First no Marys, now no Marias

Salzburg is planning a museum devoted entirely to the Sound of Music. I hear Austrian native Schwarzenegger is planning to veto the idea.

Blog changes

Made a few changes. Feedback from you poor suckers loyal fans out there is most welcome.

Baby o baby...

I've been in denial all this time. I told myself, this can't happen... but it's finally happened.

Britney's a mom.

How did all those years go by? Wasn't it just yesterday that I sat google eyed in front of the TV, watching this bright eyed kid gyrate to that classic Hit me baby one more time? Man o man. (Silly grin plastered on face...) Of course, I thought she'd never last. I still thought the coolest teen babe was Buffy. Aah, Buffy!! ^_^

Aguilera was good, and I found myself secretly moved by the Beautiful video. But she was no Britney. That woman could somehow make Skanky-ass videos that were shockingly enthralling. I suppose I was captivated by her virginal (man, how lame was that?) persona... she always seemed to have an unfazed look. After watching Crossroads, I realised she was just a totally lame actress. Silly me.

Britney & Federline. The lamest celebs our times have ever spawned. Poor kid. He's gonna have one crazy life. Redneck dad and Louisiana's fav Ho for parents? Adds up to one majorly f**ked up kid.

Brokeback's Mountain Lion

I always knew Brokeback Mountain was a Top... uhm, winner.

Brokeback Mountain has won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, which drew to a close recently. I hope this is an omen of things to come. Almost all reviewers have raved about the film. Yes, there have been a few negative reviews too, criticizing certain aspects of the characters, or the length of the film. Europeans! As for me, a good film can never be too long. Especially if it's an Ang Lee.

It would have been interesting to consider how this film would have fared at Cannes. Cannes has no love for Ang Lee. There is also a legacy of discomfort with controversial films. Last year's critically acclaimed Vera Drake did not make it to Cannes, though it went on to win the Golden Lion at Venice.

Update for you South Park fans: They're NOT eating pudding in this one.

Damp reception for Brokeback Mountain

I should have known.

One film goer:

My wife came out of the ladies' room and said, 'There are 15 women in there, and they're all crying.' I said, 'You ought to see the mens' room.'

Yeah, this was always going to be a tear jerker... think Jake G holding baby sheep!
He hugged and comforted poor ol' bawling Kirsten Dunst after the show... OK, that's it. All those sniggering about Jake the Lonely Cowboy and his Sheep, get off my page NOW! I mean, don't get-off on it... I mean...

I'm so confused right now.

Crouching Lion, Hidden Talent

It's happening as we speak.

First Venice, now Telluride. The reviews of Brokeback Mountain are beginning to trickle in.

It looks like Ang Lee's done it again. Most reviewers are floored, and the IMDB board is buzzing with excitement. The few nay-sayers have criticized it on the way the story progressed, that Ang Lee should have done this, or the characters should have done that... but hey, that's in the source material, so that's that. Chillax.

Wait.... news just in... yes, there are unconfirmed reports that the Motel scene HAS been included. I repeat, the Motel scene HAS been included. You folks out there who've read the book know what I'm talking about. Ever since this project was first announced, it was widely believed that this pivotal scene would never see the light of day, and the crucial dialogues would be distributed throughout the film. We can all relax now.

Dare I say it... those two words... Golden Lion? Can this film win the Golden Lion? According to some critics, that Cat's already in the bag.

Critics are raving about Heath Ledger's understated and muted performance. Even those dissing the film admit: the lad's got talent.... who knew?! Jake G's great as always, and predictably, the rumour mills are grinding away... could it be Him? Is Jakey G, in fact... Toothy Tile?!?

Gossip really is the lowest form of discourse, but I'd personally be surprised if it wasn't our own Jakey boy. After all, he seems to fit Mr Tile to the T.
Toothy T. or not, I must add... I hate you, Jake G. I hate you and your 12 year-old-boy hairline.

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

Lunar Landing Sites

"Welcome to Google Moon. In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969."
Zoom right in.
... and you thought the Evolution debate was the problem.

Google Job Opportunities

Google is hiring...
Honestly... the things Americans will do to avoid Outsourcing to India.
Oh right. They DO have a Centre in India. Ha ha ha... Suckers.

George Washington the hottie

"Physical anthropologist Jeffrey Schwartz is attempting to recreate what George Washington looked like when he was 19 by forensically reconstructing the founding father's bones based on what he looked like in portraits, and working back in years to when he was young and strapping. The verdict? 'Despite what he looks like on the dollar bill, it turns out George Washington may have been kind of hot.'

Washington was a giant for his time at 6'2' and possessed, according to the Mount Vernon estate's executive director, 'larger than average hands and feet.' The Washington Post's report on this reconstruction does, however, note: 'Though the figure is being created nude, there are certain parts that are not being, shall we say, reimagined.'"

Brokeback Breaking News

These are the words of the editor of europeanfilms.net, who saw Brokeback Mountain at the Venice Film Festival:

"Lee and his cast and crew have done the near impossible; they have translated one of the most acclaimed American novellas of modern times onto the screen and deliver something that is on par, if not better, than the work that inspired it and yet is completely respectful of its source material."

I hope he's right. It would break my heart if Ang Lee made a wet noodle out of this one. But then again, he's no sitting duck.