Ever have one of those days when you’re all ready to have some fun…
… and life just seems to get in your way?
I hate days like that!
Category Archives: Life
A Welcome Goodbye!
I hate summer. I really do.
The heat, the humidity. Never ever EVER being comfortable!
It’s sticky and gross.
I hate sunlight. I literally don’t like the feel of it on my skin.
And so, it is with gladness in my heart and a spring in my step that I bid a fond farewell to this particularly awful time of year.
Bring on the cool days and the cold nights.
(Photo by Daniel Řeřicha)
Bring on the colours.
Bring on autumn!!
Factory Girls and Boys
I always feel a bit sorry for myself on Labor Day weekend, as it's back-to-school time and usually I am engaged in a mad dash to get my course syllabi done. Of course this is ridiculous, as I have the cushiest job ever and most of the summer I've been free to do as I liked. It's good to remind myself what…
People forget what these days were like. Thank goodness we have child labour laws! Just about every good thing we have in society now... child labour laws, 40 hour work week, weekends, social security, unemployment insurance, welfare, paid sick leave, maternity leave, childen's aid societies, product liability legislation, consumer protection laws, minimum wage, health and safety standards, workers' compensation, decent prisons, governmental regulation of industry, etc... all came as a result of how horrible things were 100 - 150 years ago.
Stay in School!
In most parts of Canada and the U.S., school starts this week.
With that in mind, here’s some unsolicited advice for high school students.
Stay in school!
Finish high school. Seriously. I mean it.
If you think life in general is hard…
Try life without a high school diploma.
Bill Gates (supposedly) once said, “If you think your teacher is tough…
Wait til you get a boss!”
Studying is not fun. Studying is rough.
And do yourself a favour… don’t use short-cuts.
They’ll test you on the parts of the book that weren’t in the movie.
OK, that was my rant for the day.
Go forth and slack no more!
Why I Hate Almost Everyone (Part 19): Graveyard Vandals
My dearly departed dad’s grave was desecrated years ago by some teenage hammerheads who probably had too much to drink and thought it would be cool to knock the statue of the Virgin Mary off the top of a tombstone.
That’s my guess, anyway. No one ever found out who did it.
In my mind, there is a very special seat in Hell for those who desecrate graves. [1]
Words simply cannot express the feelings of revulsion and impotent rage I experience when I see images of vandalized cemeteries.
It is an attack on all right-thinking members of society. It is an attack on common decency.
It is the ultimate act of cowardice.
I hate you. I detest you. I despise you. I loathe you.
As Queen Elizabeth the First of England once said, “G-d may forgive you… but I never can!”
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[1] As an observant Jew, I do not believe in Hell in the Christian or Muslim sense of Eternal Damnation with no hope of repentance after death. The Jewish concept of punishment for sinners in the afterlife is more like the Catholic concept of ‘Purgatory.’ BUT… if there is a Hell, I am sure there are special seats reserved for guys who beat up prostitutes, men who rape children… and cemetery desecrators.
WASP 101: All you need to know
In the interest of promoting insect awareness, I present you with the following…
Learn it. Live it. Love it.
You’re welcome!
World’s Tiniest Fly May Decapitate Ants, Live in Their Heads
Just when you thought parasitic insects couldn’t get more gross…
The entomology geeks and nerdlings over at LiveScience.com give us more fodder for our nightmares!
In a recent article, LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh reports that a new fly discovered in Thailand is the world’s smallest. It is five times smaller than a fruit fly and tinier than a grain of salt (0.4 millimeters) in length — half the size of the smallest “no see-ums.” [1]
(Just how small is it the world’s smallest fly? I am glad you asked!)
It probably also feeds on tiny ants, likely decapitating them and using their head casings as its home.
“It’s so small you can barely see it with the naked eye on a microscope slide. It’s smaller than a flake of pepper,” said Brian Brown, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who identified the fly as a new species. “The housefly looks like a Godzilla fly beside it.”
The tiny finding is detailed in the July 2012 issue of the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America.
Picked up by the Thailand Inventory Group for Entomological Research in Kaeng Krachan National Park, the tiny fly is the first of its kind discovered in Asia. The researchers named the new fly Euryplatea nanaknihali.
(Euryplatea nanaknihali, left; decapitated ant, lower right)
The flies lay their eggs in the body of the ant; the eggs develop and migrate to the ant’s head where they feed on the huge muscles used to open and close the ant’s mouthparts. They eventually devour the ant’s brain as well, causing it to wander aimlessly for two weeks. The head then falls off after the fly larva dissolve the membrane that keeps it attached.
The fly then takes up residence in the decapitated ant head for another two weeks, before hatching out as a full-grown adult.
I don’t know about you but I have enough nightmare material to last me the whole weekend!
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[1] While this is the world’s smallest fly, it is by no means the world’s smallest insect. That title belongs a species of fairy wasp, coming in at 0.14 millimeters in length, about the size of a human egg cell
Fake It ’til You Make It! ‘Faking’ Attraction Leads to Love
“The key to success is sincerity. One you can fake that, you got it made!”
French dramatist Jean Giraudoux was really onto something, at least when it comes to matters of the heart.
A recent MedicalDaily.com article reports, “Pretending that you find someone attractive increases your susceptibility to their charms and heightens your chances of truly falling in love with them, according to new relationship research.”
The latest findings [1] suggest that behavior can lead to certain emotions just as much as emotions can lead to behavior, and may offer explanations for the relative success of arranged marriages compared to conventional marriages.
Past research has shown that those in arranged marriages or those who have had their partner chosen for them by a parent or matchmaker, tend to feel more in love over time compared to those in regular marriages who feel less in love as time passes.
Lead researcher psychologist Richard Wiseman tested the theory of the “positive action” technique, which he believes could be used to not only accelerate feelings in new relationships but also rekindle them in older ones, by holding a speed dating night where some of the prospective partners were instructed to act as if they were already in love with each other.
(This is True Love. You think it happens every day?)
“Just as people feel happier when they force their face into a smile, so pairs of people behaving as if they find one another attractive became emotionally close,” he said. “The assumption was that the emotion leads to the action or behavior but this shows it can happen the other way around, action can lead to emotions.”
“Behaving like you are in love can lead to actually falling in love. People are always going about positive thinking when this suggest positive action is just as valid,” Wiseman said. “We actually had a problem stopping people. We had go around pulling couples apart.”
“Actions are the quickest, easiest and most powerful way to instantly change how you think and feel,” he said.
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[1] The findings are published in the professor’s new book Rip It Up, which is described as ‘ripping up the rule book, where Wiseman will present radical new insights into ways to improve your body and brain.
Creepy Girls (6): Girl on Railing
A lot of people have a fear of falling. [1]
((((shudder))))
I have something a little different. I get extremely uncomfortable when I see other people in danger of falling.
And because of this deep feeling of discomfort, the above photo is very difficult for me to look at.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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[1] Actually, it’s not the fall that concerns me. It’s the sudden stop at the end.
Coital Cephalalgia: Not tonight. I have a headache.
An orgasm, the ultimate pleasure? For those suffering coital cephalalgia, or “sexual headaches”, it’s quite the opposite.
A recent article indicates that this rare type of headache occurs in about 1% of men and is characterized by a sudden, severe “explosive” pain at the base of the skull that builds just before or during orgasm. Afterward the intense pain may last for several hours or even a few days.
(They are the 1%!)
(A headache? Seriously?? That’s MY line!!)
Doctors aren’t certain of what causes this disorder. Erectile dysfunction medications such as Viagra could be a malefactor, as it’s estimated that 10% of men using this kind of medication may experience coital cephalalgia. Although these headaches are often benign, it’s always important to seek medical attention if you are experiencing them as in rare cases it could indicate a tumor or worse.
Over-exposure seems to be the best treatment. According to Wikipedia, “a doctor may recommend heavy sexual activity and masturbation for a short period of time ranging from a few days to a few weeks.”
(Thanks, Doc!)
To sooth the pain, it’s recommendable to take medications that prevent such headaches (Propranolol) during this intense sexual period.
(In other words… Take An Aspirin, Buddy!!)
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Anand KS, & Dhikav V (2009). Primary headache associated with sexual activity. Singapore medical journal, 50 (5) PMID: 19495503
