The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program is a program within the U.S. Navy
that studies and trains marine mammals — principally Bottlenose
Dolphins and California Sea Lions — for military activities, such as
ship protection, mine clearance, and equipment recovery. The program
is based in San Diego, California, where animals are kept and trained
continuously. NMMP animal teams have been deployed for use in conflict
situations, such as the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. The program has
been dogged by controversy over its treatment of the animals, and by
speculation on the nature of its mission and training; this has been
due at least in part to the secrecy of the program, which was
de-classified in the early 1990s. The Navy cites external oversight,
including ongoing monitoring, to defend its standard of animal care;
however, there is ongoing opposition to the concept of using marine
mammals for military purposes.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Navy_Marine_Mammal_Program
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1803:
As part of the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans was transferred from
France to the United States.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase)
1860:
South Carolina seceded from the United States, leading to the American
Civil War.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War)
1917:
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky founded the Cheka, the first Soviet
secret police.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheka)
1995:
The NATO-led IFOR began peacekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFOR)
1999:
Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to the People's Republic of
China.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"For most of human history we have searched for our place in the
cosmos. Who are we? What are we? We find that we inhabit an
insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away
in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more
galaxies than people. We make our world significant by the courage of
our questions, and by the depth of our answers." -- Carl Sagan
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)