Blood

Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our mental and moral development. But others have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically corrosive. It's an ancient question: Does fiction build the morality of individuals and societies, or does it break it down? This controversy has been flaring up — sometimes literally, in the form of book burnings — ever since Plato tried to ban fiction from his ideal republic.

WASHINGTON - How much is a drop of presidential blood worth? An online auction site is hoping to find out by selling a vial that it claims was used to draw Ronald Reagan's blood while he was recovering from the gunshot wound that nearly killed him in 1981. To top it off, the auction site says, "dried blood residue" is clearly visible inside the vial. The auction drew the immediate scorn of doctors who treated the president, and the director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation threatened legal action to stop the sale, calling the auction a "craven act. " "Any...

Anyone waiting for another installment of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight’’ or sitting on the edge of his sofa for a new episode of HBO’s “True Blood’’ might want to hold on. Don’t let the subtitle of “Blood: The Last Vampire’’ alarm you. The finale of this tedious piece of Asian-ish action-schlock based on a popular anime series implies an intention to make more. One was plenty for me. It’s no fun not enjoying a story about a half-human, half-vampire samurai, especially one that appears to be aiming for vigorous nonsense.

A Channel Islands auction house says it's selling a vial that allegedly contains blood residue from Ronald Reagan — a move denounced Tuesday by the late U.S. president's family and his foundation. The vial being auctioned online was used by the laboratory that tested Reagan's blood when he was treated at George Washington University hospital after a 1981 assassination attempt in Washington, the PFCAuctions house said. Reagan's son Michael condemned the auction but said he was confident it was not his father's blood.

A blood drive is being held at University of West Georgia for a student fighting a flesh-eating bacteria that threatens her life. Aimee Copeland's left leg has been amputated, and her parents say she will likely lose her fingers as well after the infection spread rapidly through her body. The 24-year-old graduate student has been in critical condition at an Augusta hospital after the bacteria took hold in a cut she received while zip-lining over a river. Gary Duke, Copeland's boss at the cafe where she works in Carrollton, tells WSB-TV (http://bit.ly/KHnLFg)

TO EACH of four champagne flutes, add 1 teaspoon orange liqueur and 1½ ounces each freshly squeezed blood orange juice and orange juice from juicing oranges such as Valencia or Hamlin. Slowly top with champagne until the flutes are almost full. Run one strip of orange peel around the rim of each flute, twist the peel over the flute, then drop it into the liquid and serve at once.

The American Red Cross has scheduled a blood-collection drive at the town's senior center Tuesday from 2 to 7 p.m. Donors will receive a free pair of socks from New Balance. To make an appointment, call 800-RED-CROSS or visit www.redcrossblood.org. - Rachel Lebeaux

Rock The Bravery Stir the Blood Island ESSENTIAL “The Spectator’’ The Bravery’s adrenaline-rush, retro-new-wave/punk rock is back with a flourish. The album is a sonic high, but a mixed bag of lyrical ups and downs. Singer-writer Sam Endicott has rarely sounded so twisted and confused. He was shaken by the attempted suicide of his girlfriend and has admitted that some songs are “darker, stranger’’ than before. That includes the scarifying “Jack O’Lantern Man’’ (with the spit-out line, “If you could see the rage in me/ I could cut my veins and...

PORTLAND, Maine - A Massachusetts man accused of recklessness in a night boat collision that killed two people repeatedly told wardens he had been operating at 45 miles per hour when he hit something on a Maine lake. Later, a nurse testified, he asked her to switch blood samples at the hospital. Robert LaPointe initially had to convince wardens that he had truly run over something. One of them questioned whether he had fallen out of his boat while horsing around on Long Lake in Harrison.

Claros Diagnostics Inc., a seven-year-old Woburn company that has developed a specialized blood-testing device, has been bought by a Florida biopharmaceutical company. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday say OPKO Health Inc. paid more than $49 million in cash and stock for Claros, which was backed by venture capital firms Bioventures Investors of Wellesley and Oxford Bioscience Partners of Boston. OPKO, based in Miami, plans to keep Claros and its 16 employees in Woburn, where they will work to develop additional medical tests using the Claros...

A blood drive is being held at University of West Georgia for a student fighting a flesh-eating bacteria that threatens her life. Aimee Copeland's left leg has been amputated, and her parents say she will likely lose her fingers as well after the infection spread rapidly through her body. The 24-year-old graduate student has been in critical condition at an Augusta hospital after the bacteria took hold in a cut she received while zip-lining over a river. Gary Duke, Copeland's boss at the cafe where she works in Carrollton, tells WSB-TV (http://bit.ly/KHnLFg)

I reported previously on the increased risk of blood clots with certain forms of birth control pills -- such as Yasmin and Beyaz -- that contain the progesterone drospirenone. But it turns out non-oral hormonal contraceptives may pose even higher risks. A study published Thursday in the British Medical Journal indicates that the skin patch and vaginal ring are the most likely to cause dangerous blood clots and that some women may benefit from switching to the pill or non-hormonal contraception.

Baseball Mar iano Rivera , 42, has a blood clot in his right calf, the latest health problem for the longtime New York Yankees closer who tore a knee ligament last week while shagging fly balls during batting practice. Rivera is on blood-thinning medication intended to dissolve the clot and says he is OK, though he was scared when he received the diagnosis. He needs to spend at least a week or two strengthening his knee before he has surgery to repair his torn anterior cruciate ligament - but he says that would have been the case regardless of the blood clot.

As "Blue Bloods" reaches its second-season finale, Tom Selleck is looking ahead to season three. On the CBS hit drama (which airs Friday at 10 p.m. EDT), Selleck plays Frank Reagan, the NYPD commissioner and patriarch of a family devoted to law enforcement and one another. His offspring include a detective (Donnie Wahlberg), a cop (Will Estes) and an assistant D.A. (Bridget Moynahan). On duty and off, they, along with the extended Reagan family, have each other's back — even if it's not always easy to say it. "We Reagans aren't real gushy, but I couldn't be more proud...

Researchers in Mexico announced Wednesday that they have found blood cells and fragments of muscle, tendon, skin and hair on 2,000-year-old stone knives, calling it the first conclusive evidence from a large number of stone implements pointing to their use in human sacrifice. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said the finding clearly corroborates accounts from later cultures about the use of sharp obsidian knives in sacrificing humans. Other physical evidence such as cut marks on the bones of ancient human skeletons had...

A Portuguese long-distance runner has become the first track and field athlete suspended for doping based on the "biological passport" program that monitors blood profiles for signs of cheating. The IAAF said Wednesday that 38-year-old Helder Ornelas has been banned for four years by the Portuguese federation after being found guilty of doping without an official positive test. Ornelas, who has competed in two Olympics, was sanctioned based on a series of blood test results collected by the International Association of Athletics Federations between...

LENOX -- A mellowed Mark-Anthony Turnage , now in his mid-40s and looking a little like Elvis Costello, told the pre concert preview audience at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music on Monday that he wanted his "Blood on the Floor" to be "a big, loud piece, with some quiet, gentle moments. " Turnage finished this extraordinary 70-minute work for jazz soloists and large ensemble 11 years ago, when he was the fiercely controversial and transgressive Wild Child of British music.

WASHINGTON - How much is a drop of presidential blood worth? An online auction site is hoping to find out by selling a vial that it claims was used to draw Ronald Reagan's blood while he was recovering from the gunshot wound that nearly killed him in 1981. To top it off, the auction site says, "dried blood residue" is clearly visible inside the vial. The auction drew the immediate scorn of doctors who treated the president, and the director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation threatened legal action to stop the sale, calling the auction a "craven act. " ...

Peter Keller had put bullets in his wife and his daughter, his cat and his dog. He didn't want to be found. But Troy Chaffee knew where to look for him. From photos discovered at Keller's home, King County sheriff's detectives deduced that he probably headed into the Cascade Mountains, to Rattlesnake Ridge, a tall hump of forested rock where he'd spent the past eight years building a remote bunker, an emergency shelter in the event of who knows...