The crocodiles are Zim. No, really.

Goin' Walkabout.

Kangaroo found wandering Wisconsin

Sheriff's deputies cornered the 150-pound kangaroo in a barn after receiving calls for days from shocked residents who had seen it.

Sheriff Steve Michek said some people who spotted the kangaroo were hesitant to report it "because they didn't want to be made a fool of."

(no subject)

A man who drove himself to the emergency room after being shot in the calf with a nail gun was arrested at the hospital for not stopping when ordered.

Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Lang started chasing the vehicle after it was spotted driving recklessly on Interstate 15, tailing the man to the hospital.

At one point, Lang said he told the driver over a loudspeaker to pull over. He said the man got out of the car at a stop light, but Lang ordered him to get back in his car. Then, the man took off again toward the hospital.

The driver was reacting to the emotion of an emergency, but an ambulance wasn't called and drivers don't have a right to drive like an emergency vehicle, Lang said.

Drivers must pull over when ordered by an officer, and Lang said it would have only taken a minute or two to explain the situation.

Mutant Bear Stalks Alaskans!

Fake bear tracks found on Alaskan trails.

"It's either a person or a circus bear with two left front feet walking on its hands," said state wildlife biologist Harry Reynolds. "There are no hind tracks."

The tracks feature a foot pad, toes and claws that stretch out 3 inches from the toes. Reynolds said it's either a boot or some little attachment someone is putting on a boot.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has received several reports of grizzly bear tracks on the trails in the past few weeks. The first report came about three weeks ago from Jim Brader, who was skiing on the trails when he noticed what appeared to be bear tracks near the farmhouse visitor center.

"I thought, 'If there's a bear out here now it's a problem,'" said Brader, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. While he recognized there were no rear tracks, Brader still felt compelled to report the tracks to Fish and Game.

I love Defense Tech.

"Instead of using guns and bombs, let's attack the enemies of freedom with bugs, rats, and horny gay men."

That seems to be the sentiment behind a 1994 Air Force proposal, unearthed by bioweapons-watchers at the Sunshine Project.

The document -- entitled "Harrassing, Annoying, and 'Bad Guy' Identifying Chemicals" -- strings together a couple of ideas for non-lethal agents that could mark an opponent, temporarily change his behavior, or "attract annoying creatures to an enemy position."

Were any of these proposals every approved? I doubt it. But, boy, do I love the idea of Pentagon program managers dreaming up ways to use "sex attractant chemicals for bugs" as weapons. Or employing a "'sting/attack me' chemical that causes bees to attack." Such an agent "would especially effective for infiltration routes," the paper observes.

"Rodents and larger animals would [also] be candidates to be drawn to enemy positions," according to the proposal. So would other "stinging and biting bugs."

But as irritating as a swarm of bees or rats might be, it's nothing compared to the distraction generated by a man in heat. No wonder, then, that the Air Force document calls for "chemicals that affect human behavior so that discipline and morale in enemy units is adversely effected. One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

If, for some reason, military scientists couldn't come up with an effective, sprayable Spanish Fly, well, there are still other possibilities to be explored. For instance: "a low toxicity compound" that creates "severe and lasting halitosis."

Rebecca is way cool.

Battle of the Millenium:
Lex Luthor versus the Alien! - but not the one you're thinking of.

Ooooh. A new toy.

WHAT IS LJARCHIVE?

ljArchive is a tool for downloading, browsing, and analyzing journal entries and comments from LiveJournal (or LiveJournal clones). ljArchive is currently available for Windows, and may soon be coming to gtk/Linux. ljArchive allows you to do the following to your journal:

* Download and navigate a synchronized, local archive of your journal.
* Run custom plugins on your journal. ljArchive comes with the following plugins:
o Entry Reader - reads your journal entries aloud using text-to-speech technology.
o Regressive Imagery Analysis - provides a psychological profile of your journal.
o Word Count - provides a list of the words used in your journal, and their frequency.
o Post Frequency - graphs the frequency of your posts over time.
o Comment Count - graphs the number of comments left by users in your journal, and also how many comments you've left them.
* View/export entries and comments using a completely customizable HTML template system. You can customize settings for templates and also build your own templates.
* Search through your journal for keywords, and browse through search results immediately.
* Export your journal into various formats, such as XML, HTML, PDF (in conjuction with LJBook), and MIDI (yes, MIDI!).

(no subject)

120-year-old tortoise adopts 1-year-old hippopotamus.

Because Geckos DO THAT.

Scientists Unravel How Geckos Keep Their Sticky Feet Clean

The super sticky feet of geckos allow the animals to cling easily to nearly any surface. In fact, a single toe contains enough foot hairs, known as setae, to support the animal's entire body weight. Researchers are thus hoping to employ the gecko's secrets to manufacture adhesives with similar properties. Now scientists can add another impressive characteristic to the list: setae are self-cleaning.

Previous research had hinted at a built-in cleaning process for gecko feet, but just how the creatures kept their toes tidy remained a mystery because they neither groom their footpads nor secrete fluids. Kellar Autumn and Wendy R. Hansen of Lewis and Clark College measured the amount of force between the setae and different surfaces both when they were dirt-free and in the presence of particulate contamination. They found that it takes only a few steps for setae to shed tiny silica spheres. "Self-cleaning in gecko setae may occur because it is energetically favorable for particles to be deposited on the surface rather than remain adhered to the spatulae,"

The findings indicate that gecko foot cleaning occurs even under extreme exposure to clogging particles. To best imitate this property in synthetic adhesives the authors posit that an array of adhesive nanostructures should be made out of a relatively hard material having a small surface area and low surface energy for optimum performance.