Persistent Pooping Pigeons Bombard Band – Concert Halted

Pigeon droppings halt Kings of Leon concert

Heavy storms and scorching temperatures have failed to deter rock bands from performing at an outdoor stadium in St. Louis, but a bombardment of pigeon droppings proved too much for the Kings of Leon.

The band halted the Friday night concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre after three songs when the infestation of birds in the arena's rafters dropped their onslaught of feces.

A statement from the band's management company, Vector Management, said bassist Jared Followill (pictured right) seemed to be a particular target of the pigeons, whose droppings were a potential health hazard.

The Riddle of the Rats: Discovered: The Biggest Rat That Ever Lived – or Is It?

Researchers announced today that they have unearthed the remains of the biggest rat that ever lived on this planet.

“The skeletal remains of the robust rodent were found in a cave. The excavations also turned up 13 other species of rodents, 11 of which are new to science, with eight of the rats estimated to have weighed more than 2 pounds (1 kg

When alive, the giant of the bunch weighed some 13.2 pounds (6 kilograms). For comparison, a house rat weighs on average 5 ounces (150 grams). Today's heftiest rats weigh around 4.4 pounds (2 kg) and live in rain forests in the Philippines and New Guinea.”

There’s at least one little detail (forgive the pun) that bothers me.

What about the Capybara (photo right)? I read where it’s the largest living rodent (rat?) today, and that the Capybara measures from 40 to 55 inches long, and the males can weigh up to 135 pounds!

That seems a whole lot bigger than what these, puny by comparison, rodent/rat ancestors who barely tipped the scales in comparison. So what’s the big deal? Are the researchers unaware of the prodigious Capybara? Not likely. Do they consider it something other than a rat? Hmmmm…The Capybara is a rodent. When is a rodent not a rat? None of this makes sense to me.

It gets even more confusing. Read about another rodent with the claim of being the biggest that ever lived. The Josephoartigasia monesi weighed a ton or two, according to scientists, and was bigger than a bull! This guy was a relative to the Capybara:

“An amateur paleontologist discovered the exceptionally well-preserved 20-inch-long fossil skull of the gargantuan rodent — dubbed Josephoartigasia monesi (shown at left)— embedded in a boulder on a beach in Uruguay. Scientists estimate this creature lived roughly 4 million years ago in South America, alongside terror birds, saber-toothed cats, giant sloths and massive armored mammals.”

J. monesi weighed roughly 2,600 pounds on average, perhaps reaching up to 5,700 pounds.”

I’d like to know the REST OF THE STORY (forgive me Paul Harvey). Rodents and rats are same same right? I’m not sure now…Here’s a shout out to anyone who can solve the riddle of the rats for me.

A real nightmare: Bed bugs biting all over the U.S.

More than 95 percent of exterminators across the country report infestations, new survey finds

Forget about fictional, glitter-skinned teen vampires. You’re far more likely to have your blood sucked by bed bugs!

The tiny, sneaky insects are spreading so rapidly across the United States that almost no region or area is unbitten, a new survey suggests. Calls to exterminators nationwide about bed bugs are up 57 percent nationwide in the last five years, according to a new survey by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky. More than 95 percent of 519 U.S. exterminators participating in the survey reported finding at least one bed bug infestation in the past year.

Photos: Sleeping with the enemy

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As It Stands: This column's genesis, anniversary and gnarly toes

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 07/25/2010 01:30:27 AM PDT

Editor's Note: It's been two years since Dave Stancliff became a regular fixture on the Sunday opinion page. In that time, he's generated a great deal of discussion, positive feedback and more than a few angry phone calls. The latter, to most columnists, is almost better than a compliment. Happy anniversary Dave.

First off, no one asked me to give the genesis of this column, but I couldn't think of anything else to write about this week. (comedic pause ... )

”As It Stands” has been featured in the Times-Standard's Sunday opinion page since July 27, 2008. I'd let its anniversary slip by without comment last July. I'm not sure why. More than likely, I plain forgot to note the milestone.

I thought about leading off this column by saying my faithful legions of readers have petitioned me for its history. The problem is, the only regular readers I can think of are either related or friends!

I'm not going to let that discourage me. “As It Stands” was unveiled in 1976 while I was on the editorial staff of The Hornet Newspaper, a campus publication for Fullerton Community College. Instead of my photo by the column, I drew two cartoon legs (cut off at the knee) ending in feet with big gnarly toes. It was really ridiculous and readers loved it.

The next time my column publicly surfaced was in 1981, when I was editor of a little weekly newspaper called The Desert Trail. I had to tone it down from the college version, but still used it as a way of to reach out to readers with an informal platform. Some even called it “folksy.”

That platform became more political over the years, and my usual bizarre and humorous topics gave way to questioning politicians in local government and making observations on national politics.

When I quit writing the column in 1991, I was the managing editor of a group of newspapers (Post Newspapers based in Palm Desert) and was “burned out.” I went to the VA for help. At the time, I didn't realize I had PTSD. I was totally unprepared for the vivid flashbacks that often landed me back in the steaming jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia.

GO HERE TO READ THE REST.

Impressions of the ‘Humboldt Cannabis – A Future Opportunity’ meeting at the Bayside Grange

I got to the Bayside Grange at about 1:00 and there were only 20 or so people around, so I decided to run into Arcata and grab a meatball sandwich at “The Hole in the Wall.” I got back to the Bayside Grange at 1:30 and it was starting to fill up so I parked in a nearby space and ate my sandwich. 

Before the meeting started I got a good seat with my back to the wall (on the left side of the room). I saw a few people I knew, and met Kym Kemp aka Redheaded Blackbelt, a Humboldt blogger (briefly) as she was preparing to get the show on the road.

A friend of mine, Tony (who owns the Humboldt Cooperative) in Arcata, sat down next to me and we talked for a bit. Then the parade of speakers began.

At one point, I had to get up, as my back was killing me, and I went to the rear of the room by a table that was set up by NORML. I lurked in the doorway for another hour. During this time I surveyed the room, checking out the audience, and tried to hear everything the speakers were saying (I barely made out what Hank Sims, the Town Dandy, was saying. He has a soft voice, but a sharp pen. I like his writing style (even though I don’t always agree with him).

I had no problem hearing Kevin Hoover, which is really weird because the last time we talked during a lunch in 2006(!) I was promoting the first Stand Down for veterans in Humboldt County – now an annual event – and I had trouble hearing him speak from across the table.

In fairness, I have an updated hearing aide now (actually a pair) that probably accounts for hearing him well today. I heard Kym fairly well, although at times she backed away from the mike and i couldn’t hear her. Supervisor Mark Lovelace, being a politician, was easy to hear. As a matter of fact, I would have turned down my hearing aide if it were possible. 

It’s been a while since I went out to a public meeting. Crowds cause my PTSD to flair up after a while, and I get paranoid. That’s just part of my reality. I stayed as long as I was comfortable. That translated to shortly after 4:00 P.M. 

My impressions….hmmmmm…hard to say. I saw a very diverse group of people getting along real well. People were respectful of one another. That’s something which always impresses me when it happens in crowds. There was a lot of people there, and if I had to guess, it would be around 140. All in one room qualifies as a crowd in my world.

I sensed a certain excitement among some people, who cheered over things said like “We (Humboldt County) should be able to sell wholesale outside the state.” Just guessing, but this came from the grower contingent somewhere from the right side of the room. It was fun guessing who the growers were. None of the ones I know were there.

I can’t summarize the meeting because I didn’t stay until the end – slated for 6;00 P.M. My last impression was kinda like watching the Berlin Wall fall. It happened in inclements. The audience had an expectancy of a new world, where weed wasn’t going to be demonized anymore. Where weed was going to get the respect it deserved and be legally available to all.

An interesting day and another baby step towards a better world where weed benefits us all. 

 

Strange But True: Home in the sky where owners can always fly

              Boeing 727 House, located in Costa Rica.

 

(images credit: Mr. Vincent Costello, via) For more views and airplane homes Click here.

Are you sitting down too much? It's slowly killing you

Regular workouts don't decrease death risk if you're also a couch potato

The current obesity epidemic in the United States has been attributed in part to reduced overall physical activity.

Illustration source (right)

 

 

 

 

 

"Very few words have a birthday so precise, and so precisely known, as couch potato. It was on July 15, 1976, we are told, that the couch potato came into being, uttered by Tom Lacino of Pasadena, California, during a telephone conversation.

He was a member of a Southern California group humorously opposing the fads of exercise and healthy diet in favor of vegetating before the TV and eating junk food (1973). Because their lives centered on television--the boob tube (1966)--they called themselves boob tubers. Iacino apparently took the brilliant next step and substituted potato as a synonym for tuber. Thinking of where that potato sits to watch the tube, he came up with couch potato.

Or so the story goes, as told in the subsequent registration of Couch Potato as a trademark. In any case, when the new phrase reached the ears of Robert Armstrong, another member of the boob tubers, he drew a cartoon of a potato on a couch, and formed a club called the Couch Potatoes, registered the trademark and began merchandising Couch Potato paraphernalia, from T shirts to dolls. He published a newsletter called The Tuber's Voice: The Couch Potato Newsletter

15 killed in mass panic at Germany's Love Parade

Stampede breaks out in tunnel area during annual techno music festival

A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans crushed 15 people to death and injured dozens at Germany's famed Love Parade festival on Saturday.Thousands of other revelers kept partying at the event in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, unaware of the deadly stampede that started when police tried to block thousands more people from entering the already-jammed parade grounds.

Good news for veterans: V.A. easing medical marijuana rules

Patients may use pot in states allowing it; docs won't prescribe it

The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years.

A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.

PHOTO - David Fox, an Army veteran, at home in Montana. He uses medical marijuana to help quiet the pain from neuropathy.

This is one of the most original dance groups I’ve ever seen

I enjoyed the clever use of people merging into other things – like an elephant for example! If you’ve never seen this group – Pilobolus – take 3:29 minutes out of your schedule and enjoy.

I can’t even imagine how they were able to do what they did, and how many hours of work it must have taken to pull the illusions off. Hats off to talent(s)!