The Hall of Fire

And, as Nel said...what doctor would remove a heart from a healthy person, thereby killing him? No doctor would do it. It is a clear violation of ther oath. So who would harvest the organs? Would we train people to be "organ harvesters?" Their job would be to remove organs from living peo...

For me, the first practical issue that comes to mind here is: regardless of how the state/prosecution and inmate feel about this, wouldn't doctors be foreclosed as a matter of medical ethics from effectively executing the inmate by removing his heart? In general, doctors are forbidden by their fiel...

I know that sounds gruesome, but capital punishment IS gruesome, to my mind. Decapitation is surely as quick and painless as a chemical overdose. I am strongly against capital punishment, but I always felt that if we were going to have the death penalty, we should use some method like hanging or be...

Guess I'm joining the off-topic-ness, but I can't imagine not touch typing! In fact, I had to think about what Prim even meant by "touch typing" because I suppose I never thought that people did it differently. I'm impressed that you both can use two-fingered typing well enough to construc...

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but it was my understanding that Medicare is not allowed to negotiate lower drug prices.

It is absolutely terrifying to me that there are people like that who are in charge of running our country. She actually sounds like she is on a bad acid trip.

Even worse to me than a deal that rewards extortion is the fact that you (and no doubt millions of other Americans) will find it to be a sensible solution. It will ensure that every gov't. funding and every debt ceiling will be used to extort legislative concessions that could not be achieved throu...

I suspect that the shutdown will end with a deal that involves budget cuts. What I have heard is that the House has offered as part of a deal to end the shutdown and avoid default to replace the across the board sequester cuts with entitlement cuts that Obama has previously supported, such as raisi...

It would be easier if the two political parties could have a dialogue about improving it. But as long as one side is fixating entirely on getting rid of it, it is impossible to even have that conversation. I completely agree. I think it will take a lot of time. But I don't think it will take as lon...

Well, I hate to be the Republican wet blanket, here, but this *is* sort of the honeymoon period. ;) People are just signing up right now, and feeling a flood of relief that they can be covered. There will be snags and problems and frustration when it kicks in, and the approval rating might not be s...

Nate Silver is wonderful. I have a huge crush on him; unfortunately for me, he is gay. But, I think he is still single, so yov, you are in luck.

Yov, I imagine it's for the same reason that moderate Republicans are remaining mostly quiet on the shutdown, even though there are plenty that would vote on a clean budget. The GOP is fracturing; no one in the party wants to make it worse and risk alienating their more conservative campaign donors....

Um... who is saying Obama should be assassinated? If "Republicans" (ie card-carrying officials/representatives of the party) are saying this (which I find unbelievable), surely that is incitement, and illegal. Well, I meant simply registered or voting Republicans (and libertarians, and in...

Um, yeah, that's pretty ridiculous.....I'm pretty sure not voting on a bill is, you know, like, legal and stuff, correct me if I'm wrong. Exactly. It's frustrating, underhanded, and pretty damn idiotic I would say, but I fail to see how it is in any way treasonous. And reading the excerpt that Eru ...

Sci-Fi/Fantasy novelist Elizabeth Moon, former Marine, and married to an M.D. feels the Republicans should be arrested for treason for blocking the democratic process. I actually sympathize with her, and certainly agree the shutdown is doing irreparable harm to the GOP's reputation. See...I strongl...

I was excited to learn about the Nobel for medicine! Vesicular transport is incredibly important in medicine and it is a common drug target. We had an entire lecture on vesicular transport mechanisms last year. Congratulations to the three of them, and to the newly-announced winners in physics!

Lali, as for the vests, Roger and I used Kevlar ballistic nets for our archery. They look really flimsy, but they were quite capable of stopping even the arrows from Roger's 80 lb. bow. I'm not convinced Kevlar would provide at least some protection against a knife with a 3' blade. For one thing, b...

The two casualties were 16-year-old Chinese students on their way to summer camp.

I was pretty shocked to see this. Commercial plane crashes are so rare, but they obviously still happen. :( From the initial accounts of a couple passengers who posted on social media, it seemed like most of the passengers were fine. It was horrible to hear about the two confirmed deaths, though. I ...

And, nel, sorry, but you have to be president first. That's just the way it is. Consider the analogies between yourself and Taft. Oh, my. This could be great fun. :D Getting excited about the indirect effect that these rulings will have on overturning the gay marriage ban in Colorado. There are two...