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A never-promised rose garden.
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Ha! ovo je Boterova skulptura u novom centru na Columbus Circle u New Yorku... Klinci mu hvataju pisu--neodoljiv je (I did the same). |
 Owen(L), a baby hippopotamus that survived the tsumani on the Kenyan coast snuggles up to a giant tortoise near a century old in an animal facility in Mombasa. (AFP) |
Cetvrtaste bakterije: British microbiologist Anthony Walsby first scooped these salty squares out of a hypersaline pond near the Red Sea in 1980. Since then, cultivating "Walsby's square archaeon" in the lab has been a holy grail for microbiologists studying salt-loving (halophilic) bacteria. Jos jedna vrsta koja voli sol, Haloferax mediteranei:  |
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Promakla mi je smrt Julija Knifera u decembru... Mort du peintre Julije Knifer  |
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EDO MURTIC: RETROSPEKTIVA 1953-2000 Abstract artist Edo Murtic dies |
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Kako je lakse napraviti novi post nego urediti stari, evo, jos jedan nekrolog Susan Sontag, od Gary Indiane: Remembering the voice of moral responsibility—and unembarrassed hedonism |
Recommended reading
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Komentari (8) -
Isprintaj -
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    "Where the stress falls" sadrzi eseje o mnogim malo poznatim (globalno), ali predivnim i cesto kultnim piscima. Sontag je prva predstavila Americi i Danila Kisa, i Krlezu. Citat |
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Izvrsni blog o okolisu, zajednicki napor devetoro znanstvenika (plus suradnici): RealClimate.org |
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(O novoj knjizi Jareda Diamonda) by William Reese, Nature 433, 15 - 16 (06 January 2005) The role of environmental degradation in the collapse of human societies. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond Viking/Allen Lane: 2005. 592 pp. $29.95/Ł20 Jared Diamond is a necessary antidote to Bjřrn Lomborg (of The Skeptical Environmentalist fame) and other latter-day acolytes of Julian Simon who preach that environmental problems are largely bogus and that the human future is secure. Consider the facts: industrial humans are the most voracious predators in the world's oceans and, simultaneously, the most successful terrestrial carnivore ever to have walked the Earth. As if to underscore the merits of our generalist evolutionary strategy, we are also the dominant herbivore in grasslands and forests all over the planet (especially if we consider the demands of our 'industrial metabolism'). In short, humans are the most ecologically significant macro-consumers in every major ecosystem type on Earth (with the notable exception of deep marine vent communities, which we have only just begun to explore), and we are literally consuming ecosystems from within. Meanwhile, Earth scientists say that human activity is the most powerful geological force altering the face of the planet, and the erosive pace is accelerating. Nothing bogus here — this is an ecological reality. Human behaviour towards the ecosphere has become dysfunctional and now arguably threatens our own long-term security. The real problem is that the modern world remains in the sway of a dangerously illusory cultural myth. Like Lomborg, most governments and international agencies seem to believe that the human enterprise is somehow 'decoupling' from the environment, and so is poised for unlimited expansion. Jared Diamond's new book, Collapse, confronts this contradiction head-on. It is essential reading for anyone who is unafraid to be disillusioned if it means they can walk into the future with their eyes open. As suggested by its title, this book is about societal collapses — past, present and future — and the factors that cause human societies to fail. But it is also a history of success, of societies that were able to confront their problems and thrive, sometimes for millennia. Diamond reasons that, for all the trappings of modernity, the human past presages the human future, and thus provides "a rich database from which we can learn". His primary mission is to determine the ecological, political and cultural conditions that lead to collapse and to contrast these with the conditions that favour success. Diamond defines collapse as "a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area for an extended time". He founds his analysis on systematic consideration of five sets of causal mechanisms. Any of the first four sets — damage that people inflict on their ecosystems, climate change, the actions of hostile neighbours, and loss of contact with trading partners (friendly neighbours) — may or may not be relevant to any particular case. The fifth set, however — how a society responds to the other classes of problems as they arise — is always a determinant of that society's future. Collapse is based on a series of detailed case studies. Diamond begins with an affectionate portrait of modern-day Montana, revealing many of the socio-political and environmental uncertainties that cloud the state's future. The main purpose here is actually to establish common themes for subsequent chapters on societies that have long since completed the cycle to collapse: cultures on Easter Island, Pitcairn Island and Henderson Island in the South Pacific; the native American culture of the Anasazi; the Maya; and the Norse Greenland culture. These tragic failures are followed by several uplifting cases of societal success, including Tikopia in the South Pacific, the New Guinea highlands, and Japan during the Tokugawa era. Diamond then provides a fuller exploration of the many rich parallels between these historic cases and select modern societies. The latter include the contemporary malthusian disasters of Rwanda and Haiti; the success (by developing-world standards) of the Dominican Republic; an emerging developing-world giant, China, which is the scariest case because of the staggering scale of its problems and potential global impacts; and Australia, a developed-world society reeling from ecological degradation but beginning to respond creatively. (Tellingly, however, Diamond's most realistic scenario for Australia sees it falling into decline under the weight of accelerating environmental problems, perhaps just ahead of the rest of the developed world.) Curiously missing from this section is a detailed consideration of the United States, Diamond's own country and the one imposing the greatest ecological load on the planet. What emerges most clearly from Diamond's analysis is the central role played by environmental decay in undermining human societies. Eight ecological processes familiar to environmentalists today also plagued earlier societies: habitat destruction (such as deforestation and desertification), soil degradation (erosion, water-logging and salination), water supply problems, over-hunting, over-fishing, the impacts of introduced species, population growth pressures, and rising per capita impacts. The relative significance of each of these processes varies greatly from case to case, but all the ancient societies examined put themselves at risk, sometimes fatally so, by inadvertently undermining the very ecosystems that supported them — and modern societies have even more ecological spectres to banish. Highlighting environmental degradation as a fundamental factor in societal collapse distinguishes Diamond's interpretation from that of Joseph Tainter in his 1988 book The Collapse of Complex Societies, which has long been the best-known book on the subject. Tainter developed a convincing argument that societies actually advance or 'complexify' as they respond creatively to major challenges. He therefore found it difficult to accept that any complex society with pre-developed administrative, organizational and technical coping skills would allow itself to succumb to emergent ecological problems. Instead, he placed the blame for collapse on socio-political instability resulting from diminishing returns to investment in problem solving — that is, on excessive complexity. Diamond concedes that the implosion of a vulnerable society might be triggered by an overstretched economy, dissolute leadership or enemy invasion, say, but argues that the ultimate cause is usually fragility caused by ecological degradation. In the book's final section, Diamond focuses on practical lessons. Why do societies sometimes make such disastrous decisions? What can we 'moderns' usefully learn from the responses of ancient societies to environmental crises? What is the appropriate role of the private sector, transnational corporations in particular? Which of today's environmental trends are the most threatening and how do they differ from those that sank previous societies? Anticipating resistance to his findings from perennial optimists, Diamond includes well reasoned ripostes to a dozen common 'one-liner' objections to the seriousness of environmental problems and to the relevance of previous collapses to techno-industrial society. In the end, Diamond's painstaking toil in the deep mines of history rewards him with sufficient nuggets of hope that he emerges "cautiously optimistic" about the human prospect. Modern society's ecological and geopolitical problems may be daunting but, in theory, they can be solved if we take the right decisions to reduce our ecological footprints. And let's not forget that we are uniquely positioned to learn from the collapse of previous societies. Regrettably, theory and example do not always translate into practice. The most important lesson to be drawn from Collapse is that resilient societies are nimble ones, capable of long-term planning and of abandoning deeply entrenched but ultimately destructive core values and beliefs. This, in turn, requires a well informed public, inspired leadership and the political will to take decisions that go against the established order of things. In this light, the astute observer of contemporary geopolitics and ecological decline might be excused a descent into quiet despair. |
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Pogledala sam Timesov obit Susan Sontag i vidim da su zaobisli njenu dugogodisnju parntericu, slavnu fotografkinju Annie Leibovitz, s kojom je i profesionalno suradjivala: Women. Istina, raskinule su prije par godina (izgleda pod dosta ruznim okolnostima), ali partnerstvo od dvadeset zasluzuje pomen. Neciji post o tome, s linkovima: Sontag's lesbianism. U njenoj zadnjoj knjizi, dugom eseju nazvanom "Regarding the pain of others", Sontag pise o svojim posjetima Sarajevu usred rata, kada je postavila Beckettovog Godota radeci s glumcima na jeziku koji nije znala. |
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Quickly & briefly: Xmas Day, dinner with Jezebel & friends, none of which I'd met before: Anne the English painter, Joseph the architect/landscape artist (teaching in Athens, GA) and Bob the ex-literary agent turned writer. Notable fact: I was the only one present WITHOUT an apt in Paris. Jez set me up in her office-cum-boudoir (rock-hard bed, good for HER back); on the + side, we both had privacy, I was getting up way before her, playing with Ollie, making tea and reading in peace (Isherwood's "Christopher and his kind", Mary McCarthy's memoirs, a bio of Frank O'Hara), then setting off on interminable walks through the City. The Park in its frozen wintry incarnation, sans skaters, skateboarders, drumming jams. Stood on the corner of 86th & Lex, the ancient hub of my daily traffic, gazing on my past. In my neighborhood, few changes. On 91 & Lex, Juliano recognized me immediately and served my customary double espresso without waiting for the order. "Where have you been?", said he nonchalantly, as if I'd missed a weekend. The chirpy quartet of Vietnamese gentlemen was there, so was the pleasingly ugly Mexican girl with the Times, and the fragile old man with snowy hair reading the Lankavatara Sutra. Almost spooky, stepping into the same living picture I'd left years ago. I went as far as the 96th, the vicinity of Mt. Sinai, got hungry, couldn't find room in ANY of the little food places there, zipped over to the West Side, Lincoln Square, Tower Records (rundown, shabby, doesn't look good for them, bankrupt). Took time to sit in the armchairs (most taken by homeless guys sleeping) and listen to 3-4 CDs. Bought Ronald Smith's Alkan and Beethoven variations (all BUT Diabelli); Ogdon and Gilels. West Village, SOHO, Astor Place (Tower Outlet shut down)--no conscious sightseeing, merely allowing my feet and eyes to touch the City again, without strain, without desire. Met Yvonne and a bunch of her friends over several days. She bought an apt on 87th & 5th, huge rooms, ballrooms. Must've been over a million. The Met and the Park across the street. Cafe Sabarsky. Le Pain Quotidien. Sicaffe, Payard. Fancy spots, elegant people. The gravitas of Park Avenue, noted Yvonne, flapping about in curious bewinged Galliano clothes. Strange to think of her as an Upper East Side matron. Went shopping for furniture with her: 8K sofas, zebra, antelope, unicorn hides—brushed against the impossibly hunky Denis Leary in the showroom, alpha-male hip-swinging and lurching walk. Ellen & Alex, on the devilish 42nd. (One evening it took me one hour to move from the 7th Ave. to 11th; I'd hurt my foot so wouldn't walk.) I like him, I approve. Darling Ellen hasn't changed a bit. Had some coked up fun with them—we’d become strangely loquacious and discussed modern medicine & history of math until the wee hours. Saw Almodóvar’s latest ('La mala educación') with Yvonne and Catherine. Catherine and Liza have a child now, the 18 month-old Francesca with chipmunk cheeks, and Liza wants another one. As Jez says, everybody’s a breeder these days. Met the glamorous Barbara and Chloe twice; pretty Barbara with her glittering long eyes, seductive Chloe of the Dietrich aura, perfect skin, Agnes B. long coat, shoulders gleaming naked in the candlelight. She’s curating a show for the UNESCO in Paris next month. Barbara had been sending books to Sontag until the day she died. G.’s joining Tonegawa’s lab this year, intent to pursue the role of sleep in memory consolidation. A made young man, is he. |
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Draga Quod pokrila je sve vijesti koje su me takle proslih dana: i zemljotres u Aziji, i smrt Susan Sontag i Ede Murtica, i napad na Titov kip... Sigurna sam da su pokriveni i bilo koji komentari koje bih mogla dati, pa cu nastaviti rutinski... Samo par linkova, jer zelim posjetiti blogove, a o posjetu NYCju (prvom nakon tri godine) malo kasnije... Prvo, cestitke Davidu i Jasonu :)  David Luis Valdes, a playwright, and Jason John Greenwood, a speech therapist, were married on Friday in Somerville, Mass. David A. Barrett, a justice of the peace in Somerville, officiated at the home of Danielle and Chapin Kaynor, friends of the couple. Drugo, link za clanak Jareda Diamonda, biologa po struci, autora jedne od najzanimljivijih i najvaznijih knjiga ikada, za koju je 1998-e dobio Pulitzera, "Guns, germs and steel". (Ne znam je li prevedena kod nas.) Ukratko, objasnjava zasto svijet izgleda kako izgleda, zasto su Evropa i Zapad dominantni, zasto i kako su propadale ne-evropske civilizacije. Link ce biti ziv jos samo tri dana, potrebna je (gratis) registracija. The Ends of the World as We Know Them E, a kad ste se vec registrirali, pogledajte i ovaj clanak: "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?", o nedokazivim (ili bar tesko provjerljivim) uvjerenjima nekolicine znanstvenika. |