The Iron Ring

I finally saw “An Inconvenient Truth” during my Christmas movie-marathon and Ihave to say, I found it quite convincing. Be warned, although it is factual and unsettling, it was far from ‘riveting’ as it is entirely Al Gore with powerpoint, or at least what appears to be a very impressive form of powerpoint.

Nonetheless, Gore touches briefly on the debate around climate change and suggests that it is politicians who would have us believe that there is dissent amongst scientists. Gore claims that science is nearly unanimous on the issue.

This got me thinking about another ‘issue’ we have heard much about lately; evolution.

I understand the evolutionary debate, and it’s conflict between science and religion. And I feel for scientists like myself, who aim to maintain a sense of spirituality and religious identity while also probing for factual evidence in our everyday lives. But what I don’t understand is, why now?

What has happened in the past 2-3 years that has caused the evolution debate to resurface as strongly as it has? Don’t tell me it’s the emergence of Intelligent Design, as that is a theory that has been around for quite some time. Perhaps it’s the Supreme Court rulings on how and how not to teach evolution in schools. The court ruled in 2005 that you couldn’t force teachers to introduce intelligent design in schools. So we’re back to intelligent design— and I still don’t understand where all the press is coming from.

I happen to think evolution is a great way to teach students about science. Explain that it is a theory and explain what a theory is. Show them the data that support evolution and then explain how theories evolve when scientists find data. Tell them the difference between a theory and a law of physics, for example. Science doesn’t have to be black and white and boring. But then again, I am biased, as my man pointed out over lunch, I set the curve in physics in high school.

While at a friend’s place last night, my friend matt katz made a great point about lethal injections. Yes, it was a fun party.

He pointed out that when we claim that the execution is ‘more humane’ it has more to do with how we perceive it than what the prisoner actually experiences. It’s more palatable to think of lethal injection than say, hanging, or electrocution..

And if we continue to be a society that practices the death penalty, it would be hippocratic not to be able to ‘stomach’ certain types of execution, even if they are less painful for the prisoner.

Nice point matt.

And by they way, it turns out both Deb and I make a mean latke. My potato/oil smelling clothes are in the wash as I write this…..

HAPPY HANUKAH

Today in Florida, convicted killer Angel Nieves Diaz, 55, was executed via lethal injection. But one injection did not seem to do the trick so Diaz was given a second cocktail of lethal drugs and he did not die until 34 minutes later. You can read the details on CNN , including how he moved for 24 minutes after the first injection (which is supposed to paralyze) and how his mouth opened and closed.

Cruel and unusual?

I am against the death penalty for a host of reasons, but I can understand how and why some people are in favor it. Yet I cannot fathom how lethal injection remains legal in this country.

For starters, the only way to be sure that the lethal injection is done properly is to have a doctor on hand. But doctors take oaths about not doing harm and all, making it ethically impossible for a licensed, trained physician to oversee such a process.

Second, the cocktail of drugs first paralyzes the victim before stopping his/her heart. For details on the injection, I refer you to ‘how stuff works’ (yeah, that’s a bit sick, but their description isn’t bad).

First the prisoner is anesthetized, then paralyzed and then a toxic chemical is administered to stop their heart.

But what if something goes wrong? In theory, they might be in great pain and not be able to say so. The Lancet came out with an important study in 2003 about this. Using post-mortem blood samples they claimed that 43% of prisoners had levels that indicated they may have been ‘aware’ at the time of death. These results were challenged, as post-mortem samples may not reflect levels of anesthesia in the blood at the time of death.

But I don’t care.

It seems clear that there is the risk of awareness from this form of execution. I don’t believe that is worth taking a chance.

I am going to be in the lab on Christmas this year-
To tell the truth, I don’t really celebrate Christmas on account of being Jewish and all.

Most years I’m traveling on Christmas, it’s a great time to travel if you aren’t celebrating. Last year I was in Aspen with my family and my boyfriend had his first ski lesson on Christmas Day. I have pictures of him on the slopes with Santa!

Anyway. The reason I’m working through Christmas this year is so I can take a week off in January to go on a southern Caribbean cruise with above-mentioned boyfriend. We are sailing from San Juan on a new boat and we’re really excited.

But two small problems dampen my enthusiasm.

One, our boat tipped in June. It sort of listed to one side and then righted itself.
People got hurt and it made the news, and it was attributed to human error.

Two, the Norwalk virus has returned to cruise ships.

The Norwalk virus is a nasty bug that comes from bad foods, like raw oysters or
vegetables that have not been washed properly. It spreads between people through
stool-contaminated food or water and it tears through passengers on cruise ships.

Several cruise ships have had outbreaks in recent years and I thought it was sort of over but this week they announced several more outbreaks. Ships are being scrubbed as we speak.

I am already germ-o-phobic, as they say, actually ‘mysophobic’ is the technical word for it. I hate doorknobs. I breathe through my nose only on the bus because noses are better at catching germs before they enter your system than mouths are. I have hand sanitizer at my desk. I cringe at strangers who cough in public without covering their mouths. I hardly ever touch my own face directly unless I have recently washed my hands. When I finish washing my hands in a public place, I use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door if there is a door knob. I love bathrooms with automatic faucets, soap and paper towel dispensers.

And i LOVE the bathrooms in O’Hare Airport in Chicago...... anyone know why?

In the event that I can’t wash my hands frequently, I trust hand sanitizer. I don’t care what anti-sanitizer’s say, my alcohol based antimicrobial CVS brand hand sanitizer works. The mayo clinic even says so. According to their website, it may be more effective than hand washing at killing certain kinds of bacteria and viruses.

So wish us luck.

We sail after the New Year and yes, we purchased travel insurance.

Greetings!

I have items I would like to share today.

The first is an email I received this morning:

Dear blog author:

We recently came across your site, theironring.blogspot.com, while searching for fellow christian bloggers.

A small group of us have started a new site called Christian Bloggers. Our prayer and intent is to bring Christians closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community. While many of us have different "theologies", we all share one true saviour.

Would you be interested in joining Christian Bloggers? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign up page to get the ball rolling. We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavour.

May God Bless you and your blogging efforts. We look forward to hearing from you.

Craig Cantin (Christian Bloggers)

-I wonder if the christian bloggers would be interested in my views on stem cell research.....

The other peice of news I would like to share is the publishing of my final column which can be read here.

It was an interesting experience. I must say, I was only very lightly edited at the DP. I feel fortunate for having the experience and I'm really grateful that I was working with the opinion editor, who is an intelligent, humble person rather than some of the other editors at the DP who are rather self-important.

Thanks Evan-