Snake eyes, everyone loses.

The above photo shows the aftermath of a fight between a 13' python and a 6' alligator in Florida's Everglades in 2005. Apparently the python swallowed the alligator whole and began to digest it, inspiring the alligator to claw at the insides of the snake. In the end both animals were dead, and as can be seen in the picture above, the hindquarters of the alligator were sticking out of the python. (In case the image is too small to be meaningful: the scaly thing sticking toward the lower-right corner of the picture is the alligator's tail, while the other two points are the ends of the torn-in-half python. This just adds another item to each of two lists: 1. Reasons no one should live in Florida until they are old enough that they can't leave the house; and, 2. Reasons I am not cut out for any kind of wilderness adventure.

Cats!

Two cat-related stories:

1. The owners of a Kansas zoo allowed their pet golden retriever to raise three white-striped tiger cubs [note: this is the term used in the article I read, though it doesn't really seem right; the animals have black stripes, not white ones] who were abandoned by their mother. The family, seen above, is now being split apart because the cubs have grown large enough that even just playing with the dog the cubs could severely injure her. There are some pretty cute pictures in this slideshow. This MSNBC report includes video:

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2. Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen, an animal sanctuary worker in South Africa, lives "[...] with not one but FOUR orphaned cheetahs, five lions and two tigers. Forty-six-year-old Riana said: 'I love them all. But they're a handful.'" All of the pictures below are shot at her home, where the animals seemingly have free reign.

I like watching news as it's happening

I had the pleasure of watching this last night. My first thought was "hey, that's gonna be news tomorrow." (Skip ahead to about 9:00)

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There was also an interesting segment on Morning Joe this morning, but the clip is not up yet.

News and Notes

I'm sure you've thought to yourself before how annoying (and similar) the "extreme" graphics employed by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are.  Well, if you've ever thought the same thing about their sound effects, you're not alone.

In other news, the Arena Football League is cancelling its 2009 season.  It was, however, quick to point out that it is cancelling only the 2009 season.  Here's my favorite quotation: "This is the farthest thing from the league folding.  This is, in my opinion, just showing us the league will not fold."

Finally, despite my knowledge that it is grammatically imperative to use the word "quotation" where I did above, I felt like losing part of my soul for not using the more conversational "quote."

This is pathetic.

Apparently MSNBC chose to play the same footage of five Blackwater contractors walking across the street fifty-four times in fifteen minutes. That is correct: 54 in 15. That would be 3.6 plays per minutes, or one play every 16 2/3 seconds.

The most frustrating part of this for me is that I know this happens all the time. Watching TV news is unbearable because the repetition and simplification is so drastic and blatant. This is really not okay.

Liberal media hypocrisy

So I don't know if you guys watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report as religiously as I do, but if you didn't see it you should check out last night's episode on comedycentral.com.

Firstly, there was a great, funny but half-serious Stewart/John Oliver bit about the Mumbai attacks. Just worth watching.

But then, Ariana Huffington was the guest, proving what I knew from previous interviews with her but always manage to forget: Bitch is crazy. Just crazy accent (not her doing, obviously, just adds to the effect), crazy mannerisms, crazy awkward quasi-flirting with Jon. The whole segment is essentially her call for everyone to "blog your secret passions" and, rather than mulling over and refining your random thoughts before putting them out in the world, immediately posting them on the internet. And using it to form intimate relationships without that pesky face-to-face contact. Not what I want to read, but I guess I have no real problem with people doing that, but if that's what the head of The Huffington Post considers the standard, my respect for it has lowered considerably.

But that's just her wackiness. The part I'm really pissed off at this: The night or two previous, Jon had done a great segment comparing MSNBC to Fox News (kind of obvious, but still funny and worth checking out). Chris Matthews is Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough is Combs, etc., including Keith Olbermann as Sean Hannity ("partisan ideologue who fears for the world if it's in any way touched by the hands of his political enemies"). So Ariana was clearly offended by it and says something to the effect of "liberal bloggers are blogging very angrily about that." Jon seems genuinely surprised ("don't people have better things to do?"), as was I: I mean, it was a comedy bit, right? So I went to HuffPo to check it out, and indeed, people are mighty pissed that Jon defiled their god, Olbermann, but putting him the same sentence with the devil, Hannity.

I hate Hannity as much as anyone - more for being an ignorant asshole than a conservative - and I tend to agree with Olbermann's positions more often, but Jon's assessment was correct: they're both over-the-top partisan ideologues. And this is the part that pisses me off: All over liberal blogs, especially HuffPo, and even in real-life conversation, I hear people blasting Bill O'Reilly, Fox, & Co. for their spin tactics, selective information, and misleading, out-of-context quotations, and lauding Olbermann as a hero. He's exactly the same, just on the other side. It frustrates me to no end that these people hide behind the argument of journalistic integrity, when that's clearly not what's important to them - it just sounds better than "he's a jerk whom I disagree with."

Ok, sorry, this has turned into a rant. But I find lack of logic among the people I agree with much more frightening than any amount of power, misinformation, or pure evil in the hands of those I don't.