Augustine (Brr) Blows!

Oh god. I’m so, so sorry for that one. But I had to: it was there. I’ve been hanging around FFE and Archie too much, obviously.

Here is a pretty and unaltered photo of Alaskan volcano Mount Augustine erupting on March 27, 2006.

Mount Augustine Eruption

Mount Augustine Eruption

By Cyrus Read on behalf of the AVO/USGS the via Paul LeBlanc on Twitter.

Didn’t get the pun in the title? Click here.

For Vindictive Vegans

Because even environmentalists have enemies.

Brenneman's All-Natural Poisons!

Stolen from the inspired Dr Boli and posted here under the inspiration of this forum thread about how to keep ants out of hardware. Strange bedfellows, my friend, is the only kind I have lately.

Canadian Beaver goes Brazilian and comes out on top!

Canadian Beaver. Friendly!

Canadian Beaver. Friendly!

Beaver. Who doesn’t love beaver, eh?

Okay, so I stole that headline, or most of it, from Vancouver Theatresports when they competed for the world comedy improv championships in Australia. And I had to tweak it from “We’re going Down Under to come out on top!” but hey, it still works.

And who doesn’t love beaver? And Brazilians?

Okay, maybe Christopher Hitchens, but that was a Brozilian and, as such, completely different.

These beavers gone Brazil are still fully-furred. They are fully-fanged as well, and in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the cattle barons and soybean growing enviro-rapists of South America, a government-funded organization has labeled the mild-mannered (and, if anything, excessively polite) Canadian Beaver as the largest single threat to the South American ecosystem.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

The document, presented to both governments this month, says only a multimillion-dollar project can protect South America from tens of thousands of beavers gnawing their way through its woodlands…

Fifty North American beavers, Castor canadensis, were introduced to Tierra del Fuego, in southern South America, in the 1940s in order to establish a fur trade. It was a catastrophic mistake. Numbers multiplied dramatically and beavers spread across the archipelago, crossed the Magellan Strait and are now spreading through the mainland….

‘The ecosystem in North America evolved along with the beaver,’ said Donlan. ‘Vegetation there has adapted ways for dealing with it.’ North American trees can grow back from their roots after beavers have gnawed them down, for example.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Now, nobody is pretending that a sudden, unnatural influx of Canadian Beaver is entirely without effect, my ex’s reaction notwithstanding and, indeed, that is why he’s an ex, but it is entirely possible to protect one’s precious and presumably precarious homestead from an influx of aggressive Canadian beaver without taking refuge in expensive governmental flights of eco-fiction.

Just tell her you need to fill your Valtrex prescription, for instance.

Recycle Used Extensions

Finally, a use for all that un-biodegradable Ken Paves crap::

Kosuke Tsmura Hair Lantern

Kosuke Tsmura Hair Lantern

My kinda carpet!

How do I order wall-to-wall this?

Stingray Migration

Pretty sweet, eh? I bet you want that pattern for yourselves! Yes, this would be a big step up from my current carpeting pattern, a graphically similar arrangement of old Vanity Fair magazines.

That shot is part of an awesome series of shots of migrating cow-nosed rays (not the Steve Irwin-killing kind) taken off Mexico by Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, which I found through a very roundabout way via the SwimAtOwnRisk blog.