Showing Opera Love
I recently have fallen head over heels for Opera. This is not a joke. I used to be infatuated with the amount of customization and addons Firefox presented end users, but I grow tired of the memory leaks and other minor hiccups. I have had Opera installed for a great deal of time now, but I haven't used it nearly the amount of time over the years compared to Firefox. I've used Firefox more than I've used Internet Explorer over the course of my entire life. I can say that as a matter-of-fact. Though, there were several drawbacks, to me personally, when it came to making the switch permanently.
The first hurdle was in-line spell checking. I loved this in Firefox. You see, if I didn't know how to properly spell a word, I wouldn't have to Google it and have them keep a nice collection of how ridiculous I've attempted to get away with spelling words of my own native language properly. Thank you Google for keeping a massive dossier of my search inquiries.
Well, this handy JavaScript available here with the small tutorial is fantastic. It has worked brilliantly for me and this was definitely one of the major stepping stones that had to happen in Opera that allowed me to embrace Opera with no regrets. Not as if I clung that desperately to Firefox, it simply had several tools out of the box I found useful.
In-line Spell Checking with Opera.
Next up was the increase of size of the Speed Dial, or additional pages. I had the Speed Dial add-on for Firefox and it was enormously customizable with tabbed browsing, customization like auto refreshing to the chosen time you would specify for every individual dial or do a complete manual refresh. It was very handy, but always knew if Opera had a simple fix to increase the speed dial to whatever number I wish, I would be sold. While I feel I found this little INI edit a little late, it literally drove me over the edge of switching.
Manually adjust Opera's Speed Dial to what you want.
For more tips and tricks, I recommend Opera's very own tutorials for beginners as they will explain everything in good enough detail to give ideas on what to search for later on for further tweaks.
Did I mention I use Opera on my Omnia i910 a ridiculous amount? The tabbed browsing, the amazing options, and the ability to edit Opera Mobile options to customize it to my likings, such as creating a directory on the external space the cache location and so many more options. Just by navigating to "opera:config" opens up a wide variety of options, not to mention opera:plugins, opera:about, and opera:history. A wealth of knowledge about your tiny, but powerful mobile.
Opera's Settings File Explained
I'm currently running v9.64. A good simple tweak to boost surf speed is to go to Tools>Preferences>Advanced tab>Network and change the "Max connections to a server" from the default to 16 and "Max total connections" from default to 64. Those of you who used the Tweak Network addon in Firefox will be aware of the speed boost. Even though Opera is already fast enough out of the box, it can be tweaked even further for speed out of the box with no additional downloads.
Typing "opera:config" into your Opera browser gives an overwhelming amount of options, but far better detailed and explained than Firefox's config window. In Performance in config, uncheck "Reduce Max Persistent HTTP Connections" and change the "Network Buffer Size" from the default to 32. In 9.64, the default size is 128, but 32KB should be more than enough. Feel free to Google curious settings to find more about them in detail. There are more settings to manipulate to get Opera the way you want than I can put in one blog.
Opera Browser Wiki: Opera Performance Enhancements
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to spend more quality time with Opera. Yeah, it's like that.
Religious Parents Allowing Their Children to Die
"A mother accused of praying instead of seeking medical help for her dying 11-year-old daughter was found guilty on Friday of reckless homicide."
"Neumann's daughter Madeline died from untreated diabetes on March 23, 2008, surrounded by people praying for her. When she stopped breathing, her parents' business and Bible study partners finally called the emergency dispatcher."
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/45298142.html
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/5588968
This news comes in the same week as the 13-year-old boy that ran away with mom after court ordered cancer care.
"A new arrest warrant was issued Thursday as the search continued for the mother who fled with her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son to avoid chemotherapy treatments."
"Hodgkin's lymphoma is a highly curable form of cancer when treated with chemo and radiation. But the teen and his parents rejected chemo after a single treatment, with the boy's mother saying that putting toxic substances in the body violates the family's religious convictions."
The American Double Standard
A total of 225 people serving under the Reagan administration either quit, were fired, arrested, indicted, or convicted for breaking the law or violating the ethics code. This included the Attorney General.
There were several controversies during this time involving the administration. The Iran-Contra affair is typically the most well known. This was a plan where weapons were sold to Iran and the profits were diverted to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, in violation of U.S. and international law.
What else is a violation of U.S., international law, and human rights? Torture. In 1984, the UN adopted the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading or Punishment.
Every act of torture is a crime under international law. If torture is committed in an armed conflict, it constitutes the war crime of torture. There are absolutely no exceptions to the prohibition against torture. The President of the United States, or anyone else in the administration or Congress, cannot override the law against torture by any means.
Mr. President, are you trying to say that on grounds of starting a war without reason except that God told him to do so and allowing torture on detainees from around the world is not enough to prosecute the administration responsible? George Bush Jr. and Dick Cheney need to be prosecuted as war criminals.
Wolverine: Origins Review
Note: There are more spoilers in the trailers for Wolverine: Origin than this review.
I will start with what's good in this movie. The only positive of this movie has to do with the actors. Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber, both very talented, were excellent in their roles. They were both ferocious and intense, but became somewhat confusing in the storyline during supposed new twists injected into the plot for movie. Needless to say, not much else made sense other than their past growing up together.
Speaking of a story, how about let's not have a story at all! The writers seemingly chose to throw out all source material at some point. They then sprinkled the film full of unnecessary cameos that were all half baked in a failed attempt to distract viewers. Gambit was in the film, but he had a lack of a certain Cajun accent. Young Cyclops was also featured and, apparently, he had heat blasts while young.
Also, what happened to Deadpool? I didn't realize it was him until I read the credits. What really threw me off is the end of the movie. To those that have already seen the movie will know what I am talking about when I say that none of that nonsense happens. He and that "monster" at the end are completely separate. Best character of all time ruined in a poorly done origins story. Now what are they going to do for a Deadpool spin-off? We will never get Deadpool done right.
Sadly, let's not forget how poorly done the CG was in major scenes. Take for instance the scene of Wolverine in the bathroom looking at his shiny new claws, but the claws are rendered with the brightest and shiniest filter in the world. Also, at one moment, they were shifting knuckles! After that, the blades even "slid off" his fists to magically reattach themselves seconds later. How lazy can you get? Was there no time post-production to have an eye for detail with this kind of enormous budget?
I did not go into the theater looking for mistakes related to his claws. It was that painfully obvious.
Flaming pile of hot, salty garbage.
Grade: F - (minus)
Days of the Blue
I always wondered when I would run into a random BSoD. A truly unexpected blue screen of death, especially when you don't think that the place is running on Windows.
In this case, it was an aquarium. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I took a few photos, but there was no flash photography allowed. These had a touch screen interface that allowed you to touch a picture of the fish in the tank for more information.
I hope the automated systems that keep these fish alive aren't using Windows.
The people around me did not understand why I was taking pictures.
The Swine Flu Unleashed
Another year, another global mutant flu scare. Except this one carries avian, pig, and human viruses. How the hell does that occur naturally? I suspect an advanced biological terror weapon. Or worse, the pharmaceutical companies releasing a new thought-to-be controllable virus into the wild to help push sales.
More cases of swine flu reported; WHO warns of 'health emergency'
"A potentially deadly new strain of the swine flu virus cropped up in more places in the United States and Mexico on Saturday, in what the World Health Organization called "a public health emergency of international concern."
Maybe it's to urge people to receive the flu shot as soon as possible. To scare them into buying into the hyped up pandemic. Sure, the flu shot will help, just like growth hormone therapy has been proven to help a child develop fully after puberty while spending thousands of dollars over many years. Note to readers: It doesn't.
US declares public health emergency for swine flu
"As part of that, Napolitano said roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it. Priority will be given to the five states with known cases so far: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas."
The Swine Flu outbreak does not seem natural. Perhaps it was either released on purpose by a certain terrorist group for biological warfare or accidentally released from a laboratory after many years of attempting to create a new type of deadly strain of flu. Maybe, as stated before, it was released by government agencies to increase the sales of flu shots annually.
We may never know the truth, but everyone should at least be prepared if there is an outbreak near home. Just remember: those cheap 3M breathing masks do very little in regards to protection. Chances are no one will breathe it in, but from the contact of the hands on surfaces. It is then transferred to the host as they scratch their eye, put their finger in their ear, or for many different reasons, put a finger in their mouth.
There are many ways people receive the virus, but it's nothing to really worry about right now. This virus alone will not wipe out humanity. It's best to just try to stay as clean if possible, but don't overdo the hand washing and sanitizing, and be aware of birds, pigs, and other human beings that might look infected. Pray at the sight of bird holding a tissue riding on top of a sneezing pig.
Boosting the immune system is the best defense when possible. Working out, changing up the diet, and consuming vitamins are good lifestyle changes if anyone is truly worried. Speaking of the immune system and vitamins, why do people still buy Airborne? It's absolutely worthless. Many people do not know about the class action settlement, but here's a wonderful link to the enormous settlement.
"The makers of Airborne—a multivitamin and herbal supplement whose labels and ads falsely claimed that the product cures and prevents colds—will refund money to consumers who bought the product, as part of a $23.3 million class action settlement agreement."
Though, Swine Flu has made an appearance before. Fort Dix in the year 1976.
It's good reading material and we should always know our history.
President Gerald Ford was urged by panicky public health officials to vaccinate everyone in the country. A quarter of the country was vaccinated by the time the program was put down. We lived through that outbreak as well as many others. The Spanish Flu was over 90 years ago, we've come a long way in regards to treatment, medicine, detection, and quarantine.
Though, this swine virus wasn't quite as worrisome as other outbreaks in the past. Why was there such a mad rush to have everyone in the country vaccinated? Could it be that flu shots are a falsely advertised product that do not help people, especially the elderly, 65 or older, protect themselves from influenza.
It's true, the flu shot does little for the elderly. Research released several years ago showed that even though immunization has increased by a huge percentage, the amount of annual deaths has not dropped enough to give credibility to the supposed life saving inoculation.
The CDC does tout statistics involving flu related deaths, but are they real? Out of those thousands of people, many of them had complications due to other related illnesses and pre-existing conditions such as pneumonia, heart problems, pregnancy, and alcoholism, cancer, and dozens of other factors combined to decrease the chances of surviving.
It is a very small percentage of people that actually die from the flu alone annually. This does not justify a shot prone to heavy side effects to everyone in the country at the start of flu season.
When was the last time anyone remembers a relative coming down with a case of SARS or West Nile? It's mass hysteria and the media fuels it by confirming locations where the disease has been detected. I do not care that they are actually informing the public of such information, but it's not right when it's only one man in a hospital bed waiting for the results.
One day, there might be a plague that will cause the near extinction of man. It's inevitable. It may come from the doing of a lab or from a unnatural mutation after great exchanges between species that allows the virus to adapt to become a cross-species infection.
Also, here is a map using Google Maps that shows suspected and confirmed areas of the man-bird-pig virus.
Also, for a last mention, apparently the GOP fought to strip $900 million for pandemic preparation from the emergency stimulus bill. Way to go Republican party. A disease that sweeps the nation couldn't possible cripple an already crippled economy any further. Way to play politics instead of responding to what might be in the best interest of the country.
GOP Know-Nothings Fought Pandemic Preparedness
"When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans."
Here's to another wonderful summer plagued by, well, yet another plague.
Stroking the Samsung Omnia i910
Wow. Really. Wow. This is truly my first smart phone, but I know this isn't because of that little detail. This phone has blown me away. This is running Windows Mobile 6.1. Look at these incredible features.
The phone comes with 8GB internal storage. This can be further increased by microSD cards. I will snatch a 8GB card soon for 16GB total soon. Wi-Fi ready. Oh, and a removable battery! No sending this little guy into the shop.
A 5 MP camera with face detection, 15 different shooting modes, image stabilization, smile detection, image resolutions up to 2560x1920, 4x digital zoom, panoramic photography up to 8 frames, flash, video resolutions up to 640x480, and a lot of other little options.
The phone is DivX certified. As for video, there is a Video Editor. This allows for trimming video, audio dubbing, and subtitles. With multi-codec support, it can also play just about any format available with a slew of media players including FM radio, multiple media programs such as Windows Media Player, Touch Player, MPlayer, Real Player, etc. It also has a TV-Out option to play videos and images recorded on an LCD television set and can double as a digital frame.
The Omnia also sports an integrated optical mouse that is really handy while browsing non-mobile websites. There are multiple options for on-screen QWERTY keyboards and awesome hand writing recognition software to be used with any application. Voice commands, with password protection, are also pretty well done.
The phone has a flash light, full PDF support, Office Mobile with Word and Excel, Skype, Opera Browser Mobile with tabbed browsing and directory favorites, chat program for almost all protocols (AIM, Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo, etc) all in one program/buddy list. You can also password protect this phone; one would need to type it in after the phone goes idle or turns on from a cold/warm boot.
Other browsers include Iris, SkyFire, Internet Explorer (ugh), Bolt, and soon to be Firefox Mobile and Google Chrome. I say Chrome because just about every Google service has a mobile side to it, why not their new browser in due time?
The phone has software for Podcasts, RSS feeds, and tons of games. Soon to be more, lots more.
It has a motion sensor that automatically rotates the screen in several different ways either to landscape or portrait, depending on how you're holding it. Also, there is an optional feature that allows all sounds to mute when place screen face down.
The Youtube Player freeware (not from YouTube themselves) allows you to search YouTube for videos, save the video on your phone, and will also extract the audio stream from the video into MP3 to save on your phone as well.
Did I mention the native encryption for storage cards and built-in GPS receiver? It also has features to do factory restoration on the phone and to format external flash cards from the phone itself.
I also forgot to mention that you can throw your own ringers on here. Just fire up your favorite program, either MP3myMP3 or Audacity, record or cut a little bit of a song, upload it to your phone with the very easy USB connection into the Ringers folder. That's it. No further input is necessary, until you want to assign those ringers as your default or to any of your contacts.
Samsung TouchWiz is also rather pretty to look at while adding or removing widgets from the desktop area. Nothing incredibly unique or special, but everything can be replaced with another like SPB Mobile Shell.
Oh, drat. I almost forgot to mention the Remote Desktop support for Windows based computers. It does a wonderful job remoting into the chosen desktop on the network and shows a full screen (on the phone) version of the Windows desktop PC. This feature really impressed me.
If a program is hanging, that's no problem. We are all familiar with the Windows Task Manager. If you're not, you probably just pull the plug on the computer when Microsoft Word freezes for more than two minutes. If you don't use Windows, but are familiar with the Task Manager, it's probably why you're off using OS X or any of the hundreds of Linux distros.
I don't know what else to add. It's a very solid phone. I can't imagine what I'm missing, but I'm sure there is plenty. Well, there is the bit about the stylus not actually having an embedded place to call home in the phone, but with a responsive touch screen and optical mouse, the stylus isn't that necessary. Undoubtedly a last minute after thought.
If you have Verizon, give it a try while you wait for your name to be called. And then while you wait for someone to help you. And then while you wait for the associate to figure out what's going on with your account. Then while you wait for the associate to fix his mistake that you told him would happen before he went and made the changes to the account.
To the Verizon guy Chuck: I told you that would happen. You should have listened. You made me angry, told me my phone's promo ended a week ago when another associate told me the promo would last well into April, and then did nothing to try to calm me down besides act like a huge d-bag. I was an inch away from canceling my out of contract subscription. How would that have looked on your commission and to the manager hovering over your shoulder?
It's a great phone, though. Aside from this phone, the Pre is the only other one I think I would get this year... so far. While I was stroking my Omnia earlier, Talal had to go and mention the Palm Pre. Oh, what a sexy beast that will be if it ever hits retail...
Faith, the Ultimate Alibi
The mind craves to know where exactly we came from. If God was such a tolerable solution, why are there still questions from well educated and civilized folk on the origins of humanity? Many call all Atheist morons and even to go as far to say that they "flock", when isn't that exactly what the church going groups are labeled? Many probably have had some rather lame experiences with Atheist, I have as well, but I am certain I've had far more unpleasantness with the fundamentalist religious type.
To say that Atheist are moronic, idiotic flocks of misinformed non-believers, is quite a stretch seeing as Atheist vary greatly in age, race, backgrounds, and location. One great fact remains that an Atheist can still live a good life. If there are no consequence after this life, why would they care? Because they know that this life is their only life and they wish not to lose it. Would so many people willingly sacrifice themselves if they had the idea of only having this one life? Why eliminate themselves in the name of man made inventions such as country, government, freedom, and religion? The thought is baffling.
I've been Agnostic for most of my life, but I've studied and tried, but God makes no sense. There is science and it has only come so far. Theories may come and go, as do religions and holy books. Just that a certain religion and book have been around for thousands of years with so many followers does not make it true. The Egyptians worshiped Set for 3,000 years. How long will it be before your religion is labeled as a myth like so many other now ancient religions?
As for Darwin, he hinted towards agnosticism, but he also said, "The safest conclusion seems to me to be that the whole subject is beyond the scope of man's intellect; but man can do his duty." He also said, "“The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic." This does not make an Atheist a fool to study Darwin. He understood that the question of God always ends in a stalemate.
A theory may never be able to make a dent to the very foundation of religion without absolute solid evidence, which does somewhat exist, but ignored and taken out of context. More on that in a moment. As for religion, they have books written by man while other books written by man contradict the other book written by man while all declaring themselves to be the absolute word of God. What will it take? Finding life on another planet?
The human mind has not evolved to the potent level to understand the cosmos, how it began, and where it may go. With an ever expanding universe with many exo-planets discovered annually, what will happen to religion in the minds of man when life is discovered outside of our own little planet? The chances of finding life on a planet outside of our own known solar system is similar to trying to find the only nickel in a Pacific Ocean of quarters. It is estimated there are between 1 billion and 30 billion planets in the universe.
We know of over 170 exo-planets orbiting 150 stars, with a few discovered to have the same distance to their stars as we are to our very own sun. Life existing on another planet has been proposed to be a billion to one. We have a while before we know for certain if we are truly alone. Science has only come so far, but at least science is trying to explain the origin of everything while religion stands back and waits for science to make a mistake. Religion is exactly like the Republicans right now. They are waiting for the Democrats to slip up so they have their chance to say, "We told you so! We knew they were wrong!"
Speaking of mistakes and probability, did God give us this seemingly infinite universe with planets reaching further than our most powerful telescopes can see filled with sights that our minds cannot begin to comprehend? A Nebula, which in due time may be easily explained, has absolutely no true explanation currently. Does that mean they were the direct work of God or are there other forces in this universe working together creating walls of expanding gas and dust after a red giant star reaches the end of its life and collapses? Do we even know how exactly a star dies? It's too easy to come to the conclusion that God wanted this amazing event to happen light years from Earth instead of there being an absolute reason why.
Science has theories on such occurrences in the universe, but that is to the extent that our mind and body can explain such phenomenon. Science is trying, though. It's a very long process of waiting generations, but science is always evolving. Religion tends to stagnate like an uncovered, unchlorinated pool while claiming that God is the reason for all the beauty, wonder, and bewilderment in the universe.
This is not acceptable and there must be explanations not currently available to our kind that adequately explain the fact that I am currently writing this using prehensile thumbs to assist with the typing all the while this text, website, and code not only exist only in 1s and 0s, but we are capable of navigating and comprehending what we are seeing and doing, even though the images, people, and technology on the web cannot truly be held or put in a box. The Digital Age has revolutionized the way Man thinks, performs daily activities, and how they spend leisure time. Especially by allowing the ability to write blogs on the idea of there being absolutely no supernatural power over man.
If there is no God, that is not as a horrifying thought as one may think. While we have no supreme being, fate, destiny, ultimate goal, or intelligent design; we still have each other. It may not sound like much, but the next time a friend falls ill, pray for them. Ask everyone to pray. Evaluate with a novice diagnosis of their condition after several days and then allow them to visit a doctor. The doctor may cure or treat the illness, which means the cure or treatment was the direct result of man, without the interference of God magically ridding the offending bacteria from the patient's body.
Science is the reason we have a high percentage of successful childbirth. Science is the reason we can overcome an affliction with acceptable odds at times. Science is the reason everyone is able to read this article. Science is the reason I was able to write this article. Science is the only reason we now enjoy the Golden Age of our lives with great success. Life expectancy is forever on the rise now, while hundreds of years ago being short lived. Organs have been grown in laboratories in which were grown from the exact same DNA markup and cells from the patient. Eventually, science may overcome mortality, or at least, extend life expectancy over an age unimaginable in our time.
To the Atheist and most Agnostic intellectuals, it is impossible and improbable to truly disprove the existence of God. How can one diminish such a strong belief in the collective minds of the population of the planet? While the history of the most popular religions, even Scientology, are soaked in blood, it's hard to think that we cannot shake the idea of a supernatural being in a supposed civilized world. We are genetically hard wired to believe in god through our very own genes, as there are areas and people in the world that have no god, do not know a god, nor does their language ever describe a god for many of their generations.
Without meaning to single out any religion in particular, it should be clear that I target all of the religions of the world that hold a strong belief system in a supreme being. There is no justification, regardless of flock stats and age. There is no way to prove that one book is mightier than another, regardless of age, history, and background. There are only people to hold as proof. We are all that we have in this world.
An Atheist St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Saint Patrick was Roman born and held captive as a slave by the Irish in Ireland in his teens for years before escaping. He returned later as a Christian missionary. The rest of his life is unknown. A mystery. There is no known evidence about the work that he did, miracles performed, or any link to any church.
It's all a lie.
Why do people enjoy celebrating the lies of dead men who have absolutely no historical documents written about themselves until many years after their death? The lie eventually becomes the truth, the truth then becomes the legend. The legend exceeds what would otherwise become a myth and becomes fact.
Take these words into what you believe to be your soul. Think about Jesus. Sixty years passed after his alleged death before it was written that he existed. What was the life expectancy back then? Factor in the only people that really knew him were the poor, illiterate, uneducated, and enslaved. How long did they live? How well could they write? How delirious could they have become in confinement?
What else could possibly have been misinterpreted by Christianity aside from the life and times of Jesus Christ?
Oh, that's right. The Ten Commandments. You see, they were all really meant for Jew eyes only. This isn't racism, this is fact. This is the bible, which is full of enough genocidal, child killing, slavery endorsing, jealous God warring, racism to allow it last a very long time based solely on fear.
Different Christian denominations have different ways of combining the 17 statements made in the Bible that are declared to be, somehow, the 10 commandments. Truthfully, the commandments were originally given by the Lord to Moses as laws on how the Hebrews should conduct themselves. Only the Hebrews.
How could someone get this so incredibly wrong? What could have propagated this fabrication? Was it science? Was it stem cell research? Marijuana? Was it violence in video games? Soulless news reporters smiling while reporting on brutal child murders two feet from where it happened moments ago? No, it was man. Man created God and now that God rules the masses. We've created an imaginary monster.
To make another point, if I may, it goes without saying that immaculate conception is one of the somewhat smallest, but wickedest, lies. The Bible nowhere describes Mary as anything but an ordinary human female whom God chose to be the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. But a Pope, Pope Pius IX, defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
An ordinary man whose position is no where in the bible made up a fact about the mother of Jesus Christ. Does anyone else see this as a little perplexing? A pope has defined doctrines that clearly contradict the word of God. You see, religion does not need an Atheist using logic against an entity that exists that is the absence of all truth and rational reasoning.
Religion has does a fine job on tearing itself apart.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day.
One to Eat Your Mother’s Corpse
The Komodo Dragon
When I was young, like most boys, I was fascinated by lizards and dinosaurs. Especially dinosaurs. I knew all of the names of dinosaurs, recognized which was which in books, knew what their diet consisted, and what period they thrived. Dinosaurs were an enormous deal for me and it was a childhood desire to grow up to become a paleontologist. After a viewing of Jurassic Park, the dream became a fantasy when I realized that paleontology is the study of fossils. I will never have the chance to meet a living dinosaur as they are extinct.
Until I went on a class field trip to the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. There were Komodo dragons on display. Not only did these enormous lizards plunge me back into my younger years of interest, I began a whole new idea on what I would like to do when I'm older. Of course, working in a zoo was one of those ideas, as working day to day with animals I have only seen on the Discovery Channel would be a huge thrill. I saw zoo keepers swim in tanks full of exotic fish to clean and maintain the habitat. Depending on the position gained, it would be rare to have a boring work day.
I found my professional calling elsewhere, but still think that the huge monitor lizards native to several islands in Indonesia are an awesome sight. If it wasn't for protective barriers, the 7 to 10 foot, 350 pound lizard would descend upon the unlucky stumbler with the force of a fearsome beast equipped with powerful legs, large, sharp claws, and a tail they use for more than just whipping. The Komodo dragon can rear back on its hind legs and use the support of the tail to stand up straight and tall. This must be an amazing sight, but I can only imagine feeling overwhelming fear knowing it can charge with speeds up to 12 miles per hour. It may not sound fast, but they are very stealthy, strategic hunters. They normally go for the throat.
The Komodo dragon is a carnivore in every way possible. Not only will it eat live prey, even their own as they are cannibals, but they have a steady diet of carrion. A carcass is a quick and easy meal as they have no competition on their native islands. This is called island gigantism. There was not another animal to challenge them for dominance. This explains the monitor lizards extreme size, but it does not explain the disgusting habit of digging up human corpses from graves and eating the remains. Aside from being a terrifying predator, they are also grave robbers.
While they are great hunters, they are extremely vicious when it comes to prey. They typically eat an animal alive by tearing chunks of flesh off the body while holding whatever it would be down with powerful legs. Although, if the animal is small enough, like a goat, it will be swallowed whole. To speed up the process of swallowing an animal, the Komodo dragon will ram the body of the animal against a tree shoving it further down the throat. Don't worry, the Komodo dragon will be fine during this process because it will not suffocate while swallowing an animal whole as it has a snorkel underneath its tongue. It has all the time it needs. It's also safe to say that these enormous lizards will eat just about anything, dead or alive, including horses.
If a human being, or any other animal, does survive an attack, they will undoubtedly need immediate medical attention for more than the gaping wounds. Their saliva contains a great deal of bacteria and can be considered rather venomous. While there is no antidote for the infection caused by its bite, don't worry, the Komodo dragon is completely immune to its own biological warfare. In the saliva exists a deadly strain of P. multocida, which is very serious news to a bite victim. Most animals that survived, but were bitten, typically live a week before the disease kills them slowly.
These monogamous lizards aren't all bad, though. The female can reproduce asexually in the absence of males. This was recently documented in detail by a zoo in Kansas. While it might be possible that a single female can land on an island, lay over 10 eggs, and allow them to hatch. They will all be male, but that's no problem. The female will then reproduce with the males, her very own, to allow reproduction to allow females to be born. This is obviously a rather worrisome flaw because it's a very bad idea to scrape the bottom of the gene pool barrel. Google an article about cousins marrying and then try (don't) to imagine what happens when you multiply that by eleven.
Although, they really aren't all that bad. Numerous accounts in zoos reporting that Komodo dragons have actually been taken out of their enclosures to interact with the visitors of the zoo. They become tame rather quickly and like to play. While having a brain and an impressive memory, we know that they are not confusing a bucket with a piece of meat. The Komodo dragon will carry the bucket around in its mouth, stick its head in a box, and several other documented games to engage in play. While they may be a fun display at a zoo to watch and study, people must exercise extreme caution when encountering a Komodo dragon in the wild. If provoked or have their territory threatened, they can become killing machines.
Ubi Dubium ibi Libertas: Where There is Doubt, There is Freedom
Obama has overturned the ban on stem cell research. This is exactly what we need in charge. This is exactly what we want in charge, even though many people believe this is to be the wrong action. Sadly, these people are wrong. Religion is the root of what's wrong in the world; stem cell research and abortions for everyone will not devalue human life. Religion has devalued enough of the lives of our ancestors and countless generations to come.
This is exactly what we need, even if we say otherwise. No more Christian fundamentalist mucking things up in our country. Their finger on the red button believing nuclear war is the second coming of Christ. The Rapture. Even though the term Rapture is no where in the Bible, along with immaculate conception and Original Sin, people perceive these terms as facts.
They see the bible as a true account of history. Ridiculous! We can't run a country on a dated book of lies. We can't create laws in this country based on a book of immorality, slavery, bigotry, genocide, torture, child murder, incest, rape, and racism. It's insanity to think that we need ancient text to give us morals. Human beings naturally know right from wrong, meaning that those who pretend to be good simply because they want to get into heaven are no better than the so called sinners they persecute.
Religion, by its very nature, breeds ignorance and intolerance. It divides people that should otherwise be accepting each other. Well, in a semi-perfect world. If not by religion, division would exist by skin color, height, and in Japan currently, blood type.
In Japan, you are what your blood type is.
It's all about geography. These same people that are heavily Christian, usually belonging to one church out of the 1,200 denominations of Christianity present in this country, would be Islam, or Islamic fundamentalist, if they were born in a different country. Not just Islam, but any religion predominant in that region. It's childhood indoctrination. Think about it.
I merely use the Islam faith as an example because of the bigotry surrounding the religion and causing it to be synonymous with terrorism. If the average person knew that the Middle East had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, I would hope the diseased state of minds would dissolve into peace. Just ten days after the events of 9-11, the FBI admitted that the IDs used by the perpetrators were high-quality fakes using identities stolen from Arab men.
In years to come, the rest of the country will find out about the arms dealing the Bush administration, not the first Bush as we already know about his trading with the enemy, and Cheney had with the Middle East for many years. It's what we do. Arm a smaller country then invade them citing that they have amazing weapons. Banning abortion and stem cell research wasn't a moral decision, it was a political stand for the bible belt support. It's what every presidential candidate and president-elect wishes to hold dear to their campaign and office.
The blind sheep of the herds around the country only noticed what they believed in as the culmination of the Bush presidency. Ignore the fact that so many innocent Muslims have perished for absolutely no reason and ignore the fact that the Bush administration was run by sociopath war criminals.
Though, this kind of involvement seems to be normal. Be it by dumping millions of gallons of dangerous chemicals on the Southeast Asia countryside for 10 years in the Vietnam War or the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by President Jackson. Ethnic cleansing. We believe that we are what's right in this world.
While passing a twenty dollar bill, look the other way. What would be the reaction of the Jews if Hitler was printed on legal currency? A genocide, no matter the rationale or justification, is still genocide. It happens to this very day either over resources or religion. Typically, religion is an excuse to wage war, but it usually falls on what the enemy either needs or desires. There is no new land to conquer, only what is already owned by the natives of the land or the rightful owners. That and fossil fuels.
Majority of people that know very little about World War II believe that our involvement in the war kick started our return globally as an economic powerhouse. They think that by jumping into a fray late, dropping a few bombs, and ignoring the cries of thousands of Jews being told that they will not be given asylum can cause the economy to inflate. War does not stimulate the economy, it's a flash in the pan stimulation. It was all about war profiteering. It's about money.
The same could be said about the war on drugs. Innocent people guilty only of an addiction are thrown into prisons while tax money is wasted on keeping them alive, clothed, and fed. These people are not given a second chance, they are not being rehabilitated. They are being tortured in an environment not suitable for their sickness. Would we throw an alcoholic in jail? Even if the person has done absolutely nothing wrong. Simply by being addicted to booze.
Why is that such a ridiculous idea when marijuana has many medical uses and hemp has hundreds of uses that could compete with most modern material, such as clothing and paper, while alcohol has absolutely none?
The war on drugs is a war on people. People's rights are being violated and this crime against humanity needs to end.
The war on terrorism is a war on people. People's rights are being violated and this crime against humanity needs to end.
"Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival: the analogue of steering by the moon for a moth. But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-product is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses." - Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
“Creationists eagerly seek a gap in present-day knowledge or understanding. If an apparent gap is found, it is assumed that God, by default, must fill it.” - Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
