–Early reports sugest that a bird strike caused a jet plane to crash in the Hudson River near Manhattan on January 15th. Such incidents occur when birds, usually gulls, raptors, and geese, are sucked into a jet engine and strike an engine fan blade. The impact displaces the blade so that it strikes another blade and a cascade effect occurs, causing engine failure. It isn’t good for the birds, either.
A twelve pound Canadian goose striking an aircraft going 150 mph at lift-off generates the force of a 1,000 pound weight dropped from a height of ten feet. Flocks of birds are even more dangerous as they can result in multiple strikes.
Now large aircraft are certified to be able to keep flying after impacting with a four pound bird, but 36 species of birds in North America weigh more than this. Birds are especially dangerous to aircraft in the first several thousand feet after take-off, where birds are likely to be flying.
More than 200 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes with aircraft since 1988. A Canadian military jet was taken out by a bird strike in 2004. In the case of the Hudson River crash, the birds apparently took out both engines…
…maybe Alfred Hitchcock in The Birds was right!–Caw, caw!
–A lobster named George caught off Newfoundland, Canada has been estimated to be about 140 years old using a rule of thumb 
Q:–What is a wok?
Near Juneau, Alaska resides a handsome black wolf who lives a solitary existence apart from a mate or wolf pack. The locals call him Romeo, as he may be the mate of a deceased female wolf called Juliet, who was found dead in 2003. Romeo is estimated to be about eight years old, and for the past six years he has appeared for a six month stretch beginning in November when the glacier’s lakes start to freeze.
–My mother used to eat pickled herring on New Year’s Eve, probably figuring that if she did so, nothing worse would happen to her in the upcoming year.
–Whitehall, New York has a history of sightings of Bigfoot-like creatures extending from Indian lore to as recently as 2006. This small town on the eastern edge of New York’s Adirondack Mountain Preserve has long been consider a “hotbed” of Eastern North American Bigfoot activity. As described by MonsterQuest, the Monster of Whitehall is a sasquatch-like creature that stands up to eight feet tall, and makes a sound like a woman screaming. Several police officers reported a Bigfoot sighting in 1976, and the original officers have recently passed polygraph tests.
—Eartha Kitt died recently of colon cancer at age 82, and we remember her here for playing the unforgetable Catwoman in the original, campy Batman series of the 1960’s. 
–Mice have been genetically engineered that can run twice as far and about an hour longer than their unaltered brethren. The mice also stay in peak condition, even without exercise or a good diet! 
–The Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) is a well-studied region in the Monoceras (the Unicorn) constellation. The Christmas Tree Cluster, the blue reflection nebula surrounding bright stars, was so named because it looks like a tree in visible light…alright, use your imagination! 
–The Winter Solstice has arrived, an event traditionally marked by holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals, or other events; many of these observances such as druidic rituals predated Christianity, and the early Christian church simply assimilated certain of these traditions, recognizing that people were unable or unwilling to 
FOXSYLVANIA 
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