Science/Technology blog

This post is part of Blog Action Day which I signed up to recently. More details at the Blog Action Day blog announcement.

While many people continue to completely ignore the evidence that climate change is real, and continue to think that humans have nothing to do it with it, a lot of other people are working hard to fix it and minimize the damage us humans are doing to the environment. A survey of all the good work being done is impossible - there is simply a lot of activity. So in this post, I would like to pick out a few high profile and a few virtually unknown examples of what people are doing to fix and mitigate environmental damage.

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Five days ago, Google announced a new initiative they are calling the Knol. This post explains why I think this is a bad move as Knol currently stands.

This excerpt from the announcement sums up Knol, but of course read the whole thing:

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

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A new study published recently is bound to get some serious attention. Spanish researchers looked at over 500 studies that documented the effects of asthma drugs called inhaled corticosteroids: 275 studies weer funded by pharmaceutical companies (they called this group the PF studies; PF stands for Pharmaceutical Funding) and 229 were funded by other sources, such as government agencies and non-profit organizations (they called this group NoPF).

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Grizzly bears are iconic Californian mammals — they’re on our state flag; many creeks, hills and passes are named after them; and they’re the mascot of many UC schools — but you won’t ever see one out in your backyard or anywhere else in California. Unlike black bears, which are relatively common in the state, grizzlies went extinct in California sometime in the 1920s. The last verified account was an individual shot in 1922 in Tulare County. The species is now restricted to populations that survive well north of California, in Idaho, Montana and through Canada and Alaska.

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It’s coming!

I have three sex and Halloween I-Was-There stories to relate. They stay vivid in my mind, I guess, because those memories are tinted with a hint of sex.

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Or rather, Wild Birds who Tried to Go Wild but Were Instead Captured for the Pet Industry.

Brock, a Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot
recused by the USDAWould you like a baby kinkajou? How about a little cougar cub or maybe a herd of giraffe? All is possible with the help of the internet and the booming illegal wildlife trade. A multi-billion dollar industry, the illegal wildlife trade is comparable in scale to the trade of illegal drugs or arms. From people needing to feed their families and finding no financial alternatives, to people who simply must have an exotic pet, this industry is alive and well. For example, there are about 5000 tigers in the wild and up to 10,000 PET tigers in the United States!

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What is soft, furry, clean, and curious and actually makes a decent pet? A rabbit. Yep, rabbits are one of the few species that we take on our Oakland Zoo ZooMobile outings and feel it is ok to choose as pets, with proper care and preparations, of course (not so much for the hedgehogs).

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The lush forested areas of central and western Africa are commonly referred to as “the bush.” The diverse forms of wildlife found in the bush–including great apes, elephants, and forest antelope–have long served as a primary food source for the inhabitants of the region. This bushmeat is an important food and trade item for poor families in rural areas, while many residents of urban areas prize bushmeat as a delicacy. While not ideal, historically this practice has been fairly sustainable.

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Watch Your Back in the Mangrove Forest

Bengal Tiger -original photo by: Paul MannixMosquitoes are not the only ones that appear to consider humans a main protein source; Tigers in the Sunderbans Preserve
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When a contest to name our newest penguin at the Steinhart Aquarium came around, I was more than excited. The prize after all was a picture with the chick and a rare opportunity to get close to an African penguin. My strategy for the contest was simple – submit 25 entries. Low and behold, a few weeks later one of the judges asked me about one of my submissions – Safara. The name which means Fire in the Wolof language was deemed a perfect fit to dub the spirited chick.

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