Gary Larson -Artist Review

Gary Larson was born and raised in University Place, Washington. His parents are Vernon, a car salesman, and Doris, a secretary. He attended Curtis Senior High School before attending Washington State University, from which he graduated in 1972 with a degree in communications. In 1987, Larson married Toni Carmichael, an anthropologist. Ms. Carmichael graduated from Safford High School in 1972, before pursuing a higher education.

Larson credits his older brother Dan for his "paranoid" sense of humor. Dan would pull countless pranks on Gary, taking advantage of his phobia of monsters under the bed by, for example, waiting in the closet for the right moment to pounce out at Gary. Dan is also credited with giving Gary his love of science. They caught animals in Puget Sound and placed them in terrariums in the basement, even making a small desert ecosystem. His use of snakes in his cartoons stems from his long-standing interest in herpetology. Dan died of cancer in 1991.

Venezuelan Health Ministry prohibits Coke Zero

The Venezuelan Health Ministry orders the Coca Cola Company in Venezuela to retire its Coke Zero brand off of Venezuelan shelves. The argument behind the Venezuelan Health Ministry is that the soft drink contains a suspicious ingredient that could possibly be harmful for human consumption. Please note that this is the same Ministry that declared that Venezuela was armored against the H1N1 virus. As of today Venezuela has 57 confirmed cases.

This topic was recently discussed in internet spam emails and appears to be a media campaign against the soft drink giant from the US. The ingredient is actually an artificial sweetener called Cyclamate. Cyclamate was banned from the United States in the 1970s.

Cyclamate is an artificial sweetener that was discovered in 1937 at the University of Illinois by graduate student Michael Sveda.

Like many artificial sweeteners, the sweetness of cyclamate was discovered by accident. Michael Sveda was working in the lab on the synthesis of anti-fever medication. He put his cigarette down on the lab bench and when he put it back in his mouth he discovered the sweet taste of cyclamate. The patent for cyclamate was purchased by DuPont but later sold to Abbott Laboratories which undertook the necessary studies and submitted a New Drug Application in 1950. Abbott intended to use cyclamate to mask the bitterness of certain drugs such as antibiotics and pentobarbital. In the US in 1958 it was designated GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). Cyclamate was marketed in tablet form for use by diabetics as an alternative tabletop sweetener, as well as in a liquid form; one such product was named 'Sucaryl' and is still available in non-US markets. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E952. Since 1969, its sale and use has been banned by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

Now Coca Cola argues that the product does not contain cyclamate, instead they argue that it contains aspartame and acesulfame. Two artificial sweeteners that they claim are safe for consumption.

Smells like a revolution in Iran

Suprisingly it smells of revolution in Iran, in presidential elections coming up tomorrow Friday, June 12, 2009. The news cables have indicated that the race is very tight and that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad trails behind ex prime minister Mousavi.

Should President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loose the Presidency this could mean a serious blow for the inestability of the region and a step towards rationalization in politics and true democracy in Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also gone on the media declaring that should the people crowd the streets in protest, the Revolutionary Guard will crush any attempts for a "velvet revolution"...

Tomorrow is a big day in Iran!

The "Velvet Revolution" or "Gentle Revolution" (November 16 – December 29, 1989) refers to a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. It is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.

On November 17, 1989, a Friday, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December. By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swollen from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was held on November 27.

With the collapse of other Communist governments and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on November 28 that it would relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state. Barbed wire and other obstructions were removed from the border with West Germany and Austria in early December. On December 10, President Gustáv Husák appointed the first largely non-Communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned. Alexander Dubček was elected speaker of the federal parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989.

In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.

The term "Velvet Revolution" was used internationally to describe the revolution, although the Czech side also used the term internally. After the dissolution of the nation in 1993, Slovakia used the term "Gentle Revolution", the term that Slovaks used for the revolution from the beginning. The Czech Republic continues to refer to the event as the "Velvet Revolution".

Thomas Paine and Rebellion

Human rights originate in Nature, thus, rights cannot be granted via political charter, because that implies that rights are legally revocable, hence, would be privileges:

It is a perversion of terms to say that a charter gives rights. It operates by a contrary effect — that of taking rights away. Rights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights, in the majority, leave the right, by exclusion, in the hands of a few . . . They . . . consequently are instruments of injustice.

The fact, therefore, must be that the individuals, themselves, each, in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.

Government's sole purpose is safeguarding the individual and his/her inherent, inalienable rights; each societal institution that does not benefit the nation is illegitimate — especially the Monarchy, the Nobility, and the Military.

Thomas Paine was an English-American pamphleteer (agitator), revolutionary, radical, inventor, intellectual, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

He lived and worked in Britain until age 37, when he emigrated to the British American colonies, in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contributions were the powerful, widely-read pamphlet Common Sense (1776), advocating colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis (1776–1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.

If Paine were alive today and lived in Venezuela he would be blogging (agitating, pamphleteer) against Chavez and calling people to rise in arms.

Franklin on Chavez

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of thirteen virtues, which he developed at age 20 (in 1726) and continued to practice in some form for the rest of his life. His autobiography lists his thirteen virtues as:
"TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation."
"SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation."
"ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time."
"RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve."
"FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing."
"INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions."
"SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly."
"JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty."
"MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve."
"CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation."
"TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable."
"CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation."
"HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates."