There was an article in the New York Times recently about people who are apparently choosing to debark their dogs by taking them to the vet and having the vet cut out the animal’s vocal cords. These aren’t the kind of people you would think of as being cruel to animals; they’re likely educated folks who theoretically love their pets and who certainly have some excess cash if they can afford this type of thing. And I have to ask … wtf?!?

I love animals but I am by no means an animal rights activist. In fact, by the standards of how San Franciscans spoil their dogs, I was probably not even a good “mom” to dogs. (Not only would I never call myself my dog’s mom but I’d also never dress it in clothes, buy it gourmet food or have it stay in a hotel while I was away.) So I’m pretty average when it comes to my pets. But there was a definite part of me that stood up and screamed in horror when I read this article.

The people who are doing this have their justifications for it. They say it doesn’t hurt the dog. They say that the alternative would be to give up the dog because its barking is out of control and it would probably end up euthanized so it’s better to just debark it. They say, “hey, this surgery has been going on for decades so it’s clearly not that bad”.

I have to disagree. I’ve owned lots of dogs. I’ve seen why they bark. They bark because they’re defending themselves or their home, because their excited or because they want to get your attention. To take out your pet’s vocal cords so that instead of barking it just makes a wheezing sound is just not right. Just not right. Justify it however you want, I’m not buying it.

And frankly, it seems like the owners just shouldn’t be do owners if they feel the need to do this. They clearly aren’t doing it for the dog. They’re doing it because they’re annoyed by the barking or because their neighbors are complaining about the noise or because they want their attack dogs to be silent predators. It’ selfish. Get the dog trained. Move to a dog-friendly area. Get a cat.

So I have just learned about something called The Big Green Egg that has me totally fascinated. The product itself is a really unique type of barbecue grill that I do find interesting. However, what I’m truly finding intruiging is that there is a group of enthusiasts for this product that have really grown up around it to support it as a community.

First things first, what’s the product? Well, The Big Green Egg is a charcoal barbecue used for both smoking and grilling of food outdoors. What’s particularly cool about this product is that you can purchase some add-on accessories that also turn it into an outdoor oven. That means that you can grill steak and bake bread from the same device all while enjoying your backyard. Cool stuff.

In fact, this is so cool that the product has a huge following. People who adore the Big Green Egg actually call themselves (and others like them) “eggheads“. They communicate with one another to share stories about their use of the Big Green Egg along with providing tips, suggestions and recipes for one another. They frequently communicate through online groups and forums.

However, a lot of eggheads take their interest even further than this. They attend conventions and festivals about the Big Green Egg. The main feature event is called Eggtoberfest. It happens every year in Georgia where the headquarters of the The Big Green Egg company are located. Over 1500 people have been known to attend the event in one year. Many of these people also attend smaller festivals called EggFests; there are hundreds of these festivals around the globe.

Why do I find this interesting? It’s not because I’m a fan of the The Big Green egg, per se, although it does sound like a cool machine. Instead, I’m really just fascinated by the things that people get passionate about. I, personally, can’t imagine getting so excited about a product like this that I would travel to attend an event to talk about it. But then, I’ve been known to attend Blogger Meetups, MacWorld and burlesque festivals - interests which would all probably baffle the Eggheads.

How is it that we come by our passions? Maybe it doesn’t matter. What matters is that there is a like-minded community of people for almost every possible interest that you might have. I think it’s terrific if you can find that community no matter what it is that you get passionate about!

I used to be really opposed to stereotyping anything based on gender. However, over the years, I’ve learned that a lot of the stereotypes that we make provide interesting insight into the differences between men and women. I don’t necessarily think that the stereotypes are all true but they offer generalizations that can lead us to draw some conclusions about different things. This is most true about relationships but it’s also true about other things. For example, there are some stereotypes about shopping habits that are based on gender.

One area of this that interests me is the difference in how men and women shop for consumer electronics. The way that they shop for smartphones, for example, is quite different. Surveys indicate that men are more likely to buy these devices than women are. However, women are more likely to take into account all of the different factors that go into the phone in order to make the best selection.

Women are more interested in all of the different features of these phones. They want a phone that has a good camera, a great text message plan and tons of multimedia features. For this reason, they tend to be pickier about smartphones than men are. It takes them longer to make a decision about these phones and it may mean that they get more confused or frustrated when buying one. As a result, more men have smartphones than women at the current time.

Looking around at the people I know, I’d have to say that these things seem to be true. Most of the women I know either don’t have a smartphone or they took a really long time to choose one. Most of the men that I know do have a smartphone (and frequently upgrade to new ones) but they don’t actually use tons of the features that the phone offers. Hm, interesting.

I believe that it’s important to get your dog spayed or neutered. I know all of the good reasons for this. The most important reason is that there is a huge problem with pet overpopulation in America which results in a lot of unwanted and uncared for animals. I support getting your dog spayed.

However, I have to confess that not all of my pets over the years were spayed or neutered. When I was growing up, we had one dog that my parents didn’t bother to get spayed. every year we’d have a litter of puppies to enjoy and to learn from. Watching those babies be born and grow up was educational and exciting.

Even as an adult, I had one dog that I didn’t get neutered. I had a female and a male dog. The female was already spayed. I put off neutering the male and then more and more time passed and I’d never done it. He was almost always kept in the yard but there were definitely some times that he got out. I admit that my failure to neuter him was irresponsible because of that.

So I’m thinking about the pros and cons of spaying your dog. When I weight them against one another, I come out of it believing that almost everyone should get their dog spayed or neutered. It’s the responsible thing to do. However, I can see some reasons that you might not get your dog spayed.

The main reason that you wouldn’t get your dog spayed is because you want to breed the dog. This could be because you’re breeding a dog for money or it could be a more general case like when I was a kid and we liked having puppies around. You have to consider the consequences of your actions if you want your pet to have puppies but for some people it’s going to be the right thing to do.

What do you think? Is it always wrong not to get your pet spayed? Or is it acceptable for some people to choose not to neuter their pets?

I almost never watch the news. I almost never read the news. And yet, I do tend to more or less know what’s going on in the world. It’s hard to avoid news completely. It comes in through posts on Twitter and headlines on blogs. So it’s not that I stay out of touch with what’s going on and what people think about it; I just rarely get that news from traditional sources.

And what I’ve seen lately about swine flu pretty much sums up why that is. The media is designed to sensationalize news and to create what amounts to a sense of panic about what’s happening in the world around us. Every time that I turn on a news program I start to worry that I’m going to get murdered or lose my home or catch the latest deadly flu that’s going around.

And while I think it’s good to know what’s happening around you, I think it’s a lot better to get that information first hand from actually experiencing what’s going on around you than to get it from the headline reports about what others say is going on.

Blogs and social networking comments seem to provide a more well-rounded, balanced picture of what’s happening with real people in the world. They say, “yeah, I’m scared of this but I’m also doing x,y,z and can’t go crazy worrying about it right now”. Perhaps that’s why I liked these ten funny videos about swine flu. They remind us to put our fears into perspective, to laugh at our lives and to socialize with those around us instead of locking ourselves up in our fears.

Quick - think of the ways that you could use your phone to catch a criminal. Obviously if you witnessed a crime in action then you could call the police with your mobile phone to report the crime. And if you were a victim in a situation such as a kidnapping then you might text to get out of trouble and get your captor caught. But did you know that there are quite a few other ways that criminals are caught because of cell phones?

Take a look at these ten ways cell phones catch criminals. You might be surprised by a few of them. For example, did you know that cell phones emit a certain smell and that the same dogs that are used to find drugs can be used to find cell phones in certain illegal situations? There is some strange stuff going on out there in the world of fighting crime.

Now, get creative … I’d love to hear your thoughts on the most creative ways that we, as average citizens, could use cell phones to catch criminals in the act so that they would be caught. Share in the comments …

AskMen.com recently published their list of the top cities that guys might want to move to in 2009. Why would women be interested in this list? Because all of the cities that were recommended were cited as being full of cosmopolitan life, culture, entertainment, beauty and fun. Women who want to find guys who are interested in that way of life will find themselves with a better chance in those cities.

The top three cities on the list were Chicago, Barcelona and San Francisco. That’s an interesting mixture of places. Just compare Chicago and San Francisco for a moment - Chicago is a huge sports-loving, music-rich city and San Francisco is a much smaller, arts-loving, tech-loving spot. And yet, what they share in common is a strong sense of community and a vibrant energy, something also found in beautiful Barcelona.

Another theme that ran through the list provided by AskMen.com was that these cities are great places to find women. However, they weren’t just for finding any women - they were for finding smart and interesting women. This means thta the guys that are paying attention to the list are guys that may actually be interested in different facets of you beyond your availability and your looks. That takes things up a notch right there!