Wednesday, June 1, 2005

v6.0 - LEEROY

Morning Folks,

{slurp}

Here we are! My 6.0 musing coming to you live from Calgary on the 1st day of June 2005. I have managed to write 50 musings so far and I''ve enjoyed every minute of it. There is this feeling of achievement when you create something and I have done just that.

I want to thank everyone for your support and honest feedback regarding my musings. You have all helped in one way or another to make this an enjoyable experience for me. I can only hope by writing to you all that I''ve created an enjoyable experience for you.

{slurp}



That said, on with the musing!

LLLEEEERROOOOYYYY JJJEEEENNNKKKKIIINNSS!!

{slurp}

Today, I thought I would talk a little bit about cloning. No, I''m not going to talk about Star Wars and the clone troopers (aka Storm Troopers). You see, scientists have been experimenting with cloning for a long time. You have all heard about the cloned sheep over in Europe named Dolly? Well, they have also successfully cloned pretty much every type of animal you would find on a farm. Their goals are simple and somewhat noble as they are looking for alternate ways of creating animals for human needs. Who knows, within the next 10 years that hamburger you buy from McDonalds could be 100% cloned beef.

{slurp}

I''m not sure how closely people have followed the "Dolly" clone, but she was the first successfully cloned mammel ever to exsist (at least as far as we know). It wasn''t an easy task cloning a sheep as "Dolly" was their 277th attempt at cloning a sheep. Hats of to Ian Wilmut for this great discovery and huge jump in cloning science. Now, if they start cloning humans, we''re in trouble.

{slurp}

So how does cloning actually work? If we were to take the same method used to create Dolly we would need a few things to start. This sounds like a great chance to do a science project :)

{slurp}

Cloning a Human

You will need:

1 Somatic Cell Donor (person you would like to clone)
1 Enucleated Egg Cell Donor (from a different person, imagine giving birth to yourself?)
1 Surrogate Mother (can be same as egg donor)
1 DNA extractor (having issues finding one of these on Ebay at the moment)

First off, you need to take the somatic cell from a donor; this will be the person you want to clone. You will then need to extract the DNA from this cell and transfer it to the enucleated egg cell. If you were able to get this far, congratulations. Nobody has been able to perform the above procedure due to the complexity of somatic cells and the on/off genes within. Fear not, however, as technology is getting more and more advanced everyday and we will soon discover how this is all done.

Ok, so now we have taken the DNA from a Somatic Cell Donor and have placed within and Enucleated Egg. This has taken us all morning and now we''re tired and need a break. But wait!! The egg is now ready to be implanted within our Surrogate Mother. This egg will grow and mature just like any other egg and within 9 months a beautiful baby clone will be born.

I''ve done a bit of research on the "cloning" of humans and the common result of a cloned human would be an identical twin of the origional somatic cell donor. So say for a moment I donate a somatic cell and scientists are able to pull this off. The new born baby will be my identical twin and not a "copy" of me. Scientists believe that like identical twins, the "clone" will have different finger prints and be his/her own person.

{slurp}

Of course the moral principles around cloning people are all over the place. Clones are still Human beings. They would still be people born with a soul and have feelings and make decisions. I think we have all been given the perception that clones would be some kind of mindless zombies that walk around obeying commands like a damn robot. In truth, if it were possible to perform the above procedure, you would have no way in knowing who was a clone and who wasn''t. Interesting isn''t it? We know how governments like to keep things hidden from the public. Perhaps there are human clones walking among us as I type this. Perhaps there is a rogue lab of scientists out there right now getting ready to deliver a new baby clone. Perhaps I watch too much TV and need to get out and see the sun more. :)

{slurp}

In my opinion, I would like to see cloning become a viable and acceptible practice. Of course there would need to be laws governing such an important branch of science and there would be a lot of moral and ethical debats around the whole thing. In short, the majority of the world feels cloning is wrong when the only difference between a regular baby and a clone baby is the dna transfer into the egg. Scientists have been experimenting with gene manipulation for years trying to figure out what gets passed on to a child when a man and a woman create a child. They are trying to find ways of "filtering" out genetic diseases and hereditory disorders. If you''ve ever seen the movie "Gattica" you will understand what that is all about.

{slurp}

I''m going to leave that subject alone for now and move on to something different. :)

Yesterday we lost another person at our office. This person happened to be a project manager whom I''ve worked with on a number of occasions. Actually, I was talking to this individual early in the morning yesterday about a potential new project coming up regarding SUSE Linux. Then about 30 minutes later I see an email stating this person has left the company. That makes 3 people in the last 3 weeks who have "Left The Company" in Western Canada. I suspect there will be a few more before the summer is over.

I''m a bit afraid of what will happen, but right now I''m focusing on my family and my writing. Should things take a turn for the worse at work, I will move on and find other work. I will continue to work on my writing until such time as I can publish something and do that for a living instead. IT has been fun and a great experience for me. I just can''t see myself doing it for the rest of my life.

{slurp}

I guess I''ll talk a bit about World of Warcraft. Lately I have been avoiding WoW in my musings, but I think I can talk a bit about it today.

Last night I went out with a few friends to a dungeon called Uldaman. For the record, I hate that place! :) I don''t remember what level I was the last time I went down there, but this time was no different than the last. Getting wiped out because too many mobs came when you pulled sucks. Especially when the mobs are almost 20 levels lower than you and they hit for over 200 dmg a swing and NEVER miss. Not sure about the code for NPCs, but if I attack a mob that is 20 levels higher than me, you can bet your ass I''ll miss a LOT. I think Blizzard needs to work this formula into their NPCs and make it a bit more realistic. A player 20 levels higher than a mob should not take that much damage and should be able to dodge an attack much easier.

Well, we had a full wipe two times and decided to call it a night. I''m sure we''ll hit up that place again soon as there are a few quests still to do. My goal to get people to 60 is moving along fairly well. I''ve been mostly assisting others these past few days trying to get some quests done and some levels gained. Unfortunatly I can''t help everyone all the time, but I will help those who ask if I am able to. Getting the other members to 60 is my next priority. When there is nothing to do or no help is needed, I will be farming for items, leather and cash in the higher level areas until I am needed. I may also be playing an alt which I will be pushing up the ladder to 60 as well. I haven''t decided on what kind of toon my next 60 will be. I am currently interested in a Mage, Rogue or Druid. Since I''m not a huge caster fan I may just scrap the mage. I''m also not a short range melee fan either so I may scrap the rogue. The druid seems to have the best of both worlds ! built in. Great melee fighter and a ranged caster/healer. Hell, I may surprise everyone and roll a Paladin.... nah... :)

{slurp}

Well gang I''m going to call it a musing and click the send button. Thanks again to everyone who has provided feedback and comments on my musings. You don''t know how valuable your opinions are to me. Thanks for reading and heres to another 50 musings to come.

{lifts coffee}

{slurp}

Take care and remember, only you can prevent forest fires.

Cheers,

Al

No comments:

Post a Comment