“Are you Russian?” asked a middle-aged Korean man hopefully to an American English teacher. Translation: are you a prostitute?
“Are you Japanese?” she retorted. And that was that.
It’s the best rebuff I’ve heard to the bevy of Korean men who equate blonde hair with instant gratification. But why did it repel him with such shear efficiency? Or, put another way, what’s so bad about being called Japanese?
It’s summer in the Antarctic Ocean and many whale species have migrated to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an important feeding ground. One would think that in an internationally recognized sanctuary at the ends of the Earth, these whales would be safe from the boating, fish netting, noise pollution, and other man-made hazards.
However, Japanese whaling fleets have already left harbor to hunt the whales for meat in this sanctuary as they have done increasingly since 1997 in defiance of international bans on whaling.
Each year, Japanese whalers slaughter more and more whales. This year, the Japanese whaling industry has vowed to kill the greatest number of whales yet, about 1000 in all. These numbers will be made up of near-threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.
But this year, they will not be alone on the rough seas against the Japanese whalers. Australia’s new government is joining Greenpeace in saying “enough is enough.” As Josh Hill writes, this pressure is already beginning to bear fruits. Japan has agreed to suspend–at least for the moment—its plans to kill an additional 50 threatened humpback whales.
Australia is sending ships usually reserved for tracking down marine poachers to monitor the whaling vessels. That’s not all. There will also be eyes in the sky as an Australian surveillance plane record the whaler’s every action from above. This is all just part of a larger effort that Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, hopes will help put an end to Japan’s horrible whale hunt once and for all.
A seemingly simple alteration a wind turbine blade’s traditional shape could result in huge improvements in efficiency.
WhalePower Corporation out of Toronto, Canada has designed a turbine blade with rounded, teeth-like bumps along the leading edge. The company’s name is a nod to the humpback whale, whose flipper was the inspiration for the design.
The agility of the humpback whale is astonishing, given that they can be over 50 feet long, weigh nearly 80,000
[...]
Subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter
