Changing Focus

After ample deliberation, I have decided to change the focus of this blog.

This blog was originally created as a proxy for interesting environment-related, science-related, technology-related posts that I find from a wide range of sources. Now, in lieu of my ever changing priorities, I have decided that such frequent posting is taking an ever wider swath of my time, effort and concentration. It is also taking away time that I would normally spend on my reading and my work.

Nobody ever has time to do everything he or she would like. Removing the need for proxy posting would simply free up more time for my academic interests to occupy.

As such, I would like to change the focus of this blog towards a more opinion-based, rant-like, perhaps occasionally essay-format posts that I find is more stimulating than simply news from an array of sources. I might find it prudent to include lists of links should I have the time, but the one that’s certain is that the frequency of posts will definitely drop, perhaps to once a fortnight, or once a month for serious posts, and maybe once a week for personal journals.

I hope you continue to have me on your RSS feeds or in your bookmarks, your readership is greatly appreciated.

Justice

“Pirates are evil?

The Marines are righteous?

These terms have always changed throughout the course of history!

Children who have never seen peace, and children who have never seen war, have different values!

Those who stand at the top determine what’s wrong and what’s right! This very place is neutral ground!

Justice will prevail you say? But of course it will!

Whoever wins this war becomes justice“

- Don Flamingo, Shichibukai

IUCN: 36% of the World’s Flora and Fauna Threatened with Extinction

The monitor lizard is under threat due to habitat loss and hunting by humans for food. All images: IUCN.

The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is in and if you were expecting good news prepared to be disappointed. Of the more than 47,000 species surveyed, about 17,000 are at serious risk — of those 21% of the world’s mammal species, 12% of birds, 28% of reptiles, 30% of amphibians, 35% of invertebrates, 37% of freshwater fish and 70% of plants:

January sees the launch of the International Year of Biodiversity. The latest analysis of the IUCN Red List shows the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met. It’s time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it’s high on their agendas for next year, as we’re rapidly running out of time.

- Jane Smart, Director, IUCN Biodiversity Conservation Group

 

One species which has entered the ranks of the extinct in the wild is the Kihansi Spray Toad, pictured above. At one time it had a population about at least 17,000 at the Kihansi Falls in Tanzania. However a dam upstream of the falls reduced water flow downstream by 90%, reducing habitat. It is suspected that a fungal disease finally doomed these amphibians.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="468" caption="Of the plants on the list, the Queen of the Andes (above) remains classified as endangered. Found in the Andes mountains in Peru and Bolivia, it only produces seeds once every 80 years, and then dies. Climate change is already impairing its ability to flower, while cattle ranching is also having a negative impact in some areas."][/caption]