Perhaps They Need to Visit Where The HOchieS Live

Thanks to Bughie J. for pointing out this story, taken from CNN

Scientists baffled by mysterious acorn shortage

Story Highlights

Naturalists are baffled this fall by a shortage of acorns in the eastern U.S.

Residents in some areas report plenty of acorns, while others have seen none at all

Acorn growth runs in cycles, so a lean year may be normal after last year's big crop

Some scientists fear the shortage will affect squirrel populations

source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/12/acorn.shortage/

The real reason I wanted to write this story about the plague carriers I'm so obsessed with, was for this picture -



What a freakin' hilarious picture. Bwahahaha.

Currently listening to: "Freak Show" by Abingdon Boys School, from Songs for Death Note The Movie: A Tribute.

Greatness

It is quite possibly, the coolest seagull eva'.

For Once In Our Lives, Lamb Korma Is Not Something We Want To Eat Today

Vets set to put down seven-legged lamb

Animal in New Zealand a hermaphrodite and ‘happy’ but badly deformed

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 2:53 p.m. ET Aug 2, 2007

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A lamb with seven legs was born in New Zealand but so badly deformed that it was to be destroyed, a local newspaper reported.

The lamb was born with an extra set of front legs and three back legs, the Ashburton Guardian newspaper, at Ashburton on the South Island, reported.



Farmer Dave Callaghan found the lamb in his field. Two of its legs hung useless behind the forelegs. The lamb walked using its two forelegs and three healthy hind legs.

"I have never seen anything like that," he said.

Veterinarian Steve Williams said the lamb was also hermaphrodite, and was missing a part of its bowel so was unable to pass feces.

He said it was this latter problem, rather than the fact it had seven legs, that meant it would have to be destroyed.

"It's quite a happy bright wee lamb, he's just slowly going downhill really," Williams said. "To keep it alive is probably inhumane really."

Williams said he believed an error during embryo formation had resulted in the lamb’s being born polydactyl — with many legs — a condition that occurs once in several million sheep.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Places to add to the list of "The HOchieS Won't Be Going There": New Zealand.

You know, if that lamb had just one more leg, we would have had a new species of spider.

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

::singing::

Spider Lamb, Spider Lamb

Dodaars

Contrary to popular belief, the dodo was not hunted into extinction by humans for its delectable meat (in fact, sources reveal that the meat may have actually been unsavory) or by humans directly.

Rather, animals such as the Crab-eating Macaque may have played a role in the Dodo demise of the 17th Century.

However, I'm not even sure those things exist! According to this photo found on www.wikipedia.org,



I don't see any crab-eating macaques around here, do you?

All I see is a popsicle-fancying macaque.

Two Dead Animals

Angry Squirrel Finished Off by Crutch

BERLIN (AP) -- An unusually aggressive squirrel attacked three people in a German town before its last victim finished it off with a crutch, police said Wednesday.

The rodent jumped through a living-room window in Passau, on the Austrian border, on Tuesday and bit its first victim. With the squirrel hanging on by its teeth, the woman ran out into the street, where she managed to shake the animal off.

The squirrel then bit a builder before fleeing into a nearby garden, where it bit a 72-year-old man who eventually killed it with his crutch, police said.

The dead animal was to be tested for rabies.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

=,(

And now for this story, which is not as traumatic to the HOchies but perhaps plenty to others -

Turtle causes Parkway wreck, then dies

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 9:38 AM

UPPER TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Why did the turtle cross the road?

We'll never know, but it sure caused one heck of an accident.

A woman who swerved to avoid hitting the amphibian as it crawled across the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway Tuesday afternoon lost control of her car, crashed through a guardrail and tumbled down an embankment before the car flipped over onto its roof.

Saranne Goldinger, 65, of Cape May, was wearing a seat belt and was not critically injured, State Police said. Her car, however, was heavily damaged.

The turtle fared even worse. A vehicle that had been driving behind Goldinger flattened the critter.

"All of that for nothing," Trooper Scott Farkas told The Press of Atlantic City for Wednesday's newspapers.

A tous des Poulardes avec quatre jambes

SOMERSET, Pennsylvania (AP) -- -- Henrietta the chicken was living inconspicuously among 36,000 other birds at Brendle Farms for 18 months -- until a foreman noticed she had four legs.

"It's as healthy as the rest," the farm's owner, Mark Brendle, told The Daily American.

Brendle's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, named the chicken Henrietta after the discovery Thursday. The bird has two normal front legs and, behind those, two more feet. They are of a similar size to her front legs but don't function. The chicken drags her extra feet behind her at the farm in in Somerset, Pennsylvania.

In 30 years of farming, Brendle said, he's never before seen a chicken with four legs.

There's no definitive reason why such deformities happen, said Cliff Thompson, a retired professor of genetics at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. He said it could be an accident of development, akin to a sixth toe on a cat.

Brendle said he jokingly suggested to his family that it sell Henrietta in an Internet auction, but Ashley objected.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

I don't even have a real comment for this article other than ew.

Squirrels & Planets

Squirrel Knocks Out Power to 5,000

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) -- A wayward squirrel invaded a power substation and left more than 5,000 homes and businesses without electricity.

Duke Energy restored the service from the South Main Street substation near Wildcat Creek after about an hour Sunday night.

"We lost the squirrel and 5,039 customers for the space of an hour," Duke spokesman Rob Norris said.

The outage included much of the city's central neighborhoods west of U.S. 31.

So here's the thing, squirrels have been tearing up the place it seems in the past week or so.

There's this story (and by the way, I'm very disturbed by the quote 'we lost the squirrel' - wtf happened to it?! They murdered the poor little bastard, didn't they?! Awww, poor boo boo bitch) and then there's the story of the squirrel who terrorized peeps in Florida. He bit and scratched his way into stardom...uh, infamy. And then he died. He was truly a bitch. But as you all know, squirrels are plague carriers. But since these squirrels were doing a service to the world by hatin' on Floridians and people from Indiana, then kudos to them! Har Har.

And now for a sad note...

The Planet Pluto is under scrutiny by scientists who are considering giving it the axe. They think that Pluto may not be a planet at all. 8 planets in the solar system? That's madness.
If Pluto makes the cut then something like 33 'planets' will make it as well and we'll have one happy solar system - full of dead rocks. Awesome.

What's the bottom-line though? ::tear:: Poor Pluto...

The D.C. Blog

Work is overrated but much more fun when you know that by 2 p.m. you'll be on a road trip with good friends!
Thanks for making work overrated stupid traffic - we didn't actually hit the road until 3.30 p.m. That extra hour and a half really killed it.

Being stuck in the car for 9 hours when the trip was supposed to be 4 hours is not good times. Can someone tell me if George Washington had as much trouble crossing the Delaware as we did? Delaware may need to be a part of the new Axis of Evil.

No one needs to tell me about New Jersey being hell, I already know because where else do you have people driving around in their cars with multi-coloured rollers in their heads?

At least we had interesting times watching and taking incriminating photos of sketch people driving while on their cellphones and doing recon missions on MC while he was on his cellphone. There were such classic lines as:

MC "You don't have time for me when I'm in Brooklyn..."
X, singing off to the side "All I need is the air that I breathe."

Finally at 11.30 we made it and even though we were cranky it was alright because what followed was fun save the part where more crankiness ensued the night after...and the day after that. Heh Heh...

After much laughing and HOchie 1 telling us that she could hear MC from her hotel room two doors down, we settled in and slept until morning, which brought me an awesome breakfast of a belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. Now, it's only awesome because diners insist on screwing me over with their lack of bwwsawc.

Then came the walking. We walked all over D.C. and explored the monuments. It was there I had a few words with Lincoln, Slave Daddy. Aims was not impressed by my reasoning behind the title but Mitch and I know the real deal with the 16th President of the USA.

And it was there that the ducks had a few words with me or rather, showed me their asses. Man, I hate those bitchin' ass ducks.

We then took the shady metro to the Washington Zoo. The Metro is nothing like NY. The ticket system is shady. It's not simple like NY leaving me grounded in my belief that NY is still number 1 - yeah!!!

Before we could actually get to the zoo, we had to go up "The Escalator To Hell" or was it Heaven? Not sure but whatever it was, it took 2 minutes and 42 seconds to ride. Crazy!
The zoo was fun minus the double dose of annoying frickin' Behemoths. Grrrr.

Why did this happen though? What's up with animals in this place showing me their asses?!

But what was really hella awesome - my biatch Komodo Dragon. I don't know how smart the Komodo's keeper was because my ass wouldn't be in the enclosure trying to lure the Komodo in. Ah, he was a bitch though that KD; he ignored initial attempts at getting him in. "Am I interested? Meh. ::lumbered off::" That's what I do sometimes. We're kindred spirits.

At 5 p.m. we set off to see the cutest pandas eva'. Tian was being a Drama Queen. He flopped himself down on the floor all panting like as though it was the end of the world. Poor stupid panda. It was rather hot and humid though. Who can blame him?
Mei, the best lOOking panda eva' was tearing up bamboo like nobody's buisness, as expected. Bamboo was flying everywhere and all you could see was Mei's cute little head sticking out from a huge pile of the green stuff. It was awesome.

Finally, the main reason why we made this trip, the star of it all - Tai Shan became visbile to us. The little baby had his back to his viewing audience which prompted HOchie 1 to toss a mini hissy fit, scaring this dude next to her. But, due to clumsiness, Tai who had been munching on an apple, dropped said fruit and was forced to climb down his perch and then back up in all his cutie panda glory - ushering coos, squeals of delight and 'oooo's and ahhhh's' from all his fans.
The remainder of the evening was spent hanging out with TD5 and his family for good eats and good times.

That night back at the hotel was hilarious. X heard nothing and all I could make out was "It's MC" but apparently TD5 "porn slapped" MC which he claimed was really his getting up stupid in the middle of the night not knowing where he was and asking, "who dat?!" ::slap:: followed by MC's, "It's MC". Since it seemed they sorted themselves out I didn't bother to wake up completely.

The next morning was the most fun part of the weekend. HOchie 1, Luis and Aims set off for the American Indian Museum while MC, X and I made our way to the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian and African exhibits. Our pictures are hilarious. There are such memorable moments as "India vs. China in Japan", "Praying to the Sun God, Rah", "Red Ninja Ho of the Red Ninja Clan - D.C. Division" and "I don't know how to wrap iiittttt". We were infused with culture and had fun while doing it. Don't judge us!

The trip back home was long, once again thank you to NJ but not as bad as before. MC, X and I did get our asses handed to us though in round 3 of the Car Outburst Champeenship.

All in all it was fun.

Though, the question remains: was it really worth it being stuck in the car for 9 hours, a trip that was supposed to be about 4, to see that Panda?

A few general notes about Washington D.C.:

The signs are cool because this is EXACTLY how I run:



Everything is consolidated in D.C. There's the chinese food/fried chicken/seafood/crab/lobster eatery all in one on every corner. And these are right next to the lottery/liqour/pawn shop/spa shops. It's brilliant! They're on to something...

D.C. is FULL of Plague Carriers!!! ::shudder::

And don't mess with shady people in shady vans

Animal Story 2

Python Gulps Queen-Size Electric Blanket

KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) -- It took surgery to save a 12-foot Burmese python after it swallowed an entire queen-size electric blanket - with the electrical cord and control box.

The blanket must have gotten tangled up in the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska said. He kept the blanket in the cage to keep the 60-pound reptile, named Houdini, warm.

"Somehow, he was able to unplug the electric cord," Beznoska said Wednesday. "He at least wasn't hooked up to the power. It might have been pretty warm there."

Veterinarian Karsten Fostvedt conducted a two-hour operation on the python Tuesday, and said afterward, "The prognosis is great."


An animal I should not be in my next life - an electric blanket. I mean, burmese python. Or a rabbit, now that I think about it...

The Most Awesome Cat Ever.

Crazy Cat Terrorizes Connecticut Town


FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.

"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."

The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.

Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals.

Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.

In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.

Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment. - 1010 Wins, March 29th 2006.


Poor Kitty under house arrest. It reminds me of the time Lucy Goosey was placed under house arrest at the petting zoo for nipping at children.

Though I have to say, this doesn't really look the face of a cat that's too concerned:



He actually looks quite wicked but something tells me everyone who got attacked didn't get a chance to see the face of evil but only a fluffy black and white ball bounding off to its next victim.

This is expected though from an animal that lives in a state that is part of the Axis of Evil.

Don't worry, Kitty! I'll bust you out!

Currently listening to: "White Lines (Don't Do it)" from the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack