Article: Airborne Animals

These articles were taken from: The Star Newspaper 2 May 2009

Image: Pig Snout Swab

This image was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Star Foto Folder 29 April 2009

Image: Pig Farm Disinfecting

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Star Foto Folder 28 April 2009

Image: Fruitful Location

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Thumbnails 28 April 2009

Article: Climate Change To Hit Region

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: World 28 April 2009

MALAYSIAN DOGS DESERVE BETTER: Online Adoption Drive - Please forward

http://malaysiandogsforadoption.blogspot.com/


Welcome to Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better's online adoption drive.

Please call 019-3576477, 017-2081844, 019-320 3875, 012-3910199 or 017-3175732 for inquiries.

Those interested in giving these beauties a home can also write to
malaysiandogsadoptiondrive@gmail.com





Mr Bling - Two-month-old Mr Bling is a runt and is half the size of his siblings. He is fun loving and loves to run around his foster home.
Mia - Two-and-a-half month old girl. Very manja and cute.

Seven Princesses from Seramban - 2 months old

KIKI - beautiful and friendly, Kiki is shortlegged and long-bodfied. Will grow into a medium sized dog. Five months old.

From left - Peter, Mike and Nina - Peter and Mike are a little bit garang and will make good guard dogs whilst Nina is sweet and loving. All pups about four months old

Five Sisters From Sendayan - One and a half months old.

Farrow - Two and a half month old male

Ebony and Noir - male and female - one and a half month

Lila - one and a half month old female.

Images: Star Thumnails 4 May 2009

These images were taken from: The Star Newspaper: Thumbnails 4 May 2009

Article: America;s feline divas got talent

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: World 26 April 2009

Article: It's all Brawn

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Sports Section 24 April 2009

Article: Dog Fines

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Startwo T24, 24 April 2009

Article: Tranquil isle under threat

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: 25 April 2009

Article: Massive Tree Felling

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: 25 April 2009

Article: Getting Pulled Along

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Startwo 25 April 2009

Article: Move to clean up rivers

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: 25 April 2009

Article: Top Cat

These articles were taken from: The Star Newspaper 2 May 2009

Article: Wind flies dog 1.6km into the woods

This article was taken from:The Star Newspaper: World 29 April 2009

Article: Hairy caterpillars invade village

Wednesday April 29, 2009

SRJK (T) Kampung Baru in Bukit Mertajam has been saved from an invasion of hairy caterpillars by the prompt arrival of the Seberang Prai Municipal Council health and emergency squad.

Squad chief M. Raju said the school would otherwise be infested with the caterpillars which had eaten the leaves of trees nearby and foraying for more food.

When the squad arrived at about 11am on Monday, many of the caterpillars were found on the concrete pillars of the school's perimeter. Insecticide was immediately sprayed onto the perimeter wall and trees within. Trees were also trimmed as a precaution.

"The caterpillars will cause rashes if they are touched. It only attack the fig trees and also eats the fruits," he said.

After securing the school from the infestation, the squad swooped surrounding areas yesterday to exterminate the pest.

Raju said his squad members also attended to complaints on the caterpillars from residents in Sungai Rambai in Bukit Mertajam.

"We spotted the caterpillars on wild fig trees along Jalan Song Beng Keng in Bukit Mertajam. We sprayed insecticide and trimmed the trees," he added.

Ong Kee Seong, who is special assistant to state Youth, Sports, Women, Family and Community Development Committee chairman Lydia Ong Kok Fooi, said he received a complaint from a resident in Kampung Baru on Saturday about the presence of thousands of caterpillars.

"I went to see the caterpillars for myself on Sunday, and was shocked to find trees near the school full of caterpillars.

"I immediately informed the council's health department and health officers equipped with spray tanks were deployed. However, the council's emergency squad had to be called in as the caterpillars were also spotted on tree branches and leaves that were too high to reach," he said.

Kee Seong advised teachers of the school to tell their students not to touch the caterpillars as it would cause rashes.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: North 29 April 2009

Article: Felled trees raises woman’s ire

Wednesday April 29, 2009

By ANN TAN

A HOUSEWIFE is seeing red over the action of her neighbour who had chopped down six trees in front of their flats in Bandar Baru Air Itam in Penang.

A. Suganthy, 32, claimed that her neighbour, a hawker in his 40s, began felling the trees in their flat's compound in Desa Intan since November last year.

"I complained to the property management company Bandar Baru Ayer Itam Management Sdn Bhd (BBAIM) and he stopped doing it after a week.

"But he resumed his 'mission' yesterday," she said.

Suganthy said she confronted her neighbour for destroying the green lung but he turned a deaf ear.

"He told some of the residents to go ahead and lodge a complaint with the authorities. I referred the case to BBAIM again and they told me they had no jurisdiction over the trees," she said.

Suganthy said she was upset because the trees had been there for about 17 years. "They provide shade for our cars and also beautify the residential area," she said.

Suganthy said the man would chop the trees after 5pm to escape action from council personnel as it was outside working hours.

"He would then chop the tree trunk into pieces and burn them," she said, adding the man could be planning to set up an illegal hawker stall in the area.

When contacted, a council spokesperson said they had received a complaint from Suganthy and would act on it.

"We need to check first before deciding on the next course of action," she said.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: North 29 April 2009

Image: Intensive care

This image was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Thumbnails 29 April 2009

Article: Trash on show at the Garbage Museum

Tuesday April 28, 2009

By DAVE COLLINS

Trash is not always wasted. It can be recycled or even turned into educational exhibits.

IN a waterfront industrial area near the Bridgeport line in Stratford, Connecticut, the trucks keep dumping trash and the school buses keep dumping children.

Eight-year-old Matt Carlucci is in awe as soon as he walks through the front door of The Garbage Museum, confronted immediately by a colourful, 3.7m-tall dinosaur made out of junk. "Trash-o-saurus" resembles something out of the animated movie Robots.

Pennsylvania sculptor Leo Sewell, who grew up near a dump, fashioned the 7.3m-long piece out of old "no parking" signs, cell phones, shoes, licence plates, sunglasses, plastic toys and anything else he could get his hands on. Visitors are given a list of things to find on the dinosaur, and it's no easy feat.

"It's pretty cool," Matt said during a trip with his third-grade class from Sherman, Connecticut. "All the garbage on it, how big it is and how much it weighs."

A young visitor admiring 'Trash-o-saurus' at The Garbage Museum. The sculpture by Leo Sewell weighs 907kg, representing the amount of garbage and recyclables that an average Connecticut resident discards each year.

The sculpture is 907kg, representing the average amount of garbage and recyclables each person in Connecticut discards each year. Like all the exhibits, Trash-o-saurus was designed with the goal of teaching how important recycling is.

The museum opened in 1993 at the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority's (CRRA) recycling centre in Stratford, "before 'green' was cool," a fact sheet says. About 32,200 people visited the museum and took part in its off-site programmes last year, a record.

"We don't know of any other museums dedicated to garbage and recycling in the country," said Paul Nonnenmacher, a spokesman for the CRRA, a quasi-public state trash agency.

The agency also operates a sister facility, The Trash Museum, in Hartford that drew more than 27,000 people last year.

"What's exciting is the kids go home and tell their parents what they can recycle," said Sotoria Montanari, the museum's education supervisor.

While the dinosaur sculpture is popular, children have just as much fun in the viewing area over the centre's sorting area, Montanari said. Trucks dump recyclables from 20 area towns, to the tune of 60,000 tonnes a year.

Huge piles of plastic bottles look made to jump into. Stacks of newspapers and cardboard fill another area. An assembly line of workers sorts the materials, which are crushed and sold as commodities to produce new products. Some buyers even make carpets and fleece jackets out of the recycled plastic, which can be turned into fibres.

Back down a flight of stairs near the dinosaur, children can play in a general store complete with a cash register, old cereal boxes and other reusable items.

An exhibit with stacked soda cans shows how making aluminum out of recycled materials creates 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution than mining bauxite.

Visitors can walk through the tunnel of a big, brown and plastic "composting pile" that has fake worms, bugs and pieces of fruits and vegetables sticking out of it.

Educator Robin Bennett can show you a real composting pile, and how a special kind of worm eats the garbage and converts it into what looks like dirt.

The Trash Bash activity imprisons helmet-wearing contestants behind chain-link fence doors and makes them answer questions. If the answer is wrong, others are given the green light to dump trash on them from an overhead opening.

There are also art exhibits made from reusable stuff, including a life-size mannequin made from crushed and coloured milk containers strung together with pipe cleaners. It all makes for a fun hour or two, but visitors say they also walk away with new knowledge and appreciation.

"You can see where all the garbage goes," said 10-year-old Brooke Hiatt. "You can see how and where it goes and the process of recycling stuff. I've learned that recycling is better than just wasting. If you waste, you can pollute your environment." – AP

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Lifestyle: Focus 28 April 2009

Article: Planet keepers win environmental award

Tuesday April 28, 2009

By PETER GRIFFITHS

Six campaigners win the environmental world's 'Nobels'.

FROM the rainforests of Africa to the mountain-top coal mines of West Virginia, six campaigners who have fought governments and industry to protect the planet won prestigious Goldman Environmental Prizes recently.

The awards, often referred to as the Nobel Prizes of the environmental world, went to activists in six continents who took on everything from toxic chemical dumps in the former Soviet Union to ship-breaking in Asia.

This year's African winner is Marc Ona Essangui, who campaigned against plans by a Chinese state-owned company to open an iron ore mine in the rainforests of Gabon, west Africa.

Ona, who uses a wheelchair due to childhood polio, has been repeatedly threatened, and arrested and evicted from his home.

The 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize recipients are: (from left) Wanze Eduards of Suriname; Olga Speranskaya of Moscow; Hugo Jabini of Suriname; Yuyun Ismawati of Bali; Rizwana Hasan of Bangladesh; and Maria Gunnoe of the United States.

"Threats shouldn't prevent you from carrying on your fight. It could destroy the most beautiful forests in central Africa."

His campaign helped lead to a review of the project, which is currently on hold, the prize's organisers said.

The North America winner was Maria Gunnoe, a former waitress who campaigns against the environmental impact of mountain-top coal-mining in the Appalachian hills of West Virginia.

The method involves blasting the tops of mountains, removing the coal and pushing the rubble into valleys. Critics say it pollutes land, destroys streams and causes flooding.

In an area where coal is the backbone of the economy, Gunnoe has divided the community and received death threats.

"There's a lot of people here who support what I do. But there's others who drive in here every day for their jobs, and given a choice, they would run over me in a heartbeat," she said in a message on her website.

In Europe, the prize went to Olga Speranskaya, a Russian scientist whose Moscow-based campaign group Eco-Accord aims to rid former Soviet republics of old toxic chemicals once used in agriculture or industry.

"They are among the most toxic and dangerous substances and cause birth defects ... and even cancer," she told Reuters.

The other winners, who received their US$150,000 (RM540,000) prizes at a ceremony in San Francisco were:

> From Asia: Rizwana Hasan, from Bangladesh, who has raised public awareness of the dangers of ship-breaking.

> From South and central America: Hugo Jabini and Wanze Eduards, from Suriname, who organised local people to campaign against logging on their land.

> From islands: Yuyun Ismawati, who campaigned for better waste management in Indonesia.

Previous winners of the award, established in 1990 by two US philanthropists, include the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged in 1995 after leading protests against oil companies in Nigeria. – Reuters

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Lifestyle: Focus 28 April 2009

Article: Melting caps

Tuesday April 28, 2009

By SAM TAYLOR

Nowhere is global warming felt more acutely than in the Himalayas, where ice and snow are retreating.

STANDING in the Himalayan valley of Langtang, Rinjin Dorje Lama remembers where he used to play as a child in the 1960s.

"When I was a kid, it was a lot longer," said Lama, pointing at the Lirung glacier surrounded by snowy peaks on Nepal's northern border with Tibet. "We used to play on the glacier, and it came right down to the monastery, but now it's about 2km further back."

Temperatures in the Himalayas are rising by around 0.06°C annually, according to a long-term study by the Nepalese department of hydrology. The rate is far above the global average given last year by United Nations scientists, who said surface temperatures have risen by a total of 0.74°C over the past 100 years.

"I don't really understand why the glacier has gone so far back, but I am told it's due to global warming," said Lama, whose weather-beaten face makes him look older than his 57 years.

Lama has witnessed other changes in the roadless valley, 60km northwest of Kathmandu, where sure-footed ponies remain the quickest form of transport. "I feel that the sun is getting stronger, and in the past there used to be a lot more snow in winter. We used to get up to 2m in the winter, and it would stay for weeks. Last winter we only had 2cm."

On top of unpredictable weather, other dangers are increasing in Nepal's mountains because of climate change. As the meltwater flows off the glacier, lakes begin to form and grow. When the pressure becomes too great, the lake walls burst and release millions of cubic tonnes of water that can wash away people, villages and arable land.

A mountaineer overlooking the Imja glacier lake in the Everest region of Nepal. The Imja lake did not exist 35 years ago.

Researchers at the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) have said five major glacial lake floods have hit Nepal since 1970, as well as at least two in Tibet and one in Bhutan.

Ang Tsering Sherpa, who grew up in Nepal's Everest region, has observed the growth of one glacial lake with growing concern. "A small pond first appeared close to the Imja glacier in about 1962," said Sherpa, who owns a trekking and expedition company in Kathmandu.

Last year, a research team from Japan measured the Imja lake as being 1.7km, 900m wide and 92m deep.

"If that lake bursts, it will be like a tsunami," said Sherpa, who estimates that the Imja glacier has been retreating at a rate of 60m per year. "Imagine the damage that will be caused by a lake emptying within minutes into a well-inhabited valley. The loss of life will be huge."

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) calculates there are 2,000 glacial lakes forming in Nepal and around 20 are in danger of bursting.

Mountain dwellers are seeing at first hand the effects of global warming, but the changing climate will eventually have dire consequences for a much wider section of Asia's population.

Himalayan snow and ice is a massive freshwater reserve that feeds nine of Asia's major waterways, including the Indus, Ganges and Yellow rivers.

"In the long term, water scarcity will become a big problem," said Sandeep Chamling Rai, WWF climate change officer. "There will eventually be a tipping point where the amount of water from the glaciers is hugely reduced, which will result in loss of water resources for people downstream who rely on these Himalayan-fed rivers."

The ICIMOD said in August last year that climate change posed a serious threat to essential water resources in the Himalayas, putting the livelihoods of 1.3 billion people at risk.

Back in the Langtang Valley, where around 700 people and 4,000 yaks live, Lama can only watch as the ice and snow retreat from around his home.

"I am very worried, but what can we do. We are not contributing to global warming but we feel its effects. I am scared there will be no snow and ice in these mountains within the next 15 years." – AFP

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Lifestyle: Focus 28 April 2009

Article: Salvaged Paradise

This article was taken from: The Star Newspaper: Startwo 28 April 2009

Image: Concern for Environment

This image was taken from: The Star Newspaper 28 April 2009

Article: Eco-friendly soap recipe

Monday April 27, 2009

By DERRICK VINESH

EVER thought of making your very own homemade soap?

The Seberang Prai Municipal Council's Local Agenda 21 (LA21) committee has come up with a simple yet environment-friendly way to make soap cakes.

Its chemical-free and pure soaps use recycled cooking oil as its main ingredient.

The committee programme co-ordinator Chew Eng Seng admitted that a few might initially cringe at the thought of using this ingredient but noted that the soaps were unlikely to cause side-effects as they were non-toxic.

"We figured if commercial soap manufacturers could use goat's milk or animal fats in some countries, why couldn't we try using cooking oil, which is generally palm oil, peanut oil or vegetable oil?" he said in a recent interview in Butterworth.

Chew said the objective was to prevent people from polluting the environment when they discard their used cooking oil.

He said fresh cooking oil, coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower oil or almond oil could also be used but noted that it would, however, defeat the purpose of recycling.

He added that the soap could be used on the body and to wash clothes and dishes.

Chew said restaurants which discard used cooking oil almost daily should ideally use the oil to produce soap, noting that they could save money spent on dishwashing and hand soaps.

He said a recent soap-making demonstration in Taman Duku, Juru, received encouraging response, especially from housewives who were keen to give it a try.

Chew said the committee would conduct free soap-making demons-trations at the council's district office in Jalan Betek, Bukit Mertajam, at 10am on every last Sunday of the month.

For details, contact Chew at 012-4779330.

This article was taken from:The Star Online: Metro: North 27 April 2009