In the News

[comrade_general]

Must be something in the water.

[Clockwork]

hearthstone apparently has 40 million players.

http://www.dailydot.com/esports/hearthstone-40-million-players/?utm_content=inf_63_2862_2&utm_source=FBTraffic&utm_medium=jabra&utm_campaign=CMfacebook&tse_id=INF_2d16f001908542969d56591fa900ef8c

[Jubal]

10 years and 2000 lashes for being an atheist. Remind me not to go to Saudi Arabia...
http://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi-man-gets-10-years-for-tweeting-his-atheism/

[comrade_general]

http://m.dissexpress.co.uk/news/latest-news/former-diss-student-leads-petition-against-uk-government-plans-1-7271249

[Pentagathus]

Remind me not to go to diss.

[Jubal]

Are you a regular Diss Express reader then, CG?

[Pentagathus]

Who isn't?

[comrade_general]

I get a copy mailed to me daily.

[Jubal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35848687

Ian Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader and Work and Pensions Secretary, has resigned from the government after the treasury attempted to get him to cut benefits for the disabled further. This is fairly big news, not least because the Conservatives have been absurdly and relentlessly disciplined over the last few years, and this is a rare example of a major figure breaking ranks. It's bad news both for the Chancellor, who wants to be next Tory leader and will be damaged by being seen to trigger a resignation this big, and also for the Prime Minister, who now has to deal with one of his predecessors campaigning for an EU exit from the backbenches where he can criticise the government much more freely.

[Pentagathus]

Also hopefully a sign that the cuts to disability benefits shall not pass.

[Jubal]

Apparently they're being "kicked into the long grass", as was announced shortly before the IDS resignation. It's an odd order of events really.

[Glaurung]

My suspicion is that this has very little to do with the disability benefit cuts themselves, given what IDS's department has already done over the last five years. It looks much more like an opportune moment for IDS to stick a knife into Osborne (note the forthcoming Tory leadership election) and free himself for the "Out" campaign.

EDIT:
Several more links that might be of interest:
- the text of the resignation letter (from the BBC News website)
- IDS resignation 'undermines everything': some immediate commentary from the BBC's Political Editor

[Clockwork]

Peoples in Norway America made a heart from stem cells and it's beating.


http://www.side3.no/vitenskap/dette-hjertet-er-dyrket-i-et-laboratorium---na-har-det-begynt-a-sla/3423204817.html

[Glaurung]

Thanks for posting this - it's interesting and very promising research.

The article is Norwegian, but it turns out the research has been done in the US, by Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. There's an English-language article here. I'm not sure we're quite at the point yet of growing a whole heart from scratch, though that does seem to be the target; however, using stem cells to repair damaged hearts would now seem to be feasible.

[Clockwork]

I thought you'd find it interesting. I'll be honest I found the pic of the heart in a jar on imgur with a link and haven't actually read the article, so thanks for the clarification