TumbRing News

Animals In Danger !

2011-11-10T01:57:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most famous rare animals is the panda. Twenty years ago it was nearly extinct. Now, its numbers are growing again. It's even become a symbol for wildlife conservation. But many other species have been less lucky than the panda. Sonic are already extinct. Today, many more are in serious danger. This is because man hunts them destroys and pollutes their habitat.

The Main problem Habitat

There is a serious habitat problem because :

After pollution or destruction, habitats take many years (sometimes hundreds or even thousands) to grow again.

2. Pollution and destruction change the balance of nature. Each species in a habitat (for example, wood, jungle, marsh or forest) needs and helps the rest. If one animal, bird or insect disappears, all the others suffer, too.

This is what's happening in the rainforests of South America, Africa and Asia. These are some of the world's oldest habitats. Or they were. Man is destroying an area of rainforest as big as Switzerland every year.

But the problem doesn't stop there. Habitats and animals are disappearing in Europe, too. Since 1947 in Britain, for example...

50% oft he woods have disappeared.

50% of the marshes have disappeared

95% of the meadows have disappeared.

And what has taken the place of these green, natural places? Houses farms, cities, streets, roads and factories. Because of this (and pollution, too) several British species are dying. In fact scientists believe that 30 British animals, fish and birds may become extinct by the year 2000.

The solution : There is only one way to save wild animals and wild habitats-conservation.

    * protecting animals in danger by law
   * opening more national parks
    * building fewer new roads
    * planting more new forests
    * cutting pollution

If this doesn't happen, many wild animals will soon have just one habitat, the zoo.

The Hunting Problem
Man has always been a hunter. He still is. But many modern hunters don't just kill for food - they kill for profit. That's why so many rare and protected animals are still dying. Hunters like these are called poachers. In 1981 there were 15,000 black rhinos in Africa. Today, because of illegal hunting, that number is 4,500.

In the 1970s there were 1.3 million African elephants. Today, because of poaching, there are under 85,000.In the I940s, 90% of skins and furs came from wild animals. Today that number is 15%. That's because most modern skins come from fur farms.

Fur Farm Facts:

    There are more than 2,000 in Scandinavia and 340 in Russia.
    They don't keep rare or protected animals.
    Fur farmers kill and sell over 34 million mink every year.
    Animals in fur farms live in good conditions and die without pain (the farmers give them an injection).

But what about the other 15% of furs? Well -these still come from wild animals. Hunters catch most oh them in traps. These are made of metal and are very sharp. Most animals caught in traps die very slowly.

The USA traps over 20 million animals every year. The most popular furs are... mink, sable, fox, squirrel and lynx. These rare animals are all in danger because hunters kill them for their fur... snow leopard, jaguar, ocelot, indian tiger cat, lynx.

The solution : The fur trade argument.

    Stop the fur trade.

* It's wrong to keep wild animals in cages.

* It's wrong to kill animals for fashion and profit.
* It's wrong to kill wild animals in traps.

* It's wrong to sell the fur of rare, protected species.

Drunk on Facebook? That could be a problem !!!

2011-10-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

REUTERS - College students' Facebook pages may hold clues as to which of them are at risk for alcohol dependence and abuse, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers led by Megan Moreno from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that students who had pictures or posts about getting drunk or blacking out were more likely to be at risk of drinking problems, based on a screening test.

That was not necessarily the case for students who mentioned alcohol or drinking on their pages, but not in a way that showed they drank too much or in unhealthy situations.

"Results suggest that clinical criteria for problem drinking can be applied to Facebook alcohol references," Moreno and her colleagues wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

They added that it was possible that Facebook pages could help schools find out who needs to be assessed for alcohol-related problems -- although privacy and ethical concerns might make that complicated.

The question is whether "what's being found on these sites... is actually predictive of clinical conditions," said James Rosenquist, a social media researcher and psychiatrist from Massachusetts General Hospital who wasn't involved in the study.

But he told Reuters Health that the findings suggest that messages on Facebook sites do seem to be linked to what happens in "the real world."

Moreno led a team of researchers from her university and the University of Washington in Seattle who surveyed the Facebook pages, including photos and posts, of 224 undergrads with publicly-available profiles.

About two-thirds of those students had no references to alcohol or drinking on their pages. The rest of the pages mentioned or had pictures of social, non-problematic drinking or more serious and risky alcohol use, including riding in a car while drunk or getting in trouble related to drinking.

The researchers brought all the students in for a 10-question screening test used to determine who is at risk for problem drinking. That test assesses the frequency of drinking and binge drinking, as well as negative consequences from alcohol use.

Close to six in ten of the students whose Facebook pages had references to drunkenness and other dangerous drinking scored above the cutoff showing a risk for alcohol abuse and dependence, as well as other drinking-related problems.

That compared to 38 percent of students who had more minor references to alcohol and 23 percent of those who didn't mention alcohol or drinking at all.

In addition, close to one in five Facebook-implicated risky drinkers said they had an alcohol-related injury in the previous year.

Moreno and her teams proposed that peer leaders such as residential assistants could be trained to use Facebook to see who is at risk for problem drinking, and refer those students to get screening. Or, parents and administrators could talk to a school's counselors if they were worried about alcohol-related content on a student's page.

"You might have someone who, if they write in a Facebook posting about being drunk... that might be a red flag," Rosenquist said.

But he added that with social media you get very small snapshots into people's lives, so perusing Facebook pages alone might not be enough to see who needs to be screened.

There are other concerns too, including how appropriate it is to go scouting on students' pages for certain information.

Moreno agreed that privacy concerns were an issue but said that universities could have links to the health center or to online screening tests show up as Facebook advertisements for students who use terms such as "blacked out" on their pages.

"With the targeted messaging, there's not that (feeling) that someone you don't know is creeping on your profile," she said.

"Anger never lets you win"

2011-09-20T04:54:00.000-07:00

Every time you lose your cool, you lose control and at times the cost could be quite high. So learn to manage your temper.

As a little kid growing up on a sheep farm near Christchurch, New Zealand, Martin was a bright, hardworking boy, prone to losing his temper and getting angry. He would end up saying harsh words to his friends and family without often realising the impact of his angry outbursts.

Intent on mending his son’s ways, Martin’s dad decided on a plan. He gave his son a sack of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the wooden fence at the back of their farm. The son agreed. The first day, he hammered 35 nails into the fence. As the days passed, the number of nails hammered into the fence gradually decreased. It was quite a task going all the way to the back of the farm and hammering a nail. Young Martin figured it was easier to just control his temper, and not get angry.

And then, one day, he did not lose his cool at all. A day of no nails! Delighted, he told his father about it. And the father said that for every day that Martin did not lose his temper, he should pull out a nail from the fence. Martin did as told, and some months later, all the nails in the fence had been removed. Martin was pleased. And so was his dad.

The father led young Martin to the back of the farm and pointing to the wooden fence he said “You have done well, my son and I am proud of you. But notice the holes left behind by the nails? They will never go away. The fence will never be the same again. It’s like that with our anger too. When we are angry, we say things that leave a scar. And no amount of apologizing thereafter can ever remove those scars. Remember that!”

It’s a lesson Martin has remembered all his life. And it’s a lesson we would all do well to take to heart too. Keep your cool. Don’t lose your temper. And you will see a significant improvement in your relationships. People will like you more, they will respect you a lot more – and you will find that hardly anybody gets angry with you. If you find yourself losing your cool often, maybe you should set yourself a punishment equivalent to hammering nails on the fence. Like Martin, you too might then find yourself controlling your temper a lot better. Good to remember that you can never really win when you get angry. You always lose -your temper, your cool and a whole lot else besides.

Saying ‘Sorry’ is like using one of those erasers on the top of a pencil. It’s easy to use, it feels like you have erased what was written, but the marks remain on the sheet of paper forever. And in this era of instant messaging and on-the-go e-mails, it becomes even more important to watch your words. If you are upset and want to shoot off an angry e-mail or message, hold it! Draft a mail perhaps – but leave it as a draft. Don’t hit the ‘send’ button whilst you are angry. Tell yourself that you will take a look at it the next morning, and only then send it. Chances are, with a cooler head the next morning, you will realise the folly of sending out the angry email. And it does not matter that you are in the right, or that you think your anger is justified. If you lose your cool, remember, you lose. Period.

Next time you are angry and want to say something, take a deep breath. Pause. And maybe say nothing at all.

Starting today, resolve to keep your cool. Watch what you say. And see the difference!

Prakash Iyer is MD, Kimberly-Clark Lever and Executive Coach. For more inspiring life lessons, read Mr Iyer's new book The Habit of Winning.

Google+ now open to all: no need for those invites ...

2011-07-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Launched five days ago, Google+ has quickly gained popularity amongst netizens, but access to the networking service was limited to invites only. Seeing the clamour for invites that exploded around the web and Twitter, Google seems to have gained some confidence about it, and listened to the masses - for it looks to have (rather quickly) opened up the doors to Google+ to everyone.

Requiring just a Google account, it is possible to now sign up for the Google+ service - just navigate here, to its homepage. Note however, not everyone can see the above Sign In button when they visit the page, and might just see a 'Keep me posted' link instead. This may be an IP related issue. Update: Seeing the problems our users are facing, it is evident the service is still running at limited capacity, with reports of a "We've temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon" message. We hope for those eager that Google just opens it completely as fast as they can add more servers to cater to the growing + madness.

Workarounds: If you aren't able to get access via the above Sign In page (try navigating to it using the Chrome browser), there are other methods being circulated around the web, with varying degrees of success. Try directly visiting your Google+ profile (when signed into a Google account), by clicking this link. You can also download the Google+ Chrome app, whilst using the Google Chrome browser, here, and open it in a new tab. As one of our readers pointed out, you can also try using a different VPN, based out of other territories, to access the Sign In page.

Let us know if you get access, if you are enjoying the service, if you feel it is better than Facebook, or anything else about Google+, in the comments section below. For now, Google is still calling the service 'the Google+ project', implying that it is still in its early stages. Expect numerous changes and improvements in the coming months.

Facebook set to ink deal with Skype in response to Google+ video functions

2011-07-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

In response to the overwhelming hoards of internet users clamoring to try out Google's new Google+ social networking service, Facebook has been in talks with Microsoft owned Skype about a rumoured new video chat service.

The news comes after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised Facebook users that a new "awesome" feature would be appearing on the site on 6 July.

The alleged deal with Skype was first reported by the tech site TechCrunch. The site reported that an unnamed insider had leaked knowledge of the deal to its reporters.

The new collaboration will reportedly see "deep integration" between the two. The move will also apparently see the creation of a new desktop component for the combined services -- details about what this actually means remain vague.

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If true, the recent collaboration would be the second time Skype and Facebook have teamed-up. In October 2010, Facebook partnered with Skype on Skype 5.0, integrating parts of the two services to allow users to sign in with Facebook and then connect to their friends through Skype.

The SkypeMe application for Facebook soon followed allowing user to Skype call contacts from Facebook.

The move comes just after Google last week half-launched its new Google+ Facebook competitor.

The new social networking site by Google already contains a host of video features, the most impressive of which being its +Hangouts service.

Google+ is capable of multi-person live video chat and a host of changeable hangouts -- chatrooms that can be created and altered so only certain individuals can enter.

Already analysts have already speculated that the alleged new deal between Facebook and Skype could be a reaction by Facebook to try and quickly add the features it's currently missing when compared to Google+.

Neither Skype nor Facebook have officially confirmed or denied the rumours.

Google goes after Facebook with Google+

2011-06-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

After months of rumors, Google takes the wraps off its own social network

After months of speculation, Google has launched a social network to rival Facebook.

Google today unveiled its Google+ project, a social networking service that looks and functions very much like Facebook. The two Internet giants have been increasingly competitive, and with today's announcement, Google is taking a giant step directly onto Facebook's market.

"Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others," wrote Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, in a blog post. "Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it."

Google's new service, which now is only available to a small group of users and invitees, is designed to enable people to post status updates, share links and upload photos.

However, what Google hopes will set its social network apart from Facebook and the smaller social networking services is that Google+ is set up to allow users to communicate within separate groups of their online friends. Instead of posting an update that goes out to everyone, Google+ enables users to create "circles" or groups, such as a user's poker buddies, college friends, work colleagues and family members.

Now a user can communicate separately with each group.

"The "circles" idea makes a lot of sense," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research. "It's smart, and while you can do something similar in Facebook, it's not Facebook's main thing. It's not as easy to do."

But it remains to be seen whether this feature will be enough to convince Facebook users -- many of whom are already tied in with sometimes hundreds of people on Facebook -- to use a second social network or even toss aside the über-popular Facebook in favor a brand new service that not many people are using.

Bloggers and pundits have long talked about whether Google would come out with a Facebook killer, but that is one tall order.

The one certainty is that Google is facing an uphill battle in taking on Facebook. While the social network has officially said that it has more than 500 million users, other sources recently have reported that the number now is more than 750 million.

But Google has accepted the challenge.

With Google+, the company is giving users a way to get a rolling scroll of content from across the Internet on any topic of they're interested in. Really into fashion, gardening or restoring old cars? Google+ will stream a feed of content into your page so you can stay up to date on your favorite topics.

And with a feature called "Hangouts," Google+ enables users to meet up with their friends online, using multiperson video.

Want to share the photos on your smartphone but don't want the hassle of uploading them? With the user's permission, Google+ will take the photos you've snapped with your phone and store them in the cloud so you can easily move them onto any of your devices.

"We realize that Google+ is a different kind of project, requiring a different kind of focus -- on you," Gundotra wrote. "That's why we're giving you more ways to stay private or go public; more meaningful choices around your friends and your data."