Da Bears

Denali in Alaska.  Yellowstone.  Svalbard in Norway.  Stokes in New Jersey.  Wait, one of those doesn't sound quite so exotic or remote.  Yet all are locations of recent bear attacks (or, at least, alleged bear attacks).  The truth is, when we venture into the domain of some of the most powerful predators (who are actually omnivores), we have to accept that an encounter with a Black, Grizzly or Polar bear may not end favourably for us.

It is a shame that lives have been lost, on both sides.  As hikers, campers and picnickers, we need to follow the advice and rules of those who have experience.  Keep your food out of your tent.  Ladies, if it is that time of the month, stay off the trails and out of the woods.  Make noise.  As for Polar bears, cute as they may seem, humans are as easy a meal as a seal (maybe easier), so be forewarned and armed.  A polar bear has no conviction or fear in hunting humans.  They are the pinnacle predator of the Arctic north, as much as the Great White is the top predator of the sea.

As "civilisation" encroaches upon the habitat of the Ursids, we can be assured of further deadly encounters, which, of course, will be hopelessly sensationalised in the media.  I can't wait for the new Syfy movie, Bearwolf, about a pack of mutant bears, created by a cynical scientist, terrorizing a major metropolitan area, like Burlington, Vermont or Aberdeen, Scotland (more shock value if set in Scotland, I think).  Of course, the cast will include an attractive female park ranger/zoologist/reporter and the handsome police officer/soldier/drifter/custodian who together will save the day and fall in love.  And the scientist will end up, finally realizing his mistake, as human steak tartar.  Oh, I forgot the super-genius kid who will keep needing to be saved because he/she doesn't understand the word  "obedience."

Yeah, that's it.  That's the ticket.

At least somebody is reading these posts

Last week, I posted my own dire view of the current state of the world.  It was really meant no more than an exposition of my own misgivings and the seeming harbingers of imminent doom; truly enlightened and uplifting thoughts.  But, I have since read that the end of the world has been given a date and time:  May 21, 2011 at 6:00pm, by none other than noted televangelist Harold Camping.  Mind you, Mr. Camping doesn't note the time zone, but one can assume he meant his local Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-8) zone.

I wish this were a joke, but it isn't an April Fools Day bit.  It can be verified via searches of a number of news (BBC) and pseudo-news services (Fox News).  His own credibility, unfortunately, has to be called into question, especially in light of Matthew 24, esp. v36-51.

Part of me prays he'll live to see the error of his own prediction, and that those who follow him will then seek a greater understanding of their own about the source of his prophecy.  If he is correct, well then, the question for each of us needs to be, "Am I ready?"

Living in the end times...

Disasters abound across the globe.  It's Friday, and that simple sentence is a viral hit on YouTube by some girl named after a Biblical character and the absence of light.  My mother-in-law, whom I greatly respect and love, is now the proud owner of an iPad 2, yet she doesn't know how to use her cell phone.  My son said it, quoting R.E.M., "It's the end of the world as we know it; and I feel fine."

OK, it's easy to think that the end is near.  Must have felt that way in the Middle Ages, in the midst of the Black Death, with citywide conflagrations in several places in Western Europe, or when the Conquistadors arrived in Central America.  For all our accomplishments, we have managed to hasten the pace of destruction; be it conflict or contagion, disaster or dereliction of duty to man, vice or virus; we cannot defeat death.  In fact, we seem to be hastening to embrace it's cold hands.

2012, a popular myth if the end of time, or is it prophetic.  Or, is mankind simply working to fulfill a prophecy...

The new iPad 2 is announced today

What?  Seriously?  I was still hoping to get the original, and they go and launch a new one.  Now I have to scrap all my plans, machinations, ploys and schemes and start over.  What; their not available yet, and ship March 11th?  And Motorola has the Android "Honeycomb"-based XOOM.

The decisions one must make...


... or not.  I liked the first, but wasn't ready to plunk down the bucks to get in the game.

And it is likely another new version hits shelves before year's end.  Maybe then, it'll be time to get in the game.  I'll just have to suffer with my laptops, my Android 2.2 phone, and iPod Classic a little longer.  That should suffice.  Unless, of course, Oracle Clinical RDC could be made to run on iOS or Android.  To me, that would be a real game changer.  Larry, you listening?

What good is an unread blog?

Ouch.  Entering Humility, population 1.  There is nobody here.  No one.  It is a ghost town.  Devoid of readership, a blog is nothing more than a collection of the binary representation of characters, magnetized bits of data on disk drives (OK, more likely, drive arrays), stored away in the dim hope that they would be retrieved from the deluge of useless data that relentlessly assaults the eyes and ears of humanity.  


Is there anybody out there?  Is there anyone home?