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1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0691145288/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:41:17 -0500

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0691145288/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

thingsorganizedneatly: SUBMISSION: Artist Alexandra Bircken....

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:29:30 -0500

thingsorganizedneatly:

SUBMISSION:

Artist Alexandra Bircken. Click through the picture to see a detail of this piece, as well as several other pieces that are organized neatly.

“I am interested in dismantling prevailing hierarchies of value regarding these objects and materials by way of connecting them, thus putting them in a new context to each other. It’s an alternative system or cycle.”

Extinction of the Swallowtail Butterfly One of the most...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:28:08 -0500

Extinction of the Swallowtail Butterfly

One of the most famous extinction at Wicken Fen was that of the beautiful Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio machaon britannicus). The Fen was famous for the Swallowtail and entomologists came from far and wide to see and collect the species. Swallowtail butterflies used to occur all over the fenlands, but by 1904 William Farren wrote “Swallowtail still exists in considerable numbers in Wicken Fen but no longer in the surrounding fens and north of Ely where it was plentiful 50 or 60 years ago”.

The Swallowtail caterpillars only feed on one food plant, the Milk Parsley (Peucedanum palustre). This is a rare plant which only thrives in wet fen habitats. At Wicken the fen was drying out, as the land around it was drained for agriculture. The Milk Parsley was becoming less abundant and the Swallowtail butterfly seems to need lots of strong growing food plant in order to thrive. Gradually, the Swallowtail numbers declined and by 1952 it could not be found. The National Trust and expert entomologists have tried three times to re-introduce Swallowtail butterflies to Wicken Fen (1955, 1975, 1993), and also spent a lot of time trying to increase the abundance of the food plant. However, each time the Swallowtail butterflies survived for a few years and then became extinct again. The conclusion was that the Fen was not wet enough for the Milk Parsley (which still survives) to be sufficiently vigorous and abundant for a viable Swallowtail population to survive.

Wicken Fen: Wildlife: Victorian Entymologists

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:22:55 -0500

Wicken Fen: Wildlife: Victorian Entymologists

projectparakeet.co.uk

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:41:53 -0500

projectparakeet.co.uk

Photo

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:26:13 -0500

River Thames frost fairs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:31:15 -0500

River Thames frost fairs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Historical climatology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:29:30 -0500

Historical climatology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medieval Warm Period - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:26:36 -0500

Medieval Warm Period - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Little Ice Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:25:40 -0500

Little Ice Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mound builder (people) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:23:51 -0500

Mound builder (people) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Radiocarbon dating has established the age of the earliest...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:22:39 -0500

Radiocarbon dating has established the age of the earliest Archaic mound complex in southeastern Louisiana. One of the two Monte Sano Site mounds, excavated in 1967 before being destroyed during new construction at Baton Rouge, was dated at 6220 BP (plus or minus 140 years).^[10] Researchers at the time thought that such societies were not organizationally capable of this type construction.^[10] It has since been dated as about 6500 BP, or 4500 BCE,^[11] although not all agree.^[12]

Watson Brake is located in the floodplain of the Ouachita River near Monroe in northern Louisiana. Securely dated to about 5400 years ago (approx. 3500 BCE), in the Middle Archaic period, it consists of a formation of 11 mounds from three to 25 feet (1-8m) tall, connected by ridges to form an oval nearly 900 feet (270m) across.^[13] In the Americas, building of complex earthwork mounds started at an early date, well before the pyramids of Egypt were constructed. Watson Brake was under construction nearly 2,000 years before the better-known Poverty Point, and building went on for 500 years.^[14] Middle Archaic mound construction appeared to cease about 2800 BC, and scholars have not ascertained the reason, but it may have been because of changed in river patterns or other environmental factors.^[15]

With the 1990s dating of Watson Brake and similar complexes, scholars established that pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic American societies could organize to accomplish complex construction over extended periods of time, overturning scholars’ understanding of traditional models of Archaic society.^[16] Watson Brake was built by a hunter-gatherer society whose people occupied the area on only a seasonal basis, but where successive generations organized to build the complex mounds over a 500-year period. Their food consisted mostly of fish and deer, as well as available plants.

Built about 1500 BC, Poverty Point in Louisiana is a prominent example of Late Archaic mound-builder construction (c. 2500 BCE - 1000 BCE). It is a striking complex of more than one square mile, where six earthwork crescent ridges were built in concentric arrangement, interrupted by radial aisles. Three mounds are also part of the main complex, and evidence of residences extends for about three miles along the bank of Bayou Maçon. It is the major site among 100 associated with the Poverty Point culture, and is one of the best-known early examples of earthwork monumental architecture. Unlike the localized societies during the Middle Archaic, this culture showed evidence of a wide trading network outside its area, which is one of its distinguishing characteristics.

2R 2008 » DIY Biosphere Holiday Competition

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:12:01 -0500

2R 2008 » DIY Biosphere Holiday Competition