The future of Genetics

In biology class I had to do a write-up on genetic testing and gene therapy. To summarize, the future of science and medicine includes genetic testing and alteration in order to predict, prevent, and treat disease. Currently, doctors can test people for genetic misspellings to see if an individual is high risk for any given disease, such as breast cancer. Recently doctors have been able remove cells, replace the misspelled DNA strands and replace the cells and the patients can dramatically improve. Also stem cell research has given many people hope that their currently incurable disease will be curable in the future. Scientists can even look at a fertilized egg to see what genetic predispositions it will have. In the future they will be able to remove such predispositions. There are so many intriguing possibilities in the future. But it is not without its controversy.

Many people think that such gene therapy, and future possibilities are unethical. They believe that people are “playing God” and are meddling in things that aught not be meddled with. I don’t know where I stand exactly. But I do think that a world where sick and suffering people could be cured with relatively little pain is a world in which I would like to live. 

Summer jobs, part II

Job number two. I am also a door-to-door salesman for a company called iPreserve. It is a very interesting company. We take old media and convert it into digital formats. We can do photos of all kinds—loose, in a sleeve, album, scrapbook, or anything for that matter. We can even do old slides and negatives.

We can do all sorts of video—mini dv, vhs, Hi8, and others. We can even do the old school 8mm and 16mm reels of film. A lot of people have some pretty old stuff.

When we convert the stuff we can put it onto a DVD or a bluray disc. Or we can put it onto a hard-drive. We can usually get it done in 2-3 weeks.

Another very good service that we provide is free archiving. Whenever a customer gives us their stuff we make backups. This way if anything happens to their stuff we can make a new copy for them without any charge.

It is a really great service so if any of you have any family members or friends who would benefit please let me know.

Calling all e-socialites! I need your input.

I have two jobs this summer. And because I have this wonderful medium to freely express myself (e.g., this blog) I will take the time, and take advantage to tell everyone who follows me (2 people) about these jobs.

Osama Bin-killed

After commencing two wars and ten years of searching, Osama bin Laden has finally been caught and killed. This very idea stirs up several different emotions inside of me, and still questions remain. When I first heard the news, I was excited—happy even. But then as I watched the news more, and especially as they showed several people in the streets celebrating, I thought that my emotions may be inappropriate.

Women's conference

I have dealt with infestations before: ants, cockroaches, wasps, etc. But none have been as invasive as the women’s conference at BYU this April. I had heard that there was some sort of a conference for women being held on campus but at no point did it enter into my mind that it would be such an inconvenience.

Fingers Ready? Computer on? Ding Ding: Blogging, Round II

            In fall of 2010 I took a class called Digital Civilization at BYU. IT was a very unique class that aimed to teach us post 1500 world history, but also to make connections with any given movement or event’s modern digital counterpart. For example, when we talked about the printing press and the informational revolution that followed we then drew parallels to the recent Internet revolution and the splash that it caused. The class was one of the most interesting I have ever taken and it was certainly the best history class I have ever been a part of.

Now, why am I talking about a history class? Well, you see, in said ‘revolutionary approach to learning history’ our teacher required us to keep a blog of our research and thoughts on the subjects at hand. At first I was very reluctant to keep a blog (you see I thought blogs were only for teenage girls who needed more space to tell about their feelings, or for stay at home mom’s who didn’t have anything to do with their days). I was clearly above that lowly form of media. However, as time passed I found my regular blog keeping to be quite engaging, and, at times, even therapeutic.

And so as I begin my second leg of blogging I do so with a better attitude: excitement and willingness. Enjoy the blog!

One Last Reflection

Well it is with a figurative tear in my eye that I write this, my final reflective blog post. I looked back on my first blog post “we are no longer the center of the universe” wherein I concluded the internet and the ptolemic model of the universe both make us realize our place in the world is not as high as it once was. And I feel after a full semester and nearly 50 or so posts that I am now even smaller in this huge digital universe. But because of this class I also feel empowered and ready to take on my education like I never have before. Here I will reflect one last time how I met the learning outcomes for this class.