The Understatement

I feel like I died and went to heaven. As soon as I saw the headline of this article, I burst out laughing, and still haven’t stopped. It’s a struggle just to type this.

Basically, some left winged supporters are firing back at right wing “birthers” to prove just how silly their arguments are at this stage in the game. I suppose Donald Trump will NOW realize yesterday’s stand-off with Wolf Blitzer seems so inappropriate now.

Having suffered from a brief experience with sleeping pills, I know how dependent you can become if you aren’t careful. The thing in question in this article is a study that found that people who took at least 5-18 pills over the course of a year were more likely to die an early death.

It’s more of a debate over the number of pills a person takes on a regular basis versus what they take on a yearly person. Someone who only took 5 sleeping pills a year cant be at risk for early death. It’s just too small a number.

Would you lose weight if you know you’d make some pretty good spending cash? It’s the question posed here.

Hmm…there’s evidence that a once great civilization’s downfall was due to climate change.

Just read the article

I’m all for hunting, but if you’re going to introduce a big game feeder into a new ecosystem with no natural predators to keep the population under control, you get an invasive species. When that happens, it gets out of control.

That’s what happening on the Big Island of Hawai’i apparently. It’s not the government introducing them (originally, they were a gift), it’s others secretly transplanting there. This is where the problem lies: The deer were a gift, so it’d be an insult to get rid of them, but…they’re destroying the natural environment, most of which is endangered species of both plants and animals.

As much as I don’t want to, I have to take sides on this and tell people to see the bigger picture. What’s the bigger picture here? The deer are a problem that is getting out of control. End of story. Not so much for those who want to hunt them.

The hunters of the islands in this article want to argue that the government mustn’t only protect the environment, but they also have to protect the rights of hunters as well.  Unfortunately what the hunters have to realize (and accept) is that if the deer population cant be brought to a manageable level, they’ll have to eradicate them from the islands all together.

Deer aren’t native to the Hawaiian islands. They were introduced after WWII. I understand that being out in the middle of the ocean away from any real big game sports can be difficult, but you have to look at the overall impact on not only the environment, but also the farmers and the economy overall. Even if every hunter on the islands were allowed to kill as many as they want, the argument would become “now the hunter has been deprived”. I understand better than you think.

Take the situation here in Texas when the Russian Wild Boar was introduced to the environment for the same purpose: hunting. At first, it was great. A heftier and challenging prey to go after that also adapted well to the environment. The problem: they adapted too well. Now, there’s a movement to eradicate them from all over the south, mainly in Texas where there’s more land and brush for them to hide out in. And I can tell you, it takes a lot to bring down a boar. One bullet just doesn’t cut it unless you can nail it right between the eyes like a gator. If you shoot them in the side, it could be hours before you find your kill. Not only that, but they’re very destructive, not to mention the damage they do when they mate with domesticated pigs that quite quickly turn feral. And they are dangerous buggers that can run extremely fast with tusk that can gore you. Imagine Pumba on steroids. And like deer they can multiply quite quickly. Think of them like pig sized rats. They have litters unlike deer who have one, at the most two offspring a season, where pigs can produce five to eight every couple of months.

Why do I know all of this? I grew up in a hunting family. I know things. I eat both of these animals as well as a wide range of other wild game. I know the troubles they can bring and the damage they can inflict. Yes, in the case of the boar, the hunters are the natural predators keeping them in check. But you can barely call it that.

If you need another example, take what happened in Yellow Stone park. In this case, a natural predator was eradicated from the area. The victim: The Grey Wolf. Once it was taken away, the buffalo and elk population skyrocketed to a point where the herds were starving simply because there wasn’t enough food to feed them in the natural environment. When the wolf was reintroduced into ecosystem, things balanced out and and now all three flourish with healthy numbers, though the Grey Wolf is still technically endangered.

So, really, hunters of the islands and the government are going to have to strike some kind of deal in this case so that both can be satisfied, or at least so that there isn’t much harm done to the environment itself. After all, this particular type of deer is far from endangered.

Steve Jobs was a great man who practically changed the way the world interacts as a whole. What a better last project to leave behind than something that would benefit others: a new Apple campus.

I have to say, after looking at the design and reading the article on what they hope to accomplish, I think that possibly, once ground is broken, that the new Apple campus will be quite a feat.

For people out there who believe that love is all they need to survive and that if you really loved someone and thought you were meant to be, you wouldn’t ask for a pre-nup: you can suck it.

Those people are idiots. The truth is, if you’re smart and you really did love the person you’re committing to, you’d get a pre-nup. The fact is, life happens. People can be head over heels for a few years, and then something happens, and they despise each other. Should said situation ever happen, a pre-nup is a blessing in disguise. It can help prevent a messy divorce (or at least lessen it) and test whether or not a marriage is going to run smoothly.

Though what’s largely discussed in this article is their smart decision to get married so soon after a major public stock release, I want people to pay attention to how pre-nups work and are sorted out in California. Why, because I know most of you who read these are from Texas and ironically, we are part of the small group of states who have community-property laws. Our pre-nups work pretty much the same way. Here, it’s generally described in layman’s terms.

Since NASA’s been de-funded and the Shuttle program ended, there are only two options to get into Space

1. Pay to hitch a ride with another country (Russia or China) and pay millions of dollars for just a single seat, not to mention the cost of an added pay load or,
2. Pay slightly less for privatized trips on experimental crafts.

The U.S. chose the latter. After their failed first attempt to launch, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will give it another go to deliver a payload to the International Space Station (ISS) with much needed supplies.

Also along for the ride: the ashes of 308 super fans. They’ll be tucked into the second phase booster rocket. Of those remains, actor James Doohan who played Scotty on the original Star Trek will also be going up along with Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper.

To be honest, this was one of the first things I thought about when I learned that the shuttle program was going to end. Though the process cost a pretty penny, ($3000 a pop) it’s a fitting end for many, especially for those who leave it in their will as a final request.

Yeah…so…I’m never going to own a car in New York. You can read all about it.

Yeah, that whole mustard things for burns works. I know, I’ve done it. I get burned, scratched, and cut on a regular basis between jobs. The things our grandparents tell us actually work most of the time which is how I learned most of the home remedies that I use. They also taught me how to clean silver to near restored condition. Trust your elders and the strange things they teach you, even if it sounds crazy.

That’s right, there’s a unicorn out there, and it’s becoming an endangered species. Specifically, it’s the Asian unicorn, whose actual name is the Saola. It’s a really cool antelope like animal that lives in the Vietnam/Laos border area.

I just wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention. No animal should be endangered, including the one’s we don’t know so much about or don’t like.

As you’re starting to realize, I like to scour the web for interesting articles. What could be more interesting than finding an article on something I’ve suspected for quite a few years now. Congress’s speaking level is dropping. And not only is it dropping, there’s a clear trend on who usually has the lower grade.

As delighted as I am to have found that I’m right, I’m also slightly disappointed. Those who we elect to office are supposed to represent us as a people and overall, showcase where our country is at the moment. This shows that we’re no longer as literate (nor as eloquent) as we once were years ago. what better evidence that education needs to be reformed than that of the literacy of Congress dropping.

P.S. I don’t believe in the whole ‘they’re-speaking-plainer-to-get-across-to-their-constituents-better’ crap. If you’re good, you can get across what you need without having to change your speech pattern (or lower your rhetoric)

The FCC apparently is going to allocate a spectrum to allow for wireless monitoring of patients vitals signs. This is great news because the first thing that popped into my head, was “This could be really cheap” and the article goes on to actually state just that!

The future isn’t coming people, it’s here. We are Star Trek: Next Generation!