– – It was 150 years ago (1859) that Charles Darwin released his theory of evolution, a cornerstone of the sciences…
…and yet, evolution remains controversial in some circles 150 years later…
Anniversary of Evolutionary Theory
Posted November 25, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: evolution, science
Tags: anniversary of Darwin's theory, evolution
Hopping Mad!
Posted November 24, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: animal occurrences, animals, furry, strange happenings
Tags: kangaroo attack!
– – Let sleeping kangaroos lie!–Such might be the advice of a 49-year-old Australian walking his dog who startled a sleeping ‘roo Sunday morning in Arthur’s Creek northeast of Melbourne.
The man’s dog chased the ‘roo into a pond, and that’s when clobberin’ time began! The kangaroo turned at that point and pinned the dog underwater! When the man tried to pull his pet free, the ‘roo took on all comers, using his powerful hind legs to tear a deep gash into the guy’s abdomen and face.
The guy had to throw an elbow to the five-foot kangaroo’s throat to get him to end the attack. His dog, Rocky, was “half-drowned.”
–That was one mighty marsupial!
–Fear the Asian Carp!
Posted November 22, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: animal occurrences, animal oddities, animals, strange happenings
Tags: Asian carp
– – The man is the picture loves fishing…I mean, really loves it! I will not speculate about what a human-Asian carp hybrid would look like. I’m afraid enough of the Asian carp…
These fish can exceed four feet in length, and 100 pounds in weight. They can eat 40% of their body weight each day. And of course being Asian, they excel at math…
…just kidding about that last attribute, of course! But these carp are crafty…they may have already penetrated an electronic barrier meant to keep them out of the Great Lakes, a barrier which cost nine million!
“We’re going to keep throwing everything we can at them to keep them out,” said the senior Great Lakes advisor to the EPA. This reminds me of a Godzilla-vintage Japanese horror movie…
…“We must stop Mega-carp!–We will throw everything that we have at it!” (footage shown of tanks shelling an enormous fish, all to no avail.) “Quickly!–Deploy the Super-X!”
…’scuse me, I lost my mind for a minute.–Anyhow, Asian carp escaped from southern fish farms into the Mississippi River during 1990’s flooding, and have been migrating northward since. They decimate species prized by anglers and commercial fishers, and are known to leap from the water at the sound of passing motors and sometimes collide with boaters! A worst-case scenario envisions them spreading “like a cancer cell.”
I dunno about you, but I’m sleeping with a light on, and an image of Mrs. Paul or maybe the Gordon fish guy in the room to protect me!
–Is Dem Chickens Crazy?
Posted November 20, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: animal rights, animals, deplorable practices
Tags: Are penned hens crazy?, battery caged hens, factory-raised chickens
– – “Their bones and muscles waste away and they go insane.” So says a spokesman for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals about chickens raised in the so-called “battery cages” which measure 24 inches wide by 25-1/2 inches deep, and are shared by up to nine hens from the day that they are born to the day that their egg-laying days end 18 to 24 months later. About 96% of the eggs sold in the United States come from chickens raised in such conditions.
Although the chickens can’t fully extend their wings in such cages, producers claim caged hens are healthier and satisfied with the only lives that they’ve ever known. Producers contend that the chickens are not stuffed in so tightly that they can’t move around the cage, and that accordingly these conditions don’t constitute animal cruelty.
Public opinion appears to side with those who oppose the cages, and voters in California approved a proposition that bans cramped cages for hens. Michigan’s governor signed legislation last month requiring confined animals to have enough room to turn around and fully extend their limbs.
A three-year study is being funded by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture on the issue. I know what Foghorn Leghorn thinks about the matter, but can’t quote what he said in a blog not rated for mature content… 😉
Snarly Dudes Rule “Twilight, New Moon!”
Posted November 19, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: animals, cool things, furries, furry, movies
Tags: New Moon werewolves
– – I’m not into the Twilight saga, ’cause it’s geared in large measure for teenaged girls; romance just ain’t my thing, especially when the romantic leads spend much of their time staring intensely, pining away, and brooding. The fact that werewolves appear in the movie, however, rouses my furry interest. Vampires are OK, especially if they’re cool and classy like Dracula, Lestat, or Angel, but bring in even a mundane werewolf, and you’ve got me hooked!
So let’s talk werewolves, which is where it’s at– – this movie deviates from the usual trend of showing a nice, slow, and usually agonizing werewolf transformation. In my opinion, slow and agonizing is the way to go, so the fans can appreciate it as well as the significance of what’s going on. The lycanthropes of New Moon, however, explode mid-leap into a fully-transformed state, with shreds of clothing flying off them. To their credit, the New Moon weres are impressively large, and are not cookie-cutter interchangeable clones; they are distinguishable by size and fur color, with alpha male Sam being the largest and having black fur. Other weres are russet-hued, silvery, dark brown, and dark grey. They also use the personalized eyes of the actors in the digital wolves, which are otherwise as realistic as possible. An additional plus is that the actors are mostly of Native American descent.
So paws up for the wild things, even though this shallow romance has been rated with only **1/2 out of four stars…
Cow Takes A Dip…
Posted November 19, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: animal occurrences, animals, furry
Tags: cow in swimming pool
– – In Spartanburg, South Carolina a woman was udderly surprised when she found a 650-pound cow in her covered swimming pool. Once again, there was one incredulous 911 dispatcher. No one was sure what the cow was doing in the swimming pool, although the dog paddle was mentioned…
It took five men from county rescue and a sling to get the cow out of the swimming pool. The cow was unharmed (although water isn’t good for leather), and thought to belong to a neighbor. It was speculated that the cow escaped, thought that the covered pool was solid ground, and just kept walking…
Wild Turkey Plays Chicken!
Posted November 18, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: animal occurrences, animals, anomalies, strange happenings
Tags: wild turkey on NJ Turnpike
– – A wild turkey…the bird, not the booze…has been running across the New Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 14B, playing in traffic, pecking at the windows of the administration building, and jumping on parked cars (which it especially seems to enjoy)! Efforts to capture and remove the elusive bird have been unsuccessful, and so for the present time at least, the turkey has been allowed to run rampant, the proud bird with the golden tail!
–Seems to me that this “bird brain” is giving the bird to the naked apes!
Patrick McGoohan Remembered…
Posted November 17, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: cool things, television
Tags: Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner
– – The original Number Six from the ground-breaking series The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, died in January this year at the age of 80.
The 1960’s television world boasted some of the best and the worst, ranging from the heights of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone to the depths of…say, The Cowsills. The original Prisoner show was a heady mix of geopolitics, sci-fi, and psychedelia that even The Beatles loved…a mix of Kafka and Orwell that sadly only lasted for 17 episodes but left an enduring impact…
…and Patrick McGoohan was one of the great ones, cool, tough, and cerebral all at the same time!
We Soldier On…
Posted November 15, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: furry
Tags: Our readers rock!
– -Thank ‘ya, Esteemed Readers, for helping Foxsylvania pass the 60,000 hits mark! May chewy treats, cozy dens, warm huggles, and shiny things await you in the great furafter…
What?!–Did you think you’d get 72 virgins out of me, or sumptin’?! 😉
“The Prisoner” Returns!
Posted November 14, 2009 by vulpesffbCategories: cool things, television
Tags: Number Six, The Prisoner Returns, The Village
– – Way back in 1967, a surreal series debuted on television called The Prisoner which was part spy series and part sci-fi drama. The British cult hit featured none less than Patrick McGoohan playing a character called Six who was held captive in a bizarre place called The Village, a community led by a man called (- -what else?) Two. The ambiguous show was unlike anything else on television of the day, and while incomprehensible to many, it went on to profoundly influence television, music, comic books, and movies for decades to come; echoes of The Prisoner reverberated in an episode of The Fantastic Four, in the Twin Peaks series, and even in the comic book and movie of Watchmen, where Rorschach adopted the prisoner’s “Be seeing you” as his personal sign-off.
In the series, a man finds himself inexplicably trapped in The Village with no recollection of how he arrived. His fellow inhabitants are identified by number rather than name, and are under constant surveillance. Not knowing who to trust, Six is driven by a need to understand The Village, his reason for his being there, and how he can escape. You can read all kinds of things into it…
With Jim Caviezel in the lead role as Six and Ian McKellen as Two, The Prisoner debuts this Sunday evening on the AMC channel…Be seeing you!
FOXSYLVANIA 
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