Raccoons invade Germany

The Germans brought the first raccoons to Europe in the 1930s. They called them Waschbaeren, or "wash bears," because they wash so frequently (by European standards). During an allied bombing raid, a German raccoon farm was damaged and the raccoons escaped, or rather, were liberated. Over the next 80 years they have been multiplying and maundering over the continental countryside. Recently, they've been moving into German towns, and the Germans have found themselves unable to defend against the 20 lbs. furry menaces. A German family reported trying to expel raccoons from their chimney by smoking them out, then playing loud music, and finally in step far surpassing their previous efforts in imagination and sophistication, the German family electrified their gutters. The raccoons were undeterred.

Price of Lobsters

The price of Maine lobsters has dropped precipitously. According to Big Steve, when the Icelandic banks failed, the lobster processing plants in Canada got in trouble, and somehow the price of lobsters went through the floor. Thus lobster is cheap, and we should buy them because it will help the lobster market, and because they taste good and are... cheap.

Will this economic crisis show no mercy? When will it abate?

Big Steve is weathering the crisis well. Indeed, he killed a deer with his 308 in his backyard yesterday and is ecstatically happy.

Swordfish

Sharks have a lot of street cred for all their seal and surfer eating, but I believe the swordfish to be the biggest badass of the seas. The shark is a thug, while the swordfish has style. The shark is Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie, while if fish had wallets, the swordfish's would say 'Bad Mother Fucker' on it. And if any more proof is needed, then I'd submit that the swordfish is faster than the mako shark. Moreover, in the event a mako can catch a swordfish, then the smaller swordfish can kill the mako with, what else but its sword!

The swordfish fits into this section on exceptions to nature's rules because it's warm blooded. It can heat up its eyes and brain and go into a fish turbo mode. Note: it heats its brain, rather than its fins or sword, because the brain is the greatest weapon of the underwater badass.

I guess this says it all

link 1 link 2

Cat reproduction

Keeping on the animal weird sex theme established in the last posting, we have a weird one from a species both near and beloved: the house cat. It's one dirty bitch. Once a female cat and a males cat ehhem... do it, and the female gets prego, the female cat can keep looking for new males and get double pregnant by a different dude. With most non-cat species, once an egg gets fertilized the whole system goes into to baby mode and stops producing fertilize-able eggs. However there's no particular reason to shut down normal reproductive stuff at conception especially if a species has multiple babies per litter and the first round of babies/kittens is only a few days post consception. After ehhem... conception round 1 female cats go out and actually try super hard to get pregnant again and so kittens of the same litter can be half sibs.

Weird Animals

Here at BFC we're rule breakers and we like it when animals do the same. For instance, there have been 2 documented cases of female sharks reproducing by parthenogenesis. My understanding of the virgin births is that two haploid eggs merged to form a diploid baby shark.

Political Mucrucking at Its Finest

This appears to be what we're up against.

Obama & Springsteen

I have been a Springsteen fan for as long as I can remember. I loved 'Born in the USA' but I also hung with him through 'Lucky Town' and other woeful attempts to play rock and roll without the E Street Band. I even was cool when Bruce himself started shutting down beer sales at his Meadowlands show at 7:30 PM. However, I would hope he expresses himself at Obama rallies through popular songs, and not with controversial songs, and definitely not through stream of consciousness monologue.