Next on our netflix list - Machine Girl. Hopefully, BHK will enjoy that as much as I enjoyed tonight's feature.

whole -

• gorilla
• hippo x 2
• seal
• monkey
• tiger
• polar bear x 3
• horse
• lion
• rhino
• zebra
• koala 2
• sheep 2
• kangaroo
• camel

partials -

• 3-legged tiger
• tailless kangaroo
• headless lion

amazing number of intact critters in my barnum box. (60g) Sadly, no elephants. I've been to the circus, and always seen ellies - can't say the same about koalas or polar bears, though they are both adorable and cool, too.

Come to think of it, I've never seen a hippo or rhino at the circus, either. Or a gorilla. (well, maybe a clown in a gorilla suit) What are they trying to pull??

4th of July ATW man - note his pop-eyes, manic grin, and huge firecracker.
seen on the way home after Journey 3-d last night

Today's harvest - Looks like beans for dinner tomorrow!

also shown, first tomato of the season, cukes, eggplant, and a sneaky, slimy okra.

2 years ago - this will be our year (it still makes me cry every time I hear it), ring wearing, flemish ( The TRUTH About "Belgium" - The New World Order's Belgian Conspiracy) , cat's got knees / I like your pants, rust monster, underground city, lake okeechobee, ninja turtles /zoom, good sleeps,

3 years ago - GrayP, Allergy results, Candice gives me her number, google hybrid, love song / mind control

4 years ago - I Robot, The Flo, LiveJournal Gallery, 1000 white cards revisited

5 years ago - Evil Fish, Bro, Brace, bazillion questions meme, crow tools, Elton Ock, LJ pings for you

6 years ago - Janet Reno, 1000 blank white cards, lost links, Dumpster Diving,singing kitty, palm sketches, snickitty-snackitty man, managing activism

7 years ago - melted heart, epizootic, hair bears, playing majestic

8 years ago - bedtime thoughts

A close friend of the actress said that Jolie wanted to make the trip to Antarctica later this year to investigate the possibility of adopting an Eskimo child, but quietly canceled it after being informed that Eskimos live in the Arctic.

"She wants to adopt another child," the friend explained. "Her goal is to adopt a child from every continent. She wants a global family. The twins she gave birth to recently are just a Pitt stop along the way."

Jolie is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. The position affords her the opportunity to shop for new children to add to her growing collection, currently valued at over six million dollars.

"Children lose value as soon as you take them out of the box," said professional child appraiser William Spaulding of Goldstein Kiddie Appraisers, Inc. "She may end up auctioning one or two off for charity or to make room in the house for another adopted child, but she would be wise to try for a complete global set as quickly as possible."

A Jolie spokesman said by telephone that the actress is "very knowledgeable when it comes to geography," and that many people confuse the words Arctic and Antarctica.

(Photo by Remy Steinegger, Wikipedia)

Editor's note: Special thanks to Skip DeKades of Future Update for inspiring me to adopt an Angelina Jolie storyline today. I had another story I was going to use, but Skip's Jolie idea left my original plan null and Voight.

Even though global temperatures are starting to cool and all of the data shows the computer climate models are wrong, some of our favorite environmental groups have hoodwinked the U.S. Government into playing along with their global warming/melting sea ice/dying polar bear prophesy. Maybe it's time to slow down, take a deep breath, and see what's really going on around us before we choose the wrong solution.

Click on the image to see the full cartoon.
Published June 28, 2008.

anyway, this is an interesting picture.

Artist's Comment:

Pollution is reaching creations: birds, animals, fishes, and insects. There is an open question about how the viewer is the reason of that. The visual language defines specific category of the pollution which is global warming.

That led me to a number of sites, including the microsite set up by the Nuremberg Zoo for now 6-month-old baby polar bear, Flocke. A particularly fun way to lose an hour or two is the video section, which includes filmed footage from January to April and continuing web cam footage of her compound.

—–

Our Ninth Concern: Global Warming

(Originally published March 6, 2007)

You may have heard Al Gore speak about it, read the articles written about it, or seen the newstories discussing it. This week, guest blogger Jen Gaze takes you behind the scenes of Global Warming, and urges you to take action to stop it!

---

Global warming is the result of an increase in the earth’s average temperature due to a buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although you may have heard different opinions in the media about global warming and whether it exists, there is no debate among scientists about the fact that global warming IS happening and that WE are causing it by burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests.

The bad news: the U.S. is the world’s largest carbon emitter, and if we don’t start acting now, parts of the world will be uninhabitable in as little as ten years. Scientists project a 20 foot rise in global sea levels which will put low-lying coastal areas across the globe under water. For the first time, scientists have found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf! These and many other changes in our ecological system are indications that global warming has, and will continue to disrupt nature’s delicate balance.

The good news: there is still time to avert impending environmental disaster. By taking a few simple steps, each one of us can play a role in making our earth healthy again.

Learn More:

• Check out what the Union of Concerned Scientists has to say about global warming
• Watch the Global Warming cartoon presented in An Inconvenient truth if you don’t have time to view the film.

Take Action:

• Easy as 1, 2, 3! -- Commit to making three simple changes in your life to help stop global warming. Here’s just a few I found on the website:
  • Switch to energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. They use 60% less energy than a regular light bulb and can help reduce your electric bill!
  • Turn your thermostat down 2° in the winter and up 2° in the summer. Check out the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy for more energy saving tips!
    
  • Unplug electronics from the wall when you are not using them. Even when turned off appliances like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and TVs use energy!

Raise your voice -- Join the Stop Global Warning March, a non-political effort bringing Americans together to declare that global warming is here now and it’s time to act.

#1 Spring vs Summer vs Autumn vs Winter

#2 Solar Power vs Wind Power

#3 Panda vs Polar Bear

Image Credits: wikimedia

~~~~~

Authorities in Iceland have been forced to shoot dead a polar bear that had travelled hundreds of kilometres across the north Atlantic Ocean atop an ice floe.

The polar bear, which they had hoped to save, was the second in two weeks to be shot in Iceland, where sightings of the threatened species are rare.

It had apparently travelled several hundred kilometres from its native habitat in Greenland on the ice floe.

Authorities shot dead a polar bear found two weeks ago after claiming they were not equipped to safely apprehend the animal. The case sparked protests from environmentalists and animal rights groups.

As a result, authorities had vowed to stun and capture the second bear and have it shipped in a cage back to Greenland, or give it to a zoo.

But after the bear charged a group of reporters "in a panic", a police spokesman said, there was "no other choice" but to kill it.

The second bear was first spotted by a 12-year-old girl on a farm near the town of Saudarkrokur, on the Skaga fiord.

The bear was living off birds and their eggs and did not appear to be hungry, said Rax Axelsson, a photographer with the newspaper Morgunbladid.

The Icelandic multimillionaire Bjoergulfur Thor Bjoergulfsson had offered to pay to move the bear to a safe environment.

Just Brilliant! They have an offer to pay to move the bear, they had the opportunity two weeks ago to tranquilize and remove a bear and yet when the opportunity comes again, they kill the bear again. Sounds like the Keystone Kops. They should have just let the bear have one of the paparazzi.

Link

More about Iceland Killing Polar Bears.

it is midsummer. jazz has become an ever prevalent genre love of mine and polar bear would be one of those new and post jazz acts that i have cottoned onto in the last six. so far i think i can pass small judgement to say that they are one of my favourite discovered acts of this year,i was incredulously excited to hear about their crawdaddy slot and so should you - lovingly titled "the crawdaddy" on their myspace calender. this kind of new jazz is all lush, sleazy and exotic but with clothes on.

july 18th-polar bear-crawdaddy

I only posted selected pictures from an entire album I've gotten through email. If you'd like to see more of such photos you can go to Nature's Best Photography, Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

Get educated through cuteness.

--gnad

[WTF]

A week after U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline declared that "the balance of hardships" is in favor of the BP and Shell, "who have invested significant time [never mind nature's 4.55 billion year investment] and expense in preparing for the scheduled activities," and dismissed lawsuit against exploration permits granted by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the MMS, two environmental groups filed a lawsuit yesterday against new federal regulations that grants permission to oil companies to disturb the polar bears and walrus in the Chukchi Sea.

The Pacific Walrus: "ah may be ugly, but ah ain't dumb, an' ah ain't hurting no one!" [Image: NOAA]

"The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenges regulations issued last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that allow 'incidental takes' of the animals, meaning permission to disturb or accidentally harass them as long as such actions do not result in physical injury or death." Reuters reported.

Polar bears were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in May, and a similar petition seeking protections to the Pacific walrus has since been submitted. More ...

An aerial view of the oil spill from Statfjord A platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea December 12, 2007. About 25,000 barrels of oil spilled into the Norwegian sector of the North Sea near the Statfjord oilfield on Wednesday, field operator StatoilHydro and oil officials said. REUTERS/Kystverket (The Norwegian Coastal Administration) via Scanpix Norway (NORWAY) NORWAY OUT NO COMMERCIAL USE

[MMS: the U.S. Minerals Management Service]

Related Links:

• Death by Lethal Pollution
• Bering Sea Drilling Revisited!

"Meet Flocke the baby polar bear, who is being taught to crawl by the zookeepers at Nuremberg Zoo."

Did you see that bear cross the street!

This is a very well produced spot. The polar bear is such a beautiful creature, and with their very existence being a topic on so many media channels it's no surprise that it becomes the representation of an environmental/energy alternative organization. The submerged shot in the pool is absolutely gorgeous. The website is a wonderfully interactive play zone that allows you to befriend a virtual polar bear. (I named mine Mallow, like Marshmallow. Love it.) You take short quizzes that educate you on your impact on the environment and this earns activities for your bear to enjoy—from feeding to playing. But apart from just playing it has a cool drag and drop comparison chart that gives you some easy to understand facts about our impact on the world around us.

The one thing I truly love about this campaign is that it's not abrasive. It doesn't scold you for destroying the world, it informs you that you are destroying it, and provides—here's the key people—SIMPLE solutions and changes that we can all make to really make a difference. They're are a ton of organizations with similar messages and similar goals, but this is one actually made me stay and play for a bit. And getting someone to stop and learn is the first step and making a change.

Great Job, Creatives.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: Mullen, Wenham, MA, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Edward Boches
Executive Creative Director: Mark Wenneker
Group Creative Director/CW: Stephen Mietelski
Group Creative Director/AD: Michael Ancevic
Director of Broadcast Production: Liza Near
Agency Broadcast Producer: Erika Whitters
Agency Account Service: Drayton Martin; Julie Carney; Kelly Dickens
Broadcast Production Company: HKM (Los Angeles)
Director: JacobsBriere
Director of Photography: Stefan Czapsky
Executive Producer: Ned Brown
Producer: Line Postmyr
Location: Los Angeles
Stock Footage: BBC/Footage Bank/ National Geographic/Thought Equity/Getty
Editorial: Final Cut (NYC/LA)
Editor: Stephen Berger
Assistant Editor: Georgia Dodson
Executive Producer: Kiayan Reuter (NY producer: Melati Pohan)
Post Production: CO3 (Los Angeles)
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld
Online Editor: Brickyard (Dave Waller)
Visual Effects: D-Train (Los Angeles)
Compositor: Dan Connelly
Artist: Ben Gibbs
Producer: Shannon Preece
Audio Post: Nylon (NYC/Australia)
Mixer: Dave Robertson
Assistant Producer: Karena Cameron
Music Production: Nylon
Sound Design: Nylon
Aired: June 2008

Watch the polar bear take a swim at the Detroit Zoo's arctic exhibit. He's cute, but I wouldn't want to mess with him.

Phase 1 of the exhibit area, a themed water play area, was opened last summer, and has since been packed with visitors daily.  Phase 2, the tiger renovations, included updating the mid-century enclosure to be more visitor and keeper friendly.  The old exhibit was uninviting, having 15' tall concrete walls all along the public walkway.  The viewing area looked like a bunker.  Now, the visitor area has been softened with pergolas and plantings.  Training panels have been added so the public can get a first-hand view of the extensive behavioral training and enrichment the zoo conducts with its tigers. 

In fact, Louisville Zoo is on the forefront of animal training and has a tradition of building enrichment and training opportunities into exhibits as a major component (see the Islands exhibit).  The Zoo's philosophy is to turn the zoo "inside out" so all visitors can clearly see the extraordinary care given to the animals by the staff.

In Phase 3, you'll see much of the same.  In concept development, the staff's first concern was to make the environment as complex and enriching as possible with the small amount of space available to the exhibit.  This created not only a complex exhibit, but also a complex holding and enrichment facility with tunnels, stairs, a foraging room, and a maze of transfer chutes.  In the final design, most of these elements made it, enriching not only the animals' lives but also the enhancing the experience for the visitors. 

The new Glacier Run exhibit area will replace the current mid-century polar bear exhibit, and take over the adjacent hillside.  The old exhibit was an excellent example of modernist design infiltrating zoos.  The exhibit was more of a sculputural piece than a proper animal enclosure, and the animals were clearly affected.  Stereotypy was seen, and animals rarely used their pool.  The exhibit was entirely concrete with no natural substrates whatsoever.  The new exhibit will be greatly appreciated by the bears. 

Check out the Louisville Zoo's Capital Campaign page for extensive information on the upcoming exhibit, and ways to contribute.