wikirandoms (i'm getting rather attached to this name) volume, um... its the 28th of may....?

yes, a post devoted to random interesting (maybe) wikipedia articles, without anything else. i figure if you stil visit my blog after my last post, you deserve some grade A entertainment.
 i'm sorry, this is all i got. hmm, i'll try to put a few funny pictures on here too, however, because my computer basically reset itself to factory conditions a few days ago, my archive of pictures i find funny is totally gone. thank god for the internet though.

http://www.explosm.net/comics/2429/

these are pretty good. some might be a bit rude though, i guess.

so, on to some wikipedia pages.

the international brotherhood of electrical workers is a labor union for, um electrical workers for any country in the north american continent. what they are isn't very interesting, apart from the fact it calls itself international when its only north america. the name is just funny, i think.

'shade' has a wikipedia article. yes, the action of trees, buildings and other objects blocking sunlight or light in general from reaching a place, known as shade, has a wikipedia article, devoted solely on it. just shows you can find just about anything on wikipedia.

'sharks in captivity' article says that sharks kept by amateurs are usually obese or grow extremely quickly, because they are fed too much. a healthy shark eats roughly 1-3% of their body weight weekly.  dude! how freakin small is that? i weigh 65kgs that would mean if i was a shark (and, strangely, weighed the same(?)) i would eat just under 2 kilos a week! some sharks obviously weigh less or much, much more than that, but that is still really small. i'm amazed at how efficient their digestion system can be.

jennifer rowe is an author, with two pen names. one is mary anne dickinson, and the other is emily rodda. i've read most of the books written by 'emily rodda,' and i just want to say i feel like i've been lied to, cheated and swindled. why? why would you lie to children, jennifer? her website is even called http://www.emilyrodda.com/, the lies just, they never stop!

well i think this went well. i learnt some stuff, some really interesting, some that, i think i would have been happier not knowing. i hope you learnt some stuf, or were at least entertained.

if you want to be further entertained, especially if you like strange stories, go here. these stories are really weird, the guy says he found them in a book in his late brothers room, stories he and his friends told in some group. i'm about 60-70% sure its fake, i mean these things couldn't possibly have happened right? but there are so many details, and lists... but at the same time, why has the poster only posted random stories? what about in the order they were written? in any case, the stories are very interesting.

some random stuff i thought in class the other day

ok, as the post name  says, this is a random thought i, well, thought and wrote down during class at uni. the class was sustainability 101, a ridiculously easy subject.
i don't like these sustainability classes because they always talk about how the world is going to hell, how they're trying their darndest to get people to realise, and how its a tragedy so few people are doing anything to make it better. in other words, talking about changing the world, apparently expecting someone else to do it.

not that i'm currently any better, but, you know, i'm still figuring it all out. surveying the lay of the land, if you will. i mean, if you can't do something intelligently, don't do it at all. 'know your enemy as you know yourself' kind of thing. i think thats in the art of war.

what? oh, yes the idea i had. well, its not really an idea, its more of an ongoing thought process, that analyzes why the world is as it is, why its apparently so difficult to change for the better, and, hopefully and inevitably, how to induce the change needed.

so, the most important consequence of the needed change in society is the transition of wealth. for instance,
from fossil fuel industries to  other cleaner, renewable, more efficient, simply superior energy source industries, like solar energy, or, nuclear energy, thanks to some new innovations.
in other words, from industries from the past, to industries of the future.
obviously the older industries, with the money and power, are doing everything they can to stay on top, because they want to stay wealthy.
and then of course theres the eternal industries, like food or medicine, that seem controlled by avarice, the love of riches.
in order for change, this apparently overriding drive to stay wealthy in the wealthy has to be alleviated. its like some odd addiction. it needs to stop being addictive. it is a human made part of the world, therefore it should bend to our will, we should not bend to the will of money.
therefore, the question i'm asking, why is money, why is wealth, so desirable? what makes it 'addictive'? i can only think of four, but i'm sure there must be more. i will say them in the next post to do with this.

there is alot more to this thought process than just this, this is only step one. i'm kind of surprised  i need so many words to even barely explain a small amount of it. i'll do another post about this. maybe another 8 or 9. not back to back, this must be very boring. i'll do some more 'wikirandoms' (shut up, i'm trying to think of a proper name for it!) between them.

we're still here. random wikifacts, anyone?

so, the rapture thingy didn't happen (as far as we know), and the ball of life keeps rolling around the world. hmm, bad metaphor.
while i'm not surprised that the rapture didn't happen, and so i don't really feel anything about its lack of happening, i am happy that the family radio people didn't end up doing a big mass suicide - jonestown type thing. yet at least. apparently they had no 'plan B,' and a lot of people (counselors) want to make sure they can cope in a non-post rapture world.

because life goes on as usual, here are some more random things about the world, which still exists, from wikipedia, which also still exists.

the flat earth society is an organisation that seeks to further the belief that, as the name suggests, the earth is flat. sort of a hockey puck, surrounded by ice. for further proof on how serious they actually are, their current president is daniel shenton. they had a magazine, my two favourite article names are:

"Science Insults Your Intelligence" (Sep. 1980)

"World IS Flat, and That's That" (Sep. 1980)

also, juttejitsu is a martial art specialising in what is essentially a policemans hitting stick. i think they're batons. it would make sense for police to have compulsory training in it. someone with skills can disarm a person without harming them at all.

look up 'the neverything', a series of short films released on the internet. it sounds, um, fascinating. ish. if you don't find anything by typing in 'the neverything,' type in 'lovely by surprise.'

colin A. ross is a canadian psychiatrist who claims he can shoot beams of energy out of his eyes, that can cause a speaker to emit a tone. he wrote many scientific journals supporting this claim, some of which actually got published. despite admitting he had rigged the speaker to a biofeedback machine which responded to eyeblinks, he still insists his eyes have paranormal power.

may you, dear reader, enjoy the time you have in this world, because, as we all know, you never know when you may have to leave. and, um, you know, all that jazz.

so, 21st of may.... allegedly the rapture. so... what do we do?

i think the title pretty much speaks for itself. so, some guy from american radio reckons today is judgement day, the rapture, apocalypse now, whatever it is. if you believe it, as the people who gave their entire life savings to the guy who said it do, what are you actually going to do?

in my opinion, you can't just have a big party, try to cram as much stuff as you can into the time you think you have left on this world, because you're rushing it. you can't enjoy your favourite beer when you're thinking about the end of the world, and all the stuff you want to do before it ends. it'll just be a hollow, irrelevant experience. and then of course, if you meet god, and you're chugging down a beer, with, like, seven cigarettes in your mouth, how are you going to defend that? short answer: don't try to defend yourself against god. i can't see it ending well.

and praying seems a bit redundant now, seeing as you think you're about to meet the being your prayers go to. why call someone on the telephone when you're about to meet them face to face? unless, you wanted them to bring ice cream or, forgive you all your sins. but, asking god to forgive you your sins this close to judgement day also seems a bit hollow.

the only good way i can think of spending the time before rapture is enjoying nature, the grand artistic masterpiece of god. taking a walk in a park, a botanical garden, going for a bushwalk, etc. the zoo is a possibility, but, you have to really think about zoos. animals, kept in little reserves, for the primary reason so that people can look at them? i mean zoos do a lot of good for the animals, but its still a grey area morally, especially before the rapture.
dear god, i'm sounding too much like a greeens party advocate. please forgive me.
anyway, you'd just stay calm, don't rush, you'd think you kinda literally have all the time in the world, and enjoy the marvels of gods creation, while it is still there.

if you aren't sure what in the hell this post was talking about, here is an article that tells you why some people honestly believe the rapture, or something, is on today.






its ridiculous, i know. i mean, everybody knows the biblical flood refers to the flooding of the black sea, after the last ice age ended, in 13,000 BC!
hey that rhymed! say it out loud. it sounds kinda trippy. or maybe thats just me.

interesting stuff about antichrist and a creepy nursery rhyme

i found this article on cracked.com, about five things that have been misconstrued in modern culture about the bible. i knew most of them, i mean, minimum research in anything about history or religion will tell you this stuff. what i didn't know was that the 'antichrist' is just a word for someone who doesn't believe in christ.
i'm gonna go ahead and say this doesn't mean if you're a buddhist or a muslim, you're an antichrist. because buddhism and islam are just another religion, and all religions are the path to god, you're only an antichrist if you're an atheist.
and i think that should suit atheists just fine.
i guess the thing that we all think of when we think of the antichrist is actually the false prophet. he is a person meant to 'look like a lamb and talk like a dragon.' i gotta admit, the idea of a person like that scared the hell out of me.
yes, the sight of a person who literally looks like a lamb, and talks like a dragon, would make me require probably frequent sessions with a counselor, and some sort of antipsychotic.

but of course, it means someone who looks innocent and pure and all that, who can talk as though they had a fire in their belly, with passion, fury and inscrutable logic. you know, you can't, um, scrute it. unscrutable!
but, i find the idea of such a person, ominously named the false prophet, a little scary. i mean, how the hell do you fight that?
maybe this is what people think of when they make those horror movies, where some evil creature has possessed an 8 year old girl who goes around killing and insulting everyone she meets, telling them about eldritch horrors, and nobody tries to stop her, because shes an 8 year old girl, why would she hurt anybody? and when they find out shes fully evil, BAM! dead.


onto other things..... here is nursery rhyme i heard some chick at uni say. its really, really creepy. you can find a wikipedia article on it:

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had a wife but couldn't keep her;

He put her in a pumpkin shell

And there he kept her very well.

if you don't understand why its creepy, just think about it...

why would peter, the pumpkin eater, put a wife he can't keep in a pumpkin shell?





because hes a pumpkin eater, of course.

dichloroacetic acid

i said in my last post that this post would be about dichloroacetic acid, and the claims that it can be used to cure cancer. all the information i put here comes from wikipedia, but i'll put some more sources down the bottom for to corroborate with.
UPDATE/EDIT THINGY 19 MAY 2011: this post is getting a lot of views, especially by people who seem to be looking for ways to make dichloroacetic acid. if you need to search on the internet how to make it, you most likely don't know how to administer it, you probably don't know how to be sure it actually is DCA, you'll most likely kill yourself or whoever it is you're trying to treat. therefore, my advice to you is: don't make it yourself, if you manage to buy it from somewhere, tell a doctor, get his opinion before you ingest it, probably in one of the many ways it will kill you. remember, the word 'acid' is in the name. don't be a freaking idiot.

before i totally bore you about the facts of dichloroacetic acid, here is a picture outlining the basics of how DCA kills cancer cells. i am going to explain this in greater detail, and show that this is actually real scientific fact, not some science fiction pseudoscience.

the first website i went to was, surprise, wikipedia. its just where everyone goes to get a general idea about any subject. and, unlike other online encyclopedias, the content is usually totally up to date. when michael jackson died, i'm sure there were millions of people trying to be 'the one' to list him on wikipedia as deceased.

but i'm getting off track. the wikipedia article has a lot of big sciencey words that might leave some people confused. all that you need to know about its structure is that it is basically acetic acid, but with 2 hydrogen atoms replaced with chlorine. because the actual liquid is highly corrosive, only the salts are used as medicine. they have been made as early as 1864.
known side effect include a change in the way you walk, damage to peripheral nerves, and neurotoxicity. all these effects are easily reversible.
it does not occur in nature, although it does occur in small quanitites in chlorinated water.

it is used widely to treat lactic acidosis, which is a low pH in body tissues and blood, which means they are acidic, which is also accompanied by a build up of lactic acid, which is the reason your muscles hurt when you do plenty of excercise. 'feel the burn' and all that.
it treats the condition by changing the energy processes from glycolysis to oxidation, cellular respiration, in the mitochondria.
and thats essentially how it destroys cancer cells. because, in cancer cells, the mitochondria are, or at least were thought to be, damaged and unable to work, therefore they use glycolysis to make biological energy. the mitochondria also regulate the apoptotic response, where the cell kills itself, which can be for a variety of different reasons. the shut down of mitochondria causes the cell to become immortal, and whatever shutdown the mitochondria makes the cell 'go rogue'. it quickly performs mitosis, no matter what the other cells around it are telling it to do, creating a cancer tumour.

because it uses glycolysis to get its energy, a buildup of lactic acid is produced, which burns through other cells and allows other tumours, splinter colonies, to grow in new parts of the body.
but the dichloroacetic acid turns the mitochondria back on again, and i guess they're like
'woah, what the hells going on, man?' and make the cancer cells kill themselves.

it sounds, and is, so simple. its beautiful, really, as to how simple it is.

of course, while it has been shown to be an effective agent against most cancers, it has been found that it actually increases the mitotic rate, and decreases the rate of apoptosis, of some forms of cancers. so in some cases it could cure, and in some cases it would make things much, much worse.

the cancer applications of dichloroacetic acid (lets just call it DCA from now on, yeah?) have been known since at least 2007.

and there have been a number of deaths by people who have somehow managed to get DCA, ingested it, and died, because of course they self medicated. all of the side affects of the drug are reversible, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous.

huh, thats actually, pretty much everything you need to know about DCA, all from wikipedia. of course, its stupid to only use one source when researching this sort of thing, so here are some other websites that have, probably the same information on it.

the official DCA/cancer cure website. likely to have plenty of bias, but undoubtedly a good place for any answers you seek.

another, i think its a blog or something, where i first heard about this thing. its where i got the picture above.

and, probably the most important article that shows this whole thing is actually real, is an article from newscientist.

also, type dichloroacetic acid into google scholar, you should find lots of scientific articles about it. all information in them are real. they are peer reviewed. they are as accurate as anything written by a human being can be. and usually really boring and hard to read.

random wikipedia infobytes (4?) and maybe other stuff

wow, its been a while since i posted anything.  i've been doing assignments. usually they would not stop me doing this, but it was very difficult writing 7000 words on what happens to a plant when it catches fire.

i have also decided that a new post each day is not necessary; only a few people see each one, so leaving each post on top for 3-4 days gives it ample time to be seen. as usual, i am constantly thinking on ways to improve this blog, and can't help but share my ideas with whoever manages to read it. i like to think i am working with the viewers of this blog to make it as good as a blog written by me can be. if you have any suggestions or anything at all to say about the blog, put it in the comments.

ok, now for some random, hopefully interesting (and correct!) information about the world we live in, brought to you thanks to the good people at wikipedia. which means you, i guess. so give yourselves a pat on the back for being awesome, and... stuff!

the top listing album in the first week of 1966 was herp alberts tijuana brass "whipped cream and other delights."
i'm not sure i really want to know what the other things are, but maybe i'm looking at that with modernised eyes. i'm currently trying to get herp alperts tijuana brass' 'green peppers' to play in the background on this blog, but there doesn't seem to be an app for doing that.

an interesting thing about the KGB, the soviet secret service: they had an 'active reserve,' which means people who work undercover, doing certain jobs, like a scientist, or a journalist, a doorman in a hotel, translators, telephone engineers, and janitors and stuff. they are all undercover KGB agents in their own country, who have to write a report on everything they've seen and heard of any importance each month.
they were refered to as 'the eyes of the master.'
the article also states that the numbers of these agents increased after the fall of communism.

i got 'agriculture' by clicking random page. if you have some experience clicking random page, you'll know how amazing it is to get such a broad topic. i just felt i had to share.

a 'prestopped nasal consonant' is a sound, used actively today in some languages, produced by the nose.
I kid thee not.
 behaving linguistically like a single consonant, it seems very similar to a snort. i'm guessing this is what a 'snort of derision' is reffered to in the phonetic world.

my next post, hopefully in about 3 days, will be about dichloroacetic acid. it has been claimed by canadian scientsits to be a cure for cancer, and pharmaceutical companies are accused of not wanting to fund this cure because it cannot be patented.
being a denizen of this world, i wouldn't be surprised if a genuine cure for cancer was lost to the murky shadows of indifference because people weren't able to profit from it, but i think its best to do more research, and while i'm at it, i'll post it on here for anyone that wants to see. i do the research, so you don't have to, but you probably already did, if you're actually interested in it.

i'd like to say about it now, however, before i do proper research, that from the knowledge i have attained from uni about cell biology, and i did a course solely on that, the science behind it seems genuine. ingenious, even.

random wiki pages, 7 may edition

by pressing 'random page' on wikipedia, you can find some real interesting stuff. of course, it is worth noting that once you see something, you can't unsee it. i just saw the album cover of marilyn mansons 'mechanical animals' album, and never has that bit of wisdom rung more true.

i also read about a tea room franchise, called the dobra cojovna, which began in the czech republic, in the communist era. it was illegal there during the communist era to import tea (for some unfathomable, ungodly reason), and a small group would gather together to sample and enjoy different teas, from all over the world. after the velvet revolution, they opened this tea shop, which soon turned to a franchise, spanning across europe, and the united states.  apparently they have a very diverse range of teas, even for a tea room, and the staff are specially trained in the art of brewing and perfecting tea.
this just shows, if people have a true passion for something, nothing can keep them from that.

apparently theres a town called fairy, in texas. i'm serious. don't believe me? look it up.

in breton mythology, a creature known as the bugul noz (night shepherd) lives in the woodlands of brittany, a french province. he is the last of his kind, and is extremely ugly. he calls out to people to stay away, because he does not want to scare them. all creatures avoid, due to his ugliness. he is said to be kind and gentle.
ah, the french. they have their priorities in order, at least. now whether or not thats the right order....

did you look up the fairy town in texas? i know right, unbelievable!


and over the easter weekend, in steylerville, johannesburg, a shapeshifting creature has been seen, for the second time.

two men were walking out of a tavern, when they saw a man. they went over to talk to the man, as they got closer, they realised the man had no head. at that point, the headless man turned into an angry dog, roughly the size of a cow, and chased them. the monster soon turned its sights on another group of people on the road. that group stated that the creature turned into a giant monkey, and quickly dissappeared.

the creature had been sighted by many people in the town for a month before this sighting, most notably peering in the windows of the church during a service, and by mourners attending two seperate funerals.

a news article about it is here.

most of the comments below say that the people there are all drunk or on drugs, but from the sounds of it, there does seem to be something going on in that town, that i don't think drugs could be behind, except perhaps ergot, that occurs in bad bread, but usually causes hallucinations of being attacked by a giant hairy homonid. ergot has been the cause of people thinking they are werewolves, and people thinking they have been attacked by werewolves.

more info about ergot. i didn't read much of it, if it doesn't make sense, tell me, i'll try to find something simpler.

yes, that is a picture of barack obama, and i'm assuming kate, on a unicorn.  it was made by jubilations on deviant art. after the matters of business in the last few days i think there needs to be more pictures of obama doing peaceful things. admittedly this is about 5 steps too far in that direction, but what are you going to do? 

speaking of the death of osama bin laden, here is a video of people celebrating that in america. i'm not comment on it, i just think its worth sharing.

oh yeah, and i was going to do a story, from norse mythology. the story of otr, the way i remember it at least, is my favorite. it occurs just after thor and odin meet loki, and declare him part of the aesir.

odin, thor, and loki were walking home from some, you know, amazing adventures, somewhere, and one night as they were getting ready to make camp, have a rest, thor got out his fishing rod and went fishing in a stream nearby.

soon he was getting a bite, and caught a reasonable sized fish for him and his companions to eat. as he was going back to odin and loki, an otter ran up and stole his fish, jumped into the stream and paddled to the other side of the river, and lay against a tree, eating the fish greedily.
needless to say, thor did not like this. he yelled, he screamed in rage, and threw his trusty hammer, mjolnir, at the otter, killing it outright.

using his god-aesir powers, he went across the stream, collected the otters body, went back to odin and loki and told them the story. loki skinned the otter, because otter pelts had magic powers, and i think they ate the meat.

a few days later, they came across a castle, and wanted to stay the night, replenish their supplies, drink some ale, all that stuff. they met the king, who told them over dinner about his eldest son, otr, who liked turning himself into an otter and eating freshly caught fish, who had dissappeared a few days ago.

at this point, i always imagine loki and odin looking at thor, who looks back at them, who looks back at the king, and says 'um...uh...what?'

because the king is not allowed to kill them, because they are his guests (i don't think that usually stopped them in those days) he demands the otter pelt be filled with yellow gold, and covered in red gold, whatever that is.

they do this, but one whisker still needs to be covered, so loki gives up his ring, andvarinaut, which creates gold for the wearer, but is also cursed, whomever owns it shall die horribly. the debt is paid, and the gods are allowed to leave.

oh, and i think loki hadn't had the ring long enough for the curse to work on him. just want to point that out. i think the king ended up eating his other son and killing himself, but that might be another story...

random wiki no. 3, plus other stuff

first of all, i have had no luck finding any multimedia, of a dog riding a unicycle. but i will never give up in my restless (well...) search for such an elusive beast. any updates will be posted.

speaking of which, here is a video a friend showed me, of a dog riding a tricycle, followed by a dog conga line. theres some talk of animal cruelty in the comments, but its still quite a thing to see.

this shows it is possible for a dog to use pedals.


i found out on wikipedia that the first wiki was for a pattern repository, for portland. the patterns were in computer programming. i honestly thought it was wikipedia.

its raining and theres lightning where i am at the moment, so i'm going to have to cut this short. next post, on thursday, i am going to say a random story, from norse mythology, just because i want to make it clear that while the movie 'thor' has some things that are true to the mythology, in some cases better than the comics, it is still a long way from the myth.
 it'll be a short story.

ok, i really got to go.

random wikipedia pages, no. 2

the album cover of a two sister band called cocorosie, called noahs ark. it apparently has a dreamlike, hypnotic feel to it. i'm not going to listen.i just want to point out that is one weird album cover, if those horses (or unicorns?) are doing what i think they're doing. which i'm pretty sure they are. because, what else could they be doing?

yes, this is from one of the pages i found by clicking random page on wikipedia. as i've said before, its an awesome thing to do when you're bored.

the next wikipedia article is about 'champ,' a loch-ness-monster-type animal said to live in lake champlain, in quebec, canada. the first reliably genuine report of a sighting came from 1883, predating the loch ness controversy by about 50 years. there had been two alleged reports of sightings earlier than that, one in 1609, which seems to have been fabricated in the 1970s by a newspaper article, and one in 1819, of which there is very little information.
 in 2003, the fauna communications research institute picked up an unknown echolocation source within the lake, which, because of its changes in tone, most likely has a biological source. this sounds a lot like the Bloop.
for more information on the champlain echolocation thing, go here, although that whole website sort of seems a bit loony (smells fishy (HA!)). here is link to the abstract of the scientific report, though it is connected to the loony website.
also in 2008, it was apparently found by the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative that there were unexplainable fluctuations in fish populations in the lake, caused by an unknown x factor. i can't find a proper link to this, as the link in the article gos to a page saying it moved, and i can't get to the actual report. it also seems strange that the organisation wouldn't investigate further.

even if both above are true, when you put into account the size of the lake, the depth and shallowness in some locations, the alleged size of the cryptid, the amount of food that cryptid would need, the size of the colony of cryptids required to be healthy, the amount of biomass the lake is known to hold, plus a bunch of other stuff, its very unlikely the monsters collectively called 'champ' could exist.

unlikely, not impossible. anyone who says something is impossible has no idea what they're talking about.

so, there you go. from a picture of three unicorns doing...um, that, to whether a monster could exist in a large lake, in one blog post, thanks to wikipedia.