James Taranto is projecting in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal today. He accuses The Times of London of slanting it's coverage of a recent breakthrough in stem cell therapy. Taranto: Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again," the Times of London reports. That's the first paragraph. In the eighth and ninth, we learn that this promising field of technology is under threat from "powerful critics": Times of London: Previous studies have suggested that stem-cell therapies offer huge potential to treat a variety of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neuron disease. A study by British scientists in November also reported that stem-cell injections could repair organ damage in heart attack victims. But research using the most versatile kind of stem cells--those acquired from human embryos--is currently opposed by powerful critics, including President Bush. Taranto: So that means if Bush had his way, he would've stopped the new diabetic breakthrough? Uh, no, it turns out: Times of London: After stem cells had been harvested from their blood, they then underwent a mild form of chemotherapy to eliminate the white blood cells causing damage to the pancreas. They were then given transfusions of their own stem cells to help rebuild their immune systems. Taranto: So this story has nothing to do with embryonic stem cells. But the Times doesn't tell us that until paragraph No. 16." Unfortunately for Mr. Taranto, most reader's will encounter paragraph 2 : "In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood." prior to reading paragraph 16. The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.

NASA Sees into the Eye of a Monster Storm on Saturn 11.09.06 NASA's Cassini spacecraft has seen something never before seen on another planet -- a hurricane-like storm at Saturn's south pole with a well-developed eye, ringed by towering clouds. The "hurricane" spans a dark area inside a thick, brighter ring of clouds. It is approximately 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) across, or two thirds the diameter of Earth. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html Movie Eye-wall clouds are a distinguishing feature of hurricanes on Earth. They form where moist air flows inward across the ocean's surface, rising vertically and releasing a heavy rain around an interior circle of descending air that is the eye of the storm itself. Though it is uncertain whether such moist convection is driving Saturn's storm, the dark "eye" at the pole, the eye-wall clouds and the spiral arms together indicate a hurricane-like system. Interestingly, the storm seems to be locked on to the south pole of Saturn. The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.

While digging up the weed bed in my backyard, that in previous years has been a vegetable garden, I happened to unearth a large fresh cicada with no earth on it nor any sign of dehydration. Though the nymphs of cicadas do live underground they emerge from the earth and climb a tree to molt and become adults. A quick look around confirmed that cicadas had recently been molting in my back yard. (Exoskeleton of cicada nymph after molting) I was curious how a fully developed cicada happened to be underground in my garden, but kept digging so that I could plant some Swiss Chard and Turnips in time for cool weather. As I continued digging, something buzzed past me. It was a large hornet-like insect that I immediately recognized as a cicada killer wasp. So I grabbed my video camera and snapped some pictures and video figuring I had the makings of a Tangled Bank/Circus of the Spineless post. If you're not familiar with cicada killers they're a very interesting critter and you can learn more about them here than all but the most dedicated cicada killer enthusiasts could possibly need to know. The astute reader has probably discerned that, as the name suggests, cicada killers kill cicadas. The adult cicada killer lives on nectar and pollen from flowers so they don't eat the cicadas themselves, their offspring do. Female cicada killers hunt by methodically searching deciduous trees for their prey. Once spotted, the female stings the cicada paralyzing it, she grasps the cicada to her underbelly with her legs and then she flies or crawls back to her burrow. In the burrow the cicada killer places the incapacitated cicada into an individual cell and lays either a male or female egg on the cicada. Interestingly, cicada killers provide their larger female offspring with two or more cicadas while males only rate one. So, somehow the cicada killer is able to control whether its offspring are male or female, probably by controlling whether stored sperm are allowed to fertilize her egg. (Male wasps are haploid so they only need genetic material from the mother so no sperm would be necessary.) After placing the cicadas in the cell the female blocks off the entry to the cell and leaves the burrow to hunt for more cicadas. After the eggs hatch the larvae consume the anesthetized cicada, molt several times as they grow, then form a cocoon in which to overwinter and undergo metamorphosis to emerge the following summer just as their cicada prey are also emerging. Do you have cicadas in your yard or near wher you live? As it turns out you can help with cicada killer research if you do. These researchers are collecting cicada killers and the cicadas they prey on from all over the country. They have a list of each county that they still need specimens from so that they can identify the range of different types of cicada killers and which cicada species they prey upon. You can either kill and mail in your cicada killer (they recommend swatting them to the ground with a tennis racket and finishing them off with finger nail polish in a glass jar) or you can take a digital picture and email it to them. I've emailed them to let them know that I'm standing by with camera in one hand, raquetball racket in the other to help them out if they need me! So if you have a cicada killer burrow near you get in touch with them and see if you can help out. UPDATE: The latest edition of the Tangled Bank is up at Hairy Museum of Natural History. UPDATE: Submitted to the Friday Ark. The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.

is up at Daylight Atheism. Some great selections: The 2% Company on the absurdity that is homeopathy. Oracs Friday dose of Woo: Mere Regularity is Not Enough. And Eor's got a live wire in Giant UFO Built Yowie Pyramids of Bullshit an excerpt: "Dian spontaneously accesses past life knowledge as a Master Sound Healer in the Court of Akhenaton in Egypt and combines it with vibrational knowledge from Higher Dimensions and Other Worlds." Man, how come I never find anything that absurd? The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.

Or drugs? (long video clip) It's rumored that one of my professors from undergrad figures prominently in this, er... educational film that shows that learning molecular biology can be fun! Without being incredibly geeky. Well,... maybe it just shows that learning molecular biology can be funny. Update Thanks to Turtles all the Way Down at Metafilter for the link. The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.

Wesley J. Smith Senior Fellow Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture Dear Mr. Smith, I sympathize with the distress you expressed at learning you will have to financially contribute to your chief executive’s decision to provide $150 million to support embryonic stem cell research in the state of California. “The people of my state--unfortunately--voted to financially support this research. I am now stuck having to help foot that bill. But at least people in other areas of the country who disagree won't have to open their wallets.” As a supporter of Governor Schwarzenegger's decision I feel guilty that you will have to fund this research and I will not. It is indeed troubling when a citizen is compelled to fund activities in a “highly speculative and morally controversial area” with which they do not agree. I am similarly troubled about my continued funding of the Iraq war. Perhaps you and I might be able to come to an agreement that would extricate us from this thorny ethical and costly financial dilemma in which we have become embroiled through no fault of our own? I suggest that I will mail you a cashier’s check for your portion of the state of California’s funding of ESCR, which I support, and you can return to me my tax dollars that have been spent on the Iraq war. Lets see what do I owe you? The population of California is about 34 million: $150 million divided by 34 million Californians ----------------------------------- = $4.41. Wooowhhh!! That is a chunk of change Wes! Tack on postage and it’s almost a fiver! Now lets see what you owe me? Iraq war costs about $297,909,000,000.00 and counting. US population is about 300 million, $297,909,000,000.00 divided by 300 million Americans ----------------------------------- =$993.03 Please email me for details on transferring these funds to my PayPal account. Now if you’ll excuse me, Momma needs a new pair of shoes! Kind Regards, PhB. Update: ps: I'm not opposed to invading countries per se. I just find the activities of blowing people up with bombs or shooting them with big guns to be a morally and ethically questionable practice. As such it would be far better if such activities were funded with private money rather than government funds. Afterall, if Iraq were going to produce lots of oil wouldn't Exxon Mobil or Halliburton be paying us to take over the country? Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have avoided this speculative and highly controversial empire building freedomizing in the middle east. Do they know something we don't? The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.

"Hey! What the ...????" Tap! Tap! Tap! "Is this thing on?" "Holy shit guys! I think this thing is still on! What should I do?" Pharma Bawd: "Say something!" "Like what?" Pharma Bawd: "It's a blog say something witty, or insightful,... or pointless, or... whatever! Just say something!" "So, umm,... How 'bout those Hurricanes?" "You know I here they've begun picking up in intensity due to global warming." "Heh, heh,..." Pharma Bawd: "Oh Jeeze! Just write something about science in case anyone is still listening." To anyone who has stopped by for the last four months,... Four months? Has it been that long? We're um, sorry for the delay, we've been ummm.... Lazy. We'll try to write something interesting here shortly. The only blog inspired by a Bumper Sticker.