myResearchSpace

The next meeting (already notified by Talitha) is on Tuesday 7 July, 1pm, second-floor lunch area, Soil Science building, UWA. The article to be mused upon is :Piao S, Fang J, Ciais P, Peylin P, Huang Y, Sitch S, Wang T. 2009. Carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in China. Nature, 458:1009-1014.

With the Olympics fast approaching, attention continues to be focused on China's human rights record. I've been particularly struck by reports that protests will be allowed, but only within designated spaces and after applying for approval five days in advance. I've just started reading Luis Fernandez's Policing Dissent, in which he looks at ...

1958 that spring, there was a terrible drought no one could stop the earth from cracking open and spilling its shrivelled guts mice jumped out of rice jars not a single grain was harvested but so as not to make the higher-ups lose hope our considerate village headman sent people out night after night first to paint the ground ...

It now seems as though someone may have seen a Baiji, and that perhaps they're not extinct after all! Read more of the good news at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/30/2019106.htm.

An update on an earlier post (''All the Baiji are gone'') - it seems that this unique aquatic mammal may not, after all, be extinct despite being ''the first large vertebrate to be declared extinct in more than 50 years''. Apparently Professor Wang Ding, an expert involved in the 2006 Baiji survey still holds some hope that a few Baiji may yet ...

So I was reading a book, ''Bawshou Resecues the Sun'' to my daughter in the weekend and it occurred to me that this is yet another instance where soil appears in a significant folk story. ''Bawshou Resecues the Sun'' is based on a traditional Han Chinese story about the sun being stolen by the King of devils (variously, a powerful dragon). ...

Baiji dolphin feared extinct The Baiji, a rare, nearly blind white dolphin that survived for millions of years is effectively extinct, an international expedition declared after ending a six-week fruitless search of the mammal's Yangtze River habitat. Read more at http://www.smh.com.au/