Wrongful Convictions: The "Perfect" Evidence

In class on Tuesday, we listened to a story talking about wrongful convictions. Wrongful convictions are when there is a crime, and the police find a suspect who didn't actually commit a crime. Instead of realizing that these people may not have committed the crime in the first place, they get them to confess in some way. There have been cases of trickery, lies, or the suspect will give a false confession because they feel as if nothing will happen if they try to fight back.

One story that I found to be interesting was the one that they talked about at the very end of the broadcast. It talked of a 14-year-old boy who had just had his sister killed. He was taken into questioning, where the cops told lies in order to make the boy think that he had actually killed his own sister when he really hadn't. He didn't have his parents with him to support him, either, because they had been told that he was being taken to grief counseling.

It is absolutely terrible that the police would do something so horrible. I don't remember learning that a police's job is to trick 14-year-old boys into believing they killed their own sister. Along with this case, there are just so many other cases where the police tricked people into confessing crimes they didn't commit. I don't think that it is fair that innocent people have to go to jail for things they didn't commit, and yet it is still happening today. Hopefully, today's society can be more efficient in catching the correct perpetrator and knowing when the person they have in question doesn't add up with the evidence they have.

"Forks over Knives"

Many of us in today’s world think that we are much healthier that we truly are. A lot of this misjudgment had led to people becoming quite overweight, diabetic, and just generally unhealthy due to our terrible eating habits. Some doctors are starting to find out that we can actually complete reverse the full effects of what we’ve been doing to our bodies by simply eating healthier.

                The movie “Forks over Knives” was all about how bad eating habits has led many people to getting diabetes and becoming clinically overweight. It followed a few people who went to a doctor who believed that better eating habits can cure all of the problems that are brought on by bad eating habits. These people were diets for a few months, and when they came back to the doctor, it was apparent that their health had skyrocketed. Most of them were at a point where their lives could be at risk, and by the end of the program, as I said, they were on a track for a healthy life.

                I thought this was really interesting. I knew that America had a fairly large health problem, and I had heard all the different things you could do to lose weight and be healthier, but I never knew that just eating better foods, even as much as you ate unhealthy foods, can have such a big effect in such little time. I also don’t think that eating healthier is all you need to become a healthier person, as just eating healthy but sitting on the couch all day probably won’t be doing much for yourself, but I think that it is also a fundamental part to greatly increasing one’s health. Overall, this what a very interesting, insightful movie that really brought a new spin on obesity and what it really means to be eating healthy.

Lucy: The Amazing Story of an Amazing Chimp

            The story of Lucy is a very interesting case of just how similar we humans are to apes. Lucy was an ape that was studied in the early 1980's, possibly revolutionizing, and shedding a little light one Darwin's theories. Lucy was a very interesting specimen by all means, and really makes me wonder exactly where we came from.

            This story was about Lucy the Ape, an Ape adopted by psychologist Maurice Temerlin in the early 1880's. They were experimenting to see if an ape could be raised as a human at the University of Oklahoma. Many years teaching her how to live like a human, even teaching her sign language so she could communicate with humans. When guests came over, she would go to the kitchen and make everyone tea to drink. She was just like a human, but she was of another species. After a few years, though, Lucy became too large and simply could not live in a house any more. At the end of our story, we learn that Lucy was taken to an island to live with other apes, but it took her a long time for her to get even remotely used to ape life. After many years, she finally learned at least slightly how to live with the apes, and her caretaker, who had been spending time with her, left her on the island to live on her own. A year later, they came back and found that tragically, she was skinned and dead laying in front of the caretaker's old house on the island. It was presumed that there had been a poacher, and Lucy, being comfortable around humans, approached him/her, and was shot.

            I think the biggest thing I'll be taking away from this is the fact that apes and humans can live in almost perfect harmony. Seeing how Lucy can be raised just like a normal human truly amazed me. An ape knowing to go and make tea when there were guests really blew my mind. I thought it was very interesting that she was "curious" about human culture and the idea that she was so similar to us really took me. 

Introducton

Welcome to my Bio Blog, Where I will be blogging about all things Biology! I am a ninth Grader who attends Animas High School in Durango, CO., and will just mainly use this blog for class projects and other random things for biology.