Author: LegoDoug

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Why President Bush Is Opposed to Federal Spending on Stem Cell Research

This weekend, for the first time ever, I actually heard a newscast (a Webcast, actually) that included the words, “the destruction of embryos,” in conjunction with President Bush’s stance on Federal funding of stem cell reseach.

On October 21, I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Lisa Boucher Clark, Ph.D., from the University of New Hampshire, entitled “Stem Cells and Cloning: The Perils and the Promise.” The issue was fascinating, and Dr. Clark presented this extremely controversial topic in a factual context, attempting to avoid editorializing or taking a side on the issues, and, in general, succeeding in doing so. (The topic needs a BLOG entry of its own; despite Dr. Clark’s efforts, there were outbursts and arguments that erupted from the audience.) One of the things she discussed is the promise of using stem cells in therapeutic medicine. For example, we are nearing the technological point at which it would be possible to combine somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning) with stem cell harvesting to produce stem cells that would later be coaxed to differentiate into heart cells—or just about any other tissue—that perfectly match the donor-recipient to replace damaged heart muscle. (This is something of an oversimplification: Although the basic technologies have already been proven, they are not yet very reliable, and to date, SCNT has not been successful with human cells.)

This is the promise of cloning and stem cell research. But it comes at a price. Assuming the SCNT procedure works, the stem cells produced would be removed from an embryo at its blastocyst stage, thus killing the developing embryo. Those stem cells could then be cultured into entire cell lines. Note that current stem cell lines are produced using discarded embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics, not from cloning via SCNT.

Our President does not want to give federal money toward stem cell research that destroys embryos. He has allowed for federal funding for stem cell research in cultured stem cell lines that are already in existence, and has done nothing to prohibit or outlaw privately-funded stem cell research. He is not trying to stop the progress of science in a potentially helpful area. He is living up to his beliefs, and his promises, by not putting tax dollars to use in killing the unborn.

The media have done a poor job of presenting the technology and the subject matter as it actually exists, although it is not entirely their fault. Former President Reagan’s son Ron is an outspoken advocate of stem cell research, but he carefully avoids talking about the fact that embryos are destroyed in the current process. More proponents of embryonic stem cell research should come clean on what the full implications of such research are.

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62,000 versus 3.4 Million—What Does This Show about the US Technology “Edge”?

Dean Kamen (the inventor of the Segway) “noted that last year the U.S. graduated just 62,000 engineers (there were more Sports Management graduates) as compared to the 3.4 million technology grads coming out of universities in India. Kamen says we have only ourselves to blame. ‘You get what you celebrate…we celebrate sports and movies.’”

See this article at PC Magazine online for a more complete story about his speech at the FIRST robotics competition.

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Doug, the Haiku Master

Stream unvisited—
An update is required.
I wait forever.

Okay, the above title is an exagerration, but let me explain. We are using a new version of the source control system in place at Kronos. (We switched to this new system—which is not a Kronos product—about six months ago, from VSS, which sometimes produced catastrophic problems, and was not living up to our needs). The latest release of this new product promised some highly beneficial new features, but, primarily because Kronos is pushing the product well beyond its typical implementation, there have been some “performance issues.”

After receiving a notice last week that performance was really slow, but the system was not locked up, instead of a whine, I posted back a quick Haiku. Haiku, at least as we learned it in high school, is Japanese poetry consisting of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. There are variations on the definition, especially when working in English, but the format tends to produce poetry that appears to be deeply insightful at best, and pithy at worst.

I received quite a few compliments on the e-mail, but didn’t realize how notorious I’d become until a co-worker who I do not believe I’ve ever even seen stopped me in the stairwell and asked, “You’re the guy who wrote that Haiku, aren’t you?”

Here are a few of the other comments:

  • This is most masterful.
  • Thanks Doug. This helps make the pain of [the source control product] more bearable.
  • Very nice!
  • {:-)
  • This is great. (-:
    I’m sure you've seen all those “error message haiku” that have been circulating for years. Some of them are very funny as well. My favorite was:

    With searching comes loss
    And the presence of absence:
    “My Novel” not found.

  • Congratulations tovarisch Doug Wilcox: you are now awarded the “Udarnik of the Month” title. Now write more haikus “sverx plana” before the end of October. (“sverx plana” means something like “above the required quota”).
  • bravo!
  • Excellent haiku of the day. Thank you!
  • Excellent!
  • LOL!!!

    How about:

    Jboss starting up,
    Machine useless for all tasks.
    Gaze at screen saver.

    To which I responded:

    JBoss now better;
    Standards can be pleasant:
    One Gig of RAM.

    OK, that one made my cat wake up when I laughed!

So am I popular, or notorious?

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Naomi’s First Year

Naomi celebrated her first birthday on Oct. 13. I wanted to do something for her and also for our family and friends to celebrate her first year. Doug showed me (very patiently) how to get the photos entered into our family photo gallery and all of the editing that went along with it. Amazingly, I did it, to my surprise. This is the first set for Naomi there will be a second part as well, but that'll be for another night.

We do love our little girl and am very thankful to God for giving her to us. She is truly a precious and sweet gift from our Heavenly Father (I must also point out that our boys are gifts (just as precious and sweet, but boyishly (lol), as well).

Things that she’s doing now: climbing up onto our loveseat to the top over the loveseat onto the stairs and back over again, but not before letting go and falling down to the cushions laughing. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera ready for that one. She’s been taking steps now for about a month on her own…not running yet, which is perfectly fine. 😉

Words she says: I would have to say that her first word was: Isaac (sounding like “Aye-yah”; now it's clearer, but not with the c ending. She also said “Mum,” but that was only a few times. She does say “Mama” and “Dada” now. Other words are “up” and “hi” (from time to time).

She already loves to have her hair done. I give her a container with her barrettes in them, and she plays as I do her hair. Once I’m done, she gets a turn and does mine. She loves the phone, especially being able to play with our cell phone. She enjoys opening it and playing with the buttons and pretending to talk into it. It’s charming. Hmmm, now that I remember that I don't think I had any photos of that either…need to get with it, I know.

The great thing about getting these entered myself is that I can do more now without bugging Doug—so our boys will have a place on in the photo gallery, too. Enjoy the pictures.

Love,
Nichelle

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Skunks Do Not Always Spray When Surprised

[doug]Skunks don’t bother me. Really. I actually find the complex smell of the skunk scent to be pleasant, except when it is exceptionally strong. The other night (or morning, I have no idea of the actual time), Nichelle was conducting a late-night grocery procurement operation, and had the nerve to wake me up to help bring the groceries in.

As I walked down our back steps, I surprised a skunk, who made a fast retreat in the other direction; I was so sleepy I was already three steps away from the skunk before I processed exactly what had happened.

Now, I know it's possible to “tail” a skunk—pick one up by the tail—which will prevent it from spraying. It’s a risky business, especially as I have no idea how to put one down again. Maybe I can get my kids to try it.

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Online [PC/Video] Gaming: An Industry Name Finally “Gets” It

From this article at Reuters:

The new platforms are expected to offset what Florin [Gerhard Florin, Electronic Arts’ head of European publishing] sees as a disappointing early start for online gaming. The prospect of amassing a core of gamers who pay a monthly subscription to battle other global combatants on the Internet has yet to take off.

Florin attributed the slow take-up to a nagging fear that a gamer could be humiliated in challenging an unknown foe.

“We expected millions of people wanting to play the online games and we have found that, no, they don’t. There is a pretty easy reason. If you play tennis and you don’t know your opponent you are careful whether you should play against him. The same is true with online. If you go online you could be slaughtered or cheated,” he said.

Overcoming the social aspect of online gaming, he added, will hold back the market in the short term.

I think this is probably the most frustrating thing in online gaming. It is almost impossible to win (other than when I am playing with a known group of friends), because those who do game online tend to be those who spend far too much time gaming online. So it isn’t that one might be humiliated, it’s that one will be humiliated. Of course, years ago I was beaten at Command and Conquer by an eight-year-old. When one throws in “unsportsmanlike behavior”—everything from player-killers to abusive language—as well as lag time and trouble keeping a connection to many servers, the appeal of single-player games is obvious.

I do like to play against human opponents. My son John is very challenging, especially at WarCraft III, but our skills are near enough that I can beat him when I really work at it. When I play with Isaac and David we either team up against computer-AI-driven opponents or give them one or more computer partners to help balance things out (except in the Jedi Knight series, where David needs no help). Overall, though, it is rare that online gaming is very fulfilling to the average gamer.