Asian Glossy Starling: Learning experience
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Blue-eared Barbet’s pouch: Vocalisation rather than storage on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Weird bugs
a closeup look at some spectacular weirdness and lots of eyes on the budak blog
Shooting with compact cameras underwater
on Tony Wu's Underwater Photography Blog
All that Glitters is not Gold
thoughts about the PC show on the AsiaIsGreen blog
Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 16 Jun 08;
WASHINGTON - Some of the world's most productive and populous places -- river deltas from the Mekong to the Mississippi -- are ripe for disasters made worse by climate change, an ecological catastrophe expert said.
In fact, said marine biologist Deborah Brosnan, these disasters are already occurring.
Brosnan pointed to Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, ravaged by Cyclone Nargis in May. A couple centuries of human-generated transformation -- dams, rice paddies, the withdrawal of water -- combined with a dense, poor population and the effects of global warming created a triple threat, she said.
"We think something that's so vast, like the Irrawaddy Delta ... can't be vulnerable, when actually it's the other way around: something so vast is the most vulnerable," Brosnan said in a telephone interview from Oregon on Wednesday.
The Irrawaddy Delta stretches across 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares) with a pre-Nargis population of about 6 million. That kind of population density is bound to make disasters more deadly when they hit, said Brosnan, president of Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, an organization of scientists and others aimed at solving ecological problems.
Citing UN figures, she said 200 million people were affected by natural disasters in 2007, up 48 percent from 2006, and that "2007 was not necessarily considered a bad year."
Brosnan puts the Sacramento River Delta, including the San Francisco Bay Area, at the top of a short list of areas at high risk from long-term human transformation of the landscape, which could be accentuated by climate change.
Once a saltwater tidal marsh, the Sacramento Delta has been transformed into an agricultural plain and an essential source of California's fresh water supply. Farm fields, roads and some delta islands that lie below sea level are protected by 1,100 miles (1,770 km) of levees.
She cited a recent study estimating a 66 percent chance of catastrophic failure of these levees in the next 50 years, which could result in floods and saltwater intrusion. Recovery costs could exceed US$40 billion in this one delta, Brosnan said.
SEAS RISE, LAND SUBSIDES
Other delta regions at high risk from sea level rise and subsidence include the Mekong in Vietnam, the Chao Phraya in Thailand, and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in Bangladesh, the Yangtze in China, the Nile in Egypt and the Mississippi, along the US Gulf Coast.
Historically, people have tended to settle in river deltas, for good reason: they're fertile and protected by wetlands from ocean storms. Wetlands also serve as spawning grounds and habitat for fish and other wildlife.
Over the last 200 years or so, humans have transformed these useful landscapes by draining the swamps and cutting down the mangrove trees and other plants that serve as "speed bumps" to slow down storm surges.
When humans drain water from wetlands, it can cause the land to subside, sometimes to below sea level, Brosnan said. At the same time, climate scientists predict global warming will cause sea levels to rise. Some researchers also believe climate change may cause more intense storms, though there is scientific disagreement on this point.
If the seas rise by about 3 feet (1 metre), the vast majority of the people who would be affected are those living on Asian river deltas, she said.
"The combination of ecologically weakened deltas and regular storms (whether more intense or not) means that millions are already vulnerable and unprepared," Brosnan said.
Even less intense storms could have severe effects because of the number of people now living in delta regions and the degradation of delta landscape, Brosnan said.
Because the risk is immediate, she said, policymakers need to factor in environmental repair in disaster-response plans.
Mitigating the effects on the environment would make it easier to protect people who live in the deltas, Brosnan said.
AFP 16 Jun 08;
SYDNEY (AFP) — Climate change threatens to devastate coral reef fish populations and increase the likelihood of fishery collapses, Australian researchers warned Monday.
Coral reefs' vulnerability to global warming has already been established by researchers, but the fish living in the reefs are also at risk, James Cook University's Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies found.
"We have already seen episodes of mass die-off of corals as a result of warmer waters associated with global warming, the problem for specialist coral fish is that when the corals die, the fish have nowhere else to go," the centre's Philip Munday said.
Munday said there were some 4,000 fish species living in or around coral reefs, providing livelihoods and a major source of sustenance to an estimated 200 million people worldwide.
He said the problem with coral fish stemmed from the fact that when they bred, their eggs were swept out to sea and the baby fish then swam back to resettle on the reefs.
"If reefs have been extensively damaged or the composition of their corals altered due to global warming impacts, this process of re-stocking the reefs with fish may be disrupted," he said.
"At the same time, the baby fish are likely to be affected by changes in water temperature and the acidification of the oceans."
Munday said some fish may migrate to cooler waters if temperatures around their reefs became too warm.
But he said this was not an option in Australia's Great Barrier Reef because there was nowhere for new coral to grow in the deep waters to the south of the giant reef, regarded by scientists as the world's largest living organism.
"There is really nowhere for coral reefs and their associated fish communities to expand," he said.
"Effectively, this means that some coral reef fish species will be squeezed by rising water temperatures into smaller and smaller areas, making them more susceptible to disturbances such as coral bleaching and increasingly vulnerable to fishing and other forms of human activity."
The coral centre's paper, a synthesis of previous research, was published in the journal "Fish and Fisheries" and will discussed at an international symposium on coral reefs in Florida next month.
ScienceDaily 15 Jun 08;
If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.
But a new study, published online June 15, 2008 in the journal Nature, suggests that it is the ocean, and in particular the epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment over the course of geologic time, that is the primary cause of the world's periodic mass extinctions during the past 500[sc1] million years.
"The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth," says Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and the author of the new Nature report.
In short, according to Peters, changes in ocean environments related to sea level exert a driving influence on rates of extinction, which animals and plants survive or vanish, and generally determine the composition of life in the oceans.
Since the advent of life on Earth 3.5 billion years ago, scientists think there may have been as many as 23 mass extinction events, many involving simple forms of life such as single-celled microorganisms. During the past 540 million years, there have been five well-documented mass extinctions, primarily of marine plants and animals, with as many as 75-95 percent of species lost.
For the most part, scientists have been unable to pin down the causes of such dramatic events. In the case of the demise of the dinosaurs, scientists have a smoking gun, an impact crater that suggests dinosaurs were wiped out as the result of a large asteroid crashing into the planet. But the causes of other mass extinction events have been murky, at best.
"Paleontologists have been chipping away at the causes of mass extinctions for almost 60 years," [sc2] explains Peters, whose work was supported by the National Science Foundation. "Impacts, for the most part, aren't associated with most extinctions. There have also been studies of volcanism, and some eruptions correspond to extinction, but many do not."
Arnold I. Miller, a paleobiologist and professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, says the new study is striking because it establishes a clear relationship between the tempo of mass extinction events and changes in sea level and sediment: "Over the years, researchers have become fairly dismissive of the idea that marine mass extinctions like the great extinction of the Late Permian might be linked to sea-level declines, even though these declines are known to have occurred many times throughout the history of life. The clear relationship this study documents will motivate many to rethink their previous views."
Peters measured two principal types of marine shelf environments preserved in the rock record, one where sediments are derived from erosion of land and the other composed primarily of calcium carbonate, which is produced in-place by shelled organisms and by chemical processes. "The physical differences between (these two types) of marine environments have important biological consequences," Peters explains, noting differences in sediment stability, temperature, and the availability of nutrients and sunlight.
In the course of hundreds of millions of years, the world's oceans have expanded and contracted in response to the shifting of the Earth's tectonic plates and to changes in climate. There were periods of the planet's history when vast areas of the continents were flooded by shallow seas, such as the shark- and mosasaur-infested seaway that neatly split North America during the age of the dinosaurs.
As those epicontinental seas drained, animals such as mosasaurs and giant sharks went extinct, and conditions on the marine shelves where life exhibited its greatest diversity in the form of things like clams and snails changed as well.
The new Wisconsin study, Peters says, does not preclude other influences on extinction such as physical events like volcanic eruptions or killer asteroids, or biological influences such as disease and competition among species. But what it does do, he argues, is provide a common link to mass extinction events over a significant stretch of Earth history.
"The major mass extinctions tend to be treated in isolation (by scientists)," Peters says. "This work links them and smaller events in terms of a forcing mechanism, and it also tells us something about who survives and who doesn't across these boundaries. These results argue for a substantial fraction of change in extinction rates being controlled by just one environmental parameter."
Flux in ocean levels drove mass extinctions: study
Marlowe Hood, Yahoo News 17 Jun 08;
Mass extinctions that wiped out up to 90 percent of Earth's flora and fauna were driven in large part by shifting ocean levels, according to a study published in Nature.
Understanding what made many of the planet's living organism rapidly die out at least five times over the last half billion years remains one of the great challenges in paleontology and biology.
Some theories point an accusing figure at the cooling effect of massive dust shrouds thrown into the atmosphere by volcanoes and asteroids crashing into Earth, or the warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide.
Other scientists highlight the role of disease and competition among species for limited resources.
But the new study suggests that it was the ebb and flow of sea levels and sediment over geologic time, rather than cataclysmic events, that doomed tens of thousands of species to extinction.
"The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth," said Shanan Peters, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and sole author of the study.
Since the beginning of life on Earth, some 3.5 billion years ago, there have been more than 20 mass extinction events, many involving single-cell organisms, say scientists.
And during the last 540 million years that have been five well-documented periods of mass die offs, mainly of marine plants and animals.
With the exception of a colossal asteroid impact some 65 million years ago that left a 180-kilometre (110-mile) wide crater in Mexico, the cause for the other mass extinctions is sharply contested.
Even that one coincided with an abrupt retraction of oceans then covering much of North America and Europe that could have played a major role in the disappearance of dinosaurs, Peters said.
To test his hypothesis, Peters measured to two types of ancient shallow marine environments preserved in the rock record.
One corresponds to typical vacation spots -- white sand beaches, clear blue water -- and is composed mainly of calcium deposits produced by organisms with shells.
The other is characterised by brown or muddy sand, rocky beaches and water that is greenish and cloud. Over time, sediments in these areas accumulate from land erosion.
"I looked at rates of extinction in the fossil record over the last 500 million years," Peters told AFP. "And then I compared them to the environmental changes -- mostly explained by shifts in sea level -- that are encoded in the sedimentary rocks."
What Peters found was a very strong match, showing that the sometimes dramatic rise and fall of oceans levels correlated more consistently with mass extinctions that any other factor.
Sea levels rose more than 80 meters at the end of the last major glacial period some 15,000 years ago, he said.
Climate and the movement of tectonic plates are the key factors that influence the degree to which the continents would flood.
"Most people think of sea level changes in terms of depth of meters or feet. I am looking at a different measure -- the environmental consequences of sea level change, the impact on habitats," he explained.
Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Ledger-Enquirer 16 Jun 08;
It might have been the setting for a "Jaws" movie.
Six snorkelers wading like ducks in a row, cruising just below the surface of the water while watching exotic fish dart beneath them. It was all very peaceful, until the mysterious whale shark appeared out of the deep blue.
The whale shark is one of the most perplexing and elusive creatures in the ocean, still largely a mystery even to the marine biologists who have dedicated careers to studying the creatures.
But here, in the confines of the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta, it's impossible not to see the giant whale sharks - particularly when you're in the middle of their fish tank.
It's also somewhat hard to avoid them: The creatures seemed more intrigued by the visitors, often lumbering toward them like a slow, curious locomotive.
The guests were circling the world's largest fish tank through the aquarium's "Swim with Gentle Giants" program, which plucks six snorkelers and six divers into the 6.3-million gallon fish tank each day.
The visitors are treated to close-up encounters of roving bands of sting rays, sleek hammerhead sharks, enormous grouper and countless other species. But the puzzling whale sharks were the real draw - and for good reason.
The aquarium is the only outside Asia to house the whale sharks, and the only in the world to offer tourists a chance to dive with the creatures. The program's directors pitch it as an innovative and safe way to help visitors better understand animals they'd otherwise never see.
"An immersion experience is the ultimate way of connecting people and animals," said Bruce Carlson, the aquarium's chief science officer.
"It's a real opportunity for us to expand ways for people to get to know the animals here at the aquarium and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our visitors to see animals they'll probably never get a chance to see in the wild."
But the ambitious program has raised concerns from critics who worry that dangling legs and curious tourists could stress the habitat of the whale sharks and thousands of other animals that share the massive tank.
"There's a chance these animals can become stressed because of the increase in the amount of people in their environments," said Lori Marino, an Emory University biologist who studies whale biology. "Not only can it affect their physical health, but their mental health. And we don't know how much stress this puts on the animals or how they could respond."
The Georgia Aquarium is one of the few places that have ever attempted to house the creatures, and the only in the U.S.
So far their record is spotty: Two of the whale sharks have died since the aquarium opened in 2005. But the aquarium has invested in research projects on the whale shark in Mexico, Taiwan and Mexico. And the facility is quickly making a name for itself in the research community for its whale shark work, thanks to divers who have already logged thousands of hours feeding and studying the massive animals.
Carlson said he gave the go-ahead to the new program because the dives have so far had "no effect on the whale sharks' behavior."
"We're the experts on that, and we can make the judgment because we probably spend more time with whale sharks than anyone criticizing us," he said.
"Most people who have contact with them have probably had a minute-long experience in the ocean. You have to trust our judgment on that. We've gotten to understand their nature, and we feel quite confident that our presence is not affecting them."
In many ways, the aquarium is charting new waters. A handful of other facilities offer diving or snorkeling experiences in their tanks, but none offers a setting as expansive as the Georgia Aquarium's Ocean Voyager tank.
Along with the whale sharks, the salt-water exhibit is home to thousands of other animals, including the largest collections of giant grouper, wobbegong sharks and a dozen other rare species.
The dive is far from a free-for-all. During a 15-minute briefing, guides stress a message of conservation and warn participants not to touch any fish while in the tanks. They then don wet suits, snorkels, masks and flippers before plopping into the salty water.
The snorkelers are forced to stay in a rigid line during the swim, kept in toe by dive guides and staffers armed with underwater cameras to document their journey.
It's not a cheap trip, costing $190 for snorkelers and $290 for scuba divers. But the aquarium has so far been encouraged by the response. Aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci said some 1,500 have signed up for the program before its June 8 start.
Krista Massey, an aquarium member who previewed the program, said she felt unnerved when she dipped into the water.
"You know, there's hammerhead sharks in there," she said. "There's all kinds of predators you've been scared of all your life, and all the sudden, you're in their world."
It didn't take long, though, for her to feel more comfortable in the tank - and the experience gave her a deeper sense of wonder for the creatures floating around them.
"What you learn through the process is so much more than what most people know about these animals, and it teaches you a different type of appreciation," she said.
Under the placid surface, too many fish to name swarm below, exotic creatures like zebra sharks, cownose rays and guitar fish. A group of glimmering Golden trevally shimmer around one bend. Not far from there, Grumpy the Grouper, a local icon, glowered near a window.
And of course, there were the four whale sharks, massive beasts that barreled around the tank as they wished, sailing agonizingly close to the awed visitors.
As the 30-minute experience neared its end and the six lined up to depart the cage, the silence underwater was suddenly broken by a warning from a guide.
"Stay flat," she yelled. "Feet up."
Then, a current rippled through the water. And the gentle giant swam by once more.
The boats may be electric powered, but the same boatmen still ply the waters
Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 16 Jun 08;
A BOATMAN for almost half a century, Mr Png Chin Lai has seen his fair share of the changes along the Singapore River. However, he does not lament the passing of what has been, nor is he nostalgic for any of it. Instead Mr Png, 57, enthusiastically embraces the new.
“Life was really tough decades ago. Income was unstable. Sometimes, there was just fewer people and goods to ferry, so you had to wait until something came along,” he said in Mandarin.
“It was also territorial. Where the boats operated depended on where the clans had staked their claims on the river and its banks.”
Those days when he had to scratch out an erratic living are however long gone. The grandfather of four is now a supervisor at Singapore River Cruises and Leisure, with 20 men under his charge. The company offers scenic bumboat rides along the Singapore River.
“Now, life as a boatman is much more leisurely and relaxed,” he told Today. “We just ferry tourists up and down the river and we can even see the sights and listen to the commentary.”
Even the diesel-powered tourist bumboats that he has been steering for almost two decades have now been replaced with new ones powered by electricity. The first ones came into use on Jan 1 and the rest of the fleet was replaced yesterday.
“Electric boats are good, they are quiet and there’s no smoke,” he said. “They are slower and take a bit of getting used to when steering, but tourists can now take their time to enjoy the sights.”
The fleet of 16 new electric boats as well as two luxury electric yachts that will be available for private hire in two months cost $3.32 million in total.
Mr Png’s life, like that of his father’s and elder brother’s, has been entwined with the stretch of water that used to play a large part in Singapore’s mercantile history.
Born in Singapore, Mr Png grew up in the enclaves of Telok Ayer. His late father — who was also a boatman — ferried goods and people along the river.
“As children, we learnt how to swim in the Singapore River, holding onto ropes and buckets for floats,” he recalled fondly.
When he turned 15, Mr Png took up the trade alongsidehis brother even though he did not have a licence until seven years later.
“I was caught many times but I had to make a living — no choice,” he said.
From gasoline to kerosene to diesel-operated boats carrying goods, people and whatever else needed to be ferried,Mr Png did it all, to raise his family of five.
As skyscrapers started changing the skyline — and the way of life — along the riverside, Mr Png and his family sold off or scrapped their boats. But he never left his profession. In 1989, Mr Png became a boatsman for Singapore River Cruises and Leisure. His brother, now70 years old, is also a boatman still, operating at Marina South.
But their breed is a dying one — electric bumboats or not, and even with good passenger loads of about 1,000 a day taking river cruises. These last either 30 or 45 minutes, with each passenger paying $13 to take in highlights such as Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Marina Bay.
:Mr Ryden Fang, a director at Singapore River Cruises and Leisure, acknowledged that it is increasingly difficult to find qualified boatsmen. “The younger generation is not into this kind of trade any more,” he said.
Actress Rossellini probes insect sex in phone-films
Associated Press 16 Jun 08;
PARIS (AFP) — A film festival just for pocket-sized movies on mobile telephones came of age in its fourth edition this weekend, with a series of flicks on the sex lives of insects by the actress Isabella Rossellini.
The minute-long films, a series of eight titled "Green Porno", are on handsets dangling on wires from a "mobile phone tree" in Paris' Pompidou Centre, for the three-day Pocket Films festival which opened Friday.
Their format -- shot exclusively for viewing on 3G technology mobile phones -- make them the "films of the future," Rossellini told AFP in an interview.
"Watching (war epic) 'Apocalypse Now' on a mobile telephone is no fun -- it was conceived as a big spectacle. But this tiny screen can be a new canvas for directors," she said.
"The 'fourth screen' represented by the mobile telephone is a great opportunity for creativity," she said, referring to the idea of mobiles as a fourth medium alongside television, cinema and the Internet.
Rossellini, 55, daughter of the actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini, grabbed film-goers' attention with her disturbing erotic role as Dorothy Vallens in the 1986 David Lynch classic "Blue Velvet."
Now she has donned fake bug eyes, wings and bee-stripes for the playful mini-films, which she also wrote and produced -- adding a dash of stardom to the offbeat festival, which broke new ground when it was first held in 2005.
"If I were a firefly, I would light up my ass at night," she declares, dressed as the insect of the first film's title, before buzzing off to explain the creature's mating habits.
"I have sex several times a day," she says in another, posing as a regular fly, before demonstrating by mounting a huge toy bluebottle from behind.
The series was funded by the Sundance Institute, the body behind the Sundance independent film festival founded by the Hollywood actor Robert Redford, who granted 10,000 dollars for each short piece.
"At Sundance, there are lots of 'green' programmes -- about eating eco-labelled food, dressing and building your house with ecological materials," Rossellini said. "I said to Robert: 'What's missing is a 'green porno'!"
The eye-opening content of "Green Porno" describes erotic phenomena such as the earthworm's preference for the "69" position and the fate of the bumble bee, whose penis breaks off after sex, causing him to bleed to death.
"It was great fun to film," the actress said. "The most difficult thing was to stay dead still in the worm costume for hours, without drinking or scratching my eyelid."
After "Firefly," "Dragonfly," "Spider," "Fly," "Snail," "Bee," "Mantis" and "Worm," Rossellini plans to make six more films in the series in September.
This year's Pocket Films, organised by the movie archive organisation Forum des Images, features dozens of works filmed with or for mobile telephones by school children, amateurs and professionals from around the world.
Some are shown on big screens, while others -- true to the innovative spirit of the festival -- can only be watched on the hanging phones of the "trees," with headphones. Some can even be downloaded by visitors onto their phones and taken away.
For the first time, the festival offers a prize for a film made exclusively for viewing on a mobile telephone -- as well as its usual award for movies shot using a phone or a digital camera.
As the festival gains momentum, more film heavyweights are also getting in on the act -- one of those in competition is "Out in There," by the Chinese director Jia Zhangke who won the Gold Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.
The avant-garde New York artist Stephen Dwoskin, who made his two latest films using a mobile telephone, was also in Paris for the event.
"With this edition we feel that we are witnessing a real departure. The 'fourth screen' represented by the mobile telephone is a great opportunity for creativity," the Forum's director Laurence Herszberg told AFP.
View on http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno?go=watch
MediaCorp’s Green Month Campaign continues withshows promoting awareness
Karman Tse, Today Online 16 Jun 08;
THE next time you go to Starbucks, be sure to bring your own mug. And go easy on the serviettes.
Don’t leave the television on when you’re taking a shower, even if it’s “only” for 15 minutes.
And always bring along an eco-friendly bag when you go grocery shopping, because plastic is not so fantastic after all.
These are just a few small ways each individual can start doing their part in a world-wide effort to save the earth from further destruction by pollution, carbon emissions and deforestation — and you can watch some TV, too.
As part of MediaCorp’s Green Month Campaign which kicked off on June 5, Channel NewsAsia will be showing, among other “green” programmes, the second season of Saving Gaia, a six-part series starting tonight.
:Season Two will go on a journey to seek out the most innovative efforts, big or small, to save Gaia — the Greek name for Mother Earth.
:The first season of :Saving Gaia :tackled issues such as global oil supply, the plight of the Ganges and Yangtze rivers, as well as the extinction of animals.
Other initiatives included Today changing its masthead from red to green and Channel NewsAsia presenters donning shades of green on the first day of the campaign.
In tonight’s episode of Saving Gaia, you’ll see why Taiwan took less than 10 years to become a success story in Asia’s Green Revolution: The Taiwanese changed their mindset and everyday habits (you’ll do well to get used to the “trash becomes treasure” concept) and go as far as to return the ashes of loved ones to the earth in what they called a “back to basics” burial.
“I think a programme like Saving Gaia is meaningful and important in raising awareness of what’s happening to the environment.
“There have been so many natural disasters of late, which I think are a result of human being’s negligence,” said MediaCorp artiste Qi Yuwu, who is careful not to chalk up carbon footprints by going on foot instead of on wheels whenever he can help it.
“Saving the earth is a collective effort and doesn’t happen overnight. I hope everyone will start chipping in in their own little way,” the “green-minded” actor added.
Sure, it’s inconvenient, but the truth is, even though you may not see immediate results, every little sacrifice you make counts.
And, hey, if superstars like :Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio and Gwyneth Paltrow are willing to trade convenience and extravagance for a greener lifestyle, you have no excuse.
Saving Gaia premieres tonight (June 16),and subsequently every Monday, at 8.30pm onMediaCorp TV Channel NewsAsia.
Go shout it from the mountain
Peter Singer, Straits Times 16 Jun 08;
JESUS said we should give alms in private rather than when others are watching.
That fits with the common-sense idea that if people do good only in public, they may be motivated by a desire to gain a reputation for generosity. Perhaps when no one is looking, they are not generous at all.
That thought may lead us to disdain the kind of philanthropic graffiti that leads to donors' names being prominently displayed at concert halls, museums and colleges.
Often, names are stuck not only over the building, but also on as many constituent parts of it as fund-raisers and architects can manage.
According to evolutionary psychologists, such displays of blatant benevolence are the human equivalent of the male peacock's tail.
Just as the peacock signals its strength and fitness by displaying its tail, so costly public acts of benevolence signal to potential mates that one possesses enough resources to give so much away.
From an ethical view, however, should we care so much about the purity of the motive with which the gift was made? Surely what matters is that something was given to a good cause. We may look askance at a lavish new concert hall, but not because the donor's name is chiselled into the marble facade.
Rather, we should ask whether, in a world in which 25,000 impoverished children die unnecessarily every day, another concert hall is what the world needs.
A large body of current psychological research points against Jesus' advice. A significant factor determining whether people give to charity is what others are doing. Those who make it known that they give to charity raise the likelihood that others will do the same.
Perhaps we will eventually reach a tipping point at which giving a huge sum to help the world's poorest becomes sufficiently widespread to eliminate the majority of those 25,000 needless daily deaths.
That is what Chris and Anne Ellinger hope their website, www.boldergiving.org, will achieve. The website tells the story of more than 50 members of the 50 per cent League - people who have given away either 50 per cent of their assets or their income in each of the past three years.
The league wants to change expectations over what is a 'normal' or 'reasonable' amount to give.
It is a diverse group. Mr Tom White ran a big construction company and started giving millions to Mr Paul Farmer's efforts to bring health services to Haiti's rural poor.
Mr Tom Hsieh and his wife, Bree, made a commitment to live on less than the national median income in the United States, now US$46,000 (S$63,500) a year. As Mr Hsieh earned more, he and his wife gave away more, mostly to groups helping the poor in developing countries.
Mr Hal Taussig and his wife gave away about US$3 million, or 90 per cent of their assets, and now live on their social security cheques.
Most donors see giving as personally rewarding. Mr Hsieh said whether or not his giving has saved the lives of others, it has saved his own: 'I could easily have lived a life that was boring and inconsequential. Now, I am graced with a life of service and meaning.'
When people praise Mr Taussig for his deed, he says: 'Frankly, it is my way of getting kicks out of life.'
The 50 per cent League sets the bar high - perhaps too high. Mr James Hong started www.hot
ornot.com, a site that allows people to rate how 'hot' other people are. It made him rich. He has pledged to give away 10 per cent of everything he earns above US$100,000. His website, www.10over100.org, invites others to do likewise. So far, more than 3,500 people have.
Mr Hong sets the bar low. If you earn under US$100,000, you do not have to give anything, and if you earn US$110,000, you would have to give away only US$1,000 - less than 1 per cent of your income. That is not generous at all.
Many of those earning less than US$100,000 can also afford to give. Mr Hong's formula is simple, and it starts to bite when earnings get really big. If you earn US$1 million a year, you have pledged to give US$90,000, or 9 per cent of what you earn, which is more than what most rich people give.
We need to get over our reluctance to speak openly about the good we do. Silent giving will not change a culture that deems it sensible to spend all your money on yourself and your family, rather than to help those in greater need - even though helping others is likely to be more fulfilling in the long run.
The writer is professor of bioethics at Princeton University.
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