Take a deep breath....while you can. If the manufacturer's of this world don't drop the greed and start cleaning op their acts, we are in for hell on earth. They can't go on being driven by profit alone. They must come to the realization that nature's clock is ticking and time is quickly running out. If they don't do something at least similar to the green printing effort by Metro Fine Printers, we will all be cooked. It really isn't that shocking that they chose to ignore the warning signs. After all billions of cigarettes are sold and smoked every day. In addition, hundreds of million of gallons of alcohol are also consumed with or without the awareness of the damage being done.

Here we are at my nephew's wedding. The long awaited time has come (he's pushing forty). The right woman finally got him to the altar. It just so happens that I lost a wager with my wife. I would have bet anything that this day would never come. Win some. Lose some. In an attempt to recoup my losses, I bet her that my nephew would act exremely conservative and float through the evening practically unnoticed and the affair would prove to be a bit blaze'. As it turned out, I was about to double my losses when I took a gander of of the cake. He selected one of the wedding cake toppers that humorously depicted his bride lassoing him and dragging him to the nuptials. The attendees at the event took the lead and it became a raucous party.

These days it seems like every party you go to is entered in a competiton to outdo the last one. There is a vehement effort to shine. I thought the eighties was the ME decade. I am not saying it is wrong or even harmful to want to be different. I am saying don't carry it too far. Case in point is the last wedding celebration I attended was a bit of a shock. The happy (weird) couple had the presence of mind to have themselves represented on their personalized napkins in a very provocative scene. It actually caused some relatives to leave a lot earlier than they should have.

Twelve years ago, I had the great pleasure of giving away my niece on a beautiful beach in Southern California. The setting could not have been more romantic. Mother Nature presented us with a glorious balmy evening which allowed the sand ceremony to be beyond perfect. It was one of those memorable enchanting moments in life that makes all the trials and tribulations seem tiny in comparison. It got me to thinking that my upcoming 40th wedding anniversary would be wonderful to celebrate on that same beach. I will ask Mother Nature to repeat her performance.

I had this great idea for my daughter's wedding decorations. She was always a huge fan of the Smurfs when she was little. I have a friend who works on the back lot of a major movie studio. He was familiar with my daughter's love of the little blue people. He said he had permission as well as access to some of the costumes andsets  from a cancelled production of a Smurf adventure with live actors. I got all excited and was positive she would love the theme. NOT! I guess I'll always see her as that little freckled tot that was so enamored by her cartoon friends. I'll have to get used to her being a mature woman.

Taqlk about a double edged sword. In my career as a small business owner, I made the fatal mistake of putting all my employees needs before the companies needs. That's right, companies. I committed this error more than once. You see, employee engagement can be a tremendous asset, when it's not overdone. On numerous occasions, I actually did too much for some which angered others and in the long run hurt the business as a result. In addition, I overpaid and over benefitted my staff creating unecessary financial hardships. I still don't think I have learned my lesson.

The games have begun and the pace is torrid. There seemingly is no stopping the great minds of out time in unlocking the many, many secrets of stem sells. From embryionic stem cells to colony forming assay, the doors are opening. Each day brings new ideas, new discoveries and certainly new hope to the world of medical science. This in turn is creating tremendous hope for the extention and increased quality of all our lives. These new weapons against disease and tragic dismembering maladies is just what the doctor ordered(no pun intended).

Being the layman that I am, it is difficult for me to not visualize the resemblance of a Roman legion when I hear or read about the colony forming units in the field of stem cell research. Where and how in the world things like this are imagined much less produced simply boggles my mind. Does someone wake in the morning after experiencing devine intervention? Is there a special cahnnel to this kind of knowledge? What more proof do we need that there is indeed a devine being spurring on these types of thoughts in these types of people?

I often think about what the death toll would be if it weren't for the ability to work with regulatory T cells in the fight against HIV and AIDS. I remember the focus on T cells during the terrible news about my favorite cager, Magic Johnson. I was nearly as devastated as his family. Rarely do you come upon such a genuine and perfect role model of a professional sport. Since then, I am thrilled to see how well he has controlled his condition. This holds true for thousands of those infected. It makes me shake my head in disbelief that there are so many against the miracle of stem cell research.

My niece is one of those children that instantly causes you to have an inferiority complex. She is the typical pig-tailed 11 year old with black rimmed eyeglasses that you might see in a G rated Disney movie. She is rarely without some kind of text book in her possession. Just last week she was attempting to educate me and my wife on the use of mouse embryonic stem cells. After the first 8 words, she lost my attention. My wife, on the other hand, exhibited a rather profound level of interest. Consequently, I really feel like the town idiot for sure. 

I am becoming increasingly doubtful about my mental capabilities. Every day something occurs that raises my doubt. Take last Tuesday. My 9 year old daughter had a homework assignment that involved human embryonic stem cells. It immediately provoked me to contact her school principal and inquire about the sanity of her science teacher. She told me that Mr. Sanderson was very highly respected and regarded as one of the school's finest. I mean, spelling out these cell descriptions would have been a monumental task for me at 9, much less comprehending their meaning. I may have to go back to school.

The one thing in science that I feel is captivating all of our minds is stem cell functioning. How many of the things we are being told have a realistic chance of coming to being? Where are all of these procedures in terms of practical and clinical viability? I hear about pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells working in harmony and quite frankly, I'm lost. Hopefully, there will come a time when someone presents the up to the moment scoreboard on these procedures and we can have a chance at understanding what's happening.

The closest I ever came to appearing like a research scientist is when I ignited my sister's bunson burner for her in chem-lab 101. The funny thing is that she was fearful of the task and I jumped in and volunteered to do it. I almost set the lab on fire by turning the gas up too high and it produced what sounded like a sonic boom. After being escorted out of the lab, I left my science career behind. So now, when I read about things like mesenchymal stem cells, I am totally at sea. My sister, on the other hand, is working in a research lab and I couldn't be more proud of her.

The time is approaching quickly for all of us to acquire some sort of an understanding of what is occurring in the world of stem cell culture. This field of medical science will certainly impact medicine as we know it. It has the potential to alter everything we have ever known about the treatment of hundreds of maladies. As we all know, time has its way of slipping on by. Before we know it this technology will become standardized and a regular curriculum in our medical schools. It has far too much potential to be surpressed by any faction.