Why I will never take up Kite-Surfing: If the winds die down, you’re shark bait!

That’s it.

A few years ago, when my wife and I were in Kauai on vacation, we considered Kite- Surfing. It was fun watching those guys glide across the water.

I can’t remember why we didn’t try it, but afterwards I put the activity down on my bucket list. Well folks, it just came off my bucket list after reading this:

“A kite-surfer who became stranded during an attempt to cross the Red Sea fought off sharks and endured excruciating thirst, according to Reuters and Polish media. 

Janek Lisewski, 42, a kite-surfing champion from Poland, was two-thirds of the way through a 124-mile trip between Egypt and Saudi Arabia when the wind died down and deflated his kite. He survived by drinking energy drinks and two energy bars. He used a knife to fend off sharks.

He sent an SOS signal but it took nearly 40 hours for the Saudi Arabian coast guard to find him. "I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills," Lisewski told Polish state news agency PAP.”

Apparently Kite-Surfers and sharks have been meeting up for some time now. Probably about the time the sport began. Here’s two stories from last year:

 

Sharks Kill Kite-Surfer in Florida – Newser 2/4/10

Stuart man, 38, identified as kite surfer killed by sharks off Stuart Beach – Palm Beach Post 2/4/10

Texas warns Spring Breakers: stay away from Mexico!

      Good Day Humboldt County!

   Well worn, once safe roads in Mexico have become a thing of the past. I recall going to Tijuana numerous times in the sixties, and having lots of fun.

   If I tried going to Tijuana today, I’d be taking my life into my hands. You only have to read the headlines to know that I’m right.

  What a pity. The borders between Mexico and the United States are now killing grounds where cartels wage war on one another, and the government. Where journalists are killed daily for daring to report the truth. A deadly standoff has developed between the current Mexican government and the cartels. Neither side is winning, but all the innocent bystanders are losing…their freedoms and their lives. Travelers beware:

                                                                  News Snippet:

“The state of Texas on Tuesday warned residents for the third consecutive year not to travel to Mexico during the upcoming university spring break season, saying drug cartel violence and other criminal activity are a safety threat even in resort areas.

The announcement is a major blow for Mexico's economy. Tourism is Mexico's second-largest industry. About 60 percent of Mexico's visitors are American, and about one third of them are either Texans or travelers who pass through Texas.

The advisory comes despite pleas from top Mexican officials to limit the travel warnings to specific areas where the threat of violence is greatest.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Women of America: Serve your country and expect to get raped

Back in my day, I’m a Vietnam veteran, men and women in the armed forces were separated (with a few exceptions made for secretarial pools). There was the men’s barracks, and there was the women’s barracks. Both verboten to step into unless you were the right sex.

  I can clearly remember that most of the guys were young, like myself, and so full of testosterone that we were always thinking about women and how much we wanted to be with them. We were like a pack of dogs when a WAC walked by…barking and preening.

Each trying to outdo the other’s wolf whistle. It was clear to the military community at the time that mixing the sexes was a bad idea, and would lead to problems. How could they expect those pumped up GI’s or Marines to act like gentleman?

There’s a pack factor in the military. If one person does something – let’s say something questionable – the pack closes around them in a united front. It’s been that way since the first military unit was formed back in the dawn of history.

But something happened in the name of political correctness, and men and women in the military were suddenly working side-by-side. Living in the same dormitories. Training together. Going into combat areas together. Some idealist thought that the men’s basic instincts could be controlled and they would universally respect the women they were serving with.

The reality is reflected in the headlines today: 1) Lawsuit claims rape, misconduct at D.C. Marine Barracks

2) Sexual Assaults on Female Soldiers: Don't Ask, Don't Tell 

3) 1/3rd of Women in US Military Raped

4.) Rape in the US military: America's dirty little secret

I think it’s a shame what’s happening to these women. If asked, back in the day, if I thought men and women could work closely together in the military without problems, I would have raised one eyebrow and said, “Hell No! Are your crazy?”

The military brings out the savage side in men. It’s part of the macho society in uniform. The younger men especially view women (in or out of uniform) as sex objects there for the taking. Unless you’ve been in the military, you can’t understand what I’m talking about.

I’m not saying those macho, testosterone-packed men are right, and it’s just a matter of “boys will be boys.” I am saying the clowns who thought this Co-Ed military thing would work were wrong. The proof is in the headlines. Call me old-fashioned, but I have the common sense to know when something won’t work.

This is just my opinion, so take it for what it’s worth. If you agree, or disagree with me, I would like to hear what you think? Should we go back to separating the sexes, with exceptions? 

Goodies at the Movies: Man sues theatre over the cost of snacks

         Good Day Humboldt County!

The road to entertaining ourselves can often be an expensive trip. I remember going to inside theatres when I was young, and the price of snacks didn’t seem as outrageous as today.

Nowadays, I seldom go to the movies, as I  prefer to rent them when they come out. The last time I did go, taking three grandchildren with me, was a wallet shocking experience!

  The thing of it is, the movies can charge whatever they want for snacks, even if it’s three times higher than anywhere else. Free enterprise baby. That’s okay. Moviegoers don’t have to pay if they think the price is too high. But, let’s face it, movie theatre owner’s gamble on the fact they have a captive audience that is hungry from the moment of the opening scene.

I have to admit I never thought of suing the theatres for their high price goodies. I’m just not the type of guy who goes around suing people. However, one man from Livonia, Michigan, has decided to make a court case out of it:

News snippet:

“Who hasn't stood in front of a movie theater concession stand and been stunned by the prices of snacks and drinks? $5 for a bottled water? $8 for a bag of popcorn? $4 for a box of M&Ms? If regular moviegoers haven't smuggled in their own snacks, they've almost certainly thought about it.

Joshua Thompson of Livonia, Mich., actually did something about it. He filled a class action suit against his local AMC Theater protesting the snack overpricing, the Detroit Free Press reported.”

Time for me to walk on down the road….

Have you ever………… been sooo tired?

 

 

Go here to see some more great photos of tired animals and babies.

Coming Soon: really fast robots made to wage world wide wars

Let’s face it, man has been suspicious of robots since the first one was cobbled together out of scrap metal pieces.

Here’s an article that depicts fast robots for future wars. The inventors say it can also be used for humanitarian purposes. Wanna bet that doesn’t happen?

News snippet:

“If there's anything scarier than a cheetah coming after you, it'd have to be a headless robo-cheetah coming after you at record speed.

That nightmare is now a reality thanks to DARPA's Cheetah robot, whose 18 mph pace has set a land speed record for machines with legs.”

It doesn’t look like a cheetah, but the suckers sure fast!

The feat, revealed today on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's website, is aimed at developing combat robots that can outrun and evade humans on foot — and a 3:20 mile should just about do it. (The world record for humans is 3:43.) Boston Dynamics has been working on the cheetah-bot as part of DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program, or M3.

The company says that in addition to the military applications, the robots can be used for humanitarian purposes such as emergency rescue and disaster response.”

Friend? Anything But: Yoga guru sullies ancient philosophy

    Good Day Humboldt County!

What happens to people who follow roads of enlightenment that later turn out to be paths of destruction? If they’re lucky, they learn a lesson and move on to better things.

If they’re not so lucky, they die like the disciples of that crazed lunatic, the Rev.Jim Jones, founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 913 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana.

I ran across another false prophet recently. He teached a so-called life-affirming Tantric philosophy called Anusara yoga. It gained world-wide renown in recent years, but the founder’s vision is littered with loot and lies.   John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, (photos above) is facing some serious accusations of both sexual and financial misconduct. Unlike that madman Jones, Friend has not hurt anyone physically. Mentally, it’s another story. Friend has taken a leave of absence, sent out a public letter of apology and told his many followers that he's immersing himself in a period of "self-reflection, therapy and personal retreat," according to numerous news outlets.

While he’s on his retreat somewhere between 60 to 75 teachers have resigned.People are wondering if Friend's alleged penchant for sex, drugs and other peoples' money will taint the entire community of yoga, a form of exercise that touts physical as well as mental and spiritual discipline. It’s hard to say.

I suspect, Friend (was there ever more irony to a name?) mixed just enough good advice with outright bullshit to keep everyone bamboozled. In a zone as it were. I’m not mocking yoga here folks, so uncurl yourselves from the lotus position and read on:

News Snippet:

"My guru was very clear on this point," Tommy Rosen, who's been practicing yoga for 20 years said. "When you teach yoga, there's a mantra you say before you teach. 'I am not a man. I am not a woman. I am not a person. I am not myself. I am a teacher.' When you step into a yoga studio and you're the teacher, there needs to be a boundary there." (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Help! I don’t have my mobile phone and I’m nomophobic

                                        

By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
 I remember growing up with one phone in our house. It was considered a luxury, not a necessity. You couldn’t take the phone outside, but if you were out in public, there were things called phone booths.
 If you’re thirty or younger, you can Google “phone booths” to see what I’m talking about. The other day I read about a collector (of what the article didn’t say) who bought a “gently” restored (mostly original parts) 1905 phone booth for $35,000! Who knew?
 Part of the reason that old phone booth sold for $35,000 was because it was a first of it’s kind. It really looked nice with a solid wood panel door and double-glass windows and walls for sound proofing.

  I seldom used phone booths. They always made me claustrophobic. I seldom called anyone until I was a teenager, at which time my calls were made from home so I didn’t have to put my money into a pay phone. Another reason I didn’t like phone booths.

  At no time - and you can quote me - was I ever worried about having to make a phone call. If an emergency came up I dealt with it. The result wasn’t always pretty, but I’m still here, right?
  I assure you, the idea of carrying a phone around with me was as foreign as those little people in Asia fighting over some country called Vietnam. I never dreamt of the possibility. I was clueless as to the onrushing technology that would soon be found in nearly every American home.
  In 1977, my second son was born and the first cell phone was made in Chicago. Then companies in other places started to make cell phones. As you may suspect, there are now more cell phones than landline phones.
The results of last year’s semiannual US wireless industry survey (go to http://www.ctia.org/advocacy/research/index.cfm/AID/10316 ) were stunning to say the least; 91 percent of Americans have a mobile phone!
  All of which leads me to my main point today: The fear of being without your mobile phone is on the rise. The experts even have a name for this fear; nomophobia, or No Mobile Phobia. It’s defined as the anxiety a person feels when out of range of a cell phone tower, or if they don’t have their mobile phone with them for some reason.
This phobia, according to a recent CBS News report, is a growing problem. A recent poll in the United Kingdom said sixty-six percent of respondents reported being nomophobic.
 It came as no surprise to me that the 18 to 24-year olds were the most likely to report being afraid without their mobile phone. This new condition is a generational thing, from everything I’ve read thus far.
 The younger you are, the more likely you will be stricken with this fear, according to the researchers. The study said women are more likely to worry than men if they don’t have their mobile phone with them. That makes sense to me.
  The study also concluded that “more than one in two” nomophobes never switch off their mobile phones.
Old timers like myself are less likely to panic if we forget to take our cell phones with us. That’s not to say I haven’t got a tiny bit spoiled by the convenience of carrying one. I seldom use the thing, but I admit it’s comforting to know that if I fall down and can’t get up, I can fish it out of my pocket and call for help.

In a complete moment of transparency, I’m copping to a growing case of nomophobia! I can sympathize with those youngsters today who never knew about things like phone booths, and who got their first mobile phone when they learned how to string sentences together using abbreviations and popular slang.

 There’s no turning back now. Any day I expect to hear that newborn cell phones - pink or blue, take your choice - will be given to new mothers and fathers when they check out of the hospital (sponsored by one of the megalithic mobile phone makers, of course).
  It sure would be nice if I could swap phobias. Out with the old claustrophobia, and in with the new nomophobia.

   As It Stands, unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. I just have two phobias now.

Journey heads home: Lone gray wolf’s epic hunt for a mate or pack

              Good Day Humboldt County!

  Like humans, wolves sometimes travel a lonely road in life. I’ve been following the exploits of one gray male wolf since last November.

  I wondered what was happening to him during his travels because there was very little chance of finding a mate in the direction he was heading. I thought about his lonely journey, and envisioned adventures that he must be having. Close calls perhaps?

I really didn’t expect an update on the wolf, whose name is Journey. Then I ran across this article:

Snippet:

“The wandering gray wolf who last year became the first wild wolf recorded in California since the 1920s crossed the border Thursday and headed back to his home state of Oregon.The young male, nicknamed Journey by a conservation group, entered California in late December, attracting international attention. He remained on the move, trotting nearly 1,000 miles in three Northern California counties, crossing highways, pine forests, scrubland and even ancient lava flows.

“Biologists say OR7, as the animal is officially known, is doing what young wolves do: setting out on its own to find a mate, establish a new pack or perhaps join another one.”

Photo above:

This Nov. 14 photo from a hunter's trail camera appears to show OR-7, the young male wolf that has wandered more than 2,000 miles around Oregon and Northern California looking for a mate and a new home. (Allen Daniels, Associated Press)

Living illusions: people with tattoos offering optical views

Above left - Here’s an excellent skull illusion tattoo involving two clowns holding hands while drinking. The tattoo, by Kate Hoogland, just might contain the most romantic skull illusion ever.

Above – right - a brilliant rendition of M.C. Escher’s Drawing Hands illusion. The piece, done by Cheryl Volling, has some absolutely stunning shading, giving it the life-like appearance of the original Escher drawing.

 

Here’s a great tattoo with a double meaning. Is it a face or a cartoonish man playing saxophone?

For more great examples of illusion tattoos go here.

Winning: Whatever it takes…even maintaining a bounty on foes

The first football coach to be canonized by the sport was Vince Lombardi. It was he who said, “If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?”

Nothing has really changed since Lombardi’s days, and this latest story about the National Football League illustrates that:
New Orleans Saints players and at least one assistant coach maintained a bounty program the last three seasons for inflicting game-ending injuries on opposing players, including Brett Favre and Kurt Warner — a pool that reached as much as $50,000 and paid specific amounts for ''cart-offs'' and ''knockouts,'' the NFL said today. I can’t say I’m really surprised.

I can recall many conversations with other football fans who also wondered if teams purposely targeted other teams quarterbacks over the years. Not one of us thought of a paid bounty plan however. The Saints are the first team caught doing this. Maybe they were the only team that has ever had a bounty program. Frankly, I think there’s other teams out there that have/had similar incentive programs to take out opponent’s quarterbacks.

Remember; it’s all about winning. Especially in this day and age. It doesn’t matter how your crossed the finish line, it only matters that you’re the first one to do so. Second place is unacceptable. Like actor Charlie Sheen said (during a drug crazed rant), “Winniiiiing!”