Thursday, November 22, 2007

Wounded Buck Attacks Hunter

Man versus deer is not always a one-sided contest in favor of the human.


Ron Shock of Greenbrier found himself in a second-best situation with a confrontation with a buck on the third day of the modern gun hunting season. The buck whipped Shock then ran off.


Shock, 63, was hunting near Cadron Creek northwest of Guy in northern Faulkner County. A stand used in past years needed repair, so Shock passed it up and used a lightweight lawn chair on the ground.


He spotted a good-sized buck with its head down, apparently feeding and about 50 yards away. “I cocked my gun, and the buck jerked its head up. I shot, and it went down. It jumped back up, and I shot again. The buck went down again then jumped up and came straight it me. I started backing up and stumbled over the lawn chair.


“The deer went after the lawn chair, and it tangled in its antlers. Then it came at me, pawing with its (front) hoofs. It got me on both sides of my face and my left arm that I was trying to protect myself with. Then the buck ran off.”


Shock said, “That lawn chair saved me. It fell off the deer’s antlers not far away, and I just laid on the ground. I was hurting. My son Danny and grandson Michael were hunting with me, and we have a signal we use to contact each other. So I reloaded the rifle and fired four shots. They came to me.”


Bruised, scratched and shaken, Shock immediately concluded that he was lucky in not being hurt worse by the deer. He said, “I’m not sure how big it was. I think it had 8 or 10 points (on its antlers), and it might have weighed 150 pounds. It was a pretty big buck.”

Ron, Danny and Michael Shock found the bent metal lawn chair but could not find any blood. “That second time I shot the buck, it wasn’t more than four feet away from me.”


Back at the same site two days later, Shock saw vultures. He found the buck dead, with it having gone several hundred yards and across Cadron Creek from where the attack took place.


The deer’s hooves caught Shock on both cheeks and on the neck. The deepest marks were on its left arm, the one raised in protection. The parallel marks were wide apart, indicating a good-sized hoof had made them.


The behavior of male deer can change drastically during the rut, the breeding season, according to wildlife biologists. Normally reclusive, bucks often turn bold and aggressive toward other deer, other animals and even humans. They have been known to charge vehicles on roads as well as four-wheelers and even persons riding horses.


Deer in Arkansas are much more numerous than they were a few decades in the past. In 1939, Arkansas had only 5,000 deer, according to Game and Fish Commission estimates. With a statewide restoration program, deer increased to a quarter of a million in the early 1970s and today the state has more than 750,000, perhaps as many as a million.


via: Arkansas Game & Fish Newsletter



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Monday, November 19, 2007

Word Origins

An interesting article on the origin of ten common words that are based upon the names of actual people.

For example: Chauvinism

Nicolas Chauvin was an early 19th–century French soldier who was so patriotic and nationalistic, he gave patriotism and nationalism a bad name—or at least a new name. A slave to the cult of Napoleon, Chauvin shed his fair share of blood for the emperor. How did Napoleon show his appreciation? By giving Chauvin a ceremonial saber, a ribbon, and a pittance of a pension. Later, however, French dramatists began basing über-patriotic characters on Chauvin, which paved the way for the soldier’s ultimate reward: a dubious spot in the English language.

Check it out and learn something new today.


mental_floss magazine - Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
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Friday, October 26, 2007

Do Politicians Lie?

Great links.
clipped from online.wsj.com

In recent weeks, Ron Paul overstated the U.S. death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rudy Giuliani overstated the impact on national crime rates of declining New York rates during his mayoral tenure, Barack Obama overstated the potential impact of an increase in voter turnout among black voters in the South, and John Edwards chose the higher of two government estimates of the number of Americans without bank accounts to emphasize a point.

Those statistical stretches were identified and corrected by a pair of Web sites aiming to keep close tabs on the factual claims of the 2008 candidates. FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, monitored the last presidential race as well. It was joined two weeks ago by PolitiFact, a joint venture of the St. Petersburg Times and the Congressional Quarterly that rates candidates' claims on a so-called Truth-O-Meter, which has six settings ranging from "True" to "Pants on Fire."

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Gadgets You Can Probably Live Without

clipped from www.crestock.com

iPod Toilet Roll Holder

Ipod & toilet roll holder
is for real and can be purchased for $199

The Beerbelly Beverage Bag

The Beer Belly in action
For all those who despite lots of hard work (down the pub) just aren't able to build that coveted beer belly, here's quite literally a beer belly to sling across your neck! The key selling-point is that it'll enable you to smuggle beer and booze past the most vigilant bouncers at gigs, games etc. As long as you don't mind the weird looks you'll be getting once people nearby hears the splashing noises coming from your 'belly', that is.

The Funtrak Paintball Tank

Paintball Tank
$16000 custom built beast

Toshiba 360 Gaming Helmet

Toshiba gaming helmet
I always figured that sleek, 360 degree motion controlled goggles would be the next big thing in computer/television output, but then Toshiba pulls a stunt like this. Instead of a cool set of wrap-around goggles, they hit on the idea of strapping the freak brother of an old-fashioned CRT television onto some poor girl's head.
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Sunday, October 21, 2007

Homeless Creativity

Yeah, right.
clipped from www.pinkbike.com
 Honest Hobo.
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One-Liners

clipped from www.vegard.net
  • "A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic." - Joseph Stalin
  • "Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck." - Joss Whedon
  • "Stupidity, if left untreated, is self-correcting." - Heinlein
  • 7/5th of all people do not understand fractions.
  • 99% of lawyers are giving the rest a bad name.
  • A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.
  • A drunk mans' words are a sober mans' thoughts.
  • A man on a date wonders if he'll get lucky. The woman already knows.
  • A smart man covers his ass, a wise man leaves his pants on.
  • A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
  • Friendly fire - isn't.
  • God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
  • I still miss my ex. But my aim is getting better.
  • If the opposite of pro is con, then what must be the opposite of progress?
  • Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.
  • Never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake.
  • Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
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    Saturday, October 20, 2007

    Absolutely Amazing: Limbaugh Chicken Hawk

    Chicken Hawks: Limbaugh, Cheney
    clipped from www.snopes.com

    There are similar stories [of avoiding service in Vietnam] about almost every other prominent rightwing Republican of recent vintage. Newt Gingrich, ex-Speaker of the House, went the Cheney route [of obtaining deferments]; Kenneth Starr, Clinton's legal nemesis, had psoriasis; Jack Kemp, Dole's running mate in 1996, was unfit because of a knee injury, though he heroically continued as a National Football League quarterback for another eight years; Pat Buchanan had arthritis in his knees, though he soon became an avid jogger.

    The best story concerns Rush Limbaugh, the ferociously bellicose radio personality, who allegedly had either "anal cysts" or an "ingrown hair follicle on his bottom". It is not my custom to mock others' ailments, but anyone who has listened to Limbaugh's programme can imagine the dripping scorn he would bring to the revelation that a prominent Democrat had skipped a war over something like that. Also, in his case, a pain in the arse is peculiarly appropriate.1
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    Baby Boomer #1 Applies For Social Security

    It was bound to happen.
    clipped from www.cbsnews.com
    The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits Monday, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II war generation.
    Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer, a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said.
    An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for Social Security benefits over the next two decades, Astrue said.
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    People Ferment the Darndest Things

    Where I come from spitting in someone's beer would set off a right good brawl.
    clipped from www.mentalfloss.com
    If you want to try traditional chicha, go to Peru or Bolivia, where women chew corn flour and then spit it into bowls. Enzymes in their saliva help break down the sugars in the corn.
    Manioc, also known as cassava and yucca, is a worldwide staple, especially in South America, where many cultures have developed beers from this tuber. You’d think it would be dangerous, because manioc contains cyanide, but local women know how to remove the poison through careful preparation.
    Tesquino, the yellow, harsh corn beer of the Tarahumara people of Mexico, is considered a highly spiritual drink. It’s supposed to scare out the “large souls” out of the body, leaving the “little souls,” which, they says, explains why drunk people act childish.
    Hard apple cider was a staple drink on the American frontier, consumed by adults and children alike. Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman was planting apple trees for cider, not for eating.
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    Thursday, October 18, 2007

    Cannonball Run

    Sit down. Shut up. Hold on.
    clipped from www.wired.com
    And so the clock starts and the taillights flare, and they're off again, strapped down, fueled up, and bound on an outlaw enterprise with 2,795 miles of interstate and some 31,000 highway cops between them and the all-time speed record for crossing the American continent on four wheels.
    Roy is attempting to break a legendary cross-country driving record known to most people as the Cannonball Run. The time: 32 hours, 7 minutes, set in 1983 by David Diem and Doug Turner. Captain Roy's quest is definitely illegal and quite possibly impossible. He is one of the few drivers wealthy and geeky and foolish enough to try it anyway. So far he's tried and failed twice, but he's still convinced that his careful calculations will allow him to beat the record.
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    Peanut Butter Mixer

    The mixer looks a lot less messy than my current method, but I wonder if it is sturdy enough to hold up to frequent use. Separated peanut butter can be mighty thick.
    clipped from www.kk.org


    Kitchen

    Peanut Butter Mixer


    Stirs PB with less mess

    pb stirrer 1.jpg

    We like natural peanut butter, but hate the initial stirring mess. The minute you put a spatula in, the oil overflows and is everywhere. This stirrer seals the jar, and with a few quick turns the peanut butter is completely mixed and there is zero mess. Easy to use: you put the lid on, insert the stirrer and turn the knob. The gasket on the hole where you put the stirrer even cleans it off when you are done! My husband actually sneaks in a new jar of peanut butter so that he can mix it up before I get to.

    -- Sessalee Hensley

    Peanut Butter Mixer
    $9
    Available from Lehman's

    Or $10 from Amazon

    Manufactured by Witmer Prodcuts, Inc.


    Posted on May 7, 2007 at 5:00 AM
    | +del.icio.us +digg +reddit
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    6 Tips for Controlling Depth of Field

    clipped from blog.epicedits.com

    Depth of field (DOF) is one of the most important factors in determining the look and feel of a photograph. It’s also the most overlooked for photographers moving from a point-and-shoot camera to a digital SLR camera. The dSLR (and most of the ultra-zooms) offers huge amounts of control over depth of field, and you should know how to utilize that control.

    Depth of field refers to the distance (depth) from the focus point that a photo will be sharp, while the rest becomes blurry. A large, or wide, depth of field will result in much of the photo in focus. A small, or narrow, depth of field will result in much more of the photo out of focus.
    BIG APERTURE = SMALL F/NUMBER = SMALL DEPTH OF FIELD
    SMALL APERTURE = BIG F/NUMBER = BIG DEPTH OF FIELD
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    Gorillapod

    clipped from photojojo.com

    The Original Gorillapod has been a fave since it was first released -- the fun and pocketable tripod supports a Point & Shoot camera just like a mini version of a traditional tripod. But bend its tentacle-like arms it'll stand on uneven surfaces, wrap around poles, tree branches, or railings, and grab onto nearly any object in sight. Try that with your tripod!

    Suddenly, impossible angles, vacation photos with everyone in them, sharp-as-a-tack long exposures... all become possible.

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    Sunday, April 15, 2007

    Fred Thompson

    I should have worn a turtleneck.
    Fred Dalton Thompson (lawyer, lobbyist, registered foreign agent, former senator, character actor, public speaker and, maybe, presidential candidate and his lovely wife, Jeri. How can anyone think Bill Clinton would make a better first lady?




    Fun in the foxhole with Fred.
    The Draft Thompsonites are certain this former senator from Tennessee should be the Republican nominee in 2008. Wonkette credits the Thompson site with doing a good job of pointing out that "he’s not a complete amoral scumbag like the declared Republican presidential candidates..." but finds it more than a little ironic that the party constantly preaching about the evils of "Hollywood-types" is seriously considering trotting out another Hollywood-type as their candidate for president.


    'God hates Fred Thompson.  It says so right here.'


    Thompson still has his problems on the wacko right of the party of Jesus. According to a report in U. S. News & World Report, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson said, "I don't think he's a Christian." When informed that Thompson had, indeed, been baptized in the Church of Christ, a Dobson spokesman was unimpressed and claimed Thompson did not speak openly enough about his faith to be considered a truly committed Christian of the type that would appeal to Evangelical voters. Dobson's pick of the litter among Republicans is Newt Gingrich, the man who was truly committed to having an affair while pursuing impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Dobson claimed that Gingrich was the "brightest guy out there" and "the most articulate politician on the scene today." Obviously Dobson hasn't watched nearly enough Law & Order reruns.


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    Saturday, April 14, 2007

    Abstinence Classes Don't Stop Sex

    Maybe it's time to do something radical -- like teach sex education classes that show results.
    clipped from www.nytimes.com

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.

    Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that were reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex at about the same age as other students -- 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

    ''I really do think it's a two-part story. First, there is no evidence that the programs increased the rate of sexual abstinence,'' said Chris Trenholm, a senior researcher at Mathematica who oversaw the study. ''However, the second part of the story that I think is equally important is that we find no evidence that the programs increased the rate of unprotected sex.''

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    Beam Scotty Up

    clipped from apnews.myway.com


    LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - The ashes of James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek" TV series, have been loaded into a rocket that is set to launch in New Mexico later this month.


    The remains of Doohan, Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and some 200 others were loaded into the rocket Friday by Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis, a Texas company that contracts with rocket firms to send cremated remains into space.


    "And we're ready to go," Chafer said after inserting the silver canister.


    Jerry Larson, president of Connecticut-based UP Aerospace Inc., said the rocket will be launched April 28.


    Families paid $495 to have a few grams of their loved one's ashes placed on the rocket.

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    Sunday, March 18, 2007

    Gardening Woes


    Removing all the earthworms prior to tilling can be a challenge. We eventually had to use a come-along to extract this big fellow.
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    Thursday, March 15, 2007

    Sleepwalking Can Be Dangerous



    Sleepwalking can be hazardous to you health under the best of circumstances, but especially if you're a member of the Chinese family holding out against developers in Chongqing, central China. (Rumor has it that the family has connections high in the Chinese government.)

    Metro.co.uk via Say No To Crack
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    Monday, March 12, 2007

    What Am I Bid for a Fighter Jet?

    A fighter jet and a surface-to-air missile were put up for sale on the Chinese equivalent of eBay.

    The Jian-5 fighter jet and Red-flag-2 missile were listed on www.taobao.com, China's biggest online auction site. The seller claimed they were from his private collection and that he had the right to sell them.


    The East Day News says the weapons were later deleted from the auction website.


    Ananova



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    New Wife For Old

    A Chinese man has persuaded his new wife to have plastic surgery to make her look like his first wife.

    Zhao Gang, 32, from Chongqing city, lost his first wife Lu in a car smash three years ago. About six months ago, under pressure from his parents, Zhao Gang got married to his new wife, Cai.

    "I got married only because she looks a bit like her and I want to have a chance to make up for my mistakes," says Zhao.

    Cai agreed to plastic surgery, after a lot of persuading.

    Ananova via Neatorama
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    Wednesday, March 7, 2007

    Wanna Feel Old?

    Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

    Eddie Haskell, The Beaver and Wally of Leave It To Beaver fame.

    Now...... Go be depressed.
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    Nemo Found

    We can all stop looking now.
    clipped from www.neatorama.com
    nemo.JPG

    As seen on the mental_floss blog.


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    Last Meal???

    It could be.

    Begin with an appetizer of five McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips. (630 calories, 11 grams of saturated fat) Follow up with a Burger King Quad Stacker. There are 1,000 calories and 30 grams of bad fat in this combination of 4 hamburger patties, 4 slices of cheese, 8 strips of bacon, plus sauce and a bun. Wash everything down with a Starbucks Venti (20 oz.) Caffè Mocha with whipped cream at only 490 calories and 16 grams of saturated fat. And for desert? Waddle on down to the Häagen-Dazs store for a Mint Chip Dazzler. Those three scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, Oreos, chocolate sprinkles, and whipped cream will only add 1,270 calories and 38 grams of saturated fat to your daily intake.

    Delicious!!! And don't worry about those 3,390 calories and 95 grams of saturated fat. You can spend and extra five minutes on the treadmill tomorrow.

    RIP.

    Ten Foods You Should Never Eat via mental_floss
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    Thursday, March 1, 2007

    It's Only Fair

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