October-November 2016
NEWS
The Stentorian I NCSSM
New Laws Protect Endangered Pangolins
By MARGAUX WINTER
Nicknamed “scaly anteat-
ers,” pangolins have become
the new interest of the mass
media. These tiny animals,
weighing about 3.5 pounds
during adulthood, have finally
been recognized for their role
in the poaching industry.
Although previously un
known to most of the public,
pangolins were once one of the
most highly trafficked animals
in the illegal wildlife trade in
dustry. Fortunately, they have
finally been protected under a
100-country agreement to in
stall a ban on their trade.
The pangolin is said to be
a descendant of the Stegosau
rus. Its scales and humpy body
shape are certainly reminiscent
of these ancient creatures, the
similarity augmented by the
fact that pangolins previously
existed in a gargantuan size.
On a more shocking note,
pangolins are actually close
relatives to deadly carnivores,
being sisters of the Carnivora
on the phylogenetic tree.
More recently, pangolins
have become known for their
unique scales and living hab
its. The eight different species
of pangolins are found across
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Their keratin scales come in
many shades of brown, from an
off-yellow to a more dark ol
ive. •Gnder'tferlain'conditions,
pangolins are known to rep
licate living artichokes, their
overlapping scales strongly re
sembling the fhiit.
Although these animals
may look ferocious, they ac
tually lack teeth. Instead they
have long, sticky, and muscu
lar tongues. Compensating for
their poor vision, pangolins
have a heightened sense of
smell, making it easy for them
to find the termite nests from
which they feed.
They are fantastic diggers,
fast runners, and may be seen
rising on their hind legs to sniff
the air, similar to the stance of
a Meerkat.
The pangolin’s tongue ac
tually attaches near its pelvis,
and as such it is longer than
its body. Pangolins are adept
swimmers, and while some
are completely terrestrial, oth
ers enjoy climbing trees, using
their claws and tails to clutch
the bark.
Although it is unknown
how long pangolins live in the
wild, they can live up to 20
years in captivity. Pangolins
are very difficult to study in the
wild. They are nocturnal and
secretive, often maneuvering
themselves away from areas
in which they perceive human
habitation.
Those Pangolins that can
climb have been known to
sleep in trees while the sun is
out. When threatened, the pan
golin’s scales are its greatest
assets. Pangolins curl up into
balls, protecting their soft un
derbellies with their hard exte
,)UI)Y HURD/THK TKI.KOKAt’H
The pangolin has been called a "scaly anteater ” and is known to resemble a living artichoke.
riors.
The most famous organi
zation for pangolins is Save-
Pangolins. SavePangolins was
founded in 2007 by members
of the Emerging Wildlife Con
servation Leaders Program, an
international training and men
toring initiative that brings to
gether emerging leader in the
wildlife. conservation field.
After coming out with the
app. Roll with the Pangolins,
Prince William learned about
and publically endorsed the or
ganization.
Furthermore, in 2012 Sir
David Attenborough chose the
Sunda pangolin, a species dis
tributed throughout South East
Asia, as one of his ten favorite
species he would ‘save’ from
extinction.
Estimates have been made
that say pangolins may ac
count for up to 20% of the il
legal animal trade. Although
many grassroots organizations
have been around for decades,
the worldwide trade ban will
hopefully do the most work to
lower these numbers.
Although the ban may do
little to deter the poachers, it
wilt allow law enforcement to
install harsher repcrcu.ssions
and create more awareness
around those trafficking pan
golins.
Fake News Ineites Controversy
By ISABELLA LI
On Nov. 13, the top Google
News article for the 2016
Presidential Election results
led a website called 70 News,
which stated that Donald
Trump had defeated Hillary
Clinton in the popular vote.
In fact, Clinton won by a
margin of over two million
votes.
Google’s latest controversy
aligns with mounting criticism
over news-aggregating sites
regarding their handling of
fake information. The prime
target of such criticism has
been Facebook.
A Pew Research poll found
that 62% of Americans get
news from social media. As
such, false news headlines
on Facebook ~ including one
that Donald Trump had been
endorsed by the Pope — have
been implicated in influencing
the election.
MarkZuckerberg, Facebook
founder and CEO, responded
to such criticisms in a post on
his own Facebook page.
“Of all the content on
Facebook, more than 99% of
what people see is authentic,”
he said.
He further elaborated on the
difficulties he saw in providing
accurate news.
“Identifying the ‘truth’
is complicated. While some
hoaxes can be completely
THE INDIAN EXPRESS
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has come under fire for his company's seeming apathy to
the negative consequences of the spreading offake news.
debunked, a greater amount
of content, including from
mainstream sources, often gets
the basic idea right but some
details wrong or omitted.”
Facebook’s troubles arose
after it fired its team of news
curators in August, adopting an
algorithm that displays news
items based on popularity.
Facebook claimed that such
actions were driven by an
ability to deliver an increased
volume of news stories at
greater specificity to individual
users.
“Our goal is to enable
Trending for as many people
as possible, which would be
hard to do if we relied solely on
summarizing topics by hand,”
said a company representative.
News algorithms, used by
Facebook and Google alike,
have limited ability to check
for accuracy.
Both companies have
recently taken measures to
limit the prevalence of false
news stories. On Nov. 14,
both companies announced
intentions to remove digital
ads from misleading websites,
taking away their ability to
generate revenue.
Google has directly
acknowledged the role its
algorithm played in the
perpetuation of fake news.
In response to the
prominence of the incorrect 70
News article, Andrea Faville,
a spokeswoman for Google,
said, “The goal of search is to
provide the most relevant and
useful results for our users. In
this case, we clearly didn’t get
it right, but we are continually
working to improve our
algorithms.”
While companies like
Google and Facebook bear
responsibility to provide users
with accurate information,
users themselves must also
be aware of the perils of
the Internet news. If you’ve
ever been online, you must
have heard this before: Don’t
believe everything you read on
the Internet.