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Name: Tompaul
Birthday: 7/30/1976
Gender: Male
Interests: Travel. Writing. Theology. Photography. Movies. Food.
Expertise: Procrastination.
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Member Since:
2/18/2004
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| Honduras suspends basic rightsHonduras ain't a pretty situation. Its president wanted to change the Constitution (apparently to let him keep on holding office), so the military kicked him out in a coup. They say it's all legal, but if so, as this diary details, why did Honduras just suspend basic liberties?
The right to protest.
Freedom in one's home from unwarranted search, seizure and arrest.
Freedom of association.
Guarantees of rights of due process while under arrest.
Freedom of transit in the country. | | |
| In which I review "It's Okay Not to Be a Seventh-day Adventist"It's just up on Adventist Today's website, and I'm still pondering whether I could have done a more refined job with it. It strikes me as perhaps being a tad too "apologetic" (in the theological sense of the word) instead of being more of a straight review. I doubt I'd feel that way, though, if I were reviewing a book on something like health care reform or World War II. The other thing is that my review, despite its length, doesn't touch on all the topics the book addresses. To that I'd simply say that the first things I deleted when I cut the review down to size (it was originally more than 1200 words longer) were areas I felt other reviewers had adequately addressed, and I tended to focus on areas to which I could bring some degree of expertise. At the same time, the authors' modus operandi are consistent throughout the book, so what I did cover is representative. | | |
| "How long is long enough?"Bob Herbert asks the essential question:
No one seems to know how old Mohammed Jawad was when he was seized by Afghan forces in Kabul six and a half years ago and turned over to American custody. Some reports say he was 14. Some say 16. The Afghan government believes he was 12.
What is not in dispute is that he was no older than an adolescent, and that since his capture he has been tortured and otherwise put through hell. The evidence against him has been discredited. He has tried to commit suicide. But the U.S. won’t let him go.
The treatment of the young captive was so egregious that the decorated U.S. Army officer assigned to prosecute him — a man gung-ho to secure a conviction against a defendant he believed had committed a serious crime against the American military — ended up removing himself from the case and declaring that he could no longer “in good conscience” participate in the military commissions set up to try accused terrorists. . . .
On Dec. 25, 2003, Jawad tried to kill himself by repeatedly banging his head against a wall of his cell.
There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value.
Colonel Vandeveld is no longer on active duty and has joined the effort by military defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union to secure Jawad’s freedom. Six years of virtual solitary confinement, he said, is enough for someone who was not much older than a child when he was taken into custody.
Go read the whole thing (link above). It's past time to leave the dark Bush legacy behind. | | |
| And I thought bears were coolThey got nothing on these amphibians:
One species of burrowing frogs can survive for years buried in mud without food and water. New research has figured out how the frog and other "super-sleeper" animals do it.
Many species of animals go through a period of torpor to conserve energy when resources are scarce. The champion in energy-saving mode is the burrowing frog (Cyclorana alboguttata).
A team of scientists at the University of Queensland discovered that the metabolism of these frogs ' cells changes radically during the dormancy period allowing maximized use of limited energy resources without ever running on empty.
This discovery could lead to medical applications down the line.
"It could potentially be useful in the treatment of energy-related disorders such as obesity ," said Sara Kayes, who will present her findings at the Society of Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday, June 29.
When the operation efficiency of the frog cells' mitochondria , the tiny "power plants" of cells, was measured during the dormancy period, it was found to be significantly higher compared to that observed in active animals.
This trick, known as mitochondrial coupling, allows these frogs to be extremely efficient in the use of the limited energy stores they have by increasing the total amount of energy obtained per unit consumed, allowing them to easily outperform other species whose energy production efficiency remains essentially the same even when they happen to be inactive for extended periods. . . . | | |
| FireflyFalling asleep (or rather, attempting to) at midnight last night, I saw a big flash of light at the end of my bed. Kinda spooky. I knew I hadn't left any electronics on in that location, so I slapped on my glasses and peeled open the Venetian blinds so I could peer outside. Why were there lights outside my window? Simple answer: fireflies. For some reason I thought they only did their thing at dusk. | | |
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