Camping with Kelly

We took the little black dog to the mountains last weekend. We went camping in the Colorado state Forest, which is known for its Moose viewing. We of course once again saw no Moose.




















Of course the squirrel enemy was everywhere.


But unlike the city squirrels, these mountain squirrels had no idea who they were playing with!




They'd scamper up a tree to get away from her, but the dog didn't leave.

They'd come down to see if she was still there and she'd chase them back up the tree. She still can't climb trees too well, but continues to try.

Monday is Doggie comics Day

Strike Two!

August has been a busy month. Yet another rat has fled this sinking ship of state. First Carl Rove, and now US attorney Alberto Gonzales. Alberto, the man who didn't find a single line of the constitution he could bend, resigned this morning with a terse statement to the press and no answers their questions about his reasons.

There she blows!

Fake Steve Jobs has this take on Jim Louderback's (the recently departed editor of PC Magazine) comments about Vista;

Now that I'm no longer working at PC Mag, I can finally tell you the truth. Vista blows. Vista is a boat anchor. Vista paid my salary for the past few years, but now that I'm no longer sucking on the Redmond teat I'm going to play hero and tell you what I didn't dare tell you before.

PeakWaggers

Now your dog can have its own dehydrated food for overnight outings. PeakWaggers is an all-natural human-grade dehydrated pet food with no preservatives or sodium. Flavors include; Chicken Pawmeasan, Dog-Gone Cottage Pie, Barkin' Beef-Barley Stew, Mountain Mutt's Sweet Potatoe Pie, and Waggers Beef Jerky. No news yet of a Squirrel or Cat flavored option.

Kicks for Guns

When I first heard this story, I missed that it was in Florida. I'd assumed it was a program in Afghanistan or Iraq.

An Ocoee man showed up and exchanged the 4-foot-long launcher for size-3 Reebok sneakers for his daughter, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.

Taking advantage of the exchange's no-questions-asked policy, the man was not identified. He told the Orlando Sentinel that he found the weapon in a shed he tore down last week.

"I didn't know what to do with it, so I brought it here," he told the newspaper. "I took it to three dumps to try to get rid of it and they told me to get lost."

Original story here.

Michael Vick Dog Chew Toy

Meet our Mascot, a Pit Bull Mastiff named "Vick" . He is the most lovable and outstanding Pit Bull in the world. He loves to play and enjoys life to the fullest. He is gentle kind and generous. Now, Vick wants to get the word out that animal abuse is wrong and is graciously letting every dog in the world share his favorite chew toy, in hopes of creating awareness.

Get it here.

The problem with ethanol

This is the real crux of the deal. While ethanol from corn is definitely carbon neutral that doesn't mean its a good replacement to gas. The question becomes can we produce enough ethanol from corn crops to offset the fuel costs needed to produce the corn in the first place. Add on top of that the monetary and ecological costs of extra fertilizer and pesticide use. The resulting total costs are greater than the benefit. While its a good deal for the corn producers, who are seeing the value of their crop increase, its not such a good deal for the rest of us who are also seeing the cost of food skyrocket. Other crops such as sugar cane have a much better return for energy spent - but they don't have a powerful lobby.

You want a dog walk?

Kelly demands regular walks. I'm like a mail carrier - no matter what the weather, walk the dog.

God is a computer gamer

According to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, our universe might be somebody else’s computer simulation. The omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be a Sims player. He says, "that there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.”

It’s unsettling to think of the world being run by a futuristic computer geek, although we might at last dispose of that of classic theological question: How could God allow so much evil in the world? For the same reason there are plagues and earthquakes and battles in games like World of Warcraft. Peace is boring, Dude.

See this New York Times article for more.

Added Aug 17
Dilbert has a nice blog post on this too!

iPhone Bill

Kill a tree, buy an iPhone.

Snail-cat

Portable dens! What will those fiendish creatures think of next.

Cheney Bizaroworld

A 1994 interview with Dick Cheney on why an invasion of Baghdad was a bad idea.

Human vs. Dog

(Taken from Dog Eat Doug)

Slow Blogging week

Its been a slow blogging week - for me at least. So I'm posting some more comics.

This one is for KT and his love of the Mainstream Media:

(taken without permission from Candorville)

The pet owners approach to child care:

(Taken without permission from Dog eats Doug)

Monday is Dog Comics Day

Taken without permission from the comics Overboard.

Change about

This one is for Evil Spock.

Cartoon from August 5, 2007 Bizarro.

Colorado Moose

Today I'm taking a slight diversion from photos of South Dakota to share some photos I took yesterday in the Indian Peaks wilderness just north west of Denver.

Here's a shot of Brainard Lake a the end of the road.


Here's Kelly inspecting the local wildlife.


Following a strange sound near the lake brought us upon this single adolescent male.


Getting a little closer we discovered a total of three.


Ironically we spent four days along the norther border of the state looking for Moose - seeing none - and stumbled upon these three virtually right out our back door.

Viral Alzheimer’s Outbreak Hits Capital Hill

The Omnipotent Poobah reports about a wave of Alzheimer’s disease sweeping our elected officials.

There be Bison

On a recent trip to Western South Dakota, we spent sometime in the Badlands and the Black Hills. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing wild bison.

American Bison are often mistakenly referred to as buffalo, but buffalo really only refer to Asian varieties. American Bison were hunted close to extinction during the 19th and 20th centuries. Wild herds were reintroduced from private commercial herds in the early 20th century. The animals have since successfully re-established themselves in both the Badlands National Park and Custer State Park in the Black Hills.

Our first real bison sighting was in the Badlands near dusk.

Prior to seeing any animals, we were repeatedly warned not to approach the bison. This should be obvious, but apparently its not.

The first few groups were on the distant hills.


Eventually we found some nearer to the road.

This group held up traffic proving an opportunity to see them up close.

NASA declares war on Mars!

At dawn today, NASA declared war on Mars by launching its Phoenix Mars Lander.
No telling how the Martians will react.

Thieving Squirrel

Multiple times a day, a squirrel in Finland enters a store to steal Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs. The candies appear as a hollow chocolate egg containing a toy inside. The squirrel carefully removes the foil, eats the chocolate and leaves the store with the toy, and leaves the wrappers behind.

The original article is here.