Asian Carp Attack Rowers; These Are Horrible Fish

A fishy horror movie? Asian Carp leaping
from a Midwest waterway. Yikes!  

There's a lot of funny videos circulating centering on Asian carp.

The most recent one that's going viral shows the Washington University in St. Louis freshman men's crew team gettting attacked by the fish in a recent practice run.

You'll see the video at the bottom of this post.

Asian carp are spreading rapidly through mostly the Midwest and Mississippi Valley, but threaten to cover the whole country.

Their most visible and annoying habit is leaping out of the water when a boat or something else disturbs them, which is why you get the Washington University rowing team contending with the carp.

But Asian Carp and aggressive in other ways, crowding out most native fish and leaving waterways with just thick clots of these pesky fish.

The National Wildlife Federation says this about the critters:

".....voracious filter feedes, Asian carp consume up to 20 percent of their bodyweight per day in plankton and can grow to over 100 pounds. Plankton are small floating organisms that form the foundation of the aquatic food chain and are vital to native fish."

A lot of people think it's inevitable that the fish will enter the Great Lakes, and that would be horrible. Again, the National Wildlife Federation:

"It is crucial to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. Once established in an ecosystem they are virtually impossible to eradicate. Adult Asian carp have no natural predators in North America and females lay approximately half a million eggs each time they spawn."

Ugh!

So how did these awful Asian fish get to the United States in the first place?

Well, some idiot imported them here in the 1970s because he thought they would do a fantastic job in filtering pond water in fish farms in Arkansas. Inevitably, flooding allowed the carp to escape and they've been reproducing like mad and spreading ever since.

There seems to be a long history of people importing stuff from overseas for their own convenience, without thinking about whether these imports would be an invasive species.

Anyway, Asian carp are wrecking ecosystems, but at least we get funny videos out of them. The balance doesn't work, but what can you do?

Here's the video I promised earlier:

Eyewitness TV Interview Goes BOOM! Heads Up For Flying Manhole Cover

Look carefully: That's a manhole
cover rocketing skyward behind this
man who was being interviewed on TV.  

Sunday afternoon, an underground electrical fire in downtown Buffalo, New York set off a few explosions, local television station WGRZ reports. 

A couple buildings were evacuated as crews got the fire under control and the electric utility came to cut power as a precaution, then to restore power after the fire was out.

However, it turns out manhole covers can be very mobile in certain situations. I didn't know they could do this

WGRZ was interviewing a building manager who evacuated people because of the fire, when this happened:

Apparently, Adults Must Control EVERY SINGLE Moment Of Kids' Lives Or ELSE!

Apparently, the kids in this photo are
being horribly neglected by these parents because
they're allowed to play alone in a park
near their home. That is, at least in the eyes
of Maryland Child Protective Services.  

UPDATE: 

What people are really talking about how Maryland CPS deliberately didn't tell the parents where their kids were for TWO HOURS. 

After CPS finally fessed up that they had the kids, they spent more time not telling the parents what was going on.

Basically, Maryland CPS kidnapped these kids. If any random person grabbed the kids off the playground and kidnapped them, they'd spend 30 years in jail.

So, why aren't the people at CPS charged with kidnapping? Shouldn't they go to jail?

The parents also had to sign a so-called "safety plan" in which they are forced by law never to leave their kids unattended.

So Maryland CPS think they can raise kids better than loving parents? The same organization that thinks it's OK to kidnap children if they disagree with how their parents are raising them?

Like I said, I want jail time for Maryland CPS employees who were responsible for this outrage.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

I would hate to be a kid nowadays.

The rules seem to be that if you're a kid, an adult must be hovering two inches from you at all times. If you're a kid, you don't get to pick what game to play, what to imagine, who to play with, or when.

You don't just go out and play. It has to be a tightly controlled "play date."

Deviate from these rules just a bit, and dire things can happen. You might be taken away from your parents. Arrested and jailed because you misbehaved. Kicked out of school. Shamed in front of your peers.

I'm offering this rant because the so-called "Maryland free range kids" are back in the news again.

According to the Washington Post, authorities grabbed the children of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv out of a park because some busybody saw the kids playing alone, with no adult guiding their Every. Single. Move.

The busybody called the cops, who got the kids and handed them over to Maryland Child Protective Services.

The Meitive kids were previously in the news because Maryland CPS had previously investigated the parents for the "neglect" of having the kids walk home from a nearby park.

According to a previous Washington Post article:

"The Meitivs say they believe in 'free range' parenting, a movement that has been counterpoint to the hyper-vigilance of 'helicopter' parenting, with the idea that children learn self-reliance by being allowed to progressively test limits, make choices and venture out in the world.

'The world is actually even safer than when I ws a child and I just want to give them the freedom and independence that I had - basically an old-fashioned childhood' (Danielle Meitev) said. 'I think it's absolutely critical for their development - to learn responsibility, to experience the world, to gain confidence and competency.'"

But we can't have that!

An independent thinking child will grow up into an independent thinking adult, one that questions the Powers That Be, one that thinks of creative solutions that threaten the orthodoxy of whatever bonehead is in charge at the moment.

Look, I'm not saying there's some grand conspiracy to control kids' behavior so that they don't question authority as adults.

I'm saying this is the result we will get as we continue to squelch any hint of independence and self-sufficiently in kids.  Do we really want to live in a world were any independent thought is squelched?

But squelching we're doing, as we learned on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Meitivs were expecting the kids home by 6 p.m., and became pretty frantic when they didn't show up. Authorities didn't bother to mention to the Meitivs that they had the kids until 8 p.m..

My conspiratorial side thinks the CPS maybe wanted to frighten the parents by teaching them a lesson. You know, feel the terror over the possibility your kids were abducted or something.

Yes, I know, I know, abductions are possible. Rare but possible. That's the ostensible reason why we're supposed to hover over the kids.

Abductions are indeed horrible, and I sincerely wish that wouldn't happen to any kid, anywhere, period.

Maryland CPS eventually handed the Meitiv kids back to their parents around 10:30 Sunday night, the Washington Post said.

Way to go, Maryland CPS! Let's terrify parents who aren't helicopters, and more importantly, terrify kids into not having any independence and being fearful of being taken away from their parents, all because they wanted to play in a park.

The kids might have cause for worry.

In the previous incident, when the kids were caught walking home without a parent clinging to them, Maryland CPS eventually made a finding of "unsubstantiated neglect."

That means the agency found evidence there might have been neglect, but it couldn't really be proven. To me, this was a weasly way for the CPS saying that, no, you technically didn't do anything wrong, but we hate what you did so watch your back.

When I was a kid, nobody thought twice about our parents letting us go off on our own, maybe organize a touch football game on our own, or go splashing in the brook in the woods, imagining we were explorers, or knights or whatever our funny little brains decided.

If we misbehaved, it would get back to our parents, and we would be dealt with accordingly.

It would drive me crazy if some parent was with us every step of the way. How oppressive!

Likewise, if we misbehaved in school, the school would let it be known to our parents that we up to no good.

Granted, some parents don't follow up with discipline, which makes it particularly difficult for schools to deal with the troubled kid who's causing the problems.

The solution in those cases seems to be arresting the kids and charging them with serious crimes when they misbehave.

Like that 11-year old autistic kid who freaked out recently and fought as he was being restrained by adults in an escalation with the kid kicking a trash can. He was charged and convicted of felony assault on a police officer.

The kid is 11 years old and autistic!!

So, kiddies, let this be a lesson to you. Apparently, us adults don't want you to learn and have any independence, we don't want you to be creative, to explore, to let your mind wander, to think of innovative solutions to life's little and big problems.

No, we want you to be automatons, who don't even ask, "How high?" when we tell you to jump. You just jump.

And don't you EVER ask why anybody in charge is making stupid decisions. It's not for you to ask.

What a sad world for children.

Bad Mood? Use This Video As Go To For Better Feelings

Here's a brief video that's gone viral of two eight month old twin girls pretty much enjoying their mom's singing to them.

The kids have pretty good moves for their age, too.

Watch:

Was Doorman Shown The Door For Being Too Nice?

This New York City apartment building doorman
said he was let go for being too helpful to tenants.  

Can an employee be fired for being too nice to the clients he supposed to be serving?

The answer, apparently is yes, and tenants of a luxury high rise in Queens aren't happy about it, says the New York Post.

Ralph Body was until recently the doorman at the ritzy digs where apartments go for the low, low price of $4,200 per month.

Body said he was told to stop working at the building by the apartment complex's management team, Heatherwood Communities, says the Post article.

According to the Post:

"He didn't just hold the door. He did anything and everything residents asked him to do -- check on pets, clean litter boxes, water plants,  hold packages, even show... apartments to new tenants if need be, he said. 

'Everything I did, somebody asked me to do, or there was a need for it,' Body said."

Of course, there might be other sides of the story we're not getting.

Body probably did do things in the building that weren't under his responsibility. The tenants said he went above and beyond while on the job, so technically he probably did things that weren't strictly authorized by building management.

I guess rules are rules.

The building's residents are rebelling. A petition circulating through the apartments says people want Body reinstated, though copies of the petition mysteriously disappeared from the lobby.

"Going above and beyond your work duties shouldn't be punished - it should be praised," says the petition. "Most tenants can attest to Ralph's kindness and eagerness to make people feel safe and welcome. In a transient city where most people are from other states and countries 27 on 27th was a unique building that truly felt like 'home' from the moment you stepped in the door."

A few of the residents said they would not renew their lease unless Body is reinstated.

Those apartments will be filled if the residents moved out. I'm sure there's a market for an aloof, cold, unhelpful doorman out there. Or maybe a doorman who's not too bright.

Perhaps Carlton the Doorman from the 1970s show "Rhoda" is available.

Why We Don't Have Upstairs Neighbors

This couple explain once and for all what's going
on upstairs with all that noise.  

I'm very happy to report I live in a single story house, owned by me and my husband, no tenants.

Especially no upstairs tenants.

I feel the pain of people who DO have people living upstairs. They make so much noise on the floors.

Ever wonder what they're doing up there?  This viral video, below, will clue you in.

I figure it was more than just normal daily routines.

Very funny:

Honey Theft: A Stingingly Stupid Crime

The guys in Florida tried to steal honey from this
hive high up in a tree. Guess what happened?  

I swear Florida is the world's leading producer of stupid criminals. There's a whole Twitter account called Florida Man, which chronicles the extreme creativity of the state's bad guys and gals.

The Twitter Feed is so named because every day in the paper or web news sites, there's the inevitable story that begins "A Florida man has been charged with (insert stupid crime here....)"

To my mind, a new low was hit on Easter Sunday in an attempted honey theft from a beehive in New Port Richey, Florida, says television station WTSP in Tampa/Sarasota.

Yes, you and I know bees tend to sting when you disturb them or their hive, and you need the proper protection and methods to harvest honey from a hive.

But you and I are not Florida Man! Why not climb a tree and just grab that delicious honey from a beehive?

The inevitable happened, obviously. The three men didn't get their honey but they sure got stung! The fire department had to show up and hose the guys down just to get enough bees off them so they could help them.

"They were covered in bees -- their beards, their hair, their clothes. Bees were everywhere," neighbor Tom Johnson told WTSP.

Being in Florida and all, Johnson realized on camera with WTSP he had to play the role of Captain Obvious, and said, "It's cheaper to go to the store and get your honey there than try to be brave and end up in the hospital. It's just not worth it."

It's true. A 32 ounce container of honey from Walmart costs just $7.84. I'm not sure what hospitalization from bee stings cost, but it's probably more than $7.84.

I can't wait for these three guys to get out of the hospital, where each was being treated for more than 50 bee stings. When they get out, I'm sure Florida Man will strike again with even more creativity.

I'm counting on you, Florida Man! And Florida Woman!