WB Reviving MacGyver? First Superman, now the W…

WB Reviving MacGyver?

First Superman, now the WB wants to do Young MacGyver. Oh, dear.

Odd Search Requests from the Disney.com Domain …

Odd Search Requests from the Disney.com Domain

Google Search: woody harrelson guardian iraq october

Again With the Pteropundit WPVI.com: Cannon Wh…

Again With the Pteropundit

WPVI.com: Cannon Wheeled in to Shoo Birds

Overkill, much? Well, at least it isn’t Cristina Aguilera.

Starlings are nesting under a bridge between Washington and Oregon, and the authorities haven’t been able to get rid of them. The cannon is their latest effort; it’s propane-powered and doesn’t shoot projectiles, but it does make a big noise. I would think that the starlings would be pretty much used to loud noises, what with living under a road, and “Terry Messmer, a Utah State University expert on starling control” (yes, there’s an expert on everything) says that the birds will get used to the sound and come back if there’s no threat.

Includes mandatory Hitchcock reference.

From the Pteropundit CDs used to discourage bir…

From the Pteropundit

CDs used to discourage birds from perching

The courthouse steps in Lisbon, Ohio, were getting covered in pigeon poop. (At least it wasn’t cormorants.) So the commissioners turned to CDs to get rid of the pigeons.

I read the headline and I figured they played the new Cristina Aguilera album at the birds and scared them away. But no, they took used CDs and hung them by fishing line from the tower they’re trying to keep the birds away from. The disks reflect light which scares the pigeons. I wonder, though, about what happens at night.

From the Pteropundit Birds on the march If I…

From the Pteropundit

Birds on the march

If I had any talent for it, that would be a parody song title.

Anyway, “mobs” of emus are running around Victoria, Australia, devouring an already poor wheat crop. There’s a drought on and the emus have swam over (emus can swim?) from New South Wales in search of food.

Study: Atlanta is nation’s 4th most sprawling metr…

Study: Atlanta is nation’s 4th most sprawling metro area

It’s hard to believe there are three more sprawling cities (BTW: Riverside-San Bernadino, Greensboro-Winston Salem, Raleigh-Durham) than Atlanta. The suburbs reach almost to Alabama now, and I think it’s worse than that on the other sides of town. (Birmingham is 23rd; here’s the report.) Atlanta is unlike most of the rest of the top ten in that there’s an identifiable major city at the heart, rather than several smaller ones.

Least sprawling: New York. Not particularly surprising considering that most of it’s on islands and there’s nowhere to park. OK, this is an anti-sprawl group’s findings, but would you rather live in New York or Riverside?

From the Pteropundit (Name used on trial basis) …

From the Pteropundit (Name used on trial basis)

Bird owners put on alert for Newcastle disease - 10/17/02 - NCTimes.net

While East Coast birds get to worry about West Nile, it’s Newcastle in the West. It’s a bad one, with a near-100 percent death rate in unvaccinated flocks. And there’s an invasive-species angle here: it’s thought that the disease was brought to Southern California by Amazon parrots, which are asymptomatic carriers of the disease.

ABCNEWS.com : Vatican Rejects U.S. Abuse Policy …

ABCNEWS.com : Vatican Rejects U.S. Abuse Policy

They’re concerned that the rights of priests would be violated. Not to go all Eastwood on you, but what about the rights of parishoners?

CNN.com - Noelle Bush given 10 days in jail for co…

CNN.com - Noelle Bush given 10 days in jail for contempt - Oct. 17, 2002

You know, for bringing crack into her rehab center. Of course, she isn’t actually being charged with drug possession, but what the hey.

Salon.com News | U.S. backs down on Iraq demands t…

Salon.com News | U.S. backs down on Iraq demands to U.N.

Facing strong opposition from dozens of nations, the United States has backed down from its demand that a new U.N. resolution must authorize military force if Baghdad fails to cooperate with weapons inspectors, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Instead, the United States is now floating a compromise which would give inspectors a chance to test Iraq’s will to cooperate on the ground. If Iraq then failed to disarm, the Bush administration would agree to return to the Security Council for further debate and possibly another resolution authorizing action.

Ha! That’s what we wanted all along! It’s rope-a-dope!