Link: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/terrifying-underwater-encounters-bengali-white-tiger/14065

Ok, this article shows what has to be one of the most terrifying things you might encounter underwater. Imagine taking a swim in your pool and running into THAT! Ok, so maybe that wouldn't likely happen in your pool, but still... yeek! Beautiful animals, though.

~~ Alex Broadwin

Since the age of about five I've been drinking coffee. As a result of my regular and long-standing tradition of caffeine intake, the drug typically has virtually no effect on me, nor has it for many years. Recently, however, I've found myself prescribed one of the nastiest antibiotics around: Ciprofloxacin! One of the fun side-effects of this marvelously scary drug happens to be impaired ability to metabolize caffeine. For the first time in a long time, one cup of coffee has me absolutely WIRED. Combine the high-energy caffeine effect (which, thanks to the Cipro, is quite long lasting) with the dizzy, hazy effect of the Cipro itself and you have yourself one interesting mental state. A mental state that does not necessarily lend itself all too well to helping conduct a two-hour interview. Just saying.

~~ Alex Broadwin

I've recently been reading the book Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman, and it's really been making me think about the way in which we communicate as a society. While I once looked down upon blogs as a degradation of our news culture, I now really see it as the lesser of the media evils, giving people a public pulpit upon which to speak while rejecting the message-shaping funnel effect caused by television, twitter, text messaging and the like.

Everywhere you look, people are reducing their intake of information to the smallest, bite-sized bits. People pretty much have reached the point where they know the headlines, but that's it; there's simply no depth. It all goes beyond news, though. Let's take a look at The Soup. I'll preface this by saying that I really enjoy The Soup; it is entertaining. That said, some people can't even be bothered to watch their entertainment in full, but instead choose to let someone else watch it for them, decide what is funny and share that condensed version with them. People need cliff notes for their own television shows. Taking it one step further, you can watch Condensed Soup online, which is a condensed version of the condensed version of your TV shows. Now, I think much of this comes down to information overload -- we're bombarded with far too much information, and we thus have to reduce our intake of each atom of news or entertainment in order to cope. We're all just trying to keep up. How much of the information we're inundated with matters, though? Maybe instead of taking it all in, we should become more discerning consumers of information? A return to depth instead of breadth?

Anyway, I'll stop ranting now and get to my point. Perhaps if everyone sits down and actually starts to write something with a beginning, a middle and an end... something with real content, that actually fully explores an idea, we'll see some return to intelligence, eloquence and reasonable attention spans. Maybe the blog really is a good thing, or at the very least, not the worst thing.

~~ Alex Broadwin

Welcome to my new blog! The words echo in the emptiness... Yes, I know I'm writing to a nonexistent audience at the moment, and that's fine. The main reason that I'm starting this blog is because I appreciate the power of words and feel that I don't write enough; this is my outlet. I could also use a written history of this part of my life.

So, I heartily welcome every nobody that may come to read this, and should a real somebody happen upon it, I hope that I provide you with something of interest to ponder before you go.

~~ Alex Broadwin