Random Rants
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Have they met you?
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Was taking out the garbage this morning to find a two foot long black snake wrapped around my gutter
Call the police (standard procedure in NYC). They tell me to call the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR tells me to call a private contractor to have it removed…I'm like "don't I pay taxes for this?"
Call animal control, and was informed that 1) there are poisonous snakes in Maryland, and this could be one 2) they do not remove the animals and 3) I cannot harm the snake as they are protected by Federal law
Wondering if there is any level of common sense in this state
The contractor eventually called me back and told me that the snake I described is not poisonous, but I'm still annoyed. She did tell me that I'm allowed to open fire on it if I feel like my safety is at risk, there is a provision within the law for that
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This is a good rant, Doug. I will call it the 1st world problem.
Here in Canada for example, we have to trap/cage/release raccoons humanely….. c'mon, they are on my property and these m..fkers are real pain in the ass. My uncle lives in Wisconsin and he blasted one because he felt his faimly safety was at risk......., but the clean up was a mess. -
Another story about the frickin animals in Maryland
This must've been a couple years ago, I saw a large bird rummaging through the garbage bags on the curb (we must've had a chicken carcass in there). By big bird, I mean, I thought it was a turkey
So naturally, I grabbed a large wrench from my garage and snuck up behind it, thinking I was going to kill me a turkey
Then it turned around
Holy fuck
It's a vulture
Then it opened it's wings
Holy fuck
It's a REALLY BIG VULTURE
I back away, and my neighbor comes out and goes "holy fuck, that's a vulture". Yeah, no shit
I need to move
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Guessing it was "both," a turkey vulture
I grew up in the Deep South, where we have some dangerous/annoying critters in terms of snakes, spiders, and bugs.
Up here, we don't really have the same thing. We have elk, moose, bears, and rattlers, but that's all theoretical.
We do have a number of bold urban cohabitants in Minneapolis. I see deer by my place all the time. Big ones. Ones I wish I could eat. They are almost domesticated, so fearless and bold they are around humans. Same goes for the fucking massive raccoons, aside from the desire to eat them. But the weirdest thing is we have these urban turkeys. They're huge and have a bad attitude. They will chase a motherfucker. They will attack a car. They just walk around in the hood like they own it. All because someone wanted to (illegally) farm turkeys in the city.
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/11/northeast_minneapolis_turkeys_video.php
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I see deer by my place all the time. Big ones. They are almost domesticated, so fearless and bold they are around humans.
Ugh wished I lived there… I love deer
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I see deer by my place all the time. Big ones. They are almost domesticated, so fearless and bold they are around humans.
Ugh wished I lived there… I love deer
They're a major nuisance
Aside from hitting them resulting in a fatal accident, they carry deer ticks that will infect you with any number of diseases. My dog has to get extra shots because of the number of deer ticks we have in the area
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Interesting perspective that the deer are a nuisance for humans and not vice versa
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Well bears and coyotes and winter killed em before, so…
I live on a quiet cul de sac near copious trails among lakes and deciduous forests, so deer getting hit by cyclists is probably far more likely than by a car.
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Apple makes pieces of shit. I can't tell you how many iPhones I've had replaced, and now my second aluminum MacBook is warping and the screen is messed up. If they don't take it back I might honestly blow up in the store.
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I've had 2 Macbooks in 10 years, and every iPhone I've had has lasted me the full 24 moth contract length, even the best brands sometimes have a duff product slip through. It appears that with Apple you just get the shitty end of the stick.
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Yeah can't say I've had those issues with Apple. Everything I've had has lasted very long even with the abuse I heap on it. Dell to me is the worst PC manufacturer. Always driving to the lowest cost build possible.
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My wife's 2 year old iPhone (3S, I think?) has withstood a ton of abuse, as has Benjamin's 1st gen iPad, which is also still going strong. I'm about as far from an Apple fanboy as is humanly possible, but they do build to last.
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I think it just depends on what you get. I must've just been unfortunate.
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Oh, and deer are an incredible nuisance. Collisions cause around 200 deaths annually, over 1 billion (yeah, billion) in property damage and around 13,000 cases of Lyme disease. And that's not to mention the 5-10 people killed per year by "aggressive bucks". But everyone says, "Oh, they're so cute. You can't kill Bambi."
Screw that. Nothing wrong with a little population control. Not as bad as feral hogs, though.