Orit Fox and her snake

I read today in an animal welfare magazine that a python had died in Venezuela. On closer inspection, it turned out that it had died after biting a human being. Even closer examination revealed the following startling snippet. The snake had bitten a supermodel on the breast, ingested some silicone and died of silicone poisoning.
Turns out that this is all over the news, and a quick google will reveal video footage.
The supermodel, you may or may not care to learn, is fine. The bite was superficial and she only needed to spend a few hundred dollars on secondary make-up pampering and a few thousand on a week in an exclusive spa. The only other expense would have been an extra few ounces of cocaine to get over the shock. Obviously her ego was bruised a little, as she had to spend a few days not displaying her stupendous cleavage to the world, thus damping down her jilted confidence to almost zero: but these things heal in time.
The fact that a snake died because of breast implants is extremely harsh for the snake, obviously, not to mention that snakes' best mates; and the story reminds us of serious welfare issues about how well this snake was being looked after. Presumably it was hired for the photo shoot from some "rent-an-animal" agency, which effectively consigns its "pets" to a life of slavery to humans.
The story also highlights the environmental problems of silicone. If a small mouthful of the stuff can kill a snake, (which are known for having good constitutions) what other sort of damage does the stuff do, as it litters the environment - both in implants and a whole host of other products?

Most importantly though, the story highlights this. Have you ever seen a picture of Orit Fox? She looks absolutely vile. The pictures remind me of those horror films where the child's doll comes to life. Her entire face and upper body is constructed and reconstructed with layer upon layer of plastic surgery and expensive make-up, such that, next to her, Michael Jackson would look like the all-natural boy-next-door. What the hell is this woman doing to herself? And do people really worship her visage, call her beautiful etc., or do they just celebrate how freakish she looks?

Plastic surgery is great for people who have scars, or have deformities that cause medical problems. Sadly, it is also used by stupid rich celebrities who all want to look the same as each other, or like freaks. When you see pics of them before the surgery started they were invariably more attractive before, why they can't see it is beyond me.

A python yesterday

The 9/11 Memorial

The time is approaching for the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
Now you may be thinking that Bin Laden did it, the US government did it, it was the Illuminati, it was caused by negative Earth Energies, it was aliens hell bent on revenge for all that rubbish we broadcast on the satellite TV etc. etc. But, no matter what your theory for who was responsible for 9/11, no one can deny that the deaths of all those people was a massive human tragedy.
People like to mark the anniversaries of tragic events, like deaths, with some sort of fitting memorial. Usually these are designed to bring us closer to the spirit of the dead person or people, for example, going to a place that they enjoyed and lighting candles or singing their favorite song.
Not in this case. Whoever designed this piece of crap decided a little differently. In honour of the thousands of people who died on that day, many in states of extreme terror and pain inside collapsing burning buildings, this person decided that a fitting tribute would be to encourage mourning loved ones to spend their hard-earned cash on some crappy bits of cheap metal glued together badly to look a little bit like the twin towers. Adding in a few candles, it looks a bit like the buildings are on fire.
Brilliant. So this will achieve what exactly?
For the people holding the memorial with this statuette: instead of remembering the happy, positive, fun things about their loved one's life, they just get to relive the trauma of their horrible death, and wallow in their own pain and misery as a result, thus making them less happy.
For the spirits of the dead people - if you believe in them - they will also be quite unhappy about it, I mean they died horribly in the twin towers, so how is an image of them going to be enjoyable or help them reconnect with their living families?
(As an aside, I expect Jesus feels the same way about crosses. If you were pondering returning to the land of the living, would you want to come back to humanity, if humanity had spent 2000 years sculpting images of the device they used to torture you to death?)

For the people who designed and built this hideous effigy: Riches. Current retail price is about $18 from the NY Fire Department, though this will likely increase as we get closer to the anniversary. Manufacturing cost, probably a few pennies, since it was made in some sweat shop in China.