Are you one of them?

Cloning started in the form of a sheep named — Dolly: The first exact genetic duplicate of an adult mammal. Since then, cloning leapt to the world of reality from science fiction.

Dolly was created from deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. This is the basic unit of heredity that was taken from a single adult sheep cell. Is this really an accomplishment? If this is an accomplishment, did it open the door to the potential uses and abuses of cloning? Including the possibility of cloning humans?

I remember the movie “The Sixth Day”, A father or should I say a family man comes home one night to discover that his life has been stolen by a clone. This is what I’m afraid of, if this technology — Human Cloning — falls into the wrong hands.

There are endless possibilities in cloning. This is most beneficial in medicine. Imagine that a scientist can clone an exact copy of a man to provide, for example, a bone marrow, to one who is afflicted with leukemia.

Other scenarios range from the obvious to the foolish. Just come to think of it, women giving birth to babies without needing to know the father. There would be virgin births!

A lot of NBA teams would choose cloning to draft their players. Imagine this, cloning five copies of Kobe Bryant to make a basketball team! hahaha

“If it gets back to that, it means we’re playing at a championship level, so hell yes I would (like to see the Lakers-Celtics rivalry rekindled),” — Kobe Bryant

As you will see it’s been two decades since the teams played a meaningful game. The Lakers won three consecutive NBA titles to start this decade, while it’s also that long since the Celtics were championship material. Do you think Celtic pride will be restored?

Kobe Bryant of Lakers asked to be traded during an interview last May, and has not yet rescinded. He is still with the Lakers, he appears grounded after an off-season of controversy and uncertainty. I believe the Minnesota Timberwolves dealt Garnet to the Boston Celtics instead of the Lakers. To transform the Celtics from also-ran to league powerhouse with a 9-1 record, Garnet has joined Allen and Paul Pierce. As I see it the three can renew a meaningful rivalry with the Los Angeles and their Big One, Kobe Bryant. As what I discovered, Bryant a known Celtics hater grew up in Philadelphia.

As far as I remember and as you will look-up the past, the Lakers and Celtics defined the NBA in the 1980s. The teams played three times for the league title in the decade. The Boston’s 7-0 streak against the Lakers ended with the Lakers’ 1985 victory. With James Worthy, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson in purple and gold, and Robert Parrish, Mchale and Larry Bird in green and white, the teams could not have been different. Those were the days that your Dad was either a Lakers or a Celtics fan. Good day!

Steroids for you. Want to build muscle up and fast? Want to be one of those “Body beautifuls”? Is it really good for you? Will it actually make you big and strong? Hold on to your seats and let’s dig up the dirt on steroids.

Basics first. What are steroids? Steroids are any class of chemical compounds that can occur naturally or are made commercially. Cholesterol, adrenal hormones, bile acids, sex hormones, and poisons from certain toads are examples of steroids.  Naturally, they are produced by both plants and animals and are important in biology and medicine.

There are three types of steroids, namely:

• Corticosteroids. It controls key functions of the body, such as carbohydrate and protein metabolism, the cardiovascular system, kidneys, and other organs, among other functions.

• Estrogens and progesterones. These are active female sex hormones that are the active ingredients in birth control pills.

• Androgen. Also known as anabolic steroids, are used to treat female breast cancer, weight gain, red blood cell production, and are also used to help patients recover from surgery. 

The dirt. When used only for short periods over the course of a year, you might experience mood swings and increase in appetite. This will results in weight gain, not increase in body mass, like the target of bodybuilders. You may have lower resistance to chicken pox.

Long term use is another matter. Patients’ faces may become bloated, their appetites will increase, will become overactive and experience difficulty in sleeping, have mood swings, get heartburn and indigestion, and be at risk of cataracts. On top of these, they will also bruise easily, develop brittle bones, have a tendency to become diabetic, and become at risk for a more serious case of chicken pox.

Non-medical use of this steroid is banned. Steroids are controlled substances. And there is very good reason for it. To increase strength and body weight, athletes use anabolic steroids. Studies show that the use of anabolic steroids can have internal, physical, and psychological side effects. Those that can occur in both male and female are: liver cancer, heart attacks, elevated cholesterol levels, risk of contracting and transmitting HIV, clotting disorder, weakened tendons, weight gain, among others.

Steroids also stop the lengthening of the bones, which results in stunned growth for adolescents. Male abusers could experience “feminization”, develop breasts, severe cases of acne, reduced sperm count, impotence and shrinking of the testicles. Females, on the other hand, could experience the opposite, “masculinization”, develop facial hair, breast reductions, deepened voice, and menstrual cycle changes.