I’ve often heard an argument made that humans are the only creatures that hunt for sport, but I don’t think this is true. How often have you had, heard about, or seen a cat bring a dead mouse home, play with it until its dead and then walk off and forget about it. I would argue that because they have no intentions of eating the caught animal, they hunted it purely for pleasure,ergo sport.

Now some would counter this argument with a line of thought that the cats hunt for practice and to keep their skills sharp. They might even go further down this line and say that the cats hunting is instinctive, which is why they so readily chase a piece of string. But I would use this same argument for humans. Man is after all, at his most basic level, a hunter gatherer, it would therefore follow, that mans desire to hunt could also be instinctive and the hunting itself is practice. The more you hunt the better you get.

Now you might think to yourself, that man doesn’t need to hunt. We just buy our meat from the butcher, so that argument doesn’t hold weight. But the same argument can be made for most cats. They find food in their bowl when ever they want it, which makes their hunting even more inclined towards being a sport. They have no need to hunt, and yet they still do, just like man.

How much worse do things have to get before people wake up and smell the stupidity?!?!

Islamic declaration of “human rights” http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

Ireland passes blasphemy law http://www.independent.ie/n..

Geert Wilders prosecution to go ahead in the Netherlands http://ww…

Wake up world! before it’s too late!

I’ve just spent the last hour looking through and reading about the new FTC’s new endorsements disclosure guide for blogs and new media. What a bloody nightmare of a document! I still don’t know if advertising a product is considered an endorsement or not?

If I post a link to an amazon.com product in a forum through my associates connection (e.g. I get a referral fee for it) is it an endorsement? Does my online store have to have a disclaimer at the bottom of it telling people that anything they purchase through my store will generate a referral fee? Who the hell knows? certainly not the FTC that’s for sure.

Are people really so stupid that they couldn’t figure out that “gee this person has a store on their site selling amazon products. I wonder if they get a commission for selling this stuff?”

Another question I’m yet to find an answer to is, if I live outside the US but use a US hosting service, meaning the site is hosted in the US, do I have to abide by FTC rules? See, this is something I think the FTC has failed to grasp. The internet has no borders or boundaries. People from all over the world use US based services, such as WordPress and Google products, do those people have to abide by US law because they are using a US service? Has anyone ever actually thought that through? If not it’s about time they did.

Update: Dec 3, 2009

To spite all the uncertainty, I’ve gone ahead and done a quick declaration page anyway which you’ll see in the page links on the right.

Murphy’s Law states that “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong at the worst possible time.”

O’Reilly’s law says “Murphy was very optimistic”.

I just received this email from MacGyver fan, Chris Sprague.

Three Microsoft engineers and three Apple employees are traveling by train to a computer conference. At the station, the three Microsoft engineers each buy tickets and watch as the three Apple employees buy only a single ticket.

“How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?” asks a Microsoft engineer.

“Watch and you’ll see,” answers the Apple employee.

They all board the train. The Microsoft engineers take their respective seats, but all three Apple employees cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, “Ticket, please.”

The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes the ticket and moves on. The Microsoft engineers saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the Microsoft engineers decide to do the same on the return trip and save some money.

When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the Apple employees don’t buy any ticket, at all.

“How are you going to travel without a ticket?” asks one perplexed Microsoft engineer. “Watch and you’ll see,” answers an Apple employee. When they board the train the three Microsoft engineers cram into a restroom and the three Apple employees cram into another one nearby. The train departs.

Shortly afterward, one of the Apple employees leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the Microsoft engineers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, “Ticket, please…”