Republicans and Stem Cells
I just read an interesting article at time.com, “Why Science Can’t Save the GOP” by Michael Kinsley. In this article, Kinsley writes about the glee most Republicans must have about the recent discovery that skin cells can be converted to stem cells, which saves them from having to rationalize why people must die of potentially-curable diseases for the sake of embryos. He writes:
The issue has been agony for many Republicans, torn between the majority of voters, eager for the benefits of this scientific advance, and the small but intense minority who believe that a clump of a few dozen cells floating in a petri dish has the same human rights as you or I.
He also points out the fact that this breakthrough does not mean that embryonic stem cell research should be stopped:
First, even the scientists who achieved the latest success believe strongly that embryonic-stem-cell research should continue. No one knows for sure whether the new method of producing pluripotent cells will pan out or where the next big developments will come from. We are still many thresholds away from anything that can be of practical value to me and others. Scientifically, it makes no sense to abandon any promising avenue just because another has opened up.
I don’t think Kinsley hits hard enough, though. He shows the hypocrisy in trying to protect embryos that are in a situation where they are mass-produced and most will die, but that’s about as far as he goes in naming the problem with the standard Republican stance on this position. I think the real problem is that conservatives are willing to sacrifice people for their religious beliefs, and the stem cell debate is just one example of that. Their focus is not on saving human life, but on following a set of beliefs that could potentially cause themselves and others harm. So even though this breakthrough may provide scientists with a way around the debate, I have no doubt that there will be more scientific breakthroughs or life-saving cures in the future that some may feel is immoral. And when it happens, conservatives will try to block it. That’s the problem, and it hasn’t gone away.
Tags: [republicans, stem cells]Update
I am still alive, and I still consider myself a blogger. I know I haven’t written much in the past couple weeks, but I have a big project at work that demands my entire focus. I’m doing fine and I’m not overworked right now, but I’ve fallen into a pattern where I’m either writing code or I’m far away from my computer. Blogging is a hobby, but my job is my job and I have to get this project completed.
This weekend I’m going to allocate some time to catch up on emails, comments, and hopefully some blog posts that have been simmering in my brain.
And by the way, I’m not stressed out and I know everything I have to do. GTD really is saving my life right now. I have a ton of work to complete, tasks to delegate to other coders, emails to respond to, and other clients to do work for, but I’m really on top of it all. Following GTD completely (instead of using Vitalist as a to-do list organizer) has made me into a better person. I don’t know how I handled my job without it!
Tags: [gtd]Goodbye Priest
Yesterday, Priest Holmes announced that he was retiring from football. During last Sunday’s football game against the Colts he had a recurrence of some of the symptoms that knocked him out of football for two years, and it’s not safe for him to play any longer.
For anybody who doesn’t know Priest’s story, back in 2005 Priest was victim of a bad hit during a football game that caused him to tingles and sensations running down his arms and legs, among other things. I only know what I read in the papers, but I believe that there was concern that he could be paralyzed if he continued playing. He was cleared to play this summer, so he decided to attempt a comeback. It took him months to get back to playing shape, but he eventually returned to the Chiefs and even started two games.
This is only the latest chapter in Holmes’ story, though. He was injured in college and had to play behind Ricky Williams, so he wasn’t drafted. He overcame those problems, making his way onto the Baltimore Ravens and eventually became a 1,000 yard rusher. The Ravens drafted a younger, stronger running back the next year, pushing Priest to second-string. He overcame that, leaving Baltimore to join the Kansas City Chiefs. Though he started his first year in KC as a backup, by the third game was the starter and led the NFL in rushing by the end of the year. He was one of the top running backs for a couple years before he suffering a devastating hip injury. He overcame that, coming back and setting a NFL record for rushing touchdowns in a year. About a year later he suffered a horrible spinal injury that kept him out until this current chapter.
It’s all of this that has made Priest Holmes one of my favorite athletes. If you look at his history, you’ll an individual working to overcome every obstacle that is placed in his path to reach his goal, and you’ll see a success. It to watch him score so many touchdowns for my favorite team, but knowing everything he went through to do made me admire him. He is a great example to follow, even for those who have no interest in football.
McCain, Fox News, and “Fair Use”
A copyright infringement argument has sprung up between John McCain and Fox News recently. On a Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News, John McCain had a sharp criticism of Hillary Clinton’s attempt to give $1 million of taxpayer dollars to a Woodstock museum. McCain had the following to say about Woodstock:
I wasn’t there. I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time.
That’s pretty funny, and I laughed when I heard it. McCain quickly took the 25-30 seconds of the debate video and made a presidential ad out of it. In response, Fox News issued a cease-and-desist letter to McCain’s office, telling him that he was not allowed to use Fox’s coverage for his presidential ad. McCain used the clip anyway, and now many groups with wildly different views on politics have come together to denounce Fox for trying to stop McCain from using their clip. Mitt Romney even made it a point to inform Fox News that he’s going to use their footage without their persmission. Most of the criticism leveled against Fox seems to be centered around the idea of “fair use.” Since the video clip shown was so short (30 seconds out of a 90+ minute debate), it was not shown for commercial purposes, and because the clip contains information an issue that is very important to our society, Fox News should not be able to stop McCain from showing the clip.
I agree that McCain has not violated Fox News’ copyright, but I don’t agree with most of the arguments I’ve heard against Fox. This is not easy for me to explain, but I’ll try now.
I believe that Fox News is the rightful owner of the debate video that was broadcast on its network, and Fox is well within its rights to stop any action that prevents it from exercising its control over its intellectual property. The “2007 Republican Presidential Debate hosted by Fox News” (or whatever it is called) is a piece of property created and owned by Fox News, and if you want to use that property you have to get Fox’s permission. So how can I say McCain to use a clip of that video without Fox’s permission? One sentence in Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal completely changed the way I saw intellectual property, and I think it might make this issue easier to understand:
The inheritance of material property represents a dynamic claim on a static amount of wealth; the inheritance of intellectual property represents a static claim on a dynamic process of production.
Since owning material property is to possess control over something that exists, an owner of material property can cut that property up and still claim rights over every piece. For example, if you own a stick of butter and you cut it in half, you now own two half-sticks of butter. Your property right is claim on a specific piece of property, and by splitting it you merely changed the makeup of the object that you already own. Intellectual property cannot be cut up in the same way, however. An owner of a piece of intellectual property cannot necessarily cut up that property and then claim the same ownership rights over the pieces as he or she does on the whole. For example, an author cannot take one sentence out of a copyrighted book and claim to own the right over that sentence based on his copyright over the entire book. Ownership of a piece of intellectual property is the abilty to control the production of that property. Taking small bits out of a copyrighted work, like McCain did when he took the 30 second clip from Fox’s debate, does not harm Fox’s ability to control its property. Fox owns the publication rights of the debate, but it does not own the publication rights over every single word that was uttered on that tape.
This is not a limitation of copyright; it’s the definition of copyright. To own a copyright on a work is to own the copyright on that work, not every word or note that makes up the work. Many people think that the taking the concept of copyright to the “extreme” means that intellectual property owners will be able to stop anyone from seeing, hearing, or even talking about that content without explicit permission from the owner, but that’s not the truth. Copyright covers works created by individuals, and that’s all. Did McCain’s 30-second clip infringe on Fox’s ownership of the 90-minute debate? No.
Or did I, for that matter, violate the copyrights owned by the estate of Ayn Rand when I posted one sentence she wrote. No, I did not. Imagine what blogging would turn into if single sentences could be copyrighted!
I think this type of confusion about copyright comes from the backwards way that people often view copyright. Instead of treating copyright as the way to protect an individual’s creation, people treat it as a set of restrictions on what an individual can do. I think the latter approach lends itself to the idea that there has to be some “fair” balance between complete restrictions and no restrictions. Rights cannot be balanced, though. The only valid question is whether Fox has the right to control that clip.
I see one valid way for Fox to stop presidential candidates from using its video like this. All it has to do is make presidential candidates agree not to use the video in anyway in exchange for a spot on the debate. It wouldn’t stop people like you or me from using clips, but it would have given Fox a valid argument to use against McCain.
Tags: [copyright, fair use, fox news, intellectual property, mccain]High Tech GTD
I’ve been busy lately, working on a number of different projects. One of my projects is finishing “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity” by David Allen. I’ve written before about my use of GTD, my search for GTD software, and my own GTD software program (still in development), but I didn’t really know much about GTD itself. I just saw an easy-to-understand way to organize my to-do lists. I thought I didn’t need to read the book and wasn’t planning to, but for a couple reasons I had to. And I did, and I’m so glad I did. Now that I understand what GTD is about, I see that by skipping major parts (setting goals, collecting, and separating the steps of GTD) I really wasn’t getting the most out of it.
I want to write a post detailing how I use GTD now and how it helps, but today I want to talk about the next great GTD tool that I’ve started using. I still believe that software is the best way for managing and viewing GTD lists and calendars, especially when it comes to switching between contexts, projects, and goals. I don’t think current software meets the needs for collecting items, though. You can’t run to your desktop everytime you think of an idea, right? Well, I found the solution.
I’ve used a couple Palm PDAs in my life, a Palm IIIx and a Sony Clie. Well, here’s a device that beats them all: the Mead Memo Pad!
Check out these specs: 15 Lines per Page, over 50 double-sided pages per pad, and compatibility with all pencils and pens. Vroom vroom! And it comes in multiple colors!
I used to be the guy who would mock the use of paper and pen when there are so many great tech tools, but when it comes to being able to quickly jot something down I still don’t know of a better way to do it. I tried going back to Palm, but even the simplest note-taking programs get in my way. When I have an idea I need to be able to collect it without having to think about using the Palm OS to open the note-taking program.
Am I a caveman? Am I like those ladies that pull out their checkbook in the checkout aisle? Maybe. Somebody, anybody, please find a tech solution for quick note-taking for me.
Tags: [gtd]Dumping Yahoo Pipes
Last weekend, the number of OBlogger posts that I usually see in my RSS reader went down. I just assumed that most people were busy that weekend. But then Monday went by, and then Tuesday went by, and there no posts. I checked it out yesterday, and my OBlogger Yahoo pipe has just quit. This weekend I’m going to have to move all of those feeds from the pipe to the RSS reader. And then I’ll try to catch up on a week’s worth of posts.
If this is any indication of how Yahoo Pipes handles large numbers of inputs (I have probably 20-30 RSS feeds in that pipe), I can’t recommend it any longer.
Tags: [yahoo pipes]