PSA Announcemet from the 80's

This may seem an unlikely post for Potspoon!, but it is not without reason. There are a lot of different factors that made me pursue sciences as a career (or, as the case is currently, hobby) and one of them was this fantastical commercial. The song has been stuck in my head for years. Really. Realize that I was about five years old when I remember seeing this video the first time. It was so cool! Unfortunately the person who uploaded the video doesn't want people to embed it, so please go watch it here!

Are there any silly commercials that made an impact on your life?

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Debate!: Animals in Captivity

In the wake of yesterdays bombardment of the news of an orca attack on a trainer at SeaWorld, Orlando, the conversation came up many times about the purpose of keeping these large mammals in captivity. While animals have been held in captivity for thousands of years for the simple sake of enjoyment, showcase, and pride of ownership, many a conversation has been had about the reasoning behind this. This sort of thing is perfect for the now rare and occasional Debate! series.

Too many times, the presence of non-native wildlife in an area, no matter how contained the plants or animals may be, the organisms end up becoming invasives and manage a way into the wildlife in the surrounding areas. This destroys the biodiversity in many areas and since this is the Year of Biodiversity, an appropriate debate as well. That is what happened, if you recall, with the Vervet monkeys in St. Kitts. There is also a very serious problem with invasive lionfish in the Caribbean. There is even a bounty out for these guys. The lionfish ended up in these waters as wayward pets. People buy exotic animals and instead of properly disposing of, selling, whatever, they release these animals into the wild. Now the lionfish is destroying reef systems simply by not having any natural predators. We'll get into that later, though.

On a larger scale, however, killer whales (Orcinus orca) and other dolphins are not your average pets. Many of these animals start out as rescue animals or are bred in captivity. The rescue animals, such as those found at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, are rehabilitated for release. Many of the seriously injured ones, like Winter, would never make it being re-released in the wild so they are used for educational purposes. Many of these amazing mammals, however, actually are captured for use in entertainment shows, suffer various pathologies, and have a decreased life expectancy.

So, dear readers, on what side of the argument do you weigh in on here? People do die of pig related accidents all the time, and this was a bit of a freak incident, but should animals of this nature be held captive? There are a lot of angles one can take here, so happy debating!

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Hypnotic Results

A recent paper published in Pediatric Asthma, Allergy, & Immunology has found a great way to help children with respiratory ailments: hypnosis.The findings show how well it worked in children and the idea for treatment was brought on by the observation that symptoms all but disappear while children are asleep. The study was mostly done by Ran D. Anbar, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University. In the end, many think that by adding hypnosis to the treatments offered, one can save money in the long run by not purchasing expensive medications and testing.

Hypnotherapy has been touted in the past for various things; most notably in aiding with smoking cessation. It has also been used to help with anxiety disorders, stress, and more.

You can read the press release here.

Would you use/ have you used hypnotherapy?

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Kids Planet

To add to the list of appropriate science sites for children (I should just do a compilation, but another day perhaps), I found out about a Defenders of Wildlife site created for children and teachers. It's called Kids Planet and is full of facts on endangered species, games, a teaching curriculum, coloring pages and more.

The site is pretty easy and seems like a great tool to introduce your kiddies to wildlife. There is even a page that explains ways even children can make a difference in the protection of our planet's animals.

Happy surfing!

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Tiger Tales

In Eastern zodiac, 2010 is the year of the tiger (not to be confused with UN's Year of Biodiversity). To celebrate this, the WWF has set up a few educational things to teach people about this greatly endangered animal. Since I wrote my first post about tigers, the number of tigers in the wild has gone down by almost half. Pretty scary.

On the WWF tiger site, you will find lots of information about the animal itself, what problems this creature faces, different sub-species, why they are important, and more. They even created a "trouble-spots" map with information on why everyone is involved with the destruction of these creatures. Go check it out to find out the many ways you can help.



Image from Tambako the Jaguar's Flickr photostream and is licensed under creative commons.

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Birds of a Feather?

Circling the news sites is an article about Sinosauropteryx prima, a little dinosaur that has feathers. It was once thought that it was covered in bristles, but upon further inspection it was determined that these "bristles" are, in fact, feathers and orange ones at that. They also noticed that the pigment came in bands along the tail.

This carnivorous dino is the first one to have its exact feather colors determined. Now, while this may seem strange to many of you, dinosaurs have long been linked to prehistoric birds and the like. In fact, modern day birds are thought to have evolved from theropods, the group of dinosaurs our orange little buddy (only about four feet in length) belonged to back in the day. These findings aid in the debate of the evolution of feathers as well. This shows that feathers did not evolve out of necessity of flight, but were perhaps used for something else like displays or insulation.

You can read more about this awesome dinosaur here.

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