Praise whatever holy entity you believe in that the city finally listened to the state treasurer. I think this project killed itself with their budget plan back in June. Somehow, $11 billion for a 14 mile monorail that would carry something like 1000 passengers per day seemed fiscally irresponsible (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/2295 04_monorail22.html). Seattle needs major transportation relief, but blowing that much in one place is absurd. The monorail has a funny way of not dying though, so I expect it to wind up on the ballot as an initiative. I don't quite see how the whole eastern vs western Washington thing crept in here, but there is quite enough bitterness and high-mindedness on both sides of that fence.
Hey, if we're past the point of no return, any actions we could possibly take are completely futile. Let's remove all vehicle and industrial emissions restrictions. Shred the Kyoto protocol! Let's burn the damn planet and do it in style dammit! Before you flame me, look up sarcasm in Wikipedia. Claiming we've wrecked the planet beyond any repair only damages your cause. Maybe you should leave room for hope if you want people rallying to your cause. Dire environmental predictions usually fail to materialize.
In the 70's they claimed we were causing an Ice Age. During grade school, I was told that large portions of the planet would be covered with landfills by my adulthood if we didn't start recycling everything. Nowadays, everything is packaged in plastic which promptly gets thrown away.
I'm beginning to think global warming is just a way of scaring people out of their money and votes.
I'm under the understanding that the glial stem cells found in umbilical cords are much easier to manipulate and have shown more applications in therapy while embryonic stem cells are still very difficult to impossible (by today's methods) to control. If I am wrong I would love to be corrected just don't flame me as right-wing religious fundamentalist.
I have no qualms with gathering stem cells from frozen embryos scheduled for desctruction. It would be wasteful to simply throw away stem cells. The bottom line for me is that umbilical stem cells have seen more real world applications, while emryonic stem cells tend to be theoretical and experimental. So while both lines of research need to be pursued, the line with more results not promises should recieve more (but not all) of the funding.
I honestly do not think most people would support farming embryos in labs and harvesting them for their stem cells. We should do what we can to eradicate debilitating diseases, but we cannot forge ahead damning morality when morality is what motivated us to cure diseases in the first place.
Lastly, we must remember that there is no cure for death and old age. Modern medicine has greatly increased our living standard while lengthening our lives, but each person has to prepare for one's self for death in a way that eliminates fear and hysteria. Death is part of life and should be seen for the beauty that it truly is. It is not the end of a slow decline but the final conclusion to life (hopefully) well-lived.
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Praise whatever holy entity you believe in that the city finally listened to the state treasurer. I think this project killed itself with their budget plan back in June. Somehow, $11 billion for a 14 mile monorail that would carry something like 1000 passengers per day seemed fiscally irresponsible (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/2295 04_monorail22.html). Seattle needs major transportation relief, but blowing that much in one place is absurd. The monorail has a funny way of not dying though, so I expect it to wind up on the ballot as an initiative. I don't quite see how the whole eastern vs western Washington thing crept in here, but there is quite enough bitterness and high-mindedness on both sides of that fence.
Hey, if we're past the point of no return, any actions we could possibly take are completely futile. Let's remove all vehicle and industrial emissions restrictions. Shred the Kyoto protocol! Let's burn the damn planet and do it in style dammit! Before you flame me, look up sarcasm in Wikipedia. Claiming we've wrecked the planet beyond any repair only damages your cause. Maybe you should leave room for hope if you want people rallying to your cause. Dire environmental predictions usually fail to materialize. In the 70's they claimed we were causing an Ice Age. During grade school, I was told that large portions of the planet would be covered with landfills by my adulthood if we didn't start recycling everything. Nowadays, everything is packaged in plastic which promptly gets thrown away. I'm beginning to think global warming is just a way of scaring people out of their money and votes.
I'm under the understanding that the glial stem cells found in umbilical cords are much easier to manipulate and have shown more applications in therapy while embryonic stem cells are still very difficult to impossible (by today's methods) to control. If I am wrong I would love to be corrected just don't flame me as right-wing religious fundamentalist. I have no qualms with gathering stem cells from frozen embryos scheduled for desctruction. It would be wasteful to simply throw away stem cells. The bottom line for me is that umbilical stem cells have seen more real world applications, while emryonic stem cells tend to be theoretical and experimental. So while both lines of research need to be pursued, the line with more results not promises should recieve more (but not all) of the funding. I honestly do not think most people would support farming embryos in labs and harvesting them for their stem cells. We should do what we can to eradicate debilitating diseases, but we cannot forge ahead damning morality when morality is what motivated us to cure diseases in the first place. Lastly, we must remember that there is no cure for death and old age. Modern medicine has greatly increased our living standard while lengthening our lives, but each person has to prepare for one's self for death in a way that eliminates fear and hysteria. Death is part of life and should be seen for the beauty that it truly is. It is not the end of a slow decline but the final conclusion to life (hopefully) well-lived.