British students, workers keep fighting

This video from Britain is called Student Protest D-DAY DEC 9 !!

By Will Stone in Britain:

Pressure piling on as fee vote looms

Sunday 05 December 2010

Students and lecturers are planning further protests this week in the run-up to a controversial vote for a massive rise in tuition fees.

The protests are planned to keep up pressure on MPs to vote against the proposed rise in university fees to £9,000 a year in Parliament this Thursday.

Lecturers’ union UCU and students’ union NUS revealed there would be demonstrations at universities across the country on Wednesday as part of their joint campaign against education funding cuts and plans to raise fees.

And on the day of the vote there will be a mass lobby of MPs, a rally in Westminster and a candlelit vigil.

It follows a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks, some of which flared into violence, and police have said they will be monitoring social network sites in the next few days to gauge the level of support for the protests.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “These proposals, if they go through, will change the entire landscape of education in this country and we must continue to oppose them. We need to expose the damage they will do to our universities, colleges and communities.

“MPs must be left in no doubt of the strength of opposition to these plans and the consequences of voting for them.

“We have been overwhelmed by support from people across the country against these plans and we hope they will all join us in making their voices heard this week.”

NUS president Aaron Porter said the 50,000-strong march on November 10 has provided the spur to a new wave of activism and lobbying, which has placed the government’s policies on fees and student support under huge pressure.

He said: “This week we must keep that pressure up as the vote approaches. MPs can be left in no doubt as to the widespread public opposition to these plans or the consequences of steamrolling them through parliament.”

Transport union RMT general secretary Bob Crow has written to branches calling for “full support” for the protests.

Colleges and sixth-forms across the country will also hold lunchtime protests next Monday against government plans to axe the education maintenance allowance.

Students and teachers will descend on Westminster on Tuesday in a bid to force the government to stop its plans to cut school sports: here.

Lib Dem MPs threw themselves into all kinds of contortions at Westminster today as the party faced meltdown over its betrayal on student tuition fees: here.

Support for student occupations at their universities continued to grow today with groups across the world sending messages of solidarity: here.

The Woodcraft Folk will join forces with protests from students and lecturers on Thursday as Parliament holds a crucial vote on the Con-Dems’ tuition fees rise: here.

Cross-party MPs voice ‘profound concern’ to Theresa May over plans to bar foreign students: here.

NATO soldiers kill Afghan child

From Trend in Azerbaijan:

US-led forces kill Afghan child

05.12.2010 13:27

US-led forces have claimed the life of an Afghan child during their military operation in Afghanistan‘s southeastern Ghazni province, NATO says, Press TV reported.

Afghan turmoil – one of highest child mortality rates in the world: here.

Wikileaks Cables reveal feelings of hopelessness among U.S. officials in Afghanistan: here.

EU ‘losing faith’ in Afghanistan. Leaked US cables quote EU president saying that European troops are deployed in Nato force in ‘deference’ to the US: here.

Sand lizard increases, common lizard becomes uncommon

This is a video of baby sand lizards hatching.

From the Dutch herpetologists of RAVON:

December 5, 2010

The sand lizard is doing well in recent years in the Netherlands. But while the populations are growing, we actually very rarely see new areas being colonized. This is because the Dutch scenery has become fragmented in recent decades. In Drenthe, it seems that nonetheless the species has colonized a new territory: in the Zuiderveld near Odoorn, last year for the first time since 1989 a sand lizard has been seen. A reason for optimism?

The sand lizard was seen on the Zuiderveld in the Hondsrug hills in Drenthe. The Zuiderveld is a small and isolated patch of heath. Since 1995 the Reptiles Monitoring Network monitors the Zuiderveld. Here, year after year, only common lizards had been seen in ever smaller numbers. Unfortunately, a typical situation for this species.

Sand lizards in Utrecht province: here.

Acta Herpetologica journal: here.

Singapore: The water monitors of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve suffer from few inhibitions; juveniles a mere foot-and-a-half in length bask on the trails with scant concern for the lumbering masses who brave the heat between the hides: here.

In order to communicate in the busy jungle, different lizards have evolved their own body movements and signals, research shows: here.

Most nature lovers know that the more colorful a male fish, reptile, or bird, the more likely it is to attract a female and to have healthy offspring. Females, on the other hand, tend to be drably colored, perhaps to avoid predators while carrying, incubating, and caring for young. Curiously, the female striped plateau lizard, which lives in the rocky slopes of Arizona’s south-eastern mountains, is an exception to this rule in the animal world. Females are more colourful than males – displaying an orange patch on their throats during reproductive season – and the more colourful the female, the more robust are her offspring. New research has found one reason this may be so: here.

Viviparous liolaemids that inhabit cool and harsh environments of Patagonia and the highlands of the Andes exhibit distinctive life-history traits to synchronize births with benign environmental conditions. Researchers studied the reproduction of Phymaturus cf. palluma, a viviparous species that inhabits rocky outcrops in cool environments of the Andean highlands of San Juan, Argentina, and discussed their results in relation to the conservation status of this poorly known species: here.

The Sail-fin Lizard, Hydrosaurus pustulatus, is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. This semi-aquatic reptile is found in the Philippines, and is as at home in water as it is in trees. These large creatures can exceed a metre in length, although much of this is tail: here.

Ecuadorean volcano erupts

This is a Dutch TV video about the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador. Thousands of people are being evacuated. See also here.

Two years ago in southern Chile, a volcano was erupting. About 4,000 people living around the Chaiten were evacuated.

This is a Dutch TV video about the Chaiten eruption.

http://s.nos.nl/swf/embed/nos_video_embed.swf?tcmid=tcm-5-374176