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    The Library -- University of California, Berkeley

    IPL2: Information You Can Trust
    Search Results for: "evaluation of internet resources"

    In case you didn't know: Typing the keywords FREE DOCUMENTARY into GOOGLE
    will return a long list of websites hosting free videos on almost any subject under the sun.

    Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask 




    •
    AN EYE ON THE GLOBAL CONDITION

    Below is a sub-section on Monsanto.

    Global Wildlife Decline Driving Slave Labor and Organized Crime
    July 24, 2014 - by Sarah Yang - UC Berkeley Media Relations

    Signed into law June 10, 2014.

    404: The above booklet is no longer available as of January 29, 2017.
    Performing a search for climate change returned a blank sheet blocking the web page initially,
    but now (as of January 31) returns meaningless information on Education and Research.

    Comment
    The nobility and courage of the lion stand in stark contrast to the base urges and stunted emotional development of the arrogant humans who hunt them for sport. Throwbacks. Raising lions and other animals on farms [canned] to be easily killed by trophy hunting narcissists shows how much contempt they have for the animal they kill. How can they brag about killing something so much more worthy than they? Do they hope to steal their spirits and thereby acquire what they don't possess themselves? Do they, these trophy heroes, sneak up on them while they sleep or wait until they're eating, then shoot them in mid-chew? Do they hunt from the safety of a helicopter or truck? They are cowards seeking validation by killing their betters.

    | |

    Rainer Schoor
    Arrogant, Narcissistic, Wealthy Asshole of the Month

      Animals Are Not Trophies To Be Killed For Sport
      [Two top pictures on the right are of William James Palmer,
      killer of Cecil, the Lion of Zimbabwe]

      "An Elephant bull with heavy ivory topping 100 pounds is considered by many as the ultimate African trophy and hunters dream of the day they can relive one of Africa's oldest hunting traditions."

      The above quote is from the webpage of African Elephant Hunting with safaribwana. Trophy hunting, killing endangered animals for sport and competition with other like-minded people--throwbacks to a former age--is glamorized and romanticised in spite of the animals' severely diminished numbers. Ego gratification is not a sufficient reason to kill anything. International organizations exist that can be accessed through the internet where people brag about their kills. And because it costs a significant amount of money for licenses, the club is composed of folks who don't need to kill for food, people who are out of touch with their connection to the Earth and its animals and so must validate themselves by killing creatures who are no threat to them. They travel vast distances, hire professional hunters to take them on safari or go to farms where animals are bred and kept in order to assure the client kills something, an adventure in the wild. A search on Google for trophy hunting sites will return thousands offering hunting packages to those who can afford it.

      For twenty years I worked as a hard-core commercial fisherman on Alaska waters, so I'm not sqeamish about killing for food. But, I, personally, cannot even begin to imagine killing an elephant for fun or sport, or a giraffe, buffalo, leopard, or any of the rare and beautiful animals on the list of offerings. They hunt leopards with dogs, wear them down, corner them, and then shoot them, a trapped and frightened wildcat. After which, they brag about it, what he-men they are. Mind-numbing assholes absorbed in their own reality, incapable of realizing what they're actually doing. Their real motives may not even break through to consciousness, but when asked, they rationalize with double speak that they're helping to conserve whatever species they kill. Those not above the politically-correct need to justify their actions; they may not believe it themselves or be aware of the larger picture that supposedly substantiates it, the argument backed by science, the pseudo-science of managing nature, but they read it in the brochure and that's good enough for them.

      [Conservation? -- In Okavango Delta: Ostrich numbers declined by 95 percent, while 90 percent of wildebeest were also wiped out, along with 84 percent of antelope tsessebe, 81 percent of warthogs and kudus, and nearly two-thirds of giraffes.]

      It's pitiful and painful to me, and all I can do about the slaughter of these innocents is to try to help bring awareness to their desperate plight. They're being driven to extinction for the thrill of it all, and the only difference between poaching and trophy hunting is the legality of it, paying the government, the end is the same. Frankly, I have more respect for poachers, at least they're straightforward about their motivation.

      How can anyone watch a giraffe or an elephant or a lion peacefully walking along on a wide plain or savanna, observe the sinewy grace of their movements and observe the gentle care they show their offspring, and take pleasure in killing them for no better reason than ego gratification?

    • "Blood Lions" | VIDEO
      "Learn the truth about South Africa's captive lion hunting industry in the provocative, eye-opening documentary, "Blood Lions," featuring Born Free Foundation president, Will Travers"

    • Trophy Hunting | In Defense of Animals

      → Managing Nature
      We live in a world where people still hunt animals for sport as trophies to brag about, not only in Africa and Asia, but here in the states too. For example, cougar hunting is legal in Washington, and in most other states people are allowed to hunt certain animals that don't end up on the dinner table, like wolves in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Wolves are hunted to the brink of extinction and the rationale is to say it's to protect livestock and dogs, but in actuality it's to protect the bottomline of hunting lodges and the associated economy.

      It's stupid and myopic, as are most endeavors where humans try to manage wildlife. In the case of the killing of wolves, without a sufficient number of predators, the populations of game--deer, moose, elk--increase disproportionately, their food sources become scarce, with the end result being population collapse through starvation. Moreover, with no fear of predation, they linger by streams, browse eating the vegetation that keeps the banks in place. When the rains come, mud flows into the streams covering stones where fish lay their eggs. A high percentage of egg loss means a high percentage of fish NOT returning to their stream, which means a loss of food source for animals that eat fish and a loss of nutrients for the environment in general. And so forth, with the result being that the web decoheres, falls apart, connections become tenuous and finally dissolve, the ecosystem passes a critical minimum sustainablity, fragments, grows unstable and eventually declines towards total collapse for both flora and fauna.

    Ecosystems take hard hit from loss of top predators | July 14, 2011 - UC Berkeley News Center
    A paper reviewing the impact of the loss of large predators and herbivores high in the food chain confirms
    that their decline has had cascading effects in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems
    throughout the world.

    Click on image for larger version.

      U.S. Government Animal Research

    | |

      Dogfighting is a felony in every US state, but Montana is the ONLY one where spectating is still legal–placing it dead last in a ranking of state dogfighting laws.

      "On Friday [October 24, 2014], the ASPCA joined forces with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina (USASC) to rescue a dozen dogs from a dog fighting operation in Columbia, South Carolina.

      "The investigation—which began as a drug trafficking case—took a tragic turn when fighting dogs were discovered on the Gaston, SC property. Upon arriving at the scene, ASPCA responders found several adult dogs and puppies chained and anchored to car axles. Severely emaciated and dehydrated, the dogs had nothing but trash barrels to protect them from the elements. Many exhibited scars and injuries associated with dog fighting.

      "Responders also found dog fighting paraphernalia on the property, along with the remains of deceased dogs. "
      --- ASPCA

    S.1463: Captive Primate Safety Act | GovTrack.us
    H.R.2856: Captive Primate Safety Act | GovTrack.us

        Did you know?

          The U.S. is the world’s largest importer of African lion trophies and parts: one of the many reasons why fewer than 40,000 lions remain in the wild.

          A tiger in the U.S. can be purchased online or in person for as little as $300 in the pet trade.

          There are more tigers kept as “pets” in the U.S. than there are in the wild.

          At the beginning of 2014, only 5,000 black rhinos were left in the wild. More than 1,000 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone in 2013.

          A small handful of states still allow bears to be killed solely for their gallbladders to create traditional Asian medicines and toiletries. On the black market, bear gallbladder and bile can fetch prices higher by weight than gold or cocaine.

          At least 73 million sharks—many of whom are members of an endangered species—are killed worldwide to supply a demand for shark fin soup.

          Over 40% of the 234 primate species are now threatened with extinction.

          An estimated 13 million reptiles are kept as pets in the U.S. Most were captured in the wild or are the offspring of wild-caught parents.

    • Nine baboons retired from research lab in New York arrive in South Texas | VIDEO

    • Wild Animal Sanctuary | Reader's Digest
      Some 25,000 wild animals live in captivity outside U.S. zoos, many horribly abused.

    • "Food, Inc." | 94 minutes - IMDb
      Part 1: For most Americans, the ideal meal is fast, cheap, and tasty. Food, Inc. examines the costs of putting value and convenience over nutrition and environmental impact.

      Director Robert Kenner explores the subject from all angles, talking to authors, advocates, farmers, and CEOs, like co-producer Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), Gary Hirschberg (Stonyfield Farms), and Barbara Kowalcyk, who’s been lobbying for more rigorous standards since E. coli claimed the life of her two-year-old son.

      Part 2: The filmmaker takes his camera into slaughterhouses and factory farms where chickens grow too fast to walk properly, cows eat feed pumped with toxic chemicals, and illegal immigrants risk life and limb to bring these products to market at an affordable cost. If eco-docs tends to preach to the converted, Kenner presents his findings in such an engaging fashion that Food, Inc. may well reach the very viewers who could benefit from it the most: harried workers who don’t have the time or income to read every book and eat non-genetically modified produce every day.

    • "Food, Inc." (2009) | YouTube - 58 minutes

    • "Food, Inc." | Amazon

      The free full online version is difficult to find--I looked hard, believe me--so this might be your best bet. It's inexpensive and worthwhile and safe. However, if you're a DIRECTV customer, you can find it at: "Food, Inc.".

    • Sustainable Table | Film Review - Food, Inc

    • "Food, Inc." | Wikipedia

    Two Major Victories for Animals in the Farm Bill | January 28, 2014 - ASPCA
    Senate Passes Farm Bill; Makes Attending an Animal Fight a Federal Crime | February 4, 2014
    Adrian T. Dorn;
    copyright: ©
    February, 2001