The Amazing Maggot

Generally speaking maggots (the larval stage of flies and other related insects) are absolutely disgusting, but they are also interesting things. And, they aren't ALL bad!

     Maggots have anti-bacterial powers. Centuries ago, soldiers in the Middle East noticed that wounds with maggots in them healed faster and were cleaner than those without them. This gave birth to maggot therapy. It took hundreds of years, but nowadays some hospitals, mostly in parts of the world where antibiotics are not readily accessible, use maggot secretions as a substitute for antibiotics to clean wounds. Maggots are actually an FDA approved therapy. 

     Maggots are also used in forensic science. Insects usually enter a dead body within 24 hours of death and scientists can study the state of the maggots on a body and determine to what extent they have grown in the corpse. This technique allows the time of death to be estimated.

     Clearly maggots fill a special niche. They are a vital part of the decay process because they eat bacteria and dead things. And, let's give credit where credit is due. The flies that lay maggots know where where to lay them so they will flourish and be the most effective. 

     Flies generally lay their eggs on things that are a good food source for maggots, so when the larvae hatch they can begin feasting immediately. Over several days maggots eat, defecate, grow, and sometimes molt. At that point, the are usually creamy colored then they squirm off to a reasonably dry place, stop moving,and grow a dark shell. Inside the shell they transform into a fully formed insect. It takes about ten days from maggot to fly. 

     A maggot's front end has a mouth with hooks that help them grab food. Despite their voracious appetite they lack a sophisticated digestive system. So as they move through whatever it is they are eating, they secrete fluid containing digestive enzymes to help them dissolve their meal. 

     Fruit fly maggots, which are normally vegetarians, have cannibalistic tendencies. Once a maggot is injured, it’s fair game for other maggots! Scientists don’t know why the injured maggots get eaten. 

     A massive group of feeding maggots, combined with their digestive juices and all that writhing movement really heat generates heat...so much that the maggots will migrate to cooler spots. Research suggests that if you put enough maggots in a confined space and wait, eventually the temperature will rise to the point that they’ll start to die somewhere between 104-122 degrees F. 

     Maggot researchers have discovered that some maggots have the ability to smell particular aromas and react to light. Fruit fly maggots can’t see distinct images, but they have eye-like photoreceptors that help them detect brightness. They also have light-sensing cells along their body. Both help protect them from too much light which can kill them. Maggots have just 21 odor-receptor neurons (compared to 1,300 in flies), but they are still able to detect a number of odors.

     Back in the 18th century people commonly accepted the theory that maggots appeared spontaneously from non-living things. This was despite the fact that two centuries earlier, in 1668, Italian physician Francesco Redi conducted an experiment that debunked that theory. He showed that maggots turned into flies, which laid eggs that turned into maggots. He also observed that maggots only appeared on meat that was left uncovered. 

     Black soldier flies are particularly fast eaters that work their way through their food so fast that bacteria don’t stand a chance. This cuts down on odors produced by bacteria which cuts down on the stink produced during composting. 

     There is actually a maggot market and it is helping to solve the problem of over-fishing. The protein in most feed for commercial chickens, pork, and fish farms comes from fisheries which is a problem because some marine species depend on small fish as their food source. So instead of making animal feed from fish meal, it can be made from maggots. 

     Female black soldier flies lay about 500 eggs apiece and when these fast-eating maggots reach the pupa stage, they can be harvested, crushed, dried and turned into animal feed. This process has another benefit...it keeps more food waste out of landfills, decreasing methane emissions and water pollution. 

     If you ever eat pecorino cheese (a cheese made from sheep's milk) on your pasta, do you know it's story? On Sardinia, a sheep cheese called casu marzu, three weeks into the curing process gets the top crust cut off and the smell attracts what's known as “cheese skipper” flies which arrive and come lay their eggs. 

     A few weeks later, maggots hatch and begin eating their way through the cheese. The maggots digestive enzymes break the cheese down break making a contribution to the texture and flavor of the cheese. That’s when it’s ready to eat. The European Union has outlawed the cheese, but it's still made. 

     Rat-tailed maggots are also interesting. They are capable of surviving in filthy water, like that found in stagnant ponds, lakes, and drainage areas. They have very long tails, which are actually a tube that allows them to breathe under water. 

     They are the larval stage of a drone fly, which is also known as the bee fly because of its resemblance to a honey bee. Scientists have discovered that the surface of their bodies is actually covered with in spiny projections that make it difficult for bacteria in the water to congregate on the larvae. The researchers theorize that these may inhibit bacterial infection, which explains why these maggots thrive where other species can't. 

     Not all maggots feed on dead flesh. In the Galapagos Islands, the larvae of an invasive parasitic fly are threatening local bird populations. The flies can lay a couple hundred eggs in a bird nest and when the maggots hatch, they crawl up into baby birds’ orifices and suck their blood. Eventually the chicks die and the maggots then feed on their corpses.

Mob Violence At Washington Court House, Ohio

This city (population over 14,000) with the somewhat unusual name is the city with the longest name in the state. It's located about halfway between Columbus and Cincinnati. 

     The area was initially settled by Virginia veterans of the American Revolution, who received the land from the government as payment for their service in the war. Officially the city was named Washington as far back as 1910...the Court House was used to distinguish the city from other four places in the state with Washington in their name. 

     The suffix is attributed to settlers who had come from Virginia where Court House was used with county seats (e.g. Appomattox Court House). The name was made official when the city adopted a new charter in the early 2000s. 

     The first settlers are believed to have been Edward Smith Sr., and his family, who emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1810. Smith and his family constructed a crude house in the thick woodlands near Paint Creek, but their efforts to clear the land were interrupted by his departure for military service in the War of 1812. Soon after returning from the was Smith drowned while attempting to cross a flooded creek and left behind his widow and 10 children who managed to do well. Smith's descendants remained prominent in county. A family residence still stands on Route 62 not far outside the city's eastern boundary. 

     In 1833, Washington Court House (then known as Washington) contained a printing office, seven stores, two taverns, two groceries, a schoolhouse, a meeting house, and about 70 residential houses. Downtown, the courthouse square has been named a historic district, and a similar designation has been accorded the city cemetery. Nine individual buildings are separately listed on the register. 

     One hundred and twenty-seven years ago, on October 9, 1894, William "Jasper" Dolby, a black man, entered the home of Mrs. Mary Boyd, a white woman, and raped her. 

     He was soon captured, but managed to escape only to be an unruly crowd gathered outside the County Courthouse with intent to lynch Dolby. He was brought into court at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary. 

     People were swarming into the town all day and deputies with revolvers drawn guarded the prisoner in the courtroom and because authorities had heard rumors of a lynching the militia had been called in to keep the angry mob at bay which they tried to do by using bayonets and clubbed guns. 

     Henry Kirk, brother-in-law of the assaulted woman, was thrown down the steps of the courthouse and badly bruised. Another man was bayoneted through the finger, while a bayonet was thrust through the clothing of another man. 

     Because of the mob it was impossible to get the prisoner to the train to take him to the state prison and so Dolby was held in the courthouse.

     A little after 6 o'clock the first rush was made on the courthouse when a crowd of determined men attempted to break in the south door while another mob charged the militia stationed at the north door. Some one threw a stone at Colonel Alonzo B. Coit and he shouted a warning that if another stone was thrown he would order his men to open fire. 

     The crowd wasn't able to break in and the tiny courtyard was filled with people and they were cursing the militia and shouting, "Give us the ******!" With the crowd growing in size by the minute, Colonel Coit made a speech asking the crowd to disperse, but it was received with more cursing and jeers. Dolby, in great fear, was lying on the floor crying and moaning. 

     Out in the courtyard the mob attacked, but the militia held their fire. With the street filled with men, women and children, the mob finally forced the south door open. That's when the militia detail guarding the door finally opened fire on the attacking mob. 

The mob attacked

     None of the militia were injured, but a dozen or more in the street were injured. Three were killed outright and four more were fatally wounded and one died some time later. 

     After being fired upon, the mob scattered in all directions, but soon gathered again. Immediately all places of business in the city were closed and the mayor ordered every place in town that sold liquor to be shut down. 

     No time was lost in carrying away the dead and wounded. Businesses were converted into aid stations and all the doctors in town were called into service. Meanwhile, mothers, sisters, wives and girl friends crowded around the dead and wounded and their lamentations added to the mob's rage. Needless to say, feelings against the militia were bitter, vicious and vehement. 

     As time passed the mob grew in size and fury as the news spread by telephone, word of mouth and telegraph. Roads into the city were filled with men on horseback, in wagons and on foot.

     Meanwhile in town a search was going on for arms, ammunition and dynamite and people were shouting, "Down with tho military!" and "Blow up the dogs along with the black ******!" 

     There was no doubt there were intentions to blow up the courthouse and the danger of further and greater bloodshed between an organized and armed mob and the militia was very real. Therefore, additional troops were ordered from Cincinnati, Columbus, Chillicothe and other cities. 

     Additional troops eventually arrived and Dolby spent a night of terror in jail. When the other prisoners discovered Dolby was in the jail they joined the crowd in cursing him and would have done him personal injury if they had been able to reach him. The next day officials managed to get Dolby transferred to the state penitentiary.

     Dolby served 13 of his 20 year sentence and was paroled for good behavior. He eventually married a woman he had met in jail and it was rumored that their was a bounty on his head if he ever set foot in Washington Court House again.

     Colonel Coit was indicted for manslaughter, but was acquitted at trial. After the trial, Governor William McKinley who was elected President of the US three years later stated, "The law was upheld as it should have been...but in this case at fearful cost...Lynching cannot be tolerated in Ohio." 

     The courthouse doors were not repaired or replaced and the bullet holes from the 1894 riot are still present in the southeast doors.

Whatever Happened to Mad Cow Disease?

     Back in 1986 there was an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as Mad Cow Disease) that was first reported in the United Kingdom and peaked in 1993 with almost 1,000 new cases per week. In 1996, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease was detected in humans and linked to the mad cow epidemic. Eating contaminated meat and cattle products is presumed to be the cause. 

     It's a progressive neurologic disease of cows, meaning it gets worse over time and it damages a cow’s central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).    

     For reasons that are not completely understood, the normal prion protein changes into an abnormal , harmful form and the body of a sick cow does not even know the abnormal prion is there so the cow’s body cannot fight off the disease. 

     A common sign of the disease is the sick cow is uncoordinated and has trouble walking and getting up. A sick cow may also act very nervous or violent. 

     It usually takes four to six years from the time a cow is infected before it first shows symptoms. During this incubation period there is no way to tell that a cow has mad cow disease by looking at it. And, there is no reliable way to test for the disease in a live cow. Once a cow starts to show symptoms, it gets sicker and sicker until it dies, usually within two weeks to six months. There is no treatment and no vaccine to prevent i the disease. 

     How does it spread? Parts of a cow that are not for human consumption can be cooked, dried and ground into a powder which is then used for a variety of purposes, including an ingredient in animal feed. A cow then gets infected by eating the contaminated feed. Since August 1997, the FDA has not allowed most parts from cows and certain other animals to be used to make food that is fed to cows. This protects healthy cows by making sure that the food they eat is not contaminated with the abnormal prion. 

     Common methods to eliminate disease-causing organisms in food, like heat, do not affect prions. Prions can survive in extremes, requiring upwards of 1,800 degrees of heat to be neutralized. Even sterilization processes used by hospitals are largely ineffective.     

     People can get a version of Mad Cow Disease that is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. As of 2019, 232 people worldwide were known to have become sick with it and they all died. 

     It is believed they they got the disease from eating food made from sick cows. Most of the people who have gotten sick lived in the United Kingdom at some point in their lives. Only four lived in the United States and most likely, they became infected when they were living or traveling overseas.

     Neither disease, cow or human, is contagious and research studies have shown that people cannot get sick from drinking milk or eating dairy products, even if the milk came from a sick cow.

    The human variant of the disease, for which there is no cure, can also cause brain damage and lead to psychotic behavior, dementia and coma. In humans it can take up to 15 years for symptoms to manifest themselves and some studies indicate that it might be possible for symptoms to develop up to 50 years after infection! People usually die within 13 months of showing symptoms. Symptoms include tingling sensations and trouble moving parts of the body. As the disease worsens, the victim will lose the ability to walk.

     When Mad Cow Disease broke out in the United Kingdom there was panic. People stopped eating red meat which was pulled from supermarket shelves. Generally, a human will only be infected if they eat the nerve tissue (brains or spinal cord) of an infected animal. Eating muscle meat like ground beef or steak or by drinking milk from an infected cow won't transmit the disease to humans. 

     However, if you are a blood donor who has spent more than 3 months in an area where many cases of mad cow disease have been reported aren’t allowed to give blood in the U.S. 

     Cows and humans aren't the only ones that can get the disease. Sheep, goats, mink, deer and elk can get sick with their own versions. Also, cats are the only common household pet known to have a version of Mad Cow Disease...it's called Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy. Fortunately, no cat in the United States has ever been found to have this disease.

How Much Fur Does A Cat Shed?

     If you have ever owned a cat I am sure this question has crossed your mind. How much fur does a cat shed in a year? 

     One estimate that I saw says that on average there are about 20-40 million hairs on a cat, but, of course, this would vary due to breed, how big the cat is, etc. Since a certain amount of shedding is normal, that many hairs leaves room for an enormous amount to be shed in a year. 

     Cats shed some every day and go through one to two large sheds and hair growth cycles per year. The shed cycles vary with each cat and cats ingest so much hair when they groom themselves that you almost never see clumps of it. 

     Cats shed enough that a furnace repairman once told me that he advised cat owners to check their furnace filters more often because of the large amount of cat hair that gets sucked into them! 

     As for how much fur a cat sheds over the course of a year there is some anecdotal estimates that full regrowth can be achieved over 8 to 12 weeks, but that does not give any answer with regards to the actual mass. Of course, the answer depends on the cat's size, type of hair and environment and the amount will vary depending on temperature (lighter fur in summer, denser in winter). Also, the growth rate vary with the temperature. Therefore, there isn't a simple answer valid for all cats. 

     Based on unsubstantiated estimates of the number of hairs a cat has, the average thickness and the average growth rate of the hair one estimate claimed a cat could shed total of up to 5.5 pounds per year. Naturally, that was a wildly unscientific figures and it could be way off. 

     In the end, there are way too many factors involved to give an even halfway accurate answer, but if you have ever owned a cat you know the answer is, "a lot!"

Parents Putting Children At Risk

Some people should not be parents as this news story shows. A parent should want to protect their children, not put them at risk. READ

Ball Lightening Revisited

     A few years ago I did a post on this rare phenomenon. According to a recent article on EarthSky, "until recent years, most scientists remained skeptical about ball lightning; it seemed more myth than reality." The basic features of ball lightning are the prolonged the duration, the floating and the sudden disappearance. 

     The skeptics are muttonheads; they believe that just because they have not seem something or can't duplicated it in a lab then it must not exist. 

     Since the time of the early Greeks, there have been reports of small balls of bright plasma-like light moving over the ground and then vanishing. But, it's a fable, they say. 

     Ball lightning has been reported for centuries. It is typically about the size of a grapefruit, moving slowly over the ground. They have been seen during electrical storms, hence the early theories that they were simply a different form of lightning. They usually disappear after 10 seconds, quietly, but sometimes a bang sound can be heard. They have even been observed to pass through closed windows. 

     My father, who was a section foreman on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, told me of having seen ball lightening bouncing down the tracks between the rails until it disappeared with a bang and a puff of smoke. 

     I also witnessed ball lightening once while in elementary school. During a thunderstorm a ball of lightening about the size of a basketball passed through the classroom window and disappeared with a loud bang and a puff of smoke. Needless to say, it was a frightening experience. I do not remember smelling anything, but some witnesses have reported a sulfurous smell. 

     Scientists are apparently skeptical because no pictures of ball lightening actually exist, or so they say. They claim that the online images are over-exposed images of ordinary lightening. 

     Research on this mysterious lightening was published in a peer-reviewed paper in the July 2019 issue of the journal Optik by Vladimir Torchigin from the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

     According to the research, ball lightning might not actually be true lightning. Originally Torchigin thought ball lightening might be light trapped inside a sphere of thin air...photons (basic units of light) ricocheting inside an air-bubble. His scientific explanation is beyond the scope of this post, but his new research suggests that the mysterious ball lightning, as observed by eyewitnesses, consists only of light and highly compressed air. The thin layer of air resembles the film of a soap bubble which could focus light like a lens. That theory is just that...a theory.

     In another theory, University of Canterbury engineer John Abrahamson suggested that ball lightning could be the result of vaporized ground material being pushed up by a shockwave of air. The particles are bound together by electrical charges and they glow hot due a chemical reaction between the silicon and oxygen in the air. 

     Ball lightning, or something similar, has been created in lab experiments. In a study from 2007, researchers at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil used electricity to vaporize tiny wafers of silicon which created blue or orange-white spheres the size of ping-pong balls that lasted as long as eight seconds. 

     In the end, scientists still don't know what ball lightening, but their research suggests it might be real. Trust me! It does exist because I saw it and my dad saw it. 

Read more... Scientific American article

Hudson, Ohio's Unbelievably Stupid School Board

     Hudson, Ohio is a city near Akron with a population in excess of 22,000. Mayor Craig Shubert and Hudson High School parents are calling for the resignation of school board members and teachers after students in the school’s Liberal Arts II writing class received a book titled 642 Things to Write About: (Guided Journal, Creative Writing, Writing Prompt Journal. 

     The book is available on Amazon and is described as a collection of 642 outrageous and witty writing prompts designed to banish writer's block and a fun and playful journal that invites inspiration with plenty of space to write it all down. Brimming with entertaining exercises, this writing prompt journal is sure to get the creative juices flowing. 

     That the teachers and school board members would approve this book for high school students is criminal. Read the story HERE

Never Play Chess With A Pigeon

Never play chess with a pigeon. It just knocks all the pieces over then craps all over the board and struts around like it won.

Blue Racer Snakes

     The blue racer snake is one of the few species of blue snakes in the world. They are recognizable by their white underbelly and metallic scales that range in color from gray-green to bright cyan. Blue racers are not readily available at most reptile stores. 

     They adapt to a wide variety of habitats and climates. In the United States they can be found near the Great Lakes from Minnesota to Southwestern Ontario and Indiana. Their range in Canada is limited to a small population on Pelee Island. Their population is decreasing due to habitat loss, construction and human activity. This has led the snake to be listed as endangered in Canada. Currently they are not considered endangered in the United States. 

     Blue racers can be flighty and prone to biting and they can slither at speeds of up to 4 miles per hour! By comparison a walking speed of 3 to 4 miles per hour is typical for most people. By the way, for anyone interested in walking speeds of people by age and sex you can check it out on Healthline HERE.

     Modern army doctrine states an average speed of 2.5 mph along roads and 1 mph across the countryside. A normal days march would aim for 20 miles in a day, no matter how long it took.In my day that was with 40 pounds of combat gear, but some guys (machine gunners, mortars, radio men, etc) carried much more. But I have digressed. 

     When threatened blue racers will first try to outrun their attacker. If that fails they may vibrate their tail against vegetation to make a buzzing noise and strike repeatedly. Because of the buzzing noise they are often mistaken for rattlesnakes.

     Although nonvenomous they have a lot of curved teeth that causes a painful bite and so should be approached cautiously in the wild. They are aggressive and can strike from a long distance and do not tolerate being picked up. In addition to biting, they will musk and twist their bodies around to make themselves difficult to hold. It's best to leave them alone. 

     Blue racers may chase you to try to get you out of their territory. They might only chase you three or four feet but it will dart out at you and put up an act to defend its territory. Their habitat can occupy an area extending up to 25 acres, but a large number of them can live in the same area, as the species is not territorial by nature. 

     Adult blue racers range in size from 36 to 60 inches. There is little size variation between males and females. Both sexes are slender. Babies are generally 7.5 to 15 inches in length (not including their tail). 

     These snakes are diurnal so like humans they are most active during the daytime. Blue racers like to be on the move and so will not spend much time basking in the sun. They will share burrows with other species and will also hibernate with other snakes in rocky crevices and old animal burrows. However, in captivity they are not social and should be kept by themselves.

Julius Hobson and His Rats

     Julius Wilson Hobson (May 29, 1922 – March 23, 1977) was an activist and politician who served on the Council of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Board of Education. 

     A native of Birmingham, Alabama, his father died when he was a very young child and his mother was a schoolteacher and later a principal.  His mother remarried a man who had a dry-cleaning plant and a drugstore. 

     As a child, Hobson worked at a public library, where he could clean the floors but he was not allowed to borrow books, but he still manged to read a lot og books about abolitionist John Brown, who he said was the greatest and most under-appreciated American in history. 

     After graduating from high school he briefly attended Tuskegee Institute, but during World War Two he was drafted and served in the Army in Europe where he was awarded three bronze stars for his many missions as a pilot. 

     After returning from the war, Hobson graduated from Tuskegee Institute and moved to Harlem, New York and enrolled in Columbia University, but dropped out after a few months. In 1946, he moved to Washington, DC and graduated from Howard University with a degree in economics. 

     In 1981, The Washington Post revealed that documents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation file on Hobson revealed that he had once provided information to the FBI about the black freedom movement. It reported that there were 29 reports over a five-year period during which Hobson gave information to agents. 

     The file indicates, among other things, that Hobson gave the FBI information on advanced planning for the historic March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and was paid $100 to $300 in expenses to monitor and report on civil rights demonstration plans at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. 

     He also reported on a 1965 meeting in Detroit involving a revolutionary black group and on another occasion warned agents of possible violence at a Philadelphia demonstration that same year. 

     An FBI agent met with Hobson once or twice a month from about 1961 to late 1964 to discuss and assess potentially violent or disruptive demonstrations, organizations and individuals in the civil rights movement. In 1995, in the book Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant author Cartha DeLoach described Hobson as a paid FBI informant. 

     After experiencing persistent back pain, Hobson was diagnosed with a form of cancer of the spine called multiple myeloma In 1971. He later learned he also had acute leukemia and died from it at George Washington University Hospital on March 23, 1977. 

     All that is interesting, but what was really cool about Hobson was his solution to the rat problem in the predominately black areas of Washington, DC. In August of 1964, he was seen driving through downtown Washington, DC with a cage full of enormous rats strapped to the roof of his station wagon. 

     He was frustrated by the city government’s refusal to do anything about the rat problem in the poorer areas of the city and the District’s more affluent citizens’ apathy about the issue. He was aware that a problem in Washington wasn't a problem until it affected rich white folks so he decided to make it one. It was Hobson's belief that if the poorer and predominately black areas had rat problems then the affluent Georgetown should share it too. And so, he caught large, "possum-sized rats" and transported them to Georgetown where he threatened to release a cage full of them in the middle of the wealthy district unless the city government acted to curb the epidemic. 

     Every Saturday, Hobson would have almost a dozen huge rats on top of his car, hosting “rat rallies" where he would loudly reiterate his threats. He claimed to have a rat farm somewhere in the city where he and his associates had chicken coops full of rats which they vowed to release unless the government implemented rat extermination programs that would reach outside of rich white neighborhoods. He had also promised to dump a truck load of rats in front of the White House.

     Hobson had done his research and found he had no legal obligation to keep the rats once he caught them, so he could not be prosecuted for following through on his threat. 

     Many of city officials and Congressmen lived in Georgetown and his threats created a panic that got results. The city set up rat control programs for the poorer neighborhoods. 

     And those rats? In reality they were disposed of by drowning them in the Potomac River. And, it's reported that at the most, all he ever had was 10-12 rats at a time. 

     That wasn't Hobson's only threat. At one time he threatened to shut down a section of highway that had numerous segregated restaurants with massive protests, when in reality he had only a handful of people. 

     Another time he made the preposterous claim that he had a long-range microphone on his car and he was going to following police cars around and catch them in the act of committing brutality against minorities. He later admitted that the microphone only had a range of a few feet, but in those days the threat was enough to cause some changes to be made in police department policies. 

     The man knew how to get things done in Washington!

Never Argue With A Donkey

     The worst waste of time is arguing with the fool and fanatic who does not care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. 

     Never waste time on arguments that don't make sense. There are people who no matter how much evidence we present to them are not in the capacity to understand and others are blinded by ego, hatred and resentment, and all they want is to be right even if they are not. 

     When ignorance screams, intelligence is silent. Your peace and quiet are worth more. 

 

Here are a couple of thought provoking articles:

Are we becoming too stupid to govern ourselves? READ

A number of studies have found IQ scores are declining. READ