Friday, April 18, 2014

TED talk: Dinosaurs Built Out of Chickens

Dinosaurs may be a kind of fantasy that we have had since we were kids. But do dinosaurs still exist? Through research done by Jack horner has proved that dinosaurs are still with us through DNA found in the bones of fossils and matched with chickens.

Quoted from Jack horner  He states “The chicken is a dinosaur. I mean, it really is. You can't argue with it, because we're the classifiers and we've classified it that way.”  As lame as it sounds to have a Tyrannosaurus become modified to become a chicken it is actually quite common. This Is called Genetic Modification. This is the same kind of transformation that occurs when a Wolf becomes a Chihuahua. But in this ted talk they want to reverse the process genetic modification And as a final product they may be able to transform chickens into dinosaurs one step at a time.

I love what Jack is trying to do, I love the thought of seeing a dinosaur, since I was a little kid I have wanted to live around dinosaurs but, What Jack is doing is not making dinosaurs this is taking a chicken and giving it dinosaur characteristics. Even if you could bring back a dinosaur and not have to change much of its biological buildup it doesn't change the fact that dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years and bringing them back is playing with genetic in an unnatural way. But what Jack here is trying to do is make this "Chickenosaurus" which yes it has the appearance of a dinosaur but it is still so far from a dinosaur. I am also very excited to say that when i'm eating chicken meat I can say its dinosaur meat.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Exoneration

Imagine that you could be in jail right now, for something you didn't do. People every year are put in jail based on wrong Eye-Witness assumptions and false evidence for crimes that they did not commit.

The story that we listened to in class was a story about 4 teenagers who were wrongly convicted for raping and murdering a woman. Then furthermore, against their will, were forced to sign confession papers admitting to being guilty when they weren't and were put in jail because of it. Then several years later and the advancement of technology DNA evidence suggested that the crime was committed by an completely different person.

My personal reaction to this would be that I think Project Innocence is definitely a step to a stronger justice system, but the thing that we need to fix would be the wrong witness assumptions in the justice system that keeps on allowing people to be wrongly imprisoned and convicted of things that they did not do.