Thursday, July 15, 2010

Killer Beaver is safe for work - but not for your dog!

You can have your rattlesnakes and your black widow spiders, your pesky bears and the odd cougar, but we here in North America take them in stride. One rather expects predators to be dangerous predators.


But when cute and tasty critters start behaving badly, it IS alarming!


Killer beaver warning issued in Alberta!

CALGARY — City officials in Red Deer, Alta. are warning pet owners to be on guard for an aggressive beaver that killed a dog and injured at least one other in an off-leash park.
On Monday, the city's parks department received a complaint from Alberta Animal Services that a beaver in northeast Red Deer had fatally attacked a dog while it was swimming in the water, said parks superintendent Trevor Poth.
Poth said it's believed the same beaver is responsible for injuring another dog that was also swimming at the time a couple weeks earlier.

Yes, gentlemen. They do grow teeth.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Blogging at Politicususa

I'm glad to belatedly announce that I'll be blogging regularly at Politicususa, concentrating on ethics and the consequences of being led by and living next to those who lack them.


I've already got a few posts up covering political, religious and media ethics.

It's not difficult to find something to write about these days, the difficulty is not slitting one's wrists while doing the background research. But there's something even MORE difficult.

Keeping it under a thousand words; THAT is hard!

I have not been asked to moderate my viewpoint, and I'm a devoutly anti-authoritarian pragmatist. I'll admit to being nearly reflexively anti-authoritarian, but in large part that has come from a lifetime of seeing simplistic, authoritarian responses to complex social and economic issues - and seeing them fail catastrophically - from the Right AND the Left. That, and a few hundred less political and more personal examples led me to believe that you can't change what people are; you can only help them be whoever they are better. 

In Canada - we pay lip service to authoritarians, often trying out such approaches - but then quietly and without much fanfare, simply adjusting our course toward the centre and to the benefit of the vast majority of Canadians. This is why our banks are properly regulated, our halt and lame are well-cared for and still considered valued members of our communities, and both of these things mean that we have a secure middle class, for they are less at risk from being robbed by the rich or the poor.


Of course, the thing about being genuinely nice and smug people is that it takes work. You really have to invest in the things you wish to be smug about. We like being known of as a decent, inoffensive people. God help you if you mess with that, we will fuck you up.


You Yanks - maybe you ought to think on what you wish others to see you as.


For, well, most of you ARE terribly concerned about "what people might think," but paradoxically, completely oblivious to what other people who are not actually subscribing to the same websites and attending the same churches really DO think of you. 


It is neither complementary, nor is it without cause. 

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Breaking News! @Strombo Returns!

...from the CBC, who don't seem to understand how email news alerts work.




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Spain wins World Cup
Spain has won the World Cup for the first time. Andres Iniesta scored late in extra time to give the Spaniards a 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Sunday's final in Johannesburg.


My first reaction...

...I get to watch The Hour again! 

Oh, and Spain won the World Cup. Let me click that link to see if anything interesting actually happened... well crap. There isn't one. Here you go, fixed that for ya.

Roundup

Who's More Conservative, Ronald Regan or Barack Obama?
If you think that's an absurd question, you're not alone. We had this discussion on The Dylan Ratigan Show when I was filling in for him on MSNBC and both of my guests thought it was absurd. A conservative websiteled with the headline that it was absurd (though they did not present one single fact to back up their claim). Except as it turns out, based on the facts, it is a really hard question to answer. And it would be absurd to claim otherwise.
Science Blogs, We have a Problem 

Much consternation over at the home of science bloggingScienceBlogs. The forum for the brilliant OracPharyngulaMolecule of the Day, and countless other insightful, funny and informative blogs has decided upon a bizarre new strategy in sourcing new posts. As of yesterday, the platform will host a new blog written by food giant PepsiCo, all about the company's specialist subject of refreshing sugary drinks and their benefits for dental and dietary health.
Sorry, no, PepsiCo's scientific staff will be writing about nutrition on the new Food Frontiers blog. I'll give you a moment to get back on your chair.

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