Irony and Anniversaries
Three years ago this week, I lost a high school friend of mine. He suffered burns and smoke inhalation in a fire, and died at 56.
In an odd twist, this week some dear friends in Central Ohio lost a daughter and sister and wife at the age of 23. She’d been suffering from seizures that hadn’t quite been diagnosed yet.
The commonality here is that neither Paul nor Heather had any clue that they were going to die when they did. Paul was getting ready to go to work that day. Heather died in her sleep.
Friends, I can’t overemphasize the need to have the difficult conversations now, while you’re still able. Talk to your family members about what you want when it comes to end-of-life care. Make sure you know where documents and files are. If your spouse is the one who always pays the bills, make sure you know where all the accounts are.
Have the conversation. Losing a loved one is going to be hard enough as it is. Do what you can to make it easier for your family.
Football
I’m not really surprised that Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy declared for the draft, nor was I surprised to see Blake Corum declare. I was pretty sure that Corum was out of eligibility anyway. My thinking Sunday was that Coach Harbaugh probably encouraged McCarthy to go, saying they had done what they’d set out to do. I rather doubt that either one influenced the other’s decision.
As I write this, Harbaugh has been interviewed by the Atlanta Falcons and the San Diego LA Chargers. I think Atlanta is going to go with Bill Belichick. Who knows about the Chargers; they’ve interviewed almost a dozen coaches at this point. Plus, Michigan may finally reach an agreement with Harbaugh about his contract. Who knows at this point? This will-he-or-won’t-he thing every year does get old after a while.
Reading
I’ve followed Lenore Skenazy for a number of years, going back to her “Free Range Kids” days. She’s writing over at Reason occasionally now and has a good overview piece there on the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences.
The National Registry of Exonerations attributes 868 cases out of 3,459 total exonerations since 1989 to false or misleading forensic evidence. 55 wrongfully convicted people were sentenced to death. 127 cases involved sexual assault. Another 96 exonerated people had been convicted of child sexual abuse.
The Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, founded in 2017, works to improve the use of forensic testimony in court. That process starts with convincing the court system to admit that “science” is rarely settled. We heard “Trust the science” quite often during the pandemic. But the courts need to understand that part of the scientific process involves constant reevaluation of the conclusions we’ve drawn.
Read Hair Sample That Put a Man in Prison Turned Out to Be Dog Hair at Reason.
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