Saturday, September 24

News brief

From last night's edition of my BBC email, here are a few news articles about issues affecting our world.
  • Down's syndrom recreated in mice: Gerry Coghlan, a consultant cardiologist, ... said: "If you've got a mouse model of Down's, you can take individual genes out and see what happens over a period of time. "That way, we can find out which genes are responsible for the heart defects, the brain defects, the problems with the thyroid and the tendency toward leukaemia. "We can then begin to understand what the underlying problems in the cells that lead to these conditions are, and whether or not we can treat them."

    I have an aunt with Down's, and it's kind of hard for me to deal with sometimes. I can imagine what it's like for her, or for my dad (she's his sister), or anybody, really.

  • Vatican 'to ban new gay priests': The Vatican is to ban all gay men from joining the clergy even if they accept a vow of celibacy, reports say. ... "The difference is in the special atmosphere of the seminary. In the seminary you are surrounded by males, not females." ... But some Catholic leaders say there is no proof of any direct connection between the presence of gay clergy in the church's ranks and child abuse scandals. ... "I've heard priests both gay and straight seriously consider leaving. They couldn't believe that after centuries of either explicit or implicit welcoming of celibate gay clergy that church would turn its back on them."

    I hope that this is just a rumor, but something tells me that, what with the new pope and all, it's not.

  • Deadly plague hits Warcraft world: In his death throes Hakkar [the god of Blood] hits foes with a "corrupted blood" infection that can instantly kill weaker characters. The infection was only supposed to affect those in the immediate vicinity of Hakkar's corpse but some players found a way to transfer it to other areas of the game by infecting an in-game virtual pet with it. This pet was then unleashed in the orc capital city of Ogrimmar and proved hugely effective as the Corrupted Blood plague spread from player to player. ... Luckily the death of a character in World of Warcraft is not final so all those killed were soon resurrected.

    I find this one simply funny, since my brothers play WoW like there's no tomorrow. I'm still kind of confused about the virtual plague thing, though.


I don't really have anything else to say right now.

Except that I'm trying this brioche stitch (bi-color, too, if I can manage it), and it might make a really cool scarf, if I can stop my edges from getting loose.

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