ARTS & FARCES internet

Let there be no mistake that we are the sickest, most narcissistic and degenerate culture the planet has ever seen. As if we need further evidence of this fact, consider the following passage of an email sent to a Twin Cities mailing list for editors and writers:

Extreme Makeover offers selected candidates a truly Cinderella-like experience by altering their appearance through plastic surgery in an effort to transform their lives and destinies.

This is all accomplished through the skills of our “Extreme Team,” which includes the country’s finest plastic surgeons, eye surgeons, and cosmetic dentists along with a talented team of hair and make-up artists, fashion stylists and personal trainers.

At this time, we are specifically seeking candidates that are writers of any genre or authors who have self-published their book and feel the lack of confidence in their appearance has hindered their career in one way or another.

Remember, this is “Extreme Makeover.” Applicants should want more than one procedure be it rhinoplasty, porcelain veneers, a facelift, chin or cheek implants, breast augmentation, etc.

So, ABC is casting a new reality show.  Meanwhile, almost 70% of the population believes that Saddam and Iraq are tied to the events of 11 September 2001. What the hell is wrong with us?

Share...

Warren Zevon died yesterday just like he lived: as a warrior. I was going to write a long sobby eulogy for one of America’s best and most honest songwriters, but instead I’ll just point to Jon Pareles’ obituary that will run in tomorrow’s New York Times. 56 is too fucking young.

Share...

I don’t have a clue about business models for publishing original content on the web. There I said it. But neither does anyone else; if anyone did, we’d all be using it. I used to think this lack of viable business models on the web was a Bad Thing, but I’m no longer so sure. What’s happened since 1993, when the first commercial websites (including this one’s predecessor) began appearing, are attempts to commercialize online content. Only a handful of publications have been successful, and none wildly so.

The Online Journalism Review recently published an overview of Peter Krasilovsky’s speech to a group of Knight media fellows. Karsilovsky, a senior partner at Borrell Associates—a leading newspaper strategy consultancy—spoke about how the net is a disruptive technology and threatens newspaper revenues.

Share...

In February I will have been a dialysis patient for four years. It’s an anniversary I’m not much looking forward to, but it’s certainly better than the alternative. Thirty years ago, had I been a kidney failure patient, I would have faced a death squad of medical professionals that would have had the sole determination of whether or not I would continue to live. Those relatively few deemed worthy of treatment were given dialysis treatments; everyone else was given morphine to ease the convulsions as they died a miserable death.

All that changed when end stage renal disease (permanent kidney failure) was covered under Medicare regardless of the age of the patient.

From the July 2003 issue of Nature Medicine comes news that a bone protein may actually reverse kidney failure ($$). Dialysis and transplant are both treatments for kidney failure, but they aren’t a cure. A reversal of the condition would legitimately qualify as a cure. Oh happy day!

Researchers at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have demonstrated that a specific protein, used to heal broken bones, can also repair and reverse chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease is a precursor to—but decidedly different than—permanent kidney failure. It’s beyond my level of knowledge to ascertain whether or not this protein, bone morphogenic protein (BMP) -7, can reverse permanent kidney failure, although the article refers specifically to dialysis patients, and starting dialysis is what triggers the end-stage diagnosis.

According to Raghu Kalluri, the project’s lead researcher, BMP-7 was found to reverse “a process known as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which generates scar-causing cells known as fibroblasts.” The protein works by reducing the number of fibroblast cells and replacing damaged cells with healthy epithelial cells. “In effect, BMP-7 is decreasing the bad cells and converting them into good cells,” Kalluri said.

The sole licensee for BMP-7 is Ortho Biotech, ironically the producer of PROCRIT (epoetin alfa), a very expensive drug most dialysis patients—including me—take to increase red blood cell levels.

Share...

Labor Day in America is when the political gloves come off and the pseudo-pugilism begins in scripted earnest. What do you think the chances are that the corporate media will do any better job covering this election cycle than it did during the last? Decidedly non-corporate CounterPunch has published a pretty good takedown of Howard Dean, the illusory progressive populist, written by three Vermonters.

David Weinberger, an author and thinker for whom I have immense respect, has disappointed with his overly-eager endorsement of Dean. This morning, Weinberger stoops to a rhetorical gimmick to press his point. Referring to CounterPunch as a “self-styled progressive site” (what does that mean? Cockburn and St. Clair have strong progressive cred), Weinberger admits that Dean’s Vermont gubernatorial record “was news to me,” and defends the candidate’s record as “either mainstream or compromises.”

Weinberger insists real differences exist between Bush and Dean and that politics is about compromise, yet fails to rebut a single point of the CounterPunch article or outline even one real difference between the major party candidates. Instead, he singles out the presidential non-voting record of one of the three authors of the article. The Dean campaign, of which Weinberger is a part, has made a big deal out of its alleged mobilization of these non-voters, so this is especially puzzling. But then, perhaps it’s not puzzling at all in light of Dean prematurely starting his sprint to the political right. How far right can a candidate go between now and next Labor Day? Watch Dean and find out.

Share...