2011年7月10日日曜日
Hommage
It seems to me that the young artists who did this (read the following notes) wanted to pay tribute to a great artist, though many people seem to be offended by their performance.
The artist whose anti-nuclear mural got an addition depicting smoke coming from crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima for a short time in Shibuya, Tokyo, two months ago, was a man of pure mind and passion. He would have rushed to see and enjoy this witty stunt from his home, which was within walking distance from the site.
Notes:
Tokyo-based artists confess nuclear art stunt (Down.com)
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/20/tokyo-based-artists-confess-nuclear-art-stunt.html
岡本太郎「明日の神話」＋ 福島第一原発事故バージョン (YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1W7S_Rhgo
2011年7月8日金曜日
Species Xenophobia
How gullible I am! I read the idea in a textbook and have believed in it till now.
The idea of “invasive” species wiping out native species is a “species xenophobia,” according to June 9th, 2011, Nature Podcast. It is based on no scientific data.
A lot of money has been spent in vain to get rid of non-native species which were supposed to be doing harm to the environment, because those new comers are actually not affecting the native species very much and sometimes even doing good to them. Also, even when they are doing harm, there are not really effective ways to remove them once they have established their position in their new environment. It is rather practical to accept the new ecosystem with the new species.
People put two phenomena, a decreasing number of a local species and an increasing number of species which is not indigenous, and concluded that the latter is related to the former, the same thinking of causal relationship between a flue and a surge of immigrants from a certain country.
What is problematic and scary is that the information, the idea of invasive species, has ended up being written in a textbook and I, and probably other readers of the textbook, assumed that it was a scientifically proved fact.
Note:
09 June 2011:
This week, cyber warfare, species xenophobia and the chemistry of water. Plus, the best of the rest from this week's Nature.
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/archive.html
The idea of “invasive” species wiping out native species is a “species xenophobia,” according to June 9th, 2011, Nature Podcast. It is based on no scientific data.
A lot of money has been spent in vain to get rid of non-native species which were supposed to be doing harm to the environment, because those new comers are actually not affecting the native species very much and sometimes even doing good to them. Also, even when they are doing harm, there are not really effective ways to remove them once they have established their position in their new environment. It is rather practical to accept the new ecosystem with the new species.
People put two phenomena, a decreasing number of a local species and an increasing number of species which is not indigenous, and concluded that the latter is related to the former, the same thinking of causal relationship between a flue and a surge of immigrants from a certain country.
What is problematic and scary is that the information, the idea of invasive species, has ended up being written in a textbook and I, and probably other readers of the textbook, assumed that it was a scientifically proved fact.
Note:
09 June 2011:
This week, cyber warfare, species xenophobia and the chemistry of water. Plus, the best of the rest from this week's Nature.
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/archive.html
2011年7月5日火曜日
Same Old Story
Prominent Climate Change Skeptic Received Over $1 Million From Oil, Coal Companies
Greenpeace has revealed that one of the world’s most prominent scientific figures to be skeptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1 million in the past decade by major U.S. oil and coal companies. The climate skeptic — Willie Soon — works as an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. Since 2001, he has received money from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Insitute and Koch Industries along with Southern, one of the world’s largest coal-burning utility companies.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/29/headlines#9
Greenpeace has revealed that one of the world’s most prominent scientific figures to be skeptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1 million in the past decade by major U.S. oil and coal companies. The climate skeptic — Willie Soon — works as an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. Since 2001, he has received money from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Insitute and Koch Industries along with Southern, one of the world’s largest coal-burning utility companies.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/29/headlines#9
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