A great video about critical thinking and why it is important.
2011-05-25
2011-05-06
Column op Crimesite door Mr. Jan Boone
Deze column is zeer de moeite waard en toont maar weer eens aan dat er bijzonder weinig recht is te halen voor het normale volk in Nederland, mits ze zelf onderdeel uitmaken van de justitiële molen.
Link naar betreffende colum.
Link naar betreffende colum.
2011-04-28
2011-04-26
Next Generation Sequencers: where are they?
2011-04-24
Dutch police and DNA evidence
Around 21h00 on August 11, 1998 the lifeless body of Nicky Verstappen was found about 1200 meters from the location where he was last seen alive, just 40 hours earlier. This killing has some apparent similarities to three killings in Germany and one killing France.
German police arrested Martin N. initially for a murder in Hamburg. He quickly confessed to two other unsolved murders. At the moment German police suspect he is also involved in two murders outside Germany, one of which is the locally well-known unsolved case of Nicky Verstappen.
Martin H. is allegedly fluent in Dutch and despite lack of DNA evidence in some of the three murders he confessed to, German police strongly believe that he is involved in Nicky's murder. What other clues the German police has to link his to Nicky Verstappen, remains unknown.
Dutch police on the other hand ran a DNA test on Martin H. to see if his DNA matches the DNA found on Nicky Verstappen. This was not the case and for that reason alone Dutch police dismissed Martin N. as a suspect.
How is it possible that two capable police forces have such strong convictions about a single case, but these convictions are each others polar opposites. This begs the question, is DNA evidence the ultimate evidence or just another forensic tool? It appears that Dutch police does think that DNA evidence is the ultimate evidence, whereas the German police appear to think it is 'just' a tool.
So how reliable it DNA evidence? To answer this question, you have to ask various other questions.
First of all, in any forensic investigation you need to isolate DNA. This in turn depends on how, where and when DNA was deposited on a crime scene. How is this DNA sample stored and transported. How is the DNA sample tested? What techniques were used and what statistics were used to analyse the results? And this is assuming that the murderer of Nicky Verstappen indeed left behind some DNA evidence to be collected and that no one else left his or her DNA behind. A plethora of questions and assumptions, which apparently can be easily answered by the Dutch police.
Whether or not Martin N. is responsible for Nicky Verstappen's murder, it seems that the Dutch police has a little too much faith in DNA evidence.
German police arrested Martin N. initially for a murder in Hamburg. He quickly confessed to two other unsolved murders. At the moment German police suspect he is also involved in two murders outside Germany, one of which is the locally well-known unsolved case of Nicky Verstappen.
Martin H. is allegedly fluent in Dutch and despite lack of DNA evidence in some of the three murders he confessed to, German police strongly believe that he is involved in Nicky's murder. What other clues the German police has to link his to Nicky Verstappen, remains unknown.
Dutch police on the other hand ran a DNA test on Martin H. to see if his DNA matches the DNA found on Nicky Verstappen. This was not the case and for that reason alone Dutch police dismissed Martin N. as a suspect.
How is it possible that two capable police forces have such strong convictions about a single case, but these convictions are each others polar opposites. This begs the question, is DNA evidence the ultimate evidence or just another forensic tool? It appears that Dutch police does think that DNA evidence is the ultimate evidence, whereas the German police appear to think it is 'just' a tool.
So how reliable it DNA evidence? To answer this question, you have to ask various other questions.
First of all, in any forensic investigation you need to isolate DNA. This in turn depends on how, where and when DNA was deposited on a crime scene. How is this DNA sample stored and transported. How is the DNA sample tested? What techniques were used and what statistics were used to analyse the results? And this is assuming that the murderer of Nicky Verstappen indeed left behind some DNA evidence to be collected and that no one else left his or her DNA behind. A plethora of questions and assumptions, which apparently can be easily answered by the Dutch police.
Whether or not Martin N. is responsible for Nicky Verstappen's murder, it seems that the Dutch police has a little too much faith in DNA evidence.
Kubica has left the building
Eleven weeks after a terrifying accident, Robert Kubica has been discharged from the hospital.
On February 6th of this year, Kubica was taking part in a minor rally in Italy, called Ronde di Andora. He went through a slippery right hander, had to correct his car, slid against the barriers and normally you can either continue or you are out with damage to the suspension. In this case, he bounced of the wall and came back to it hitting a guardrail head on. Again, normally nothing bad will happen, but in this case the guardrail penetrated the car at the level of the footing area, entering the car and nearly severing off Kubica's right arm and hand. After a 7 hour long operation at the Santa Corona hospital in Pietra Ligure, his hand and arm were saved.
With the Lotus Renault R31 showing great promise to be a regular podium-contender, there were high hopes that Robert Kubica would finally break through a serious championship contender. With his crash in the fog around the right hand bend passing San Sebastiano church, these hopes have crumbled.
Kubica went home to Monoca and will soon start his revalidation-program with dr. Ceccarelli. When he will be able to return to racing or even Formula 1 will become clear during the summer.
On February 6th of this year, Kubica was taking part in a minor rally in Italy, called Ronde di Andora. He went through a slippery right hander, had to correct his car, slid against the barriers and normally you can either continue or you are out with damage to the suspension. In this case, he bounced of the wall and came back to it hitting a guardrail head on. Again, normally nothing bad will happen, but in this case the guardrail penetrated the car at the level of the footing area, entering the car and nearly severing off Kubica's right arm and hand. After a 7 hour long operation at the Santa Corona hospital in Pietra Ligure, his hand and arm were saved.
With the Lotus Renault R31 showing great promise to be a regular podium-contender, there were high hopes that Robert Kubica would finally break through a serious championship contender. With his crash in the fog around the right hand bend passing San Sebastiano church, these hopes have crumbled.
Kubica went home to Monoca and will soon start his revalidation-program with dr. Ceccarelli. When he will be able to return to racing or even Formula 1 will become clear during the summer.
2011-02-26
Why chase the Red Queen?
Who is the Red Queen?
The Red Queen is a character from a book by Lewis Caroll: Through a Looking Glass (1872). In Alica's dream about the looking glass house, all is weird. Left appears to be right and visa versa, as if she was in a mirror image of the world she knew. Also, chess pieces are alive and one of them is the Red Queen, who she will meet once she leaves the looking glass house to see the garden.
To get a better view of the garden, Alice decides to climb up the hill. From here, she sees a very straight path, but when she follows the path, she finds that it leads her back to the house. When she runs, she not only returns to the house, she also crashes into it. So, forward movements take you back to your starting point and fast movements cause abrupt stops.
Eventually, Alice finds herself in a patch of very vocal and opinionated flowers; the rose is especially vocal. It is here, where Alice learns about the Red Queen and as an excuse to escape the verbal use, she decides to find the Red Queen. When she spots the Red Queen, she begins to move towards her, but the Red Queen quickly disappears out of sight. Upon advice of the rose, she decides to go the opposite way, which results in immediate success, as she now stands face-to-face with the Red Queen.
The Red Queen leads Alice to the top of the hill and according to the Red Queen, hills can become valleys and valleys can become hills. This confuses Alice, as she already noticed that straight can become curvy. As if progress can only be made by going the opposite direction.
Once they are at the top of the hill, the Red Queen starts to run, faster and faster. Alice runs after the Red Queen, but it appears that neither of them are actually moving. When they stop running, they are still in the exact same place. Alice tells the Red Queen this and the Red Queen responds: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place".
So why chase the Red Queen?
The short answer is: to keep up with my surroundings. Whatever you do, be it in your professional life or your personal life, you have to keep up with things to maintain your current position. To keep up with science as a graduate student, I have to read articles. For criminal to keep ahead of the authorities, they have to find loop-holes in the law and investigation techniques, whereas the authorities have to do the opposite. For a formula 1 team to maintain there lead in the championship they have to keep developing their cars, as their opponents are trying to out compete them for victory. In other words: life is just a rat race, chasing the Red Queen where ever she goes. You just have to chose which rat race you want to join and the chase is on!
References:
Carrol, L. 1872. Through the looking glass and what Alice found there. Macmillan, London.
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