I'M GOING BANANAS
The following is a paragraph from a very interesting analysis of the interrelation of governments, monopolies and a bruised environment.
"Is there a parable for our times in this odd milkshake of banana, blood and fungus? For a hundred years, a handful of corporations were given a gorgeous fruit, set free from regulation, and allowed to do what they wanted with it. What happened? They had one good entrepreneurial idea—and to squeeze every tiny drop of profit from it, they destroyed democracies, burned down rainforests, and ended up killing the fruit itself." — Johann Hari
Read the whole banana here.
Showing posts with label enviroment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enviroment. Show all posts
Friday, January 09, 2009
Saturday, August 16, 2008
IRONIC WILSON UNAWARES
Naturalist Edward Wilson was ironic in a statement he made in his memoir, Naturalist (pp. 168-69): “Much of the Pacific fauna has gone under in the path of pigs, goats, rats, Argentine ants, beard grass, and other highly competitive forms introduced by human commerce. Strangers have savaged the islands of the world.”
I’m sure Wilson would agree with what I’m about to say, but at the moment he wrote the previous sentences, he forgot what he now knows only too well. All one needs add to what Wilson wrote is the thought that the human animal is the most competitive stranger who has most “savaged” not only islands of the globe but the globe itself—water, earth and air. So these other competitive strangers are no worse and no better than humankind itself. Isn’t that ironic in the deepest sense—we and the other competitive species dominating the globe?
Naturalist Edward Wilson was ironic in a statement he made in his memoir, Naturalist (pp. 168-69): “Much of the Pacific fauna has gone under in the path of pigs, goats, rats, Argentine ants, beard grass, and other highly competitive forms introduced by human commerce. Strangers have savaged the islands of the world.”
I’m sure Wilson would agree with what I’m about to say, but at the moment he wrote the previous sentences, he forgot what he now knows only too well. All one needs add to what Wilson wrote is the thought that the human animal is the most competitive stranger who has most “savaged” not only islands of the globe but the globe itself—water, earth and air. So these other competitive strangers are no worse and no better than humankind itself. Isn’t that ironic in the deepest sense—we and the other competitive species dominating the globe?
Friday, June 06, 2008
WHAT THE CRAP IS THIS?
In Sharon Begley’s science column for Newsweek this week, “Praise The Humble Dung Beetle” (June 9, 2008), she was giving us some of the arguments why more than our mammalian cousins need to be saved and put on endangered species lists. Beings like the dung beetle are often neglected because the powers that be think them beneath respect. So Sharon lists a few ways that crawly, creepy things are worth saving:
“Since the lesser beasts of the field can't just muscle their way to survival, they tend to have talents that higher ones—with more brains as well as brawn to draw on—don't. As a result, they're loaded with gizmos that human engineers are tapping for inspiration. The Namibian beetle, for instance, has tips on the bumpy scales of its wings that pull water from fog, a design that has inspired a fog-harvesting net (it's used in cooling towers, industrial condensers and dry farming regions). The spiral in mollusk shells, which fluids flow through especially smoothly and efficiently, has inspired a rotor that draws up to 85 percent less energy than standard fans and is finding its way into computers and air conditioners. Biologists are cloning mussel proteins to produce an epoxy, mimicking the bivalves' ability to stick to rocks, that is expected to rival any superglue on the market. . . .
“. . . as freshwater mussels have declined (70 percent of their species are threatened or endangered), taking with them their filtration services, water quality in streams, rivers and lakes has deteriorated badly. In the Chesapeake Bay, each adult oyster once filtered 60 gallons of water a day, packaging sediment and pollutants into blobs that fell harmlessly to the bay floor. Before the population crashed in the 1990s, oysters filtered 19 trillion gallons—an entire bay's worth—once a week. The survivors struggle to do that in a year. The result is cloudy, more polluted water, and a loss of fisheries and baymen's livelihoods."
Thank you, Sharon.
Please to understand that scent and taste buds are intimately connected in humans. Think about—when one is chewing, what is she smelling?
OF MONKEYS AND MEN
If a monkey can use pure synaptical power to move an artificial arm, so can men and women, and that ability is also a part of Kurzweils' futuristic view of humankind's robotic future. You know the other day, I was watching TV, and I wanted to know just how unconsciously I can move my arm, so I started extending and retracting my arm in front of me, repetitiously, then I stopped thinking about my arm and resumed my conscious attention to the TV program while my arm kept extending out and back without any conscious command by myself except my noticing that my arm was still moving as if being controlled by a robot rather than myself. I recall saying to myself, "Well, see that arm is moving and I'm certainly no longer telling it to move," and I wasn't either. Now. . . I do acknowledge that I had to give my arm its initial command, yet it did keep working without any conscious attention after that, and I could observe and mentally comment on my arm's behavior without acknowledging the original movement command. What can I make of that. . . okay—so I'm crazy—but other than that, what can I make of the whole exercise in unconscious, robot-like control of an arm movement?
In Sharon Begley’s science column for Newsweek this week, “Praise The Humble Dung Beetle” (June 9, 2008), she was giving us some of the arguments why more than our mammalian cousins need to be saved and put on endangered species lists. Beings like the dung beetle are often neglected because the powers that be think them beneath respect. So Sharon lists a few ways that crawly, creepy things are worth saving:
“Since the lesser beasts of the field can't just muscle their way to survival, they tend to have talents that higher ones—with more brains as well as brawn to draw on—don't. As a result, they're loaded with gizmos that human engineers are tapping for inspiration. The Namibian beetle, for instance, has tips on the bumpy scales of its wings that pull water from fog, a design that has inspired a fog-harvesting net (it's used in cooling towers, industrial condensers and dry farming regions). The spiral in mollusk shells, which fluids flow through especially smoothly and efficiently, has inspired a rotor that draws up to 85 percent less energy than standard fans and is finding its way into computers and air conditioners. Biologists are cloning mussel proteins to produce an epoxy, mimicking the bivalves' ability to stick to rocks, that is expected to rival any superglue on the market. . . .
“. . . as freshwater mussels have declined (70 percent of their species are threatened or endangered), taking with them their filtration services, water quality in streams, rivers and lakes has deteriorated badly. In the Chesapeake Bay, each adult oyster once filtered 60 gallons of water a day, packaging sediment and pollutants into blobs that fell harmlessly to the bay floor. Before the population crashed in the 1990s, oysters filtered 19 trillion gallons—an entire bay's worth—once a week. The survivors struggle to do that in a year. The result is cloudy, more polluted water, and a loss of fisheries and baymen's livelihoods."
Thank you, Sharon.
And here’s my haiku for this time at bat
based on a recent haiku hotel topic, SCENT:
Silly dung beetle —
he fails to understand
why I love pears.
based on a recent haiku hotel topic, SCENT:
Silly dung beetle —
he fails to understand
why I love pears.
Please to understand that scent and taste buds are intimately connected in humans. Think about—when one is chewing, what is she smelling?
OF MONKEYS AND MEN
If a monkey can use pure synaptical power to move an artificial arm, so can men and women, and that ability is also a part of Kurzweils' futuristic view of humankind's robotic future. You know the other day, I was watching TV, and I wanted to know just how unconsciously I can move my arm, so I started extending and retracting my arm in front of me, repetitiously, then I stopped thinking about my arm and resumed my conscious attention to the TV program while my arm kept extending out and back without any conscious command by myself except my noticing that my arm was still moving as if being controlled by a robot rather than myself. I recall saying to myself, "Well, see that arm is moving and I'm certainly no longer telling it to move," and I wasn't either. Now. . . I do acknowledge that I had to give my arm its initial command, yet it did keep working without any conscious attention after that, and I could observe and mentally comment on my arm's behavior without acknowledging the original movement command. What can I make of that. . . okay—so I'm crazy—but other than that, what can I make of the whole exercise in unconscious, robot-like control of an arm movement?
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