Filed under: Religion
So the doorbell rings this morning as I’m trying to get ready for work. A little old man hands me this handbill from the Jehovah’s Witnesses about their upcoming “Follow the Christ” event. Not wanting to mock the man—he seemed so sweet—I simply thanked him and shut the door. But I have to ask, when did Jesus start looking so, well, respectable? Pictured here is the cover of the handbill. Don’t be deceived—it’s not that Jesus’ hair is in a ponytail or something. In other pictures, you can see that his hair is cut neatly at the nape all around. And doesn’t “Follow the Christ” sound a tad like something Obi-Wan Kenobi would say?
Filed under: Science
Ben, you’re always running here and there
You feel you’re not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind
And don’t like what you find
There’s one thing you should know
You’ve got a place to go
(you’ve got a place to go)
—from the movie Ben, 1972
And that place would be China. According to National Geographic News, more than two billion—that’s right, billion with a “b”—rats have been living around Dongting Lake. The rats were flushed out of their holes around the lake when the Yangtse River flooded last month. Since then, farmers living around the lake, China’s second largest, have been overwhelmed and have resorted to using everything from poison to hammers to kill them. “There are so many rats that you can kill three of them with one [strike],” National Geographic quoted Tan Lulu as saying.
Filed under: General Angst
If I held a state secret and some spy agency wanted to get it out of me, all they would have to do is stand me in front of a sink filled with a dozen dirty colanders. That is my bête noire, my white whale, my nightmare. So horrible is it that I actually Googled “colander cleaning” to see if I could find any tips that would make it less stressful. I found plenty of links about using a colander to clean other things: breast pumps, chandeliers, “your delicates,” ancient dirty Roman coins. Nothing in the first two pages, at least, on how to really get a colander clean.
It’s the little bits of pasta that trouble me. They stick in the holes and once you free them, they find their way to the bottom of the colander where they get stuck again. They are in the crevices of the metal rim and handles. I had a fashionable blue mesh colander from a cook store that I had to throw away because I couldn’t take it anymore. I bought a sturdy stainless steel one to replace it, thinking the bigger holes would cause less anxiety. I scrub it with a Brillo pad and still can’t get the pasta out.
It takes me two hours to clean the bathroom but I can at least feel that I’ve accomplished something. And I’m not a neat freak by any account. I don’t worry about germs, really, and have no qualms about eating leftovers. But damn that colander: it stands drying in the rack, reveals a speck of spaghetti I missed, and torments me.
The colander from last night’s dinner is sitting on the stove. Even thinking about its dozens of scarred holes makes me feel manic. Most likely, thankfully, my husband will wash it because he usually does the dishes (because he’s the best husband in the world). Tell me that’s not love.
Filed under: Science
This edition of Science Saturday was inspired by last night’s excellent Bill Moyers Journal, which airs on PBS every Friday night in Pigspittle (check your local listings for a broadcast near you).
The show featured a half-hour interview with biologist E. O. Wilson who won this year’s TED Prize (along with President Bill Clinton and photojournalist James Nachtwey). The TED Prize, in itself, is fascinating: the winners are granted a wish, which TED [which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design] members then set about trying to fulfill by contributing money and spreading the word. Wilson’s wish is to create the Encyclopedia of Life. [View his charmingly entertaining TED Talk here.]
Fortunately, much work has already started on this ambitious effort to document all 1.8 million named species in the world. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project in 2006, but the recent contribution of $10 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Wilson’s prize at the TED Conference have accelerated the work. According to the EOL’s May 2007 press release,
Over the next 10 years, the Encyclopedia of Life will create Internet pages for all 1.8 million species currently named. It will expedite the classification of the millions of species yet to be discovered and catalogued as well. The pages, housed at http://www.eol.org, will provide written information and, when available, photographs, video, sound, location maps, and other multimedia information on each species. Built on the scientific integrity of thousands of experts around the globe, the Encyclopedia will be a moderated wiki-style environment, freely available to all users everywhere.
Why does Wilson think this unwieldy project is so vital to the world? As he explained to Moyers in last night’s program, scientists have only identified 10 percent of the world’s species:
Consider how ignorant we are and what difference it makes. We don’t know the great majority of the kinds of creatures living in most ponds or patches of woods that you would pick even around here. This means that when we’re trying to stabilize the environment, we’re trying to get sustainable development– we’re trying to stop the ecosystem from collapsing in the face of global warming or whatever. We really need to know what’s in each one of those habitats. It’s like undertaking a medical examination by your doctor– maybe not feeling too well, you know? Something’s happening but your doctor examines you and he only knows ten percent of what’s inside you, in all of the organs. We need then to move ecology way ahead of where it is today, really change things…
Speaking of really changing things, also featured on last night’s show was a re-broadcast of a 2004 segment on the Earth Conservation Corps, a group of at-risk young adults in Washington, D.C., who are changing their environment, literally and figuratively. ECC members give 1700 hours to cleaning up their local environment—the banks of the Anacostia River, the Southeast section of the nation’s capital that has been an environmental disaster area and a home for violence. The members work to protect endangered wildlife and provide community service to their neighbors and peers. Corps members earn a stipend, health insurance and child care benefits as well as a nearly $5,000 scholarship.
The chilling reality of the violence these kids face is brought home in the documentary, as it tells how an average of one Corps member each year is murdered. Profile info on Moyers’ web site states, “According to the Corps’ records, one of their members was beaten to death. One was raped and killed. Another was riding his bike when he got caught in the middle of a shootout. Three were shot execution-style.” And just this spring, one of the Corps’ leading members, Aaron Leon Teeter, was shot to death outside his home.
But theirs is a greater story of hope: more than 400 young adults—85 percent of the Corps—have graduated from the program, with many going on to careers in environmental protection and science. It’s a worthwhile cause that struggles to keep afloat. Donate here.
