More on Father Jean Juste...
Father Gerry has been charged with the murder of the journalist whose funeral he was attending, even though he was in Florida at the time. According to an eyewitness account from his attorney, a mob of mostly outside agitators created a melee at the funeral, beating the priest and accusing him of the murder. He was rescued from the mob by the police, but then charged with the murder because of "public clamor." He remains in jail. You can read the story here. Father Gerry is a man of peace, who cares deeply for his people and for Haiti's democracy. His democratic leanings have made him a target of the new government, which has yet to restore order to the country or hold free elections, even though the coup that overthrew Aristide happened in early 2004. At the risk of getting political, you would think that an administration that's so hell bent on bringing Democracy to the rest of the world might be interested in a country that sits only a few hundred miles from it's own coastline, but once again, we chose to help create chaos and suffering.
Please keep Father Gerry in your prayers.
More news from Oshkosh...
Doug Ramsburg from Northglenn, Colo, will be the first non-rich guy to take a ride on Virgin Galactic. He won a ticket by participating in an on-line contest during the Super Bowl. He says he always dreamed of going to space when he was a kid, now he'll get to do it. "I think it's going to be a real spiritual experience," he said. "I know the
risks are very real. But I feel ready to go. Even if I die doing this, I think
that would be the most perfect death you could ask for. We all gotta go
sometime." Woohoo, Doug! Ride for all of us! (And thanks to AVweb for the story.)
Steve Fossett plans to make the world's longest non-stop flight when he takes Global Flyer on another around the world trip next winter. Instead of stopping at his departure point, this time he'll continue on to cross the Atlantic again, for a total of almost 29,000 miles, the operational limits of the plane. The flight will take about 85 hours. The pilot's pod is tiny, barely big enough to hold Fossett and his supply of shakes. And you thought spending four hours in coach was uncomfortable...
It's a way cool airplane, another creation from the idea-rich visionary brain of Burt Rutan.
Team Andrax...
I'm thrilled to have joined Team Andrax, an international group of individuals who are using their spare computing power to assist researchers at Oxford University in finding new cancer treatments. The research centers on proteins that have been determined to be a possible target for cancer therapy. Through a process called "virtual screening", special analysis software will identify molecules that interact with these proteins, and will determine which of the molecular candidates has a high likelihood of being developed into a drug. The process is similar to finding the right key to open a special lock — by looking at millions upon millions of molecular keys.
If you want more info, please email me. It's free, it's painless, and it's helping change the world. What more could you want in a team?
Marilyn, thanks so much for mentioning Team Andrax. Andrax, by the way, is a term we coined to mean "the total annihilation of a disease." This project is scheduled to screen more than 3.5 billion molecules. There is no way any one institution could undertake such a project without the help of millions of volunteers. This distributed computing project is the largest of it's kind ever undertaken, and the scientists at Oxford predict it will shave around 10 years off their research. Thanks for joining us, and thanks for mentioning it on your blog. Anyone with a computer and internet connection is more than welcome to join us.
Team Andrax is one of more than 42,500 teams working on this project. We are currently at 93 members, and our world ranking with results returned puts us in the top 500 teams internationally. Once again Marilyn, we are very excited to have you come aboard. :)
Posted by: Trée | July 31, 2005 at 09:41 AM
Marilyn, we just had our 100th member come aboard. Michelle fought cancer when she was 3 years old and has been cancer free for 30. We have also had two more members join that have fought this fight and are still here to inspire and motivate others. Thanks again for being a part of this great international effort.
Posted by: Trée | August 16, 2005 at 01:36 PM
Marilyn, quick update, we are now up to 104 members. If you get the chance, please read my post on mate #101, our starfish, aka Karen. She is currently in the middle of her fight with cancer, inbetween surgeries as we speak. Thanks again for being a part of our team.
Posted by: Trée | August 25, 2005 at 12:03 PM
Marilyn, just stopping by to say hello. Mate #117 joined us today. Hope you are well. I miss your updates to this site. :-(
Posted by: Trée | October 27, 2005 at 04:26 PM