Text Messaging Helps Elephants and People Coexist

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Technology is helping protect people from roaming elephants. Cell phones are ubiquitous in rural Valparai, India. And so are Asian elephants. Now the former are being used to keep people safe from the latter. Thousands of people in Valparai work on tea and coffee plantations that are nestled between protected areas—and act as elephant passageways. Since 1994, more than 40 people in the area have been killed in encounters with elephants. Research has shown that most of those deaths could have been prevented if people had had sufficient warning. That’s where the Nature Conservation Foundation’s early warning system comes in. The system began as a crawl on the local cable TV station and now also includes red indicator beacons and bulk text messages, alerting people who live and work in the area to the presence of elephants. The death rate from elephant encounters has dropped since the advent of the warning system, helping people and elephants coexist.... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!

Climbers Get Blasted by Sandstorm 1,000 Feet Up

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Renowned climbers Cedar Wright and Alex Honnold don’t like to make it easy on themselves. After summiting all of California’s 14,000-foot peaks in an expedition aptly named “Sufferfest,” the duo started planning Sufferfest 2. The climbers set out to climb 45 of the most iconic rock towers in the American Southwest desert and bike from tower to tower—in just three weeks—as part of a National Geographic grant. Not too surprising from someone who calls himself a “crazy, madman explorer,” as Wright does.... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!

Shia LaBeouf “Just Do It” Speech | Kids Lip Dub

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“Do it! Just do it!” Mashable’s resident little kid, Madeleine (age 8) brings a fresh take to Shia LaBeouf’s infamous motivational speech in this week’s Kids Lip Dub. Want more of this series? New episodes uploaded Thursdays on Mashable Watercooler!
Subscribe so you don’t miss the next one: http://on.mash.to/SubscribeWatercooler. ... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!