from Werner Herzog’s ‘Encounters at the end of the world’
Deranged Penguin – Encounters at the end of the world
It’s a sad case.
CNN Uncovers America’s Worst Environmental Disaster – Erin Brockovich Is Interviewed – 07/10/09
CNN Uncovers America’s Worst Environmental Disaster
This is rather funny, a group of environmentalists were upset trees are being removed and reported the incident to the police. The police found no illegal logging perform, just a beaver dam nearby. I love the policeman’s quote: “The campaigners are feeling pretty stupid. There’s nothing more natural than a beaver.”
BEAVERS BREAK THE LAW
Green campaigners called police after discovering an illegal logging site in a nature reserve – only to find the culprits were a gang of beavers.
Environmentalists found 20 neatly stacked tree trunks and others marked with notches for felling at a beauty-spot in Subkowy, northern Poland.
But when officers followed a trail left by a tree which had been dragged away, they found a beaver dam right across the river, as reported by the Austrian Times.
A police spokesman said: “The campaigners are feeling pretty stupid. There’s nothing more natural than a beaver.” (Source: OK)
The Independent concludes (not too independently) that men are the weaker sex. Pollution has been identified as the cause. Article author’s gender is still unknown.
It’s official: Men really are the weaker sex
The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.
Backed by some of the world’s leading scientists, who say that it “waves a red flag” for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have “gender-bending” effects.
It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.
“This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat,” says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.
At the other end of the world, hermaphrodite polar bears – with penises and vaginas – have been discovered and gender-benders have been found to reduce sperm counts and penis lengths in those that remained male. Many of the small, endangered populations of Florida panthers have been found to have abnormal sperm.
Professor Lou Gillette of Florida University, one of the most respected academics in the field, warned that the report waved “a large red flag” at humanity. He said: “If we are seeing problems in wildlife, we can be concerned that something similar is happening to a proportion of human males”
Communities heavily polluted with gender-benders in Canada, Russia and Italy have given birth to twice as many girls than boys, which may offer a clue to the reason for a mysterious shift in sex ratios worldwide. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls, but the ratio is slipping. It is calculated that 250,000 babies who would have been boys have been born as girls instead in the US and Japan alone.
…Britain has long sought to water down EU attempts to control gender-bender chemicals and has been leading opposition to a new regulation that would ban pesticides shown to have endocrine-disrupting effects. Almost all the other European countries back it, but ministers – backed by their counterparts from Ireland and Romania – are intent on continuing their resistance at a crucial meeting on Wednesday. They say the regulation would cause a collapse of agriculture in the UK… (Source: The Independent)
I’m been hearing that developed countries typically has lesser men than women. I guess this explains.
Grad student accidentally discovers ultra-efficient white-light LED.
White Light, Less Heat
An accidental discovery at Vanderbilt University may well be the key to making light-emitting diodes the dominant lighting technology of the century. Up until very recently, the only way to make “white” light was to add yellow phosphors to bright blue LEDs. It wasn’t quite right, though, as even the best “white” LED retained a blue tint. This week, we got the news that a chemistry grad student at Vanderbilt has stumbled on a way to make broad-spectrum white LEDs using quantum dots — and in doing so, he may well have kicked off a revolution. (Source: WorldChanging)
I hope they get this into production real soon.
Ontario high school junior Daniel Burd wanted to try to figure out if there was a way to get plastic bags to decompose faster. As it stands, it takes thousands of years for the wasteful objects to disintegrate. But by using bacteria, he figured out how to make it happen in a mere three months.
WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags
Daniel Burd’s project won the top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa. He came back with a long list of awards, including a $10,000 prize, a $20,000 scholarship, and recognition that he has found a practical way to help the environment.
He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic — not an easy task because they don’t exist in high numbers in nature.
Saw this in Singapore Management University’s toilet. Never really like the idea of facing a campaign notice when peeing, but well, this method of promotion is getting more popular these days.
(Say no to plastic bags, waste paper instead.)
Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) made me stayed at AIDS awareness posters for a month when I pee. One day, one day, advertisements will get into the toilets. It will not just be public service ads.
And you know… About that flyer, I really don’t get it why they choose to put the word ‘Campaign’ and underlined it instead of putting more emphasis on saying no to plastic bags. It’s almost as if someone wanted to create a campaign to tell everyone that they have a campaign going more so than creating environmental awareness. Strange sighting in toilet.