WORLD OF WARCRAFT WARLORDS OF DRAENOR
The MMO juggernaut rolls on, without changing direction.
World of Warcraft is nine years old. If you want to take a moment to let that sink in, that’s perfectly understandable. It has remained the biggest subscription-based MMO in the world throughout that period: it’s still huge, even if the prevailing narrative surrounding it is of an empire in gradual decline. 7.6 million players doesn’t really feel like decline: more like erosion, in the sense that a mountain erodes. Warlords of Draenor is the first of a new kind of expansion for World of Warcraft. It’s leaner, in some senses, than the expansions that have come before. It adds a new continent – the orc homeworld of Draenor, predestruction – and new features, plus tweaks to raids, the UI, and the game engine, but no new classes or races.
On the surface, it appears more considered and modest than Cataclysm or Wrath of the Lich King – and, in returning the focus to the orcs, it’s less of a tonal departure than Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard are gearing up production on World of Warcraft with a view to putting out boxed expansions every year – rather than every 18 months-ish as it was before. They talk about having plans for the WoW expansion after this one, and the one after that, and the one after that: a salvo of erosion-slaying magic bullets loaded in a revolver, with Warlords of Draenor sitting ready in the first chamber.
At least, that’s how Warcraft boss Chris Metzen put it, announcing the expansion at Blizzcon. I asked WoW producer John Lagrave about it later – how possible is it, in reality, to plan for the needs of a gaming community that far in advance?
“Let me continue the analogy,” he says. “First we have to build the bullet – and we’re building a bullet for a gun we don’t know the calibre of yet, so there’s a lot of give and take. We have a plan for Warlords of Draenor – that’s in the chamber and is being fired. For the next expansion, we’re in talks about it. We focus, initially, on the story we’re going to tell. Once we’ve got that, we try to figure out a sentence or two about what the ‘vibe’ is. What’s going to be engaging? What’s going to be fun? What is interesting about it?”
Warlords of Draenor is intended to recapture the feel of orcs-and-humans-era Warcraft, and to reintroduce the characters and conflicts that fans have followed for decades but that recent WoW acolytes might have missed among the panda warriors and world-consuming dragons. It’s a time-travel story, and the Draenor it features is one that has been referenced but never actually presented in a Warcraft game. It’s the same place as The Burning Crusade’s Outland, but this isn’t a Cataclysm-style overhaul: it’s a full alternative take on the planet with entirely new zones to explore.
As players, our dimension-skipping adventure will be prompted by the escape of rogue horde warchief Garrosh Hellscream following his arrest at the conclusion of the ‘Siege of Orgrimmar’ update. Chasing his dream of an all-orc horde to a new extreme, he binds himself to a mysterious time-travelling ally and journeys to Draenor before the orcs became corrupted and invaded Azeroth. There, he stops the orcs from drinking demonic blood and, in its place, gives them loads of technology from the future and sets about building his own portal to Azeroth. So give a little, take a little, then.
Both factions have an interest in stopping Garrosh’s ‘Iron Horde’, and that leads them to Draenor. An initial ‘suicide mission’ tutorial experience will take the Alliance and the Horde to Tanaan Jungle – formerly Hellfire Peninsula. After that, the Alliance will help defend a Draenei temple in Shadowmoon Valley, a temperate zone of rolling hills trapped in perpetual night. The Horde head to Frostfire Ridge – roughly where the Blade’s Edge Mountains will eventually be – to help the Frostwolf Clan defeat some local ogres.
The Frostwolf Clan in this case is led by Thrall’s dad, Durotan, and the sequence I played through involved helping both of them lay siege to an ogre fortress – at which point, through Pandaria-style phasing, it transitioned into being the Horde base of operations on Draenor.
Blizzard have had a lot of experience bending and twisting the WoW engine into new shapes, and their work here displays the same inventiveness and attention to detail that marked out the best bits of Wrath of the Lich King. Post-conquest, the player is asked to free some orc scouts from a nearby ogre village. The path takes you back out of the ogre fortress, pushing through a crowd of Warcraft-style peons carrying stones and lumber back up the hill. It’s a nice little nod to the past, and it made me smile.
You’ll have to take the long way around, by the way: flying mounts are disabled in Draenor until some point post-launch. The journey to the new level cap of 100 will be made on foot.
In addition to seven new PvE zones, Warlords of Draenor will add seven dungeons – three at max level – as well as two raids with sixteen bosses between them. Blizzard are also taking a pass at Upper Blackrock Spire as part of their programme of classic dungeon reboots, and there’ll be a new set of world bosses too. There will also be a full PvP zone on Draenor, called Ashran. It’s intended to recapture the old days of World of Warcraft battlegrounds – the skirmishes over Alterac Valley that took days to resolve. Combatants will be drawn in from multiple servers using the cross-realm technology also used to fill out parties in the dungeon finder.
The current structure of WoW PvP is being revised. Blizzard regard the current system as too deterministic, leading players towards fixed rewards through a long grind – they want to shake it up, and they’re approaching the problem from multiple angles. PvP matches will now grant random rewards on completion, from bind-on-equip items to rare PvP equipment and bonus Honor. The idea is to surprise players with rewards they weren’t expecting, to lead people towards upgrade paths they might not have considered by adding a degree of chance. The other approach to freshening Player vs Player is the exact opposite. Warlords of Draenor will introduce Trials of the Gladiator, new arena combat events where players use standard, balanced gear – creating a competition that is entirely about skill.
On the PvE side, raid sizes are being reworked – again – to create a more accessible experience. Raids will be available in Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic difficulties for any number of players between 10 and 25, their encounters scaling on the fly to match the number of friends you bring. If someone drops out, you won’t need to wait for a replacement. The best rewards, however, will be available to guilds who crack raid encounters on ‘Mythic’ difficulty, which will be balanced for – and require – 20 players. It seems like a smart compromise between the needs of the hardcore set and weekend warriors who just want a chance to see dungeons they’d previously been locked out of.
Blizzard walk a thin line between giving their community what they want and telling them what they need – but they seem to walk it confidently, at least in Warlords of Draenor’s case.
“We want you to stay engaged in the game and not become dispassionate about it,” says John Lagrave. “We have our own internal testing sessions, and I’ll tell you – the session for our Blizzcon build was brutal. We’re very critical, and there’s lots of things that we will be doing and changing from our own criticism – plus what we get from the community. It’s a constant process.”
Some of the biggest cheers I heard at Blizzcon were for Warlords of Draenor features that seem innocuous from the outside. WoW’s inventory is being updated, so that you’ll be able to easily set filters for your bags and sort them quickly.
Collectible items such as heirlooms, toys and tabards are becoming part of the collections system – as opposed to taking up bank space – and quest items will no longer go into your inventory at all. You’ll be able to craft using materials that are in your bank, Guild Wars 2-style. These quality-of-life improvements will likely shave off millions of hours busywork across the breadth of WoW’s audience.
No one feature received an outpouring of approval quite like the update to character models, however. Vanilla WoW’s original races are all getting upgraded with more detailed models, high-res textures, and new animations that include facial expressions for emotes. Blizzard are recording new voice work, too, so expect to hear a bunch of new variations on “ungh!” and “I can’t cast that now!” The Burning Crusade races are set to be updated shortly after the expansion launches.
World of Warcraft is also, at long last, getting a form of player housing. You’ll be able to create and manage a garrison on Draenor that works a little bit like a base in the original strategy games. You’ll pick from plots of land, and build and upgrade structures that provide game-widebenefits. You might build crafting buildings that give you limited access to professions that you don’t otherwise have, or buffs that you take with you into the wider world.
Garrisons will also act as the basis for a new kind of daily quest. Through your town’s inn you’ll build up a party of NPC adventurers who can be sent on adventures that take hours of real time to complete.
They’ll have their own traits and levelling paths, and sending the right people on the right jobs will yield rewards such as exclusive items, mounts and randomised chests. It’s a substantial extension of the Tillers’ farm system from Mists of Pandaria, with much further-reaching implications for your daily life within the game – and for your free time. It’s also equivalent to Pet Battling, in that it’s an addition to an expansion that looks a bit like a nonsequitur on the surface, but which will probably end up being the most strikingly new-feeling addition for players who have had almost a decade to get used to the game it’s attached to.
Your garrison will be a part of the open world, separated from those of other players using – again – seamless phasing. If you want to invite a friend over, that’ll be possible – but it’s unclear at this stage whether or not it’ll be possible to discover other people’s towns or followers in a more informal manner.
Every purchase of Warlords of Draenor will, additionally, give you an accountbound token that lets you boost any character you like to level 90. It’s a measure that Blizzard are taking to give new or returning players a chance to skip straight to the new stuff, but it’s likely to be possible with veterans too. Haven’t finished a full set of max-level alts yet? You just got one for free. These insta-90s will start with a set of equipment and some consumables appropriate to their level.
I imagine that some dedicated players will feel their investment has been cheapened by letting total newbies skip nine years’ worth of content, but it’s a pragmatic move by Blizzard and there’s a good chance it’ll be the last little push required by those of us who are at any point only a few clicks from resubscribing. Blizzard make changes like this from a position of authority: even after all this time, World of Warcraft is the game to beat – and even when a new contender improves on this or that system, its like can be replicated within WoW – and improved upon – in no time at all. This expansion modernises the game across the board.
Warlords of Draenor strikes me as an attempt to level the playing field in anticipation of the future. It’s varied, certainly, but safe in the sense that it in no way reaches deep into the crust of the game to find something new. Even its narrative moves backwards rather than forwards to find something fresh to present to fans. At its most radical, the expansion rethinks systems like raiding without ultimately changing the purpose they’ve always served. Lapsed players and dedicated fans alike might have expected something a little more dramatic, this long into the game’s life – but then again, perhaps it’s not a surprise. Blizzard are still sitting at the top of the mountain, and they’ve got no reason to shake the foundations.
Chris Thursten
top 5 brain boggling puzzles
The Room Two
?1.99/$2.99
Improving on the award winning original, the more expansive sequel soon draws you into its dark, atmospheric world. Fiendish, multilayered puzzles require lots of poking, prodding and lever pulling.
Monument
Valley ?2.99/$3.99
Inspired by MC Escher’s famous ‘impossible reality’ art, this isometric 3D puzzler forces you to think laterally as you visually ‘connect’ pathways so that your character can move between them.
Trainyard
?1.99/$2.99
This classic brain boggler sees you placing tracks to guide trains to colour-coded stations, sometimes needing to merge them or blend their colours. The tougher levels may well end up driving you loco!
World of Goo
?2.99/$4.99
A golden oldie to tax your logic and patience, it has you building bridges and other structures from gooey balls – some with special properties – to get enough of them to each level exit.
Tiny Thief
Free + IAPs
Rovio’s Robin Hood concept sees the eponymous hero stealing treasure from the rich. You’ll definitely need all your cunning to outsmart enemies, solve fiendish puzzles and unlock all the tasty bonus rewards.
Plunder Pirates
Ahoy there me hearties, here be treasure!
Launched on iOS last year, Midoki’s seafaring strategy MMO has finally landed on Android shores. It plays identically and you can even continue your existing iOS game on Android by entering a special code – a nice touch for those who are juggling devices.
Plunder Pirates offers a well-balanced combination of resource building, maritime exploration and good-oldfashioned plundering of rival bases. The early focus is on building up your island base, unlocking new structures and upgrading your defences and attacking capabilities. Key to all of this action is the production of gold and grog, from mines and distilleries respectively.
The third currency in the Plunder Pirates universe is gems; these are more difficult to source, found occasionally while seafaring or earned via certain achievements. Fortunately, while IAP bundles are available to speed up things such as building, the freemium aspect never becomes overbearing. Indeed, you can play the game perfectly happily without ever needing to shell out any of your real gold.
Merrily sailing around the high seas is the other main part of the game. Your ship’s crew is recruited from the tavern; the pirates come in various types and can be trained up in order to give them special powers for when you are in battle. In addition to attacking all of the AI bases on the map, you can act like a real pirate and plunder those of other players to earn gold and grog. You only get three minutes to mount your attack, with a bonus earned for achieving 100% destruction. Naturally, this means that your own base may be targeted by others, so an essential part of the gameplay is to build some serious defences such as cannons, mines and walls.
A friendlier aspect is the guild system, enabling you to team up with other players to chat, gain bonus perks and battle rival guilds in the newly added rumbles. It adds an extra facet to a fun, compulsive experience with a decent amount of strategy. The only slight, but obviously necessary, downside is the inability to play it offline.
THE MOST RARE AND BEAUTIFUL NATURAL PHENOMENA
Ancient man respected and revered nature as a deity. No wonder, because the primitive brain was often unable to explain some natural phenomena and perceived them as a miracle. Modern people try to find a rational explanation for everything they see, but the most unusual and rare natural phenomena still strike the imagination, delight, or even frighten.
1. Light poles
This is not a northern light, but a completely different phenomenon, which is called "light (or solar) pillars." At low temperatures, in the frosty air, tiny ice crystals float, creating a kind of icy mist above the surface of the earth. Crystals reflect sunlight and, as a result, bright light columns
On the photo: Light pillars above Laramie, Wyoming, USA
2. Lightning above the river Catatumbo
Over the place where the Katatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela), lightning flashes almost every night for about ten hours. In total, about 1.2 million bits are produced per year. They are visible for several hundred kilometers, due to what this natural phenomenon is often called the "Maracaibo Lighthouse".
On the photo: Lightning over Katatumbo (Venezuela)
3. Brocken's ghost
The so-called Brocken's ghost is like a giant shadow from a human figure, surrounded by light, and often by iridescent rings. Meteorologists often call this phenomenon a "glory". This stunning phenomenon is observed high in the mountains, during the fog. In fact, the observer most often sees his own distorted shadow.
On the photo: Brocken's ghost on Mount Ontake, Japan
4. Tubular clouds
Tubular (or vymeobraznye) clouds often appear before a strong hurricane.
In the photo: Tubular clouds over the city of Regina, Canada, June 26, 2012
5. Morning glory
No one knows exactly how and why these clouds are formed. They can stretch for a thousand kilometers and hang at an altitude of about one and a half kilometers above the surface of the earth. This phenomenon was observed in different regions of the world, but most often (every spring) it occurs in the vicinity of the Australian city of Burktown. With almost no wind, clouds can travel at a speed of 65 kilometers per hour.
In the photo: view of the morning glory from an airplane near Burktown, Australia
6. The false sun
A false sun, or scientifically pargelium, is a bright spot created by the reflection of sunlight passing through a cloud of small ice crystals.
7. Lenticular clouds
Lenticular clouds (lenticular) form around mountain ridges.
In the photo: lenticular clouds at Mount Khotaka, Japan
8. The Fiery Rainbow
A fiery (or roundly-horizontal) rainbow appears when the sun is high in the sky, and in cirrus clouds there are quite a few flat, horizontally arranged hexagonal ice crystals. In addition, the necessary condition for the emergence of this rare phenomenon is the latitude (the closer to the north, the less chance to see a fiery rainbow) and frosty weather.
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SWORD COAST LEGENDS
Real-time roleplaying in AD&D’s best-loved universe.
Video game RPGs started as digital representations of pen and paper roleplaying games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness and, of course, Dungeons & Dragons. Up until now, they’ve got most things right – the setting, the lore, the magic, the characters. But what they’ve almost never managed is the implicit collaboration of tabletop roleplaying – that balance that’s struck between players and DM, something that’s part joint storytelling and part adversarial battle.
That’s part of the aim of the new fiveplayer AD&D RPG, Sword Coast Legends, according toDan Tudge, producer and the president of developer n-space. “The DM’s there to provide a challenge for the players but he’s not there to grief the players. That said, there certainly are adversarial DMs and you definitely have the opportunity to play that way if that’s the way the party choose to play.”
The SwordCoast is that region of Forgotten Realms’ Faer?n that includes Baldur’s Gate, Luskan, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter and Waterdeep. Like the Hinterlands in Dragon Age, it’s meant to be a fertile area with a frontier feel, overrun by monsters, and has been the setting for most of the AD&D RPGs: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale 1&2, D&D Online, and the many NeverwinterNights from1991 onwards.
“There are iconic locations that we enjoyed visiting within those video games that we want to revisit,” Tudge says. “And we’re not able to get to all of them in this first iteration, obviously, but we certainly plan to continue the adventures long after release and make sure that we visit all the areas that we’d love to go to.” What the main campaign will be, Tudge isn’t saying yet, but the focus will be on storytelling through recruitable party characters: Tudge mentions Alistair, Morrigan and Minsc as inspirations.
The game has two modes. The first is a dungeon crawl, a quick adventure with your party in a singleplayer campaign, where you control all four characters and can pause the action to give orders. The second mode is the five-player Dungeon Master campaign mode, where the DM can pre-build a campaign offline (though you will be able to start a campaign with no faffing, if you wish) and all four characters are roleplayed by your pals.
Both share the same tools, as Tudge explains. “A DM can do everything he wants within the dungeon. He can change encounters, spawn creatures, control creatures, promote creatures, demote creatures to help out the party if they’re having a bit of trouble. He can set traps, create puzzles in the dungeon. Pretty much anything and everything that a DM does in a regular pen and paper, tabletop game.” Watching a video of the Dungeon Master scattering his monsters into a battle, it looks straightforward enough to play in realtime.
In that same video, the UI and design takes more from Dragon Age: Origins, D&D Online and Neverwinter Nights than from the Infinity Engine games. That reflects a proportion of the heritage of the team: Tudge and a couple of other key developers have worked on many BioWare games (as far back as the original Baldur’s Gate in lead programmer Ross Gardner’s case), and spent three years on Dragon Age: Origins. Yet while n-space itself has been around for over 20 years, it mainly produced licensed products or DS games. Collaborator Digital Extremes has an equally limited experience of tactical RPGs. It’s an unusual party for an RPG, to say the least. Players will be able to create their own heroes, choosing from five races – human, dwarf, elf, half-elf and halfling – and six classes – fighter, paladin, cleric, mage, ranger and rogue. Players don’t select an alignment, however, as the team felt this unnecessary. As Tudge puts it, your choices “not just within the story but within your interactions with the other characters and the consequences of those – that’s really living your true alignment.”
There are also fixes to perceived flaws in earlier games. For a start, Legends uses the most recent, 5th edition D&D ruleset, rather than the baffling earlier editions found in BioWare’s games. Tudge has been playing D&D since 1979. “For me I think fifth is the first time that they’ve really captured that original set of rules. [It’s] very reminiscent of the original AD&D and those older, earlier classic western RPGs. ”
Ease of use is paramount, soTHACOand its kin have been thrown down a well. Additionally, wizards areno longer glass cannons, obliged to fire off a couple of huge spells in combat and then run away.Now they can all use can trips – small repeatable spells like Ray of Frost – alongside their traditionally overpowered spells.Combine that with the flexibility of associating weapon types with races, and you can customise classes a lot more than before. Sword Coast Legends is being released as a full price game later this year,with DLC content to follow.Tudge and his team have a lot of history to live up to–both in and out of Faer?n.
Dan Griliopoulos
Battlefield Hardline
Top 10 Survival Ios Games of All Time
The Ultimate Guide to Punch-out!
Top 15 Most Successful Indie Games Ever Made
50 Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games of 2018
65 Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games of 2017
Top 10 Scary Fortnite Creepypastas
8 Video Game Records That Will Never Be Broken
Top 10 Battle Royale Games
Top 25 Best Free Ios Games
Top 25 Free Ios Games of All Time
Top 10 Video Games of All Time
The Scariest 10 Video Games That Traumatized Players
Top 15 Unsolved Video Game Mysteries
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Top 10 Best Open World Games Like Skyrim (2019)
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Top 10 Best Pc Rpgs for the Last 10 Years
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50 Most Wanted Ps4 Games
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Battlefield Hardline
Top 10 Survival Ios Games of All Time
The Ultimate Guide to Punch-out!
Top 15 Most Successful Indie Games Ever Made
50 Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games of 2018
65 Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games of 2017
Top 10 Scary Fortnite Creepypastas
8 Video Game Records That Will Never Be Broken
Top 10 Battle Royale Games
Top 25 Best Free Ios Games
Top 25 Free Ios Games of All Time
Top 10 Video Games of All Time
The Scariest 10 Video Games That Traumatized Players
Top 15 Unsolved Video Game Mysteries
Top 15 Scary Hidden Things in Video Games
10 Video Game Easter Eggs That Took Years to Find
10 Creepy Video Game Urban Legends
Top 10 Scariest Horror Games of All Time
10 Video Games That Caused Real Life Deaths
Top 15 Scariest Gaming Theories
The Scariest 10 Video Games That Traumatized Players
Top 10 Most Expensive Video Games Ever Produced
Top 10 Best Xbox 360 Action Games of All Time
Top 10 Fighting Games to Play in 2019
Top 10 Best Open World Games Like Skyrim (2019)
Top 10 Best Games for Nintendo Switch
Top 10 Best Pc Rpgs for the Last 10 Years
Top 10 Best Marvel Video Games
50 Most Wanted Ps4 Games
Top 25 Ps4 Indie Games
Plunder Pirates
Ahoy there me hearties, here be treasure!
Launched on iOS last year, Midoki’s seafaring strategy MMO has finally landed on Android shores. It plays identically and you can even continue your existing iOS game on Android by entering a special code – a nice touch for those who are juggling devices.
Plunder Pirates offers a well-balanced combination of resource building, maritime exploration and good-oldfashioned plundering of rival bases. The early focus is on building up your island base, unlocking new structures and upgrading your defences and attacking capabilities. Key to all of this action is the production of gold and grog, from mines and distilleries respectively.
The third currency in the Plunder Pirates universe is gems; these are more difficult to source, found occasionally while seafaring or earned via certain achievements. Fortunately, while IAP bundles are available to speed up things such as building, the freemium aspect never becomes overbearing. Indeed, you can play the game perfectly happily without ever needing to shell out any of your real gold.
Merrily sailing around the high seas is the other main part of the game. Your ship’s crew is recruited from the tavern; the pirates come in various types and can be trained up in order to give them special powers for when you are in battle. In addition to attacking all of the AI bases on the map, you can act like a real pirate and plunder those of other players to earn gold and grog. You only get three minutes to mount your attack, with a bonus earned for achieving 100% destruction. Naturally, this means that your own base may be targeted by others, so an essential part of the gameplay is to build some serious defences such as cannons, mines and walls.
A friendlier aspect is the guild system, enabling you to team up with other players to chat, gain bonus perks and battle rival guilds in the newly added rumbles. It adds an extra facet to a fun, compulsive experience with a decent amount of strategy. The only slight, but obviously necessary, downside is the inability to play it offline.
Comey: Did he damage Trump?
President Trump “is in deep trouble,” said Jennifer Rubin in
WashingtonPost.com. That was the undeniable takeaway
from last week’s testimony by former FBI Director James
Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which
clearly “marked a turning point” in the running melodrama
of Trump’s troubled presidency. Comey testified that the
president summoned him to an awkward, one-on-one dinner
at the White House, where he asked if he wanted
to keep his job, and then ominously said, “I
expect loyalty.” At a later group meeting
in the Oval Office, Comey testified, Trump ordered everyone else out of the room and
pressured him to drop the FBI investigation
of fired national security adviser Michael
Flynn. “I hope you can see your way clear
to letting this go,” Trump allegedly said.
These statements—along with Trump’s firing of Comey when he
refused to bend to his will—look very much like obstruction of
justice, an impeachable offense. Why was Trump so determined to
get Comey to back off the investigation? asked Noah Rothman in
NYDailyNews.com. You can only conclude he was very afraid “of
what a deep dive into his campaign associates’ interactions with
Russia might reveal.”
“It is never a good day when a former FBI director calls you a
liar,” said Ed Rogers in WashingtonPost.com, but Comey’s testimony
ended up being a “net plus for Trump.” For one thing,
Comey corroborated the president’s claim—previously ridiculed by
the media—that Comey assured Trump three times that he wasn’t
personally under investigation. It may have been “clumsy, naïve,
and smarmy” for the president to express “hope” that Comey
would let the Flynn investigation go, but the fact that Comey
ignored him proves it wasn’t an order or a crime. Trump-hating
Democrats are desperate to get the president impeached,
but if Trump can just settle down and let Mueller do his
work, “the Russia investigation and all its subsidiaries
will conclude without evidence of a crime.”
Trump’s defenders are in denial, said Ali Soufan in
TheAtlantic.com. As a former FBI agent, I can read
“between the lines” of Comey’s testimony, and he
said several things that should keep Trump and his
lawyers up nights. He made it clear several
of Trump’s campaign aides are under investigation
for their mysterious contacts with
Russia—“and Trump was the head of the
campaign.” When the Feds build a case
against an organization, they start at the
bottom and work upward, “turning” the
lower ranks into informants as they go. And look who’s already
under investigation: Flynn, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former
campaign adviser Carter Page, and former campaign chairman
Paul Manafort. “Bear in mind, too, that obstruction of justice is
just as much a crime as collusion with a foreign power.” When
asked if the president had obstructed justice, Comey said he was
“sure” the special counsel—his friend and FBI mentor Mueller—
would make that part of his investigation.
In FBI culture, said Jeff Stein in Newsweek, Russia is viewed as
an enemy, and any American who colludes with the Russians as a
traitor. “To us,” Comey said, “that is a very big deal.” Translation:
Mueller and his team of top-notch federal prosecutors “will tear
down the White House” searching for any evidence of collusion.
If anyone connected to Trump had improper contact or financial
transactions with Vladimir Putin’s henchman and spies, Mueller
will find out. “Trump should have little doubt about that now.”
WashingtonPost.com. That was the undeniable takeaway
from last week’s testimony by former FBI Director James
Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which
clearly “marked a turning point” in the running melodrama
of Trump’s troubled presidency. Comey testified that the
president summoned him to an awkward, one-on-one dinner
at the White House, where he asked if he wanted
to keep his job, and then ominously said, “I
expect loyalty.” At a later group meeting
in the Oval Office, Comey testified, Trump ordered everyone else out of the room and
pressured him to drop the FBI investigation
of fired national security adviser Michael
Flynn. “I hope you can see your way clear
to letting this go,” Trump allegedly said.
These statements—along with Trump’s firing of Comey when he
refused to bend to his will—look very much like obstruction of
justice, an impeachable offense. Why was Trump so determined to
get Comey to back off the investigation? asked Noah Rothman in
NYDailyNews.com. You can only conclude he was very afraid “of
what a deep dive into his campaign associates’ interactions with
Russia might reveal.”
“It is never a good day when a former FBI director calls you a
liar,” said Ed Rogers in WashingtonPost.com, but Comey’s testimony
ended up being a “net plus for Trump.” For one thing,
Comey corroborated the president’s claim—previously ridiculed by
the media—that Comey assured Trump three times that he wasn’t
personally under investigation. It may have been “clumsy, naïve,
and smarmy” for the president to express “hope” that Comey
would let the Flynn investigation go, but the fact that Comey
ignored him proves it wasn’t an order or a crime. Trump-hating
Democrats are desperate to get the president impeached,
but if Trump can just settle down and let Mueller do his
work, “the Russia investigation and all its subsidiaries
will conclude without evidence of a crime.”
Trump’s defenders are in denial, said Ali Soufan in
TheAtlantic.com. As a former FBI agent, I can read
“between the lines” of Comey’s testimony, and he
said several things that should keep Trump and his
lawyers up nights. He made it clear several
of Trump’s campaign aides are under investigation
for their mysterious contacts with
Russia—“and Trump was the head of the
campaign.” When the Feds build a case
against an organization, they start at the
bottom and work upward, “turning” the
lower ranks into informants as they go. And look who’s already
under investigation: Flynn, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former
campaign adviser Carter Page, and former campaign chairman
Paul Manafort. “Bear in mind, too, that obstruction of justice is
just as much a crime as collusion with a foreign power.” When
asked if the president had obstructed justice, Comey said he was
“sure” the special counsel—his friend and FBI mentor Mueller—
would make that part of his investigation.
In FBI culture, said Jeff Stein in Newsweek, Russia is viewed as
an enemy, and any American who colludes with the Russians as a
traitor. “To us,” Comey said, “that is a very big deal.” Translation:
Mueller and his team of top-notch federal prosecutors “will tear
down the White House” searching for any evidence of collusion.
If anyone connected to Trump had improper contact or financial
transactions with Vladimir Putin’s henchman and spies, Mueller
will find out. “Trump should have little doubt about that now.”
Republican lawmakers ambushed by gunman
Congress was in shock this week after a fervent
opponent of President Trump opened fire
on Republican congressmen and their aides
as they practiced for an annual congressional
baseball game at a ball field in Alexandria,
Va. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and
four others were wounded before the gunman
was fatally shot by police. Suspect James
Hodgkinson, 66, a onetime home inspector
from Belleville, Ill., had volunteered for
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign
and belonged to several anti-GOP Facebook
groups, where he denounced President Trump as a “traitor.” Armed
with a rifle and a handgun, Hodgkinson allegedly unleashed a barrage
of at least 50 bullets, sending lawmakers and aides scrambling
for cover. Scalise, who was struck in the hip, crawled from second
base into the outfield, leaving “a blood trail about 10 to 15 yards
long,” said Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who used his belt to stanch
the congressman’s wound. Two members of Scalise’s Capitol Police
security detail exchanged gunfire with Hodgkinson, and continued
to fire after being wounded. If not for the officers, said Rep. Barry
Loudermilk (R-Ga.), “it would have been a carnage.”
Scalise underwent surgery and was reported to be in critical condition.
Also injured, but expected to recover, were a congressional
aide and a lobbyist, along with the two members of Scalise’s security
detail. President Trump hailed their courage in the face of a
“very, very brutal assault” and appealed for unity. “We do well,”
he said, “to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s
capital is here because, above all, they love our country.”
“Democrats, listen up,” said Cheryl Chumley
in The Washington Times. “Your all-courts
press to take down Donald Trump and the
Republican Party” has caused enough chaos.
“Cars have been burned, business storefront
windows smashed, people injured, and police
attacked.” I sincerely hope our political
atmosphere has not grown so poisoned that
left-wing nutcases think it’s acceptable to actually
shoot Republicans. “That would be the
end of the republic as we know it.”
Hodgkinson’s liberal politics “bear no blame for the shooting,”
said Timothy Carney in the Washington Examiner, “just as
pro-lifers bore no blame” when a madman went on a murderous
rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015. When people
carry out these shootings, the cause “is their own mental illness.”
Tell that to the conservatives who were quick to point fingers at
the “hate” fueled by the liberal media, said Charlie May in Salon
.com. It took depressingly little time for this tragedy to devolve into
a “partisan blame game.”
The attack was, by one count, America’s 195th mass shooting of
2017, said David Frum in TheAtlantic.com. Yet “Americans have
developed a strong taboo” against ever discussing why such rampages
occur with such frightening frequency. “Like ancient villagers,”
we accept gun massacres “as a visitation from the gods.” The
only permissible response is to offer “thoughts and prayers” for
victims, and move on. Why are mass shootings so rare in Canada
and Europe? “Who would be rude enough even to wonder?”
opponent of President Trump opened fire
on Republican congressmen and their aides
as they practiced for an annual congressional
baseball game at a ball field in Alexandria,
Va. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and
four others were wounded before the gunman
was fatally shot by police. Suspect James
Hodgkinson, 66, a onetime home inspector
from Belleville, Ill., had volunteered for
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign
and belonged to several anti-GOP Facebook
groups, where he denounced President Trump as a “traitor.” Armed
with a rifle and a handgun, Hodgkinson allegedly unleashed a barrage
of at least 50 bullets, sending lawmakers and aides scrambling
for cover. Scalise, who was struck in the hip, crawled from second
base into the outfield, leaving “a blood trail about 10 to 15 yards
long,” said Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who used his belt to stanch
the congressman’s wound. Two members of Scalise’s Capitol Police
security detail exchanged gunfire with Hodgkinson, and continued
to fire after being wounded. If not for the officers, said Rep. Barry
Loudermilk (R-Ga.), “it would have been a carnage.”
Scalise underwent surgery and was reported to be in critical condition.
Also injured, but expected to recover, were a congressional
aide and a lobbyist, along with the two members of Scalise’s security
detail. President Trump hailed their courage in the face of a
“very, very brutal assault” and appealed for unity. “We do well,”
he said, “to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s
capital is here because, above all, they love our country.”
“Democrats, listen up,” said Cheryl Chumley
in The Washington Times. “Your all-courts
press to take down Donald Trump and the
Republican Party” has caused enough chaos.
“Cars have been burned, business storefront
windows smashed, people injured, and police
attacked.” I sincerely hope our political
atmosphere has not grown so poisoned that
left-wing nutcases think it’s acceptable to actually
shoot Republicans. “That would be the
end of the republic as we know it.”
Hodgkinson’s liberal politics “bear no blame for the shooting,”
said Timothy Carney in the Washington Examiner, “just as
pro-lifers bore no blame” when a madman went on a murderous
rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015. When people
carry out these shootings, the cause “is their own mental illness.”
Tell that to the conservatives who were quick to point fingers at
the “hate” fueled by the liberal media, said Charlie May in Salon
.com. It took depressingly little time for this tragedy to devolve into
a “partisan blame game.”
The attack was, by one count, America’s 195th mass shooting of
2017, said David Frum in TheAtlantic.com. Yet “Americans have
developed a strong taboo” against ever discussing why such rampages
occur with such frightening frequency. “Like ancient villagers,”
we accept gun massacres “as a visitation from the gods.” The
only permissible response is to offer “thoughts and prayers” for
victims, and move on. Why are mass shootings so rare in Canada
and Europe? “Who would be rude enough even to wonder?”
Sessions denies collusion as Trump eyes Mueller
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
this week heatedly denied having
colluded with Russia’s attempt to
influence the 2016 presidential campaign,
amid reports that President
Donald Trump had to be talked out
of firing the special counsel now
investigating the Russia scandal. In
testimony before the Senate Intelligence
Committee, Sessions said the
insinuation that his meetings with
the Russian ambassador during
the campaign meant that he was
cooperating with Moscow was an
“appalling and detestable lie.” The
former Alabama senator defended
writing a memo justifying Trump’s
firing of Comey, saying his recusal from campaign-related investigations
“cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department
of Justice, including the FBI.” Sessions recused himself from
overseeing the Russia investigation in March after admitting to two
previously undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador to the
U.S. Sergey Kislyak; Sessions testified this week he had no memory
of a reported third meeting with the ambassador. To the frustration
of Democratic senators, Sessions repeatedly insisted it was “inappropriate”
to discuss his private conversations with the president
about why Comey was fired or any other matter.
Comey last week provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with
detailed accounts of his interactions with Trump and his team. (See
Controversy.) Comey said he took detailed notes on the encounters
because he was concerned the president “might lie” about
them later, and admitted leaking these memos after he was fired in
order to force the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel.
Trump said Comey’s testimony was full of “false statements and
lies,” but said it also gave him “total and complete vindication.”
Christopher Ruddy, a longtime friend of the president’s, revealed
this week that Trump was considering firing Robert Mueller, the
special counsel who’s taken over the
Russia investigation. Trump’s aides have
talked him out of that extreme step for
now, The New York Times reported.
But White House sources told the Times
that Trump might change his mind.
Sessions’ testimony was a mess of obfuscation
and contradiction, said The New
York Times. The attorney general insisted
he couldn’t discuss his conversations
with the president because of some longstanding
Justice Department policy—yet
“couldn’t confirm that it existed in writing
or that, if it did, he had actually read
it.” He claimed his recommendation to
fire Comey was based on the former director’s
handling of the Clinton investigation,
even though he “originally praised”
Comey for announcing new emails had
been found 11 days before the election.
Anytime he was asked a difficult
question, Sessions refused to answer
or said he didn’t recall.
“There are legitimate concerns
about Mueller,” said the New York
Post. Three of the Justice Department
investigators he has hired
have given political donations to
Democrats, and Mueller is known
to be “good friends” with Comey.
But for Trump to fire Mueller
would be a monumental mistake.
He’d have to order Mueller’s supervisor,
Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein, to do the actual
firing, and Rosenstein would likely
refuse and resign—prompting a
repeat of Watergate’s Saturday Night Massacre. More importantly,
firing Mueller would strongly suggest that Trump has something to
hide. “Don’t do it, Mr. President.”
If Sessions’ testimony revealed anything, said Philip Bump in The
Washington Post, it’s that Trump is “genuinely uninterested” in
finding out how much Russia interfered in our election. Sessions
admitted he could not remember a single occasion on which the
president expressed concern or curiosity about the issue. Trump
clearly sees the investigation as a “hassle, not an important step
toward assuring the sanctity of American elections.”
Sessions doesn’t deserve this “public thrashing,” said Gregg Jarrett
in FoxNews.com. The “canard” that he misled senators at his
confirmation hearing about his meetings with Kislyak was always
based on a simple misunderstanding. Sessions has explained that he
met with Kislyak as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
not as a member of Trump’s campaign team; that’s why
he didn’t report it. Maybe so, said Michael Goodwin in the New
York Post, but the president made a mistake in hiring Sessions.
As a member of the campaign team, the attorney general “knew
almost from day one that he would
have to recuse himself” from the Russia
investigation. That ultimately led to
the appointment of Mueller as a special
counsel, leaving Trump’s fate in the
hands of “an unrestrained, independent
investigation.”
If you think Trump won’t fire Mueller,
think again, said Jonathan Chait
in NYMag.com. As Comey’s dismissal
made clear, the president has “no
intrinsic respect for political norms,”
and he finds it intolerable to be under
investigation. More importantly, he has
found that Republicans and his water
carriers on Fox News will support him
no matter what he does. The president
is a “creature of impulses,” and at
some point he’ll find it impossible to
“repress his instinct” to rid himself of
the irritating Mueller.
Mueller is hiring some of the country’s “best
legal minds” for his investigative team, indicating
“the seriousness of the Russia probe,” said
FoxNews.com. This week, he hired Justice
Department Deputy Solicitor General Michael
Dreeben, a widely respected prosecutor who has
argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme
Court. Mueller also reportedly has hired
Andrew Weissmann, head of the fraud section
in the DOJ Criminal Division. Weissmann led the
Enron Task Force from 2002 to 2005, overseeing
the investigations and prosecutions of dozens
of individuals, including Kenneth Lay. Other
members of the team include prosecutors with
experience in corporate fraud, Watergate, and the
Mafia. Mueller’s hirings have alarmed Trump’sallies, including former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich. “They’re setting up to go after Trump,”
Gingrich said.
this week heatedly denied having
colluded with Russia’s attempt to
influence the 2016 presidential campaign,
amid reports that President
Donald Trump had to be talked out
of firing the special counsel now
investigating the Russia scandal. In
testimony before the Senate Intelligence
Committee, Sessions said the
insinuation that his meetings with
the Russian ambassador during
the campaign meant that he was
cooperating with Moscow was an
“appalling and detestable lie.” The
former Alabama senator defended
writing a memo justifying Trump’s
firing of Comey, saying his recusal from campaign-related investigations
“cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department
of Justice, including the FBI.” Sessions recused himself from
overseeing the Russia investigation in March after admitting to two
previously undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador to the
U.S. Sergey Kislyak; Sessions testified this week he had no memory
of a reported third meeting with the ambassador. To the frustration
of Democratic senators, Sessions repeatedly insisted it was “inappropriate”
to discuss his private conversations with the president
about why Comey was fired or any other matter.
Comey last week provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with
detailed accounts of his interactions with Trump and his team. (See
Controversy.) Comey said he took detailed notes on the encounters
because he was concerned the president “might lie” about
them later, and admitted leaking these memos after he was fired in
order to force the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel.
Trump said Comey’s testimony was full of “false statements and
lies,” but said it also gave him “total and complete vindication.”
Christopher Ruddy, a longtime friend of the president’s, revealed
this week that Trump was considering firing Robert Mueller, the
special counsel who’s taken over the
Russia investigation. Trump’s aides have
talked him out of that extreme step for
now, The New York Times reported.
But White House sources told the Times
that Trump might change his mind.
Sessions’ testimony was a mess of obfuscation
and contradiction, said The New
York Times. The attorney general insisted
he couldn’t discuss his conversations
with the president because of some longstanding
Justice Department policy—yet
“couldn’t confirm that it existed in writing
or that, if it did, he had actually read
it.” He claimed his recommendation to
fire Comey was based on the former director’s
handling of the Clinton investigation,
even though he “originally praised”
Comey for announcing new emails had
been found 11 days before the election.
Anytime he was asked a difficult
question, Sessions refused to answer
or said he didn’t recall.
“There are legitimate concerns
about Mueller,” said the New York
Post. Three of the Justice Department
investigators he has hired
have given political donations to
Democrats, and Mueller is known
to be “good friends” with Comey.
But for Trump to fire Mueller
would be a monumental mistake.
He’d have to order Mueller’s supervisor,
Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein, to do the actual
firing, and Rosenstein would likely
refuse and resign—prompting a
repeat of Watergate’s Saturday Night Massacre. More importantly,
firing Mueller would strongly suggest that Trump has something to
hide. “Don’t do it, Mr. President.”
If Sessions’ testimony revealed anything, said Philip Bump in The
Washington Post, it’s that Trump is “genuinely uninterested” in
finding out how much Russia interfered in our election. Sessions
admitted he could not remember a single occasion on which the
president expressed concern or curiosity about the issue. Trump
clearly sees the investigation as a “hassle, not an important step
toward assuring the sanctity of American elections.”
Sessions doesn’t deserve this “public thrashing,” said Gregg Jarrett
in FoxNews.com. The “canard” that he misled senators at his
confirmation hearing about his meetings with Kislyak was always
based on a simple misunderstanding. Sessions has explained that he
met with Kislyak as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
not as a member of Trump’s campaign team; that’s why
he didn’t report it. Maybe so, said Michael Goodwin in the New
York Post, but the president made a mistake in hiring Sessions.
As a member of the campaign team, the attorney general “knew
almost from day one that he would
have to recuse himself” from the Russia
investigation. That ultimately led to
the appointment of Mueller as a special
counsel, leaving Trump’s fate in the
hands of “an unrestrained, independent
investigation.”
If you think Trump won’t fire Mueller,
think again, said Jonathan Chait
in NYMag.com. As Comey’s dismissal
made clear, the president has “no
intrinsic respect for political norms,”
and he finds it intolerable to be under
investigation. More importantly, he has
found that Republicans and his water
carriers on Fox News will support him
no matter what he does. The president
is a “creature of impulses,” and at
some point he’ll find it impossible to
“repress his instinct” to rid himself of
the irritating Mueller.
Mueller is hiring some of the country’s “best
legal minds” for his investigative team, indicating
“the seriousness of the Russia probe,” said
FoxNews.com. This week, he hired Justice
Department Deputy Solicitor General Michael
Dreeben, a widely respected prosecutor who has
argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme
Court. Mueller also reportedly has hired
Andrew Weissmann, head of the fraud section
in the DOJ Criminal Division. Weissmann led the
Enron Task Force from 2002 to 2005, overseeing
the investigations and prosecutions of dozens
of individuals, including Kenneth Lay. Other
members of the team include prosecutors with
experience in corporate fraud, Watergate, and the
Mafia. Mueller’s hirings have alarmed Trump’sallies, including former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich. “They’re setting up to go after Trump,”
Gingrich said.
15 สายพันธุ์สัตว์โลกสวยงามที่ใกล้สูญพันธุ์
15 สายพันธุ์สัตว์โลกสวยงามที่ใกล้สูญพันธุ์
1. เสือดาวหิมะ (Snow Leopard)
.png "เสือดาวหิมะ (Snow Leopard)")
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Uncia uncia หรือ Panthera uncia
เสือดาวหิมะเป็นสายพันธุ์แมวขนาดปานกลาง มีถิ่นกำเนิดตามเทือกเขาในเอเชียกลาง มันมีจำนวนราวๆ 3,500 ถึง 7,000 ตัว
2. นกฟลามิงโก (Flamingos)
.jpg)
นกฟลามิงโกเป็นสัตว์ที่อยู่ในวงศ์ Phoenicopteridae และอยู่ในจำพวกPhoenicopterus มีนกฟลามิงโกอยู่ 4 สายพันธุ์ในอเมริกา
3. แพนด้ายักษ์ (Giant Panda)
ขณะนี้ทั่วโลกมีแพนด้ายักษ์อยู่ประมาณ 1,590 ตัว
4. หมีขั้วโลก (Polar Bear)
.jpg)
หมีขั้วโลกมีชื่อวิทยาสาสตร์ว่า Ursus maritimus มีถิ่นกำเนิดขนาดใหญ่อยู่ที่อาร์คติคเซอร์เคิลที่ล้อมรอบด้วยมหาสมุทรอาร์คติค
5. ปลามังกร, ปลาตะพัด, ปลาอะโรวาน่า (Arowana)
.jpg)
ปลามังกรเป็นปลากระดูกแข็ง อาศัยในน้ำจืด อยู่ในวงศ์ Osteoglossidae บางครั้งเรียกว่าปลาลิ้นกระดูก (Bonytongues)
6. แพะป่ามาร์คอร์ (Markhor)
.jpg)
มีชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ว่า Capra falconeri มีถิ่นกำเนิดทางภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือของอัฟกานิสถาน อินเดียเหนือ (ตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ของจัมมูและแคชเมียร์) ภาคเหนือและภาคกลางของปากีสถาน มีประชากรตัวเต็มวัยน้อยกว่า 2,500 ตัว ซึ่งยังลดลงอย่างต่อเนื่อง
7. เสือดาว (Leopard)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Panthera pardus วงศ์ Felidae
จัดเป็นสายพันธุ์แมวขนาดใหญ่แต่มีขนาดเล็กที่สุดจาก 4 สายพันธุ์ อีก 3 สายพันธุ์คือ เสือ สิงโต และเสือจากัวร์
8.เสือเบงกอล, เสือโคร่ง, เสือลายพาดกลอน (Bengal Tiger)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Panthera tigris tigris หรือ Panthera tigris bengalensis
เป็นเสือสายพันธุ์หนึ่งพบมากในอินเดีย ตามข้อมูลขององค์การกองทุนสัตว์ป่าโลกสากล หรือ กองทุนสัตว์ป่าโลก (World Wide Fund for Nature-WWF) พบว่ามีเสือเบงกอลตามธรรมชาติอยู่ประมาณ 2,000 กว่าตัวทั่วโลก (1,411 ตัวในอินเดีย, 450 ตัวในบังคลาเทศ, 150 ตัวในเนปาล, 100 ตัวในภูฏาน ที่เหลืออยู่ในพม่า ไทย และจีน
9. ฮิโรลา (Hirola)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Beatragus hunteri หรือ Damaliscus hunteri
เป็นละมั่งสายพันธุ์หนึ่งพบในที่ราบป่าหญ้าแห้งที่อยู่ตรงชายแดนระหว่างเคนยาและโซมาเลีย ฮิโรลามีจำนวนวิกฤตที่จะสูญพันธ์ อยู่ประมาณ 500 ถึง 1,200 ตัวในธรรมชาติ
10. หมาใน, หมาแดง (Dhole)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Cuon alpinus
มีจำนวนประมาณ 2,000 ตัวที่อาศัยอยู่ในป่า
11. หมาจิ้งจอกแดง (Red Fox)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Vulpes vulpes
เป็นสายพันธุ์หมาป่าขนาดเล็ก อาศัยอยู่ในอเมริกาเหนือ ยูเรเชีย และแอฟริกาเหนือ
12. เพนกวินมาเจลลัน (Magellanic penguin)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Spheniscus magellanicus
อาศัยอยู่ในอเมริกาใต้ เช่นชายฝั่งทะเลของอาร์เจนติน่า ชิลี และ หมู่เกาะฟอล์กแลนด์ และบางส่วนที่ย้ายถิ่นฐานไปบราซิล
13. กระรอกบินนัมดาฟา (Namdapha Flying Squirrel)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Biswamoyopterus biswasi
มันอาศัยอยู่บนต้นไม้ ออกหากินกลางคืน มีถิ่นฐานที่อินเดีย
14. หมาป่าหิมาลายัน (Himalayan Wolf)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Canis himalayensis
เป็นสายพันธุ์หมาป่าที่กำลังวิกฤตสูญพันธุ์ มีจำนวนประมาณ 350 ตัว
15. นกเงือกนาร์คอนแดม (Narcondam Hornbill)
.jpg)
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Rhyticeros narcondami อยู่ในวงศ์ Bucerotidae
เป็นสายพันธุ์หนึ่งของนกเงือก อาศัยอยู่เฉพาะที่เกาะอินเดีย ในหมู่เกาะอันดามัน
บทความแนะนำ
1. เสือดาวหิมะ (Snow Leopard)
.png "เสือดาวหิมะ (Snow Leopard)")
ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Uncia uncia หรือ Panthera uncia
เสือดาวหิมะเป็นสายพันธุ์แมวขนาดปานกลาง มีถิ่นกำเนิดตามเทือกเขาในเอเชียกลาง มันมีจำนวนราวๆ 3,500 ถึง 7,000 ตัว
2. นกฟลามิงโก (Flamingos)
.jpg)
นกฟลามิงโกเป็นสัตว์ที่อยู่ในวงศ์ Phoenicopteridae และอยู่ในจำพวกPhoenicopterus มีนกฟลามิงโกอยู่ 4 สายพันธุ์ในอเมริกา
3. แพนด้ายักษ์ (Giant Panda)
ขณะนี้ทั่วโลกมีแพนด้ายักษ์อยู่ประมาณ 1,590 ตัว
4. หมีขั้วโลก (Polar Bear)
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หมีขั้วโลกมีชื่อวิทยาสาสตร์ว่า Ursus maritimus มีถิ่นกำเนิดขนาดใหญ่อยู่ที่อาร์คติคเซอร์เคิลที่ล้อมรอบด้วยมหาสมุทรอาร์คติค
5. ปลามังกร, ปลาตะพัด, ปลาอะโรวาน่า (Arowana)
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ปลามังกรเป็นปลากระดูกแข็ง อาศัยในน้ำจืด อยู่ในวงศ์ Osteoglossidae บางครั้งเรียกว่าปลาลิ้นกระดูก (Bonytongues)
6. แพะป่ามาร์คอร์ (Markhor)
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มีชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ว่า Capra falconeri มีถิ่นกำเนิดทางภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือของอัฟกานิสถาน อินเดียเหนือ (ตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ของจัมมูและแคชเมียร์) ภาคเหนือและภาคกลางของปากีสถาน มีประชากรตัวเต็มวัยน้อยกว่า 2,500 ตัว ซึ่งยังลดลงอย่างต่อเนื่อง
7. เสือดาว (Leopard)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Panthera pardus วงศ์ Felidae
จัดเป็นสายพันธุ์แมวขนาดใหญ่แต่มีขนาดเล็กที่สุดจาก 4 สายพันธุ์ อีก 3 สายพันธุ์คือ เสือ สิงโต และเสือจากัวร์
8.เสือเบงกอล, เสือโคร่ง, เสือลายพาดกลอน (Bengal Tiger)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Panthera tigris tigris หรือ Panthera tigris bengalensis
เป็นเสือสายพันธุ์หนึ่งพบมากในอินเดีย ตามข้อมูลขององค์การกองทุนสัตว์ป่าโลกสากล หรือ กองทุนสัตว์ป่าโลก (World Wide Fund for Nature-WWF) พบว่ามีเสือเบงกอลตามธรรมชาติอยู่ประมาณ 2,000 กว่าตัวทั่วโลก (1,411 ตัวในอินเดีย, 450 ตัวในบังคลาเทศ, 150 ตัวในเนปาล, 100 ตัวในภูฏาน ที่เหลืออยู่ในพม่า ไทย และจีน
9. ฮิโรลา (Hirola)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Beatragus hunteri หรือ Damaliscus hunteri
เป็นละมั่งสายพันธุ์หนึ่งพบในที่ราบป่าหญ้าแห้งที่อยู่ตรงชายแดนระหว่างเคนยาและโซมาเลีย ฮิโรลามีจำนวนวิกฤตที่จะสูญพันธ์ อยู่ประมาณ 500 ถึง 1,200 ตัวในธรรมชาติ
10. หมาใน, หมาแดง (Dhole)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Cuon alpinus
มีจำนวนประมาณ 2,000 ตัวที่อาศัยอยู่ในป่า
11. หมาจิ้งจอกแดง (Red Fox)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Vulpes vulpes
เป็นสายพันธุ์หมาป่าขนาดเล็ก อาศัยอยู่ในอเมริกาเหนือ ยูเรเชีย และแอฟริกาเหนือ
12. เพนกวินมาเจลลัน (Magellanic penguin)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Spheniscus magellanicus
อาศัยอยู่ในอเมริกาใต้ เช่นชายฝั่งทะเลของอาร์เจนติน่า ชิลี และ หมู่เกาะฟอล์กแลนด์ และบางส่วนที่ย้ายถิ่นฐานไปบราซิล
13. กระรอกบินนัมดาฟา (Namdapha Flying Squirrel)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Biswamoyopterus biswasi
มันอาศัยอยู่บนต้นไม้ ออกหากินกลางคืน มีถิ่นฐานที่อินเดีย
14. หมาป่าหิมาลายัน (Himalayan Wolf)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Canis himalayensis
เป็นสายพันธุ์หมาป่าที่กำลังวิกฤตสูญพันธุ์ มีจำนวนประมาณ 350 ตัว
15. นกเงือกนาร์คอนแดม (Narcondam Hornbill)
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ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ Rhyticeros narcondami อยู่ในวงศ์ Bucerotidae
เป็นสายพันธุ์หนึ่งของนกเงือก อาศัยอยู่เฉพาะที่เกาะอินเดีย ในหมู่เกาะอันดามัน
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| สั่งซื้อหนังสือ อาณาจักรสัตว์ Grand Atlas of Animals |
โลกของเรามีสิ่งมีชีวิตต่างๆมากกว่า 1,300,000
สปีชีส์ที่อาศัยอยูทุกมุมโลกทั้งบนบกและในน้ำ
อาณาจักรสัตว์เล่มนี้จะพาคุณไปรู้จักสัตว์ต่างๆที่หลากหลายและน่าทึ่ง
รวมถึงแสดงลักษณะทางกายวิภาค,สรีรวิทยาและพฤติกรรมของสัตว์เหล่านั้น
ปกแข็ง ภาพสี่สี่ทั้งเล่ม อ่านง่าย เปิดโลกการเรียนรู้
บทความแนะนำ
6 ตำนานผีของภาคเหนือ
อันดับที่ 6 ตำนานจุติ อสูรกายผีลิง
อสูรกายผีลิงมีลักษณะรูปร่างคล้ายลิง มีขนสีน้ำตาลตามตัว มีหางที่ยาวมากกว่าลำตัว มีนิ้วมือและนิ้วเท้าข้างละ 5 เหมือนมนุษย์ แต่นิ้วเท้าและมือจะยาวกว่ามนุษย์ มีเรื่องเล่าเกี่ยวกับอสูรกายผีลิงว่า สมัยก่อน อุ๊ยแดง ได้เดินทางเข้าไปในป่าล่าสัตว์กับเพื่อน และก็ได้เจอกับลิงตัวหนึ่ง อุ๊ยแดงเล็งปืนด้ามไม้ไปที่ลิงตัวนั้น เมื่อได้จังหวะ เขาได้ทำการลั่นไกปืนทันที ลิงตัวนั้นเมื่อถูกยิงก็ได้ส่งเสียงร้องออกมาอย่างเจ็บปวด และส่งเสียงร้องเรียกลูกๆ ของมัน ด้วยความที่อุ๊ยแดงไม่รู้ว่าลิงตัวนั้นมีลูกน้อย เลยรู้สึกเสียใจและนำลิงตัวนั้นไปฝัง เมื่อเวลาผ่านไปอุ๊ยแดงได้ให้กำเนิดลูกออกมาเป็นลิง แต่ลิงตัวนั้นก็อยู่ได้ไม่เกิน 3 วัน มันก็ตายจากไป อุ๊ยเงิน ซึ่งเป็นพี่ชายของอุ๊ยแดง ได้นำลิงตัวนั้นไปฝัง ก่อนฝังก็ท่องคาถาตัดหัวต่อก้น เพื่อไม่ให้ลิงตัวนั้นมาเกิดอีก
อันดับที่ 5 พญานาค
พญานาคเป็นที่คุ้นหูของคนไทยเราอยู่แล้ว พญานาคมีลักษณะคล้ายกับงู ลำตัวใหญ่ ส่วนหัวจะมีหงอนสีทอง ตาสีแดง ลำตัวจะเป็นเกล็ดเหมือนปลา ลำตัวและเกล็ดจะแตกต่างกันไป แล้วแต่บารมีที่พญานาคตนนั้นได้สะสมเอาไว้ คือสีดำ สีเขียว หรือมีเจ็ดสีอยู่ในตัว เศียรตรงหัวของพญานาค จะบ่งบอกถึงตระกูล เศียรอันเดียวจะบ่งบอกถึงตระกูลธรรมดา ถ้ามีเศียรที่มากขึ้นแสดงถึงระดับของตระกูลที่สูงขึ้น
อันดับที่ 4 ผีม้าบ้อง
ตามตำนานของล้านนา ผีม้าบ้อง คือ ผีกะ ที่แก่กล้ามากๆ เลยกลายเป็นผีม้าบ้อง บางตำนานก็เล่าว่าเป็นผีที่ชอบแทะหัวควายแห้ง ผีม้าบ้องมีลักษณะครึ่งคนครึ่งม้า ผีม้าบ้องเกิดจากปาฏิหาริย์ของผีกะ เมื่อผีกะมีพลังที่แก่กล้าจะแปลงกายให้คล้ายม้า สีของลำตัวโดยมากจะเป็นสีหม่น มีตำนานเล่าว่าผีกะจะเข้าสิงเจ้าของของมัน โดยส่วนมากจะเป็นผู้ชาย ในเดือนมืดข้างแรม โดยมันจะพับขาเป็นสองข้างกับตัว หันศอกไปด้านหน้าให้เหมือนกับหูของม้า ใช้ผ้าขาวม้าผูกเอว แล้วเอาชายผ้าไว้ข้างหลังให้เหมือนกับหางม้า แล้ววิ่งออกไปข้างนอก เสียงของมันคล้ายกับเสียงวิ่งของวัวควาย
อันดับที่ 3 ผีป๊กกระโหล่ง
ผีตนนี้เกิดจากชาวเขาชาวดอยที่รักและห่วงธรรมชาติมาก เมื่อตายไปจะเกิดเป็นผีป๊กกระโหล่ง คอยดูแลผืนป่า ผีตนนี้มีลักษณะเหมือนคนป่า ผมยุ่งเหยิงเหมือนลิงมากกว่าคน และมักพกกะลาไว้เสมอ เวลาปรากฏตัวจะส่งเสียง ป๊กกระโหล่ง ป๊กกระโหล่ง ป๊กกระโหล่ง มาแต่ไกล โดยปกติแล้วผีตนนี้จะไม่ทำร้ายมนุษย์ก่อน แต่หากมนุษย์ไปทำลายป่า ตัดไม้ทำลายป่า ฆ่าสัตว์ป่า ผีตนนี้จะปรากฏตัวขึ้นมาและทำร้ายคนทันที คนที่ตายอยู่กลางป่าหรือหลงทางอยู่ในป่า เชื่อกันว่าเป็นฝีมือของผีป๊กกระโหล่งนี้เอง
อันดับที่ 2 ผีกะ
ผีกะเป็นวิญญาณที่ถูกเลี้ยงเอาไว้ในหม้อห่อด้วยผ้าขาวและจะถูกส่งต่อให้คนรุ่นลูกหลาน เปรียบเสมือนมรดกตกทอด แต่หากไม่มีผู้สืบทอดก็จะเก็บเอาไว้ในสิ่งของอย่างเช่น แหวน แก้ว หรือของมีค่าอื่นๆ และฝังไว้ใต้ดินบริเวณบ้าน ถ้ามีคนมาขุดพบแล้วนำสิ่งของนั้นไปเป็นของตน คนๆ นั้นขะต้องเป็นเจ้าของผีกะคนต่อไป ผีกะจะมีนิสัยอาฆาตแค้น ถ้าใครไปทำให้ผีกะอับอาย เมื่อคนๆ นั้นดวงตกเมื่อไหร่ ผีกะจะทำการล้างแค้นทันที ผีกะจะชอบกินของสดของคาวคล้ายๆ ผีปอบ ทั้งของสัตว์และมนุษย์ ผีกะมักชอบทำร้ายคนที่ดวงตก คนขวัญอ่อน เด็ก และทำร้ายคนที่เจ้าของไม่ชอบ การที่ผีกะไปทำร้ายคนอื่นนั้นมีเหตุผลสองอย่างคือ ไปตามคำสั่งของเจ้าของ กับเจ้าของนั้นเลี้ยงไม่ดีจึงออกไปทำร้ายคนอื่นเพื่อให้เจ้าของอับอายขายหน้า
อันดับที่ 1 นอนกัดกระดูกผี
ตามความเชื่อเล่าว่า คนที่ชอบนอนกัดฟันตอนกลางคืน คือคนที่ผีเอากระดูกมาให้กัด ไม่มีใครรู้สาเหตุว่า ทำไมผีจึงเอามาให้กัด แต่หากอยากเห็นว่าคนที่นอนกัดฟันนั้นจะมีผีเอากระดูกมาให้กัดจริงหรือเปล่า ให้เอาขี้ตาของสุนัขมาทาที่ตาแล้วก้มมองลอดใต้หว่างขา วิธีรักษาไม่ให้ผีเอากระดูกมาให้กัดนั้น มีอยู่สองวิธีคือ
1. เวลาไปงานศพของแม่ม่ายให้ขโมยไม้กวาดดอกหญ้ากลับมาด้วย ก่อนจะเอาให้พูดในใจว่า ลูกขอเอาเศษไม้กวาดกลับบ้านและขอให้ (ชื่อของผู้ที่นอนกัดฟัน) หายจากการนอนกัดฟันด้วยเถิด
2. ให้แอบขโมยเสี้ยนไม้ของโลงศพแม่ม่าย ก่อนจะหยิบก็ให้พูดในใจเหมือนวิธีแรก
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