Wrongful Convictions

Wrongful Convictions

Wrongful convictions are a huge problem for many people in the united states. The justice system will send people away to jail for their whole lives based on little evidence. Imagine that you were 18 and was framed for a rape by the police and sent away to jail for 15 years or more before you can finally prove that the prosecutor lied in court about the DNA evidence they had. A similar instance happened to four boys in 1986.

In 1986, four African American teenagers in Chicago were framed for a white female medical students rape and murder in their neighborhood, and it became huge on the news. Because of the media the police felt they needed to catch somebody soon so that they didn't receive a bunch of shit and look bad. So the police took in those boys and interrogated them and held them in there until one of them signed a confession paper because they said if he did they would make it easier on themselves. They all had to go to court and the prosecutor straight up lied about evidence they had on the boys and so they were all convicted and tried as adults and sent to jail. They were held in prison until they were in their 30's and a women spent $50,000 of her own money and countless hours of time to get the case back up and prove that the semen sample from the murder did not match any of the boys, and the actual committees of the crime confessed. Finally they were set free but half their lives were still taken away by the justice system.

This story is really sad because it is actually very common. Many people's lives have been ruined by wrongful convictions. It really actually makes me angry because the justice system is extremely flawed, there are many corrupt police/prosecutors out there, and how racist our society is, that minorities are targeted for crimes like this. Another thing that we didn't learn but that I know is true is that many prisons are privately owned and the owners get money from the government by having prisoners, so they profit off of people going to prison and being held there for longer than they should. So yeah this story and many others like it are really disturbing and just make me lose respect for our justice system.

Falling in Love, With a Fish

 Dan Barber Investigated the following. He tasted a fish he thought was quite delicious. After going to the fish farm that supplied the fish, he investigated, where they fed the fish with chicken, after that "the fish tasted like chicken to me." He then came across and even more delicious fish, which he traced to Spain, where the Veta la Palma had a giant fish farm. The way they raised the fish is basically that they didn’t raise the fish. they let nature take its course. In the 1950s it was a rice field, when the new owners took over, they flooded the area with the local river water. This later on, the river was full of toxins from upstream. This fish farm is amazing in 3 great ways, not only does it produce delicious fish, it also has water so biologically diverse, it reversed the effects of the waste in the river. What also is amazing is, that this fish farm measure it’s success by the color of the predators in its environment. Flamingos fly 10 miles to the sanctuary every day, just to take advantage of the fish. The healthier the fish, the brighter the pink is on the flamingo’s belly.

 I personally think that this is pretty cool, that in a fish farm they end up letting the fish live the way they would elsewere, instead of being cooped up in a small hatchery.

Inheritance of Acquired Chararistics

Inheritance of Acquired Chararistics:
Today  read an article in scientific american, it is talking about how some diseases that are inherited from your parents are not activated. The general idea is that if you have to the dominant trait for it to be passed on, now Andrew Chess is further exploring this, he has made a theory that some cells do not carry the disease, and others do. If the disease comes from your father, then only father cells carry that disease, not your mother. I found this article very interesting, and look forward to read more on this subject.

Fat People In America:
I watched a movie on diabetes and obesity in biology. From 1930-2007 the dairy consumption in america doubled, I learned that animal meats caused obesity, and the meat consumption of the average american increased by 20 lbs. The consumption of processed sugar also increased from 14 lbs to 140 lbs. Scientists found that when you eat meat, you feel like your stomach is half full, but when you eat the same amount vegetables, it feels like your stomach is completely full.The amount of people that died in america from cancer one year was 4000, while in japan, there were 18 cancer deaths. So when fast food came out people ate burgers, and other animal meats, but after the meal, they were still hungry, which caused them to overeat, making them fat. What i take away from this article is to ration your meat consumption, and try to eat more vegetables.

Lucy The Chimp

       In 1964 an ape was born that changed the way we looked at chimpanzees forever. This young chimpanzee was brought into a human home to see if it could adapt to being a human. This chimp was named Lucy. The chimp immediately began acting like a human. Lucy would make herself tea, give herself sexual pleasure, showed signs of love towards her human parents, and wore human clothing. This chimp grew up in the humans home for more than 10 years, but eventually the chimpanzee was showing signs of aggression and was wrecking the families house. The families decided to get a cage to restrain the chimp but the sight of Lucy in a cage just ruined her, it was time for the family to let her free in the wild.

      The family decided to let Lucy live in Gambia in a safe nature enclosure with other apes. This didn't turn out well, Lucy was being disclosed and was being beat up and was injured. The family had left and didn't know what else to do but an old care taker of Lucy wanted to help and took Lucy to a small island on the Gambia River. There she tried to help Lucy turn from a human back into a chimp. Her attempts were useless. Finally the women took jurassic measures and got a cage to live in for almost 3 years before Lucy finally gave up and began to live her live among the other apes on the island. Lucy wouldn't eat and was malnourished but suddenly one day she started to eat natural food and started living among the other apes. The women left the island and returned 1 year later to meet Lucy again, Lucy recognized her and gave her a huge hug. The next year the women returned to meet Lucy when she found skeletal remains with similar body features to Lucy the hide was gone and the hands were gone which was a sign of poachers. This was a sad ending to the story but also a huge scientific find showing that chimps can be very similar to humans in many ways.