Zoe the Joey Acts As Bridemail

The hoppy couple: John and Gilly Hughes on their wedding day with pet kangaroo and bridesmaid Zoe in Deans Marsh, Victoria, Australia. Photo courtesy: dailymail

When Gilly Richardson and John Hughes took the big leap into marriage, it was but a simple hop for the couple’s bridesmaid – their pet kangaroo, Zoe.

Gilly and John, who tied the knot on their farm in Victoria’s rural Deans Marsh earlier this year, adopted Zoe a year ago after finding her on a track near her dead mum.

All together: The pair with daughters Brooke, five, and Holly, four, and the latest addition to their family. Photo courtesy: dailymail

When they took the tiny joey home to care for her, they had no idea she would become such an integral member of the family. Or that she’d serve as a bridesmaid at their wedding along with their daughters Brooke, 5, and Holly, 4.

“She really is our third child, so it didn’t even occur to us that it might seem bizarre to have her as a bridesmaid,” says Gilly.

“We had the wedding at home, so she was free to join in as much or as little as she liked. But she must have enjoyed herself as she even posed for pictures with us. Everyone thought it was hilarious."

The third daughter: Zoe was rescued by the family after being found next to her dead mother's body on a dirt track following the Black Saturday bushfire last year. Photo courtesy: dailymail

“Luckily I didn’t mind being upstaged by my three gorgeous bridesmaids – even if one of them was a kangaroo!”

Bridesmaid duties aside, Zoe is like a sister to Brooke and Holly.

“Our eldest used to feed her a lot and they bonded like any siblings would,” Gilly says.

“If Brooke and Holly played in the sandpit, Zoe would join them, sit by their side and eat grass.”

Toxins in Baby Car Seats? Apparently, Yes!

Photo courtesy: Healthy Stuff/Press Photos via TreeHugger

We can't breathe the air, drink the water, or eat the food without being exposed to toxins beyond our wildest dreams. Just when we thought we might be getting a handle on childraising, along comes toxic baby car seats!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not making light of this situation. On the contrary, I find it quite despicable that companies can get away with putting toxic substances on infant and toddler car seats AND get away with it. Quite unbelievable to me.

Ask any parent - our most precious possessions are our children; and, we would not knowingly put them in harm's way no matter how small the risk.

So, why is now we find out that our car seats (that are supposed to keep our little ones safe) contain toxic materials?

Healthy Stuff has released their test results for 2011 on child car seats. The organization has been testing car safety seats since 2008. The bad news in 2011: over half of child car seats still have elements detected suggesting the use of chemicals with known or suspected deleterious health effects. The good news: since Healthy Stuff started testing child seats in 2008, the average rankings have improved by 64%. Isn't it amazing what a little public scrutiny can do.

Healthy Stuff tests for bromine to indicate the presence of brominated flame retardants (but their tests will not indicate some other flame retardants, such as TPP, also suspected of effects that might harm a child's development). They also check chlorine (indicative of PVC), lead (a bioaccumulating neurotoxin) and other heavy metals (antimony, arsenic, chromium, cobalt, copper, mercury, nickel and tin). According to Healthy Stuff's newest report:

Most Toxic 2011 Car Seats:
- Infant Seat: Graco Snugride 35 in Edgemont Red/Black & Graco SnugRide 30 in Asprey
- Convertible Seat: Britax Marathon 70 in Jet Set & Britax Marathon in Platinum
- Booster Seat: Recaro Pro Booster in Blue Opal & Recaro ProSPORT Toddler in Mist

Least Toxic 2011 Car Seats:
- Infant Seat: Chicco KeyFit 30 in Limonata, Graco Snugride 35 in Laguna Bay & Combi Shuttle 33 in Cranberry Noche
- Convertible Carseat: Graco Comfort Sport in Caleo, Graco MyRide 65 in Chandler and Streamer, Safety 1st OnSide Air in Clearwater, and Graco Nautilus Elite 3-in-1 in Gabe
- Booster Seat: Graco Turbo Booster in Anders

Check out the complete ratings on the Healthy Stuff website or add your name to the petition for safer products. Healthy Stuff has entered a partnership with The Alliance for Toxic-Free Fire Safety to pressure the "largest car seat retailers, Graco and Evenflo, to take leadership to disclose and phase out hazardous chemical flame retardant additives".

It is important to emphasize: car seats save lives, and prevent disabling, lifelong injuries. The risk of an accident without a safety seat is far worse than the risk of chemicals in the seat to your child's health.

Good on Healthy Stuff.

Did You Know That...

Parrots do not imitate sounds in the wild. It is not until they are caught and live in captivity with humans that they begin to imitate the sounds around them.

Here's something we can all feel good about. Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.

Shouldn't we all be screaming about this? Already a train system has been developed (back in 1987) which is based on magnetic levitation and causes minimal pollution. Versions of this train are already in use in several countries. Why are these trains not being installed globally?

In Peru a single bush may contain more ant species than in the British Isles.

Brainy Birds Use Tools in Different Ways

This is the parrot Kea using a ball shaped tool at the Multi Access Box. (Alice Auersperg). Photo courtesy: The Epoch Times

Scientists have been testing the problem-solving skills of members of two of the smartest bird families - crows and parrots - with fascinating results.

Researchers at the University of Vienna in conjunction with the University of Oxford studied the New Caledonian crow, and the kea, a New Zealand parrot.

The New Caledonian crow, found in islands in the southwest Pacific, makes tools out of sticks and leaves in nature when exploring the forest.

"It shows great innovative skills when it comes to technical problems involving tool use," says study author Ludwig Huber, head of the Department of Cognitive Biology in Vienna, in a press release.

Kea, though not having been documented as using tools in the wild, are likewise known for their intelligence.

The team set up a box with transparent walls around a food reward on a platform, with a different mechanism in each wall to enable the bird to obtain the reward.

"The animals could choose between pulling a string which was tied around the reward, pulling a hook-shaped lever to open a window, inserting a marble (compact tool) into a curved ball-path leading towards the reward or inserting a rod-shaped stick-tool into an opening and maneuver[ing] it over a gap towards the food in order to push the reward off its platform," explains lead author Alice Auersperg in the release.

The New Caledonian crow Uek uses the window entrance at the Multi Access Box. (Alice Auersperg). Photo courtesy: The Epoch Times

Each bird was left to choose a solution to obtain the food. After the bird had used the mechanism a certain number of times, the investigators blocked it, forcing the bird to choose another.

"This way we could observe not only the differences in the order of solutions that the animals established but also how quickly they were able to switch," says co-author Gyula Gajdon at the University of Vienna in the release.

Of the six kea and five New Caledonian crows studied, only one individual of each species managed to successfully execute all four mechanisms.

The kea faced the biggest challenge with the stick-tool, which the authors reasoned is difficult to manipulate with a curved beak.

"It is therefore all the more impressive that Kermit [the one kea that had managed all four mechanisms] succeeded to overcome this handicap. The strategy he used gives the strong impression that he acted in a goal directed manner," says Huber.

The crow's most difficult task was opening the window with a lever, since in the wild they tend to examine unknown objects by pecking with their beaks or poking with sticks, rather than pulling them.

"After Uek [the one crow that had accomplished all four solutions] succeeded to open the window, she would not stick her head through the entrance to directly reach for the food like the kea did but instead used the stick to poke it off its platform," says Auersperg.

In the second study, the scientists let the kea observe Kermit use a stick to reach a food reward through a wall. Three birds then used the stick-tool successfully.

"This is to our knowledge the first evidence of a bird species, lacking a socio-ecological predisposition for using stick-like objects, designating the direction of a stick-tool as a functional extension of a body part (beak)," the authors wrote.

The following video contains parts of the experiments:

Fabric Made From Sour Milk

Model wearing material made from milk. Photo courtesy: YouTube via screengrab

Milk is the raw material for a new fabric created by 28-year-old German biologist Ande Domaske, who has created a string of designs based on the silky smooth fabric. While these designs are not to my taste personally, I understand are taking off in popularity.

Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz writes, "I'm having a hard time believing this, but these women are wearing clothes actually made with real milk. Yes, the liquid white stuff."

I have to admit that I am finding myself much torn as to how I feel about this. On one hand, I applaud the use of a product (in this case sour milk) that would otherwise have been thrown out; however, isn't this promoting an industry that has a huge carbon footprint.

One of the first questions I ask is, "Isn't this a terrible use of milk, which has a hefty carbon footprint?" I have to feel there is a better way to make use of this discarded milk.

However, the report states that the yarn is spun from milk that is "substandard" and would have been thrown out. So really, the cloth is a way to cut down on food waste.

Here is a video highlighting the details.


The fabric apparently is smooth like silk, and yet comes from sour milk -- something that would have been tossed. While it's not necessarily environmentally friendly (the dairy industry is responsible for roughly 4% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions), I'm afraid I must content myself with the knowledge that it is at least coming from what would otherwise be waste.

The designs will sell for about $300 and up.

Starvation in The Horn of Africa

Abdihakin Omar 3, a malnourished child from southern Somalia, lies on the floor in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, July 21, 2011. Somalia's 20-year-old civil war is partly to blame for turning the drought in the Horn of Africa into a famine. Analysts warned that aid agencies could be airlifting emergency supplies to the failed state 20 years from now unless the U.N.-backed government improves. Photo courtesy: Farah Abdi Warsameh via Washington Examiner

The United Nations and aid agencies say the Horn of Africa is facing a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of soaring global food prices combined with the worst drought in 60 years impacting on the region. As a sponsor of three World Vision children in this area, I am most concerned about their health and welfare. I urge anyone who has an opportunity to donate to this catatrophe to do so. Thank you.

Two successive failed rains have left approximately 11 million people living in remote areas across Southern Ethiopia, Northern Kenya and Somalia facing famine because of food shortages.

Oxfam has described the unfolding crisis as "the world's biggest forgotten emergency", and has launched its largest ever appeal to try and stop famine in the region.

Food price rises are combining with severe drought and conflict to create the gravest threat of famine in years across large parts of East Africa and the Horn, according to aid agencies desperately short of funds.

Aid workers in East Africa are now once again in a race against time - just two years after the same area was hit by an almost equally catastrophic drought.

A shortfall in donations means the aid agencies don't have the resources to deal with the slow-moving disaster, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Children's Fund UNICEF.

"Desperate hunger is looming across the Horn of Africa and threatening the lives of millions who are struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices and conflict", WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.

"It is essential that we move quickly to break the destructive cycle of drought and hunger that forces farmers to sell their means of production as part of their survival strategy".

Emergency relief workers are looking to help the people living the areas impacted by drought now in order to prevent famine. The affected populations in Somalia and North Kenya are, for the most part, semi-nomadic pastoralists herding camels, goats, and sheep.

The lack of pasture and water has led to deaths of cattle on a large scale, leaving families unable to cope with the loss of food and livelihood, according to Oxfam. The situation has been made even worse by the fact the area was only just recovering from a similar drought two years ago.

"In some areas, 60% of the herds have died", warns Jane Cocking from Oxfam.

UNICEF estimates that 480,000 children in the Horn suffer from severe malnutrition - an increase of 50% over the number from the previous drought in January 2009.

The situation is at its most perilous in Somalia, where the two-decade-long conflict has left the country divided with much of the population forced to live in refugee camps.

Nowhere is it more clear that people are struggling to survive than in Daadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, where around 800 children from Somalia are arriving each day.

Most arrive in poor health and suffering from malnutrition, having walked barefoot for days without food or shelter to reach the Kenyan border, according to Save the Children.

Some of the children are beyond help when they make it to Daadaab while many others die en route. The camp is struggling to deal with the influx and is extremely congested and overcrowded with over 350,000 people now needing access to Daadaab's basic facilities.

The desperate situation and cramped condition have not only led to increased tension within the camp but also between refugees and population in neighbouring villages who feel they are now competing with each other for scarce food supplies. The price for maize, which is the staple diet for most Kenyans, has increased by 40%.

The situation in Makueni in Southern Kenya isn't as desperate; but, the maize crop has been severely affected by drought.

"There has been no rain," explains villager Silvia Mutua "We can only begin to hope for a harvest next year."

The village well has run dry, meaning the women (and children) now have to walk for kilometres to the river in search of water. The situation has also led many children to give up going to school as an older child has to remain at home to look after everything.

Aid agencies estimate 10 million people are at risk of famine, not only the many refugees from Somalia, but also millions of farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The current crisis was a "perfect storm", caused by the conflict in Somalia, rising prices for fuel and food, as well as the drought.

Via The Asian Pacific Post

Rare Rafetus Swinhoei Turtle Receives Veterinary Treatment

Rafetus Swinhoei turtle undergoing veterinary treatment. Photo courtesy: chelonia

Rescuers in Vietnam have finally succeeded in retrieving their sacred giant turtle from Hoan Kiem Lake for medical treatment.

Though the sex of the turtle is unknown, people have dubbed it as “The Great Grandfather.” For months, Vietnamese veterinarians from Hanoi had made many attempts to capture and treat The Great Grandfather for injuries and lacerations he sustained due to fishing hooks, aggressive red-ear turtle bites, and pollution in the water, but he put up a strong fight.

Tim McCormack from the Asian Turtle Programme, a local conservation group in Vietnam, states, “This is one of the most endangered animals in the world and there's very little known about it.”

Endangered is sadly correct, The Great Grandfather is one of only four of his species — Rafetus swinhoei — still alive.

Recently, hundreds of people gathered round as the veterinarians tried, once again, to reel in the stubborn turtle. This time, they had over 50 people in the rescue team to help. The job took two hours, but they had finally brought the turtle onto land.

All of the bystanders cheered as their century old turtle legend was saved, and he underwent treatment for his injuries.

Hanoi's famous turtle has now been returned to Hoan Kiem lake after it was removed over 100 days ago for veterinary treatment, state media reported. The turtle was quietly released into the lake last week in good condition, a report in the Vietnam Express said.

Melting Arctic Ice Releases Long-Stored Toxic Chemicals

Photo courtesy: Andy Tinkham / cc via TreeHugger

I have only just blogged about 2011 setting a new record for Arctic ice melt when a study is released that states the melting ice is releasing toxic chemicals long stored in the frozen Arctic.

As if the threat of rising sea-levels due to rising global temperatures weren't enough cause for concern, new research suggests that as arctic ice melts, it may be releasing much more than just water. According to researchers studying the melting polar caps, as snow cover dwindles as a result of climate change, toxic chemicals stored in the ice from decades of pollution are being 'remobilized' back into the atmosphere -- potentially exposing humans and wildlife to substances known to cause illness and death, for decades to come.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which include such nasty compounds as DTD, lindane, and chlordane, were once commonly used in the agriculture industry as pesticides -- though scientists soon learned that these chemicals have grave consequences on human and environmental health. Ten years ago, POPs were largely banned worldwide, but the chemicals proved resilient and capable of long-range transport, which is why POPs can be detected even in places where they've never been used.

Ultimately, a significant amount of the POPs ended up in the cold, arctic regions where icy temperatures effectively 'trapped' the chemicals -- preventing them from being spread into the environment. But now, say researcher from Canada, Norway, and China, as that regions of the world experiences warming associated with climate change, those toxins are being released.

"Our results indicate that a wide range of POPs have been remobilized into the Arctic atmosphere over the past two decades as a result of climate change, confirming that Arctic warming could undermine global efforts to reduce environmental and human exposure to these toxic chemicals," write the team of scientists, as reported by The New York Times.

The report continues:

Jordi Dach, a scientist at the Barcelona, Spain-based Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, said the new study provided convincing evidence of the long-suspected movement of POPs from Arctic reservoirs into the atmosphere.

The new study "demonstrates that climate change can remobilize POPs stored in water, snow, ice and presumably soils -- and that this process is already occurring in the Arctic region," he wrote in an essay accompanying the new study.

Eventually, Dachs said, atmospheric circulation patterns could carry the newly liberated POPs to other parts of the globe.

Despite years of relatively low levels of POPs detected, thanks to the arctic storage, the pollutants were never gone entirely. As global temperatures rise, with more and more ice sheets melting at the poles, the level of POPs re-released into the environment is bound to increase as well -- creating a lasting legacy which could impact generations to come, in more ways than one.

And, we have only ourselves to blame.

Via TreeHugger

On The Lighter Side - Banned Baby Names

Photo courtesy: Yahoo

In New Zealand, there will be no little Lucifers on the playground. Nor will there be any Messiahs.

Choosing a name for an unborn child is no simple task. But for some parents, the quest for a unique name results in monikers that are potentially damaging to young ones, or at least New Zealand thinks so.

A 9-year-old was granted special permission to change her name in the country. “It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap,” the judge ruled.

The name in question? Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii.

Now New Zealand’s Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages is trying to bring a little perspective to the occasionally out-of-hand name game. Three sets of parents unsuccessfully attempted to name their newborns Lucifer. The name is essentially banned from the country.

In the past two years, the registrar has rejected 102 names, many of them too similar to titles. Bishop, Knight, King, and Mr. have all been denied in that time, as have names with slashes, asterisks and full stops.

The name crackdown appears to be in response to the negative attention the registrar received in 2008 when the names Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter were approved. But is banning the name Duke going too far?

The single letters C, D, and T have been rejected, but q and J passed after being queried. The criterion for an appropriate name has yet to be publicly outlined.

For now, it can be assumed celebrities won’t be heading to New Zealand to name their newborns. (Would celeb-chosen names Pilot Inspektor, Kal-El or Moxie Crimefighter have made the cut? Not likely.)

The Globe and Mail points out New Zealand isn’t the only country wrestling with baby-naming laws.

In the Dominican Republic, a judge proposed a ban on names that were either confusing or gave no indication of gender — What would that do to this controversial story? — and in Sweden, courts have approved Google and Lego, but rejected Superman, Elvis and Metallica.

Do you think parents should have full control over their children’s names? Or do you agree there should there be a system in place to prevent little Adolf Hitlers from running around your neighbourhood?

2011 - Record Arctic Ice Melt

Arctic sea ice, seen by satellite.
Photo courtesy: NASA.

This year could be well on its way toward earning a dubious spot in the record books.

Arctic sea ice has melted away with astonishing speed in the first half of July, at an average rate of about 46,000 square miles (120,000 square kilometers) per day, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo.

That's equivalent to an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania melting into the sea every 24 hours.

"That's relatively fast," said Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist at the NSIDC.

Already, sea ice extent — how far ice extends across the ocean — this year is below the extent for the same time in 2007, a year which, in September, saw the lowest sea ice coverage ever recorded.

As of July 17 this year, sea ice covered 2.92 million square miles (7.56 million square kilometers) of the frigid Arctic Ocean. That may sound like a lot, but it's 865,000 square miles (2.24 million square kilometers) below the 1979 to 2000 average.

Arctic sea ice extent. The orange line represents the median extent from 1979-2000. Photo courtesy: NSIDC.

However, Stroeve said, much of what happens in the coming days depends on the weather.

"Unless things change in the next few weeks, we might have a new record for July," Stroeve told OurAmazingPlanet. "Certainly overall, we think the ice is thinner overall leading up to this season than it was in 2007."

The ebb and flow of Arctic sea ice is a yearly occurrence. Each fall, as Northern Hemisphere temperatures drop, ice extends outward, away from the land and out over the ocean; each spring, with the onset of warmer weather, the ice recedes. However, the reach of the sea ice has declined steadily since satellite records began in 1979.

Researchers have found that the earlier Arctic ice begins to melt in the spring, the greater the overall melt for the year as a whole.

In 2011, in the Chukchi Sea, near Alaska, and the Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas, near Finland and Russia, NASA researchers found melt began two weeks to two months earlier than the 1979 to 2000 average.

This year, much of the Arctic has been in the grip of a warm spell.

Like the conditions that sparked the heat wave running roughshod over huge parts of the United States, a high pressure system has been parked over the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, since June, bringing warmer temperatures to the Arctic as a whole. Air temperatures at the North Pole are a full 11 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (6 to 8 degrees Celsius) warmer than usual.

In addition, high pressure systems are associated with clear skies, Stroeve said, so the ice is often at the mercy of the sun's rays for the full Arctic day, prompting further melting.

Although Stroeve said a change in the weather could dramatically change the ultimate fate of the Arctic's sea ice for 2011, she said a new record isn't out of the question.

"It's too early to say we're going to have a new record low," Stroeve said, "but I would say it's certainly possible with the way things have been going."