Murdered Salvadorean Archbishop Romero remembered

This video says about itself:

Assassination of bishop Romero – clip from Salvador

A clip from the movie Salvador by Oliver Stone.

From Prensa Latina news agency:

El Salvador Marks Anniversary of Killing of Monsignor Romero

By Raimundo López

San Salvador, March 24

People’s and religious organizations in El Salvador mark today the 33th anniversary of the assassination of Bishop and martyr Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who always protected the poor and persecuted.

He was shot by a hired gunman while celebrating holy mass at the chapel of the Divine Providence Cancer Hospital of San Salvador. His killer has never been found.

The UN Truth Commission that investigated human rights violations during armed conflict (1980-1992) concluded in 1993 that the crime was planned by the founder of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), Maj. Roberto d’Aubisson.

In a ceremony to pay tribute to Romero yesterday, President Mauricio Funes said that “we are still waiting for justice to get to the bottom of the case and reveal the truth, not only owed to Monsignor’s relatives, but also to the Catholic Church and all the Salvadorian people.”

SAN SALVADOR, Mar 21 2013 (IPS) – A report containing the testimonies of victims of torture during El Salvador’s 1980-1992 civil war will be published 27 years after it was written, to help Salvadorans today learn more about that chapter in the country’s history: here.

Related articles

• This Day in the Yesteryear: ARCHBISHOP ÓSCAR ROMERO ASSASSINATED IN SAN SALVADOR (1980) (euzicasa.wordpress.com)
• Salvadorans Urge Sainthood for Martyred Archbishop (abcnews.go.com)
• Palm Sunday, Oscar Romero, and LGBT Human Rights in El Salvador (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
• El Salvadorans Want Assassinated Archbishop Romero Honored with Beatification (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• March 24 – Oscar Romero (thetranshistoricalbody.wordpress.com)

Maya and fake apocalypse

This video says about itself:

2012, NASA and the Mayan Calendar

Answers to some questions about 2012 from NASA’s Ask an Astrobiologist, Dr. David Morrison, and information about ancient Mayan calendars and their base 20 numerical system.

From Scientific American:

December 23, 2012

Maya Civilization Provides A Real Apocalyptic Lesson

Research shows that what laid low Mayan society was climate change, which brought prolonged drought. David Biello reports.

You survived the Mayan apocalypse, or at least transitioned to the next baktun, number 14 according to the Mayan calendar. But what real lessons does this ancient culture hold?

First and foremost, the Maya are a case study in adaptation. Their complex civilization of powerful city-states collapsed, and the jungle retook those urban centers. But the Mayan people endured, today being the principle ethnic population of parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.

European invaders did not end the era of the Mayan city-state. Although it was descendants of those Europeans who came up with this apocalypse mumbo-jumbo.

Research shows that what laid low Mayan society was something more insidious: climate change. A subtle shift in weather patterns brought less rain and the Mayan civilization was simply unable to cope with a prolonged dry period punctuated by several severe droughts.

Given that our highly complex civilization is also facing climate change, it might make sense to look back to the Maya for a glimpse of our future. Today much of the former Mayan city-states are nature preserves, dotted by ruins. Will we do better when faced with crippling and long-lasting drought in this, the 14th baktun?

Related articles

• Why the World Isn’t Ending (new102.cbslocal.com)
• Welcome to the Maya Apocalypse Bizarro! Let’s Party! (bizarrocentral.com)
• Apocalypse? Poverty a bigger concern for modern Mayans (photoblog.nbcnews.com)
• Mayan apocalypse: are there any facts behind this doomsday scenario? (No) (guardian.co.uk)
• Mayan Calendar: Totally Way Off! (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• Watch live: Mayan Apocalypse celebrations to welcome ‘new era’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• End of an Era: Mayan ‘Apocalypse’ Today (livescience.com)
• In Pictures: Guatemala Welcomes the Start of a New Maya Era (univisionnews.tumblr.com)
• Photos: Mayan Calendar – “End of the World”…….Wrong! (photos.denverpost.com)

Mammals threatened by climate change

From Wildlife Extra:

Disaster map predicts bleak future for mammals

Mammals are in for a stormy ride as cyclones and droughts caused by climate change could threaten populations

December 2012. Mammals could be at a greater risk of extinction due to predicted increases in extreme weather conditions according to some new research. Scientists have mapped out land mammal populations, and overlapped this with information of where droughts and cyclones are most likely to occur. This allowed them to identify species at high risk of exposure to extreme weather. The paper describes the results of assessing almost six thousand species of land mammals in this way.

Cyclones & droughts

Lead author of the paper, ZSL’s Eric Ameca y Juárez says: “Approximately a third of the species assessed have at least a quarter of their range exposed to cyclones, droughts or a combination of both. If these species are found to be highly susceptible to these conditions, it will lead to a substantial increase in the number of mammals classified as threatened by the IUCN under the category ‘climate change and severe weather’.”

Primates in particular are in danger

In particular, primates – already among the most endangered mammals in the world – are highlighted as being especially at risk. Over 90 per cent of black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) and Yucatan spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi yucatanensis) known habitats have been damaged by cyclones in the past, and studies have documented ways they are able to adapt to the detrimental effects of these natural disasters.

Madagascar

In contrast, very little is known about the impacts of these climatic extremes on other species. In Madagascar, entire known distributions of the western woolly lemur (Avahi occidentalis) and the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) have been exposed to both cyclones and drought. These endangered species are also amongst the world’s most evolutionary distinct, yet remain highly understudied.

ZSL’s research fellow Dr Nathalie Pettorelli says: “This is the first study of its kind to look at which species are at risk from extreme climatic events. There are a number of factors which influence how an animal copes with exposure to natural disasters. It is essential we identify species at greatest risk so that we can better inform conservation management in the face of global environmental change.”

The study was published by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) in the journal Conservation Letters.

Related articles

• Which Cuddly Land Mammals Are Most In Danger From Climate Change? (popsci.com)
• Maps of Earth Showing Where Severe Weather is Most Likely to Kill (io9.com)
• Why Bugs Outnumber Us (And Other Mammals) 312 to 1 (news.discovery.com)
• Climate change ‘killed lemmings’ (independent.ie)

Save Panamanian birds threatened by corporate greed

This video is called Some nice birds along Pipeline Road in Panama.

From BirdLife:

Panama Bay developers threaten to break the chain of shorebird stopover sites

Wed, Dec 5, 2012

Panama Bay is crucially important for birds migrating between North and South America

One of the most important coastal wetlands in the Americas is under threat. The Upper Bay of Panama, an Important Bird Area, is a vital stopover site for migrating shorebirds. Up to two million individuals of 30 species use it on their way south after breeding.

The bay was declared a Ramsar site (Wetland of International Importance) in 2003, and included in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network in 2005. In 2009, over 80,000 ha of the Panama Bay Wetland became a National Protected Area. However, in May this year, legal protected status was withdrawn because of pressure for urban and resort development, including hotels and golf courses. At the same time, regulations on mangrove cutting have been relaxed. Developers are reported to be at work within the Ramsar site boundary.

The bay provides essential ecosystem services to the people of Panama. It acts as a “nursery” for fish and shellfish, contributing $86 million a year to the country’s economy in commercial fishing revenues. The wetlands and mangroves also filter and purify sewage and industrial effluent, preventing them entering the marine food chain, and act as a buffer protecting the city from flooding and extreme weather.

Act today and write your concerns to the Panamanian government.

BirdLife Partner the Panama Audubon Society and a coalition of local and international environmental groups including National Audubon (BirdLife Partner in the USA) are taking legal action for protected status to be restored, and working with local communities to make sure their voices are heard.

“If these wetlands are lost, you break the chain of wetlands shorebirds need for successful migrations”, says Rosabel Miro, Panama Audubon’s executive director.

“This sets a dangerous precedent, not just for Panama but for the entire region”, warned Matt Jeffery, senior manager of National Audubon’s International Alliance’s Program.

Find out more here.

Related articles

• Development boom puts pressure on Panama wetlands (dailystar.com.lb)
• Disaster Alert: Panama Floods (newsroom.redcross.org)

Honduras regime violates human rights

From Associated Press:

Killing of Honduran Teenager Could Jeopardize U.S. Aid

Published: November 15, 2012

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — American officials are demanding answers after learning that soldiers trained, vetted and equipped by the United States government chased down and killed a teenager in Honduras, where the United States is already withholding tens of millions of dollars in aid for the police and military over concerns about human rights violations.

The teenager, Ebed Yanes, 15, was killed on May 26 after driving through a military checkpoint. His father, Wilfredo Yanes, tracked down the soldiers and uncovered what was said to be a high-level attempt to hide evidence. His quest also led to new information reported this week that the unit in question was supported by the United States. …

The United States had vetted the unit and then provided it with a Ford truck that was used to chase the teenager from the checkpoint. Under United States law, all foreign units that receive military or police assistance are vetted before receiving any equipment or training.

This year, the United States began withholding aid from Honduras after reports asserted that a newly appointed national police chief had ties to death squads. United States law prohibits assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.

The death of the teenager, officials said, is not a new trigger for withholding aid, but instead yet another episode raising concerns in the American government about support for the current Honduran police and military. Other issues include the killings of human rights activists, journalists and lawyers.

This week, a State Department official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter said the withholding might reach $50 million.

That amounts to about half of all American aid to Honduras for 2012, including humanitarian assistance.

Related articles

• US-Backed Honduran Soldiers Chase Down, Murder Innocent Teenager (antiwar.com)

Saving mahogany trees

This video from India is called Swietenia Macrophylla – Big Leaf Mahogany @ Chacha Nehru park – Masab Tank – Hyderabad.

From the University of Adelaide in Australia:

Pollen can protect mahogany from extinction

New research from the University of Adelaide could help protect one of the world’s most globally threatened tree species – the big leaf mahogany – from extinction.

Big leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is the most prized mahogany timber around the world. It is at risk of extinction in its native habitats because of the timber trade, particularly in Central and South America.

To better understand how such a threatened species can be brought back from the brink of extinction, scientists from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute have studied the important role played by the trees’ pollen in the health and re-growth of mahogany forests.

The results of this study have been published online in Ecology Letters.

The researchers found that the extensive exploitation of mahogany forests has had a major impact on the diversity and availability of the trees’ pollen. This in turn limits the ability of individual trees to grow and provide cross-fertilization for other mahogany trees.

“We collected data across seven Central American countries* which shows that trees remaining in cleared forest areas suffer from too much self-fertilization and low pollen diversity,” says lead author Martin Breed, a PhD student with the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences.

“This results in less competitive seedlings and affects the rate of re-growth of the species.”

Mr Breed says to restore forests would require replanting key species and finding good-quality seeds from healthy trees. “Growing new mahogany trees has proven a major challenge in the past. By better understanding the importance of pollen diversity, we hope this research provides the key to restoring forests at a much higher rate.

“Ensuring seed is collected from healthy populations will improve our chances of protecting not only mahogany, but the hundreds of other species – and human communities – that rely on it,” he says.

Senior co-author Professor Andrew Lowe, Director of the Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity at the University of Adelaide, says: “Aside from being one of the world’s most prized timbers, every mahogany tree provides habitat for hundreds of animals and plants, so they’re ecologically very important.”

He says this discovery has the potential to impact the way we think about restoring forests and shows us why it is vital to protect areas of high conservation value.

“Preserving areas where large populations of species have existed for the longest time not only assures the future of these iconic sites, but also provides insurance for entire species beyond the sites themselves,” Professor Lowe says.

The project was largely funded from the European Union through the project SEEDSOURCE, with a portion of the funding coming from a grant awarded by the Australian Research Council.

Dr Carlos Navarro, who was employed by CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) in Costa Rica at the time, was primarily responsible for directing the fieldwork and the collection of leaf and seed material used in the analysis and was the researcher who did the growth assessments.

###

* the seven countries are: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Plants are known to respond to light, but they can respond – and produce – sounds as well, new research says: here.

Flower trade threatens rare palm tree

From the BBC:

15 March 2012 Last updated at 07:50 GMT

By Mark Kinver, Environment reporter, BBC News

Global flower trade threatens rare palm

Demand for leaves from an endangered palm, found in Central and South America, is threatening the species’ long term survival, a study warns.

Leaves from the xate palm are used by the international flower trade, and are mostly harvested from wild trees.

UK researchers said training locals to cultivate the trees, thus easing the pressure on the wild population, only had a limited success.

The findings have been published in the journal Plos One.

“One of the reasons why florists like this leaf so much is because once you have cut it, it stays green for 30-40 days,” explained co-author Sophie Williams, a researcher from Bangor University, Wales.

“There can be about two weeks from the forest to the florist, yet they can still store it for another two or three weeks.”

Previous studies had said that the plant, which generally has five leaves, would be damaged if more than two leaves were removed at any one time.

The peak in demand, which is estimated to be worth $4m each year, for the leaves coincides with Mothers’ Day and Palm Sunday.

Once harvested, the leaves are transported to Cancun, Mexico, before being exported to destinations including Miami and Amsterdam.

Barriers to growth

Overharvesting is a common threat facing many threatened plant species, and cultivation training is seen as one way to ease the pressure on wild populations.

In 2006, the UK Darwin Initiative Project and the Belize Botanic Garden set up a training programme, with the aim of giving locals the knowledge to grow and harvest the species rather than harvesting wild palms.

Ms Williams and the team, which included a researcher from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, used the study to assess whether the training programme had a beneficial effect.

“People will often state that we need environmental education or training, and people often see it as a panacea to protect species,” she told BBC News.

“I agree that we need these things, but we also need to think about the context in which we are doing them.

“The training programme was great… but we need to look at other factors that could prevent the training from having an impact.

“Just increasing knowledge and awareness doesn’t always lead to positive action all the time, and that is often because… there are barriers.”

These barriers included long-term land tenure. This could act as a deterrent because it takes four years for the palm (Chamaedorea ernesti-agusti;

sic; Chamaedorea ernesti-augusti

another common name is fishtail palm) to grow before its leaves can be harvested.

If a farmer could not secure tenure of some land for long enough, then it would not be cost-effective to invest in cultivating the crop.

Access to seeds is another potential problem that could dilute the impact of a training programme.

Ms Williams said if there was not a supply of seeds for farmers, then it could encourage seeds to be taken from the wild population.

This practice, studies suggest, can be more damaging to the palms than harvesting leaves.

Ms Williams, a PhD student, said the next stage of her research is to assess whether increased cultivation is an effective conservation tool and eases the pressure on wild plants, or merely increases the supply of the economically important crop.

Xate is pronounced “Shatay” …

Can reach two metres in height
The plants generally grow up to five leaves
It is a shade species; direct sunlight bleaches the leaves
Harvesting more than two leaves from an individual plant damages its reproductive capabilities

Man-made noise disrupts the growth of plants and trees: here.

Honduras prison tragedy scandal

Honduras: The prisoners whose scorched bodies were carried out piece by piece this morning from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded facility where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted: here.

See also here. And here.

Mark Engler, Dissent Magazine: “Honduras has become a human rights disaster. The country now has the world’s highest murder rate. And impunity for political violence is the norm. For all this, the United States deserves a good deal of the blame…. Lest anyone in this country think that things in Honduras have settled into a peaceable, post-coup normality, [due to a] chain of events – a coup that the United States didn’t stop, a fraudulent election that it accepted – [that] has now allowed corruption to mushroom”: here.

Poverty and crime bring Honduras to its knees: here.

A female union leader has won a prestigious award for her struggle to support workers in Honduras supplying bananas to British shops for as little as £5 a day: here.

Free speech advocates demanded an international investigation into attacks on journalists in Honduras on Monday after a radio host was killed by machete blows: here.

WASHINGTON, DC (March 12, 2012) – Today Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and 93 fellow House members sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to raise the alarm over human rights violations in Honduras where human rights defenders, journalists, community leaders and opposition activists are subject to death threats, attacks and extrajudicial executions. Today also marks the 18th fatal attack on a member of the news media in the past two years after a Honduran journalist was killed by an unknown attacker wielding a machete: here.

The constitutional chamber of the Honduras Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that privately run cities would be unconstitutional, threatening a project to build “model cities” with their own police, laws, government and tax systems: here.

Lauren Carasik, Boston Review: The United States should carry out an independent review of the joint U.S.-Honduras drug enforcement operation that went terribly awry, killing four Honduran civilians: here.

In the two years since the ICC opened its preliminary investigation, Honduras has become the murder capital of the world and among the most dangerous countries in which to be a reporter. It is time for the Court to intervene: here.

Related articles

• US Terrorizing Honduras to Keep Control Over Latin America (antiwar.com)
• In Honduras, Deaths Make U.S. Rethink Drug War (nytimes.com)
• Officer reportedly gives up in Honduras slay case (mysanantonio.com)
• Mr. President, You Are Abetting Murder in Honduras (counterpunch.org)
• Canadian tourist killed in Honduras: Reports (metronews.ca)
• Honduras policeman apologizes to journalists (utsandiego.com)
• Honduras: Court Quashes “Model Cities”; Investors Eye Jamaica (alethonews.wordpress.com)

Ruby-throated hummingbird video

This video is from the USA.

According to the YouTube text:

A few clips from the summer of 2006 in slow motion including one of a ruby-throat[ed] hummingbird following my finger pointing direction.

Ruby-throated hummingbird: here.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird Arrival Dates and Breeding in Canada: here.

Broad-tailed hummingbird: here.

A green-fronted brilliant hummingbird photo from Costa Rica was at the Frans Lanting exhibition in Naturalis museum in Leiden in 2007.

Evolutionary associations between nectar properties and specificity in bird pollination systems: here.

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• Vol. 2, No. 3 – The Ruby-Throated Humming Bird (leesbird.com)
• USA Bird Supply Offers 10 Ways To Help Hummingbirds During Their Fall Migration (prweb.com)
• Lost Hummingbird (yardcrap.typepad.com)
• Video: Tricks of the Hummingbird’s Tongue (news.sciencemag.org)
• A Place to Mend a Broken Wing (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Hummingbirds on display in South Texas yards (caller.com)
• High-speed video and artificial flowers shed light on mysteries of hummingbird-pollinated flowers (esciencenews.com)
• High-Speed Video Investigates Mystery of Hummingbird Pollination (wired.com)

Salamander replaces toad as world’s strongest animal

From New Scientist:

Salamander trumps toad as Mr Universe

* 10 February 2007

HOP away toads, you’ve lost your title as the world’s strongest animal.

That honour now passes to the giant palm salamander Bolitoglossa dofleini, whose tongue explodes outward with more instantaneous power than any other known vertebrate muscle.

At 18,000 watts of power per kilogram of muscle, the salamander, from the forest floors of Central America, is nearly twice as strong as the previous champ, the Colorado river toad Bufo alvarius.

The palm salamander’s strength doesn’t come from muscle power alone but from elastic tissue that researchers believe stores up energy before exploding on release.

“It’s kind of like stretching out a rubber band and letting it snap back, or shooting a bow and arrow,” says biologist Stephen Deban of the University of South Florida in Tampa.

High-speed video revealed that plethodontid salamanders released their tongues at a rate faster than could be achieved through muscle contraction alone.

Related articles

• Once-Extinct Toads Reintroduced to Wild (scientificamerican.com)
• Salamander (dungeonsanddrawings.blogspot.com)
• Zoo tadpoles released in Puerto Rico (newsnet5.com)
• Tadpoles sent to help restore toad species (msnbc.msn.com)
• Stopping cane toads in their tracks (abc.net.au)
• Species of the Day – Wyoming toad (Anaxyrus baxteri) (natureology101.wordpress.com)