^R Kelly is right behind you!

Holy cow. That's beyond disgusting.

LOL @ macawis striptease Is that when a guy stands up suddenly and we all discover he's not very good at tying a knot? I always thought it was accidental, but now :eek:

Some people are just bad to the bone. And I mean .

^Now you're just being mean. Chubacka, you're not a teenage boy are you?

^Ditto

How did it scare the crap out out of you Femme? I asked, "How far is it to Mars?" Peter answered, "You don't believe in me." I guess that might be scary to some, since it WAS the truth *Edit* Oooh, never mind, should've checked the second link first*

^And can you believe some crazy people want to ban khat!? Where would men go to share their heartaches and woes? I tell you, it must be a conspiracy by piranha secretaries who want to steal our men when the poor Faraaxs don't know who to go to to complain about their fat wives and the dirty diapers in the kitchen sink

What bothers me is that there are pay incentives for credit card sales agents to open as many accounts as they can for customers. So if they receive an application they would rather process it than reject it. Once, this guy took one of those direct mail applications, tore it into twenty-eight pieces, taped it back together loosely and mailed it in. He got a credit card 2 weeks later. And how do most people dispose of those applications?

^I get the feeling it's the only way to get you interested in science. Let me see if I can find the diet coke and mentos vid...

Aside from the psychological trauma? Well, you're also more likely to burn your mouth. Water sometimes doesn't boil in the microwave, even though it is actually past the boiling point. This can be really dangerous. Check out this video

^Don't give me any lip or it's detention for you. Isseh, those are fundamentally important cells and must be satisfied at all times. Trying to trick them with pale substitutes (microwaved tea, coffee) leads to severe mental consequences. Casiriye anyone?

Idil, antigen presenting cells do express MHC class I (all nucleated cells do). It's just that in addition they also express MHC class II. Thus they are protected from NK cells via the same inhibitory signal somatic cells deliver. Since you brought it up-- one of the ways the fetus avoids NK cells is by expressing HLA-G, which is far less polymorphic than other MHC class I loci. In that way, it avoids killing by NK cells since HLA-G can bind KIR. I don't know of any disease marked by the lack of MHC. Rheumatoid arthritis has an autoimmune aetiology, so that it is less severe during pregnancy confirms the effect of pregnancy on the immune system. It would be interesting to see if there are any infectious diseases with similarly improved outcomes. About Tregs, your guess is as good as anyone else's. Simply characterizing them is incredibly challenging. As yet there isn't a single cell surface marker that is both exclusive to and necessarily expressed by all regulatory T cells. Foxp3 is a transcription factor, so it's not very useful for isolating cells using standard sorting techniques (except in Foxp3-GFP transgenic mice). Currently, CD25 is used but it's not expressed by all Foxp3+ Tregs, and regular effector T cells also upregulate CD25 expression after activation. Even how they work is hotly debated. They are "sexy" at the moment, so expect lots of research to come out in the next little while.

Originally posted by ThePoint: It's not about black and white - it's about his message - one which he expresses in such an eloquent way far above his rivals. The smart thing he's done is to distance himself from 'black' issues in order not to 'alienate' whites. Can't resist pointing out that the medium is the message Interesting how the child of a Kenyan is running for president of the US while Kenya's own political future is so uncertain. Talk about a brain drain.

Hi Idil, The question of the eye and the brain is really interesting, I think CG covered that pretty well. My only addition would be to point out that a "brain" is a component of the central nervous system unique to complex animals. If animals evolved from a common single-celled organism, then some sort of light-sensing organ or organelle must always have preceded the part of the brain responsible for interpreting visual stimuli. But it's possible to have a nervous system composed of motor neurons and sensory neurons for detecting and responding to sound, temperature, etc, without a visual cortex. 1. Why doesn't the immune system attack the feutus during pregnancy? Why does it not recognise it as a "parasite"? In fact it IS useful to think of the fetus as an allograft, since many of the same principles underlying transplantation immunology apply. And as you would expect, the immune system is regulated in many ways during pregnancy: 1. The first line of defense for the fetus is the placenta. This organ is responsible for letting "good" stuff through (oxygen, nutrients, maternal hormones and immunoglobulins), while screening out immune cells. There are as many as 6 layers separating the fetal and maternal blood, depending on the organism. 2. But since the placenta itself is of fetal origin, it also has mechanisms to dampen the maternal immune system. In essence, the fetus either fools the maternal immune system (I've heard of it referred to as "sabotage"), or makes it less reactive overall by releasing certain mediators. In mice, if you somehow inhibit these molecules in a pregnant female, you get a miscarriage. Not surprisingly, women are actually at increased risk of contracting infections, as well as being unable to control what was otherwise a chronic infection during pregnancy. For example, women who live in malaria endemic areas have a partial immunity to malaria. But during pregnancy this immunity decreases and if the woman is then exposed to the parasite her risk of contracting the disease increases. The same probably goes for HIV and some foodborne pathogens. At the other end of the spectrum, hemolytic disease of the newborn demonstrates what happens if the maternal immune system does react against fetal red blood cells. 2. Why doesn't the immune system of a woman illicit a reponse against sperm? Why not food? or clothes? This is where compartmentalization is key. On mucosal surfaces like the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts, immune responses are deliberately transient and self-limiting. Sperm injected under the skin or in the blood would elicit a response, since they are not supposed to be there. Food is more complicated, since it does eventually pass into the bloodstream. Oral tolerance is a critical mechanism by which the immune system is "taught" that food is not to be reacted against. There's actually extensive research on oral tolerance as possible treatment for autoimmune diseases and allergies (eg, if you have hayfever, actually eating the pollen you are allergic to can reduce your response to it!) Again, sometimes the best way to elucidate the immune system is by considering diseases. Celiac disease is caused by an immune reaction to wheat gluten proteins. People with this disorder have to avoid foods containing gluten, not an easy thing when you consider how central wheat is in daily cooking. Food allergies are another example of an inappropriate response, and some can be incredibly deadly and rapid. 3. Commensal bacteria (doesn't cause harm) e.g. of the gut...why does it only become harmful when the hosts immune system is weak and not othertimes? So commensal bacteria: again, compartmentalization is key. The lining of the gut keeps the good bacteria away from the immune cells, which are staring suspiciously at them on the other side Commensal bacteria also want to avoid annoying the immune system, so they signal their friendliness and/or harmlessless. In contrast, pathogens often WANT to cross over, and the very mechanisms (the proteins, genes, secreted components) they use have been flagged by the immune system as highly dangerous. The gut releases massive quantities of antibodies that bind to these pathogenic organisms while leaving the good bacteria alone. If they do somehow transverse the lining of the gut, many different immune cells on the other side make sure they regret it. Yet once more we must consider what happens when things go wrong. Inflammatory bowel disease is as bad as it sounds. When the immune system gets mismanaged and attacks commensal bacteria, diarhea happens (bad pun intended). The small intestine becomes a warzone, food absorption decreases and the inflammation itself becomes very harmful. The key message is immune regulation. At any one time, your body is grimly fighting off unwanted intruders, while at the same time trying to avoid friendly fire. Keeping the balance is very very important, and how the host does that is a hot area of immunology. Whew. If you actually read to here you deserve a medal.

Happy new year everyone! So Cadaan, if you're 30 in the Islamic calender, how old does that make you on the Gregorian calender?

To call for the intimidation of medical personnel is ridiculous and childish. Even genocidal maniacs get medical treatment because doctors like to maintain they are above politicking in their profession.

^LOL @ "The white man is wicked...according to the Bible". Clever, co-opting the narrative of others and turning it against them.

^Seems like. Next he'll request a practicum... Naden, I'm a firm believer in the cooties hypothesis. Looks like poor Nephthys has succumbed to the latest deadly outbreak. She was recently seen holding hands with a boy! Repeat it after me ladies: Ugh, ewww, ewww, groooss!

^One of those times the irony of his signature gets a little overwhelming?

^Then either they're headed for a collision or racing off in opposite directions

^Not necessarily. There are only a few men who chew daily. Banning khat for them will be painful, but they are unlikely to suddenly become functioning members of society. Not if welfare checks are still easier to come by than the reward of honest work. I'm guessing there will just be an increase in fadhi-ku-dirir gatherings at the local coffee shops. Occasional chewers will do what other people who enjoy illicit drugs do: find a source and pay a little more than they are used to, or give it up. Since the terribly detrimental effects of khat on the community isn't stemming from the once-monthly masticator, it's hardly reasonable for taxpayer money to be wasted on enforcing the control of yet another illicit drug. Yet they will probably feel the brunt of it, since they can potentially lose jobs if arrested. On the other hand, I would support some sort of regulation on khat so that it shouldn't be sold to minors. And by minors I mean anyone under 35

^He said at least one paragraph long. Men!

Is there a copper dinar for buying coffee or a newspaper?

^Talk about knee-jerk reaction! So, it's the SOL War of the Sexes is it?