Digitally yours

by Adam Greenberg

assistant a & e editor photo obtained from the internet No, it's not what the mural looks like but this is the guy who inspired it. It's Frankie-baby in his derby glory.

The number of shopping days before Christmas is dwindling, so it is time to draw up your wish lists and prepare to engage in the maul at the mall. For technophiles, there is oo shortage of must-have items out there this holiday season.

Movie buffs might enjoy an upgrade from their ancient VCR to a brand-new DVD player. DVDs, or digital versatile discs. offer clearer sound and crisper picture quality. as well as extras not to be found on their videotape equivalents. The number of movie tides available on the DVD fonnat continues to grow every week. Recently hot titles for the medium include "The Matrix" and Disney animated classics, such as "Pinocchio" and "The Little Mermaid." DVD players are currently available for as low as $200.

Philadelphia for over 20 years and has painted murals of Mayor Frank Rizzo and Mario Lanza, both Philadelphia natives.

The mural became a reality within two months after the performer died. Jane Golden, director .of the Department of Recreation's mural arts program, received a petition asking the city government to make a mural of Sinatra in his honor. The petition held several hundred South Philadelphia signatures.

Golden said the mural projects cost was $61,000. This was the costliest out of all 1,874 works painted since 1984. There has been encouragement by Tina Sinatra, one of the singer's daughters, to keep the mural well lit. She hopes to raise money so the mural will be visible at night.

Sinatra has affected generation after generation. This mural gives his family and fans a way to say thank you to him.

Music lovers would surely appreciate the addition of a portable MP3 digital audio player to their array of equipment. These players can take songs from your CD collection and store them digitally, allowing users to customize what selections they want to take along with them. The players can also store MP3 files downloaded from the Internet, which can then be stored on memory cards. There are severalbrandsof players currently available, including RCA'sLyraand the Diamond Rio. The cost for the players starts at $200. • Still snapping pictures on plain, old film? Digital cameras offer photographers sharper images and more flexibility to edit their work later with computer software. While some of these cam" eras can easily cost several hundred dollars, basic models can be found sale priced for around $100.

Video-gamers' dreams will be answered on Christmas morning if there is a Sega Dreamcast under the tree. This is arguably the finest gaming system currently available, with improved graphics and sound. The Dreamcast also comes equipped with a modem, allowing players to compete over the Internet. Just released in September, the system sells for about $200 and its library of available games is diverse. Titles currently for sale include •·south Park: Chef's Luv Shack," "Rippin' Riders Snowboarding" and "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing.'' Game prices range from about $40 to $60.

by Joe Holden assistant news editor

Disease treatment and the very world of biology have come a long way since the times when Darwin strained his peepers to get a look at some few million cells. Research in a musty, jaundiced windowed lab room has paid off and will continue to pay off, for there is no ceiling in the research of disease. Unless the day comes when all people revert to the ''bubble-boy" method of disease prevention, disease will continue to survive and treatments will continually be devised.

Technological advances coincide with biological advances. "An assignment that took over a month to do in 1986 while I was in graduate school took me one and a half days to complete this past summer," Dr. Kimberly Boyd, professor of biology at Cabrini, said. Computers have completely changed disease research. The kinds of methods that can be done in a day would have taken months before the integration of computers, Boyd explained.

The development of treatments for diseases such as cancer have seen nearly weekly advancements in their developments. This past week, a pilot study was launched to experiment with pill STI-571, which can treat chronic myelogenous leukemia. Another pill, named B43-Geinstein, wiped out the cancer cells in four out of the 10 volunteers who were in the stage of lymph cancer, reported

Dr. Fatih Uckun of the Hughes Institute in Roseville, Minnesota in a report published on Yahoo!News.

Disease research and development will continue to develop even stronger with the advent of new and awesome technologies. Last week, the human-genome project, which is a network of labs across the world finished cloning the smallest of the human chromosomes-number 22. From this new development, treatments are sure to come in areas such as schizophrenia and various types of heart disease. The projects purpose is to decode the human blueprint. "This is very paramount to see how a disease works," Boyd said. "It will enable drug development and discovery."

Some forms of cancer are genetically predisposed for possible development in individuals-particularly colon and certain forms of breast cancer.

The government has shifted big bucks to the research and development of diseases such as cancer, and AIDS. Health care companies pay an enormous amount of money for the care of individuals afflicted with these diseases. The most-hyped question on the medical front is how to treat these diseases. Drugs that are found on the market go through a strenuous testing period before they are released. "Risks must be taken; they're worth the effort," Boyd said energetically. "So many have been helped. From a research perspective, biologists will be busy forever."

The fact is, medical advancements are happening now.

• Scientists have found that the rosy periwinkle found in Madagascar contains vinblastine which could be effective against childhood leukemiaand Hodgkin's disease.

• Pacific yew foundin the rainforestsof the Pacific Northwestcontains taxol which is shown to be effectiveagainstbreastcancer.

• CalanolideA foundin Malaysianfruittreesis beingtestedfor effectivenessagainstHIV.

Unfortunately.due to deforestation,the resources that eontain these medical wonders are beingeliminated.

Justtlrinkaboutit

• 0Ver1hen9t 30- 40 yearsthe earthwill lose IS%of thef!$jimatNJ4-SmiDiGaspeciesof organisms 00 most from~ rainforests.