�Fairway Medical Technologies, Inc. has received a $900,000, 3-year contract from the Department of the Navy to apply its optoacoustic technology to the real-time sensing of blood borne pathogens and biological warfare agents under battleground conditions. This grant is part of a bigger, $3 gazillion project light-emitting diode by Prof. Randolph Glickman, Principal Investigator from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio.
The assignment, entitled "Rapid identification of pathogenic agents in biological samples victimisation pulsed laser optoacoustic spectroscopy with targeted nanoparticle direct contrast agents," volition be carried out as a collaborative project betwixt UTHSC, Fairway Medical Technologies and the Naval Health Research Center Detachment Directed Energy Bioeffects Laboratory at Brooks City-Base.
"This enquiry is intended to grow a rugged battlefield instrument capable of detecting chemical and biological agents such as anthrax, plague, variola major, and others with the speed, accuracy, sensitivity and reliability of analytical techniques and instruments found in the state of the art laboratory today," said Dr. Glickman.
The optoacoustic biosensor tests samples of blood plasma or other liquids by using monoclonal antibodies (MAB) targeted to specific pathogens. "Elongated gold nanoparticles designed to strongly imbibe near-infrared laser pulses commode be conjugated to each type of MAB to create a specificity mechanism that will signal the presence of targeted pathogens," explained Dr. Alexander Oraevsky, VP of Research and Development at Fairway and an inventor of this nano-biosensor. "When the nanoparticles produce an acoustic response to optical maser pulses, the presence and concentration of the pathogens is established." Unique ultrawide-band transducers highly-developed by Fairway for medical imaging and other analytic optoacoustic systems fit the signal acquisition needs of this application, he added.
"This is an authoritative continuation of Fairway's current government and industry-sponsored research. When the R&D persona of this project is over, Fairway will manufacture the devices for the Navy and other DoD customers," aforesaid Fairway president James Meador.
"Early front line detection of biological threats using this kind of rugged field of honor system will provide critical information that can save Navy sailors and lives of other US military personnel, as well as support fast, well-informed bidding decision-making," commented Norman Barsalou, project co-investigator from the Navy Bioeffects lab. "We are proud that this collaboration betwixt the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, the Naval Health Research Center Detachment at Brooks and Fairway Medical Technologies throne move this important process ahead."
About Fairway
Privately held Fairway, which has more than doubled its manufacturing and research capacity in the past 24 months, develops and commercializes products based on proprietary or accredited technologies, and provides contract development and manufacturing services for outside clients. A portfolio company of BCM Technologies, the venture uppercase subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine, Fairway has close relationships with most of the research institutions located in the Texas Medical Center, and has successfully orchestrated the design, development and manufacturing of scores of medical products, including FDA Class III (life supporting) devices.
Fairway Medical Technologies
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Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The worst films of the decade
A pop film site has compiled a list of the worst films from the past tenner, and John Travolta's Battlefield Earth is just one of the shameful flicks to pull in the�list.
Battlefield Earth, a critical and commercial-grade disaster and suspected Scientology vehicle starring John Travolta, was named the worst film of 2000 by www.RottenTomatoes.com.
It was a film so bad, Boxoffice Magazine's Wade Major described it as, "Utterly inane and innocuous in the virtually harmless, uninteresting way - the fruit of an overrated star's overblown ego, recklessly indulged by studio excess."
But Travolta wasn't the only vainglorious name player to lineament on the list.
High school drama Jawbreaker was named the worst film of 1998, and it starred�actress Rose McGowan.
Christian Slater also starred in 2005's worst film, Alone in the Dark. Reviewer Jovanka Vuckovic called it "overblown, inexpert gibberish".
There were no surprises as Jennifer Lopez' wide criticised Gigli was named the worst film of 2003. Empire's Simon Braund called it "torture"� and aforementioned it was "impossible to imagine how it could have been worse."
More lately, Sharon Stone's efforts in Basic Instinct 2 scored her the title for 2006, and Diane Keaton's comeback film Because I Said So was named last year's worst film.
RottenTomatoes.com's worst films from the past tenner (with trailers):
1998: Jawbreaker
1999: Chill Factor
2000: Battlefield Earth
2001: Corky Romano
2002: Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever
2003: Gigli
2004:� Twisted
2005: Alone in the Dark
2006: Basic Instinct 2
2007: Because I Said So
* What are the worst films you've seen? Do you have a pick for 2008? Post your comments below.
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Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Thursday, 19 June 2008
AMPAS gives students their due
Awards go to college filmmakers from nine schools
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rewarded 12 students from nine colleges and universities Saturday night at its Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills as it handed out its 35th annual Student Academy Awards.
Presenters Jason Reitman, Caleb Deschanel, Todd Holland and academy president Sid Ganis doled out the honors, which included an honorary foreign film award to Reto Caffi of Germany for the film "On the Line."
In the narrative category, the gold medal went to Rajeev Dassani for "A Day's Work," the silver to Z. Eric Yang for "The State of Sunshine" and the bronze to Melanie McGraw for "Pitstop."
The animation winners were Nicole Mitchell, "Zoologic," gold; Tatchapon Lertwirojkul, "Simulacra," silver; and Evan Mayfield, "The Visionary," bronze.
Signaled out for their documentary work were Laura Waters Hinson, "As We Forgive," gold; J.J. Adler, "Unattached," silver; and Brian Davis, "If a Body Meet a Body," bronze.
Two prizes were awarded in the alternative category: Shih-Ting Hung took the gold for "Viola: The Traveling Rooms of a Little Giant," and Phoebe Tooke collected the silver for "Circles of Confusion."
Besides trophies, the gold medal recipients received $5,000; silver were awarded $3,000; and bronze took home $2,000 each.
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Saturday, 14 June 2008
Motograter
Artist: Motograter
Genre(s):
Metal
Discography:
Motograter
Year: 2003
Tracks: 22
The Texas experimental alloy play Motograter is comprised of Ghost (vocals), Smur (drums/samples), Crispy (drums/vocals) and Nuke (guitar). The angst-ridden iV hold their name from a self-built springed/percussion musical instrument that's made of cloggy cable, cranks, and gears. Their self-titled debut for Elektra appeared in May 2003.
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Amy Winehouse - Winehouse Bailed After Drug Use Arrest
Amy Winehouse has been bailed after being arrested over her alleged use of hard drugs.
The singer attended a police station in London to answer questions that are thought to be related to a video clip, published in January, of her apparently smoking a pipe.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police confirmed a 24-year-old woman from Camden had been arrested at around 13:00 BST on Wednesday and taken to a local police station as a follow-up to evidence passed to them earlier this year.
"The woman attended a London police station by arrangement and was arrested in connection with the alleged possession of a controlled drug," the spokesperson added.
"This is in connection with an investigation connected to footage passed to the Metropolitan Police."
On January 22nd, a video and other still photography of Ms Winehouse apparently smoking crack cocaine was published by the Sun newspaper.
A spokesperson for Ms Winehouse said on Wednesday: "Amy Winehouse voluntarily attended a London police station today by appointment.
"She was arrested in order to be interviewed and is co-operating fully with inquiries.
"The interview relates to a video handed to police earlier this year."
08/05/2008 08:23:04
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Thursday, 5 June 2008
Bo's influence can't be beat
Mention Bo Diddley to just about anybody, and they’ll break into that trademark, shuffling pattern that will forever be known as the Bo Diddley beat. It’s no small achievement to have rock ’n’ roll’s most recognizable rhythm named after you.
There was, of course, more to Bo Diddley than that one rhythm. Some of his most famous songs (such as “Crackin’ Up,” covered by the Rolling Stones) didn’t even use it. Another of his early hits, “Say Man,” has a fair claim as the first rap record.
But Diddley probably wouldn’t mind being remembered for a beat that’s known worldwide. Maybe in the afterlife, he’ll finally get paid for it.
Of all rock’s founding greats, Diddley was by far the most accessible: He was playing club gigs until a stroke took him off the road in May 2007. Like Chuck Berry, he often hooked up with available local bands and played with little rehearsal. But unlike Berry, he seldom walked through shows and seemed in his natural element onstage. True, Diddley gigged so hard in part because he needed to. He made it no secret that he never received a dime for his landmark Chess Records. And at his last local appearance at the Reggattabar in February 2007, he asked an overly eager photographer if he could have a cut of the profits.
Diddley penned a handful of rock classics - “Who Do You Love,” “I’m a Man” and his signature tune “Bo Diddley” among them - and he was a good enough guitarist to face off with Chuck Berry on a mid-’60s instrumental album. He was also one of rock’s genuine characters, and his music was all the better for it. The voodoo imagery in “Who Do You Love” went well outside the margins. And not many rock founders wrote about nurses who supplied good drugs during a hospital stay: Diddley pulled off that coup in the mid-’60s, though it took the New York Dolls to turn “Pills” into an underground classic. While out of the spotlight in the early ’70s, Diddley made a string of funk albums that stand with the genre’s wildest.
Diddley’s fans knew and loved his eccentric streak. I got a taste of it in 2001 when he gave a lecture/interview at the Museum of Fine Arts’ Art of the Guitar show. The presenters clearly hoped Diddley would act like a revered elder statesman and share old rock stories. Instead he went off at length about anything that came to mind until someone finally asked if he’d play “Bo Diddley,” which he did until the organizers all but pulled the plug. He livened up that night and gave the museum more rock ’n’ roll than it had bargained for.
There was, of course, more to Bo Diddley than that one rhythm. Some of his most famous songs (such as “Crackin’ Up,” covered by the Rolling Stones) didn’t even use it. Another of his early hits, “Say Man,” has a fair claim as the first rap record.
But Diddley probably wouldn’t mind being remembered for a beat that’s known worldwide. Maybe in the afterlife, he’ll finally get paid for it.
Of all rock’s founding greats, Diddley was by far the most accessible: He was playing club gigs until a stroke took him off the road in May 2007. Like Chuck Berry, he often hooked up with available local bands and played with little rehearsal. But unlike Berry, he seldom walked through shows and seemed in his natural element onstage. True, Diddley gigged so hard in part because he needed to. He made it no secret that he never received a dime for his landmark Chess Records. And at his last local appearance at the Reggattabar in February 2007, he asked an overly eager photographer if he could have a cut of the profits.
Diddley penned a handful of rock classics - “Who Do You Love,” “I’m a Man” and his signature tune “Bo Diddley” among them - and he was a good enough guitarist to face off with Chuck Berry on a mid-’60s instrumental album. He was also one of rock’s genuine characters, and his music was all the better for it. The voodoo imagery in “Who Do You Love” went well outside the margins. And not many rock founders wrote about nurses who supplied good drugs during a hospital stay: Diddley pulled off that coup in the mid-’60s, though it took the New York Dolls to turn “Pills” into an underground classic. While out of the spotlight in the early ’70s, Diddley made a string of funk albums that stand with the genre’s wildest.
Diddley’s fans knew and loved his eccentric streak. I got a taste of it in 2001 when he gave a lecture/interview at the Museum of Fine Arts’ Art of the Guitar show. The presenters clearly hoped Diddley would act like a revered elder statesman and share old rock stories. Instead he went off at length about anything that came to mind until someone finally asked if he’d play “Bo Diddley,” which he did until the organizers all but pulled the plug. He livened up that night and gave the museum more rock ’n’ roll than it had bargained for.
Moore, Kutcher celebrate at Butterfly Ball in LA
LOS ANGELES —
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Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and several of their famous colleagues - including newlyweds Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller - spread their wings Saturday night at the exclusive Butterfly Ball fundraiser benefiting Chrysalis, a Los Angeles-based organization that helps homeless men and women find jobs and homes.
"We love it, and we really believe in it," Moore said before the event.
Sheen and Mueller created a stir among photographers and reporters when they arrived on the ball's purple carpet. It was the first public appearance by the recently married couple, who wed Friday night. The "Two and a Half Men" star and real estate developer were engaged last summer after meeting at the Chrysalis Butterfly Ball in 2006. The newlyweds didn't stay for this year's ceremony.
Inside, the evening almost served as a "That '70s Show" reunion. Before dinner, Topher Grace stopped by Kutcher's table, just a few seats away from fellow former "'70s Show" co-star Mila Kunis. Kutcher and Grace were interrupted by 15-year-old singer Spensha Baker, who performed after Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair was honored. Baker was eager to meet the "What Happens in Vegas" star.
The casts of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" were also out en masse to laud executive producer Mark Gordon during the ceremony, which was attended by over 800 people. Among them: Katherine Heigl, Kate Walsh, Tim Daly, Eric Dane, T.R. Knight and Justin Chambers, who has no idea what will ensue following his character Alex's steamy season finale kiss with Heigl's Izzie.
"We go back in three weeks," Chambers told The Associated Press before the festivities. "I have no idea what's going to happen. It's always so last minute that we really have no clue what's going to happen. I just want the writers to keep making an entertaining show. They always have a way or surprising us actors."
Other famous faces in attendance at the Butterfly Ball included emcee Chris Kattan, co-chair Rebecca Gayheart, Eva Mendes, Jason Lewis, Seth MacFarlane, Brett Ratner, Keyshia Cole, Patrick Muldoon, Amaury Nolasco, Eliza Dushku and Jason Segel, who honored Universal Pictures production president Donna Langley. The event was said to have raised over $1 million for Chrysalis.
---
On the Net:
Chrysalis
http://www.changelives.org/
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Mel C ready to release a new album
With the Spice Girls' reunion tour over, Melanie 'Sporty Spice' Chisholm has announced details of her new album.
Billboard reports that 'This Time' will be released on the singer's own Red Girl label on 2 April.
Chisholm has described 'This Time' as "mature pop".
She said of the album: "I think most of the songs on this album are more about relationships and personal feelings and fears and experiences."
Billboard reports that 'This Time' will be released on the singer's own Red Girl label on 2 April.
Chisholm has described 'This Time' as "mature pop".
She said of the album: "I think most of the songs on this album are more about relationships and personal feelings and fears and experiences."
Funeral Thursday for designer Yves Saint Laurent who died of brain cancer
PARIS - Yves Saint Laurent, one of the most influential and enduring designers of the 20th century, empowered women by reinventing pants as a sleek, elegant staple of the female wardrobe.
Saint Laurent, 71, died Sunday night at his Paris home after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, said Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent's close friend and business partner for four decades.
"Chanel gave women freedom" and Saint Laurent "gave them power," Berge said on France-Info radio. He called Saint Laurent a "true creator" who went beyond the esthetic to make a social statement.
"In this sense, he was a libertarian, an anarchist and he threw bombs at the legs of society," he said. "That's how he transformed society and that's how he transformed women."
The Gucci Group, which acquired the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house in 1999, said the designer's death "leaves a great emptiness but also a sublime inheritance."
"This genius of creation shattered the codes to create French elegance which today makes Paris a grand capital of fashion," Gucci said.
Berge, speaking Monday on the France-2 TV station, stressed Saint Laurent's "profound love" for women. He used fashion to "serve women" and not "use them," said Berge, who collaborated with the designer for four decades and was his former romantic partner.
In his own words, Saint Laurent once said he felt "fashion was not only supposed to make women beautiful, but to reassure them, to give them confidence, to allow them to come to terms with themselves."
Saint Laurent was considered widely the last of a generation that included Christian Dior and Coco Chanel and made Paris the fashion capital of the world, with the Rive Gauche, or Left Bank, as its elegant headquarters.
The designer raised the stature of fashion while making it more accessible, it is widely agreed.
President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Saint Laurent for "putting his mark on a half-century of creation, in luxury as well as ready-to-wear." First lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who graced Saint Laurent's runway during her modelling career, said she had a "heavy heart" on learning of his death.
"He was an exceptional artist and human being," she said. "He made not only beauty, but also women's strength sublime."
For Culture Minister Christine Albanel, the designer personally touched women's lives.
"This brilliant idea that a woman could be the most feminine possible while dressing like a man . . . it seems to me decisive," she told Associated Press Television News. "Little by little, women get rid of their corset and then they live differently."
From the first YSL tuxedo and his trim pantsuits to see-through blouses, safari jackets and glamorous gowns, Saint Laurent created instant classics that remain stylish decades later.
"Mr. Saint Laurent revolutionized modern fashion with his understanding of youth, sophistication and relevance. His legacy will always be remembered," said Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa.
Saint Laurent was born Aug. 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria, where his father worked as a shipping executive. He first emerged as a promising designer at age 17, winning first prize in a contest sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat for a cocktail dress design.
A year later, in 1954, he enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale school of haute couture, but student life lasted only three months. He was introduced to Christian Dior, then regarded as the greatest creator of his day, and Dior was so impressed with Saint Laurent's talent that he hired him on the spot.
When Dior died suddenly in 1957, Saint Laurent was named head of the House of Dior at age 21.
He opened his own haute couture fashion house with Berge in 1962. The pair later started a chain of Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutiques.
Saint Laurent's simple navy blue pea coat over white pants, which the designer first showed in 1962, was one of his hallmarks. His "smoking," or tuxedo jacket, of 1966 remade the tux as a high fashion statement for both sexes. It remained the designer's trademark item and was updated yearly until he retired.
Also from the 60s came Beatnik chic - a black leather jacket and knit turtleneck with high boots - and sleek pantsuits that underlined Saint Laurent's statement on equality of the sexes. He showed that women could wear "men's clothes," which when tailored to the female form became an emblem of elegant femininity.
Some of his revolutionary style was met with resistance. There are famous stories of women wearing Saint Laurent pantsuits who were turned away from hotels and restaurants in London and New York.
Saint Laurent's rising star was eternalized in 1983, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted a show to his work, the first ever to a living designer. He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1985.
But bouts of depression marked his career. Berge, who lived with the designer for years, was quoted as saying that Saint Laurent was born with a nervous breakdown.
When Saint Laurent announced his retirement in 2002 at age 65 and the closure of the Paris-based haute couture house, it was mourned in the fashion world as the end of an era. His ready-to-wear label, Rive Gauche, which was sold to Gucci in 1999 for $70 million cash and royalties, still has boutiques around the world.
Saint Laurent had long been rumoured to be ill, and Berge said on RTL radio Monday that he had been afflicted with brain cancer for the past year.
"He no longer liked the world of today's fashion . . . he said it didn't understand him," Berge said.
"He had a great, immense love affair with fashion. It's true that he left the profession, but in a couple you can split up because you must do so . . . and still be very unhappy," he said. "That was his case."
After retirement, Saint Laurent spoke of his battles with depression, drugs and loneliness, though he gave no indication that those problems were directly tied to his decision to stop working.
"I've known fear and terrible solitude," he said. "Tranquilizers and drugs, those phoney friends. The prison of depression and hospitals. I've emerged from all this, dazzled but sober."
A funeral ceremony was scheduled for Thursday at the Saint Roch Church in central Paris, Berge said, moving the date announced earlier forward by a day. Saint Laurent's ashes are to be placed in a vault in the Majorelle botanical garden in Marrakech, Morocco, which he and Berge purchased in the 1980s, their foundation said.
-Rachid Aouli contributed to this report.
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DJ Dado
Artist: DJ Dado
Genre(s):
Ambient
Instrumental
Trance
Discography:
Dreaming (The Best Of)
Year: 2001
Tracks: 15
Greatest Themes' 99
Year: 1999
Tracks: 15
X-Files (Single)
Year: 1996
Tracks: 6
The Album
Year: 1996
Tracks: 14
Face It (Single)
Year: 1995
Tracks: 4
Odyssey One Compilation
Year:
Tracks: 14
Drea De Matteo - De Matteo Blames Joey For Career Hiatus
Actress DREA DE MATTEO reportedly blames her role in cancelled U.S. sitcom JOEY for ruining her career.
The former The Sopranos star signed up to play Matt Le Blanc's sister on the NBC show, after he continued his famed Friends character for the spin-off following the conclusion of the original hit series in 2004.
But the programme failed to win over Friends fans, and was scrapped by the U.S. network in 2006 after only two series.
And, according to New York gossip column Page Six, De Matteo regrets accepting a part in the doomed series - admitting she has been out of work since the show ended.
A source tells the publication, "She was saying Joey completely ruined her career. She called it horrible and said she hasn't been able to really work since then.
"She said she's really been out of the business and is trying to get back in."
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Film School
Artist: Film School
Genre(s):
Soundtrack
Alternative
Discography:
Film School
Year: 2006
Tracks: 11
Brilliant Career
Year: 2001
Tracks: 12
Inspired by post-punk, dream pop, and a touch on of electronica, the San Francisco-via-New York quintuplet Film School began as the inspiration of vocalist/guitarist Krayg Burton, world Health Organization began recording under the Film School mention in the late '90s. After cathartic the I'm Not Working 7" on Metoo! Records, Burton coupled forces with a rotating cast of musicians to nominate 2001's full-length A Brilliant Career, including members of Fuck and Elephone as well as Pavement and Preston School of Industry's Scott Kannberg. Also byzantine in the roger Sessions were keyboardist Jason Ruck and guitarist/vocalist Nyles Lannon (besides of the electronic group Technicolor and his side project n.lannon), world Health Organization both became permanent members of the lot. For the enlistment encouraging A Brilliant Career, Film School recruited Lannon's fellow Technicolor bass player Justin LaBo and drummer Ben Montesano. This lineup recorded 2003's Alwaysnever EP for Kannberg's boutique label Amazing Grease; by the time the band hit the route over again in 2004, Montesano was replaced by Donny Newenhouse on drums. After touring the U.K. that fall and appearing at South by Southwest early in 2005, Film School signed to Beggar's Banquet and began recording. The On & On EP arrived that fall and heralded the spillage of their self-titled record album in wintertime 2006. Hideout, their third record album, arrived in 2007.
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