Sunday Newspaper Tidbits

Just a couple today.

- New Jersey plus five other states here in the Northeast are going to launch a month-long hunting season targeting the overpopulation of snow geese. I still think it is really cool to see all these geese around here, but of course I've only been here for 4 months. And I have seen the green nasty goose poop all over the path near the pond in the park close to our house. But the concern over the goose population really raised it's head when the plane went down into the Hudson after hitting a bird (was it ever determined if it was a goose? or just assumed?). Anyway, the overpopulation problem is largely man-made. Historically migrating geese would winter in coastal marshes in the southern U.S. and Mexico, feeding on the grasses, and the limited food supplies would keep the numbers in check. But as the geese have discovered fields of grain and corn on farms throughout the United States they began to alter their migratory routes. Now with food available everywhere the geese have become hardier and predators have become fewer, resulting in lots of birds. And these stronger, healthier birds are returning to the Arctic and laying more eggs and hatching more young. The results of this are massive "eatouts" on the tundra, where geese are ripping huge swaths of grass up by the roots, altering the ecologically fragile area that many other rare migrating shorebirds rely on. Unfortunately Arctic geese are not very tasty to eat. The article states it is like "chewing on a catcher's mitt." Maybe I should invest in a pressure cooker...

- In the stupid criminal category, an inmate who escaped from a Georgia jail was arrested trying to sneak back into the jail. Deputies found the inmate, who had escaped through a door to the exercise yard and over the fence, trying to come back in with 14 packs of cigarettes he had apparently stolen from a convenience store about a block away. Now he faces new charges for breaking out of jail and burglary. Stupid.

- Last tidbit: Watchmen is playing at the Cranford theater today at 3:45. We're getting a sitter to watch the kids so we can go. Yay!