Donie's daily Ireland news BLOG

Billy Connolly vows to continue working despite two medical conditions

  

BILLY CONNOLLY AND HIS WIFE PAMELA STEPHENSON

Billy Connolly will CONTINUE to perform on stage and screen despite undergoing surgery for prostate cancer and being treated for the “initial symptoms” of Parkinson’s Disease.

The 70-year-old star, affectionately known as the Big Yin, started his showbusiness career as a folk singer before developing the stand-up act that made him famous and led to a career in television and film.

His spokeswoman said: “Billy Connolly recently underwent minor surgery in America after being diagnosed with the very early stages of prostate cancer. The operation was a total success, and Billy is fully recovered.

“In addition, Billy has been assessed as having the initial symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, for which he is receiving the appropriate treatment.

“Billy has been assured by experts that the findings will in no way inhibit or affect his ability to work, and he will start filming a TV series in the near future, as well as undertaking an extensive theatrical tour of New Zealand in the new year.”

The Glasgow-born star, who began his working life in the Clyde shipyards, became a household name with a string of appearances on Michael Parkinson’s chat show.

He went on to perform sell-out stand-up shows around the world, present a series of documentaries and become an in-demand character actor with roles including starring alongside Judi Dench in ‘Mrs Brown’ and playing a dwarf warrior in the forthcoming Hobbit movies.

He is married to New Zealand-born actress and psychologist Pamela Stephenson, whose biography of her husband, simply called ‘Billy’, was a huge best-seller.

Parkinson’s Disease is caused by a loss of brain cells that produce a chemical messenger called dopamine.

Symptoms differ from case to case, but often include a tremor or fine shake while the person is at rest, rigidity of muscles, slowness of movement and unsteady balance.

Other possible symptoms can include memory loss, and earlier this year Connolly admitted he had started to forget his lines during performances.

Speaking about it, he said: “This is f****** terrifying. I feel like I’m going out of my mind.”

There is no cure for Parkinson’s and scientists have been unable to determine why people get the condition.

Connolly was made a CBE in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours and awarded the freedom of his home city in 2010.

Steve Ford, chief executive at Parkinson’s UK, said: “Put simply, Billy Connolly is a much-loved comedy legend and we are sorry to hear that he is being treated for the early symptoms of Parkinson’s.

“One person every hour will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the UK. Despite this, it remains a little understood condition and we salute Billy’s bravery in speaking out about his condition at this difficult time.

“There are 127,000 people in the UK, like Billy, living with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s can be a very difficult condition to diagnose, as no two people with Parkinson’s are the same, with symptoms – such a slowness of movement or tremor – changing on a daily, or even hourly, basis.

“Many people, with the right medication, continue to live a full and active live with Parkinson’s, but for some, it can be life-changing and it is vital that Billy gets the support he needs to live with this complex condition.

“We wish Billy and his family all the best as they come to terms with this upsetting diagnosis.”

Four out of five Irish motorists (80)% see other drivers using the phone

   

Four out of five motorists witness other drivers using their mobile phone every day.

Despite the threat of penalty points and a series of road safety campaigns, drivers are still openly using the phones while driving. According to a new survey, 80pc of motorists see someone else using a phone at least once a day.

However, in the survey of 16,000, just 17pc admitted to using their phone while driving. And 39pc said they never did.

“Irish drivers really do seem to be phone addicts,” said Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland, which conducted the research.

“Sadly it is not just phone calls. These days people use smartphones to send texts, to check email and even surf the web while in traffic.

“Although we all know that it is absolutely reckless it is far too common for drivers to fiddle with their devices not just while stuck in traffic but also while driving at speed.”

Studies suggest you are four times more likely to crash if you are on a phone while behind the wheel. It is reported that driving while using a phone distracts you from maintaining speed limits, keeping in the correct lane and staying a safe distance from the car in front.

Men and women seem to be equally guilty when it comes to using the phone, with 16.7pc of males saying they do, compared with 16.5pc of women.

“There is enough research on this now to put the issue beyond doubt,” Mr Faughnan said.

“It’s plain stupid to put your own and other road-users’ lives at risk in this way.”

The sanction for being caught with a mobile phone while driving is two penalty points and a fine of €60.

Regrowing human body parts: Our dream comes within reach

     

For centuries humans have dreamt of the day when we could grow new body parts to replace the ones we lost, just like salamanders that can sprout new limbs. Now researchers are actually finding ways to turn those dreams into reality.

Sometime in the next few decades, humans may be able to regrow a finger here, a toe there – and maybe even fresh patches of beating heart tissue.

Human hearts are among the most promising targets: “Fifteen years ago we would have said 50 years, but it could be as soon as 10 years from now,” Ken Poss, a cell biologist at Duke University, told NBC News.

A decade ago, Poss and his colleagues demonstrated that zebrafish had the ability to repair a badly damaged heart, thanks to a particular protein that regulates the regenerative process.

That trick could work for humans as well as fish: Just this month, researchers from the Gladstone Institutes showed that they could turn human scar tissue into electrically conductive tissue in a lab dish by fiddling with just a few key genes.

“It’s an intriguing idea, because you could turn bad cells into good cells,” Poss explained. Among the hurdles that lie ahead: taking that technique out of the lab and applying it to living human hearts.

Fountain of regenerative youth.
We humans already have demonstrated some ability to regenerate body parts: For example, very young children can fill out the tips of chopped off fingers and toes. We’ve got nothing on the salamander, which can regrow a whole arm below the joint – but in principle, “it’s the whole shebang in terms of regenerative response,” Ken Muneoka, a cell biologist at Tulane University, told NBC News.

Young mice are able to regenerate toes, too. Since the mid-1980s, Muneoka has been studying mouse toes to understand how a similar regrowth mechanism can be reactivated or imitated in adult humans. In 2010, his lab showed it was possible to enhance the regenerative response in adult mice.

“Ultimately I think we’re going to be able to regenerate a mouse digit and a mouse limb,” he said. And then, “if we can regenerate a digit, we should be able to regenerate hearts and muscle,” he said.

Other researchers are focusing on flatworms, which have exceptional regenerative capabilities. Last month, researchers working with headless flatworms showed they could reprogram chopped slices of worm tail to grow whole heads again.

Not so fast…
Despite the recent progress, some researchers are cautious about predicting how studies of animal regeneration will be applied to humans.

“We can envision using the knowledge to promote organs or tissue to grow,” Elly Tanaka, who studies regeneration in salamanders at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, told NBC News. But “it’s dangerous to say, ‘Yes, we expect to regenerate a limb,’” she added.

At the same time, Tanaka acknowledges that the field is reaching a turning point. Within the next two or three years, studies of salamander genetics should “break open a lot of possibilities,” she said.

Muneoka said future progress could well depend on how much we’re willing to spend to make the dream of human regeneration come true.

“It’s a commitment issue whether it’s possible or not in humans,” he said. “Someone has to fund this research.”

Irish Public be warned about ‘Gardaí locking computer’ scam

     

A CYBER-CRIME SCAM WHICH FRAUDULENTLY USES THE LOGO FOR AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA TO CON MONEY HAS BECOME ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST SOPHISTICATED OF ITS KIND, IT HAS BEEN CLAIMED.

Hundreds of instances of the Ransom-ware fraud have been reported this year, prompting calls for the force to run a social media campaign to make people aware.

The scam originated in in eastern Europe in 2005 but has spread quickly. The type of Ransom-ware in Ireland sees hackers attack a user’s software and then post a message with the Garda logo to say the computer has been locked and a fine must be paid or legal action will be taken.

A number of people have reportedly tried to pay fines over the counter in a Garda station.

Gardaí were first alerted to the scam in June last year.

IT security firm Smarttech claimed it has dealt with hundreds of instances of the cyber attack this year and that many more cases are going unreported.

The company has written to the force asking them to take new action in the fight against cyber crime.

“A social media campaign by the Gardaí could go a long way in decreasing the number of attacks taking place,” the company’s chief executive Ronan Murphy said.

“When people are informed and aware they are much less likely to get taken in.

“This has been happening all over Europe for the past year or two. The Bundespolizei in Germany had a similar situation as well as the police force in the UK.

“The Garda Síochána should be taking more measures to warn the public of this scam. The advice from Smarttech to anyone facing this situation is to definitely not pay the fine and have the PC repaired by a reputable repair person.”

Global Warming: Scientists debate the falling rate of rising temperatures

     

The world has warmed 0.05 degrees Celsius (0.09 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade over the past 15 years, a fraction of the 0.2ºC (0.36ºF) per decade rate confidently predicted by the U.N. six years ago, according to a leaked copy of the foremost climate report in the world.

That report, which is updated every six years by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is called the Assessment Report, and the fifth version (AR5) will be released Sept. 27. FoxNews.com has obtained a leaked copy of the first part of AR5 — and data in it appears to acknowledge that the world’s temperatures haven’t skyrocketed as many had feared.

“The rate of warming over the past 15 years (0.05°C per decade) is smaller than the trend since 1951 (0.12°C per decade),” the draft report states.

 2007′s AR4 observed a similar warming trend (0.13°C per decade) since 1951, yet the report incorrectly asserted that global temperatures would soar by 0.2°C  per decade through 2037 — and several climate reporters took the failed prediction to mean alarm about global warming had been raised decades before the problem hit crisis levels.

‘The idea of producing a document of near-biblical infallibility is a misrepresentation of how science works.’

- Professor Myles Allen, the director of Oxford University’s Climate Research Network

Jonathan Lynn, a spokesman for the IPCC group that compiles the report, said Rose misinterpreted it.

“As usual, David Rose’s article is wrong,” Lynn told FoxNews.com. But the 2007 report did in fact predict greater warming than it had been measuring for decades — the higher, 0.2ºC value.

One of the report’s own authors, Professor Myles Allen, the director of Oxford University’s Climate Research Network, said this should be the last such assessment.

“The idea of producing a document of near-biblical infallibility is a misrepresentation of how science works, and we need to look very carefully about what the IPCC does in future,” Allen said.

Don Wuebbles, coordinating lead author of the forthcoming report and a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois, disagreed with how the Mail characterized the study.

“There’s been a lot of playing around with this by the denialist community in the last few weeks,” he told FoxNews.com. Many people seek to spin the report and end up confusing short term planetary responses with long term ones, he noted.

“People tend to look at short term cycles and say the models don’t match. To me that’s not surprising,” Wuebbles told FoxNews.com.

The problem lies in the hotly debated “pause” in global warming over the last decade or more, which many have taken as an indication that a warming cycle has ended. Wuebbles confirmed that the upcoming report would address the pause, something the group is still struggling to mesh with climate models.

“We discuss the hiatus and issues about that in IPCC … but we still have incomplete information until some of the new studies come out that put the nail in that coffin,” he told FoxNews.com, citing current research that still needs to be synthesized into the draft.

Meanwhile the dozens of editors and writers collaborating on the report continue to revise it daily, he said, meaning the leaked copies seen by the Mail and FoxNews.com have likely already changed.

“There are definitely going to be wording changes that occur before it is published,” he said.

But the leaked report’s conclusion appear to align with a key new study in the journal Nature Climate Change, which revealed that nearly all climate models are dramatically inaccurate.

That report compared 117 climate predictions made in the 1990′s to the actual amount of warming. Out of 117 predictions, the study’s author told FoxNews.com, 3 were roughly accurate and 114 overestimated the amount of warming. On average, the predictions forecasted two times more global warming than actually occurred.

And it was also confirmed by Matt Ridley, a member of the British House of Lords and a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

“For the first time since these reports started coming out in 1990, the new one dials back the alarm,” Ridley wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Wuebbles took issue with Ridley’s portrayal of the report as well.

“That was kind of a distorted look at it,” he told FoxNews.com. “That’s not what’s in the assessment.”

The challenge the group faces is in taking complex science and making it simple for the world to understand. People reading early copies of the report are twisting it to their own purposes, he said.

“It’s leading to a lot of distorted information getting out there.”