China spends billions to study dinosaur fossils at sites of major discoveries

[IndianaGreen]

China spends billions to study dinosaur fossils at sites of major discoveries

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

ZHUCHENG, CHINA -- What killed the dinosaurs? Scientist Wang Haijun thinks the answer may be buried inside a 980-foot-long ravine in the Chinese countryside 415 miles southeast of Beijing where hundreds of the creatures may have huddled in the final moments before their extinction.

The fossils here -- more than 15,000 fractured, mangled and blackened bones from about 65 million years ago in the late Cretaceous period right before they went extinct -- support theories of a catastrophe. Global fires. Explosions. Climate change.

"This find is very important for understanding the very end of the age of dinosaurs," said James M. Clark, a paleontologist at George Washington University who has examined some of the fossils.

The excavation here, believed to be the largest dinosaur fossil site in the world, is one of a number of groundbreaking research projects in a country that once shunned science because it was associated with the elites.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012503035.html?hpid=topnews

[Gman]

1. Just a tad off topic but...

I couldn't pass on the use of the phrase "...a country that once shunned science because it was associated with the elites." Hits home too hard. Except here science is still shunned and discredited as being of the elite by the GoP.

[HeresyLives]

7. Yeah, that little inner gasp of recogniton.

The govt in Canada is currently conservative...damn-it-all...and they toss around the word 'elite' like that too.

Anything they don't like is for the 'elites'. And they don't like a lot of things. Like science.

You'd think it was something vile just the way they say it.

[Arctic Dave]

2. They should spend that money cleaning up their pollution.

[NNadir]

6. Us first, OK?

This may come as a surprise to many smug Americans, but per capita pollution in China is a fraction of US pollution, including all those guys who think they can feel environmentally superior because of solar cells manufactured in China with the toxic wastes of the exercise left in Chinese flesh.

I applaud the Chinese for spending billions on pure science. It beats the hell out of how we spend our money here, which is basically funding bankrupt electric car companies that produce a few hundred cars for rich smug brats who don't give a fuck about who dies from their "environmentally aware" position.

[CynicalObserver]

8. this is a function of having 4 times as many people in the same land area (ex AK HI)

what are the raw numbers, or numbers backing out the per-capita factor.

[Arctic Dave]

9. "per capita pollution in China is a fraction of US pollution"

I would say that, out of everyone on this website, you should be able to see the bullshit in this statement.

You are an intelligent person, to say we have environmental disasters equal to China is a farce.

[hlthe2b]

3. Meanwhile the US allows the Creationists to dismantle science

programs, turning out a generation of children ignorant of math, science and technology. China really will be the one to replace the US as the last remaining superpower...:shrug:

[Catshrink]

5. It's sad...here's Palin's view of science:

[Kurt Remarque]

4. what a waste

everyone knows that god put the bones there to test our faith