| Tusko faces the drill bit
Veterinarians expect to take another crack at removing what's left of the elephant's infected tusk in an operation Sunday at the Oregon Zoo. About six weeks ago, they sawed, drilled and chiseled out perhaps 95 percent of his left tusk during an elaborate procedure lasting nearly five hours. That's a long time for an animal as big as 13,500-pound Tusko to be anesthetized, and high in his skull, a chunk of tusk and dentin tissue remained. Rather than risk keeping the elephant unconscious any longer, surgeons decided on a second operation. Anesthesia poses particular risks for elephants. Not only can the drugs cause gastrointestinal trouble, but also, an elephant's enormous weight can compress muscles, pinch nerves or impede blood supply. If the beast awakens and tries to stand on a limb that's not working properly, a fall could prove catastrophic.
Summer camp just around corner
Summer camp can be more than exploring in the woods, building a campfire and swimming in the lake. Many kids are taking advantage of enrichment camps that allow them to delve into a specific subject matter, explore a talent or tap into their creative side.
"Quality summer day camp programs are in demand," says Paige Schulte owner of KidzArt in El Dorado Hills. "Camps that stimulate kids' brains and allow them to explore something new while they're having fun seem to be the best combination."
KidzArt, an art enrichment program for kids of all ages, lets children discover various artistic styles and techniques using a variety of mediums such as water colors, high quality art markers, colored pencils, chalk, charcoal and polymer clay.
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Endangered Ivories
GELLERMAN: This is the trumpet of an elephant, the world's largest terrestrial mammal. Listen well because the sound may be lost to future generations. Nearly 20 years after the world came together to ban the international trade of ivory, ivory smuggling is back, big time, and so is the poaching of African elephants. In 2002, officials confiscated 13 thousand pounds of ivory in a single raid, but authorities say the only thing unusual about that incident was that the smugglers were caught. As much as 90 percent of smuggled ivory is never seized. Samuel Wasser is the director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He recently spoke with Living on Earth's Steve Curwood about the resurgence of the ivory trade. WASSER: Actually it is not illegal to sell ivory in any country right now.
What next - eco-imperialism?
The UN Security Council this week held its first ever debate on climate change and the potential threat that global warming poses to international security. British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett, who chaired the meeting, organised the open session to highlight what she called the 'security imperative' to tackle climate change. According to Beckett, climate change can exacerbate problems that cause conflicts and threaten the entire planet. She was clearly very pleased with the UK-led initiative, stating that: 'This is a groundbreaking day in the history of the Security Council, the first time ever that we will debate climate change as a matter of international peace and security.' (1) Not all the Council members agreed with her. The UK, currently holding the rotating council presidency, had to undertake a lot of 'behind closed doors' lobbying to even get the Council to agree to hold the open session (2).
Microsoft Launching Flash Competitor: Silverlight
Microsoft's is so late to the party, and yet it keeps on partying: at NAB, where Adobe is announcing the launch of its standalone media player, Microsoft is going inside the browser, with Silverlight, a Web browser plug-in for playing media files and displaying interactive Web applications (and one would have thought the plug-in wars are over). Silverlight, under development for at least two years, is a player that can display Web apps on both Windows and the Mac in IE, Firefox or Safari. The download of the player will be less than 2MB. Along with this, it is also announcing content and other partners who will test out the technology: Major League Baseball, online video broadcaster Brightcove, Netflix and Akamai Technologies (fill list of partners here). Some advantages it says over Adobe's Flash: Windows that display streaming video within a browser page can be resized because Silverlight uses vector graphics.
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