Comments on The Morning News

I like how Erica puts the Britney story between the UN AIDS story and the stem cell story.

I like how US Magazine's take on Britney's personal history is, "Britney's Twisted Childhood," because B's grandma killed herself in 1966 and her dad went bankrupt.

She's from fucking Louisiana. Shit happens. That's not a twisted childhood: it's pretty much a normal childhood for anyone who's not some fucking lily-white suburban Pottery Barn baby.

Yeah, 14 isn't really a shocking age for people to lose their virginity these days. And the "unsurprising" bit, implying that such an early loss of virginity is somehow responsible for her behavior? Grow up.

Re: GI enlistment bonuses

Just what do these wounded vets think this country is--a communist day care camp? They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, get rich and cut out the America-hating, treasonous mouthing off. USA! USA!

@4, thank you.

FDR in '08

Vile as it is, that Jets tradition would die a fairly quick death if women stopped actually complying with the men's moronic requests.

Traditions of yelling "show us your tits!" don't take hold unless some tits are regularly shown.

RIGHT ON!! We broke records for Greenhouse Gases!! WE ROCK!!!!! USA #1!!!!

I must say, between the greenhouse-gas emissions story and the two subway stories, the Britney virginity story and the New York Jets hooligans story, and even that story about the military wanting back part of the enlistment bonuses, this was one fascinating collection of news links. Uplifting? No. Fascinating, yes.

Interesting passage from the greenhouse gases story:

Within the European Union (EU), which is Kyoto's big champion, only four countries of the pre-enlargement EU-15 (Britain, France, Germany and Sweden) are on course for meeting their 2012 targets without additional measures. On the other hand, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, Italy and Spain were already as much as three times over their Kyoto ceiling in 2005.

Actually, I'm impressed that Britain, France, and Germany are on course to meet their Kyoto targets. I mean, those are the three biggest economies in Europe. This shows it's politically possible for democracies to control their carbon emissions, however modestly. Well, at least some democracies.

This is WAY off topic but am I the only liberal who is SICK of Air America Radio?

Just wondering. It is better than NPR (I still can not believe the shit that was on this morning on KOUW) but still it sucks.

Re: Greenhouse gases

I attended a panel discussion recently that featured a physicist, a stock analyst and a mutual fund manager, and they described the changes and sacrifices that Americans are going to have to make to bring down our CO2 emissions (buying more fuel efficient vehicles, switching to public transit and rail, using far less heat and AC, having fewer children, reducing the use of petroleum based products, etc).

There's only about a 30 year window in which we can make a difference, and it's going to require a major change in private investment and government policy.

To recap: We're fucked.

@ Original Andrew, I am not doing to bad for my part then. I have no kids and no desire for kids, use public transit, my bike and the occasional Flexcar usage and have no AC in my apartment.

Did anyone actually believe that Britney was a virgin? In particular, that after she moved in with Justin Timberlake, that she was still a virgin? I mean, really, was anyone that gullible?

@12: Who wouldn't fuck Justin Timberlake if they lived with him?

re: Jets games

Made me wonder, what type of liquor licenses do vendors at Seattle stadiums hold? I can go up to a private vendor in a publicly funded auditorium, purchase alcohol, then return to general seating with an open container.

I got no real problem with booze in stadiums, but with so much accountability for bars, clubs, theaters, and restaurants, why are the largest venues in the city able to serve carte blanche?

Wait, I think I just answered my own question.

Actually, the embryonic stem cell story is less than you may think. We just went over the underlying scientific papers this morning in MedGen Journal Club.

They'll be more use due to the fact that we manipulate your own cells by viral manipulation. So we can fix genetic problems you have and re-insert cells that can do things like give you non-immune-responsive bone marrow cells and regrow part of a damaged liver and stuff like that.

But the yields are really really really low and we have to use donor egg cells so trust me that the religious freaks will end up trying to stop this too.

The research is with rhesus maqaque monkeys right now, a primate semi-relative, and they used Oregon labs for it.

Which will upset all the animal people (note I sometimes donate to PAWS so they're friends sometimes) too.

It's not that big a deal for stem cell usage the way you guys think.

The big deal is, when we do it, we end up with an organism that has the DNA from the donor (which we virally "fix" to repair the damaged segment if you have a disease) and the mitochondria not from your mom but from the DONOR egg cell! So this could be used to "cure" Parkinson's disease, assuming our models that it's an ATP mitochondrial problem are correct (one of two competing theories).

Sometimes research papers don't say what you think they say in the mass media.

It's the technique that has all the scientists excited, not the actual result.

Leave... Britney... alone.