Clipmarks | reimers's 'ecology' clips

Howtopedia

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:55:20 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

HOWTOPEDIA is a collaborative platform for practical knowledge and simple technologies, i.e. technologies that require no complex machine, that are easily explainable and usable by individuals or small communities for a sustainable and ecological future.
Click on red links to write a new article or on the edit button to complete an existing one.

Clip Source: www.howtopedia.org

All articles

Tags: howto, howtopedia, wiki, technology, ecology, future, diy, simple, knowledge, resource

Life, 90% unknown

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:52:21 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "We live, in short, on a little-known planet."

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

After 250 Years of Classifying Life, 90 Percent Remains Unknown

BRONX, NEW YORK--Most people can tell the difference between some types of berries, or bugs or trees, but much of the planet's life remains unnamed and unseen.

A stunningly egotistical Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus, tried long ago to set humanity on track to remedy that.

His book, "Systema Naturae," first published in 1735 at 13 pages long, proposed a hierarchical system for classifying plants, animals and minerals (we later chipped away minerals into the domain of geology) and launched an effort to identify and inventory all the world's living things.

Now 250 years after publication of the book's latter editions, scientists still have discovered as few as 10 percent of the species now living on Earth, said Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who spoke here last week at an event at the New York Botanical Garden to celebrate a visit of Linnaeus' personal copy of the book's first edition.

Tags: life, earth, ecology, species, classification, biology

The Zombification Of Philosophy (Of Mind)

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:06:20 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Massimo Pigliucci is Professor in the Departments of Ecology & Evolution and of Philosophy at Stony Brook University, NY.

an interesting view , go read it

Clip Source: www.scientificblogging.com

David Chalmers is a famous philosopher of mind. His fame rests in great part on his 1996 book, The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. It’s too bad that the crucial idea behind the book, dualism, is hopelessly flawed, and -- more surprising yet -- that Chalmers got away with one of the most idiotic thought experiments ever, which a lot of people inexplicably seem to think is oh-so-very clever.

Let us start by recalling what dualism is: in philosophy the idea traces back at least to Descartes (though some would consider Plato a dualist), and his contention that while everything else in humans and animals is “mechanical” (i.e., made of matter), the mind is an exception, since it’s made of some kind of distinct mind stuff (he was pretty vague about exactly what this mind stuff might be, and so is Chalmers, incidentally

I think a lot of scientists do a disservice to themselves and to the public by not taking philosophy seriously

Tags: calmers, zombies, philosophy, consciousness

Dust Storms In Sahara Desert Sustain Life In Atlantic Ocean

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:02:07 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Research at the University of Liverpool has found how Saharan dust storms help sustain life over extensive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Working aboard research vessels in the Atlantic, scientists mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels.

They found that plants are able to grow in these regions because they are able to take advantage of iron minerals in Saharan dust storms. This allows them to use organic or ‘recycled’ material from dead or decaying plants when nutrients such as phosphorous – an essential component of DNA – in the ocean are low.

“These findings are important because plant life cycles are essential in maintaining the balance of gases in our atmosphere. In looking at how plants survive in this area, we have shown how the Atlantic is able to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the growth of photosynthesising plants.”

Tags: ecology, shara, life, atlantic

THEN & NOW: Africa Satellite Images Show Stark Changes

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:47:57 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Satellite images from 1972 (left) and 2007 (right) show water-level decline in Lake Chad, once the world's sixth largest.

At the junction of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, the lake is now one-tenth its former size, due to declining rainfall and diversion of water for human use.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Africa's most populous urban area, Cairo, Egypt, is shown in 1972 (left) and 2005 (right).

An exploding population has driven the city's expansion, encroaching on much of the precious arable land surrounding the Nile River, according to a UN atlas released June 11, 2008.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

1978 (left) and 2004 satellite images show the roughly 500-square-kilometer (190-square-mile) reservoir formed by the Manantali Dam in Mali.

Below the dam, loss of the annual flood cycles have reduced agriculture substantially

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

The depletion of Guinea's resource-rich coastal zone is illustrated in satellite images from 1975 (left) and 2007.

Tags: ecology, environment

Fear Is The Cheapest Room In The House

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:01:22 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.earthlight.org

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends up in folly.’ Political activists are more inclined, though, to heed an observation from Richard Nixon: ‘People react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday School, but it’s true.’

To give into despair is to succumb to fear, the ultimate source of all human violence.

A vibrant and functional democracy depends on the honest dissemination of information. The corporate media, in its rightward drift and easy compliance to political power, is failing the general populace

Don’t let consumption define who we are. True peace is to see ourselves as citizens, not simply consumers.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote: "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable." If we commit ourselves to creating peaceful change by not giving into despair and a culture of fear, we practice the spiritual ecology of peace.

Is a zero-carbon city on the horizon?

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:27:22 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: As part of their Masdar Initiative (masdar meaning "the source" in Arabic), an effort to further the research and implementation of sustainable construction, the Abu Dhabi government will build this city on a nearby 2.3 square-mile site (six square kilometers), adjacent to its international airport at an estimated cost of $22 billion.
It projected the city will eventually be able to sustain 50,000 residents and more than 1,000 businesses.
It broke ground in construction of the city and hopes to complete the project by 2016.

Clip Source: science.howstuffworks.com

Looking to reduce your "carbon footprint?" You're not alone. These days, many people are thinking about the amount of energy they use and the harmful carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. But if you're like many people, your carbon consciousness may begin and end with your passing interest in purchasing a hybrid vehicle.

Not so for Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the fourth largest source of oil in the world. The city is raising the bar for environmental stewardship. Given the fact that it has the fourth largest carbon footprint in the world,

The city's environmental efforts have resulted in grand plans to build a nearby city that will be entirely carbon neutral and will produce no waste.

To attain this zero-carbon and zero-waste goal, it plans to use the cutting-edge technology of sustainable design, which strives to reduce harmful environmental impact as much as possible.

an artist's rendering of what Masdar will look like from an aerial view.

Tags: carbon footprint, ecology, pollution, abu dhabi

Last Days of a sinking Polynesian island

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:08:56 GMT

clipped by: tpq62

Clip Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Kiwis record Pacific island sinking into sea

New Zealand film makers are to document the last days of the tiny Polynesian island of Takuu before it slips beneath the waves.

The island, 250km off Papua New Guinea, is home to 500 people and a unique culture - but its highest point is just 1m above sea level.

Tectonic activity at the junction of the Pacific and Australian continental plates means the island is sinking 20cm a year. Its disappearance is being viewed as a dummy run for other low-lying Pacific islands, as sea levels rise due to global warming.

Documentary director Briar March and cameraman Zane Holmes will accompany Auckland University anthropologist Dr Richard Moyle to the island next month.

March said the island was the last place where traditional Polynesian religion was practised, although some younger islanders schooled in Papua New Guinea had converted to Christianity.

A 40-year ban on Christian missionaries was only recently lifted and now the ariki, or chief, has invited the New Zealanders to film the island's final days above the waterline.

"This potentially could be what all the Pacific island atolls have to do in the future," March said.

Last year a king tide, which occurs biannually and can reach 1.5m, almost washed over the island. Already, rising sea levels mean soil is too salty to grow taro, and within two years safe anchorage for the community's vital fishing canoes is expected to be lost.

The community has no firm plans for when or where they will relocate, but Bougainville is already home to a number of expats.

Moyle predicted the island will be uninhabitable within two years.

The film crew, which will spend two months on Takuu, will fly to Papua New Guinea early next month with a solar panel, small petrol generator and tinned food to supplement the staple diet of rice and boiled fish.

The documentary's progress can be followed on www.takuufilm.blogspot.com.

Tags: anthropology, science, ecology, environment, global warming

Humans are endangered while ignorant of truth and reality.

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:34:04 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: There are a number of links,which are to different fields. Some information be fact, some can be philosophical, or speculative, but it will modify any opinion. Any fact doubted should be verified but these days people are learning to do that as a matter of course. If we're going to get out of this hole, we n eed a bigger ladder.

Clip Source: www.spaceandmotion.com

Metaphysics of Evolution: What is Matter & Life?	Evolutionary Biology: Wave Genetics	Charles Darwin: The Theory of Evolution	Evolution of Culture: Sociobiology & Custom	Richard Dawkins: Famous Evolutionary Biologist	Jared Diamond: Famous Biologist Ecologist
Endangered Animals Extinct Species List	Ecology: Interconnection Life, Matter & Universe	Deep Ecology: Arne Naess: Unity Life Nature	Gaia: Complex Ecology of Nature, Life on Earth	End of Nature: Climate Change Global Warming	Utopia Cultural Evolution Truth Reality & Society

Humans are Endangered Species while Ignorant of our True Connection to Nature
On Truth & Reality of the Human Animal / Species & our Interconnection with Nature & Cosmos

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. (Aristotle)

Modern man no longer regards Nature as being in any sense divine and feels perfectly free to behave towards her as an overwhelming conqueror and tyrant. (Aldous Huxley)

Tags: humanity, extinction, truth, reality, nature, ecology.

Social Networking for Zebras

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:00:03 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Ecologists have turned to computer scientists to develop dynamic graphs of social behavior among Zebra populations, revealing why some are thriving while others are endangered:

The difference showed that the Grevy's zebras tended to hang out in cliques, whereas the onagers spent time with different buddies on different days.

The methods developed turn out to applicable to human networks, too:

In the meantime, Berger-Wolf is testing her methods on other datasets, including the records of e-mails exchanged at Enron that became available after they were subpoenaed. She has found some surprising connections between the two kinds of networks.

"We can see that our method to detect when a lion was in the area of zebras detects very well when the subpoena was issued at Enron," she says. When faced with a lion, the zebras flee and follow one lead zebra. Similarly, after the subpoena was issued, e-mail traffic to the lawyers increased dramatically.

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Facebook hasn't yet opened up a site for zebras. Even so, social networking is taking off for them, too. By using social network theory to understand how zebras interact, scientists hope to explain why the plains zebra is thriving while the Grevy's zebra is endangered.

This graph depicts the social relationships among zebras in a group. Each circle represents a zebra, and the lines connect zebras that spent time together. The graph reveals that many of the zebras hang out together in a single group, while a few of the zebras form smaller communities.

This graph shows a dynamic version of the network graphed in the first image. Each row shows all the zebras that have been detected at a particular moment, with each circle representing an individual zebra. The vertical lines connect an individual zebra to itself over time. Zebras in the same community appear in the same color.

This zebra is wearing a wireless GPS tracking collar.

Tags: zebra, zebras, network, networking, social, behavior, ecology, biology, africa, graph

millions of penguins vanish

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:03:06 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: not millions, but still a lot

Clip Source: thescotsman.scotsman.com

Unhappy feat: biologists baffled as millions of penguins vanish

HOLLYWOOD has turned them into the cartoon stars of the film Happy Feet, but the real life story of the rockhopper penguin is not such a happy tale, scientists have discovered.

Millions of the birds are disappearing in a "sinister and astonishing" phenomenon that is baffling biologists.

In just six years their numbers have fallen from 600,000 to 420,000 in the Falkland Islands - one of its few remaining strongholds - according to the latest survey by Falklands Conservation.

The decline equates to a drop of about 30 per cent, although the Falklands population is thought to have dipped by about 85 per cent since 1932, when there were more than 1.5 million birds.

It is thought that global warming may be behind its decline, as warmer seas are less productive and the penguins may not be able to find enough food to eat, but researchers admit they have not yet established the reasons.

Dr Geoff Hilton, an RSPB biologist who has studied the species, said: "It's actually quite rare in conservation that we don't know why a species is declining.

The research was funded by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs Edinburgh Zoo. Roslin Talbot, the zoo's head keeper of penguins, said: "It is very serious for them. Zoos generally have found them quite difficult to breed. They are choosy when they go to pick their mates and they like very specific places to nest."

Grant Munro, the director of Falklands Conservation, said there were fears that rockhoppers might become extinct. "If the present situation were to carry on then it's not a particularly great forecast. It doesn't look like they are suddenly going to start increasing in numbers," he said.

"In the Falklands, they are part of everyday life. If you head down to the beach you are going to see penguins."

And they are amazingly tame and inquisitive.

"You are not perceived as a risk so they will come over and say hello."

Tags: biology, penguins, global warming, ecology

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:07:12 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge

Science Daily — Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals.

"It turns out that sponges, which lack nervous systems, have most of the genetic components of synapses," said Todd Oakley, co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara.

"Even more surprising is that the sponge proteins have 'signatures' indicating they probably interact with each other in a similar way to the proteins in synapses of humans and mice," said Oakley. "This pushes back the origins of these genetic components of the nervous system to at or before the first animals ---- much earlier than scientists had previously suspected."

Tags: dna, evolution, biology, genetics

Interviews with great intellectuals

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:49:46 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: So many interviews, so little time. As usual, I recommend checking out Chomsky, Zinn, and Klein's opinions.

Clip Source: www.mediaed.org

Naomi Klein
Author
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies

Douglas Rushkoff
Author
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

Manning Marable
Professor of History and Political Science
Columbia University

Richard Falk
Professor of International Law
Princeton University

Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Executive Director
Rabbis for Human Rights

Michael Franti
Musician
Spearhead

Kevin Danaher
Co-founder, Director of Public Education
Global Exchange

Mark Crispin Miller
Professor of Media Ecology
New York University

Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor of Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Janine Jackson
Program Director
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor
TIKKUN Magazine

Ritu Sharma
Executive Director
Women's EDGE

Nawal el Saadawi, M.D.
Distinguished Visiting Professor
Montclair State University

Howard Zinn
Professor Emeritus of History
Boston University

Cynthia Enloe
Professor of Government
Director of Women's Studies
Clark University

Robert Jensen
Professor of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin

Michael Kimmel
Sociologist
Pro-feminist author

Michael Albert
Editorial writer and columnist
Z Magazine

Seth Ackerman
Media Analyst
Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR)

Henry Giroux
Waterbury Chair of Education
Pennsylvania State University

Sut Jhally
Professor of Communication
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Michael T. Klare
Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies
Hampshire College

Rob Okun
Associate Director
The Men's Resource Center of Western Massachusetts

Alisa Solomon
Professor of English & Journalism
Baruch College, CUNY

Lorraine Ali
General Editor
Newsweek Magazine

Robin Morgan
Author
The Demon Lover:On the Sexuality of Terrorism

Nancy Carlsson-Paige
Professor of Early Childhood Education
Lesley University

Diane Levin
Professor of Early Childhood Education
Wheelock College

Poets for Peace
Highlights from Event
November 30, 2001 Belquis Ahmadi

Tags: news, media, politics, war, iraq, life, philosophy, history, quotes, people, interview

Artificial Intuition

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:31:59 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: artificial-intuition.com

Artificial
Intuition

A New Possible Path To
Artificial Intelligence
by Monica Anderson

Artificial Intuition is a new, different, and promising (but so far unproven) way to approach a large subset of the problems we believe require "Artificial Intelligence".

Most humans have not been taught logical thinking, but most humans are still intelligent. Most of our daily actions such as walking, talking, and understanding the world are based on Intuition, not Logic.

Intuition is surprisingly easy to implement in computers, but requires a lot of memory.

Be forewarned that acceptance of these ideas will likely require a different stance on the nature of Artificial Intelligence, the nature of Intelligence in general, and on Science itself. Some people, including scientists in disciplines like Ecology and Systems Biology have adopted this stance; if everything on this site sounds to you like "motherhood and apple pie", then you know you already have.

Tags: artificial intuition, ai

Global Coral Crisis Is In Full Bloom

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:55:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Coral reefs around the world are in bad shape these days. But a new research paper in the journal Science says their problems may be getting worse. The paper says as much as a third of the world's coral species may now be headed toward extinction, thanks to problems ranging from destructive fishing boats to ocean waters warmed by global climate change.

Coral experts say these reefs hold 25 percent of the world's marine species. That list includes sponges, lobsters, turtles, shrimp, sharks and commercially important fish. Philip Munday, a reef expert at Australia's James Cook University, says that's why coral reefs are often called "the rain forests of the ocean."

"It's quite stunning when you get into the water on a lovely clear day and you drop down onto [healthy] reef," says Munday. "There are fish everywhere, hundreds of thousands of fish, the sort of things you almost don't see anywhere else."

Unfortunately, reefs like those are few and far between these days

Tags: global coral crisis, coral reefs, ecology, climate change

Clipmarks | reimers's 'ecology' clips

Howtopedia

All articles

Life, 90% unknown

After 250 Years of Classifying Life, 90 Percent Remains Unknown

The Zombification Of Philosophy (Of Mind)

Dust Storms In Sahara Desert Sustain Life In Atlantic Ocean

THEN & NOW: Africa Satellite Images Show Stark Changes

Fear Is The Cheapest Room In The House

Is a zero-carbon city on the horizon?

Last Days of a sinking Polynesian island

Kiwis record Pacific island sinking into sea

Humans are endangered while ignorant of truth and reality.

Humans are Endangered Species while Ignorant of our True Connection to Nature On Truth & Reality of the Human Animal / Species & our Interconnection with Nature & Cosmos

Social Networking for Zebras

millions of penguins vanish

Unhappy feat: biologists baffled as millions of penguins vanish

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge

Interviews with great intellectuals

Artificial Intuition

ArtificialIntuition

Global Coral Crisis Is In Full Bloom

Humans are Endangered Species while Ignorant of our True Connection to Nature
On Truth & Reality of the Human Animal / Species & our Interconnection with Nature & Cosmos

Artificial
Intuition