'Tis the Season

...not just for influenza and stomach viruses!

To state the obvious, this past year has seen a lot of people strapped onto a financial rollercoaster against their will, with the final peak and quick drop ending in the loss of a home, job, etc. This doesn't jive well with the year-end consumathon that most Americans are used to and associate with a happy, warm, successful holiday season. Maybe the emphasis should be put on quality over quantity. Hey, the attitude works well for beer, so I figure it could be applied to a formerly pagan, currently pseudo-Christian holiday.

As an agnostic, most of what I do in observance, such as decorations, is out of nostalgia and homesickness, since I spend most of the holiday season 1300 mi away from my family. I have my 2' tall plastic tree with Star Wars and SpongeBob ornaments (along with some gift ornaments), and I found a nativity set at Target that reminds me of the one my grandmother owned. When I look at these things, I think of family, not of Jesus, and it still makes me happy (probably happier than if I were to think of Jesus, to be honest). Similarly, I don't give gifts out of imitation of the Magi, which is sort of a weird tradition anyways. I don't know how giving your grandfather a tie clip is related to the Magi's adoration of baby Jesus, but whatever. I like giving presents, and people have only one birthday a year. Random present-giving is fun, though it's not en masse and with a warm, possibly alcoholic beverage.

Anyways, giving presents is nice and makes you feel good. That having been established, the framework of limited fundage creates problems, especially in a large family. Some options are making things (difficult if your time/talents are limited) and doing a secret Santa thing. But what if you're not quite sure what to give someone? Or what if Grandpa already has 20 tie clips, including the one you got him for his birthday three months ago?

Giving a charity gift in honor of a loved one is an excellent option, and there are many organizations that can facilitate this.




Heifer Project International is one of my favorite non-profits, since it is less about hand-outs and more about enabling, empowerment, and education. With Heifer Project, you can give gifts of animals or trees to help a community obtain self-sufficiency. Symbolic gifts of chicks, geese, and ducks are only $20, and shares of an animal gift as as inexpensive as $10. Cute gift cards are available so the honoree will know about what was given in their name.




Another great way is to "adopt" an animal. Previously, I had adopted a mother and baby gorilla pair for my mom for Christmas from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The cute mother and infant picture, last I saw, was still on the mantel in the house. There are TONS of endangered species adoption programs, so you can sponsor really any kind of animal that you or the gift recipient fancies. Many programs, like the African Wildlife Foundation Adoption Center include things like fact sheets and plush animals in return. The Sierra Club has a program where you can sponsor a national park and still be able to hand your recipient a certificate, plush toy, fact sheet, card, and maybe even backpack (depending on donation level).




Also, if you still want to give a gift more traditionally, there are ways of piggybacking it on a good cause. Fair trade websites like the Global Exchange will allow you to find cute gifts of a wide range of prices that you know weren't made by children or workers receiving exploitative wages.




But don't forget your local organizations! These can be particularly fun! Take Pinups for Pitbulls, for instance. For just $20, you can give someone lucky in your life a really awesomely designed calendar full of hot babes, cute doglettes, and a good cause. Want something for your ladyfriends? Try the South Florida Firefighter's Calendar. Or, for an extra surreal twist, try the Mormons Exposed calendars. The one of the "Mormon Muffin" ladies benefits breast cancer research, while the one of the "Men on a Mission" benefits whatever charity the "Mission Men" choose. The above picture is from this group. O.O



For the more patriotic members of the family, BuyAmerican.com has a lot of links to browse. Out of the Box Gifts has some cool gift stuff, including personalized items, and Cardboard Safari has some awesome things, such as rad animal trophy heads (like the one shown above).

There are so, so, so many websites like these out there where you can give a gift with a dual purpose, any good purpose that you believe in. You can give Grandpa the Pinups for Pitbulls calendar for him to put above the workbench in the garage (and he'll be aiding you in supporting a good cause but won't call you a commie hippie for it)...or you could always give him another tie clip.

golden!

I'm happy to announce that I've discovered a new, addictive website to join the ranks of xkcd.com, fark.com, toothpastefordinner.com, etc...Behold: Jesus and Mo, a cartoon about two whacky prophet pals.







There are so many more that I'd love to put up, by I'll instead encourage you to check out the site on your own.

JesusandMo.net

the meaning of life, or, alternatively, the meaning of "life"

this past election, colorado put on the ballot an amendment to cite life as beginning at fertilization.


in order to understand the absurdity and implications of this, lets start from the beginning with a refresher image of the not-so-fun part of getting pregnant:



so, let's talk about implications of a fertilized egg being considered a life (and thereby stopping that life would be murder, even if it means arresting my uterus):

1.) the graph doesn't mention that 50% of fertilized embryos fail to implant (i guess my uterus is paradoxically a baby killer AND a baby maker).


2.) note how many cells make up the zygote at day 3...after 2 rounds of replication, there are 4 cells...importantly, day 3 marks the limit to when you can use the "morning after" pill, plan b.


3.
) hormonal birth control has a 3 pronged attack:

1.
prevention of the release of the egg (see graph below)

2.
the mucous over the cervix becomes thicker, providing a physical barrier
3.
the uterine lining is altered to make implantation unlikely

that having been said, lets look at the diagram...oh wait, no egg, no fertilization, even if some soldiers break through the primary defense...no implantation either, even if ovulation occurs, bringing us back to the 50% implantation failure rate...if anything, taking a hormonal contraceptive DECREASES the loss of fertilized eggs, as their are less fertilized eggs in general.


so we've looked at the first few days after conception, so now lets look at the later and take a peek at what exactly is lost, whether prevented by birth control or expelled naturally...meet the blastocyst:



yes, it's hollow, and, yes, the outside is only 1 layer thick...the inner mass, or the embryoblast, is the source of embryonic stem cells.


now here's a little pop quiz...which of the following blastulae, according to the pro-lifers, has a soul?







if you guessed the top one, you would be correct! the middle is from a cow, and the bottom from a mouse (illuminated using GFP, or green fluorescent protein, an awesome and prolific tool whose inventors won the nobel in chemistry this year).


so these little bubbles of cells, indistinguishable from other species, are at the crux of the abortion/right to life debate.


now let me show you another picture human morulae (the step just before blastocyst):



6?! where did they get these? surely they must be making them to harvest stem cells!!

not quite...they're from a fertility clinic and used for in vitro fertilization...they're being incubated now, and then a few blastocysts (usually 2, though more can be used with older women) chosen for their promising-looking potential are implanted in the uterus.."just 2?" you say..."what happens to the other 4 in this batch?"...well, you can opt to have them frozen for future use, but anyone knows that frozen simply isn't as good as fresh...if not, they're chucked...yes...they wind up in a biohazard bin and eventually an incinerator.


you may be wondering why the pro-lifers are bombing planned parenthoods instead of fertility clinics...consider the moral associations that can be made if woman doesn't want to keep her child...she must be a whore, she must not be dedicated enough to her god-given role as a woman, or she doesn't have the will to sacrifice her life or months of her time to god's will...conversely, a fertility clinic is so hopeful! they want to create life! make more babies, even though the woman may not be physically able to carry to term a baby (talk about "ignoring the will of god/nature")...throwing away test tube embryos? sure...taking the morning after pill after being rape to ensure pregnancy won't occur? murder!

i want to simply touch on abortion without getting to much into it...clearly, the decision to define "life" as beginning before implantation carries the most ambiguity...truly, once implantation starts, you may as well hear the gun shot signifying the beginning of the race...this is illustrated in this really awesome image of the carnegie stages of development (which can be applied to all vertebrates but stops at 60 days):

<
(this actually pretty damn close to scale, as 5 mm is roughly .
2 in)

so, medical abortion, the kind where you get a shot and take a pill during the first visit and follow up with another pill later, can be done up to 8 weeks, which corresponds approximately to stages 22-23 (carnegie stages are determine by development, not days)...at 24 weeks, the fetus is generally thought to be able to survive outside the womb, and this is what a baby with only 24 weeks of gestation looks like:



it's a tiny, translucent little person, but still very much a baby that is a whole 13 weeks early...i can completely understand being opposed to abortion this late, but mostly because it's absurd and unnecessary...by 24 weeks, you've had a whole 6 months of time to decide on what to do, and by that point, you also have just 3 more months to go...i don't doubt that this baby is a baby and has a personality and a "self" (i'm loathe to use the word "soul"), though it was removed from the warm, dark, peaceful amniotic fluid into a world full of harsh stimuli...i imagine that it must have had that personality when in the womb, as i don't think it results from simply being removed and forced to breathe although they can't without assistance.


this begs the question: if i don't consider a blob of cells at 1 week to have a "self," but i consider a fetus of 24 weeks to have a "self," where is the transition point? i've always been a fan of EXACT moments, down to milliseconds, since i figure that there must be a very precise threshold that could be found, if we looked, past the most specific units of time we've devised...but i guess the point is that i don't know.


as far as abortion legality and availability, i believe that in an ideal world of readily available birth control, there would be no need for abortions, only at best plan b...an undesired fertilized egg would never even get the chance to implant and test the boundaries of abortion...this would mean that every woman must have access to plan b and must be informed and responsible enough to know when to take it, and that they have a plan if they do become pregnant (abortion, adoption, etc)...it also assumes that children aren't molested, or that rape victims will come forward immediately after it happened...the latter aren't realistic..also, there is the chance of contraceptive failure that may go unnoticed...but even in these cases, the woman has only been pregnant for a month when she finds out that she missed her period, and she can act immediately, or relatively immediately if you want to factor in time to make last minute decisions...an abortion after even 2 months seems a little unnecessary, unless it involves a victim that is too young or too intimidated or otherwise forced into an unwanted pregnancy...clearly the health of the mother should warrant an abortion, especially in cases of very young girls an..opic pregnancies.


but, yes, with proper education, the number of abortions past, oh, say, 5 weeks could be drastically reduced...legality for all forms of abortion is essential, though, for extraneous cases...requiring legal proof of rape/incest/imperiled health/etc could painfully drag out the process and may not even be possible to obtain, but legal proof in this instances would be required if they were to be legal exceptions to an otherwise illegal practice...valid medical (not faux medical, "abortion makes you infertile" bullshitters) counsel, at least an hour, should be required for any abortion, and references to other counseling resources should be given.


thats my personal view, and i'm glad that the amendment 28 in colorado was defeated...without a scientifically literate constituency, the possibility for absurd, scientifically nonsensical, or simply dangerous laws to come into effect is frighteningly high.


and in the next issue of "angry science rants," i'll discuss stem cells and the fact that they don't JUST come from embryos! haha...kidding...maybe

Unbelievable.

This woman is asking trick-or-treaters, children, if they support Obama. If they say yes, she refuses to give them candy.

I hope that members of the Republican party are proud that they're creating bitter, petty monsters like this. Ironically, this is the party that espouses "family values." I don't see the point in punishing the children for their parents' political views (as I don't know many 6 year old who read factcheck.org and have a well formulated schema of political ideals). Democrats and "liberals" aren't destroying this country; cruel, senseless people like this are, one community at a time.

hello, world

so i decided to give this blogger.com business a try, as i've apparently completely abandoned my tumblr blog...the color scheme is in the spirit a family car from way back when - a chevy astro minivan.

i'll leave you with a cool link with some amazing and beautiful pictures of different applications of GFP, or green fluorescent protein...this year, three gents won the nobel in chemistry for this discovery which is beyond crucial.

this above picture of the cerebral cortex is i think my favorite...and who says that science destroys the beauty in the world? you have a living abstract expressionist masterpiece in your head.