CHOICES

"Scientists have shown off an effect not unlike that of the "phasers" in the show Star Trek - but it only works on tiny worms called nematodes.

They used a special molecule that, when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, changes its shape. When the worms were fed this molecule and then exposed to UV light, they exhibited paralysis. But when the worms were again exposed to visible light, they regained their ability to move. "

The work is published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. To read the entire BBC article, click here.

It brings up the subject of research (not related to the above article) and how permission is granted. Like the imperative for witches, first 'No harm shall be done'. That, of course, is not easily determined. When a researcher has not followed protocol and all the rules, the research is suspended, or worse, terminated. However, despite the researcher's poor following of rules, if no harm came to any of the subjects, should the researcher be 'punished' by not allowing final data to be worked on even if it means publishing and reputation building for the researcher. This assumes that the actual research itself followed its protocol and problems were within the researcher only. The desire to punish bad behavior and stop all the researcher's work is very strong but we must keep in mind that the purpose of research is to make useful, scientific findings. If a researcher personally benefits as well, that is a nice peripheral gain for the researcher.

The choices in life are many. Taking and making choices has more or less risk as determined by the odds. For example, lotteries carry greater odds and generally yield more financial gain. Most choices don't involve instant gains, as with lotteries. Those unable to do research and follow trends are apt to miss out on when to make that choice. As refrigerators became popular, the ice man who quickly changed careers might have made a good choice.

Unfortunately, it is in human nature for many to wait until there is no alternative, forced to make a choice. Equally unfortunate is that, by that time, the choices are far more limited because those better at seeing the future trends had already made choices. If you have trouble making up your mind, lots of choices shut down and are no longer available to you. If you choose too quickly, without weighing all the pros and cons, you are equally in trouble. It boils down to life is not easy...choose carefully and well every time a choice is open to you and maximize your finances, professional and emotional life, or anything else that can have meaning for you!

We have choices about whether to take care of our bodies and perhaps live longer; choices about who we have as friends, choices about careers to pursue, and constant choices far too numerous to try to mention.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPLAINING

Today I listened to radio on which a father, who was a professor of something or other, was saying how he always explained any decision he handed down to his young children. It surprised me because I raised my own children with that philosophy...they may not agree but they would hear why I made my decision. Often it was, "You haven't shown me you can handle that responsibility." I tried to then let them know what behaviors and actions would be necessary to show me they were ready. It seemed to have worked because my children grew up to be responsible adults.

Have you ever noticed in most of the romance novels, most of the problems occur because someone doesn't explain why they did or said whatever and horrendous misunderstandings ensued. Of course, there is also a situation in which some people explain inaccurately, manipulate the explanation to suit their own needs (like the Republicans seem to be doing a great deal these days.) I wonder what these people do with their children. My fear is that discipline must be like it is in old Greek families who believed that children should be seen and not heard until they were 18, at which point they should automatically turn into wise and knowledgeable adults...even though it never works that way.

Another reason some parents don't explain things to their children is that they do not know that the reason they are saying , "No, you can't borrow the car tonight (even though you have your license and have no behavior to be ashamed or uncomfortably about in the past) because my worrying would be too uncomfortable for me to bear until you come home.

The GW Bush Administration treated us like small children because we were rarely shown reality or given explanations about what the government was doing. The few times an attempt was made to inform the public about what was going on it sounded like an aged nun trying to explain the sexual facts of life to an adolescent girl with raging hormones.

Remember, if you have difficulty explaining what you meant by what you just said, you probably shouldn't have said it. Explaining your decisions is a wonderful exercise in separating your subjective views form you objectivity. An example of that sort of failure is the son who moved his aged mother out of her beloved apartment and neighborhood in New York City to his posh house in a wealthy Connecticut community where he felt she was ungrateful because she complained she was lonely and had no friends. He, on the other hand, never listened to what she was lonely about and grieving having had to give up, and thought she should have been grateful for his care. Not once had he heard her needs or asked her what she wanted. She was the last example, that of someone who tried to explain but to someone who wasn't going to hear her explanation...those are the worst kind!

Every once in a while someone writes a really interesting column. Joshua Holland hits more winners than many I have read.

Priceless: Gay Rights Activists Take Over Christian Right Hate-Fest in DC
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 12:00 PM on November 17, 2009. "A techie hired by a group of radical clerics who went to the capitol to denounce homosexuals decided not to risk the bad karma.

I guess Dana Milbank just worships power and delights in picking on the marginalized. So while I've grown to detest him for years of snarky columns cherry-picking little vignettes to make progressives -- environmentalists, anti-war activists, human rights experts -- look like hopeless geeks who should be ignored when the GOP was in power, now that the Democrats are riding high he seems to be focusing that admittedly sharp pen on tea-baggers and the religious right -- the GOP's immoderate base.

Today he tells an interesting story that could have been titled: Reverend Smith Goes to Washington ...

Conservative Christian ministers from across the land, determined to test the bounds of a new law punishing anti-gay hate crimes, assembled outside the Justice Department on Monday to denounce the sin of homosexuality and see whether they would be charged with lawbreaking.

Needless to say, no arrests were made.

No hands were cuffed. In fact, the few cops in attendance were paying no attention to the speakers, instead talking among themselves and checking their BlackBerrys.

The evangelical activists had been hoping to provoke arrest, because, as organizer Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission put it, "we'd have standing to challenge the law." But their prayers were not answered. Nobody was arrested, which wasn't surprising: To run afoul of the new law, you need to "plan or prepare for an act of physical violence" or "incite an imminent act of physical violence."

But there was some drama ...

Instead of getting arrested, the ministers got something else: A couple of dozen gay activists, surrounding them with rainbow flags and signs announcing "Gaga for Gay Rights" and "I Am a Love Warrior." By the end, the gay rights activists had taken over the lectern and the sound system and were holding their own news conference denouncing the ministers.

That's rich, but it gets better ...

Cass turned angrily to the AV guy. "We're not on the clock, are we?" He turned with equal anger to Valk. "You guys gonna help us pay for the microphones?"

The gay activist smiled. "God," he said, "works in mysterious ways."

In this case, God took the form of Chuck Fazio, from DC Podiums. Fazio was hired by the religious conservatives to provide the sound system for the event, but upon learning of their cause, he decided to donate his proceeds to the gay rights activists and to give them a chance at the microphone before shutting down the amplifiers. "I don't want bad karma," he explained, noting with some pride that the lectern they were using was the same one used by Borat on a recent Washington visit.

Sometimes, I really do love America."

So do I when people who claim to be fair, act fair; those who claim to be moral, act moral; those who claim to be honest, really are.

MORE ON THE PROCESS OF AGING

It should come as no surprise that we who are old spend a lot of time thinking about what is different about youth and age. Less is written by really old people, it would seem, perhaps because they really don't think there is an audience for what they have to say. Young people can't really write about it because they have not experienced it nor are accurate when they apply their youthful fantasies to what it might mean.

When you are young, you search out people because it is only through feedback from others that you really find out who you are and define yourself. When you are old, you know yourself and care less about what other people think. This is why old people can stand themselves and like to be alone more...not to suffer fools, boredom, and being misunderstood. Thoughts can be enjoyed. The past is to be remembered, hopefully with most memories enjoyed. To the young, the past has barely begun to happen. Theirs waits for the future. If the past is remembered happily, it makes life having been worth living. Those who dwell on the painful past are doomed to an unhappy old age. Those who cannot stop trying to change what has already happened suffer forever. Those who cannot turn back the clock and accept that old age will happen, prepare yourself as best you can for it. Those who don't will also suffer.

DO NOT SUFFER FOOLS

People fight the aging process too much, in general. When people age, they slow down physically but for most of us, it only matches the slowing down of other aspects of our physical and psychological lives. I may be perceived as giving up on life when I prefer my own company to that of many of the people I meet. If that is arrogance, I plead guilty. Since I am more senior than many of my senior friends, I no longer want to waste my life on fools, ignorant people, and wasters of other people's time. It is not difficult to recognize a fool...they rarely make logical sense and can be highly opinionated in ways that are blatantly without logic, facts or sense. Ignorant people are easily spotted as they are often expounding on the worthlessness of books they haven't read, cling to the words as if they are truth from people who have been shown quite convincingly that they have been lying. Narcissists and others who are self-involved and want to talk but never listen , never change an opinion, and never admit an error...though it is quite likely it has been proven to them to be one.

It is bad enough that some of our friends are becoming intellectually challenged and we miss what the aging process has taken away from them. However, some people were boring when they were young and old age does not make them scintillating companions.

Painfully, some people can not be driven away by tactful distancing. Unless you make it really clear to them that you do not find enough worthwhile in their company to spend time with them, you will be doomed to have to put up with their presence intruding into what little time you think you have left of your life. Friends may require you to watch TV that makes your teeth grind with the words like so many fingernails on a blackboard. Since I am careful about the people with whom I must share room space, I do not have many people around me whom I don't enjoy. However, the TV media has a way of putting these people on (attempting to give the viewers a balanced perspective I assume) media news and political shows.

For that reason, you have to develop coping skills for being with people with whom you have significant differences in the areas considered socially taboo,such as politics, religion, how to raise children and spoil grandchildren, you are doomed to suffer their chatter. During these times, I have developed the art of living in my own head while appearing to be interested in them...courtesy of having the ability to have two tracks running simultaneously in my head, or verbally sparring with them.

The trick to successfully engaging in a discussion with them on those taboo subjects which make this game more tempting is that it has to be done with some specific techniques, one of which is to appear to agree with them while, in fact, tearing down all their belief foundations. When people finally catch on to what has happened when they hear themselves defending the opposite position from which they started, it is confusing to them, embarrassing, and does not gain you friendships for having been right to their wrong. While I like to think that I believe in living and letting others live as they choose, I don't always find myself able to follow that in face of flagrant idiocy. I don't slip often but suffering fools is not among my accomplishments. Since I select my friends carefully, I'm quite able to handle myself in most settings, only to lose it when I am somewhere in which I choose not to be rude because I care enough about other people's feelings to tell myself I MUST suffer through.

JUST HOW MUCH ARE WE BEING ASKED TO FORGET?

The tragedy of modern war is not so much that young men die but that they die fighting each other, instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

We can even amend that quote because in today's wars, it is not only young men fighting young men. Today, young and older women and men, many of whom are parents, don't die fighting each other but die when women and children are strapped with bomb vests, and nothing is clear as to who is fighting for what. The war in Iraq was started by a group of men, none of whom had ever served in a military, and none of whom were trained in military strategy. They were bullies in political circles who played their war games as though they were playing hand held electronic, computer games with graphics they read out on the media occasionally. The media played along with their denial and showed no returning dead in flag draped caskets, few weeping family members and friends grieving. They even manufactured lies as they did about the patriotic football player killed by 'friendly' fire.

There has been much said about the abuse of power in these men but none have ever had to face the nation with their truth. Not only have they not had to own up to their deceits, publicly, Cheney is still allowed to be on the television news as though he remains credible. We, the insignificant little people of America are left wondering about our governmental system and its ability to protect us in any way...not from the horrors beyond our borders but from those ruthless and conscienceless in major public offices.

As the years go on, it is not in my nature to look for revenge, but it is a hope of mine that American children will not have to read in their history books one day that this generation left so much for them to clean up but with no lessons or skills with which to do it.

Dare I hope that the insults to us all allowed to be carried out during the last Administration, will just be allowed to fade away from the tears and perspiration the rest of us shed to try to make the effect of their evils right again?

WHAT A LITTLE TWEAKING CAN DO

Simple actions, when you are playing in the gene pool, can cause rather significant changes. Recently, "Dr Ellis said it was exciting to discover that, by lowering the activity of just two genetic pathways he and his team were able to "take what should have been a female animal and turn it into a cell fertile hermaphrodite".Hermaphrodites, because it was a "striking change" that occurred relatively recently." Click here for the entire story.

When our female scientists can tweak the human genes thusly, we will be able to get rid of all men except those with admirable assets but who might be relieved of all reproductive outcomes. Just imagine a world with less testosterone, hairy bodies, and fighting instincts; a world where war is a thing of the past, and women are in charge of their own reproductive rights. Ah, science fiction used to seem so remote with some of their ideas, but in the past fifty years, what used to be just fiction has often come to pass. Aren't women smarter than nematode worms are? With determination we can make life much easier for all people in the world.