Congratulations to the American Nation (U.S. Nation) and to Mr Obama. I hope that Mr Obama's singular victory will bring a time of healing for the USA and for the world.

The vote was a decisive and emphatic one, removing any chance of the slurs that have besmirched recent elections in that great country. We hope that everyone can now move forward, whatever their political persuasion, and create a new future.

Hopefully, we can anticipate a time when the United States President and Nation can look progress and change in the eye and grasp it bravely. Change is inevitable. Let us hope that Mr Obama and the people can embrace it and steer it in a positive and inclusive direction, with minimum pain for everyone. It is, inevitably, a huge responsibility.

Certainly, this election has at least shown that the people as a whole are not afraid of change, at many levels. How US citizens view themselves and the world will have changed at a stroke and a new energy will be running. How the world views the USA will also have changed and I am sure that the influence that this country, the most powerful nation on Earth, wields will start to take the lead on the many serious challenges that face us all.

So, Japanese scientists have taken the first steps towards reviving prehistoric beasties, like the woolly mammoth. They have cloned mice from specimens frozen for 16 years. 'Jurassic Park' may not have been such a wild proposition.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081103-frozen-cloning.html?source=rss

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7707498.stm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/15/tech/main563450.shtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jul/16/sciencenews.science

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-attempt-to-clone-woolly-mammoth-586967.html

Silly me - I thought that had already been done, with all these 'flat-earth' folk running around, refusing to see the evidence under their noses, that homeopathy has validity and can offer patients (human and animal) a chance where no other chance exists. Why let someone die in a hospital bed, saying nothing else can be done when nothing else has been tried? Why deny an animal the chance of an active and enjoyable life, for want of trying something else than conventional drug medicine?

Another pet hate of mine is the disdain shown for the wisdom of our ancestors. So-called 'science' talks condescendingly of 'old wives' tales', dismissing them as unproven codswallop. Every so often, a modern scientific explanation is found for yet another 'old wives' tale'. Why can't these anti-deluvian (antideluvian) creatures see that there may be more than a grain of truth in many others, and pay them some interest, instead of dismissing them out of hand. That is NOT science.

Of course, the pharmaceutical industry quietly does respect ancient wisdom and is forever researching traditional cures, to see what money-making manufactured analogue can be created. It just doesn't come out and say so, leaving the foot soldiers (doctors, vets and others) happily deriding anything not yet 'scientifically' proven.

Apart from this sad and wistful observation, we have to wonder about the wisdom (and ethics) of reviving that which has become extinct. What shall we do with such creatures, if we 're-create' them? No doubt man's fascination for doing the 'impossible' will override common sense, in this, as in so many fields.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org while you're here?]