England’s frogs are provided ‘frog ladders’

A small group of British conservationists are installing mesh- covered ladders in roadside drains to save trapped amphibians from certain death.

The Warwickshire Amphibian and Reptile Team — the memorably acronymed WART — hopes that by placing 20 of the rust-resistant aluminium ladders down drains near known breeding pools in England’s West Midlands, they can boost the dwindling amphibian population.

“The amphibians are coming to breed and then hitting the road, getting across the roads, hitting the curb, along the curb and into the drains. And then that’s it — end of story for them, game over,” said Tim Jenkins, a ladder fitter at WART.

The issue of trapped toads is not limited to Britain. A 2012 study in the Netherlands estimated that more than half a million small vertebrates like frogs, toads and newts end up trapped in gully pots and drains each year.

It is one of the factors, along with habitat loss, that is blamed for common toad numbers declining by 68 percent over the past 30 years, according to a 2016 report by the conservation group Frog life.

Dubai police on ‘hover bikes’

Dubai police confirmed officers are being trained to ride drone-like “hover bikes” so they can be used in the future to access difficult-to-reach areas.

The department is training officers on Hover Surf’s ‘electric vertical take-off and landing’, or eVTOL, vehicle after receiving the first serial production unit of the S3 2019 Hover-bike.

The eVTOL makes good on a deal signed in 2017, when Hover surf showcased a Dubai Police-branded Hover-bike at tech expo GITEX.

Brigadier Khalid Nasser Alrazooqi, general director of Dubai Police’s artificial intelligence department, told CNN, “Currently we have two crews already training and we’re increasing the number.”

Age is just a number?

Dutchman, 69, seeks age change to 49. The self-styled positivity guru Emile Ratelband thinks age is just a number. And his is a number the Dutchman wants changed.

The 69-year-old TV personality has asked a court in the Netherlands to approve his request for a new birthday that officially would make him 49.

Ratelband says his legal appeal is consistent with other forms of personal transformation that are gaining acceptance in the Netherlands and around the world.

“With this freedom of choice, choice of name, freeness of gender, I want to have my own age. I want to control myself,” he said. Ratelband says he wants to avoid age discrimination in society.

“I don’t want to lie,” he said. “I want to be myself, so don’t force me to lie.”

Marjolein van den Brink, who specialises in human rights and gender issues at Utrecht University’s law school, said age discrimination is a problem but is different than the issues involved in reassigning gender.

Ratelband, who makes a living urging people and businesses to be positive, denies that the age request is a publicity stunt. He claims he is seeking a personal positive effect.

“Now I’m an old man. I have to save my money to give to my kids so that they can live,” said the father of seven. “But If I have that age again, I have hope again. I’m new again. The whole future is there for me again.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 17th, 2018