Bald eagles across the United States are dying from lead poisoning

HAS TO DO WITH THE SECOND AMENDMENT 

NOT WINDMILLS/WIND TURBINES
By Alaa Elassar, CNN

© Cape Fear Raptor Center Dr. Joni Shimp, executive director 

of Cape Fear Raptor Center, poses with a bald eagle.

Bald eagles across the United States are dying from lead bullets -- but it's not because they're being shot.

The Cape Fear Raptor Center, North Carolina's largest eagle rehab facility, has treated seven eagles in the past month for lead poisoning, executive director Dr. Joni Shimp told CNN.

Since November, at least 80% of the eagles the facility has euthanized were put down because of lead poisoning.

Hunters use lead bullets to kill deer and other animals. Although the hunters aren't targeting eagles, the birds are still indirectly affected when they consume animals shot with those bullets.

"Hunters in no way, shape or form intentionally try to kill an eagle, vulture or any other species," she said.

"If the deer isn't killed immediately and runs and the hunter can't find the deer, the eagles and vultures find it and ingest the lead."

Once absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, the lead becomes toxic.

The latest incident for the center occurred Friday, when Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation found an eagle showing symptoms of lead poisoning and transported it to the Cape Fear Raptor Center for treatment. Dehydrated and too weak to move, the bird died the same night, said Lou Browning, president of the rehabilitation center.

Lead poisoning can cause a "lack of judgment when flying across roadways, the inability to take flight quickly resulting in being hit by cars, seizures and death," Shimp said.

Depending on the severity of the poisoning, some eagles survive after veterinarians use chelation therapy, injecting the birds with a drug that binds the toxins in their bloodstream and allows it be removed from their bodies.

Those in too much pain are put down. Many die despite treatment.
It's a national problem

Millions of birds across the United States, including bald eagles, are poisoned by lead every year, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

"It's an overall US problem. The lead poisoning increases during deer season but we see it all year," Shimp said. "Some times it's chronic low-grade exposure over time that also brings them down."

Shimp said she believes the only solution is to educate hunters on the importance of using of non-lead ammunition.

Copper bullets can be purchased online but are more expensive and difficult to find in stores, she said.

"We need to target the big chain stores and get them to carry copper bullets," Shimp said. "Then I can set up education days at these stores, with a vulture, red tail (hawk) or eagle and show the hunters and point them to the copper ammo. Then we can start to win this war ... the war on lead, not on hunters."
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, established in 1940, prohibits possessing, selling or hunting bald eagles. Federal, state and municipal laws continue to protect these animals even after they were removed from endangered animal lists in 2007.

The Other Buddha: On “Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side: A Guide to the Lotus Sūtra”

By Nilanjan Bhowmick
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-other-buddha-on-two-buddhas-seated-side-by-side-a-guide-to-the-lotus-sutra/

Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side

A Guide to the Lotus Sūtra

By Jacqueline Stone, Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Published 10.01.2019
Princeton University Press 312 Pages 

 




JANUARY 26, 2020

THE TITLE OF Donald S. Lopez Jr. and Jacqueline Stone’s book is startling. Two Buddhas? Anyone even vaguely familiar with Buddhism would think there is just one. His life story is famous: a prince gave up the pleasures of his life to become an ascetic. He gained enlightenment, and then went on to spread it to others. Who is the second Buddha, then? Is he a contemporary of the one we are familiar with? Why is he not as famous as the first one? It turns out, as we read the guide to the Lotus Sūtra by Lopez and Stone, that what we are familiar with is an illusion. The historical Buddha is not the only Buddha. He has been preceded by many, not so much in history, but in a mythical past.

Myth and history are in collusion in the Lotus Sūtra, inventive myths turning into vibrant history and hazy history turning into an illusory past. The book’s intention is to challenge the familiar world of early Buddhism. In that ancient world, there is the Buddha, his disciples, some wiser than others, some near enlightenment, some far. There are notions like karma, rebirth, the four noble truths, and dependent origination (nothing exists without a cause). These notions are not challenged by the Lotus Sūtra. What is challenged is the uniqueness of the Buddha, the exact meaning of his message, the state of wisdom of his disciples, and even, unusually, whether the Buddha attained parinirvāṇa (the final release from the karmic cycle upon death). All this is brought out with patience and understanding by Lopez and Stone. The authors do not present some eulogy or defense of the Lotus Sūtra. They use the views and opinions of earlier translators and monks, chief among whom are the highly original Chinese master Zhiyi (538–597 AD) and the rather combatively luminous Japanese monk, Nichiren Daishonin (1222–1282), to explain the Lotus Sūtra. The book, in their words, represents a “seismic shift” where “conventional expectations no longer apply.”

If early Buddhism was a spiritual revolution, the Lotus Sūtra is a rebellion arising from it. The chief rebel is the Buddha himself. He asserts that what he had said all along to his eager disciples had more to do with their ability to understand rather than with what he actually knew. He knew that there were not three roads to nirvāṇa and that nirvāṇa was not the real goal, and yet he taught otherwise. If that is not shocking enough, the Buddha says that the dramatic story of his attaining enlightenment has to be considered in the perspective of his having been enlightened all the time. His famous life story was merely a display of sorts.

The Lotus Sūtra is set in India, the Buddha seated on Vulture Peak. He is delivering a sermon. A vast audience, human and divine, is listening awestruck. Frustratingly enough, we are not told what the sermon is about. Then the Buddha goes into meditation. Now something miraculous happens, which we do not normally associate with the historical Buddha. A ray of light emerges from a tuft of white hair between Buddha’s eyebrows and lights many worlds. What does this mean? According to one of his disciples, it means that the Buddha is going to reveal the Lotus Sūtra. According to Lopez and Stone, this means that the Lotus Sūtra has not begun yet. And as the Sūtra unfolds, chapter by chapter, it is not exactly clear when the Lotus Sūtra begins, if at all, and when it ends, if it ever does. The Buddha repeatedly promises to deliver the Sūtra, but apparently he does not.

Also, the Sūtra is ominously long. A clue about the length comes from the fact that, countless ages ago, one of the Buddhas taught the Lotus Sūtra “for eight thousand eons, without stopping, in verses equal in number to the sands of the Ganges.” So the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sūtra will hardly do the job. Moreover, this is not the first time the Sūtra has been delivered. The Buddha is not the first fountainhead of wisdom. He is just repeating what his predecessors have said.

Promisingly enough, in Chapter Two, the Buddha comes out of his meditation, opens his eyes, and starts talking. What he says is so disturbing that 500 of his students leave the audience. The Lotus Sūtra was not exactly well received on Vulture Peak. The Buddha says that there aren’t three ways to nirvāṇa, as he previously taught. There is just one — the path of the bodhisattva — to the realization of Buddhahood. One does not want to put a full stop to the cycle of birth and death, and escape into nirvāṇa; rather, one wants to stay behind to lead the other suffering sentient beings to enlightenment. That’s what the bodhisattvas do. If you are an arhat (already enlightened), that is not good enough. For the last 40 years, the Buddha had been using “skillful means” to train his disciples, meaning that he had told them less than the truth. Now that his end is near he has to speak the truth.

What of the second Buddha present in the title of the book? In Chapter 11, an astoundingly large stūpa, miles in width and height, appears in the air. The Buddha rises in the air to open its door. Inside, one finds a living Buddha, Prabhūtaratna. He appears in his great stūpa wherever the Lotus Sūtra is recited. He graciously invites the Buddha to sit with him. The Buddha obliges. Lopez and Stone explain that apart from the miraculous occurrence of the stūpa, the event is significant for other reasons. Stūpas are supposed to contain relics of the Buddha after his death. To find a living Buddha inside a stūpa breaks all conventions: it means that the Buddha never dies, that he never attains parinirvāṇa. But the received tradition of earlier Buddhism was that the Buddha had attained parinirvāṇa.

Soon we learn that the Buddha not only never dies, but he has been in this realm — called the Buddha-realm — forever. In fact, he was never born. The original story of the Buddha, the one we are so used to, was a mirage, meant only to keep the disciples searching. One feels a bit deflated, no doubt, to read what Lopez and Stone describe as a “bombshell.” However, on reflection, it is also a comforting thought, as one realizes that the Buddha is still among us. The disciples have to choose whether they want the living Buddha to inspire them or the conventional story we all know. They have to choose between the Buddha’s compassion, which makes him stay in the world as a bodhisattva, and the personal nirvāṇa that he attains.

Lopez and Stone take Nichiren’s words on the Lotus Sūtra very seriously. Nichiren thought that the entire message of the Sūtra, and its secret meaning, were somehow captured in its Japanese title: Namu Myōhō-Renge-Kyō (“Homage to the Lotus Sūtra”). All one has to do is to recite this and have faith in its power. Not reciting it — neglecting it — leads to serious trouble. Nichiren thought that the earthquakes, epidemics, and the impending Mongol invasion of Japan were all due to the neglect of the Lotus Sūtra by the monks, the laity, and the authorities. Nichiren’s own life was hardly a happy one, even though he was never short of devotion to the Lotus Sūtra. He was against both Zen and Pure Land Buddhism practitioners, and he paid for his opposition: imprisoned twice, he was once nearly beheaded, and yet he interpreted everything that happened to him as having a resonance in the Lotus Sūtra. He makes the Lotus Sūtra approachable by any person, however ordinary. Remarkably for his time, he thought that females were as favored to achieve enlightenment as men.

There is not much metaphysics in the Lotus Sūtra. One would expect long discourses on dependent origination, emptiness, and the like, but such philosophical satisfaction is not to be had. However, what little it offers has been turned into something fascinating by both Zhiyi and Nichiren. The basic idea is that of “three thousand realms [being] contained in one single moment of thought.” This mysterious, formulaic utterance has its inbuilt logic. It follows from the fact that nothing has any essence — hence, all the realms are really interpenetrating and, therefore, all the realms are Buddha-realms. Divisions are illusory. To realize this is to enlighten oneself. Yet Zhiyi and Nichiren do not think that this insight can be understood conceptually.

Unabashedly fantastical as the Lotus Sūtra is, remarkable in equal measure is the reserve and insight the authors show in presenting the book. They are not overly critical — as it is easy to be with a book speaking of miraculous happenings — nor are they overly excited by the riches it offers. Lopez and Stone are well aware that the Lotus Sūtra is not the Buddha’s word — it was compiled a good four centuries after he died. They realize that the Buddha is presented here as the originator of the Lotus Sūtra because the rebellion would not have carried much justification without his involvement in it. The upheaval spread to China, Japan, and Korea.

The appeal of this book might well lie in the fact that, even if it contains little in the way of philosophy, it is riddled with absorbing stories and parables, with fascinating people and equally fascinating gods. In being so earthy in its presentation, the book transcends ordinariness. The missionary zeal with which Chinese monks would burn themselves, or parts of their bodies, while chanting the Sūtra is a mark of its influence.

The Lotus Sūtra, which is also not the Lotus Sūtra, is given a near perfect summary when the authors write that it is a “sūtra that never ends, an assembly that never disperses, and a mission that is ongoing.” The guide that Lopez and Stone have written might just add a few more admirers to that assembly.

¤

Nilanjan Bhowmick is an assistant professor at University of Delhi, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy.

VULTURE CAPITALI$M

Sri Lanka’s Lenders Should Cancel Debt, Academics Say in Letter

Chris Dolmetsch
Sun, January 8, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s bondholders aren’t living up to their obligations and should cancel debt to allow the country to get out of its economic crisis, a group of international academics said in a letter.

Private creditors own almost 40% of the country’s external debt, mostly in the form of International Sovereign Bonds, but higher interest rates mean they receive more than half of debt payments, the group said in the letter, which was signed by more than 180 professors from around the world.

“Such lenders charged a premium to lend to Sri Lanka to cover their risks, which accrued them massive profits and contributed to Sri Lanka’s first ever default in April 2022,” said the group, which includes University of Massachusetts professor Jayati Ghosh as well as Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics. “Lenders who benefited from higher returns because of the ‘risk premium’ must be willing to take the consequences of that risk.”

The island nation fell into default in May, the first sovereign debt default by the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1948. The government last month held a third round of talks with creditors as it seeks a deal that’s key to unlocking a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and other financing to bolster reserves that have been languishing below $2 billion.

The nation’s commercial creditors favor recasting both foreign- and local-currency liabilities to achieve debt sustainability and foster economic growth. The talks are at a crucial stage, the academics said, and all lenders “should share in the burden of restructuring” with the assurance of additional near-term financing.

“Sri Lanka on its own cannot ensure this; it requires much greater international support,” the group said. “Instead of geopolitical manoeuvring, all of Sri Lanka’s creditors must ensure debt cancellation sufficient to provide a way out of the current crisis.”

Chile preparing threatened condor chicks for release into wild

Issued on: 18/01/2023 

Condor chick Mailen was born in captivity at Chile's Rehabilitation Center for Birds of Prey 


Talagante (Chile) (AFP) – Alhue and Mailen were born in captivity but conservationists hope to free the chicks soon as part of a project to boost Chile's ailing population of Andean condors.

The Andean condor, a type of vulture, is the largest flying bird in the world but its population is considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Endangered Species.

There are just an estimated 6,700 Andean condors living in the wild.

At Chile's Rehabilitation Center for Birds of Prey (CRAR), conservationists are trying to boost those numbers.

"The aim is to introduce condors to nature born from condors that cannot be freed, who are here for life," said Eduardo Pavez, the CRAR founder.

The CRAR center in Talagante, 40 kilometers from Santiago, looks after birds that cannot be released into the wild, either because they cannot fly or have become too accustomed to human contact.

The parents of both Alhue, a male, and female Mailen, have lived in the center for years and cannot be released.

Venerated but threatened

The condor has long been venerated by indigenous peoples in the Americas.

The Andean condor is the largest flying bird in the world but its species is vulnerable according to the International Union for the Conserevation of Nature 

In Andean religious mythology, the condor was a symbol of power and ruled the upper world, acting as an intermediary with the world of spirits and the sun god, Inti.

It features on the coat of arms of several countries, such as Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile.

It is virtually extinct in Venezuela in the north of the continent, while the largest concentrations are found in the south of Chile and Argentina.

The greatest threat to the condor is human occupation of the Andean mountain range, and a lack of food.

CRAR, founded in 1990, takes in all sorts of birds of prey including owls and falcons that are injured, have been in an accident or were kept in captivity.

Its aim is to rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild, but in many cases that is impossible.

Alhue's mother, for example, was injured by a power line and can no longer fly.

Mailen's mother, who was brought to the center at the age of about one, has become too accustomed to humans to be able to survive in the wild.

Over the years, CRAR has already freed 13 out of 25 condor chicks born in captivity, with another four due to be soon released.

Teaching by pecks

Within the next six to nine months, once they are fully grown, Alhue and Mailen will be separated from their parents.

Workers at the Rehabilitation Center for Birds of Prey take care of condor chicks they hope to one day release into the wild 

The parents will then be able to begin reproducing again while their offspring will start socializing with and learning from other adult condors at the center.

They will be taken to a large cage where adults that cannot be released mix with juveniles preparing for the outside world.

There they can fly around and communicate with other members of their species.

"Here they establish a hierarchy where the adult males dominate. They have to learn that hierarchy, sometimes by force of pecks, so they find their place in condor society," said Pavez.

Human encroachment onto its natural habitat has provided a threat to the Andean condor's existence and affect its access to food 

That is a vital apprenticeship for Mailen and Alhue ahead of their likely release in the southern hemisphere in spring of 2024 so that they are able to build relationships with other wild condors, get to know their territory and find food.

PHOTOS  JAVIER TORRES / AFP

© 2023 AFP

Beware a new wave of populism, born out of coronavirus-induced economic inequity

Big businesses and governments are fast making themselves inviolable. There could be a backlash


Nick Cohen Sat 18 Apr 2020 THE GUARDIAN 
 

Protesters ‘Rally Against Capital’ in London in February 2020. Photograph: Ollie Millington/Getty Images
SEE SOME PROTESTERS WERE ALREADY MASKED AGAINST COVID-19

Aglobal wave of injustice could follow the global pandemic. Pre-existing tendencies towards monopoly, Chinese dominance and predatory capitalism will explode unless governments take measures to contain them. I accept that it is hard to imagine public fury at a rigged economy when voters are rallying to their leaders and lockdowns are enjoying overwhelming support. Solidarity cannot last, however, as the crisis accentuates the division between insiders and outsiders.

You see them now. Employees with staff jobs, and the ability to work from home, are coping, for the moment. A few might experience lockdown as something close to a holiday and rhapsodise on the joys of home baking and box sets. As insiders stay inside, they save the money they would have spent in shops, restaurants, hotels and travel agents - the places where the insecure, the luckless nine out of 10 in the bottom half of earners who cannot work from home, once made their livings.


What applies to individuals applies to corporations and private equity funds that are strong enough to buy up distressed assets at a fraction of their pre-crisis value. I sat up and paid attention last week when I heard Sebastian Mallaby of the US Council on Foreign Relations warn that private equity is likely “to play both sides”: soaking up government largesse and profiting from market mayhem. It won’t, he concluded, “look great when we consider the political economy of the pandemic a year from now”.

You catch a glimpse of the future in the manoeuvres of the US private equity firms thinking of deploying hundreds of billions of dollars they hold in reserve as high-interest loans to struggling companies. The arguments this month about a Chinese state-owned investment firm buying up the British chip manufacturer Imagination Technologies are a further harbinger of a possible world to come. The Chinese Communist Party’s “2025 Made in China” strategy sees it leapfrogging the west by taking over companies and establishing a global lead in smart manufacturing, digitisation and emerging technologies. Covid-19 gives the party the opportunity it needs. Funds and states are operating in a market where the tendency towards monopoly was already established.

The 2008 crash, like recessions before it, concentrated economic power, as large firms used their resources and access to finance to ensure their survival. But, unlike in the last century, a multitude of rival businesses did not emerge once recession had passed, to provide competition and new employment opportunities for workers wanting to raise their wages by switching firms. In 2016, according to the Resolution Foundation, Britain’s 100 biggest firms accounted for 23% of total revenue across the economy, up by a quarter since 2004. As the economic crisis we are entering looks worse than 2008, worse indeed than anything anyone alive can remember, the rise of corporate giants seems assured. Big governments – and this crisis is making governments bigger than ever – will welcome them, because they want the convenience of dealing with big businesses, not with tens of thousands of small and medium-size firms.

Complaints about tax-exile billionaires wanting other people’s money are a warning

Do you begin to see how popular fury might build? Vulture capitalists swooping on undervalued assets. Chinese communists, who censored news of Covid-19 rather than alerting the world, benefiting rather than suffering. Big business trampling over all who might challenge it. It’s not a recipe for social peace.

Superficially, the crisis of 2020 does not appear anything like the financial crisis of 2007-08 and not only because it threatens to bring an incomparably greater level of impoverishment. Then there were human villains: bankers and captured regulators who broke the financial system, northern Europeans who congratulated themselves as they let southern Europe collapse. Now there’s just an invisible infectious agent that wants only to replicate itself. The similarities remain striking, for all that. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, like leaders across the west, weren’t interested in jailing bankers or making them pay back their bonuses. Their sole concern was to stop the collapse of the banking system. The morality of the bailout could wait – forever, as it turned out. Everywhere in the west, the public reaction was the same. Democracy was a racket. Taxpayers had to rescue the richest people in the world and then suffer years of stagnant wages and cut public services to meet the bill. If you need a one-line explanation for populism, this is the best there is.

Yet again, vast amounts of public money are being committed, but instead of stagnation we face catastrophe. Nervous commentators rererence how the Great Depression of the 1930s fuelled nazism and communism, as 2008 fuelled populism, and dread what awaits us. They should know there is no necessary link between economic and political failure. Far from enabling tyranny, the economic crisis of the 1970s, for instance, saw the end of the rightwing tyrannies in Spain, Portugal and Greece and the beginning of the decline and fall of the Soviet empire. Our future depends not only on the work of scientists but on the efforts of governments to stop democracy turning into a swindle.

The EU says countries must ensure that big business doesn’t use state funding to buy out rivals and adds that nation states should take stakes in companies threatened with Chinese takeovers. However the UK’s relationship with the EU ends, that’s good advice.

Governments should not forget natural justice as they did in 2008. Complaints about tax-exile billionaires in the Richard Branson mould wanting other people’s money are a warning, not a tabloid distraction. If, as seems likely, the government moves from subsidising wages to direct loans to big business, the first question must be what do taxpayers, employees and wider society gain in return.

Sociologists talk of the “Matthew effect”, an idea lifted from Saint Matthew’s account of the most unChristian words Jesus uttered: “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Our task is to make sure this miserable prophecy is not now vindicated.

• Nick Cohen is an Observer columnist

Birds of a feather: India’s raptor-rescuing brothers

By AFP
Published January 31, 2022


Mohammad Saud is one of the brothers who run Wildlife Rescue, a group devoted to injured predatory birds - 

Copyright AFP Money SHARMA

Laurence THOMANN

Nursed back from near death, a skittish vulture flaps its wings and returns to the grey skies above India’s capital after weeks of tender care from two devoted brothers.

New Delhi is home to a magnificent array of predatory birds, but untold numbers are maimed each week by kite strings, cars and other grave encounters with human activity.

A fortunate few are found and cared for by Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud, siblings who run a rescue group devoted to injured creatures at the top of the avian food chain.

Both men are fighting an uphill battle: their patients are considered ill omens, and few donors are willing to shell out in support of Wildlife Rescue, their shoestring operation on the city’s outskirts.

“There’s a superstition in India that birds of prey are unlucky birds,” Shehzad, 44, tells AFP.

“They are not liked by many. Sometimes people hate them.”

When they were younger, the brothers found an injured predatory bird and carted it to a “vegetarian” veterinary hospital — one caring exclusively for herbivores — only to despair at the staff’s refusal to treat it.

Eventually, they began taking similarly hurt birds home to help them recover.

“Some of the birds started flying back into the wild, and that gave us much-needed confidence,” Shehzad said.

Now, on the roof of their small office, a huge aviary hosts a colourful assortment of raptors in various states of convalescence.

Among them are endangered Egyptian vultures, instantly recognisable by their bright yellow beaks and tousled cream crowns.

A colony of the species lives at a waste dump in Delhi’s east, drawn by the pungent refuse dumped there by surrounding slaughterhouses and fish markets.

One of their flock was recently returned to the wild by the brothers after being wounded by the taut string of a kite.

Kites are popular in the city, and Saud says the Wildlife Rescue clinic takes in half a dozen birds each day that are injured after colliding with them.

In a treatment room, he carefully jostles with one flapping patient still ensnared by a wire, a bare wing bone peeking through a bloodied clump of feathers.

Successful treatment depends on how soon the injured birds are brought to their attention, Saud said, pointing to another bird in obvious pain, with discoloured edges around an old wound.

“He will die in a few days, his wound is already gangrenous,” he tells AFP.

– ‘We are the destroyers’ –

Delhi has grown at a remarkable pace in recent years, and the sprawling megacity is now home to about 20 million people.

The loss of natural habitat and smog — Delhi is consistently ranked among cities with the world’s worst air pollution — has strained the cornucopia of bird species nesting around the capital.

As was the case for other ecosystems reeling from human encroachment, India’s strict coronavirus lockdowns were a massive boon to the city’s bird population, veterinarian Rajkumar Rajput tells AFP.

Rajput runs another charity clinic for injured birds in Delhi’s south, largely caring for doves, pigeons and more gentle feathered friends than the carnivores nursed by Shehzad and Saud.

He is an adherent of the Jain faith, which maintains a strict prohibition on animal slaughter, and the few raptors he does treat are kept on a vegetarian diet.

Rajput warns the brief respite granted by the lockdowns is ending and the tide is beginning to turn back.

“The distance between humans and birds has only been increasing. We are unable to bridge this distance because people are gradually losing their love for nature,” the 38-year-old said.

“These birds are the builders of natural environment, and us humans are the destroyers.”

WILDLIFE RESCUE
HOME
For Latest News And Updates Please Visit Our Facebook Page


WILDLIFE RESCUE

Lesbos tourist resort evacuated as wildfire destroys homes

Mayor says people moved from village of Vatera on Greek island as precautionary measure

A police officer tries to extinguish the wildfire burning in the village of Vatera, Lesbos. Photograph: Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters


Agence France-Presse in Athens

Sat 23 Jul 2022 


Tourists and residents have been evacuated from a popular resort on the Greek island of Lesbos after a wildfire destroyed homes in the beachside village of Vatera.

Firefighters deployed seven planes and a helicopter to tackle the blaze, with reinforcements expected to arrive from northern Greece.


The fire broke out at 10am local time (0800 BST) on Saturday and is burning on two fronts, one heading towards Vrisa village and another inside Vatera.

The West Lesbos mayor, Taxiarchis Verros, ordered the evacuation of the busy beach resort as a precautionary measure, acting on the advice of the fire brigade, Athens news agency reported.

He did not provide figures on how many were evacuated but there were several buses and small boats to take people away. At least two houses were ravaged by the fire, said the state broadcaster ERT.

A wooden walkway burns on a beach near Vatera.

Photograph: Elias Marcou/Reuters

Firefighters on the Greek mainland were also battling for a third day a wildfire in the Dadia national park, the country’s largest Natura 2000 site known for its black vulture colony, in the north-eastern region of Evros.

The fire brigade said the thick smoke from the blaze prevented firefighting planes from operating.

A wildfire in mountains near Athens on Wednesday damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate after gale-force winds earlier this week.

Greece’s worst wildfire disaster was in 2018 in the coastal suburb of Mati near Athens, which killed 102 people, just a few miles from the area affected by Wednesday’s blaze.

On Saturday, a memorial service was held at the seaside town to commemorate the victims.

A heatwave and wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares (255,000 acres) in Greece, killing three people.

VULTURE CAPITALI$M

U.S. to Back Puerto Rico Law, Slowing Plan to Restructure Debt

Michelle Kaske and Steven Church
Fri, January 7, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday that it will intervene in Puerto Rico’s four-year bankruptcy case to defend a federal law that gave the island the ability to cut its obligations through the courts.

The move, intended to stave off challenges that the bankruptcy is unconstitutional, may actually prolong the commonwealth’s efforts to restructure its $33 billion of debt and exit court oversight. The bankruptcy is the largest ever in the $4 trillion municipal-bond market.

While a majority of Puerto Rico’s creditors have endorsed the restructuring plan, an individual bondholder and two real estate companies allege that Promesa, as the federal bankruptcy law is known, violates the U.S. Constitution.

Their legal action is likely to amount to a technical hurdle that will merely delay the bankruptcy’s resolution, unless U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain agrees with the holdouts. That would upend Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy, which has already been delayed by hurricanes, earthquakes and the coronavirus pandemic.

Puerto Rico’s debt plan is the result of years of negotiations between various and sometimes conflicting bondholder classes, insurance companies and labor groups. Those creditors have agreed to the debt plan and haven’t questioned Promesa’s legality. Congress passed Promesa in 2016 to help resolve the island’s financial crisis.

Defending Promesa

“The U.S. respectfully notifies the court and the parties that the U.S. will participate in the above-captioned proceeding for the purpose of defending the constitutionality of Promesa as it applies to the proposed approval of the plan of adjustment,” Brian Boynton, acting assistant attorney general, wrote in the notice of participation filed to the court Friday.

DOJ’s decision to intervene is expected to delay Swain’s ruling on a restructuring plan that would include cutting $22 billion of bonds down to $7.4 billion. Confirmation hearings on that debt plan ended Nov. 23. Swain that month gave the federal government a Feb. 7 deadline to file a brief, if the DOJ chose to defend Promesa.

Puerto Rico has been in bankruptcy since May 2017 after years of borrowing to paper over budget deficits, economic decline and population loss.

Bondholders who support the plan may have the right to pull out of their deal if the reorganization plan is not consummated by Jan. 31, according to court records. This means bondholders will have to decide whether to terminate their agreement and possibly demand a termination fee.

Solar-powered animal tracker transforms how researchers collect data on animals in wild

by David Kearns, University College Dublin

Trials of the solar-powered device showing a range of attachment types across taxa including (a) giraffe—ossicone, (b) scimitar horned oryx—horn, (c) Przewalski's stallion—tail hair, (d) elephant calf—collar and (e) Rüppell's vulture with backpack. Credit: University College Dublin
A new solar-powered animal tracker promises to transform the collection of environmental and behavioural data, greatly improving animal welfare.


An 18-month study by University College Dublin researchers piloted the use of a solar-powered tracking device originally designed for vultures but adapted for use on large herbivores such as giraffes, elephants and wild horses.

The tracker's solar-panels proved an effective power source during the lengthy trials; demonstrating how its use could address some of the serious challenges faced by those engaged in conservation and field research.

"Incorporating solar panels allowed animals to be tagged with smaller and lighter GPS devices without losing any of the functionality of larger devices" said Emma Hart, Laboratory of Wildlife Ecology and Behaviour at the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science.

Devices worn by animals that record their location, their behaviour and environmental conditions have generated vast amounts of data to aid in conservation efforts.

However, as researchers tag an increasing number of species, animal welfare concerns have grown.

Attaching, and later removing, a tracking device to an animal involves capturing, restraining, and in some instances sedation.

This process can be stressful for animals. Significantly lessening the impact that such tagging has on the behaviour, health, or welfare of an animal is a paramount concern for researchers.

Another issue is that the batteries that power wildlife trackers vary in size and weight, and often this limits their use as the majority of mammal species still fall outside of the minimum body weight bracket for many tracking devices.

Researchers must comply with the animal welfare guidelines that devices weigh no more than 2–5% of an animal's bodyweight.

Furthermore, variation in morphology means that certain species are difficult to tag with cumbersome units, regardless of the size and weight of the animal.

Map of the study region in the northern Namib Desert, Namibia, showing (a) giraffe locations recorded using solar-powered GPS tracking devices fitted to 20 giraffe between July 2016 and February 2019; (b) a group of giraffe with an adult female tagged with a GPS tracking unit, and (c) a distant giraffe moving between patches of vegetation in the arid desert landscape. Credit: University College Dublin

The unusual long neck of giraffes for example do not easily support the collar type attachment used on other large mammals such as lions.


The analysis carried out by Emma and her colleagues demonstrated several answers to these concerns; namely that the small size and longevity of the solar-powered tracking devices tested could allow researchers to remotely gather information on a wider range of animals and across their entire life spans without a need to replace failed trackers.

The study, carried out by UCD, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation in Namibia, and Dartmouth College, found that, once charged, the units maintained high voltage throughout the testing period.

This remained the case even in conditions with little or no solar energy, i.e. when animals were standing in the shade or during periods of reduced daylight, namely night time, winter and the wet season.

"Devices with longer lifespans will potentially lead to a greater quantity and quality of data collected per individual captured and a reduced frequency of recaptures for removal or replacement of failed devices," Emma said.

The importance of collecting behavioural data can not be overstated, as it allows new insights into how animals are reacting to changes in their environments. Such information is key to keeping conservation efforts successful.

A second paper by Emma and the UCD Laboratory of Wildlife Ecology and Behaviour highlights this, using data from the solar-powered trackers to show how vulnerable the giraffes of the Namib Desert are to the effects of climate change.

The results showed giraffe activity was constrained by temperatures above 30 °C during the day, while at night the animals' behaviour was synchronised with the phases of the moon.

"Specifically we found that giraffes were significantly more likely to be active on moonlit nights than on dark nights, with even a small fraction of lunar illumination resulting in significantly higher levels of activity" Emma said.

"The study demonstrates some of the first evidence of the strong effect of moonlight on the nocturnal behaviour of large wild herbivores... [and] it shows that ungulates [primarily large mammals with hooves] have plastic activity patterns that are vulnerable to modification by external factors.

"Our results reiterate the importance of identifying areas that can continue to support healthy populations of giraffe despite rising global temperatures and also highlight the importance of limiting light pollution when making management decisions regarding wild giraffe and other large ungulates."


Explore further Giraffes surprise biologists yet again

More information: Emma E. Hart et al. Precision and performance of an 180g solar-powered GPS device for tracking medium to large-bodied terrestrial mammals, Wildlife Biology (2020). DOI: 10.2981/wlb.00669

Provided by University College Dublin

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that COVID-19 restrictions eradicated the middle class

Known for his controversial views on vaccinations, Kennedy's presidential campaign is going just as you'd expect

By KELLY MCCLURE

Nights & Weekends Editor
PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2023

 

Robert F Kennedy Jr., with his wife Cheryl Hines, waves to supporters during a campaign event to launch his 2024 presidential bid, at the Boston Park Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2023. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announced his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and has been making campaign rounds with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines — best known for her role as Cheryl David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Making an appearance on Fox News this weekend, Kennedy Jr. did not shy away from his controversial beliefs on COVID-19 and vaccinations in general, telling host Neil Cavuto he believes that the restrictions put forth during the pandemic led to the eradication of the middle class.

Related

The COVID virus has mutated so much since 2019 that some experts say it should be renamed SARS-CoV-3

"The strength of a nation comes from a strong economy and a vibrant middle class. And we have wiped out the middle class in this country systematically," Kennedy Jr. said.

Going further into his explanation of why he believes the middle class was negatively impacted by the lockdown, the Democratic presidential hopeful said, "Worst of all is what it did to the economy . . . We shifted $4 trillion in wealth from the American middle class to this new aristocracy of billionaires. We created 500 new billionaires. The Oxfam report, which came out this week, shows that the billionaires that existed at the beginning of the pandemic, the people like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Bezos, Bloomberg, etc., increased their wealth by 30% during the pandemic. From the lockdowns. And Amazon got to shut down all of its competitors."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, Jr. went on to describe why he's the best candidate to run against Trump saying:

"I'm in a better position to run against Donald Trump than any of the Democrats because I can hold him accountable for the worst thing that he did, which was the lockdowns. The lockdowns were absolutely catastrophic.

Hines, who has been introducing Kennedy Jr. during this week's campaign events, has previously gone on record as having different beliefs than her husband when it comes to COVID-19 and vaccinations.

In January 2022, Hines gave a statement in response to a comment her husband made which compared vaccine mandates to Anne Frank and Nazi Germany saying, "My husband's reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in D.C. was reprehensible and insensitive. The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own."

What the end of COVID health emergencies means for anti-vaxxers: meltdown

Fox News, after clamoring for weeks to end mask rules, calls new CDC guidance a "distraction"

Americans aren't lining up to get the bivalent COVID booster. Here's how to motivate them

By KELLY MCCLURE
Kelly McClure is a journalist and fiction writer who lives in New Orleans. She is Salon's Nights and Weekends Editor covering daily news, politics and culture. Her work has been featured in Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Vice, and elsewhere. She is the author of Something is Always Happening Somewhere.

VULTURE CAPITALI$M

Saudi Arabia and Gucci owner circle Selfridges

Luke Barr
Sat, 16 March 2024 

Selfridges was bought by Signa and Central in a £4bn deal in 2021 

- OGULCAN AKSOY/OGULCAN AKSOY

Saudi Arabia and Gucci-owner Kering are said to be circling Selfridges as the insolvency of the department store’s co-owner triggers a battle for the business.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and luxury goods giant Kering, which is owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault, are both thought to be interested in a stake in Selfridges, according to City sources.

Interest has been triggered by the collapse of Signa, the Austrian company run by businessman Rene Benko that owns half of Selfridges’ property company.

The insolvency has led to its stake in the retailer becoming available. City sources have said Selfridges is in play but the sale process is complicated by proceedings in Austria.

Collapse of Austrian tycoon Rene Benko's company Signa could trigger a bidding war for Selfridges - GEORG HOCHMUTH/AFP

It is understood that Selfridges’ other co-owner, Thailand’s Central Group, is seeking a new partner as the future of fellow shareholder Signa looks increasingly uncertain.


Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is one of the parties understood to be interested in Signa’s stake, which covers Selfridges’ retail brand and its lucrative real estate on Oxford Street.

It comes after The Telegraph revealed last year that the kingdom was a private financial backer in the sale of Selfridges two years ago, which was conducted following an auction by the Weston family.

Saudi’s involvement stemmed from it providing the finance for Signa’s investment. It therefore could be in pole position should a bidding war for Selfridges emerge.

The Gulf kingdom has been on a dealmaking spree in recent years that has seen it invest heavily abroad, including in Britain where it has bought Newcastle United FC among others.

However, PIF could face competition from luxury goods giant Kering, City sources say.

Paris-listed Kering is worth €52bn and owns a suite of luxury brands including Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen.

The company has recently been buying up luxury retail space. In January, it bought the 115,000 square foot Fifth Avenue building home to its New York Gucci store for $963m.

A banker familiar with the matter described Central Group as the “king-maker” in the sale process, which is still in its early stages as Signa unravels.

Interested parties are believed to be waiting for a full outcome from Signa’s collapse before they formally declare an interest in the stake, which would be worth around £2bn.

“What Central are doing is watching their partner’s problems play out,” the source said. “Sitting, watching to see how it breaks. Of course, they are naturally interested to see what happens because they are going to have a new partner.

“It’s between retailing dynasties and sovereign wealth funds.”

Selfridges was bought by Signa and Central in a £4bn deal in 2021, with the business split between an operating company and a property company.

Both had been jointly owned by Signa and Central.

However, Central moved to seize control of the operating business during the turmoil at Signa late last year, converting a €364m (£317m) loan into a majority stake in the business.

Despite this, Signa still owns 50pc of the property company and holds around 35pc in the operating company.

Signa’s downfall led to Mr Benko filing for personal insolvency earlier this month, four months after his company crumbled under the weight of high interest rates and dwindling valuations.

Amid questions around its ownership, Selfridges has maintained that it trades independently of any support from its shareholders.

However, the situation has cast a shadow over the retailer, which has also been racing to cut costs in a major efficiency drive.

Last August, it unveiled plans to slash roles in its head office.

Andrew Keith, Selfridges managing director, told workers at the time that the company needed to be “fit for the future, aligned and working in the most efficient way”.

He said: “Regrettably this is likely to mean some of our head office teams, including some small teams in retail who support our stores, will be resized and reshaped.”

The move followed a year in which Selfridges lost almost £40m after it recorded a jump in costs.

Accounts for Selfridges Retail, which covers the business’s four UK stores, its website and its mobile app, revealed the company was struck by higher debt interest costs during the year to January 2023.

Its interest expense on lease liabilities was close to £100m, around 20pc higher than the prior year.

Signa and Central loaded Selfridges up with more than £1.7bn of debt in autumn 2022 by booking loans through a number of new trading and property entities.

Central Group and Selfridges declined to comment.

Kering declined to comment. PIF was contacted for comment.

Controversial Everton bidder 777 Partners sees owning football club as way to snap up sportstech bargains


Daniel O'Boyle
Fri, 15 March 2024 

The controversial investment firm sees owning football clubs as a way to identify underpriced buyout targets in the sports tech sector, the Standard can reveal (Getty Images)

777 Partners, the controversial London and Miami investment firm that awaits approval for its deal to buy Everton, sees owning football clubs as a way to identify underpriced buyout targets in the sports tech sector, the Standard can reveal.

The companies in question could be a ‘salesforce for football’ or a statistical data provider, 777 head of Europe John Jeffery suggested.

777 - which runs its European operations from Mayfair and already owns clubs in five other countries, as well as basketball’s London Lions - agreed to buy the Premier League stalwarts in September, but final approval from the league has taken much longer than the average deal.

Jeffery told the Standard that the once-obscure firm, which mostly dealt in life insurance and annuities for lawsuit winners, saw four main benefits to being in football.

Three of those benefits are about owning multiple teams: lower revenue volatility, the ability to move players between clubs and a chance to attract directors best suited to a certain budget.

But with the fourth, Jeffery offered a reason why 777 decided to get into buying clubs in the first place. He said 777 could buy out a potential sportstech unicorn at a bargain price, because it would have a better view of the top products on the market.

The firm has already used this business model - buying the "strategic fulcrum" of a sector, and then the adjacent companies it sees as undervalued - in other sectors like insurance.

He said: “We feel like we have a better understanding of the market as a customer ourselves. We can say ‘forget all the Gartner [market research] reports, forget everything. We know what the best software in the market is for this particular problem because we have this problem and we use all the software... So we're going to go about buying it’.”

He insists the model is more effective than researching the sector without playing an active part in the sport, enough to justify the large costs involved in buying top teams and keeping them running.

The firm may also work on building its own products to fill spaces where there wasn’t an existing company to buy. It has already done that in the insurance space, making a product to hedge life insurance payouts using equity release deals, so that a surge in deaths would not mean a big hit to the firm’s profits.

But he added that - for every club the firm owns - 777 would have to work on shoring up the finances in the short-term before it can think about a buying spree. He also noted it would be “insulting” to fans to focus entirely on selling some recently acquired software at the expense of results.

777 has spent months awaiting Premier League approval for its deal to buy Everton, as football owners face greater scrutiny and the firm has been the subject of lawsuits, some from creditors that say they’re owed money. The unusually lengthy process has already led to a point deduction for the club, with a six-point penalty (reduced from 10) moving them from mid-table to a potential relegation fight.

According to reports today, the Premier League is likely to make a decision on the club next week. If the deal is not approved, the future of the debt-heavy club is unclear.

American newsletter Semafor last year raised questions over the source of 777’s funding for the deal, claiming that the company used money from insurance premiums - usually put into secure assets like high-rated bonds - to finance its sporting investments.

Jeffery admitted that those funds were used to invest in clubs, but added that the insurance investments are handled by an “independently run operating company with an independent board that is regulated”, Jeffery said.

He said that leadership does pitch investment opportunities to that board, but that “they can say no and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

But in the case of the football investments, he said “they took it away, they did their due diligence, and they made the decision that they wanted to invest.”

In the capital, the London Lions basketball team has faced its own difficulties since the acquisition. The club’s 2022 accounts are currently overdue. But Jeffery says that its troubles lie with those managing the club on a day-to-day basis.

He said: “It’s run day-to-day, there’s no input.

“We’re often as surprised as everyone else when there’s a negative headline. We know when you know.”

EXPLAINER: How wildfires impact wildlife, their habitat

By FELICIA FONSECA

1 of 10

Dana Fasolette uses a towel to hold a raccoon under treatment for burns at the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue in Auburn , Calif., Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. As wildfires die down in the far western United States, wildlife centers are still caring for animals that were injured or unable to flee the flames.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)


FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The porcupines were walking slow and funny, more so than they usually do.

Their stride concerned some residents in a South Lake Tahoe neighborhood who called a rehabilitation center. Turns out, the porcupines had extensive burns to their paws, fur, quills and faces after a wildfire burned through the area.

Wildlife centers in the U.S. West are caring for animals that weren’t able to flee the flames or are looking for food in burned-over places.

An emaciated turkey vulture recently found on the Lake Tahoe shore couldn’t fly, likely because food isn’t as plentiful in burned areas, said Denise Upton, the animal care director at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

“That’s what we’re seeing in the aftermath of the fires — just animals that are having a hard time and being pushed into areas they are not traditionally in,” she said.

___

IS FIRE GOOD OR BAD FOR WILDLIFE?

Not necessarily either, says Brian Wolfer, the game program manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

“It’s a disturbance on the landscape that changes habitat,” he said.

Some species benefit from wildfire, such as raptors that hunt rodents running from the flames, beetles that move into dead wood and lay eggs, and woodpeckers that feed on them and nest in hollow trees.

Fire exposes new grass, shrubs and vegetation in the flowering stage that feed elk and deer. When food sources are plentiful, female deer produce more milk and fawns grow faster, Wolfer said.

On the flip side, animals that depend on old growth forests can struggle for decades trying to find suitable habitat if trees fall victim to fire, Wolfer said. If sagebrush burns, sage grouse won’t have food in winter or a place to hide from predators and raise their young, he said.

“In the years that follow, you see reduced survival and, over time, that population starts to decline,” he said.

Some wildfires burn in a mosaic, preserving some habitat. But the hotter and faster they burn, the harder it is for less mobile animals to find suitable habitat, he said.

___

HOW ANIMALS RESPOND TO WILDFIRE

Mice, squirrels and other burrowing animals dig into cooler ground, bears climb trees, deer and bobcats run, small animals take cover in logs and birds fly to escape the flames, heat and smoke.

“They almost seem to have a sixth sense to it,” said Julia Camp, a resources manager for the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona. “A lot of times their response is quicker than ours.”

Firefighters have spotted tortoises with singed feet at the edge of wildfires, snakes slithering out from the woods and frail red-tailed hawks on the ground.

Biologists can take precautionary measures, like moving introductory pens for Mexican gray wolves or scooping up threatened or endangered fish if they know a fire is approaching, Camp said.

In 2012, a team of biologists went in after a massive lightning-sparked wildfire in the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico to save Gila trout from potential floods of ash, soil and charred debris that would come with heavy rainfall. The fish were sent to hatcheries that replicated their habitat until they could be returned.

Some animals don’t survive wildfires, but their deaths don’t greatly affect the overall population, wildlife officials say.

Veterinarian Jamie Peyton opens a package of a Tilapia Fish skin bandage that will be used to cover the burned paws of a raccoon at the Gold Country Wildlife Center in Auburn , Calif., Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. The fish skin helps the healing process for animals that suffered burns and were brought to Gold Country facility from recent wildfires in California .(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)



Tilapia Fish skin bandages are used to cover the burned paws of a raccoon at the Gold County Wildlife Rescue. in Auburn, Calif., Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. As wildfires die down in the far western United States, wildlife centers are still caring for animals that were injured or unable to flee the flames. 

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

___

HOW WILDLIFE FACTORS INTO FIRE MANAGEMENT

When wildfires break out in northern Arizona, Camp pulls out her maps. She can see where Mexican spotted owls live, which fish live in which waterways, and where bald and golden eagles nest.

“If we’re going to put a dozer line in, it won’t be in the middle of their nesting area,” she said. “But if something is barreling toward Flagstaff, we’re going to have to put out the fire regardless.”

Some of those decisions are driven by the federal Endangered Species Act.

In 2015, a wildfire was threatening the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the North Carolina coast. Firefighters cut low-lying branches from old pine trees where the red-cockaded woodpecker nests and burned other potential fuel.

“What ended up happening is the fire did approach that area, but because of these measures, it did not affect the nesting areas of the woodpecker,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Kari Cobb.

Firefighters also can starve wildfires of fuel using backburns so flames burn at the base of trees rather than more intensely in the crowns and threatening wildlife habitat.

Other considerations are in play when dropping fire retardant so chemicals don’t affect water sources or suffocate sensitive plants.

Wildfire managers also try to avoid transferring mussels, fungi or non-native plants that might hitchhike in helicopter buckets by carefully choosing water sources or disinfecting buckets, Camp said.

___

HOW TO SPOT AN INJURED ANIMAL

Injured animals will move slowly or not at all. Experts say the best action for humans is to keep their distance, don’t feed the animals and call wildlife officials or a rescue group.

“Sometimes you’re not necessarily doing them the favor you think they are if that care is going to result in them becoming habituated, losing their fear for people,” Wolfer said. “We have to think by helping it, ‘Am I going to reduce its long-term survival potential?’ Animals are tough, much tougher than we give them credit for.”

The Wildlife Disaster Network based at the University of California, Davis, took in animals from several fires in California last year and from others that burned this year in the Sierra Nevada. Those include a baby flying squirrel, a baby fox and bear cubs.

The staff scans animals for visible wounds and does blood work, X-rays and ultrasounds to develop a rehabilitation plan, said veterinarian Jamie Peyton, who helps lead the network.

“I really think you can’t just look at a single being and think ‘It’s not worth it, it’s not worth trying,’” Peyton said.

___

ARE ALL ANIMALS RETURNED TO THE WILD?

Whether an animal can survive in the wild depends on the severity of the burns and the animal’s age.

Treating burned adult bears is difficult because they tear off traditional bandages, and if they eat them, it can plug their intestines forcing euthanasia, Peyton said.

A bear she treated in 2017 named Lucy forced her to think differently.

“I really was stuck trying to control the pain, and she wouldn’t take the medication, despite my pleas and some doughnuts,” Peyton said.

Peyton developed a tilapia skin bandage that’s now used on 15 different species, including a porcupine at the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care whose paws were burned. Another porcupines at the center won’t be released until its quills grow back so it can defend itself, Upton said.

Adult bears and mountain lions typically are released within eight weeks so they don’t get used to humans as caretakers, Peyton said.

Sometimes, animals leave rehabilitation centers on their own terms. A bear cub that was found walking on its elbows was rescued from the Tamarack Fire that’s still burning south of Carson City, Nevada, and treated at the Lake Tahoe center. The cub pushed through a malfunctioning door in an outdoor enclosure this summer and left.

“He had really healed quite a bit before he decided he didn’t want to be here anymore,” Upton said. “I’m pretty confident he’s doing OK. He was a wild little bear.”

A black bear cub snacks on fruit and vegetables at the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue in Auburn , Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. The cub was found at the Antelope Fire with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on it's paws. It is one of the many animals that have been brought to Gold Country facility from recent wildfires in California. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

‘Rutherford Falls’ Delivers A Powerful Explanation Of How Indigenous Capitalism Works

By BRENT FURDYK.

 6 May 2021 

Michael Greyeyes as Terry Thomas — Evans Vestal Ward/Peacock

“Rutherford Falls” recently launched on Showcase, starring Ed Helms as Nathan Rutherford and Jana Schmieding as Reagan Wells, two lifelong friends caught in the middle when their sleepy small town receives a wakeup call.

The show has been hailed for breaking new ground in Indigenous representation in comedy television, both in front of and behind the camera. In addition to series regulars Schmieding and Canadian actor Michael Greyeyes, both Indigenous, the series also employs five Indigenous writers.

This week’s episode focuses on Greyeyes’ character Terry Thomas, manager of the local casino owned by the Minishonka tribe. Terry is causing a stir by suing Rutherford Inc., the corporation owned by the descendants of the town’s founder (one of which is Helms’ character), for reneging on a deal between the Rutherford family and the tribe, as laid out in the town charter.

Colleen Hayes/Peacock

In the episode, Terry is speaking with reporter Josh (fellow Canadian Dustin Milligan of “Schitt’s Creek”) about his lawsuit, explaining how Indigenous capitalism differs from American capitalism.

RELATED: Ed Helms And Jana Schmieding’s New Comedy ‘Rutherford Falls’ Takes On A Problematic Statue In First Look

“America only champions one form of capitalism: major corporations — which, I should point out, pay no taxes while we do. They keep all the money for the top,” he explains. “Tribal capitalism distributes revenue, in this case casino revenue, to everyone in the tribe.”

“Don’t you feel that by chasing the almighty dollar you’re selling out your culture?” asks Josh, at which point Terry turns off the recorder to go off the record.

“Have you ever heard of the seven generations?” he says. “It’s a practice to ensure that the Earth, and our language, and our people will not only exist, but thrive, seven generations from now. That the decisions we make today will have an impact long after we’re gone. Everything I do and every move I make, is to ensure the success of my nation.”

As Terry explains, he’s been forced to learn “the great American pastime, which is power. Power, Josh, is a zero-sum game. If you have more of it, I have less. And then you can treat me however you want.”

Colleen Hayes/Peacock

Adds Terry: “If we want to ensure this tribe has a successful life, one that can maintain our traditions, art and culture, well, it takes power. And unfortunately, power comes from money. The casino is a means to an end. It’s the industry of its time. Four hundred years ago it was fur trading. Fifty years ago it was manufacturing, and long after I’m dead there will be Minishonka figuring out how to master the next endeavour. Because that’s what we do Josh, those of us who fight this battle. We do whatever we have to. I’ve had to learn to play this game through bare-knuckle necessity. And while they might not make for a feel-good story, I won’t rest until my nation gets every single thing that was taken from them.”

RELATED: Dan Levy Donates $25K To Alberta University’s Indigenous Studies Program After Helping Reach Fundraising Goal

Speaking with Vulture, Greyeyes said he definitely felt the pressure to do justice to such a powerful speech.

“I had to, like, kill it. So I left the set kind of down, but when I saw the final cut, I was like, Okay, that was all right,” he recalled of shooting that scene.

“But for me personally, these are lines that Indigenous people have wanted to say in our encounters with settler culture year-in and year-out for our entire lives, to be able to simply and bluntly speak our truth to power and be unapologetic. To say, ‘You’ve called me ‘marginalized,’ but I’ve been in the centre of my cultural experience’ — what that speech and what that episode did was re-centre our viewing frame dead into the middle of where we’ve been living all this time. When I first read that speech, I practically cried,” he continued.

Colleen Hayes/Peacock

“It’s also about Terry’s own relationship to power and how he thinks about using a system for his own people. It’s interesting in the context of a show that’s about Native culture and made through the system that is Hollywood. If you understand our industry, you have to speak about the dynamics of power and about access. That really is the end goal of power: Can I access that script? Can I access that role?” Greyeyes added.

“Since its dawning, we’ve been outside the access. So when I’m on the Paramount lot filming a Universal TV series with all the benefits of that, I recognize that this is a unique position for me as an Indigenous man,” he said. “I know that it cannot be squandered in any way. We have an opportunity, and we have eyes on us. Maybe it’s a burden that I don’t need to give myself, but we have only a few chances to change the dynamic, and I’m hoping that this show is one of those.”

Australia’s largest eagle discovered at last

Fossil-hunters descend into Flinders Ranges cave to confirm remains

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF DYNATOAETUS GAFFAE WITH LIVING TAXA, NEUROCRANIUM view more 

CREDIT: ELLEN MATHER FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

An eagle twice the size of the modern-day apex predator the wedge-tailed eagle, which soared over southern Australia more than 60,000 years ago, had a wingspan up to 3m wide and powerful talons wide enough to grab a small kangaroo or koala.

It was the largest bird of prey to ever live on the continent, and probably the largest continental eagle globally, according to new research from Flinders University. 

Closely related to Old World vultures of Africa and Asia and the critically endangered monkey-eating or Philippine Eagle, the Flinders palaeontology researchers say the now extinct raptor with a mighty wingspan and powerful talons was the top avian predator in the late Pleistocene.

Yet it has taken decades for it to be officially ‘discovered’ and described in the latest Journal of Ornithology.  

The Flinders University fossil hunters pieced together its story, naming the giant bird Dynatoaetus gaffae (Gaff’s powerful eagle), after extensive new research of fossil cave remains in South Australia’s Mairs Cave in the Flinders Ranges connected the dots to other bones previously found in the Naracoorte Caves, Wellington Caves and near Cooper Creek in the Lake Eyre Basin.  

Flinders University palaeontology researcher Dr Ellen Mather organised a field trip to the Flinders Ranges in late 2021 to revisit the location of four large fossil bones collected by cavers back in 1956 and 1969

“After half a century, and several delays caused by the pandemic, the expedition with volunteers from the University’s Speleological Society found a further 28 bones scattered about deep among the boulders at the site indicated by one of these museum relics.   

“We were very excited to find many more bones from much of the skeleton to create a better picture and description of these magnificent long-lost giant extinct birds,” says Dr Mather, who collaborated with experienced palaeo-ornithologist Associate Professor Trevor Worthy on the expedition.

“It’s often been noted how few large land predators Australia had back then, so Dynatoaetus helps fill that gap.”

Dynatoaetus and the recently described Cryptogyps are new genera of raptors unique to Australia, respectively eagle- and vulture-like, that existed until around 50 thousand years ago, Dr Mather says.

“This discovery reveals that this incredible family of birds was once much more diverse in Australia, and that raptors were also impacted by the mass extinction that wiped out most of Australia’s megafauna.”

“It was ‘humongous’ – larger than any other eagle from other continents, and almost as large as the world’s largest eagles once found on the islands of New Zealand and Cuba, including the whopping extinct 13kg Haast’s eagle of New Zealand,” says New Zealander Associate Professor Worthy, who has excavated several Haast’s eagle skeletons in NZ caves during more than 30 years of research experience in NZ, Australia and the Pacific.

“It had giant talons, spreading up to 30cm, which easily would have been able to dispatch a juvenile giant kangaroo, large flightless bird or other species of lost megafauna from that era, including the young of the world’s largest marsupial Diprotodon and the giant goanna Varanus priscus.”

It also coexisted with still living species such as the Wedge-tailed Eagle, which has interesting implications.

“Given that the Australian birds of prey used to be more diverse, it could mean that the Wedge-tailed Eagle in the past was more limited in where it lived and what it ate,” says Dr Mather. “Otherwise, it would have been directly competing against the giant Dynatoaetus for those resources.”

The latest discovery was made by piecing together the newly unearthed fossils with historic remains in collections of the South Australian Museum and Australian Museum found at locations spanning from the Lake Eyre Basin in central Australia to the Wellington Cave complex in central New South Wales. 

Led by location information on a SA Museum card recording where the earlier specimens were found, the Flinders expedition knew where to look in Mairs Cave in the southern Flinders Ranges. Repeating the measurements made 60 years previously, the cavers descended into a rockpile soon located the fossil eagle bones in crevices.

Thanks to this “serendipitous osteological sleuthing”, additional museum fossils of this species found across Australia soon confirmed the size and other details of the bird, which has been named in honour of Victorian palaeontologist Priscilla Gaff who first described some of these fossils in her 2002 Master of Science thesis.

Comparison of the tarsometatarsus (footbone) of Dynatoaetus gaffae and Wedge-tailed Eagle, with estimated silhouettes of the living animals above.

CREDIT

Ellen Mather (Flinders University)

Flinders University fossil hunters descend the 17m drop at the entrance to Mairs Cave in the Flinders Ranges.

Working to recover the bones from between the rocky floor of Mairs Cave in South Australia's Flinders Ranges.

CREDIT

Aaron Camens (Flinders University)

Flinders University lead author Dr Ellen Mather holding the femur of a Wedge-tailed Eagle (left) and Dynatoaetus gaffae (right) for comparison.

CREDIT

Flinders University

The article – A giant raptor (Aves: Accipitridae) from the Pleistocene of southern Australia (2023) by Ellen K Mather, Michael SY Lee (SA Museum / Flinders), Aaron B Camens and Trevor H Worthy – has been published in the Journal of Ornithology DOI: 10.1007/s10336-023-02055-x

Also see The Conversation: ‘Australia’s extinct giant eagle was big enough to snatch koalas from trees’

---

JOURNAL

Journal of Ornithology

DOI

10.1007/s10336-023-02055-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A giant raptor (Aves: Accipitridae) from the Pleistocene of southern Australia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Mar-2023