Lions Gone from Kenya within 2 years?!

Over on Nat Geo I read this today.

“Ten years ago there used to be lions everywhere. You’d hear lions at night, find their tracks during the day. That simply is not true anymore,” said Laurence Frank, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and an expert on African predators.
While the size of southern Kenya’s lion population is difficult to measure, Frank says the giant felines no longer roam where they once did and the current rate of killing is unsustainable. “Within two years the lions will essentially be gone,” he said.
Last month alone, nine lions were found speared to death in and around Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, just north of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro…

DISTURBING!
It makes what NZ’s Lionman does all the more important (of course he is working hard to conserve lions that don’t even exist in the wild as it is…).
I don’t have anything against centuries old tribal customs of manhood or whatever - but I do believe that in some circumstances education can be useful to provide new avenues and opportunities for changes to some customs which will actually benefit lions and the people. Through the lions the people’s culture can also better be preserved.
It seems a lot to me liek in our modern western society  - the groups of young men trying to outdo each other in their behaviours (e.g. doign stupid dangerous car stuff).

NB: Pictures in article may disturb lion lovers =(
On a more postive note - stay tuned for some VERY exciting LIONMAN news that Shine is currently looking into!!! On her scale of exciting this rates right up at the top!

More on Earth Race

The day after Ryan spoke at school I went down to “tour” the boat first hand. If you can actually call a visit to a pointed cupboard a ‘tour”! it was drizzling and I had slip on shoes…I am glad I took Sarah coz I sure don’t think I would have been getting on it if she hadn’t leapt down there like a bunny! (thanks Sarah!)
So pleased I went! It was an experience. I was sure I was gonna end up in the drink…

As you can see in the bigger version of this pic, it was QUITE the drop from the green netted platform onto the deck of Earthrace. That and the rain and the fact the boat (or the pier I was standing on which is what it FELT like!) was moving about 1.5 metres to my left, then doing the same to my right…well, let’s just say I made good use of the kind young man standing there.
The actual time on the boat was kinda a blur coz , well there isn’t much to see and plus I was still reliving the fact I had actually got ONTO the boat and was already planning what a nightmare it was gonna be to get off it. I briefly pondered stowing away to avoid the debacle that I assumed getting off was gonna be but considering the claustophobia I was already having combined withthe motion sickness in a calm port… well let’s just say that getting off was probably the lesser of two evils. Apparently there WAS a toilet, near the entrance. Apparently there was a galley (complete with a triangle bottomed custom made fridge). I do remember seeing the beds. Four of them but room for 8. Although why on earth there woudl be 8 is beyond me seeing as there is only standing room for 5 people…
This is a bed (the small long thin thing under the orange light there).Yes. They REALLY are that narrow and thin looking (that is not me in the photo btw).
The deal is four crew will travel on the boat for the race. They will sleep two at a time for two hours. There really isn’t enough room for the four of them to be awake all at once.
Earthrace can carry about 11 tonnes of biofuel. The tanks are horizontal under the main carriage area of the boat. They will stop at (I think) 11 ports along the way for fill ups. They have to travel as close to the line of the equator as they can. There will not be showering on the boat and I imagine that it will be the most hottest stinkiest cabin ever! If it is cold out at sea they will have to shut the boat up which will make it hot inside and stinky and if it is hot they will of course be HOT and stinky. Either way, it’s gonna be hot and stinky!
In this next pic you can see Pete (the Captain) out in the RAIN on the slippery nothing to hold onto bow, doing something. Behind him you can see the only windows - they are the ones that the pilot looks out of and I have to say that when I sat in the Captain’s chair I could not see out of them unless I stood up so I am not sure how THAT all works! I certainly could not for the life of me imagine being at all able to cope out at sea in big waves having any idea where I was or what I was doing.

All in all the boat is like the Anti-Tardis, like the cupboard in Narnia, except it gets narrower and kinda ends in a point and there is nothing behind the coats…

Earthrace

Today I had the opportunity to meet Ryan Heron from the Earth Race Team!
He is the documentary filmaker guy on the team (he’s also an offshore medic - which is an interesting skill to have and a useful one considering he is soon to be spending a LOT of time on a uniquely designed boat with three other chaps way out in the middle of the big blue wobbly thing!)

This is the boat that runs on BIODIESEL *applaudes*. They are currently doing a port to port tour doing talks and such to promote the BIODIESEL cause in the build up to their attempt to beat the round the world record (currently 75 days).
The boat design is pretty darn flashy! It has a wave piercing hull which is part of the overall “be really good at going fast in rough open sea” thing. I would get SO sick. Well, I might get sick if I could actually move around the boat without thinking about being way out at sea miles from land…*shudders* (Shine is unabashedly a land lubber, totally happy to admit she has a strong irrational fear of deep water)

Ryan rocked!! Standing up answering question after question today from a big group of 9 - 11 year olds. He was tireless! Even after half and hour of questions about food and toilets and showers and NOT one about BIODIESEL! LOL! (I soon fixed that by whispering to one of my students a hint on a question I thought would be VERY popular with Ryan, and it was coz it won her a spot prize!).
In a way I guess it is nice that the kids were not at weirded out that this boat runs on VEGETABLE OIL! An indication of the acceptance of ideas outside the square. I was super excited we had the visit and I got to talk to my kids about biodiesel afterwards (Shine loves biodiesel).
Now if someone would just sponsor my car to be biodiesel friendly I would be ALL SET!
Just like Ben Harper - I believe in a Better Way…