- Sandhill cranes are the badasses of the wild bird world, in case that
wasn’t already public knowledge. Any doubters can now shut their mouths and
fall in line because residents of Melbourne, Fla. are currently feeling the
wrath of these avian attackers. There are already plenty of hazards on the roads
of a state with a median age of 87 (approximate), but motorists in Melbourne
have encountered more problems in recent days with angry birds that have been
pecking at cars and standing in the middle of the intersection at NASA
Boulevard and Evans Road near the Melbourne Airport. Drivers have reported
angry birds strolling out into traffic, pecking at tires and windshields in an
attempted show of fowl power. Cranes have been darting and dodging moving cars
like a real-life game of Frogger and some drivers became so frustrated that
they literally stopped their vehicles, got out and tried to shoo the birds
away. Even that didn’t work, as the cranes simply shake off the rebuke and come
back moments later. A male crane appears to be the leader of the pack, but there
is also a female nearby and both of them are guarding a pair of eggs in the
vicinity. Some concerned people have contacted local wildlife trappers to take
care of the problem, but those trappers have no way of stepping in because The
Man – a.k.a. the federal government – protects the birds. Instead, trapper James
Dean built a barrier to protect both the birds and the cars. "If there's a
car that's right near the nest with the traffic being backed up at the light,
once she gets back to the rope, she doesn't fly over it or go under it, she
backs away and goes back to her nest," Dean said. Florida Fish and
Wildlife Commission officials are unsure of how long the cranes have lived in
this particular spot, but said the eggs typically take about a month to
hatch……..
- If no one makes a movie about what has happened in Ukraine
in the past six months, a great opportunity will have been missed. There have
been occupations of government buildings, coup attempts, riots, plots for
commando raids….and that’s just an average week in this madness. The sh*t got
even realer over the weekend as the country’s acting president reportedly
called an emergency meeting of Kiev's national security council after
pro-Russian protesters seized control of government buildings in the country's
eastern region. "At 9 p.m. a meeting will take place of the Ukrainian
council of security and defense because of the situation in the east of
Ukraine," a spokeswoman for Acting President Oleksander Turchinov said.
The rioters in this case donned the uniforms of Ukraine's now-defunct riot
police and seized control of police headquarters in Donetsk, the eastern city
that is one of the flashpoints of a wave of pro-Russia protests, hours after
armed men seized local police headquarters and local branch of the Security
Service in a nearby city. It was merely the latest chapter of chaos in eastern
Ukraine, which has a large Russian-speaking population and was also the support
base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president who was ousted in February
after months of protests in the capital city of Kiev. Those who seized the
police station in Slovyansk demanded a referendum on autonomy and possible
annexation by Russia., mirroring demands made by other troubled eastern cities
following a referendum in Crimea last month in which voters opted to split off
from Ukraine. The rage also spread to Kramatorsk, another town near Slovyansk,
where protesters flew the flag of the Independent Donetsk Republic above the
local administration building. Tales of men in balaclavas armed with automatic
rifles and pistols and revived riot police squads should have the world
watching with heightened interest in the days ahead because at this point,
there is no way of knowing what’s next………
- Lots of luck to you, Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. You have revived
floundering or never-were careers in the past and given some time in the
spotlight to players not good enough to hack it in the NFL, but this could be
the steepest challenge yet. This week, former NFL star Chad Johnson/Ochocinco will
work out this week with the team and the Alouettes are hopeful that Johnson can
assist in bettering the 8-10 record they posted last season, possibly even
returning them to the glory they attained when they won consecutive Grey Cup
titles in 2009 and 2010. Alouettes general manager Jim Popp released a
statement confirming that contract talks "have escalated" recently
between the team and Johnson, who has wandered the football wasteland since he
last set foot on an NFL field in 2011. "We do expect to meet with Chad
Johnson and work him out in Vero Beach, Fla. this week," Popp said in the
statement. "Talks did take place and have escalated over the last
week." The last the football world saw Johnson, he was being released by
the Miami Dolphins in August 2012 after he was arrested for allegedly
head-butting his then-wife, Evelyn Lozada. The six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver
was released from jail after serving a week of a 30-day term for a probation
violation and oddly enough, no team in any league has shown a real interest in
signing a has-been, attention-whore of a receiver with rapidly eroding skills –
much like Johnson’s old rival Terrell Owens has learned in the past few years.
Sure, Johnson had seven 1,000-yard seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and also
was a member of the New England Patriots team that reached Super Bowl XLVI, but
his drama and distraction potential vastly outweighs what little he could bring
to a team at this point. That is, of course, unless that team plays in a
third-tier league in another country………..
- Science has done done it again, y’all. Explaining that
which does not need explained because it is COMMON KNOWLEDGE TO EVERYONE WITH
AN IQ ABOVE 20 is what science excels and and this last non-revelation is a
real doozy. The brilliant people in lab coats at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) have culled together data from a study was
conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and
determined that people who dine at restaurants are more likely to get food
poisoning than those who don’t. That’s right, allowing a stranger with an
unknown level of cleanliness and kitchen ability to cook your food and possibly
spit in it, blow their nose over it or otherwise taint in any way they choose
could be a problem. For the study, the CSPI researchers studied 10,408 food
poisoning outbreaks from 2002 through 2011.
According to government data, more
than 1,610 food poisoning cases took place over that nine-year period and a
whopping 28,000 people fell ill
after eating in restaurants, while 893 outbreaks sickened about 13,000 people
who did not go outside to eat. Even the amateur mathematician can break it down
and know that going out to eat doubles a person’s chances for a nasty case of
food poisoning. The researchers also theorized that the number of food
poisoning cases is likely much higher than reported.
"Underreporting of
outbreaks has reached epidemic proportions. Yet the details gleaned from
outbreak investigations provide essential information so public health
officials can shape food safety policy and make science-based recommendations
to consumers,” CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal said. The
jarring truth is that roughly one in six Americans gets sick and 128,000 are
hospitalized and 3,000 die due to food-borne diseases each year. The more you
know………
- Take notice, “Game of Thrones.” The strain the
über-popular HBO series feels for being based on popular books and having its fate tied to
literary works is one it shares with the new film “Divergent” and perhaps
“Thrones” can take a cue from one of its peers. “Divergent” hit theaters last
month and performed moderately well, but that doesn’t mean there won't be
sequels. The second book in the series would seem to be fodder for a second
movie….and it will be, along with a third one as well. In order to bilk as much
money as possible, er, provide fans with as much of the tale to enjoy on the
big screen as possible, Lionsgate has announced plans to split the book into
two films. The first sequel, “Insurgent,” will be released on March 20, 2015
and from there, it is on to book No. 2. It will spawn “Allegiant – Part 1,”
which will hit theaters on March 18, 2016, and its successor, which will hit the
local multiplex one year later on March 24, 2017, the studio announced. The dystopian
thriller based on the young adult book series by author Veronica Roth stars Shailene
Woodley as teen heroine Tris Prior, who becomes a threat to the
government-enforced system as her multiple dominant traits make it difficult
for her to fit into society. The first film in the franchise has so far banked
$116.6 million at the box office and that is more than enough to get Lionsgate
geeked about another one. It’s a similar strategy to the one Lionsgate is using
for the final two installments of The
Hunger Games franchise. “The
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” will be released in November 15 and its
successor will follow one year later. If there is another popular young adult
book out there with enough volumes to yield multiple sequels, now would be a
great time for rival studios to snatch up their rights and put a screenwriter
on the project before Lionsgate jumps on it too……….
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