Forbes magazine named the Chester Zoo in Liverpool as one of the fifteen best zoos in the world.
It opened in 1934.
The zoo was evacuated today when 30 – THIRTY- chimpanzees escaped from Chimp Island. (I’m pretty sure I saw that episode of the Planet Of The Apes 1974 TV show – and yes, I had the trading cards, too.)
Sounds like they better interview the mastermind of this plot. I bet he’s looking at a run in solitary for this one.
Cheeky monkeys.
The American Dream can no more remain static than can the American nation…. We cannot any longer take an old approach to world problems. They aren’t the same problems. It isn’t the same world. We must not adopt the methods of our ancestors; instead, we must emulate that pioneer quality in our ancestors that made them attempt new methods for a New World.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, Autobiography
Ah, yes, another instance of the immortal words of Special Agent Dale Cooper can be applied today. (To wit – When two separate evens occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry we must always pay strict attention.)
And so Alaska Govenor Sarah Palin announced today she was resigning her position.
Said Palin:
This decision came after much consideration. I really don’t want to disappoint anyone with this announcement.
There has been speculation that she would seek to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2012. By leaving office early, Ms. Palin will be able to travel around the country more freely and not be constrained by the duties and responsibilities of being a governor.
Mary Matalin called Ms. Palin’s move brilliant and seconded the notion that the governor’s decision was smart in the sense that it will free her up, like Mitt Romney, to travel the country to make inroads with potential voters.
So, it makes one wonder…in my alternate universe – is there a looming senator-ship in a financially troubled state ahead? Is THAT the REAL reason for Beauregard Van Horne’s decision?
Hmmmmm…seems very likely is all I’m sayin’.
This is it, people. What ARE we exactly if we allow this to happen?
With all of our greed and ignorance, we have decimated the world’s total resource of natural, wild Amur tigers (the largest – and rarest -cat inthe world) to an effective population of 35 – THIRTY FIVE – genetically viable individuals. A total population of less 500 probably still survive in the world, but a new study has concluded that genetic diversity culls the total to 35 – which is the lowest genetic diversity figure ever recorded for a population of tigers.
Worse yet, these individuals are seperated by a development corrider, and it appears that only three tigers have ever managed to navigate the corrider, thus dropping the chances that these two concentrations of tigers can ever mingle.
At the start of the 20th century, nine subspecies of tigers existed, with a total population of about 100,000 individuals. Human impact has driven three subspecies to extinction already – the Javan, Bali and Caspian tigers.
The total population of all tigers in the world is thought to be about 3,000.
I can’t fathom a world in which these magnificent creatures do not exist – are not born in a forest and cannot live their lives freely, by instinct – hunting, swimming, romping in the snow.
There are far too many humans and far too much asphalt on this planet.
Welcome, July! Just when you thought this had all run its course…an albino eight foot long Burmese Python (c’mon, you saw it coming) strangled Shaiunna Hare, aged two, in Oxford, Florida.
An excerpt from the 911 call: 
The baby’s dead! Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby. She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby’s crib and strangled her to death.
While this is quite unfortunate and sad, I am finding the numerous news reports titled “Strangled To Death” a bit saddening in themselves. I expect more from alleged journalists than idoitic redundancy. Journalists: the definition of “strangle” is “to die from interference with breathing” or “to choke to death by compressing the throat“, a definition, I might add, that the Burmese Python illustrated perfectly.
PS – The snake’s owner, Charles Jason Darnell, did not have a permit for the animal, which all FaithfulReaders will know, is required by Florida law.
The three best-selling albums in the United States last week were all by – yep – Michael Jackson: Number Ones sold 108,000 copies; The Essential Michael Jackson sold 102,000; and Thriller sold 101,000.
In total, 422,000 copies of Mr. Jackson’s albums were sold in the week that ended on Sunday —more than 40 times the previous week’s figure.
Additionally, a mind-blowing 2.3 MILLION downloads of single tracks were sold, separate from album sales.
In the three days before his death, Billie Jean had only 94 spins on the 1,600 stations that Nielsen BDS monitors across the country. Between 3 pm and midnight Thursday, the song was played 1,011 times.
And as my good friend the BurlyBachelor asked so pointedly – Really? What was your opinion of him at the BEGINNING of last week?
Does a body good, indeed.
Those ad folks couldn’t have picked a better spokesmodel in my opinion. That being said, I could have done without the moustache.
Summer is quickly becoming my favorite season for the first time ever.
Bjoern Hoen has been found guilty by a Norwegian appeals court of providing the getaway vehicle that was used in the 2004 daytime heist of Edvard Munch’s Scream.
Hoen claimed he did not know how the vehicle would be used.
He has been sentenced to two and half years in prison for handing over his car keys without asking pertinent questions.
Ok, so some days you just have to whine and complain and you are feeling all down and like you can’t accomplish ANYTHING…
Well, turning to this story may help…
Billy McLaughlin is a well-known new age fingerstyle guitar player recording on the Narada label. {Fingerstyle is a technique of playing where the guitarist plucks the strings directly with their fingertips, nails or picks attached to the fingers. Most commonly, the guitar is played by strumming or by flatpicking – picking notes with a plectrum.}
McLaughlin is a five-time Minnesota Music Award winner and has a catalog of 11 CD releases and has appeared on the Billboard Top-Ten Charts.
But then…he began having problems controlling his left hand, not hitting the right notes and not understanding why this was happening. Audiences thought maybe he was partying a bit too much in the dressing room. It got so bad he couldn’t even perform his own compositions.
Turns out, McLaughlin has focal dystonia, a mysterious ailment that affects about 10,000 musicians around the world.
In McLaughlin’s case, the pinkie and ring finger on his left hand — the hand a right-handed guitarist uses to form chords or run scales on the fretboard — curled inward.
Instead of giving up, McLaughlin decided to relearn how to play the guitar left-handed — which another acoustic guitar virtuoso, Leo Kottke, likens to trying to breathe through your feet. It’s exactly that hard.
McLaughlin says:
You know the vase hits the floor and in that moment that it shatters and that sound comes out you realize, ‘Oh, oh, that’s gone forever.’ And in my case, there’s no new hand to put on. But I found another way around it. And that’s a lesson for every area of my life.
McLaughlin is the subject of the forthcoming documentary Changing Keys: Billy McLaughlin and the Mysteries of Dystonia.
Go see it.
Her five opponents fought to keep up with Zenyatta during the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park but the results were the same as in every other race Zenyatta has participated in – she decisively won the race, and their efforts (pardon me, but I must) were in vain.
Carrying a high weight of 129 pounds, she still came in 2 1/4 lengths ahead of her closest competitor.
Zenyatta has won 11 races and $2,414,500 for owners Jerry and Ann Moss. The Vanity was her second start of the year, coming five weeks after she won the Grade 2 Milady Handicap.
Last year, she won seven stakes, highlighted by the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Santa Anita in October.
Zenyatta is looking lifetime perfection in the eye. Now 11-for-11 in her career, the sensational mare sits just two wins short of the 13-for-13 mark the remarkable Personal Ensign achieved. With three potential starts remaining in her date book, Zenyatta could eclipse Personal Ensign with a perfect mark in 14 starts if she can remain unblemished.
When Personal Ensign ended her career in 1988, she became the first unbeaten major racehorse in this country since Colin in 1908. That means since Colin, 101 years have passed and only Personal Ensign has done what Zenyatta possibly could accomplish.
This is one fine year for horse racing!
