Bordering on brilliance…
There you have it!Archive for January, 2008
Bathing in Beaujolais for real?
I think I will definitely add this to my list of places to visit if I make it over to Japan to visit my American friend residing there. Maybe he should check this out first hand and report about it in his blog…<<hint, hint>>. Apparently there is a wine spa where you bathe in wine in a pool of sorts. There is also one where you can bathe in beer. I guess you really can pick your poison, huh?
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/popup?id=3515313
http://photos.igougo.com/pictures-photos-r1176760-p178160-wine_spa.html
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/japanese-beer-spa-at-hakone-kowakien-yunessun/
Stem Cell Victories
If you know me even slightly, you’re probably aware stem cells are a strong interest of mine and most definitely a hot topic. I follow new discoveries and information quite a bit. I have a million or so of my own in storage at Fred Hutchinson which were donated during my battle with Leukemia.
Before I excitedly get started on stem cells, let me say there are not nearly enough bone marrow donors, especially among the Asian communities as well as the minorities. If you are interested in donating, but have heard horror stories about the bone marrow extraction process, consider donating stem cells which is tremendously invaluable. Keeping in mind that I’ve been through the procedure myself, it was easy and painless. If I could donate for someone else, I would do it in a heartbeat. The process is similar to giving blood. If you want more information or would like to talk about this further, please email me or leave a comment and I will get you informed.
In a nutshell, stem cells are baby blood cells that researchers are still discovering their abilities. There has been much hype and misinformation which suggest that only stem cells from aborted fetal tissue and umbilical cords are valuable, but that is in fact false. We all have quite a large number of stem cells in our bodies. Cells can be injected into various organs for the purpose of healing and/or regeneration of organs or tissue. Using one’s own stem cells is also beneficial because the risk of graft vs host issues are not a factor. Some are now referring to stem cells as personalized medicine.
For me, stem cells were a measure of potential self-preservation as I have no siblings (there’s only a 1 in 4 chance of matching anyway). I went into remission and stayed there for a sufficient amount of time that I was able to talk the doctors into doing the procedure. I can tell you I breathed a serious sigh of relief when I knew I had them safe and sound into storage.
Anyway, on the news tonight, there was an interesting story about a heart being grown from stem cells <<see link>. Keep in mind that by the time any health information hits any form of the media, it’s already quite old information. But the idea is to build a human heart out of a pig heart after injecting it with human stem cells. Once this is mastered, there is discussion about a future with other organs including liver, pancreas, lungs, etc. How cool is that. Imagine not losing loved ones because of the race against the clock for locating replacement organs.
What I’m curious about though, is if they would use the stem cells from the intended the recipient, as in a so-to-speak custom made organ or from an unrelated donor. I also wonder if the organ, say using a pig heart, injected with the recipient’s stem cells would remove the issue of graft vs. host.
http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_011408HEB_rat_heart_beating_LJ.212dbb18.html
I’ve also found US News & World Reports to be a consistent, accurate, but not inflammatory source of information about the stem cell progress. There is an interesting article in this week’s edition. Check it out.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/bhealy/2008/01/02/a-stem-cell-victory.html
The New Year’s Bust of 2008
New Year’s Eve was relatively low key. We met up with some friends at a pub in Wallingford, rang in the new year and then headed out for a celebratory burger at Dick’s.
The lines were as long as I can recall ever seeing them. Since it was cold out, and getting late, we decided to head toward home and stop at another one along the way. Approximately 15 minutes later, we rolled in to Dick’s, the lines weren’t horribly long in length, however, the wait time seemed ungodly long for the half hour it was and the lines weres barely moving, if at all.
There were some very interesting characters standing in the lines in front and around us. Believe me when I say we stood in line so long, we had a chance to check everybody out at least once while we were developing hypothermia and rapidly nearing starvation. We had one guy who I thought must have had a neck problem, when I realized he had no neck…just a head attached to his shoulders. His friend seemed like a sharp knife while boasted about how he’s not the kind of guy to drink and drive, he’d just walked all the way from Greenlake. He’d contemplated walking to the Greenwood location, but couldn’t decide how long that would take compared to Lake City. There were some girls who were dressed in very high heels that appeared to not really fit and clothes that made me wonder if they were cheap hookers or just white trash that had left a party. We had the man who was nicely dressed in an overcoat who kept looking at these individuals with a look of amazement on his face. When we were about 4 people back in line, these two other girls with their dates/boyfriends, started compiling their orders. One wanted one deluxe, one fries, one tartar. The other wanted 3 specials, 3 fries and a shake. Got me thinking too, the ole stomach started growling.
Moments later the girls approached their window. They started to place their orders when I heard one say “you’re out of specials? I’ll take a cheeseburger…no cheeseburgers, ok then, I’ll take fries.” She walked away with a very small bag of tiny fries. The person in the front of our line was having the same problem and walked away without even fries and the employee shut the window almost in his face. Keven and I looked at each other with the same incredulity that everyone around us had. Dick’s, out of burgers? Is that even possible? That’s like a crime against nature. We couldn’t believe it! It was 5 minutes after closing time, but there were still about 50 or so people in line. You can imagine the conversation on the way home, the whole debate how they could turn people away when there were so many in line.
It was a travesty and an injustice. I hope it’s not an indication of the year to come. 
Happy New Year, my friends. May the new year bless you with much happiness and prosperity!
