Academy Award-winning actor and producer Sean Connery, best known as the original James Bond, has joined the International Advisory Board of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the world’s leading marine wildlife conservation nonprofit organization. Connery joins the SSCS advisory board alongside two valued new additions: four-time Women’s World Surfing Champion Stephanie Gilmore and Emmy Award-winning Writer, Producer and Director/Co-Creator of The Simpsons, Sam Simon.

Beloved the world over as the iconic 007, Connery starred in seven films of the popular Ian Fleming franchise including: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Never Say Never Again (1983). In later years, several other actors took on the career-defining role of James Bond including another valued member of Sea Shepherd’s advisory board, Pierce Brosnan.

Commenting on what it means to have the original “007” join the ranks of Sea Shepherd supporters, SSCS Founder and President Captain Paul Watson said, “We are fortunate to have Pierce Brosnan, Christian Bale, Richard Dean Anderson, Martin Sheen, William Shatner, and Marina Sirtis among Sea Shepherd’s devoted members and supporters. Today we gained a new Advisory Board member-Sean Connery. How can we lose? We have two James Bonds, Batman, MacGyver, a former ‘President of the United States,’ Captain Kirk, and Counselor Troi on our side.”

Paul Watson and Stephanie Gilmore

Serving with Connery on the Board will be one of the greatest surfers of all time, four-time Women’s World Surfing Champion Stephanie Gilmore. Stephanie joins Kelly Slater and world-renowned Free Surfer Dave “Rasta” Rastovich as the trinity of surfers on Sea Shepherd’s International Board of Advisors.

“Having Stephanie on our team with Kelly and Rasta places Sea Shepherd in very high regard in the surfing world,” said Captain Watson. “Surfers are the greatest human ambassadors for the sea and these three world-class athletes are each a very powerful voice for ocean conservation. Together they represent a huge wave of support in our efforts to defend biodiversity and life in our seas.”

Joining Connery and Gilmore is writer, producer and director Sam Simon, who has worked on such critically acclaimed TV classics as Taxi, Cheers, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Drew Carey Show, and The Simpsons, which he co-created. Simon is the recipient of a dozen Emmys and a Peabody award. Known also as a dedicated philanthropist, he works tirelessly on behalf of animals and the disabled. Simon recently hosted an exclusive Hollywood fundraiser for Sea Shepherd’s soon-to-launch Antarctic whale defense campaign, Operation Divine Wind.

In speaking of his new advisory role, Simon explained: “I’m proud to be a member of Sea Shepherd’s International Board of Advisors and look forward to the day direct action brings an end to whaling and other outdated horrors.”

Connery, Gilmore and Simon join a slate of esteemed advisors from the animal protection, conservation, media, arts, legal, and business communities who all lend their expertise in support of Sea Shepherd’s mission to defend, conserve and protect ocean wildlife worldwide.

Source: Sea Shepherd

Cheryl Hayashi studies spider silk, one of nature’s most high-performance materials. Each species of spider can make up to 7 very different kinds of silk. How do they do it? Hayashi explains at the DNA level — then shows us how this super-strong, super-flexible material can inspire.

File photo: Japanese Coast Guard personnel hurl flash bang grenades during Operation Migaloo in 2008

Thirty million dollars buys a great deal of influence and can exert immense pressure when defending an illegal activity.

In an act of desperation, the Japanese whalers armed with a war chest of some $US30 million allocated by the Japanese government from the tsunami earthquake relief fund are throwing a great deal of muscle into their efforts to stop the Sea Shepherd ships from saving whales this season.

The latest move has the Japanese whalers filing a lawsuit in a U.S. Court to prohibit Sea Shepherd from intervening against illegal Japanese whaling operations. Sea Shepherd dismisses this suit as frivolous and nothing more than the whalers attempting to use litigation as a weapon against Sea Shepherd.

“We have won this round already,” said Captain Paul Watson. “Last season we defeated the whalers and sent them home in humiliation after they were only able to kill 17% of their quota. This year will be more challenging. Thirty million dollars buys a great deal of influence and we are expecting a full onslaught of harassment and bureaucratic obstacles from Japan and from the governments, courts and media they are able to influence.

“It will be a challenging season and the most dangerous campaign to date as we head down for our eighth year of interventions against the whale poachers of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.”

Sea Shepherd is undeterred by this latest attempt to stop us in the U.S. Courts.

“This seems like a frivolous lawsuit to me,” said Captain Watson. “We have the images of the Japanese whalers destroying one of our ships, ramming our ships, running over our crew, firing upon us, throwing concussion grenades, deploying acoustical weapons, hitting us with water cannons and bamboo spears and they are suing us because they are accusing us of violence towards them. We have not rammed them and we have not caused a single injury nor have we been charged with a crime or even reprimanded by anyone for our actions. We have cooperated with every inquiry. They have not. This is simply a case of using the courts to harass us. I don’t believe they have a case and I doubt a U.S. court would take this seriously. Unlike Japan, the courts in the United States don’t automatically do what the government demands that they do.”

Sea Shepherd has more important issues to address than being distracted by lawsuits. “Our entire focus for the next three months will be on preventing the ruthless and illegal slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,“ said Captain Watson. “We will not be deterred by force, by lawsuits, by bureaucrats, by critics or by any government. We act non-violently within the boundaries of the law and we save whales from a criminal operation in a whale sanctuary.”

All this muscle is simply the last gasp of a dying, ecologically destructive and ruthless industry. Sea Shepherd will never abandon the whales of the Southern Ocean no matter how heavy handed the Japanese whalers become. The only way they will stop us is to kill us and they may be just desperate enough to do just that.”

Source: Sea Shepherd

De Japanse vloot walvisjagers is opnieuw vertrokken richting Antarctica. De schepen verlieten eerder vandaag de haven van Shimonoseki in het zuidwesten van Japan. De meldt de Australische krant The Herald Sun.

Drie schepen, geleid door de Yushin Maru van 720 ton, zijn uit de haven van Shimonoseki in het zuidwesten van Japan vertrokken. Ze varen richting Antarctica, waar ze tegen maart 2012 900 dwergvinvissen en gewone vinvissen willen vangen en doden. Dat doet het Aziatische land al jaren onder het mom van wetenschappelijk onderzoek.

Veel is er niet geweten over de exacte koers van de vloot. “Omwille van de veiligheid kunnen we de exacte timing, koers en operationele plannen niet bekend maken”, zei Shinji Hiruma, een verantwoordelijke van het landelijke agentschap voor de visserij.

Vorig jaar moest de vloot al in februari terugkeren naar het Japanse vasteland. De dierenorganisatie Sea Shepherd deed namelijk al het mogelijke om de walvisjagers te dwarsbomen. Ook dit jaar zijn ze dat van plan. Paul Watson, de leider van Sea Shepherd, stuurde dit bericht de wereld in: “De Nisshin Maru zet koers naar het Zuiden. De Cetecean Death Star (Nisshin Maru, nvdr.) en een klein leger van private ‘storm troopers’ en van de Japanse Kustwacht zijn begonnen met hun missie om beschermde walvissoorten te terroriseren. Sea Shepherd zal hen opwachten.

Bron: hln.be

Stuntende spreeuwen boven de Shannon rivier in Ierland. Begint op 0:25. Blijf kijken.

De Russische Academie van Wetenschappen heeft laten weten dat Bigfoot hoogstwaarschijnlijk bestaat. Dat meldt Russia Today.

Experts kwamen tot die conclusie nadat ze haren uit de Siberische regio Kuzbass hadden geanalyseerd die naar verluidt toebehoren aan de Yeti.

Begin oktober trokken ‘yetiologen’ uit de Verenigde Staten, Canada, Zweden, Estland en Rusland naar het gebied om naar bewijs voor het bestaan van Bigfoot te zoeken. In de Azass-grot vonden de onderzoekers voetafdrukken die klaarblijkelijk toebehoren aan de Yeti.

De haren werden aangetroffen in een grote voetafdruk. Professoren van de universiteiten van Moskou, Sint-Petersburg en Idaho namen monsters van de haren mee voor verder onderzoek. Eén van de haren bleek identiek te zijn aan de exemplaren die toebehoren aan een Californische Yeti. Een andere haar behoorde toe aan een variant uit het Russische Oeralgebergte en een derde aan een soort uit het gebied rond Sint-Petersburg, zo schrijft Komsomolskaya Pravda.

De eerste ontdekking werd gedaan door professor Valentin Sapunov van de New York Academy en de Technische Universiteit van Sint-Petersburg. Hij is geneticus en biofysicus.

“In Sint-Petersburg werden de haren onderzocht met behulp van een speciale microscoop,” zei Sapunov. “Het is een ingewikkelde maar zeer efficiënte methode. De haren werden besproeid met een chemische verbinding waarna ze konden worden ontleed. Op deze manier konden we ze vergelijken met haren van andere biologische soorten.”

De haren uit Californië, de Azass-grot, de Oeral en Sint-Petersburg bleken allen toe te behoren aan dezelfde soort. Het Amerikaanse onderzoek kwam met dezelfde conclusie, aldus een bevlogen Sapunov.

“Er is meer dan 95 procent kans dat de Yeti bestaat,” legde de biofysicus uit. “De laatste 20 jaar heb ik geprobeerd zo veel mogelijk bewijs over hem te verzamelen.” De volgende stap in het onderzoek zal zijn om de genetische code van de haren te onderzoeken en interpreteren.

Het Zoölogisch Instituut van de Academie van Wetenschappen te Sint-Petersburg is hier reeds mee begonnen.

Bron: RT.com

Vertaling: niburu.nl