Exoneration

Most people assume that rapists, murderers, and every criminal in between are brought to justice and serve their time in prison for their wrongdoings. But, what if the people convicted aren't the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes. Hundreds of people have been wrongfully accused of a crime and then incarnated for many years while seeking to overcome their convictions. These innocent people are relying on exoneration to set them free. Exoneration is when a person is convicted of a crime and later proved innocent typically by DNA or other scientific evidence, even if it is many years after the crime.

Unfortunately, there is a rich history of exoneration in this country and hundreds of cases of people proved innocent of horrid crimes. These people not only had to suffer many years in jail, but they also were marked as criminals and had their lives upended during the process. Often times, the wrong person was identified at the beginning of an investigation.  Police line ups were notorious for pointing fingers at the wrong people.  There is always a chance that the victim will choose someone to be blamed even if the suspect is not in the lineup.  Police can also affect the victim’s decision making by how they praise or scold the victim trying to identify the culprit. Once a suspect has been identified, the investigation process is slanted towards finding a guilty party. 

Today, organizations are doing what they can to exonerate innocent people using DNA evidence and other scientific proof. Typically in cases that occurred before DNA testing was possible, blood, semen, and other evidence that has often been stored away for decades has been used to help free innocent people. However, with the advent of DNA testing the ability to determine a person’s innocence or guilt has been improved dramatically.

After I learned about the number of people who were falsely imprisoned and later exonerated, I felt that perhaps America's justice system is more unjust than just. I never realized how people could be convicted with such shoddy evidence or hardly any evidence at all.  Before this I had never considered that DNA testing had only been around for a few decades and that so many people may have been jailed without cause because there weren’t strong tests to establish identity. Now I am extraordinarily happy that the justice system can at least go back and correct some of its mistakes and hopefully not make theses types of mistakes going forward. Also, having better police procedures in place and a better understanding of the impact of police involvement in identifying suspects is important to ensuring that innocent people are not caught up with false accusation.   Fortunately, we have recognized that not having police say anything during a line up and letting the victim clearly know the suspect may not be in this line up will prevent people in the future from being wrongfully convicted.

Anti-angiogenic Prevention for Cancer

         In this Ted Talk, William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer. He also purposes the question can we eat to starve cancer?  The answer to this is yes we can by eating anti-angiogenic foods. This can be an alternative to other agonizing cancer treatments. Also by eating anti-angiogenic foods you can beat cancer at its own game. 

          Throughout this Ted Talk Dr. William Li presents a new way of treating cancer and beating cancer at its own game. By eating anti-angiogenic  foods you can prevent the growth of blood vessels that feed the cancerous tumor. Also by eating  anti-angiogenic foods you can prevent cancer from even happening. Doing a more natural treatment like this would be a lot less painful, expensive, with a lot less horrible side effects from treatments like radiation and chemo therapy. 

           If I were suffering from a cancer I would first try doing a more natural treatment like eating  anti-angiogenic foods, rather than submitting to painstaking weekly routines. I strongly believe that instead of harming all the body's cells with chemicals and radiation that undertaking a more natural treatment could be more beneficial.  Since it is less harmful to the body, it could possibly increase life expectancy. 

          

Lucy Blog

          What would you do if you had the chance to raise a baby chimpanzee into human society, and to socialize it to be as human like as possible? But then one day you just couldn't possibly take care of the chimpanzee you once thought of as your daughter anymore. It would feel like losing a child I imagine, I bet that how Lucy's parents felt.

           In the early sixties a man named Temerlin and his wife raised a baby chimpanzee to grow up as a human child, this chimpanzee was named Lucy. They adopted Lucy only a few days after her birth.She slept in a crib and was fed from a bottle for the first while with her new parents just like any other new born baby. Lucy learned sign language (140 signs), Learned how to dress herself, had the privilege to eat at the table, learned how to sit in chairs, and generally was raised like any other human child. Amazingly Lucy also learned how lie.  Lucy was famous for being attracted to male men as oppose to male chimpanzees, she even masterburated to play girl magazine.  Around that same time , the Temerlins introduced her for the first time to a male chimpanzee she had ever met.She was frightened and did not relate to him, and most certainly did not find him attractive. Temerlins thought of Lucy as their daughter, and treated her like one to. Lucy would greet friends with hugs and tea. She would boil the tea herself , find two cups, and then serve it to her guest. By the time Lucy was twelve she was just far to strong and destructive to be living with humans. Eventually she was shipped to a chimpanzee rehabilitation center in Gambia.Thats were Lucy met Janis Carter. For multiple years Lucy was unable to adapt to regular chimpanzee life, she seemed depressed and distressed. Lucy was unable to eat and expressed her sadness by using the sign for hurt. Janis stayed with Lucy for many years on a special island she discovered which she devoted for chimpanzees. Throughout the years she lived there with Lucy, Janis lived in a cage and other extreme ways to try and help Lucy get socialized to be a chimp again. A few years later Janis left the island , when she returned about a year after with some of Lucy's belongings Lucy gave Janis a long hug ,and embraced he, she then ran off with the other chimpanzees. Lucy had finally adapted to life as a chimpanzee. About a year later Janis returned again to only find Lucy skeleton, her hands were cut off, her head was separated from the rest of her body, and she was skinned. They believe Lucy was poached , because she approached the poachers because she was very comfortable around humans. 

        Lucy taught us quit a bit about chimpanzees. She taught us how human like they can be , and how its all just a matter of socialization. She taught us that being human isn't so different from being an animal, and how much our socialization separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. My perspective on chimps changed a lot after hearing this story. I always thought they were just aggressive, unintelligent animals, but now I realize that there almost as smart as us, and what separates us from chimps is quite a thin line. I think the Temerlin's experiment was very worth while , even though it was heart breaking for the Temerlins, Janis, and Lucy the experiment helped us learn so much about chimpanzees and socialization. Lucy's end was extremely sad, but she lived a very full life. She got to experience being a human girl and a chimpanzee.

Thinking Like a Mountain

"Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf." To kill a wolf you have to think a mountain. The mountain nor the man agreed with the killing of wolves, it sense the light dying in their eyes. The story I just read was beautiful descriptive story that embodies one mans realization of the effect of killing wolves.

Thinking Like a Mountain  is somewhat of a poem, but mostly a story. It tells the story of a man who is hunting for wolves so there will be more deer on the mountain and a hunters paradise. One  day he shoots a female wolf and her cub he saw the green light dye in her eyes. Since that day he saw more and more wolves going extinct. He realized that without wolves there are to many deer and the mountain looks bear from the so many deer snaking on it " Such a mountain a mountain looks as if someone had given god a new pruning shear." Later in the story he made a very good point "I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does the mountain live in mortal fear of dear." The story ends with the man realizing that everyone and everything strives for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness.

I personally thought that the story made some very good points. It was quit beautiful , meaningful, and was just the right length for me to enjoy.  I didn't see how it connected with what were learning at the moment, but I'm sure it will click with me soon. All in all it was a fun assignment.

TED Talk

It never occurred to me how people with such severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia could lead normal lives. It surprised me when I found out that Elyn Saks, who suffers from a severe case of schizophrenia, was married and a professor at a university. Her struggle with schizophrenia truly amazes me.

A schizophrenic scholar by name of Elyn Saks was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia in her early college years, while she was studying at Yale. She spent a lot of time in mental hospitals, being mistreated by the employees there. They would tie her up to beds and neglect her for days on end. They told her that she had "grave" schizophrenia. "Grave" meaning that she would never have a normal life. She decided to share her experience because she feels that people with severe mental illnesses should be treated as human beings.

I took away that people with severe mental illness should be given proper medical care. I never realized that there were treatments that could let people with severe illnesses like schizophrenia live normal lives. I also never realized until Elyn Sak's intense descriptions how awful schizophrenia truly is. Hopefully we can find a cure for all people suffering from mental illness.