'Cured' HIV Patient May Still Have Virus
Several years back, the doctors of HIV-positive man Timothy Ray Brown announced that Brown had miraculously become HIV-negative. The doctors gave Brown an HIV-resistant stem cell transplant to help his leukemia and found that afterwards he had no detectable HIV left in his body.
But this month, researchers at the University of California found traces of HIV DNA in samples of Brown's blood and body tissue, leaving experts unsure if his "cure" was complete.
Researchers at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine tried to compare the newly discovered DNA samples to HIV DNA Brown had before he got "cured." The two viruses did not match, leading to several possibilities.
Researchers think that Brown's most recent samples might have gotten contaminated or that Brown's tissues merely contain traces of the dying HIV virus. French HIV researcher lain Lafeuillade thinks that Brown could have been cured and then re-contracted the virus afterwards.
Nothing's for certain, but it makes for a very interesting mystery on the way to an eventual cure. -By: Daniel Villarreal/Gay.com/June12, 2012
Coming: Mosquito-Sized Spy Drones
NetWorkWorld.com asks, “Is this a mosquito micro air vehicle (MAV)?”
No and Yes. Right now it’s only a CGI-mockup, but it will probably be real eventually, like many others that already are.
Alan Lovejoy wrote, “Such a device could be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera, microphone. It could land on you and then use its needle to take a DNA sample with the pain of a mosquito bite. Or it could inject a micro RFID tracking device under your skin.” While DNA-sucking, RFID-chip-injecting mosquito drones are currently a bunch of bunk, a Bing image searchshows a multitude of MAVs that aren’t simply CGI mockups.
This little MAV had a 3 centimeter wingspan and that was back in 2007. When the U.S. government was accused of making insect spy drones in 2007, Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert on unmanned aerial craft, told the Telegraph, “America can be pretty sneaky.” The article also mentioned a dragonfly drone the CIA had developed in the 1970s.
In 2008, the U.S. Air Force showed off bug-sized spies as “tiny as bumblebees” that would not be detected when flying into buildings to “photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists.” -By Joel McDurmon/American Vision News/June 21, 2012
Tennessee Senate Approves Bill To Warn Students That Hand-Holding Is A ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’
Like any state legislature dealing with 8 percent unemployment and thousands of its residents facing disenfranchisement, the Tennessee Senate is targeting the menace of underage hand-holding.
Last week, the Senate passed SB 3310, a bill to update the state’s abstinence-based sex education curriculum to define holding hands and kissing as “gateway sexual activities.” Just one senator voted against the legislation; 28 voted in favor.
Since the bill specifically bans teachers from “demonstrating gateway sexual activity”, educators would be prohibited from even demonstrating what hand-holding is. Breaking these laws could result in a lawsuit, as Hunter from Daily Kos notes:
If your teacher teaches you anything about sex that isn’t specifically on the approved curriculum, like demonstrating “holding hands” for the class instead of quietly tsking about the dangers it poses, they can be sued.
Still, this anti-hand-holding push may only be the second-worst bill passed in Tennessee this month. Nearly a century after the Volunteer State played host to the Scopes Monkey Trial, the legislature has now enacted a new law allowing educators to teach creationism alongside evolution. -By Scott Keyes/Think Progress/April 13, 2012
Close To home: Hezbollah Terrorists Are Plotting Right On The U.S. Border
Speaking of the Islamist enemy cropping up in unlikely places, Iran's favorite terrorist outfit, Hezbollah - a menace to Israel and Lebanon - has been caught plotting right in our backyard.
For years, experts who already have their hands full with the persistent threat of Al Qaeda have warned of the rise of Hezbollah in our midst.
The day has arrived.
Mexican authorities have rolled up a Hezbollah network being built in Tijuana, right across the border from Texas and closer to American homes than the terrorist hideouts in the Bekaa Valley are to Israel.
Its goal, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper that reported on the investigation: to strike targets in Israel and the West. -By Editorials Daily News Staff Writer/New York Daily News/July 11, 2010
Several years back, the doctors of HIV-positive man Timothy Ray Brown announced that Brown had miraculously become HIV-negative. The doctors gave Brown an HIV-resistant stem cell transplant to help his leukemia and found that afterwards he had no detectable HIV left in his body.
But this month, researchers at the University of California found traces of HIV DNA in samples of Brown's blood and body tissue, leaving experts unsure if his "cure" was complete.
Researchers at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine tried to compare the newly discovered DNA samples to HIV DNA Brown had before he got "cured." The two viruses did not match, leading to several possibilities.
Researchers think that Brown's most recent samples might have gotten contaminated or that Brown's tissues merely contain traces of the dying HIV virus. French HIV researcher lain Lafeuillade thinks that Brown could have been cured and then re-contracted the virus afterwards.
Nothing's for certain, but it makes for a very interesting mystery on the way to an eventual cure. -By: Daniel Villarreal/Gay.com/June12, 2012
<><><>*<><><>
Coming: Mosquito-Sized Spy Drones
NetWorkWorld.com asks, “Is this a mosquito micro air vehicle (MAV)?”
No and Yes. Right now it’s only a CGI-mockup, but it will probably be real eventually, like many others that already are.
Alan Lovejoy wrote, “Such a device could be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera, microphone. It could land on you and then use its needle to take a DNA sample with the pain of a mosquito bite. Or it could inject a micro RFID tracking device under your skin.” While DNA-sucking, RFID-chip-injecting mosquito drones are currently a bunch of bunk, a Bing image searchshows a multitude of MAVs that aren’t simply CGI mockups.
This little MAV had a 3 centimeter wingspan and that was back in 2007. When the U.S. government was accused of making insect spy drones in 2007, Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert on unmanned aerial craft, told the Telegraph, “America can be pretty sneaky.” The article also mentioned a dragonfly drone the CIA had developed in the 1970s.
In 2008, the U.S. Air Force showed off bug-sized spies as “tiny as bumblebees” that would not be detected when flying into buildings to “photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists.” -By Joel McDurmon/American Vision News/June 21, 2012
<><><>*<><><>
Tennessee Senate Approves Bill To Warn Students That Hand-Holding Is A ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’
Like any state legislature dealing with 8 percent unemployment and thousands of its residents facing disenfranchisement, the Tennessee Senate is targeting the menace of underage hand-holding.
Last week, the Senate passed SB 3310, a bill to update the state’s abstinence-based sex education curriculum to define holding hands and kissing as “gateway sexual activities.” Just one senator voted against the legislation; 28 voted in favor.
Since the bill specifically bans teachers from “demonstrating gateway sexual activity”, educators would be prohibited from even demonstrating what hand-holding is. Breaking these laws could result in a lawsuit, as Hunter from Daily Kos notes:
If your teacher teaches you anything about sex that isn’t specifically on the approved curriculum, like demonstrating “holding hands” for the class instead of quietly tsking about the dangers it poses, they can be sued.
Still, this anti-hand-holding push may only be the second-worst bill passed in Tennessee this month. Nearly a century after the Volunteer State played host to the Scopes Monkey Trial, the legislature has now enacted a new law allowing educators to teach creationism alongside evolution. -By Scott Keyes/Think Progress/April 13, 2012
<><><>*<><><>
Close To home: Hezbollah Terrorists Are Plotting Right On The U.S. Border
Speaking of the Islamist enemy cropping up in unlikely places, Iran's favorite terrorist outfit, Hezbollah - a menace to Israel and Lebanon - has been caught plotting right in our backyard.
For years, experts who already have their hands full with the persistent threat of Al Qaeda have warned of the rise of Hezbollah in our midst.
The day has arrived.
Mexican authorities have rolled up a Hezbollah network being built in Tijuana, right across the border from Texas and closer to American homes than the terrorist hideouts in the Bekaa Valley are to Israel.
Its goal, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper that reported on the investigation: to strike targets in Israel and the West. -By Editorials Daily News Staff Writer/New York Daily News/July 11, 2010
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