Have we stopped evolving?

Possibly pluripotent stem cells from the skin! with a catch...

"It's a bit like learning how to turn lead into gold," said Dr. Lanza of the biotech company Advanced Cell Technology.

Scientists from Kyoto University "have created the equivalent of embryonic stem cells from ordinary skin cells, a breakthrough that could someday produce new treatments for disease without the explosive moral questions of embyro cloning."

"Two scientific teams chose different cell types from a tissue supplier. Yamanaka reprogrammed skin cells from the face of an unidentified 36-year-old woman, and Thomson's team worked with foreskin cells from a newborn. Thomson's team, which was working its way from embryonic to fetal to adult cells, is still analyzing its results with adult cells. Both labs did basically the same thing. Each used viruses to ferry four genes into the skin cells. These particular genes were known to turn other genes on and off, but just how they produced cells that mimic embryonic stem cells is a mystery."

Apparently there is a catch... "At this point, the technique disrupts the DNA of the skin cells, and that creates the potential for developing cancer. So it would be unacceptable for transplanting into a patient."

Ethics of Cloning in Eastern and Western World

American and European researchers have made most of the progress so far in biotechnology. Yet they still face one very large obstacle — God, as defined by some Western religions. While critics on the right and the left fret about the morality of stem-cell research and genetic engineering, prominent Western scientists have been going to Asia...“Asian religions worry less than Western religions that biotechnology is about ‘playing God...therapeutic cloning in particular jibes well with the Buddhist and Hindu ideas of reincarnation.”

Drug Free America

Blondes Make Men Act Dumb

When men meet fair-haired women they really do have a “blonde moment”. Scientists have found that their mental performance drops, apparently because they believe they are dealing with someone less intelligent.

The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein

Local news station confirms barium in chemtrails

Careful now, Sexy

U.S. Sets Record in Sexual Disease Cases
More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday. Gonorrhea and syphilis on the rise, too...

On Going Hearings on FDA and Food Safety

One out of every four Americans suffer a food borne illness every year. Hundreds of pet deaths and thousands of ecoli outbreaks due to spinach and Peter Pan peanut butter, tainted Chinese shipments of toothpaste, toys and fish, are problems which have become notoriously familiar to the American public in the last few years.

The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee has undertaken hearings to determine what can be done to protect the nation's food supply.

House subcommittee investigators were asked to look into the following topics:
1. Safety FDA food imports
2. FDA field operations and proposal to shut down 7 of 13 labs
3. The extent to which the FDA's voluntary guidelines ensures safety of the nation's food supply
They have found that the FDA's ability to ensure the safety of America's food supply is, to be kind, unequipped to meet challenges it faces.

Says Chairman Stupak, "Our first hearing on April 24, 2007 exposed a fragmented food safety system beset with inconsistent oversight, ineffective coordination, and ineffective use of minimal resources. How did the FDA respond? It announced, with great fanfare, the appointment of a food safety czar. In fact, Dr. David Acheson, who received a glorified new title, has been central to the FDA's food safety program for years. Promoting Dr. Acheson does not begin to address the depth and chronic shortcomings in the FDA's food safety program. Nearly 10 years ago, the national academy of sciences concluded that the federal food safety system was not equipped to meet emerging challenges. Since then, these challenges have expanded exponentially while the FDA's ability to protect the American people has declined even further. Dr. David Kessler, FDA commissioner under both Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, recently called the food safety system as broken. Sadly, the preliminary findings of this investigation support that...We learned, for example, that while the FDA inspects less than 1% of all imported foods, only a small portion of that 1% is actually tested for contaminants. The FDA requires only that a private laboratory test the suspect food for contamination. These private labs and their testing are not subject to federal oversight. FDA field personnel were highly critical of private laboratory testing, which they described as "shoddy" or even "scary."..."

Written testimony from FDA's Dr. Acheson.

Basically if you eat only what is grown out of the earth and green in particular, you are golden

a list of 10 common side effects caused by the food we eat

Another promising stem cell experiment, results pending...

"The prospect of being able to clone human embyros efficiently for medical treatments has been raised by a technical breakthrough that has enabled scientists to make dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys for the first time."

The caveat: "However, there is no evidence that the stem-cells created are pluripotent (cardio and neuro are default derivatives for many types of stem-cells ) and functional in any type of grafting/transplantation - and no evidence yet that the embryos are viable - some established pregnancies and a birth would be required to bolster this."

Dolly had a lot of problems cause it was an old ass sheep. And the breast tissue of an old ass sheep, at that. Wonder if adult monkeys will have the same problems, telomere shortening and what not?

So is our burden lighter, heavier, or about the same?

“In this day Earth’s magnetic field is in fact 10% weaker than it was 150 years ago when the first measurements were conducted and it is getting weaker faster and faster”. “Should this be the case then a hundred years from now people are going to float here just as astronauts”. The conclusions which follow this are devastating. Effects vary from electromagnetic storms to shifts in Earth’s climate and an increase of solar radiation.

Educational video on DNA from the Colbert Report

posted this earlier but the link died

Universal Health Care in the US can be a reality...

H.R. 676 [109th]: Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act
2/8/2005--Introduced.
United States National Health Insurance Act (or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act) - Establishes the United States National Health Insurance Program (the Program) to provide all individuals residing in the United States and in U.S. territories with free health care that includes all medically necessary care, such as primary care and prevention, prescription drugs, emergency care, and mental health services.
Prohibits an institution from participating in the Program unless it is a public or nonprofit institution. Allows nonprofit health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that actually deliver care in their own facilities to participate in the Program.
Gives patients the freedom to choose from participating physicians and institutions.
Prohibits a private health insurer from selling health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act. Allows such insurers to sell benefits that are not medically necessary, such as cosmetic surgery benefits.
Sets forth methods to pay hospitals and health professionals for services. Prohibits financial incentives between HMOs and physicians based on utilization. ...

How Television Works

Throw your television out of the window. It is crap.