A boat captain working to rescue sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico says he has seen BP ships burning sea turtles and other wildlife alive.
Captain Mike Ellis said in an interview posted on You Tube that the boats are conducting controlled burns to get rid of the oil.
“They drag a boom between two shrimp boats and whatever gets caught between the two boats, they circle it up and catch it on fire. Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out,” Ellis said.
Ellis said he had to cut short his three-week trip rescuing the turtles because BP quit allowing him access to rescue turtles before the burns.
“They’re pretty much keeping us from doing what we need to do out there,” Ellis said.
Other reports corroborate Captain Ellis’ claims. A report in the Los Angeles Times describes “burn fields” of 500 square miles in which 16 controlled burns will take place in one day.
“When the weather is calm and the sea is placid, ships trailing fireproof booms corral the black oil, the coated seaweed and whatever may be caught in it, and torch it into hundred-foot flames, sending plumes of smoke skyward in ebony mushrooms,” the article says.
Ellis said most of the turtles he has seen are Kemps Ridley turtles, a critically endangered species. Harming or killing one would bring stiff civil and criminal penalties and fines of up to $50,000 against BP.
Evolved from ancestors who walked on land and then went back to the sea many million years ago, sea turtles are reptiles. The cold blooded air breathing reptiles are part of a species that are so ancient in standing that they themselves watched dinosaurs become extinct.
Like nearly all turtles the sea turtle possess scaly skin and have a hard outer shell .
Many land turtles are able to retract their heads inside their shells for protection. Unfortunately, sea turtles are unable to do this and their heads will remain out at all times.
Female Green Sea Turtle
Adapting itself to a watery life, their shells have evolved and are lighter in weight than those of their cousins who live on land. They have flippers which help them to move through the water very rapidly. Sea turtles can swim at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour for a reasonable distance.
They swim to the surface every few minutes to take a breath and then dive again, but can remain underwater for as long as two hours without taking a breath when they sleep. Their bodies use oxygen in a very efficient way so that they need less
oxygen than other animals.
Additionally their muscles and their blood will store large amounts of oxygen which permits them to stay under the water for a lengthy time span. Smaller turtles or infant or juvenile turtles have not yet developed this and must sleep at the surface.
Behind each sea turtles eye is a salt gland that aids them in ridding their bodies of the salt they take in. They will cry great salt tears which rid their bodies of the extra salt they have taken in from the water.
Green sea turtles are given their names from the color of their body fat, which is green due to the algae they ingest.
While adult green sea turtles eat only herbs and vegetation, the juveniles will also eat meat. Jellyfish is a large part of their diet.
Adult sea turtles can weigh in at about 500 pounds.
The life span of sea turtles is still unknown. Some seem to mature and grow very slowly.
Sometimes, they take from 10 to 50 years before they begin to mate.
Sea turtles live in the ocean for most of their adult lives. Females however must enter land to lay the eggs.
Researchers believe they do this in the same place they were born, sometimes traveling as much as a thousand miles to get there.
Mating is usually in the late spring, when the females enter the beach. They do not mate each year, but come ashore as many as five times to make nests and lay eggs when they do mate.
Green Sea Turtles only nest during the night. The female digs a pit and deposits as many as 100 eggs, which are called a clutch.
The eggs feel very much like leather, as she covers them and buries the pit then returns to the sea. She does not guard the nest or return for her young, which take about two months to hatch.
They must then find their way to the ocean and swim for the next day or two. They do not enter land again for another year or more.
Many hatchlings do not reach the ocean. They are eaten by crabs, birds or sharks as they enter.
Only a very few of those which are born survive the trip to the ocean the first time. Green sea turtles are found throughout the world’s oceans and like some other sea turtles are considered endangered species.
As we can see from the BP mishap, man is the predator which poses the greatest threat to their survival.
Logger head sea turtle being examined by Vet
The sea turtles appear to be very smart. A loggerhead sea turtle nearly swam to the door step of the Florida Keys Turtle Hospital, the only licensed veterinary facility in the world that solely treats sea turtles.
The 73-pound reptile was suffering from a bacterial infection and somehow knew exactly where to go for help — no Yellow Pages needed.
They are also very considerate as demonstrated in the video above.
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In measuring a life, it’s not how long you live which counts, but it is what you did and how you did it.
Manute Bols (left) with teammate Muggsy (Tyrone Curtis) Bogues
Former NBA center Manute Bol died Saturday at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville at the age of 47. Standing at 7′ 7″, Bol was one of the tallest players in NBA history. The Sudan Dinka tribesman specialized in shot-blocking, breaking a record in his rookie season. For people who truly did not know him, they will remember him along with Muggsy” Bogues as team mates of the Washington Bullets (Now the Washington Wizards) professional basketball team.
However, those who really knew him will remember him as a humanitarian who sent millions of his own dollars to his homeland of Sudan.
Tom Prichard, executive director of the group Sudan Sunrise, told the Associated Press that Bol was being treated for severe kidney trouble and a painful skin condition known as Steven Johnson syndrome.
“Sudan and the world have lost a hero and an example for all of us,” said Tom Prichard, executive director of the group Sudan Sunrise. Prichard also told the Associated Press that Bol was being treated for severe kidney trouble and a painful skin condition known as Steven Johnson syndrome.
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Bol was a 7-foot-7 curiosity when he was drafted in 1985 by the then-Washington Bullets. He was so thin that during his rookie season then-Dallas coach Dick Motta told the Washington Post that Bol would “break like a grasshopper … an arm here, a leg over there” once he ran into a typical NBA opponent.
But Bol lasted 10 seasons of kidney blows, playing for four teams. His enormous wingspan made blocking shots his specialty, and he set a record with 397 blocks his first season.
“He made a career out of something that people saw in the beginning as a circus act,” Chris Mullin, a close friend and former teammate, told the New York Daily News in 2004.
Bol’s most lasting legacy will be his efforts to use his celebrity to improve conditions in war-torn Sudan.
“God guided me to America and gave me a good job,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2004. “But he also gave me a heart so I would look back.”
He was born Oct. 16, 1962, in Gogrial, Sudan, and had a biography unmatched by the backgrounds of any of his fellow NBA players. A member of the Dinka tribe and the descendant of chiefs, Bol once killed a lion with a spear while herding cows.
Don Feeley, who coached at Fairleigh Dickinson University, encountered Bol in 1982 at a coaching clinic in Sudan. The then-San Diego Clippers drafted Bol in 1983 before he had even played in college. Bol eventually enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, a Division II school in Connecticut. He played one season and then signed with a summer pro league in Rhode Island before being drafted by Washington.
As a rookie in Washington, Bol got a chance to play regularly when starting center Jeff Ruland was hurt. He started 60 games that season, which would be a career high.
Bol spent three seasons in Washington before being traded to the Golden State Warriors. After two seasons there, he was dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he played for three seasons. Bol spent the 1993-94 season with Miami, Washington and Philadelphia. He played five games for Golden State in the 1994-95 season.
He used his NBA career to support his extended family and relief efforts in Sudan.
“I don’t like war,” he told the New York Times in 2001. “I used to, but not anymore.”
But Bol’s finances collapsed after he left the NBA, in part from the millions he spent on Sudan and in part from investments that went bad.
“He always did a lot for his people,” Warriors coach Don Nelson told the Montreal Gazette in 2002. “He gave his own money to support his people who were starving.”
Trying to raise money for Sudan, Bol took part in stunts such as fighting former Chicago Bears lineman William “Refrigerator” Perry in a televised boxing match.
Ed Stefanski, 76ers president and general manager, said in a statement Saturday that Bol “was continually giving of himself through his generosity and humanitarian efforts in order to make the world around him a much better place.”
Bol, who was seriously injured in a car accident in 2004, was hospitalized in May after returning to the United States from Sudan. He was helping build a school with Sudan Sunrise, a humanitarian group based in Kansas, but stayed longer than expected after the president of southern Sudan asked him to make election appearances, Prichard told the Associated Press.
“I never thought about the money I lost,” Bol told the New York Daily News in 2004. “It wasn’t lost. It helped Sudan.”
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Dr. Alfred G. Davis Jr. (left) and his father Alfred G. Davis Sr. (right)
Two years ago, Dr. Alfred G. Davis Ph.d, buried his beloved wife who had succumbed to their battle with a rare cancer. Since her death, Dr. Davis has been raising his two daughters, 15 and 11 years of age.
For some men this would be difficult if not impossible. However, Dr. Davis relied on a foundation laid by his grandparents and fortified by his parents. The foundation was in place when he was a boy growing up in Milwaukee where his mother was a school principal and his father worked his way up in management at the United States Post Office.
The parents also owned a beauty salon. Young Greg as he is called watched his father Alfred Davis Sr. work the 2nd or 3rd shift after putting in time at the salon as the janitor, maintenance man, and book keeper. Davis Sr., also helped out at home with house cleaning and cooking. In observing his parents interaction with each other as husband and wife and parents, young Greg concluded that marriage was a partnership on all fronts.
Greg searched long and hard for that partner, but before finding her, he would learn one more valuable lesson that would serve him well in days to come. As Greg was completing his doctored degree in psychology, the mother he adorned was stricken with cancer. Greg observed his father continuing to do all the things he had done before in regards to the housekeeping and cooking after putting in a full day at the post office. However, his father also spent quality time in providing comfort and care to his dying wife without any complaints. This was very impressive to him.
Some years after his mother’s death, Greg found his true love. Like his father, he helped out at home, especially when the kids came.
Sadly, Greg would also find himself following in his Dad’s footsteps when the love of his life was stricken with a rare cancer. Just like his dad, he would come home and tackle the household and parental duties while providing comfort and care for his wife until she died in February of 2008.
Now he rushes home to care for his daughters where he continues to be both Mom and Dad.
Greg credits his father for being the man that he has become. Al Davis Sr. not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk with very high steps.
Mr. Davis cites open communication as the important element in raising Greg. There was nothing that he and his son could not discuss when Greg was growing up. Greg who lives in New Jersey still maintains constant contact with his father who still resides in Milwaukee. Greg relied on that contact as he cared for his wife, and it still remains important as he continues to work through his grief.
Mr. Davis, who migrated to Milwaukee from Arkansas had taken a page from his parents, especially his hard working mother. A good work ethic was instilled into him by both mother and father. Taking the time to volunteer in church and community was important to his mother. Mr. Davis adopted these attributes and passed them on proudly to his son.
Greg admires his father’s volunteer work. Mr. Davis who is retired volunteers with his Church and the homeless with the same vigor he displayed in his younger days when he worked a full time job while managing the salon. Greg plans to continue to walk in his father’s foot steps by becoming an active volunteer when he retires.
As father and son reflected on their parallel lives, Greg hopes that he is serving as an influential role model for his two daughters.
Greg and his father is what Febone1960.net refer to as real fathers real men and we wish these two men as well as other deserving men a happy father’s day.
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For 24 years Bob Glaser a successful businessman in the real estate industry lived with his wife and 3 children in the posh South Tampa community known as historic Hyde Park. Five years ago, Bob made a change in his life by revealing his sexuality as a gay man. Bob as his wife have divorced and he has departed from the manicured lawns of the old homes in Hyde Park to live his life as a gay man.
Bob however has not divorced his children and looks forward to celebrating father’s day with them.
Above Bob discusses his ordeal in coming out to his wife and children on this special father’s day.
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The Greenville 8 stand in front of the segregated Greenville County, S.C., public library in 1960. Front row, from left: Joan Mattison Daniel, Elaine Means, Margaree Seawright Crosby, Dorris Wright and Hattie Smith Wright. Second row: Jesse Jackson, Benjamin Downs. Back row: Willie Joe Wright (with glasses), attorney Willie T. Smith Jr. (wearing hat), and attorney Donald Sampson (with mustache).
Fifty years ago, when the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, then a high school freshman, decided to use the “whites-only” public library in Greenville, S.C., he wasn’t thinking about making history, he said.
He just knew it wasn’t fair that the “black” public library didn’t have the book he needed for a school report, and a request to the “white” library was a six-day wait.
“I didn’t have six days. I had to go back to school, and I cried,” said the Rainbow/ PUSH founder, whose annual national civil rights conference kicks off here Saturday.
So Jackson walked into the library with seven other black high school students, grabbed a book, sat down and read, knowing it would be only a matter of time.
It reportedly took 15 minutes. The Greenville 8 were arrested, handcuffed, removed from the library and jailed on July 17, 1960, initiating one of the pivotal moments of the civil rights movement.
It was a critical juncture in what would become a lifetime of activism, and at this 50th anniversary, Jackson and six of his partners in crime — one has died — will reunite at the conference.
“All of us went for our own reasons. Many of us did not know each other,” Jackson recounted. “The ’54 Brown vs. Board of Education decision had passed, and nothing had happened. That summer was a pregnant moment in time. A season of struggle had begun against legal segregation. We were pushing against the walls. On that day, we eight students went to jail fighting for our dignity.”
Arrested with him were Sterling High School students Joan Mattison Daniel, Elaine Means, Margaree Seawright, Dorris Wright, Hattie Smith Wright and Benjamin Downs, who will attend the PUSH Excel Scholarship Gala at 7 p.m. Monday at McCormick Place West. The eighth, Willie Joe Wright, is deceased.
Jackson draws upon King’s quote above about change in honoring the group, along with the Greensboro 4 — North Carolina A&T students who sat at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., on Feb. 1, 1960, triggering sit-ins across the South. Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair and Joseph McNeil will be there. David Richmond is deceased.
Others being honored include Ernest Green — one of the 1957 Little Rock Nine group of black students who integrated Little Rock Central High in Arkansas.
“All of us were testing the ’54 decision across the South, state by state, consummated with the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” said Jackson, whose conference is in its 39th year.
“What we knew as horizontal segregation is over. Today, it’s vertical segregation,” he said. “We are a free but not equal society, and that’s because of unenforced civil rights laws — unenforced fair lending laws, unenforced fair housing laws, an unenforced Community Reinvestment Act. We need an urban policy.”
The conference takes place at PUSH headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., Saturday and Sunday, and at Hyatt McCormick Place from Monday through Wednesday. The public can visit www.rainbow push.org for more information or registration.
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