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Mass Extinction is at Hand: No Longer a Future Event!

After surviving 20 million years,
China's "Goddess of the River" is driven to
EXTINCTION

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
18 December 2006

For 20 million years, the white-fin dolphin, or baiji, swam China's longest river, the Yangtze. But a few years of breakneck development, overfishing and a massive increase in shipping have reduced sightings of this shy, graceful creature to zero.

A recent expedition failed to spot a single Lipotes vexillifer, and now conservationists fear the almost-blind, long-beaked animal is gone for good, the first big aquatic mammal to become extinct due to human activity.

"We have to accept the fact that the baiji is extinct. It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world," said the joint leader of the expedition, August Pfluger, an economist who runs the Swiss-based baiji.org, an environmental group dedicated to saving the dolphins.

Scientists say the search for the dolphin will continue, even though the 30-strong team which has plied the length of the Yangtze for the past six weeks failed to sight the cetacean.

Measuring up to 8ft 2in (2.5 metres) in length, the baiji is a relative of other freshwater dolphins in the Mekong, Indus, Ganges and Amazon rivers.

It used to be worshipped as a goddess by the Chinese. According to legend, the baiji is the reincarnation of a princess who refused to marry a man she did not love and was drowned by her father for shaming the family.

When it was listed as one of the most endangered species in the world in 1986, there were still 400 white-fin dolphins alive, but the population dropped alarmingly to fewer than 150 over the past decade. A survey in 1997 listed just 13 sightings, with the last confirmed sighting in 2004. The final baiji in captivity, Qi Qi, died in 2002.

Keen to repeat the success at breeding endangered species that it had with pandas, the Chinese government set up a reserve in a lake in central Hubei province to look after captured baiji, but could not find any of the dolphins to start an artificial propagation programme.

The expedition surveyed the 1,700km river using acoustic equipment to detect the sound of dolphins. There is some slight hope, as some of the sounds gathered have yet to be identified. But as Mr Pfluger says, even if one or two dolphins are left, they are ultimately doomed.

If the dolphin is indeed extinct, it will be the first big aquatic mammal to disappear since hunters killed off the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s.

Wang Ding, a scientist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the team of 25 scientists from China, the US, Britain, Japan, Germany and Switzerland, said the search would go on as there might still be some left. "We will try every effort to save them as long as it is not announced to be extinct," he said, adding that the monitoring of hot spots and small-scale searches would continue.

"The expedition only covered the main section of the Yangtze River and the scientists only searched for the dolphins eight hours a day, which means some dolphins might have been missed," he said. By definition, an animal is declared extinct only if it has not been seen in the wild for 50 years, he pointed out.

The white-fin dolphin is top of food chain in the Yangtze and has no natural enemies, except for man. The Yangtze is also China's busiest waterway, and the baiji shared the river with huge ships, tugboats and fishing boats.

Experts describe the white-fin dolphin, which is native to China, as a living fossil as it has not changed in appearance since it first entered the Yangtze from the sea.

China's dolphins are in trouble, facing threats from pollution and economic expansion. The expedition also highlighted the threats to other species. They spotted about 300 members of another endangered species of freshwater mammal, the Yangtze finless porpoise, far fewer than expected.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2083841.ece




WEATHER REPORT

Trees can fight global warming

Livermore, Calif. (UPI) Dec 15, 2006

Planting trees can help fight global warming if they're planted in the right spots, U.S. and French climate experts say.

Tree-planting programs in the tropics work because tropical forests not only absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, but also increase cloudiness, which helps cool the planet, said Govindasamy Bala of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. Bala worked with scientists from University of Montpellier in France.

The team used computer models to predict what would happen to global temperatures in 2100 if forests were removed in 2000, NewScientist.com said Friday. Bala said this study differs from others because the models not only included trees' carbon-storing effects but also considered the trees' release of vapor and their foliage absorbing extra heat.

"The value of our study is that it provides guidance on where the trees should be planted if the main purpose is to slow down global warming," Bala said.

Study_Trees_CAN_fight_global_warming




The Polar Bears' Last Stand

By Annika Thomé
December 23, 2005
CLIMATE CHANGE
Spiegel Online

Global warming is causing famine-like conditions for polar bears in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The feeding season is shorter and the ice is thinner -- bears are slowly starving, weak bears are drowning and they are leaving behind orphans. Scientists in Canada are trying to save the species by finding foster families for orphaned cubs.

Anyone who lives in Churchill in the North Canadian province of Manitoba knows the polar bear hotline number by heart. Local residents have good reason to: every year, between October and January, this 1,000-strong community is a favorite stomping ground of polar bears. Indeed, the number of bears passing through the city in a year often outnumbers the population of humans, making this the "Polar Bear Capital of the World."

Global warming literally has polar bears walking on thin ice and in danger of extinction.

Around this time hundreds of the large land-living carnivores roam the area. After a meager summer spent in the tundra, the bears are now waiting, with rumbling stomachs, for the Hudson Bay to freeze over, so that they can go back to hunting seals on the massive ice floes.

Recently, the residents of Churchill have been forced to call the polar bear emergency number more often than ever. The effects of climate change on the bears' natural habitat is causing the furry white giants to become more aggressive.

The period in which the ice is stable enough to support fully grown bears is getting ever shorter. Each year, the winter arrives later and later, and in spring the ice starts to melt earlier. The result is that the bears don't get the chance to eat enough to build up the layer of fat necessary to keep them warm. On average, today's polar bears weigh 80 to 90 kilograms less than they did 15 years ago. Only rarely do the largest male bears reach their maximum natural weight of 1 ton.

Often animals weak from hunger end up drowning because they have dared to venture out too early onto dangerously thin ice. The young left behind don't stand a chance of surviving in the wild alone.



Finding surrogate mothers for orphaned cubs

Kim Daley, a 34-year-old Canadian biologist who works for the Born Free Foundation, looks after these orphaned cubs. "We give young animals who have been left to fend for themselves a second chance in the wild," she says, as she tramps through the snow in her green down-jacket and lined rubber boots.

But Daley is only now starting to realize just how difficult it is to find surrogate parents for the young animals. She recently managed for the first time to follow the fate of an adopted cub using transmitters that give the animal's location. It turned out to be a frustrating experience.

The biologist spotted the perfect surrogate mother for her nine-month-old charge by plane: a female polar bear, which was well-fed and had a cub of a similar age. The bear was traveling east of the Nelson River, a good 300 kilometers away from Churchill. Daley notified her colleagues by radio, who immediately anaesthetized the foundling and loaded it into a helicopter.

Before uniting the foundling with its new family, Daley tranquilized the surrogate mother bear. "We marked her back orange and checked whether she had enough milk," the biologist explains. A collar, with an inbuilt radio transmitter which would give the animal's whereabouts, was also attached to the bear's neck.

The crew carefully placed the orphaned cub between the sleeping bear and her own offspring. The problem remained that female bears don't accept cubs with a foreign smell. To trick the bear's sensitive sense of smell, Daley used Vicks VapoRub. She spread the medication generously over the snout, head and rear of the bears to mask the foreign cub's scent.

From the air, the biologist saw the older bear lift her head, sniff the cubs and gently nudge them awake. With fuel running low, the team was then forced to head home.

A few weeks later the pilots of the Hudson Bay Helicopters fleet reported seeing the three bears still harmoniously together. But then, on further observation flights, the pilots noticed that suddenly only two were left. "There was no trace of our foundling. Chances are slim that it has found another mother or has survived alone," Daley says. The small bear has probably starved to death.

Female polar bears generally give birth to one or two cubs. They are as small as rats, weighing about 600 grams. Thanks to the mother's nutritious milk, they quickly put on weight. Normally the mother polar bear leaves her young to fend for themselves when they are about two-and-a-half years old.

Polar bears live under year round protected status in Canada. Indigenous people are only allowed to shoot the animals for their own needs. But it's not food people are looking for when they hunt the large animals -- polar bear meat often contains parasites, such as threadworms, which nest in the small intestine and muscles and can be deadly for humans. That, however, doesn't deter criminals, who want to get their hands on the bear's fur, a highly sought-after trophy. Each year, some 700 polar bears in Canada fall victim to poachers. Experts estimate that there are a mere 15,000 polar bears left in Canada out of a total estimated world population of barely 22,000.

Bad news for tourism

The shrinking population has hit Churchill particularly hard and is something which has worried local residents for a long time now -- Churchill's survival depends on bear tourism.

Every winter hundreds of adventurers and photographers make the pilgrimage to the frozen peacefulness of Canada's wilderness. Well-heeled tourists spend their entire Christmas vacation in barracks and containers, freeze their toes blue in temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius and bounce along former military trails in uncomfortable, frozen snow-buggies -- all in order to, for once in their lives, see a polar bear in the wild.

But the four-legged animals can also be viewed in captivity. Near the airport up to 22 polar bears sit behind bars -- in their search for food these animals had come a little too close to the residents of Churchill for comfort.

The gamekeepers on call certainly have quite a job on their hands. The animals are inoculated, weighed and tattooed. Only then are they allowed to be released. The large white animals are then finally transported back on to the ice by helicopters, far enough north of Churchill so that they no longer pose a threat.

Polar Bears Threatened with Disappearance: The Story



Attention News Editors:
WWF-Canada - Available for Comment

TORONTO, Dec. 27 /CNW/ - WWF-Canada is available for comment on the
rapidly spreading news regarding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's apparent
decision to recognize polar bears as "Threatened" under the U.S. Endangered
Species Act. Nearly 2/3 of the world's polar bears live in Canada.

<< - WWF-Canada praises the agency for this decision, based on solid science and criteria. - WWF-Canada supports the petition to classify the species as threatened, based on a large volume of very compelling information about significant changes in the polar bear's habitat - the Arctic sea ice. Polar bears hunt, feed, mate and frequently den on the sea ice. Yet this ocean habitat is vanishing as a result of warming air and sea temperatures. - WWF is a global leader in polar bear conservation, working with communities, scientists, and government agencies around the Arctic to protect polar bears - a symbol of Arctic wildlife. >>

For further information: Contacts: Dr. Peter Ewins, Director, Species
Conservation, (647) 400-9576; Josh Laughren, Director Communications, (647)
400-9578; More information can be found at http://wwf.ca

http://www.savebiogems.org/



Researchers:
Holiday Baking Impacts Puget Sound

Dec 26 2007

SEATTLE (AP) - Researchers at the University of Washington say all that holiday baking and eating has an environmental impact - Puget Sound is being flavored by cinnamon and vanilla. "Even something as fun as baking for the holiday season has an environmental effect," said Rick Keil, an associate professor of chemical oceanography. "When we bake and change the way we eat, it has an impact on what the environment sees. To me it shows the connectedness."

Keil and UW researcher Jacquelyn Neibauer's weekly tests of treated sewage sent into the sound from the West Point treatment plant in Magnolia showed cinnamon, vanilla and artificial vanilla levels rose between Nov. 14 and Dec. 9, with the biggest spike right after Thanksgiving.

Natural vanilla showed the largest increase, "perhaps indicative of more home baking using natural vanilla," Keil and Neibauer wrote.

"This conjecture is weakly supported by a verbal communication between Rick Keil and an employee of the Wallingford QFC (supermarket) who felt that natural vanilla peaked during the holiday seasons," the scientists' preliminary report says. "This will be investigated more thoroughly."

So far, the research has turned up no evidence that snickerdoodles are harming sea creatures, but their research does lead to some serious environmental questions. Fish rely heavily on their sense of smell to locate food, for example, and, in the case of salmon, to find their way back to their home stream to spawn.

"All the spices have odors associated with them, so it's interesting to ask whether they are there in sufficient concentration (for fish) to smell them," Keil said.

Using benchmarks from a published scientific study, they were able to estimate that people in Seattle and a few outlying areas served by the sewage plant scarfed down the daily equivalent of about 160,000 butter- or chocolate-chip-type cookies and about 80,000 cookies containing cinnamon during the Thanksgiving weekend.

The county did not spend any money on the study, but officials at King County's Wastewater Treatment Division said they were happy to cooperate because they expected the results to reinforce their message: What goes down the drain has to come out somewhere.

That goes both for pesticides and industrial chemicals as well as vanilla and cinnamon.

"It's an ability to look at a whole population's behavior through one pipe," said Randy Schuman, a county science and technical support manager who helped arrange the wastewater testing.

Keil's findings present a light side of what scientists say is potentially a serious situation. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies have documented that antibiotics, contraceptives, perfumes, painkillers, antidepressants and other substances pass through the sewage system into waterways.

King County researchers several years took caffeine measurements to try to learn whether the city's coffee drinking habits had any effect on the sound. Caffeine was found in more than 160 of 216 samples in water as deep as 640 feet.

"It was everywhere," Schuman said. "There's an effect (from) humans on the sound and it's almost ubiquitous. It's not just at the end of the (discharge) pipe."



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Godfather of Soul Meets the Peacekeeper: Good Will to All

Rev. Sharpton:
Brown changed the world and a young preacher forever

Associated Press

NEW YORK: The Reverend Al Sharpton remembers spotting his mentor, James Brown, for the first time backstage just before an early 1970s concert. Brown, in front of a mirror combing his spiked hair, urged the impressionable teenager to aim high.

Brown advised Sharpton not to "go for little things — go for the whole hog." Then Brown, grabbing a microphone, kept talking right up to when he put the microphone to his lips and sang.

The startled Sharpton realized he had followed his American idol on stage.

"I didn't know what to do so I started dancing," Sharpton recalled Monday in an interview. Later, he sobbed as he spoke at a news conference, shortly before leaving for Georgia to see Brown's daughters and offer help planning the funeral.

After that fateful concert in Newark, New Jersey, Brown supported Sharpton's fledgling youth group and brought him along so often on concerts that people thought Sharpton was Brown's road manager.

The tight bond developed in part because Brown's teenage son, an aspiring lawyer who joined Sharpton's youth group and arranged the first meeting between Sharpton and Brown, died soon afterward.

Their father-and-son relationship continued to the end when Sharpton learned of Brown's death in a 3 a.m. Christmas call from Brown's manager. The manager told Sharpton he and Brown were talking on the phone at 1:45 a.m. about old times when Brown took two breaths "and went out."

Sharpton called the death "the heaviest loss I've ever endured," and said he hopes Brown gets acknowledged in death for the full effect he had on music, social trends and blacks.

"I don't think he ever got his credit because people saw him just as the show man and not the music innovator and the social innovator that he was," Sharpton said. "He changed the perception of regular blacks. He wasn't tall, light skinned. He wasn't polished. He was us. It meant the rest of us could make it."

Sharpton called Brown "a person of epic proportions" and said his influence on music from soul to hip-hop to rap and beyond was as great as "what Bach was to classical music." His accomplishments were even more impressive because Brown, Sharpton said, never took a music or vocal lesson and never wrote music, preferring to gather musicians around and hum out a beat.

"This is a guy who literally changed the music industry," Sharpton said. "He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music. He pioneered it."

Sharpton said Brown also will be remembered for his effect on the country's social fiber.

"It was James Brown that made it fashionable to stop calling blacks Negro," he said. "Even though he had his legal difficulties, no one stopped giving him respect."

Throughout their relationship, Sharpton said Brown kept coaching him, including in his last phone call a week ago when the man Sharpton said "made soul music a world music" spoke of the early days as well as a recent police shooting that left an unarmed black man dead on his wedding day.

During their final conversation, Brown told Sharpton that life in America for blacks had improved and worsened in some ways during his lifetime and he hoped the tradition of fighting injustice with love rather than violence continued.

"He was also disappointed that a lot of the artists had lowered their standards," Sharpton said. "He didn't like the profanity."

Sharpton said his friend cherished his honors, even if they missed the full impact of his achievements, and he was never bitter.

"I think he accepted some never get their due until after they're dead," he said.

Every day, Sharpton delivers on a promise he made to Brown a couple of decades ago when he asked the civil rights activist "to straighten your hair like mine so when people see you they think you're my son."

Brown often called Sharpton, urging: "I want you to keep it that way until I die."

Sharpton said he will never give up the look. "That's my bond with James Brown."

http://www.godfatherofsoul.com/



Fans Pay Tribute to the Late James Brown

Dec 26, 11:22 AM EST
By HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) -- "Godfather of Soul" James Brown remained the hardest working man in show business to the end, telling friends from his hospital bed that he'd be in Times Square on New Year's Eve, even though he had pneumonia.

His heart gave out a few hours later, on Christmas morning.

All Christmas day, famous fans from Mick Jagger to Snoop Dogg to the Rev. Al Sharpton shared memories of their mentor and idol, while lesser known fans left candles on Brown's Hollywood Walk of Fame star in Los Angeles and streamed to his statue in his boyhood hometown of Augusta, piling mementos and flowers at its base.

"Y'all lost the Godfather of Soul, but I lost my father. I know the whole world loved him just as much as we loved him, so we're not mourning by ourselves," Brown's daughter Venisha Brown told The Augusta Chornicle as she stood near the statue, fighting back tears.

The 73-year-old pompadoured dynamo, whose classic singles include "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)," died of heart failure less than two days after he had been hospitalized with pneumonia and only three days after leading his annual holiday toy giveaway in Augusta.

"I ain't got the same energy," Brown had told the New York Post a week earlier as he discussed his planned concert tour, "but I'm sharper."

"Father Time, knowledge and prayer - I pray a lot," Brown had said. He described himself as "like Will Rogers: I love everybody. So this is not a hard job for me."

The entertainer with the rough-edged voice and flashy footwork also had diabetes and prostate cancer that was in remission. But he initially seemed fine at the hospital and talked about his New Year's Eve show at B.B. King Blues Club in New York, said his agent, Frank Copsidas.

"Last night, he said, 'I'm going to be there. I'm the hardest working man in show business,'" Copsidas said Monday.

Brown was himself to the end, at one point saying, "I'm going away tonight," said friend Charles Bobbit, who was with Brown when he died.

"I didn't want to believe him," he said.

A short time later, Brown sighed quietly, closed his eyes and died, Bobbit said.

"His thing was 'I never saw a person that I didn't love.' He was a true humanitarian who loved his country," Bobbit said.



One of the major musical influences of the past 50 years, James Brown was to rhythm and dance music what Bob Dylan was to lyrics.

From Jagger to Michael Jackson, David Bowie to Public Enemy, his rapid-footed dancing, hard-charging beats and heartfelt yet often unintelligible vocals changed the musical landscape.

"He was a whirlwind of energy and precision, and he was always very generous and supportive to me in the early days of the Stones," Jagger said. "His passing is a huge loss to music."

Rapper Snoop Dogg called him "my soul inspiration."

Brown was one of the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

"He made soul music a world music," said Sharpton, who toured with Brown in the 1970s and imitates his hairstyle to this day. "What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music. This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music. He pioneered it."

Sharpton will officiate at Brown's funeral service, details of which were still incomplete, Copsidas said.

Brown's daughter-in-law Diane Dean Rouse told The Augusta Chronicle she hoped the funeral would be open to the people of Augusta.

"He would want it open because he would want everybody to get there and because that's who he loved," she said.

Brown won a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He had a brief but memorable role on the big screen as a manic preacher in the 1980's movie "The Blues Brothers."

Brown, who lived in Beech Island, S.C., near the Georgia line, also had a turbulent personal life that included charges of abusing drugs and alcohol. After a widely publicized, drug-fueled confrontation with police in 1988 that ended in an interstate car chase, Brown spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program.

From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" and often tried to prove it to his fans, said Jay Ross, his lawyer of 15 years.

Brown's stage act was as memorable, and as imitated, as his records, with his twirls and spins and flowing cape, his repeated faints to the floor at the end.

With his tight pants, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Jackson and Prince. And the early rap generation overwhelmingly sampled his music and voice as they laid the foundation of hip-hop culture.

His trademark moment of each performance was at the end: A weary, spent Brown begins to leave the stage, a cape thrown over his shoulders, then suddenly stops, shakes the cape off and rushes back to grab the microphone, his voice and feet moving at top speed all over again.

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," Brown told The AP in 2003.

Brown was born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, and abandoned as a 4 year old to the care of relatives and friends. He grew up in Augusta in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it, learning how to hustle to survive.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in reform school for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

"He was dramatic to the end - dying on Christmas Day," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Brown's since 1955. "Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He'll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way."

Brown is survived by his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, one of his backup singers, and at least four children - two daughters and sons Daryl and James Brown II, Copsidas said.

http://www.columbian.com/entertainmentNews



World Leaders Call for Peace on Holiday

By TARIQ PANJA

(AP) Christian nuns pray inside the Grotto, the site where Christians believe Jesus was born, within the...


LONDON (AP) - From soldiers who donned red Santa hats in Afghanistan to devoted worshippers visiting Bethlehem, Christians around the world celebrated Christmas with the sobering thoughts of peace and tolerance even as open war flared in Somalia.

Pope Benedict XVI used his Christmas Day address at the Vatican to call for a peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide and appealed for greater caring of the poor, the exploited and all who suffer.

Speaking from a balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square, the pontiff called for peace in the Middle East, noting in particular the long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

"I place in the hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem the indications of a resumption of dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which we have witnessed in recent days, and the hope of further encouraging developments," Benedict said in his annual address.

At the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, pews were packed with hundreds of worshippers, but foreign visitors critical to the town's economy were largely absent, deterred by recent Palestinian infighting and the conflict with Israel.

Spirits were high, however, among the few foreign pilgrims who made their way to Manger Square to celebrate Christmas in the West Bank town.

"The experience was incredible," said Nick Parker, 24, of Goodland, Kan., who was making his first visit. "I could feel the true spirit of Christmas here in Bethlehem."

The theme of Middle East peace resonated with others. Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, fresh from a visit to the Holy Land, said in his annual address as spiritual leader of the world's Anglican Communion that the world must not turn its back on Israelis or Palestinians.

Queen Elizabeth II, in her annual Christmas broadcast, called for religious tolerance and mutual respect between the young and old in a fast-changing world.

"It is very easy to concentrate on the differences between the religious faiths and to forget what they have in common - people of different faiths are bound together by the need to help the younger generation to become considerate and active citizens," the monarch said.

In Southeast Asia, Christians in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, ignored terror warnings and flocked to heavily guarded churches.

Foreign troops in Afghanistan woke up to a white Christmas and snowball fights. Soldiers wearing red Santa hats and even a couple dressed as elves walked around Camp Eggers, the main U.S. base in Kabul, the capital.

Shoppers packed malls awash with tinsel, plastic pine trees and special promotions in mostly Buddhist Japan and predominantly Hindu India, reflecting the spread of the season's commercial appeal.

For many of those celebrating the holidays in Sri Lanka there was no cake this year. The price of eggs and butter has risen sixfold following the resumption of a civil war that has led to spiraling inflation on the island state just off India's southern tip.

In China, where the government allows worship only in churches, mosques and temples run by state-monitored religious groups, the English-language China Daily ran a front-page photo of a Mass in Shanghai and published several comments urging tolerance - in response to recent calls for Chinese to resist imported holidays.

"Our national culture will not fade only because people are celebrating foreign holidays," one said.

People in Australia's drought-affected southeast danced in the streets as summer rains drenched wildfires that had burned out of control for three weeks, enabling around 800 volunteer firefighters to go home to their families for Christmas.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061225/D8M869V80.html





The Rumor Mill, an audio production company, recently released The Rumor Mill's Christmas on Clinton St. The album features the usual holiday standards, though they are sung under the "dark and stormy" influence of a potentially globally-warmed planet.

Produced by J. Ralph and Arthur Pingrey, the album features up and coming artists like Megan Wyler (she's the voice behind the Johnny Cash cover of "Walk the Line" featured in this Levi's commercial), Leah Siegel, Nicole Renaud, Baptiste Ibar and CH fave Angela McCluskey among others.

The "Frosty the Snowman" video is a stop action animation short directed by Sean Donnelly and Abbey Luck, and is accompanied by Angela's chilling rendition of the song (check out her 2004 album "The Things We Do" for more of her one-of-a-kind voice and style).

A percentage of profits from The Rumor Mill's Christmas on Clinton St., which is available exclusively on iTunes, benefit http://StopGlobalWarming.org.

And to top it off, the album is carbon neutral; emissions were offset by purchasing credits at Native Energy.




Worship God not technology, pope says

Reuters
December 25, 2006, 7:32 AM PT

Humankind, which has reached other planets and decoded the genetic instructions for life, should not presume it can live without God, Pope Benedict said in his Christmas message on Monday.

In an age of unbridled consumerism it was shameful many remained deaf to the "heart-rending cry" of those dying of hunger, thirst, disease, poverty, war and terrorism, he said.

"Does a 'Saviour' still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium?" he asked in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message to the faithful in St Peter's Square, broadcast live to millions in 40 countries.

"Is a 'Saviour' still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which knows no limits in its pursuit of nature's secrets and which has succeeded even in deciphering the marvelous codes of the human genome?"

He appealed for peace and justice in the Middle East, an end to the brutal violence in Iraq and to the fratricidal conflict in Darfur and other parts of Africa, and expressed his hope for "a democratic Lebanon."

Speaking to tens of thousands of people in a sunny square, he wished the world a Happy Christmas in 62 languages--including Arabic, Hebrew, Mongolian and Latin--but his speech highlighted his preoccupation with humanity's fate.

"People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism," he said from the central balcony of Christendom's largest church.

"Some people remain enslaved, exploited and stripped of their dignity; others are victims of racial and religious hatred, hampered by intolerance and discrimination, and by political interference and physical or moral coercion with regard to the free profession of their faith.

"Others see their own bodies and those of their dear ones, particularly their children, maimed by weaponry, by terrorism and by all sorts of violence, at a time when everyone invokes and acclaims progress, solidarity and peace for all."



"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men."
-St. Francis of Assisi

The Peaceful Crusader

By THOMAS CAHILL
December 25, 2006
NY Times Op-Ed

AMID all the useless bloodshed of the Crusades, there is one story that suggests an extended clash of civilizations between Islam and the West was not preordained. It concerns the early 13th-century friar Francis of Assisi, who joined the Fifth Crusade not as a warrior but as a peacemaker.

Francis was no good at organization or strategy and he knew it. He accepted the men and women who presented themselves as followers, befriended them and shared the Gospel with them. But he gave them little else. He expected them to live like him: rejecting distinctions of class, forgoing honors of church or king or commune, taking the words of Jesus literally, owning nothing, suffering for God’s sake, befriending every outcast — leper, heretic, highwayman — thrust in their path.

Francis was not impressed by the Crusaders, whose sacrilegious brutality horrified him. They were entirely too fond of taunting and abusing their prisoners of war, who were often returned to their families minus nose, lips, ears or eyes.

In Francis’ view, judgment was the exclusive province of the all-merciful God; it was none of a Christian’s concern. True Christians were to befriend all yet condemn no one. Give to others, and it shall be given to you, forgive and you shall be forgiven, was Francis’ constant preaching. “May the Lord give you peace” was the best greeting one could give to all one met. It compromised no one’s dignity and embraced every good; it was a blessing to be bestowed indiscriminately. Francis bestowed it on people named George and Jacques and on people named Osama and Saddam. Such an approach, in an age when the most visible signs of the Christian religion were the wars and atrocities of the red-crossed crusaders, was shockingly otherworldly and slyly effective.

Symbolic gesture, Francis’ natural language, was a profound source he called on throughout his life. In one of its most poignant expressions, Francis sailed across the Mediterranean to the Egyptian court of al-Malik al-Kamil, nephew of the great Saladin who had defeated the forces of the hapless Third Crusade. Francis was admitted to the august presence of the sultan himself and spoke to him of Christ, who was, after all, Francis’ only subject.

Trying to proselytize a Muslim was cause for on-the-spot decapitation, but Kamil was a wise and moderate man, who was deeply impressed by Francis’ courage and sincerity and invited him to stay for a week of serious conversation. Francis, in turn, was deeply impressed by the religious devotion of the Muslims, especially by their five daily calls to prayer; it is quite possible that the thrice-daily recitation of the Angelus that became current in Europe after this visit was precipitated by the impression made on Francis by the call of the muezzin (just as the quintessential Catholic devotion of the rosary derives from Muslim prayer beads).

It is a tragedy of history that Kamil and Francis were unable to talk longer, to coordinate their strengths and form an alliance. Had they been able to do so, the phrase “clash of civilizations” might be unknown to our world.

Francis went back to the Crusader camp on the Egyptian shore and desperately tried to convince Cardinal Pelagius Galvani, whom Pope Honorius III had put in charge of the Crusade, that he should make peace with the sultan, who, despite far greater force on his side, was all too ready to do so. But the cardinal had dreams of military glory and would not listen. His eventual failure, amid terrible loss of life, brought the age of the crusades to its inglorious end.

Donald Spoto, one of Francis of Assisi’s most recent biographers, rightly calls Francis “the first person from the West to travel to another continent with the revolutionary idea of peacemaking.” As a result of his inability to convince Cardinal Pelagius, however, Francis saw himself as a failure. Like his model, Jesus of Nazareth, Francis was an extremist. But his failure is still capable of bearing new fruit.

Islamic society and Christian society have been generally bad neighbors now for nearly 14 centuries, eager to misunderstand each other, often borrowing culturally and intellectually from each other without ever bestowing proper credit. But as Sir Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth, has written, almost as if he was thinking of Kamil and Francis, “Those who are confident of their faith are not threatened but enlarged by the different faiths of others. ... There are, surely, many ways of arriving at this generosity of spirit and each faith may need to find its own.” We stand in desperate need of contemporary figures like Kamil and Francis of Assisi to create an innovative dialogue. To build a future better than our past, we need, as Rabbi Sacks has put it, “the confidence to recognize the irreducible, glorious dignity of difference.”

May the Lord give you peace.

Thomas Cahill is the author of “Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art From the Cults of Catholic Europe.”



Here is the text of Pope Benedict XVI's 'Urbi et Orbi'
The Associated PressPublished: December 25, 2006

The Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Benedict XVI's "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas Day address, delivered in Italian from the balcony in St. Peter's Basilica.

"Our Saviour is born to the world!" During the night, in our Churches, we again heard this message that, notwithstanding the passage of the centuries, remains ever new. It is the heavenly message that tells us to fear not, for "a great joy" has come "to all the people" (Lk 1:10). It is a message of hope, for it tells us that, on that night over two thousand years ago, there "was born in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:11). The Angel of Christmas announced it then to the shepherds out on the hills of Bethlehem; today the Angel repeats it to us, to all who dwell in our world: "The Saviour is born; he is born for you! Come, come, let us adore him!".

But does a "Saviour" still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium? Is a "Saviour" still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which knows no limits in its pursuit of natures secrets and which has succeeded even in deciphering the marvelous codes of the human genome? Is a Saviour needed by a humanity which has invented interactive communication, which navigates in the virtual ocean of the Internet and, thanks to the most advanced modern communications technologies, has now made the Earth, our great common home, a global village? This humanity of the 21st century appears as a sure and self-sufficient master of its own destiny, the avid proponent of uncontested triumphs.

So it would seem, yet this is not the case. People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism. Some people remain enslaved, exploited and stripped of their dignity; others are victims of racial and religious hatred, hampered by intolerance and discrimination, and by political interference and physical or moral coercion with regard to the free profession of their faith. Others see their own bodies and those of their dear ones, particularly their children, maimed by weaponry, by terrorism and by all sorts of violence, at a time when everyone invokes and acclaims progress, solidarity and peace for all. And what of those who, bereft of hope, are forced to leave their homes and countries in order to find humane living conditions elsewhere? How can we help those who are misled by facile prophets of happiness, those who struggle with relationships and are incapable of accepting responsibility for their present and future, those who are trapped in the tunnel of loneliness and who often end up enslaved to alcohol or drugs? What are we to think of those who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life?

How can we not hear, from the very depths of this humanity, at once joyful and anguished, a heart-rending cry for help? It is Christmas: today "the true light that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9) came into the world. "The word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14), proclaims the Evangelist John. Today, this very day, Christ comes once more "unto his own", and to those who receive him he gives "the power to become children of God"; in a word, he offers them the opportunity to see Gods glory and to share the joy of that Love which became incarnate for us in Bethlehem. Today "our Saviour is born to the world", for he knows that even today we need him. Despite humanity's many advances, man has always been the same: a freedom poised between good and evil, between life and death. It is there, in the very depths of his being, in what the Bible calls his "heart", that man always needs to be "saved". And, in this post-modern age, perhaps he needs a Saviour all the more, since the society in which he lives has become more complex and the threats to his personal and moral integrity have become more insidious. Who can defend him, if not the One who loves him to the point of sacrificing on the Cross his only-begotten Son as the Saviour of the world?

"Salvator noster": Christ is also the Saviour of men and women today. Who will make this message of hope resound, in a credible way, in every corner of the earth? Who will work to ensure the recognition, protection and promotion of the integral good of the human person as the condition for peace, respecting each man and every woman and their proper dignity? Who will help us to realize that with good will, reasonableness and moderation it is possible to avoid aggravating conflicts and instead to find fair solutions? With deep apprehension I think, on this festive day, of the Middle East, marked by so many grave crises and conflicts, and I express my hope that the way will be opened to a just and lasting peace, with respect for the inalienable rights of the peoples living there. I place in the hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem the indications of a resumption of dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians, which we have witnessed in recent days, and the hope of further encouraging developments. I am confident that, after so many victims, destruction and uncertainty, a democratic Lebanon, open to others and in dialogue with different cultures and religions, will survive and progress. I appeal to all those who hold in their hands the fate of Iraq, that there will be an end to the brutal violence that has brought so much bloodshed to the country, and that every one of its inhabitants will be safe to lead a normal life. I pray to God that in Sri Lanka the parties in conflict will heed the desire of the people for a future of brotherhood and solidarity; that in Darfur and throughout Africa there will be an end to fratricidal conflicts, that the open wounds in that continent will quickly heal and that the steps being made towards reconciliation, democracy and development will be consolidated. May the Divine Child, the Prince of Peace, grant an end to the outbreaks of tension that make uncertain the future of other parts of the world, in Europe and in Latin America.

"Salvator noster": this is our hope; this is the message that the Church proclaims once again this Christmas Day. With the Incarnation, as the Second Vatican Council stated, the Son of God has in some way united himself with each man and women (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22). The birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, as Pope Saint Leo the Great noted. In Bethlehem the Christian people was born, Christ's mystical body, in which each member is closely joined to the others in total solidarity. Our Saviour is born for all. We must proclaim this not only in words, but by our entire life, giving the world a witness of united, open communities where fraternity and forgiveness reign, along with acceptance and mutual service, truth, justice and love.

A community saved by Christ. This is the true nature of the Church, which draws her nourishment from his Word and his Eucharistic Body. Only by rediscovering the gift she has received can the Church bear witness to Christ the Saviour before all people. She does this with passionate enthusiasm, with full respect for all cultural and religious traditions; she does so joyfully, knowing that the One she proclaims takes away nothing that is authentically human, but instead brings it to fulfillment. In truth, Christ comes to destroy only evil, only sin; everything else, all the rest, he elevates and perfects. Christ does not save us from our humanity, but through it; he does not save us from the world, but came into the world, so that through him the world might be saved (cf. Jn 3:17).

Dear brothers and sisters, wherever you may be, may this message of joy and hope reach your ears: God became man in Jesus Christ, he was born of the Virgin Mary and today he is reborn in the Church. He brings to all the love of the Father in heaven. He is the Saviour of the world! Do not be afraid, open your hearts to him and receive him, so that his Kingdom of love and peace may become the common legacy of each man and woman. Happy Christmas!

Vatican Publishing House



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"Use your scar to sharpen your pen to write your
poem."
-- Maya Angelou

"What is life? It is the flash of a
firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the
little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
-- Crowfoot

BombShelter Broadcast Complex
http://BombShelter.org

Essential Treasures & Random Acts of Generosity @ Ministry of Mutants!

Dear Friends, Family & Elfin Associates:

Ministry of Mutation is proud to present our essential Wish List for the 2006-2007 Holiday Season. These treasures are collectible artifacts which should be shared with everyone (including yourself!) so surf on over to Amazon for a spree today!

Aloha from Mauna Kea Mothership!

He Changed Our World - Steve Irwin Memorial Tribute DVD ~ Steve Irwin Average Customer Review: (7)

The Best Gift for Kids!

Every Young WildLife Warrior in the World Deserves a Copy!

December 6, 2006

Reviewer:

Bee Zeeb "Ministry of Mutation" (Mauna Kea, HAWAI'I) - See all my reviews

Want to shine a few stars brighter in your kid's eyes? This is one of the most profound gifts which every child in the world deserves to own!

Invaluable remebrance of the Steve Irwin legacy, complete with outtakes, boundless passion for wild animals, and the tear-swelling LOVE of Australia for the animals' "best mate."

Also, the special feature exclusive gives an unprecedented and treasured glimpse into the Irwins' truth and genuine humanity, with the ordeal of Steve's beloved Sui dog passing.

All proceeds go to further the work of the Irwin's Australia Zoo through the Wildlife Warriors foundation. Help your kids keep in touch with Bindi & Terri, who are surely going to be Animal Channel celebs for a long time to come, crocodiles baring teeth & all...

Get a copy for every child on your list! It will be treasured, and shared with laughs and tears. Aloha from Mauna Kea Mothership!

Bee Zeeb @ Ministry of Mutation

Wildlife Warrior &

Mutant Prototype Bee Zeeb

@ Earthseed Studio

on Mauna Kea...

Don't hurry- tree happy!

The Best Gift for Music Lovers!

Every Boomer, X-Gen & Beatle Fan Needs One!

Love The Beatles (Artist)

From Amazon.co.uk
It begins with a twittering of birdsong lifted from "Across the Universe." And once the triple-tracked a capella harmonies of "Because" enter, followed by snatches from "A Hard Day's Night" and "The End," leading into a fired-up "Get Back," it becomes obvious that this is far more than just another Beatles compilation. This is Love, conceived by the Fabs' former producer George Martin and son Giles as a stageshow soundtrack to Cirque de Soleil's Las Vegas spectacular of the same name, but appears to have taken on a life of its own. Whereas the Beatles' last release, 1, delivered the (over?) familiar hits in a nice, simple package, Love is a mélange of the familiar and obscure, all literally mixed together in one 78-minute audio collage which succeeds in reminding the listener just why the Beatles truly are, as Lennon put it, "toppermost of the poppermost." There's no new Beatles material per se, but the songs are all approached differently--some are cut together in a flawlessly mixed medley (check out "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You/Helter Skelter"), some reassemble different backing tracks and vocal performances to create new spins on old classics; but all the songs are revitalized considerably. Even in its weakest moments (which probably work better in the context of the show itself), Love is still a formidable prospect, and one has to admire Martin's willingness to go out on a limb with such a project. While purists may complain that the cut 'n' paste nature of the project is simply tampering with perfection, at the very least it'll make them reach for the originals and enjoy them all over again. For newcomers and everyone else, it makes a fine listen, both in its sonic clarity (the actual tracks are the best they've sounded on CD) and audacious nature. --Thom Allott

Cirque d'amour, November 21, 2006

Reviewer:

Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews

This album is actually the soundtrack for a Las Vegas production by the Quebecois entertainment group Cirque du Soleil, each track having been carefully excavated and lovingly remixed by longtime Beatles collaborator Sir George Martin and his son Giles from the archives of original recordings.

With the blessing of the surviving Beatles, as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, some 130 Beatles songs were mixed into this track list, with a lot of blending, combining, and in one case a new musical arrangement by George Martin. The result is a wonderful piece of history brought to life for listeners who may have been too young to experience it first hand, or those who wish those days could come again.

My favorite tracks on the album are listed below, and I'm really pleased for this opportunity to hear them again with their new arrangements as if for the very first time.

Eleanor Rigby
I Am the Walrus
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Something
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite (mixed with 2 other songs)
Help!
Yesterday
Strawberry Fields Forever (with parts of 4 other songs)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Octopus's Garden
Here Comes the Sun
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (new string arrangement)
A Day in the Life
Hey Jude
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Far from being a mere compilation of Beatles songs, this album breathes new life into the Fab Four, and proves that Beatlemania Lives!!!

Amanda Richards

The Best Gift for Mutants!

Every Rebel, Comic freak & SciFi geek wants One!

The X-Men Trilogy (X-Men/ X2: X-Men United/ X-Men: The Last Stand) DVD

Synopsis All over the planet, unusual children are born with an added twist to their genetic code. This "X-factor" allows the children to perform extraordinary feats - flight, telekinetics, laser beams from the eyes and more. One Dr. Charles Xavier gathers the children to a place where he can train them to use their powers for themselves and the forces of good he dubs these children his X-men and hijinks ensue.

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Note from BzB to Santa 23:



If all the kids you know are spoiled (sorry--"overly privileged") and most likely won't even remember the gift you will buy them amongst their huge stack of presents, consider commiting a soulful random act of generosity this year instead:



The Lakota People have four values to live by: bravery, wisdom, generosity,
and fortitude. Generosity (Wacantognaka) is essential to a Lakota. It is
better to give a lot than to have a lot. The best way to honor people is
through giveaways (otuhan) where the givers share much of what they have
with others, sometimes giving away everything in their possession.

Leonard Peltier's supporters offer an opportunity to give something
back and honor the Lakota people. He respectfully requests your help making
these holidays a little brighter and this winter a little warmer for the
children at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Please send toys, coats, socks, shoes, clothing, and "very good things" to:

Leonard Peltier Children's Gift Drive
c/o Eileen Janis
PO Box 525
Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770

(For Fedex or UPS please include Highway 18 Crazy Horse Drive)

and to:


Leonard Peltier Children's Gift Drive
c/o Roselyn Jumping Bull
PO Box 207
Oglala, South Dakota 57764

Please click here for Leonard Peltier Holiday Gift Drive flyer:
http://www.leonardpeltier.net/documents/giftdrive.pdf


Note from Bee Zeeb:

Here are few excellent items you can order & send in quantity:

COBY CX-24 Sports AM/FM Headset Radio

$7.99 $4.99 Wenzel Piñon Sport 7-by 7-Foot Three-Person Dome Tent $19.99

COBY CX-7BLK Mini AM/FM Radio with Neck Strap in Black/Silver

$4.52 Swiss Army Climber II/ECO/Red Pocket Knife $9.99 The Illuminator LED Flashlight $7.95

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Another Randomly wonderful gifting idea for exotic pleasure:



Send us a $20 bill and an address, and we'll send your "Secret Santa" a magical package from Big Island, Hawai'i, including gourmet Royal Hawaiian dark roast coffee, a big pouch of macadamia nuts (honey roasted), and some select collectible sea shells from Hawai'i! Make their mouths water with tropical magic and the unforgettable taste of Paradise!



Earthseed Studios

PO Box 268

Laupahoehoe, HI 96764



PS: Please Send this Wish List on to other Randomly wonderful people who might make a difference!



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"Information is the currency of Democracy."
-- Thomas Jefferson



"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
-- Howard Zinn



"People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster."
-- James Baldwin




BombShelter Broadcast Complex
http://bombshelter.org