Are you looking for the post I made about the Taiji dolphin slaughter?

If you haven’t seen it before it shows a Slow Loris holding a small parasol umbrella. Here is the Slow Loris’ video:

Slow Loris mother and cub

While Slow Loris might be cute they are most definitely not pets, but that doesn’t stop people from taking these strepsirrhine primates into their homes, in Indonesia they are sold as living “toys” to children. While they might be cute they are wild animals. That said certain problems need to be “fixed” prior to them being sold. Since their bite is potenially deadly there teeth need to be removed.

Here are some excerpts from the Wikipedia article.

Slow lorises are sold locally at street markets, but are also sold internationally over the Internet and in pet stores. They are especially popular or trendy in Japan, particularly among women. The reasons for their popularity, according to the Japan Wildlife Conservation Society (JWCS), are that “they’re easy to keep, they don’t cry, they’re small, and just very cute.” Because of their “cuteness”, videos of pet slow lorises are some of the mostly frequently watched animal-related viral videos on YouTube

Cruel Tooth Removal With Nail Clippers

Even within their countries of origin, slow lorises are very popular pets, particularly in Indonesia. They are seen as a “living toy” for children by local people or are bought out of pity by Western tourists or expatriates. Neither local nor foreign buyers usually know anything about these primates, their endangered status, or that the trade is illegal. Furthermore, few know about their strong odor or their potentially lethal bite.

That is the other side of cuteness, the one that most people often do not consider when they bring an animal into there home.

As part of the trade, infants are pulled prematurely from their parents, leaving them unable to remove their own urine, feces, and oily skin secretions from their fur. Slow lorises have a special network of blood vessels in their hands and feet, which makes them vulnerable to cuts when pulled from the wire cages they are kept in. Slow lorises are also very stress-sensitive and do not do well in captivity. Infection, stress, pneumonia, and poor nutrition lead to high death rates among pet lorises. Common health problems seen in pet slow lorises include undernourishment, tooth decay, diabetes, obesity, and kidney failure. Pet owners also fail to provide proper care because they are usually sleeping when the nocturnal pet is awake.

You can read the full controversy about keeping slow lorises as pets.

How much clean water do you think there is on earth? Let’s say that all of the water on earth fits into one bathtub. Okay, I relaize that this is a stretch for some people’s imaginations. But wait just a second. If all of the water fit into that one bath tub the drinkable portion would fill a single glass.

That isn’t very much… And it brings up the question, what are we going to do when it isn’t enough? Now, I know you won’t say this but let me play the devil’s advocate for a moment and say “so what?”

Raw sewage and industrial waste

Currently, 38,000 children die due to unsafe drinking water, and that is in a single week. That means 1,976,000 children die each and every year due to unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions it creates.

Here are some reasons why you may want to pay attention to the topic “clean water.”

Water Wars: Many scholar, researchers and political analysts attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. In fact, a report commissioned by the UN Development Program found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa. More Info

Polluted Oceans: Not only is pollution bad for the environment, it’s also expensive! Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year. More Info

Uninhabitable Rivers: Today, 40% of America’s rivers and 46% of America’s lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. That’s not surprising considering the fact that 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually. More Info

Fashion Footprint: That cotton t-shirt you’re wearing right now took 400 gallons of water to produce, and your jeans required an extra 1800 gallons. Not wearing cotton? The dyes and synthetic fibers used to make your clothes create waste that’s among the many contributors to water pollution. More Info

How can you help? Well, first you could sign the UN’s petition for safe clean drinking water. As of July this year the UN has declared that access to clean water and sanitation a human right. Making that declaration a reality will take all of us. At the time of writing nearly one eight of the population is without either of these necessities.

That is almost a billion people, we can do better than that.

Mona Lisa

You can now see the finest details of some of the finest Italian masterpieces with just one click of your mouse. High-resolution images of classic paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Botticelli are now online with that opportunity. You can zoom in to the smallest details, even ones you wouldn’t see when viewing the paintings in person at a museum. The images have a resolution of up to 28 billion pixels, which is about 3,000 times more than a photo from an average digital camera.

Read the full article here.

Dolphin Slaughter Taiji Getty Images

Dolphins, intelligent, friendly, fascinating and heroic. Yes, even heroic, there are countless instances where dolphins have saved peoples lives throughout history.

The Greeks recognized this and went to the extreme to protect them. Anyone caught killing a dolphin was himself sentenced to death. Pretty strong stuff, and we don’t want to get into different ancient Greek extremes, however, you can see that mankind has had a fascination with dolphins for a long time.

Fast-forward several thousand years, dolphins no longer enjoy the same type of protection, and in fact they are being senselessly killed in wholesale numbers every year. Over 23,000 dolphins are killed every year.

23,000 dolphins slaughtered for their meat which isn’t even actively eaten. That comes out to 442.3 dolphins killed ever week to be sold as more expensive whale meat. 63 dolphins murdered every day so their mercury lace meat can be given to school children. How about 2.63 dolphins every hour?

23,000 dolphins? That can’t be right, somebody would do something about it right? And the answer is yes and no. Japan is a whaling/fishing nation, and there is an international whaling commission. They are a great big toothless commission made up from different member nations that gets together and does a lot of nothing. So those in the position to stop the killing of dolphins really can’t do anything.

Japan has its lobby, and they know how to buy votes so that they can continue in their “tradition” but as a whole the International Whaling Commission is a joke.

Only the larger whales are under protection from the commission, so a large number of smaller ones fall out. And that is where you will find dolphins.

If you’ve have the opportunity to watch The Cove you will get a front row seat at one of the commissions conferences. And there you will see how ineffective they really are.

In one such meeting Japan’s representative goes as far to say that dolphins are vermin. Vermin? You mean like rats?

It turns out that Japanese studies have proven that dolphins eat fish. Hum, interesting. And? And there has been a noticeable decline in the fish population year after year. Ahah! SO what you are saying is that dolphins are responsible for the ever declining fish population? You’re sure it isn’t because we’re pulling more and more fish out of the sea every year? No, according to Japan’s whaling spokes person dolphins are the problem, and by senselessly and brutally killing them, they are somehow putting things right.

It is an interesting spin, no wait, it is completely irrational and embarrassing that somebody speaking before a whaling commission could even bring themselves to spread propaganda like that. That alone shows how incapable of solving the problem the IWC is.

So if the official whaling commission can’t stop the murder of dolphins in Taiji what hope is there? You. Me. And whoever else we’re able to make aware of this despicable act of animal cruelty.

Oh and there a couple of other people involved, too. Ric O’Barry and the Oceanic Preservation Society have taken an active role in bring the massacre to light and to an end. Through their documentation The Cove they have made a big step forward. I strongly recommend that you watch the film, and when you do you will want to find a way to help. But you should be warned the film makers were able to capture the pure brutality of the whole situation and there are very graphic scenes of violence in the documentation.

Now, if you want to get involved and help stop the slaughter in Taiji there are somethings you can do.

Here is a list taken from Ric’s Save Japan Dolphins website.

Help support our efforts in Japan to stop the killing of dolphins:
With your tax-deductible donation, we’ll send you the newly-released DVD of the award-winning film “The Cove”, as well as other great gifts!
Click Here to Donate

Help us get the word out.
Send a letter to President Obama, Vice President Biden and the Japanese Ambassador to the US.

Help us reach our goal of one-millions signatures on our Petition to stop the dolphin slaughter.

Press the Zoo and Aquarium Industry to stop the slaughter in Taiji:
The Aquarium industry must take responsibility to stop the drive fishery their colleagues exploit. Take action now.

Sign up to receive our blog updates to get the latest news on our efforts for dolphins around the world.

See the dolphin slaugher in Taiji, Japan (warning video contains graphic imagery).

Watch The Cove PSA

To close, Japan isn’t the only nation to hunt dolphins, Denmark also takes part in hunting dolphins. Not to mention the countless number of dolphins that end up caught in fishing nets each year. But something can be done about it, but it can’t be done alone, that is why we need your help. Get involved today.

Here is an example of ice containing methane which has been lit on fire.

Combustible Ice

I have known about ice containing methane for quite a while because as it melts, it poses a severe threat to the environment. The more that is released, the warmer it gets, the warmer it gets, the more combustible ice melts… And, well, you can see how things can quickly begin to spiral out of control.

Well steps are currently being taken to study the use of this energy source and at the same time reduce the threat it has on the environment. And this is a step in the right direction. Recent studies have shown that more than 8 million tons of previously unknown methane has been leaking into the atmosphere each year.

In September of last year China discovered a previously unknown reserve of combustible ice on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The find is equal to 35 billion tonnes of oil. To get an idea of how much this is, it is enough to power China for the next 90 years.

Before the source of fuel can be effectively utilized though, researchers believe that it will have to undergo a phase change.

That means that the ice will have to be melted, separating the methane from the water. The methane that would be won from one single cubic meter of ice is equal to 164 cubic meters of natural gas. With fewer impurities it will burn cleaner, and this is a good thing, since it will produce fewer pollutants than gas won from other sources.

Of course, it should be made clear that natural gas is not a clean source of energy, and when it is burned, it does create pollution. However, it is is cleaner than oil.

This is a dilemma, since the methane will be released into the atmosphere as the ice melts, regardless if it is used or not. Is this a viable solution for the search for cleaner energy? Probably not, since there are multiple methods to produce workable renewable energy.

Further research will have to be invested into this “new” source of energy before it can be clear if it is usable or not.

Here is one of the toys he has made. It is particularly interesting how he made the robot suit, which he named the RetroRobo, fit around the pilot inside.

Mani Zamani 3D printed robot

You can get a better idea of the size and shape of the toy in this turntable video.

As I have already said he has a large portfolio of toys he had designed. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Mani Zamani 3D printed-steel revoltech 4

Mani Zamani 3D printed-steel revoltech 5

Mani Zamani 3D printed-steel revoltech 6

You can see more of Mani’s designs by visiting his website: manizamani.com

Look at this bird for example. It is alone. And that means, all 12 of these tigers are very interested in making it’s acquaintance. Now, if there had been other foolish birds that were willing to land in a tiger’s enclosure, this one bird wouldn’t have been the center of so much attention. Take a look at the picture to see what I mean.

Tigers Wrong Place Wrong Time

I am not sure if the bird made it out, but its biggest advantage is that so many tigers are competing for its friendship. Combine that with the amount of effort the bird is making to hotfoot it out of the enclosure, and its chances are pretty good.

Globe Skimmer Dragonfly

If you haven’t heard about the ocean-crossing dragonfly before, here is some info. The Globe Skimmer was discovered in the Maldives by the marine biologist Charles Anderson. He observed that there was a explosion in the dragonfly population during certain times of the year. Perking his interest, he set out to track down the reason for the sudden increase in dragonflies. What he found whas that this small unsuspecting dragonfly has the longest migratory path of any insect in the world.

Find out more in this video:

And why did this story peak my interest? For those that are still interested, this was the second time I saw the Maldives today. The other time was in a interesting documentary that talked about how delicately balanced their entire existence is. You see, the Maldives are a cluster of 1,192 islands located in the Indian Ocean. Only 200 of them are inhabited, and most have fewer than 500 people living on them. The islands were build up on coral reefs, which have palm tree growing on them. Most of the islands are less than four feet above sea level and are protected by out lying reefs, which act as natural breakers.

Filitheyo Island in the Maldives

Coral is very sensitive to changes in water temperature, which has been going up due to global warming. Even a slight rise in sea level can threaten their ecosystem and the Maldivians’ existence, causing the population to relocate.

The Maldives was just one of the examples of how even minimal rise in sea level will and is effecting an ever growing population.