http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aboutmyplanetcom/~3/6_iJnEHlfIA/

http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/us-fish-contaminated-with-mercury-and-pcbs/

The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency recently released a study regarding lakes across the country. The EPA tested 500 lakes and reservoirs across the country for mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls in fish. The study related to samples taken between 2000 and 2003.

The study found that all fish collected had some levels of each contaminant. However, 49 percent of the lakes had fish with levels of mercury which the EPA considers unsafe for consumption. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in unsafe levels in fish in 17 percent of lakes tested.

Mercury pollution comes mainly from coal-fired power plants, which will most likely be more regulated to reduce such emissions in the near future. Fish contaminated with mercury when eaten can cause problems for the nervous system and lead to learning disabilities for children.

Polychlorinated biphenyls were commonly used in lubricants and coolants until the 1970s, when they were banned by the U.S.. However, the existence of PCBs in every sample of fish even today represents the prevalence of the chemicals in the environment. PCBs are known to cause cancer along with other health ailments.

These findings follow a recent study released by the U.S. Geological Survey which found 25 percent of fish in streams had excessive levels of mercury. All 300 streams sampled also had fish which some levels of mercury in that instance as well.

http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/6741

http://blogd.com/wp/?p=6741

Gizmodo has a piece today on a cool-looking capsule hotel. Looks aside, my own experience with capsule hotels was less than satisfying. Far less.

What happens is that all the drunk businessmen congregate there after partying too late and missing the last train. It’s a feasible alternative since the capsule hotel is cheaper than a taxi ride home, and they have to be at work in 4-5 hours anyway.

Now, you’d think that these guys, being drunk and tired, having to go to work soon, and being so close to beds, would simply tuck in and nod off. But noooo. They stay up and drink more, talking to each other in the corridor right outside the tubes, and those in their tubes often are watching TV with no headphones and the volume turned up. Imagine trying to sleep in a regular hotel room, except with several drunk businessmen partying it up at the foot of your bed.

The one night I tried one of these places, I had to go to the front desk to ask for a different wing, you know, one where people were trying to sleep at 2:00 am. The guy was surprisingly unprepared for such an odd request, and had to go to an effort, finally putting me in an unused wing of tubes located right across from the air conditioning system, which made loud throbbing noises all night. At least they were regular and rhythmic, and I was eventually able to get to sleep.

Maybe I just had bad luck and most capsule hotels aren’t like this, but I am not eager to find out.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aboutmyplanetcom/~3/Lh4Laz050Ho/

http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/daily-green-tips/dishes-efficiently/

• Add hot water and soap to those greasy pots and pans. Let these soak separately from your other dishes, because you don’t want to wash your almost clean dishes in oily, grimy water.
• Stack your dirty dishes outside of the sink, because the goal is to use as little water as possible.
• Place your cutlery in the sink and add hot water and soap. Clean all of them first and then rinse them off at one time. Then place them in a dish drainer to dry. Drying them with towels can actually be less sanitary.
• Put your stack of dirty dishes into the sink next. Wash all of these with a soapy dish rag and rinse them all off and place them in the dish drainer as well.
• Now you can wash your glasses and put these out to dry.
• Last but not least are the pots and pans. These should be easy to clean by now since they have been soaking.
• If you have pots and pans that have food crusted or burned onto them, add water and baking soda to the problem then boil the water. You can also do this with glass baking dishes, except you will want to put them in the oven to boil the water.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/11/10/is-your-cat-sick-dont-overlook-these-subtle-clues/

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?p=10071

I got so wrapped up in arm rasslin’ with the FDA that I forgot to post this week’s column from SFGate.com!

Champ, a cat who belongs to a good friend of mine, came down with hepatic lipidosis a few weeks ago. Also known as “fatty liver disease,” it’s a condition triggered when cats, for a variety of reasons or unknown causes, stop eating for a time.

Champ is still sick, but has benefited from some excellent veterinary care and a surgically implanted feeding tube. His owner, however, is still struggling with guilt that she missed the signs he wasn’t feeling well:

The vet told her that Champ had probably not eaten for as long as two weeks by the time she brought him in.

“How could I have missed it?” she wondered. “He sleeps on my bed. I don’t ignore him. I couldn’t understand how this could have happened without my seeing it.”

Dr. Vicki Thayer, a board certified feline specialist and president-elect of the Winn Feline Foundation, a non-profit organization that is one of the leading funders of veterinary research into cat health, said such feelings are common, but owners like Hoffmann who miss signs of serious illness in their cats shouldn’t feel guilty.

“Cats are masters at disguising illness,” she said. “This ability kept them from appearing vulnerable to other predators in the wild.”

Cat owners, she cautions, must try to see through pets’ attempts to hide illness or injury, and stay vigilant for “subtle signs of sickness.”

Many vets jokingly say that the first symptom cat owners can spot is something they’ve dubbed “ADR”: Ain’t doin’ right.

It’s an easy-to-miss and hard-to-measure lack of interest, energy and appetite — and often the only early warning sign that cat owners will get of impending heart or kidney disease, cancer, a urinary tract infection, as well as the liver disease that struck Champ.

“In our busy lifestyles, it can happen to even the best of us where we don’t pick up the clues our cats are trying to tell us,” Thayer said.

And, however subtle they are, there are plenty of clues if you know what to look for.

Find out what to look for, and read the rest, here.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/11/10/clearing-the-decks-short-attention-span-pet-blogging/

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?p=10066

Post it notes. They’re everywhere. Lots of little stuff that just isn’t worth an entire entry but that has gotta be noted nonetheless ….

First, and I’m almost done with Zenyatta blogging (really!), but I gotta say this picture by Mighty Bob Mayberry is my favorite shot of the entire weekend – and it doesn’t even have a horse in it! Check out the reaction shot of Charles Pravata, all-around cool guy and awesome racing photographer, when his girlie Zenyatta showed her pretty, pretty heels to the boys she left eating the rubber racing surface behind her.  Some of Charles’ own pictures of her are on his Flickr.com photostream. One thing all cub reporters learn from Day One (if they’re smart): There are no cooler people on God’s green earth than photojournalists. I’m smart: I learned this and have never forgotten.

OK, now … in no real order …

• Kudos to Cardinal pet products for taking their manufacturing facility in Southern California off the grid.  Two cool things about this: 1) Solar; and 2) American.  Details here.
• Check out DrawTheDog.com. Nothing else out there like it. Nothing. A dog cartoon a day, inspired by stories shared by dog-lovers. Serious contender for the highly coveted blogroll here, I gotta say.
• My friend Darryl Young snapped a picture of Bo eying a hydrant.  First Dog has paparazzi. Ruff life, that.  D and I were trying to figure out the other day how long we have known each other, and in the end we decided we have known each other for so long that we are not telling how long. That’s a long time.
• The next time I think my day job sucks, I will pull out a copy of the current issue of the University of California, Davis, vet school newsletter and be grateful I don’t have to write headlines such as, “Carcass Disposal Conference Increases Preparedness” and stories to go with same.  The bigger, sadder news from the same issue is the closing of the country’s very first pet-loss support hotline, a fixture of the UCD vet school for years, and a great training ground for a great many veterinary students. The reason? Budget cuts. Download the newsletter.

More coming … must eat something first.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aboutmyplanetcom/~3/uFHx1oyorV0/

http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/puerto-rico-preserve-canceled/

Across the globe it is important to establish nature preserves to help ensure the survival of endangered species and fragile lands. Each new preserve is seen as a big win by environmentalists, as it is often difficult to navigate the politics involved in the creation. Unfortunately, sometimes even big wins for the environment can end in disappointment.

Such is the current situation in Puerto Rico, once a place where environmentalists had thought they won a small victory. In 2007, a preserve was ordered to be created in northeastern Puerto Rico. The preserve would have been approximately 3,240 acres, called the Northeast Ecological Corridor.

The land was set aside due to the importance of the beaches on the coastline, which are lined with a tropical forest. Leatherback sea turtles, which are endangered, use these beaches as a nesting area. The government had been attempting to buy private land in order to secure the preserve, which was only partially on public land.

However, this past Friday, the governor of Puerto Rico announced that the preserve would no longer be created. The reason behind the cancellation was said to be due to political pressure and creation of jobs. Environmentalists are concerned that hotel resorts will now be built in the area.

It must be noted that the governor of Puerto Rico has called for the environmental authorities to determine what of the 3,240 acres is the most sensitive. The areas determined to be the most endangered will most likely still be preserved. However, many fear the increased tourism in the area and human involvement due to development may harm the land that is preserved.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/11/10/don%e2%80%99t-wait-until-the-breaking-point/

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?p=10061

In this week’s Pet Connection feature, Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori are tired of getting email about “the farm.”

What farm, you ask? The one where many imagine their unmanageable dog will be welcomed, along with countless others. A farm where dogs run leash-free, with no children to bite, no cats to kill, no home or yard to destroy, and no nearby neighbors to hear the barking, barking, barking.

“We can’t handle our dog anymore,” someone will write to us desperately. “We need to find him a home on a farm.”

Of course, no such farms exist. The responsibility for correcting your dog’s behavior problems rests solely with you. His quality of life is at considerable risk — and likely his very life: Dogs with serious behavior problems whose owners give up on them are often euthanized after adoption efforts fail.

It doesn’t have to be that way. While some behavior problems aren’t fixable, most can be. To accomplish such change, though, you have to be prepared to put some time into changing the situation. Quick-fix, halfhearted efforts are doomed from the start.

Find out what does work here.

Dr. Becker and Mikkel Becker Shannon say cats are getting shorted when it comes to the health care budget:

Cats receive only half of the health care protection that dogs do, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. In another study by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), pet owners with at least one dog and one cat in their household said they were more attached to the dog than the cat by a 3-to-1 margin. A third of pet owners surveyed believe it’s more critical to take a dog than a cat for a wellness exam with their veterinarian, an alarming statistic as cats are less likely to show signs of sickness or pain than dogs.

Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week, or download the PDF file exactly the way we send it to our client newspapers!

http://juliancallos.blogspot.com/2009/11/blah-blah-land.html

http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/6738

http://blogd.com/wp/?p=6738

More and more these days, the charge of using child porn can fall on unsuspecting computer users who would never in a million years even think of downloading child porn. Computer viruses exist which can make your computer download volumes of the filth without you being aware of it–until the police come knocking at your door. They’ll believe the initial IP evidence and then stop thinking about it–there’s porn found, so you’re guilty.

More than a year ago, I wrote about the case of a 53-year-old for Massachusetts’ Department of Industrial Accidents who was doubly victimized: the incompetent IT staff who gave him a computer with anti-virus protection turned off. The unsuspecting worker used the computer, not knowing it was riddled with malware, some of it downloading child porn. The same inept IT workers saw the stuff being downloaded, jumped to conclusions, and pointed the finger at this guy, ruining his life. Despite the fact that a cursory review of evidence would have immediately shown that a virus was responsible, IT staff and prosecutors alike simply assumed, and that was that.

To add insult to injury, a cap on lawsuit awards has made it impossible for the man to find an attorney willing to sue for damages.

But this guy is not the only one falling prey to this kind of virus. Anyone who gets it can have the same thing happen, and they will find that it is very hard to prove one’s innocence. Police believe the victim is just using the “SODDI” defense: “Some Other Dude Did It.” Hiring experts to sift through the data and prove it was malware can be prohibitively expensive; the Massachusetts worker spent a quarter of a million dollars to do so, pretty much wiping them out financially–and for the rest of his life, he’ll be fighting off the stigma applied to him carelessly.

Lesson learned: anti-virus protection is even more important than you realize.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/11/09/z-is-for-zenyatta-and-a-day-gone-to-waste/

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?p=10052

I have spent the entire day thinking about horses.  Mostly, about a single horse, a big, fast mare who actually knows how special she is, and you know that just by the way she shows off. E-mailing back and forth about horses with Glenye Oakford of the wonderful blog, Full Cry.

Order her book on horse racing.  I just did, and I can’t wait until it gets here.

And when I wasn’t  thinking about Zenyatta, I was thinking about Ruffian, and how much happier I am that I get to think about Zenyatta alive than Ruffian dead, and how Zenyatta  is the most incredible four-legged animal I have ever seen — and I got to see her from just a few feet away three incredible times. (My brother the football coach says she is the most incredible athlete he has ever seen, and that’s pretty impressive for my brother to say.)

And when I wasn’t doing any of that, I was reading:

• Raised By Wolves, on searches with no rescue, and who gets to have the world turn out to look for them when they go missing, and how we choose. This is the must-read of the day, the week … I don’t know … just go read it.
• Full Cry: A Hound Blog, on the blessing of the hounds and just working back from there.
• Terrierman’s Daily Dose, on the horse pucky that SUVs have smaller “carbon footprints” than dogs do.
• Nathan Winograd, on why the HSUS is “appreciating” shelters instead of forcing them to reform.

All this means I’ll be getting up at 4 a.m. to meet deadline tomorrow.  But I know this: For once, that procrastination was well worth it.

http://paidopps.blogspot.com/2009/11/squidoo-lens-easy-online-money-to-write.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aboutmyplanetcom/~3/sxIkBCFL8wc/

http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/basics-raising-goats/

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aboutmyplanetcom/~3/Q0Oetj2a9cI/

http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/giraffes-rebounding-in-some-areas-of-africa/

Giraffes are the world’s tallest creatures and are well known around the world. A decade ago, there were 140,000 giraffes in Africa, today there are less than 100,000. The reasons are varied but essentially boil down to human interference. Poaching, increasing human populations, numerous wars and even increasing desert areas are pinpointed as devastating to the giraffes.

Of the nine subspecies of giraffes on the continent, one known to the country of Niger was thought to be near extinction at the end of the 20th century. The only giraffes left in West Africa, Giraffa camelopardalis peralta is a species known for their white legs and orange-brown spots. In 1996, these giraffes only had a total of 50 still in existence.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Niger giraffes had a vast area they called home. Their population inhabited from the Atlantic coast in Senegal to mid-continent in Chad. However, now the giraffes are only found in 150 miles of land.

However, things are not looking as bleak for the giraffes in Niger today as they did in 1996. Today the giraffes are numbering around 200 animals. Their population has grown, on average, 12 percent each year. This is a striking growth rate considering other giraffes in Africa average 4 percent.

Many reasons are cited for the comeback of the giraffes in Niger, including fines and jail time for poachers.  If a person kills a giraffe, they will face five years in jail and fines which equate to more than a lifetime’s worth of annual income for the average person in the area.

Increasing tourism incentives are also thought to be contributing to the increased giraffe population. An additional benefit for the giraffe, though unfortunate for the ecosystem as a whole, is that their natural predators were also eliminated by poaching. Years ago the lions and leopards, which once preyed on the giraffes in the area, were wiped out by poaching. Such a decrease in natural predators has aided in the giraffe population growth.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/11/09/we-who-are-about-to-call-the-fda/

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?p=10038

In case you’ve been under an Internet rock, you might have missed the news that the FDA has issued an alert about Vetsulin, an insulin product for diabetic dogs and cats, warning that is formulation may be incorrect and it might thus fail to act correctly in patients who are using it — which in the case of diabetes is not a minor problem.

The short version: If you’re using it, call your vet. She might not actually know about the alert yet, so if you’re the first to tell her, you might want to have the alert handy, as well as this FAQ from the drug’s manufacturer, BigPharma giant Intervet/Schering-Plough.

So, I was mulling over the wording of the alert when an email popped into my inbox, cc’d to Marion Nestle. It was a reader, asking if either of us had any thoughts on the fact that Wysong Pet Food is saying that they didn’t issue an press release about their ongoing pet food recall because “the matter was of small enough consequence that we have even been told by the FDA that a news release is not necessary.”

Huh, I thought. Good question.

That was on Saturday, and I figured that Monday morning I’d talk to the FDA and see if that’s true. And then reality, in the guise of a “wake up and smell the coffee!” note from Marion, reminded me that getting comments from the FDA is getting to be right up there with getting them from, well… industry.

Worse, actually, because sometimes industry will actually talk to you. FDA? Not so much.

It’s not just us pet food junkies getting the cold shoulder. From the Society of Professional Journalists:

The Association of Health Care Journalists and SPJ are fed up with federal agencies’ use of public information officers to chill the flow of information. The two groups sent a letter this week to the FDA urging the agency to stop requiring interviews between reporters and government employees to be approved by PIOs and attended by PIOs.

This practice has become widespread throughout all levels of government, and it needs to stop. While PIOs play an important role in answering questions and facilitating interviews, they are hampering the flow of information when acting as delaying middle-men or go-betweens. Having information transmitted through a middle person is hearsay and fraught with accuracy problems – a disservice to the public.

If you cover an agency that practices this form of information control, don’t put up with it. Request that the higher-ups put an end to it. And if they don’t see the importance of direct communication, then circumvent the Big Brother channels and talk to people directly, as journalists must do to ensure accuracy. It’s our duty to get it right.

So wish me luck as I call a government agency and attempt to pry information out of it without having to file a Freedom of Information Act request.

Although, on the other hand, that’s not actually a terrible idea…

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/11/08/more-forced-spay-neuter-delusional-thinking-ad-naseum/

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?p=10035

Problem: Unowned cats are “out of control” in Las Vegas.
Not a Solution: Mandatory spay-neuter of owned pets, four months of age or older.

Wha?

Too bad no one was paying attention when the No Kill folks were in Vegas recently offering actual, you know, solutions. Instead, we get the same old batch of “We have no proof mandatory spay-neuter helps, nothing but proof that it kills more pets,  but we gotta punish us some people we hate, so …  we’re good with that!”

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

[E]uthanasia is not a solution to pet overpopulation, animal officials say. That’s why the city of Las Vegas is seeking to follow North Las Vegas in adopting a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for dogs and cats as a way to break the cycle of rampant reproduction.

The measure has its critics, though, and even supporters acknowledge that the approach isn’t a magic bullet.

“A mandatory spay/neuter (ordinance) is a good place to start,” said Karen Coyne, head of Las Vegas’ Detention and Enforcement department, which includes animal control.

A good place to start would be with policies that work.  Be nice if someone actually considered that.  Instead, more pets will die everywhere these ordinances pass, instead of people working together for communities supporting progressive, proven shelter policies that are pro-people and pro-pet.

Hey Vegas, why don’t you call Reno? You might learn something.