Artificially adding a gene to an organism's genome is like releasing a foreign species into a fragile habitat. It might seem like a good idea at the time, but ...
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sabotage
Something is sabotaging internet programs on my computer.
I've been using Yahoo Messenger for a few years and have never deleted any archive. I've begun using Google Chrome since they fixed the problem printing selected text.
Very recently, something deleted all of my Yahoo Messenger archive and my Google Chrome saved passwords.
I have two suspects: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Norton Utilities 15. (A third suspect is Mozilla Firefox).
Internet Explorer I used recently when some of the quirks with Chrome annoyed me. Utilities 15 I installed recently and had it run whatever it normally runs. And as for Firefox, I have not used it for a long time and only used it once or twice around the time things were deleted.
Which of these companies could be so vindictive toward their competition?
Monday, October 25, 2010
We both know why we're here
Why can't people get to the point? We both know why we're here, why do you have to insult me by pretending you're here for some innocuous general reason? Today I was visited by a government flunkie pretending to be on a general, get-to-know-you, how're-things-going, what-can-we-do-for-you, tour of people in my position.
Did he seriously think that I didn't know why he was there?
Did he seriously think that I didn't know why he was there?
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
They're going to do it anyway
"They're going to do it anyway"
As a prosecutor trying to protect children from predators and abusers, "they're going to do it anyway" is the favorite excuse of lazy, irresponsible or stupid parents who need to justify their own failure to protect their children by setting and enforcing rules and boundaries.
Children always push the boundaries set by their parents.
If you don't want your children to do worse things than you did, you have to set the boundaries where your parents set them for you.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Greatest Generation
8/18/2009
The Greatest Generation.
A storm ripped through this town yesterday leaving destruction in its proverbial wake. Today, mounds of would-be slingshots and rustic table legs are being hauled away as our coddled youth lounge in front of video game consoles. The gap in experience and lifestyle which separates the children of today from the children of the Great Depression is almost unimaginable.
The grandparents and great-grandparents of our indolent youth are known as "the Greatest Generation." As young adults those great Americans unhesitatingly sacrificed their lives, futures and fortunes to protect the country they loved from foreign aggression. Some fought the war in far off countries, leaving home and family without being able to return for years. Some served on the home front, dealing with strict rationing of food and fuel, and growing "Victory Gardens" to put food on the table. During the war years, recycling was a patriotic duty, housewives saved grease and cardboard to sustain the war effort. The entire country was mobilized to support the troops. Automobile production ceased and the factories produced war materiel. Can you imagine not being able to buy a new car every year because there were no new cars to be had?
An entire generation of Americans—the Greatest Generation—endured almost unimaginable sacrifice to preserve this country. Can anyone imagine the children of today doing the same? A few— the most exceptional— are showing their mettle in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the vast majority of Americans are too used to comfort and comparative luxury to deal with the challenges overcome by their ancestors.
But, no matter how great they were, the greatest generation was made up of human beings who were no different than the people of today. Had they been given the opportunity they would have grown up as lazy and self-indulgent as their children and grand-children. That being the case, what could have given that generation of Americans the strength and will—the internal toughness—to face the challenges and dangers of World War Two? The answer can be found in the Great Depression. That painful era was a furnace that forged The Greatest Generation. They were made hard and strong by being forced to become self-sufficient in the worst of conditions.
There was no government assistance or bail-out for the greatest generation. They were forced to deal with privation and adversity, relying on their own abilities and the support of friends and family, and had come through strong and proud. They grew up making slingshots from sticks — not just for their own amusement but to put food on the table. The educated and proud found that they could subdue their own egos and sell pencils or apples on street corners. The parents of the greatest generation demonstrated remarkable self-sufficiency while raising the children that would save the world.
Great generations are not great by choice, they are made great by privation and struggle. The current generation of children came close to being forced to greatness by the collapse of the world economy. There is still no guarantee that greatness will not be forced on them as America continues to struggle its way out of this difficulty. However, as the elected, bought-and paid-for leaders of this country continue to mortgage our future so that we can maintain our comfortable lives, it seems more and more likely that the painful experiences that create tough, hard, and great generations, are being pushed to the horizon of the future where they will fall on the heads of our descendants. We, the adults of today, can look forward to having great-grandchildren who will, in their turn, be known as "The Greatest Generation."
A storm ripped through this town yesterday leaving destruction in its proverbial wake. Today, mounds of would-be slingshots and rustic table legs are being hauled away as our coddled youth lounge in front of video game consoles. The gap in experience and lifestyle which separates the children of today from the children of the Great Depression is almost unimaginable.
The grandparents and great-grandparents of our indolent youth are known as "the Greatest Generation." As young adults those great Americans unhesitatingly sacrificed their lives, futures and fortunes to protect the country they loved from foreign aggression. Some fought the war in far off countries, leaving home and family without being able to return for years. Some served on the home front, dealing with strict rationing of food and fuel, and growing "Victory Gardens" to put food on the table. During the war years, recycling was a patriotic duty, housewives saved grease and cardboard to sustain the war effort. The entire country was mobilized to support the troops. Automobile production ceased and the factories produced war materiel. Can you imagine not being able to buy a new car every year because there were no new cars to be had?
An entire generation of Americans—the Greatest Generation—endured almost unimaginable sacrifice to preserve this country. Can anyone imagine the children of today doing the same? A few— the most exceptional— are showing their mettle in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the vast majority of Americans are too used to comfort and comparative luxury to deal with the challenges overcome by their ancestors.
But, no matter how great they were, the greatest generation was made up of human beings who were no different than the people of today. Had they been given the opportunity they would have grown up as lazy and self-indulgent as their children and grand-children. That being the case, what could have given that generation of Americans the strength and will—the internal toughness—to face the challenges and dangers of World War Two? The answer can be found in the Great Depression. That painful era was a furnace that forged The Greatest Generation. They were made hard and strong by being forced to become self-sufficient in the worst of conditions.
There was no government assistance or bail-out for the greatest generation. They were forced to deal with privation and adversity, relying on their own abilities and the support of friends and family, and had come through strong and proud. They grew up making slingshots from sticks — not just for their own amusement but to put food on the table. The educated and proud found that they could subdue their own egos and sell pencils or apples on street corners. The parents of the greatest generation demonstrated remarkable self-sufficiency while raising the children that would save the world.
Great generations are not great by choice, they are made great by privation and struggle. The current generation of children came close to being forced to greatness by the collapse of the world economy. There is still no guarantee that greatness will not be forced on them as America continues to struggle its way out of this difficulty. However, as the elected, bought-and paid-for leaders of this country continue to mortgage our future so that we can maintain our comfortable lives, it seems more and more likely that the painful experiences that create tough, hard, and great generations, are being pushed to the horizon of the future where they will fall on the heads of our descendants. We, the adults of today, can look forward to having great-grandchildren who will, in their turn, be known as "The Greatest Generation."
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Calf Creek Bison Skull
After seeing the PBS History Detectives segment on the Calf Creek projectile point embedded in the bison skull. I have some questions and observations. First, why didn't the History Detectives investigators do any sort of examination of the wound to see if there had been any bone growth at the edges of the wound? Also, it appears to me that the design of the Calf Creek projectile points indicates that they were made to break off in the body of the prey. The way the point is made it would be difficult to wrap any sort of binding around the shaft with it attached. It would be slipped into a hole in a shaft prior to being thrown. If the animal was not killed, the shaft would be picked up for immediate re-use by the insertion of another point. The hunter would not be encumbered by having to carry multiple long poles, each with its own spear point. I understand that the rock points are rather brittle and having to carry several of them during the stalking and chase of a wild animal would expose the points to being broken before they could by used.
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