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By Richard Black
Environment corrrespondent, BBC News website |
The UK is stepping up attempts to secure an anti-whaling majority on the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
The UK government maintains there is no humane way of killing whales
Last year, pro-hunting nations gained their first IWC majority for 20 years.
The British government will publish a brochure this coming week aimed at encouraging nations opposed to whaling to join the Commission.
It says whales are "sensitive, social creatures", with some species risking extinction. Japan says these arguments are "old rhetoric and half-truths".
Japan, Iceland and Norway, the principal pro-whaling nations, believe
that many stocks are large enough that hunting can be sustainable.
There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea
David Attenborough
They dismiss arguments that whales are special and distinct creatures as being relevant only in certain cultures.
The issue was given added urgency by Iceland's decision in October to resume commercial hunting, a move which brought diplomatic protest from Britain and its allies.
'Global responsibility'
The UK's recruitment brochure, which will be officially launched next week, is the most formalised attempt yet mounted by anti-whaling countries to regain the majority which they lost by a single vote at last year's IWC meeting, held in St Kitts.
It says that protecting whales for future generations is a "global responsibility".
Japan believes the western love of whales is culturally specific
"Some whales are particularly at risk of extinction because their populations remain endangered following past exploitation from commercial whaling," it continues.
In two forewords, the distinguished natural history broadcaster David Attenborough writes, "There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea", while Tony Blair makes a direct call to arms.
"We urge your government to join the UK and the other anti-whaling nations in the IWC," writes the British Prime Minister, "to ensure that our generation meets its global responsibility to protect whales."
The arguments contained in the brochure were dismissed by Japan's deputy whaling commissioner Joji Morishita.
"It is always depressing to see the same old anti-whaling rhetoric," he told the BBC News website.
"Its basic position is that commercial whaling automatically means extinction. As we want everlasting whaling, which is totally different from the past industrial whaling of western countries which regarded whales only as an exhaustive industrial material, we would avoid extinction at any cost."
Mr Morishita also warned that the IWC could break up without agreement on the eventual return to regulated commercial hunting.
Art of persuasion
Japan is regularly accused by conservation campaigners of using fisheries aid to buy the votes of smaller countries in the IWC.
In reality, both pro- and anti-whaling blocs have sought to recruit like-minded members in recent years.
At the close of last year's meeting, shocked by their defeat, commissioners from European and South American countries told me they intended to step up these efforts. New European Union members, and those seeking membership, are natural targets.
The plan is clearly bearing fruit. Following representations from anti-whaling countries including the UK, Slovenia joined the IWC last September, and Croatia followed suit two weeks ago.
In theory, their accession overturns the pro-whaling majority
But IWC votes are unpredictable, and the British government's recruitment brochure indicates its intention of securing forces which can reliably out-vote Japan, Norway, Iceland and their allies.
The number of house sparrows counted has also fallen by 52%.
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The Big Garden Bird Watch, organised every year by the RSPB, aims to find out which species are the most common visitors to UK gardens.
Last year, a record-breaking 470,000 people took part the survey and counted eight million birds in 270,000 gardens.
Since the event began in 1979, the number of starlings counted has dropped by 72%, the charity said.
Prioritise conservation efforts
The number of house sparrows counted has also fallen by 52%.
However, the greenfinch and wren have both seen their numbers increase over the past 27 years by 67% and 140% respectively.
The blackbird was the most widespread of species noted last year - recorded in 94% of all gardens.
The scheme originally began as an activity for children who were members of the Young Ornithologists Club.
Participants are asked to send the results to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who use the information to record patterns in bird numbers and prioritise conservation efforts.
Postcards that reveal people's secrets have proved a hit
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Among the 15 short-listed "blooks" is one which claims to have invented a new genre of fiction.
Last year's winning blook - Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously - has now sold over 100,000 copies and is being made into a film.
The prize aims to encourage cutting-edge literature, more of which is beginning life in the blogosphere.
"Blooks are the latest landmark in the history of books," said Bob Young of Lulu, the self-publishing website which sponsors the prize.
Old and new genres
Many people are not surprised that works of genuine literary merit are growing out of the ever-expanding blogosphere.
I labelled each story as "Flicktion" and now writing groups have started using the term to describe writing stories about photos
Andrew Losowsky, author and blogger
Technorati, a blog search engine, estimates that some 175,000 new blogs are created every day and for those with popular weblogs there is a great incentive to go on and publish their web-based ideas in book form.
American artist Frank Warren's My Secret: A Post-Secret Book is one of this year's short-listed blooks. It grew out of his weblog PostSecret, which encouraged young people to mail in their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard.
It is now one of the world's ten most popular blogs, attracting 3.5 million visitors each month and has just won the Best Topical and Best Community categories at the annual Bloggie awards.
While weblogs and related books is a new publishing phenomenon, the way many are written - in serial form - is not. It harks back to the Victorian era when novelists such as Dickens were exposed to the public in weekly chapters, published in newspapers.
Cory Doctorow, well-known blogger and former Blooker judge, believes blooks change the nature of the creative process involved in writing.
"Previously such jottings might have been kept in the author's notebook but something amazing happens when you post them online: readers help you connect them, flesh them out and grow them into fully-fledged books or blooks," he said.
The trend towards turning blogs into books is also creating new genres.
Doorbells 'first'
Doorbells of Florence has been heralded as a cult book
The Doorbells of Florence - short-listed in the fiction category - comprises a collection of 36 colour photographs of Florentine doorbells, each accompanied by a story about the people or things that may be inside.
As the photographs that inspired the stories were first posted on the photo-sharing website Flickr, it has been dubbed the first volume of "flicktion".
"I labelled each story as "Flicktion" and now writing groups have started using the term to describe writing stories about photos," explained author Andrew Losowsky.
"Google the word and you'll see it appear all over the place. It's been discussed at geek conferences and in an academic paper, and taught in classrooms. My doorbells were the first," he said.
One hundred and ten blooks from 15 countries were entered for this year's prize and increasingly traditional publishers are sitting up and taking notice.
"We've seen a big increase this year in the number of entries from traditional publishers," said Mr Young.
Well-known blogs that have become books include The Devil Wears Prada and Belle de Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call-Girl.
The 2007 Blooker is offering a total prize fund of $15,000 (7,750 ) for winners in the three categories of fiction, non-fiction and comics. The overall winner - announced on 14 May - pockets $10,000 (5,170).
The best of the web's blogs have been recognised in another set of awards this week as the Bloggies - now in their seventh year - were announced.
The awards - voted for by the public - saw established brands such as Flickr and YouTube pick up gongs. Technology website Gizmodo won two awards, in both the Best Technology weblog and Best Designed sections.
MySpace was founded by former Friendster members Chris Dewolfe and Tom Anderson in 2003. They saw opportunity to beat Friendster with more options and less restrictions for social network users. MySpace was purchased in 2005 for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch creator of a media empire that includes 20th Century Fox and the Fox television stations. MySpace has more than 40 billion page views a month. Google paid $900 million to be MySpace's search provider. MySpace runs on Microsoft .NET Framework, operating under Windows 2003 server and applications written in C# for ASP.NET.
History of Amazon.com
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Jeff Bezon coined the term Amazon.com from the earlier name Cadabra.com. It was the excellent way to present large volume online bookstore. But did he have hidden intentions? It is hard to believe but in the early Internet days, when Yahoo was dominant search engine, results on one page were listed alphabetically. Amazon would always appear above its competition for a specific keywords. This could be a breaking point for Jeff to expand and became what it is today.
Google, the Internet search company founded in September 1998. by Larry Page & Sergey Brin, got it's name from the word Googol, which represents number 1 followed with hundred zeros after it.
Yahoo the complex internet organism has complicated name. Word "Yahoo" is shortcut for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". It was coined by PhD candidates at Stanford University: David Filo and Jerry Yang.<>
"What is pi?" : Interesting
*********************************
A mathematician: "pi is the ratio of the circumference of a
circle to its diameter."
A computer programmer: "pi is 3.141592653589 in double
precision."
A physicist: "pi is 3.14159 plus or minus 0.000005."
An engineer: "pi is about 22/7."
A nutritionist: "Pie is a healthy and delicious dessert!"
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The mobile giant said there had been 100 reports of overheating, and that the problem battery had been used inside more than 50 different phones. In a statement, the company said: "Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge." ... more | ||
Source: BBC
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Tiny wind engines cool computers | ||
The research is to be published in the Journal of Applied Physics. As computers grow increasingly powerful, computer chips are becoming more and more densely packed with transistors, the basic building blocks of microprocessors... more | ||
Source: BBC
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