Ok, I'm posting it:

I did.

This past Saturday, while doing some yard work, I walked out of my fenced-in yard, and as I slipped through, Joey, my black Lab,

and Jadzia, my chow

shot out past me into the front yard. Before I could blink, they were gone. My two eldest daughters went looking for them, only to find out from my neighbor that they had had a short scuffle with one of *their* dogs, and headed for the highway behind their house.

We got into the van, and looked for them, but did not see them.

Later that afternoon, we got a call from my neighbor. It turns out that her daschund, who was in the scuffle with my dogs, had been found under the house, with a bad bite. In fact, her intestines could be seen through the wound.

Oh. No. ....

So, we got the numbers to the nearest animal hospitals with weekend services (good luck with that on a Saturday), and the neighbors were off. Daisy Mae (the daschund) was cleaned up, and bandaged up, but needed surgery. That was done on day before yesterday (Wednesday), and if all goes well, Daisy Mae was none the worse for wear (whew!) I paid the vets bills/expenses, and my neighbors were gracious and understanding about the whole thing.

SO, all's well that ends well, you say?

No. This was the *second* time that one of them had gotten out; that time Joey had eaten three of their chickens before I discovered what was going on. It seems that I have (unknowingly) been harboring menaces. And both my neighbors and I have small children.

So, the only logical course was: the dogs had to go.

Animal Control came and got them yesterday. It was one of the most difficult things that I had to do.

But, what was even worse, is the reaction of others. It seems that it is better to have dogs that attack other animals (and potentially people), than it is to get rid of them. I don't understand this. Why is it more important to keep the dogs, rather than keep people safe?

Don't misunderstand me: I loved my dogs. But I know that after chaining them up, then building a fence (around almost one and half acres) to keep them in (lots of $$$ there), and still having them get out and cause mayhem, for the sake of my conscience (what if their baby was walking around and got caught in the dogfight?), and peace with the neighbors (we *do* live here, after all), it made sense to get new dogs (puppies, that hopefully will not have the overtly savage traits of their predecessors).

I have discovered, in the past few days, that Chows, in particular, can 'turn', and cause the problems that I have had. And, no, these dogs were raised with my children from puppies, and they were not abused, etc.

So, it's to the Internet (gotta love it) for research on family-friendly, gentle dogs that will be content with a large, fenced-in yard, and not keep trying to escape.

I miss my dogs.

[I wish I had written this one, but I didn't... It doesn't make it any less meaningful, though :-)]

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken aback, for I do not think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, she was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let her know.

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt.

And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.

They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.

And I shall eat dessert every single day (If I feel like it)!

Transmission electron microgragh of the bacterium Deinococcus geothermalis, an extremely radiation resistant and thermophilic bacterium isolated from a hot pool in Naples, Italy. Image provided by M. J. Daly, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD, USA.


You know the cliche, wherever we find water here on Earth, we find life. But what if the environment is really hostile? So hostile that any living creature would almost never see water. And even when there was water, they were constantly being blasted with radiation. Amazingly, there's a microbe out there, Deinococcus geothermalis, that can handle some of the harshest environments on the planet - favoured habitats include nuclear power plants. Scientists once suspected that microbes like this might have evolved on Mars. Nope, they're homegrown.

Of all the different strains of bacteria on Earth, those in the genus Deinococcus are a hardy bunch. They're extremely resistant to ionizing radiation, they laugh at ultraviolet light, extreme, heat, cold and they don't mind being completely dried out for long periods. Bathed in acid? Boring.

D. geothermalis is actually a cousin of another microbe called Deinococcus radiodurans. D. radiodurans is capable of withstanding 500 times the radiation that will kill a human - with no loss of viability. The Guiness Book of World records calls D. radiodurans the toughest bacteria in the world, and some scientists have proposed that it actually evolved on Mars and somehow journeyed to Earth.

Researchers have recently sequenced the bacteria's cousin, D. geothermalis' entire genome sequence, providing some valuable clues into how a microbe can be so tough, and how they two are related (no Martian explanation necessary).

Their paper describing the results of their sequencing efforts, entitled Deinococcus geothermalis: The Pool of Extreme Radiation Resistance Genes Shrinks will be published in the September 26th issue of the journal Public Library of Science.

The microbe was first discovered in a hot pool at the Termi di Agnano, in Naples, Italy. Other scientists have turned it up in other nasty locations, such as industrial paper machine water, deep ocean subsurface environments, and subterranean hot springs in Iceland.

While working with the microbe, the researchers noted, "the extraordinary survival of Deinococcus bacteria following irradiation has also given rise to some rather whimsical descriptions of their derivation, including that they evolved on Mars."

In fact, the US Department of Energy is considering D. geothermalis as a possible solution to break down radioactive waste. Which would be good, since it's often a pest; adhering to the surface of steel, and causing problems in nuclear power plants.

Currently, scientists have no idea why bacteria like D. geothermalis are so hardy to radiation. They're just as susceptible to normal bacteria to have their DNA broken up by radiation, but they use some kind of efficient repair mechanism to fix the damage quickly.

The big surprise with this research is that it overturns previously held theories about how D. radiodurans protects itself. The two strains of bacteria are both extremely resistant to radiation, and yet D. geothermalis lacks the genes that scientists thought D. radiodurans was using. By comparing genome sequences between the two strains, the researchers were able to narrow down the genes which are likely contributing to the microbes' tolerance.

This research also overturns the intriguing possibility that D. radiodurans comes from Mars; evolving on the Cosmic Ray blasted surface of the Red Planet. These two strains have enough in common, with traceable evolutionary steps, that the researchers can see how they evolved right here on Earth.

Here's Dr. Michael J. Daly, an associate professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, "the thermophile Deinococcus geothermalis is an excellent organism in which to consider the potential for survival and biological evolution beyond its planet of origin, as well as the ability of life to survive extremely long periods of metabolic dormancy in high-radiation environments. The current work reinforces the notion that resistance to radiation and desiccation readily evolved on Earth, and that the underlying resistance systems are based on a universal set of repair genes. The work underscores the vulnerability of potential life-inhabiting environments on Mars to contamination by human exploration; and how the efficiency of ordinary DNA repair proteins could be increased, which might be important to astronauts. The growing awareness that there is hardly a habitat on Earth not harboring life is now changing our consensus of consequences for possible life on Mars."

Sorry Mars, go evolve your own microbes.

Original Source: PLOS Journal article

Filed under: Astrobiology, Mars

Link

Today was my eldest childs' 17th birthday. It seems like yesterday, I was a new mother, holding my newborn baby daughter in my (tired) arms.

She was (and still is) 'the first'...
...one I learned about teething with
...one I learned about breastfeeding with
...I learned that all children are individuals on
...the one that goes through my ignorance on every new stage of her life.

In many ways, her place in the family is, "I deal with Mom, so you don't have to".

Over the years, we have agreed and disagreed, and talked (boy, have we ever!) about everything under the sun. I have done my best to be a good mother to her and her siblings. I have tried to explain to them how the world really works, not just how the world says that it works.

I have tried to give them the benefit of my experiences (and my mistakes), and to live my life as best that I can in a way that I can look them straight in the eye when they ask me a hard question about why I did or didn't do something.

It seems to be paying off, although only time will tell in the end.

I was at church last Sunday, and a parent spoke about how teenagers don't talk to their parents. How frustrating it was, to have a child who won't talk to you. I found myself struggling to keep my face straight. From shock.

My children talk to me, sometimes about stuff I'd much rather not know about. About their friends, their feelings, their worries, and when they believe that I'm not living according to the guidelines that I've set for myself.

All in all, I think that I have a pretty good bunch of children. I drew a good hand in the child lottery.

Don't get it wrong, they get into trouble, they make mistakes, and they fight... two years ago, two of my younger children had a feud over one stealing the other ones' DIRT, for crying out loud!! Honestly! We live in the country... if there is nothing else here (no DSL, no T1 lines, no sewer, no town trash pickup), there is dirt... honestly, I tried not to laugh, but I'm sorry to say that I failed miserably. I was greeted with indignant looks at my ignorance about the difference in *this* dirt, versus the dirt over *there*. I did pull myself together long enough to apologize for laughing at them, and explained that we live in the country, and maybe, just maybe, we could find some satisfactory dirt for the both of them. "There's enough dirt in these two acres for the both of youse!"

Some days, I feel that I should have taken diplomacy classes, in addition to the law classes... those skills has been the most useful in dealing with children. They are amazingly, frighteningly logical... I don't know where they get it from, must be their dad, lol!!

I love you, children! You're going to be fantastic people... keep it up!!

©2007 LaVeda H. Mason All Rights Reserved.

This link talks more about zoonosis: what happens when a disease leaps from its accustomed nonhuman prey into a person, as happens with bubonic plague, bird-flu, Ebola and Marburg virus. Zoonotic diseases can infect more than one species, unlike, say, smallpox, which predominantly afflicts humans.

Link


And, we still don't know the exact mechanism that causes zoonsois, and which diseases are more likely to make the animal-to-human jump. And we're going to be tinkering with animal DNA/RNA/mRNA and whatnot? When we can't even keep genetically modified crops spreading their genes to other plants? Does this even make sense, except in the minds of some bean-counters in the uberprofitable multinational corporations, where the highest priority is the money that can be made?!?!

Ok... The attendant has given me my nightly hypospray; I'm calm now. I tell you, it only makes sense if the health and safety of the population is not a concern. But then again, why is any of this surprising? Especially when you consider that as fast as the human genome is mapped, it is being patented?!? Yikes!!!!

Editorial - The New York Times
Of Animal Eggs and Human Embryos

Published: September 24, 2007

Stem cell research in the United States has been hobbled for years by severe and misguided restrictions on federal funding. But now a vexing additional problem is slowing even privately financed research. There are distressingly few women willing to donate their eggs for experiments at the frontiers of this promising science.

A respected team of stem cell researchers at Harvard spent nearly $100,000 over the course of a year advertising for egg donors. Hundreds of qualified women were interested enough to call but, after hearing what was entailed, not one was willing to donate eggs. Many were likely deterred by the time, effort and pain required — including daily hormone injections and minor surgery — to retrieve the eggs. And they were almost certainly discouraged by the meager compensation.

Although women can be paid thousands of dollars to donate eggs for fertility treatments, ethical guidelines and some state laws say they cannot be paid much for donating to research. These restrictions are meant to protect the women against exploitation, but they have created a dearth of egg donors for stem cell research.

Surplus embryos from fertility clinics can seldom be used to study specific diseases or develop treatments for them. Scientists need to develop new stem cell lines genetically matched to patients with diseases like diabetes or Parkinson’s. They typically take the nucleus of a patient’s skin cell and inject it into an egg whose nucleus has been removed. If all goes well, the desired stem cell can be derived from the result.

With few human eggs available, some privately financed stem cell scientists are studying animal eggs to see if they can work the same magic when injected with a human nucleus. That may send shivers of apprehension through people who imagine rogue scientists creating grotesque half-human, half-animal creatures in the laboratory. But a thorough examination of the process by British regulators should alleviate such fears.

The British have approved, in principle, the creation of “cybrid embryos,” produced when scientists grow human embryos in animal eggs. Although the embryos would be, in some sense, animal-human hybrids, there would be remarkably little animal — only about 0.1 percent — in the mix. The embryos, and the stem cells derived, would be virtually identical to cells in the patient.

There is little doubt that human eggs would be better for research and ultimately treatment. But with a shortage of donors, animal eggs could prove a valuable alternative. Meanwhile, many scientists are hoping that it will be possible, without using eggs at all, to convert human skin cells directly into embryonic stem cells, as has been shown possible in mice. That would be an elegant solution to the vexing egg donor problem.

Link

[This piece does not address:
- What is the effect of the RNA that is *outside of the nucleus* of the animal cell... 'virtually' identical is *NOT* identical. Can you say "Frankenpeople"?

- The status of these embryos; are they human? Animal?

- Disease - there are diseases that exist only in non-human species... this experimentation may potentially create diseases that will 'jump' to humans that will make 'bird flu' look like a mothers' kiss! -- LaVeda]

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.
Robert Frost

I can't speak for anyone else, but we go through a LOT of books at my house, so we give the local public library a real workout. One of the things that used to drive me crazy was buying a book, and then discovering that the library had it, because I didn't think about checking out the library's online catalog.

Here's a site that can help you:

The LibraryLookup Bookmarklet Generator
http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/stories/2002/12/11/librarylookupGenerator.html

From the website: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/stories/2002/12/11/librarylookup.html

"After you've "installed" your bookmarklet by dragging it to your browser's link toolbar, you can use it to look up books at your local library. Let's say you're on a book-related site (Amazon, BN, isbn.nu) and your current page's URL includes an ISBN. (Choose a hardcover edition for best results -- see tips below.) You can click your bookmarklet to check if the book is available in your local library. The bookmarklet will invoke your library's lookup service, feed it the ISBN, and pop up a new window with the result."

Really cool!! And it saves me a bundle on shipping charges!!

... if you are a man. Yes, this is satire (just barely)!

Here we go...

1.) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

2.) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to do what you’re doing before helping around the house.

3.) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in “fine”.

4.) Go ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don’t Do It! The best way to defuse this situtation is to say: “On second thought’s you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

5.) Loud sigh: This is actually a word, but it is often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of “nothing”.)

6.) That’s Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That’s okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

7.) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say “you’re welcome”.

8.) Whatever: Is a women’s way of saying “you’re dead”.

9.) Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking `What’s wrong?’ For the women’s response refer to #3.