The Free

please help STOP Gendercide of Indian Women !

In December 2012, the Delhi Gang Rape public uprising sent a furious message to the the government of India! That message was: ” We are not going to tolerate government apathy and corruption in face of the intolerable violence on girls and women in India.”

There’s an increase of 873% in India’s rape crime rate. Moreover, in 20 years, 20% of women will have been exterminated from India subject to all forms of gender specific violence. [Also browse our newspaper log]

The government’s first response was — stony silence! It pretended it didn’t hear!

As the uprising gathered momentum and all of India came on board, the government decided it to use brutal force to clamp down on the protestors. Continue reading “please help STOP Gendercide of Indian Women !”

62 Yr Old Albatross Has 35th Chick, Flies 3 Million Miles

by George Dvorsky /

Tracked by scientists since 1956, a Laysan albatross dubbed “Widsom” has hatched a healthy chick at the tender age of 62. The (apparently) elderly bird has now successfully given birth for the sixth consecutive year and is assumed to have parented at least 35 chicks over the course of her preternaturally long lifetime. And what might be even more impressive is the fact that Wisdom has flown an awe inspiring three million miles (4.8 million kilometers) since she was first branded.

The hatching was documented by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Pete Leary who is working at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Over the course of her life, Wisdom has worn out five bird bands since being tagged by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Chandler Robbins in 1956.

Wildlife Extra reports:

Bruce Peterjohn, chief of the North American Bird Banding Program at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, MD, said Wisdom has likely raised at least 30 to 35 chicks during her breeding life, though the number may well be higher because experienced parents tend to be better parents than younger breeders. Albatross lay only one egg a year, but it takes much of a year to incubate and raise the chick. After consecutive years in which they have successfully raised and fledged a chick, the parents may take the occasional next year off from parenting. Wisdom is known to have nested in 2006 and then every year since 2008.

“As Wisdom rewrites the record books, she provides new insights into the remarkable biology of seabirds,” Peterjohn said. “It is beyond words to describe the amazing accomplishments of this wonderful bird and how she demonstrates the value of bird banding to better understand the world around us. If she were human, she would be eligible for Medicare in a couple years yet she is still regularly raising young and annually circumnavigating the Pacific Ocean. Simply incredible.”

Incredible, indeed. Wisdom has logged an average of 50,000 miles per year since becoming an adult — which adds up to at least two to three million miles. Or, as Wildlife Extra calculates, “that’s 4 to 6 trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again with plenty of miles to spare.”

Whoa.

Gay and lesbian albatrosses share ‘chick care’!

Filed under: ecology, feminist, gay, satire — Leave a comment

August 16, 2011

Gay and Lesbian birds are just as attached and faithful to each other as those paired with a member of the opposite sex. The insight comes from a study of zebra finches – highly vocal, colourful birds that sing to their mates, a performance thought to strengthen the pair’s bond. Scientists found that same-sex pairs […]

62 Year Old Wild Albatross Hatches 35th Chick, Travels 3 Million Miles (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)

Oil Mafia insists on Tar Sands Pipe.. But Resistance Grows

Debunking Nature’s arguments for Keystone By David Roberts and Emma Cassidy

There was a bit of buzz last week when the august scientific journal Nature endorsed the Keystone XL pipeline (ironically, in the course of pleading with Obama to do

something about climate change). Despite the

In latest Keystone Pipeline protest, environmentalists storm offices of oil giant TransCanada

hubbub, it was not the first time the journal had done so. Back in September 2011, it boosted Keystone … in the context of pleading with Obama do to something about climate change. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Neither editorial makes a fully fleshed-out case for Keystone, but together they advance three common arguments, all of which I find unconvincing…. Continue reading “Oil Mafia insists on Tar Sands Pipe.. But Resistance Grows”