More on Wolf Killer and ID Forest Service Employee Josh Bransford: Another Modern Monster

Posted on April 3, 2012 by admin

Reblog from multiple sources:

 

 

Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies

by James William Gibson – March 28, 2012

 

 

Montana Anti-Trapping Group Gets Death Threat for Releasing Photos
On March 16, a Friday, a US Forest Service employee from Grangeville, Idaho, laid out his wolf traps. The following Monday, using the name “Pinching,” he posted his story and pictures on www.Trapperman.com . “I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS [Forest Service] cop that I know. You got one up here as there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” wrote Pinching. The big, black male wolf stood in the trap, some 300-350 yards from the road, wounded—the shots left him surrounded by blood-stained snow. Pinching concluded his first post, “Male that went right at 100 pounds. No rub spots on the hide, and he will make me a good wall hanger.”

(The person in this photograph, Josh Bransford is a federal employee and public servant out of the Red River Ranger District on the Nez Perce National Forest in north-central Idaho. As a taxpayer, you have a right to call the Front Desk and complain about his behavior. Call for his resignation and/or ask that he be suspended without pay for a period of time for his actions 208-842-2245.)

All photographs were taken from Trapperman.com website are being reproduced here under Fair Use“Pinching” with the wolf he trapped that he wrote would make him “a good wall hanger.”
The Trapperman website went wild with comments. “That’s a dandy!! Keep at it,” wrote Watarrat. Otterman asked, “All the gray on that muzzle make a guy wonder how old he is or if it is just part of his black coloring.” Pinching’s picture of the wolf’s paw caught in the trap got special attention. “Is that the MB750 stamped ‘wolf’ on the pan?” asked one man. “Looks to be a perfect pad catch. Congratulations! Pinching confirmed the trap model and commented, “Oh an [sic] by the way, a wolf is a heck of a lot of work to put on a stretcher! Man those things hold on to their hide like no other!”

By late March some 117 Idaho wolves had been killed in traps and snares, and another 251 shot. Montana saw 166 killed, for a total of 534 wolves out of an estimated 1150 in the two states. Although Montana’s season ended in February, Idaho is not quite done. Both states have announced plans for increased hunting in the 2012-2013, and discussions are underway among hunting groups and state officials to allow private donations to establish wolf bounties.

Wolf’s paw in trap.
As recently as the spring of 2011, gray wolves in the Northern Rockies received protection from he Endangered Species Act. But in April, 2011 Congress passed a rider on a federal appropriations bill removing them. Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester, facing a 2012 challenge from Republican Congressman Danny Rehberg, wanted to show Democrats hated wolves just as much as Republicans. Conservation groups filed suit in Montana’s federal district court, claiming the delisting represented an unconstitutional infringement by Congress on the judicial branch while it deliberated an ongoing lawsuit over federal wolf protection.
Losing in district court, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater, WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Cascadia Wildlands appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit. On March 14, the appeals court rejected their arguments, upholding the Congressional wolf delisting as a lawful amendment. This decision might well mark the endpoint for the conservation movement’s decades-long fundamental strategy of litigating in federal courts to promote wolf recovery in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

A hunter and his dead prey.
Thus wolves, demonized by the far-right in the Rockies as disease-ridden monsters and icons of the federal government (see my Summer 2011 Journal story, “Cry Wolf”), now face a brutal campaign to radically reduce their numbers so far that extermination can not be ruled out. Idaho’s Governor Butch Otter declared in a March 25 news conference that his state faced a “disaster emergency” from wolves. “We don’t want them here.”
Skirmishing on the web escalates. Footloose Montana, an anti-trapping group, posted the trapped wolf’s pictures on its website, drawing over a 1,000 comments within days. Word spread. Nabeki, founder of Howling for Justice, opined that “This wolf will be the face of the cruelty and ugliness that is the Idaho hunt…Our forests are hiding acts of unspeakable horrors that are being perpetuated on innocent animals.” Protesters called Idaho and Montana tourist bureaus, demanding the hunts end. By Monday, March 26, Trapperman learned that its photos now circulated offsite. The group’s administrator demanded that Footloose Montana remove the photographs.
Footloose staff and board members also received an anonymous death threat in their email: “I would like to donate [sic] a gun to your childs [sic] head to make sure you can watch it die slowly so I can have my picture taken with it’s [sic] bleeding dying screaming for mercy body. YOU WILL BE THE TARGET NEXT BITCHES!”
FBI agents and Missoula, Montana police received copies of the threat.
Wolf advocates hope that these pictures will go viral, shaming a nation into facing the torture people inflict on animals and the moral and political failures that promote and legitimize it.
—————————————————————————————————
*** FURTHER ACTION / UPDATE – 03/04/2012 ***
ID Forest Service employee and trapper, Josh Bransford, had nothing better to do than to pose in front of a wolf caught in one of his leghold trap – the wolf had already been shot a couple of times while he was helplessly caught in Bransford’s trap! This brutal and callous behavior, particularly when displayed by an agency employee, whose salary we pay, is unacceptable. For more information, scroll down to read John Adams’ article in the Great Falls Tribune. Thank you for your help! Your friends at Footloose Montana
Please voice your opinion about this tragedy and call or send an e-mail today!
Here is some contact information. Please be respectful:
Nez Perce National Forest: Forest Supervisor Rick Brazell (208) 983-7000 / rbrazell@fs.fed.us
Deputy Forest Supervisor Ralph Rau (208) 983-7017 / rerau@fs.fed.us
Fire Management: Bob Lippincott (208) 983-4066 / blippincott@fs.fed.us
Public Affairs: Laura Smith (208) 983-5143 / lasmith@fs.fed.us
Idaho Fish and Game: Director Virgil Moore: virgil.moore@idfg.idaho.gov
Idaho Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore: (208) 334-3771.
Please sign this petition, which will be sent to:
USDA Office of Ethics Forestry Ethics Branch(Lorraine (Rainee) Luciano, Branch Chief Agency: U.S. Forest Service) and UDSA Forest Service Chief(Tom Tidwell)

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-torture-of-wolves-in-our-forests

Photos of live, trapped wolf prompt threats to Missoula-based group
A photo downloaded from an online trapping forum shows an Idaho trapper posing in front of a wolf that was caught in a foot-hold trap and then allegedly shot at by bystanders. Missoula-based anti-trapping group members say they received death threats after posting the photo on their Facebook page. PHOTO COURTESY EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL.
HELENA — A Missoula-based anti-trapping organization said it received a threatening email this month after the group posted graphic photos on the Internet of a live Idaho wolf caught in a foot-hold trap.
Anja Heister, executive director of Footloose Montana, on March 22 posted a series of photos gleaned from an online trapping forum called Trapperman.com on her personal and Footloose Montana Facebook sites.
Heister said she opened Footloose Montana’s email inbox on Monday and found what she believed to be a death threat directed at family members of the organization:
“I would like to donate (sic) a gun to your childs (sic) head to make sure you can watch it die slowly so I can have my picture taken with it’s (sic) bleeding dying screaming for mercy body. YOU WILL BE THE TARGET NEXT BITCHES!” the message read.
Heister said the email was in response to the group posting photos of a northern Idaho trapper’s March 18 wolf kill, which was detailed on the online trapping forum.
The photos show trapper Josh Bransford, a fire management officer for the Nez Perce National Forest, kneeling and smiling for the camera as a wolf he caught in a foot-hold trap stands behind him in a ring of blood-soaked snow. Another photo shows a close-up of the wolf’s paw caught in the trap. A third photo shows the trapper posing with his catch.
Heister said Footloose Montana, which is actively campaigning to ban trapping in Montana, has received plenty of hostile emails and phone calls since 2007 but never anything that rose to this level.
“It has a cumulative effect on your psyche,” Heister said. “I’m not easily scared, but when I read this I got really concerned.”
Heister said she reported the threatening email to local and federal law enforcement officials. Missoula Police Sgt. Travis Welch confirmed the department received the report of the malicious email and that it was assigned to an investigator, but he declined to comment further.
In an online blog on Earth Island Journal’s website, writer James William Gibson recounted what Bransford — who goes by the handle “Pinching” — wrote about the photos. Bransford’s post has since been removed.
“I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS (Forest Service) cop that I know. You got one up here,” the post said, and then continued, “there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” the post read, according to Gibson.
According to Bransford the wolf was a 100-pound male with “no rub spots” making an “good wall hanger.”
Bransford did not return calls or emails seeking comment Thursday.
As of late Thursday the photos posted on Footloose Montana’s Facebook page had received nearly 900 comments. Online commenters on both the Earth Island Journal and the Footloose Montana Facebook page expressed outrage over the photos. Many viewers were angry Bransford posed for a portrait with the wounded wolf before killing it.
Dave Linkhart, spokesman for the National Trappers Association, said there’s nothing wrong with a trapper posing with his catch before killing the animal.
“You pose with a successful catch just like you do with a successful hunt,” Linkhart said. “People make the problem of attributing human feelings and emotions to these animals.”
Linkhart claimed trapped animals don’t suffer, so taking the time to shoot a photograph does not cross ethical boundaries.
“If you look at the trap — across the pad of the foot like that — if you were to release the animal it would walk away like nothing happened,” Linkhart said.

 

Editor: Here’s what my former professor had to say about this (and Linkhart’s ridiculous comment above):
Marc Bekoff is a former professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder and fellow of the Animal Behavior Society who has studied the social behavior of wolves and coyotes, among other animals.
“That wolf was suffering immeasurably. Not only physically by having his foot locked in a trap, but also being shot at,” said Bekoff, the author of several books on animal psychology and emotion. “This was not hunting. This was having an animal having its foot smashed in trap and then shooting at it with bullets. This wolf was tortured.”
Linkhart said if the wolf was shot at, that isn’t the trapper’s fault.
“Somebody else came up there and shot that animal first. That is illegal. What the trapper has done here is not,” Linkhart said. “The problem was not the trap. It was the illegal activity of the hunters who shot at that wolf.”
Reach Tribune Capital Bureau Chief John S. Adams at 442-9493, or jadams@greatfallstribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @TribLowdown.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120330/NEWS01/203300316/Photos-live-trapped-wolf-prompt-threats-Missoula-based-grou

Editor: I have spoken with Bransford’s USFS Supervisor Ralph Rau.  The concern I expressed has not to do with the legality of trapping the animal but with Bransford’s failure to adhere to ethical trapping practices when he arrived at the trap site.  These call for the immediate and “humane” dispatch of the trapped animal.  I fail to see how posing for a photo opportunity complies with these guidelines.  I’d like Linkhart to explain how it does?  Further, contrary to what Linkhart says, hunters pose with their kills post-mortem.  Why couldn’t bransford have made the least attempt to minimize the massive suffering of this animal?  It is on these grounds that I am requesting that he lose his hunting and trapping privileges and also be subject to prosecution for cruelty to animals.  If you share my views, please contact those people listed above and express your concerns about the actions of a federal employee and how he is treating animals.

 

Posted in Activism, Blog Power, Humanity, Modern Monsters, Personal, Political, trappers, wolf killers, Wolves | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Dear @CarnoJoe — A Parting Shot for Joe Carnahan

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Oliver

Dear Joe Carnahan,

In all the interactions we had over twitter during the previous few weeks you finally said something I agree with. You’re right. I’ve been using you and your platform to accomplish several goals…

You see, in addition to being an outspoken activist on behalf of wolves and other living creatures I’m also a social media professional and I’ve been preparing for a presentation at Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

As part of this presentation I decided to document how one outspoken individual, with a relatively small platform and a few clever tweets could easily leverage a public personality to accomplish a larger goal.

Thanks to you this was incredibly easy to accomplish and I have to say my documented study is one I consider a success.

Not only was I able to bring considerable attention to my cause (to initiate a successful boycott of your reprehensible film) I was also able to leverage your platform to make your friends, followers and the media aware of what a small minded, dishonest and easily manipulated person you happen to be.

In fact, having only expended a very few minutes of my time over several weeks, I was able to unmask you as a liar, a hypocrite, a bully and an egomaniac and all for the people that are most interested in what you have to say, to see.

Through your own words and your attacks on me (a person you’ve never met and whom you know virtually nothing about) you made it clear exactly what kind of a person you are.

Even better you proved for anyone that has a twitter account and who was interested in our conversation, that you don’t even have the courage of your own convictions as you frequently said profane, dishonest or ridiculous things and then quickly deleted them having realized exactly how bad you had made yourself appear.

But don’t fear…having failed to grasp one of the principal rules of engagement — know your enemy – you made it absurdly easy for me. Every time you made an ad-hominem attack on me instead of addressing the points I was making or the questions I had asked, I simply captured your remarks and have presented them in the actual order they occurred. Didn’t anyone bother to tell you that on the Internet, everything you say is forever?

Frankly I had really hoped for a more intelligent dialog but then it isn’t really all that surprising to me that instead of taking a higher road or accepting that perhaps you did some stupid things making your repulsive film – and let’s face it, using actual animal carcasses was incredibly stupid — you stood your ground like a petulant child denying he’d done something wrong even while the photos of you with your hand in the proverbial cookie-jar were circulating around the Web at light speed.

Even more laughable is your ridiculous contention that consuming wolf was in some way an exercise in “method acting”. Even for a non-actor, non-director, non-Hollywood anything like me it is painfully obvious that this is a ludicrous claim.

Nothing about “procuring carcasses” and having a “fancy chef” prepare a wolf-meat stew (which was how the man who killed the wolves you chose to eat, Dick McDiarmid, described what you did) in any way resembles the process of method acting outlined by Stanislavsky. But to be sure I asked a friend whose own father worked with Stanislavsky himself. Her response “he’d roll over in his grave to hear his methods compared to what that guy did.”

But did you just come out and say, “you’re right, we blew it. We got carried away and did some terrible things. And then take aggressive action to make reparations? No. You dug your heels in and tried to convince the world that what you’d done wasn’t awful.

Then, realizing this wasn’t working you went on the offensive – in one instance claiming your film had done “more for wolves than anything I’d ever done” and that your movie “had suddenly made wolves part of the national discussion.”

Do you have any idea how ridiculous these things sound? How arrogant? How totally out of touch with reality?

Wolves have been part of the fabric of this country since before the white man invaded it and took it for himself. Native Americans have revered the wolf for countless generations, and then the white man so feared and reviled the wolf that it is an animal that to this day lives in infamy across much of the country.

To hear someone like you claim that you had a significant role in helping the wolf by once again making it look like the bloodthirsty villain of mythology is so ridiculous it would be funny, if it weren’t for the case that you actually seem to believe what you are saying!

Of course, I’m not the only person that feels this way. PETA, The Humane Society, Defenders of Wildlife, WolfGuardians and countless other organizations large and small have taken a stand against your film and your own reprehensible actions. All this in addition to the tens of thousands of people that actively pledged to boycott your film, a number of whom even went so far as to actively protest it in front of theaters where it was showing.

I’m sure this community collectively rolled its eyes when you challenged my record on helping wolves by stating you’d written 10 emails! Were we supposed to be impressed after learning what you did to wolves in the interest of your b-grade motion picture?

When I suggested that if you wanted to do something that truly benefitted wolves you’d donate what you made from The Grey to wolf-related causes and post your tax return to prove it, you immediately responded with insults and more ridiculous claims.

Given how you’ve responded to me, (and let’s face it you’ve embarrassed yourself at nearly every turn) my effort to call you out and make a case study of you and your behavior has been an unqualified success. After what appeared to be an auspicious opening your film dropped off marquis like a stone as people saw you and what your movie was at face value. Last week alone over 400 theaters moved on to other movies and this after just three weeks!

Of course insulting animal rights activists and journalists who were critical of what you’d done didn’t help your case any either. Although it has certainly made for interesting reading and a case study I’m sure my audience will find engaging.

In short, thanks. Thanks for being a complete buffoon. You made my job easy. With just a few tweets you’ve managed to destroy your own credibility, expose yourself for your what you really are, insult a huge community of people that are now sure to monitor your every move and expose every bad action you take AND you’ve let me use your very own platform against you. Bravo!

I’d like to commend you for being a worthy opponent, but the truth is I think my Malamute, let alone any wolf, would have eaten you for lunch just as easily as I have.

Posted in Activism, Blog Power, humor, Personal, Wolves | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Modern Monsters Part 1

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Oliver

Many people have a fascination with monsters.  There’s a reason why there are so many TV shows in which they feature so prominently.  From the search for Bigfoot to the quest for the Loch Ness Monster in countless YouTube videos and across many websites dedicated to cryptozoology it’s a quest that engages millions.  But lately I’ve realized that there are real monsters and they’re living among us.  And today I’m going to prove it to you.

What really scares me about these creatures, and what should scare you too is how easily they avoid detection. They look a lot like we do.  So much so that unless you catch them doing one of their hideous deeds you’d never even know the terror, pain, suffering and carnage they revel in causing.  One friend of mine even described them as monsters in lipstick…

Michelle Leqve is my first example.

Modern Monster in disquise

Michelle Leqve - modern monster

She doesn’t look all that awful here does she?  All rosy cheeked and decked out in her winter gear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that’s not the full picture.  This is:

Polar bears are one of the world’s most endangered animals. Yet this callous creature seems to have thought nothing of chasing this animal with dogs over a period of days until frightened, alone, and without the energy to continue running it turned to face its tormentor. She promptly used her high powered compound bow to fire again and again until it fell dead.

When I read about this crime against nature I literally felt sick.  What evil creature would deprive such a magnificent, intelligent animal of its right to simply exist? What sort of soulless evil would drive a creature to use dogs and machines to pursue and murder something so rare and beautiful?  Or to deprive the world of one of the most threatened of all carnivores?

The bear she slaughtered — and make no mistake about it this is slaughter plain and simple — now stands stuffed:  her “most prized trophy”.

Today Michelle Leqve works for Delta airlines. No doubt she capitalizes on her employment by the airline to travel the world so she can pursue her true passion — hunting and killing animals with one of the cruelest and most unnecessary weapons of modern time – the compound crossbow.

I wonder how she feels when she pours passengers of the airline little cups of Coca Cola from cans that proudly feature Polar Bears as part of the corporate giant’s “Arctic Home” campaign. Scratch that. A monster like Michelle that would slaughter an endangered animal clearly has no respect for anything.

My hope is that by exposing her for what she really is — a barbaric individual that glorifies in killing and cruelty — that we can unmask the monster, expose her for what she really is and perhaps make her pay the price for the savage acts she engages in for pleasure.

Together we can help stop monsters like Michelle.  Help me send a message to Delta Airlines that she has hurt the reputation of her employer and likely made the company unwittingly complicit in her killing by helping her reach the destinations where she carries our her murderous actions.

If you feel like I do, that monsters like this need to be unmasked and exposed, please sign the petition and help spread the word.  Our wildlife and especially animals that are already seriously threatened due to climate change deserve our compassion and protection, not to be hounded, slaughtered and put up on display for the enjoyment of a truly sick modern monster.

 

 

Posted in Man Made Disasters, Modern Monsters, Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

A few amazing comments from others that are Boycotting “The Grey”

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin
This ugly bastard had wolves slaughtered for his latest film

This ugly bastard had wolves slaughtered for his latest film

 

Below are just a few of the comments people have taken the time to post after signing the petition to boycott director Joe Carnahan and Liam Neeson’s movie “The Grey”. While I don’t either of those uneducated and callous individuals will take the time to read what many of Liam’s former fans have to say, hopefully their PR agents and Open Road Films the movie’s distributors will. If enough people stand up and make it clear that having threatened animals killed for the sake of entertainment, let alone for a bastardized (and grossly inaccurate) effort to be “method actors” perhaps other movie studios and directors will make better decisions in the future. In any case, I’ll let the comments of these people speak for themselves:

This ugly bastard had wolves slaughtered for his latest film

This ugly bastard had wolves slaughtered for his latest film

We signed “Boycott “The Grey” For Its Harmful Depictions of Wolves!

# 9,952
23:00, Feb 05, Mrs. Daniela Iancu, OR
Wolves are an important part of our natural ecosystem. They stand no chance against guns and helicopters. And the cattle industry is doing all they can to make sure that as many wolves are dead as possible to protect their livestock. To kill or injure an animal purely for entertainment’s sake is disgusting. I will not watch this movie–I always have trouble watching animals used in movies, but knowing they were really hurt and killed is just too much for me. This movie should have never been made. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

# 9,944
21:43, Feb 05, Ms. Katelyn Schiller, NJ
I will not support a movie that depicts the grey wolf as a bloodthirsty monster and that allows its actors/team to dine on wolf meat during its production. This is utterly disgusting and something should be done about it.

# 9,943
21:29, Feb 05, Mrs. Anna Turner, CO
I had already announced that I would not be seeing this movie, because I’m tired of big bad wolf stories. It’s outrageous. Reading this just confirmed my position. I can’t believe they would go so far as to actually eat wolf meat and used real dead wolves as “props.” Color me disgusted. If you care about wolves, don’t pay to watch this garbage.

# 9,940
21:14, Feb 05, Dr. Cynthia Nielsen, NV
Dear Mr. Carnahan, Mr. Neeson, and all other cast and crew members of this despicable movie, I cannot believe you produced this piece of crap that will only perpetuate the age-old INCORRECT TOTALLY FALSE stereotype of wolves. I am a veterinarian and owner of wolves and wolfdogs, and I hope you get your karma not only for the movie itself but for eating wolf meat???? What is WRONG with you? And all at a time when wolves are being delisted and hunting is now legal. Do you live under a rock? Do you have an agenda against wolves? It sure seems you do! I pray that your so-called movie is a complete flop. I have sent every one of my friends and clients a notice and request to boycott your horrid film.

# 9,937
21:05, Feb 05, Name not displayed, WA
As a wildlife and conservation photographer, having filmed and photographed these magnificent mammals over the years, having helped reintroduce them to extinct habitat, knowing their nature and necessary role in wild habitat, THIS IS A HORRID FABLE MOVIE OF YESTERYEAR, in the line of Aesop and Red Riding Hood,.. Liam, I am GREATLY disappointed in your character taking this role, Joe Carnahan, could you not reach higher in this progressive time of understanding

# 9,935
20:51, Feb 05, Andrea Drummond, VA
Why don’t all the so-called “aware” people in Hollywood GET things sometimes? They have a chance to influence a lot of people, so why does it have to be for the WRONG reasons!?

# 9,932
20:43, Feb 05, Mr. Dave RavenHawk, PA
Wolves in the wild are NO danger to any human. Where is the supposed evidence? There is none, unless one would choose to believe the “poor” cattle ranchers who graze their cattle essentially for free on [stolen from the indigenous tribes] “allegedly” BLM land. What has been done to my native brothers and sisters is also being done to my brothers and sisters of the wolf clan, and it is past time to remedy both of these deadly wrongs.

# 9,931
20:42, Feb 05, Name not displayed, CO
Movies portraying wolves in this light unravel all of the hard work put in by ecologists to disprove the highly inaccurate stories depicted. The fact that decades worth of work have been ignored for the making of a movie is unacceptable and has set back the work of hundreds of individuals and increased the ignorance of the general populace.

# 9,921
20:16, Feb 05, Adrienne Seltz, NM
I like good fiction as much as anyone but this false portrayal of the wolf, an animal that is still steeped in controversy, is irresponsible and alarming. It sadly shows how little respect is still afforded those creatures who share this earth with us. And eating real wolf meat? Well, Liam, you just lost me as a fan.

# 9,920
20:12, Feb 05, Mrs. Sandra Newcomb, CO
I ususally love Liam Neeson movies, but seeing the previews of this one just made we sick. There is no excuse for putting this type of movie in theaters. Wolves have had to struggle so hard to get put back on the map again and this just pushes them back off again.

# 9,919
20:10, Feb 05, Name not displayed, CO
This film will undo decades of careful public education by those who truly know wolf nature. Should have thought twice, Liam. Disgusted.

# 9,909
19:40, Feb 05, Mr. John Van Eden, CO
The film is a shocking disgrace.

# 9,907
19:35, Feb 05, Ms. Linda Green, CO
Apalling…using dead wolves and dining on wolve meat. This movie is not acceptable. I will certainly Boycott this movie.

# 9,905
19:31, Feb 05, Christy Grandjean, NM
I can’t believe this movie was even made in this day and age. Every person involved in this film should be ashamed. How is it that there is STILL this much ignorance about wolves in this world? I will -never- watch this movie, ever.

# 9,903
19:25, Feb 05, Ms. Joanne Mazzeo, CT
Sad to think that facts can be so twisted for artistic license. It’s well documented that wolves do not hunt humans. In fact, they shy away from humans. This movie’s depiction of wolves is so far from the truth and will not only harm the reputation of the wolf, it will cause more disturbing repercussions. This film should come with a large disclaimer that it is pure fiction. Even better, don’t go to see it!

# 9,895
19:01, Feb 05, Mrs. Jeri McGinnis, CO
I am deeply disappointed in my favorite actor, Liam Neeson, to have made this movie. After some of the movies he’s made, I assumed he was a compassionate person. The idea of him and his fellow actors reating real frozen wolf meat is beyond depicable. I hope this movie is a big flop and that the actors get educated about the plight of God’s creatures, the wolves, on this planet. Jeri McGinnis

# 9,892
18:54, Feb 05, Ms. Reverend Jane Eagle, CA
Everything about this movie and its making is revolting and insulting. Liam Neeson used to be one of my favorite actors :-( SHAME on all.

# 9,867
17:53, Feb 05, Name not displayed, MA
This sickens and saddens me. Is it necessary to portray this animal as a horrible beast? At least make it clear to the viewer that it isn’t how real wolves behave. Unconscionable!!

# 9,866
17:53, Feb 05, Ms. Michele Brown, CO
This is not fair! While we fight to try to save the grey wolf, the motion picture industry fights to wipe them off the face of the earth..Joe Carnahan,Liam Neeson and Cast, SHAME ON YOU! Does the almighty dollar mean so much to you?

# 9,865
17:50, Feb 05, Name not displayed, SC
So is Liam Neeson in the pay of knee-jerk “kill all the wolves and let God sort it out” ranchers? Or is he just ignorant? In this era of species extinctions and threats to wildlife, this kind of movie is reprehensible and will do immense damage to conservation efforts. It fosters negative stereotypes of wolves, and ignorant responses to their place in their Eco-systems. They were there before Liam and his crew: let’s hope they’re there afterwards. Not only will I boycott this movie, but I may just boycott anything Liam makes from here on out.

# 9,863
17:46, Feb 05, Johanna Glenn, ID
Man has no right to hunt or kill this beautiful animal, they have a right to live as much as we do. I have a 80% wolf hybred that would of been killed if i hadn’t taken him in. He is a loving and loyal companion LAKODA, his name means ( BRAVE, STRONG PROUD, FRIEND, AND THAT HE IS!!) They are no threat to humans and they need to be left alone, they belong on this planet every much as humans do, we all live under the same sky, breath the same air, why do humans have to be so cruel?

Posted in Activism, Blog Power, Wolves | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why I’m Boycotting “The Grey” and Why You Should Too…

Posted on January 27, 2012 by admin

The upcoming release of Liam Neeson’s new film “The Grey” has many wolf conservationists, animal rights groups and thousands of concerned citizens like myself quite concerned about this movie and what it might do to wolf recovery efforts and the fate of wolves like OR-7 – the first wild wolf to re-enter California in over 90 years.

Why?
The movie grossly mischaracterizes wolves as blood thirsty, territorial hunters of humans and the plot makes it look as if the humans are being hunted and pursued by killer wolves as they desperately fight for their survival.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Millions of wolves have been murdered by humans in the past while it is questionable if even a single human has been killed by a healthy wild wolf in North America in the time that records of such events have been kept.

Nevertheless, people, particularly those in many western states have an irrational fear of wolves and this paranoia is likely to be exacerbated by the release of The Grey. In fact it isn’t hard to imagine that an anti-wolf zealot, incited by the film will take it upon himself to hunt and perhaps kill OR-7 or other wolves that are only just beginning to reestablish themselves in their former range.

Further, the federal delisting process — which most wolf experts believe is taking place prematurely — is likely to be accelerated by the kind of propaganda created by this movie. It is also possible that this film will increase anti-wolf sentiment across the country and this may result in an increased demand for permits to hunt the few wolves that have begun to re-colonize the lower 48 as well as those that thrive in Alaska.

Beyond this, it has come to the attention of the media that in an effort to “get the cast into the proper survival mindset” director Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe on twitter) procured a wolf carcass ( which he had his cast consume in preparation for the film – an apparent attempt at method acting.

Many organizations have expressed their outrage at the movie itself and the actions of its cast and crew and I join them in denouncing this grotesque distortion of one of natures most intelligent and important apex predators, as well as for their decision to consume such an inappropriate meal for no legitimate reason.

PETA has already written about this issue, so has Ecorazzi.com and numerous other sites that are universally appalled by this film and the actions of its director and cast. I hope you’ll help spread the word and support me and others like me in an effort to show Hollywood that they have a greater responsibility to the people, our planet and all living things.

I hope that everyone that reads this will help me and others like me to promote a boycott of this movie. Already over 5500 concerned citizens have expressed their opinion on this issue by signing the petition I helped start at Care2.com.
Please express your distaste for this movie and the actions of its cast and crew and encourage anyone that cares about animals, truth and the environment to vote with their dollars and spend them on other less damaging forms of entertainment.

To keep updated on this issue, please follow me on Twitter: @owstarr. You can also let the film’s director know how you feel about his movie and meal choices by contacting him through twitter: @carnojoe, via Liam Neeson’s hashtag : #LiamNeeson or directly to the film’s PR: @TheGreyMovie

Thanks for reading this and taking action to help preserve and protect the wolf.
Boycott “The Grey” For Its Harmful Depictions of Wolves!

www.thepetitionsite.com
Boycott “The Grey” For Its Harmful Depictions of Wolves! signatures: deadline: ongoing signature goal: 10,000 Target: Open Road Films Sponsored by: Bryan F. Director Joe Carnahan’s new movie “The G…

Posted in Blog Power, Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

I Love Craigslist but not this part…

Posted on August 23, 2010 by admin

Looking for a new place to live sucks. We’ve all dealt with this so I don’t need to say anything more. Looking for a new place with a significant other adds another dimension of pain er… complexity to the process.

Luckily Craigslist is there with its world-beating number of listings all of which are free to be browsed and in my case, shared via email with my girlfriend.

By necessity this means using the email this listing to a friend feature as this is one of the fastest ways to do this (short of cutting and pasting urls into an email which I guess I could do but that would defeat the point of this post).

The problem is the location of the buttons on this page and the way they want to direct you once you’ve completed the process.

Here’s what I mean. The “email this listing to a friend” button (link) is at the upper right-hand corner of the window. The fields to enter the to and from email information is on the middle left. Do this long mouse move enough times and it gets annoying – why can’t the email this to a friend link be closer to where you enter the required data (or vice versa?)

Further, once you have sent the email the only link that Craigslist presents you with is one to go back to the listing. The problem is that in order to go back to your list of results you then would have to go back in your browser, through the entire email a friend process in reverse in order to return to your original list.

Just think how many additional clicks this is costing users if many of them want to see results again after sharing a listing with someone.

By the way, I wanted to share this feedback directly with the CL feedback forums but if you’ve ever tried to navigate them it simply takes too much time for someone that’s busy at least it was for me.

Any other ideas like this out there? What bugs you most with sites (or products) you use all the time?

Posted in Uncategorized, Web Apps | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Smart New Uses for Old Technology: SSID to Broadcast a Message

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Oliver

SSID_Messaging
If you want to know what’s going to happen next with a technology perhaps the smartest way to predict the future is to ask your kids – or someone else’s… It’s amazing what you might learn.

The other night, for example, I was having a meeting with Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher. His son, Matt, also happened to be present. I needed to log into their WiFi to go over a few things and as I did so I noted a number of funny networks in the area – phuckphace, for example.

When I mentioned this Matt told me how he and his friends are using the SSID – and it’s both clever and surprising: they use it to broadcast general messages to their local area. An example: someone’s SSID might be “shutyourdogup” (the intent being obvious). Another might be “partyatmyplacenexthurs”.

Sure, this is non-specific, but if you know who the network belongs to (or you know you’ve got a barking dog issue) this is a quick, dirty and free way to get the word to folks that are local to you.

Have you heard about another clever new way to use a technology you thought was fully exploited? Did you learn about it from someone half your age?

I’m curating a Pearltree on this topic, so please include links with your comments and I’ll add other cool tips to the Pearltree so that you can see what other folks have discovered.

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How You Can Tell When Two People Love Each Other

Posted on June 8, 2010 by admin

Surrender to Love by Alex Gray

Surrender to Love by Alex Gray

Crash!

I turned around, slowly. I had been pouring myself a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. “What broke?” I said.

“Our picture.” she replied with a touch of pain in her voice.

I walked around the counter to survey the damage. “It’s not our picture, just the frame.” I said hoping this would offer some comfort. “The picture is fine.” I added.

“Looks like our picture will get a new frame.” she said.

I couldn’t help but notice her voice still sounded sad. “It’s my fault.” I told her. “It was in a bad place and I put it there.” We had recently moved into a new loft and hadn’t yet had our furniture delivered. With no other available surfaces I had placed the picture on the counter near the microwave – perilously close to the edge.

No sooner had I attempted to accept responsibility for the accident when she said “You had nowhere else to put it.”

And with those seven simple words, she made me feel better too.

Posted in Humanity, Personal | 2 Comments

Cellphones in Timbuktu

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Oliver

well-in-an-oasisIt’s easy to think of people from the underdeveloped world as quite different from ourselves. After all, there’s little to convince us otherwise. National Geographic Specials, video clips on the Nightly News, photos in every major newspaper – all depicting a culture and lifestyle that’s hard for us to imagine let alone relate to. Yes – they seem very different; or perhaps not. Consider this story related to me by a friend.

Ray was a pioneer in software. He sold his company some time ago for a considerable amount of money. After this – during his quasi-retirement he got involved in coordinating medical relief missions to some of the most impoverished places on the planet, places such as Timbuktu in Africa.

The missions were simple – come to a place like Timbuktu and set up medical clinics, provide basic medicines and health care training and generally try and improve the health prospects of native peoples wherever he went.

Upon arriving in Timbuktu, Ray observed that their system of commerce was incredibly simple. Basically they had two items that were in commerce – goats and charcoal.

According to Ray they had no established currency – they traded goats for charcoal, charcoal for goats or labor in exchange for either charcoal or goats. That was basically it.

Ray told me that after setting up the clinic and training people they also installed solar generators for the purpose of providing power for satellite phones that they left in several villages in the region.

They had anticipated that the natives, when faced with an emergency or if they needed additional medicines or supplies would use the satellite phones to communicate these needs however this isn’t what ended up happening…the-road-to-timbuktu

Two years after his initial visit to Timbuktu, Ray went back to check on the clinics that they had set up and to make certain that the people there had the medicines and other supplies that they required.

Upon arriving at the same village he had visited before Ray was surprised to note that in the short period of only two years since his previous visit things had changed dramatically – things that had not changed for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years.

Principally, the change was to the commerce in Timbuktu. No longer where goats and charcoal the principal unit of currency. They had been replaced by a single unified currency – satellite phone minutes!

Instead of using the satellite phones to call Ray’s organization, the natives of Timbuktu had figured out how to use the phones to call out to neighboring villages. This enabled more active commerce between the villages – the natives could now engage in trade miles from home – coordinating trade between villages, calling for labor when needed or exchanging excess charcoal for goats on a broader scale for example.mudshacks-in-timbuktu

Of course their use of these phones wasn’t limited strictly to commerce – just like you and I, they also used these phones to find out what was happening in other places – who was getting married, who was sick or injured or simply to communicate with people from other places that were too far away to conveniently visit.

In other words, a civilization that had previously existed in a way that we would consider highly primitive had leapfrogged thousands of years of technological and cultural development and within the briefest of moments had adapted their lives to a technology that is among the most advanced of any broadly distributed in the modern world.

It’s a powerful reminder that in spite of our belief that primitive cultures are vastly different from us the truth is that basic human needs, when enabled by technology, are very much the same no matter where in the world or how advanced the civilization.

Perhaps we are not so different after all? Timbuktu

Posted in Humanity, mobile, Pearltrees, Third World | 3 Comments

Pearltrees: A Great New Tool for Bloggers and Journalists

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Oliver

PearltreesRecently, I’ve been working with a new tool that I think anyone that uses the web regularly is really going to appreciate: Pearltrees.

The company – which is based in France – has been developing this tool for a few years but in the last few days they have released their latest version and in my opinion it is now ready for prime time.

In a nutshell, Pearltrees allows you to very quickly and easily discover, organize and share the things you find on the web. This tool, which is truly a social web curation and collaboration tool, will enable you to quickly see a whole constellation of content specifically related to a post. More importantly, as additional links (or Pearls) are added to the original Pearltree, the tree in the post is updated in realtime making each Pearltree on a given topic a living reference to that topic. Furthermore, if you sign up for Pearltrees yourself, you can “pick” any specific Pearl or Pearltree you like from anyone else and then add it to your own personal Pearltrees content. Then, when the original creator of any Pearltree you picked adds content to that Pearltree, your own Pearltree is automatically updated with this new content. It’s a great way to drill down on a topic, to find people that share your interests and it’s also one of the fastest and easiest ways you’ll ever find to quickly and conveniently organize and share all the interesting stuff you discover while browsing the web.

For many, the most difficult thing about Pearltrees is understanding what it is and how it works without actually seeing it in action. Luckily, the new release has a feature that not only solves this problem it also makes this tool a new, and possibly indispensable new addition to any blogger’s arsenal.

Rather than try to explain in any more detail than I already have above, I thought that actually showing you a Pearltree that I’ve created would be one of the best ways for you to get familiar with what Pearltrees is and more importantly how it can help you organize content you have found, discover new content related to your interests, and finally share that content in a variety of ways.

Here’s what a Pearltree looks like:

As you can see, this is a Pearltree on Biofuel. When you look at it initially you are seeing a central structure with “Pearls” radiating off from it. Each of these individual Pearls is a URL (link) that the creator of the original tree has already placed within this tree – hopefully because it bears relation to the rest of the content in the tree.

By clicking any of these Pearls you’ll see an overlay appear on the site at which you are viewing the content. This overlay has the same controls as the actual Pearltrees site itself. These controls allow you to browse through the links one-by-one, to comment on the links or to “pick” a single Pearl or even the entire tree. This latter functionality requires that you create your own Pearltrees account (which is free).

When you pick someone else’s Pearltree you can choose where in your own Pearltrees account you’d like to place it. Once you do this a couple of cool things happens. First, the creator of the original Pearltree is notified that someone has picked one of his or her Pearls and secondly, as the original creator modifies that particular Pearltree (and most interestingly adds new Pearls to it), those updates appear simultaneously on the Pearltree you’ve added to your own account. In many respects “Picking a Pearltree” is like subscribing to an RSS feed only it’s visual – and providing that the creator is curating the content in a logical fashion – it is likely to be highly relevant to the primary topic of the tree.

There are a bunch of other really cool features associated with this new release. These include immediate notifications (both within Pearltrees itself and via email and eventually other modalities) as to when someone else picked one of your Pearltrees or commented on something in your account.

Beyond this, the new release features much improved navigation a short but very informative video on how you can get started using Pearltrees yourself and a much improved search algorithm. This last is really cool. When you enter a search term in the search box you’ll immediately see that lots of other Pearls congregate on your screen. The closer a Pearl is to the center of the screen the more closely related it is to your search.

The other way you can search is even more interesting. When you are browsing within your own account and you select an individual Pearltree you’ll see a small black “Pearl” right next to the Pearl you’ve selected. Clicking this will cause Pearltrees to perform a search that relates specifically to the content that you’ve already “Pearled”. This is the “discovery” part of the tool that I think people will find really interesting and useful. That’s because the search results this type of activity yields will give you a look at other people’s Pearltrees that are likely closely related to exactly what you find interesting.

One way to think of Pearltrees is like a very sophisticated, visually driven version of Delicio.us but with a much more socially oriented and collaborative way of discovering content and sharing new stuff you’ve found.

For content creators, embedding a Pearltree in your blog post or article will allow you to provide much more information, better context and a very interesting user experience to your readers while at the same time keeping them on your site.

As an example of how this could be used, think about websites that track celebrities. The owner of the site could create a Pearltree for each celeb they cover on that celebrity’s profile page. Then as things related to that celebrity are posted on the web the site-owner could add those links to that celebrity’s Pearltree. Not only will this provide a lot more information about the person, but people interested in news about that celebrity will be able to get that news all in one place. By maintaining the tree and keeping it current you will give people a reason to come back to your site over and over as new information is added.

There’s even more to Pearltrees than I’ve covered here but the best way to really understand what it does and how you can use it for browsing, blogging, research and more is simply to create your own account and get started using it.

As someone with a focus on social media I think this is a development that pushes social media in a new and exciting direction, one that has tremendous value to just about anyone that spends time browsing the web but especially for people that deal with lots of information and most particularly for people that want to share that information in a new, collaborative and highly effective way.

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