Dog Saves Climbers

Three climbers stranded on Mt. Hood credit their dog as key to their survival.

Rescuers reached three stranded climbers on Mount Hood Monday, finding them in good condition after they spent a night huddled with their dog to stave off the whipping wind and snow 7,400 feet up the peak.

Yet one more example of how dogs are loyal companions to humans, while cats simply try to take over the world. ;-)

Happy Mardi Gras

Happy Fat Tuesday to everyone. If you're new to Mardi Gras see this link or the official site

KT Cat gets its first Troll

My old friend over at KTCatspost has gotten their first Troll. For those new to such things, according to Wikipedia a troll is

... a person who enters an established community such as an online discussion forum and intentionally tries to cause disruption, often in the form of posting messages that are inflammatory, insulting, incorrect, inaccurate, absurd, or off-topic, with the intent of provoking a reaction from others. Trolls can also be existing members of such a community that rarely post and often contribute no useful information to the thread, but instead make argumentative posts in an attempt to discredit another person, more often than not based on what they thought was said rather than what was actually said by the other person, concentrating almost exclusively on facts irrelevant to the point of the conversation, with the intent of provoking a reaction from others.

This Modern World

How bad things happen!

Happy year of the Golden Pig

According to Chinese Folklore the Golden year of the Pig occurs once in every 600 years and will ensure that a baby born on this year will experience a prosperous and wealthy life.

Chinese folklorists and historians doubt this belief.

... folklore professor, Joo Young-ha, at the Academy of Korean Studies rebuts the theory. He explained that if the year 2007 is the golden pig year which comes every 600 years, there should be records about the special year written in the ‘Taejong Sillok,’ archives of King Taejong. King Taejong ruled the Joseon Dynasty 600 years ago. But there are no such records, which makes him believe the myth was made not long ago.

Idaho Wolf Project a Success Despite Neglect.

A group of Canadian gray wolves introduced into Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness have prospered beyond the dreams of federal recovery goals despite the neglect and hostility of state authorities.

The management of Idaho's wolf recovery program was handed over to the Nez Perce Tribe after the State of Idaho declined the responsibility. Despite inadequate funding, the wolf population has grown to twice that of Yellowstone's, to more than 650 animals. It is estimated that Idaho has more wolves than Montana and Wyoming combined. Most importantly, the wolves and the live stock community have learned to coexist. So what was Idaho governor Butch Otter's response to this success, to call for the introduction of wolf hunting.

While I can sympathize for the desire to stabilize Idaho's wolf numbers, too much work was put into this recovery to simply destroy the animals. Especially since current livestock conflicts are not the impetus for reducing the population. If the governor must reduce their numbers, he should be encouraged to find new homes for these animals. Most of the North East and upper Midwest are over run with deer and would make ideal habitat. Trapping and relocating the wolves won't be easy, and it won't be cheap, but its the right thing to do.

Fox's answer to "The Daily Show"

The Fox Noise Channel's attempt to rip of the success of Jon Stewart is their The 1/2 Hour News Hour. Salon asks if they hire[d] monkeys to write it? I'd say that statement was insulting to primates. What I saw was sadder than the last decade of Saturday Night Live. It was just terrible! The only vaguely entertaining part was the intro with racist comedian Rush Limbaugh and bat-shit crazy Ann Coulter playing themselves.

Strange how the far right thinks that a racist lying drug addicted misogynist pig and a fascist self-hating closet lesbian represent neo-conservative values - then again perhaps they do! Let the feces slinging begin...

China's Glorious new Environmental Program

I'm speechless. I can't think of anything to add to this. The original link is here.

Local government officials in China have come up with a novel solution for restoring old quarry sites - spray paint the offending area green.

The no-nonsense take on land remediation took place at Laoshou Mountain in Yunnan province where, instead of costly and time consuming re-foresting of the disused quarry, forestry officials hired a team of seven men to spray the mountainside with garish bright green paint.

The job took 45 days and many people living near the mountain were forced to abandon their homes because of the fumes.

I've also heard that when local officials were asked as to why they did this, their response was that they were told to from above!

Utter Shock

Imagine my utter shock at seeing, when I turned on the tv this morning, that bloated collection of privedged Americans called the Senate was in session. The horror. Imagine having to work on their weekends, just like many real Americans. I can't imagine how they must have whined, given the protests that followed Pelosi's demand that congress work a full five day week.


(image from Zaius Nation - article here.)

Larvets

Yum Yum!

Larvets - The Original Worm Snax. Now with Spicy Mexican flavoring. Real FDA approved insect larva. These mealworms (the larvae of a grain-eating beetle) come in three mouth-watering flavors: BBQ, Cheddar Cheese and Mexican Spice.