Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

" ... Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of
life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.

Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely
handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch
in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live
and reproduce.

In the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is
expected to "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the Internet,
and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding. And while the first
synthetic chromosome is a plagiarized version of a natural one, others
that code for life forms that have never existed before are already under
construction.

The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and
philosophers agree, will be a watershed event, blurring the line between
biological and artificial -- and forcing a rethinking of what it means for
a thing to be alive. ... "

 

~ Read more... ~

 

People & Power - Death of the dollar 2 - 19 Dec 07 - Part 2

People & Power - Death of the dollar 2 - 19 Dec 07 - Part 1

Goldsmith: "Extreme secrecy...led to a lot of mistakes"

In October, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a riveting hearing with
Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department Office of
Legal Counsel.  The record of that hearing has just been published.

As was widely reported at the time, Mr. Goldsmith challenged the
legality of certain aspects of the President's warrantless surveillance
program and raised questions about other policies and procedures in the
"war on terrorism."

"There's no doubt that the extreme secrecy [surrounding the Terrorist
Surveillance Program] -- not getting feedback from experts, and not
showing it to experts, and not getting a variety of views, even inside
the executive branch -- led to a lot of mistakes," he said.

The PDF version of the hearing record includes Mr. Goldsmith's answers
to questions for the record from the Senate Committee members (pp.
38-49).  In most cases, he deflected the Senators' pointed questions.
But several of the exchanges are interesting nevertheless.

Asked about the Administration's refusal to disclose to Congress the
legal memoranda justifying its interrogation program, Mr. Goldsmith
stated:

"I believe it is the President's prerogative not to disclose these
opinions.  And I believe it is the Congress's prerogative to use
political pressure to try to force the Executive to disclose the
opinions."

See "Preserving the Rule of Law in the Fight Against Terrorism,"
hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 2, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2007_hr/ruleoflaw.html

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2007, Issue No. 125
December 20, 2007

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste

According to Scientific American:

 

Strange but True -  December 13, 2007

By burning away all the pesky carbon and other impurities, coal power
plants produce heaps of radiation.

 

~ Full article ~

 

the 'Denialists' Deck of Cards'

" ... With "Duh!," the denialist deliberately misunderstands, misinterprets, or plays dumb when presented with others' questions or proposals. One is sometimes amazed at how smart an industry lobbyist can be until they're asked a question they don't want to answer!

In the Hewlett-Packard pretexting scandal, this exchange between Rep. Eshoo and Fred Adler, a company investigator, is an excellent "duh" moment:

ESHOO: ...If you say no, then I'll accept your answer.

ADLER: OK.

ESHOO: You said no?

ADLER: No in regard to what?

ESHOO: Well, you know what, you have to be smart to play dumb. So I think I've been pretty direct about my questions. I asked you if rusing has been used. And you asked me to define it. I give it to you, and then..." House Hearing on the Hewlett-Packard Pretexting Scandal, CQ Transcriptions, Sept. 28, 2006. ... "

http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/deck.php

quote from rich@math.missouri.edu

54% of americans believe that drugs will never be legalized because
the cops would have to buy their own.

                   - Poll taken for Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth"

Mark Morford: Priests now coming with warning labels

" ... Take the Archdiocese of New York. It has apparently just released a
coloring book for kids all about how to be safe in an age of fear and
predation. It is full of nice pictures of kids being sweet and
virginal and right, engaging in happy activities that praise Almighty
God while protecting themselves from, say, online predators and vegans
and atheists. It is about awareness, about listening to your parents
and saying your prayers and never, ever being alone with a priest and
being nice to animals and never hitting your sister and ...

Wait, what? What was that, about the priests? ... "

 

~ Full article ~