A Question of Ethics
Early Sighting
A rare glimpse of ol' Saint Nick was captured the day after Thanksgiving this year as seen in the photo above. Santa was seen sitting in a booth at the Splendid China Restaurant and Bar located in Irkusk, Siberia, Russia by himself with ample servings of both egg foo yung and sesame chicken spread before him. With only 1 month and 2 days to go until his annual all night trek around the world to deliver toys and gifts to children everywhere, Santa was busily scarfing down a massive amount of carbs in an effort to obtain his optimal body mass index so he can properly fill out his custom made Santa suit in time for Christmas Eve. It is generally known that Santa loses a great deal of weight during the summer months each year as he retires to the beach in Miami, Florida to soak up the rays and work on his tan. Santa was overheard of complaining with abdominal cramps and gastritis as he polished off an entire bucket of chinese dumplings and egg rolls between complaints of slight chest pains. Santa fully expects to be in prime condition in time for his big night, but expects to go through several bottles of Pepto Bismol between now and then.
Stem Cell Politics
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Worrisome for stem cell pioneer
Suddenly, it's the embryonic stem cell proponents who are being cast as the scientifically backward fuddy-duddies. And that's extremely worrisome to Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer for Advanced Cell Technology. Lanza has been working with human embryonic stem cells for years.
"We have cells right now, human cells, that could prevent heart attacks or repair the damage, or restore the flow of blood to limbs that might otherwise be amputated," he told me.
He can't promise exactly when those cells will be turned into approved therapies - but the first human clinical trials involving embryonic stem cells could come as early as next year.
Lanza has even bigger ideas for an embryonic cell bank that would do for tissue regeneration what blood banks have done for transfusions.
"One hundred tissue types will give you a complete match for 50 percent of the population," he said. "We could literally in a few months, using somatic cell nuclear transfer [also known as therapeutic cloning], create these embryonic stem cell lines. ... I'd really hate to see all this get wiped out like a tidal wave."
Lanza is the first to acknowledge that the newly published research holds great promise in the long term. He's the guy who has been comparing the research to the Wright brothers' first airplane flights or the alchemists' dream of turning lead into gold.
But he's also wary about shifting the focus to an unproven approach that won't be available to patients until years from now. After all, human embryonic stem cells were first isolated nine years ago, and researchers are just now at the point where they are beginning to test potential therapies.
"We've been fooled many times before," he said. "A delay of 10 years would mean writing off half a generation. ... Just a few years makes an incredible difference."
At this point, it's hard to predict exactly when the first treatments will be available to the public, using either embryonic stem cells or these newly developed pluripotent cells. But Lanza's larger point is this: If embryo-based research is somehow stopped in its tracks - as some would like to do - diseases that could soon be treatable using embryonic stem cells would have to wait until pluripotent cell therapies go through their entire development cycle. And patients who already have been waiting for years would be in for an even longer wait...
Full article here.
An Open Letter To Two Senators
On November 6, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee -- on an 11-8 vote -- forwarded President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, to the full Senate for final confirmation. The nomination passed out of committee because two Democratic senators, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), inexplicably ignored testimony from Mukasey that would have shocked the nation years ago -- before the Bush Administration desensitized the nation to unconstitutional and immoral behavior. Mukasey not only refused to denounce the torture technique of 'waterboarding' without further study, but he also said that President Bush would not have to obey federal law if he felt that he had to take action to defend the country.
Despite these major red flags, Senators Schumer and Feinstein gave Mukasey their blessing and have virtually ensured that he will be the next attorney general. Whatever tragic circumstances result from his tenure will be entirely their fault.
Senators Schumer and Feinstein need to know how disgusted Americans are with them. That's why I just visited the American Freedom Campaign and took action by sending an E-mail to the two of them expressing my feelings.
Read More...
The Leopard Has Landed
This is a rock solid upgrade to OS X Tiger and so far it is living up to expectations. I pre ordered from Apple and I received my copy by 9AM on October 26 - well ahead of the 6PM launch at the Apple stores. A really great way to stay current on technology without standing in line and fighting the crowds - I will remember to do pre order next time as well.
I will write more in depth on the subject of this great OS later - but suffice this post to say that I have upgraded 7 computers to Leopard as of this writing and every one of them went without a hitch. That is not to say that there aren't a few rough edges on this jewel because there certainly is that - and it will take some updates down the road to get everything smoothed out. But, overall - the new features in this release make this cat one powerful beast to have on your side. The new Time Machine is an awesome backup utility and the power of Quick Look and Cover Flow built right into the Finder are enormously powerful and efficient for work.
If you are considering upgrading - or perhaps even switching from a PC - there is no reason to wait any longer.