2008: April 27th Good News (Baby Elephant Debuts in Maryland Zoo, Man Hits Two Holes in One in the Same Round, more...)

Good Morning All,

Well, today there were a lot of nice stories. Nothing was over the top thrilling, but still, there were many heartwarming pieces of news. I'll quickly share with you two. First is the story of the baby elephant that debuted at the zoo in Maryland yesterday. Second is the story of the reconstruction of coral reefs in Japan.

I hope you enjoy today's posts. I enjoyed searching for them. I'll see you tomorrow!


Today's Top 5:
1. 340-lb. Toddler Debuts at Zoo: Elephant Presented to Fawning Crowds (Chicago Tribune)
2. Automated Bike-Sharing Program to be First of its Kind in U.S. (Seattle Times)
3. 65,000 Coral Formations Being Planted in Sea Around Island (Mainichi Japan)
4. Orangutan Attempts to Hunt Fish with Spear (Daily Mail UK)
5. Missing Hunter Found on Big Island (Honolulu Advertiser)

Honorable Mentions:
1. Golfer Hits Two Holes-in-one in the Same Round (Yahoo News)
2. Carnegie Mellon Researchers Urge Development of Low Carbon Electricity (Eurekalert.com)
3. Monkey Returned Safely to Saint John Zoo (CBC Canada)
4. Volunteers Give S.F. School a Fresh Look (San Fransisco Chronicles)
5. Swiss Jumps Using Leonardo da Vinci-designed Parachute (Yahoo News)

Today's Top 5:

1. 340-lb. Toddler Debuts at Zoo: Elephant Presented to Fawning Crowds
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/bal-md.elephant27apr27,1,7378321.story
By Stephanie Desmon Sun reporter April 27, 2008

Freshly scrubbed and primped for his grand entrance at the appointed moment yesterday morning - exactly 10 minutes before 10 - the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore's baby elephant was introduced to his public, not at all fazed by the crowd thrilled to catch their first glimpse of the scampering calf.
Along with the camera flashes and cries of "there he is," the pint-sized pachyderm got something else - a name. More than 1,600 names were submitted and more than 12,000 people voted, choosing the biblical name Samson for the first African elephant born at the zoo in its 132-year history.
"Can I take him home?" said docent Emily Miller with a laugh. She drove 55 miles from her home in Frederick on her day off, just to see Samson's first outing.
Samson never strayed far from his mother, Felix, who came to the zoo in December from Arkansas and gave birth March 19. The baby seemed so small, many marveled yesterday, but when you're standing next to a mom who weighs in at more than 7,000 pounds, 340 pounds - and gaining 2 1/2 pounds a day - can seem downright petite.
The dark gray elephant explored an old tire with his trunk, then moved closer to the crowd, curling his trunk around one of the slats in the fence. His adoring fans lapped it up.
"I'd love to say we taught him all that," said Mike McClure, the zoo's general curator and elephant manager, "but he's a natural."
Within a few minutes of being set loose in the outdoor exhibit, Samson tried to climb onto a large boulder, placing his two front legs atop it. McClure tapped on those legs, imploring the little guy to get down so he wouldn't get hurt. Samson complied, but when McClure turned his head, the elephant was again trying to scale that rock, showing he's more of a "Sammy" right now than a full-grown "Samson."
"He's exactly like a toddler," McClure said. "They test things and experiment. They want to explore everything."
Politicians and other dignitaries on hand for speeches and proclamations were quickly upstaged when Samson emerged.
Zoo officials hope that Samson - along with a new giraffe feeding exhibit, a baby camel coming this summer and the return of the African aviary this year - will revive the struggling institution, which has been threatened with the loss of its accreditation because of financial troubles.
"We think it's going to help with more people coming through the doors," said zoo President Donald P. Hutchinson. "This baby will be a baby for a while, and it's fun to watch."
Samson will stay small and kidlike for several years and won't reach full maturity until he is in his 20s.
Rachel Stolusky, a zoo veteran at age 3, looked forward to seeing the baby elephant all morning. When the family made its usual first stop at the rhinoceros exhibit - the rhino is the Owings Mills girl's favorite animal - she started fussing. She had to see the elephant, said her mother, Felicia.
"Look at him playing," she said. "I'm sure because of Rachel we'll be here a while."
Weather permitting, Samson and his mother will be on public display from 10 a.m. to noon every day. The rest of the herd won't be joining them on these excursions.
Tuffy, the male elephant who came from Arkansas along with Felix, stays in a separate enclosure. Males are more aggressive than females and in the wild don't regularly live with the females. Females Dolly and Anna have seen Samson close up, but have been separated by a fence from the baby. Dolly and Anna are so big they could accidentally hurt Samson, so keepers have decided to wait until he is bigger before giving them unfettered access.
"There he is. There he is. There he is," proclaimed Elliott White, a 2-year-old from Catonsville. "Little baby. Little baby."
The elephant exhibit had to be reconfigured for that little baby. Every toddler needs to have his home babyproofed, and the elephant enclosure was no exception. The pond, for example, is chained off from Felix and Samson for now. It is 12 feet deep, and he could drown.
As any proud parent might, the zoo's staff were doing a little bragging about their new addition yesterday. "He's ahead of the learning curve for an elephant calf," McClure said.
Samson is doing things with his trunk that elephants don't typically do for several more months. He can get water in his mouth with his trunk, is picking things up with his trunk and has even started using it to eat his mother's manure - a good thing, McClure assured, as the bacteria in it will help Samson's digestive system mature.
"He's very inquisitive. He's just ... almost friendly," McClure said. "He's not afraid of people.
"The world is a happy new place for him."
stephanie.desmon@baltsun.com



2. Automated Bike-Sharing Program to be First of its Kind in U.S.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004376341_smartbike27.htmlSunday, April 27, 2008By BERNIE BECKER
Transportation official Jim Sebastian, pictured with a SmartBike DC bike prototype in Washington, D.C., hopes the bicycle-sharing program will eventually have 1,000 bikes available.WASHINGTON — Starting next month, people here will be able to borrow a bicycle any time they need one with the swipe of a membership card.
A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar, formerly called Flexcar.
The district has partnered with an advertiser, Clear Channel Outdoor, to put the bikes on the streets.
"There's a lot of stress on our transit systems currently," said Jim Sebastian, who manages bicycle and pedestrian programs for Washington's Transportation Department. Offering another option, he said, "will help us reduce congestion and pollution," as well as parking problems.
In the deal, Clear Channel will have exclusive advertising rights in the city's bus shelters. The company has reached a similar deal with San Francisco, and Chicago and Portland are considering proposals.
For a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time. The program will not provide helmets but does encourage their use.
Similar programs have proved successful in Europe. The Velib program in Paris and Bicing in Barcelona both started around a year ago.
Sebastian, who started trying to bring bike sharing to Washington even before its success in Paris and Barcelona, believes the program can grow within a year and hopes it will eventually offer 1,000 bicycles.
While automated bike-sharing programs are new to the United States, the idea of bike sharing is hardly novel. Milan, Amsterdam and Portland have all had lower-tech free bike-sharing programs in the past, with Amsterdam's dating to the 1960s.
But "studies showed that many bikes would get stolen in a day, or within a few weeks," said Paul DeMaio, a Washington-area bike-sharing consultant. "In Amsterdam, they would often find them in the canals."
Improved technology allows programs to better protect bicycles. In Washington, SmartBike subscribers who keep bicycles longer than the three-hour maximum will receive demerits and could eventually lose renting privileges. Bicycles gone for more than 48 hours will be deemed lost, with the last user charged a $200 replacement fee.
That technology comes with a price, which is one reason cities and advertisers have started joining forces to offer bike sharing. The European programs would cost cities about $4,500 per bike if sponsors did not step in, DeMaio said.
Cities realize "they literally have to spend no money on designing, marketing or maintaining" a bike-sharing program, said Martina Schmidt of Clear Channel Outdoor. Washington will keep the revenue generated by the program.
Bike sharing has become a "public service subsidized by advertising," said Bernard Parisot, the president and co-CEO of JCDecaux North America, an outdoor advertiser that made a proposal to bring bike sharing to Chicago.
But, Parisot added, if users had to pay all of the costs for bike sharing, "they would probably just take a cab."



3. 65,000 Coral Formations Being Planted in Sea Around Island
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080426p2a00m0na040000c.html
April 27, 2008

Coral formations being cultivated on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture. (Mainichi)ZAMAMI, Okinawa -- About 65,000 coral formations that were cultivated here over the past 10 months are being planted in the sea around Okinotorishima Island, which is on the verge of being submerged because it is being corroded.
The scale of the cultivation of such coral formations is the biggest of its kind in the world. If successful, it is expected to help prevent the island, part of the Ogasawara Islands some 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, from being submerged. The island is crucial for maintaining Japan's exclusive economic zone.
At the request of the Fisheries Agency, the Fisheries Infrastructure Development Center took coral from the sea around Okinotorishima Island, put it in water containers on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and had the coral lay eggs.
The eggs were hatched and about 65,000 coral formations grew to 1.5 centimeters in the containers over a 10-month period.
(Mainichi Japan) April 27, 2008



4. Orangutan Attempts to Hunt Fish with Spear
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=562236&in_page_id=1965
Last updated at 23:03pm on 26th April 2008

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.
Monkeying around: An orangutan clings precariously to overhanging branches in a desperate bid to spear a passing fish
"Orang hutan" means "forest man" in one of Indonesia's many languages and our long-armed cousins do indeed show a remarkable ability to mimic our behaviour.
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.
The image is part of a series taken for a new book, The Thinkers Of The Jungle, which also includes the first photograph of an orangutan swimming.
Thinkers Of The Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal, is published by Ullmann Publishing on May 5, RRP £29.99.


5. Missing Hunter Found on Big Island
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/BREAKING01/80427013
Updated at 2:11 a.m., Sunday, April 27, 2008

A hunter who became disoriented in the heavy vog and low cloud cover was rescued by the Big Island Fire Department's Chopper 1 last night and taken to South Kohala Fire Station for pick up by his family.
Firefighters were called to search for the man just after 4 p.m. in the Puuanahulu Game Management area.
The fire department dispersed two helicopters as well as land personnel in its search. The missing man was found with the help of GPS coordinates before 7 p.m.


Honorable Mentions:
1. Golfer Hits Two Holes-in-one in the Same Round http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080426/ap_on_fe_st/odd_holes_in_one
Sat Apr 26, 1:50 PM ET

MUSCATINE, Iowa - Luck doesn't even to begin to describe golfer Ted Kemp's round on Monday. Kemp, a 12-handicapper, knocked in holes-in-one on back-to-back par 3s at the Muscatine Municipal Golf Course. Kemp used a pitching wedge to sink his tee shot on the 3rd hole from 130 yards out. Then, after remarking to his group that it would be something if he repeated his feat, he did just that.
Kemp grabbed an 8-iron and nailed a hole-in-one from 182 yards out on the 8th hole.
Kemp says the feat was more luck than skill, calling it "pretty unreal." He finished the day with a 78.
A study by Golf Digest in 2000 said that the odds of getting two holes-in-one in the same round is 67 million to one.


2. Carnegie Mellon Researchers Urge Development of Low Carbon Electricity
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/cmu-cmr042508.php
25 April 2008

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University’s Constantine Samaras and Kyle Meisterling report that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming, but the benefits are highly dependent on how the electricity system changes in the coming decades.
In a recent article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the authors urge federal legislators and the electricity industry to increase the deployment of low-carbon electricity technology to power plug-in hybrid vehicles.
“Plug-in hybrids represent an opportunity to reduce oil consumption, leverage next-generation biofuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The types of power plants installed in the next two decades will not only affect how much we can reduce emissions from electricity, but also from vehicles if we plan on plug-in hybrids playing a substantial role,” said Samaras, a Ph.D. candidate in Carnegie Mellon’s departments of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) and Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).
“We are finding that even when the impacts from producing batteries are included, plug-in hybrids still produce slightly less greenhouse gases than hybrids that run only on gasoline. But plug-in hybrids could cut emissions in half if they are charged with electricity from low-carbon sources,” said Meisterling, a Ph.D. candidate in EPP.
Already, automakers have discussed plans to develop plug-in hybrids and California recently ruled that the auto industry must sell nearly 60,000 plug-ins statewide by 2014. With the price of gas heading beyond $4 per gallon, interest in alternative vehicles continues to grow. Samaras and Meisterling also say plug-ins may allow greater use of the limited supply of biofuels because they use a lot less gasoline than regular cars.
The researchers found that life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from plug-in hybrids are about one-third less than a traditional gasoline-powered car. They also argue that with coal-fired electricity, emissions from plug-in hybrids are still lower than traditional cars, but are higher than ordinary hybrids. The call for increased low-carbon electricity supplies comes at a time when the U.S. electricity industry plans to build 154 new coal plants in the next 24 years to replace older plants being phased out.
“The type of power plants we build today will be around for a long time. We need to begin developing policies that allow us to make big dents in oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Samaras, the recipient of a prestigious Teresa Heinz Fellowship for Environmental Research, which she is using to analyze public policies involving plug-in hybrids and low-carbon electricity.
Additional research support for this project came from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Climate Decision Making Center and the Electric Power Research Institute, and from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through Carnegie Mellon’s Electricity Industry Center.




3. Monkey Returned Safely to Saint John Zoo
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2008/04/25/monkey-returned.html
Last Updated: Friday, April 25, 2008 11:40 AM AT

One of April's family members screeches inside its enclosure at the Cherry Brook Zoo. (CBC)A stolen young monkey has been returned safely to a New Brunswick zoo.
Saint John police found April, a Callimico goeldii monkey, after they received an anonymous tip from a male caller late Thursday night suggesting they search the Bayside Drive area for the animal that was taken from the Cherry Brook Zoo earlier in the week.
The nine-month-old South American marmoset was found to be missing by the staff at the zoo on Wednesday morning. It appeared a padlock was hacksawed and a door kicked in at the monkey enclosure on Tuesday night. Staff arrived to find the Callimico goeldii monkeys free in a hallway screeching but April was missing.
Police began investigating the theft of the animal while the zoo put up posters around the port city and established a Facebook group calling for her return.
Zoo officials put up posters of April in Saint John calling for her return. (CBC)Zoo officials told reporters they weren't interested in pressing charges if the monkey, which is an endangered species and part of an international breeding program, was returned safely.
Police found April in a blue plastic box behind a building near a gas station in the Bayside Drive area, said Sgt. Fred Morton.
April was returned to the zoo at about 12:30 a.m. Friday.
"Everybody breathed a sigh of relief," said zoo official Len Collrin. "As soon as we let it out, it chirped and everything seemed all right."
The small animal, which is about 30 centimetres tall and weighs less than half a kilogram, was fed a hearty meal after being returned, Collrin said, and was allowed to rest inside a zoo office for the remainder of the night.
"We're just totally amazed that it is here and very thankful," Collrin said. "Deep in the back of our mind, we kind of wondered if we'd ever see or hear from this monkey again."
Collrin said the zoo had received some reports that April had been spotted in the woods and also suspected she might have been stolen to be sold on the black market.
April was returned to her enclosure to be with her family on Friday morning and was scheduled to be examined by a veterinarian later in the day.
Police are still investigating the case, said Sgt. Pat Bonner. He said police will be focusing on the anonymous telephone call, which came from a payphone, to see if the voice provides any clues to the theft.
The container April was found in is also being examined, Bonner said.
Zoo officials said they are re-examining the security at their facilities.



4. Volunteers Give S.F. School a Fresh Look
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/27/BA5010CK6O.DTL
Anastasia Ustinova,
Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 27, 2008

Enrollment is on the decline and budgets are tight, but a Potrero Hill elementary school received a major face-lift Saturday, as more than 100 volunteers painted its walls and planted flowers in hopes of wooing new students and their parents.
"A fresh coat of paint can do wonders for the community," said Stacey Bartlett with the Potrero Residents Education Fund, a group that supports Daniel Webster Elementary School. "The school district does not have money for the improvement, and it takes the community to help them out."
After the Board of Education put Webster on the closure list two years ago, local residents wrote letters to public officials, rallied parents to help boost enrollment and raised more than $500,000 for a preschool program. One resident who works at Yahoo created a Web site about the potential closure and designed "Save Daniel Webster" T-shirts.
Thanks to their efforts, Webster was also selected out of more than 100 applicants for the annual rehabilitation housing program called Rebuilding Together San Francisco. The nonprofit organization uses volunteers on the last weekend of April to repair, remodel and clean up community facilities and homes for low-income and disabled people.
Next year, the volunteers will return to paint old classrooms and fix appliances.
"It's an extreme makeover for Daniel Webster," said Bartlett, whose daughter, Annabel, will attend Webster's new preschool in the fall. "It's so uplifting, and it does a lot for the kids who live (in Potrero Hill)."
On Saturday, Principal Moraima Machado watched as volunteers from the consulting firm Ernst & Young and the San Francisco financial services company Charles Schwab put a fresh coat of paint on the old orange panels.
"These walls have not been painted since the 1980s," Machado said. "With all the state budget cuts, those people are sending a message to the community and they are making history."
Outside, a dozen of employees from the entertainment company DreamWorks got busy painting flowers, hills and goats - the old symbol of the neighborhood - for a new mural that faces the playground.
"You see the state school struggle for basic things. They shouldn't have to struggle," said Beth Hofer, head of the character development department at DreamWorks. "Giving them a fun environment and putting a smile on their face" is the least the volunteers can do, she said.
On Saturday, more than 2,000 volunteers from different organizations participated in Rebuilding Together San Francisco, which was founded after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Since then, the nonprofit has helped more than 1,000 homes and 250 facilities in the area.
This year's projects included a residential recovery center for families in the Mission District, several child care centers and Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School.
Some volunteers, who have been involved with the project for several years, say they can't help keeping coming back.
"It just feels good," said Helen Hayes, a manager at Ernst & Young. "And it's also an opportunity to meet people who work in different departments."
Susie Albrecht, director of the employee communications at Charles Schwab, agreed.
"It's fun to get to work side-by-side with colleagues and see them outside of the office," Albrecht said. "It's a team-building effort."



5. Swiss Jumps Using Leonardo da Vinci-designed Parachute http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080426/od_afp/switzerlandparachuteoffbeathistory;_ylt=AhF55qYean_H0Fm_XHH__MMDW7oFSat Apr 26, 4:29 PM ET

PAYERNE, Switzerland (AFP) - A 36-year-old Swiss amateur parachutist made a successful 650-metre (2,130-foot) drop Saturday using a replica of a parachute designed more than 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci.
ADVERTISEMENT "I came down... smack in the middle of the tarmac at Payerne military airport," said Olivier Vietti-Teppa. "A perfect jump."
Vietti-Teppa is the first person to have made it safely to the ground with the Leonardo model.
In 2000, Britain's Adrian Nicholas tried it but had to pull the ripcord on a modern backup parachute to complete his descent safely.
Vietti-Teppa jumped from a hovering helicopter and the Leonardo parachute opened at 600 metres, he reported.
The parachute he used was made using modern fabric along lines designed by the Renaissance genius. The specifications were found in a text dating from 1485.
The parachute consists of four equilateral triangles, seven metres on each side, made of parachute fabric, Vietti-Teppa explained.
The base of the pyramid is a square of mosquito net, which enables the parachute to open. A wooden frame originally conceived by da Vinci was not used on the model in action on Saturday.
One drawback: it is impossible to manoeuvre or steer the Leonardo parachute. "You come down at the whim of the wind," said Vietti-Teppa, who carried out advance tests using a scale dummy model launched from a remote-controlled model helicopter.