Passion and Distraction

As I become more and more involved with my (lack of a better word) contribution to my interest in conservation biology (and everything else that I am passionate about) it is becoming a place of comfort and an escape from the issues I have with my own personal life. It makes me feel better at the end of the day when I do something selfless and act like a helpful member to society. It steers my mind away from unsolvable conflicts I am battling with in my head.

This feel is both positive and negative.
Positive because I have truly found something I am interested in that makes my life fulfilling.
Negative because I am finding ways to distract myself and steer myself away from finding out what I want for myself, as well as ignoring issues that I should be dealing.

Satisfy the Evolution Hunger

*what a funny cartoon!*

I am a huge huge fan of evolution (sexual selection, levels of selection...) and this link makes me really happy.
Thanks Nelly!!! You truly are the best!!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/evolution/

The Fairy Tale Perception

As I spend more time with my 2.5 year old nephew I am being re-exposed to a few of my childhoods form of entertainment, Disney movies. Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, and Snow White are all movies about romance that we are all so familiar with. What a horrible perception of love these movies create! Nowadays we all have to learn the hard way what a functioning and healthy relationship should be, through heart breaks and crappy relationships.

The Beast, Arielle, and Cinderella all have a limited amount of time to get the other person to fall in love with them. In Arielle's chase she only has three days!! Mission impossible in real life, and those that do fall in love in such a short time probably won't love happily ever after because they have no idea what they are getting themselves into.

In so many of these movies the girls are so dependent on these princes to save them and to satisfy their everlasting desire for true love. Once again, not a good message for young girls because our current society requires a lot of independence so women can seek for their desired careers.

Lets not forget about the fact that love is really just a strong friendship between two people that are strongly attracted to each other (at least that's what I think), and of course their ability to co-exist with each other.

My nephew swears by anything that these characters do and say, and that just reminds me of how these imagines and ideas were engraved into my head when I was young but no necessarily correct.

Brainwash!

Get Rid of The Dumb People

Our environment is at a tipping point right now, overpopulation is a huge problem and we must significantly reduce our population and reproduction rates in order to live sustainably. Of course the whole conservation, and awareness part need to go in as well.

With the way society is structured nowadays, survival has become much more easier than it was ever been...government giving money for unemployed individuals, welfare, etc. These types of programs are disincentives for some people to better themselves.

Throughout human evolutionary past, we have always been bettering ourselves, and those that have a higher fitness are the ones that are able to survive and reproduce. Because of these disincentives that were mentioned earlier, this idea that only those with higher fitness is able to reproduce is being disrupted.

Humans have evolved so successfully (being the most intelligent organism on Earth) is the fact that levels of selection in the past has been at the group level. Due to the lack of altruism in individuals, selection at the individual level becomes a disadvantage to the group as a whole.

So where am I getting at with all this randomness?
Nowadays people are becoming more and more selfish and society has made it too easy for "unfit" individuals to survive and reproduce. These two factors make selection at the group level impossible thus making it more difficult for our specie to progress.

Here's what I think (this is gonna get ugly):
Evolution needs to take place quickly and make the unintelligent people not able to reproduce thus only allowing individuals that are intelligent and educated be able to reproduce and raise children for the future. Since that is impossible because we would completely run out of resources before that will ever happen, we should have a would-wide law that only allows people with a certain level of IQ and education to reproduce and pass on their knowledge. Controversial right? but this is group level selection here and group level selection (choosing what is best for the group as a whole) will increase our specie's fitness. It would prevent the human specie from "de-volving", like what happened in the movie Idiocracy (Mike Judge).

We are all just a small part of something really big, let's think for everyone as a whole and not just ourselves.

New Zealand Thus Far

I am feeling lazy right now, have been for several days now so I am going to bullet point things I want to talk about.

Here are things I have noticed here in Auckland, New Zealand with their more advanced conservation...skills? I guess.

1. Preserved wetlands cross the harbour bridge :)
2. Auckland Zoo focuses their shows and their billboards about conservation, loss of habitat, and endangered species
3. Water is scarce here so every toilet there are two buttons, one for flushing with less water (peepee) one to flush with more water (poopoo)
4. New Zealand native animals, such as kiwi birds as well as other birds and lizards are consistently being hatched and released into wilderness, onto the secluded islands near the main island thus making their population sustainable.

Stoked about Volunteering at the Hong Kong Wetland Park

*image is an aerial view of the Hong Kong Wetland Park*

I can't wait to start volunteering at the Hong Kong Wetland Park so I can learn some new conservation skills as well as getting to know new habitats and new organisms. I finally received my volunteer number but I still have to wait for training to start. Part of the reason that I am extra excited about this is because volunteering back in Southern California did not require official class and training, the stuff we did could pretty much be done by anyone that was willing to, I am really hoping this is going to be a knowledgeful experience. I hope to bring these new useful skills back to Southern California wetlands. Right now I just feel so out of touch with my beloved wetlands, I haven't been in a month, I can't wait to contribute to mother nature once again!

Organic Items not as Popular Here (Hong Kong)

*image above, organic farm here in Hong Kong*

Maybe the title of this post is just my opinion. So far my visit here has showed me that organic fruits and vegetables are expensive. I bought two organic oranges the other day (they were really small too) for almost $2 USD, whoah mama, that is pricey.

Watching the news yesterday there was a portion about organic veggies. The coverage was done in the United States saying that organic vs. non-organics have the same amount of nutrients and that the only difference is that the price of organics are twice as much as non-organics. I was a bit irritated by this article because it lacked to mention the fact that organic foods are not harvested with pesticides which is one of the main reasons that people prefer them.

Pesticides are not only bad for people if ingested but they are also harmful to the environment. Pesticides that runoff into water sources can be contaminate it and it can also contaminate the soil.

All in all buy organic foods not for additional nutrition value but to prevent inorganic materials that are in pesticides from entering our environment.

Another note: recently a company in Davis, California has created an organic pesticide to increase the crop yield on organic farms.