Elephant Societal Breakdown due to Humans

Elephants are raping and killing rhinoceroses; attacking villages with intelligence by blocking escape routes and pinning down humans before goring them to death; and are displaying psychological traits previously only observed in people.

This is a sad sad state of affairs. Researchers are thinking of this as a sort of emergent species-wide emotional breakdown resulting from human interference over long periods of time and the consequent destruction of important social bonds for the elephants.

The article requires a login but I am posting some of the text below.

These attacks have become so commonplace that a new statistical category, known as Human-Elephant Conflict, or H.E.C., was created by elephant researchers in the mid-1990’s to monitor the problem. In the Indian state of Jharkhand near the western border of Bangladesh, 300 people were killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004. In the past 12 years, elephants have killed 605 people in Assam, a state in northeastern India, 239 of them since 2001; 265 elephants have died in that same period, the majority of them as a result of retaliation by angry villagers, who have used everything from poison-tipped arrows to laced food to exact their revenge. In Africa, reports of human-elephant conflicts appear almost daily, from Zambia to Tanzania, from Uganda to Sierra Leone, where 300 villagers evacuated their homes last year because of unprovoked elephant attacks.

Elephants, when left to their own devices, are profoundly social creatures. A herd of them is, in essence, one incomprehensibly massive elephant: a somewhat loosely bound and yet intricately interconnected, tensile organism. Young elephants are raised within an extended, multitiered network of doting female caregivers that includes the birth mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends. These relations are maintained over a life span as long as 70 years. Studies of established herds have shown that young elephants stay within 15 feet of their mothers for nearly all of their first eight years of life, after which young females are socialized into the matriarchal network, while young males go off for a time into an all-male social group before coming back into the fold as mature adults.

What appears to be happening, due to humans encroaching on territory and the killing of many elephants is that male elephants who normally spend the first 8 years of life with their mothers are left parentless. They form gangs with other motherless young males and then proceed to go on rampages of rape, theft and killing.

If this sounds familiar don't be surprised. Humans are animals too. Unfortunately we aren't satisfied with just destroying ourselves.

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Liberal environment plan greener than the Greens

Please! Please! Please adopt this new Environment Plan!

Liberals Championed Kyoto for Canada and then dragged their heels implementing it. Its time to get back at it. This new environment plan is the way to get there. I just hope they adopt it at the convention.

This plan proposes:

- The creation of a new national energy strategy to reduce gas emissions through energy conservation and more efficient construction and appliances. Canada would get a ''Climate Change Action Office,'' reporting to the prime minister.

- Immediate environmental assessment of the oil sands development to address cumulative impacts on landscape, water use, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Tax breaks would be re-directed to other companies developing renewable energy and water recycling methods.

- Major energy users and producers would face mandatory emission targets within a year.

- Canada would adopt California's radical car-emission standards by 2010, there would be greenhouse gas emission standard for cars and light trucks while commercial fleets would face a mandatory 100 km/h speed limit.

- Consumers would get financial incentives to purchase energy efficient vehicles like hybrids, there would be a direct investment in freight and intercity passenger infrastructures like the Windsor-Quebec City high-speed train.

- Ottawa would reinstate programs like EnerGuide which helped consumers buy more efficient appliances and the much-maligned One Tonne challenge program would make a comeback to encourage conservation.

- Phase out within one year the 100 most harmful chemicals such as asbestos and mercury.

- Implementation of a national biodiversity monitoring program.

- An immediate ban on bottom-trawling in Canadian fishing waters.

This plan would make us greener than the Greens, and would probably get Elizabeth May's seal of approval.

Personally, I am ecstatic about the prospect of a biodiversity monitoring program (my reason d'etre), sorry Rona you should have looked out for those owls. Also, finally some balls on the bottom trawling file, sorry Loyola but in order to have fish, you need fish habitat.

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13 random things about me

As requested by Nicole from Naughty by Nature , here are thirteen random things about me.

1) I've spiked trees in the tropics.
2) Have been an illegal immigrant and worked as such (note: not in Canada!)
3) I speak really quickly.
4) Been engaged thrice, twice with women, once with a man whom I married.
5) If jesus is the first word out of your when speaking with me, its also your last.
6) I prefer to read science related literature.
7) My first choice of career was race car driving, my parents did not agree.
8) The only time I am truly at peace is when I am alone in a forest.
9) I love spicy food, the spicier the better.
10) I can curse up a storm in Spanish!
11) I despise fag hags. If you want to be my friend, fine. But if you have no luck getting a bf don't try to live vicariously through me.
12) I rebuilt a 1984 Monte Carlo SS from the ground up (just couldn't paint the damn thing)
13) Work 30 hour weeks on full salary with 2 months vacation and plan to retire by the time I am 55. Recommend this Post

Tim Hortons & Our Troops

Price of a medium coffee at Tim Hortons ; $1.25

Price of a donut : $0.75

Cost of having our soldiers enjoy Tim Hortons in Afganistan: Scandalous - $4,000,000.

Glad we can trust the conservatives to be fiscally responsible. Recommend this Post

Don't forget the Pollinators when giving thanks.

35% of the food you eat would not exist if we did not have bats, birds, and bees. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices and oilseed will be gone.

Insecticides are killing pollinators to the point wherespecies such as passion fuit now has to be pollinated by humans. Very labour intensive and expensive.

Changing Climate will kill many of these species, if not all. We will have a very nutrient deficient diet if we have to rely on the other 65% of crops that do not require these pollinators. How many of us would want to eat just wheat, corn and rice?

Not me. Recommend this Post

Postal Workers Refuse to Deliver Hate Material by Church Group

This is the reason why religious groups do not need a defense of religion act. They can currently mail out all the unaddressed hate propaganda they want.

Fortunately for Canadians, there are people with a shred of decency left and surprise, its the unionized workers of Canada Post, but not Canada Post itself (shame). They felt information being sent out by a wingnut baptist church group from Ontario, a 28 page diatribe against homosexuals, should not be put in the mail boxes of people living in the gay community. All of this garbage at taxpayer expense, since they are tax exempt (yet strangely able to advocate unlike all other non profits). Where's the outrage?

This is the reason religious groups will never get the religious freedoms they supposedly don't have. There is enough hate flowing from these people without enshrining their right to promote such. The right of religious freedoms is at odds with every other right Canadians have and it has to go. People are free to think what they want, the only reason to enshrine that right is so you can force your beliefs on someone else or use it to terrorise members of your own or other communities.

I received that booklet or one very similar at my place of work here in Toronto, I was not impressed. Going to your mailbox and getting a piece of mail that slanders you, your husband, and your life from people who think its a right to do so by virtue is not much different than living in Mississippi and seeing a cross burning on your yard circa 1964. Recommend this Post

Daphne Parsons, 1925-2006

Daphne Parsons was the first Newfoundland woman to to become a doctor and return home to practice. She was born in Botwood, NL on May 22, 1925 and attended Dalhousie from 1946-1950 with 13 other Newfoundlanders, and two women out of a class size of 47 in a time when it was assumed women were studying for degrees in childbirth and marriage.

She said "Only one professor made me her feel different and that their was no sex in medicine, there was no difference in who wore pants and wore a skirt".

Dr. Parsons created quite a ruckus a few years into her career when she created a situation which forced the government to establish pay equity for male and female doctors. She went as far to refuse a post with the Ministry of Health because they paid women $500 less a year and instead went to work for a TB sanatorium. Later the ministry asked her if she would take the job if they pay her the "same as a man".

She married in 1959 and was diagnosed with MS in the 1970's and was never hospitalised for the condition. It did not interfere with her intellectual pursuits.

Dr. Parson's died on July 19, 2006. She leaves her husband David and sons Keith, Ean, and Andrew. Recommend this Post

Why should consumer choice be sacrosant?

Consumer choice is not going to drive the combat of climate change.

Post WWII, humanity began a drive to share wealth and freedoms for the common good through the construction of public hospitals, and schools. Living standards were raised and class divisions broken down.

By the 1980's people felt more comfortable and less vulnerable, the war was now long gone, and people began to question the spending of money on such intangible long term benefits. The post war good will began to break down.

Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980's began to suggest that there really is no such thing as a society and investors could single handedly make the world a better place and contraints on trade began to be viewed as burdensome.

This rhetoric has proved to be wildly successful electorally in many countries. Reagan and Thatcher had managed to foist their view of personal and consumer choice as an article of faith. Such financial disasters as Enron,and Hurricane Katrina have failed to shake the widespread belief that the market will someday, somehow solve our problems.

Are consumer best suited to make informed choices? Are there not situations where more straight forward regulation might be more effective?

Climate Change and its science is quite robust and its obvious we need to reduce carbon emissions. Unfortunately the consumer is emotionally attached to it's driver lifestyle and status symbols.

Governments and businesses need to stay popular. Businesses have to provide products as cheap as possible and governments have to let you have your cake and eat it too.

So who exactly will be responsible for providing potential solutions to climate change? To many it's our elected representatives. They have to change the rules under which individuals and businesses compete and making the hard choices for society's long term good.

Maintaining our business as usual approach just encourages people to continue to buy cheap inefficient products. As well, if governments do not step up, businesses fear being undercut and losing market share should they ever incur discretionary, yet responsible costs which are being avoided by the competition.

Its shocking but the major argument against making slavery illegal was whether it was economically justified! Shocking to hear in todays reality.

Short term profits should not be used to justify emissions standards nor keeping fuel costs low.

We must learn to accept that consumer choice cannot be expected to solve complex, large scale problems. Governments have to step up and roll out legislation; giving all the responsibilty to markets and consumers is not enough.

We need to remove the worst products from the market and build environmental costs into prices and give low carbon alternatives a chance of getting established.

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Unfortunately, our current government belongs to the group that thinks unrestricted business will fix all that ails us. Funny how it so far it has done the opposite.

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Second Suicide Barbing by Fundamentalist Manta

In what appears to be the second suicide barbing, Fundamentalist Manta's have nearly claimed their second victim following the killing of the Crocodile Hunter.

An 81-year-old man was in critical condition Thursday after a stingray flopped into his boat and stung him in the chest with a 30-centimetre-long barb.

Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice in a news conference today says "this rise in Seafood Terrorism must stop and the US will be deploying divers and subs to deal with these radical mantas."

President Bush in a conference latter stated that they "have intelligence that shows these crazy fish do indeed have BMD or barbs of mass destruction."

Prime Minister Stephan Harper when asked about the threat to Canada reponded that "we will be lookin into the matter but is pretty sure its the liberals and special interest groups, most likely gay rights groups that have caused this and what George said."

Moby Dick was captured early today and has been secretly deported to Japan for eviceration and consumption. Charlie the Tuna has been detained at the border as a sympathiser to the manta cause. Recommend this Post

CPC environment plan leaked

Surprise, surprise the Green whatever it is called now is a a delay tactic. Though this is a leaked draft and not the 'official' document, it does confirm what think they will do...nothing.

I do believe that this document will be changed significantly now that they have leaked it and are gauging the outrage. So next week expect another name change and more pushing around figures on paper.

I guess they have to get the right combination of subtle name changes and clever use of statistics to show that climate change is correcting itself just like the fiscal balance/imbalance did. Recommend this Post

Two Months Later, Still No AIDS Funding Announcement

It has been two months since Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government said the International AIDS Conference in Toronto had become too "politicized" to make a funding announcement.

Was anyone even convinced there would be one? How many forgot he even made that promise?

I know you don't like homosexuals Mr. Harper but would you help a world catastrophe happen due to your own ignorance and the sake of your voter base?

We have seen before that this PM and his motley crew of one issue politicians has no morals when it comes helping those in need unless you have an oil patch that is. Recommend this Post

Root of All Evil Part 2: The Virus of Faith

Recently, CBC showed the first part of the documentary Root of All Evil : The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Check the link to see quotes from the audience once the documentary was over.

The second part of this documentary wasn't aired on CBC, so I have posted it for your convenience. It is called Root of all Evil: The Virus of Faith. This documentary explores the negative effects indoctrination of children have amongst other issues.

I am posting this as a response to Harpo and the Regressive Conservatives latest promise to make homosexuals the brunt of all hate speech for here on in. This motley crew is doing this as a promise to his Social Conservatives, particularly Evangelicals. This documentary shows how these groups warp the minds of children at their most impressionable age. Take Stockwell Day for example. This man believes the world is 6000 years old. He is incapable of thinking otherwise, to do so would be to deny the holy spirit, the one thing that you cannot atone for. To even consider anything other than what your pastor told you from a book will put you in hell for eternity.

So take your childcare money and go get some beer and popcorn, then come back, and enjoy the show!




If interested in the subject, check out the following authors/directors:
Daniel Dennett
Sam Harris
Brian Flemming
David Mills Recommend this Post

Seal activists have officially gone way too far

How can you possibly feel for the seal rights activist groups when they not only attack the seal industry but have now ventured into Newfoundland and Labrador's tourist industry with a propaganda Newfoundland and Labrador tourist site. It looks harmless at first, actually looks kind of legit until you check out a few links and its purpose becomes quite apparent.

My former home province has always had the shitty end of the stick when it comes to most everything, our fishery is in it's death throes, the seal industry for all intents and purposes ended this year after Europe decided not to purchase seal pelts or products anymore, and Danny Williams is scaring away all the oil investment. This latest victimisation of my home province by these activists aims to destroy the only industry that delivers to all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and not just sealers. The creators of the site — www.tour-newfoundland labrador.com — have shielded their identity by using an Arizona-based privacy-protection firm to register it so attempts to take it down will fail.

I personally am an animal lover, and I can relate to some of the issues the activists have but summary conviction of a people and destruction of an industry in Canada's poorest province is more than a little petty, its inhuman. Recommend this Post

5 things that feminism has done for me

Nicole at Naught by Nature has tagged me to list 5 things that have feminism has done for me.

Here goes:

1) Feminism has given me an equal but different partner in humanity. A much needed different point of view.

2) Feminism gave me a mother who could stand up for herself, and in doing so she was also standing up for me.

3) Feminism saved my dear friend Kathryn from the violence of her husband.

4) Feminism gave me the backbone and know how and how to on how to stand up for my rights as a gay male.

5) Feminism gave me the greatest boss in the world. Recommend this Post

Only thing worst than liars are two faced ones.

There seems to be a stampede to register as a tory lobbyist prior to the enactment of the very law the CPC devised to stop lobbyist. So what is it Mr. Harper? No lobbyists or just no lobbyists other than regressive conservative ones? And surprise they used their new lobbyist powers to kill any threat to further profit and pollution.

I'll say it again, these revolting pigs don't deserve the air they breathe. Recommend this Post

He's my wife??

Being recently married I have notice the deluge of mailings that get sent to the 'woman' of the house. You may have seen these. Items sent to Ms. Husbands Name or mailings with Ms. tacked onto your own name.

I find myself in a situation that I find hilarious but pisses off my husband. You see, we are a same sex married couple and I am caucasian and he's south asian. My name stands out as a male, his is rare and from asia and people don't know what to make of it so the assume that because we are married he has to be the wife. A false assumption in Canada since 2004.

In the mail my husband receives 'Elle" magazine, free issues of 'Homemaker', feminine hygene product samples, womens perfume and even a letter addressing him as Ms. from the government. I think it is trivial and there are good recipes in Homemaker and I can use ladies shaving cream samples. Of course it does not help when I walk in the door with the latest 'Elle' and tell him that this outfit on the cover would look nice on you, but the shoes are too small. For him, this is the icing on the cake. When he immigrated here as a child with his family immigration officials bastardised his name by adding an 'h' 'behind every 's' in his name. His name no longer sounds at all like it looks and results in mispronounciations everytime.

I doubt I can stem this tide of mailings. I know people no longer use Miss or Mrs., so maybe we should work on getting Mr. and Ms. reduced to just M.

Any suggestions? Recommend this Post

30 Conservatives turned lobbyist rack up 327 contracts to lobby the federal government

Though it's no surprise to anyone by now, Mr. Harper once again lies. His vow to end lobbying by staffers turned lobbyist to the government apparently only applies if you were not a Conservative. What is most shocking is the nature of the lobbyists concern and the success they appear to have had.

"A great many of the contracts (for Tory lobbyists) appear to be related to environmental issues and Kyoto and climate change,'' said Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale. ''This government has stopped dead in its tracks on climate change. It has no environmental policy to speak of. It certainly has no policy on climate change. That is exactly what the lobbyists were seeking to achieve.''

And we are to take the "Made by Lobby" Green Sham II as something more than lip service when these crackpots unveil it?

I guess the delay in the great unveiling may have something to do with a check from a lobbyist not clearing on time. Recommend this Post

Arar Absolved, CPC owes him an apology

Remember this:

On Monday, November 18th, Leader of the Canadian Alliance Steven Harper said, ".While the minister participated in high level consultations to defend a suspected terrorist, it apparently took a trip by the U.S. Secretary of State for the minister to admit what he really knew."

Diane Ablonczy added, "Mr. Speaker, it is time the Liberals told the truth: that their system of screening and security checks is pathetic. Arar was given dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship by the government. It did not pick up on his terrorist links and the U.S. had to clue it in."

Stockwell Day stated "When [Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham] thought everything was lovely about this gentlemen, he was talking about him all over the place. But when he gets information he's dangerous, all of a sudden it's 'Oops maybe I shouldn't have said anything.' "Recently, in discussing the profiling of Canadian Arabs and Muslims travelling to the U.S., Day stated, "I don't know that it's a racial profiling issue. That's stating origin of birth, and we do know that from certain countries there are higher levels of people who seem to be involved in terrorism."

Time to say sorry. Recommend this Post

The irrelevant old queen speaks again.

Pardon my stinging criticism of the beloved pope but when i hear stuff like this. I can't help but feel this way.

So Benedict, you don't like the fact that Canada gives its people equal rights and freedom of choice, well, tough teat. I do believe we tried it the catholic way once upon a time known by many as the "Dark Ages" and yes we all remember the indulgences, the orgying of old sexless men, the stifling of free thought, murders, should I go on?

Now you think we should go back there. Why should we? Canada is secular and that means we are not a catholic country which means you can't rule us, only some of the people. So your 5 cents worth is worthless. Go bitch to Latin America.

We all know the real beef the Vatican has with the extension of reproductive choice to women and why it's against gay marriage (other than jealousy). Reproductive choice means less catholic babies to add to your dwindling numbers. It keeps people poor and always looking to "god" for non existant assistance which they internalize as their shortcomings when it never answers. You'd rather further the AIDS epidemic than let someone use a condom. As for your opposition to equal same sex marriage could the reason lies in property and wealth, none of which you will get from a gay man who can leave it to a spouse and not the church as was the case once upon a time?

So go take a f**king hike. Recommend this Post

On becoming a Legitimate MP, Fortier says "Non".

So Fortier has a chance to become a legitimate member of Parliment by running in the Montreal-area riding of Repentigny but says no. He will not run until the next general election. So much for seeking a seat in the next available by-election which has usually been the case. I guess this could be the reason.

He's just a big scaredy cat who knows he's not wanted or needed. Recommend this Post