The Conservation Report

ANIMAL WELFARE: Houston Zoo elephant Mac, 2, dies of viral illness

ARCTIC MELTING: Arctic Ice Melt Sparks Plankton Blooms

AUTO INDUSTRY: Ford Scion Looks Beyond Bailout to Green Agenda

BIOFUELS: US Dept of Energy and Brazil to Commercialize Biofuels

BIOLOGY: Top 10 Useless Limbs (and Other Vestigial Organs)

BIOMASS: New Biomass Plants Called For in Obama’s Green Agenda

CAMPAIGN 2008: Challenged ballots: You be the judge

CHINA: China tells rich polluting nations to change lifestyle

CLIMATE CHANGE: Nike, Starbucks Demand Congress To Act On Climate Change, An historic summit of state and provincial governors from around the world convened this week in California to advance national and worldwide efforts to fight climate change — and The Nature Conservancy played a key role in the summit’s success.

CORAL REEFS: Pacific Shipwrecks Potentially Toxic Timebombs, Scientists try to revive Japan’s biggest coral reef: Scientists are in an unprecedented project to restore Japan’s largest coral reef by planting thousands of baby corals growing on tiny ceramic beds.

DEFORESTATION: 3,000 Person Mob Attacks Govt. Offices to Protest Crackdown on Illegal Amazon Logging

DEREGULATION: Bush Aides Rush to Enact a Safety Rule Obama Opposes

DRILL BABY DRILL: Court Says Shell Can’t Drill Near Alaska: A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked Royal Dutch Shell from drilling oil wells off Alaska’s North Slope after finding that the Interior Department had failed to conduct an environmental study before issuing the company’s drilling permit.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New electric version of MINI Cooper offers MINI fun with zero emissions.

ENERGY: Phone Makers Monitor Charger Energy Consumption, Dutch homes get warm water from disused coal mine

ENVIRONMENT: Dumb eco-questions you were afraid to ask

EVOLUTION: “Smile” Octopus Spawned Many Species

FAIRTRADE: Starbucks to use Fairtrade coffee in every drink sold in Britain: Starbucks is to use Fairtrade coffee in every drink it sells in Britain, the company has announced.

FAST FOOD: Fast Food Made Up Mostly of Corn

FOOD: Tyson Foods Injects Chickens with Antibiotics Before They Hatch to Claim “Raised without Antibiotics”

FORESTS: Bark Beetles Kill Millions of Acres of Trees in West

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: Once Thought Invasive, Some Galápagos Plants Can Call the Place Home: For years, conservationists have been concerned about the impact of invasive plant species in the Galápagos Islands. Hundreds of species have been identified as nonnative, introduced through human contact. The idea was to remove these plants to help keep the archipelago ecologically pristine.

GENETICS: Lizards, Birds Have Hair Genes

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY: Raser Technologies Gives Utah a New Geothermal Plant to Power Homes

GLACIAL MELTING: Baby Chimp Rescued From Congo Army

GLOBAL WARMING: New Ice Age Predicted — But Averted by Global Warming?

GREAT APES: Tibetan Glaciers Melting at Stunning Rate

HYBRID TECHNOLOGY: Kulongoski lobbies to bring China’s new hybrid car to Oregon, LA 2008: Honda shows off Insight’s Eco Assist dashboard

INVASIVE SPECIES: Beetle Invasion to Dim New England Fall Colors?, More cockroaches expected in Florida

LANDFILLS: Israel Turns 2,000 Acre Trash Dump into One of World’s Largest Parks

MARINE MAMMALS: Why Do Dolphins Rub Flippers?

NASA: Going Out On A Limb With A Tree-Person Ratio: Who knew that NASA, charged with looking deep into space, also looks backward at us? For years, NASA satellites have been snapping photos of our oceans, mountains and forests, and sharing them with ecologists and biologists.

NATURAL GAS: Drill for Natural Gas, Pollute Water: In July a hydrologist dropped a plastic sampling pipe 300 feet down a water well in rural Sublette County, Wy. and pulled up a load of brown oily water with a foul smell. Tests showed it contained benzene, a chemical believed to cause aplastic anemia and leukemia, in a concentration 1,500 times the level safe for people.

NATURE: Debate: Which is the world’s most invaluable species?: Plankton, bats, primates, fungi and bees - which species would have the greatest impact on our planet if it were lost? Five experts set out their case public debate in London next Thursday

NEW SPECIES: Penguin, Now Extinct, Discovered in New Zealand: Researchers studying a rare and endangered species of penguin have uncovered a previously unknown species that disappeared about 500 years ago.

NONRENEWABLE ENERGY: U.S. Moves Ahead on Oil, Gas Leases on Public Land: Decision Could Pose Problem for Obama

PALM OIL: The slippery business of palm oil: Palm oil is used in a third of all groceries. But can it ever be produced without causing environmental devastation as some big companies are promising?

PLASMA GASIFICATION PLANT: Plasma Plants Will Vaporize Trash While Generating Energy

PRIUS: BossDowner’s 2010 Prius Commercial - PriusChat.com, BossDowner’s 2010 Prius Commercial #2 - PriusChat.com

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists: A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim., Plumbing the oceans could bring limitless clean energy, Britain’s water mills given role in clean energy generation, EPA Coal Decision Levels Playing Field for Wind, Solar

RECYCLING: Why California Recycled 80% of Glass and the Rest of the U.S. 30%

REDISCOVERED SPECIES: “Extinct” Primate Found in Indonesia

SEA LEVEL RISE: Schwarzenegger Orders California to Prepare for Sea-Level Rise

SMART GRID TECHNOLOGY: Boulder, Colo.: America’s First ‘Smart Grid City’: Some Homes Can Remotely Control All Aspects of Their Energy-Saving Features, Report Calls for Overhaul of Power Grid to Handle Sun and Wind Power

SOLAR: Solar Panels Are Vanishing, Only to Reappear on the Internet, Solar at Sea: Chinese Cargo Ships Will Have Solar Sails, Solar-Powered Plane to Perform Test Flight

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Cuba Gets Green Cred: Cuba is the only country that meets the criteria for sustainable development from the conservation group WWF. But concern persists for once thriving Caribbean marine turtles.

WATER AVAILABILITY: The eco machine that can magic water out of thin air, Cow Sh*t to Clean Water

WHALING: Japanese Whalers Set Sail, Say Witnesses

WILD HORSES: U.S. Won’t Kill Wild Horses — For Now

WIND POWER: Giving Turbines a Boost With Curves, 360 Wind Powered Wal-Mart Stores by April 2009, Mega Wind Farms Could Steer Storms, Offshore Wind Power Could Alter Ocean Currents: “Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter of debate,” Brostrom said. Though he stressed that the goal for any man-made object should be to minimize environmental impact, he added: “I’m an optimist; I think this could be beneficial to local fisheries.”, Don’t Call it a Wind Farm, It’s an EcoPower Centre: Canada’s Largest Wind Project (200 MW) Opens

WTF?: Levelling the lingerie playing field: An online shop in Japan has seen an extraordinary demand for its newest product: bras for men. More than 300 have been snapped up in two weeks

“Environmental News Picks” are made possible with help from Kevin.

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Photo source for attribution. The author or licensor of this image does not endorse my work or me and their image is protected under an attribution license.

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IMAGE: Image AFP/Yeti Project Japan.

Bigfoot madness is back. Recently, it was revealed that alleged hair samples of a type of yeti from India were revealed to be from a Himalayan Goral (Naemorhedus goral)—a species of goat. However, a Japanese team, which has repeatedly tried to find hard evidence of the yeti in Nepal, announced they have found footprints of the creature. Ultimately, the team hopes to obtain film of the legendary yeti. From the AFP:

A team of Japanese adventurers say they have discovered footprints they believe were made by the legendary yeti said to roam the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet.

“The footprints were about 20 centimetres (eight inches) long and looked like a human’s,” Yoshiteru Takahashi, the leader of the Yeti Project Japan, told AFP in Kathmandu on Monday.

Takahashi was speaking after he returned with his seven-member team from their third attempt to track down the half-man-half-ape, tales of which have gripped the imaginations of Western adventurers and mountaineers for decades.

Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV — a 7,661-metre (25,135-foot) peak where they say they have seen traces of yetis in the past — the team failed in their prime objective of capturing one on film.

But Takahashi said the footprints were proof enough.

.       .       .

“We remain convinced it is real. The footprints and the stories the local tell make us sure that it is not imaginary,” he added.

.       .       .

The team had set out nine motion-sensitive cameras in an area where Takahashi saw what he thought was a yeti during a previous expedition in 2003.

“It was about 200 metres away in silhouette. It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimetres tall,” said Takahashi.

The expedition’s website can be found here.

Hat tip to Kevin.

AGRICULTURE: SCIENTIST AT WORK | NORMAN T. UPHOFF: Food Revolution That Starts With Rice

ANIMAL WELFARE: Boy fed zoo reptiles to crocodile: A seven-year-old boy has been filmed going on the rampage at a popular zoo in Australia, killing rare reptiles and feeding live ones to a crocodile

ARCTIC MELTING: Arctic Ice in “Death Spiral,” Is Near Record Low

AUTO INDUSTRY: No “Revolting” the Volt: Chevy Battery Does Not Recharge While Driving

BUSHMEAT: Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa’s Animals, Poor?

CARBON: Heat Hinders Ground’s Ability to Absorb CO2

E-WASTE: 7 Hurdles to Electronics Recycling

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 19 Electric Car Players Pitch San Francisco, 30 electric cars companies ready to take over the road, China Planning Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

ENERGY: Researchers Developing the “Internet for Energy”, New Energy Project Will Be Even Larger than the Pickens Plan: Move over, T. Boone Pickens. You’re about to be overshadowed by Babcock and Brown

ENDANGERED SPECIES: Croc Hunter’s ‘Bum-Breathing’ Turtle Faces Extinction

EVOLUTION: Scientists Discover Fish in Act of Evolution in Africa’s Greatest Lake, From the Onion: Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs ‘Oh, Shit,’ Says Humanity

FUEL CELLS: First Fuel Cell-Powered Plane Presented in Germany

GOOGLE: Google search finds seafaring solution

GREEN CONSTRUCTION: 15 Inspiring Glimpses into the Future of Green Housing, The First LEED Platinum Skyscraper Nearly Completed, Lost middle-class tribe’s ’secret’ eco-village in Wales spotted in aerial photograph taken by plane, Paint it white: Cool roofs save cash and carbon, New experimental homes will heat themselves

HIV/AIDS: Colonial clue to the rise of HIV: The arrival of colonial cities in sub-Saharan Africa at the dawn of the 20th Century may have sparked the spread of HIV

HYBRID TECHNOLOGY: Honda Takes on the Hybrid Motorcycle, Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHYBRID unveiled

HYDROGEN FUEL: Scientists Reach Hydrogen Storage Milestone

INVASIVE SPECIES: State wildlife commission seeks tougher rules for owning pet snakes, Stop slithering intruders: Asian swamp eels are an invasive foreign species that is dangerously prolific and adaptive, threatening fish and other native creatures

NATURAL GAS-POWERED VEHICLES: Pickens Overlooks Existing Natural Gas Cars in Energy Plan: Reality Check

NEW SPECIES: New Iguana Species Revealed

OFFSHORE WIND POWER: Huge Offshore Wind Farm Wins Approval, Offshore Wind To Supply 15% of Rhode Island Electricity

PHEV: Plug-In Hybrids Aren’t Coming — They’re Here, Houses passes bill with $5k Volt tax-credit, mandatory alternative fuel pumps

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: California’s 220 MPH High-Speed Train Will Be Emissions-Free

RECOMMENDED IMAGE(S): Earth From Above comes to NYC, Yup, still a pig, Monk Seal

RECOMMENDED MAP: USA National Gas Temperature Map

RECOMMENDED YOUTUBE: SOUTH CENTRAL FARM - PART 1, The End of Suburbia - 52 minute documentary on oil, McCain’s YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare, Sarah Palin Gibberish

REDISCOVERED SPECIES: Rare Plant Thought Extinct Re-discovered in Upstate New York

SCIENCE: Sciencedebate2008: Presidential answers to the top 14 science questions facing America, Japanese Scientists Plan to Build Space Elevator

WASTE-TO-ENERGY: Indiana will get $227 million waste to fuel plant

WATER AVAILABILITY: When Will Los Angeles Run Out of Water? Sooner Than You Think, Cactus Goo Makes Water Safe: The slimy ooze inside prickly pear cactuses that helps the plants store water in the desert can also be used for scouring arsenic, bacteria and cloudiness out of rural drinking water, according to research at the University of South Florida in Tampa

WATER CONSERVATION: Harvesting Rainwater by Not Letting It Go to Waste

WTF?: Cheney: Wildlife Conservation Has Been A ‘High Priority’ Of Bush Administration

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: Yellowstone seeks to balance nature, cell phones, Judge refuses to let snowmobiles roam Yellowstone

ZOONOTIC DISEASES: Hamsters, Exotic Pets May Put Young Children At Risk, Doctors Say

AGRICULTURE: Birds Best Hope for Pest-Ridden Coffee Crops?

AMERICA: Making America Stupid

ARCTIC DRILLING: Drilling in the Arctic Refuge: The 2,000-Acre Footprint Myth: Oil development would stamp a spiderweb of industrial sprawl across the whole of the refuge’s 1.5-million-acre coastal plain.

ARCTIC MELTING: Arctic Sea Ice Drops to Record Levels

AUTO INDUSTRY: BMW leaps ahead on new car CO2 emissions, others still stalling, GM Takes Its Case to the People, The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can’t Have:Ford’s Fiesta ECOnetic gets an astonishing 65 mpg, but the carmaker can’t afford to sell it in the U.S.

BEES: Roadsides Helping Bees Thrive, Apples and pears at risk due to dramatic decline in the honeybee, experts warn

BICYCLE COMMUTERS: Real Estate Agents Cater To Bicycle Commuters

BIG OIL: Exclusive: More on the Interior Department’s Sex and Oil Scandal

BIOFUELS: Tequila endangered by switch to biofuels

CARBON SEQUESTERING: Green Cement is Carbon Neutral, Sequesters CO2 from Power Plants

CHINESE CONSUMPTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES: Elephants Decimated in Congo Park; China Demand Blamed

CLIMATE CHANGE: Sponges Feel the Heat From Climate Change

COAL: It’s the Coal, Stupid, Scrubbing King Coal: How come energy companies are gaga over alternative fuels? First off, define “alternative.”

COMPOSTING: How to Create a Dirt Cheap Compost Bin with a Garbage Can

DEFORESTATION: MTV Cuts Down Rainforest for Reality TV Show

DESALINATION: Desalination Closer to Reality in California

DEVIL FACIAL TUMOUR DISEASE (DFTD): Tasmanian Devil Cancer Worse

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: BMW confirms electric city car

ENERGY: U.S. Could Cut Fuel Use 50% by 2035, Wiggling Plastic at River Bottom to Generate Electricity, Massive floating generators, or ‘eco-rigs’, to provide power and food to Japan, Hawaiian Coal-Fired Plant Being Converted to Burn Biomass, Google search finds seafaring solution, Paint it white: Cool roofs save cash and carbon, New experimental homes will heat themselves, Researchers Developing the “Internet for Energy”, CleanTech Group to build $227 million waste to fuel plant in Indiana, Chicken Manure to power 90,000 Homes in the Netherlands!

ETHANOL: Mechanics see ethanol damaging small engines: Fuel blend, already implicated in high food prices, linked to rise in repairs

FISHERIES: Alaskans Choose Mine Over Fish

FUEL ECONOMY: 84% of Brits rate fuel efficiency #1

FUEL PRICES: Waving Goodbye to the Bus: As fuel prices rise, some districts are updating an old method of getting children to school.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY: New Geothermal Technology Could Tap 120,000MW of Energy

GLOBAL WARMING: 5 Diseases that are Thriving Thanks to Global Warming, Earth Hotter Now Than in Past 2,000 Years, Study Says

GREEN: Both Conventions Touted as ‘Green’ Events, 10 Greenest Presidents in U.S. History: Which Leaders Fought to Protect the Environment?

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: California’s 220 MPH High-Speed Train Will Be Emissions-Free

HYBRID TECHNOLOGY: Paris Preview: Officially Official, Honda’s new hybrid is the Insight!, Toyota Prius owners can double their mileage by ordering a kit that converts their vehicle into a plug-in hybrid, Consumer Reports says that some hybrids do pay off - quickly, For Gustav-Level Outages, Cities Tap Hybrid Buses for Power, Honda Reveals New “Insight” Prius Killer, NYC gets hit with lawsuit over “unsafe” hybrid taxis, Berlin Hearts Electric Smarts

LANDFILLS: GM plans to dump use of landfills

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS: “Pristine” Reefs Part of Planned Marine Reserve

NEW SPECIES: New Giant Clam Found; May Have Fed Early Humans, New Catfish Species Found

NUCLEAR POWER: Another “Incident” at French Nuclear Plant

PHEV: Toyota launches plug-in Prius hybrid in UK

POPULATION GROWTH: Scientists: Save the planet—have fewer kids: As rising populations strain a warming planet, a British journal suggests having smaller families

REDISCOVERED SPECIES: Tiny Frog, Believed Extinct, Found in Australia

SALMON: Snapping Salmon: A Biologist’s Underwater Passion

SMART CAR: NYC garages grant smart for two cheaper parking rates, Vegas HUMMER dealer switching to SMART

SOLAR: COULD SOLAR HIGHWAYS POWER OUR CITIES?, SOLAR TREE by Vivien Muller

TAILPIPE EMISSIONS: California Moves on Bill to Curb Sprawl and Emissions

TRUCKING INDUSTRY: Trucking industry pushes for cleaner fleet, improved funding for nation’s infrastructure

WATER AVAILABILITY: Sun Used to Purify Water

WETLANDS: Iraq’s ‘Garden of Eden’ May Get Global Protection

WHALING: 4,000+ Japan Whale Harvest Not Justified, Experts Say

WIND POWER: Groundbreaking Energy Ball Wind Turbine for Home Power, Offshore wind farms may line U.S. coast

WTF?: THINGS THAT EXIST: High Heels For Babies

ZOOLOGICAL CONSERVATION: Too Few Asian Vultures in Captivity to Save Species?

This has been a summer of impossibilities: the Montauk Monster, a Bigfoot body, which turned out to be a fake, and most recently, a blacktip shark (Carcharhinus sp.) was pulled from Lake Michigan.  However, sharks aren’t supposed to be in Lake Michigan; although, according to the Global Shark Attack File, in 1955 George Lawson had his right leg bitten off by a bull shark (C. leucas) while swimming in Lake Michigan. Bull sharks are freshwater specialists, but blacktip sharks are not.

Certainly, the blacktip shark was a fake, joke, or pet that was released. The images (courtesy of Douglas Tesner/Record-Eagle) show the shark, which was allegedly found in Michigan’s West Grand Traverse Bay. From the Traverse City Record-Eagle:

There aren’t any witnesses, but Fasi, of Traverse City, said he pulled the roughly 2-foot shark from the bay about 100 yards west of Clinch Park Marina at about 5 p.m. He found the shark in about 25 feet of water, he said. It was dead, but wasn’t frozen.

“I could wiggle its tail, pry open its mouth, look at its teeth,” he said. “It didn’t look like it had any decomposition.”

Fasi threw the fish in his freezer and called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Cadillac-based DNR fisheries biologist Mark Tonello said the incident likely is a “big fat hoax.”

2008 has been the summer of monster madness: There was (1) the blood-sucking Chupacabra of Texas, (2) the monster of Montauk, which was most likely a raccoon, (3) then Bigfoot was an unsurprising hoax, and now (4) another decomposing creature has some folks excited. People are out of control, and I’m out of control for writing about these creatures on my blog. More at Buzzfeed, Gawker, or the North Shore Sun.

Culture exchange, curiosity, and satire collide in a Beijing restaurant that specializes in serving penises and testicles of various animals such as dog, lamb, and soft-shelled turtle. Personally, I’m not sure what to think, but several species of Asian soft-shell turtles are some of the most endangered animals on the planet.

& Rihanna is her #1 choice for VP! Sadly, if Hilton and Rihanna were both really running in the United States presidential election, 2008, I’d bet they would get a significant number of votes. I like Rihanna. The video can be watched here too.

Another YouTube favorite with a Paris Hilton theme: Who knew Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were closet science lovers?

Elizabeth Hasselbeck, in referring to Barack Obama’s popularity on the “The View,” claimed that there is only one opinion in this country right now. As if! Rightfully, Whoopi Goldberg, in referring to the Presidency of George W. Bush, snapped back saying that she got eaten because of the one opinion forced onto America during the past eight years. Some folks may find “The View” disgusting or intolerable, but the American talk show does have some very lively political discussion.

Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s comments on “The View” illustrates the problem I have with some republicans that fail to comprehend issues holistically. They fail to understand problems with environmental degradation, and they dismiss the environmental movement and sustainable development as a farce. They fail to understand the complex social problems amongst minorities in America including issues regarding blacks and gays. They use religion and abortion issues to impose immoral policies. For example, the U.S. Republican Party platform advocates a pro-life position but they do nothing for education, the homeless, or children in foster case. These social issues are traditionally of the democrat’s concern.

Republicans attack Obama as being too idealistic and not realistic enough. Ridiculous. I consider myself an objective person. If Barack Obama was as bad as people such as Hasselbeck or Rush Limbaugh makes him out to be, then I would certainly join the dissent, but there is absolutely no evidence for their claims. I can disassociate myself from my party.

Personally, I believe Barack Obama is a good man. He carries himself respectfully, he is competent, he wants to do well for our country, and he is idealistic. These are actually great characteristics to have. He has no narrow self-serving agenda like President Bush or Vice President Cheney. His personal story and history are angelic compared to the histories of Bush, Cheney, or McCain.

Some folks criticize his trip overseas as rhetoric or lacking substance. Ridiculous. His overseas trip was policy. As a country, we should care about world opinion. It should be public policy. During his trip, Obama was healing the wounds between America and Europe. He evaluated the problems of the Middle East firsthand and engaged in discourse with political and military leaders. He probably did more good in those days than George W. Bush has done in eight years.

Given the exhaustive list of the Bush Administration’s unprecedented wrongs, from the Iraq War, to the manipulation of conservation efforts and science at the government level, to the Justice Department’s discriminatory hiring and firings against liberals or dissenting conservatives, in addition to a laundry list of other morally wrong or illegal activities, why can’t Obama be good for this country?

The problem is that Senator John McCain simply can’t compete with a brand like Obama. McCain is like AM radio static. As a result, he resorts to attacks, which makes him look worse. He capitalizes off other people’s cynicism and racism. America is still a racist country. I am from North Carolina, and when I return home, I see racism. It still exists. Change has come slow to this country, and the fact that McCain has to capitalize on the ills of our country is disgusting. Currently, he is running the same campaign that destroyed Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton in my opinion.

Image by Jenna Hewitt

This image of a poor creature that met its end at sea is going around the Internet. The creature washed up onto a Montauk beach. I must say it isn’t a basking shark, beluga, or beaked whale. These creatures are often confused for sea monsters when they wash up dead and decomposed. Supposedly, this image is not photoshopped. Do you have any ideas of what it could be: a fake, the New Jersey Devil, the spawn of a nearby government animal-testing facility, a pug/sea turtle hybrid or simply a raccoon gone wrong? I have my bets on a raccoon or viral media.

There is more at Gawker and the East Hampton Star.  The Hamptons Plum looks at photoshopping, and the New York Magazine seems to case doubt on the image’s validity as being real, so it may be a “viral-marketing campaign.”

Jeff Corwin on Faux News discussing the Montauk Monster:

Montauk Monster updates:

From the Scientific American Blog: Mystery of the “Montauk Monster”:

But we may never know for sure. It seems, you see, that the body has been moved. And nobody (at least nobody talking) knows by whom—or where it was taken.

From Hamptons.com, NY: Experts Confirm Montauk Monster Is Relative Of Rocky Raccoon:

Larry Penny, director of Natural Resources for the Town of East Hampton, believes the creature is a raccoon in the beginning stages of a watery decay.

From The Huffington Post: Montauk Monster: “It” Object Of The Week:

The good people of East Hampton animal control adopted a (justifiably) skeptical eye towards the media’s fascination with the beast, passing around Daily Intel’s reporters until finally someone three phone calls later said that it was a raccoon, we imagine noncommittally.

Still, some denounced the photograph as (quel horreur!) a work of a twisted Photoshopper or worse: viral marketing. Gawker, which has now for whatever reason assumed expertise about the matter, has insisted on the Montauk Monster’s legitimacy.

From chicagotribune.com: Montauk Monster:

But William Wise, director of Stony Brook University’s Living Marine Resources Institute, after looking at the photo and consulting with a fellow biologist (who knows land creatures), disagrees.

He knows what it isn’t.

A raccoon. (”The legs appear to be too long in proportion to the body.”)

A sea turtle. (”Sea turtles do not have teeth.”)

A rodent. (”Rodents have two huge, curved incisor teeth in front of their mouths.”)

He said the general body shape looks like a dog or other canine (”Coyote?”). But that the “prominent eye ridge and the feet” don’t match.

He said the feet and face look “somewhat ovine” — that would be like a sheep — but sheep don’t have sharp teeth.

Wise’s best, educated guess: “A talented someone who got very creative with latex.”

In other words, a fake — which would place Wise with the skeptics. (Many of whom believe the image could have been manipulated with computer software.)

From the New York News Blog | New York Magazine: East Hampton Bureaucrats Deny Montauk Monster Is Beast From Hell:

.       .       .

“Larry Penny said it’s a raccoon,” said Carry-Smyth, speaking of the environmental-protection director, who was out of the office today. “If you look at it, that little bug on the shoulder area is actually a fly, and that gives you an idea of what size it is,” she said. “He said the jaw was broken, and that’s why it looks like a beak. With long fingers…it’s more like a raccoon.” Wait a second: like a raccoon or actually a raccoon? After we hung up, we took her advice. We’re looking at it again now, and we’re pretty sure what we see is a fly on the shoulder of a smallish monster.

This story may be hard to swallow at first but it’s true.  According to the Associated Press, a landowner in Arkansas found a “pair of conjoined barn swallows, attached at the hip by skin and possibly muscle tissue”.  Conjoined twins are documented in mammals such as Homo sapiens in addition to reptiles, but the phenomenon is very rare in birds.  Considering the nature of birds, the likelihood of conjoined twins surviving amongst birds is very low.  Furthermore, the chances of survival would continue to decrease over time (from egg development to feathering).  Certainly, the barn swallows would have perished if not discovered because of their inability to fly and effectively find and catch food.

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AIR POLLUTION: Beijing smog awful: Dutch coach

ALTERNATIVE FUELS: Power from poop: Putting manure to use, From garbage to gas tank: Trash as biofuel

ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON: Tarantulas, fire ants lurk in Texas floodwaters, Power outages widespread in Texas after Dolly

AUTO INDUSTRY: New markets spur Honda to record quarter: Honda reports record fiscal 1Q profit as demand in new markets offsets currency damage

BIOFUELS: Chemical breakthrough turns sawdust into biofuel

CETACEANS: North Shore residents want whale carcass off their property, Whale playground sheds light on melting Arctic

CHINESE CONSUMPTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES: China’s cars, accelerating a global demand for fuel

CLIMATE CHANGE: Bush cronies tried to redefine ‘carbon dioxide’ to save power plants from emissions regulations

DEFORESTATION: Half the Amazon rainforest to be Lost by 2030

FISHERIES: Coast Guard ends search for missing fishing-boat captain, Point Judith memorial to honor Rhode Island fishermen lost at sea, Mexico risks losing mangroves, fisheries

FOOD INDUSTRY: Schwarzenegger Terminates Trans Fat in Calif.

GREEN: Direct mail tries to go green. No, really.

INVASIVE SPECIES: New research seeks methods to kill alien species, Foreign shellfish on ‘pest’ list

OCEAN DEAD ZONES: Gulf dead zone grows bigger than ever

OIL: Debate on oil speculators hits new pitch, How lower oil prices might increase demand

PLASTIC BAGS: No plastic bags in LA stores beginning July 2010

REEL BIG FISH: Giant river stingrays found

SEA TURTLES: Global warming forces innovative sea turtle protection

SHARKS: Sharks feed on whale carcass, Swimming with whale sharks, a reality near Cancun, Aquarium abuses whale sharks, Shark count to begin off Cornwall coast

WILDFIRES: Yosemite Park wildfire rages out of control

WIND POWER: Homeowners living near windfarms see property values plummet: Thousands of homeowners may see the value of their properties plummet after a UK court ruled that living near a wind farm decreases house prices, U.S. takes global lead in wind energy production, World’s largest offshore wind farm back on track

WTF?: Piglet born with monkey’s face

Rats with wings is how many of us perceive pigeons. However, I agree with Alexis Madrigal that a pigeon can serve a greater utility on our dinner plates, and the birds are more accurately described as “waste-scavenging, protein-generating biomachine[s].” Pigeon is some good eating and I like the reasoning that:

Really, all pigeons need is a re-branding. Just as the spurned Patagonian toothfish became the majestic Chilean sea bass and the silly Chinese gooseberry became the beloved kiwifruit, pigeons can merely reclaim their previous sufficiently arugula-sounding name: squab.

The term squab now refers to the meat of the baby pigeon, but it can also mean pigeons in general, so we can simply extend the brand back to its historical proportions. In fact, some companies like Bokhari Squab Farms are already doing good business selling the stuff: A dozen of Bokhari’s live squab goes for $60.

Imagine this:

can turn into this:

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Photo source for attribution here and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.

BIODIVERSITY: More bird species means fewer West Nile cases

BIOFUELS: Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis: Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive

CANARY IN THE COAL MINE: Penguin woes signal trouble at sea

CARBON: NYC to spend billions to cut greenhouse gases

CLIMATE CHANGE: Welcome to the climate insecurity generation, Grasslands hold up to climate change, California plants squeezed by climate change

CONSERVATION: Nature reserves attract humans, but at a cost to biodiversity, Nature 2.0: Redefining conservation

DAMS: Aral Sea revived by dam

ENERGY POLICY: American energy policy, asleep at the spigot

EXTINCTION: Orang-utans ‘on fast track to extinction’

FISHERIES: Lobsters, crabs, squid, and other invertebrates are becoming more common while populations of bottom-feeding fish are plummeting, according to a long-term trawling study of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay

FOOD: Ugly veggies to ease food crisis?, Taking bite out of banana mess

FUEL ECONOMY: Even modest increases in MPG can equal big gas savings

FUEL PRICES: NYC taxi drivers demand $1 fuel surcharge: Bloomberg Administration opposes idea; union threatens its own unspecified opposition

G8 SUMMIT: Environmentalists unhappy with G8 emissions goal, Environmentalists dismiss G-8 emissions target, Summit that’s hard to swallow - world leaders enjoy 18-course banquet as they discuss how to solve global food crisis

GLOBAL WARMING: Penguin chicks frozen by global warming?, Blocking sun not feasible warming solution

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: NYC to spend billions to cut greenhouse gases

HEALTH: Mississippi is the fattest state in the Union

INVASIVE SPECIES: Penguins strangled by invasive grass

MADAGASCAR: Madagascar hopes tourism saves ‘Noah’s Ark’

SCIENCE: Extreme rain grows mountains, Ancient ice sheets fell like dominoes

SOLAR: NanoMarkets predicts thin-film solar cell industry will produce more than 26 gigawatts by 2015, Meet the steel-melting solar mirror

WATER POLLUTION: Olympic sailors facing polluted waters

WILDFIRES: California grid urges conservation amid heat and fires, With resources tight, Californians take on wildfires themselves

WIND POWER: Oil billionaire Pickens puts his money on wind power

WTF?:: Restaurant: Man who died had ordered crab meat: No criminal charges will be filed, but investigators have suggested a mistake occurred

Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann makes a failed attempt at conservation or environmentalism. She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) and claims that we may observe “an enhancement of wildlife expansion because of the warmth of the pipeline.” Her logic is flawed. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) are an Arctic and sub-Arctic species and are made up of several subspecies including the Porcupine caribou or Grant’s Caribou (R. tarandus granti). If caribou and other Arctic species need warmth then there should be a geographical shift further south. Rush Limbaugh makes a similar flawed argument. No such observations exist. In fact, the opposite observation exists where species are shifting north or into higher altitudes.

She also claims that global warming is her friend. Furthermore, the Republican from Minnesota notes that she is pro-choice when it comes to light bulb choice. As a result, she introduced the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act in response to the government’s proactive attempt to reduce unnecessary energy consumption and waste by phasing out traditional light bulbs. As TreeHugger notes, “this isn’t one of our Onion parodies, it’s real.” She cites the mercury content contained within compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) as the flaw for this shift. However, America gets a fair share of its power from coal so the use of CFLs reduces energy or coal consumption.

She also says that she is a “fool for Christ.” However, I am sure Christ probably thinks she is a fool for socially constructing Christianity to impose her agenda and for not making more of an effort to save the destruction of Creation or Nature from gluttonous, gross and unchecked anthropogenic consumption.

On the Net: H.R. 5616: Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act
On the Net: Mercury-Containing Light Bulb (Lamp) Recycling

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain’s energy policy is all over the place. McCain states that “we must shift our entire energy economy toward new and cleaner power sources…such as wind, solar biofuels…clean burning coal and nuclear energy…” Note his emphasis on nuclear energy and the words that flash across the screen: “End the federal moratorium on drilling.” This isn’t an energy security plan. It’s a political plan to pander voters. Furthermore, the nuclearization of energy sources isn’t necessary for being carbon serious or developing a long-term energy plan.

Why does McCain want to drill offshore when we have massive reserves in the form of shale oil that could be developed? According to “[T]he Rand Corporation estimates the sedimentary rock in the corner where Utah borders Colorado and Wyoming holds about 800 billion barrels….[which is] three times the size of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.” Offshore oil drilling just like the gas tax holiday fixes nothing since drilling for oil offshore will do nothing to bring down current domestic gas prices. Additionally, international supply and demand determines the price of oil so drilling here in America will have little affect on domestic gas prices as well. Just like the gas tax holiday, McCain’s policies are lacking and simply foolish.

Burger King has a chef and a $200 burger! The burger is made with “premium, prohibitively priced, Japanese-style Wagyu, flame-grilled, garnished with Italian truffles, Spanish cured ham, aged balsamic vinegar, Champagne onions and popped onto a saffron- and truffle-dusted bun.” Certainly, this burger symbolizes the decadence of Western lifestyle and disparities between the rich and the poor. However, there is more beef with beef.

Personally, I can’t help but love beef. However, I rarely eat red meat because the industry is unsustainable. I rarely cook beef at home and usually get my protein from dairy products in addition to chicken or seafood but I would order grass fed organic beef at a restaurant.

Another problem I have with beef is that I do not trust voluntary regulation. Earlier this year the industry came under scrutiny for allowing downer cows or cows that seem weak because of injury or disease to be allowed into the food chain and be mistreated. These downer cows may be legitimately injured but diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease is a real issue. The exact origin or how BSE entered into the food supply is unknown. However, what is known is that industrial cattle farms were feeding cattle “meat and bone meal, produced from the ground and cooked left-overs of the slaughtering process as well as from the cadavers of sick and injured animals such as cattle, sheep, or chickens, as a protein supplement…” Knowing the big issues surrounding the beef industry makes me rethink how I approach beef as a consumer.

Grass Fed Organic Beef from Alderspring Ranch in Idaho

WTF?. Completely laughable.

Chilli a giant Friesian steer may be the United Kingdom’s tallest bovine and certainly one of the tallest in the world. Go here or click the image for more information.

Louisiana SPCA CEO Anna Zorrilla noted that “sometimes, when a puppy is born, the amniotic fluid mixes with the placenta and dyes the coat of the puppy and it almost always happens to very light colored puppies.”

Image Found Here

This is old news that is new to me where an onlooker captured on video a pelican lunging and consuming a pigeon at London’s St. James’s Park. However, I find it more odd that the pelican ate bread according to the News anchor. Anyhow, one less domesticated pigeon in London isn’t going to break too many hearts.

I have seen the pelicans at St. James’s Park and I believe they are African Pink-backed pelicans (Pelecanus rufescens).

A Taiwanese zookeeper lost his arm to a 440-pound Nile crocodile while trying to retrieve a tranquilizer dart embedded in the reptile at the Shaoshan Zoo. Obviously, the animal was not completely anesthetized as it severed the man’s arm with its powerful bite. Amazingly, according to ABC News, the arm was retrieved fairly quickly after the incident and it was reattached.

In February, a boy lost his arm at a circus in east China when he was attacked by a lion that grabbed him through the bars in its cage.

Always keep alert when working with wild animals in captivity. I have never worked with crocodiles or lions but I have worked with cranes, ostriches and spur-winged geese. Unbelievably some birds are dangerous and capable of doing severe damage too. I always kept alert when working in some aviaries. I certainly would never place my arm anywhere near the mouth of a crocodile or be anywhere near the cage of a big cat that is capable of contact through the cage. Furthermore, I would practice extra precaution on any potentially dangerous animal that had been anesthetized.

A woman while boating came into contact with a spotted stingray that resulted in a very bizarre, tragic and unlikely accidental death. Spotted stingrays leap to avoid danger and apparently can be startled by boats.

Other leaping aquatic wildlife can be dangerous to boaters. Last year a Florida woman was knocked unconscious by a leaping sturgeon. Asian carp are another species of fish that pose a threat to boaters. In one such unlucky event a researcher “was sitting on the edge of a boat that was trolling down a wide-open stretch of the Mississippi River just south of Alton, Illinois, when a six-pound silver carp flew through the air, struck the back of his head and caused a neck injury.” From The Huffington Post:

MSNBC brought us some seriously bizarre “breaking news” today out of Florida. The network showed images of a stingray that had allegedly killed a woman by either knocking her in the head while flying over the boat she was in or stabbing her with its barb. The dead ray was being transported back to the shore so that investigators could assess how the accident killed both parties.

Falcons, eroticism and sexuality - I must be too vanilla to understand but the movement apparently exists as either a pure fetish, humor or somewhere in between. The images are obviously photoshopped since a raptor’s talons are designed to easily dig into flesh so I would not take this site seriously with a straight face but as tongue-in-cheek. The sites founder notes:

Eroticfalconry.com is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg. Our goal is to show others what turns us on so that they can see the natural sexual ferocity of our feathered friends.

Image Found Here