lines in the sand

Funding Stem Cell Research

Awhile back I posted this about stem cell research which made several points:

• The Federal government doesn't restrict research but declines to fund certain types of stem cell studies.
• People with moral objections to such studies shouldn't be required to pay for them.
• Private funding defeated polio.  Why not (insert your favorite disease here)?
• Government funding reduces private support.
• Government funding is vulnerable to political whims.
• Serious advances are happening in areas the government doesn't fund.

Cato's Sigrid Fry-Revere argues much the same and points out a state that does it right:

...in Missouri, voters last November passed a constitutional amendment protecting the right to pursue all forms of stem cell research allowed under federal law -- but not funding it. This ensured that the state kept the door open for private laboratories like the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which employs an international team of researchers and $2 billion in private endowments. For years, Stowers has been doing extraordinary research on adult stem cells, and the amendment will see to it that the progress continues as the lab expands into embryonic stem cell research in the future. And since it's privately funded, there'll be no bond issues, no debts, no interest to pay, and no taxpayer liability.

Stowers has shown tremendous success in adult stem cell research. Earlier this year, they documented the development of cancer stem cells. And just last month, they discovered the mechanism by which certain stem cells regenerate themselves -- a process essential to therapies that may one day heal damaged organ tissue. They are working now to expand current research programs to include embryonic stem cell research.

They again

Link: Language Log: Singular they on Facebook.

a specified-male Facebook friend will show up on my news feed like this:

John Doe added "fried chicken" to his favorite foods.

An item from a specified-female Facebook friend will show up like this:

Jane Doe added "pizza" to her favorite foods.

And an item from an unspecified-sex Facebook friend will show up like this:

Kim Doe added "burgers" to their favorite foods.

I posted on this the other day, but they point out another wrinkle here.  The usual advice given to avoid using they as a singular pronoun is to make the context plural:  Instead of 'each person made their decision...' say 'everone made their decisions...'.  But you can't make Kim Doe plural, so Facebook goes with the least objectionable of the three remaining choices (his, his or her, or their).  In fact, I have no objection at all.

NASA Garage Sale

John F. Kennedy Space Center - Surplus Property Sales Program.

Miscellaneous Knives, Scissors, Finger Nail Files, and Other Sharp Objects, apx. 50 boxes. Some items may be rusty. FSC: 9999 Acquisition Cost: $3,000 Condition: Used/Fair - Scrap

Sounds like they're selling off the stuff TSA confiscated from astronauts boarding shuttles.

HT NASA Watch

To Each Their Own

Coyote joined one of my wars today, the one that recognizes 'their' as an acceptable alternative to 'his or her'.  The PC term is just clumsy and adds nothing to the language except PCness.

To those who would tell me that 'their' is plural and shouldn't be used as singular I would ask why the same principal doesn't apply to the word 'you', which goes both ways without damaging the King's English.

In fact, one of the commenters to Coyotes entry lists several examples from the King James Bible that use the proposed construction, so it's not really anything new.

If someone wants to use the word this way, they should go ahead and do it.

New Reality Show

Sorry.

Interesting post about the number e

Coyote describes how Leanhard Euler stumbled on the number e while figuring interest calcuations.

Home Prices meet Roller Coaster Tycoon

Home prices for the last 100 years are so have been plotted to a roller coaster.  Enjoy the ride!

HT Cattalarchy

New Toy

Have you tried My Maps at Google yet?  It just came out last week and I've started playing with it here.  It's a map of the places I like to eat, excluding the chains.  If you're coming to Central Florida and want to dine somewhere besides a Red Lobster just like the one back home, take a look.  You probably won't find many tourist places, either, just where the locals go.

I will shortly be reviewing a few of them here.

Chavez and Castro Making Sense?

Surprise! Chavez and Castro may be partly right - Orlando Sentinel

The weekend before, Bush met in Washington with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a pragmatic leftist leader whose country is the world's largest producer of sugar-cane-based ethanol. The two countries are planning an ambitious program to step up production of sugar-based ethanol in Central America and the Caribbean, as a way to both supply the U.S. market and prop up the region's sluggish economies.

Sensing that the Bush-Lula ethanol agreement threatens Venezuela's oil-fueled quest for Latin American leadership, Castro and Chavez have made a sudden U-turn from their recent support for ethanol. They are now saying that U.S. plans to step up production of corn-based ethanol -- they don't openly criticize Brazil's sugar-cane ethanol -- will drive up world food prices, and increase world hunger.

Chavez, Castro and the Sentinel (actually the Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer) don't mention that the higher prices will also drive increased production of corn, sugar-cane and other ethanol inputs.  Competition for this new market could even mean more food for the hungry.

But Oppenheimer does point out a real problem that needs solving -

The solution lies in dropping the obscene 54-cent subsidy to Midwestern corn farmers, and allowing sugar-based-ethanol imports from Brazil and other countries.

Subsidies like this may help the farmers, but they hurt those who don't grow corn, i.e. the rest of us.