The cutest (and best) letter-opener ever!

Forget about scissors, knifes, actual letter-openers and other gadgets. Get a cute, little bunny like this one to get all your mail opened in no time at all:

Florida no longer the "Sunshine" State

Time Magazine's Michael Grunwald recently wrote an excellent article on all the problems that South Florida's currently facing, including the housing and economic crises. Of the environmental crisis, he speaks at length.

Here, an excerpt of Grunwald's Is Florida the Sunset State?:

Florida now has 18 million residents, most of them south of Orlando. Such progress had a price. Half the Everglades is gone. The rest is polluted, disconnected and infested by invasive species ranging from fast-growing ferns to pythons.(Personal note- read about Florida's python problem here)

And South Florida is having an ecological and hydrological meltdown, the legacy of a century of plumbing and dredging and growing without much thinking. The Everglades ecosystem now hosts 69 threatened or endangered species, and its rookeries and fisheries have crashed. Massive algal blooms are turning Florida Bay into pea soup. The region's reefs have lost up to 95% of their elkhorn coral; persistent red tides have made it tough for sunbathers to breathe at the beach.

Now the rainiest swath of the country is running dry, facing a specter of structural droughts. And the dike around Lake O. is leaking so badly that water managers routinely dump billions of precious gallons out of the lake to avoid a 1928-style calamity, ravaging estuaries and draining the region's water supply. This spring the lake fell so low that 40,000 acres of its exposed bottom burned out of control, along with 40,000 acres of the perennially parched Everglades National Park...

Read the entire article here.

Picture of the day: Sleepy bengal tiger cub

One of two white Bengal tiger cubs at the Saskatoon Zoo in Saskatoon yawns following his feeding. The tigers' mother Rani didn't have milk, so the cubs, just over one month old, are currently cared for by zoo keepers.
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe)
Source: Yahoo.com

Happy Birthday, Tai Shan!

Tai Shan, one of the country's most beloved giant pandas, is celebrating his third birthday today!

Lil' Butterstick (as he is also known) was born at the Smithsonian National Zoo on July 9, 2005, to proud parents Mei Xiang and Tian Tian.

His birthday celebration is great news to conservationists and panda fans alike since pandas are a highly endangered species. To make matters wose, they have a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity.

The fact that Tai Shan's is turning three and is in excellent health is a conservation success story- he is only the third giant panda to be born in the United States and survive. He is also the first surviving panda born at the Smithsonian National Zoo in its 119-year history.

As a special birthday present, Tai Shan got not one, but three popsicles filled with frozen bamboo leaves and orange slices. He also got to enjoy a huge water-and-gelatin fruitcicle in the shape of a number three!




It's not too late to send Tai Shan a Happy Birthday card! You can do so by a adopting a panda or making a donation.

Fla. biologist saves 375 lb. bear from drowning

A Florida biologist saved a 375 lb. black bear from drowning after it fell into the Gulf of Mexico's waters Tuesday.

The bear had been shot with a tranquilizer dart by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists who wanted to safely remove him from a residential area.

The intent was to take him to nearby woods, but as the medicine started to take effect, the bear fell into the water unconscious.

That's when FWC biologist Adam Warwicks took off his shirt and shoes and bravely dove in the water to rescue the bear.

Watch the video.