Chicken plays chicken with drivers on busy street

AP Photo/Nick Ut

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GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) — A chicken playing chicken? That’s what’s happening on a busy Glendale street where a black hen has been dodging cars, captors and coyotes for two months. Officials say the bird has been darting into traffic outside Glendale Community College since it was first reported Nov. 20. The chicken has drawn a growing crowd of photographers and journalists as animal control officers struggle to catch it.

I can catch it for them I assure you.

© 2010 The Associated Press.

Machu Picchu aims to evacuate last tourists

MACHU PICCHU PUEBLO, Peru – Buoyed by the return of good weather, authorities are hoping to evacuate on Friday the last tourists stranded near Machu Picchu, the fabled Inca citadel that is likely to stay closed for weeks even if the region dries out. Read more

Charles Daly / KBI gone out of business

Virginia police chief cited for self-done skull mount

A Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries conservation officer on Wednesday charged Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers with practicing taxidermy without a license—a class 4 misdemeanor costing the chief $121 in fines. His offense? Preparing his own European-style skull mount of his whitetail buck. No kidding! Reported in the Martinsville Bulletin. This chief is an idiot, and the conservation officer is just as much of one. Removing flesh is not taxidermy, if it is then it is taxidermy to skin the animal after it is taken. The fines he paid cover his stupidity. Based on that criteria the state should do a sweep and pick up all of those criminals who are unlicensed performing their own oil changes, car repairs or driving nails in their walls to hang pictures with out a contractors license. Those evil law breaking grandmas need to be brought to justice! The chief said ignorance of the law is no excuse. He is just plain ignorant and the town should probably look for someone with a brain to head their police department. Unless of course he is paying them to work there.

Kansas angler hooks 5-foot gator

For several years, reports of an alligator in a lake adjacent to Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Plant have circulated in Coffey County, Kansas. This week, those sightings were confirmed when an angler hooked a dead reptile measuring 5 foot, 3 inches near a warm water discharge. The Emporia Gazette and Michael Pearce’s Kansas Outdoors blog.

Right to hunt amendment moves to Tennessee House

A constitutional amendment protecting Tennesseans’ right to hunt and fish within state laws and property rights passed in the state Senate Thursday by a unanimous 31-0 margin. Pending House approval, the amendment will go before voters this November. The Chattanoogan.

The S&W Victory Model Revolver

“I got a problem,” my patrol partner, Jerry, confided, “and I’m betting you can help me out.”  I’m a complete sucker for an interesting story, and his fit the bill.  It was in the mid-1980s, and it seems that Jerry had been summoned to a family meeting.  His great-aunt, a lady said to be well into her 90′s, was causing some concern to her rural neighbors. Read more

Wool Still Works

Recently I relocated the buttons on my Filson double-cruiser and Mackinaw vest to give more room to fasten around my aging middle. When I bought these back in 1972, I was told by the sales adviser at Eddie Bauer to buy one “not less than two full sizes larger than I wore now,” because quality woolens are “lifetime garments” which I would “grow into.”  A sad truth to be sure. I could lose weight, but moving the buttons for now is easier. I can always move them back. Read more

Music Appreciation

A little music video from our friend Steve Lee

Improving wool garment rain resistance

Modern wool garments have most of the lanolin extracted from the fiber during processing. You can restore the lanolin and greatly improve the water repellent properties of the garment. The method described in Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart (1918) http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews?forum_thread_id=952&cat=Books%20and%20Media&cid=62 uses highly flammable solvents, which I would not recommend.   Read more

German man stuffed 44 lizards into his underwear

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A German man who stuffed 44 small lizards into his underwear before trying to board a flight has been sentenced to prison in New Zealand for plundering the country’s protected species. Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, will spend 14 weeks behind bars and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine before being deported to Germany as soon as he is released, District Court Judge Colin Doherty ruled onTuesday. Read more

AKC names Lab most popular purebred, again

For the 19th consecutive year, the American Kennel Club has named the Labrador retriever the country’s most popular purebred. Overtaking the number two spot this year was the German shepherd, followed by the Yorkshire terrier, golden retriever and beagle. AKC press release.

Body of Missing Duck Hunter Found

A body found in the Apalachicola River Sunday night is that of missing Albany, Ga. hunter John Mark Slappey.

The medical examiner’s office in Tallahassee confirmed the identity of the body late Monday. Slappey, 34, was duck hunting Dec. 20 in a float tube near the Jim Woodruff Dam when a strong current swept him through an open lock and he disappeared beneath the water. Read more

California Ski Bill Would Require Padding on Lifts and Published Safety Records

A new bill introduced in California would require all the state’s ski resorts to publish injury and death reports as well as line the bases of all lift towers with padding. Additionally, it would require that all employees and minors wear ski helmets.

“We’re not in a position to do some of the things they would like to be done. … Ski patrols write up incident reports (of injuries) but they are not doctors,” Roberts said. “And we question why, when the state has a $20 billion budget deficit, they are paying so much attention to something that, when you talk to most winter sport participants, they know the risks and are comporting accordingly.”

This would require resorts to cover all their lift towers and trees with padding. This law would also put ski resorts at a major litigation risk once skiers did injure themselves.

Study: Rubber bullets best bear deterrent

The results of a 4-year study in California’s Sequoia National Park indicate that shooting black bears with rubber slugs from a 12-gauge shotgun is the most-effective deterrent–and superior to pepper spray or other methods. Details of the study—which involved 1,050 incidents—appear in the current issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management. The Anchorage Daily News.

Nat’l Park elk poacher fined $2,500

A Woodland, Wash. man was sentenced Monday to probation, fined $2,500 and stripped of his hunting licenses for three years for illegally shooting a trophy-class Roosevelt elk inside Olympic National Park in 2007. A DNA test positively linked Robert Hurst’s elk to the kill site inside the park boundary. The Columbian.

Female athletes experience higher rates injuriy

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2010) — Female athletes experience dramatically higher rates of specific musculoskeletal injuries and medical conditions compared to male athletes, according to exercise physiologist Vicki Harber in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta. Read more

Army Corps to sample 2 Indiana rivers for signs of invasive carp

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to collect water samples this spring from two northwestern Indiana rivers that flow into Lake Michigan as part of its ongoing efforts to track the spread of invasive Asian carp. Read more

1911 pistol is top RMEF auction item

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has revealed that the number one fund-raising item at its 2009 auctions and banquets was not an elk-hunting rifle in a popular caliber, but instead a .45 ACP 1911 pistol. The RMEF announced in a press release that 325 Kimber 1911s auctioned and raffled last year generated more that $600,000 for the premier conservation organization.

Arizona Wildlife Expected to Weather Storms

PHOENIX — The winter storms and accompanying deep snows that impacted Arizona this week may make it challenging for wildlife in the short term, but wildlife biologists do not expect significant impacts to most species, especially large animals such as elk, deer and antelope. Read more

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