New fungus species discovered in India

This video from the northern hemisphere is called Autumn Fungi.

From the International Journal of Fungal Diversity:

Two brown-spored agarics are described from Kerala State. Tubaria virescens is described as new, being distinct on account of the blue-green discoloration when bruised and remarkably large, subcylindrical spores. Based on collections of Panaeolina rhombisperma Hongo from Kerala, its taxonomic position is discussed, suggesting that it may well be transferred to the genus Psathyrella.

BBC fungi video: here.

Poetry and politics in the USA

In this video from the USA

Martín Espada – poet, essayist, editor and translator, recited his stirring poem – “Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100” on May 1, 2006 at the Amherst Common. The rally held there was part of the National Boycott for Immigrant Rights.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Planting the seeds of a brighter future

(Monday 04 February 2008)

IN FOCUS: US poetry

ANDY CROFT discovers that, despite everything, a new wave of meaningful and progressive poetry is starting to flourish in the US.

If you think that the spectacle of the current US primaries are depressing, just imagine what it must feel like if you are on the US left.

I recently asked US poets Martin Espada and Jon Andersen what they thought of the current race for the White House.

“It’s a pathetic scene, really,” says Andersen. “Bracketing aside his poetic rhetoric of change, Barack Obama‘s actual proposals and policies are simply more of the same – a capitulation to imperial policy abroad and corporate class war at home, maybe with a softer touch. The lesser evils may be lesser, but that’s about all they are.”

Espada agrees. “The Democrats and the Republicans are simply renegotiating their power-sharing arrangement. The war is extremely unpopular here, yet neither party will nominate an anti-war candidate for president.

“Now that Dennis Kucinich has dropped out of the race, a progressive perspective is barely represented at all. But God is still in the race. All the candidates are good Christians, some to a nauseating degree.”

Andersen and Espada are both well-known poets and activists on the US left. Ten years ago, Espada openly refused an invitation to take part in a Nike TV advertising campaign called the Nike Poetry Slam because of the company’s employment record in south-east Asia.

In March 2005, he discovered that Coca-Cola was funding his reading at the University of Kansas and chose to protest against the appalling labour record of Coke in Colombia by publicly donating his fee to the National Food Workers Union in that country. A former tenant lawyer in Boston’s Latino community, Espada now teaches at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Andersen has worked as a farmhand, a warehouse worker, a gardener and a high school teacher. He and his wife Denise run Students for International Socialism in Connecticut.

Andersen and Espada both have new collections out on Smokestack Books. Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas brings together for the first time all Espada’s writings about the history and people of Puerto Rico – his father was a radical activist in the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York during the 1960s.

Jon Anderson’s Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other USA is an anthology of over 50 poets including Adrienne Rich, Fred Voss, Grace Paley, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Andersen and Espada.

It is unlikely that either book will end up on George W Bush‘s bedside table. But, then, it is fair to say that neither Espada nor Andersen are fans of their current president.

“As painful as it is just to listen to him,” says Andersen, “I actually don’t mind so much that he’s inarticulate and maybe a little dim-witted. The real problem is that he is a state terrorist – one of the most dangerous men in the world.”

“We should not be shocked that an oilman has plunged us into an endless oil war,” says Espada. “Bush represents major US corporate interests, openly and blatantly. His administration is a perfect brew of greed, corruption, brutality, ineptitude, fear-mongering, hubris and stupidity.” …

As writers, both men look back to Pablo Neruda, Nazim Hikmet, William Blake and Walt Whitman. “All political poets in the US,” argues Espada, “can trace their lineage, one way or the other, to Whitman.

“I refer to the Whitman who told us that the duty of the poet was ‘to cheer up slaves and horrify despots,’ who spoke for the ‘rights of them the others are down upon.’ The Whitman who proclaimed: ‘Through me many long-dumb voices.’

Japanese haiku poet Basho: here.

Related articles

• Dennis Kucinich on the Iraq Crisis & What the U.S. Can Learn From Sweden’s Political Diversity
• That Film About Money
• How the White House and the CIA Are Marketing a War in the YouTube Era

Rare Panamanian golden frog filmed

This is a video of the Panamanian golden frog.

From the BBC:

A BBC film crew has captured footage of a rare frog waving, wrestling and courting for the first time.

The Panamanian golden frog communicates with other frogs by semaphore in the form of gentle hand waves.

It has evolved the mechanism to signal to rivals and mates above the noise of mountain streams.

Shortly after filming for the BBC One series Life In Cold Blood, the frogs had to be rescued from the wild, due to the threat of chytrid fungus.

Hilary Jeffkins, senior producer of Life In Cold Blood, said the semaphoring behaviour of the Panamanian golden frog was very unusual.

“Normally, frogs would croak to get their message across but it’s too noisy,” she said. “An extra mechanism they’ve evolved is to wave to each other.”

‘Final wave’

The frogs (Atelopus zeteki) were filmed at a remote location in the Panamanian rainforest. The population had all but disappeared because of a fungus that grows on the amphibians’ skin and suffocates them.

The film crew was disinfected – to stop them from carrying the disease – and managed to capture unique footage of the frogs in the wild.

Scientists were forced to remove the remaining frogs from the wild and keep them in captivity.

Hilary Jeffkins added: “The whole species is now extinct in Panama – this was one of the last remaining populations. Its final wave was in our programme.”

Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) is a major contributor to the decline of amphibian populations around the world, threatening many species with extinction.

Sir David Attenborough brings viewers the final chapter of his epic overview of life on Earth as he transforms perceptions of cold-blooded animals in the landmark BBC One series Life In Cold Blood. It starts on Monday 4 February at 2100 GMT

THE GOLDEN FROG

Locals believe the frogs turn to solid gold when they die

Even a sighting of one is considered lucky

Golden frogs are highly toxic.

Also from Panama, the hourglass treefrog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus), which is also known as the pantless treefrog because part of its leg lacks color: here.

Zoologists Unlock New Secrets About Frog Deaths: here.

How to Build a Pond in the ‘Year of the Frog’: here.

Maud Island frogs: here.

Red-eyed treefrog embryos actively avoid asphyxiation inside their eggs: here.

Related articles

• The Golden Frog’s Arduino Utopia (makezine.com)
• Golden Poison Dart Frog (andrefernandezblog.wordpress.com)
• The Golden Poison Frog (colombianwinds.wordpress.com)
• Why are Poison Dart Frogs posionous in the first place? (loganlo.com)
• Ancient fungus has world’s frogs in its deadly grip (theage.com.au)
• Green Treefrog (michaelqpowell.wordpress.com)
• Australian endangered species: Southern Corroboree Frog (theconversation.com)
• Frog fungus sheds light on disease spread (abc.net.au)
• Fracts #3 – The effects of Globalisation on frogs (jurongfrogfarm.wordpress.com)

Gordon Brown refuses to reveal contacts with Murdoch

This is a music video of Time to Wake Up, an anti Blair and anti Murdoch song from Britain, by Alex Legg.

From British daily The Independent:

Brown refuses to reveal contacts with Murdoch

By James Macintyre and Andrew Grice

Monday, 4 February 2008

Gordon Brown has been accused of hypocrisy after refusing to reveal his contacts with the media magnate Rupert Murdoch, despite promising a more open approach to freedom of information.

The Prime Minister has promised to respect “the public right to know” and bring in “new rights to access public information where previously it has been withheld.” Last October, he scrapped plans by Tony Blair to make Freedom of Information requests more expensive to deter more frivolous requests.

Mr Brown released details of Mr Blair’s contacts with Mr Murdoch only days after becoming Prime Minister last June. But he is remaining coy about his own discussions with him.

British peace movement protests Condoleezza Rice visit, 6 February

From the USA, this is a ‘Funny George Bush and Condoleezza Video Clip’ .

From the Stop the War Coalition in Britain:

Action Alert: Condoleezza Rice in London

Join the protest on Wednesday 6th February

Condoleezza Rice is meeting with Gordon Brown on Wednesday 6 February and Stop the War Coalition is organising a protest to ensure she knows she is not welcome here.

When Rice visited the UK in 2006 it turned into a public relations fiasco, as anti-war protestors followed her everywhere she went . We aim to do the same this time.

We do not yet have details of Rice‘s meetings with Gordon Brown but we anticipate that our protest will be at Downing Street, the timing to be announced on our website as soon as her plans are known.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get updates: here.

Update 7 February 2008: here.

See also here.

British army is ‘sick’ from Iraq & Afghan campaigns: here.

British Prince Andrew rebukes US over Iraq war: here.

British police bugged Labour MP

This music video is called Free Babar Ahmad Rap.

From British daily News Line:

Monday, 4 February 2008

POLICE BUGGING INQUIRY – Labour MP spied on as he met US extradition target

Justice secretary Jack Straw has had to order an inquiry into claims that police bugged Tooting Labour MP Sadiq Khan as he visited a friend and constituent in jail.

It was alleged yesterday that Khan and Babar Ahmad, who is fighting extradition to the US to face trumped-up charges, were recorded twice in Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes.

The bugging is said to have been carried out by officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch during visits by Khan to the jail in 2005 and 2006.

See also here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Babar Ahmad was subjected to violent assaults and religious taunts by police: here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Britain is slithering down the road towards a police state: here. And here.

Court rules that nightmare must go on for Babar Ahmad in US extradition case: here.

Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan sent to face injustice in the US: here.

Britain: Appeal judges clear Muslims of terror charges: here.

In an extraordinary attack on free speech, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty has called for a media blackout on coverage of terrorism cases until all legal proceedings and appeals have concluded: here.

Inequality for women in Britain

This video from Washington in the USA says about itself:

On April 25, 2004, over 1.15 million men and women from 50 states and over 60 countries gathered on The Mall for the largest march in DC history. The marchers’ concerns included choice, justice, access, health care, abortion, family planning, and the respect for global human rights.

While conservative forces have galvanized around the evangelical Christian and anti-abortion agenda, a large, diverse and progressive women’s movement has grown in opposition. This “Third Wave” marks a new generation of women’s advocacy and organizing in the United States, which addresses issues of sexuality, cultural diversity, human rights, and social and economic justice.

From British daily The Morning Star:

A stalled revolution

(Sunday 03 February 2008)

Material Girls by Lindsey German

(Bookmarks, £12.99)

LOUISE NOUSRATPOUR learns how a class-conscious campaign for equal rights for women could be born out of the Stop the War Coalition.

In her book Material Girls, Lindsey German argues that the women’s liberation is a “revolution stalled,” because it has come up against the limits of class society.

“Neoliberal globalisation has highlighted the limits of liberation within a society based on class exploitation and private property,” she writes.

Women can advance as long as their rights do not threaten profits or the status quo. Any demands for equal pay or full-time free childcare, for instance, will be vigorously resisted.

Despite working in unprecedented numbers and joining unions at a faster rate than ever, women still earn just 82 per cent of men’s wages and they are woefully underrepresented in top jobs, as MPs and in union leadership roles.

Fewer than 20 per cent of MPs are women and only 15 of the 62 TUC affiliated unions have female general secretaries or chairs.

According to the UN Development Fund for Women, the value of women’s unpaid work stands at £6 trillion a year – almost 50 per cent of world GDP.

This virtual slavery is translated into super profits for big business, while leaving many women destitute and with little or no prospect of a career or a decent pension.

German points to a number of reasons why the vibrant and militant women’s liberation movement of the last century has stalled or even regressed in the past decades.

Ironically, the arrival of Britain’s first female leader Margaret Thatcher is where it all went wrong.

Her merciless attacks on the working class, through anti-union legislation and cuts to pay and social services, had a devastating impact on women’s conditions and the progressive wing of the equal rights movement. …

Here, she offers hope that a new and class-conscious campaign for equal rights could be born out of the Stop the War Coalition, which has so many women activists in leadership roles and as speakers and organisers.

“Only now, against a background of growing movements against the ravages of neoliberalism and war, are the ideas of women’s liberation beginning to reconnect with questions about class and how a genuinely equal society can be created,” German says.