Month: April 2006

wildlife woes

Looks like I need to take some steps with these raccoons. They’re a little too familiar now that the weather is warmer. We get regular sightings in the backyard each evening and, cute as they are, I know my strawberries and other goodies are doomed if they stick around.

So what are my options? Would you believe powdered coyote urine?

How to Get Rid of Raccoons – Safe, Effective Deterrent:

What is Shake-Away and how does it work to get rid of raccoons? It is a strong, granular repellent that contains the scent of the animal’s most feared rival, the coyote.

Shake-Away Large Animal Powder uses the scent of the coyote to take advantage of the raccoon’s inborn, instinctive fear of its rival, driving the pest from your property.

Simply sprinkle Shake-Away around the area you want to protect, and your animal pest will instinctively stay away from the area “claimed by” the coyote.

Bet that smells nice . . .

Of course, my next question is, what if a coyote smells it and decides he wants to settle in?

Says in the literature you can create an unwelcome atmosphere with some stocking bags and this stuff, so I’ll have to see how that works. Perhaps it will work on squirrels as well.

I’m reminded of a passage in the Diary of Samuel Marchbanks where Marchbanks, a man ahead of his time, decides that burglars and other miscreants could be managed the same way. But his appeal to the RCMP for the appropriate supplies caused them “to blush as crimson as their tunics.”

new pinhole shot

I just got a roll of film back and this is my favorite.

62580005-1

I like the color and the repetition of the curved form. Whether or not the scale is hard to pick up is hard for me to guess: I know what it is, so I can’t judge. Even if you know what it is, I think the perspective makes it a little disorienting.

turn off the tube, turn on your brain

TV Turnoff Week 2006 : Adbusters.org:

TV Turnoff is no ordinary social ritual. Sure, it’s a statement against the dead-end couch culture. But when millions of people let the screen fade to black, they also help build the Media Carta movement – the human rights battle of our information age.

Fewer and fewer people control the media that shapes our worldview. And nowhere does this play out worse than on our televisions, where the corporate agenda reigns supreme. With TV Turnoff and the Media Carta movement, we’re fighting back – for the right of all citizens to access society’s most powerful forms of communication.

I’m sure there are some who find TV edifying or at least useful. I am not one of them. I know there are things worth watching but they are rarely available without costs (ie, a cable package that comes with a lot of other unwanted junk that supposedly justifies the cost but actually makes it not worth getting).

I can’t say I have watched enough to know if it’s good or bad, but from the conversations I hear and the pop-culture references I catch, I don’t think it’s better. And when I consider how much of the pop-culture japes come from the under 10 set, I’m even less impressed.

1 week until Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day – home:

Anyone, anywhere in the world, who makes a pinhole photograph on the last Sunday in April, can scan it and upload it to this website where it will become part of the annual Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day celebration’s online gallery.

Already scouting locations for this. Browsing through the galleries at f295 is quite worthwhile.

the challenge

It’s the body weight challenge here at Thistle Dew. Two of us are competing to lose weight — 10 pounds for your host and 11 for his worthy competitor — and two are trying gain a few pounds — vegetarian children who have been programmed to avoid junk food are hard to fatten up.

My goal is a more reasonable 180, while my challenger is going for 125. I think if I knock off the essentials like chocolate-covered espresso beans — 22o calories per handful, 110 from fat — I stand a chance.

A Benjamin hangs in the balance for the senior staff: the lower division has a Jackson riding on their outcome.

terrorism vs terror, or why movie plot terrorism is not what we need to worry about

Movie Plot Threat Contest: Status Report:

The best plot ideas leverage one or more of those tendencies. Big-ticket attacks leverage the first. Infrastructure and low-tech attacks leverage the fourth. And every attack tries to leverage the fifth, especially those attacks that go on and on. I’m willing to bet that when I find a winner, it will be the plot that leverages the greatest number of those tendencies to the best possible advantage.

I also got a bunch of e-mails from people with ideas they thought too terrifying to post publicly. Some of them wouldn’t even tell them to me. I also received e-mails from people accusing me of helping the terrorists by giving them ideas.

But if there’s one thing this contest demonstrates, it’s that good terrorist ideas are a dime a dozen. Anyone can figure out how to cause terror. The hard part is execution.

Take a look: there are almost 600 comments to this post. I’m sure the terrorists are hitting “Refresh” early and often to make sure they don’t miss anything.

Pink has some questions for the Preznit

YouTube – Pink- Dear Mr President – Live:

Pink performs Dear Mr President Live in NYC. It’s a controversial song from her new album that all people should hear.

I don’t know if “all people” would see beyond the visual of an attractive blond woman condemning the actions of the occupant of the White House. I mean, she can’t be serious or credible if she’s not a doughy white guy, preferably with thinning hair.