I know it is a little early for it here, and as usual the Boston Globe serving tastes like shit:
"Shark fin soup losing its favor in China; Conservationists promote decline in consumption" by Simon Denyer | Washington Post, October 27, 2013
BEIJING — Once a rare delicacy served to honored guests, shark fin soup had become so popular among China’s fast-growing elite in recent years that it was pushing some shark species close to extinction.
Related: Shark Fin Soup For Supper
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Chinese Breakfast
I guess you can eat the stuff anytime.
Now, there is fresh hope for sharks around the world. The demand for shark fins has plunged, providing a rare victory for conservationists that could have wider implications for other endangered wildlife.
Speaking of endangered species, how are things going at Fukushima anyway? Making progress, huh?
Can AmeriKa's media be any more shameless?
Thanks to a former NBA star, a coalition of Chinese business leaders, celebrities, and students, and some unlikely investigative journalism, eating shark fin soup is no longer fashionable here.
It wasn't Rodman, was it?
But what really tipped the balance was a government campaign against extravagance that has seen the soup banned from official banquets.
‘‘People said it was impossible to change China, but the evidence we are now getting says consumption of shark fin soup in China is down by 50 to 70 percent in the last two years,’’ said Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid, a San Francisco-based group that has promoted awareness about the shark trade.
Not that I'm opposed to the group per se; however, seeing them in my agenda-pusher casts suspicion.
The drop is also reflected in government and industry statistics.
‘‘It is a myth that people in Asia don’t care about wildlife,’’ Knights said. ‘‘Consumption is based on ignorance rather than malice.’’
Myths fill my media.
The dramatic expansion in China’s middle and upper classes has transformed the country into a major driver of global wildlife trafficking.
The Obama administration is so concerned about Chinese demand for endangered wildlife that it made the subject an important part of its bilateral dialogue this year.
Related: Study says tiny animals hurt by BP spill
Maybe they should worry about that first.
More than 70 million sharks were killed last year, largely to satisfy demand from China’s newly rich for shark fin soup.
Holy shit, that is a MAJOR HOLOCAUST!
Lavish spending by China’s wealthy has also sent demand for ivory skyrocketing, fueling a massive expansion in elephant poaching in Africa.
Related: Hong Kong officials intercept ivory shipment worth $1.5m
Btw, does my shit AmeriKan media every refer to AmeriKa's rulers in $uch ways?
The consequences of the trafficking go beyond a crisis for wildlife. The illegal ivory trade has financed global crime networks and local insurgents, including Somalia’s Al Shabab — responsible for last month’s attack on a Nairobi shopping mall....
Al-CIA-Bob makes money from the ivory trade?
Related: The Kenya Kon
Also see: Kenya Hoax was a Fake Siege
Another f***ing completely staged and scripted hoax presented as a real event by jewsmedia?
All over an insurance scam?
Shark fin soup is believed to have been created more than 1,000 years ago by an emperor in the Sung dynasty who was trying to show off to his guests. Consumption of the expensive soup was revived in recent years at banquets and weddings as a sign of social status.
But it became so popular that 10 of the 14 species of oceanic sharks most commonly fished for their fins are at ‘‘very high’’ or ‘‘high’’ risk of extinction....
Not to be callous or cruel about the issue, but:
Saving Endangered Species
Did I mention how sick I am of agenda-pu$hing $hit?
Just a few years ago, most Chinese people were oblivious to what was happening. One survey carried out in 2005-2006 showed 80 percent of respondents did not even know the soup — known in Chinese as ‘‘fish wing’’ soup — was made with shark fins.
But in 2006, WildAid enlisted Chinese professional basketball player Yao Ming, who played for the Houston Rockets, to front a public awareness campaign.
One ad showed diners refusing the soup when confronted with the gory reality of sharks whose fins have been sliced off. The finless fish are often tossed back into the sea to die.
To that I object. Not only is it cruel, it is a waste.
A successful businessman, Jim Zhang, was so moved that he began working to change attitudes about sharks, eventually becoming a full-time environmentalist.
In 2010, he conducted a poll on the popular microblogging service weibo that drew 30,000 participants, 99 percent of whom supported a ban on shark imports.
‘‘That really encouraged me,’’ he said. ‘‘I realized that we have a voice here, and we have to take action.’’
********************
As part of its new campaign against extravagance, instructions went out to officials all around the country in February and March to ban lavish banquets.
Now if only we could get U.S. leaders to do such things!
Btw, I'm also soooooo sick and tired of the China bashing in my jewspaper. This pot-hollering kettle crap sucks.
Instead, they were told to serve ‘‘ordinary food’’ and not to offer shark fin soup or dishes made with protected wildlife.
In September, similar instructions were sent out by the government in Hong Kong — a major center for the shark fin industry — ‘‘to demonstrate its commitment to green living and sustainability.’’
There was also help from state-run media: China Central Television ran a series of reports this year that found that restaurants were serving up fake shark fin soup — using starch, gelatin, and seaweed gum.
Oh, NO!
Even more damaging was the finding that many soup samples contained dangerous levels of cadmium and methyl mercury.
Oh, that reminds me, time to feed the dog.
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Maybe you would like some meat for an entree as long as it is not dog, cat, rat, or pork?
"Drones used in Kenya protect elephants from poachers" by Chris Spillane | Bloomberg News, October 27, 2013
JOHANNESBURG — Standing in his flatbed truck, Marc Goss touches ‘‘take off’’ on his iPad 3, and a $300 AR Drone whirs into the air. It’s his latest weapon to fight elephant poachers near Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve.
‘‘It’s an arms race,’’ said Goss, whose green khaki clothing shields him from thorny acacia branches in the 74,000 acres of savanna he protects. ‘‘We’re seeing larger numbers of poachers.’’
Besides the almost 2 foot-long drone, Goss and other conservationists use night-vision goggles and Google Earth in an effort to halt the decline of Kenya’s wildlife, which helps attract $1 billion a year in tourism. With elephant ivory sold for more than $2 per pound in Hong Kong, Kenya faces its most serious poaching threat in almost a quarter-century, according to the United Nations.
At least 232 elephants had been killed this year through Sept. 30, adding to 384 last year, from a population of 40,000. Demand for illicit ivory from expanding economies such as China and Thailand has doubled since 2007, according to the UN Environment Program.
The patch of land monitored by Goss borders the reserve, where seminomadic tribesmen known as the Masai herd their cows. On a warm morning he was in the hills above the village of Aitong. Fifty-five yards away was the body of an elephant, minus her tusks, surrounded by 10 grieving family members.
Poachers had speared the pachyderm in her back. The carcass was the third found in four days, an unusually high number, Goss said. The ivory would be worth more than $8,000 in Asia.
‘‘It’s pretty grim,’’ Goss said. ‘‘It’s an elephant without a face. It’ll be eaten by hyenas now.’’
Goss, 28, a Kenyan, initially thought the drones would help mainly by providing aerial footage and tracking poachers armed with rifles, as well as the Masai, who sometimes kill elephants when they interfere with cattle grazing. He soon discovered that the drones could help by frightening the elephants, keeping them out of harm’s way.
‘‘We realized very quickly that the elephants hated the sound of them,’’ Goss said. ‘‘I’m assuming that they think it’s a swarm of bees.’’
You know, they are very, very intelligent creatures.
(Blog editor needed to stop and watch for a while then wipe eyes. We are not as superior a species as we think)
His team has also put collars with global positioning system devices on 15 elephants so they can be tracked on a computer using Google Earth.
Why not? NSA is tracking all of us.
That way the animals — who have names such as Fred, Hugo, Polaris, and Madde, after Goss’s wife — can be followed to see if they’ve strayed into areas at risk of poaching or human conflict.
Goss hopes to buy 10 more drones and to modify them by adding a mechanism that releases capsaicin, the active component in chili pepper, when elephants stray near dangerous areas. Paint balls loaded with chili pepper are being used in Zambia’s lower Zambezi region to deter elephants from high-risk zones.
‘‘Drones are basically the future of conservation. A drone can do what 50 rangers can do,’’ said James Hardy, a fourth-generation Kenyan and manager of the Mara North Conservancy. ‘‘It’s going to reach a point where drones are on the forefront of poaching. At nighttime we could use it to pick up heat signatures of poachers.”
Related:
Sunday Globe Special: The Ringing Silence of Drone $urveillance
Droning On in Japan
Going to be meaded everywhere from what I see.
Kenya is proposing stiffer penalties for the slaughter of elephants and rhinos, and the government has deployed paramilitary forces and plans to acquire drones to fight poaching.
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Time for lunch then another rampage.
