Hope for my Dad and others who suffer similar maladies that can be cured by stem cell science. Asia will most likely take the lead in stem cell research, with S. Korea and China charging forward.

From S. Korea cloning expert criticises Bush policy

Extracts:

Woo-Suk Hwang, the head of a team of South Korean scientists who cloned the first human embryo to use for research said in an interview with Reuters that stem cell science will advance because of its enormous potential, and will not be halted by political interests.

"The scientific effort to resolve the pain of patients with incurable conditions is very honourable, and I believe no mere individual politician or party can stop the historic trend," Hwang said at his laboratory at Seoul National University.

"Solving these problems is a common responsibility of humanity," he said.

Earlier this month, Hwang's team made news around the world for its research that fulfilled one of the basic promises of cloning technology in stem cell research -- that a piece of skin could be taken from a patient to grow stem cells with that patient's specific genetic material.

Researchers believe that the cells one day could be used to provide individually tailored tissue and organ transplants, as well as curing maladies such as juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's disease, or to repair severe spinal cord injuries.

Hwang would like to keep the science on stem cell research open and global, saying that greater international cooperation will lead to more effective results, more quickly.

For him, the ethical consideration should weigh heavily in favour of a patient suffering from a disease or malady now considered incurable -- as opposed to the stem cells he creates in the lab.

"Let's say we have a microproduct just 100 micrometers long, made through nuclear transfer technology, and let's say we have a human being who has lived in pain all his life," Hwang said. "To argue that there is a balance (in considering the humanity of the two) would not be ethical."

Hwang thinks his work could help open a new chapter in medical treatment by potentially creating individualised cells to treat maladies for which they may be no cure today.

"I dare believe this breakthrough will be a factor that will bring in a new era in medical history," Hwang said.

I've been feeling very tired lately. I can't quite explain why. Could be the gastroenteritis Z is passing to me, or simply something else. I vote for something else.

Anyhow, a fairly restful day although I got up when Boy howled dismally. I leapt out of bed to see what was wrong. He was rather disturbed his Dad locked him out accidentally and happily jumped back onto the bed to lie down beside me after I opened the door. (Even as I type this, he is beside me.)

I am deeply touched by how close my boys are to me. Boy follows me everywhere and lets me hug him when he's lying down. Tuxie and Sam sat with me almost throughout Buffy. They even talked to me some when I asked them, "How are my sons?" Sam replied, "Mrow ow" and Tuxie, "Mrow!" in a higher pitch.

Even Kaku appeared and played with the fishing toy her Dad bought for her. He told me, "Look!" as he swung the toy and Kaku sat by the door swatting at it. She'd never played with it before, usually runs away. We were very delighted and proud.

At one point, their Dad said, "Look, all 5 cats are in this room!" It was a wondrous sight. :D And then Kaku scurried behind the bamboo screen and ran past her Dad.

Watched Buffy most of the day and eve till Z began hankering to go out. I was really tired and wanted to just stay home and finish Season 3. However, after extensive negotiations, I agreed to go. But before that, I insisted on finishing The Prom, which was half-way done.

I'd heard of Wala Wala from someone who said the band is really good. Since Han Jin upped and left the Fat Frog there hasn't been anyone really worth listening to (save for the band at Bala but that's intermittent). Friday nights were just never the same after that. It was depressing. Used to be we'd head to Fat Frog after work and chill with a glass of white wine, high on U2 and alcohol. But he was so good that he quit to write songs for Jacky Cheung. Ah well...

The plan was to visit Wala someday, and today Yan messaged to say they might be heading there tonight. So we said alright and hooked up with Jeff for a late dinner and Wala Wala. (I suspect Bala and Wala are both owned by the same dude: the bouncers dress the same way, prices of non-beer (Beer Bad!) drinks are the same, similar sounding names, and same band!)

The posse didn't show for some arcane reason but we met a bunch of nice folk who offered up a chair for me. The band was playing when we got there and they sounded way better than they did last night at Bala. Yep it was the same band. Better acoustics the place did have but it was packed with teenagers largely and had no nice comfy seats.

The red wine made me rather dizzy and the standing got to the guys (feet hurt, gotta work tomorrow, yadda yadda). We all agreed the excursion was worthwhile and enlightening, the place was nice, but not quite our cuppa and we resolved to meet up again soon under different circumstances, i.e. familiar stomping grounds.

Got home, had a hot shower, and reassumed my position as couch commando, finishing Graduation Day Part One and Part Two. Sweet. :D

Vampire Squid - the epitomy of coolness.

Last night we had dinner with Jason, Yi, and Michael, whom we hadn't seen in ages, despite him being in Singapore in 2 years. It was great to catch up over yum sushi! :) We invited them to our secret beach getaway in Q3 and everyone was enthused. It will be super fun!

The guys decided to go for a beer at around 9.30pm and we went over to Bala to meet Jeff and Lena. Lena had usurped a table from this guy and held it for 3 hours just by the band. :D We gabbed for a bit before having to parry the original owner of the table and his friends who returned from completely reclaiming it. It was like a game of Turf Wars. Fascinating stuff.

We made some new friends who insisted I have a beer. I hate beer, but it would have been rude to refuse. I felt a little ill after. Beer doesn't sit well with me. It reminds me of the Beer Bad episode of Buffy, one of the most hilarious in my book.

Buffy: Buffy want beer.
Giles: You... can't have any beer.
Buffy: ... Want BEER!
Xander: Giles, please don't make Cave-Slayer unhappy.

LOL :D

More on Beer Bad from:

Buffy Guide
The BBC Cult Homepage
TV Tome
The Buffy Trivia Guide

No Deep Impact for Earth as we go on the offensive. :D Follow the extensive coverage on Space.com.

Meanwhile, researchers have found wormholes and time machines are unstable.

Extract:

A traversable wormhole could be used for either travel from one point to another, or from one time to another. Unfortunately, according to the paper, quantum effects are necessary for the construction of stable traversable wormholes. This would cause the wormhole to behave unpredictably; you might not know where (or when) you would come out. Wormholes and time machines cannot be both predictable and stable.

National Geographic presents an amazing interactive on what alien life on other worlds will look like prior to the launch of their new groundbreaking programme Extraterrestrial. A must-see.

Yep, the jury is in. Revenge of the Sith rawks. SPOILER ALERT!

The Pluses: A gorgeous, beautiful, brooding Anakin Skywalker, his body parts getting chopped off (nothing R-rated), great fighting scenes, a delish Obiwan and his Brit accent, an ingenious and rather admirably executed plot by Darth Sidious, cute Wookies, a cute Hippogriff-komodo-peacock thing, closed loops.

The Minuses: The most painful-to-watch love scenes, a terrible-looking Padme, too little screen time for Count Dooku, the awful General Grievous (must he slouch and do robots cough??), Jedis killed off without much fanfare.

This is a space opera above all and as space operas go, battle scenes are the way to kick off the movie. I cringed at the sound effects - in space, there is no sound - and wondered why in the 21st century, filmmakers are still getting such basic science wrong. Anakin and Obiwan were rescuing Palpatine from the clutches of Dooku, with a very clever R2 in tow.

There were hints of Anakin's dark side as he obeyed Palpatine's order to kill Dooku (Dooku glanced at Palpatine in horror, a rather obvious feint) although it was against the Jedi way.

Cheesy scenes of Anakin and Padme as she told him she was pregnant, and some of the worst lines followed on a rooftop scene. Even worse were the dream sequences of Padme dying in childbirth. They looked like something out of a 1970s B movie. I visibly cringed...

It got better as the plot thickened. Yoda travelled to help the Wookies in Wookie Land, and Anakin got slowly seduced to the dark side. The Jedi Council asked him to spy on Palpatine, the Sith Lord read him like a book, and told a tale about a Sith who could prevent people from dying (hint hint, Padme).

It gets better from here...

Of course, Anakin folded. Between worrying about Padme, the Council mistrusting him and not making him Master, and generally being rather confused and having lots of emotional issues, when push came to shove (namely Mace Windu going to slice up a crumpled - literally - Palpatine), he shoved his light sabre through Mace's hand and the latter fell into oblivion.

This part and the scene between Palpatine and Anakin bothered me. Rewind. Initially Palpatine confessed to Anakin that he was the Sith Lord and tried to convince him to go to the dark side. Anakin refused and told Mace about it. Mace said yeah, we'll take care of him but you stay here cos you're confused. But after thinking of Padme dying in childbirth, he couldn't let the only guy who could teach him how to save her die.

So the next scene, he chose. Never mind he chose, but he also went off right away to kill all his Jedi buddies, including the little Jedi kids. That does not seem conceivable no matter how evil he was. It came across too sudden. He grew up with these people. For him to turn on them in an instant was illogical and which also meant, he was perhaps less conscionable than we all thought.

Okay, so the Jedi all get cut down after Palpatine issues a directive 66. It was pretty heart wrenching watching them almost literally shot in the back by the storm troopers they trusted.

Anyhow, Yoda and Obiwan escaped and met up through Bail Organa. Yoda goes to confront Palpatine and Obiwan went to look for Padme to find Anakin.

Padme refused to believe Anakin had joined the dark side (as had Obiwan until he saw video footage of it) and took off on her beaut silver shiny plane to Mustafar to find him. Anakin had been sent there to kill Nute Gunray and pals, and after he was done, he kind of hung around to cast a nice silhouette on a long shot. Naturally, Obiwan hid on Padme's plane.

Yoda got whacked around a lot (and gave some back too) and lost, and climbed through a shaft into Organa's plane and escaped.

Padme confronted Anakin about his alleged alliance with the dark side and was horrified to find out it was all true! It didn't help that Obiwan appeared in the plane door at that moment, and Anakin concluded they were together. A furious Anakin then started strangling Padme with the Force until Obiwan made him stop.

They began a long drawn out fight that ended on the shore of the lava sea. Anakin took a leap and Obiwan cut off his light sabre arm and his two legs, after which, he shouted, "You were the chosen one. You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them." Anakin went up in flames and burned nastily.

Meanwhile, Palpatine sensed his young apprentice was in trouble and flew over to rescue him. Bots fitted him with new gear and he was good to go. I think James Earl Jones also took care of the voice at this point.

The bot doc examined Padme and said she wasn't going to make it. She'd lost the will to live. So they decided to induce the birth. Padme named her kids Luke and Leia respectively before breathing her last.

Anakin's first question when he rose was, where is Padme, how is she? Palpatine said she was gone, and it was Anakin who caused it. Anakin's rage and grief made a lot of stuff in the room explode and Palpatine secretly smiled.

After Padme died, Yoda, Obiwan, and Organa decided on the fate of the children. Organa would adopt the girl and Obiwan would take the boy back to his family on Tattooine. A huge funeral for Padme was held with her pregnancy in check (to fool Big Brother).

Last scenes: Bail Organa presenting Leia to his wife on their home planet, and Obiwan passing Luke to Beru and Lars. A suitable and satisfying ending.

As usual I am unable to sleep, feeling oddly unaccomplished for the day. It is this feeling that keeps me up, as well as insidious bugs that persist on biting me. They must have been drawn in from the rain.

Yet I feel like dancing. My writer's block is gone and I am writing feverishly again. 6 submission-worthy poems in a week. Not usual by far, but most certainly an improvement from the last 2 years. The thing I can say about A Cold Day in Hell is that it is very satisfying.

Late at night, I tend to get very pensive and introspective.

Looking back, it has been a rather strange year. Many new experiences and interesting challenges. Problems to solve and problems that don't want to be solved.

I had thought that many around me had changed. But I was wrong. I changed. The core of me hasn't: values, priorities, etc. But a substantial part of me has. I can't pinpoint it now, but many things that happened in the last year - this mad roller coaster - has changed me.

I am happier and more hopeful but also sad at the things I am letting go. Yes, right now it feels like a cold day in hell.

But I *am* looking forward to watching Star Wars III tomorrow. :D I'll find the silver lining, even if it means I have to fly to look for it. I have to, because no one else is going to find it for me.

Sweet Boy keeping me company here by his couch. Kaku coming up to me when I went to get a glass of milk for seratonin. Sam joining her. Kaitlyn saying, 'Bye, Two", and my Dad and Mom laughing.

I think I am ready to go to sleep. The bad dreams are gone.

I wrote another poem while waiting for my Dad. It's a darkly humourous (well, to me at least) poem called A Cold Day in Hell.

Took my Dad for his usual therapeutic massage and then we discovered a nice coffee shop that sold just about every kind of Chinese noodle dish you could find in a hawker centre. We had dinner there and drinks, and then headed over to my brother's place.

His computer was down so I tried to find a solution for it. He downloaded Knoppix to attempt to access his data. It should be a clincher. Meanwhile I played with Kaitlyn, who was rather delighted by the attention. She allowed me to hug her and then spin her around upside down. In between, she was happy to look into the mirror and baby talk to herself. It was really cute to watch.

Finally we had to leave. She followed us down and put on her little blue boots. Her Dad picked her up and said, no, we're home. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunty Lyn are leaving. Say Bye! And she did. I said, "Bye, Two (my nickname for her)", and she said, "Bye, Two", and waved.

At home, the cats sniffed around the groceries I bought. Had a hot shower, petted Kaku, and fed the kids. And now here I am, still up, typing up my 4 new poems. :D

I received my labels from Story House just the other day. Gorgeous as always. I was delighted they bought Boy I Love You, a poem about Boy. :D Their coffee is the best I've ever sniffed. Try it!

Last night I wrote 3 and 3/4 poems - I fell asleep before I finished the 4th one. 3 submission-worthy poems Resolution, Planet-Hopper (maybe I should retitle this), and Dear Doctor will be out doing the rounds soon after I look at them again.