Crispy Lettuce Leaf

I've become part of a youtube group called CrispyLettuceLeaf. We make funny, action-packed, and sometimes just strange videos.

Check us out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/CrispyLettuceLeaf/videos

To Dance With the White Dog Review

"To Dance With the White Dog" is the adaptation of a book of the same name, written by Terry Kay. This film is about Sam, a man who, after being married for over 50 years, loses his wife. As he learns to cope with the grief, he comes across a white dog that it seems only appears to him. His family begins to question his sanity, while he learns to enjoy life again with this dog.

The main issues in this movie involve Cora, Sam's wife, dying, Sam being the only one that can see the white dog, and Sam trying to continue his life without his wife while everyone else is trying to be too helpful. Sam's daughters hardly ever leave him alone, especially when he wants some peace and quiet, and they always try too hard to appear proper and to justify their every action.

Sam is played by Hume Cronyn, and Cora is played by Jessica Tandy. It is widely agreed that these two are the perfect roles for Cronyn and Tandy because both the actors, and the characters, had been married for about 50 years and were still greatly in love. This means that the two didn't have to really act as much as they just had to be themselves, which gave the film a very natural feeling. The rest of the actors were good supporting actors, but none of them could quite shine as well as Cronyn and Tandy could.

"To Dance with the White Dog" takes place in Hart County, Georgia on Sam and Cora's pecan farm in late 50s and early 60s. Hart County is a rural community, meaning that families stay close together and houses are spaced far from each other.

There may not be much action in this film, but the direction of it is quite clearly light hearted as well as dramatic. It involves everything from an elderly man teaching a dog to dance with his walker, to the dog saving his life. I would greatly recommend this movie as it is very well done and emotional.

A Logical Look at the Cloning of Human Life

Cloning is a relatively new technology that has both support and opposition from two different sides. Strong support is given by the scientific community, as it is considered to be a great breakthrough that can potentially change the world; and strong opposition is given from the ethical and moral side, because it would cause us to change the way we look at human life.

Scientifically speaking, cloning is the answer to almost every biological problem humans encounter. This includes no longer having to wait for organ transplants because the organs can be grown (Smith), curing heart attacks with better hearts, and even making animals produce more nutritious food and milk. Because the process of cloning is a relatively new one, where the first successful clone was a sheep in 1997 (Hutch), it still has a lot of work being put into making it safer and more reliable. The way that cloning works is that DNA is collected from the host, and then put into stem cells to create the appropriate organs, bones, and so on. The use of stem cells brings the most negative attention to the process of cloning, because either uses the cells of a fetus or is risky to get the cells of an adult.

Many people are vocal about how they believe that cloning is wrong because of both ethical and moral reasons. One of the main moral arguments is that the clone may have the same DNA as the donor, but it is not the same person because it does not have the same personality or memories. Another serious concern is the possible mutation of genes (Hutch ) that could occur, potentially making the person suffer from new debilitating diseases. Because cloning is a new technology and we still do not fully understand human genetics, it is subject to numerous errors in the process that could be irreversible ("American Medical Association" ).

Human cloning is a brand new and risky technology that we should certainly continue to research because of the numerous benefits. However, for now we should only work with animals and begin to slowly introduce the idea to the public so that there is less of a culture shock if it becomes more popular.

Sources:

Smith, Simon. "The Benefits of Human Cloning."humancloning.org. (2002): page. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.humancloning.org/benefits.php>.

"Human Cloning." American Medical Association. (2008): n. page. Print. <http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-science/genetics-molecular-medicine/related-policy-topics/stem-cell-research/human-cloning.page>.

Hutch, Peter. "Disadvantages of Human Cloning." Articles Base. (2008): n. page. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/disadvantages-of-human-cloning-461241.html>.

Eagle Project

Right now I'm busy working on the preliminary write up for my eagle project. Once that is done with I will finish and post the marque for the indie movie "When Zombies Attack."

top 5 Ipod/iPhone apps

5. Chess With friends

This game is very much like words with friends, except it's chess. It lets you play chess with random opponents or with friends if you have their user name (mine is Zantinga). I love this because I love chess, and it lets me play multiple games against multiple people at the same time.

Cost: $2.99 for full, there is a free version that has ads

4.Twitter

The name says it all, an easy to use Twitter client. (follow me @janzantinga)

Cost: FREE

3. Comiczeal

Comiczeal is a comic book reader that supports most major digital comic formats. It allows for easy syncing between the computer and your i(insert device name here). It's easy to use and very good for comic fanatics.

Cost: $7.99 for ipad version, $3.99 for iPod/iPhone version

2. Mobile Mouse

This is a great mouse app. It allows you to control your computer over the wireless network and do things like easily watch movies, launch programs, and other things that you're to lazy to get up and go do.

Cost: $1.99 for pro version, FREE for version with slightly less

1. Google

Easy to search or launch other google applications for the google lovers like me.

Cost: FREE

Second Page

It took forever, but I finally got page 2 out. Don't expect page 3 to come out any time soon

The first page

Alright, so this is a bit more time consuming than I thought it would be, so the final product will probably only be about 5 pages long. But here's the first page! (except for the cover) Alright, so this is a bit more time consuming than I thought it would be, so the final product will probably only be about 5 pages long. But here's the first page! (except for the cover).

From How To Screw It Up

ODST drawing

Isn't gimp fun?

First panel

I'll add the text once I'm done with the first page

Comic

I'm trying to write my first comic. It's basically about the survival of this one guy after the apocalypse...but he wears a gas mask and uses a katana. So far, the only title that I could come up with is "Survival." Please comment if you have a better idea for a name!

The Realism of Zombies

They have invaded the movies, games, music, and even literature of American culture. The first depiction of the flesh-eating undead we have all grown to know and love started with George Romero’s famous black-and-white cinematic adventure Night of the living dead, which changed the thoughts of zombies being people with no control to a whole other type of creature. While coming back from the dead to consume the living may be a bit far-fetched, many zombie-like traits can be explained by science. One example of this would be a mutation of the rabies virus. Animals and people with rabies often display the symptoms of insomnia, confusion, paranoia, and hallucinations (Auerbach, 2009). The rabies virus can transfer through the transfer of bodily fluids from an infected individual to that of an uninfected one, most commonly: bites, which is also how the zombie virus is supposedly spread. Considering how densely populated urban areas are, if one person were to contract this hypothetical virus, the entire city could be infected in days.

Another form of zombies resides in brain parasites. Some parasites are able to influence our thoughts and even control us without us even knowing. One such example of this is Toxoplasma gondii, which is a brain parasite that resides in 50% of the people in the US but only psychologically effects rats (Hokelek, 2009). This parasite can only breed inside of the intestines of a cat, and therefore controls the rat to walk straight up to the cat to be consumed (Hawes, 2009).

Another instance of a parasite causing zombie-like behavior would be with Glyptapanteles, a type of parasitic wasp, lays about 80 eggs in young geometrid caterpillars. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the caterpillar’s bodily fluids. When they are fully developed, they burst through the caterpillar’s skin and form a cocoon on a nearby leaf or branch. The caterpillar then stands arched over the cocoon without feeding or even moving away. This zombie caterpillar stays alive until the adult wasps hatch, upon which it promptly dies. These controlled caterpillars also respond differently to the environment than regular ones. Unparasited caterpillars barely notice when a stinkbug or other harmless animal comes near it or even crawls on it. The controlled caterpillars, however, thrash violently at the sign of danger to the larvae until the threat is gone. When dissected, it is revealed that one or two of the parasitoid larvae stay behind in the caterpillar and control it to protect the brood (Brahic, 1008).

Zombies are known for being able to come back from the dead, which may seem impossible, but is possible if the person is not entirely dead; the poison from Fugu, a Japanese blowfish, is able to do this. Datura Stramonium is a chemical that leaves the person in a trance-like state with no memory, but still able to perform simple tasks. One such recorded incident was of Clairvius Narcisse, a Haitian who was declared dead by two doctors and buried in 1962. He was found wandering around the village 18 years later. A local voodoo priest had been using these naturally occurring chemicals to zombify people and put them to work on the sugar plantations (Wood, 1987).

A zombie is driven entirely by the most basic emotions, such as rage, that are located in the amygdale, which is one of the most primitive parts of the human brain. Researchers have introduced abnormalities into the amygdale of animal specimens; this results in a drop in the attack and retreat response that directly correlates with the amount of damage that part of the brain receives. The area known as the anterior cingulated cortex modulates and controls the excitement of the amygdale as it talks to the frontal lobe, which controls the thought and problem solving processes. So if the cingulated cortex dysfunctions, it would cause the person to be unable to modulate the feeling of anger, which would result in hyper-aggression (Schlozman, 2009) This would cause them to attack others, much like a zombie, with a blind rage.

With all of this taken into consideration, the possibility of a zombie outbreak, or at least something similar, is very probable. Whether it be natural, drug induced, or psychological, the significance of so many possibilities having one general output would be considered frightening to most people.







Auerbach, P. (2009). Rabies virus, symptoms, vaccine, and treatment. Retrieved from Survive Outdoors website: http://www.surviveoutdoors.com/reference/rabies.asp
Hawes, D. (December 9, 2009). Parasites in the Brain. Retrieved from Psychology Today website: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolved-primate/200912/parasites-in-the-brain
Hokelek, M. (January 27, 2009). Toxoplasmosis. Retrieved from eMedicine website: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/229969-overview
Wood, C. (1987). Zombies. Retrieved from American Chemical Society at: http://www.district87.org/staff/sutterm/Chem%20Matters/Organized%20according%20to%20topics/Misc/Zombies.pdf
Schlozman, S. (2009, June 10). A Harvard psychiatrist explains zombie neurology. Retrieved from http://io9.com/5286145/a-harvard-psychiatrist-explains-zombie-neurobiology
Brahic, C. (June 04, 2008). Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14053-zombie-caterpillars-controlled-by-voodoo-wasps.html

Some more glove faces

Asian glove

Turns into

NINJA GLOVE!

Ninja exit

This is what happens when a bunch of nerds and geeks find a hole in the ceiling

Perverts

What does this look like?

Scientists: a bunch of perverts

tower

I've been building this tower out of balsa wood for a couple of months. Soon I will watch it be destroyed

And his brother, Evil Glove!

You can't see it, but Evil Glove just put food in the microwave :o

Mwahahaha! Using science for EVIL!

I now present to the Internet...Awesome Glove

You know it's awesome

Gorilla warfare

If this ever really happens, we are so screwed.

It's a Gorilla...

With a Chainsaw gun...

and old spice...

May God help us all

Expendables

So I saw The Expendables a little while ago. This movie is a testosterone-filled action-packed adventure!

some helpful life tips