Exoneration

Exoneration is when a prisoner who is wrongfully convicted is released from jail. Recently our class researched this. We had a choice of shows and ted talks to watch and we listened to stories of wrongfully convicted men who are saved.  We also listened to a story on NPR of a man and his friend who were wrongfully convicted of rape and murder and were sentenced to years and years in jail. We heard the tale of his exoneration and the process he went through to become free and the people that helped him get there.

We looked at all of the facts and graphed the various exonerations from the Project Innocence web-page. Project Innocence is an organization that works hard to solve all of the unsolved cases that put innocent men in jail. The work load is enormous for the people at Project Innocence because there are more cases coming in every day and there are many built up over the past years when they did not take advantage of testing. The tests they use to determine if the arrested men are actually the perpetrators is DNA testing. Some tests are much easier, such as rape cases, because the DNA (semen in rape cases) is easy to test. If the DNA found is different than the arrested men, there is really no case as to if the man is innocent.

I find this very comforting because though this is not a very personal issue for me, There are more men every day that are released from a confinement caused by a crime they didn't even commit. This way we are closer to the truth with the real culprits because old cases that were though solved are opened up again for the perpetrator to be caught. This does not in any way hinder our police system for keeping the streets clean of the people, so I feel no qualms for supporting this cause. This also shows that our government system is flawed though, and that is an unsettling thought. Now the idea that the government will put just anyone in jail to close the case is reinforced, and our faith in the government decreases even more. At least the authorities are acknowledging their mistakes and taking the wrongfully convicted out of jail, which is better than nothing.

Can We Eat To Starve Cancer?

     Have you ever worried about getting cancer? Studies have shown that we in fact can eat to starve cancer. In class we recently watched a ted talk about cancer cells and the different foods that work to prevent cancer.
     A fascinating fact is that we all have small spots of cancer all over our bodies. This was discovered through tests done on bodies from various car crashes. Every body showed signs of cancer, even if they were minimal. Studies have shown that the right types of food reduce these groups of damaged cells and works towards preventing cancer from growing into a risk to your life. We just just started a project in biology where we have a choice to either cook an anti-angiogenic recipe and cell it, or create something funny for a child with cancer. Dr. William Li is a professional in anti-angiogenic foods and has conducted many studies on various foods to see if eating them will decrease the cancerous spots on our bodies.
     I found this particularly fascinating because my family has always jokingly threatened me about skin cancer in the past. it is comforting to know there is a way out along with the various other things I have done to prevent cancer. People are in less danger of cancer as long as they know about these foods and eat them, and so we are one step closer to a permanent cure.