By Jayson MacLean Environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth Canada is
encouraging Canadians to participate in the first annual Great Canadian
Bumble Bee Count, an event aimed at raising awareness about drastic
declines in bumble bee populations and helping scientists to determine
where across the country bumble bees are most in need of protection.
“Bees are absolutely essential for pollinating flowers and
vegetables,” says CEO of Friends of the Earth Canada, Beatrice
Olivastri, in conversation with the CBC. “For our food security we absolutely need bees.”
Running from June 1 until August 15, 2016, the Canadian bumble bee count asks Canadians to snap summertime pics of bumble bees
in gardens, at cottages and campsites and upload them to bumblebeewatch.org/which is run by a partner group which has been
organizing bee counts across North America. Once uploaded, researchers
will check each photo for verification purposes and use the data to help
identify conservation needs and to locate rare and/or endangered
populations of bumble bees...http://www.cantechletter.com/2016/07/great-canadian-bumble-bee-count/
JACINTA BOWLER:
An international team of scientists has just sequenced a protein crystal located in the midgut of cockroaches. The reason?
It’s more than four times as nutritious as cow’s milk and, the researchers think it could be the key to feeding our growing population in the future. ...http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-show-why-we-should-all-start-drinking-cockroach-milk
Photos from the wildlife rescue
operation underway near where a Husky Energy pipeline leak sent 200,000
litres of oil into the North Saskatchewan River last week. Three birds
completely covered in oil were rescued, although only two survived.
Photos from Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation Facebook page. ORG XMIT:
lI1z2datOcaRPmvSsOkwLiving Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation
Four birds, one fish and a frog are among the confirmed fatalities of
the Husky Energy pipeline leak that sent more than 200,000 litres of
oil pouring into the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone.
Another two oil-soaked birds have been rescued from the spill site and are being cared for by volunteers in Maidstone.
Jan Shadick, who runs the Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
in Saskatoon, said it’s “shocking” how few oil-soaked animals have been
found.
“It’s really quite hard to believe that they haven’t found anything,”
Shadick said from Maidstone, where she is helping coordinate efforts to
clean any rescued animals that come in.
She worries that because the river is so fast moving, birds or other
animals that were coated in oil and left unable to float or swim have
drowned and been swept away...http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/three-oiled-birds-pulled-from-pipeline-spill-site
Posted By: usapoliticsnow admin WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told us a month ago that the next batch
of leaked Hillary Clinton emails could lead to an indictment.
Now, over 23,000 cables were just put out for the world to see...http://usapoliticsnow.com/?p=3661
They initially introduced his name as a western name “David S”. Then his name changed to Ali David Sonboly (which sounds western) when his real name is Ali Daud Sonboly/Sunbuli which is an Arabic name (better pronounced Sunbuli) and has an exclusively Arabic meaning: ‘from the wheat kernel’. Sonboly is no Iranian. He is Syrian. His Facebook page showed
that he is pro Turkey’s Islamists. That, plus he had a record with the
Interpol and was being watched. He is also not a teenager as they show
us, but an adult as videos showed. What the reader should conclude after
reading is this: why is the eye witnesses account (which is
substantiated by material evidence) contradicts media reports (which
provide zero evidence that we can verify, just government claim). Let me
shred the media’s narrative piece by piece...http://shoebat.com/2016/07/23/the-munich-massacre-is-a-complete-coverup-the-munich-shooters-facebook-including-his-family-background-shows-he-is-not-iranian-but-a-syrian-islamist-pro-turkey/
Crews work to clean up an oil spill
on the North Saskatchewan river near Maidstone, Sask on Friday July 22,
2016. Husky Energy has said between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude
oil and other material leaked into the river on Thursday from its
pipeline.JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Prince Albert officials have ordered construction of a 20 to 30
kilometre temporary drinking water pipeline as a massive oil slick on
the North Saskatchewan River approaches the city.
“They’ve done an admirable job (of planning),” Saskatchewan Water
Security Agency’s Same Ferris told reporters Sunday. “It’s a temporary
installation.”
Residents of both cities are advised to use water sparingly until the
regular water treatment capacity is restored. It’s unclear exactly how
long that will be, officials said.
“Water conservation is very important in this situation,” Ferris said.
The city of North Battleford has already shut off its river intake
and is drawing its drinking water from other sources. On Sunday, P.A.
had not yet shut off its water intake from the North Saskatchewan River,
as tests came back clean. That could change when the oil arrives late
Sunday or early Monday...http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/pa-prepares-for-river-oil-slick-cleanup-of-200000l-plus-spill-continues
Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/world/1431752-russia-bombed-base-in-syria-used-by-us-wsj.html
REUTERS
Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/world/1431752-russia-bombed-base-in-syria-used-by-us-wsj.html
REUTERS
Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/world/1431752-russia-bombed-base-in-syria-used-by-us-wsj.html
The Moscow Times Moscow
is allegedly using the strike to pressure the Obama administration into
closer cooperation in Syria, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed
government sources. It also claimed that Russian plane attacked a site
used by families of CIA backed Syrian opposition fighters early this
month. The
garrison in the village of At-Tanf near the Jordanian border was
attacked June 16. A 20 strong British contingent moved off the site 24
hours prior to the Russian strike, the Wall Street Journal reported. Following
the attack, U.S. forces informed their Russian counterparts in Syria
that the garrison was part of the U.S. campaign against the Islamic
State and should not be targeted. Roughly 90 minutes later, despite
warning signals from U.S. aircraft, Russian planes attacked the site
again, the newspaper claimed.
U.S. officials and rebel leaders claim that cluster munitions were used in the attacks and that four people were killed.
Bella Lafond Arcand survived radical brain surgery in 2013 to relieve
her dozens of daily seizures. She was discharged Wednesday from another
hospital stay when her mom told her they were stopping for ice cream.
When they arrived at the Dairy Queen in the Rosewood neighbourhood,
the 11-year-old walked in and saw family, friends and a crowd of media. A
store official told her she’d been picked to attend an upcoming Blue
Jays game and throw out the first pitch.
Bella, herself a baseball player and fan, appeared a bit shy before
smiling and laughing. She put on a Jays jersey and cut a large cake
before posing for pictures.
“It’s really great,” she said.
The trip will be a welcome relief, her mom said. Bella’s 2013 surgery
lasted eight hours. Surgeons effectively disconnected the left
hemisphere of her brain in an attempt to stop the seizures. She had to
learn to walk again and perform other basic tasks. The surgery did
eliminate many of the seizures, but they’ve since returned, to a lesser
degree.
“We’re just dealing with that now,” Lafond said...http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/muskeg-lake-girl-to-throw-out-first-pitch-at-blue-jays-game2
Some wild animals in the woods can be a little unfriendly, especially if they think that people are trespassing in their space. But others are surprisingly social and want to check out what you’re doing in the wild as much as you want to with them. Animals are just like us and just want to feel like they have a home, a pack, or a family to travel with. That way, even if they are facing abuse or abandonment, they at least have an ally by their side like these blind cat brothers. Unfortunately, poor Buttons the elk was
displaced from her family and has become a common sight in Kittitas
County, Washington, where she roams with cows and goats. Some may think that the abandonment and solidarity would make Buttons mean and aggressive. But the county’s team of firefighters saw her amazing true colors while they were fighting a wild fire in the woods...Continude reading, photos>>http://www.littlethings.com/orphaned-elk-befriends-firefighters/
Mary Stanko holding her newsletter, Senior's Alert, at the library.
An Ontario woman whose community newsletter was banned from her local
library has won the right to distribute it on the institution’s pamphlet
stands, after a year-long battle that nearly ended up in court.
Last year, Mary Stanko, who is retired after teaching for 34 years, was told by the St. Catharines Public Library her Senior’s Alert newsletter
did not meet its requirement that any publicly posted material be
“educational” or “cultural.” This was despite the fact she had been
allowed to leave the four-page publication there for nearly two decades.
“For
the last 18 years, I’ve been putting out my newsletter, which I
voluntarily edit and publish for the good of the community,” she said.
“And all of a sudden, because I mention the preamble to the Constitution
… I was quoting the Constitution, and I was defending God.”
Stanko’s spring 2015 newsletter included an editorial about the abandonment of God in modern society, with references to the opening line of the Constitution Act of 1982 and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Pointedly,
this Constitution opens with the declaration stating that ‘Canada is
governed under the supremacy of God and the rule of Law,’ ” she wrote.
“Yet,
why are we law-abiding citizens allowing these apostates and atheists,
who are in the minority, to install their undemocratic rule of terror in
which mention of His Name has become anathema in public governments,
their arms-length commissions, colleges of physicians and surgeons,
universities and some secular media?”...Continue reading...
The chief of Opitciwan’s Atikamekw nation backed Justin Trudeau’s
Liberals because he believed they would fundamentally change the
relationship between Canada and its indigenous people. Awashish says he
now regrets that decision.
Last month, the federal government appealed a tribunal ruling that would have awarded millions to the Atikamekw in Opitciwan —
a First Nations reserve on the shores of the Gouin Reservoir, an
immense man-made lake at the source of the St-Maurice River, about
615 kilometres north of Montreal.
The legal decision could have granted the impoverished First Nation
of 2,000 residents up to $150 million in compensation for flooding,
contaminated drinking water and other damage caused by the creation of
La Loutre dam in 1918.
The development of hydro power in the region in the early 20th
century flooded the original Atikamekw village of Opitciwan and ruined
the band’s immense trapping grounds.
Now, instead of reaping the benefits of a victory that was a
century in the making, the Opitciwan band council will have to
continue a legal battle that Awashish says it simply can’t afford.
“I lost all confidence in what I believed, in the thought that the
Liberal party could change things,” Awashish told the Montreal Gazette.
“You get a new party in power, but the same old tactics are used against
us.”...http://montrealgazette.com/news/atikamekw-disillusioned-by-ottawas-decision-to-appeal-ruling-on-1918-flooding
A wedge-tailed eagle at Alice Springs Desert Park, Australia, flies at a young boy and latches on to his head.
Photograph: Christine O’Connell/@55chris
A wedge-tailed eagle that was part of a birds of prey show at Alice
Springs Desert Park flew at a young boy and latched on to his head with
its talons instead of flying over to a perch as it had been trained to.
The moment was captured by a visitor to the park, Christine
O’Connell, who uploaded an image on to Instagram of the eagle seemingly
attempting to drag away the boy, who was wearing a green hoodie.
O’Connell wrote as the caption: “At a nature park in Alice Springs we
decided to go to a bird show the young boy in the green kept pulling
his zipper up and down. For some reason the wedge-tailed eagle did not
like it and instead of flying over to the log he is meant to for a photo
opportunity he flew straight at the young boy and attacked him.”...https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jul/12/eagle-attacks-boy-at-birds-of-prey-show-in-alice-springs
The family of Tahmid Khan has not heard from him in about a week. His
father has been hospitalized with chest pains, while his mother has
suffered an emotional breakdown. Tahmid, pictured here, is known for his
love of animals. (Facebook)
The family of a University of Toronto student detained after an
attack on a Bangladesh cafe has written to Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau's office to ask him to intervene in the case, a Toronto lawyer
says.
Marlys Edwardh, a lawyer with Goldblatt Partners in Toronto, said a letter was sent to the prime minister on Monday.
Tahmid Khan, 22, a Canadian permanent resident, was taken into
custody in Dhaka following a hostage-taking on July 1. His family has
lost contact with him...http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bangladesh-university-toronto-tahmid-khan-1.3674608
You’re never too old to become a dedicated baseball fan, and never too old to fulfill a baseball dream.
Just ask 103-year-old Kitty Cohen who became an even bigger Blue Jays
fan two years ago after she became the oldest person to ever throw the
first pitch at a game.
For that moment, she practised throwing the baseball for a month but
was disappointed to learn she wouldn’t have the chance to run the bases
first.
So Cohen wrote a letter to Blue Jays General Manager John Gibbons,
asking if he would do her the honour of circling the bases with her. He
and the team obliged this weekend, much to Cohen’s delight....http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-blue-jays-fan-kitty-cohen-running-bases-at-103-1.2981655?autoPlay=true
Handout/The Canadian PressHoma Hoodfar’s relatives say the Concordia University professor was in Iran conducting research. Handout/The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — A university professor from Montreal has been jailed in
Iran’s notorious Evin prison after conducting academic research on women
in the country, her niece said Wednesday.
Homa Hoodfar, 65, was arrested Monday after being interrogated by
authorities, her niece Amanda Ghahremani told The Canadian Press.
Ghahremani said her aunt, who was born in Iran but has been living in
Montreal for 30 years, travelled to the country in February to see
family and to do anthropological work.
Hoodfar, a professor at Montreal’s Concordia University, is an
anthropologist and often studies issues surrounding feminism and the
role of woman in Middle Eastern societies...http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/canadian-professor-65-held-in-irans-notorious-evin-prison
Consistent decline in Karachi’s vegetation drives wildlife out of the city. PHOTOS: AYSHA
SALEEM/EXPRESSKARACHI: Rapid development and the
subsequent chopping of trees in Karachi has not only created problems
for residents but also damaged the habitat of many birds and animals
that lived here. Wildlife diversity, which is crucial for environmental
stability, has reduced to such an extent that one doesn’t listen to
birds chirping in the morning anymore.
As environmental activists make a case for more trees in Karachi, we
take a look at how the absence of greenery forces wildlife away from the
city and as a result disturbs the system that keeps all living things
alive...http://tribune.com.pk/story/1138973/urban-forestry-animals-home-tree/
Montreal's Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough introduced the six ewes and
two lambs that will serve as environmentally-friendly lawnmowers for
the next month as part of an urban agriculture pilot project, in
Montreal on Saturday, July 9, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Morgan Lowrie
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL -- A Montreal park has a new lawn maintenance crew for the summer, and they're a pretty woolly bunch.
On Saturday, the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough introduced the six
ewes and two lambs that will serve as environmentally-friendly
lawnmowers for the next month as part of an urban agriculture pilot
project.
Grazing animals have some ecological advantages when it comes to
landscaping, said Marie-Eve Julien-Denis, one of the project's
organizers.
"They will enrich the soil with their manure and contribute to urban
biodiversity, because insects and birds won't be bothered by the noise
of lawnmowers," she said...http://www.cp24.com/news/montreal-park-to-use-flock-of-sheep-to-keep-grass-at-bay-1.2980634
Two Russian pilots died near the Syrian city of Palmyra when
their helicopter was shot down by Islamic State fighters, bringing the
total number of Russian troops killed in the Syrian conflict to 12,
Moscow said.
The jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to SITE monitoring group...www.timesofisrael.com
WASHINGTON -- American attempts to broker a
two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians are like "forcing
a square peg into a round hole," one of Donald Trump's two top Israel
advisors, David Friedman, wrote in a letter on Wednesday, in which he
repeatedly questioned the viability of the effort.
Responding to a
note from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism,
Friedman said that "the numerous proposals and initiatives for a
two-state solution over the years have brought neither peace nor
security to the State of Israel."
Jacobs' letter expressed alarm
at the Trump campaign's apparent willingness to entertain a permanent
Israeli presence, or perhaps annexation of, the West Bank.
"Both peoples are entitled to live in peace and dignity,"
Friedman said, "and both peoples are being deprived of those fundamental
rights because of one thing and one thing only– radical Islamic
jihadism, a cancer that infects Israel and much of the rest of the
world."
A bankruptcy expert, Friedman was named a top Israel
advisor by Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee,
alongside Jason Greenblatt, executive vice president and chief legal
officer of the Trump Organization.
"No re-allocation of land will
cure this scourge, and, indeed, Israel knew no peace from 1948 to 1967
when it did not even control Judea and Samaria," he added.
Despite what sensationalized wildlife specials on TV would have you
believe, survival in the wild is not that much different than the way
it is in civilized society. While there isn’t an exact definition per
se, most people in the U.S. would probably agree that “surviving
successfully” is usually at least having enough food and water to live,
protecting yourself adequately from nature and her destructive ways, and
whenever possible, protecting your family and loved ones. Animals
survive in the same way. They hunt for food when they need to eat, they
build shelters to survive harsh winters and sweltering summers, and they
will do anything to protect those they care about.
Once you truly accept this reality, the ideology of poaching and trophy hunting seems so ridiculous. Essentially, poachers believe that for some reason they are above animals and will always be able to outsmart them and their survival instincts. Well, as a group of poachers in Zimbabwe recently found out, this is not always the case.
Even though hunting is outlawed within the national parks of Zimbabwe, ten men were illegally hunting for elephants last month within the park’s boundaries when they stumbled upon twenty adult Southwest African lions.
The pride of lions were not exactly, you know, expecting human
visitors, so they immediately attacked the intruders. The attack was so
instantaneous that five of the ten men were killed, three severely
injured, and two lightly injured. The animals were mostly unhurt. The
men who survived the attack ran to a nearby village for medical help
where they were promptly arrested. Ah, karma!..http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/pride-of-lions-kills-five-poachers/
They
thought she was a goner but Flirt the cat came back to her family
Wednesday night after a harrowing ordeal during the Fort McMurray
wildfire disaster more than two months ago.
Flirt went missing on
May 2 as her Fort McMurray family scrambled to flee the wildfires on a
side-by-side ATV. During the ride, the cat jumped out of the daughter’s
arms and the family was unable to catch her before escaping while they
could.
The family’s home burned down and they believed Flirt must have died in the fire...Continue reading, video...
They may seem an unusual
candidate for the title of man’s best friend, but scientists have
suggested that goats could rival dogs in forming an emotional bond with
their owners.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London
aim to prove that goats are much cleverer than previously thought and
interact with people in a similar way to pets, having trodden a path of
domestication for 10,000 years.
Their latest experiment, documented in Biological Letters, showed that goats will
gaze imploringly at their owners when they are struggling to complete a
task, a trait common in dogs but not wolves, for example, who have
never learned how to co-exist with humans...Continue reading...
By Abraham
As a wildlife photographer, Art Wolfe
of course takes pictures of animals. But not just any pictures. He
finds and captures scenes that include animals so at home in their
environment that you can hardly tell they’re there…
By Jonah Mandel ELLA VALLEY, Israel (AFP) — Call her Israel’s batwoman. She works in
secret, out of an erstwhile chicken coop in central Israel that has
become shelter to hundreds of fruit bats being nursed back to health for
various ailments.
Amid the bats’ high-pitched chatter, Nora Lifschitz, a 29-year-old
purple-haired longtime animal rights activist, says it is their eyes
that penetrate her soul.
When bats are hurt, something in their eyes becomes like a Disney
cartoon. It breaks your heart, and then and there you say ‘I’ll die for
you’,” she said...Read complete article photos here...
"Funny, moving, and heartwarming. The greatest love story ever told between two men and their pig. " -Ricky Gervais. http://www.estherthewonderpig.com/
A mysterious collection of nearly 100 manuscripts have been
discovered in an Afghan Cave. An analysis of the texts revealed that
they were owned by a Jewish family that lived along the ancient Silk
Road about 1,000 years ago. The manuscripts had been written in a plethora of languages , including Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, Judeo-Arabic, and Judeo Persian.
The family that owned the manuscripts was headed by Abu Ben Daniel
from the northern Afghan city of Bamyan. For many centuries, this area
was famous for the giant Buddha statues, built in the 6 th century, and tragically destroyed by the Taliban in 2001...http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/nearly-one-hundred-1000-year-old-mysterious-manuscripts-discovered
Crews work to clean up an oil spill
on the North Saskatchewan river near Maidstone, Sask on Friday July 22,
2016. Husky Energy has said between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude
oil and other material leaked into the river on Thursday from its
pipeline.
A wedge-tailed eagle at Alice Springs Desert Park, Australia, flies at a young boy and latches on to his head.
Photograph: Christine O’Connell/@55chris 
By Bill Sanderson Saudi Arabia's King Salman (right) and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef walk to greet President Obama in Riy...