p287

“Accomplishment of good things lies in long time.”

Its original is: 美成在久。 from 荘子内篇「人間世」

History is crucial for complex systems as tropical rain forests. See the following review on Amazonia:

Biodiversity patterns of Amazonia are rooted deep in the pre-Quaternary.

Hoorn et al., Amazonia Through Time: Andean Uplift, Climate Change, Landscape Evolution, and Biodiversity

Science  330 927 (2010)

The Andes uplift and its effect on regional climate fundamentally changed the Amazonian landscape by reconfiguring drainage patterns and creating a vast influx of sediments into the basin. On this “Andean” substrate, a region-wide edaphic mosaic developed that became extremely rich in species, particularly in Western Amazonia. We show that Andean uplift was crucial for the evolution of Amazonian landscapes and ecosystems, and that current biodiversity patterns are rooted deep in the pre-Quaternary. 

The maturity of civil society

Antisocial punishment and democracy

Herrmann et al., Antisocial Punishment Across Societies

Science  319 1362 cf 1345 (2008)

*Antisocial punishment = the sanctioning of people who behave prosocially. 

*Public goods experiments with punishment: what can happen = punished antisocial participants punish high contributors (good people) suspecting they are the punishers.

*Weak norms of civic cooperation and the weakness of the rule of law in a country are significant predictors of antisocial punishment.

*It seems those countries not experiencing Renaissance has antisocial punishment.

*For this article p1345 is better than the abstract of the paper.