LAGC
LAGC's JournalState Cop Shoots at Minivan Full of Kids
Now the driver and her son are facing charges while New Mexico State Police are investigating the officers involved.
It all started Oct. 28 on a state highway south of Taos. A State Police officer pulled over Oriana Ferrell's minivan for going 71 mphr in a 55 mph zone. In the minivan with her were her five kids. The Taos News reports the children range in age from 6 to 18.
On dash cam video released to KRQE News 13 Friday you can see Ferrell and the officer argue after Ferrell couldn't decide whether to pay the $126 fine or contest it in court. The officer instructs her to turn her vehicle off and stay put before walking back to his car.
http://www.krqe.com/news/crime/state-cop-shoots-at-minivan-full-of-kids
She shouldn't have drove off, but that doesn't justify the violent police response -- one of the kids in there could have easily been killed.
Cops needs to chill the fuck out instead of play Rambo all the time.
"Measured response" is the order of the day.
That is all.
I Will Say One Thing About the Catholic Church...
They sure have harbored some incredible minds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_scientists
For an institution so steeped in tradition, superstition, and folklore, they sure did evolve (even before the Renaissance) to lay the very foundation for modern science itself.
We're covering Gregor Mendel right now in Biology, his insightful contributions to the study of genetics.
I can't help but to think, if it wasn't for the Church back in the day with all their monasteries allowing such "philosopher monks" to be able to focus all their free time on on matters of the mind instead of endless busy-body work, we would have never gotten out of the Dark Ages.
I'm not so sure that the Church is really all that necessary any more, in this era of free-flowing information and esteemed secular institutes of higher learning, but I will give them props for the role they played back in the day, laying down the building blocks of the explosion of human knowledge and scientific discovery over the past 500 years, especially over the past 200 years alone.
It gives me great hope for the future of humanity, that even from the most guarded halls of dogma and ritual that such forward-thinking perspectives could arise, and even thrive.
Maybe even Islam will eventually come around and change its ways. Come back to contributing to the greater human knowledge like it did in its early days, instead of trying to drag us back down to pre-civilized levels of endless sectarian violence and hate.
We can hope, right?
Today We Learned How to Make Crack Cocaine and Kevlar!
So today we learned about amines and amides, in Organic Chemistry. (For those not familiar, it involves organic compounds with a Nitrogen component.)
This is cocaine:
Chemistry professors sure seem to know a lot about illegal substances... crack is a lower purity form of free-base cocaine that is usually produced by neutralization of cocaine hydrochloride with a solution of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3) and water, producing a very hard/brittle, off-white-to-brown colored, amorphous material that contains sodium carbonate, entrapped water, and other by-products as the main impurities.
Someone in class asked why it is that rich people tend to be the ones who do the pure cocaine, whereas poor folks tend to be the ones who do crack. She wasn't sure, but said she'd get back to us.
But what was really cool is we learned what kevlar and many fire-proof and bullet-proof vests are made of:
Those red balls are oxygen atoms, the blue balls nitrogen, white balls hydrogen, and black carbon.
It's amazing that just these 4 simple elements, when arranged a certain way, produce properties that make them so impervious to penetration.
This class has been nothing short of fascinating, it really is amazing how chemistry ties in to so many aspects of our lives. It really is the central science.
If I wasn't so dead-set on becoming a biologist, I'd definitely pursue chemistry instead.
The things we've learned in just the past 200 years since chemistry was founded as a science really have changed everything.
Everything boils down to chemistry. Everything.
As Germans Push Austerity, Greeks Press Nazi-Era Claims
Mr. Syngelakis, who was 7 then, still wants payback. And in pursuing a demand for reparations from Germany, he reflects a growing movement here, fueled not just by historical grievances but also by deep resentment among his countrymen over Germany’s current power to dictate budget austerity to the fiscally crippled Greek government.
Germany may be Greece’s stern banker now, say those who are seeking reparations, but before it goes too far down that road, it should pay off its own debts to Greece.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/world/europe/as-germans-push-austerity-greeks-press-back.html?_r=0
It will be interesting to see if Greece presses the issue.
For as much as Greece has bent over backwards to meet German demands, there really should be forgiveness of a good part of that bailout debt that is crippling Greece right now...
Matthew 6:6
I'm sure God is quite impressed with such grandiose displays of public piety...
Of course, its not Him they are trying to impress, is it?
"Emergent Properties" in Biology
So I finally decided to go back to finish up college earlier this year after a long 15-year hiatus. Before, my original major was sociology, but I was only going part-time while working full-time in the tech industry back when the economy was booming under Clinton, so my head wasn't really in the game.
Anyway, I decided to pursue my dreams and major in biology this time around, mainly because life science was my favorite subject back in junior high school, and genetics in particular really fascinated me. So here I am taking my first intro-level (albeit sophomore-level) biology course, and I already keep finding myself just absolutely stunned and shocked by what I'm reading in my textbook.
How you have all these mindless molecules self-reproducing, molecules spawning other molecules, all completely void of any sort of will or agency at all, just doing their own thing without any care in the world. Just a handful of simple chemical elements, that once joined together cause incredibly complex things to happen. I just find it so fucking incredible and awe-inspiring.
I mean, don't get me wrong -- I'm not even buying into the notion that any of our current religious traditions are anywhere near close to knowing the truth of how it all began -- but it is hard not to imagine that we are part of some sort of massive simulation, like we're living in the Matrix or something. LOL. All these hidden "rules" dictating how life behaves at each level of the biological hierarchy, as simpler parts combine to make much more complex things happen. It's just mind-boggling.
Do you guys ever wax philosophical about it all? I know philosophy tends to be only so much mental masturbation often times, but it is fun to think about "the deeper issues" some days... ponder the "how" of it all, let alone the "why" of it all, even if it does seem like an exercise in futility most of the time.
Isn't life fascinating? Just the sheer absurdity of it all? Something rather than nothing? Consciousness out of reducible parts?
Quick! Where's my fainting couch! 
Conservapedia: "Moral Zeitgeist"
Don't ask me how I stumbled upon this.
But offered for your reading pleasure if you need a chuckle to lift up your day...
http://www.conservapedia.com/Moral_Zeitgeist
I Don't Give a Damn If You Deny Global Warming, But...
...there is a very real problem emerging with CO2 mixing with ocean water and forming H2CO3 -- carbonic acid.
This effect is gradually turning our oceans acidic, which could have serious ramifications for the entire ecosystem before the end of this century.
National Geographic did an interesting expose on this phenomenon not too long back:
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-ocean-acidification/
A change of 0.1 pH units may not seem like much, but the potential for affecting marine life is huge. Many aquatic creatures are very sensitive to fluctuations in the acid-base scale, even a shift of a few tenths of a degree in pH units could kill off entire species. This won't just affect fishermen and those industries dependent on them, but the impact will be felt along the entire food chain!
We've made great strides reducing pollutant levels in many U.S. cities. Over the past 30 years, sulfur dioxide levels are down 71%, carbon monoxide levels are down 79%, ozone down 25%, and nitrogen dioxide down 46%, but for some reason we don't seem to have the political will-power to do what needs to be done to reign in carbon dioxide as well.
So nevermind how hot its gotten this summer, or the prospect of rising ocean levels flooding cities -- pay attention to the other threat here: life on this planet as we know it.
We need to do something about CO2.
Michael Savage Nailed It Monday Night (re: Zimmerman)
http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/2013/07/savage-says-zimmerman-guilty/
This guy is as crazy and as rude as they come, can't believe he's still on the air. But every once in awhile he lets the truth slip...
He basically summed up the sentiment of the vast majority of his own radio audience listeners...
Indeed, if Trayvon had been white, you wouldn't see all this support for Zimmerman. You wouldn't see people sending him money.
It's as plain as day. The only reason Zimmy was able to bail out of jail (twice) was because he killed a "black teenage thug" and like a dog whistle, it mobilized a certain segment of our society.
The wanton stereotyping and bare-naked prejudice being displayed by so many of his supporters is so fucking obvious.
(Maryland) Frustrated Gun Store Clerks Ignore Mandated Background Checks
Maryland state police are trying to process a veritable flood of background check requests, which has left would-be gun owners and gun distributors peeved about the wait. "We're doing all we can to address the backlog," said Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley. "We've just never seen anything like this in the history of our responsibility for licensing firearms. The numbers are just staggering."
Maryland police have tripled their staff to tackle the backlog of 26,547 background check requests.
..
..
Gun distributors are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Maryland law states that gun buyers should not have to wait more than seven days to receive a firearm, while Maryland police are requesting as much as 10 weeks to process the background checks.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/frustrated-gun-store-clerks-ignore-mandated-background-checks
A recently passed law that bans assault-style weapons in Maryland is the catalyst that has been driving the gun grab, proving once again that gun control is one of the best ways to sell firearms.
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