Protip: Don't stab great white sharks

Not sure what these guys were thinking:

A film crew shooting the documentary Lair of the Megashark were just off New Zealand's Steward Island when they attempted to put a camera on the dorsal fin of the massive ocean predator who decided to nudge the boat and bite at the thin rope that tethered the dinghy to the main boat.

Best quote:
'I don't think this is such a brilliant f*****g idea you know'.

I'm guessing "put a camera on" really means "stab a barbed hook into".

It's kind of a sad commentary on the Discovery Channel really, they used to do science (remember when Mythbusters actually did math instead of being about explosions and tits?).   Now they're doing a Sharknadian "documentary" about big sharks, something which has been done 100x already - why keep doing it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3056316/I-don-t-think-brilliant-f-g-idea-Watch-terrifying-moment-HUGE-great-white-shark-attacks-film-crew-standing-tiny-dingy-boat.html

Foster, RI Earth Day cleanup

If folks don't have a good place to bring this stuff, it gets dumped in the woods.   There's a lot of lonely dirt roads in our town.  We filled an entire truck with hazardous waste containers, and overflowed a shipping container with e-waste.  Beautiful day for it - next year we're doing paper shredding as well, and there will be refreshments!   Thanks to the Town of Foster DPW team, the Town of Foster Conservation Commission, and the RI Resource Recovery Corporation.

Garter snakes

Doing some yardwork today I came across 4 snakes in about a 100 sq ft area.   I had been raking and clearing out some dead leaves/grass/etc in preparation to start mowing that part of the yard.   I had left it long because I had no need for it.   Now that I'm expanding the woodpile, and now that I have the chickens, I didn't want that area to be "wild" and encourage chicken foraging.   They had been foraging madly in that section for a few days, I wonder how many snakes had already met their maker.

What I discovered, and it makes sense in retrospect, is that the snakes who had been living in the woodpile all summer had retreated to the long grass to burrow/hibernate for the winter.

I need to rethink the design of where the woodpile will go, so that I can provide shelter for  the snakes who patrol it for bugs and such.  This guy was pretty upset when I uncovered him.   He struck repeatedly.

Ivory or Irony?

Hunter trampled by elephant he was trying to kill for ivory.   This all being said, elephants in Zimbabwe are often culled due to overpopulation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/17/hunter-ian-gibson-trampled-death-elephant-tracking-kill_n_7085374.html

Repost: eliminating invasive species is HARD

I thought this was a good read.  It shows how people's actions, intentional or otherwise, have massive consequences.

http://thefisheriesblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/eliminating-invasive-predator-lessons.html