Protecting the grey rat snake in Ontario

From “letters” section Frontenac News  8 March 2012:

Recently, the Ontario Ministry of Natural resources (MNR) proposed new regulations to protect the gray rat snake. These regulations include three levels of exclusion zones around the snakes’ habitat reaching out as far as one kilometre from their known haunts. And just in case if you forgot how the MNR works, these regulations will restrict or prevent what you can do on your private property without compensation if a gray rat snake is found within 1000 meters of your land.

But what many people don’t know is the way that the MNR determines whether a species should be protected or not. A committee, all of whose members receive handsome per diems, looks at five criteria to determine whether a species in Ontario should be protected. However the committee and MNR do no research or studies themselves, but rely on information provided by the federal government.

How to protect yourself from radiation

From the Hella Delicious blog:

Fukushima Japan -- site of recent and probably continuing radiation release

I’m really worried about the levels of radiation and the situation in Japan. The sad thing is there are already high levels of radiation in our world–higher than they were ten years ago at any rate. They come from increased use of cellphones, wireless networks, electrical equipment, medical equipment and other things.