Why is this being developed for the battlefield but not for regular hospitals?

Waka in Japan

@RacecarBoobTat: Don't worry soldier, every MRE now contains a piece of umbilical cord.

Rabid Penguin

@RacecarBoobTat:

you probably really, really, really do NOT want to know...

jdbaile3

But where am I going to get an umbilical cord on the battlefield?!!!

RacecarBoobTat

I get a bad vibe from this....which is a shame since it has so many good applications.....but yeah, a real bad vibe.

Curves

@Lupison: I'm pretty sure we kill more babies here in the US on purpose than anyone does in Iraq due to war.

closhedbb

@RacecarBoobTat: Looks like the military will finally lift its ban on sexual relations in forward operating areas...

(Not like they ever really stopped it)

closhedbb

Like most things in our modern society, it's developed for the military or NASA first and then trickles down.

As for the dead babies... just look at the civilian death count in Iraq (which is higher then the amount of civilians Sadam killed in total) and you'll see your source.

Lupison

@-kXj-: Oh gosh no! MRE's also contain tissue paper, plastic wrap around most of the dinner items, matches, a chemical heating element... I hope they don't eat those as well.

Rabid Penguin

@Rabid Penguin: Are you implying that soldiers are eating Babies! >.>

-kXj-

@Gann: I don't know where the umbilical chords are coming from, but I suppose the hospital could save them instead of throwing them out when a baby is born... still unsettling though...

Rabid Penguin

Something about the idea of using fetus parts as raw materials in manufacturing to support people while they kill other people is a little unsettling.

Gann

This was a lot funnier when Christopher Reeves was doing it.

@werk

@Lupison:

ain't easy drinkin all that kool-aid is it?

godwhacker

@Lupison: All those civilians are carrying around umbilical chords? It is a different culture.

Rabid Penguin

@DisposableInterloper: Nooo! My inventions must not be used for peace! The Hyper Fusion Death Portal was created to take lives on the battlefield! You can keep your so-called "global free energy" plan and shove it into a quantum singularity!

(For the sarcasm-impaired: Many technologies created to keep soldiers alive are further developed by the private sector to keep everybody else alive, too.)

CaseyG

@Gann: agreed. fetus parts really should only be used in soups.

Anonymoose

I don't get it. How do hematopoetic cells cause a zombie apocalypse? Where's the voodoo?

DisposableInterloper

@godwhacker: I fucking hate that term. Thousands of civilians have been killed in Iraq, look it up. Just because it doesn't get reported on Fox News doesn't mean it's not happening.

PunksUndead

@Waka in Japan:
Because we live in a sad, sad world.

DisposableInterloper

what about those parents who keep their childrens umbilical cords. I think my mom may have vacuum sealed mine. Would these be able to be donated, or do they have to be fresh ones from recently born babies.

Monkiee

@Anonymoose: Not just soups. Slow-roasted baby long pork can be delectable.

@Rabid Penguin: I know umbilical cords are technically waste from the birthing process, I just don't particularly like humans becoming part of a manufacturing process. It's a slippery slope.

Gann

@Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler: we didn't kill who?? dropping bombs on innocent people isn't killing now huh?

PunksUndead

@Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler: actually I don't get my info from any of those places. and if you want to talk about before we "liberated" them... who gave Saddam those weapons in the first place?? oh, that's right... the U.S.
Let's see... how many other terrorist orgs and dictators does the U.S. back?? here....I'll give you one to look up that we actually train here on U.S. fucking soil... the S.O.A.

the good old U.S.of A.... as the band A-F says... "to save you we may have to kill you."

PunksUndead

@DisposableInterloper: (VooDoo sold Separately)

Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler

@godwhacker: No, he gets it from NPR, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, NYT, and LAT as well. Oh, and Mother Jones.

Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler

So they are basically making TruBlood, any moment vampires will make themselves known.

hadees

@PunksUndead: But we didn't kill them. Hey! Kool-Aid!

Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler

@PunksUndead:

thousands of civilians were killed in iraq before it was liberated as well, and raped, and brutalized, and dragged out of their houses by the prior regimes deathsquads.
i guess they don't count, eh?
all the news doesn't come from huff-po or the daily kos either.

godwhacker

@Gann: Sure and we're on it. We'll smash everything including ourselves into pieces of lesser and lesser value, until it's all worthless.

propertius

The cool thing about this is that if it works well, it will soon show up in EMS here in the United States and abroad, allowing EMS professionals to (potentially) save more lives. Traumatic blood loss is a killer.

ArdisKabobbing

@PunksUndead:

They should have moved.

I really can't figure out a way to make this statement more offensive so I'm going to stick with "Hey look, a really stupid argument that has almost nothing to do with the article at hand! It's like a party of self righteous twats!"

Alchemistmerlin

@Waka in Japan:

Because you don't understand how the Military R&D benefits the public at large.

Alchemistmerlin

@Waka in Japan: because war makes more money

MclarenF1

Woo Hoo, a portable bar!

VideoVampire

@Gann: good eye. and i can't believe i forgot to mention those fabulous jellies that go great with melba toast.

Anonymoose

@Anonymoose: Chicken fingers can't even compare to plain ol' fingers.

Gann

@Lupison: Why would we kill babies when we can just drop them off in Nebraska?

RacecarBoobTat

@RacecarBoobTat: lol. It's funny because it's true. I live in Nebraska... such a dumb law. But they're supposed to be changing it... to something else.

Rabid Penguin

@Alchemistmerlin:
I think what Waka was getting at is why life-saving innovation like this is being driven by military spending.

Surely you'd concede that it's a fucked up world we live in that the development of tech to promote safety and well being is ultimately fueled by a motive to tip war, and hence destruction and killing, in our favor.

@MclarenF1:
That's a very elegant way of putting it.

DisposableInterloper

It's ok...we're ready for that:
[mingle2.com]

FiveLiters

@DisposableInterloper:

No I wouldn't concede that because I'm not a tree hugging hippy.

Alchemistmerlin

@Alchemistmerlin:
There's no tree hugging or hippiness here.

Why kill? Is there any rational reason for two parties to harm one another? No, never. It certainly is, if nothing else, bitterly ironic that we benefit from tech that lets our side kill more.

DisposableInterloper

@DisposableInterloper:@Waka in Japan: These technologies are not born because the military wants better ways to kill people. That's idiotic. Someone so horribly wounded in battle that this may help them won't be returning to people killing for quite some time, if ever. Why does the military pay for research into replacement limbs? Hoping to make double amputees into better killers? Please.

No, these and many other technologies are developed by the US military because its the only military ever to simultaneously have endless resources and also genuinely care about the well being of its soldiers (at least in a broad sense).

HonusWScruggs

@DisposableInterloper:
To stop those that would do harm to us.
To stop those that would take our resources.
To stop tyranny from taking our freedom.
To stop Dictators from killing anyone they deem "unfit".
To stop religious zealots from forcing their insanity upon the world.
To further science in the face of those who would stop it.

Those are all very good reasons to kill, and at times in history we have been on the other end, the ones who were forcing ourselves on others, but that does not mean that all killing is bad.

The simple fact of the matter is that this world ISN'T big enough for all of us, especially if some factions consider it theirs. There are Just Wars, WW2 being a good example. There are also unjust wars. We kill because not only is it in our nature, but it is often necessary for the very preservation of our genes.

Alchemistmerlin