GOODBYE PANDA?
     There are almost 7 billion humans on Planet Earth now and 1.3 billion of them live in China. And within that crowded mass, only 1590 pandas still live wild and free. And while the panda is as much an icon to China as the bald eagle is to America or the kangaroo is to Australia, as Chinese industrial expansion continues to destroy or divide its habitat, the World Wildlife Fund believes the wild panda may be extinct within two or three generations. According to a report in Eco-Friendly: “Fan Zhiyong, Species Program Director at WWF Beijing says that if some of the infrastructure construction is not stopped, conservation efforts face a 20-year setback. He explained that highways and hydropower stations are separating pandas from each other, increasing the risk of inbreeding. He also noted that local governments find it hard to resist the lure of 400 million yuan ($58.8 million) in tax income from building hydropower stations, but that the tradeoff would mean losing the wild panda.” And unlike their human counterparts, apparently, pandas do not have libidos that would ignite a population boom anytime soon, no matter how easily accessible other panda populations might be. But I’m sure future human generations will find a way to maintain the panda in zoos and animal parks and will never notice that the panda, like themselves are no longer free. http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/17/chinas-iconic-panda-may-face-extinction-intwo- to-three-generations/

KIWI NOT ARRESTED FOR ROASTING DOG... It’s not IF you cook him...it’s HOW that matters. The New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)has expressed an opinion about a man from South Auckland who roasted and ate his dog at his backyard barbeque. Paea Taufa skinned and gutted the animal and had half roasted man’s best friend when SPCA officials arrived on the scene. Mr. Taufa was shocked by the attention and insisted dog is a delicasy in his native land. SPCA determined that Mr. Taufa had killed the animal humanely, however, and under NZ’s Animal Welfare Act, as long as the animal is killed painlessly, and had thus broken no law. SPCA’s chief executive Garth Halliday said, however, that while th killing may have been legal, it was still “unacceptable.” While acknowledging cultural differences, Mr. Halliday hoped that roasting dogs was not becoming more popular.

     CAMPING WITH A BUTLER...ECO-POSH Words fail...here’s the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081701621.html?
wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

   CANTEEN CHIC I once lamented the     demise of the canteen. In fact, a few years ago, I entered a popular sporting goods store in Grand Junction and asked the young clerk behind the counter where I might find one. He had never heard of a canteen before. I explained a canteen’s purpose and he said, “You mean a portable hydration system?” But now it appears the canteen is not only making a comeback, but a chic return to boot. I recently discovered th website www.uscanteen.com Be the first on your block to own an $80 canteen and make a fashion statement as well.

HANSJORG WYSS.. ’BIO-ENGINEERING’ THE PLANET? Noted philanthropist Hansjorg Wyss has donated $125 million to create “The Hansjorg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.” According to news reports the institute “will attempt to discover the engineering principles nature uses to build living things, then use that information to create devices and technologies to meet medical needs.” Does this sound a bit like “The Rise of the Machines?” Wyss said, “Little did I dream when I began my career in engineering that we would reach a point where engineers and biologists would be using

     

nature’s templates to create solutions to our medical and environmental challenges.”
      Maybe he can bio-engineer endangered species and even entire eco-systems that can withstand the ravages of climate change and ultimately even bio-engineer eco-tourists to visit the bio-engineered landscapes he saved, just before humans made themselves extinct!
      The mind boggles at the possibilities!
      Mr. Wyss is a major contributor to mainstream environmental organizations and isa board member of The Wilderness Society, the Grand Canyon Institute and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

‘THE GREAT PACIFIC
GARBAGE PATCH’
Out of sight...out of mind? Almost.
For decades the plastic detritus of our
society has been making its way to the sea.
Now scientists from California’s Scripps
Institution of Oceanography are on their
way to “The Great Garbage Patch” in the
northern Pacific Ocean. That area, called the “North Pacific Ocean Gyre,” has become the final resting place for billions of particles of plastic, much of it microscopic in size. Except it’s not really at rest...the Gyre is a great swirling “convergence zone,” hundreds of miles wide where the plastic is trapped. While the plastic breaks into ever smaller pieces, plastic never returns to a natural state because there was never anything natural about it to begin with...it just gets smaller.
      According to Scripps deputy director, Bob Knox, “The concern is what kind of impact those plastic bits are having on the small critters on the low end of the ocean food chain,”

TAJ MAHAL WORLD!
There is no man-made structure more majestic than the Taj Mahal, but apparently the iconic India landmark has lost its whatsee...Plan are underway to surround the Taj Mahal with “ropewalks, a suspension bridge, cable cars and a Ferris wheel.”
     Taja Mahal World! Critics call the plan the “most insensitive imaginable.” But government officials in the state of Uttar Pradesh are moving forward anyway. We wonder if you can twitter from there as well?

      BEWARE!!! FACEBOOK BURGLARS!
      Need another reason to be careful how you choose your Facebook “friends?”
      Tyler Glass and Spencer Shivers were arrested and charged with five counts of burglary. Their modus operandi was brilliant. They simply sent Facebook “friend” requests or accessed “friends of friends” to obtain details about their personal lives and especially to determine who might be on vacation. It was brilliant while it lasted.

     “GLAMPING”
     ...more bad news...too painful to repeat: But be sure to check out the battery-operated portable mosquito repellant device offerred by Gander Mountain...more proof that we face the end of “civilization as we know it.” Or remember it...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/
AR2009081701621.html?wpisrc=newsletter& wpisrc=newsletter

AND NOW...
MUDD FINDS THE DIRT...from Ned Mudd

     Christian Science Monitor: “The avian bird flu predictions in 2005 included estimates of millions dead. Worldwide, 282 people died.”
      http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0827/p02s04-usgn.html

     From the Wall Street Journal: One of the better rants against social networking online.       http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204660604574370450 465849142.html

     This just in from Newsweek: “We are a culture of liars, to put it bluntly, with deceit so deeply ingrained in our psyches that we hardly even notice we’re engaging in it.”
     http://www.newsweek.com/id/213575