A long entry in ART FOR A CHANGE blog, from Los Angeles in California, USA:
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
LACMA: The Oil Museum
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), after receiving $25 million dollars from the multinational oil company BP (British Petroleum), plans to dedicate a new entry gate and pavilion to the energy Goliath.
To be christened the “BP Grand Entrance”, the construction is nothing more than an edifice to big oil and the clearest example yet of the increasing corporatization of the arts in America.
Follows a long list of BP involvement in many murky pollution, human rights, and war issues.
The entry concludes:
Credited with such a laundry list of misdeeds, it is not surprising that others have taken notice of BP’s destructive schemes, and have called for resistance to big oil’s sponsorship of the arts.
The National Portrait Gallery of London, England, was established in 1856, and it’s the repository for some of that nation’s greatest historic portraits.
The gallery holds an annual portrait competition that has launched the careers of several portrait artists.
Since 2004 the celebrated competition has been sponsored by none other than BP, and the competition is now known as the “BP Portrait Award.”
In response, English artists and environmental activists started a group called, Art Not Oil, which seeks to end oil industry sponsorship of the arts.
The group’s mission statement encourages “artists to create work that explores the damage that companies like BP and Shell are doing to the planet, and the role art can play in counteracting that damage.”
The misconduct of BP and other oil companies is continually and determinedly exposed through the art exhibits, educational forums and public protests mounted by the artist activists of Art Not Oil.
It is unquestionably time to establish a similar organization in Los Angeles – either that or get used to calling LACMA – The Oil Museum.
Perhaps the notion of conservatives building an alternative to Wikipedia that includes many “scientific” entries based on creationist books aimed at seventh graders sounds like some bizarre hoax.
The interviewer, Robert Siegel, got right to the point.
He described Wikipedia’s entry on kangaroos, which includes details about extinct species of kangaroos known from fossils.
Then he read from the Conservapedia entry, which contains nary a mention of fossils:
According to the origins theory model used by creation scientists, modern kangaroos, like all modern animals, originated in the Middle East and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah’s Ark prior to the Great Flood.
“A typical difference between Conservapedia and Wikipedia?” Siegel asked.
Schlafly replied: “…it reflects Conservapedia’s willingness to present topics and treatments of subject that is embraced by many conservatives and many members of the American public.”
A team of UBC researchers has re-classified an ancient line of aquatic plants previously thought to be related to grasses and rushes.
The discovery clarifies what may be one of the biggest misunderstandings in botanical history.
“It’s a classic case of mistaken identity,” says Sean Graham, an associate professor and researcher with the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. ”
Due to their narrow, pointed leaves, botanists had long viewed Hydatellaceae as monocots, a large and diverse group of flowering plants that includes the grasses, gingers and palms.
By analyzing the plants at the molecular level, Graham’s team has now determined that these moss-size plants are instead part of an older line of flowering plants that includes the water lilies.
Fully grown individuals in the Hydatellaceae family can be as small as 1-2 centimetres in height, and have dozens of minute flowers clustered into each compact flower head.
Native to Australia, New Zealand and India, they thrive in seasonal freshwater pools and swamps, and may blossom underwater at depths of up to one metre, or as the pools dry out.
Specialist William Hunsaker told a court martial for Ray Girouard on Tuesday that the staff sergeant ordered him and another soldier to free the men, then shoot them as they ran.
“They’re going to cut the ties, tell them to run, shoot them,” Hunsaker quoted Girouard as saying.
Girouard, 24, is the last and most senior soldier from the 101st Airborne Division to face trial in the killings, which occurred during a May 9 raid on a suspected fighters’ camp near Samarra. …
The soldiers had previously told investigators they were given rules of engagement by Colonel Michael Steele, the 3rd Brigade commander, to kill all military-age men.
Steele has denied this but invoked his right not to testify.
Wildlife officials Tuesday released 20 Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits that were raised in captivity to a sagebrush-covered area of central Washington state where their ancestors roamed before teetering on the edge of extinction.
The pygmy rabbits were born and raised at Washington State University and the Portland Zoo in Oregon and are descendants of the last known wild rabbits caught in 2002 for a captive breeding program intended to restore the endangered species.
The effort is similar to the breeding programs that brought back the California condor, said Ren Lohoefener, Pacific regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Ore.
May 2011: Renewed field efforts to recover endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits are underway this spring in eastern Washington shrub-steppe habitat of America: here.
One last effort to save these tiny rabbits from extinction: here.
A new study found that white-tailed jack rabbits have vanished from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where the bunnies were once abundant: here.
This April 2013 video from England says about itself:
Noctule Bat (Nyctalus noctula)
An unexpected, but very welcome encounter with a Noctule bat in the early afternoon at Eyebrook Reservoir, Leicestershire. The animal had briefly been seen in flight coming in low over the water before, much to our surprise, landed on the exposed ledge of an ancient bridge and promptly had a good preen.
Wind farms fall prey to demands of the golden eagle: here.
An interactive tool developed by researchers from the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) will help wind energy facility operators make informed decisions on efficient ways to reduce impacts on migratory bats: here.
2 Alaska refuges to get bird-friendly wind power: here.
April 2011: Dramatic footage of a wind turbine striking a bird has been released by American Bird Conservancy (ABC) as a poignant illustration of the dangers posed to birds by the burgeoning wind industry: here.
May 2011. A project to develop long high-performance blades for the next generation of large offshore wind turbines has been commissioned by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI). Developers will be asked to design, build and test blades in excess of 90 metres long – each blade will be nearly the same height of Big Ben. However the ‘Request for Proposals’ ignores any possible impact on wildlife; in fact it doesn’t even bear a mention. Blades that are currently deployed offshore are between 40 and 60 metres long.
Schools of fish help squeeze more power from wind farms: here.
September 2011. RSPB Scotland has condemned a decision by a developer to appeal a second ruling by ministers to refuse consent for a wind farm as wholly irresponsible, and damaging to the industry’s green credentials. It is also a huge waste of money and a drain on precious public resources that are already under pressure: here.
Oil Companies Prosecuted for Avian Deaths but Wind Companies Kill Birds With Impunity: here.
November 2011: With the deaths of nearly 500 birds at the Laurel Mountain wind facility recently, three of the four wind farms operating in West Virginia have now experienced large bird fatality events, according to American Bird Conservancy (ABC): here.
· Two men brought closer by ‘religious love affair’
Nicholas Watt, Owen Bowcott and Patrick Wintour
Wednesday March 14, 2007
Tony Blair has forged a special bond with the Rev Ian Paisley, the DUP leader who holds the future of the Northern Ireland peace process in his hands, by discussing their common interest in and commitment to Christianity.
Spearheading a government charm offensive to win round the one time Presbyterian firebrand, the two men have been swapping religious textbooks over the past year.
Ian Paisley calls himself “the Reverend” because he founded his own Free Frysbeterian Church.
His ordination is invalid according to Presbyterian rules.
His use of the title is a little unusual, because, as a British subject–thus subject to British academic conventions–the title doctor is not usable for those who have been awarded merely honorary doctorates.
Paisley is responsible for discrimination, oppression and violence against Roman Catholic people in northern Ireland.
Seven Greenpeace boats blockading a Trident nuclear submarine at its Scottish base in response to Tony Blair’s determination to start building the next generation of British nuclear weapons.
THE TENS of billions of pounds the government intends to spend on new weapons of mass destruction should be spent on public services, said the RMT transport workers’ union yesterday.
Yesterday ministerial aide Jim Devine became the second government official to resign over Trident.
The Livingston MP quit his job as a parliamentary private secretary at the Department of Health, the day after House of Commons deputy leader Nigel Griffiths left his post on Monday.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said yesterday: ‘Today the government is publishing a bill which underlines the need for action to save the planet, yet tomorrow they intend to force through plans to spend billions on nuclear weapons that can help destroy it.
‘The £75 billion that could be wasted on the new Trident could go a long way to helping Britain reduce carbon emissions, build some of the transport infrastructure we desperately need and bolster our public services.
‘Forcing Trident through with the help of Tory votes, in the face of public opinion, shows just how divorced from the real world the government has become.
‘Blair took us into an illegal war over weapons of mass destruction that didn’t even exist, and now he wants to tear up the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to build some new ones of his own – there is only one word for that, and it is hypocrisy.’
A long entry in 
Dear Kitty. Some blog 