Showing posts with label dna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dna. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Dear Sociopathic Government, It's Life, Stupid! Not the Fiction You Call an Economy.

We, as a people, have lost perspective of reality. We've totally bought into the belief that what gives life meaning, is based, on what you own; how much you have; whom you associate with, and your position. In other words, the one with the most wins, and the only kind of life worth living is a life lived for the acquisition of wealth, social status, position. Acquisition = success.

Therefore, most of us sincerely believe - including me at one time - that every decision government makes should be based on the premise: "it's the economy, stupid"! This so-called economy that requires each and every one of us to pay in order to live - from the time of birth - despite the fact that between nature and the advanced technology available there is more than enough to meet the basic needs of everyone on the planet.

Not to mention, most of us cannot even explain how this "ponzi scheme" of an economy works. Or how it sustains or empowers the people, because it does not. Can we eat money? Drink money? Breathe money? Wear money? What the hell is money, anyway? We can't even answer that. Why? Because it's not real. It's created out of thin air! Moreover, this debt-based money requires the creation of shortages to create value. Without debt and manufactured shortages, our economic system fails. WTF kind of system is that?

Yet, we continue to allow the powers that be to decide the overall quality of our lives based on this fiction, thus making it thee #1 priority in life, even when it destroys life. And that's exactly what our extractive economic system does. That's the way it was designed: to destroy life.

Because the more the international/American economy extracts or exploits the earth's natural resources, the more it pollutes our atmosphere, the more it plunges our planet into misery and ravages it by hunger, water shortages, flooding, and warfare...the more prosperous this economy is.

People's lives are evaluated through the market, and the lives of the poor, and now, even the middle-class are deemed practically worthless, because it's cheaper to let people die than to interfere with economic growth, and/or the profit of the elitist power structure.

The system is beyond dysfunctional.  If we have any hope of changing it, we need to revalue, re-prioritize, and redefine reality. Currently, the discourse that defines reality, especially for those who formulate public policy, is economics. The overall good of society is measured strictly by GNP/GDP, and an unsustainable rate of growth. The quality of our lives does not factor into this equation at all!

Take fracking, the hydraulic fracturing of coal gas seams and gas shale to liberate and extract natural gas. The noxious emissions emitted by this process contaminate the water table, air, and soil; but that is all but ignored because it's "good" for the economy.

This is our society. We are the nation. However, at this point, fighting back will only worsen our situation as they can declare martial law. In addition, they have covertly co-opted a good percentage of our more power-hungry citizenry by appealing to that that desire for power. Therefore, disconnecting from our system is the only way. And the only way that will work is if we, the people unite by building our local communities, which means we have to start trusting our "neighbors" rather than the ruling elite.

Who are the ruling elite? Well, who knows? But we do know who their puppets are: the mainstream media, government officials, corporate executives, attorneys, and/or the "justice" system, law enforcement, etc. Most of these people are not even aware of their "puppet" status. They're so brainwashed to accept and enforce the status quo that they operate on automatic.  They will only see the light when it is them who experience the crushing blows that the system is so adept at delivering.

The bottom line is divided we fall, and the ruling class knows that best of all.


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Thursday, May 06, 2010

Meet the Exonerated: Louisiana's Death Row Part Three

Ryan Matthews (left) and Travis Hayes (right) were 17-years old when they were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Tommy Vanhoose, a convenience store owner, in Bridge City, Louisiana.

In April 1997, a man wearing a ski mask entered Vanhoose's store and demanded money. When Vanhoose refused, the perpetrator shot him four times and fled, taking off his mask and diving into the passenger side window of an awaiting car.

Matthews and Hayes, were stopped several hours after the crime because the car they were riding in resembled the description of the getaway car. They were arrested and Hayes was then questioned for over six hours. In his initial statements to investigators, Hayes claimed that he and Matthews were not in the area when the crime occurred. Hayes eventually confessed that he was the driver of the getaway car. He stated that Matthews went into the store, shots went off, and Matthews ran out and got into the car. Both boys were described as borderline mentally retarded.

Several eyewitnesses viewed the perpetrator's flight. One witness was in her car and watched the perpetrator run from the store, fire shots in her direction, and leap into a car. When she was later showed a photographic array, she tentatively identified Matthews as the assailant. By the time of trial, she was sure that Matthews was the gunman.

Two other witnesses, in the same car, watched as the perpetrator shed his mask, gloves, and shirt as he fled. The driver claimed to have seen the perpetrator's face in his rearview mirror while he was being shot at and trying to block the escape. This witness and his passenger were brought to a show-up hours later. The driver identified Matthews. His passenger was unable to make an identification.

Matthews had maintained his innocence since arrest. The defense presented evidence that forensic testing of the mask excluded both Matthews and Hayes. A defense expert also testified that the car that the two boys were driving - the reason they were stopped - could not have been the getaway car because the passenger side window that Matthews allegedly jumped through was inoperable and could not be rolled down. Other witnesses to the crime described the shooter as being much shorter than Matthews.

In 1999, Matthews was convicted of murder and was sentenced to die. Hayes was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life.

Continued defense investigation by William Sothern and Clive Stafford Smith of the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center and DNA testing in another murder case proved to be the keys to proving Matthews' innocence. Another murder occurred shortly after Vanhoose's death in the same area. A local resident, Rondell Love, was arrested and pled guilty. Love bragged to other inmates that he also killed Vanhoose, prompting Matthews' attorneys to begin investigating Love. DNA test results from the second murder were compared to results from the Matthews conviction, indicating that Love had been wearing the mask that was left behind in the Vanhoose murder. Testing on the mask, gloves, and shirt had already excluded Matthews and Hayes, but these results became conclusive after Love's profile was included.

Over a year after this information was discovered, Matthews was granted a new trial. He was released in June 2004, on bond, as he awaited a new trial. In August 2004, prosecutors asked the court to lift the bond and vacate the conviction.

Matthews became the 14th death row inmate in the United States proven innocent by post conviction DNA testing.

Heal 26 innocent men freed from Louisiana prisons

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The DNA Enigma

As the evolution war rages on 200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, it's important to note that the media has confused a fundamental issue, according to Dr. Stephen Meyers, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, and that is, Intelligence Design (ID) theory is not based on theistic belief. Rather, just like evolution, ID is also based on science.

"They’ve confused the evidence of the Intelligence Design (ID) theory with the implications of the ID theory. The theory may well have implications that are supportive of theistic belief, but the theory is not based on theistic belief. It’s based on the discovery of digital code in cells, miniature machines in cells, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics and chemistry and standard ways of scientific reasoning about the remote past and the history of life."
Both theories are based on what we know about the cause and effect structure of the world, on Darwin's own method, and applying that method to evidence that Darwin did not yet know about, which reaffirms the case for design based on the discoveries of modern biology.

Why is this important?

Because the knowledge landscape has changed considerably since Darwin, as the information age has come to biology. This has illuminated the complexities of DNA - "double helix" structure of DNA which carries our genetic code - which has raised questions that scientists and evolutionary theory cannot begin to answer. For example, explaining the origins of the information and the amazing depth of digital technology found in each and every living cell: "nested coding of information, digital processing, distributive retrieval and storage systems, hierarchical filing system, design patterns or design logic executed with engineering elegance, and genomic operating systems." Not to mention the calculation of the probability of a protein assembling itself from its units is infinitesimally small.

And most importantly, pre-biotic natural selection presupposes information, but where did that information come from? Darwin did not address this question.

We know that proteins (peptides, enzymes, hormones, transmitters, etc.) are analog. It is a digital to analog conversion as the digital information on the genome is read as words to provide the instructions to make a particular protein.

On the other hand, DNA is digital, in that the genetic instructions in a biological cell, are coded as a language using the four nucleotide bases or characters (A, T, G and C) as an alphabet. This four-letter alphabet is used to make sentences of three letter words. which are called codons. DNA can form digital strings of information because the four nucleotides can be linked to each other in any order.

What is DNA enigma? Or the origin of the biological information necessary to build the first living cell?

What, who, how is/are the characters sequentially ordered?

Claude Shannon an engineer and mathematician, known as "the father of information theory"defines information in statistical terms as a measure of improbability, the more improbable a sequence is, the more information it conveys. The top string of characters in the image (left) illustrates complexity, and conveys more information, however the bottom string, is an example of what William Dembski called specified complexity, which enables that sequence to carry or convey functional information.

The specificity of shape in the protein derives from specificity of sequence in amino acids which in turn derives from specificity of sequence of information, the instructions, the digital code stored along the spine of the DNA molecule. In other words, the arrangement of characters matter.

Dr. Meyers uses magnetic letters on a magnetic chalk board as an analogy to what's going on in the DNA molecule. The backbone of the DNA molecule corresponds to the magnetic chalkboard, the nucleotide bases or characters correspond to the magnetic letters. The magnetic forces of attraction at work that bond the letters to the chalkboard operate much the same way when nucleotide bases stick to the backbone in a DNA molecule. However, the magnetic forces of attraction do not explain the sequential order or arrangement of the characters in both the DNA molecule and the magnetic chalkboard.

In other words, it's not the chemistry or physics that produces the sequences that conveys the instructions, it something extraneous to the physics and chemistry of the system, and that extraneous something remains a mystery.

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Epigenetic Inheritance How Do Today's Events Impact on Future Generations?


The nurture vs. nature question and how much of who and what we are goes beyond DNA has always fascinated us. Is it possible we can directly influence what we pass on to future generations? How malleable is our identity?

In 2003, the Human Genome Project's (HGP), discovery of the blueprint of the body - man's genetic code entirely mapped out, all 3 billion letters of DNA - is considered by some to be the scientific discovery of the century or the "Holy Grail" of molecular biology. However, this discovery, as amazing as it is, is only the beginning.

"It's sort of like having the words in the dictionary, but you don't really what they mean. You can't put them into a sentence or a phrase or anything." -- Frank DiLorenzo, a stock analyst at S&P Equity Group in New York who covers the biotech industry.
Profit potential has and will determine the rate at which further discoveries are made based on the findings of the human genome project, and also whether those involved will be operating at full or optimum speed. In other words, if is ascertained that dandelions, crabgrass and/or some other worthless substance is the cure for most of what ails human beings, future discoveries will never see the light of day or even more likely the abundant weeds will be transformed into something none of us has ever heard of and so rare that multi-million dollar companies will have to hire experts to find and transform it to something the human body can tolerate. The public must never know the answer to whatever is making their life a living hell is what they spend a fortune to eliminate from their lives.

That said, the mapped out DNA sequence alone will not answer all the questions, no matter how much profit is potentially available. Epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression and regulation that have little to do with DNA sequence, may answer some of the following questions. Why is it that the Irish seem more prone to alcoholism? Why do certain ethnic groups manifest diseases exclusive to them? Tay Sachs? Sickle Cell Anemia? How could the same genetic abnormality lead to two very different diseases? Could it be that experiencing adverse social and environmental conditions have a direct impact upon the health of future generations? If genes are the fundamental basis for human behavior, how do cultural factors influence the selection and hence, survival of particular genes?

Jewish children, born after the Holocaust were found to suffer from an abnormal level of stress relative to the wider population. It was assumed that this was the result of parents passing along their experiences of surviving the Holocaust. Years later it was confirmed that it was not hearing stories of the Holocaust rather the event of the Holocaust itself triggered changes in the parents genes, and passed on to future generations.

Apparently, the events and environment we are exposed to can alter and incorporate what we've experienced into our DNA, meaning the Holocaust, war, the depression etc. regarded as one time occurrences, lives on in the genes of its descendants.
Epigenetic inheritance provides a "rapid mechanism by which [an organism] can respond to the environment without having to change its hardware." Epigenetic patterns are so sensitive to environmental change that, in the case of the agouti mice, they can dramatically and heritably alter a phenotype in a single generation.
The epigenetic or biochemical switches that can turn genes on and off and the events and environmental factors which influence those switches has as much to do with how an organism develops and the inter-generational impact of the genes as the actual DNA sequence itself.

Recently, genes in the brains of suicide victims manifested epigenetic markings scientists believe were indicative of child abuse and were different from the brains of men who had not committed suicide. It would be interesting to see if those same markings showed up in their offspring.
"Our data are merely consistent with the hypothesis that early life events can alter the epigenetic status of genes that mediate neural functions, and thus contribute to individual differences in the risk for suicide," conclude the authors.
Children who were conceived via invitro fertilization were up to four times more likely to develop certain genetic abnormalities and that this was due entirely to the fact that the egg was exposed to environmental change i.e. being removed from the womb and placed in a Petri dish or test tube for fertilization by sperm from the prospective father. Epigenetic inheritance also may be the reason that human cloning is all but impossible.

Nurture and nature may be indistinguishable.

Indeed, Jirtle suspects that epigenetic inheritance may be behind some of the toughest diseases to crack, such as autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

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