AR-NEWS Digest 421

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) [UK] Stirrings of a new peasants' revolt
     by David J Knowles 
  2) [UK] Animals strike at the heart of man's power
     by David J Knowles 
  3) [UK] He's smarter than you think [ More about pig intelligence]
     by David J Knowles 
  4) [CA] Great Bear Rainforest Blockade Moves to Logging Company
  Headq
     by David J Knowles 
  5) [CH] Switzerland:Genetically Altered Chocolate bye Nestle
     by David J Knowles 
  6) [CA] Great Bear Rainforest Blockade Moves
     by David J Knowles 
  7) Crow is Frequent Flier at Restaurant
     by Snugglezzz@aol.com
  8) VCR ALERT: Ark Trust Genesis Awards
     by Pat Fish 
  9) RFI: Cambridge U. (UK) AR/bio-engineering background
     by Pat Fish 
 10) FWD: Consumers' right to know petition
     by Andrew Gach 
 11) Fwd: All the world's a stage for Minnesota  Zoo Marine Education Center designer
     by LMANHEIM@aol.com
 12) FWD: Abuse of bears in Pakistan
     by Andrew Gach 
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 02:58:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Stirrings of a new peasants' revolt
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970531025846.261f383a@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, May 31st, 1997

Stirrings of a new peasants' revolt

Next month thousands of countrymen will  march on London to protest against
political
attacks on traditional rural life. Rory Knight Bruce sounds a call to arms

THE Victorian artist William Morris is not today remembered as a novelist,
yet his little-known work News From Nowhere has a peculiarly modern
resonance. It will assume a special relevance in mid-July when up to 100,000
countrymen will descend on London's Hyde Park to protest against today's
erosion of traditional country life.

The Utopian theme of Morris's book turns images of London away from
Dickensian back streets, manufacturing and pollution, to the pastoral idyll
and innocence of a rustic world which also still draws us to the novels of
Thomas Hardy and Mary Webb, and the poems of Edward Thomas and A E Housman.

In Morris's vision, Hackney carriages give way to horse-drawn hayricks,
coracles take to the Thames and an Arcadian peace supplants the hive of
anxiety of metropolitan life. Today, however, both views have changed.
London has lost much of its belching Victorian smoke-stackery, while the
countryside, carved with the tarmac matrices of motorways, has lost much of
its bucolic mystery and charm. 

The Hyde Park rally of countrymen, who will meet at 11am at Speaker's Corner
on July 10, will seek to speak for all that is still best in the
countryside. The rally will comprise not simply field sportsmen - hunters,
shooters and fishermen - nor representatives of their allied trades -
farriers, grooms, beaters, rodmakers - but thousands of people who feel that
their whole way of life is being threatened by politicians who do not
understand it.

Nor is this protest a one-day wonder. In fact, it will last more than three
weeks, with marchers converging on London from all over the country. It will
be launched on June 14 when a band of walkers will leave Caldbeck in the
Lake District. The following day another group will set off from Coldstream
in Scotland and over the next week two more will leave Llandudno in Wales
and Madron near Land's End in Cornwall. The plan is for the hard core of
walkers to journey to London and for all those who support them to join in
on the way.

Previous country rallies have tended to be attended exclusively by
sportsmen. This one is different. Certainly Labour's proposed ban on
fox-hunting is one of the main driving forces: to underline that, the
marchers will be bringing John Peel's original hunting horn down to
London from the Lake District - the first time the horn will have left the
Lakes. It will be carried all the way from Caldbeck by Barry Todhunter,
huntsman of the Blencathra Lake District foot pack, which Peel once led. 

But the rallying cry goes much wider than hunters: it is the fear that the
countryside is being systematically destroyed by the body politic of
Westminster.

"People are frustrated and want to do something," says Mark Miller Mundy, a
46-year-old former record producer from Los Angeles who has spent the past
three months helping to co-ordinate the walks.  "They feel they cannot just
sit back and see their whole way of life
legislated out of existence. These people, far from being prosperous, are
the residents of rural Britain who make it what it is." 

Traditionally, the hunting, shooting and fishing communities in Britain,
which comprise (according to the latest Cobham Report) 3.3 million fishers,
704,000 shooters and 215,000 hunters, do not have much to do with each
other. But a proposed ban on handguns by Christmas, together with the
heightened threat against fox-hunters, has thrown them together.

A LREADY some backbench Labour MPs are advocating a Private Members' Bill to
widen the proposed Government Bill to include the abolition of shotguns.
"They are not interested in nibbling at the edges, they want an all-out
assault on our way of life," one countryman told me. Significantly, he does
not take part in field sports; instead, he is an Internet surfer who has
recently discovered Internet material on how to sabotage fishing and
commercial shoots. 

Many others who do not share the passion for field sports fear that the
economic effects of any cumulative ban - a loss to the countryside of an
estimated £6.21 billion per year - would have disastrous consequences for
scores of pubs, post offices, village halls, shops, hospitals and other
rural services would be killed off, with the loss of tens of thousands of
jobs, they say. 

It is this prospect which has galvanised ordinary country people to back the
walks and rally. From Wales, 2,000 valley men, who have already seen their
mining culture disappear, are expected. From the north will flock fellsmen
and dalesmen, whose sheep are protected by
hunts in the bleak winter lambing season. In the West Country, an estate
employing 100 workers has given them a paid day off to attend the rally.

"We can show that ordinary people are concerned," says Mrs Angela Sharp, who
has run a sub post office in Leicestershire for 26 years and who will take a
day of her annual holiday entitlement to travel to London with her husband
on July 10. "I was born in a council house,
and the country is for people like me, not the high and mighty." 

In Morris's News from Nowhere, the Londoner asks the countryman the secret
of his serenity, to which he replies: "We have simplified our lives . . .
and got rid of many sham wants . . . but you must find out our arrangements
by living among us." Sadly, very few Labour
politicians do so. 

That is the point of these countryside walks and rally - to bring this to
the attention of the nation. The participants might take succour not only
from Morris's Utopia but also from G K Chesterton, whose rural interests
took him no farther afield than Notting Hill and the parks of
west London's Turnham Green.

Chesterton wrote in the Secret People:

We only know the last sad squires ride slowly towards the sea,

 And a new people takes the land: and still it is not we.

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.

We are the People of England, that never have spoken yet."

On July 10 in Hyde Park, the people of England will speak at last by their
very presence. And they will speak for the millions who cannot be there,
whose way of life they are seeking to defend. 

* For more information, call the Rally Hotline on: 0171 582 2265.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 02:59:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Animals strike at the heart of man's power
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970531025932.261f3004@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, May 31st, 1997

Animals strike at the heart of man's power

Paul Sieveking on black outs

DUNGENESS B nuclear power station in Kent came close to having to shut down
last weekend after a grey seal swam into one of its cooling reservoirs. In a
complex rescue operation, the seal (nicknamed Nuisance) was lured on to a
platform lowered by crane into the sheer-sided concrete reservoir.

Nuisance had been trapped for nine days: if the rescue had failed, the
reservoir would have had to have been drained and the reactor closed - at a
cost of £125,000 a day.

Animals have been carrying on what could be interpreted as a sustained
campaign against power stations and the like for many years. Sprats have
closed Dungeness A several times; Asiatic clams have knocked out a nuclear
power plant in Russelville, Arkansas; while jellyfish closed the St Lucie
plant in Florida for 11 days.

Last June a plague of mayflies in Toledo, Ohio, smothered a power plant,
cutting electricity to 290,000 homes and businesses. The insects fried in
their millions. Residents shovelled them from the pavements after other
sections of the swarm covered houses, shop windows and telegraph poles.

A wayward ringtail briefly knocked out a reactor in December 1995 at  the
Palo Verde nuclear plant in Wintersburg, Arizona, one of the biggest nuclear
power plants in the US, when it short-circuited an outdoor transformer. The
ringtail, a small desert cousin of the racoon
about the size of a domestic cat, jumped a 10ft fence and slipped past
guards. The intruder was electrocuted.

In April 1993, a crow caused the total stoppage of a turbine at the Ignalima
power station in Lithuania by landing on a 330-kilowatt pylon with a piece
of electric cable in its beak, thus short-circuiting the power. The crow was
fried to a crisp.

On January 24 this year, a sparrow hawk plunged all of Senegal into darkness
for four hours. The bird collided with one high tension power line causing
it to short against another. The incident occurred at the Cap de Biches
power plant which produces about 80 per cent of the African nation's
electricity. A protective mechanism then shut down the country's other two
power stations.

Squirrels have a special place in the guerrilla war with humanity. The
second largest stock market in the United States was halted for 34 minutes
on August 11994, when a squirrel chewed into power lines at  Trumbull,
Connecticut, bringing to a halt the Nasdaq electronic
trading system. Last summer, squirrels blacked out the village of
Hollingwood in Derbyshire and a large area of Stroud in Gloucestershire.

Then in September, another squirrel succeeded in blowing the top off an
electricity pylon in Whitecross, near Linlithgow, Scotland, blacking out 800
houses and setting a field on fire. All three bush-tailed irregulars laid
down their lives.

Sabotage doesn't have to entail death for the perpetrator. A bird blacked
out 4,000 homes in California's Morongo Basin in May 1994 by dropping a
snake over two cables at an electricity substation. The same method was used
by a bird at Newbridge, Gwent, the previous month to black out 9,000 homes:
the missile being a five-day-old lamb.

The launch of the space shuttle Discovery was delayed for over a month in
1995 when Nasa discovered that two woodpeckers had made 135 holes, up to
four inches in diameter, in the fuel tank's insulating foam. Technicians had
to move the Shuttle from the launch pad so that they could patch up all the
holes, at a cost of nearly $100,000. The Kennedy Space Centre is in a
wildlife refuge.

Some acts of sabotage can be impressive; in May 1989, a seagull shot a dung
pellet straight on to the electronic eye of a new £2 million swing bridge in
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, causing eight hours of traffic chaos.

Paul Sieveking is editor of Fortean Times

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 02:59:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] He's smarter than you think [ More about pig intelligence]
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970531030004.224ffee6@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, May 31st, 1997

He's smarter than you think

The Hollywood pig Babe impressed us by rounding up sheep - but real porkers are
proving capable of much cleverer tasks, says Roger Highfield

BABE may have mastered the art of rounding up sheep for Hollywood, but his
achievement has now been eclipsed by Hamlet and Omelette, young pigs that
have turned their trotters to computers and video games.

In fact, a sheepdog's job would probably be a pushover for these large
whites (the same breed as Babe), according to Prof Stanley Curtis of The
Pennsylvania State University, who will reveal the smart side of pigs on
BBC1's QED next week.

In earlier work, Prof Curtis allowed pigs to set the temperature in sties,
revealing that they preferred cooler conditions than had previously been
thought. Now he is hopeful that pigs will one day be able to inform their
masters what they think of the sties. "I want them to participate directly
in the design of their accommodation."

With the help of half-brothers "Ham" and "Om", Prof Curtis has surprised
scientists from the three groups of his collaborators who have been working
for decades with primates. The pigs have proved they are at least as clever
as chimpanzees with their first forays into video games. "These are the
first pigs to have done this kind of thing," said Prof Curtis.

Pigs showed a dogged persistence when set a task, said Dr Sarah Boysen, one
of Prof Curtis's colleagues in the study. "They are able to focus with an
intensity I have never seen in a chimp," she said. 

The research, which started in January, is at an early stage and it is
unlikely pigs will outshine chimps in terms of intelligence. Chimps, like
us, can show a eureka moment, when they put two and two together, which is
unlikely to be found in pigs, according to Dr Boysen. "Pigs are creative and
innovative but there is going to be a limit. They are not going to sit down
and have a chat with you, but chimps don't do that either."

Prof Curtis, who grew up on a farm, said he would continue to eat pork
despite his findings, but admitted others may never look at a bacon butty in
the same way again.

The work questions the "anthropocentric" assumption that humans are somehow
special; we knew chimps were also special, but we excused that because they
were closely related, said Prof Curtis. Though comparisons with the brain
power of other creatures are tricky, "there is much more going on in terms
of thinking and observing by these pigs than we ever would have guessed".

Prof Curtis's journey into the mind of a pig began after a discovery by Dr
Boysen, who works at The Ohio State University in Columbus and is renowned
for her work on animal numeracy.

She carried out simple tests with two Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, Hamlet
(no relative) and Helga, and taught them to understand complex relationships
between actions and objects. The pigs were positioned in front of a ball, a
frisbee and a dumb-bell and told to jump over, sit by or fetch any one of
the three objects. Most of the time, they got it right. This was the first
clue that pigs could understand relatively complex human commands.

The difficulty with this research is that pigs do not speak English, and the
Columbus experiment expected the animals to learn certain words; Prof Curtis
wanted to reveal pigs' intelligence without having to rely on their
linguistic skills.

This kind of work has been done on chimpanzees and other non-human primates
by the space agency Nasa, which is interested in the concept of
intelligence. Nasa had funded an effort by Dr Bill Hopkins, a renowned
primatologist based in Atlanta, Georgia, to make chimps and rhesus monkeys
computer-literate. After initial scepticism, Dr Hopkins agreed to advise
Prof Curtis on how to do the same for pigs.

First the scientists had to check that the pigs could see what they were
doing. Available literature suggested pigs were short-sighted. A check by an
optometrist, however, revealed that the young pigs were long-sighted but did
not need glasses.

Then it was necessary to design a pig PC. After some time persuading Hamlet
and Omelette to use their snouts, Prof Curtis found they liked grabbing the
joystick between their teeth. 

When Ham and Om first saw the computer, they seemed unimpressed. Prof Curtis
would climb into the pigs' "station" with them and direct their attention to
the task in hand. Eventually, they joined the information generation.

Although it was not easy for the pigs to look at the screen and move  the
joystick at the same time, the tests revealed they had good control. "The
first hurdle the pigs had to jump was to connect the movement of the
joystick with the movement of a cursor on screen," said Prof Curtis. Using
sweets and a "dwoop" sound to reward the right behaviour, the pigs were
trained to move a cursor so that it hit a coloured line.

First the line was a border around the screen, so any persistent push of the
joystick would be rewarded. Then the border shrank to a line, and eventually
to a single target square. It took a few hundred attempts for the pigs to
master the joystick so they could hit the target. "These pigs learnt the
fundamental operation of a joystick video game as quickly as the quickest
chimps, while some chimps take much longer."

The scientists discovered pigs are much like primates in that they prefer
certain directions: up and down, rather than from side to side. 

"But then again, those are the movements they use during rooting, when
looking for food," said Prof Curtis.

Once the pigs were able to control the computer cursor, demands were put on
their brain power. First they were presented with a choice between two
abstract icons on screen, a scramble of straight lines of  various colours
and a jumble of lower-case letters.

Moving the cursor to one would be rewarded with the "dwoop" and a sweet.
Moving the cursor to the other would receive no reward and a penalty "nrrr"
sound. "They have been doing that very nicely, learning which one gives the
reward in a few minutes," said Prof
Curtis.

Similar results were reported by a collaborating team at Purdue, which did
not carry out elaborate preparations but found the pigs were interested as
soon as the scientists "put a video computer game in a sow house".

Chimps spend much time distracted or grooming, but can play such games for
an hour. Pigs are more focused than primates but tend to get burnt out
sooner, perhaps as a reflection of their success in getting food rewards.
"The pigs really are focused, but when they become fatigued, they often go
off to defecate and urinate," said Prof Curtis.

Now other tests are planned at Purdue and Ohio, to discover, for example,
how long pigs can remember an icon that triggers a reward. Prof Curtis has
reason to believe they have a long memory: when Dr Boysen took Hamlet out of
retirement after a three-year break, he could still tell the difference
between a ball, a frisbee and a dumb-bell.

Dr Bill Hopkins, one of the gurus of primate computer studies, says he is
impressed with the pigs - and admits they are the equal of his brightest
chimps in some respects.

But why do pigs have to be smart? As a rule, scientists think brain power
reflects the survival strategems of a creature, a grazer being dimmer than
an animal that hunts in packs and smarter than a bug that has only to soak
up sunlight to live.

Pigs fit this picture, says Prof Curtis, citing their social hierarchy.
"They are very feisty and there are lots of revolts and challenges from pigs
in the middle of the dominance order.

"The pig is what is called an opportunistic, omnivorous scavenger. This
opportunistic aspect means they are always scanning their environment for
their next meal. Unlike a grazing animal that finds a meadow and shifts into
foraging gear, the pig gets a nut here, a grub
there and a berry or two over yonder."

Most intriguing of all, there has even been the suggestion that we may have
played a part in the evolution of pig brain power. Our ancestors have lived
with pigs for thousands of years, and selective breeding over generations
may have helped to bring out the more social, intelligent animals, said Dr
Boysen. And when released back to the wild, they do famously. "That tells
you something about their real, raw abilities."

QED's Move over Babe! will be broadcast on June 3 at 10pm on BBC1

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 02:59:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Great Bear Rainforest Blockade Moves to Logging Company
  Headq
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970531030025.261f25b4@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Greenpeace Media Release server

GREENPEACE BLOCKADE MOVES TO CITY: ACTIVISTS OCCUPY WFP
HEADQUARTERS 
Blockade enters Day 10 of rainforest protest

Vancouver, B.C., May 30, 1997 -- In a surprise move, Greenpeace has moved
its protest from the rainforest to the boardroom of Western Forest Products.
Late last night the protestors left the logging site and came directly from
a successful ten-day blockade of Western Forest Products clearcut logging
operation in the Great Bear Rainforest.

The Greenpeace activists entered the downtown Vancouver headquarters of
Western Forest Products, one of the largest destroyers of temperate
rainforest in the world, and occupied
the office. They carried banners saying "Western Forest Products -Help us
Save the Great Bear Rainforest".

At the protest Greenpeace released a report on the record of Western Forest
Products showing 96 acts of non-compliance with the Forest Practices Code
during the 23 months the Code has been in effect.  A report commissioned by
the Better Business Bureau
said of WFP; "its record of environmental fines leads the industry sector
and ranks among the highest in Canada". 

"Our fight is not with the workers and not with the courts, we have moved
our fight to the belly of the beast - the company hell bent on destroying
one of the world's last great
rainforests for it's own benefit" said Karen Mahon, Greenpeace forest
campaigner.

"We successfully stopped the clearcutting of this great rainforest for 10
solid days, by the company's estimate - that means we saved 10,000
rainforest trees.  And now we've come to
the source of the destruction" said Tzeporah Berman of Greenpeace.  "For the
past 10
days Western has been using the workers, and First Nations to fight their
fight for them, we're here to confront the company directly," Berman continued.

"These forests belong to all of us - they are our global heritage and we
will not sit idly by and watch them be destroyed" said Patricia Fromm of
Greenpeace Germany, one of the
activists who has been physically stopping the clearcutting for the past 10
days.

Greenpeace is calling on WFP to end to clearcut logging, and to stay out of
the last remaining pristine rainforest valleys.





Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 02:59:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CH] Switzerland:Genetically Altered Chocolate bye Nestle
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970531030028.261f6138@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Genetically Manipulated Chocolate by Nestle: Magic or Just Plain Lies?

Zurich, May 29, 1997-Is Nestle fooling Swiss consumers? On April 25, 1997,
Nestle General Director Michel Bonjour, in answer to a question from the
Green Party, promised Swiss consumers that Nestle chocolate would stay GE
(genetic engineering) -free for at least another year. On the very same day,
in thousands of food stores across Sweden, Nestle chocolate products were
taken from the shelves on suspicion of containing genetically altered
ingredients. Inger C. Larsson,  spokesman of Nestle Sweden, said: "We
currently do carry some sweets containing soy-lecithin which may have been
produced, to some degree, from "Roundup Ready" soybeans: After Eight,
KitKat, and Nuts." These Nestle products are also sold in Switzerland. What
is Nestle's explanation for what appears to be a baffling contradiction?

A look at the wrappers (bar-codes) of the controversial Nestle products in
both Sweden and Switzerland reveals that the chocolates were produced in the
same country and at the same
facility. A letter to Greenpeace from Nestle Sweden, admitting that
genetically manipulated chocolates are in fact sold in Swedish food stores,
together with the above-mentioned evidence of origin were sent as
information to major food retailers.

Repeated inquiries on the part of Greenpeace at the Nestle production
facility in the UK, at the multinational corporation's headquarters in
Vevey, Switzerland, and at the consumer information agency in Basel yielded
no answer. Apparently, Nestle cannot offer any assurances that some of its
chocolates distributed in Switzerland may not, in fact, contain
genetically manipulated (GMO) soy products.

Pending a decision of the Swiss Federal Court in a case contesting the
admission of genetically manipulated soy products, the commerce in GMO-soy
is currently illegal in
Switzerland; moreover, the chocolates in question bear no warning-neither on
the wrapper nor on the shelves-regarding their genetically altered ("GMO")
ingredients. With its opaque
and contradictory information policy Nestle is causing concern among
consumers and even appears to be engaging in unfair business practices. If
After Eight, KitKat, and Nuts do not
contain any lecithin made from genetically manipulated soy, then why does
Nestle-both in Switzerland and at its Nestle-Rowntree production facility in
York, UK- refuse to answer questions regarding the promise made to Swiss
consumers by the company's leading CEO? Also unanswered, to this day, is the
question how Nestle plans to make a distinction, in production and
distribution, between same-brand products destined for different countries?

Greenpeace is calling on Nestle to admit that it is actually forcing its
customers to buy genetically manipulated food products, or better yet, to
declare that it will not-now or in
the future-use any more genetically altered ingredients and promote natural
foods instead.

for more information call:

Greenpeace Switzerland, Gentech-Campaign, 
Bruno Heinzer  ++41 1 / 447 41 41
for pictures call Keystone or Reuters


Myriam Holzner, Swiss Press Officer

direct phone   ++41 1 / 447 41 56
direct fax         ++41 1 / 273 07 91




Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 03:00:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Great Bear Rainforest Blockade Moves
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970531030032.261f8f8e@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST BLOCKADE MOVES...

Roderick Island, B.C. May 30, 1997---  After 10 days, the Greenpeace
activists chained to logging equipment on Roderick Island in the Great Bear
Rainforest have moved their blockade to another place of rainforest
destruction operated by  Western Forest Products.
 
On Wednesday, the British Columbia Supreme Court granted the company an
injunction to stop the blockade, which over the course of the last 10 days
has saved a total of 10,000 trees. No enforcement order has yet been served
on the activists.  

"Greenpeace has made its point on Roderick Island and now, we are taking our
actions to an area of even greater concern," said Greenpeace campaigner Jim
Ford. 

The recent Greenpeace actions are part of a growing international campaign
to protect the Great Bear Rainforest which contains the world's largest
intact areas of temperate
rainforest. Western Forest Products is one of several companies with plans
to clearcut
the Great Bear Rainforest's remaining  intact valleys within the next five
to ten years. 

"Greenpeace will do whatever is necessary to make the world aware of the
extent of rainforest destruction and the many places where it is happening,"
said Tzeporah Berman from the new action location which will be revealed in
a forthcoming press release.

Greenpeace is calling for no new roads into the temperate rainforest, an end
to all clearcutting, and no logging in any of the remaining rainforest valleys.


Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 12:14:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Snugglezzz@aol.com
To: AR-News@envirolink.org
Subject: Crow is Frequent Flier at Restaurant
Message-ID: <970531121443_-1129504327@emout18.mail.aol.com>

Bartlesville, OK, USA: Joyce Thurman has had something to crow about ever
since her Bartlesville restaurant was adopted by a hungry black bird.

A tapping on the front door glass at the restaurant signals the arrival of
Mr. Crow each day as he makes several mealtime stops at Mr. Limey's Fish and
Chips.

The crow, who has been a regular customer for 18 months now, delivers
take-out orders from the restaurant to his fellow birds throughout the
community.

"We think he's probably got lots of family or he's just a very thoughtful
bird because he makes all those trips," Thurman said.

Mr. Crow first appeared on the restaurant's doorstep Oct. 18, 1995 - a bitter
cold day for both man and animals.

Thurman and a co-worker were sitting alone in the restaurant when they heard
a frightening, creaking noise at the front of the store. They looked up to
find a large black bird with a "messed up feather."

Thurman believes the crow was having a hard time hunting up dinner on the
frozen ground, so he decided to go out to eat. His first meal was leftover
fries and bread.

"That's the only time he's had to eat in the trash," said Thurman, the
restaurant's owner. "We cook him up a fresh order every time now."

Mr. Limey's mascot perches on a light pole just east of the store and begins
crowing for his supper several times daily. If Thurman is late taking his
order out to him, Mr. Crow moves to the window and pecks persistently. Once
he is served, the crow returns to his light post and caws out a "Thank you."

Thurman's feathered friend enjoys onion rings, cheese balls, and okra. He
tried a corn dog once - though it took three tries for him to fly away with
it. Mr. Crow has been known to make up to 26 trips to the restaurant in one
day.

Restaurant customers are starting to wonder if they can't predict the weather
by watching the frequent flier.

"A few days back, we had a really bad thunderstorm and he stockpiled it
pretty good," Thurman said. "I've started noticing when the weather changes
bad, he makes more trips."

Mr. Crow is the first bird to adopt the restaurant since it opened in 1969.
He is especially fond of Thurman and even knows which car she drives. The
restaurant is closed on Sundays, but Mr. Crow shows up for meals anyway.

When Thurman went on vacation, another business owner left bird seed for the
crow, but he didn't eat it with the same enthusiasm, Thurman said. Apparently
he prefers the cuisine of Mr. Limey's.

"He was pretty thin when he first came here, but he's pretty endowed with
weight now," Thurman said.

-- Sherrill

Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 14:03:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pat Fish 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: VCR ALERT: Ark Trust Genesis Awards
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Genesis 11 is scheduled to air as follows: 

The 90-minute AR special will be on the Discovery Channel:

Saturday 5-31 at 3:30 pm west / 3:30 pm EST ((coast to coast simultaneously) 
Sunday 6-1 at 6:30 pm west and 6:30 pm east

Pat Fish
Computer Professionals for Earth & Animals


Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 15:26:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pat Fish 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: RFI: Cambridge U. (UK) AR/bio-engineering background
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

 
CPEA urgently needs info on Cambridge University's work in vivisection,
genetics, bio-engineering, chemical/pesticides, or anything related to AR/
ecology or health. 

Pat Fish
Computer Professionals for Earth & Animals


Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 12:43:17 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: FWD: Consumers' right to know petition
Message-ID: <33907F55.2754@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

RIGHT TO KNOW PETITION for Inert Ingredients in Pesticides
Fri, 30 May 97 00:24:26 
From: "Susan K. Snow" 

Friends,

The following information and petition is from the Northwest Coalition
for Alternatives to Pesticides. To learn what little is known about
inerts, see: http://www.envirolink.org/pubs/rachel/ehbr01.htm for the
article entitled 'SO MANY PESTICIDES, SO LITTLE KNOWLEDGE'
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/f96-23.html 'TRUTH ABOUT INERTS'
http://www.envirolink.org/pubs/rachel/rhwn258.htm  HAZARDOUS WASTE IS
LEGALLY 'RECYCLED' INTO PESTICIDES & LABELED 'INERT'

See < http://www.efn.org/~ncap/ > to learn about the right-to-know
petition and about NCAP.   ...Susan K. Snow
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides is looking for
groups to sign on to a right-to-know petition by June 15.

NCAP has been involved in lengthy litigation regarding public disclosure
of "inert" ingredients in pesticides, those ingredients that have
typically been called trade secret by pesticide manufacturers.
Last fall NCAP won a legal victory in U.S. District Court. The court
ruling stated that "inert" ingredients should not be given blanket trade
secret protection by EPA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The lawsuit focused on six herbicide products, and the court decision
was limited to those particular products. The court ruling paves the way
for anyone to use FOIA to request information about "inerts" on a
product-by-product basis.

Caroline Cox and Norma Grier (541) 344-5044 Fax (541) 344-6923 e-mail:
ccox@pesticide.org say that we shouldn't have to go through a lengthy
FOIA process every time we need information about "inerts." So, as a
follow-up to this court decision, NCAP is now petitioning the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to amend its regulations and
require that all ingredients of a pesticide be disclosed on the label of
the pesticide product.

Background information about the "inerts" disclosure issue and a summary
of our petition is on the reverse side of this letter.

We will be submitting the petition to EPA soon. Will you please join us?
All you need to do is phone, e-mail or fax us with the following
information:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

YES! WE'D LIKE TO SIGN ON TO THE PETITION REQUIRING IDENTIFICATION OF
"INERTS" ON PRODUCT LABELS

ORGANIZATION___________________________________________

CONTACT NAME__________________________________________

ADDRESS_________________________________________________

CITY_____________________ STATE________ZIP_______________

E-MAIL___________________________________________________

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please pass this request to your affiliate organizations. We'd like 200
endorsing groups.

Thanks very much for your support!

BACKGROUND

"Inerts" are ingredients used in pesticide products to make the
pesticide more potent or easier to use. They are not inert in the usual
sense of the word and can be problematic in many different ways. There
are "inerts" used in pesticide products that are known to be
cancer-causing, flammable, neurotoxins, hazardous to wildlife, and ozone
depleters.

There is very little information about the hazards posed by many
"inerts," either alone or in combination with other pesticide chemicals.
Of the over 2500 substances EPA has identified as "inerts" in pesticide
products, EPA classifies most (over 1900) as "unknown toxicity" because
EPA does not have sufficient information about their hazards.
Astonishingly, over 300 "inert" ingredients are, or have been,
registered by EPA as pesticides. As a registered pesticide, toxicology
testing and label disclosure are required. As an "inert" this is not
true, even if the same chemical is involved.

Many consumer products have complete ingredient statements on their
labels. Foods and shampoos are good examples. This enables consumers to
make informed decisions about the potential hazards posed by a
particular product. This is especially important for the large number of
people who live with allergies or sensitivities to certain ingredients.
Pesticideproducts need similar disclosure requirements.

Without disclosure of "inert" ingredients on pesticide labels, it is
impossible to assess the health or environmental risks of a pesticide
product. NCAP believes that we all have a right to know about poisons
that are released into our environment. Identification on the label of
all ingredients in pesticide products will be an important first step.

PETITION SUMMARY

(The petition, while lengthy, is straightforward, so we are including
only this summary. Please let us know if you would like the complete
text.) The petition is being submitted in compliance with the Federal
Administrative Procedures Act which enables the public to propose new
regulations or changes in existing regulations. It begins by citing our
legal victory that obliterates most claims of secrecy by the pesticide
industry. It explains how pesticide "inerts" can harm health, wildlife,
and the environment. It also describes the legal basis in the national
pesticide law for disclosing information about ingredients in pesticide
products. The proposed rule itself simply adds the phrase "the name of
each inert ingredient listed in order by weight" to the existing
regulations defining the ingredient statement that goes on each label.

=============================================================

NOTE: if I understand it correctly, this is a labeling issue and
wouldn't cause an expansion of toxicity testing on animals "models."

Andy
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 17:08:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: LMANHEIM@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Fwd: All the world's a stage for Minnesota  Zoo Marine Education Center designer
Message-ID: <970531170858_-928116210@emout09.mail.aol.com>

In a message dated 97-05-30 12:47:22 EDT, AOL News writes:

 << Subj:All the world's a stage for Minnesota  Zoo Marine Education Center
designer
  Date:97-05-30 12:47:22 EDT
  From:AOL News
 BCC:LMANHEIM
 
       MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 1997--
 
              For HGA cultural architect, Loren Ahles, 
              performers come in all shapes and sizes
           As a nationally recognized designer of theaters, concert halls, 
 and performing arts centers, Loren Ahles, of the Minneapolis-based 
 architectural firm Hammel Green & Abrahamson (HGA), typically works 
 with actors, dancers, and classically trained musicians.  That's not 
 the case for his design of the Minnesota Zoo's new Discovery Bay 
 Marine Education Center, where the featured artists aren't performing
 Shakespeare or Beethoven but thrilling crowds with graceful aquatic 
 feats instead.
           "The presentation pool is actually a lot like the stage you'd 
 find in a drama theater,"  says Ahles.  "The shape of the pool with 
 its curved apron, suggested proscenium, and relationship to the 
 audience is very recognizable."
           "Architecturally, the 60,000-square-foot, 1.1 million gallon 
 facility's most commanding feature is its sweeping 9,000-square-foot 
 roof which suggests the shape of a rolling ocean wave or a winged ray
 gliding across the sea floor.  Inside, the yellow pine ceiling has 
 been left exposed, while outside it has been covered with a 
 scale-like, painted metal skin.  "We tried to recall the soft forms 
 of the animals in direct contrast to the hard concrete base,"  says 
 Ahles.
           One of Ahles' greatest challenges was to create a structure that 
 would physically connect the Zoo's indoor Tropics exhibits with the 
 all-weather monorail.  With the completion of Discovery Bay, visitors
 can enjoy an extended indoor zoo experience year-round.  Another 
 design imperative was to create a multi-purpose "Great Hall,"  which 
 could serve as the introductory space, main exhibit hall, and also as
 a resource for meetings, parties, and after-hour events.
           "Our biggest issue was how to handle the audience,"  says Ahles.
 "The Great Hall will be a busy place and we didn't want visitors 
 involved in the exhibit area distracted by those on their way to the 
 show."  To do this, the designer created a unique split-level effect 
 realizing two distinct venues--the main exhibit area and the 
 presentation pool area with seating for 800--from a single space.
           "Given that there's an artificial aspect to the basic concept,"  
 says Ahles, "you need to make it an honest place for the dolphins, 
 sharks, and other sea life while allowing the architecture to be 
 clear yet separate from the animals.  I tried to design a place with 
 a certain spiritual quality, and to give every advantage to these 
 amazing performers."
           --30--kg/ms
       CONTACT: 
       Larissa A. Rodriguez, 
       Public Relations and Communications
       Manager, at 612/337-4327 >>


---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj:    All the world's a stage for Minnesota  Zoo Marine Education Center
designer
Date:    97-05-30 12:47:22 EDT
From:    AOL News

      MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 1997--

             For HGA cultural architect, Loren Ahles, 
             performers come in all shapes and sizes
          As a nationally recognized designer of theaters, concert halls, 
and performing arts centers, Loren Ahles, of the Minneapolis-based 
architectural firm Hammel Green & Abrahamson (HGA), typically works 
with actors, dancers, and classically trained musicians.  That's not 
the case for his design of the Minnesota Zoo's new Discovery Bay 
Marine Education Center, where the featured artists aren't performing
Shakespeare or Beethoven but thrilling crowds with graceful aquatic 
feats instead.
          "The presentation pool is actually a lot like the stage you'd 
find in a drama theater,"  says Ahles.  "The shape of the pool with 
its curved apron, suggested proscenium, and relationship to the 
audience is very recognizable."
          "Architecturally, the 60,000-square-foot, 1.1 million gallon 
facility's most commanding feature is its sweeping 9,000-square-foot 
roof which suggests the shape of a rolling ocean wave or a winged ray
gliding across the sea floor.  Inside, the yellow pine ceiling has 
been left exposed, while outside it has been covered with a 
scale-like, painted metal skin.  "We tried to recall the soft forms 
of the animals in direct contrast to the hard concrete base,"  says 
Ahles.
          One of Ahles' greatest challenges was to create a structure that 
would physically connect the Zoo's indoor Tropics exhibits with the 
all-weather monorail.  With the completion of Discovery Bay, visitors
can enjoy an extended indoor zoo experience year-round.  Another 
design imperative was to create a multi-purpose "Great Hall,"  which 
could serve as the introductory space, main exhibit hall, and also as
a resource for meetings, parties, and after-hour events.
          "Our biggest issue was how to handle the audience,"  says Ahles.
"The Great Hall will be a busy place and we didn't want visitors 
involved in the exhibit area distracted by those on their way to the 
show."  To do this, the designer created a unique split-level effect 
realizing two distinct venues--the main exhibit area and the 
presentation pool area with seating for 800--from a single space.
          "Given that there's an artificial aspect to the basic concept,"  
says Ahles, "you need to make it an honest place for the dolphins, 
sharks, and other sea life while allowing the architecture to be 
clear yet separate from the animals.  I tried to design a place with 
a certain spiritual quality, and to give every advantage to these 
amazing performers."
          --30--kg/ms
      CONTACT: 
      Larissa A. Rodriguez, 
      Public Relations and Communications
      Manager, at 612/337-4327

To edit your profile, go to keyword NewsProfiles. 
For all of today's news, go to keyword News.
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 18:43:03 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: FWD: Abuse of bears in Pakistan
Message-ID: <3390D3A7.2D35@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

The following item appeared on rec.pets.dogs.rescue (a USENET group).

If you have the address of the Ambassador or Pakistan, would you please
e-mail it to christym@ix.netcom.com?  Thanks!  --Andy

===========================================================

From: "christym" 
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs.rescue
Subject: BEARS IN PAKISTAN BEING ABUSED
Date: 30 May 1997 05:39:34 GMT

Does anyone know about the bears Warren Eckstein talked about on his
show who are being abused in Pakistan.  He said that they are being
declawed and have their teeth ripped out.  After all that, he said that
people release dogs in with the bears.  The dogs then attack the bear.

He gave an address in Washington D.C. to write to the Ambassador of
Pakistan, but I can't find it.  Can someone please respond?

My e-mail address is christym@ix.netcom.com.

Thank you.

ARRS Tools  |  News  |  Orgs  |  Search  |  Support  |  About the ARRS  |  Contact ARRS

THIS SITE UNDERWRITTEN IN PART BY:
Cyberian Outpost

The views and opinions expressed within this page are not necessarily those of the
EnviroLink Network nor the Underwriters. The views are those of the authors of the work.