So bad they're beyond being so bad they're good.

Worst Album Covers

Don't forget to click on an ad link to help pay his bandwidth costs. (I don't normally say that but the poor bloke is getting hammered.)

Aerial hunting

On the Freefall forum is a massive about the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska. The debate runs from emotive and uninformed to well informed. (Don't make assumptions about that statement. Some of the anti-hunt are very well informed, as are some of the pro-hunt.)

Normally I'd jump in to a debate like this because I'm an environmentalist and conservationist, but I don't know enough about the facts in Alaska so I'm posting here. From what I have seen and read the predator-prey cycle is a boom-and-bust thing, so reducing the predator numbers will not increase the prey numbers over the long term. There will be a short term increase, followed by a long term decrease caused by starvation, parasites and disease. (Read Mark Stanley's post)

Hunting for control is a highly emotive issue. People see animals dying for no real purpose. Here in Australia there is a huge outcry against aerial shooting of animals. "The animals have a right to live!" is the emotion behind the rhetoric.

Well, as an environmentalist and conservationist, I whole-heartedly support the extermination of wild horses, water buffalo, goats, pigs, cats, foxes, dogs (not dingoes), rabbits, donkeys, and anything else that is feral. I think the right to not become extinct is more important. I think bilbies, narla, numbats, hairy-nosed wombats, quokka, palmer wallabies, rock wallabies, leadbeater's possums and coroboree frogs have the right to not become extrinct.

And that is a very real possibility with all the animals on that list.

And in other news

You know you're missing something from your diet when you see a rack of brussels sprouts at the market and you think "Wow, they look nice. I could go for some of them."

Bread, milk, dog food, beer

Four of the major food groups, although dog food doesn't really qualify. Scruffy and Polly think dog food is THE food group.

The beer is Monteith's Original, a New Zealand brew from a company I fell in love with when I was Over There. This one comes from the Other Brewery in Aukland and not the proper one in Greymouth, but it is still a very yummy beer. The bloke in the bottle-shop said they were getting in some six-packs of Monteith's Black.

The Two Towers

While I'm in a New Zealandy mood, here is a review of The Two Towers special edition DVD