Silflay Hraka

Canary in the coal mine is so last century. When it comes to invisible killers nowadays, nothing beats a collie in the kitchen.

Anthrax, plague, and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola would affect animals first, unless specifically targeted as weapons against humans, and all can jump between animals and humans, she said.

Alabama Hippo-Owner Infected By Ebola!

Conrast and compare with this story from the Philadelphia Enquirer.

Tony was the first to die. They found his body early in the morning on Jan. 24, limp and lifeless, his face a mask of pain.

Soon, victims were dying in groups, poisoned by the same odorless, colorless, highly toxic substance. Desperate authorities have tallied at least 62 deaths but acknowledge that they are not close to making an arrest.

Yea, screw the "Who, What, When, Where, How." The real money is in misleading the reader until they're hooked on a story.

The conventional wisdom on DDT is changing.

Yet what really merits outrage about DDT today is not that South Africa still uses it, as do about five other countries for routine malaria control and about 10 more for emergencies. It is that dozens more do not.

Another thing that struck me was the typical African's wish list..

1. A bicycle.
2. A radio
3. A plastic bucket

The first two might be a bit troublesome, but surely plastic buckets would be an easy item to ship over. And indeed it is.

Adolf Hitler supports John Kerry!

Build your own support John Kerry page here.

Idea via Wizbang by way of Amish Tech Support

Update: Here's my page. And don't think he didn't appreciate it.

Dear Big,

Paid for by John Kerry for President, Inc.

The login page should you wish to edit your page is here.

Looks like Muqtada al-Sadr also supports John Kerry

Postscript: Someone at the Kerry Campaign finally woke up and smelled the laughter--the pages have been altered. You can seen a screen grab of my original page here.

Another detail comes to light in the Sao Paulo zoo killings

The death toll in the São Paulo zoo killings has now reached over 70 animals. The victims include an elephant, an orangutan, five camels and three chimpanzees. Police think employees, linked to rare bird and egg smugglers, are responsible.

No why would rare bird and egg smugglers need to kill camels and chimps? As a diversion to allow someone else to sneak into the aviary? It would let the Chinese off the hook, at least.

There is no logical reason on God's green earth for the Dept. of Agriculture to ban a beef producer from testing all of its cattle for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department's undersecretary for marketing and regulation, Bill Hawks, said in a statement Friday that the rapid tests, which are used in Japan and Europe, were licensed for surveillance of animal health -- while Creekstone's use would have ``implied a consumer safety aspect that is not scientifically warranted.''

Whether such a test is scientifically warranted also doesn't matter. The only question the Dept. of Ag should have is whether the proposed test is scientifically valid or not, which it apparently is.

If you'd like to contact Bill Hawks to let him know this, here's his contact information. If you'd like to say the same thing to the Head of the USDA, Ann Veneman, here's hers.

The agency's authority in the matter was established as part of the 1913 Virus, Serum and Toxin Act, which states that anyone conducting tests without USDA. could face a year in jail and a $1,000 fine--peanuts if Creekstone is losing $40,000 a day as it claims.

Why is the USDA turning down Creekstone? Because it would make other beef producers look bad--something that has absolutely nothing to do with keeping the nation's food supply safe.

The director of regulatory affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which represents beef ranchers, both praised the Creekstone decision.

Gary Weber of the cattlemen's association called 100 percent testing "misleading to consumers" because it creates a false impression that untested beef is not safe.

No, it would create the true impression that some beef was untested, potentially costing the companies who marketed it money when a consumer was presented with a choice between their beef and Creekstone's. Non-innumerates and those after a deal would still buy their product, and others could pay more for Creekstone beef, just as they already do for meat that's been labeled "organic."

If a company wishes to sell a product that's warranted free of mad cow, ebola, smallpox, herpes or shingles, then it should be allowed to do so, and the market should decide whether or not such a product is viable--not government bureaucrats at the beck and call of the industry they are supposed to be regulating.

After weeks of mentioning it to me every day to make sure I hadn't forgotten, Ngnat got to go fishing today. We had to drive 40 miles round trip to get her a cane pole and worms, but it was worth it.

She caught her first fish, a redear sunfish about the size of your hand (if you have small hands) around three this afternoon. Fish two and fish three were pumpkinseeds and number four was a bluegill.

Then we had to rush home so she could tell Scotty what she had done.

"I caught FISH!" she announced to he and her mother.

SW made the appropriate sounds. Scotty enthusiastically pounded on the floor, though he does that all the time right now.

I've taken the extra bait and started another worm farm.

Backlash from the Left. Last week's Independent has two stories on liberal reaction to l'Affaire de Crystall at UNC, Academia under siege and Mainstream manipulation. One bemoans the spinelessness of academia in the face of well-funded "ultra-conservatives."* The other bemoans the easily manipulated and conservative dominated media. Both express the sense of stunned outrage a suburban homeowner might experience upon awakening one day to find kudzu growing his heretofore immaculately groomed backyard.

*The Silflay Hraka Handy Guide To Media Demonization, Tip 1: Always remember to apply the term "ultra-" when discussing the political leanings of those on the opposite side of the political fence. It allows an author to denigrate opposing arguments without actually have to debate them and insinuates that the target is just to the other side of either Hitler or Stalin in a way that "liberal" and "conservative" never could. Plus, since you're probably preaching to the choir to begin with, no one will think to challenge your condemnation.

Does the AP have a photographer equivalent of Jayson Blair? Take a look at this picture of a Yellow-eyed Penguin--published, as you'll note, by the AP/Canadian Press. Very nice, if a bit small, and one of today's most popular photos at Yahoo.

There's only one problem. It's a copy of this photo, which I found in the photo gallery at Blue Moon Camper Vans. I wrote and asked where they got it from, and got this reply.

The photo is number L36 on a CD supplied by Tourism New Zealand (government
agency) to tour operators to help advertising.

Blue Moon Campervans Limited

Next up, letters to the AP, Canadian Press and Tourism New Zealand, to see what kind of responses I get there.

A soldier's eye view of the fighting in....Kut, I think.

I can’t describe what it’s like. You’re wearing twenty pounds of gear in helmet and vest, and the sound the bombs make screeching in seems not so much audible as it sensory. You feel it first. You know what sound a bullet makes going through the air? SWWWWWiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhh. It seems to burrow through the air with an odd slowness, as if it were greasy and that makes it slip through the air. If I were 11 Bravo, I’d have earned my combat infantrymen’s badge, except of course the fact that I’m a woman means I don’t get stuff like that. The way the Army has it set up, it doesn’t matter if you do the job, if you’re a woman----you’re not supposed to do it, so you don’t get acknowledgement if you do.

Link via AndresGentry

Ngnat pedaled her mother's old metal tricycle all the way to the neighborhood playground tonight. Scotty and I brought up the rear.

They swung on the swings, and I dashed up and back in front of them, trying as hard as I could to stay just six inches away. Ngnat laughed so hard she peed her pants.

Then she pedaled her mother's old tricycle all the way home in wet pants.

A few minutes later I was stripping her for a bath when she looked up and said accusingly, "You made the pee!"

Run Forrest, run!!!!

Ten years ago, the goal of the Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa* as to set aside 10% of the Earth's surface as part of a global network of protected areas within the next ten years. According to a study published in the journal of Nature today, that goal has been surpassed, with 11.5% of the planet's surface now classified as "protected."

Furthermore, the study finds that 80% of all endangered and threatened species on the planet Earth have ranges at least partially protected by national parks or nature preserves.

Good news, right?

Wrong.

Hundreds of imperiled species around the world - from a tiny opossum to a radiant blue bird - lack protection from human encroachment despite the vast amount of land set aside for conservation, a new study warns.

In fact, 88% of the animal species included in the survey were found to have some portion of their range protected, though the study restricted itself to areas larger than 1,000 hectares, or 3.86 square miles.

For many individual animals, especially reptiles and amphibians, 3.86 square miles is a range hundreds of times larger than what they would actually use. In the case of the Eastern Hellbender, an endangered species of North American Salamander, 999 hectares could theoretically support over 34,000 individuals. Two or three parks that size would guarantee the species' survival indefinitely, yet this study would have ignored them, as it does most of the areas owned by one of the most successful environmental groups on the planet, The Nature Conservancy.

The group has been purchasing critical habitat for years, yet thanks to the artificially imposed 1000 hectare limit, Nature Conservancy-owned areas like Elk Knob, Kyles Ford and the Lennox Woods were not included in the study. The reason for this is not only because the areas bought by the Nature Conservancy are for the most part less than 1000 hectares in area, but because, as the authors point out, Data on the global distribution of protected areas were obtained from the 2003 World Database on Protected Areas. The World Database on Protected Areas may be the best available source, but it's hardly a complete one.

As just one example, take Florida's Estero Bay State Buffer Preserve, a 9,757 acre preserve listed in the World Database as having a size of.....0 hectares. The same goes for the Allagash wilderness, Bakertown Fen and literally dozens of other areas.

The areas that the authors did manage to include are dismissed as inadequate, despite the surpassing of the 1993 Durban goals.

The largest protected areas are in desert or cold climates where the biodiversity is far lower than in tropical areas teeming with life, said Stuart L. Pimm, a professor of ecology at Duke University.

"The protected areas tend to be in the wrong places. We have huge national parks in Alaska, but few protected areas in biologically rich places like Florida or Hawaii," said Pimm, who was not involved in the study.

If Professor Pimm wasn’t involved in the study, why the hell is he being quoted?

No matter. Perhaps Professor Pimm has never heard of Everglades National Park, or of the two national parks in Hawaii. All three are fairly large, as I recall.

Here's a map of the "gap species" identified by the authors--i.e. those species whose ranges are wholly unprotected according to the definitions of the study. Of the 1,424 gap species identified by the study, Florida and Hawaii contain exactly none. If it wasn't for a couple of spots along the Mexican border the U.S. would be completely blank as far as unprotected ranges are concerned.

So much for Americans being the ostensible destroyers of the planet. The rest of the planet looks pretty blank as well. One would think we're doing a half-decent job of protecting the species that need help, rather than a half-assed one.

Despite the spin imparted to it, the study is almost wholly good news. International goals set ten years ago have been surpassed. When was the last time that happened, if ever? 80% of all endangered and threatened animal species are now accorded some form of protection.

The spin associated with the publication of this study should have been "We're doing great!. Let's finish the job!" Instead, it's "The sky is falling." There is such a thing as good environmental news. It's just never packaged that way.

*Whoops. Make that the Caracas Congress. The Fifth World Parks Congress was where the announcement that the goal had been surpassed was made.

Smelling up the Place at Fishing, Drinking Stinking

The Ten Strongest Beers In The World

The Compleat Harpooner

Bad Edge

A Lite In The African Night

Fish Sounds

Festering Underground In The Warren

RiceCakeWalk

Chicken Swede

Tit for Tet

I'm the kind of person that worries about things like spontaneously combusting. As if that wasn't enough, Wired has come up with a whole new list of things to stress over. Great. That's all I need. Is anybody else feeling a little warm?

Detectives investigating the Sao Paulo Zoo serial killer have apparently discovered a motive for the killings, though they're understandably tight-lipped about the details

...the leading detective on the case, Clovis Ferreira de Araujo, said the culprits could be caught soon. Speaking to journalists, Araujo said police were looking into groups that might have benefited financially from the animals' deaths.

"The action was intended to weaken the internal controls of the park and with this carry out illicit activities that could generate ill-gotten gains," Araujo said without elaborating.

The only way I can think of to profit off dead zoo animals is by selling the parts--either as aphrodisiacs or menu items. Given the Asian taste for odd foods and folk medicine, I wonder if a link to a Chinese crime family might eventually surface in connection with the case.

Clayton Cramer has an against the flow of popular opinion take on Ashcroft's anti-porn campaign.

I've had to install spam blocking software on my computer because of the sheer volume of spam (both obscene and non-obscene)--and I don't like to do that, because it makes mistakes, sometimes throwing away stuff from friends. I've reconfigured Microsoft Outlook on my wife's computer so that it doesn't automatically show the beginning of each email, which was a nice feature--until this garbage started showing up.

Do I think the government should be running around pursuing softcore pornography that people purchase in hotel rooms and on their cable TV service? No. But the Justice Department does have an obligation to enforce existing obscenity laws. Perhaps those laws don't make sense as written, but if there is this vast sea of support for pornography that Instapundit thinks there is, Ashcroft's enforcement of the laws currently on the books should cause a groundswell of public opposition, right?

It's seems to me that Clayton's problem is not with porn per se, but spam. While one would think finding a congressman to sponsor a law banning the transfer of unsolicited porn over the Internet would be easy, that apparently hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, if porn spam, or any spam for that matter, bothers you, find a nice Bayesian filter like Popfile and install it. It's easy, and my version has been blocking 99% of the spam I used to get--I haven't seen an unsolicited nipple in months.

The eyes have it.

The hell with little hearts. I want one way mirrors implanted in my eyes.

Postscript: Other photos by the MirrorEyes photographer may be seen here.

An Internet keyword map for "bigwig."

It seems like a good idea, and the presentation is certainly elegant enough, but it doesn't seem to handle phrases very well. I'm just not sure of how much use it could be, except as a kind of thesaurus.

Ran across a couple of neat bird control products while Googling things related to this story about the Kodiak Electric Association's attempts to prevent Bald Eagles from electrocuting themselves on power lines; the Firefly Bird Flapper, meant to be hung from power lines and communications towers, and the Daddi Long Legs, which I suspect would drive seagulls used to perching on piers absolutely beserk.

Another native species is foundering under the onslaught of imported foreigners--Britain's red squirrel, which is under pressure from American grey squirrels.

Most of the devastation is thought to be caused by the parapox virus rather than naked aggression of the Yankee squirrel, but a certain (albeit very small) portion of the red squirrel population does appear to have survived infection by the virus (the mortality rate for red squirrels appears to be about 97%, making parapox more deadly to red squirrels than ebola is to humans).

Eventually it may be possible to restore red squirrel stocks from the descendants of the disease's survivors, though by that time the grey squirrels may have colonized most of the remaining suitable habitat. As well, if the purported genetic distinction between the Cumbrian reds and the rest of their relatives in the British Isles is true, then while a type of red squirrel may eventually repopulate the old range of the species, it likely won't be of the same bloodlines as the original British reds.

While a number of ways to save the red squirrel have been suggested, at most they serve only to slow down the march of the greys rather than reverse it. Captive breeding programs appear to offer the most hope for the continued survival of the red squirrel in future, especially if a grey squirrel version of myxomatosis can be found to thin that population.* The reds could then be reintroduced in certain areas without having to compete with the greys for food. Squirrel pox may be a good candidate, as it seemingly infects only grey and fox squirrels in North America.

Whether the British public would permit such a drastic control method is another question entirely. If the virus could be engineered in such a manner as to render greys sterile rather than killing them public objections could be mitigated against, but even at best that option won't be available for a number of years.

*Yes, we're aware that parapox itself is related to myxomatosis.

Postscripts : The red squirrel is not the only endangered species in the Lake District. The Golden Eagle is also on the verge of vanishing from the area.

British Taxes At Work: One of the few remaining strongholds of the red squirrel is in the Sefton Coast, an area near Lancashire. However, the British government is attempting to comply with EC policy by cutting down a large portion of the forest in order to protect two other endangered species.

Brussels would therefore prefer to see the removal of a large part of the pine forest making up the Ainsdale National Nature Reserve, a beauty spot between Formby and Southport, so that the resulting sand dunes can provide habitat for sand lizards and natterjack toads.

The last living veteran of the Crimean war has died, at 160.

The 81st edition of the Carnival of the Vanities is hosted by Leaking Pure White Noise this week.

If you'd like to host the Carnival, drop us a line. Information on how to join the Carnival can be found here. If you would like to be added to the Carnival announcement list, send an email to cotvanities-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Upcoming Carnival stops include

April 14th BoiFromTroy
April 21st Southern Musings
April 28th WOLves
May 3rd The Thief's Den
May 12th Confessions Of A Political Junkie
May 19th Dispatches from the Culture Wars
May 26th Spot On
June 2nd Read My Lips
June 9th Ambient Irony
June 16th Jessica's Well
June 23rd A Single Guy In The South
June 30th quasi in rem
July 7th democrats give conservatives indigestion
July 14th d-42.com
July 21st Soundfury

Be sure to check out the Carnival's offspring:

The Bharteeya Blog Mela
Bonfire of the Vanities
Carnival of the Capitalists
The Kissing Booth
Carnival of the Canucks
The BestOfMe Symphony
The Carnival of the Cats
Carnival of The Consumers

Smelling up the Place at Fishing, Drinking Stinking

'Tis Better To Light A Bluefish Than Curse The Darkness

Spare The Rod

Lying To Scale

Fishing For Blinky

iQhilika

Undamming the Anadromous

Festering Underground In The Warren

Me No Longer So Horny

Optional Taxes Turn Democrats Into Republicans

The Unwonderful Thing About Tiggers

An Obligatory Kos Mention or Two

Yes, Women Do Fake It

Erosblog should be seeing a spike in visitors right about now.

Spinning back up to speed in the blogosphere is a pain in the ass, especially when on top of all the regular news, there's the latest insider imbroglio to catch up on. In this case that's discussion of the Daily Kos's comments about the contractor deaths in Iraq, a decent treatment of which I finally found at Reason Online.

Medical research monkeys are getting more expensive.

Drug companies have also bought up commercial monkey colonies, further depleting populations. That, along with an increasing demand for disease-free monkeys with specific genetic traits, has helped to drive the cost of a single rhesus monkey to $5,000 to $12,000 in 2003 from $1,000 to $1,500 in 1990.

There's gold in them thar primates. Time to start my own monkey farm. South Carolina seems like a nice place for it. Plus, one of the perks of monkey farming is that there's apparently an unending supply of monkey skulls from those who die before their time that can be used around the house; as candle holders, drinking vessels, piggy banks, whatever there's a need for.

Certainly I'd be the hit of the neighborhood every Halloween.

After apologizing for sending out an email that called a student's comments on homosexuality "hate speech," UNC instructor Elyse Crystall has decided that she didn't mean it after all.

Mertes was a perfect example of privilege, "a white, heterosexual, Christian male" who feels "entitled to make violent, heterosexist comments and not feel marked or threatened or vulnerable," she wrote. His comments were "hate speech," she said.

Crystall defended the e-mail in a letter read Wednesday by a student at a news conference on campus. The student, Chase Foster, said Crystall did not attend the news conference Wednesday because she is afraid she will become a target of violence.

Because Chapel Hill has such a violent reputation, don't you know. Why gunshots ring out in the student Union in particular every hour on the hour.

Rosa Parks she ain't.

Postscript: More, from the Herald-Sun

Crystall was not present at the press conference. Although her full statement was read aloud, copies were not provided to the press and the student who read it aloud said it wasn't intended to be "public."

Sundown on Ocracoke Inlet

I didn't get the camera as still as I might of liked, and the pic was taken during the middle of a four hour shark blitz that had the rods going off every half minute, so it was necessarily rushed, but it conveys the essential information I aiming for--the sun was freaking huge as it set over Portsmouth.

Hope you had a nice week. Regular programming resumes tomorrow.

Here we go again. You all know the drill by now. Person is missing or has something happen to him/her or family members, community looks for suspect only to find out later that they were played with like puppets and that the whole thing was made up to cover up some other story. I'm tired of this book already.