Rare slender loris on camera

From British daily The Morning Star:

‘Extinct’ primate caught on camera

Sunday 18 July 2010

One of the rarest primates in the world, which was so elusive that it was thought to have become extinct, has been caught on camera for the first time, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has said.

The Horton Plains slender loris had only been seen four times since 1937 and vanished between 1939 and 2002, leading scientists to believe the wide-eyed mammal had become extinct.

ZSL researchers, who spent more than 200 hours looking for signs of the nocturnal primate in the mountain forest of central Sri Lanka, said they were “thrilled” to have photographed it.

See also here. And here. And here.

Gray slender loris (Loris lydekkerianus): here.

Black terns and great egret

Today, along the Tienhovense vaart.

Mute swans with cygnets.

House martins flying.

A sedge warbler flying and singing.

Reed warbler and reed bunting sound.

Two buzzards circling in the air.

This is a black tern video.

At least five black terns flying and calling.

A male black-tailed skimmer.

A great cormorant. A common tern. Many gray lag geese.

A red admiral butterfly.

A great egret; see also here; and here.

US taxpayers pay Pentagon propaganda

This video from the USA is called The Pentagon’s Propaganda Program-1/3.

And this video is 2/3.

This is video 3/3.

The Pentagon, the Associated Press said on July 5, spends US$4.7 billion on public relations: that is, winning the hearts and minds not of recalcitrant Afghan tribespeople but of the US people. This is known as “information dominance” and PR people are “information warriors”: here.

Pentagon workers found to have downloaded child pornography: here.

Sixty one percent of Australians think that the troops should be immediately withdrawn [from Afghanistan], but ALP and Coalition politicians have used the recent deaths to argue that Australian soldiers, “knowing the risks”, choose to put their lives on the line to defend Australia from terrorists: here.

Britain: Afghan war aid to be quadrupled as education and jobs are slashed: here.

Afghanistan, Europe and CIA Propaganda: here.

Top Secret America, on ‘intelligence’: here.

Serbian workers demonstrate against IMF

This video says about itself:

The Paul Wolfowitz scandal raised questions about the World Bank [linked to the IMF]’s relevance.

The video with Part 2 of that story is here.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Serbians rally against IMF austerity plan

Thursday 30 April 2009

TEN thousand Serbian workers demonstrated in central Belgrade on Wednesday against an austerity plan designed to meet International Monetary Fund conditions for a 3 billion euros (£2.69bn) bail-out loan.

As legislators passed a budget plan consisting of a public-sector wage freeze, higher income taxes, higher excise duties on petrol, diesel and natural gas and higher taxes on mobile phone bills, protesters flanked by riot police marched by the parliament building carrying banners reading: “We are hungry” and “Down with the government.”

Passing the government’s Privatisation Agency and Finance Ministry buildings, they shouted: “Thieves, thieves.”

Alliance of Independent Trade Unions leader Ljubisav Orbovic warned that “the government will create a small circle of profiteers and a huge number of losers.”

Mr Orbovic described the government’s approach to the economic crisis as “slow, wrong and inefficient,” slamming the apparent lack of “vision or strategy.”

And he warned politicians that the rally was a “final warning” that workers will not stand by silently as they “destroy our economy and Serbian citizens.”

Stressing that there were already a million jobless people in Serbia and that this figure was rapidly growing, Mr Orbovic said that workers were running out of patience.

Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia vice-president Dragan Zarubica said that, instead of bashing working people, the government should “downsize itself and cut the number of useless agencies in order to achieve sizeable savings.”

And Ljubisa Nikolic, a metal worker from the southern city of Nis, said: “The government’s measures are half-hearted, selfish, short-sighted and aimed at keeping them in power.

“For months, I haven’t been able to afford a decent meal for my children and the government is imposing more belt-tightening,” Ms Nikolic stormed.

Protesters also cheered Zoran Bulatovic, a union activist from the city of Novi Pazar who cut off his finger and ate it over the weekend to protest against unpaid wages.

The government forecasts that the economy will shrink by 2 per cent this year, but analysts say it could contract by as much as 10 per cent and ministers insist that the country needs the IMF loan to prop up its currency.

The IMF is expected to approve the loan on May 11, but the cash is contingent on Serbia slashing its deficit to 3 per cent of GDP.

See also here.