Galveston Pelicans Return in Smaller Numbers
Ike took its toll on on the bird population, so the Brown Pelicans numbers too a bit of a beating
The Galveston Daily News has a story about the return of our favorite bird.
The island’s famous brown pelicans returned to nest after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on their habitats, but they are arriving in fewer numbers than last year, bird watchers said.
Pelican habitats took a beating during Hurricane Ike. North Deer Island, once home to 40,000 birds of 17 species, lost one-third of its vegetation in the storm. It is still covered in debris, said Winnie Burkett, Houston Audubon Society’s sanctuary manager.
Despite the devastated habitat, pelicans have returned to roost there, with some building nests among the debris, she said.
At last count, there were 800 to 1,000 pelicans nesting on the 144-acre North Deer Island, down from 2,400 last year, she said.
Still, the return of brown pelicans is a hopeful sign to Burkett.
“It makes you feel very good,” she said. “We know the system repairs itself. It’s good to see that it’s doing that. Somehow or another, all those pelicans survived that storm, which I think is truly amazing.”
There’s not much humans can do to entice more pelicans to return, Burkett said. The natural vegetation will return, but it will take time — probably longer than expected due to the ongoing drought, she said.
OpenOffice 3.1 RC1 Torrent
OpenOffice 3.1 RC1 got dcistributed yesterday, but unfortunatly it can be rather difficult to find. I got a copy of it but am not quite sure of the best way to help distribute it.
I have the torrent
here I am, not sure just how well this will work. I will post a drop box address later today after its had a chance to sync. I will keep this file active at least until a newer version is released.
Atlas Shrugged goes Hollywood.
here is talk about bringing
Ayne Rand's Atlas Shrugged to the big screen.
After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand’s capitalism-minded “Atlas Shrugged” is taking new steps toward the big screen — with one of the film world’s most prominent money men potentially at its center.
Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago.
Rand’s popular but polarizing book — it’s derided by many literary critics but has a huge public following — tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive trying to keep her corporation competitive in the face of what she perceives as a lack of innovation and individual responsibility.
A number of stars have expressed serious interest in playing the lead role of Taggart. Angelina Jolie previously had been reported as a candidate to play the strong female character, but the list is growing and now includes Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway.
I don't know how well the book would translate to the big screen. It is a thousand page novel. But it will be interesting to see the translation.
UpDate on OOo 3.1 Release
Open Office 3.1 was
scheduled to be released, on March 26th. Its obvious to those of us visiting the
Openoffice.org and the mirror sites that this isn't the case. The first Release Candidate RC1 will released should be out on April 4th. I consider Release candidates as somewhat more stable than typical Betas. If all goes well we should see the finnal release of 3.1 on April 15th
