One of these people is Thuli Dumisani, thirty years old Zulu woman, an ex-secretary of a law firm turned jobless and footloose like several other South Africans. She happens to be the main character in a new book titled Kiss of a Black Woman. The book is currently in development for a feature film with local award winning actress Zandile Msutwana for the lead character. Without giving the story away, Thuli is a special lady stripped of dreams and happiness. She finds a job in a small hotel, and meets Ross, an Italian man on holiday in South Africa. When he invites her to ...

Midnight's Children is a multi-layered novel that, on the surface, is the autobiography of Saleem Sinai, one of 1001 children born in the midnight hour of August 15, 1947 as India gained her independence from Britain. Midnight's children - or at least the 581 of them who survive infancy - are "handcuffed to history", their lives mirroring the life of the newly independent nation. Each of the children has a special gift - one can levitate, one can change gender, one performs magic and one can time travel. Saleem, born on the stroke of midnight, has the gift of ...

Blinds 2go(TM), the online retailer of made to measure blinds and curtains is giving all their customers an early Christmas present, they are making the promise that if they don't deliver in time for Christmas the order will be free! Making the home look wonderful at Christmas time is top of so many people's wish lists and the fabulous range of blinds and curtains at Blinds 2go(TM) will help the dream come true. At this extraordinarily busy time of year having one less thing to worry about is such good news; the Christmas promise is a priceless gift that's definitely ...

Thanksgiving is a time when we all gather together to celebrate life, love, and good health. Many Americans are celebrating a new chapter in their health this Thanksgiving after switching to electronic cigarettes. According to ElectronicCigarettesReviews.net, the premier website for e-cigarette reviews and information, this Thanksgiving will bring the biggest savings of the year for e-cig users. Starting on Thanksgiving, November 22, 2012 and continuing throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday, e-cig fans can save big on all electronic cigarette purchases thanks to some ...

Studying the genetic variability of endangered species is becoming increasingly necessary for species conservation and monitoring. But, endangered species are difficult to observe and sample, and typically harbour very limited genetic diversity. Until now, the process of finding genetic markers was time consuming and quite expensive. These obstacles make the collection of genetic data from endangered animals a difficult task to fulfill. A research team led by Lounès Chikhi (http://www.igc.gulbenkian.pt/research/unit/88), group leader at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência ...

BOSTON – A new targeted drug demonstrated its ability to control metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor, an uncommon and life-threatening form of sarcoma, after the disease had become resistant to all existing therapies, report investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who led the worldwide clinical trial. The treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor, or GIST, even in its advanced metastatic stage, has been dramatically improved with two oral targeted drugs – imatinib (Gleevec) and sunitinib (Sutent). To date, these have represented the only two FDA-approved ...

The experience of genocide as transmitted trauma may not be universal, according to new ethnographic research published in Current Anthropology. In the fields of human rights and memory studies, giving testimony about one's personal experience of genocide is believed to be both a moral duty and a psychological imperative for the wellbeing of the individual and the persecuted group to which she belongs. Accordingly, the coping strategies proposed to victims of genocide tend to be rather uniform: tell your story and do not let the violence you suffered be forgotten. The ...

A team of IRCM researchers, led by Dr. Frédéric Charron, recently uncovered a nerve cell's internal clock, used during embryonic development. The discovery was made in collaboration with Dr. Alyson Fournier's laboratory at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Published today in the prestigious scientific journal Neuron, this breakthrough could lead to the development of new tools to repair and regenerate nerve cells following injuries to the central nervous system. Researchers in Dr. Charron's laboratory study neurons, which are the nerve cells that make up the central ...

Scientists from The Danish Stem Cell Center (DanStem) at the University of Copenhagen are contributing important knowledge about how stem cells develop best into insulin-producing cells. In the long term this new knowledge can improve diabetes treatment with cell therapy. The results have just been published in the scientific journal Cell Reports. Stem cells are responsible for tissue growth and tissue repair after injury. Therefore, the discovery that these vital cells grow better in a three-dimensional environment is important for the future treatment of disease with ...

NORFOLK, VA -- Surgeons at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD) have fitted a patient with a device that might eliminate the need for surgery in some patients with one of the world's most common chest deformities, pectus excavatum, often called sunken chest syndrome. Known as the vacuum bell, it works much like devices in body shops that use sustained vacuum to pop out a dent. "Years from now, we may look at the surgeries and realize that many of these conditions could have been corrected with vacuum devices," said Dr. Robert J. Obermeyer, who is leading ...

Immune globulin replacement began decades ago as a treatment for patients who could not make their own protective antibodies, but has proven to have much broader benefits than originally expected. With new uses regularly being discovered for this limited and expensive resource, including as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease, now is the time to discover exactly how intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) treatments work, and to engineer a protein that can provide similar benefits, writes Erwin Gelfand, MD, chair of pediatrics at National Jewish Health in the November ...

A hungry mantis shrimp may be the last thing that a passing fish sees before it is snatched from the water by the predator. Maya deVries from the University of California, Berkeley, says 'Spearer mantis shrimps stay in their sandy burrows and they wait for a fast-moving prey item to come by, but then they come out of nowhere and grab the prey with their long skinny appendages.' However, little was know about how these vicious predators unleash their lightning-fast attacks. According to deVries, the spearing shrimp are closely related to smasher mantis shrimps, which pulverise ...

VIDEO: In this video, a patient reads words with the Argus II setup using the camera and not the direct braille stimulation. Click here for more information. For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. The device, the Argus II, has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of who can now see color, movement and ...

Discount Buses Bring Increased Risk of Death and Injury to Passengers The ramifications from a Megabus crash in Chicago, Illinois in August that killed one person and injured 47 people continue. Illinois State Police suspect the crash was the result of a tire blowout and not necessarily driver error. The parents of the single fatality from the accident, a graduate student killed in the crash, recently brought a wrongful death suit against Megabus, Coach Leasing and the driver of the bus for improper maintenance and a failure to inspect the bus and its tires. The suit ...

Crackdown on Synthetic Drugs in Missouri Synthetic drugs present a problem to government regulation and can often have very adverse effects on the human body. Because of the dangers, law enforcement officers and lawmakers are working to get the products out of head shops. To regulate the problem, several areas, including Missouri, are working on crackdowns with hopes to get the products off of the market once and for all. Synthetic Drugs Synthetic drugs are basically substances that contain chemicals very similar to those in traditional illegal drugs. The synthetic ...

Planning for a divorce after the holidays The stress of the holiday season, along with the chance for a fresh start at the beginning of the year, makes January a popular time to divorce. Often married couples will put family ahead of personal needs until after the holiday season is over. However, if divorce is in the future, preparing for divorce can begin before the actual filing takes place in January. Planning ahead can make the process easier on everyone and protect your financial assets for the new year. While the steps below are good practice for any time of the ...

The toll of bicycle accidents The Texas Department of Transportation and a nonprofit organization stepped up efforts to educate motorists and bicyclists in the wake of a tragic accident near Amarillo. Two bicyclists riding on a popular bicycling road were killed when a motorist struck them from behind. The driver claimed he was blinded by sunlight. Share the Road! is a nonprofit that was created in 2010 for raising safety awareness for pedestrians. A spokesman for the organization stated that any driver on the frontage road where the accident occurred ought to be ...

Measure 11 and Oregon's Violent Crime Rate We've all heard the saying, "If you can't do the time, don't commit the crime." It captures the sentiment that the tougher the sentence the stronger the disincentive to commit crime. While it may be easy to believe that a relationship exists between crime rates and incarceration, many criminal defense attorneys and others in the criminal justice world question the connection. In the 1980s and mid-1990s the number of violent crimes committed in Oregon dramatically increased. Believing that a lack of deterrents created ...

New York acts to take repeat DWI offenders off the road New York is getting tougher on drunk drivers. Under a new administrative policy announced in September 2012, the New York Department of Motor Vehicles will not issue or renew a driver's license for a person who has incurred five or more DWI convictions throughout a lifetime. Stricter rules will apply to license reinstatement The policy also denies a driver's license to anyone with three or more DWI convictions over a 25-year period plus another serious motor vehicle offense. When a driver with three or more ...

Reducing car accidents: Legal restrictions for safer teen driving In August 2008 months of work by Connecticut's Teen Driving Task Force culminated when a new teen driving law took effect. Over four years later, Connecticut has come out near the top in two national studies on teen driving safety. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the Governors Highway Safety Association found an alarming 11 percent increase nationwide in traffic deaths involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers. However, teen driver deaths in Connecticut have gone down by 91 percent over the past ...

How to keep your business secrets safe All companies have information that they need to protect -- and in some cases, the information is actually so vital that they it is the lifeblood of the company. If this information is disclosed, the company's very future may be on the line. The following are some strategies to help ensure that your business secrets remain a secret. Non-disclosure agreements A non-disclosure agreement is a contract signed by employees, which states that they are not allowed to disclose your company secrets without permission. The agreement ...

As the patent battle rages on, Apple and Samsung expand their claims The ongoing legal battle between Apple and Samsung expanded its scope even further recently after a federal judge allowed Samsung to add the newly released iPhone 5 to the list of products alleged to have infringed on its patents. The court also ruled that Apple could amend its list of alleged patent infringements by Samsung to include the Jelly Bean operating system, along with newer Samsung products such as the U.S. version of the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 10.1, PC World reported recently. According ...

Social media use has pitfalls for divorcing North Carolinians North Carolina couples who are going through divorce may experience a variety of emotions and feel the need to vent. Venting over coffee or a beer with a friend is one thing, but sharing feelings with the world through electronic media is another, and can lead to trouble. Social media communications are public According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, divorce attorneys have seen a sharp rise in the use of evidence from social networking sites over the past few years. Whatever is posted ...

The importance of estate planning through the years Thinking about what happens after death, disability or other tragedies is usually the last thing that a person wants to think about. However, if you do not plan for these events, you may leave your family or loved ones to decide such tough issues when they are in a stressful position. While estate planning is not the most appetizing thought, taking the time to form a cohesive plan can save your family and loved ones a lot of time in the future, regardless of which stage of life you are in. Your single years If ...

Recovering After a Car Accident People injured in car accidents have options for recovery. Injuries and even deaths often result from car crashes and they affect the everyday life of the injured and their families. Death always has a devastating impact, but injuries can affect how or whether a person can work, their personalities and many other areas of people's lives. A recent car crash in southeast Houston took one man's life and seriously injured another man. According to myfoxhouston.com, the accident occurred at 2:40 in the morning and the men were only 23-years-old. ...