Medical Health

The Last of Brazil’s Lost Tribe

On the news last night, the reporter called it the lost tribe, but that label seems like propaganda, given that the news report was about how Brazil’s ranchers and farmers had exterminated the tribe over a number of years–obviously the tribe was not lost to these ranchers (or to the Brazilian government, which has been synonymous with unfettered ranching and rainforest destruction for decades now).

I mean the world has been after Brazil to change its ways. The world has been after Brazil for decades. Yet the Brazilian government allowed its ranchers to commit blatant genocide, and neither the United Nations nor any of its members have instituted sanctions against Brazil. I think this state of affairs–a renegade, evil Brazilian government; a United Nations that looks the other way over and over again, even after acknowledging the crime–shows us that our so-called world leaders are a sham. They come from the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel. They are not doing their jobs and are probably too brainwashed and greedy to ever do the right thing.

That so-called lost tribe in Brazil, the one they talked about on the news last night, there are only 6 members left: 2 old men and 4 old women. They are too old to reproduce. The tribe and its customs and language will soon go extinct. The Brazilian ranchers wiped them off the face of the earth. And our leaders did nothing, and are doing nothing, despite the fact that millions of concerned citizens have been complaining about Brazil and its ranchers for the last 30 years or more.

The American Presidency: Selfish Candidates or Candidates for Selfishness?

The headlines today are “Mitt Romney quits after pouring $35 million of his own money into failed campaign.” Of course, we all know that Mitt Romney was running in the Republican primary, the race in which Republican voters choose which Republican leader will run against the Democrats for the U.S. presidency. But I do not hear anyone in the press pointing out that Romney’s $35 million would have been better spent helping the poor right here in the United States.

Romney’s courage (and extra money) would best serve the hopeless (the lost, and especially the lost at sea . . .).

War and Immortality

I sent this to CTV News:

Comment re. your 27 April 2007 piece about cancer rates

During the 20th and 21st centuries, we spent a lot of money on war — World Wars I and II, to name just the big ones. If we had spent all that time, energy, money, and life on life-extension, we would have discovered the key to immortality by now.

Maybe someday our enemies will see the light.

World Health and Arrogant Ecologists

We cannot assert that all ecologists and environmentalists are arrogant, but I have encountered quite a few who would have made stronger contributions had they attended compulsory courses in ethics and human kindness. In fact, I believe that many of our professional conservationists have retarded our fight against global warming. If we had replaced them long ago, we would have made more headway in our attempts to introduce preemptive environmental measures.

For example, once when I was discussing the fact that as part of one of my research projects, a rather large group of Seventh Day Adventist fishermen contributed logbooks detailing their catches of salmon, a prominent fisheries ecology professor told me, “Those guys are perverts, the type who climb telephone poles and peep through windows at trailer parks.”

I guess that fisheries ecologist thought of himself as a fighter. But all he was really doing was shooting himself in the foot.

Related Posts:

Science, Ethics, and Abuse

Global Warming and Publish or Perish

The Fisheries Turnoff

Global Warming and Publish or Perish

Yes, I believe that man-made global warming is a fact, but I also know that the discovery of the rise in greenhouse gases was not a major scientific breakthrough, and monitoring the greenhouse effect has not required a vast amount of scientific smarts.

And I wonder, If global warming brings about a major worldwide catastrophe, will that catastrophe prevent an even worse (and so-far unseen) man-made disaster, one that perhaps looms further out in the future. After all, it is science that brings us to these deadly turning points, and our science is the product of human nature. In fact our top scientists and academics arrive at the top though brute ambition, and in the course of their ambition, often abuse their families and students. Their public sense of ethics and moral imperative and honor is not a constant: it is something they often abandon in private, both at home and at school. Ask their sons and ex-wives. Ask the wounded and disabled they all left behind.

The rich give us delusions of immortality

The government and the media keep telling us to prolong our lives: quit smoking, exercise, eat right, get a cat and a dog, get married, quit renting, quit driving fast (fly, don’t drive), have two drinks a day, don’t drink, take a multivitamin, don’t take a multivitamin, drink green tea, drink coffee (they say it prevents liver cancer), get a flu shot, walk, run, take a nap, take a bus, work hard, save, save, save, invest, invest, invest, you get what you deserve . . .

One of my doctors said, “It seems they are saying we are supposed to live forever.”

Yeah, feel guilty for not trying to live forever. That way you won’t mope around about the fact that the rich keep working you harder, that your job keeps stressing you out . . . Maybe you’ll forget that stress kills.

That’s how the rich get richer — the government, the media, the tycoons. They hand you infectious fantasies and psychotic beliefs. They keep you real busy working at getting real old.

(I say get rid of the cigars. Avoid stress, exercise, eat right.)

Smoking and Obesity

The media keeps saying that today’s kids are obese and that today’s parents may be the first generation in history to outlive their children. Yet, in the United States and Canada, smoking and lung cancer are on the decline, which makes me wonder whether cigarettes would keep our teenagers and twenty-somethings slim, allowing them to outlive their parents (rather than the other way around), even though they eventually die of smoking-related illnesses.

Science, Ethics, and Abuse

Here is the statement I gave to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and then e-mailed to President Bush:

One of my present concerns is that science (both in government and academia) attracts (and subsequently recruits) sinister political hacks and abject academic lackeys. I recently expressed my concern to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy:

[originally addressed to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy]

In your U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy Preliminary Report you state,

“The education of the 21st century ocean-related workforce will require not only a strong understanding of oceanography and other disciplines, but an ability to integrate science concepts, engineering methods, and sociopolitical considerations. Resolving complex ocean issues related to economic stability, environmental health, and national security will require a workforce with diverse skills and backgrounds. Developing and maintaining such a workforce will rely, in turn, on programs of higher education that prepare future ocean professionals at a variety of levels and in a variety of marine-related fields.”

Obviously, your educational and institutional environments and curricula must include rigorous methods for assessing codes of conduct and ethics. Mistreatment of employees, students, and constituents WILL RENDER YOUR SCIENCE SUSPECT.

Related Posts:

World Health and Arrogant Ecologists

Global Warming and Publish or Perish

The Fisheries Turnoff

It Serves You Right?

So your grandparents passed down one or two genetic vulnerabilities and you have become ill with a genetic disease (maybe arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, or breast cancer). And you know that you did not bring on your condition, you know that it is not your fault, and your doctors and friends know that much, too. Yet all the neurotic busybodies are saying, “It serves you right.”

Well, think of the bright side: the mean-spirited gossips (particularly those living in rainy climates) have once again shown off their ignorance. They live in the dark, like rodents. Because what they have really said is that you are the blame for your grandparents’ genes, that you got what you deserved the day you were born.

What a bunch of arrogant, greedy, thoughtless fools.