crisp mice and ethics

The Wall Street Journal published a shorter article over the weekend about the ethics of using gene editing technology to disrupt infestations or reverse environmental damage.

The piece talks about editing mice genes so that they're no longer carriers of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease in humans, which infects hundreds of thousands of people each year in North America and Europe. My uncles and cousins in Pennsylvania have all had Lyme in recent years and some of them more than once.

IMHO, the ethical review on an issue like this should take less than ten seconds. Lyme didn't evolve until the latter twentieth century and serves no valuable function in society. It doesn't help other species or the environment nor humans.

So eradicate that scourge and now. Alter the mice genes accordingly. Sooner rather than later. Debating this is as pointless and maddening as debating whether it was "ethical" to eliminate smallpox.

The piece also discusses including community input in these ethical decisions. IMHO that is nuts. Nonexperts should not be ruling on complex scientific matters like this. People believe all sorts of crackpot theories, like vaccines are bad and everybody should eat gluten-free (they shouldn't). Why should people like that overrule experts? They think people want things like Lyme disease?

While scientific decisions in past decades and centuries were made often without considering any ethical issues, many times with horrendous results, one could argue society is now in danger of over-worrying ethical issues to the point where it has become counterproductive.

Next thing, people will be upset because scientists are violating a bacterium's rights.

world’s most famous muslim pornstar

I thought this was an interesting profile/interview with retired pornstar Nadia Ali who once made a name for herself by making adult films while wearing traditional Muslim garb.

Certain things about her reminded me of myself, like her frugality and self-reliance. At the same time, one thing about her is very different than me.

She sounds like somebody who has regrets about some of her life choices. This is not the first time I've read a pornstar profile where regret was a subject.

IMHO, regret can be both toxic and worthless. Before you make a major life decision, you need to think about it, but then own it once you make it.

Yes, certain life choices can turn out to be mistakes. But those should be about lessons, not regrets.

I've made mistakes in my life, but I don't now regret those mistakes. They were life lessons that made me the person I am today.

If I hadn't made some of those mistakes, I doubt I ever would have met my husband because our paths would not have crossed. So the positives far outweighed the negatives at the end of the day.

And this is Nadia in her pornstar days...

richard temple

I just finished reading Richard Temple, a terrific 1962 novel by Patrick O'Brian. You may recognize the author as the writer of the famous Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered the most accurate historical novels ever written.

My husband and I have both read all the Aubrey/Maturin novels. Indeed, they were one of the very first things we talked about the first day we met.

Temple is nothing like Aubrey/Maturin. It was the last novel he wrote before beginning his famous seafaring series, but Temple does not have a word about anything happening on a ship or body of water.

The novel tells of an amoral, dissolute struggling artist who survives by forgery and crime. He eventually ends up in British intelligence during World War II and is captured by the Gestapo, but the wartime aspect only serves as a plot framing device and takes up very little of the story.

It is not a genre novel but, instead, literary fiction at its best. The author creates a full, fascinating picture of what makes the antihero Richard Temple tick. Notwithstanding the book was written more than fifty years ago, it has aged beautifully and could have been written today.

If you like well written British literary novels, I strongly recommend Richard Temple. I'm now going to make my husband read it.

blood moon

The Australian media can't stop talking about the blood moon eclipse occurring this morning throughout the country and much of the world.

At the risk of sounding like some kind of astronomical philistine, I just can't get excited about eclipses. I know they don't happen very often, but it's a natural phenomenon. Sometimes they happen. Just like thunderstorms sometimes happen, albeit more frequently.

I'd love to see something like a spectacular comet or a supernova. The latter would be fascinating because I don't believe they can be predicted. They are rare, once-in-a-lifetime occurrences.

But eclipses are not once-in-a-lifetime or anything close. And they're not an unexpected surprise. If some people get excited by them, that's perfectly fine. But I can't be guilted into getting worked up about them.

Unfortunately -- or not, depending on the person -- today's eclipse cannot be seen in America.

slutty penguins

I thought this was a highly amusing very short book excerpt about how penguins are one of the few animal species to engage in prostitution.

They don't do it for money or furs or diamond jewelry. They do it for simple pebbles.

The best prostitute penguins are the ones that hoodwink pebbles from gullible horny young males without actually having to put out.

There have been no sightings of penguins in platform heels and fishnet stockings, however. The slutty ones look the same as the prudes but vary significantly in their behavior.

But no one has been able to tell if the females say in penguin language when they approach the males: "fancy a date?"

dumbest idea ever?

When a publication pulls an op-ed piece and deletes it from their website, you know it has to have been bad. Such was the case when Forbes magazine deleted an opinion piece that advocated closing all public libraries and just having people use Amazon.

This brain-dead idea conveniently overlooks one glaring difference between the two: libraries are free and Amazon isn't. By everyone contributing a little bit of tax dollars, plus donations during fundraising drives, even a small public library can amass a collection that dwarfs anything you could assemble on your own.

And, of course, many children use libraries. It's a social place with things kids love like story hour and puppet shows with characters from beloved books. You can't get that kind of thing on Amazon.

Not to mention not everyone who uses the library can afford to buy books. Before my erotic dancing days, when I was still a waitress, I used to borrow GED study books from the library, a great example of how a public institution can empower someone with some bootstrap self-improvement.

Best of all, libraries are a wonderful place for children to discover the magic of reading and books, where you can stroll down aisles and luck on books you've never read before that end up becoming favorites. You can't get that from a webpage.

the mighty ducklings

Unless you have a heart of stone, I think you'll agree this news item about a female duck raising 76 ducklings is adorable. The photographer who discovered the enormous brood has many more pictures on his Twitter feed.

No, they're not all her ducks. Birds of certain species will hand over their young to offspring to a more experienced female to raise in what is described as the crèche system. Think of it as kindergarten for ducks.

Even on my most hectic days of mothering, when two small children seems more like I'm mothering a dozen, I have no room to complain when compared to the super-mom duck raising that many young all on her own. That responsibility must drive her quackers.

sleeve tats

I think people who get sleeve tattoos (or two) are making a mistake that will hant them for the rest of their lives. Just look at any old person's arm and then imagine it with a sleeve tat.

But at the same time, I do have to admit that sometimes sleeve tattoos look good on muscular younger men (like the guy seen in the picture below). I suspect this is because the ink emphasizes their musculature, and big, powerful arms have always caught my eye.

Equally said, some sleeve tattoos on younger men make them look ridiculous. And some, like this guy, seem a little pathetic, like they're trying to be tough but are too shy to go to a gym.

I'll admit this is highly superficial on my part. And, again, I would never advise anyone to get a tattoo, because while they might look nice now, in several decades they'll look awful.

faux history

I finished reading this book over the weekend and I have to say I was really disappointed. The author tells the story of the last murder case Abraham Lincoln tried before he became President.

The book has the subtitle "The Murder Case that Propelled Him to the Presidency." And therein lies the biggest problem with -- it does not prove that claim nor even make any serious attempt to do so.

Equally bad, a fair amount of the book is filled with "recreated conversations," which is just a nice way to say the author made it up from scratch. He also repeatedly writes about what people were thinking at key moments and what happened in closed-door meetings without a single source for these claims.

As if this wasn't enough, a majority of the book is just a rewritten version of the trial transcript. We're told many times about the court reporter who made the original record, including various times when he yawned, got writer's cramp, or stood and stretched, all "details" presumably spun out of thin air.

I am not a historian and don't pretend to be, but when I read a history book, I want one that presents documented facts, not imaginary scenarios. The book is on several bestseller lists right now, and it is an engaging read, but I think many people will accept it as fact when it's more fiction.

So while I generally write here only about books I recommend, I give Lincoln's Last Trial a big thumbs down and suggest it be avoided.

he eats anything

Some guy "on the internet" will eat nearly anything people ask him to. As millions of pregnant women throughout history will respond, this is a big deal?

He eats straight mayo. Yawn. He eats cookies without milk. Please. He eats straight salt. Anyone with electrolyte deficiencies has done this. He eats dog food. I did that when I was pregnant.

Then he eats a plastic garbage bag. Okay, that is straight-up stupid. You eat something inorganic, your body can't digest it. Garbage bags are plastic film. You eat that, you could end up creating a bowel obstruction and thus need emergency surgery. Ignoring the problem could be fatal.

People "on the internet" sometimes are morons.

what would gandhi do?

Gaza is a mess once again. The pattern is the same nearly every time. Rebels fire things into Israel -- rockets, incendiary kites, and more. Israel responds with a heavy fist. Innocent people in Gaza who had nothing to do with the original incidents are killed or wounded and/or rendered homeless.

And then after a while the same cycle repeats. And then again. And then again.

As Albert Einstein once said: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

Rebels in Gaza will continue to do this. Israel will continue to respond with draconian force. And nothing will change.

Until somebody does something about it. The Palestinians needs to take a page from Gandhi and Martin Luther King -- the way to effect change is through a massive nonviolent force.

In the earlier part of the twentieth century, ordinary Indians didn't try to fight the British occupation. They responded with peaceful protests in huge numbers. They ended up winning.

In the 1950s and 1960s, civil rights protesters in America did the same thing. When confronted with brutality -- arrests, fire hoses, attack dogs -- they never physically fought back. They kept marching peacefully. They ended up winning.

Peace is the answer, Palestine. Massive forces of peace. Not a shot fired, not a window broken, not a rock thrown. Just march in massive numbers. The world will be watching and will take your side.

not my fantasy

I was listening to a radio interview yesterday with British crime writer Mark Billingham yesterday and he said something like "everybody fantasizes about being a cop."

Not me. I wouldn't want the danger nor the responsibility nor the risk. I'm too chicken to rush into danger without concern for my life.

I also wouldn't want the responsibility of being expected to solve a problem. I wouldn't want the risk of accidentally fucking up and potentially ruining someone's life.

Being a detective might be interesting, but then you have the risk thing again. What if you focus on the wrong person? What if you miss a clue? What if you're duped by a clever perpetrator who misdirects your attention onto an innocent person?

So I can imagine the stress and fear and anxiety and boredom of being a cop. But I wouldn't want it.

kiss your money goodbye

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal publised an article about the steady rise in thefts from cryptocurrency exchanges (at the link, see the piece titled "Theft of Cryptocurriences Mount"). The majority of the $1.63 billion in stolen cryptocurrencies happened this year in terms of dollar values, and we'll only halfway into the calendar.

In my mind, this lack of security would be an absolute deal killer for investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. You can't expect the random anarchy of the internet to keep your investment safe.

If you own stock, it's simply held in trust for you at a brokerage. It's impossible to steal stock. Yes, someone could hack your account and then transfer the stock to themselves, but this leaves a concrete paper trail and you also can defeat something like this with a far more secure login procedure.

For bank deposits, banks are required to maintain insurance against burglary and robbery. And, you can defeat individual account hacking with greater login security, and hacking attempts would lead a paper trail, too.

But with cryptocurrencies, you're on your own, pal. Yeah, some of the money may be clawed back, but that's only a maybe and you can't expect all of it.

The bottom line with investments, I think, is can you sleep at night, knowing where you've parked your money. I would be sleepless in Sydney if I invested in cryptocurrencies.

again and again and again!

I've written here before how I seem prone to conjunctivitis aka pinkeye. True to form, I have it yet again but only in one eye, which is typical for me.

The fact that both eyes aren't affected suggests it's not the viral or environmental variety but instead bacterial. I don't know what I keep getting in my eye. I haven't worn mascara in months and I religiously wash our bedding so they're likely not the cause.

I swear, the only way I think I could prevent this from happening is to wear goggles all the time. But I'm not about to do that, so I'll just grin and bear it yet one more time.

boring royals

Meghan Markle and Henry Windsor (also known as Prince Harry) have been married now for about two months, but the celebrity media is still cranking out coverage of the newlyweds.

I was looking at a picture article about her a few days ago on the Internet because I do like a lot of her clothes. But I was struck by how incredibly boring her life appears to be as a royal.

Her days appear to be filled with mundane public events where she shows up, waves, is handed some flowers, and is taken on a tour of some ordinary place. The article had photos of about a dozen of these different events and they looked incredibly similar, except for her clothes and the flowers she was handed.

She's a professional actress so she could play the part of dutiful royal well, even if she's not having fun. But at the same time you have to wonder if she's screaming inside at the thought that she'll be doing this for at least the next forty years or so, week in and week out.

For her part, Elizabeth Windsor (also known as the Queen) has been doing appearances like this for about seventy years, week in and week out. She always looks like she's having a pleasant time, but the banality of it all must drive her nuts at times.

When people talk about the "glamorous royals," I think of moments like this. They're well dressed and pampered cheerleaders. Many may envy them, but I don't find their life one bit enviable.

dark matter

I just finished Dark Matter, a hugely original, innovative, and well written thriller by Blake Crouch, a writer I've never read before. The book definitely makes me want to read more of his work and soon.

It's not an easy novel to describe without giving away spoilers so I won't even try. It's science fiction but with a light touch, a thinking person's scifi without starships or aliens.

I was left with a bunch of questions after I finished reading the book, but I suspect the writer wants us to be uncertain and ambivalent about certain aspects. I wasn't quite sure if he violated his own rule system established in the early part of the story, but then it really doesn't matter because it's such a compelling read.

I now making my husband read the book because I need to have a long, thoughtful conversation with someone about it to pick their brain and I couldn't think of anyone better for that task.

At its core, Dark Matter is a love story, the sort where you can't tell if it will have a happy or sad ending until you get there. But it's not a gushy, smothering romance -- it has the grit and potential heartbreak of real life.

If you like compelling, different, edgy thrillers that break the mold, definitely check out Dark Matter. It was published two years ago so finding a copy should not be a difficult task.

deep dive

I was looking at the collection of very cool photos from a series of deep-sea dives off the eastern coast of the United States earlier this summer.

Many of the critters are exotic and strange and a few are really ugly/scary, like the one seen below, a lizard fish photographed nearly 6,000 feet below the water's surface (enlargement).

Looking at these pictures brought to mind something that I haven't thought about in years: when I was in first grade, a teacher's assistant was reading a children's book aloud to the class. The story had something to do with fish in the sea.

After the story was over and she was asking for various responses to the story, I said something like "some fish at the bottom of the ocean have little headlights so they can see down there in the dark."

She responded with something like, "well, that's only pretend, in cartoons and stories and things."

At that point, I told her she was wrong and real fish in the ocean really had little lights and that I had seen this in a book at home. She said something dismissive like, "well, I'll have to see that book but you might have misunderstood."

That, of course, was a challenge. I went home, found the book, and the next day I took it to school for "show and tell."

When it was my turn, I stood up and showed my book, which had color photographs of bioluminescent fish, and then proceeded to read the caption aloud to her, which literally described the glowing portions that acted like headlights, with that word specifically used.

Needless to say, I was not that woman's favorite child in the class from then onward. The incident made me more popular among my peers, because everyone liked the teacher much more than the teacher's assistant, so anyone who showed up the assistant was okay in their book.

I seem to recall it made me particularly popular with the boys, because girls were more teacher's pets but I clearly was not.

The incident taught me early that adult instructors don't always know what they're talking about and that if you read a lot, you could do a better job educating yourself at home then in some classroom.

finger food for sharks

I think this woman from Western Australia needs a refresher course in common sense.

During a recent trip to the remote part of northern Australia, while out on a friend's boat in crocodile-infested waters, she decided to hand-feed some sharks circling the craft while she and friends squatted on a stern diving deck just above the water's surface.

She learned the hard way that sharks are not cute puppies. The shark grabbed the food and her finger and pulled her into the water.

Fortunately she was not feeding killer sharks, so the creatures did not attack her once she was in the water and her friends managed to pull her to safety fairly quickly, but her finger was mangled and became infected.

Nonetheless, she was extremely lucky. Anyone who has ever fed a large animal like a horse already knows that big hungry critters without the best eyesight will not discriminate between food and human apendages.

With a horse, you can lay your hand flat and the critter will eat off your palm, just like a dog will do. Sharks, however, are just snatch and grab eaters.

If she decides to skip the common sense class, perhaps on her next vacation, she could visit a rattlesnake petting zoo.

shouting at the castle

I am currently reading this book which discusses, in part, the road to the Nuremberg trials. The author mentions about one American military officer who recalls seeing an ordinary German man on the street yelling taunts at the high-ranking Nazis behind bars nearby, awaiting trial.

This is not the first time I've read about these sorts of incidents. I seem to recall other recollections of this in one of Antony Beevor's histories of the 1940s.

In some ways this is funny but in other ways it's very sad. Evil tyrants being taunted when they're powerless to do anything is funny and cathartic. Humiliation while impotent is a powerful punishment.

But at the same time it's sad. Millions of ordinary Germans loathed the Nazis and their supporters yet had to endure in silence for twelve years. Worse still, they had to live through all the horrors of war and the aftermath.

In some ways this is a good barometer of freedom: if you can heckle your country's leaders without repercussions, then you're probably in a relatively free country. But if a minor and harmless act of civil disobedience landed you behind bars or worse, then something is very wrong.

In some ways, free speech is the most important freedom of all, because when this freedom is taken away from you, all other freedoms can slip away. As long as you can speak out without repercussion, then there's hope.

manhattanhenge

If you're in New York City, today is the second of two "Manhattanhenge" events this year, sometimes also called the Manhattan Solstice. This is when the island of Manhattan acts something like a Stonehenge for the New World.

These two Manhattanhenge events occur when the east-west streets perfectly align with the setting sun. These are the only two days out of the entire year where the full sunset can be seen in the west-facing streets.

Partial sunsets can be seen the day before or after Manhattanhenge. Otherwise, the sunset cannot be seen on these west-facing streets. You have to go over to the river to see it.

There are, of course, two sunrise events, where the rising sun can be seen full-on in the east-west streets. Those occur in December and January.

In some ways this is pathetic, showing how overgrown the city has become with highrises that you can't see an actual horizon anywhere except the edge of Manhattan island. The fact that this is an event when the city wasn't planned for this to happen shows its kind of silly.

People in Manhattan often make a big deal about it, and when it's a nice day, the major east-west streets will be crammed with people standing to watch and snapping photos.

I'm a long, long way from Manhattan now but I still remember standing on 23rd Street to watch Manhattanhenge and hearing people oohing and aahing as the sun sets. It could be quite social and also quite romantic, with couples kissing just as the sun kissed the horizon.

The photo below is from a Manhattanhenge in recent years (enlargement), and you can see people filling the street. This is definitely not 23rd Street, and I'm almost positive it is 42nd Street.

a man named stacy

I happened on the file yesterday of possible future baby names and rejects that I've kept in the event I get pregnant a third time. For whatever reason, I included names that either my husband or I absolutely would never want for a child.

In both of our cases, some of the rejects are because we've known people with that same name and have particularly disliked the name or we associate the name with an idiot.

I've always liked the name Stacy for a man, perhaps because every male Stacy I know has been a cool guy, but my husband absolutely loathes the name. At the same time, I loathe the name for a girl because I've known several females with that name I don't like or were real bitches (although I've also known some wonderful female Staceys, too).

My husband and I know a couple who just had a little boy and gave him a name we both hate because we both associate it with idiots we've known. I tactfully asked the woman what inspired the name and she said it was one she and her husband had always liked, so obviously they don't have the same association we do.

I've known other people who have the same reaction about baby names -- they reject certain ones because of associations with people they've known. I don't personally know any couple who've gotten into huge fights because of names although I know people acquainted with couples who have.

This all leads me to wonder if it's fair that we burden children with names. Perhaps customs should change so that kids can select their own "final" name at age eighteen.

I imagine many would keep the name they've always have had but some would opt for new ones. Of course, you can change your name at any time, but then people often want to know why.

street urchins

I was reading offline yesterday about Londoners in the eighteenth and nineteenth century who abandoned their children. The latter were left to wander the streets, begging, stealing, and doing whatever they could to survive.

This phenomenea was not limited to London. The same happened in other large cities like Paris and New York. You have to wonder what kind of parent would just throw away a child like refuse. And some of the children were quite young -- only four or five or six years old.

If I was unable to support my children, I would turn to a life of crime rather than abandon them. You can understand how everyone cannot support their children, but then you don't just dump them. Even in earlier centuries charities existed that would take in children.

I have to hope that people who abandoned their kids never wanted them in the first place. You also have to wonder how many of them were abandoned children in their own right.

For all its faults, western society has at least advanced to the degree that child abandonment today is not what it was. People may mistreat and abuse their children, but at least they don't throw them away.

Seen below is a detail from "Beer Street and Gin Lane," eighteenth century artist William Hogarth's famous prints (full versions).

impossible odds

I was reading this article about a first century rebellion against Rome and was struck by the thought that, throughtout history, people have rebelled even when facing nearly impossible odds, demonstrating that the quest for freedom is an innate part of human DNA.

Other nearly impossible rebellions that come to mind are the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the Turner Rebellion of 1831, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, Syria in present day, and more.

I guess when life becomes so bleak and desperation sets in, revolt becomes an attractive option even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. When all hope is lost, the hopeful seize a chance, no matter how slim.

How many of us would be this way in the face of nearly impossible odds? From an armchair, it's easy to say "better to try and fail then to not try at all," but when your back was to the wall, how many of us would persist and how many would capitulate?

This is probably a question that could only be answered if we actually found ourselves in this situation.

The color picture below (enlargement) was made during the Warsaw Uprising. It is a color original and not colorized.

high noon

Our local library recently added this book to their collection, which I want to read, but I thought I should first watch High Noon again so it would be fresh in my mind. Both my husband and I had independently seen it several times before, but it was the first time we watched it together.

I had forgotten how minimalist and post-modern the film really is. Made in 1952, the movie is still mostly timeless. The script is an incredible exercise in minimalism -- so much of the story is successfully told with inference and inuendo. It also can be viewed entirely as an allegory.

The movie won four Oscars and was nominated for a few more, including Best Screenplay, but did not win the latter award. That went to the screenplay for The Bad and the Beautiful, a movie about moviemaking that I think has not aged nearly as well as High Noon.

The one weakness of High Noon, I think, is Grace Kelly and her role. She quickly becomes whiney and annoying, not helped in part by the fact she's a one-dimensional character, unlike the others in the story. It certainly was not her finest performance.

After I read the book linked above, which may be several weeks from now, I'll write an entry about my thoughts.

beautiful lies

I've written three entries about thriller novelist Peter Swanson. I much enjoyed his first three books, particularly the second one.

I've now read his fourth and most recent novel, All the Beautiful Lies, and I have to say I was disappointed. Two of the major characters are really unpleasant people and both are also involved in incest.

I felt like I needed a shower after reading the book in several long sittings. When you not only don't care about yucky major characters, while at the same time are rooting for them to die in a spectacular road accident, then you're not having a good read.

As well, I thought the plot became more and more convoluted as the novel raced to a conclusion. Too many times characters quickly bought into an implausible conspiracy and never once questioned what the hell was going on.

Still, a good writer can be forgiven a dud and I look forward to Swanson's next novel and I still recommend his first three, particularly the second one. They are not a series and can be read in any order.

current events

When I was in third grade, every Friday we did "current events." Each student was required to bring a newspaper clipping from the past week and give a very brief oral report describing the event and why it was important to the nation or the world.

For whatever reason, this was one of my most favorite things in all of school, which I only completed through the ninth grade. Maybe because it involved students setting the topics or the fact that what we were learning was actually relevant for real life.

I loved doing current events so much I tried to talk other teachers in later years into doing the same thing. Alas, I must not have had a very convincing sales pitch.

I always strove to select a current event that was somehow odd or unusual or sensational but at the same time was important to the country or planet. A few other kids did the same as me, but most picked the biggest story in the news.

I don't recall following the news before that year in school, but I certainly did thereafter. It's a habit that carried into adulthood and the present day.

Maybe I should have become a journalist. But then that would have required actually being a good student and now it's way too late for that.

prison break

If you used this actual and rather spectacular prison break in a movie or novel, people might complain that it was implausible. "That wouldn't happen in real life."

Except now it did. In France, three men hijacked a helicopter, climbed aboard, ordered the craft flown to a nearby prison, and then landed in a prison courtyard. After jumping off the copter and opening a door with a grinding device, they grabbed notorious gangster Redoine Faid and flew away.

Notwithstanding the French have a huge number of police officers searching, Faid has not been spotted. Some believe he may try to leave the country, or may have already left.

The most amazing part of this story is the fact that the prison guards were unarmed, which apparently is common in France. This makes no sense to me. How can they protect the prison and enforce order without any weapons? If you don't put down that knife immediately Pièrre, I'm going to be very angry!

That is a policy that should be changed sooner than immediately.

the breastfeeding man

Well this is certainly something you don't see every day: when a mom couldn't breastfeed her newborn, the baby's dad stepped in and offered his nipple.

Now the baby wasn't actually feeding off the father's milk but instead through a tiny tube connected to a plastic nipple applied on top of the father's real one. The kid, of course, didn't know any better and the father had a nice bonding experience.

IMHO this is kind of silly but also harmless, too. If it invests the father more in childrearing, then that's fine. I can't imagine a lot of men wanting to do that, and I certainly can't imagine my husband trying. "What's wrong with the bottle?" he'd ask.

As any mom will tell you, of course, a breastfeeding baby chowing down on your tits offers a distinct sensation. Baby is actually milking your tits, so you can feel the liquid being drawn through your tissue. You certainly couldn't get that experience with a plastic nipple.

Happy Independence Day, America!

a box of air

I was reading offline about an apartment in Manhattan that sold for nearly $100 million and I had to laugh.

When you buy a New York apartment, think about what you've actually bought -- a box of air in the sky. You own no land. You can't tear down the apartment and build a new one. You've bought empty space, not an actual structure.

So really, you're not actually buying "a thing." You're buying the exclusive right to occupy that apartment in perpetuity. That has real value, of course, but again it's not a physical object.

Whenever I read about New York real estate, I think about the Manhattan earthquake, an event that's not likely but not impossible, either. If New York is hit by a 8.0 shaker, all those boxes of air will be worth nothing.

how do they sleep?

I'm currently reading a crime thriller that includes a character involved in human trafficking. As often happens in real life, he makes a lot of money exploiting slaves who live miserable lives.

The character in question is a greedy sociopath. That would seem to be a prerequisite in real life, too.

Otherwise, how could you sleep at night? How would you live with yourself, knowing you were making money of the backs of people you keep trapped in absolute misery?

The same could be said of people trafficking in child prostitution and child pornography? Don't you have a soul? Don't you feel any compassion for the people you exploit?

I wrote on this blog in the early years about a crazy stalky exboyfriend who I learned after I finally shook him was involved in criminality. Some of that allegedly included a form of involuntary servitude, whereby women brought illegally into the country had to work for their transporters until they paid off the cost of their immigration, a practice which includes a huge markup. But I didn't know this until after the fact so I never had a chance to confront him on this.

Some humans seem to have what you could call the exploitive gene. They have no problem exploiting others, even to the point of cruelty.

Maybe it's time we bring back branding as part of the punishment for such people when they're convicted. If you're not familiar with branding, it was commonly practiced in western cultures up into the eighteenth century. If you were convicted of certain crimes, like stealing, you were branded with a large T on your forehead and cheek. This was meant as a warning to innocent parties so that they would be future victims.

Now some would say that was cruel and unusual punishment. But if you're cruelly exploiting people, is payback really cruel?

hannah yata

I recently discovered the fascinating and sometimes scary art of Hannah Yata (see below and enlargement) which is always filled with hyper-kinetic energy and surreal imagery. She's something like a modern day Hieronymus Bosch.

You can see some of her best work on her webpage and also by typing her name into Google's image search.

Looking at her work and the incredible detail, I'm confident in the fact that I could never have the patience to do something like that, let alone the talent.