Zark's

Minnesota Law Against Advising Suicide Ruled Overbroad

Dakota County Courthouse
Image Credit: State of Minnesota

Charges thrown out against right-to-die group, tells the Court determined the state's law was overbroad.  Last year, four members of the Final Exit Network were charged with "aiding and abetting assistance of a suicide, a felony, and aiding and abetting in the interference with a death scene, a gross misdemeanor."

The organization explains it does not encourage sucide, but instead, provide information and emotional support.  Judge Karen Asphaug ruled 'advising' was overborad, whereas 'encouraging' passed constitutional review.  Hence, she dismissed all charges against one of the defendants, whereas the three others still face the other charges.

It is complicated, isn't it?  Permitting organizations or individuals to actively encourage suicide will result in undesirable pressure and even abuse. 

 

Plague Pit Uncovered

Scanning electron micrograph depicting a mass of Yersinia pestis bacteria (the cause of bubonic plague) in the foregut of the flea vector.
Image Credit: Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH

Mmm. 'Black Death pit' unearthed by Crossrail project is almost one of the subplots in my novel, Roman DNA. 

Over a dozen year period, black death killed between 75 and 200 million people.  Although anthrax has also been proposed as the culprit, most now believe the yersinia pestus bacterium pictured on the left was the cause. 

Wikipedia adds that we now know that the bacterium originated in rodent populations in China.  There are two documented cases of y. pestis being used in warfare.  In 1347, plague victims were catapulted over the walls of a city.  In World War II, a Japanese plane released the plague over a province in China.

Back to the BBC article.  It is believed this burial occured early during the black death because the victims were neatly buried in rows.  As the plague worsened, there are graphic descriptions of the bodies just being piled into mass graves. 

Scientists and archeologists are excited about the discovery.  They hope to recover DNA from the human skeletons, possibly samples of the bacterium that nearly destroyed the world, and general knowledge of the people during the black death.

 

Beware the Ides of March

The Ruins of the Coloseum
Image Credit: CIA World Factbook

The Ides of March is the day on the Roman Calendar corresponding to March 15.  Originally the Romans celebrated the new year from March 1 to March 15, but it has more signifcance because of two historical events.

The first of course, was the assassination of Julius Caesar.  He clashed with the Roman senate because he declared himself dictator for life and also illegally invaded Roman territory, instigating civil war.  The outcome was Caesar controlling Rome. 

A group of 60 Roman Senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus conspired to eliminate Julius Caesar.  Scholars debate whether the dying Caesar exclaimed, "You, too, Brutus?" 

And that brings up the second event in history for which we know the Ides of March.  Without Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the emperor would be far less known today.  Believed to have been written in 1599, the play has Caesar only appearing in three scenes.  It focuses instead, on Caesar's close friend, Brutus.  In Shakespeare style, Brutus battles with his conscience and listens to the wrong people.  Adding intrigue, Shakespeare has Julius Caesar warned by a soothsayer to beware the Ides of March, and also premonitions by Caesar's wife.

Brutus believes he has killed Caesar in duty to Rome, so he does not flee after Julius Caesar dies.  Brutus battles his conscience once again, and commits suicide the next day.

 

 

Is the World Going to End on Dec 21, 2012?

Excavated Maya walls at Chacchoben.
Image Credit: CIA World Factbook

A favorite science fiction story during my teens was "The Nine Billion Names of God". In the story, some monks are programming a computer to list all of the names of God.  There is obviously much more to the story, but when the computer finishes tabulating the 9 billion names of God, the world begins to fade out.  The inference being that mankind was created only to discover all the names of God.

There have been many predictions of the world's end, with Mayan Doomsday Forecast: Really ?! reviewing the latest.  The reasoning of course, is that the Mayan calendar ends on Dec 21, 2012.  The Forbes article quotes a Reuters poll that reveals 10 percent of the world's population is anxious about this prediction.  The author is a bit sceptical of the poll, having survived the 2012 US Presidential election.

Mayan calendar discovery confirms 2012 'end date' tells that archeologists discovered a 1300 year-old inscription that details the end of the Maya calendar as just that, the 'end date'.  There is something else - the larger inscription discusses political history instead of prophecy.

NASA provides additional information in Beyond 2012: Why the world won't end.  Adding to the intrigue, a 'believed' planet discovered by the Sumerians, Nibiru, is headed to the Earth and will collide us on December 21.  The Mayan calendar, could begin anew on January 1, leading some individuals to speculate the period Dec 21 through Dec 31 could be a 'blackout period', or one in which we live in 'gray' world. 

Borrowing a phrase from Chuck Swindoll, there is a technical term for these theories - hogwash.

 

 

 

Twenty Years Without an Atomic Weapon Test

Christmas Island Atomic Bomb Test, 1962
Image Credit: Department of Energy

The Trinity Test was the first atomic device test, detonated in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945.  At that time, knowledge of the weapon was classified, and when civilians asked about the obvious explosion, the local air base issued a statement that a remote munitions dump had exploded

Los Alamos National Laboratory marks 20 years without full-scale nuclear testing explains that September 23, 1992, was the last full-scale weapon testing by the United States.  There were 1,029 tests before Divider was lowered into the test hole at the Nevada Test Site.

Earlier, in 1991, the Soviet Union had unilaterally announced a moratorium on nuclear testing and Congress passed legislation in September of 1992, calling for a 9-month moratorium on nuclear testing.  This has been extended by every U.S. President since.

To replace the testing, the U.S. has invested in large computer modeling to replace live testing.

 

 

 

Could We Solve Tomorrow's Problems by Genetically Engineering People

Researcher microinjects pronucleus of egg with DNA solution.
Image Credit: National Institutes of Health

Suppose we identified genes that made people more docile and tolerant of crowding?  Should't we exploit that knowledge and improve future generations of humans? 

That is the premise of Genetically engineering 'ethical' babies.  Actually, since we are not able to assemble the perfect baby, gene-by-gene, perhaps we should be screening the embyros. Professor Julian Savulescu argues that since we already screen embryos for procedures such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), that we should extend the type of screening to more of the world's embryos before they mature. 

Mmm.  Generation and destruction of life is a slippery slope, isn't it?  The result of two teenagers' passion can be a baby.  How is that ethically or morally superior to the thoughtful and deliberate genetic engineering of a baby? 

 

Correlation Between Economic Status and Altruism

Helicopter Rescue Training
Image Credit: Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weyder

Wikipedia tells us that altruism is the principle or practice of concern for other's welfare.  Perhaps more defining, it adds that altruism is the opposite of selfishness. 

I have always considered the Charles Dickens' novels as a warning of the impact of poverty upon civilization.  For whatever reason, there is a correlation between morality and the middle class.

Lost letter experiment suggests wealthy London neighborhoods are 'more altruisitic' echoes that sentiment.  The experiment dropped addressed envelopes on the sidewalks of 20 London neighborhoods and recorded whether someone took the trouble to drop them into a mailbox.  The results are dramatic - 87 percent of the letters were posted in the wealthier neighborhoods compared to 37 percent in poorer neighborhoods.  The experimenters carefully made the letters gender and race neutral, and they placed the postage stamp on them.  The finder had only to deposit the letter in a nearby mailbox.

Altruism is important to society, because at the individual level, we must construct defenses if there is the likelihood of selfishness or attack.  If we live in a culture with high level of altruism, then the energy or cost of establishing defenses can be used for positive or more productive uses. 

I am concerned that if we see further deterioration of the middle class in western nations, a direct impact will be the productivity of the cultures.  There are multiple factors in this phenomena, but it is obvious that we all benefit when we can trust others.

 

The Gift of Mercy

Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) stopped in Pearl Harbor after serving in the Pacific on a humanitarian mission.

Image Credit: U.S. Navy

Wikipedia tells the word mercy originated from Latin, "price paid, wages".  The definition I prefer is, "undeserved favor." 

Hillsborough judge orders former Marine to treatment, probation, in fatal 2010 DUI is a mighty story of mercy.

Former Marine Captain Scott Sciple had not been properly diagnosed of traumatic brain injury of a rocket injury in Iraq.  Through a sequence of events, he was assigned a desk job at a military base and one night with 3x blood-alcohol level, drove the wrong direction on an interstate.  He crashed into a couple who had just returned from helping a friend whose car had failed.  Pedro Rivera was killed and his wife, Carmen, was severely injured.  Originally she had pressed for a prison sentence as justice for her dead husband.

In court on Thursday, she had a change of heart.  With assistance from a Spanish translator, she decided the pain should end - that she should not inflict additional pain through justice.  After telling the State Attorney that she preferred medical treatment to a prison sentence, the judge sentenced Sciple to Poplar Springs Psychiatric Hospital and after release, two years of community control and twelve years of probation. 

The Tampa Bay Times article shows a photograph after the sentencing with Sciple's mother placing her son's crucifix necklace on Carmen Rodriguez. 

Mmm.  Although I never want to be in a situation like Carmen Rodriquez, I pray that I too, will offer mercy instead of justice.  Well done, Carmen!

 

U.S. Crayfish Invades UK

Crayfish on River Bed
Imaged Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

They look like minature lobsters, and they are indeed related as Wikipedia tells us.  They breathe through gills and live on the bottom of rivers, eating dead and live animals and plants.

Crayfish Plague explains this mold infects crayfish, killing them within a few weeks.

Endangered crayfish moved to ark for the future explains the UK is attempting to breed native crayfish and release them where they are safe from the American crayfish.  The latter is larger and more aggressive in competition for habitat and food. But worse, they are carriers for the fungus that the white clawed crayfish are susceptible. 

Native white-clawed clayfish tells they prefer the hard mineral waters of northern and central England.  They are nocturnal, and primarily breed when the water termperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  But it is more than competition from the American signal crayfish - the latter are also predators of the native species. 

There are six non-native species of crayfish in England and Wales explains the primary invasion occurred because seafood farmers imported the American signal crayfish during the 1970s, in a desire to diversify.  The critters escaped into the wild.  Ironically instead of diversification, the UK is battling extinction of the white clawed crayfish.

Mmm.  We need to be careful, don't we?

Haven't the Foggiest

So what will 2012 bring?  On the specifics, I haven't the foggiest idea.  I do hope that we can pull ourselves out of an asymmetrical economy.  (The 1 percent keeps doing better at the expense of the 99 percent.)  I'm fearful we have slipped into a lost decade like Japan. 

With expectations high, perhaps this will be the year that we discover cold fusion.  Perhaps as important to many of us, perhaps we will discover the perfect weight-reducing pill.  A Fountain of Youth pill, would be nice as well.

Could this be the year we make contact with extraterrestrial life?  How would that change things? 

Ready or not, here comes 2012.  May it be a good one for you!