tisiwoota

Remember the infamous Cochran line, “If it Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit”? Well, here’s a cartoon that offers up a few of its little known– but highly profound– cousins.

[eg, “The outcome is surer if you sleep with a juror“;
and “If he’s strapped to a gurney, fire him as your attorney“]

Moon, Flowers, Man

I raise my cup and invite
The moon to come down from the
Sky. I hope she will accept
Me. I raise my cup and ask
The branches, heavy with flowers,
To drink with me. I wish them
Long life and promise never
To pick them. In company
With the moon and the flowers,
I get drunk, and none of us
Ever worries about good
Or bad. How many people
Can comprehend our joy? I
Have wine and moon and flowers.
Who else do I want for drinking companions.


Translated by Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred poem from the Chinese;
via Integral Options Cafe

Usually when there’s talk of IP limiting access to biological resources, it’s in reference to patenting traditional medicines, or something along those lines. But a letter to the editor in Nature (via SciDev.net) highlights another connection between the subjects: that copyrighted publications put taxonomic information beyond the reach of those who live in the countries where the species are found. (As the letter-writer points out, developing countries are “home to more than 95% of species whose descriptions have been published”).

“A simple solution would be to treat species descriptions as we do gene sequences, and have them openly accessible. Open-access descriptions of new species could then be a mandatory factor in making them valid under the various codes of biological nomenclature.”

Only a temporary delay (until 2007), but essential: had Sudan taken over leadership of the African Union, it would have blocked any efforts by the AU to police Darfur, and would have kept any UN peace-keeping off the AU agenda.

This move will help the credibility of the AU, and hopefully help the situation in Darfur.

1. Last week’s criminal law reading/class made mention of the research finding that the greater an area’s income-gap, the higher the crime rate. I wonder: is a similar effect seen within companies where the CEO’s salary is hugely disproportionate to that of the entry-level workers?

It should be noted that the association found in the study only applied to violent crime– burglary rates were not much affected, it seems. So perhaps in a corporate context there would only be an association for sexual harrassment or particularly heinous crimes, but not so much for petty embezzlement. Then again, there are probably different factors driving corporate vs street crime, so perhaps monetary crimes would be the more strongly associated category. Who knows. It would be interesting to find out if there were a parallel association with disparity.

…

2. Since “taking notes” on the reading assignments for most classes seems to consist mostly of re-typing large chunks of the texts verbatim, I have been fantacizing about the advent of e-books. How sweet would it be to simply be able to highlight a section of text and import it directly into a word document? And to type/stylus-in a few quick margin notes? Moreover, applying a little social-web magic, one could easily arrange for the computer to display other users’ most common margin notes, or the best one to five word paraphrase of a given paragraph. Haven’t developed the fantasy further than that yet (and certainly and have no skills for bringing it about), but oh man. How much easier it would make my life right now…

“Tea”

Milk tumbles up like a destiny –
A blossoming chaos of white.
That thunderhead in the brown water,
Dissolved in a moment, is mine.

The genography contingent of my readership may be interested in this NY Times article about a genetic survey that lends credence to the existence of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king previously regarded by some historians “as more legend than real”.

In case you’ve somehow missed it, you should check out this joke that’s really been making it’s way around the blogosophere…

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Via Bioethics.net, language from the consent form signed by Scientologists…

>>
The form . . . states that the signer opposes psychiatric treatment for anyone, particularly him or herself. Should some mental illness befall them, they authorize the Church of Scientology to “extricate” them from the clutches of psychiatrists who might seek to treat them. In lieu of psychiatric care, the contract says they agree to be placed on the “Introspection Rundown,” a Scientology therapy invented by the Church’s late founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

The release form reads: “I understand that the Introspection Rundown… includes being isolated from all sources of potential spiritual upset, including, but not limited to family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact. As part of the Introspection Rundown, I specifically consent to Church members being with me 24 hours a day at the direction of my Case Supervisor.” In addition, “…the Case Supervisor will determine the time period in which I will remain isolated…” And later in the same paragraph: “…such duration will be completely at the discretion of the Case Supervisor.” The form ends with: “I further understand that by signing below, I am forever giving up my right to sue the Church… for any injury or damage suffered in any way connected with Scientology religious services or spiritual assistance.”

A friend of mine who has done a lot of research on migrant farm laborers has passed along notice of anti-immigrant legislation that was passed by the House of Representatives and will now come before the Senate sometime this winter:

“[The bill] would make somewhere from 10 to 20 million workers in the United States aggravated felons for their simple presence. It is now nearly impossible to buy any food item that did not in some way depend on labor from an undocumented (”illegal”) worker, and in most cities, even as far North as Portland, Maine, many, if not most buildings are now built by undocumented construction workers. Agriculture/Horticulture/Silviculture/Fishing/Meat and construction are only the two industries with which I’ve had the most contact that depend heavily on undocumented labor, but the same is true of many health care workers, janitors, gardeners, and workers in all kinds of factories. The bill is also significant because, depending on the breadth of their interpretation, it also criminalizes any kind of contact with undocumented workers. For example, for the summers I interpreted for farm workers to help them receive medical treatment, I would now be punished by up to 5 years in prison if the bill were passed by the Senate. Bush has already said he would sign it.”

A group called United Farm Workers has issued an action alert as follows: (more…)