Cleanse the World.

Ah, the brooding question in the back of everyone's mind since they were taught about the Mayans. Will 2012 bring the end of the world? The answer? No. (Click "No." to read about other end of the world predictions.) Every generation or 20-40 years or so, people are totally convinced that the world, time and air are all just going to... stop. Wrong.

Lately, the weather's been pretty wild. Japan is timing their next earthquake/tsunami duo like a hostess seats a nine-top at a restaurant. It's not raining cats and dogs but it rains birds, literally. A menagerie of sea creatures  appear in fishermens' nets and float, dead ashore.

These events make me weary, too. Although, it is all part of the Earth cleansing itself. We have to help cleanse the Earth, too. Why do you think the Hippies were so keen on communes, Earth Day and recycling?

This is what we're doing to our home:

Creating continent sized monsters of garbage, every time you toss that plastic water bottle out the window it ends up somewhere it could kill animals or end up changing the ecosystem. Wanna see the impact? Check out the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

To follow the Garbage Patch, fish and birds feed off the patch assume its consumable food. This is what happens,

For more pictures, click the bird.

It's ridiculous how we perceive our one small action as something so minuscule, however, we have to multiple that simple action by 7 billion times. 

Do little things. Pick up the McDonalds wrapper on the ground. Don't toss cigarette butts out the window. Reuse water bottles. Every little bit helps. 

Another bit to tie in the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling wrote many screenplays about the take over of technology. The abundance and the advancement but of course, during his era, it was merely science fiction. Today, we get so wrapped up into how exciting technology is, how it revolutionizes everything and that it makes everything easy. Yet, if everything is easy then we become lazy. Hence the lack of recycling and growth of destruction of our environment. Technology should not make things too easy but be there to aid in strengthening our growth towards furthering our advancement as a society. If we allow technology to become stronger than us, our role/function/jobs in society will be quickly obsolete.

PA Budget Cuts

From the Windows....

Governor Tom Corbett decided it would be a great idea to cut education budgets. Stupendous. Senator Kim Ward, who spoke at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg last week at a town hall meeting commented on the topic of the proposed budget cuts and stated she supports an intelligent society. Well, then. How can she support budget cuts that will freeze teachers salaries, slash budgets and make it impossible to hire new teachers. Not to mention maintain current staff, however Corbett is totally okay with hiking up tuition prices, which according to President Sharon P. Smith of Pitt-Greensburg does NOT cover the cost of education.


Well, looks like it won't be covering much of anything now.


Read on budget cuts.


SPIN

I'd like to make these budget cuts a into a metaphor of the episode "The Lonely". Just as the astronauts had to make sacrifices to make weight requirements to carry belonging in the spaceship, the biggest sacrifice was the most important, his companion, his teacher.

We can't just shoot all the professors and make all the students learn on computers. But...

We are in the Twilight Zone.

Oscar the Cat

Predicting Your Own Death

Smartass twenty-year-old? Or just a really sad story? You decide.

S.1. Ep. 19. "The Purple Testament"

Lt. Fitzgerald

The handsome William Reynolds plays Lt. Fitzgerald a soldier stationed in the Philippines during WWI. Dick York plays Capt. Phil Riker. Lt. Fitzgerald has a special talent, he can see in the faces of his fellow soldiers who is going die in battle. A strange light glows in the faces of the soldiers. He marks four of 44 men. Then while visiting a wounded friend in the hospital he sees the light in his face. Seconds later, he dies. 

Lt. Fitzgerald's Friend, Smitty

Next up in Fitz freaky visions is his Capitan. He warns him to go out on the mission but his Capitan cannot not go so after Fitz leaves the tent Riker takes off his wedding ring and puts in on top of pictures of his wife and his two baby boys. Outside awaits the entire platoon. The men nervously stare at Fitzgerald wondering if their faces are glowing or not. One man freaks out and screams at Fitzgerald asking him to tell him whether or not he's going to make it. Riker tells the platoon there is no one who is a mind reader in the platoon, not even Fitz. The mission goes quite successfully. with the exception of the loss of Capt. Riker. Fitz is given the orders to report back to division for some R&R. 

As he packs up, he takes a double look into a mirror. As he does this... he sees the glow in his own face. He driver of the jeep approaches him and tells him they're all ready to take off. Another soldier tells Fitz that the driver is the most careful driver in the U.S. Army. The driver tell Fitz they have about a four hour drive. Fitz automatically sees the glow in the driver's face and says, "I doubt it." The next scene at the camp, the soldiers here a boom. However, they pass it off as thunder.

SPIN

I've previously discussed PTSD in other posts and how it really truly disturbs soldiers. I lived and witnessed a prime example, my dad. This episode of the TZ is interesting because it exemplifies the effects of PTSD in a war zone environment back in the age when the diagnosis didn't exist. Plus, the fact the William Reynolds is such a gorgeous man with a complicated psyche just makes this episode so enjoyable. So, I checked out the interwebs to see if I could find people who could predict deaths. Unfortunately, Shamanbook.com hasn't been created yet so I couldn't friend request any aboriginals. However, I did find a cat named Oscar.

 He's been a hot ticket for a couple years. This cat was rescued in 2005 as a kitten as raised in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, RI. Since 2007, Oscar has predicted 25 deaths. In 2010, when the cat was reviewed he had predicted 50 deaths. Animals can smell and detect the radical changes in chemicals in human beings in which allow doctors to give more accurate prognosis. Oscar will walk inside the room of a patient who has a few hours to live then sit outside the door before their death. That is how the doctors can tell. Oscar has been featured in the Daily Mail Online in 2007 and the Telegraph in 2010.

Entertainment Weekly talks to 80-year-old William Shatner about his experiences on The Twilight Zone

I would have reposted the article here but EW doesn't have a Blogger share button. Whomp, whomp.

The Shatner.

S.1.Ep.17. "The Fever"

Franklin Gibbs, played by Everett Sloane, and his wife, Flora Gibbs, played by Vivi Janiss, are in Las Vegas on vacation for winning a contest. Mr. Gibbs hates gambling but loves his wife. A drunken man gives him a coin and Mr. Gibbs uses it in a slot machine. His wife and him start to walk away, when he hears his name being whispered from the slot machine. That night he dreams of the potential money he could win. He abruptly awakes and tells his wife he has to return the tainted money to the machine. He goes back into the casino and plays the same slot machine over and over again for hours. Flora comes out to find him mindlessly feeding the machine. She tries to gently persuade him to stop playing but instead he flips out and tell her to stop giving him back luck. As he feeds the machine, he tells Flora that he believes if he keeps going it'll pay up, he'll win eventually, he can feel it, he knows he'll win soon enough. After losing every single dollar, he flips the machine over and security takes him back to his room. Flora puts him in bed. He's convinced that the slot machine is actually an entity or other worldly being out to get him. Soon enough, Franklin begins to hear his name called by the slot machine more clearly. He opens his hotel door and there stands the slot machine. It corners him to the window and pushes him out the window to his death.














SPIN


Since I'm quitting my shitty waitressing job soon I'm not afraid to write this.

Gambling is a serious problem. One of my managers is an obsessive gambler with the face of the Michael Meyers mask. I'm talking he has a bookee and everything. This dude gambles on everything, too. From scores of games to who's going to get hurt first in the season. He carries around a piece of paper in his pocket with statistics, strange insignia only he understands and he pays more attention to the 20 television sets in the place than the customers do. It's really annoying. He already hates his life and treats all us waitresses like shit. So if he loses or breaks even, you can tell. He becomes even worse. He's my boss. Too bad he acts like a five-year-old alcoholic.

Fresh off the internet press, Post-Gazette reporter, Tom Barnes, wrote about the progress of a law that would make it mandatory for casinos to send statements home to their regular gamblers reporting their winnings and losses for the month.

If this would pass, that would make gamblers see their damage on paper. Like they really want to see that nonsense. The casinos wouldn't want to send those out either, are you kidding? An honest casino is an oxymoron. Psshh. Please.

Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

John Lithgow is intense.

"Twilight Zone: The Movie"

Thanks to fellow Twilight Zone blogger, Craig Beam, I received the 1983 Steven Spielberg interpretation of the Zone. He held a contest for the movie and I won. Boom. Dan Aykroyd is the only actor I recognized. Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller directed the four segments of the movie.

The first segment is directed by John Landis. He uses influences from "A Quality of Mercy", "Deaths-Head Revisited" and "What You Need".Guy begins offending people with racial slurs. Suddenly, people see him as the people he offended.

Segment two is a Steven Spielberg's remake of, "Kick the Can". Elderly people wish to be young again and a man named Mr. Bloom turns them all into children. They shortly realize there's no one to take care of them and they won't have the people they love. Mr. Blooms restores all except one to their true age.

Awesome Rabbit from "It's a Good Life"

Joe Dante directs the third segment a remake of, "It's a Good Life". This is my favorite segment of the movie. He used awesome 1980s cinematographic special effects. A little boy, Anthony, convinces a woman to take him home where she realizes she is doomed to escape. Anthony controls all aspects of his family and the people he has gained control of, too. At the end, Anthony wishes nearly everything away and goes home with the woman.


Segment four is the remake of the classic, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" directed by George Miller. John Lithgow plays Mr. Valentine. Lithgow's acting made me laugh aloud. He already appears cracked out. It's simply ridiculous to watch. His portrayal or Mr. Valentine is hysterical. Mr. Valentine believes there is a monster on the roof. He goes nuts on the plan, even opens a window and shoots a gun at the monster. When the flight lands, the technicians discover the damage on the plane's wing where Mr. Valentine believed he saw the monster.


One of my first few posts discusses this movie. I didn't like it then and I'm still not impressed.  Joe Dante's portion was the best. Also, I enjoyed the fact that Meredith Burgess, Mr. Bemis, recited the classic Twilight Zone opening narration. I give it two stars.

Time's Top Ten Twilight Zone Episodes Disagreement

Lists are fun. Organized. Interesting. Rated. I'm glad to see Time Magazine Online did make a top ten list of episodes but I'm going to have to disagree with them. Sorry guys.

I think the list as a whole is for amateur Twilight Zone viewers. Those people who call themselves fans because they remember the guy with the glasses but can't remember that his name is Mr. Bemis. Or they call the writer, director, creator and host, Ron Sterling instead of the correct, Rod Serling.

Here is my Top Ten list of Twilight Zone episodes:

1. "Two" (1961)
2. "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" (1961)
3. "A Penny for Your Thoughts" (1961)
4. "Nick of Time" (1960)
5.  "The Mirror" (1961)
6. "Little Girl Lost" (1962)
7. "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" (1964)
8. "The Masks" (1964)
9. "Stopover in a Quiet Town" (1964)
10. "Nightmare As A Child" (1960)

Don't worry, you'll learn about these episodes soon enough. All in good time, all in good time.

Time's Top Ten Twilight Zone Episodes

Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man." Those words kicked off one of the most storied TV shows of all time, The Twilight Zone. The reliably weird series' first TV run kicked off 50 years ago, on Oct. 2, 1959. TIME takes a look at some of its most memorable episodes

What's Your Top 10?

Drag an Item from the original list on the left into the area on the right to create your list.

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ORIGINAL LIST

1. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (1960)
2. It's a Good Life (1961)
3. To Serve Man (1962)
4. The Invaders (1961)
5. The Hitch Hiker (1960)
6. Living Doll (1963)
7. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (1963)
8. Walking Distance (1959)
9. Time Enough at Last (1959)
10. The Eye of the Beholder (1960)

Read more:http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1927690,00.html#ixzz1HGG5juwD

S.1. Ep. 16 "The Hitch-Hiker"

The nervous, flighty, 27-year-old Nan Adams, played by Inger Stevens, has been driving cross-country to California for days.  She is driving through Pennsylvania when her tire blows out and she has to get a mechanic to fix it. While she follows the mechanic to the pit-station, she sees a man. A thin, dark haired hitch hiker, played by Leonard Strong. She drives away, leaving him in the dust. Everywhere she drives, each time she stops, he's standing near, thumb in the air with a blank gaze on his face. Shortly on her journey she runs out of gas. She tries to wake the owner of a closed gas station but he wants nothing to do with her. She begs him to help her because there's a man trying to kill her!

Behind her appears a nameless sailor, played by Adam Williams. He needs a ride to San Diego. She begs him to ride with her and he accepts willingly over and over again. The sailor gets her a can of gas and they take off. As they drive, she asks him if it's possible for a hitchhiker to keep up with her if they keep getting picked up. He agrees her physics questions is plausible. She sees him again and he tries to hit him. The sailor flips out. She tries again and again to hit him. The sailor has enough of this near death bullshit, makes her pull over and ditches the crazy bat.

She stops at a diner to call her mother. Another voice answers and tells Nan that her mother is the hospital due to a nervous breakdown. Nan confused, asks what the voice on the other end means. The voice reveals that Nan was killed in a car accident in Pennsylvania. A tire blew out and the car flipped over, killing Nan. Slowly, she puts the phone down on the receiver and returns to her car. There in the rear window are the eyes of the hitchhiker. "I believe you're going, my way."



SPIN


When I younger, I thought, screw this. I'm running away from my parents and I'm going hitchhike until I find a place that I like. When I was in 11th grade, I read one of my still favorite books, On the Road by Jack Keroauc. He just went. Took off. Said, fuck this, I'm out. He saw his country and its neighbor on foot, in car and by bed of truck. How I wish.

Then as a freshman in college, I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas adapted from Hunter S. Thompson's book of the same title. Driving.. cross country.. on a mission to find.. the American Dream. YES, PLEASE. This venture is still on my bucket list, however, with gas at $3.50 a gallon, it may simply be a memory of a dream I had when I was 18-years-old.


Now for the news!


This is why you don't stop for hitchhikers.

DeKalb County man shot after picking up hitchhiker

Posted: Mar 07, 2011 1:18 PM ESTUpdated: Mar 07, 2011 1:18 PM EST

DEKALB COUNTY, AL (WBRC) - An elderly man from DeKalb County is recovering at UAB Hospital after being shot during a robbery at a church.

Investigators say a 70-year-old Pete Bailey picked up a female hitchhiker who asked him to pull over at a church. That is where detectives say she shot him before stealing his vehicle.

37-year-old Patty Elaine Westbrook was arrested by DeKalb County authorities. She is charged with attempted murder.

Copyright 2011 WBRC. All rights reserved.

This is why you don't hitchhike.

Regular Photo Size

Hitchhiker beating suspect sentenced

He and his younger brother beat, robbed man

Updated: Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011, 1:07 PM MST
Published : Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011, 1:07 PM MST

SAN JUAN COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) - A San Juan County man has been sentenced to six years in prison for the brutal beating of a hitchhiker nearly two years ago.

Joshua Garcia, 23, and his younger brother Jose picked up Leroy Thompson in Farmington, New Mexico in October 2009 and told him they would take him to Kirtland, but instead, they beat and robbed him.

Thompson survived the attack.

Jose Garcia was sentenced earlier to nine years for his role in the case.

Hitchhiking is illegal in most states. In case you wanna go hitchhiking, please visit this website first: USA Laws to Hitchhike.

S.1. Ep. 15 "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air"

Officer Corey, played by Dewey Martin, and Colonel Donlin, played by Edward Binns, are two survivors of a crew of astronauts who crashed on an unknown asteroid. The hot, dry conditions affect the men nearly immediately. Their supplies are limited to five gallons of water and few guns. As they split up in search of other life, shelter or anything really, both astronauts start to lose their cool. Officer Corey ends up shooting Colonel Donlin because he believes in the survival of the fittest.






As he ventures alone in unchartered territory he reaches the other side of the mountain tops. Before his eyes lies a road, telephone poles and two mile signs; one for Reno and one for Nevada. The ship nor the men ever left Earth. He realizes now that he just committed murder out of desperation.





SPIN


Hot, dry, inevitable fear and killing out of desperation. Reminds me of a place over 1,000 miles south of Nevada. A city build from battle and history. A place now known as one of the most dangerous places on Earth, Juarez, Mexico. This place is where survival of the fittest applies to only the killers. If the innocent don't leave Juarez, they have an equal chance of death. Men, children, women of any age, ethnicity or appearance are all fair game.

Most recently, women have been the most popular targets for cartel assassins. A new term, coined in recent years, femicides, have been occurring more frequently in the war-torn state of Chihuahua. According to Aljazeera, nearly 8,000 lives have been taken since 2008 in Juarez. More and more women seem to... disappear in Juarez.

A shocking blog, shared with me through my journalism professor, titled, "Ciudad Juarez: En la sombra del Narcotrafico" or in English, Juarez City: In the Shadow of Narcotics Trafficking.  The author of this blog is a woman, Judith Torrea. She started her blog in 2008 and has reported on the crime in Juarez ever since.

If Benito Juarez could see his city now, he'd be utterly ashamed.

S.1. Ep. 14 "Third from the Sun"

Fritz Weaver, Pittsburgh native, plays Will Sturka. He works at a military base as a scientist, developing Hydrogen bombs for the nuclear war that will occur in 48 hours. His friend Jerry Riden, played by Joe Maross, also works at the military base. Will and Jerry have devised a plan to steal a military space ship to evacuate their planet before the nuclear holocaust begins. Will invites Jerry and his wife over to play cards, a ploy to prepare them for departure. During their card game, Mr. Carling, one of their bosses, arrives at the Sturka home. Carling is played by Edward Andrews. He maliciously hints that he knows the plan Will and Jerry have spent months plotting. After Carling leaves, Will tells the families they have to leave immediately.


When the two families arrive at the base, the signal is given. Will and Jerry believe everything is ready until the signalling light begins to approach them. It's Carling with a gun. Will and Jerry jump Carling and head towards the space craft. The alarm sounds and the whole two guards attack them as they board. They made it.

Will and Jerry are hopeful for their future. The talk about the planet they are headed towards. They're flying to the third planet from the sun, Earth.


SPIN


Intelligent life? In outer space? Like.. humans? NO WAY MAN! 


March 5, CNET writer, Chris Matyszczyk published an article based on NASA scientist Dr. Richard B. Hoover's recent findings of bacterial life in CI1 carbonaceous chondrites, meteorites in which only nine exist on Earth. Hoover believes these meteorites arrived on Earth from outer space. The bacteria, Hoover believes, is a fossil of alien life. NASA warns media  sites and news conglomerates that Hoover's theories are not always correct. Yet, Hoover isn't alone on the theory of intelligent life existing in outer space.

Last year, Stephen Hawking warned our civilization to fear aliens. According to Hawking, we shouldn't even be attempting to contact them nor go searching beyond our solar system. I can't agree more. Aliens are going to come to our planet and hateeeeee us.

Hopefully, it's like the movie Signs and we can just throw water on them. Splash, splash. Take that! Yeaa, that's right the Earth is 70% water, fools!




The Space Review's Stephen Ashworth wrote an interesting article titled, "What future for intelligent life in space?" When you say it aloud, it sounds kinda douche-bag-ish. Basically, Ashworth's thesis is that we could sustain human life in space if we started building space stations. Not like the International Space Station that only houses about ten people. We need a space station like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galatica or Zeon, Girl of the 21st Century.

Zeon's Space Station

Like to know more about our first space station? Check this out.

Ten Commandments for Con Men

By Geoffrey James | March 7, 2011

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While I was doing research for the gallery “The Top 14 Financial Frauds of All Time“, I came across a set of instructions, attributed to Victor Lustig, known as the “Ten Commandments for Con Men”.   What’s interesting about them is that they’re actually good advice for anybody who’s in sales.  Here they are:

1. Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con man his coups).
2. Never look bored.
3. Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.
4. Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.
5. Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other person shows a strong interest.
6. Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown.
7. Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually).
8. Never boast - just let your importance be quietly obvious.
9. Never be untidy.
10. Never get drunk.

Good advice, eh?  What’s particularly interesting about this is that Lustig died in 1947, long before the advent of “consultative selling.”  Apparently, in addition to being one of the world’s most successful con men, he was a visionary of sales technique as well.