What an interesting exercise

Blogging is an interesting exercise. Pity i did not understand it at the begining. I have recently started enjoying it and being able to find my way through. I used to struggle finding a way to send a new post. It will be even more interesting if we could all make comments. All in all what a wondeful experience. Lets continue blogging, bloggers.

Is money that important

Caster Semenya is said to be promised money. Is it really about money or some human being's dignity, wellbeing and life at stake. Caster do not need this. She is not a porn. She is not a cash cow. I wish people could just leave her alone and not try to make money out of his misery.
She's just a baby for heaven sake.

Rapist Principal

A day after his conviction for rape, headmaster is still at his desk. The man has been found guilty. . He has a record of sexual assault charges. Why is he still allowed to enter the school premises. Sexual abuse is a serious offence, especialy for someone who is entrusted with the safety and security of children. however, let us allow theDepartment of Education a chance to conduct its investigations.

Still on Caster semenya issue

It appears provincial athletics bodies and athletes are divided about whether Athletics South Africa President Leonard Chuene was at fault by lying aboout whether Caster Semenya’s gender was tested here in South Africa. (Eye witness news).

Leornard Chuene lied with a straight face. How can he?
He should have just be honest from the beginning, because i suppose is understanndable that he was in a catch 22.

What do you think?

Kenyan practice

Nairobi - Kenyan police have been ordered to shoot to kill looters, arsonists, people carrying weapons or blocking roads, said a commander on Wednesday, in a bid to stem weeks of clashes sparked by disputed elections.

I think the shoot to kill in phenomenon in our country should be as specific as in Nairobi. This, at least in my opinion, i think will make it easy for the policemen to make a decision.

Trigger- happy policemen

The deputy minister of safety and security, Susan Shabangu, has clearly stated that the “police must use deadly force IF their lives and those of the law-abiding citizens are put in danger by criminals”.
Surely, this call is absolutely congruent with the stipulations of Section 49 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Act. The now famous shoot-to-kill utterances have been blown out of proportion, thereby creating a wrong impression that the police would become “trigger-happy”.

How long do you think it wl take policemen to decide that their lives and those of the law abiding citizens are in danger to enable them to decide whether to shoot or not? Will they be given that opportunity in any way?

SHOOT TO KILL

'Cops must protect themselves'
Zuma urges cops to speak up
Cops salute Zuma
Call for people's war on crime
Murders down, robberies up
buy books, music, dvds, appliances and much more

- President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday urged police officials from across the country to crack down harder on one of the world's highest rates of violent crime, and shoot to kill if needed.Zuma appears to be adopting a zero-tolerance policy on crime, hoping to ease concerns that next year's soccer World Cup may be marred by hijackings, murders and robberies, and reassure investors it is safe to do business here.In a meeting with police station commanders and security officials, Zuma highlighted challenges facing the outgunned and poorly paid police force a week after disturbing new crime statistics were issued.


I really do share the same sentiments with people who are blaming apartheid for poor education that majority of us have endured, which led to the prevailing socio-economic backgrounds some of us find ourselves in. Does all this really justify one to commit henious crimes which are taking place? More often is even directed to the brother or a sister who is also trying to better his/her life. If you had once crossed the paths with these criminals you will be tempted to agree with the topic at hand.
On the other hand, one commentor once said "police are trigger happy". How sure will we be that innocent people are not going to be violated?

What is your opinion???

How interesting is this????? (More on cloning)

Have you ever thought the umbilical could something of value?

There are at present at least three commercial units in South Africa who offer mothers the opportunity to store long term the umbilical cord blood stem cells of their babies. These units can then supply the stem cells at a later date, in case that child or his/her siblings develop a condition that could only be treated by stem cell transplantation. In the majority of the current uses, the transplantations are allogeneic and the cells used are obtained from donation. The use of autologous transplantation would be inappropriate in patients with a genetic disease, as the cell of the patient would carry the same genetic defect, a scenario encountered in a number of types of leukemia with a chromosomal translocation. In the case of allogeneic transplantation there is always the risk of “graft vs host reaction” and hence HLA-typing is essential to optimize HLA matching between donor and recipient. The concept of autologous use of umbilical cord blood is still a recent technique and although there is a large amount of speculative information about its possible use, only a few cases have been documented. Most indications for autologous transplantation concern adults who have undergone bone marrow aplasia following chemotherapy or radiotherapy. As stated previously, the aim of the transplantation is to repopulate the bone marrow with own haematopoietic stem cells which will provide a source of blood cells. Such autologous grafts however do not necessarily require one’s own umbilical cord blood stem cells to have been stored at birth. Stem cells can be obtained from one’s own peripheral blood, following stimulation with growth factors, prior to instituting the chemo-radiotherapy, and then transfused later. Recently a significant amount of advertising and marketing of these commercial storage units has taken place in South Africa. Advertising leaflets are being distributed to antenatal clinics, to units specializing in assisted conception and to consulting rooms of medical attendants. A plethora of promotional literature appears in women magazines and on the internet. Doctors as a result, are being continuously confronted by parents who request information or an opinion whether cord blood from their baby should be collected at the time of delivery and transported for storage in privately owned units. Despite all the advertising and marketing campaigns taking place, the impression among some medical attendants is that we know what might be possible in the future regarding stem cell research, but we do not know exactly what will develop.

Caster Semenya issue

Embattled running sensation Caster Semenya dropped out of a race Saturday following a newspaper report that claims she's a hermaphrodite.

Mabusi, we once communicated about Caster and we never shared the ideas further. What do you think will happen to Caster now that the situation is as is. Do you think is the end of her career or she still has a chance. Will it be fair if that will be the route she will be forced to take?

More and more on cloning

Human Cloning Ethics
Surveys have shown that few Americans approve of cloning for reproductive purposes, although more are open to therapeutic cloning [source: Burton]. The U.S. government has established strategic roadblocks related to human cloning, although no federal ban exists. First, the government won't fund research focused on human cloning for reproduction. Also, the FDA, which regulates public cloning research, requires anyone in the United States attempting to clone humans to first get its permission. President George W. Bush's appointed Council on Bioethics unanimously opposed cloning for reproductive purposes.
Human reproductive cloning is banned in more than 50 countries.
Certain countries abroad have stricter standards, and more than 50 have legally banned research efforts on reproductive human cloning.

While the ethics of human cloning are being examined, some people suggest that cloning be banned. Italy and Argentina were two of the first countries to follow this advice.

Experience in animals has demonstrated time and time again that the technique usually fails: many embryos are malformed, and many are abnormally oversized, posing risks both to offspring and mother. Whether it would be "ethical", if incontrovertibly safe, is a whole new debate. But there's no doubt that if a cloned baby is ever verifiably produced, the scientist behind it will achieve lifelong fame – or possibly infamy.


Im also not of the idea of human cloning, but animals????????? What do you think.
How will it be, just to clone sheep, cows, chickens and have more supply for human consumption!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More on cloning

What is cloning?
Cloning is the creation of an organism that is a genetic replica of another.Two organisms which are clones have identical genes, but differ in characteristics that are acquired in other ways. This does not preclude human beings.

Interesting to know...
Biologists have been cloning some organisms, such as carrots, for decades. Attempts to clone animals have been far less successful until Dolly came along in 1997.The efforts failed because the cloned animals were nearly always very unhealthy newborns and did not survive for long. There is no reason to believe that human clones would fare any better in terms of health or survivability than most cloned animals do....but the efforts continue.

Well...
One cannot dispute that Science and Technology has benefited humanity in innumerable ways, I suppose we have arrived at this point through pushing the envelope just a little further each time, the flipside of the coin is that it appears that the point at which the line needs to be drawn has been blurred. The line that may be morality, religion....something that may appeal more to our innate human nature versus our acquired human nature.

Who are we to create 'life'????

My view is that we seek to assign to ourselves priviledges that are sacred to the universe. Are we happy to destroy the element of divinity which we enjoy, where we know or sense that there is a greater source who gives and takes away life, be it animal or human?

What are the benefits of cloning and are they worth the cost of our innocence.

Please follow the link on the previous post to view the story about cloning the man's best friend.
Comment on teh questiion i posd "What do you think about the possibility of human cloning?"

What will be the next best thing after computers

What is the next best thing

Cloning

The possibility of human cloning, raised when Scottish scientists at Roslin Institute created the much-celebrated sheep "Dolly" (Nature 385, 810-13, 1997), aroused worldwide interest and concern because of its scientific and ethical implications.
Remember Dolly the sheep cloned in 1997?

What one can do with technology puzzles me. But cloning phenomenon is just something else.

What do you think about the possiblity of human cloning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUoKJcouymU

Hi Mabusi, i am also disgusted by the news about Caster's gender. How can we South Africans just succumb to pressures from outsiders. Is it really not enough to just check? Is an embarassment, dehumanising and invasion of the poor girl's privacy not enough to still have to be subjected to the so called "Gender Testing" What is the IAAF talking about saying it ordered the tests to make sure Caster didnt have "a potential medical condition" that would give her an unfair advantage over her competitors? What is the implication? Caster is just a baby, still at the baby steps of her carrier, i hope she survive all these hullabaloo. Im just wondering what will be next after the "GENDER TESTING"

ICT in Education Research and Innovation Group

The definition of ICT in Education goes far beyond that of a traditional computer connected to a network – it encompasses a whole realm of new technologies, including human language technologies, “smart” devices, wireless and handheld devices, merging media devices and high-performance computing concepts and facilities. It focuses specifically on the application of these technologies in an educational context and environment, and should thus be seen as a tool or platform to support education, not an end in itself.