Originally posted by: Nebor
Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
Originally posted by: Cat
You're basing that statement on basically a gut feeling. This is just like those morons in Hollywood trying to drive the political process. You need to be well informed before you make a decision.
I have a PhD in cellular biology. How about you?
You went to school for 8 years for that, huh? Was it worth it?
BTW was "Not with a bang, but a whimper. " from 28 days or from The Stand?
Heh, I went to school longer than that, and work in my undergrad field these days. Simply a matter of economics. That's another story. It's a fascinating field though, and given a post doc or two I could get current. I think I would pursue something more along the lines of molecular genetics, which is my wifes field. Close, but not exactly the same.
To be more specific in my concern regarding this, the goal was to have a self replicating organism. Viruses need a host, as I am sure you are aware. I am not comfortable with the idea of someone inserting a never before seen chunk of genetic material into whatever. Although THIS lab may have proper proceedures in place, the technique will become more refined and easier to use. Once the practice proliferates, then what?
Oh, edit
I dont know about the movie, but the not with a bang, but a whimper..
The Hollow Men
T. S. Eliot (1925)
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
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