VIDEO: Newly released footage from 1935 captures last known thylacine 00:49
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
(CNN)Where would we be without dreams?
It’s a question raised in the new Netflix fantasy drama “The Sandman,” based on a thought-provoking comic book series by Neil Gaiman that envisions human traits and experiences as anthropomorphic forms who exist within an unconventional family.
But the discussion of dreams is also something the CNN team encounters each week as we interview scientists and uncover the latest findings.
Dreams, so often, are at the root of what can make such scientific discoveries and advances possible.
These visionary thoughts pave the way for passion projects to become fact-finding explorations that create new knowledge. Dreams inspire us to ask questions and push the boundaries of possibility.
After all, as Gaiman wrote, “Dreams shape the world.”
Back to the future
A Tasmanian tiger exhibit is displayed at the Australian Museum in Sydney in 2002.
It may be time for the Tasmanian tiger to walk the Earth once again.
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Thylacines, as the creatures are officially known, disappeared from virtually everywhere except the Australian island of Tasmania about 2,000 years ago. There, humans who saw these coyote-size animalsas livestock predators drove the species to extinction.
But the path to resurrecting an extinct animal like the Tasmanian tiger is not cut-and-dried.
Scientists want to resurrect the extinct Tasmanian tiger
VIDEO: Newly released footage from 1935 captures last known thylacine 00:49
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
(CNN)Where would we be without dreams?
It’s a question raised in the new Netflix fantasy drama “The Sandman,” based on a thought-provoking comic book series by Neil Gaiman that envisions human traits and experiences as anthropomorphic forms who exist within an unconventional family.
But the discussion of dreams is also something the CNN team encounters each week as we interview scientists and uncover the latest findings.
Dreams, so often, are at the root of what can make such scientific discoveries and advances possible.
These visionary thoughts pave the way for passion projects to become fact-finding explorations that create new knowledge. Dreams inspire us to ask questions and push the boundaries of possibility.
After all, as Gaiman wrote, “Dreams shape the world.”
Back to the future
A Tasmanian tiger exhibit is displayed at the Australian Museum in Sydney in 2002.
It may be time for the Tasmanian tiger to walk the Earth once again.
Enter your email to sign up for the Wonder Theory newsletter.
Thylacines, as the creatures are officially known, disappeared from virtually everywhere except the Australian island of Tasmania about 2,000 years ago. There, humans who saw these coyote-size animalsas livestock predators drove the species to extinction.
But the path to resurrecting an extinct animal like the Tasmanian tiger is not cut-and-dried.
MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) — If you’re hunting deer in Michigan this year, you now have to report your harvest online. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) put the system into place after volunteer testing it with nearly 7,000 deer hunters last year.
“The decline in response rate to our post-season mail surveys increases the amount of uncertainty in our harvest estimates, which can lead to incorrect regulation recommendations in some locations,” Stewart said.
How does it work?
You have 72 hours after taking a deer to report it. It takes an estimated three to five minutes to complete the online report which you can do online at Michigan.gov/DNRHarvestReport or with the DNR mobile app, available in the Google Play store and the Apple App Store.
If you don’t have internet access or a smart device available, family members or friends with access can file for hunters as long as they are provided with the kill tag license number, date of birth and the harvest location.
Calling in information is not a provided option because harvest data location is provided through a digital map.
“While we will have near real-time harvest data available for hunters throughout the season on our website, that data is at the county level,” Stewart said. “Only the DNR will have access to the GPS coordinates of the actual harvest location, which is needed for two very important reasons: more effective disease surveillance, and the ability to build a network of harvest locations over time so we can adapt management guidelines to better align with harvest numbers. That means better overall management recommendations for Michigan’s deer population.”
“While the regulation is written in our Wildlife Conservation Order, which is where all of our deer regulations reside and allows conservation officers to enforce violations, this first year will emphasize educating hunters about the change rather than enforcement for those who have not reported their deer within the stated guidelines,” said Chad Stewart, deer, elk and moose management specialist for the Michigan DNR.
The DNR created a videoshowing the proper way to report your deer online.
A farmer stands above a deep crack in the dried mud of an earthen embankment in his rice fields near Chongqing, China, on Sunday. The government says it will try to protect China’s grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate rain.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
CHONGQING, China — China says it will try to protect its grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate rain, while factories in the southwest waited Sunday to see whether they would be shut down for another week due to shortages of water to generate hydropower.
The hottest, driest summer since the government began recording rainfall and temperature 61 years ago has wilted crops and left reservoirs at half their normal water level. Factories in Sichuan province were shut down last week to save power for homes as air…
Artistic reconstruction of the reptile adaptive radiation in a terrestrial ecosystem during the warmest period in Earth’s history. Image depicts a massive, big-headed, carnivorous erythrosuchid (close relative to crocodiles and dinosaurs) and a tiny gliding reptile at about 240 million years ago. The erythrosuchid is chasing the gliding reptile and it is propelling itself using a fossilized skull of the extinct Dimetrodon (early mammalian ancestor) in a hot and dry river valley. Credit: Image created by Henry Sharpe
Harvard researchers find rapid evolution of reptiles was triggered by nearly 60 million years of global warming and climate change.
Researchers can explore the impact of environmental crises on organismal evolution by studying climate change-induced mass extinctions in the deep geological past. One principal example…
Emu oil is obtained by slaughtering an emu. There is no other way to get this oil which is touted by emu exploiters as a virtual cure-all for whatever ails you (except as a balm for the sin-sick soul which wearing this oil can only make sicker). Put a glow on your face by smearing slaughtered emu oil on your nose, lips, and cheeks. Soothe and smooth your body with it. Just make sure before purchasing those dainty bottles and tubes of this murdered emu “wellness” ointment that it is “sustainably, ethically sourced.”
On June 2, 2022, I wrote a letter (see below) to the president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, John MacArthur, urging him to discontinue an ad for a cosmetic skin cream called Airbrush. This cream is made of emu oil, extracted from the thick layer of fat beneath the emu’s skin, a reserve for hard times in the bird’s native Australia where this fleet-footed, flightless, gentle nomad evolved 90 million years ago.
Concluding an email correspondence with Mr. MacArthur’s assistant, Virginia Navarro, I received the following email from Ms. Navarro on July 12, 2022:
Dear Dr. Davis,
After much internal discussion and consideration, Mr. MacArthur concluded that we must honor our existing contracts and will continue working with this advertiser. We understand not every reader will approve of every advertisement that appears in Harper’s Magazine, but we will leave it to them to make their own purchasing choices. We will not be publishing your letter in the magazine, as our “Letters” section is reserved for comment on editorial features and not on advertising.
We respect your concerns and we sincerely appreciate your many years as a subscriber, and we hope you will continue to read Harper’s Magazine.
What Can I Do?
Protest Politely But Firmly: Please remove this cruel advertisement!
John R. MacArthur, President and Publisher Harper’s Magazine 666 Broadway, 11th Floor New York, NY 10012
Dear Mr. MacArthur:
I am a decades-long, devoted reader of Harper’s Magazine.
I am writing to you now about an advertisement that Harper’s has been running for a year or more, for a product called Airbrush. This product contains emu oil, which is obtained by raising and slaughtering emus. I respectfully ask you please to stop running this ad promoting slaughterhouse emu oil.
I understand that most people are not familiar with emus other than as a demeaning cartoon character, which has nothing to do with actual emus, who, with ostriches, belong to the oldest living family of birds on earth, the ratites, or nomadic flightless fowl.
I do not wish to overwhelm you and Harper’s with material about emus, although I am prepared to do so if the Airbrush ad continues to appear in Harper’s Magazine. With this in mind, I’m enclosing two copies of our brochures about ostriches and emus entitled Nowhere To Hide.
I also respectfully refer you to our webpage on ostriches and emus at www.upc-online.org/ostriches. I urge you to read about these birds, their natural dignity, their strong family life, their amazing fleetness, and the horror of the slaughter to which they are subjected for their body parts. The high standards of Harper’s Magazine are incompatible with the brutality of the product, fittingly called “Airbrush,” since anyone who does not understand the source and meaning of emu oil is undergoing an airbrush.
I would appreciate receiving a response from you to my letter, and I hope for good news.
That said, thank you very much for your attention. Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Karen Davis, PhD, President United Poultry Concerns
Jan Whalen and Bluie the Emu in Everett, Washington
Emus are feathered dinosaurs that have existed in their present form for at least 2 million years. In contrast, anatomically modern humans have existed for only about 160,000 years. Emus have survived two brushes with extinction because of humans and are currently confronting the existential threat of climate change. Probably, they will survive us. Certainly, their collective dignity is undiminished by human mockery, despite the antics of humans who laugh at the frantic behavior of traumatized captives such as Emmanuel and the emus misused by Liberty Mutual for its commercials.
We could learn a lot from emus, whose flexibility, persistence and cooperative culture have helped them to flourish despite changing circumstances, including a war in which Australian farmers used machine guns to try to drive them from their homelands. To this day, they have not ceded those lands. Nor have they consented to be held perpetually captive and forcibly bred for human amusement and profit. Their captors cannot speak for them.
Before it’s too late, let’s respect and learn from emus and other nonhuman elders who may know things about the world that we cannot yet see. Let’s have empathy, too, and release the captives to sanctuaries or the wild.
Pattrice Jones, Springfield, Vt.
The writer is coordinator of VINE Sanctuary, a multispecies community that includes emus.
Louisiana officials announced they discovered the hatchlings of the world’s smallest sea turtle species on an island just off the coast of New Orleans for the first time in 75 years.
Officials identified at least 53 sea turtle crawls (the unique paths turtles impress in the sand on their way to the sea) belonging to the endangered Kemp’s ridley turtleat the Breton National Wildlife Refuge on Louisiana’s Chandeleur Islands. Kemp’s ridley turtles only grow to be two feet in length,according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
They observed two live hatchlings go into the water,the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in anews release.
Officials said the discovery of the turtles marked a positive sign for the island chain, which was decimated as a habitat followingthe Deepwater Horizon…
Gordon Burrell, from Hempton, near Fakenham, said villagers had come to the aid of ducks who have been left without a pond- Credit: Gordon Burrell
Concerned localshave stepped in provide pools of water for wildlifeafter seeing their beloved pond dry up.
Extreme heat and a lack of rain has taken its toll on the pond in Hempton, near Fakenham, which now resembles a barren pit.
Gordon Burrell, who lives in the village, said he believed it had been “neglected”, with mud and sludge allowed to build up.
Gordon Burrell, who lives in Hempton, near Fakenham- Credit: Gordon Burrell
He recently approached Hempton Parish Council (HPC), who told himthey are in talks with conservation contractors who will soon attempt to dredge the site.
A spokesman for the council said advice was being sought from conservation experts, and that…
TOWN OF ETTRICK (Trempealeau County), Wis. (WEAU) – One man has died after an ATV crash in Trempealeau County Thursday evening.
The Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were called to the Town of Ettrick just before 6:30 p.m. Thursday for a report of a missing man who had not returned home since Wednesday who was expected to be checking on hunting land near Lindberg Lane northeast of Ettrick.
Deputies searched the area and found the man pinned under his ATV. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputies said it appears he hit an embankment before it rolled. The victim’s name has not been released yet…
When was the last time a wild walrus ever injured anyone?
OSLO, Norway––Was Freya the walrus killed by Norwegian directorate of fisheries on August 14, 2022 in Oslo fjord to protect herself, or to protect human swimmers and boaters, as the Norwegian government alleges?
Or was Freya really killed to protect the heavily subsidized Norwegian whaling and sealing industries from the political consequences of the Norwegian public falling in love with a marine mammal?
Among the only public defenders of killing Freya were directorate of fisheries director general Frank Bakke-Jensen, whose mandate includes defense of whaling and sealing, but not any aspect of protecting public safety, and prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
Støre, a hard-line right winger, owes his position to voting support from the coastal regions where whaling and sealing are entrenched traditions, while showing any sympathy toward either marine mammals or terrestrial wildlife tends to be seen as suspect.
Norwegian prime minister defends killing Freya
“I support the decision to euthanize Freya,” Støre told the Norwegian national television network NRK hours after the killing.
“It was the right decision,” Støre insisted. “I am not surprised that this has led to many international reactions. Sometimes we have to make unpopular decisions.”
Much of the outrage over killing the 1,300-pound female walrus came from England, the Netherlands, and Denmark, where Freya stopped earlier during a 16-month odyssey around the North Sea, more than a thousand miles south of normal walrus habitat in the Arctic ocean.
But much criticism of killing Freya also came from within Norway.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Norse goddess of beauty & love”
“Freya, named for the Norse goddess of beauty and love,” reported Jon Henley for Associated Press, “had become a popular attraction since arriving on July 17, 2022 in the waters off the Norwegian capital, where crowds approached to watch as she basked in the sun or dozed on boats.
“Norway’s fisheries directorate,” Henley recounted, “said the walrus was euthanized ‘based on an overall assessment of the threat to human safety’ after the public ignored warnings not to get too close to her, often with small children, to pose for photographs.
“Other reports,” Henley continued, “showed people swimming with the walrus, throwing things at her, and surrounding her in large numbers. On one occasion police had to evacuate and seal off a bathing area after Freya chased a woman into the sea.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Who decided to euthanize Freya, & on what grounds?”
Spokespersons Siri Martinsen and Christian Steel of the Norwegian animal advocacy organizations NOAH and Sabima, Norwegian marine biologist Rune Aae, Oslo city council member Eivind Trædal, and Truls Gulowsen of the [Norwegian] Nature Conservation Association were among the outspoken critics of the killing,
Steel demanded release of “full documentation of who decided to euthanize Freya, and on what grounds,” Henley summarized.
Said Steel, “The directorate cannot keep this a secret just to make things convenient for itself. They have a reason for it. There must have been professionals in the picture who have made an assessment that this animal was stressed.”
Walrus at Tacoma-Point Defiance Zoo. (Beth Clifton photo)
“An embarrassing collective failure”
Gulowsen called the killing “an embarrassing collective failure,” acknowledging that people “behaved like idiots faced with nature.
“Elsewhere,” Gulowsen told media, “authorities managed to keep people away, and people managed to show consideration [for Freya]. But here in Oslo fjord, no one could be bothered––so we killed her instead.”
Zoologist Per Espen Fjeld, who also defends the Norwegian whaling and sealing industries, had argued for about a month that Freya should be shot, old VG on Monday it was “obvious” that Freya would have to be put down eventually, adding that the decision was entirely justifiable and had no consequences for the future of the species.
“You cannot expect 1.6 million people not to swim in Oslo fjord,” Per Espen Fjeld said. “People were out swimming and suddenly there it was, a meter away. If you get hit by even a little bit of 600 kilograms of muscle and blubber, everyone knows what happens.”
Top: Pia Ve Dahlen. Bottom: Per Espen Fjeld. (Facebook photos)
Per Espen Fjeld vs. Pia Ve Dahlen
But Per Espen Fjeld cited no precedent for a wild walrus ever injuring anyone. The ANIMALS 24-7 archives from the past 36 years include not even a report of a wild walrus injuring a traditional Inuit hunter in the act of trying to kill the walrus with a harpoon.
Changing the subject, Per Espen Fjeld pointed out that “There are 30,000 walruses in the North Atlantic. The difference between Freya and animals we issue death sentences on daily, because it is profitable or convenient for us,” Per Espen Fjeld wrote in a media statement, “is that Freya is an exotic feature in the media and has been given a name. A pure Bambi effect,” Per Espen Fjeld complained.
Countered Norwegian marine biologist and author Pia Ve Dahlen, “It’s crazy that a wild animal, who usually doesn’t care if a polar bear trudges past, died because we couldn’t keep away. I get so tired of the Norwegian approach that ‘No, now it must be shot’ if possible. As soon as these fascinating animals do something we consider inconvenient, the first thing we think about is shooting them.”
(Merritt Clifton collage)
Dangerous dogs
Said Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries director general Frank Bakke-Jensen, in a somewhat self-contradictory written statement, “According to veterinary experts the walrus seemed stressed by the massive attention [she received] and the welfare of the animal was compromised.
“Therefore, the Directorate concluded, the possibility for potential harm to people was high and animal welfare was not being maintained.
“We considered all possible solutions carefully. We concluded that we could not ensure the animals welfare through any means available,” Bakke-Jensen finished.
Some defenders of the decision to kill Freya likened the situation to the rationale for the Norwegian national ban on possession of pit bulls, including American Staffordshire terriers, Fila Brasileros, Tosa Inus, Dogo Argentinos, and Czechoslovakian wolfhounds: to prevent a public safety hazard from developing.
But that ban was enacted after dangerous dogs bred at a farm in Dragsten, Selbu, South Trøndelag in July 2014 killed a two-year-old girl. As many as 20 dogs were reportedly involved, many of whom had been offered for sale to the public.
Norway has had no fatal dog attacks since the dangerous dogs prohibition has been in effect.
The Freya case also evoked memories of the December 12, 2003 death of Keiko, the orca star of the Free Willy film series. Released off Iceland in July 2002, Keiko on September 1, 2002 swam into Skaalvik Fjord, Norway, 250 miles northwest of Oslo, and then into Taknes Fjord.
“The orca surprised and delighted Norwegians, who petted and swam with him, and climbed on his back,” reported Doug Mellgren of Associated Press.
Niels Oeien, of the Institute for Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, on September 3, 2002 accused Keiko of “disturbing fish farms,” and told Aftenposten Multimedia, “If there are more such episodes, he should be destroyed.”
Controversy over what to do about Keiko raged on for more than a year, until Keiko reportedly died of apparent acute pneumonia. His remains were buried before dawn three days later by five local volunteers and three of his former keepers from the final phase of his rehabilitation for release, after spending most of his life in captivity.
The Keiko episode visibly raised Norwegian opposition to whaling and sealing, but both heavily subsidized hunts continue with the aggressive support of the Jonas Gahr Støre government.
Minke whale. (Beth Clifton collage)
Minke whales “sold for dog food or just dumped”
Bjørnar Skjæran, named Norwegian minister of fisheries & marine affairs in February 2022, immediately set a 2022 whaling quota of 917 minke whales, down from the previous quota of about 1,200.
“The reduction in the quota number is largely meaningless,” said Michelle Collins of the British-based organization Whale & Dolphin Conservation.
“Full quotas have not been taken in recent years,” Collins explained, “but hundreds of whales are still slaughtered, often taking a long time to die. 2021 saw 575 minke whales killed, marking the deadliest whaling season since 2016. 503 whales were killed in 2020, and 429 in 2019.
“Norway’s government allows the minke whale hunts to go ahead under an ‘objection’ to the global ban on commercial whaling, and whalers continue to carry out this slaughter despite falling demand for whale meat in the country and a decline in the number of boats hunting each year.
“Last year,” Collins charged, “shocking new documents revealed that dwindling domestic demand for the meat means it is sold for dog food or just dumped into the sea.”
Sealing
Norwegian sealing, meanwhile, was for several years conducted with animal welfare inspectors aboard the vessels taking seal hunters to the ice floes, but the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 became a pretext for dispensing with the inspectors.
“Among the crews to go hunting without inspection,” the Norwegian organization NOAH charged, “are crew members who have been convicted of animal cruelty after several offences during seal hunting in 2009. In 2010 these crew members received some of the highest fines ever given for animal cruelty in Norway. The men were convicted based on documentation from an animal welfare inspector’s report, and video recorded evidence.
(Beth & Merritt Clifton)
“Around 80%” of the annual Norwegian seal hunt is subsidized,” NOAH continued. “In 2015 the government decided not to grant subsidies for 2016. That year there was no seal hunt. Sadly, subsidies were re-established in the following years.”
Recent Norwegian sealing quotas have allowed for killing up to 18,548 harp seals, the same species persecuted in Atlantic Canada, also with heavy governmental subsidies, in a region whose voting has often tipped the balance in Canadian national elections.
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Exposing the Big Game 