The Daily Drift

Meme

Some of our readers today have been in:

Sampaloc, Philippines

Waterloo, Canada

Riyadh, Saudi Abrabia

San Jose, Costa Rica

Karachi, Pakistan

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Quito, Ecuador

Cape Town, South Africa

Shah Alam, Malaysia

Amman, Jordan

Krakow, Poland

Bangkok, Thailand

Papeete, French Polynesia

Caracas, Venezuela

Islamabad, Palistan

Montreal, Canada

Jakarta, Indonesia

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Leeds, England

Tbilisi, Georgia

Ankara, Turkey

Al Jizah, Egypt

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Istanbul, Turkey

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1817		Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state.
1861		Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America.
1862		The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
1869		Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office.
1898		The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States.
1917		The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross.
1918		U.S. troops are called to guard Berlin as a coup is feared.
1919		Captain Ross Smith becomes the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia.
1936		Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American-born divorcee.
1941		Japanese troops invade the Philippine island of Luzon.
1941		The siege of Tobruk in North Africa is raised.
1943		Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.
1943		Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
1949		150,000 French troops mass at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
1950		Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1977		On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow's Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world.

Non Sequitur

The truth be told

Falling Off Fiscal Cliff: Good for the Environment?

Fiscal trouble can force people to consume less -- and leave a smaller environmental footprint. 

But concern for environmental issues also drops.  

Read more

 

The truth hurts

Just saying ...

Tom Coburn: Medicare, Social Security “are things we don’t absolutely need”

Yes, he is a repugican (was there any doubt).

Tom Coburn, who’s considered the repugican “expert” on health care, because he’s a “doctor,” just said that Medicare and Social Security “are things we don’t absolutely need.”  (Video below.)  Coburn has had it out for Medicare for a while now.
Other things Coburn doesn’t think we need include food safety, veterans’ benefits, and any kind of assistance to those who risked their lives responding to the September 11 attacks.
Ah yes, there’s nothing quite like the words of a pampered and entitled US senator preaching about what we need or don’t need, especially when it comes to Medicare and Social Security.
When you compare the government-subsidized healthcare plan, pension and benefits of anyone in Congress to the general population, it’s shocking how much better it is.

Tom Coburn. 

Any normal person would be too embarrassed to call for cuts to middle class and poor benefits, but that doesn’t apply for obnoxious CEOs and the political class. Even Obama is tastelessly accepting unlimited corporate cash for his inauguration bash at the same time that he’s rumored to be agreeing to a bad deal with the repugicans over Medicare cuts. Let’s all hope that there’s a large misunderstanding with this rumor.
What’s equally disturbing is that the national media sits back and accepts such nonsense without question. Why is it so difficult to ask people like Coburn or anyone else in Washington – potentially even Obama – what cuts they’re willing to accept. We’re not talking about cuts for their constituents, since we know they don’t give a damn about them, but actual cuts to their own benefits?
There used to be a time when in business or government that we had leadership by example. Is that now obsolete? I’m struggling to see why it’s fair to ask the middle class to pay for the mistakes of the likes of Coburn and the political class who created these problems through their ongoing tax cuts and their ongoing wars.
It’s immoral.
Not to mention, what’s to stop the repugicans from bankrupting us once again with even more tax cuts and even more wars?  That’s what they did after President Clinton straightened out the budget.  Why do we never tie their hands – why not make it harder for them to cut taxes and go to war in the future?  Here’s John in a post last week:

If the repugicans and their blue dog allies are so concerned about the deficit, then let’s address the deficit by addressing the actual causes of the deficit.  Here’s my proposal:

1. Pass whatever legislation or rule change is needed to require a super-majority in Congress for any future reduction in taxes or increase in defense spending.
2. And for good measure, require that any tax cut or defense increase be accompanied by a corresponding tax surcharge to pay for it.

We can make it a surcharge on folks’ annual tax returns, a big red sticker or something – kind of like what Denny’s was talking about doing with Obamacare.  This way people will know exactly what that tax cut, or defense increase, is going to cost us.  And maybe we can list the members of Congress who voted for, kind of like those campaign ads: “I’m John Boehner and I approve this tax surcharge.”

Let the political class show us how tough they are by cutting their own fat benefits.
Maybe the cost savings isn’t that much, but that’s not the point, just as it isn’t the point of raising the Medicare age by two years when it will only, at most, save $15bn a year. Why should anyone take Washington seriously when they can’t even trim their own benefits, trim their own fat? Looking at friends and family working for businesses large and small, I can’t identify a single person that has such luxurious benefits as Coburn and the political class, and let’s no even talk about the military elite.

The commanders who lead the nation’s military services and those who oversee troops around the world enjoy an array of perquisites befitting a billionaire, including executive jets, palatial homes, drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.
The elite regional commanders who preside over large swaths of the planet don’t have to settle for Gulfstream V jets. They each have a C-40, the military equivalent of a Boeing 737, some of which are configured with beds.

Damn seniors.  The general needs another plane.
The next time anyone from Congress or the White House spouts off about cutting middle class benefits, ask them what benefits they’re giving up first.
Here’s Coburn on Medicare and Social Security not being absolutely necessary.

It’s immoral to cut Medicare to pay for the shrub’s lies

The shrub’s Tax Cuts and War in Iraq Broke Us, So Let’s Cut Medicare!

I cannot believe that Democrats are even considering raising the eligibility age for Medicare as part of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations.
First off, $15bn a year is hardly significant savings, and that’s what you save (at a maximum – some argue it’s significantly less) when you raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67: a whopping $15bn a year.

The shrub's tax cuts and Iraq, Afghanistan are causing the deficit. 

You know how much the shrub’s little venture in Iraq has been costing us per year? In FY 2011, $46 billion. That’s three times the savings from cutting Medicare.
And overall, the damn war is going to cost us $3 trillion, according to Joe Stiglitz. $3 trillion for the shrub’s lie. But let’s cut all of our Medicare coverage for two years in order to pay for the Republican party’s lie of the decade, along with their other lie of the decade, the shrub’s tax cuts, that supposedly were going to pay for themselves.
The tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined eat up the lion’s share of the deficit over the coming years.  (See the chart to the right.) So let’s cuts Medicare instead!
Just to be clear, those tax cuts and the shrub’s little wars are going to be paid for by cutting your and my Medicare coverage.
Nice.
You don’t see John McCain and Lindsey Graham calling for any hearings on why were lied to about any of those subjects, do you?

How Do We Know Obamacare Will Take Up Medicare’s Slack When We Don’t Even Know What Obamacare Will Do Next Year?

As for the argument that Obamacare will protect us when we hit 65 and need health care that otherwise would have been covered by Medicare… maybe.  The thing is, Obamacare hasn’t even been implemented yet.  No one can tell us for sure if we’re going to be paying less for our premiums next year under Obamacare, let alone when we’re 65.  Sure, they “think” it’ll be less.  But they don’t know.  But they’ll still willing to cut all of our access to Medicare for two yours on the promise – read: hope – that Obamacare “might” provide an affordable alternative.  But it might not.

But a side effect of raising the Medicare retirement age would be that a large cohort of 65- and 66-year-olds would suddenly find themselves needing the Affordable Care Act to buy their health insurance. Which is to say, repugicans attacking the Affordable Care Act would no longer be attacking the usual band of very poor or desperate people they can afford to ignore but a significant chunk of middle-class voters who have grown accustomed to the assumption that they will be able to afford health care. Strengthening the political coalition for universal coverage seems like a helpful side benefit — possibly even one conservatives come to regret, and liberals, to feel relief they accepted.

Where Exactly Are People Supposed to Come Up With the Money to Afford Private Health Insurance at 65 and 66?

Did you hear the one about how they’re going to cut our Medicare to pay for the repugican cabal’s lies? 

And what exactly is “affordable” when you’re talking about health insurance for someone who’s 65 years old?
And how much more will we be paying for health coverage at that age under Obamacare than we would have been paying under Medicare?
I’m paying nearly $6,000 a year as it is for my health insurance, and I’m not even near 65 (yet).  At one point, my rates were doubling every three years.  Is it crazy to worry that they might triple in the next 15? They tripled on me in less time than that.  So what am I going to be paying at 65 and 66?  $20,000 a year? $30,000 a year?  And mind you, we’ll be paying for two years – ages 65 and 66 – so are we going to be paying $40,000 or $60,000 to cover the two-year wasteland that people are now proposing?
Who knows.
What I see happening is a lot of people continuing to work past the age of 65 just so they’ll have health insurance until they’re 67, since they have no idea what Medicare covers anyway (I just went to the Medicare Web site, and it confused the hell out of me).  But of course, as Karoli points out, good luck keeping your job until 65, let alone 67:

Workforce phase-outs of older employees - This is the dirty little elephant in the middle of the room that no one talks about. Because of the high demand for jobs right now, older employees are beingshoved phased out earlier. Beginning at around age 50 to 55, jobs become scarce for older workers, leaving them with a 10-15 year gap before they become eligible for Social Security and Medicare. That means they’re living on their savings, home equity, or odd jobs just to scratch their way to the social safety net. Moving that football means leaving them on the hook for 2 extra years, not only for living expenses, but also covering their health insurance, whether or not subsidized.

I was talking to one of my neighbors the other day who was telling me his mother continued working until she was 70 so that they would have good health insurance to cover his dad’s lingering illness, as they weren’t convinced that Medicare was going to be good enough to keep dad alive.  Now that his father has passed away, mom can finally retire.  Why should anyone “have” to work to 70 in order to guarantee that their spouse can live?
And contrary to what Senate repugican health care “experts” are saying on TV these days, Medicare is not something “we don’t absolutely need.”  Where exactly are people supposed to go for health insurance if they don’t have Medicare?  Blue Cross?  That’ll be fun.

Let the repugicans Pay For Their Own Damn Mess

We are talking about saving a measly $15bn a year by cutting two years of Medicare coverage from all Americans.  That’s 1/3 of what we were paying just in FY2011 for the war in Iraq.  We could have saved Medicare, and a lot of other programs, had the repugicans not lied to Americans about the cost of tax cuts and the need for war.
The repugican lies got us into this mess, let them cut their own damn programs to get us out.  And let them start with Congress’ own cushy health care plan.

Funny Pictures

Big Media's Power Play

Bill Moyers and senator Bernie Sanders talk about the dangers of "bigger" media control.

in 1983, 50 corporations controlled a majority of American media. now that number is six. and big media may get even bigger, thanks to the FCC's consideration of ending a rule preventing companies from owning a newspaper and radio and TV stations in the same city. such a move — which they’ve tried in 2003 and 2007 as well –would give these massive media companies free rein to devour more of the competition, control the public message, and also limit diversity across the media landscape. Bernie Sanders, one of several senators who have written FCC chairman Julius Genachowski asking him to suspend the plan, discusses with bill why big media is a threat to democracy, and what citizens can do to fight back. - Bill Moyers

Awesome Pictures

Congressman calls for ban on 3D printed guns

Well, that was predictable: days after a 3D printed gun fired a few rounds, Rep Steve Israel has called for a ban on of Wiki Weapons. The congressman points out (correctly) that all-plastic 3D printed weapons would not be easy to spot using traditional methods, such as metal detectors.
However, what Rep Israel doesn't say is how he hopes to accomplish his goal. Firmware locks for 3D printers? A DMCA-like takedown regime for 3D shapefiles that can be used to generate plastic firearms (or parts of plastic firearms?). A mandate on 3D printer manufacturers to somehow magically make it impossible for their products to print out gun-parts?
Every one of those measures is a nonsense and worse: unworkable combinations of authoritarianism, censorship, and wishful thinking. Importantly, none of these would prevent people from manufacturing plastic guns. And all of these measures would grossly interfere with the lawful operation of 3D printers.

Rep. Steve Israel urges Congress to renew ‘Wiki Weapon’ ban

Why dictators (don't) shut down the Internet

Warren Ellis's Vice column, "How to Shut Down Internets," looks at the phenomenon of Middle Eastern dictators shutting off their nation's Internet during moments of extremis. Here's the money graf:

There are two reasons why these shutdowns happen in this manner. The first is that these governments wish to black out activities like, say, indiscriminate slaughter. That much is obvious. The second is sometimes not so obvious. These governments intend to turn the internet back on. Deep down, they believe they will be in their seats the next month and have the power to turn it back on. They believe they will win. It is the arrogance of power: they take their future for granted, and need only hide from the world the corpses it will be built on.

For me, this raises a couple of much more interesting questions:
1. Why would a basket-case dictator even allow his citizenry to access the Internet in the first place? (A: Because the national economy can't function without it)
2. Why not shut down the Internet the instant trouble breaks out? (A: Because it would be immensely unpopular, even among your sympathizers; also, see 1.)

How to Shut Down Internets

As Tibetan self-immolations rise, Beijing tightens grip

 

As the number of self-immolations in restive Tibetan regions rises sharply, Beijing appears to be tightening rules against the anti-China protests despite hopes the new leadership may take a softer line against Tibet.

Some experts have said Communist Party chief Xi Jinping -- whose former vice premier father had a close bond with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama -- might adopt a more reformist approach to the troubled mountainous region when he takes over as president in March.

But so far, the anti-China protests, including 81 burning cases this year, have only been met with an intensified crackdown by Chinese security forces.
Beijing has defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the remote region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation of serfs and economic stagnation until 1950 when Communist troops "peacefully liberated" it.
The country's top court and public security authorities have now issued a directive that allows for criminal charges, including intentional homicide, to be filed against self-immolators and anyone who "organizes, plots, incites, coerces, entices, abets, or assists others" in such protest.
An official southwestern Gansu province newspaper explained the order on its website last week, saying authorities should prevent people from gathering to mourn a self-immolator or collect money for family members.
State media reported on Sunday that police in Sichuan province detained a Tibetan monk and his nephew for "inciting" eight people to set themselves on fire since 2009.

There has been a steep increase in cases of self immolation this year, and in November alone -- when Xi was named the new head of the Party -- 29 people set themselves on fire.

In all, there have been 94 burnings to protest Chinese rule since 2009, according to the Tibet-government-in-exile. At least 77 people have died from their injuries.
Few people know what Xi thinks of Tibet or the Dalai Lama, but his liberal-minded father's thinking is certain to be influential.

The Dalai Lama has never met Xi but his fondness for his father is, for some, a sign that China's next leader may take a different line on Tibet. Some expect him to be more tolerant of Muslim Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang, and also of Taiwan, the independently ruled island that China has vowed to take back, by force if necessary.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
While the steep rise in cases of people setting themselves on fire appears to be strengthening solidarity among Tibetans, the grisly protests have drawn only a muted response from the international community and -- until very recently -- dwindling media coverage.
"The international community should be doing a lot more," Tibet's Prime Minister in-exile Lobsang Sangay told Reuters in Dharamsala, India, adding that the Tibetans are "definitely" dying in vain.
Last week, Washington did step up the pressure when Maria Otero, U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, said tensions in Tibetan areas, including self-immolations, had been exacerbated by tough Chinese policies and controls.
China's Foreign Ministry lashed back, calling the comments "disgusting" and saying it had prompted a formal diplomatic complaint with Washington.
The United States and several other countries have made calls for China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and end repressive policies.
But Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the international community has failed in its response by not uniting to put multilateral pressure on Beijing.
"Nobody is going to cut trade relations with China. But decades of inactivity have been detrimental," he said.
INCREASED SOLIDARITY
Advocacy groups say the new wave of self-immolations mark an intensifying phase of the Tibet protests, with people increasingly setting themselves on fire in small groups or within short spans of time.
All but one of the protests since 2009 have come after the March 2011 self-immolation of a 20-year-old monk, Phuntsog, at the Kirti monastery in a Tibetan part of Sichuan province.
Months of sporadic self-immolations by sympathetic monks and nuns followed, all in the name of opposing Chinese rule and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed 1959 uprising.
As sentiment spread, lay people in scattered villages in eastern parts of the Tibetan plateau in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces began to self-immolate as well.
Internationally, a single self-immolation appears to have lost the impact it once had.
"Appalling as it is to recognize, it now seems that these kinds of deaths become a politically effective tool only when they are done in clusters," said Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at Columbia University in New York.
Self-immolations have historically only been effective in achieving political concessions when carried out under weak governments, but they have increased solidarity within parts of the Tibetan community, Barnett said.
"It hasn't been effective in getting any change in policy, but it has been effective in mobilizing sentiment within the Tibetan community inside Tibet," he said.
The long lines of people going to pay respects and donate money to the families of people who have immolated are evidence of this, Barnett said. China's new regulations aim to suppress this practice.
But Barnett said Tibetans, including the exiled government in India, are playing the "politics of sympathy", a tactic that makes powerful symbolic statements, but does little to articulate coherent and urgent policy demands.

Homemade Syrian rebel-tank with gamepad gun controller

The unfortunately named "Sham II" is a homemade Syrian rebel tank whose main gun is directed with an off-brand video-game thumbstick/gamepad controller. Targetting is via webcam and cheap flat-panel display.

The Sham II, an updated version of a previously made Sham I light infantry by Syrian fighters from the al Ansar Brigade, cost approximately $10,000 (not including the gun), according to one rebel fighter whose brother had designed and built it. The vehicle is reportedly covered with steel plating approximately 2.5 centimeters thick. However, the Sham II is admittedly underprepared to defend against rocket-propelled grenades or tank fire. Rebels claimed the Sham II would soon be ushered into a combat role by members of al Ansar's Saad Benmoaz battalion near Aleppo.

Syrian rebels debut homemade fighting vehicle [Threat Matrix]

Shieldmaiden

A shieldmaiden was a woman who had chosen to fight as a warrior in Scandinavian folklore and mythology and they are often mentioned in sagas such as Hervarar saga and in Gesta Danorum. Shieldmaidens also appear in stories of other Germanic nations: Goths, Cimbri and Marcomanni. The Valkyries might have been based on the shieldmaidens, and they were J.R.R. Tolkien’s inspiration for Éowyn”

Daily Comic Relief

The Technical Challenges of Planting a US Flag on the Moon

American flag on the moon.

Like everything else in the Apollo 11 program, the construction, transportation and raising of the American flag on the moon was carefully thought out and planned. In 1992, Anne M. Platoff presented a paper to the annual conference of the American Vexillological Association on the topic. She covered in detail how NASA engineers ensured that the flag planting went smoothly:

Work on the lunar flag assembly began about three months prior to the Apollo 11 mission. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) (footnote 8) and a member of the Committee on Symbolic Activities, asked Jack Kinzler, Chief of Technical Services Division at MSC, for ideas regarding the EVA. Kinzler suggested that a full-size U.S. flag could be deployed using a specially designed flagpole. He drew up a preliminary sketch (Fig. 2) and the idea was presented to the committee. Working with Deputy Division Chief Dave McCraw, he worked out the details of the lunar flag assembly over several days. The design was based on a number of engineering constraints. For example, to compensate for the lack of an atmosphere on the lunar surface, the flag assembly included a horizontal crossbar to give the illusion of a flag flying in the breeze. (footnote 9)
Two other major constraints were the weight of the assembly and the stowage space required. The team designed the entire assembly to be as lightweight as possible -- when completed it weighed only 9 pounds and 7 ounces. They reduced the size of the package by developing a two-part telescoping pole apparatus with a telescoping crossbar. It was also necessary to design a flagpole that could be easily assembled and deployed by astronauts wearing space suits. Space suits used for the lunar surface EVA were pressurized to approximately 3.7 pounds per square inch and, as a result, the amount of force that the astronauts could apply with their gloved hands was limited and their range of movement was restricted (Fig. 3). 

More

Motopia

In 1960, British architect Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe proposed the city of the future for suburban London. Motopia was to be a residential town with all roadways elevated to the tops of the buildings. The ground was to be reserved for pedestrians -with moving sidewalks. He even had plans to insulate the overhead roadways to stifle traffic noise!

Planned for construction about 17 miles west of London with an estimated cost of about $170 million, Motopia was a bold—if somewhat impractical plan—for a city built from the ground up. The town was envisioned as being able to have a population of 30,000, all living in a grid-pattern of buildings with an expanse of rooftop motorways in the sky. There would be schools, shops, restaurants, churches and theaters all resting on a total footprint of about 1,000 acres.

The biggest draw of the plan was that people never had to worry about being hit by a car. However, we all know that some drivers don't stay on the roadway, and being squashed by a falling car is even more terrifying than being hit by one. Motopia was never built, but you can read more about what could have been at Paleofuture.

Devil's Town And The Village Of Blood

 

The locals believed for centuries that they were formed when devils fought for supremacy. In fact their origins are much more down to earth - literally. Take a trip to devil's town, a peculiar place if ever there was one. Devil's Town or Davolja Varoš as it is known in Serbian, can be found on the southern slopes of the Radan Mountains.

The area is steeped in European folklore and it is little surprise that for centuries these naturally occurring erosions were looked upon with fear and suspicion. The Devil's Town is a series of hundreds of stone pyramids and is located in the watershed between the equally frighteningly named Devil's Gully and Hell's Gully.

Science News

Sub-Antarctic lake to be explored

Final checks are under way in Antarctica before the launch of a daring attempt to investigate an ancient lake beneath the ice-sheet.

Random Photo

Porcupine Quills Inspire Medical Devices

By learning how barbs on porcupine quills work, scientists may be able to design needles that hurt less. Read more

 

Forget Extinct: The Brontosaurus Never Even Existed

Scientists knew something was funny about the Brontosaurus fossil reconstruction as far back as 1903, and have been telling us there's no such thing since the 1970s. So how did the popular image of the dinosaur Brontosaurus ever come about?

It dates back 130 years, to a period of early U.S. paleontology known as the Bone Wars, says Matt Lamanna, curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

The Bone Wars was the name given to a bitter competition between two paleontologists, Yale's O.C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope of Philadelphia. Lamanna says their mutual dislike, paired with their scientific ambition, led them to race dinosaur names into publication, each trying to outdo the other.

Cutting corners led to a "hybrid" fossil that contained the body of an Apatosaurus and the head of a completely different dinosaur. When the correct head was found, it was thought to be a new species, which was named Brontosaurus. Read the complete story at NPR. Still, the Brontosaurus lives on in vintage Sinclair memorabilia and reruns of The Flintstones. More

Live Birth Predates Dinosaurs

Around 280 million years ago, some ancient reptiles gave birth just like humans do today.  

Read more

 

Upping the 'Cute Factor'

30 Baby Animals That Will Make You Go 'Aww'

Some animals could just stay babies for ever - that's how cute they are! The age of reaching the maturity differs with every species and while a kitten might be considered a kid for around a year, and elephant might take 20 to mature.

Just like us, baby animals are curious, naive and big-eyed. Learning to tell right from wrong and the best ways to survive takes time, and definitely gives you some photo opportunities if you're around with a camera to capture it. Take a look at these cute baby animal pictures, radiating all the best vibrations and emotions

Elephant Custody Dispute

A new baby elephant was born Friday at the Oregon Zoo. The calf, a female, is doing fine so far. But animal rights activists discovered that although the mother belongs to the zoo, the actual owner of the yet-unnamed baby is  the private elephant ranch Have Trunk Will Travel. That discovery sparked such an outcry that the zoo felt compelled to call a press conference.

Why the outcry? Coincidentally or not, the Seattle Times published an investigative series the same weekend the yet-to-be-named calf took her first bites of hay. The series’ thesis: pachyderms in captivity die way too often. And one of those stories was about this particular baby, the offspring of Rose-Tu (mom) and Tusko (dad.) About how that baby might be yanked away from her big gray loving mom at some point and shipped off to do tricks for Have Trunk Will Travel, which animal-rights activists accuse of abusing elephants. Turns out, Have Trunk Will Travel actually owns that little baby elephant, Rumpelstiltskin style. The company also owns Rose-Tu’s fourth offspring, and her sixth. And that means the company has the right to take her away.

The agreement came about because Have Trunk Will Travel owns the baby's father, Tusko, which was loaned to the zoo for its breeding program. The show may never claim her, but activists don't want to take any chances. Read more about the complicated deal at The Daily Beast.

Monkey wearing winter coat found alone at Ikea

Mystery surrounds a little monkey who surprised shoppers at a Toronto Ikea on Sunday. Shoppers encountered the tiny creature adorned in a shearling coat and diapers running around the store’s upper parking garage at around 2pm

“It was just running around screaming,” said shopper Bronwyn Page. “There was a crowd of us around it and it seemed really scared and agitated.” Security guards at Ikea eventually cornered the animal in the garage elevator and called police. Animal Services soon arrived at the store to pick up the tiny shopper.

“The monkey was in a bit of shock, but it’s calmed down now that we’ve been feeding it some grapes,” said a representative at the North York Animal Services Center. “At least it’s warm and safe now ... It tried to keep warm in the coat the best that an animal of its size could.”

Animal Services said it was unclear where the monkey came from or who its owner was. Police, meanwhile, believe it is unlikely the owner will come forward. “You’ll never find out [who the owner is] because it’s illegal to have exotic animals like that in the city of Toronto,” said Const. Reid of 33 Division. “So we’ll never find out who misplaced their monkey.”

Animal Pictures