Daily Archives: November 27, 2016

List of Atlas Shrugged characters – Wikipedia

Posted: November 27, 2016 at 9:53 am

This is a list of characters in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.

The following are major characters from the novel.[1]

Dagny Taggart is the protagonist of the novel. She is Vice-President in Charge of Operations for Taggart Transcontinental, under her brother, James Taggart. Given James' incompetence, Dagny is responsible for all the workings of the railroad.

Francisco d'Anconia is one of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged, an owner by inheritance of the world's largest copper mining operation. He is a childhood friend, and the first love, of Dagny Taggart. A child prodigy of exceptional talents, Francisco was dubbed the "climax" of the d'Anconia line, an already prestigious family of skilled industrialists. He was a classmate of John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjld and student of both Hugh Akston and Robert Stadler. He began working while still in school, proving that he could have made a fortune without the aid of his family's wealth and power. Later, Francisco bankrupts the d'Anconia business to put it out of others' reach. His full name is given as "Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastin d'Anconia".[2]

John Galt is the primary male hero of Atlas Shrugged. He initially appears as an unnamed menial worker for Taggart Transcontinental, who often dines with Eddie Willers in the employees' cafeteria, and leads Eddie to reveal important information about Dagny Taggart and Taggart Transcontinental. Only Eddie's side of their conversations is given in the novel. Later in the novel, the reader discovers this worker's true identity.

Before working for Taggart Transcontinental, Galt worked as an engineer for the Twentieth Century Motor Company, where he secretly invented a generator of usable electric energy from ambient static electricity, but abandoned his prototype, and his employment, when dissatisfied by an easily corrupted novel system of payment. This prototype was found by Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden. Galt himself remains concealed, throughout much of the novel, in a valley concealed by himself, where he unites the most skillful inventors and business leaders under his leadership. Much of the book's third division is given to his broadcast speech, which presents the author's philosophy of Objectivism.

Henry (known as "Hank") Rearden is one of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged. He owns the most important steel company in the United States, and invents Rearden Metal, an alloy stronger than steel (with similar properties to stainless steel). He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Lillian, his brother Philip, and his elderly mother. Rearden represents a type of self-made man or prototypical hero, and illustrates Rand's theory of sex in so far as he accepts the traditional view of sexual congress as a subhuman instinct, but responds sexually to Dagny Taggart.

Edwin "Eddie" Willers is the Special Assistant to the Vice-President in Charge of Operations at Taggart Transcontinental. His father and grandfather worked for the Taggarts, and himself likewise. He is completely loyal to Dagny and to Taggart Transcontinental. Willers does not possess the creative ability of Galt's associates, but matches them in moral courage and is capable of appreciating and making use of their creations. After Dagny shifts her attention and loyalty to saving the captive Galt, Willers maintains the railroad until its collapse.

One of Galt's first followers, and world-famous as a pirate, who seizes relief ships sent from the United States to the People's States of Europe. He works to ensure that once those espousing Galt's philosophy are restored to their rightful place in society, they have enough capital to rebuild the world. Kept in the background for much of the book, Danneskjld makes a personal appearance to encourage Rearden to persevere in his increasingly difficult situation, and gives him a bar of gold as compensation for the income taxes he has paid over the last several years. Danneskjld is married to the actress Kay Ludlow; their relationship is kept hidden from the outside world, which only knows of Ludlow as a retired film star. Considered a misfit by Galt's other adherents, he views his actions as a means to speed the world along in understanding Galt's perspective.

According to Barbara Branden, who was closely associated with Rand at the time the book was written, there were sections written describing Danneskjld's adventures at sea, cut from the final published text.[3] In a 1974 comment at a lecture, Ayn Rand admitted that Danneskjld's name was a tribute to Victor Hugo's novel, Hans of Iceland, wherein the hero becomes the first of the Counts of Danneskjld. In the published book, Danneskjld is always seen through the eyes of others (Dagny Taggart or Hank Rearden), except for a brief paragraph in the very last chapter.

The President of Taggart Transcontinental and the book's most important antagonist. Taggart is an expert influence peddler but incapable of making operational decisions on his own. He relies on his sister, Dagny Taggart, to actually run the railroad, but nonetheless opposes her in almost every endeavor because of his various anti-capitalist moral and political beliefs. In a sense, he is the antithesis of Dagny. This contradiction leads to the recurring absurdity of his life: the desire to overcome those on whom his life depends, and the horror that he will succeed at this. In the final chapters of the novel, he suffers a complete mental breakdown upon realizing that he can no longer deceive himself in this respect.

The unsupportive wife of Hank Rearden, who dislikes his habits and (secretly at first) seeks to ruin Rearden to prove her own value. Lillian achieves this, when she passes information to James Taggart about her husband's affair with his sister. This information is used to persuade Rearden to sign a Gift Certificate which delivers all the property rights of Rearden Metal to others. Lillian thereafter uses James Taggart for sexual satisfaction, until Hank abandons her.

Ferris is a biologist who works as "co-ordinator" at the State Science Institute. He uses his position there to deride reason and productive achievement, and publishes a book entitled Why Do You Think You Think? He clashes on several occasions with Hank Rearden, and twice attempts to blackmail Rearden into giving up Rearden Metal. He is also one of the group of looters who tries to get Rearden to agree to the Steel Unification Plan. Ferris hosts the demonstration of the Project X weapon, and is the creator of the Ferris Persuader, a torture machine. When John Galt is captured by the looters, Ferris uses the device on Galt, but it breaks down before extracting the information Ferris wants from Galt. Ferris represents the group which uses brute force on the heroes to achieve the ends of the looters.

A former professor at Patrick Henry University, and along with colleague Hugh Akston, mentor to Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjld. He has since become a sell-out, one who had great promise but squandered it for social approval, to the detriment of the free. He works at the State Science Institute where all his inventions are perverted for use by the military, including the instrument of his demise: Project X (Xylophone). The character was, in part, modeled on J. Robert Oppenheimer, whom Rand had interviewed for an earlier project, and his part in the creation of nuclear weapons.[4] To his former student Galt, Stadler represents the epitome of human evil, as the "man who knew better" but chose not to act for the good.

The incompetent and treacherous lobbyist whom Hank Rearden reluctantly employs in Washington, who rises to prominence and authority throughout the novel through trading favours and disloyalty. In return for betraying Hank by helping broker the Equalization of Opportunity Bill (which, by restricting the number of businesses each person may own to one, forces Hank to divest most of his companies), he is given a senior position at the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. Later in the novel he becomes its Top Co-ordinator, a position that eventually becomes Economic Dictator of the country.

The following secondary characters also appear in the novel.[5]

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List of Atlas Shrugged characters - Wikipedia

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Main Street Liberal

Posted: at 9:53 am

Question: what do public education, public roads, and earned benefits have in common with each other?

Answer: They all are in danger in the upcoming presidency of the great populist and (white) working-class hero, Donald Trump.

Trump has announced that he is nominating Betsy DeVos, a member of the DeVos family of Michigan, which rivals the Koch family of Kansas in its wealth and dedication to right-wing, corporatist causes. Tierney Sneed of Talking Points Memo reports

Much of DeVos political activity has been focused on the expansion of charter schools and school vouchers, putting her selection in line with Trumps campaign proposal to shift $20 billion in federal education funding into state block grants to enroll children in charter and private schools. The DeVos family bankrolled a failed 2000 Michigan ballot initiative that would have required that students enrolled in failing public school districts be offered vouchers for private school tuition. Though the measure was rejected soundly by voters, the DeVoses doubled down on the issue and formed a political action committee to support pro-voucher candidates nationwide, according to ChalkBeat, a nonprofit news organization focused on education. They also operate philanthropic organizations known for giving to entities aligned with the charter school movement, including faith-based schools and conservative think tanks, Inside Philanthropy reported.

Charter schools usually are not good for students, but generally profitable for the private companies sponsoring them- with taxpayer money. That sounds like the motivation for Donald Trump's transportation plan, under which as currently written

the federal government would offer tax credits to private investors interested in funding large infrastructure projects, who would put down some of their own money up front, then borrow the rest on the private bond markets. They would eventually earn their profits on the back end from usage fees, such as highway and bridge tolls (if they built a highway or bridge) or higher water rates (if they fixed up some water mains). So instead of paying for their new roads at tax time, Americans would pay for them during their daily commute. And of course, all these private developers would earn a nice return at the end of the day.

At least Trump was less antagonistic during the primary campaign toward earned benefits than were most of his rivals. Now that he has been elected, however, that is beginning to change. Jonathan Chait observes that in a Fox News interview with Brett Baier

Your solution has always been to put things together, including entitlement reform, says Baier, using Republican code for privatizing Medicare. Ryan replies, If youre going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well. Medicare has got some serious issues because of Obamacare. So those things are part of our plan to replace Obamacare.

Chait notes, however, "The Medicare trust fund has been extended 11 years as a result of the passage of Obamacare, whose cost reforms have helped bring health care inflation to historic lows. It is also untrue that repealing Obamacare requires changing traditional Medicare."

Ironies abound. Trump has gotten cold feet about deporting illegal immigrants, now asserting instead that his Administration will get tough on those who have committed crimes, which bears a curious resemblance to President Obama's policy. He speaks now of his signature wall on the Mexican border as part wall, part fence, not unlike the current structure.

But Trump was portrayed as a different kind of Republican candidate, and expected to be a different kind of Republican President. Guess again. While focused on squeezing from the presidency as much income for his businesses as he can, Trump is embarking on a plan to intertwine the federal government with the market to enrich the private sector at the expense of the American public and make crony capitalism the hallmark of his Adminstration. (WARNING: Video below is from a conservative libertarian legal outfit.) The campaign cry of "Crooked Hillary" should now be seen as a case of a plutomaniac with a serious case of envy.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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Paul Krugman – The Conscience of a Liberal

Posted: at 9:53 am

Infrastructure Build or Privatization Scam?

Trumpists are touting the idea of a big infrastructure build, and some Democrats are making conciliatory noises about working with the new regime on that front. But remember who youre dealing with: if you invest anything with this guy, be it money or reputation, you are at great risk of being scammed. So, what do we know about the Trump infrastructure plan, such as it is?

Crucially, its not a plan to borrow $1 trillion and spend it on much-needed projects which would be the straightforward, obvious thing to do. It is, instead, supposed to involve having private investors do the work both of raising money and building the projects with the aid of a huge tax credit that gives them back 82 percent of the equity they put in. To compensate for the small sliver of additional equity and the interest on their borrowing, the private investors then have to somehow make profits on the assets they end up owning.

You should immediately ask three questions about all of this.

First, why involve private investors at all? Its not as if the federal government is having any trouble raising money in fact, a large part of the justification for infrastructure investment is precisely that the government can borrow so cheaply. Why do we need private equity at all?

One answer might be that this way you avoid incurring additional public debt. But thats just accounting confusion. Imagine that youre building a toll road. If the government builds it, it ends up paying interest but gets the future revenue from the tolls. If it turns the project over to private investors, it avoids the interest cost but also loses the future toll revenue. The governments future cash flow is no better than it would have been if it borrowed directly, and worse if it strikes a bad deal, say because the investors have political connections.

Second, how is this kind of scheme supposed to finance investment that doesnt produce a revenue stream? Toll roads are not the main thing we need right now; what about sewage systems, making up for deferred maintenance, and so on? You could bring in private investors by guaranteeing them future government money say, paying rent in perpetuity for the use of a water system built by a private consortium. But this, even more than having someone else collect tolls, would simply be government borrowing through the back door with much less transparency, and hence greater opportunities for giveaways to favored interests.

A lot of people in politics and the media are scrambling to normalize what just happened to us, saying that it will all be OK and we can work with Trump. No, it wont, and no, we cant. The next occupant of the White House will be a pathological liar with a loose grip on reality; he is already surrounding himself with racists, anti-Semites, and conspiracy theorists; his administration will be the most corrupt in America history.

How did this happen? There were multiple causes, but you just cant ignore the reality that key institutions and their leaders utterly failed. Every news organization that decided, for the sake of ratings, to ignore policy and barely cover Trump scandals while obsessing over Clinton emails, every reporter who, for whatever reason often sheer pettiness played up Wikileaks nonsense and talked about how various Clinton stuff raised questions and cast shadows is complicit in this disaster. And then theres the FBI: its quite reasonable to argue that James Comey, whether it was careerism, cowardice, or something worse, tipped the scales and may have doomed the world.

No, Im not giving up hope. Maybe, just maybe, the sheer awfulness of whats happening will sink in. Maybe the backlash will be big enough to constrain Trump from destroying democracy in the next few months, and/or sweep his gang from power in the next few years. But if thats going to happen, enough people will have to be true patriots, which means taking a stand.

And anyone who doesnt who plays along and plays it safe is betraying America, and mankind.

As I said in todays column, nobody who thought Trump would be a disaster should change his or her mind because he won the election. He will, in fact, be a disaster on every front. And I think he will eventually drag the Republican Party into the abyss along with his own reputation; the question is whether he drags the rest of the country, and the world, down with him.

But its important not to expect this to happen right away. Theres a temptation to predict immediate economic or foreign-policy collapse; I gave in to that temptation Tuesday night, but quickly realized that I was making the same mistake as the opponents of Brexit (which I got right). So I am retracting that call, right now. Its at least possible that bigger budget deficits will, if anything, strengthen the economy briefly. More detail in Mondays column, I suspect.

On other fronts, too, dont expect immediate vindication. America has a vast stock of reputational capital, built up over generations; even Trump will take some time to squander it.

The true awfulness of Trump will become apparent over time. Bad things will happen, and he will be clueless about how to respond; if you want a parallel, think about how Katrina revealed the hollowness of the Bush administration, and multiply by a hundred. And his promises to bring back the good old days will eventually be revealed as the lies they are.

But it probably wont happen in a year. So the effort to reclaim American decency is going to have to have staying power; we need to build the case, organize, create the framework. And, of course, never forget who is right.

Its going to be a long time in the wilderness, and its going to be awful. If I sound calm and philosophical, Im not like everyone who cares, Im frazzled, sleepless, depressed. But we need to be stalwart.

Anyone who claims to be philosophical and detached after yesterday is either lying or has something very wrong with him (or her, but I doubt many women are in that camp.) Its a disaster on multiple levels, and the damage will echo down the decades if not the generations. And like anyone on my side of this debate, I keep feeling waves of grief.

Its natural, only human, to engage in recriminations, some of which are surely deserved. But while a post-mortem is going to be necessary, lashing out doesnt seem helpful or good for the lashers-out themselves.

Eventually those of us on the center-left will have to talk about political strategy. For now, however, I want to share some thoughts on how we should deal with this personally.

First of all, its always important to remember that elections determine who has the power, not who has the truth. The stunning upset doesnt mean that the alt-right is correct to view nonwhites as inferior, that voodoo economics works, whatever. And you have to hold to the truth as best you see it, even if it suffers political defeat.

That said, does it make sense on a personal level to keep struggling after this kind of blow? Why not give up on trying to save the world, and just look out for yourself and those close to you? Quietism does have its appeal. Admission: I spent a lot of today listening to music, working out, reading a novel, basically taking a vacation in my head. You cant help feeling tired and frustrated after this kind of setback.

But eventually one has to go back to standing for what you believe in. Its going to be a much harder, longer road than I imagined, and maybe it ends in irreversible defeat, if nothing else from runaway climate change. But I couldnt live with myself if I just gave up. And I hope others will feel the same.

I tweeted this out earlier, but for blog readers here it is in this form.

Some morning-after thoughts: what hits me and other so hard isnt just the immense damage Trump will surely do, to climate above all. Theres also a vast disillusionment that as of now I think of as the end of the romantic vision of America (which I still love).

What I mean is the notion of US history as a sort of novel in which there may be great tragedy, but theres always a happy ending. That is, we tell a story in which at times of crisis we always find the leader Lincoln, FDR and the moral courage we need.

Its a particular kind of American exceptionalism; other countries dont tell that kind of story about themselves. But I, like others, believed it.

Now it doesnt look very good, does it? But giving up is not an option. The world needs a decent, democratic America, or were all lost. And theres still a lot of decency in the nation its just not as dominant as I imagined. Time to rethink, for sure. But not to surrender.

Binyamin Appelbaum has a nice piece about the stall in world trade growth, which I (and many others) have been tracking for a while. And I thought Id write a bit more about this, if only to serve as a much-needed distraction from the election.

If theres a problem with the Appelbaum piece, it is that on casual reading it might seem to suggest that slowing trade growth is (a) necessarily the result of protectionism and (b) necessarily a bad thing. Neither of these is right.

I found myself thinking about this some years ago, when teaching trade policy at the Woodrow Wilson School. I was very struck by a paper by Taylor et al on the interwar decline in trade, which argued that much of this decline reflected rising transport costs, not protectionism. But how could transport costs have gone up? Was there technological regress?

The answer, as the paper correctly pointed out, is that real transport costs will rise even if there is continuing technological progress, as long as that progress is slower than in the rest of the economy.

To clear that story up in my own mind, I wrote up a little toy model, contained in these class notes from sometime last decade (?). Pretty sure I wrote them before the global trade stagnation happened, but theyre a useful guide all the same.

As I see it, we had some big technological advances in transportation containerization, probably better communication making it easier to break up the value chain; plus the great move of developing countries away from import substitution toward export orientation. (Thats a decline in tau and t in my toy model.) But this was a one-time event. Now that its behind us, no presumption that trade will grow faster than GDP. This need not represent a problem; its just the end of one technological era.

It is kind of ironic that globalization seems to be plateauing just as the political backlash mounts. But were not going to talk about the election.

Both Ross Douthat and David Brooks have now weighed in on the state of conservative intellectuals; both deserve credit for taking a critical look at their team.

But of course theres a but Id argue that they and others on the right still have huge blind spots. In fact, these blind spots are so huge as to make the critiques all but useless as a basis for reform. For if you ignore the true, deep roots of the conservative intellectual implosion, youre never going to make a real start on reconstruction.

What are these blind spots? First, belief in a golden age that never existed. Second, a simply weird refusal to acknowledge the huge role played by money and monetary incentives promoting bad ideas.

On the first point: Were supposed to think back nostalgically to the era when serious conservative intellectuals like Irving Kristol tried to understand the world, rather than treating everything as a political exercise in which ideas were just there to help their team win.

But it was never like that. Dont take my word for it; take the word of Irving Kristol himself, in his book Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea. Kristol explained his embrace of supply-side economics in the 1970s: I was not certain of its economic merits but quickly saw its political possibilities. This justified a cavalier attitude toward the budget deficit and other monetary or financial problems, because political effectiveness was the priority, not the accounting deficiencies of government.

In short, never mind whether its right, as long as its politically useful. When David complains that conservative opinion-meisters began to value politics over everything else, hes describing something that happened well before Reagan.

But shouldnt there have been some reality checks along the way, with politically convenient ideas falling out of favor because they didnt work in practice? No because being wrong in the right way has always been a financially secure activity. I see this very clearly in economics, where there are three kinds of economists: liberal professional economists, conservative professional economists, and professional conservative economist the fourth box is more or less empty, because billionaires dont lavishly support hacks on the left.

There was a time, not long ago, when deficit scolds were actively dangerous when their huffing and puffing came quite close to stampeding Washington into really bad policies like raising the Medicare age (which wouldnt even have saved money) and short-term fiscal austerity. At this point their influence doesnt reach nearly that far. But they continue to play a malign role in our national discourse because they divert and distract attention from much more deserving problems, depriving crucial issues of political oxygen.

You saw that in the debates: four, count them, four questions about debt from the CRFB, not one about climate change. And you see it again in todays Times, with Pete Peterson (of course) and Paul Volcker (sigh) lecturing us about the usual stuff.

Whats so bad about this kind of deficit scolding? Its deeply misleading on two levels: the problem it purports to lay out is far less clearly a major issue than the scolds claim, and the insistence that we need immediate action is just incoherent.

So, about that supposed debt crisis: right now we have a more or less stable ratio of debt to GDP, and no hint of a financing problem. So claims that we are facing something terrible rest on the presumption that the budget situation will worsen dramatically over time. How sure are we about that? Less than you may imagine.

Yes, the population is getting older, which means more spending on Medicare and Social Security. But its already 2016, which means that quite a few baby boomers are already drawing on those programs; by 2020 well be about halfway through the demographic transition, and current estimates dont suggest a big budget problem.

Why, then, do you see projections of a large debt increase? The answer lies not in a known factor an aging population but in assumed growth in health care costs and rising interest rates. And the truth is that we dont know that these are going to happen. In fact, health costs have grown much more slowly since 2010 than previously projected, and interest rates have been much lower. As the chart above shows, taking these favorable surprises into account has already drastically reduced long-run debt projections. These days the long-run outlook looks vastly less scary than people used to imagine.

Like Claudia Sahm, I was struck by polling results indicating that around half of Trump supporters completely distrust official data although maybe a bit less surprised, since Ive been living in that world for years. In particular, the failure of high inflation to materialize led quite a few people on the right side of the political spectrum including the likes of Niall Ferguson to insist that the numbers were being cooked, so this is neither a new phenomenon nor one restricted to Trump types.

As it happened, there was a very easy answer to the inflation truthers: quite aside from the absurdity of claiming a conspiracy at the BLS, we had independent estimates such as the Billion Prices Index that closely matched official data. And theres similar independent evidence for a lot of the things where people now claim that official numbers are skewed. For example, the Gallup Healthways index provides independent confirmation of the huge gains in insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

But aside from validity, what explains this distrust of statistics? Is it because peoples own experience clashes with what theyre being told? I dont think so. In fact, when people are asked about personal outcomes, not about the economy, the story they tell is a lot like the official numbers. From that poll about Trumpian distrust of the data:

So people are feeling better, in line with what the data say, but claim that the economy is getting worse. Hard to believe that this isnt political, a case of going with the party line in the teeth of personal experience.

Ive posted other performances of this song by this band, but this is a good one and topical this week!

The much-hyped severe Brexit recession does not, so far, seem to be materializing which really shouldnt be that much of a surprise, because as I warned, the actual economic case for such a recession was surprisingly weak. (Ouch! I just pulled a muscle while patting myself on the back!) But we are seeing a large drop in the pound, which has steepened as it becomes likely that this will indeed be a very hard Brexit. How should we think about this?

Originally, stories about a pound plunge were tied to that recession prediction: domestic investment demand would collapse, leading to sustained very low interest rates, hence capital flight. But the demand collapse doesnt seem to be happening. So what is the story?

For now, at least, Im coming at it from the trade side especially trade in financial services. It seems to me that one way to think about this is in terms of the home market effect, an old story in trade but one that only got formalized in 1980.

Heres an informal version: imagine a good or service subject to large economies of scale in production, sufficient that if its consumed in two countries, you want to produce it in only one, and export to the other, even if there are costs of shipping it. Where will this production be located? Other things equal, you would choose the larger market, so as to minimize total shipping costs. Other things may not, of course, be equal, but this market-size effect will always be a factor, depending on how high those shipping costs are.

In one of the models I laid out in that old paper, the way this worked out was not that all production left the smaller economy, but rather that the smaller economy paid lower wages and therefore made up in competitiveness what it lacked in market access. In effect, it used a weaker currency to make up for its smaller market.

In Britains case, Id suggest that we think of financial services as the industry in question. Such services are subject to both internal and external economies of scale, which tends to concentrate them in a handful of huge financial centers around the world, one of which is, of course, the City of London. But now we face the prospect of seriously increased transaction costs between Britain and the rest of Europe, which creates an incentive to move those services away from the smaller economy (Britain) and into the larger (Europe). Britain therefore needs a weaker currency to offset this adverse impact.

So, now were supposed to feel sorry for Paul Ryan?

For years, Ryan has cultivated a reputation on both sides of the aisle as a paragon of decency, earnestness, and principle; that rare creature of D.C. who seems genuinely guided by good faith. To many in Washington including no small number of reporters Ryans support for Trump is not merely a political miscalculation, but a craven betrayal.

Ugh. Ryan is not, repeat not, a serious, honest man of principle who has tainted his brand by supporting Donald Trump. He has been an obvious fraud all along, at least to anyone who can do budget arithmetic. His budget proposals invariably contain three elements:

1. Huge tax cuts for the wealthy. 2. Savage cuts in aid to the poor. 3. Mystery meat claims that he will raise trillions by closing unspecified tax loopholes and save trillions cutting unspecified discretionary spending.

Taking (1) and (2) together that is, looking at the policies he actually specifies his proposals have always increased the deficit, while transferring income from the have-nots to the haves. Only by invoking (3), which involves nothing but unsupported and implausible assertion, does he get to claim to reduce the deficit.

Yet he poses as an icon of fiscal probity. That is, he is, in his own way, every bit as much a fraud as The Donald.

So how has he been able to get away with this? The main answer is that he has been a huge beneficiary of false balance. The media narrative requires that there be serious, principled policy wonks on both sides of the aisle; Ryan has become the designated symbol of that supposed equivalence, even though actual budget experts have torn his proposals to shreds on repeated occasions.

And my guess is that the media will quickly forgive him for the Trump episode too. They need him for their bothsidesism. After all, its not as if there are any genuine honest policy wonks left in the party that nominated Donald Trump.

Simon Wren-Lewis has an excellent new paper trying to explain the widespread resort to austerity in the face of a liquidity trap, which is exactly the moment when such policies do the most harm. His bottom line is that

austerity was the result of right-wing opportunism, exploiting instinctive popular concern about rising government debt in order to reduce the size of the state.

I think this is right; but I would emphasize more than he does the extent to which both the general public and Very Serious People always assume that reducing deficits is the responsible thing to do. We have some polling from the 1930s, showing a strong balanced-budget bias even then:

I think Simon would say that this is consistent with his view that large deficits grease the rails for deficit phobia, since FDRs administration did run up deficits and debt that were unprecedented for peacetime. But has there ever been a time when the public favored bigger deficits?

Meanwhile, as someone who was in the trenches during the US austerity fights, I was struck by how readily mainstream figures who werent especially right-wing in general got sucked into the notion that debt reduction was THE central issue. Ezra Klein documented this phenomenon with respect to Bowles-Simpson:

For reasons Ive never quite understood, the rules of reportorial neutrality dont apply when it comes to the deficit. On this one issue, reporters are permitted to openly cheer a particular set of highly controversial policy solutions. At Tuesdays Playbook breakfast, for instance, Mike Allen, as a straightforward and fair a reporter as youll find, asked Simpson and Bowles whether they believed Obama would do the right thing on entitlements with the right thing clearly meaning cut entitlements.

Meanwhile, as Brad Setser points out, the IMF whose research department has done heroic work puncturing austerity theories and supporting a broadly Keynesian view of macroeconomics is, in practice, pushing for fiscal contraction almost everywhere.

Again, this doesnt exactly contradict Simons argument, but maybe suggests that there is a bit more to it.

Ive been writing about Donald Trumps claim that Mexicos value-added tax is an unfair trade policy, which is just really bad economics. Heres Joel Slemrod explaining that a VAT has the same effects as a sales tax. Now, nobody thinks that sales taxes are an unfair trade practice. New York has fairly high sales taxes; Delaware has no such tax. Does anyone think that this gives New York an unfair advantage in interstate competition?

But it turns out that Trump wasnt saying ignorant things off the top of his head: he was saying ignorant things fed to him by his incompetent economic advisers. Heres the campaign white paper on economics. The VAT discussion is on pages 12-13 and its utterly uninformed.

And its not the worst thing: theres lots of terrible stuff in the white paper, at every level.

Should we be reassured that Trump wasnt actually winging it here, just taking really bad advice? Not at all. This says that if he somehow becomes president, and decides to take the job seriously, it wont help because his judgment in advisers, his notion of who constitutes an expert, is as bad as his judgment on the fly.

Last nights debate was an incredible blowout yet both candidates were pretty much who we already knew they were. This was the Hillary Clinton of the Benghazi hearing confronting the Donald Trump weve seen at every stage of the campaign.

But this then raises a question: how did the race get so close? Why, on the eve of the debate, did polls show at best a narrow Clinton lead? What happened to the commanding lead Clinton held after the conventions?

You might say that Clinton ran a terrible campaign but what, exactly, did she do? Trump may have learned to read from a TelePrompter, but was that such a big deal?

Well, my guess is that it was the Goring of Hillary: beginning in late August, with the AP report on the Clinton Foundation, the mainstream media went all in on abnormalizing Mrs. Clinton, a process that culminated with Matt Lauer, who fixated on emails while letting grotesque, known, Trump lies slide. Heres a graphic, using the Upshots estimate of election probabilities (which is a useful summary of what the polls say):

The thing is, it was all scurrilous. The AP, if it had been honest, had found no evidence of wrongdoing or undue influence; if meeting a Nobel Peace Prize winner who happened to be a personal friend was their prime example But dinging the Clintons was what the cool kids were supposed to do, with normal rules not applying.

And this media onslaught pushed the race quite close on the eve of the first debate. It was feeling like 2000 all over again; and I think Jamelle Bouie got this exactly right:

But it all went off script last night, partly because HRC did so well and DJT so badly but also, I think, because pressure from progressives ensured that there was a lot of real-time fact-checking.

Whether it turns out to have been enough to turn the tide remains to be seen. But anyone in the media who participated in the razzing of Hillary Clinton should think about what we saw on that stage, and ask himself what the hell he thought he was doing.

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Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal

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Seychelles national football team – Wikipedia

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The Seychelles national football team is controlled by the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF). SFF is a member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The home turf of the team is the 10,000 capacity stadium, Stade Linit situated at Roche Caiman in the outskirts of Victoria, the capital of Seychelles.

Seychelles have never qualified for the finals of the African Nations Cup or the World Cup but they made their debut in qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations in 1986, losing to Mauritius.

Under Yugoslav coach Vojo Gardasevic, the Seychelles team made their debut in the World Cup qualifiers in 2001. Philip Zialor got the equaliser for Seychelles in a 11 draw against Namibia at Stade Linit. In the preliminary round return leg match, Seychelles lost 03.

In their second attempt to qualify, for the 2006 World Cup, Seychelles lost 04 at home to Zambia but played a 11 draw in the away match. Robert Suzette was the scorer of Seychelles goal in Lusaka. Seychelles biggest competitive win came against Zimbabwe in the African Nations Cup 2004 qualifiers. Goals by strikers Alpha Bald and Philip Zialor gave Seychelles a 21 win at Stade Linit against Zimbabwe captained by professional striker Peter Ndlovu. German coach Michael Nees was at the helm of the team at that time. Under Frenchman Dominique Bathenay, Seychelles also beat Eritrea 10 at Stade Linit by a goal by veteran Roddy Victor in the same qualifiers.

In 2011, Seychelles hosted the 2011 Indian Ocean Island Games and beat Mauritius in the finals, on penalties.

TBA

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Seychelles national football team - Wikipedia

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United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

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PART VII

HIGH SEAS

SECTION 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article86

Application of the provisions of this Part

The provisions of this Part apply to all parts of the sea that are not included in the exclusive economic zone, in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State, or in the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State. This article does not entail any abridgement of the freedoms enjoyed by all States in the exclusive economic zone in accordance with article58.

Article87

Freedom of the high seas

1. The high seas are open to all States, whether coastal or land-locked. Freedom of the high seas is exercised under the conditions laid down by this Convention and by other rules of international law. It comprises, interalia, both for coastal and land-locked States:

(a) freedom of navigation;

(b) freedom of overflight;

(d) freedom to construct artificial islands and other installations permitted under international law, subject to PartVI;

(e) freedom of fishing, subject to the conditions laid down in section2;

(f) freedom of scientific research, subject to PartsVI andXIII.

2. These freedoms shall be exercised by all States with due regard for the interests of other States in their exercise of the freedom of the high seas, and also with due regard for the rights under this Convention with respect to activities in the Area.

Article88

Reservation of the high seas for peaceful purposes

The high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes.

Article89

Invalidity of claims of sovereignty over the high seas

No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty.

Article90

Right of navigation

Every State, whether coastal or land-locked, has the right to sail ships flying its flag on the high seas.

Article91

Nationality of ships

1. Every State shall fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality to ships, for the registration of ships in its territory, and for the right to fly its flag. Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must exist a genuine link between the State and the ship.

2. Every State shall issue to ships to which it has granted the right to fly its flag documents to that effect.

Article92

Status of ships

1. Ships shall sail under the flag of one State only and, save in exceptional cases expressly provided for in international treaties or in this Convention, shall be subject to its exclusive jurisdiction on the high seas. Aship may not change its flag during a voyage or while in a port of call, save in the case of a real transfer of ownership or change of registry.

2. Aship which sails under the flags of two or more States, using them according to convenience, may not claim any of the nationalities in question with respect to any other State, and may be assimilated to a ship without nationality.

Article93

Ships flying the flag of the United Nations, its specialized agencies

and the International Atomic Energy Agency

The preceding articles do not prejudice the question of ships employed on the official service of the United Nations, its specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency, flying the flag of the organization.

Article94

Duties of the flag State

1. Every State shall effectively exercise its jurisdiction and control in administrative, technical and social matters over ships flying its flag.

2. In particular every State shall:

(a) maintain a register of ships containing the names and particulars of ships flying its flag, except those which are excluded from generally accepted international regulations on account of their small size; and

(b) assume jurisdiction under its internal law over each ship flying its flag and its master, officers and crew in respect of administrative, technical and social matters concerning the ship.

3. Every State shall take such measures for ships flying its flag as are necessary to ensure safety at sea with regard, interalia, to:

(a) the construction, equipment and seaworthiness of ships;

(b) the manning of ships, labour conditions and the training of crews, taking into account the applicable international instruments;

4. Such measures shall include those necessary to ensure:

(a) that each ship, before registration and thereafter at appropriate intervals, is surveyed by a qualified surveyor of ships, and has on board such charts, nautical publications and navigational equipment and instruments as are appropriate for the safe navigation of the ship;

(b) that each ship is in the charge of a master and officers who possess appropriate qualifications, in particular in seamanship, navigation, communications and marine engineering, and that the crew is appropriate in qualification and numbers for the type, size, machinery and equipment of the ship;

(c) that the master, officers and, to the extent appropriate, the crew are fully conversant with and required to observe the applicable international regulations concerning the safety of life at sea, the prevention of collisions, the prevention, reduction and control of marine pollution, and the maintenance of communications by radio.

5. In taking the measures called for in paragraphs3 and4 each State is required to conform to generally accepted international regulations, procedures and practices and to take any steps which may be necessary to secure their observance.

6. AState which has clear grounds to believe that proper jurisdiction and control with respect to a ship have not been exercised may report the facts to the flag State. Upon receiving such a report, the flag State shall investigate the matter and, if appropriate, take any action necessary to remedy the situation.

7. Each State shall cause an inquiry to be held by or before a suitably qualified person or persons into every marine casualty or incident of navigation on the high seas involving a ship flying its flag and causing loss of life or serious injury to nationals of another State or serious damage to ships or installations of another State or to the marine environment. The flag State and the other State shall cooperate in the conduct of any inquiry held by that other State into any such marine casualty or incident of navigation.

Article95

Immunity of warships on the high seas

Warships on the high seas have complete immunity from the jurisdiction of any State other than the flag State.

Article96

Immunity of ships used only on government non-commercial service

Ships owned or operated by a State and used only on government non-commercial service shall, on the high seas, have complete immunity from the jurisdiction of any State other than the flag State.

Article97

Penal jurisdiction in matters of collision or any other incident of navigation

1. In the event of a collision or any other incident of navigation concerning a ship on the high seas, involving the penal or disciplinary responsibility of the master or of any other person in the service of the ship, no penal or disciplinary proceedings may be instituted against such person except before the judicial or administrative authorities either of the flag State or of the State of which such person is a national.

2. In disciplinary matters, the State which has issued a master's certificate or a certificate of competence or licence shall alone be competent, after due legal process, to pronounce the withdrawal of such certificates, even if the holder is not a national of the State which issued them.

3. No arrest or detention of the ship, even as a measure of investigation, shall be ordered by any authorities other than those of the flag State.

Article98

Duty to render assistance

1. Every State shall require the master of a ship flying its flag, in so far as he can do so without serious danger to the ship, the crew or the passengers:

(a) to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost;

(b) to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him;

(c) after a collision, to render assistance to the other ship, its crew and its passengers and, where possible, to inform the other ship of the name of his own ship, its port of registry and the nearest port at which it will call.

2. Every coastal State shall promote the establishment, operation and maintenance of an adequate and effective search and rescue service regarding safety on and over the sea and, where circumstances so require, by way of mutual regional arrangements cooperate with neighbouring States for this purpose.

Article99

Prohibition of the transport of slaves

Every State shall take effective measures to prevent and punish the transport of slaves in ships authorized to fly its flag and to prevent the unlawful use of its flag for that purpose. Any slave taking refuge on board any ship, whatever its flag, shall ipsofacto be free.

Article100

Duty to cooperate in the repression of piracy

All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State.

Article101

Definition of piracy

Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

Article102

Piracy by a warship, government ship or government aircraft

whose crew has mutinied

The acts of piracy, as defined in article101, committed by a warship, government ship or government aircraft whose crew has mutinied and taken control of the ship or aircraft are assimilated to acts committed by a private ship or aircraft.

Article103

Definition of a pirate ship or aircraft

Aship or aircraft is considered a pirate ship or aircraft if it is intended by the persons in dominant control to be used for the purpose of committing one of the acts referred to in article101. The same applies if the ship or aircraft has been used to commit any such act, so long as it remains under the control of the persons guilty of that act.

Article104

Retention or loss of the nationality of a pirate ship or aircraft

Aship or aircraft may retain its nationality although it has become a pirate ship or aircraft. The retention or loss of nationality is determined by the law of the State from which such nationality was derived.

Article105

Seizure of a pirate ship or aircraft

On the high seas, or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State, every State may seize a pirate ship or aircraft, or a ship or aircraft taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board. The courts of the State which carried out the seizure may decide upon the penalties to be imposed, and may also determine the action to be taken with regard to the ships, aircraft or property, subject to the rights of third parties acting in good faith.

Article106

Free gattaca Essays and Papers – 123helpme

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Title Length Color Rating Gattaca, A Film by Andrew Niccol - Gattaca, A Film by Andrew Niccol Exactly five seconds after he came into the world, Vincent Freeman was already considered to be a loser. His first genetic test revealed high probabilities of hyperactivity, sight troubles and serious heart diseases, a life expectancy of 30 years and 2 months and quite low intellectual faculties. At that time, the artificial insemination of test tube babies selected according to their genetic potential had become for many people the natural way of making children.... [tags: Movie Films Gattaca Niccol Essays] 1596 words (4.6 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Gattaca: A Philosophical Analysis - Brimming with ultramodern scenery and metaphysical speculation, Gattaca is a profound glimpse into the not-so-distant future of humanity. Vincent, the main character, is a frustrated faith birth living in a world in which his genetically manipulated peers have succeeded him in every competition. 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It makes one think, "where do you draw the line in the advancement of eugenics?" Both worlds, the Brave New one and Gattaca, are alternative futures (clearly dystopic), written and shown in a believable way (not as much in BNW, though) through the use of satire. Also, for GATTACA, the director incorporates the traditional elements of movie - a murder-mystery tied in with a love story PLUS a science fiction touch - very effectively. Satire in Huxley's novel is glaringly obvious (mockery of the education system and the morals of today along wi... [tags: Brave New World] 624 words (1.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Gattaca The Movie And Discrimination - In the movie Gattaca the main character Anton was discriminated against because of his gene makeup. Anton never even had a chance in the society in Gattaca because the potential employees of companies were not tested on their skills or knowledge but on their physical and mental possibilities. 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[tags: Film Movie Analysis] 1219 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Human Genetic Screening and Discrimination in Gattaca - Human Genetic Screening and Discrimination in Gattaca Works Cited Missing A few months ago I watched a movie called Gattaca, which dealt with the issue of genetic discrimination in the near future. In the movie, people were separated into two classes, those that were genetically screened and positively altered before birth and the class that was unaltered. The separate classes had stark divisions, from what jobs that you were able to apply for to where you could eat. Security was aimed at keeping unaltered people away from the enhanced people.... [tags: Movie Film Biology Biological Papers] 1808 words (5.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Andrew Niccols Film, Gattaca - Andrew Niccols 1997 film Gattaca supports the belief that nature, despite its defects, is preferable to a flawless genetically engineered existence. 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[tags: film analysis, gattaca, ethics, risks] :: 9 Works Cited 1554 words (4.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Comparing Dystopian Dream of Brave New World, The Handmaids Tale and GATTACA - The Dystopian Dream of Brave New World, The Handmaids Tale and GATTACA In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill writes that it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. By this he meant there are qualitative degrees of satisfaction and if to be satisfied were lowered in status to that of a pig, its better for us to be dissatisfied humans. The film GATTACA and the books Brave New World and The Handmaids Tale create fictional places where the needs and desires of humans are met, but not as well as they should be and not without a price.... 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Two important facts in the analysis will mark Vincents life, a fail in his cardio system and his life expectancy, only thirty years. The film shows a world where life is highly determined by genetics, and happiness is mostly based on the quality of the genetic profile, a kind of identity card for people.... [tags: Film Analysis, Movies, Films] :: 4 Works Cited 1231 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Case Against Perfection by Michael Sandel - Michael Sandel is a distinguished political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. Sandel is best known for his best known for his critique of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice. While he is an acclaimed professor if government, he has also delved deeply into the ethics of biotechnology. At Harvard, Sandel has taught a course called "Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature" and from 2002 to 2005 he served on the Presidents Council on Bioethics (Harvard University Department of Government, 2013).... [tags: ethics, biotechnology, genetic engineering] :: 4 Works Cited 972 words (2.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] Testing an Authors Vision Organization Guide - Testing an Authors Vision Organization Guide Introduction You will need to transition us, the readers, from our world into your paper. Make sure you give us a sense of context (what gave rise to your paper?), conflict (give us a sense of They Say/I Say), and focus (give us a question that focuses your paper or give us your thesis statement). So, for the focus you might have: ---Is this vision of genetic manipulation in literature possible, and if so, should we be afraid. ---OR.This vision of genetic manipulation is occurring in small amounts today and could blossom into a world in which individuals fear imperfection and groups of perfect people wield power over those less than the visio... [tags: Assignment] 1045 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] ?Vincent is not a hero? Discuss - Vincent is not a hero Discuss Andrew Niccol has created a character that is portrayed as being a struggler from the moment he was born, he was destined to play this role as soon as he was conceived naturally as he was to wear the label of God child for the rest of his life , this label determines they life style and quality of life he will lead and the prospects are not good -They used to say that a child conceived in love has a greater chance of happiness. They don't say that anymore. Niccol leads us to believe that Vincent is a man who has overcome the odds in order to achieve his dream in a society where individuality is an unrequited trait and the ability to conform plus right DN... [tags: essays research papers] 972 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering is Immoral - Genetic engineering gives the power to change many aspects of nature and could result in a lot of life-saving and preventative treatments. Today, scientists have a greater understanding of genetics and its role in living organisms. However, if this power is misused, the damage could be very great. Therefore, although genetic engineering is a field that should be explored, it needs to be strictly regulated and tested before being put into widespread use. Genetic engineering has also, opened the door way to biological solutions for world problems, as well as aid for body malfunctions.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 423 words (1.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Neo-Eugenics The Social and Biological Ethics of Designer Babies - ... Also it is now understood that ooplasm, the cytoplasm within an egg, can be transferred to another egg in order to swap mitochondrial DNA. Scientists have also figured out that ooplasm is not the only part of the cell that can be transferred, but that whole nuclei can be replaced as well. This is a major breakthrough because whole sets of DNA can be placed into another cell. In a culture where parents seek advantages for their children in schooling, diet, exercise, extracurricular activities, and the like, it is hard to imagine that cultural pressures would not be great to pursue the same for their children with respect to enhanced traits. This quote from an academic journal from Berke... [tags: Healthier Reace, Future Generations] :: 2 Works Cited 1586 words (4.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Hollywood: Promoting Stereotypes to Make Easy Money - Every week numerous Hollywood movies and rereleases open in theaters, video stores, and online movie distributors nationwide: heartwarming films such as The Blind Side; laughter inducing and children captivating classics like Aladdin; movies about overcoming struggles such as, Gattaca. All these new movies and classics alike hold a particular place in our hearts and in our lives. Maybe because of a similarity to our own lives or the main character embraces characteristics we hold dear. Whatever the reason, a contributing factor to the variety of movie produced in Hollywood can trace itself to liberal and socially progressive movie making.... [tags: Hollywood vs Minorities] 1841 words (5.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Ethics of Genetically Enhancing Children - The term designer children is unnerving at first to many. The idea of parents designing the genetic makeup of their offspring makes children seem like a commodity in a genetic free market. Thoughts of a dystopian society like the one in the film Gattaca come to mind. However, taking an immediate repugnant stand against genetic enhancement is not well-founded. A more open-minded inspection of the issue reveals that the idea of parents improving their childrens life prospects through genetic engineering (provided it is safe) is, at its core, not unethical.... [tags: designer children] 1314 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Decline of the World's IQ - What will end the world as we know it. It could be climate change, disease, famine, or global war. If none of those come to pass there is always the truth that we are breeding our IQ into the basement. Its called dysgeneic fertilization, and it has been happening for as long as weve been recording intelligence. Although this decline can be seen across the board, not everyone is affected the same way or to the same extent. With each generation that passes a gap widens between those retaining intelligence and those hemorrhaging intelligence.... [tags: Dystopic Apocalypse] :: 6 Works Cited 1099 words (3.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] DNA Donation: A Personal Choice - Moral choices, ethical dilemmas, personal biases, and strong opinions tend to go hand in hand; you certainly cannot have one without the other. The topic of this paper is an ethical dilemma that will cause me to make a moral choice; I am also personally biased and strongly opinionated in regards to the situation. The topic is the donation of my DNA for a research study; the goal of the study will be to find a variant of a gene that will resist specific bacterial diseases. If the company succeeds in finding this gene, it may be able to produce a drug to sell to people who have these diseases.... [tags: Medical Ethics ] :: 5 Works Cited 1340 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Altering Human Genome - Altering Human Genome The gene pool could use a little chlorine. -Bumper Sticker Consider Gods handiwork; who can straighten what He hath made crooked? -Ecclesiastes 7:13, from Gattaca I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature. I think Mother wants us to. -Willard Gaylin, from Gattaca With the scientific breakthroughs of the recent decades the humans have become more powerful than ever in their mastery of Nature. The genetic engineering that allows extracting and modifying the genetic makeup of the future person or animal is in a sense the power of Creation.... [tags: Eugenics Genetics Science Essays] :: 14 Works Cited 1425 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Value of a Dystopia - A perfect world with no negative aspects can be defined as a utopia. A utopia consists of having all the required or desirable elements of life that one has in mind. Everyone has an altered perception on what a utopia is, but in order for the world to be a utopia a universal definition is vital. Some elements to be considered in a utopia include a society that is stable socially, morally, politically, and economically. The more a world is in deficient to these key elements of a utopia, the farther the world travels from the parameters of a utopia.... [tags: Sociology ] :: 5 Works Cited 2306 words (6.6 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Theory of Knowledge - That which is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow. Knowledge itself can be compared to a small child who is about to begin the long way in learning. Why this comparison. Since, as the child grows and goes through all the school years, with time, he will learn more and more than what he did before. The same situation can be applied to knowledge itself. The pursuit of knowledge has lead mankind to the point of development we are at as of the 21st century. With the passing of time, new ideas and methodologies, and key technological developments have lead, not to discarding knowledge, but to modifying our previous knowledge.... [tags: Natural Sciences] :: 3 Works Cited 1037 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Dystopian Comparisons - In the Book A Clockwork Orange, the short stories Harrison Burgeron, The Lottery and the movies Gattaca and the Truman Show by Anthony Burgess, Kurt Vonnegut, Shirly Jackson, Andrew Niccol and Peter Wier respectively. These pieces of literature(and cinematography) all have a society that controls and manipulates the individual or Protaganist. The society does this because it wants total control over both the individual and the society as a whole. A Clockwork Orange is futuristic look at England.... [tags: Compare Contrast] 1439 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and the End of the World As We Know It - "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" --- From a Song by REM Having completed the Human Genome Project, scientists now seek to uncover the secrets of the human proteome (Begley 1). It is "guesstimated" that the proteome, meaning all the proteins, will involve up to 1000 times more data than the genome did. But this again brings us to the question: What will the scientific and medical communities do with all this information. deCode Genetics, partnered with Roche Holding of Basel, wants Iceland's genes to examine 25-35 common genetically linked diseases (Marshall 539).... [tags: Genetic Manipulation Essays] :: 5 Works Cited 1406 words (4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Designer Babies - Within the last 100 years or so scientists have many valuable discoveries that have benefited mankind. These discoveries include the discovery of genes. Scientists have discovered what makes humans so unique from one another. However, with this newly gained knowledge of the function of genes comes the ability to alter or change them. Just imagine in the not so near future, you and your partner want to start a family together. You travel to your local gene councillor to pick the physical and characteristic traits of your child.... [tags: Genetic Engineering] :: 3 Works Cited 1141 words (3.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Therapuetic Cloning - Children grow up watching movies such as Star Wars as well as Gattaca that contain the idea of cloning which usually depicts that society is on the brink of war or something awful is in the midsts but, with todays technology the sci-fi nature of cloning is actually possible. The science of cloning obligates the scientific community to boil the subject down into the basic category of morality pertaining towards cloning both humans as well as animals. While therapeutic cloning does have its moral disagreements towards the use of using the stem cells of humans to medically benefit those with incomplete sets of DNA, the benefits of therapeutic cloning outweigh the disagreements indubitably due... [tags: dna, medicine, treatment] :: 5 Works Cited 1296 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering - In the field of animal and human genetic engineering there is much more speculation, than fact, because very little has actually been tested in the real world. Firstly, theres a big question mark over safety of genetic engineering. In addition, genetic engineering can cause greater problems than that what we have today. Moreover, we can create a injustice world between Designer vs Non-designer children. Furthermore, genetic engineering is a type of murder because of the process of genetically modifying a baby.... [tags: designer babies, perfect baby] :: 5 Works Cited 911 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Biometric Security Technology - Biometric Security Technology You have seen biometric technology in the films Mission: Impossible and Gattaca. The technology has also graced the covers of many weekly news magazines. But many people, even though the technology has been widely talked about for the last half decade, are still surprisingly unaware of what biometrics are and why the technology is so important for computer security and personal identification. Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physical or behavioral characteristic (2001).... [tags: Technological Computers Essays] :: 6 Works Cited 1393 words (4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Belief and Knowledge - There are many contentions our present world has faced that require a thorough thought process in order to represent a side of the argument. We see that there are many different authorities that tell us we should be thinking in certain directions. However, most people need to realize that influence from these different sources such as academics, politicians, companies, global organizations, media, and others in this nebulous category, dont always steer us in the write direction. Maybe they can provide us with knowledge about a certain problem, or information regarding each side, but when it comes down to the bottom, belief and knowledge seems to be what most people turn to.... [tags: essays research papers] 1571 words (4.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Truman Show - The Truman Show The life of Truman Burbank has been broadcast around the world with tremendous success since the day he was born. A star for the mere fact that he exists, Truman has no idea that there are cameras in every corner of his world. he has literally been ON television from the moment of his birth. With the honor of being the first child to be formally adopted by a corporation, Truman has had every moment of his existence captured by television cameras. The Truman Show, a worldwide reality series that runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and every day of the year, has been witness to his first words, his first steps, his first day at school-- nothing has escaped the... [tags: Papers] 677 words (1.9 pages) Better Essays [preview] Genetic Manipulation - Genetic Manipulation Genes, being part of the basic building blocks of man, control all aspects of one's life. They control how tall you are, what color your eyes are, and what diseases might afflict you in the future. Therefore, the manipulation of such genes can be a controversial topic. The controversy most likely stems from the ethical and social questions that are raised by this procedure. Jean Dausset, author of "Scientific Knowledge and Human Dignity," and George B. Kutukdjian, author of "UNESCO and Bioethics," both discuss the topic of genetic manipulation.... [tags: Papers] 1136 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Is Utopia Possible? - Is Utopia Possible. Utopia: remote cabin on the beach, the kingship of a vast empire, Nirvana; Heaven, the Happy Hunting Grounds, paradise, perfection. What exactly is Utopia. According to Webster it is "1, an imaginary and indefinitely remote place" or " 2, often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection esp. in laws, government, and social conditions". Where is this perfect place. Will my dog live forever there. Will I never grow old. If I never grow old there does that mean I never mature.... [tags: Papers] 588 words (1.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Truman Show and Pleasantville Review - The Truman Show and Pleasantville Review The Truman Show, a comedy/ drama was directed by Peter Weir (nominee for Best Director in 1998, Academy Awards). The film was scripted by Andrew M. Niccol, including last years "Gatttaca," a similarly themed tale, Niccol delivers optimism and affection for the human condition. Jim Carry plays the role of Truman Burbank who is a charming and unwitting star, the world's most popular, 24 hour non-stop soap called 'The Truman Show'. Pleasantville is a winsome and witty comedy/ drama starring Tobey Maguire as 'David' and Reese Witherspoon as 'Jennifer'.... [tags: Papers] 1332 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview]

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Title Length Color Rating Early 20th Century Eugenics as part of Modernism - As the sun was setting on the 19th century, a new theory, called eugenics was just beginning to rise. Eugenics is the idea that human mental, moral, temperamental and physiological traits are passed down through generations, and that society should attempt to foster the reproduction of those with favorable traits and discourage or eliminate those with less than favorable traits. In the early parts of the 20th century, eugenics was put into practice across the rich world. This increase, not only in popularity but in application is best viewed when part of the greater context of modernity.... [tags: Eugenics] :: 5 Works Cited 1047 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The History of Eugenics in America - Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally. After the major turn of the century, eugenics developed into a world- wide movement. (Vermont University, 2003) It was led by scientist and scholars in several diverse fields, and funded by wealthy philanthropists, also supported by statesmen. Eugenics played a very vital and central role in the political, social, and intellectual history of numerous diverse peoples and nations.... [tags: The Eugenics Movement] :: 5 Works Cited 2148 words (6.1 pages) Research Papers [preview] Eugenics: A Controversial Science - Eugenics has been a very controversial science that has existed in the world for centuries. Eugenics is defined as the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)(Dictionary.com, 2005). Its base came from the idea that the human race could be perfected by getting rid of its undesirable traits and the desirable ones could be multiplied.... [tags: Eugenics Essays] 1168 words (3.3 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Eugenics Movement - In the 1920s, a company in New York started a movement known as The Eugenics Movement. The idea of eugenics was eventually picked up by Germany, China, Peru, India and Bangladesh. The movement is still in effect till this day; however, it is not as prevalent as it once was. The beginning of the Eugenics Movement all started at Cold Spring Harbor, New York. The United States coined the term Eugenics from Great Britain in the early 1900s. In the year 1910, a man by the name of Charles B. Davenport founded the Eugenics Records Office (ERO).... [tags: Eugenics, ERO, sterilization] :: 3 Works Cited 1539 words (4.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Eugenics -Not the Way of the Future - Eugenics in the world today has become an issue because of its many positive uses furthermore its possible consequences. It is believed by many that eugenics does more harm than good, on the other hand there are exceptions; it is not the way of the future. There is no doubt that it could be extremely useful for preventing diseases such as cancer and others before we are even born. But, with this also comes the ability to give children genes before their born that will give them talent to run faster, jump higher, use more of their brain which will strictly discriminate them from the rest of society in a way where they will always stand out, the reason being is their extraordinary talents due... [tags: Eugenics, Genetic Engineering] 722 words (2.1 pages) Good Essays [preview] The Ethics and Morality of Eugenics in Society - My research revolves around the ethics and morality of eugenics (Science of heredity and good breeding), and whether society should be in favor of influencing genetics in order to create a more favorable genetic pool. This topic interests me because I find great interest in political and cultural issues, and I have always been fascinated by whether eugenics would actually work and if governments should be in support of it. The sources I found were all scientific journals from credible books. I did this to because I needed to gain information on studies that have taken place in the name of eugenics as well as establish that eugenics is high priority within the scientific community.Taking this... [tags: disabled, eugenics, influencing genetics] :: 7 Works Cited 1598 words (4.6 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] A Look at Eugenics - Introduction Eugenics is the conviction and practice of enhancing the hereditary nature of the human population. It is a social theory upholding the change of human hereditary qualities through the advancement of higher proliferation of individuals with coveted characteristics and decreased multiplication of individuals with less-wanted or undesired attributes. It alludes to the investigation of or faith in the likelihood of enhancing the characteristics of the human species or a human populace, especially by embracing varied hereditary qualities or pessimistic selective breeding.... [tags: Heredity Nature, Human Heredity Qualities] :: 4 Works Cited 1221 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The ethics of eugenics - The theory of eugenics has changed throughout time from its conception by Sir Francis Galton to its modern technological interpretation in the 21st century. The term has been embraced by Social Darwinists, Progressives, human genetic engineers, and Nazis, to just name a few. The theorys popularity has undergone cycles of approval and upheaval as it is a fairly conceptually fluid idea. Today its definition is still hazy, with both sides of its controversial spectrum debating what it really means.... [tags: Social Darwinists, Sir Francis Galton] :: 28 Works Cited 1675 words (4.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Misapplication of Eugenics - The concept of eugenics has to do with the belief or practice of improving the genetic quality of the human race (Eugenics 2010). The concept was first introduced by Francis Galton, a researcher who wished to apply Darwins theory of evolution to the human race. Much like many endeavors that start off with good intentions, the results of applying this concept in real life were gross crimes against humanity. The eugenics movement in the early 20th century perverted the original concept by employing morally objectionable techniques including forced sterilization, marriage restrictions, segregation, internment camps, and genocide (Black 2012).... [tags: Humans, Genetic Quality, Francis Galton] :: 4 Works Cited 1023 words (2.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Three Stooges: Charles Darwin, Adolf Hitler and Margaret Sanger - Only the most imaginative mind could fathom the thought of human beings being selected or disregarded and even killed based on biological protocol. This scientific theory is responsible for the reproduction of superior genes through heredity by controversial means. This idea is based on the evolution of the human species or basically survival of the fittest. Charles Darwin who is the greatest known scientist to ever live popularized this theory and is responsible for the brutality and death of well over 100 million human beings.... [tags: Eugenics] :: 41 Works Cited 1299 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Downfall of Eugenics - In the twentieth-century politics has played a vital role in the way disease is perceived by the average person. Every aspect of disease became a political concern with eugenics publically taking on a major role in public policy. Giving credit to eugenics, many Americans began to worry more about their personal genetic traits as well as the traits that they may pass on to their children. Later society became interested with eugenics on a more community-oriented basis. The downfall of Eugenics came when reformers began to use it as a program of social control, promoting government intervention and coercion in human reproduction. Masturbation was once seen as degenerative disease that led... [tags: Medical Ethics] :: 4 Works Cited 1192 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Edwin Black's War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race - Edwin Black's War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race To the average American it seems unfathomable that US based research into the "scientific" practice of eugenics could have been the foundation and impetus for Hitler's Nazi genocide and atrocities. In addition, notions of racial superiority and the scientific quest for the development of a pure Aryan nation, both by the United States and foreign countries, particularly Germany, were funded and fueled by monies from such prominent families as the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Harriman's.... [tags: Edwin Black Eugenics Master Race Essays] 1983 words (5.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] What is Eugenics? - Introduction Eugenics is defined as a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed (1). The principles of eugenics have been used in many different countries for various reasons. In the United States, eugenics reached its peak in the pre-World War II period. It was believed that the most efficient way to deal with social problems, such as mental illness, poverty and crime, was to inhibit reproduction among people with such characteristics.... [tags: Science, Improving Hereditary Traits. Human] :: 20 Works Cited 1713 words (4.9 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Practice of Positive Eugenics - Since its inception in 1883, eugenics has long since been the subject of controversy and a forum for discussion on ethics and morality. Positive eugenics, defined as, "encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits," is considered a benevolent form of eugenics, but can be used for sinister purposes. Negative eugenics, officially defined as, "discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits," is perhaps the more well-known variety of eugenics, with notable examples such as the Holocaust and forced sterilization.... [tags: ethics and morality, reproduction] :: 13 Works Cited 1178 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Eugenics: Improving The Human Race? - The idea that one can improve the human race by careful selection of those who mate and produce offspring is called eugenics. It is better understood as the process of selective breeding can improve human society. The term eugenics is from the greek, meaning well-born. The idea of eugenics is to have a society be abundant with many wanted traits, during a movement called the melting pot where people tried to solve their problems with the use of technology. Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development, is the book in which Sir Francis Galton first mentioned the term eugenics.... [tags: Scientific Research ] :: 5 Works Cited 1135 words (3.2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Eugenics - Eugenics, the word that got its bad reputation years ago through an event that changed history: the Holocaust. First dubbed by Francis Galton in the 1880s, the word Eugenics stemmed from the words good and generation. (Eugenics-Meanings) Eugenics means the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population. This improvement is done through discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics); or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).... [tags: Genetic Engineering] :: 6 Works Cited 1552 words (4.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Eugenics - Taken from the Greek word eugenes meaning good in stock the term eugenics was coined in 1883 By Francis Galton (1822-1911). Today it is defined by the OED as Pertaining or adapted to the production of fine offspring, esp. in the human race. We will attempt to explain what eugenics was within in the context of its time and how it was to be applied to humans. We will also attempt to identify who its supporters were and the many different reasons why the eugenic doctrine appealed to them. The problem of what to do about the urban poor had been a continuing worry for the middle classes since the mid nineteenth century.... [tags: Sociology] 2214 words (6.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Eugenics: Solving Social Problems? - The melting pot was a movement to solve social problems of the population with the use of technology. Eugenics is the use of science to solve social problems. It is defined as the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits.... [tags: Scientific Research ] :: 9 Works Cited 1201 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] IVF and the New Eugenics - The addition of a child into a familys home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents.... [tags: Infertility] :: 8 Works Cited 1509 words (4.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Eugenics and Planned Parenthood - When one contemplates the concept of eugenics, few think of modern contraception and abortion when in reality they are one in the same. The American Eugenics Society, founded in 1923, proudly proclaimed that men with incurable conditions should be sterilized. However these conditions were often none that could be helped, such as, ones intelligence, race, and social class (Schweikart and Allen 529-532). The purpose of the society was to create the perfect class of men; elite in all ways.... [tags: Birth Control Movement] :: 12 Works Cited 1395 words (4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Was Eugenics Ever Moral? - Eugenics is the study or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species. Sounds good, right. But the question here is, is it moral to sacrifice someones life or the ability for someone to create life in the name of science. Surely Francis Galton and Gregor Mendel thought so. In the nineteenth century, biology was at its peak. Charles Darwin, who just happens to be Galtons cousin, had just introduced his idea of survival of the fittest. Galton then took that thesis and dissected it.... [tags: human species, charles darwin] :: 7 Works Cited 1043 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] International Eugenics - Throughout the history of international relations, the study of human diversity has held a key role in establishing the political principles and recognized shared culture that defines nationhood. Nations have traditionally been associated with a specific geographic location and political ideology, but they also have ethnical identifiers associated with this shared culture. These ethnical identifiers were thrust onto the world stage during the end of the nineteenth century with the introduction of the study of eugenics.... [tags: Sociology ] :: 13 Works Cited 1825 words (5.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] How the US introduced Eugenics to the World - Eugenics is defined as human improvement by genetic means to improve the hereditary qualities of a race or breed and it was coined by Francis Galton in 1869. Throughout history, the World has borne witness to such atrocities as genocide, where the roots of these movements have been to eliminate the undesirables to allow the strongest and purest an opportunity to thrive and exist. Many would believe that the eugenics movement first started in Europe when the Nazis tried to eradicate Jews, Gays, Gypsys or anyone else they deemed not a part of the master race dreamed up by Hitler.... [tags: sterilization, genetics, Germany, race] :: 10 Works Cited 1022 words (2.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Eugenics: America's Dark Past and Future - The idea of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed race is often credited to Adolf Hitler. The not as well-known part is that this idea was around before Hitler and actually was spread to Germany by eugenics scientists in the United States. In this paper we will look into the full history of eugenics and how the idea was spread across the world. Along the journey we will encounter many major donors that may be of surprise to some of us. Eugenics has been a dark presence in the history of America and will continue to be until real strides are made to end racism.... [tags: blonde-haired, blue-eyed race, hitler] :: 9 Works Cited 1460 words (4.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Rise and Fall of the Eugnics Movement - Introduction According to Merriam-Webster.com, eugenics is defined as the theory dealing with the production or treatment of a fine, healthy race. Despite this seemingly innocent representation, eugenics is an extremely controversial science. Some even debate whether or not it is worthy of the label of science, or if its just a form of intellectual racism. Nevertheless, eugenics was greatly embraced and was behind a scientific and social revolution during the late 19th century through the Second World War.... [tags: A Historical Analysis of Eugenics] :: 10 Works Cited 3924 words (11.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] Genetic Engineering: Cloning: Dolly and Eugenics - Cloning is vital in American society because it will help us further our knowledge in genetics. Also cloning will make us realize how much scientists can actually accomplish knowing how to clone. Scientists were able to clone an animal in 1997. That accomplishment made all the scientists theories about cloning possible. It gave the scientists hope that one day they will maybe be able to clone a human because they were able to clone a mammal. Eugenics is also vital to American society. Eugenics is the practice of improving humans genetic quality of the human population as a whole.... [tags: dna, science, god] :: 13 Works Cited 1691 words (4.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Eugenics in America - Eugenics in America Eugenics profoundly impacted the culture of the twentieth century. Coined in 1893 by Sir Francis Galton, it studied the heredity and selection of favorable traits. Born out of the social tumults of the late nineteenth century, it represented the Western elites attempt to protect itself from so called inferior cultures of the colonies and new wave immigration. The late eighteenth century was a turbulent time throughout America. An influx of immigrants packed into massive cities such as New York and Chicago.... [tags: Sociology Essays Research Papers] 710 words (2 pages) Better Essays [preview] Reprogenetics and Eugenics - Reprogenetics and Eugenics Advantages: Reprogenetics will enable parents to give their children genes that they themselves do not carry, thereby increasing their offspring's chances for health, longevity, happiness, and success -- this is an appalling prospect for many bio ethicists. Eugenics embodies the desire and attempts of a society's leaders to control the breeding practices of its citizens, including the forcible sterilization or murder of those deemed as carrying undesirable genes.... [tags: Papers] 862 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] Eugenic Decision-Making - Eugenics is defined, in some way or the other, as the process of reshaping the human race by determining the kinds of people who will be born. As such, there is much debate in the field of eugenics, with authors, like Philip Kitcher, who support laissez-faire or a minimalist approach of eugenics in which eugenic decision-making should be limited only to avoid neurological illnesses and in which parental free choice is valued. Gregory Stocks essay, The Enhanced and Un-Enhanced, presents otherwise by supporting the position of maximalist eugenics, allowing individuals the full extent in the selection of genes.... [tags: Gattaca, Laissez-Faire, Maximalist Eugenics] 1482 words (4.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Understanding of Eugenics, and the Move Forward from Past Failures. - The Understanding of Eugenics, and the Move Forward from Past Failures. Eugenics, from the Greek word Eu-genes, which means well-born or of good stock, In 1869 was the name given to the work produced by scientist Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911). Sir Francis Galtons work was based primarily on the theories of biological evolution, first developed by Charles Darwin, and was published in his book The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859. Charles Darwin theorized that all species of life descended from common ancestors, and that natural selection had a profound effect by using selective breeding to enhance its worth.... [tags: Sir Francis Galton, Bilogical Evolution, Biology] :: 4 Works Cited 938 words (2.7 pages) Better Essays [preview] Atrocities Associated with the Eugenics Movement - Atrocities Associated with the Eugenics Movement Among the fears of many environmentalists is that of overpopulation. Acutely aware of the finite resources that the planet possesses and the limitations of renewable resources, there are concerns that the planet may soon reach its maximum caring capacity. Since the First Great Transition ten thousand years ago, the planet has experienced an astounding increase in population. Generations later, the planet is beginning to feel the effects of continual population expansion.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers] :: 4 Works Cited 1243 words (3.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Eugenics - The roots of eugenics can be traced back to Britain in the early 1880s when Sir Francis Galton generated the term from the Greek word for well-born. He defined eugenics as the science of improving stock, whether human or animal. According to the American Eugenics Movement, todays study of eugenics has many similarities to studies done in the early 20th century. Back then, Eugenics was, quite literally, an effort to breed better human beings by encouraging the reproduction of people with "good" genes and discouraging those with "bad" genes. (www.eugenicsarchive.org) According to Merriam-Webster, the modern day definition of eugenics is, a science that deals with t... [tags: essays research papers] 1049 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Neo-Eugenics The Social and Biological Ethics of Designer Babies - ... Also it is now understood that ooplasm, the cytoplasm within an egg, can be transferred to another egg in order to swap mitochondrial DNA. Scientists have also figured out that ooplasm is not the only part of the cell that can be transferred, but that whole nuclei can be replaced as well. This is a major breakthrough because whole sets of DNA can be placed into another cell. In a culture where parents seek advantages for their children in schooling, diet, exercise, extracurricular activities, and the like, it is hard to imagine that cultural pressures would not be great to pursue the same for their children with respect to enhanced traits. This quote from an academic journal from Berke... [tags: Healthier Reace, Future Generations] :: 2 Works Cited 1586 words (4.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Eugenics - Eugenics President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." The Civil War was fought to save the republic and free the enslaved. World War II was fought to save the world and stop a group which thought they were a superior race. What do these two wars have in common. They were fought, in part, for equality.... [tags: Papers] 1119 words (3.2 pages) Good Essays [preview] Eugenics Should be Abolished - Eugenics Should be Abolished Since the end of the 19th century, eugenics has had a significant role in the development of Western society. There have been laws established by its presence and a war fought to cease its progress. To analyze the philosophy of and the actions due to eugenics, one must look at the past and see what contributions eugenics has made to events in history. One must also look at the present applications of eugenics and how they affect the lives of people. With these two directions, one can see that because it is racist, encourages immoral actions and is biologically unsound, eugenics is iniquitous and should be abolished from modern medical and political thought.... [tags: Papers] 3259 words (9.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Ethics of Genocide and Eugenics - Gene Therapy: Genocide and Eugenics or Striving for a More Perfect Population Controversy and Ethics Just as there are different types of people who look at one glass of water and describe it as half full or half empty, the public has many different views on the future of our society. Gene therapy is also a glass that can be viewed in different angles different perspectives. Some say it has great potential to shape the ideals of our future, while others believe it signifies intolerance for disabilities, imperfections that supposedly deplete from a persons interests, opportunities and welfare (quoted by Peter Singer, xviii).... [tags: Biology Medical Biomedical Genetics] :: 2 Works Cited 1413 words (4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Euthanasia Essay: Eugenics To Euthanasia - Eugenics To Euthanasia This essay presents the appeal which euthanasia has to modern society. What is this appeal based on. Is it a valid appeal. These and other questions are addressed in this paper. See if this story sounds familiar: A happily married couple - she is a pianist; he a rising scientist - have their love suddenly tested by a decline in the wife's health. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she falls victim to a steady loss of muscle control and paralysis. The desperate husband uses all his professional skills to save her.... [tags: Free Euthanasia Essay] :: 1 Works Cited 1001 words (2.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering and Eugenics - Genetic Engineering and Eugenics The idea of genetic engineering has been a very heated topic of discussion lately. The possibilities of this topic range from cloning to gene therapy and eugenics. The most recent type, eugenics through gene therapy has created a lot of controversy. Eugenics is the study of how to improve human genetic heritage. This basically is the engineering of babies. The thought of these new designer babies raises many new questions. What are the consequences of these advances.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers] 1108 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The American Eugenics Movement - The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton, who believed that the breeding of two wealthy and successful members of society would produce a child superior to that of two members of the lower class. This assumption was based on the idea that genes for success or particular excellence were present in our DNA, which is passed from parent to child. Despite the blatant lack of research, two men, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Jon Alfred Mjoen, played to the white supremacists desires and claimed that white genes were inherently superior to other races, and with this base formed the first eugenics society.... [tags: essays research papers fc] :: 3 Works Cited 1421 words (4.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] In Opposition of Eugenics and Human Embryo Research - In Opposition of Eugenics and Human Embryo Research There are a variety of views of eugenics and all that it entails. The definition of eugenics is "the science of improving the physical and mental qualities of human beings through control of the factors influencing heredity," ( Funk and Wagnall's, 1984). Others think eugenics is the social control of human genetic evolution, an ideology of racism and genocide, thought to improve society and halt disease while others think only of the Nazi Regime (Saetz, 1985 and McGee, 1997).... [tags: Argumentative Persuasive Essays] 667 words (1.9 pages) Better Essays [preview] Ethical Complications of Genetic Engineering and Eugenics - Genetic engineering is currently the fastest growing and perhaps most controversial field of science. Genetic engineering is decoding and manipulating DNA to use for scientific and medical purposes. "The discovery that human cells can be grown in a petri dish has opened up breathtaking possibilities for curing disease - and a morass of ethical complications" (Allen 9). Genetic engineering has already started to be most helpful in the field of medicine. The map of the human genome offers many cures and potentially successful medical procedures.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers] :: 6 Works Cited 3149 words (9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] To What Extent are American Scientist and Institutions Responsible for Nazi Eugenics? - During Adolf Hitlers reign many American companies and scientist contributed towards advances in eugenic studies, are they to blame for the atrocities that occurred in the Second World War. It started in the late 1800s by Francis Galton who believed that to raise the present miserably low standard of the human race breeding the best with the best had to happen. Although the United States had a large amount of involvement, many European scientists and governments aided the research. In the late 1800s many rich businessmen and prior slave owners were most likely upset as slavery had been abolished, so through science they wanted to make Africans and Asians an inferior race.... [tags: adolf hitler, second world war, racism] :: 7 Works Cited 1043 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Josef Mengele and The Inhumane Experiments in Auschwitz - He cut into me, without anesthetic, . . .The pain was indescribable. I felt every slice of the knife. Then I saw my kidney pulsating in his hand. I cried like a madman, I cried out the prayer; Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one . . . And I prayed to die, that I might not suffer this agony any more (Hall). This was said by a patient of Dr. Josef Mengele, Mr.Yitzhak Ganon. Mr. Ganon was of the survivors of the inhumane experiments that took place in Auschwitz by the hand of the abominable man that is Josef Mengele.... [tags: angel of death, evil, eugenics] :: 10 Works Cited 1323 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Stereotypes where the Mentally Handicapped People are Ignorant - In history, stereotypes in society have been negative towards people with disabilities and that often led to discrimination. Colonial Americans, in the 1700s, referred to people with handicaps as lunatics. Lunatic by todays definition is someone crazy or insane. However, the root word, lunar, means, moons. Back then, people thought that a full moon had something to do with the mental illness that the child was born with. Some thought that the baby could be affected by being conceived, being born under, or sleeping in the light of a full moon.... [tags: disabilities, lunatic, eugenics] 627 words (1.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] Eugenics: An Excuse To Be A Racist Or A Means To A Better Tomorrow? - Eugenics: An Excuse to be a Racist or a Means to a Better Tomorrow. The term eugenics was coined in the late 19th century. Its goal was to apply the breeding practices and techniques used in plants and animals to human reproduction. Francis Galton stated in his Essays in Eugenics that he wished to influence "the useful classes" in society to put more of their DNA in the gene pool. The goal was to collect records of families who were successful by virtue of having three or more adult male children who have gain superior positions to their peers.... [tags: essays research papers] 1102 words (3.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism - American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism Works Cited Missing Nancy Ordover argues that current attempts to regulate marginalized social groups are eugenicist movements couched in new language. While "today, the preoccupation with immigrant fertility is couched in concerns over expenditures rather than in classic eugenicist worries over the depletion of the national gene pool" (54), that supposed strain on the national economy presented by immigration is still located in immigrant's reproduction, although it is less frequently explicitly the "whiteness" of the nation that is threatened.... [tags: Sociology Sociological Essays] 1123 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Methods of Experimentation and Research in the Natural Sciences that are Limited due to Ethical Considerations - The production of knowledge, the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject (New Oxford), has constantly been accomplished throughout the history of man as a result of the characteristics of creativity and curiosity. These attributes, besides ethics, have set humans apart from the other species allowing for constant and rapid development. According to (Rest), an ethical judgment is the process by which an individual determines that one alternative is morally right and another alternative is morally wrong.... [tags: eugenics, animal testing, ethical judgement] :: 8 Works Cited 1459 words (4.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Altering Human Genome - Altering Human Genome The gene pool could use a little chlorine. -Bumper Sticker Consider Gods handiwork; who can straighten what He hath made crooked? -Ecclesiastes 7:13, from Gattaca I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature. I think Mother wants us to. -Willard Gaylin, from Gattaca With the scientific breakthroughs of the recent decades the humans have become more powerful than ever in their mastery of Nature. The genetic engineering that allows extracting and modifying the genetic makeup of the future person or animal is in a sense the power of Creation.... [tags: Eugenics Genetics Science Essays] :: 14 Works Cited 1425 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering: Pros and Cons - Our world has finally begun its long-predicted descent into the depths of chaos. We may not yet realize it, but more and more problems plague the very state of our humanity with each passing day, such as cancer, famine, genetic disorders, and social elitism. It seems as though there is little hope, although a new solution has finally emerged, in the form of genetic engineering. It is apparent, however, that currently we cannot proceed, because while there are an abundant amount of advantages to genetic engineering, it is not a utopian process; criticism includes its practicality, theological implications, and changes in modern social structure.... [tags: Eugenics, Ethics] :: 5 Works Cited 1212 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] History and culture of Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let me Go uses a dystopian fantasy world to illustrate the author's view that our real world practice of eugenics is as equally immoral and degrading as the world he describes. The eugenic-soaked world of Never Let me Go is dystopian, and our real world, with its quiet adoption of 'soft' eugenics, is equally dystopian. Ishiguro's point is that utopia can never be attained in either realm if it contains the contagion of eugenics. By depicting unfair struggles that eugenics rigged "pre-destination" imposes on his oh so human characters, Ishiguro portrays the Eugenist's utopian wet dream as a nightmarish perversion of humanity's social contract.... [tags: Literature] :: 1 Works Cited 1330 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Trying to Improve the Human Race by Controlling Reproduction - Trying to Improve the Human Race by Controlling Reproduction THE idea of "Natural Equality" is one of the most deluded ideas that have ever afflicted itself upon mankind. It is simply a figment of the human imagination. Nature knows no equality. She thrives on the idea of the survival of the fittest. The exact definition of eugenics is "The study of methods to improve the human race by controlling reproduction." Therefor eugenics is a pseudo science. It is about the selective prevention or encouragement of births for social, racial, or political ends.... [tags: Papers] 390 words (1.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Review of a Website - If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday, quoted Pearl Buck. Most everyone has a time in their life where history becomes important to them. Whether that be tracing back family heritage, writing a research essay, or just out of curiosity. All and all, history is very influential to peoples lives and what better way to learn about history then to visit the website Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement. This credible website offers an opportunity for the public to learn more about our American history in an interactive and creative way.... [tags: Website Review, Reliable Sources] 973 words (2.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] Role of Doctors Under Nazis - Role of Doctors in Nazis Racial Hygiene Germany was out to establish a new utopian world order where everything worked in harmony. They wanted to become a healthy and vibrant organism of healthy Aryans. The German doctors were mobilized to create this new world. The German bureaucrats believed all their social burdens were brought on by the handicapped, incurables and homosexuals as well as the Jews and gypsies. The physicians were to use all their medical knowledge and scientific expertise in the treatment for their new world.... [tags: essays research papers fc] :: 2 Works Cited 2232 words (6.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Engineering in Humans - Author Chuck Klosterman said, The simple truth is that were all already cyborgs more or less. Our mouths are filled with silver. Our nearsighted pupils are repaired with surgical lasers. We jam diabetics full of delicious insulin. Almost 40 percent of Americans now have prosthetic limbs. We see to have no qualms about making post-birth improvements to our feeble selves. Why are we so uncomfortable with pre-birth improvement? Despite Klostermans accurate observation, there are reasons people are wearisome toward pre-birth enhancement.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] 859 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] The High Cost of Genetic Engineering - The High Cost of Genetic Engineering Genetic research on human embryos, in correlation with the human genome, is the key to gene therapy, genetic diagnosis, and even to genetically engineered human beings. Knowing which gene controls what trait and causes what genetic disease will arm doctors with a powerful tool to treat their patients at the molecular level. On the other hand, this allows people to possibly manipulate genes to enhance specific traits or create the perfect baby. Genetic research on human embryos has two implications. A practical one in therapeutic research (to detect, and hopefully correct gene flaws), and then the potentiality of allowing parents to decide how the... [tags: Persuasive Argumentative Essay Examples] :: 9 Works Cited 1197 words (3.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] An Enhanced Genotype: Ethical Issues Involved with Genetic Engineering and their Impact as Revealed by Brave New World - An Enhanced Genotype: Ethical Issues Involved with Genetic Engineering and their Impact as Revealed by Brave New World Human society always attempts to better itself through the use of technology. Thus far, as a species, we have already achieved much: mastery of electronics, flight, and space travel. However, the field in which the most progress is currently being made is Biology, specifically Genetic Engineering. In Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, humanity has taken control of reproduction and biology in the same way that we have mastered chemistry and physics.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 6 Works Cited 2288 words (6.5 pages) Term Papers [preview] History And Procedures of Gene Therapy - The History And Procedures of Gene Therapy Abstract: Over the course of history there has been the idea of gene therapy has inspired many great scientists. The history of eugenics is important to the history of gene therapy because it is how gene therapy originated. Eugenics has driven many people to take extreme measures to try and make a better human race, this includes the Nazi party and the movement in the 1930s inspired by Francis Galton. After that, research in eugenics continued and the human genome project sprung from the minds of scientists.... [tags: Biology Medical Biomedical Genetics] :: 2 Works Cited 1810 words (5.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] The indoctrination of the Concept of Racial Hygiene: The Begining of t - The Indoctrination of the Concept of Racial Hygiene: The Beginning of the End The idea of biological degeneration had been studied by doctors, psychiatrists, and scientists many decades before the 1930s and the Nazi regime were ever in power. The idea that the integrity of populations was being undermined by behaviors of alcoholism, criminality, or mental deficiency was a topic for researchers before anyone even knew who Adolf Hitler was. In this essay I will discuss the evolution of a concept that would become known as racial hygiene.... [tags: essays research papers fc] :: 2 Works Cited 2296 words (6.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Engineering the Perfect Human - For centuries, mankind has been fascinated by the idea of perfection. In recent decades, the issue has been raised regarding the perfect human and whether scientists are able to engineer and create this. Attempts have been made in the past to engineer this said perfect human, through eugenics and scientific racism, but until now, these attempts have been ineffective. Only now, with modern technology, are scientists able to make more significant progress in altering the human genome to the produce desired characteristics of perfection.... [tags: Genetic Engineering ] :: 21 Works Cited 1831 words (5.2 pages) Term Papers [preview] Whats Genetic Engineering? - ... Tassistant professor of biology at Elon University in North Carolina had this to say about genetic engineering: Once you realize that DNA is not fixed, and is in fact constantly changing, the notion of genetic engineering seems quite innocent. Changing DNA within an organism and transferring DNA from one species to another is not unprecedented, or even unusual. Microbes in nature are carrying it out every second. The only thing truly new about genetic engineering is that it transfers control from microorganisms to humans, from randomness to consciousness.... [tags: biotechnology, scientific breakthroughs] :: 9 Works Cited 1281 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Truth Behind The Holocaust - The twentieth century was a time of change. With two world wars occurring within roughly three decades, it was no surprise that society became forever changed. These two world wars, however, resulted in perhaps one of the most significant and catastrophic events in history - the Holocaust. The Holocaust saw about six million Jews killed by command of German dictator Adolf Hitler. Despite resulting from World War II, however, Hitlers massive genocide of European Jews was planned before the Second World War, and therefore was intentionalism, because of the blame from post-World War I Germany, the twentieth century movement of eugenics as a racial hygiene, and the actions to exterminate Jews... [tags: adolf hitler, nazis, treaty of versailles,germany] :: 9 Works Cited 1675 words (4.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] A Comparison of Myself to Adolf Hitler - Struggle is the father of all things. It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle. If you do not fight, life will never be won. (Hitler) For most of the world, Adolf Hitler's name is synonymous with thoughts of hatred, criminality, and pure evil. Although he is responsible for the greatest genocide known to humanity, Hitler is now known to be one of the most influential World leaders weve ever known.... [tags: Essay About Myself] :: 5 Works Cited 1230 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Atwood's Oryx and Crake: Chaos Then, Chaos Now, Chaos Later - One brilliant man alone tore down the world, in an attempt to create the perfect people. Instead of creating his ideal world, he created utter chaos, where the number of healthy and living humans fell rapidly. After the complete disorder came to an end, destruction and damage were not the only remnants left behind. A new world was begun with the end of the human race and the birth of the perfect race, which was made up of creatures of flawlessness and excellence. Margaret Atwood tells a story of an end, revolving in the time of a society of the future.... [tags: Literature] :: 6 Works Cited 1489 words (4.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Darwin and History - Following 1859, The Origin of Species had at last entered public consciousness. While the theories presented by Darwin were simultaneously being celebrated, condemned or challenged, it triggered a new form of self-awareness. Because Darwin initially avoided addressing the ultimate question of human evolution until The Descent of Man published in 1871, it would lead others to pursue the matter with diverse explanations. Known as the father of German Darwinism, Ernst Haeckels Natrliche Schpfungsgeschichte (The History of Creation) was first published in German in 1868 and translated into English in 1876.... [tags: Scientific Research ] :: 6 Works Cited 1149 words (3.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Euthanasia: An End to Misery - Thomas More, in describing a utopian community, envisaged such a community as one that would facilitate the death of those whose lives had become burdensome as a result of torturing and lingering pain (Voluntary Euthanasia). Euthanasia is an act that would be used to relieve suffering patients. Before one can argue for or against the legalization of euthanasia, he must understand the difference between the different types of euthanasia: active versus passive, voluntary versus non-voluntary and involuntary, and euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.... [tags: Ethics ] :: 6 Works Cited 1369 words (3.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Genetic Discrimination - In the 1920s the United States became the world center of eugenic activity and social policy. From 1907-1960 more than 100,000 innocent Americans were sterilized in more than 30 states. The American eugenics movements of the 1920s and 1930s recognized human beings as being either cherished or substandard. They established degeneration programs to improve races of low grade causing racism to intend more rapidly. The main targets of degeneration were the usual victims of racism Jews, Indians, Blacks, and many more minorities.... [tags: Discrimination ] 584 words (1.7 pages) Good Essays [preview] The Nazi Euthanasia Programme Based on Racial Purity Theories - The Nazi Euthanasia Programme Based on Racial Purity Theories While the actual program of 'euthanasia' was initiated by Hitler in 1939 the whole idea of racial purity, Social Darwinism and eugenics had been on the rise In Europe and more importantly Germany for quite some years. The issue that called for the commencement of the program was in fact written at the end of October but was predated 1st of September to coincide with the start of the war, as it was interestingly enough seen as a paralleled war by the Nazis.... [tags: Papers] 2513 words (7.2 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Main Points of an Essay by an Author Regarding Racism in the South - ... The author explains how white southerners behave towards the citizenship of their ex-slaves over a span of fifty years. This book explains how white southerners re-establish their dominance through displays of violence and physical separation. The author analyzes the meaning of segregation for all of America. The creation of modern whiteness is examined through the culture of segregation. The author focuses on the understudied period following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. He aims at the alleged scientific evidence from the International Society for Advancement of Ethnology and Euginics, who function was to investigate facial differences and announce their findings.... [tags: Civil Rights, Discrimination] 587 words (1.7 pages) Research Papers [preview] Genetic Engineering is Unethical - Genetic engineering is a technology that has been created to alter DNA of different species to try and make them more improved. This essay will discuss the eugenics, the religious point of view about genetic engineering, genetically modified food and the genetic screening of embryos. In this essay it will be said wether genetic engineering is ethical or unethical. During 1924 Hitler said that everyone needs to be blond hair, blue eyes and white. This is known as Eugenics, thanks to a new science known as biotechnology in a few decades.... [tags: Genetic Engineering Essays] 492 words (1.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Never Let Me Go by Mark Romanek - The film, Never Let Me Go, by Mark Romanek interrogates a possible alternate history for the world and is a commentary on the human condition. Wrapped within these ideas is the fact that it is also a commentary on the philosophy of science. What Romanek does is propose questions, and after enough pondering by the viewers they eventually realize that the world today could conceivably be like the one in the film. This is because our history is not too far off from that of the film. This fact that this is true reminds us that what we are watching is not fantasy or a what if question.... [tags: film, organ havesting, ethics] 1331 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Ethical Controversy of Gene Therapy - Gene therapy is a technique that uses genes to treat or prevent diseases. It is the process of taking DNA from one organism and inserting it to another. No development in the field of biotechnology has inspired both greater fear and hope in human society than gene therapy. Here is the big question among the people. While this new advancement in gene therapy promotes new hopes to cure life-threatening diseases or help the amputee or physically disabled persons to lead life like a normal human, it also raises questions about morality as well as the adverse effects it may cause in the future society.... [tags: Medical Ethics ] :: 8 Works Cited 1589 words (4.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] History, Race, and Violence in the Arena of Reproduction Enslavement. - History, Race, and Violence in the Arena of Reproduction Enslavement. In 1997, Dorothy Roberts wrote a salient book titled Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. Roberts explicates the crusade to punish Black womenespecially the destitutefor having children. The exploitation of Black women in the U.S. began in the days of slavery and, appropriately enough, Roberts introduces her first chapter with an illustrative story: When Rose Williams was sixteen years old, her master sent her to live in a cabin with a male slave named Rufus.... [tags: Essays Papers] :: 16 Works Cited 1863 words (5.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Sterilization of Native American Women in the 1970's - The Scythe and the Scalpel: Dissecting the Sterilizations of Native American Women in the 1970's In the old days, genocide used to be so simple. Such things as biological warfare used to keep Indians warm with small pox infested blankets furnished by the United States government, and the only thing barren and infertile was the land set aside for reservations. In the 1970s, genocide became a little more complex. Biological warfare invaded the reproductive rights of Native American women, making their wombs as barren and infertile as reservation land.... [tags: Essays Papers] :: 5 Works Cited 2793 words (8 pages) Research Papers [preview] Darwins Theory of Natural Selection and Social Darwinism - Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwins ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwins book remains one of the most influential ever written. Its influence has even extended into realms other than biology and science.... [tags: Social Darwinism Essays] :: 8 Works Cited 2626 words (7.5 pages) Research Papers [preview] Drawing the Line for Genetic Therapy - Drawing the Line for Genetic Therapy Despite plans for this project to finish in the year 2005, it was actually published ahead of schedule in the summer of 2001. What is the Human Genome Project and should we be worried. The Human Genome Project is a project where many scientists from all over the world worked together with one simple aim: to map out the sequence of DNA that makes up all the human genes. From working out what the sequence is, doors of many possibilities are open but what are these possibilities.... [tags: Papers] 576 words (1.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Free Nature vs. Nurture Essay - Nature vs Nurture The exponential growth of scientific and biological knowledge over time has facilitated the genesis of radical fields of specialization, namely biological determinism, sociobiology and eugenics, just to mention a few. The common thread between these fields is this- their proponents collectively postulate that all human traits, including weight, strength, intelligence, aspects of personality such as temperament (aggression for example), criminality and morality, are ultimately determined by the information encoded in DNA.... [tags: Biology Genes Science Essays] 535 words (1.5 pages) Good Essays [preview] Should the Quest for Knowledge be Boundless? - Victor Frankenstein suffered from a lack of foresight. He only planned to reanimate a human being; he did not consider the consequences of such an action, and he did not build protections for unexpected, detrimental effects. Real-life scientists suffer from the same problem. Today we are reminded with every issue of "Time" that scientists in one modern field, nuclear technology, and emerging field genome mapping/genetic engineering wield considerable power. Shelley raises the question whether the quest for scientific knowledge should be bound.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers] :: 10 Works Cited 2372 words (6.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Controversy Surrounding Oral Contraception - The combined oral contraceptive pill was invented in the 1950s. During the first ten years of its existence it remained a purchasable method of contraception. This was until the 1960s as the Ministry of Health then permitted doctors to prescribe the drug if they sought necessary courtesy of the National Health Service. From then, the popularity of the pill had risen tremendously and by the late 1960s over 15% of married British women were using the pill. Its rapid popularity was not restricted to the United Kingdom as at the same time 2% of the female population worldwide relied on the pill as birth control.... [tags: Women's Health] :: 10 Works Cited 2268 words (6.5 pages) Term Papers [preview] Buck versus Bell - Buck versus Bell During the early twentieth century, the United States was enduring significant social and economic changes due to its transformation into a commercial and industrial world power. As the need for labor escalated within many urban areas, millions of Europeans emigrated from Southern and Eastern Europe with the hopes of capitalizing upon these employment opportunities and attaining a better life. Simultaneously, many African-Americans migrated from the rural South into major cities, bearing the same intentions as those of the European immigrants.... [tags: Supreme Court Sterilization Essays] :: 6 Works Cited 3622 words (10.3 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Origins of the Holocaust - The question of the origins of the Holocaust has been studied by scholars using several differing approaches. These interpretations are outlined by Donald Niewyk in The Holocaust as the long history of European anti-Semitism, the charismatic personality of Adolf Hitler and the influence of modern scientific racism or eugenics. These interpretations are illustrated in the works of John Weiss, Ian Kershaw, and Henry Friedlander. Niewyk uses Weiss to identify the interpretation of ancient anti-Semitism located throughout Europe as the origin of the Holocaust.... [tags: Holocaust ] :: 9 Works Cited 1538 words (4.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview]

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Exchange 2010 – www.extropy.com

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In my experience, when you have Exchange 2010 in a volatile environment, you open yourself up to the cluster behaviors of the Exchange cluster to behave unexpectedly, or just plain fail. If you're running in DAC mode, then to gain those benefits, you have to manually fail/fix sites to prevent services from staying down, or worse, going split-brain.

Because Exchange 2010 relies heavily on Microsoft FCS (Failover Clustering Service) and AD (Active Directory), there are many scenarios where these distributed decision making functions can fail. When all the servers fail in the primary data center, the second data center takes over as it should, and when the primary data center comes back online, it does not automatically fail back; this is by design (per Microsoft). I have found that to fail services back, you must do two crucial things:

The sites seem to recover after a few minutes, but the changes are not immediately apparent, and the databases take a few minutes to re-mount. The reasons for these commands were not readily obvious to me, but I've come to the conclusion that the following conditions must be considered:

Also, the Microsoft documentation is decent (not great) on this, and is definitely worth reading:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351049.aspx

A bit about this environment:

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How Psychedelics Saved My Life – Reset.me

Posted: at 9:49 am

by Amber Lyon

on May 28, 2014

Amber Lyon is an Emmy Award-winning former CNN investigative news correspondent.

I invite you to take a step back and clear your mind of decades of falsepropaganda. Governments worldwide lied to us about the medicinal benefits of marijuana. The public has also been misled about psychedelics.

These non-addictive substances- MDMA, ayahuasca, ibogaine, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and many more- are proven to rapidly and effectively help people heal from trauma, PTSD, anxiety, addiction and depression.

Psychedelicssaved my life.

I was drawn to journalism at a young age by the desire to provide a voice for the little guy. For nearly a decade working as a CNN investigative correspondent and independent journalist, I became a mouthpiece for the oppressed, victimized and marginalized. My path of submersion journalism brought me closest to the plight of my sources, by living the story to get a true understanding of what was happening.

Speaking ata press conference in Lebanon onthehuman rights abuses Iwitnessed while reporting in Bahrain.

After several years of reporting, I realized an unfortunate consequence of my style- I had immersed myself too deeply in the trauma and suffering of the people Id interviewed. I began to have trouble sleeping as their faces appeared in my darkest dreams. I spent too long absorbed in a world of despair and my inability to deflect it allowed the trauma of others to settle inside my mind and being. Combine that with several violent experienceswhile working in the field and I was at my worst. A life reporting on the edge had led me to the brinkof my own sanity.

Because I could not find a way to process my anguish, it grew into a monster, manifesting itself into a constant state of anxiety, short-term memory loss, sleeplessness, and hyper arousal. The heart palpitations made me feel like I was knocking on deaths door.

While at CNN, Iinvestigated human rights and environmental issues.

Prescription medications and antidepressants serve a purpose, butI knew they were not on mypath tohealing after my investigations exposed their sinister side effectsincluding infants being born dependent on the medicinesafter their mothers couldnt kick their addictions. Masking the symptoms of a deeper condition with a pill felt like putting a Band-Aid on bullet wound.

I was made aware of the potential healing powers of psychedelics as a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in October 2012. Joe told me psychedelicmushrooms transformed his life and had the potential to changethe course of humanity for the better. My initial reaction was one of amusement and somewhat disbelief, but the seed was planted.

Psychedelics were an odd choice for someone like me. I grew up in the Midwest and was fed 30 years of propaganda explaining how horrible these substances were for my health. You can imagine my jaw-dropping surprise when, after the Rogan podcast, I found articles on the prodigious effects of these substances that behave more like medicines than drugs. Articles like this one, this, this , this, and this. And studies such as this, this, this,this, this and this all gut-wrenching examples of how weve been misled by authorities who classify psychedelics as schedule 1 narcoticsthat have no medicinal value despite dozens of scientific studies proving otherwise.

Having only ever smoked the odd marijuana joint in college, in March 2013 I found myself boarding a plane to Iquitos, Peru to try one of the most powerful psychedelics on earth. I ditched my car at the airport, hastily packed my belongings in a backpack and headed down to the Amazon jungle placing my blind faith in a substance that a week ago I could hardly pronounce: ayahuasca.

Theayahuasca brew is prepared by combining chacruna leaves, that contain the powerful psychedelic DMT, with the ayahuasca vine.

Ayahuasca is a medicinal tea that contains the psychedeliccompound dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. The brewis rapidly spreading around the world after numerous anecdotes have shownthe brew has the power to cureanxiety, PTSD, depression, unexplained pain, and numerous physical and mental health ailments. Studies of long-term ayahuasca drinkersshow they are less likely to face addictions and have elevated levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitterresponsible for happiness.

If I had any reservations, doubts, or disbeliefs, they were quickly expelled shortly after my first ayahuasca experience. The foul-tasting tea vibrated throughmy veins and into my brainas the medicine scanned my body. My field of vision becameengulfed with fiercecolors and geometric patterns. Almost instantly, I saw a vision of a brick wall. The word anxiety was spray painted in large letters on the wall. You must heal your anxiety, the medicine whispered. I entereda dream-like state where traumatic memories were finally dislodged from my subconscious.

It was as if I was viewing a film ofmy entire life, not as the emotional me, but as an objective observer. The vividlyintrospective movie played in my mind asI relived my most painful scenes- my parents divorce when I was just 4 years-old, past relationships, being shot at by policewhile photographing a protest in Anaheim and crushed underneath a crowd while photographing a protest in Chicago. The ayahuasca enabled me to reprocess these events, detaching the fear and emotion from the memories. Theexperience was akin to ten years of therapy in one eight-hour ayahuasca session.

But theexperience, and many psychedelic experiences for that matter, was terrifying at times. Ayahuasca is not for everyone- you have to be willing to revisit some very dark places and surrender to the uncontrollable, fierceflow of the medicine. Ayahuascaalso causesviolent vomiting and diarrhea, which shamans call getting well because youare purging trauma from your body.

After seven ayahuasca sessions in the jungles of Peru, the fog that engulfed my mind lifted. I was able to sleep again and noticedimprovements in my memory and less anxiety. I yearned to absorb as much knowledge as possible about these medicines and spent the next year travelling the world in search of more healers, teachers and experiences through submersion journalism.

I was drawn totry psilocybin mushrooms after reading how they reduced anxiety in terminal cancer patients. The ayahuasca showed me my main ailmentwas anxiety, and I knew I still had work to do to fix it. Psilocybinmushroomsare not neurotoxic, nonaddictive, and studies show they reduce anxiety, depression, and even lead to neurogenesis, or the regrowth of brain cells. Why would governments worldwide keep such a profound fungiout of the reach of their people?

The curandera blesses me as Iconsume a leaf full of psilocybin mushrooms for the healing ceremony.

After Peru, I visited curanderas, or healers, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Mazatecs have used psilocybinmushrooms as a sacrament and medicinally for hundreds of years. Curandera Dona Augustine served me a leaf full of mushrooms during a beautiful ceremony before a Catholic alter. As she sang thousand year-old songs, I watched the sunset over the mountainous landscape in Oaxaca and a deep sense of connectivity washed over my whole being. The innate beauty had me at a loss for words; a sudden outpouring of emotion had me in tears. I cried through the night and with each tear a small part of my trauma trickled down my cheek and dissolved onto the forest floor, freeing me from its toxic energy.

Psilocybin mushrooms are not neurotoxic, non-addictive, and a study from University of Southern Florida shows they can repair brain damage from trauma.

Perhaps most astounding, the mushrooms silenced the self-critical part of my mind long enough for me to reprocess memories without fear or emotion. The mushrooms enabled me to remember one of the most terrifying moments of my career: when I wasdetained at gunpoint in Bahrain while filming a documentary for CNN. I had lost any detailedrecollection of that daywhen masked men pointed guns at our heads andforced my crew and I onto the ground. Fora good half an hour, I did not know whether we were going to survive.

I spent many sleepless nights desperately searching for memories of that day, but they were locked inmy subconscious. Iknew the memoriesstill haunted me becauseanytime I would see PTSD triggers, such as loud noises, helicopters, soldiers, or guns, a rush of anxiety and panic would flood my body.

The psilocybin was the key to unlock the trauma, enabling me to relive the detainmentmoment to moment, from outside of my body, as an emotionless, objective observer. I peered into the CNNvan and saw my former selfsitting in the backseat, loud helicopters overhead. My producer Taryn was sitting to theright of me frantically trying to close the van door as we tried to make an escape. I heardTaryn screamguns! as armedmasked men jumpedout of the security vehicles surroundingthe van. I watched as Ifrantically dug through a backpack on the floor, grabbing my CNN ID card and jumpingout of thevan. I saw myself land on the groundin childs pose, dust covering mybody and face. Iwatched as I threw myhand with the CNN badge in the air above myhead yelling CNN, CNN, dont shoot!!

I saw the pain in my face as the security forces threw human rights activist and dear friend Nabeel Rajab against a security car and began to harass him. I saw the terror in my faceas I glanced down at my shirt, arms in the air, prayingthe video cardsconcealed on my body wouldnt fall onto the ground.

During the ceremony the psilocybin unlocks traumatic memories stored deep in my subconscious so I can process them and heal. The experience is intensely introspective.

As I relived each moment of the detainment, I reprocessed each memory moving it from the fear folder to its new permanent home in the safe folder in my brains hard drive.

Five ceremonies with psilocybin mushrooms cured my anxiety and PTSD symptoms. The butterflies that had a constant home in my stomach have flown away.

Psychedelics are not the be-all and end-all. For me, theywere the key that openedthe door to healing. I still have to work to maintain the healing with the use of floatationtanks, meditation, and yoga. For psychedelics to be effective, its essential they are taken with the right mindset in a quiet, relaxed setting conducive to healing, and that all potential prescription drug interactions are carefully researched. Itcan be fatalif Ayahuasca is mixed with prescription antidepressants.

I was blessed with an inquisitive nature and a stubbornness to always question authority. Had I opted for a doctors script and resigned myself in the hope that things would just get better, I never would have discovered the outer reaches of my mind and heart. Had I drunk the Kool-Aid and believed that all drugs are evil and have no healing value, I may still be in the midst of a battle with PTSD.

This very world that glamorizes war, violence, commercialism, environmental destruction, and suffering has outlawed some of the most profound keys to inner peace. The War on Drugs is not based on science. If it was, two of the most deadly drugs on earth-alcohol and tobacco- would be illegal. Those suffering from trauma have become victims of this failed war and have lost one of the most effective ways to heal.

Humanity has gone mad as a result.

Lyon and a scientist cut open a fish stomach to inspect for plastic litter while filming a documentary on excessive ocean plastic pollution.

I spent ten years witnessing the collective insanity as a journalist on the frontlines- wars, bloodshed, environmental destruction, sex slavery, lies, addiction, anger, fear.

But I had it all wrong journalistically. I had beenfocusing on the symptoms of an ill society, rather than attacking the root cause: unprocessed trauma.

We all have trauma. Trauma rests in the violent criminal, the cheating spouse, the corrupt politician, those suffering from mental illness, addictions, inside those too fearful to take risks and reach their full potential.

If its not adequately processed and purged, trauma becomes cemented onto the hard drive of the mind, growing into a dark parasite that rears its ugly head throughout a persons entire life. The wounds keep us locked in a grid of fear, trapped behind a personality not true to the soul, working a mundane job rather than following a passion, repeating a cycle of abuse, destroying the environment, harming one another. The most common and severe suffering is inflicted during childhood and hijacks the drivers seat into adulthood, steering an individual down a road deprived ofhappiness. Renowned addiction expertGabor Mate says, The major cause of severe substance addiction is always childhood trauma.

We live in a world full of wounds and when left untreated, theyre unceremoniously handed from one generation to the next, so the cycle of trauma continues in all its destructive brutality.

But theres hope. We can transform the course of humanity by collectively purging our grief and healing at the individual level, with the help of psychedelic medicines. Once we collectively heal atthe individual level, we will see dramatic positive transformation in society as a whole.

I founded the websitereset.me, to produce and aggregate journalism on consciousness, natural medicines, and therapies. Psychedelic explorer Terrence McKenna compared taking psychedelics to hitting the reset button on your internal hard drive, clearing out the junk, and starting over. I created reset.me to help connect those who need to hit the reset button in life with journalism covering thetools that enableus to heal.

Its a human rights crisis psychedelics are not accessible to the general population. Its insane that governments worldwide have outlawedthe very medicines that can emancipate our souls from suffering.

Its time westop the madness.

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How Psychedelics Saved My Life - Reset.me

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What is transhumanism, or, what does it mean to be human? | ExtremeTech

Posted: at 9:47 am

What does it mean to be human? Biology has a simple answer: If your DNA is consistent with Homo sapiens, you are human but we all know that humanity is a lot more complex and nuanced than that. Other schools of science might classify humans by their sociological or psychological behavior, but again we know that actually being human is more than just the sum of our thoughts and actions.You can also look at being human as a sliding scale. If you were to build a human from scratch, from the bottom up, at some point you cross the threshold into humanity if you believe in evolution, at some point we ceased being a great ape and became human. Likewise, if you slowly remove parts from a human, you cross the threshold into inhumanity. Again, though, we run into the same problem: How do we codify, classify, and ratify what actually makes us human?

Does adding empathy make us human? Does removing the desire to procreate make us inhuman? If I physically alter my brain to behave in a different, non-standard way, am I still human? If I have all my limbs removed and my head spliced onto a robot, am I still human? (See: Upgrade your ears: Elective auditory implants give you cyborg hearing.)At first glance these questions might sound inflammatory and hyperbolic, or perhaps surreal and sci-fi, but dont be fooled: In the next decade, given the continued acceleration of computer technology and biomedicine, we will be forced to confront these questions and attempt to find some answers.

Transhumanism is a cultural and intellectual movement that believes we can, and should, improve the human condition through the use of advanced technologies. One of the core concepts in transhumanist thinking is life extension: Through genetic engineering, nanotech, cloning, and other emerging technologies, eternal life may soon be possible. Likewise, transhumanists are interested in the ever-increasing number of technologies that can boost our physical, intellectual, and psychological capabilities beyond what humans are naturally capable of (thus the term transhuman). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), for example, which speeds up reaction times and learning speed by running a very weak electric current through your brain, has already been used by the US military to train snipers. On the more extreme side, transhumanism deals with the concepts of mind uploading (to a computer), and what happens when we finally craft a computer with greater-than-human intelligence (the technological singularity). (See: How to create a mind, or die trying.)

Beyond the obvious benefits of eternal life or superhuman strength, transhumanism also investigates the potential dangers and ethical pitfalls of human enhancement. In the case of life extension, if every human on Earth suddenly stopped dying, overpopulation would trigger a very rapid and very dramatic socioeconomic disaster. Unless we stopped giving birth to babies, of course, but that merely rips open another can of worms: Without birth and death, would society and humanity continue to grow and evolve, or would it stagnate, suffocated by the accumulated ego of intellectuals and demagogues who just will not die? Likewise, if only the rich have access to intelligence- and strength-boosting drugs and technologies, what would happen to society? Should everyone have the right to boost their intellect? Would society still operate smoothly if everyone had an IQ of 300 and five doctorate degrees?

As you can see, things get complicated quickly when discussing transhumanist ideas and life extension and augmented intelligence and strength are just the tip of the iceberg! This philosophical and ethical complexity stems from the fact that transhumanism is all about fusing humans with technology and technology is advancing, improving, and breaking new ground very, very quickly. Humans have always used technology, of course our ability to use tools and grasp concepts such as science and physics are what set us apart from other animals but never has society been so intrinsically linked and underpinned by it. As we have seen in just the last few years, with the advent of the smartphone and ubiquitous high-speed mobile networks, just a handful of new technologies now have the power to completely change how we interact with the the world and people around us.

Humans, on the other hand, and the civilizations that they build, move relatively slowly. It took us millions of years to discover language, and thousands more to discover medicine and the scientific method. In the few thousand years since, up until the last century or so, we doubled the human life span, but neurology and physiology were impenetrable black boxes.In just the last 100 years, weve doubled our life span again, created bionic eyes and powered exoskeletons, begun to understand how the human brain actually works, and started to make serious headway with boosting intellectual and physical prowess. Weve already mentioned how tDCS is being used to boost cranial capacity, and as weve seen in recent years, sportspeople have definitely shown the efficacy of physical doping.

It is due to this jarring juxtaposition the historical slowness of human and societal evolution vs. the breakneck pace of modern technology that many find transhumanism to be unpalatable. After all, as Ive described it here, transhumanism is almost the very definition of unnatural. Youre quite within your rights to find transhumanism a bit, well, weird. And it is weird, dont get me wrong but so are most emerging technologies. Do you think that your great grandparents werent wigged out by the first television sets? Before it garnered the name television, one of its inventors gave it the rather spooky name of distant electric vision. Can you imagine the wariness in which passengers approached the first steam trains? Vast mechanical beasts that could pull hundreds of tons and moved far faster than the humble but state-of-the-art horse and carriage.

The uneasiness that surround new, paradigm-shifting technologies isnt new, and it has only been amplified by the exponential acceleration of technology that has occurred during our lifetime. If you were born 500 years ago, odds are that you wouldnt experience a single societal-shifting technology in your lifetime today, a 40 year old will have lived through the creation of the PC, the internet, the smartphone, and brain implants, to name just a few life-changing technologies. It is unsettling, to say the least, to have the rug repeatedly pulled out from under you, especially when its your livelihood at stake. Just think about how many industries and jobs have been obliterated or subsumed by the arrival of the digital computer, and its easy to see why were wary of transhumanist technologies that will change the very fabric of human civilization.

The good news, though, is that humans are almost infinitely adaptable. While you or I might balk at the idea of a brain-computer interface that allows us to download our memories to a PC, and perhaps upload new memories a la The Matrix, our children who can use smartphones at the age of 24 months, and communicate chiefly through digital means will probably think nothing of it. For the children of tomorrow, living through a series of disruptive technologies that completely change their lives will be the norm. There might still be some resistance when I opt to have my head spliced onto a robotic exoskeleton, but within a generation children will be used to seeing Iron Seb saving people from car crashes and flying alongside airplanes.

The fact of the matter is that transhumanism is just a modern term for an age-old phenomenon. We have been augmenting our humanity our strength, our wisdom, our empathy with tools since prehistory. We have always been spooked by technologies that seem unnatural or that cause us to act in inhuman ways its simply human nature. That all changes with the children of today, however. To them, anything that isnt computerized, digital, and touch-enabled seems unnatural. To them, the smartphone is already an extension of the brain; to them, mind uploading, bionic implants and augmentations, and powered exoskeletons will just be par for the course. To them, transhumanism will just seem like natural evolution and anyone who doesnt follow suit, just like those fuddy-duddies who still dont have a smartphone, will seem thoroughly inhuman.

Now read: The Geek shall inherit the Earth

[Image credit: Darkart.cz]

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