A follow-up and A new identity

I said I would post a new entry everyday...and by that I meant every week day comrades. Anyway I am a man of my word.

First of all, I want to announce the new name by which my partner is enlightening the world will now by known as (provided he is accepting of it). David will hanceforth be known as Ambassador. The decision was made after much deliberation and discussion, which I fear puts me on the brink of schizophrenia. However, in response to that, I think it is fair to say that, if not for intelligent debate (discussion), no matter what level of sanity it poses, what would there be? Not a whole lot.

Now I'd like to say a few more things about stem cells.

Although I raised concerns with my last entry, I do not want anyone to think that I am somehow condemning stem cell (and genetic, for I have learned recently how closely they are tied to one another) research. I think it is also important for people to understand what it is and how it works, so I urge everyone to read up on it. NIH.gov does a decent job giving the basic information.

The U.S. government will spend approximately $80 million this year funding research institutes as part of the ENCODE program. The goal of ENCODE is to use the information they learned by decoding the human genome to make progress in health related fields. The hope is to cure such diseases as alzheimers and cancer, among others.

At first glance, $80 million seems like a ton of money. It is in fact a ton of money. But lets keep in mind who we are talking about. For a country the has an $11 trillion GDP, a $3.1 billion proposed budget and has spent alomost $600 billion in Iraq over the past 5 years, $80 million is nothing. The San Fransisco Chronicle published an interesting story regarding Iraq war spending, check it out here http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/09/INEMVEVHK.DTL .

Regards,

Colonel

So the other day, I was generously given the chance to sit in the breezy hallway outside Lecture Center Seven at SUNY Albany and talk to a professor of microbiology. His title to be more precise is "Assitant Professor" which suprisingly does not mean at all what it sounds like. He is in fact the director of UAlbany's School of Public Health, and a lead researcher at the Gen*NYS*is Center for Excellence in Cancer Research. He told me that he approaches his research on a genomic level...meaning he plays around with the "regulatory code" trying to figure out how and why certain proteins binding in the replication of DNA can effect and cause mutations in genes, ultimately leading to cancer.

Fascinating stuff, really. I have no idea what most of what he said meant, but i did get the jist of it. Basically, we are really really really close to understanding the human genome so well that we will be able to pin point mutations that will cause cancer and other such diseases.

On the bright side, this is great. This knowledge will eventually lead to cures for cancer or whatever disease of your choice. But don't get the champagne out too fast. This ability to detect people's predisposition to developing diseases is a very very scary thought. This knowledge, in the wrong hands, could have consequences that will go beyond the simple issue of employment. I mean really, what company is going to hire someone who has a mutation on the seventh chromosome (completely chosen at random and there is no scientific basis for my choice, but it is to make a general point) which we know will lead to the development of lung cancer roughly at age 40? Probably not many.

This is not too terrible of a concern, however, because of the stringent doctor-patient confidentiality codes. For example, I know a woman who had cancer 10 years ago and was job searching five years ago. She was able to go through the job hunting process without telling her possible future employers that she was a cancer survivor. We'll see where all that goes. It seems now-a-days you can get just about anything on the internet.

The real scare is eugenics. Who is to say that it won't become law for everyone to have genetic testing done? You could argue the cost will prevent this from ever happening, but already it is only a few thousand dollars and anyone who is curious enough (and has a decent pocket book) can have their own genome mapped.

You may be saying that I am a lunatic, and I am, but not on the eugenics score. I advise anyone who does not beleive eugenics is still practiced in the United States go to Google and search "Norplant" and "eugenics." Nor plant is a drug, well more like a device, that is implanted in women that prevents them from getting pregnant for 5-7 years.

Anyway, if you do indeed Google this, you will see stories about state legislatures trying to pass laws suggesting that women on welfare also go on Norplant. There is also a somewhat famous story (and I hesitate to say famous because I had never heard about it until the afore mentioned researcher told me about it) in which a young woman in Alabama was charged with child abuse. She was a single mother of 5 and lived in poverty. The judge gave her the option of choosing to go to jail, or go on Norplant.

Stem cells have the potential to be life saving, but unless the knowledge is used responsibly, we could be in serious trouble, as my microbiologist researcher told me, "There will be human cloning, without a doubt, and I don't know if the ends justify the means."

Until tomorrow,
Colonel Brian

p.s. - sorry Dave I have yet to think of a good name, but one is on the way, I swear

reflection

To mist Dave, the elitist drunken political theorist whom I respect and addorn:

i had a blog post all written out right? like free hand pre-computer style. when i went to sign in to our blog, i had completely forgotten the email address we use for signing in. the password is unforgettable, and ingenious i might add, nicely done.

however, this dilemma caused me to retrace my cyber steps over the past, shit i dont know...approximately 2 or 3 months, and i eventually found an email of interest. it was from none other than DAVE (well since i dont know if we use last names around here...) ********* all in capitals, i said "alas, my search is complete, this email shall hold all the information i am seeking." well, it didn't.

instead this email opened my eyes to the excitement, the absolute bliss and passion that we shared when creating this blog. it was an email in which you called me "colonel" (which i fucking love and have yet to counter that with a name as remarkable for you) and you were telling me about your first entry. you sounded (if thats possible via email) excited and i know i was excited when i read it. the point is, what happened? absolutely nothing. we have done shit since the day this motherfucker first took off.

we sit back and criticize all of those around us. as deserving of criticism as they are, we are no better. we are wastes of human intellect, something which, i beleive, we both value immensely. we need to get our heads back into this.

that being said. i vow to post a blog everyday from now until we take our trip, which i feel is inevitable, every single fucking day. Though i may be drunk right now, hold me to this shit because i t hink we have something here and i think we could bring upon this sedate society a change that is not only inevitable, but absolutely necessary.

until tomorrow (and i promise i will have a post up within 24 hours...and a sweet nickname for Dave),

Colonel Brian