Take that advertisements!

Do you hate websites that have animated advertisements? They are highly distracting and are often irrelevant to the actual content of the website. One example of a website I have recently gone to is CliffsNotes (free English notes about literature books), which is jam-packed with both animated and non-animated image advertisements.

I have found a neat (and free) add-on to Mozilla Firefox that blocks off the majority of animated advertisements. If you don't use Firefox already, I highly recommend you give it a try. Although it used to be much better than Internet Explorer, Microsoft have improved IE a lot recently. But there are still some very small things that you will find more convenient when you compare Firefox to IE.

Anyway, the add-on to Firefox I was talking about is called Flashblock. As its name suggests, it blocks parts of websites that use flash. Where the flash object used to be, an 'F' symbol appears, which you can click on to run the Flash program if you feel like it.

Click here to download Flashblock.

This wonderful add-on, coupled with unchecking Tools --> Options --> Content --> Load Images Automatically, easily took care of all the image advertisements on CliffsNotes. Of course, you will want to turn the latter option on again when you visit other websites, otherwise images won't load.

You'll be surprised at the number of advertisements that Flashblock will block during normal browsing (e.g. YouTube, Hotmail, etc.).

Top 5 Free Software Picks for 2010

See my new article on the top software picks.

In short, the suggestions are:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

2. Vuze

3. TeamViewer

4. RoboForm

5. TuneUp Utilities 2010

Click here to see the full article "Top 5 Free Software Picks for 2010".

The Feeling of Immortality

In my rather random research, I have found two animals that are "biologically immortal". They technically just keep regenerating and never actually "die".

According to Wikipedia: "The Hydrozoan species Turritopsis nutricula is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again. This means that there may be no natural limit to its life span. However, no single specimen has been observed for any extended period, and it is impossible to estimate the age of a specimen. Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body."

However, Wikipedia is often inaccurate (not wrong, just inaccurate). I could find no information on this animal in the paid subscription websites Britannica Online Encyclopedia or World Book Student.

The Wikipedia article on Turritopsis nutricula also mentions the predatory species Hydra, another kind of cnidarian that is claimed to be immortal.

Now, I found an article on this creature on both Britannica Online Encyclopedia and World Book Student!

Britannica Online Encyclopedia mentions that Hydra is "a genus of invertebrate freshwater animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria)." It is an "organism [that] consists of a thin, usually translucent tube that measures up to about 30 millimetres (1.2 inches) long but is capable of great contraction... All Hydra species feed on other small invertebrate animals such as crustaceans." However, it makes no mention of the species being supposedly "biologically immortal".

Nevertheless, I found positive evidence on the World Book Student website. L. Muscatine, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles states: "Hydras can regenerate (regrow) parts of their bodies. It is estimated that in a period of several weeks a hydra replaces all the cells in its body. The hydra, therefore, never grows old."

I think this constitutes sufficient evidence to prove that this Hydra animal is biologically (but not physically if it gets eaten) immortal.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

"Hydra." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 7 Nov. 2009 .

Muscatine, L. "Hydra." World Book Student. World Book, 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2009.

Interesting Facts About Chicken

Despite the picture, I haven't had KFC chicken in a year or two. Nevertheless, I have discovered some interesting facts about the animal that our favourite food comes from.

Did you know?

Chickens can live from five to eleven years, depending on the breed. The oldest chicken lived 16 years. However, chickens that are raised for their meat are typically slaughtered in 6 to 14 weeks.

In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even larger animals such as lizards or young mice.

Lighter chickens are generally capable of flying for short distances, such as over fences or into trees (where they would naturally roost). Chickens will sometimes fly to explore their surroundings, but usually do so only to flee perceived danger.

The meat of chicken is also called "chicken". (I bet you didn't know that one!)

Chickens can make good companion animals and can be tamed by hand feeding. Chickens are generally low-maintenance. The major challenge is protecting the birds from predators such as dogs, raccoons and foxes.

Chickens have been known to live after beheading. Mike the Headless Chicken or Miracle Mike was an extraordinary case in which a chicken lived 18 months after its beheading. It's authenticity was established by the University of Utah.

Some groups which advocate for more humane treatment of chickens claim that they are intelligent. Dr. Chris Evans of Macquarie University claims that their range of 20 calls, problem solving skills, use of representational signaling, and the ability to recognize each other by facial features demonstrate the intelligence of chickens.

Hens lay eggs without the need for fertilization by a rooster. However, these eggs do not contain offspring.

Sources: Wikipedia, Guinness Book of World Records

See below for a morally-correct article.

Wrestling - The misunderstood sport

It's well known that wrestling is fixed - results of matches and storylines are predetermined. But wrestling is seen in a negative light and is misunderstood. Professional wrestling is the performance, management, and marketing of a form of entertainment based on elements of Greco-Roman wrestling, mixed martial arts, and theatre. Just to make a couple of points clear:

1. Wrestling is an entertainment sport done by professionally-trained performers. Why I enjoy wrestling: watching people fight and unleash moves on each other for entertainment is fun to watch. Wrestling moves look and sound cool: Twist of Fate, Swanton Bomb, Go to Sleep, Starship Pain, etc.

2. There's very little blood in wrestling (unless it's by accident).

3. Wrestlers are professionally trained so that their moves won't injure other wrestlers.

How come wrestling is often non-competitive or "fixed"? It is because of the huge physical strain on wrestlers that it cannot be a normal competitive sport such as tennis. I'm sure a normal human being can't wrestle four days a week, it's simply too tiring. In addition, Rey Mysterio notes that "injuries can happen at any time".

See above for an article about chickens.

Ryan's Philosophisationing

Ryan Shelton's Philosophisationing of Karma on Rove.

Mass–energy equivalence

[Note: Do not read this article if you have learned physics or are talented in science.] Maybe you know it better as E = mc². The only reason I called it "mass–energy equivalence" was because Wikipedia calls it that, and also I couldn't write that "squared" thing in the title.

We've all heard of Einstein's formula for relativity, E = mc². Einstein proposed his formula in his 1905 paper, "Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?" But what does it really mean? Well, in the formula, E is energy, m is relativistic mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum (which is 299,792,458 meters per second).

So basically, expressing the formula in words: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Described using units, E (in joules) = m (in kilograms) multiplied by (299,792,458 m/s)². Thanks Einstein!

Kristy's First Week

Kristy, the new newsreader, has some pranks played on her on Rove.

Carl Baron Standup

Carl Baron's Standup from Rove two weeks ago.

New McDonald's Video Game

Have you heard of the McDonald's Video Game? Basically, you control what happens at McDonalds, from the storefront, the pastures where you raise your cows and the slaughterhouse. Keep your eye on your money figure and make sure it doesn't run out!

This game was featured in a CNET article.

Click here to play the game.

Tennis Grand Slam Dates

The four Grand Slam tournaments are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of public attention, world ranking points, tradition and prize-money awarded. Here are their dates:

Tournament	Surface	Date
Australian Open	Hard Courts	January
French Open	Clay	Mid-May and early June
Wimbledon	Grass	Late June and early July
US Open	Acrylic hard courts	August and September

Just to keep you up-to-date, here are some current rankings:

1	Rafael Nadal		0	14960.0
2	Roger Federer		0	10470.0
3	Andy Murray		0	9020.0
4	Novak Djokovic		0	8830.0
5	Juan Martin Del Potro		0	4830.0

Where do domestic dogs originate from?

What is the origin of man's best friend and when did the friendship begin? The common domesticated dog is a subspecies of the gray wolf. The gray wolf is an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago. The gray wolf can be linked back even further to a small weasel-like mammal called Miacis about 60 million years ago, which is the ancestor of all canids (i.e. dogs, coyotes, jackals, wolves and foxes), however Miacis is irrelevant to what we're talking about today. To sum up, DNA sequencing and genetic drift studies reaffirm that the gray wolf shares a common ancestry with the domestic dog.

This raises another question: how did humans, who haven't been around for that long, manage to influence the creation of so many breeds of domestic dogs? According to an uncited source from Wikipedia, the domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. Also according to Wikipedia, archaeology has placed the earliest possible domestication at about 30,000 BC and, can confirm that they were already domesticated by 7,000 BC.

However, according to About.com, dog history has been studied recently using mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the author notes that "another recent study" suggests that the entire population of dogs today are descended from three females near China about 15,000 years ago. A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. K. Kris Hirst states that 13,000 year BC date is the probable date of domestication.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, fossil remains suggest that five distinct types of dogs existed by the beginning of the Bronze Age (around 4500 BC). They were the mastiffs, wolf-type dogs, pointing dogs, sight hounds (such as the Saluki or greyhound) and herding dogs. Illustrations of dogs dating from the Bronze Age have also been found on walls, tombs, and scrolls throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Dogs were interbred to enhance their powerful attributes. Fleet-footed sight hounds were revered by noblemen in the Middle East, while in Europe powerful dogs such as the mastiff were developed to protect home and traveler from harm. Many breeds are extremely ancient, while others have been developed as recently as the 1800s.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm

"Dog." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 8 May 2009 <http://school.eb.com.au/eb/article-15458>.

McGinnis, Terri. "Dog." World Book Online Reference Center. 2009. 8 May 2009.

Army Rankings

What are the army rankings? The following are regular army rankings. I have mixed some Australian rankings with American rankings and vice versa.

Private/Cadet
Lance Corporal
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Lieutenant/Leftenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
Brigadier/Brigadier General (must be addressed as "General")
Major General
Lieutenant General (note Lt. Gen. higher than Maj. Gen. even though Maj. is higher than Lt.)
General
General of the Army/Field Marshal




My favourite war book is Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.