Rock On : Movie Preview (India)

He has flare for unconventional poetry but at the same time with a message for today's youth makes him an instant hit with Generation X. He is the lead ...

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He’s Lost Control ..

Morris, the band’s drummer, has said good things about the film, but has also said the story was fabricated: “None of it’s true really . ...

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A JMU Love Story

They’re looking for a place in Centreville, and busy planning their engagement party, which will be aptly themed “A JMU Love Story.”

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Scene from a love story to play out on C-Train

Regarding Whitney Plaizier's letter concerning giving up your seat on the LRT to elderly people, the only criterion should be the person's health. ...

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The hotness conundrum

This is the kind of story that makes my brain bleed. You all know by now that Gov. Sarah Palin was named John McCain's running mate last Friday. You probably also know that, since then, news has leaked about Palin's daughter's teen pregnancy, her husband's DUI charge and the fact that the governor delivered a Down Syndrome child four months ago and went back to work days later.

But did you know that in 1984 Palin was a Miss Alaska runner-up? That she's been named "America's Hottest Governor" by both the website Wonkette in 2006 and Alaska Magazine in 2007? Did you know that Palin is regularly referred to as a GILF (Governor I'd Like to...well, you know) or, now, VPILF? That "GOP '08: TAKING SEXY BACK!" has been bandied around as a campaign slogan by idiotic McCain enthusiasts? That THIS website actually exists?

Or how about this (unintentional?) bit of suggestiveness in the New York Times:
"[McCain] had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later." And this, the lead words in a Bloomberg news piece: "It could have been a match.com ad: Presidential candidate, in need of running mate..."

Ok, Ok. I get it. McCain has picked himself a hottie. And like most men who choose hotties in their elder years, she's much younger than him and a bunch of people want to have sex with her.

Here's the thing: Though I disagree with nearly all of Palin's politics (also? It's more than a little insulting that Republicans are using Palin as some kind of female voter lure--as if women supported Hillary Clinton solely because she has a vagina and not because they shared her beliefs), I still find it offensive when Joe Biden calls her "good-looking." And I don't like getting sent demeaning, Photo-shopped pictures of the Alaskan politician in a bikini or videos of McCain staring at her boobs. .

On the flip side of things, I'm equally scared to see Palin victimized because of all of this nonsense. Nothing honest or good will come if she gains public sympathy and women vote for her just because our country is still full of a bunch of knuckleheads, not because of her political positions.

There's plenty to discuss about McCain's incredibly curious VP choice, Sarah Palin. I'd like to think that as a country we've grown up enough in the past year to remain somewhat gender neutral in this election and stick to the issues. I know I'm thinking wrong. But a girl, a hot one or not, can dream.

Burj Dubai.

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Blood pressure pill works well in kids, study shows

The blood pressure drug valsartan (sold as Diovan) safely and effectively lowers blood pressure in youngsters aged 1 to 5 years who have high blood pressure (also called hypertension), a study shows.

"The blood pressure reductions produced by valsartan were clinically relevant and did not cause adverse effects," Dr. Joseph T. Flynn, from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, told Reuters Health.

Hypertension is rare in young children, typically caused by underlying kidney disease or other secondary causes. The current study provides the first clinical trial results of a blood pressure-lowering medication in children younger than 6 years.

The study involved 90 children with high blood pressure who were an average of 3 years old. In most of them, high blood pressure was caused by kidney disease. During the 54-week study, children took either valsartan at different doses or a dummy pill.

Valsartan treatment led to statistically significant reductions in blood pressure in the majority of children, Flynn and colleagues found.

According to the investigators, all of the valsartan doses evaluated were well tolerated. The overall incidence of drug-related side events was low and did not differ significantly for placebo- and valsartan-treated children, and the majority of adverse events were mild or moderate and transient in nature.

In particular, valsartan had no demonstrable negative effects on growth, weight gain, or progression of head circumference -- a key indicator of brain growth in young children, Flynn and colleagues report in the journal Hypertension, published by the American Heart Association.

The study was funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals.