Propeller Week In Review: November 16, 2007 — Nov 16th 2007

By James Marcus

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Our top story for the last week, with a whopping tally of 444 votes, was "World should ban human cloning, except medical: U.N." Like most science stories with ethical entanglements, this one prompted a spirited conversation. 1-2-Oscar, among the liveliest and most cogent contributors here at Propeller, had a straightforward response: "Hooray!!!" The opposite tack was argued by tkyrchncs: "Completely alarmist and ridiculous. We should have long been able to clone tissues and complete individuals by now. We cannot stop it from happening by making laws." But reviewer would not be swayed: "I wrote an article on cloning for food, and the main thing that scares me about cloning cattle just to have a larger T-Bone is the loss of genetic diversity in the species. Anyone who raises or breeds animals knows the short and long term health consequences." That leaves this ardent response by joeblowe: "If I want to clone myself, it's NOYFB!" No argument there--but if things work out, you'll need a different IP address for joeblowe2.

BIRD FLU

Speaking of apocalyptic science, there was also "Bird flu confirmed on farm in east England," which nabbed 244 votes and 28 comments. One member, saintetienne, dismissed the whole story as an (appropriately) Chicken Little phenomenon: "More people have died from the common cold in that time than bird flu. More people are murdered in any medium-sized city in 1 year than people have died worldwide of bird flu in 4 years." Hanyman disagreed: "The reason why bird flu is regarded as a great threat is because of its potential level of contagion and fatality rate... We should not forget that the flu epidemic of 1918 killed more Americans than all of our wars combined." And getreal1 added an extra culinary note: "When I was a little girl, having rabbit and squirrel on the table didn't bother me." Poultry fanciers, you heard it here first.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

As usual, several of the presidential candidates came in for a drubbing. There was "Hillary Clinton Stiffs Iowa Waitress" (95 votes, 137 comments) and "Giuliani Quotes Bible, Misses Jesus' Point" (193 votes, 228 comments). Another Clinton-related post, "Student given question to ask Clinton: I wasn't only one," bagged 207 votes and 324 comments, including a Dueling Links segment in the thread. First AlphaGnosis piped up with this CNN clip of the Grinnell sophomore spilling the beans. Then ybdogsct fired back with a link to this Guardian article about George W. Bush's stage-managed appearances. But it was John Edwards who may have suffered the most interesting indignity of the week, getting booed and hissed at a John Mellencamp concert. The comment thread spun off into some interesting detours. Was pouty Steve Tyler of Aerosmith conservative or liberal? (One member, mntnman444, had some hard evidence: "I ran into Steve Tyler 4 y[ea]rs ago. I lived near him but hadn't seen him in years, and we talked a little about the upcoming invasion of Iraq, [and] he indicated that he was totally against it.") Was the U.S. turning into a socialist hotbed? DebraJMSmith said yes, and also deplored "the indoctrinations of immorality and paganism in the schools." You can, incidentally, see the video here. Edwards enters from stage left at 2:42, and no, he doesn't join Mellencamp in a vigorous chorus of "Authority Song."

AND DON'T OVERLOOK....

This story about waterboarding got the most comments for the week: 449. The debate, which went beyond the ethics of torture to moral relativism in general, was predictably heated. Still, there were some kinder, gentler exchanges. "Who would Jesus waterboard?" asked Neophile. "He can read minds because He is God, so he already knows all!" responded DavidHalko, testing the boundaries of admissible evidence. Another top story, with 165 votes and 397 comments, was "FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago." (At least one member, not2needy, wasn't buying: "Terrorists are going to attack shopping malls, terrorists are going to be at the Olympics, terrorists are going to be at the K[entuck]y Derby.") There were also popular stories about Blackwater, Charles Darwin, gasoline prices, and (as usual) global warming. And folks, let's not forget that Chinese submarine popping up the midst of a U.S. Navy exercise. You want the latest info on sonar and cetaceans? You've come to the right place.

Tags: propeller, week in review, wir

1 Comments