fallensparks's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=fallensparks2010-11-27T19:31:27ZThe life you can save (idea)http://everything2.com/user/fallensparks/writeups/The+life+you+can+savefallensparkshttp://everything2.com/user/fallensparks2010-11-27T19:31:27Z2010-11-27T19:31:27Z
<p> </p>
<p>
<b>The Life You Can Save<br />
Peter Singer <br />
Random House, New York 2009
</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>You are walking past a shallow pond and
you see a small child has fallen in. No-one else is around. The child
is in obvious distress and will <a href="/title/the+lethal+dose+of+water">drown</a> without your immediate help.
You are however, wearing a gorgeous set of clothes you have lusted
over for months and have just managed to purchase. You are also
running late for work. Do you <a href="/title/wade+in+the+water">wade in</a> to help the child – ruining
your clothes and being late for work, or do you walk on by?</p>
<p>This is the thought-experiment with
which <a href="/title/Peter+Singer">Peter Singer</a>, a Professor of Bioethics at <a href="/title/Princeton+University">Princeton</a>, opens his
discussion on the ethics of charity. Given this story, the vast
majority of people will of course say that<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…node of Ranvier (thing)http://everything2.com/user/fallensparks/writeups/node+of+Ranvierfallensparkshttp://everything2.com/user/fallensparks2010-11-25T03:49:22Z2010-11-25T03:49:22Z<p><b>Non-technical summary</b><br /><br />The nerve cells or <a href="/title/neuron">neuron</a>s running from your <a href="/title/spine">spine</a> to your little toe may be over a metre long. That’s an extraordinary length for a <a href="/title/cell">cell</a> that’s only around 50 microns (50 thousandths of a millimetre) in diameter. Electrical activity in very small neurons can be transmitted by simple diffusion of charged particles (<a href="/title/ion">ion</a>s). This will clearly not work over any great distance – the signal will peter out long before it reaches the other side. One way of dealing with this problem is by making neurons bigger, which permits more ions to flow through the axon (the section of the neuron that transmits activity). The squid nervous system for example, contains a <a href="/title/giant+squid+axon">giant axon</a> around 1mm in diameter. That may not sound particularly giant, but it’s 20,000 times the size of a typical motor neuron. Squid giant axons are thus useful for research – work on them that elucidated many fundamental electrical properties of neurons won two <a href="/title/Cambridge">Cambridge</a> researchers,<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Is cancer man-made? (idea)http://everything2.com/user/fallensparks/writeups/Is+cancer+man-made%253Ffallensparkshttp://everything2.com/user/fallensparks2010-11-05T06:38:42Z2010-11-05T06:38:42Z<p>
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1320507/Cancer-purely-man-say-scientists-finding-trace-disease-Egyptian-mummies.html">This article</a> is the <a href="/title/Daily+Mail">Daily Mail</a>'s take
on <a href="http://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/v10/n10/full/nrc2914.html#B3">this perspective piece</a> in Nature Reviews Cancer. The latter is not
in the public domain but should be freely available if you have
access via an academic institution or large library. Perspective
pieces are not subject to the same kind of scrutiny as research
articles and offer a space for opinion, reflection and the airing of
controversy. The authors are palaeopathologists with, as far as I can
ascertain from <a href="/title/PubMed">PubMed</a>, no publication record in <a href="/title/epidemiology">epidemiology</a> or
cancer biology.</p>
<p><br />
</p>
<p>The perspective piece presents an
overview of studies on mummified Egyptian remains, claiming « a
scarcity of cancer in the earliest remains » reflects a low<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…The Milesians (idea)http://everything2.com/user/fallensparks/writeups/The+Milesiansfallensparkshttp://everything2.com/user/fallensparks2010-10-22T22:54:23Z2010-10-22T22:54:23Z<p><a href="/title/Thales">Thales</a> of <a href="/title/Miletus">Miletus</a> said "See,<br />in <a href="/title/arche">origin</a> all's watery;<br /><a href="/title/Hesiod">Hesiod</a>'s cosmogony <br />is baseless mythology<br />Fuck that shit, I give you <a href="/title/philosophy">philosophy</a>."<br /><br />His student <a href="/title/Anaximander">Anaximander</a><br />said come now, the <a href="/title/Duck%252C+Duck%252C+Goose">goose</a> and the gander<br />know all things are <a href="/title/apeiron">boundless</a>,<br />are ground from the groundless,<br />an abstracted limitless tankard.<br /><br /><a href="/title/Anaximenes">Anaximenes</a> also may seem<br />a monist, his arche like <a href="/title/air">steam</a>:<br />it wakes - evanesces<br />it sleeps - coalesces<br />Air, Water, Earth, Fire its <a href="/title/The+element+of+surprise">dreams</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>fallensparks' History of Philosophy in <a href="/title/Limerick">Limerick</a>s #001</p>
<h6>with thanks to Aerobe for clarifying Greek pronunciation</h6>
<p> </p>Brown-Sequard syndrome (thing)http://everything2.com/user/fallensparks/writeups/Brown-Sequard+syndromefallensparkshttp://everything2.com/user/fallensparks2009-02-03T18:12:49Z2009-02-03T18:12:49Z<p align="justify">The Brown-Sequard syndrome is a cluster of signs and
symptoms resulting from lateral hemisection of the <a href="/title/spinal+cord">spinal cord</a> (severing the
left or right side). Precise hemisection is clinically uncommon but is
occasionally seen in the context of knife or gunshot injuries to the spine.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p align="justify">The <a href="/title/Eponymous+syndromes">syndrome</a> was first described by the prominent 19<sup>th</sup> Century <a href="/title/Neurologist">Neurologist</a> Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard who observed it in
the accidental injury of a sugar-cane harvester in Mauritius. It
commonly appears
in written medical exams and vivas as predicting the pattern of deficit
requires a basic understanding of spinal tract <a href="/title/The+Human+Anatomy">anatomy</a>.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
…The International Court of Justice on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (idea)http://everything2.com/user/fallensparks/writeups/The+International+Court+of+Justice+on+the+Israeli-Palestinian+conflictfallensparkshttp://everything2.com/user/fallensparks2009-01-04T11:37:26Z2009-01-04T11:37:26Z<h1><strong>Legal
Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory</strong></h1>
<p align="justify">Advisory Opinion
of the International Court of Justice, July 9<sup>th</sup> 2004</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p align="justify">In 2004 at the
request of the <a href="/title/United+Nations">United Nations</a>, the <a href="/title/International+Court+of+Justice">International Court of Justice</a> (ICJ) issued
an advisory opinion on the legality of the wall being constructed at that time
by <a href="/title/Israel">Israel</a> in the <a href="/title/Occupied+Territories">Occupied Territories</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">In reaching its
opinion, the court was forced to incidentally examine some of the so-called
“Final Status&rdqu<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…