The Dog That Cornered Osama Bin Laden ... not your standard K9...nor is the gear‏

Cairo: War Dog of the US Navy SEALs (DevGru Unit)

(Elite K9 Commandos)

When U.S. President Barack Obama went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, last week for a highly publicized, but very private meeting with the commando team that killed Osama bin Laden, only one of the 81 members of the super-secret SEAL DevGru unit was identified by name: Cairo, the war dog. Cairo, like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, is a Belgian Malinois. The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 30-kilo range.

(German shepherds are still used as war dogs by the American military but the lighter, stubbier Malinois is considered better for the tandem
parachute jumping and rappelling operations often undertaken by SEAL teams. Labrador retrievers are also favoured by various military organizations around the world

Like their human counterparts, the dog SEALs are highly trained, highly skilled, highly motivated special ops experts, able to perform extraordinary military missions by SEa, Air and Land (thus the acronym). The dogs carry out a wide range of specialized duties for the military teams to which they are attached: With a sense of smell 40 times greater than a human’s, the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosive material and hostile or hiding humans. The dogs are twice as fast as a fit human, so anyone trying to escape not likely to outrun Cairo or his buddies.

The dogs, equipped with video cameras, also enter certain danger zones first, allowing their handlers to see what’s ahead before humans follow. As I mentioned before, SEAL dogs are even trained parachutists, jumping either in tandem with their handlers or solo, if the jump is into water. Last year canine parachute instructor Mike Forsythe and his dog Cara set the world record for highest man-dog parachute deployment, jumping from more than 30,100 feet up — the altitude transoceanic passenger jets fly at. Both Forsythe and Cara were wearing oxygen masks and skin protectors for the jump. Here’s a photo from that jump, taken by Andy Anderson for K9 Storm Inc. (more about those folks shortly).
As well, the dogs are faithful, fearless and ferocious — incredibly frightening and efficient attackers. I have seen it reported repeatedly that the teeth of SEAL war dogs are replaced with titanium implants that are stronger, sharper and scare-your-pants-off intimidating, but a U.S. Military spokesman has denied that charge, so I really don’t know (never having seen a canine SEAL face-to-face). I do know that I’ve never seen a photo of a war dog with anything even vaguely resembling a set of shiny metal chompers.When the SEAL DevGru team (usually known by its old designation, Team 6) hit bin Laden’s Pakistan compound on May 2, Cairo’s feet would have been four of the first on the ground. And like the human SEALs, Cairo was wearing super-strong, flexible body Armour and outfitted with high-tech equipment that included “doggles” — specially designed and fitted dog googles with night-vision and infrared capability that would even allow Cairo to see human heat forms through concrete walls. Now where on earth would anyone get that kind of incredibly niche hi-tech doggie gear? From Winnipeg, of all places. Jim and Glori Slater’s Manitoba hi-tech mom-and-pop business, K9 Storm Inc., has a deserved worldwide reputation for designing and manufacturing probably the best body Armour available for police and military dogs. Working dogs in 15 countries around the world are currently protected by their K9 Storm body Armour.

Jim Slater was a canine handler on the Winnipeg Police Force when he crafted a Kevlar protective jacket for his own dog, Olaf, in the mid-1990s. Soon Slater was making body Armour for other cop dogs, then the Canadian military and soon the world. The standard K9 Storm vest also has a load-bearing harness system that makes it ideal for tandem rappelling and parachuting.

And then there are the special hi-tech add-ons that made the K9 Storm especially appealing to the U.S. Navy SEALs, who bought four of K9 Storm Inc.’s top-end Intruder “canine tactical assault suits” last year for $86,000. You can be sure Cairo was wearing one of those four suits when he jumped into bin Laden’s lair. Here’s an explanation of all the K9 Storm Intruder special features:

Just as the Navy SEALS and other elite special forces are the sharp point of the American military machine, so too are their dogs at the top of a canine military heirarchy. In all, the U.S. military currently has about 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed around the world, with roughly 600 now in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here’s the link to a dandy photo essay about U.S. war dogs that just appeared in the journal Foreign Policy. Several of the photos I have included here are from Foreign Policy, as you will see. Other photos are from K9 Storm Inc.


As for the ethics of sending dogs to war, that’s pretty much a moot point, don’t you think? If it’s ethical to send humans into combat, then why not dogs? At least the U.S. now treats its war dogs as full members of the military. At the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. combat dogs there were designated as “surplus military equipment” and left behind when American forces pulled out.
NB: THIS POST WAS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM AN EMAIL I RECEIVED.(THANK YOU ARLENE) IT IS NOT IN ANY WAY MY OWN WORK OTHER THAN THE LAYOUT ON THIS BLOG PAGE. I AM ENTITLED TO NO CREDIT FOR THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AS MUCH AS I DID.

Spirit of the Wolf

Wolf is regarded in Native American and Celtic custom as the way to discover the deepest levels of inner self, of hidden perceptions and awareness. The image of the wolf howling at the moon symbolises this. On a subconscious level our emotions toward Wolf reflect our confused feelings with regard to ourselves as humans and individuals. We deem ourselves ‘civilized’ but in some form we are still animal, and as such bear a wild spirit all of our own. Wolf can and does, albeit with a sense of unease, prompt us to remember this.

The wolf, is a symbol of the night showing us through our night dreams, many things of great importance about ourselves. To really understand yourself can make for a lonely night journey, but you must be alone, and not discouraged by others beliefs understandings and opinions.

• The wolf teaches us to learn about our inner self and to discover our inner power and strength. However, to achieve this, we must take risks and face our deepest fears.
• Wolf requires honesty. Though commanding a lot of us, much is given in return; a spirit helper that is always there to assist, offering us exceptional capabilities to persevere.

Listen for, and learn to hear the voice within yourself, which in silence is as clear as the sound of the wolf howling in the night.

Wolf is a very sociable creature, fiercely loyal to their mates, with a strong sense of family whilst maintaining individuality and independence. Wolf packs are outstandingly systematised, but they remain beyond doubt spirits of wildness and freedom. They fight only when it is necessary, using instead shifts in stance, a growl, or a look to make a statement without resorting to violence.

• We are reminded not to waste resources and to learn how to avoid trouble and confrontations.
• People with Wolf as power animal have the ability to make quick and firm emotional connections. Trust your discernments regarding these bonds; wolf will be there to guide you.
• Take control of your life with Wolf’s assistance and do so with co-ordination and self-control.

We can benefit greatly in our lives by learning from the example of the wolf, understanding that there doesn't need to be any conflict between the solitary and social paths.

• Wolf teaches you to balance between the demands of family and the meeting of your own needs.
• Wolves are absolutely loyal to the pack but do not give up their identity to the pack. Wolf helps you to look at the areas of your life where you are behaving too dependently and those in which maybe you have become too independent.

Wolfs qualities, his medicine, offer us the aptitude to discover new ideas and in turn teach them to others.

• Wolf is considered an independent explorer who returns to his pack to pass on the knowledge he has acquired on his travels.
• During the process of exploring the hidden paths of consciousness, we too could well make enlightening discoveries of our own to share with and benefit the human pack.
• Wolf brings faithfulness, inner strength and intuition when he enters our lives, and also teaches us to live with ourselves.

Wolves are highly intelligent creatures, with highly developed senses, and a great sense of determination.

• A wolfs howl is primal, and both intensely powerful and deeply evocative. The howl is used to locate pack members or to let wolves from outside of the pack know their territory boundaries. If you hear your wolf howling, this may be a call to stand your ground, to fight your corner and defend your boundaries.

 

Wolves hunt in organised packs relying on their outstanding powers of endurance to run down weak and older animals. They have been known to cover 35 miles a day whilst pursuing their prey.

• Wolf is a symbol of stamina and strength, teaching you to know who you are, and to develop strength and confidence in what you do.

Whichever way wolf appears to you be it alone, embodying freedom or in a pack, embodying community feelings it is asking you to follow the example in your own life.
Be receptive to new concepts because in doing so you can gain more wisdom. Utilise it well and share it with others. And remember, wisdom is gained through experience, by travelling the road.

Technorati Tags: Wolf,Power Animal,symbol of wildness,Social and Family values,Intuition,Loyalty,Native American,Guides,White wolves

Samu - Fukushima Exclusion Zone Rescue Pups

Yamakiya in the district of Kawamatu is the latest part of the Fukushima Prefecture to be placed under mandatory radiation evacuation. Like Hirone, Kawauchi, Naraha, Iitate, Futaba, parts of Minani Soma and Iwaki City, all police barricaded, it too is destined to become a radio-active ghost town. In their wake these Japanese ghost towns are leaving animal death camps, with thousands of companion and farm animals trapped and abandoned without food, water or care.

The story of Samu is a small ray of hope in an increasingly desperate situation for both the animals and the owners who have been forced to leave them behind.

Samu is a black and white Spaniel x Labrador, who was also lactating (producing milk). She was handed over to Kinship Animal Rescue (one of the organisations going into the evacuation zones on animal rescue missions) by an evacuee unable to take her to the pet-free evacuation shelters. She believed Samu’s pups had perished.

But once shut safely in her transport kennel, Samu went frantic, desperately trying to escape. Along with her rescuers Samu returned to her home in Kawamatu where the search for her missing puppies began. Whilst they were checking a group of out-sheds Samu without warning but with single-minded determination and driving force of a mother’s instincts she dived straight down and underneath the floor boards. She had heard her pups crying for her but they were trapped and neither Samu nor her human companions could reach them.

Such was their rescuers determination to get the pups out, that no stone was left unturned, and in their efforts to reach the stranded pups, walls were torn down, sheet metal ripped away and plywood unceremoniously kicked in, until finally the floor boards could be hauled up and the first little pup- a female, pulled squirming and wriggling from the wreckage.

 

Further floor boards had to be ripped up and considerably more effort made before her littermates could also be rescued as they were trapped too far back to reach.

But their efforts were richly rewarded when Samu found herself joyfully reunited with her happily tumbling litter of all four of her missing 3-4 week old pups.

They were taken to a house rented by the JEARS(Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue & Support ) and Kinship Circle, in Inwashiro, Fukushima where they are able to offer temporary shelter and medical care to the animals they are able to rescue.

“KINSHIP CIRCLE, a U.S. nonprofit organization that specializes in animal advocacy and disaster rescue, has been in Japan since March to aid animal victims of the earthquake-tsunami-radiation disaster. The organization is issuing an urgent plea for donations to sustain search-rescue, animal food delivery, and emergency sheltering. Currently based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture and Inuwashiro, Fukushima Prefecture, volunteers drive hundreds of miles daily to reach, rescue and transport animals to safety.

WALK WITH ME IN THE LAND OF WOLVES

CHERNOBYL’S LOST CITY - COME WALK WITH ME IN THE LAND OF WOLVES

 

In light of the the current crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor…Choose your future carefully! It is you who has to live in it!

“We walked into a wasteland, grey and desolate. The buildings had deteriorated, windows had been smashed. Trees and weeds had grown over everything. It was a ghost town.” (Pripyat)

Image Credit: timmsuess.com

(Tim Mousseau – Professor of Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina - describing his first visit to Chernobyl)
Along with Anders Møller, an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, Tim Mousseau has conducted on-site research into the effects of radiation on humans and animals, with highly controversial results.
The basic facts of the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident in the Ukraine — the worst in history are well known. At 1.23am on April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Soviet nuclear power plant exploded, after an electrical test went horribly wrong. The radioactive material released was many times greater than the fallout over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, polluting about 80,000 square miles of land across Europe and spreading radioactive rain as far as north-west Ireland. In the wake of the accident, more than 300,000 people were evacuated and an 800 square mile exclusion zone created around the reactor – “the zone of alienation.”

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LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF THE RUINED REACTOR – THE LAND OF WOLVES

Pripyat was built as a town for the Chernobyl power station workers. It was viewed a model town. The apartment blocks were alive with fir trees and rose beds. It was a town of young people and growing families.
25 years on the abandoned town of Pripyat has become a wildlife haven. The Land of Wolves.There have been sightings of wolves, bears, wild boar and moose wandering the deserted streets, and swifts swooping round abandoned office blocks. Likewise sightings of deer and wolves have been reported at Kiev Oblast, situated near the border with Belarus, in the zone of alienation in Northern Ukraine. The only other resident is a solitary guard. Prior to the accident the population had been around 50,000.

The site of the Red Forest remains one of the most contaminated radio-active sites in the world today.

 
Although radiation levels have dropped significantly since 1986, there are still "hot" regions. the most contaminated areas measuring 300 microSieverts per hour on the Geiger counter, the equivalent of 1,200 times normal radiation levels.

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VEGETATION

Therefore it is surprising the vegetation in the zone of alienation has flourished. Like a strange nature reserve, flora and fauna, in the absence of human interference have reclaimed the abandoned land. Scientists have found that since 1990, growth flourished and the ecological effect has been positive. Eighty percent of the zone is now forested; before the disaster, it was just 20 percent. A total of 240 species of animals have been            
counted within the exclusion zone, most of which were present only in low numbers before the disaster. Giant catfish swim in radioactive water that surround the six nuclear reactors. Since nobody is going to go fishing, they’ll continue to breed and grow.That one should never eat the mushrooms or berries found there and that some of the clover might have six leaves is however another story.  

So, could it be that if wildlife can return so soon, nuclear radiation and power might not be as dangerous as we first thought?

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AN ECOSYSTEM IN CRISIS

The first discovery that Professors Møller and Mousseau made was that birds in the fallout zone were suffering increased levels of genetic mutations. The examination of 20,000 Barn Swallows found crippled toes, deformed beaks, malformed tails, irregularly shaped eyes and tumours. Some birds had red plumage where it should have been blue, or blue where it should have been red.
Because of contaminated food supplies, bird species have declined by more than 50 per cent in high-radiation areas. Only a fraction of the Swallows and Great Tits are reproducing, and of those that do lay eggs, only five per cent hatch. Less than a third of birds survive to adulthood. Professors Mousseau and Møller could confirm that these abnormalities were genetic by examining the Swallows' sperm.
They discovered a connection between antioxidants, radiation and plumage colour: showing birds with the brightest plumage are more likely to die. Antioxidants in both humans and birds, help counteract the effects of radiation Brightly plumaged birds migrating long distances eg Swallows, produce a lot of free radicals as a by-product of their very high metabolic rate and , resulting in tissue damage ~ Professor Mousseau.
Supplies of antioxidants in their blood and liver offset this.  Large amounts of antioxidants are directed to the female’s eggs, causing the bright yellow yolk. If their destination is in highly contaminated areas, they find it impossible to replenish energy reserves preventing Swallows from maintaining their bright plumage or re-directing enough antioxidants into their eggs, so few chicks hatch.
It continues down through the food chain. In the areas of highest contamination, fewer butterflies, bumblebees, grasshoppers, dragonflies and spiders are found. "The fact that insects, including pollinators, are sensitive to elevated contaminants has a significant impact on the rest of the ecosystem," ~ Professor Mousseau.
There is also another tragedy here. Professor Mousseau has started working with the Hospital for Radiation Biology, in Kiev, on a long-term study of humans who live in the area: more than 11,000 adults and 2,000 children in the Narodichesky region, 50 miles from Chernobyl.
The incidence among locals of cancer, birth defects and reduced lifespan is alarmingly high. What will be the consequences for the children of these children????

		WALK WITH ME IN THE LAND OF WOLVES VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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You have walked with me through the Land of Wolves…There will, without doubt, be many and varied opinions on the use of nuclear energy as a “safe, clean, low-carbon” energy source. But the hard, cold fact that remains seems to be that we cannot live WITH it and yet neither can we live WITHOUT it.

I for one, just hope that we too, do not end our days “Walking in the Land of Wolves.”

Technorati Tags: Fukushima,Chernobyl,Pripyat,Wolves,Nuclear reactor,Children,Genetics,Wildlife,Radiation,Radioactive

Ra Patera!!

Interstellar Light Show!

Ra Patera – Io

Ra Patera! The plume erupted into the night sky in a volcanic maelstrom of crackling electric blue flares, lighting up the urban skyline bursting across the indigo-black nit sky heading out to the impact crater on The Plains of Io.

An urban Moon wolf started and sat bolt upright, still and alert in an alien night.                                

It caught the commanding call of the Alpha, the Great Star-Wolf as it echoed across galactic space, its quality of sound resonating in a haunting array of pitches and tones, boomeranging to the minds of each and every Wolf Breed, The Breed of the Moon, carrying with it the colourful signature notes of their ascendant - the one known as Star of the Celestial Wolf. The new guardian of the Wolf Ways, the Pathfinder, summoning them, all.

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Transfixed those who had travelled across worlds, to view, watched the huge explosive volcanic plume, erupt into a maelstrom of transient blue light streaming across space from Io into the skies of Jupiter.


They gazed in wonder at the vision as luminescent dolphins leapt and played through Io's shimmering moon shadows dancing in the glow-in-the-dark, azure-blue plume that originated from Io’s large shield volcano, a feature known as, Ra Patera. They marvelled at the radiant coastline alive with whistling dolphin song and the mesmerizing, spellbinding song of the stars. The Fire Wolves call to the stars, the sea alight with charged plumes of icy fire. The world in awe.
 

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The cruise ship slid silently between worlds, a vast tourist in a sea of suns, slipping across jewelled solar systems and through rainbowed ring systems to capture, for  a moment, the beauty of their worlds. Wide eyes watched the moment as infra red rose in auroral bands across the rock strewn world of Io – moon of Jupiter - a wildly exotic world, with a sulphur-covered surface and violently active sulphur volcanoes. A world of lava flows and lava lakes, of huge calderas and mountains many times taller than any seen on Earth.
Connected to Jupiter by a strong electric current, the orbital position of Io has a notable effect on the Jovian radio emission. In the midst of the colourful and radiant cloud belts, surrounding Jupiter, roiling storms rage, the tumultuous Jovian atmosphere possessing of a chaotic and ever-changing beauty that interacts with swirling hurricanes and wild wind-storm systems.

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Space was alive with an interstellar light show that threw an opera of rainbowed lights dancing over the cruiser's external surface shields. Seen from space they were ablaze with a flaming azure glow.

Star struck viewers watched the display in awed bemusement as the Ra Patera plume burst in burning sun-blue lights from the strange multi-coloured surface, surging and tumbling through Io's tenuous atmosphere streaming across space and exploding through Jupiter's own swirling turbulent atmosphere, and the dozens of interacting storm systems before curving out towards Interstellar space.
                                                       
Eddying and churning, whirling and twisting, blasts of light bent into rotating loops and spirals coiling across the stars in a whirlpool of blinding silver and exotic electric-blue waterfalls. The smouldering, glimmering radiance tingling up the cruisers interior in an unearthly ambient afterglow, a shimmying vortex in the observers eyes, enchanting all on-board.

(Copyright: Zia Wolf-Sun 2011 All rights Reserved)
Technorati Tags: Fire,wolves,Io,Ra Patera,Plume,Red,Blue,Urban,Interstellar,Electric,Jupiter,moon