Starship Asterisk*

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24040130 wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]The blobfish has topped a list of some very strange-looking creatures that all '[i]need help[/i]'[/size][/color][/b]

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Blobfish wins ugliest animal vote
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

<<The grumpy-looking, gelatinous blobfish has won a public vote to become the official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. This gives the fish the unofficial title of world's ugliest animal. The society began as a science-themed comedy night and devised its mascot campaign to draw attention to "aesthetically challenged" threatened species. The winner was announced at the British Science Festival in Newcastle. The blobfish tops a list that includes the huge-nosed proboscis monkey, the similarly afflicted pig-nosed turtle, an amphibian affectionately known as a "scrotum frog" and pubic lice.

Biologist and TV presenter Simon Watt, president of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, said he hoped the campaign would draw attention to the threats facing these weird and wonderful creatures. In the 1988 BBC One programme Odd Noses of Borneo, Sir David Attenborough addresses the question of exactly why the endangered proboscis monkey has such an oversized nose. "Our traditional approach to conservation is egotistical," he told BBC News. "We only protect the animals that we relate to because they're cute, like pandas. "If extinction threats are as bad as they seem, then focusing just on very charismatic megafauna is completely missing the point. I have nothing against pandas," he added, "but they have their supporters. These species need help."

Mr Watt said he hoped the vote would also bring a lighter side to conservation. "It's the most depressing type of science to be involved with," he said. "It's basically working out: What died today?" For this campaign, Mr Watt worked with comedians, each of whom created a campaign message on YouTube for their chosen creature. The society asked the public to vote for their favourite. The blobfish eventually won by almost 10,000 votes.

The bizarre creature lives off the coast of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, at depths of between 600 and 1,200m, where atmospheric pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level. Its gelatinous body is just slightly more dense than water, and it spends its life "bobbing around" in the depths. It feeds on crabs and lobsters and so suffers a significant threat from fishing trawlers. Although it is inedible itself, it gets caught up in the nets.

Other animals on the shortlist face similar threats to their habitats and Mr Watt hopes that this campaign will highlight the fact that conservation should focus on the protection of habitats rather than specific species.>>

geckzilla wrote:Poor blobfish. I know you look better before you get taken out of your deep habitat where the water supports your interesting body structure. Don't feel bad!

neufer wrote:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24040130 wrote:
<<In the 1988 BBC One programme Odd Noses of Borneo, Sir David Attenborough addresses the question of exactly why the endangered proboscis monkey has such an oversized nose. "Our traditional approach to conservation is egotistical," he told BBC News. "We only protect the animals that we relate to because they're cute, like pandas. "If extinction threats are as bad as they seem, then focusing just on very charismatic megafauna is completely missing the point. I have nothing against pandas," he added, "but they have their supporters.">>

Beyond wrote:
That seems to be a 'pandering' video, to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandarus wrote:
<<Pandarus was a Trojan aristocrat who appears in stories about the Trojan War. The plot function of the aging Trojan lech Pandarus in Chaucer's and Shakespeare's famous works has given rise to the English terms pander. The verb "to pander" is used to suggest active or implicit encouragement of someone's weaknesses.>>

neufer wrote:The largest optical telescope east of Texas

Beyond wrote:
That seems to be a 'pandering' video, to me.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/giant-pandas-are-cute-to-many-but-there-are-some-who-cant-stand-them/2013/09/15/7b2cb5d0-1e1f-11e3-8459-657e0c72fec8_story.html wrote:
Giant pandas are cute to many, but there are some who can’t stand them
By John Kelly, Washington Post, 9/15/2013

<<“I think it’s hard to be a panda hater and live in Washington,” Nichole Remmert told me when I called her last week. Fortunately for Nichole, she no longer lives in Washington. Last year, after 20 years in the District, she moved to Pittsburgh, whose residents presumably don’t breathlessly follow the fortunes of the National Zoo’s pair of overgrown raccoons, and where the local news outlets do not breathlessly report every squeal and hiccup of the new cub.

Are you a panda-hater? As Elahe Izadi, a D.C. journalist and comedian, puts it, we have a tendency to go crazy over pandas simply because they’re so cute and appeal to us in a way that, say, Komodo dragons don’t. “Our unquestionable devotion to pandas represents one of humanity’s worst qualities: our vanity,” she wrote in an e-mail to me. “But don’t get me wrong, I am no monster. Cute animals are great! I like kittens and all of that. I do not, however, want to get live updates on the artificial insemination of your cat, nor will I wait in a line to see its offspring.”

The folks at the National Zoo take it all in stride: “The giant panda is just one element from a giant ecosystem that is being preserved... It’s the same thing with tigers, elephants or great apes: When you save that animal, you’re saving all the habitat they require for survival, which drives benefits for lots of other species and humans. The net gain is for a lot more than just pandas.”

In other words, all you panda haterz [sic] can go suck bamboo.>>

geckzilla wrote:
Would she rather hear and see the mountain chicken frog's reproductive and tadpole rearing behavior?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Leptod ... x#p00kdg1d

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptodactylus_fallax wrote:
<<Leptodactylus fallax, commonly known as the Giant Ditch Frog, is a species of frog that is native to the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Montserrat. Locally, it is known as the Mountain Chicken for its large size and the fact it is hunted for food. The population has declined 80% in the last ten years and this species is now critically endangered. It was estimated that the population possibly was as low as 8000 individuals (in 2004). One of the main threats is human consumption. The fungal disease chytridiomycosis has also had a dramatic effect on the population. Following the catastrophic volcanic eruptions on Montserrat, it became clear that dedicated conservation measures were needed if the Giant Ditch Frog was to be saved from extinction.>>

geckzilla wrote:Would she rather hear and see the mountain chicken frog's reproductive and tadpole rearing behavior?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Leptod ... x#p00kdg1d

geckzilla wrote:
What the hell? That was really stupid.

• A TMZ parody

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/giant-pandas-are-cute-to-many-but-there-are-some-who-cant-stand-them/2013/09/15/7b2cb5d0-1e1f-11e3-8459-657e0c72fec8_story.html wrote:
Giant pandas are cute to many, but there are some who can’t stand them
By John Kelly, Washington Post, 9/15/2013

<<“I think it’s hard to be a panda hater and live in Washington,” Nichole Remmert told me when I called her last week. Fortunately for Nichole, she no longer lives in Washington. Last year, after 20 years in the District, she moved to Pittsburgh, whose residents presumably don’t breathlessly follow the fortunes of the National Zoo’s pair of overgrown raccoons, and where the local news outlets do not breathlessly report every squeal and hiccup of the new cub

stephen63 wrote:
I've never heard of TMZ either until I googled "panda paparazzi"

• A FONZ parody?