3D Babies Provides Parents 3D-Printed Model of As-Yet-Unborn Baby

3D Babies Could Set Off New Phenomenon

3d-babies.com

February 5, 20142:29 PM MST

For the last several years couples have been able to view their as-yet-unborn child via sonograms and other imaging techniques. Now, thanks to 3D printing advancements, expectant couples will be able to not only view an image of the unborn child, but can actually possess a lifelike model of the 24-32 -week old fetus.

The husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Gerard and Katie Bessette established the start-up company 3D Babies to provide expectant couples the technological means to possess and hold a physical representation of their baby before he or she is even born.

Their company uses 3D printing technology to produce three-dimensional replicas of gestating fetuses. Parents only have to submit to the company a few 3D and 4D ultrasound scans of their 24-week or older fetus. The company creates or "prints" a computerized digital model of the fetus, accurately capturing even the facial features as-yet-unborn baby.

The parents-in-waiting pay between $200 to $800 based on the size of the lifelike replica. A 2- inch model costs $200, a 4-inch sculpture goes for $400, and a full 8-inch figurine costs $800.

According to a newly released RAND Corporation study, barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans have paid for new policies and received health insurance under the new Obamacare health insurance program.

Critics have pointed out that this number stands in sharp contrast to the Administration's claim that 7.1 million people are newly enrolled in the program.

High premiums, expensive deductibles, and a limited selection of doctors and hospitals have helped erode public support for Obamacare. A recent AP/GfK poll revealed that support for the Affordable Care Act has declined by 13 percentage points since 2010. Only 26% of Americans now favor the ACA, compared with 39% then. A WSJ/NBC poll found that only 29% of independents support the law.

Other polls reveal that the public could very well express its dissatisfaction with the new health- care law at the voting booth in 2014 and beyond. The GOP is slightly ahead of the Democrats for the first time in months in the Associated Press generic Congressional ballot poll. And registered voters favored the Republicans by 14 percentage points over Democrats--51 percent to 37 percent. In January, they were split, with 45 percent preferring the Republicans and 42 percent preferring Democrats.

A strong GOP win in 2014 would be interpreted as a mandate from the American people to either repeal the ACA or change it significantly. Many think fundamental changes to the law could include making the law totally voluntary and eliminating penalties for non-compliance.

Ironically, the media's obsession with the debate over the Affordable Care Act and the political fallout from the law's implementation has tended to distract the public from what many consider the more important health news: Medical scientists and biotech researchers continue to make significant progress in their efforts to dramatically extend the human life span and improve people's overall health.

As I point out in the upcoming new edition of my book Ageless Nation, a host of medical and scientific advancements--nanotechnology, the bioprinting of body parts and organs, stem cell science, genetically re-engineering of the fetus, human enhancement technologies, dechronification, and gene therapy--are setting the stage for a dramatic increase in human life expectancy in the very near future.

Instead of spending our time and energy trying to micro-engineer a labyrinthine government medical insurance system, we should be concentrating our efforts and resources on re- engineering and perfecting the human body.

America's next leaders should adopt as a national mission the achievement of true superlongevity by the end of the 21st century. Hopefully other nations will follow suit. By dedicating our national and global resources to this effort, we can realistically anticipate a future in which humans will live on average 125 years or greater as vibrant, healthy, and physically and mentally dynamic human beings.

Many analysts expect the Federal Reserve Board to announce at its Dec. 17-18 monetary policy meeting a decision to "taper," the code word for slowing the pace of its $85 billion monthly bond purchases. The Fed would make such a decision based on its belief that the employment situation in the US is improving.

The Fed's supposed rosy notion about the job market comes largely from reports compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the BLS, in November the US created 204,000 new jobs and theunemployment rate dropped to 7%.

However, before the Fed initiates any new monetary policy based on the BLS November jobs numbers, it might want to consider the recent jobs report published by California-based TrimTabs Investment Research.

TrimTabs, considered by many economists the most accurate source of new jobs numbers, claims that only 115,000 positions were created in the US in November. In fact, Trimtabs CEO David Santschi said, the US has been creating an anemic 114,000 per month for all of 2013, far fewer than the 150,000 jobs per month number in 2012. TrimTabs counted only 91,000 jobs created in October.

TrimTabs bases its employment estimates on the company's analysis of daily income tax deposits of all salaried U.S. employees to the U.S. Treasury. The BLS unemployment rate reflects a calculation that excludes those in the labor force that are underemployed or have become so discouraged they quit looking for work.

According to University of Maryland economist Peter Morici, when we add in discouraged adults and part-timers who want full-time employment, the unemployment rate is 13.8 percent, not the BLS estimate of 7.0%.

TrimTabs CEO Santschi says his company's employment numbers clearly demonstrate that “The American jobs machine is stuck in low gear despite billions of dollars per day in fiscal and monetary stimulus.” According to Sanstchi, “Employment growth has been below 200,000 jobs in every month this year.”

Clearly, the US economy is still in a quagmire. We are becoming a "part-time nation," as a generally recessionary economy and Obamacare mandates discourage employers from creating full-time jobs. According to the survey of households, between September and November a paltry 83,000 people became employed, but the number of people not in the labor force during that period rose by an eye-popping 664,000.