Sunday, Sunday

Commentary

    Here it is folks, the first day of autumn…………….., I wanted to talk about the changing of the seasons, and how they represent life and living, the fall colours, the anticipation of Thanksgiving, Halloween, and of course Christmas,  but instead ……………., all I feel is a sense of loss over the end of summer, and another year about to disappear into the mists of time!

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Damn, all I’ve done so far is depress myself, so let’s liven things up a bit:

Two women in Haslet, Texas, hope their new product to fight mosquitoes, made from cow poop, attracts buyers.

“Their first response is, “Does it smell?’ So, we have to let them know it’s not a stinky product,” said Kia Poulos.

“People say, ‘I never thought I’d come to the farmer’s market to buy poop.’ And I say, ‘I never thought I’d be selling it or picking it up,’” said Amy Enlow, Kia’s friend and business partner.

The women harvest cow poop, put it in a pretty package and sell it as mosquito repellent.

“It is Cow Poop, Organic Mosquito Repellent,” said Poulos. “We didn’t want to hide what it was.”

They got the crazy idea from the Discovery Channel show Survivorman with Les Stroud.

Poulos was watching it one night and saw Stroud burn a cow patty to build a fire then discover that the smoke worked as a bug repellent.

“We’re picking up a certain kind of poop,” Poulos said. “It has to sit out there long enough to get dried, and it’s better if the cows have knocked it over so it’s dried on both sides. And you can tell it’s just compact grass, which is all that’s left once it’s gone through the stomach.”

The women let the manure dry a few more days, then put it under a UV light to kill any left over bacteria.

They drop the pattys in a burlap bag, stencil the name on it and sell it every Saturday for $7.50 a bag at the Keller Farmers Market and in local mom-and-pop stores.

“You just burn it,” explained Poulos. “You’re gonna light a piece of dried poop, let it smolder and that smoke is gonna repel all the mosquitoes.”

“It does not stink,” said Enlow.

“A lot of people walk by and say, ‘Ooh, smells like a camp fire.’  So, you get some compliments,” Poulos said.

Poulos and Enlow admit, though, it’s sometimes tough for people to accept the product, and they’ve heard their share of jokes.

“We’re called ‘The Poop Ladies,’” smiled Enlow. “Some people laugh about it. And some people are like, “Ooh, cow poop.”

(WE DON’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP FOLKS!)
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/weird/Cow-poop-repels-mosquitoes-224576671.html?
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In what is being described as the first known event of its kind, a transgendered teen was named as her high school’s homecoming queen on Friday.

“I am so proud to win this not just for me, but everyone out there,” 16-year-old Cassidy Campbell said after receiving her crown during the halftime of Marina High’s homecoming football game Friday night in Huntington Beach, CA.

(Cassidy’s win has now prompted other teens to look at a sex change operation as a way to spice up their otherwise dull life! -Ed.)

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A nationwide survey conducted last year of 600 law enforcement agencies found that 92 percent use some form of social media. Of those plugged-in agencies, 90 percent use Facebook, 50 percent Twitter and 37 percent YouTube, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Center for Social Media findings.

Almost two-thirds say their accounts have improved community relations — the main goal of Upper Darby’s Twitter account. But even more say it has helped with the most integral part of their work: investigating crimes.
They reviewed social media profiles of suspects or victims, created undercover social identities to gather information and posted surveillance videos or images in hopes the public might be able to help.
“It’s kind of an expanded version of the good work they would do on the beat,” says Sgt. Dave Norris of the San Mateo, Calif., Police Department. A few months ago, for example, his agency arrested a man on suspicion of attempted statutory rape after police detectives posed as a teenage girl online.
It’s still not a replacement to old-fashioned analog investigations. “Traditional police work is the way to solve most of these crimes,” says Sgt. Eric Gripp of the Philadelphia Police Department. But if there’s a way out there to make their jobs easier, why not get on board?
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By Laila Kearney

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California scientists have discovered four species of legless lizards hidden in unlikely habitats among central valley oil derricks, sand dunes at the end of a Los Angeles airport runway and other arid and desolate spaces.

The findings, announced in a publication of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University this week, brings the number of known legless lizard species living in California up from one to five.

I don’t know about you people down there in the States, but up here in Canada we call them things SNAKES!
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It’s not quite an unidentified flying object, but one car for sale on eBay this week could easily be mistaken as something from another world.
Owner Mike Vetter describes the vehicle as a combination of parts including fold up doors reminiscent of a DeLorean, completely hidden wheel rims, a color-changing LED lighting system, “which create a nice light show in the evenings,” underneath the car. It’s even fuel efficient, getting about 26mpg.


“You are looking at a vehicle which receives more pictures taken of it on a daily basis then any Lamborghini or Ferrari,” Vetter writes in the car’s description. ‘The ride is smooth, solid and reliable. Due to the shape of the car the faster you go it seems to get more quiet inside.”
It’s just one of 60 custom cars Vetter says he’s built over the past 20 years but it may be his most unique creation. The car’s unusual casing almost makes it appear to be gliding on air but it actually runs on a fairly standard Chevy engine.
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Talk about bad luck…………………….!
A man from Richer, Man. has been charged after he allegedly crashed into a police vehicle early Saturday in the Rural Municipality of Ste. Anne.

Police say it was just before 1 a.m. CST Saturday morning when a Buick Century ran through a stop sign at highway speed.
Both police officers and four people from the other vehicle were taken to hospital in Steinbach with non-life-threatening injuries.
Oh, by the way, in case ya haven’t guessed, alcohol was involved!

The 24 year old man driving the Buick is facing a number of charges, including impaired driving causing bodily harm, uttering threats to kill police and criminal negligence.
He’s being held at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.
(Good thing they left their horse at home eh! They would have had to shoot it!)