Twenty-first Century demonstrations: At some sites across the land, protestors in the Occupy movements are becoming impatient. For instance in Oakland, Calif., last week, people stormed City Hall, where they broke windows, smashed furniture and even burned an American flag.
I was in Nashville and spent most of Wednesday morning at the state capital, meeting with lobbyists and legislators. During one break, I looked out from a window at the many tents on the capital grounds, and the many Occupiers, who on that day were, thankfully, peaceful. When I checked my email messages on my phone, I even got two separate WIFI signals for Occupy Nashville.
Back to Oakland, it took hundreds of police officers to push back the surge, whose intention was to take over a convention center building and turn it into their headquarters. When it ended police, had confiscated a large shield with painted letters that read, “Commune Move In.”
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The bomb: There were new warnings from the nation’s capital about Iran and their propensity for nuclear weapons. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee that while Iran has the means and capabilities to build a nuclear weapon, they have not yet done so. But he warned that “There is dissension and debate in the political hierarchy of Iran,” over moving forward in the nuclear arms arena. Clapper feels that there is a higher likelihood than ever before that Iran will strike at the U.S. if they feel threatened.
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Ask Sir: Columnists debated the manufacturing ethics of Apple last week on the heels of the giant communication firm’s announcement that it earned $13.06 billion – in just a quarter. You may or may not know that the 37 million iPhones and 15 million iPads sold during that time were manufactured in Shenzhen, China. The NY Times reported the workers labor during 12-hour shifts while they put together the slick products by hand, all for a paycheck of $17 a day. They also sleep in cramped dorms, and reportedly, 19 of the workers have committed suicide.
Tim Worstall at Forbes.com says if you want to help the Chinese workers, you should not boycott the company, you should purchase an iPhone. Worstall says that $17 a day is good pay in China, and that’s the reason over a million people showed up to apply for the jobs.
Others are calling to bring the jobs back to America, but Jordan Weissmann writing for TheAtlantic.com says don’t look for that to happen. China is leaps and bounds ahead of the world in electronics manufacturing, graduating 600,000 engineers each year as opposed to only 70,000 in the United States.
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Regarding health: Two health stories caught my eye last week. The first said that scientists had made some positive strides in stem cell research when they injected the morphing embryonic cells into the retinas of two women diagnosed with macular degeneration, which usually affects older adults and results in a loss of vision in the center of the visual field (the macula) because of damage to the retina.
Both women gained improvement in their vision, with no harmful side effects. Because embryonic stem cells are able to morph into any type of cell in the body, scientists have concerns that they may stimulate tumors or cause other health problems.
The other story told that tests by British neuroscientists have shown that the chemical psilocybin could soon be used as a cure for depression. The natural drug is found in certain types of “magic” mushrooms and has been known to cause hallucinations among users. The dreamlike, out-of-body experiences one encounters after taking the drug seem to also be helping depressed patients break out of the “restrictive state of mind” that tends to go along with depression. Why not?