Over at The Corner , Daniel Foster wonders whether a tremendous recent breakthrough in creating pluripotent stem cells from normal body cells, could end the culture war battle over biotechnology. Alas, not a chance. As I pointed out in a longer analysis of this story over at Secondhand Smoke : Even . . . . Continue Reading »
Never underestimate the creativity and excellence of our scientists. New research seems to have overcome the difficulties of IPSCs, allowing pluripotent stem cells to be created from normal body cells without using genes or viruses. From the story in the Washington Post:In 2006, researchers . . . . Continue Reading »
Steve Drake over at NDY has an angry post up, embedding the YouTube clip above of Mike Huckabee criticizing the Obamacare requirement that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions. Drake is unhappy because Huckabee analogized that provision to allowing a homeowner to buy property insurance . . . . Continue Reading »
1. So I talked to and listened to part of a good presentation by local TEA PARTY people last night. They mostly seemed to be from a conservative, Christian, home schooling background. (There definitely is nothing wrong with that.) But they talked nothing but economics—against bailouts and . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s mathematically possible to win the presidency of the entire country handily in the electoral college with around 11 percent of the popular vote. Can that be correct? I took the state results from the 2008 presidential election and calculated the cheapest electoral votes (the least number, . . . . Continue Reading »
“For a crowd is not a company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.” (From “Of Friendship,” The Essays ) . . . . Continue Reading »
When it comes to using illicit drugs, my policy has always been “Just say no.” When it comes to hamburgers, though, my mantra has always been, “Supersize that for me.” While Nancy Reagan’s advice was keeping me off horse, that square-patty pusherman Dave Thomas was . . . . Continue Reading »
Whether you love him, hate him, or just wish he’d go away (my position), it’s hard to deny that Glenn Beck is one of the most intriguing figures in American public life. Yesterday, the New York Times Magazine ran a long (8,077 words!) and interesting profile of the media . . . . Continue Reading »
These adult stem cell successes are getting pretty oh, hum—unless you are the lucky patients benefiting from breakthroughs. In our most recent episode, a woman’s leg was saved using her bone marrow stem cells. From the story:During her operation, at the private Spire Alexandra . . . . Continue Reading »
I am not engaged in the Darwin wars, but sometimes advocating for human exceptionalism rubs hulls against some theorists who take Darwinism out of biology, and into subjective realms of human culture and behavior—as if we are slaves to implacable natural forces. Here’s an . . . . Continue Reading »
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