FlaSoxxJim

See, it's not so hard a concept to get.

Stem cell research does occur using cord blood and from the blood of adults as well. But the stem cells harvested via these means do not approach the level of totipotency (the ability to differentiate into any other type of cell with addition of appropriate external stimuli), so any applications developed in this way can be expected to pale compared to what could be derived using embryonic lines. Yes, private and non-federal funding is available, and currently California is instrumental in driving, incubating, and funding the research. But NIH and NSF funding should be available for these research efforts, and as long as it is not the research will move unnecessarily slow. The UberChristians against embryonic stem cell research have yet to make a compelling case against the reasonable suggestion that never-to-be-implanted human embryos frozen in a fertility clinic be used to derive new stem cell lines. Ironic that it is a subset of the same group of folks that feels no guilt or moral qualms about adding to that embryo-popsicle limbo. These "obey God's will" people are the first ones to decry stem cell research as immoral because 'life' as a frozen embryo is apparently not so bad. Yet they're also the ones who undergo ovarian sonication to induce superovulation of 7 or 8 eggs at a time, to be artificially fertilized and then replanted en masse in the uterus in the hope that one or more of them take (And of course all too often a larger number prove viable and the "God's will" mother to be generally decides it's better to put the health of ALL the fetuses at risk than perform selective reduction - leading to retardation, deafness, blindness, lifelong developmental problems.... that's God's will??) . None of these people see the hypocrisy in never considering that, maybe, God's will was for them NOT TO BEAR CHILDREN. Amazingly, the extraordinary means taken to get these functionally infertile women to bear children is somehow successfully dressed up in their minds as also being part of God's will. But, I digress. If I started listing the hypocrasies of the American UberChristians I'd be at it all day.

Can't touch an iPod. My 40GB does double duty as my removable work harddrive so I can move my junk between the 6 different computers I'll be on during the work week. Combination firewire/USB connectivity, full integration with the free iTunes software, and audio out from the docking station makes it easy to to connect to your home stereo. The iPod minis compare favorably with other brands on from a cost-performance standpoint. And if you're a digital photo person, the new color LCD photo iPods are a great solution for keeping all your music, photos, and computer files in one place. I want one of those!

You might actually focus on the substance of the story if the link is to the source, and not one focused on something so quaint as the nition of rights and liberties? Fair enough. Despite current ownership by the Murdoch empire, the Times has a 200+ year run under it's belt. So how about commenting on the story? Oh, yeah - it also centers around rights and liberties, so it is of little consequence to you.

Happy drunken birthday, Apu!

My sentiments exactly. Besides, too damn many T-Day leftovers to eat - no time for shopping... must eat.

YYAAAWWWNNN!! I figured I'd shake myself out of the food coma long enough to wish all SoxTalkers a Happy Turkey Messacre Day! Honey-maple brined bird on the grill was a success. Time to make the carcass soup now! Gobble Gobble!

To add to that, Greenspan is starting to push for a controlled devaluation of the dollar. This would be to keep from scaring off the lender nations that continue to finance our monumental and still growing debt. The problem is (from what my non-economics brain can follow) that if this is done too fast there are potentially huge problems that could put us back into recession, but if it is done too slow or too superficially the lender nations will still perceive risk and bail out.

Yeah, it's a great subtle BK campaign tied into "chicken your way" or whatever that tag line is. A few weeks ago a thread popped up about the creepy "wake up with the King" TV ads and I had said it didn't hold a candle to the Chicken as far as creep factor. I remembered you had agreed that Chicken rulz, but I guess I didn't more explicitly note that these were both BK campaigns. My guess is that they were both put together by the same firm... whose creative folks need some serious counselling.

And never on Saturdays...

A house. It doesn't have to be very big, 3 bedrooms and an office maybe... Come on Santa!

Eddie Gaedel

You mean "liberation" is not enough?!? Now they want to eat too? Some people...

Go back to the drawing board and concoct another God, Silly. This time, let's give him the best of man's traits rather than the worst of them though, OK?

Misic Nazi! I may just have to say something bad about the Monkees now...

NPR this morning noted that more than half the population thinks the Warren Commisssion findings are wrong as far as it's 'lone gunman' conclusion. We'll probably never know the truth.

I think I'll coopt 'Theo de Kok' as my porn name.

Shut your mouth! I actually always liked the two part vocal on that quite a bit So let's leave it alone We can't see eye to eye There ain't no good guy There ain't no bad guy There's only you and me and we just disagree

That was McCain's exact thought. What gets snuck through in 1,000 page legislation rushed through in the last hours of a lame duck session?

"I have no earthly idea how it got in there." Wasn't that Kobe Bryant's defense strategy too?

Very nice job.

You're quite welcome. If you're under the impression that the Bush/Saud relationship goes no further than a few million donated to a library, however, you should read Unger's book. Not that Clinton doesn't have his own nefarious foreign entanglements. I hear he's been exporting his own version of "value added" cigars to the Cohiba company in Cuba. Strangely, they've not been very big sellers...

Yes, it certainly would be gripping cinema... "The Saudis have given to every presidential library for the last 30 years, Republican and Democrat..." ...Now they're DOING IT AGAIN! [cue ominous music and darken Clinton closeup in sinister manner...]

I didn't have the scratch to see the last tour but I have not heard a single bad review from a dozen or so people who saw shows. I saw both of the big tours in the 90s, one was for Flowers in the Dirt and I think the other one was right around the time of the Anthology releases. Both shows were big-production rock shows and both were pretty amazing.

I truly doubt the decision was racially motivated (if that was what the capital V in "Vanilla" implied). But aside from that, I think Jeckle's post is a pretty fair assessment - Mac is not going to offend anybody and should put on a decent show. This halftime show is going to be so scrutinized by a fine-happy FCC, I think the decision to go with a rather whitebread (no racial overtones - merely referring to the lukewarm, inoccuous pop of the aging former Beatle) headliner. To be fair to Mac, he still puts on an amazing bog-production live show. It should fit in fine for the Super Bowl.