What does GLY stand for? I can’t really tell you, but know that it means good friends, good food, the ocean waves crashing in the back yard and the stars shining bright. At midnight the GLY Gang partook in several different traditions from various countries where we’ve all celebrated New Years in in the past. Though we didn’t jump into the ocean backwards 12 times as we did in Brazil a few years ago, we did eat 12 grapes under the table while making 12 wishes. We also all walked around the block with suitcases to ensure a year of wonderful safe travels. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather, so I laid down shortly after midnight and didn’t wake up until this morning. Patrick’s little friend Joaquin came over this morning and we all played. Today we are all just laying around and watching movies and relaxing. What a fabulous way to begin the year. Happy New Year to all!
No pomegranate martinis for Patrick!
Mariana looking gorgeous as usual…Patrick agreeing
Eva enjoying her midnight grapes immensely
Under the table at midnight making wishes
Me, making friends with the neighbor dog
John, Melissa (and new baby Quandetta???) with Risa
All is quiet on New Year’s Day A world in white gets underway I want to be with you Be with you night and day Nothing changes on New Year’s Day On New Year’s Day
I will be with you again I will be with you again
Under a blood red sky A crowd has gathered in black and white Arms entwined, the chosen few The newspapers says, says Say it’s true it’s true… And we can break through Though torn in two We can be one
I…I will begin again I…I will begin again
Oh… Maybe the time is right Oh…maybe tonight…
I will be with you again I will be with you again
And so we’re told this is the golden age And gold is the reason for the wars we wage Though I want to be with you Be with you night and day Nothing changes On New Year’s Day
Today marks my one year blogging anniversary. Blogs are like clothes. Sometimes you go back and look at your old entries and wonder “What was I thinking!!??”.
Future Xangan
It’s all good though…I’m 42 years old and I’m still learning new things everyday. Xanga has afforded me the opportunity to meet people I never would have met. Lewis, James, Jin, Blake, Jad, Tony, Andy, Johnny, David, Kimiaki, Buhr, Albert, Jeff, Colin, Ryan, Lam, Steve, Leo, Gary and many other readers I don’t really know, but appreciate their comments! It’s a great creative outlet for my pictures and my writing, and it’s always nice to know that people like what you do.
We drove to San Francisco today for our 10 year GLY New Year’s Eve reunion. Though our entire group of friends can’t be here this year, we have seen each other all throughout the year, and as our GLY family continues to grow we find ourselves increasingly spread out. So hello to all of you in London, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, France, Chile, Spain and points beyond.
Tom & Cathy live here in Pacifica. There are definitely advantages to having a world famous astrophysicist who discovered a galaxy as a friend!
There house is literally 20 feet from the ocean. I’ll post more photos tomorrow, but this is their backyard:
We’re going hiking tomorrow, so I’ll post more pictures then. I’m typing this by candle light, and everyone is asleep, so I should end now. There’s nothing like falling asleep to the sounds of waves crashing just 20 feet away. Night night!
Bassam had a conference at CalTech today, so rather than driving back to Santa Barbara tonight, he called to check availability at the Hotel Careyfornia. Luckily, Posh & Becks had just canceled a reservation and we had an opening. Bassam is a regular visitor at the HC this time of year, and now that he’s graced us with his presence, it really seems like Christmas time is here again.
We had tapas for dinner and afterwards Bassam needed a new cord for his iPhone, so we ran by Target. He spent $20 on his cord, and I got myself my own Christmas present. I justified it, because it came with a $30 gift card. (I really only got it because I’m sure Jennifer, Lisa & Dar will all get one soon, and I wanted to be first for once!)
I also got a new Dirt Devil broom, but the iTouch is more fun. Short entry tonight…I’m going to go play with my new toy. Remember, Christmastime is for everyone…even the Jews! Enjoy the video! Night night. (P.S. Thanks to Ryan for the fabulous graphic design!!)
One of the good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) things about traveling as much as I did for 15 years and not even having an address for the last 5 of those years, is that I have never been summoned for jury duty. Until now.
Don’t get me wrong. I was actually looking forward to the day I got to serve on a jury. It’s something I’ve always been curious about. The group dynamic and the whole deliberation process fascinates me (see below). Since I’ve actually had a real home now for 5+ years, I was wondering if they were ever going to “find” me. I’m a registered voter and I have a driver’s license, so I suspected it was only a matter of time (unless there was some felony in my deep dark past that I didn’t know about!) until my civic duty caught up with me. Unfortunately, that time has now come, and it’s…..drum roll please…
NEW YEAR’S EVE!!!???
WTF?? Who starts a jury trial on New Year’s Eve? Don’t they know about the fabulous “GLY group” of friends I’ve traveled all over the world with on New Year’s Eve for the past ten years??? Surely the must know about that? Don’t they read my blog? Who do they think they are??
Having no experience whatsoever with this, I had no idea what to do. The summons was quite clear about the consequences for not appearing:
Since horizontal stripes aren’t exactly slimming, I thought I had best respond, even though I would have a good alibi in the fact that I only open mail twice a year, LOL.
The stupid summons said nothing about postponement either. Basically what it said was that the only way you could get out of jury duty was if you were dead, or had one of these excuses:
Medical Excuses – Complete Section E of your summons. If you are over 70, a physician’s statement is NOT required, but you must provide your age, date of birth and the reason for your medical excuse in the space provided in Section D. All requests for excuse must be signed in Section G.
Financial Hardship – Financial Hardship requests are strictly scrutinized. The fact that your employer does not pay for jury service is not sufficient grounds for excuse. You must be able to demonstrate how service as a juror will cause you EXTREME hardship. Section C must be completed. Failure to complete Section C in its entirety will cause automatic qualification for jury service.
Transfer – To change to another court location within the county, you must provide a legally sufficient reason in writing indicating why you are prevented from appearing at the courthouse to which you have been randomly summoned by computer. A written request, briefly explaining your hardship, must be provided in Section D. Only a true hardship is grounds for a transfer, inconvenience is not.
I was scared to call the number to register because I thought once I was officially “in the system”, there would be no way to escape the Matrix.
Enter Google, to save the day! Once I learned that I could actually postpone my jury duty (one time only) by calling the number, I gladly called and was actually pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the automated phone system! (There’s a first!) Bottom line, is now I don’t have to report for jury duty until January 22nd.
(Speaking of Google, did you see that they added a Hong Kong skyline theme to their theme menu, that changes in light and texture based on the time of day!? I LOVE it!! It’s almost as good as being there, or at least looking at Skunky’s photos! They also added the solar system, showing a new scene for each day of the week; a family of raccoons playing in a leaf pile; a tiger on Jeju Island, South Korea; and JR, the lovable monster who grapples with life in a city for which he is entirely too big.
Hong Kong skyline photo courtesy of master photographer Jeff (Skunky)!!
Google and its gadgets make my life so much easier. If you use Firefox (and why wouldn’t you? Except for the fact that embedded material like YouTube videos don’t show up in the Xanga editor, anyone know why??) you should also check out the Google toolbar add-ons for Firefox. I can highlight any word on any webpage and instantly search for it in Wikipedia, YouTube, the New York Times, dictionary.com, and so on. It’s a real time saver.
Another trick I just learned was that you could type “link:”any website url”" into google to find how many other webpages are linked to that site. Not sure how #2 got on mine, but it’s an interesting tool nonetheless. (Actually, I must have a Xanga entry tagged with “celebrities” just like “talky alex“) )
Sorry….that was a LONG parenthetical phrase….I digress. Back to, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, juries. I was recently thinking more about the whole “deliberation” process after receiving some advice I solicited from a good friend. The advice concerned how to respond to an emailed article that originally came from some military grunt forum that stated, among other things, that:
President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve. It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorrah and the land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 911, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.
Ugh! Which way to the vomitorium?? After reading this, I wanted to send one of my sharply critical emails attacking the author’s position that people who don’t support the war (and the president) live an immoral life and that Muslims:
[sic] believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one-third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists cause…Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits.
…This makes it OK for us to go to war with Iraq!!?? Lord & Taylor, where to begin???
So anyway as I started writing my response, I thought twice and asked the advice of a wise friend who I consider an expert in matters of diplomacy. I hope he doesn’t mind me paraphrasing some of what he told me:
The person who wrote this article, buys into a version of generational difference that makes me think he is a staunch supporter of patriotism, and that his brain is wired in well-defined systems of dichotomous information-processing. It would be difficult to engage such a thinker in a conversion mission—which is what I suspect you would like to do. Instead, I would approach this as an ideal jury deliberation:
Parties agree to discuss an issue, parties accept they may change their minds after hearing everyone out and deliberating collectively. Every person agrees that one can understand another’s opinion without having to accept their positions. Each person should lay out his/her opinion while everyone else does their best to listen carefully without passing judgment (recent research indicates only well-trained minds can do this at will). Closure only comes when parties feel they have said all they wanted, are at peace with their deliberations, and can at least understand other parties’ reasoning for differing views about the same subject.
In concrete ways, I would agree with several of the points in the article that were made about people coming together and then I would present my own counter-evidence. I would make the point that the same people did despicable things to fellow Americans during the same time exactly BECAUSE they saw the world, and America, in the dichotomous ways (us versus them) that allows for that type of unquestioned unity. For instance, Japanese American citizens were taken from their homes, put into concentration camps inside the United States, children were separated from parents, no explanations were given to parents or children, no order of the law was followed, no trials were conducted, and no amendments were made after years of such treatment. All this while using Japanese American soldiers to fight the war in the Pacific region.
Very similar things happened to Native Americans. The same generation took children away from families, by force, without explanation, to raise them in warehouses across America well into the 60s. Women were pushed out of jobs once the war was over. WWII GIs were given 2 years of salary with no questions asked for serving the nation in the war, then had their college education paid for 100% without restrictions of place, tuition cost, etc. This contrasts in extreme forms with the way Iraq War vets are being treated by the current administration (you know the details here). America did not follow a pre-emptive strike, but it was rather forced into the war by a strategy perceived by the population as cowardly (Pearl Harbor). There are a thousand points to be made here in rather objective ways.
Bravo!! This kind of goes back to my “Perceptions” post about generational differences and how they affect the way we see the world. It’s doubtful that the author of the article that sparked this will ever read this entry (maybe he’ll Google himself). If he does, perhaps it will spark a deliberation that I will now be better prepared for. Besides, as my wise friend also stated, I could always tell him that this email changed my life in such a profound way that I’ve decided to fly to Iraq and serve as a peace liaison because I felt the inextricable pull of patriotism! Hmmm…maybe deliberation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Guess I’ll find out on January 22nd. Let’s hope it’s not a murder trial!!
It is not a little remarkable that sympathy with the distresses of others should excite tears more freely than our own distress; and this certainly is the case. Many a man, from whose eyes no suffering of his own could wring a tear, has shed tears at the sufferings of a beloved friend.
Last week as I sat waiting in the Los Angeles airport for my flight to Portland, there was a woman behind me talking rather loudly on her cell phone. I could not help but overhear her conversation. Ordinarily, this would be the type of thing that would light my fuse immediately. It was hard to get upset at this particular woman though, because of what she was talking about. She was on the phone with someone who was clearly distressed and she was trying to calm them. It was someone I suspect she knew very well, a family member perhaps. In soothing tones the woman in the airport cited Bible verse after Bible verse explaining and relating in Christian terms how adhering to the word of God, would help the person on the phone with their struggles. Agree or disagree, she seemed extremely altruistic, and for that reason, it was hard to take offense.
I’m not really one for Christian ideology, and the older I get the more I find myself going the way of Julia Sweeney and questioning all facets of organized religion. But I was raised a good Catholic boy, and I still have respect for an individual’s religious beliefs no matter how unfounded. So I endured this loud conversation and tried to read my (not Good but good) book. After all, I was on my way to visit Marcelo, one of the most altruistic people I know. He’s like a moral compass; a shining example of why you need not be religious or even believe in “God” to live a good life and respect the lives of others.
This is something I need to be reminded of every once in a while. It has nothing to do with being Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, it just has to do with altruism (the Ethic of Reciprocity) and another evolutionary concept called reciprocal altruism. You may not know the term, but you know what it means. Consider the elaborate dance we all do when we are out to dinner with good friends and the bill comes. Reciprocal altruism is what makes us grab the bill and try to pay it before our friends have the chance (unlike the non altruistic approach sometimes taken when we gesture that we want to pay, but we secretly do not!). Whenever I’m around Marcelo, he makes me want to be a better person (WWMD). I rethink things like this, and wonder if maybe I went a bit overboard (ya think!?) LOL.
So how does this all relate to the lady in the airport? Well, last night when I got on the plane from Portland to Los Angeles and settled into my aisle seat, I discovered the woman in the window seat was the same woman from the airport in L.A. a week earlier. As a jaded business traveler, I’m not one to make a habit of exchanging trite pleasantries with other passengers, so I settled into my book. The young man between us in the middle seat had his iPod on very loudly, and was tapping his hands on his legs and shaking his knees, all while shaking the armrests on both sides. This was happening before the plane even took off. I was starting to get really annoyed, and tried to shoot him a few darting glances to express my dissatisfaction.
The Christian lady though, tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to take out his earphones. She then proceeded to very calmly ask him if he was OK, because his actions were really upsetting her. She asked him if he was nervous about flying and he said he was not. She told him that his twittering and jumpiness were quite disturbing, and he replied “Oh really?”. At first I thought he was going to be rude to her. But she then went on to say that if he was jumping around like that because he was truly nervous about flying, then it was OK for him to continue (!), otherwise she hoped he could sit a little more still. He said that he was just “into the music” and she jokingly said, “Oh, then you’re just grooving”. Since she looked somewhat like Aretha Franklin, she could pull that phrase off.
“Wow”, I thought to myself. Never in a million years would I have thought to handle it that way. I thought of Marcelo and of reciprocal altruism and of my initial reactions to this woman, both the week before and now. I should also say that she was extremely overweight, which selfishly made me glad that I wasn’t in the middle seat. (baby-steps Carey). The story had an almost happy ending, except for the fact that the guy was still not able to completely suppress his fidgeting. He must have been truly nervous and somewhat oblivious. (I realized he may have been a few fries short of a Happy Meal when he took out his digital camera and reached over the woman and tried to take pictures out the window with the flash on. He kept looking at the images and wondering why they just looked like a big flash of light. LOL). Luckily it was only a 2 hour flight. I learned a lesson though, and was grateful that my moral tuneup from Marcelo helped me recognize that lesson.
Here’s one last Jib/Jab from our trip that Christine sent today. It’s of me, Marcelo, Emily, Drew & Christine, doing the can can, because we can can can! Moulin Rouge dancers, eat your heart out!!
We had a great day today. I haven’t been to bed before 5:30 AM one night this week, and we’re supposed to get up early tomorrow to drive to the Oregon coast, so I’ll be brief. Today’s photos are from Thanksgiving dinner and our walk along Waterfront Park today. Then we headed to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Pioneer Square. After that, we hit the famous Voodoo Doughnuts (the magic is in the hole) for their famous Maple & Bacon doughnuts and of course the infamous Cock & Balls (triple cream filled). Next stop, Powell’s Bookstore, the largest independent bookstore in the world! From there we headed up to the West Hills and Washington Park and the Rose Garden, before strolling through Northwest 23rd Ave. and heading home for doughnuts, leftover turkey & ham, Journey and disco dancing! LOL
Carey & Patrick
Drew, Christine & Wiley
The laptop brigade
Paging Martha Stewart
Yes, we’re very tired, but the oven pancakes were worth getting up for!
This “poem” is obviously filled with many inside jokes, but suffice it to say it is quite representative of our “GLY” group of friends from all over the world. Apologies in advance to Clement Clarke Moore.
‘Twas the night before turkey, and all through the ‘Couve, GLY’ers were happy, getting into their groove. The turkey was ordered fromSafewaywith care, In hopes that Tom, Cathy & Patrick soon would be there.
Bassam was nestled all snug in his bed, While visions of gluten free pumpkin pie danced in his head. And Emily in her leopard pants, and I in my trendy cap, Blogging till all hours, while everyone napped.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, We sprang from our futons to see what was the matter. And what to our wondering eyes did appear, But an angel Quandetta, and 8 tiny reindeer.
More rapid than Plato, her coursers they came, And she whistled, and shouted, and called them by name. Now Bine, now Eva, Carolina and Youenn, On Joelle, on Mick, and the rest of you loons.
She was chubby and plump, A right jolly old elf. And I smiled when I saw here, In spite of myself.
She spoke not a word, But went straight to her work. Spreading the GLY message, Then turned with a jerk.
And by saying, “Quandetta, we ARE the dates”, This wonderful woman sealed all of our fates. As an angel she may now look down from above, And see a group of great friends in their Seasons of Love.
Marble & Wiley
The campus of Washington State where Marcelo teaches
Greetings from the Rose City. As some of you know, Marcelo & Emily moved here recently, and a bunch of us from our GLY group have decided to converge on them for Thanksgiving. Bassam arrived tonight, and Tom, Cathy, Patrick, Vonda, Nate & Bianca are coming Thursday.
In my old job I used to come to this city once a month for 13 years, so it was great coming back for the first time in several years. I spent the whole afternoon at my old office visiting many good friends. This is a stunningly beautiful city full of trendy hipsters and a vibrant cultural scene. It’s 3:00 AM and we’re all still up talking, so I’m just going to post some photos and a couple of videos and get back to the party!
Marcelo & Emily aren’t big TV watchers! This is their only television and it has rabbit ears!!
Only in Portland…we found this duo in the Apple store in Pioneer Place
I’m finally walking again…though trying to stay off my ankle as much as possible. It’s a whole lot better than it was last week though. So…not much new to report. I got an email yesterday from my friend Luci in Brazil. She sent me some pictures of her kids, which I just had to post:
Carey Anthony<careygly@gmail.com>
Fun in the Sun – News from Brazil!
From: Luciana
Tue, Nov 6, 2007 at 8:31 AM
To:Carey
Greetings from Sunny Brazil! Just wanted to share with you some pictures of our four day weekend in Buzios (near Rio) three weeks ago. Lucas is 2 years and 8 months old and Amanda is 1 year and 3 months old!
Hope all is well with you. Please send us news!
Luci Upper School Counselor/VHS Site Coordinator Graded – The American School of São Paulo, Brazil
From: Carey
Tue, Nov 6, 2007 at 10:02 AM
To:Luciana
Oi Lu,
I just got off the phone with Department of Children & Family Services. I’m not sure if their jurisdiction will reach Brazil, but I HAD to file a complaint about a possible crime. You see, depriving such BEAUTIFUL children the chance of fame and fortune by not sending them to live in Hollywood with their Uncle Carey and pursue a modeling/acting career, is tantamount to child neglect. I’m sorry it had to come to this, but it’s for the children. I hope you understand. Until my attorney contacts you, please kiss the children, and give yourself a strong hug for bringing such angels into our world!
Beijos,
Carey
Thanks so much to Albert, who pointed me to this great website that allows you to embed your Flickr photos anywhere you want. That’s Luci and her husband in the first picture, and a bunch of photos I took in Brazil the last time I was there. The neatest thing is that you can access any of my over 8000 Flickr photos all from this one slideshow. You just have to click “Info” and enter my Flickr name: CareyAnthony. Then just choose a set. I love it!
Update: I’ve left Flickr…they pissed me off. Stay tuned
Finally, I received some very disturbing news today. I don’t know how much press this is going to get, but I find it truly shocking that a promising HIV vaccine, designed to immunize people against the disease before they get it, actually might be increasing the chance for test study volunteers to contract HIV and therefore AIDS. I have a good friend who is enrolled in this trial. He received 3 vaccinations, though since it was a blinded study, he had no way of knowing whether he got the vaccine or a placebo. Merck, the company that conducted the trials, is going to un-blind the study, so soon my friend will know if he actually received the vaccine. If so, he is more at risk of contracting HIV than had he not enrolled in this trial.
He was guaranteed by Merck that the trial could in no way infect him. So, in essence, by trying to do a good thing and advance the study and science of HIV prevention, he now may be at risk. Of course this is all speculation at this point, but how dare a worldwide pharmaceutical company like Merck expose people to such a horrific possibility. My friend is beside himself with worry…nearly sick to his stomach. I wish the best for him and for the other 3,000 study participants nationwide. Here’s more, from Time magazine:
A T-lymphocyte white blood cell infected with AIDS virus (green).
After 20 years of defeat, it appeared that science may have finally
developed a viable vaccine against AIDS. Merck’s new drug, V520, was
being tested in a huge clinical trial, involving 3,000 people in 15
cities, and it was widely considered the most promising new candidate
in the field. But last September, when Merck analyzed its initial trial
data, it found that the vaccine had failed — and failed miserably. On
Wednesday, the company issued its first report on the V520 trials,
revealing that the drug did not protect against HIV, and more
disturbingly, actually increased some people’s susceptibility to the
virus. “I don’t think anyone imagined the results would be so
definitively negative so quickly,” says Dr. Gary Nabel, director of the
Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health.
V520 may have failed, but somewhere in the details of the drug’s
nonsuccess, scientists hope to find insight into what will make future
vaccines work. After all, V520 is just one of about 50 experimental HIV
vaccines that are currently being tested in clinical trials, and almost
all of them are designed to function the same way. While most vaccines
expose the body to weakened or killed viruses, or pieces of them, to
boost production of antibodies — proteins that recognize invading cells
and flag them for destruction — that tack alone was too feeble to fend
off HIV. The new class of vaccines, including V520, takes a more direct
route: They trigger cell-mediated immunity, which marshals killer T
cells that both recognize and destroy viruses and bacteria, and can
lead to a more robust, specific and longer-lived immune defense.
It’s not yet clear why V520 didn’t work, but one theory involves its
vector, or delivery vehicle. Like almost every other AIDS vaccine in
development, Merck’s drug used the common cold virus to transport its
payload — three synthetic HIV genes — into the body’s cells. What makes
the adenovirus ideal for the task is precisely the reason colds make us
so miserable — once inside a host, the cold virus infects cells and
starts to replicate quickly. The down side to that efficiency, however,
is that cold viruses are so common that most people have developed a
certain level of tolerance to them; if the adenovirus fails to excite
the immune system, then any bugs piggybacked on the virus, such as HIV
genes, will also slip past immune defenses. That’s exactly what appears
to have happened in the Merck trial: People with the highest
pre-existing immunity to the common cold also had the highest rates of
infection with HIV.
“It could be due to chance, or to differences in the populations we
studied, or to something related to the vaccine itself,” says Dr. Keith
Gottesdiener, vice president of Vaccine and Infectious Disease Clinical
Research at Merck. “The ‘why’ is still not well known.”
Researchers have already set about trying to figure it out. “We have
to remember that Merck’s was a single product testing a vaccine
concept, which is that T cell immunity can protect against HIV
infection,” says Nabel. “And we know there are other ways to stimulate
T cell immunity.” Nabel is ready to test one such method, a vaccine
similar to Merck’s that uses different HIV genes and a “prime-boost”
approach that involves two injections spaced a few months apart,
instead of one shot, to maximize the stimulation of the body’s T cells.
Other researchers, like Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond
AIDS Research Center in New York City and the recipient of a $25
million grant from the Gates Foundation to study novel vaccine
strategies, think that the cold virus isn’t the best way to deliver
HIV. Ho is exploring the possibility that a different vector, such as
the chicken pox virus, or perhaps no vector at all — simply injecting
snippets of naked HIV DNA — could yield stronger immune responses.
At the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a non-profit
group of public and private partners focused on funding and
accelerating AIDS vaccine research, scientists are studying the use of
crippled, live strains of HIV — based on the success of other such live
attenuated vaccines against polio and measles — which they think might
be critical to waking up the right immune system defenses. “There is
something magical about the replicating virus, because it has virtually
its entire genome,” says Dr. Seth Berkley, president of IAVI. His group
is also investigating ways to stimulate so-called neutralizing
antibodies, a special class of antibodies that appear to be able to
defuse HIV.
Despite the ongoing study, experts argue that none of it will
succeed without some basic changes in the way it’s conducted. Most
research occurs in isolation; there’s little coordination among labs
and no network through which data can be shared, making it difficult
for scientists to learn from each other’s missteps. Worse, it takes
years to get regulatory approval to start a human trial for a new
vaccine — not to mention enrolling the volunteers and training the
right personnel — so, by the time experiments get underway, the science
around which the vaccine was built has long since become outdated. “The
trials are not informing science at the moment,” says Dr. Alan
Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, an
alliance of independent organizations dedicated to accelerating HIV
vaccine research. “Science — and vaccine development — is an iterative
process, except that in HIV vaccine research, there isn’t a lot of
iteration going on.”
The Enterprise, which was founded in 2005, intends to change that.
With funding from the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, National
Institutes of Health and the European Union, it will serve as a hub for
guiding worldwide HIV vaccine research. �We want to ensure that the
trials are done faster, better and smarter,� says Bernstein. And
hopefully, with more success.
For Merck’s official press release today, click here.
Arnold’s Constitutionality & Flickr Foibles
Please note that until the writer’s strike is over this blog will only contain photos. Just kidding. Though they say if the strike lasts a long time, it could have devastating and far-reaching effects on the local economy.
I got in to a 5 against 1 heated debate the other day with my friends over the following issue:
The “Arnold Amendment” Should we amend the Constitution to let foreign-born U.S. citizens become president?
BackgroundWhen the Framers wrote the Constitution in 1787, they feared theinfluence foreign powers and foreign wealth might have on the newnation. In Europe, royal families in one country often tried to put oneof their own on another nation’s throne. To prevent some powerfulEuropean nobleman from coming to America, buying up political favorsand seizing the presidency, the Framers adopted a clause makingforeign-born U.S. citizens (except those present at the time of theConstitution’s adoption) ineligible to become president. For most ofthe 216 years since the adoption of the Constitution, there has beenlittle debate about this provision. But now there are four proposals inCongress to permit foreign-born citizens to runfor president. Each allows a foreign-born American to run for presidentafter a lengthy period of citizenship. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has become anemblem for the cause. Advocates of change say the current provision isout-of-date and un-American. Millions of immigrants have made this themost diverse nation on Earth and contributed to its strength. As amatter of equal rights, proponents say, they should have an equalchance to dream about becoming president. Opponents say the Framers’concerns about the possibility of divided allegiances are still validand that the Constitution should not be changed.
Our debate wasn’t actually about Arnold, it was about a Constitutional Amendment to allow foreign-born US citizens to become president. I’m as liberal as the next Californian, but this is something I actually don’t support (which scares me, because it really is a red state/blue state issue). It’s not because I don’t like Arnold, and it’s not because I don’t think there are plenty of foreign born Americans who would make excellent presidents. I suppose I’m a bit of a Constitutionalist (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it) at heart. But I couldn’t articulate to my friends my reasoning. To be honest, I think they were quite flabbergasted at my perceived intolerance. (For the record, I’m also not in favor of a Constitutional Amendment to allow gay marriage (nor certainly one to ban it), though I fully support gay marriage. I just think it’s something for the states to decide, and it doesn’t belong in the Constitution any more than an amendment about the right to celebrate Christmas. But that’s a whole other blog entry.)
I, like most Americans (even the foreign born ones who went to US schools), grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I believe that patriotism, like family bonds, are something we learn at a very young age. In most cases, we are bound by our countries of birth as tightly as we are bound by our families, inextricably. I can’t imagine that’s a typically American feeling. Surely this one country doesn’t cause everyone who comes here to want to pledge their allegiance to our flag. I’m an Italian American, and though I would love to live in Italy if my lifestyle could afford it, I would never pledge allegiance to Italy. (Though I did root for them to win the World Cup!) But maybe my thinking is too American. As the National Review pointed out:
One of the wonders of American culture, of course, is the spectacle ofpeople becoming American. We call this assimilation or, lessclinically, Americanization. It is a rough process that affects peoplein different ways. On an individual level, it includes successes,failures, and much in between. It also holds a special place in thepublic imagination-most Americans can name an immigrant forebear, and agreat many know immigrant ancestors as more than names. Their storiesof arriving here, learning English, and gaining citizenship are centralnot just to millions of family histories, but to the whole country’ssense of itself. As Harvard’s Oscar Handlin remarked 50 years ago,”Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then Idiscovered that immigrants were American history.” By proposing toremove the single legal distinction the United States makes betweencitizens by birth and citizens by choice (their own or their parents’),an Amendment would fit inside a grand tradition of assimilation andacceptance.
But, as pointed out in The Spectator (God, now I’m quoting The Spectator! What’s happening to me??):
But the risk goesbeyond the potential of foreign powers planting someone in thepresidency or influencing a president born and raised abroad. Even aforeign-born president not subject to malign foreign influence is arisk not worth taking, given that unavoidably divided loyalties (due toan attachment to a country in which the president was born and raised,has fond memories of, family in, and so on) could make him eitherdangerous or ineffectual. Theframers’ concern about divided loyalties wasn’t nativist caprice but arealistic recognition that a president needs to have an extremely deepattachment to America in order to serve it effectively in times ofcrisis.
So is my thinking flawed? Not that it should matter, but 4 out of 5 of the friends that I had this debate with were not born in the United States. And the fifth is so liberal that she has a New York accent even though she’s from Texas! So my final question to my friends was this; “Would you want George W. Bush to be able to become president of your countries??” And besides, does anybody remember what happened the last time as Austrian became president of another country? Sorry (On no he di’nt!)
On a completely unrelated note, does anybody know how to embed Flickr sets in Xanga? It’s driving me crazy.
My lungs are finally starting to clear from the fire smoke. Today was a picture perfect day in Santa Barbara. We started the morning by taking Patrick to the State Street Halloween Parade. The costumes were great and the kids were adorable. After that we had brunch, and then enjoyed a lazy afternoon until we retired to Tom & Cathy’s for good food, with good friends. All in all a delightful Halloween weekend. Lots of pictures to share…these are my favorites, and the rest are in the slideshow below. Boo!
Patrick & friend
Shrek
Patrick, Cathy & Snoopy
Superman, meet…
Spiderman!
Scooby, Velma & Shaggy
Peter Pan
Alice in Wonderland
Dragonslayer
Eva calling Cathy on a land line
The ocean, from Bassam’s living room
There’s still residual smoke from the fires, so the sunset was awesome.
Chariot of Fire
Is he not the cutest?
Bassam being gangsta
Getting tired
This isn’t what it looks like! I don’t drink!! I actually fell off the balcony though. LOL We were talking politics, and I was getting animated, and it was dark, and… Honestly though…I was stone cold sober!! (And no, that’s not a pun!) I’m just a dork.
![juryduty3 [800x600]](http://x07.xanga.com/c2ec231501332161239659/m121374291.jpg)
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Bravo!! This kind of goes back to my “
So my final question to my friends was this;
(On no he di’nt!)
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