Date: 07/03/2003 01:15 PM
From: John Laprise ([email protected])
Subject: More Embryo Meddling Sparks Anger
The only surprise in the story was that the experiment was performed in the United States ("More Embryo Meddling Sparks Anger," July 2, 2003).
There are many countries in the world (beyond the West) that have different views on what is right and wrong and human life. Because of this cultural advantage, I anticipate that China will be a biotechnology juggernaut in the future.
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Date:07/03/2003 05:33 AM
From: Jim Engelwood ([email protected])
Subject: Beam Me Up and Out, Scotty
I don't pity Activision one bit, because the games they have churned out have been, IMHO, untrue to the "vision" of Star Trek ("Beam Me Up and Out, Scotty," July 3, 2003).
They are almost all "shoot'em-up" types of games, which is not what Star Trek has been all about. Oh, yes, there have been battle scenes and such, but the primary focus has been on the cerebral more than the physical, and the best episodes of each series have been precisely those that had the least violence in them.
Perhaps if Activision were to produce games of a more problem-solving sort rather than Doom/Quake look-alikes, they might have better success penetrating the Trekker market.
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Date: 07/03/2003 09:14 AM
From: Glen Lewis ([email protected])
Subject: More Embryo Meddling Sparks Anger
Don't see what everyone's so upset about ("More Embryo Meddling Sparks Anger," July 2, 2003).
There's no reason to believe that this doesn't happen naturally in the womb all the time, with pieces of embryos combining to form chimeras with both male and female cells.
The result probably would be indistinguishable from the majority donor except under the microscope or in the lab. Might not be fertile, though, and that may be the cause of some unexplained infertility.
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Date: 07/03/2003 12:22 AM
From: Jeff Taylor ([email protected])
Subject: Another Tool for Big Brother?
While the proposed system being developed by DARPA has additional functionality, it is not the first of its kind ("Another Tool for Big Brother?," July 2, 2003).
London currently utilizes a similar system to control its new Congestion Charging. This incorporates thousands of cameras across the city of London that can identify license plate numbers and compare those numbers against a list of people who have paid the charge.
To my knowledge, this is done in real time, and I'm sure the system is being used to track suspicious vehicles across the capital of the United Kingdom. This system won't take much to extend to the additional functionality that DARPA is proposing.
The new system has had an enormous impact on the London traffic problems, and the impact on privacy within the city is now seen as a small price to pay given that the environmental impact of the number of vehicles has been reduced, traffic flow through a city notorious for its average speed of 5 mph has improved considerably and the possible use as a security blanket that could potentially give police the ability to track vehicles involved in crime is now in place.
The U.S. public should take a long, hard look at London's implementation and weigh the benefits. The results may surprise them.
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