In the news...

[dwenius]

On the off chance you haven't seen a few of these:

• Umbilical stem cells allow South Korean woman, paralyzed for 20 years, to walk again in only 3 weeks. I was too slow on this one, it might be slashdotted by now, but there should be other articles out there by now. In summary: they didn't fuck around with any special treatments, they just pulled some umbilical stem cells, injected them into the woman's spine, and gee, IT WORKED, because-- duh! -- that's what stems cells DO. It's what they are FOR. They are 60 million years of evolution smarter than we are. Also, special message to George Bush: How does it feel to be scientifically inferior to South Korea, where they have no "moral qualms" about HEALING PEOPLE, you insufferable dipshit? Also, thanks to H.S-L for spotting this one.


• Dolphins encircle New Zealand swimmers, protect them from Great White. So how cool is this? Not to go all granola-snorting space goat on you, but dolphin research went out of favor why, exactly? Was it just because John Lilly went off the deep end? Because if you ask me, this sort of behavior displays a level of...of...well, what would you call it? Are they showing concern for other mammals? Compassion? Altruism? No, really, what would you call it? Defending their own young or other pod members, that's one thing, and I'll accept a purely reactive/instinctual explanation. Extending this protection to a different species, with no shared communication, strikes me as something altogether different.


• And in less pleasant news, the US admits to using napalm in Iraq. How very fucking charming. This item is somewhat dated, the article was in August, but isn't it funny how it still hasn't gotten any press in the US? Or was this one of those "announced on a friday night on PBS in the same time slot as the Olympics" sorts of things?

Comments

[damienw]

I seem to recall that our new glorious leader here (who is the same as the old one) recently led us to reverse our positions on therapeutic cloning and stem cell research, at least as far as UN treaties are concerned. As the current government continues to arrogate to itself responsibilities and powers that more properly are dealt with either by states or by referendum so will we lose any chance of building an economy based on, I dunno, being smart. Or even not being stupid. But hey, we're doing what the Americans do, so that's ok then.