Free Essay

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Expose

In: Film and Music

Submitted By jinu
Words 567
Pages 3
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is notable not just for having the least likely title of a major Hollywood hit since “Forest Gump.” It also features images you don’t see every day: Using sophisticated makeup, long segments of the tale show superstar Brad Pitt’s face, aged beyond his years. He looks so different that a confused Angelina would kick him out of their kids’ nursery. His wrinkled countenance is then seamlessly computer grafted onto a diminutive body.
The flick follows “Benjamin Button,” born small, but appearing elderly and arthritic, who then spends the remaining screen time becoming physically younger. While this concept is fantasy, the situation of child who looks geriatric is very rare but very real.
Progeria (also called Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome or HGPS) is an extremely rare condition. This is a genetic condition characterized by the dramatic, rapid appearance of aging beginning in childhood. Affected children typically look normal at birth and in early infancy, but then grow more slowly than other children and do not gain weight at the expected rate. They develop a characteristic facial appearance including prominent eyes, a thin nose with a beaked tip, thin lips, a small chin, and protruding ears. Like Pitt in the film, people affected with this rare condition experience hair loss (alopecia), aged-looking skin, joint abnormalities, and a loss of fat under the skin (subcutaneous fat). This condition does not disrupt intellectual development or the development of motor skills such as sitting, standing, and walking.
People with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome experience severe hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis) beginning in childhood. This condition greatly increases the chances having a heart attack or stroke at a young age. These serious complications can worsen over time and are life-threatening for affected individuals.
Unlike Pitt’s character, their premature aging does not reverse. Fortunately, the likely cause of HGPS has been discovered: Mutations in the LMNA gene cause Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. The LMNA gene provides instructions for making a protein called lamin A. This protein plays an important role in determining the shape of the nucleus within cells. It is an essential scaffolding (supporting) component of the nuclear envelope, which is the membrane that surrounds the nucleus. Mutations that cause Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome result in the production of an abnormal version of the lamin A protein. The altered protein makes the nuclear envelope unstable and progressively damages the nucleus, making cells more likely to die prematurely. Researchers are working to determine how these changes lead to the characteristic features of HGPS.
HGPS is considered an autosomal dominant condition, which means one copy of the altered gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the disorder. The condition results from new mutations in the LMNA gene, and almost always occurs in people with no history of the disorder in their family. The diagnosis can be made by analyzing the DNA of blood and skin biopsy samples. There is also research focused on a medicine which may help to stabilize the protein. This medicine showed a reversal of the cell damage when tested in animals. Tests in humans have recently begun.
Fixing this condition won’t be as easy as pressing a “Button.” Since this abnormal protein may also play a role in normal aging, someday, the plot of “Benjamin Button” may not be so farfetched.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

The Three Ghost Stories

...Three Ghost Stories Charles Dickens This eBook was designed and published by Planet PDF. For more free eBooks visit our Web site at http://www.planetpdf.com/. To hear about our latest releases subscribe to the Planet PDF Newsletter. Three Ghost Stories THE SIGNAL-MAN ‘Halloa! Below there!’ When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life what. But I know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, and mine was high above him, so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset, that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at all. ‘Halloa! Below!’ From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him. ‘Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?’ 2 of 97 Three Ghost Stories He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the...

Words: 21786 - Pages: 88

Free Essay

Electronics

...Electronics FOR DUMmIES by Gordon McComb and Earl Boysen ‰ TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! Electronics For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, e-mail: brandreview@wiley.com. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written...

Words: 127080 - Pages: 509

Free Essay

Bloodlines of the Illuminati

...that the world is a stage and we are all actors. Of course this was not an original thought, but it certainly is a way of describing the Illuminati view of how the world works. The people of the world are an audience to which the Illuminati entertain with propaganda. Just one of the thousands of recent examples of this type of acting done for the public was President Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union address. The speech was designed to push all of the warm fuzzy buttons of his listening audience that he could. All the green lights for acceptance were systematically pushed by the President’s speech with the help of a controlled congressional audience. The truth on the other hand doesn’t always tickle the ear and warm the ego of its listeners. The light of truth in this book will be too bright for some people who will want to return to the safe comfort of their darkness. I am not a conspiracy theorist. I deal with real facts, not theory. Some of the people I write about, I have met. Some of the people I expose are alive and very dangerous. The darkness has never liked the light. Yet, many of the secrets of the Illuminati are locked up tightly simply because secrecy is a way of life. It is such a way of life, that they resent the Carroll Quigleys and the James H. Billingtons who want to tell real historical facts rather than doctored up stories and myths. I have been an intense student of history since I could read, and I am deeply committed to the facts of history rather than...

Words: 206477 - Pages: 826

Premium Essay

Business Technology Strategy: Coursework About Iphone

...GROUP Business Technology Strategy Coursework about Apple iPhone Cai Bichu, He Yubei, Lv Mengyu, Tu Hongting, Wang han, Wang Yian, Yang Tong 2015/12/10 Catalog 1. Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Background ................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Background of the apple company ...................................................................................... 3 2.1.1. Steve jobs ................................................................................................................ 4 2.1.2. Products -- iPhone ................................................................................................... 4 2.2 The analyses of apple’s porter 5 forces ............................................................................... 6 2.2.1. Competitive Rivalry or Competition with Apple .................................................... 7 2.2.2. Bargaining Power of Apple’s Customers/Buyers .................................................... 7 2.2.3. Bargaining Power of Apple’s Suppliers .................................................................. 8 2.2.4. Threat of Substitutes or Substitution ....................................................................... 8 2.2.5. Threat of New Entrants or New Entry.....................................

Words: 17218 - Pages: 69

Premium Essay

Homosexuality

...ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY 2005 HOMOSEXUALITY Joanna Barnecka Kinga Karp Mie Lollike Psychology, Modul Autumn Semester 2005 Group Number 107 Supervisor: Bettina Hjortholt Characters: 106.189 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 2 MOTIVATION.............................................................................................................. 3 PROBLEM DEFINITION ............................................................................................... 4 CARDINAL QUESTION ................................................................................................ 4 SUB-QUESTIONS ......................................................................................................... 4 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION TO THE TERM HOMOSEXUALITY .................................... 6 THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS FOR UNDERSTANDING HOMOSEXUALITY................................................................................................... 9 HOMOSEXUALITY FROM A BEHAVIOURISTIC POINT OF VIEW ................................ 10 HOMOSEXUALITY FROM A BIOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW ....................................... 16 HOMOSEXUALITY FROM A PSYCHODYNAMIC POINT OF VIEW....

Words: 16665 - Pages: 67

Free Essay

Book

...THE PLAYER Good game design is player-centric. That means that above all else, the player and her desires are truly considered. Rather than demanding that she do something via the rules, the gameplay itself should inherently motivate the player in the direction the designer wants her to go. Telling players they must travel around the board or advance to the next level is one thing. If they don’t have a reason and a desire to do it, then it becomes torture. In creating a game, designers take a step back and think from the player’s viewpoint: What’s this game about? How do I play? How do I win? Why do I want to play? What things do I need to do? MEANINGFUL DECISIONS Distilled down to its essence, game design is about creating opportunities for players to make meaningful decisions that affect the outcome of the game. Consider a game like a boxing match. So many decisions lead up to the ultimate victory. How long will I train? Will I block or will I swing? What is my opponent going to do? Where is his weakness? Jab left or right? Even those few, brief questions don’t come close to the myriad decisions a fighter must make as he progresses through a match. Games invite players into similar mental spaces. Games like Tetris and Chess keep our minds busy by forcing us to consider which one of several possible moves we want to take next. In taking these paths, we know that we may be prolonging or completely screwing up our entire game. The Sims games and those in...

Words: 111961 - Pages: 448

Free Essay

Twilight

...Breaking Dawn Stephenie “Cockblock” Meyer Copyright© 2008 by Stephenie Meyer. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Little, Brown and Company Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Visit our Web site atwww.lb-teens.com First eBook Edition: August 2008 Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group USA,Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group USA, Inc. Epigraph for Book Three from Empire by Orson Scott Card. A Tor Book. Published by Tom Doherty Associates,LLC. Copyright© 2006 by Orson Scott Card. Reprinted with permission of the author. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. ISBN: 978-0-316-03283-4 Contents BOOK ONE: BELLA Preface 1. Engaged 2. Long Night 3. Big Day 4.Gesture 5. Isle Esme 6. Distractions 7. Unexpected BOOK TWO: JACOB Preface 8. Waiting For The Damn Fight To Start Already 9. Sure As Hell Didn't See That One Coming 10. Why Didn't I Just Walk Away? Oh Right, Because I'm An Idiot. 11. The Two Things At The Very Top Of My Things-I-Never-Want-To-Do List 12. Some People Just Don't Grasp The Concept...

Words: 188421 - Pages: 754

Premium Essay

Puzzles

...TeA M YYe PG Digitally signed by TeAM YYePG DN: cn=TeAM YYePG, c=US, o=TeAM YYePG, ou=TeAM YYePG, email=yyepg@msn .com Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Date: 2005.07.04 23:45:43 +08'00' ������������ Want to learn more? We hope you enjoy this McGraw-Hill eBook! If you’d like more information about this book, its author, or related books and websites, please click here. HOW TO ACE THE BRAINTEASER INTERVIEW JOHN KADOR M C G R AW- H I L L N E W YO R K MADRID C H I C AG O SAN FRANCISCO MILAN SYDNEY LISBON TO RO N TO LONDON S A N J UA N MEXICO CITY SEOUL NEW DELHI SINGAPORE Copyright © 2005 by John Kador. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-144606-0 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-144001-1. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special...

Words: 77414 - Pages: 310

Premium Essay

Learning-Guide

...University of Queensland www.tedi.uq.edu.au Copyright materials contained herein have been reproduced under the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, as amended, or with the permission of the copyright owner. This material may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever except for the purposes of individual study. University Provider Number 00025B © The University of Queensland contents Contents Module 1 Introduction to electronic commerce Objectives Basic elements of electronic commerce (EC) 1 1 3 Differences between electronic commerce and traditional commerce 5 New ways of doing business with electronic commerce History of electronic commerce (EC) Planning an e-commerce project Legal, ethical and international issues Case study guidelines 6 8 10 10 11 Module 2 Business decision-making and planning for electronic commerce 17 Objectives Planning an e-commerce project Economic models Competitive advantage and electronic marketplaces Transaction cost economics 17 18 29 30 34 Module 3 Technologies for electronic commerce Objectives The Internet and electronic commerce The general structure of the Internet Internet protocols 37 37 38 39 40 Internet services Intranets and extranets Internet connection options The World Wide Web 43 45 48 48 Module 4 Creating a commercial Website Objectives Introduction...

Words: 38720 - Pages: 155

Premium Essay

English Help

...Beyond Feelings A Guide to Critical Thinking NINTH EDITION Vincent Ryan Ruggiero Professor Emeritus of Humanities State University of New York, Delhi BEYOND FEELINGS: A GUIDE TO CRITICAL THINKING, NINTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2009, 2007 and 2004. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOC/DOC 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN: MHID: 978-0-07-803818-1 0-07-803818-9 Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Michael Ryan Vice President EDP/Central Publishing Services: Kimberly Meriwether David Editorial Director: Beth Mejia Senior Managing Editor: Meghan Campbell Executive Marketing Manager: Pamela S. Cooper Senior Project Manager: Joyce Watters Buyer: Nicole Baumgartner Design Coordinator: Margarite Reynolds Media Project Manager: Sridevi Palani Compositor: Glyph International Typeface: 10/13 Palatino Printer: R...

Words: 102651 - Pages: 411

Premium Essay

Business

...thomas a . meyer How Great companies Get Started in terrible times Innovate! Innovate! How Great Companies Get Started in Terrible Times THOMAS A. MEYER John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2010 by Thomas A. Meyer. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose...

Words: 58226 - Pages: 233

Premium Essay

Freakonomics-Expanded

...FREAKONOMICS A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Revised and Expanded Edition Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner CONTENTS AN EXPLANATORY NOTE In which the origins of this book are clarified. vii PREFACE TO THE REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION xi 1 INTRODUCTION: The Hidden Side of Everything In which the book’s central idea is set forth: namely, if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work. Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong . . . How “experts”— from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists—bend the facts . . . Why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life . . . What is “freakonomics,” anyway? 1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? 15 In which we explore the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side—cheating. Contents Who cheats? Just about everyone . . . How cheaters cheat, and how to catch them . . . Stories from an Israeli day-care center . . . The sudden disappearance of seven million American children . . . Cheating schoolteachers in Chicago . . . Why cheating to lose is worse than cheating to win . . . Could sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, be corrupt? . . . What the Bagel Man saw: mankind may be more honest than we think. 2. How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? 49 In which it is argued that nothing is more powerful than information,...

Words: 105214 - Pages: 421

Premium Essay

If Tomorrow Comes

...Sydney Sheldon - If Tomorrow Comes If Tomorrow Comes Sydney Sheldon Hmmm, looks like another genie got out of the bottle Me Fiction Scanned and fully proofed by nihua, 2002-03-24 v4.1 CR/LFs removed and formatting tidied. pdb conversion by bigjoe. IF TOMORROW COMES by Sidney Sheldon, ©1985 BOOK ONE Chapter 01 New Orleans THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20--- 11:00 P.M. She undressed slowly, dreamily, and when she was naked, she selected a bright red negligee to wear so that the blood would not show. Doris Whitney looked around the bedroom for the last time to make certain that the pleasant room, grown dear over the past thirty years, was neat and tidy. She opened the drawer of the bedside table and carefully removed the gun. It was shiny black, and terrifyingly cold. She placed it next to the telephone and dialed her daughter's number in Philadelphia. She listened to the echo of the distant ringing. And then there was a soft "Hello?" "Tracy... I just felt like hearing the sound of your voice, darling." "What a nice surprise, Mother." "I hope I didn't wake you up." "No. I was reading. Just getting ready to go to sleep. Charles and I were going out for dinner, but the weather's too nasty. It's snowing hard here. What's it doing there?" Dear God, we're talking about the weather, Doris Whitney thought, when there's so much I want to tell her. And can't. "Mother? Are you there?" Doris Whitney stared out the window. "It's raining." And she thought, How melodramatically appropriate. Like an...

Words: 123246 - Pages: 493

Free Essay

Hucksters

...LACAN AND CONTEMPORARY FILM EDITED BY TODD McGOWAN and SHEILA KUNKLE OTHER Other Press New York Copyright © 2004 Todd McGowan and Sheila Kunkle Production Editor: Robert D. Hack This book was set in 11 pt. Berkeley by Alpha Graphics, Pittsfield, N.H. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Allrightsreserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. For information write to Other Press LLC, 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1807, New York, NY 10001. Or visit our website: www.otherpress.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McGowan, Todd. Lacan and contemporary film / by Todd McGowan & Sheila Kunkle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59051-084-4 (pbk : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures-Psychological aspects. 2. Psychoanalysis and motion pictures. 3. Lacan, Jacques, 1901- I. Kunkle, Sheila. II. Title. PN1995 .M379 2004 791.43'01 '9-dc22 2003020952 Contributors Paul Eisenstein teaches literature and film in the English department at Otterbein College, Columbus, Ohio, and is the author of Traumatic Encounters: Holocaust Representation and the Hegelian Subject (SUNY Press, 2003). Anna Kornbluh...

Words: 97016 - Pages: 389

Premium Essay

Pants on Fire

...MEG CABOT Pants on Fire One “Oh my God, what’s she doing here?” my best friend, Sidney van der Hoff, was asking, as I came up to the corner booth to hand out menus. Sidney wasn’t talking about me. She was glaring at someone at another table. But I couldn’t be bothered to look and see who Sidney was talking about, since my boyfriend, Seth, was sitting next to her, smiling up at me…that smile that’s been making girls’ insides melt since about the fifth grade, when we all started noticing Seth’s even white teeth and highly kissable lips. It still freaks me out that out of all the girls in school, I’m the one he picked to kiss with those lips. “Hey, babe,” Seth said to me, blinking his long, sexy eyelashes—the ones that I overheard my mom telling Sidney’s mom over the phone are totally wasted on a guy. He snaked an arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze. “Hi,” I said, a little breathlessly. Not just because of the squeeze, but because I had a twelve-top (Mrs. Hogarth’s ninety-seventh birthday party) that was running me ragged, refilling their iced tea glasses and such, so I was panting a little anyway. “How was the movie?” “Lame,” Sidney answered for everyone. “You didn’t miss anything. Lindsay should stick with red; blond does nothing for her. Seriously, though. What’s Morgan Castle doing here?” Sidney used the menu I’d just given her to point at a table over in Shaniqua’s section. “I mean, she’s got some nerve.” I started to say...

Words: 60371 - Pages: 242