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25. september 2007
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Narrowing it down, sort of.
Geneticists have found 350 genes that may be linked to infertility in women. This could be a potential landmark in research on a condition that has so far eluded genetic analysis.
Notice the could. It's the operative word here. They found the genes in mice; in such a poorly-understood condition, that's a big translation gap to cross.
It is very obvious that there is no gene for infertility, as it would not ever be passed on to offspring (doh!). There may, however, be combinations of genes that also have other positive effects that in combintion causes infertility.
PS: This reminds me about some local environmentalist, worried that genes causing infertility in genetically modified plants could spread in the wild, causing infertility to spread in the gene pool...
7:50:20 PM 
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One could at least hope that Norway's human rights jet-set, otherwise known as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wasn't doing too much outright damage with their naive efforts to save the world from itself. Unfotunately, that is not the case: Norway has been sending financial aid to Koran schools, also called madrassas, in Pakistan, precisely the institutions that gave birth to the Taliban and is a primary recruiting ground for al-Qaeda and other Jihadist groups.
As much as NOK 6 million (more than USD 1 million) has gone to 118 so-called "Koran schools" in northwest Pakistan. Some local experts, however, fear Norway risks supporting fundamentalist groups because it makes no demands on the schools' curriculum.
Karin Ask, a researcher at the Christian Michelsen Institute, told newspaper Dagsavisen that Norway could wind up even supporting jihadists, those encouraging holy war.
The research institution International Crisis Group (ICG) also worries about any "uncritical" support of the schools, claiming that they mount a "considerable danger" to international security.
This stupidity is excused with that holy grail of socialist foreign policies: dialogue. A lot of insanity can hide behind this innocent word.
Norway's government minister in charge of foreign aid, Erik Solheim, claims the goal of the aid project was to "promote dialogue."
He doesn't dismiss either Ask's or ICG’s concerns, and said the Koran school support project will be evaluated.
Solheim, of the Socialist Left (SV) party, said he also hoped the aid to the schools would further religious tolerance. "We figure that the schools that choose to take part in the project are hardly those that are in tight with al-Qaida," he said. "We want to be a counterbalance to the fundamentalists."
There is nothing to evaluate, except to find out who came up with this idea and fire them. Stop. This. Now.
4:54:47 PM
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Ahmadinejad's visit to New York's Columbia University was not a total PR victory.
Asked about executions of homosexuals in Iran, Mr Ahmadinejad replied: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
Reacting to laughter and jeers from the audience he added: "In Iran we don't have this phenomenon, I don't know who you told this."
The New York Daily News's front page headline on Monday read "The Evil Has Landed", while the New York Post described Mr Ahmadinejad as "Madman Iran Prez".
It is well documented, and otherwise admitted by the country, that Iran has executed gays.
Iran's president also used the opportunity to repeat his "doubts" about the Holocaust and reiterated his position as a truther on 9/11.
7:11:16 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2007; 17:26:44.
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