When does an animal become a mineral?

I have always loved fossils.  The ones I have seen most often, of course, are the ancient seashells and small organisms you find in ancient seabed rocks. It never crossed my mind that the changes in these animals over time which we call petrification could redefine them and create all kinds of a ruckus.

But it has read about it here in Science Magazine.

I have no concerns about what anyone will ever find on my property in Atlanta, but this does really point out questions we never thought to answer when property right laws were written.

Of course, it really makes me upset when I ask my lawyer friends about whether any laws are really “binding” if they were contested.

To a person, they almost always tell me the same thing: it depends on who has the best lawyer and that often depends upon who has the most money.

This, in turn, makes me crazy because almost everyone I know who has been robbed, embezzled, or been abused in life and sought restitution tells me that the criminal justice system is mostly about being sure that criminals get just treatment … it is not about us who have been wronged at all.

Perhaps that old joke suggesting we should stop using rats for biological testing and use lawyers instead.  We are running out of rats, you don’t nearly become as attached to them, and there are some things you just can’t get a rat to do.

 

 

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