Mom Keeps Me UP At Night

Thanks to Roman May

My mom totally has me worried – does anyone else feel that way about a parent that they don’t live near? She’s totally self reliant and all but since she’s all the way out in Texas, I’m worried that she won’t tell me if things ever get bad. For example, I know from one of her neighbors that she’s been having trouble affording her groceries as of late. I felt terrible when I heard but since Mom never told me, I didn’t have any idea! I immediately sent her a Walmart gift card and got to work trying to save her some money. I helped her refinance her house and I even walked through ShopElectricityRatesTexas.com with her so she could find out if she was paying too much for energy, which she was. She’s cut down on her driving which is saving her some gas but I just want to make sure there’s nothing else she needs. It’s tough when I know she’s too prideful to tell me anything!

Traveling By Motorhome

A mother of a friend of mine is widowed and traveling around by motorhome. She is retired, so she has the time to go from state to state and see family and friends. What fun! And how creative. She is an artist, so it fits into her lifestyle. She doesn't have to pay for plane fares, hotel roooms or parking, since she parks in front of people's home or in their yards. And  when she has mechanical trouble, she gets motorhome repair.
What a great way to keep in touch with everyone and stay active and see the sights! That may be something I want to do on the down the road.

UT's Body Farm On Trial In Casey Anthony Case

Dr. Arpad Vass has been on the stand in the Casey Anthony case. He is an expert on body decomposition with the University of Tennessee's Body Farm and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ORNL took air samples from Anthony's trunk and determined that there had been body decomposition there. Jose Baez, Anthony's lawyer, has been trashing the findings, saying it is junk science. The case does not solely depend on the air trunk findings, but it is a big piece of the prosecution's evidence. So, in effect, the Body Farm itself is on trial.

The Body Farm and ORNL are serious and legitimat research facilities. Even though the air sample collection is apparently new science and has not been used in a trial before, it did pass the Frye, hearing, which means it is seen as reliable to be able to be admitted into evidence. And even if this science is new, it is based on other science, which is tried and true, at least according to Vass. And I don't see any reason to question that.

I also had Dr. Bass, the founder of the Body Farm, and mentor of Dr. Vass, as my anthropology teacher at UT. He is the considered the grandfather of forensic science and has trained many or most of the leading forensic anthropologists today. No one who knows Dr. Bass or about the Body Farm at UT would ever consider this to be junk science.

But to give Baez credit, he is just doing what any defense lawyer would do whose client is facing the death penalty: tear down the prosecution witnesses any way they can.