R.I. is neither a road, nor island. Discuss.

*I should put a disclaimer here -- some photographs posted may be difficult to look at.

Now I really hate to learn anything from any of my classes, but it turns out I did unfortunately pick up a few things throughout the semester. Just recently, we were assigned a final paper based on the study of emotions in animals. Based off one of the required readings taken from the New York Times article, An Elephant Crackup?, Charles Siebert brought to light some strange and terrible things going on in the elephant community in Africa. Apparently, elephants have been going around not only destroying villages and killing without provokation, but have also been raping and killing rhinoceroses.

Colleen and I have both agreed to write to Mr. Colbert and alert him to this growing threat: polar bears are a thing of the past. Make way for elephants, who are normally quite docile and loving creatures. Attempts to understand this new and alarming behavior has led right back to the source: humans. After years of poaching and often ruthless methods of killing for ivory (the poachers, as Siebert explains, often leave the baby elephants tied to the mother to come back for them later), elephants are now seeking their revenge...in a way.

In biological studies, the elephants, as a result of the deterioration of the vital family structure on which the kindly beasts thrive on, have recently been discovered to possess smaller hippocampuses - the part of the brain dealing with so many complex emotions. Elephants, as well as gorillas, are known to have exceedingly developed emotions, the latter being very adept at reading emotional signals far better than humans! It is also known that elephants bury their dead (look up elephant graveyards on Google) and often lag behind the group to watch over the body and even protect it from predators.

Going on to more disturbing things I randomly found today, a python bit off a little more than it could chew. Devouring a full alligator, the python apparently couldn't hold its own and...well...just look at the picture.

On an entirely different note - and I don't mean to once more rag on Heather's beloved country - Canada has a very unusual welcome center...but its not for humans. Check it out: http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/roadside-paranormal4.htm

I apologize for stealing this from Majority of Two (Sorry, Jo!), but it was just too good. Watch and giggle with warmth: