FROGS ARE US

Frogs and people have a lot in common. Our mitochondria, the stuff that binds our cells together, is exactly the same. In fact every living thing on the planet has the same mitochondria. What that means to the average guy on the street without going into a long list of building blocks we share with our frog relatives, is that what affects frogs also affects us in much the same way. Essentially if something in the environment is killing them, you can rest assured we are at exactly the same risk, it may just take longer:

The world's frogs, newts and toads are dying. They are being over-harvested for food, their homes are being destroyed, and most worryingly, entire species are disappearing for no apparent reason. That is the conclusion of more than 500 herpetologists around the world, reported in Science today. Stuart S., et al. Science, published online 10.1126/science.1103538 (2004).

“Time and again, scientists have visited woods filled with frog song just 3 or 4 years earlier, only to find them frogless. Now, researchers have finally caught a killer in the act--a new fungus that has turned up in 120 frogs and toads of 12 species in Australia and seven species in Panama during mass die-offs in relatively pristine areas. Fourteen scientists from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada will describe the fungus--from the phylum Chytridiomycota” - in the 21 July Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Fungus May Drive Frog Genocide, Jocelyn Kaiser, WILDLIFE BIOLOGY, 3 July 1998

"There is the canary in the coalmine argument," says Stuart. "Because of their sensitivity, amphibians are the first species we would expect to show adverse reactions to climate change and new emerging diseases." Amphibians face a bleak future, Emma Marris, news@nature.com, October, 14, 2004

In 1993, a then unknown biologist by the name of Karen Lips who became internationally famous when her research into new species of amphibians found in Panama was made public. Her research was in a hitherto unexplored mountainous region of Panama where she was discovering new species of amphibians virtually one after the other. It was like finding her own Galapagos Islands. It was a different story when she returned to continue her research in 1997:
…imagine Karen's shock when she returned to her research site in western Panama and discovered dead and dying frogs everywhere: "I'd been going to Fortuna, Panama, since 1993. In 1997, I returned to find all these dead frogs. They looked fine, like they went to sleep and didn't wake up." Frogs are food to so many snakes and birds, a herpetologist could spend many seasons in some places without seeing a dead frog lying on the ground.” Kim Y. Masibay, Science World, March 11, 2002

What ties these events together is air. Nothing associated with planet earth permeates our environment as completely as air and air is a vehicle for the transportation of material that can mix or float along and become one with what we consider our atmosphere. Airplanes take great advantage of the density of air, lift and speed to fly. The waste products of the energy consumed to make this happen are exhaust emissions. If you remove the passenger and cargo component of the aviation experience and equate what an airplane does as a cordless paint-gun, you have in our aviation system, a most complete mechanism for spraying a life dissolving chemical wash over the entire globe.

Frogs have three areas of their bodies that can aid in gas exchange: skin, lungs, and the thin membranes lining the mouth and pharynx. Frogs can breathe through their skin while they are in wet places. They can also exchange gases between their blood vessels and with the outer environment. Unlike us they have mucus glands in their external skin tissue, they keep the skin moist. We have those same mucous glands but they line our nose and respiratory tract rather than our outer skin. Sweat glands are evolved mucous glands for land-lubbers. Frog skin absorbs a lot of dissolved oxygen from the ambient atmosphere.

The second respiratory surface is the thin membranes lining the mouth and pharynx. Our membranes exchange gases too, but not to the degree that those of frogs do.

The lungs are third respiratory surface, thin, elastic and lightweight, they are organs that inflate and deflate rhythmically, while the frog is at rest. Adult frogs have poorly developed lungs, due to their mostly motionless existence as they wait patiently for the next unsuspecting bug.

Now just imagine adding crude oil-derived solvents to the air the frogs must breathe. Solvents that turn their protective mucous to an acidic solution which then evaporates more quickly than pure water. You have a cooling and immobilizing effect that would tend to freeze the frog in place and strip it of its immune system (the mucous) at the same time. Since frogs live in environments that are thick with fungal spores, it is no stretch of the imagination to figure out what happens next is it?

The current 'credit crunch' nausea is a fine illustration of why I couldn't take any more. Lehman Brothers have declared themselves bankrupt after making losses of $6bn, but they paid out staff bonuses totalling $8bn in 2006.

The bankrupcy of Lehman Brothers means there's a fair amount of office space available in Canary Wharf. Looks like someone must have actually said, 'Would the last one out please turn off the lights.' It's pretty dark in there.

Tho An was always poor, dirt poor. All of its residents were subsistence farmers scratching out a dusty living by any means necessary. But, that all changed when an adventurous local decided it was time to put the common toad to good use.

According to residents, Le Van Quy was the first to harness the power of the amphibian as a means to escape from grinding poverty. Quy’s family was so poor his grandchildren were malnourished. Quy had had enough. Catching toads in the fields soon became catching toads and salting toads. That turned into catching, slating and shredding toads. Before long, his grandkids were no longer hungry, and the effects of being malnourished were replaced with strapping, healthy children.

Realizing he was onto something, Quy brought the novelty to Hanoi to sell as a street vendor. Salted shredded toad meat has quickly become a specialty and a diet recommended for treating malnourished children.

It is still a work in progress, but progress is kind of slow, due to my new job. I can spend relatively little time and it's not really the most productive of its kind.

Still, I've managed to implement significant parts of the API (which I intend to release for free,  eventually) and some marginal improvements and additions to the user interface. More about the API implementation in a later post.

Here is a screenshot: 

Listen to sounds of: aardvark, addax ,alligator, alpaca, anteater, antelope, aoudad, ape, argali, armadillo, ass, baboon, badger, basilisk, bat ,bear, beaver, bighorn     bison, boar, budgerigar, buffalo, bull, bunny, burro, camel, canary, capybara, cat, chameleon, chamois, cheetah, chimpanzee, chinchilla, chipmunk, civet, coati, colt, cony, cougar, cow, coyote, crocodile, crow, deer, dingo, doe, dog, donkey, dormouse, dromedary, duckbill, dugong, eland, elephant, elk, ermine, ewe, fawn, ferret, finch, fish, fox, frog, gazelle, gemsbok, gila, monster, giraffe, gnu, goat, gopher, gorilla, grizzly bear, ground hog, guanaco, guinea pig, hamster, hare, hartebeest, hedgehog, hippopotamus, hog, horse, hyena, ibex, iguana, impala, jackal, jaguar, jerboa, kangaroo, kid, kinkajou, kitten , koala, koodoo, lamb, lemur, leopard, lion, lizard, llama, lovebird, lynx, mandrill, mare, marmoset, marten, mink, mole, mongoose, monkey, moose, mountain, goat, mouse, mule, musk deer, musk-ox, muskrat, mustang, mynah bird, newt, ocelot, okapi, opossum, orangutan, oryx, otter, ox, panda, panther, parakeet, parrot, peccary, pig, platypus, polar bear, pony, porcupine, porpoise, prairie dog, pronghorn, puma, puppy, quagga, rabbit, raccoon, ram,  rat, reindeer, reptile, rhinoceros, roebuck, salamander, seal, sheep, shrew, silver fox, skunk, sloth, snake, springbok, squirrel, stallion, steer, tapir, tiger, toad, turtle, vicuna, walrus, warthog, waterbuck, weasel, whale, wildcat, wolf, wolverine, wombat, woodchuck, yak, zebra, zebu etc... All on: http://www.SoundLantern.com/

All Spain crash bodies identified

The plane crashed in a field near Madrid's airport and burst into flames

All 154 bodies from last week's plane crash in Madrid have been identified, the Spanish interior ministry says.

It says the bodies - some of them badly burned - are now being returned to grieving relatives for burial.

The Spanair flight from Madrid to the Canary Islands crashed after take-off on 20 August. Only 18 of 172 passengers and crew survived the accident.

An investigation is now under way into the crash - the country's worst air accident in 25 years.

The MD82 plane veered into a dry river bed just after take-off from Madrid's Barajas airport. It then broke up and burst into flames, setting light to surrounding vegetation.

Experts had to use DNA analysis, fingerprints and dental information to identify some of the badly burned bodies.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said last week that was the main reason why the identification process was taking longer than expected.

Investigation

Spanair had considered switching the aircraft at the last minute, a Spanish government minister said earlier this week.

The flight JK 5022 was delayed for about an hour because of a problem with an air temperature gauge.

Sources close to the inquiry, quoted by the newspaper El Pais, have said the plane may have lacked sufficient engine power during take-off.

Video footage showed the plane travelled much further along the runway than normal before getting airborne, the paper reported.

Picnic--the joyful experience of eating good food in the open air while enjoying the company of friends and family in a relaxed atmosphere--is on the wane in the western world. More of us gather around the barbecue in the back yard. More still don't eat outside at all, or migrate from the inside of our favourite restaurant to its summertime patio.

Picnicking is practised most by first and second generation immigrants for whom this tradition still holds value. A fast-paced lifestyle that makes no time for relaxed appreciation of what others have to offer us and what we can happily share with them finds no room for picnics. Unlike back yard barbecues, picnics were usually held in beautiful natural environments.

Traditionally, picnics were a way for extended families to get together to share stories and get caught up on each other's affairs when no home was large enough to hold the group. The gathering had to be held outdoors to accommodate so many people.

In addition to lacking time, today's city people have little interest in their extended family members, so "catching up" would be considered a waste of time. We tend to associate with those relatives who can benefit us through their own influence or their respective contact networks.

While we in the western world supposedly support "family values," as a society we lack appreciation for the value of the family itself. Thus we find picnics with extended family members unnecessary, if not anachronistic and inconvenient.

Picnics became popular in the 19th century, before cell phones with text messaging, before VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phones that allow us to speak in real time with people in any part of the world that has internet connection, before televisions, even before radio. In general, they were large get-togethers held in the warmer months so people could engage in simple forms of fun together. They usually had a specific purpose, always social, involving an extended family, a church group, a service club or a Sunday school.

Not all picnics were of this nature. Some were simply single family outings, usually to scenic spots, where people sprawled on blankets and ate al fresco, which gave the food a special characteristic you couldn't get at home. Some said "It's the sunshine" that made picnic food taste so good, for others it was the open air that did not wreak of city smells.

While family picnics were well planned for food--the feature form of entertainment for the event--the extended family or group picnic was more potluck. Each family brought a lot of one or two things--like a potluck supper--and everyone ate from what was at hand. As much as the kids hoped that every family would bring dessert, it never happened. Moms were too careful to let that happen.

Every picnic had its downside, whether it was rain, ants or forgetting the condiments for the potato salad. The odd time they even stirred up old resentments among family members. But in times past--less so today--people were willing to set aside those differences (most of the time) in order to recognize the value of family.

After all, when tragedy struck, it was your family you turned to for support. Today people don't believe that tragedy will ever strike them and are shocked when it does, leaving them alone in the world without a support system to turn to. Picnics, in a sense, were an indicator of the interdependence of the community.

Extended family picnics were social occasions. Staying in touch with extended family--grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, second cousins, kissing cousins and the children of them all--had value. As most single families ate meals together at home, social occasions were not necessary for them in the same way.

How did single family picnics get started? One theory is interesting.

Today, cemeteries are lonely places where few people go to express their grief for the loss of a loved one other than for the actual burial ceremony. After that, cemeteries tend to be more places where teenagers can hang out without parents or security oversight. And, in some cases, where drugs may be bought and used apart from prying eyes.

Cemetery plots are cared for, indefinitely, by cemetery staff through a fund purchased when the plot itself is bought. That development happened within my own lifetime. When I was a kid, families had to look after the grave sites of family members and others they once cared for. Cemetery plots were tended by the loved ones left behind when someone died.

As caring for grave sites often involved some travelling as parents and children became separated over time, especially with young people flocking to cities as older parents tended to stay in more rural areas, it may have happened only once or twice a year that a family would make a trip to the cemetery to tend to the grass and plant flowers around the grave site.

There was clearly work involved in only tending to a grave site a couple of times each year. Everyone's help was needed, even from the kids. As the whole process took some time, food and beverage were brought to get people through the event. Food and beverage became the second focus of the visit.

As few people believed that real people--as opposed to discarded and decaying bodies--were in the graves, tending the graves of family members (often several generations of them in the same cemetery) was a solemn occasion--just plain work--unless something was done to lighten up the day.

Food and beverage did that. So did playing games after the meal. In those early days of picnics, cemeteries were not supposed to be as quiet and sedate as churches. It was quite all right to have fun there after the gardening and open air dining were over.

People enjoyed the non-gardening part of the event so much that they chose to have other picnics, such as at a beach or in a park or other natural setting. This happened more as people had more leisure time. They felt they could be more natural, more relaxed, less guarded, while enjoying themselves in the open air, surrounded by natural beauty.

Today we don't have picnics much, so we have to consciously teach our children about nature or they don't learn the lessons. The less they know about nature, the more inclined they are to look away as big corporations clear cut forests, create great fissures covering many hectares with open pit mining and freely pollute the air and waterways with their waste. And we eat food produced using growth hormones, pesticides and chemicals with names so long they're hard to pronounce let alone understand what they mean and what their long term effects on our bodies are.

Picnics may have been imperfect, but they were pure. We can't say that about many things in our lives any more.

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems, a guidebook for parents and teachers who want to know what to teach their children that schools don't teach, and when is the best time to teach these lessons.
Learn more at http://billallin.com

That was the subject of the 3rd International Congress of Architecture, that took place in Lanzarote from the 22nd to the 29th of July this summer. The congress was organized by the International Museum of Contemporary Art (MIAC) , the “Centros de Arte, Cultura y Turismo del Cabildo de Lanzarote” and with the sponsorship of the Council of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands. It’s aim has been since the first year to deepen in strategies of planning for the future through a series of fundamental elements that affect the way of inhabiting and conceiving our spaces (such as the shadow, the color, the wind the sand or the salt) , and the relationships that establish humans with their environment.

This year the participants came from three schools of Architecture, the IAAC (Barcelona), the Escuela de Arquitectura de Las Palmas, and the    Staedelshule (Frankfurt). We were in total 35 people. Along with our tutors, Marta Male and Luis Fraguada for IaaC, we tried in the given amount of time to understand how the wind affects the island and how it has already been integrated in the design strategies of the island, and after decoding the principles of all that, proposing new ways of making the wind a supporting element in the future planning and constructing of the island of Lanzarote.

The landscape of the island is amazing, being practically formed by the often aggressive force of wind. We visited most of the island and extracted three basic elements of design having to do with the wind: Los Huecos (hollows), the Porosity and the Curves.

The IaaC group followed the investigation of the Huecos, mainly met in the wineries of La Geria, the salt mines of the island and partially in design elements of the built environment. In total, we realized that the whole landscape of the island could be re-constructed by hollows of different shapes and scales, and that was amazing as an observation.

After studying, documenting and observing each of the three kinds of hollows mentioned,(salt mines, vines, cities), we proposed different ways of designing.

step 1: observation

urban fabric avoiding the wind             different forms of salinas

step 2: interpretation

building hollows_typologies       salinas_typologies

wine structures_typologies

step 3: proposal of design tools

a_surface manipulation through scripted density-depth map given from the topography

b_form design directly following the topographic placement and relation to built environment

Poniżej kilka krótkich filmików. Zdjęcia będą wkrótce.

I'm not a scientist, but I know it's pretty hard for boy birds to lay eggs. Turns out, Omar is a lady bird (let the jokes begin).

Melody has changed Omar's name to Oma. Oma has popped out 4 eggs.

I wonder if that makes me the father?

Flutter here, flitter there, back and forth without a care.

Up and down, hop about; day by day the same throughout.

Perch to perch the pattern churns, round about in endless turns.

Snug secure artificial life, a world of fashion, of man-made delights.

Caged for comfort, caged for show, caged for spectators to behold.

Bred for class and pleasing song, conformed by rules to men belong.

Ageless evolution’s trust, breeds we prize reshaped by us.

Consumerism points the way, imagined need, it seems okay.

Thus you may sing but cannot fly, from the cage where is the sky?

Barred from being as was meant, searching in bewilderment.

Perch to perch, the daily grind, from home to work commuting time.

Snug secure in our bank-owned homes, a world of finance, possessions adorn.

Safety, comfort, pride so dear, hide from the neighbors we’re taught to fear.

Go to church in class and style, looking for love in Sunday’s smile.

Confined by doctrine the priests will teach, walled in by traditions authorities preach.

From the cage where is the sky? Wings are clipped you cannot fly.

The ageless Word of God we trust, in spite of truths reshaped by us.

Man-made doctrine is not okay, unblemished Truth must free the way.

So: O bird of spirit; Created by God in the image of God!

You are the soul of mankind freed from the bondage of rusted chains, of outmoded superstition and obsolete reasoning.

Free the bonds.

Spread your wings.

Soar unto the realms on high!

Sing the song of the Nightingale Of Paradise as it warbles its sweet melody upon the trees of eternity!

http://onenessbecomesus.com

]]> http://heartofasuperhero.wordpress.com/?p=364 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:26:52 +0000 heartofasuperhero http://heartofasuperhero.es.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/canary/ that sound of moistened lips 
pressing together
and tongue grazing gently
but firmly
through the tiny grooves of teeth
are little more 
than the sweet nothing sounds 
of me 
attempting to swallow the canary 
{flock of yellow feathers and all 
bones crunched down to bite-sized pieces
beak nibbled to bits
gulping down those pointy toes
beady eyes}
and leave no trace of a smirk in my smile
before you turn around
to walk back 
over my threshold

Desvendando o segredo...

Texto por Elmo Ramos - editor da Ride It!

Se passaram 12 anos e a Revista Ride It! segue o fluxo das marés, lançando mais uma edição online, repleta de fotos, muitas imagens e coberturas nunca antes vistas em nenhum veículo especializado.

Começando com a cobertura da última etapa do circuito mundial de 2007, realizada pela primeira vez em Gran Canaria, Espanha, num cenário propício para um campeonato de Bodyboarding. Este evento entrou para a história do esporte e consagrou o baiano Uri Valadão como seu campeão e a capixaba Maylla Venturin como vice da etapa. Um show de ondas e o resultado: altas imagens!

Passando direto ao Hawaii, iniciamos o Tour da IBA 2008 na meca do esporte mundial, Pipeline. A onda consagra um de seus filhos mais dedicados, o brasileiro Paulo Barcellos. Os brasileiros mostraram uma performance bastante satisfatória e essa cobertura enfoca esses atletas e o sentimento patriota do brasileiro mundo afora.

A segunda etapa acontece no Brasil, em Santa Catarina, em memória da querida bodyboarder Katherine Mello, que faleceu em 2006. Um outro modelo de cobertura onde se mesclam fotos de ondas, com pódiuns e visuais da belíssima Praia Brava de Itajaí. Deu Brasil e a festa foi verde e amarela!

Um circuito se destaca entre os demais usando a fórmula do sucesso. O Rio Bodyboard Pro reúne os melhores atletas profissionais nas melhores ondas do Rio de Janeiro. Na 1ª etapa dedicamos mais de 20 páginas ao evento de Itacoatiara, onde o local Guilherme Corrêa levou a taça em grande estilo.

As 'calientes' ondas do México e o 'power' das ondas havaianas de Pipeline são um espetáculo á parte, onde os leitores desfrutam da parte lúdica de 'freesurf'. Sem bandeiras, sem fronteiras, o esporte em nível global, na linha do segredo do Bodyboarding.

O segredo foi desvendado e a fórmula está aqui, para que todos possam ver e vislumbrar um futuro melhor para o esporte. Com esse intuito, começamos a fazer a Revista Ride It! em meados de 1996. Tentando desvendar a fórmula do sucesso, para que o esporte conseguisse chegar e se manter no nível que pensamos que merece estar.

Como diz nosso colunista J. Urdan, 'Para os verdadeiros bodyboarders mostrarem a 'brincadeira' como ela realmente é.'

Nesse clima de festa chegam as Sereias, mostrando a beleza da mulher brasileira e as estréias: coluna Fala Xandão! escrita pelo bodyboarder legend Xandão Barros e a sessão Comics Ride It!, com os quadrinhos do também bodyboarder e desenhista Victor Hugo Bueno, que engrossam o caldo botando recheio no bolo de aniversário.

O fotógrafo Breno Lúcio viajou para o RJ para descobrir a essência da Escolinha da Rocinha e conhecer um pouco mais da zona Oeste do litoral carioca.

'O presente é de vocês, revista online, gratuita e com 200 páginas de muita vibbe! ' comemora a boa fase do esporte o editor chefe e fundador Elmo Ramos.

Link Para a Revista Ride It! Online: www.rideitbb.com

Instead, she had something funny to tell me:

"Just wanted to tell you I got a beautiful "red-factor" canary yesterday and was searching for a name for him. I told my husband a couple of weeks ago when I saw you reporting, that I really like your name. Again last night I was reminded of it when I saw another report by you. So I named him after you."

So now, here's this fine looking animal, if I don't say so myself....

That's "Omar" in the cage. Here's a pic of him without bars in the way:

I'm obviously excited about this. I hear "Omar" sings like Justin Timberlake, flies like an eagle, and is feared by lesser birds, cats and snakes.

Here are some other "Omar" characters in the news...some famous....others infamous.

Omar Abdel-Rahman, AKA "The Blind Sheik": Serving life in prison in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Not really doing the name "Omar" any favors.

Omar Minaya, GM of the New York Mets: Not a bad "Omar", although he raised eyebrows when he fired the Mets skipper this year....on the road.....and told the press at 3 in the morning.

General Omar Bradley: West Point grad and led the U-S Army during WWII. 

Omar Sharif, Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe Winning Actor: Starred in Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia.  He's also a master bridge player.

Foi realizado durante este último final de semana um evento de triagens para a terceira etapa do Circuito Mundial de Bodyboard da IBA - International Bodyboarding Association, nas geladas águas de Cronulla Bay, na Austrália.

Em ondas de 3 a 4 pés, Shark Island apresentou boas ondas, onde os atletas puderam já dar uma bela demonstração do que está por vir no evento principal. Quem levou a melhor das Triagens foi o sul-africano Wes Fisher, que fisgou sua vaga entre os melhores do mundo.

Também asseguraram suas vagas os australianos Mitch Rawlings, Ben Gohl, respectivamente segundo e terceiro na final, e em quarto o canário Jonathan Vega.

E a partir do dia 1o. de julho, começa a janela de espera pelas melhores ondas em Shark Island para mais um show de bodyboarding, onde os melhores profissionais do mundo estarão disputando importantes pontos para o ranking mundial. Vale lembrar que no final de Julho ainda teremos a quarta etapa, que será realizada de novo no Brasil, fato que em muito contribuirá para que nossos atletas de ponta, como Uri Valadão, Paulo Barcellos e Luis Villar tenham boas chances de disputar o título de melhor do mundo de 2008.

Acompanhe aqui no VIBBE as novidades do Shark Island Challenge!

_
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