Clipmarks | Borneo Clips

Religious freedom: Christians forbidden to pray to Allah

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:31:23 GMT

clipped by: hayesstw
clipper's remarks: The Malaysian government is trying to stop Christians from praying to Allah, and insists that the name should be reserved for exclusive use by Muslims. Yet Christians have been praying to Allah since before Islam existed.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

A Malaysian church has sued the government for banning the import of Christian books containing the word "Allah," alleging it was unconstitutional and against freedom of religion, a lawyer said Thursday.

The Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo is also challenging the government for declaring that the word "Allah" — which means God in the Malay language — can only be used exclusively by Muslims, said the church's lawyer Lim Heng Seng.

Dusing said Christians in Sabah on Borneo island have used the word "Allah" for generations when they worship in the Malay language, and the word appears in their Malay Bible.

"The Christian usage of Allah predates Islam. Allah is the name of God in the old Arabic Bible as well as in the modern Arabic Bible," he said, adding Allah was widely used by Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Indonesia and other parts of the world without problem.

Tags: religions freedom, god, allah, name of god, islam, christianity, interfaith relations

BBC: Camera spots rare clouded leopard

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:17:14 GMT

clipped by: Robbert

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Camera spots rare clouded leopard

Automatic cameras have captured images of a clouded leopard in Borneo's Sebangua National Park, an area where the cats have not been recorded before.

"The Bornean clouded leopard is a top priority for our programme," said Professor David Macdonald, director of Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, which is part of the Sebangau Felid Project.

Based on estimates of density and population range, the team says the clouded leopards number no more than 10,000 sexually mature adults.

The cat was first classified as a separate species in 2007 after genetic testing highlighted at least 40 differences from clouded leopards found on mainland Asia.

Borneo rhino

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:52:15 GMT

clipped by: dustingransden
clipper's remarks: one of just 13!?

Clip Source: animal.discovery.com

Rare Rhino Captured on Film

June 15, 2006 — The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has used a camera "trap" to capture the first-ever images of the critically endangered wild rhino in the Borneo jungles.

The rhino is believed to be one of a population of just 13 whose existence was confirmed last year in a remote part of Malaysia's Sabah state, according to WWF. Very few other rhinos are believed to survive elsewhere in Borneo.

"The rhinos in Sabah spend their lives in dense jungle where they are rarely seen, which accounts for the lack of any previous photographs of them in the wild," WWF said in a statement.

“ These are very shy animals that are almost never seen alive in the wild. ”

Organic Natural Body Jewelry

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:11:14 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: www.organicjewelry.com

As we stock handmade, unique, and small-run jewelry, our supply is always shifting, and we update these pages frequently to keep the catalog current.

hardwood and bamboo plugs, black bamboo,
bamboo with burnt designs, amber, ambroid, and jade dice,
amber, obsidian, jade and other stone labrets

both inexpensive and more pricey
stone jewelry, including: saddles, cylinders, hollow eyelets, one-flares, talons, tapers, rods, crescents, septum shapes, etc.

horn and bone jewelry

super tiny or wicked spirals, hollow with Borneo flares, Marquesas design, or Berber dots, bamboo rhizome hoops, and horn or bone pinchers

quills and bones (such as tusks, ribs, baculum, talons, tapers, etc.)

ethnic jewelry including:
Indian earplugs (fixed or internally threaded),
omega's and other old and new Thai hilltribe jewelry,
an inlaid Aztec calendar stash box

ethnic jewelry: old Naga tribe men's shell and bead ear coverings,
old Khmer (Cambodian) gilded bronze earrings or glass plugs

Tags: jewelry

Komodo National Park

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:40:43 GMT

clipped by: benatural007
clipper's remarks: Article Source: http://decksworld.blogspot.com

Clip Source: decksworld.blogspot.com

Komodo National Park

Komodo National Park lies in the Wallacea Region of Indonesia, identified by WWF and Conservation International as a global conservation priority area. The Park is located between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores at the border of the Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) and Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTP) provinces. It includes three major islands, Komodo, Rinca and Padar, and numerous smaller islands together totaling 603 km2 of land. The total size of Komodo National Park is presently 1,817 km2. Proposed extensions of 25 km2 of land (Banta Island) and 479 km2 of marine waters would bring the total surface area up to 2,321 km2.

Tags: orangutan, kalimantan, borneo, mahakam river, orangutan tour, indonesia travel, komodo

start the count down on olympics 2008

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:19:30 GMT

clipped by: narain_47

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Countdown to the Beijing Olympics

By Christopher Lyles

Last Updated: 1:04am BST 02/06/2008

67 days to go . . .

67: The number of countries that were represented at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, two less than had participated in Helsinki four years previously.

Olympic Tales

Among those nations making their Olympic debut in 1956 were teams from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Kenya, Liberia, Taiwan, Uganda, Malaya and North Borneo (the latter two countries now combined as Malaysia).

The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland did not compete because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary while Egypt and Lebanon declined to attend because of the French and British intervention in the Suez Canal dispute.

Tags: olympics 2008, beijing

Endangered Species : Asian Golden Cat

Sat, 24 May 2008 17:01:12 GMT

clipped by: lisaann2007

Clip Source: www.earthsendangered.com

Asian Golden Cat

Scientific Name:

Catopuma temminckii

Other Names and/or Listed subspecies:

Temminck's Golden Cat, Asiatic Golden Cat, Felis temmincki, Profelis temminckii

Group: Mammals

Date Listed as Endangered:

June 14, 1976

Area(s) Where Listed As Endangered:

China, Indonesia (Sumatra), Nepal, Southeast Asia

Also called the Temmnick's golden cat, the Asian golden cat is found in Nepal and northeast India through southeast Asia, southern China, Sumatra and Borneo. Adults can grow as large as a domestic dog weighing up to 35 lbs and reaching about four feet in body length. Its fur varies in color from golden to dark brown, gray, or a bright golden red, with some spots that may or may not appear. Its underparts are lighter in color and spotted.

New DNA evidence overturns population migration theory

Fri, 23 May 2008 21:16:39 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: in Island Southeast Asia

Clip Source: www.ox.ac.uk

An international research team has discovered new DNA evidence to overturn conventional theories that suggest that the present-day populations of Island Southeast Asia (covering the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo) came from Taiwan 4,000 years ago.

The researchers show that population dispersals came earlier, from within the region, and probably resulted from flooding.

The conventional theory, or the ‘out of Taiwan’ model, suggests that the current day populations of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) originate in a Neolithic expansion from Taiwan, driven by rice agriculturalists about 4,000 years ago. This theory was contested 10 years ago by Oxford University scientist, Dr Stephen Oppenheimer, in his book Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia, when he suggested the migrations came from within ISEA and resulted from flooding in the region.

Malaysian Borneo is part of Island Southeast Asia

Tags: dna, population, asia

Bornean Big Cat

Tue, 20 May 2008 04:31:14 GMT

clipped by: DeviousZero
clipper's remarks: I want one...Okay, I wouldn't want to be eaten by one though...

Clip Source: www.greenexpander.com

Bornean big cat

A new species of cat is identified for the first time in almost 200 years. Genetic and skin tests on the creature, now dubbed the Bornean clouded leopard, or Neofelis diardi, have shown that it is almost as different from clouded leopards found on the Asian mainland. This clouded leopard which feasts on monkeys, deer and pigs has been discovered living deep in the Borneo rain forest. With a body that measures just over a foot, the clouded leopard is the smallest of the ‘big cats’. But compared to the size of the rest of its body, it has the biggest teeth of any cat, being called a modern-day sabre-tooth tiger.

Tags: cat, big, omg, can, i, has, one, ?

lungless frog

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:00:49 GMT

clipped by: mona

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

World's only lungless frog leaves scientists gasping

An unassuming little frog from Borneo has been found to have an exceedingly rare anatomical feature – introducing Barbourula kalimantanensis, the only known frog with no lungs.

The Bornean flat-headed frog gets all of its oxygen through its skin. Local gold-mining operations, however, are fast polluting the streams where the frog lives.

Lunglessness is extremely rare in amphibians because, although the animals breathe through their skin, the method delivers only a fraction of the oxygen provided by lungs. It is only practical for cold-blooded animals, which use far less energy than mammals.

he clear, cold, fast-flowing streams they live in made this change possible.

But deforestation and illegal gold mining is making the streams warm and sluggish – hostile habitat for the Bornean flat-headed frog.

Buy a tree and watch it grow on Google Earth

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:00:01 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08

Clip Source: www.ecogeek.org

Buy A Tree and Watch it Grow Thanks to Google Earth

You can't say there's anything wrong with paying someone to plant a tree in some spoiled corner of the Earth. But it's not exactly the most rewarding thing. That tree, the buyer assumes, is out there...but it's quickly forgotten and impossible to actually imagine. But the World Wildlife Fund is hoping to chance that, with a little help from Google Earth.

Your $5.50 donation will buy a tree, lifelong care and feeding, scientific study of the forest that it becomes a part of, and the exact coordinates of where that tree is on our big beautiful Earth. Linking that data with Google Earth shows the precise location (on the island of Borneo) of the tree, as well as all of its hundreds of neighbors.

Your baby tree will be planted in the next few days. Once that is done, we will mail you the exact location and you will be able to see your tree on Google Earth.

Tags: tree, green, ecology, google earth

Gotta keep up with the doom and gloom!

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:38:06 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Aging systems releasing sewage into rivers, streams. “Local governments across the USA plan to spend billions modernizing failing wastewater systems — some of which are more than 100 years old — over the next 10 to 20 years, EPA, state and local sewer authority officials said. Those improvement efforts face a huge challenge mitigating problems in what the EPA estimates to be 1.2 million miles of sewers snaking underground across the USA.”

Bodies rot in cyclone-hit Burma. “Piles of rotting corpses are stacking up in remote villages of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, with residents saying they don't have enough fuel to cremate victims of deadly Cyclone Nargis.”

Deadly battles as Hezbollah says Lebabon 'declares war'. “Deadly gunbattles erupted in Beirut on Thursday after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah charged that a Lebanese government crackdown on his group was tantamount to a 'declaration of war,' stoking fears of a full-blown sectarian conflict."

Clip Source: community.livejournal.com

Melting glaciers release toxic chemical cocktail. “Decades after most countries stopped spraying DDT, frozen stores of the insecticide are now trickling out of melting Antarctic glaciers.”

Palm oil wiping out key orangutan habitat: activists. “One of the biggest populations of wild orangutans on Borneo will be extinct in three years without drastic measures to stop the expansion of palm oil plantations...”

Survey shows US honey bee deaths increased over last year. “A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year… As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite…”

Flood risk fear over key UK sites. “Hundreds of UK power substations and water treatment plants are potentially at risk from flooding,

Dove, Unilever and Borneo's rainforests

Thu, 08 May 2008 03:53:31 GMT

clipped by: rwatuny
clipper's remarks: I use dove soap everyday, so this made me sad.

Clip Source: fr.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: dove, unilever, indonesia, borneo, orang-outang, forests, rainforests, environment

Orangutan Fishes With Spear

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:03:49 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.

It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.

The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops.

This individual had seen locals fishing with spears on the Gohong River.

Although the method required too much skill for him to master, he was later able to improvise by using the pole to catch fish already trapped in the locals' fishing lines.

Clip Source: thedrawncutlass.blogspot.com

And you know where that inevitably leads:

So I think I'll run down to Wal-Mart and pick up some ammo.

Tags: animals, science, nature, evolution

First Frog without Lungs

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:26:12 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: More: The frogs have flattened bodies, shaped more like a cookie than an apple, with plenty of surface area for gas exchange. So they probably get all the oxygen they need through their skin, the researchers will report online April 17 in Current Biology.

The Borneo frog's closest living kin, evolutionarily, lives in the Philippines and does have lungs. That sister species' conventional breathing apparatus supports the idea that the Borneo frog evolved from ancestors with lungs that were later lost them in the highly aerated water, Bickford says. Lungs could even be a disadvantage in white water, making a frog more buoyant and easier for the current to sweep away.

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Looks like a frog. Swims like a frog. But doesn't croak. A flattened, brown, aquatic species from Borneo has just become the only frog shown to have no lungs.

SKIN BREATHER. The Barbourula kalimantanensis frog of Borneo lives in fast, cold water and doesn't bother with lungs.
Bickford

The species, Barbourula kalimantanensis, is so rare that until last year only two specimens were known to science and no herpetologist had seen it alive

No one wanted to slice the frogs up for dissection, so no one had noticed the absence of lungs.

But last year herpetologists on an expedition to a remote section of Borneo managed to collect more of the frogs

In a fast mountain river

This water, it turns out, is ideal for a lungless frog. "They weren't incredibly hard to catch, but they were incredibly slippery

The cold-water home holds more dissolved oxygen than warm water does

And the water current rushing along at 2 to 5 meters per second steadily renews the oxygen supply

Tags: forgs without lungs, no croaking