tisiwoota

Annnd DNA testing gets ever more ubiquitous– see the new(-ish) issue highlighted by Genetics and Health Blog:

To speed up the citizenship process, starting in the 90’s, some immigrants to the U.S. began paying for DNA testing to prove family relationships. Costs range from $300-500 per person on average.

Genetic tests are playing a larger role in the U.S. immigration process. In some cases, the government is asking for DNA proof of a family connection; in other cases, applicants are offering to undergo testing in hopes of speeding up a process that often takes years. Either way, the applicant must bear the cost.

This brings up several questions to mind:
Will these tests become mandatory for immigration at some point in the future?
The article states that the government is not keeping the information right now– but how long before pressure from security hawks changes that?
Are there yet any nonprofit organizations that are sponsoring funding for these tests?

Also I wonder whether the testing companies take on any pro bono cases?
Since a) they should and b) it would be a great PR opportunity to bring their name to the attention of genealogy hobbyists.

DNA Test, DNA

via Wall Street Journal:

Frustrated that over two decades of research have failed to produce an AIDS vaccine, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates is tying his foundation’s latest, biggest AIDS-vaccine grants to a radical concept: Those who get the money must first agree to share the results of their work in short order.

Now, Mr. Gates’s family foundation is putting $287 million new, five-year grants behind the notion that pooling results can surmount the massive technical hurdles that have hindered individual, sometimes-competing efforts.

Lonely Planet is right when it says that Vietnamese hand out their business cards like candy. I mean, I suppose it would be expected at the kind of meetings I’m having anyway. But would American university scientists have had business cards on the ready quite so readily? In truth I don’t know; I just know that my folio is just saturated with these things in every available card pocket and then some.

And I have to tell you, my mischievous side is *very* tempted to take the whole lot of them and dump them into one of those fishbowl drawings for free lunches you see at places like Chipotle.

Think of it: “Hello, Mister… uh… Vice Minister of Agriculture? CONGRATULATIONS! You just won a FREE BURRITO at Chipotle… just come on down to Seven Corners and we’ll have you taken care of. Thanks for being a valued Chipotle customer!”

Today I was taken on a ride through the streets of Shanghai in this WWII-style sidecar motorcycle. Oh yeah I was.