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Friday, February 18, 2005 |
 Thanks everyone for your good wishes. Brian in his birthday scarf from Zanna in Montana. And ice cream and cake. What a day! 8:11:28 PM  comment []
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Well, It's been an exciting 24 hours. It transpired that just a day before my brother's birthday, relatives of the '50s boxer Jimmy Flood discovered the Jimmy Flood chapte in my Salvage page. From what I can tell, they are unfamiliar with what a blog is and haven't clicked to the home page, but have reacted as if my entry were an article in a periodical, irresponsible journalism, harassment. I've tried to edit it responsibly, and hope to conduct some friendlier correspondence in the future. I want to write the story of the man we knew by the same name. I was--am--so surprised by the comments they left yesterday and continue to leave--stunned--and a little frightened, as a birth mother might feel if her adopted-away child phoned out of the blue, or vice versa. I was a mess, and required the daylong IM handholding of a fellow blogger, god bless him, who was up to the task. Here it was, the contact I'd been waiting for, hoping for, and I was immobilized with dread: they are very angry. All I've wanted to know all these years was whether the man who called himself Jimmy Flood was indeed that man. The relatives say no. And yet my sources in the Los Angelese sports world--wportswriters and trainers--say yes. I have not claimed that he was, only that we knew the man who called himself that. This is not defamation, but fact. Jimmy always was honest about the surgery to his brow line and nose to repair the damage from years of boxing. The only dates I know for certain are that he arrived in Los Angeles in the spring of 1967 and vanished in October or November of that year. I know this because I spent 24 hours a day with him during that time. And I have to call this man Jimmy. It's the only name we know. But it is entirely possible he was just a very good con man, a very nice con man. I hope I can see photos of their Jimmy, and learn more about him. Regardless of who he was, he had a significant impact on our lives and left us with a mystery worth solving. ****** The Canada geese have discovered the ponds. These are still iced over, but the creek in and out flows freely. I doubt they will nest nearby. Apple, still a city dog at heart, regards them suspiciously. I've been poking through the Hugo book. What a miserable upbringing he had--by mentally unbalanced grandparents, severe beatings, emotional torture. He was a miserable alcoholic adult, as well, but functioned far better than one might have expected. I was struck by this: "Years later my neurosis was so advanced it threatened to be crippling and I sought help. The doctor told me that writing was the luckiest sort of adjustment and that given my life, it was a miracle I was not a criminal..." Writing as "the luckiest sort of adjustment." I think this must happen a lot. * * * * * * * Science news of the day:In today's WiredNews, Kristen Philipkoski reports that scientists have found a way to use stem cells in breast augmentation. "Saline implants can leak, rupture, interfere with mammograms, and lose their shape. But scientists are studying ways to make breast augmentations from stem cells, which are famous for their self-renewing capabilities. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago will publish a study in the April issue of Tissue Engineering showing that stem-cell tissue implants in mice kept their shape longer than traditional implants. "The work is not all about vanity. The researchers' first goal is to help people who have undergone mastectomies or been disfigured by other surgeries or injuries. Tissue engineered from stem cells could have two benefits: It would stay firm longer, and it would eliminate a separate surgery, which is often necessary to extract healthy tissue for bone transplants, facial implants or burn treatments. "'The stem cells generated tissue in this particular scaffold and they maintained their shape almost 100 percent four weeks after implantation in mice,' said Dr. Jeremy Mao, director and associate professor of tissue engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 'In conventional fat transplant, it shrinks substantially over a period of a few weeks.' ... " Click here for the rest of the story.
And an announcement which should be coming out of news embargo right about now, "Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of
California, San Diego, and their colleagues have produced the first clear
evidence of human-produced warming in the world's oceans, a finding they say
removes much of the uncertainty associated with debates about global
warming.... Tim Barnett and David Pierce of Scripps Institution used a combination of
computer models and real-world "observed" data to capture signals of the
penetration of greenhouse gas-influenced warming in the oceans. The authors
make the case that their results clearly indicate that the warming is
produced anthropogenically, or by human activities. |
