Free Republic

Are committed fathers an endangered species in our culture? Fr. Gordon MacRae draws a troubling corollary between absent fathers and burgeoning prisons.Wade Horn, Ph.D., President of the National Fatherhood Initiative, had an intriguing article entitled “Of Elephants and Men” in a recent issue of Fatherhood Today magazine. I found Dr. Horn’s story about young elephants to be simply fascinating, and you will too. It was sent to me by a TSW reader who wanted to know if there is any connection between the absence of fathers and the shocking growth of the American prison population. Some years ago, officials at...

A pair of elephants helped rescue the truck they were riding in when it got stuck in the mud on a trip from New Orleans to Dallas. It all happened on Tuesday around 7:03 a.m., when the tractor trailer transporting three elephants pulled over from Interstate 49 near the Powhatan exit in Louisiana and accidentally got stuck in some mud, the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s office said in a statement. “When deputies arrived on scene, they were astounded to find two elephants keeping the eighteen wheeler from overturning,” the sheriff’s office said. The elephants on the truck were being transported to...

Tel Aviv University discovers first direct evidence early flint tools were used to butcher animal carcasses. Some 2.5 million years ago, early humans survived on a paltry diet of plants. As the human brain expanded, however, it required more substantial nourishment - namely fat and meat - to sustain it. This drove prehistoric man, who lacked the requisite claws and sharp teeth of carnivores, to develop the skills and tools necessary to hunt animals and butcher fat and meat from large carcasses. Among elephant remains some 500,000 years old at a Lower Paleolithic site in Revadim, Israel, Prof. Ran Barkai...

Eleanor Bartsch was performing with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, during which she played Bach’s Concerto in D Minor. During the performance, she noticed two elephants outside a tent at the back of the Circus World Museum, who seemed to be reacting to the music.

The Humane Society of the United States, along with other lawsuit co-defendants, have paid $15.75 million to settle cases with Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The settlement is the final stage of a 14-year litigation between the parties. The lawsuit was originally filed over the treatment of 43 Asian elephants, according to the Bradenton Herald.

(Reuters) - A new mammal discovered in the remote desert of western Africa resembles a long-nosed mouse in appearance but is more closely related genetically to elephants, a California scientist who helped identify the tiny creature said on Thursday. The new species of elephant shrew, given the scientific name Macroscelides micus, inhabits an ancient volcanic formation in Namibia and sports red fur that helps it blend in with the color of its rocky surroundings, said John Dumbacher, one of a team of biologists behind the discovery. Genetic testing of the creature – which weighs up to an ounce (28 grams)...

From the mid-1800s on, hundreds of thousands of African elephants were slaughtered for their ivory. Their valuable ivory tusks, some weighing as much as 200 pounds each, were collected and the rest of the elephant was left to rot in the sun or for scavengers to feast on. The ivory was used for many things such as piano keys, to ladies combs to various ornate pieces of carved artwork. In some areas of Africa, elephants were hunted to extinction prompting many countries to pass laws on the import and sale of ivory from elephants. In 1975, the Convention on the...

On a whim, I recently posted the image below of the frog riding the beetle irreverently entitling it as Hannibal Crossing the Carpathians. Hannibal Crosses The CarpathiansWhile it was obviously posted in jest, several comments appeared in scholarly discussion of the use of elephants in war, having come across this article thought it might be of interest.Please take note any establishment, organization involved in science will inevitably be a left-wing liberal tool, certainly so, a group with the tagline, where science meets society. War Elephant Myths Debunked by DNAThe Institute for Genomic BiologyWhere Science Meets Society Through DNA analysis, Illinois...

Hannibal Crosses The CarpathiansWhen did Hannibal cross the alps? According to http://carpenoctem.tv/military/hannibal.html it was in 218 B.C. Why did Hannibal take elephants to cross the alps? Hannibal took elephants across the Alps as weapons of war against the Romans. How many men crossed the alps with Hannibal? 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and about 30 elephants when he first began the ascent. How many elephants did Hannibal have before he crossed the alps? Fifty

On Thursday, Nov. 14, the U.S. government crushed nearly 11,000 pounds of raw and carved ivory that had been seized over the last 25 years from smugglers and illegal dealers. The value of the huge pile if ivory is inestimable, as the carved pieces are considered works of art, but it can be pretty safely assumed that this collection of ivory was worth well over $10 million, as small ivory figurines routinely sell for around $500 a piece, and prices have been escalating due to stricter regulation and enforcement of legal trade in ivory. Ivory is a tricky, and touchy,...

Here's an interesting video of the US taking 6 tons of confiscated ivory to Africa to crush it. The purpose was to "send a message" to poachers. The entire worldwide elephant population is 500,000. They are vanishing at a rate of 50,000 per year, just for their ivory. A couple of people sent me this video, Reader Michael was first. Link if video does not play: U.S. crushes 6 tons of confiscated ivory to send message to poachers Africa's elephants are being slaughtered at a record pace by poachers who hope to get rich by selling their ivory tusks. The...

The illegal cutting of timber and the poaching of elephants and rhinos are part of a “rapidly escalating environmental crime wave” that international governments must combat by increasing cooperation, police and environmental officials said Wednesday. Interpol and the United Nations Environmental Program are working together to stop environmental crimes that cost tens of billions of dollars a year, said Achim Steiner, the U.N. Environmental Program's Executive Director. … The demand for elephant ivory by China’s rising middle class is fueling the deaths of thousands of elephants across Africa, say wildlife experts. An estimated 17,000 elephants were illegally killed in Africa...

Poachers kill 300 Zimbabwe elephants with cyanide • Cyanide has been used to kill 300 elephants in Zimbabwe's biggest nature reserve - three times the original estimate - as new photos show the scale of the slaughter Poachers in Zimbabwe have killed more than 300 elephants and countless other safari animals by cyanide poisoning, The Telegraph has learned. The full extent of the devastation wreaked in Hwange, the country's largest national park, has been revealed by legitimate hunters who discovered what conservationists say is the worst single massacre in southern Africa for 25 years. Pictures taken by the hunters, which...

Elephants understand humans in a way most other animals don’t, according to the latest research from the University of St Andrews. The new study, published October 10, 2013 by Current Biology, found that elephants are the only wild animals to understand human pointing without any training to do so. The researchers, Anna Smet and Professor Richard Byrne from the University’s School of Psychology and Neuroscience, set out to test whether African elephants could learn to follow pointing — and were surprised to find them responding successfully from the first trial. They said, “In our study we found that African elephants spontaneously...

(CNN) -- At the start of the 1980s there were more than a million elephants in Africa. During that decade, 600,000 were destroyed for ivory products. Today perhaps no more than 400,000 remain across the continent, according to Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington, who is widely recognized as an authority on the subject. If this level of killing continues, if elephants continue to be slaughtered for trinkets and statuettes, in 10 years' time most of Africa's elephants will be gone and an ineffable symbol of majesty and wonder -- and the linchpin in the ecology of an entire...

The gun is John Moses Browning’s M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun, aka ... Potato Digger.

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

Violence and bizarre aggressive behaviors among young male elephants has increased dramatically over the course of a few decades. A team of researchers, trauma experts and neuropsychologists among them, studied the causes and found a way to resolve the elephant violence. Their findings can help us understand why we need mature men leading boys to manhood and to guide for those coming into renewed manhood following the overthrow of repressive regimes. The lessons require connecting three dots. 1. The social development systems of male elephants. 2. The abuse of women in oppressive regimes. 3. Boy Gangs – A poor substitute...

  THE ELEPHANT'S JOURNEY TO PAY RESPECT, BUT HOW DID THEY KNOW? Lawrence Anthony, a legend in South Africa and author of 3 books including the bestseller The Elephant Whisperer, bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the globe from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during US invasion in 2003.   Anthony, Nana and calf (Photo courtesy of the Anthony family) On March 7, 2012 Lawrence Anthony died. He is remembered and missed by his wife, 2 sons, 2 grandsons and numerous elephants. Two days after his passing, the wild elephants showed up...

French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow Gérard Depardieu to Russia unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve. Depardieu the Russian praises 'democracy' (04 Jan 13) Putin makes Depardieu Russian citizen (03 Jan 13) Bardot leaps to Depardieu's defence (19 Dec 12) In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu's move into tax exile, the veteran animal rights campaigner said she would emulate his request for Russian nationality unless authorities intervened to save Baby and Nepal. The two elephants face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis...