WonderBlog #5: Strange Laws in Oklahoma, Part 2

As long as we are keeping the focus on animals here, there is another quite unique and rather disturbing strange law in the state of Oklahoma that I feel compelled to share with you all.

Another weird law states that it is illegal for the owner of a bar to allow anyone inside to pretend to have sex with a buffalo.

First off, people really do that? They go out in public, mind you, and for some reason they want to pretend to have sex with a buffalo of all things? In a bar, of all places?

And second, how would you even go about pretending to do that? How would that even work?

You know what, never mind, I don't wanna know.

I suppose this aspect would fall under the general rules that most bar owners comply with, namely the prevention of the performance of sexual acts that are prohibited by Oklahoam law.

Still, I'm not sure a case like this would ever arise. But then again, a Texas fan was nearly castrated when he walked into an Oklahoma City bar two years ago, so maybe it's not too far-fetched.

Y'all be the judge.

WonderBlog #4: Strange Laws in Oklahoma, Part 1

Browsing the Web yet again, I discovered a list of many laws in the state of Oklahoma that are, well, not so logical or explainable.

1) For one thing, no one in the state of Oklahoma is allowed to promote a "horse-tripping" event.

Now, at first, I laughed when I read about this law. I mean, who wouldn't? I immediately thought of cow-tipping, of extremely bored kids sneaking out at night long past their curfew, snickering quietly and telling each other to shush as they sneak over and push the poor behemoths onto their sides, then sprinting for their lives.

But the hard truth remains, horse-tripping is actually a painfully real practice. During horse-tripping events, the object is literally to trip very real horses, you score points the more horses you trip. With the use of electric prods, Mexican cowboys, more commonly known as "charros", force the animals to run at a full gallop and then lasso their front or hind legs, which inevitably cause them to fall crashing to the ground.

Witnesses have reported that the charros will continue this practice until the horses become lame. Thousands of horses become injured at Mexican-style rodes every year.

Although the charros who have publicly discussed the practice have said that their intention was never to harm the horses and that they only rope the horses one out of every ten tries, horse-tripping has been banned in several U.S. states including California, Florida, Illionois, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. They have also been banned from all television and film production, by the Profesional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and by the American Quarter Horse Association. Citizens continue to fight for bans in other states.

But in these states the practice is just a misdemeanor, they haven't eradicated the practice so much as reduced it with the promise of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail follwing the event's execution.

You can learn how to ban horse-tripping in your area by contacting Cathleen Doyle of the California Equine Council at 818-771-0702 and by her e-mail, savethehorse@earthlink.net.

This is also her mailing address:
Cathleen Doyle
California Equine Council
P.O. Box 40000
Studio City, CA 91614

WonderBlog #3: Minnesota Students Watching Students?

If people have always wondered how strange some campus organizations may seem, have I got a story for them.

The University of Minnesota has such a unqiue organization.

50,000 people walk back and forth across the Minnesota campus, and that requires a specific group of people in order to observe and monitor every last one.

They're called the Campus People Wacthers, if you are even interested in witnessing the idiosyncrassies of the human race. This is the perfect group for people who are quite interested in observance, or just really, really, really, really bored.

The University of Minnesota's Web site calls the Campus People watchers a "non-creepy organizations for those who are into the social, psychological, and analytical aspects of people watching".

The Web site also makes the good point that everybody people watches, why not join an organization that has planned activities for such activities? Hard to argue with that logic.

They say those who are interested in experiencing group psychology, writing critiques, and delving into the culture of the University of Minnesota should look into this organization.

Try to guess the group's principal activity. Go on, I'll wait.

The Web site also states that the Campus People watchers benefit the University community by helping students experience everything that the University of Minnesota has to offer.

For University of Minnesota students who are interested in becoming a People Watcher, they can contact David Shaffer at shaff081@umn.edu for more information.

What wonders shall we create next?

J.T. Wise Named Big 12 Player of the Year

Norman, Oklahoma keeps on seeing an incoming of Big 12 awards even though they've also seen an outpouring of OU students for the summer.

Senior catcher for the Sooners baseball team J.T. Wise was officially named Big 12 Player of the Year today, Tuesday, May 19th. He leads the conference with a .375 batting average during the regular season. In other news, his partner on the team, freshman Garrett Buechele, was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year.

Wise has aided in leading OU to a second place finish in the Big 12 conference this baseball season, leading to this weekend's conference championship.

Wise has become the third Sooner to receive the conference's top award and the first since Rick Gutierrez in 1994.

Funny how he came to OU, Wise actually started his collegiate baseball career as a Lousisiana State Tiger, becoming a freshman All-American at second base there. He transferred to OU in his sophomore season at LSU and hit .278 with seven homeruns and 49 RBIs as a junior Sooner.

EnviroBlog #1: Recycling Plastic Bags

Plastic bags have been exponentially growing in American households each and every day. Most people just stuff them in every knook and cranny in their kitchens that they can find, yet a very small percentage winds up in the recycling bin.

But often, curbside programs will not accept plastic bags, due to their lack of weight and their ease in getting caught into the machines. However, with the large expansion of their presence in the United States alone, they have found themselves pushed toward the forefront of the environmental preservation debate.

Nearly 400 billion plastic bags are used each year, and only a little over 5 percent of these bags in the municipal waste system were recycled in 2005. Plastic bags make up about 9 percent of debris found on U.S. coastlines, the information being gathered as a result of a five-year study.

One of the most unfortunate facts about plastic bags is that they do not bio-degrade, they photo-degrade, meaning they eventually break down into smaller parts that can contaminate soil and waterways.

The toxic chemicals needed to make this plastic produce pollution when in the manufacturing process. If we use less plastic bags, then we will have less pollution.

Countless numbers of these bags end up in the ocean, where marine animals can be severely harmed by their intrusion. After all, these bags can be mistaken for food. Plastic bags look a lot like jellyfish, which is the primary source of food for many turtles.

But there are many benefits to recycling these suckers. Besides clearing up all of tat extra space in your own habitat, when just one ton of plastic bags is recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved.

Here's a number of helpful tips that you can use to recycle plastic bags:
1) You can use plastic bags as opposed to expensive filler when packing your bags.
2) Use the bags as trash can liners, that's one of my favorites.
3) use them to pick up animal waste.
4) You can create art-pastic bag crochet patters are available online.
5) Cut the bags to make bibs or aprons, save a little dough.
6) Use them as overshoes to keep your carpet clean when someone has muddy shoes.

Thes types of plastic bags can be recycled, according to plasticbagrecycling.org:
-grocery bags
-retail bags
-paper towel and toilet paper plastic wrap
-newspaper bags
-dry-cleaning bags

These CANNOT be recycled:
-Used food or cling wrapping
-Prepackaged food wrappings, including frozen foods
-Bio-based or composable bags

When you're ready to take those bags to be recycled, you can check the number on the bottom of the bags and use Earth911's recycleing locator to find out where you can recycle them from.

Most of this information was gathered from: http://earth911.com/plastic/plastic-bags/

WonderBlog #2: World Superhero Registry

Browsing the Web, I discovered something rather unique that I'm sure everyone has wondered about the existaence of at some point or other.

Are there real superheros? Do people really put on capes and masks in this day and age, trying to make a difference one criminal at a time?

Well the answer is a definitive: YES. There is, in fact, a world superhero registry that can be accessed and updated through the click of a mouse. Several years ago, the World Superhero Registry began promoting real-life superheroes, helping them stick their feet in the door of the public's awareness and helping to generate the apparently flourishing superhero community that exists to this very day.

But how can a bunch of people go around and stop crime while adhering to the laws themselves. This isn't a comic book, the real-world laws still apply. Usually, being a real-life superhero can vary in diffculty from place to place. Citizen'z arrest statues are different from state to state. Some states even ban the wearing of a mask. Before anyone thinks about putting on a cape and joining this registry, they must first consult the laws of their state and adjust their own unique style of crime-fighting in order to comply with them.

Some real-life superheroes are even sanctioned by their local law enforcement, while others are constantly attempting to stay one step ahead of the police to avoid arrest. It's a hard-knock life for a real-life masked vigilante.

There are a variety of resources available to the real-life superhero at the World Superhero Registry's Web site, ranging from legal advice to Hero support (freelance servicers contructing masks, gadgets, gear, etc.).

Some of these real-life superheroes have banded together to form groups in certain parts of the country: The Great Lakes Heroes Guild based in Minnesota and Michigan, Utah's Black Monday Society, and The Moonlight Club stationed in the American Southwest, among others.

Several of these heroes can be contacted through their MySpace or E-mail, some of these groups even have their own Web page.

So, if you're ever wandering the streets at night, look up at the top of a building, or down a shadowy alley, there may be a caped crusader stalking the streets, protecting the citizens whenever and wherever they can.

http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com/world_superhero_registry_gallery.htm

Update on my Amusement Park Story.

It appears that the Walt Disney Company has suffered more damages than at first reported by me in my report about Oklahoma's own amusement park, "Frontier City", and how it plans to survive the difficult economy during the summer.

Disney reported last Tuesday that its second-qaurter net income fell 46 percent, possibly caused by an underperforming movie slate and the impact of the recession on its theme parks.

Disney's profit in the quarter through March 28 was $613 million, down from $1.13 billion the year before.

Revenue also fell 7 percent.

There's been a 97 percent drop in movie profits. The company booked $305 million in charges for the quarter. "Confessions of a Shopaholic", "Bedtime Stories", and "Race to Witch Mountain" all had disappointing turnouts for the family entertainment giant.

Attendance at Disney's major parks has also declined, falling 1 percent at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida but up to 2 percent at the Disneyland parks in Anaheim, California.

Overall, spending per visitor to U.S. parks fell 6 percent.

Disney announced last week it would allow older Disney movies and ABC shows available on Hulu.com, while adopting an equity stake with NBC Universal and News Corp.

WonderBlog #1: Jedi Churches

That's right, you heard me. They exist.

Jediism is the new non-theistic religiousmovement based on the philosophical and spiritual ideas of the Jedi as depicted in the Star Wars fanchise. (Thank you Wikipedia).

Apparently these real-world Jedi assert the actual existence of the Force, advocating adeherence to the Jedi code.

I know what you're thinking: there's no way this movement could be a very large one, right? But according to recent census in some English-speaking countries, over 500,000 people identidied their religion as Jedi.

There are also a few Jedi churches out there.

Now, the definition of religion states that a relligion is a group of people gathering togethr sharing a common belief. These real Jedis are united in their belief of the Force and how it guides them throughout their lives.

The Jedi church recognizes that there is one all-powerful Force binding all things in the universe together, not necessarily confirming or denying the existence of a God, just not believing in one, knowing full well the Force is their only guide.

In the United Kingddom, 2% of people in Brighton reported their religion as "Jedi".

On January 12th of this year, the Government of Canada granted Order of the Jedi, Inc. certification which recognized them as the world's first Federally Incorporated Non-Profit Religious Entity. On that day in January the church was founded.

From what I could gather in my research, there are Jedi Orders in New Zealand, in the United Kingdom, and in Maryland right here in the states among others.

They even conduct Jedi Marriages: "Do you Jedi ___ take Jedi ___ to be your husband...."

For more information and to do your own research into the world of Jediism, check out this Web site among others: http://www.jedichurch.org/jedi-marriage-licence.html