"Orange, Julia?"

"Orange, Julia?"
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

I've seen this butterfly before, but this time I made a concerted effort to find out what it was. One useful site as a last resort is WhatsThatBug.com

Best Firefox add-ons

My favourite Firefox 3 add-ons:

1. dragdropupload
No more browsing for files such as attachments - just drag into the form!

2. FoxyTunes
Control your music software (like iTunes) from Firefox. Cool 'Now Playing' Signatures feature too.

3. Web Developer
A must for a Webbie.

4. Back to Top
A Top (or Bottom) of page button for Firefox.

5. ColourfulTabs
Enhance your tabbed browsing with cute colours.

6. AdBlock Plus
Ditch the tired 'You are the 1,000,000,000 visitor' banner ads.

Good luck getting Firefox 3 today!

Firefox made today a 'everyone download Firefox 3 and help us set a new world record in downloads'. So it was no surprise that their website was so overloaded with traffic it crashed. I'm glad I got did my download a couple of days ago!

More on the whaling issue

"Every year the Japanese hunt and kill 1,200 whales and it defends its position at the IWC. With an increasing number of countries, including many in Latin America, Asia and Africa, opposing the unjustified killing of whales, Japan is outnumbered. So, it set out to recruit small countries to join the IWC as supporters in exchange for giving them fisheries facilities.

Over time, these mostly refrigerated storage units, have become white elephants. They sit on the shores underutilised, and not serving the fishing community which lacks the capacity to catch the amount of fish necessary to fill them. They may have served a purpose at the time of their establishment when the governments of these small states pointed to them as indicators of investment in their small and less well-off fishing communities. Today, it is clear the fishing communities would have done better if investment had been made in improving their capacity to fish with bigger boats and more modern technology by giving grants or very low interest loans.

Many of the countries that Japan recruited to bolster its position in the IWC cannot afford to join other international organisations that are of importance to them or send delegations to meetings. Yet, they have somehow managed both to meet the cost of membership of the IWC and to send vociferous delegations to its meetings."

Read more...

Help Fix Facebook

Remember the old days of the Net when Dominica wasn't listed in many drop-down country lists? I had to send many irate emails to webmasters.

In using Facebook for our Dominica page, about the only City/Town allowed is Roseau. This of course is simply Not Good Enough. For example, I'm trying to add event info for the Cochrane (Pesky) Wabbit Festival. But no, it's not being held in Cockrane, Alabama.

So I urge everyone to go to http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=region_request to request Facebook add our major towns and villages!

So far, I've added:

Cochrane
Scott's Head
Soufriere

A define 'No' to commercial whaling

A couple of days I blogged that Dominica will be abstaining at the forthcoming IWC vote - a major shift in position after years of supporting Japan. A quote from Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, is even more emphatic:

“In common with most of our Caribbean neighbors, Dominica remains strongly in favor of the sustainable use of marine resources,” said Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica. “Our stringent environmental practices and philosophies have earned us the label, ‘The Nature Island’ and, upon careful review and deliberation of the issue, it has been determined that voting for an overturn of the existing worldwide ban on commercial whaling would be inconsistent with the standards and principles of sustainability that we so fervently advocate.”


----------------
Listening to: XTC - Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her
via FoxyTunes

Deadly fat

I was shocked to read just how deadly hydrogenated vegetable oil (also known as trans-fat) is. No more for me!

Dominica says a definite 'maybe not!' to whaling!

Great news: our Prime Minister today announced that Dominica will abstain at the annual IWC vote on the resumption of commercial whaling.

This follows 10 years of siding with the Japanese on the issue. Many people have questioned the official Government position that Dominica has for so long taken on whaling; our whale watching industry has a huge potential with one of the best success rates in the region, and it's also been hard to square the whaling stance with our desire to be seen as a leading eco-tourism destination.

It'd be nicer to have a more definite 'no' on the issue but for now abstaining is a huge step in the right direction.

castle bruce beach

castle bruce beach
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

And they say we don't have any beaches...!

Sensible Units!

Here's a relatively useful but fun site: http://www.sensibleunits.com/

It takes a quantity with a scientific unit and turns it into several quantities with sensible units, like elephants, buses and Great Walls of China.

Scam alert: Forum on Human & Community Development

I received another scam/spam for a dubious conference:

International NGOs’ Forum on Human and Community Development Financing.
August 4-9, 2008: Seattle, Washington, United States.
August 11-16, 2008: Birmingham, United Kingdom.

How do I know? Tracing the send of the e-mail, it was sent from Togo, West Africa! It appears to be sent from the fully legit cantercorporation.com