The movie is set to be released October 4, 2013! THIS will be a nail-biter!
Author: Blu
Social Blogger. Artist. Photographer. ShortFilmmaker. Small Business Entrepreneur. Closet Actress. Native New Yorker. Thanks for stopping by to read my post!
MUTATED HEREDITY
BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that belong to a class of genes known as tumor suppressors. Mutation of these genes has been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
A woman’s risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer is greatly increased if she inherits a deleterious (harmful) BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. Men with these mutations also have an increased risk of breast cancer. Both men and women who have harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations may be at increased risk of other cancers.
Genetic tests are available to check for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. A blood sample is required for these tests, and genetic counseling is recommended before and after the tests.
If a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation is found, several options are available to help a person manage their cancer risk.
source: national cancer Institute
DON’T NAME NO CANCER AFTER ME!
HER2-positive breast cancer is a breast cancer that tests positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer cells. In about 1 of every 5 breast cancers, the cancer cells make an excess of HER2 due to a gene mutation. This gene mutation and the elevated levels of HER2 that it causes can occur in many types of cancer — not only breast cancer. This is a gene mutation that occurs only in the cancer cells and is not a type of mutation that you can inherit from a parent.
HER2-positive breast cancers tend to be more aggressive than other types of breast cancer. They’re also less responsive to hormone treatment.
Women with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer whose cancer grows despite other standard therapies have a new treatment option available. (see WITH A BULLET)
source: mayo clinic online
WITH A BULLET…
A new ‘magic bullet’ drug called ado-trastuzumab emtansine was approved by the FDA and is giving hope to thousands of women suffering from one of the most deadly forms of breast cancer, HER2-positive. The FDA’s decision was announced in a Feb. 22 news release by the medicine’s developer, Genentech, a member of pharmecutical giant the Roche Group.
The medicine, aimed at an aggressive form of the disease, is expected to offer several months of quality ‘extra’ life and drastically cuts the debilitating side effects of traditional therapy.
In earlier trials, patients found that remission time was on average five months longer when given the drug as ‘first-line’ treatment at an early stage of the incurable advanced HER2-positive form of the disease.
There are also fewer side effects with the drug. Fewer than five per cent of the women given T-DM1 in the earlier study lost their hair, compared with 65 per cent in the control group using traditional chemotherapy.
Other side effects such as diarrhea were also reduced. And half as many of the most serious side effects, requiring hospitalisation, were reported among those given the drug.
T-DM1 teams up the Herceptin antibody with a powerful chemotherapy agent DM1. The two are fused in a way that is more effective.
The new drug combination seeks out and attaches itself to cancerous cells, switching off the growth signals that encourage cancer to spread, while calling on the body’s immune system to attack and remove it. The drug then penetrates the cell’s outer layer and delivers the chemotherapy directly inside the cell to destroy it from within.
After the FDA approval, Genentech changed the medicine’s name from trastuzumab emtansine to ado-trastuzumab emtansine to avoid potential confusion, since both Kadcyla and Herceptin’s generic names begin with trastuzumab, a company spokesperson said.
source: daily mail online and living beyond breast cancer
A LIGHTER NOTE: “FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES ONLY”
DOING THIS:
WILL GET YOU THIS:
Researchers at the UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have put the squeeze — literally — on malignant mammary cells to guide them back into a normal growth pattern.
The findings, presented Dec. 17, 2012 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco, show for the first time that mechanical forces alone can revert and stop the out-of-control growth of cancer cells. This change happens even though the genetic mutations responsible for malignancy remain, setting up a nature-versus-nurture battle in determining a cell’s fate.
“We are showing that tissue organization is sensitive to mechanical inputs from the environment at the beginning stages of growth and development,” said principal investigator Daniel Fletcher, professor of bioengineering at Berkeley and faculty scientist at the Berkeley Lab. “An early signal, in the form of compression, appears to get these malignant cells back on the right track.”
source: news center berkley edu.
A WONDERFUL NEW HORIZON
For decades, researcher Mina Bissell pursued a revolutionary idea — that a cancer cell doesn’t automatically become a tumor, but rather, depends on surrounding cells (its microenvironment) for cues on how to develop. She shares the two key experiments that proved the prevailing wisdom about cancer growth was wrong.
Categories
Okay, Now This S**t Is Personal
“I no longer have the luxury of being a dove when it comes to my financial security. I have to become a hawk and protect my nest egg – my future – with everything I’ve got.”
I’d been waiting for the last 8 to 10 years for the repercussions, but up until now I’d been practically unaffected by the whole matter.
I’ve never owned a home, I’ve always rented.
Never owned a car and I don’t drive.
I’m single, with no children, so no worries there.
I’ve been at, what one would call a good job, for the last 18 years and have a fair amount of indispensability.
I pay my taxes and receive average returns each year.
I’ve had no major hospital visits for the last 18 years and I’m rarely sick (knock-on-wood), with most of my doctor visits slotted for yearly physical exams and dental check-ups.
And then it happened.
THE RECESSION suddenly got up close and personal.
On Monday the HR department at my company sent out an all-staff email stating, among other things, that due to the increased cost of the 401(k) pension plan by 25%, the company will no longer be able to contribute matching funds towards its employee’s deductions. This, no doubt is happening across the country:
“The proposed agreement would suspend the employer match on the 401(k) plan for all participating institutions for the next two years, and use the funds that would normally pay for the match to pay for the increase in the pension cost. This does not affect the match of July 2013. That was paid in its entirety, but the matches for July 2014 and 2015 would not be made under this tentative agreement. The match for July 2016 is not yet determined and would be subject to the same or a similar multi-party process to reach agreement about two years from now. Under the tentative agreement employee contributions to the 401k during the two years would continue to be made on a pre-tax basis up to the IRS limits.”
Suddenly I saw my beautiful but modest dream home nestled alongside the red clay mountains in Sedona, Arizona, going up in smoke!
The 1/4 acre backyard with the modest swimming pool (in which I personally install an original mosaic design); my brick enclosed BBQ pit; my little garden spot in the back of the yard where I try to grow a few tomatoes; the recreation center I hope to open and give art therapy classes in; my junkets to Africa, Japan, Egypt and England — still on my ‘bucket list’; my as-of-yet-to-be-born faithful companions, Lil Roddy and Piccachu, a pair of cute, sable French Bulldogs who I treat like the children I never had; my favorite gentlemen caller and I skinny-dipping in the pool under the stars in my cozy backyard, as we sip on our favorite wine while listening to an endless stream of jazz ballads from all the legends – Dexter, Coltrane, Miles, Mingus – playing in the background as we…well, you get the picture. All fading fast.
The memo says the break in coverage will continue up to 2016, when matters will then be renegotiated, but I and my fellow employees are severely skeptical on this turning out favorably anytime soon.
So this was my wakeup call. I no longer have the luxury of being a dove when it comes to my financial security. I have to become a hawk and protect my nest egg – my future – with everything I’ve got. My pension is still intact but I still have to boost my retirement-plan contributions if I want to make up for the loss of the employer match and keep my retirement dreams alive.
Some financial advisors recommend continued investment in your company’s 401(k) plan if there are good investment choices and low fees there. If you’re in your twenties, you’ll want to put the majority of your investment into a high-risk high growth fund. You’ll make money by leaving your money in these funds for the long haul even though they may go down at times. Move to more conservative investments as you get closer to your retirement.
Also consider contributing to a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA (named for its legislative sponsor, William V. Roth Jr., a Republican senator from Delaware) allows you to contribute and save after-tax money as opposed to the traditional 401(k) contributions made with pretax dollars. As long as you own the Roth IRA for at least five years, you can take tax-free distributions beginning at age 59.
Another way to supplement your overall retirement package may be an investment in an annuity of which there are two general kinds. The first is the annuity with period certain, which is an annuity that specifies a certain period for the payments. The second and most common kind of annuity for retirement savings is the life annuity. How this works is that you agree to pay some lump sum to a company and they promise to pay you a certain rate of return on that money each year for the rest of your life.
However there are certain risks associated with annuities. For instance, what happens if the organization you bought the annuity from goes under? Most likely, you’re out of luck. To put it simply, advisors again say never buy an annuity without the backing of a very reputable organization, especially if you’re putting a great deal of your savings into it.
There’s also the possibility that you buy a lifetime annuity and you pass away earlier than you expected to. The balance of that investment is gone, since it can’t be passed down as an inheritance. For this reason it may be preferable to buy an annuity associated with a charitable group you believe in, both for the tax advantages and for the support to that organization. Then at least if you die before you could cash in at your planned retirement age, the money would go to a worthy cause.
Afterall, you can’t take it with you (thank God!).
“…but he isn’t about to do it — and It can’t be done, obviously.”
A couple more faux pas like the one Secretary of State John Kerry made at a briefing on Syria earlier this week and we’ll have achieved World Peace in no time!
“The threat appears to be much worse than it has (been) in a long time,”
“It all leads us to believe something could happen in the near future.”
These statements from U.S. officials are what has prompted the U.S. government to shut down its 22 embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa. Of particular concern is Yemen, where the government is “on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come,” says a senior U.S. security official. Britain, France and Germany have said they too will close their embassies in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Sunday and Monday for security reasons.
As frightened and horror-filled as I am of the possibility of another 911-like attack, the discovery of such plots — that are legitimate — by organizations like the NSA do a lot to validate the necessity of covert, high-tech surveillance operations in the country. The thing is, how do you prove there was a legitimate discovery of a terrorist plot unless, a) a culprit or culprits are caught in the act or b) a culprit or culprits actually commit the terrorist act?
“House leaders have been briefed, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters, adding that the travel alert and embassy closings provided “some understanding of the seriousness of the threat. New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee who has also heard such briefings, applauded the government’s decision to close its diplomatic missions.
“I give them credit,” the Republican said of the Obama administration. “I think the government is doing exactly the right thing here.” — CNN Politics
Two birds, one stone.
Al-Qaeda leader Aymanal-Zawahri’s condemnation of the overthrow of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi last month; the resulting chaos in the state of Egypt; newly elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani replacing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; “Highly charged emotions” coming off the Muslim religious holidays and Intelligence officials reporting a “high volume of internet chatter” back and forth between groups suspected of terrorist activities, are reasons given for the change in climate and subsequent heightened security.
source: CNN Politics
Whew! We can all breathe a sigh of relief now that the financial crisis is over. The Securities and Exchange Commission has found former Goldman Sachs banker Fabrice Tourre liable on six counts of securities fraud.
I’m being sarcastic of course.
Mr. Tourre dealt out toxic mortgage deals under a company known as Abacus (you remember them home loan borrowers), which Goldman Sachs created in 2007 at the request of hedge-fund manager John Paulson. Paulson wanted to use the fund to bet against it, which he did considerably, garnishing him $15 billion before the Home Loans Crisis officially hit the fan and the news.
Suspiciously not on trial in the case was Goldman Sachs itself, although the bank paid all of Tourre’s legal fees, which was the least it could do for its sacrificial lamb. Earlier in 2010 Sachs settled with the SEC by paying a $550 million penalty without ever having to admit any wrongdoing.
A jury found that Tourre had misled investors about the nature of the deal, tricking them into thinking it had not been built for failure from the start. He now faces the possibility of heavy financial penalties and a lifetime ban from the securities industry.
A hollow victory in the wake of all the terminal damage to our economy that was caused.
Categories
Anthony Weiner May Be In The Fire Now…
There’s something about the defeated, somewhat apologetic underdog that brings out the best in us.
source: AOL News
Categories
C*G*R*Style…EZ
Seiko watch / H.E. by MANGO COTTON SUIT TROUSERS / UNIQLO Men Airism Mesh V Neck Sleeveless T Shirt / Alexander McQueen Leather Tablet Case / Carmina Shoemaker Forest loafers / CK Jeans Aviator Sunglasses / Tessa Metcalfe Jewellery Mens Heavy Gold Chain cuff / Fat Face Chunky Plait Cuff, $7.66 / Breil Milano Chain Rectangle Shape Necklace
18 fiiiiine Black male actors we’d like to see more of on the silver screen…
( Click on images to enlarge.)
“The criminal black man is an ethnic stereotype in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries according to which black males are expected to be criminal and dangerous.”
I don’t want to have a conversation with Bill O’Reilly, or anybody else for that matter, about “black on black crime.” Not unless we can have a serious conversation about “white on white crime”. Or “Asian on Asian crime”, “Latino on Latino crime”. Hell, let’s talk about “Native American on Native American” crime.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?
Of course any crime committed by one person against the other should be met with justice, fair and swift. Especially when it concerns a loss of life.
But let’s be real Bill. The idea that there is something degeneratively defective about the black race and its culture that causes it to prey on its own like no other race is — at best– science fiction.
The terminology “black on black crime” is a code to encourage public policies that treat black people as malignant cancers on the society-at-large. Explaining the tragedies and criminality that befall some black enclaves in this country as exclusive only to those enclaves is not only wrong, its dangerous.
At this juncture in our history — a history that now includes the dismantling of a key component of the Voting Rights Act — its become imperative that we cease and desist in using the separatist term. That includes black people too, particularly our politicians.
And after all, Isn’t this really about proximity? There’s a reason why the majority of white victims of crime are victimized by other whites. Does Mr. O’Reilly see this as an endemic to white communities? Does he want to have a real discourse on the prevalence of white on white crime in the suburbs, in trailer parks or on Park Avenue?
Still sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?
As I mentioned earlier, criminality is a scourge on all of society as whole. No particular race, creed or culture is any more prone to criminal behaviour than another. We are all surrounded by an actively violent society that needs to be rectified with intelligent, open and honest reflection and actions.
I believe that O’Reilly is conscientiously aware of this. whether he’s really ready to have a conscientious discussion about it — well, that’s another story altogether.
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON!
Lincoln Memorial
2 Lincoln Memorial Cir NW
20037 Washington, DC
Reserve your seat online NOW!
EVENT DETAILS: For folks in the New York City area.
Join the First Corinthian Baptist Church as they partner with the National Action Network to journey to DC to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.
To reserve a seat on the FCBC bus the down-payment is $10. The total cost is $50, with the final payment due August 4th.
All buses leave for Washington @3am Saturday, August 4 and leave from Washington after the rally at 4pm.
Buses will depart for Washington from FCBC, located at 1912 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (at W 116th St) Harlem, New York.
See further details of the march here.
For questions about 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON please contact Betty Davis at ACT@fcbcnyc.org.
Category: Social Justice
All denominations invited!
Join the March on Washington to commemorate the March for Jobs and Freedom led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. 50 years ago.
Labor Fight Back calls for jobs and freedom for all, defend and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, respect and protect workers’ rights and restore and expand voting rights.
Fifty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. led a great March for JOBS and FREEDOM on Washington that demanded:
“A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers—Negro and white—on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.
“A national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living. (Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 [$15.23 at May 2013 prices] an hour fails to do this.)”
Shockingly, most working people are worse off today than in the 1960s:
Employment statistics today are clearly worse. Thanks to the Great Recession, the national unemployment rate still hovers at 7.6 percent; in 1963 it was 5.7 percent. But that is only part of the picture. Part-time workers who want full-time work are on the rise. And even worse, the number of those who have completely given up hope of finding a job has increased precipitously: in 1954, 96 percent of U.S. men between 25 and 54 years old worked but today that number has dropped to 80 percent. When all these sectors of unemployed or partially employed are combined and only those men who are unemployed but want work are included, the unemployment rate jumps to 16 percent.
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the government instituted job programs and put millions to work. [A few days ago] President Obama announced that it is not the government’s job to create the needed number of jobs. In fact, the Obama administration has advocated a totally inadequate plan that would provide less than two million new jobs.
Compounding these dire circumstances, social safety net programs, like food stamps and unemployment compensation, including for those suffering long-term joblessness, have been cut across the board on the national, state, and local levels and will likely be cut again, especially in light of the recent decision by the House to push through a farm bill without food stamps.
Whatever recovery there has been from the Great Recession has resulted in income gains concentrated at the top. This division in economic gains is not new. It extends and reinforces the trend toward Gilded Age inequality that has been going on for four decades. In 2010, 93 percent of all new income that was created went to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.
The attacks on African Americans and people of color have continued unabated, as witnessed by the brutal murder of Trayvon Martin and the exoneration of his killer. This on top of the June 25 Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act.
It’s high time for all victims of austerity cuts, potential victims of further cuts in the near and long-term future — particularly low-income and poor people — along with communities of color, students, environmentalists and other sectors of the population reeling from the deteriorating conditions under which we live to come together to fight collectively for our rights and achieve a new wave of social progress.March for jobs
We demand that the federal government create tens of millions of good paying jobs to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, protect the environment, and rehire laid-off teachers and other essential public workers.
source: Popular Resistance