News happens every day whether we want it or not. It’s been a while since I rounded up the information dogies. So without further ado about nothing…
The first story that caught my eye was this bit of reasearch into Autism. There has been a tendancy to blame autism on childhood inoculations. Parents have gone so far as to opt out of these for fear that their child will go autistic. Finding a genetic cause does not support the drug cause theory, but may open science to treatement.
A Genetic Clue to Why Autism Affects Boys More
Among the many mysteries that befuddle autism researchers: why the disorder affects boys four times more often than girls. But in new findings reported online today by the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers say they have found a genetic clue that may help explain the disparity.
The newly discovered autism-risk gene, identified by authors as CACNA1G, is more common in boys than in girls (why that’s so is still not clear), and the authors suggest it plays a role in boys’ increased risk of the developmental disorder. CACNA1G, which sits on chromosome 17, amid other genes that have been previously linked to autism, is responsible for regulating the flow of calcium into and out of cells. Nerve cells in the brain rely on calcium to become activated, and research suggests that imbalances in the mineral can result in the overstimulation of neural connections and create developmental problems, such as autism and even epilepsy, which is also a common feature of autism.
News on the nomination of a New Justice to the Supreme Court…
Desperation is goad of success, or at least the elect cattle prod. The continuing collapse of the economy makes my work toward my degree in English and a teaching credential an ineffective way of making a living. California, you see, is laying off another 26,000 teachers. So I will be going back to looking for technical writing, and pushing very hard to complete write full time.
Think of this as my year of writing dangerously. Red Tears is close, and another novel in the works, Oubliette, will bend the fantasy and Science Fiction Genre in ways that, I hope, will resonate with agents and readers. But I really haven’t a choice.
It has been a long time since I’ve saddled up my keyboard, put on my spurs, and rounded up the news doggies. Elections happened, administrations have changed, and even Continental drift has moved on at its glacial pace. But News happens every day whether we like it or not, so here goes.
The Bush Administration is gone, they’ve tiptoed through the tulips into history, and Cheney is still out there trying to frighten Americans. It seems to me that the war on terror should add Cheney to the list of known terrorists.
Cheney warns of new attacks
Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.
In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.
And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.
The XVP needs to return to his undisclosed location, close the door, and stay there.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into science class, creationist sharks are once again cruising in Texas to devour and defecate away any ounce of scientific inquiry into evolution. Armed with the Bible and a copy of Archbishop James Ussher’s chronology dating the world’s creation to 4004 BC, they have taken a new approach to remove any and all consideration that the process of evolution might have a part to play in the development of species.
They started with “Creation Science” that was every bit as scientific as flogging your back with spiked Rosary while screaming, forgive me God for I have sinned. When that didn’t work, they evolved debunked “Creation Science” in to “Intelligent Design,” which was Genesis carefully rewritten with all mention of “God” removed. Intelligent designed was debunked and finally banned from the public school curriculum in Pennsylvania by a federal judge. That did not stop them, of course. Persistence is an important quality in the faith based community.
Their new tactic in the war to shove their very narrow view of religion down the throats of anyone who might want to have their own ideas is a small phrase “strengths and weaknesses.” To quote Laura Beil in The New York Times, “The “strengths and weaknesses” language was slipped into the curriculum standards in Texas to appease creationists when the State Board of Education first mandated the teaching of evolution in the late 1980s.” For a scientist, the concept of “strengths and weaknesses” is natural, benign, and normal. Everything in the universe, be it the atomic bond between atoms, design of a bridge, explanation of Super String Theory, economic analysis, or a particular type of colorectal exam have natural “strengths and weaknesses.” To Creationist Sharks, which I can now rename Strength/Weakness Sharks, just the word weakness provides an opening, a weakness you might say, that they can use to remove knowledge from the act of education.
For me, it is difficult to understand the level of intolerance necessary to drive one group of people to remove the very idea of evolution from the memory of mankind. I recognize such intolerance’s existence, of course. I see the evidence of such intolerance again and again through history, and not simply with the Theory of Evolution. That intolerance is as easily linked to the shape of the eyes, the color of the skin, the nation of birth, or the ideology of a government. It is something that lurks deep inside all of us, I suppose. Something we each bring out and use against the thing that we don’t like. But that doesn’t make what they are doing in Texas acceptable. It doesn’t make it right. It is something we have to guard against.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into science class, creationist sharks are once again cruising in Texas to devour and defecate away any ounce of scientific inquiry into evolution. Armed with the Bible and a copy of