How To Vote 2011

There is an online site called Vote Compass where one can get an idea of which party to vote for depending on answering a series of skill testing questions. Unfortunately for me I am closest to voting for the Bloc Québécois, which is not running a candidate in Hamilton Ontario. The compass creates a lovely graph for you to visualize where you fit into the spectrum.

Brazilian Beaver

The Famous Canadian beaver (Castor Canadensis) is the second largest rodent in the world next to the Capybara. While the Capybara is thriving in it’s South American climates, like Venezuela, its much smaller rodent cousin Castor Brazilensis is not faring as well. Unrelenting clear cutting along the Amazon in Southern Brazil  is threatening the habitat of this much smaller rodent. Like the Canadian beaver the Capybara is able to manage a wider range climate conditions, however the Castor Brazilensis is much more vulnerable to temperature. Efforts to re-establish Castor Brazilensis in cooler climates have failed. None of the transplanted Brazilian beavers survived the winter in the Washington State’s Olympic National Park. Clearly this charming, industrious and vulnerable creature can only survive in its native habitat within Brazil’s wet lands. Clear cutting exposes beavers to harsh penetrating climates. It is time for beaver lovers everywhere to stand up and push for harder regulations in Brazil’s wet lands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faueBMiceHo
Castor Brazilensis in its native habitat near Manaus Brazil.