Month: August 2005

Yet Another Wife Beater for Animal Rights

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seems to have a soft spot for men who beat their wives, as it is featuring yet another wife beater as a spokesman for the group.

Earlier this year, of course, Dennis Rodman appeared in an anti-fur ad. Rodman apparently does not want furry animals hurt, but he had no problem assaulting his then-wife, Carmen Electra, during a 1999 incident.

Now, PETA has announced that Tommy Lee is appearing in one of its anti-fur ads.

According to a press release,

Tommy Lee first learned about PETA through longtime animal advocate Pamela Anderson. Says Lee in an interview with PETA, “I have actually been looking forward to getting involved. I get the PETA magazine, and what the fur trade does to animals is absolutely terrifying. A lot of hip-hop artists wear fur, and they think it’s a status symbol. That doesn’t register; I just see dead animals.

Now when it comes to human beings, all Tommy Lee sees is punching bags.

In 1998, Lee plead no contest to spousal abuse in Malibu Municipal Court and was sentenced to six months in jail. On February 24, 1998, his then-wife Pamela Anderson Lee called 911 saying that Lee assaulted her while she was holding the couple’s seven-week old infant.

Wearing fur or eating meat is apparently just like the Holocaust or slavery, but beating your wife apparently just elicits yawns from PETA.

On its web site, PETA warns that kids who are violent to animals might grow up to be violent to people. It forgets to add that adult who are violent to people are then eligible to become PETA spokesmen.

Source:

Naked Tommy Lee Declares, ‘Ink, Not Mink,’ In New Ad for PETA. Press Release, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Undated.

World of Warcraft

Several months ago, some students who worked for me started raving about the MMORPG World of Warcraft, which they’d been playing apparently since right after it came out. Now it wasn’t like I hadn’t heard of the game, but mostly what I knew was how Blizzard had horrible problems with server stability at launch because it vastly underestimated how popular the game was going to be.

So after a couple months of badgering I bought the game, figuring I’d play out the free month that came with the box and be done with it. Riiight.

Instead I not only became hooked but got my wife hooked, so a typical evening is “lets get the kids to bed so we can go finish that Murloc quest or get the enchanting skill up to 175.” My wife took this to its dorkish obsessiveness by starting a Live Journal (ugh) for other Stormscale players.

And to be honest, I can’t tell you what’s so compelling about the game. It is really more of the same sort of paced reward system that has you staying up to get one more level or increased skill or better equipment. But there’s just something about the whole rat race that makes it impossible to resist.

I know, I’ve tried.

Judge Tosses Cockfighting Charges; Says Kentucky Law Is Too Ambiguous

Montgomery District Judge William Lane recently threw out charges against more than 500 people who were issued citations after a raid of a cockfighting operation in April. Lane said that the state statute cited by prosecutors which bans attendance at cockfights was ambiguous and could not sustain the charges against those cited.

The problem appears to be with a practice that is quite common and usually drives animal rights activists through the roof. The statute cited as banning cockfighting is quite clear that it is illegal for spectators and vendors to appear,

. . . at an event where a four (4) legged animal is caused to fight for pleasure or profit.

As the judge noted in throwing out the charges, chickens have only two legs. Typically, though, state and federal agencies have a habit of classifying animals for the purposes of law enforcement in ways that defy common sense, such as the USDA’s habit of defining non-bird species as poultry and thereby exempt from certain parts of the Animal Welfare Act. It usually has very good reasons for doing so — namely that Congress hasn’t appropriated it enough funds to actually oversee the care of the redefined animals — but it also goes against common sense. In Kentucky, prosecutors and police seem to be treating chickens as four-legged animals for the purpose of this statute.

The law also contains a highly ambiguous section that exempts “sporting activities,” but does not define that term. Lane noted that common definitions of “sporting activities” could easily encompass cockfighting, and that it is unclear what the legislature meant in that instance.

Michael Endicott, a lawyer representing some of those charged with attending the cockfight, told the Lexington Herald-Leader,

It’s not a very well-written statute. The judge is right. If the legislature wants to make cockfighting illegal, they should spit it out.

Police and prosecutors disagree. A police spokeswoman told the Lexington Herald-Leader,

We respectfully disagree that cockfighting is exempt as a sporting activity according to the statute.

The newspaper reported that prosecutors and police were still deciding whether or not to appeal the decision.

John Goodwin of the Human Society of the United States wants prosecutors to appeal. He told the Lexington Herald-Leader,

This ruling could have huge repercussions across the state. We believe it must be reviewed by a higher court.

Of course the risk there is that a higher court could agree with Lane and instead of having one district judge throwing out charges, the entire statute could be invalidated as far as cockfighting is concerned.

Source:

Judge tosses out cruelty charges from cockfight. Peter Mathews, Lexington Herald-Leader, August 16, 2005.

Fraps — Screenshots on Steroids

I’ve mentioned Fraps before, but until recently I never really used it that much even after paying to register it.

Originally I purchased Fraps to record in-game video for Unreal Tournament 2004. The problem is that even very fast machines have a lot of difficulty both running a game full screen and recording it at an acceptable frame rate and resolution. I just broke down and bought a Tivo with a DVD burner for video.

But that introduces another problem — any time you scan convert video, you lose a lot of detail. I’m very happy with the game video my Tivo records, except that it loses a lot of detail in the in-game chat (i.e., its unreadable on the video version). That, and there are times when I just want a screenshot rather than digging out the video.

Which is why I as impressed when I went back and looked at Fraps. It has a wonderful option that lets me hit a key and automatically take a screen shot every second. There is definitely a performance hit for doing so, but its more than acceptable. Typically, my machine will run a game like World of Warcraft at 45-50 frames per second, and taking a screen shot every second tends to knock that down by 3-5 fps. I can live with that.

Of course that does result in about 8 gigabytes/hour worth of screen shots, so those 5 hour marathons can really start to eat up hard drive space. I then use Zip Backup to CD to automatically Zip up the screenshots and burn them to DVDs.

Just in case there were some of you who didn’t realize the depths of my obssession for recording and archiving everything.

Hunting Heritage Protection Act Introduced in Senate

Several U.S. Senators recently introduced Senate Bill 1522, the Hunting Heritage Protection Act, that would effectively establish a right to hunt and trap on federal lands in much the same way that many states have amended their constitutions to guarantee similar rights to hunting and trapping in those states.

The goal of the bill is to place obstacles in the way of removing federal lands for public hunting. For example, the bill would establish that agencies would have to report to Congress when they plan to forbid large tracts of land from being recreationally hunted,

The withdrawal, change of classification, or change of management status that effectively closes 5,000 or more acres of Federal public land to access or use for recreational hunting shall take effect only if, before the date of withdrawal or change, the agency head that has jurisdiction over the Federal public land submits to the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate written notice of the withdrawal or change.

Additionally, the bill would require annual reports from federal agencies on all actions they’ve taken during the year that impact recreational hunting.

The bill would also direct federal agencies to,

. . . manage Federal public land under the jurisdiction of the agency head in a manner that supports, promotes, and enhances recreational hunting opportunities . . .

That sort of language would open up restrictions on hunting to challenge in federal courts in much the same way that animal rights activists have used similar provisions that protect marine wildlife to challenge activities such as whale hunting by the Makah.

The bill does make a major exemption of all land that is under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Interior, which includes national parks and national monuments, but might be interpreted to make it more difficult to transfer lands to the Secretary of Interior if the lands would thereby become off-limits to recreational hunters.

The full text of Senate Bill 1522 can be read here.

Animal Defenders International Calls for Boycott of Sony Ericsson Over Ad Featuring Bear

After Sony Ericsson launched a TV ad featuring a performing bear, Animal Defenders International has called for a boycott of Sony Ericsson.

In a press release announcing its boycott, ADI chief executive Jan Creamer said,

The training of performing animals is both unnatural and callous, as wild animals are deprived of their species for normal social interaction and their habitat where they roam free. A brutal regime of repetitive training and domination by their trainers frequently involves coercion and physical punishment. In addition, these animals suffer daily as they are caged and chained by suppliers of animals for the TV and movie industries.

. . .

Global brands such as Sony Ericsson should take on board the fact that public opinion has long since moved away from watching performing animals, as the cruelty of their daily lives has been exposed. If the company find it acceptable to continue to use performing animals in this way, we call on their customers to switch phones to other brands.

Source:

ADI Calls for Sony Ericsson boycott. Press Release, Animal Defenders International, August 12, 2005.