30 Sep 2004
An amazing morning

As is my habit, I went out this morning to tend to the meat birds, currently housed in the barn, at about 8:30 am. We have to feed them at least twice a day at this stage, despite their ranging, and I always fill up their water containers in the morning, too.

This morning, I was delayed a bit by having to replace the latch on the gate to the coop area: one of our rams had decided that chicken feed was really tasty, and had made short work of the gate mechanism yesterday to get at it. So it was probably about 9 when I headed back in to the house.

All of the sudden there was mayhem in the paddock: all of laying hens started squawking, flapping their wings and scattering in all directions. The sheep and goats headed under the trees, and from out of the southeast (flying out of the sun, interestingly enough) an enormous bird swooped down on the flock, grabbed one of the chickens and took off towards the old school! When I say "enormous", I mean that the predator's wingspan had to be 5 or 6 feet (1.5 m). The chicken it snatched wasn't one of my little white meat birds: this was a big one, weighing probably 10 pounds(4 kg)!! And it was fast - the whole thing, from the initial chaos to watching the predator disappear over the school took maybe 5 seconds.

Well, I came in and called the Indiana Wildlife Conflict line - and there have been reports of golden eagles in the area! [The photo is from the site.] We have all kinds of hawks around here, and vultures, too, but I've never seen (or heard of) a golden eagle in Indiana...

I can't shoot it: it's still an endangered species, and there's a pretty stiff fine, but if I can document losses the state will reimburse me. They told me to be on the lookout, as apparently once one of these guys finds "easy pickings", he'll be back. Just what I don't need right now ... but I will have to admit that it was really cool to watch!

00:00 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link

Killer hamster ices owner

Is this muderous hamster a relative of the rodent in this film? I just wonder what the plush toys that will undoubtably be made from this incident will look like ...

A Japanese man died after a bite from his pet hamster caused anaphylactic shock, Mainichi Shimbun reports. Ther nameless forty-something succumbed after repeated bites from the animal sensitised his immune system to such a degree that the final mouthful provoked a fatal bout of asthma.

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Drinkers Object to Jack Daniel's Change (AP)

Ah, dilution ... it was 86 proof whiskey, and advertised as "a simple reminder that some things just never change. And shouldn't. This is the old-time whiskey made as our fathers made it.". So of course, they changed it:

Jack Daniel's gets to 80 proof by adding a little more water to the raw whiskey that comes out of barrels after four years at roughly 125 proof, Brashears said.

The company says that this is what customers wanted, after extensive taste testing. However, they've not been touting it in the ad campaigns. Of course,

the company was saving money by adding more water, but Jack Daniel's said any savings were canceled by the expense of having to change its labels.

And if you believe that changing the printing plate for a label costs as much as 1.8% of the output of the distillery, you're probably the kind of person who responds to these kind of emails...

At the very least, the comnpany should be required by the FTC to change it's [now fraudlent] advertising.

AP - If you've noticed that your Jack Daniel's is carrying a little less kick these days, you're probably right. The famed "sippin' whiskey," which advertises a recipe traced back to the nation's first registered distillery, has lowered the alcohol content of its flagship brand, Old No.7 Black Label.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Oracle boss Ellison auditioned bathroom boulders

I was gonna put this in 'Humor', but it's really not funny: it's just, well, weird, amazing and completely outlandish. What must it be like to have so much money you can custom design a shower that contains a boulder?

It reminds me of an old quip my grandfather would make when he ran across something like this: "more money than sense".

Ellison eventually settled on a 30-ton "shower rock", after pretending to shower in front of several stony candidates for his master bathroom in Woodside, Ca. It won't be a stone alone, however: Ellison reportedly has 5,000 tons of Yuba River boulders on his 23-acre Woodside spread, which features a recreation of the Katsura Rikyu gardens in Kyoto.

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

In Japan, Women Can Doze With Man Pillow (AP)

Hmmm, we've had similar items here in the US for years. Except ours are generally female shaped, inflatable, and marketed to men.

AP - After a long night at work as a radio DJ, Junko Suzuki likes to snuggle at bedtime — and she says she's found the perfect partner: a man-shaped pillow.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link