Archives for April 2005

April 14, 2005 — Scientists are bringing the past to life by hatching eggs once thought to be dead and producing colonies of animals as they existed decades ago.

They are calling it “resurrection ecology,” and it’s a whole new field that quite literally allows scientists to observe evolution as it occurred, using animals that were quite different than their kinfolk today.

And who do they have to think for it all? Alice in Wonderland.

Alice, as we all know, had a pretty difficult life in Lewis Carroll’s yarn. In one scene she complained to the queen that she didn’t seem to be getting anywhere even though she was running as hard as she could.

She was admonished that resting on her laurels was not an option. “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place,” the queen told her.

Change or Die

In 1973, biologist Leigh Van Valen of the University of Chicago picked up on that theme and postulated that in nature, it’s not enough to tread water. One must constantly evolve to keep abreast, or ahead, of predators.

That became known as the Red Queen Hypothesis, suggesting that change is not only good, it’s essential because without it, organisms will perish. You’ve got to stay ahead of the competition.

For decades now, scientists have tried to either prove, or disprove, Valen’s argument. And now, at least one group thinks it has succeeded.

“We are confirming the Red Queen Hypothesis,” says biologist W. Charles Kerfoot of Michigan Technological University, who has spent years now chasing Alice to see if she really did have to keep running just to stay in place. He is one of several authors who took over a recent issue of the journal Limnology and Oceanography, reporting widespread results in the search for “resting eggs” that are dormant, but still alive.

Kerfoot found his answer in the murky waters beneath an inland lake on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Portage Lake has gone through many changes over the past century. Copper mines flooded the lake with debris. Dredging changed its nature considerably. And more recently, the waters have been depleted of oxygen through the growth of algae, a process called eutrophication.”

To read the whole story use this link.

It is the fourth picture down here.

Well worth a read.

Sometime during the mid-90’s a friend approached me with an idea for a business. It wasn’t a pitch to get me to work with him, it was more about using me as a sounding board.

His idea was to set up a business online. I don’t want to get more specific for reasons of anonymity but it was going to be a place where consumers could shop and no this is not about Jeff Bezos and Amazon or anything like that.

I listened to him as he described his idea to me and considered it carefully. I wasn’t real excited about it because I just didn’t see that many people using the Net and was skeptical about whether he could get enough people to use his site to make it work.

Although I was online and familiar with email and how to surf around, my perception was so narrowly focused that I saw the Net as being a resource for information. You used it for news, you researched papers and projects online and that was about it.

So when I responded to him I wasn’t real enthusiastic, but I tempered my response because he was and I didn’t want him to think that I was a jerk.

In time he did launch the business and eventually it was a place that had a couple of million rolling through it. In a lot of these stories this is the point where the storyteller says “boy was I wrong and now that company is called Wal-Mart. I could have been so successful blah, blah, blah.”

The reality is that the company did not make it. When the economy soured and the recession hit it was one of the victims. But my friend was able to sell it to a larger company for a profit and ended up getting a great job out of the experience as one of the investors hired him to be their VP of Internet Services.

What I learned from the experience was to broaden my perspective and more carefully consider things. I learned to really try and not allow my own experience prevent me from seeing how others could be interested and excited in something.

In the years that have passed it is a lesson that has served me well. If I had to try and sum it up I would tell people that they should remember that a convertible can be driven in the sunshine or the rain because the top goes up and the top comes down. There are multiple uses for many things and we should look carefully because sometimes the obvious escapes our eye.

Gail at Crossing the Rubicon2 tipped me off to this article in the Times in which the terrorist organization Hamas states that they are responsible for Israel withdrawing from Gaza and that they intend to challenge Fatah in the upcoming elections.

“Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas’s senior leader in Gaza, disclosed the full extent of the group’s ambitions in a rare interview. He confirmed that it will contest seats in Palestinian Legislative Council elections in the same month that Israel withdraws from Gaza, and join the Cabinet if it wins.

He made clear that Hamas intends to claim Israel’s withdrawal as a retreat under fire and victory for its campaign of violence. This is exactly the image that Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, is determined to avoid, knowing that it will be seized upon by his right-wing critics, who accuse him of handing the Palestinians a “dividend for terror”.

Speaking at a secret location in the Gaza Strip, Dr Zahar, 60, told The Times: “Very simply, nobody can deny that if Israel is going to leave the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, that was because of the intifada, because of the armed struggle, because of the big sacrifices of Hamas for this goal. It was not because of negotiations, or the goodwill of Israel, or the Americans or Europeans.”

It should come as no surprise that they are claiming responsibility. It suits their purposes to do so as it shores up support among the Palestinians. They have carefully crafted and cultivated an image among them as being a multifaceted organization that offers social services in addition to their military wing.

And it really is a problem for Israel because they do not need for anyone to think that you can murder, maim and slaughter your way to concessions. It does not bode well for future negotiations. But part of what is of the most concern to me is addressed in this next section.

“Ominously, he refused to commit Hamas to peace in Gaza once Israel withdraws its 9,000 settlers. “It depends on what Israel does,” he said. “Now Israel is talking about reorganisation. We do not accept reorganisation. We are looking for withdrawal, real withdrawal, and not to violate our sovereignty.”

and

“Our goal is to reform and reconstruct buildings, to replant trees, to flourish our people economically, to keep the mood of the Palestinian people anti-occupation, to move towards a new strategy: co-operation with the Arabs, not co-operation with the Israelis,” Dr Zahar said.”

Hamas does not recognize the State of Israel and nothing I have read here makes me think that they are going to do so. They have a long term goal and are patiently and methodically taking steps to achieve that goal.

If they are able to achieve a real position of power and authority within a Palestinian government we could end up with more problems than currently exist.

I read this article regarding execution by Lethal Injection and it gave me some food for thought. Before I provide my comments let me share a section of it.

THURSDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) — Prisoner executions by lethal injection in the United States may not be painless or humane, and may not even meet veterinary standards for putting down animals.

So claims a research letter in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

The authors concluded that prisoners executed by lethal injection may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering as they died because they weren’t properly sedated. Anesthesia during lethal injection is essential to minimize the prisoner’s suffering.

Lethal injection involves sequential administration of sodium thiopental for anesthesia, pancuronium bromide to induce paralysis, and then potassium chloride to stop the heart and cause death. If anesthesia wasn’t used, the condemned prisoner would suffocate and experience excruciating pain without being able to move.”

To be honest, I am not sure how much this bothers me because there is a reason that these people received the death penalty. Often if is because they committed brutal, horrific and heinous crimes, so a part of me thinks that is fitting that they suffer like their victims did.

On the other hand stooping to their level is not impressive nor does it really help our own humanity. We probably should fix this, there are limits to punishment, even when we are discussing the death penalty.