An article in last week's Economist definitively answers the question,
"Is it ever appropriate to completely wipe out a parasitic species that seems to have no positive role in the food chain?" It's happening with Helicobacter Pylori, the infamous cause of stomach ulcer and gastric cancer. Now that less than 5 percent of U.S. children have H. pylori, scientists are discovering the endangered bacterium just might do a few good things. Since it seems to regulate stomach acid, its absence is causing more reflux syndromes and esophogeal cancers. Since kids use H. pylori as a priming agent for beefing up the immune system, its absence is causing more asthma. As with the hidden hazards of using germicidal soaps, the law of unintended consequences applies big time. No doubt the same could be said for mosquitoes, ticks, and homo sapiens...
7 comments:
Uuuhhhhh, it just drives me crazy that humans can obliterate anything they want - or try to - or mess things up royally - after thousands or millions of years. This arrogance is really getting to me.
Hehe, I had not heard of this Pink Floyd song before googling your title. Too bad my laptop won't play the youtube video.
It really has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject at hand, it was just one of those phrases bubbling up from deep memory that seemed appropriate. I think it was about 1969-era Pink Floyd, ancient stuff.
It really is a great title!
Oh, it matters not where titles come from. As one who writes poems, unattached titles can be the most effective. I thought this one was brilliant with the post.
My favorite poets are the ones that keep their allusions in a gray misty area - not willful obscurity, just making the deciphering of their work a puzzle box. A lot of other people I know find it annoying, but it seems as though a subtle reference or a glancing blow is better than stating something explicitly. Eno used to call that "Oblique Strategies."
Ruth, I just looked up the Oblique Strategies web site, and found that one of the key questions in the strategizing method is, "What do I increase? What do I decrease?"
Whoa, yay.
And yeah, that oblique strategy thing, I call it showing not telling. William Carlos Williams' 'no ideas but in things.' And yes, making connections between two (or more) things that one would never think of putting together, successfully. Like a Pink Floyd song title and wiping out a parasite.
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