Scientists in the US have created embryos with genes from one man and two women, using a provocative technique that someday could be used to prevent babies from inheriting certain rare incurable diseases.
The researchers at Oregon Health & Sciences University said they are not using the embryos to produce children, and it is not clear when or even if the technique will be put to use. But it has already stirred a debate over its risks and ethics in Britain, where scientists did similar work a few years ago.

The British experiments, reported in 2008, led to headlines about the possibility someday of babies with three parents. But that's an overstatement. The DNA from the second woman amounts to less than one per cent of the embryo's genes, and it isn't the sort that makes a child look like mum or dad. The procedure is simply a way of replacing some defective genes that sabotage the normal workings of cells.

The British government is asking for public comment on the technology before it decides whether to allow its use. One concern it cites is whether such DNA alteration could be an early step down a slippery slope toward "designer babies" - ordering, say, a petite, blue-eyed girl or tall, dark-haired boy.

Questions have also arisen about the safety of the technique, not only for the baby who results from the egg, but also for the child's descendants.

In June, an influential British bioethics group concluded that the technology would be ethical to use if proven safe and effective. An expert panel in Britain said in 2011 that there was no evidence the technology was unsafe but urged further study.

Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at Northwestern University in the US, said in an interview that safety problems might not show up for several generations. She said she hopes the United States will follow Britain's lead in having a wide-ranging discussion of the technology.

While the kind of diseases it seeks to fight can be terrible, "this might not be the best way to address it," Zoloth said.

Over the past few years, scientists have reported that such experiments produced healthy monkeys and that tests in human eggs showed encouraging results. The US scientists reported on Wednesday that they have produced about a dozen early human embryos and found the technique is highly effective in replacing DNA.

The genes they want to replace aren't the kind most people think of, which are found in the nucleus of cells and influence traits such as eye colour and height. Rather, these genes reside outside the nucleus in energy-producing structures called mitochondria. These genes are passed along only by mothers, not fathers.

About one in every 5000 children inherits a disease caused by defective mitochondrial genes. The defects can cause many rare diseases with a host of symptoms, including strokes, epilepsy, dementia, blindness, deafness, kidney failure and heart disease.

The new technique, if approved someday for routine use, would allow a woman to give birth to a baby who inherits her nucleus DNA but not her mitochondrial DNA. Here's how it would work:

Doctors would need unfertilised eggs from the patient and a healthy donor. They would remove the nucleus DNA from the donor eggs and replace it with nucleus DNA from the patient's eggs. So, they would end up with eggs that have the prospective mother's nucleus DNA, but the donor's healthy mitochondrial DNA.

In a report published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and others at OHSU report transplanting nucleus DNA into 64 unfertilised eggs from healthy donors. After fertilisation, 13 eggs showed normal development and went on to form early embryos.

The researchers also reported that four monkeys born in 2009 from eggs that had DNA transplants remain healthy.

Mitalipov said in an interview that the researchers hope to get federal approval to test the procedure in women, but that current restrictions on using federal money on human embryo research stand in the way of such studies.

The research was funded by the university and the Leducq Foundation in Paris.

Dr Douglass Turnbull of Newcastle University in Britain, whose team has transplanted DNA between eggs using a different technique, called the new research "very important and encouraging" in showing that such transplants could work.

But "clearly, safety is an issue" with either technique if it is applied to humans, he said.

1. Powerful rower Rob Waddell won gold in Sydney for the single sculls.

2. Valerie Adams is still the woman to beat in shot put after her gold medal in Beijing.

3. The icon of women's track cycling is Sarah Ulmer after her gold medal in Athens.

4. After a poor showing in Sydney, Hamish Carter won gold in the men's triathlon in 2004.

5. Equestrian champ Mark Todd won Gold in 1984 and 1988. He competed at six Olympics.

6. Top medal-winner Ian Ferguson is presented with his Olympian pin during a 2009 ceremony.

7. The Evers Swindell sisters celebrate gold in the double sculls. They've done this twice.

8. Barbara Kendall's peak was winning gold in Barcelona, but she also has a silver and bronze.

9. Freestyle and butterfly ace Danyon Loader won two gold medals in Atlanta.

10. The brilliant Peter Snell celebrates 1500m gold in Tokyo. He also won gold in the 800m.

For the past 6 years, a German shepherd called Capitán has slept next to the grave of his owner every night at 6pm.
His owner, Miguel Guzmán died in 2006. Capitán, the dog, disappeared while the family attended the fueral services. A week later reatives of Guzmán were visiting the cemetery when they were astounded to find the dog next to the owner's grave.
The cemetery director says that the dog comes around each night at 6pm, and has done so for the past 6 years!

If it's love
And we decide that it's forever, no one else could do it better
If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather then the rest is just whatever
And if I'm addicted to loving you and you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather that flock together


 :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D: :D:


  :happy: :happy: :happy: :blink: :blink: :blink:

A replica of India's world-famous Taj Mahal, four times the size of the original, is to be built in Dubai as what is to be billed as the world's grandest wedding venue, one of its developers said.

It took the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan 22 years to build the marble mausoleum for his queen 360 years ago, but the copy, to be known as Taj Arabia, is expected to take only two years.

The billion-dollar (767 million-euro) project will be set in the heart of the 41 million square foot Falcon City of Wonders on Emirates Road, said Arun Mehra, chairman of sub-developers Link Global Group, at the annual Cityscape Global real estate exposition in Dubai.

"Marriage is a celebration. It needs to be announced and glorified. Currently Dubai is not regarded as a wedding destination. People go to Bali and other exotic places to marry. Now they will come to Taj Arabia," Mehra told Gulf News.

Surrounded by lush green landscaping, including the famous Mughal Gardens, the "New City of Love" will have several architecturally themed residential and commercial buildings.

Taj Arabia will be a five-star hotel property with 300 rooms. It will be flanked by seven mixed-use buildings, two of which will have 200 serviced apartments.

"Traditionally in the UAE and the sub-continent, marriage is not just a union of two people but also their families. The serviced apartments beside Taj Arabia will be ideal for wedding guests as they will have 10 large bedrooms and a hall," said Mehra.

The last thing you want when you lose your ATM card is for someone to guess your PIN number and drain your account balance to zero.

But surprisingly (or perhaps depressingly) eleven per cent of people seem to have forgotten this and use the most common pin code of all time on their valuables: 1234.

Yes, really.

Nick Berry, a former rocket scientist and the president of technology consultancy company Data Genetics examined 3.4 million PINS, and of the 10,000 possible combinations of four digits, found that 50 per cent of us use the 426 most popular codes.

The second-worst pin number to use is 1111 (used by over six per cent of us), followed by 0000, 1212 and 7777.

So if you – or a thief - picks up an ATM or an iPhone in the street, you have a 1 in 5 chance of unlocking it by entering just five pin codes.

Your best bet for cash protection? Don’t use a birth year: every pin found beginning with ‘19’ (eg 1983, 1956, 1994) appeared in the top fifth of the dataset.

Choose four random, different numbers for your pin - 18 of the top 20 worst pins used patterns and repetitions. Including 6969.
Yes, really.

One afternoon, a lawyer was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw two men eating grass by the road side.

He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.

"Why are you eating grass?", he asked one man.

"We don't have any money for food.", The poor man replied. "Oh, come along with me then."

"But sir, I have a wife with two children!"

"Bring them along! And you, come with us too!", he said to the other man.

"But sir, I have a wife with six children!" the second man answered.

"Bring them as well!"

They all climbed into the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limo.

Once underway, one of the poor fellows says "Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you."

The lawyer replied "No, you don't understand, the grass at my home is about three feet tall!"

Freedom and flexibility
The biggest attraction of travelling solo is the sense of freedom and independence you'll feel. When travelling, you're often presented with opportunities to experience new places or sights that weren't in your original plan. If your travel companion doesn't want to go, you'll either end up compromising or, worse still, miss out altogether and then bemoan the decision for the rest of the trip.

But if you don't have anyone to consider, you can spend two weeks lazing on a beach if you want or suddenly decide to explore that little-known temple which piqued your interest. Also, if you don't like a place, you can simply move on. No debates; no arguments; no compromises. Bliss!

New found friends
Most people assume that travelling solo means you spend all your time alone. Far from it! You only need to be alone if you want to be alone. In fact, meeting other people tends to be much easier when you're on your own. For starters, you'll be forced to come out of your shell and initiate conversations with others. What's more, as a solo traveller you're far more approachable than as a couple or with a group of friends.

Local connections
Local people can easily be intimidated by groups of travellers. So if you're alone, they'll be more inclined to invite you to eat with them, or even to put you up for the night than they ever would if you're travelling with someone else.

I've had some of my best local experiences when I've been by myself: I had dinner with a real Transylvanian Count in his castle in Romania, I celebrated the Orthodox Easter with a local family in the tiny republic of Moldova, and, I was given a personal tour around Bardia, an isolated town in the far north of Libya, by two elderly gentlemen who expected nothing except a heart-felt thankyou in return.

Your own view
Have you ever noticed that you tend to change your opinions of a place when you're with others? You finally set your eyes on the Pyramids in Egypt and are in total awe, when your companion says: "They're not that impressive." So you take another look and have to agree your friend's right — surely they should be bigger?

Alain de Botton, author of The Art of Travel, argues that how we see the world when we travel is greatly influenced by those we travel with. Not only do we change our views, but we also limit our curiosity to fit in with our companion's expectations. Therefore, the only way to truly see and experience a place is to travel alone.

Personal growth
Travelling solo is when you really find out what you're made of. With no one else to rely on, you must learn to trust your own instincts and make your own decisions. Things of course will go wrong — I wound up in hospital on my last solo trip — but it's these very challenges that'll make you stronger. And with every new hurdle you conquer, your confidence will grow as you discover that you're far more capable than you ever imagined.

waheguru! is he really dead? Apparently he died of head injury while performing a stunt  :comeon: :wait: :lost:

TIME - SOMETHING THAT IS OUT OF YOUR CONTROL. THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED, STOPPED NOR BE FROZEN