The Weird, Ever-Evolving Story of Your DNA – [The Atlantic]

Playing God is always harder than it looks.

via The Weird, Ever-Evolving Story of Your DNA – The Atlantic

Zimmer describes a bizarre twist on the free-martin: a girl with different-colored eyes and ambiguous genitals who appeared at a Seattle genetics clinic. Her ovaries proved to have only XX chromosomes—typical female—but her other tissues were mixtures of XX and XY. Further analysis showed that she had started out as opposite-sex twins. But early in development, the two embryos had fused, becoming a single, highly unusual child. Like a verse from the old Ray Stevens novelty song “I’m My Own Grandpa,” this girl was her own twin brother.

Does anyone else find this fascinating yet cool/bizarre?

UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident, Four Perspectives

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

via UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident, Four Perspectives on YouTube

Still makes me feel ill to this day what our “Law” enforcement officers did.

Shame. On. You.

Facial Recognition Deemed Obscene

By me.

RE: Amazon Pushes Facial Recognition to Police. Critics See Surveillance Risk. – The New York Times

It has a huge potential for abuse. And while I try to personally not commit crimes, I don’t want my whereabouts or my loved one’s whereabouts followed by some corrupt government official, law enforcement officer, or even an [evil] neighbor trailing (lusting) after my wife.

It’s easy to say “hey look! this new technology will catch criminals!”, but in reality humans behave like humans. Meaning 1% corrupt might as well be 99% corrupt.

I know cops say they don’t have quotas to fill, but I have seen (and personally heard) that they do. *Just for the Record: I support my local Officers*. (They’re good guys.) Having quotas (income to the department) to fill just makes the system ripe to abuses from those with low or no ethical standards.

I don’t even like to consider the potential for abuse by a corrupt government official.
But, it will happen.. and by then, I hope the entire world will learn better and ban the easy use of this technology, except for use in extreme cases of violence or criminal acts such as the murder of crowds of People. Or rapists.. God, I hate people who rape or kill.

:/

” Beggars can’t be choosers!” and other such Bullshit.

First off, I’m sorry to use coarse language.
But the statement “Beggars can’t be choosers”, really *really* pisses me off.

It perpetuates the mindset that you are better than the beggar. That you know better than they know. That you’ve made better life choices than they did.

And, you know what? It’s pure bull crap.

Sometimes in life, you hit a low point. Sometimes a point so low that you can’t see a way out of it. So, you need help from others. Someone to lean on while you get back on your feet.. Even if it takes years to break out of the struggle to survive.

You need the kindness of a stranger. Not their pity. Not their ‘I’m better than you’ attitude. Or even the feeling of “I’m doing you a service [so you owe me]”.

Those kinds of attitudes don’t help you or the person you’re ‘helping’.

Just because someone is at a low point, sleeping in the alley, on a park bench, under a bridge does not mean they have to take/accept whatever they’re handed. They do not have to eat the moldy leftovers from your lunch two days ago.

Beggars can choose. They’re sentient beings. They have the same rights, wills, and dreams.. like you have. They deserve to be treated with dignity.

So.. Be Nice! Help a fellow human out any time you can. Don’t wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas.

And, as always: “Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.”.

Later!