"Has Yale Cured Lung Cancer?" asks the New Haven Register today. A team of researchers led by a guy who's either really arrogant or into 80s swedish bands seems to have discovered a way to create T-Cells that can kill infected T-Cells. This is obviously pretty momentous. (Although i can't resist wondering if Phillip Morris is gonna wind up making billions off of this shit.) Still, you gotta be pretty full of yourself to make a statement like this:

Edelson likes to compare cancer research to deciphering the Rosetta stone, a fragment of ancient rock bearing passages of hieroglyphics, Greek and another language.[the other language is Egyptian demotic -- zsw]

Efforts to translate hieroglyphics were futile until a British physiologist made a key observation that others had overlooked, Edelson said.

"You must look at the correct details. Life is full of ‘a-has!’ Life belongs to people who can see ‘a-has!’" he said.


I recognize how important this may be. No one should have to die of lung cancer, it's great that Yale researchers may have found a cure, and i hope they make it available to everyone who needs it -- availaible and affordable. It's worth pointing out that underneath the aura of benevolence which the Yale Medical Center is shrouded in on the front page of the Register, though, that there's a lot more sinister shit going down. We could examine the elitism of the phrase "life belongs to people who can see ‘a-has!" We could talk about the ways that thios plays into the way Yale sees all those folks outside its walls whose lungs it tried to pollute excessively this summer. Maybe in addition to asking wgether Yale's cured lung cancer, we need to be asking whether yale causes lung cancer. Sure, the plan to burn lower grade fuel in the hill got sidetracked by massive opposition, but they've still got half a million in fines to pay to the DEP for trashing New Haven's air quality. How can there be light and truth when the smog's choking out the sun?

Or, as Axl Rose put it, "I'd have another cigarette, but i can't see. Tell me who you're gonna believe."

How's that for an a-ha?  ¶ 6:18 PM