Wednesday, April 27, 2016

DNA editing getting closer

I read about this last week.. basically scientists have been able to splice down to the DNA of cells.  It's intent is of course to eliminate diseases on a cellular level.  Have history of cancer in your family?  Perhaps one day they'll simply delete any information that might lead your body to start producing cancerous cells.  Heck, maybe they'll edit the DNA so you never age?  New cells regenerating forever?  Currently the success rate is only 17% on live cells, but in my mind if they take dozens of cells one is bound to get it right (I assume once a cell is modified, they let it divide and multiply, then inject those cells into the body to tell other cells to replicate).

http://gizmodo.com/crispr-just-got-one-step-closer-to-working-on-human-gen-1772249925

Of course my mind goes down a different path, imagine a sex change at the DNA level.  Yea, I mean chromosomes are made up from DNA strings.  Edit at the string level, there's no reason you couldn't modify someone's chromosomes right?  And that's changing the genetics..  No more arguments of how you're not a real woman, you're just a man on hormones (yes, no more hormones).  You would be genetically changed into a female.
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/basics/chromosome

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

matrix - coming out story (repost from another blog)

Ok, so the matrix just blew my mind again, and may be in my top 3 movies now.  When the matrix came out, I was just starting to date my now wife.  She is in fact the only person I've ever really dated, and a piece of me wonders how different my life would have been had I explored more.  However I don't regret getting married for a second, particularly since I feel had I not met her I may never have dated.  I was a shy person, and girls quite frankly intimidated me.  I wanted to be with them while simultaneously wanted to BE them.  Being on the other side, that's a lot of pressure, way more than the average teenager has to deal with.

I remember we went to this theater by the mall near her house, and we both liked it (mind blowing storyline).  Of course I think I liked it a little more, but movies like that "lots of gun fire" seem to appeal more to "boys".  I remember the second movie coming out, and having mixed reactions.  Some loved how it developed (more kung fu and gun play, more characters).. Heck, that highway scene alone was groundbreaking because they had to literally build a highway on an airstrip to film that.  To me, at the time, this was a movie about a hacker leading a double life.  I was never a "hacker", but I have been known to pirate software now and then.  It's not something I'm proud of, but when tools are way more than you could ever possibly afford, the dark side becomes appealing.  Mix that with a sort of Virtual reality (which is really what the matrix is), and the "eff you to authority", and you have a movie that feeds into what I like.

After reading this article, and realizing how easily you can apply the struggles of transgender transition:
http://www.themarysue.com/decoding-the-transgender-matrix-the-matrix-as-a-transgender-coming-out-story/

The movie becomes a completely different intention, while still retaining all the awesome things that made me fall in love with it in the first place.  I suppose you could twist a movie's plot in any way you want, that's the beauty of art.  I read one article recently that suggested neo wasn't ever really "the one", that agent smith was actually "the one", and neo was simply a fall guy to bring agent smith out.  However, the fact that both of the directors are now fully out as transgender, you can't help but accept this new underlining movie plot.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Ted Cruz.. as a girl?

So this has been floating around the news since it aired.  Maury Povich had on pregnant girls looking for the real daddy, and the one girl is a spitting image of a young female version of presidential nominee Ted Cruz.. If he had a much older daughter, she would be it.
http://hollywoodlife.com/2016/04/19/ted-cruz-lookalike-woman-maury-povich-pic/