Quake 2

An earthquake of magnitude 8.2 has been recorded in the same place as the quake that spawned December's devastating tsunami.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has recommended residents within 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of the epicenter to evacuate coastal regions. The quake was centered on the same fault line where a December 26 earthquake launched a tsunami that killed at least 175,000 people.

At least this time people will have some warning (one hopes; there are still problems with infrastructure in the affected nations), so the loss of life if there is indeed another tsunami should be less, but the people are still in the early stages of rebuilding so much of what was destroyed that another disaster would be crippling.

If you haven't donated lately to the tsunami relief charities listed on the sidebar (or the charity of your choice), now would be a great time.

It's presumably a coincidence that the previous quake and tsunami occurred the day after Christmas, and this quake took place the day after Easter. But if you don't believe that, maybe you want to take a look at a previous post herein, and pony up (again).

"Screw with me, kid, and I'll nail ya to that chocolate cross!"

Apparently, some Catholic leaders are upset that the Russell Stover candy company is making chocolate crosses for Easter.

Now where have these people been? Don't know about you, but chocolate crosses were a staple of my childhood Easters. My grandmother thought chocolate bunnies were anti-religious--Easter isn't about a bunny--so we got chocolate crosses instead. (Never mind that bunnies were more desirable because you can nibble the ears.) We're talking (mumble, mumble) years ago, so this is no novelty.

Here's the apparent objection:

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, finds the new product insulting. He says, "The cross should be venerated, not eaten."

Unlike the transubstantiated Body of Christ consumed at mass, I guess.




(The quote in the title is from the Evil Easter Bunny. Trust me, you don't want to know.)

The Bite Heard 'Round the World

Somebody in California found a finger in a serving of Wendy's chili. Okay, let's say it all together: EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Now let's say it in French: EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUX!!!! Because this story is important enough to have found its way into the French news, too.

Love the AP's title for the e-file: Finger-food. The French aren't nearly as imaginative. Both stories report that the finger was well cooked.

Yup, this is America's important contribution to the rest of the world: body parts in fast food. Well, they already think we're warmongers and baby-killers, so I guess this isn't so surprising.

But I still won't eat tripe.

Update: The woman who allegedly found the finger has been arrested and charged with attempted larceny for perpetrating this hoax. Enjoy your chili. Or chicken fingers.

Evolution: Just a Theory

And like most theories, evolution evolves, growing and changing as new discoveries demand. We may be about to experience a little punctuated equilibrium in the theory, not to mention a revision of the genetics textbooks (sorry, Gregor Mendel, but hey, you've had a great run, and given what you had to work with, you did a damn fine job), if the findings reported in this article from Nature appear to hold for other species.

The summary version: the authors have found a plant that can undo mutation in the next generation, i.e., even though both parents carried the mutated DNA, the new plant seems to have reverted to the unmutated gene. The way we were all taught genetics, this shouldn't be possible.

[Weak in your recollection of genetics? Okay, the DNA works like a row of pegs of four different shapes, arranged in a long row. (Actually, a double helix, but don't worry about that right now.) The RNA comes along and matches up holes with pegs to form sort of a mold from which is made a new exact copy of the DNA. Any errors--mutations--in the DNA get copied to the RNA and thereby into the offspring DNA. A child only gets DNA from its parents, So if both parents have mutated DNA, there's no "correct" original to make the child's DNA, so the mutation will have to be passed on to their offspring. Want to know more? Go here.]

The authors guess that, since there's nothing resembling a good copy of the part of the DNA in question in these plants, the plant has to have a backup somewhere else, possible in some other RNA, stored for emergency use. They speculate (all this remains to be tested) that the emergency backup is triggered by some sort of environmental stress. (Smart programming, huh?)

But this will be very important if it turns out to happen in species other than this particular plant. Like, oh, say, perhaps humans. The practical applications are obvious:

A similar process might even go on in humans. This is suggested by rare cases of children who inherit disease-causing mutations but show only mild symptoms, perhaps because some of their cells have reverted to a normal and healthier genetic code.

If humans do correct their genes in this way, Pruitt [the lead author] suggests that the procedure might be usefully hijacked by researchers or doctors. They might be able to identify the RNA molecules that carry out the repair and use them to correct harmful mutations in patients.

Of course all this is still itself just a relatively limited amount of information. The authors could be wrong. Or this plant could behave differently than anything else on earth. But if it is in fact the first indication of a new theory of how mutations operate, it will call for a revision in our thinking with regard to evolution: if there are indeed backup copies of unmutated DNA, how do the mutations that account for evolution survive over time? How does the trigger function so not to revert to unmutated backup? What triggers (or doesn't trigger) the trigger?

It will be years of research before these questions are answered. But once they are, when you think back to what we used to believe about how evolution and genetics functioned, remember where you were when you read this, and tell those young'uns that you remember the day the paradigm started to shift.

Double Check

Nobody really knows for sure what happened at the checkpoint in Iraq at which Italian agent Nicola Calipari was killed while attempting to escort freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena. Even the people who were there can only tell us what they thought they saw and heard. But in this article, written before the shooting in question, a reporter who has spent some time in Iraq gives some context--and it becomes painfully clear how something like this can happen:

You're driving along and you see a couple of soldiers standing by the side of the road - but that's a pretty ubiquitous sight in Baghdad, so you don't think anything of it. Next thing you know, soldiers are screaming at you, pointing their rifles and swiveling tank guns in your direction, and you didn't even know it was a checkpoint.


If it's confusing for me - and I'm an American - what is it like for Iraqis who don't speak English?


In situations like this, I've often had Iraqi drivers who step on the gas. It's a natural reaction: Angry soldiers are screaming at you in a language you don't understand, and you think they're saying "get out of here," and you're terrified to boot, so you try to drive your way out.

There's some history, too. Thanks to Saddam, Iraqis don't respond to the military as Americans do; the author's driver balked at waiting outside a government building.

"If you even looked at this building before, you'd get arrested," he said, his voice full of disbelief. Before, he would speed past this building, gripping the wheel, staring straight ahead, careful not to even turn his head. After 35 years of this, Iraqis still speed up when they're driving past government buildings - which, since the Americans took over a lot of them, tend be to exactly where the checkpoints are.

Before you judge, read the entire article, and put yourself in the shoes of the driver of Sgrena's car, and of the young American soldiers. What happened was a tragedy, in the purest sense.