Letters

The Most Amazing Inventions of 2005

Our annual roundup of the best new products and technological innovations prompted readers to share their excitement about the cool things that await them in the future--maybe even under the Christmas tree. Some were troubled by the ethical implications of the cloned dog Snuppy

I truly enjoyed your selection of the best new inventions [Nov. 21]. I liked the ENV hydrogen-powered motorcycle and the Shift tricycle, whose rear wheels move closer together at higher speeds and separate for balance at slower ones. But I was most impressed by the LifeStraw [a drinking tube with powerful filters that can prevent waterborne infections that kill millions of people in the developing world]. I've traveled to areas where clean water is not a given, so I can appreciate the LifeStraw's value. Thank you for opening eyes around the world to this wonderful device.

RATHIKA RAMADOSS Gallup, N.M.

Congratulations on "The Most Amazing Inventions of 2005." Your package on new ideas, gadgets and gifts has become another eagerly anticipated feature, like your annual Person of the Year. Thanks for keeping TIME a leader.

JIM TRACY Denver, Colo.

Snuppy, the dog cloned by South Korean scientists, was a disturbing choice for TIME's Invention of the Year. The cloning of mammals has an extremely low success rate, and experience suggests that Snuppy may later suffer debilitating illness. The purpose of the Snuppy experiment is clearly to put a cuter, more approachable face on the use of cloning technologies in humans. While there are people who might approve of the use of more than 100 canine egg donors and 123 surrogate mother dogs to get one viable clone, I and many others consider this "invention" a cynical public relations stunt.

JAYDEE HANSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT Washington

I was a bit unnerved by your referring to Snuppy as an invention. The cloning technique is remarkable, without a doubt, but I believe it is wrong to classify a cloned creature as an invention. Doing so somehow implies that a clone is different and inferior to other living creatures merely because the method of creation has changed. A clone is just another member of its species.

LAURA WHITE Folsom, Calif.

Your list of inventions left me yawning. There weren't any great breakthroughs to dazzle the imagination. Many of the items were trivial. It's not TIME's fault that the year didn't see the introduction of something fantastic. From the standpoint of new technology, it was a very dull year.

LOU VARRICCHIO Middlebury, Vt.

Mourning the Dead

"Honor After the Fall," your photo essay on Marine Major Steve Beck and his mission of notifying families of the loss of a loved one in Iraq [Nov. 21], was one of the most powerful and poignant stories I've ever read in TIME. I wiped away tears trying to imagine the pain and loss felt by the families of the fallen. I was also struck by the professional and compassionate way in which Beck notified and supported those families. I respect and admire him for performing that incredibly difficult but sadly necessary assignment.

WALTER (SKIP) WILSON Irving, Texas

I'm 41 years old and have become a little jaded over the years, but I was moved to tears by the images of Beck taking care of families who have lost a loved one. I think he and the other service members performing that noble and depressing task deserve America's thanks. Not all heroes are overseas.

STEVEN NIREN Edina, Minn

A Search for Respect

In his Essay "What the Uprising Generation Wants," Charles Krauthammer wrote about the alienated young Arabs in France and their prospects for assimilation and success [Nov. 21]. I was startled by his assertion that France needs "the kind of self-reformation that America [had] in the 1960s, when it finally began welcoming African Americans into mainstream society." Is he forgetting the 1960s riots, led by unemployed and disenfranchised blacks, that engulfed the U.S.? I don't call that self-reformation. When black people took to American streets, they finally got a little respect. I suspect that the unemployed Arab and black youths in France want nothing less.

BOB KUZMA Holly, Mich.

Krauthammer says appeasement of the Arab world has not helped the French resolve the issues of its Arab citizens. How are the French appeasing the Arab world by enforcing a law that strictly bars young girls from wearing Muslim head scarves in public schools? That is not appeasement; that is self-interest. Like all other multicultural nations, France will have to effectively integrate minorities into society. The problem is an internal socioeconomic one, and it has nothing to do with Islam or the broader problems of the Middle East.

MURAD ELSAIDI Little Rock, Ark.

Young French protesters want to get a job, be integrated into society and be treated like everyone else. They protest and burn cars, as French people in the past fought against inequality and stormed the Bastille. France's young Arabs are fighting for equality--a French ideal. I hope they succeed.

MAGUELONE IVAL Corvallis, Ore.

As a French person living in the U.S., I want to point out that those who believe that all the rioters in France are Muslim are mistaken. The protesters are a mixed population of immigrants. Many are Muslim, some belong to religions other than Islam and some are not religious. What is happening in France has nothing to do with Muslim extremism or al-Qaeda. The riots are the result of France's failure to absorb and integrate its immigrant population. Period.

ANNE H. PESLIER Houston

Torture of a Prisoner

Your piece on Iraqi prisoner Manadel al-Jamadi, nicknamed the Iceman, who died at Abu Ghraib while in U.S. custody, should alert all conscientious Americans that a gestapo-style secret police is operating in our society [Nov. 21]. The CIA orders unannounced midnight abductions of suspected insurgents and tortures prisoners, sometimes to death. Your article should make all of us scream at our elected officials that Americans never condone torture in any form, by anybody. Our government should do what its citizens want. I am afraid of what we would find if we opened up the can of worms that is the CIA.

RICHARD SNIDER Cumberland, Md.

Didn't our President vow to free the Iraqi people from the kind of terrorism practiced under Saddam Hussein? Yet our own government condones terrorist tactics, torture and murder when they suit its purpose. I pray we never again allow a President to hold office who considers the physical, spiritual, emotional and psychological destruction of another person to be just and right.

PAUL G. SHANK Santa Barbara, Calif.

Were Saddam's torture chambers worse than ours? The Iraqis must be longing for the good old days before their country was destroyed.

EDAN MILTON HUGHES San Francisco Who Shall Live?

In the article about a new method of screening fetuses for Down syndrome in the first trimester [Nov. 21], TIME asked, "Is a life with the syndrome worth living?" We pride ourselves on our tolerance. Yet encouragement to terminate less-than-perfect pregnancies will surely lead to more discrimination against the living handicapped. Can we praise ourselves as a nondiscriminatory society when we question whether people who are not the most highly functioning are worth saving--let alone worth tolerating or protecting?

MEGAN SMYLIE Vernon Hills, Ill.