April 15, 2003

It's ironic, babies

In the corner of the small cemetery at Denison University is a granite marker that simply reads: "Unknown Infants." The remains of 23 fetuses buried there show how both technology and philosophy have changed medical education. The fetuses had been preserved in Formaldehyde and were used in teaching human anatomy and development. Today, detailed computer models and other tools have taken their place. Other universities have used human specimens in the past. Professors say they stressed that they should be treated with respect. For the same reason, disposing of the specimens presents a dilemma. The Denison specimens were found in a locked cabinet during a cleanup in fall of 2000. While cremation is acceptable, officials at the central Ohio school opted also for a small funeral.

This was in WCLT news department's newsletter for Monday, April 14. How ironic that these infants/fetuses/babies are treated with such respect while it's common practice to abort babies the same age or even older with no respect (or funeral) whatsoever. I'm not posting this for an argument, but rather to give you something to mull over. Laws and attitudes vary so widely depending on circumstances, you know? Should they? I guess that's a moot point, really, because they do.


Great Gardeners

One of my friend Dave's creations has earned the recognition of Forbes.com's Best of the Web Directory. Congratulations, you guys! The Garden Watchdog was already mentioned in Organic Gardening a few months back, and this is just one more example of its growing popularity (no pun intended...and much deserved, I might add). Best yet, it's a great resource because it's a community effort by gardeners. That reminds me of the DG motto: For gardeners, by gardeners.

On another note, I saw this smart gardener's site linked to from Dave's Garden and had to share. The gal's come up with a self-watering pot for seed starting, using the humble 2-liter pop bottle. I suppose you could do the same thing with any similarly-shaped plastic bottle, but 2-liter is a good size. I am impressed! If you wanted to keep plants in such a container, you could always drop it into a basket to hide the plastic. Guess this gives me an excuse to buy more pop...and hoard bottles. Bwaaahahahahahah!