What the Nose Knows…

The nose knows how to sniff out criminals according to recent research. Each person has a unique body odor similar to the uniqueness of fingerprints. So when used in witness situations (lineups) smelling criminals odors helped people identify the bad guys 75% of the time, significantly better than the 45-60% for correctly (visually) identifying via lineup. The sense of smell has been proven to be a strong trigger for memories, more so than any other sense so it makes sense that associating odors with negative emotions could enhance the ability to identify the odor again. Dogs have long been accepted as nosewitnesses but this is a fairly new forensic possibility for human witnesses or victims, especially when crimes occur under visually obscure conditions.

In the study where researchers went out to prove what the nose knows, body odor samples were taken from the armpits of 20 participants. Then videos of violent crimes were shown to 40 students, each with a specific odor sample. Afterwards the students were given 5 samples to sniff and told to identify the one associated with the criminal. Although this experiment wasn't done in a real world situation the results (75% identification accuracy) were pretty significant. Now you know what the nose knows!   

A Defining Letter?

Anyone else have one letter of the alphabet that begins words that seem to sum up and repeat themselves all throughout their lives? My letter is the lowly R. No I’m not a pirate and there is nary an R anywhere in my name, yet R has been popping up and even predominating, during what I sometimes consider my meager existence. For years, as a teacher, I planned my lessons, set my alarm, and focused on the three Rs, reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic, day in and day out. Then I retired (another R), unplugged my alarm, and put away the schoolbooks. Now the grandsons are back and I find myself setting the alarm on my phone, making hot oatmeal on cold mornings, and making a trip to school (even though it is only to drop them off) all over again.

Today is our trash pickup day and as I return to the house, I notice ours is the only one with a full recycling bin (or any bin even though I know everyone has one-they aren't putting them out) beside the big black can on my block. Reduce, reuse, recycle (three more Rs) is my motto, one of them anyway, and I have been faithful to it for a long time and plan to continue to be. Why reinvent the wheel? is another motto and reduce, reuse, and recycle works with that too. There is already enough trash and clutter in our world, and I plan to try to add as little as possible to that.

My most recent set of Rs includes Run, Rest, and Repeat. These three are important because now that I am retired I am finally taking care of me and I like it. When I’m not concentrating on being active I find myself returning to two of the first three Rs I mentioned here, reading and writing, but instead of for my job, for pleasure. Which letter of the alphabet sums it all up for you? 

A Visit to the Peacemaker on this Day of Remembrance

In a world where fathers throw their children off bridges, and mothers set their babies on fire in the middle of the street it seems that the evil that men do, and the evil, man’s inhumanity toward their fellow man, that perpetuated the horrors of the holocaust has never really gone completely away. It just resurfaces in different places, in different sometimes smaller scaled ways, at different times. Days of Remembrance is a time to remember the victims of the holocaust and the heroes that helped put an end to their suffering. For me it’s about a chance for mindful reflection on whether or not I would ignore man’s inhumanity if faced with it or be strong enough to stand up to it. It’s also a time to say a prayer. I asked my grandsons if Days of Remembrance were mentioned at school today when I picked them up and they said no. Maybe it isn’t covered under common core. We talked about it anyway on our way to tour the Peacemaker (a tall 3 masted ship) that is docked downtown, St Marys. The barquentine ship is touted as the flagship of the twelve tribes and of course I immediately thought of the twelve tribes of Israel. After a little research including a visit to their website I found out I was incorrect about which tribes these twelve were but I still like the Peacemaker’s mission of bringing people into peace with their Creator and with one another. The ship really is something to see and there is no charge to tour it. Children must be accompanied by an adult and no high heeled shoes are allowed. There are also nice benches along the riverfront park upon which to stop and rest while you take a moment for reflection on these Days of Remembrance.       

The Ethics of Snack Smuggling at the Movies

Nancy Williams, the coordinator of professional education at UNC Asheville (in North Carolina) wrote on this topic recently. Apparently at Carmike movie theaters (Nancy’s theater of choice), the 2015 refillable popcorn bucket is $20. Refills are $4 each, all year long and the bucket comes with a lid. This makes bringing in a hidden snack even easier. After reading Nancy’s article I have decided to add my own two cents on the subject of snack smuggling. Since everyone knows snacks at the movies cost a lot more than two cents, we easily have room for this topic in the first place. Movie theater snacks often run more than the price of a ticket (at least for the matinee or senior rate), so when I take the grandkids to the movies I carry a big purse and stop off at the Dollar Tree (dollars in hand) so everyone can pick out their candy. I give each child a dollar and then station myself at the register in order to pay the tax to the cashier and stash the goodies in my purse. The store is in the same shopping area as the movie theater and that makes this even easier. The last time we went my two youngest grandsons came running up to the register from the candy aisle yelling about how they each scored 60 ring pops for a dollar. I just said pay your dollar to the cashier and put them in my purse. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered what that much sugar might imply for the rest of my afternoon but skittles and gummy worms were soon added to my purse and we were off to the movies. Those two candy bargain hunters were very disappointed when they opened the bags and found only 4 ring pops in each. In the small print on the front of the package they read, Only 60 Calories per serving. The movie was a good one but I figure they’ll look closer at candy packaging in the Dollar Tree the next time we go because yes, I plan to continue snack smuggling.

Is it time to re-moat your Castle?

Last night, while SKYPE-ing with my better half, I mentioned the new radar that allows the police to “look” through your house’s walls for criminals and their activity as a possible blog topic, one I thought he might like because it is so 4th amendment-y. I sent him the link to an article and video on it and this was his reply:

There is a doctrine in existence called the “Castle Doctrine.” In old English times, a moat was placed around the castle to protect the occupants from snooping neighbors or ne’er-do-wells who might want to steal or occupy the castle. It was interpreted to mean that a man’s home is his castle and he is entitled to do as he pleases within its bounds with no outside interference. Under modern law, the Castle Doctrine specifically provides a legal standing designating a person's abode (or, in some states, any legally occupied place [e.g., a vehicle or workplace]) as a place in which that person has certain protections and immunities. Even our own U.S. Constitution in the 4th amendment guarantees “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects…. What are they secure from? They are secure “against unreasonable searches and seizures, (they) shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. “ So why is it now that we find law enforcement agencies both local and federal suddenly able to “look” inside our castle without our permission? Recent news reports and the Tenth Circuit of the U.S. Appeals Court reveal law enforcement agencies are using devices like the Range – R which allows them to detect movement within a house simply by attaching it to the outside of the house.

This current type of device was first employed by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and subtly made its way back to the U.S. and into the hands of police and even the FBI and U.S. Marshals more than 2 years ago. It’s interesting that a similar case had addressed a similar situation of “looking into our houses” over a decade ago in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001), held that the use of a thermal imaging or FLIR, device from a public vantage point to monitor the radiation of heat from a person's home was a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and thus required a warrant. In other words, police couldn't just take a look for heat signatures. Shouldn't it be the same thing for movement? What if criminals get ahold of this $6000 device so they, too, can see if anyone is home? There is a plethora of pros and cons – what about terrorists, what about hostage situations, etc. Undoubtedly there are a myriad of questions that will have to be answered by our courts. In the meantime, should I break out a shovel just to “re-moat” my house for privacy? Do the needs of society’s safety outweigh my right to privacy? I’m sure attorneys on both sides of this development are ready to “dig” in. 

This is your body on soda (or pop for my northern cousins)!

Do you keep hearing (and tuning it out) all the bad news about soda and the obesity epidemic? Maybe you shouldn't be tuning it out like I did for years. By the time you finish drinking one sugary sweet soda your body is nudging you toward another one. Now I know why those 2 liters I used to knock out (at least one a day) managed to disappear so easily. As soon as you swallow it, your pancreas is notified and rapidly begins to create insulin in response to the sugar in the soda. Insulin is used by the body to move sugar from your soda drink into the bloodstream, where cells are then able to it for energy. Within just 20 minutes, your blood sugar levels spike and your liver responds by turning that sugar into fat for storage. Now that happened to me a lot too. I guess that’s where the sugar from all those 2 liters went! Within 45 minutes of gulping down a single 20-ounce glass of soda, caffeine from the drink is fully absorbed, and as a result your pupils dilate and blood pressure rises. Your body produces more dopamine, which stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain like a low-grade line of cocaine. Did this make me a dope? I ask myself. Probably, I answer myself! Because in the next five minutes you’re going to experience a blood sugar crash, the want another soda or sweet to keep the happy going and Harvard researchers have calculated each addition soda consumed increases the risk of obesity 1.6 times. All this and the fact that soda has no actual nutritive value are reason enough to cut it out of your diet. I’m glad I did!

The Tryst

They met in secret, deep in the woods of northern California for their tryst. The affair’s secrecy lasted a mere nine months. The results were, surprisingly enough, unexpected but thrilling just the same. It was only the third unobserved pairing of condors in the wild documented in the last 18 years. The offspring ( a single hatchling) was approximately nine months old at the time of its discovery by happy wildlife biologists. The last 27 California condors left in the wild in 1987 were captured and placed in a breeding program. In 1997 wildlife biologists began releasing them in Big Sur. The California condor is one of the world's rarest bird species and as of June 2014 there were about 400 condors living wild or in captivity.