Standing in the way of control!

So PETA is upset with the movie the dark Knight because in one scene Batman literally beats off some dogs. They do however provide us with a Top 10 list of Animal-lover Superheroes….

10. Hellboy—This superhero may be someone that would make you cross the street if he came your way (the red skin and horns might be a bit intimidating), but he’s just a big teddy bear with a love for kittens (and many successful attempts to save them).

9. Aquaman—The King of Atlantis, Aquaman can commune with sea creatures, whom he considers citizens of his ocean realm, and routinely protects them from being abused or exploited by the surface-dwellers.

8. Black Panther—As the leader of the African nation of Wakanda, the Black Panther has banned the evil White Gorilla Cult from his country. Members of the cult seek to gain power by killing one of Wakanda’s rare white gorillas, bathing in their blood, and eating their flesh (um, gross). The villain known as Man-Ape gained his superpowers by doing exactly that—incurring the wrath of the Black Panther and becoming one of his greatest foes.

7. Superman—In a one-shot “PSA comic” entitled “Superman: For the Animals,” Supes rescues a kitten from being thrown off a bridge by a group of kids named (seriously) Ballser, Charlie, Donuts, and Eightball and, in the process, teaches everyone a valuable lesson about not picking on anyone weaker than you—including animals.

6. Captain Planet—He just wants to save the planet from the evil Captain Pollution! And that, of course, includes all our wildlife friends who live there. Point of fact, though: “Heart”? NOT an element.

5. Thor—In the Ultimate Avengers animated movie, we find Thor out at sea with a group of activists protesting whale slaughter. If only his fellow Norwegians in the real world got the picture that whaling is a thing of the past!

4. Beast Boy—Everyone’s favorite Teen Titan also happens to be vegan (and not just because he’s been hanging out on peta2.com like pretty much every other teenager). You would be, too, if you had the metamorphic ability to turn into any animal and therefore had a little compassion for the ones that get eaten.

3. Animal Man—This lesser-known DC hero can mimic the abilities of animals and is an ardent advocate for animal rights. He’s a vegetarian, and in Animal Man #15, Animal Man saves a group of dolphins from cruel fishers and drops the villains in the ocean to drown—only to be saved by one of the very dolphins he was trying to kill.

2. Wolverine and Jean Gray—In X-Men Unlimited #44, Wolverine catches three neighborhood boys in the act of torturing and killing animals for kicks—and offers to return the favor on behalf of his furry friends. Using her psychic powers, Jean Gray instead makes the boys experience in their minds the pain and suffering that they caused to their innocent victims. In the next issue … Colonel Sanders!

1. Wonder Man—In Civil War: Frontline #5, part of Marvel’s epic Civil War story arc, Wonder Man is interrupted on his way to an important function by two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents looking for answers about a mysterious aquarium store bombing (read the book). The important function? A PETA banquet. ‘Nuff said.

Are these people serious?

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Google has been launching new services at a cracking rate this year. Their new service is Knol. A Wikipedia type of service with a twist. This time you can make money if you are registered with Google. Since the service is quite new, you can easily be the first one to write an article for them.

From Mashable!:

Google has just launched Knol to the public, dubbed by many as the search giant’s Wikipedia killer. My first reaction: not so fast. While Knol offers a way for anyone to create content about any subject, there are a few big differences.

First and foremost, each “Knol” is created by a single author, who can then choose to either accept or reject edits made by others in what Google is calling “moderated collaboration.” Beyond that, Knol authors can insert AdSense on their Knols and earn revenue based on clicks. In reality, this sound less a lot less like the community collaborating on authoritative articles (Wikipedia) and a lot more like a potential land grab to create content for lucrative keywords.

However, Google does offer some options that should keep would-be opportunists at bay. Each Knol offers the ability for anyone to review or comment on it, which in turn raises or lowers the authority of the article. Google says that they “expect that there will be multiple knolls on the same subject, and we think that is good.”

In giving a single author control over each Knol and its edits, it’s hard to imagine the service will be as authoritative as Wikipedia (which, many would argue has its own biases). It seems more like Squidoo, where knowledgeable people can create good content and be rewarded for it, with the community at-large determining how valuable it is and recognizing that there may be some bias in the article.

Meanwhile, Knol could still be a huge traffic generator for Google and steal visitors from Wikipedia if it’s integrated in search results – something Google has not been shy about doing with other properties like YouTube.

I have searched for many of my interests and found very few if any entries as yet. So, be the first to submit a Knol…

See also: Google Launches Knol, The Monetizeable Wikipedia

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Interesting article on the smoking ban in pubs…Basically it argues that with smoking banned from pubs, a foul odor still remains….that of stinky people.

Now that the cigarette smoke has cleared, thanks to the ban that went into effect in January, bar goers are sniffing some bad odors.

“When it’s emptier, [a bar] smells like stale beer, spilled alcohol, frat house,” said Brittany Allan, 21, a student living in Gold Coast.

While taking a break from work downtown, Rahim Slaise, 32, recalled smelling scents of “overbearing cologne, a musk and body odor” at clubs recently.

Using odor-gauging equipment called a Nasal Ranger field olfactometer, smell expert Dr. Alan Hirsch identified 46 different odors at a Gold Coast bar in May for a study sponsored by Axe, maker of body sprays. The top odor contributors were a musty/earthy/moldy smell that tends to come from wood, a urine-like scent, a sour/acid/vinegar odor that could come from residual alcohol, and of course the odors of sweat and beer.

“The bar is a three times more intense smell than the McCormick Place men’s room, or 15 times more or 16 times more intense odor than a coffee shop, and was almost twice as smelly as an animal shelter,” said Hirsch, founder of Chicago’s Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, citing odor intensity levels.

While secondhand smoke is hazardous to our health, the smoke hid some of the stink.

“You could think of the smoke being background noise and the music playing and you turn it off and all of the sudden other noises in the bar would pop up,” said Dr. Robert Kern, professor and chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Indeed, smoking bans are having some unintended consequences, said Avery Gilbert, author of “What the Nose Knows.”

Smoke masked other scents in bars and restaurants. Without that smoke, you’re left with odors of “fry vat if it’s a tavern place, hamburgers if there’s a grill.

And you’re getting exposed to all these other things: body odor, perspirants, and deodorants and body sprays like Axe and smelly clothes,” said Gilbert, who was not involved with the Axe study. “If you’re in a club dancing and sweating up a storm, and if you’re there long enough, your clothes will smell a bit.”

To get rid of bad odors, bars should maximize ventilation or even inject a scent into the air, said Hirsch, the smell expert. “You could place an aroma at a bar that people like. They will perceive the environment to be more friendly, be happy at the bar and meet more people at the bar,” he said.

At least one local bar is doing just that.

The Crimson Lounge at the Hotel Sax downtown developed a signature scent even before the smoking ban called suha, a fusion of pomegranate, cinnamon, nutmeg, patchouli, sandalwood, cypress, cedar and vanilla.

Dispensed through a programmed and timed device, the scent was created to evoke the dark yet cozy lounge feel, said Adam Kaplan, hotel marketing director. “We wanted to create an experience that we’re an upscale, musically driven lounge,” he said. Still, many bar hoppers in Chicago say they’d take bad odors over smoke.

“When you go home, you don’t smell like all those things at the club,” said Slaise, a business analyst who lives in South Shore. “They don’t retain on the clothing like smoke does.”

(Source)

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