Science

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Dolphins including rare albino worth millions await their fate after being rounded up in cove while Japanese fishermen will decide whether they live or die

250 dolphins being held captive, waiting for slaughter by spike or captivity

They will meet their fate tomorrow, when the selection process begins

The hunting process was documented in the Oscar winning film 'The Cove'

Albino bottlenose dolphins are the rarest and will be captured and sold

Blame could lie with burgeoning Japanese marine park industry

Fishermen use brutal tactics to herd and capture the dolphins in the cove

The yearly killings mean the dolphin population is being decimated

Elder dolphins are killed or captured, meaning they cannot raise young

Over 250 dolphins are being held captive in a cove on the coast of Japan, waiting for either a life in captivity, or slaughter.

The bottlenose dolphins, including one young and very rare albino dolphin worth millions, will be kept until the brutal selection process of the aquarium industry begins on January 18.

Those that aren't taken to perform in shows will either face death by spear, or a gory corral back into the sea with their community much thinner and a lot weaker.

Scroll down for videos

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The pod of dolphins being held captive in the cove on the coast of Japan

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Harsh conditions: These poles are deployed above the water, and then the fishermen hit a flange on the top of the poles with a hammer, creating a cacophony that drives the dolphins back out to sea

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Annual process: The fishing crew are pictured transferring several dolphins into the 250-strong pod

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Rounded up: The dolphins were forced to wait in the pen for 19 hours until the holding reached critical mass

The cove in Taiji on the south-west coast of Japan was made famous in the Academy Award-winning film The Cove, which documented the entire process from capture, to selection, to aftermath.

Within the captured pod there is a young albino bottlenose dolphin, who is likely to be kidnapped by the aquariums.

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Albino bottlenose dolphins are extremely rare, and are worth considerable money to marine parks as spectator items and entertainment.

The marine parks in Japan are modeled after the U.S. aquarium industry that make millions of dollars using dolphins for extremely popular aquatic acrobatic shows.

Shocking footage of dolphin slaughter in Taiji Cove

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Tradition: Each year the fishermen capture and kill a huge amount of dolphins, putting the population at risk

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Did she kill herself? There is speculation that the mother of this albino dolphin trapped by Japanese fishermen in a cove has committed suicide after being torn apart from her baby

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One of the crusaders from Sea Sheperd, who hope to bring the dolphin's plight to light (left). The fishermen preparing their nets to capture the next pod of dolphins (right)

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The albino dolphin is one of the rarest from this current batch of captured bottlenoses

If the dolphins that escape captivity are not killed, they are 'driven' back to the open ocean by 'banger boats' that force them to travel out to sea using long poles attached to the sides of the boat.

These poles are deployed above the water, and then the fishermen hit a flange on the top of the poles with a hammer, creating a cacophony that drives the dolphins back out to sea.

This is the same tactic that the fisherman use to push the dolphins into the cove and capture them.

The Cove exposes hunting of dolphins in Japan

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Heavy machinery: Fishermen hoist a dolphin out of the sea, on its way to either lifetime captivity or death

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Boat: 'Banger boats' use poles and flanges to make unpleasant sounds, driving the dolphins to specific places

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Preparation: Fishermen and trainers unload the orange nets yesterday - just 24 hours before decision day

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(Left) the fishermen are for the most part, a selection of fishermen from the Ishana Fishermen's Union. (Right) one of the dolphin fences inside the cove that allows the fishermen to stand watch

Those driven back to sea will likely be very young, and will not have the guidance of the elders that have been killed or captured, making them very unlikely to survive.

Because the process is being repeated every year, entire communities of migratory dolphins along the coast of japan are being destroyed.

The capturing and killing of the dolphins is mostly carried out by the Isana Fishermen's union, who are being fought relentlessly by the Sea Shepher Conservation Society Cove Guardians.

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The dolphins will be uncomfortably oblivious of the impending doom some of them will suffer at the hands of the fishermen. They are captured around four to five at a time until enough of them are collected for 'selection'

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Treatment: The fishermen brutally kill the dolphins they do not set free or capture using a sharp spike or spear

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Cramped: The cove does not provide much space for the dolphins to swim, forcing them to huddle up in groups

Friday 3 January 2014

1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - DSM Redefined

John Freund’s 2g Mitsubishi Eclipse and its Brilliant aero package breathe new life into an old favorite.

For those of you who've been hanging around the sport-compact scene long enough, there's a good chance you fell in love with Japanese performance cars because of the turbocharged triplets from DSM: the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, and Plymouth Laser. That early taste of boost pressure and cutting-edge Japanese style certainly blew my mind back in the '90s, and as we all know, it blew a lot of other young car-crazed minds in 2001, thanks to the big-screen antics of Brian O'Conner and his bright green 2g Eclipse. if only he hadn't gone for that second NOS button too soon. . . .

1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX Magnus Motorsports Stroker Short Block

Eleven years later, we're all a little wiser about the danger to our manifolds and pocketbooks, but that doesn't mean the DSM scene has lost any of its magic. Tuners like Magnus Motorsport and Buschur Racing have kept the 4G63T engine and the DSM chassis relevant despite some of the Fast & Furious stigma that followed that fateful street race. and more recently, a world-class aerodynamicist named Andrew Brilliant has given time attack enthusiasts like John Freund reason to believe the 2g Eclipse is ready for a return to the spotlight.

As fate would have it, the first car John bought with his own money, back in 1998 while getting a degree in electrical engineering at Cornell University, was a slushbox-equipped '95 Eagle Talon TSi AWD. As he told us, "I knew nothing about cars. I didn't even know how to change the oil or add coolant. I knew this car was turbo and all-wheel drive without really understanding what that meant, and it looked awesome with that enigmatic bump in the hood. Basically I just got lucky when it came to picking the car. Thanks to the talon digest (the email listserv predecessor to today's DSM online forums) I learned quickly of the potential in the platform. The following summer, having made some money at an internship, I bought my first mods: a K&N air filter and a thermal R&D cat-back. I loved them and at the time was content with the loud noise and slightly faster than stock car. The next year at school I met a fellow DSMer, and after he gave me a ride in his 16g-equipped '97 GSX, I was hooked. I had to have more power!"

From there John was slowly sucked into the money vortex known as horsepower addiction, acquiring the then legendary 16g turbo while following the standard upgrade path of upper intercooler charge pipes, a blow-of valve, a full 2.5-inch exhaust, and an S-AFC "tune" that put him at around 310 whp. and in typical I-wanna-go-fast fashion, he dabbled in drag racing but found the automatic transmission was really holding the car back. That's when he went shopping for a five-speed-manual-equipped car (originally sourcing a '95 Eagle Talon TSi, but after an accident in 2001, he wrote that car of and picked up the '99 Eclipse GSX you see here), onto which he swapped all the mods and immediately saved 0.7 second in the quarter-mile.

1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX NRG Steering Wheel

According to John, "At this point I probably would have continued down that quarter-mile road so many other DSMers have traveled, had it not been for a local DSMer who turned me on to road racing. I hit Summit Point Raceway at an HPDE event with NASA and was hooked. I worked through to the advanced group after only a few weekends (I guess Gran Turismo paid of), at which point my focus became not modifying for straight line but for the road course."

Making power really wasn't an issue, since the DSM drag racing scene had led to a lot of development in this area, but finding high-quality road racing parts for the rest of the car proved to be a real challenge. as John put it, "I developed the car about as far as it could go with my average budget, using off-the-shelf parts while slowly resigning myself to the fact that the car just couldn't compete unless I made enough money to start making custom parts for just about everything. So the car stayed like most other DSMs: with some rudimentary suspension upgrades and increased power, but without enough to really go anywhere in a competition road course environment."

That's when John became aware of Andrew Brilliant, whose name turns out to be anything but ironic, given his Ph.D. in aerodynamics and his now-famous work on the World Time Attack Championship-winning Nemo Racing Mitsubishi evo. Andrew isn't just a wind-obsessed uber-nerd, he's also a DSM owner and fellow speed freak. As John put it, "this guy builds a FWD 2G Eclipse GST Spyder, a freaking convertible, into a land-speed car for the Bonneville Salt Flats and starts kicking ass. he then gets pretty much written out of the competition via rules changes that very suspiciously appear directed at removing him alone from the race. So what does he do? Jumps into time attack racing. He designs some real aero, suspension mods, and puts together a killer engine and turbo setup, and immediately kicks ass and starts dominating, setting records all over the place. He shares quite a bit of his knowledge with the rest of us, and for the handful of us DSM road racers really starts to give us hope."

Rather than trying to out-engineer a man with the last name Brilliant, John chose the smarter route and began replicating some of his setup, such as building a custom front subframe and using modified KW Variant 3 suspension. But since so much of Brilliant's Eclipse was custom one-off hand-fabricated parts, a lot of it seemed inaccessible to John. But then in 2010, like a CFD gift from DSM heaven, Brilliant produced five copies of the his highly functional aerodynamic body parts, along with details on how to properly install them. as John explained, "With how amazing it worked for him [Brilliant], I felt with his aerodynamics I could finally start exploring the real limits of my Eclipse. This was my chance to finally see what the platform could do! I jumped at the chance and was lucky enough to snag one kit."

Of course, to take full advantage of the kind of downforce Brilliant's body kit is capable of making, John knew his 4G63T would need to make some serious jam and do it reliably. For this he turned to Magnus Motorsports, where owner Marco Passante built him a long-block capable of handling anything John could throw at it. John also had to fill out the wide arches on the Brilliant body kit, bolt on bigger brakes to handle the much higher speeds the car would be reaching, install a wing and rear diffuser that would balance out the aero package, and beef up the drivetrain. The laundry list is significant when building a time attack car this serious, and like so many projects of this nature, it is still a work in progress.

As John told us, "A lot of my passion for my car developed from actually driving it. Being on the road course, catching up and passing cars, wondering how my little four-banger was doing what it was doing . . . that has driven me to go further. Hence the license plate." so where does John plan to go with a DSM this wild? having written of the idea of wheel-to-wheel racing for fear of damaging the 1-of-5 Brilliant aero parts, he's chosen to fully dial in his Eclipse for time attack racing. right now he's running it in NASA TTU on street tires, but as John continues to develop his DSM, we fully expect to see it rolling on race rubber and making the kind of power required to run with the big dogs at super lap battle and global time attack's east coast events.

10 Interesting Vin Diesel Facts.

If you are a fan of action movies, I think you will like to read about the Vin Diesel facts below. This gorgeous man is so famous because of his challenging and action movie. He has muscular shape of body. Oh his brown eyes will make the heart of the women in this world. Whether you agree or not I think Vin Diesel is a very good actor.

1.Vin Diesel College

The first point of the Vin Diesel facts talks about his college. This man had pursued his education onthe Hunter College. Probably you will think that he must take Acting or Film Studies as his major. That’s wrong for he takes English. Probably it is because he wants to get the ability for writingscreenplay.

Vin Diesel facts: Hunter College

2.Ethnicity of Vin Diesel

Talking about the ethnicity of Vin Diesel, it will make us a bit confused. This man is so multicultural. Based on the Vin Diesel facts, I can say that this good-looking man shares German, Irish, Mexican, Italian, Dominican, and many other ethnicity bloods.

Vin Diesel facts: Boiler Room

3.Multi-Facial

The first movie in which this man had become the actor, director, writer, and producer is Multi-Facial. He was only 26 years old when he did such a changeling job. This film was released in 1994 and it screened a year later on Cannes Film Festival.

Vin Diesel facts: Cute Vin Diesel

4.First name of Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel is a pseudonym of this man. He picked it when he worked as a bouncer. Many people believed that his real name is Mark Vincent.

Vin Diesel facts: Muscular Vin Diesel

5.Vin Diesel and acting

Hi first acting was not seen on screen, but on the Manhattan Theater. In a week, this fabulous man only earned $20. The theater is located on the New City of Greenwich Village.

Vin Diesel facts: Pitch Black

6.Vin Diesel birth

Vin Diesel was born on 18th July 1967. Based on the Chinese calendar, this man was born on the year of Goat. His zodiac is cancer. I think that’s an interesting fact for the people who concern much about zodiac and that sort of thing.

Vin Diesel facts: Saving Private Ryan

7.Vin Diesel first job

As I have stated previously, the first job of this man was as a bouncer. When he started this job, he began to change his real name. I just do not know whether he wanted to be a bouncer again or not after he became a successful and rich actor.

8. Saving Private Ryan

One of the successful movies starred by Vin Diesel is Saving Private Ryan. I believe that you have watched this movie for I have seen it for several times. This movie was released in 1998 and gained lots of attention from the critics and spectators all over the world. The director of this movie is the notorious Steven Spielberg. The other actors starred in the movie include the Matt Damon and Tom hanks.

Vin Diesel facts: Vin Diesel in Action

9.Vin Diesel’s family

The ninth position of the Vin Diesel facts is about his family. The mother of this man works as astrologist and psychologist. This man had been raised by her mother and stepfather along with his twin brother and 2 sisters. His stepfather was a drama teacher and actor.

Vin Diesel facts: Vin Diesel’s Kids

10.Vin Diesel movie

Vin Diesel has starred various movies. I have watched some of them. If you do not want to miss his movies, you should watch The Iron Giant, Boiler Room, Pitch Black, Multi-Facial, Saving Private Ryan, Knockaround Guys, xXx, and Strays.