Archives for September 2005

I came across this National Geographic Story and found it be very interesting. The longest squid on record was 59 feet.

“Like something straight out of a Jules Verne novel, an enormous tentacled creature looms out of the inky blackness of the deep Pacific waters.

But this isn’t science fiction. A set of extraordinary images captured by Japanese scientists marks the first-ever record of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in the wild.

The animal—which measures roughly 25 feet (8 meters) long—was photographed 2,950 feet (900 meters) beneath the North Pacific Ocean. Japanese scientists attracted the squid toward cameras attached to a baited fishing line.

The scientists say they snapped more than 500 images of the massive cephalopod before it broke free after snagging itself on a hook. They also recovered one of the giant squid’s two longest tentacles, which severed during its struggle.

The photo sequence, taken off Japan’s Ogasawara Islands in September 2004, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in “a ball of tentacles.”

Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum in Tokyo and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association report their observations this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“Architeuthis appears to be a much more active predator than previously suspected, using its elongated feeding tentacles to strike and tangle prey,” the researchers write.

They add that the squid was found feeding at depths where no light penetrates even during the day.”

I stumbled onto Singing Fool earlier today and decided to spend some time this evening screwing around. I found out that you can create your own video shows. So just for the hell of it I put this one together.

I think that it is fair, not great but not all that bad for something that was done quickly. If you want to get a sense of my taste in music this is a the barest indication of what I like. I have diverse taste in music and love so many different styles and artists, rock, country, rap, classical. Here is a quick look at some of what I have been listening to this evening.

• Baby, Now That I’ve Found You Alison Krauss & Union Station
• Time to Say Goodbye Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman
• Why Annie Lennox
• Something The Beatles
• Whiskey Lullaby Brad Paisley
• Somebody’s Crying Chris Isaak
• May It Be Enya
• I Can Love You Like That John Michael Montgomery
• Picture Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
• Hey Hey What Can I Do Led Zeppelin
• Home Sweet Home Mötley Crüe
• Who Wants to Live Forever Sarah Brightman
• Sweet Thing Van Morrison
• When We Dance Sting
• What Is Pornography? Bill Hicks
• In My Life The Beatles
• Ain’t That a Kick in the Head Dean Martin
• Insomnia (Monster Mix) Faithless
• A Kiss To Build A Dream On Louis Armstrong
• The Coldest Winter EVER! Lewis Black
• As Good As I Once Was- Toby Keith

Daniel Pipes has an interesting opinion piece in which he discusses some of the things that have happened throughout the world as a result of the influence of Muslims. The article focuses on the recent decision in Canada to outlaw faith based arbitration which is a topic that was covered by Q last week in this post.

This was also touched upon by Miriam in two separate posts here and here.

I find this all troubling for a variety of reasons. Just for the heck of it let’s start with Pipes and take a look at what he said. The piece begins by outlining what Canada’s 1991 Arbitration act offered.

“Called the Arbitration Act, it stipulates that if two parties agree to engage a commercial, religious, or other arbitrator to settle a civil dispute, the provincial authorities will then enforce the verdict, so long as it is in accord with Canadian law.

“People can use any arbitrator they want and can use a religious framework if it is mutually acceptable,” notes Brendan Crawley, spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. “If the award is not compatible with Canadian law, then the court will not enforce it. You can’t agree to violate Canadian law.”

Over the years, Jews, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mennonites, and aboriginals, among others, made use of arbitration to settle family law questions without using Ontario’s court system. The system quietly worked. “If there have been any problems flowing from any rabbinical court decisions, I’m not aware of them,” observed the Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Joel Richler.”

It appears that the program worked well and that there were no notable hangups until 2003 at which time a Muslim group proposed establishing a Muslim board that would use Sharia to make decisions.

According to Pipes this was met by opposition by Muslim women who feared that the use of Sharia to oppress Muslim women. In time the opposition was victorious and it was announced that the Canadian government was going to repeal the Arbitration act entirely so that there would not be any question of favoritism whatsoever.

Pipes maintains that this is one of a series of events created by the influence of Muslims.

“That Orthodox Jews and others might lose out points to an emerging pattern, whereby efforts to integrate Muslims into the West upset a benign status quo. Other recent examples:

• French nuns for the first time must take off their cowls for identity card or passport pictures because of anti-hijab legislation. Likewise, French schoolchildren may not wear crosses or Stars of David to class.
• Large populations – British underground riders, American airport passengers, Russian theater-goers – must undergo extensive security checks, thanks to Muslim terrorists.
• Danes marrying foreigners face extensive restrictions to bring them into Denmark because of immigration abuses (the “human visa” problem) involving Muslims.
• Santas, Nativity plays, Christmas carols, and Bibles are banned in Western countries so as not to offend Muslim sensitivities.

Unremarked upon by most Westerners, Islam’s presence has started to change their way of life.”

I am troubled by this for a variety of reasons. As a Jew I am part of a group that has been singled out and discriminated against. There is a history of oppression and it would be insensitive and uncaring of me not to be aware of this in relation to others.

However, it would be a kneejerk reaction to say that it is wrong to single out others strictly because they could be harmed by that. In my estimation it is important to consider all sides and then to make a decision that is based upon current and historical events and what you think may happen.

I’d like to return to the title of this post Is Islam influencing Your Life and answer that it is radical Islam that is influencing my life and that I am cautiously optimistic that we will see the emergence of the moderates as a much stronger influence on Muslims because right now we are engaged in an ideological battle with the fundamentalists and without help from the center we are not going to see real change.

Tags: Current events, News and politics

I recently introduced my children to Cab Calloway’s rendition of Minnie The Moocher. It is one of my favorite songs and a heck of a lot of fun to act out with them. You can find another version over here.

Of course one of the more famous renditions in recent memory is the one he performed in The Blues Brothers.

Tags: Entertainment,

Dear Readers,

Many of you have written me to ask about The Shmata Queen. It seems that there is a desire to get to know more about this lovely lady who was bringing up two very lovely girls of her own until she one day met this fellow and they knew that it was much more than a hunch. The two of them must get together and form a………

Aw the hell with it, I am tired of channeling the Bradys.

Don’t know about you, but I was sad to see that Don Adams died. I loved watching Get Smart. I have always wanted a shoe phone and my own cone of silence.

But I digress, back to The Shmata Queen. She is a lovely lass and I have a favor to ask. I need each and every one of you to go to her blog and post a short hello on the top entry. Let’s see how many comments we can generate.

This story was hard to read, but it is reassuring to see things like this. It is a short tale of the dying wish of 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz and his love of Notre Dame football. Charlie Weis is the head coach for Notre Dame. He met with Montana last week.

“The Notre Dame coach met last week with Montana, who had been told by doctors weeks earlier that there was nothing more they could do to stop the spread of his inoperable brain tumor.

“He was a big Notre Dame fan in general, but football especially,” said his mother, Cathy Mazurkiewicz.

Weis showed up at the Mazurkiewicz home in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend, and talked with Montana about his tumor and about Weis’ 10-year-old daughter, Hannah, who has global development delay, a rare disorder similar to autism.

He told Montana about some pranks he played on Joe Montana — whom Montana was named after — while they were roommates at Notre Dame.

“I gave him a chance to hammer me on the Michigan State loss, which he did very well. He reminded me of my son,” said Weis, whose son, Charlie Jr., is 12 years old.

Weis said the meeting was touching.

“He told me about his love for Notre Dame football and how he just wanted to make it through this game this week,” Weis said. “He just wanted to be able to live through this game because he knew he wasn’t going to live very much longer.”

As Weis talked to the boy, Cathy Mazurkiewicz rubbed her son’s shoulder trying to ease his pain. Weis said he could tell the boy was trying not to show he was in pain.

His mother told Montana, who had just become paralyzed from the waist down a day earlier because of the tumor, to toss her a football Weis had given him. Montana tried to throw the football, put could barely lift it. So Weis climbed into the reclining chair with him and helped him complete the pass to his mother.

Before leaving, Weis signed the football.

“He wrote, ‘Live for today for tomorrow is always another day,”‘ Mazurkiewicz said.

“He told him: ‘You can’t worry about tomorrow. Just live today for everything it has and everything you can appreciate,” she said. “He said: ‘If you’re [in pain] today you might not necessarily be in pain tomorrow, or it might be worse. But there’s always another day.”

Weis asked Montana if there was something he could do for him. He agreed to let Montana call the first play against Washington on Saturday. He called “pass right.”

Montana never got to see the play. He died Friday at his home.”

Normally I might end the article there but this deserves a little more space.

Weis heard about the death and called Mazurkiewicz on Friday night to assure her he would still call Montana’s play.

“He said, ‘This game is for Montana, and the play still stands,”‘ she said.

Weis said he told the team about the visit. He said it wasn’t a “Win one for the Gipper” speech, because he doesn’t believe in using individuals as inspiration. He just wanted the team to know people like Montana are out there.

“That they represent a lot of people that they don’t even realize they’re representing,” Weis said.

When the Irish started on their own 1-yard-line following a fumble recovery, Mazurkiewicz wasn’t sure Notre Dame would be able to throw a pass. Weis was concerned about that, too. So was quarterback Brady Quinn.

“He said what are we going to do?” Weis said. “I said we have no choice. We’re throwing it to the right.”

Weis called a play where most of the Irish went left, Quinn ran right and looked for tight end Anthony Fasano on the right.

Mazurkiewicz watched with her family.

“I just closed my eyes. I thought, ‘There’s no way he’s going to be able to make that pass. Not from where they’re at. He’s going to get sacked and Washington’s going to get two points,”‘ she said.

Fasano caught the pass and leapt over a defender for a 13-yard gain.

“It’s almost like Montana was willing him to beat that defender and take it to the house,” Weis said.

Mazurkiewicz was happy.

“It was an amazing play. Montana would have been very pleased. I was very pleased,” she said. “I was just so overwhelmed. I couldn’t watch much more.”