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Orca Captivity at Seaworld

When you go see the Shamu show at Seaworld, remember a few things happened that changed the Shamu show. It took years and years for Seaworld to change, but the problems they faced were so bad they gave eventually changed. You might be asking yourself, where did Seaworld get the idea to have orcas in captivity. Well, it all started with a place called Sealand. They were the start of orcas in captivity at Seaworld.

The change in attitude began when at one of the shows, an orca named Tilikum grabbed a trainer by the foot and took her to the bottom of the pool. The orca did bring her up to the surface, but brought her back down to the bottom. When the orca brought her up, the trainer screamed for help but there was nothing they could do for her. When Sealand closed, the orcas, including Tilikum, were moved to Seaworld. This orca showed many signs of aggression towards humans. This orca had also killed someone who snuck into his tank after hours, but the it was loss of one trainer got Seaworld to change. A trainer named Dawn Brancheau was killed during an “Eat with Shamu” show. She was killed in front of a horrified audience. Tilikum had grabbed her by her and pulled her into the water. What seemed to be frustration by the orca became aggression. SeaWorld said Tilikum grabbed her by her ponytail. After her death, SeaWorld decided to not let trainers in close contact with the orcas. There was a boycott for SeaWorld to not even have orcas. Seaworld has made a only few changes with the orcas. Now, you’ll never look at Seaworld the same again

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Knee Replacement Surgery!! AAGGHH!!!

Here we go.  Heading in for knee replacement surgery on 3 March.  I’ll be replacing the right knee on that date and my left knee a few months after.  This will be my first step to getting back to being able to do the things that I want to do again. I’ve always been a big walker. I’ve not ever had a problem with walking miles to get to where I want to go.  For the past three years, I have been steadily losing my ability to walk any extended distance.  It has gotten so bad that now I am only able to walk maybe 50 feet without pain and the pain is such that I am only able to walk any distance at all through sheer willpower. I’ve known for three years that I would need to get the full replacement but still tried all the other alternatives to get pain free.  None ever worked 100%. 

I want to retire from Civil Service this year.  Then, I want to get myself a private sector job or hired into a contractor position and finally make some real money.  Before I do that, I need to take care of my surgeries and close that chapter out.  I can’t very well tell a new employer, “Ok, by the way, I need to take some time off for surgeries”.  I somehow don’t think that would go over too well. 

Finally, the limitations that this has put upon me keeps me from exercising the way I need to working out.  So my weight keeps going up and up.  Eventually, I would be going into a spiral of more weight and more pain and more limitations on my movements and sooner or later developing diabetes.  I am determined to keep that from happening. 

One thing that really does bother me is people who have no idea of what they are talking about telling my wife all these horror stories about how I will HAVE to go to a rehab facility for at least 6 weeks, and how I will be laid up for months in bed. I wonder if they are confusing hip replacement with knee replacement. Maybe they think I am 80 years old and not 55!! It is ridiculous how much bad information they are telling her. Fortunately, she was able to look up the information booklet from the hospital that gave her correct info.

Well, we will see how it goes. I’m hoping to be back at work after two to three weeks. Hopefuly, much less.

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A Quick Update

I thought it would be a good idea if I gave you a quick overview of what we will be exploring.  These “Great Thinkers”  in order and in groups of three are:

Moses, Confucius and Plato

Aristotle, Euclid and Jesus

Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Christopher Columbus

Niccoló Machiavelli, Nicholas Copernicus and Martin Luther

Sir Francis Bacon, René Descartes and Sir Isaac Newton

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and Reverend Thomas Malthus

Carl von Clausewitz, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx

James Clerk Maxwell, William James and Friedrich Nietzsche

Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein

John Maynard Keynes, Norbert Wiener and Jean-Paul Sartre

As I go through these names, I will also explore how views may have changed the perspective we see through along with other names that possibly should have been included or new names that should be added since 1976.

The Greatest Thinkers part 1 (Moses)

The Greatest Thinkers Reviewed part 1

I started re-reading a book from 1976 called “The Greatest Thinkers” by Edward de Bono.  It’s amazing the perspective of the writer at the time for some of his choices.  Marx and Nietzsche but no proponents of Democracy or Republicanism.  Keynes but not Hayek. No mention of Jefferson, Monroe or even Thomas Paine.

The first thinker in the book is Moses.  The author sees him as a “loudspeaker who broadcast G*d’s will”.  He points out the difference of Y*hw*h manifesting as a personal god, always present and watchful.  This would have been very strange in a world wheretghe gods were remote and indifferent even if they had familiar shapes (hawk or jackal).

The idea of a god that won’t even give his name but instead answers with: “I Am That I Am” must have been perplexing to those people at the time.  Is it any wonder then that Pharoah initially perceives Moses as a joke or madman?  In that context it could even be seen as understandable that so many “plagues” are required to bring about the release of the Hebrews.  And yet, it isn’t until the destruction of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea that Pharoah finally relents.  A fascinating example of stubbornness by a man born to rule.

Then we have Moses as Lawgiver.  Not only the Ten Commandments but also the ritual observances that close Exodus and lead into the body of laws known as Leviticus.

This influence, as well as the code of laws set down by Hammurabi, even affects our speech as in something being “written in stone” as fixed and unchanging.

A key difference of the Hebrew god is the lack of a physical manifestation.  Other peoples lament the forcible seizure of their gods after being conquered.  They didn’t speak symbols of their gods but that the symbols were in fact actually the gods themselves.

The concept of an invisible being that had no physical form had to have been mind-blowing.  Viewed from that perspective, we can see why the newly freed Hebrews molded a golden calf.  They were merely reaching back to what they were accustomed to seeing with Egyptian rulers and others.   

As this body of law develops and grows, we get to the point where the letter of the law becomes almost a fetish for some over the spirit of the law.  This is famously shown in the exasperation Jesus with those intent on trying to trip him up.

Moses, while not the first lawgiver, has influenced Christianity and Islam and in turn our modern civilization.

Next time, I will delve into how the author looks at Confucius and his influence on Eastern civilization.