not to much to post today but this is pretty amazing.. I just had to post this, watch here.. you have to watch the entire thing.The story just keeps getting better.

The other day I was watching one of those nature shows on TV and I wasn’t expecting anything more than the typical, Lion is hungry -Lion chases gazelle pack -Lion kills weak baby gazelle while cameraman helplessly films the attack, kind of like the cameraman in the Rodney king beating-but that’s another story. Anyway, I was a lot more impressed when I saw the segment on this strange" fish?" called the Cuttlefish. Aside from just looking oddly cool, this sea creature is a master of camouflage. The cuttlefish can change the color of its skin into patterns and designs in such a way it would put any chameleon to shame. After already being sold on the cuttlefishes David Blaine like illusion skills, I was impressed even more when I found out how smart they were. Just like us Cuttlefish come in different shapes and sizes, some are big and some are small, and just like most things in the animal kingdom, the bigger creatures use their size to try and dominate where they can. When mating time comes around the female cuttlefish will choose a mate (or he will choose her I’m not exactly sure maybe it’s a mutual thing). In most cases the large Cuttlefish will most likely have it easier getting a mate, not just because of attractiveness but because once he’s found a mate, the larger fish will guard the female like an angry bouncer fending off all competition with the female hiding right behind/underneath him. With this kind of nonsense going on you'd think the smaller cuttlefish would be outta' luck right? WRONG! What the smaller cuttlefish lacks in size he makes up for in brains. The small cuttlefish have discovered an ingenious way to get around this problem.
Since the larger Cuttlefish are so huge and aggressive, leaving the smaller ones with no chance of a fight, the smaller Cuttlefish have figured out how to use larger cuttlefishes greed and own selfish attitudes against him. The cuttlefish is not only a master of camouflage but a master of disguise, when looking for a mate the smaller male cuttlefish will change his appearance to look as if he were a female, so when he comes across a larger male who is guarding a prospective female the larger male will actually welcome him thinking he has another mate. Not realizing he has led another male directly into the welcoming arms of the female cuttlefish that is happy to mate with him, right underneath the large cuttlefish! Scandalous! In an odd way this processes has benefited the female, and the future cuttlefish population weeding out the week and stupid, in that the female will now have large dominate offspring and smaller cunning offspring to continue the cuttlefishes amazing lifecycle.
 See the cuttlefish here.....     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x-8v1mxpR0

...and of course this originated in Russia where more than 2 million people suffer from alcoholism. Every year in Russia 23,000 people die from alcohol poisoning and another 75,000 die from alcohol related diseases ( statistics obtained from RIA Novosti- a Russian news site ).That’s 98,000 people in total who die every year from alcohol alone!  Apparently it’s no myth about Russians and Vodka. With Russia losing so many people a year due to alcohol, something drastic needed to be done to cure the addiction and abuse. Surprisingly, doctors were able to come up with a solution that came in the form of a small pill. This amazing pill is called the Torpedo and has a record of working; the procedure itself requires that the pill is surgically inserted into the patient under the skin. If the patient drinks, the pill will release a compound into the bloodstream that will make the patient very sick and is old that it supposedly can cause death. The drug released into the bloodstream is actually a known substance used in the rubber industry called disulfuram. Disulfuram  blocks an enzyme from being absorbed by the liver which would have in turn converted the alcohol into acetic acid. Without this conversion a person can become very sick basically all the symptoms of hangover. Its no coincidence that those who worked in the rubber industry could not have alcohol. The torpedo pill is normally entered under the skin in the “buttocks" which is why they call it the torpedo because as the Russian doctors say "it sits in the butt and is kept the way a torpedo in a submarine is kept." It cost about $5,000 rubles to be administered ($170 US) and if one breaks and has a drink the doctor will also warn the patient that the poison is loose in the bloodstream and that they could have a heart attack or get cancer and that they need the antidote. But to get the antidote it costs even more, about 8,000 rubles ($300 US). This method not only uses fear as a motivator but hits patients in the pocketbook as well. Although this method is unconventional and pretty risky it has proven to work. This just shows us that most barriers in life just call for a little self control and are most of the time psychological barriers that can be overcome with a little fear and financial stress lighting the fire under our feet.

I learned something new again in conversation with my "cube-mates" at work the other day. With April 1st around the corner we ended up talking about April fools day. Since our company has employees from all over the world, we began to ask around to see if April fools day was celebrated in other countries. We’d come to find out that April fools day is celebrated in a lot more places besides the US. Countries that celebrate the day range from Germany, France, Scotland, even Iraq! What surprised me the most was how April fools day came about in France. My French co-worker decided to dig a little deeper and look into Frances history of April fools... She found that it not only originated partially because of a religious association, but it was also recognized as April "Fish" day, here’s why......
Apparently sometime possibly around the 16th century in France, April fish day came about due to the religious practice of Lent. During lent consumption of meat was not allowed, so fish was usually eaten instead (yes I know, fish is meat too).With all the madness of only eating and fish and the amount of fish that was involved, fish related pranks arose. April 1st occurred near the end of lent and with the end of the restrictions landing on this day and all of the fishyness going around it is possible April 1st became deemed April Fish day.  In some cases a fake fish would be offered, and whoever accepted the fake fish and did not realize it was fake would be labeled as a fool. The more widely known prank was to tape a paper fish to the back of the victim and once discovered the victim would then yell  Poisson d’avril!!! Meaning, "April Fish!!!"

A while ago some friends and I were sitting around talking, sharing stories about work and life, when one of my friends began to tell us about an experience he had with a crazy bug exterminator he hired to get rid of some bees in the building that he oversees. This exterminator had something just slightly out of whack going on in the head but somehow he still proved to be very smart. He was an odd guy and did strange things, like trying to find garden snakes in the area so he could have them for dinner. Anyway, my friend called the guy up told him about the nest/hive and waited for him to show. When Mr. Exterminator showed up, all he was equipped with was a push broom and his eccentric personality. My friend as anyone else would,  expected more but he knew the guy was a little odd so he didn't question him. He simply showed the exterminator where the nest was and went across the way to watch safely from afar. What happened next was pretty amazing. The exterminator went straight for the nest and swatted it, then a huge cloud of angry bees quickly appeared as one would expect. The exterminator ran into the angry swarm, swatted as many bees as he could to the ground and then he would stomp them after they had fallen. He then would run out of the swarm only to run back in a short moment later.  For the next 15 to 20 min my friend watched in awe as this man ran into the swarm, perform his swat and stomp dance, and run out just to do it all over again. This went on until all of the bees were dead....he didn’t get stung once! After it was all over my friend told the guy he saw everything and he asked him what he was doing and how he did what he did. What he explained was pretty suprising.The exterminator explained that whenever he ran into the swarm he was holding his breath and he only ran out because he was getting air. According to him bees react aggressively to CO2 and as long as one doesn't breathe out the bee’s wont (or at least will have trouble) attack. When I heard this I was a little skeptical, so I did a little research on my own. From what I read, carbon dioxide has an aggressive affect on bees; apparently carbon dioxide can enrage bees and provoke them to sting once they detect it. It seems as if there was a discovery channel program on bees where the host tested this hypothesis, proving the theory to be true. It’s astounding to me, but I'm never trying this, imp not that crazy.

Everyday we learn something new. We are constantly exposed to useful information and are not even aware of it. Every single situation in life gives us an opportunity to learn something, we just have to listen, observe, and become more aware, by doing this a simple activity can quickly become a learning experience.  We are overloaded with so much useless information we usually filter out all of the "unnecessary" and only retain what is "functional and  important"  Unfortunately what normally registers as important or  un- important to our subconscious, may not always be consistent with what we would actually want. I have tried to get past this and actually try to look for the "learning experiences" in each day. With that I will do my best to share with you what I learn on a daily basis.