Halibut Herald March 19

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ALIBUT HERALD March 19, 2009

Bits and Bites Against the Odds Ancient Octopus Fossils Discovered

“Wickedly smart with a one-of-a-kind body shape, scientists are striving to discover just how these animals have become so intelligent. That is no easy task, though. Because octopods lack a rigid skeleton structure, there are very few fossils to shed light on their evolution. In fact, "the chances of an octopus corpse surviving long enough to be fossilized are so small that prior to this discovery only a single fossil species was known, and from fewer specimens than octopuses have legs."” READ ON: http://www.examiner.com/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m3d17-Against-the-odds-ancientoctopus-fossils-discovered

UCHI Magazine Creates Interactive Mummy Peel away the plaster coffin layer by layer to learn about the mummy Meresamun's life without making the trip to the famous Oriental Institute in Chicago. LEARN MORE: http://magazine.uchicago.edu/m ummy/meresamun.shtml

Water Footprint Calculator People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. LEARN MORE: http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home PHOTO: http://www.conservationmagazine.org/articles/v9n3/water-footprint-calculator/

Vancouver Aquarium - UBC Researcher On Short List For Trip To Space By Kent Hurl Photo credit: Allyson Hindle “Vancouver, BC, Canada - A Vancouver Aquarium Steller sea lion named Sitka today congratulated UBC marine mammal researcher, Allyson Hindle, on being shortlisted in the Canadian Space Agency’s National Astronaut Recruitment Campaign.” “Today’s announcement means Hindle is shortlisted as one of 16 candidates and is the only female candidate chosen from more than 5300 applicants. This is only the third recruitment in Canadian history. The top two candidates will join Canada’s Astronaut Corps in May 2009. The Vancouver Aquarium extends its heartiest congratulations to Allyson Hindle on her successes.” READ ON: http://www.zandavisitor.com/newsarticle-1095Vancouver_Aquarium__UBC_Researcher_On_Short_List_For_Trip_To_Space

Exotic Pet Amnesty Day a great idea Next weekend, wildlife officials in Florida and Miami's Metro Zoo will hold their 5th annual Exotic Pet Amnesty Day. Owners of exotic animals can turn them in, and avoid any fines associated with violating state laws regarding wildlife. Of course, the amnesty day serves a better purpose than avoiding fines: It gives pet owners a responsible means of getting rid of an exotic pet as opposed to releasing the animal into the wild.

In Canada, such an amnesty day would be helpful for keeping exotic species such as red-earred sliders (pictured) from being dumped in lakes and streams by owners who no longer want them. Red-earred sliders represent a prime example of what happens when pet owners release their unwanted pets into the wild. READ ON: http://workcabin.ca/index.php?option=com_content &task=view&id=988&Itemid=117

15 Beautiful Microscopic Images from Inside the Human Body

Top to bottom, left to right: red blood cells; split end of hair; Purkinje neurons; hair cell in the ear; blood vessels emerging from the optic nerve; tongue with a tastebud; blood clot; sperm on the surface of a human egg; human egg with coronal cells READ ON & VIEW MORE: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/images-inside-human-bodyimages/8292

FREE! BOOK! DOWNLOAD! Tomorrow is the last day the book, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, may be downloaded. The book was offered up for download by Greystone Books & The David Suzuki Foundations because they felt the message sent by this book was so important it should be accessible to everyone. http://www.dmpibooks.com/pdf/tar-sands

For All You Loyal MAC Users☺ ☺ IS IT GREEN?: The New Macbook http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/19/is-it-green-the-new-macbooks/

DIY: Build a Rain Barrel Gardening season is almost here. And there's no better time to start planning. Make your garden greener by building a rain barrel from recycled materials. With these easy video instructions from HGTV, you can quench your plants' thirst with a fresh splash of rain—and keep clean water from going down the drain. WATCH VIDEO: http://magblog.audubon.org/node/333

7 Terrifying Global Warming Pictures Simply Paw-Inspiring: Otters Hold Hands

Sorry guys, if I was compelled to take a look… you must be too. “7 of the most terrifying photographic depictions of global warming around—because it could do us all a little good to get just a little nervous from time to time… Just to inspire us to work that much harder to avoid a potentially disastrous fate. After all, climate change really is some scary stuff.” VIEW PHOTOS: http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/03/7terrifying-global-warming-pictures.php?page=1

Aww… Nyac is till making headlines and still inspiring others around the world. READ ON: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.co m/ecology/simply-pawinspiring/8786

City of Paris Puts Map of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Online http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/ 03/city-paris-france-electric-car-evcharging-stations-online-map.php

Polar Bear Cubs Like to Play Dirty http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2009/03/polar-bear-cubs-like-to-play-dirty.html

Top 10 Produce You SHOULD Buy Organic http://www.epicvancouver.com/eco_news/news_top_10_produce.aspx

What Do Noisy Oceans Mean For Fish? http://observationsofanerd.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-do-noisy-oceans-meanfor-fish.html

Killer whales taking over: Hungry orcas could change the way of life in Hudson Bay http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Killer%20whales%20taking%20ov er/1376851/story.html

Trees: More than just carbon sinks *without trees there would be no villages* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7949053.stm

Fife Aquarium Breeds Deadly Frogs http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7950128.stm

No such thing as a garbage fairy? “We shouldn’t feel guilty about spring cleaning, but we should certainly be more mindful of the way we throw things “away,” considering that “away” is actually a place and there isn’t a garbage fairy who makes our junk magically disappear.” http://www.granvilleonline.ca/gr/living/2009/03/16/no-such-thing-garbage-fairy

Archival Photo Finna showing off during a show, 1981. Photographer unknown. *Thank you to ‘The Jens’ from Admissions for identifying this beautiful boy ☺*

Library News Books • Georgia Basin Habitat Atlas: Boundary Bay (2007) by the Friends of the Semiahmoo Bay Society • The Green Tree Python and the Emerald Tree Boa: care, breeding and natural history (2005) by Ron Kivit and Stephen Wiseman Movies • Flow: for love of water (2008) Oscilloscope pictures • Golden Dolphin Video CD Magazine (2001-2205) • Ocean Odyssey (2006) Warner Home Video and BBC Video

Events

Design the Next Vancouver 'FormShift Vancouver' contest invites new ideas for a vibrant, greener, denser city. A new competition invites the world to help Vancouver imagine itself as not only a denser city, but one more green, livable and exciting to the eye. And though the contest welcomes entries from the best architects in B.C. and beyond, you don't have to be in the business of designing buildings or neighbourhoods to enter and win. READ ON: http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/02/23/FormShift/?utm_source=mo ndayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=230209 CONTEST DETAILS: http://formshiftvancouver.com/

LEARN HOW & SIGN PETITION HERE: http://e-activist.com/eacampaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=104&ea.campaign.id=2968

http://www.swaporamarama.blogspot.com/

More exciting events here: http://www.vanevo.ca/events01.html Check out videos of past lectures here: http://www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/darwin.htm

Employee Recognition Drew Gervais, Tropical Waters Aquarist, was nominated in two star award categories by Karen Howe: Be a Great Place to Work, and Provide the Ultimate Visitor Experience. Below is the description of what Drew did, that was included with her nomination: “Due to a mix-up my goddaughter and I were scheduled for a sea otter encounter instead of our planned turtle encounter for her birthday. Georgia had already done the otter encounter and was looking forward to meeting Schoona. When Drew heard about this she generously offered to give us a "mini encounter" Georgia was thrilled to prepare the food, meet and feed Schoona and learn so many cool facts form Drew. I was delighted that a coworker would take an hour out of her busy day to ensure a young visitors expectations were both met and exceeded. For this I nominate Drew in 2 categories- visitor experience and great place to work.” Once again, congratulations to all of our Star Award recipients!

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