It’s about time
July 1st, 2008 ecoliWhy did this take so long anyway?
a science and medicine related weblog from scienceforums.net
Disease among Brazil’s “Forest People”
June 8th, 2008 ecoliA week or so ago, I posted and commented some pictures released by the BBC on the isolated tribes living in the forests of Brazil.
This is an interesting article from the New York Times that gives an interesting and more complete perspective on the matter than the BBC report did.
I think this is a poignant quote:
If they are removed and survive the exposure to diseases they have never encountered, it is likely that the unique knowledge and beliefs that define them, the spirit of their life, will probably slip away.
It’s pretty much a lose/lose situation. Rapid growth of western culture will eventually and inevitably bring these groups into contact with western diseases. Therefore, they will have to accept western medicine if they hope to survive. It is likely therefore, that they will lose their culture from this, even if it isn’t necessarily in a single generation.
So, assuming that they want to keep their culture in the first place, they are going to have to make some difficult decisions in the near future.
via Gene expression
A case for letting the free market do it’s thing
June 5th, 2008 ecoliThis graph from the NY times, kindly provided by Jake Young, at Pure Pedantry provides a good case for letting the market just do it’s thing, when it comes to alternative energies in regards to transportation.
If you’re an environmentalist, or if you don’t work for big oil, high gas prices is a good thing. When costs are artificially low, there’s little incentive for companies to produce alternative energies or hybrids. But, these charts show that inflated prices do, in fact, bring down the rate of fuel consumption (less driving). Now, corporations can only continue to inflate prices so much, before people start opting out of personal automobile use altogether, travel overseas by steamboat and start biking to work. In order for energy companies to keep selling energies, they’ll have to develop alternative sources.
Oil subsidies, paid for out of our taxes, keeps oil prices artifically low and less responsive to the laws of demand. This is harmful to our economy by preventing the development of alternative energies and harmful to our environment in the same respect.
If the gas tax is repealed for the summer, it will have a similiar effect by making gas prices appear cheaper, increasing demand and delying alternative technologies. The gas tax is needed to keep our public roadways in shape. Hillary’s proposal to add a windfall tax to oil companies and then fine companies millions who jack up prices to compensate for the loss is, at best, ridiculous. You can’t fine companies for trying to maintain their profits, and this would never be approved by a Bush appointed FTC administration anyway. Hillary’s plan would screw federal highways, because there’s no altervative source of income for this tax. And, it would delay the production of badly needed alternative energy by messing with the laws of demand. Leave the free market alone!
Isolated S. American Tribes
May 29th, 2008 ecoliIt’s hard to imagine, in our world of internet and cell phones, that there could be any people unconnected and unplugged from the ‘modern world.’ Yet, these photographs show that there are still some tribes in South America, this one is in Brazil, that remains isolated from the Western world and modern government. Who knows how much they know about the world outside their tribe? This group still uses bow and arrows.
Now here’s the question. Should we make contact with these tribes, to study them. There is much we can learn from isolated tribes about human behavior and evolution. On the other hand, would it not be better for them to leave them be? Especially because, in the past, western diseases have been known to decimate tribal populations.
Definition of Irony
April 29th, 2008 ecoliyou gotta love this one. (thanks BBC)
Anti-Science, Anti-Gay, Pro-Ignorance
April 28th, 2008 ecoliThis is a correlation that I believe is nonetheless relevant. There is a certain link between people who have a fear of others with a different lifestyle, those who’s insecure belief system is threatened by objective research and people who enjoy their own ignorance.
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