> but the organ systems that are most affected by aging are typically populated by cells that don't really reproduce at all or at least reproduce very infrequently, such as neurons in the brain and myocytes in the heart.
Well, certainly most folks who die of old age (as opposed to infection or cancer) lose either their mind or their heart, yes. But reduced function in which cell types in these organs is the cause (rather than the symptom)? The clogging of neurons in the brain (alzheimer's) eventually gets is all, but that's not _caused_ by reduced function in the large neurons, right?. & on the other hand, while the number of large neurons doesn't increase, there are many neural cells that continually divide. http://courses.umassmed.edu/mbb1/CNS_over view/Cell ularAnatomy.cfm
As for myocytes, aren't most of the aging related diseases of the myocytes due to reduced or absent blood flow to the myocytes? & isn't this blood conducted by endothelial cells, which like skin cells, reproduce a great deal during a person's life?
I think if you think about it, most of the aging related things folks die of (in the context of cells simply wearing out rather than some active dis-ease) can be related to reduced function in the rapidly reproducing tissues, esp. endothelial & epithelial tissues.
> I wonder if "cell suicide" applies to human stem cells as well?
Thats the kicker: human pluripotent (aka embryonic) stem cells express telomerase, and appear to be pretty much immortal in culture. http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/iss ue s99/jan99/phenom_jan99.html
IOW, rather than keeping those frozen IVF embryos on liquid N until they die as the Religious Rightists demand, stem cell researchers actually want to make them immortal!
& if they do turn out to have souls, well, we can always go to the pluripotent stem cell culture & induce it to reform into a blastula...
Uhh, AFAIK, the programmed cell death = why we age theory has nothing do do with the various free radical charlatans.
Rather, programmed cell death in the context of aging has to do with the loss of telomeric DNA, (non-coding 'tags' on the end of DNA molecules that form a place for DNA polymerase to bind when copying the DNA).
The part of the telomere where the DNA poly first binds doesn't get copied & eventually (after reaching a number of divisions known as the 'Hayflick limit') the cell has no more telomeres & so can't divide anymore, at which point it undergoes programmed cell death.
There are other signals that activate PGD, such as viral infections and early stages of cancer (where the sad association with vitamen C overdosing came in: if the cell was damaged by 'free radicals', it should undergo apoptosis, but this would be a symptom not a cause), but the type of PGD usually referred to in aging studies is this 'molecular clock' that keeps count of how many times the cell has divided in aging (of some tissues) is then caused by many cells of that tissue reaching the hayflick limit and self destructing.
This theory of aging doesn't seem to completely cover the issue, but it does have alot more backing in scientific research than the free radical stuff. More: http://www.nature.com/nsu/020819/020819-13. html
Interestingly, many "Lower" animals, along with germ (sperm & egg progenitors) cells & cancer cells make an enzyme called telomerase which rebuilds the telomere, making these cells essentially immortal.
On the subject of aging, Geron is trying to find ways to reverse some effects of aging (at least those caused by PCD due to shortened telomeres) using telomerase: http://www.geron.com/02.01_telomerase .html
> Of course, it should come as no surprise that "Sol" has become more and more popular in a country where a woman can walk into any corner drugstore and purchase RU-486
Uhh, "Sol" is latin for "Sun"? So what does it have to do with your bugbear (moral relativism)?
Is calling "God" "Deus" also "moral relativism" in your book?
Or are you saying that your God created the world in English, so obviously the proper, root, term for "Sol" is "the Sun"?
Of is your crusade just against anything you heard people saying outside of church?
Well, I think the thing that would make it an important discovery would be the implication that there are lots of large objects covered with water & volatile organics in the Kuiper belt. (added to : biggest object discovered since Pluto, & maybe Pluto not a planet). (Quaoar is thought to contain rock, water ice and frozen organic compounds such as methane..") http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/10 /07/ice.objec t/index.html
Of course this will be of more practical importance in a few centuries (millenia?) when folks start colonizing the Kuiper belt...
Unless we could get the Bushies all fired up about building an interplanetary tanker to go git us some of that 'Texas tea' covering Quaoar?
Return of the Beverly (Quaoar) Hillbillies, Episode 6, anyone?
> 14th Amendment when they are unfairly applied to racial minorities, but not anyone else. I don't have any examples.
The Fla hand count laws should have been thrown out if they allowed unequal vote counting.
For some reason the USSC made Bush v. Gore a non-precedent, just disallowing the 'local standard' interpretation of the laws, while allowing the vague laws that caused the problem to stand.
DUDE! I don't get _paid_ to build computers at work. We're a production shop, a computer down means work behind or put off. A developer building his/her own computer = same.
So I'm only buying from places where I can take (one) box back when it breaks. Places like Costco where I can get a full refund and turn around and buy a new one when it breaks get extra kudos.
Places like Dell where I get to play Mr. Hand for their subgenious tech "support" dudes get no more of any business I have control over!
Having spent a few days recently on the phone trying to help the Dell tech support DUDES diagnose a bad ram chip!
I KNEW it was a bad ram chip, I told the three different people I got handed off to it was a bad ram chip, still had to run through their script of re-installing 2000 4 TIMES before their tech support would allow me to tell them how to diagnose (their "hardware test" app is NOT capable of diagnosing a bad ram chip, BTW) a bad ram chip, and send me the damn thing!
Grrr. I'm only buying name brands from places like Costco (where I can take it back for a full refund) from now on...
Umm, not to dig at old wounds, but _alot_ of people have died due to _private sector_ budget constraints & administrative failures (http://www.bhopal.net/welcome2.html).
I think singling out the gummint maybe clouds the issue: it's ALWAYS deplorable when monetary concerns end up costing someone's life.
In any event, I do think that this is exiciting news, one of the great promises of space research is that money spent on the cutting edge of survival will translate into better lives for all of us, sort of keeping the challenge of the old frontier alive.
But I'm wondering if "Any U.S.-owned organization can access JPL's special technological expertise and specialized equipment through the Technology Affiliates Program." means that tax dollars will or won't be used to secure even more patents that lock technology away from the general (paying) public?
> Its a really clean system, if more americans voted ( and did not just vote the party line ) it would actually work.
One of the reasons for representative democracy was how long it took to communicated between states in in 18th century: so we needed a central place where folks delegated power by their state's could make quick decisions.
The otther, more hidden reason, was simply to perpetuate the power of the moneyed and landed elite (recall that the revolution contained many folks who's lands had been granted by the king, who needed to be assured that their 'rights' would be protected from the masses by the new govt. system). Sadly, it still does (funny that Bush is attacking "elites" in his new book: this son of a president who's daddy bought him company after company is calling college profs. the "elite"...), even though the lessons of history are clear that passing on power through inheritance is a bad idea.
Modern technology could eliminate the first problem: electronic referenda could let the entire nation vote on new laws, no need for the decision making power to be concentrated in a few folks in Washington. The people could debate, research, and vote as fast if not faster than Congress, and no one honestly blame "the gummint" or corrupt congress if things didn't go their way (or if a decision turned out bad).
The second problem I have no idea what to do about...
Forcing: To compel through pressure or necessity. http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=for ce
So if the MPAA/RIAA succeeds in being allowed to put DRM into our chips, seems to me that we are being 'compelled through necessity', at least the necessity to continue life as we knew it before DRM, right?
For instance, "He was forced to to play shortstop in order to play with the team" would be entirely correct, although you might claim that 'he' wasn't really forced to play. But the context of "I was forced to comply with DRM in order to watch the Star Wars Epsisode 0 DVD" seems to me would be correct according to the dictionary def.
So yeah, the MPAA/RIAA is attempting to FORCE us to comply with their rules in order to play the game & these rules would end up removing many of the parts of the game we have come to like (from copying VHS/cassette tapes to TiVo).
Not to mention providing a scary power to regulate what we can and can't see on our computers, which are rapidly becoming the way folks interact with the world outside of their immediate circle...
> Yeah we all know that government has been oh so efficient with the development of defence industry technology.
Efficient, as in producing a minimally effective product for the least cost & maximum profit? No.
But efficient, as in producing the most EFFECTIVE product for the job? Are you really arguing that the US should scrap the F-22 and just buy Mirages or used MIGs on the Free Market??? That would certainly be more "efficient" as judged by filling an airfied with planes cheaply, but maybe not so efficient when the time came to fight...
> Almost all military technology that the government has was developed by corporations, albeit at 5x the cost and development time because it is practically government.
Umm, "5x" of what?
> If you really believe that they could do a better job bringing drugs to market,
If the military can do a better job at protecting the US from people who want to kill us than the private sector, I seems logical that a similar system can also do a better job of protecting us from _things_ that kill us, yes. Or are you advocating replacing the US military with private mercenaries?
> No offense, but please come back when you get a clue.
How about you come back when you have an logical argument rather than a passionate sermon. IMO, the Religion of the Free Market has been even more effective at preventing _cures_ from being found as the various folks who believe cells have souls.
> (b) medical research should be grant supported like any other reserach
Well basic research _is_ grant supported (unless your are dealing with cells the religious right has decided are people). But the Govt. usually allows drug companies to then develop patentable (with various restrictions) products.
A better model may be the military contract, where the Govt. specifies a product and what it will pay, & allows companies to compete to produce it.
After all, it is a War against something that is killing alot more of us than the Iraquis ever did...
And treat like a real war: the US has the best military in the world through a public sector dominated partnership with the private sector.
While free market evangelists will defend the pharm industry with their dying breath, it's obvious to the rational that there are inherant conflicts between finding the best cure and making the most money.
So we should treat the fight agains disease as the war that it is: it's a war America is losing, millons of our people fall to this enemy every year.
The main difference from the Iraqis or wild lions doing this is that the enemy is microscopic, but why should that stop us from realizing we are in a WAR with disease, not a market?
The new front is regenerative medicine, and it may well not be very profitable. But it has the potential to lead to real cures...
> The only thing that can happen there is nutrition.If you don't feed the cells right, they don't work right.
Good direction, but even with the best nutrition the cells will break down, bugs can still get in from outside, and bugs within the code may take you out early.
Regenerative medicine is a new area attempting to fix the cells at the cellular & even the code level. It suffers of course from the investment problem: can you securley patent a process that allows folks to grow their own regenerated cells (somatic cell nuclear transfer) & if you do find a cure for heart disease, Alzheimers or spinal damage, will the Govt. let you charge what the market will bear?
Not to mention the "every totipotent cell has a soul" crowd trying to stop the whole process in it's tracks...
This is one of the biggest issues: there are folks who don't want researchers to be able to look for cures with of the most promising techniques because of the belief that there may be a soul in the cell, somewhere... More: http://www.camradvocacy.org/fastaction/
On the one hand, cures would let folks live longer, and then they surely would get sick from something else.
The longer folks live, the more cures they will eventually need, so in the long term cures ensure a constant need for new cures.
On the other hand, we know business tends to not be very far sighted, upper level management is usually close to retirement age, so only the more altruistic among them will care what happens after they retire.
Personally, I'd like to see the US Govt. try and apply our great success with publically managed science in the defence industry to the medical industry.
After all, imagine if Iraqis or Commies were running around killing millions of Americans each year? Why do we not treat cancer cells the same way...
> Fact is that subversive sex is not very healthy, and thus it is in societies best interest to curb such activity for the good of everyone.
Safe sex is certainly more healthy than many practices "society" doesn't seem to want to "curb".
Or are you also planning to start "curbing" overeating of fatty fried food sometime soon?
> Drugs destroy families and productivity just like unhealthy sex does.
Alcohol is the most destructive drug, followed by tobacco. Does that mean that you plan to legalize and tax the other "drugs" as well?
> We dont enjoy suffering because of your mistakes, so we extend a loving hand.
Umm, the "loving hand" that attaches a handcuff and throws the non-violent drug user (& it seems your plan is the "unhealthy subversive sex" practitioner) into an overcrowded, violence ridden jail? These so called "acts of love" that have left us spending far more on prisons than on schools...seems to me that the world would be a better place with alot less of such "love" and alot more reason...
> Well, for one, the observed tendency is for many (though definitely not all) negative effects of promiscuity, pornography, and homosexuality to be social negative effects.
Reference?
> A few months ago, some pervert broke into a private home 50 miles north of mine in the middle of the night and kidnapped a preteen girl.
"Until the terrible events of June 20, Russell and Andrea Yates and their five children were the kind of family that a Ronald Reagan might have pointed to as a model for America, or that might have been paraded on the platform at a Republican national convention: responsible, professional father; "stay-at-home mom" and home-school teacher; well-scrubbed, neatly dressed, smiling children--a tribute to "traditional family values," as envisioned by the Christian right." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001 /yate-j02.shtml
So do you call Christians "immoral perverts" since Andrea Yates was one? Maybe the Bible made her do it?
From my own review of the evidence, it seems to me that people who prey on other people generally have biochemical problems, probably mostly related to genetics. Certainly some drugs & experiences can exacerbate these problems (such as Yate's religious experiences that led her to claim her kids were possesed), but ultimately, there is simply something medically wrong with a human predator, blaming other folks who are superficially like them clouds the issue: just because a Christian drowned her kids doesn't mean that Christians tend to drown their kids. Nor do homosexuals tend to abuse children.
The fact is, folks who have biochemical problems tend to latch on to some experience in their life as the source of these problems, be it hearing about the devil in church or seeing pr0n on the 'net, these things tend to be _SYMPTOMS_ of an underlying biochemical problem, not CAUSES.
Its easy to blame the problem on some behavior we don't like for our own reasons (I tend not to enjoy the company of religious rightists, for instance) but the fact is that people who have tendancies toward doing violence to other people need to either learn to control those tendancies themselves or be put away. It's that simple.
As far as 'perversion' being the cause of violence, children were abused, people were raped, even back when folks who were 'different' were generally ostracized if not burned & I'm not sure the evidence suggests that there was less predatory violence in the past than there is today.
For instance: History of Rape: A Bibliography http://www.geocities.com/history_gui de/horb/horb-c 14.html
Because the openess of the net mimics in some ways the closeness between 'common' and leader in the early days of democracy.
The printing press made it possible for folks like Tom Paine to print up and rapidly distribute political pamphlets (Paines writings, like "Common Sense" are often credited with being more important than Washington's leadership in winning the war), which were read aloud and widely discussed in the many taverns of the day.
There was much less distance between leaders and 'commons', (since there were so few taverns?;-), & folks are reported to have discussed politics much more openly and frequently than folks do in pulblic today.
So the net may well encourage more open debate, debates that folks are often afraid or don't care to have in person anymore, and may help the 'commons' communicate more directly with the leaders. But I'm not sure it will lead to less protest, unless the leaders listen willingly. My guess is that the ability of disaffected groups to communicate rapidly and globally will lead to more protests, at least until a good way is found to let folks excercise their political power through the web (like e-referenda?) rather than in the streets...
> Pornography, promiscuity, and homosexuality really are like illegal drugs- you tamper with the way your body is ordered in an attempt to produce more pleasure and get all sorts of negative effects.
Uhh, your personal morals aside, I don't think that the "we shouldn't do it because it's dangerous" argument is a very good one to use.
There are plenty of different things that people do that are dangerous to themselves and others, generally we allow and even accept such 'pursuits of happiness' when they are pursued as safely as possible. Why single out the sexual adventurors for persecution?
PS, how is tampering with your body with "illegal" drugs biochemically different from tampering with your body with legal drugs?
Slashdot Mirror
Who is the Us defending Canada _from_ again?
Russia? Iceland? The resurgent Eskimo alliance?
This question and many more about dating are answered at Talk-Origins,
t ml#other
r on-dating.ht ml
See
General dating:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dating.h
Specific theory & technique:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/isoch
(now how many geeks will read these dating articles thinking it might help this weekend with the GF problem?:-)...
> but the organ systems that are most affected by aging are typically populated by cells that don't really reproduce at all or at least reproduce very infrequently, such as neurons in the brain and myocytes in the heart.
r view/Cell ularAnatomy.cfm
Well, certainly most folks who die of old age (as opposed to infection or cancer) lose either their mind or their heart, yes. But reduced function in which cell types in these organs is the cause (rather than the symptom)? The clogging of neurons in the brain (alzheimer's) eventually gets is all, but that's not _caused_ by reduced function in the large neurons, right?. & on the other hand, while the number of large neurons doesn't increase, there are many neural cells that continually divide.
http://courses.umassmed.edu/mbb1/CNS_ove
As for myocytes, aren't most of the aging related diseases of the myocytes due to reduced or absent blood flow to the myocytes? & isn't this blood conducted by endothelial cells, which like skin cells, reproduce a great deal during a person's life?
I think if you think about it, most of the aging related things folks die of (in the context of cells simply wearing out rather than some active dis-ease) can be related to reduced function in the rapidly reproducing tissues, esp. endothelial & epithelial tissues.
> I wonder if "cell suicide" applies to human stem cells as well?
s ue s99/jan99/phenom_jan99.html
Thats the kicker: human pluripotent (aka embryonic) stem cells express telomerase, and appear to be pretty much immortal in culture.
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/is
IOW, rather than keeping those frozen IVF embryos on liquid N until they die as the Religious Rightists demand, stem cell researchers actually want to make them immortal!
& if they do turn out to have souls, well, we can always go to the pluripotent stem cell culture & induce it to reform into a blastula...
Uhh, AFAIK, the programmed cell death = why we age theory has nothing do do with the various free radical charlatans.
. html
e .html
Rather, programmed cell death in the context of aging has to do with the loss of telomeric DNA, (non-coding 'tags' on the end of DNA molecules that form a place for DNA polymerase to bind when copying the DNA).
The part of the telomere where the DNA poly first binds doesn't get copied & eventually (after reaching a number of divisions known as the 'Hayflick limit') the cell has no more telomeres & so can't divide anymore, at which point it undergoes programmed cell death.
There are other signals that activate PGD, such as viral infections and early stages of cancer (where the sad association with vitamen C overdosing came in: if the cell was damaged by 'free radicals', it should undergo apoptosis, but this would be a symptom not a cause), but the type of PGD usually referred to in aging studies is this 'molecular clock' that keeps count of how many times the cell has divided in aging (of some tissues) is then caused by many cells of that tissue reaching the hayflick limit and self destructing.
This theory of aging doesn't seem to completely cover the issue, but it does have alot more backing in scientific research than the free radical stuff. More:
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020819/020819-13
Interestingly, many "Lower" animals, along with germ (sperm & egg progenitors) cells & cancer cells make an enzyme called telomerase which rebuilds the telomere, making these cells essentially immortal.
On the subject of aging, Geron is trying to find ways to reverse some effects of aging (at least those caused by PCD due to shortened telomeres) using telomerase:
http://www.geron.com/02.01_telomeras
> Of course, it should come as no surprise that "Sol" has become more and more popular in a country where a woman can walk into any corner drugstore and purchase RU-486
Uhh, "Sol" is latin for "Sun"? So what does it have to do with your bugbear (moral relativism)?
Is calling "God" "Deus" also "moral relativism" in your book?
Or are you saying that your God created the world in English, so obviously the proper, root, term for "Sol" is "the Sun"?
Of is your crusade just against anything you heard people saying outside of church?
Well, I think the thing that would make it an important discovery would be the implication that there are lots of large objects covered with water & volatile organics in the Kuiper belt. (added to : biggest object discovered since Pluto, & maybe Pluto not a planet). (Quaoar is thought to contain rock, water ice and frozen organic compounds such as methane..")0 /07/ice.objec t/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/1
Of course this will be of more practical importance in a few centuries (millenia?) when folks start colonizing the Kuiper belt...
Unless we could get the Bushies all fired up about building an interplanetary tanker to go git us some of that 'Texas tea' covering Quaoar?
Return of the Beverly (Quaoar) Hillbillies, Episode 6, anyone?
> 14th Amendment when they are unfairly applied to racial minorities, but not anyone else. I don't have any examples.
The Fla hand count laws should have been thrown out if they allowed unequal vote counting.
For some reason the USSC made Bush v. Gore a non-precedent, just disallowing the 'local standard' interpretation of the laws, while allowing the vague laws that caused the problem to stand.
In the name (.com vs. edu.)
However, if your site is a class, professor's or a departmental site, your edu may be liable (more likely any suit would go after the edu anyway).
In fact, any edu that is not making at least a 'good faith' effort to comply is being rather non-educated about the ADA.
But if your a student, I don't think you really have much to worry about (although moving toward compliance would be good practice:-).
Dude! It was fr&&*&in' 256 MB RAMBUS, ok? If can find that for $30, it's probably my old one.
DUDE! I don't get _paid_ to build computers at work. We're a production shop, a computer down means work behind or put off. A developer building his/her own computer = same.
So I'm only buying from places where I can take (one) box back when it breaks. Places like Costco where I can get a full refund and turn around and buy a new one when it breaks get extra kudos.
Places like Dell where I get to play Mr. Hand for their subgenious tech "support" dudes get no more of any business I have control over!
Having spent a few days recently on the phone trying to help the Dell tech support DUDES diagnose a bad ram chip!
I KNEW it was a bad ram chip, I told the three different people I got handed off to it was a bad ram chip, still had to run through their script of re-installing 2000 4 TIMES before their tech support would allow me to tell them how to diagnose (their "hardware test" app is NOT capable of diagnosing a bad ram chip, BTW) a bad ram chip, and send me the damn thing!
Grrr. I'm only buying name brands from places like Costco (where I can take it back for a full refund) from now on...
Umm, not to dig at old wounds, but _alot_ of people have died due to _private sector_ budget constraints & administrative failures (http://www.bhopal.net/welcome2.html).
I think singling out the gummint maybe clouds the issue: it's ALWAYS deplorable when monetary concerns end up costing someone's life.
In any event, I do think that this is exiciting news, one of the great promises of space research is that money spent on the cutting edge of survival will translate into better lives for all of us, sort of keeping the challenge of the old frontier alive.
But I'm wondering if "Any U.S.-owned organization can access JPL's special technological expertise and specialized equipment through the Technology Affiliates Program." means that tax dollars will or won't be used to secure even more patents that lock technology away from the general (paying) public?
> Its a really clean system, if more americans voted ( and did not just vote the party line ) it would actually work.
One of the reasons for representative democracy was how long it took to communicated between states in in 18th century: so we needed a central place where folks delegated power by their state's could make quick decisions.
The otther, more hidden reason, was simply to perpetuate the power of the moneyed and landed elite (recall that the revolution contained many folks who's lands had been granted by the king, who needed to be assured that their 'rights' would be protected from the masses by the new govt. system). Sadly, it still does (funny that Bush is attacking "elites" in his new book: this son of a president who's daddy bought him company after company is calling college profs. the "elite"...), even though the lessons of history are clear that passing on power through inheritance is a bad idea.
Modern technology could eliminate the first problem: electronic referenda could let the entire nation vote on new laws, no need for the decision making power to be concentrated in a few folks in Washington. The people could debate, research, and vote as fast if not faster than Congress, and no one honestly blame "the gummint" or corrupt congress if things didn't go their way (or if a decision turned out bad).
The second problem I have no idea what to do about...
Forcing: To compel through pressure or necessity.r ce
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=fo
So if the MPAA/RIAA succeeds in being allowed to put DRM into our chips, seems to me that we are being 'compelled through necessity', at least the necessity to continue life as we knew it before DRM, right?
For instance, "He was forced to to play shortstop in order to play with the team" would be entirely correct, although you might claim that 'he' wasn't really forced to play. But the context of "I was forced to comply with DRM in order to watch the Star Wars Epsisode 0 DVD" seems to me would be correct according to the dictionary def.
So yeah, the MPAA/RIAA is attempting to FORCE us to comply with their rules in order to play the game & these rules would end up removing many of the parts of the game we have come to like (from copying VHS/cassette tapes to TiVo).
Not to mention providing a scary power to regulate what we can and can't see on our computers, which are rapidly becoming the way folks interact with the world outside of their immediate circle...
> Yeah we all know that government has been oh so efficient with the development of defence industry technology.
Efficient, as in producing a minimally effective product for the least cost & maximum profit? No.
But efficient, as in producing the most EFFECTIVE product for the job? Are you really arguing that the US should scrap the F-22 and just buy Mirages or used MIGs on the Free Market??? That would certainly be more "efficient" as judged by filling an airfied with planes cheaply, but maybe not so efficient when the time came to fight...
> Almost all military technology that the government has was developed by corporations, albeit at 5x the cost and development time because it is practically government.
Umm, "5x" of what?
> If you really believe that they could do a better job bringing drugs to market,
If the military can do a better job at protecting the US from people who want to kill us than the private sector, I seems logical that a similar system can also do a better job of protecting us from _things_ that kill us, yes. Or are you advocating replacing the US military with private mercenaries?
> No offense, but please come back when you get a clue.
How about you come back when you have an logical argument rather than a passionate sermon. IMO, the Religion of the Free Market has been even more effective at preventing _cures_ from being found as the various folks who believe cells have souls.
> (b) medical research should be grant supported like any other reserach
Well basic research _is_ grant supported (unless your are dealing with cells the religious right has decided are people). But the Govt. usually allows drug companies to then develop patentable (with various restrictions) products.
A better model may be the military contract, where the Govt. specifies a product and what it will pay, & allows companies to compete to produce it.
After all, it is a War against something that is killing alot more of us than the Iraquis ever did...
And treat like a real war: the US has the best military in the world through a public sector dominated partnership with the private sector.
s p
While free market evangelists will defend the pharm industry with their dying breath, it's obvious to the rational that there are inherant conflicts between finding the best cure and making the most money.
So we should treat the fight agains disease as the war that it is: it's a war America is losing, millons of our people fall to this enemy every year.
The main difference from the Iraqis or wild lions doing this is that the enemy is microscopic, but why should that stop us from realizing we are in a WAR with disease, not a market?
The new front is regenerative medicine, and it may well not be very profitable. But it has the potential to lead to real cures...
More:
http://www.liebertpub.com/reg/default1.a
> The only thing that can happen there is nutrition.If you don't feed the cells right, they don't work right.
Good direction, but even with the best nutrition the cells will break down, bugs can still get in from outside, and bugs within the code may take you out early.
Regenerative medicine is a new area attempting to fix the cells at the cellular & even the code level. It suffers of course from the investment problem: can you securley patent a process that allows folks to grow their own regenerated cells (somatic cell nuclear transfer) & if you do find a cure for heart disease, Alzheimers or spinal damage, will the Govt. let you charge what the market will bear?
Not to mention the "every totipotent cell has a soul" crowd trying to stop the whole process in it's tracks...
This is one of the biggest issues: there are folks who don't want researchers to be able to look for cures with of the most promising techniques because of the belief that there may be a soul in the cell, somewhere... More:
http://www.camradvocacy.org/fastaction/
On the one hand, cures would let folks live longer, and then they surely would get sick from something else.
The longer folks live, the more cures they will eventually need, so in the long term cures ensure a constant need for new cures.
On the other hand, we know business tends to not be very far sighted, upper level management is usually close to retirement age, so only the more altruistic among them will care what happens after they retire.
Personally, I'd like to see the US Govt. try and apply our great success with publically managed science in the defence industry to the medical industry.
After all, imagine if Iraqis or Commies were running around killing millions of Americans each year? Why do we not treat cancer cells the same way...
> Fact is that subversive sex is not very healthy, and thus it is in societies best interest to curb such activity for the good of everyone.
Safe sex is certainly more healthy than many practices "society" doesn't seem to want to "curb".
Or are you also planning to start "curbing" overeating of fatty fried food sometime soon?
> Drugs destroy families and productivity just like unhealthy sex does.
Alcohol is the most destructive drug, followed by tobacco. Does that mean that you plan to legalize and tax the other "drugs" as well?
> We dont enjoy suffering because of your mistakes, so we extend a loving hand.
Umm, the "loving hand" that attaches a handcuff and throws the non-violent drug user (& it seems your plan is the "unhealthy subversive sex" practitioner) into an overcrowded, violence ridden jail? These so called "acts of love" that have left us spending far more on prisons than on schools...seems to me that the world would be a better place with alot less of such "love" and alot more reason...
> Well, for one, the observed tendency is for many (though definitely not all) negative effects of promiscuity, pornography, and homosexuality to be social negative effects.
1 /yate-j02 .shtml
i de/horb/horb-c 14.html
Reference?
> A few months ago, some pervert broke into a private home 50 miles north of mine in the middle of the night and kidnapped a preteen girl.
"Until the terrible events of June 20, Russell and Andrea Yates and their five children were the kind of family that a Ronald Reagan might have pointed to as a model for America, or that might have been paraded on the platform at a Republican national convention: responsible, professional father; "stay-at-home mom" and home-school teacher; well-scrubbed, neatly dressed, smiling children--a tribute to "traditional family values," as envisioned by the Christian right."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul200
So do you call Christians "immoral perverts" since Andrea Yates was one? Maybe the Bible made her do it?
From my own review of the evidence, it seems to me that people who prey on other people generally have biochemical problems, probably mostly related to genetics. Certainly some drugs & experiences can exacerbate these problems (such as Yate's religious experiences that led her to claim her kids were possesed), but ultimately, there is simply something medically wrong with a human predator, blaming other folks who are superficially like them clouds the issue: just because a Christian drowned her kids doesn't mean that Christians tend to drown their kids. Nor do homosexuals tend to abuse children.
The fact is, folks who have biochemical problems tend to latch on to some experience in their life as the source of these problems, be it hearing about the devil in church or seeing pr0n on the 'net, these things tend to be _SYMPTOMS_ of an underlying biochemical problem, not CAUSES.
Its easy to blame the problem on some behavior we don't like for our own reasons (I tend not to enjoy the company of religious rightists, for instance) but the fact is that people who have tendancies toward doing violence to other people need to either learn to control those tendancies themselves or be put away. It's that simple.
As far as 'perversion' being the cause of violence, children were abused, people were raped, even back when folks who were 'different' were generally ostracized if not burned & I'm not sure the evidence suggests that there was less predatory violence in the past than there is today.
For instance:
History of Rape: A Bibliography
http://www.geocities.com/history_gu
Because the openess of the net mimics in some ways the closeness between 'common' and leader in the early days of democracy.
The printing press made it possible for folks like Tom Paine to print up and rapidly distribute political pamphlets (Paines writings, like "Common Sense" are often credited with being more important than Washington's leadership in winning the war), which were read aloud and widely discussed in the many taverns of the day.
There was much less distance between leaders and 'commons', (since there were so few taverns?;-), & folks are reported to have discussed politics much more openly and frequently than folks do in pulblic today.
So the net may well encourage more open debate, debates that folks are often afraid or don't care to have in person anymore, and may help the 'commons' communicate more directly with the leaders. But I'm not sure it will lead to less protest, unless the leaders listen willingly. My guess is that the ability of disaffected groups to communicate rapidly and globally will lead to more protests, at least until a good way is found to let folks excercise their political power through the web (like e-referenda?) rather than in the streets...
> Pornography, promiscuity, and homosexuality really are like illegal drugs- you tamper with the way your body is ordered in an attempt to produce more pleasure and get all sorts of negative effects.
Uhh, your personal morals aside, I don't think that the "we shouldn't do it because it's dangerous" argument is a very good one to use.
There are plenty of different things that people do that are dangerous to themselves and others, generally we allow and even accept such 'pursuits of happiness' when they are pursued as safely as possible. Why single out the sexual adventurors for persecution?
PS, how is tampering with your body with "illegal" drugs biochemically different from tampering with your body with legal drugs?
Had a couple of my employees try this.
After wandering around for a few weeks bumping into things, they gave up.
Anyone ever get these excercises to actually go from bad vision (say 20/400) to 20/20?