*thud*

Needless to say, I'm going to follow this story as close as I possibly can. Supposedly, a paraplegic has just been cured with cord blood. We use cord blood as lymphocyte precusors (cells that would have developed into lymphocytes), and grow them in cultures to add things such as nicotine, nicotine antagonists.

My biggest concern is that the vast resources of the University's electronic journals do not have access to this journal. If it is truly a study as groundbreaking as it implies, I would expect Nature Medicine, or Science. So I can't even get details of how the cord blood cells were introduced. Using cord blood cells also run the risk of graft versus host disease, (not as much as other tissues though), so I'd hope that there's mention of a cross matched person in the methods (but can't confirm it).

I'm going to follow this progress as much as I can. But for now, call it being cautiously optimistic.

Vodka round-up

Always in the search for a good potato vodka, I'm pleased to report some successes. Surprising to me was that both are 100% American Idaho Russet Potato vodkas.

Teton Glacier Potato Vodka. It comes with high marks from the Beverage Tasting Institute and it's no big surprise when you try it. It tastes like water, with a little fire when it goes down. It's not like a "fire water" sensation, but a reminder that you just drank vodka and not water. It reminded me a lot of the night we partied with real Russian vodka. The only downsides (if you can call them that) are that they haven't developed any flavored varieties and it comes in an incredible decanter which makes freezer storage more difficult.

Blue Ice Vodka. This was given to me by my someone special in San Diego, after I complained that after seeing it in SD, I couldn't get it in AZ. This is also a very nice straight drink vodka. I still working on my ability to judge vodka, so I also gauge other people's reaction (especially the non-vodka drinkers). My long time best friend (unfortunately a beer drinker) liked it a lot. My special someone in San Diego has since bought three more bottles - one more for me, one for his dad, and one for him. So it can't be too terrible. This bottle at least can easily be stored in the freezer.

I am glad that at least I can be a vodka snob and it's not crap.

Even though I can drink tequilla (rum too), I was born and raised with vodka. So now that I have some wonderful options, I need to develop a rating system. I was joking last night that in honor of the country song "Tequilla makes her clothes fall off", I'll develop a ratings system based on the amount of clothes left on. Suggestions?

Please note that I drink responsibly, and strongly suggest that you do as well. Even if it's one shot, I don't go get behind my wheel. And I'm making up for four and half years of NOT being able to drink because of the anti-epileptic medications I was taking for pain management.