Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.
For decades, people from around the world worked tirelessly to protect whales, eventually resulting in a ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
Much of that hard work is being undone, and world leaders now appear poised to lift the ban. They claim there will be strict limits on commercial whaling, but humans have a terrible track record of enforcing limits on the exploitation of our oceans. Conservationists rightly believe we may be opening the floodgates to the slaughtering of whales.
Friends Japanese Hideki Fuji and African American Malcolm Wright go head to head in a hardball exchange of challenges surrounding the controversy of Japanese whaling. Together, they peel away the propaganda from both sides to reveal the facts. The dares climax when committed conservationist Malcolm Wright agrees to spend a week working with a Japanese whaling family, experiences the reality of their day-to-day life, and witnesses the grenade-harpooning of a Baird’s whale.
In return, the whaling family is flown to the Cook Islands, as guests of a non-lethal whale research project. Under the watchful gaze of Rarotonga’s twin volcanic peaks, they experience the bond between a newborn calf and its mother. Underwater, stripped of their ships, harpoons, and their assumptions about whales, they come face to face with the gentle giants. Source: Whale Like Me
Embed doens’t work at this moment. See http://www.whalelikeme.com/trailer
Whale Like Me – The Movement Whale Like Me is YOUR film, take it and make it your own: you will propel a movement to end commercial whaling once and for all. It starts with getting involved now, as the film is being made: follow our progress, spread the word, give us feedback, become a producer by offering funding within your means.
The second and third phases of the movement will be revealed once we have completed principal photography – we are dying to tell you about them but success requires good timing! We can say this: Phase Two is a lot of fun as the discovery and adventure come to you. Phase Three will tickle your sense of poetic justice and bring the end of commercial whaling within sight. Source: Whale Like Me
Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in “monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too.
The periodic roundup and slaughter of dolphins in coves near a Japanese town has become a prime focal point of animal welfare campaigners, particularly after the practice was vividly documented in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.
But another such roundup, of pilot whales, takes place more quietly in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous province of Denmark. Read more at New York Times
After he swam the North Pole, Lewis Pugh vowed never to take another cold-water dip. Then, he heard of Mt. Everest’s Lake Imja — a body of water at an altitude of 5300 m, entirely created by recent glacial melting — and began a journey that would teach him a radical new way to approach swimming and think about climate change.
TEDGlobal 2009: Lewis Pugh swims the North Pole
The X PRIZE Foundation announced the launch of its sixth major incentive competition, the $1.4 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE.
At a press conference in Washington, DC, the announcement was made by X PRIZE Chairman Peter H. Diamandis together with Wendy Schmidt, who personally funded the $1.4 million prize purse. Wendy Schmidt is president of The Schmidt Family Foundation, Founder of the Foundation’s 11th Hour Project and Climate Central, as well as Co-founder, with her husband Eric, of the Schmidt Marine Science Research Institute. Other speakers included Philippe Cousteau, son of Jan and Philippe Cousteau Sr., and grandson of Captain Jacques- Yves Cousteau and co-founder and CEO of EarthEcho International; and Dr. Dave Gallo, Ph.D., Director of Special Projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
The goal of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE is to inspire entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists worldwide to develop innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efficient methods of capturing crude oil from the ocean surface. In making the announcement, the X PRIZE Foundation hopes to attract philanthropic and venture capital to support development of this important capability and provide a global platform where new technologies can be competed head-to-head, and the best approaches demonstrated, to prepare for future catastrophes.
“The devastating impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill will last for years and it is inevitable that future spills will occur – both from wells and from transport tankers,” stated Dr. Diamandis. “To be prepared to safeguard oceans and shores, the X PRIZE Foundation is announcing the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE to find the most effective and environmentally-safe solutions for capturing oil from all spills at the spill site, thus limiting their impacts and protecting our oceans, shores, marshes, and, importantly, the health and well-being of the people and wildlife which live and thrive in these communities.”
“With more then ten thousands of ocean oil platforms across the globe, and million of barrels of oil being transported every day by tankers, it’s not a question of ‘if’ there will be another oil spill, but ‘when,’” stated Wendy Schmidt. “We need to come up with better solutions to capture oil on the surface, to minimize the harm these spills are causing to marine life, coastal wetlands, and beaches, and to our livelihoods – a harm that can last for generations. This is why I am personally funding this X CHALLENGE: to inspire innovators around the world – and all those who want to help address what has happened in the Gulf – to focus on solutions to an ongoing, systemic problem.” Source: X Prize Foundation
Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE: Final Stage July 19-30 2010 with 15 Cars in the Race - De Google Lunar X Prize ! - X Prize Foundation – 100 miljoen dollar voor schone energie !
This X CHALLENGE, is a one-year competition that begins on August 1, 2010 and culminates in the summer of 2011, with head-to-head competitive demonstrations taking place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHMSETT) in Leonardo, New Jersey, USA. A $1 Million Prize will be awarded to the team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea surface at the highest oil recovery rate (ORR) and the highest Recovery Efficiency (RE).
It’s not every day that the President takes time out of his schedule to record a video about a website.
But that’s just what happened with HealthCare.gov, the new consumer-oriented website from the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the video, he shows how anyone can learn about new rights and benefits available to them as a result of health reform law, and, for the first time ever, see all their insurance coverage options in one place. More at HealthCare.gov
The morning of July 27, officials in Jefferson Parish reported a new oil spill near Bayou Saint Denis, Louisiana.
The Coast Guard claimed that a tow boat struck a well head, causing the spill, and a strip of oil 50 yards wide and a mile long was spotted near the well early in the day.
The Ocean Futures Society team was onsite within hours and reported a geyser of oil and gas spewing 25 feet into the air and raining down on the marsh.
State of emergency declared as 800,000 gallons of leaked oil begins flowing through Kalamazoo County
Kalamazoo County officials declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River. Read more at M Live
Obama pledges swift response after Battle Creek oil spill
The cause of spill is under investigation. The oil spilled into Talmadge Creek, which flows northwest into the Kalamazoo River. The site is in Calhoun County’s Marshall Township, about 60 miles southeast of Grand Rapids.
“According to EPA officials, this is the largest oil spill ever in the Midwest,” said Schauer. “The EPA is estimating 1 million gallons (spilled). … This feels like déjÀ vu all over again with regard to what happened in the Gulf.”
The oil spilled into Talmadge Creek, which flows northwest into the Kalamazoo River. The site is in Calhoun County’s Marshall Township near Battle Creek and about 60 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. The pipe may have been leaking for many hours before it was originally reported to have burst Monday morning. Marshall Township fire officials responded to complaints of an oily smell from residents. Read more at The Detroit News
Midwest Oil Pipeline Disaster Spreads; One Million Gallons Threaten Lake Michigan
Damage from a massive oil pipeline spill in Michigan is worsening today, as an estimated one million gallons of crude oil spread through a tributary of the Kalamazoo River towards Lake Michigan, threatening drinking water and habitat. Source: Sierra Club
See also: Oilspill BP Gulf of Mexico: Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida - Dirty Oil in Nigeria - The Alberta Tar Sands: Trailer movie H2Oil - Toxic Fuels: Trailer Dirty Oil narrated by Neve Campbell – Trailer Crude: The Real Price of Oil - A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash ! - Tar Sand Watch: TAR Nation Play the Game Now - Shell 125 billion dollar in Tar Sands - Toxic Fuels: Trailer Petropolis by Peter Mettler - Edward Burtynsky: OIL, a photographic documentation - Trailer Crude: The Real Price of Oil By Joe Berlinger - Crude Awakening: BP Oil Spill
The Catalan parliament in Spain has voted to ban bullfighting! But we have to wait till January 1st 2012 before the new ban is effective.
It was clear that no other outcome was possible after officials were presented with the signatures of 180,000 people who don’t believe that bulls should be stabbed to death for entertainment.
According to a 2009 Gallup survey, 76 per cent of Spaniards have no interest in attending or supporting bullfights, and public condemnation of this bloody spectacle is growing worldwide. Cities and towns all over the world have taken positions against bullfighting, joining Spain’s Canary Islands, which voted to ban bullfighting back in 1991. Source: PeTA
Video: Animal rights activists are celebrating after Catalonia’s parliament voted to ban bullfighting in the region.
The Prince’s Countryside Fund is the brainchild of The Prince of Wales who has a long-held commitment to supporting Britain’s hard pressed rural areas.
The Fund is raising money from a wide range of businesses who have responded to The Prince’s call to action to help improve the long-term viability of the British countryside and its rural communities. The intention is to inspire other businesses and the general public to get involved and recognise the importance of the countryside to the nation’s well-being and the wider British economy.
“The vision and commitment of The Prince of Wales has brought together in common cause this extraordinary alliance of food businesses. The Fund will be a lifeline for Britain’s most vulnerable farmers and communities, helping them to secure a sustainable future for themselves. I hope that other companies will be inspired to contribute to the Fund so that more and more can be done to improve the long-term viability of hard-pressed rural areas,” said Mark Price, Managing Director of Waitrose and Chairman of The Prince’s Countryside Fund trustee board.
The funding raised will be channelled into providing grants to projects, large and small, that are delivering the three core objectives of The Prince’s Countryside Fund. These objectives focus on improving the sustainability of British farming and rural communities, targeting the areas of greatest need; reconnecting consumers with countryside issues; and supporting farming crisis charities through a dedicated emergency funding stream. All the companies that have partnered with Business in the Community to launch this Fund, which has a starting pot of £1m, have a special connection to the British countryside through the products they make or sell. They will feature The Prince’s Countryside Fund’s logo on selected packaging from next month and help communicate the importance of the countryside to consumers. In addition, from the autumn, The Post Office will make it possible for consumers to donate over the counter to The Prince’s Countryside Fund at their 12,000 branches.
Stephen Howard, Chief Executive, Business in the Community, said: “We are delighted to have helped develop this initiative and now to be running it. We have attracted remarkable support from the British food industry from companies who care about how they do business and want to be a positive force for change.”
Decisions about which projects to fund will be made by an independent Board of Trustees. The trustees are Mark Price (Managing Director, Waitrose), Edwin Booth (Chairman, E.H. Booths & Co), Lizzie Kershaw (Group Director of Publishing, National Magazine Company), Brian Stein (Group Chief Executive, Samworth Brothers), Sir Don Curry (Chairman, NFU Mutual), Stewart Gilliland (Chairman, Müller Dairy ), Sue Huggins OBE (Director of Network Development, The Post Office), Mark Allen (Chief Executive, Dairy Crest), Elizabeth Buchanan (Consultant and farmer), Stephen Dunmore (Chair, CapacityBuilders), and Paul Murphy (CEO, Jordans & Ryvita).
Three initial pilot programmes have been approved by the trustees of the Fund. These are:
UTASS provides practical support to farmers with the completion and submission of complex forms and paperwork, including the computerisation of farm records; and advocacy and liaison work with government agencies.
Pub is the Hub encourages rural pub owners, licensees, and their local communities to work together to support, retain and locate local services where possible within the pub whilst often improving the viability of the business itself. Pub is the Hub is affiliated to His Royal Highness’s Rural Action Programme and is a ‘not for profit’ advisory organisation. Pub is the Hub requires funding to roll out in Wales.
The Farmer Network a farmer-owned and run not-for-profit company which encourages local farmers to work together to improve efficiency, increase knowledge and skills, educate the public, cope with paperwork and increase revenue. They hope to deliver a hill farmer training scheme for new entrants. Source: Prince of Wales
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