Tuesday, May 2UVA ethicist joins national stem cell research panel
Dr. Jonathan Moreno, who heads UVA’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and who has spoken out against the politicization of scientific research under Dubya’s regime, has been appointed to a new federal committee to review guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research. The committee’s 14 members will take a look at how existing voluntary research guidelines are being applied—a subject familiar to Moreno, as he co-chaired the panel that wrote them last year. Get more info at www.nationalacademies.org/stemcells.
Wednesday, May 3
Philip Morris tries to get around indoors smoking bans
Richmond-based Philip Morris is testing its first smokeless-tobacco product, according to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal. Taboka, as it will be called, is a pouch of tobacco that users shove into the pocket of their cheeks. Philip Morris is evidently worried that fewer American adults are smoking and more cities are banning smoking inside buildings. Taboka will cost $3.50 for a package of 12 pouches, which, promotional materials state, provide “good ol’ tobacco pleasure…that lasts about twice as long as a cigarette.” The cancer rate, it should go without saying, will likely remain unchanged.
Faulkner’s UVA term
recalled—sort of
Writing in the May/June issue of the Brown Alumni Magazine, Robert Scholes, an emeritus professor, recalls his early days teaching English at UVA, and the time that William Faulkner, then a writer-in-residence, visited his class. Well, he doesn’t recall it exactly (or at least not specifically), explaining that, if he “were the sort of memoirist who gets on Oprah, I would probably remember every detail of that class.” But Charlottesville, circa 1959, left a lasting impression: “At the local movie theater all black people were required to sit in the balcony, and I soon got involved in a controversial exchange in the newspaper with someone who insisted that this was necessary because they smelled bad.”
Thursday, May 4
Local native plant expert champions the hellebore
No subject is too esoteric for The New York Times, as today’s interview with local ecologist and garden designer Cole Burrell proves. Burrell, who wisely observes that “to drive over a creek to get home is pretty good,” is a leading expert on native plants (he runs his company, Native Landscape Design and Restoration out of his Free Union garden). His latest cause? The hellebore, which the Times says is “a winter-blooming perennial with saucerlike flowers and often evergreen leaves, which is native to Europe, the Balkans and parts of Asia.” Burrell is so in to the plant, in fact, that he has just published a book that promises to be the last word on the subject, Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide.
Friday, May 5
County pleads with public, “It’s just a movie!”
Albemarle’s Community Relations Manager, Lee Catlin, must have been scratching her head this morning at the need to inform the public on the difference between fact and fantasy. In a news release titled “Local Officials Provide Factual Response to Television Movie Featuring Pandemic Flu in Virginia,” Catlin reminded TV viewers that “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America,” a production set to air on Tuesday, May 9, “is a work of fiction designed to entertain and not a factual accounting of a real world event.” All together now: There is no bird flu pandemic!
NFL life getting sweeter for Heath Miller
Former Cavalier football star Heath Miller—who, after one season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, now wears a Super Bowl ring—celebrated the debut of an eponymous candy bar today with a visit to a fourth grade class at Hopewell (Pennsylvania) Elementary School. Kids around Pittsburgh competed in a letter-writing contest to get Miller, nicknamed “Big Money,” to visit their schools. One Hopewell youngster told Miller, “You have a new candy bar on the market; if you gave our school a taste, your sales would skyrocket,” according to the Beaver County Times & Allegheny Times. The candy bar, a product of PLB Sports, is called “Heath’s Big Money.” Miller’s teammate, imposing QB Ben Roethlisberger, has a novelty food from PLB, too: “Big Ben Beef Jerky.”
Saturday, May 6
Wachovia targeted by
Muslims for closing account
The Washington Post reports today that Muslim activists plan a public campaign against Wachovia Corp. because it has not explained why it closed the bank accounts of a NoVa-based Muslim social service group. The Council on American-Islamic Relations plans a news conference for Monday, May 8, and, if not satisfied, then the group may call for a boycott of the bank. Wachovia, which has eight branches in and around Charlottesville, so far has refused to explain why it closed the accounts of the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation.
Sunday, May 7
Sissy’s new flick subject to Cruise control
Though he’s now widely viewed as a crackpot who has violated every cardinal rule of male movie stardom, including the proscription against making placenta jokes, and though Mission: Impossible III fell short of box office expectations, Tom Cruise’s vanity project still outpaced Albemarle darling Sissy Spacek’s new flick by a factor of 8. M:I III took in about $48 million this opening weekend, according to CBS News, whereas An American Haunting, starring Spacek and Donald Sutherland in a 19th-century supernatural story, took in about $6 million.
Monday, May 8
Spring goes missing
With temperatures 20 degrees below normal for the second day in a row, a parade of woolly sweaters and closed-toe shoes made their way across town today. Sunshine and 70-degree afternoons were expected to return by mid-week.