There is some controversy, especially if you listen to some conservative pudits, over the future of China and whether or not we (stupid, lazy, spendthrift, immoral) Americans ought to be watching our asses lest we be overrun. In general I tend towards the belief that China will stumble before she and America rumble. Aside from all that, there's India. We like India and India likes us.
We in America tend to think of science as Big Science, which is something akin to Mad Science because it has, more often than not, military implications. But mad science could also have medical implications and there's a chance that China might decide that's the direction of their big science. So suddenly all the millions of Chinese scientists don't sound so scary.
And while it might difficult for us to get our heads around the notion that Chinese scientists might decide it's a good idea to clone people or genetically modify themselves, I would suggest to you that you probably have no idea how popular cosmetic surgery is in China.
And for all the drama surrounding Al Gore and his quest, you'd think that all those supposedly brilliant Chinese scientists would come up with a cleaner way to burn coal. But that's not in the cards as far as real smart people can predict, despite the fact that clean coal is already real technology.
All this goes to show that science is political and that brains are still a cheap commodity.
So what's up with the picture of the bug? This happens to be a Cassidyfly, a bug I've never heard of before today. I happened to run across it as I was attempting to discover the size of Tubifex Tubifex which is the mysterious 'alien' creature YouTube says lives in the sewers of North Carolina. We (stupid, lazy, spendthrift, immoral) Americans took our own sweet time dispelling the myth, didn't we? So I found another video of Tubifex and it certainly looks grotesque, but there's still no sign of scale until I see this one. Apparently these things are fishbait. Tetras eat 'em up.
All wonderous mysteries of the natural world. Yeah but who actually cares about bugs and worms? Well, scientists do. Now I don't have any good idea of how much of our American Big Science makes use for the sorts of brainy disciplined people who would illustrate a taxonomy of insects like Gina Mikel whose Cassidyfly adorns my blog this afternoon. But surely the Chinese care about their bugs and worms, and surely they have a buttload of them in their hinterlands still undiscovered. And if the Chinese are going to advance in science and technology, they must include in their millions of cheap commodity brains, some patience for the natural world as well as we have. Surely there will be some Chen or Wang to add to the line of names Linnaeus, Darwin and Audubon.
On the other hand, maybe the Chinese scientists are dead set on thinking about technology the exact same we do. In which case I can't wait until I can sign up for their version of AT&T for my iPhone.
We in America tend to think of science as Big Science, which is something akin to Mad Science because it has, more often than not, military implications. But mad science could also have medical implications and there's a chance that China might decide that's the direction of their big science. So suddenly all the millions of Chinese scientists don't sound so scary.
And while it might difficult for us to get our heads around the notion that Chinese scientists might decide it's a good idea to clone people or genetically modify themselves, I would suggest to you that you probably have no idea how popular cosmetic surgery is in China.
And for all the drama surrounding Al Gore and his quest, you'd think that all those supposedly brilliant Chinese scientists would come up with a cleaner way to burn coal. But that's not in the cards as far as real smart people can predict, despite the fact that clean coal is already real technology.
All this goes to show that science is political and that brains are still a cheap commodity.
So what's up with the picture of the bug? This happens to be a Cassidyfly, a bug I've never heard of before today. I happened to run across it as I was attempting to discover the size of Tubifex Tubifex which is the mysterious 'alien' creature YouTube says lives in the sewers of North Carolina. We (stupid, lazy, spendthrift, immoral) Americans took our own sweet time dispelling the myth, didn't we? So I found another video of Tubifex and it certainly looks grotesque, but there's still no sign of scale until I see this one. Apparently these things are fishbait. Tetras eat 'em up.
All wonderous mysteries of the natural world. Yeah but who actually cares about bugs and worms? Well, scientists do. Now I don't have any good idea of how much of our American Big Science makes use for the sorts of brainy disciplined people who would illustrate a taxonomy of insects like Gina Mikel whose Cassidyfly adorns my blog this afternoon. But surely the Chinese care about their bugs and worms, and surely they have a buttload of them in their hinterlands still undiscovered. And if the Chinese are going to advance in science and technology, they must include in their millions of cheap commodity brains, some patience for the natural world as well as we have. Surely there will be some Chen or Wang to add to the line of names Linnaeus, Darwin and Audubon.
On the other hand, maybe the Chinese scientists are dead set on thinking about technology the exact same we do. In which case I can't wait until I can sign up for their version of AT&T for my iPhone.
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