Research giant Judah Folkman dies

Dr. Judah Folkman, the cancer research pioneer who overcame decades of scientific skepticism to develop a whole new way to treat the disease, died late Monday, apparently of a heart attack.

Folkman, 74, the director of the vascular biology program at Children's Hospital Boston, proved that the growth of tumors could be stopped or even reversed by cutting off the blood supply that cancer needs to grow. Largely on the strength of Folkman's research, pharmaceutical companies today are testing dozens of drugs that treat cancer without the toxic side effects of conventional chemotherapy. Several of these drugs, called angiogenesis inhibitors, are already available and have been proven to extend the lives of advanced cancer patients by at least a few months.

Folkman's remarkable results in the laboratory set off worldwide speculation that he would be the man to cure cancer, but he was uneasy with the accolades because cancer is such a complex disease. "We never use the word 'cure' because it is far away," Folkman said in one of his last interviews. "It may be that patients will have little tiny cancers that lie dormant for a long time."

Source: http://www.boston.com

Texas UFO Sighting Has Local Town Talking

The Stephenville Texas UFO was reportedly seen by dozens of people as the locals claim to have seen a large metal object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some say they saw fighter jets chasing the UFO.

“It is the talk of the town right now” says Angela Joiner, a local newspaper reporter.

While town officials search for a logical explanation such as an army aircraft, residents say the UFO was too big, too quiet, and flew too low to the ground to be a plane.

A Joint Reserve Naval Air Station spokesman says that an aircraft from the base were in the area on January 8, when the bulk of UFO sightings were reported. He also mentioned that the UFO might just be an optical illusion created by two commercial planes.

A freight company owner who saw the UFO, Steve Allen, said "People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," He claims that the UFO he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

Fourteen percent of Americans were surveyed last year stating that they have seen a UFO before.

According to the Mutual UFO Network, California, Colorado and Texas receive about 200 UFO sightings per month.

The Mutual UFO Network plans to visit the town to investigate the Stephenville UFO.


Source: http://www.transworldnews.com/

New study on heart drug Zetia

Results say it fails to prevent the buildup of harmful plaque in arteries

A new study raises questions about the effectiveness of the heart drug Zetia.

About one million new presciptions for Zetia are written each week, and it is a big seller for Merck and Schering Plough, the drug companies which combine Zetia to make the drug Zocor. Now a new study raises questions about Zetia's effectiveness.

When Zetia is combined with another cholesterol-lowering drug , Zocor, it goes by the name "Vytorin".

These drugs do lower cholesterol, by at least 15 to 20 percent in most patients, but a new study says that Zetia failed the more important test: it does nothing to prevent the buildup of harmful plaque in arteries, when compared to older cholesterol medications.

Even more troubling to many physicians: why did it take the drug companies, Merck and Schering-Plough, so long to release these results? The clinical trial was completed almost two years ago.

Both companies declined interviews, but a spokesman for Merck told ABC News: "Variability in the data in some of the images" kept them from being analyzed and released any earlier.

No one knows how many Americans may have suffered heart damage because of the delay.

source: http://abclocal.go.com

TV's Vampira Dies at Age 85

Maila Nurmi, the cult actress credited as TV's first horror-movie hostess, has died at her Hollywood home. She was 85.

The actress created her Vampira character – complete with revealing black gown, smoky eyes and blood-red lipstick – to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954, as she introduced flicks like Revenge of the Zombies and Devil Bat's Daughter.

She kept her cult allure even after The Vampira Show was canceled. Her character is believed to have inspired the Morticia Addams character on The Addams Family, which made its TV debut a decade later.

Her film appearances included a cameo in Ed Wood's 1959 cult classic Plan 9 From Outer Space. Nurmi was portrayed by Lisa Marie in Ed Wood, Tim Burton's 1994 tribute to the B-movie director.

In 1989, Nurmi lost a $10 million lawsuit against Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elivra, whom she claimed ripped off of her character. "There is no Elvira," she told the Associated Press at the time. "There's only a pirated Vampira."

The cause of her Jan.10 death remains undetermined, the Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Fred Corral told the AP. She's remembered on her Web site, www.vampirasattic.com.
– Caris Davis

source: http://www.people.com