The Flashlight, November 17-23, 2007
THE FLASHLIGHT, November 17-23, 2007
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Science
Stem Cell Breakthrough
BBC 11-20, NY Times 11-21. Scientists in laboratories in Japan and Wisconsin, led by Shinya Yamanaka and James A. Thomson, have succeeded in making embryonic human stem cells from human skin cells. This eliminates the need to destroy any human embryos. It opens the way to making neurons, heart cells, lung cells et al. to replace those destroyed by disease and accidents. There is much more hope now for people with Parkinson’s Disease, paralytic spinal injuries, heart disease, lung disease and many other conditions, even Alzheimer’s Disease. This discovery will greatly help the study of birth and developmental defects. The fundamentalists so far have no objection to this kind of research. See the journals Cell and Science.
Stress and Gender
The Economist. 11-17, p. 96. A Danish researcher, Carston Obelin, has found that the more stress on a woman at time of conception, the more likely she will conceive a girl. Stress may be individual and/or social: death in the near family of the woman, economic depression, natural and political catastrophes. Women in rich countries are more likely to conceive a boy than those in poor countries. This relationship is explained in evolutionary terms by the fact that a female is more likely to reproduce than a male. See the journal Human Development.
The World
Pakistan
CNN 11-18, NY Times 11-19. Musharraf set the next election for January 8, 2008, but did not lift emergency rule. Benazir Bhutto, leader of a major opposition party, says that all parties want Musharraf to leave office and that the Constitution be restored. John Negroponte, head of US intelligence visiting Pakistan, agreed.
Bangladesh Cyclone
CNN 11-18. After a Category 4 cyclone hit Bangladesh, the storm surge in the Ganges delta destroyed many thousands of people and homes. Over 3000 bodies have been counted, and the total is expected to reach 10,000. The people there are very poor.
US
Polygamist sentenced
NYTimes 11-21. Warren Jeffs, polygamist leader, received ten years to life in prison for forcing a fourteen year old girl to marry her nineteen year old cousin and submit to sexual relations against her will. Successful prosecution was possible because the victim, now 21, was willing to testify against the accused.
Wireless book Reader
NYTimes 11-20 and Newsweek, 11-26, pp. 57-64. . Amazon.com President Jeff Bezos announced the availability of a new device, Kindle, which can wirelessly download an electronic book reader without a computer. Kindle can download a book in less than a minute and can store up to 200 books at once. It weighs 10.3 ounces and costs $400. A book from Amazon costs $10. Electronic books can be searched.
Humor
Axioms from the Journal of Irreproducible Results, the science humor magazine, V. 50, No. 4, 2007. By John F. Moffitt, Las Cruces.
The supply of truth always greatly exceeds the demand.
The distinction between genius and stupidity is that the former has its limits.
Modern art presents hope that, perhaps, things may not be quite as bad as they are now painted.
Half the people are below average.
When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
Optimists proclaim that we live in the best of all possible worlds; pessimists know this to be a fact.
It is always darkest just before it gets to be pitch black.
True pessimism doubts even the sincerity of its own pessimism.
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Science
Stem Cell Breakthrough
BBC 11-20, NY Times 11-21. Scientists in laboratories in Japan and Wisconsin, led by Shinya Yamanaka and James A. Thomson, have succeeded in making embryonic human stem cells from human skin cells. This eliminates the need to destroy any human embryos. It opens the way to making neurons, heart cells, lung cells et al. to replace those destroyed by disease and accidents. There is much more hope now for people with Parkinson’s Disease, paralytic spinal injuries, heart disease, lung disease and many other conditions, even Alzheimer’s Disease. This discovery will greatly help the study of birth and developmental defects. The fundamentalists so far have no objection to this kind of research. See the journals Cell and Science.
Stress and Gender
The Economist. 11-17, p. 96. A Danish researcher, Carston Obelin, has found that the more stress on a woman at time of conception, the more likely she will conceive a girl. Stress may be individual and/or social: death in the near family of the woman, economic depression, natural and political catastrophes. Women in rich countries are more likely to conceive a boy than those in poor countries. This relationship is explained in evolutionary terms by the fact that a female is more likely to reproduce than a male. See the journal Human Development.
The World
Pakistan
CNN 11-18, NY Times 11-19. Musharraf set the next election for January 8, 2008, but did not lift emergency rule. Benazir Bhutto, leader of a major opposition party, says that all parties want Musharraf to leave office and that the Constitution be restored. John Negroponte, head of US intelligence visiting Pakistan, agreed.
Bangladesh Cyclone
CNN 11-18. After a Category 4 cyclone hit Bangladesh, the storm surge in the Ganges delta destroyed many thousands of people and homes. Over 3000 bodies have been counted, and the total is expected to reach 10,000. The people there are very poor.
US
Polygamist sentenced
NYTimes 11-21. Warren Jeffs, polygamist leader, received ten years to life in prison for forcing a fourteen year old girl to marry her nineteen year old cousin and submit to sexual relations against her will. Successful prosecution was possible because the victim, now 21, was willing to testify against the accused.
Wireless book Reader
NYTimes 11-20 and Newsweek, 11-26, pp. 57-64. . Amazon.com President Jeff Bezos announced the availability of a new device, Kindle, which can wirelessly download an electronic book reader without a computer. Kindle can download a book in less than a minute and can store up to 200 books at once. It weighs 10.3 ounces and costs $400. A book from Amazon costs $10. Electronic books can be searched.
Humor
Axioms from the Journal of Irreproducible Results, the science humor magazine, V. 50, No. 4, 2007. By John F. Moffitt, Las Cruces.
The supply of truth always greatly exceeds the demand.
The distinction between genius and stupidity is that the former has its limits.
Modern art presents hope that, perhaps, things may not be quite as bad as they are now painted.
Half the people are below average.
When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
Optimists proclaim that we live in the best of all possible worlds; pessimists know this to be a fact.
It is always darkest just before it gets to be pitch black.
True pessimism doubts even the sincerity of its own pessimism.
posted by THE FLASHLIGHT at 7:45 AM
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