AIDS: USC Says Prof Pin Wang Has Invented 'A Virus That Hunts Down HIV-Infected Cells'

By Dennis Romero
From http://blogs.laweekly.com/

Sometimes the best way to catch a mouse is the natural way -- with a cat.

Using that philosophy, it seems, USC chemical engineering Professor Pin Wang might have just hit one out of the park. The university announced today that he "created a virus that hunts down HIV-infected cells."

You read that right. A living thing that preys on another living thing (but one we don't care for). Of course, it's a little more complicated than that:

Wang's "lentiviral vector" virus doesn't actually eat or destroy HIV-infected cells, but it does mark them for the kill, accomplished by drugs that can then better target them for destruction.

As is, HIV drugs can destroy healthy cells too. USC:

The process is analogous to the military practice of "buddy lasing" - that is, having a soldier on the ground illuminate a target with a laser to guide a precision bombing strike from an aircraft.

In the lab, Wang's virus has been known to destroy 35 percent of HIV-infected cells. Not a cure yet, but not bad at all.

Reggie Bush to Be Stripped of His Heisman Trophy

By: Dan Fletcher
From: http://newsfeed.time.com/

REUTERS/Jeff Zelevansky

A report on Yahoo Sports says the ex-USC running back will become the first Heisman Trophy winner to lose the award in the trophy's 75-year history.

The Heisman Trophy Trust has been investigating improper benefits Bush, now a member of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, allegedly received during his Heisman-Trophy season in 2005. Sources tell Yahoo the inquiry will result in the organization vacating Bush's award and leaving the 2005 Heisman Trophy vacant. (See why USC kids are paying for Bush's mistakes.)

The Heisman investigation follows a separate NCAA investigation into Bush and the USC program. The NCAA found Bush should have been ineligible for much of the 2004 and all of the 2005 seasons due to gifts, money and other benefits the collegiate star received.

USC has already returned their copy of Bush's award on instruction from university president C.L. Max Nikias. Despite the gesture, the NCAA lowered the boom on USC for the violations, vacating 13 of the football program's wins and banning the school from postseason bowl play for two years. (via Yahoo Sports)

Short Shot on Flatbed Scanner Screens at Disposable Film

• By Hugh Hart
  

Devoted to the art of making movies without using movie cameras, the Disposable Film Festival found the perfect poster child in Memoirs of a Scanner. The short film came about when three University of Southern California-groomed filmmakers used an HP photo scanner to shoot 300 live-action scans that were then strung together with an audio track to tell a tale packed with alienation, sex and violence.

Damon Stea of Mindfruit Studios made Memoirs of a Scanner with Cassandra Chowdhury and Zack DeZon.

“The shoot probably took around six hours of pure, unadulterated face-to-the-scanner animating, followed by pickup shots of all the papers and transitions,” Stea said. “Editing was pretty quick as well — it was a remarkably simple process to actually complete.”

Stea, a double-major in cinema production and videogame design at USC, ran into one technical difficulty. “It was hard to do lighting for a machine that was never meant to see a human face,” he said. “I tried to create a background that pleased me and fit with the aesthetic, but in the end, the scanner had a plan for the light and we worked with the hardware rather than fighting it.”

To make How to Google Maps, Ira Mowen took a portable helium tank, party balloons and a disposable video camera to Paris to capture aerial shots.
Image courtesy Disposable Film Festival

Memoirs of a Scanner is one of more than 50 films on tap at the four-day Disposable Film Festival, which opens Thursday in San Francisco. Now in its third year, the festival shows work produced with single-use video cameras, cellphones, point-and-shoot cameras, webcams, computer screen-capture software and other image-capture devices.

Noting that similar festivals have sprung up in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Japan and Brazil, festival co-founder Carlton Evans explains the disposable DIY aesthetic: “If you have a strong concept, you can take whatever you have and make a film.”

Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/03/disposable-film-fest/#ixzz0hJZS0PYj

Carroll, Ferrell pull off Halloween gag

As the door flew open on a camera tower high above the ground just outside Howard Jones Field, all eyes turned to a man inside screaming and waving his arms.

As he hurled to the ground, players winced in horror. Fullback Stanley Havili ran toward the door, but before he could get there, he received good news.

"He caught him," a woman yelled.

	Associated Press
	Will Ferrell is well-known supporter of USC.

With the man cradled in his arms, a masked superhero strolled into Howard Jones Field. Sure enough, "Captain Compete" turned out to be comedian Will Ferrell.

After speaking to the team for a couple of minutes, Captain Compete got another chance to save a life, when a man engulfed in flames emerged from behind the goalposts.

After the man was extinguished, Ferrell tried to help, launching a Gatorade cooler at the man ? not on the man.

"What a sense of timing that guy has," USC coach Pete Carroll said.

The Halloween gag had most of the Trojans fooled.

"It felt awful," Havili said. "My stomach just dropped."

Freshman defensive tackle Armond Armstead saw the man fall and thought tragedy struck.

"Seriously," he said, "I thought we just watched a dude die."

The prank lightened the mood after the team finalized its week of practice

"It was just a little something in the Halloween spirits," Carroll said. "I just thought we'd have a little fun."