Ecosystems

by Kaija Wilkinson - gulflive.com - November 27, 2011

Institute Director Moby Solangi watches a sickly dolphin make circles in its pool at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. (The Mississippi Press/Kaija Wilkinson)

GULFPORT, Mississippi -- A sickly, stranded dolphin that was found in Alabama and transported to Gulfport to convalesce and be studied could provide clues to a spike in dolphin deaths that has occurred over the past year.

The 2-year-old male is the first to be found alive since the BP oil spill last spring, according to Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, where the dolphin is being held.

The spike coincided with the spill, but to date no definitive link has been made between the spill and the deaths, which in south Mississippi and Alabama are three to four times what they are in a normal year.

The below Guardian article provides a map and lists of where Occupy Everywhere protests are emerging.  They are primarily, but not exclusively in the U.S. and Europe, in countries where the economy is in significant decline and inequities are significant.  In most of these places, the youth fear that their future will be worse than their parents, due to the greed of a global elite insensitive to the destruction they have caused economically and environmentally.

The list includes 951 cities in 82 countries.

To see the story and full list, go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupy-protests-world-list-map

Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.

It can be argued that libraries have their origins in the swarm behavior of individuals and groups acquiring and sharing cultural artifacts (e.g, pictographs, books) as the fundamental repositories of knowledge within a community and the broader society.  Librarians have played a key role in the founding and differentiation of  America at its origins.  Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, for example, played key roles in deepening and broadening the tradition of knowledge sharing within the early United States.