Punting.

Tonight I observed for the second time in a new variety a simple way to scam people of their money. You use a 50 point bill to attract people in hopes of winning it by gambiling. You scramble three covers of some sort over a single ball and you do it quickly. The rig comes with having the player step on one of the covers before they choose which they think the ball is under. Somehow this eliminates the ball under that cover and produces a different ball under the other (it must happen this way, or some version of that). The allure comes with possibly winning the 50 point bill with your bet of a 5, 10, or 20. Sometimes you pick the cover with the ball under and take the 50 point bill. But the guy doesn't care who wins and who loses, as long as more people lose their smaller point bills (which he pockets) during more games in which those losses add greater than 50 than a winner takes one of the 50 point bills. He can even produce new 50 point bills when somebody wins as long as he rigs the game enough times to make up for it, with successive losses for the betters losing smaller point bills. Saw it first with soccer balls in Paris and second here in Barcelona with marbles.

My mom and James came to Oxford last week and we all went on a road trip cept Tim cuz he had finals through northern Wales, Scotland, and much of England. We went to London as well and saw a bunch of shit. I don't want to report the whole itinerary so I'll just say it was really fun and York is a cooler city than New York cuz it's surrounded by a wall. One of Tim's friends told me during poker that in Barcelona (where I am now) I should find this place that sells Cava y hamburguesas for 5 euro. So that's what we're gonna do.

Leaving Ireland today for Oxford. True to stereotype, this island is green and beautiful. Highlights for me were the cliffs of Moher, see below, running on the Carton House grounds in the morning, the Guinness brewery tour (with a 9,000 year lease and once the largest brewery in the world (now Anheuser Busch in St. Louis)) and Cass' birthday night in Dublin at the Temple Bar with live music. Yay!

(Continued from June 9)

Therefore, if a developed nervous system appears to form in and around the two month period, abortions quickly become morally questionable around that point. It is an early point - many women, especially in the Third World, are not even aware that they are pregnant at this time. A woman's body is the woman's body, however, whether or not a growing fetus constitutes part of that body. An adult woman's body and a growing fetus are not comparable; they do not simply each count as a universal one, which quite frankly is a stultified view. Accordingly, we should afford the woman's choice in such a paramount decision high precedence. It follows that Third World abortions are less immoral when performed later, though still not preferable.

About the equality of a grown woman and a fetus - many essentially argue that incipient life and the potential for full life are equal to full life, which is, in my opinion, incorrect. Potential life is just that - potential. It is not actualized. Moreover, in this case, the human in question, when the procedure is performed early, is most certainly not conscious and suffering is either completely absent or minimal, which only makes the argument of equality more dubious. Thankfully the current president is making efforts to expand women's rights in this regard, although certainly, improved birth control methods should represent a top priority in scientific endeavor.

Lastly, if consciousness and suffering due to developed nervous systems are scales on which we will measure the question of morality there is a great deal of morally reprehensible actions committed against non-human and fully grown organisms on this planet that call for human reform.

One of the current controversial hot topics is abortion and I feel the need for another exposition. People say they are either pro-life or pro-choice and strictly speaking I am pro-choice. But viewing the problem from two concrete lenses is a great oversimplification. The preferable view is that abortion becomes more morally reprehensible the further time has elapsed since conception. That statement is a better description of my stance. The further from conception the more I am pro-life. So where is the line drawn?

An amazing amount of development actually occurs during the first trimester. During week eight, or two months, neurons are increasing by 250,000 every minute. The fetus already looks like a human. Second trimester abortions seem barbaric with those considerations. The real issue, however, isn't a debate over when the embryo or fetus becomes a human being. It is a human being at conception, the point at which it will grow into an adult, and before which the potential for growth into adulthood is physically impossible. All abortion is killing human beings. The real issue is whether such a human is conscious and/or capable of suffering. Determining that is unclear, but it's obvious that both consciousness and suffering are dependent on developed nervous systems.

We have a bird problem. Morning doves routinely shit on the boat (the Buick) from the Bradford pear trees that overhang the front driveway. So Grandpa decided he would order some mechanical owls. They play a recorded hooting whenever they sense movement. They hooted incessantly once they emerged from the box, predictably sensing our normal movements. Grandma insisted we hang them up immediately so the house would at least block some of the cacophony. Grandpa: What hooting? They don't hoot. You're hearing things. Grandma: They hoot over and over and over! Can't you hear it? Grandpa was playing a joke. He makes fun of senescence. If you care to know, the mechanical owls do not intimidate the morning doves. But it is funny to imagine the possibility of a morning dove formation swooping in on cue at night, unexpecting, to find their loitering tree taken by owls. Holy shit! Fly away, fly away, fucking owls man! Fly away fly away. Quick, about face. Shit! Owls!

Also if you care to know, the color of an owl's eyes indicate the time at which it hunts - black and brown for nocturnal owls, orangish for dusk, and yellow owls diurnal. The Elf Owl is 5 inches long, the Eagle Owl has a wingspan of over six feet and has been known to hunt young deer. Though usually solitary birds of prey, a group of owls is called a parliament.