I’m nowhere near as good at the Quickies as Jen and Amanda, but I shall attempt with a late entry today! Enjoy.
- Obama just chose Nobel-prize winning chemist Mario Molina to be on his transition team. (Thanks Joe!)
- A woman got a brand new windpipe grown from stem cells! (Thanks, Maria!)
- Bigoted hate group Focus on the Family cut 202 jobs yesterday and Oral Roberts College cut 100 jobs today, proving that even the Lord’s favorite fundies aren’t immune from an economic depression.
- Looking for more links? Check out the skeptic and freethought pages at reddit! (from Kyle!)
- OH, and yesterday was Teen Skepchick Kayla’s birthday. Happy birthday, Kayla!
On the stem cell windpipe: “They have created a functional, biological structure that can’t be rejected,” said Dr. Allan Kirk of the American Society of Transplantation. “It’s an important advance, but constructing an entire organ is still a long way off.”
Start saving your money now if you want a third arm! It’s a long way off, but it will be expensive.
Hmmm…maybe I’ll start an internet fraud – I mean “firm” – that helps people save money for future stem-cell enhancements.
Ignore my pseudo-outraged comment on the previous post…
Today’s quicky is made of cool and has made me happy.
Rebecca, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re happy to have you round for a quickie any time. And your stories were excellent.
Also, way to find the up side of a crushing economic downturn.=)
The wind pipe story is so very cool. I’ve been immersed in neck cancer and surgery issues the past five months and have come across a number of folk who’ve had permanent tracheotomies as a result of invasive cancer. This is really good news and hopefully some thing that will be reasonably affordable and effective.
“Focus on the Family” and “Oral Roberts College” cuts:
See: schadenfreude. :-D
As a result of this flailing economy, not only should the right-wing nonprofits have to cut jobs, but they should also be subject to the wave of mergers and acquisitions … For example, merge Focus on the Family with Oral Roberts University and you could have “Focus on the Oral.” Now that’s an organization I could get behind (or in front of).
@QuestionAuthority: Better than Robert having an oral focus on the whole college family I suppose.
@TheSkepticalMale: Hilarious! And I love that @James Fox was on the same page.
“Robert having an oral focus on the whole college family” = the Aristocrats!
@Rebecca: Where’s Bob Saget when you need him.?!?
Nobel laureates are great, but I say James Randi for Secretary of State … there is a perhaps apocryphal story about Robert Houdin who on behalf of the French government which to a troublesome colony (Algeria, I think) and demonstrated (among other “miracles”) bullet catching for the religious leadership. The locals, for better or worse, were far less keen on revolting after that. Think of all the wars we could avert …
Besides, wouldn’t you just love to see Secretary Randi and Under Secretary Jillette bending cutlery at state events or doing a pickpocket routine on various Presidents. I say don’t let our foreign policy be merely adequate … making Amazing. I’m not James Randi and I have no idea whether or not he would approve this message.
@durnett:
I guess I won’t be ski-boxing anytime soon.
@killyosaur42: COTW nominee, for sure!