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#WorldOrcaDay 2026

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World Orca Day is a celebration of the species orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family.

The only extant species in the genus Orcinus, it is recognizable by its distinct pigmentation; being mostly black on top, white on the bottom and having recognizable white eye patches. A cosmopolitan species, it inhabits a wide range of marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas, but is more commonly documented in temperate or cooler coastal waters. Scientists have proposed dividing the global population into races, subspecies, or possibly even species. Orcas are apex predators with a diverse diet. Individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey, including bony fish, sharks, rays, and marine mammals such as seals, dolphins, and whales. They are highly social, with some populations forming stable matrilineal family groups (pods). Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, often unique to specific groups and passed down from generation to generation, are considered to be manifestations of animal culture. The most studied populations are off the west coast of North America, which include fish-eating “residents”, mammal-eating “transients”, and offshores. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the orca’s conservation status as data deficient as multiple orca types may represent distinct species. Some local populations are threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution (by PCBs), captures for marine parks, and conflicts with fisheries. In late 2005, the southern resident orcas were added to the U.S. Endangered Species list. Orcas have been revered by indigenous peoples from regions including the Pacific Northwest, Australia and Peru, while Western cultures have historically feared them. They have been taken by whalers when stocks of larger species have declined. The orca’s image took a positive turn in the 1960s, due to greater public and scientific awareness and their display in captivity. Since then, orcas have been trained to perform in marine parks, a practice that has been criticized as unethical. Orcas rarely pose a threat to humans, and no fatal attack has been recorded in the wild. However, captive orcas have injured or killed their handlers in marine theme parks.

Links:
World Orca Day

#WorldChimpanzeeDay Wereld Chimpansee Dag 2026

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De chimpansee (Pan troglodytes) is een Afrikaanse mensaap, zijn nauwste verwant is de dwergchimpansee of bonobo (Pan paniscus).

Beide chimpansees worden beschouwd als de nauwste nog levende verwanten van de mens. Sommige wetenschappers beschouwen de relatie tussen mens en chimpansee op basis van DNA-onderzoek als nauw genoeg om de chimpansee en de bonobo net als de mens in het geslacht Homo te plaatsen. Op 14 Juli 1960 arriveerde Dame Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall (Dr. Jane Goodall), in wat nu Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania heet, om haar onderzoek naar het sociale en familiale leven van de wilde chimpansee te beginnen. Om dit te vieren wordt jaarlijks op 14 juli Wereld Chimpansee Dag gehouden. Dr. Jane Goodall, overleden op 1 oktober 2025, was een Britse antropologe en biologe, gespecialiseerd in ethologie en primatologie. Ze was oprichter van het Jane Goodall Institute en het jongerenprogramma Roots & Shoots.

Links:
World Chimpanzee Day

#SharkAwarenessDay Haai Bewustwordingsdag 2026

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Evenement om aandacht te vragen voor de bedreigingen waar haaien mee te maken hebben.

Feit is dat deze machtige roofdieren meer van ons te duchten hebben dan andersom. Meer dan 100 miljoen haaien leggen elk jaar het loodje en diverse soorten dreigen uit te sterven. De grootste bedreiging voor de haaien is zoals gewoonlijk de mens. Onze motorboten, visnetten en onze angst voor haaien vormen bedreigingen voor het bestaan van de haai. Maar net als andere toppredators op het land spelen haaien een essentiële rol bij het gezond en productief houden van de zeeën. De grootste bedreiging is geld. Simpelweg omdat dode haaien nu eenmaal veel geld opleveren. Alleen al in de haaienvinnensoep verdwijnen miljoenen haaien. Ze worden ook gedood voor hun tanden (souvenir), kraakbeen (medicijn) en lever (vitamine A). Sinds de film Jaws vinden veel mensen het stoer om een haai te vangen. Maar uiteindelijk verdwijnen de meeste haaien als “bijvangst” in de visnetten. En daar staan we bij stil op de Shark Awareness Day.

Links:
What is Shark Awareness Day- Why Should We Care?

Have you ever stopped to wonder what your shark name might be?⁣

Barbershop Music Appreciation Day 2026

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Barbershop Music Appreciation Day takes place on July 13 every year.

The best way to join in Barbershop Music Appreciation Day is to go straight into a barbershop and enjoy the music that you can hear inside. In 2005, “The Sweet Adelines International” have founded this cheery holiday on their 60th anniversary. Barbershop music is a style of a cappella close harmony and vocal harmony, or unaccompanied vocal music, characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a primarily homorhythmic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead. The melody is not usually sung by the tenor or baritone, except for an infrequent note or two to avoid awkward voice leading, in tags or codas, or when some appropriate embellishment can be created. One characteristic feature of barbershop harmony is the use of what is known as “snakes” and “swipes”. This is when a chord is altered by a change in one or more non-melodic voices. Occasional passages may be sung by fewer than four voice parts. Barbershop music is generally performed by either a barbershop quartet, a group of four singers which sings four-part harmony, or a barbershop chorus, which closely resembles a choir with the notable exception of the genre of music.

According to the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), “Barbershop music features songs with understandable lyrics and easily singable melodies, whose tones clearly define a tonal center and imply major and minor chords and barbershop (dominant and secondary dominant) seventh chords that resolve primarily around the circle of fifths, while making frequent use of other resolutions.” Slower barbershop songs, especially ballads, often eschew a continuous beat, and notes are often held (or sped up) ad libitum. Aside from the bass, the voice parts in barbershop singing do not correspond closely to their classical music counterparts; the tenor range and tessitura are similar to those of the classical countertenor (including the fact that they sing their highest notes primarily in falsetto, as a countertenor would), the baritone resembles a high lyric baritone in range and a tenor in tessitura, and the lead generally corresponds to the tenor of classical repertoire, with some singers possessing a tessitura more similar to that of a high baritone. Barbershop singing is performed both by men’s and women’s groups; the elements of the barbershop style and the names of the voice parts are the same for both.

Links:
Barbershop Music Appreciation Day Celebrates Harmony

#EmbraceYourGeeknessDay 2026

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Due to Embrace your Geekness Day on July 13 all geeks in the world are invited to feel proud about their peculiarities.

The word “geek” originally refers to someone who strikes out for his or her strange deeds. Today it’s rather a word for people who have a major interest in science or fictional topics. People who get very much into something and mostly if it’s from the IT sector are often called geeks. Above all Embrace your Geekness Day emphasizes the positive features of geeks. Very often they are keen specialists on a certain topic which is a natural consequence of their detailed involvement in mostly technical issues. This would be a good reason to embrace oneself and feel proud not only on Embrace your Geekness Day. The definition of the word geek is very close to that of the word nerd or hacker: also persons who like to deal with technology and have therefore only few practises in social interactions. The social behavior of geeks and the communication between two geeks is often incomprehensible for non-geeks. Geek is also a derogative name for people with a high level of intelligence combined with rare social skills.

Links:
It’s Embrace Your Geekness Day | July 13, 2024