thunderhaven @ vox

Petside News

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:37:34 -0700

Oh my.....

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Declawing - What You Need To Know

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:13:14 -0800

When I first got Acyl - gads, over 25 years ago now - I had planned to get her declawed until, while looking for a vet to do it, I saw an ad from a cat-only clinic saying they don't declaw cats at all. When I realized how much money they were giving up by refusing to declaw cats, I figured it must not be good for cats, and decided not to have Acyl's claws removed. And, of course, by the time Piper came along, I was used to living with an indoor, clawed cat, so it wasn't even a question.

I didn't know why declawing was bad for cats, however, until reading the following post at clipnotes. I'd assumed it probably had something to do with a possibility of infection from having to claw in litter that might have "stuff" still in it, or that it was simply painful - I didn't realize that declawing isn't just pulling the claws out of the paw - they actually amputate the last knuckle of the claw to remove it and the area the claws retract back into. It'd be like having someone cut off the first joint of your finger, leaving you with just the stubs.

One of the commenters noted that she'd heard Martha Stewart say that even though she has all that high-end, silk furniture and such in her home, she won't declaw her cats because she can always replace the furniture. I know most of us can't replace furniture as easily as she can (if only we had her budget to work with, eh? hehe) but I have to say I appreciate her principled stance on it.

The post was originally from declawing.com, at the clip ends by noting that there is an "acceptable solution" which, I presume, is what declawing.com sells But I think it's good information, nonetheless, and something worth considering when bringing a new cat into the home.

clipped from www.declawing.com

First, you should know that declawing is pretty much an American thing, it's something people do for their own convenience without realizing what actually happens to their beloved cat. In England declawing is termed "inhumane" and "unnecessary mutilation." I agree. In many European countries it is illegal. I applaud their attitude.

Declawing is actually an amputation of the last joint of your cat's "toes". When you envision that, it becomes clear why declawing is not a humane act.

This is not a surgery to be taken lightly.

Your cat's body is perfectly designed to give it the grace, agility and beauty that is unique to felines. Its claws are an important part of this design.

Amputating the important part of their anatomy that contains the claws drastically alters the conformation of their feet.

I have also had people tell me that their cat's personality changed after being declawed.

declawing is too drastic a solution

Is there an acceptable solution?

Happily, the answer is yes.

Send to a friend

Britain Drops Label "War on Terror"

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:15:42 -0800

I think they're making a lot of sense. Calling this a "war" gives terrorists more recognition and a higher status than they deserve. I also like the option of dropping the term "Islamic terrorist." We need to find a way to avoid making "Islamic" and "terrorist" sound like synonyms.

clipped from www.military.com

The words "war on terror" will no longer be used by the British government to describe attacks on the public, the country's chief prosecutor said Dec. 27.

Sir Ken Macdonald said terrorist fanatics were not soldiers fighting a war but simply members of an aimless "death cult."

The Director of Public Prosecutions said: 'We resist the language of warfare, and I think the government has moved on this. It no longer uses this sort of language."

London is not a battlefield, he said.

His remarks signal a change in emphasis across Whitehall, where the "war on terror" language has officially been ditched.

Officials were concerned it could act as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, which is determined to manufacture a battle between Islam and the West.

The term "Islamic terrorist" will also no longer be used. Officials believe it is unhelpful because it appears to directly link the religion to terrorist atrocities.

Send to a friend

Harvard cooks the books on weight and mortality

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:52:22 -0700

Interesting article in "The New Republic" looking at how the well-established "fact" that "normal" weight people live longer than "overweight" people isn't as true as we're often told it is.

clipped from www.tnr.com

The story is simple: That it's well-established scientific fact that being "overweight"--that is, having a body mass index figure of between 25 and 30--is, in the words of Harvard professors Walter Willett and Meir Stampfer, "a major contributor to morbidity and mortality."

According to this line of argument, there's simply no real scientific dispute about the "fact" that average-height women who weigh between 146 and a 174 pounds, and average-height men who weigh between 175 and 209 pounds, are putting their lives and health at risk.

t's difficult to exaggerate the extent to which the actual scientific evidence fails to support any of this. In fact, the current evidence suggests that what the Harvard crew is saying is not merely false, but closer to the precise opposite of the truth. For the most part, the so-called "overweight" BMI range doesn't even correlate with overall increased health risk. Indeed "overweight," so-called, often correlates with the lowest mortality rates.

Send to a friend

'Viking ship' found under British pub

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:54:57 -0700

Who'd have guessed that the Vikings would park near the ale?

clipped from www.abc.net.au

British archaeologists believe they have found the remains of a 1,000-year-old Viking longship underneath a pub near Liverpool.

The ship is thought to lie beneath two metres of clay, under the car park of the Railway Inn pub on the Wirral peninsula in Merseyside.

The Vikings are known to have settled in the area.

An archaeologist from the University of Nottingham used ground-penetrating radar to pinpoint the location of the remains.

He says they are of a Nordic-style vessel from a time when Vikings came to the area.

Send to a friend

Dear Mr. President

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:12:34 -0700

Not a P!nk fan at all, but this song is *great*

Video behind the cut

<lj-cut>

clipped from www.youtube.com

Dear Mr. President

Watch Video

Send to a friend

Tucker Carlson: Wiccan lottery winner = government subsidation of Satanism

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:35:38 -0700

Here's my nominee for Wanker of the Day. A Wiccan wins big in the lottery, says he attributes the win to Wiccan Magic and that he's going to use his winnings to quit his job and teach Wicca full time. Now, if a winner has attributed his winnings to Jesus and said that he was going to use his winnings to quit his job and teach Christianity, everyone would talk about how wonderful what he's doing is - but I can't imagine any pundit or politician claiming that its an example of the government subsidizing Christianity, eh?

And, of course, if I understand how lotteries work, the government isn't subsidizing ANYTHING. The whole point of government run lotteries is for the state to be able to raise money - usually to be used in funding education and such. Its all the other lottery players who are "subsidizing" the winners (if you want to put it that way.)

Anyway, just had to share that particular crock of crap. What a f*#^!ng donkey!

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com

GEIST: And the flowers bloom on his birthday, I believe. It‘s amazing how things work there. Good for Congressman Royce.
Well, Tucker, the first of four of those giant cardboard checks handed out in the 330 million dollar mega million jackpot today. A guy from Maryland named Bunky Bartlett got his 82.5 million buck today. Make no mistake, he didn‘t win the money because of luck, he won it because of Wiccan magic.
Bunky is an accountant who also teaches Wicca, which is a nature based religion. He and his wife were on their way it a mystical bookstore when he stopped to buy the winning ticket. Bunky says, quote, the universe was working its magic. He now plans to quit his job and concentrate on teaching Wicca.
Boy you could teach a lot of Wicca with that kind of cash.
CARLSON: You‘re saying basically the U.S. government is subsidizing some kind of devil worshiper, Satanism.
GEIST: That‘s exactly what I am getting at.
CARLSON: That‘s perfect.

Send to a friend

The Top Dozen Religions of the World

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 05:10:09 -0700

Found this among another Clipmarker's posts and thought it was interesting. On special interest is that Wicca is now one of the top 12 religions in the world. It's still incredibly small compared to the biggies, but I'd say it's definitely growing...

clipped from www.godweb.org

The Top Dozen Religions of the World

What are the largest religions of the world? What are their membership statistics, relative size, locations, rankings? Find out now simply by looking at the table and map below:

Religion: Members:
Christianity 2 Billion

Islam 1.2 Billion

Hinduism 785 Million

Buddhism 360 Million

Judaism 17 Million

Sikhism 16 Million

Baha'i 5 Million

Confucianism 5 Million

Jainism 4 Million

Shintoism 3 Million

Wicca .7 Million

Zoroastrianism .2 Million

Send to a friend

For anyone who might be interested

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:43:40 -0700

Meteor shower this weekend...

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

The annual Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak during the early hours of Monday, but it will be visible from Saturday night until Tuesday morning.

The celestial show will be most apparent in the north-eastern part of the sky near the Perseus constellation.

If the skies remain clear, it will offer stargazers the best opportunity for a few years to see the Perseids.

The shower this year coincides with a new Moon, providing sky watchers with the dark skies necessary for excellent observing conditions.

The best viewing conditions will be where the sky is clearest and darkest. However, meteors should be visible, to a lesser degree, in cities despite light pollution and smog.

Both hemispheres will receive good views but the prime locations will be Western Europe and North America.

As an added bonus, watchers should be able to see Mars, which will be in view as a bright red dot in the eastern sky after midnight.

Send to a friend

Pearl Jam and Net Neutrality

nobody@vox.com(thorswitch) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:58:09 -0700

Sunday night was the closing night of the Lollapalooza tour this summer, and Pearl Jam was one of the bands performing. As Eddie Vedder has been known to do, he used the venue to get a few political shots in - asking the audience to work for peace in the middle east, inviting a veteran who was injured in the Iraq war on stage, and adding the line "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home" (both sung to the tune of "Another Brick in the Wall" to one of the songs they performed that night.

What happened next, though, is something that the band says shows just how important net neutrality is. Net neutrality is the idea that there should be regulations enacted to prohibit broadband providers from deciding who and what can be transmitted over their lines. Without net neutrality, if a company doesn't like what a website says, it can prevent it's users from being able to access that site. Or if a politically-minded rock star decides it's important to make a statement of protest against a bad president and an ill-conceived war, a company who doesn't like that message can have the signal drop out (accidentally, of course) when those comments are being made...

clipped from machinist.salon.com

But if you were at home listening to the show on the Webcast being provided by AT&T, you would have missed those lines. As the band writes on its site, the Web transmission cut out the protest lines. AT&T says its monitor did so by mistake -- what a strangely precise and politically convenient mistake!

In a press release, Gigi Sohn, the president of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, says:

How can we trust a company that promises not to interfere with content on the Internet when it has its corporate finger on the button to cut off political criticisms it doesn't like? The admitted censoring of a Pearl Jam performance is just one more reason why content should be protected against the actions of a company looking out for itself, rather than for consumers and the free flow of information over the Internet.... We hope the FCC and Congress take note.

Send to a friend