Crocodile fossil from dinosaur age discovered

Posted on February 1, 2008 by petrel41

This video is called Sarcosuchus, king of crocodiles.

Crocodile ‘Missing Link’ Found in Brazil

Feb. 1, 2008 — Brazilian paleontologists Thursday unveiled a fossil of a creature that they said is the “missing link” between prehistoric and present-day crocodiles.

Called Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, the predator measured 56-64 inches, weighed about 88 pounds and lived in the late Cretaceous Period (80-85 million years ago) in the region of Palo Alto, in Sao Paulo state.

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro paleontologist Felipe de Vasconcellos, who helped research the fossil found in 2004, said the reptile’s physical characteristics placed it between prehistoric crocodiles and their current descendants.

It lived on dry land and was quick on its feet, instead of living in marshlands and spending most of its time under water, he said.

Marsh tit and long-tailed tits

Posted on February 1, 2008 by petrel41

This is a video of marsh tits.

Today, to the Corversbos in Hilversum.

Piptoporus betulinus fungus on a birch log.

A marsh tit near a treetop.

Also a great tit. A buzzard calling.

On the way back along the Hilversum canal, long-tailed tits on the opposite side of the bridge compared to where I had seen them earlier.

Victory for Okinawa dugong against US military

Posted on February 1, 2008 by petrel41

This video is called Save the Dugong – Okinawa Dugong.

From Wildlife Extra:

Endangered Okinawa Dugong Saved from US Marine Corps – For 3 Months

Bush Exempts Navy from Court Order Protecting Whales

Dubya has a recent record of overturning legislation in favour of the US Armed forces, click here to see how he has recently exmpted the US Navy from whale protection rules.

January 2008. The seagrass habitat of the endangered Okinawa dugong is safe from the U.S. Department of Defense, at least for the next 90 days. The sea mammal will continue to swim in Henoko Bay off the Japanese island of Okinawa in the place where the United States plans to build an airbase.

US Department of Defense in Violation of Act

A federal judge in San Francisco Wednesday has ruled that the Department of Defense, DOD, is in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act for failing to consider the impacts of a new airbase on the dugong in order to avoid or mitigate any harm.

The act requires agencies of the U.S. government to consider the impacts on cultural and historic resources in other nations when undertaking activities outside the United States.

Dugong Classified as Vulnerable – Critically Endangered in Japan

The dugong is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN-World Conservation Union due to habitat destruction and degradation, as well as human exploitation. The Japan Ministry of the Environment recently listed the dugong as critically endangered in Japan.

The dugong is significant in Okinawan culture. It is associated with traditional Okinawan creation mythology, and is sometimes considered to be the progenitor of the local people. Because of its cultural significance, the dugong is listed as a protected ‘natural monument’ on the Japanese Register of Cultural Properties.

US Marine Corps Base to Move

U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is located in Ginowan City on Okinawa, and due to social and economic changes, is now completely surrounded by urban development. Both the Marines and the Japanese want the facility moved out of the city.

Local residents voted against the base in a referendum, but Japanese and U.S. authorities have paid scant attention to the vote.

DOD plans call for construction of the Futenma Replacement Facility, FRF, about two miles offshore on reclaimed land and the reef next to the U.S. military’s Camp Schwab. The location is in Henoko Bay and squarely in the midst of dugong habitat.

Dugong as Plaintiff

The lawsuit was brought by three individual Japanese citizens, six American and Japanese environmental associations, and the Okinawa dugong, which is listed as a plaintiff in court documents.

In her ruling, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote, ‘The current record contains no evidence that a single official from the DOD with responsibility for the FRF has considered or assessed the available information on the dugong or the effects of the FRF.’

Avocet in Scotland

Posted on February 1, 2008 by petrel41

This is a video of an avocet in May 2005, near Almeria, Spain.

From Wildlife Extra:

Avocet Resident at Montrose Basin Wildlife Reserve in Scotland

A rare avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta), not normally seen in Scotland, has been spotted on Scottish Wildlife Trust’s (SWT) [Montrose Basin Wildlife Reserve].

Often synonymous with bird conservation, the avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) was extinct in the UK in by the mid 19th Century. But since 1947 it has colonised areas of wetland on the south and east coast of England. Sightings north of the border are still rare and birders are unsure as to the reason why, this bird has turned up in Angus, and why it has at this time of year.

Over a million Iraqis died since Bush invaded

Posted on February 1, 2008 by petrel41

This video says about itself:

Shocking pictures have come to light revealing the extent of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib – and it’s much worse than anyone imaged.

By David Walsh:

British-Iraqi survey confirms one million deaths as a result of US invasion

1 February 2008

Even as the Bush administration, virtually unchallenged by the Democrats or any significant voices in the media, claims ‘success’ in Iraq and makes clear its intention to establish permanent bases there, further polling data has emerged that underscores the dimension of the US war crimes in that country.

The British polling agency ORB (Opinion Research Business) issued survey results January 28 that confirm its earlier estimate that more than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the American-led invasion and occupation. The British agency carried out the work in association with its Iraqi research partner, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS).

In September 2007 ORB made public its finding that an estimated 1.2 million violent deaths had taken place in Iraq since March 2003. The agency commented at the time that US-occupied Iraq had “a murder rate that now exceeds the Rwanda genocide from 1994 (800,000 murdered),” with another one million wounded and millions more driven from their homes into exile, either internal or foreign.

The American media, true to form, essentially took no notice of the report, despite ORB’s indisputable pedigree—the firm has conducted polls for Britain’s Conservative Party and the BBC. The Democratic Party presidential candidates also ignored it. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon felt obliged to comment on the research.

The ORB findings vindicated the study published in the Lancet, the British medical journal, in October 2006, which put the Iraqi death toll then at approximately 655, 000.

As a co-author of the Lancet study, Les Roberts, wrote in an email to MediaLens in response to the ORB survey’s publication in September, “The poll is 14 months later with deaths escalating over time. That alone accounts for most of the difference [between the October 2006 Lancet paper and the ORB poll].” Roberts noted that the Lancet and ORB studies “seem very much to align.”