Sorry - No Entry

Just felt like posting. WHOOO!!

Tsunami Stuff 2

See cute picture here

A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant, male, century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombasa, officials said on Thursday.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300kg, was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean and then forced back to shore when the tsunami struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," said ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park.

"After it was swept [away] and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby. He was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

[From AnimalPlanet.com]

Tsunami Stuff

So how "generous" are the governments who have pledged money to help out with the greatest human tragedy outside of war-time? Well, not very generous at all; in fact, every nation that has made a pledge has been relatively mean about it.

There is no point basing such a judgement on the ABSOLUTE amount of money pledged - that tells us nothing at all. As any economist will tell you, a good start is comparing the amount pledged with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generated by a country. (There are other, better measures too, but this is a fair starting point.)

So, here are the stats. I have ranked the pledge-countries from 'most' to 'least' generous. The stats indicate the percentage of a nation's GDP pledged. No, the decimal places are not in the wrong positions. Yes, that's right, every country, except Qatar, has pledged less than four one thousandths of a percent of their GDP. So let's not go on about how generous we are all being in helping out with the relief effort. Countries spend more money on pets every year than they do on this.

1 Qatar 0.0014253%
2 Sweden 0.0003357%
3 Denmark 0.0003282%
4 Japan 0.0001396%
5 Switzerland 0.0001278%
6 Norway 0.0000963%
7 Australia 0.0000813%
8 Spain 0.0000768%
9 Netherlands 0.0000737%
10 Italy 0.0000613%
11 Portugal 0.0000598%
12 Britain 0.0000576%
13 Libya 0.0000571%
14 Kuwait 0.0000507%
15 Finland 0.0000430%
16 New Zealand 0.0000422%
17 Saudi Arabia 0.0000347%
18 UAE 0.0000347%
19 Canada 0.0000344%
20 France 0.0000338%
21 USA 0.0000318%
22 Singapore 0.0000283%
23 Ireland 0.0000234%
24 Venezuela 0.0000170%
25 Germany 0.0000120%
26 Austria 0.0000111%
27 Algeria 0.0000102%
28 Taiwan 0.0000099%
29 China 0.0000094%
30 South Korea 0.0000058%
31 Slovakia 0.0000032%
32 Slovenia 0.0000030%
33 Turkey 0.0000027%
34 Hungary 0.0000019%
35 Poland 0.0000008%

Fucking Titanic...

In response to seeing Titanic on I Love the 90's: Part Deux...

Yeah, yeah, tragic love story. What's the REALLY sad thing about this movie, though?
"
Jack is too stupid to find his own piece of driftwood.

END.

Annoying:

1. People who expect me to be the perfect host when they're not the perfect guest (i.e. they make a mess, eat all your food, and fight with your family - but still expect you to go fetch them whatever their heart desires).

2. Pencil sharpeners that NEVER work. The pencil sharpener in my maths room CONSUMES fresh pencils.

3. People who think it's funny to be loud, obnoxious and crude. It never was, is, or will be, amusing - give it up.

4. Microwaves that heat only one side of my Toaster Pastry.

5. People who use my personal hygiene items (especially without asking), it's gross!

6. People who borrow endless amounts of money from me and then expect me to pay them two dollars back. Go fuck yourself, seriously.

7. People who endlessly talk about nothing.

8. If you're a 12 and under Catholic school girl you can rock the knee-highs, otherwise forget it. It's just creepy.

9. Nickelback?

10. PETA - Why do you throw paint on fur coats? They just go out and by new ones? Actually, vegetarians in general. Unless it's for religious purposes, you're fucking nuts. Chickens can barely survive as it is, they wouldn't last long in the wild. These animals owe us SOMETHING for keeping them alive. I mean, turkeys are so dumb they look up at the sky with their mouths open when it's raining and drown - but they have "feelings"? Don't try to make up for your stupidity by saying my lifestyle of normalcy is morally and ethically wrong.

11. People who think sex, drinking and/or smoking makes them seem mature or cool. All of the above are exponentially lame. Participating in such activities is moronic.

12. People who compare tiny, upsetting events in their life to HUGE disasters. I'm sorry, no matter how long you're grounded for the holocaust was worse.

13. My mother

14. Lies, of any sort. People who force me into lying. People who lie to seem cooler. Anything to do with lying or fakeness annoys me.

15. Plagiarism, it is quite possible the most dishonest and loser-esque thing you could do.

16. Attention whores. You would think 10 compliments would be enough, but no! They want more, and they'll annoy you to no end to get it.

17. People who leave their Christmas decorations up all year long. Okay, we get it, you love Jesus.

18. People who watch me brush my teeth, like it's interesting. Get the hell away from me, freak.

19. Alise - What's the point of women's rights if you're just going to turn around and be worthless and disgusting?

20. People who can't take the truth. I hate it when I give someone an honest answer or say what's on my mind, and they're like "oh! I can't believe you said that to me" or deny it. I mean, come on, you're not fooling anyone.