Animals on The Huffington Post

Butterflies In Space Station: Butterflies Attempt To Fly In Space And Fail (VIDEO)

2009-12-05T14:47:50Z

The University of Kansas and Bioserve Technologies decided to send some monarch butterfly larvae to the International Space Station, provide them with microgravity (the nearest thing to feeling weightless) and see whether or not the caterpillars would become butterflies. The creatures did manage to metamorphose, but now that they're butterflies, the poor things absolutely cannot fly. The low gravity conditions fling them into a chaotic and rapid flight pattern that sends them banging around the plastic cages they're living in.

The first video is of Dr. Chip Taylor, the director of Monarch Watch, explaining the experiment. The second is a video of the results of Monarch Watch, and the third seems to be a pair of butterflies who got stuck together. Take a look and let us know what you think.

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Critters Up Close (PHOTOS)

2009-12-04T16:28:56Z

Here at HuffPost Green, we're fascinated by critters in all forms. We thought we'd look at them from a new angle with this up-close animal sideshow.

Check it out below!

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Monkeys Recognize Their Pals In Photos

2009-12-04T15:12:44Z

Monkeys can recognize photographs of other monkeys they know, proving that they can both detect differences in faces and figure out if they've seen them before, researchers report.

Cat Cams: What DO Cats Do Home Alone?

2009-12-03T16:06:38Z

LOS ANGELES — What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out – "cat cams."

Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping.

Hamster Jazz Band: Mini Musicians 'Play' Up A Storm (VIDEO)

2009-12-03T10:39:46Z

It seems like everyone's got a band these days. First, a band of babies brought down the house. Now, some hamsters have formed a jazz quartet. Sure, they're playing to an empty hamster cage, but that might as well be a smokey jazz lounge, with drink specials on tubes of water. So come on down. Leave your exercise wheels at home.

WATCH:

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Young Humpback Whale Tangled In Rope Off Hawaii

2009-12-02T21:43:22Z

LAHAINA, Hawaii — A juvenile humpback whale entangled in hundreds of feet of heavy rope off the Hawaii coast was being tracked by marine experts Wednesday.

"The entanglement is life-threatening," said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. "It's in the mouth, and it's over the body. It's yellow, polypropylene line, pretty heavy gauge, and it's several hundred feet of line on the animal."

Abstaining Blue Footed Boobies Get Sexier (VIDEO)

2009-12-02T17:38:19Z

Now this is a new angle on abstinence, at least, in the kingdom. Male blue-footed boobies who abstain from sex for a year develop a brighter, more attractive shade of blue in their feet.

From our friends at National Geographic:

A new study shows that while attractiveness of the blue feet diminishes with age in males that reproduce each year, if males skip a breeding season and dont mate, they displayed a more attractive foot color and had more green chroma....

They concluded that its likely the sabbaticals from reproducing offspring may allow the male boobies to physically recover and display brighter feet in their quest in finding a mate.

Watch the video below.

Curious about more animal mating rituals? Watch this tangled Octopus affair here, and the Riflebird's "In Your Face" mating dance here.

Poetry Activism

2009-12-02T15:48:21Z

Vermin: A Notebook

John Kinsella
Poetry Magazine

Driving down to the city this morning, we saw five or six emus crossing the road in an area of national park where I hadn't seen emus before--not once in a lifetime of driving that way. It was a remarkable and invigorating sight as they plunged into the wandoo woodlands of Western Australia, negotiating their way through the spiky hakeas and parrot bush.

On a personal level, it came as a kind of foil for the weekend-that-was--a complex amalgamation of environmental affirmation and also witnessing of horrific environmental crime. The sort of experience that leaves you wondering if any form of environmental activism has any chance of succeeding, yet nonetheless also convinced that there is no choice about acts of resistance. Without them, the environment has no chance.

And writing a statement like this is part of a process of creating poems that hopefully resonate in different ways and in different contexts, and extend what is a particularly local debate into the wider dialogue of which, sadly, it is also part. The compulsion to witness in poetry, the desire to overcome a feeling of crushing failure, and the need to create a cautionary tale that is more than propaganda--all this goes hand-in-hand with a volatility and (maybe overly) emotional reaction to the situations as they happen.

I can see the poem forming in my head as I am raging against an act of destruction, not as a fetishized aesthetic "response," but in the struggle to formulate a language of reply that is not aggressive and thus self-defeating and hypocritical. I am being somewhat obtuse here. To begin at one possible beginning . . .

***

On Friday night at about 9:00 PM, Tracy asked me if I'd heard a rifle shot. I hadn't, but I did hear the one that came just after she spoke. A few minutes later: another, and much closer. I went outside and wandered into the dark, detecting torchlights up the bushed laneway, next to the small road reserve. Another shot--maybe two hundred meters away at most. It was the report of a high-powered rifle.

I yelled at the top of my voice to stop, the torches swung in my direction, and there was another gunshot. Inside, Tracy thought I had been hit; for a moment, so did I. Eventually, though we're a long way out of town, it took the police to resolve this situation. Never a desired intervention, but it has to be said that if they hadn't shown up, someone in our family mightn't be alive.

It turned out (we discovered this the next day), that there was a fox hunt being conducted in the area. Fascinating, how private land, which people around our way defend with such passion, should change into public land without boundaries when pursuing foxes--the great hunter-capitalist liminality!--and that reserve land, where shooting is illegal, should become part of the script. That's part one of the shire-as-killing-zone.

***

Part two. Saturday morning about 8:30 AM. A cascade of explosions in the distance. Sounds like firecrackers or a fireworks display. It can't be--no events on, and the wrong time of year . . . the whole district would erupt in flame, as everything is still tinder-dry and there's a full fire ban.

The sound diminishes, and one can detect the tone of individual shots being fired--shotgun rounds. I realize that it's happening in town, probably by the river. Corellas. They are culling corellas. Someone in the house says, yes, locals have been going on about it for weeks--the corellas have been eating the croquet lawn and making a noise. The usual complaints. I drive downtown and see corellas in the dead trees (dead from salinity, however, not from the corellas, as some claim) along the river. I cross the bridge and park next to the church, as I see utility vehicles parked outside. I jump out--round the old Holy Trinity Church where I attended services as a child and struggled between skepticism and soul, formulating my own spiritual anarchism--to see a guy with a shotgun and a boy on a two-way. A number of guys are walking around searching the trees and skies and firing.

The shotguns are no cheap pieces--they are what such shooters consider artworks. Sports shooters. I scream at one of the men and call him a murderer. If nothing else, can't they even respect a house of worship? I ask if they're professional shooters, which wouldn't make it any better from my point of view, but would indicate what the shire was up to. No. Go and see the ranger, they tell me.

I do--she's fifty feet away. I yell at her and say: This is not the way, this is not the way. You are wrong. I lose my cool. She sends me to the shire. I drive down there and have an angry exchange with one of the shire officers. If nothing else, having sports shooters in town on a Saturday morning, with families and their dogs walking around, is not acceptable. I can't make you see that the corellas matter, but surely the bloody people do? It then degenerates into what I think of the shire and its failure to protect the environment, now and on any other occasion, and I storm off. It is all very extreme. I probably achieve little, but coincidentally or not, I hear no more gunshots today.

***

These two incidents turned out to be unrelated, but they do convey a lot of notions about the "country." Though I live out in the wheatbelt, and though I have a lifelong connection with it, I am not "country." Nor am I "city." These are terms used to control discourses of place, movement, and especially the production of food (and mining).

I live where I live to help conserve the "nature" that's left. I write poems of resistance and protection. To fill in the rest of the picture of this weekend: I spent the time at Jam Tree Gully, a rocky hillside block abutting a nature reserve with acres of York gums and jam trees. Rehabilitating the land, very much denuded by horse and sheep grazing, is the aim of my coming years. Off-grid, off main water. Over the two days, I watched and photographed mistletoe birds, thornbills, willy wagtails, twenty-eight parrots, magpies, a kestrel, two eagles, a mulga snake, white-chinned honeyeaters, pardalotes, an orb weaver spider, bull-ants, and a family of kangaroos. I watched their movements--how local birds follow the nomadic birds as they pass through, the locals going to the edge of their own territory, then flying back; I watched how obvious edge-effects like roads and even fencelines with firebreaks work as imposition or are adapted into larger pictures of flight and crossover involving rocky ledges, gullies, and vegetation. In watching, I understand how better to write a poetry of resistance that will declare the necessity of preserving this region. Can it operate without me shouting out my poems against the shooters, the shires? Whatever the answer is, I do know that every act of resistance adds together, and remaining non-aggressive but resolute in response is what slows the assault against the environment. The assault is remorseless.

***

For me, poetry has no point in existing if it's not to be a prompt or aid to political and ethical change. This is not to say that a poem should be political or ethical instruction, but rather that it might engender a dialogue between the poem itself and the reader / listener, between itself and other poems and texts, and between all of these and a broader public (whatever that might be). I see myself as a poet activist--every time I write a poem, it is an act of resistance to the state, the myriad hierarchies of control, and the human urge to conquer our natural surroundings.

***

In using the language tools I have inherited (and, at times, neologistically sought to alter, even dismantle), I am inevitably part of what I critique. I am complicit. I try to lessen the ironies of my own life (by being vegan, giving up flying, resisting the logging of forests, and so on), but I am still participating in social discourse and "making a living," and that paints me into the same corner as most of us. The very act of using a computer contradicts the de-technologizing impulse that underpins what I do. Furthermore, I accept that what I see as core ethical issues are not perceived that way by many readers of poetry.

***

I come out of a science background and at an early age was working in labs and obsessed with the nomenclatures of science. In subscribing to "Neo-luddism," I am not opposing the accretion of knowledge, but the misuse of that knowledge. So much "science" is a desire to control and to profit. This I oppose. The language of poetry, even in its most lyrical modes, is a language of specific usage--poetry is about arrangement, selection, and presentation as much as what's said. That process of knowledge regarding expression is, to me, scientific.

Science per se is a process of investigation, observation, patterning through to hypothesis, and rests in the scrutinizable and systematic acquisition of knowledge. That's what a poem is to me too. This is why an activist poetics doesn't have to be subjective propaganda. The subjective has a part in it; indeed, some would say that without this a text can't be a poem. But if a poem doesn't utilize knowledge and the processes of obtaining knowledge, then it does less work than it might towards resisting damage (to people, to animals, to plants, to the land itself). I am interested in extensive digression, degrees of separation, even verbal tricks and diversions--in other words, a circuitous route to discussing or seeking to discover a "truth."

No poem really knows a truth, but it has knowledge and offers ways of approaching truth. The use of language is precise, even when it gives a semblance of the unconscious, even when it is automatic writing. In the Surrealist sense, the conducting of automatic writing exercises was experimental textually and scientifically, and was as much about the act of recording the data of process as it was about the subject connecting with the unconscious. It was, at least, quasi-scientific.

And the pseudo- and quasi- interest me. The games of dismantling and rearranging, of exquisite corpse and chance, are all part of the science of a poem for me: they are just different systems of knowledge. That's why an activist poetics can include the radically linguistically innovative, as well as the straight declaration ("logging the Tuart Forest is wrong"). Parataxis, conventional end-stopped lines and enjambment, narrative description, metaphor and metonymies, are all part of a process towards confronting hierarchies and imposed structures. We work from inside to open a view of the outside, but not one that destroys in the process.

***

A pacifist, which is what I am, can be the strongest resister, and pacifism the most defiant form of resistance. Same with language usage: I mix the old and the new to engage with a debate about protection, preservation, conservation, and respect of the "natural" world. I am aware of the problems these words carry in terms of implying complicity, because I am a poet rather than a speech writer. For me, because of this, poems can stop bulldozers. Not because they just say "stop bulldozer," but because the intricacies of language challenge, distract, and entangle the bulldozer. I am using a semantics not of analogy, but of opposition. My words are intended to halt the damage--to see what shouldn't be seen, to declare and challenge it.

***

I have not yet written the poems that go hand in hand with these actions, though I have seen them in my mind's eye, because they happen as I interact and respond physically and emotionally to the world around me, and also they appear between the lines in my notebook, attaching themselves to broader ideas and counterpointing received systems of thought. Really, though, the activist moment that becomes a poem is often away from the incident or the moment of witnessing. It becomes a moment where the figurative merges with a politics of response, forming what we might term the "para-figurative"--not didactic, but still informed by a genuine political-ethical idea / l. Last night, for example.

***

Once again, around 9:00 PM, a strange and confusing noise arose outside. I went out to investigate. As all in the house described it, it was like a mob of injured birds calling out. I thought of the corellas--maybe some had survived and were on the block calling in pain. Flashlight in hand, I raced up the hill; then suddenly the noise intensified and I heard a rush, and the sound of feet.

Moments later, the sound came from a different paddock. I walked over and the noise became a mixture of growls, squawks, and screams. I shone the torch in the direction of the sound and two pairs of eyes caught the light. One on top of the other.

It was foxes mating. Foxes who'd been missed by the hunt. I turned the light off and left them to it. If ever there was a sound of pleasure and pain rolled into one . . .

The poetic analogy is obvious and irresistible. And that's where the poet activist has to be careful--what I can take from this moment is no more or less than what I can take from the events that preceded it over the weekend. Foxes and corellas are both considered vermin. The corellas increase in number because of clearing and monoculture. Foxes were introduced in the nineteenth century as sport. Entertainment by way of killing them is sold as environmental, and yet the pleasure is all in the hands of the shooters and those who incite them. In this equation is the entire politics of what I write--in resisting through poetry the industry of pleasure and control that comes from hunting and exploitation of the environment, I am also, I believe, writing the survival and liberty of animals (including humans!).

Read more at The Poetry Foundation.

Sophia Yin: How Puppy Class Almost Ruined My Dad's New Cattledog

2009-12-02T14:06:50Z

When we last left off, I'd dropped Lucy, the 8 week old Australian Cattledog with my parents after taking a week to train her through the puppy Learn to Earn program (See Creating the Perfect Pup in 7 Days) at my house. Before I brought her down, she seemed virtually perfect. She would automatically sit to be petted, to get her leash on, to go out the door, to have her toy tossed, and even when she greeted guests, including young toddlers. She could fetch and would chew on appropriate toys. And she could walk on leash in heel position and come when called even away from playing with other puppies.

Then I brought her to my Dad, with the hopes that if my parents could just continue to reward the behaviors I had just trained she'd be almost as well-behaved for them. It sounded so simple, until on day one at their house she immediately decided, they didn't exist. They were far too slow to deliver the treat while she was behaving or sitting and looking at them, so she'd immediately run off and do something else. And when they intuitively admonished "No" or "Psst" or tried to hold her on a short leash or just pulled her by the leash and collar--all the traditional techniques they had learned back in the 1970's and 80's with their other dogs--she got even wilder!

Luckily, the Puppy Learn to Earn program starts with the puppy on leash at all times when the owners are home but without the owners giving all kinds of mixed signals by trying to boss the pup or manipulate the leash. The leash just served to keep her near my dad thus giving him a better chance to reward calm, sit behavior. After a full day attached to him earning all of the kibble from her meal as rewards throughout the day, Lucy finally started sitting and looking at him. They finally started bonding. And it was a good thing since I would be unable to return to check their progress and give additional instruction for several weeks.

Hints of Lucy's Bad Behavior
In the weeks that I was away, it was clear my dad and Lucy were bonding. "Lucy licks me when I carry her," or "Lucy's doing better at sitting for us," he would report.
But then came the email reports from my mom when I was traveling to attend and lecture on behavior at veterinary conferences. "She's still pottying in the house, what should we do?" "Lucy is chewing on our arms, how come?" " She keeps grabbing her leash on walks. How do we stop that?" Now these seem like typical questions anyone might have, but that would be people who's did not already have a 35-page 100-photo book specifically detailing how their puppy had been trained and how they should continue training the puppy to avoid such problems. So my answers included statements, such as "Did you read and look at the photos on pages 1-8 on how to potty train Lucy, or p 19 on nipping? Or watch the instructional videos I sent on how to perform the exercises?"

The answer was generally, "No." Even though my dad doesn't like to read in English, I had hoped he would at least look at the photos. Yeah, right.

Anyway, based on their reports, when I finally visited them about two weeks after I'd last seen her I wasn't surprised by her bad behavior. On a positive note, my parents had walked her twice a day through the neighborhoods of San Francisco where she greeted many people and received treats for sitting. So she was very comfortable with new people and much more comfortable than 2 weeks ago around cars, buses, crowds of people, as well as fire engines, dump trucks and the other city sounds that and sights that could scare dogs who hadn't received such experiences before 12 weeks of age.

On the other hand two weeks ago we had a sweet puppy who sat for petting, treats, to be greeted, to get leash on and on walks whenever we stopped, now Lucy was a jumping maniac. That in itself wasn't that bad, nor was the fact that she was still an angel when I walked her on leash but a little monster when my dad tried. She would stop and grab leaves or lunge randomly in different directions or grab the leash and play tug. What was really bad was the things she learned in her puppy class. I saw them first hand when I went.

Lucy's Bad Puppy Class
Puppy socialization class starting as close to 8 weeks of age as possible is supposed to solve or prevent a number of problem issues from developing in puppies. Starting socialization well before puppy vaccines are complete often makes the difference between having a dog that integrates nicely into your daily routine both in the hosue and out in public and the dog that needs to be locked in the house or yard because it's fearful and even aggressive towards unfamiliar dogs, people or inanimate objects and sounds.

In class, owners should practice handling their puppies and teaching their puppies that remaining calm to have their feet, ears, tail, mouth examined is good. This is important for routine care as well as specialized veterinary care when needed. Puppies should also learn how to play nicely with other puppies and dogs, that humans in general are safe and friendly, and that even in the high excitement environment of a class with other puppies and people, they should be able to calm down and focus on their owners.

That's in theory what puppies are supposed to learn, but what Lucy learned was exactly the opposite. In the class, the instructor started with handling exercises. Lucy's breeder had started these during Lucy's first weeks, so Lucy had been good with me, all of my student volunteers, and my parents from day one. But during class, the problem was that she wanted to play with the puppies so she was struggling and my parents didn't know how to hold her to prevent this. You'd think I would jump in and help, but not wanting to miss the educational opportunity or to interfere in the instructor's class, I just videotaped the evidence as the bad behavior played out.

First Lucy just struggled in short bursts. But next thing she was growling. The room was fairly quiet with everyone sitting in a circle, so the growling sounded like it was through a megaphone to me. The instructor seemed oblivious. I asked her what she wanted my parents to do in this type of situation. Her answer told me she hadn't been watching. She started explaining how to reward Lucy for allowing her feet to be handled when the actual problem was that my parents had not been holding Lucy effectively. Note: I know this because I had spent the previous year producing a 1600 hundred photo-illustrated book and DVD called Low Stress Handling, Restraint and Behavior Modification of Dogs and Cats. This involved videotaping and analyzing exactly what technicians, veterinarians and other animal healthcare staff were doing right and wrong when handling animals, And then photographing both correct techniques in a stepwise manner that people could follow as well as showing incorrect techniques so that animal professionals would know the common mistakes they were likely to make.

Not that the instructors instruction was wrong. My parents were actually doing the desensitization and counterconditioning incorrectly. They were randomly giving treats and handling her feet, rather than giving treat at the same time or within a split second of handing the feet so that Lucy could make the connection. The funny thing was that my parents looked so happy when they were performing the exercise incorrectly, even when Lucy was struggling and growling. So as I looked through the video camera lens in horror, they were just enjoying their new puppy.

I watched as the instructor patiently explained and demonstrated the correct method of feeling the feet and then rewarding for good behavior with a treat. The problem is that after the first few times, the instructor's technique changed. She would feel the feet and sometime take over 3 seconds to follow with a treat making it less clear to Lucy that the food was associated with the foot handling. Then, not surprisingly, as soon as the instructor walked away, my parents went back handling Lucy's feet or mouth or other body parts and randomly giving her treats, as they had been before. So they clearly hadn't understood what the instructor had told them. Mental note to self: Have hidden video of participants in my own dog classes to see how frequently this happens. Luckily in my classes I have one assistant per every 2-3 participants.

Next, it was time for puppy play session. The instructor had us let the puppies loose, all 8 at one time and now I understood why Lucy's behavior was so bad. In my puppy classes I tend to only let two or three puppies off leash at a time while dragging a leash, and I match the puppies based on personality and play style. Otherwise shy ones will be bowled over and learn that they were correct in being scared. Rambuctious ones will learn that all play, not matter how rough, is allowed. In my classes, puppies only get to play with other puppies after they can focus well on their owners when around the other puppies. This generally occurs during the first session. If they don't learn how to focus on the owners they will just learn during puppy play time that it's acceptable and rewarding to blow their owners off.

In fact, in this class, ignoring people is exactly what Lucy learned. She'd run and jump on a puppy and wrestle for up to 30 seconds and the run and jump on another. She didn't care if she was on the top of bottom when playing, so long as she was playing all the time. She raced back and forth as the other owners laughed, "Lucy's the fastest one." Personally, when everyone in the class is at a consensus that one puppy is the wildest one and that puppy's owners are also the oldest senior citizens in the class, it raises a huge red flag. These owners will need lots of one-on-one help if they plan to keep the puppy in their family for a long time or to raise a canine good citizen instead of doggie juvenile delinquent.

Next the instructor started the exercise called "Catch the puppy," where people would grab a puppy's collar and then give them a treat. The goal is that the puppy learns that it's good to be grabbed by the collar. The problem is that for puppies to make the connection for sure, it's best to grab their collar and follow with a a short string of treat and to practice this exercise 5-10 times in a row and in multiple sessions until the puppy actively looks to you for a treats whenever his collar is grabbed. What Lucy was learning was that she didn't like having her collar grabbed, it meant she wouldn't go to play. This learning was clear, later in the class when the instructor was stepping on the leash I'd put on Lucy so that she could observe Lucy better. A puppy owner went to grab Lucy's collar and Lucy turned, flashed her teeth, and growled. The instructor didn't notice. So much for observing her better. A handful of assistants would have been good given that it's difficult to supervise 8 wrestling puppies.

This collar grabbing technique became even less likely to effective when the instructor stated, "Now when you grab the puppy, have him sit, and then lie down and then stand." Now all of a sudden the room was filled with demands of "sit, sit, sit, sit..." Then when a puppy owner caught Lucy and Lucy was too interested in other dogs to pay attention to the treat, the instructor instructed, "First tell her to sit." By then Lucy, who knows to automatically sit when she can't get what she wants, was sitting. Regardless, the instructor repeated, "tell her to sit." So the puppy owner said, "sit" to Lucy who was already sitting, and then gave her a treat. Now, not only was Lucy learning that collar grab means cessation of play, but she was learning her cue to sit (or to not sit in cases where she was too distracted to sit) was "sit, sit, sit, sit, sit." Unfortunately, I didn't get this on tape.

The rest of the class Lucy's behavior continued to deteriorated. She became more and more aroused around the other puppies. She was happy to be the puppy on the bottom of the pile and play on her back, but she pounced on the puppies the way football player pounce on a fumbled football. She could not focus on me or my parents or hold still--especially since even when she was being held by her collar, other puppies might still be running around and jumping on her.

So, in just two puppy classes and a little over two weeks with my parents, Lucy had turned from a calm, sweet, polite puppy, to a puppy with impulse control issues and the start of aggression issues.

Needless to say, I took her out of the class and took her back home with me to work with her more. Once at my house, I was able to confirm that my worries were correct. Now when Jonesy, my Jack Russell Terrier, growled at Lucy to get her to back off, she would leap on him more excitedly instead of backing down. Several weeks ago she's quickly gotten the hint from Jonesy and backed down. This inappropriate behavior was repeated with two other test dogs similar in size. They grew tired of her repeated attempts to play roughly with them and when they voiced their opinions with growls, she escalated by growling and lunging more. In other words, she was learning, harass other dogs at will and then get into a fight when they growl at you. Sort of the drunken bar-fight mentality. So at 10 weeks of age she had turned into a little Kujo. On top of this, if there was a dog in the same room or within 15 feet of her she had to lunge to try to get at it whereas before she could easily focus on me and even come when called away from puppy play.

With all that had gone wrong in just over two weeks with my parents and with two puppy classes sessions, I wondered, now how long would it take to retrain the bad behavior out of her and reestablish the good behavior from that first week. Once that was established how long would I need to train her before the good behavior could become a habit?

To find out what happened, stay tuned for upcoming blogs.

I can say this, as a result of her bad behavior, I added about 150 more pages and hundreds more photos to the Lucy's training manual book.

For earlier articles on Lucy go to:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sophia-yin/the-fathers-day-gift_b_262429.html
http://askdryin.com/blog/2009/09/14/my-dad-meets-lucy-his-fathers-day-gift/
http://askdryin.com/blog/2009/09/11/what-to-do-when-your-puppy-potty-training-plan-fails/

Pandas 'Chirp' To Get Pregnant

2009-12-02T12:56:40Z

For female giant pandas who can only conceive on a few days once a year, being able to say 'when' is vital.

Now a report reveals that female giant pandas use chirp calls to inform male pandas exactly how fertile they are.

Jared Braiterman: Biodiversity Remakes Tokyo

2009-12-02T12:17:51Z

The Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference addresses unparalleled environmental crisis and the need to transform our relationship with nature. Many people assume that nature has no place in the city. On the contrary, cities are central sites for a sustainable, post-industrial era that supports population growth and a high quality of life. Biodiversity and urban forests can thrive with concrete and people.

Ordinary gardeners and environmental visionaries in Tokyo, the world's largest metropolis, are improving urban life for human and environmental benefit. While mainstream environmentalists work to save distant forests, urban innovators are creating new shared places that connect city residents to the environment and each other. Successful strategies include maximizing limited resources, engaging urban dwellers, and sharing daily life with plants and wildlife.

Tokyo's size, density, lack of open space, and past policy failures paradoxically make it a model for rebuilding mature cities and designing hundreds of new cities. Along with climate change, the world faces unprecedented urbanization, reaching 60% of the world population or 5 billion people by 2030. African and Asian urban populations will double between 2000 and 2030.

To make cities sustainable and attractive, limited resources must be used for maximum benefit. Tokyo already offers vibrant and safe street life with relatively small private spaces. Because of usage fees and public investment, more daily trips are made by transit, walking and bicycling than automobile. And large numbers of often elderly residents tend gardens spilling out from homes into streets. With minimal horizontal area between homes, Tokyo residents are experts in blurring public and private spaces, and growing vertical gardens in even the narrowest openings.

Japan's love for miniaturization is aligned well with dense urban living. Kobayashi Kenji revitalizes bonsai by appealing to young city people's desire to connect with nature. Traditional bonsai trees that are over one hundred years old are a pastime of corporations and wealthy elderly men. Kobayashi employs more humble plant material and invites city dwellers to treat plants as members of the family, like pets. Daily care for plants connects city dwellers with nature, seasonal change, and growth.

A rice paddy in the middle of Ginza captivated Tokyo residents this year by bringing a cherished cultural activity into the heart of the city. On a vacant lot between demolition and construction, Iimura Kazuki's Ginza Farm created an open community place frequented by shop clerks, construction workers, office staff, children, and neighbors. Two ducks weeded the field, contributed fertilizer, and educated the public about natural farming. Adapting rice farming to Tokyo's ambient light and warmer nights required installing a tall black curtain to "help the rice sleep."

The Ginza Bee Project also creates space in the city for another stressed rural practice. Colony collapse disorder worldwide is linked to agricultural pesticides. Strangely, cities now provide a healthier habitat for bees than the countryside. Ginza's bees increase Japan's honey production and raise awareness about the relationships between bees and food, people and the environment. These 300,000 honeybees inspired companies and individuals to become urban beekeepers.

"I am not interested in greening," Yamada Yoriyuki, an environmental leader at Japanese construction giant Kajima, surprised me. Instead of applying green to existing projects, Yamada emphasizes the value of biodiversity and culture for new urbanism, with special attention to bees, falcons and the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. Kajima and a new corporate alliance, the Japanese Business Initiative for Biodiversity, explore new ways to connect development with habitat creation.

Another urban visionary is Professor Suzuki Makoto at the Tokyo University of Agriculture who is building a firefly habitat at a middle school with students, teachers and the local community. Fireflies have a magical appeal to children and adults, and are a natural gauge of the healthiness of urban environments. Fireflies require clean running water, near total darkness at night, and plants that feed and shelter them.

All of these urban ecology projects evoke the Japanese idea of satoyama, a balance between people and nature forged over two thousand years of rice farming. Unlike wilderness untouched by human activity, satoyama is a cultural landscape resulting from concentric rings of village, rice fields and surrounding forests. As Japanese increasingly abandon the countryside, bringing the average age of farmers to 60, reforestation has become a 21st century threat to the nation's biodiversity. Meadows and sunlight recede in rural areas, while the ideal of a balance between people and nature migrates to the city.

Creating an urban forest in Tokyo faces many challenges, including uncovering Edo-era rivers and canals buried in concrete and freeway overpasses. Dramatically reducing surface pavement will revive the soil, exponentially increase plant mass and urban wildlife, and reduce stormwater flooding and Tokyo Bay pollution. Even the most overbuilt city contains underused spaces, including roofs, walls and streets. All that is missing is for governments and corporations to connect with residents' passions and potential for action.

Urban ecology intertwines the health of soil, plants, animals and people. Biodiversity provides a natural connection between immediately improving our quality of life and addressing grave public policy issues such as climate change, energy independence, national security, food safety, crime reduction, air quality, and public health. Tokyo's lessons for sustainable cities range from the importance of culture in creating meaningful public places, to the role of biodiversity to remake even the densest metropolis.

Polar Bears Eating Young Due To Shrinking Sea Ice: Scientists

2009-12-01T11:54:19Z

Scientists say shrinking Arctic sea ice may be forcing some polar bears into cannibalizing young cubs. So far this fall, tour operators and scientists have reported at least four and perhaps up to eight cases of mature males eating cubs and other bears in the population around Churchill, Man.

Stem Cells' Next Use: Fighting Extinction?

2009-12-01T11:44:40Z

Conservationists work constantly through habitat protection and other means to save these and other endangered species. And now they are adding a new technology to their list of possible solutions to extinction -- stem cells.

Kangaroos May Hold Skin Cancer Cure: Study

2009-12-01T08:30:04Z

SYDNEY (AFP) -- Kangaroos may provide the key to a potential treatment to prevent skin cancer, Australian scientists said on Monday.

Exploding Whale Video Reporter Looks Back Four Decades Later

2009-11-29T13:46:09Z

For Oregon journalist Paul Linnman, covering a story about blowing up a giant sperm whale with a ton of dynamite was just another day on the beat. Little did he know that almost 40 years later, the story would find its way on the Internet, spawn its own Web site and become the fifth-most-viewed viral video of all time. We checked in with the star of this Web sensation to get the real story behind the infamous exploding whale vid.

Poaching Problems: Rhino Horn Now Worth More Than Gold

2009-11-29T13:44:44Z

The problem of rhino poaching continues to grow, with poaching levels at 15-year highs. Part of the reason according to WWF is rising demand in Asia, where the horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine, but Mongabay points out an undoubted contributing factor. Rhino horn is now worth more than gold.

Animals With Superpowers (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

2009-11-28T09:37:41Z

Environmental forces have motivated animals to creatively adapt in nature. From camouflage to agility to acute senses, some animals have managed to defy death, defeat predators, and rule their environment. Many animal abilities continue to leave experts baffled.

Here at HuffPost, we've decided to feature some animals with amazing superpowers, beyond the five senses humans possess. From venom power to the power to shock, be sure to vote for the animal that just seems out-of-this-world!

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Australia Welcomes Giant Pandas With Giant Party

2009-11-27T22:48:19Z

ADELAIDE, Australia — Two giant pandas from China were welcomed to Australia on Saturday with gifts of bamboo and a city party before settling in to their new home, a 25-acre (10-hectare) natural enclosure at the Adelaide Zoo.

Four-year-old male Wang Wang and 3-year-old female Fu Ni are on loan to the zoo for 10 years as part of a joint research program, and their arrival comes amid slightly strained relations between China and Australia.

The Cutest Video Of All Time. Period.

2009-11-27T22:28:22Z

That's right, I'm throwing down. If you don't whole-heartedly agree that this is the cutest thing you've ever seen then yell at me in the comments. I challenge you to watch this and not make one "awww" sound or have your face contort into that weird face people get when they see cute things.

WATCH:

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Adorable Animal Families (PHOTOS)

2009-11-27T10:11:18Z

Since many people will be spending time with families this weekend, we thought we highlight some photos of amazing animal families. Check out how families play, eat, travel, and snuggle. And don't forget to vote on your favorite!

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Animals Eating On Thanksgiving (PHOTOS)

2009-11-26T09:54:40Z

In celebration of us humans gathering for Thanksgiving, we thought we'd share some cute pictures of animals enjoying their own treats. From unbelievably cute cats, to impish and mischievous squirrels, this slideshow is sure to make you feel extra fuzzy and warm this Thanksgiving.

So, check out the slideshow and cast your vote for the cutest photo!

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Snake Spits Out New Species Of Chameleon At Scientist's Feet

2009-11-25T08:53:27Z

It was so nearly known as dinner. Instead, a small and not terribly impressive chameleon has become the newest discovery of the natural world, after a startled Tanzanian snake spat a still-undigested specimen at the feet of a British scientist, who identified it as a previously unknown species.

New Deep Sea Species Discovered (PHOTOS)

2009-11-25T08:51:06Z

A see-through sea cucumber, a "big eared" octopus-like animal, a "gold treasure" crustacean, and more are among the many new deep-dwellers collected during an ongoing marine census.

Check out these amazing images courtesy of the Census of Marine Life -- Captions by our friends The National Geographic News Editors.

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Polar Bears Falling To Their Deaths: Plane Stupid's Shock Ad (VIDEO)

2009-11-23T13:30:49Z

An airplane engine humming crescendos in the background as polar bears drop out of the sky, slam to the ground and meet their bloody deaths. At first you may be wondering, why am I being subjected to this brutal imagery?

It's because Plane Stupid has a message for you, and whether it's effective or not, it's shocking enough to keep you watching. The video is a new promotional film from the British group that campaigns aggressively to end airport expansion, citing it as a prime culprit in the earth's changing climate. According to the video, "An average European flight produces over 400 kg. of greenhouse gases for every passenger. That's the weight of an adult polar bear."

However, some are questioning whether Plane Stupid's shock tactics have any value. Ed Gillespie, co-director of sustainable communications agency Futerra, writes in The Guardian:

Certainly it's controversial imagery will garner press interest, after all I'm writing this analytical blog for starters, and for campaigning organisations with limited budgets and only one bite at the media cherry this is crucial. However I'm still not sure it will change behaviour, the danger is that by pumping up the high octane drama of an ad, you increase the risk of viewers feeling manipulated and dismissing it as pure propaganda. Or lapsing into highly questionable failures of tact and taste in pursuit of 'edginess'.

What's more, Plane Stupid's own powerful imagery threatens to weaken their message. The imagery of polar bears falling to their deaths is a hard one to relate to and might get you sympathizing more with the polar bears than with their cause. Does it get you thinking about the impact of your flight, or does the metaphor overpower the message?

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Laurie David: Eating Animals : Caring Is Not A Zero-Sum Game

2009-11-23T09:36:00Z

Friday I read the strangest, most infuriating book review (on the front page of the New York Times Arts Section) I have ever seen. Minutes later, while I was still shaking my head, Larry called to rant about the "smug" review of Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, a book we had both recently read. "What's wrong with that reviewer?" he yelled in my ear. "Doesn't she care about fecal soup?!" See for yourself, read the concluding paragraph of Michiko Kakutani's review and tell me if it isn't completely insane:

It's arguments like this that undermine the many more valid observations in this book, and make readers wonder how the author can expend so much energy and caring on the fate of pigs and chickens, when, say, malaria kills nearly a million people a year (most of them children), and conflict and disease in Congo since the mid-1990s have left an estimated five million dead and hundreds of thousands of women and girls raped and have driven more than a million people from their homes.

Since Kakutani believes that caring is a zero-sum game, and that most of us are too pea -brained to care about more than one thing at a time, she felt it was important to put Foer in his place for raising a voice against factory farming -- an industry that, let's face it, is merely really, really, really horrible.

Since reading her review, we've found it difficult to remember why we ever cared about what kind of car we drive, or whether to pay or shoplift, or who to punch and when. She's right: in the bright light of malaria, everything else is invisible. So no more money to the NRDC, no more hand wringing about health care, and no more helping old ladies across the street. Screw you, injured person lying against the curb, there are hungry kids somewhere else! Better still, here's a kick!

One of the many problems with Kakutani's lame and flamboyantly irrational review is that it suggests her own irrelevancy. If one shouldn't spend time and energy worrying about 50 billion factory-farmed animals (and the attendant environmental and human health effects, which comprise the other half of Foer's book, and are curiously ignored in the review), then one most definitely shouldn't spend time reviewing books. How many kids did Kakutani's recent columns of text on Sarah Palin--"...she does a lively job of conveying the frontier feel of the 49th state..." -- save?

Except that we need book reviewers, not in spite of the good they might be doing in the world, but -- in the case of good reviewers -- because of the good they are doing. The function of a reviewer is not to impress her personality at any expense, but to connect readers to books, ideally to those they wouldn't likely find (or want to find) on their own.

We found Foer's book that way. We didn't know Foer, and Eating Animals hadn't crossed our radar yet. Someone said, "Check this out. You're gonna care about this." That was the understatement of the century. What should we care about more than what we are putting into our bodies and feeding our children every day, three times a day? Foer's book raises critical ethical questions we all need to face. I agree with Foer -- who doesn't? -- we shouldn't raise hens in cramped and stacked cages, or pregnant hogs in crates too small to allow for movement. We shouldn't modify animals' bodies in ways that destine them for suffering and steady diets of drugs. We shouldn't remove their appendages without anesthetic. We shouldn't pretend they aren't alive and we shouldn't be eating animals riddled with sickness and disease. We shouldn't be polluting the planet to satisfy our appetites.

Such care is not, as Kakutani implies, excessive. It is basic human decency. And decency never takes away from humans -- not even when it's directed toward animals. It's frankly hard to imagine the person who would argue that it's no big deal to systematically harm animals, while at the same time be a champion of human causes.

What a shame this book didn't have a more thoughtful review.