Who is the dog in the picture?

[LANMaster]

I am honored!

Originally posted by sdc:
Who is the dog in the picture?

You can be the dog...

[Shadow Bea]

SINGAPORE (July 8) - Neurosurgeons separated 29-year-old Iranian twins joined at the head Tuesday after two days of delicate surgery, but both sisters died shortly after their parting.

The hospital announced Ladan Bijani's death, then, a few hours later, a nurse involved in the surgery said her sister Lelah had died.

''Everyone upstairs is crying,'' said the nurse, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''We treated them like family because they had been here for seven months.''

Hospital officials have yet to officially announce the second death.

Earlier, doctors said Ladan died after they were unable to stabilize her condition.

''As the separation was coming to a close, a lot of blood was lost. The twins were subsequently in a critical state,'' said Raffles hospital spokesman Dr. Prem Kumar.

The risky, marathon separation procedure began about 10 p.m. EDT Saturday. Before the operation, doctors had warned that the surgery could kill one or both of the twins, or leave them brain-dead.

The brains of Ladan and Laleh Bijani were separate, but were nonetheless stuck together after years lying alongside each other.

Kumar had warned that controlling the bleeding and moving the twins from a seated position onto separate beds would be the biggest challenge, and that the condition of either twin would remain largely unknown until they wake up after surgery. The twins were seated during the operation.

As one of the final points of the separation procedure, surgeons cut a finger-thick shared vein from Ladan - leaving her to rely on a similar sized vein taken from her right thigh that was grafter to her brain.

Rerouting the finger-thick shared vein, which drained blood to their hearts, was considered one of the biggest obstacles in the surgery. German doctors told the twins in 1996 that shared vein made surgery too dangerous.

The team of doctors had to contend with unstable pressure levels inside the twins' brains just before they worked to uncouple the sisters' brains and cut through the last bit of skull joining them, Kumar said.

The sisters' brains had ''to be teased apart very slowly,'' Kumar said. ''Cut. Teased apart. Cut. Teased apart. In the process, you encounter a lot of blood vessels and other tissues.''

He said surgeon worked ''millimeter by millimeter.''

The operation was complicated further when the team discovered that the pressure in the twins' brains and circulatory system was fluctuating.

Dr. Marc Mayberg, chairman of neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, had said by telephone the pressure fluctuations could be fatal.

Although the sisters knew the operation could kill one or both of them, they decided to face those dangers after a lifetime of living conjoined and compromising on everything from when to wake up to what career to pursue.

''If God wants us to live the rest of our lives as two separate, independent individuals, we will,'' Ladan said before the operation.

An international team of 28 doctors and about 100 medical assistants were enlisted for the surgery. The Iranian government said Monday it would pay the nearly $300,000 cost of the operation and care for the twins.

This is the first time surgeons have tried to separate adult craniopagus twins - siblings born joined at the head. The surgery has been performed successfully since 1952 on infants, whose brains can more easily recover.

Participating neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, has separated three sets of craniopagus twins.

Because this operation is a medical first, surgeons have encountered unexpected obstacles not seen in infants. It took longer to cut through portions of their skulls because their older bones were denser than previously believed, Kumar said.

As the procedure dragged on, surgeons tried to get adequate rest, slipping out of the operating room for breaks when their expertise was not needed, Kumar said.

Classical music played softly as surgeons worked simultaneously in tight spaces in front of and behind the twins, who sat in a custom-built brace connected to an array of lines feeding them intravenously and monitoring their vital signs, Kumar said.

The sisters were born into a poor family of 11 children in Firouzabad, southern Iran, but grew up in Tehran under doctors' care.

AP-NY-07-08-03 0615EDT

2003 The Associated Press.

[eggplant43]

The twins were daring, the doctors were daring, but it was not to be. Hopefully they learned something that will be of use in the next case.

[angelize56]

This is so sad. But at least they took a shot at living a normal life and as Bruce said it wasn't meant to be. But at least they are together in Heaven now. God bless Laden and Lelah. Take care. angel

[LANMaster]

I was so hoping that this would be successful.

To live so long joined in that way and the decision they made to finally take the risk.
It is a shame they didn't pull through.

[SyscoKid]

The Gods Must Be Crazy Star N!xau Dies
Financial Gazette (Harare)

July 10, 2003
Posted to the web July 10, 2003

Johannesburg

An African herdsman who became the world's most famous Kalahari Bushman after starring in the apartheid-era film "The Gods Must Be Crazy" has died collecting wood in the Namibian countryside.

N!xau, whose name is pronounced with the typical Bushman click used in southern Africa, gained worldwide recognition for his roles as a primitive hunter-gatherer in the controversial 1980 film and several sequels.

But the glamorous lifestyle never appealed to the reluctant star and he returned to the southern African bush when his film career petered out in the early 1990s. He was believed to be about 59 years old, associates said last week.

"Apparently he went out to find wood on Tuesday last week and never returned," said Mireschen Troskie-Marx of Mimosa Films, which produced the film.

"His family went out looking for him and he was found dead in a field. We believe it was of natural causes."

N!xau's signature role was Xixo, a member of the Khoisan or "Bushmen" tribes of Africa's Kalahari desert who finds a Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an aeroplane and mistakes it for a gift from the gods.

The movie was slammed by some critics for reflecting the racism of apartheid South Africa in its depiction of the Khoisan, southern Africa's earliest inhabitants who have seen their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle undermined by the relentless encroachment of modern civilisation.

But the film became a worldwide comedy hit and N!xau developed into an unlikely star, jetting to Europe, the United States and Asia, where he appeared in a number of Hong Kong kung-fu movies.

N!xau never had much use for stardom. Director Jamie Uys told one interviewer that when his protege received his first US$300 for working on the film, the star let the banknotes blow away because he did not see the value of cash.

And in a rare account of N!xau's life after stardom faded, the Namibian newspaper reported in 2000 that he had built a brick house and bought a second-hand car - employing a chauffeur because he himself did not know how drive.

The newspaper said N!xau owned several head of cattle and farmed maize, pumpkins and beans on a small plot of land. He received royalties of about US$200 per month from his movies, but had to support a large number of children and grandchildren, the newspaper said.

Producers at Mimosa Films said they kept in contact with N!xau, who they described as happy in his simple life in the Kalahari.

"He went to America, to Paris, to Japan. He was a world star, but he came back and he went back to his old roots," Troskie-Marx said.

"Nothing that was important to us was important to him." - Reuter.

[angelize56]

Jazz Great Benny Carter Dead at 95 in Los Angeles
Sun July 13, 2003 08:47 PM ET

By Kevin Krolicki

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary jazz pioneer and big band leader Benny Carter, who helped break Hollywood's bar to black composers, died on Saturday at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, friends said on Sunday. He was 95.

Carter, who was one of the first black composers and arrangers to work on mainstream Hollywood films, including such classics as "Stormy Weather," had been hospitalized for about two weeks, complaining of bronchitis and fatigue, said family friend Virginia Wicks.

"If Benny was not there, we wouldn't be here," said composer and arranger Quincy Jones, a close friend and protege. "We walked through the door on his shoulders. He was a quiet and dignified man. And one of a kind."

In a career that spanned seven decades, Carter played with such jazz luminaries as pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, Fats Waller, Miles Davis and Dizzie Gillespie. He is also credited with launching Ella Fitzgerald's career by introducing her to bandleader Chick Webb.

A largely self-taught musician, Carter established the swing-era, big band sound through ensemble compositions for the Fletcher Henderson orchestra and later his own band.

Born in 1907 in New York City, Carter studied piano with his mother and was inspired by his neighbor, Bubber Miley, a musician with Duke Ellington's band.

He began sitting in at Harlem night spots at the age of 15, having left school. By 1928, he was recording with Henderson's band and is credited with groundbreaking arrangements like "Keep A Song In Your Soul."

"He was one of the architects of the big band sound," said longtime Carter friend and biographer Ed Berger.

Carter applied the principles of the jazz solo to whole sections of the orchestra in a way that made them swing as they never had before, said Berger.

As a result, the major big bands at the peak of their popularity in the 1930s sought him out and his own orchestra attracted a who's who of jazz musicians, including such sidemen as saxophonist Chu Berry and pianist Teddy Wilson.

"They were sort of an incubator for great soloists," said Berger.

Carter's compositions, including "Blues in My Heart" and "When Lights Are Low," have become jazz standards.

In 1941, he formed a sextet that included such bebop pioneers as trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Kenny Clarke. Known as a courtly and patient mentor, Carter nurtured some of the next generation's major stars in jazz.

"Everyone should listen to Benny Carter, he's a whole musical education," said Miles Davis, who played with Carter in his California-based big band that also included trombonist J.J. Johnson and drummer Max Roach.

Carter was also a pioneer in breaking down color barriers for black musicians and composers. He formed the first international and interracial band in the Netherlands in the mid-1930s and a decade later became one of the first black composers to work in film and television.

A self-effacing and private man, Carter was modest about his accomplishments. "No one was ever more articulate than Benny Carter -- except about himself," said Berger. "He would not admit that this was any great, earth-shattering thing. To him it was just another gig."

Carter is survived by his wife, Hilma, a daughter, Joyce Mills, a grandchild and a great grandchild, said Wicks. (Additional reporting by Arthur Spiegelman)

[angelize56]

'Six Degrees' inspiration dead at 39
Saturday, July 19, 2003 Posted: 6:16 PM EDT (2216 GMT)

NEW YORK, New York (AP) -- This was no stage production, and there was no happy ending.

David Hampton, the ersatz son of Sidney Poitier whose pursuit of the glamorous life inspired the award-winning play "Six Degrees of Separation," died last month in a decidedly desolate fashion: alone in a Manhattan hospital bed, friends confirmed Saturday.

"David, like many of us, had a real need to be somebody important and special," said attorney and close friend Susan Tipograph. "He did stuff to be somebody in his mind -- somebody important, somebody fabulous.

"To me, he was fabulous."

The black teenager earned notoriety by charming his way into New York's white upper crust, presenting himself in 1983 as the Oscar-winning Poitier's son and a Harvard University student. The scam inspired John Guare's acclaimed play and a movie starring Will Smith.

The reality was quite different: Hampton came from a middle-class home in Buffalo, a city he once dismissed as lacking anyone "glamorous or fabulous or outrageously talented." His father was an attorney, not an actor.

Hampton, 39, died at Beth Israel Hospital, Tipograph said. He had been living in a small room at an AIDS residence, and was trying to start work on a book about his life.

Hampton was glib, charming, funny -- the skills of the consummate con man. He talked his way into the homes of several prominent New Yorkers, including the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the president of public television station WNET.

Once there, he reveled in the posh surroundings and fancy meals. He accepted money and clothes and regaled his hosts with stories about his famous "father."

"David took a great joy in living the life he lived," said attorney Ronald Kuby, who knew Hampton for more than a decade. "It was performance art on the world's smallest possible stage, usually involving an audience of only one or two."

After he was taken into custody in October 1983, police said Hampton had six previous arrests in New York and Buffalo. Hampton, just 19, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Guare, inspired by the bizarre tale, opened his play in 1990 to immediate critical praise. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, an Obie, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

But on the day the play was nominated for four Tony Awards, a court order was issued telling Hampton to stay away from Guare, who said he'd been threatened.

Hampton felt entitled to a cut of the cash generated by his "work," and he sued -- unsuccessfully -- for a $100 million piece of the play's profits in 1992. There was victory in the defeat: It introduced him to another of Manhattan's bright lights, radical lawyer William Kunstler.

Hampton was later arrested for leaving this message on Guare's answering machine: "I would strongly advise you that you give me some money or you can start counting your days." A jury acquitted him of harassment.

"I think he felt used by Mr. Guare," said Tipograph. "I'll let history judge that."

The 1993 movie version of the play earned Stockard Channing an Oscar nomination for best actress. Channing recreated her stage performance as a wealthy Manhattanite taken in by the scam artist.

In recent years, Hampton kept in touch with friends and stayed in trouble: He faced charges of fare-beating and credit-card theft. One alleged victim told The New York Times that Hampton, using the name David Hampton-Montilio, duped him out of more than $1,400 in October 2001.

"When pretending to be somebody else, he dazzled people," Kuby said. "For an evening or a couple of days, he mesmerized people by bringing them into his totally fictitious world of stardom."

[SyscoKid]

I just heard on the radio that Bob Hope died. Nothing on the net yet.

[angelize56]

I still have that album and loved "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"! A classic of my youth. Take care. angel

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Erik Braunn, the Iron Butterfly guitarist who played one of rock's most recognizable riffs in the 17-minute anthem "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," died of cardiac arrest Friday. He was 52.

Braunn, who was born in Pekin, Ill., and raised in Los Angeles, was a violin prodigy who began his musical career at age 4. He joined Iron Butterfly when he was 16 and toured with the heavy metal band from 1967 to 1969, when the group was enjoying its greatest success.

Braunn, Doug Ingle, Ron Bushy and Lee Dorman left their mark on musical history with the psychedelic "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," released in 1968. It went platinum and stayed on the national sales chart for two years; a three-minute version became a Top 40 radio hit.

Braunn occasionally reunited with the band for performances, and worked as a songwriter, musician and producer until his death.

During a 1988 reunion, he commented to the Times about his experience with superstardom decades earlier: "My first vacation I bought a car, a Jaguar, and parked it outside the hospital where I spent two weeks for ulcers and gastroenteritis."

[eggplant43]

Now that song is rolling through my head, can't get rid of it

"My first vacation I bought a car, a Jaguar, and parked it outside the hospital where I spent two weeks for ulcers and gastroenteritis."

He certainly had a proper sense of irony.

[bigh47]

Steve Hislop British motorcycle racer Isle of Man TT and Superbike champion. Killed in a helicopter accident.

Howard

[angelize56]

I wonder if Bruce got that song out of his head yet!

Howard: Never heard of Steve Hislop but nonetheless my sympathy to his family and friends.

Was thinking Ceddy might know of this actress and the man who killed her.

Take care. angel

Actress dies after alleged beating
Friday, August 1, 2003 Posted: 6:11 AM EDT (1011 GMT)



PARIS, France (AP) -- French actress Marie Trintignant has died of cerebral edema at the age of 41, according to a physician at the hospital where she died.

Trintignant, who had been kept alive for several days on an artificial respirator, died at the Hartmann Clinic in suburban Neuilly at 10:20 a.m., according to neurosurgeon Stephane Delajoux.

The actress, who hailed from one of French cinema's best-known film families and enjoyed a successful movie and stage career of her own, was flown to Paris on Thursday from Lithuania, where she had been filming a television movie with her mother, director Nadine Trintignant.

Trintignant's boyfriend, French rock singer Bertrand Cantat, is in police custody in Lithuania and is the prime suspect in her death. A Lithuanian judge on Thursday ordered his detention through Aug. 14.

Trintignant -- daughter of famed actor Jean-Louis Trintignant -- was brought to the Vilnius University Hospital early Sunday from the Domina Plaza Hotel, in the medieval quarter of the Lithuanian capital. She had been staying at the hotel with one of her sons, her mother and Cantat.

The actress, who had four children, was in a coma when she arrived at the hospital and underwent emergency surgery twice to ease pressure on her brain caused by cerebral hemorrhaging.


Cantat has been detained of suspicion of causing bodily injury.
Cantat, lead singer of France's most popular rock band, Noir Desir (Black Desire), had been admitted to the same hospital Sunday after drinking heavy amounts of alcohol, authorities said. Discharged two days later, he was immediately detained on "suspicion of causing bodily injury."

Lithuanian lawyers say Cantat -- who denies beating the actress -- could face up to 15 years in prison if charged and convicted in this former Soviet republic.

Trintignant appeared in 30, mostly French movies during her career. She also made some stage appearances.

She was completing two months of filming a television movie "Colette," based on the life of famed French writer Sinonie-Gabrielle Colette whose novels explored the plight of women in a male-dominated world.