Assassin’s Creed might be for real

Wikipedia describes the Assassin’s Creed game premise like so:

The Assassin’s Creed games primarily revolves around the rivalry between two ancient secret societies: the Assassins and the Knights Templar, and their indirect relation to an ancient species pre-dating humanity, whose society, along with much of Earth’s biosphere, was destroyed by a massive solar storm. The games’ real-world chronological setting is the year 2012, and feature Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several lines of prominent Assassins; though raised as an Assassin, he fled his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. He is initially kidnapped by the megacorporation Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar, who are aware of Desmond’s lineage. Desmond is forced to use the “Animus”, a device that allows him to experience his ancestral memories.

Initially, when I started playing Assassin’s Creed, I thought that this whole ancestral memory exploration idea was very cool.  It gave the game an easy opportunity to travel back in time, as well as it explained how the main character could die and resurrect many times during the course of the game.

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Well, apparently, this is not all fiction – there is a scientific basis for the idea.  Mysterious Universe covers a few bits of research, including this:

Prof Marcus Pembrey, from University College London, said the findings were “highly relevant to phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders” and provided “compelling evidence” that a form of memory could be passed between generations.

He commented: “It is high time public health researchers took human transgenerational responses seriously.”

Not exactly an exploration of ancestral memories yet, but a step in that direction.

 

Hypocrisy of animal lovers over a dead giraffe

OK, so by now I think everyone and their mother have heard of a giraffe that has been killed in the zoo.  Then it was chopped into pieces, which were used for feeding other zoo animals and, partially, sent off to research centers.   Now Cyprus Mail reports that there were death threats to the zoo staff.

COPENHAGEN Zoo’s scientific director and other staff have received death threats after a healthy giraffe was killed to avoid inbreeding among the long-necked beasts there, the zoo said on Monday.

Oh, the hypocrisy of this!

People look on as a veterinarian prepares to dismember the giraffe Marius after it was killed in Copenhagen Zoo

Let me try to get this straight:

  • First of all, we are talking about the an animal that was living in the FREAKING ZOO!!!  Oh, is that OK with you?  Fine.
  • Parts of the giraffe were fed to OTHER ANIMALS.  And that’s quite a natural for many of them to survive.
  • It was a public autopsy.  Why?  Why? The kids are watching!!!  Yeah, right.  If you don’t want your kids to see – simply walk away.  Just remember, that not everybody is like you.  And sometimes, to learn more about animals – you need to kill them, open them up and study.  Not only animals, by the way – we do the same to birds, fish, and even people.
  • There are countless cases of animal cruelty, abuse, and accidents in the world.  On a larger scale.  Many times on industrial scale (are you a vegetarian already?).  And yet – this giraffe is special.  Right… Go adopt a stray dog or something.
  • And last, but not least, seriously?  Death threats to your own freaking species?  Over a justified (arguably, somewhat) kill of a single animal of totally other species?  I don’t get it.

I’m all for animal loving and preservation of species.  But this giraffe has nothing to do with it.  Let animals leave in their own kingdom, rather than be a toy and public spectacle.  Let them practice their natural selection.  Oh, and watch them once in a while to see how beautiful and elegant they are.  Just make sure you are at a distance and you have a loaded gun.  Or it will be about your natural selection.  Cause animals eat other animals (including humans).  And nature is quite a cruel lady.