You are hereArchive - 2015 - blog
Archive - 2015 - blog
Nobility. Leave behind a better world: 8th Duke of Wellington, WWii hero, in 40 years planted more than one million trees
"Leave this world a little better than you found it." - Robert Baden-Powell
(quote)
The 8th Duke of Wellington, who has died aged 99, led a level-headed and responsible life. He earned a Military Cross in the Second World War - a distinguished soldier who kept a judicious eye on the legacy of his ancestor, the victor of Waterloo.
Arthur Valerian Wellesley was born in Rome on July 2 1915, the centenary year of his great-great-grandfather’s victory over the French. His father was Lord Gerald Wellesley, the third son of the 4th Duke, an author and diplomat who later qualified as an architect and succeeded as the 7th Duke in 1943. Valerian’s mother was Dottie Ashton, a wealthy industrialist’s daughter and poet who married her husband in 1914 and published a volume of letters from the poet WB Yeats and another containing her letters to him after his death.
His father sent him to read History and Languages at New College, Oxford, where he was a member of the Bullingdon Club; at the same time he enjoyed London society, dancing with suitable girls at grand balls and less suitable ones in subterranean nightclubs. As a result he failed his finals and was sent to a London crammer, run by an attractive widow, and then to France to learn French. He was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards, which taught him sword, lance and revolver drill, tent pegging and other cavalry exercises. read more »
From Denmark court, UK court, Dutch lottery notion, Costa Rica coast to high seas: Life of Ocean, Cetaceans in Sea
the reading of the UK Supreme Court’s decision:
"Real Men Don't Whale": Clive Standen, star of History Channel's "Vikings" speaks out against the continued barbaric slaughter of pilot whales and dolphins in the Faroe Islands.
(quote)
*update 06 March 2015 * read more »
19 Feb 2015 Happy Lunar New Year: it's universal. The Moon impacts us all: as the moon waxes & wanes, ocean tides rise & fall
Image courtesy physicalgeography.net, Johannes Schedler (Panther Observatory) / NASA, earthsky.org, and Channelkeeper / Morgan Coffe
Be tall to be there: Boston covered by 6-feet snow; 60000 tons of salt dumped onto roads; NY, Vermont help dig Massachusetts out
(quote)
*update* 2015/02/10
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans: "I hope it snows every day!" Homicides and other major crimes in the city have dropped by a whopping 34 percent so far this year, compared with the same period last year. Vehicle theft decreased by 46 percent, larceny by 35 percent, and burglaries by 32 percent, according to data provided by the Boston Police Department.
'murder-free' record New York City has gone 11 days without a homicide, its longest stretch without any on modern record, the New York Police Department said Friday. The record was broken midnight Thursday. It was the 11th full day without a reported homicide. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton hushed talk of the streak Friday on "CBS This Morning." "Shh ... we don't want to jinx it," Bratton told host Charlie Rose. "We're into our 12th day now, Charlie. Eleven is a record and let's keep it going."
What Should Boston Do With All That Snow? Desperate for snow-disposal solutions, Boston has asked the public for ideas read more »
2015 Year of Light. Wisdom's back. AU bans Supertrawlers (who'd like a fishless ocean?) Scotland bans fracking (water vs gas)!
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better" (Albert Einstein)
worldwide 90% of stocks of fish stocks are gone
NASA: breathtaking new space images
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better" (Albert Einstein) -
Oceans with fish aplenty or barren sea without fish? Fracking involves using a high-pressure water mixture to penetrate rock in order to release gas. Can gas be replaced by solar energy? Can there be life without water (already short)?
(quote) read more »
Millions of GMO mosquitoes to be released in the Florida Keys if FDA allows experiment. Nightmare? At least 130,000 frightened
Dummy's simplest questions:
1. Can such kind of "experiment" be undone if consequences run wildly away from Florida Keys?
2. Will millions of flying mosquitoes "obey Lab's rules" to stay where they are released?
3. Mosquitoes, by nature, bite. How to guarantee the released males from mating with poisonous "super powerful" female mosquitoes (some spread deadly disease) whose offspring will survive?
(quote)
Millions of GMO Insects Could Be Released in Florida Keys
Never before have insects with modified DNA come so close to being set loose in a residential U.S. neighborhood.
Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S., but some people are more frightened at the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 people signed a Change.org petition against the experiment.
genetically modified mosquitoes could have unintended consequences
Already, the Times reports, "3.5% of the insects in a lab test survived to adulthood despite presumably carrying the lethal gene."
Mosquitoes are considered one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet because of their ability to spread deadly diseases. read more »
Eiffel Tower dims, 3.7mil people march across France as world leaders join arm in arm in Paris for moving tribute to 17 slain
(quote)
DailyMail: 3.7 million people march across France as world leaders are joined in Paris for moving tribute to 17 victims
* An estimated 3.7million gathered in shows of solidarity across France today in tribute to those killed
* Unprecedented crowds were seen in Paris where millions walked the capital's streets chanting 'Je suis Charlie'
* World leaders linked arms to lead the proceedings
* President Francois Hollande began the march, poignantly telling crowds: 'Today, Paris is the capital of the world'
* Elsewhere crowds gathered in major world cities, with famous monuments illuminated in the Tricolor read more »
Contact Us
RSS feed
