Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment “A world of their own” This is an absolutely fascinating article. I was not aware that there were any cultures outside of Amazonia that have maintained such isolation. As Burton points out, we need to decide how to balance our curiosity and potential charity with respect for the wishes Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Extinction, Human Evolution, Marine Ecosystems, Memetic Fitness, Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Posted 10 Sep 2012 / 0
On Being “Alain de Botton on a School of Life for Atheists” Religion for Atheists What I find very interesting about this philosopher’s approach are his implicit memetic assumptions: that religions have nested within their complex cultural structure extractable “ways of living” that are valuable to believers and non-believers alike.
A Minor Post, Altruism, Behavior, Belief, Cultural Evolution, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Memetic Fitness, Philosophy, Radio & Podcasts, Religion
Posted 10 Aug 2012 / 0
Friday morning is a tough spot at an ESA meeting. It is the last day of a six-day conference, and there are only morning events, so many people evacuate before this final session. And for those who do drag themselves out of bed for sessions beginning at 8 am (perhaps, like me, for the sixth Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biodiversity Loss, Biomes, Climate Change, Conferences, Conservation Biology, Ecological Society of America, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Freshwater Ecosystems, Habitat Destruction, Interdisciplinarity, Invasive Species, Pollution, Talks & Seminars, Temperate Rainforest, Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Posted 31 Jul 2012 / 0
This year I am proud to be returning to the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. I missed last year’s meeting and I am excited to be overwhelmed by all the amazing scholarship that is on display at these meetings. I generally present talks at meetings, but this year I decided to do Read More
A Major Post, Biodiversity Loss, Carrying Capacity, Conferences, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Ecological Modeling, Ecological Society of America, Ecology, Ecology Education, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Food, Group Selection, Marine Ecosystems, Population Growth, Population Pressure, Predation, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, System Stability, Teaching Tools, The Sustainable Use of Fisheries
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0
Science Insider “Society for Conservation Biology in Turmoil Over Editor’s Ouster“
A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Ethics, Law, Political Science, Professional Societies, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Science as a career
Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving?” This is a scary story of corporate tainting of science.
A Minor Post, Ethics, Grants & Funding, Scientific Fraud
Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Unabomber’s Pen Pal” What I think is really interesting about Kaczynski’s critique is that he is fearlessly pointing out the problems with technology, challenging others to provide a counter-narrative. For the most part, there is no counter-narrative. You are either “with us or against us” when it comes to Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Articles, Belief, Cultural Evolution, Ethics
Posted 20 Jun 2012 / 0
Steady State The Daly News “Real Dichotomies Are Not Made ‘False’ by Soft Science or Political Pandering” What’s really valuable here is the clarification of what is cultural construction (‘there does not have to be a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection’) and what is scientific reality (‘there is actually an empirically-demonstrable conflict between Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Conservation Biology, Economics, Ethics, Sustainability, Web
Posted 06 Jun 2012 / 0
WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Joseph Stiglitz Explains the Price of Inequality” As I have suggested before [1, 2], in order to stabilize our economy, we have to incentivize the generation of income from actual labor — not simply owning resources.
A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts
Posted 27 May 2012 / 0
Today’s New York Times Business section features an interesting article on the recent JPMorgan multi-billion loss. Entitled “The Hunch, the Pounce and the Kill: How Boaz Weinstein and Hedge Funds Outsmarted JPMorgan“, the article explains how a risk-prone hedge fund manager named Boaz Weinstein was able to exploit errors by JPMorgan and end up on Read More
Articles, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Parasitism, Public Policy, Social Capital, System Stability
