Fall of Efrafa

If you haven't heard this band, do yourself a favor and check them out now!

You can listen to a few of their songs for free on the website. I saw them last night in Richmond and was absolutely blown away. They are from the UK but are on a US tour right now, if you have the chance to see them then don't pass it up!

Tonic Immobilization

I saw one of the most interesting things ever tonight on the Discovery Channel. I am hoping that most of you already know that it is shark week.

Well today happens to be the first day of my family beach vacation, and we rented a house right on the ocean. When we got in tonight, we ordered pizza and checked out what was playing on the tube. We stumbled across SharkWeek, and I considered changing the channel, as I was very disapointed at one of SharkWeek's previous shows. But I stuck it out, and I'm glad I did.

The show was called "Sharkman" and it was about a guy that willingly swam with great white sharks, without a cage or any other sort of protection. And even more, he would reach out and touch them. He was experimenting with some sort of hypnosis, where if he touched certain sharks in certain places, they would go into a trance-like state. This was much easier to demonstrate on smaller sharks. He would flip some smaller sharks over, or just rub their nose, and they would immediately relax and lay still, allowing him to rub all over their bodies.

In one case with a caribean coral reef shark, which I believe was around 6-8 feet long, he induced this trance-like sleep, moved shark bait a few feet away and then let the shark wake up. Instead of immediately going for the bait, the shark followed him, asking for more. This indicated that the sharks enjoy this tonic immobilization. Some of the sharks were competing for the Sharkman's attention, wanting to get their snouts rubbed.

This reminded me somewhat of my dog Chloe. If you pet her in a certain place, she basically falls into a hypnotic trance and rolls onto her back, presenting you with her belly, which she wants you to rub for her. If you stop and walk away, she follows you, wanting more.

The fact that my little westie and massive predators of the sea may have a lot more in common than I ever would have imagined possible, in terms of ability to interact with humans, is astounding.

It also blows the traditional view of sharks, especially great white sharks, to pieces. The sharks seemed playfull, curious, and friendly even towards humans in the water, as apposed to "mindless killing machines."

I think it's a great thing when all previous negative connotations towards anything are totally shattered, whether it be stereotypes towards certain groups of people or negative views of sharks.

Pit Bull's Bad Image

Here is another article about Pit Bulls that I found just after I posted my last blog. It has been on the cnn homepage for awhile now.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/07/24/pitbull.culture.ap/index.html

Hello Bully

This is a link to a great article on one of my favorite sites, xsisterhoodx. Check out this article on the truth about Pit Bulls.

http://www.xsisterhoodx.com/content/view/1337/1/

Bokito Agrees

Bokito is a gorilla that escaped from his cage at the zoo in Amsterdam today. I think he was tired of being locked up on account of his species.

Click the title to check out the CNN article about it.

Chimp Rights

This is an interesting article that Lindsey brought to my attention. Click the title of the blog "chimp rights" to go to the article.

I definatly agree that chimps should have some basic rights and that they deserve more legal rights "than bricks or apples or potatoes," as stated in the article.

Thanks Lindsey, for the article.

Ape Shit

Something that has really begun to interest me lately is the subject of great apes. An article in the New York Times recently reported that scientists have indeed proved the extent of ape intelligence. You can check that out here:

Almost Human, and Sometimes Smarter


In fact, in one memory test in which numbers flashed up on computer screen in different locations and the objective was to press the spots in the order that they flashed up, chimpanzees outperformed humans by far. Chimps have been proven to utilize tools for such things as cracking nuts and fishing for termites. Furthermore, research has also shown that an ape culture exists.

So the question is: if these things have been proven, and apes have only a 1.23% DNA difference from humans, then why are they still being used for animal testing, kept in zoos, or forced to do tricks for the entertainment of humans? I believe it is fair to say that many apes are much more intelligent then mentally handicapped humans, yet they are still treated cruelly. Therefore looking into this, I stumbled upon something which has apparently existed since 1993, The Great Ape Project.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_project



This group has been fighting for the rights of great apes such as “the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture” . I think these are pretty fair rights given that apes have “varied social, emotional, and cognitive life”. They are not asking for apes to have the right to vote or anything, just that they are treated in a respectful manner.