07:53 – It seems to me that there’s an easy solution to this federal government impasse. Compromise. The Republicans agree to pass a budget and approve the debt limit increase. In return, the Democrats agree to repeal ObamaCare. Surely the Democrats must realize that a majority of Americans oppose ObamaCare, so why are they being so obstinate?
Netflix just added series four of Parenthood, which Barbara and I have been watching. One of the characters is diagnosed with breast cancer, and is likely to be put on chemotherapy. I told Barbara that my gut reaction is that chemotherapy is a dead-end technology and that the real cure for cancer is probably going to be through engineered viruses that seek out and destroy only cancerous cells. For that matter, I think in the long term that antibiotics are a dead-end technology and that the future lies in engineered bacteriophage viruses. Bacteria are disturbingly good at developing resistance to antibiotics, but it’s a lot harder for prokaryotes to develop resistance to hunter/killer viruses. But where are all the future molecular biologists and virologists who are going to discover these cures going to come from? The public schools sure aren’t producing much of a crop of future scientists and engineers.
That’s the main reason we started doing science kits. If kids don’t have access to the tools they’re not going to develop the skills they need to become our future scientists and engineers. Over the coming years, we’ll sell thousands of science kits. Obviously, not every kid who uses one of our kits will decide on a career in science. But if even 1% of those kids go on to become scientists and engineers it will have been worth the effort.
Part of our front yard is a swamp. There was an article in the paper the other day about the city water department. One of their water treatment plants had been down and is being brought back on-line. That means there will be silt in the lines during the changeover, so they’re flushing the lines. Yesterday afternoon, Colin started barking to warn me that something was going on. There’s a fire hydrant in the corner of our yard, and there was a guy from the water department out there opening it up and letting water flow at a high rate into the gutter. I walked out to talk to him and he said they were going to let it run overnight to flush the lines. As of now, it’s still gushing.
