The association of Zoos and Aquariums, or AZA, has declared 2008 The Year of the Frog. Why, you might ask? Because it's leap year!...and frogs leap. Get it? Ok, it's lame, but it's important. The real reason, besides the silly pun, is that frogs are in really big danger. Frogs are what scientists term "Bio-indicators" which means that they are an animal that is looked to for an idea of how the rest of the world is doing. And right now, it's bad news. Frog species extinction is at its highest rate ever, and the rate is also higher than that of any other type of animal. Scientists are estimating that up to 1/3 of the worlds amphibian species are on the verge of extinction. So basically, this is bad news. Frogs are suffering from the same problems as many other animals--pollution, habitat loss and so on. They have also been suffering from a type of fungal infection called Chitrid which inhibits the ability of their skin to pass water in and out. So the point of The Year of the Frog is to educate people about this incredibly important animal and see what we can do to help.
Now, what brought this up? It's spring time! And spring weather brings out the salamanders. Many species of salamanders are suffering the same fate as frogs so we want to pay attention to them too. At this time of year, many salamanders begin travelling to vernal pools to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, that very often involves crossing streets which can mean squishy little salamander pancakes. Many towns in the New England area will actually close down streets that they know are close to the pools to protect the animals during their journey. These journeys require a certain set of conditions--it must not be too cool or dry or windy or the salamanders skin will dry out and the animal may die. Some years, the conditions will all come together on one perfect night and thousands upon thousands of salamanders will surface to head to the pools.
Once the eggs have been laid and hatched, it's a race against time for the young salamanders. If the pools dry up before they have become air breathing animals, they will die. This can mean that if there is not enough rain in a given year, and entire generation of salamanders will be lost.
Besides their environmental importance...frogs and salamanders are just plain neat and it would be incredibly sad to lose them.
For many who take whale watching tours in the summer, they come away from the experience exclaiming "I saw so many humpbacks!" However, if they're lucky, they may see one of the highly endangered Right Whales as well. Just outside of Boston Harbor is one of the largest marine sanctuaries designed to protect many species of whales, Right Whales among them. Stellwagen Bank was picked for specific reasons, as a home to an incredibly large diversity of animals. It is also one of the summer feeding grounds for baleen whales.
The sanctuary prohibits any kind of fishing, but unfortunately allows shipping boats free passage. One of the largest dangers to whales, and particularly Right Whales, are ship strikes. Around 1/3 of the Right Whales that have been killed in the last decade were due to ship strikes. Every year, dead whales wash up on beachs bearing the signs of ship strikes. And sadly, not all strikes will kill the whale but simply disable it, leaving it to die a slow and painful death.
Scientists have pled for action to be taken to prevent these strikes for years, and recently some steps have been taken in the right direction. For years, the whales were tracked using airplanes or boats and were then plotted onto charts to give ships the "best idea" of where the animals might be. However, these tracking trips were frequently prevented by weather or budget issues so were rarely accurate.
Stellwagen bank has recently installed a series of bouys lining the shipping lanes, as reported by The Boston Globe. These bouys listen for the signature sounds that Right Whales make underwater and send a signal to oncoming ships that the animals are in the area. This gives the ship a chance to slow down or change course to avoid killing one of the precious whales. To see the bouys in actions, check out the video from The Boston Globe here.
This comes as an answer to the controversy about changing the routes of the shipping lanes. Scientists claimed that this was the safest option for the animals, while shipping conglomerates complained of the costs it would incur. Nevertheless, lanes have been moved, both in Stellwagen Bank and in Canada, showing a victory for scientists involved with preventing the extinction of Right Whales.
The New York Times ran a story on the front page the other days about the riding death rate in Eventing. Coming from a horseback rider, I can confidently say that Eventing is completely insane. Eventing is a series of competitions, usually taking place over two or three days where competitors perform three different types of riding. Now, mastering one type of riding is hard enough so it's pretty amazing that these people can do this. Events one and two are show jumping and dressage, both of which take place in a ring and are generally not timed. The last event is cross country jumping.
Phil Sears/Associated Press, The New York Times
As far as I'm concerned you have to be totally cracked to attempt this. However, people obviously don't agree with me. The cross-country courses can run for miles over uneven terrain and include up to 40 jumps meant to immitate "natural conditions." The problem lately, is that even coordinators have been raising the difficultly of these courses to the point where some have argued that even the best in the world can't handle them. The deaths of 12 eventing riders in the past 18 months has raised concerns over the sport.
Some safety measures have been discussed, but for the most part are not used. Pins have been designed to help the jumps collapse if the horse does not clear them, but the pins are expensive and generally not used.
“It’s not galloping cross-country over natural obstacles anymore,” said Ilana Gareen, an amateur rider and assistant professor of community health at Brown in the New York Times article. “I liked the fact that you could go to eventing and just be a good rider, do well, and have fun.”
Some have argued that the excitement of the contest has attracted inexperienced and riders who are not ready for the intensity of the course.
“You have people who didn’t grow up fox hunting or going on wild rides the way we did,” said Mick Costello, an event rider who builds cross-country courses, to the New York Times. “They haven’t been used to tumbling falls. They get a thrill out of going fast, and a lot of them aren’t ready.”
While this is very likely true, the deaths and injuries of some of the best riders in the world may indicate other issues.
Last month an Olympic bronze medalist was nearly killed when his horse didn't clear a jump and somersaulted over onto the rider.
According to the Times: In a letter to members, Kevin Baumgardner, the president of the United States Eventing Association, wrote: “The overall trends, particularly over the last three years, are unmistakable and, in my view, totally unacceptable. I know that my concern that the sport has gotten off track is shared by many of our members, amateurs and professionals alike.”
If you happened to see my final up here...ignore it! It was an unedited version that I put up there for a peer review. And it wasn't anywhere near finished! Thanks.
NewsTrust.net is an interesting site designed to present and filter news from many different sites. The concept of this site is actually quite interesting--to vote on a story you have to register and then the weight your vote recieves depends on how much information you provide about yourself and how active you are on the site. The goal of this is to restrict the voting to only those with some kind of journalistic experience or relevant knowledge. What this eventually provides is a site full of well-written, well-researched and relevant articles.
Now my problem with this site. I had no idea that the votes were weighted and that it was meant for only journalist-types to vote. After class, I was quite impressed with the site. The concept is great, and it will provide a much better collection of stories than news aggregation sites that are specifically machine-run or voted on for popularity. However, before class I thought it was just another site that collected stories from other sources. Thinking that maybe it was just me, I sent the site to other people who were unrelated to class and they said the same thing, "Ok, it's another site that collects news stories." Besides the tagline "Your Guide to Good Journalism," I think there needs to be something much more obvious to explain what is going on.
I tend to think that the downfalls of sites like these is that they are designed by journalists...who expect other journalists or people who think just like journalists to read them. In reality, most readers are lazy, and they're not going to want to hunt through an extensive "About us" section to figure out the basic point of the site. At the moment, the site really only feels accessible to knowledgable journalistic readers, which is great when it comes to the voting. But if they eventually want the readers of the site to be of much broader demographics, they might want to think about the presentation of the concept of the site.
Have you heard of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semi-colon-shaped islands, yet? Its two main islands are named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital is Bodoni, and its leader is General Pica. The most singular feature of San Serriffe’s geography is its mobility. Due to a constant process of erosion that removes sand from the west coast and deposits it on the east coast, the islands are moving eastward at the rate of 1400 meters a year. It is anticipated that the islands will collide with Sri Lanka in 2011. To slow down this movement, boats constantly ferry sand from the east coast back to the west.
Perhaps the reason that you haven't heard of it, is that it is completely fictional. In 1977, the British newspaper The Guardian published a 7 page report with datailed descriptions of everything from the geography to the history of this entirely fictional republic. The Guardian received a lot of feedback from readers regarding the location and asking for more details. Apparently, those readers never noticed that everything about the islands were named after printer's terminology.
If you're interested in more hoaxes perpetrated throughout history, check out The Museum of Hoaxes. And remember...Happy April Fools Day!
Tragically, the death toll in Iraq has reached a new milestone--4000 American soldiers dead. That is a number you will see in almost every major news outlet, reported in the same way as the 2000 dead mark. However, a number you might not see is 12. 12 is the number of soldiers who have been electrocuted to death by faulty wiring on US army bases in Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth was killed on January 2nd while showering on a base in Baghdad. His family was informed of his death and were told that he was electrocuted but were given no more details.
The New York Times article states,
"An Army investigation found that his death was due to improper grounding of the electric pump that supplied water to the building, (Rep. Henry) Waxman said. Maseth died after an electrical short in the pump sent a current through the pipes, the California Democrat wrote in his letter."
In some cases, the families of the soldiers were given incorrect information regarding the manner of their loved-ones' death. Maseth's mother was originally told that her son was killed with a "small electrical device in the shower."
The electrocutions are being investigated, but the Army is denying any responsibility.
While I realize that this video is not "journalism" and has almost nothing to do with class (besides the fact that it's multimedia and on YouTube) I can't resist sharing it. It's really amazing the things that marine mammals can be trained to do, and this is really just a fun video. Did you know that one of the Harbor Seals at the New England Aquarium can talk? And his great grandfather used to yell at people when they went by. Listen to the clip, that really is a seal. And check out the dancing Sea Lion:
http://iraq.reuters.com/ This is the link about the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War from the perspective of those reporting on it. This is a really interesting view of the reports coming from over there with some good video to go along with it.
http://abcnews.go.com/abcnewsnow This is the online video section of ABC news. My major issue with this site is the abundance of entertainment news. It almost seems like this would be more fitting on the ABC network site instead. The really interesting concept is the i-Caught section with the Talk Back function. This is one of the few times I've seen an opportunity to respond to broadcast news and really put a face to your comment. This allows the network to see the real people who are watching their news and see what they think about it. This segment has a bit of the same problem as NewsNow with a bit too much sappy fluff, but still a great idea.
www.9neighbors.com is a collection of news from many sources, including readers, that is then rated and put in order of the most popular stories. Unfortunately, I just don't get it. If this site hadn't been explained to me in class, I would have no idea what was going on. The About Us section is 3 sentences long and gives a vague idea of what the site is about:
9Neighbors is a community-ranked news site for the Boston area. Stories here are submitted and voted on by users. The site is edited and moderated byRick Burnes.
Even still, I'm left with a lot of questions. Do I HAVE to join or can I post without being a member? How do I vote? What are the communities and what do they have to do with the site? Are they they only places the news comes from? Are the top streams daily? weekly? overall? On Monday there was a link to the 9neighbors blog prominently at the top of the site and at least the blog had a bit more in depth explanation, although you really had to hunt it down. Now the link is teeny and all the way at the bottom of the page.
Although I feel that the concept of this site holds potential, it still needs a lot of work. At the moment I think that the editors have forgotten to look at this site from the perspective of someone who has never seen anything like this. In my opinion everything needs to be clarified and explained somewhere in the site.
As a journalism student, I realize that editing errors happen. After you've been looking at an article for a few hours, you tend to just skip right over those little misspellings and word mis-uses. However, I would tend to expect a little more from a professional news outlet. I signed onto Boston.com the other day and looked at two articles. There was really no reason for why I picked those articles, I just clicked on an interesting headline. And within those two articles, I found 3 editing errors. And they were big errors, errors that made the sentence not make sense. These are the typos:
"Much *or* Baghdad must be seen from behind the safety of armor."- The Long Way-Iraq After Five Years
"Abu Samer (second from left), head of the reconciliation committee of Aamel, walked *the of the* Rashid district of Baghdad with soldiers from the US Army's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment."- The Long War Iraq After Five Years
"She tells of being raped day and night for three months, and then being dumped *her* by the side of the road, her internal organs severely damaged."- In Congo, confronting legacy of rape
The way I figured it, if there were three errors found that quickly, the site must be packed full of them. So I e-mailed the Globe and let them know about it. I got this in response:
I feel that this article really speaks to our class. I'm not going to summarize, I'll just let you read the article for yourself. However, this section was particularly interesting:
News is less a product, like the day's newspaper or a nightly newscast, than a service that is constantly being updated, he said. Last week, for instance, The New York Times posted its first report linking New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to a prostitution ring in the early afternoon, and it quickly became the day's dominant story.
Only a few years ago, newspaper Web sites were primarily considered an online morgue for that day's newspaper, Rosenstield said.
"The afternoon newspaper is in a sense being reborn online," he said.
A separate survey found journalists are, to a large degree, embracing the changes being thrust upon them. A majority say they like doing blogs and that they appreciate reader feedback on their stories. When they're asked to do multimedia projects, most journalists find the experience enriching instead of feeling overworked, he said. The newsroom is increasingly being seen as the most experimental place in the business, the report found.
So, even though reporters are embracing the new tools available to them, their story choices have narrowed greatly, which is a very interesting development.
This is what happens when reporters get too involved in their subjects. It almost seems like real life Jerry Springer.
They make a good point about ethics towards the end of the clip but they don't specify what set the family off. It makes me wonder what the reporter was asking questions about; whether the family was just very upset or if the reporter stepped over the bounds. Has anyone heard anything about this?
Everybody look out! Whatever you're doing, stop! Especially if it's fun! Coming from someone who is not religious at all, Catholicism can seem a little silly. Often, it seems as if they're saying "If it's fun, it's a sin!" However, the Vatican has come out with a list of "new sins" including things like polluting and genetic research. Some of them, I really can't argue with. Polluting is bad, don't do it. So are drugs. Don't do those either. So here is the grand list:
Polluting
genetic engineering
obscene riches
taking drugs
abortion
pedophilia
causing social injustice
As we all know, genetic engineering has been debated for quite some time, especially by the current administration. However, while I can't say cloning would be the best addition to the world, what about the good things that would come of stem cell research? And the general idea the Vatican is going after is that embryos have to be destroyed to do this research, so wouldn't that fall under abortion? Also, calling abortion a sin is stupid. But that's just my opinion.
I would like to know what the Vatican means by "causing social injustice." Isn't that rather broad? I feel like they could really throw anything in there. Cutting in line could be a social injustice. Anybody have a more specific definition for this one?
And for those of you who have forgotten, the original 7 deadly sins are: Wrath, gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, envy and pride.
Is it just me, or are the new sins warmer, fuzzier sins? Nobody talks like they used to either. When was the last time someone used the word "wrath" in day to day speech? Maybe the sin of pedophilia will stop all those priests...
Sign on to Google and type in anything: kickboxing, eastern religion, ceramic chicken teapots and you can probably find a Web site dedicated to the topic. Now type in marine biology and the first site you’ll find is Marinebio.org, a beautiful website full of information and multimedia.
Marinebio.org is a website dedicated to educating anyone who is interested about marine biology and ocean conservation. The site has search features to find marine species, a news feed of relevant marine biology stories, a blog and numerous multimedia features. The site shows just how beneficial all of these aspects can be to a topic. The pages are packed with information but they are also eye-catching and fun to look at. The articles and entries are compelling and easy to understand for those who have no prior information.
This website is an example of the way research and conservation foundations have turned to the internet for support. The web has become a central aspect for many organizations and an incredible tool for research. However, not every website has mastered the use of multimedia and other eye catching tools to really capture the interest of the reader.
Marinebio.org received over 620,000 visits in February 2008 and has over 13,000 subscribers to their online newsletter. The Plankton Forums, an online community devoted to questions and discussions from viewers, has 1500 members with special access to certain posting boards but also allows comments from any visitor to the site. There were over 50,000 posts in the month of February alone. These numbers are a good indication of the success the site has had in connecting to visitors and getting their message out to the public.
The origins of the website rest with David Campbell, the founder and president of the site. Since the site is a side project for him, he was unreachable for comment at the time this article was written due to outside commitments. Campbell was a member of the Cousteau Society as a child and had the opportunity to SCUBA dive on coral reefs from a very young age. These experiences showed him the wonder of the oceans and compelled him to protect them.
Bailey Clear
“As he got older and learned about the problems marine life faces, like over fishing, coral bleaching, pollution, depletion of species, he felt compelled to use his talents in web design to teach people about the ocean,” said Joni Lawrence, vice president for Marinebio.org.
The original goal of the site was simply to share the wonder of the oceans with the public and teach them about marine life, according to Lawrence. The site evolved to be much more conservation oriented. There is now information on the species description pages that is incorporated from the IUCN Red List, a comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. There are also extensive links to conservation information, including information on global warming complete with video, habitat conservation and sustainable fisheries, to name a few.
The importance of spreading the word about the danger to our oceans is summed up on the site’s About Us page. “Humans and the ocean are inextricably linked. Yet the ocean is just beginning to be understood,” it says. “As our understanding of this vast and powerful force of nature increases we realize that in spite of its seeming invulnerability—the ocean and marine life are in real trouble. Marine conservation efforts are vastly outnumbered by the problems facing the ocean.”
Some of the strongest features of the site are the use of multimedia. The photo and video galleries are spectacular and extensive and showcase just how amazing the oceans truly are.
While the photos themselves are beautiful, the presentation is a little difficult to navigate. The galleries are set up with an automatic scroll through the thumbnails, but it is so sensitive that it is easy to shoot by the photo you want. The video galleries are packed, but it makes the page load slowly and it is hard to make more than one video play without reloading the page between them. There could also be a little more clarity in how to access the galleries from the home page.
Besides these technical glitches, the site has made use of this multimedia in exactly the most beneficial way for this topic. “Multimedia has been critical to the success of MarineBio,” said Lawrence. “Without the visual appeal we have through photos and video, we would not generate the traffic that we do.”
Another two features the site has made good use of are the news feed and the blog. Lawrence is the blogger for the site and tries to post about relevant and current topics. The latest post is titled, “Cetacean Investigation- Video series by earthOCEAN featuring Erich Hoyt.” Hoyt is the director of marine mammals for Marinebio.org and senior research fellow for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Other recent posts include a discussion on which fish are the best to eat for your health and for the environment, and a post on Valentine’s Day that included this silly video with a poignant message:
Lawrence says she also checks on other conservation websites’ blogs to see what they are reporting on. One she checks often is that of Greenpeace, the sometimes radical conservation society that is known for interfering in illegal whaling.
The news feed collects stories from Google News but also offers links to other marine biology news sites. The feed is split into different news categories, which makes it easier for the readers to find exactly the story they are looking for. If you want to find a story regarding coral reefs, it is simple to click the link and see the most recent hits for that term.
The Plankton Forums, as mentioned before, are an interesting addition, allowing people from all walks of life to discuss their interest or passion for the ocean. This is an excellent tool for networking and also for research. The open forum lets people post questions and get answers from experts whom they might not otherwise have been able to reach. Hoyt was asked to join the contributors to the site after he posted repeatedly on these forums.
The creators of the site have also recognized the importance of the web for research purposes. “Many people are getting their news, ideas and even inspiration largely through the web,” said Hoyt who has also written 15 books about the ocean and is involved in numerous other sites, including http://www.russianorca.com/
Elisabeth Bentley, a senior biology major at Northeastern University, also thinks that online resources such as these are essential. “I think it’s a valuable tool to have everything at your fingertips,” she said. However, she recognizes the importance of books and journals as well.
“There’s a lot to be said for going and finding a hard copy,” she said. “It’s easy to believe everything you find on the Internet but you can be led down the wrong path.”
There are many pages offering other research alternatives, including relevant journals that can be found both online and in hard copy, as well as book recommendations. The books can even be purchased on the site, powered by Amazon.com, making it a one stop research source.
Marinebio.org has also incorporated pages for kids that include games, quizzes and links to other children’s marine exploration sites.
Marinebio.org
The site has resources for students and educators including job and scholarship postings. The students’ page includes camp and internship opportunities and an interview answering questions about careers in marine biology. The creators have included information for as large a range as possible without forgetting that the pages need to be eye catching and interesting.
“It seems like it is an introduction to marine biology because it covers so many things and covers them in depth,” said Hannah Stinson, coordinator for student and family programs at the New England Aquarium. “It seems like it was designed for people that didn’t have a lot of experience in marine biology, but I think it would also be a cool tool for people who are more fluent in it.” Both Stinson and Hoyt think that there can be good use for Marinebio.org in school and other teaching settings.
“It's a fantastic resource and I often recommend it to high school students trying to decide if they want to have a career in some aspect of marine biology,” said Hoyt. “Usually they come back very excited. If they don't, then I am pretty sure this field is not for them.”
To keep up with changing times, Marinebio.org has continued to grow and change since its creation in 1998. This way, the editors of the site feel that they will be able to stay relevant to fulfill the needs of all of their viewers.
“We continue to develop the site as much as we can so that it continues to evolve as the best resource on the web for marine life science and conservation,” said Lawrence. She continued, discussing her goals, “What I’m planning for the immediate future…is to be clearer about presenting the problems (that threaten the ocean) and juxtaposing them to the solutions.”
Hoyt also has some desires for the site and added, “In terms of marine mammals and marine protected areas, I would like to find ways that more and more people could be involved and concerned about conservation.”
Although this website is very well put together and full of useful information, there are some changes that might benefit it.
“I would make the home page less busy,” said Tracy Hajduk, outreach coordinator for Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. “It’s hard because it had so much information, and you want to look at it but I didn’t know where to click first. I did bookmark it, but I felt like there was too much, I can barely remember everything that’s on there.”
Hajduk also works with school groups and suggested that she might make better use of the site if she could navigate it more easily.
“There were a lot of side tabs,” Bentley agreed, adding, “It was kind of all there, all at once.”
Even with the few drawbacks, Marinebio.org proves to be an educational and useful site that has adapted to the growing need for interactive online resources. The site has made use of all of the newest technology and shows promise to continue doing so.
The site explains it best, “MarineBio is here to show you the wonders of the ocean and to show you the problems so that you have a better understanding of what's at stake and what needs to be done.”
For those of you who have never been to the New England Aquarium, the center piece of the museum is what we all fondly call the GOT, or the Giant Ocean Tank. The Giant Ocean Tank is 23' deep and and holds 200,000 gallons of water. There are about 125 species and over 600 animals including 3 sharks and 5 sea turtles. Because of the incredible size of the tank the only efficient way to feed the animals and take care of the tank is to send in SCUBA divers. To be a diver in the tank is a coveted and envied position and takes a very large amount of qualification, including more than 75 previous dives. However, if you're lucky and have the right connections you might get to go in as a guest diver. Which I did.
I have to say, diving in that tank was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. The first question I get from most people is "Can you see out?" The answer to that is yes, but you really have to focus and look for people. For the most part, once you're in the water you're just much too absorbed in what's going on around you to really care about the people outside. In fact, there were several times where I brushed against the glass and startled myself because I forgot that I was in a tank and not the open ocean.
The second question is "Do the sharks bite" to which I answer a resounding "NO". In the open ocean, these Sand Tiger Sharks might eat only once or twice a month. At the New England Aquarium, we feed the twice a day. This means that they are full and happy and really have no desire to persue prey.
By far the best part of the tank is the well know Myrtle the Turtle. Myrtle is our green sea turtle, weighing in at a hefty 560 pounds and is definitely the star of the show. She has been at the aquarium since it opened in 1969 and is estimated to be between 60 and 70 years of age. Something that many people don't know is that sea turtles have a "living shell", meaning that she can actually feel her shell. Sea Turtles will scratch their shells against things for many reasons including cleaning, but also just because it feels good. Myrtle loves to be scratched and we spent about 15 minutes just scratching our fingers over her shell. She actually rocks back and forth like a little puppy, enjoying her rubbing time.
To see the GOT in action go to http://www.neaq.org/webcams/gotcam_stream.php and check out the streaming webcam. If you catch it at the right time, you can see the divers in there feeding or doing maintenance.
While most people have very likely seen a "Save the Whales" bumper sticker at some point in their lifetimes, it's pretty UNlikely that they've seen a "Save the Sharks" sticker. The terrifying "man eater" has been on the receiving end of a lot of bad press for a very long time. Shark attacks, though rare, always seem to end up on the evening news and those "When Animals Attack" type shows. In reality, there are more deaths by elephants every year but elephants don't have the same terrible reputation. The truth is that shark attacks are almost always a mistake--sharks see what they think is a tasty seal, fish or squid and go in for a snack, mistakenly biting the surfer or SCUBA diver instead.
Rob Stewart, a wildlife photographer, was a filming a movie about sharks and came across something that opened his eyes to the plight sharks are in.
(to watch the trailer, click on the Sharkwater link below and watch it on the movie's website)
Shark fins are a highly coveted delicacy in many Asian countries and more than 100 million sharks are killed every year on order to obtain them. Many times, the fins are cut off while the animal is still alive and then the shark is dumped back into the ocean to drown or bleed to death. Some people might ask why we care if sharks disappear. Besides the fact that they are a 450 million year old creature, they play an essential role in our oceans:
"The obliteration of sea otters led to an explosion in sea urchins, which then ate all the kelp," he (Stewart) explains. "Kelp was the perfect breeding ground for Pacific herring, so their population also plummeted. With no herring to feed on, sharks, tuna and dolphins began to disappear. If that is what happens when you take a seven-million-year-old species out of the food chain, imagine what will happen when you destroy a 450-million-year-old predator like the shark."
Stewart's movie "Sharkwater" is about the rapid decline of shark populations and the many illegal activities that surround it.
I am very anti-war, for many reasons, which don't really need to be discussed here. But I believe this video sums up one of those reasons in a very powerful way. Imagine what could have been done in this country with all the money we wasted on that quagmire...
Below is an ad for Barack Obama. I believe this ad is one of the most poignant and affective political ads I've seen for any election. Instead of doing the usual attacking of his opponents, Obama simply gave a message of hope, which I think is something we need as a country right now.
UPDATE: So I didn't realize that the Obama campaign wasn't involved in this ad. Which kind of explains a lot because most politicians are not this artistic. But Will.I.Am did a fabulous job! More political ads SHOULD be like this.
The spoof below made Obama's ad seem that much better. And also made McCain look like an idiot. Which really isn't all that hard in the grand scheme of things...
In case you are unaware, many of the world's whale species are dwindling and some are in peril of becoming extinct. Many people believe that it will be a long time until these animals are gone, but the liklihood of the right whale disappearing in only a few centuries is very high. Maybe a few centuries seems like a lot, but in the context of the earth, it's a blink of an eye.
Many countries have put strict regulations or restrictions on the hunting and killing of whales. Unfortunately, some countries still profit from the sale of whale meats and oils and continue to hunt whales with little regard for regulations. Japan has designed a "scientific" study that allows them to kill up to 1000 whales a year for study. Recently an Australian customs ship took this photo of a Japanese vessel hauling aboard what appeared to be a mother and calf Minke whale pair.
The Japanese denied the claim that this was a mother/calf pair and also said that by publishing the pictures, Australia was spreading propaganda.
Whether or not you believe in God (which, honestly, I don't) you have to admit that it looks like something really doesn't like the south. After the manydisasters of the past, most prominently Katrina, the south is now being assailed by tornadoes. So first they got flooded away and now they're getting blown away. My question is, why don't these people move? Everyone, just abandon the south. Clearly, you're fighting a losing battle.
I just wanted to write a quick note to apologize for my prolonged absence. Besides my three full days of classes, I also work 3-4 days a week and try to fit in horseback riding lessons, kickboxing lessons and sleep (and training classes for work at the moment). Needless to say, I seriously underestimated how busy this semester would be for me. However, after tonight things should settle down a little and my blogging should be back up with some frequency. Stay tuned!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ECNxBhkS6jw (Embedding was disabled, so I apologize for not having the actual video) Who is this man, what are his qualifications and is there something SERIOUSLY wrong with him??? For those of you who don't know this, Hippos are among the most dangerous animals on the planet. Even though the Disney channel put them in tutus and made them dance around like ballerinas, they will still rip you into little bits and pieces. They are also absolutely massive, so even if they don't intend on killing you, they can easily do it by accident. So let's think about the intelligence of putting on a hippo suit and going to investigate...
Also, does this call to anyone else's mind that scene in Ace Ventura when he gets "birthed" out of the robot Rhino?
"That thing" being the WAR. With everything so wound up in the primaries, and Romney in the headlines for saying questionable things and McCain lying about Romney lying and Bill Clinton talking smack about Obama and Obama winning South Carolina, the war (or should I say wars, as we are fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan) seems to have been conspicuously absent from most reporting. Bob Schieffer kindly reminded the country this week on Face the Nation. At a time like this, it is essential to not forget this horrible on-going event. And if you really can't remember, look here. I hope their faces will make you remember.
update... I just checked the New York Times website and they do have a small story. Thank god. They also have on-going coverage that you have to seek out on the website.
Romney continues to appall me. Maybe it's because I'm a democrat, but I'm starting to think that even conservatives might be a little concerned by his behavior. But the country did manage to elect Bush, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Does everybody remember the Bush wears an earpiece incedent?(also here, and here) Ya know, when he was supposed to be talking about "his" views, but was in fact being fed them during a debate. They never really confirmed that, but it seemed fairly apparent to me. (this is not proof, but hilarious)
So now it looks like Romney is doing the same thing. After some of the questionable things he has said, this isn't really improving things for him.
My first post talked about how the New York Times was changing but maybe not in the best ways. So today I found out that they're going to start using Text messaging. Which is pretty awesome. However, they also apparently don't work. I'll let you read the story, but it's an interesting developement.
As discussed in Ethics class, Glen Johnson aggressively questioned Mitt Romney at a press event last Thursday.
Among blogs, there were mixed responses: "Good for you!", "You were completely unprofessional" and somewhere in between (as seen in class). I found everyone's comments in class to be well thought out and convincing. But I have to admit that my first reaction was "YES! Excellent, a reporter who calls out these candidates on their bullshit!" This is not, I repeat NOT, the first time the Mitt Romney has lied on the campaign trail. In fact, after losing the first primaries he told his staff to "Make all the promises you have to". And please let's not forget the whole MLK Jr. debacle (also, Romney's version). Yes, Johnson could have been infinitely more professional. And yes, I think he undermined himself and detracted from his correct argument. But I also believe that something needed to be said. What if Edward R Murrow had sat back and thought "Well, calling out McCarthy on national television is rude. Shouldn't we politely ask him questions instead?" I realize that what Romney is doing may not be quite as horrifying as McCarthy's actions, but what if he becomes president? And what if he continues to fabricate?
Now, I mentioned my mother in my first post, and I will readily admit that I have adopted many of her views over the years. I was discussing this contfrontation with her and was suprised by the vehemency of her reaction when I told her many people were upset that Johnson interrupted (she typed this, exactly as is and unedited):
So what? So he was interrupted. I'm interruped all the time by you and Adam and Dad and the entire rest of the world, just as you're interrupted by me and Adam and dad and the entire rest of the world. These people are supposed to be us, we the people, not kings and queens and aristocrats that the rest of us have to bow down to. So what if flippin' Mitt Romney was interrupted. He's supposed to be running for a REPRESENTATIVE position, and yes the President is a representative of us, carrying out our will so interrupting him is not impolite, it's essential to find out how the hell he thinks and what he'll do as the leader of the free world!
While this is much more aggressive than, most likely, most people would react, she does have a point. When did journalism get so touchy? Why are reporters so afraid to step outside the lines? And when did the people who are supposed to be representing us become untouchables? I would also like to respond to Romney's press advisor who told Johnson to back off: "How dare you?"
Seeing as every blog I've looked at recently is talking about the primaries, I figured I'd just jump right on that little bandwagon. I am decidedly liberal and am pleased that I feel as though I have many good options this year, as opposed to the past few elections where it was really the best of the worst. However, having options is more complicated than I thought. I hate to say this, but I would almost rather just wait until the primaries are over, because whoever wins will be just fine with me. At the same time, all the attacks on Hilary are just kind of pissing me off. She is a very intelligent woman, and while I don't agree with her stance on Iraq I do agree with her on pretty much everything else. Bloggers, journalists and basically the rest of the country keep calling her out on personal issues (she teared up, big friggin deal. They make it sound like she had an all out bawlfest and did a single tear even fall? no.) It doesn't seem to matter what the poor woman does, if she's feminine she gets criticized, if she's too strong then she isn't personable enough. Personally, I think it really is just that she's a woman and too many people are scared of the possibility that a woman could run the country. Maybe what we need is a very strong woman who is a little more moderate and maybe not as "soft" as some people would like. Maybe she just needs to be a transition, to open doors for other women. I like Obama and Edwards equally at this point, and just as much as Clinton. Edwards has little going for him in terms of blogging as everyone is so focused on Obama and Clinton. Maybe he should have done something crazy a few months ago and gotten a buzz going. Perhaps that would have placed him higher up than the far third he's running now. And if Bill Clinton would just shut his mouth, I think there might even be less of Obama in the blogs as well. Whether or not Hilary knows what she's doing and planned it this way, everything seems to be working to keep her in people's minds. Nevertheless, I can't say that "Any press is good press" can really apply in this case.
There is a review of a book called "Against the Machine" in the New York Times today. The book is written by Lee Siegel, an author with whom I'm not familiar, however, from the review, it seems that he and I would not get along. He seems to have a very anti-technology stance and paints and sad portrait of people trapped in an online world to the detriment of actual social interaction. Even so, some of the points he makes in the book (pointed out by the reviewer) seem to be either accurate or eerily similar to class discussions:
"We are being persuaded that information and knowledge are interchangeable, he claims, when they are not; we would have citizen heart surgeons if information were all that mattered. And mainstream news outlets, which Mr. Siegel is otherwise delighted to assail (his love-hate relationship with The New York Times is particularly intense), suddenly look worthwhile to him by virtue of their real, earned authority. Better the old press than the new tyranny of bloggers. Their self-interest, he says, makes them more mainstream than any standard news source could possibly be. The vindictiveness and disproportionate influence of the blogosphere is a particularly sore subject. Who is it that “rewrote history, made anonymous accusations, hired and elevated hacks and phonies, ruined reputations at will, and airbrushed suddenly unwanted associates out of documents and photographs”? Mr. Siegel’s immediate answer is Stalin. But he alleges that the new power players of the blogosphere have appropriated similar powers."
While I can't say that I would buy this book, or read it if someone handed it to me it does raise some good points. As noted above, there is a vast difference between information and knowledge. The question raised in Ethics class today regarding whether or not journalism is a profession might also include that thought. Just because you CAN write an article, doesn't mean that you really know HOW to. Plenty of bloggers and "amatuer" journalist write complete garbage, because they have the information on how to do it, but they don't actually have the knowledge. His statement about heart surgery calls to mind a commercial from a few months back where a man sits at his kitchen table and calls a surgeon and the surgeon begins to walk him through performing heart surgery on himself. I don't remember what the commercial was for, but the general point was: would you really want to do this by yourself?
My mother has been reading the New York Times for, as far as I can tell, her entire life. She may have been born holding that newspaper. However, recently, she reads fewer and fewer articles out of the actual paper. Let's be honest, newspapers are messy and cumbersome and when you can pick up a quick and easy laptop and get the same things, why bother with the paper? Especially, when you have to pay for the paper. And by pay, I mean quite a lot--up to and over $300 a year. According to my mother, the only reason she has continued to pay is that she liked the crossword and the TV listings. About two weeks ago, the Times dropped the TV listings and only bothered to print a notice that they did so sometime in the last few days. Seeing as you can buy the crosswords in giant books at any bookstore, this makes me question the intelligence of the Times publishers.
In a tech heavy world, wouldn't you do everything you possibly could to keep readers buying your paper? Even though my mother may be unique in the things she wants from the newspaper I'm sure that there are other people who look for those similar quirky things that can only be found in print. Now they're taking away things from the print edition and not putting them online. What they may acheive by doing so is both losing subscriptions and chasing away faithful readers.
Many journalism classes talk about that serendipity factor of newspapers, when you might come across articles you wouldn't otherwise have sought out. However, I find that happens to me all the time online. Today I read an article on fortune cookies on the Times site that I never would have searched for. This only makes me repeat my question: Why should I pay?
I feel that this particular occurance is a perfect example of exactly what we've been talking about in class. The New York Times isn't making money off its readers anymore...why should I subscribe when it's all right here, for free. It makes me nervous about the future of this publication. They have been a dependable news source for decades and they don't seem to be helping themselves anymore. Besides their prestigious name, what is attracting new readers to their site? A partial answer to that question may be the simple fact that it is free. I wouldn't read the Times if I had to pay for it because I'm in college, and I'm poor. But I do, because it's free. So what we have here is a never-ending loop of "what do we do now". We get new readers because it's free, but it's free so we don't make any money. What a conundrum, huh?
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hem too. At this time of year, many salamanders begin travelling to vernal pools to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, that very often involves crossing streets which can mean squishy little salamander pancakes. Many towns in the New England area will actually close down streets that they know are close to the pools to protect the animals during their journey. These journeys require a certain set of conditions--it must not be too cool or dry or windy or the salamanders skin will dry out and the animal may die. Some years, the conditions will all come together on one perfect night and thousands upon thousands of salamanders will surface to head to the pools.
hem too. At this time of year, many salamanders begin travelling to vernal pools to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, that very often involves crossing streets which can mean squishy little salamander pancakes. Many towns in the New England area will actually close down streets that they know are close to the pools to protect the animals during their journey. These journeys require a certain set of conditions--it must not be too cool or dry or windy or the salamanders skin will dry out and the animal may die. Some years, the conditions will all come together on one perfect night and thousands upon thousands of salamanders will surface to head to the pools.
Stellwagen bank has recently installed a series of bouys lining the shipping lanes, as reported by 
Marinebio.org is a website dedicated to educating anyone who is interested about marine biology and ocean conservation. The site has search features to find marine species, a news feed of relevant marine biology stories, a blog and numerous multimedia features. The site shows just how beneficial all of these aspects can be to a topic. The pages are packed with information but they are also eye-catching and fun to look at. The articles and entries are compelling and easy to understand for those who have no prior information.
winter storm 1, that crazy one on that Thursday with all the traffic...this was the day after up at Nahant, MA
Winter storm 2, this was the day that classes were cancelled in the second week of school
Because of the incredible size of the tank the only efficient way to feed the animals and take care of the tank is to send in SCUBA divers. To be a diver in the tank is a coveted and envied position and takes a very large amount of qualification, including more than 75 previous dives. However, if you're lucky and have the right connections you might get to go in as a guest diver. Which I did. 
(to watch the trailer, click on the Sharkwater link below and watch it on the movie's website)
