- Yes, world, there are tiger farms and no, Laos won't
continue having them as a feeder system for the illegal trade in the endangered
animals' body parts. According to conservation groups, the Asian nation has promised
to phase out tiger farms, which could help protect the depleted population of
tigers in Asia. Laotian officials made the announcement in South Africa, one
day before the start of a meeting of the cumbersomely named Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.
Tigers, like elephants and rhinos, are a target for kooks who believe that
various parts of the animals’ bodies have tremendous medical and health
benefits. Tiger parts are used in traditional medicine in some Asian countries,
but that doesn’t sway the Wildlife Conservation Society, which works with Laos
on tiger protection. These big-cat lovers are urging other Asian countries with
commercial tiger breeding centers to close them and they and their friends in
the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency claim that Chinese, Thai
and Vietnamese criminal networks are involved in tiger farming and trading.
Yes, not only black market trading in tiger parts, but there are apparently
tiger part cartels running roughshod over the wildlife kingdom, pulling out
suitcases of tiger paws from the trunks of cars and exchanging them for
briefcases of cash at some shady warehouse in the middle of an abandoned
industrial park somewhere in Asia. Getting Laos to stop fueling that world is
one small step forward for tigers and their supporters……..
- Wanna like the popular rapper of the present while still
keeping your hipster cool? Now you can, thanks to Drake making a solid cash
grab by releasing his three most recent recorded projects on vinyl for the
first time. Yes, Drake is ubiquitous when it comes to sports and pop culture
and seems to show up on a new collaboration with one of his hip-hop friends on
a daily basis, but he’s also found time to release his fourth studio album,
'Views,’ back in April and he’s now prepared to drop that project, along with
the Future collaboration 'What A Time To Be Alive' and the surprise-release
mixtape 'If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late' (both released in 2015), on
vinyl. Fans don’t have much advanced warning, as the trio of vinyl releases is slated
to drop Oct. 7. As always, you can pre-order them and in this case - unlike a
digital album release - it might make sense. While there is no numerical limit
on digital copies, these vinyl offerings have a fixed quantity. Coincidentally,
'What A Time To Be Alive' was a digital-only release until now, so fans of
having an actual physical copy of their favorite music in their hands should
enjoy this idea. Then again, most people who collect vinyl copies of albums
merely like to fill the shelves of their homes with them and impress their
visitors with how cool and retro their music collection is. But whatever the
reason, pony up that cash and reserve your copy now………
- Question: Did you know who Seattle Mariners backup catcher
Steve Clevenger was before right now? The answer for everyone not currently
related to Steve Clevenger is clearly no, which means that his sudden notoriety
comes from him either doing something awesome or something awful and in his
case, it’s the latter. Clevenger, like many Americans, has thoughts on the
ongoing unrest following the fatal shooting of a man by police in Charlotte,
North Carolina. His thoughts are hateful and ugly, mind you, but he still has
thoughts. Specifically, he thinks - according to one of his tweets - that,
"Everyone involved should be locked behind bars like animals!" So
everyone involved on those protests should be locked up in a cage? Verrrry
progressive, Steve-O. Predictably, the tweet and a subsequent offensive tweet
did not go over well and within hours, the Mariners issued a statement
denouncing their backup catcher’s words. "While he is certainly free to
express himself, his tweets do not in any way represent the opinions of the Seattle
Mariners," general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. "We
strongly disagree with the language and tone of his comments." The team
said it is reviewing "all internal options" for dealing with
Clevenger and he actually took that cue and issued a non-believable statement
in which he said he was "sickened by the idea that anyone would think of
me in racist terms." Yeah, just because a guy posts a racist tweet, why
would anyone think he’s racist? On the upside, Steve, now people know who you are
even though you’re a journeyman who has
spent time with the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago Cubs over parts of six
seasons since 2011 and has played in a mere 22 games this year in his only
season for the Mariners, batting .221 with one home run and seven RBIs in 68
at-bats……….
- Stealing pumpkins in the fall is bad enough. Stealing
pumpkins from an elderly, widow farmer in rural Connecticut is another level of
scum-baggery entirely. So whoever you are that thieved more than 100 pumpkins
from 88-year-old farmer Teddy Randall, here’s hoping your proud of yourself.
This badass old lady has worked on farms for more than 80 years and her farm in
Lebanon is a place she clearly takes tremendous pride in. "You know it
gives you a lot of satisfaction to put a little seed in the ground and get
this," she said of her crop of pumpkins. "It's always something new
every day.” She runs Our Acres Farm and has for years, doing most of the work
herself even though it takes longer and tires her out more than it used to.
When an unidentified thief rolled up on her roadside stand, which runs on the
honor system and offers all manner of goodies from the garden, and stole
between $200 and $300 of Randall’s pumpkin crop, that thief left no tip and
make off with one-third of her crop. Randall says she’s never had such an issue
before and that people typically leave anywhere between a $1 bill and $10 bill
when they stop to pick up produce. She’s run the produce stand for 30 years and
losing a huge chunk of her supply in a single night was a blow to the farm. "It
was very disheartening," Randall said. "You know, to think somebody
would do that. I feel sorry for them. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes and
I wouldn't want to have a conscience about what I had done." Ever the
optimist, Randall plans to continue using the honor system and hopes the thief
will return the pumpkins or put money in the can at her stand. Odds are, some
good Samaritan will even if the thief doesn’t grow a conscience………
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