Subject: Nature and the Environment

• Uncommonly Effective Cougar Repellant

  The 241 toll road is exceeding all expectations for its ability to exterminate wildlife. As Scott Giffin revealed back in 1994 (Kill The Cougar, 6.10.04), toll roads through key animal habitat make for more roadkill than the Basra Turnpike. Yesterday's Register supported this observation when Erin Uy noted that a 200-pound female mountain lion was struck and killed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. "It's not very common for mountain lions to be killed by cars", according to Dept. of Fish

  April 20, 2006

• Troubled Waters

  Normally, when a major clean-up effort for a polluted site is announced-- an effort which will bring to bear the resources of both the local and federal government-- environmentalists are happy. But this is Orange County, where the eco-friendly have often seen their green hopes fade to grey (and then get paved), so the announcement yesterday at Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park that the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers will be joining the county to detox and otherwise improve Aliso

  August 31, 2006

• TV is Stupid

  "More bars in more places. That's what people have come to expect from Cingular." Bullshit. That's what my parents have come to expect from ME. Shame on Cingular for appealing to alcoholics. Sorry, but I just hate commercials these days. If it's not ambiguous word usage, it's terrifying paranoia-inducing rhetoric. "Midas. Who's counting on your brakes?" Those Midas commercials are priceless. A kid crosses the street in front of a woman at a stop sign. Suddenly, he turns around - he's droppe

  September 9, 2006

• Shake n' Bake

  It's been funny--not funny ha-ha--sitting here on the sidelines watching the changing global-warming debate. While the international scientific community for years has piled voluminous report atop voluminous report detailing that global warming is real, producing all sorts of climatic problems and either is or most probably is human caused, those who originally pooh-poohed the eggheads have gone from saying it's a myth, to it's a normal cyclical weather pattern, to okay, so it's happening, whadd

  July 5, 2006

• The Aquarium of The Pacific's Newest Attractions

  Yesterday was a perfect day in sunny, beautiful Long Beach to go swimming with the fishes at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Well, I didn’t go swimming personally, but I could have. Swimming in the shark tank is just one of the new attractions offered by the aquarium to celebrate its tenth anniversary all year long. It's kind of like Disney’s "Year of a Million Dreams," except it really will only last for one year. Though the festivities officially begin today, I was lucky enough to preview th

  June 13, 2008

• And the Wet Envelope Goes to ...

  If you're burning $2,000 for a VIP table at Surfer Magazine's 36th annual Surfer Poll and Video Awards ceremony Tuesday night at the Grove of Anaheim, at least you can feel warmed that you are helping two worthy causes. Proceeds from VIP table sales at the annual, invite-only event that honors the best in surfing and surf cinematography will be shelled out to the Save Trestles campaign and Surfers for Cetaceans. Surfrider Foundation's Save Trestles has been one of the leading opponents of the

  September 3, 2008

• No. 1 on the Palin/Hewitt/Colbert Threat Down: (Polar) Bears!

  Sarah Palin invigorated the conservative base with her surprisingly poised speech to GOP delegates last night, kicking new life into what had been a ho-hum convention previously “highlighed” by the Dead Man Talking triad (George W. Bush, Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman). Clockwork's favorite scene: delegates sporting “The Hottest VP From the Coolest State” buttons berating the media for being sexist toward America's favorite hockey mom. Palin's performance certainly perked up Hugh Hewit

  September 4, 2008

• Crystal Method

  November 4, 1999

• A River Runs Beneath It

  January 20, 2000

• Its Food, Stupid!

  May 18, 2000

• Hellooooooo, Mr. Wilson!

  February 7, 2002

• The Last Bear

  October 23, 2003

• Letters

  December 11, 2003

• Wildfires Just a Sneak Preview?

  Ted Soqui shot this in Yorba Linda the weekend past. See his amazing slideshow here. Now that the fires have been contained, heroes have been identified, firefighting techniques have been blasted, causes have been zeroed in on, and our Last Action Hero Governor has likened the disaster to one of the crappiest action movies ever (Armageddon, which he didn’t even star in), some sobering news: Worse wildfires are likely a-comin’. So says a report released last week by UC Berkeley researchers

  November 19, 2008

• Marine Wildlife Cruises

  April 2, 2009

• As State OK's Tough Global Warming Rules Should Diesel Be Next?

  As expected, the state this afternoon put teeth in its landmark regulations enacted in 2006 to combat global warming, adopting the nation's most comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such emissions must be cut 30 percent by 2020. But that is not enough for the editorial board of the San Jose Mercury News, which called on the state to follow up Friday with tough new rules to clean up diesel truck emissions. "The trucking industry is one of the last remaining major sources o

  December 11, 2008

• Up Clse and Personal

  February 26, 2009

• Playing Hive and Seek With the Backyard Beekeepers

  February 26, 2009

• [Hey, You!] Breaking the Circle of Life

  February 26, 2009

• International Polar Year Speaker

  December 25, 2008

• Bread and Butterfly

  July 17, 2008

• Bee Gone

  May 8, 2008

• Bouncy, Trouncy, Flouncy, Pouncy

  January 10, 2008

• Surf on Our Turf

  December 6, 2007

• Bird Is the Word

  Todd Davis celebrates the sky rat

  October 18, 2007

• Needing a Bigger Boat

  Shark Week

  August 2, 2007

• Holy Stalactites, Batman!

  Bat Walk

  June 21, 2007

• I Was Not a Beaver

  December 14, 2000

• Dance of the Penguin

  That whole talking animal genre? Let's be done with it

  November 16, 2006

• Babar-ians at the Gate

  August 17, 2006

• Dumbo and Dumber

  August 3, 2006

• Of Pork and Ken

  February 16, 2006

• Patty the Bunny

  August 11, 2005

• Taking Persian Dance Mainstream

  April 28, 2005

• Its Snot Unusual

  Im George W. Bush, and I Approve This Destruction

  September 2, 2004

• Kill the Cougar

  June 10, 2004

• Earth Daddy

  April 22, 2004

• Animal attacks

  February 12, 2004

• The Lion Speaks Tonight

  January 15, 2004

• Dear Register Reader

  January 15, 2004

• Blood in the Water

  September 11, 2003

• Shell Shock

  April 4, 2002

• He Shelves Sea Shells By the Seashore

  July 5, 2001

• Letters

  June 28, 2001

• There Goes Peter Cottontail

  May 18, 2000

• Rabbitts Split on Offing Thumper

  May 18, 2000

• The Rabbits Are Coming!

  May 18, 2000

• Shark Summer: Here We Go Again?

  You'll be forgiven if you take a fleeting glance at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific's latest tourist-season promotion and feel deja vu all over again. After all, posters with teeth-blaring maneaters and a "Shark Summer" logo with an ominous fin replacing the "a" in shark do evoke memories of 2001's infamous "Summer of the Shark."For those fortunate to have forgotten that sad chapter in the history of the American media, the Summer of the Shark parlayed a June 2001 bull shark attack that s

  May 6, 2009

• Duh-Dunt. Duh-Dunt. Duht-Duht-Duht-Duht-Duht-Duht . . .

  The Aquarium of the Pacific in the Long Beach is the only aquarium in the contiguous United States to have a tiger shark on exhibit--and they couldn't be prouder. The 5-foot baby is being studied as tiger sharks are often feared as the second-most dangerous shark in the ocean. They're also among the most endangered. Tiger sharks have slow re-population rates, but that hasn't stopped dickwads from heavily harvesting their fins, meat and livers. Vitamins and other every-day products contain shark

  July 17, 2009

• UPDATED: The Irvine Co. Gift That Keeps on Giving

  UPDATED WITH PHOTOS FROM THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING . . . Photo by Keith MayCounty Supervisor Bill Campbell, whose district includes the Irvine Co. land in question, is amused by a speaker at Tuesday's board meeting in Santa Ana.​He's got a gift. Donald Bren, the secretive, aging multi-billionaire who chairs The Irvine Co., has an undisputed gift for preservation. He sets aside, and preserves, and then preserves yet again the mostly steep, landslide prone, unbuildable portions of his spr

  September 30, 2009