Green Comet

Here is yet another great photograph of my valley. It first appeared here. I know. I know. You’re choking on the bile of envy, aren’t you?-) I can’t help that, but I can at least share a little of my good fortune.

rjb

You wouldn’t normally think of snails as farmers. If anything they’d be more like cows, grazing through the day. Cows aren’t that smart. When they’re relaxing, chewing their cud, they’re probably not planning how to grow their next crop of grass. So what of snails, then?

Snails aren’t very brainy, even compared to cows. There’s the question of whether they can even be said to have a brain. They have a nervous system which has a clump of neurons at the head end, which might be a brain. Or it might just be an aggregation of nerve cells, a mere ganglion. We have similar clusters in our nervous system. One example is the solar plexus, located in the abdomen just below the diaphragm. It does a lot of very important work but you wouldn’t call it a brain. Continue reading →

Let me be the first to offer best wishes and a bon voyage to Canada’s scientists. The government has told them to forget about their normal enquiries and concentrate on things that will help business. Yes, this government thinks that it can mandate made-to-order science. And they seem to think that our best and brightest will be happy in their new role as civil servants doing the bidding of politicians and business people. Politicians and business people. Who better to point the way to new scientific discoveries?

How could Canada be so foolish, you ask? Well, in this country we have a political system where a party can get 39% of the vote and form a majority government. Then this “majority” can dictate to the 61% who voted against it. It’s in this welter of irrationality that politicians think they can choose the science they want.

Here are some examples of their hubris:
Scientist calls new confidentiality rules on Arctic project ‘chilling’
Harper Government Stifles the Truth

Here’s what some scientists think of it:
How Science Can Help the Feds Save Face
Open for business: Refocused NRC
Outcry Grows Over Canadian Govt’s Undermining of Climate Science
Is Canada giving up on science?

Here’s what a Canadian commentator thinks of it:
Rick Mercer Says Scientists ‘Muzzled’ In Canada Again (VIDEO)

If I were a talented young scientist, I think I’d be looking for some place I could do real science. Some place where they believe in fundamental research, exploring the unknown. Some place outside of Canada.

rjb