Science Moves to Protect Frogs From Extinction

Dave Harcourt — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:55:33 +0000

Scientists and veterinarians met in San Diego, in February 2009, to protect amphibian species threatened with extinction by the chytrid fungus. Chytrid is already associated with declines in amphibian populations in Central America and Australia and is spreading quickly in the wild.

The photograph is of the critically endangered Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zetecki) which communicates by waving its hands because, unlike other frogs, it has no eardrums.

Chytridiomycosis (cytrid) is an infectious disease of amphibians, caused by the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a non-hyphal zoosporic fungus. The skin of infected frogs thickens and interferes with its ability to absorb water and electrolytes. Frogs in the wild which are already in danger of extinction from habitat loss, the pet trade, and climate change now face this additional threat.

Sustainable Communities: N55 Grows Our Human Potential

Caroline Savery — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:48:13 +0000

Occam’s Razor: the scientific principle that the most simple, elegant solution to a given problem is the one most likely to be true.

N55 takes the notion of assembling the world into a sustainable community with a fair mechanism for exchanging resources and simplifies it to its very barest elements. You will find little elaboration on the N55 site. You will find little philosophical jargon.

But what you will find is astonishing innovation, ingenious trial concepts that simplify and minimize our human needs into manageable, bite-sized alternatives (like HYGIENE SYSTEM and MICRODWELLING). You will also find a series of solutions and protocols for interaction that can be cut and pasted onto just about any society of human beings.

Take ROOMS, for example. The following is excerpted from their “Manual for ROOMS.”

“ROOMS gives access to rooms. Any person can use ROOMS. ROOMS can be established anywhere supplying different functions like rooms for sleeping, making food, reading, meeting, producing things etc.

“ROOMS is a system that can be used for sharing rooms with other persons. ROOMS consists of rooms in different places in the world. The rooms are included in ROOMS by persons who guarantee that anybody can use them according to the function they are initiated with and within given periods of time.

“Any person can expand ROOMS by providing one or more rooms. These rooms can be in existing buildings, they can be mobile rooms, or they can be built for ROOMS. Positions of ROOMS can be found in Manual for ROOMS. The manual is continuously updated. A current version can also be obtained by contacting N55.”

It’s the cleanest, simplest definition possible–as a result, it can be easily adapted and interpreted for the diverse situations and peoples found across the planet.

You or I could add a ROOM. You or I could use ROOMS. The same is true for LAND, SHOP, FACTORY, etc. Talk about universal!

Green Options » manual

Science Moves to Protect Frogs From Extinction

Sustainable Communities: N55 Grows Our Human Potential