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Reading is rapidly becoming a lost art. With television, movies, computers; and, other techno devices I have absolutely no knowledge about becoming so popular, the quiet enjoyment of a good book is fast becoming a thing of the past.
While none of these inventions are necessarily evil, they do take time away from a good read where everyone and everything comes to life in your imagination. No movie, television program, or video game is ever as richly detailed as my version. That's why I never watch a movie if I've already read the book. No movie on screen ever lives up to the one played in my mind as I read the book.
Imagine my delight to find that reading is being celebrated with a year-long festival in the Baltic State of Estonia. Everywhere, people are participating in special events to promote reading. My kind of festival.
In the town of Haapsalu, the celebration took a unique turn. The people of the community wanted to do something novel that tied in with the theme of reading. The townspeople committed to spend five days publicly reading the Bible from start to finish. The feat took place in the Estonian cathedral of St. John, with 150 locals taking a turn. Tiit Salumae, the pastor at the church, says the project was designed to reawaken an interest in the Bible, which was originally written to be read aloud.
A bear got into an empty car, honked the horn and then sent it rolling 125 feet into a thicket, with the bear still inside, a Colorado family said.
Seventeen-year-old Ben Story said he and his family were asleep in their Larkspur home, 30 miles south of Denver, when the bear managed to open the unlocked door of his 2008 Toyota Corolla early Friday and climbed inside.
A peanut butter sandwich left on the back seat is probably what attracted the bear, Story said.
It's not unusual for bears to open unlocked doors to cars and houses in search of food, said Tyler Baskfield, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
"It happens all the time," he said. "They're very smart."
Once inside, the bear must have knocked the shifter on the automatic transmission into neutral, sending the car rolling backward down the inclined driveway and into the thicket, Story said.
The door probably slammed shut when the car jolted to a stop, he said, trapping the bear inside.
Neighbors had called 911, and deputies freed the bear by opening the door with a rope from a distance. It then ran into the woods.
Story said he'll need a new car because the bear trashed the interior while apparently trying to find a way out.
The bear also left what Story called "a present" on the driver's seat.
"A nice pile, actually," added his dad, Ralph. "Something to remember."
Baskfield said such incidents are worrisome because they endanger the bear as well as the public. Wildlife managers trap and kill problem bears that learn to scavenge for human food and garbage.
"Food was left in the car. It's troubling for us," he said. Ralph says it was as if the bear trapped inside the car knew what he was doing. "He just kept hitting the horn!"
A green sea turtle on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. Photo courtesy: Tim Laman/NG/Getty Images
Unusually large numbers of dead and dying sea turtles are washing up on Australia's Great Barrier Reef coast, prompting environmental groups to warn of a wildlife crisis in the region.
Researchers and local residents have reported that several Queensland beaches have been strewn with the carcasses of the animals, with wildlife centres in the northern city of Townsville inundated with ailing turtles.
According to the Queensland state government, 649 turtle deaths were reported in the first seven months of 2011, up 200 on the same period last year.
Dugongs are also suffering badly, with 96 of the aquatic mammals reported dead in the first seven months of the year, compared with 79 in the whole of 2010.
Sick and starving turtles have been observed approaching the shallows, where they invariably die. Researchers believe that a severe loss of sea grass, the turtles' staple food source, is to blame for the escalating death toll.
Widespread floods and the subsequent Cyclone Yasi, which hit northern Queensland in February, wiped out around 90% of the seagrass in certain areas of the Great Barrier Reef coast.
Fred Nucifora, director of Reef HQ Aquarium, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the centre's turtle hospital is running at full capacity, with 15 turtles now being cared for.
"The turtles that are presenting are highly emaciated, they are suffering from not having enough food," he said.
Queensland's recent natural disasters have heaped further pressure on turtle numbers, which face numerous other threats.
An Australian government report released last week revealed that agricultural pesticides released by farmers have swept across the Great Barrier Reef, causing damage to coral and wildlife.
Endangered species such as the leatherback turtle and green turtle have also seen their numbers dwindle due to fishing nets and boat strikes.
"In the past, turtles have been healthy enough to deal with extreme weather events, but the combined pressure of more fishing nets, declining water quality and associated disease, on top of the loss of critical habitats as a result of large coastal developments have all undermined their chances of survival," said Cliff Cobbo, a conservation manager at WWF Australia.
WWF has urged the Queensland government to overhaul regulations surrounding fisheries and coastal development, as well as reduce the amount of pollution released into the sea.
Vicky Darling, Queensland's environment minister, said that a panel of marine scientists will explore the causes of the turtle deaths and draw up recommendations to combat the problem.
The hare and the rabbit are not the same creature. Hares are larger and have longer legs and ears; and, unlike rabbits, when hares are born, they have alot of fur and their eyes are open.
The gradual demise of the world's tropical rainforests is devastating. More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live there. Each day, 137 plant, animal and insect species are lost due to deforestation.
White-backed and slender-billed vultures are still at risk, the RSPB study shows. Photo courtesy: Devki Nanda/RSPB/PA
Conservationists have raised concerns that a livestock drug banned in India because it was pushing vultures to the brink of extinction is still being sold.
The drug diclofenac was banned because it led to population crashes in three species of vulture in south Asia with birds dying of kidney failure after feeding on carcasses of cattle treated with the medication.
A study led by the RSPB's principal conservation scientist, Richard Cuthbert, found more than one-third of Indian pharmacies are still selling diclofenac, a non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug, which can be used in humans as well as by farmers treating cattle.
Some of the diclofenac on sale is formulated for veterinary use and has been manufactured illegally since the ban was brought in by India, Pakistan and Nepal, the research published in the journal Oryx found (PDF).
The RSPB said the research, conducted to examine the effectiveness of the banning of the drug in 2006 in India followed by further measures in August 2008, showed that oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures were still at risk.
The white-backed vulture has seen its numbers drop by 99.9% since 1992, from millions to 11,000, while populations of the other two species have fallen by 97%.
In some good news for the species, the research found there was an increase in use of another drug, meloxicam, which was found in 70% of pharmacies and has similar treatment properties for cattle.
Captive breeding centres in India run by the Bombay Natural History Society, with support from the RSPB and the Save campaign, have had their most successful year so far, with 18 birds successfully reared in 2011, almost double the number last year.
But Cuthbert said: "The ban is still quite easy to avoid because human formulations are still freely for sale in large vials which are convenient for use on large animals like cattle and clearly not suitable for human use.
"Preventing the misuse of human diclofenac for veterinary use remains the main challenge in halting the decline of endangered vultures."
Chris Bowden, head of the RSPB's vulture programme, said: "Three species of south Asia's vultures are heading for extinction so we have to act now to save them.
"With the latest success of the breeding centres we're more confident than ever that there will be sufficient numbers for reintroduction to the wild as soon as it's safe for them, but until diclofenac stops being produced and sold for veterinary use we cannot guarantee these birds have any future in the wild."
Across parts of Australia, reports have been pouring in of strange voices chattering high in the treetops -- mysterious, non-sensical conversations in English. But while this phenomenon is certainly quite odd, its explanation isn't paranormal. It turns out that escaped pet birds, namely parrots and cockatoos, have begun teaching their wild bird counterparts a bit of the language they picked up from their time in captivity -- and, according to witnesses, that includes more than a few expletives.
Jaynia Sladek, an ornithologist from the Australian Museum, says that some birds are just natural mimickers, able to acquire new sounds based on things they hear around them. For birds kept as pets, these sounds tend to mirror human language -- but that influence doesn't cease even after said birds escape or are released back into the wild.
Once back in their natural environments, these chatty ex-pets eventually join with wild birds who, in turn, start picking up the new words and sounds. The remnants of that language also eventually gets passed along to the escaped birds' offspring, much like it does for humans.
"There's no reason why, if one comes into the flock with words, [then] another member of the flock wouldn't pick it up as well," Sladek said in an interview with Australian Geographic.
According to the report, 'Hello cockie' is one of the most commonly heard phrases feral birds are teaching in the wild, along with a host of expletives -- perhaps the last words those escapees heard after their frantic owners realized they were making a break for freedom.
This technology is so simple, so cheap and so effective; it takes my breath away. These are the kinds of solutions the world needs to see us through the environmental maze we are in now.
If you live in a home without electricity and few or no windows, it's always incredibly dark inside, even at high noon. Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) is a sustainable lighting project that is trying to help people overcome that problem with extremely simple technology: a plastic bottle, water, and a few drops of chlorine and salt is all they need to light up the inside of homes that have no electricity. Designed and developed by MIT students, the Solar Bottle Bulb is now being distributed throughout the Philippines, and the MyShelter Foundation plans to light up a million homes by 2012.
Check out the video below to see how simple the technology is, and what a difference it makes in people's lives instantly.
The water refracts light, the salt slows down evaporation and the bleach prevents mold from growing in the bottle, allowing the mixture to last about two years. Check out Isang Litrong Liwanag to learn more.
For those of us who wince every time a dirty diaper is discarded, take heart: Canadian company Knowaste can now transform those soiled, disposable nappies into roofing material. That's right, billions of baby-poop gems and even adult 'accidents' due to incontinence, are ripe for the picking and destined for our roofs, thanks to a process that transforms diaper waste into plastic pellets, which can then be made into roofing tiles and tubing.
According to Gizmodo, Knowaste, which has branches in the UK, Canada and the United States, plans to open five new processing plants in the UK during the next four years. Each plant will be able to handle 36,000 tons of so-called "absorbent hygiene products" (AHP) annually -- all of which amounts to one-fifth of the UK's total diaper waste, and a reduction of 110,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
As company videos show, the process involves collecting dirty diapers from http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnursing homes, childcare centers and hospitals via special bins, transporting them to processing centers where they are washed, milled into a sludge that is then dried and fired into plastic pellets. The resulting extruded tiles made from these pellets are so sturdy that they can withstand quite a bit of force.
Though there's no way to currently pick diapers up from homes, the http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcompany plans to expand its services to domestic consumers in the future. Till then, from buying greener http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifdiapers, switching to reusable or even composting them, there's plenty of ways to reduce the footprint caused by toxin-laden disposable diapers, even for the busy parent.
In the 1960's sitcom Gilligan's Island, it seemed there was nothing resident smarty-pants 'The Professor' couldn't do with a simple coconut and a bit of know-how -- except maybe craft a boat to actually make it off their desert isle. But now, in similarly inventive fashion, officials on the tiny South Pacific islands of Tokelau are planning to power their territory entirely by sustainable means, with sunlight and coconut oil -- two things the island has plenty of -- by this time next year.
Nowadays, the three islands that make up Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand, run mostly on fossils fuels which it needs to import from the mainland. But, according to the atolls' chief administrator Foua Toloa, by this time next year the islands will be completely self-sustaining using renewable energy, 93 percent of which will be produced through solar installations. The rest, says Toloa, will come from coconut oil.
So what could inspire an island to completely rethink its energy infrastructure? The possibility that climate change could sink it, that's what. Tokelau sits just 16 feet above sea level, which means it would be particularly vulnerable to rising oceans associated with carbon-emissions fueled global warming.
"Because we are affected left right and centre, you know, by the impact of climate change. And while the rest of the world is not listening to the impact of climate change in a very small country in the pacific this project is a vehicle and a message to the whole world to actually walk the talk and not just buy lip service," Toloa said in an interview with Radio New Zealand International.
If all goes according to plan, Toloa says that no outside energy will be needed -- and that's actually quite doable. To provide enough clean-energy to power the island, experts say just some 600 square meters of solar panels will be required in total, along with a few hundred coconuts.
This is a Hawksbill turtle swimming in a coral reef, a place it is expected to be found. However, Hawksbill turtles have found a new place to live -- mangroves. Previously unknown to live in this type of ecosystem, it seems the sea turtles have come up with a new survival tactic.
The Hawksbill sea turtle mainly dines on sponges, and it is the only marine animal who focuses on them as a food source which means it plays an important role in coral ecosystems. However, mangroves are also home to corals, and according to a new report published in Biology Letters and provided by Conservation International, they're also home to these rare turtles, a fact previously unknown.
"...[N]ew satellite tracking data on female hawksbills from several countries in the eastern Pacific revealed previously undocumented behaviour for adults of the species. In contrast to patterns of habitat use exhibited by their Caribbean and Indo-Pacific counterparts, eastern Pacific hawksbills generally occupied inshore estuaries, wherein they had strong associations with mangrove saltwater forests. The use of inshore habitats and affinities with mangrove saltwater forests presents a previously unknown life-history paradigm for adult hawksbill turtles and suggests a potentially unique evolutionary trajectory for the species."
Not only does it shed light on important information about the species, but also brings to the forefront yet another vitally important role mangroves play for coastal ecosystems. Yet mangroves are under just as much threat as the sea turtles found living there.
Thanks to the satellite tracking system used on these turtles, as shown in the photo above, the use of mangroves by sea turtles as places for foraging food has opened up all new possibilities for studying -- and saving -- these turtles.
"Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are critically endangered and the majority of hawksbill habitat use and movement research to date has been centred in the Wider Caribbean and Indo-Pacific regions...As recently as 2007, hawksbills were considered functionally extirpated in the eastern Pacific Ocean, based on scarce reports of their presence and the sparse coral reef distribution in the region...This study represents the first initiative to track individuals from this remnant hawksbill population and describes novel habitat use that will inform regional conservation efforts."
Indeed, conservation efforts are required, and fast. Sea turtles are under enormous threat as they're caught as bycatch in fisheries, and lose their habitats to overfishing, pollution, and other human encroachment -- including poaching and rampant sea turtle egg collection. Now add to that the significant loss of mangroves not only in Hawksbill territory but around the world. Without immediate conservation efforts to preserve the mangrove and coral habitats and prevent loss from fishing and egg poaching, there isn't much hope for this iconic marine animal.
Conservation International is hosting Sea Turtle September, where you can learn more about this and other studies, information about specific species, and help save sea turtles.
I'm fortunate to have several passions in my life. I am absolutely an eco-nut. I am always trying to find new ways to reduce, reuse, recycle. We, as a species, have done more harm to this planet in the short time we have been here, than any other catastrophe or happening ever has. It's up to us to fix it.
I care about the environment whether it is as small as a single cell or as large as the universe.
I adore creativity and think we can all do more with much less. This earth has enough resources for us all to live comfortably if we all learn to share. Wasn't that a lesson we were supposed to learn in kindergarten?
I also love the bizarre, unusual, the weird and the strange. Be prepared for the odd "different" blog.
Photo courtesy: momstownbarrie
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