Helsinki Zoo in Finland is known for successfully breeding Snow Leopards — more than 100 of them since 1960. On 23 June, one of their adult females gave birth to three cubs in her her den. All three are girls! The little family was allowed to bond and grow in those first weeks in the protection of the nest, but for the first time they ventured outdoors — via ZooBorns
This Triumph Bonneville T100 is owned by Patrick Crépelle, and shows how Triumph’s modern classic
can be transformed by an amateur with solid workshop skills and an eye for good aesthetics — via Bike EXIF
Last week Baume & Mercier announced its first ever limited edition men’s timepiece for the US market, a gorgeous Capeland flyback chronograph with copper-coloured dial. The Capeland Flyback Chrono Ref 10088 will hit select Tourneau locations this October, a 250 piece limited edition series — via Perpetuelle
Scottish wildcats will be extinct in the wild within months as numbers of pure-bred cats have fallen to about 35 individuals, conservationists warn.
A team put together by the Scottish Wildcat Association (SWA) reviewed 2,000 records of camera trap sightings, eyewitness reports and also road kills.
SWA said the analysis suggested there could be 35 wildcats — far fewer than previously thought.
Other research has estimated that there could be less than 400 pure-bred cats.
Last month, a report on a project funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) estimated that there were 150 breeding pairs left.
Disease and inter-breeding with domestic and feral cats are among the main threats to numbers of pure-bred wildcats — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Police will allege the two girls had the procedure, which is also known as female circumcision, performed on them in NSW when they were aged six and seven within the past 18 months.
Three other people have been charged over the alleged genital mutilation.
Also arrested today was a 68-year-old woman who has been charged with two counts of prohibition of female genital mutilation.
Police will allege the woman performed the procedure on the girls.
She has been granted conditional bail and will face Campbelltown Local Court on 3 October.
A 42-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman were arrested last Friday and charged with two counts each of female genital mutilation. — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A species of monkey previously unknown to science has been discovered in Africa: and boffins say that it has an extensive
bright blue bottomwhich rivals that of the largest and most colourful known monkeys on Earth.
The new monkey was first sighted by scientists in 2007, when boffins found one being kept as a pet in the town of Opala in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It transpired that the unusual monkey was well known to local people, but had never before been catalogued by scientists. Following some research, the new species — dubbed lesula
— has now been announced to an astonished world.
The lesula, which is the first new monkey found in Africa for 28 years, is remarkable in particular for its vibrant colouring. It has a pink face, golden throat, massive whiskers and a vertical white stripe up its nose, which gives it some resemblance to the already well known owl-faced monkey — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo roared with new activity last week as three Amur Tiger cubs born in April made their public debut. The cubs, one male and two females, are vitally important to the future of wild Tigers: in the last 100 years, the global wild Tiger population has plummeted 97 percent. Only about 3,200 Tigers remain in the wild, with only 1,000 breeding females. Amur Tigers, also known as Siberian Tigers, are among the rarest big cats on Earth — via ZooBorns
The design [Bernardo Bader] of a cemetery is based on the beliefs and their funeral rites, which in turn say a lot about the particular understanding of nature and social relations. This fact should also be shown clearly in the new cemetery project for Muslims in Vorarlberg — via ArchDaily
Australian tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph has started a campaign to Stop the trolls
.
The campaign’s roots lie in recent incidents that saw a reality television hostess’ Twitter account subjected to ridicule and a Rugby League footballer’s account receive vile comments about his recently-deceased mother.
The footballer struck back, threatening to rip the balls off
the troll, followed by a call to Australia’s Prime Minister to do something about trolls. That call saw the Premier of the State of New South Wales weigh in, agreeing that trolls must be stopped.
Things then snowballed as reports emerged the Prime Minister had granted the footballer an audience to discuss the troll menace, an odd gesture but one that makes sense given current debate in Australia about links between online bullying and youth suicide.
All of which explains why the Telegraph gave over its front page, depicted aboveand helpfully parsed by Twitter user HyperBrendan, to its new Stop the Trolls campaign — via redwolf.newsvine.com
With global demand for its watches growing, A Lange & Söhne, based in Glashütte in the German state of Saxony, has been expanding its production facilities over the past few years. The latest step took place on 5 September, with a groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of construction on the company’s new annex.
A Lange & Söhne is already the largest employer in the town of Glashütte, providing jobs for more than 500 people, and its watchmaking workshops are already spread across several buildings. The new annex will provide more than 11,000 square meters of additional space for the movement-assembly departments and the machines that produce delicate movement components. Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid, who took part in the groundbreaking ceremony along with Walter Lange, great-grandson of brand founder Ferdinand A Lange, welcomes the start of construction. The annex was long overdue,
Schmid says. The new building will allow us to clearly improve production processes and working conditions
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
A furious debate on sexual equality is raging in Australia following misogynistic
comments made by the country’s best-known radio DJ, who announced on his show that women in positions of power were destroying the joint
.
Alan Jones’s outburst followed the announcement that Australia would be spending $320m promoting Pacific islands women in business and politics.
[Prime minister Julia Gillard] said that we know societies only reach their full potential if women are politically participating,
scoffed Jones, who has previously suggested Gillard be put in a sack and dropped out to sea.
Women are destroying the joint,
he said. [Former state chief police commissioner] Christine Nixon in Melbourne, [Sydney lord mayor] Clover Moore here. Honestly.
Days of heated debate — including a vigorous social media campaign against him — on the extent of sexism in the country have followed his comments — via redwolf.newsvine.com
American influence on the world stage is being sapped by widespread distrust of US intentions, not just in the Middle East and south Asia but also among traditional European allies, according to a survey of global opinions.
Suspicion of America outweighed faith in its good intentions by large margins in the Arab world and Pakistan, and even its heavyweight European ally Germany was more sceptical than trusting, a YouGov survey found. British and French opinion was more positive but still deeply divided.
Negative Arab and Pakistani perceptions of America as overweening and untrustworthy clearly pose a daunting foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration. The fact that 78% of Pakistanis questioned by YouGov said they did not trust America to act responsibly underlines Washington’s serious lack of soft power in the region as it attempts to extricate itself from Afghanistan.
Attitudes towards the US in the Arab world were nearly as negative. Those respondents in the Middle East and north Africa who said they trusted America were outnumbered by more than two to one by those who said they did not, and 39% said they did not trust America at all — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Here’s the first prefab home in this line by Method Homes with a design by Studio 29. Located on Orcas Island, the home was designed for a Washington family wanting a vacation getaway with some of the more traditional details — sleeping loft, breakfast nook, window seats, etc — typically found in classic homes of the 19th century — via Jetson Green
A four-month old baby Skunk is the newest star of the live animal show at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Thurston makes his debut this weekend in the zoo’s twice-daily show entitled Captain Adventure vs. Dr. Do-Nothing: The Quest to Get Outside!
— via ZooBorns
Jose’s wife made him these Tiger shaped crochet Panzer Tank Slippers… and since he posted it in his Facebook profile and Missing-Lynx peeps have gone totally crazy about it. Which is awesome! Well, his wife finally created a pattern for the Panzer Tank Slippers that is available in her Etsy account as of now — via Blitz72.com
Update: Miligurumi’s Etsy store has since closed, but searching Etsy for Panzer Tank Slippers shows that several people are selling the finished product
Brand new to the OctopusMe family! Beautify your naked wrists with these delectable tentacle bangles. Lovingly hand cast from real octopus tentacles, the detailing and clarity of each sucker is striking — via Etsy
Curated by Vladimir Belogolovsky, the ‘Harry Seidler: Architecture, Art and Collaborative Design’ travelling exhibition will be starting its world tour 4 October in Tallinn, Estonia and will then travel to 6 more places in Europe, North America, and Australia until mid-January 2015. Celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of Harry Seidler, the first leading Australian architect to fully express Bauhaus principles of the twentieth century, the exhibition identifies his distinctive place and hand within and beyond modernist design methodology — via ArchDaily
Dan Spitz, former lead guitarist for thrash metal band Anthrax, has sold more than 15 million albums, been nominated for 3 Grammy’s, created over 10 studio albums — and now he is recognised as one of the best watchmakers in the world. After leading one of the greatest metal bands of all time, he abruptly departed Anthrax and pursued numerous courses of study to master the art of watchmaking — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Well, didn’t Malcolm Turnbull hit the nail right on the head with his description of the deficit of trust
in Australian politics.
Not just because he because he was interpreted as having taken a swipe — multiple swipes, actually — at the man who supplanted him as leader of the federal Opposition. The media reports left the clear impression that when Turnbull said “trust deficit” he actually meant Tony Abbott
.
Actually, what he was criticising was something broader. It was the devolution of the whole political process. It was a very thought-provoking speech.
But, here’s the interesting thing. The examples he cited to show the lack of civility and honesty in political discourse overwhelmingly related to the behaviour of the political right.
Let’s get the Abbott stuff out of the way first, because the immediate focus of reportage of Turnbull’s September 5 George Winterton lecture at the University of Western Australia was, of course, how his words reflected the tension between the man the Liberal Party wants to lead it — Abbott — and the man most Australians want to lead it, Turnbull.
And that was fair enough. As evidence of the degradation of political debate in this country, Turnbull cited several examples clearly implicating Abbott — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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