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Environment
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Investec Establishing €100 Million Energy Fund
02 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Investec has joined forces with the European Investment Bank to establish a funding facility that will promote energy efficiency and the generating of clean energy in South Africa. The venture will be rolled out to support various kinds of renewable energy projects across the country.
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COP17 Climate Talks In Danger Of Unravelling
29 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Key decision makers on the global climate change issue have been hesitant to make a conclusive call at the COP17 talks, which are currently being held in Durban. There are major concerns that the world’s only legally binding climate agreement could sink entirely.
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Lab Dogs See Sunlight For First Time [VIDEO]
29 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 3 Comments
The Beagle Freedom Project rescues dogs that are bred and used for lab testing. These dogs are born in laboratories and live in cages their whole lives. The project recently rescued 40 dogs, between ages four and seven, who have never seen outside sunlight.
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Science: Neutrinos Probably Didn’t Travel Faster Than The Speed Of Light
22 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
In September, the science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light. Now, measurements by an opposing team of physicists suggest neutrinos cannot have travelled faster than the speed of light.
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Prince Philip Calls Wind Farms A “Fairy Tale”
21 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
He also called them “absolutely useless”, and he might have a point too. The Duke of Edinburgh, at age 90, rightfully points out that wind farms are heavily reliant on subsidies, and that those who claim they’re one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy believed in “fairy tales”.
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Drunk Idiot Viciously Attacked By Zoo Monkeys [Graphic Video]
18 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 4 Comments
Joao Leite dos Santos is one loco ese! On Sunday he visited a Brazilian zoo in Sao Paulo, got drunk, and decided to take a swim in the monkey enclosure. As you’ll see from this video, he ended up being attacked and badly injured. According to experts, the only reason why he survived was because the monkeys were afraid of the water.
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Japan’s Eco-Friendly Christmas Lights [PICS]
18 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
It’s the Year of Setsuden in Japan, which Google tells me means “saving electricity'”; this means that the lavish Christmas illuminations that Tokyo usually sets up are a little hard to justify. Minna no Illumi has found a pretty neat solution to the problem, though, with an entirely biodiesel-powered display.
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Poaching Mission Off To China Following Record Bust
17 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
South Africa’s Environmental Affairs Department has said it’s sending a mission to China following a record R18 million rhino horn bust in Hong Kong on Monday. So far, officials have released little information about the massive haul that left Cape Town harbour, but they have said this mission was a positive sign for relations with China.
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Thailand Flooding Ingenuity [PICS]
16 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Thailand’s Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department confirmed that a total of 562 people have already died during the more than three-month long flooding taking place there, which is the worst in over 50 years. Nevertheless, some Thai residents affected by the flooding have begun dealing with the lemons that life has thrown at them in unique ways.
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BBC Removed Climate Change Episode From Natural History Series To Sell Better
16 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
“Frozen Planet” is the latest big-budget series from the BBC’s Natural History Unit; its seventh and last episode deals with global warming. Except apparently climate change isn’t that big of a deal, because the BBC has dropped that episode from its international line-up to help sell the series outside of Britain.
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Barack Obama Takes Out Crocodile Insurance For Australia Visit
15 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Barack Obama will visit Australia tomorrow, and the US President isn’t taking any chances with those fearsome Aussie crocs. He’s been issued with a crocodile attack insurance policy, which will pay out more than $50 000 on the off-chance that he should be fatally attacked during his tour of crocodile-infested Darwin, where ‘Crocodile Dundee’ was set.
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How Much Would You Pay For Cup Of Panda Poo Tea?
15 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Pandas are undoubtedly nature’s cuddliest bear. Those big, black, doughy patches that house their eyes could soften the heart of a steely-eyed Navy SEAL. But, are they cute enough to convince you to substitute that cup of Rooibos with a cup of their poop?
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Catvertising: The Future Of Internet Advertising [VIDEO]
14 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
There is a good chance you will have come across, or heard about, a cat meme. Either in picture or video format, they can be rather amusing. Or not. This isn’t an actual cat meme, but rather a lewd take on the phenomenon of cats and the internet.
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Klerksdorp Farmer Gouged To Death By Pet Hippo
14 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 3 Comments
“Humphrey’s like a son to me, he’s just like a human. There’s a special relationship between me and Humphrey”. These words were uttered by Klerksdorp farmer, Marius Els earlier this year. Pictures were also taken of him happily riding on his 1 200kg pet bull hippo’s back. But on Saturday night, Humphrey the hippo gouged Els to death by repeatedly biting him.
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International Energy Agency: Climate Change May Become Irreversible In Five Years
10 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
In the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure and carbon emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that we are likely to build so many new fossil-fueled power stations in the next five years that it won’t be possible to hold global warming at safe levels.
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Black Rhino Declared Extinct In West Africa
10 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles The Red List, and which is widely recognised as the most comprehensive method for evaluating the conservation status of animal and plant species around the world, has declared the subspecies, the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes), as extinct.
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Black Rhinos Transported Upside Down By Air [PICS]
07 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 10 Comments
The Black Rhino Range Expansion Project recently successfully transported 19 black rhinos 1 500 kilometres across South Africa. They did this by airlifting each rhino by its ankles before carrying it upside down! Read exactly why they do it this way, and see some amazing images of this process, after the jump.
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Two Rhino Poaching Suspects Arrested
04 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
If you’ve been following the development of the rhino poaching issue in South Africa recently, you will be pleased to know that two Thai nationals, suspected to be central to an international rhino poaching syndicate, were arrested at OR Tambo International this morning.
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Six Men Emerge After Year-And-A-Half Isolated Mars Mission Simulation
04 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Commercial space travel is now literally months away, and it appears that a mission to Mars is not too far off either. Six men that have been locked in large steel piped tubes for 520 days emerged from isolation earlier today after a bid to simulate a mission to Mars. This is taking Survivor to the next level.
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Surfer Almost Swallowed By Whale [VIDEO]
04 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
Hoo. Santa Cruz surfer Barbara Roettger got way up close and personal with a pod of humpback whales when she unwittingly found herself in the middle of a lunge feeding session; two massive whales popped up right next to the surfer and her kayak friends, seemingly out of nowhere. It’s pretty rad.
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Surfer In Trouble For “Riding” A Sea Turtle
04 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Jamie O’Brien is a well-known Hawaiian pro-surfer. He recently decided to create some awareness surrounding fibropapillomatosis – a herpes-type virus that affects sea turtles. His “campaign” involved posting a picture of himself “riding” one of these turtles underwater. But it turns out he may have instead broken laws against harassing turtles, as well as offended fellow Hawaiians who consider these creatures as ancestral guardian spirits.
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King Of The Skies, Vulture Vs Paraglider [VIDEO]
03 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Despite what we might think, the skies do not belong to us. In fact, we weren’t even the first beings up there. This was proven conclusively when a man paragliding in the Himalayas had a mid-air collision with a vulture.
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Nervous Japanese MP Drinks Fukushima Nuclear Water
01 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
A Japanese government official has risen to a challenge set by journalists to prove that water collected from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was safe to drink. Albeit with some trepidation. MP Yasuhiro Sonoda downed a glass of water during a televised news conference and seems to have survived, although his shaky hands certainly betrayed his nerves.
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Science To Tear Space A New One With Ultra Powerful “Laser”
01 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A new laser is to be built that is as powerful as “concentrating the rays of the sun for the entire earth onto the tip of a pen”. Scientists claim it could allow them boil the very fabric of space, AKA the vacuum. Because that’s a fantastic idea. It is official, mankind has a death-wish.
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School Cleaner Who Rescued Dog From Being Buried Alive Fired
31 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 27 Comments
Bukelwa Mbulawa, a cleaner at Luhlaza Secondary School in Khayelitsha, is an animal rights hero. On realising a stray dog was being buried alive by two colleagues on the school field, Bukelwa called animal welfare organisation International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to alert them to what was going down. The dog was saved and later called Warrior. IFAW says she’s a hero. But Bukelwa has now been fired.
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Samsung’s Solar-Powered Internet School
28 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Samsung Africa has unveiled a unique initiative they are calling the Samsung Internet Schools Programme. The initial programme will span five African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. In time it will branch out into other African countries too. The school is a mobile, solar-powered, independent classroom housed in a container.
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Anxious Bangkok Prepares For Month Long Floods
26 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
Anxious Bangkok residents are steeling themselves against floods moving down from the northern part of Thailand, which are the worst to hit the country in decades. With Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra keeping everyone on edge with statements such as “I’m fifty percent confident that the inner zone of Bangkok will not be completely flooded,” it must be increasingly difficult to remain buoyant.
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A Novel Disease Prevention: Self-Destructing Mosquitoes
25 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
Following hot on the heels of a possible malaria vaccine, another group of scientists have bred mosquitoes in Guatemala which have been genetically modified to fight Dengue fever.
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Jurassic Park Scientist Plans To Turn A Chicken Into A T-Rex
25 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
When reversing genetics in an attempt to create a real, live, man-eating dinosaur, it pays to know what the consequences may be. In this case, being the paleontologist who advised Steven Spielberg on the making of four Jurassic Park movies and decades of children’s nightmares about killer lizards should just about cover it.
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Hawk Survives After Being Shot Through Head With Nail Gun
25 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A red-tailed hawk from the San Francisco Botanical Gardens miraculously survived after being shot on purpose by someone with a nail gun. For almost a week after incurring the injury, the nail extended from its cheek through the front of its head. He was rescued over the weekend and is currently being cared for at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley in San Jose.
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