substitute

(former head of the Humane Society, Michael Fox, once said in a conversation with Caroline:) We humans have far more in common socially with wolves than we do with apes, and that wolves don’t determine leadership based on dominance, but on charisma. And in wolf culture, charisma is measured by who initiates play best. Not just play, initiates “let’s go hunting,” etc. as well, but “play” is at the top of the list. And we can tell the wolf leader within ten days of birth, because it’s the pup with the lowest resting heart-beat. The calmest and the most imaginatively dynamic (what late ally Kurt Vonnegut would have called “the wampeter,”) – now, that’s a leadership criterion for which I could root. Especially if we syncretize it with goose leadership: the lead goose always rotates. The charismatic wise wolf part of ourselves passes the baton to teammates, as we all circulate between back-stage and on-stage.

http://www.coyotenetworknews.com/

It's... full of dumb...

Montclair gold hunter digs 60-foot-deep hole in front yard

MONTCLAIR, Calif. (AP) A homeowner digging for gold in his front yard said he got ``carried away'' and ended up with a 60-foot-deep hole, authorities said.

Henry Mora, 63, began digging two weeks ago after his gold detector picked up a signal near his front patio.

``I figured, well, maybe there's something down there you would logically conclude, right? So I started digging,'' the semiretired musician said Wednesday.

Mora said he only intended to go down 3 or 4 feet, but he started finding gold dust in the dirt and the detector kept hinting that he was getting closer.

``It was still beeping, and that just gave me the idea to keep digging,'' he said. ``I think it's a normal human reaction, especially when you think there might be gold down there.''

A neighbor who saw the mound of dirt growing on Mora's lawn became concerned and called authorities Tuesday. Fire officials responding to the home found two men inside the unreinforced hole, using a bucket and rope to remove dirt. Mora had hired the two men to help him.

``We told him, 'You're done,''' Montclair fire Capt. Rich Baldwin said. ``It's amazing no one got killed.''

Authorities fenced off Mora's property and ordered him to hire an engineer to safely pack the dirt back into the ground.

Mora acknowledged his search for buried treasure was getting ``totally out of hand.'' Yet when asked whether he regrets starting the dig, Mora was conflicted.

``In a way yes, and in a way no,'' Mora said, ``because I think there's still gold down there.''

Fullerton police officer saves child from train

Autistic 13-year-old had wandered off and was spotted from a helicopter, walking on tracks with train approaching.

By JOHN McDONALD
The Orange County Register

FULLERTON - A routine search for an autistic 13-year-old boy who wandered away from a friend's house turned dramatic Tuesday night when a police helicopter crew spotted him walking on railroad tracks with a train approaching from behind, officials said.

Fullerton police raced to the scene with sirens blaring and emergency lights flashing.

Fullerton police officer Chris Bradley tore his hand open climbing a barbed-wire fence to reach the boy before the train hit him.

"It wasn't like in the movies but it was a close call," said Fullerton police Lt. Neal Baldwin.

The incident began at about 10:20 p.m., when police were called to a home on the 1900 block of Odell Place, where residents reported that Luis Perales, 13, of Garden Grove had been visiting and had wandered off. They reported that Perales is autistic and has the mental age of a 5-year-old.

"The officers also learned that the boy was infatuated by trains," said Baldwin.

The tracks of the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads converge just a few hundred yards from the home that the youngster had been visiting.

"We had Anaheim's helicopter check the tracks and they spotted him walking westbound about three miles away, almost in La Mirada," Baldwin said.

The helicopter crew also saw a train headed toward the youngster, approaching him from behind.

Bradley pulled the boy to safety. Bradley was taken to a hospital for his hand to be treated and Perales was reunited with his family, Baldwin said.

This is a freakin' AWESOME QTVR from *inside* a plastic water bottle:

http://www.panodrom.de/Extrem/bottle.html

requires Quicktime

also I finally broke down and bought the 4CD set of just about all of Joy Division. Anyone wants to share, honk at me.

They found a seal graveyard that they've been crawling into to die, for up to 4600 years. Wow. Like elephants.