Stem Cells Mend Spinal Cords

Alright, Michael, I get the idea. Stem cell works; and I believe you even without this article: Stem Cells Mend Spinal Cords from Wired. Convince your Religious Rights and Evangelical White House this and the world will be a better place.

This study shows that stem cells collected from rat embryos can be grown into specialized cells by producing a special chemical called growth factor which helps myelin attach on to nerve fibers for better conductivity of nerve signals.

But this still goes to the core of the question: Do stem cells collected from the umbilical cord blood work just as well?

To Be or Not To Be…

Because of the unique composition of our family, I was intrigued to find out what citizenship possibilities there are for my son.

U.S. Citizenship — this is a given since my son will automatically get a U.S. Citizenship when he’s born within the borders of the United States. United States does not allow dual citizenships with very few exceptions.

Taiwanese Citizenship — this is not a particularly useful citizenship in terms of travel, but it probably beats having a passport from China since Mainland Chinese have an extremely high “disappearance” rate when they travel aboard. But for the sake of comparison, I found out that Taiwanese citizenship is extremely easy to get if either one of the parents is a citizen of Taiwan, which I am. Another downside of having a citizenship from Taiwan, particularly for a male, is Taiwan’s compulsory military service for one year and six months (or extended civilian service option) for all males before the age of 40. Taiwan allows dual citizenships.

Malaysian Citizenship — Malaysia is really a funny country. On paper the government claims it does not discriminate anyone. But in practice, it’s probably one of the most discriminatory countries in Southeast Asia (it’s hard to beat Indonesia in its mistreatment toward Chinese though). In this case, unless a child is born in Malaysia to a Malaysian parent, the father must be Malaysian if the child is born outside of Malaysia. But… what about the right of the mother? Why can’t the mother enjoy the same right for her son if she’s married a non-Malaysian and the child is born outside of Malaysia? That’s one f*cked messed up rule. Messed F*cked up, yes, but consistent with most Muslim-faith based countries I guess. More information can be found here and here. So does Malaysia allow dual citizenships? My knee tells me “no”.

We haven’t had too much pleasant experience with Malaysia and its policies as of lately. Hopefully this will change as Jai, a friend of ours, swears by the government’s efficiency. But for now, Malaysia isn’t giving too many reasons for some people whose children may consider Malaysia as their home. If Malaysia wants to be able to compete more aggressively in this global climate, it has to do more to allow qualified people to be part of its society more indiscriminately.

Just my two cents.

Russian Spammer Murdered

A report from Russia confirms the killing of Russia’s biggest spammer.

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

Yeah, that’s what should be done to spammers who are caught doing the deed. The public should be able to stone them to death or inject acid into an open hole in their skulls. Oh wait, according to an episode of Law & Order, that may kill them too fast… Brutally beaten to death is good then.

PSP Porn

I guess it’s only a matter of time before everything else also turns into portable porn machines (via Tokyopia).

PSP Porn

But this is not the only thing “sexy” in the news. The Feds have been onto the “GTA: San Andreas” case for a couple of weeks now. To serve those of you who actually follow my blog, a video can be found at here along with mods.

GTA San Andreas Hot Coffee screenshot

Like I said, everything is going porn these days. A quick Google revealed a site that has everything to turn your game consoles into little pornertainment centers.

Bill Clinton and His World View

Bill Clinton image A couple of years ago, former U.S. president Bill Clinton delivered an excellent speech at The University of Texas at Austin.

The elegance and sophistication of his speech makes him by far the best public speaker I have seen. Steve Jobs does give great presentations from time to him. But he’s a salesman and that’s what he does best. However, people who attend his presentations usually walk away with reality distortion field affect. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, nails his points with impeccable logics and concisely worded reasons. I can’t see how anybody can debate with him and win.

I tried recording the live streaming of the speech but failed. I am so worried that someday it may not be accessible anymore. But in the meantime, his speech can be accessed from Apple’s site here.

I’d also visit the William J. Clinton Foundation website for transcripts and videos from his other speeches. Very inspirational.

Dead Birds and the Weather

Scientists are discovering more and more dead birds alongside the beaches of California coast (Dead Birds Do Tell Tales). They think this could only mean that the drastic pattern changes in the weather have severely disrupted the ecosystem.

“Something big is going on out there,” said Julia Parrish, an associate professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at the University of Washington. “I’m left with no obvious smoking gun, but birds are a good signal because they feed high up on the food chain.”
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“In 50 years, this has never happened,” said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Newport, Oregon. “If this continues, we will have a food chain that is basically impoverished from the very lowest levels.”

This could be a pattern that takes place every __ (fill in the blank) years which scientists have overlooked. OR this is something so screwed up that we don’t even realize the severity of it. But of course, we can always count on George W. Bush’s scientists to give a direct and comprehensive answer.

Self-healing Genes — Tomorrow’s Science, Today

I realize something crazy like this is going to happen sooner or later, but I am completely unprepared for this news reported by Wired (Giving Genetic Disease the Finger):

Scientists are closing in on techniques that could let them safely repair almost any defective gene in a patient, opening the door for the first time to treatments for a range of genetic disorders that are now considered incurable.
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“This doesn’t just deliver a foreign gene into the cell,” said Nobel Prize winner and CalTech President David Baltimore, who with a Sangamo paper co-author Mathew Porteus proposed this method to cure genetic diseases. “It actually deletes the miscoded portion and fixes the problem.”

Modern science has prolonged life, now it’s going to extend life beyond the scope of human’s natural normality to live. But then, it’s not all happy news. Scientists caught some side-affects early on:

One trial that did succeed, but then ended in tragedy, was a 2002 French X-linked SCID trial that used retroviruses to deliver a new gene into the patients. The new gene cured the disease in 12 patients, but went on to cause leukemia in three of them. It turned out the foreign gene, in addition to producing the protein that vanquishes X-linked SCID, had the unexpected side effect of sometimes turning on a cancer-causing gene.

But the latest technique from CalTech supposedly fixed that problem. Long term effects are never easy to assess: Who knows what this new method will cause over a person’s life time, or worst, passing the problematic gene in question to the future generations. Talk about home-made genetic mutations!