December 2007 Archives

Greg Chapman - Research
The final day of Dog Whisperer Week is here and everyone here at the channel hopes that you have enjoyed watching some of Cesar's toughest cases. Here are some final tips to help you become a more passionate, assertive and successful pack leader.Enjoy!

	Prevent obsessive behavior by establishing rules, limits and boundaries early and consistently.
	Setting rules will help, not hurt your dog. He or she will see you as a strong pack leader.
	Being self-aware and conscious of the energy we are projecting can help us become better pack leaders.
	Choose a breed that fits your lifestyle. Couch potato or always on-the-go, the right dog is out there!

Greg Chapman - Research

Being that National Geogrpahic Channel is in the middle of Dog Whisperer Week, I thought that it might be a good idea to pass along more of Cesar's tips to all you pack leaders out there.

	Bored dogs are problem dogs. Brisk morning walks prevent behavioral problems during the day.
	Learn the art of the walk: head up, relaxed leash, with the dog next to you not ahead of you.
	Dogs' fears are often human-induced. Help them by replacing a scary association with a positive experience.
	Dogs help us grow emotionally and psychologically.

Check back in tomorrow for more helpful hints straight from the Dog Whisperer.

You can check out the shows offical site by clicking here.

Greg Chapman - Research

First, if you are heading out of the city this weekend to the country for the holiday weekend, or have the benefit of living in a place where you can actually see stars, take a look through a telescope because there lies a bonus for you this week. Mars is best seen This week marks the closest distance between Earth and Mars since 2003 and the closest that they will be until 2016.

Although the best views of Mars occurred on Tuesday when the two planets were the closest, the red planet should be able to be seen through the end of next month, which means that star gazers could be in store for something remarkable.

At the end of next month, according to NASA scientists, there is a 1 in 75 chance that the planet could be struck by an asteroid on January 30. To put it in some perspective, the usual odds of something like this occuring is 1 in 350 and scientists believe that the odds will only be shrinking as we head in to January.

NASA scientists are stating that the impact of this asteroid on Mars could be equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb blast , and would be the size of the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona.

With the holiday season in full swing, The Green Guide offers up some ways to have a greener holiday.

Wrap Responsibly
'Tis the season of giving, receiving and of throwing away. Americans toss out an extra 25 million tons of trash over the holidays, largely due to packaging. After the Christmas morning revels in my house, we labor to find the floor (much less the cat) buried under layers of used gift wrap. But when it comes time to clean up, we take great care to neatly roll and fold the glittery paper and tuck it away for reuse. Once that paper has wrapped its last gift and it's time to buy a new roll, we don't. Instead, we scan the house for other ways to wrap. This year, I'll be getting some use out of an old Ace of Base poster that came off the wall ages ago. And some sheer curtains that are a bit too Moulin Rouge for window dressing will become lovely Victorian-inspired packaging. Whenever possible, I won't be wrapping gifts at all, but rather, the wrapping will be the gift. Mom is getting a recycled glass jewelry in the pocket of a Livity hemp wallet, and my brother is taking home a pocket LED flashlight slipped inside a Klean Kanteen reusable water bottle (adorned with an organic cotton bow cut from an old t-shirt of course).

Not everyone has as much potential gift wrap lying around. Others are tightly bound to the paper tradition. If your wrapping paper habit is too ingrained to quit cold turkey, at least wrap responsibly. Look for paper made from tree-free materials like Papermojo's lokta or banana fiber sheets, or from post-consumer waste like Seltzer's 100 percent post-consumer recycled gift wrap.

Porto is a great dog. He was always very energetic and seemed to enjoy his visits to the vet's office. He is very gentle and laid back - ready to except what the world gave him and make the most of it. He did not seem overburdened by his problems.

Bruno was a tough case because you could see a dog wanting to come out of the restrictions his disease gave him, but he could never really do it. Lots of times with a dog like Bruno, I will say their quality of life is not acceptable, but there was something in his eyes that made me want to try a little harder with him. I feel very sad about his case because of this. We could see glimmers of hope, but they never really materialized. It was horrible that he had to go the way he did (with GDV), but it was better than if we prolonged his condition that it did not seem he was going to recover from. I remember when my dog Scruffy tried to play with him (or dominate him - its hard to tell with Scruffy) that it made Bruno mad, but he wasn't able to do anything about it. He did like my old lady Dalmatian named Dottie. Bruno and Dottie would go for little walks together outside in it was nice to see Bruno wag his tail and get a little bit excited. With dogs like Bruno, I am always hoping to get a glimpse of what they would have been like as a young, healthy dog; sadly, it never happened with him.

Zoeyann was very shy and hesitant. She was easy to work with, but she did not warm up to me in the same way Porto had - perhaps it was too many vet visits at such a young age. By the end of the appointment, she was a little friendlier, but was always a little hesitant. I think she liked being with the dogs more than me.

Best Friends/DogTown is an example of what is possible if people who care about something work together to achieve that goal. It is not an endpoint in the animal rights/rescue movement, but a nice stopping point on the way to end the suffering of animals. It is about the individual animal as well and what can be achieved if an animal is just given a chance to thrive and be loved. It is not perfect, and there is more we can do, but we certainly are able to help a lot of animals and can be used as a model for what is possible. It is great because it shows there are other options for many animals and that, although ending the treatment of animals as disposable beings is a long war, there are battles being fought and won that are making it a fight worth fighting.

Greg Chapman - Research

It may be a long ways away before it premieres, but I just watched the trailer for an upcoming show called Six Degrees Could Change the World. It is a show that looks at the impact of global warming and what would happen to earth as it heats up degree after degree for the next one hundred years, (degrees are in celsius, not fahrenheit). It was powerful enough that I thought the readers of this blog may have some comments of their own about what they think of the current state of the global climate may be or about a show like this. (You can check out the trailer by clicking on the logo or the photo below.)

Needless to say it is something that I have thought about more and more lately. I have tried to do simple things such as carrying groceries so that there is one less empty plastic bag floating around to actually getting rid of my car because I live in a city - I don't have a specific need for one, which may not be for everyone, but I figured I can get around pretty well without a car so why not.

"The future is really uncertain, but what we do know is that we have signs of very great changes occurring on the planet" - Ove Hough Guldberg, Marine Biologist

What do you think?

With the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on one side and the Muslim Noble Sanctuary - Haram al Sharif - on the other, Jerusalem can be said to be the intersection of three major religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. National Geographic Channel goes to this sacred place to display how one unique area in the world ties together three major religions.

In this country alone, between 3 and 4 million unwanted pets are euthanized every year. But there is one place where man's best friend always has hope: Dogtown. One of the largest no-kill animal facilities in the country, Dogtown is located on 33,000 acres of Southern Utah canyon country.

The sanctuary -- run by the Best Friends Animal Society -- hosts hundreds of dogs from all around the country, along with cats, horses, rabbits, goats and various other farm animals -- about 1,500 animals at any one time. For the lost canine souls that find shelter at this home in one of 12 lodging facilities, a staff of over 60 oversees their every need -- including medical attention, training and rehabilitation -- with the eventual hope of finding these dogs a new, loving home.

Dogtown is often the last hope for dogs requiring specialized or urgent medical attention or for abused and neglected animals.

Background information on the program:
Best Friends and the Fredonia Humane Society have launched a three-year partnership that will provide free spay/neuter services to residents of The Gap, an impoverished area within the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona.

Each month, Best Friends staff volunteer to help FHS president Tom Corrigan pick up family pets to take back to the sanctuary where medical staff will perform the spay/neuter operations.

Chris Gidez - Producer

The 47,000-mile American interstate system is only 50 years old, but within the context of world history, every modern road's roots date back to the Romans. The only differences between past and present-day roadways are in their material, design and technology. But, no matter how advanced the engineering gets, there remains the fact that roads don't build themselves. Men and women must still perform the difficult and dangerous physical labor that goes into building our essential interstate infrastructure.

To document some of the amazing engineering and brave work behind the scenes of America's interstates, I set out with host Kevin Moore and our camera crew to visit five major construction sites in three states. Each project represents incredible solutions to the most common and sometimes unforeseen problems we see out on the highways - chief amongst them are the punishment and deterioration caused by extreme weather and heavy loads. And what struck me at each construction site we visited, were the ingenious techniques and logistical solutions employed to build new - and rebuild old - interstate highways.

To keep our focus on one major artery, we visited construction projects along the Interstate 35 / "NAFTA Corridor" - the main North American trade route through the US between the Mexican border in Texas and Canadian border in Minnesota. For good measure, we also took a look at projects around the hub of East/West transportation, Chicago, Illinois. At their foundation, each of the five projects was underway to address increased volumes of traffic.

 

Elena Cruz - Producer

FISHZILLA: The Invasive Snakehead! Just when you think it's safe...snakehead frenzy grabs you by the gills! Media reports first dubbed this incredible invasive species, 'Frankenfish.' I came to know this tenacious predator as Fishzilla.

I remembered hearing about this strange, scary story from East Coast friends. But it wasn't until I actually talked to people on the snakehead frontlines that I realized this was really big news. But what was this ferocious fish with a ravenous appetite that destroys food chains - breeding, feeding and spreading non-stop? News reports described a creature from a nightmare. 'It breathes air...has teeth like a shark... a taste for blood... and can even 'walk' on land.'

My epic hunt for the phenomenal Fishzilla took me to remote corners of the globe. A village reservoir in Thailand. A smugglers' supermarket in LA. An 'electrofishing' expedition near the Pentagon. And a small-town Maryland pond where the snakehead first made headlines. The truth turned out to be even more amazing than I imagined.