Discover Magizine Precies "Quest for a Second Earth"

By: Robert Kunzig

Jeffery Klugar’s article Global Warming Heats Up, discusses both the signigicant and insignificant effects of global warming on the planet Earth. One of the more major problems Klugar brings to light is the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps. “the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 feet.” he states. Klugar continues to show how dire the situation has become by stating that that number could rise by the year 2010. A 2006 report from Nasa states the last twenty years on Earth have been the hottest on record, and the tempertures only continue to rise. Klugar creates this interseting article while using many stats, quotes, data, facts and expert opinions to stress the fact that our planet is becoming “ill” and may not survive for much longer at the rate things are going at the moment.
Discussion: Do you think that global warming is a problem that should be dealt with as quickly as possible? Or do you think it should be put aside till other problems are solved?

Clarification:what did Klugar mean by "nature's stricking back at us"?

Stiff;; 3rd Chunk

In the last few chapters of Stiff, Roach continues to describe the ways humans can be used after they pass on by using, excerpts, quotes, facts, and rhetorical questions. The uses of human cadavars continue to grow, as Roach explores the past. Hot blood from a deceased gladiator was belived to be an elixer that could cure many diseases such as "ecezema, palsy and even vertigo."(224) While some of the past uses of cadavars as medicine are less that desireable to those in modern days, in the past these practices were popular and ever growing. Later Roach tells of an "enviromentaly friendly" way of using cadavars as compost. In the very last chapter of Stiff, the author roises the rhetorical question of What will happen to not only her, but us, when we pass on from this world.

Clarification:
On page 224 when Roach mentions the "Mummy Elixer", is she talking about the mellified mummies?

Application:
If it meant that you could possibly save a person's life, would you eat and drink nothing but hunny for the last month of your life and then mellify your body?

Stiff 3rd Chunk, Pg #146-219

Mary Roach continues on in the next few chapters to further describe how cadavars are used, how said cadavers were distinguished from the living, and Roach even raises the question of what makes a person a person. First, the author explains how the dead were used to prove the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin by using many quotes and historical facts. Later, Roach chronicels her experience at California's San Fransisco Medical Center. She states that the difference between the living and the dead. The living are "flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IV's, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors."(167), while the dead are " wheeled by a single person, calmly and with little notice." But as she continues on, Roach relizes that a beating heart cadavar is "flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IV's, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors."

Clarification: Pg 204
Was Gamahut alive for a short amount of time, when Laborde ran the currents through his head. Was his head attatched to his body, or was it just Gamahut's head?

Application:
In your oppinion, what makes a person a person? Do you think that a beating heart cadavar could be classified as a person, or is a person classified by thier soul, spirit or personality? Or maybe even thier brain function?

Stiff 2nd Chunk (Pg 74-148)

In Marry Roach's Stiff, she explores the many uses that cadavars have, in not only anatomical reasearch but how they can be used in vehicular crash tests, to understand the severity of chest injuries in them, as well as to understand, by looking at the cadavar's wounds, what actually happened in a plane crash. All the while she is explaining the benefits of these cadavars, she adds in imagery, humor, and anecdotes about heself concerning the topic at hand. Earlier in the chapter Roach uses vivid imagery to describe what happend to a live person simulating the impacts of a real car crash. This man named Albert King was "slammed in the chest by a twenty-two-pound metal pendulum. He has hurled one knee repetedly against a metal bar outfitted with a load cell."(pg 94) (a load cell is a device that converts force into electrical signals.) By telling of the many injuries a real person, who can feel pain, goes through, Roach hilights the use of cadavars, who feel no pain at all. Roach then uses expert opinions to explain that just by looking at the wounds of a victim one can determine the cause of a plane crash and the events that unfolded. With the further use of anecdotes and historical facts, Roach tells of research done many years ago as to why a man falls to the floor after being shot.
Discussion Questions:
Clarification: In the first few pages of chapter five, did Roach or her colleage ever refer to the "victims" or "survivors" of the plane crash as cadavars?
Application: Do you think that it is better to use cadavars in place of animals in things such as bullet research?