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Monday, 19 August 2013

Heard of Justin Carter? A happy teenager arrested and bailed out by an anonymous well-wisher

19.8.13

Anyone heard of this teenager?  He's innocent.  But they want to destroy him.

Read about him here.  I heard about him at this very ingenious place 

13 Jul
Things like hearing about the anonymous donor giving $500,000 for bail money to gives me hope for humanity
         
Here is my comment on it (edited and fleshed out a bit):

Pathological society is turning in on itself by dissolving its best spokesmen.  Seems the rotten, rusty bottom has fallen out of the U S of A.  The young man is a wonderful innocent boy expressing himself on the most important subjects affecting young men of his age, for God's sake.  I don't like his crude language but being a teen he has to say something to clear his mind on topical questions affecting him - and bounce that off others to better understand his place in society - what he should beware of!

Instead of removing the causes of the problem they (the misbegotten lowest intellegence highest paid government workers)'re going to bomb away and delete the very people who are attempting to talk their way through the causes of social .  Justin is the sort of man who can, with the help of his mates, save America.  But the agents of confusion are going to attempt to paint their mirrors red, black and blue, by destroying him. 

I suggest that he prays a LOT and asks for COURAGE and continues learning how to pray well and properly.  Meanwhile God help, enlighten and forgive his antagonists.  Their realities about the purpose of life, the purpose of their own lives, are off the graph and probably quite deranged enough not to know the difference between reprobates and responsible citizens.

Perhaps one of the problems in society, today, is that there is no space left between pathological reactions and happy lives led by good people.  That space should contain responsibility and admission that there is something wrong, terribly wrong, and that every minute pursued in the direction of individual happiness is a minute lost in working towards preventing a mass pathology.

Justin is only a spontaneous, responsive young man who has been deliberately bludgeoned by agencies populated by ignorants who really have no idea of the difference between their heads and their arses.
 


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Saturday, 17 August 2013

17.8.13

MOBILE PHONE COMPANY NOTES
Copyright (c) 2013 by Mohamed Jiwa


Airtel (KENYA) LOG

5:44 PM 8/17/2013

I bought a bundle from Airtel just to try it out with the caution that they were likely to renew it without notice.  They renew a 24 hour bundle in the afternoon and, it seems, about the time I had actually bought it, then expire it by midnight, everyday.  They don't renew it at midnight or expire it after 24 hours. That seems to be one one problem because if the downloads don't work we have only eight or so hours to make them work.  The rest of the 'day' is stolen, if I am correct.

The bundle then renewed itself and I tried to unsubscribe but failed, because the service doesn't work.  This is the same service I used to buy the bundle.  I try another five or six times to unsubscribe with the same lack of success.  The message is:

Information
system is currently unavailable.
please try again later.#. previous menu 
{Reply}                                             {Exit}
 
The darn bundle just renewed itself again a few minutes ago, so now I have lost 30/-.  If we multiply the fee of 10 or 15 or 30/- per day by 500,000 customers who might be having the same problem, how much would that be per day that they would effectively be stealing?  How big is their customer base?

Ok, so I got tired of 'trying later' and forgetting that I have a monkey sitting on my back that's going to bite me once every day.

When I got bitten once again, today, I decided to CALL instead of 'send' customer services.  An assistant duly answered the line and it was a bad line. I had to ask him twice what his name was and then guessed, "Geoffrey?"  This was at about 17:35h today. 

Geoffrey explained that *111# is having problems and that I should use *544#.  I asked him, "what about the 30/- that I have just lost?  When will you refund it?"  This is what followed.

Geoffrey:  We cannot refund that money because when one service does not work you can easily try the other service line.

Me:  But I bought the bundle from this service and I should expect it to work. I find that highly unethical.  Airtel could be getting away with this automated re-subscription with a million customers (telling them to try later) which amounts to 15 million shillings a day!  That is theft.

G: It is not theft because you are supposed to know what our numbers are.  You are supposed to know about the 544 service.

M:  That is an expectation that is not realistic if  as it says, one has to try later.  (I should have added, "I am not calling you just to be unsubscribed but to ensure that I get my lost money back.)

G:  Everyone knows about the 544 alternative.

M: Why should I know everything about you?  Are you my girlfriend that I should know everything that is inside your nose or ear and know you intimately?  Who is Airtel that I should know everything about them? (I did not get a chance to add that resubscription of service is a form of disingenuousness that is despicable).

G:  No answer.  He may have tried to remonstrate with the hardness of my speech, to say that it is not unethical.

M:  If you can't refund me my money what is the difference between your ethics and Bunge ethics? I want my money refunded immediately or I want to talk to your supervisor.

G: If you send to 544 then you will be unsubscribed.

M:  That is not enough.  I shall do that but I want my money back.  I want to talk to your supervisor.  Now.  Can you call him.  (I did not add that I ought to be paid for the time I take to complain, too and for the inconvenience and that there should be a penalty for service that smack of insult to the customer's intelligence.)

G:  Hold on, sir.

I held for 2 minutes and 44 seconds and then got fed up. He should, rightly, have asked for my number and resolved the problem.  He never intended to do so.

Mobile companies have captive markets that they are going to continue abusing till a law is made to stop them from doing so.  But even laws in this country are all doomed to fail except SELECTIVELY so.  They will be used to forward the evil and corrupt agenda of the ruling classes who don't mind if the citizenry is abused.
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Tuesday, 13 August 2013

My Elextinction Links

12.8.13


www.wildlifedirect.org (hands off our elephants)



www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/ (iworry.org - see below)‎


http://www.savetheelephants.org/


Mali
Gabon/Congo
South Africa

  • Notorious Congolese Ivory Trafficker ConvictedJuly 25, 2013Ghislain “Pepito” Ngondjo was sentenced to 5 years in jail for killing of scores of elephants and illegally selling their ivory, while recruiting new poachers and supplying them with illegal assault rifles.

  • Researcher Studying Endangered Elephants Flees CARJune 12, 2013As a group of armed Séléka rebels invaded the Dzanga-Sangha National Park this spring, WCS conservationist Andrea Turkalo was forced to flee her jungle compound. Her life’s work—and the fate of the park’s famed elephants—now hang in the balance. 

  • Gabon and Central African Republic To Protect Critical Elephant PopulationMay 30, 2013WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper recognizes the outstanding leadership of Gabon president Ali Bongo Ondimba and Michel Djotodia, acting president of the CAR transitional government, in confronting the urgent wildlife emergency in Dzanga Bai and restoring security to the area.

  • Using SMART Technology to Stop Wildlife PoachersMay 23, 2013In the battle against the illegal ivory trade that is decimating elephants, conservation groups are turning to technological solutions to better assist local security forces. WCS's Emma Stokes describes one: the free, open-source Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool, or SMART—an innovative software application recently designed to help rangers curb wildlife trade.

  • Elephants in Jeopardy in Central African RepublicMay 15, 2013On a recent expedition to CAR’s Dzanga Bai, part of a World Heritage Site, WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper witnessed first-hand the severity of the danger facing both elephants and the heroic rangers who protect them.

  • Statement on Violence in Central African RepublicMay 10, 2013With hundreds of elephants in Central African Republic’s Dzanga Bai facing death at the hands of criminal bands of poachers, WCS appeals to neighboring countries and the world community to stop the slaughter.

  • Slaughter of the African ElephantsMarch 17, 2013In their New York Times op-ed about the plight of elephants, WCS conservationists Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels conclude: "If we do not act, we will have to shamefully admit to our children that we stood by as elephants were driven out of existence." 

  • Extinction Looms for Forest ElephantsMarch 7, 2013Following the largest study ever conducted on the forest elephant in Central Africa, conservationists say the species could vanish within the next decade. The study comes as 178 countries gather in Bangkok to discuss wildlife trade issues, including poaching and ivory smuggling.

  • New Fears for Forest ElephantsFebruary 28, 2013WCS conservationists fear the worst for forest elephants in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a new survey shows their numbers in the Okapi Faunal Reserve have taken a dramatic plunge. Ivory poaching is to blame.

  • New World Heritage Site in Wild Heart of Central AfricaJuly 2, 2012Forest elephants congregate en masse within TNS, a new World Heritage Site, sometimes in groups of 100 or more. Nowhere else in the world are this many forest elephants spotted together. 

  • New Fears for Congo’s Elephant HavenJune 11, 2012No elephants are immune from increased poaching in the Republic of Congo. WCS advocates doubling the number of guards monitoring the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park and surrounding areas, one of the few safe havens where elephant numbers have remained stable.

  • Tusk Smuggler Gets Tough SentenceAugust 18, 2011The Republic of Congo sends a Chinese ivory smuggler to jail, an example of the tough law enforcement that WCS recommends for combating the illegal wildlife trade.  

  • Forest Elephants Are Running Out of SpaceAugust 17, 2011In the rainforests of Central Africa, hunters are finding their way into once inaccessible terrain, spelling disaster for forest elephants.

  • A Ripple in an Ape OasisMarch 28, 2011A WCS census confirms a healthy population of western lowland gorillas in and around Cameroon’s Deng Deng National Park.  

  • Battle Scars from the BushDecember 1, 2010Elephants that share their turf with poachers may face life-threatening injuries when they encounter a rusty manacle buried in the foliage.

  • Treehuggers of the CongoMay 6, 2010WCS conducts the first landscape-wide survey of how land-use affects chimpanzees, gorillas, and forest elephants.

  • Danger: Elephant Crossing October 27, 2008Poorly planned roads, which are spreading across Central African wilderness areas, attract poachers and cause fear and death among forest elephants.

 

TED TALK

http://www.ted.com/conversations/16713/how_do_we_save_african_elephan.html

 
 
eHow
 
Domestication of the African Elephant from Page 1 on a Google Search

Yahoo Answers on Domestication of the African Elephant

Resolved Question

                 

Why is the Asian elephant exclusively domesticated and the African elephant not?

Is it a matter of social behavior differences, intelligence or just practical reasons in size?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Asian elephants have been shown to be more docile. The people of tropical Asia have used the Asian elephant for generations as workers for heavy lifting and construction. The elephant has been sacred to the Indian culture for thousands of years and they are every strict on the care of them. The natural behavior of the two species of elephants is vastly different. Don't get me wrong both can kill a person if frightened. An Asian elephant is more likely to run into the forest then stampede you. African elephants have had predators trying to kill them and their young for over ten thousand years while Asian elephants have had little predator interaction in that same time frame. This makes them more aggressive towards all animals especially humans. Some say that many African elephants are more hostile toward humans because many have seen a family member killed by humans in there long lifetime. There memories very good and long lasting which allows them to recognize hunters that come back to kill other members of the same herd.

Source(s):

Wildlife conservation and Ecology student at NWMSU and future zoo keeper.
Asker's Rating:
5 out of 5
Asker's Comment:
Thanks :)



Other Answers (2)

  • Before we get all romantic about the noble Indian, I would remind the previous poster about childhood slavery, breaking rocks, and the inhumanity of a strict Caste system!
    Indian Elephants are smaller and a sub species of the Asian elephant.
    In addition, two extinct subspecies are considered by some authorities to have existed:

    The Chinese population is sometimes separated as E. m. rubridens (pink-tusked elephant); it disappeared after the 14th century BC.
    The Syrian Elephant (E. m. asurus), the westernmost and the largest subspecies of the Asian Elephant, went extinct around 100 BC. This latter population, along with other Indian elephants, were considered the best war elephants in antiquity, and found superior to the smallish North African Elephant (Loxodonta africana pharaonensis) used by the armies of Carthage.
    Despite its popularity in zoos, and cuddly portrayal as gentle giants in fiction, elephants are among the world's most potentially dangerous animals. They can crush and kill any other land animal, even the rhinoceros. They can experience unexpected bouts of rage, and can be vindictive.[66] In Africa, groups of young teenage elephants attack human villages in what is thought to be revenge for the destruction of their society by massive cullings done in the 1970s and 80s.[67] [68] In India, male elephants attack villages at night, destroying homes and killing people regularly. In the Indian state of Jharkhand, 300 people were killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004, and in Assam, 239 people have been killed by elephants since 2001.[66] In India, elephants kill up to 200 humans every year, and in Sri Lanka around 50 per year.

    Interesting Q
  • This comes from a completely ignorant pulpit but if I was an Elephan, a monkey, a cow or any other animal I'd rather be in India than in Africa.
    Indians (generally) seem to love their animals, I have seen monkeys behaving like little pests while I was there and people were so patient with them! Also I have seen people washing Elephants, scrubbing them down, treating them with love, while africans are still slaving their own people so you can imagine how they treat their Elephants!
    I have seen some barbaric stuff done to monkeys while I was in Africa! So I think that it is all down to how you treat your animals, for instance in Circuses they have african elephants that behave real well and are friendly.
                 

Gangala-na-Bodio Elephant Domestication Center in Congo




  

WIKIPEDIA
 
**NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC**
 
 
WORLD WILDLIFE
 
 
IWORRY
www.iworry.org/ (This is one place where you can petition for better support from agencies to prevent poaching)
 
 

 15.8.13
 FROM NATION MEDIA GROUP - NATION NEWSPAPER
       
 

15.8.13 20:54h
VIDEO
SEARCHING GOOGLE

Web Results 1-10 of about 88,700 for "elephant poaching kenya video". (0.95 seconds)

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Friday, 9 August 2013

How does one 'manage' disasters? Prevention or cure?

I just came up with this, inspired by the tweet by Mac Prince Otani:

  • 51m
    If Nairobi is this unprepared to manage disasters, what about the remaining 46 counties?
    Expand
    Copyright 2013 by G M Jiwa, Nairobi, Kenya
  • 5m
    Prevention is a product of common sense and community pence but not without respect for the citizen's intelligence
    Retweeted 1 time

    • Posted by at No comments:

    Are there simple models for working out when a population will go extinct?

    I recently received this from Dr John Lewis, and old friend of mine, when I asked him whether I'd get censured for that tweet I posted on @paulakahumbu, below:

    5 Aug

    What's wrong here, please? Population 450,000/ Killed pday 120 / Days in yr 365 = 10 yrs extinct


    Top Tweet
    Expand
    Seems from the '@toptweet' bumperdinkle there it became a subject of quite a lot of discussion.  Well, I was trying to say, "How is it possible for the African elephant to go extinct if this assumes that 120 elephants are being slaughtered everyday?"  Where is the reality?  Paula suggested, at the museum, that about 3 are being killed per day and the figure is rising; then Ol Pejeta came back to me and told me to look again and the figure rose to a whopping 30 per day....  I still can't quite wrap my mind around this.  But for them to go extinct in 10 years we are talking bigtime.  When Amanpour can report that they are using helicopters and machine guns, etcetera, and, now that it seems that poaching has turned into genocide, obviously, we are bound to be reeling!  120 is not difficult for them, evidently.  I felt something was wrong with the math but they are scientists.  They must have done a lot of homework before publicizing the 10 year cut off point.

    This what John replied to my request for advice (egad)!
    Unfortunately, you might be censured for that. ;-) The following is an attempt to describe how the prediction could be done.

    The change in the total population each day is the number born minus the number who die by being killed and by other means. However, all three of those numbers depend on the population, and specifically on the population distribution against age, and on the rate at which each of those events occur against age.

    In particular, the birth rate depends on the rate of mating at a time the gestation period earlier, and the success rate; and the rate of mating depends on the number of each sex against age, and the probability of them mating against age.

    As the population is spread over an area, many of these parameters might depend on the habitat and the numbers in each type of habitat, and the rate of mating also depends on the rate at which they meet, etc..

    No doubt, there is also seasonal behaviour, including migration, to be included.

    Put that lot together and there is a set of differential equations to solve with some parameters and some initial conditions representing the situation at some starting point in time.

    Although it is complex, there is nothing particularly mysterious about any of that; the difficulty is that assumptions need to be made about the parameters and their dependence on age, habitat, time and, possibly on population itself.

    People are doing this kind of modelling, such as these:
    http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=elephant+population+models

    A simplistic version of this could be done in a spreadsheet, although you might not have read this far!! ;-)

    I then followed John's example and altered the search-string to "models for extinction of the African Elephant" and I found this download on extinction models.  Now I need the advice of experts on how all these estimates are calculated (without being led towards the precipitous gulleys of differential equations, if possible!

    Mohamed Jiwa

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