Stones Cry Out

Yo.

1. NPR crosses a fence.
2. Can’t be fixed, toss it.
3. Above the law, not.
4. Cuteness.
5. Maybe, maybe not, probably will apply far more in your future healthcare experience.
6. Rocks.
7. Disasters help schools?
8. I’d say so.
9. Getting older?
10. Happy now?

Back when Christopher Reeves was still alive and getting the word out on stem cell research, the big push was for embryonic stem cells to be used in that research. All those in-vitro fertilized eggs that didn’t get used were just waiting to be harvested and experimented on. There was just one thing. Pro-lifers, like me, considered them human embryos, simply an earlier form of a regular human life, and therefore considered destroying them for experimentation it on par with abortion, with the added baggage that we’d be, well, experimenting on them. Adult stem cells, even back then, had been proving their worth in many, many situations, didn’t have a tendency to become cancerous when used, and if properly fed and cared for, would never be anything other than adult stem cells. That is, they would never become a human being. The ethical baggage simply wasn’t there, especially for those who thought science ought to be, indeed, ethical.

When President George W. Bush decided to limit the number of existing embryonic stem cell lines that could be used to experimentation, he did two things. First, he put a stake in the ground of scientific ethics; this far and no farther. Second, he lit a fire under the line of research that was trying to find a way to make adult stem cells, which cannot differentiate themselves in quite as many other kinds of cells as embryonic, just as flexible and changeable as their embryonic counterparts.

Research has been advancing quickly, and results have been getting better and better, until last month, this bit of good news came out.

Researchers have for the first time converted cultured skin cells into stem cells with near-perfect efficiency.

By removing a single protein, called Mbd3, a team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, was able to increase the conversion rate to almost 100% — ten times that normally achieved. The discovery could clear the way for scientists to produce large volumes of stem cells on demand, hastening the development of new treatments.

Almost 100%. From skin cells. Had we taken the easy way out, and not the harder, ethical one, A) the Left would not have branded the Right as “anti-science” over this. (Well, at least, not as much as they normally would.) And B) this research would not have continued at such a pace, allowing us now to produce stem cells at a rate we probably could not have done before.

Anti-science, indeed. More like pro-ethical-science, especially when you can have your ethics, and stem cells, too.

Not morning, but still … got it done.

1. I’m unclear on this strategy. In most “shutdowns” people do less. In this shutdown they actively do more work than normal. I mean seriously why do stuff like this … oh, wait.
2. In a State with a high population of those for which it was targeted … signed up -> zero.
3. Sex and display and pressure.
4. Killer joke or joke killer?
5. Something to remember the next time a Democrat bloviates about needing that access to guns is the solution. It isn’t.
6. Standards and sticking to them.
7. Those seven really really active effective al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan.
8. Doublethink.
9. Teaching and metrics.
10. Tactics.
11. How to do customer support.
12. Uhm, people aren’t “rushing into” the CEO business because giving up your life for work 24/7 and jumping on a continuous work treadmill isn’t what most of us want to do.
13. Getting well.

This past weekend, veterans and their supporters protested in Washington, DC. They took down the barricades surrounding the open-air World War II memorial, and dumped some of them half a mile away outside the White House. It seems like spending money, during an alleged government shutdown, to close something that doesn’t actually require opening was a bridge too far for an administration bent on making sure you feel the pain, even if the pain is manufactured.

Speaking at this protest were politicians of all stripes, standing with and supporting our vets. Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin spoke to the crowd, and… Hmm, just a minute. Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin… Aren’t they both Republicans? Why yes; yes they are. What should have been a bipartisan show of support, was partisan only because every available Democrat either supported this manufactured pain, or dare not cross his party leaders with a show of independence or support of the troops.

Is the question of this manufactured pain — shutting down things that have never been shut down during a government shutdown – a partisan issue? It shouldn’t be. And I do understand supporting the President who happens to be of your party. Generally, you don’t want to be the one giving the other side an easy target. I get that. But aren’t there some things beyond the pale? For some, it appears not.

Oh, and on Monday, the barricades were put back up. Now there’s an essential service for ya. Seems the World War II Memorial is more secure than our borders.

A recent study out of Harvard concludes that gun bans do not reduce the murder rate. In fact, if anything, they increase it. Researchers looked at crime data from several European countries and found that countries with higher gun ownership often had lower murder rates. Russia, with very strict gun laws, has a murder rate 4 times higher than our own United States, which is, according to some, awash in guns. Meanwhile, European countries with significant gun ownership, like Norway, Finland, Germany and France, had remarkably low murder rates.

Basically, the study found no evidence, anywhere in the world, to suggest that more guns meant more murder.

Additionally, the study found, “the determinants of murder and suicide are basic social, economic, and cultural factors, not the prevalence of some form of deadly mechanism.” That is to say, if you want to know why someone kills others or themself, there are loads of other things to look at than the gun.

I doubt you heard about this on network news. Consider this a public service. In short, Harvard found that guns don’t kill, people do. Not that we needed a study to know that. Well, I guess some people needed a study. The rest of us know that inanimate objects rarely, if ever, have a mind of their own.

Where you should look at the gun is in the many incidents where a gun was used to save lives. Check out this list of mass shootings that didn’t happen because of law abiding citizens carrying guns that stopped them.

Good morning.

1. Biplane trainers at the tail end of the Pacific war.
2. Slavery, modern.
3. Sounds like an Israeli mistake, sending over 10’s of thousands of concrete construction slabs and not realizing how many are disappearing.
4. Free will.
5. Cost and higher education, here and here.
6. The final point is good, if the “Redskins” are bad ’cause they are insulting to some … how about “Fighting Irish”, which too can be taken as an ethnic slur.
7. Goals.
8. Barricade relocation to White House … two views here and here.
9. Obama and counter-terror operations.
10. Huff puff.
11. A long post considering Russia and the US.
12. Beltway discord.
13. Structural discord.

Good morning.

1. Body and the Christian life.
2. Not unrelated to the above.
3. A question not asked.
4. Of bigotry and hatred.
5. The science of winning a bike race.
6. Printed guns getting better all the time.
7. A top 30 fail list fer that big gubmit rollout.
8. This should be on that list perhaps.
9. Quoth Mr Sharpton.
10. The fruits of graft.
11. The way this is written it seems someone things that continuous learning after school is the exception not the rule.

G’day.

1. Mad skillz.
2. Stupid administration tricks.
3. The NSA goes into the food service industry. Maybe as a second profit center to shield themselves from budget cuts.
4. Rules broken, confessed.
5. An observer from a foreign planet.
6. This reminds me of an article in last weeks science news, which is topical on its own because the the somewhat recent rise in vampire story popularity. Actual vampires (blood feeders like the bats) have to deal with two big problems, peeing and bloating (blood is high volume and very very high in water content …. actual vampire bats will urinate while feeding and are far too bloated with blood to fly afterwards. “I vant to suck your blood” loses the sex appeal when the speaker is incontinent and morbidly obese after feeding). Something to bring up with those twilight fans.
7. Russia’s real problems.
8. It’s not an ethical dilemma … it is clearly very very wrong … at least for Christians. Who is your neighbor?
9. The Tomb Raider reboot makes sense. This, not so much.
10. Prohibition and a progressive trifecta.
11. It’s so good to see modern beltway progressives are fully supportive of populism.
12. Parsing Mr Scalia on the Devil.

Wooo. I’m home.

1. Weeping because one didn’t read enough marks the serious bookworm.
2. A question asked.
3. Neo-Keynesian economics and inflation.
4. “Needs more churn” sounds like a call for mass firings. So, the government shutdown is a good thing … providing they are let go not just furloughed.
5. More churn.
6. B/P on debt ceilings here and here.
7. Beauty and death (HT).
8. Scare quotes.
9. Theology and song.
10. On sin and repentance.
11. Talk radio not appreciated. Who knew talking about sports sports sports 24/7 was so charged?
12. Questioning whether said fallacy is actually fallacious.
13. Debt.

Hey!

1. Apparently the county is having an existential crises. Hyperbole anyone? And no, if you think Obamacare is a existential crises, that’s hyperbole too … it just a big step in the wrong direction.
2. Leftist forever, doing well for them, eh?
3. Not naughty, stupid. Hello, neither side is “giving anything up” that’s the impasse.
4. The problematic essence of the Obamacare.
5. Another view.
6. Writings of the hymns.
7. Hack your car.
8. Confusion … a more everyday useful purpose to put this is using the non sequitur to stop young children to stop crying.
9. Street gangs and facebook.
10. Stock exchange analysis and climate.
11. What your library dreams of at night.

So … government shuts down tomorrow … my prediction is few will notice.

1. Seeing small things.
2. Leaks.
3. Unimpressed by the hostage/terror rhetoric coming from the left.
4. Fer your book inbox.
5. And cinema!
6. The standard model and a small crack. Perhaps.
7. I’m not getting it. Let’s see, abortion makes women “equal to men” in that that can walk away from pregnancy. A man walking away is horrible. How is making it the same for women a good idea by permitting her to kill her child a necessary right?
8. Fear and anger. That’s akin to the mythical “fear” that Obamacare might succeed scares the GOP. Uhm. Who? Who!? Every single person on the right I’ve ever talked to fears it will screw up the country. This other thing is just plain made up.
9. More terror in Africa.
10. Evil.
11. Two hunger strikes.
12. Uhm, duh.

Well, Hi there.

1. Bees and a man.
2. Rape and India.
3. Microclimate accuracy and the global data sets. (not unrelated).
4. Facebook … or at least faces.
5. Worser and worser.
6. So, Christians think some guy is God. How’d (when?) did that occur.
7. A speech. Better than the highly partisan post shooting speech our knucklehead-in-chief gave.
8. Who to save (after Galois, Ramanujan, and Mosely)?
9. Evagrius. One of those whose writings prompted me to cross the Bosporus.
10. Risk and vocation.
11. Because we don’t care to bequeath to our children.
12. Oh, pshaw. Consider possibilities of Klein bottle  noodles. Eat your solitons … how about fried eggs shaped as Siefert surfaces.
13. And for a wrap … just hush.

We had some malware infect our blogging system, and I had to do some cleanup. Google flagged us during this time as "dangerous", and if you use the Chrome web browser, you may have seen a big red warning sign if you tried to come here. I’ve got the infection removed and we’re back up and running. I have a little administrative work to do in the background, but for now, we’re back.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

G’day

1. Belorus hard man and age defeats youth.
2. The exceptionalism gambit turned.
3. And that same essay through other eyes.
4. Criminals and crime.
5. Speaking of which, … how about in verse?
6. Memory and charity. Our parish had a memorial liturgy to remember.
7. Acting ability noted.
8. That’s a request that should be ignored.
9. Another version of realpolitik.
10. Gas methods

Woo. Three days in a row … and three and a half weeks to go and busy busy busy season might be over (except for the clean up).

1. Guns and the racist race baiting left.
2. Here’s a likely suggestion (with material to back it up) … the biggest NSA problem has been journalists and the FISA court judiciary. Another question that came to me is if NSA has cracked https … banking is not secure … and how much money has been stolen?
3. On the other hand, there is likely good fallout from the NSA kerfuffle, to whit codes are always easier for the code users than the breaker from a computability standpoint. Piss off the crypto-crowd and the encoding standards will be computationally safe in the next round.
4. ’cause there’s no there there, allegedly … but if that’s the case, why hide?
5. The way of winning that was left to non-sprinters like me, but rarely ever got … ’cause I sort of sucked.
6. Three words and the pretty much empty set of people who know the meaning of all three (I was not one of those who knew those words, btw).
7. Philosophy.
8. Teuthidian tech.
9. Mr Obama’s speech summed up from the left.
10. A question raised by the same.
11. Explaining the non-existence of philosophers teaching ethics.

For 9/11

1. A tweet noted.
2. A photo.
3. Lyrical.