Oddities and Humor

Gibbons, giant squids - It's all the same to me, boita.

and Gophers...

SALINA, Kan. — Gophers have been causing problems for Salina, where the furry rodents are digging burrows in the city's flood-control levee.

The Salina Journal reports ( http://bit.ly/yCeoCK) that the gophers have been digging burrows and tunnels that could create problems in the city's 21-mile levee. Mike Fraser, Salina's director of public works, says if the gophers create enough holes in the levee the structure could fail under stress from floodwaters.

Fraser's levee staff have been fighting the gophers with traps and have killed 369 gophers since 2009.

Jack Goates, the city's flood control supervisor, said the Corps of Engineers mandates that the city have an animal control program.

Fraser said letting the grass grow would limit the problem, but it isn't possible because of levee regulations.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/18/2221354/gophers-digging-in-salina-levee.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krVXRCcr2M4

Gotta love them critters.

Richie Kavanagh.



Warning, contains fowl language.

That's extremely humerous, euro. Made me guffaw.

Funny, edgar. Wonder if I can hire that baby.

More oddities.

(AP) NEW YORK — Sergio Mendes will attend the Academy Awards on Sunday, but will do so with mixed feelings.

He's honored that his song "Real in Rio," from the animated movie "Rio," is one of the only two nominated this year, but upset with the show producers' decision not to present the tunes during the telecast.

"I am very frustrated, kind of sad that we will not be able to perform such a lively song," the 71-year-old Brazilian legend said in an interview Monday (Mendes shares the nomination with his countryman Carlinhos Brown and American singer-songwriter Siedah Garrett).

The humor. Love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tejf2pvjgM4

I didn't see the film. The song is nice, but I don't know that it deserves an award. Maybe if I watched it in context -

Looking Back At Iconic Iwo Jima
www.npr.org
Sixty-seven years ago today, photographer Joe Rosenthal trekked up a mountain alongside U.S. Marines and snapped this indelible scene on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Oddly enough, he had been rejected from military service for his poor eyesight, but today his vision is iconic...

Is this the one that you mean, edgar?



If so, it was staged as you know. Ira Hayes was part of that foursome.

The original picture was not what he had in mind. He had them re-raise the flag.

'The Flags of our Fathers' directed by Clint Eastwood gave a pretty good account of it. It suggested the boys in the picture were just tools in a massive propaganda push. It also suggested Ira Hayes didn't do too well after the war.

I didn't see the movie, but Ira Hayes became a drunk and failed at pretty much everything he tried after that.

Man charged after cooking own meal at Denny's - JSOnline
www.jsonline.com
Madison - A man who claimed to be the new manager of a Denny's restaurant in Madison is facing charges after cooking himself a cheeseburger and fries before police showed up...

How does it feel when the tables are turned?

The Courier Mail in Australia reports that Sarah Jane Cochrane-Ramsey pleaded guilty last Thursday to one count of aggravated fraud for scamming Nigerian con artists out of $33,000.

Cochrane-Ramsey opened an Australian bank account that the Nigerians could use to funnel payments they got through their "dodgy account on a popular car sales website," according to the Courier Mail.

The terms of her arrangement with the con artists said that Cochrane-Ramsey was supposed to keep eight percent of all monies sent to the account, with the rest going back to the Nigerians. Instead, she kept the money for herself.

Slate points out that Cochrane-Ramsey denied knowing she was working for fraudsters, thereby "denying herself the defense that she was somehow attempting to give her fellow scammers a taste of their own medicine."

Nigeria's The Nation notes that Cochrane-Ramsey is not the first person to con Nigerian scofflaws.

In fact, "This American Life" produced a story in 2008 on a group of people who made a Nigerian scammer travel 1,400 miles in search of a promised cash reward.

Glad those tables turned, edgar.

The Oscars will be this Sunday, and I used to watch them, but am no longer interested; however this is odd to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMTuQK0fPc&feature=endscreen&NR=1

I agreed with them about many of these roles, but not all of them.

Another for the 'Dumbest Crooks' file...

Man Returns to Robbery Scene to Buy Back Gun He Dropped

Thing is, going back is what got him arrested.

I like that he got pepper sprayed twice.