This week, like most weeks in the Drumpf era, has been filled with harrowing headlines: the Supreme Court upheld Drumpfâs Muslim travel ban, Supreme Court Justice – Anthony Kennedy – announced his retirement, and on Thursday, there was a mass shooting at the Capital Gazette. And thatâs not even mentioning the continued stories of asylum-seeking children who have been separated from their parents, with no clear plan as to how to reunite them.
In the face of such a deluge, it can be hard to know how to process everything – but on Thursday nightâs Late Show, Stephen Colbert welcomed a guest who could help, at least a little.
And as Jon Stewart climbed out from under the comedianâs desk, it quickly became clear that this would be one of his more scorching appearances.
âWhat Drumpf wants is for us to stop calling his cruelty and fear and divisiveness
wrong, but to join in calling it right,â the former Daily Show host said on Thursdayâs Late Show, June 28.
âThis we cannot do. And by not yielding, we will prevail.â
Beautiful uplifting higher consciousness ascension quotes by LIORA.
~~Spiritual teacher of Light~~
Twin Flame & Ascension CORE guidance and up-to-date CORE Light of Oneness consciousness CREATION.
âPeace comes from within. Do not seek it without.â ~~Gautama Buddha~~
âWe don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.â ~~Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love~~
âWe can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.â ~~14th Dalai Lama~~
âEach one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.â ~~Mahatma Gandhi~~
âPeace is not a result inside us from everything around us. Peace is not submissive nor passive. On the contrary, peace is an overwhelming force which comes from within us, disrespectful of everything around us, a firm coalition of spirit and soul standing against all the unrest that abounds.â ~~C. JoyBell C.~~
Google Doodles Rachel Louise Carson’s 107th Birthday
Google’s latest doodle marks the 107th birth anniversary of American marine biologist, author and conservationist, Rachel Louise Carson.
Born in 1907, Carson’s work was mainly focused in the fields of marine biology, ecology, pesticides and nature writing. Rachel Louise Carson was also credited with bringing global attention to the problems associated with the conservation of the environment.
Rachel Louise Carson was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania and studied at the Chatham University and, later, the John Hopkins University. Her research into the harmful effects of pesticides on marine life came after studying the synthetic pesticides developed during the Second World War.
The doodle shows Rachel Louise Carson, standing amidst a vast expanse of marine and plant life and birds with a notebook, a backpack and a pair of binoculars.
Google is written in the middle in a calligraphic font.
Carson’s first book, The Sea Around Us, released in 1951 and was a bestseller. It also won her the US National Book Award. Her three books, The Sea Around Us (1951), The Edge of the Sea (1955) and Silent Spring (1962) were described as the Sea Trilogy.
Silent Spring (1962) was a landmark as it led to the reversal of the policy on the use of pesticides.
Rachel Louise Carson’s efforts were concentrated towards the direct ban of DDT. While she didn’t live to see that, in the year 1972 the Environmental Defense Fund and other allied groups succeeded in securing a phase out of the pesticide. It also led to the formation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1962 in the US.
Rachel Louise Carson passed away in 1964, after having been weakened with her treatment for breast cancer she encountered a respiratory infection and eventually suffered a fatal heart attack on April 14, 1964.
Rachel Louise Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of freedom posthumously by President Jimmy Carter.
~~QUOTES~~
âThe more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.â ~Rachel Carson~
âThose who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.â ~Rachel Carson, Silent Spring~
âBut man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.â ~Rachel Carson~
âIt is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.â ~Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us~
âTo stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.â ~Rachel Carson~
Since the Wolf Conservation Center‘s first post on Facebook in 2009, we have welcomed supporters to stand for one of our nationâs most misunderstood predators. Today, our pack grew to 500,000!
We are amazed and incredibly thankful for the number of pack-mates who have heard our howls!
With both the natural and political challenges continuing to face wolves, our work ahead has never been more important. But as a pack, we will make a difference. We remain committed to mobilizing support and advocating for these species which cannot speak for themselves. Thank you for your participation.
Thank you for joining our pack! We are humbled by your support.
The Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) in South Salem, NY promotes wolf conservation by teaching about wolves, their relationship to the environment and the human role in protecting their future.
~~Mission~~
The Wolf Conservation Center promotes wolf conservation by teaching about wolves, their relationship to the environment and the human role in protecting their future.
~~Company Overview~~
The WCC promotes wolf conservation through onsite and offsite education programs. These programs emphasize wolf biology, the ecological benefits of wolves and other large predators, and the current status of wolf recovery in the United States.
The WCC also participates in the Species Survival Plan (SSP) and Recovery Plan for the critically endangered red wolf, and the Mexican gray wolf.
The worldâs predators are declining at an alarming rate. While those species are suffering for a variety of reasons, one of the main sources of mortality is human in origin.
Itâs a bit counterintuitive, since predators are some of the more charismatic of species. And charismatic critters are the easiest ones about which to convince people to care.
When Cherie of the First Ladies family in Samburu national reserve died, the Kenya Wildlife Service, Save the Elephants, Nasuulu conservancy and both Samburu and Buffalo Springs County councils all rallied to the assistance of the calf.
Although only 5 months old, Sokotei is remarkably strong. When he tried to leave his motherâs body in the night the monitoring team attempted to catch him. As they were chasing through thick salvadora (Sokotei) bush, knowing that lions were in the area, a huge rainstorm hit. After two hours skidding around in the mud, both elephant and men looked each other in the eye, panting for breath, and decided to leave it for the night.
The following morning the team managed to find Sokotei again, and after escaping the attentions of several aggressive bull elephants, succeeded in rescuing Sokotei.It was a dramatic rescue, in the thick of salvadora bushes known locally as Sokotei.
For over a week in early April 2014 everyone at the DSWT, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Save the Elephants (STE) and all their followers, watched an elephant called Cherie fight for her life. Cherie was a female elephant from a family known as the First Ladies in Samburu, Northern Kenya. She had appeared sick with stomach pains before finally collapsing on the 7th April 2014 with her approximately 6 month old calf beside her.
KWS veterinary officer, Dr. Bernard Rono, who heads the DSWT funded Meru Mobile Veterinary Unit, was called to Samburu to inspect her from a safe distance as she was clearly too weak to survive an anaesthetic. Dr. Rono could determine no visible injury and could not be certain what her ailment was.
It was heartbreaking for all involved to be so close but unable to treat Cherie, instead having to rely on the elephants amazing healing powers and hope for the best.
Sadly, on the evening of the 9th April Cherie lay down for the last time, in a dried up watercourse. She passed away leaving her young calf, and everyone who had watched her battle for her life, to mourn her passing.
This video tell’s the story and demonstrates the stoic efforts of dedicated people on the ground to offer her calf, now named Sokotei, a second chance at life in the care of the DSWT at our Nairobi Orphanage.
Follow our Elephant Orphans’ Project and wider conservation initiatives on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/thedswt and Twitterhttp://www.twitter.com/dswt
——– Thank you to Save the Elephants for permission to use some of their video content in order to share Sokotei’s story.
I found a very interesting video which seems to prove that there is electrical activity within plants. This confirms electrical connections which relay messages in a very similar manner as the human brain does. This leads to questions like: do plants have feelings of pain? Do they respond and recoil when they perceive pain? Have a look and reach your own conclusions.Â
I will present to you this information and the video in the hope that you, at least will think about this.
If you’re a vegetarian or animal rights activist, chances are you’ve had this argument before. When you mention that you have compassion for animals, someone points out that plants have feelings too, and those carrots you were happily eating a second ago are actually screaming in some supersonic range. Sure, it’s ridiculous. But could it be true?
Â
In his book Primary Perception, fringe scientist Cleve Baxter described a number of experiments that he conducted with plants, testing their response to various stimuli. In many cases, the plants were attached to a polygraph (lie-detector), which measured the electrical impulses of their leaves.
While the plants did respond with high levels of stress to certain events, they tended to react most strongly to wanton destruction such as an experimenter smashing or setting fire to an entire plant.
Little response was recorded in relation to less dramatic acts like pulling off a few leaves. This research suggests that plants may feel something like pain, fear, or at least discomfort in certain cases. However, the amount of stress that plants undergo through normal farming practices may be insignificant, and in any case there might be ways that this impact could be reduced in the future.Â
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Of course, these studies can hardly be considered conclusive. Luckily, it’s not incredibly important to answer this question from an animal rights perspective, because regardless of the answer you’re better off eating plants.
The fact is, almost all animals used for food are herbivores, and the amount of plant matter they must eat in order to produce a significant amount of edible meat is many times higher than the amount of plants used in a vegetarian diet. So, whether those carrots are screaming or not, the plants and the animals should be thanking you for your compassionate choices.
Each year on April 14th, people across the nation, celebrate National Dolphin Day.
Dolphins are cetacean mammals that are related to whales and porpoises. Ranging is size from 4 ft to up to 30 ft, dolphins are among almost forty species in 17 genera. Found worldwide, they prefer shallower seas of the continental shelves.
As carnivores, their diet consists of mostly fish and squid.
Male dolphin â bull
Female dolphin â cow
Young dolphin â calf
Group of dolphins â school or pod
Dolphins are known to have acute eyesight both in and out of the water along with having a well-developed sense of touch, with free nerve endings densely packed in the skin. Â They can hear frequencies ten time or more above the upper limit of what adult humans can hear and are capable of making a broad range of sounds using nasal air sacs located just below the blowhole.
Living in pods of up to a dozen, dolphins are highly social animals.  Pods do merge together in areas where there is an abundance of food, forming super-pods, which may exceed 1,000 dolphins.  Dolphins can, and do, establish strong bonds within their pods and will stay with injured or ill individuals, even helping them to breathe by bringing them to the surface if needed.
You will see the dolphins frequently leaping above the waters surface. Â They leap for various reasons; when traveling, jumping saves them energy as there is less friction while in the air, this is known as porpoising. Â Some other reasons for leaping include orientation, social display, fighting, non-verbal communication, entertainment and attempting to dislodge parasites.
The United States National Marine Mammal Foundation conducted a study that revealed that dolphins, like humans, develop a natural form of type 2 diabetes which may lead to a better understanding of the disease and new treatments for both humans and dolphins.
~~NATIONAL DOLPHIN DAY HISTORY~~
National Dolphin Day, an âunofficialâ national holiday, Â is listed as part of the American Veterinary Medical Association Pet Health Awareness Events.
~~Top Facts about Dolphins~~
There is no doubt that dolphins are one of the most interesting forms of aquatic life out there. They are easy to recognize and you likely already know they are very smart. Yet there are plenty of great facts about them that you may not know. That will all change though when you get done reading this!
The dolphin is the only mammal that gives birth with the tail first instead of the head.
Dolphins donât smell very well.
Young dolphins will remain with their mother for a period of 2 or 3 years.
There are two stomachs for dolphins just like for cows. The first one stores the food for them and the second one is where digestion takes place.
A dolphin may be able to dive up to 1,000 feet.
The dorsal fin on every dolphin is very unique and it can be used to identify them from each other.
Dolphins can swim at a speed of up to 25 miles per hour for a long time. This is about 3 times faster than the fastest humans in the world.
The average lifespan of a dolphin is 17 years. However, some of them that have been observed in the wild lived about 50 years.
Most species of dolphins live in saltwater but some of them thrive in freshwater.
A dolphin needs to get air at different intervals. Some need air every 20 seconds but others only need it every 30 minutes.
A group of dolphins is called a pod.
The bonds of dolphins in a pod are very intense. They have been observed carrying for the sick, the elderly, and those that have been injured with great care.
Even though they are usually very mild tempered, dolphins can be aggressive.
They are able to see well in the water due to the retina gathering light in a unique way.
The brain of a dolphin is #2 is terms of size compared to its body size. It is only behind the human.
It is possible for a mature dolphin to eat up to 30 pounds of fish daily.
There are about 100 teeth in the mouth of a dolphin. They use the teeth to grab their prey but they donât chew it. All food is swallowed whole.
Up to 20 feet in the air is the distance that a dolphin can leap.
The Killer Whale is the largest member of the dolphin family. They can be up to 30 feet in length.
The skin of the dolphin is very delicate and it can easily be damaged by contact with other surfaces.
The Boto is the largest of the dolphins that can live in freshwater. They can be up to 10 feet long.
Dolphins often use a hunting tactic of circling the fish in a school so that they make a tight ball. Then they will take turns going through the center of the ball to feed as they do so.
Only one side of the dolphinâs brain sleeps at a time. This allows them to be able to breathe and to be able to watch for threats even while they are resting.
Dolphins enjoy socializing and playing. They play with seaweed or with other members of the pod. Sometimes, they will tease other living creatures in the water.
Global warming continues to be a problem for dolphins as it has reduced their food supply significantly.
Dolphins can be migrational for food and to get to bodies of water that are the right temperatures for them. Not all pods of dolphins will migrate though if their needs are being met right where they are.
Dolphins are known to engage in a variety of different feeding methods in order to be successful.
Most of them involved cooperation and being in sync with other pod members. It is very rarely that they will try to get food on their own.
The smallest dolphins are about 4 feet long with the longest being 30 feet long. They can weigh from 90 pounds to more than 11 tons.
The fluke is the name for the tail on a dolphin.
Echolocation is a big part of overall communication for dolphins. It occurs through the melon in the head.
All dolphins have a blowhole at the top where they take in air when they come to the surface.
Almost all dolphins have no hair other than a few that they have at birth. Only the Boto River Dolphin has a small amount of hair that they will keep as an adult.
They have a fast healing process for their bodies even when they have deep wounds such as those that are the result of shark bites. Experts havenât been able to determine how this is possible for dolphins when other mammals would hemorrhage.
Ric OâBarryâs Dolphin Project is a campaign under the International Marine Mammal Project at the non-profit Earth Island Institute. The Dolphin Project aims to stop dolphin slaughter and exploitation around the world.  This work has been chronicled in films such as A Fall From Freedom, the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, and in the Animal Planet mini-series Blood Dolphin$.
~TAKE THE PLEDGE NOT TO BUY A TICKET TO A DOLPHIN SHOW~
Dolphins have evolved over millions of years, adapting perfectly to life in the ocean. They are intelligent, social and self-aware, exhibiting evidence of a highly developed emotional sense. Here are just a few of the issues with captivity:
Captures of dolphins are traumatic and stressful and can result in injury and death of dolphins. The number of dolphins that die during capture operations or shortly thereafter are never revealed in dolphinariums or swim-with-dolphins programs. Some facilities even claim their dolphins were “rescued” from the ocean and cannot be released. This claim is almost invariably false.
Training of dolphins is often deliberately misrepresented by the captive dolphin industry to make it look as if dolphins perform because they like it. This isn’t the case. They are performing because they have been deprived of food.
Most captive dolphins are confined in minuscule tanks containing chemically treated artificial seawater. Dolphins in a tank are severely restricted in using their highly developed sonar, which is one of the most damaging aspects of captivity. It is much like forcing a person to live in a hall of mirrors for the rest of their life – their image always bouncing back with no clear direction in sight.
Join us and pledge that you won’t go to a dolphin show or swim-with-dolphins programs. Â
It’s Monday again. It was a good weekend. I don’t want to get up and face a new week. Let me be. I want to stay in bed and sleep!!Â
I love cats. I think they are have an independent personality and show it. They are funny and inquisitive.
Remember …. curiosity killed the cat!
~~The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions~~
~The Full Sit-up~
To achieve the full situp, you must begin with the genuine intention of exercising your abs and promptly fall asleep midway through the task. This position is extremely advanced and not recommended for amateur sleepers.
~The Awkward Spoon~
The goal here is not so much intimacy as it is the socially uncomfortable sharing of a physical space with someone. Bonus points if your arm falls asleep but youâre too embarrassed to move it.
~The Sunbather~
The trick is to look like someone who is acting comfortable whilst also appearing extremely uncomfortable. Letâs take this excellent opportunity to coin the term âmeta-comfortable.â
~The Dog Bed~
Not a bed for dogs, but a bed that is made of dogs. I.e., the most comfortable bed you will ever sleep on that also smells kind of funky.
Jane Goodall was born in London, England, in 1934 to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall. As a child, she was given a lifelike chimpanzee toy named Jubilee by her father; her fondness for the toy started her early love of animals. Today, the toy still sits on her dresser in London. As she writes in her book, Reason for Hope: “My mother’s friends were horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten me and give me nightmares.” Goodall has a sister, Judith, who shares the same birthday, though the two were born four years apart.
~~Africa~~
Goodall had always been passionate about animals and Africa, which brought her to the farm of a friend in the Kenya highlands in 1957. From there, she obtained work as a secretary, and acting on her friend’s advice, she telephoned Louis Leakey, a Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, with no other thought than to make an appointment to discuss animals. Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behavior of early hominids, was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself. Instead, he proposed that Goodall work for him as a secretary. After obtaining his wife Mary Leakey‘s approval, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where he laid out his plans.
In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behavior with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier. Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960, Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called The Trimates. She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was “Tanganyika“ at that time and a British protectorate.
Leakey arranged funding and in 1962, he sent Goodall, who had no degree, to Cambridge University where she obtained a Ph.D degree in Ethology. She became only the eighth person to be allowed to study for a Ph.D there without first obtaining a BA or B.Sc. Her thesis was completed in 1965 under the tutorship of Robert Hinde, former master of St. John’s College, Cambridge, titled “Behavior of the Free-Ranging Chimpanzee,” detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.
Jane Goodall in 2009 with Hungarian Roots & Shoots group members.
In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognized for innovative, community-centred conservation and development programs in Africa. Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots began in 1991 when a group of 16 local teenagers met with Goodall on her back porch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They were eager to discuss a range of problems they knew about from first-hand experience that caused them deep concern. The organisation now has over 10,000 groups in over 100 countries.
Goodall in 2009 with Lou Perrotti, who contributed to her book, Hope for Animals and Their World.
Due to an overflow of handwritten notes, photographs, and data piling up at Jane’s home in Dar es Salaam in the mid-1990s, the Jane Goodall Instituteâs Center for Primate Studies was created at the University of Minnesota to house and organize this data. Currently all of the original Jane Goodall archives reside there and have been digitized and analyzed and placed in an online database. On March 17, 2011, Duke University spokesman Karl Bates announced that the archives will move to Duke, with Anne E. Pusey, Duke’s chairman of evolutionary anthropology, overseeing the collection. Pusey, who managed the archives in Minnesota and worked with Goodall in Tanzania, had worked at Duke for a year.
Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, travelling nearly 300 days a year.
Goodall is also a board member for the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Goodall is the former president of Advocates for Animals, an organization based in Edinburgh, Scotland, that campaigns against the use of animals in medical research, zoos, farming and sport.
Goodall is a devoted vegetarian and advocates the diet for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. In The Inner World of Farm Animals, Goodall writes that farm animals are “far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined and, despite having been bred as domestic slaves, they are individual beings in their own right. As such, they deserve our respect. And our help.
Who will plead for them if we are silent?â Goodall has also said, âThousands of people who say they ‘love’ animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated so with little respect and kindness just to make more meat.”
In April 2008, Goodall gave a lecture entitled “Reason for Hope” at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.
In May 2008, Goodall controversially described Edinburgh Zoo‘s new primate enclosure as a “wonderful facility” where monkeys “are probably better off [than those] living in the wild in an area like Budongo, where one in six gets caught in a wire snare, and countries like Congo, where chimpanzees, monkeys and gorillas are shot for food commercially.” This was in conflict with Advocates for Animals’ position on captive animals. In June 2008 Goodall confirmed that she had resigned the presidency of the organisation which she had held since 1998, citing her busy schedule and explaining, “I just don’t have time for them.”
In 2011, Goodall became a patron of Australian animal protection group Voiceless, the animal protection institute. “I have for decades been concerned about factory farming, in part because of the tremendous harm inflicted on the environment, but also because of the shocking ongoing cruelty perpetuated on millions of sentient beings.”
In 2012 Goodall took on the role of challenger for the Engage in Conservation Challenge with the DO School, formerly known as the D&F Academy. She worked with a group of aspiring social entrepreneurs to create a workshop to engage young people in conserving biodiversity, and to tackle a perceived global lack of awareness of the issue.
Jane Goodall has taught the world more about chimpanzees than anyone else in the world. Her dream to study our closest relatives began in 1960 in Gombe Park, Tanzania, and she continues her work to save them today.
This week, like most weeks in the Drumpf era, has been filled with harrowing headlines: the Supreme Court upheld Drumpfâs Muslim travel ban, Supreme Court Justice – Anthony Kennedy – announced his retirement, and on Thursday, there was a mass shooting at the Capital Gazette. And thatâs not even mentioning the continued stories of asylum-seeking children who have been separated from their parents, with no clear plan as to how to reunite them.
It Is What It Is 