world – Page 16

You say you want a revolution. Well, you know, we all want to change the world.

February 24, 2016 — leslie dean brown

As I sit and write this, Forbes magazine talks about who they think the next trillionaire is going to be. I should probably stop visiting the Forbes website. But you know what they say. Know your enemy…

BUT it’s not just them. There are all kind of predictions going on. The Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse reckons there will be 11 trillionaires within the next two decades¹.

They have the nerve to say it’s not a ‘prediction’, they make one, and then call it their best estimate. Nice.

Two generations ahead, future extrapolation of current wealth growth rates yields almost a billion millionaires, equivalent to 20% of the total adult population. If this scenario unfolds, then billionaires will be commonplace, and there is likely to be a few trillionaires too – eleven according to our best estimate. [source]

So. What do I think about that annual report? Firstly, as far as annual reports go, I think it has a beautiful design. I used to look at the numbers first, now I look at the design.

Getting back on track, the trouble with traditional economics is that “shit happens”. If shit didn’t happen, dinosaurs would still be roaming this Earth. Even they weren’t so bold as to make predictions.

You know the thing about predictions? Predictions are unpredictable.

I think it’s more than a little naïve to think that [Read more…]

Letter to GoDaddy regarding hosting trophy hunting websites.

February 19, 2016 — leslie dean brown

Hi there,

I’ll get straight to it: I have started a petition against GoDaddy and other ISPs. Why?

Well, you’re hosting half a dozen trophy hunting websites and millions of people around the world don’t like that. Actually, it’s really the lions, tigers, leopards, hippos, giraffes, elephants and other endangered animals that are mainly the ones that don’t like it, but they can’t start petitions, write letters, or speak for themselves, can they? So I’m doing it for them!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/203/757/597/demand-that-internet-service-providers-boycott-all-trophy-hunting-websites/

So far some 16,745 supporters have signed this one petition and it is growing by the minute. I’m sure you don’t want to lose any potential customers. Does *anyone* living in the year 2016 with a conscience want to make it any easier for poachers? I certainly hope not!

It’s not the first time GoDaddy has been in the news with respect to hunting; former GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons previously admitted to hunting elephants and showed zero remorse afterwards!

So it would be really nice to get some positive news from you about GoDaddy’s real intentions on their hosting of unethical content… that way, I can update my signatories and the world can be a much better, nicer place to live in.

Talk to you soon,
Sincerely
Dr. Leslie Dean Brown

The whaling debate

January 26, 2016 — leslie dean brown

I think part of the trouble is that migratory species of animals do not ‘belong’ to any one individual country. Countries will always have differences of opinion; therefore all migratory species should be off-limits to hunters.

Whales don’t technically belong to Iceland, Australia, New Zealand or anyone else. And that’s just one of the reasons that they should be spared… because if Icelandic whalers can claim that the whales are ‘theirs’ to do with as they please, then Tongans too can claim that whales are born in Tongan waters and are therefore more ‘Tongan’ than ‘Icelandic’.

I’ve noticed that Icelanders keep referring to chickens, goats, cows and pigs. But none of those animals really migrate, do they? No. They do not cross vast oceans from one side of the planet to the other. Here’s my second point and it doesn’t have anything to do with factory farming, killing chickens, fish, goats, cows or pigs. Let’s forget Iceland for a moment for this analogy to be a bit more objective…

Can you see how if any country (X) started to hunt Japanese cranes in ‘Japanese’ air space that that would annoy Japan? As you know, migratory cranes are endangered. They are also very special to Japanese people in their culture and believed to bring good luck. They have a tradition of folding 1000 cranes. Now just imagine that country X goes there and kills a lot of them. The poor birds take a long time to die and suffer immensely at the time of death. Now imagine that ALL the other countries were totally against country X hunting cranes but they still kept doing it. And now just imagine that country X says to Japan: “no, but it’s okay, we’re hunting them sustainably, we only catch 333 per year.” [Read more…]

Petition to ban the publication of unethical lethal whale research

January 26, 2016 — leslie dean brown

I have started a petition to ban the publication of unethical lethal whale research.

I have attached a transcript of my letters to SpringerLink regarding this issue in chronological order because it makes for more interesting reading. It’s interesting to see Springer’s official stance change completely when they are called out.
Maybe this will make interesting reading for someone… in about 300 years time when people realise that some animals are more important than humans:

From: Dr. Leslie Dean Brown [mailto:info@lesliedeanbrown.com]
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2016 9:56 AM
To: Onlineservice, SCSC
Subject: TN606818 “I speak for whales” [petition: banning lethal whale research] FS

Hello,

I’ll get straight to the point.
As I’m sure you’re aware, people all around the world are getting more and more annoyed with the Japanese that continue to kill whales and do unnecessary scientific research on them. Many people thought the research was all lies. The really scary part is that it is actually true. Yes, they are in fact researching whales… :-(

I am writing to you because some of these papers have been published in the Journal “Polar Biology” with the latest appearing in 2014:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00300-013-1424-3

I have started a petition to ban lethal whale research:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/656/717/561/ban-japanese-%22research%22-that-is-lethal-to-whales/

I hope you take notice of this petition and reject all publications by the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO), the International Whaling Commission (IWC) or any other organisations that are involved in the slaughter of whales and the whale meat industry.

Did you know that the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research openly sells whale meat in exchange for financial support from the public? [Read more…]

The ultimate rant from an environmentalist.

January 4, 2016 — leslie dean brown

So I was signing a whole bunch of petitions on care2 just now and came across this text written by a man named John Smith, which was left as a comment!

I don’t believe in any form of god, but I think this man is at his wit’s end already and I know exactly how he feels. I thought I’d save it for the sake of posterity, and to hopefully encourage some of you [Read more…]