grist for the blogmill (what’s in a name?)
Category: foolishness | Date: Oct 05 2008 | By: Seamus
A while back we had some NPR folks out here to do a story on Lion conservation in east africa. I found them to be thoughtful, very bright people and a pleasure to host. The story hasn’t been aired yet, I guess partly due the somewhat tidal US economic and political landscape (which takes precedence over matters of the earth clearly). Nevertheless, I have found some engaging stories on the NPR site which I read while I am waiting for our humble undertaking to hit the airwaves.
So, my sandal-wearing lentil-eating lefty regulars, today I give you some subversive diversion: a link to Robert Krulwich’s story on naming of species in science. An excerpt reads as follows:
In 2005, a beetle fancier, professor Quentin Wheeler, and his student Kelly Miller named a bunch of slime mold-eating beetles after President George W. Bush and some prominent members of his Cabinet: Agathidium bushi, A. rumsfeldi and A. cheneyi.
Some of Wheeler’s liberal colleagues assumed that this was not a compliment - slime, after all, being slime. But Wheeler says he’s been a lifelong Republican, and to prove his good intentions, he named one of the beetles after his wife.
So I wonder to myself, doesn’t this tell one less about Wheeler’s respect for Bush, and more about his view of his wife’s importance?
Thanks to BookishGypsy for the link. Silly Sunday strikes again… signing out from southern Maasailand.
Technorati : linnaeus, nomenclature, science, species, taxonomy
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3 Responses to “grist for the blogmill (what’s in a name?)”
paula, on 05 Oct 2008
This is hilarious Seamus, thanks for making an otherwise lazy Sunday a bit more entertaining!
Timi, on 06 Oct 2008
Sandal-wearing? Huh, you give me a reason to a side-step. I saw a new kind of sandal design some weeks ago, and wanted to buy a pair. There was one detail, however, that made me weary: their name is “Maasai Barefoot Technology”. I looked up the Swiss company’s website (which is designed in such a way that I do not recommend you to look it up over a poor Internet connection) to find out if the Maasai get any benefit from the sales, but could not find a trace of such information. Apparently the “Maasai” part of the name is just plain marketing thing. Blah. They also present the design as something unique, but I have seen also other “heelless” shoes that seem to be based on similar ideas coming from a different direction (”Chi running” or some such thing). That too makes me think using a name such as Maasai in a product name is not fair trade. Nothing against the shoes and their design, just the name.
Seamus, on 17 Oct 2008
Timi - yes, cultural plagiarism is rife all over the world. Its somewhat unfortunate, but I don’t think there is much that one can do.
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