Quote of The Day

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question

than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

-Bruce Lee

Do Over

It is not uncommon to hear children say that they want a “do-over”, especially if something did not turn out as they’d initially predicted. And as children, where the world seems to somehow govern itself under rules that are far more just than in the adult world, they are miraculously granted a 2nd chance or a reprieve, if you will, to correct a wrong or gain another shot at perfection.

Admittedly, I am secretly jealous of them for this reason (though no longer *secret* after this post). I mean how many times have you made a choice that you wanted to change later on? For example, it can be something as simple

as while driving, changing lanes to avoid a back-up, only to end up behind a “Sunday driver”; or placing an order for an item, only to have it arrive and be something completely different from what was initially envisioned and now you are stuck with return shipping fees, to something more serious, like posting a disparaging or inappropriate comment on someone’s blog that you now regret , or finally for having chosen a career path that siphons your spirit, with no available viable options of rectification(thankfully this is not the case for me because I love what I do).

A do-over could change the time-space continuum as we know it, right? (Back-To-The-Future reference). Think of what a do-over could have allowed happen: the McCain-Palin ticket actually WON the November election, or my parents got a do-over in regards to their marriage, and as a result, I or my 3 brothers were never born, or that the 3Rd Reich was actually successful in their quest for world domination and subjugation. These events would have had far-reaching effects on how the world as I know it, developed. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, there is no real “do-over” in life, but don’t you wish that there was?

Cat.Gato.Chat.Katz.Quittah.

No matter what language you say it in, they are wonderfully loyal and serene pets. I have in the past had two of them as pets. One a pure- breed that I lucked upon at an animal shelter that specialized in pure-breed “displaced” pets and another that was a “mutt” cat. My two cats were Ginger (an orangish colored cat, hence the name Ginger) and Neo, named after the main character in the Matrix Trilogy. Both were great pets, but it was the pure-breed that captivated me and captured my heart.

Neo was a pure-breed Bombay cat the embodiment of beauty. He was long and lean with the most dazzling dazzling golden eyes and a soft coat of black with a sheen that would easily put Arianna Furs to shame.

Beauty and Brains
Neo was not only beautiful, but intelligent too. I was able to teach him to:
-Come when his name was called,
-To sit on command, and
-To jump on command (to name a few).

Sometimes his natural intelligence would get him into trouble. There are several occasions that I can recall with great clarity. The first- I wanted some privacy, so I went into my room and closed the door. Well, Neo was not going to be having any of that, how dare I leave him alone! He proceeded to stand on his long hind legs and twist at the door knob until the door opened. Feeling quite proud of himself, he sauntered over to where I was sitting and hopped up on my lap. The second-Neo liked the breeze that would come off the screened-in balcony and would often lie in front of the balcony door to nap and soak up the breeze and he would also be sometimes seen “sniffing” the air that came in. On day the allure of the outside world was too great for him and he did something about it.

I’d gone to run a few errands one day and when I came back, he was missing and there was a large hole in the bottom of the screen. Naturally I panicked. Neo was an inside cat and had only gone outside in his carrier. Frantically I began to call his name as loudly as I could, yes, the neighbors thought I’d lost my mind, but I did not care. Since he had been trained to come when his name was called, he immediately popped his head from under the neighbors’ bar-b-que grill and let out a meow before running and jumping back onto my balcony, looking as innocent as can be. Initially, I tried to prevent him from escaping through his hole, but that was to no avail, because as I mentioned earlier, he was quite crafty; so I resigned myself to the fact that he would get out whenever the weather was mild enough not to need the AC. Plus, he would never go anywhere but to the neighbors’ grill (yes, I had to work out an understanding with them because they were of the mindset that all animals were “nasty” and that Americans were crazy about their nasty animals (they were/are Haitian).

Finally, one day during the week I was off work and cleaning in the living room when I saw a little squirrel climb up the screen. I was nervous because I hadn’t replace the screen from when the cat chewed/clawed through it the second time (yes, I was stupid enough to replace it! $80.00 well-spent). As I was about to try to shoo it away, I saw the cat leap at it and knock it off of the screen. I was horrified at the fact that my “respectable” cat would attack that “rat with the fluffy tail.” He didn’t kill the squirrel, the hunt was sufficient for him, but I did have to take him to the vet to make sure he did not get rabies and I had to call the association to let them know what happened to the “fluffy rat” in hopes that they could get someone out to look at the squirrel to make sure that it would be fine. The third incident- this incident was actually something that happened several times before I figured out what was wrong. My cat would run through the house and jump up the wall. It was always the same wall and he would do this for about 15-20 minutes before he either got tired or I became irritated with the behavior and would grab him and hold him or if he was especially aggressive, I would have to spray him with water from the water bottle (don’t worry, this is a common cat training tool and doesn’t harm the animal). Well finally I figured out that these bouts were temper tantrums. He would get angry if he couldn’t get any attention or sit on your lap. In many ways he was like a dog without the barking.

One Of A Kind
Neo was an interesting creature who would groom you and himself at the same time (this was him showing you affection), he would hop into the tub when you ran bathwater (strange, right?) and he was known for waking my son up in the middle of the night trying to get a soft spot to lay down (you know that kneading thing that cats do before they can lay down). I would hear my son say something like, “Oh my G-d, could you hurry up!” If it became problematic, I would have him shoo the cat away and close his door. Neo did NOT sleep alone so he would come to my room to start over again, only I did not allow him on my bed (allergies)! I loved him, but not enough to let him onto my bed.

Retrospect For Life
I tell these stories of him in retrospect, because Neo is no longer of this earth. Neo contracted FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis , the wet form, from Ginger, who got it from her mother, which should have been detected since I got her from the Anti-Cruelty Society in downtown Chicago. I’d gotten her because I’d read that you should never have one cat, that they get lonely for their own kind and that they should have a playmate, some playmate, huh? If you get a cat from a shelter make sure that they get tested for this disease. I was told by Anti-Cruelty Society that this was not a commonly tested for disease, but strangely enough the rescue group that I got Neo from tested for the disease. If you get a rescue pet, make sure you get it tested for Feline Infectious Peritonitis!!!

Well, on this parting note, I sincerely pray that I meet my friend again in the hereafter, because it was a blessing to have had him in my life and selfishly, I want to see him again…

http://www.catster.com/breeds/bombay

Quote For The Day:

Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilisation. - Oscar Wilde

Why Do Whales Beach Themselves?

I have often wondered why whales beach themselves and so I decided that perhaps instead of wondering about it, I should look into finding out why they do it. Let me first and foremost mention that I am no Marine Biologist nor do I work for the military or some special interest group…I am just a curious person.

Let’s first briefly talk about how sound travels underwater. It is said that sound travels best in dense mediums because of the more closely packed molecules. Water, which is far denser than air, helps sound to better. As a result, the speed of sound increases by about four times underwater. Since sound travels at a much faster rate underwater, the direction from which a sound originally came, cannot be easily ascertained.

Types of underwater sounds:

Natural sounds
Natural sounds underwater can originate where the earth’s tectonic plates collide, or be caused by underwater landslides, icebergs breaking off, earthquakes, heavy rains on the water surface and animals
Ocean animals makes noises while swimming, searching for food, sending defense or attack warning signals, sending a mating call, when they are frightened and when they communicate with each other.

Man-Made sounds
Man-made sounds underwater can originate from large freighters in crowded shipping lanes, underwater drilling for oil and underwater explosions, crews laying communications cables and sonar devices used by the military.

How Humans process sounds

Humans perceive sound under water by bone conductivity, which is the vibration of the bones of the skull (Physics). Sound waves enter the ear and strike the tympanic membrane or eardrum, which vibrates the bones of the middle ear. The vibrations are transmitted to the fluid in the inner ear and then vibrate the hair cells that line it. The hair cells are connected by neurons to the auditory nerve, which transmits the signal to the brain. The number of hair cells stimulated determines the volume of the sound and the distribution pattern of stimulated cells determines the pitch of the sound.

Human ears are unable to pick up the frequencies of many of these underwater animal sounds because our hearing threshold is only between 20 and 20,000 Hz. Anthropogenic sounds, such as submarine sonar can be dangerous to divers’ hearing.
A whale’s ear and human ear are similar, save for the fact that a whale’s hearing is 50% more acute than a human’s.


As the picture above shows, the anatomies of both species ears are remarkably similar.
Since submarine sonar and other man-made noises can be dangerous to humans, what effect would you think that it would have on a species whose hearing is 50% more acute than human hearing?

Other points to consider:

It may also be prudent to consider since a whale has evolved to dive for long stretches of time, typically 1-2 hours at a time. In order to do this a whale prepares itself for the dive by spending 10 minutes or more clearing its lungs, blowing a breath in and out every 12 seconds. It’s getting rid of old carbon and loading up with fresh oxygen. Since the whale can and typically does dive deep and has evolved to be able to hold its breath for such prolonged periods of time, it’s safe to assume that it wouldn’t complete such a rigorous preparation for a 30 minute or less dive. Would you prepare for a week for a trip that is only going to take 1 day to make? It be prudent to do so. With that in mind imagine that you have completed your preparation and you make your long anticipated dive, you get 800 feet down in your dive and all of a sudden you are inundated with a wall of sound which appears to be coming from everywhere, so you swim away from the deafening sound.

Since whales navigate using sonar, if they are unable to hear, how are they able to determine the best escape route? They aren't able to do so, which most often results in them beaching themselves as a result. Another thing that one might want to make note of is that when human divers ascend too quickly from a dive, they get what is called the bends. Divers get the bends or decompression sickness when they have been on a deep dive and do not stop in their ascent at regular intervals to decompress.

Small holes are abnormal tissue damage from nitrogen bubbles that form when the animals rise to the surface too quickly.

It has been discovered that whales are experiencing the bends too as a result of ascending too rapidly after a deep ascent. As mentioned earlier, whales typically would be able to manage not getting the bends by avoiding quick ascents, but again, if they are “running” from something, they risk injury to get away from it.
The worlds waterways are becoming increasingly polluted with sound- man made sound and as a result, I fear that these beaching occurrences will increase.

Michael Jackson converts to Islam

Well it's official, Michael Jackson has converted to Islam. I suppose after living amoungst Muslims for such a long time, he became aware of the beauty that is Islam. In all sincerity, I am overjoyed that he has accepted Islam. Ma'shallah!

Behind every great man is a supporting and loving woman...

Everytime I see an image of President-elect Obama, I immediately think of his wife, Michelle Obama. This is in no way meant to take away from his accomplishments, but to acknowledge the fact that he has a powerhouse of support in his own household.

Michelle Obama is an accomplished individual in her own right- A cum laude Princetone Graduate, a Harvard Law School graduate, successful lawyer, a successful community organizer, an Assistant to the Mayor, an Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development; she was Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as their Executive Director for Community Affairs and, Vice President for Community and External Affairs; and She served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods.

Michelle has accomplished all of this, as well as, being a wife to Barack and a mother to their children. It has been said that she is his advisor and confident, and that he depends on her for loving and generous support. I think that when he picked her to be his partner, he could not have picked a better woman, as they truly compliment each other.

As the next chapter in their life unfolds and the President-elect takes his place in office with is faithful partner by his side, I will continue to keep my eye on Mrs. Obama.... I suspect that her, correction, their best is yet to come. May God bless and protect them.