Lips : Jagger :: Drama : Queen
Aug. 18th, 2005 01:54 pm*sniff, sniff* I smell a fresh theme in the air! Last year at this time we were talking about mountains; this year we're a bit more down-to-earth. But that doesn't mean you should be slacking... Get thee hence, quizlings one and all, and answer this week's quiz! You'll feel better about yourself afterwards. We'll feel better about you afterwards too. We'll even feel better about
afterwards afterwards, because we're nice that way.
I should eat something cute and fuzzy, but all the hippie chicks are in San Francisco, so I guess that limits my options. I found this one in (where else?) Kenya:

In other news, I just had a Smores Pop-Tart. Mmmmm, boy.
I should eat something cute and fuzzy, but all the hippie chicks are in San Francisco, so I guess that limits my options. I found this one in (where else?) Kenya:
In other news, I just had a Smores Pop-Tart. Mmmmm, boy.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 11:27 am (UTC)*goes to do quiz*
*discovers has already done quiz*
When did that happen??
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 12:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 11:38 am (UTC)::boggled::
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 12:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 12:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 12:10 pm (UTC)*goes off to do quiz*
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:59 pm (UTC)DarkQuiz Side will be complete!no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 12:40 pm (UTC)Kenya believe it? :D
(I love Kenya. So much. I have annoyed many roommates and former friends with it....)
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 12:52 pm (UTC)llama's are much furrier than lions.....
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:01 pm (UTC)Heretic!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:52 pm (UTC)Now I just need to go take the quiz for the first time in ages....
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 01:57 pm (UTC)And welcome back!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 02:27 pm (UTC)I like lions, but don't forget the zebras.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 02:46 pm (UTC)And then eat it.
Crocodile is DELICIOUS!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 03:06 pm (UTC)Guess I am not worthy of bearing those 10,000 Quizlings for you. But I go in deliberate search of answering ... perhaps I redeem myself?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 03:08 pm (UTC)"Thursday, August 18, 2005
DENVER -- Lions stalking deer in the stubble of a Nebraska corn field. Elephants trumpeting across Colorado's high plains. Cheetah slouching through West Texas scrub.
Prominent ecologists are floating an audacious plan that sounds like a "Jumanji" sequel: transplant African wildlife to the Great Plains of North America.
Their radical proposal is being greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to relocate foreign species halfway around the world, often with disastrous results.
The proponents contend that it could help prevent the extinction of Africa's poster species, which are faced with spotty protection and vanishing habitat.
They also think the relocated animals could restore North American biodiversity to a condition closer to what it was like before humans overran the landscape.
They suggest starting with zoo animals in fenced reserves.
"We aren't backing a truck up to some dump site in the dark and turning loose a bunch of elephants," insisted Cornell University ecologist Harry Greene, one of the plan's authors.
Even though most modern African species never lived on the American prairie, the scientists believe that today's animals could duplicate the natural roles played by their departed, even larger cousins -- mastodons, camels and saber-toothed cats -- that roamed for more than 1 million years alongside antelope and bison.
Relocating large animals to vast ecological parks and private reserves over the next century would begin to restore the balance, they said, while offering new ecotourism opportunities to a withering region.
The scientists' plan appears in today's issue of the journal Nature. It echoes the controversial 1987 Buffalo Commons proposal by Frank and Deborah Popper of Rutgers University to cut down fences of abandoned farms and reconnect corridors for native prairie wildlife.
A similar Pleistocene park is being established in Siberia. Scientists are importing bison from Canada to replace the native variety that vanished about 500 years ago.
Some ecologists said that without such a bold plan, hundreds more species are likely to go extinct in coming decades.
"We're beginning to get backed into a corner," said Terry Chapin of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "It's something worth trying."
But the plan is triggering thunderclaps of criticism, with discouraging words like "stupid" and "defeatist" raining down in torrents.
Scientists point to Australia, which was overrun by rabbits and poisonous cane toads after misguided species relocations.
Some conservationists said the plan would further damage the prospects of African species on their native turf, as well as that continent's hopes for sustainable economic development.
"Such relocations would affect future tourism opportunities," said Elizabeth Wamba, the East Africa spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Nairobi, Kenya. "The welfare of the animals would have been reduced by transporting and exposing them to different eco-climatic conditions."
The idea of "rewilding" the Great Plains grew from a retreat at Ladder Ranch near Truth or Consequences, N.M. The 155,550-acre property is owned by media mogul and conservationist Ted Turner.
Ecologists at the ranch are planning to reintroduce the Bolson tortoise. These 100-pound burrowers were found across the Southwest but now survive in a corner of northern Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert.
The extent of Turner's interest in the larger rewilding plan was not immediately clear. Mike Phillips, who directs the Turner Endangered Species Fund and has directed wolf reintroductions in the Yellowstone region, was unavailable for comment.
The renewed presence of many large mammals might turn back the ecological clock in a variety of subtle ways.
For example, elephants eat woody plants that have overtaken grasslands. Could they act as rototillers to restore the prairie?
Lions would be a harder sell, even if they would thin elk herds.
"Lions eat people," said co-author Josh Donlan of Cornell. "There has to be a pretty serious attitude shift on how you view predators." "
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 03:47 pm (UTC)Thanks for posting it.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 05:20 pm (UTC)Potter Potter is pretty funny, too. I'd never seen that before. Alas, I foresaw the vile pun far too late... Heh.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-19 01:38 pm (UTC)