Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Burnt to a CRISPR

Kept it in the oven too long....

"Do CRISPR enthusiasts have their head in the sand about the safety of gene editing?" by Sharon Begley, July 18, 2016

WASHINGTON — At scientific meetings on genome-editing, there was a skunk at the picnic: an emerging concern that some enthusiastic CRISPR-ers are ignoring growing evidence that CRISPR might inadvertently alter regions of the genome other than the intended ones.

Studies show this can also hit genes on virtually every one of the other 22 human chromosomes and there can be as many as 150 “novel” off-target sites, meaning scientists had no idea those errors were possible.

Some might call it playing Dr. Frankenstein, but....

One reason for concern about off-target effects is that genome-editing might disable a tumor-suppressor gene or activate a cancer-causing one. It might also allow pieces of two different chromosomes to get together, a phenomenon called translocation, which is the cause of chronic myeloid leukemia, among other problems.

Many researchers, including those planning clinical trials, are using web-based algorithms to predict which regions of the genome might get accidentally CRISPR’d....

The hope is they “think they can get off-target effects to less than 1 percent, but” would you want to take the risk?  

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Globe edited it out?

Related: Leaving the Nest 

Time for me to leave.

UPDATE: 

Maybe they can edit the criminal out of me because I returned to the scene of the crime.

Baton Rouge officers were ‘targeted and assassinated’

Kind of scary when they place it right next to something else that is going on, but I will leave that for you kids to decide.

Fourth Baltimore officer acquitted in Freddie Gray case

I beg of Baltimore to keep your cool despite the heat.

"Police in St. Paul on Monday reopened the avenue that had been shut down by protesters in front of the Minnesota governor’s mansion after a suburban officer shot and killed a black man during a traffic stop. Officers informed protesters at 6 a.m. that they would no longer be allowed to occupy Summit Avenue ‘‘because they had created an ongoing public nuisance,’’ police spokesman Steve Linders said. Protesters voluntarily packed up and removed their personal belongings, he said, adding that everything was peaceful and nobody was arrested or cited. Black Lives Matter protesters had been assembled outside the mansion."

You know, we are all the same on the inside and in the head. Each human entity IS a unique organism.

In this case there were no charges. That's what they were upset about. There is that thing that happened in Oregon, but no one much remembers now. Rural AmeriKa is just as much a battleground as the inner cities sometimes. Or the churches, for that matter.

UCLA shooting victim was engineering professor, officials say
UCLA shooter intended to kill second professor
UCLA gunman’s path to murder-suicide began with killing of estranged wife

His path went through Minnesota, so.... the mass shooting psyops coming at you daily these days.

I'm not trying to ‘‘look the other way,’’ but.... nothing left to see here?

"Turkey widens purge; US warns against suspension of rights" by Ceylan Yeginsu New York Times  July 18, 2016

The choice of headline and author of the article lets you know which side the pre$$ is on. In retrospect, they have slowly been preparing the ground for the coup these last few months.

ISTANBUL — The magnitude of the purges has raised concerns among Turkey’s Western allies that Erdogan is abandoning the rule of law and using the coup attempt as a pretext to cleanse the country’s institutions of his enemies.

Purge, cleanse, NYT, c'mon.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim suggested to reporters in Ankara that “at this stage, there could even be a questioning of our friendship [with the US].”

The vast scale of purges, especially among security forces, has left Turkish citizens anxious over how the country will maintain stability and order at a time when it is reeling from a string of terrorist attacks by the Islamic State and Kurdish militants that have killed scores of people over the past year.

It's like he's a Saddam Hussein now!

Seda Kapici, a lawyer, who was discussing the weekend’s events with a friend at a coffee shop in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul, said, “Everyone is on edge, and with these purges, I don’t know how people are going to be able to go about their normal lives,” she added.

“The Erdogan supporters are sheep, and they will follow whatever he says. But for people like us that use our minds, we get that this means a huge lapse in security,” she said. “We are not safe.”

Oh, okay!

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Speaking of keeping their people safe:

"Britain votes to renew nuclear arms" Associated Press  July 18, 2016

LONDON — British lawmakers Monday approved replacing the country’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines, a powerful but expensive symbol of the country’s military status.

The House of Commons voted, 472 to 117, to build submarines to replace the current fleet, in service since the 1990s. The government estimates the cost of the new subs at up to $54 billion over 20 years.

As they lash the British people with austerity.

The Conservative government was determined to maintain Britain’s nuclear deterrent, which consists of four Royal Navy submarines armed with Trident missiles.

Then they will go off and lecture others about wanting it.

In her first address to Parliament since taking office last week, Prime Minister Theresa May didn’t hesitate when an opposition lawmaker asked the toughest question for any leader of a nuclear state: Would she be willing to order a nuclear strike?

‘‘Yes,’’ May said.

I'm absolutely shivering, and so much for the world being better if women were running it. Yikes!

The government motion had the backing of Parliament’s Conservative majority and passed easily. But the debate stirred strong emotions — and split the opposition Labor Party.

Maybe that was the point.

May said ‘‘the nuclear threat has not gone away; if anything, it has increased,’’ with a newly assertive Russia and a desire from countries including North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons in defiance of the international community.

May said that although Britain has voted to leave the European Union, ‘‘we will not leave our NATO and European allies behind.’’

Britain has been a nuclear power since the 1950s, and both Labor and Conservative governments have consistently supported atomic weapons.

The Scottish National Party was firmly opposed to renewing the Trident fleet, which is based on Scotland’s west coast.

Nuclear disarmament has been a lifelong cause for beleaguered party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is being challenged for the top job by two Labor legislators. He urged lawmakers to oppose replacing the subs, but many Labor members favored keeping them to preserve jobs.

Truth is, I'm not for disarming. I don't want to leave Israel as the only one with nuclear weapons, nor would I want to open other countries up for attack by EUSrael. Kind of a paradox for a peace person, but there it is.

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Some others who might not feel so safe in British hands:

"Ireland hits Brexit alarm in foreign policy, trade crisis" by Dara Doyle and Marc Champion Bloomberg News  July 19, 2016

DUBLIN — The prime minister is under pressure, economists are slashing growth forecasts, and companies are warning of Brexit’s dire consequences. London? No, Dublin.

The intertwining of trade and finance means no other country is feeling the fallout from the Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union more than Ireland. In the year that the Irish marked the centenary of their uprising against British rule, the country remains at the mercy of the unfolding drama in its closest neighbor.

‘‘It’s the most serious, difficult issue facing the country for 50 years,’’ said John Bruton, 69, who was Irish prime minister between 1994 and 1997 and later served as the EU’s ambassador to the United States.

Exporters have warned the plummeting pound will erode earnings and economic growth, just as a recovery had taken hold after the 2010 international bailout that followed the banking meltdown. Irish shares have declined, not least because the United Kingdom is the top destination for the country’s exports after the United States and the biggest for its services.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Enda Kenny is fending off demands by Northern Irish nationalists for a reunification poll as he comes to terms with the loss of a key EU ally and as plotters from his party try to topple him.

An Irish coup?

Also, there’s the future of the United Kingdom’s only land border with the European Union: Northern Ireland and Ireland.

‘‘The consequences are mind-boggling,’’ said Eoin Fahy, chief economist at Kleinwort Benson Investors in Dublin.

When Theresa May took over as British prime minister Wednesday, Kenny was among three leaders she spoke to, along with Germany’s Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande of France.

Britain and Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973. Ireland was drawn in part to escape what one politician called ‘‘our gate-lodge attitude toward England.’’ More than four decades later, the two countries remain woven together economically as well as culturally and linguistically.

Why did take them 25 years to end the war then?

Ireland uses the euro yet does about $45 billion of trade with the United Kingdom. About 380,000 Irish citizens living in Britain were eligible to vote in the Brexit referendum. Britain also chipped in for Ireland’s bailout six years ago, despite not being part of the euro region.

Companies such as Netwatch Systems thrived on those ties.

Some are, but not so much this blog.

From its base in Carlow, southeast Ireland, the video-surveillance company monitors more than 500 sites in cities including Birmingham, Manchester, and London, sending live audio warnings to intruders. Netwatch, which ventured into the United Kingdom in 2007, generates about a fifth of its sales there. The 8 percent slump in the pound against the euro since the June 23 referendum has hurt.

That's the pre$$'s example of a going bu$ine$$ concern.

‘‘We were all shocked’’ by the result, said David Walsh, 51, one of Netwatch’s founders. ‘‘We’ve come through a fierce recession over the last eight years and now another knock.’’

The question is how Ireland’s politicians and executives react to what could be a foreign-policy crisis that eclipses the nation’s banking collapse and bailout.

UH-OH!!

It’s this scenario that prompted Kenny to create a government unit as early as 2015 dedicated to developing contingency plans for Brexit. While proposals involved potential support for some exporters, the government admits it’s hard to prepare detailed plans before the exact nature of the UK’s new relationship with the European Union becomes clear.

The most obvious issue is the 310-mile border between the north and the republic, stretching from about 60 miles up the eastern coast from Dublin to Derry in the northwest.

Handled poorly, Brexit could ‘‘reveal tensions between unionists and nationalists that were always there,’’ said Lee McGowan, senior lecturer in politics at Queen’s University Belfast.

With the violence in Northern Ireland largely ended and the single European market embraced, border controls melted away. About 30,000 people a day cross a frontier that was renowned for gun-running during the Irish Republican Army’s campaign against British rule.

After the vote, Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan warned that ‘‘the likelihood of a hard border’’ is uppermost in Irish minds. Privately, officials are less concerned, arguing that the reintroduction of controls would be in nobody’s interest.

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Might be of some interest:

Attacker in France researched other terrorist plots

Maybe they would feel safer under Japanese occupation

I missed the train out Portugal heading for Germany and good thing, too.

Back home it's blam, blam, you're dead, you're dead, and if it looks like a duck.... then it's a duck! Nothing left to do but ID the body. I wonder if the government will let their pathetically set-up patsies go. You try to get away from it and: 

"A Merrimac police officer who noticed that the light above the license plate was broken, officials said. The officer activated his blue lights to begin a traffic stop, but the vehicle sped off, heading towards Amesbury, Merrimac Police Chief Eric M. Shears, said in a written statement. Police later determined the license plates on the vehicle had been reported stolen...."