| SALINE HELPED INJURY? | |
An experimental procedure performed on Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett in the ambulance minutes after he sustained a spinal-cord injury during Sunday's game might have played a crucial role in what doctors say is his surprising progress. The quick infusion into a vein, via a catheter, of cold saline solution may have helped stabilize the injury, minimizing cell death and damaging inflammation, say doctors at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, where the procedure was developed. Everett's injury initially sparked fears he might never again walk, but his doctors said Wednesday that he is moving his arms and legs voluntarily and no longer requires the help of a ventilator to breathe. Miami Project neurosurgeon Barth Green, who has been consulting with Everett's doctors, said the procedure might have prevented paralysis. Mild therapeutic cooling is used in many hospitals to treat heart attacks and is being experimentally used at The Miami Project and elsewhere to treat spinal-cord and brain injury. But it needs to be initiated early, and its use with Everett is "the earliest ever recorded treatment," Green said. "It was within minutes of his injury. When I heard that, it was a big goose bump, because I knew he had a good chance of recovering because I knew the earlier you apply the hypothermia the more effective it is." The early treatment was possible because Everett's doctor, orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino, had attended a lecture where Miami Project researchers described the process. (Coincidentally, Bills owner Ralph Wilson is a major financial supporter of The Miami Project, Green said.) When Everett was injured Sunday, Cappuccino "was there on the field immediately and it just came to his mind." He phoned The Miami Project, Green said, "and he was able to get a very sophisticated piece of equipment that keeps the temperature very accurately controlled at about 92 degrees Fahrenheit. And he did that for 48 hours." W. Dalton Dietrich, scientific director at The Miami Project, part of the University of Miami School of Medicine, said scientists at the center have been researching it for 15 to 20 years. "We have shown that modest cooling (3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit) is protective and improves outcome." But it needs to be given as early as possible, he said. "The window of opportunity to introduce hypothermia may be relatively short," he said. By Gary Mihoces and Anita Manning |
Thursday, September 13, 2007
saline for spinal injuries?
Monday, September 10, 2007
Top 25 Biggest News Stories
1 Fall of communism (1989)
The Berlin Wall, which divided a city into a communist east and a non-communist west, was the most tangible symbol of a Cold War that divided the whole world. When it came down, it was proof that the war was over — and that the communists who built the wall had lost.
Carmen Taylor, AP
2 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001)
Islamic extremists turned four commercial jetliners into weapons of mass murder, obliterating two of the USA’s biggest office towers and punching a hole in its military headquarters. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and ushered in unprecedented national security measures.
3 Iraq war (2003-)
It was a war in two acts. First came a conventional conflict in which the United States and its allies quickly rolled over the forces of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Then came a protracted struggle against an insurgency that frustrated Americans like no war since Vietnam.
4 Hurricane Katrina (2005)
The costliest hurricane in U.S. history flooded New Orleans, scattered its residents and devastated the Mississippi and Alabama coastline. More than 1,700. people were killed.
Eric Draper, AP
5 O.J. Simpson (1994-95)
After Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were murdered, the former football star was named a suspect and the case became a national obsession. Simpson, riding in a white Ford Bronco, led police on a nationally televised slow-speed chase. His criminal trial ended in a controversial acquittal.
6 2000 presidential election
Election Day 2000 was just the beginning of a five-week struggle to decide who had won. It came down to a 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court that ended a Florida recount and put Republican George W. Bush in the White House over Democrat Al Gore.
7 Clinton impeachment (1998-99)
The revelation of Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky crippled his presidency. He first denied anything improper with “that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” then admitted he’d had a “wrong” relationship with her. The House impeached him on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; the Senate acquitted him.
8 Afghanistan invasion (2001)
After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush vowed: “The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” He made good on his promise. In the first stage of the “war on terrorism,” U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime that had harbored the al-Qaeda plotters. But terrorist Osama bin Laden has eluded capture.
9 Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
Homegrown terrorism struck the heartland. The truck bomb that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building was the work of Army veterans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who sympathized with the violently anti-federal militia movement. The blast killed 168 people and injured nearly 700.
10 Chernobyl disaster (1986)
Science fiction had warned of such an accident. At Chernobyl, fiction became fact when a Ukrainian nuclear power plant exploded, sending radioactive fallout over Europe. More than 330,000 people had to be resettled.
George Kochaniec, (Denver) Rocky Mountain News/AP
11 Columbine massacre (1999)
Most Americans once assumed their kids were safe at school. Then came the shootings at Columbine High School near Denver. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher, then committed suicide. It was a precursor to 2007’s massacre at Virginia Tech, where 33 people died.
Jerome Delay, AP
12 Death of Diana (1997)
“The people’s princess” was a complex personification of glamour, innocence and tragedy. Her death in a Paris car crash evoked extraordinary public expressions of grief; her funeral at Westminster Abbey drew more than a million mourners and a worldwide television audience.
Roslan Rahman, AFP
13 Asian tsunami (2004)
The peace of Christmas was shattered by tragedy on the other side of the world. A Dec. 26 earthquake — among the largest ever recorded — triggered a devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. Nearly 230,000 were killed or reported missing, and global relief efforts topped $6 billion.
14 Persian Gulf War (1991)
After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and ignored a deadline to withdraw, a U.S.-led coalition invaded. The ground battle was won in a few days at the cost of 148 American lives. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died. Saddam was driven from oil-rich Kuwait but kept power at home.
15 Rodney King (1991-92)
The video was shocking: white Los Angeles police officers stood around a black man on the ground, pummeling him. Rodney King was a parolee who had kept driving when police tried to pull him over. The acquittal of four officers on brutality charges sparked riots that left more than 50 people dead.
16 Branch Davidians (1993)
At least 80 members of the Branch Davidian sect were killed during a 51-day standoff outside Waco, Texas. It began when federal agents tried to arrest group leader David Koresh for stockpiling guns and explosives. The compound exploded in flames after the FBI sprayed tear gas and the Davidians began shooting; a federal investigation said the Davidians started the fire.
Bruce Weaver, AP
17 Challenger explosion (1986)
Christa McAuliff was going to be the first teacher in space. But 73 seconds after launch, the space shuttle blew apart, killing all seven astronauts. The TV images horrified the world. Disaster hit the program again in 2003, when seven astronauts died aboard the shuttle Columbia.
Jeff Widener, AP
18 Tiananmen Square (1989)
The spirit of China’s student-led pro-democracy protests was dramatized by one scene: a lone man standing defiantly before a column of tanks in the heart of Beijing. But military force prevailed; communist leaders crushed the protests, killing hundreds, possibly thousands.
19 Rwandan genocide (1994)
Neighbor killed neighbor, sometimes with a machete. More than 500,000 people died in about 100 days in government-orchestrated violence that grew out of a civil war. Despite news coverage, the international community did not stop it.
20 Nelson Mandela (1990)
Rarely has anyone suffered so much and for so long with so little apparent bitterness. The South African nationalist, spent 27 years in prison under the white racist regime; his release in 1990 was the beginning of apartheid’s end. Later, as president, he used his position not for revenge, but reconciliation.
21 Iran-contra affair (1986-87)
The biggest scandal since Watergate dogged the last years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Funds from secret U.S. arms sales to Iran were diverted to finance a Central American war run from the White House. The system was an attempt to circumvent Congress, which had cut off aid to the contra rebels in Marxist Nicaragua.
22 Beirut Marine barracks bombing (1983)
It was an early glimpse of what would become a recurrent horror: suicide bombings in the Middle East. A truck bomb destroyed the barracks, killing 241 U.S. servicemembers. The troops had gone to Beirut as peacekeepers; the bombing eventually led to their departure.
23 Terri Schiavo. (2005)
In 1990, Schiavo suffered brain damage that left her in a persistent vegetative state. Eight years later, her husband asked a court to have a feeding tube removed. Her parents objected, touching off a legal battle that culminated in a political and media free-for-all. The tube was removed in March 2005; Schiavo died 13 days later.
24 Gay marriage (2003)
Same-sex marriage took one step forward and several steps back. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s 2003 ruling that granted homosexuals the right to marry sparked a backlash. The next year, 11 states passed bans on same-sex.
25 Pan Am Flight 103 (1988)
Explosives hidden in a suitcase destroyed a jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Many of the 189 Americans aboard were students or military personnel coming home for Christmas. A former Libyan intelligence officer was convicted, and Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing.
Source: USA TODAY reporting and writing by Rick Hampson. Photo research by Kate Patterson, Evan Eile and Jud McCrehin USA TODAY.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Top 25 Influential People
Bill Gates (AP)
1 Bill Gates, software entrepreneur
His Microsoft software shaped the way millions use the technology that has transformed communications and commerce — making him the world’s richest man and, now, a leading philanthropist.
Ronald Reagan (AFP)
2 Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president
Elected in 1980 and re-elected in 1984, he put the United States on a more conservative course, restored buoyancy and confidence in the presidency and forged a partnership with a reformist Soviet leader that helped end the Cold War.
Oprah Winfrey (AP)
3 Oprah Winfrey, talk show host
As a talk-show host, first at WLS-TV’s AM Chicago in 1984, she pioneered a form of intimate public discourse that brought taboo subjects into the open and sparked a confessional, self-help culture.
Dr. Craig Venter, left (USA TODAY); Dr. Francis Collins, right (GNS)
4&5 Francis Collins & J. Craig Venter, mappers of the human genome
The Human Genome Project headed by Collins and a parallel private effort by Celera Genomics under Venter jointly announced the mapping of the human genome in 2000, opening the door to breakthroughs in identifying, treating and preventing the world’s most feared diseases.
Osama bin Laden (AP)
6 Osama bin Laden, terrorist
For most Americans, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by the al-Qaeda network he leads marked the beginning of a global battle against radical Islamists 12 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War.
Stephen Hawking (USA TODAY)
7 Stephen Hawking, physicist
In the tradition of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, he explored the nature of the universe. He popularized science, wrote the best-selling A Brief History of Time in 1988 and remains a puckish personality despite being severely disabled by Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Lance Armstrong (AP)
8 Lance Armstrong, cyclist and cancer activist
He won a record-breaking seven consecutive Tour de France races, cycling’s most prestigious event, after battling testicular cancer. Sales of his iconic "Livestrong" wristbands have raised millions of dollars to help fight cancer.
Pope John Paul II (AFP)
9 Pope John Paul II, pontiff
Polish-born Karol Jozef Wojtyla helped propel a peaceful revolution in Poland in 1989 that ended Soviet domination and reverberated through Eastern Europe. In a 26-year papacy, he defined the Roman Catholic Church’s role in modern times.
Bono (AFP)
10 Bono, rock musician and activist for Africa
Born Paul Hewson, the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2 has shrewdly pressed world leaders to forgive third-world debt and address the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
Mikhail Gorbachev (AFP)
11 Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader
The last leader of the Soviet Union, from 1985 to 1991, he introduced economic and political reforms — glasnost and perestroika — and forged a partnership with an anti-Communist U.S. president. On Gorbachev’s watch, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved.
Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin (AP)
12&13 Sergey Brin & Larry Page, co-founders of Google
After meeting as doctoral students at Stanford in 1995, they devised a way to organize information on the Internet by analyzing relationships between websites. Google is now the Web’s most-used search engine — so familiar it’s become a verb.
George W. Bush (Reuters)
14 George W. Bush, 43rd president
Taking office after a 5-4 Supreme Court decision settled the 2000 election, he led America’s response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — enmeshing the USA in its longest war since Vietnam.
Sam Walton (AP)
15 Sam Walton, retailing pioneer
A farm boy from Oklahoma who started with Walton's Five and Dime in Bentonville, Ark., he relied on high volume and low markups to build the world's biggest retailer — and swamp the competiton.
Deng Xiaoping (Xinhua)
16 Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader
The de facto leader of China from 1978 into the 1990s, he opened the nation to global markets and economic modernization through “socialism with Chinese characteristics” — and cracked down on Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.
Kirthmon Dozier (AP)
17 Michael Jordan, basketball star
Arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, mostly for the Chicago Bulls, his athletic leaps and slam dunks influenced a generation of players. With a likeable persona, he also led all leagues in lucrative endorsements.
Howard Schultz (AP)
18 Howard Schultz, Starbucks entrepreneur
A poor kid from Brooklyn who wanted to replicate Italian espresso bars, he cultivated a chain of coffeehouses that have influenced many Americans’ daily habits and taste buds much as Ray Kroc’s McDonalds did a generation earlier.
Nelson Mandela (USA TODAY)
19 Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid leader
Released in 1990 after 27 years in prison, he preached reconciliation and was the first elected president of a fully democratic South Africa.
J. K. Rowling (AP)
20 J. K. Rowling, author
The first Harry Potter book, completed in 1995 and initially rejected by several publishing houses, launched a seven-volume series that absorbed children and adults in complicated fantasies spanning thousands of pages.
Hillary and Bill Clinton (AP)
21&22 Bill & Hillary Clinton, 42nd president & N.Y. senator
He was the first Democrat elected to two terms in the White House since FDR, then survived impeachment. She went from wronged wife to New York senator to the most viable female presidential contender in U.S. history.
Russell Simmons (USA TODAY)
23 Russell Simmons, hip-hop pioneer
He helped popularize a distinctively American form of music — co-founding the hip-hop label Def Jam — that has influenced mainstream pop culture, from music to dance to dress, since the mid-1980s.
Ryan White (USA TODAY)
24 Ryan White, the face of AIDS
The 13-year-old hemophiliac from Kokomo, Ind., was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, then banned from attending his public middle school. A human face for a stigmatized disease, he died in 1990.
20th Century Fox
25 Homer Simpson, Everyman
The doughy star of TV’s The Simpsons epitomized the irony and irreverence at the core of American humor — the same force that’s helped make The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart a major source of news for young people.
USA TODAY reporting and writing by Susan Page; photo research by Robin Smith and Denny Gainer
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Top 25 Scientific Breakthroughs
With help from long-time science observers, USA TODAY's Dan Vergano counts down the 25 top milestones.
1 Accelerating universe (1998)
Exploding stars, receding at an ever-faster pace, stunned scientists by showing that an anti-gravity effect is relentlessly expanding the universe. This expansion still defies explanation.
2 Human genome (1999)
Competing public and private teams declared victory in mapping human DNA’s 24,000 or so genes, ushering in a coming era of gene-based medicine.
Reuters
3 Climate accord (2001-2007)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change went from finding global warming “very likely” to “unequivocal,” a view that coincides with growing public acceptance.
NASA via AP
4 Hubble launched (1990)
The Hubble space telescope overcame early mirror distortions to become astronomy’s most productive observatory and a symbol of scientific achievement.
5 Big Bang fingerprinted (1992)
NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) probe mapped the fiery Big Bang’s aftermath, detecting hot spots in the early universe that coalesced into galaxies.
Mike Groll, AP
6 DNA fingerprinting (1985)
Sir Alec Jeffreys at the United Kingdom’s University of Leicester announced a method of identifying individuals based only on their DNA, now a fundamental forensics tool. Made famous by television’s CSI series, DNA fingerprinting has been used to imprison many convicts, and free others, raising questions about the justice system in its wake.
Handout
7 Hello Dolly! (1996)
Ian Wilmut of Scotland’s Roslin Institute led the team behind the birth of the first cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly, preceding horses, bulls, dogs and others.
8 Worldwide Web (1989)
Physicist Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland unveils a method to link pages through the Internet as a way to share research. And now everything else.
Handout
9 Ozone unmasked (1987)
High over Antarctica, NASA scientists confirmed that chlorofluorocarbons — aerosols and refrigerants — were eating stratospheric ozone; a ban promises recovery for this layer of protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
AFP/Getty Images
10 Extrasolar planets (1995)
Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz report the first detection of a planet, named 51 Pegasi B, orbiting a nearby sun-like star. Over 200 “exoplanets” are now known, including one found in a nearby star’s “habitable” zone.
Martin Oeser, AFP/Getty Images
11 RNA interference (1998)
Working with worms, biologists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello report how RNA can selectively shut down genes, a dazzling research and medical tool.
12 Top quark detected (1995)
Atom-smashing physicists at Fermilab, a federal research facility, detect the top quark, a long-sought sub-atomic particle. Confirmation of its existence cements the modern understanding of the structure of matter.
Miami Science Museum, AP
13 Feathered dino found (1992)
U.S. and Chinese researchers find the remains of the first of many feathered-dinosaur fossils, confirming growing paleontological perception that birds are in fact, descended from dinosaurs.
NASA
14 Pluto dethroned (2006)
The discovery of Eris, a frozen world larger and farther away than Pluto, spurs the International Astronomical Union to disown the ninth planet.
AP
15 Embryonic stem cells (1997)
A University of Wisconsin team first isolates human embryonic stem cells, master cells that may one day be used to create rejection-free transplant tissues. Destruction of embryos to harvest the cells remains controversial.
NASA via AP
16 Water on Mars (2000-2004)
Spurred by a Martian meteorite that might hold fossil bacteria, NASA revs up its Mars program, with satellite images and the rover, Opportunity, finding that salty seas once sat on the Red Planet.
Handout
17 Oldest hominid (1994)
A 4.4 million-year-old Ethiopian fossil, Ardipithecus ramidus, presented by a University of California, Berkeley, team, predates all known human species.
Carolyn Kaster, AP
18 Intelligent design suit (2005)
Reaching “the inescapable conclusion that ID (intelligent design) is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science,” federal judge John Jones halts a Dover, Pa., school board’s bid to suggest to science students that an “intelligent designer” created life.
19 Neutrino mass discovered (1998)
Measuring cosmic rays, U.S. and Japanese physicists show that neutrinos — elementary radioactive decay particles — have mass, contradicting a previous belief and offering a surprising hint about a new theory of matter in the universe. The find also spurs searches for leftover neutrinos from the Big Bang.
John McConnico, AP
20 Abrupt climate change (1982-85)
Geologists and paleoclimatologists find evidence that sudden climate shifts, 60-degree temperature jumps and doubling of rainfall in some places, have occurred within the last 600 million years. Some worry manmade global warming will spark similar shifts.
Handout
21 Neuroscience explodes (1990-present)
The “Decade of the Brain” premieres new imaging devices that reveal how the brain really works.
22 Quantum teleportation (1998)
European researchers transfer — instantaneously and over distance — one light particle’s characteristics to another, opening a new secure method of communication.
23 Evo devo (1999)
Evidence that evolution alters genes active in infancy to create novel physical structures in species coalesces into a new branch of biology.
NASA via AP
24 Golden age of solar astronomy (1996)
The international Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) sun-watching satellites begin operations, opening up solar seismology and space weather forecasting.
Artistic rendering by Peter Schouten via AFP
25 Hobbit discovered (2004)
Still controversial, the discovery on an Indonesian island of Homo floresiensis — an 18,000-year-old, pint-sized human species — by an Indonesian-Australian team stuns paleontologists because of the small brain size of these tool-using hunters.
Source: Compiled and written by William Keck, Karen Thomas, Donna Freydkin, Andrea Mandell, Ann Oldenburg, Lorena Blas, Robyn Abzug and Susan O’Brian. Photo research by Kevin Eans, USA TODAY.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Top 25 Notable Celebrity Quotes
USA TODAY reporting and writing by William Keck, Karen Thomas, Donna Freydkin, Andrea Mandell, Ann Oldenburg, Lorena Blas, Robyn Abzug and Susan O'Brian.
1 "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
Princess Diana, in a 1995 BBC interview, on her marriage to Prince Charles. They divorced in 1996, and she died a year later. The third party, Camilla Parker Bowles, became Charles’ wife in 2005.
Louis Goldman, Handout
2 "I’m tough. I’m ambitious. And I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, OK.”
Madonna in People, July 27, 1992. It was a big year for her, with the movie A League of Their Own, her Sex book and her Erotica album.
3 “Why can’t you share your bed? The most loving thing to do is to share your bed with someone.”
Michael Jackson, defending his practice of letting boys share his bed in a Feb. 3, 2003, interview with BBC/Granada’s Martin Bashir. The interview led to molestation charges; Jackson was acquitted in June 2005.
Douglas Pizar, AP
4 “I can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you ... I bid you a very heartfelt goodnight.”
Johnny Carson, saying his final goodbye on The Tonight Show, May 22, 1992. The late-night legend died in January 2005.
5 “Well, I can wear heels now.”
Nicole Kidman to David Letterman on Aug. 2, 2001, after her split from Tom Cruise. Both have since remarried, he to actress Katie Holmes, and she to country singer Keith Urban.
Eric Draper, AP
6 “In the end, you have to come clean and say, ‘I did something dishonorable, shabby and goatish.’.”
Hugh Grant to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, July 10, 1995, explaining his June arrest for lewd behavior with a Los Angeles prostitute. Grant pleaded no contest. Girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley stuck by him, but they split five years later. They remain friends.
7 “This town is a back-stabbing, scum-sucking, small-minded town, but thanks for the money.”
Roseanne Barr, in an ad she took out in The Hollywood Reporter for the magazine’s 60th anniversary in October 1990, two years after her sitcom Roseanne launched. The show ran until ’97.
8 “I never wanted to be the lesbian actress. I never wanted to be the spokesperson for the gay community. Ever. I did it for my own truth.”
Ellen DeGeneres in Time magazine, April 14, 1997, just before her Ellen sitcom character came out as gay, too.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
9 “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me ... And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”
Halle Berry, at the 2002 Oscars, in her best-actress acceptance for Monster’s Ball. She’s the first black woman to win the category.
Michel Euler, AP
10 “The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to those things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that’s that.”
Woody Allen in Time in 1992, about his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the daughter of former girlfriend Mia Farrow. Allen and Previn wed in ’97. The age gap: 35 years.
11 “Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. OK? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that. Crack is whack.”
Whitney Houston in 2002 on ABC’s Primetime. Houston has since been through rehab several times, and last year split from husband Bobby Brown. She has been working on a new album.
AP file
12 “Retire? I’m going to stay in show business until I’m the only one left.”
George Burns, at his 90th birthday tribute, George Burns 90th Birthday Special, taped Jan. 11, 1986. He died 10 years later.
13 “I’m too much of an erratic moody baby! I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”
Kurt Cobain’s suicide note from April 5, 1994. The lead singer of Nirvana was 27.
Virginia Sherwood, NBC via AP
14 “Psychiatry is a pseudoscience. ... You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do. ... Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, you don’t even — you’re glib. You don’t even know what Ritalin is.”
Tom Cruise to Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today, June 24, 2005, one of several uninhibited expressions from the actor that summer.
15 “For an actor, there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can’t part with you, which is why I won’t exclude you from this stage in my life.”
Charlton Heston on Aug. 9, 2002, revealing he has Alzheimer’s. Heston has not made a TV or film appearance since 2003.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
16 “I’m in shock. And I’m so in love with my brother right now.”
Angelina Jolie, thanking brother James Haven while accepting the supporting actress Oscar for 1999’s Girl, Interrupted. Since then she has become Brad Pitt’s companion and an upstanding citizen of the world.
John Zich, USA TODAY
17 “I am sorry if anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime of the Super Bowl. It was not intentional and is regrettable.”
Justin Timberlake, in a statement after the 2004 Super Bowl spectacle with Janet Jackson. His career is booming, hers has faltered.
Rose M. Prouser, AFP/Getty
18 “And if they want to hear that I’m dead, sorry, folks. I’m not. And I don’t plan on it.”
Elizabeth Taylor on Larry King Live, May 30, 2006, responding to rumors she was dying. She turned 75 in February.
19 “What are you looking at, sugar-tits?”
Mel Gibson, to female deputy last summer after being pulled over for speeding and drunken driving.
Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY
20 “That’s hot.”
Paris Hilton’s trademark, dating back at least to the first season of The Simple Life in 2003. She eventually had the expression copyrighted.
21 The jury “was not my class of people. There was not a producer, a press agent, a director, an actor.”
Zsa Zsa Gabor to People in October 1989, after a jury found her guilty of slapping a Beverly Hills cop.
22 “I just want one day off when I can go swimming and eat ice cream and look at rainbows.”
Mariah Carey on MTV’s TRL in 2001, before entering rehab for exhaustion. Glitter bombed that fall, but in 2005 she put out a Grammy-winning hit album.
Paul Moseley, Fort Worth Star-Telegram via AP
23 “The virginity issue. There are so many emotions involved that I would like to be able to wait until I know I’m with the right person and I’m married.”
Britney Spears in a 2002 interview with Britain’s Daily Star. She’s now 25, has married twice, split up twice (one annulment, one divorce) and has two kids.
24 “These people are not parenting. They are buying things for their kids — $500 sneakers for what? And won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.”
Bill Cosby, addressing a Washington, D.C., crowd in 2004.
25 “You only lie to two people in your life, your girlfriend and the police. Everybody else you tell the truth to.”
Jack Nicholson in the April 1994 issue of Vanity Fair. He’s now 70, and no doubt it’s still his motto.