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Cyreenik Says

2nd Quarter 2009 issues

Republican Recession Revisited:
Cheney, Limbagh, Powell

Now that he's out of office, Cheney is telling us what he thinks. This essay is in reference to his Face The Nation comments comparing Rush Limbagh and Colin Powell. In those, he states two interesting things: first, that because Colinn Powell endorsed Obama for the election, he figured Powell was now a Democrat. Second, that given a choice between Limbagh and Powell being leadership in the Republican Party, he would easily take Limbagh.

It's amazing, after eight years, the 9-11 Incident is still providing textbook examples of Panic and Blunder thinking. In this case, the example is of a Blunder Thinker clinging solidly and steadfastly to his or her choice, even after the threat is diminished, the huge expense of the choice revealed, and the rest of the community has calmed down a lot.

Cheney and Bush were deeply frightened by the 9-11 Incident. (They are not alone in continuing to experience this deep fear. The most recent evidence of the continuing fear is the outrage expressed by many New Yorkers when Air Force One made a low-fly pass by the Statue of Liberty so some pictures of the two together could be taken.)

People who are forced to make choices while they are deeply frightened come to link those choices with the deep emotions they are feeling at the time the choice is made. In the chooser's eyes, the choice remains the right one, no matter what happens after it is made. This characteristic is one of the distinctive features of Panic and Blunder thinking.

In sum, don't expect Cheney, or Bush, or others making choices in those stressful times to recant them in the face of what happens afterwards. A few may, but most won't.

Colin Powell was a "cool head" in those stressful times, and he spoke against the choices made. Because of the strong emotions linked to the choices made in those days, it's not surprising that Cheney has a strong emotional dislike for Powell and his "naysaying" in those times.

And now, once again, his 9-11 emotions are getting Cheney into trouble. He is now making a Blunder Chain. The Republicans will remain a marginalized minority if they follow Cheney and try to keep the War on Terror running and central to Republican Party thinking. Cheney doesn't see that, but Colin Powell does. Ironically, eight years later, Powell is once again playing "cool head" to Cheney's "hot head".

 

Sometimes, it can be a strange, strange world we live in.

 

"Backyard Genetic Engineering"
and the Curse of Being Important

Excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article:

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MAY 12, 2009

In Attics and Closets, 'Biohackers' Discover Their Inner Frankenstein
Using Mail-Order DNA and Iguana Heaters, Hobbyists Brew New Life Forms; Is It Risky?

By JEANNE WHALEN

In Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley, Calif., works in his attic to cultivate viruses extracted from sewage. In Seattle, a grad-school dropout wants to breed algae in a personal biology lab.

These hobbyists represent a growing strain of geekdom known as biohacking, in which do-it-yourselfers tinker with the building blocks of life in the comfort of their own homes. Some of them buy DNA online, then fiddle with it in hopes of curing diseases or finding new biofuels.

But are biohackers a threat to national security?

That was the question lurking behind a phone call that Katherine Aull got earlier this year. Ms. Aull, 23 years old, is designing a customized E. coli in the closet of her Cambridge, Mass., apartment, hoping to help with cancer research.

She's got a DNA "thermocycler" bought on eBay for $59, and an incubator made by combining a styrofoam box with a heating device meant for an iguana cage. A few months ago, she talked about her hobby on DIY Bio, a Web site frequented by biohackers, and her work was noted in New Scientist magazine.

That's when the phone rang. A man saying he was doing research for the U.S. government called with a few polite, pointed questions: How did she build that lab? Did she know other people creating new life forms at home?

The caller said the agency he represented is "used to thinking about rogue states and threats from that," recalls Ms. Aull, a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate.

The man on the other end of the line was Nils Gilman, a researcher with Monitor 360, a San Francisco company that provides "geo-strategic" research. Mr. Gilman declined to identify his client, saying only that it's a branch of the U.S. government involved in biosecurity. "I think they want to know, is this something we need to worry about?" he said -- particularly, could the biohackers' gadgets and methods, in the wrong hands, create dangerous pathogens?

Mr. Gilman's claim that he is working for the U.S. government couldn't be verified. A Department of Homeland Security official said "it does not appear that we contract with Monitor 360." A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment, and a Department of Defense official said he couldn't find any record of the department hiring Monitor 360 or its parent company, Monitor Group. But he said another arm of Monitor Group has done work for the department in recent years.

...

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The article goes on, but the two important points are here: First, genetic engineering is now accessible enough that amatures can start playing with it, second, that genetics suffers from the Curse of Being Important.

Backyard genetics exerimenting is a very good thing for many reasons:

o First, at this stage of genetics technology development, there is a whole lot to learn about what can and can't be done with the tools of genetic manipulation. "Backyard genetics" can do a lot of the legwork to define the envelope of possibility. Historically, amatures exploring a new technology find a lot more ways of doing things than the pro's do.

A fine example of this is to compare the growth of the personal computer industry to the growth of the nuclear power industry. In their early days, in the 1975-1985 era, personal computers were dismissed as "toys", so it was easy for tens of thousands of interested amatures to help discover the posibilities of personal computers. Nuclear power, sadly, was first defined by atomic bombs, and that spectacular demonstration of destructive power meant that the "backyard nuclear reactor"-phase of nuclear power development was stillborn. As a result, only the pros have worked with nuclear power, and nuclear power innovation has been very, very slow.

o Second, the people who are doing backyard genetic experimenting today, become the genetics captains of industry tomorrow. These are the people who have the march on those who wait until they get into a professional lab to start their experimenting.

Once again, the personal computer industry provides a fine example. In those early days, the "teenage VP of a high-technology startup" was a famous industry phenominon. Jobs and Wozniac starting Apple are a fine example of young, early experimenters becoming captains of industry.

o The more people see hobby genetic engineering happening, the less fearful they will become. Ideally, home genetic lab kits will become as ubiquitous as home chemistry lab kits, and considered equally dangerous. (as in, not very dangerous)

For all these reasons, it's really, really good to hear that homebrew genetic engineering is springing up. I'm jumping up and down and shouting, "Yay!"

But, the dark side is springing up, as well. People have long been fearful of genetic experimentation. I can remember that there was a flap about it when I was a student at MIT in the early 1970's, and as a result, security was tightened at labs at both MIT and Harvard. The sad part was the increased security made experiments expensive, and cut off "quick and dirty"-style experimenting -- the kind where you set up fast, and learn a lot, then break the experiment down, and do something more formal based on what you have learned from the quick and dirty results.

And this defines The Curse of Being Important. If you are exploring a new technology, and you can't do quick and dirty experimenting because the people looking over your shoulder are scared, then there is a lot you won't find out about the new technology.

This Curse happened to nuclear power in a big way, and that's why today we only think of nuclear power running big electric generators. It could just as easily run small things, such as artificial hearts.

 

The Curse of Being Important could easily happen to genetics, too. I hope, I really, really hope, it doesn't. In this world we live in today, we need all the technological help we can muster.

-- The End --

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