Nick Drainey's world view: Endangered dolphins thrive on islands of Bangladesh

Published on Saturday 4 April 2009 21:30

BANGLADESH A week ago they were one of the most endangered species on earth, now there are thousands of them.

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) researchers counted nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins in the waterlogged jungles of Bangladesh and the adjacent Bay of Bengal.

Little marine mammal research had taken place in the Sunderbans prior to the study. Earlier, scientists believed the largest Irrawaddy dolphin population numbered just a few hundred.

Brian Smith, a WCS researcher who led the study, said: "This discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins. Bangladesh clearly serves as an important sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins, and conservation in this region should be a priority."

But Smith and other researchers are still warning that the dolphins face increasing threats to their survival. During their study, they found two of the rare mammals had drowned after becoming entangled in fishing nets.

UNITED STATES

The West Michigan Whitecaps say they have no plans to put a warning label on an enormous new hamburger they are selling this season at their baseball park.

Susan Levin, a staff dietitian for the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, sent a letter to the Grand Rapids minor-league baseball team asking that the 4,800-calorie burger be labelled a "dietary disaster".

The four-pound, $20 burger features five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chilli and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips – all on an eight-inch bun.

GERMANY

Police in northern Germany are searching for a man who tried to walk out of a supermarket with 68 tubes of toothpaste stuffed into his clothing.

"We don't know if he had bad teeth," a police spokeswoman in Rostock said.

Noticing his bulging jacket, a shop worker grabbed the man when he refused to stop and the tubes of toothpaste spilled all over the floor, police said. The thief struck the woman in the face and ran out.

NORWAY

A Norwegian church used lemon-flavoured cola instead of water in a baptism ceremony after its taps were temporarily turned off because of freezing temperatures.

Priest Paal Dale from the town of Stord, about 150 miles west of the capital Oslo, improvised during a recent cold-spell by dabbing the lemon fizzy water on a baby during a baptism ceremony.

"It had gone flat," Dale was quoted as saying. "Only the lemon smell made this unusual."

Dale said the child's family were informed about the switch only after the ceremony.

"They didn't say much, but I assumed they smelled the aroma as well," Dale said.

JAPAN

A helmet that allows humans to control robots by thought has been unveiled by Honda.

The company has developed a way to read patterns of electric currents on a person's scalp as well as changes in cerebral blood flow when they think about four simple movements – moving the right hand, moving the left hand, running and eating.

Honda succeeded in analysing the thought patterns of a subject wearing the helmet, and then relaying them as wireless commands for Asimo, its human-shaped robot.

There's still a lot of work to do though. Honda said the technology was not quite ready for a live demonstration because of possible distractions in the person's thinking. Another problem is that brain patterns differ greatly among individuals, and so about two to three hours of studying them in advance are needed for the technology to work.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

KONI

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's pet dog gobbled up a special tea prepared for bosses of Russia's ruling party last week.

While Putin discussed ways to help the local food industry, his favourite black Labrador Koni slunk into a room at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow and tucked into delicacies prepared for leaders of his United Russia party.

"Koni ate everything," said one of Putin's astounded bodyguards.

LEE TUNG-CHENG

A Taiwanese farmer has adopted 12 wild pigs as pets, training them to trot behind his motor scooter for miles and also to stop at traffic lights.

The pigs, all less than a year old, fall into line whenever Lee Tung-cheng lets them out of his rural Pingtung county yard and starts up his scooter.

They go out together almost every day and know the rules of the road, he said last week.

ROMAIN MESNIL

A French pole vaulting champion has run naked through the streets of Paris and posted the video on the internet, hoping to draw attention to his quest for a new sponsorship deal.

Romain Mesnil, who won a silver medal at the 2007 Athletics World Championships in Osaka, used to be sponsored by US sports brand Nike but says his contract expired last year and was not renewed. "It was probably for budgetary and strategic reasons. It's the crisis," he wrote on his website www.romain-mesnil.com.

In his video, Mesnil runs with his pole as if preparing for a vault at tourist spots such as Montmartre and the Pont des Arts across the River Seine. A black square has been added to the footage to cover his private parts.

OH, REALLY

A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.

German media have been feverishly reporting how the wife got through 15 years of marriage, putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.

But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, said Christian Kropp, court judge in the town of Sondershausen.

"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said.