Post 5: Tree Hugger

How would you like to be stuck a tree for the rest of your life?

It is estimated that koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), arboreal animals native to Australia, spend twenty hours asleep per day and one to three hours per day eating—all in the same eucalyptus tree.

The fuzzy animals spend only about four minutes a day moving among branches or to other trees. Since koalas are solitary animals, they tend to stay in the same six or so acres of territory and not seek out other trees to stake claims on. The life of a koala is greatly confined to the same group of eucalyptus trees. “Within its home range,” states this MSN Encarta website, “a koala uses only a small number of trees, with up to a third of its time spent in one favorite tree.”

But there are other arboreal animals that do get a change of scenery. Arboreal animals make their homes in our trees all over the world; but most arboreal animals live in tropical forests. In the tropical forests are various strata, layers of vegetation that house different forms of life because of differing temperatures and light availability. The canopy level creates a living floor of plant material on which tree-dwelling animals can walk. Little pools of water even collect from the rain so that animals can drink without climbing down from the canopy.

Some animals, like the orangutan, build sleeping nests for nighttime use. Other animals have physical adaptations that allow them to sleep in trees without having to build nests; siamangs (Hylobates syndactylus), for instance, have cushiony pads on their rear ends called ischial callosities. And sloths’ (of genus Choloepus for two-toed sloths or Bradypus for three-toed sloths) feet are outfitted with claws that allow them to hang from branches while they sleep.

There is simply no need to descend to earth. Animals can go their entire lives without ever touching the ground!

Post 4: What time is it, chronomaniac?

"Server time is always right." - Rower

How do you know what time it is?
A) check the position of the sun
B) ask someone else
C) check your watch

I'm one of those people who always asks someone else. I don't wear watches because I know that I'll always worry about what time it is and about being late. And this seems to be a common affliction that our society suffers from: an obsession with time. "There are only twenty-four hours in a day! I didn't have enough time to finish! Can't you go any faster? Where did all my time go!" Heard any of these lately? Yeah. We're obsessed.

Why do we need to do everything so fast? As soon as we wake up, we rush to go to work or school. At work/school, we rush to get everything done. Then we rush back home. At any point do we stop to think about why we do this or how this affects us? Where does the need to get things done fast come from? And once you've rushed through everything you needed to do, what's next?!

We can learn from the concept of time in Indian mythology. In the world of souls, one human month is only equal to a single soul-day. In the world of the gods, one human year only makes up a single god-day. And a single day in the life of Bhrahma (the universe creator) is equivalent to 8,640,000,000 human years!*

The life of a human is so small when compared to everything else...only humans could get so caught up in a quest for more time.


*Kannikeswaran, K. "Concept of Time in Indian Mythology." Templenet - The Comprehensive Indian Temple website. 17 Feb. 2009 .

Post 3: Betazoids Among Us

The Betazoids from Star Trek are a race of humanoid empaths with the ability to communicate telepathically and sense others’ emotions and thoughts. The advantages of such an ability are invaluable. Betazoids are basically walking, thinking, feeling lie detectors. They’re real-life Jaspers of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, able to sense people’s feelings and act accordingly. Job possibilities would instantly open to them: they would make keen counselors and therapists, intuitive judges in courtrooms (although probably a bit more biased), insightful job interviewers, and very understanding negotiators towards terrorists or suicidal bridge-jumpers.

Now though this sounds like a wonderful superpower, the abilities of a Betazoid can be unnerving to other people. Think of the effects that the presence of a Betazoid would have on the people around him. Living in the United States, the ability to know others’ feelings would undoubtedly be considered an invasion of personal privacy. As writer Christopher Paolini's fictional character Brom tells his pupil Eragon, "Once you're inside your enemy's mind, it's easy enough to anticipate what he will do and prevent it." (pg. 245)Since the human mind is a private place, even if the thoughts of a person are not accessible, wouldn’t you be a little afraid to know that other people—regular-looking on the surface—could know exactly how you feel at all times?

Secrecy would be pointless because a Betazoid could instantly feel that you’re hiding something. And the façade of a seemingly strong leader would be shattered because a Betazoid would see right through it and most likely call the person on it. Those putting up the façade would be stripped of dignity and respectability because all the Betazoids would know he is a sham.
If humans and Betazoids were to mingle, we humans would feel so invaded. A gift that could be used for good would be shunned because people would develop a fear for those with it.


For more extensive information about the Betazoid race, visit this website: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Betazoid

Post 2: Height, Godly Height

Rower made a joke today about the vertically challenged not being as much fun as those blessed with enough height to be considered normal. This got me thinking…

Whether or not a person’s height affects her funniness, there are lots of things that affect a short person just because she is short. For instance, the generalizations about short people often include their inability to perform well at Tall People Things like fashion modeling or picking cherries. And hulking figures are a bonus for things like football.

But there are Short People Activities that require participants to have smaller builds, like horse jockeying or doing the limbo. For athletes like gymnasts or lightweight wrestlers, not only does a person need not have a hulking figure, but the extra height and body mass is rather undesirable.

However, a taller frame, according to this website, is more desirable in the workplace than a shorter one is. Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable conducted an experiment to find the difference in salaries of several tall and short people. Guess what? The shorter people consistently earned less than taller people. On average, a taller person would earn an additional $789 for every inch that made him taller than his shorter counterpart.

On top of that, it’s estimated that “for every inch shorter you are, 5 per cent fewer women will find you [men] attractive.”* How’s that for a short man’s self esteem?

It makes sense that there be an idea that shorter people compensate for lack of height by acting aggressively. (How can short guys be taken seriously otherwise?) This “Napoleon Complex,” as named by psychologist Alfred Adler, explains aggressive behavior in shorter persons; but a study conducted by the English University of Central Lancashire actually disproved this. The Napoleon complex is a fictitious diagnosis.

So even if short people get paid less than tall people, and there are fewer women who want to date short guys, and potbellies look a lot stranger on short people than they do on tall people, short people needn’t be labeled as aggressive because of it.


*Kirby, Terry. "Theory of 'Napoleon complex' is debunked - This Britain, UK - The Independent." The Independent | News | UK and Worldwide News | Newspaper. 29 Mar. 2007. 03 Feb. 2009 .

Post 1: Deleted Scene in The Crucible

Deleted Scene in The Crucible

Going through Act II of The Crucible, a student in English class pointed out that there was a missing scene in the play; Scene II of Act II was played onstage only once, when The Crucible first opened in theatres. Then in later publications and productions of The Crucible, the scene was left out. Why could this be? There must have been a reason why this scene was left out of the later editions of the script for the play. It’s dubious that Arthur Miller just decided that he didn’t like this scene anymore.

Description of the Missing Scene
In this missing scene, Abigail Williams meets John Proctor in the woods at night, where they discuss the happenings in town. Abigail tells John of the mental suffering she has gone through for the good of the town, and even shows John the physical proof of her sufferings: numerous holes in her leg from witches’ needles, the wound in her abdomen that Elizabeth Proctor’s spirit reopens every night, and the lump on her arm that George Jacobs strikes while Abigail tries to sleep. To the reader who knows that Abigail is not in any way connected to witchcraft and has no ability to see spirits, Abigail appears insane. She appears to believe that the wounds she has caused herself were . But not only is Abigail is insane enough to mutilate her body for the sake of being believed by Salem’s court, Abigail still deceives herself into thinking that John will marry her one day.
John sees Abigail’s deluded state, and, determined to end Abigail’s influence over the court at any cost, warns her that he will confess his affair with her to the court. Abigail, still maintains that John loves her, doesn’t believe that John would blacken his name or her name by his own will. (She instead accuses the hypocrites of Salem of stealing John’s honesty and goodness, and she forgives his misstep.) Abigail laughs in disbelief and dismisses his threat; she tells John not to worry because she knows John secretly hates his wife Elizabeth and will marry Abigail once Elizabeth hangs for witchcraft.

The Scene’s Importance
The reader can now see the full effect of the witch trials on Abigail’s character. This is actually one of the best scenes in regards to character development!
It shows how the sudden power and respectful fear that Abigail has gained has seized her wits and thrown them out the door. We witness Abigail’s complete derangement. She is not just power-hungry anymore. She is a different girl with a new and different motive for playing the victim of spirits in court.
Only in this scene do we see that Abigail has a motive for accusing townspeople of witchcraft other than revenge on Elizabeth Proctor: she also wants to rid Salem of its hypocrites. She rants about the hypocrisy of the townspeople, who only appear to be good but fall deep into sin. Abigail truly seems to believe that she does God’s will by cleansing the town of sinners. (Here is a character analysis that disregards the omitted scene and describes Abigail’s character as chiefly vindictive.)

Reason for the omission of such an important scene?
Since Abigail’s new quality (of being deluded and insane) is only present in this missing scene, we may theorize that perhaps Arthur Miller left the scene out so he could create a character whose villainy was solely vengeful, and not a side effect of being insane. Obviously, Abigail was not meant to turn out insane; perhaps Arthur Miller wanted to show readers what could happen when the unscrupulous seize power. This could only be accomplished if Abigail were only a manipulative person with her wits. This way, the downfall of man could not be blamed on insanity, but on man’s manipulative, deceitful behavior.

“Additionally, when the girls are treated as ‘officials of the court’ with the power to charge and condemn, the thrill in arousing hysteria and anxiety in others, combined with the power to
condemn, proves too seductive for a young girl to ignore.”
— "Sheffield Theatres Education Resource." Welcome to Sheffield Theatres Checking Plugin. 26 Jan. 2009 )

As the quote above describes, Abigail and the other girls have let the lure of newfound power control them. This much is evident without the omitted scene. So perhaps the play is better off without the second scene in Act II. Abigail’s obsession with power is enough for the reader to think about without throwing the question of her insanity into the mix!


*I apologize that there is no link to provide the text of the missing scene; The Crucible is still in publication and is still under copyright, so there are no online sources of the text.