The ash tree, used to make baseball bats in the US of A is under attack by a beetle. Experts think that the tree is likely to become at least locally extinct. Some people are responding by saving seeds. Others are proposing...
As early as this summer, federal officials hope to set loose Asian wasps never seen in this country with the purpose of attacking the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle accused of killing 25 million ash trees in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Maryland since it was spotted in the United States five years ago. - nytimes.com
Ay-yi-yi-yi... humans are undone by our relentless optimism.
"Sure, releasing those Chinese Needles Snakes to eat the Bolivian Tree Lizards that eat the flying Pigeon-Rats may seem short-sighted, but we've got a plan! We'll simply unleash wave after wave of Snake-Eating Lowland Gorillas... "
In New Zealand, one woman is killed every five weeks by her partner or former partner. Today. In the 21st century.
I just found out that this is what the police statistics say. I am so shocked I don't have anything more to write.
Team NZ tried hard, good for them. But at a time when 0800 HUNGRY has to close for lack of funds, and young disabled people are housed in elder-care rest homes for the same reason, I think it reflects poorly on our government's priorities to immediately assign yet more tax-payer dollars to this silly yacht race.
Perhaps Air NZ should simply sponsor the sail on the Swiss boat next time around?
I wonder what makes Jim Anderton think that his War on Drugs will be any more effective than the American 1990's War on Drugs - or any more effective than American Prohibition of Alcohol, or any less disastrous than the American War on Terror?
Someone send this guy on a clue-finding mission to Amsterdam!