Wednesday, October 29, 2014



 
 

The Skeleton Dance, Disney Studios 1929


The Séance, I Love Lucy





Sunday, October 26, 2014

SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: My Collage of Life


 
 

MY COLLAGE OF LIFE

is dying.
It's weak, frail, and sighing,
For your love sweet people to give;
Maybe, just maybe,
My collage of life will live.

Will you splash it with your kindness?
Caress it with your tenderness.
If your dreams remain true, alive,
Maybe, just maybe,
Your collage of life will survive.

Can we find peace and harmony?
Is there hope?
Is there compassion?
Do we search aimlessly?
The collage of life will see.

You may say I'm a beggar,
But it really doesn't matter.
Extend your hand and
You will have expanded,
Our collage of life together.
 
 **petra michelle: 1991**
 

 Mercy Mercy Me, Marvin Gaye


 

SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: I Wanted A Perfect Ending





I wanted a perfect ending.

Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme,

and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, nor end.

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment

and making the most of it, without knowing what's to happen next.
 
 
**petra michelle: 2012**
 
  

Perfect, Alanis Morissette

Monday, October 20, 2014

WWF: World has lost more than half its wildlife in 40 years

 
London (CNN) -- The world's animal population has halved in 40 years as humans put unsustainable demands on Earth, a new report warns.

The South China tiger is considered "functionally extinct,"
as it has not been sighted in the wild for more than
25 years.

The World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Planet Index, released Tuesday, revealed the dramatic decline in animal species, and said the trend could cost the world billions in economic losses.
Humans need one and a half Earths to sustain their current demands, it said.



 

 
The index, which draws on research around WWF's database of 3,000 animal species, is released every two years. This year's has the starkest warning yet of the risks associated with the decline of wildlife.
 
The population of Yangtze finless porpoises is declining rapidly. The freshwater dolphins are suffering due to pollution and hunting.
 
 
The fund notes that it's relying on a never-before-used methodology in this year's report, "which aims to be more representative of global biodiversity."
 
The index showed shows a 52% decline in wildlife between 1970 and 2010, far more than earlier estimates of 30%. It is due to people killing too many animals for food and destroying their habitats.
 
"We are eating into our natural capital, making it more difficult to sustain the needs of future generations," the report said.
 
Researchers from the Zoological Society of London looked at changes in populations of more than 3,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, tracking over 10,000 different populations.
 
The decline in animals living in rivers, lakes and wetlands is the worst -- 76% of freshwater wildlife disappeared in just 40 years. Marine species and animals living on land suffered 39% decline in their populations.
 
Animals living in tropics are the worst hit by what WWF calls "the biggest recorded threats to our planet's wildlife" as 63% of wildlife living in tropics has vanished. Central and South America shows the most dramatic regional decline, with a fall of 83%.
 
And while the animals are suffering now, the long-term impact will be on people, the report said.
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, said "protecting nature is not a luxury....it is quite the opposite. For many of the world's poorest people, it is a lifeline."
 
According to Lambertini, the threat to oceans could create economic losses of up to $428 billion by 2050. The global fishing sector employs more than 660 million people, and fish provide more than 15% of protein in people's diet.
 
Global food security is under threat as the demands of growing population drain the resources. Forests provide water, fuel and food for more than billion people, including 350 million of the world's poorest people.

                                                                          ~~~~~

FELLOW HUMANS:  This is dire!  A recommendation:

FOR ONE DAY (per week, per month?), each individual, each company can STOP! 

STOP POLLUTING, POACHING, PRODUCING, CONSUMING (PPPC) if we care.  If we don't...

 WWF Species Directory
Common name Scientific name Conservation status
Amur LeopardPanthera pardus orientalisCritically Endangered
Black RhinoDiceros bicornisCritically Endangered
Cross River GorillaGorilla gorilla diehliCritically Endangered
Hawksbill TurtleEretmochelys imbricataCritically Endangered
Javan RhinoRhinoceros sondaicusCritically Endangered
Leatherback TurtleDermochelys coriaceaCritically Endangered
Mountain GorillaGorilla beringei beringeiCritically Endangered
SaolaPseudoryx nghetinhensisCritically Endangered
South China TigerPanthera tigris amoyensisCritically Endangered
Sumatran Elephant Elephas maximus sumatranusCritically Endangered
Sumatran OrangutanPongo abeliiCritically Endangered
Sumatran RhinoDicerorhinus sumatrensisCritically Endangered
Sumatran TigerPanthera tigris sumatraeCritically Endangered
VaquitaPhocoena sinusCritically Endangered
Western Lowland GorillaGorilla gorilla gorillaCritically Endangered
Yangtze Finless PorpoiseNeophocaena asiaeorientalis ssp. asiaeorientalisCritically Endangered
African Wild DogLycaon pictusEndangered
Amur TigerPanthera tigris altaicaEndangered
Asian ElephantElephas maximus indicusEndangered
Bengal TigerPanthera tigris tigrisEndangered
Black Spider MonkeyAteles paniscusEndangered
Black-footed FerretMustela nigripesEndangered
Blue WhaleBalaenoptera musculusEndangered
Bluefin TunaThunnus sppEndangered
BonoboPan paniscusEndangered
Bornean OrangutanPongo pygmaeusEndangered
Borneo Pygmy ElephantElephas maximus borneensisEndangered
ChimpanzeePan troglodytesEndangered
Eastern Lowland GorillaGorilla beringei graueriEndangered
Fin WhaleBalaenoptera physalusEndangered
Galápagos PenguinSpheniscus mendiculusEndangered
Ganges River DolphinPlatanista gangetica gangeticaEndangered
Giant PandaAiluropoda melanoleucaEndangered
Green TurtleChelonia mydasEndangered
Hector's DolphinCephalorhynchus hectoriEndangered
Humphead WrasseCheilinus undulatusEndangered
Indian ElephantElephas maximus indicusEndangered
Indochinese TigerPanthera tigris corbettiEndangered
Indus River DolphinPlatanista minorEndangered
Loggerhead TurtleCaretta carettaEndangered
Malayan TigerPanthera tigris jacksoniEndangered
North Atlantic Right WhaleEubalaena glacialisEndangered
OrangutanPongo abelii, Pongo pygmaeusEndangered
Sea LionsZalophus wollebaekiEndangered
Sei WhaleBalaenoptera borealisEndangered
Snow LeopardPanthera unciaEndangered
Sri Lankan ElephantElephas maximus maximusEndangered
Tiger
Endangered
WhaleBalaenoptera, Balaena, Eschrichtius, and EubalaenEndangered
African ElephantLoxodonta africanaVulnerable
 
 
Bigeye TunaThunnus obesus                               Vulnerable
DugongDugong dugon                               Vulnerable
Forest Elephant
                                Vulnerable
Giant Tortoise
                                Vulnerable
Great White SharkCarcharodon carcharias                                Vulnerable
Greater One-Horned RhinoRhinoceros unicornis                                 Vulnerable
Irrawaddy DolphinOrcaella brevirostris                                 Vulnerable
Marine IguanaAmblyrhynchus cristatus                                 Vulnerable
Olive Ridley TurtleLepidochelys olivacea                                  Vulnerable
Polar BearUrsus maritimus                                   Vulnerable
Red PandaAilurus fulgens                                  Vulnerable
Savanna ElephantLoxodonta africana Africana                                  Vulnerable
Southern rockhopper penguinEudyptes chrysocome                                  Vulnerable
Whale SharkRhincodon typus                                  Vulnerable
Albacore TunaThunnus alalunga                                   Near Threatened
BelugaDelphinapterus leucas                                   Near Threatened
Greater Sage-GrouseCentrocercus urophasianus                                   Near Threatened
JaguarPanthera onca                                   Near Threatened
Monarch ButterflyDanaus plexippus                                   Near Threatened
Mountain PloverCharadrius montanus                                   Near Threatened
NarwhalMonodon monoceros                                   Near Threatened
Plains BisonBison bison bison                                   Near Threatened
White RhinoCeratotherium simum                                   Near Threatened
Yellowfin TunaThunnus albacares                                   Near Threatened

...and HUMANS!

Monday, October 13, 2014


 
Our spirits are such they can never be contained,
wherever, whenever they travel...
 
 
Bursting forth with love, art, music, verse, beauty; harmonious with others and nature...
beginning with a dream, embraced by our souls, brought to fertilize...
 
 
So that life will not perish. 
 
**written by petra michelle**

 

Wildflowers, Tom Petty


Sunday, October 5, 2014

SUNDAY IS FOR POETRY: We Say Thank You to the Earth


 
 
by Joanne Shenandoah/Lawrence Laughing
(this poem is Lawrence Laughing's usage of English, verbatim)
 
In respect to our home the earth, we say thank you to the earth.
For everything that she gives to us; nourishing us every day.
We give thanks to all the water in the world; everything within that water.
We give thanks to all the grass that lives on the land. We give thanks to all the berries,

the fruits, the medicines.

We give thanks to the animals that keep the forests clean.
We give thanks to all the trees for their different uses that they give to us,
For shelters, for fires that we make in the winter time keeping us warm.
 
We give thanks to the birds who sing their beautiful songs.
We give thanks to the four winds.
We give thanks to the grandfathers; The ones that bring the rain.
We give thanks to our oldest brother, the sun, Who shines his light everyday.

We give thanks to our oldest grandmother, the moon,
For she is the one that has been charged with the duty
 To make sure that light has a continuance.
She is the one that watches over all the movements
Of the water and also the water within us.
We give thanks to the stars, her helper.
 
 And we give a special thanksgiving to the four sacred beings that watch over the human family.
Sometimes we notice them when we are traveling in dangerous places.
They are the ones that come to our minds.
And say go around, don't go any further.
To protect us and steer us away from danger.

 So that's what we do.
We start right from the earth and we climb the ladder right to the special place beyond the heavens.
Where there's a special spirit that lives there.
The spirit that made it possible for us to be here.
And everything that we have mentioned.
 
And so with the collectiveness of our minds and hearts,
We send a special thanksgiving and greeting to the great spirit of us all.
 

Prayer for Peace, Lawrence Laughing




Mother Earth, Joanne Shenandoah