The last throes of The New Feudalism. It's almost too late to turn it
around. Try clicking through 50 or 100 TV stations--bread and circuses. The
result of the MBAization of the world.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "malcolm McCallum" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 8:31 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Education Advancing or Declining in Quality?
I don't know how many of you have checked out the recent job listings, but
I
was very surprised this year at how many are in China, India, Japan.
Doesn't bode well for the future of US science.
On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Aaron T. Dossey <[email protected]>
wrote:
Actually the most important thing needed in science/research in America,
as
with most everything else, is JOBS JOBS JOBS.
Science (and the rest of America) suffers from a very simple dysfunction:
too much investment in too few.
Too few PI's, too many fully and highly skilled/trained creative
scientists
forced to work for them - and relinquish their intellectual property to
their bosses, not to mention give up hope of a position in science from
which they could retire.
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Wayne Tyson wrote:
Ecolog:
Because it all boils down to individuals and cases and the devil is in
the
details, I would say that (the article at the link is.gd/dTIL2)* as
Madhu
suggests, is as good a place as any to start. Generalizations won't cut
it,
but that doesn't mean that trends and entrenched habits and even
inconvenient truths are not useful--to a point, of course. Hacker and
Dreifus have illuminated some possible pathways to betterment, but like
all
good teachers, wisely choose not to belabor the obvious and bore us all
to
tears. Their job is to help all to UNDERSTAND, not merely to "know." As
they
point out: "It's the job of the teacher to get students interested and
turned on no matter what the subject is. Every student can be turned on
if
teachers really engage in this way." That is the issue, and that is the
challenge. Always has been, always will. It is out of THIS that the
magic of
fuller and fuller understanding grows.
Ecology, like a "roofer's card," covers everything. Every teacher should
have a fire in hisher belly and infect as many other people with the
disease
as possible, in and out of institutions. Those who are primarily
interested
in glory and/or riches should keep a day job in the military or the
stock
market and settle for ecology as an avocation. Getting rich and famous
just
isn't in the cards in ecology; it ain't for the egocentric. It's a
square
peg in a round hole problem.
True, the whole trend in the world is toward acquisitiveness rather than
inquisitiveness, and right there is the tension between emphasis on a
life
of ease and an easy life. Subordination of all kinds should be resisted,
but
ecology most of all, as a study of life in its context, should resist
selling out to the acquisitors. Students, which means all of us who
stand
before Nature in naked ignorance, would do well to suffer their
suffering
unto Ecolog--and all of the 10,000-plus subscribers should pass the word
that this is the place to start. To some degree (and once one gets
hooked,
CAN one stop?) every single person should be an ecologist. Jobs, JOBS?
We
don' need no stinkin' JOBS--what we need is a LIFE!
WT
* For some reason, inclusion of the actual link caused the system to
reject the post without sending the request for confirmation message.
Sorry
for any inconvenience. Have others noticed this? What is it about the
link
that causes this? This is the first time I have encountered this. The
fact
that Madhu's post was able to get through the system with this "defect"
only
adds to the mystery.
--
Malcolm L. McCallum
Managing Editor,
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert
1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss,
and pollution.
2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction
MAY help restore populations.
2022: Soylent Green is People!
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