Surprise Gift!
This weekend I met a great human. My car developed a leaking radiator hose on Saturday. As I drove from one repair shop to another, only to discover they were closed or did not do that kind of work, my engine coolant slowly leaked away. Finally, one garage sent me across town to a facility that they thought could help me.
Unfortunately, I didn't make it. The tear in the hose gave way and with a cloud of steam, my car began to rapidly overheat. But just as my hopes were fading and I expected to be stranded on the street, I spotted an enormous gas station with 20 pumps just ahead.
I managed to pull in and shut off my engine before the temperature gauge hit the red mark. Nearly all the pumps were busy, and the service center building next to them was huge. As I entered the service center, there were lines of customers waiting at two busy check out stands. I got in line.
Finally my turn came at the customer counter, I asked for help, but my hopes for a rescue diminished as they explained they did no car repair or service. This giant gas station and mini-mall could sell me almost anything else, but fixing a broken radiator hose was beyond their abilities. At least these companies no longer call themselves service stations.
Then a young man in line behind me, spoke up, "Let me take a look, I can probably help you."
One hour later, he had pulled tools from his car, gotten himself dirty and greasy, and repaired my radiator hose. All without hesitation, and never a mention that I should pay him a dime. His service was better than any I have ever received at any service station or garage.
This experience so lifted my spirits, I was almost glad the hose had given way. I was experiencing the power of the gift economy. After he was finished, he introduced himself. His name was Tim White.
Thanks Tim for being a great human!
Today at SynEARTH:
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 Timothy Wilken, MD writes: In our present world, it is widely believed that mistakes are the result of badness. So when mistakes occur, we investigate, blame and punish. This belief has resulted in a world where violence, hate and judgment are common. Synergic science reveals that mistakes are in fact the result of ignorance. If we understand this, then when a mistake occurs, we would analyze, determine responsibility, and educate. This could soon lead to a world where public safety, love and compassion are common. ... Our human science has revealed that our knowing is incomplete and imperfect. This means that every human belief is an assumption. We can never know for sure. We can never know ALL. As you sit in your chair reading these words, you assumed the chair would hold you. You did not check under the chair to see if it had broken since its last use. When you ate lunch at your favorite restaurant last week, you assumed the waitress had washed her hands. You assumed the cook did not have hepatitis. If you had assumed otherwise, you would not have walked into that restaurant. You would not have eaten your lunch. We humans assume. Herein lies our uncertainty — that’s all we humans can do. There is nothing wrong in our assuming, we are simply obeying a fundamental ‘law’ of Nature. (11/17/03)
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 Einstein said "no apparently insoluble problem can be resolved by the same order or level of thinking as that which created the problem." In terms of our relationship with the planet, the word "sustainability" usually refers to economic growth and the associated rate of resource consumption and waste assimilation. The motivation and focus , even of those in the environment business (a very revealing term) is still profit maximisation . This is just "more of the same" in terms of our thinking -- there is no sustainable change - Why? Because people haven't changed. Change starts on the inside. Meanwhile researchers not under the influence of global corporations advise us that we have fifty years remaining until global climatic meltdown . See "The Ecologist" Volume 29, No2 Spring 99 . This special issue is given over entirely to the climate crisis and associated global politics. A paradigm shift is required from "development" and profit maximisation for all, to selective growth for some, realignment for others, and optimal profits for all with "respect" to the local community. Pollution of the environmental and human communities (the two are inseparable) cannot be resolved in any fundamental way with "more of the same" in terms of our way of thinking. Sustainability is "in my back yard only" ie the sustainability of my profit margin, whereas self sustenance embraces adjoining communities as part of the one system. Whilst the planet serves business, and not the other way around , nothing will ever change permanently. This is thinking with the head, and not the heart. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart! The heart of Mother Earth is a different order of thinking all together. It could be said to be almost childlike, but it is not naive! Much of the effort thus far has been grant funded whether European or local, or is often targeted only at initiatives which yield a financial return. In terms of short term outcome this is laudable but it is not an investment in sustainable change -- of people! There is no other type of sustainable change, so lets stop measuring our children's inheritance against "the green back" -- and finding it wanting! What happens when the grants dry up and the initial potential for quick financial paybacks become more difficult? Are present measures even keeping pace with the rate of increase in pollution? We still think with our heads and not with our hearts. Most environmentally aware businesses act from a profit or survival motive and not from altruism, with conservation seen primarily as yet another business opportunity. How many "environment business" organisations are in it primarily for the sake of Mother Earth? How naive ! No more so than going blindly on to an environmental Armageddon on the wave of "bloody" good profits and fat grants. It is going to take a little heartburn without the antacid of grants to stabilise our intake of resources. We, as a community, the business community included, need to accept responsibility for sacrificing the earth , and it quite rightly requires a sacrifice from us. Only thus will the balance be permanently redressed. Accepting grants is not accepting responsibility. We have lost faith in ourselves as a race and as custodians of the planet. We hide behind the false security of sustainable profits. Sustainable change on the other hand, starts in the heart of individuals, not necessarily "directors", as part of the polluted local community system in which all stakeholders have a voice. Most importantly the ultimate customer; the child -- the ultimate beneficiary (?)(11/17/03)
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 New Scientist -- Passing knowing on to offspring is called Time-binding. -- A captive female gorilla has been spotted teaching her daughter how to tend to her newborn. Gorilla mothers are often seen teaching their young to walk and climb, but primatologists believe this is the first report of a mother instructing her daughter on baby care. The daughter, an 11-year-old western lowland gorilla called Ione, had neglected her first baby, which her keepers raised. So for several days after the birth of her second baby at San Diego Wild Animal Park, the keepers and primatologist Masayuki Nakamichi of Osaka University in Japan kept a close eye on her. Initially, Ione simply left her baby on the ground in front of her 21-year-old mother, Alberta, who picked him up and handed him back. When Ione made no move to take the baby, Alberta moved closer pushing the newborn into his mother's face until she took him. Variations on this sequence occurred several times in the first two days. By the third and fourth day, Ione was holding the baby. Sometimes, Alberta would hold the baby's arm, and Ione would hand him over, but when the baby nestled into its grandmother, Ione quickly took him back. With time, Alberta became less involved. Nakamichi argues that Alberta's actions were attempts to teach Ione appropriate maternal behaviour. "These behaviours are subtle. It takes an acute observer to spot them," says James Moore of the University of California in San Diego. (11/17/03)
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 New Scientist -- Soy supplements can decrease normal sexual behaviour by as much as 70 per cent, a study of female rats has shown. The rats were given a commercially available supplement in doses similar to those taken by women. The findings suggest a possible negative side effect for the supplements, which are becoming very popular among US women. Isoflavones, the key compounds in soy, are estrogen-like molecules. Soy supplements are touted as a natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy and recent warnings of the risks of HRT may boost the numbers of women turning to the supplements. The supplements do have other potential health benefits. Women in the Far East, whose regular diet includes relatively large amounts of soy, have much lower cancer rates than Western women. But some studies highlighted possible downsides. Soy isoflavones have been show to interfere with estrogen function in rats, decreasing some of the brain molecules involved in social and sexual behaviour. And a specific isoflavone called genistein prevents the tumour-fighting drug tamoxifen from working in mice. The new study, showing that a soy isoflavone has negative effects on sexual behavior in rats, joins these. (11/17/03)
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 BBC Nature -- In a clarion call to save hundreds of Asian bird species from extinction, ornithologists have launched a crisis guide to the threats the animals face. It reveals logging and plantations as the greatest dangers to bird survival. The number of species at risk is 324 - this is about 12% of all Asian birds. Scientists say there may be no hope even now for 11 of the species. The guide is published by BirdLife International, a global network of conservation groups in 100 countries. ... Indonesia, with 117 globally threatened species, has more than any other Asian country, with China next at 78. India has 73 species and the Philippines 70. The second largest threat, BirdLife says, is the disturbance or destruction of wetlands, home to species like the Siberian crane and black-faced spoonbill. Migratory species like the spoon-billed sandpiper and the spotted greenshank also depend on wetlands, and are threatened as well by large land reclamation projects, especially along the coast of the Yellow Sea of Korea and China. Other significant threats include hunting for food and for the pet trade. The guide lists what ornithologists believe is needed to ensure the survival of each species in 33 priority habitat regions. BirdLife says it is best to concentrate efforts on these threatened habitats because often saving one of them will benefit several distinct species. Recommendations in the guide include protecting wetlands on migratory flyways, including the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, which it says should become a transboundary peace park. (11/17/03)
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 BBC Science -- Climate change caused by human activity has been detected on a local level, an international group of scientists says. The researchers compared temperatures in North America between 1900 and 1999 with what one might expect if man had - and had not - had an influence. And in the last 50 years, the rise in temperature is just what one would predict if man-made greenhouse gases were having an impact, they claim. The research is published in this week's edition of the journal Science. It is getting warmer in North America. Since 1900, the average temperature has risen by one degree Celsius, and 80% of that increase has happened since 1970. What is not certain, is why this has happened. Some blame the greenhouse gases produced by humans; others say it is all part of a natural fluctuation. Peter Stott from the Met Office in the UK, and his colleagues, used sophisticated computer models to address the question. They created several virtual 20th Century North Americas, complete with sea, trees, mountains, volcanoes, clouds and weather systems. The model North Americas were capable of accurately mimicking the climate of the real-life version. Then the researchers introduced different influences to each model, to see how they affected the climate. ... In the second half of the century - 1950-1999 - the climate change of North America closely matched the "human influence" model. But in the first half of the century, the climate change matched the "natural influence" model. So the models were suggesting that North America warmed up for natural reasons during the first half of the century but, in the second half, man caused the climate change. "The model that included greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols agreed with what we really saw in the second half of the century," said Dr Stott. "But when we looked at the models that didn't include these things, they didn't fit." The researchers also compared the air temperature above the land with that on the surface of the ocean. They found that the air above the land was heating up much quicker. This is inconsistent with what we might expect if we were witnessing a natural fluctuation, the researchers say, because they are usually characterised by a rise in ocean temperature. "The fact the land is warming faster on land than on the ocean surface bares the human finger-print," Dr Stott told BBC News Online. (11/17/03)
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 Newsday -- BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo -- Health officials on Friday confirmed Ebola as the cause of 11 deaths in the northern forests, signaling the Republic of Congo's second outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever this year. Blood specimens from corpses suspected to have been infected with the deadly virus have tested positive, national public health chief Damase Bozongo said. "We can now affirm that it was Ebola," he told reporters. A World Health Organization spokesman, Boniface Bibousse, also verified the outbreak in the Cuvette West region, saying it was sending two epidemiologists to the area on Saturday. First reports from the remote northern region emerged Oct. 31. Ebola, one of the world's deadliest viral diseases, causes rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90 percent of those infected. In June, Republic of Congo health authorities announced the end of an Ebola epidemic that killed over 120 people in the same Cuvette West region. That epidemic -- believed to have been started by contact with infected gorilla flesh, which is eaten in parts of sub-Saharan Africa -- broke out in January. The WHO says Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a region of Congo, this country's larger, eastern neighbor. (11/17/03)
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