Interface between worlds: who'd've thunk?

How arrogant can we be?

'Technical Glitch' In Payroll Software Sparks Riots In Papua New Guinea

A visual history of pandemics from The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

In 1996, I scored, bigtime; an improbable life-changing event. I had been staying at the home of a family in Merizo for many months. In order to introduce them to my family, who had flown in from Chuuk, we stopped our rent-a-car at my friends' home, intending a short stop, just for a few minutes. 

 Their phone (alandline) rang; strangely, it was a call for me! I never received calls on their line. On the other end, a voice asked, would I accept a job on Saipan teaching Health Science? The salary would be sufficient for subsistence, and housing would be provided. Could we be at the Guam airport early the next morning, myself and family? 

I could---and probably should---elaborate, contextualize this event. But to cut to the chase, we were at the airport the following morning, and that evening we were comfortable in a temporary lodging provided for us in a local hotel. Things did not go smoothly, but thanks to a wonderful team from the CNMI Public School System we soon had an apartment and I, a job at Marianas High School. 

My Health Education job turned into Biology and Environmental Science. Perfect! From the star, teaching in Micronesia involved a heavy dose of Environmental Science. In Chuuk there was a book, but abundant opportunities for focusing on local problems and issues, students were engaged in confronting numerous local issues, often involving the collision course between their tranditional ways and the new economy of money, politics, plastics, frozen food, canned food, monofilament fishing line and nets, the exhustion of fish stocks, encroachment of fishing fleets from around the world, new ideas about consumption... I could go on. 

The experience of students on Saipan was a step ahead of those in the other Micronesian entities. The U. N. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands maintained headquarters on Saipan, reigning over all of those other diverse entities--The Marshall Islands, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap, and Palau. The locals on Saipan organized and learned to tap into the massive federal resources. They learned the game of political control, and when the time came for "self-determination" (as mandated by the U. N.), they had a leg up, and already were in the driver's seat. 

Development---all of those new or improved trappings referred to in the previous paragraph---was already on track for bigger and better things.  This story will probably be told elsewhere, but in all likelihood, the first draft has already been written by those educated by their captors.  

My job was not the same on Saipan, then, as it had been in Chuuk. Students from diverse backgrounds and languages had different perspectives, so I was at a disadvantage. The books, surprizingly, since the budget of CNMI PSS was an order of magnitude larger---thanks to the influence of the local population in Territorial political affairs---than the Chuuk State Department of Education.  And the Chuuk DOE had 100 schools to deal with! But the books were better in Chuuk. Go figure. 

 I now had an Internet connection and PC, at home, and devoted a considerable amount of time and energy to developing classroom materials. The new (to me) search engine, Google., made swift work of searching; buton a typical day, I wouild be lucky to find ONE (1) article about any important environmental issue of consequence for the islands. I tell this story to illustrate how much things have changed over the past 25 years, for that is how long it has been. What I really want to show show is a web page I just encountered today, in 2023, of monumental significance to Environmental Science: an article, a visual history of pandemics.

June Gloom and Doom: manifestations of the Heat of Fusion of Water

 Proposing a new blog: "Watching the Ice Melt."

In Environmental Science classes, a goal of mine has been to facilitate understanding of the dynamics of water phase changes.  I have portrayed polar ice masses as a buffer to mitigate the worst effects of imbalances in the hear budget of the planet.  It has been a few years (ie., "a minute") since I have taught Environmental Science.  In the meantime, it has become apparent that the predicted and feared growing imbalances are increasing; and at the same time, I have wondered whether my approach to teaching these important concepts were sufficiently impactful.  Ie., did students in my classes understand these important lessons.  

I have come recently to use the term "watching the ice melt" when responding to queried such as "what's happening?", or " what have you been up to?"  And, indeed, I have focused on this problem of many dimensions.  And, like many such "existential" problems, the psychological, social, historical, cultural ramifications pose some of the most difficult challenges to those who have tried to warn the world at large.

Here is present one article that caught my attention in late May 2023.  I intend to post other such articles and thoughts that appear before me in coming days.  Like a haiku, this statement withing this featured article says everything, in few words:

Scientists have said that an acceleration of melting Antarctic ice and rising temperatures, driven by the emission of planet-warming gases, is expected to have a significant effect on the global network of ocean currents that carry nutrients, oxygen and carbon

 The article appears on a web site, Phys.org:   

Dangerous slowing of Antarctic ocean circulation sooner than expected

Giant African Tree Snails and The Rat Lungworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis. Bad News

 This parasite caught my attention because it is  extremely important in Micronesia, yet  practically unknown to physicians who work in the islands.  

 In Chuuk (formerly known as Truk), Alicata described infection with this severe parasite from eating raw African Giant Snails, as well as eating raw shrimp.  On Guam, a dish known as Shrimp Kelaguen is highly valued at fiestas and parties.  Raw shrimp, Macrobrachium sp., are squeezed into the mix.  This, the Rat Lungworm, is transmitted by the shrimp and the snail as intermediate hosts.   In humans, who are not part of the natural life cycle of the parasite, these worms cause Eosinophyllic Meningitis.  

The Life Cycle.

 

Eosinophyllic Meningintis is a serious disease that is seldom diagnosed because it is difficult to detect.  Physicians working in Chuuk, for example, when I interviewed them in 1987 or 1988, did not know about this worm.  When I mentioned "Angiostrongylus cantonensis" to a physician at CHuuk Hospital who had a bachelor's degree in Parasitology, he thought I was referring to Strongyloides, the whip worm, a common intestinal disease in the islands.  This physician was well trained, and deeply engaged in his work: he took the initiative of personally performing the microscopical observations of fecal samples for Ova and Parasites (O&P); yet he did not know this worm that is well documented in the islands.

 

From Alicata 1991 with carriers.

 

Elmer Noble was a co-author of the textbook for the Parasitology course I was enrolled in, at UCSB, in 1984.  Dr. Noble visited our campus, where I think he previously had taught, and presented a guest lecture.  He warned us that physicians he had met during his travels in Asia were not well trained concerning parasites.  He often diagnosed persons whose parasitic infections had been overlooked in routine hospital exams, for example  in Japan.  So it is not unsurprizing that Angiostrongylus cantonensis is not well known in Micronesia; but this is especially concerning when a book and multiple research papers had been published on this issue by an expert in the field.

From Alicata 1991

References

Alicata, J.E., 1991. The discovery of Angiostrongylus cantonensis as a cause of human eosinophilic meningitis. Parasitology Today, 7(6), pp.151-153.

 

 Alicata, J.E., 1965. Biology and distribution of the rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, and its relationship to eosinophilic meningoencephalitis and other neurological disorders of man and animals. Advances in parasitology, 3, pp.223-248.

 

 Yeung, N.W., Hayes, K.A. and Cowie, R.H., 2013. Effects of washing produce contaminated with the snail and slug hosts of Angiostrongylus cantonensis with three common household solutions. Hawai'i Journal of Medicine & Public Health, 72(6 Suppl 2), p.83.

 

 

Great news! Reports of publically funded research should be freely available to everyone.

As outlined in this article on Slashdot, the current United States Administration has taken another step in improving the lot of mankind.  A breath of fresh air in a time of chaos, when the world has been going wrong.  

Wonderful.

The actual web page linked by the above article is here:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/08/25/breakthroughs-for-alldelivering-equitable-access-to-americas-research/

In brief:

All members of the American public should be able to take part in every part of the scientific enterprise—leading, participating in, accessing, and benefitting from taxpayer-funded scientific research. That is, all communities should be able to take part in America’s scientific possibilities.

What I said: on the limits of the human brain

I need to return to this topic, as this post lacks clarity and explanation.

 In about 1984, I had been researching (as in reading) about neuroethology.  In 1980 or 1981 (probably) I returned to UCSB, after a time in Micronesia.  I was inspired.  During a previous year, between my time in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, I had virtually camped out at the UCSB library, soaking up everything I could about Micronesia.  My travels began with an intention to immerse myself in Underwater Photography.  I had been exposed to much more than I had anticipated.  When I checked in with Immigration at the Majuro airport, I was told I would be allowed a year's visa in the Trust Territory; I had planned for five years.   

It was a wonderful time, never to be revisited, but it all seems a blur.  Eventually, I was accepted to return to UCSB, with the stated intention of pursuing Naval Architecture, with the hope of studying the Outrigger Canoes of Micronesia.  I began in 1981 with an eye to Mechanical Engineering; once I was actually on campus, however, I woke up to realize that I had first come to UCSB in 1964 with a dream of studying Marine Biology.  So I changed my major, immediately, and buried myself in the books.  This experience was a far cry from my earlier two years when the University was just the next step, I think, in a pre-ordained path.  

 During my three or so years at UCSB in the 1980s, I squirreled away credits with intensity and intention, in a broad range of disciplines.  I think I enrolled in 19-22 credits in almost every term, also taking courses in Summer Session.  In required subjects (for Biology studies) I took the more challenging courses, reasoning, as Tom Harding had taught me, that a man's reach should exceed his grasp.  It was my explicit intent to learn to read everything: I was more important, for example, to learn enough math, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, ethnology, linguistics, to grasp the language, to develop the background to proceed further on my own. 

 I held two work-study jobs, for two professors, doing library research.  As was my ilk, I immersed myself in these researches, to the extreme; even though the task was to generate slides for lectures, for these professors, I dug in deep.  

 Two of the subjects of interest at that time were ethnology and neuroethology.  Professor Jim Case had inspired me with his lectures in General Biology (Bio 7?) with his explorations of what we could learn about the brain, non-invasively.  Neuroethology was the study  of the neural circuitry in the context of behaviors.  Professor Tom Harding mentored me about ethnology of the Pacific Islands.

 A textbook, a broad-ranging treatment of Neuroethology, had a chapter about Industrial Psychology.  My interest was piqued when I learned of studies of workers in assembly jobs showing the number of errors increased over time.  An idea was associated with this work: the human brain did not evolve for prefect replication of repetitive tasks.  And, somehow, I realized or read that neither was the human brain evolved for engineering perfect systems; rather, for solving problems and improving on the existing imperfect solutions.

 My epiphany was a realization that humans could not possibly invent a perfect, unbreakable system, no matter what.   The problems posed by the desired objective---say, to design a perfect, unsinkable ship---are beyond our reach.

 

At the same time I was reading Linguistics.  Every Ling textbook starts with a statement that human language is a qualitatively distinct entity from animal communication that comes before it.  Thinking about the limitations of the human brain, I felt this was an insult to my intelligence.  I will not dive deeper; there is more meat on this bone.

Today I saw an article about a single-core computer broke a quantum encryption target. 

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/08/sike-once-a-post-quantum-encryption-contender-is-koed-in-nist-smackdown/

 This is just another example: it will never be possible to design a perfect system of encryption.  The attempts to do so will involve a never-ending spiral.

Ironic: Paper relying on Citizen Science unavailable to citizens

 I was unable to find a copy of this paper online:

Martin, Daniel, Marika Mecca, Miguel Meca, Godfried van Moorsel, and Chiara Romano. "Citizen science and integrative taxonomy reveal a great diversity within Caribbean Chaetopteridae (Annelida), with the description of one new species." Invertebrate Systematics.

 I think CSIRO is involved in this publication, though I'm not sure.  In any event, this begs disbelief; it is just one more example of how big scientific publishing is operating to disfavor non-institutional science.  

One is struck by a lighting bolt of helplessness.  Capitalism is standing in the road.