The Geniuses Among Us

  

A young Intel. officer, a software genius,  was recently found dead in his prison cell. The details were banned from publication.  According to the media  he was a phenomenon in the field of computer from an  early age. 

 
One of the speculations is that his abilities have aroused the envy / anger of his superiors, his activity got suppressed. As a result, he  planned revenge that would  have harmed  them, and the country. Perhaps he has even managed to carry out some of these plans.  Anyway, he was arrested and jailed. Now he's dead (rip).

Besides the obvious tragedy of the loss of a young bright man,  and the mystery (yet to be uncovered) וmposed on the case ׂׂ -  the event brings to mind the  concept of  'genius' (a person of extraordinary talent) and the list of geniuses among us - past and present.

There is a nice, little  poem  with the name 'The geniuses among us'  by Marilyn L Taylor, Wisconsin poet laureate. She calls them 'high perennials above all the rest of us',  'bright testimonials to the scale of human possibility.' These people, according to her poem - 'take us by surprise every generation , with unprecedented notions and visions'.

So far, the  great minds of  the past ( like Einstein) and present  (like Bill Gates) - have submitted the fruits of their genius, to the country, to the world, for the benefit of mankind. (As a matter of fact, not every invention was for the benefit of the world - the atomic bomb, for instance. R. Oppenheimer was "the father" of the Nuke.).

But times are changing. Perhaps these geniuses are beginning  to feel underappreciated,  even bullied. There's danger in this as the next stage could be something like: "either I rule or I destroy."  Words like 'majority', 'democracy' might mean nothing to these bright people as the above notions already mean quite  little to the average individual.

 

 

The Politics of Food

 
Much has been said and written about pharmaceutical companies and their tendency to fund  only research  that could fill their pockets, and make people totally dependent on their products ."The Pharmaceutical industry does not create cures, they create customers" (seen on FB). 

Food companies are not far behind. Moreover, the food industry exerts its influence to prevent publication of research that could directly affect its profits, such as serious scientific finds on ultra processed food (junk food, fast food).

I've recently read  about a biochemist at the Agriculture Faculty in Jerusalem, prof. Ephrat Oren, who tried to publish the results of a long- term research based  on rats and humans,  dealing with the effect of junk food on children's growth  (obesity and bone disorder mainly). 

It got rejected by all relevant publications. She suspected it had to do with 'politics of food', so she arranged a meeting with another scientist, prof. Robert Lustig of California university in USA,  known as an expert in 'food politics'. 

After checking her work for several weeks, he said to her - 'that's explosive material you have here'. (He was probably referring, among other things, to  her suggestions on the need to lay heavy taxes on ultra processed food, and put restrictions on ads. regarding that kind of food).

He advised her to try and rewrite the article, giving it some sort of  dry- facts 'facelift' .  She followed his advice;  the article  was accepted  and published at the end of 2020, in the prestigious 'Nature' medical journal under the subject of Bone Research.

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Politics in its various forms, is the source of much evil. Most of us people, know that, but seem to be quite helpless about it.

Parents could do a lot about ultra processed food, but they are too weak and too busy to resist buying for their kids sweet corn flakes for breakfast, pizza, hamburger for the rest of the day. And so, this kind of food stays triumphant and might definitely harm children's growth in ways we are not even aware of, until later in life.

 * - web pictures.

 

DNA and more

 

Ancestry com. (popular in North America) and My Heritage - with a smaller data (popular in Europe), started as small companies helping people build their family trees, and offering genealogy info on migration.

Next, they entered the DNA industry offering genetic testing kits and analysis. ( Ancestry uses saliva sample, My Heritage - cheek swab). That's quite a fascinating industry! They offer paternity tests, ethnicity tests, health screening tests, and more.

In Israel, My Heritage and its partner Billion Graves (collecting cemetery data) are the dominant genealogical companies. 

I have some experience with Ancestry com.  In 2006, I was trying to locate my grandfather's family descendants in the USA. I started with almost nothing,  but I managed to do a good job using data from various sources, mainly Ellis  Island  and Ancestry com. records.

I have no experience yet with My Heritage, but I often find myself asking questions about its partner , Billion Graves. I suspect the latter buys all the data regarding  cemeteries and graves from the relevant state offices, and  monopolizes the rights . Unlike in the past, when you could easily find  online info, now, you have to subscribe to them, if you wish to get it.

At first, I said to myself, oh, well, it seems  they offer work, employ ׂׂyoung people (probably students), and send them to  cemeteries to take pictures of the headstones. That's an easy, convenient job for them. 

Lately, I'm not quite sure about that. The company has remote control equipment,  and uses various gadgets; the people with the camera could well be volunteers, not paid workers (the fine weather here during most of the year, draws people outdoors, and even cemeteries are an option for volunteering or other sort of activity).

I'll have to do some research. Not that it will help me or others much.  We have to face it : we live in a capitalist society, in which the State gives away its resources placing them in private hands - cemeteries and their dead inhabitants included.  Sad.

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