Sea World Slave Revolts

Tilikum, a whale who has been held captive at a Sea World park in Orlando, Florida, killed an animal trainer yesterday. Let me make it clear right now that I don't want to minimize the tragedy of the trainer's death in any way. According the Washington Post, she loved her job, she loved the animals she trained, and she loved and was loved by many friends and family members. Her death is mourned by many. Nevertheless, the manner of her death raises a moral issue for me; I can't find any justification for the human practice of capturing and enslaving other living beings for our entertainment.

Dawn Branchaeu is the third human being that Tilikum has killed in the past 19 years. Methinks that Tilikum may not be overly enamored with the species that has enslaved him and trained him to do cute tricks for our amusement. Now, the Sea World management doesn't have a clue what to do with Tilikum. He doesn't have the requisite skills to survive in the wild, so releasing him to the sea would be the equivalent of a death sentence. I don't know whether capital punishment euthanasia is under consideration; if it is, the Sea World PR people are holding their tongues about it. One option the Sea World management is considering is transferring Tilikum to another diocese amusement park.

I don't know how to resolve Sea World's Tilikum dilemma. All I know is that this story has made me think, again, about the morality of keeping animals in zoos, aquariums and amusement parks so that human beings may be entertained for a few hours a day. In the past two years I've visited the San Diego Zoo and the Georgia Aquarium. On both occasions I was mildly uneasy about the fact that I was enjoying nature in starkly unnatural, artificial settings. That unease has prevented me from visiting the National Zoo just down the road from me in Washington, DC. Tilikum's story has compelled me to take a position on this issue. As of this moment, I am putting a personal moratorium on visits to zoos, aquariums and the like. I don't know if I'll change my mind about this in the future. All I know is that, for the time being, I can't justify holding other living beings captive for my amusement. I mourn both Dawn Brancheau's lost life and Tilikum's lost freedom. Both losses were senseless and unnecessary. That's the real tragedy of this story.

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times reports that "A SeaWorld official said Wednesday the animal would not be put down."

Juvenile Nation

Yesterday afternoon, during the TV broadcast of an Olympic hockey game (the Swiss men's team beat the Norwegian men's team 5-4 in overtime), a sportscaster told a bizarre story. Actually, the story wasn't bizarre at all - it was entirely believable in the brutal world of hockey; what was bizarre was the way he told the story, which hovered somewhere between infantile and juvenile. This is what happened.

The TV camera zoomed to a closeup of a Norwegian player wiping blood from his forehead; his head had met the edge of another player's hockey stick and suffered the predictable - in fact, familiar - consequence of such an encounter. As viewers and sportcasters watched the player's blood transfer from his head to his handheld towel, a sportscaster reported another injury this same player had suffered in a previous season:

He took a stick to a very rough spot for a male, if you know what I mean. He missed a lot of games because of that injury, and doctors thought, for a while, that they might have to cut away some parts of that rough spot, if you know what I mean.

I shook my head in wonder at the juvenile idiocy of this commentary. The player's "rough spot" has a name - either his penis or his testicles. I apologize for my lack of specificity, dear readers, but that's the best I can do at parsing exactly what the commentator was talking about. I can't help wondering whether talking about this injury, even in such a vague, circuitous fashion, made him blush profusely. What kind of juvenile, puritanical nation are we when adults can't discuss body parts without resorting to nonsensical euphemisms? Why is it so difficult for so many of us to identify penises, vaginas, breasts, or testicles, as easily as we identify arms, legs, toes and the like? I understand, and expect, that broadcasters will not generally use common terminology (which is sometimes considered to be - and sometimes is, in fact - crude) when discussing medical issues and anatomy. But, can't they please call body parts by their proper, grown up names? Doing anything less than that makes them sound like juveniles. Moreover, listening to such linguistic nonsense makes the rest of us appear to be similarly juvenile. Worst of all, accepting this nonsense in public discourse makes it easy for all of us to think, as well as speak, like juveniles. We really need to grow up and start talking - and thinking - like adults.

El Pianografo

 I came across this cool animated video at a friend's blog. Enjoy.


El Pianografo from Reel 13 on Vimeo.

The Bible in 50 Words

A little feature called "50 Word Bible" was tucked away on the last page of a church newsletter. The photo is mine, but the text comes from God's new editor. Where was this gal 2,000 years ago? (She has to be a gal; the guys who wrote all the earlier drafts didn't write this concisely.)

How long do you think it will be before someone comes up with a Twitter version of holy writ?

It's Still Winter (and then some!)

This weekend's snowstorm is the fourth - count 'em, four - major snowfall we've had in northern Virginia this winter. It's also the third - count 'em, three - snowfall we've had this week. This past Tuesday's snowfall of 3 inches or so (which, in any normal winter in these parts would have been major news) pales in comparison to the two weekend storms that surrounded it. It has now been snowing for over 24 hours and it is supposed to keep snowing for several hours more.

I'll start by offering you a comparison of last week's view from my window with this week's view, which is still in progress as I type. Click on the photo to see a larger copy.

You can see that there's a considerable difference between what happened then and what is happening now.

As a bonus, I'm also going to show you a view from our front stoop.

You can see that the maintenance guy has cleared some pathways. As I type, the poor fellow is out there again, shoveling the snow from our stoop and plowing the path again. Just before I took this picture, I measured the snow on the pathway (which had been cleared two hours before I got out there) and found that it was about 4 inches deep. So, as you look at the photo, keep in mind that the low bit is four inches deep and see for yourself how much deeper the untouched snow is. You can also see that, if the guy hadn't cleared away some of the snow from the fire hydrant (lower right hand edge), it would be buried. The accumulation thus far is at least two feet deep. It's 95% (or more) fresh snow, because most of the stuff that fell on us last weekend and earlier this week had melted by midweek.

That's all for now. I think it's about time to enjoy some hot cocoa!

Phil Was Right

Well, well! It looks as if there may be something to this groundhog prognostication thing after all. Punxsy Phil saw his shadow yesterday morning, and by dinnertime we were the recipients of yet more white wintery precipitation. I took a brief break from work this morning and took these shots around our building and parking lot.

Looking at this scene, you'd never know that a bunch of guys dressed in jeans and t-shirts were playing basketball here a week ago.

This is a view from the parking lot toward the woods that separate our property from the adjacent county park:

Finally, these bird feeders hang just outside the recreation room and solarium:

I hope it won't be long before I'll get some photos of the feeders being used by feathered friends. So far, it looks like Phil is going to have more of his wintery way first.

Winter!

Punxsatawney Phil spoke today. It was not good news for sun worshipers.