Month: August 2007

Snake attack

The ball python is not native to North Carolina, so I’m sure that played into the certain shock experienced when one bit the ankle of a 15-month old boy recently in Charlotte.

Christine Abdelmonem had taken her son, Adam, to get a better look at some ducks waddling nearby in Freedom Park on Monday. As she lowered the boy to the ground, she felt a tug and saw the snake wrapped around his leg.

When she screamed for help, two maintenance workers came and attacked and captured the python. The child is fine, but maybe not so much the snake.

John Calchera, a pet store owner in nearby Pineville, took in the constrictor snake. He thinks it may have been abandoned by a pet owner and that it won’t survive being beaten.

“It’s a totally harmless thing,” he said. “Why attack a harmless thing?”

I’m going out on a limb here, but I bet biting a child somehow factors into the answer to that question, Mr. Calchera. That plus the likely lack of proper snake-attack reaction training for the general public.

But hey, if you want to join the Ball python owning community, make sure you learn proper selection, feeding, enclosure, handling, and treatment for the snake.

[tags]Snake attack, Ball python, Charlotte NC[/tags]

All your robot needs – until they take over, at least

Is there much in life cooler than robots?

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RobovieM3.jpg

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Well, I guess frikkin’ sharks with frikkin’ laser-beams on their heads. And robots with chainsaws for hands. And fire-breathing amphibious zombie shark robots with lasers and chainsaws.

And ninjas or pirates or ninja pirates or pirate ninjas. But that is just about everything that that could be considered cooler than robots. And once the robots take over, none of them will be allowed to exist, so it will become a moot point.

[tags]Robots, Ninjas, Sharks, Pirates, Robots will take over[/tags]

Gene for my awesomeness found

Oops. That headline is supposed to read “Gene for left-handedness found”, but sometimes, my self-proclamations of awesomeness just escape before I can stop them.

Scientists have discovered the first gene which appears to increase the odds of being left-handed.

See. Simple story. Simple quote. Here’s a kick-in-the-pants, though.

The Oxford University-led team believe carrying the gene may also slightly raise the risk of developing psychotic mental illness such as schizophrenia.

What? So since I’m a lefty, I’m more likely to go all wacko? Great.

The full article discusses a bit more on the gene LRRTM1 and how it appears to play in assymetry of the brain, hemisphere assignment for speech and emotions, and potential effect as a contributor to schizophrenia. So much from one little series of markers.

[tags]Gene for handedness, Lefty could increase chance of crazy?[/tags]

Nicole Richie to grow the stagnant end of the gene pool

Well, what can be done? Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to stop people from reproducing just because they inhabit the shallow end of the gene pool.

After months of rumors, Nicole Richie confirmed Tuesday that she is pregnant.

“Yes I am. We are,” Richie told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an interview to be aired this week. “I’m almost four months.”

I know. I’m hateful. But really, she and Paris are responsible for a lot of the bad that is reality television that we have to suffer through these days. Not the first, but some of the worst.

[tags]Nicole Richie pregnant, The shallow end of the gene pool[/tags]

Reboot gets rebooted

I don’t know how many of you watched or remember the cartoon ReBoot from the mid-90s, but the series will be seeing something of a rebirth in form of 3 feature length films and a web comic. The show was cheezy, but entertaining to many (a group in which I include myself).

“ReBoot” — one of the earliest computer-animated episodic TV series — will be redeveloped as a trilogy of feature-length films by Rainmaker Animation.

Originally produced in 1994, the series was created by MainFrame Entertainment, which was acquired by and renamed Rainmaker in 2006. “ReBoot” aired for several seasons on ABC, YTV and Cartoon Network.

“The idea is to relaunch the brand in a new way,” said Rainmaker Animation executive vp Paul Gertz, who will oversee the project.

Ultimately, the series rebirth appears tied at least tangentially to the comic fan social networking site Zeros 2 Heroes, if I’m reading the article correctly. So today I’ve learned of the coming rebirth of an animated show I used to enjoy AND that there is a social network out there which seems to be targetted at people even geekier than I am. What a learning experience this has been.  Now if someone would just release the entire series on high-quality transfer DVDs (they messed up season 4 in an earlier DVD release – I want all the seasons done right).
BONUS: Unaired “Making Of” video via YouTube.

Extra Bonus: Keep up to date on the revival efforts by fans at the ReBoot Revival web site.

[tags]ReBoot!, Rebirth of ReBoot animated series, Heroes, Cartoons, Comics, Social networking[/tags]

Anyone care to remind me how much a single bullet costs?

Man, people like this really peeve me. Enough for me to feel we need harsher punishments for people who intentionally cause harm to children – thus the price of one bullet question above.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A Florida woman accused of using aliases to adopt 11 New York children received as much as $2 million in child welfare payments even as she starved, bound and abused them, police said Tuesday.

. . .

Authorities believe Leekin held the adopted children like prisoners in her Port St. Lucie home, often handcuffing them together and forcing them to soil themselves because they weren’t allowed to use the bathroom.

. . .

Leekin’s lawyer said his client denies the allegations.

Every time I read crap like this, I think how much we need another update to the comic character Vigilante (and his updated version known as Vigilante). Read the full article to get a better idea of just how bad this was. I’ve left out some of the more disturbing details. Sounds like the kind of thing that would make one of the children who have since moved out turn all Samuel L Jackson on the worthless ass of this woman some day.

[tags]Woman abuses children and welfare payment system, People who need to not waste oxygen, Where is a vigilante when you need one[/tags]