Monkey Clones For All!

"A team in the US created dozens of cloned embryos from a 10-year-old male macaque, the journal Nature reports. This could make it easier to clone human embryos for use in research...

...Josephine Quintavalle, director of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core) told BBC News: "Bringing a clone to term is the only way to show that the cloned tissue is safe."...

...“It’s clear that humans are very different from chimpanzees on several levels, but we wanted to find out if it could be the splicing process that accounts for some of these fundamental differences,” says Blencowe, a professor with the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and Department of Molecular Genetics. “The surprising thing we found was that six to eight per cent of the alternative splicing events we looked at were showing differences, which is quite significant. And those genes that showed differences in splicing are associated with a range of important processes, including susceptibility to certain diseases".

Noticing these differences between us and our Linnaean cousins has strong implications towards completing the database on why some diseases affect us and not others, and vise versa.

Now, ethically this seems wrong, yet, historically the treatment and advancement of medical science has always had a dark side. When the benefits come we rarely look at the process that brought them about. In the first stages though we want to fight tooth and nail against them and their barbaric methods. Reminds me of the saying "One cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Does it then comes down to the question of whether saving future lives are worth sacrificing some now.?

Always at odds, when weighing the factors of morality.

Rant from a night with no coffee.

Why are there no amenities for those late night hawks who dawdle around in the wee hours of the morning and are trying to find a place of peace or chaos to finish their work and enjoy their hobbies.
Of late there have been times when it is 3 am and I am writing a paper, studying for tests, researching a project, trying to compose a letter, attempting to practice an instrument, finish up a presentation, writing a blog, trying to become committed, long days at some sort of office to pay the bills. There just aren’t enough hours in the week to fit it all in.


There are those around though that thrive in the night when the majority sleep. Coffee and cigarettes, chai and sugar cookies, even mountain dew and cheetos. These supplements aid in the cycle. As a North Shore resident and CAP student I've wondered where one can go for some all night cramming, and my room mate wishes he had somewhere to practice his stand up bass at 1 am and not have the neighbors complain and look at you like some sort of demon in the morning. As for coffee shops choices are cut down to Tim Horton's, Waves, or….. I think that's about it. Wait there is Denny's as well. Ahh the joys of insomnia and a student life.
Obviously if one wants late night amenities there is always downtown, but taxis and late night long bus trips become a tad off putting.