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The Fourth Wall
MICHAELA CONDON
In the 2008 movie Step Broth-
ers, Will Ferrell’s character,
Brennan Huff, bursts through the
door in his therapist’s fantasy,
and he says to her, “I have trav-
eled five-hundred miles to give
you my seed!” While the urge
to spread one’s seed can be
great, and sometimes daunting, it
can be a good thing for the ge-
netic variability of our popula-
tion. However, there can be a
problem for the gene pool when
one man fathers one-hundred-
fifty children... to different
mothers. This is a growing prob-
lem in our country that was re-
cently highlighted by The New
York Times.
According to New York Times
journalist Jacqueline Mroz, there
are “negative consequences of
having so many children fa-
thered by the same donors.” One
of the biggest threats to the gene
pool is “the possibility that
genes for rare diseases could be
spread more widely through the
population,” says Mroz. Some of
you may be thinking, “Don’t
sperm banks screen for genetic
disorders and diseases?” Ac-
cording to Cappy Rothman, MD,
a blogger for fertilityauthori-
ty.com, they do so only if they
deem it necessary, after “a three-
generation family history evalu-
ation by a trained professional,”
who can “identify risks for in-
herited disease.” This leaves the
question of what happens if the
donor has no family history of
genetic disorders or diseases,
and discovers he has developed
a previously-undetectable dis-
ease only after donating.
Another problem that Mroz
highlights that could become
more frequent, as donations con-
tinue, is that with each birth that
sprouts from the same donor
there are “increased odds of ac-
cidental incest between half sis-
ters and half brothers, who often
live close to one another.” She
says, “Mothers of donor children
are asked to report a child’s birth
to the sperm bank voluntarily,
but just 20 to 40 percent of them
do so.” Does this mean that do-
nor children, who are on dates
with other donor children, need
to ask for their potential part-
ner’s donor number? What if
that they were the product of
War Games
MICHAEL ALAN
The United States Army is
spending approximately $57
million to create virtual reality
games to train soldiers, accord-
ing to GamePro. Dismounted
Soldier Training System
(DSTS), Crytek's new simula-
tion design, will allow the sol-
dier to train with stunning real-
ism. By replicating weather con-
ditions, amazing 360 degree sur-
round sound, set squad for-
mations and towns in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the system will
allow the soldiers to feel as
though their training is real. A
helmet-mounted display will
allow the soldier to see the virtu-
al world, leaving enough room
for the soldier to see their squad
members so they don’t bump
into them. The soldier will also
don a backpack which carries a
laptop attached to the helmet.
This will allow the soldiers to
move freely around the 10 by 10
foot training room.
However, with two major wars
already spending so many vital
tax dollars, one has to wonder if
this is a waste of money. The
U.S. Army has already been us-
ing lesser simulations to train
soldiers for several years now.
Speaking from personal experi-
ence, I would argue that these
simulations are vital to training
the new Army. Using virtual
reality is a great way to practice
live situations while leaving
room for error.
In 2008 I was stationed in Fort
Knox, Kentucky in Basic Train-
ing. Our platoon was in a virtual
reality training building, learn-
ing about escalation of force.
Our mission was to make sure
we eliminated enemy threats
without harming innocent civil-
ians. The unit was looking up at
a simulation of a checkpoint in
Iraq, and we were all equipped
with M4 Carbines attached to a
computer to determine where
our shots hit. A rush of enemies
stormed the gate, and many of us
opened fire. Unfortunately, there
was a civilian running away who
was hit. The simulation immedi-
ately stopped, and the Sergeant
in charge of the simulation asked
what we did wrong. After a mo-
ment, one of our soldiers stated
that we shot an unarmed man.
He was correct.
Luckily, this was a simulation,
and we learned from it. Had this
incident been in Iraq, a civilian
would have been killed. Simula-
tions thought us to think ration-
ally under difficult circumstanc-
es, which in turn saved innocent
should come in the way of sav-
ing lives.
sperm donation? Does this mean
that one needs to be worried
about getting down and dirty
with their half sibling?
It’s not only the mothers and
the children who are suffering,
but many sperm donors them-
selves do not want to father an
extreme number of children. In
fact, cryobanks are lying to do-
nors about how many kids might
come from their loins. A sperm
donor from Texas talked. to
Mroz and said that he inquired
about the number of kids he may
end up producing, and they told
him, “Nobody knows for sure
but. that five would be a safe
estimate... it would be very rare
for a donor to have more than 10
children.” If that is the case, then
why has Mroz found many cas-
- es, such as those found on do-
norsiblingregistry.com, of
groups of “50 or more half sib-
lings”?
Why do sperm banks perpetu-
ate these potential problems?
Mroz reveals, “Critics say that
fertility clinics and sperm banks
are earning huge profits by al-
lowing too many children to be
conceived with sperm from pop-
ular donors.”Also, there are no
laws in the United States that
control the number of times a
donor’s sperm can be used to
create a child. Britain, France,
and Sweden have regulations
that outline how many times a
baby can be born from the same
donor’s sperm, and it is time that
America followed suit.
717.655.5347
4 E. Main Street
SUJAY
Recently, Netflix decided to
raise their prices and change
their pricing model. While they
might have expected some cus-
tomers to unsubscribe, they had
no idea to what extent the users
would drop. This is the second
time in twelve years that Netflix
has lost subscribers from one
quarter to the next, the last be-
ing in 2007.
Netflix shares have been drop-
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nouncement, and their stock
prices are almost half what they
were prior. It could get worse.
The new price increase was to
- develop their high-speed inter-
net video-streaming services,
even while taking the chance of
hurting the DVD-by-mail rent-
als that use to be part of their
main business. Subscribers must
the two options, either
by receiving physical DVDs in
the mail, or streaming videos
online.
Netflix believes that internet
videos have been their main
success, due largely to the con-
venience. When the service took
off, video distributors such as
Starz began demanding higher
fees.
Many people are choosing
either the DVD-by-mail option
or the stream videos online op-
tion since customers must now
pay separately for each option.
Others have decided to protest
and unsubscribe to Netflix, a
particularly likely decision in
the current economy. This could
be a good time for would-be
rivals to attack Netflix and rise
up with alternate internet video
streaming services.