□ Swimming With Carnivores: Man Swims with Crocodile

Chico and Poncho are two birds of different feathers, well neither one has any feathers, and it may be a good thing Chico doesn’t, not very sure if that matters, but never the less….Chico swims with a 17 foot Costa Rica Salt Water Crocodile almost everyday. As if you might imagine, no not in a cage or behind Plexiglas, in the water, right next to the Aquatic Reptile, and yes he calls him a friend,

Steve Erwin would probably have a heat attack if he was still alive to witness this man.

Smile! Crazy huh?

Chico found the reptile as a wounded victim, and hand fed and recuperated the creature since then. Swimming with him from when it was no bigger than 6 feet in length, to now at 17.5 feet in length and 1,000 pounds. Normally this would never happen in the wild, at least not for very long, but the creature Chico swims with actually responds to his chanting calls, and coaxing.

The animal is not by any means trained, but it does recognize his “friend” Chico and doesn’t see him as food or a danger.

Why? Well the Croc would have to answer that, but if you asked me, I would say that because of the length of the relationship and the bonding this man and this Croc have dealt each other over a long length of time, that the memory or thoughts of Chico in this creatures mind, does not compel it to react to him in any other way than what ways it is used to reacting to Chico in.

Smile! Crazy huh?

This 52-year-old daredevil draws gasps of amazement from onlookers by wading chest-deep into the water, then whistling for his 980lb buddy – and giving him an affectionate hug.

Chico says: “Pocho is my best friend. This is a very dangerous routine but we have a good relationship. He will look me in the eye and not attack me.

“It is too dangerous for anyone else to come in the water. It is only ever the two of us.”
Chico made friends with the croc after finding him with a gunshot wound on the banks of the Central American state’s Parismina river 20 years ago.

He had been shot in the left eye by a cattle farmer and was close to death.
But Chico enlisted the help of several pals to load the massive reptile into his boat.
He says: “When I found Pocho in the river he was dying, so I brought him into my house.

 

“He was very skinny, weighing only around 150lb. I gave him chicken and fish and medicine for six months to help him recover.

“I stayed by Pocho’s side while he was ill, sleeping next to him at night. I just wanted him to feel that somebody loved him, that not all humans are bad.

“It meant a lot of sacrifice. I had to be there every day. I love all animals – especially ones that have suffered.”
It took years before Chico felt that Pocho had bonded with him enough to get closer to the animal.

Maybe Seaworld should have this man join their Killer Whale Trainers Team?

Intel Launches Fastest Processor on the Planet: i7

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 17, 2008 - Intel Corporation introduced its most advanced desktop processor ever, the Intel® Core™ i7 processor. The Core i7 processor is the first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs and is the most sophisticated ever built, with new technologies that boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput. The Core i7 processor speeds video editing, immersive games and other popular Internet and computer activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption. 

Broadly heralded by the computing industry as a technical marvel, the Intel® Core™ i7 processor holds a new world record of 117 for the SPECint_base_rate2006* benchmark test that measures the performance of a processor. This is the first time ever for any single processor to exceed a score of 100 points.
"Intel has delivered the fastest desktop processor on Earth to the most demanding users on Earth, the ones who are using their PCs for video, gaming and music," said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "When you couple what is Intel's biggest leap in chip design with other incredible innovations like Intel's solid state drives, the Core i7 processor has redefined the computer of tomorrow."

Tech Web sites have been extremely positive in their product reviews. Anandtech states that "Core i7 continues to fuel Intel's beacon of performance." "The Core i7 is everything they promised it would be," says PC Perspective. "Nehalem is a masterpiece," says the Lost Circuits Web site. The Tech Report calls it "one of the most consequential shifts in the industry."

Intel's unique Turbo Boost Technology accelerates performance to match a computer user's needs and workloads. Through a sophisticated on-die power control unit and using new "power gate" transistors based on Intel's advanced 45 nanometer, high-k metal gate manufacturing process, Turbo Boost automatically adjusts the clock speed of one or more of the four individual processing cores for single- and multi-threaded applications to boost performance, without increasing power consumption. The Core i7 also has the latest Intel power-saving technologies, allowing desktops to go into sleep states formerly reserved for Intel-based notebooks.

The Core i7 processor more than doubles the memory bandwidth of previous Intel "Extreme" platforms, speeding the transfer of computer bits and bites in and out of the processor with Intel® Quickpath Technology. Designed with Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology, the processor also allows multiple computing threads to run simultaneously, effectively enabling it to do two things at once. As a result, the Core i7 quad-core processor delivers 8-threaded performance.

The Intel Core i7 processor also offers unrivaled performance for immersive 3-D games - over 40 percent faster than previous Intel high-performance processors on both the 3DMark Vantage CPU* physics and AI tests, popular industry computer benchmarks that measure gaming performance. The Extreme Edition uses 8 threads to run games with advanced artificial intelligence and physics to make games act and feel real.
The Intel® Core™ i7 processors and Intel® X58 Express Chipset-based Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO Extreme Series are for sale immediately from several computer manufacturers online and in retail stores, as well as a boxed retail product via channel online sales.

The Core i7 processor is the first member of the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture family; server and mobile product versions will be in production later. Each Core i7 processor features an 8 MB level 3 cache and three channels of DDR3 1066 memory to deliver the best memory performance of any desktop platform. Intel's top performance processor, the Intel® Core™ i7 Extreme Edition, also removes overspeed protection, allowing Intel's knowledgeable customers or hobbyists to further increase the chip's speed.

China's Revolution: A Revolution Sure to Come

The Tienanmen Square protests of 1989, referred to in much of the world as the Tienanmen Square massacre and in the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the June Fourth Incident (officially to avoid confusion with two prior Tienanmen Square protests), were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the PRC beginning on 14 April 1989. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world.
The protests were sparked by the death of a pro-democracy and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 100,000 people had gathered at Tiananmen square.Communist Party of ChinaTrotskyists as well as free market reformers, who were generally against the government's authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the government.

To this day the Chinese Government has blocked access to it's civilian population of viewing anything related to the subject. In China you can not google the words Tienanmen Massacre and receive any truthful results to your inquirers on the subject. Instead you are brought to a page that has zero information about the event, just useful tourist information and vivid pictures of the square, but nothing about the event that took place there.
Some of the top Social Science Professors in China have predicted a soon to come revolt from the civil population. Mostly due to the censoring and strangulation that China's Government takes on their civil liberties.

China's top expert on social unrest has warned that hardline security policies are taking the country to the brink of ''revolutionary turmoil''.

In contrast with the powerful, assertive and united China that is being projected to the outside world, Yu Jianrong said his prediction of looming internal disaster reflected on-the-ground surveys and also the views of Chinese government ministers.

Deepening social fractures were caused by the Communist Party's obsession with preserving its monopoly on power through ''state violence'' and ''ideology'', rather than justice, Professor Yu said.

Some lawyers, economists and religious and civil society leaders have expressed similar views but it is unusual for someone with Professor Yu's official standing to make such direct and detailed criticisms of core Communist Party policies.

Professor Yu is known as an outspoken insider. As the director of social issues research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Rural Affairs he advises top leaders and conducts surveys on social unrest.

He previously has warned of the rising cost of imposing ''rigid stability'' by force but has not previously been reported as speaking about such immediate dangers.

''Some in the so-called democracy movement regard Yu as an agent for the party, because he advises senior leaders on how to maintain their control,'' said Feng Chongyi, associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Author used Wikipedia as a source and  JOHN GARNAUT post as another source.

Controversial new US defence logo

Recently a new Logo for America's Missile Defense Agency has come under-fire for the resemblance it slightly bares to the Islamic Flag and Obama's last campaign symbol. The symbol itself does have a likeness to both, but it is also a new design from a company trying to gain some ground by producing more modern, futuristic designs
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It was designed by TMP Government, a marketing company that manages the websites for numerous Government departments. But this particular design has caught the eye of critics of the Obama administration. But I believe anything would catch the eye of critics of the Obama administration. It's like handing out fish food to starving gold fish, they will eat up anything you put in the bowl, good or bad. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but the point is there.

You might notice that the crescent shape is similar to a few Islamic and even Chinese items of interests, but to those who are critical of the design, they claim it says to the Muslim World that ....oh never mind here is what he said..." I'm having trouble seeing past the crescent and star in the new logo," one critic posted on WashingtonTimes.com. "Is this our signal to the Muslim world that we're not going to shoot down their missiles?" For real? Looks to me like it says...."Our Missiles Can Reach Out and Touch You." or maybe..."From one side of this planet to another, American can respond without leaving our soil."
To me I don't think the Obama Administration can do anything right at the moment, at least to the critics of Obama. It's a shame because America isn't speaking, it's the Republicans and the repubs just don't get it, and never will.

Suicide squad kill foreigners

The once beautiful front of a shopping centre about 22 metres away was blown out, but the streets were mostly deserted. Most people were still asleep on the start of the weekend, which is also part of a religious holiday for most of the population in the area. Branches torn from trees and the charred remains of a car engine littered the streets. Ambulances ploughed through roads carpeted in glass to take the wounded to hospital.

This was the scene of the after effect on a suicide squad who picked two hotels “used by foreigners” as targets.

"The first explosion was the loudest,” said Ahmed Shah, 28. “I ran outside and saw police covered with dust all over their faces. They told me to go inside. Then they thought I was a suicide bomber trying to escape and the guards had to help me get in.” Ahmed Continued.

At least six Indians and an Italian diplomat were among 16 people killed yesterday when a Taleban suicide squad stormed central Kabul. A French film-maker who had arrived less than 24 hours earlier and three Afghan policemen were also killed when a series of blasts, followed by more than three hours of gunfire, rocked an upmarket shopping district.

Officials reported that 32 people were injured when three Taliban militants launched a coordinated attack just after 6.32am. A 13ft crater marked the spot of the first massive explosion, a make shift car bomb, outside a guesthouse that was popular with Indian doctors.

The Hamid Hotel and the Park Residence were less than half a kilometre from the Indian Embassy, which has been attacked repeatedly.

President Karzai naturally condemned the assault as a “terrorist attack against Indian citizens” who were helping the Afghan people and said that it would not affect relations between Delhi and Kabul.
S. M. Krishna, the Indian Foreign Minister, called the attacks barbaric and a matter of concern. “These are the handiwork of those who are desperate to undermine the friendship between India and Afghanistan,” he said.

Afghan and US officials have accused the Pakistani intelligence service of involvement in previous attacks against the Indian Embassy.

Feed the Universe

Feed the Universe = Do Good & Get Pot
The Unemployed Gourmet | Season 2 Finale
Do you care about hunger in the United States?  Then read on…
The prestigious cookware brand Le Creuset and non-profit WHY Hunger, have teamed up with the Unemployed Gourmet to Feed the Universe.
You may receive a $250 Le Creuset Stainless Steel Pasta Pot when you give $5 to WHY Hunger through our Facebook Cause Feed the Universe.
Please go to the cause and donate, then share it with all your friends.
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Avigail Abarbanel: The Gaza Ghetto At 2010

24 February, 2010
Australiansforpalestine.com

Avigail Abarbanel

Growing up in Israel, one of the most striking things I learned about the Holocaust was that the Nazis were not just content to kill Jews. They wanted to rob them of their human dignity, to dehumanise them. This policy was particularly evident in the way the Nazis created and ran their infamous ghettos. One of the most well-known of those was the Warsaw ghetto.

The Warsaw ghetto was created by sealing off a section of the city and trapping the Jewish population within its walls. The wall that surrounded the ghetto was 3.5 metres high and had barbed wire and broken glass at the top. It took a long time and cost a lot of money to build. The Gates were heavily guarded and the guards would shoot anyone who tried to enter or leave without permission. The policy was ’shoot to kill’ because the lives of those inside the ghetto had no value. They were walking dead, abandoned by the social rules and laws that safeguarded human rights.

The Nazis had complete control over the amount of food, water and other essentials that were allowed into the ghetto. They dictated how much and what was allowed in. Everything was rationed to create a deliberate shortage, to make sure that there wasn’t enough for everyone and that nutrition was inadequate. As a child growing up in Israel I read stories about people’s struggle to feed their children in the ghetto. I remember how horrified and guilty I felt reading a story about a mother trying to convince her reluctant daughter to eat potato peels because that’s all that was available. Although I was so young, the mother’s powerlessness in the story was very clear to me.

Naturally life within the ghetto deteriorated rapidly. With inadequate living conditions, poor sanitation, no healthcare or medicine, overcrowding, shortage of water, food and clothing, the signs began to show on the people. Disease and death were rampant. Smuggling of food and essentials into the ghetto became a vital function, at a great cost to those volunteering to do the job. The black market flourished. Competition over food turned some people ruthless as they were trying to help themselves and loved-ones survive one more day. Mental health deteriorated rapidly. The Nazis controlled the social and political organisation of the ghetto and made sure that Jews turned against one another. They created policies deliberately designed to elicit and encourage the worst traits in human nature. Some Jews stole from other Jews and some people betrayed others just to survive another day. Worst of all, they had no idea what was going to happen next, why it was done to them and when it was all going to end.

Why did the Nazis do this? Why go to all this trouble and cost, when what you really plan to do is kill them all anyway? I think the answer lies in the massive effort of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda and in the policy of allowing outsiders to get a peek into ghetto life. Ordinary buses passed by the ghetto and people could catch a glimpse of the people living in it. They were not allowed to get too close, but they were close enough to see the filth and the deprivation. They could see how dirty and pathetic people in the ghetto appeared, how unhealthy and lost they looked.

Put any group of people under impossible conditions and very soon what we think of as human dignity begins to drop off. Dirty, poorly fed and dressed people always look like they have less dignity than those who are well groomed and well fed. In reality they do not have any less dignity but humanity has always relied a bit too much on outward appearances to make judgments about people’s character. In any case the message to outside spectators of the Warsaw ghetto was, ‘You see? That’s what Jews are like. This is how they live.’
It’s well known that dehumanising people makes it easier to kill them. It also makes it easier for the killer to escape criticism. Dehumanisation can even provide an excuse for killing. It makes the job of murder seem almost desirable. The killer can be seen as helping the world rid itself of problem people that no one really wants. Of course the real reasons for killing have nothing to do with the dignity of the other. But making your victims look less human is certainly good for propaganda. It also helps to convince your own soldiers and bureaucrats that those they are killing are not as human as you, that they are therefore dangerous and don’t deserve to live.

Reading Sara Roy’s report, ‘Gaza: Treading on Shards’ (17th February), I noticed that what Israel has been doing in Gaza is chillingly similar to what the Nazis did in Warsaw and in its other ghettos. I don’t think that the citizens of Gaza have any less dignity than anyone else. Perhaps they even have more. I don’t know how they survive and how they get up every morning and keep going. As a mental health professional I can only guess at what these people actually feel from moment to moment and what long term damage is being done to them. We already know that all the children in Gaza suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Everyone in Gaza would have lost someone close to Israeli bombings. There is bound to be unimaginable grief there.
How do you hold on to your sense of hope and meaning when your life is reduced to living on scraps, when you can’t feed your children or keep them safe, and when you have absolutely no control over what is happening to you; and worst of all, how do you keep going when you are incarcerated indefinitely with no chance of escape, and when so few in the outside world care about what is happening to you?

Most people would agree that what the Nazis did was monstrous and wrong, that ghettos were inhumane and should never have been allowed to exist in the first place. So why is the Gaza ghetto allowed to exist in 2010? Why is Israel allowed to dehumanise, control, humiliate and murder 1.5 million people and get away with it? Israel is breaking every human rights law conceivable in the way it treats the citizens of Gaza, and no one stops it.

Israel and Jewish institutions around the world work so hard to make sure that the Holocaust isn’t forgotten. Holocaust Memorial Day is a big deal even here in Britain. Research into the Holocaust goes on. New perspectives and facts are revealed all the time and are taught to the world, so that ‘we never forget’. We may not have forgotten the Holocaust but we have learned nothing at all from it. There is absolutely no difference between the citizens of Gaza and the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto. These are all human beings like you and me. Of course the majority of Israeli Jews don’t think so. They consider the Palestinian people on the whole and Gaza’s citizens in particular, to be a lower form of life, a ‘less than’. But those of us less brainwashed can and should recognise the humanity and dignity of Gaza’s citizens, and their innocence.

Europe and the US were all complicit in the Holocaust by not reading the signs in advance. They allowed the gradual escalation of the Nazi regime’s institutionalised and legalised human rights violations against Jews; an escalation that was building up to mass extermination. By the time the ghettos were created, things had already gone too far but still, no one who had the power to make a difference did anything. The Jews were nobodies then, and now the Palestinians are suffering the same fate. Just like European Jews, the Palestinians are ordinary people caught in the grip of a murderous regime bent on destroying them for its own reasons. The Palestinians are today’s nobodies, and no one who has the power to change anything cares about them.
World leaders not only choose to say and do nothing. They openly embrace Israel’s anti-Palestinian propaganda. Looking at the suffering people of Gaza they see people who appear to the outside to have no dignity. Gazans are portrayed as less than human, ruthless, devious, blood-thirsty Jew and American-hating extremists, undesirables. It’s much easier to kill undesirables and get away with it, or just turn a blind eye to their endless suffering and subsequent death. Back in the 30s and 40s, Europe and the US could have excused their inaction by saying they were busy fighting a war. What is the excuse now?

Israel is intent on destroying Gaza eventually, however long it takes. Its policies there are not random. They are calculated and systematic and they are leading somewhere. In the meantime Israel is busy desensitising an already largely uncaring world by slowly escalating its policies and the violations and injustice they cause (not just in Gaza but against the whole Palestinian population). Why it’s doing it is the subject of psychological analysis and another article. Israel’s agenda may not be based on Nazi-style ‘race science’ but Israel’s actions are very similar and their outcomes are leading in the same direction as the outcomes of Nazi anti-Jewish policies.

Let’s just not say we didn’t know or didn’t read the signs. Good, honest people like Sara Roy must continue to write and report so that in the future if people wake up and begin to ask questions, our leaders wouldn’t be able to say that they didn’t know what was going on.

Avigail Abarbanel is a psychotherapist and counsellor. She is a former Israeli citizen and a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. She recently moved from Canberra Australia to the Scottish Highlands. Her website is at: www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk

Author of Patriotic American News and Opinion would like to extend his thanks to Avigail for allowing him to post this article.

The Next Step in Human Evolution: Me?

A study by Kanazawa found that more intelligent individuals were more nocturnal, waking up and staying up later than less intelligent individuals.  Because our ancestors lacked artificial light, they tended to wake up shortly before dawn and go to sleep shortly after dusk.  Being nocturnal is evolutionarily novel.

Well I must be evolving then. Actually the studies located here are very interesting to say the least. The claims about liberals being a more “Advanced” race makes a good deal of sense. Even the suggestions that those of us who stay up late have in a way taken a novel step forth in the evolutionary process makes me think there may be some truth to those studies.

Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as “very liberal” have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as “very conservative” have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.

Again, no surprise. After all, being that liberals are more attacked than Conservatives in a political discussion, mostly by Conservatives, tends to solidify the old salutation…”If you can not understand something, attack it.”

Young adults who identify themselves as “not at all religious” have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify themselves as “very religious” have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence.

Interesting figures there, no? I’m an Agnostic, not an Atheist, but I can guess that I would fall under the lines of the above figures. These studies shine some light on the facts of human nature, addressing the idea that if you think outside of the box, rather than stand in line waiting for the special kool-aid, then maybe you are a wee bit smarter than the average homogeneous species.

Similarly, religion is a byproduct of humans’ tendency to perceive agency and intention as causes of events, to see “the hands of God” at work behind otherwise natural phenomena.  “Humans are evolutionarily designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are paranoid,” says Kanazawa.  This innate bias toward paranoia served humans well when self-preservation and protection of their families and clans depended on extreme vigilance to all potential dangers.  “So, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to go against their natural evolutionary tendency to believe in God, and they become atheists.”

Now I never attended college, but I was making that same argument while I was in High school. I have always perceived that as humans we try to basically explain away the unexplainable, by giving events or unidentified actions on earth, per say lightning for an example, a god to identify it with. Native Americans had gods for everything, and with over 78-85 cultural religions out there, based upon a coherent need to explain things away that we couldn’t explain, it all adds up to religion being a man made artifact of who we are as humans. Of course in my mind religion was also a tool of control, giving rulers a form of control to govern over a body of civilization, and what better fear to use than your soul in the after life. Follow the rules and you will end up in a city of gold, virgins will be at your feet, and you will wash you hands in basins of diamonds and rubies. Don’t follow the rules and your soul will wander endlessly in a lake of fire, tortured, and torn apart by hells demons.

It’s a simple acknowledgment of the human condition, and humans ability to understand things before the advancement of Science. As we evolve, so does our understanding about everything around us, and I believe we are evolving very quickly in the mental area of understanding. Not very long ago the Earth was flat, and now we are taking photographs from a satellite we have shot out into space to explore our Universe.

What I also tend to believe is that it will not be very long until we find another planet to colonize. Why? Because we have almost, just about conquered understanding our World, although there a magnitude of things yet to discover here and learn, I think we have exhausted our ability to learn here to an extent that will push us further into understanding what is beyond our planet. It was only a few hundred years ago that people hypothesized what was beyond the horizons on Earth, and now we are doing the same in reference to what is outside our knowledge of Earth.

In addition, humans have always been mildly polygynous in evolutionary history.  Men in polygynous marriages were not expected to be sexually exclusive to one mate, whereas men in monogamous marriages were.  In sharp contrast, whether they are in a monogamous or polygynous marriage, women were always expected to be sexually exclusive to one mate.  So being sexually exclusive is evolutionarily novel for men, but not for women.  And the theory predicts that more intelligent men are more likely to value sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men, but general intelligence makes no difference for women’s value on sexual exclusivity.  Kanazawa’s analysis of Add Health data supports these sex-specific predictions as well.

Opps. Now that also explains quite a bit as well. In order for a more dominant species to survive, they will mate continuously outside of their partner of choice, in order to pass along their genetic marker that makes them a smarter, stronger, more powerful creature. At least that is what I remember from National Geographic, and Wild America shows I watched as a kid. Maybe this is why I have 4-5 kids. Not sure, there maybe one from a wild day in my youth…..

□ Left Right Conservative Liberal Independent Tea Bag Democratic Republican Center?

I know I’m a Democrat, and I’m pretty sure I’m an American. I have no clue honestly if I’m a Righty or a Lefty. I couldn’t tell you whether or not I’m a Conservative, or a Liberal, or a Conservative Liberal, or a Liberal Conservative. I know I am pretty Liberal when it comes to sandwich spread and peanut butter, but that’s as liberal as I’m aware of being.

Hell I find more than half of the labels confusing, I know that a conservative right Republican needs mental rehabilitation, and a vacation in Ethiopia as a bed nurse, just to get back their humanity. Other than that I’m pretty lost on all the others.

Independent seems like the new way to go, but I’m getting those guys lost in the shuffle between tea bags and the left side of liberals, which I have no clue what that means. I’m lost on the meanings between being a left or a right. Yesterday I heard someone call themselves a “center” and that almost blew my mind. I assure you this wasn’t intended to be fractious, but I really don’t know where all these labels came from, or how you get labeled in the first place?

I feel like I am in a nickname race. Who decides what label you get adorned with? Do you pick your own, or does someone else apply the label for you? What if you’re pretty sure the label you have on is the label you prefer to wear?

Does that mean in conjuncture, I can be branded because of a stance or a ideal? If so, how long does the label stay on? Will it come off like a pickle jar label in the shower?

What if I would like being called an American Democrat? Would that be okay? Maybe a small label on my back that says, “Kick me when I’m down.”

I could easily find labels for some politicians to wear, but not one of the above mentioned would be applied. Labels such as, Lazy, Incompetent, Foolish, Racist, Stupid is and stupid does, Criminal, and Honk if You Have No Idea What Direction America is Running In….

Maybe some bumper sticker bingo labels for the Senate and Congress.

So, I have no clue what side of the fence I’m on, or what label applies to me, I just know it’s getting pretty hard to tell who is who anymore.

Why Do Republicans Have No Memory Recall?

Why does it seem to this Author and sublime reader of fact and fiction that no matter what, I can count on Republicans having zero, if any at all, of the ability to remember anything their past elected officials did? It's almost as if they go into a deep hibernation during terms of their elected hopefuls, only to wake up when a democrat gets in office and scream out in disgust. Now I can recall many unfortunate moments during Georgie Boys two horrible terms, but it seems as if he has been dipped in forgetfulness and vanishing cream in the eyes of Republicans. All I hear from the Republican voices out there is how horrible Obama is doing.

Need I remind you, and I am sure I need to do so, he took office after GWB, and with that office he also took on the responsibility of cleaning up after what I remember being the hugest and largest, most gigantic mess ever created over a two term time line by any President in America!

Obama took over a Trillion Dollar Deficit already running when he won the election, and it seems as if in the Republican mind, he had a hand in it. Obama isn't the one who turned this country upside down and shook the loose change out of your couch cushions, Obama didn't put us into a 30 Billion Dollar a month war in Iraq, and he sure didn't slink out of office with cash lined pockets, and gas prices soaring into oblivion! What kills me the most is that BUSH came from a wealthy oil family, who did nothing, yes nothing, but benefit from the war in Iraq.

Oh, but Obama is to blame, right? Obama is the one we should be pointing our chubby fingers at and looking to replace ASAP at the next election process, right? I'm sure McCain and Palin would have had this sorted out by now, right? We wouldn't be in a quadruple trillion dollar screw up still if Suzi homemaker and dough boy grandpa made it into the White House. right?

I'm proud of Obama right now, and I can't blame him for the situation we are in, because I was awake for the glorious two terms of screwing this country went through, and I'm not beating my drum of stupidity, because basically, without being rude, when you scream foul over Obama, you are only really making yourself seem stupid. Not everyone was in hibernation for GWB, some of us remember, and even know that this country was sent to the very edge of whoops by the president before, and if you deny that, then you should just go back into your cave and take another hibernated nap.

America's Army Game: More Than a Game?

America's Army game made its début a few years ago, and after several patches and fixes, it is now at 2.8.5 in version from its original. The US Military, The Defense Department, and obviously Our Government seeing success from this release, went on to create AA3, or America's Army Game 3, a new release based on the Unreal Engine Graphics and Technology, developed by Epic Games. These games however were made by both the military and private sector code writers, in a montage of military insights, and highly knowledgeable game creators.

AA3 did not receive a very thankful audience, it was and still is for some, a very buggy, lagged, and in some ways unplayable release. Most complaints were on the game play, menu, and behavior of the game on-line. Developers of the game and America's Army Game site admins dodged hateful player's questions and comments on their forums, then along came huge game patches, in the attempt to solve the problems, which if you are familiar with AA2, you might remember all the bugs it had at the start of its release.

Our tax dollars mind you, have paid the way for these games. It took millions to make it, and a few million more to get it into the hands of players, not just in America, but around the world. We paid the sum of a total cost of $33M in the form of tax dollars for the release of AA3.

Both games were and still are trying to recruit, and teach American Army Values to the public, but mostly for teenagers as a whole, to inspire them to join the Army or get interested in our Military Branches.
Both games teach a long list of valuable knowledge, from weapon identification, to actual first aid lessons. You do have to go through boot camp, weapon familiarization, medical first aid training, marksmanship, and a assortment of other weapon training, all along you can play and learn at the same time.
The question is, why? Is this game just a great recruiter, or does it go deeper?

Talking with some men and women from the Army itself, I asked some questions about the game. A military woman and avid game player, recently home from Iraq, and honorably discharged, took her first look at AA2+AA3 at my home here in N.C.

She felt the graphics were great in both versions, and enjoyed the game play in both. She then answered a few questions I had. My belief is that these games are more than a recruitment tool, but maybe possibly a trainer as well to some extent.

What I believe is the United States Defense Department is never going to spend the millions it spent, on something to just help get in new recruits and put on the market, a video game for the fun of it. Although I believe it helps with recruitment and grabbing the attention of young minds, I also believe that the actions shown in-game, and the visuals are also intended to help familiarize "civilians" with weapon loading, and usage.
In the small recesses of imagination, would it be possible to consider the game a tool, to insure civilians, in game play ages from 60-14 know how to load and operate a weapon, that if dropped in a home front war zone by a fallen soldier, the new owner a "civilian" would then be able to identify the weapon, and use it properly.

This lady of honor said this when I asked her about how she felt about my assumption.
"Sure, with the US weapons, and others, the movements and actual loading are almost exact." "I do believe that after a few hundred rounds of playing this game, you would become familiar enough to use the weapon correctly, especially with the 3.0 game, which is much more realistic!"

So am I just playing a game here? I'm a somewhat avid player of the older version, basically for its gentleman like quality. You get shot, you die, there is no auto re-spawn, and for the most part, the players are men and women in my age group. There is of course the younger crowd, but for the most part, those who play the game areolder than the intended audience.

America's Government invented a FPS (First Person Shooter) and funded the creation of the AA series on the premise, and what I believe the shroud of recruitment, and maybe skillfully teaching "civilians" on the side how to use and operate American weapons? It is my belief, to a short extent, that our defense department isn't as stupid as they seem. It's good to have a well trained military, it's even better to have a well taught civilian population as well.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, but the fact remains, I know from playing the game myself, I could easily load and fire a lengthy assortment of both American Military Arms, and even Foreign weapons if I ever had to do so, which I haven't, but I know I could..

□ Environment Deterioration from a Fisherman's View

When I was young, 10-12 years of age, I had a few fishing poles and a few fishing holes. I would ride my bike a few miles down the road and go bass and catfish fishing. These tributaries of the Myakka River where I fished from in Florida, are called canals, and they teamed with so much life and a abundance of wildlife, that it was hard not to catch a few fish and spot a few animals.  There were times I spotted fish that I still to this day boggle my mind. Like a 6 foot sturgeon, a 4 eyed fish, Tilipia the size of tires, Alligator Gar over 6 feet in length, Mullet in schools so large you could almost walk across the water on their backs, not to mention Alligators and Painted Turtles of sizes beyond belief. I can recall seeing a Florida Panther, that I still think was looking at me like lunch, and a female Bobcat and her cubs once walked along side of the opposite bank in plain view one day. All of these memories still remain in my mind, because they were great and wonderful memories.

Water Lettuce

Not too long ago I returned to several of these fishing spots in my youth and not one held a mirror of resemblance to what I remembered and saw in my youth. The waters were dark and almost lifeless. There were no Egrets or Great Blue Herons stalking the sides of the canals, there were no Turtles popping their heads up, and moving along in front of me. Most importantly there were no fish. No Gars, no Tilapia, no Bass, nothing. This held true in both the fresh waters, brackish, and some of the Salt Water holes I fished as a kid. There were some tell tail signs of Mullet, but nothing even close to the numbers and sizes we once tried to snag, there were no bass, just Bowfin in the murky horrid waters. The only waters that had life, because they are so vast, were the salt water areas.

Great Heron

The contrast of what I had seen, smelled, and did in my youth as a fisherman had changed. A old spring fed pond that I fished as a kid, that used to hold hundreds of Blue Gill and Bass, was reduced to a Oscar hole. Meaning, someone tossed in their over grown Oscars and turned the pond into a scum suckers paradise! It was fun to catch Oscars the size of foot balls and they actually tasted pretty good, but the life in the pond had been reduced to just Oscars and catfish, nothing else could survive, spawn or grow.

7 Foot Alligator

18 out of the 20 Fresh Water Canals I fished were filled with Bowfin, huge predatory Air Bladder breathing behemoths, capable of reaching 25-30 pounds. The worst thing about these fish, is they can live in places that bass are getting choked out of by over growth, whatever bass remained, were certainly eaten. Bowfin are both day and night hunters, they fish at night using a sensory lateral line that can detect a fishes heartbeat in the dark waters, they have a great sense of smell as well. They are the greatest fresh water hunter, their skin is similar to Gars, they eat anything that swims, and they are wicked mean creatures, capable of tearing into basket wells filled with shiners hung over the side of a dock.

Besides the take over by muck fish and the such, the water quality had deteriorated horrendously. Talking to a Biologist one day when I was fishing the Myakka in a boat by Snook Haven, we talked over a few beers and he highlighted the reasons for the poor water standards in these man-made canals.

He explained that Hydrillia, Water Hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes), and Water Lettuce (pistia stratiotes) clog and reduce water flow, residents of these waters then complain about mosquitos, and the State sends out a crew to spray the plants for both mosquito and the plants themselves. Being the ecologists these State Crews are not, they kill off these plants, which then return burn off all the Oxygen in the water as they decay, killing all the Gill Breathers, and leaving behind the Bladder Breathers, who can survive without Oxygen in the water. If even some air breathers do move to these waters, they only become prey to these Bowfin. A full adult 25-30 pound Bowfin can easily eat a 5-10 pound bass. All due to the fact that these fish are supreme hunters, and while the bass float around at night in sleep mode, these monsters go after them. The reason though for all of these water weed pests to bloom so fast and quickly is because of human waste and farm land run off, mostly though he explained, human sewage.

Florida Bass

Sewage tanks for home owners in Florida during the building booms 0f the early 80's-late 90's were substandard. They over flowed and crept into fresh water springs through the sand aquifers that many of these communities were built on. These rich fluids helped fuel the aquatic nitrogen needs for these water weeds. Creating substantial massive blooms and over growth.Many communities were also built along the banks of many of these man made canals, and the sewage flow directly fed into these waters.

Florida Panther

23 years ago these places I fished were huge ecosystems, containing a beautiful assortment of wildlife and natural fisheries. There was a time when it was all I could do to not catch a fish, and fill a stringer with bass and catfish. Now though all that remains are the memories, and unless the State of Florida takes the time to change how things are taking place in these wonderful places, all will be lost. What once was a teeming and beautiful landscape, filled with health and beauty, is now reduced to gloomy lifeless mud holes, that are from the actions of an uneducated Florida Government, who refuses to acknowledge their hand in destroying and ruining a great water supply from the mighty Myakka.

Paul Ryan The Puppet of the Republicans

This is what happens when a Democrat is Elected President. The very next day after the election and the republicans wake up from their wine and pain medication induced depressive sleep, they automatically go into this mode….”Who can we put up front for the next election?”

From day one from the opposing side of the political background behind Obama, Republicans have done nothing to help change take place. When they found a man they deemed worthy to put up front, it was only after their second choice fell from her spot in their retention field of possibilities. It is beyond my measure of understanding how people can believe in Paul Ryan, when he is nothing more than just a puppet from the Republican money pockets, willing to endorse him. At last the republicans have found their man, and now the fun part begins. Watch as suddenly he is interjected on every possible talk show that is pro republican.

The CNN covered Summit where Obama asked these men to meet and talk, to work things out, for the republicans it was nothing more than an opportunity to get free air time. They didn’t offer resolve, they spent most of their time before the meeting, memorizing, and rehearsing their speeches. Nothing else. It was for them, nothing more than a chance to slam Obama, and put their best puppet up front. Again….nothing new. McCain’s little jab at Obama was and is exactly my point of the poor prioritizing and time-wasting these redundancies of politics seem to think “helps” our Nation. There is not one moment of discussion, just fever pitched rhetoric, and hole punching.

Nothing new. This is exactly why Republicans just don’t get it, and exactly why they lost the last election and will lose the next.

I find it astonishing that beyond the facts, there are still those who refuse to open their eyes and acknowledge what really is important to Americans. What really matters to voters, and what will win the next election, will not be the same old same old republican ways, and in the faces of all of those who fight against what America is really after, deeply hidden in the crows feet, and the liver spots, behind the mask of egregious chant is the possibility that they will never get it, American voters want, need, desire, and will vote for change, even the slightest glimmer of such, and Republicans last chance rides on that fact.

If they wish to step up and be recognized for anything beyond what they have done to take this country to its knees, they will need to offer more to the public then just trying to reverse the gears already driving this country. We voted in Obama because he offered hope, and we will most likely vote him in again, because all we have heard from the Conservative Right is more banter and rhetoric, all in the attempt to slay the dragon, a dragon of change, and until they grasp their own plight, they won’t see the inside of the Oval office for a long time to come!- Author

Paul Ryan had his speech ready to go when he walked in and sat down for a round table discussion. He wasn’t there to solve issues, or shine lights of “New Ideas”, he was there for one reason and one reason only. He was there because he knew he would have his opportunity to be heard, and a opportunity to sling mud on National Television. AS A MATTER OF FACT. Here is his prepared speech published before he even spoke on national television on CNN, found on a youtube channel.

Paul Ryan’s Pre-Published Speech before broadcast:

The Majority Leader said the bill scores as reducing deficit by $131 billion over the next 10 years.
First a little bit about CBO: I work with them every single day; very good people; great professionals. They do their jobs well. But their job is to score what is placed in front of them. And what has been placed in front of them is a bill that is fill of gimmicks and smoke and mirrors.
Now what do I mean when I say that?
First off, the bill has ten years of tax increases and ten years of Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending. The true ten year cost when subsidies kick-in? $2.3 trillion.
The bill is full of gimmicks that more than erase the false claim of deficit reduction:
- $52 billion of savings is claimed by counting increased Social Security payroll revenues. These dollars are already claimed for future Social Security beneficiaries, and claiming to offset the cost of this bill either means were double-counting or were not going to pay Social Security benefits.
- $72 billion in savings is claimed from the CLASS Act long-term care insurance. These so-called savings are not offsets, but rather premiums collected to pay for future benefits. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad has called these savings, A ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.
Additionally, the nearly half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts cannot be counted twice. Medicare is in dire need of reform in order to make certain that we can ensure health security for future seniors.
Using Medicare as a piggy bank, it raids a half trillion dollars from retirees health coverage to fund the creation of another open-ended health care entitlement.
The Presidents chief Medicare actuary says up to 20% of Medicare providers may go bankrupt or stop taking Medicare beneficiaries as a result. Millions of seniors who have chosen Medicare Advantage will lose the coverage they now enjoy.
Objections to the policy aside, you cannot use these savings twice to both extend the life of Medicare and to pay for other spending. The half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts are either to extend the programs solvency or to reduce the cost of this deficit but not both as its authors claim.
When you strip away the double-counting of Medicare cuts, the so-called savings from Social Security payroll taxes and the CLASS Act, the deficit increases by $460 billion over first ten years and $1.4 trillion over second ten years.
Finally, one of the most expensive and most cynical of the gimmicks applies to Medicare physician payments, the so-called Doc Fix.
By your own estimate, the Doc Fix adds an additional $371 billion to the cost of health care reform. With the price tag beyond what most Americans could handle, the Majority decided to simply remove this costly provision and deal with it in a stand-alone bill.
Ignoring this additional cost does not remove it from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending doesnt reduce spending.

If left to the Repubs, they will run this country further into the ground by not buckling for the sake of Americans, but rather hold the tide at bay until the next election. Need I remind you, Republicans are the biggest bought off by lobbyists part of the Government, and this man is nothing different. We just saw a massive waste of time and energy, so these scum bags could earn free air time.

□ Swimming with Carnivores: Killer Whale Kills Trainer- Third Death by Tilikum The Orca (Life History of Tilikum)

Ever ask yourself why Killer Whales are called “Killer Whales?”
I’ve been to Sea World and watched the Shamu Performance, the trainer getting tossed straight up in the air and diving back into the water, riding on the backs of one of the largest carnivorous creatures in the Seas. Is it surprising that these animals are capable of not being the tame creatures they are made out to be, and attacking their trainers?

2/24/2010 The most recent death caused by a captive Orca takes place during a Shamu show at Sea World in Orlando, Fla. The most dominant Killer Whale at the park Tilikum, or Tilly as he is referred to by his trainers, the largest male Orca in this Seaworld facility and the most accredited with inflicting human harm, killed Trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, in front of an audience. Dawn was considered as the closest trainer in contact with Tilikum out of the 25 other trainers at the Amusement Park.

According to the park the whale jumped up to the trainers platform, grabbed and dragged the trainer under the water. Tilly then shook her trainer and killed her before the park was able to sound their alarms and evacuate their guests. CBS Video

This is the third death linked to Tilly. A former contractor with SeaWorld told the Orlando Sentinel that Tilikum, is typically kept isolated from SeaWorld’s other killer whales in exhibition and that his trainers were not allowed to get in the water with him because of the past violent history.

Seaworld Killer Whales

Although there are a few different conflicting accounts of the attack related to the incident, the park finally admitted to the event’s happenings. Chuck Tompkins, the head of “animal training” at all SeaWorld parks, and possibly no longer, said that Trainer Dawn Brancheau was affectionately rubbing the whale down after a noontime show Wednesday when the whale grabbed her and pulled her in. There was a police report filed claiming that she had fallen or slipped in. A retired couple from Michigan told The Associated Press that Wednesday’s killing happened as a noontime show was coming to an end, with some of the audience staying behind to watch.

Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, apparently told Orlando’s WKMG-TV the Killer whale “took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off.”

Tilikum was also involved in a 1999 death where a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld Security and stayed in the park after it closed, was found in Tillikum’s tank the next morning, naked and draped across the whale’s body. His swim trunks were found in the water and his body was scraped, a sign that Tillikum had dragged him around the bottom and sides of the tank and more or less used him as a play toy. Although there was a lawsuit filed, the plaintiffs withdrew their complaint, more than likely because Seaworld settled outside of court.

In 1991, the same 11,000-pound Orca, along with two female whales, drowned a young part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada. A SeaWorld representative then, said Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia.

Baby and it's Mother

Steve Huxter, who was the head of Sealand’s animal care and training department then, said after this most recent event he’s surprised it happened again. He says Tilikum was a “well-behaved, balanced animal.”

“Huh?”

This leaves me questioning the term “Trained Whale”. Would it possible that maybe these captive animals act out in rage against their captivity, or play out their urges on unsuspecting trainers and quests.
In 1994 San Antonio, Texas, another killer whale, not Tilly, attacked a trainer at the SeaWorld Adventure Park as thousands of stunned park visitors watched. The victim luckily walked away from the incident uninjured, or at least the park claims.

Wednesday’s attack was the second time in a little over two months that an orca trainer was killed at a marine theme park. On December 24th, 29-year-old Alexis Hernandez tossed from a killer whale and crushed his ribcage at Loro Parque on the beautiful Spanish island of Tenerife. The Park officials there said the whale, a 14-year-old Orca named Keto, made a sudden unexpected move as the two practiced a stunt in which a whale lifts the trainer and leaps into the air.

There has been press leaks that “Trainers” are told and trained not to respond verbally as to not upset the watching audience if they are attacked, or bitten. Which suggests that maybe this is also an attempt to keep the attacks unnoticed when they occur. To an untrained eye, a trainer could easily be attacked and pulled around in what may look to an audience as part of the show, but unlike this last attack there was no hiding the incident.

Nov 30, 2006 A trainer at yet another SeaWorld Adventure Park was hospitalized after a killer whale grabbed him and twice held him underwater during a performance. The trainer was released a few days later and said he didn’t blame the whale for the attack.

• What bothers me the most about this whole ordeal is that they are willing to keep these creatures who can cause harm, and risk a multi-million dollar lawsuit but they won’t spend the money to reintroduce them back into the wild. Which could easily be done, and cost less then this woman’s husband who could very well sue *&^&$*# pants off these idiots who allowed this creature to even have a place in their parks facility! Author’s Opinion
  

There has been over 1000 such attacks across the world in the last 12 years. Leading this writer to think that maybe these animals should just be viewed, and not played with. But Killer whales are not the only species that people try to tame and use as a money source in the Entertainment Industry. As I’m sure many of you readers can remember any number of Elephant attacks, Tiger attacks, Leopard, Panda bears, Lions and even other Animal attacks in the last few years.

The San Diego Seaworld Facility has announced, due to the recent death, that they will close their Killer Whale Exhibit for the next few days.

09/11/04 A Worker at the Wildlife Prairie State Park lost his leg after a black bear mauled him. The then 5-year-old bear was out of his den when worker entered the bear’s pen to feed him. Officials think gate to bear’s den had been left unlocked. Worker suffers severe leg injuries and nerve damage, which eventually leg to his leg being removed. (Associated Press) I met this man while working at the zoo for The Heart of America Corporation, and he never blamed the bear for what happened, and still continues to work at the park. Of course he wasn’t swimming…but still…
(Correction Tilly is a boy, oops)
http://www.youtube.com/user/smellahi#p/u/16/1jSSb3Xe0-s
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Life History of Tilly the Bull Orca

Photo of Tilikum/Tilly

Tilikum, sometimes misspelled Tillikum, is a bull Orca who lives at SeaWorld Orlando. He was captured near Iceland in November 1983 at about two years of age. Tillikum measures 22 feet 6 inches long and weighs in at 12,300 pounds (as of 2007). His pectoral fins are six and one half feet long, his massive flukes curl under, and his 6-foot-tall dorsal fin is flopped completely to his left side, and weighs close to 200 pounds. He is the largest Orca in captivity and also the most successful sire in captivity, with 13 offspring, 10 of which are still alive. His name means friend in Chinook Jargon, usually spelled Tillicum and also meaning “people/tribe” or “kin”.

Tillikum was first sent to live at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia. There, he lived with two older females named Haida II and Nootka IV. While living in British Columbia, Tilikum sired his first calf when he was about eight or nine years old. His first son, Kyuquot, was born to Haida II on December 24, 1991. Just a few months prior to the birth of Kyuquot, Tilikum was involved in an incident which resulted in the death of a trainer. Twenty-year-old Keltie Byrne, who worked at the park, slipped and fell into the tank with the whales. Tillikum, a pregnant Haida II, and Nootka IV grabbed her in their mouths and tossed her to each other, presumably playing. Keltie drowned. The orcas had never had humans in the water with them before. Haida II and Nootka IV were overprotective of the newborn calf and aggressive towards Tillikum, who was forced into the small medical pool. Because of his huge size, Seaworld requested an emergency transfer to their facility. Tilikum was moved to SeaWorld Orlando, Florida in January 9, 1992; he has been there ever since. Sealand of the Pacific closed soon thereafter.

Since his arrival at SeaWorld, Tilikum has sired many calves with many different females. His first calf, born in Orlando, was to Katina. Katina gave birth to Taku on September 9, 1993. Tillikum’s other calves are: Nyar (born 1993, died 1996), Unna (1996), Sumar (1998), Tuar (1999), Tekoa (2000), Nakai (2001), Kohana (2002), Ikaika (2002), Skyla (2004), and Malia (2007). In 1999, Tillikum began training for artificial insemination (AI). In early 2000, Kasatka who resides at SeaWorld San Diego was artificially inseminated using his sperm. She gave birth to Tillikum’s son, Nakai, on September 1, 2001. On May 3, 2002, another female in San Diego, named Takara, bore Tilikum’s calf through artificial insemination.

Tilikum was at the scene of another death on July 6, 1999, though evidence suggests the Orca was not at fault. A 27-year-old man was found floating naked in Tilikum’s pool, apparently killed by a combination of hypothermia and drowning. He had visited SeaWorld the previous day, stayed after the park closed, and evaded security to enter the Orca tank. Investigators determined that the man, either before or after death, had been bitten by Tillikum.



On February 24th, 2010 Tilikum was involved in a third incident, when a 40-year-old experienced trainer was killed. The trainer drowned following a popular Dine with Shamu show as at least two dozen tourists looked on from above a whale tank and from an underwater viewing area. SeaWorld executive Chuck Tompkins confirmed what witnesses saw, that the trainer was pulled into the water by Tilikum. The trainer was finishing up a session with Tilikum, the largest whale in SeaWorld’s collection and its only mature male, following the Dine with Shamu show. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
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Shamu: Known as the first Killer Whale in Seaworld’s long history, was also the first documented attack in Seaworld’s long history.

• On April 20, 1971; SeaWorld secretary Annette Eckis was riding on Shamu at the park in San Diego, California. Eckis was clearly thrown off the whale as it thrashed around deviating from its normal routine and Shamu grabbed her leg in its mouth. After a few minutes, Shamu was coaxed into letting Eckis go, and she was taken away from the tank on a stretcher, and required 100 stitches on her leg. Shamu may have done this out of curiosity, as Eckis was wearing a bathing suit while riding the Orca, instead of the traditional wet suit that was usually worn.^[2]