Halo Scanning

I have added Halo Scan commentary to this blog. Isn't that swell. Thanks GreenEggs for showing me how. Go to his blog, also. Good stuff there.

Must stop talking in short sentences.

Let's see, what's in the news (haha).... Well, here's a good one. UN inspection teams in Iran have found no weapons. So far. Maybe they do, I don't know. Iran makes me nervous. But let's hope that their uranium enrichment is peaceful.

Saying that a country fired off a nuke, atomic bomb, or some hidious scenario, what would they gain? Yes, they'd get their target, but then we'd destroy them far worse than they could ever imagine (we are the US, right?). Pyongyang attacks Seoul. American tanks take Pyongyang. Kim Jong Il captured. Job well done. But it might just be a sacrifice for the bad guys. Especially if this happen's late in the fall of the American Empire. That is, if it faltering at all (hey, we've conqured two countries within a few years, according to a past commenter).

Let's say this bastard axis of evil, ehem, sorry, Axis of Evil, is smart in the coordination of their American doomsday theories. They all fire their weapons at once. Ka-boom. We're vaporized, or whatever that Patriot Act says will happen if we don't submit. The only thing that this relates to real life is that some people believe this is a very real scenario, and can happen any time.

I can understand being cautious, but actions made by the Bush Adminstration seem to be made out of paranioa. Fear will keep the local systems in line.

What makes me laugh sometimes is when conservatives display their ultimate powerful liberal beliefs. Big government, they say. Health care for all, that's crazy talk. Silly liberals, poltics are for the Right. But yet, when something comes up like the Patriot Act or segregating society by discrimanating against people that may be different, that's just mainting order.

You guys are probably right anyways, things are working out just fine for you guys.

Hiatus

I was on vacation...from ever getting on the computer. Sorry about that, was too busy. I know it seemed as if I was on a hiatus as long as Gob's (we miss you), but I was alive and well the whole time (we hope you are too).

There's plenty of action in Palestine, some good and some...not so good. I like this guy (Abbas) better than Arafat, by far. He's more into peace and laying down the arms. I hope he can be a "partner for peace" as the expression goes. Same with Sharon....

These resistance fighters, no matter the cause, are too arogant to work towards peace. The same goes for many of the Israeli soliders (not all of them of course, don't go calling me anti-semitic). In Israel, it's required to serve in the military for two years, right? Do you think all of those guys are nice, cooperative and do only what their supposed to? Hell no. Out of that many people, there are bound to be several bad apples.

I had a thought the other day (I usually have several throughout the course of a day), that it might be possible that everyone in the Middle East would get tired of fighting. I then laughed at the thought because rationale got the best of me. Everything has to do with revenge, it seems. They blew up our bus of children, so that means we have to blow up some of their tanks. Yeah, way to work things out, guys.

That (realistic) look at it reminds of a really bad cowboy movie, where one guy shoots first and the other guy shoots second. But let's pretend there are a few thousand cowboys, and they all get shot and then get their own shot off before falling to the ground. Nobody wins. This starts to look really...silly. I can't believe I just called the Israeli-Palestinine conflict silly. But really, take a look back and all things seem rather trivial to kill someone over.

So cut it out.

Cloning. Do it.

After looking up whatever in the world the Raelians could be (it's a strange cult), I discovered a blog-worthy topic: cloning. Fun fact: the Raelians are the group that has claimed to have successfully cloned a human baby. Strange, like I told you.

For the many who are aware of cloning but have little idea of what it really is and how it's done, let me give you this link (there is some flash demos full of info on the side bar). Or better yet, let me sum it up for you.

To clone something (or soon to be somebody), a male and a female are required. Well, parts of them are. There is the cell that is required from the male, and this will be put in the female's egg. But wait! Not too fast! First, they take the DNA from the egg. They throw this away, as it is not needed. The next step is to combine the sperm and the egg by electrifying them. Literally, electricity is used to bind them together. This, becoming an embyro, is put inside the uterus of a woman. Nine months later, or every five seconds if you're a rabbit, a clone of the male has been created.

In this process, as far as I know and can see, it is only possible (at the moment) to clone a male. This also (for now), will result in a male from a male being born. But it might be possible in the future to clone a male and have a female be born (with all the same genetic material exclding gender). This site I found interesting, and the second part of it tackles that question to an extent. They are still very unsure, this scientific breakthrough is still in its very early stages. I know this may sound silly, but it's a very exciting time for medical research (and cures).

This really is a medical breakthrough we will accomplish, because as was mentioned some during the elections, stem cell research is depending (to a good extent) on cloning to be able to create those wonderful cures we envision.

To do this, we would require a person with medical needs. The CNN example is a heart condition, and I hope they won't mind me restating their information. Okay, I've memorized a bit, and here we go. To first cure you of your terrible heart condition, we would need DNA from you. This would be very easy to get, as it would be simple enough to extract some DNA from your skin. Then, the DNA cell would be put in the nucleus-free (and therefor DNA free) female egg. After being electrified, or a special bath in chemicals, the embryo would be "destroyed" as you have heard thrown around. What really happens is the embyro would be left out to decay, adnd what would be left is some stem cells. These stem cells can be used in any part of the body, in this case your heart. The new cells would repair the heart and your condition would be vanquished.

My take: this whole "curing diseases" thing sounds pretty swell. But again, we are in our very first stages. We have successfully cloned animals. We want to cure health conditions. What I would do as a scientist (if I were a scientist) is to find an animal with some health condtion. If I can cure the rat with heart disease, I'll be more sure that I can do the same on a human.

Your take: comment on this please, I'd love to hear your input. Also, if you know more about this cloning business than I do (I know there are many people out there), I will graciously listen to any pointers, corrections or input you have. If you've learned something, tell me, and it will have made my day.