Spring has sprung

Lyuba

The Wooly Mammoth, along with the Saber-tooth Tiger, is one of the most recognizable early animal inhabitants of our earth. They roamed the tundra of Siberia and the frozen wastes of North America during the Ice Age, from some 1.7 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago -- the Pleistocene Epoch. Mammoths, mastodons and modern elephants, are members of the order Proboscidea. The mammoths are closely related to the living elephants, especially to the Asiatic elephant.

Many fossilized remains of mastodons and mammoths have been unearthed, but one of the most surprising discoveries was made in May of 2007 by a reindeer herder in Russia, on the Yamal Peninsula. It was an intact, remarkably preserved female, baby mammoth thought to have died some 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. The Russians named the baby, Lyuba, after the herder's wife.

The specimen is so well preserved that some scientists are hopeful of extracting sufficient genetic material to enable the "resurrection" of the mammoth. I wonder if that's such a good idea?

Torture is Personal

Torture is personal; blood, sweat, and tears, personal. People under extreme duress vomit. They lose control of their bladder and bowels. Torture is messy. Its smell is offensive. The act leaves scars, and both actors are victims. Torture is not something to be parsed. Whatever we call it, “enhanced interrogation techniques,” “harsh interrogation methods,” we all know deep in our gut what torture is. We do not require a legal opinion or a morality lesson to know that it is wrong.

And yet that is exactly what the "torture memos" prepared for the Bush White House attempted. And now the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, wants the CIA to release classified documents that he claims will show the efficacy of torture. Cheney is not apologetic. He seems to be saying, "Yes, we did it, and it worked." The ends justify the means, and legality, let alone morality, be damned.

Consider a situation in which your young child has been kidnapped. The kidnapper was captured by the FBI as he attempted to collect the ransom. But he won't reveal where he has hidden the child. After a day and a half of unsuccessful questioning, the FBI's chief agent in charge offers you an half hour alone with the kidnapper. He tells you there will be no record of what goes on in the interrogation room. What would you do?

Suppose the FBI had several men in custody, all pedophiles and all suspects in your child's kidnapping. They were fairly certain that one of the men was responsible for kidnapping your child. You were given an half hour alone with each man. What would you do?

Suppose a reliable witness had seen a man leading your child away. He took the man to be Asian. The FBI has several "Asian looking" suspects in custody. Now what?

In the situations described above, if the kidnapper has confined the child in a box in which the oxygen is being depleted minute-by-minute, we have the "ticking time bomb" scenario -- a favorite of the Fox TV series, "24."

Apologists for torture are fond of presenting to their critics a consequentialist dilemma to play against the critic's moral absolutes. In other words, for those who claim that torture is morally wrong, absolutely, they paint a scenario in which the torture of a single person results in (has the consequence of) saving a hundred, a thousand, a million lives -- or perhaps, just the life of your child. Wouldn't you condone torture under those circumstances?

But the people who perpetrate these horrific acts of terrorism are fanatics. They blow themselves up. The kidnapper of your child is a psychopath. He revels in your pain.

Suppose the man who kidnapped your child and was refusing to reveal where the child was being held was known to have a pet dog. A cute little lap dog that the man loved with all his heart. The FBI brought the dog into the interrogation room and left you there with the kidnapper, his dog, and a pair of pruning shears.

God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man (Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov).

Corporate America's Commitment to Green

Corporate America is always on the lookout for a good marketing gimmick. Americans' growing concern about global warming has been embraced by marketing gurus, as this post from one of the blogs I follow illustrates.

Bad Mom, Good Mom: Greenwashing and Astroturfing

To see the pitch for your self, go to Reynolds' press kit.

Wetlands

Tapteal Greenway Association Cleans Up

Members of the Tapteal Greenway Association assisted by volunteers spent the day before Easter cleaning up and restoring a trail system that runs along the east side of the Yakima River just north of W. Van Giesen St. Their most difficult, some would say impossible, job is eradicating the Russian Olive that grows profusely all through the Yakima floodplain.

Russian olive is a native of southern Europe and western Asia. It was introduced to North America as a windbreak plant, and as an ornamental in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, Russian olive propagates easily, tolerates a variety of climate and soil conditions, and quickly takes over stream banks, lakeshores and prairies, and sandy floodplains choking out native vegetation of riparian habitat. They particularly like disturbed areas, roadsides, and pastures. Russian Olive interferes with nutrient cycling, taxes water reserves, and creates heavy shade that suppresses shorter plants requiring direct sunlight. As you can see from the photo below, it can also be a real eyesore.

Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapses

A narrow ice bridge connecting Charcot Island and Latady Island—the last remnant of the northern part of Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf—broke apart in early April 2009. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is the tenth major ice shelf to collapse in recent times, another sign that warming temperatures are impacting Earth’s fragile cryosphere.