Body Architecture

Body Architecture

TED Talks bring in many very educated individuals to speak about what they are currently working on, what it going on in the world, and many other fascinating things. One thing that isn't seen very often though, are speakers presenting about what we can look forward into the future when it comes to the way we will dress, and how our bodies will look. Lucy McRae, one of the featured TED Talks speakers, was talking about research that she has been doing for years, in order to see what is next in line for the human body and the fashion industry.

McRae worked using visual imagery, to provoke the future of human evolution. She created concepts like an electronic tattoo, which is augmented by touch, and dresses that blushed and shivered with light. McRae was also fascinated with what would happen when merging biology and technology. She became obsessed with the concept of if she were to reprogram ones own body odor, modify, and biologically enhance it; how would it change the way that humans interact with each other. Would it mean that attracting sexual partners would be different? Or that reverting back to primal modes of communication would be much more probable?  McRae then worked with a synthetic biologist, in order to create a swallow-able perfume to enable the fragrance to come out when one perspires. Her goal for this "perfume" is to completely blow apart  the way perfume is today and adds a whole new format-a fragrance coming from the inside out. It would redefine the role of skin and bodies would become an atomizer. When looking at the evolution of her work Lucy has scene threads and connections that make sense, and connect to the real world. She is determined to keep trying to redefine the human body, and will keep looking into the future until the end of her architectural career. 

This TED Talk was a very hard concept for me to grasp because it lacked very vital information, such as if anything is on the market right now, but it mostly mystified me because she was attempting to "revert us as back to our animal instincts". The fact that somebody is currently working on changing the way humans have been for thousands of years seems like a fairly impossible feat in my opinion. If McRae's research were to catch on, it would be outstanding to see what else those researches have the potential to create. 

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project is a foundation that was created in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in order to exonerate innocent prisoners through DNA testing. To date, over 300 United States prisoners have been liberated from federal confinement. The Innocence Project is doing an amazing deed for all of the men and women who have had their lives robbed from them, due to faulty systems. 

One of the 300 prisoners that were exonerated was named Kirk Bloodsworth. He was convicted in March of 1985 for the brutal killing and sexual assault of a nine year old girl. She had been strangled, raped, and beaten with a rock at the time of her death. When the police received an anonymous call saying they had seen Bloodsworth at the scene, and a police sketch fit his description, he was automatically a suspect for the murder. Things continued to go downhill for Bloodsworth when, during trail, all five witnesses at the crime testified that they had seen him with the victim. Also presented during the testimony was that Bloodsworth had told his wife earlier that day that, "he had done something terrible that would affect their marriage". Even though he had people who testified against him, Kirk could easily have not been convicted, had the criminal justice system looked deeper into all of the evidence presented. For example, there was a shoe print found near the victim, but there were not any similar identifying features of the print that correlated. Also, the failure of the use of a Rape Kit, as well as not testing the DNA that could have been found on the blood surrounding the crime scene. 

In 1992 the prosecution agreed to DNA testing to be performed. The victim’s shorts and underwear, a stick found at the scene, and an autopsy slide were compared against the blood standards of the victim and Bloodsworth. .Bloodsworth was released from prison in June 1993 and pardoned in December 1993. He had spent over eight years in prison, two of those years facing execution.

After reading this specific case, it horrified me how unfair Kirk Bloodworths prosecution was. He was forced to spend eight years rotting behind bars, and waiting for his death penalty to be carried out. It is awful that innocence people, like Bloodsworth, are forced to spend time in jail, because the judicial systems don't carry out their job accordingly. And on the other end of the scale, when false prosecutions occur, it means that a criminal is walking on the streets, not paying for the act they committed, and have the potential to engage in more illegal behavior. 

Forks over Knives

Forks over Knives

  Forks over Knives is a 2011 American documentary film, examining the idea that a plant-based diet can drastically improve your health, as well as help prevent contracting deadly diseases. The documentary suggests that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting the Wests menu of animal-based product and processed foods. Through examination of the careers of American physician Caldwell Esselstyn and professor of nutritional biochemistry T. Colin Campbell, this film presents astounding statistics and numbers that back up the advocacy for a whole-food diet in unforgettable ways.

  As of 2011, over 40% of Americans are obese and 1 in 5 American children are obese. The total amount of money in attempts to fix obesity every year is over $120 billion dollars; enough to feed 600,000,000,000,000 starving people every day. In 1978, chances of getting breast cancer was 82% higher in Americans than Japan, and in that same year, only 18 cases of prostate cancer was reported in Japan while America had 14,000.

  Forks over knives takes statistics like those above and focuses on how the West can reverse the drastic changes in our health, in safe and alternative ways. A major point that the film makes is that by completely cutting animal by-products out of our diet; and choosing vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds, we can get plenty of essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and healthy oils while limiting calories, salt, sugar, and harmful fats.

  Though Forks over Knives sends an amazing message about making healthy choices, as well as helping inform the public about the benefits of  veganism, I personally found it to be a very bias documentary. Some of the statistics that were mentioned had to do with WWII, and how many cases of breast and prostate cancer were reported. Granted, the numbers had went down drastically, but the makers of the film had failed to indicate every other situation that was happening at the same time (starvation, murders, etc.). It was little things that marked discrimination as well as "not the full truth" were things that made me not fully grasp what they were arguing. Even though I didn't completely agree with the concept of this film, there was still very many valuable pieces of information that I can work into my everyday life and that will benefit my health daily!

Lucy Temerlin

Lucy Temerlin

    Lucy was a chimpanzee who was the subject of a very extreme and radical science experiment. She was taken away from her mother at two days old, and brought into the home of scientist's Maurice and Jane Temerlin. The point of bringing Lucy in was to see if it was possible for monkeys to grow up, living like humans. Since the first day she was brought home, Lucy had been treated like a human child. She was taught to use silverware, dress herself, flip through magazines and eat at the dinner table. But out of everything she learned, one of the most amazing discoveries was that the chimpanzee had the ability to communicate through sign language. Lucy was taught American sign language by primatologist Robert Fouts, and eventually memorized 140 signs. Incredibly enough though, learning to communicate was not what Lucy became famous for, instead it was that the chimp had "sexual longing", just like humans. Her actions of masturbation included drinking straight gin, rearing a cat, and using Playgirl and a vacuum cleaner for that "sexual gratification". 
    Though the scientist's had made major headway in primate studies, by the time Lucy was 12, she was very strong and very destructive. Because they did not have the resources required to accommodate Lucy's needs, the Temerlin's were forced to take the drastic measures of releasing Lucy back into the wild. She and eight other abused chimps were placed under the care of Janis Carter. Out of the nine primates released into Janis's care, not one had ever been on their own, or lived outdoors. Janis was forced to try to get them used to life in the wild, a process that ended up taking about three years. 
   After a while, all of the chimpanzees became comfortable with each other and the wild and began to wonder their own ways, but Lucy had always stayed with Janis. The chimp and the human grew to have a very deep connection with one another, and after Janis left the island that the chimps were on, she always made sure she came back to visit Lucy. 
   Tragically, during Janis's third visit back to the island, Lucy was nowhere to be found. After a couple of hours of searching, the came across a skeleton... Lucy's skeleton. The strange part was that she had no fur remaining, which led Janis to believe that Lucy had been caught by poachers and skinned for her fur.

   My reaction to this story was a very heart broken and shocked emotion. It makes me sick to think that humans will take this kind of responsibility into their hands without having the accommodations to do so. If the Temerlins had known what they were getting themselves into, an innocent and precious animal would not have lost their life to greed, and need of money. It also made me wonder if the Termerlins regretted taking Lucy away from her mother, and putting her in a unnatural situation. Even though the story is terrible, it is still incredibly well written and informative about the ways animals are treated every day.