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BBC NEWS | Health | Green light for hybrid research

Scientists want to create hybrid embryos by merging human cells with animal eggs in a bid to extract stem cells. The embryos would then be destroyed within 14 days.

The cells form the basic building blocks of the body and have the potential to become any tissue, making them essential for research.

At the moment, scientists have to rely on human eggs left over from fertility treatment, but they are in short supply and are not always good quality.

Critics say they are repulsed by the idea and there must be no creation of an animal-human hybrid.

They say it is tampering with nature and is unethical.

It is already illegal to implant human-animal embryos in the womb or bring them to term.

Wasn’t this a movie with Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando? Or maybe I’m thinking of “Manimal”.

The Associated Press: FDA Says Cloned Animals Safe Is Food

Just over a decade after scientists cloned the first animal, the last major barrier to selling meat and milk from clones has fallen: The U.S. government declared this food safe Tuesday. Now, will people buy it?

Consumer anxiety about cloning is serious enough that several major food companies, including the big dairy producer Dean Foods Co. and Smithfield Foods Inc., say they aren’t planning to sell products from cloned animals.

Good news, everybody!

Australians are voting online for a “Word of the Year”

Australians are voting online for a “Word of the Year” from a list of new words to be included in the dictionary: among the frontrunners, “Chindia” and “globesity.” Create your favorite new word of the year that tells us something about trends in your country.

I got nothing.

Monkey Controls Robot Using Only its Mind : Environmental Graffiti - environmental news blog

Recently, neuroscientists at Duke University announced that a monkey in North Carolina had managed to make a robot all the way in Japan walk using only the power of its mind.

The monkey’s brain activity made the humanoid robot walk. This marks the first time that brain activity has been used to make a robot walk, although the research team had previously shown monkeys could control grasping and reaching robotic arms using thoughts.

YouTube - Ask Hillary

Hillary takes a few minutes on the campaign trail to answer questions sent in from young voters.

I think I just barfed a little.

One of the least used properties in CSS is the Clip property. Clip is part of the visual effects module of CSS 2.1 and its job is to place a visible window on top of an object that is being clipped. It is useful for clipping images and creating thumbnails without having to create additional files. This trick can be used to create square thumbnails, or to create other varieties of thumbnails without actually duplicating files on the server. Here is the rundown.

You think you know everything….

Missing scenes from the original Star Wars movie.

Being a “self-proclaimed” classical liberal, I had read with much attention George Watson’s “The Idea of Liberalism” (1985); references in that book prompted me to look into the writings of two well-known, staunch British conservatives, Roger Scruton and Michael Oakeshott. Both men are quite forward and unambiguous in stating their beliefs and prejudices and they do not hesitate to criticize liberalism. For the expounder of the classical liberal view I turned to my favorite, Friedrich A. Hayek; I had his trilogy “Law, Legislation and Liberty” at hand from whence to draw quotations on the subject. I was surprised to discover that Hayek seldom even uses the term “conservative”, and rarely, if ever, engages in knocking it.

Well, this certainly clears things up. Rather it adds more books to my “To Read” list. Read the rest of essay here.

The U.S. starts to choose a president this week. If you could send the candidates one message, what would it be?

My message would be: Enough Already!

Breitbart.tv » Snow-Eating Robot Poops Ice Bricks as It Clears Path
The ice bricks can be stacked and stored until they melt or used as an alternative source of refrigeration.

Michael J. Totten: A Plan to Kill Everyone

A sign on the door leading out of India Company’s Combat Operations Center says “Have a Plan to Kill Everyone You Meet.” For a fraction of second I thought it might be some kind of joke. But I was with the Marine Corps in Fallujah, and it wasn’t a joke.

I asked Captain Stewart Glenn if he could explain and perhaps elaborate a bit on what, exactly, that sign is about. “It’s pretty straightforward,” he said rather bluntly. “It means exactly what it says.”

A re-editing of Planet of the Apes, leaving only those moments where Charleton Heston speaks. The film’s narrative is reduced to a single apocalyptic monologue that is often humorous and all Heston.

Worst Resume Ever
I’ll give him an A for effort but not much else.