Prayera's blog

In the mail yesterday was one of the two magazines I subscribe to: National Geographic (which other than liking it, it was one of those things we couldn't afford while I was growing up, so now I must have it.)

In this issue is an article about the Judas Gospels. I haven't read it yet, as by the time I sat down with the magazine, it was late and I had a glass of wine sloshing around, depressing my neurons and this seems to be one of them smart people articles that is going to take my full attention.

University of Pittsburgh researchers have used gene therapy to stop the growth of tumors in mice inoculated with ovarian cancer cells (poor mice, btw!). Tumors did not develop in these mice, which were treated immediately with a "suicide gene" that causes cancer cells to kill themselves. The gene also held tumor growth largely in check in mice treated up to 60 days after being injected with the cancer cells.

A woman stripped naked and sprinted into Downtown traffic in Pittsburgh on Thursday morning after trying to shoplift a bag of peanuts from the Smithfield News. The incident apparently began when the woman spit on someone and two other women tried to restrain her, partially ripping off her shirt in the process. The woman (whose name was not released) then walked toward the Allegheny County Jail, where someone spotted her and called police. By the time officers arrived, the woman was at the Smithfield News, which she entered while waving a hubcap in the air. Finally, the woman walked outside, removed all her clothes and dashed into traffic on the Boulevard of the Allies, startling motorists. The woman ran off before police arrived, but was caught in Market Square.

Many abstinence programs have embraced the concept of virginity pledges, encouraging children as young as 9 to promise to wait until marriage to have sex.

So how reliable are reports of sexual activity by teenagers who took such a pledge?

Not very, according to a study by Harvard doctoral candidate Janet Rosenbaum published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Rosenbaum found that 53 percent of adolescents in a large, federally funded study who said they made a virginity pledge denied doing so a year later, often after they had become sexually active.

It appears likely that there have been many more human-to-human infections than the authorities have previously acknowledged. The numbers are still relatively small, and they do not mean that the virus has mutated to pass easily between people — a change that could touch off a worldwide epidemic. All the clusters of cases have been among relatives or in nurses who were in long, close contact with patients. But the clusters — in Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Vietnam — paint a grimmer picture of the virus's potential to pass from human to human than is normally described by public health officials, who usually say such cases are "rare."

Six Britons, one American and a Canadian were kidnapped from a rig that was drilling off Nigeria's southern coast. The oil rig was operated by Aberdeen, Scotland-based Dolphin Drilling Ltd. for the Nigerian oil company Peak Petroleum.

Confusion surrounded the men's fate earlier Sunday, with a police spokesman first reporting all eight were released then retracting his statement to say the kidnappers had only released two Britons. A presidential spokeswoman had said the other six were expected to be released soon.

The liberalisation of drug laws in Zurich (Switzerland) has led to a massie fall in the number of new heroin users. Now Britain, which has the highest number of drug deaths in Europe, is being urged to follow the example.

Drugs charities called yesterday for Britain to abandon its tough approach to heroin use after research showed one European city had cut the number of new addicts by transforming the image of heroin into a "loser drug".

The World Health Organization has confirmed that a boy who died in West Java, Indonesia, last week was a victim of bird flu. The 15-year-old boy becomes Indonesia's 37th confirmed death from the virus. A local laboratory had earlier detected the H5N1 strain.