Death Records Now

It is not really clear whether humanity developed intelligence because it was curious or its curiosity developed its intelligence. It could very well be a combination of both, with our natural genetic capacity for inquiry stimulating more complex and interconnected neural nets and bigger brains.

For a long time, psychologists believed that intelligence was fixed, but new evidence shows that the more we learn, the more neural connections are formed and the more we can learn.

The driving force behind all learning is curiosity, the desire to know, to explore, to experience new things.

A curious lesson about the implications of appreciating and withdrawing from curiosity occurred between 1405 and 1433, when the Ming government, under the foresighted Yongle Emperor decided to establish a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean basin. He assigned Zheng He 317 ships, with 28,000 armed troops. This expedition awed the people of the coastlines, who were amazed by the nine-masted ships. These were the biggest ships ever known in the world, with a technology about 500 years ahead of its time.

During his first three voyages, Zheng He visited southeast Asia, India, and Ceylon, and on the next one, he traveled as far as East Africa. Liberally dispensing gifts of silk, porcelain, and other Chinese wonders, he also received amazing presents from his hosts.
The Chinese people learned much about other people, their customs, and their deities. Zheng He was also respectful. For example, in Ceylon, they erected monuments honoring Buddha, Allah, and Vishnu. They also astonished the people back home when they brought back “mythological animals” like the Zebra and the Giraffe.

Suddenly the world of the Chinese people expanded beyond belief, as did those of the people visited.

Zheng He himself was reported to be a remarkable man, who was rumored to be very tall and broad and walked like a tiger. Chinese scholars escorted him, drew nautical maps and wrote fabulous reports on all that was being discovered.

Then in 1424, the Yongle Emperor died and with him the curiosity aroused by the Chinese expeditions. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor, who reigned from 1424 to 1425 slowly eroded the popularity of the expeditions. He was followed by the Xuande Emperor, who permitted one last expedition, during which time Zheng He died and was buried at sea.

A huge surge of conservatism not only ended the expeditions, but the bureaucrats even went as far as to destroy all known records of the expeditions. The nautical charts were burned. The treasure ships sat in the harbors until they rotted away. And the technology of how to build such sophisticated ships gradually passed into oblivion.

Zheng He discovered many countries, including Sumatra, Malacca, Java, Ceylon, India, Persia, the Persian Gulf, Arabia, the Red Sea, Africa, and Taiwan. He brought back to China trophies and envoys from more than 30 kingdoms. His records and maps may even have shown the Americas, Antarctica, and the tip of Africa.

What killed China’s exploration of the world? Chinese bureaucrats steeped in Neo-Confucianism thought that since China was obviously the greatest civilization in the world that they had nothing to gain from mixing with foreign people.

China became insular and the Western World, so far behind in technology and the learning arts began to catch up. Eventually, a few centuries later, by the time of the Opium Wars, the small island of Britain had enough technology to completely humiliate this giant country and seize its major ports.

And just as the decline of a whole civilization can be traced back to the eclipse of curiosity, even on an individual level, most people only enjoy a brief expedition into learning about new worlds. After their schooling years, most people settle into a routine of quiet desperation and fail to realize that they live in a world of wonder and mystery.

The wonders of learning are enormous; besides personal growth, there is a thrill to it that makes everything else pale in comparison. Here for example is the poetic euphoria felt by Zheng He:

“We have traversed more than 100,000 li (50,000 kilometers) of immense water spaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course (as rapidly) as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare.” (Tablet erected by Zhen He, Changle, Fujian, 1432.)

Conservative scholars at court, clinging to an outmoded philosophy, did not realize that
with the death of curiosity, they had also condemned the future of a great civilization. 100 years before Columbus opened up the Americas, China lost its chance to know and explore the world.

Without a sense of wonder, life is but a petty affair. Whenever a civilization, a country, an institution, or a person loses it, their world shrinks and entropy begins. Entrenched in the quotidian, life loses its luster, and the promise of what could be fades away like a dying sunset.

Saleem Rana
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/the-rise-and-fall-of-curiosity-85502.html

First and foremost, I’m not seeking statistics, due to the fact that I have meticulously researched the Death Penalty, from the beheading of John the Baptist by order of King Herod for questioning the King’s desire to court his brother Phillip’s wife, Herodius..(because the wifey and daughter WANTED to have the king as their own)…to the recent overturning of the Supreme Court decision to allow Capital Punishment for Sex Offenders. What I’m looking for is your DEEPEST emotions….your true feelings about this facet of Justice in the United States. Any stats I quote are as accurate as possible….directly from sources such as the Uniform Crime Reports published by the F.B.I., as well as info I obtained by contacting the United States Department of Justice…..if you avoid the real question, and thrill me with your opinions of HOW I FEEL…I will rate you low, block you…and most likely reduce myself to a low level of distaste I don’t care for.
NOW FOR THE TRUTH>>>BEFORE YOU MAKE YOUR FINAL DECISION…….
1. Each year….roughly $66 million tax dollars are spent to house, feed, clothe, medicate, and supply oxygen to the roughly 3,000 inmates presently under sentence of death in U.S. Prisons. For ythe average inmate, it costs approximately $22,000 a year….(which astounds me, because prisons are designed from the ground up, from the food, to the living quarters, to be as cost efficient as possible…in some instances…perilously close to in-humane conditions including but not limited to faulty plumbing which goes un attended for years…to food your dog would turn his nose up at.
2. Since 1976, when the moratorium on Capital Punishment was lifted, over 120 individuals have been exonerated and released from death row after new evidence proved innocence…or prosecutorial misconduct, lazy detectives, or unreliable witnesses were unearthed.
3. At the trial level, Death Penalty cases generate roughly $200,000 in legal expenses that the offender is, of course, not going to be responsible for…..especially if convicted….much more if the individual files personal restraint petitions (a facet of Habeas Corpus Law) and appeals.
4. 15 states, New Jersey being the most recent (2007), have abolished Capital Punishment altogether….My own native state of Michigan did so on March 1st, 1847….becoming the first English Speaking Territory to abolish Capital Punishment….as on of its first acts of Legislation as a State. On more than one occasion, a few of Michigan’s largest metropolitain areas have held national records for murder rates. Hmmm…I smell a rat.
5. As of 2006, the last publication of the Uniform Crime Reports until September 2010, there were 13,435 Non-Negligient Murders, 25,535 Forcible Rapes, and 87,252 Sex Offenses in the U.S….the Total number of Index Crimes (Murder, Rape, Robbery, Assault, Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft, Burglary, and Arson) was at 14,380,370. "Yay Mommy, they’re gonna have to build yet another Prison on that State land me and Billy play on"……….Imagine that
6. Some cases of National fame…such as "The Green River Killer" result in Life Sentences for guys like Gary Ridgeway (Dude killed 48 people THAT WE KNOW OF!)…while others, crimes of passion and those teetering on the edge of self defense, have ended the lives of individuals who killed for a "justifiable reason".
MY PROPOSAL-
Okay folks…we all know this country has seen better days…those of you who don’t must live in a cave, or be wealthy enough to not give a flying rat’s arse. Perhaps we should take the $66 big ones away, Kill the killers, the rapists, the pedophiles (unequivocally guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, of course) and apply it to something worthwhile. Maybe Pedophiles and Rapists ARE EXACTLY WHAT THEY SEEM…MORALLY AND SOCIOLOGICALLY UNACCEPTABLE ANIMALS WHO SHOULD BE SLAUGHTERED. I could go on and on…if you read the 22 page dissertation I wrote (limited amount of pages thanks to my instructor) you would be sickened….I know I was. China has alot of Capital crimes….running a Prostitution ring or Taking Bribes ( ask Zheng Xiaou…former head of their Food and Drug Administration)…..Why is the U.S. so concerned with treating these individuals as if they merely stole a car, or robbed a bank with a damn licorice pistol? My idea is….Murderers deserve an eye for an eye….
Pedophiles deserve to take the Long Black Train as well, however, a touch of punishment applied to the motivational parts of their bodies involving a blowtorch and a 4,000 p.s.i. Power washer should preclude the "conductor" sending them on the ride to Purgatorial Peace……..and rapists should see the same fate…….
I WILL READ AND CONSIDER ALL ANSWERS…AND LOOK AT THEM FROM THE POINTS OF VIEW OF THE MASSES, HOWEVER…MY OPINION SHALL NOT DEVIATE FROM ITS PRESENT COURSE OF VIGILANT LOGIC……I TRULY LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY……35YRSINTUITION
VERY FUNNY SHATTER…..HAD THIS QUESTION INVOLVED SYMANTICS AND DOUBLE TALK….YOU MAY HAVE GOT A BEST OUT OF IT.
DEAD PARROT….YOUR INTELLECT PRECEDES YOUR IRRATIONALITY…HOWEVER…I SAID NO STATS BECAUSE I KNOW ALL OF THEM……THEY HAVE BEEN PROCESSED BY MY HIPPOCAMPUS….AND COMMITTED TO LONG TERM MEMORY…UNTIL 2010, THAT IS. LOOK AT IT FROM ALL ANGLES, FRIEND…..MONEY, PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE U.S., AND HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO HAVE YOUR KID KIDNAPPED, DEFILED, MURDERED…AND DISCARDED LIKE RUBBISH……THERE WAS A COMPLIMENT IN THERE SOMEWHERE….BTW…..FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME. AND I MUST APOLOGIZE FOR ALL THE TYPOS….PASSION GIVES ME HAPPY FINGERS….ESPECIALLY WHEN I’M TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING SO ABSOLUTELY CONTROVERSIAL AND COMPELLING…….GOOD ANSWER THOUGH DPS……I RESPECT THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS…..I JUST DON’T BUDGE FROM MY OWN DUE TO THEM.
YUP..read the Bible cover to cover twice….not impressed by copies and pastes….but I did like the Old Testament better than the New…..if my blood had to be shed by man because I shed the blood of another for a transgression unforgivable….so be it….God Knows Me…..HE is still molding an imperfect lump of clay after 35 years…….and I share the name of Moses’ brother…..you know..the articulate one who never killed any Egyptians….

If someone has been arrested, tried and found guilty of a capital crime and the sentence is death, it should be carried out.

This BS of keeping someone on death row for years and years is an injustice to the low-lifes victims.

Do it.

Texas killed 78 inmates last year, that is more than one a week. They refused to honor the Supreme Court suggestion on a moratorium on killing the mentally impaired. Most of the other states have either repealed or put a moratorium on the death penalty while they review all cases that hinged on DNA and a record number of people have been freed after being wrongfully convicted. Texas is not actively looking at reviewing cases where DNA or circumstantial evidence could free a inmate. Is this fair? I am not advocating freeing those who are guilty and believe that in most cases Life without the possibilityof parole is sufficient. BUT should we take the chance of killing innoncent people rather than admitting there maybe a mistake? The justice system is not set up to kill the innoncent, but instead protect them.

The death penalty is there for a reason and I support it. I do think that with new evidence-DNA-you should have a right to appeal your sentence. And I do believe that a lot of poor people don’t get the same treatment as those with $ for a good lawyer. On the other hand I have known people that are so evil they do not deserve to live among other humans and when they commit "that" crime they need to know that if they are caught and proven guilty, they are going to die. You don’t do a simple murder and get the death sentence, you have to do something heinous. Look at it from the victim’s viewpoint instead of the criminals. . .it will give you a whole new viewpoint about who really has the rights and who doesn’t.