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All Black No 6 Jerry Collins retires from NZ rugby; would not have made the All Blacks test squad next week...

All Blacks coach Graham Henry has revealed Jerry Collins would not have been part of his first squad due to be named this weekend.

Collins has announced his retirement from rugby in New Zealand but is undecided on his next move. He will play for the Barbarians against England shortly. Perhaps he will meet some representatives of European clubs while he is there, and pick up a contract. At present he is unemployed, he claims.

Henry says Collins' form did not warrant selection. He says they spoke about two weeks ago and he told Collins there were others playing better than he was. Henry says Collins' form did not pick up after that conversation so he was battling to be selected. Collins claimed he lost his enthusiasm after the All Blacks World Cup failure.

Meanwhile, a group of All Black hopefuls will gather in Auckland today ahead of the squad naming on Sunday; they do not include Crusaders players who are playing in the Super 14 final against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday evening.

Assistant coach Steve Hansen says they will run the rule over the contenders over the next three days. Hansen says World Cup squad members and other players they would like to have a closer look at will be involved in the camp.

Anthony Boric, Adam Thomson, Paul Williams, Anthony Tuitavake and Jimmy Cowan are among the 25.

The first All Blacks squad of the year will be named after the Super 14 final between the Crusaders and Waratahs.

There are new candidates within the Crusaders squad - Tim Bateman and Casey Laulala are midfield prospects and Kieran Read a possible to replace Jerry Collins on the blindside of the scrum. Read had a big game and scored a try against the Hurricanes last Saturday.

There will be a powerful squad waiting to deal to England in a two test series in a few weeks. There always is in a non-World cup year!

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More than 31,000 scientists across the United States, including more than 9,000 Ph.D.s in fields including atmospheric science, climatology, Earth science, environment and dozens of other specialties, have signed a petition rejecting "global warming," the assumption that the human production of greenhouse gases is damaging Earth's climate.

"There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate," the petition states. "Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."

The Petition Project actually was launched nearly 10 years ago, when the first few thousand signatures were assembled. Then between 1999 and 2007, the list of signatures grew gradually without any special effort or campaign.

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Stories in nature - human in nature...

First published at Qassia:

A beige coloured penguin was taunted and ostracised by its fellows down in Antarctica.

Scientists down there in Antarctica were trying to come up with ideas to help the unfortunate penguin - perhaps dye it black and white or something else.

So it proves that not only humans are discriminated against by their fellows. Anything different or standing out could be in danger of discrimination.

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'Natural' burial leads to life after death...

The following is an extremely interesting article in our local daily newspaper, The Dominion Post, Wellington, New Zealand:

Dying might seem like the ultimate way to reduce one's carbon footprint, but a new approach to to being buried could breathe life into the environment.

"New Zealand's first 'natural' burial took place yesterday( May 3 2008) at the cemetery grounds in Makara.

The body was not embalmed but placed in an untreated wooden casket, then buried to about half the normal depth of a traditional grave. As it iscloser to active soil, the body could decompose within five years - three times faster than normal.

Research by by Natural Burials, a non-profit organisation, suggests that more than one - third of Wellingtonians would consider the burial technique. About 100 people had already registered.

"Many people find the idea of lying in peace in a native forest and contributing to the creation of the forest through the death process process very comforting and satisfying. There's no risk or weirdness to it," founder Mark Blackham said.

It took Mr Blackham about eight years to get from the planning stage to yesterday's burial as the local Wellington City council's officials had been concerned about animals digging up the graves and creating possible health problems."

It is an an idea that may grow in time. There is something peaceful about becoming part of a forest in a 'natural' sense. It could catch on!

Author: Nathan Beaumont, Dompost, Wellington, NZ.

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