Ode to Building 7: Remembering the Embers
B. Z. Bendigedig, P.I.
Oh mighty Temple of Security in death,
Hidden fortress of ultimate deception:
Your worms of molten thermite breath,
Ashes of twisted evil corruption
Beneath the apocalypse gloom,
Behind the surge of lies and daily doom--
Building 7 is there imploding into infinity
On that fateful dark day of deadly destiny
When America's dreams melted into insanity.
Solid and secure center of rich cities
Standing witness September 11th in New York
When crashing airplanes interrupted our work:
Building 7 stood amongst the sad debris.
One-way windows reflecting flames,
Deflecting detection amidst the war games--
Then disintegrating conveniently to dust
Swept behind the scenes hidden with our trust
Icon of inevitability mystery and warlust.
Your shadow haunts our sweaty nights,
Reinforced command and control center,
24 hour blinking spymaster lights your
Clouds of death cough in wasting winter.
Cold silent surreality
Masquerading news amidst parades and militarity
Repression suppression repetition of authority--
Yet Building 7 collapses in a perfection of conspiracy
As Silverstein boasts of pulling away history.
"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false."
-- Bertrand Russell
B. Z. Bendigedig, P.I.
Perception Recovery Collective
http://bombshelter.org/
"What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose."
-- Thomas Jefferson
The new DVD 9/11 GUILT: THE PROOF IS IN YOUR HANDS by Don Paul, Jim Hoffman, and Celestine Star proves that the Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 were destroyed through planned demolitions, and shows who benefited most from these crimes. Go to:
http://www.wtc7.net/
http://www.sept15.org/
Declare It Now! Wear Orange The Orange Revolution has begun ...
http://911truth.org/
Painful 9/11 Truth
September 5th, 2007
BY Joel S. Hirschhorn author of Delusional Democracy and Friends of the Article V Convention
Many technical analyses cast doubt on the official explanation of the collapse of three World Trade Center buildings, including those presented by an impressive new group: Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. More difficult than discovering the truth, however, is convincing most of the public to accept the bitter truth.
Americans easily block out painful truths. Powerful societal forces keep much of the population distracted and uninterested in complex issues. Entertainment-oriented mainstream media contribute to mass ignorance. And the political establishment often buries the truth, uses propaganda and manipulates citizens. Intelligent, strong-willed people can fight all these.
But on a deeper level, many truths are blocked psychologically, because they produce too much pain. This results when truths sharply disagree with strongly held beliefs. The conflict produces cognitive dissonance that can block full acceptance of the disturbing truth. People fall victim to self-manipulation and self-delusion. Truths are dismissed and false beliefs remain embedded.
When it comes to 9/11, we face the strong belief that only Al-Qaeda caused 9/11. But analyses by many experts reveal the collapse of three WTC buildings was not caused by the two airplanes exploding into the two towers. Without getting into details that one can spend many hours examining on a number of websites, the general view is that the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition.
If correct - IF - the immediate reaction is like a cosmic big bang. It would have taken considerable effort by a number of people with expertise and access to the buildings to rig them so that they could be intentionally collapsed when the two jets hit the towers. Tough questions flood in: Who could have engineered all this? Could foreign agents accomplish such complex actions - and if they did, why not take credit for it? If Americans did it, why would they intentionally inflict inevitable mass death and devastation? Worse, they seemingly knew about the plan to fly the jets into the towers.
Post-9/11, why have the government and official investigations not come to the same controlled demolition conclusion? This might be explained if the government was involved.
Pull one string and the whole 9/11 story unravels as your imagination triggers unending questions. Can Americans support a reinvestigation and rethinking of the 9/11 event? Or would they rather avoid even more pain and preserve the official account that places all blame on Al-Qaeda? So easy to criticize those who offer different explanations as conspiracy nuts.
After all, the new truth would be so shocking that we would have to question our political and government system. Could there have been such malevolence somewhere in our government? Did a monumental conspiracy push us into attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq? Did petroleum and corporate interests shape 9/11?
Like other groups, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth wants a new, honest and comprehensive study that considers all the evidence for controlled demolition. First, let the technical truth emerge. Then, if necessary, cope with the inevitable political, conspiracy and other questions. But let us not allow a possible painful truth block the primary task of determining once and for all what caused the collapse of the WTC towers and building no. 7.
If there were non-Muslim forces - possibly U.S. government ones - that played a major role in the WTC catastrophe, then let us have the courage to face the truth. Suppose some element of our government played a secret, awful role. If we do not uncover it, then we are vulnerable to repeat nefarious and unimaginable activity in the future - possibly to impact the 2008 presidential election. Discovering 9/11 truth would enshrine the wisdom of the old adage: the truth hurts. That means suffering the pain of revealing lies and cover-ups. Mourning over the deaths of building victims and heroic first responders would expand with new anger. And another reason to hate and oppose the Iraq war would surface.
If those that believe the official 9/11 story - especially elected officials - trust their views, then let them support a serious investigation to test the validity of the controlled demolition hypothesis. If they fear and reject doing so, then let us see that as suspicious and unacceptable.
As a former engineering professor with growing skepticism about the official WTC story, I joined Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth; you can learn about the controlled demolition findings and other similar truth-seeking efforts at http://www.911truth.org/. You choose: seek the truth yourself or take the easy way and just criticize those who question the official story.
To sum up, horrific possible answers can cause us to shun a question. But clearing our minds of fears of painful truths is essential to clearing our nation of destructive lies. Otherwise, we stay stuck in a delusional democracy.
http://www.bestcyrano.org/avenger212/?p=89
Federal Reserve Plantation Nation: American Warcrime Scenery
B. Z. Bendigedig, P.I.
"Who controls the money controls the world."
-- Henry Kissinger
Once the Rockefellers and Rothschilds sold it all
Bushes and Reagans bought it for their boys
A mafioso bill of bloody gaming the world
Monopoly matrix mind numbing marketing of Life
Exchanging dead Presidents from a paper past
(Federal banking elite Reserve cartel notes)
To which our future was mortgaged like a mall
for which our children will march to murder
Our chains are in the brains of thee masses
newspeak traded for reality generations ago
Welcome to our wonderful world of wealth
our 100% sold-out center of money magic
Where a soul's value is converted to numbers
millions upon billions now trillions of tokens
Causing the crowded consumers to follow through
open market new plantation choose chains of gold
Fragments of what was once real behind wAlls
controlled policed secured in our big city state
Our chains are in the brains of thee masses
newspeak traded for reality generations ago
Whispers of revolution creep around wild edges
yet tomorrow again we go on with our business
Pledging allegiance even though our truth is stolen
paying death taxes for oil wars in a prison nation
B. Z. Bendigedig, P.I.
Perception Recovery Collective
http://bombshelter.org/
"For in a Republic, who is 'the country?' Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant - merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them." -- Mark Twain
Fragging the Simulation: Revolution Ineditable
"The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same."
-- Marie Beyle
Pardon me for interrupting your "perfect life"
of entertainment, parties, awards and games
crackling ads for war topped with sugar pops
your good luck hard work money of freedom
Just a harmonic hello from a friend
around the bend and this warning
You are operating as a character of imitation
a version of yourself within a larger simulation
trapped in an even more vast machinery
all embedded in an elemental reality
Atoms and electrons humming within
worlds in collusion and collision
Trouble is brewing around the system
social simulations cranked into crashdown
popping electronica climbing to climax
selling the hype within a shitstorm
Tomorrows tornadoes twist into today
state of emergency elemental apocalyptica
Burning battlezones bulldozed under bullshit
by the bozos hired to cover the Big Lies
it's a planetary parasitic militaristic
infection of fascistic plastic "Security"
Blowing away in the wind my friend the End
answers crying for questions then song
Your beliefs in big money and popularity
the perfect playmakers on the viddy
or the "Founding Fathers" and nationality
all a surreal simulation in the crashing
Smashed dazed confused crumbling bumbling
memories haze away like the smog in tears
Humanity geared up as machines clawing
buzzing burning speeding on oily ways
spewing trashing shooting days away
citizens programmed to kill on command
Newest most deadly gaming system today
realistic blood splatters now on sale!
We interrupt this bulletin for an Elemental Alert
solar storms and burning blazes swarm
planetary meltdown swelling oceans
erupting overwhelming your cityscapes
Cheering and chattering drone down momentarily
crowds connected simulating intelligence
Super spies and eyes in the sky say CIA
NSA Echelon MIB OSS MI5 Interpol
prison planet nowhere left to hide
bamboos and forests a final sanctuary
9-11 was an inside job knocked upside your knob
wake the fuck up from their war of the living dead
On the ape ranch in dark space at the edge
of the galaxy an invasion of serpentine coils
as colonies are fattened in our urban pens
humans ready for harvesting our precious fluids
Blood and plasma pumping and flexxing
magical timespace energies in us
What we believe is real doesn't matter to a star
or how far or big we decide to make the world
why we follow inbred images and icons
all background for further layers of sim
Simulation nation pledge allegiance replay
pay to play every day "what they say" is our way
"To sim or not to sim, to question what is real?"
-- Perception Recovery Collective
B.Z. Bendigedig, P.I.
WoodenPoetry GearBox 008
http://bombshelter.org/
"They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening."
-- George Orwell, 1984
Parker Says Snake in Weeds Promo Is Real
Associated Press 08.18.07
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Posing naked for a publicity photo for her offbeat Showtime comedy series "Weeds" was no big deal for Mary-Louise Parker. It was the snake that bothered her.
"I didn't think I was going to do it actually," the 43-year-old actress told AP Radio News in a recent interview. "But then, they were there and the snake was there, and I didn't want the snake to win, so I put the snake on.
"And actually, I grew to really love the snake - by the end of the day."
Parker is shown with the snake over her shoulder and down her back. In one Showtime ad, David Duchovny, who stars in the new series "Californication," is shown with the snake coming over his back, its head on his bare shoulder. He's tossing an apple, with a big bite taken out of it, into the air.
"I've been naked quite a bit, actually," Parker said of posing for the photo. "You Google me, you'll see it all."
The third season of "Weeds," which also stars Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins and newcomer Matthew Modine, was to premiere Monday night, followed by the series premiere of "Californication."
Parker stars as a widowed suburban mother who starts selling marijuana to support her family in "Weeds."
The actress won an Emmy Award for "Angels in America." She's won two Golden Globe Awards, one for "Angels in America," the other for "Weeds," and had a recurring role on NBC's "The West Wing." Her screen credits include "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Boys on the Side" and "The Client."
Showtime Networks Inc. is a division of CBS Corp.
http://bombshelter.org/
Virtual Sex Machine Spawns Lawsuit
Aug 18, 11:44 AM (ET)
By PHIL DAVIS
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Kevin Alderman didn't bring sex to "Second Life." He just made it better.
The 46-year-old entrepreneur recognized four years ago that people would pay to equip their online selves - which start out with the smooth anatomy of a Barbie or Ken doll - with realistic genitalia and even more to add some sexy moves.
Business at Eros LLC has been brisk. One of his creations, the SexGen Platinum, has gotten so popular that he's now had to hire lawyers to track down the flesh-and-blood person behind the online identity, or avatar, that he says illegally copied and sold it.
The $45 SexGen animates amorous avatars in erotic positions. It is software code, written in the scripting language of "Second Life" and placed in virtual furniture and other objects. Avatars click on the object and choose from a menu of animated sex acts.
Alderman filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla., last month alleging an avatar named "Volkov Catteneo" broke the program's copy protection and sold unauthorized copies. Alderman, who runs his business from home in a Tampa suburb, allows users to transfer his products, but prohibits copying.
"We confronted him about it and his basic response was, 'What are you going to do? Sue me?'" Alderman said. "I guess the mentality is that because you're an avatar ... that you are untouchable. The purpose of this suit is not only to protect our income and our product, but also to show, yes, you can be prosecuted and brought to justice."
Catherine Smith, director of marketing for "Second Life" creator Linden Lab, said she knew of no other real-world legal fight between two avatars.
However, Linden Labs itself has been sued more than once by subscribers over seizures of virtual property. In 2005, Japanese media reported that a Chinese exchange student was arrested for stealing virtual items from other players in an online game, "Lineage II."
"Second Life" isn't a game. There are no dragons to slay or other traditional game objectives. San Francisco-based Linden Lab describes it as "an online digital world imagined, created & owned by its residents."
Linden Lab provides a free basic avatar, a 3-D virtual representation of the user in male or female form. Everything else costs real money. A 16-acre virtual island costs $1,675 plus monthly maintenance fees of $295. Virtual money, called Lindens, can be exchanged with real dollars at an average rate of about 270 Lindens per $1.
Avatars can be equipped with flowing gowns and tiny tattoos, and users with programming and Photoshop skills can reshape themselves into a virtual Greta Garbo or just about any shape imaginable. With a little cash, users can also have people like Alderman transform the avatars for them.
At Alderman's "Second Life" shop, shoppers can try out a dragon bed powered by one of his SexGen engines. Along with programmers and designers, he employs a sales staff who hang around the shop like real salespeople to pitch the perfect sex toys. He is investing in a $25,000 motion-capture suit, a low-end version of one used to create digital characters in movies, to create more realistic sex moves for "Second Life" avatars.
As customers demand more real life in their "Second Life," though, these virtual creations can collide with reality.
"Virtually every aspect of real life is getting duplicated, and all the laws that can be applied to the real world are being applied in 'Second Life,'" said Jorge Contreras Jr., an intellectual-property attorney in Washington, D.C.
Last year, "Second Life" was rocked by a scandal over users who had modified their avatars to look like children and simulated pedophilia. Last month, Linden Lab shut down gambling in "Second Life" after concerns arose that virtual games of chance might violate U.S. gambling laws when members cashed in Lindens for real money.
Now comes Alderman's SexGen suit, which was filed July 3 and seeks unspecified damages. It accuses the unknown owner of the Catteneo avatar of violating copyright and trademark protections by copying, distributing and selling copies of Alderman's software.
Alderman's attorney, Francis X. Taney Jr. of Philadelphia, said the lawsuit has gotten a lot of attention because it involves sex, but is fundamentally about long-established law.
The Strange, But True Tale of a Communist Cowboy
A new German documentary, "The Red Elvis", tells the extraordinary tale of
Dean Reed from Denver, Colorado who became a star behind the Iron Curtain.
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evvz99I44uhbrxI7
Elvis Fans Boost Economies of 2 States
Aug 16, 6:34 AM (ET)
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Even from beyond the grave, Elvis Presley still generates big bucks. That's even more true this week.
Fans from Europe, Asia, Australia, South America - and even from exotic locales like Kansas - are spending their hard-earned money for T-shirts, coffee mugs, salt and pepper shakers, refrigerator magnets and other trinkets during the events commemorating his death 30 years ago.
Many are making the 110-mile trek from Memphis, Tenn., where the King of Rock 'n' Roll enjoyed his fame and gaudy fortune in Graceland, to Tupelo, the northeast Mississippi city where Elvis came into the world on Jan. 8, 1935, in a tiny shotgun shack built by his father.
They're also filling hotel rooms as far away as northwest Mississippi's casino row in Tunica and are spending money on meals, rental cars and gasoline, giving a significant, although difficult to quantify, boost to the area's economy.
Dick Guyton, executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation in Tupelo, estimated that fans will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars there and at area hotels and stores this week, which - even at the birthplace - is the busiest of the year for Elvis tourism.
The more lucrative earnings are in Memphis. Last year, Graceland took in $27 million in revenue, and the overall Elvis business brings in more than $40 million a year for CKX Inc. (CKXE), the New York-based company that controls most Elvis enterprises.
That made the King the second-highest grossing dead celebrity in 2006, behind only Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, according to Forbes magazine.
About 3,000 people went to Tupelo this past Saturday for an annual Fan Appreciation Day, and Guyton predicted the visitor totals could reach 5,000 by Friday.
Lillian Dunk, a 65-year-old homemaker from Birmingham, England, said she and her financial-broker husband have traveled to Tupelo every year since 1997 to feed her Elvis addiction.
"I'm just absolutely mad about Mr. Presley," said Dunk, who uses her favorite Elvis tune, the inspirational "If I Can Dream," as her cell phone ring tone.
Dunk said she and her husband are traveling with her sister and sister's husband for the 10-day trip. They're staying at a casino hotel in Tunica, about 20 miles south of Memphis. And, she wasn't shy in saying she and her husband were planning to spend about 4,000 British pounds - roughly $8,000 - not including air fare.
"I get withdrawal symptoms if I don't come every year," she said in a telephone interview from the birthplace. "I just absolutely love the place. I adore it. I just feel so relaxed here."
In Memphis on Wednesday, thousands of Presley fans braved 105-degree heat as they wound down Graceland's driveway in a graveside procession in advance of the 30th anniversary of the singer's death, on Thursday.
The heat led to the death of a fan from New Jersey, a 67-year-old woman. The Memphis Fire Department said it also treated at least six people overcome by heat, including an 8-year-old boy who was hospitalized.
Steve Martin, spokesman for the tourism division of the Mississippi Development Authority, said the agency doesn't specifically track spending for Elvis tourism. But he said for all tourists, the state figures two people traveling for three days will spend roughly $750.
In Tennessee, no one keeps exact figures, but the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated up to 75,000 people would be drawn to town for the anniversary week.
Even hotels, museums and restaurants not specifically targeted for Elvis-related events may have reason to hope, authorities said.
"We would have a crossover with the Elvis fans in terms of blues music," Martin said. "If they're that close to the birthplace of the blues, they might go other places, too." http://www.elvis.com
TALKING TO ANGELS
Norway's Princess To Teach How To Talk To Angels
Norwegian Princess Martha Louise announced that she is clairvoyant and wants to help people by teaching them how to talk to angels.
The 35-year-old trained physical therapist and daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja said on a Web site for her alternative education centre that she has been communicating with angels since childhood.
The Astarte Education centre which she co-founded promises to teach students to "create miracles" in their lives "with angels and with your own force".
"I've always been interested in alternative forms of treatment," Martha Louise said in a statement on Web site http://www.astarte-education.com.
"It was while I dealt with horses that I first got in touch with angels. I later came to understand the value of this enormous gift and would like to share it with others."
The Royal Palace confirmed that the Web site accurately reflected the Princess's views but declined further comment.
Martha Louise's younger brother, Crown Prince Haakon is next in line for the Norwegian throne.
The alternative centre's three-year programme costs 24,000 Norwegian crowns ($4,191) per year.
http://www.astarte-education.com
Mysterious Blonde Appears Nude In German Shop
A mysterious blonde paid a visit to a petrol station shop in the small eastern German town of Doemitz on Sunday -- wearing nothing.
A mysterious blonde paid a visit to a petrol station shop in the small eastern German town of Doemitz on Sunday -- wearing nothing but a pair of golden stilettos and a thin gold bracelet.
The tall, slender woman strolled into the shop in the town of Doemitz on the warm afternoon and bought cigarettes, petrol station employee Ines Swoboda told Reuters on Monday.
"I wasn't surprised because she's come in naked before -- she's a very nice woman," Swoboda said, adding none of the other customers was bothered. The woman could have faced charges of creating a public disturbance if anyone had complained.
A quick-witted customer did, however, snap pictures of the woman believed to be about 30 years old as she walked back to a waiting Ferrari and climbed into the passenger seat. Several of those photos appeared in the German media on Monday. Wanted: Naked adults for Greenpeace:
August 18 and 19 on Alpine Glaciers
Geneva - Greenpeace said on Wednesday it was looking for hundreds of volunteers to parade in the nude on an ice-cold Swiss glacier for an environmental campaign about global warming.
The Swiss branch of the environmental group said it was looking for as many adult volunteers as possible to take part in the publicity campaign, to be shot by photographer Spencer Tunick.
The campaign is aimed at drawing attention to melting Alpine glaciers, a clear sign of global warming and man-made climate change according to the organisation.
Greenpeace said the human body was as vulnerable as the glaciers and the world's environment. The campaign group hopes the sight of people exposed to the cold will help mobilise public opinion and politicians.
"We have to act without delay, otherwise it will be too late," Greenpeace Switzerland campaign director Markus Alleman said in a statement.
"Even though the facts are clear, they're obviously not enough to make the decision makers act. It's time to stir people's emotions," he added.
Tunick is renowned for his spectacular photoshoots involving hundreds if not thousands of naked people grouped in carefully chosen poses around landmarks. He calls them "living sculptures" or "body landscapes".
His backdrops have include the Gateshead Centre for Contemporary Art in Britain (2005), the Biennale in Lyon, France (2005), a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio (2004) and Grand Central Station in New York (2003).
About 18,000 nudes posed for the US-born photographer in Mexico City's Zocalo Square in May.
The Alpine photo session at an undisclosed location in Switzerland is being scheduled for August 18 and 19, when summer sunshine normally soothes the impact of freezing temperatures at high altitude in the mountains.
Volunteers applying on Greenpeace Switzerland's website were promised that they "won't be naked for very long".
http://www.greenpeace.ch/tunickglacier 
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a baby...
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman -- but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.
Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.
The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realizing their baby was "for real."
They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters.
Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.
"No matter what its going to stay 4Real," Wheaton told the Herald, "I'm certainly not a quitter."
A spokesman for the Department of Internal Affairs, which operates the registry told the Herald discussions with the Wheatons about their son's name were continuing.
The baby is now two months old, after the Wheatons first applied to register his name in later June.
China's Rare White River Dolphin Likely Extinct
SHANGHAI (AFP) - China's rapid industrialisation has likely made extinct a species of fresh water dolphin that had been on Earth for over 20 million years, Chinese and British biologists said Wednesday.
Scientists from China, Japan, Britain and the United States failed to find the white dolphin, known as the baiji, during a six-week search of its natural habitat in the Yangtze river last year.
"This result means the baiji is likely extinct," Wang Ding, co-author of the survey and one of the world's leading experts on the species, told AFP.
The dolphin was a victim of devastating pollution, illegal fishing and heavy cargo traffic on the Yangtze, Wang said.
The findings mean the baiji is likely the first mammal to become extinct in more than 50 years. It is the cousin of the bottlenose dolphin, which is also on the critically endangered list.
Wang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasised that not all hope was lost for the dolphin, which had made its home along the lower reaches of China's now heavily polluted Yangtze River for more than 20 million years.
"We are not saying the baiji is already gone," he said.
But he lamented that further searches this year had failed to find any sign of the dolphin.
Wang said that a letter written by the survey team had been published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Biology Letters journal in Britain to confirm the dolphin was believed to be extinct.
The baiji, identifiable by its long, teeth-filled snout and low dorsal fin, was last officially sighted more than two years ago.
The last confirmed count by a research team was conducted in 1997, when just 13 were recorded.
Up to 5,000 baiji were believed to have lived in the Yangtze less than a century ago, according to the baiji.org website, which was established by a range of international conservation groups.
"The decline in the baiji population has been caused by extreme human pressure on its freshwater habitat," the website said, blaming illegal fishing and massive discharges of industrial and agricultural waste into the river.
Other rare species that live in the Yangtze, such as the Chinese sturgeon and the finless porpoise, are also in danger of extinction.
The British-based zoologist who also worked on the six-week search meanwhile said the loss of the Yangste dolphin was a huge blow.
"The loss of such a unique and charismatic species is a shocking tragedy," said co-author Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London.
"The Yangtze River dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago."
International environmental group WWF has warned that river dolphins are key indicators of a river's health and of the availability of clean water for people living on its banks.
"River dolphins are the watchdogs of the water," said Jamie Pittock, head of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme in a recent alert over their fate.
"The high levels of toxic pollutants accumulating in their bodies are a stark warning of poor water quality. This is a problem for both dolphins and the people dependent on these rivers," he added.
Turvey added: "This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."
http://www.baiji.org/start.html
Habitat Loss Threatens Pygmy Elephants
By VIJAY JOSHI
Associated Press Writer
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Satellite tracking of pygmy elephants has found that the endangered animals — unique to Borneo island — are under threat due to logging and commercial plantations encroaching on their habitat, conservationists said Thursday.
A World Wildlife Fund study, based on two years of satellite tracking, found that pygmy elephants thrive best in forests on flat lowlands and in river valleys — the same terrain preferred by loggers and oil palm plantations.
About 40 percent of forest in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where most pygmy elephants live, has been lost to logging, conversion for plantations and human settlement over the last four decades, WWF said.
Very little was known about pygmy elephants until a chance DNA analysis in 2003 revealed them to be a distinct subspecies of Asian elephants, which triggered a new effort to conserve them.
In June 2005, the WWF set in motion a landmark project to track pygmy elephants in the rain forests of Sabah by placing collars fitted with transmitters around the necks of five elephants, known to be leaders of their herds.
The collars beamed their locations via satellite to a WWF-Malaysia computer as often as once a day in the first study of its kind, providing valuable information about the elephants' grazing habits and movement patterns.
Data gathered so far reveals there are probably not more than 1,000 pygmy elephants left in Sabah — less than the 1,600 or so estimated previously.
The study revealed that pygmy elephants prefer lowland forests because there is more food of better quality.
"The areas that these elephants need to survive are the same forests where the most intensive logging in Sabah has taken place, because flatlands and valleys incur the lowest costs when extracting timber," said Raymond Alfred, head of WWF-Malaysia's Borneo Species Program.
The study also showed that elephants' movements are noticeably affected by human activities and forest disturbance. It found that some of the elephants were trekking five times as far as they normally would each day in search of food.
The loss of habitat brings them into more frequent contact with people and cultivated land, generating conflict with humans who sometimes capture or poison them to protect their farms.
While pygmy elephants can live in logged and secondary forests, it is crucial that their remaining habitat is managed in a sustainable manner and not converted into plantations, the WWF said.
Logging in elephant habitat should only occur if there is a long-term forest management plan in place, and oil palm plantations should be established on degraded, non-forested land devoid of elephants and orangutans, it said.
Malaysian officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but in the past they have accused Western activists of trying to undermine the palm oil industry by claiming that forest clearing in Malaysia and Indonesia is threatening wildlife. The government says most palm oil plantations are established where forests have already been cleared for other crops.
Alfred said an initiative aimed at conserving 92,650 square miles of rainforest straddling the border between Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia should ensure that most herds will have a home in the long term.
Adult pygmy elephants stand up to 8 feet tall — a foot or two shorter than mainland Asian elephants. They are more rotund and have smaller, babyish faces with longer tails that reach almost to the ground. They are also less aggressive than their Asian counterparts.
Though smaller than its cousins, an adult pygmy elephant can still devour up to 330 pounds of vegetation each day. One of their favorite treats is the large, thorny and pungent durian fruit, which they often roll in mud to gulp it down whole, spikes and all.
Tornado in Brooklyn
New York City Storm Wake-Up
Wednesday, 08 Aug 2007
Heavy rain and thunderstorms brought down trees in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. A tornado warning had been issued for the area for several hours. It's not clear if a tornado touched down. SideBar
MyFoxNY.com -- Some people in Bay Ridge Brooklyn think a tornado touched down early Wednesday in a storm that killed one woman. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that at least 40 buildings in Brooklyn had damage from the storm.
The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning in the 6 a.m. hour for Brooklyn. It expired at 7 a.m.
New York Weather Authority Mike Woods says Fox 5 Sky Guardian showed conditions that could have spawned a tornado. The National Weather Service will send an investigator to the scene to determine if a tornado hit the area.
Heavy rains caused localized flooding and Fox 5 news crews showed dozens of downed trees. Several trees crushed cars and roads were blocked.
A woman on Narrows Avenue reports a tree that would rival the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was uprooted on her block.
There were some power outages reported in the area. That's bad news as it will be a hot and humid afternoon in New York City. The temperatures could climb to over 100 degrees.
At a 12:15 p.m. news conference Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a woman on Staten Island has died as a result of the storm.
Rodents Plague Northern Spain
By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
(08-08) 11:24 PDT MADRID, Spain (AP) --
It's been a messy summer in Spain: a blackout in Barcelona, an oil spill in the Mediterranean and giant schools of jellyfish lurking off beaches packed with vacationers.
Now comes another woe: millions of mouse-like rodents called voles feasting on beets and potatoes in an infestation that has prompted desperation in one of Spain's agricultural heartlands.
The invasion of Castille-Leon in north-central Spain began gently 10 months ago but has snowballed to stunning proportions. Farmers' unions say the region is crawling with an estimated 7.5 million voles. The local government doesn't know the cause, or the solution.
Spanish television aired footage of scores of voles darting in and out of holes in what would normally be rich, healthy farmland, or quivering in the throes of death brought on by pesticide. Some of the critters have even made it into gardens of homes in the region's main city, Valladolid, according to news reports.
"There has never been a plague like the one we have now," said the Castille-Leon regional agriculture minister, Silvia Clemente. Officials have asked agronomists, veterinarians and biologists what on earth is happening and nobody really knows, she told Cadena Ser radio.
"There are no measures that have been proven to work against a plague of these characteristics," Clemente said.
For now, crews are fighting with fire. They started igniting controlled blazes Wednesday on harvested farmland to try to kill off the pests, acting with utmost care to keep the flames from spreading to bone-dry terrain prone to forest fires.
Jose Antonio del Brio, head of the local farmers' association in the town of Fresno el Viejo, where the first fires were set, said literally every farm in the area is being eaten by voles. First it was the grain crops — 40 percent lost to the critters — and now beets, potatoes and corn are on the menu.
"We cannot do anything against these animals, who are taking food out of our children's mouths," del Brio said.
A vole problem was first detected in Castille-Leon last September. Then, officials used chemicals to try to kill them off, but ecological groups filed a complaint and the practice was halted. The vole population suddenly exploded.
"Nothing of what is happening with this plague falls within the expected because there are no precedents," Clemente said.
Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person'
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV.
But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person—at least not yet.
In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person."
Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.
"Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.
"We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said.
"We're not talking about the right to vote here."
The campaign began after the animal sanctuary where Hiasl (pronounced HEE-zul) and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years went bankrupt.
Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless if the shelter closes. Both have already suffered: They were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.
Their food and veterinary bills run about $6,800 a month. Donors have offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal donations.
Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Hiasl, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But without basic rights, they contend, he could be sold to someone outside Austria, where the chimp is protected by strict animal cruelty laws.
"If we can get Hiasl declared a person, he would have the right to own property. Then, if people wanted to donate something to him, he'd have the right to receive it," said Theuer, who has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
Austria isn't the only country where primate rights are being debated. Spain's parliament is considering a bill that would endorse the Great Ape Project, a Seattle-based international initiative to extend "fundamental moral and legal protections" to apes.
If Hiasl gets a guardian, "it will be the first time the species barrier will have been crossed for legal 'personhood,'" said Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, which is working to end the use of primates in research.
Paula Stibbe, a Briton who teaches English in Vienna, petitioned a district court to be Hiasl's legal trustee. On April 24, Judge Barbara Bart rejected her request, ruling Hiasl didn't meet two key tests: He is neither mentally impaired nor in an emergency.
Although Bart expressed concern that awarding Hiasl a guardian could create the impression that animals enjoy the same legal status as humans, she didn't rule that he could never be considered a person.
Martin Balluch, who heads the Association Against Animal Factories, has asked a federal court for a ruling on the guardianship issue.
"Chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA with humans," he said. "OK, they're not homo sapiens. But they're obviously also not things—the only other option the law provides."
Not all Austrian animal rights activists back the legal challenge. Michael Antolini, president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said he thinks it's absurd.
"I'm not about to make myself look like a fool" by getting involved, said Antolini, who worries that chimpanzees could gain broader rights, such as copyright protections on their photographs.
But Stibbe, who brings Hiasl sweets and yogurt and watches him draw and clown around by dressing up in knee-high rubber boots, insists he deserves more legal rights "than bricks or apples or potatoes."
"He can be very playful but also thoughtful," she said. "Being with him is like playing with someone who can't talk."
A date for the appeal hasn't been set, but Hiasl's legal team has lined up expert witnesses, including Jane Goodall, the world's foremost observer of chimpanzee behavior.
"When you see Hiasl, he really comes across as a person," Theuer said.
"He has a real personality. It strikes you immediately: This is an individual. You just have to look him in the eye to see that."
Great Ape Project, http://www.greatapeproject.org
Animal Defenders International, http://www.ad-international.org
