Obesity Can Be Contagious, Fingerprints and Talent, Rambo, Brad Pitt for Mayor of New Orleans, Children’s Book Recommendation, Scientology Under Attack, Project Chanology, and more…

 

Obesity Can Be Caught. I knew it! Finally, scientists are coming around to my way of thinking. Some researchers believe obesity is due, in part, to a viral infection and it is possible to catch obesity like you'd catch a cold, the flu, or pink eye! So now, instead of fat people saying they have an “emotional layer” surrounding them, they can say they caught obesity from their neighbor!

Stay away from fat people! They’re contagious! Will we all be wearing those nutty Japanese face masks as protection against obesity? Why aren’t those masks more fashionable?

Adenovirus Ad36 -- one in a family of about 50 viruses that cause colds, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal problems, and eye inflammations -- could be the culprit in some cases of obesity in humans and other animals. In fact, it's been linked to a 50 to 100 percent gain in body fat in some animals. And 30 percent of people screened for the virus in one study had the antibodies, compared to 10 percent of people of a healthy weight range.

"We can't say that the virus caused obesity in all those people," says researcher Richard Atkinson, emeritus professor of medicine and nutrition at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "It's still speculation, some say a gross speculation."

What they've learned so far: Animals inoculated with the virus gain weight even when their food intake remains the same. And Ad36 is transmissible from animal to animal. (Pictured: Aqua Air Industries face mask: Don’t leave home without it!)  

Fingerprints and Talent. Recently, scientists in North America and Europe have looked to the relative lengths of index and ring fingers for clues about a variety of characteristics, including musical ability, athletic prowess and, in a study just released, osteoarthritis risk.

The researchers believe that the difference between the two fingers' lengths signifies the level of testosterone exposure in the womb. The longer the ring finger compared to the index finger, the thinking goes, the higher the exposure.

Giacomo Casanova, the famous womanizer who died in 1798, observed in his memoirs that the ring finger is longer than the index finger.

But it wasn't until 1998 that British psychologist John Manning first linked the index-ring finger ratio to prenatal hormone levels.

"It's been known for about a hundred years that there's this tiny sex difference in the ratio, but it's so small that one wouldn't think it's particularly important," says Manning, who recently retired from the University of Central Lancashire and is now associated with Southampton University.

Since 1998, Manning has published studies suggesting that male symphony orchestra musicians have lower finger ratios than less-musical men and that heterosexual men have lower ratios than homosexual men. People with lower ratios tend to do better on certain tests of spatial ability.

But "the links with sports are the strongest I've found," Manning says. "They're particularly strong with endurance running." He theorizes that prenatal testosterone benefits the cardiovascular system.

Pictured: Leonardo Da Vinci’s fingerprint recently uncovered.

Movies This Week.  It’s been a slow week. After lying low for 20 years, Rambo massacres 1000 men. It is the best sequel of the series. I’m looking forward to Rambo V.

 

 

 

Disgusted with humankind – he’s seen it all and then some – John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is eking out a solitary living commandeering a leaky, slow boat on the Salween River in Northern Thailand.

 

Those demanding missionaries will not take “No” for an answer when they approach Rambo to take them to the border where the Burmese-Karen civil war is raging.

 

Because the lady missionary stands outside his hut in the thunderstorm, Rambo agrees to undertake the dangerous river journey without pay. Leaving them off, Rambo returns home only to be confronted later by their minister. The missionaries have “gone missing” and feared kidnapped. He has hired a group of mercenaries led by Lewis (Graham McTavish) to find and evacuate them.

 

I interviewed McTavish on the Red Carpet at Planet Hollywood for the premiere of “Resident Evil: Extinction”. He was charming, gracious, very slim and dashing, and answered all my non-appropriate Red Carpet questions.

 

Obviously, he’s new to the ritual. I’ve since given up Red Carpets because you must only ask celebrities ‘What are you wearing?’ if you want a response.

 

Rambo agrees to take the mercenaries to the place where he dropped off the missionaries. Like all monk-warriors, Rambo doesn’t do small-talk or sing war songs. But he does understand the skill and ideology of the mercenaries. When Lewis tells Rambo to stay in the boat, he ignores the order and follows the mercenaries inside the Seventh Circle of Hell compound.

 

Hell breaks wide open. Body parts explode. Heads get blown off. Teenage boys are going to love this.

 

After lying low for 20 years, Rambo massacres 1000 men. I wanted him to yell at the missionaries: “Happy now?”                          

 

You’ve got to give Stallone credit. The task of directing and acting in this could not have been easy. If he’s not soaking wet, he’s covered in mud. He certainly does not need the money.

 

Stallone directs with skill for the generation of moviegoers who are now used to ultra-violence. He delivers the goods with excess vigor. This is a violent, gory, blood-letting extravaganza. Jigsaw (there’s a “Saw 5” on the horizon) better up his game.

 

I don’t know why they held no press screenings or promotional screenings for “Rambo”. Could the studio really have been afraid of “Rambo”? I understand that the press junket interviews were done without a pre-screening of the film. This is highly unusual and was seen as forecasting a “stinker.” (We critics are being kept from seeing more movies every month!)

 

Written by Art Monterastelli and Sylvester Stallone (and based on characters created by my friend and former neighbor when I lived in Santa Fe, David Morrell), Rambo is still a man carrying around his demons and regrets. Well, he now has a body count that requires a lot more penance. If you are a fan of John Rambo, you will not be disappointed.

 

Will critics belittle Michael Douglas for resuscitating Gordon Gekko and Harrison Ford for putting back on that hat? When E.T. returns to Earth, will critics cry “foul!”?

Scientology Under Attack! A GENIUS group calling themselves "Anonymous" has declared war against Scientology and created a very strange video announcing their campaign. Here they are, in their own words:

"Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed.

For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind–for the laughs–we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.

You cannot hide; we are everywhere.

We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day–and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.

Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs.

Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No–they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.

Knowledge is free. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. WE DO NOT FORGET. Expect us." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ

Who is behind this sophisticated project? Project Chanology’s website says: “Project Chanology is the large scale plan to bring down the Church of Scientology. On January 16, 2008, Anonymous decided to spread the message that batshit insane fucktard L. Ron Hubbard (LRH) is a batshit insane fucktard.

Project Chanology was thus coined as a description of the "covert" plan, the main goal of which is to enlighten the Church of Scientology (CoS) by any means necessary. This will be a game of mental warfare. It will require our talkers, not our hackers; it will require our dedicated Anon across the world to do their part.”

Brad Pitt for Mayor Of New Orleans? Statistically, can being a celebrity mean you have twins? Jennifer Lopez is having twins. It’s the latest trend! 48 year-old Nancy Grace had twins, as did Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives, P. Diddy’s girlfriend Kim Porter, Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels, Elvis Costello and Diana Krall and now Angelina Jolie! Why bother being pregnant for 18 months when science can be called in?

The Daily Mail is reporting that Angelina and Brad are said to be planning to adopt a girl in New Orleans left orphaned by Hurricane Katrina. Angelina wanted to adopt another baby from Ethiopia (Zahara might be feeling overshadowed by their biological blond and blue-eyed baby girl) but was turned down eight weeks ago, after African authorities decided to crack down on foreign adoptions.

Angelina’s rumored pregnancy sidelines reports that Brad, says The Daily Mail was “reported to have tired of her insistence on trailing their children around the Third World on her charitable missions. Just weeks ago he was allegedly telling his family that his three-year relationship with Miss Jolie was so troubled he was considering applying for joint custody of the children.” 

Sources in the Democratic Party say he has been approached to run for mayor of New Orleans, where he has set up his own foundation to build homes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The break-up of another relationship so soon after his divorce from his first wife Jennifer Aniston could hamper help his chances of election in two years' time.

Pitt has hired his own "philanthropic adviser", Trevor Neilsen, who worked for President Clinton's Washington administration, to boost his humanitarian credentials and set up his own "Make It Right" campaign to build ecohomes in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, which was hardest hit by the floods.

Brad Time. However, being a movie star re-styled as “a man of the poor people”, has its perks. As a refuge from his mercy missions to New Orleans, Pitt has taken over a £50,000-a-month lease in Manhattan's ultra-glamorous Waldorf Towers. He is said to retreat there for some "Brad Time" away from his new family.

Recommended. “What’s On the Other Side of the Rainbow?” by author Carla Masterson. It’s a lovely children’s book by my friend Carla. Mr. Positively, a fantasy, dream-like being who inhabits the rainbow, invites children to follow him through the colors of the rainbow in a journey of self discovery. Love, anger, laughter, shyness, fear, sadness, friendship, joy -- these emotions are examined as the children move from one color of the rainbow to another. http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Rainbow-Secret-Golden-Mirror/dp/159975228X

The 4^th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: Magic, Myths and Miracles.  The 4^th IASC, organized by Alan Shoemaker, will be held again in the shamanic center of the Upper Amazon in Iquitos, Peru from July 19 to 27, 2008. The Conference website is: www.soga-del-alma.org. You can contact Alan directly at alanshoemaker@hotmail.com.