ameriwire's New Writeups

diverticulosis (thing)

2005-06-08T06:09:18Z

Diverticulosis is the precursor to diverticulitis; that is, diverticulitis is diverticulosis plus inflammation. Collectively, the two conditions are called "diverticular disease." Many people have small pouches in their colons that bulge outward through weak spots, like an inner tube that pokes through weak places in a tire. Each pouch is called a diverticulum. Such 'pouches' are called diverticula. The condition of having diverticula is called diverticulosis. About 10 percent of Americans over the age of 40 have diverticulosis. The condition becomes more common as people age. About half of all people over the age of 60 have diverticulosis.

When the pouches become infected or inflamed, the condition is called diverticulitis. This happens in 10 to 25 percent of people with diverticulosis.

The current dominant theory is that a low-fiber diet is the main cause of diverticular disease. The disease was first noticed in the United States in the early 1900s. At…

W. Mark Felt (person)

2005-06-01T13:35:31Z

It seems that important people involved in either the FBI or in the Watergate Scandal in the 1970's (and slightly before) liked to use their first initial followed by their middle and family names, á la "J. Edgar Hoover," "G. Gordon Liddy," "L. Patrick Gray," and not to be outdone, "W. Mark Felt."

William Mark Felt, Sr., was born August 17, 1913. A former US FBI agent, Felt is most recently famous for revealing in May 2005, that he is the mysterious Watergate scandal informant for the Washington Post, dubbed by that newspaper's reporters as "Deep Throat."

During the Watergate scandal, while serving as Associate Director of the FBI, Felt provided Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with crucial inside leads on the landmark story that directly led to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon as 37th President of the United States.

Felt's identity as Woodward/Bernstein'…

moral law (idea)

2005-05-31T17:15:43Z

Many people like to distinguish law from morality, and while the two are certainly conceptually distinct, I will argue below that in a democracy, morality is at least a partial basis for all legislation.

"It is hard to understand how someone could defend the substance of the position" that "legal regulation can be determined without moral judgment," writes Kent Greenawalt (712-3); most laws are necessarily moralistic, at least in part. Even traffic laws could be described in moral terms, if we make reference to the danger one might pose to others, and the responsibility a driver has to secure the safety of his fellow motorists. The requirement that we drive on the correct side of the road could be considered a moral requirement if we think in terms of what would happen if this law were violated.

Laws can be justified in terms that are not explicitly moralistic by means of what the late…

altruism (idea)

2005-05-07T19:13:49Z

There is substantial disagreement in the scientific literature among the camps of two very important sociobiologists, Robert Trivers, proponent of the "reciprocal altruism" theory, and W.D. Hamilton, proponent of the "kin selection" theory of altruism (which employs the concept of "inclusive fitness," a term coined by Hamilton himself). In fact, Hamilton and Trivers define altruism in a way that is quite contemptuous to the other.

In his famous 1971 paper, Trivers balks at Hamilton's kin-targeted altruism because he says that it "takes the altruism out of altruism." Hamilton retorts that Trivers has it wrong—that an altruistic act for which reciprocity is expected can hardly be called "altruistic" with a straight face.

Faced with this fundamental disagreement in the literature about what a scientific view of altruism is, I crafted my own definition. It would be equally disagreeable to both Trivers and Hamilton, but…

reciprocal altruism (idea)

2005-05-03T07:59:43Z

Reciprocal altruism is the name given to the provision of goods and/or services by one organism to another, when the cost incurred by the donor in such provision will later (or sometimes, immediately) be repaid in the form of a reciprocated act—a returned favor, of sorts. By "cost" in the preceding sentence, I mean "cost to overall fitness for survival and/or reproduction." Reciprocal altruism is seen throughout the animal kingdom, most notably in human beings.

In a landmark 1971 paper, titled "The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism," purporting to reconcile altruism and evolution, Robert Trivers¹ introduced the concept of reciprocal altruism to academia. He examined the ways in which altruistic acts can indirectly benefit the altruist herself, in the form of reciprocated behaviors—quid pro quo.

Trivers' most detailed work is on reciprocal altruism in humans. He writes, "The strongest argument for the…

The Seventh Seal (idea)

2005-01-15T03:31:16Z

Ingmar Bergman's 1956 film, Det Sjunde inseglet ("The Seventh Seal"), derives its name from a passage in the Bible's final book, "Revelation". Toward the end of the film, the character Karin reads part of this passage—from Revelation 8—aloud, making it even more clear that the film's title, (and hence, perhaps its message), is based on Revelation 8, which opens with: "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (Rev 8:1). While that verse alone doesn't really tell us much, the surrounding text gives a very clear message: God will bring great suffering upon the world's sinners, and He will do this very suddenly, at a time when the "seventh seal" has been broken. Revelation is rather vague about exactly what circumstances will elicit God's wrath—i.e,. exactly what that "seventh seal" is, and how we will know when it is broken. But one thing is clear; we are…