The UK government’s chief scientist has advised ministers that badgers should be killed to prevent the spread of TB among cattle.
Sir David King says culling could be effective in areas that are contained, for example, by the sea or motorways.
His report follows a previous study that said culling badgers would be ineffective.
Read the rest of the article on the BBC website:
The Greenhouse 2007 presentations, papers and panel sessions are now available online:
I can’t wait to view Sir David King’s presentation to see how his plans for us all moving to the Antarctic are shaping up. Sir David is also a Bovine TB and Badger ‘expert’ – he plans to cull 80 per cent of the UK’s Badgers in some areas – I may post on that.
Sadly, Tim Flannery’s presentation isn’t available. X-rated perhaps?
Enjoy! Thanks to Luke Walker for alerting me to ‘Gloomhouse’ 2007.
The outer-wing coverings (tegmina) of the Snub-nosed Katydid (Mastigaphoides sp.) are remarkably leaf-like, even to the extent of the centrally prominent vein and subordinate branches. They blend splendidly within rainforest foliage and are found most easily at night, after summer rains, when singing.
Such a marvellous design, but to what extent do we over-interpret the convergence of design with the character of that which provides the design-benefit, as an expression of either evolutionary adaptation or just as readily by the gracious glory of God?
I must confess that neither explanation deepens my understanding of the process that leads to mimicry and both are ever-increasingly incredible, when it is implicit that the outcome is pre-ordained.
Or is it? Perhaps the mimicry only seems to be pre-ordained; an inadvertent piece of genetic good fortune that resonates with competitiveness.
Of course there is coincidence, when two or more separate evolutionary trails randomly converge, to which we often over-attribute an awesome unlikelihood. But perhaps there is less freedom than we might imagine.
For instance, to what extent do genetic variations and mutations remain constrained by internal chemical mechanisms? Do these constraints dramatically reduce the possibility of outcomes to those that have previously overcome similar competitive hardships? And what of the prescriptive inducements of external chemical overtures; pheromones, for example, wafting across the sensitivities of a menagerie of adaptable interests?
Other examples of mimicry have been previously considered at The evolutionary power of persuasion, Unidentified (Spider) and Lichen Spiders.
Orphaned baby hedgehogs need feeding by hand every two hours day and night for the first two weeks of their life. Then every four hours for the next two weeks until they can lap on their own.
They are fed with a milk substitute, called Espilac (a dog milk substitute), which is the closest thing to natural hedgehog milk.
Photograph from Catastrophe Aid for Birds and Wildlife, Sweden
Older hedgehogs can be fed suitable dog food and herring.
Photograph from Catastrophe Aid for Birds and Wildlife, Sweden
Read more from my colleague Angelica on wildlife rehabilitation in Sweden: http://www.iwrc-online.org/magazine/2006/winter/RehabilitationinSweden.htm
Ann Novek
Sweden
Bush fires are threatening suburbs in Southern California. …several homes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties were evacuated. Seven-hundred fire-fighters battled the blazes, the largest covered 2,800 hectares. The fires were whipped by high winds of up to 70 km/h. Some homes were destroyed and flames and smoke were visible for several kilometres.
Read more here: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2005/09/29/california_fires20050929.html
And that article is a couple of years old. Yesterday CBC was reporting:
Firefighters in Southern California are battling more than a dozen wildfires that have destroyed 16,000 hectares of land and forced the evacuation of more than 250,000 people from their homes in the area. …Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency late Sunday in seven counties where fires have killed one person and injured dozens, said Monday that “it’s a tragic time for California.”
Read more here: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/10/22/fire-california.html
The French unit of US Biotech giant Monsanto has filed a lawsuit following the latest destruction of some of its test fields for genetically-modified maize. In a statement issued on Friday, Monsanto said that unidentified activists had ransacked three test fields in Valdivienne in central France after dark on Thursday.
Read more here: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44924/story.htm
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
Read more