Ausborne Blog

I’ve always been interested in forensic science, and yesterday I came across this explanation of serology, its origin, and its history.  It starts with a multiple murder case in Germany in 1901 when scientists needed to figure out how to identify whether or not the stains on a suspect’s shirt were blood and, if so, whether or not the blood was human.

The local prosecutor then heard a farmer’s report that a man who looked like Tessnow was seen fleeing from his field, and he then found seven of his sheep slaughtered.  Their legs had been severed and tossed about the field.  Tessnow was brought in for a line-up and the farmer had no trouble picking him out as the man who had run from his field.

Still, the police needed better evidence to tie Tessnow to the murders.  Then they heard about a test recently developed by a biologist, Paul Uhlenhuth, that could distinguish blood from other substances, as well as mark the difference between human and animal blood.  Tessnow’s clothing was given to Uhlenhuth for thorough examination and his conclusions marked a turning point in the history of forensic science.  He found dye, but he also detected traces of both sheep and human blood.

The article then goes on to talk about what, exactly, serology is.  It discusses some of the basics of crime scene investigation, including the differences between presumptive and further tests.  Presumptive tests are the tests that are used to identify whether or not blood is present at the crime scene.  The further tests then determine whether or not the blood which has been found is human or animal.  It documents the history of this testing, and takes the reader through the ABO, blood type analysis, and DNA tests.

Despite how well the crime scene may get cleaned up, even the finest trace of blood can often be detected and further tested.  It is often the case that while the perpetrator may scrub down the obvious places, he can still miss between floorboards, under pipes, and inside drains.  Merely by pouring water on some tiles at a murder scene and pulling them up wherever the water flowed beneath them, one detective found the only existing trace of the crime–blood.  His discovery so surprised the killer, who felt certain he’d done a through job of cleaning up, that he instantly confessed.

Blood pattern analysis is then discussed at great length.  This is truly fascinating.

Blood pattern analysis plays an important role in the reconstruction of many crime scenes.  For example, when a prominent Cincinnati physician appeared to be the victim of an apparent suicide, the spatter pattern on his hand and on the couch on which he lay told a story of murder instead.  The various types of bloodstains indicate how the blood was projected from the body via several factors …

The shape of the blood drop itself, according to Kennedy, can reveal significant information.  “The proportions of the drops can reveal the energy needed to disburse it in those dimensions.  The shape of the stain can illustrate the direction in which it was traveling and angle at which it struck the surface.  Choosing several stains, and using basic trigonometric functions, enables us to do a three dimensional recreation of the area of origin from which a blood-letting event occurred.”

O.J. Simpson’s 1994 trial is even brought up.

Criminologist Dr. Henry Lee testified that there appeared to be something wrong with the way the blood was packaged, leading the defense to propose that the multiple samples had been switched. They also claimed that the blood had been severely degraded by being stored in a lab truck, but the prosecution’s DNA expert, Harlan Levy, said that the degradation would not have been sufficient to prevent accurate DNA analysis.  He also pointed out that control samples were used that would have shown any such contamination, but Scheck suggested that the control samples had been mishandled by the lab—all five of them—and the jury bought it.

This is a long, long read, but it’s really very fascinating.

I went to the Crossroads of the West gun show today and found lots and lots of things that I cannot afford. I mean lots of things. I was able, however to pick up a lower receiver for a AR-15 with a full trigger kit, grip, and collapsing stock. It’ll be a while before I can complete the build of the rifle but I finally got started on it today.

I looked for a nice holster for our pistol but didn’t find anything that I knew would fit it right, as I didn’t have the gun on me at the time.

I also found a few different coin dealers at the show who had some nice collections. I was a little late getting to one booth and missed my opportunity to buy an Indian head half eagle like I’ve been looking for. They had a St. Gaudins Double Eagle, which looked absolutely spectacular, but I couldn’t afford to pay $1250 in cash. Maybe some other time …

I was just looking at the prices of homes in the Bend, Oregon, area, as it’s now been two years since we moved from there back to Utah.  I was somewhat surprised at what I found.  I performed a series of searches for homes in the 97702 area code, the first of which was the same search I performed when I was selling my house there.  In an effort to get my home sold quickly, I always made sure that my home was one of the cheapest listings, if not THE cheapest in Bend with minimums of 2250 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 2 baths.  We had our house last listed for $335k and sold it for $330k.

Tonight, I did the same search that I had done so many times before and found that the cheapest home that fit those minimum specifications was quite a bit less.  By “quite a bit less” I mean, “Holy crap, that’s a TON less!”  The cheapest on the market with those specs is $199,900.  It’s in the Desert Skies neighborhood on the east side of Bend.  When my house was on the market, homes in that development were selling for somewhere in the mid $300s.  Today, there’s one listed for under $200k.

I am so glad we got out when did.  Losing my job in Bend was such a huge blessing for us.  We had been planning on selling the house, and had even had it on the market in 2006, but losing my job really pushed us to hurry up and get it sold.

I distinctly remember telling a friend of mine who was selling his house in Redmond, Oreogn during December of 2006 or January of 2007 that he should sell the house, then rent for six months to a year because the market would tank but he didn’t listen.  He sold his house and made almost $100k off the sale of his Redmond house, but immediately purchased a 1900 square foot home in Bend for $312k.  In today’s market, his home would be listed for somewhere between $180k and $190k.  I’d feel bad for him if he hadn’t gone and made himself an ex-friend of mine but, well, he did so I don’t.

Anyways, I was looking at the unemployment rates in the City of Bend from the time I moved there in October 2002 and comparing them to what Central Oregon is experiencing now.  Let’s just say things are really bad there right now.  During the time that I lived in Central Oregon, the highest unemployment rate that the area experienced was 9.4%.  The most recent data that I have for the Bend area shows unemployment at 16.1% in February 2009.  January shows 14.4% and December shows 11.3%.  Those are the three highest rates over the past 20 years.

Man, I sure am glad I moved when I did.

UPDATE:  Apparently, February’s numbers were revised and the 16.1% has been adjusted down to 15.8%.  March’s numbers are in, too, and it came in at 17%.  Whoa.

While doing homework this evening, I found myself getting distracted by an episode of Most Daring on TruTV.  Tonight’s episode was was called Wicked Wipeouts and had some pretty amazing video clips.  One video was of a car race somewhere between some Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes, among others.  This one dude, Joey Hand, was driving his Beamer and got nudged a little bit, forcing him to go off the track, hit a berm, then flip end over end eight times before coming to stop.  Here’s the clip:

Joey Hand Crash Video

I’ve found something recently.  It’s a TV channel called TVLand and it’s running episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun.  I had completely forgotten about that show until last week when I stumbled upon it.  It’s pretty darn funny.