Trying to save endangered butterflies in England

This video is called Evening Primrose Flowers.

From British daily The Independent:

Conservationists to spend £1m in bid to save endangered butterflies

By Michael McCarthy

Published: 21 July 2007

Nearly a million pounds is to be spent on a last-ditch effort to save three of Britain’s most rapidly declining butterflies.

The project to help the pearl-bordered and small pearl-bordered fritillary and the Duke of Burgundy butterflies, all at severe risk of dying out in southern England, is the most expensive butterfly conservation effort ever in the UK.

It is aimed at restoring the proper woodland management that the three species depend on. All need sunny rides and glades to allow their food plants to flourish – violets for the fritillaries and primroses for the Duke of Burgundy.

Small pearl-bordered fritillary: here.

Butterflies in Britain: here.

Photos of endangered species in Britain: here.

Second brood of Duke of Burgundy butterflies raises hopes for species survival: here.

Punk of the 1970s and on

After part six of the British TV series The Punk Years, part seven; about clothes, artwork, etc. in punk.

UPDATE December 2009: the videos have been removed from YouTube by now.

See its first video:

Here comes The Punk Years #8 – Punx Not Dead (part 1/3).

Here is The Punk Years #9 – Independents Days (part 1/3); about 1979-1982.

And now the final part, The Punk Years 10 – California Uber Alles (part 1 of 3). The title comes from this song by US band the Dead Kennedys.

“We look at how throughout the ’80s and ’90s, punk continued to influence music-making globally, but nowhere more so than America, through multi-million selling bands like Green Day and Offspring to the punk in contemporary acts from The Strokes to Limp Bizkit; The White Stripes to Blink 182.

Contributors included John Lydon (aka Rotten), Viv Albertine, Steve Severin, Pete Shelley, Malcolm Garrett, Helen Wellington Lloyd, Mick Rock, Dennis Morris, Poly Styrene, Jimmy Pursey and Steve Ignorant.”

The signature tune of the series, What A Wonderful World by Joey Ramone; originally by Louis Armstrong; can be heard here, but only if you are in the USA.

California band The Dickies: here. And here.

Punk photos from British daily The Guardian: here.

Rock and classical music: here.

Film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division: here. And here.

USA: Bush administration provided toxic trailers to Katrina victims

This video from the USA is called Reports of Toxic Chemicals in Hurricane Katrina Trailers.

By Andre Damon:

FEMA covered up toxic danger in trailers given to Katrina victims

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) systematically suppressed reports of high toxicity levels in trailers provided to victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to the findings of a congressional committee hearing Thursday.

Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, concluded that FEMA deliberately neglected to investigate reports of high formaldehyde levels in the trailers so as “to bolster the agency’s litigation position” in case people affected by its negligence were to sue.

The hearing coincided with the release of 5,000 pages of documents implicating FEMA in a protracted and systematic cover-up dating from the first deployment of the trailers in May of 2006.

FEMA delivered 120,000 trailers to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita throughout the Gulf Coast in 2006. In March of that year, the agency began receiving complaints of formaldehyde odors and possible health problems arising from exposure, at which point the agency dispatched a worker to test gas levels. The investigation discovered formaldehyde levels 75 times greater than the maximum safe threshold for workplaces. In fact, according to an internal agency email, the “tester himself developed eye-watering symptoms of exposure.” Despite the findings, FEMA released a statement concluding that it had “evaluated the small number of cases where odors of Formaldehyde have been reported and we are confident that there is no ongoing risk.”

US soldiers kill at least 33 Pakistanis

This video shows a rally, held in front of the White House, Washington DC, USA, on May 19th 2007, against the Musharraf dictatorship in Pakistan.

It seems like now that in Afghanistan, even pro United States president Hamid Karzai has expressed anger on the massive killing of Afghan civilians by United States armed forces and their allies, someone in the US hierarchy thought, let’s kill civilians in Pakistan for a change.

As if not already enough people die there by the Bush administration’s support for dictator Musharraf … however, there seems to be a glaring gap between support for a dictator and respect for his country‘s borders and for the lives of his subjects …

From ANI news agency:

Peshawar, June 24 : US-led coalition forces’ fighter jets and helicopters fired missiles and bombs along with mortar shelling from Afghanistan‘s territory into Pakistan‘s tribal areas, killing at least 33 people in South and North Waziristan.

Apart from the human losses, the bombing and shelling destroyed about two dozen houses, damaged vehicles and killed cattle-heads. The dead included several women and children, The News reported.

Villagers and tribal sources described the jets as B-52 bombers and the helicopters as Apache, both US-manufactured and used by the US forces deployed in Afghanistan.

See also here.

And here.

Again US bombardment in Pakistan: here.

Bomb attack on Bhutto: here. And here.

Bhutto‘s Bloody Return: A Massacre Foretold -TARIQ ALI: here.