When in doubt, just throw anything

A woman fending off a bear attack grabbed the closest thing to hand -- a 12-inch zucchini from her garden -- and threw it at the snarling ursine, hitting it on the noggin. It fled.

The tigers are getting organized

A Sumatran tiger killed two illegal loggers in, yes, Sumatra -- bringing to five the number of loggers who have been killed by tigers there in less than a month.

Those tigers aren't dumb.

technorati: logging, tigers, Indonesia

The Astyk Award: first winner

The NYT has an article about people who victimize their families in the name of environmentalism: a mother "couldn't find a (Little League baseball) league that wasn't a long drive," so her 6-year-old is stuck playing catch with her in the yard; in the winter they heat with a wood stove and the average indoor temp is 52 degrees. A man is collecting every bit of waste his family generates, including the recyclables, and blogging about it. And so forth.

Perhaps we need a companion to the Stolpa Award, which recognizes people who fit into the "Too stupid to live" category but manage to menace their whole family in the bargain. All right, let's name it after, and give the first award to, the mother who can't be bothered to live in the 20th (much less the 21st) century: The Astyk Award. (Although the article itself contains another phrase which is wonderfully evocative: dark green.)

I mean, really -- you want to reduce your carbon footprint? Don't have kids. She has four.

technorati: waste, recycling, green