Year: 2005

HIV Aids vs. Cancer

Sometimes two wrongs can make a right…

US scientists hope to be able to use a harmless form of the Aids virus to seek and destroy cancer cells.

In the laboratory, the scientists took HIV and removed the parts of the virus that causes disease.

They then stripped off the virus’ outer coat and redressed it with the outer suit of another virus. By doing this, the researchers had changed the target of the virus.
HIV normally infects immune cells called T cells. The new outer coat instead directed HIV to hunt down molecules present on cancer cells, called P-glycoproteins.

The next step would be to insert a gene into the virus that would kill the cancer upon contact.

[Source: BBC News]

I always believed there was a lot of medical promise in genetics, and hopefully great scientists like these will use it to come up with ways to cure these haunting diseases and illnesses without turning people into mutants.

The Future of Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera, the Arab news TV channel that emerged back in 1996 as the only bastion of free press in an authoritarian Middle East, is now approaching an important crossroads in it’s life.

Al-Jazeera has been a government owned and funded station ever since it’s creation. Qatar spends roughly $100 million a year in funds for the TV station, and even though it generates other revenue from advertisements, sponsorships, program sales and subscriptions in Europe and North America, it still remains a losing enterprise.

So lately, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (Emir of Qatar), ordered the government to produce a privatization plan for the channel, which has pushed many people to wonder about who will buy it, and what the station will look like in the future.

The main concern is that whoever takes over control of the channel could change the editorial policy and bring to an end the freedom of press that is enjoyed in it’s newsroom today.

I think this is very important and critical. Al-Jazeera launched a revolution in the Arab media market, uncovering the facts and telling the news from all sides of the story, breaking out of the mold of state controlled media in the Arab world.
It was an eye opener for a lot of people and for it to be stripped of it’s freedom is such a great loss.

Al-Jazeera has plans to launch an English language news channel this year, which I think is a great and very necessary project to show the world a side of the news that they don’t usually see.

I truly hope that the future is a very bright one for the channel and that it goes from success to even greater success.

Rafik Al-Hariri Killed in Bomb Attack

In what has been described as the biggest blast since the dark days of the Lebanese civil war…

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri has been killed in an apparent large-scale bomb attack on his motorcade in Beirut, a bodyguard and officials at the American University of Beirut hospital told CNN.

Hariri, 60, a multi-billionaire businessman who resigned from government last October, recently joined calls by the opposition for Syria to quit Lebanon in the run-up to general elections in May, Reuters reported.

Hariri served as prime minister from 1992-98 and again from 2000 until his resignation after parliament amended the Lebanese constitution to extend Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud’s term by three years. Lahoud had been set to leave office last November.

[Source: CNN]

It’s really a shame for something like this to happen and break the peace.

I am no expert in Lebanese affairs, but from what I do know, i believe Rafik Al-Hariri did a lot of great things for Lebanon and it’s economy.
I think his death is a really big loss for the country.

May his soul rest in peace…

Indecision

I think one of the most annoying things in life is indecision.
That yucky feeling of not knowing what to do exactly, where you’re gonna go, how you’re going to handle it, what’s going to happen…

You sit down, telling yourself that today and right now you’re going to come up with a solution and find your big decision. You focus, try to forget everything and think clearly, you push yourself into the sea of little details and circumstances.
And then?
Nothing, you simply drown…

The sea becomes an ocean and the ocean becomes a galaxy of probabilities, ideas and what-ifs. Your mind starts racing trying to order all these thoughts, trying to make its way through them all, adding here, multiplying there, subtracting sometimes, dividing into more and more endless factors and possibilities.

In the end you get lost all over again and all this is added to your indecision.
As if what you had wasn’t enough, now it’s bigger and now it comes with a greater load of stress and instability.

You miss those easy decisions where you just put everything in front of you, make your pick and just live your life happily ever after.
You wonder why all decisions can’t be like that. And then you try to follow the same path, hoping it will work, only to find that there are a lot of missing facts on your table.

Different people have different approaches and solutions for getting out of these indecision gridlocks.
I personally tend to try to get as much detail as possible and put as many facts as possible on the table, then I try to put those facts together and build different scenarios for different decisions and I pursue them in my mind as much as I can before deciding.
My choice in the end has always come down to the option with the least risk.
Although I’m realizing more and more that it’s not always the best thing to do, so I’ll most probably be taking more risk with my future decisions.

The Incredibles

At last, I got to watch Pixar’s animation movie “The Incredibles”. Needless to say, I loved it like every other Pixar movie I’ve seen.

These guys are just so talented and their work is so beautiful.
From “Toy Story” to “Monsters, Inc.” to “Finding Nemo” to “The Incredibles”; the story, the animation, the music, they all rock.

The story for “The Incredibles” is a great one too. Very creative, fun and funny.
It’s about a family of undercover superheroes who, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.

The animation is amazing, paying so much attention to the smallest details creating yet another masterpiece.

As with all Pixar animations, the score I give is: 10/10.
It’s truly a must see!

I can’t wait for Pixar’s next movie “Cars”, due out next year 🙂

Karate Kid

A couple of days ago while going through the DVD section in Carrefour, I came accross the DVD set of the Karate Kid trilogy.

I was swept away to my childhood in one of those very sweet flashbacks. I remembered the very first time I went to the cinema in Zimbabwe to watch Karate Kid 1, how moved I was by it and how much I loved it.
I must have seen that movie a 100 times and loved it every time.
I’ve even watched it a number of times in Italian on RaiUno not having to understand the dialogue because I already knew it by heart.
It even made me start taking Karate lessons, lol.

I also remembered watching the 2 other sequels some years later in one of the summers I spent in Pakistan. It was so great going on with the story and following Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.

I also used to love playing the Karate Kid computer game on my Commodore 64. Many long hours and burning red eyes went into that one.

So with all that flashing in front of my eyes, I just had to jump on the set and buy it right away 🙂

I started watching the trilogy again last night and WOW, I love it.
It looks so cool. You’d never think this was over 10 years old if you didn’t know it. Very good stuff.
I feel like a kid again, lol.
I must be the biggest Karate Kid fan ever 🙂

Movie Roundup

It’s been a while since I blogged about the movies I’ve seen. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been seeing any, you know that’s impossible, I just haven’t been writing about it.

So here is a list of the movies I’ve seen lately:

– Cellular
– Shall We Dance?
– Taking Lives
– The Door In The Floor
– The Punisher
– Surviving Christmas

And now here’s a little review of each one…

Continue reading Movie Roundup

Newborn Boy Tossed Out Car Window

In Florida, USA:

A newborn was tossed out a car window onto the grass beside a busy street Thursday afternoon, and the car sped off, authorities said.

Investigators were seeking the parents of the boy, whose umbilical cord was still attached when he was found by a woman passer-by. Doctors believe the infant was less than an hour old at the time.

The woman who rescued the baby who was inside a small plastic bag said she saw a man and woman arguing inside the vehicle.

[Source: ABC News]

Whoever did this, whether they’re the baby’s parents or someone else, are extremely horrible people. I really can’t imagine how anyone could do such a terrible thing to an innocent newborn baby.

Don’t they have any feelings at all?
Don’t they feel any respect for life?
Even animals wouldn’t do such a thing!

These people should be caught and thrown into jail for a very very long time.

MBC4

In response to the launch and success of One TV, the guys at MBC have redefined their Channel 2 as the first free 24h/24 movie channel and launched MBC4 to group a bunch of imported sitcoms, soap operas, talk shows and news shows.

By doing this they’ve made both channels more interesting to watch. And aside One TV they’ve made leaving the couch in front of the TV a harder task to accomplish.

I especially enjoy the variety of sitcoms available now.
And it’s nice when I catch a movie here or there that I haven’t watched already or that I feel like seeing again.

Happy New Hijri Year 1426

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Hijri Year 1426.

May it be a blessed, happy and joyful year for you all bringing you prosperity, success and great health.

On another note…
Even though this occasion is still marked all over the Islamic world, people are giving it less and less importance. It’s becoming more and more like one of those meaningless days off.
What is weird is that muslims are now celebrating all sorts of things from valentine’s day to halloween to christmas to almost everything, but they fail to truly celebrate the start of a new year in the Islamic calendar.

It’s been 1426 years since the muslims, led by prophet Mohamed (PBUH), migrated from Mecca to Yathrib (now Al Madina El Munawwarah), marking a very important point in the history of Islam.

I think muslims should give more importance to this day and teach their children more about their religion and its history.
I know that we’re all modern people of the future, but our history is part of who we are and that should never be forgotten or taken lightly.