Two Stories from NPR
It saddens me greatly that NPR is under attack again. They are really such a wonderful resource. The breadth and depth of their stories are far greater than any other american news outlet that I am aware of. In addition they have personal interest stories that go well beyond "Missing White Girl" or "The Drug Antics of Charlie Sheen." I listen to "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" regularly and I get a bit of information from it, albeit with a humorous spin. I also regularly listen to Fresh Air which is often topical but not directly news. On the way to work I listened to two stories that struck me as completely facinating.
The first story was about "Hela Cells." A woman Named Henrietta Lacks went to Hopkins Hospital around 1950 for cervical cancer. The doctor took samples of her cancerous cells and her healthy cells. The healthy cells died off but the cancer cells grew like mad. Cultures of Hela Cells were sent to all sorts of labs for experiments and medical research. They were instrumental in the breakthroughs on the Polio Vaccine, research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other scientific pursuits. There are over 60,000 scientific articles that rely on Hela Cells for their work. Hela Cells are listed as an "immortal" cell line and in fact they apparently are so prolific that they get into a lot of other cell lines and corrupt them because the Hela Cells grow so quickly.
I thought there has to be some sort of gaming application for this process. The NPR article discussed that her family considers Henrietta herself immortal and that she was made immortal so that she could cure diseases. I thought a "Church of Henrietta Lacks" would make a great organization! The immortal body of Henrietta Lacks is immense. More than **50,000,000 METRIC TONS** of Henrietta Lacks has been created. Her body could be wrapped aroudn the earth 3 times! This is a being that makes Akira or even Cthulhu look like a guppy! She is born of cancer and yet cures diseases. The Lacks family believes also that the corruption of other cell lines by Hela Cells is a sign of her wrath for the misuse of her cells and the ill treatment of her decendants (many of whom live in abject poverty while multi-billion dollar corporations exist because of the research on Hela Cells). If i ever run my Nobilis campaign, somehow there is goign to be a Cult of Henrietta.
The second story was about a brilliant chef who made all sorts of avant garde foods. Apparently many of his meals were 30+ courses of bite sized foods. One such dish included a cube geletanized Brandy and a cube of geletanized sweet potato stuck like a dumbell between a cinnimon stick and lit on fire! Unfortunately this chef contracted tongue cancer and lost his sense of taste. I was wondering where I had heard about this, when it hit me. This was a Sketch in "That Mitchell and Webb Look." The chef made a robot to taste for him. It did a terrible job. Hillarity ensued. Anyone who has not see "That Mitchell and Webb Look" should give it a shot. The first three seasons are available on Netflix Streaming. Multiple skits are available on Youtube. In fact. I will leave you with the Chef Skit here. If you don't like it, double your money back!
The first story was about "Hela Cells." A woman Named Henrietta Lacks went to Hopkins Hospital around 1950 for cervical cancer. The doctor took samples of her cancerous cells and her healthy cells. The healthy cells died off but the cancer cells grew like mad. Cultures of Hela Cells were sent to all sorts of labs for experiments and medical research. They were instrumental in the breakthroughs on the Polio Vaccine, research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other scientific pursuits. There are over 60,000 scientific articles that rely on Hela Cells for their work. Hela Cells are listed as an "immortal" cell line and in fact they apparently are so prolific that they get into a lot of other cell lines and corrupt them because the Hela Cells grow so quickly.
I thought there has to be some sort of gaming application for this process. The NPR article discussed that her family considers Henrietta herself immortal and that she was made immortal so that she could cure diseases. I thought a "Church of Henrietta Lacks" would make a great organization! The immortal body of Henrietta Lacks is immense. More than **50,000,000 METRIC TONS** of Henrietta Lacks has been created. Her body could be wrapped aroudn the earth 3 times! This is a being that makes Akira or even Cthulhu look like a guppy! She is born of cancer and yet cures diseases. The Lacks family believes also that the corruption of other cell lines by Hela Cells is a sign of her wrath for the misuse of her cells and the ill treatment of her decendants (many of whom live in abject poverty while multi-billion dollar corporations exist because of the research on Hela Cells). If i ever run my Nobilis campaign, somehow there is goign to be a Cult of Henrietta.
The second story was about a brilliant chef who made all sorts of avant garde foods. Apparently many of his meals were 30+ courses of bite sized foods. One such dish included a cube geletanized Brandy and a cube of geletanized sweet potato stuck like a dumbell between a cinnimon stick and lit on fire! Unfortunately this chef contracted tongue cancer and lost his sense of taste. I was wondering where I had heard about this, when it hit me. This was a Sketch in "That Mitchell and Webb Look." The chef made a robot to taste for him. It did a terrible job. Hillarity ensued. Anyone who has not see "That Mitchell and Webb Look" should give it a shot. The first three seasons are available on Netflix Streaming. Multiple skits are available on Youtube. In fact. I will leave you with the Chef Skit here. If you don't like it, double your money back!