Olympic Parents Strike Gold, Too

Part of the fun of watching the Olympics is the reactions of parents and other relatives in the stands.

Debbie Phelps, mom of swimmer Michael
Phelps watches her kid win again. 

Thankfully, there is now a Tumblr site, Parents of Olympians, where you can check out how mom and dad react to their kiddies as they seek the gold.

It almost looks like the parents are more emotionally invested in the competition than the actual competitors.

That makes sense, since a lot of these parents spent their time ferrying kids to and from gyms, pools and whatnot from Day 1.

Still, judging by the reactions, I think some of these parents get as big a workout cheering their kids and the Olympians do in competition.

Romney Pic and More Proof Men Who Abuse Spouces Often Stupid

In a sad case out of Tennesee, a local man was charged with domestic abuse because he hit his live-in girlfriend because he was suspicious she was planning an affair.

That's not funny, of course. But if the police reports are right, this guy is also dumb, dumb, dumb, in addition to being more than a jerk.

Lowell Turpin, accused of domestic violence and
being ignorant.

What set him off was a photo of a rather good looking guy on the woman's Facebook page. Aha! Proof that she was getting some action on the side.

The picture was of Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.  Apparently, the woman was interested in politics. Good enough.

But not good enough for "boyfriend" Lowell Turpin, no sir, according to police. Turpin thought Romney was the guy his gal was having the affair. He'd never heard of Mitt Romney? Knew what he looked like?

Um,  I think Romney has been in the news at least a couple times  this year. Even if you don't pay attention, you'd think Romney would have popped up somewhere in your mind as not necessarily a random guy seeking an affair with a woman in Tennesseee.

So let's hope the woman in question gets away from Turpin forever, and hope the Turpin is punished. And though I normally wish that as many people vote as possible, I really hope Turpin doesn't.

He's really not what I'd consider an informed voter, wouldn't you agree?

Gorillas Outsmart the Evil Man

I love it when an underdog sticks it to the man. Especially when the man is evil.

In this case, we're not talking about underdogs, though. Call them undergorillas. According to ABC News,  researchers in Rwanda saw young gorillas carefully and very effectively dismantling traps set by poachers to capture gorillas.

(Hat tip to Jim Ehlers via Facebook for the alert on this)

From ABC News: A gorilla is shown dismantling
a snare meant to kill them or other animals.

"How they did it demonstrated an impressive cognitive skill," said gorilla program coordinator Veronica Vecellio, according to ABC.

Researchers had previously seen a few adults dismantle the traps, but never gorillas so young. So the adults are teaching their children well.

By the way, researchers probably wanted to teach the gorillas to wreck the traps, but were bound by scientific ethics not to. They were not to interfere or change gorillas' natural behavior, we're told.

Gorillas are occasionally poached for food, but also fall victims to the snares for other reasons, according to the International Gorilla Conservation Programme.

Instead, traps intended to poach antelope for food sometimes snare Gorillas. Worse, sometimes gorillas are poached because some idiot wants to sell an infant gorilla as a pet and status symbol.

And, apparently some gorillas are killed for meat, because it is apparently some sort of status symbol among a few humans to eat that.  Most is eaten locally, but some finds its way to other cities for consumption, like London. Ugh.

Apparently, in some cases, human ambition, or more accurately greed, makes people dumb. So, it's nice to see a smart gorilla thwart a dumb human.

This isn't to say the gorillas who are dismantling the snares are saving their population. More and more gorillas are being killed by poachers, according to the experts, and that is the biggest threat to their overall survival.

Enforcement against poaching is lax across much of their African habitat, according to gorilla researchers.

So let's hope more gorillas learn to outsmart us sometimes stupid humans.

Dumb Smart Car Chase Fascinates America

Boy, today's news out of Houston spread on this here Internet thingy fast, didn't it?

In case you haven't heard, an apparently dumb guy led police on a not-so-high speed chase while driving one of those little Smart Cars.

A still from a video showing the Great Smart Car/
Dumb Guy Houston Police chase of '12.

The guy supposedly weighs 240 pounds, so I don't know how he actually got himself into the Smart Car, but never mind.

Speeds reached as high as 92 mph.

The Daily What, among other outlets, pretty much captured the scene with their headline: "Adorable Police Chase of the Day."

Of the day? You mean there's at least one adorable police chase every day? Why don't I ever see this here where I live in Vermont.

Aa many media outlets speculated, maybe the driver, David Wheaton, figured he wouldn't raise suspicions while driving a cute little car. He'd already gotten two DUI's in the past.

I guess that plan didn't work great, huh?

Give the guy credit, though. This was an environmentaly friendly police chase, as police chases go.

Here's the video, in case you need tips on how to elude, or not elude,  police in a tiny little car.

Sad, Pathetic, Aggressive Prostitute of the Day

In Savannah, Georgia, recently, a local television reporter was doing a story on a prostitution problem. He was interviewing an undercover cop, who was wearing plain clothes, when a woman walked up.

She propositioned the reporter. 

Live. On camera.

She was only charging $10, too, for a bit of fun below the waistline, sunshine.

The reporter declined the offer, which is good, because I don't think anybody watching the evening news wanted THAT much information.

It seemed pretty clear to me the guy the reporter was talking to was a cop, but not to our dear prostitute.
She  just plunged in, so to speak. Or tried to.

The whole thing is simultaneously funny, sad, and cringe inducing. I think it's just best to let you watch television station WTOC's report.

"Slim Chance" Juggler Either Entices or Scares Customers

From Buzzfeed, we found this television commercial from somewhere, advertising something called Slim Chance Surplus Sales.

I don't know if you will see anything in stock once you get there, because the guy narrating the commercial seems to trash the place with his juggling. Yes juggling.

I also don't know if I'd feel safe shopping there while our juggler tosses around sharp tools. But in any event, the advertisement hilariously tries to entice shoppers. It's worth a look, definitely.

Photogenic Vermont Thunderheads Delight

We've been blessed in Vermont over the past several days by mostly clear skies and not much haze. Amid this clear air, widely scattered thunderstorms have erupted in the warm, humid air.

A distant thunderstorm, as seen from
St. Albans, Vermont Sunday

This kind of weather leads to my favorite kind of skies. Blue, with big billowy white towers with ominous black bases. Those are the scattered thunderstorms.

The clouds give Vermont an almost tropical feel.  I took more pictures of some pretty storms today, but I'm still not really caught up with Sunday's photos.

Still, I'm able to share some of the photos as I sift through dozens of photos of clouds with really cool shapes, textures and colors.

These storms are visible from amazing distances when the air is almost free of haze. That's because they're so tall, they loom over the hills and mountains that usually block views of distant areas from Vermont.

Right after I photographed a distant storm Sunday,  I consulted National Weather Service radar to see where the storm was.  It was situated about 70 miles southwest of where I was.

More scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next few days. I have a feeling my camera is going to get a workout.

A detail showing the top of a distant thunderstorm
as seen from St. Albans Sunday.

A thunderstorm rises over Lake Champlain
as seen from Burlington Monday.