New Sri Lankan frog discovery

This video is about a species, related to the just discovered Sri Lankan species:

Polypedates leucomystax – “Quack!” calls.

Singapore, 3rd February 2012 (night).

From Zootaxa:

Abstract

A new species of frog tentatively assigned to the genus Polypedates is described from the Gilimale forest reserve of the Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka.

This tree frog is characterized by unique osteological characteristics in the skull which distinguish it from all other congeners, such as the presence of a series of maxillary teeth progressively changing orientation from horizontal to vertical from posterior end to anterior; a laterally-curved spine in the quadratojugal bone; and bony co-ossification on the skull resulting in four dorsal spines which are externally seen as protrusions in the parietal area. Bioacoustic observations of Polypedates ranwellai sp. nov. revealed three distinct call types.

High rates of deforestation and anthropogenic activities at the type locality threaten the survival of the species.

Obama, Romney, an interview

This video from the USA says about itself:

Feb 8, 2012

The Super PACs are doing their best to educate you about the presidential candidates. From Mitt to Newt, campaign cash is leading the way in our democracy. A Mark Fiore political animation.

British author and journalist Gary Younge, based in the USA, spoke to Willemijn Wilgenhof about Obama’s record and the mood among the US working class:

Tue 25 Sep 2012

Interview with Gary Younge on the US presidential elections

Four years ago there was lots of enthusiasm around the US presidential elections. People hoped for change from the Democrats’ Barack Obama. Has there been much change?

In 2008 there was a real joy at a black person winning the presidency. That shouldn’t be diminished, but it also shouldn’t be elevated to something of substance. It was symbolic.

There was also a real desire to move beyond war and racism to some new way of being in America. Obama’s skill was to personify that without really promising anything.

The 2008 election happened in the midst of an absolute meltdown of capitalism. There was talk of nationalising the banks. There was talk of bailing out huge numbers of homeowners who had negative equity.

At that time, when there was a real desire for something new, Obama looked new and acted new. But he hasn’t brought change. Black people are just as capable of operating capitalist, racist machinery as white people are.

Obama’s presidency signalled the acceptance of black America, with caveats, into the ruling class. Materially it hasn’t brought anything.

How do people see Obama now?

The degree to which people want to give Obama the benefit of the doubt shouldn’t be underestimated. But there is cynicism.

Obama understands there is a challenge to him from the left. So he’s helped the children of undocumented people to get the right to stay. And he’s voiced his support for gay marriage.

It would be wrong and lazy to say there is no difference today. Combat troops are out of Iraq. There’s an end date for the war in Afghanistan. There are two women on the Supreme Court, one of whom is a Latino. It’s just that the difference is insufficient and incremental.

In 2008 Obama changed who the electorate was. More people—young, black, Latino—came to the polls as they thought there was someone to vote for. Four years later they are less convinced.

Probably those most disappointed are Latinos. There’s now the largest rate of deportations of Latinos since the 1950s. A lot of young people voted for Obama. Now there are record increases in youth unemployment.

Both Republican candidate Mitt Romney and Obama try to appeal to the working class. Do they succeed?

Romney tries to portray himself as in touch with the needs of working people. Yet his personal wealth is twice the combined wealth of the last eight presidents.

George Bush was very capable of acting like an everyman. Romney doesn’t have it in him. His base is white working class men and he just can’t reach them.

Obama can say, “I’m less for rich people than Romney is.” He talks about things like his mother having to deal with health insurance claims while she was dying.

He went to an elite private school yet can lay claim to a connection with the working poor. Obama was a community organiser and worked among working class people. …

Basically the issue is the economy. Nothing else is likely to intrude, not least because nobody does well if it does intrude.

Republicans are trying to make Israel an issue. But they can’t really bring up Iraq or Afghanistan as these were their ideas and they failed. Obama can bring up Iraq with his base, but beyond that it’s a painful memory. And Afghanistan isn’t settled.

What do you think the chances are for the rise of a third party candidate?

Fairly slim. Obama was the best thing that American electoralism could produce. And that tells you a lot about American electoralism. The electoral system doesn’t work.

Given the amount of money involved in elections there’s no way for a third party to break through now—unless it has billions of dollars.

That doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t stand to get their agenda across. But American electoralism is very limited. It works according to the golden rule—that the people who have the gold make the rules.

What impact have movements from below had on the political landscape?

Prior to Occupy Wall Street the main people railing against bailouts were right wing populists and the Tea Party. Now even Republicans have said they don’t want to be seen as defenders of capitalism because to many it means defenders of Wall Street.

Occupy Wall Street shifted the conversation to saying inequality is the problem. There has been a surge in left wing activity and that is the best chance for change.

Interestingly, it has taken place almost without reference to Obama. In Occupy Wall Street his name barely came up. But it gave him a kind of limited narrative of fairness. …

In Chicago teachers have fought a Democratic mayor and a Democratic machine. Republicans have come out against the teachers. That brings into sharper focus the fact that, when it comes to workers’ rights, they don’t have a defender in the electoral sphere.

Romney Energy Plan: Hot Cow Manure on Planet’s Open Wounds: here.

When Dan Senor spoke up for Mitt Romney following the aftermath of the protests in Libya and Egypt, Paul Krugman wondered what it says about Romney that he is relying on the same group of people that botched Iraq; here.

The Obama administration’s Mideast foreign policy has not been as progressive as promised. The US progressive movement must reconcile positions on US foreign policy that often support US imperial projects abroad with its push for social justice at home: here.

Greek, Portuguese, Spanish anti-austerity fights

The leader of Portugal‘s CGTP union confederation has called a protest for the coming weekend after a disappointing meeting with coalition Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho on Monday: here. See also here.

This video from 2011 is called Greek general strike to be extended, as pressure mounts over debt crisis.

Greek workers will unleash a nationwide general strike tomorrow, which is set to bring large parts of the country to a halt: here. See also here. And here.

Noisy groups of angry Spaniards gathered in Madrid today ahead of a demonstration outside parliament against the government’s austerity measures: here.

Thousands of people surrounded the Spanish Parliament in Madrid on Tuesday to protest austerity measures and the loss of public confidence in elected leaders: here.

Prostitution Classes Advertise Solution To Unemployment In Spain: here.

Tens of thousands protest austerity policies in Portugal, Spain: here.

Japanese money to whaling, not earthquake recovery

This video says about itself:

Think whaling is essential for Japan? Think again. Most whale meat that is gathered just sits in cold storage. Statistics show that 95% of everyone in Japan either rarely eats or never had whale meat. The only reason Japan continues this brutal practice is for pride. Hundreds of lives are destroyed because the government of Japan, like so many others, put themselves before the Earth.

From the Daily Telegraph in Britain:

Japanese earthquake recovery money going to whaling

Billions of pounds earmarked for the reconstruction of areas of Japan devastated by last year’s earthquake and tsunami have been diverted to projects with [no] connection to the recovery work, such as whaling research

By Julian Ryall, Tokyo

11:49AM BST 25 Sep 2012

An investigation by NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, has revealed that substantial portions of the Y19 trillion (£150.2 billion) that is being raised by tax increases and government spending cuts between 2011 and 2015 are going to promote the whaling industry, to train prison inmates and even to fund nuclear research.

The report comes as companies in the regions hardest-hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake complain that they have yet to receive more than 60 per cent of the subsidies that were promised by the national and prefectural government to get their businesses up and running again.

The ministry that overseas Japan’s “research whaling” – condemned internationally as thinly disguised commercial whaling – defended the allocation of Y2.28 billion (£18 million) on the grounds that it would help the economies of coastal communities recover from the disaster.

September 2012. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is urging Japan to abandon its Antarctic whaling programme and stop wasting public money on a cruel and outdated industry. The Japanese whaling fleet’s ageing factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, needs repairs estimated to run into millions of dollars in order to make the voyage to the Southern Ocean to hunt Minke whales later this year: here.

Japan’s annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean is in doubt this year because the fleet’s factory ship is in need of repairs: here.

Japan: Whaling Group Suffers Financial Loss: here.

A battle is brewing over whaling in the Southern Ocean between Australia and Japan. Australia’s Environment Minister, Tony Burke, has reiterated his government’s strong opposition to Japan’s “scientific whaling” program, dismissing claims that the expeditions have any scientific research merit: here.

Related articles

• Japanese appetite for whale meat wanes (abc.net.au)
• ‘Nothing Scientific’ About Japanese Whale Hunt, Australia Says (theepochtimes.com)
• Whale meat unattractive for 90% of Japanese – poll (tokyotimes.com)
• Australia won’t monitor Japanese whaling (radionz.co.nz)
• NZ joins Australia in court against Japanese whaling (reuters.com)
• Meet the woman battling Japan’s whaling fleet in Antarctic ocean (guardian.co.uk)
• The Japanese public’s opinion on whaling: two different results from single survey (japandailypress.com)
• Japanese whaling fleet leaves port (abc.net.au)
• NZ legally challenges Japanese whaling (nzherald.co.nz)

Anti-Abu Ghraib torture firm protester jailed

This video from the USA is called CACI made $$ torturing at Abu Ghraib, then covered it up.

By Malcolm Burns in Scotland:

Salute to a sister of direct action

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Today in Glasgow Sheriff Court, peace protester Barbara Dowling stands accused of committing a criminal offence under the Census Act 1920.

The charge is that she refused to fully complete her form last year in protest at the involvement in Scotland’s census of a British subsidiary of US defence contractor CACI International — to which I’ll return in a moment.

Dowling is no stranger to the courts. A pacifist and Christian, she’s been on trial, fined and imprisoned on many occasions.

She is part of the tradition of direct action anti-war protesters which includes Trident Ploughshares and the peace campers at military bases like Faslane and Greenham Common.

In 2006 she was in court with a number of other women peace activists for actions at Coulport nuclear weapons depot.

When Dowling was specifically charged with painting a bollard at the main entrance, she famously told the court that there were no signs outside the base telling the public what its business was and she felt that people should know the truth.

Ordered to pay the Ministry of Defence compensation of £8.34, she insisted she would not be paying the MoD one penny.

This process of good-humoured but principled direct action followed by fines and non-payment and sometimes imprisonment has been Dowling’s way of campaigning against the immoral and illegal nuclear weapons along our shores.

Earlier this year, along with CND activist Janet Fenton, Dowling was in Dumbarton Sheriff Court for painting “political graffiti” on the walls of the court following a 2010 trial in which they maintained that the court did not uphold international law with respect to the illegality of the Trident nuclear weapon system.

Dowling was given three months in Cornton Vale women’s prison. Fenton got 120 hours of community service.

“I did what the courts refuse to do,” Dowling said then.

“I upheld international law in regard to nuclear weapons. I am not guilty of a crime and I am not co-operating with an unjust punishment.”

Some suggest that Dowling is being singled out, and is being made a political prisoner.

But she is not acting alone — and if the authorities feel singling out a retired occupational therapist is necessary, it is a sign of weakness on their part.

Dowling herself certainly isn’t showing any sign of weakness.

Only last week she was in court in Glasgow, where she was fined £200 for protesting outside the army recruiting office in Queen Street.

“I was objecting to Britain recruiting 16-year-olds into the army,” she says.

“It’s the only country in Europe which does this, in defiance of United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.”

Dowling is on trial today because of the way in which she used her 2011 census form to protest against the £18.5 million contract to CACI Ltd to run the 2011 Scottish census.

CACI Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of CACI International Inc, the US-based defence company which was contracted from 2003 to 2005 by the US army to provide “interrogation services” at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It provided 50 per cent of the interrogators.

Former prisoners have accused them of torture, sexual abuse and inhumane behaviour, but CACI has blocked lawsuits brought against it by claiming “official immunity.”

A year ago, the US Federal Appeals Court in Virginia dismissed the case brought against CACI by four former Abu Ghraib prisoners.

The US court did so not because it rejected the evidence against CACI but because it held that CACI integration into the US military renders the company immune to this kind of lawsuit.

In Glasgow Sheriff Court today Dowling will welcome the opportunity to bring CACI into the dock beside her.

“All the money CACI Ltd makes — including from the Scottish Census — belongs to CACI International but CACI International remains beyond the reach of Scottish and British law,” she says.

“I believe that the only ethical way open to me to express my outrage at the involvement of CACI in the 2011 Scottish census was by refusing to fully comply by not completing the census form as instructed.

“To simply ignore what I consider to be immoral and unjust would be to close my eyes, to condone it, to willingly comply, to cross over the line and align myself with the perpetrators.”

That’s what you call a principled position.

See also here.

England’s Luddites remembered

This music video from the UK is called Horrible Histories – Luddite Song.

By Peter Lazenby in Britain:

Luddites to be celebrated 200 years on from revolt

Tuesday 25 September 2012

A celebration marking the 200th anniversary of the Luddite rebellion is to be staged next month in a former textile town in the heart of the Yorkshire Pennines.

Among Those Dark Satanic Mills will be performed by the Hammer and Shears Company, a group of 20 folk enthusiasts who play, perform and write music, songs and poems in Hebden Bridge.

Organisers said: “They have come together to ensure that the 200th anniversary of the Luddite uprising in west Yorkshire is remembered.

“The croppers and weavers were skilled people whose way of life was being threatened by the new machines that were being introduced in many mills.

“Faced with deepening poverty they formed themselves into groups that became known as ‘The Luddite Movement,’ whose cause was to fight for working rights and there were groups active all over the country.”

In April 1812 a group of men armed with pistols and hammers attacked Cartwright’s Rawfolds Mill near Cleckheaton outside Leeds.

In response the government sent in thousands of troops to areas where there was trouble and later that year machine-breaking became punishable by death.

At one stage there were more troops in Yorkshire and Lancashire than were serving in the Napoleonic War.

Among Those Dark Satanic Mills tells the story of the Luddites’ actions and the tragic outcome for many of those involved.

The event takes place on Sunday October 14 at 3pm in Hebden Bridge town hall.

Tickets go on sale on September 27 at the town hall and are also available from the local visitor centre.

New grasshopper species discovery in Antwerp harbour

This is a video about the newly discovered grasshopper species.

Translated from Natuurpunt Studie in Belgium:

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

“Who will discover the first Sphingonotus caerulans grasshopper in Flanders?”, the locust study group Saltabel asked itself. Of this species, only a few sites are known in Belgium, all in Wallonia. In August 2012, the Sphingonotus caerulans grasshopper was discovered and documented for the first time in Flanders. This unique find in the Antwerp port invites further investigation.

Sphingonotus caerulans for years now has been expanding to the north, possibly partly due to climate change. The natural habitat of this grasshopper consists of dry, rocky terrain, similar to railway embankments. In the Benelux countries it is almost exclusively found along railways. …

UPDATE: On September 9, 2012, a month after the discovery of the Sphingonotus caerulans grasshopper in the port of Antwerp, the second Flemish population was discovered in the Ghent port. There at least 5 specimens were found in a railway embankment.

Tuna and shark fishing off Mozambique

This video, in the Afrikaans language, is about marine life and sea cucumber poaching in Mozambique.

From Wildlife Extra:

Greenpeace monitoring of tuna and shark fishing off Mozambique

Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior ends two weeks of joint fisheries surveillance with Mozambique government

September 2012. The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior has ended its two week cooperation with the Mozambican Ministry of Fisheries. The Rainbow Warrior had been patrolling Mozambique’s waters and facilitating inspections of foreign fishing vessels that mainly target high-value tuna and endangered sharks in Mozambique’s waters. Due to limited resources, vast areas of Mozambique’s waters are not closely monitored, creating an opportunity for illegal and unreported fishing.

“Currently fishing fleets are plundering the Indian Ocean of tuna, sharks and other ocean life. Vessels which repeatedly fail to comply with the rules must be stopped. Our oceans and the billions of people dependent on them for food and jobs need proper control and enforcement of fishing regulations,” said Paloma Colmenarejo, Greenpeace International campaigner on board the Rainbow Warrior.

Japanese and Spanish trawlers

During the joint surveillance, an area of 133,500 km2 was covered and four foreign vessels were inspected. Three were Japanese and one Spanish. One of the Japanese vessels, the Fukuseki Maru N° 27, owned by the Fukuseki Maru Co. Ltd., failed to cooperate and allow enforcement officials to weigh shark fins found onboard. This is an infringement of its licencing conditions and the Mozambique government is currently considering further legal proceedings.

Tuna and shark fins

Longliners in Mozambique waters mainly target albacore, bigeye, and yellowfin tuna as well as swordfish and sharks for the lucrative fin trade. Albacore tuna is being overexploited in the region and many shark species are endangered. Indian Ocean albacore is caught almost exclusively with drifting longlines. The lack of proper management and pirate fishing are contributing to the demise of these species.

“Illegal fishing is a massive problem in waters of coastal states with limited capacity to monitor these vessels’ activities. It is stealing fish from the Indian Ocean and deprives coastal states of much needed income,” added Colmenarejo.

João Noa Senete, Head of the Fisheries Surveillance Operations Department at the Mozambique Ministry of Fisheries, added: “Illegal fishing affects fishing communities and squanders resources at the expense of future generations. That is why we think this joint mission with Greenpeace International may contribute to minimising or eliminating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, maximising economic benefits from fishing and the sustainability of fisheries resources.”

Greenpeace is calling on key market players and tuna brands to ensure they have a traceable supply chain and only source tuna that is legal and comes from sustainable sources.

Greenpeace is continuing its mission in the Indian Ocean to highlight the problems associated with excessive tuna fishing, unsustainable fishing practices, and the need for countries to cooperate and ensure that communities will benefit from the wealth coming from the oceans in the future.

Canada: Banning shark fin is on the menu at this week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities’ meeting in Victoria but several Vancouver restaurants serving the dish are reluctant to discuss it: here.

Kenyan army kills Somali civilians

This video is called ‘Somali civilians’ killed in Kenyan air raids.

From Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu, Somalia):

Somalia: Kenya’s Massacre Against Somali Civilians Is Under Investigation

24 September 2012

Janay Abdala — At least nine innocent civilians were massacred by the Kenyan military, serving under the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in southern Somali village on Sunday, and reports said.

The shooting happened in Janay Abdalla, a small village located just about 50km from the militant-held port city of Kismayo, when Al shabab fighters attacked the allied forces in the area.

On Monday, Somali and Kenyan forces are reportedly reached in Janay Abdalla, where the Kenyan forces shot and killed at least 9 pastoral men as they were buying sugar at shopping malls in the village.

…

Locals expressed shock and angry over the automatic mass killing by Kenyan forces and called for community protection during such military operations.

Hornbill victory in India

This video from India is called An Ode to Narcondam.

From BirdLife:

Saving Narcondam Hornbill is on radar of the Indian Government

Tue, Sep 25, 2012

On a remote volcanic island in the Andaman Sea, surrounded by coral reefs and carpeted in thick forest, Narcondam Hornbill Aceros narcondami makes its home. In fact, the tropical evergreen forest on the 12km2 Narcondam Island is the only place this species is found, giving it one of the smallest natural ranges of any bird species in the world. With a population of just 50-249 mature individuals, this small, distinctive, dark hornbill is classified as Endangered. The island, which is situated within the Andaman and Nicobar Island group, has been a recognised wildlife sanctuary since 1977 and is an Important Bird Area. Due to conservation efforts and limited threats, the population is stable at the moment, but it is extremely susceptible to new threats and natural disasters because of its size and range.

Narcondam Hornbill saved

So it comes as great news that a proposal from the Indian Coast Guard to build a RADAR surveillance station has recently been rejected by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of India). The plan included removing virgin forest to build a large RADAR installation, diesel power generator and wide 2km access road. Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BirdLife in India), was invited by the Indian Government to assess the impact of the development. His strong rejection and a public campaign led to the successful protection of Narcondam Hornbill.

The creation of a small police outpost in 1969 and subsequent forest loss, firewood collection, hunting and goat introduction (which prevents natural forest regeneration) has already greatly affected the population. A larger-scale project, with considerable tree felling, additional human presence and exploitation would have caused major devastation to the species and quite possibly extinction.

Committed mothers

The hornbills use mature, undisturbed forest with large trees for nesting and roosting. For the duration of egg-laying and chick-rearing, the female hornbills devote complete care to their chicks- so much so that they shed their flight feathers and are incapable of flight. This means that, on top of the existing habitat degradation, any disturbance associated with building and regular functioning of a RADAR system would have likely caused irreversible adverse impacts on this species.

The Ministry has highlighted that other options are available for the Indian Coast Guard, through technology choice or alternative off-shore locations. No such option is available for Narcondam Hornbill, so this proposal rejection is a great success for the species.

Future conservation work proposed includes enforcing the existing hunting ban and protecting this remote habitat by encouraging regeneration of the existing forest through the removal of all remaining goats from the island, and by providing cooking fuel to the occupiers of the police outpost.

Shaun Hurrell

Reasons why India’s biodiversity is at risk: here.