Elephants Cogitate

End the Ivory Trade! And the incarceration of elephants.

Happy the elephant recognises herself in a mirror. Image: Diana Reiss/Wildlife Conservation Society.

Elephants possess self-awareness

SYDNEY: Elephants can recognise themselves in mirrors, an ability which gains them membership of the cognitive elite, U.S. researchers say.

"We report a successful MSR [mirror self-recognition] elephant study and report striking parallels in the progress of responses to mirrors among apes, dolphins and elephants," said the researchers. They report their findings today in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mirror self-recognition is considered a sign of self-awareness which, until now, has been observed only in humans, apes and dolphins. These animals - as well as elephants - all have large brains, complex social systems and high intelligence levels.

"When CITES first banned the ivory trade in 1989, Africa's elephant population was 609,000 (down from 1.3 million in 1979). Now the most optimistic estimates are around 400,000 elephants. Losing elephants is an ecological disaster. Elephants are not just ornaments or tourist attractions; they disperse seeds, prune the trees and shape the land wherever they live, naturally." Ian Redmond, Born Free Wildlife Consultant and elephant expert

West Africa's ivory trade thrives

By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent Poachers' victim in central Africa A lively illegal trade in ivory is now flourishing in three populous states in West Africa, conservation groups say. They found more ivory in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal than the countries' own elephant populations could produce. The wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic and the global conservation group WWF say West Africa's vibrant ivory markets spur the poachers on. They believe much of the ivory their teams found will have come from animals slaughtered by gangs in central Africa. Any international ivory trade must be sanctioned by Cites, the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Elephant News


SEE:

Dialectics of Extinction

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Dialectics of Extinction

"We came up with the idea that humans themselves act as both press and a pulse," said West. "Humans began manipulating the environment - the press - from the advent of agriculture. However, that alone did not trigger the current mass extinction. That seems to have been triggered by the pulse of industrialisation and the demands for energy and resources that came with it."

New theory for mass extinctions



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Pay Now Or Pay Later

Global warming could soon cost trillions

According to the Observer, the Stern report says unchecked climate change would cost up to US$6.98 trillion (A$9 trillion) - more than World Wars I and II and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It also warns that the world needs to spend about one per cent of global gross domestic product - equivalent to about US$349 billion (A$454 billion) - on the issue now or face a bill up to 20 times higher than that in future, the paper says.

Stern also calls for a successor to the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases to be signed next year, not in 2010 or 2011 as planned, because the problem is so urgent, according to the paper.

He reportedly says that failure to act quickly would trigger a global recession and calls for an international framework to tackle the issue.

The Observer says his report is the first heavyweight contribution to the debate on climate change by an economist rather than a scientist.

See:

Ambrose

Environment

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I Am Not A Number

I am a free man. So said the Prisoner. Now it turns out that strange white ball that chased him all over the island when he tried to escape actually exists.

Scientists Stumped: Underwater Photographer Captures Picture of Mysterious Gelatinous Ball; 'A Bit of Science Fiction'

The Prisoner was the British paranoid Sci Fi TV series created by the first TV spy guy; Patrick McGoohan. Who starred in Danger Man/Secret Agent






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Why The Democrats Will Sweep

Because they have no spokesperson, no identifiable leader, no one for Bush to thrash or attack, and because they are all over the map on issues.

All these would be a negative in politics, but come November 7 they will sweep the Congress and the Senate.

And they will do it without having launched an orchestrated campaign like the Republicans did in 1994.

What is seen as weakness is actually to their advantage.

That and of course the daily news from Iraq.




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Zaccardelli Gets The Boot?

Will the Conservatives turf RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardali, looks like they are planning to. Not over his mishandling of the Arar Affair, oh no the Harpocrites love the idea of the Security State. Nope they are dragging up an old sexual abuse case to use as an excuse to turf him. That of course is far more heinious a crime for the Tories than rendition, torture and falsifying information about Maher Arar.

RCMP whistleblowers get Day's protection

Goldring said the officers have information on a case dating back to the 1990s that the RCMP did not adequately investigate alleged sexual abuse by an ex-Mountie at a school in New Brunswick. RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli was in charge of that criminal division at the time.

MP flags concerns over Zaccardelli

See:

RCMP

Arar



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Tories Can't Stop Crime

The New Conservative Government of Stephen Harper prides itself on being our new Law and Order government. Nine months in power and Edmonton remains the Murder Capital of Canada despite the fact that every single Federal MP is a Tory.

So much for their get tough on crime message. It doesn't appear to be getting through. 3 dead in Edmonton nightclub shooting

Alberta is a Tory province. So ask yourself how successful the Conservatives will be federally when they can't stop crime where they governed for thiry five years.


Of course with their new three strikes law the criminals will only get more desperate and fight to the death,rather than go to jail, just as they do in the U.S.

See:

Murder


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The Vampire State

I loved this definition of the State. Just in time for Halloween. Of course Vampirism historically has been the lot of the aristorcacy who sucked the blood out of the peasants.After all the historical vampire Elizabeth Bathory was a Countess, and Vlad Dracul was a Prince. And when the aristocracy gave way to the bourgoise it became the nature of capitalism.

Mr. Ayittey says aid to Africa should bypass governments entirely and flow into the hands of organizations that empower people. In a PBS interview last year, he said, "Africans see government as the problem. In fact, we call them vampire states because they suck the vitality out of the people. A vampire state is a government which has been captured or hijacked by a phalanx of bandits and crooks who use instruments of the state to enrich themselves, their cronies and tribesmen and exclude everybody else …

"Now, if you want to understand why America is rich and Africa is poor, ask yourself, ‘How do the rich in each area make their money?’ Take the U.S., for example. The richest person is Bill Gates. He’s worth something like $64 billion. How did he make his money? He made his money in the private sector, by selling something, Microsoft computer software. He has something to show for his wealth.

"Now, let’s go to Africa. Who are the richest in Africa? The richest in Africa are African heads of state and ministers. How did they make their money? They made their money by raking it off the backs of their suffering people. That is not wealth creation. It is wealth redistribution."

See:

Vampire

Gothic Capitalism



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Mobile Capitalism

In 1998 the World Bank sponsored an email conference on technology and globalization, that I was involved in. At that time, eight years ago, Africa suffered a lack of infrastructure for basic phones services, let alone available service for computers. In fact most of the developing world lacked phone access.

Many email discussions on Labour Net for instance were conducted by someone with a computer forwarding email to faxes and getting faxed responses back.

Today globalization of technology has proved that infrastructure such as telephone does not have to be land based, poles, wires, interchanges, but can now be accessed by satillite and cell phones. Computers which are still unaffordable are being replaced by cell phones.

Africa's 'Lord of the Ringtones'

Computer science students at the University of Nairobi are learning how to design their own "value-added services" in a nine-week course entitled "Mobile Phone Programming for Entrepreneurs."

The class is taught by Nathan Eagle, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who says the traditional focus on computer programming has become increasingly misplaced.

He said: "A lot of people here don't have access to computers. Mobile phones are the way they're getting connected."

The irony is that Africa is the source for a rare metal used in cellphones which comes from the Congo and is found in the areas where endangered Gorilla's live.

The phenomena is sweeping the developing world. Allowing people in distant villages who never communicated with each other to do so. And of course it has increased the spread of capitalism replacing the barter based economies of the localized free markets. Which means the market becomes dominated by capitalist monopolies. Cellphones Catapult Rural Africa to 21st Century - New York Times

Phoney finance

Mobile banking is just one example of a wider phenomenon in South Africa. With its odd mix of advanced capitalism and developing-world economics, the country is successfully luring people who hitherto dealt only in cash or barter to the world of formal finance. A simplified kind of account called Mzansi was launched in 2004 to reach the unbanked, and portable banks and ATMs have been rolled out in townships and in the countryside. To this fast-changing scene, mobile-phone banking looks to be a promising addition. Millions of South Africans send money to their relatives in other parts of the country. And most of these sums, which add up to about 12 billion rand ($1.5 billion) each year, still move informally.

No cheap call for cellular network acquisitions

RAMPANT acquisitions in the cellular network industry have seen four players grow to dominate Africa by serving 40% of all subscribers.

Yet there are still 115 operators on the continent, providing plenty of fuel for the acquisition frenzy. The largest operators are MTN, Vodacom and the Middle East’s MTC and Orascom.

But the price tag for acquisitions is reaching a point where even the richest Africans may have to bow out and let the oil rich Arabs muscle in instead.

Recent takeovers have cost more than $1000 for each subscriber — an anomaly when Africans are among the poorest, lowest-spending users in the world. Africa has 165-million users and an average penetration of 18%. That means the potential for growth is still there, analysts agreed at the GSM Africa forum in Cape Town last week.

Of 472-million new users expected to join networks around the world this year, 48-million would be in Africa, said Devine Kofiloto, a principal analyst for Informa Telecoms. Yet the growth potential cannot be gauged purely by Africa’s population, as the majority are too poor to afford cellphone services and penetration would stabilise at about 32%, he said. The payback for acquisitions is also taking longer, as the average revenue per user is plunging as cellphones reach the poorer echelons of society.

See:

The New Market States

Free Market Economics=Cooperatives

Free Trade; Hong Kong & Somalia

Marx Was Right

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Assassination In Mexico

No not Trotsky, but Indymedia reporter Brad Will, reporting from Insurgent Mexico.

Brad Will, Indymedia Reporter, Murdered While Reporting on Mexico Demonstration

Brad was murdered while the phoney el Presidente elect of Mexico was having lunch with el capo Harper in Ottawa.

Of course because Brad was working as freelancer with Indymedia his death has been underreported unlike those MSM journalists killed in Iraq or other war zones . His death was unnessacary as were the deaths of the people of Oaxaca with whom he was covering. This was an assisination by the corrupt Mexican Federal State.

A tip o' the blog to Greenman's Occasional Organ for this.

See:

Oaxaca Mexican Revolution Continues

Dual Power In Mexico

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