HAL9000

You do realise that only members of the click leaders' click can start their own clicks? When you're done romancing the hoi polloi, I'll be happy to sponsor your application.

Craig Venter is a brilliant scientist and self-publicist who has made regular 'artificial life' claims for several years now. What surprises me is how the media falls for essentially the same techno-hype on every occasion. Venter's group has made a small albeit significant advance in genetic engineering: it has synthesised and spliced together one or more DNA plasmids large enough to contain the complete genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides, which is around one million base-pairs long. The breakthrough is in the length of the assembled DNA strands or plasmids - everything else is well-established biotechnology. The synthesised DNA was then implanted into an enucleated cell of the very closely related Mycoplasma capricolum bacterium, which was able to replicate - but scientists have been able to do that part for many years using natural DNA. Natural and synthetic DNA strands are chemically and biologically indistinguishable. All in all, yesterday?s announcement was a storm in a Petri dish. Incidentally, DNA is only the code of life ? it is not life itself. DNA is like the simple dot code recorded on a DVD ? one still needs the highly sophisticated and complex manufacturing, recording, playing and viewing machinery in order to do anything useful with it. The live host cell in this scenario provides all of that machinery.

One of my companies has been manufacturing strands of synthetic DNA since 1998. The process of inserting synthetic gene sequences (as plasmids) into living single cell organisms has been around for at least two decades - it's called recombinant DNA or gene splicing. The only "new" thing in this story is that Venter's group has synthesised a single cell organism's entire genome (as one or more plasmids) and inserted it into the enucleated cell of a different organism. Not surprisingly, the new host cell was thus reprogrammed to behave like the original organism whose DNA was synthesised. Don't get too carried away - this is not the creation of life ab initio. It's just another small step forward in the long established field of bioengineering.

Code Blue means an adult medical emergency in general or specifically the need for immediate resuscitation, for example, in the event of cardiac arrest.

silverfox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It's just been announced that American Scientists have made ... synthetic life. Actually, not quite. There is a fair bit of hype in this story. Venter's group has synthesised an existing genome. It only animates when placed in a living cell. That is not synthetic or artificial 'life' proper. See 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists

Mark Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Perhaps just plateauing, here's another one with a > 60 day moving average trendline* > ... > *I don't know if that's the right one to use but > it looks ok. That is not right. A 60-day simple moving average should be applied after zero values are removed from the time series (e.g. the first chart). The second chart looks like an IPCC data manipulation 'trick' was applied to produce an EDF version of the ?hockey stick graph? :) Interesting post nevertheless - thanks.

Orange peel contains natural oils that act as harmless but effective house fly repellents.

Without wishing to cause any offence, is there possibly a culture clash here? The 'originals' mostly appear to be university graduates well versed in sophisticated levels of discourse with a finely tuned sense of humour involving clever satire and irony whereas the newbies tend to hail from the hoi polloi side of the tracks?

During the first two centuries of Christianity the Basilidans taught: "It was not, however, Christ who suffered, but rather Simon of Cyrene, who was constrained to carry the cross for him, and mistakenly crucified in Christ's stead. Simon having received Jesus' form, Jesus assumed Simon's and thus stood by and laughed at them. Simon was crucified and Jesus returned to His Father." This heresy is often cited by Muslim scholars as the source if Islam's position on Jesus? crucifixion.

I?ve been on a break, but if anyone thinks it will perk up the Forum a bit, I'm prepared to resume harassing the moderators, fisking Huguenot and other clique insiders like an obsessive compulsive, stalking RosieH and other Femme Fatales, campaigning for BBW?s return and defending lost causes like LadyMuck and Woof? Anyone?

legalbeagle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ... so that they eventually had a heart attack. The usual COD was asphyxiation. > Jesus ... had his legs broken after he had been on > the cross for a while to bring the death about "But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled [Psalm 34:20 & Num. 9:12], A bone of him shall not be broken." - John 19: 33-36

The Koran is remarkably tame in comparison to the Gospels and the Torah - no epic dramas or miracles or a passion play: very poetic with a calm sense of authority. Seems to have done the trick, though.

There's virtually no evidence of a cross or crucifix serving as religious symbols until the beginning of the third century AD. Indeed, the earliest Christians appear to have nurtured a secret fish fetish.

Dear Silverfox, A member of our local forum appears to have developed delusions of grandeur. Should we humour him or try to get him to increase his medications?

david_carnell Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It is, to the best of my knowledge (and I'm open > to corrections), a religion based on patriarchy > and misogyny. Islam is a 'lite' or Noachide version of Pharisaic Judaism designed for Gentiles. The practice of male and female religious circumcision is derived from the Abramic Covenant whose origin lies in the Jewish Bible (i.e. the Old Testament). > At it's heart is a legal system that > is diametrically opposed to our own Almost every aspect of Islam's Shariah Law is embodied within the Jewish Bavli Talmud: the definitive exposition of Mosaic Law. The UK and US have both officially honoured and currently recognise Talmudic Law as a source of moral enlightenment and positive legal influence. > and its religious heartland is based in a country > that is run by an autocratic monarchy. You mean Saudi Arabia, presumably? If so, that is incorrect. Saudi Arabia promotes the Wahhabi interpretation, a local variation or sect, of Sunni Islam, whose highest authority is vested in the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. The Koran preaches against monarchy, a view upheld within mainstream Sunni and Shia Islamic interpretation ? no doubt that is why the Saudi Royal family promotes a variant reading. > The original article I posted is by a "reformed muslim" Actually, it is by Anglo-Jewish journalist Emma Brockes who interviewed Ayaan Hirsi Ali - a Muslim apostate. Regarding the religious mutilation of children?s genitals - how can one object to female circumcision while male circumcision is legally sanctioned and morally acceptable throughout the western world - surely they must be judged according to the same criteria: both are either abhorrent or acceptable? Apologies for the fisk-style response but I've entered this thread rather late in the day.

ImpetuousVrouw Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'd like to rent a reliable, well proportioned > dong for about an hour or two a week. Why rent when you can squat?

I agree with Santerme. I also feel that this incident is a potential candidate for a war crime investigation.

To put the current oil spill into perspective, during the Gulf War in 1991 a much larger quantity of the same light sweet crude spilled into the Persian Gulf where the temperature of the sea is similar to that in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of that oil dispersed naturally causing minimal long-term environmental damage. See Gulf War oil spill. According to CNN this morning, by Wednesday BP hopes to have up to 85% of the gusher confined within a spill capture dome presently under construction.

TJMP Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > HAL9000 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > > I know of cases where Tessa Jowell, ... blanked > > constituents who raised allegations against > > medical practitioners, lawyers and police officers. > HAL9000 - That's a serious allegation and, I > think, entirely untrue. I certainly have followed > up a whole host of allegations against doctors, > lawyers and police officers on behalf of > constituents. I take the view that if a > constituent has raised the matter it should be > properly investigated. > > If you PM me with details or email me direct - > [email protected] - with details of any > examples, I will look at them as soon as > possible. Ms Jowell, I have emailed you with the name of a constituent whose case is relevant to this discussion and is described below. I think it is right that we do not identify the constituent by name on this forum. In the mid-90s, you were approached by a constituent who had been convicted at the Old Bailey despite overwhelming evidence of having been prescribed massive doses of triazolam by an overseas doctor. Your constituent claimed that medical experts, lawyers and police had conspired to sabotage his defence of involuntary intoxication at trial. You took the case on and appointed a legal advisor to assist in having the case referred to the Court of Appeal. By the time you were approached, triazolam had been banned in the UK for causing acute psychotic episodes at the recommended dosage. You contacted the then Commissioner for the Met. Police and attended a briefing by senior police officers. Thereafter, you and your advisor dropped the case without any explanation and refused to discuss the matter again. The allegation is that you chose to side with the conspirators and withdrew support for your constituent?s cause, abandoning him to his fate.

KD - I'm familiar with the type of behaviour you have described. I know of cases where Tessa Jowell, her conservative predecessor Gerald Bowden and Harriet Harman have blanked constituents who raised allegations against medical practitioners, lawyers and police officers. I think most politicians and social elites know whose back to scratch and what to leave well alone.

legalbeagle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I can see Huguenot's thought process here - Never mind the bumblebee, that's got to be worth a Nobel Prize!

In general, investment banking divisions do not make money by taking huge risks - they make money by selling risk, which is transferred from risk-adverse clients to those seeking high risk/reward opportunities. That business model underlay the creation of the Collateralized Debt Obligation and Credit Default Swap instruments that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. The inherent risks embedded within those instruments were either misrepresented by the sellers or misevaluated by the buyers ? probably a combination of both. The 2008 Crisis was a more sophisticated version of the Savings and Loan Crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Judging by the number of issues that have been conflated or confused, this thread reveals how little most people know about investment banking and its relationship to the 'financial crisis'.

1). Cats don't get lost; they just find a better place to squat. 2). There is only one cat flap-fitter called Colin: his good and evil super-personas inhabit different parallel universes - don't you people watch Star Trek?

In case anyone here is unaware of the Greek currency swap scandal engineered by Goldman Sachs: this Google results page identifies many relevant news articles: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=greece+goldman&btnG=Google+Search&meta=