Thy rod and thy staff do comfort me.

A demonstration of what the US presence in Iraq means.



An adaptation by MILITARY MOTIVATOR

What could go wrong?

Robots to Guard Schools

Why does this bring vision of Daleks roaming the halls asking for passes and then shouting “Exterminate!” when no pass is produced?

(Not that I think that would be a bad thing. I still like the old Funky Winkerbean with the machine gun mounted on the hall monitor's desk.)

Faulty Fax Causes panic …

Where else but in Massachusetts. The same place where a cartoon promotion went south and the city of Boston shut down for the better part of a day.

A faulty bank fax printed a message that was misinterpreted as a bomb threat Wednesday, leading authorities to evacuate more than a dozen neighboring businesses and a day care center.

The pictures—a clock and a match lighting a bomb came through but not the text saying, “The countdown begins…Small Business Commitment Week June 4-8 Mark your Calendar.”

The branch manager of the Bank of America called police about 10 a.m. after receiving a fax containing images of a lit match and a bomb with a fuse

There may have been some extenuating circumstances which caused the branch manager to call the police:

Fears also arose because the branch received a suspicious package delivered by a customer around the same time, police said. A State Police bomb squad searched the bank branch and checked out the package, which was a delivery of documents.

But it still seems to me that the folks in Massachusetts are wound up so tight that they make they’d probably bounce like a super ball if you threw them against a wall.

About 15 small businesses in a shopping plaza were evacuated for about three hours, including a day care center with about 30 children, Police Chief Scott Rohmer said.

So the bank gets a “suspicious” fax and a package that turns out to be documents and everybody in the strip mall as to shut down. Now who will compensate those 15 businesses for lost income?

The fax was sent to the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's branches in parts of New England, New York and New Jersey. It did not result in any other bomb scares at other branches, Anguilla said.

Mule deer does defend ALL fawns, Whitetail, eh, not so much

In fight or flight situations, female mule deer and whitetail deer behave differently.

Mule Deer Moms Rescue Other Fawns

By playing recordings of fawns being attacked by coyotes, researchers have been studying the behavior of mule deer and whitetail deer. They have found mule deer doe’s to be much more aggressive defenders of fawns whether they are their own or some other doe’s. Whitetail does, on the other hand respond tentatively to the cries of the fawns, quickly access the situation, and withdraw once they are aware this isn’t their fawn doing the bawling.

"Having a rigid and aggressive response to the simple sound of a fawn distress call may ensure effective defence of a female's own offspring, even though this means the female invests time and energy and puts herself at risk by helping many other animals. In contrast, a whitetail mother waits to assess whether a fawn is her own before she steps in to defend it. As a result, whitetail fawns suffer considerably more predation during the first months of life than do mule deer fawns."

Mule deer may have developed a more effective aggressive defence because they rely on fighting to protect themselves against predators year-round, while whitetails and many other species restrict aggressive defence to just the youngest fawns. Whitetails rely on flight rather than fight for most of their lives, so this may affect their ability to mount an aggressive defence," Lingle said.

This might explain why I see a lot of white tails disappearing into the forest during hunting season. The whitetail has got the same philosophy as a Rincewind (a "wizzard" on Disc World) when it comes to choosing fight or flight. Running from is much better than running to.

Still doesn’t explain why whitetail deer are encroaching on the mule deer habitat in the Midwest and apparently out competing them.

Cowardly Tiger Cubs

Don't know what these tiger cubs were afraid of. The little fluffy chicks look harmless enough.

Chicks and Cubs

Endangered? Or an Excuse?

U.S. to Study Protection for Alaska Loon

A petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a rare loon that breeds in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve has been accepted for review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Conservationists hope an eventual listing of the yellow-billed loon will curb petroleum development in the 23-million acre reserve that covers much of Alaska's western North Slope.

The petition was filed three years ago by the Center for Biological Diversity. , the National Resource Defense Council , Pacific Environment and other U.S. and Russian scientific and conservation organizations.

This is an environmental story of an alleged endangered species with a “must stop oil drilling” mantra in the background. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be another Spotted Owl episode.

From Cornell Labs All About Birds: Spotted Owl

Conservation Status
Because of its preference for old-growth forests, it is heavily affected by clear-cut logging. The northern form is considered Endangered in Canada and Threatened in the United States. The California form is a species of special concern in California, and the Mexican form is considered as Threatened in the United States and Mexico. Listed on the Audubon Watchlist.

(Here’s the 2007 Draft Recovery Plan for the Spotted Owl: 2007 Draft Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl Now Available for Public Comment)

During the heated debate about the Spotted Owl, claims of incredibly small populations were circulated making one think they were as rare as Whopping Cranes or California Condors. People chained themselves to trees to prevent loggers in the Pacific Northwest from doing their jobs. Eventually, the spotted owl was listed as either Endangered or Threatened in much of coastal Canada and the US. Afterwards, studies of the real population indicated they may very well be far more numerous than thought. Much of the action on the Owl’s behalf was from those who opposed logging. They just shopped for a species that would serve their purpose and created a firestorm f hyperbole to push the Endangered and Threatened labels. And these preservationists won the day to some extent. Logging operations were shut down, some mills had to close and lots of people lost jobs.

If the same thing is going on here, environmentalists using the yellow-billed loon as a means of halting oil exploration in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve…. Well, you can only cry wolf so many times before people start to catch on.

The yellow-billed loon breeds in tundra wetlands in Alaska, Canada and Russia, and winters along the west coasts of Canada and the United States.

Petroleum development through leasing ordered by President Bush could reduce its numbers, said Brendan Cummings, ocean program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

"The yellow-billed loon is one of the rarest and most vulnerable birds in the United States, yet the Bush administration's plan to 'protect' it is to approve oil drilling in its habitat," Cummings said.

Of course! It’s all Bush’s fault. Don’t suppose you fly to any conferences or even drive anywhere do you Mr. Cummings? And you live in a very small, environmentally friendly, super-duper efficient home. Right?

Just how rare is the yellow-billed loon?

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are 16,500 yellow-billed loons in the world, including 3,700 to 4,900 that breed in Alaska. More than 75 percent of the Alaska breeders nest in the petroleum reserve. Smaller numbers breed on the Seward Peninsula and on St. Lawrence Island.

Approximately one-third of the yellow-billed loon population nests in Alaska. And they are notoriously poor at raising a family.

The large-bodied birds have low reproductive success and depend on high annual adult survival to maintain population levels. Individual birds must live many years before they can reliably replace themselves with offspring that survive long enough to breed, according to the agency.[Fish and Wildlife Service]

So if the drilling does occur, it could have a substantial impact on yellow-billed loon survival according to these numbers. Right?

But, let’s go back a few years when oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was first discussed. Environmentalists were up in arms about how this activity would affect the caribou in the area being opened for drilling. After all the hollering was done and people pointed to the maps of the drilling area, Area 1002 which consisted of 1.5 million acres, was an area bordered the Prudhoe Bay area that has been in production for years. The remaining 19 million acre ANWR was to be left untouched. That left a whole lot of habitat for the caribou to roam.

Check out the maps from the Sierra Club via the link in the given here. The "1002" Area

The area to be drilled this time around, consists of 4.6 million acres within the 22 million acre National Petroleum Reserve. Granted, 4.6 million acres sounds llike a lot of land to someone who might live on a ¼ acre in a typical suburban setting or maybe a 5 acre lot in some more swanky development, but let’s put the numbers in perspective. Alaska measures 424,490,880 acres (663,267 sq. miles). They don’t mention where in Alaska the loon nests, but even if all of the NPR were open to drilling, the loon would still have over 400 million acres in which to find suitable habitat. Let’s say there are 500 yellow-billed loons that nest in Alaska. The loons, of course pair up to mate (their not that looney)so there are 2,500 pairs of loons, each pair looking for that perfect hideaway. Take the 424,490,880 acres of Alaska and subtract the 4,600,000 acres in the proposed drilling area and that leaves each pair of loons over 167,950 acres in which to find a lake that contains some fish for food and a suitable nest site.

The agency's finding, called a 90-day finding despite the filing of the original petition in March 2004, is based on scientific information provided by the conservation groups.

They cite threats including destruction and modification of habitat due to development and pollution and lack of regulatory protection.

Birds that breed in Alaska spend winters off the coast of Russia and face drowning in fishing nets, plus threats from petroleum development in the Sea of Okhotsk, Cummings said.

Yellow-billed loons do not recover easily from population declines, are susceptible to disturbance and may be vulnerable to habitat loss, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Inundation of their freshwater breeding areas by saltwater levels rising because of global warming is another threat, Cummings said. However, oil and gas development in nesting areas is foremost in the petitioners' minds.
"Industrializing the Arctic is not the way to protect a rare bird," he said.

Of course, global warming threats are to be considered as well.

(All emphasis is mine.)The information being provided is that of the environmental groups who have apparently already decided they drill should not be permitted. I wonder just how independent the researchers were or if any research that is not along the lines of the "no drilling" crowd will make it to the Fish and Wildlife Service's desk.

If this turns out to be a case built on hyperbole, something that may be difficult to determine considering the location of the yellow-billed loons habitat--the area in question is so remote that there are NOT a lot of people in the area to take measurements and make observations--the entire environmental movement will receive another mark against its reputation. Enough of those and it will be difficult to pay attention to warnings when they are real.

*Sigh* Only in America

Illegal immigrants sue indicted janitorial firm for back wages

Illegal immigrants who worked long shifts scrubbing theme restaurants for an indicted janitorial firm have signed their names to a lawsuit seeking unpaid wages.

Some were rounded up in federal workplace raids in February and deported, they say, before receiving their final paychecks. Others worked 80- or 100-hour weeks for years without earning overtime pay or even the prevailing minimum wage, the suit charges.

The janitorial firm had contracts with well-known restaurant chains including the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood and the House of Blues, and took in as much as $10 million a year.

Sigh Okay, they (the ILLEGAL aliens) got shafted by their employer, a firm that is now in government hands. They definitely deserve to be paid a wage commensurate with the labor laws. BUT, they did put themselves in this position by first entering the country illegally.

The attorneys are trying to reach the approximately 200 immigrants detained in the February raids, which targeted 63 restaurants in 18 states that used Rosenbaum-Cunningham workers.

"Some of our clients were deported, some left voluntarily and some were not picked up at all," Hewka said. "The challenge right now is finding them."

Hey, good luck with that. Do you think those that remained in the country will step forward to be part of this suit? Only if S. 1348 passes and they get their Z-card first. They have seen their coworkers either depart for home or get deported. I think it’s pretty safe to say the won’t be coming out of the shadows anytime soon. I'm actually surprised that enough of them came out to file this suit.

Atta Boy, Rodney

U.S. Congressman chases down pick-pocket

I saw this headline the other day but didn’t click on it. Today, I saw on another site that it was Rodney Frelinghuysen, my old Congressman, who did the chasing and nabbing.

He showed up at several of our Boy Scout functions (Courts of Honor, etc.), local high school football games, and, of course, many of the parades in Morristown, NJ. He always impressed me as being an honorable man and in real good physical shape. Both qualities that are difficult to find in N.J. politicians.

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey Republican, was walking in the area when a group of young men came up behind him. Frelinghuysen felt someone grab at his wallet and when he turned, the would-be robber took off….

Rodney always talked the talk about self responsibility, guess he can walk the walk, too.

Frelinghuysen, 61, gave chase and caught the suspect a short distance away. Two passing police officers saw the chase and arrested the 18-year-old suspect, the report said.

The perp probably played to many video games and didn’t get enough exercise. When Rodney caught up to him, the perp must have decided it was best to go quietly rather than have the story get out about how he got wrestled to the ground by a 61 year old. That’s not gonna help your street creds kid.

Of course, there’s got to be a bit of a snarky comment at the end of the story.

Asked about the incident, a police spokesman confirmed that "something like that occurred tonight in Georgetown."

"I can't identify the surviving victim of any crime," he said. "But, I understand the victim has been calling the news media and telling them his story."

Hell, if I ran down a cheap crook less than a third my age, I might want to brag about it a little too.

Where’s Queequeg when you need him?

Is anyone else getting tired of this?

Bid to Save Whales Drags Into 3rd Week

The money and manpower spent in trying to coax these two whales back to the sea…well, I don’t get it. Yeah, they’re injured, probably from a boat propeller, and they have wondered some 70 miles from the ocean up the Sacramento River, but give me a break!

Animals make bad choices all the time and die for their error. Just drive a few miles on any interstate and you’ll see carcasses of critters tat didn’t know enough to avoid a collision with a truck or car. If these two whales (actually, probably just the big stupid cow since the calf will follow its meal ticket) decide to return to the sea, they will. If they don’t return, then we can clean up the corpses. If the authorities are concerned about them interfering with shipping, get a damn harpoon and stop screwing around.

I would like to see and accounting for this “rescue” mission when it’s all said and done. How much is being paid by PETA and HSUS do you think?

Carlos D. is Hot tonight!

Looks like Carlos Delgado is having fun in Miami. In the fifth inning tonight he is 3 for 3 with 2 homers and 5 RBI. Maybe he's emerging from the slump he's been in for nearly two months. (Actually, being on the road for him is good. As a new daddy, it might be the only time he gets a solid night's sleep!)

Another visitor to the Aerie

I've already mentioned the gray squirrels (aka tree rats), red squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, and the bear. This evening we had a young buck deer walk into the yard. THAT got Chester's attention. He (Chester) was lying on the carpet looking out the screen door at some Black-capped Chickadee that was brazen enough to come to the feeder on the deck railing. The deer stepped out of the woods and looked in the direction of the house and Chester went on point. Who needs a dog?

I could see the beginning of some antlers nestled between the deer's ears as it cautiously walked through the taller weeds on the edge of the lawn. It stood broadside to the house before meandering back into the woods heading down the slope toward the road. It was just starting to shed its winter coat of dull brown and gray for its red summer wear. It also looked like it had a good deal of fattening up to do but now that the grasses are up and the leaves on the trees are out that won't take long.

Masked Invaders, Germany, 1934

How ‘bout that! America engaged in biological warfare against Germany way back in 1934.

From Nazi Past, a Proliferating Pest

KASSEL, Germany -- In 1934, top Nazi party official Hermann Goering received a seemingly mundane request from the Reich Forestry Service. A fur farm near here was seeking permission to release a batch of exotic bushy-tailed critters into the wild to "enrich the local fauna" and give bored hunters something new to shoot at.

Goering approved the request and unwittingly uncorked an ecological disaster that is still spreading across Europe. The imported North American species, Procyon lotor, or the common raccoon, quickly took a liking to the forests of central Germany. Encountering no natural predators -- and with hunters increasingly called away by World War II -- the woodland creatures fruitfully multiplied and have stymied all attempts to prevent them from overtaking the Continent.

Today, as many as 1 million raccoons are estimated to live in Germany, and their numbers are steadily increasing.

And they are spreading across Europe with their masked eyes upon Asia and maybe even England.

I love the exterminator/trapper’s modesty, too.

Becker owns a firewood dealership and lumberyard in Kassel but has developed a thriving side business in raccoon removal and prevention. He catches as many as 200 a year in his homemade wooden traps.

He loads the inside of the trap with sticky bread or something sweet and fastens it to a tripwire. As soon as the raccoon grabs the bait, the side doors slam shut. The trap doesn't harm the animals, but Becker finishes off the captured ones with a rifle shot to the head.

"No one else does it as professionally as I do," he boasted. "I always succeed, always. Raccoons in Germany don't really have any natural enemies -- except me."

At least the couple I have coming to the Aerie yard (and deck) at night only raid the bird feeders I leave out. And they are kind of cute, but, boy, can they make a racket when they squabble over the food!

Seen first at Ann Althouse’s place

Endangered? How about existent?

We are coming up on the end of May, right? I thought so. But how to explain this story that sounds like an April Fools’ Day gag?

Endangered Species Protection Sought for Bigfoot

Don’t you need proof that the damn thing exists in the first place before you can go about “protecting” it?

The man behind the petition was a Bigfoot enthusiast named Todd Standing, who claims to have definitive proof of Bigfoot but is withholding it until protection for the alleged animals is in place. “When I get species protection for them nationwide, I will make my findings public and I will take this out of the realm of mythology. Bigfoot is real,” Standing said.

Apparently, the Canadian dollar isn’t the only thing Looney north of the border.

But as Benjamin Radford says:

Protecting endangered species is important for biodiversity, but protecting animals that may not even exist is putting the cart before the unicorn. No one has ever injured or killed a creature not known to exist; Bigfoot and lake monsters are no more in need of legal protection than are leprechauns or dragons. If the creatures are eventually discovered, scientists will do all they can to preserve and study the species. Until then, surely lawmakers have more important things to worry about.

LOLCATS

Compiled at the evangelical outpost for your viewing pleasure.

Not long after Al Gore invented the internet, his wife Tipper uploaded a picture of the family cat launching one of the most ubiquitous trends in web culture. But over the past year, a strange subgenre called "lolcats" or "cat macros" has developed, turning a meme into a form of folk art.

It is difficult to pick out a favorite. All are real cute and all will make you smile or (if you have a cat of your own) nod your head in recognition. There are links to even more at the bottom of the post.

Be sure you have lots of time. You can’t look at just one.

Jeezes! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!?!?

Move over Hogzilla, you’re just a little shoat to this bruiser.

An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.

What in heaven’s name is in the water down there that these hogs are drinking?

[Jamison Stone's] said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50- caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

I wonder if that’s the same .50 caliber ammunition the anti-gun crowd claims can take down a 747 and pierce armor on tanks? Nah, this was a hand bazooka!

Jamison is enjoying the newfound celebrity generated by the hog hunt, but he said he prefers hunting pheasants to monster pigs.

"They are a little less dangerous."

Well, I should think so!

(Nice photo angle by the way. Makes the damn hog look even bigger!)

Record Snows on Pikes Peak

Colorado Springs is nestled at the base of Pikes Peak. The mountain scenery is gorgeous. Two years ago there wasn’t a bit of snow on the Peak on the Fourth of July. This year there will probably be quite a bit.

Climbers get the cold shoulder

This is the snowiest spring on Pikes Peak in more than a decade. Barr Camp recorded 231 inches of snow this winter. (It only saw 50 inches in 2006.)
…
Hikers venturing above treeline will find that the peak is more wintry this May than it usually is in January, and they should be prepared.

“The snow is still waist-deep in places, and we just got more today,” Taylor, the caretaker at Barr Camp, said Wednesday. Every day, she warns people that the trail is buried.

A couple of Air Force cadets had to be rescued when they couldn’t make the last five miles from Barr Camp to the summit. They started early in the morning expecting to make it long before the last train left at 4:00 PM. They didn’t. They did get down safely, however, with the help of a helicopter rescue team.

Temperatures at the summit have hovered around freezing for days. Snow will likely last into June or July.

“It’s been warm in town, and people think, ‘How much snow can there be?’ There’s a lot,” Taylor said. “And it’s wet, deep snow. You’re going to sink in and get soaked through.”

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

O'Donnell Will Not Be Back on 'The View'

Typical of most bullies, when you stand up to them they just fade away. Of course, that’s not the way O’Donnell phrased it:

And on her Web site Thursday, O'Donnell wrote: "When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the work is done."

Rosie, this wasn’t a commissioned painting job. You had a contract for APPEARANCES. Sure hope ABC isn’t paying her for these last few weeks.

First she took the day off when The View was to discuss the Truthers' claims on 9/11 saying it was her partner, Heidi's birthday, and then she just walks off for good three weeks shy of the date she had announced would be her last. My guess is she got her little feelings hurt when Elisabeth Hasselbeck had the nerve to stand up to her ridiculous, incoherent ranting.

Supply and Demand

Those are the two things that should determine the price of a commodity. If you reduce the supply, then, by golly, the price of what is available will, and should, go up. That is the way the system works.

I hate paying over $3 for a gallon of regular, but I also know that the taxes included in that amount to nearly a quarter of the price and that there plenty of steps between the ground and my tank and that, reports of "record profits" aside, ain't a whole lot of "price gouging" going on. In fact, the taxes collected by the feds and states are the biggest chunk of money going to the entities that have been doing absolutely nothing to see that that gasoline gets to the pump. That might be considered gouging.

House panel votes to extend ban on most offshore drilling

Remind me again. When was the last oil refinery built in California...or New York…or Massachusetts? Before we go looking for price gougers, perhaps we should look at the supply side of the equation.

UPDATE: Jeez this internet thingy has all the answers. Do a little surfing and they just pop out at you.

Behind high gas prices: The refinery crunch

So why hasn't a new refinery been built in the U.S. since 1976?

So there’s my answer. No refinery’s been built, not just in those three states, but anywhere in the country, since 1976. But there has been an increase in refinery capacity.

While refinery capacity may not be growing as fast as demand, it is growing.

For example, Drevna noted that expansion projects at the nation's existing refineries have had the effect of adding the equivalent of a brand new refinery every year. That increase came despite mandates for cleaner gasoline and diesel fuel, which take longer to make.

But what about new, cleaner refineries here in the states?

First off, experts note, gasoline, like any commodity, is subject to big price swings. After all, in the late 1990s it was selling for less than $1 a gallon, hardly an encouraging number if you're a refinery exec looking at making a decades-long, multi-billion dollar investment.

While retail gasoline prices are currently near record highs at just below $3 a gallon, where they might be five years from now is a matter of debate.

Some experts say new investment, in both alternative energy and conventional sources, will boost supply and could cut prices in half. If a global recession hit, the drop could be even more dramatic.

Others say rampant demand, especially in the developing world, will keep prices from going anywhere but up. For an oil executive trying to decide on a refinery investment, picking who's right is a tough call.

Secondly, stringent environmental laws and effective community organizing have made it very difficult to build a new refinery in the U.S.

"Everyone is quick to say "look at these refiners, they're driving up the price,'" said Phil Flynn Flynn, senior market analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. "But if I wanted to build a refinery tomorrow, I couldn't do it."

And then there's the public's newfound concern over global warming and its supposed commitment to do something about it. President Bush himself has called for a 20 percent reduction in gasoline use over the next 10 years.

"What refining executive in their right fiscal mind would say, gee, we need to add refining capacity right now," said Drevna at the refiners' association.

So demand elsewhere in the world where the governments may e more amenable to construction have siphoned off refineries. Then there’s the NIMBY crowd that would dearly like lower prices at the pump but not at the cost of either oil exploration or refinery construction within our own borders. And finally, there are governmental policies at the state and federal level geared toward the reduced consumption of gasoline in the near future.

Succession = Diversity

When Lava Flows And Glaciers Recede, Predicting How Species Take Over

Whenever an event such as a fire, clear cut, or lava flow creates an empty habitat, species arrive, interact, and assemble to form a new ecological community--a process known as "succession." How quickly does succession proceed" Most ecologists might expect change to be rapid at first and then decline as the community ages, but there was no systematic analysis of this idea until recently.

It’s only a “disaster” if you want it to be. Otherwise, it’s a natural process that is clearly poorly understood in some ways. Change (succession) is natural and necessary for diversity. It does end in mature ecosystems that are devoid of the diversity succession experiences. Luckily there are man-made and natural events that can bring things full cycle back to the beginning (or nearly so).

Anderson's study provides a framework to understand why communities mature at different rates. According to the author, "Understanding how quickly new ecological communities develop is fundamental to numerous ecological questions ranging from, 'How often should fires or clear cuts be allowed on landscapes?" to 'What determines how many species are found on an island?" yet we were unable to make many generalizations about succession rate. That is what motivated this study."

The “forever wild” clause in the creation of the Adirondack Park and various national parks has created an environment in which little change takes place and, therefore, reduced the diversity of the forested park lands owned by the state of New York and the United States. Succession has seen to it that the forest will grow to large trees that mature, die and rot where they stand or fall. The gap created by the fallen giant may make for a temporary tiny hole in the forest that undergoes some form of succession, but it’s not much on the grand scale of things. Thank goodness for the few large timber companies still operating within the Blue Line, the occasional wildfire, and the beaver, nature’s little diversity machine (chop it, dam it, flood it, abandon it once it fills in).

If you want examples, go look at the explosion of life in the forests of Yellowstone that burned in the late 80s, or at the burgeoning growth on the flanks of Mount St. Helens, or at the Hawaiian Islands once formed (and still forming) from molten rock.

When we see film of forest fires or volcanic lava and ash burying a forest, we mourn the loss of all those stately trees. We forget that in a few years time, the land will sprout anew with different species of plants and animals often far more diverse than the monoculture forest that was lost. It all takes time. And patience. Something that we humans seem to have in short supply.

Another 6- to 7-foot alligator makes the news.

This one’s in the Tampa, Florida area. Gator Visits Suburb

At least gators are more indigenous to the Florida environs. But..there’s always a “but”…

Neighbor Jennifer McCormick said she has seen about six baby gators in a nearby pond.

"Some people feed them," she said. "That's what I worry about. I have small children."

Wildlife experts advise against feeding alligators because they will associate food with people and perhaps harm someone.

Yeah, feeding a critter that can eat your toddler isn’t the smartest move in the book. A nice wallet, maybe a handbag, and some gator steaks for grilling, now that’s the ticket!

Rick Skinner, onto whose property the gator crept, said it was the second one he had seen in his yard in five years. Homes on the street were built between at least two ponds.

"The other one was about a 5-footer," Skinner said. "It was in the middle of the night. We just left it alone, and it took care of itself.

"I would be of the mind to leave this one alone, too. If they trap it, they'll kill it, and what's the point of that? It's not hurting anybody."

Rick, my man, it’s the quiet ones you have to look out for. Why do you think Captain Hook fed the clock to the croc?