By Andrew L. Jaffee

Editor’s note: netWMD has decided to expand its horizons beyond political issues.

“Placing them in the same jar, the male, in alarm, endeavoured to escape. In a few minutes the female succeeded in grasping him. She first bit off his front tarsus, and consumed the tibia and femur. Next she gnawed out his left eye…it seems to be only by accident that a male ever escapes alive from the embraces of his partner.” Leland Ossian Howard, Science, 1886. …
[~from Serendip]

Eh, too much shock value. Apparently, this cannibalism can be an artifact of scientists observing mantids in captivity. Serendip continues:

Story continues below…

Mantis scissor-hands. Photo © 2008 netwmd.com, LLC.

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By the Center for Immigration Studies

WASHINGTON (August 13, 2008) — The findings of a new study indicate that future levels of immigration will have a significant impact on efforts to reduce global CO2 emissions. Immigration to the United States significantly increases world-wide CO2 emissions because it transfers population from lower-polluting parts of the world to the United States, which is a higher-polluting country.

The report, entitled “Immigration to the United States and World-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” is available at this link and a video regarding the report is available at this link.

Among the findings:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I believe that we are experiencing global warming. It is an issue that both the developing and developed worlds need to address right now. But what I’ve seen over the last week is farcical: 1) a UN “climate change” conference whose participants pumped an “equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, like Marseilles, France, would emit in a day” into our atmosphere; 2) a new Australian Labor leader whose “negotiating stance” on the Kyoto Protocol is the same as President Bush’s; and 3) the fact that China and India, “among the biggest contributors to the problem, both say they will not sign any climate change treaty that would slow the pace of their development.” Here are the goodies (insert your own, canned laugh-track):

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New Report Takes Detailed Look at Impact of Different Levels of Admissions

WASHINGTON (August 2007) — New projections from the Center for Immigration Studies show that the current level of immigration (legal and illegal) will add more than 100 million people to the nation’s population by 2060. The report also shows that immigration has only a small impact on slowing the aging of American society.

While population growth has not been at the center of the immigration debate, polls show the public is deeply concerned about issues related to population size, including congestion, sprawl, preservation of open spaces, and greenhouse gas emissions.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

So animals aren’t smart? Just ask Oscar the cat — or note that crows employ and/or make tools. Researchers studying our avian friends found that New Caledonian crows “can use separate tools in quick succession to retrieve an out-of-reach snack,” and concluded “that because the birds were able to solve [a] problem on their first attempt they were using analogical reasoning rather than trial and error.” From the BBC:

…The birds surprised the scientists with their quick thinking.

Alex Taylor, lead author of the paper, said: “The creative thing the crows did was to use the short stick to get the long tool out of the box so that they could then use the long stick to get the meat.”

Russell Gray, another author of the paper, told the BBC News website: “What is most amazing is that most of them did this on the first trial. …

Crow after bending a wire into a hook — making a tool.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I cannot for the life of me understand people who claim that humans are superior to flora and fauna, or that man has dominion over all creation. I prefer to see humankind as stewards, recognizing the right of the natural world to chart its own evolutionary course, and admitting that a healthy environment is good for humanity (as in Adam Smith’s enlightened self interest). For example, animals are obviously capable of the same emotions that some people covet (or do not have, e.g. the terrorists): emotions like empathy:

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live. …

“Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one,” said [Dr. David] Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Victor Davis Hanson is a true liberal in the old sense of the word — open-minded, educated, and well-rounded — though he’s considered “conservative” by many. He’s not afraid to expose Middle Eastern dictators for what they are: petty tyrant thugs (a term leftists are afraid to utter). He’s also not afraid to use the terms “conservation” and “alternate fuels,” which many right-wingers consider apostasy. Here he is, from the Washington Post:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I wouldn’t put a lot of credence into what El Jefe Castro says. After all, he’s a “communist” leader worth $US900 million. His “communist” economy is a disaster, and Cuba is one of the poorest countries in the Americas. If not for tourism and money sent by Cuban expatriates, there would be complete economic collapse. Castro executed three Cubans for trying to escape their “worker’s paradise.” El Jefe jailed 75 poets, journalists, economists and other dissidents because they dared to express political opposition. Now Castro has gone off the deep end, criticizing the use of biofuels, which by the way “will lower carbon dioxide emissions, ensuring a cleaner environment.” Still think El Jefe is “progressive?” From the BBC:

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has written a second newspaper article within a week, again criticising US biofuels policy.

Writing in the Granma newspaper, Mr Castro said a US drive to back crop use for fuels would raise prices and cause more hunger in developing countries. …

He said [the use of biofuels] “…means none other than the internationalisation of genocide…”

So, Castro wants us to burn more fossil fuels? Damned if we burn fossil fuels and pollute more; damned if we burn ethanol and pollute less. Ah, we have a surplus of grains, so there’d be no effect on “developing countries…” Oy, amateurish economics and environmentalism…

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Inter-climatic Immigration, Global Warming & Greenhouse Gases

By Dick Field

A few commentators have expressed grave concern that the continued importation of millions of immigrants to Canada, the UK, the USA and northern Europe contributes to an ever increasing urban sprawl and the consequent destruction of vital agricultural lands. Even Canada’s huge land mass cannot support the density of human occupation that its size would lead one to believe. Most of Canada’s land mass is virtually uninhabitable. Compatible cultural integration is also becoming a cause of concern.

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