Rachel Carson: Hero or Villain?

Rachel Carson has long been praised for her novel Silent Spring.  This novel informs the world of the dangerous potential of the pesticide DDT.  After the book was published, the chemical was widely banned and cannot be legally produced in the United States, Europe, or Japan.  As with all issues, there are two sides to this story.   When banning the use of DDT and condemning it as a terrible, harmful chemical one can't help but wonder if Ms. Carson stopped to consider all the lives that could be saved by using this inexpensive, long-lasting pesticide. Malaria kills more than 2,800 children a day on the African continent.  Most of these children have yet to reach the age of four, and, in fact, some places are so plagued by the mosquitoes that carry the disease that toddlers have a 40% chance of dying before the age of 5! If those who champion Carson's book and the environmental idealism it sparked truly cared about saving the planet and bettering the lives of its inhabitants, they would do well to fully examine the benefits of this cost-efficient solution to the spreading of malaria and think of the millions of lives and billions of dollars that could be spared by its use.

What're the Odds?

Did you know that:


The chances of dying in an asteroid collision are 1 in 20,000


The chances of becoming a movie star are about 24,550 to 1


The odds of striking it rich on Antiques Roadshow are 60,000 to 1


The chances of dying from a mountain lion attack in California: 1 in 32,000,000


The general odds of being killed by a falling coconut are 1 in 250,000,000


The chance of dying from a shark attack: 1 in 300,000,000


So to sum that all up, I'm more likely to find a career in acting than to be set for life because I got lucky on antiques road show.  This is assuming that I'm not killed in a freak accident first, like a shark attack, falling coconut, or mountain lion strike.  Apparently though, the most likely of all these events is that I'll die in an asteroid collision???? Who'd've thought....hmmm....


Sources 
Odds of....
Odds of...

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve refers to the woman believed to be the mother source of the mitochondria found in humans today.  Because mitochondrial DNA is passed solely through the mother, theories suggest that early in evolutionary history there was one common ancestor.  From her descendants, many tribes spread throughout the world and evolution 
led them towards characteristics that would best suit them to inhabit the regions to which they had migrated.

The many cultures across the globe provide examples of the great diversity that originated from a single source. 

These people are citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

These people are from further north on the continent of Africa, from Egypt:

This is a picture of schoolchildren in Seoul, south Korea:

This woman and child are inhabitants of Brazil:

This elderly woman is from Russia:

The Native Americans were the original inhabitants of North America prior to the arrival of European influences:

  

Despite the many variations of human physiology depicted in these portraits, modern times allow travel and immigration much more readily than in times past.  This easier access makes it more common for people of different cultures and races to marry and reproduce.  Thus, it is more and more common to see people who display a myriad of cultural traits.  It is not unreasonable to assume that in the coming centuries the people of the world will continue to converge and return to a kind of global "norm" of features with less distinction from one location to the next.

Amphioxus

The Merriam-Webster definitions any of a genus (Branchiostoma) of lancelets; broadly


To elaborate amphioxus is also known as lancelets.  They're small marine animals (rarely more than 3 inches long) that look like fish with no eyes or definite heads.  They typically dwell in warm coastal waters.  They are thought to be close relatives of vertebrates.   Unlike other chordates they are able to digest things.  Breeding may occur many time in a year.  Eggs are fertilized in the water and become larvae in a few days.                                             

Schrodinger's Cat

I just ran across this on stumbleupon.com.....It has nothing to do with the assined blogs, but I found it amusing since we talked about the cat briefly last week :)

Schrodinger's cat is...

Preposterous Polywater

In the 1960s, Soviet scientists claimed to have discovered a form of water that was polymerized and remained solid from −40 °C to 150 °C.  These claims set off a kind of panic among American officials and scientists.  If such a substance existed and the USSR managed to use it as a weapon to render US water stores useless, the repercussions would have been catastrophic! After a frenzy of research in both countries trying to recreate and test polywater, it became clear that the substance was fictitious. The sample the soviets had was in fact simply impurities in the water sample used. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater
http://itotd.com/articles/588/polywater/

So the site I found is a site claiming to offer animals and reptiles and such for sale as pets or as supper.  There's a link for recipes, comments from "satisfied customers" in the sidebar, and even Google adds scattered throughout.  There are links to "sister pages" and offers to buy t-shirts and such as well.  Once you look closer and see the site offers you the option of ordering dodo birds, bald eagles, komodo dragons, and other extinct or endangered animals, it's pretty plain the site is a joke.  Nevertheless, outraged readers are commenting about how terrible the people running the site are for selling baby seal fillets and whatnot.  I think it's ridiculous that people believe it to be real.   The outbursts of fury on the site just go to show that too many people in this world jump at people's throats without taking two seconds to look at things properly.  If this site were real, there is no debate it would be a unspeakably terrible organization, but if one takes a moment to look at the business, it's clearly a joke.  (Whether a joke of good taste or not is another matter entirely)


http://www.petsorfood.com/