Videos That Awed Me, Amazed Me, Inspired Me

Birdmen: The Original Dream of Human Flight (2012): Guys (and gals) wearing "wingsuits" which allow them do controlled gliding while jumping off thousand foot (and higher) cliffs.  They can travel several miles before opening their parachutes.  The videos from their helmet cameras are amazing.  These are serious adrenalin junkies, especially the ones doing "proximity" flying, where the goal is to get dozens of feet off the ground while flying 100 miles per hour, and passing between trees or radio antennas where there is a 20 foot gap.  Yes, this is intentional -- they aim for these.  And yes, they acknowledge that this is really dangerous, and they have lost friends doing this.  

A 2012 Nova episode: Cracking Your Genetic Code which explores the ways in which the Human Genome Project's output is helping scientists develop cures for what used to be death sentence diseases.  They give as an example a particular mutation of melanoma which is attacked by a particular chemical.  They interview a 50 year old who had a month left to live, because it had metastasized into his neck and abdomen.  They started him on this chemical -- and in a week, he could feel the tumors shrinking.  Two months after he started the chemical, he was back at work.  And many other amazing things that are now under development and beginning to pay off.

As I told someone today at work: I'm sure that 90% of the medical research that the federal government funds is a complete waste of time.  Stuff like this makes me say, "Who cares?  It's only money.  It is a vastly better investment than anything that is fundamentally a subsidy to a company that can't figure out how to produce solar panels."

Faith-Based Dorms

The September 2, 2013 Wall Street Journal has an article about a rapidly growing movement:

TROY, Ala.—Justice Gray, an incoming college freshman who attends church regularly and abstains from alcohol, wasn't keen on living in a dorm full of partyers. So she opted for a new housing option that just made its debut at Troy University, a public college here: a faith-based residence hall.

Featuring a small chapel and a communal area for Bible studies and other activities, the 376-bed Newman Center caters to students looking to nourish their spiritual side. It is open to people of all faiths, though the ministry space is leased by the Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile. Alcohol is forbidden, even for those of drinking age.

"I like the Christian feel of it," said Ms. Gray, 17 years old, who attends a nondenominational church back home and moved into the dorm in August before the start of classes. "We're like a family."

These dorms are privately built and operated, although on land leased from the university, so the Freedom From Religion Foundation is now suing universities to stop doing this.  Remember that you have to actively seek out getting into these dorms; no one is forced into them.  But the fear that someone, somewhere might choose to live in a dorm that frowns on drunkenness, casual sex, drug use, and wild partying -- the horror!

Need A Couple of People To Review a Law Review Article

"Mental Illness and the Second Amendment": ideally, you are familiar with Bluebook legal citation format and can catch any mistakes that I have made, along with unclear or clumsy writing.

Someone Needs To Read It More, and Use It Less As A Weapon

From August 30, 2013 CBS Cleveland:

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Police say a northwest Ohio man hit a gas station clerk in the head with a Bible numerous times forcing the employee back into the store and then demanded cash.

The 57-year-old Abbott Griffin was arraigned on an aggravated robbery charge on Friday in Toledo Municipal Court. A judge set the Toledo man’s bond at $50,000.

The History of Russia in Three Seconds

A friend sent this funny animation that purports to be the history of Russia in three seconds -- obviously by someone who regards the post-Soviet Russian Federation as only slightly more desirable than the Soviet Union.

Why Intoxication Is Bad, Even If Isn't Alcohol Intoxication

From the August 30, 2013 Arizona Republic:

The father of a 3-month-old boy who was left in a car in Phoenix and died was believed to be smoking marijuana in front of the car while his infant son was still inside, according to court documents released Friday.

Daniel Gray’s son, Jamison, died after being left in the vehicle for more than an hour. Gray had parked his car at his workplace near Scottsdale and Thunderbird roads, according to Phoenix police.

He initially told police that he had gone to B.T. Sports Pub on his day off to check on some things, according to Phoenix police and Maricopa County Superior Court documents.

A witness observed Gray and an employee standing in front of the parked car outside B.T. Sports Pub and assumed they were smoking marijuana, according to court documents.

When investigators questioned the employee seen with Gray, that employee admitted that Gray asked him for marijuana and that both went to stand in front of the vehicle.

Intoxicants make you do stupid things; that's why many people use intoxicants.  The last thing we need to encourage people to do is... stupid things.  Yes, alcohol makes you do stupid things, too, and it is argument for discouraging alcohol intoxication.  The future of America: instead of being half-stupid, we can be fully stupid.

Heavy Drinking Before Motherhood Is Bad For You

And not just because it leads to "whoops!" moments.  From August 30, 2013 WXXI (an NPR affiliate):

The more alcohol young women drink before motherhood, the greater their risk of future breast cancer according to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The findings are based on a review of the health histories of 91,005 mothers enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II from 1989 to 2009....

They show that if a woman averages one drink per day between her first period and having her first child, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 11 percent, an average of two drinks per day means an increased risk of 22 percent and so on.