'Sailing away from the safe harbour' thoughts...

Most of us are aware of what global warming is and its consequences. Apart from all scenarios predicted by environmetalists or other scientises or even plans that some politicians put forward, there seems to be another reason why global warming may have a negative impact on our planet and life on it. A recent article titled: Lesson from America’s tropical epidemic claims that global warming may cause spread of harsh diseases such as the yellow fever, “as the range of where mosquitoes, ticks, mice and other carriers of disease can live expands” (26/02/2008).

"It's a very ugly disease — things like eyes bleeding, nose, ears, some pretty gruesome symptoms," Crosby says. "But then it also causes internal bleeding. And one of the telltale signs of yellow fever is what they call 'black vomit.' It's from digesting internal bleeding." (26/02/2008)

oops…

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ref:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19241319&\1ft=1&\1f=1007

Our precious Amazon rainforest really needs looking after – this is very common knowledge. Even though we seem to realise this, lots of changes are still being made in the Amazon and apart from the loss of the valuable trees, it has recently been discovered that building new roads not only promotes deforestation but also spreads malaria!!! (25/02/2008)

“New roads promote deforestation. A recently published survey of the Peruvian Amazon by Paulo Oliveira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and several colleagues shows that 75 percent of the forest disruption that occurred between 1999 and 2005 occurred within 12 miles of a road. And deforestation promotes malaria — researchers Amy Vittor and Jonathan Patz surveyed a newly constructed road and reported in 2006 that the areas along the road that had suffered more deforestation also suffered more malaria. “ (25/02/2008)

yup!
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ref:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19276850&\1ft=1&\1f=1007

This is going to sound pretty hilarious! I found this article that talks about how scientists can tell date of birth by looking into eyes. But of course not the exact date, but apparently what year the victim was born. The method they are talking about in the article can be applied in helping to identify victims of natural disasters or tracking terrorists. Interestingly, it’s also been mentioned that it could be used in “tracking down the source of tumours in the body or even studying how organs are regenerated. “ (Highfield, R. 2008). This sounds very convincing!

“Now, by measuring the amount of the carbon isotope C-14 trapped in the eye lens, scientists at the Universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus report in the journal PloS One that they can now establish, with relatively high precision, when a person was born, a useful tool for forensic scientists with which to date an unidentified body. (…)By comparing the yearly record of the content of the C-14 in the atmosphere with the content of C-14 in the lens crystallines of the eye, scientists can accurately date a person's year of birth - providing they are born after 1950.” (Highfield, R. 2008)

Sounds good to me!

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ref:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/25/scidead125.xml

Before joining the department of anthropology, I didn't use to pay that much attention to what was going around... culturally speaking of course. I have been travelling all my life and although always found different cultures amazing and interesting, I was never fully appreciating the cultural variety. Now, wherever I go, whoever I meet - I think anthropologically... I love "interviewing" foreigners, asking million questions about places they come from, learning some phrases in their language, trying my best to taste their national dishes etc., but also on top of that: taking a deeper look into their culture. What rules they follow, what kliches there are, whether any environmental issues exist in their area of occupation or stuff to do with their religion! This is absolutely fantastic, so many different people live in our world and we can easily appreciate this diversity! Yup! APPRECIATING HUMAN DIVERSITY! THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!

I was watching a documentary yesterday about some kind of a help centre for primates. They particularly showed ornagutans and chimps. I'm not sure what the main purpose of this centre was as I only watched the programme for some 10 minutes... but there was this whole story of an orangutan that was abandoned by its mother in a zoo in Russia and the carers were looking for help and family for this poor ape. Anyway, what happened was the representative of this primate centre was sent all the way to Russia to get the ornagutan and take it back to the UK. So there it is this chap who wants to help the ape: he walks into the room... and what do we see? We see a woman (someone who looks after the ape) standing by a baby crib, lots of toys around and baby clothes around and... the orangutan wearing a nappy and a pink top! The story then continues, the bloke "makes friends" with the ape which is later taken to the prmate centre, where it is meant to get all the help and live as naturally as possible. And here I changed the channel! I do understand that great apes remind us of ourselves, that they are characterised with lots of interesting features that make us want to study them in order to learn more about the human evolution etc., but seriously... do we really need to make them wear human clothes and keep locked away in zoos? Studying apes can be done in the wilderness and naturalists or biological anthropologists do do that! If we think about it, looking at apes in their natural environments is so much more beneficial than in zoos or other kinds of captivity. For example, it must be very exciting to see how apes look for food and do not have it provided by humans. Or how they choose partners for mating etc. Natural parks are a better idea, primates should not be taken away from their natural habitats! And I do understand that they are endangered species, but do we really think that apes brought up by humans will ever be able to survive in the wilderness? Oh well, just a little thought... I just felt very sorry for the little orangutan in a nappy and a pink top...

Yes, all of us students go through the same thing during our studies. Whoever I speak to about my course, the magic question gets asked: So what are you planning to do when you've finished? I get this all the time and don't get me wrong - I really don't mind! But what I noticed is that I keep changing my mind... And the fact that I am undecided freaks me out! When I was applying for my course, I had so many great ideas and simply couldn't wait to start studying and slowly converting my dreams into reality. Now it's been two years of uni, two more to go... and I already had million ideas about my future, and what's bloody scary is that I'm gonna wake up tomorrow with hundred more! I wish I had a nice plan, a goal that I was working towards, something I could really focus on and go mad about. But I'm afraid I don't... I just enjoy bioanthropology as it is. As mentioned already, I keep coming up with jobs and things I would love to do after becoming an anthropologist. There are so many areas of anthropology that I find extremely interesting. One of the reasons why it's so difficult to just say: "yes this is what I want to do" is probably that anthropology as a field is very wide and covers various topics and issues... which on the other hand makes it so fascinating! I considered becoming an academic; teaching science in secondary schools; being a journalist and writing awesome anthropological articles; working for primate conservation organizations; working in a lab and playing with genes; working in pathology centres; assisting doctors in hospitals; even making my own anthropological TV shows! There are so many unbelievably exciting opportunities to be taken, but my approaches are still very vague... It annoys me so much! A lot of student fellows have clearly defined plans and stick with them (i.e. they choose specific modules that cover their interests). And I just sometimes feel like this random girl that has now idea what she wants to do in the future. Is this something bad? My mum keeps telling me that I've only been at uni for two years and there is much more for me to discover and that one day I'll just know what I really want to do. Well, the most important is that I definetely would looove to be an anthropologist, because everything what's human is totally outrageous! I'm only doing a BSc, I have a lot ahead of me. I shall just wait and see...

Amazon, already filled with loads of various living and non-living species, has now been "given" another name for the list. A primatologist from New Zealand had confirmed that "A previously unknown species of uakari monkey was found during recent hunting trips in the Amazon".

The new "finding" was named: Cacajao ayresii . José Márcio Ayres, Brazilian biologist helped creating a safe area in the middle of the Amazon, the monkey was named after him.

Unfortunately, the area where the new monkey occurs is hunted by locals, therefore conservationists are concerned.

source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080204-new-monkey.html

In my opinion, Bonobos are probably the most interesting and exciting great apes. Like the rest of great apes, they are characterised by some features that remind us of ourselves, but one action that they take so frequently makes them incredibly loveable creatures! They make love literally all the time. It's almost like a symbol of their culture Mating for bonobos is like a social bond that keeps the society close. Apart from reproductive purposes, sexual activity is sometimes used to greet each other or prevent/stop fighting! Interestingly, bonobos tend to have sex face-to-face! Just like people! None of the other apes do that! Isn't this amazing??

Furthermore, male bonobos treat the females extremely politely. They never force them to copulate, but give them a right of choice instead. Male chimpanzees for example are "in control" and try to show off in front of females, who do not really have much to say...

aaww...

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must see this:
http://www.bonobo.org/

While surfing on the internet today, I found this really cool website that sells T-shirts, hooded tops, shirts also mugs, caps or bags... (anything actually) with whatever you want written on them. And apart from the most common texts or pictures, they also do anthropology stuff! This is really nice! I am planning to get a hooded top that says: "ANTHRO - appreciating human diversity"

here's the link:
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/anthropology/-/pg_2/sort_by_score_desc

cool
xxx

The New Scientist from this week published a short article on wild apes that unfortunately die from diseases spread by people. Apparently, biologists who work with chimpanzees in Africa are very concerned about this as the main purpose of them being there was to help the apes. Now the "human respiratory syncytial virus (that one causing measles and mumps), or human metapneumovirus (causes lower respiratory infection in young children)" are a threat to chimpanzess. Professionals working in the field face a dilemma: are they to leave and let apes be vulnerable to poachers or stay, but spread a deadly virus... ? "Reduced human contact with Africa's great apes will leave them vulnerable to poachers".

???
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ref:
- 2 February 2008 The New Scientist "Poacher vs plague" p.5, London
- http://www.wildchimpanzees.org/media/photo_gallery_jpg/goodall_39.jpg