- What use is it to have a position of authority in an
impoverished nation if you can't use said position to illegally profit off one
of that nation’s few natural resources? Zimbabwe's wildlife management
authority is led by a man who understands that truth, which is coincidentally
why director-general Edson Chidziya will be on leave for the next two months.
Spokeswoman Caroline Washaya-Moyo confirmed that the agency has sent its
director-general on leave to allow for investigations into more than 485 pounds
of missing rhino horns. Rhino horns and elephant tusks are precious commodities
in such nations, so anyone who poaches them runs afoul of the law and when a
quarter of a ton of rhino horns suddenly goes missing, the authorities tend to
expect answers. "The move has been taken to allow for an audit. This
follows anomalies in the rhino horn stockpiles amounting to 228 kilograms,"
Washaya-Moyosaid in a statement. All of the drama comes about as Zimbabwe is
lobbying to be allowed to sell its growing stockpile of rhino and elephant
horns at the upcoming Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
conference scheduled for September. Yes, that conference really exists and yes,
Zimbabwe claims that the CITES trade ban on its ivory is affecting conservation
efforts and promoting poaching. Poaching
will still go on regardless, of course, but you really can't have the guy who
heads up your agency responsible for protecting wildlife (allegedly) involved
with a whopping 485 pounds of missing rhino horns……..
- As always, Jack Bauer comes through under pressure. For
months, word has been that Keifer Sutherland would not be involved with the
reboot of iconic spy drama “24,” which producer Howard Gordon is helming,
because Sutherland is simply ready to move on to the next phase in his career.
He’s starring in a new TV series, “Designated Survivor,” and recently went
musical, releasing a folk album. Yet all along, it seemed inevitable that Jack
Bauer would strap on his weapons, beat the holy hell out of a few terrorists
and ride again to save the day for the world. And so it is that Gordon has
confirmed that Bauer will return at some point in “24: Legacy,” news that broke
not long after Sutherland stopped short of saying that he would never reprise
the role. “I've said that twice and have been wrong, so I won't say that
again,” Sutherland said at the time. Like the original show, the revived
version will center on a counter-terrorism unit and its day-long response to a
different terrorist attack every season. “Our intention is definitely to bring
some of the old people into this story," Gordon said. "Up to and
including Kiefer, once this show gets its legs." A solid move, Howie. Let
the newcomers establish themselves and once Dan Bucatinsky, Corey Hawkins and
others get settled in, bring back Jack to show them how it’s done. Sutherland
recently praised the new show’s “phenomenal script,” so you know he’s informed
and involved with the project, and he dropped a juicy tidbit when he said that
Bauer's still out there, so you never know what's going to happen." Damn
straight, K., and no Russian gulag can hold him down………
- Too few churches do a good job of backing up what they
claim to believe. It’s why a lot of people want nothing to do with religion,
but a small church in southwestern Ohio seems to be doing a good job of loving
people the way their faith says they should. The World Commissioned Church in
Hamilton recently had an attempted break-in, but the suspect was unable to pry
the large steel door open. Knowing that someone watned to steal from his place
of worship, Pastor Kenneth Roark chose to look at the situation from an unusual
point of view. “That kind of makes me mad, but right away you start thinking
about why it’s happening,” Roark said. “A person that would break into any
place, they must be desperate, they must be in a bad place and things must be
going really bad for them.” His church, which meets in a building that used to
be a Rite-Aid drugstore in the 1980s and was vacant for a few years before the
church moved in back in 2006, has used the would-be robbery to send a message
to its community. “What I want people to understand is, I want [the thief] to
understand is, it isn’t just a building with stuff,” Roark added. “It’s a
building with people that care about it.” To send the message that all are
welcome at their weekly mass, church leaders decided to extend an invite to the
suspect, who remains at large. Roark wrote up a note, addressed it to the thief
and affixed it to the back door. The note said in part, “We love you and
praying for you!” Although the thief didn’t take up the church on the offer to
attend the 11 a.m. service on Sunday, Roark insisted that all would be forgiven
if the thief came in and apologized. Credit for responding with love when many
would seek justice, World Commissioned Church……..
- Good ideas, Nike, but you’re missing the one critical
innovation that U.S. Olympians will truly need in Brazil this summer. Sure, a
speed system for its track and field athletes who will compete at August's
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is swell, but it misses out on addressing the
true hazards that American athletes will face. The apparel and shoe maker
rolled out three significant advances in technology that aren't typically part
of a uniform unveil, all designed to give American athletes - in means approved
by the International Olympic Committee - a boost on the track in Rio.
There’s adhesive tape with silicon-based
spikes called AeroBlades that runners will be instructed to wear on various
parts of their bodies to help cut wind resistance or aerodynamic drag, new
sunglasses called the Nike Wing that are also meant to cut through the wind and
a breathable, adhesive race bib called the AeroSwift Bib with a peel back that
can be stuck directly onto the uniform. "We were tasked to combat the
enemy of fast and deliver on the athlete's desire to look fast, feel fast and
be fast," said Martin Lotti, Nike's vice president and creative director
for categories and concepts. Nike used a
3-D printer to build prototypes and testing hundreds of different shapes in a
wind tunnel for the AeroBlades and for the glasses, it used a single piece of
glass without hinges that typically let air through in order to allow only let
red light through, which provides a calming effect to the runner. "We spent
all this time developing aerodynamic elements to a uniform and then we would
pin our bibs on with safety pins that were invented in 1849," Lotti said
of the new aerodynamic bibs. That’s fine, but couldn’t Nike invest its time and
research dollars into stylish, performance-enhancing biohazard suits so that
aquatic athletes in Rio can compete in boating events and not have their health
and lives endangered by the super bacteria lurking in the city’s waterways………
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