The Third V was Right: That Last Inch is Crucial
August 11, 2006
7:21 a.m., MT

No coincidences, V intones more than once in the movie V for Vendetta. So I'm taking it as not a coincidence that the third V in the movie—that being Valerie, the author of the toilet-paper autobiography—offered some important insights:

An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world that's worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

I don't think it's coincidence that that's what my mind immediately turned to upon reading this:

By mapping the genome--the Human Genome Project completed in 2003--scientists have already shown that people share the same basic genetic information. As much as 99 percent of human code is identical--it's the last 1 percent that determines individual traits like difference in appearance, life expectancy, resistance to drugs and susceptibility to disease.

On Thursday, a team of scientists in Emory's School of Medicine said that they've advanced the study of the last 1 percent of genetic variation by producing a map of more than 400,000 insertions and deletions (INDELs) in the human genome. In simpler terms, they've shown 400,000 different naturally occurring variations in genetic code, or so-called polymorphisms, which can help explain idiosyncrasies in humans.

If you want to read the full report, this is from Gene researchers find more clues to human individuality, at c|net news. Links were in the original report.

Sunni

Comments: 6 people have contributed to the conversation

On Friday, August 11th, at approximately 10:31 a.m. Mountain time, Erin said:

Sometimes I wonder if other Americans aren't all too anxious to give that last inch up for us.

*We* don't have to do anything. Democracy allows total strangers to give it up against our will.

On Friday, August 11th, at approximately 11:05 a.m. Mountain time, Sunni said:

Sure, many of them are willing to send us up—hence all the screenings being pushed on kids, pregnant women, fliers ... the proliferation of snitch lines and mental illness diagnoses, etc.

But I don't think democracy has that level of power over a free-thinking person, not in every area anyway. We're like a gas: every time the gov tries to squeeze us, a few of us find a way out, and others follow. Shift the pressure, and the release will shift too. Eliminate all the release points, keep adding pressure, and the inevitable will occur: the mess will blow up in their faces.

On Saturday, August 12th, at approximately 7:29 a.m. Mountain time, dr.lenny said:

I like the chemistry analogy - we are exactly like a gas and therefore should obey the gas law PV=nRT, where P is the pressure - currently high, V is the volume - constant here, T is the temperature - currently rising and n is the number of people, also currently rising. R is a constant.
So, when temperature and number of people affected both increase, the pressures on all of us increase. No wonder so much is ready to blow. So where is our release valve

On Saturday, August 12th, at approximately 7:44 a.m. Mountain time, Sunni said:

I should have known you would, my good Dr., but truth be told I didn't even think of you when I wrote that (highly distracted these days).

I think a few release valves still exist, and just as different gas molecules have different volumes at given temp and pressure, so do people. Meaning some releases will work for some, but not others. Leaving the country is one, dropping out of mainstream society, possibly coupled with going mobile is another. Like others, I think escaping this place and staking claim elsewhere is a major one, but it's currently stopcocked. I don't see that continuing forever, though.

It'll be interesting to see what this new pressure—no liquids in carryons for flights—will cause.

On Saturday, August 12th, at approximately 9:10 a.m. Mountain time, Michael said:

So, what're we? Helium trapped in the expanded skin of a latex balloon? Escaping one molecule at a time until the who wretched thing is emptied out and is nothing but a deflated, pathetic husk? Or maybe we're hydrogen, waiting for the inevitable spark to take down the Hindenburgh?
I think we might be Krypton,, tho. Unassuming until we get excited and electrified and then we shine!

On Friday, August 25th, at approximately 8:24 p.m. Mountain time, Fred said:

Is it too late to make the link?

"Never give an inch" ~ Hank Stamper in Ken Kesey's great novel of American individualism Sometimes a Great Notion.

Home
Previous entry: "Finding My Way"
Next entry: "Cut to the Chase, Already!"