Cyprus-Forum.com

[Lit]

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiap ... ing.plant/

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Botanists believe they have discovered one of the world's largest carnivorous plants in Southeast Asia.

The giant pitcher plants were located in Palawan, central Philippines by a team led by UK botanist Stewart McPherson.

The second largest species, now called Nepenthes attenboroughii has been named in honor of the UK's world-renowned natural history presenter Sir David Attenborough.

The new discovery measures about 30 centimeters in diameter and are formed in the shape of a large cup, which McPherson says is full of water and acidic enzymes.

Prey is attracted by a sweet-scented nectar and once captured in the cup is prevented from escaping by the slippery, waxy leaves and, as a consequence, drowns.

McPherson discovered over 20 new varieties of pitcher plant on the trip and made two rediscoveries.

Nepenthes deaniana was first discovered in 1907 but was subsequently lost when the Philippine National Herbarium in Manila was bombed towards the end of World War II.

McPherson and his team believe they have located the plant in the wild for the first time in over a hundred years.

The Nepenthes deaniana produces a spectacular, football-sized, red pitchers that are large enough to catch insects and small animals.

In many of the traps, the botanists found giant centipedes and 10 centimeter-long spiders.

The Botanical Society of America says that there are around 600 species of pitcher plants. Most familiar, perhaps, is the Venus Flytrap. But bigger species like the Nepenthes attenboroughii and the Nepenthes northaina are able to capture animals as large as rats, as can be clearly seen in the picture above.

[Oracle]

Triffid!

My son showed me that earlier today ... apparently it looks like the specimen in The Rocky Horror Show.

[Oracle]

... Nope! I meant The Little Shop of Horrors!

What is the matter with me today ... (Must stop working so hard ....)

[Nikitas]

Do the vegan mob over at PETA know of this plant?

[Oracle]

Do the vegan mob over at PETA know of this plant?

I think you're kidding, but you do seem to dig into PETA at every opportunity.

They are People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ..... So are you suggesting the plant is being unethical in eating an animal?

[fig head]

!! hmm ok i see stuff like that i dont BELIEVE its true.. it might be an alien plant or man made plant!! think about it... creepy huh

[Nikitas]

"but you do seem to dig into PETA at every opportunity"

You are absolutely right! A group that claims ethical treatment of animals yet euthanasies more animals than any other in the USA. And that motto "a rat is a pig is a boy" makes me want to puke all over their ethics.

And do explain to me at which level in the animal kingdom do we apply ethical treatment? Are microbes and viruses worthy? My doctor friends tell me that a standard of health could well be the killing efficiency of our immune system, it kills millions of germs with every breath. Why not have a motto "the aids virus is a rat is a pig is a boy"?.

[Oracle]

... And do explain to me at which level in the animal kingdom do we apply ethical treatment?

Ethics are ethics. Ethics apply at every level. You do not switch on and off "ethics". Ethics are universally applicable moral principles guiding codes of conduct which do not have a beginning or an end but aim to use the same rules of logic to different scenarios.

So, whilst your body is quite ethical in killing off invading germs to survive; it is quite accepting (ethical) of those which are commensal or with which it lives in symbiosis.

[Nikitas]

So it is right to kill a rat which carries leptospirosis, and for which most people have a reaction of revulsion. It is a macroscopic version of what the body does naturally at a microscopic scale.

SO a rat is NOT a pig is NOT a boy. And PETA is not an ethical organization.

And Nikitas is very much against anyone trying to manipulate him by through guilt no matter the cause.

[Oracle]

So it is right to kill a rat which carries leptospirosis, and for which most people have a reaction of revulsion. It is a macroscopic version of what the body does naturally at a microscopic scale.

If the rat was likely to access your water supply and you had no means of decontaminating the water supply, or administering effective anti-Leptospirosis drugs to the rat to cure it ... then of course it would be ethical to kill the said rat. And, I don't think PETA would object under those circumstances (so long as you used humane killing methods) to make such safeguards for us and any other species.

SO a rat is NOT a pig is NOT a boy. And PETA is not an ethical organization.

In terms of going through the same logical, ethical principles to solve each problem, then I don't think there is any contradiction in their principle.

And Nikitas is very much against anyone trying to manipulate him by through guilt no matter the cause.

Guilt is one of the easiest emotions to deal with ...