Spamming And Lobstering

You know I love those spam mails that keep coming into our boxes. The ones that promise to make me "Superman in bed" or "make your love muscle gigantic". They are amusing to read. But one type that is annoying is the blank spam, a more and more common mailing for me these days. Those are sneaky.
Some spam E mailers send blank E mails to check whether an E mail address is valid. If the blank mail doesn't bounce back, they know it's a real address (a Superman or small love muscle in need?) and that they can sell the address to other spammers who send the real thing. It's an effective and cheap way to obtain real E mail addresses. And not all spam is innocuous. Some download spy ware when opened. Even the blank one's sometimes have a white picture embedded ,so small it's hard to see when looking.
But that one can download tracking spy ware into the computer of the receiver. So I guess the best thing to do would be to not open spam mail. That is, if one doesn't want to offer his or her address to the spam world. Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... I still dream of being Superman or of having that gigantic love muscle. I think I'll keep clicking.
Have you heard an bout the case of the "Cruel Lobster Display"? A restaurant in Vicenza, Italy was fined $855 by the ENPA national animal protection board for displaying live lobsters on ice in an attempt to attract diners. The ENPA said the restaurant was abusing the lobsters by subjecting them to a slow death by suffocation.
I guess the ENPA doesn't mind if the lobsters are steamed or boiled to death, but displaying them is too much to bear. Giuseppe Scalesia, the owner of the restaurant, "The Golden Shell", is appealing the ruling that was brought about when an ENPA leader and his two children were "shocked' at seeing the tortured lobster resting on ice (I wonder if they heard lobster screams?) Hehe It may sound crazy to object to the way lobsters are killed before being eaten, but this is not the first animal protection case that has had people barking in Italy. Italy has some of the world's toughest animal protection laws.
Last October for instance, goldfish bowls were banned in Rome, and in Turin a dog owner must walk his or her dog at least three times daily or be subjected to a $600 fine. Animal protection is a noble and good cause, but when taken to extremes such as those two, I think they lawmakers may be barking up the wrong tree.