Recent Comments

1. about 19 hours ago on Jeff Stahler

   What? An acorn is not an oak?

2. about 22 hours ago on Over the Hedge

   Einstein thought black holes were theoretically possible but unlikely in the real world. It was Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who thought that they would exist in reality. Very smart gent and another Nobel winner (and NO, the Nobel is NOT selected in the manner depicted on the Big Bang Theory).

3. about 22 hours ago on Jeff Stahler

   continued:

   Meanwhile, the early ages in recent abortion laws are LONG BEFORE there is a cohesive brain capable of even some basic functions, let alone harder tasks such as pain sensing or (even later) thought.

   https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Neural_System_Development

   Above you can see what the fetal brain (actually not really a brain yet early on) is like and its sizes at ages 6 and 8 weeks compared to late in pregnancy but still before birth. Go to the link introduction for image of the relative brain size embryonic (week 4, 5, 6, and 8) and late fetal (third trimester)

   No one knows when the ability to feel pain might begin but there may be developmental reasons to think that week 26 is possible (so many countries require pain meds from week 22 on if surgery is done for any reason to give an extra month of being safer on that score) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440624/

   Note that the fetal brain does not reach a level of development where it can even begin controlling some functions till much later, week 27:

   https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002398.htm

   This is an interesting piece on some additional considerations associated with defining personhood according to humans with a heartbeat. It might be that Alabama or one the others using that definition (if their definitions survive the courts)may become the safest place for a pregnant woman who is otherwise at risk of deportation to be during her pregnancy, because if the fetus is a person then deporting her would also amount to deporting someone recognized as a person under the laws of those states and therefore violating that fetus’ rights:

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/if-a-fetus-is-a-person-it-should-get-child-support-due-process-and-citizenship/2019/05/17/7280ae30-78ac-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html?utm_term=.2faf54dd1697

4. about 22 hours ago on Jeff Stahler

   Basically, to some people women will never be “real” people to be valued as highly as men. Sadly, that even includes the viewpoint of a minority of women (most, but not all, being older women).

   Having had friends die of pregnancy, having known someone refused an abortion by a judge even though every physician who addressed the court said that neither she nor the fetus would survive the pregnancy, but if it was terminated then at least she would survive, and knowing that of the world’s industrialized nations the U.S. has the worst complication and survival stats, I can not help but be appalled by the recent states’ restrictions. (In Georgia a woman who has a miscarriage will actually have to somehow prove that she did not get an abortion. How does a person prove a negative? I ask that as someone who miscarried and who certainly has known women across the generations who have done so since it is not a particulary unusual outcome.)

   Interesting legal conundrums from the definitions in these states. Some for the end of life include the possibility of not letting brain dead people with heartbeats be removed from life support, ditto not harvesting transplantable organs from such brain dead people while they can still save someone.

   Meanwhile, the early ages in recent abortion laws are LONG BEFORE there is a cohesive brain capable of even some basic functions, let alone harder tasks such as pain sensing or (even later) thought.

   https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Neural_System_Development

   Above you can see what the fetal brain (actually not really a brain yet early on) is like and its sizes at ages 6 and 8 weeks compared to late in pregnancy but still before birth. Go to the link introduction for image of the relative brain size embryonic (week 4, 5, 6, and 8) and late fetal (third trimester)

5. 1 day ago on Clay Jones

   https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Neural_System_Development

   Here you can see what the fetal brain (actually not really a brain yet early on) is like and its sizes at ages 6 and 8 weeks compared to late in pregnancy but still before birth:

   Go to the link for image of the relative brain size embryonic (week 4, 5, 6, and 8) and late fetal (third trimester)

   No one knows when the ability to feel pain might begin but there may be developmental reasons to think that week 26 is possible (so many countries require pain meds from week 22 on if surgery is done for any reason to give an extra month of being safer on that score) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440624/

   Note that the fetal brain does not reach a level of development where it can even begin controlling some functions till much later, week 27:

   https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002398.htm

   This is an interesting piece on some additional considerations associated with defining personhood according to humans with a heartbeat. It might be that Alabama of one the others using that definition (if their definitions survive the courts)may become the safest place for a pregnant woman who is otherwise at risk of deportation to be during her pregnancy, because if the fetus is a person then deporting her would also amount to deporting someone recognized as a person under the laws of those states and therefore violating that fetus’ rights:

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/if-a-fetus-is-a-person-it-should-get-child-support-due-process-and-citizenship/2019/05/17/7280ae30-78ac-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html?utm_term=.2faf54dd1697

6. 2 days ago on Fort Knox

   Ah, playing a sibling as the scapegoat! There was a sibling in my family who did that. I can’t even enumerate how often blame was shifted onto me (and I am not innumerate).

   In the long run the people like that fail and the rest of us find that others greatly appreciate us.

   The Donalds of the world learn that their failures of consideration and veracity ultimately result in few people caring for them as people, sometimes none at all caring for them.

7. 3 days ago on Clay Jones

   If heartbeat defines life then people with brain dead family members who still have a heartbeat will be committing murder if they choose the mercy of removing life support, won’t they? On that regard, what will that do to organ transplant needs? It will worse that chance, won’t it, thereby resulting in deaths which could have been avoided due to one un-thought-out definition of life.

8. 3 days ago on Clay Jones

   Oh, and while we are at it, if they are going to be consistent then if a woman is or may be pregnant then the men of the household must take over any type of cleaning or other chore that creates noxious fumes, so they get to clean the floors, bathrooms, shower-stalls, toilets, etc.

9. 3 days ago on Clay Jones

   ….and most miscarriages of implanted ones happen early and usually due to extreme inviability of the embryo. Of course, the blastula, embryo or fetus simply not being well enough to survive plays a part throughout pregnancy. (There can be other factors like uterine malformations, endocrinological problems, other unavoidable health problems of the mother or fetus, father’s age or heath, and outside impositions.

   Hey, I wonder if they will make it a crime for a man over a certain age to try to impregnate a woman given the higher risks of miscarriage, stillbirths, and health problems. I also wonder if they will make it a crime to smoke, apply pesticides, etc. anywhere near a pregnant or possibly pregnant woman to improve fetal chances. While they are at it, any husband, father, brother, or other who beats a woman who is or may be pregnant should land in jail for the same reason if they are going to not be hypocrites. How consistent are they willing to be?

   Missouri joined the misogynists’ brigade today.

10. 4 days ago on Jeff Danziger

    Having had friends die of pregnancy, having known someone refused an abortion by a judge even though every physician who addressed the court said that neither she nor the fetus would survive the pregnancy, but if it was terminated then at least she would survive, and knowing that of the world’s industrialized nations the U.S. has the worst complication and survival stats, I can not help but be appalled by the recent states’ restrictions. (In Georgia a woman who has a miscarriage will actually have to somehow prove that she did not get an abortion. How does a person prove a negative? I ask that as someone who miscarried and who certainly has known women across the generations who have done so since it is not a particulary unusual outcome.)