- Those who support stem cell use and research will love this news. Those who oppose these endeavors will hate it. Either way, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have discovered that stem cells grown from patients' own cardiac tissue can heal damage once thought to be permanent after a heart attack. Eduardo Marban, the study's lead author, led a study that suggests approach could be used to fend off heart failure. His team conducted a trial of 25 heart attack patients in which 17 participants received the stem cell treatment and showed a 50 percent reduction in cardiac scar tissue compared with no improvement for the eight who received standard care. All 25 participants had recently suffered a heart attack and the goal of the trial was repairing the damage might help stave off failure. Promising as they may be, the results represent only the first of three sets of clinical trials generally needed for regulatory approval. "The findings in this paper are encouraging," said Deepak Srivastava, the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco. “There's a dire need for new therapies for people with heart failure. It's still the No. 1 cause of death in men and women." Marban theorized that new tissue regenerated by the stem cells can strengthen the heart even though patients getting the stem cells showed no more improvement in heart function than those who didn't get the experimental therapy. The stem cells were implanted within five weeks after patients suffering heart attacks and doctors removed heart tissue, about the size of half a raisin, using a minimally invasive procedure that involved a thin needle threaded through the veins. The stem cells were cultivated from the tissue and doctors reinserted between 12.5 million and 25 million cells using a second minimally invasive procedure. While the primary aim was to examine the safety of the procedure, the decrease in scar tissue is likely to spawn a larger study that focuses on broader clinical outcomes, researchers said in the paper. "If we can regenerate the whole heart, then the patient would be completely normal," Marban said.……..
- Boy, you start one in-ring brawl in which you physically threaten a referee and your opponent is assaulted by fans with folding chairs and bottles to the point he hides under the ring and next thing you know, one of boxing’s 75 alphabet governing organizations is banning you from participating in any fight it is associated with. After Argentinean fighter Luis Lazarte sparked a brawl following a defeat against Johnriel Casimero of the Philippines at a fight in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Casimero stopped Lazarte in the 10th round and neither Lazarte nor the come crowd took the outcome well. Lazarte threatened the referee and helped spark an ugly riot that led to security officials hiding Casimero under the ring until the chaos abated. With the win, Casimero claimed the IBF's vacant interim 108-pound world title. He did so despite repeated head-butts, punches below the belt, shots behind the head and two bites from Lazarte. Following one of the bites in the sixth round, referee Eddie Claudio admonished Lazarte and deducted a point, at which point the fighter responded by threatening the referee. Lazarte removed his mouthpiece and can clearly be heard in video from the bout saying to Claudio, "Do you want to make it out of here alive?" For some odd reason, IBF president Daryl Peoples had a problem with those words and wrote to Osvaldo Bisbal, the president of the Argentina Boxing Federation, to inform him of the decision. "There is one measure that we are taking into our own hands and that we will enforce," Peoples wrote. "As a result of Luis Lazarte threatening the life of referee Eddie Claudio while receiving a points deduction in the sixth round, Lazarte is banned from being involved in any capacity in any IBF-related fight that takes place in Argentina or around the world.” The ban may be a moot point, as Lazarte is 40 and said after the fight he is considering retirement. It’s probably a wise choice for known cheater who is too old and too slow for his dirty tricks to compensate for his declining in-ring skills…………
- To quote iconic “Seinfeld” slacker George Costanza, “Was that wrong?” Guards at a now-incinerated Honduran prison who stand accused of leaving prisoners to die trapped inside their cells and even firing on others when they tried to escape. More than 350 prisoners died in the fire and as charred bodies were pulled out of the prison complex on Thursday, relatives of victims and survivors of the blaze pointed to guards' negligence and a failed justice system as the reason for the disaster, which killed many inmates who had not even been convicted. The fire ripped through Comayagua National Penitentiary on Tuesday night, turning the facility into a massive inferno filled with terrified prisoners who perished screaming to be let out of their cells. Rosendo Sanchez, a convicted murderer serving a 10-year sentence – yes, a 10-year sentence for a convicted murderer – said he awoke as the fire started and was able to escape. He claimed he saw guards firing at other inmates trying to escape. "It was hell here, seeing your friends, people you have known well burn alive," he said. Reports from the scene alleged that the fire brigade did not come into the prison for more than half an hour. The country's director of police intelligence, Elder Madrid, explained that the fire broke out in block six during a fight over a mattress between two inmates, one of whom set it on fire. Why one didn’t just shank the other and solve the problem the old-school way remains unclear. Once the fire started, the prison’s 850 inmates fought again – this time to escape. Some managed to force their way to safety through the tin roofs of the prison, but 359 of the prisoners never found their way out, according to the attorney general's office. Estimates by prison workers placed the number of prisoners who had been tried and convicted at about half the facility’s population. Within hours, prisoners’ families began looking for someone to blame and accused everyone from prison guards and officials to the local fire brigade. Brigade chief Jaime Omar Silva in turn blamed prison authorities for not allowing his crews into the building soon enough. "These people in the prisons have their protocols, and while these are going on, they don't let anybody in," told the El Tiempo newspaper. Could that protocol be designed to efficiently execute prisoners in the most murderous country on the planet, where prisons are vastly overcrowded? Sure, one-third of the prison was destroyed by the flames, but isn't that a cheap price to pay for ridding the world of 359 possibly guilty individuals………….
- If Iowa wants to stop being the backwards-thinking hayseeds it has long been in the view of Americans living in any state that’s not Iowa, its political leaders should probably have a nice, long chat with the Bettendorf Park Board. This board of small-town simpletons is considering a policy that would address the tattoos, piercings and attire that a guest is allowed to display at city facilities.
The idea stems from a complaint lodged last summer by a patron at Splash Landing water park who whined about another patron’s tattoo because it was inappropriate in the view of the offended patron. A staff member asked the guest to cover their tattoo but the guest decided to leave instead.
Bettendorf Parks and Recreation director Steve Grimes believes an official policy is necessary to deal with situations like this one because not every person with a tattoo is going to be so meek as to leave when there is an issue. Grimes said the policy would address issues of “decency” of tattoos that are allowed to be displayed. “We certainly want to respect people’s right to expression and at the same time, we want to respect a families’ right to have a family environment. We have to find a balance,” he said. Umm, not really, ass hat. Unless someone has a tattoo of people engaged in graphic sexual activity or messages of rampant profanity (neither of which people tend to have inked on their body), then no one should even give their body art a second thought, let alone complain about it. Allow the tat haters to pick up and leave if they have a problem with it because the second the parks department puts any rule in place prohibiting any type of tattoo, they will be subjected to so many lawsuits the entire Iowa legal system will buckle under the weight. Anyone who would even consider a complaint about someone else’s tattoo at a water park is the problem, not part of the solution. Step your game up and update your antiquated views on the world, Iowa…………
- British indie rockers The Futureheads are like most artists in that they are (or at least should be) always searching for a way to be better and to improve their music. Whether that means refining their skills or altering their sound, every artist should be looking to better themselves. That betterment should theoretically show up on their next album. The Futureheads have definitely mastered the “different” part of the concept, but it’s difficult not to wonder how good their new approach will be. The band announced Thursday that they will release a new album titled “Rant” that will feature no instruments at all. The album, which will be released on April 2 on the band's own Nul Records, will be comprised of a cappella versions of the band's tracks and a series of cover versions. The track listing for the album is: “Meantime,” “Meet Me Halfway,” “Robot,” “Beeswing,” “Thursday,” “Sumer Is Icumen In,” “The Keeper,” “The No. 1 Song in Heaven,” “The Old Dun Cow,” “Acapella” and “Man Ray.” The a cappella version of “Robot” is available for listening online and yes, those who read the track listing and know anything about absurdly awful, unlistenable pop music realized this project includes covers of Hack Eyed Peas' “Meet Me Halfway” and Kelis' “Acapella.” Why The Futureheads chose not to cover Kelis’ true lyrical classic of a track, “Milkshake,” is not known. Fans who hate the concept and don’t embrace the albums just don’t get the vision, according to lead singer Barry Hyde. "A Futureheads fan who doesn’t get 'Rant' is not a Futureheads fan. This version of The Futureheads has always been there. We’re bringing to the fore what we’re really about: a unification, a gang mentality, which is in the balance between our voices and our personalities. And on 'Rant' we're pushing that right into your face," Hyde said. Right on, Bar, except for the part where you bastardize your musical credibility by covering hacks like the HEP and Kelis…………
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