BLUEFIN TUNA SOLD FOR A RECORD $736,000

2012-01-06T00:29:00.033-05:00

But This Publicity Stunt May Hurt Dwindling Stocks

On Jan 5th, a 593 lb. bluefin tuna was auctioned at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market for a record $736,000. But at $1,240 a pound, there is no way the buyer, Kiyomura Co., can make a profit. In fact, even though the fish is indeed of the highest quality, it is estimated that the company’s sushi chain (Sushi-Zanmai) will incur a lost of about $600,000. (Last year’s record price was $416,000 for a tuna sold to a Hong Kong restaurateur.) This year, the Kiyomura Co. wanted the best bluefin tuna to remain in Japan to boost the morale of the Japanese people after last year’s string of disasters hit their nation (but 80% of the world’s bluefins are already consumed by Japan).

~ A festive event for Japan after the Tsunami of 2011.

However, this seemingly innocuous publicity campaign is considered by environmentalists as a reckless stunt that can endanger already depleted bluefin stocks (currently at about 20% of what it used to be). This advertisement for "gold with fins" and overpriced sushi in general send the wrong signal to fishermen, encouraging further over-fishing. And fishermen from Japan and around the world may now switch from catching other fish to catching the bluefin. Many fishermen are also expected to violate quotas to try to make their fortune. In addition, in their mad dash to catch the bluefin, fishermen may employ unethical and damaging fishing practices, such as drift netting, that could harm other marine life.

~ Bluefin quotas ignored.

NEW WORLD RECORD FOR SMALLEST WOMAN

2011-12-22T13:45:00.066-05:00

Also, Learn About Brooke Greenberg; She Doesn't Age!

On December 16th, Jyoti Amge celebrated her 18th birthday and made it into the Guinness World Records as the shortest living woman. She is just 62.8 cm or 24.7 in tall. From Nagpur, India, Jyoti beat out American Bridgette Jordan who stands at 69 cm (27.2 in). But the shortest living human is a man, Junrey Balawing of the Philippines, who is 59.9 cm (23.6 in) tall. And the shortest verified human who ever lived was Gul Mohammed of India (1957 - 1997), who stood at only 57 cm (22.4 in).

~ Guinness World Records

Jyoti Amge has a condition called Achondroplasia. It is a sporadic mutation (in 85% of the cases), but it can also be inherited. According to Evolutionary Theory, genetic variation is the building block of natural selection, which gives our world a variety of life forms. It is created when there is a mutation – a change in the chemical composition of the genes. Mild variations occur most of the time and dramatic variations occur infrequently – but statistically, they must occur to somebody. While dramatic mutations tend to be detrimental to the health of the person affected, sometimes it can be beneficial to the subject or to society.

~ World's oldest stockbroker (2010)

One happy example is the world's oldest stockbroker, Irving Kahn, who turned 106 years old on December 19th. He is in great shape mentally and physically and still goes to work everyday to his high-stress job. Apparently, Irving and his siblings (who are also centenarians) possess a mutation in a gene that increases their good cholesterol (HDL) while decreasing their bad cholesterol (LDL); this and other genetic factors help to protect them from heart disease, Alzheimer's, and other age-related illnesses. Irving is involved in a study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Institute for Aging Research. However, Irving is still young in the world of longevity. The oldest living human is Besse Cooper of the U.S. at 115 years old. And the oldest verified human who ever lived was Jeanne Calment of France at 122 years of age (1875 - 1997). Still, research into Mr. Kahn's mutation may shine some light on the Fountain of Youth to benefit mankind.

~ The Fountain of Youth? (2009)

But the most interesting is the curious case of Brooke Greenberg. She will be 19 years old on January 8th. But she hasn’t changed since she was a toddler. To this day, she is approximately 76 cm (30 in) tall and weighs around 16 pounds. Also, she has the mental capacity of a toddler. However, unlike in the case of Jyoti Amge, Brooke does not have Achondroplasia and her doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her. Her condition is called Syndrome X. One fascinating question which boggles the Frog Blog is that if Brooke's condition persists, does that mean she will never die?

Regardless, genetic mutation might have given rise to the human species. The MYH16 gene encodes the protein myosin, which regulates the powerful jaw muscles in non-human primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas. But a mutation of the MYH16 gene in early humans had caused the myosin protein to not function properly, giving humans weak jaw muscles. A controversial theory claims that because of the reduced pressure from the weaker jaw muscles of the early humans, the plates in our skulls were not forced to firm up as quickly as other primates after birth, thereby allowing our brains to grow for a longer period – increasing in size.

~ A mutuation and our big brains.

50 EXOTIC/RARE ANIMALS KILLED IN OHIO

2011-10-20T14:40:00.062-04:00

Exotic Animals Should Be Banned As Pets!

Death Count:
18 Bengal tigers (shot)
9 male lions (shot)
8 lionesses (shot)
6 black bears (shot)
3 mountain lions (shot)
2 grizzly bears (shot)
2 wolves (shot)
1 baboon (eaten)
1 monkey (eaten)

Survivors:
3 leopards
2 monkeys
1 grizzly bear

~ 56 wild animals released by a disturbed owner.

On October 18th in Zanesville, Ohio, some nut set free 56 of his wild animals from his menagerie to run amuck before he killed himself. The sheriff's deputies had no choice but to shoot almost all of the animals dead, as they did not have any tranquilizer guns. In any case, it would have taken too long for the tranquilizers to take affect and sundown was approaching. If the animals were not killed, it's possible they might disperse over a wide area and kill people and livestock overnight and in the days to come.

Both the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (P.E.T.A.) believe that exotic animals should be banned as pets. Incidentally, the owner of the 56 released animals, Terry Thompson, was convicted of animal cruelty in the past. People like Thompson often claim that they love animals. But to keep wild animals that need wide open spaces in cages and pens is nothing but cruel and callous. These people are using these creatures to meet their own selfish and vain desires and care nothing about the animals they keep in distress and pain throughout their lives. It's about time the trade in wild animals be outlawed.

UPDATE: Terry Thompson's wife, Marian Thompson, is currently trying to reclaim the six surviving animals from the Columbus Zoo and to take them back with her to an alternate home in Ohio (the original farm from which the animals were freed had cramped and unclean conditions). She has hired a lawyer. This move might seem really odd to normal people, but this betrays the incredibly selfish, insensitive, and self-centered attitude of the Thompsons – unfit to take care of any animal. When morons have control over animals, it is the animals that suffer. Click here.

~ Widow tries to get back her "children". A loon and her beasts ...

STOP Marian Thompson from taking the surviving animals! Sign the petition!

RICK PERRY CALLS GLOBAL WARMING A HOAX

2011-08-19T13:55:00.043-04:00

Perry Says The BP Oil Spill Was An Act of God! Click here

Along with Michele Bachmann, Governor Perry of Texas actually makes Sarah Palin look like the fountain of reason, moderation, and commonsense! The GOP presidential candidate and frontrunner is considered by many, including some in the Republican Party, to be an unqualified candidate for the presidency of the United States. Bruce Barlett, former advisor to Ronald Reagan and former Treasury official under George H. W. Bush, called Perry an 'IDIOT', Click here.

~ Gov. Perry says scientists manipulate climate data for selfish gains.

Speaking to a group in New Hampshire on August 17th, Governor Perry questioned the veracity of Climate Change science. But the idea of a conspiracy among the global scientific community as well as international governmental agencies betrays just how paranoid and ignorant Rick Perry is about science. Scientific ideas, like the articles published in scientific journals such as NATURE and SCIENCE are already under intense and rigorous scrutiny by the academic community itself. To replicate other scientists' experiments as well as to write a tough but convincing critique of a paper are as important to the career of a scientist as the publishing of his/her own research or theories. This is how academics demonstrate their intellectual prowess among their peers. It is a highly competitive and adversarial system, in the tradition of the Socratic method.

So, it is extremely likely that any bad research would be viciously exposed and criticized by competent scientists regardless of their own personal beliefs on the matter. A successful scientist is one who convinces the college of academics of his/her theories or research as being notable and credible. And without doubt, the jury of worldwide scientists believes that not only does Global Warming exist, it is likely to be caused by humans. There is no gain for any scientist to do bad science or to collude with those who pratice bad science. It would mean an end to his/her career – not more research grants, as Governor Perry suggests.

BACHMANN WANTS CREATIONISM IN SCHOOLS

2011-06-27T23:35:00.040-04:00

Michele Bachmann Calls Global Warming A Hoax!

On June 27th, Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann, announced her candidacy for the presidency of the United States. There are two issues that will always tell you if your candidate is a flake: 1) Global Warming, 2) Intelligent Design. And she failed on both of them. Even Sarah Palin is not a Creationist!

According to CNN, Bachmann recently said that she doubts Evolution and wants Intelligent Design to be taught in schools, click here. She said: "What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides."

~ Bachmann says hundreds of scientists believe in Intelligent Design.

Intelligent Design or Creationism is NOT science whatsoever. To give it equal footing with Evolution is like comparing the General Theory of Relativity to astrology. And here's another stupid idea, why don't we also teach astrology to kids in schools as a scientific theory of the universe? Astrology has just as much if not more theories than Intelligent Design. In fact, some say that Intelligent Design lacks a cohesive theory altogether. It just proposes a bunch of ignorant and confusing assumptions about Evolution and touts them as scientific theories. For information on the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District court battle, click here. This case exposes the nonsense that is Intelligent Design.

Once you open the Pandora's Box by allowing laymen to determine what is science, then literally hundreds of other religions, sects, Satanic cults, and God-knows-what also have the right to call their nonsense scientific truth and access our children's minds.

And Bachmann's views on Global Warming is just as dangerous. Her ignorance on the subject boggles the mind. It's better to just let her own words make our point for us and we'll simply rest our case on that.

~ Where did they find this moron?

DOOMSDAY PROPHETS ARE IDIOTS!

2011-05-22T22:56:00.015-04:00

Next Madness: Maya End-Time On 2012-12-21

First, let's address the current madness. Religious nut Harold Camping and his Family Radio network told their followers that the world was going to end on May 21, 2011. Some of these gullible idiots actually donated their entire life savings to promote the Rapture by paying for advertisements such as billboards all over the world (including in Islamic countries and Israel). We at the Frog Blog say that's great! People who don't use their brains deserve to lose all their money (and self-respect). At least now, they may learn from their own bitter experiences and start to live in the REAL world.

After all, these morons are really cheering for the horrid death of all humanity (except themselves) because of what they arrogantly judge as "sins" in others. Not unlike the hate-mongers and nuts at the Westboro Baptist Church, Camping and his flock blame gays and lesbians for the End-Time. But of course, the laws of probability and commonsense had the last laugh and Camping received nothing but mockery after Mis-Judgment Day.

~ Protestors mock moron Harold Camping and End-Time believers.

Scientists predict that the Earth will continue to support life for another 500 million years. And the chance that the Earth would be struck by a gigantic asteroid is extremely remote. So, predicting the end of the world is a mug's game.

2012 will be a big year for those halfwits and ignoramuses who are convinced that the end of the Maya Calendar (Dec 21, 2012) indicates the end of the world. This Maya nonsense has had much more traction in the media and public awareness than the crap that came out of Harold Camping. There was even a Hollywood movie in 2009 titled "2012" with a Maya End-Time theme. Expect more opportunistic movies like this to come out by the end of 2012.

~ The movie "2012", starring John Cusack

But the Maya theory also has to contend with those very same mathematical odds mentioned above. And clearly, while the Mayans were great astronomers, they were lousy astrologers! They failed to predict the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors and their apocalyptic effect on their OWN society! So who cares what the Maya Calendar might have predicted for the end of the entire world centuries later?

But the most important thing to note is that the Maya Calendar is marked by 395-year cycles, and December 21, 2012 simply marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. The ancient Mayans couldn't have kept making calendars endlessly. It was simply coincidence that they ended their calendar-making with the current cycle, click here.

~ Dispelling Maya End-Time myths.

UPDATE: On Monday, May 23, this damned fool, Harold Camping, announced that Doomsday will now occur on October 21st, 2011. Distraught and humiliated, he has now turned this mess into a slow-motion train wreck, especially for those dumb suckers who were financially harmed by his callous hubris. But Camping has denied all responsibily and will likely not repay any donations made, click here. Stories of suicides related to this moron's prediction: click here.

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS GAIN IN CONGRESS

2010-11-03T14:13:00.001-04:00

Tea Party Climate Change Deniers Funded By BP Click here

Republican Congressman Joe Barton (Texas) was handily re-elected to the House of Representatives. And he wants to reclaim the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. However, he is the same fool who apologized to British Petroleum because President Obama had the audacity to force them to pay for the worst oil spill in U.S. history. To see his pathetic apology to BP CEO, Tony Hayward, click here.

~ Joe Barton says temperature changes are due to fat/skinny clouds.

Worse, Joe Barton is not just in the pocket of the oil industry, he is also a Climate Change denier. Like the looney Birther and Creationist movements that have infiltrated the Republican Party (partly due to the GOP hijacking by Tea Partiers), Climate Change deniers use the strategy of hammering a confusing point (or points) of the debate over and over again, in hopes of gaining support from some uninformed citizens. Some of these Climate Change deniers are funded by BP and other polluters. See report on GREENPEACE's website, click here.

~ Tea Party Climate Change deniers in the Senate.

According to the League of Conservation Voters (LCV.org), there were at least eight Tea Party Climate Change deniers who ran for the Senate, and half of them won. More important, one of these deniers, Marco Rubio of Florida, is so popular that he may be on the Republican ticket as vice president.

This midterm election was a disaster. The only good news is that Proposition 23 failed to kill California's Climate Law, despite millions spent by companies to support it. Clearly, the American people must consider limiting the power of corporations to influence elections and ballot propositions.

"EVOLUTION A MYTH!": CHRISTINE O'DONNELL

2010-10-19T14:10:00.003-04:00

"Witch" O'Donnell Wants Creationism Taught In Schools!

The fact that this ignoramus may win a Senate seat from Delaware betrays just how vulnerable the Democrats are in the mid-term elections. In the clip below, Republican candidate O’Donnell says Evolution is a myth, stressing that if it were real, then why aren’t monkeys still evolving? Is this nut for real?

Worse than that, O'Donnell wants Creationism to have equal footing with Evolutionary Theory in schools. Creationism that might be taught in theology or history class is fine. But it can never be taught as science. That would be a lie. Evolutionary Theory is beyond reproach in science, and it’s being further supported by the latest research in bio-chemistry and other fields.

~ O'Donnell says Creationism should have equal status with Evolution.

Creationism is truly just a myth with absolutely no evidence or foundation. If it's taught to kids as an explanation of reality, then countless other myths from countless other cultures must also be allowed to be taught as truth. What’s wrong with the Greek myth of a bird called Nyx that laid a golden egg from which all life evolved? No worse than Adam and Eve and how the human race must have emerged from incest!

While beyond the scope of this website, which deals primarily with scientific issues, O'Donnell's utter ignorance is already questioning the Separation of the Church and State: Listen to audio.

To read more about Creation vs. Evolution, see our article in FrogBook.com dated October 6th, 2009. Or click here!

PALIN BLAMES "GREENIES" FOR BP OIL SPILL

2010-06-19T14:30:00.003-04:00

Is the Republican Party Hijacked By Rightwing Loons?

Almost everything that comes out of Sarah Palin's mouth is utter nonsense. The scary thing is that she is extremely popular and may be a candidate for the Presidency in 2012. The GOP seems to be replete with politicians who tend to rant on about one dogma or another regardless if it sounds stupid or not to their own constituents. One example is Republican Liz Cheney’s support for the looney Birther Movement in face of overwhelming evidence that Barack Obama is indeed an American citizen, click here.

~ Sarah Palin flip-flops on off-shore drilling - then blames "Greenies".

[See Top 6 Republican Oil Spill Gaffes - click here!]

But the most ludicrous comments from a Republican in regard to the theme of this website, the environment, has to be from Congressman Joe Barton of Texas, who apologizes to BP because the President had the audacity to try to negotiate some kind of speedy relief for all those who have been or will be harmed by the oil spill. What Obama did is not only legal and proper, but morally right. He cut the red tape and spared many who cannot afford costly legal fees to obtain restitution.

The President just persuaded and admonished, but many Republican loons will have you believe that what the White House did is unconstitutional, even when BP had the option to refuse. There is nothing more pathetic than a Representative from the United States Congress kowtowing to a foreign corporation even when that corporation has greatly harmed American citizens, wildlife, and natural environments. What did Barton's constituents vote him into office for, to side with the perpetrators against their own interests and welfare? This may not be treason, but it is surely a betrayal of public trust.

~ American Congressman apologizes to BP CEO. Shameful.

If you feel guilty about all the American wildlife annoyingly dying and being an embarrassment to poor little BP, grovel and apologize at:
www.ApologizeToBP.com

CREATION Vs. EVOLUTION

2009-10-06T14:17:00.007-04:00

Kirk Cameron Links Darwin To Hitler!

2009 is a momentous year for Charles Darwin. On February 12th, 2009, he turned 200 years old! And on November 24th, 2009, his landmark book, On the Origin of Species, will turn 150 years old. We are of the opinion that he was perhaps one of the greatest and most influential thinkers in a 1000 years.

However, Growing Pains TV star and evangelical Christian, Kirk Cameron, is determined to rain on Darwin’s parade. Cameron has accused Darwin of being a racist and a misogynist, giving inspiration to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. Cameron's Creationist backers have printed 50,000 copies of an edited version of On the Origin of Species which contains a 50-page preface expounding the fallacies of Evolution and Darwin's alleged racist and women-hating tendencies. They will be distributed to students on college campuses all over the United States.

~ Video of Kirk Cameron linking Charles Darwin to Adolf Hitler.

But we think it is unfair and unethical to judge Darwin by the standards of our current generation. For him to talk and behave like us during the 19th century would have seemed bizarre and alien to people back then. Clearly, Kirk Cameron and his Creationist supporters are trying to cleverly manipulate people's sensitivities in regard to hot-button issues such as racism and sexism to their advantage.

Traditionally, Creationists hold the view that Darwin was wrong due to the fact that there are no fossil records of species-to-species transitional creatures. They are referred to as the "missing links". However, Evolution – more correctly, Natural Selection – can be proven without fossil records. Fossils are rare. And most fossils that survive are mainly of established species which had been around for a long time. The fossils of transitional species during times of natural changes would be harder to find.

However, one of the greatest blows to Creationist theory may have been uncovered recently. The fossils of "Ardi", a man-like creature that is the oldest relative of humans (about 4 million years old), was uncovered and is considered to be the most important scientific discovery in a decade. And to scientists' surprise, she's more like a human being than an ape. In other words, as proposed by Darwin, humans did not evolve from apes. Rather, humans and apes BOTH evolved from an ancient ape-like common ancestor (Ardi), and each went their separate ways through the evolutionary process. In other words, there might not necessarily have been a creature that was "in between" apes and humans, thus explaining the absence of transitional species fossil records. In our opinion, Ardi is the "Missing Link" that Creationism solely relies on.

For more info on the "Missing Link", click here.