Eye | Clintons For Elephants | Organized Crime Deep In Ivory Trade | Clooney & Alamuddin Will Wed In Venice

The artist Tristin Lowe’s reminder of the plight of African elephantsElephant in the RoomNY Times

New York Fashion Week is in full swwing. You can track all the spring 2015 designer collections on Vogue.com and Style.com. Some of the most innovative designers will be showing at Milk Studios in West Chelsea, home to 15 runway shows and the giant pink elephant in the room.

The inflatable 10-foot-tall elephant, designed by the artist Tristin Lowe, is part of a collaboration between Made Fashion Week and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation to raise awareness about the Clintons’ latest cause: ivory trafficking and the killing of African elephants.

“We have about 15,000 people flowing through the doors this week,” said Keith Baptista, a managing partner at Made Fashion Week.

The Clintons hope — as does AOC — that among the 15,000 people, including top fashion models, a select group of AOC Smart Sensuallity types, will help to spread the dire priority of saving the world’s elephants.

The Clinton Global Initiative has joined forces with other organization in a Partnership to Save Africa’s Elephants.

‘The End of the Wild’ Yao Ming

Former NBA star and Chinese icon, Yao Ming, has launched a major public awareness campaign targeting consumption of ivory and rhino horn in China in partnership with WildAid, Save the Elephants, African Wildlife Foundation, and the Yao Ming Foundation.

Yao Ming Vows To Save Elephants By Ending China’s Ivory Trade Huff Po

Ivory Atrocity: Asian, African Crime Groups Speed Elephant Slaughter NBC News

An insatiable Chinese demand for ivory and the increasing involvement of organized crime syndicates in smuggling are causing the mass killing of Africa’s elephants and could trigger a stampede to extinction if unchecked, according to a new report.

“Poaching and trafficking in ivory is at the highest level in 25 years,” driven by skyrocketing prices for elephant tusks, said the report, published Wednesday by the wildlife conservation group Born Free and the data analysis nonprofit C4ADS.

In 2013, a record 50 tons of ivory were seized globally, nearly 45 tons of which were “large-scale consignments that bear the hallmarks of organized crime,” according to the report, titled “Out of Africa: Mapping the Global Trade in Illicit Elephant Ivory.” The report said it’s difficult to estimate the number of elephants killed to furnish the supply, but calculated that “at least 20,000 elephants are being killed annually out of a total population of around 450,000,” adding that “the real number (is) likely significantly higher.”

Chinese ivory trade blamed as poachers drive down elephant population by 2% a yearThe Independent

Eye | Global Warming | New Tesla Electric Battery | Elephant Slaughter AOC FP

Bee sting to scare away straying elephants The Hindu

Elephant Extinction and Ryan McGinley’s Spring 2013 Edun CampaignAOC Nature

Older Female Elephants Organize Herd In DangerAOC FP

Researchers Document Elephant BrainpowerAOC FP

Researchers Document Elephant BrainpowerAOC FP

The Threat of Elephant Extinction in the Wild is RealAOC Nature

Why Are American Children Working In American Tabacco Fields? The Nation

AOC Archives

Bulgari to Burgers | Italy Faces A Commercial Balancing Act AOC Salon

Our journey began today in Venice, the only city in the world where I slept until noon. So deeply did I drink in the magic of Venice, that when I opened my eyes, I momentarily thought I was dead.

Finding my watch, I was astounded to see that it was noon. Confused, I grabbed a brush and stood in front of the mirror, my windows open to a corner room on the Grand Canal.

A familiar sound drifted into my ears … classical music, yes … but one well-known to me. My partner remained asleep in our velvet-draped cocoon, as I drew open the curtains, looking down into the canal.

“What in the world,” I marveled, comprehending now that I was hearing the American graduation ceremony song “Pomp and Circumstance”.