If You didn’t realize how many innocent soldiers were dying in the two wars we are fighting 4,800 . If you want to see more of the photos from the Veterans Day display go to the Gimp Radio image gallery
Add comment November 12th, 2008
Michael Crichton, the million-selling author who made scientific research terrifying and irresistible in such thrillers as "Jurassic Park,""Timeline" and "The Andromeda Strain," has died of cancer, his family said.
Crichton died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 66 after privately battling cancer.
"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," his family said in a statement.
"While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us — and entertained us all while doing so — his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes."
He was an experimenter and popularizer known for his stories of disaster and systematic breakdown, such as the rampant microbe of "The Andromeda Strain" or the dinosaurs running madly in "Jurassic Park." Many of his books became major Hollywood movies, including "Jurassic Park,""Rising Sun" and "Disclosure." Crichton himself directed and wrote "The Great Train Robbery" and he co-wrote the script for the blockbuster "Twister."
In 1994, he created the award-winning TV hospital series "ER." He’s even had a dinosaur named for him, Crichton’s ankylosaur.
"Michael’s talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of `Jurassic Park,’" said "Jurassic Park" director Steven Spielberg, a friend of Crichton’s for 40 years. "He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. … Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place."
John Wells, executive producer of "ER" called the author "an extraordinary man. Brilliant, funny, erudite, gracious, exceptionally inquisitive and always thoughtful.
"No lunch with Michael lasted less than three hours and no subject was too prosaic or obscure to attract his interest. Sexual politics, medical and scientific ethics, anthropology, archaeology, economics, astronomy, astrology, quantum physics, and molecular biology were all regular topics of conversation."
Neal Baer, a physician who became an executive producer on "ER," was a fourth-year medical student at Harvard University when Wells, a longtime friend, sent him Crichton’s script.
"I said, `Wow, this is like my life.’ Michael had been a medical student at Harvard in the early ’70s and I was going through the same thing about 20 years later," said Baer. "ER" offered a fresh take on the TV medical drama, making doctors the central focus rather than patients. In the early life of "ER," Crichton, who hadn’t been involved in medicine for years, and Spielberg would take part in writers’ room discussions.
In recent years, Crichton was the rare novelist granted a White House meeting with President Bush, perhaps because of his skepticism about global warming, which Crichton addressed in the 2004 novel, "State of Fear." Crichton’s views were strongly condemned by environmentalists, who alleged that the author was hurting efforts to pass legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.
If not a literary giant, he was a physical one, standing 6 feet and 9 inches, and ready for battle with the press. In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Crichton came with a tape recorder, text books and a pile of graphs and charts as he defended "State of Fear" and his take on global warming.
"I have a lot of trouble with things that don’t seem true to me," Crichton said at the time, his large, manicured hands gesturing to his graphs. "I’m very uncomfortable just accepting. There’s something in me that wants to pound the table and say, ‘That’s not true.’"
He spoke to few scientists about his questions, convinced that he could interpret the data himself. "If we put everything in the hands of experts and if we say that as intelligent outsiders, we are not qualified to look over the shoulder of anybody, then we’re in some kind of really weird world," he said.
A new novel by Crichton had been tentatively scheduled to come next month, but publisher HarperCollins said the book was postponed indefinitely because of his illness.
One of four siblings, Crichton was born in Chicago and grew up in Roslyn, Long Island. His father was a journalist and young Michael spent much of his childhood writing extra papers for teachers. In third grade, he wrote a nine-page play that his father typed for him using carbon paper so the other kids would know their parts. He was tall, gangly and awkward, and used writing as a way to escape; Mark Twain and Alfred Hitchcock were his role models.
Figuring he would not be able to make a living as writer, and not good enough at basketball, he decided to become a doctor. He studied anthropology at Harvard College, and later graduated from Harvard Medical School. During medical school, he turned out books under pseudonyms. (One that the tall author used was Jeffrey Hudson, a 17th-century dwarf in the court of King Charles II of England.) He had modest success with his writing and decided to pursue it.
His first hit, "The Andromeda Strain," was written while he was still in medical school and quickly caught on upon its 1969 release. It was a featured selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was sold to Universal in Hollywood for $250,000.
"A few of the teachers feel I’m wasting my time, and that in some ways I have wasted theirs," he told The New York Times in 1969. "When I asked for a couple of days off to go to California about a movie sale, that raised an eyebrow."
His books seemed designed to provoke debate, whether the theories of quantum physics in "Timeline," the reverse sexual discrimination of "Disclosure" or the spectre of Japanese eminence in "Rising Sun."
"The initial response from the (Japanese) establishment was, ‘You’re a racist,’" he told the AP. "So then, because I’m always trying to deal with data, I went on a tour talking about it and gave a very careful argument, and their response came back, ‘Well you say that but we know you’re a racist.’"
Crichton had a rigid work schedule: rising before dawn and writing from about 6 a.m. to around 3 p.m., breaking only for lunch. He enjoyed being one of the few novelists recognized in public, but he also felt limited by fame.
"Of course, the celebrity is nice. But when I go do research, it’s much more difficult now. The kind of freedom I had 10 years ago is gone," he told the AP. "You have to have good table manners; you can’t have spaghetti hanging out of your mouth at a restaurant."
Crichton was married five times and had one child. A private funeral is planned.
Add comment November 5th, 2008
NEWS RELEASE
October 31, 2008
Disability Rights Organizations Express Outrage Over Attacks at McCain-Palin Rally
Contacts:
Jim Ward, Founder and President
202-415-4753 or jward@ncdr.org
Marcie Roth, Executive Director
301-717-7447 or mroth@ncdr.org
(Washington, DC) The National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) pushed back today against the McCain-Palin campaign for ridiculing the legal rights of people with disabilities. News reports describe McCain-Palin campaign representative Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo), joining Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin at a rally in Rush Limbaugh’s hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, mocking Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama for stating that he’s looking to nominate judges who empathize with "the disabled."
"It’s Halloween and it seems that Sarah Palin’s mask of support for people with "special needs" is slipping. Despite past pandering to people with disabilities, McCain-Palin are actually opposed to vital disability legislation like the Community Choice Act and they want to appoint judges who will further roll back the civil rights protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act," declared NCDR’s founder and president, Jim Ward.
NPR’s Nina Totenberg has reported that McCain-Palin’s and conservatives’ "most oft-mentioned prospects" for nomination to the Supreme Court include Ohio Judge Jeffrey Sutton. Sutton was opposed by hundreds of disability organizations when he was nominated by President Bush after successfully weakening the ADA with states’ rights arguments. As a sitting judge, he has recently supported the execution of criminals with developmental disabilities and has undermined the Help America Vote Act(HAVA).
Disability rights advocates are further incensed that the McCain-Palin campaign has reframed this civil rights struggle, one founded in concepts of equality, dignity and self-respect, as an issue of "special needs."
Disability rights advocate, Steve Gold states, "Yes we need support services. Yes we need inclusive education. Yes we need integrated employment. Yes we need equal rights. This not "special". These needs are based on us, people with disabilities, equal members of our communities. We are not inspirational nor are we "special". We are PROUD PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES who should push back when anyone describes us as anything but equal members of our communities."
The National Coalition for Disability Rights is a nonpartisan nonprofit that does not endorse political candidates. We are a coalition of national, state and local disability, civil rights and social justice organizations united to protect and promote the human rights of children and adults with physical and mental disabilities.
Add comment October 31st, 2008
Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," ”Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — followed by a second act as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.
Newman died Friday at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn., following a long battle with cancer, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.
In May, Newman dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men" at Connecticut’s Westport Country Playhouse, citing unspecified health issues. The following month, a friend disclosed that he was being treated for cancer and Martha Stewart, also a friend, posted photos on her Web site of Newman looking gaunt at a charity luncheon.
But true to his fiercely private nature, Newman remained cagey about his condition, reacting to reports that he had lung cancer with a statement saying only that he was "doing nicely."
Add comment September 27th, 2008
By Mary Owen and Kelley L. Carter
12:40 PM CDT, August 9, 2008
Fans from Chicago to California mourned the passing of Bernie Mac on Saturday, remembering him as a successful comedian and role model.
"He’s from Chicago and he showed he can make it if you push yourself," said Devon Price, 17, a student at Eisenhower High School, who called Mac a role model for young African-Americans.
Mac, 50, died early Saturday morning after being hospitalized with pneumonia for at least a week at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The South Side native rose from edgy stand-up comic to network TV star.
"What’s interesting about Bernie’s career is that he wasn’t a mainstream comic at first. A lot of this was in his act. Bernie would talk about things that I think were not viewed by Hollywood as being mainstream-y-type subjects. His act was very edgy and very raw. Bernie would talk about things that other black comics wouldn’t talk about like skin color, and how being a very dark-skinned black man like him made his life very different from other people. Bernie was a big hit with a certain segment of even the black community, the more working class and urban audiences. He was their hero," said Gary Hardwick, a screenwriter and director based in Los Angeles whose credits include "The Brothers" and "Deliver Us From Eva."
Bryant Lee Turner, a local comic known as BLT, called Mac a mentor.
"What Bernie brought for comics all over was his style. There’s only one Bernie Mac style: straight forth, it’s the realism," Turner said. "Bernie gave you the sense that if you put the work in, it’ll pay off for you eventually."
Turner said he last saw Mac at a Gladys Knight concert in Country Club Hills last month. Knight gave Mac a big shout out from the stage, asking the audience to give him a round of applause. Mac, who was seated in the front row, took his hat off and waved.
Word of Mac’s death spread along the Bud Billiken Parade route as fans called him a down-to-earth man whose comedy reflected their own experiences, especially those of the black community.
"His show with the family was a positive showing that black people could have things and be successful in life," said Maxwell Davis, 54, who traveled from Benton Harbor, Mich., to watch the parade.
Davis said he saw Mac perform in northwest Indiana more than 10 years ago before Mac was famous. He said it really cracked him up when Mac would get bug eyes when showing shock or surprise.
"He was funny," said Davis, a retired factory worker. "He opened up for another comedian."
Aretha James, 37, was at the grocery store this morning when her husband called her to tell her Mac had died.
"I felt so saddened. My prayers go out to his family," said James, who enjoys watching re-runs of the "Bernie Mac Show."
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
Add comment August 9th, 2008
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By Stewart Payne
A young disabled man who receives care for his life-limiting illness at a hospice run by a nun spoke yesterday of his decision to use a prostitute to experience sex before he dies.
Sister Frances Dominica gave her support to 22-year-old Nick Wallis, who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sufferers usually die by their thirties.
Mr Wallis told staff at the Douglas House hospice in Oxford that he wanted to experience sexual intercourse. He explained that he had hoped to form an intimate and loving relationship with a woman, but his disability had acted as a barrier.
He told The Daily Telegraph: "It was a decision two years in the making and I discussed it with my carers and my parents. Telling my mother and father was the hardest part, but in the end they gave me their support.
"There are many aspects of life that an able-bodied person takes for granted but from which I am excluded.
"I had hoped to form a relationship when I went to university, but it didn’t happen. I had to recognise that if was to experience sex I would have to pay for it out of my savings. My mind was made up before I discussed it with anyone else."
The hospice staff, after taking advice from a solicitor, the clergy and health care professionals, decided to help him.
"I found an advert from a sex worker in a magazine for the disabled," said Mr Wallis. "The initial contact was by email and then by phone."
It was arranged for the prostitute to visit his home in Northampton. "My parents went out," he said.
"It was not emotionally fulfilling, but the lady was very pleasant and very understanding. I do not know whether I would do it again. I would much rather find a girlfriend, but I have to be realistic."
Mr Wallis has decided to talk in public about his decision as part of the BBC documentary series about life inside Douglas House and its associated hospice for children, Helen House.
"I have done so in order that people may understand the issues that face people in my situation. I suppose some people may be judgmental."
He said he did not discuss his decision directly with Sister Frances, who founded the two hospices. "But I know she gave me her support."
Sister Frances described Mr Wallis as "delightful, intelligent and aware young man".
"I know that some people will say ‘You are a Christian foundation. What are you thinking about?’. But we are here for all faiths and none," she said.
"It is not our job to make moral decisions for our guests. We came to the conclusion that it was our duty of care to support Nick emotionally and to help ensure his physical safety."
Add comment July 8th, 2008
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.
Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, died at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (2 a.m. British time) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.
Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television. A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of his "Filthy Words" routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
Add comment June 22nd, 2008
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