Nervecentre

Points of Interest - 15th August 2005

'Eternal planes' to watch over us.

Sun and hydrogen 'to fuel future'.

What will we drive when the oil runs out?

Can you survive a plane crash?

The end of cattle farming? Scientists propose meat 'grown' in the lab.

Chickens on sale in shops are found to contain superbugs.

Bird flu vaccine hope.

As dog obesity increases alongside human obesity, we need to take a long, hard look at the food we are feeding our pets.

In the wake of the London bombings, cycling has taken off on the streets of the capital with some bike shops reporting an increase in sales of 300 per cent. There are, however, important rules of the road for all these new cyclists to abide by, if they want to avoid accidents and mishaps.

Points of Interest - 14th August 2005

Do the stars play a part in triggering Earth's ice ages?

Bush chooses to ignore the dead soldiers mother on his way to a republican fund-raising barbeque. Hmm, what's more important George - the young kid's lives in Iraq or charred meat and swelling the political coffers?

With the deaths from lung cancer of US news anchor Peter Jennings and Vertigo and Dallas star Barbara Bel Geddes and the diagnosis of Dana Reeves for lung cancer, smokers and former smokers are clamoring for a promising new combined x-ray technique that, it's been alleged, can detect lung cancer when it is as small as the size of a pea.

A Manhattan Project for the 21st century.

Read how the supposed 'withdrawal' of Israeli settlers from the occupied territories is a cynical smokescreen used to mask a more insidious policy of encroachment. Don't believe the lies.

Points of Interest - 13th August 2005

It looks as though the 10th planet has been known about by astrologers for at least 2 years. They needed at least 6 months to establish the size of the planet before going public. Apparently, a hacker was responsible for bringing that announcement date forward.

It's official! Beer is good for you! It protects the blood against radiation exposure.

Video games are set to replace TV, says expert.

When it was announced last week that cats lack the ability to taste 'sweet' flavours, little did they know that a schoolgirl from Honolulu had already discovered this fact in a school project - 5 years ago!

Siberia's rapid permafrost thaw is worrying scientists as it could speed up global warming.

Hurricane Ivan generated a wave more than 90 ft. high. It's thought the hurricane may have generated waves as high as 132 ft!

A new treatment offers hope for eliminating latent HIV.

And there is also encouraging news about a new stealth drug that could be employed in cancer treatment.

Bush sends a warning to Iran over its nuclear plans. And a mother whose son died in Iraq has had her plea to meet with the president rejected by Bush.

New documents have been released of harrowing accounts by New York firefighters of the events of the 9/11 attacks. The design for the Freedom Tower has been revised to protect it from terrorist attack. Meanwhile, the FBI has issued a warning that Al-Qaeda cells are planning on mounting a series of truck bomb attacks on American cities on or around the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The man who eats live snakes!!

A study has found a possible link between excess alcohol consumption and cancer.

Points of Interest - 11th August 2005

Sad news. Barbara Bel Geddes, star of the excellent Vertigo and perhaps best known as Miss Ellie in Dallas, has died of lung cancer at the age of 82.

Europe is getting hotter.

Not really news as such as this has been known about for ages but, organic farms are good for wildlife.

Ever wondered how noisy your neighbourhood is? Soon, the government will be publishing 'noise maps' for England so that people can see for themselves just how noisy their locale might be. London has already had its noise map published. As has Birmingham. And if, like me, you ever long for a bit of peace and quiet sometimes, it might not be too long before we have 'tranquility maps' available to us.

There are more and more uninsured drivers on the road. Time for a crackdown. And on a similar theme, when the hell are the government going to get their arses into gear and roll this bad boy out across the country?

1 in 25 fathers are 'not the daddy'.

Points of Interest - 09 August 2005

Some interesting background facts on super volcanoes. The Siberian Traps eruption was the single biggest eruption in the history of our planet, it's thought the eruption lasted for around a million years and caused the biggest mass extinction and also triggered a lengthy ice age. And there is cause for concern over a number of volcanic sites in the U.S.

As the U.S. comes to terms with the death of one of it's leading news anchors from lung cancer, questions are being asked about perhaps the most scariest form of cancer and what more can be done to improve treatment, prevention and detection. Some new lung cancer treatments suggest improvements, however slight. There is also hope for methods of early detection and effective treatment, but this is notoriously hard, as chest x-rays aren't good at detecting hidden tumours in the lung. For the time being, it seems as though intake of vitamin D might prove beneficial for those fighting lung cancer as trials indicate the vitamin may be good at restricting and curtailing spread of the cancer.

On the subject of breast cancer, there is evidence that exercise might be crucial for some women's survival chances during and after treatment with chemotherapy. Some evidence showed a cut in the death rate from recurrence by half if the woman exercised between 3-5 hours a week. It appears that exercise can cut the production of the female hormone oestrogen, that feeds the cancer cells and also improve the functioning and production of immune cells to also prevent recurrence. This, at a time when new drug treatments are offering hope to millions of women around the world.

And there is also hope of nanotechnology being employed in the fight against cancer. The 'cancer bomb' is injected into the bloodstream and it delivers powerful chemotherapy drugs to the tumour cells but not to healthy cells - it also has been shown on tests in mice to lengthen survival time too.

Points of Interest - 08 August 2005

Read the story of a man fell out of a plane, only to be caught by the plane again as it fishtailed through the air.

The U.S. military has drafted a war plan in case of a coordinated terror attack on its soil.

Evidence has come to light that global warming is 'pumping up' the force and power of hurricanes.

Moderate drinkers end up better thinkers.

Points of Interest - 07 August 2005

The world's first 'face transplant' has been greenlighted.

Another way to combat cancer - put the cancerous cells into cellular suspended animation.

There's been a significant breakthrough in the potential for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

And another genetic breakthrough in the understanding of how breast cancer is triggered.

Gigantic rogue waves that eat ships, formed seemingly from nothing, exist.

I've mentioned it on Nervecentre many times before, but here's another link to an interesting article about Yellowstone's slumbering supervolcano.

Very sad news. UK anti-war MP and former Cabinet Minister Robin Cook has died aged 59. UK politics will be all the poorer with his loss. He had an incisive mind and great influence. His resignation speech is one of the most impressive political speeches of modern times.

7 ways to stop terror.

Anatomy Of A Murder [1959]

Anatomy of a Murder is a film that is way ahead of its time. It tells the story of the court case of a soldier (Ben Gazzara) who has apparently jealously kills the rapist of his wife (Lee Remick). This is a great film as it broke down numerous barriers and taboos of the time, and is intelligently told without spoon-feeding or patronising its audience.

Anatomy of a Murder was made in 1959 by director Otto Preminger. The film stirred controversy at the time for using the words "panties", "rape" and "spermatogenesis" in its plot, terms that many ultra-conservative middle Americans of the time would have almost certainly balked at. The film was actually based on a novel by Robert Traver.

The use of jazz and Duke Ellington was perhaps also a bold move for the time, but reflected the growing profusion of musical diversity and taste in a country going through great change.

I mentioned that the film does not patronise the audience. This is reflected primarily through the witty, intelligence script and characters that are excellently drawn and presented. Of course, we get to see whether the jury find the defendent guilty or not at the end, but in between, we are treated to some of the finest pieces of exposition in a courtroom perhaps ever put on film, with two remarkable performances from the always brilliant James Stewart as attorney Paul "Polly" Biegler and the prim, sharp legal eagle George C Scott as Dancer.

What makes Anatomy of a Murder stand out is its refusal to show any of the events surrounding the rape or the murder - we are left to make up our own minds based on the testimony and the credibility of the characters as they are presented. Some viewers might feel cheated that they are not able to witness more by way of flashback or further exposition, but this would be tantamount to spoon-feeding the facts and would almost certainly have ruined the film.

The film also deals with the use of the 'temporary insanity' plea in the courtroom. A perfectly valid and interesting topic, but, for the Fifties, a controversial subject that would not have sat well with some of its audience. By today's standards, it would not even raise an eyebrow, perhaps more indicative than anything else of the film being ahead of its time. What we are left with are two morally ambiguous characters, (Mannion and his wife), and two extremely ambiguous questions. Was she, or was she not, raped? Did he, or did he not, commit murder whilst temporarily insane?

Another revelation in Anatomy of a Murder is the young Lee Remick - whilst not a performance that will blow you away, Remick's is a confident, assured turn of a suburban vamp who knows just how to maximise her sexual energy. What's great here is that Remick portrays her character very ambiguously - we sense that there is a degree of guilt on her part in enticing and flirting with men, and that, to an extent, she might very well have encouraged unwanted attention by her provocative dress and behaviour. Her performance is reminiscent of Sue Lyon as the coquettish lead in Kubrick's Lolita.

Stewart is ably supported by Eve Arden as his waspish secretary and Arthur O'Connell as his alcoholic 'seen-better-days' research assistant.

For me, the film is all about social change. Made in 1959, there is the undercurrent of the social and political upheaval that was to come - the Sixties. Here is a film that was, in its own way, going against the grain of other movies of the time. There is a subversive, almost rebellious seam running through it - perhaps a harbinger of the great changes ahead. I can't help but wonder whether the oppressive, stifling McCarthy era might have fuelled this ground swell of change, perhaps more than people realise. And on that point, the judge in the film was Joseph N. Welch, a real life judge well known to the American people after his legendary televised battles with McCarthy during that time.

Interstingly, Anatomy of a Murder was nominated for eight Oscars, but did not win a thing. To my mind, Anatomy of a Murder is an equal in quality of that other excellent Fifties court drama classic 12 Angry Men, and anyone who enjoyed that will enjoy this.

Perhaps a little too lengthy in parts - the intelligent script, brilliantly witty and challenging dialogue, superb acting and involving plot, the jazz music - all make up for an overlong film that will keep you enticed right until the edge-of-the-seat ending. I don't know whether this film became the touchstone for all court drama's that followed, (I suspect it did), but if courtroom drama's are your bag, then you could do a lot worse than pick up Anatomy of a Murder.

8/10

Points of Interest - 01 August 2005

Something I think I've already pointed out but, if there is life already on Mars stoopid NASA might have contaminated it with Earth bugs.

Soccar ball sized hailstone is found in the U.S.

It's beautiful to look at, but deadly if it strikes you. When you examine the facts, lightning kills more people than you might think. But there are ways of reducing your risk. And it seems as though where you live might have some bearing on your overall risk of a strike.

Genetic research shows that Britons have changed little since their ancient forebears first colonised the British Isles 8,000 years ago. The evidence proves that the modern British have retained 80% of the genetic profile of their ancestors, despite many waves of settlers throughout history.

If you didn't know already, Jewish people tend to score the highest score in ID tests of all races. They consistently score '12 to 15 points' more than the average white European.

There's new evidence of the 10 ft tall 'Terror Bird' that lived in South America between 60 and 2.5 million years ago. It would have been able to swallow a dog in one gulp.

Geneticists find more clues about the secrets of longevity.

Osama Bin Laden. 'Wanted: Dead or Alive'? Apparently not...