FDA appoval
Novartis announces that the FDA has approved Stalevo (carbidopa, levodopa and entacapone) tablets for patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) who experience signs and symptoms
of end-of-dose “wearing off.” Stalevo contains levodopa, the most widely used agent for Parkinson’s disease, plus carbidopa and entacapone. While carbidopa reduces the side effects of levodopa, entacapone extends its benefits, permitting Parkinson’s disease patients to have an improved ability to perform everyday tasks and a reduction in symptoms associated with the disease.
Levodopa is recognized as the cornerstone of Parkinson’s disease therapy, but its long-term use is limited by its reduced ability to fully control Parkinson’s disease symptoms. By blocking the enzymatic breakdown of levodopa, Stalevo provides more levodopa to the brain for a longer period of time. Potential patient benefits include more “on” time during which Parkinson’s symptoms are well-controlled and daily activities are improved, and simpler, more convenient dosing.
Just Say No
Tyree’s novel follows Darin Harmon and John Williams young men on the brink of achieving their dreams. For John, it music; for Darin, football. When Darin suffers an injury he becomes worried that his career is over. So he spends his time on the music scene to promote John loverboy image. But the celebrity lifestyle of easy money, fast women, and drugs quickly takes it toll, and the friends find themselves at a crossroads that will forever shape each of their futures.
Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker than Wrestling
Foley publishes his second memoir, picking up where the last left off. This book follows Foley as an aging wrestler and his most recent WWE run.
It’s difficult to differentiate between a story that’s humorous and clever and one that actually makes people laugh out loud. I do have stories in the book that make people laugh out loud, but there are others that make people smile or chuckle and you have to learn that you can’t tell too many of those types of stories on stage.
FDA approves DBS
The Federal Food and Drug Administration approves deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease (PD). According to NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:
DBS is a surgical procedure used to treat disabling motor symptoms of PD, such as tremor, rigidity, stiffness, slowed movement and walking problems. The DBS system consists of the lead, the extension, and the IPG. The lead—a thin, insulated wire also called an electrode—is inserted through a small opening in the skull and implanted in the brain. The tip of the electrode is positioned within a specific brain area. The implantable pulse generator (IPG)—similar to a heart pacemaker—delivers electrical stimulation to specific areas in the brain that control movement. Once the system is in place, electrical impulses are sent from the IPG up along the extension wire and the lead and into the brain. These impulses block abnormal electrical signals and alleviate PD motor symptoms.
Everything’s Eventual
King publishes a collection of 14 short stories with Scribner publishing called Everything’s Eventual. One of the tales is The Little Sisters of Eluria, an adventure of Roland pre-The Dark Tower series.
Gold Bull Run to begin
In the Winter issue of the Trends Journal, Celente, gives reasons why gold is a safer investment than world currencies.
Unlike investments made in virtual companies like e-Pets and e-Toys or real companies like Lucent or Enron, whose share prices hit the stratosphere, fell sharply or completely evaporated, gold will always be worth something
Black House
King and Straub team up again to release numerous novels that tie into the Dark Tower series. As a sequel to the Talisman, King publishes Black House about a series of murders that plague the town of French Landing, Wisconsin and Jack Sawyer has to reschedule an early retirement to stop the killer.
For The Love Of Money
Tyree’s book For The Love Of Money follows Tracy a hard-knocks Philly to glamorous Hollywood girl. She has now become a very successful movie star at the age of twenty-eight. As Tracy reconnects with friends, she seems like she is on the verge of a happily-ever-after existence. But as she begins to address the decisions of her youth, Tracy stirs up a string of difficult questions about past loves, family ties and her ambitions.
Flyy Girl
Tyree’s book Flyy Girl follows Tracy Ellison, a young knockout with big hair and a bigger attitude. She is living life as fast as she can. Attracted to material things, she and her friends love and leave guys who will do anything to get next to them. It’s only when the world of sex threatens heartbreak that Tracy begins to examine her life, her goals, and her sexuality.
I have never written an untruthful book, never. And I think for the most part, African American writers don’t write the untruth. We write what we want to write about from our societies. We may change the names and dates, the color of the dress, or whatever, but fiction for us is not creating something totally untrue, it’s about telling the story the way we want to tell it. It’s still true in a sense that it happened to somebody.
Renamed to Metropolis
In 2001, Tokyo Classified had grown to 48 pages/week and was renamed Metropolis. More information was added about Tokyo entertainment and lifestyle. A quarterly city guide for tourists was added.
Forecasts The Great Recession
Celente issues a press release predicting the start of a great recession for the US and World economies.
How can anyone deny the facts proving that the scales of financial balance are so lopsided that they will not only sink the U.S. economy but also drag down the World economies with it?
Runescape launch
Brothers Paul and Andrew Gower release the beta Runescape while in college, and out of their parent’s home in Nottingham. The game is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The game is browser based, or cloud-based, meaning that any computer accessing the game can do so with no downloads required, a feature that makes the game unique. Andrew:
When I went to university, I discovered text-based MUDs, or multi-user dungeons. I loved the fact that these sorts of games had all these players playing at once – even when you were not playing, the world carried on without you. Because of this, I began creating my own text-based MUD, but I quickly realized that with so many of them out there, there was no way that mine would ever get noticed. So I began to search for a way to make mine stand out, and the obvious way, of course, was to add graphics. With my game, I was trying to emulate text MUDs at the time, purely as a hobby. I worked on it on and off over a number of years…and I believe I started from scratch 3 or 4 times. I finally launched a version of the game after a left university in 2001. The basic plan was to run it for free, but to pay for my hobby through advertising. However, when the dot com bubble began to collapse, advertising dried up, and there was no way to pay for the game’s server.
This was really unfortunate because just the week before I had got 3 big servers for the game, and now was left with no way to pay for them. I began asking players for donations, but quickly decided that this was not the best way to go about it – to rely on people’s sympathy. Basically what we did was calculate how many people we’d need to keep going, and came up with 5000. Thankfully, we managed to get like 2000 subscribers in the first hour, and had our 5000 in the first week. Once we had people paying, we were able to reinvest back into the game. The more we invested, the faster it grew.
I’m A Slave 4 U performance
Spears performs I’m A Slave 4 U during the MTV Video Music Awards to promote her album Britney.
Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
Foley publishes his first memoir, Have a Nice Day: a Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. Foley becomes the first professional wrestler to pen his own autobiography without the use of a ghost writer. The book covers Foley’s childhood, teenage years and early career.
A big book is like a serious relationship; it requires a commitment. Not only that, but there’s no guarantee that you will enjoy it, or that it will have a happy ending. Kind of like going out with a girl, having to spend time every day with her – with absolutely no guarantee of nailing her in the end. No thanks.
Japan Today launch
Japan Today is launched as a rival to Japan’s English language newspapers. Over the next year the site will become the most popular news site about Japan in the world, regularly hovering around the top 5000 sites in the world. Japan Today is the first news site in the world to have reader comments directly under the news articles. Before then the readers had always been forced into the forum area of the site.
Sweet St. Louis
Tyree’s Sweet St. Louis follows Anthony, a young mechanic. When Anthony tries to date a girl named Sharron Francis, he has no idea how its going to turn out. Sharron is just an ordinary girl in search of companionship and happiness and she thinks she has found that in Anthony. Her world is turned upside down when the mystery behind Anthony’s intentions unfolds.
Liar’s Game
Dickey’s book Liar’s Game tells the tale of Dana who leaves New York to escape a roller-coaster relationship. Vincent lives in Los Angeles and is trying to forget his own shattered marriage. They want to plan a future together, but first they have to stop running from their pasts. On how reading Judy Blume helped write this book:
Some of her (Judy Blume) scenes are pretty explicit and I decided that was the way I wanted to write this book. I wanted to be able to write objectively about Vince and Dana getting into a fight. It’s not about me or any relationship I’ve been in. It’s not a broad statement about relationships. It’s just about where Vince and Dana are at this moment in their lives. They really love each other, but the straws of discontent on both sides of the room are just so heavy that things just snowball.
Friends and Lovers
Dickey’s book Friends and Lovers follows four young African Americans, two men and two women, through heartache, love, and laughter.
On what is next after this book:
The book tour has started, so I will be in planes, trains and automobiles for a while. Then back to Barbados to continue working on the next novel.
$60m Kozmo.com investment
Amazon invests sixty million dollars in Kozmo.com. The investment will allow Amazon to ship products such as books and compact discs in one hour to residents living in select cities, such as New York and San Francisco. Joe Galli, president and chief operating officer of Amazon reports:
Kozmo.com has developed a strong track record for meeting a unique customer need, and this agreement provides us a one-hour delivery option for the types of products that customers may want immediately.
Single Mom
Tyree follows Denise in the book Single Mom. After more than ten years of successfully raising her sons alone, Denise finds herself entertaining three men at once. Two of the men happen to be the father or her sons. The other man, Brock, is a truck driver who falls in love with Denise but isn’t sure if he can handle a ready made family.